The Silverstar, July 15th, 2010

"What do you mean, you don't have Zords?" Mary snapped, staring incredulously at Isinia and Garfield. They were heading for the outer doors of the Silverstar, with a few civilians running back and forth on various jobs. Although they couldn't see it, Isinia and Garfield knew that there was an unknown ship, almost certainly Akra-flown, coming towards them.

"We just never got any," Garfield replied, with a helpless shrug.

"We used the Zords of the people we impersonated," Isinia added. Mary sighed, and repeated the information into her wrist-mounted Mesomorpher. The rest of the Mesozoic Giants were already getting their own Zords, stored in caves outside the city.

"Fine, okay…" the Ranger on the other end paused. "Go evacuate the civilians."

"Right," Garfield said, and Isinia nodded. Mary handed them their morphers, and activating her own, was transported to her remote Zord.

"Sands of Time, Rise Up!" The pair shouted.

Garfield stands before a huge, dripping water clock. The hourglass in his hand glows blue, and the sand explodes around him in a blue storm. Swirling wildly, it forms his Ranger suit.

"Cerulean Hourglass Ranger!"

Isinia stands in the shadows of Stonehenge, lit by a red-orange sunset. The hourglass in her paw glows orange, and the sand explodes around her in an orange cloud. Whirling like a cyclone, it forms her Ranger suit.

"Russet Hourglass Ranger!"

The Ranger headed into the street. Now they saw the ship, black and beetle-like, hovering over the rooftops. Quickly, they ran to the nearest building,which had once been the city's police station. The front lobby was full of people, most of whom were asleep. The only light came from a few lanterns scattered around the room.

"Hey!" Garfield shouted, startling several people. There were cries of surprise as the civilians saw the two brand-new Rangers standing there. "Yeah, yeah, we know, but you guys need t o come with us, and fast. If you need any help gathering your families or your things, yell."

"I'll go to the other building," Isinia said, as the room filled with excited clamor. Nodding, Garfield waded into the crowd, though the people were so tightly packed that he could barely get through. Isinia winced: the stink of unwashed bodies was powerful, even through her helmet. She ducked back outside.

The ground trembled, and Isinia looked up to see the Zords coming towards them. The moonlight flashed off the metal hulls, and overhead, the Akra ship turned and started towards them. Isinia ran across the street into another building. Its front looked like a Greek temple, though battle scars had left it more like modern ruins. More people were camped out in the wide front room, and Isinia sprang up onto a teller's desk.

"Everyone! There's going to be a battle here very soon, you need to get up and come with me as quickly as possible!" Isinia shouted. The people began rousing themselves, and Isinia scanned the crowd, looking for people who might need help. As she darted through the crowd to a woman struggling with several children, Isinia realized that there were no old people here. She looked again to check, and found that she was right. Nobody in the building looked older than forty. Dismissing the thought for the moment, Isinia concentrated on helping the evacuees.

The sounds of fighting spurred the people into action, and soon Isinia was leading them all out the back entrance. The explosions, laser blasts, and metallic clanging and pounding were deafening, especially to Isinia's inhumanly keen ears. Wincing, she directed the people away from the battle with gestures. Fortunately her bright orange and white uniform made her very visible, and the civilians were rapid and obedient. In a few minutes, they were heading for the outskirts of the city, and Isinia ran back for more.

As she went, Isinia saw others were already streaming out of nearby buildings, some carrying sick and injured people, following her and Garfields' first evacuees. With an approving nod, she ran to help. As Isinia leaped over a fallen light pole, the blue Kronosaurus Zord fell to the street, plowing into the concrete with an explosion. Isinia ducked the debris and hurried on, hoping the Ranger inside was all right.

Most of the Mesozords were damaged now, a few unable to fight. Two Zords, a Supersaurus and an Elasmosaurus, managed to catch the battleship between them, and began tearing at it. Helping a last cluster of civilians leave the street, Isinia heard a whistle outside of human hearing range. Whirling around, she saw the small missile dropping from the ship.

"Run! Stay away from the buildings!" Isinia yelled. There was a flicker of light, and then a huge blue wave of energy exploded from the bomb, slicing into everything at its level with a boom that made Isinia's eardrums burst. She cried out in pain and doubled over, clutching her helmet, as debris rained down on her. Buildings crumbled like shattered glass as the energy hit them, and fireballs burst from the Mesozords.

Isinia's ears rang. For a long time, she just crouched where she was, ignoring the rubble pelting her back. A trickle of blood ran down her jaw, and more dripped from her nose. The sidewalk in front of her was splintered and cracked, exposing almost-black dirt and fat, pale worms. They wriggled back underground in a few seconds. Isinia caught her breath.

Shakily, she stood up, wobbled and caught herself on a wall. Her hearing was muffled, but still there, and the stabbing pains had faded to a mild throb. Looking around, Isinia saw that the battleship was gone, leaving several smoking Zords. Then she realized that several people lay on the ground around her, most pinned by rubble. Breaking into a run, Isinia darted to the nearest one and began pushing the chunk of concrete away.

Isinia freed fifteen people in the near-silence that followed. Seven were dead. As she checked the heartbeat of the sixteenth, a tap on the shoulder made her jump. Whirling around, she saw the Mesozoic Rangers standing there, looking as battered as she felt. The female Black Ranger spoke, but her voice was too soft and quiet for Isinia to hear.

"I can't hear you," Isinia said, probably too loudly by the way the Black Ranger flinched.

"Are you okay?" The male Ivory Ranger yelled at Isinia. If she'd cared, Isinia might have thought he was irritated.

"Well enough," Isinia replied, lowering her voice a little. Shaking his head, the Ivory Ranger went on to the Silverstar, and a few of the others went with him, male Aquamarine limping a little. The others went to help with the wounded and dead.

Xanthe looked up as Garfield came in. He stopped at the sight of her, sitting in a mess of wires and metal and tools retrieved from her Pocket Dimension. Not noticing the pensive look on his face, she sprang up and darted over, holding her telepathy dampener.

"Garfield, I think I've found a way to strengthen this dampener's signal so I can move around without letting the Queen into my head," she exclaimed, holding the device up. Bewildered, Garfield reached out and felt the device, and all the wires streaming out of it. "I've never been much of a technical genius, so I don't know whether I'm doing this right—in fact I think I may have broken this one—but it worked when I first pulled it out, and this team has techies—"

"Stop, too fast, back up," Garfield interrupted, putting up his hands. Xanthe stopped, abashed. Looking closer, she could see that Garfield was still out of breath, and his knuckles were bloody. She backed up, and put the telepathy dampener down.

"I think I've found a solution for my mental problems," she said. "Though I'll need the technical advisors for this team to actually manage it, I think."

"Oh, good," Garfield replied, looking genuinely relieved.

"And I've gained a certain amount of self-control without technology," Xanthe added. "Hopefully I've spooked the Queen into thinking we have a clever plan."

"Us, clever?" Garfield replied. He shook his head, coming further into the room with one hand running along the wall. His knee bumped a bunk, and he carefully sat down. "She'll never buy it."

"In any case, whatever she thinks we're doing, it's not likely to be what we actually do," Xanthe said, shoving the technology paraphernalia aside to sit back down. Bits of metal clattered on the floor, and she clasped her hands in her lap. Garfield nodded, and hung his head with a weary sigh. His hair hung in his face; it was almost long enough to ponytail by now, and his beard was coming in scraggly and uneven. Xanthe said nothing. She could see that Garfield was tense and rather nervous, and wondered what was wrong.

"Guess I'll just blurt it out. I want to marry you," Garfield said, sitting up and facing Xanthe. She blinked.

"I…beg your pardon?"

"That talk we had made me realize a couple of things I hadn't put into words yet. You're one of two people in either of our universes I trust anymore, and Isinia's taken and still kind of a stranger. You've been kind of a mate-mentor since rescuing me from the Akra way back when."

"You had just as much to do in that—" Xanthe began, but Garfield put up a hand.

"I know, I know, and that's part of it. We make a good team. The only place I've really got to go is those Eternal Falls you mentioned, which are on your homeworld. And ever since you let me touch your face, I've been dying to know what the rest is like." Xanthe blushed.

"…I didn't even know you loved me," she said quietly.

"Love? I don't think that's the right word for it," Garfield replied, stroking his stubbly chin and frowning. "If you mean that I couldn't live without you, adore you, and get all jittery and emotional and stuff when I'm with you, then no, I don't love you. But I trust you, and I think we're better together than apart: from experience, I like that a whole lot better than love. No crazy emotional ups-and-downs there." Xanthe wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this," she said at last.

"Well, yeah, if I was going to bring up something this awkward I wanted to make sure it was worth it," Garfield replied, with a grin.

"Then may I have time to consider it myself?" Xanthe asked.

"Of course! Do you want me to leave you alone for a while? I can take that transmitter thing to one of the Mesozoic Rangers," Garfield offered.

"I would appreciate that, yes," Xanthe said, nodding.

"Right-ho!" Getting up, Garfield held out his hand, and Xanthe gave him the telepathy dampener. With a spring in his step, as if he'd just gotten a load off his mind, Garfield went.

Slowly, Xanthe sat back, folding her arms. She stared at the blank wall opposite her, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. On one hand, she could see where Garfield had come up with this. But…she didn't love him either. In fact, Xanthe hadn't really decided how she felt about him, after everything that had happened.

The door opened again, and Xanthe sat up to see an old man walk inside, carrying her telepathy dampener. Garfield wasn't with him, Xanthe noted with some relief.

"What did you do to this?" The man asked, holding it up.

"I'm not entirely sure. I was trying to increase the signal and make it a personal field," Xanthe said, running a hand over her face and standing up. "I took it out of the wall; we can always get another one. I don't think it'll weaken the full shielding too much." The old man stifled a cough and sat down on the bench, digging through the tools to grab one. Xanthe looked more closely at him. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin sallow, and he was sweating. Also, something about him looked strangely familiar.

"What are you staring at?" He snapped, stopping his work to glare up at Xanthe.

"Pardon me. Who are you?" Xanthe asked, sitting slowly on the far bench.

"Finneus. I'm the mentor," he said, in a more normal tone of voice. He swallowed another cough and began fiddling with the dampener. In a few seconds he had a back panel off and was poking at the machine's innards with a screwdriver. Xanthe cocked her head.

"More than that. I've seen you somewhere before now, I'm sure of it." Finneus let out a long sigh.

"Before the Z-Wave, I was Finster," he said. Xanthe's eyes widened.

"Finster? Rita's monster-maker? That's amazing!" She cried, quickly crossing the room to sit beside him. "I didn't know you survived the Z-Wave! It does make sense, though, now that I think about it—you were one of the nicer minions."

"Thanks," Finneus muttered. He flicked a tiny spring away, and it hit the floor with a plink.

"I mean it," Xanthe said emphatically. "You were brilliant." Finneus looked up at Xanthe, and saw that she was absolutely sincere. The grouchy expression faded a little.

"Thank you, but those were the dark days. I don't like talking about them," he said.

"I'm sorry. If I may, how did you come here?" Xanthe asked. Finneus shrugged, and picked up a little circuitry panel.

"I tried setting on Aquitar, and decided to try my hand at making some morphers. A little way to pay back the galaxy for all the monsters I created: I was going to try and form a team on one of Rita's old conquests, help them overthrow whatever regents were left. But then the Akra Queen came…" he trailed off as the machine grew more complex. Xanthe waited for him patiently. She'd all but forgotten about—oh no, there went the distraction. She gave her head an angry little shake.

"She wanted my morphers for her new Akra. She was stealing DNA from actual Rangers, mixing it together and breeding clones to implant with her experiemental new Akra breed. They tried to make morphers of their own, but the Grid fried them. I don't remember much of that time, because I was under mind control. Eventually I woke up, so to speak, and found myself the mentor of what everyone thought were the children of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. We freed ourselves by accident, and it has brought us nothing but trouble since then," Finneus said. He began screwing the case shut.

Xanthe just shook her head slowly. Finneus started coughing again, his shoulders shaking, and Xanthe caught him by the arm.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the older man wheezed, straightening. Xanthe snorted, and Finneus rolled his eyes. "Correction: I'm no worse off than anyone else." He held out the telepathy dampener. "We need to start testing this."

"Of course."

Thoughts from 2017: Every chapter I just keep reading and muttering "why was I like this?" Also "how did it take three more years before I got diagnosed with depression?"