Disclaimer: Carlos swears. Don't listen. Or look. Whatever. Saryn threatens to kill people, but what else is new. Justin yells at pretty much everyone. No small children were harmed in the production of this story. Yet. SOTPR.
Asunder II
by Starhawk
It happened so fast that her head slammed against the floor before she realized she was in danger. She tried to push her awareness through the pain and the fog that seemed to blanket her vision, but the sound of a weapon arming made her pause. Moving might not be the wisest decision after all.
Kerone blinked rapidly, suppressing the instinct to shake her head. If she was concussed it would only make the throbbing worse, and if she wasn't the pain would abate on its own anyway. Her first priority was to disarm Ashley.
A disturbance from the courtyard entrance made Cassie whirl, and another weapon powered up. A third echoed it instantly, and the escalating hum made her head ache even more. She had to do something before they started shooting.
Saryn would kill her, but she couldn't isolate anyone that quickly through the pounding in her head. She cast the magic over the entire room, wincing as violet energy stretched and settled. It was a good thing Darkonda had never dared a physical attack on her. She couldn't concentrate properly when her head throbbed like this.
Kerone managed to pull herself to her feet, stepping carefully out of range of Ashley's astroblaster. The Yellow Ranger glared daggers at her, but there was nothing she could do with the spell keeping her frozen in place. Cassie had her back, her own astroblaster pinned on the figure in the doorway--
The look of cold hatred on Saryn's face took Kerone by surprise. His weapon was on his wrist, and he had turned it on the Pink Ranger without the slightest hesitation. The sight of him and Cassie facing each other down was unnerving, to say the least.
"Kerone?" Kyril sounded puzzled. "Did you do that?"
She whirled, startled to find Kyril right beside her. The spell should have held him as rigidly as the others. Yet there he was, regarding her with a curious expression that quickly turned to concern when she wavered. The abrupt turn had triggered the dizziness again, and Kyril caught her arm to steady her.
"Nobody move!" Mirine's was the voice of command, and it was accompanied by the sound of her weapon arming as she stepped through the courtyard door. Simultaneous with her entrance was that of Raine and Azmuth, coming in through the kitchen and compound doors, respectively. All three held weapons at the ready.
The floor tilted underneath her, and Kerone grabbed blindly for something to hold onto. Kyril's arms wrapped around her, keeping her from falling as he lowered her into a nearby chair. "I don't think you have to worry about anyone moving," he told Mirine over his shoulder. "She cast some sort of spell on them."
"She did what?" Mirine sounded more wary than confused, and she didn't lower her weapon. "Kyril, what's going on?"
"Something happened to Cassie," he answered, and Kerone felt his strangely reassuring touch on her shoulders. Somehow was holding her down and holding her up at the same time. She couldn't find her voice, but it probably didn't matter. She didn't know anymore than he did.
"She looked like she was in a lot of pain," Kyril continued, and Kerone silently agreed. Cassie had cried out, crumpling as quickly as though she had imploded, and even Kerone had known it would have to wake Saryn. "We tried to help her, but all of a sudden Ashley turned on Kerone. She threw her against the table over there, and I think Kerone must have hit her head.
"Cassie jumped up like she was fine, and when Saryn came charging in here she whipped a blaster out of nowhere and pointed it at him. He drew his weapon in self-defense, and that's when everything stopped." Kyril's tone altered slightly, and she knew he must have tilted his head to look down at her. "I think Kerone cast some kind of stillness spell on them or something."
"Yes," Kerone breathed, finally able to get a word out. She wasn't sure she'd be able to manage more than that, but the next few seemed to get easier as she went on. "Sorry... Saryn. Had to get everyone."
"Can you let him go now?" Kyril wanted to know. "Or is it all or nothing?"
She closed her eyes, concentrating through the haze. The magic fluctuated uncertainly, not sure what she wanted, and then she felt Kyril's hand on her forehead. Before she could protest, an azure flash faded from her vision and took the pain with it.
Startled, Kerone craned her neck to look up at him. The movement brought no fresh wave of dizziness, and the clouded vision she had been trying to ignore was gone. "What did you do?"
He looked apologetic. "Normally we don't use our healing power without asking, but you looked like you needed it. Comes with the crystal," he added, holding up the sapphire stone that hung around his neck.
She released Saryn absently, transferring her gaze to Kyril's necklace when he dropped it again. She had seen Saryn use that power once or twice, but none of the Astro Rangers seemed to have it. How did the Power decide which abilities went to which teams?
"Who are you?" Saryn ground out, interrupting her musing with a tone full of determined fury. "How did you get here? Where is my wife?"
He had raised his fist so his weapon was no longer pointing at Cassie, but he looked no less threatening than he had before. Kerone got to her feet with a sigh, noting out of the corner of her eye that none of the other Elisian Rangers had lowered their weapons. She walked over to Cassie and pulled her fingers carefully away from the grip of her blaster. She could feel Kyril watching her, and as soon as she had Cassie's blaster in her hand he did the same for Ashley.
Kerone let them go.
"What kind of disgusting trick is this?" Cassie spat. She and Ashley instinctively moved closer until their backs were pressed against each other. "Is this some new interrogation tactic? Because you might as well just beat it out of us and get it over with."
She wasn't pregnant, Kerone realized suddenly. Why had it taken her so long to notice that? This Cassie was dressed in a flight suit, carrying an astroblaster... and her stomach was perfectly flat.
"What is she talking about?" Azmuth demanded, from her position by the opposite door. Kerone saw the Yellow Ranger's gaze flick toward her partner, but Raine just shrugged minutely.
"Why don't you ask Astronema," Ashley suggested, viciously enough that it made Kerone flinch. "She's the one in charge of this little scenario."
"There is no Astronema here." Saryn's voice was deadly, and she couldn't help being touched that he would bother to defend her at a time like this.
"Are you blind!" Ashley threw a finger in Kerone's direction. Azmuth swung out from the partial cover of the kitchen doorway, weapon still fixed on her target. The Yellow Astro Ranger would move no further, that much was clear, and Ashley scowled. "She's right there! She's probably messing with our minds right now!"
"Gods." Saryn's curse drew every eye in the room, but he was already lowering his weapon. The look of defeat on his face was terrible to see. "They're from the other dimension."
"What?" Mirine's startled exclamation told Kerone that at least one person here had some idea what he was talking about. "How do you know?"
"I know," Saryn said tiredly. He was staring at Cassie with a hollow expression that made Kerone want to send him away, far away, where nothing could touch him. "I just know."
"You mean the dimension where that kid is doing the experiments?" Raine drew her own weapon back and let it power down. "I thought you said he was going to stop them when he found out they were hurting Cassie."
"He was." Saryn had yet to look away from Cassie, who was staring back at him uncertainly. "Clearly something made JT change his mind."
"JT?" Cassie frowned, turning her head a little as though to confer with Ashley. "Since when do you--"
"What do you know about JT?" Ashley interrupted. "Where are the others? What did you do with the other Rangers?"
"We are the other Rangers," Kyril put in. "A fact which seems to have escaped your notice thus far."
"She means her teammates," Saryn muttered. "Do you have any idea why you're here?" he added, gaze sliding from Cassie to Ashley. "What reason could JT have had for attempting to transfer you just now?"
Ashley gave him a suspicious look. "Do what? What are you talking about?"
The floor beside her right foot exploded with a searing hiss, and Saryn lifted his weapon to target Ashley's chest. "Don't play games with me," he warned, no expression in his voice. "JT's mistake may have killed my wife and children. If you wish to avoid such a fate yourself, you will help us determine what happened."
Kerone saw Azmuth lower her weapon too, following Raine's example. Mirine didn't move, though whether she was reinforcing Saryn or trying to remind him not to do something stupid, it was hard to say. His sister wasn't making any effort to reign him in, but she might know him well enough to realize there was nothing to do with his madness except let it burn.
Ashley must have recognized it too, because she swallowed once. "JT might have... he might have tried to get us off the Megaship," she said at last. She held absolutely still, but her gaze darted toward Cassie for just a moment. "We lost contact with him--a few minutes ago, but he knew... I think he knew we weren't going to make it."
"You think JT did it?" Cassie interjected. Her tone was careful, and she glanced from Saryn to Mirine warily. "You think he actually got us out?"
"No," Saryn said shortly. "I think he failed yet again, with typically disastrous results. I think he opened his 'doorway' and sent my wife to her death in your place. You'll forgive me if I don't congratulate him on his achievement."
A pall fell over the room, and if Kerone had been able to think she might have remembered to keep Saryn from pulling the trigger. But she was too stunned by the implications of what he had just said. Was it possible that, instead of saving his own teammates, JT had condemned theirs to death?
Saryn's weapon fell. He turned away, brushing past Mirine as he strode out of the building. She reached out to touch his shoulder but didn't try to stop him. She kept her weapon trained on Ashley and Cassie, but they looked just as shocked as everyone else.
"Who... who's his wife?" Cassie asked timidly, wincing as her voice broke the oppressive silence.
"You." Mirine's tone was brusque. "You said you weren't going to make it--is there any chance you were wrong?"
Cassie and Ashley exchanged glances, and it was with obvious reluctance that Ashley shook her head. "No," she said slowly. "We were dead, and we knew it. We didn't have a chance against the Dark Fortress."
Kerone looked away. She was torn between going after Saryn and letting him have his privacy. She wasn't sure how much of this story she really wanted to hear.
The sound of Mirine's weapon powering down drew her attention, and the Pink Ranger caught and held her eye. As though she knew what Kerone had been thinking, she jerked her head toward the doorway. Kerone hesitated for a moment, but the instruction was clear.
She found Saryn in the courtyard, on his knees in front of the fountain. She knew he would sense her coming up behind him, so she didn't bother to speak. He didn't move when she dropped her hand to his shoulder, and she debated with herself for several seconds. Finally, though, she laid her other hand over his forehead the way she had seen him do for Mirine from time to time.
It was the same gesture Kyril had used on her earlier, she realized suddenly. She suspected it had some significance that she didn't completely understand, but it always made Mirine smile. Right now she didn't think offending him was her biggest worry anyway.
"You're supposed to know," he said softly, startling her.
She looked down in surprise, but he hadn't moved. "Know what?"
"You're supposed to know when someone you love dies," he explained. "Me more than anyone. I should know the second something happens to her. But I don't feel anything."
She hadn't expected him to say anything, much less this. "Maybe that's because she isn't dead," she offered, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible.
"I don't feel anything," he repeated, as though she hadn't spoken. "It's like she doesn't exist. It's like she never existed."
*Because she's not in this dimension anymore?* Kerone wondered privately. But then why wouldn't he be able to sense the Cassie that stood in the community center? He had known what was happening the moment they did--but his Cassie had still been in this dimension then.
"I've felt people die before," he continued. His tone was detached in a way she had expected, considering his dispassionate threat when Ashley pretended not to understand. "It's agony. It's worse than that; it's--indescribable. But this... this is nothing. I feel nothing."
"You feel nothing?" she repeated, because she felt he expected her to say something. "Or you feel nothing from her?"
He didn't answer, and she bit her lip. Maybe it would have been better to stay silent. He was more unpredictable when he was hurt than at any other time, and she knew how violently he could lash out.
"I can't feel Cassie," he said at last. "I feel you. I feel Mirine. I feel everyone... even that--that other woman. But I can't feel Cassie."
If the worst turned out to be true, maybe that would be one small mercy. If Cassie really were gone, at least Saryn hadn't had to feel her die. She was careful not to voice that thought aloud.
"I can hear you," he added, almost as an afterthought. "I do not agree, but I understand the sentiment."
She frowned down at him, puzzled--and then the meaning of his words crystalized in her mind. Kerone dropped her hands and took a step back, horrified. "I'm sorry," she whispered, eyes wide.
"No, you're not." His tone was just as expressionless as it had been in the community center. "I know you, Kerone. You don't feel things the way the others do. It's..." He hesitated, but she got the feeling that he wasn't bothering to edit himself right now. He just wasn't paying that much attention. "To an empath, it makes you very relaxing to be around."
She didn't know what to say to that.
"If I had felt her die," he continued, reverting easily to the previous topic, "I could go mad." For the first time, there was something like expression in his tone. He sounded almost conversational.
"Do you see?" Saryn lifted his head at last, staring into the fountain. "If I knew for sure, I could give up. But I don't. And so I'm trapped: I can not accept that she is dead, but I can't believe she is alive."
Kerone felt the first flicker of fear. As long as he sounded dazed and uncaring, she had written off his reaction as shock. Unpredictable, occasionally violent, Saryn-style shock, but shock nonetheless. Now with that half-curious, half-resigned note in his voice, he sounded a little too rational for her liking.
They needed answers, and they needed them now. Before Saryn found an alternative to insanity that wasn't any better.
"How do you know JT?" she asked abruptly. "Does he have a counterpart in this dimension, like--" She just barely stopped herself from adding, like Cassie and Ashley do?
Saryn didn't move. "Justin."
She frowned. "Who?"
"Justin," he repeated, as though she might not have heard. "A Ranger for Earth before they went into space. He now resides on Eltare, where he has been conducting experiments with interdimensional travel."
Kerone stared down at the top of his head. "Is that a coincidence?" she asked finally.
"No." Was it her imagination, or was Saryn starting to sound more pensive than despondent? "He and JT have been working together on their current project. It is... not impossible that Justin might know something about what has happened."
"Then let's go," Kerone insisted. "We have to at least ask. Even if he doesn't know, maybe he can help us find out."
Saryn turned his head, and she held out her hand impulsively. He didn't look up, but after a moment he did take her hand. She didn't pull, wary of pushing him too hard right now, but he stood without further prompting. He let her keep his hand in hers as they made their way across the courtyard.
***
He changed. She shoved him back without thinking. Off balance, his foot caught on the edge of the reef and he hit the water with a tumultuous splash. It gave her time to draw her weapon, and by the time he broke the surface with a choking gasp she was ready for him.
"Who are you?" Aura demanded, her stunner trained on his head.
He sputtered unintelligibly, throwing his long hair out of his face as he found footing on an underwater ledge. "Who the fuck are you?" he retorted angrily, gaze darting around as though he hadn't seen her stunner. "Where am I?"
She blinked at the unfamiliar word. Context suggested an imprecation, but it wasn't one she could remember hearing Carlos use. "I'm the one with the weapon," she reminded him. "Answer the question."
"Carlos Vargas," he spat. "Black Astro Ranger. Who. Are. You!"
"Aura of Aquitar," she said, narrowing her eyes. "The person who will make you pay for your lies. What have you done with Carlos?"
"What are you, a freak?" he shot back. "I am Carlos! Did Astronema put you up to this? Where is she? Doesn't she have the guts to do her own dirty work?"
Aura frowned warily. "There is no Astronema. Why do you ask for Kerone by her former name when she has forsaken her identity as the princess of evil?"
He gaped at her. Standing in water higher than his waist, silver flightsuit turned dark grey from the dunking and his hair still dripping down his neck and shoulders, he was for the first time at a loss for words. It took that brief moment of silence for her to realize that he too wore a weapon on his belt, but he took her seriously enough that he made no move for it.
"Get out of the water," she said at last, stepping backward and motioning with her stunner. "No sudden moves."
He made no attempt to obey. "Andros' sister was named Kerone."
"She still is," Aura snapped. "I'm not the one calling her Astronema!"
"What are you saying?" His disgusted look was more insulting than anything he could have said. "You think Astronema is Andros' long lost sister? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"
"The most ridiculous thing I've ever heard is you trying to deny it when it's so obviously true! Now get out of the water before I make this easier by rendering you unconscious!"
He came forward slowly, hands held away from his body except when he needed them to pull himself up onto the reef. "If Astronema is Kerone, what's she doing shooting at us?" he demanded belligerently. "She's taking the sibling rivalry thing a little too far, don't you think?"
"Into the flit," she ordered, gesturing toward the vehicle bobbing on the other side of their little island. "Kerone hasn't fired on a Ranger since the Robot Rangers, and she was acting in self-defense."
"The what?!" He stopped short, frowning at her in consternation. "Did you just say Robot Rangers?"
"My language skills are not in question here," she retorted. "Get in the flit!"
"Wait... Aura, did you say?" He was starting to look more confused than angry. "You have Robot Rangers? Is one of them--Jay, by any chance?"
She shook her head irritably. "We have never been introduced. What does it matter?"
"It matters because JT was working with Justin and his robot counterpart Jay to invent ID travel." He had that look of single-minded determination that she knew so well, and for just a moment she saw her own Carlos in this vision of the past. "Does that mean anything to you?"
She released the trigger abruptly, lifting her stunner up to point skyward. "You are from JT's dimension?"
He nodded once, still looking bemused. "You could say that... yeah." He gave her an odd look. "Who are you, again?"
Suddenly uncomfortable, she frowned. "I am Ranger Aura, of Aquitar. If you are here... where is my Carlos?"
"Your Carlos?" he repeated incredulously.
She gave him the most withering look she could manage. "The Carlos with whom I was just... speaking, when you so rudely interrupted us with your presence. Where is he?"
"How should I know?" he shot back. "I don't even know where I am!"
She sighed. "The Rey fields, at the base of the Eternal Falls." When he didn't look anymore enlightened, she added condescendingly, "Aquitar?"
His eyes widened, and he stared around as though he had never been here before. "This... this is Aquitar?"
"You do not recognize it?" She wasn't sure what to think about that.
"I've never seen it before," he admitted, staring toward the cliffs on the horizon. "Dark Spectre didn't give us a chance to mount any kind of united defense force." After a pause too brief for her to fill with words, he added, "This is... amazing. Eltare doesn't have anything like this."
Somewhat mollified by his frank admiration, she softened her voice a little. "You are under siege by Dark Spectre, then?"
He turned a look of disbelief on her once more. "You're not?"
"With Kerone's assistance, Dark Spectre was recently destroyed," she told him. "The Alliance of Evil has retreated to its pre-monarchy territory."
His shock was tinged with wistfulness as he repeated, "Destroyed? You destroyed Dark Spectre?"
She nodded wordlessly. She felt a flicker of sympathy for this intruder, and she squashed it ruthlessly. This was not Carlos. It was a stranger with his face, an unwilling visitor from a dimension where life was not what it was here. She would not--could not--let herself feel anything for him. Not even sympathy.
"With Kerone's assistance," he echoed, a speculative look taking the place of his surprise. "Astronema is Kerone, huh? Andros is going to love this..."
Aura tried not to wince. There couldn't be any harm in his knowing--could there? But things had happened differently there. What if Astronema wasn't Kerone in his universe? What if Kerone had been killed, and a new princess of darkness raised up in her place? Would the conviction that Astronema was Andros' sister get one of the Astro Rangers hurt?
Don't feel, she reminded herself harshly. It was none of her affair. If this other Carlos chose to act on events that had occurred in her dimension, surely that wasn't her responsibility.
Was it?
"Where are the others, anyway?" he was asking, suspicion in his tone once more. "If I'm here in your dimension, why aren't they? And what am I doing here? Did JT do this on purpose, or did something go wrong?"
"I am not qualified to comment on JT's intentions," Aura reminded him, reaching for her communicator. "But I suggest that if you somehow switched places with my Carlos, your teammates have probably replaced their counterparts in this dimension as well."
She lowered her stunner long enough to signal the Ranger Dome, but she didn't take her eyes off of him. "Control," she said, not entirely sure there was anyone there to answer her.
"Cetaci." The reply came back almost immediately.
"We have--" She hesitated. "A small problem. Is there any word from Earth?"
"No." Cetaci sounded more curious than concerned. "Should there be? What is the problem? Do you require assistance?"
"The Astro Rangers seem to have been... dimensionally shifted." She regarded "Carlos" warily, as though saying the words aloud made him still more foreign. "I find myself in the company of Carlos' counterpart from--JT's dimension.
"I do not believe I am in danger," she added, anticipating Cetaci's next question. "However, it seems likely that this phenomenon has affected Carlos' teammates as well."
"Interesting." Cetaci had picked that up from Billy, Aura was sure. "I will contact Earth. Are you on your way here now? I can teleport you, if you prefer."
"I would appreciate that," Aura agreed. She couldn't help feeling relieved. The less time she spent in this Carlos' company, the easier it would be to pretend that he wasn't a real person. "We are standing by."
She caught Carlos' eye, and he nodded once. The teleportation stream enveloped them a moment later, and they left Rey behind. The red rush restored some of her perspective, and she felt a little better by the time it dispersed. Carlos was a Ranger, after all, and stranger things had happened. To both of them.
The Earth Ranger logo was already on the screen when they joined Cetaci, and it didn't fade even after the comm indicated a link had been established. Tessa's voice spoke over the multi-colored bars with no visual component. The sound quality was a little worse than usual for being rerouted through several not completely compatible systems.
"This is Tessa," she announced. There was no hesitation that Aura could detect, but she didn't sound quite as... carefree as usual. It was hard to tell with the distance between them.
"Cetaci," the White Ranger replied, giving Carlos a thorough once-over. Aura made herself hold Cetaci's gaze when that careful scrutiny turned to her. "We seem to have an interdimensional traveler in our midst.
"You too?" Tessa's relief was unmistakable. "TJ weirded out on me just before dinner, and you wouldn't believe the trouble I had explaining that to his family."
"Carlos too," Aura put in, not waiting for Cetaci to answer. "He says he's from the same dimension as Justin's friend JT."
"Wonderful. Sounds like it's time to call Justin." There was a noise that could only be a sigh from the other end of the link. "I can't even tell you how much I don't have time to fly to Eltare right now."
"We could teleport you here first," Cetaci offered unexpectedly. "If further travel becomes necessary, you would at least be closer to Eltare."
There was a pause. "That'd be great," Tessa said at last. "Thanks. Let me just call Karen back and we'll let you know."
Despite her best efforts to focus her attention elsewhere, she couldn't help being aware of Carlos. Thus she caught the lift of his head when Tessa mentioned Karen, and his sharply indrawn breath was obvious. She felt a pang of jealousy, knew it was foolish, and acted on it anyway.
"Something wrong?" she asked, just low enough that the comm wouldn't catch it.
He gave her a quick look, then shook his head. Only after Cetaci had broken the link did he speak. "Karen..." He said the name as though it was all that mattered, but when he caught her staring at him he added, "Karen's--on Earth?"
"She holds the Yellow Astro Power," Cetaci answered. She didn't even bother to glance over her shoulder at him. "Her place is on the planet she defends."
"Karen's a Ranger?" he repeated. A smile tugged at his lips, and it was hard to say whether there was amusement or pride behind it. Maybe both.
Aura looked away, reminding herself that he wasn't who he looked like. Different dimension, different person. This wasn't really Carlos.
***
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"How can you not know! You're him! What was he trying to do?"
"Why can't we contact him, again? I thought you spoke to him before."
"This experiment was supposed to stop months ago. Why has it continued?"
"We have to get back before the Dark Fortress gets to Eltare. They don't have any idea what's coming."
"If he could send us here, you should be able to send us back."
"Was there no way to warn us? Did you not detect the shift somehow?"
"Hey, what does this do?"
Justin Stewart was not having a good day. He considered counting to ten, but somehow he didn't think it would help. In lieu of any rational solution, he closed his eyes and shouted at the top of his lungs, "SHUT UP!"
For one brief moment, silence fell. Then Carlos started again. "But I--"
Justin opened his eyes and glared at him. "What part of 'shut up' don't you understand? Do. Not. Talk!"
Carlos closed his mouth.
The comm chimed.
Justin narrowed his eyes, daring any of the others to make a sound. When no one did, he frowned over at the vid screen. "Before I ask the obvious question," he said, as calmly as he could, "I want to make it clear that unless the answer is 'yes', I don't want ANY of you to say ANYTHING.
"Does anyone recognize that logo?"
"I do." It was the first time Kerone had spoken since she and Saryn arrived, and for that he grudgingly gave her credit.
Taking a deep breath, Justin turned toward the former princess of evil. "Yes, Kerone?"
"It's the Kerovan Rangers," she offered, looking a little bored. She didn't seem intimidated in the slightest, but she also wasn't clamoring for his attention, so he supposed it evened out. "Andros and Zhane must have figured out what happened."
She even knew something. Maybe that tipped the balance in her favor. He tentatively moved Kerone from the 'bad' list to the 'neutral' list in his mind.
He tripped the comm link. "This is Justin," he announced, with some trepidation.
"Hello..." The voice on the other end was both unfamiliar and uncertain, and Justin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "My name is Ty. I don't know you, but I have two Rangers here who claim they do."
"Justin?" Andros' voice replaced Ty's. "I don't suppose you've heard from JT recently?"
"No!" Justin gritted his teeth and repeated more calmly, "No, I haven't."
"That doesn't sound good." Andros might as well have been reviewing a movie. His demeanor was a distinct and welcome change from the frantic chatter that had preceded his call. "I'm a little worried that your Rangers are in the same situation that we were before we found ourselves here."
That counting to ten might come in handy after all. Justin made it to about three before the silence started to drag. "What situation is that?"
Andros had the grace to sound abashed. "The Dark Fortress was about to destroy the Megaship. I assume JT made a last ditch effort to yank us out of there, and he sent us here instead. But if your Rangers switched places with us--"
"They're toast," Justin finished. The words touched off an inexplicable feeling of rage, and Sandy's empathic training identified the feeling immediately. He swung around to pin a glare on the Elisian. "Stop that!"
Saryn's eyes flashed, and the dark look on his face made Justin wonder if he had just crossed a line better left uncrossed. The former Phantom took a step toward him, but Kerone took his arm casually and he stopped as though frozen in place. Her grip seemed to be no more than a touch, but it must have been enough.
The feeling of rage began to subside, and Justin bit his tongue to keep from making a snide remark about mental control. If an empath that strong couldn't keep himself from projecting involuntarily, he had no business being out in public. Sandy had made sure they all knew something about mental communication, whether they had the ability or not, and now he silently thanked her for it.
"Bad time?" Andros suggested, his voice a little too unconcerned.
Justin narrowed his eyes at the comm. "You have no idea. I have all of your teammates and some very angry friends here right now." He hesitated, but the group consisted of everyone except the one Ranger that might actually be able to help. "Want to make my day complete?"
"If you insist." Andros sounded almost amused. "I assume you've already tried to contact JT?"
This time Justin did roll his eyes. "No, Andros. Why would I want to make him deal with the huge mess he created? It's not like I have anything better to do. It's not like I haven't tried to call him a *hundred* times since Saryn broke down my freakin' door!"
"Right." Sympathy was not a tone Andros did well, and he only ended up sounding more amused. "Can you get your friends to entertain them? We'll be there in a little while, and I'll do whatever I can to help."
"Well, there's a relief," Justin muttered under his breath. JT's Andros really did know something about ID travel, which was useful and might even turn out to matter in some way, but right now... the promise of more chaos was not what he needed.
"Take your time," he remarked sarcastically.
"Will do," Andros replied, unperturbed.
As soon as the comm link was broken, it began all over again.
"Justin, I really think--"
"Is it possible that--"
Justin put his hands over his ears, staring pointedly at the blank vid screen, and eventually they got the message. When he had told them to come to Eltare, he hadn't meant "come to Eltare and drive me insane". He had been thinking more along the lines of "come to Eltare and sit quietly while I figure out what to do with all of you." Clearly, something had been lost in translation.
"All right," he said at last, lowering his hands. "Here's what we're going to do. Sandy?"
Cassie's Robot Ranger looked up from the doorway where she had been idly braiding her hair. "What's up?"
"Could you please take everyone except TJ... somewhere else?" He really didn't care where, as long as they weren't in the same room with him. It was like being mobbed by hungry children. TJ was the most rational of the dimensional travelers at this point, and might actually have something useful to contribute about the situation that had brought them here.
"Baby-sitting duty," she translated. "Great." She flashed an apologetic grin at the others, which no one except Kerone seemed to find amusing. "Just so we know where we stand."
"Whatever you call it," Justin said with a sigh. "I can't concentrate with everyone in here. I'll call you the moment I know anything."
"We'll be next door," Sandy said, straightening. "I'll get John to help too. Want me to wake Jay up?"
"No." Jay had earned this last charge cycle, but some things were more important. Like Justin's sanity. "I'll do it."
***
Ty hadn't expected a particularly warm welcome at the Keyota hostel, but he had thought someone would at least be there. The girls' room had been empty, and when the room Zhane shared with Andros was equally deserted he had taken the opportunity to look around. He had felt a little guilty poking into the empty room, but he knew he might never have another chance--not when Andros was there, anyway.
The chime of his digimorpher had caught him off guard, and he had been a little disappointed to find that Andros was looking for Ashley. The disappointment had turned to confusion when Andros started asking for former teammates, and Ty had tried not to take offense when Andros pretended not to know who he was. It was childish, of course, but the Red Ranger had already proved he was capable of that.
Hours later, as he watched "Andros" confer with the Blue Ranger from Eltare, Ty was forced to amend his initial reaction. The Red Ranger *he* knew was capable of that... this Andros was different somehow. He didn't pretend to follow the logistics of dimensional travel, but Andros' mien had changed completely since this morning. This was not the same person that had outright refused to speak to him except in the most dire of circumstances. This was a level-headed, compassionate, and perfectly confident... Ranger.
It was, to be honest, what he had always expected Andros to be like. Power Rangers were almost legendary on KO-35. Andros and Zhane had earned a special affection from the Kerovans for their unparalleled devotion to the planet and to each other. Ty had always assumed such beings would be above petty concerns like jealousy and mind games.
Andros had proven him wrong. The show of unity he and Zhane put up for the benefit of KO-35 was nothing but a front, and the realization had been horribly disillusioning. "You can't love this much without hating just a little," Kerone had said. But why not? He had wanted to believe in these heroes so much...
Yet here, in these displaced Rangers from another dimension, he found the heroes he had been looking for. This is what he had thought Andros and Zhane would be like: calm in the face of a crisis, caring enough to put those around them at ease, with the authority to get what they wanted and wise enough to know what it was. It was like meeting legends come to life.
"Ty?" Andros' voice intruded on his musing, and he looked up in surprise. The Red Ranger was staring down at something on Justin's display, but he glanced over at Ty before continuing. "Do you remember what time it was when we called you from the hangar bay?"
Momentarily at a loss, Ty tried to organize his wandering thoughts. "It was... I left Chessa Brook just after ten. It would have been later in Keyota, obviously--"
"Six hours," Zhane told Andros.
"How long had you been in Keyota when we called?" Andros pressed. "Minutes? Hours?"
"Probably... almost an hour?" Ty offered uncertainly. Now he wished he had been paying more attention to their conversation. He had no idea what they were trying to figure out.
"It was sometime before six on Earth," TJ put in, pointing to something on the screen. "Give or take. I remember that girl saying we were supposed to be at dinner by six."
"Well, that's something." Justin, too, was frowning at the display in front of them. "If we can narrow down your time of arrival, we'll have a better chance of tracking the dimensional flux. I'll check with Aura and see if she remembers anything.
"Someone else please talk to Saryn," he added with a sigh. "Or better yet, Kerone. I don't know how good she is with Elisian time, but at least she can think about something other than Cassie."
TJ frowned, and Andros hesitated for the first time. Ty saw the Red Ranger exchange glances with his partner, and he spoke before he knew what he was going to say. "I'll do it," Ty told them, surprising himself. "Where is she?"
"She's in the library with the others," Justin answered. "I can teleport you if you don't want to call."
In truth, he'd forgotten that he could call her. "Sure," he said, glad that he'd been offered a way out. "At least if I go over there, maybe they'll ask me their questions instead of you. It'll probably take at least a dozen 'I don't know's before they catch on."
Andros actually laughed, and Ty hoped he didn't look as surprised as he felt. "Sacrificing yourself for us?" the Red Ranger suggested with a grin. "Thanks. We owe you."
Before he could come up with an answer for that, Justin warned him that he was about to teleport. The abrupt darkness was disconcerting, but nowhere near as much as the sudden change of his surroundings. He had rarely had reason to teleport before becoming a Ranger, and now he'd done it three times in a single day.
The disorientation was overwhelmed by the realization that he had just made a huge mistake. He didn't know any of these people. He had heard of some of them, and seen others on the news, but that only emphasized the fact that they were all Rangers. He was just a kid from a rec crew who had been in the right place at the wrong time--
"Ty?" Kerone's voice rescued him from a suddenly intimidating situation. "How are they doing?"
He found himself the focus of every Ranger within hearing distance, which was most of them. "Better than I am," he blurted, then grinned sheepishly at her rueful look. "They're good, I guess. I'm no judge of Andros under normal circumstances, but... Zhane seems to be all right."
"Who are you?" Cassie wanted to know, catching him off guard. Then she softened the words with a smile and an apologetic shrug. "No offense... it's been kind of a long day."
"No argument there," he agreed fervently. They exchanged a look of perfect understanding, and he felt a little more at ease. "I'm Ty. I'm... actually, uh--I'm the Black Kerovan Ranger."
"You say that like you're not sure," Ashley put in, grinning to let him know she was teasing.
"Well..." He lifted one shoulder in a shrug and grinned back. "I'm not, really. It happened kind of quickly."
"He was chosen yesterday," Kerone interrupted. "So was I. We just came back from a Power quest."
Cassie glanced sideways at Kerone as though she had been trying unsuccessfully to ignore her presence, but Ashley stared at her in outright shock. "You're a Power Ranger?!"
Surprised, Ty looked at Kerone too. She nodded once, not bothering to meet either of their gazes. Why they were more startled by her being a Ranger than him was a mystery, but it didn't seem to affect her. Kerone only continued to regard him, and finally he remembered why he had come.
"Oh--Justin wants to know what time it was when they got switched." Ty gestured vaguely in Ashley and Cassie's direction, hoping she would know what he meant. It was difficult enough trying to remember who they were without also having to figure out what to call them.
Kerone frowned, apparently thinking about that. After a moment, though, she shook her head and admitted, "I don't have any idea. Let me ask Saryn."
Ty glanced around, wondering if he should tell her what Justin had said about asking her instead. "Where is he?" he asked, a little nervously. He had never met the leader of the Elisian team, but if Andros was anything to go by, he was pretty sure he didn't want to anger another Red Ranger.
Kerone didn't seem to be listening, but after a brief hesitation she rolled her eyes. "He says checking the clock wasn't his first priority, but it was almost first dawn after our little shootout in the community center."
She seemed to focus on him again, and Ty resisted the urge to take a step back. No one had told him Kerone was a telepath. "I remember the sky being light too, but 'first dawn' doesn't mean anything to me. Why does Justin need to know?"
"I'm not sure," Ty confessed. "Something about... tracking a dimensional flux?" He dragged the words out of his memory, but they meant even less to him than "first dawn". Kerone shook her head, silently signaling her own confusion.
Ty gave a dismissive shrug, pulling out his digimorpher and flipping it open. "Justin," he said, casting his eyes over the room as he spoke. Saryn was nowhere to be seen. "All Saryn can tell us is that it was first dawn wherever he was on Elisia. Does that help any?"
Only when Justin's voice came back did he realize what he had just done. As when he had answered his digimorpher earlier, the action was instinctive. He had wanted to call Justin, so he did it. Now he wasn't even sure what buttons he had pushed.
"Maybe," Justin answered, sounding more than a little preoccupied. "Aura knew the local and the standard time, so that may be enough. I'll let you know."
"Thanks, Ty," Andros' voice added over the communicator. He sounded amused, as though he added the words because he knew Justin would forget to, and Ty shook his head in wonder.
When the link didn't break, he realized Justin had acknowledged the courtesy by waiting for his answer. "You're welcome," he said, a little awkwardly.
"What?" he demanded, catching Kerone's look as he closed his digimorpher. "It's weird!"
She just smiled. "No one ever said my brother was easy."
fin