Author's note: I'm fairly sure there isn't an Animarian language, since Merrick, Shayla and Zen-Aku all spoke English within seconds of waking up. But I'm going to pretend there is one anyway, so there.

Tara gets to use her powers again! Yay!

Unexpected Ally Chapter 6: The End of the 'Quake Org

Wes's Ranger costume got them past the Guardians thronging the streets, but it was tough going; Tara seemed to lose her focus at random intervals, and he had to keep hold of her arm to keep her with him.

"Can you stop this?" he asked, speaking almost directly into her ear. She nodded.

"I should be able to. Earthquakes are simple enough; it's the Org I'm worried about, Wes."

"How do you know there is an Org?"

She smiled slightly. "I can sense him. He's causing all of this." She gestured to the devastation around them.

"How?" She shook her head, moving closer to him to avoid a car.

"Later, Wes. Long story." He nodded, shifting his grip on her arm to help her over some rubble. The constant tremors weren't helping at all. "Is it very much farther?"

"Another block. Are you all right?"

"Ask me again when we get there." Wes motioned to a nearby Guardian. The man hustled up and, at Wes' directions, moved into place on Tara's other side, speeding their progress along. Still, it took a frustratingly long time to get to the park.

They'd taken about three steps in when Tara just stopped dead. Wes stopped and looked back at her, dismissing the other Guardian.

"Tara? What's wrong?" Tara didn't answer; her gaze was somewhere very far away. "Cole?" Wes said over the 'comm.

"What's wrong?" Cole sounded distracted.

"Tara just stopped moving."

"Are you on earth?" That was Merrick. Wes glanced down automatically.

"Yeah. Well, grass."

"Then don't worry about it."

"If you're done baby-sitting," Eric broke in, "we could use a hand, Wes."

"Tara won't talk to me."

"She can't hear you." Merrick said. "Don't worry. Nothing can hurt her right now." There was some brief whispering Wes couldn't hear.

"Wes." Eric sounded faintly amused. "Merrick says you can leave her alone; it's up to you. We can do with the help." Wes glanced at Tara, who had ignored the whole thing and was staring straight ahead.

"How long will she be?"

There was a pause before Cole said, "We're not sure. Depends what she has to do. Are you still having tremors?" Wes blinked.

"No."

"Good. We are, but it must be working if you've stopped." There was another moment until he added, "Taylor says there's about three blocks clear around you, and it's spreading." Wes nodded.

"I'll be there in a couple of minutes." He turned, hesitated, and came back to stand in front of Tara.

"Hey, Tara. Merrick says you can't hear me, but it feels wrong just going off and leaving you. I have to go and help, though…the Guardians are spread too thin to do any good. I'll be back when I can." A warm breeze wrapped around him and was gone. He smiled and turned away.

The 'quake stopped a little while later. The Rangers, involved in rescuing trapped civilians, barely noticed it. But as time went on they took to looking around more often. Eventually Eric sighed and went to the park, but Tara had gone and none of the Guardians reported seeing her. He tracked back to meet the others, who all proclaimed themselves not worried at all.

But they still kept looking around.

Tara looked tired when she finally met up with them. She'd been missing for over three hours by then, and the Guardians and Rangers had cleared maybe a fifth of the city.

"Tara." Cole was the first to see her. "Where've you been?"

"I kept getting very manned on my way back to you."

"You kept getting what?" Wes asked.

"Ah, the very man. Give us a hand with this." Tara said somewhat vaguely. "That's what I call it…sorry, Cole. People kept needing help." She frowned, looking around them. "Where are the others?"

"Around. We're trying to clear this block." He looked at her sharply. "Can you help?"

"There," she pointed at the building in front of her, "and there, and there…and those two." She hesitated for a moment. "Is Merrick in there?"

"Yes."

"He won't find anyone…there, and there. That's all on this block."

"You're sure?" Cole pressed.

"No, Cole. I'm making it up as I go." She glared at him. "Would I say it if I wasn't sure? I know how important this is."

"What happened to the Org?" Wes asked.

"He won't be causing any more earthquakes." Tara said firmly. "Cole, Merrick and Taylor are wasting their time. There's no one in those buildings."

"All right." He turned aside, talking into his comm.

"Wes." she said softly, and the Time Force Ranger turned back to look at her. "I heard…thank you." Wes bowed his head and turned aside, heading for one of the buildings she'd pointed out. Sighing, Tara moved to another one.

"You shouldn't be working alone." The voice startled her, and the block she'd been examining crumbled to dust.

"Why not?" she demanded when she got her voice back. "You are."

"I am used to working alone."

"And I've been alone far longer than you have, Merrick. Besides, it makes the most sense." The Wolf Ranger folded his arms and stared at her. "You need to search every building. I know when there's someone inside, and I can get to them faster."

"You're killing yourself." She blinked in surprise.

"No I'm not. I don't die, Merrick. I'm getting tired, I admit, but so is everyone. Including you, I assume."

Merrick didn't answer, instead looking over her shoulder. "There is someone is here?"

"Yeah." Tara said with a sigh. "The problem is the supports are going. I can't go in and hold them up at the same time."

"Where?" Merrick asked.

"Upstairs. Stay on the right." Nodding, he slid past her into the building. Tara leaned forward until her forehead touched the wall.

"Just stay up." she murmured.

"Tara?"

She didn't turn around. "What is it, Cole?"

"We're done with this block."

"I can't come yet." He took a step closer.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm spotting Merrick."

"Spotting?" Cole repeated. Tara sighed and turned around, keeping her hand on the wall of the building.

"Merrick's gone in to get someone out. The building's unstable and if I don't watch it, it's gonna fall on him. If you…damn!" She turned back, touching the wall in two places now. "Call him and tell him it's going. I can't stop it this time." Cole nodded, already turning to call him.

"He says the stairs have gone. He found someone, but he can't get them out." Tara hissed through her teeth.

"Tell him to get to a window on this side." Cole repeated the message, and took a couple of steps back, peering upwards.

"There." he said after a minute. Tara couldn't spare the concentration to look, though.

"Left or right?" When he didn't answer, she repeated, "My left or my right, Cole?"

"Oh. Your right. About ten feet. But he's on the first floor."

"Yeah. Stand away." Cole moved back again, watching. Tara turned her head, looking to her right, and a moment later the ground erupted. Earth piled up quickly against the wall and soon reached the window. Cole scrambled up and he and Merrick helped the survivor down.

They'd just reached the ground when the building collapsed inwards.

Cole pulled himself back to his feet and scrambled towards the building. His morph had faded, overloaded from trying to protect him. Alerted by the collapse, the other Rangers were making their way towards them; Merrick handed off the survivor to a Guardian and followed Cole. His morph was fine but he let it fade as they reached her.

Tara was sitting in the road, coughing and staring at where the building had been. She didn't react when Cole crouched beside her.

"Tara?" He glanced up at the others and back at Tara.

"Tara." Alyssa touched Tara's shoulder gently. The girl jumped and spun to face them.

"Easy." Wes said softly. "It's just us." Tara relaxed, slumping back to sit on the ground.

"I…think I need to take a little break." She sagged further, closing her eyes. "Definitely a little break." Eric was surveying the building.

"You held that up?" he asked, turning to look at Tara. She nodded without opening her eyes.

"For as long as I could, Eric. But the supports were gone. I couldn't keep it standing any longer."

"You did good." Cole said softly.

"We should all take a little break." Wes decided, powering down. "We've been going for a long time." Tara sighed, opening her eyes.

"It's safe enough right now. There's no buildings in danger." Wes was talking quietly into his headgear; a few minutes later, a Guardian truck arrived with food and drink.

"Survival rations." Wes said apologetically as he handed them around. "But better than nothing."

"No thank you." Tara said, waving away the tray he proffered. "But I will have something to drink."

"Sure…not hungry?"

"No. Thank you." She took the bottle from him and drank absently, looking down the next block.

"Stop." Merrick murmured.

"Stop what?" she asked.

"You are trying to find people. Stop. You need a rest."

"I'm fine." she insisted. Merrick frowned at her. Abruptly switching into the Animarian language, she went on, "{Why are you so worried anyway, Merrick?}" Merrick blinked; his answer, when it came, was halting.

"{Because I do not wish you hurt.}" She studied him for a long moment, aware that the other Rangers were watching them.

"{I didn't think you'd care.}"

"{That's not fair.}" he said tightly. "{I was angry then. I said—and did—things without thinking. Even Zen-Aku was angry at you.}"

"{Zen-Aku…}" She looked away. "{And are you angry now, Merrick?}"

"{Not…as much, no. It is hard to give up hate after so long.}"

"{Hating is easy. Forgiveness is much harder. And apologies are the hardest of all.}" She turned to look at him. "{I am sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I couldn't protect Animaria.}" He shook his head.

"{It's not your fault. Protecting Animaria was never your job, or your responsibility. It was ours, and we failed at it.}"

"I will tell you what I told Shayla." She was speaking English again, he noted distantly. "Animaria lives." He didn't answer, and in the next minute she turned to Cole, seated some way behind them. "We should go…the tremors are returning, and the buildings will be in danger."

"I thought you said the Org was gone." Eric protested, even as he stood.

"He is. But he caused a great deal of upheaval and the tremors are necessary." She still wasn't looking at Eric, Merrick noticed.

"You can't hold them off?" Cole asked.

"I can, if you don't need me to help you here anymore. But they will have to come at some point, Cole." Seeing his look, she added, "I can't hold them off and direct you to people at the same time. It'll slow you. They're not going to be big tremors, if that helps, but they will upset some buildings."

"Hold them off." Cole said, and Tara nodded, turning away.

"Wait." Alyssa said suddenly. "Tara, this morning you said I could hear the Princess. Can you do that and still stop the tremors?"

"Ye-es." Tara considered it. "It's not quite as good. And…Cole would be best. But he'd have to demorph."

"Why Cole?" Wes asked.

"And why demorph?" Eric added.

"Cole is used to hearing things in ways other people don't. Merrick would do, too, but…" she shook her head. "And he must demorph because my powers sometimes—react badly with active morphers. You couldn't have it in your pocket, either." she added to Cole.

"Do it." Cole demorphed, tossing his growlphone to Taylor. Tara looked around for a moment and then sank to sit cross-legged where she was. After a minute, Cole grinned.

"Cool." He looked around. "Tara's ready." The Rangers headed for the next block. Only Merrick hesitated; hunkering beside her, he spoke.

"{Don't hurt yourself.}" A breeze blew up, pushing his hair back from his face. Though that usually signaled Orgs, this time he only had a sense of…gratitude?

Smiling, he rose and followed the others.