Disclaimer: Onwards with the revamp! Whomever it is nowadays owns the
Power Rangers!!! Ooooh, boy, I just loves it when a member of the enemy
turns traiter and proves he's a friend, after all!!! Oh, and somebody
asked this once, long ago, and I just remembered.....I am glad *somebody*
noticed the vague Dilithum reference in here.....because yes, I do enjoy
Star Trek: The Next Generation, and slipped the reference in as a small
joke and tribute.
Story number five in my 'From The Stars' series. Read n' enjoy. Thanks to Starhawk for her Color Withdrawl concept, as usual, to my readers, for reading, and to the rest of you, you know who you are, since I'd take up about six pages listing you all.
Trust a Dryseran? By ZeoViolet Teaser: Whether it was the right thing to do or not, guilt like this is an awful thing to bear.
The woman stopped brushing her long golden hair and stared at herself in a mirror. She was beginning to really dislike seeing little else of people except her own reflection, she mused, as deep purple eyes stared back at her. Nearly twelve years in this prison, and they had been the lonliest twelve years of her life.
*It is worse than being a prisoner-of-war when I was the Gold Ranger,* she thought, tossing her waist-length, ringlet curls of purest gold down her back. *I am 23,000 years old, and I still cannot bear the lonliness. What keeps me from cracking? Why have I not gone insane, though I yearn for a breath of outside air? Though I yearn for my family, my children?*
Gods, her children. Surely it was not possible for a person to miss their own children more than the two she had given birth and given life to. The same two precious souls that were surely dead by now, or prisoners themselves.
The former Lady of Triforia sighed again and stretched her tall, willowy frame, steadfastly avoiding the almost accusing gaze of the mirror. Oftentimes, seeing the reflection of a woman much younger-looking than her 23,000 years would suggest (since her people stopped aging once they hit eighteen or nineteen years of age) brought too many painful memories of her own children, whom resembled her almost too much for comfort in this lonely life.
*Like my wonderful older child, my Trey,* She bit her lip as mental images of her handsome son came to her mind. He looked like her, all right, with the same noble features, high forehead, arrow-straight nose, high cheekbones, and noble jaw shape. The only reminders in him of her deceased husband, Teryan, were his near-black hair and intense dark eyes, and the masculine touch to his features, since he was male.
*I wish I knew what happened to him after the Triforian-Dryseran war,* she thought, trying to keep the despair out of her mind. She heard little from the outside world, except that he had won the war itself. So chances were good he was alive now.
*But he is alone...because of what I have done, what I had to do...* A thunderbolt of anguish hit her hard as a sudden image of her younger child, her little girl, danced like an angel in front of her vision, her long golden hair flowing, her gauzy robe flowing around her as she danced upon her toes, her lovely clear voice rising to her own inner tune as she spun, and her great purple eyes glittering with happiness and enthusiasm.
*My own child, I am sorry....I had to send you away...I pray you understand one day!* The vision in front of her eyes refused to cease, a happy, tiny child, for once exposing the sweetly enthusiastic side of herself she so rarely displayed. The image widened as she also saw the child's own brother standing in a corner of the room, watching her little fairy-child in delight, pride in his eyes as he saw how quickly she mastered Triforian dances.
*And now my Sharie, my miracle child whom I thought I could never give birth to, you are gone, and I only hope that when I sent you away, you did not fall into evil hands. Wherever you are, my child, I hope you are happy, maybe you could even reunite with your brother one day.*
She would be seventeen now, Jeanette could not help but think. Eighteen very soon. Her little girl was born the very image of her mother, in all respects, down to the eyes and hair. Almost nothing of her father was in her, except for the ear shape and the temper she so carefully sheilded from everybody, as well as the astonishing mental powers she posessed. Her father had been quite powerful in the mental area, but Sharie's abilities blew even his out the window. She was one of The Ones, the rare mental elite among Triforians, an almost unknown group but their purpose was for their astonishing mental powers. The only physical difference she did not share with either parent was she had been so small. Unless she had hit a surprise growth spurt by now, she would be on the short side all her life.
A sudden sense of someone approaching her prison door made Jeanette Triesta pause. It was not time for her jailers to check and see if she was still in existence. The only two jailers she had seen in days were not her usual ones, since they had accompanied Dark Dresden to bring war to another planet. These two were often bored and seemed to hurry on with their duties as soon as they saw she had not escaped.
There was a rattling of keys and a punching of buttons as someond undid the numerous locks on the door of her comfortable-looking prison. Jeanette stared in surprise as Dyson, her usual and favorite jailer, came stumbling through the doorway, almost staggering. The door slammed shut and relocked behind him.
"Dyson!" Jeanette gasped as she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to a couch. "You look as if you have been through hell. What happened?"
"Sit down, Jeanette," he said rather flatly, his greenish eyes looking tired and relieved at the same time. "I have some news to tell you."
"News?" Jeanette echoed, sitting beside him, her fair face looking puzzled. "Dyson, you never give me news from the outside."
"I am this time. Jeanette, it is time for some truths to come to light, for much has changed within the past couple of days."
Jeanette bit her full lip, but paid close attention. She nearly fell over in shock as Dyson said bluntly, "Dark Dresden is dead."
She shook her head, certain what she had heard was only wishful thinking. "What?"
"He is gone, Jeanette. Dead. Killed while trying to conquer Earth. Most of his fleet was destroyed, and I barely escaped with the skin of my hide intact. His servants permitted me to live since I was one of the few who treated them decently, and they dropped me off here. But that is not all. I have much more to tell you."
"Dyson, if he is dead, then let me go!" Jeanette pleaded suddenly, tears filling her violet-purple eyes. "He was the one who trapped me here when I would not tell him the wherabouts of my daughter. If he is dead, then there is no further reason to keep me here. I want to get out of here and try and get my family back together, or at least find out what happened to them!"
"Calm down, Jeanette! I cannot just let you go, it would be a crime that would cost your life and mine among my people. I have never liked how Dark Dresden kept you here, and I consider you a friend, but I think you would want to keep your skin intact."
"Please, Dyson!" His heart melted at her pleading eyes. Of course he had every intention of helping her escape the injustice of this prison.
"Relax, Jeanette. I do have a plan. But first you must listen to further news, since it quite concerns you. It is about your son, Trey."
She was instantly silent. Except knowing he had won the Triforian-Dryseran war, she had heard nothing since her imprisonment.
"Your son was on Earth at the time of Dark Dresden's attack, helping the Earth Rangers. He is very much alive, and is good friends with them. I happen to know he has never given up looking for you, but that is not all.
"Living on Earth as well was a girl who had been there since she was nearly six years old, a girl Dark Dresden had been looking for for nearly twelve years. She is a Triforian Princess who now holds the Zeo Violet Ranger powers, and her resemblance to you is unmistakable...Jeanette, it was your daughter, Sharie."
She stared at him in stunned, almost disbelieving silence. He was not surprised in the least when her mind, overcoming barriers drilled into her all her life not to do this type of thing, flooded into his own. It lasted only a moment, only long enough to sense the truth of his words. He did not mind the intrusion, after what she had been through in the past several years, she was entitled to the truth.
Once she felt the sense of truth flood her, reality settled on her heavily. A low cry escaped her lips and tears flooded her eyes, streaming down her cheeks unheeded. Really unsure of what to do, he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and pulled her to him. She went willingly, for she trusted him.
"My daughter!" she cried. "My little girl is alive! And how she must hate me for what I have done to her!" It caused such an incredible stab of pain in her heart, she was sure it would break, the thought that her daughter was alive, but would reject her own mother who loved her more than anything in the universe.
"I hope you do not mind my asking, Jeanette," said Dyson gently, "what did happen? How did she end up on Earth without your knowing? All these years, you have managed to keep your silence."
"I...sent her...away..." Jeanette choked between silent sobs. "It was the only way to protect her from Dark Dresden. He would have found her had she stayed on Triforia or any nearby planet. I...sent her away in secret...with the Zeo Violet Ranger Powers...and also ensured she would never splinter. I gave her all...the protection I could...but even I did not know where I sent her...that is why they could not force it out of me...And Trey did not...did not..." She went silent as the pain struck her harder, more accusingly.
"You did not tell him your plans, did you?" finished Dyson gently. "From what I understand, they were reunited about two and a half weeks ago. They probably know by now what you did, but I am not sure of their feelings on the matter. But I can tell you your daughter has grown into a very beautiful young woman, almost your mirror image. I saw her myself."
"Did...you tell...her anything?" Jeanette managed.
"No, I did not dare. Dark Dresden would have found out, and he also never said a word. But he attempted to get your daughter to become his consort, partially for revenge, also because he wanted her considerable powers, both Zeo and mental."
"Gods, I hope she did not agree." Jeanette knew plenty about Dark Dresden's lusts, and she felt lucky that the end of the Triforian-Dryseran war had come just in time to save her from such a fate by Dark Dreden.
"She was going to at one point, to save some of her friends whom he had also captured from suffering that humiliating fate. But they escaped, with a little help of Darkonda and yours truly, and a villianness named Astronema, Princess of Evil, destroyed him for betraying her."
"Thank gods," sighed Jeanette, drawing in a deep, shaky breath. "I wish to go to Earth, Dyson. You said you would try to get me out of here."
"I will, and I have a plan. No Dryseran court would let you out, since they backed up Dark Dresden when he stuck you here. The best way would be for me to sneak to outposts nearby Triforia, and spread rumors about your wherabouts and how to get you out of here. I will have to go in quietly, since I am probably a wanted criminal there, but Trey will surely get wind of such information quickly, and he could attempt a rescue, although whether your daughter would come or not is unknown."
"Whether *he* would come or not should be unknown," said Jeanette bitterly. "Especially if he knows about what I had to do to protect Sharie, it may still seem to him like I did not trust him. And what if they don't succeed? This place is worse than a fortress...booby-trapped and hard to get into, besides being guarded."
"Hopefully, the clues I intend to provide will give them some help. There is just one thing I ask in return for all of this. If you are rescued, place a good word in for me and don't denounce me. Unlike most of my people, I actually have a conscience and am a good guy. I hated Dark Dresden and what he stood for. But I was forced into his service."
"I will, Dyson," Jeanette looked at her friend gratefully. "If I ever get back and you need a place to stay, I will see to it Triforia welcomes you."
After he had left, Jeanette flung her slender frame onto her bed, crying softly. Gods, surely her children would never forgive her for the actions she had taken out of love and a desperate desire to save her youngest child. Praying to whomever might be listening that her dreams of a reunion with her family might not be in vain, she fell asleep, her dreams alternately peppered with visions of a sweet reunion and dark denoucement.
****
"Awww, how cute..." said Carlos, leaning over Sharie's shoulder and looking at the photo album she tried to hid from him.
"Carlos!" she yelped, clutching it to her chest and bending forward. "Who gave you permission to try and sneak up behind me like that? Did you not know I heard you several feet away?"
Delighted by her giggles, he ran his fingers over her ribs and tickled her mercilessly. She burst into helpless peals of laughter but refused to give up her album. "With you I would expect as much, Sharie Triesta! Now, are you going to let me see the album?" He teased, not letting up his onslaught.
"Never!" She sqealed, struggling to her feet and racing across the beach. "You don't want to see pictures of me in my younger days, Carlos Perez!"
It was a come-and-get-me dare, and Carlos all too happily took it. Trey watched in amusement as he sped off across the sand of Sharie's private lake, chasing after the slim figure in purple.
"Do they usually act that silly?" whispered Delphine from beside him. He turned his smile on her, but then looked serious. She was here, instead of him being on Aquitar, because of recent events. Trey simply did not want to leave his sister after what had happened two days before. "Not to that extent. Sharie...rarely shows that side of herself, and frankely, I am amazed Carlos managed to drag it out of her. She needs to act her age more often."
He watched idly as Sharie slowed deliberately, and Carlos caught up with her, mock-tackling her and bringing her to her knees in the sand, tickling her again. Her squeals of laughter reached his ears, and privately, he was never so glad to hear such a sound.
"She is so much like you," Delphine's quiet voice startled him into turning his gaze at her in surprise.
"Many have said that," he admitted, shifting so he could pull her closer. "She looks like me, after all..."
"Much more than looks, and you know it. She is inherently stubborn to a fault, like you, she hides her feelings too much, like you, and she is afraid of letting go of her anger lest she get reckless, like you." Shocked, he met her gaze, wondering if Sharie had told her about their argument, the one that still made his gut twist with shame. "How do you know all this?" he whispered.
"Because I have sensed it all in you, and Sharie projects the sense that she is your mirror image in a lot of ways. She projects it even more intensely at times." Delphine sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. "Or she at least equals your intensity. She told me once that you are the type of person who does not love easily, Trey, but when you find it, you love more intensely than most. I believe it is very true, and if you look down the beach, there is another case."
The thought only flashed in his mind for a moment to reprimand Sharie for telling her that, for his gaze flickered to the dark-haired boy swinging his sister up in his arms and twirling her around and around. It caused another two images image of similar couples to spring to his mind, unbidden, of a dark-haired young man clutching his golden-haired love to him like she was the most precious thing in the Universe, the other of another young woman he had once loved, and lost long ago, a dark-haired, blue-eyed vixen whom, like the Aquitian beside him, he had loved with all his heart and soul.
"I remember another pair," he mumbled to himself, momentarily forgetting she was there. "Our parents--they were like that. Sharie--she is even more like our mother now than she was."
Delphine said nothing for a moment, remebering she had once seen a picture of Trey's parents on the news some centuries before. Indeed, the happy couple down the beach would remind anyone who had seen it of them. Carlos did not resemble Teryan that much, but Sharie was a near mirror-image of her mother. The way they held each other was strangely remeniscent of the picture she had seen, of strong love and even stronger bonds forged.
Delphine turned her head and studied Trey closely for a moment, noticing his gaze was far away, into another time, and sadness hinted at their depths. She got the odd sense he was not only referring to his mother, but about that same young woman he had told her about once, but had never spoken of since then. "She also reminds you of Nikita, right?" she asked softly, hoping he would not wince.
He did blink, but made no further move. "In some ways, she does, but Sharie looks nothing like her. They are similar in temprament, for example. But you," his eyes cleared and he looked directly at Delphine again. "You remind me of her much more."
"Does that bother you?" she asked a bit hesistantly. She was not sure she would like it if he loved her because she reminded him of a long-gone ghost, well-loved or not.
"Absolutely not," he assured her swiftly, gathering her close and looking into her dark eyes. "I love you for *you*, Delphine, and don't you ever dare doubt it. It was your intense gaze that first drew me to you, and your soul touched mine of it's own accord, not because I was persuing a ghost. You set some painful ghosts to rest, my heart is free and yours to claim."
For a moment, she was rendered speechless. For some unknown reason, tears flooded her eyes. How did he do that? Dazzle her completely with his soft- spoken, heartfelt words? Was it because of the honest feelings she could see behind his eyes? Was it also linked with her own heart's yearnings?
When she finally found her tongue, she managed to whisper, "You know I claimed it the moment I knew I was free to do so. I have it, and I swear I will not give it up."
He smiled and lifted her chin, a soft promise glowing in his eyes as he gently lowered his lips to hers, resealing a silent vow they had both made when they had first realized that this love was truly meant to be.
****
"Okay, okay, Uncle, I give up, I quit, I surrender..." Carlos gasped out, pinned beneath Sharie's legs straddling his stomach and one of her hands pinning both of his own. She was stronger than he was, being Triforian, but he still found it a bit astonishing at times. She had been tickling one of his few ticklish areas, around his neck and shoulders, and he felt completely helpless.
"Scout's honor?" she pressed, leaning on him a bit harder and unsuccessfully trying to control her own giggles. Topaz and Violeta, her new kittens, saunterd up and curled around Carlos's head, like they belonged there. "I am almost tempted to leave you here like that. That makes a cute picture."
"Scout's honor, I swear," he said, catching his breath. She grinned charmingly at him, and he knew the grin he was giving back was just probably foolishly lovesick. Plus, with her on top of him like that, and her hair framing her face loosely and setting off her amazing purple eyes even more deeply, he was becoming very aware of her presence so close to his. "So? Are you going to let me up?" he asked, his skin beginning to tingle uncomfortably. The kittens snuggled in, licked his ears, and padded his cheeks with their paws. Sharie, watching, could not stop giggling.
She obligingly started to scoot backwards off his hard stomach, letting go of his hands. She was unprepared for the suddenly wicked look that came on his face as he caught her wrists this time, and she barely had time to squeak as he sat up, yanked her to him, and pressed his lips down on hers with a lava-hot intensity. A split-second later, she was crushed against him and her fingers had found their way around his neck and into his hair, and her tongue had found his and was dancing an interesting tango. Fire scorched her blood faster than she had ever felt it go before, sweeping away conscious thought before she could put rhyme or reason to what was happening.
She felt him shiver beneath her fingertips and where her delicate frame was pressed against his hard one, curled in his lap, driving the need for ecstacy to new, sun-hot heights. Her lips against his became harder and more wild, and it drove him completely insane. It was not until his hands somehow found her slim waist and slipped beneath her shirt, not until unmistakable signs of his arousal pressed insistently against her thigh, did a splash of surprise penetrate her senses like cold water, reminding her of where they were.
She pulled her mouth from his with an effort, a blush heating her cheeks as she rasped, "They say that Trifiorians are insatiable, Carlos, but would you consider trying out that theory here on the beach with an audience within eyeshot?"
Scarlet flooded his face, and his eyes flew open in surprise. He glaced quickly at the pair down the way, and sighed in relief as he saw they were so wrapped up in each other they were not even glancing in their direction. He looked back at her, consternation on his face, withdrawing his fingers from beneath her shirt. "I am sorry, Querida, I should not have..."
"Sh." She laid her fingers on his lips, cutting him off. "Don't apologize. You might as well know I would not have stopped you if Trey and Delphine had not been here."
"What?" he asked, his hands coming up to frame her face. "Do you feel you are ready for that, Querida? I could never take advantage...I mean, I have wanted you since the first time I saw...oh...I cannot get out what I am trying to say!" he said, frustrated. He shook his head. "And especially after what you went through two days ago? I am still surprised you can even *stand* my touch."
"Carlos..." it hurt to say this, especially when she had fought it all back down again, but she had to tell him. "When you touch me, I feel loved. I want to be touched by you, to feel you hold me. Dark Dresden was the kind of person...nobody could be touched by him without feeling revulsion. He was exceptionally handsome, but so saidistic and cruel, it made him a monster. He never raped me, thank Gods, but even his touch made me want to hurl. With you...it is not that way." her eyes pleaded with him to realize what she was trying to tell him.
"I understand," he whispered, leaning down and gently kissing her again, this time only touching his lips to hers in a kiss of soft promise and reassurance. "You never have to be afraid around me, Querida, *ever*."
"I know. I am lucky to have found someone like you, Carlos," she said. He hugged her, and she hugged him back, relaxing within his strong embrace.
She squirmed slightly when his arms squeezed hers a bit too tightly, she still hurt from where Trey had squeezed her arms the other night. She hoped Carlos did not notice, he would be furious.
Unfortunately, he did. He pulled back, concerned, and moved his hands to her upper arms. Before she could push his hands away, he gently squeezed them again. This time her wince was unmistakable.
"Gods, Sharie, *what happened*?" he asked, for he had shoved her shirtsleeves up before she could stop him. "Your arms are bruised!"
"It is nothing," she began, shoving his hands away and pushing her sleeves back down. "I just got hurt, that is all." No way would she betray her brother about the fight they had had. He had not realized he had gripped her arms so hard, he had certainly not intended it, just like she had not intended to haul off and slap him in the face for not listening to her, either.
"Yeah, right," Carlos snorted. "Those are gripmarks from someone's hands. Did Dark Dresden do that to you?"
She opened her mouth, then shut it. Perhaps it would be better to let him believe that Dark Dresden had inflicted those. Heaven knew that monster had actually beaten her senseless countless times when she was younger......
She was saved from having to answer him at all when her communicator went off. Down the beach, she saw Trey do the same. She glanced at Carlos, who shrugged. His communicator had not gone off, so it had to be from Triforia. Sharie also shrugged and opened the comm channel for three-way communication.
"Trey here," she heard her brother answer.
"Trey?" Sharie recognized the voice, it was Troy, her brother's best friend on Triforia. "I am glad I got ahold of you. Is Sharie with you? Are you together in a place I can teleport to? What I have to say should probably be said directly."
Sharie saw her brother shoot her a glance down the beach. She nodded her permission. "Go ahead and come, Troy. The only people here besides myself and Trey know who we are," she said into her own communicator.
"I am on my way. I will be there in a moment," The young Triforian said without further comment, closing the link. Sharie reached over and scooped up her photo album, and she and Carlos turned, making their way back toward Delphine and Trey, looking confused.
"That does not seem like Troy at all," she commented once they reached them. "Troy is usually much more open."
"He is," said Trey, concerned. "Unless it is something vitally important. He is upset, and I hope it is nothing serious."
****
A moment later, a grey-black streak teleported in a dark-haired boy with concerned blue eyes. He was very handsome, looking more or less like a male version of the sister he had never known, who'd died melennia before he was even born....a sister Trey had loved deeply. Sharie wondered why Trey had never told Troy that Nikita he and Nikita had been lovers.
Troy almost opened his mouth at once, ready to spill, but then noticed he wasn't alone with the Triesta siblings. He looked at the group, seeing the strangers, and hesitated.
"It is all right," Trey told him gently. "This is Delphine, and that is Carlos. They are both Power Rangers, and can be trusted."
"I did not doubt that. But this is private information. About your mother."
Trey stiffened, and Sharie went pale.
"Do you want me to leave?" Carlos whispered, concerned. Troy *had* said it was private, after all...
"No!" said Sharie suddenly, before anyone else could respond. "I don't know about you, Trey, but I want Carlos here." She was grateful when her brother nodded an understanding, and also glanced at Delphine, squeezing her hand gently. "They will be staying, Troy. What news do you have?"
Troy dropped his eyes and started to pace, hands behind his back and the wind blowing his short black hair every which way. "I do not know where to begin. There is the doubt what I have found out is true. But I could not hear such information and keep it to myself, not when it concerned my best friend to such an extent."
"If you are concerned about my being upset with you if the information is false, get that idea out of your head," said Trey firmly. "I would never do that. What did you learn?"
Dyson gave him a grateful glance before swallowing in a manner that said, "here goes." He drew in a deep breath. "I was on a nearby outpost, visiting a restaraunt. I was just about to order when the person behind the counter surprised me by being Dryseran."
Everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Carlos could not help but ask, "I am surprised you would even allow a Dryseran into your sector, after what happened those years ago."
Trey shook his head. "We cannot forbid individual Dryserans to keep out of Triforian space. Some of them are loners, who stay away from their plundering government, some are actually good people, unlike most of them. But after the war, I don't think many have been seen around my world."
"Indeed not," said Troy. "The fellow seemed pleasant enough, I suppose. He looked familiar, but I could not place him right off. I about dropped when, after he served me, he sat across from me and started to talk in almost a frantic whisper." Troy turned red. Everyone eyed him questioningly. He steeled himself and went on.
"He started to talk about Jeanette, how he had heard rumors about where she was, that she was being held prisoner in a one-person prison some distance from here, and had been held there for nearly twelve years. Of course, instead of wrangling his neck for saying something so cruel, I had to ask where the prison was. He said he could not say, for his government would get him if he told. Then, and I could not believe this, he hemmed and he hawed, and started dropping hints in casual conversation, his eyes imploring me to believe him. It was then that I believe I recognized him."
Sharie set her mouth. Troy looked at nobody as he said, " I believe it was Dyson, Dark Dresden's sometimes-right-hand man."
"Dyson was banished with Dark Dresden after the war," said Trey unnecessarily. He could not believe his ears.
"Well, there he was. After he felt he had given me enough information, and before I could say anything, he walked back into the kitchen, and disappeared." Troy fumbled in his pocked, then pressed something into Trey's hand. "Here is what he said. Believing it or not is up to you, Trey, Sharie. I am not so sure I would."
What Sharie said next caught everyone by surprise. "If it was Dyson, then I would trust his word."
Trey turned on her, shock written across his features. "Are you feeling all right, Lalinka? Have you forgotten who Dyson was?"
"He was the only real honest, good Dryseran I ever met. If it had not been for him, more than once, in fact, I would not be here now."
Trey gaped at her, clearly wanting an explanation.
****
Sharie looked him in the eye. "What I say is quite true. Dyson hated Dark Dresden and what he forced him to do. By using subliminal subterfuge, he sabatoged quite a few schemes of his, and was subtly responsible for getting me into a position for my escape from him--both times." Looking at Carlos's confused expression, she elaborated, "In other words, he was quite the sneaky one. But he was honest, and I see no reason to doubt him now. I am also glad he survived that little episode from a couple of days ago."
Trey looked at her a long moment, then sighed. "Then, if you say so, Lalinka, maybe it might be true, and our mother is alive after all. Now, what?"
"What do you expect? Get together some kind of resistance force and go after her." Sharie stated what seemed to be obvious.
Trey felt like he was going to faint. This seemed a little too good to be true, the source of what he had been searching for for so many years practically dropped into his lap. "And what if it is a wild goose-chase, Lalinka?" he asked softly. "What if I come back with nothing? Are you willing to get your hopes up?"
Sharie went pale at his words, but not for the reason one would have thought. She straightened her spine and tightened her lips. "Hold on, back up, rewind that last statement, *brother dear*. 'I'? You intend to do this alone? Forget it. No way are you going to crash a Dryseran prison fortress solo!"
Both Trey and Carlos were rather startled, the mere thought of it had sparked something within the girl, igniting a long-buried anger of a different nature.
"If it involves our mother, I go too," she said through gritted teeth.
"That is not what I meant, Lalinka," said Trey, staring at her. "You have been hurt too much by recent events enough as it is, for once, let me take the brunt of things, will you? After what happened a couple of days ago, especially, I don't think you could stand the heartache if this information proves to be false. I would much rather deal with it firsthand than you."
"Not going won't spare me, Trey. Trust me, I have been through much worse in ways you could not imagine. Yes, it will hurt--what does not in our lives?--but I will live throught it, I always have. I am going, and that is final."
He did not have to ask if she was certain, or if he could talk her out of it, her answers blazed in her eyes. He sighed in defeat, then nodded his head.
"I hate to interject on this conversation," said Carlos in such a quiet tone that it startled both siblings. "I hate it even worse to butt in where techincally my nose does not belong, but I believe what I have to say has merit. Delphine and I have been talking about this just now, and we agree that neither of you should go alone, even if you both go. Delphine and I think you should have at least two more people accompany you--namely, us."
Startled, Trey started to open his mouth to object, but shut it when Delphine held up her hand. "I agree with Carlos. I have heard of the Dryserans, and their fortresses, it is highly dangerous. Carlos and I wish to accompany you, but it would be even better if Rangers from his team or mine also went. The more who come, the better your chance."
"We cannot ask that of you," objected Sharie. "This is too dangerous, not to mention highly personal. We are grateful for your offer, but..."
"No buts, Querida," said Carlos, a bit sternly. "And please don't go formal on me like that, you know I don't like that. And please, don't think of this as so highly personal when it involves us, because it does. Delphine and I are so highly wrapped up in your lives that anything like this that involves you involves us also."
Delphine spoke up then. "I love you, Trey, as Carlos has lost his heart to Sharie. It is the way of those in love, to go through hard time together. And should this mission fail, nothing would be more appropriate than to have us at your sides, to be there with you in your grief--or should it succeed, we can be there to celebrate your happiness."
Sharie looked at them, tears in her purple eyes. She turned and glanced at her brother, raising an eyebrow. Moments passed as Carlos guessed that they were having a very fast, heart-to-heart telepathic conversation. His heart thudded in his ears as he waited, while Delphine remained carefully neutral.
Finally, Sharie did turn her gaze back to them all, her eyes still misty. "You are right about one thing. You guys have our hearts in your keeping, and although we may not want it for you at times, you can feel pain when we do, and are perfectly willing to share our misery, to help us along. I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your caring, and we cannot *force* you not to come, since it looks like you are going to argue until we say yes. All we can say is that if there is any way at all we can dissasuade you, then let us do it."
Carlos and Delphine barely glanced at each other, then back at the Zeo Duo before them.
"There is none," said Delphine, conviction in her tone. "If you take no one else, let us come along. My team will understand, and so will Carlos's, I believe."
"They will," said Carlos, coming over and putting his hands on Sharie's arms. "Besides, our next mission is boring, routine scanning. I doubt if they will need me for the next few days."
"Oh, Carlos," murmured Sharie as he drew her in for a hug. "I don't deserve somone like you, truly. You deserve someone much better than somebody who has the ghosts of her past constantly popping up and haunting her when she would much rather have them remain in the past, and interfering with our lives."
"Just the opposite, Querida," he murmured, kissing her forehead. "I wonder how I could ever possibly find someone as wonderful as you. You are everything I ever wanted in someone I wanted to love, and so much more. You just don't realize it."
****
All this time, Troy had been watching the whole affair in silence. Finally, he spoke up when everyone else grew quiet as well. "Then, if this is settled, may I wish you luck and say good-bye."
Trey came over to him and gripped his hand. "Thank you, my friend. I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your help, and it most certainly will never be forgotten." His dark eyes did not belile the statement as they glittered with a warm light to his best friend.
Troy returned the sentiment. "It makes me feel good that I am able to help someone, and I hope this mission succeeds." He gave them all a small smile and, with his blue eyes twinkling, he vanished in a swirl of white light.
****
Once they had recollected themselves, they had to sit and think through what they had to do. "Strategy session," Carlos mumbled as they sat around one of the picnic tables near the beach. "How do we begin? I cannot get loan of the Astro Megaship, and Andros will be using the Delta Megaship also. So that is out of the question as well."
"My battlezord may be of little use as well," mused Delphine. "It is said that the Dryserans are fond of using an alloy in their buildings that can instantly rust my zord."
"The Dryserans would definetly know the Pyramidas inside out, after what has happened," said Trey glumly. " And it is not in shipshape condition. Any takes, Lalinka?"
"My Sphinx Ultrazord is pretty much useless at the moment, since it sustained such heavy damage during the Dryseran onslaught of Earth. And considering Dryseran technology, we will need zords they would not expect, with a power level capeable of handling a Dryseran attack. I believe I have two such zords."
Carlos outright gaped at her. "*How* many zords do you have, Querida?" he asked. "I have seen at least three. Do you have one for every occassion or something?"
"Maybe, I do not know that answer as yet. I cannot reveal the number or the nature of some of my zords, because...well, it is too dangerous. Should they be discovered and fall into the wrong hands, it will spell disaster. One of these such zords could take on an entire galaxy...and win." She turned pale. "And I should not have even mentioned that. Never, ever reveal that to anybody."
She straightened. "The Zords I have in mind are quite powerful, nonetheless. Since they are run by Zeo Power, Trey, you will have to pilot the other one after I authorize control. I want you to take temporary control of the Thunder-Bobcat megazord. It is currently in Thunder- megaship mode, but it can also transform into an excellent, quite-powerful fighting machine for hand-to-hand combat. It is a very powerful and mighty weapon, and also has an Ultrazord mode for worst-case scenarios."
"And the other one?" asked Trey, his eyebrows raised.
"I will have control of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord. It is also quite powerful, with several settings and fighting modes. Both zords are in cloak right now, they are in a hidden valley not far from Angel Grove. If you wish to go there and see them, I can show you what they do."
****
They materialized in a beautiful valley, well-hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world, the perfect place to keep Zords, or Megaships.
"Where are they?" asked Carlos, looking around and seeing nothing.
"Right in front of you. I have called them up from their hiding spot, and they are cloaked and ready." She smiled. "Zeo cloaking sequence three, deactivate!"
Carlos suddnely felt a dull roar buzz his ears and gave him the feeling of his brain buzzing, while the air around them shimmered for a few seconds. Then, out of nowhere, came the magnificent forms of two enormous ships, obviously even more powerful than the Astro-Delta megazord that Trey had used to defeat the enemy the first time he had helped the Astro Rangers.
Carlos's jaw had been slightly ajar, staring at the wonders of this. And Sharie had referred to these as lesser powerful zords of her arsenal? He wondered what was so dangerous about the others she never dared used them, or expose others to the knowledge of their very existence, when just one machine could eradicate all evil once and for all?
"Let me show you what they can do," she murmured, smiling. "Thunder-Bobcat animal mode, now!" she called.
Trey watched in sheer amazement as the huge ship he was to control began to change shape, taking on the form of an animal body, growing a head, powerfully massive legs, and an equally powerful tail. Thunder-and- lightning designs decorated it's back, and within the black depths of it's eyes showed golden dagger-like lightning bolts. It let out a mighty bellow, it's claws scratching the earth, as if impatient to do some real action.
"Thunder-bobcat Megaship battle mode!" Sharie cried. The big cat in front of them rose on it's hind legs, where it straightened up, it's tail vanished, and various other things appeared and disappeared. The cat's face vanished, to be replaced by a typcal zord face, and the body reassembled to form a massive fighting Megazord of notable strength, complete with a shield and Power Sword.
Trey's eyes were like saucers. "And you want me to *control* this, Sharie?"
"Yes, Trey, but do not worry, because when I transfer control, the knowledge to use this zord will also be transferred." She turned to Delphine and Carlos, who could not tear their eyes from what they had just seen. "I will also, with your permission, of course, do a knowlede infusion so that, in case of extreme emergency, you two will have the authority and knowledge to hot-wire the zords and pilot them yourselves. I say hot-wire because they do not usually respond to non-Zeo influence. Nobody is to know that it is even possible, I discovered it by accident myself."
Carlos nodded along with Delphine, still a bit shaken at the idea of controlling one of those zords, a feeling remeniscent of when he had first become the Green Turbo Ranger. "When do we begin?" he asked.
"Tomorrow morning, early. Delphine, there are no rehydrators of any kind on these ships, you will have to make do with the showers in the living quarters, I am afraid."
"It is no different than the other times I have had to rehydrate outside of Aquitar," she answered. "I will do fine."
****
Jeanette snapped awake suddenly. She glanced out the window, it was still dark, with barely a glow in the east. She rarely awoke this early, sleep helped to fill her lonely days..but for some reason, an unknown giddy feeling and a crowd of butterflies in her stomach were preventing her from sleeping further. With a sigh, she got up, tossed off her nightgown, and flung on a robe over her willowy figure, going into her bathroom to shower. It would, she mused, do one of two things: make her sleepy so she could go back to bed, or wake her up further and focus her mind so she could think.
*Which I cannot seem to do much of right now,* she thought, almost incoherently, arm-wrestling her long, thick, very golden hair from it's shimmering, waist-length ringlets into a topknot on top of her head.
After she had showered, her mind became clear, granting her the mercy of thought.
*About what?* she asked herself. What on Triforia's name was making her feel like a six-year-old? Was it because of what Dyson had told her, that if his plan worked, she could go home at last? Finally see her precious children? Get on with her life? She was only 23,000 years old, she still had over half a lifetime to live. Her son was grown. And Sharie...well, if she had indeed grown up on Earth, like Dyson had said, she would be considered nearly an adult there, as well.
Why Earth, of all places? Jeanette got up and began pacing her prison. Earth was so backwards, it's people both good and evil, so she had heard. Would she want her little girl growing up there? Probably not. Then again...Zordon lived there, more or less. H had placed his trust in the planet, and Jeanette, like everyone who knew the ancient sage, trusted and admired his judgement. Perhaps Sharie had also grown up under his guidance, if she had sought him out. And, after all, she *had* grown up, and she still had the power, and was using it for good purposes, and with her brother at her side where he belonged.
Jeanette felt herself nearly choke as she thought again of the agony those two must have endured, being seperated for so long. Sharie must have looked and acted so strange to him. If she had been older, it would not have mattered so much, she would have retained most of her Triforian values. But no, she had been a child, a tiny child, small for her age and still desperately needed a parent's love and guidance to show her the way, for all her adult mind and brains, and mental talent. But she had had to grow up and depend on the guidance of humans, so she had had to adapt and live like a human until she was old enough to care for herself, and by now was probably fully assimilated into the human world...
With an effort, Jeanette shook herself out of her trance. Her daughter had grown up, and that was what was important. And now she was with her brother as well, and that is what mattered...
Shaking, Jeanette turned to the window, where the sun was now halfway up the horizon. *Why do I feel so giddy, like I was drunk?* She thought desperately. *I wish I knew, I really, really wish I knew...*
****
"Gosh, it's *early,*" mumbled Carlos sleepily as he stumbled onto the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord the next morning. "What do we do now, to take my mind off sleep?"
Delphine was already there, and Sharie was typing furiously into a nearby console, Carlos noticed she had a comm system open.
"I have to explain this to Aunt Marisha and Uncle Marek," she sighed. "And they are not happy. Not that they don't want me to find my mother, but they think that I do not need to go through this right now. They are insisting on coming aboard so they can talk to me. I see no way around it."
Carlos knew there was no way to talk Sharie out of what they planned to do, so he said nothing as a teleportation beam shimmered and four figures, two tall and two smallish, formed in front of them.
Sharie had turned, arms crossed and a resolute look on her face. Marisha, as soon as the beam had released her, immediately strode over and placed her hands on Sharie's shoulders, her golden eyes looking down into Sharie's purple ones.
She opened her mouth, then shut it, then tried again, drawing a deep breath. "I know we cannot talk you out of this, Sharie. Just please understand our feelings on this matter. We cannot bear to see you hurt, especially with whom you are dealing with and what happened just days ago. It nearly broke you, and I don't want this mission to be the straw that broke the camel's back."
Before Sharie could venture a reply, her uncle Marek, whom she also adored, spoke up also. "I know how important this is to you, Sharie. I admire your willingless to go after your mother and help her, and forgive her after all that has happened. Just--be careful, okay?"
Tears burned the back of her eyes despite herself. She did not blame them for their feelings, they cared about her and loved her, and they held a very special place in her heart. She returned their fierce hug, grateful for their concern and support. The twins Toby and Tami wedged themselves in somehow, silently showing their support. Being deaf, it was their way of loudly agreeing.
Delphine could not help but smile at such fierce family unity. She could see now where Sharie had picked up some of her mannerisms from, and they seemed like good people.
The twins unwedged themselves from the others and looked around, frankely curious. Their golden eyes glittered brightly, for they had never seen this particular Zord before. She wondered if they had ever seen an alien besides Trey before, either.
Sharie had said they were deaf, and understood the use of telepathy and the Universal sign language. She was now glad of the lessons Corcus had suggested she take for just this purpose as she quickly signed a greeting. She smiled at the look of delight on their faces. Within seconds, they were chattering away like magpies while Sharie and Trey held a private discussion with Marek and Marisha.
"Okay, then," said Marek, hugging Sharie once more and shaking Trey's hand. "Just be careful then. We hope to see you again soon...in one piece, if you please."
Sharie giggled as she hugged her Aunt goodbye, then was nearly bowled over as the twins flung their slender frames into her arms. She hugged and kissed them goodbye, and waved as they stood back with their parents. Just before they shimmered out of existence, she was amused to see them quickly make the traditional Aquitian gesture of good-bye to Delphine. She smiled, and her return gesture was the last thing they saw.
****
"So, how do we begin?" asked Carlos, much more awake this time.
Sharie shot Trey a glance, he dug in his pocket and handed her the slip of paper Troy had given him. "I hope you have a better chance of making sense of it than I could, Lallinka," he sighed. She nodded her head, smiling slightly.She had not as yet read it, so she unfolded it and read aloud the first passage.
"..."I cannot say why a prison would be placed in the Ceti Alpha galaxy anyway, and he said..."
She looked up, her eyebrows raised high. "The 'Ceti Alpha Galaxy'? Which one? There are four of them--Ceti Alpha Galaxies I-IV! It would take *ages* to thoroughly search each one."
"Read on," said Trey. Sharie sighed and reluctantly read aloud the next line. "...So I said, put two and two together and figure it out, like you do that galaxy..."
She sighed and looked at Trey skeptically. "'Put two and two together?' 'Your own galaxy'..." Her eyes widened. "You know, that does make sense. Two and two together, and your own galaxy....it *could* mean Ceti Alpha IV..."
"You know, I think you may be right," spoke up Carlos. "It does make sense."
Trey grimaced. "I have never been to that particular galaxy, and the rest of the list, I think, hints at details within the galaxy I would be unfamiliar with. Trey, Sharie, have you ever been to Ceti Alpha IV?"
Delphine shook her head as Sharie nodded--slowly. "Once, I have been there. I helped a small moon civilization beat off invaders a few yars ago, since they had no planetary defense team. Before I left, I helped them set up one by showing them how to use their planet's distron crystals to access the Morphin Grid. The new team, called the Unity Force Rangers, were building new zords when I left. I would always be welcome there, the Lord High Emperor of the Moon would be glad to give directions."
Trey smiled in relief. "That is great," he said. "For I know nothing of the place. We will need plenty of directions, I can tell you right now."
"I propose we leave at once to find out if these 'suggestions' have any more merit," said Sharie, rapidly reading the list for future refrence and passing it on to Carlos and Delphine to look over for themselves. "The sooner we know the truth, the better I will feel."
****
Jeanette did not cease her restless pacing, even when the current guards opened the door to check on her. She ignored them. They shrugged their shoulders and shut the door, dismissing it as the constant cravings of movement one would recieve after nearly twelve years of imprisonment.
****
"Glad I could help, Miss Triesta. It is the least we could do after your assistance in helping our world."
"Thank you, your majesty," said Sharie, bowing slightly. "The information you have provided us with will help a great deal. Good-bye, and once again, thank you."
The regal figure on the screen bowed also before saying, "Goodbye, Sharie, Princess of Triforia, and Trey, Lord of Triforia. Until we meet again." He vanished.
Trey spoke over the lingering silence. "Well, that was...interesting," he managed. "Notice how much more....regal and high-and-mighty he became upon learning our ranks?"
Carlos laughed outright, and Delphine smiled indulgantly. "He started acting with all the nobility he could muster," said Carlos through his laughter, "He felt he had to do it to address his apparent equals in rank. How so like an Earth man!"
Sharie also laughed softly, but she had to remind him, "It is what they are used to. His world is totalitarian, but fair, his people do not suffer in any way, and are content. It is just that the royal families rule all around here. And since his people are content, they see little reason to change."
Now Carlos looked surprised. "You would think they would never have heard of personal freedoms."
"They have it on a limited basis. On a local scale, they can sway things to a better favor. And their personal opinions do matter to the ruling person. It might not seem enough, but I can do nothing about it. And at least they were able to give us a bit of information we may need."
"I am glad Emperor Lerion mentioned the Dryseran presence in this galaxy," said Trey soberly. "It bodes well in our favor."
He held the list, Delphine leaned over him and read it aloud over his shoulder. "...And I said, 'how can you put it there, right next to a system with six suns?' and of course, he had to reply..."
Sharie had already brought up a map of the galaxy. "Highlighting the six- sun systems," she said softly, her fingers dancing over the controls.
A moment later, she had isolated, out of the billions of systems within the galaxy, sixty-three systems.
"Too many," said Carlos. "That would take days to cover inch-by-inch. Which ones are under Dryseran influence?"
The screen switched to twenty-seven systems.
Trey jumped in then. "Which ones of those have single-sun systems within closest proximity to them?"
Fourteen still flashed.
"And they are all very far apart," mused Delphine. Sharie heard that and, having memorized the list, recited the next clue aloud.
"...But how could you also set up a dilithium mine there? I asked him. He started to get mad, and said..."
She stopped, wondering. "Dilithium mines? Are they still using that old- fashioned method of travel? It is so slow--a ship powered on Dilithium would take nearly a year to cross from one end of the galaxy to the other. It only took us a couple of hours to come here from the Milky Way galaxy."
Still, she punched the information into her computer.
"I know it is impractical," said Trey. "But is is still useful for brief interstellar travel between nearby solar systems." He stopped, his eyes growing wide as only two lights now flashed on the screen. "Oh my goodness..."
And they were on opposite ends of the galaxy. Sharie groaned.
Carlos did not look happy either. "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo..." he muttered under his breath, to no one in particular.
"What was that?" asked Sharie, turning toward him. She was not amused.
"Sorry, just a random thought," he replied, blushing. "But can you blame me?"
She looked at him a moment, then shook her head. Carlos now held the list, and, to not appear all bad, looked at it again.
All it said was, "Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."
Everyone stared at each other, the words suddenly making perfect sense. It was Carlos who broke the heavy, emotional silence.
"We have a rescue to perform, right? Let's get going."
****
The two ships stopped, cloaked, about half a light-year from the supposed dilithium mine. As thoroughly as possible, they would search the area.
Sharie was setting up the sensors to detect dilithium crystals, lifesigns, and weapons systems. She was trying very hard to not let her whirling emotions affect her, while she was on the verge of success, but still, she had difficulty. When at last, the sensors were set, she sighed and sagged in her seat. Now she was grateful for Carlos's presence as he came up to her, hugging her from behind in a comforting way. He was much faster at picking up telepathy toward a telepathic person than she had thought, for she sensed, faintly, a *Will you be all right, Querida?* coming from him, and a look of concentration on his face.
*Very good, Carlos. You pick it up fast for telepaths. Maybe sometime you will be able to do it with non-telepaths as well. Yes, I will be okay. And...thanks."
He smiled and kissed the top of her head, hugging her shoulders lightly before letting go. She straightened her back and tugged on the shirt of her black, violet, and gold tunic. For once, she was dressed in Triforian style, and Carlos could not help but admire it. The shirt was tucked into a short skirt of the same colors, which were over form-fitting, spandex- like pants underneath. Even the Mark of Triforia, which every Triforian was born with, was visible on her face as a golden streak above her left eye and extending onto her upper cheekbone.
It felt like a long-lost feeling, but still, when she looked into a mirror, she squirmed slightly, simply not used to it yet. She was beginning to wonder if Triforia would ever really be home again, like Earth was in her heart.
"I am getting some results," she said, manipulating the controls. "Scanning for Dilithium mine...results...positive. Checking for Dryseran presence....four Dryserans present on base or in orbit of third planet."
"Is there a fortress of some sort, or anything to indicate a prison?" asked Trey weakly, trying not to hold his breath.
Sharie checked the controls, her face going pale. "Yes...on the planet's surface. There is a fortress, heavily protected by dampening fields, booby- traps, two more Dryserans...and much more."
"Are there any other lifesigns?" asked Trey, a heaviness gripping his chest. He was grateful Delphine was beside him and hugging him, for this question would reveal the complete truth.
Sharie took a deep breath and willed herself to look down. "Y-yes...I am picking up one more lifesign....female, Trif-Triforian in origon." She could speak no more, her body was frozen. Only two lone tears stole down her face and showed her distress.
Carlos gathered her to him, and held her for several minutes as she absorbed the information into her tired, disbelieving mind.
****
Jeanette glanced out the window for the umpteenth time that day. As it had wore on, she had grown more and more restless. Every pore of her body screamed at her to get out...move around...something was going to happen!
*But what?* she asked herself again and again as she desperately tried to find something to do to steady her nerves. She was too restless to read, or watch movies from the database. Sleep eluded her. Even excercise failed to calm her down or at least make her tired. HEr body was poised and ready for an adreanline rush. All it needed was a signal.
****
Dyson examined his personal scanner, reading the Zeo trails he had picked up with old information gathered from Dark Dresden's reign of terror on Triforia. They were out there, the Zeo duo. They had gotten his 'messages' all right, he thought gratefully. He would try to make it as easy for them as possible to rescue their mother, but they would still have a tough time of it. He prayed that they would succeed. For if they attacked, all hell would break loose.
****
Carlos sat, staring at the screen. Complete silence resounded over the whole bridgen as everyone, somewhat recovered, contemplated what to do.
"Sooo...." he said at last. "What would work best? A direct attack or a sneak-up?"
Sharie, to everyone's surprise, spoke up before anyone else could. "I suggest we disable the mine and processing plant first," she mused, looking through everyone else as she stared at the viewscreen. "Knock out as many Dryserans as possible. *Then* we can take on the fort."
"But how?" asked Delphine. She was staring at the readouts. "The place looks impenetrable. Maybe we should sneak in."
"It is not logical," Sharie responded patiently, almost woodenly. "A direct attack is better. Getting to the main Power Supply aboard the processing plant in orbit will be easy if we *don't* use the sneaking method. Their sensors operate on several frequencies at once, and over a very wide range. They might detect us slipping through and attack us before we could even raise our shields. The direct approach is safer in the long run. I have a plan." For the first time, she turned around and looked the others in the eyes. They put their heads together and quietly discussed strategy for several minutes.
"Okay," said Sharie at last. "Do you understand?"
They nodded their heads and set out. Trey took Delphine's hand and teleported over to the Thunder-Bobcat Megaship. Trey held his wrist to the activation scanner, letting it read the presence of his Zeo Morpher.
It beeped, indicating he was allowed on the bridge. The doors hissed open, and, Delphine's hand still in his, he stepped onto the bridge.
"Welcome, Trey, Gold Zeo Ranger, and Delphine, White Aquitian Ranger." said the sugary-sounding voice of the ship's computer. "Sharie Triesta has given authorization for Trey Triesta to pilot this ship, and Delphine authorization to co-pilot, and pilot in emergency. I am Zelpha, the ship's computer."
*The ship's *sentient* computer,* thought Trey in amusement, remembering DECA. "Thank you, Zelpha," he said instead, glancing at Delphine. She smiled and shook her head, also amused.
"Is there anything you require?" asked Zelpha politely. "Just ask me any question, and I will be able to answer it." Her tone remained consistently polite, as if eager to please. Trey wondered if she shared DECA's smart- alek sense of humor.
"Not now, thanks anyway, Zelpha," Trey said, his tone still amused. "Delphine and I will take a quick look around, then set up a piloting sequence."
"Would you like a tour?" she suggested. "You would be able to find your way around much easier that way."
"No thanks, Zelpha. Sharie used a power transfer when giving me control of this ship. I know how to pilot her, thanks."
"Understood." Zelpha finally fell silent. Trey could feel his ribs shaking with laughter he tried to suppress. If the ship's computer was as sentient as he thought, then he might very well hurt her feelings by laughing at her...and if she was anything like DECA, she could very well pay him back for it.
****
Though still jumpy, Jeanette finally tired of her incessant pacing. She flopped down on a couch to rest, not caring as her golden curls fell into her face. She curled her knees to her chest and laid her head on her arms, trying to relax and will her heart into a more normal rhythm.
Her mind still raced, but settled on an unplesant reminder she often tried to forget. The diary manuscript she had written shortly after she had been forced to send her daughter away for her own safety. She had written it hoping that it would ease some of the aching burden in her heart, and help her deal more easily with it, and with the fact her son was, at the time, just a short ways from suicidal.
And then, she had destroyed it, not wanting the written reminder to linger. Still, having a typical Triforian's photographic memory, she recalled precisely every passage ever written.
*My child, my Sharie, one day, I hope to see you again. I cannot tell you of the burden losing you has placed upon my heart, in my soul. I cry at night, the tears seeping down my face and into my pillow, knowing quite possibly, I have lost you and your sweet warmth forevermore. If this war gets over with soon enough, I may be able to trace your wherabouts before you get too far. I will have to let my son know as soon as the war is over, and if he can forgive me enough, we can look for you together.
*My son, my Trey, if you ever learn of my deed, I pray to any listening spirit that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. You do not know what anguish this is causing me, watching you fall deep into the depths of despair and your own private hell of guilt and pain, watching you lose weight and seeing the horrifying torment in your eyes, knowing that you cannot even find the solace of tears. I have overheard some of your thoughts without meaning to, I know that sometimes you yearn to take your Power Staff's destructive powers and use it on yourself. I am grateful that it is your strong sense of duty and self that prevents you from doing that. How I pray that we can all be reunited again one day.
*My children, please, please forgive me for what I have done! How can I assure you what I have had to do came from the very deepest depths of love a person can posess? How can I make you understand that there was no other way to give Sharie a chance at life, since otherwise her death was certain? How can I tell you, oh *how*?*
Tears filled her eyes again, but they did not fall. Jeanette was too uptight for that. So she rocked, and waited, and endlessly rocked to the rhythm of an inner turmoil surely only she understood.
"Ready to 'rock 'n roll' as you would put it, Lalinka?" asked Trey over the comm system. He was seated at the helm of the bridge, poised for action. Delphine was right beside him in the other seat, ready with the backup systems and damage control.
"Ready, Trey." Sharie sounded amused. "You can do the rolling as you do the blasting, because as soon as you get their attention, your ship is going to be rocking--with weapons fire. Let's do it."
"Right." The Thunder-Bobcat Megaship took off, getting as close to enemy lines as he dared. Trey's fingers flew over the console as the ship decloaked suddenly, swept down close by the mining-processing plant, and began to fire.
Of course, he knew that these parts were so heavily and sturdily built (due to the dangerous mining and processing operation) that they could withstand a lot of damage without ah hitch. So essentially, what he was doing with all his weapons fire was nothing more than an itch to their systems, and he intended to make them scratch.
Sharie had been right, however, about their reaction. They decided to take care of the itch by eliminating the irritating cause. Machine-controlled Dryseran aircraft took off from the place and attacked him with an unrelenting vengence.
Trey gripped the console tightly as the bridge rocked violently under the stress of the weapons fire.
"Shields are holding," called Delphine over the noise. "Their weapons fire is not penetrating our defenses." She gripped her own console as the bridge rocked again from the blasts, otherwise she would have flown across the room.
"You know how annoying itches are, Delphine?" asked Trey as he reset the controls. She nodded quickly. "Well," he continued. "They are about to get one that will drive them completely crazy."
He looked almost wicked as, with one press of a button, he sent another volley of fire at non-essential systems on the mining plant and on the enemy crafts. It drove them into a frenzy as they doubled their fire on the Thunder-Bobcat Megaship. One return blast rocked the bridge so violently and so quickly, Delphine lost her grip and was sent flying out of her seat, tumbling to the floor and rolling to a stop on the opposite wall.
"You okay, Delphine?" came Trey's concerned voice as she moved, biting back a moan of pain, located squarely in her backside.
The ship was rocking so hard she was forced to crawl back to her seat, her hindquarters protesting all the way. "I am okay," she mused, crawling back into her chair and yelping in pain. The discomfort eased as she switched her center of balance to her hips, a sort of sitting-leaning posture in your chair.
"I hope you did not break your tailbone," said Trey, his fingers dancing over the console. "It would take a few days for that to heal."
"I don't think I broke it," she mused, squirming uncomfortably. "But I probably bruised it. Why do zords never have some form of safety harness?"
"Makes for easy bail-out, probably," he said, letting go another volley of fire. "Okay, Lalinka, it is your turn. Do your stuff," he said aloud.
****
Sharie had been waiting for this moment. The Dryserans and the fighters were easily distracted, almost as if their lives were so boring they welcomed the chance to destroy. She smiled, intending to be the itch impossible to scratch.
She snuck through enemy lines as slowly and carefully as she could, desperate to not be detected.
"Ready, Carlos?" she asked her boyfriend, unable to quite hide her amusement.
"Ready, Querida. Let's see the action," he grinned at her.
As soon as she got close enough, she decloaked. Her finger was already on the fire button, all she had to do was press it.
She did.
With a single shot, over undefended systems, she knocked out the entire power supply to their weapons and most major systems. The Dryseran base was left almost entirely without power.
The Dryserans on the orbiting base were beyond furious. With the automated fighters already there, with independent systems, they got into their own fighters and attacked.
The fierce battle that followed was quite rapid. Shots were fired so brightly and so quickly that the battlefield looked like a sun itself, the blasts radiated such energy, heat, and light. Fireworks could not have been more dazzling.
There was heavy damage sustained, but not on the side of good. The warships of the enemy soon became so badly damaged that, one by one, they imploded, the ships giving way in fierce balls of light that looked like miniature supernovas, lighting up the sky with a blinding intensity, and their pilots, living or automated, fell victim to their ship's own damage or the terrifying vaccuum of space.
When the fighting was over, Sharie let out a long breath. She had not realized she had been holding it. She glanced over at Carlos, who was grinning at her broadly. He lifted his hand in a high-five gesture, and she impulsively reached up and clapped her hand against his in the universal gesture that meant, "success!!"
Sobering slightly, she then switched on the comm system. "Well done, guys!" she called into it. "You in one piece over there?"
"We are a little sore," said Trey, and Sharie could hear him trying to suppress a snicker. "But we are alive. Great job, Lalinka! We did it!"
****
Jeanette was startled as the light outside one of her prison windows suddenly became momentarily brighter, once, twice, then more. Curious, she stopped rocking and got up, wandering over to the window. She glanced outside just in time to see another bright flash.
Having been a power ranger for so many mellennia, she recoginized the sight at once. They were exploding ships! Gods, the station in orbit was being attacked!
Her heart racing, she sat down hard onto the window seat, thinking. Was this how her life was going to end, an unknown victim of an invasion? Especially if this prison fortress was next.
She could not dare to hope that her own salvation, her own rescue, was at hand. The thought was simply too tempting, and too impossibly cruel.
****
Now that the orbiting processing plant was out of the way, the group gathered once more on the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion megaship to discuss things further.
Sharie brought up what the sensors had recorded about the fortress on the surgace. Being a prison fortress, it was unusually well-built, even for a Dryseran building. There were numerous dampening fields in place to prevent teleportation, and several booby-traps, crude and sophisticated. It was like an iron cage, seemingly impossible to get into.
Carlos was studying the readouts. "That huge fortress has just one prisoner?" he could not help but ask. "Why? It looks like it could hold hundreds of people without a hitch. And yet it sits out here, all alone."
Sharie gave him a slightly pained look. "That is the purpose," she said softly. "It is a subtle method of torture. At least in most prisons, the prisoners get to see and talk to other prisoners daily. This one has the design of a prison to make the prisoner feel small and alone, completely worthless on the scale of things, and full of despair. I have seen them before."
"Dryserans use money, at least on an intergalactic scale, don't they?" asked Carlos, hoping he was not pressing his luck. "Why go to all that expense for just one prisoner."
"Dark Dresden was a powerful man," said Sharie softly, her eyes going blank on them. "If it could get him what he wanted, or extracted such revenge as he desired, he could do it. You are right, Carlos, even for the Dryserans, this fortress would have been an expensive feat--hence the dilithium mine and processing plant also here," she said softly. "If any of Dark Dresden's family is left alive, they probably are still paying off a debt for the building of this place."
"Any ideas, then?" asked Carlos, seeing her reaction and hoping to quickly change the subject.
Sharie studied the readouts for a moment. She motioned Trey over and they whispered for a moment, discussing everything.
Finally, they seperated. "I have one idea," said Sharie. "It is dangerous, and most of it will take sheer luck and circumstance. The dampening fields around the edge of the fortress are the weakest. If we persistently fire, concentrating all our blasts on just one weak dampening field, we might be able to lower it briefly enough for us to teleport through. But it will raise behind us. Once we are on the surface, we will be entirely on our own. Our only other advantage is we will still have communication systems, and can call on our zords for assistance. Our main objective, though, will be to dodge the two Dryseran guards still present, the numerous fighting robots I am sure are there, find our mother and get her out unharmed."
Carlos and Delphine looked at each other. They nodded at the same time.
"Then let us proceed," said Delphine. "I am willing to try this if you are."
Sharie glanced at her brother, he also nodded. "Let's do it, Lalinka," he said softly, and for the first time, she could see the real hope in his eyes. She raised her wrists and crossed them. Delphine mirrored the action, while Carlos flipped open his morpher.
"It's Morphin' Time!"
"Let's Rocket!"
The power from the Morphin Grid flooded their bodies, accessed by their various morphers and powers. In four flares of light, their civilian clothing disappeared, and was replaced by their ranger costumes and helmets.
Without another word, Sharie set her controls, and directed her most powerful blasts to a small, concentrated section on the Fortress surface. She had to blast with superconcentrated energy three times before her sensors indicated a break in the dampening field.
"Let's go," she said. In four swirls of colors, they vanished.
****
Dyson clutched his console as the room rocked under the intensity of the fire. Obligingly seeing where the fire was concentrated, he induced a little sabatoge so the shield lowered for a few minutes. He smiled as four telportation signatures could be sensed--two Zeo, one of Lightstar Ranger origon, and one he was unfamiliar with.
*Jeanette, my friend,* he thought, a smile curving his lips. *Your nightmare is about over.*
****
Jeanette yelped in surprise as the violent rocking caught her by surprise. She tumbled off the windowseat as her prison shook, causing her to land with a painful *thud*.
Grimacing in pain, she stumbled over to her bed to huddle upon it.
*What is happening?* she thought frantically.
The shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Nothing looked different than it had been, but every pore and fiber in her body was screaming danger signals, to get out before the upcoming danger engulfed her....
****
The group of rangers crept silently down the hallway, every muscle in their bodies taut as they were on alert, jumping at every sound.
Anytime, they knew, they could encounter booby traps.
Indeed, Sharie was the only one to hear a soft *click*. Pure instinct made her fling herself at her brother, sending them both crashing to the floor and against the wall, just as several small darts came out of nowhere, hitting the wall above them.
"Goodness," Trey lay on the floor for a moment, holding onto his sister and gasping for breath. "That was....quick, Lalinka, thanks."
"Are you okay, Trey?" she asked, helping her dazed brother to his feet. "I landed on you kind of hard."
She could hear the smile in his voice. "Not that hard, Lalinka. You don't weigh enough to use your weight alone. You would have had to put considerable force behind throwing your body weight to hurt me--though considering your skills, there is no dobut in my mind you could do it. However, I have no wish to test that hypothesis, so let's get going."
Behind her own helmet, Sharie smiled, and she could hear Carlos snicker softly.
Despite all their searching, they could not find any way into the heart of the fortress. Sharie, usually the patient one, was the first to get restless.
"If we are to get in there at all, we need to stir things up a little," she mused. "Trey, I suggest we use the zords to do a little damage to the place."
"I agree, Lalinka," he said, sounding amused. "Thunder-Bobcat animal mode, now!"
"Hurricane-Mountain Lion animla mode, now!" called Sharie into her communicator.
Instantly, the two ships still in orbit began to change, growing tails and taking on the epitome of the animals they represented. Roaring, they raced down to the surface, and, lumbering along so forcefully the ground shook, they flung themselves at the fortress from the outside, tearing into it for all they were worth. It was so well-built that they had some difficulty, but little by little, they made slow progress.
****
The violent shaking of the compound began again. Jeanette huddled on the bed as things fell down and crashed all around her. Quietly, she prayed that if death was intended for her, it would come so quickly she would not even realize it.
She was rather startled when she heard the telltale buzzing sound of her prison door being opened. She was even more surprised when Dyson stumbled in, clutching the doorframe for support.
"Jeanette!" he gasped, stumbling over to the bed and clutching her hand. She was a little dazed as he grabbed her and started pulling her toward the door. "Dyson! What are you doing?" she gasped as the floor rocked beneath her feet.
"Now is your chance, Jeanette!" he panted. "You must flee while you have the chance! We are being invaded, and they are destroying this place. Get out, while you have your neck on your shoulders."
p"But Dyson..." she started to protest, not wanting him left here to die.
"No buts! Do as I say or you could be killed! Go! Now! And good luck!"
"What about you?" she protested angrily. "I won't leave you here to die, Dyson!"
"I'll survive, Jeanette, I always have. Don't worry about me. Now go!"
She gave him one last, pleading look, and he could no longer stand the anguish on her face. He turned her around quickly and pushed her out the door of her prison for the first time in almost twelve years. "Goodbye, Jeanette. If you survive this, it will not be the last time you see me, I promise! Now flee this horrid place!"
"Godspeed, Dyson," she choked after him. "You will always be welcome on Triforia, and will always be my friend!" She could not bear to bring herself to look behind her as she turned on her heel and sped down the hall, tears misting her eyes and nearly blinding her vision.
****
Back out on the surface, things went from chaotic to absolutely crazy. Sharie and the rest of the group had managed to find an exit outdoors, (although not further inward like they had hoped) and found that robots, in giant zords of their own, of sorts, were gaining on their Zords to pick a fight.
"We can go after them," panted Delphine as she watched the spectacle. "You two, Sharie and Trey, go on in and find your mother. As soon as we can, we will join you."
Trey gave her a long look, hoping this would not be too dangerous. Gods, he would hate to lose her, not after....abruptly, he raised his wrist and spoke into his communicator. "Zelpha, I am transferring pilot control to White Ranger Delphine."
"Acknowledged," said the computer cheerily. Sharie was glad they could not see her smile as she instructed the computer of her own zord to do the same with Carlos.
"Be careful," she whispered to the two other rangers as they prepared to go fight. "They look kinda mean."
"Don't worry, Sharie," said Carlos. He started to go, then suddenly turned around. He quickly stepped up to her, and to her surprise, hugged her hard. "We will be okay, promise. Now go and find your mother so I can meet her and get over my nervousness at meeting my girlfriend's mother."
A weak, surprised laugh escaped Sharie's lips as she hugged him back, revelling in his presence for a moment. The he had to let her go, for the danger was mounting. She seemed almost unaware as Trey grasped her hand and pulled her back inside the fort. All her emotions were in a turmoil. Her last sight of the Zords were them transforming into gigantic fighting Zords.
****
She was being persued. Behind her, she heard wailing, robotic cries of "stop the prisoner! Don't let her escape!" The words hammered in her ears as her well-toned body took advantage of it's firm fitness and she began to run, really run, somehow managing to keep on her feet despite the rolling floor, the robot guards in hot persuit.
Just when she was sure she could not run at that pace much longer, she felt her world collapse as she came to a dead-end room with a balcony overhead, built into the wall.
With nowhere else to go, she was sure she was going to lose her life in this madhouse. Sudden determination siezed her, and she had one single thought as she thought of her former Power Ranger career.
*I won't go down without a fight.*
With the robots exploding into the room, she took up a defensive stance. Twelve years of not having used her martial arts had not fazed her ability in the slightest, but she was *not* going back into that prison. With a determined gleam in her purple eyes to take at least a few down with her, she uttered the timeless cry.
"Sie-kyuh!" An inner crescent kick sent the first robot whirling, spinning to the ground. Promptly, two more pounced upon her, and it took all her skill to keep her body intact.
Doggedly, she kept fighting, sure at any time she was going down. As the robots began to close in on her, and she took up a final stance, she felt a shiver run through her spine as there were two distinct "Ki-Yah's!" and twin whirlwinds of black-gold and violet-gold dashed into the room, momentarily dazzling her senses.
****
Sharie and Trey had been alerted by the cries and the noise emenating from nearby, just as the shaking of the floor stopped. Without thinking, she and Trey turned on their heels and ran toward the calamity. Running, Sharie dragged out her scanner and set it up. She read several robotic presences...and one female Triforian presence. The woman's heart was racing as she fought to defend herself.
Telepathically, Sharie told her brother, and in response, they both picked up speed, only stopping short when they reached the open door to the dead- end room. Before they even looked inside, Sharie felt the adrenaline rush to her heart, for the gasps of pain she heard in the room were of a voice she had not heard in many, many years.
They carefully glanced inside, and her heart nearly stopped. A streak of blonde curls flew around the face of a beautiful young woman dressed Triforian style. Her willowy body was desperately trying to fight off her persuers, who seemed hell-bent on taking her prisoner again by force.
"Surrender, Jeanette!" one of them cried, launching himself at her.
"Never!" she snarled, and she threw her long hair back, and the two silent observers could see the fiercely glittering purple eyes that so matched Sharie's, set in a face also identical to both of theirs. "You creeps may kill me, but I will never go back into that prison again."
"This is your last chance to surrender, Jeanette, and keep your life."
"What good is my life, so empty? Without the love of my family, my children to sustain me?" she spat out. "I have only survived with the determination to get out and get my family back together again, and I intend to do just that, or die trying!" Once again, she took up a defensive pose. "So try me."
That is when the whole crowd pounced at her, the only thing overshadowing her defensive senses was that of the two rangers, clad in Zeo Costumes, that also sprang into the room.
They pounced upon the nearest robots and sent them flying with two rapid blows to the head and abdomen areas. The other robots turned, registering this, and Jeanette felt herself become completely frozen, as if ice had taken hold of her body.
Zeo costumes! The Gold Ranger! It could only be her son. The Violet Ranger, with the identical faceplate to the Gold Ranger's, was obviously female, small but just as determined to fight as her counterpart in gold.
She felt her heart flip in her chest when the thought really sank in. The way they worked together, in unison, like another pair she remembered from years before. And she had given those powers to one person only. Gods, after all this time, they were here! Her children! After all these years of desperate lonliness, she finally was graced with the sight of their forms again. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched the duo, but the logical part of her mind was strong enough to insist she keep fighting, alongside her children, who obviously saw fit to rescue her. Her heart hammering in her ears, she sprang on the still robots once more, knocking the sense out of them.
One by one, the robots went down. Sharie felt her heart clench in fear as one of the robots managed to corner her mother, raising a dagger for a death blow. Without a hitch or a word, Sharie drew her staff and fired, hitting the robot square in the back. Startled, the robot dropped to his knees, then keeled over, leaving a surprised Jeanette pressed against a wall. Astonished, she looked straight at her daughter. For a moment, they just looked at each other.
Then, Sharie turned stiffly away, still not saying anything, and resumed fighting.
Jeanette felt a stab of fear and anguish. Gods, had Sharie, after all, not forgiven her? Was she only fighting out of obligation to her brother? Would she *ever* reach her children again? If this was the case, then her life was no longer worth living.
At long last, Sharie and Trey managed to corner the last robot. This one was the leader, and the most powerful, it would take both of them to take this one out. Sharie looked around quickly, spying the balcony above. With an idea forming in her mind, she ran a short distance and made a single leap, her powers giving her enough bounce to easily land above them.
"Ready, Trey?" she called as the robot quickly (almost frantically) looked in two directions, unsure of which to attack first.
"Ready, Lalinka." The name jolted Jeanette out of her despairing trance. If she had any further doubts of the identity of the Violet Ranger, it was now dispelled. Few people had called Sharie Lalinka.
Simultaneously, both drew out their staffs and aimed it at the robot. He panicked, knowing he had not a chance. He spun on his own heel and tried to flee the room.
Twin blasts of fire, from two directions and precisely on target, hit him in the back and the head. There was a bright glare as he emitted a strange sort of groan, and vanished as the sheer power of the blasts vaporized him.
As the smoke cleared, silence fell on the room, except for Jeanette's ragged breathing. She stared at the vaporized spot for a moment, then straightened her back. Turning, in complete silence, she faced the two rangers behind her.
****
She had never felt such uncertainty as she did now, facing her very own flesh and blood. She still did not know whether or not they would ultimately reject her. She was sure her torment showed in her violet- purple eyes, directed at her children.
An eternity seemed to pass as her gaze settled on that of her son's spandex- clad figure. She was only vaguely aware of the two other Rangers, ones she had never before met, slip into the room in complete silence, stepping unobtrusively into a corner.
An eternity seemed to pass before Trey finally allowed himself to move. The staff vanished from his hand, and, too slowly, he crossed his wrists. "Zeo Gold Ranger, power down."
A glitter of gold showed as the costume melted away from his body, and at last, Jeanette saw her handsome son in the flesh.
Gods, he has not changed, was the first thought to reach her muddled mind. He is still the same son I am so proud of....
Her eyes met his, and she inwardly knew he saw the utter torment in her eyes. She was almost afraid to read his dark depths, but she had to force herself to. She could not have been more surprised to see his eyes also full of torment, tears that did not fall--and the deep, unyeilding love she had never really expected to see again.
During this time, Sharie flipped herself back over the balcony, so silently it barely registered with anyone else. So strong was the sudden desire to put distance between them and herself--for just a few moments, so she could clear her mind! She was so confused.....
She made not a sound as mother and son continued to stare at each other, their eyes speaking volumes. She watched as her brother's feet finally seemed to unlock, and, swiftly, he crossed the room into his mother's welcoming arms.
How can one describe a loving, desperate reunion of long-lost mother and son? It is not something that can easily be described by words. Love is a light word compared to the deep bonding between mother and child, though Trey was no longer a child.
It is a connection of souls, a blending of spirits that first begins the moment the child is concieved and carried in his or her mother's body until life outside the womb can be granted them. For several months, they may have been joined both physically and spiritually, but the spiritual bond never fades, even should the mother be forced to give the child up for reasons beyond her control.
She contributes to the child's life, bonds with the child in ways that cannot be understood, and nothing can change that, no matter how un-obvious it seems. It is heartbreaking, sometimes, that it would take a tragedy like this one to really bring a realization like this to the surface, and one wonders that it should not have to take a terrible event to draw such loved ones together, to realize their bond, or to simply say, "I love you."
The strength of that bond was revealed now as mother and son held onto each other with an uncommon desperation. He held the tallish woman to him, finally feeling, in a small way, a burden on his overtortured soul lift. He ignored the tears streaming down his face, simply grateful to relax in the old, comforting presence of one he so loved, and had missed with a terrible fire burning in his soul.
Silently, from above, Sharie continued to watch. Her heart had been pounding, and a serious burning pain had set it afire, a terrible pain borne of long seperation. Unable to help it, she was flooded with feelings of yearning, forgiveness, and love so powerful, it drowned out every other sense and obscured her breathing, making her feel that, surely, she was going to drown from the sheer impact of it. *My mother....*
She did not realize it, but her face was wet with tears beneath her helmet, too.....
It seemed to take a long time, but finally, Jeanette released him, drawing back and finally smiling slightly as she studied his face, eagerly absorbing the sight of him after so many years of deprivation.
*Can you ever forgive me, my son?* she asked, echoing her mind into his like they had used to do.
*It has already been forgiven, mother. I know the truth, but I still cannot deny why you did it.* He hugged her again, and then turned his glance toward Sharie, still morphed and not making one sound.
Trembling, Jeanette turned to face her daughter. She could not read anything in her daughter's morphed posture; nothing betrayed what she might be thinking or feeling. Trying to sense her was like trying to sense a rock--nothing, absolutely nothing.
Her despair would still be too overwelming if her daughter had failed to forgive her, for surely she remembered every sordid detail of being forced out into the unknown against her will, despite the heartfelt reason: her foremost safety. If she had not forgiven her.....or if she never would.....Jeanette thought her heart would sieze up and rip in two at the thought. *Even if I did it for her safty I cannot stand the thought of her hating me! Not now....not after all this!.....*
Slowly, painfully slowly to Jeanette's eyes, Sharie crossed her wrists. "Zeo Violet Ranger, power down."
Jeanette found herself staring in utter shock at a person virtually a mirror image of herself, only smaller. The same hair, the same face, the same eyes--the same deep purple eyes that were now glittering over with tears, streaming down her fair face. Her lips trembled, and hesistantly, Jeanette rasied her eyes to meet that of her now-grown daughter's.
In them she saw many emotions. For once, Sharie's eyes were not sheileded over by a wall that prevented others from reading most of what was in their depths, that usually obscured others from seeing her very soul.
Thus Jeanette could see a furious swirling of emotion, many of them fighting for dominance and failing miserably to gain any more ground than the others. She could discern torment, sadness, pain, what she expected to see. But she felt joy light up in her chest as she saw the emotion which, after what had to be an intense internal struggle, suddenly surge forth and overshadowed all others. It was what she had seen in the eyes of her son, the fierce, unyeilding love, the kind that sustains strongly throughout the worst hardships.
Above all, there was no sign of anger or hatred anywhere.
Jeanette could not stand it. Trembling, she reached out imploring hands to her little girl, her eyes silently begging. *Please, my little girl, my only daughter....please don't turn me away now!....*
Sharie needed no further urgings. She flung herself into her mother's eagerly awaiting arms, and her mother cradled the small girl to her chest, not wanting to let go. She felt the whisper in her mind from Sharie, assuring that, whatever had happened, all was forgiven.
"Oh, Sharie, my only girl. At last I have you back..."
"I missed you.....despite anything else I might have felt....." Sharie choked, feeling a new sense of peace steal over her that she had not felt in a very long time.
At long last, Jeanette pulled back and studied her daughter all over, and over the complete joy at seeing her beautiful girl alive and well, she felt concern and guilt stab at her heart. Sharie was so small, so petite. She looked downright fragile, and Jeanette only hoped living on Earth had not done this to her. There was so much different about her, she was far different from the child Jeanette had last seen her as. But one thing was clear: She was still Sharie, inside and out, no matter how different she had become.
Without realizing it, Carlos made a small sound in his throat. Sharie turned, a smile appearing on her lips, and she laughed softly, waving them over. "Mom, these are the other two rangers who helped us." The two rangers demorphed obligingly as Jeanette turned to them. "This is Carlos Perez, Black Lightstar Ranger, and this is Delphine, White Aquitar Ranger."
Jeanette politely greeted each, nodding especially at Delphine. "I have heard of you," she said admiringly. "I thank you for your help." Her eyes riveted to Carlos. "I have never heard of the Lightstar Rangers, but thank you, just the same."
It did not dawn on her until then why two rangers, from seperate teams, had chosen to join her children in her rescue. Any confused thoughts on the subject were immediately dispelled when Trey walked over to Delphine, hugging her tightly, and Sharie found herself in Carlos's comforting arms. Her children turned to her, arms around each respective ranger, their eyes telling her what the situation was.
"Oh, my..." was her first thought. She was too surprised to think coherently for a moment. Delight, relief, and awe, and a little concern, hit her all at once.
She felt nothing but delight for her son. *My gods! One of my wildest wishes for him has come true! He's in love again! Despite his grief and fear, which he'll always have....he trusted himself to love again!*
She knew of Delphine well, and she knew of her strong character and fiercely loyal streak to others. The Aquitian could not possibly have been anything less than Trey's perfect mate in Jeantte's eyes....except for one thing, one small, trivial detail.
She was Aquitian.
How on Triune's Peak did Trey manage to date her without splintering? Their species was rather fragile outside of their own environment; surely he'd have had to visit her homeworld at *some* point.....
Oh, well, she'd ask that later. Somehow they must have overcome such a hurdle, since it was clear to her that it was, in part, Delphine making Trey's life that much more peaceful, and giving him some measure of happiness.
Sharie's lover, though.....this was different. The boy from a world said to be savage and backwards. An earthling.
She was concerned, to say the least. This boy looked as young as she did, he could not be more than eighteen, considering how fast and short human lives were. Were it not for the fact that the ancient Sage, Zordon, had placed his heart and trust into these people, seeing a side in them not a whole lot of others seemed to see, Jeanette would have, in a streak unusual for her, rather prejudiced against the idea.
Besides, her baby was still so young....should she have grown up so soon?
But one look in her daughter's eyes convinced her that this boy had been pivotal to her daughter's happiness, and that she would not change for the universe, no matter how young he or her daughter were.
It took only two seconds to slightly change her opinion....she knew that look too well. It was that type that she knew had reflected in her own eyes when she'd been with her now-deceased husband, Teryan, whom she'd loved more than words could have expressed--even by the most talented of poets.
Jeanette swallowed. If her daughter truly felt this way, then she'd at least attempt to get to know Carlos first, and give him the benefit of the doubt. If he proved was truly capeable of being what her daughter needed so much, then she'd say little or nothing in the long run.
"All I can say is," she said after much hesistation, "Is thank you, for making my children's lives happy. For that, I am grateful to you."
Sharie and Trey reached for their mother's hands, and silence settled over the group as they walked out of the room and down halls, finally to the outside, where the Zeo Zords stood in a victorious posture, for Carlos and Delphine had managed to easily win over their foe.
As Jeanette breathed in the first fresh air of nearly twelve years, looking at the proud zords standign in the sunlight, she felt a new, radiant energy flood her chest, a new desire to face her future. With her children at her side, perhaps one was now in store. There were questions to be asked, explanations extended, but she no longer dreaded it as much.
She was free, free to live, and free to soar once again.
****
Of course, he had been right. She knew he had escaped, but she had to make sure. Once the group stepped onto the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord, Jeanette tugged her daughter toward the consoles. "Please, I need your help," she said softly. "I have to find out where he went, I owe him so much for helping me with my freedom..."
"Whom, Mother?" Sharie asked, surprised, thought she had a sneaking feeling she knew.
Jeanette hesistated. "Well...he is Dryseran, one of the few Drysera I ever knew that was fair and kind. He was often my friend, though he had to act as my jailer. Ultimately, he helped me to go free. I know he escaped just before you found me."
"Dyson!" Sharie exclaimed at once. "It was him, was it not? I thought so, but I was not sure..."
Jeanette paused, looking at her daughter thoughtfully. There had been no trace of anger or animosity in her voice. "You knew of Dyson?" she asked, to make sure all fit into place.
"Of course I knew him. He was my only Dryseran friend when I was kidnapped, he used sneaky methods to give me an opprotunity to escape, and was involved a few days ago, when..." Sharie stopped suddenly, wondering how to say it. It was too painful.
"He is a good man," she said at last.
Jeanette sighed softly, laying a hand on her daughter's arm. "He told me of the attack days ago, when Dark Dresden attacked Earth and met his end. It was Dyson's reputation for kindness that had his life spared by the servants and slaves that had taken over the ship. They had enough compassion to let him live. He showed up shortly afterwards, looking like he had survived a holocaust. He told me what had happened, that he had seen you and Trey both on Earth, also. It was my first indication of anything since my imprisonment, and certainly the first time I knew for certain you had survived, Sharie."
Tears filled her eyes, and she closed them painfully. "Sharie must have told you by now, Trey. I do not know how you can forgive me."
Trey did not even squirm, though a small part of him was glad that what had been written by Jeanette in her diary was so obviously true here. He reached out and gently took his mother's hands in his own, sitting her down in one chair and sitting in another one across from her.
"I think it is time for total truth between us all," he began uncomfortably. "Yes, Sharie told me what had happened, detail by painful detail. But I already knew by that point."
Her eyes widened in startled surprise. "But how could you know!" she exclaimed, going white. "I had to keep it a secret! You would not have let me do it if I had told you, and I told no one else either!"
Trey blushed for some reason. He drew a computer padd out of his tunic, turned it on, and handed it to Jeanette. "Does this look familiar?"
Jeanette felt any remaining blood drain from her face as she stared in horror at a copy of the manuscript she thought she had done away with. "But--I destroyed that! I never meant anybody to see those words. It had only been intended for my peace of mind. How did you get this--*where* did you get this?"
"Mother," said Sharie softly, holding up a hand and stopping her mother's outburst. "It was that very manuscript that led Trey, and myself in a way, to forgive you so completey. It was found some months ago by a human boy named Tommy. When Trey was splintered, another former Earth Ranger named Billy went to Triforia to try and help. Your file had only changed to a sort of virus that attached itself to another unimportant file Billy downloaded and sent back to Earth. Tommy found the manuscript, had it translated, and read it. He did not mean to pry, but he did not tell anybody for several months what hidden pain was in Trey's past."
Jeanette could not keep the tears from streaming down her face. "Then this..." she touched the padd, "Was the sole reason you forgave me? What was in it, other than sheer evidence of my guilt? I sill stand by my actions, and I feel they were completely justified."
"Tommy finally told my team about it," spoke up Carlos, hoping he was not butting in. "You see, I was drawn to Sharie the moment I first saw her. She told us a condensed, slightly changed version of her backstory, but did not mention her brother had happened to be the Lord of Triforia. She certainly had no notion he was the Gold Ranger. I wondered why she and Trey seemed so familiar, so I am afraid I am the nosy one here. Tommy told TJ (another ranger) and I what he knew, and gave us the manuscript to read. It made us determined to reunite the pair. Our Yellow Ranger, Ashley, was the one who broke the news to Trey of what she knew."
Jeanette stared at him for a long moment, and Carlos got the sudden feeling that he had gotten when she first looked at him....thoughtfulness, and reservation. He understood somehow that she wasn't all that wild about him dating her daughter. But she'd also made no move to condemn him--yet. He could see in her amethyst eyes that she was battling with herself over what he'd said, and knew that it could either warm her to him or color her opinion of him further--he wasn't sure, yet.
"I expect you reacted with anger," said Jeanette after several moments, hanging her head slightly. "It must have been such a shock, knowing it was your own mother whom was responsible for your sister's disappearance..."
Trey heistated then, then admitted, "At first, for a short while, I was a little upset. I wondered why you did not trust me to protect Sharie, to keep her from harm. But I dismissed a grude right away, mother, since I love you too much to hold one against you. Reading your own words finalized the thought, for I understood completely then. I am not angry, and I bear no resentment."
Trembling, Jeanette hugged her son tightly. She could feel him trembling also as he held her tightly. She felt much better all of a sudden, except for one matter. Sighing, she let go of her son to face her daughter.
"My Sharie..." she sighed, touching her daughter's chin. "I hope and pray with all my heart you did not suffer too much for what I knew I had to do. You have read what I have written also?"
Sharie nodded. "I have, I did the day Trey and I were reunited." Her eyes lowered. "I must admit, I was upset, very upset, at first after you placed me in that craft. But I saw the space station behind me explode, and I came to realize that I could not hold a grudge against a mother and brother I had thought dead. I forgave you then, mostly, but I think..." her chin started to tremble, "maybe I was still a little bit resentful. I was raised by a wonderful couple on Earth, they adopted me and loved me, and I loved them as much as I had loved you guys. I eventually lost them both, and now their brother and sister, my aunt and uncle, are my legal guardians. I certainly did not know that the mysterious gold ranger who showed up at one point was my own brother." She sighed. "Many months later, I read your manuscript. I completely forgave you then, for I saw your anguish through your eyes." She reached out and hugged her mother tightly, crying softly. "I really, really missed you, Momma...."
"I missed you too, my child. More than you could ever understand," Jeanette murmured, hugging her own daughter tightly and rubbing her back soothingly. "I never thought to tell you about your brother's powers. It would have been a secret for more weeks yet until you turned six. But I see you made good use of your own powers, the ones I gave you."
"That brings another question to mind, Momma," Sharie quivered, a smile on her lips as she wiped her wet cheeks. "Where did you get the powers you gave me?"
"I discovered them by accident, two centuries ago, while exploring Triforia's uncharted territory for myself," Jeanette admitted. "They were far too powerful to consider telling anybody about, and Triforia was at peace at the time. So I put them away in a safe spot and told nobody. If it had been known, especially to the evil side, Triforia would have been swamped. I certainly had no notion that I would ever have another child, I was thought to be sterile. I considered using them myself should the need arise, but it never did. When I was forced to send Sharie away, I gave her the power to protect herself from harm. The could not do much for her until the powers deemed her mature enough to handle them, but she would have had some protection."
"I have been an active ranger since I was eight years old," said Sharie quietly.
"That young..." said Jeanette, gaping at the girl in astonishment. "How? Sharie, you were a child! I would have thought maybe fourteen or fifteen at the earliest.....not eight!"
"It just happened," Sharie shrugged. "You said yourself that when I was ready, and the powers deemed me ready and worthy enough, they would open up fully to me for my own use."
"I presume you contacted Zordon," said Jeanette hopefully. "He could have trained you quickly to handle the powers."
Sharie shook her head. "I have never met Zordon. It is a long story." Carlos came up behind her and she leaned into him without thinking. "Now, I just sort of travel back and forth between Earth and Triforia. I have a life on Earth that I built for myself, and now I share it with the other rangers there, especially Carlos. Trey is there quite often, too, and once in awhile, he will travel to Aquitar."
Trey blushed and held Delphine a little more tightly. Jeanette eyed the couple for only a moment before sighing. "I have only one question concerning you two," she said to Trey. "Dyson told me that the first time you went to Aquitar, you crash-landed and splintered. *How* have you managed to go there subsequent times without a repeat performance?"
Now it was *Sharie* who turned red. "I discovered what you did to me with that shot you gave me just a day before I left," she said softly. "You messed with my DNA sequence, Mother, and as a result, chances are practically nil I will ever splint due to 'genetic incompatibility.' I discovered it years ago, and when Trey and I were reunited a couple of weeks ago, I introduced the same substance to the general Triforian public. Now we need never fear splintering again."
"I only discovered it days before the Dryseran invasion," said Jeanette, her cheeks red flags. "And I never tried it on anybody, either. I could not tell anybody and let the Dryserans know we hold such weakness. They would have attempted to do it to us on purpose, split our soul into it's three levels, and then kill at least one for the other's misery. I tried it for the first time on Sharie because she needed the protection."
"As you can see, it worked," said Sharie with a smile. "I am no different because of it, I assure you. I am glad you were treated so well while in prison. Truth be told, I expected you to look much worse."
"I am well, physically," said Jeanette, giving her daughter another once- over. "I could say that I expceted the same of you, Sharie. In many ways, you look different that I pictured you."
"How would you have pictured me?" Sharie asked in curiosity. Jeanette blushed.
She hesistated, but decided truth was the best policy. "I liked to think of you as...well, Sharie, I am right in the fact that I knew you would be beautiful, but..." she squirmed, "I hoped you would be much taller, and more robust. You look so fragile...." she turned even redder, "I wonder how you managed to remain a Power Ranger at all. After Dyson told me you had grown up on Earth, I did not know what to think. I hope the environment is not the reason you are so small. Everyone else in our family has always been at least above average in height. But then, you were always small..."
"Sharie, weak?" chuckled Carlos in amusement. "I don't think so. She is at least three times my strength. And her martial arts skills---no one ever dares mess with her."
Jeanette, to her own surprise, found herself smiling suddenly at him.
Trey grinned in spite of himself. "She is almost as strong as *me*." he put in. "Growing up on Earth has toughened her considerably, since the environment there is a little more harsh and the diet is different. As for her height...."
"I always was short, and that is that," Sharie put in. "It was not the diet, or the atmosphere. And Mother, you told me Trey had one last growth spurt just before he quit aging. I am approaching that age, maybe I will gain a few more inches."
Jeanette's face was still flushed. "I would not wonder if it is my fault, in a way," she confessed. "I had so much trouble carrying you to term, Sharie. You were quite small at birth, under five pounds. I almost died giving birth to Trey, and it was even worse with you, I am sorry to say. It was worth it, though. But maybe it was my difficulty that made you so small..."
"Nonsense," Sharie put in. "Trey was almost as small, and look at him now. My great-grandfather on Daddy's side was on the short side, remember? Shortness in this family is just as rare as the eye color you gave me." Twinkling, her purple eyes met her mother's matching ones. "Doesn't it usually skip four or five generations?"
Jeanette chuckled, relaxing. She smiled a bit indulgently at her son and Delphine, feeling almost in debt to the white ranger for being what her son had so depserately needed. The story of how they met was something she looked forward to hearing.
She was still a quite uptight about her daughter and that human boy. Carlos seemed intelligent enough and, surely his soul was fairly pure. She knew Sharie would not settle for less than that. But not only had her son's first love, when he was almost as young at the time--thirty-two-- ended in disaster, Jeanette could not bear for her daughter's heart to be ripped to shreds as well, and she'd heard of the humans' high divorce rates and tendencies among some to be fickle. She did not want to stand for it if Carlos was like that.
But then, surely Sharie would not have fallen in love with such a shallow character. And Jeanette had never before defined one person by stereotypes she'd heard about their races. She knew it would be an awful thing for her to do, to start that now. Carlos did not strike her as anything but a good person. It was probably that she just did not know him, not like she knew about Delphine--anyone who'd ever heard of the Aquitian Ranger leader knew of her good heart. She'd give Carlos his chance to prove himself to her. She would not stand in the way of her daughter's happiness.
Jeanette's purple eyes riveted to the viewscreen, she saw the stars streak by in hyperrush mode. Stars. She only had seen glimpses of them outside prison windows for so many years, it seemed almost unreal that she was seeing them in such spectacular beauty as they were now, even though they were only streaks of light while the ships swirled through a hyperrush tunnel.
Triforia. How she missed home. During her 23,000 year lifespan so far, she had been away from her home planet longer times than that, but she still always missed it. And while she had also been a prisoner of war before on more than one occasion, it had never been for so long, so achingly long. Another wave of longing welled up in her, to see Triforia's blue skies, three bright moons, smell the sweet air, and see her home again, her friends, other family members.
Sharie glanced at her mother and saw her heart in her eyes. "We will be headed back to Triforia soon," she said softly. "I need to stop by Earth first to assure my family there I am all right. You might want to meet them, mother--Marek and Marisha Thoene are wonderful people, and their children Toby and Tami Lynne are dear children. You would love them instantly."
"They are your aunt and uncle, the ones legally responsible for you on Earth?" asked Jeanette quietly. "If that is the case, I have a few things to say to them."
Sharie raised a cautious eyebrow. She hoped her mother would not misalign them because they were human, and her mother's ideas of Earth would still be a bit primitive.
Jeanette saw the cautious shadows in her daughter's eyes, and wondered if she'd picked up on her reservations about humans. Probably so. Even without reading others' minds Sharie was very astute.
"I must thank them," smiled Jeanette. "For helping to raise such a wonderful girl. I am very proud of you, Sharie, and yes, I would like to meet them."
This was true. Sharie had changed in many ways, but Jeanette could see that the strong force of purity was within her, more powerful than ever. It had to have been reinforced by good people, and surely she'd been loved by others, ones who'd given their heart over when she was such a tiny child and needed it so much just then. There was no other explanation. That could and often did happen, no matter what the race....love was even known to exist among the evil Dryserans. Dyson had told her often how much his own parents had loved each other so deeply.
Even Earth had families.
Sharie smiled in relief. "Good. They and my adoptive parents taught me much about Earth culture, and this is the planet where Standard evolved naturally without much 'outside' help. I have taught them all High Triforian and how to use telepathy. Don't say anything against it, it is especially good for Toby and Tami, because they are deaf."
"I won't," said Jeanette. "But I am surprised you let go of your stringent mental training enough to do that."
"I have not let go of my training," said Sharie seriously. "My mental powers are too strong for me to dare to lose control. Few others on our planet could dare to match what I have, it is my main curse."
"I would have thought that with all that menal power, it would be a blessing," said Carlos.
"Not with everyone's thoughts, emotions, and urges constantly battering and overwhelming against your mind," answered Sharie with a sigh. "Even for Trey, should he lower his guard somewhat, it would not usually be much more than annoying. I lower mine too much, and it is so overwhelming I can completely lose my own awareness. It does not take much, and it can do too much damage."
Carlos nodded, contemplating this, as the computer announced cheerfully, "Approaching Earth."
Sharie sighed again and sat at the computer console, rapidly typing out a specially coded IM to her family--nobody on earth's technology level could bust through this kind. No sooner had she sent the "send" button than she got a reply. Her aunt and uncle must have been glued to the computer waiting for a message.
*Sharie?* it was her aunt on the computer. *Are you all right? You are back?*
*Yes, Aunt Marisha,* she typed rapidly, leaving much to her poor aunt's imagination. *I am fine.*
The next line trailed in, showing her aunt's uncertainty. *....Were you.....how did the mission go?* Jeanette, reading over Sharie's shoulder, suddenly knew that her family was perfectly aware of what Sharie had been doing.
Sharie paused for a moment before typing, simply, *Mission successful.*
*Sharie!* exclaimed her aunt through cyberspace. *You mean you managed to find....are you in orbit yet?*
*Would you like to come aboard?* Sharie had a smile on her lips as she typed this.
Marisha's *yes! We are coming.....*all* of us!!!*
Sharie smiled despite herself.
*Then stand by,* she typed. *Teleporting.*
Jeanette paled at her sudden nervousness and the suddenness. From what she read, it seemed that this is where Sharie got some of her occassional impulsiveness.
*Don't worry,* Sharie assured her mother mentally. *Marisha and Marek may regard you a bit closely at first, but they will grow to like you quickly. You are that type of person.*
*Yes,* Jeanette thought in a way she hoped her daughter could not hear, *But how much will they respect a woman forced to send her child into the unknown for her own protection?*
The sparkling sound of teleportation beams, as well as the bright effect, filled the room as Jeanette slipped into the background by her son, her nervousness still evident in her eyes.
Sharie stood to face them as the glittering columns of light released her family from it's clutches. She smiled inadvertently as she saw her two cousins Toby and Tami cradling her two cats, Topaz and Violeta, in their arms.
"You had to bring the kittens," she remarked with signs to them before turning to hug her aunt and uncle. They both held her tightly, making it quite plain to Jeanette that there was indeed, a fierce family bond evident before her very eyes. It made her heart clench with shame for how much she had missed.
"Are you all right?" asked Marek, releasing Sharie and touching her chin lightly. "'mission successful?'"
Sharie nodded, her eyes dancing. "Yes, very successful. Turn around." While they did, she beckoned her mother forward. Jeanette hesistantly and shyly did so. "Aunt Marisha, Uncle Marek, this is my birth mother, Jeanette Triesta. She was kept prisoner on a Dryseran outpost for several years when we found her."
For a moment, there was silence as Jeanette endured the expected srcutiny. Of course these people would be very protective of Sharie, and she sincerely hoped they did not view her as an unwanted intruder, veying for Sharie's affection after so long being gone from her life.
So she was rather startled when Marisha moved suddenly, taking the initative and raising her hand, palm up, addressing her formally in fluent High Triforian. "We greet you, Jeanette Triesta, former Lady of Triforia. If you are ever on Earth, you will be welcome into our home for as long as you wish it."
Although the words were formal, Jeanette was grateful to hear the underlying warmth in the tone of voice. However, as she also raised her palm, pressing it against Marisha and entwining their fingers in the traditional gesture of greeting, she also sensed the hint of caution in the tone. She might have to assure these people that she was indeed not an ogre woman who had carelessly abandoned her child to the wilderness.
"I thank you," she began in her native tongue, then abruptly switched to Standard. "And I also must thank you as well, for taking in my daughter when she needed it so desperately those years ago. In fact, I am deeply in debt to you, and I owe you more than I ever hope to repay for helping to raise and love her."
"We love Sharie as if she were our own flesh-and-blood child," said Marek, also extending his hand palm-up. "Alhough it was my brother and Marisha's sister who formally adopted her, Sharie was like the child of all four of us, even after Marisha and I finally managed to have our own children." He gestured to Toby and Tami, who were watching the whole affair with wide gold eyes.
Jeanette could not help but smile, almost wistfully, at the children. They were her weakest point, she loved children, and it had always made the raging desire for her own more painful all those years she had been denied them. They were a welcome sight to her lonely heart.
She remembered Sharie telling her they were deaf, but used the universal sign language and telepathy. She decided not to use the mental intrusion as yet while she quickly signed, "Oh, I see you like animals. They are very cute. Are they yours?"
Tami smiled, almost gratefully, Jeanette thought. "No, these kittens belong to Sharie. The one I am holding is Violeta, Toby is holding Topaz." She had had to put down the kitten to sign, and Violeta had gone directly to Sharie, giving a requesting *meow* before kneeling on her haunches and leaping gracefully into Sharie's arms. The kitten looked at Sharie adoringly, then looked at Jeanette, then back at Sharie. "Meow?" she asked.
"Mrrrow?" echoed Topaz as he hopped down from Toby's arms and leaped on a chair, then onto Sharie's shoulder. Toby watched this in amusement, signing gracefully, "I think they want to know why she looks so much like you, Sharie. Your mother is almost your mirror image."
"I figured Sharie would resemble me one day," Jeanette answered the boy, and she could not hide the sandess in her eyes. "But even I expect I never dreamed she would so closely resemble me."
"You don't even look older than her," said Tami, her features a bit puzzled. "She could be your twin sister, more than Toby is my twin brother. How old are you?"
"I am 23,000 years old," signed Jeanette, smiling as she saw their astonished looks. Probably for as often as Sharie had told them Triforians lived at least 50,000 years, it might still be quite a bit for them to think about. "But her twin? Twins are very, very rare in our society, kiddos, and it is considered beyond luck when it happens. A pair like you would certainly warrant attention."
Toby shifted and shrugged. "Don't we know it," he signed with a sigh. "Wait until you meet Ashley, the Yellow Lightstar Ranger. She is a triplet."
Jeanette raised an eyebrow, turning to Sharie for confirmation. She felt a flash of surprise when Sharie nodded. Triplets! Outside of splintering! On Triforia, it had almost never happened.
Realizing she was letting her mind wander, she shook her head and glanced back at Marisha. She felt a private relief when she saw the caution in the other's eyes fade. She was glad she was quickly earning the couple's trust, with her attention toward the children and her devotion to her own.
Sharie seemed to whisper to the kittens, setting them carefully on the floor. She smiled as they approached Jeanette, looking up and chiming in with a friendly, "Meow? Mrrrrioww?"
The woman could not resist. Cats are simply the most adoring creatures when they wanted to be. They have a way of grabbing and holding your attention that is quite endearing, and they worm their way into your heart, and they never let go. She knelt carefully, gingerly touching the head of Topaz. He purred and pressed his little head into her palm, encouraging her touch. Violeta rubbed against Jeanette's ankles, then lightly hopped onto the woman's shoulder like she often did Sharie. Jeanette shared her daughter's sense of ticklishness and could not help but giggle when the kitten nuzzled her neck and licked her ear in a friendly fashion.
Marisha and Marek relaxed completely. Cats are masters of sensing a person's personality, and the way they acted made it perfectly clear that Jeanette was an honest, caring woman with more love to give than it seemed possible for one woman to have. Indeed it was only unfortunate circumstance, nothing more, that had forced her to give up her little girl so she could live, and the seperation had anguished her. And they were grateful it made Sharie so happy to have her back.
"What do you plan to do now?" asked Marisha in a gentle, friendly fashion.
"I wish to go back to Triforia," said Jeanette, her eyes suddenly misting at the thought of home. "I want to be with my friends, and with my children. I have so much to catch up on, and so much I have to make up for."
Sharie nodded to herself, seeing the longing in her mother's eyes. She was hit with an idea, since her aunt and uncle were just starting their vacation anyway. Carlos would have nothing to do....
"Well...." she signed to the twins. "You have been begging me to show you Triforia, why don't you come with us? All of you? The recent series of events has made me realize again just how important you all are to me, and I would not like being pulled in two directions just now."
Sharie had certainly caught their attention, for instantly, the twins were at their parents, begging with loud, exaggerated gestures, "*Please*, may we go? All of us? Please, Momma, Daddy, please?"
Good-naturedly, he laughed while kissing their heads. "Sure, we can go, if it is all right with Trey and Jeanette, as well as Sharie. Triforia is not our world to rule, after all."
"Of course you may come," said Trey at once. "We would love to have you visit our world. I overlook things on Triforia, I don't consider myself it's master, remember? And the children would like Toby and Tami, I know it. They would find lots of ways to communicate, I am sure."
The twins jumped up, clapping their hands together in a high-five.
****
Two sihlouetted figures walked one of Triforia's tropical beaches that night, basking in the eerie glow of Triforia's three moons. One which glowed a blue-green, since it also contained life, one which glowed white and was as dead and airless as Earth's moon. The third glowed an interesting pink-red, due to the high content of Iron Oxide in it's crust. It cast many colorful shadows on the two figures who walked, one tall and one small, hands clasped.
"Your world is so beautiful," Carlos murmured, feeling the pull of the tide tickle his toes and the wind blow freely through his longish, black unbound hair. It was the most refreshing feeling he could recall in a long time, and it was made even better by having the girl he loved by him now.
"I am glad you think so," she murmured, letting the wind whip her own unbound locks every-which-way. "It is a beautiful universe, after all."
The peaceful night was having it's intended intoxicating effect. Slowly, Carlos stopped, barely hearing the musical wind in his ears. Sharie, his Querida, he mused as she stopped to face him. The combined moonlight of all three moons cast their eerie, colorful glow as she looked up at him, lighting up her blazingly golden hair with candy colors, increasing her innocent appearance. Her eyes danced with the same colors, and she looked so positively sweet it was impossible to resist. She lifted her chin, feeling her breath disappear as his mouth covered hers very softly.
She felt her own heartbeat pick up, then skyrocket, and her free hand groped, feeling for his. He gave them a warm squeeze as the gentle kiss went on and on, blending their hearts and souls in one whirlpool of warmth and understanding, binding them with ties only love and devotion could create and few things could shatter.
When the kiss ended, it was very slowly. She felt the gentle pressure of his lips lift, and some inner desire made her lips follow his, not wanting it to end, until she was on her toes and only his height prevented the contact from staying.
"Carlos?" she asked, sounding so innocent he felt a flicker of amusement. Maybe this was how she had sounded as a girl.
"Yes?" he asked, not letting her hands go. Her innocent tone and posture evoked the strongest feelings of protection, and he could not help but smile. Sharie, in most ways, had lost most of her innocence the day she was kidnapped.
"Carlos.....what I have to say goes so much beyond words....the best I can come up with is thank you, thank you for being there for me, yesterday, today, since you first shown your light into my life. It means much more to me than you could ever understand."
For a moment, he was struck purely dumb. He still did not understand how she managed to do that. Her seeminly innocent words struck a chord in him he did not realize he had.
He opened his mouth, shut it, then stumbled over the lump in his throat, "I did not do anything I would not have done, Querida. I wanted to be there for you, don't you understand? I hate to see you in such misery. I am rejoicing with you because you are finally starting to get some of your life back. And I'll make Jeanette see who I truly am. She should have some idea already or I'm sure she would have said something by now otherwise." He grinned wickedly, then his eyes filled with pure emotion. "I love you, Sharie. You are a part of my own soul now, a part I cannot live without and don't want to even try to do."
Now it was her turn to be rendered speechless, and she stood still for a moment, trembling. Suddenly, moving fast, she wrenched her hands from his and flung her arms around his neck. Understanding her emotions, he caught his hand behind her neck and another around her slim waist, catching her to him and his lips crushing hers, a wild kiss of promise, the sweetest of promises and with the pressure of eternity.
****
In the privacy of his bedroom, Trey stood at the open window, staring out at the deep sky and the colorful array of light bestowed upon him by the three moons of Triforia. Clasped at his side, watching the same moon, was Delphine, the love of his life, the one who had opened his heart to romantic love once again, when he had thought it impossible.
He heard her sigh softly, and he held her a bit tighter.Three weeks, he mused. His whole life had turned upside-down in just three weeks. He had found his sister, fallen in love, avenged an old enemy, and found his mother in such a short span. A nagging thought in his mind told him that his good fortune seemed too good to last, it would, quite possibly, blow up in his face one day. The thought sent a chill up his spine. If he lost any one of those he loved, he would be a basket case, unreachable. He could not go through it again, he was certain.
He felt Delphine's hands move to rub his back soothingly, and he gratefully let the thought go. He closed his eyes, his head atop hers, letting her soothe him for once.
He could not tell her often enough how much he loved her, but he wanted her to know how grateful he was for her presence in his life of so late, when he had needed it the most. But mere words were not enough, to feel your feelings pulse through you, to make the connection beyond words, using the soulful bond, was true achievement, much more than flowery language. Language was a start, but the bond moved beyond words.
And it was much more pure, Trey mused idly as he lifted Delphine's chin with his finger, so her eyes met his. Yes, they were beyond words at times like these, when emotion, thought, and language both blended and became one with true understanding. Both understood it now as their lips met, and they understood that love was powerful, deeply moving, and eternally binding.
What started out as gentle swiftly caught up in a heated passion, the passion that ignited not only the flesh, but the soul. Her arms went around his neck, and while his lips were still pressed against hers, he caught her up easily in his arms, carrying her over to the bed, with the understanding that what had been started would only lead to infinity.
****
The dark pressed against every corner of Jeanette's sleeping chambers, save for one spot, where she was curled on the window seat, watching with tears streaming down her face at the beloved sight of her Triforia's night sky again. Home, she was home. Her family beside her, her sins forgiven, her future bright with promise. The only thing missing was her beloved Teryan, her deceased husband, whom she had never ceased missing. The one who had given her the two children now peacefully occupying Triforia's night sky.
*But we will always be connected,* she thought with age-old understanding as she watched the sky, her vision not blurred by her tears. *Even should I marry again, should I find love again, no one could ever take Teryan's place.
*Wherever you are, Teryan, I hope you understand,* she thought to the empty room. *Your family is back together again. May, by the grace of all we know, it remain so.*
And maybe this time, it could turn out right.
Story number five in my 'From The Stars' series. Read n' enjoy. Thanks to Starhawk for her Color Withdrawl concept, as usual, to my readers, for reading, and to the rest of you, you know who you are, since I'd take up about six pages listing you all.
Trust a Dryseran? By ZeoViolet Teaser: Whether it was the right thing to do or not, guilt like this is an awful thing to bear.
The woman stopped brushing her long golden hair and stared at herself in a mirror. She was beginning to really dislike seeing little else of people except her own reflection, she mused, as deep purple eyes stared back at her. Nearly twelve years in this prison, and they had been the lonliest twelve years of her life.
*It is worse than being a prisoner-of-war when I was the Gold Ranger,* she thought, tossing her waist-length, ringlet curls of purest gold down her back. *I am 23,000 years old, and I still cannot bear the lonliness. What keeps me from cracking? Why have I not gone insane, though I yearn for a breath of outside air? Though I yearn for my family, my children?*
Gods, her children. Surely it was not possible for a person to miss their own children more than the two she had given birth and given life to. The same two precious souls that were surely dead by now, or prisoners themselves.
The former Lady of Triforia sighed again and stretched her tall, willowy frame, steadfastly avoiding the almost accusing gaze of the mirror. Oftentimes, seeing the reflection of a woman much younger-looking than her 23,000 years would suggest (since her people stopped aging once they hit eighteen or nineteen years of age) brought too many painful memories of her own children, whom resembled her almost too much for comfort in this lonely life.
*Like my wonderful older child, my Trey,* She bit her lip as mental images of her handsome son came to her mind. He looked like her, all right, with the same noble features, high forehead, arrow-straight nose, high cheekbones, and noble jaw shape. The only reminders in him of her deceased husband, Teryan, were his near-black hair and intense dark eyes, and the masculine touch to his features, since he was male.
*I wish I knew what happened to him after the Triforian-Dryseran war,* she thought, trying to keep the despair out of her mind. She heard little from the outside world, except that he had won the war itself. So chances were good he was alive now.
*But he is alone...because of what I have done, what I had to do...* A thunderbolt of anguish hit her hard as a sudden image of her younger child, her little girl, danced like an angel in front of her vision, her long golden hair flowing, her gauzy robe flowing around her as she danced upon her toes, her lovely clear voice rising to her own inner tune as she spun, and her great purple eyes glittering with happiness and enthusiasm.
*My own child, I am sorry....I had to send you away...I pray you understand one day!* The vision in front of her eyes refused to cease, a happy, tiny child, for once exposing the sweetly enthusiastic side of herself she so rarely displayed. The image widened as she also saw the child's own brother standing in a corner of the room, watching her little fairy-child in delight, pride in his eyes as he saw how quickly she mastered Triforian dances.
*And now my Sharie, my miracle child whom I thought I could never give birth to, you are gone, and I only hope that when I sent you away, you did not fall into evil hands. Wherever you are, my child, I hope you are happy, maybe you could even reunite with your brother one day.*
She would be seventeen now, Jeanette could not help but think. Eighteen very soon. Her little girl was born the very image of her mother, in all respects, down to the eyes and hair. Almost nothing of her father was in her, except for the ear shape and the temper she so carefully sheilded from everybody, as well as the astonishing mental powers she posessed. Her father had been quite powerful in the mental area, but Sharie's abilities blew even his out the window. She was one of The Ones, the rare mental elite among Triforians, an almost unknown group but their purpose was for their astonishing mental powers. The only physical difference she did not share with either parent was she had been so small. Unless she had hit a surprise growth spurt by now, she would be on the short side all her life.
A sudden sense of someone approaching her prison door made Jeanette Triesta pause. It was not time for her jailers to check and see if she was still in existence. The only two jailers she had seen in days were not her usual ones, since they had accompanied Dark Dresden to bring war to another planet. These two were often bored and seemed to hurry on with their duties as soon as they saw she had not escaped.
There was a rattling of keys and a punching of buttons as someond undid the numerous locks on the door of her comfortable-looking prison. Jeanette stared in surprise as Dyson, her usual and favorite jailer, came stumbling through the doorway, almost staggering. The door slammed shut and relocked behind him.
"Dyson!" Jeanette gasped as she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to a couch. "You look as if you have been through hell. What happened?"
"Sit down, Jeanette," he said rather flatly, his greenish eyes looking tired and relieved at the same time. "I have some news to tell you."
"News?" Jeanette echoed, sitting beside him, her fair face looking puzzled. "Dyson, you never give me news from the outside."
"I am this time. Jeanette, it is time for some truths to come to light, for much has changed within the past couple of days."
Jeanette bit her full lip, but paid close attention. She nearly fell over in shock as Dyson said bluntly, "Dark Dresden is dead."
She shook her head, certain what she had heard was only wishful thinking. "What?"
"He is gone, Jeanette. Dead. Killed while trying to conquer Earth. Most of his fleet was destroyed, and I barely escaped with the skin of my hide intact. His servants permitted me to live since I was one of the few who treated them decently, and they dropped me off here. But that is not all. I have much more to tell you."
"Dyson, if he is dead, then let me go!" Jeanette pleaded suddenly, tears filling her violet-purple eyes. "He was the one who trapped me here when I would not tell him the wherabouts of my daughter. If he is dead, then there is no further reason to keep me here. I want to get out of here and try and get my family back together, or at least find out what happened to them!"
"Calm down, Jeanette! I cannot just let you go, it would be a crime that would cost your life and mine among my people. I have never liked how Dark Dresden kept you here, and I consider you a friend, but I think you would want to keep your skin intact."
"Please, Dyson!" His heart melted at her pleading eyes. Of course he had every intention of helping her escape the injustice of this prison.
"Relax, Jeanette. I do have a plan. But first you must listen to further news, since it quite concerns you. It is about your son, Trey."
She was instantly silent. Except knowing he had won the Triforian-Dryseran war, she had heard nothing since her imprisonment.
"Your son was on Earth at the time of Dark Dresden's attack, helping the Earth Rangers. He is very much alive, and is good friends with them. I happen to know he has never given up looking for you, but that is not all.
"Living on Earth as well was a girl who had been there since she was nearly six years old, a girl Dark Dresden had been looking for for nearly twelve years. She is a Triforian Princess who now holds the Zeo Violet Ranger powers, and her resemblance to you is unmistakable...Jeanette, it was your daughter, Sharie."
She stared at him in stunned, almost disbelieving silence. He was not surprised in the least when her mind, overcoming barriers drilled into her all her life not to do this type of thing, flooded into his own. It lasted only a moment, only long enough to sense the truth of his words. He did not mind the intrusion, after what she had been through in the past several years, she was entitled to the truth.
Once she felt the sense of truth flood her, reality settled on her heavily. A low cry escaped her lips and tears flooded her eyes, streaming down her cheeks unheeded. Really unsure of what to do, he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and pulled her to him. She went willingly, for she trusted him.
"My daughter!" she cried. "My little girl is alive! And how she must hate me for what I have done to her!" It caused such an incredible stab of pain in her heart, she was sure it would break, the thought that her daughter was alive, but would reject her own mother who loved her more than anything in the universe.
"I hope you do not mind my asking, Jeanette," said Dyson gently, "what did happen? How did she end up on Earth without your knowing? All these years, you have managed to keep your silence."
"I...sent her...away..." Jeanette choked between silent sobs. "It was the only way to protect her from Dark Dresden. He would have found her had she stayed on Triforia or any nearby planet. I...sent her away in secret...with the Zeo Violet Ranger Powers...and also ensured she would never splinter. I gave her all...the protection I could...but even I did not know where I sent her...that is why they could not force it out of me...And Trey did not...did not..." She went silent as the pain struck her harder, more accusingly.
"You did not tell him your plans, did you?" finished Dyson gently. "From what I understand, they were reunited about two and a half weeks ago. They probably know by now what you did, but I am not sure of their feelings on the matter. But I can tell you your daughter has grown into a very beautiful young woman, almost your mirror image. I saw her myself."
"Did...you tell...her anything?" Jeanette managed.
"No, I did not dare. Dark Dresden would have found out, and he also never said a word. But he attempted to get your daughter to become his consort, partially for revenge, also because he wanted her considerable powers, both Zeo and mental."
"Gods, I hope she did not agree." Jeanette knew plenty about Dark Dresden's lusts, and she felt lucky that the end of the Triforian-Dryseran war had come just in time to save her from such a fate by Dark Dreden.
"She was going to at one point, to save some of her friends whom he had also captured from suffering that humiliating fate. But they escaped, with a little help of Darkonda and yours truly, and a villianness named Astronema, Princess of Evil, destroyed him for betraying her."
"Thank gods," sighed Jeanette, drawing in a deep, shaky breath. "I wish to go to Earth, Dyson. You said you would try to get me out of here."
"I will, and I have a plan. No Dryseran court would let you out, since they backed up Dark Dresden when he stuck you here. The best way would be for me to sneak to outposts nearby Triforia, and spread rumors about your wherabouts and how to get you out of here. I will have to go in quietly, since I am probably a wanted criminal there, but Trey will surely get wind of such information quickly, and he could attempt a rescue, although whether your daughter would come or not is unknown."
"Whether *he* would come or not should be unknown," said Jeanette bitterly. "Especially if he knows about what I had to do to protect Sharie, it may still seem to him like I did not trust him. And what if they don't succeed? This place is worse than a fortress...booby-trapped and hard to get into, besides being guarded."
"Hopefully, the clues I intend to provide will give them some help. There is just one thing I ask in return for all of this. If you are rescued, place a good word in for me and don't denounce me. Unlike most of my people, I actually have a conscience and am a good guy. I hated Dark Dresden and what he stood for. But I was forced into his service."
"I will, Dyson," Jeanette looked at her friend gratefully. "If I ever get back and you need a place to stay, I will see to it Triforia welcomes you."
After he had left, Jeanette flung her slender frame onto her bed, crying softly. Gods, surely her children would never forgive her for the actions she had taken out of love and a desperate desire to save her youngest child. Praying to whomever might be listening that her dreams of a reunion with her family might not be in vain, she fell asleep, her dreams alternately peppered with visions of a sweet reunion and dark denoucement.
****
"Awww, how cute..." said Carlos, leaning over Sharie's shoulder and looking at the photo album she tried to hid from him.
"Carlos!" she yelped, clutching it to her chest and bending forward. "Who gave you permission to try and sneak up behind me like that? Did you not know I heard you several feet away?"
Delighted by her giggles, he ran his fingers over her ribs and tickled her mercilessly. She burst into helpless peals of laughter but refused to give up her album. "With you I would expect as much, Sharie Triesta! Now, are you going to let me see the album?" He teased, not letting up his onslaught.
"Never!" She sqealed, struggling to her feet and racing across the beach. "You don't want to see pictures of me in my younger days, Carlos Perez!"
It was a come-and-get-me dare, and Carlos all too happily took it. Trey watched in amusement as he sped off across the sand of Sharie's private lake, chasing after the slim figure in purple.
"Do they usually act that silly?" whispered Delphine from beside him. He turned his smile on her, but then looked serious. She was here, instead of him being on Aquitar, because of recent events. Trey simply did not want to leave his sister after what had happened two days before. "Not to that extent. Sharie...rarely shows that side of herself, and frankely, I am amazed Carlos managed to drag it out of her. She needs to act her age more often."
He watched idly as Sharie slowed deliberately, and Carlos caught up with her, mock-tackling her and bringing her to her knees in the sand, tickling her again. Her squeals of laughter reached his ears, and privately, he was never so glad to hear such a sound.
"She is so much like you," Delphine's quiet voice startled him into turning his gaze at her in surprise.
"Many have said that," he admitted, shifting so he could pull her closer. "She looks like me, after all..."
"Much more than looks, and you know it. She is inherently stubborn to a fault, like you, she hides her feelings too much, like you, and she is afraid of letting go of her anger lest she get reckless, like you." Shocked, he met her gaze, wondering if Sharie had told her about their argument, the one that still made his gut twist with shame. "How do you know all this?" he whispered.
"Because I have sensed it all in you, and Sharie projects the sense that she is your mirror image in a lot of ways. She projects it even more intensely at times." Delphine sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. "Or she at least equals your intensity. She told me once that you are the type of person who does not love easily, Trey, but when you find it, you love more intensely than most. I believe it is very true, and if you look down the beach, there is another case."
The thought only flashed in his mind for a moment to reprimand Sharie for telling her that, for his gaze flickered to the dark-haired boy swinging his sister up in his arms and twirling her around and around. It caused another two images image of similar couples to spring to his mind, unbidden, of a dark-haired young man clutching his golden-haired love to him like she was the most precious thing in the Universe, the other of another young woman he had once loved, and lost long ago, a dark-haired, blue-eyed vixen whom, like the Aquitian beside him, he had loved with all his heart and soul.
"I remember another pair," he mumbled to himself, momentarily forgetting she was there. "Our parents--they were like that. Sharie--she is even more like our mother now than she was."
Delphine said nothing for a moment, remebering she had once seen a picture of Trey's parents on the news some centuries before. Indeed, the happy couple down the beach would remind anyone who had seen it of them. Carlos did not resemble Teryan that much, but Sharie was a near mirror-image of her mother. The way they held each other was strangely remeniscent of the picture she had seen, of strong love and even stronger bonds forged.
Delphine turned her head and studied Trey closely for a moment, noticing his gaze was far away, into another time, and sadness hinted at their depths. She got the odd sense he was not only referring to his mother, but about that same young woman he had told her about once, but had never spoken of since then. "She also reminds you of Nikita, right?" she asked softly, hoping he would not wince.
He did blink, but made no further move. "In some ways, she does, but Sharie looks nothing like her. They are similar in temprament, for example. But you," his eyes cleared and he looked directly at Delphine again. "You remind me of her much more."
"Does that bother you?" she asked a bit hesistantly. She was not sure she would like it if he loved her because she reminded him of a long-gone ghost, well-loved or not.
"Absolutely not," he assured her swiftly, gathering her close and looking into her dark eyes. "I love you for *you*, Delphine, and don't you ever dare doubt it. It was your intense gaze that first drew me to you, and your soul touched mine of it's own accord, not because I was persuing a ghost. You set some painful ghosts to rest, my heart is free and yours to claim."
For a moment, she was rendered speechless. For some unknown reason, tears flooded her eyes. How did he do that? Dazzle her completely with his soft- spoken, heartfelt words? Was it because of the honest feelings she could see behind his eyes? Was it also linked with her own heart's yearnings?
When she finally found her tongue, she managed to whisper, "You know I claimed it the moment I knew I was free to do so. I have it, and I swear I will not give it up."
He smiled and lifted her chin, a soft promise glowing in his eyes as he gently lowered his lips to hers, resealing a silent vow they had both made when they had first realized that this love was truly meant to be.
****
"Okay, okay, Uncle, I give up, I quit, I surrender..." Carlos gasped out, pinned beneath Sharie's legs straddling his stomach and one of her hands pinning both of his own. She was stronger than he was, being Triforian, but he still found it a bit astonishing at times. She had been tickling one of his few ticklish areas, around his neck and shoulders, and he felt completely helpless.
"Scout's honor?" she pressed, leaning on him a bit harder and unsuccessfully trying to control her own giggles. Topaz and Violeta, her new kittens, saunterd up and curled around Carlos's head, like they belonged there. "I am almost tempted to leave you here like that. That makes a cute picture."
"Scout's honor, I swear," he said, catching his breath. She grinned charmingly at him, and he knew the grin he was giving back was just probably foolishly lovesick. Plus, with her on top of him like that, and her hair framing her face loosely and setting off her amazing purple eyes even more deeply, he was becoming very aware of her presence so close to his. "So? Are you going to let me up?" he asked, his skin beginning to tingle uncomfortably. The kittens snuggled in, licked his ears, and padded his cheeks with their paws. Sharie, watching, could not stop giggling.
She obligingly started to scoot backwards off his hard stomach, letting go of his hands. She was unprepared for the suddenly wicked look that came on his face as he caught her wrists this time, and she barely had time to squeak as he sat up, yanked her to him, and pressed his lips down on hers with a lava-hot intensity. A split-second later, she was crushed against him and her fingers had found their way around his neck and into his hair, and her tongue had found his and was dancing an interesting tango. Fire scorched her blood faster than she had ever felt it go before, sweeping away conscious thought before she could put rhyme or reason to what was happening.
She felt him shiver beneath her fingertips and where her delicate frame was pressed against his hard one, curled in his lap, driving the need for ecstacy to new, sun-hot heights. Her lips against his became harder and more wild, and it drove him completely insane. It was not until his hands somehow found her slim waist and slipped beneath her shirt, not until unmistakable signs of his arousal pressed insistently against her thigh, did a splash of surprise penetrate her senses like cold water, reminding her of where they were.
She pulled her mouth from his with an effort, a blush heating her cheeks as she rasped, "They say that Trifiorians are insatiable, Carlos, but would you consider trying out that theory here on the beach with an audience within eyeshot?"
Scarlet flooded his face, and his eyes flew open in surprise. He glaced quickly at the pair down the way, and sighed in relief as he saw they were so wrapped up in each other they were not even glancing in their direction. He looked back at her, consternation on his face, withdrawing his fingers from beneath her shirt. "I am sorry, Querida, I should not have..."
"Sh." She laid her fingers on his lips, cutting him off. "Don't apologize. You might as well know I would not have stopped you if Trey and Delphine had not been here."
"What?" he asked, his hands coming up to frame her face. "Do you feel you are ready for that, Querida? I could never take advantage...I mean, I have wanted you since the first time I saw...oh...I cannot get out what I am trying to say!" he said, frustrated. He shook his head. "And especially after what you went through two days ago? I am still surprised you can even *stand* my touch."
"Carlos..." it hurt to say this, especially when she had fought it all back down again, but she had to tell him. "When you touch me, I feel loved. I want to be touched by you, to feel you hold me. Dark Dresden was the kind of person...nobody could be touched by him without feeling revulsion. He was exceptionally handsome, but so saidistic and cruel, it made him a monster. He never raped me, thank Gods, but even his touch made me want to hurl. With you...it is not that way." her eyes pleaded with him to realize what she was trying to tell him.
"I understand," he whispered, leaning down and gently kissing her again, this time only touching his lips to hers in a kiss of soft promise and reassurance. "You never have to be afraid around me, Querida, *ever*."
"I know. I am lucky to have found someone like you, Carlos," she said. He hugged her, and she hugged him back, relaxing within his strong embrace.
She squirmed slightly when his arms squeezed hers a bit too tightly, she still hurt from where Trey had squeezed her arms the other night. She hoped Carlos did not notice, he would be furious.
Unfortunately, he did. He pulled back, concerned, and moved his hands to her upper arms. Before she could push his hands away, he gently squeezed them again. This time her wince was unmistakable.
"Gods, Sharie, *what happened*?" he asked, for he had shoved her shirtsleeves up before she could stop him. "Your arms are bruised!"
"It is nothing," she began, shoving his hands away and pushing her sleeves back down. "I just got hurt, that is all." No way would she betray her brother about the fight they had had. He had not realized he had gripped her arms so hard, he had certainly not intended it, just like she had not intended to haul off and slap him in the face for not listening to her, either.
"Yeah, right," Carlos snorted. "Those are gripmarks from someone's hands. Did Dark Dresden do that to you?"
She opened her mouth, then shut it. Perhaps it would be better to let him believe that Dark Dresden had inflicted those. Heaven knew that monster had actually beaten her senseless countless times when she was younger......
She was saved from having to answer him at all when her communicator went off. Down the beach, she saw Trey do the same. She glanced at Carlos, who shrugged. His communicator had not gone off, so it had to be from Triforia. Sharie also shrugged and opened the comm channel for three-way communication.
"Trey here," she heard her brother answer.
"Trey?" Sharie recognized the voice, it was Troy, her brother's best friend on Triforia. "I am glad I got ahold of you. Is Sharie with you? Are you together in a place I can teleport to? What I have to say should probably be said directly."
Sharie saw her brother shoot her a glance down the beach. She nodded her permission. "Go ahead and come, Troy. The only people here besides myself and Trey know who we are," she said into her own communicator.
"I am on my way. I will be there in a moment," The young Triforian said without further comment, closing the link. Sharie reached over and scooped up her photo album, and she and Carlos turned, making their way back toward Delphine and Trey, looking confused.
"That does not seem like Troy at all," she commented once they reached them. "Troy is usually much more open."
"He is," said Trey, concerned. "Unless it is something vitally important. He is upset, and I hope it is nothing serious."
****
A moment later, a grey-black streak teleported in a dark-haired boy with concerned blue eyes. He was very handsome, looking more or less like a male version of the sister he had never known, who'd died melennia before he was even born....a sister Trey had loved deeply. Sharie wondered why Trey had never told Troy that Nikita he and Nikita had been lovers.
Troy almost opened his mouth at once, ready to spill, but then noticed he wasn't alone with the Triesta siblings. He looked at the group, seeing the strangers, and hesitated.
"It is all right," Trey told him gently. "This is Delphine, and that is Carlos. They are both Power Rangers, and can be trusted."
"I did not doubt that. But this is private information. About your mother."
Trey stiffened, and Sharie went pale.
"Do you want me to leave?" Carlos whispered, concerned. Troy *had* said it was private, after all...
"No!" said Sharie suddenly, before anyone else could respond. "I don't know about you, Trey, but I want Carlos here." She was grateful when her brother nodded an understanding, and also glanced at Delphine, squeezing her hand gently. "They will be staying, Troy. What news do you have?"
Troy dropped his eyes and started to pace, hands behind his back and the wind blowing his short black hair every which way. "I do not know where to begin. There is the doubt what I have found out is true. But I could not hear such information and keep it to myself, not when it concerned my best friend to such an extent."
"If you are concerned about my being upset with you if the information is false, get that idea out of your head," said Trey firmly. "I would never do that. What did you learn?"
Dyson gave him a grateful glance before swallowing in a manner that said, "here goes." He drew in a deep breath. "I was on a nearby outpost, visiting a restaraunt. I was just about to order when the person behind the counter surprised me by being Dryseran."
Everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Carlos could not help but ask, "I am surprised you would even allow a Dryseran into your sector, after what happened those years ago."
Trey shook his head. "We cannot forbid individual Dryserans to keep out of Triforian space. Some of them are loners, who stay away from their plundering government, some are actually good people, unlike most of them. But after the war, I don't think many have been seen around my world."
"Indeed not," said Troy. "The fellow seemed pleasant enough, I suppose. He looked familiar, but I could not place him right off. I about dropped when, after he served me, he sat across from me and started to talk in almost a frantic whisper." Troy turned red. Everyone eyed him questioningly. He steeled himself and went on.
"He started to talk about Jeanette, how he had heard rumors about where she was, that she was being held prisoner in a one-person prison some distance from here, and had been held there for nearly twelve years. Of course, instead of wrangling his neck for saying something so cruel, I had to ask where the prison was. He said he could not say, for his government would get him if he told. Then, and I could not believe this, he hemmed and he hawed, and started dropping hints in casual conversation, his eyes imploring me to believe him. It was then that I believe I recognized him."
Sharie set her mouth. Troy looked at nobody as he said, " I believe it was Dyson, Dark Dresden's sometimes-right-hand man."
"Dyson was banished with Dark Dresden after the war," said Trey unnecessarily. He could not believe his ears.
"Well, there he was. After he felt he had given me enough information, and before I could say anything, he walked back into the kitchen, and disappeared." Troy fumbled in his pocked, then pressed something into Trey's hand. "Here is what he said. Believing it or not is up to you, Trey, Sharie. I am not so sure I would."
What Sharie said next caught everyone by surprise. "If it was Dyson, then I would trust his word."
Trey turned on her, shock written across his features. "Are you feeling all right, Lalinka? Have you forgotten who Dyson was?"
"He was the only real honest, good Dryseran I ever met. If it had not been for him, more than once, in fact, I would not be here now."
Trey gaped at her, clearly wanting an explanation.
****
Sharie looked him in the eye. "What I say is quite true. Dyson hated Dark Dresden and what he forced him to do. By using subliminal subterfuge, he sabatoged quite a few schemes of his, and was subtly responsible for getting me into a position for my escape from him--both times." Looking at Carlos's confused expression, she elaborated, "In other words, he was quite the sneaky one. But he was honest, and I see no reason to doubt him now. I am also glad he survived that little episode from a couple of days ago."
Trey looked at her a long moment, then sighed. "Then, if you say so, Lalinka, maybe it might be true, and our mother is alive after all. Now, what?"
"What do you expect? Get together some kind of resistance force and go after her." Sharie stated what seemed to be obvious.
Trey felt like he was going to faint. This seemed a little too good to be true, the source of what he had been searching for for so many years practically dropped into his lap. "And what if it is a wild goose-chase, Lalinka?" he asked softly. "What if I come back with nothing? Are you willing to get your hopes up?"
Sharie went pale at his words, but not for the reason one would have thought. She straightened her spine and tightened her lips. "Hold on, back up, rewind that last statement, *brother dear*. 'I'? You intend to do this alone? Forget it. No way are you going to crash a Dryseran prison fortress solo!"
Both Trey and Carlos were rather startled, the mere thought of it had sparked something within the girl, igniting a long-buried anger of a different nature.
"If it involves our mother, I go too," she said through gritted teeth.
"That is not what I meant, Lalinka," said Trey, staring at her. "You have been hurt too much by recent events enough as it is, for once, let me take the brunt of things, will you? After what happened a couple of days ago, especially, I don't think you could stand the heartache if this information proves to be false. I would much rather deal with it firsthand than you."
"Not going won't spare me, Trey. Trust me, I have been through much worse in ways you could not imagine. Yes, it will hurt--what does not in our lives?--but I will live throught it, I always have. I am going, and that is final."
He did not have to ask if she was certain, or if he could talk her out of it, her answers blazed in her eyes. He sighed in defeat, then nodded his head.
"I hate to interject on this conversation," said Carlos in such a quiet tone that it startled both siblings. "I hate it even worse to butt in where techincally my nose does not belong, but I believe what I have to say has merit. Delphine and I have been talking about this just now, and we agree that neither of you should go alone, even if you both go. Delphine and I think you should have at least two more people accompany you--namely, us."
Startled, Trey started to open his mouth to object, but shut it when Delphine held up her hand. "I agree with Carlos. I have heard of the Dryserans, and their fortresses, it is highly dangerous. Carlos and I wish to accompany you, but it would be even better if Rangers from his team or mine also went. The more who come, the better your chance."
"We cannot ask that of you," objected Sharie. "This is too dangerous, not to mention highly personal. We are grateful for your offer, but..."
"No buts, Querida," said Carlos, a bit sternly. "And please don't go formal on me like that, you know I don't like that. And please, don't think of this as so highly personal when it involves us, because it does. Delphine and I are so highly wrapped up in your lives that anything like this that involves you involves us also."
Delphine spoke up then. "I love you, Trey, as Carlos has lost his heart to Sharie. It is the way of those in love, to go through hard time together. And should this mission fail, nothing would be more appropriate than to have us at your sides, to be there with you in your grief--or should it succeed, we can be there to celebrate your happiness."
Sharie looked at them, tears in her purple eyes. She turned and glanced at her brother, raising an eyebrow. Moments passed as Carlos guessed that they were having a very fast, heart-to-heart telepathic conversation. His heart thudded in his ears as he waited, while Delphine remained carefully neutral.
Finally, Sharie did turn her gaze back to them all, her eyes still misty. "You are right about one thing. You guys have our hearts in your keeping, and although we may not want it for you at times, you can feel pain when we do, and are perfectly willing to share our misery, to help us along. I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your caring, and we cannot *force* you not to come, since it looks like you are going to argue until we say yes. All we can say is that if there is any way at all we can dissasuade you, then let us do it."
Carlos and Delphine barely glanced at each other, then back at the Zeo Duo before them.
"There is none," said Delphine, conviction in her tone. "If you take no one else, let us come along. My team will understand, and so will Carlos's, I believe."
"They will," said Carlos, coming over and putting his hands on Sharie's arms. "Besides, our next mission is boring, routine scanning. I doubt if they will need me for the next few days."
"Oh, Carlos," murmured Sharie as he drew her in for a hug. "I don't deserve somone like you, truly. You deserve someone much better than somebody who has the ghosts of her past constantly popping up and haunting her when she would much rather have them remain in the past, and interfering with our lives."
"Just the opposite, Querida," he murmured, kissing her forehead. "I wonder how I could ever possibly find someone as wonderful as you. You are everything I ever wanted in someone I wanted to love, and so much more. You just don't realize it."
****
All this time, Troy had been watching the whole affair in silence. Finally, he spoke up when everyone else grew quiet as well. "Then, if this is settled, may I wish you luck and say good-bye."
Trey came over to him and gripped his hand. "Thank you, my friend. I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your help, and it most certainly will never be forgotten." His dark eyes did not belile the statement as they glittered with a warm light to his best friend.
Troy returned the sentiment. "It makes me feel good that I am able to help someone, and I hope this mission succeeds." He gave them all a small smile and, with his blue eyes twinkling, he vanished in a swirl of white light.
****
Once they had recollected themselves, they had to sit and think through what they had to do. "Strategy session," Carlos mumbled as they sat around one of the picnic tables near the beach. "How do we begin? I cannot get loan of the Astro Megaship, and Andros will be using the Delta Megaship also. So that is out of the question as well."
"My battlezord may be of little use as well," mused Delphine. "It is said that the Dryserans are fond of using an alloy in their buildings that can instantly rust my zord."
"The Dryserans would definetly know the Pyramidas inside out, after what has happened," said Trey glumly. " And it is not in shipshape condition. Any takes, Lalinka?"
"My Sphinx Ultrazord is pretty much useless at the moment, since it sustained such heavy damage during the Dryseran onslaught of Earth. And considering Dryseran technology, we will need zords they would not expect, with a power level capeable of handling a Dryseran attack. I believe I have two such zords."
Carlos outright gaped at her. "*How* many zords do you have, Querida?" he asked. "I have seen at least three. Do you have one for every occassion or something?"
"Maybe, I do not know that answer as yet. I cannot reveal the number or the nature of some of my zords, because...well, it is too dangerous. Should they be discovered and fall into the wrong hands, it will spell disaster. One of these such zords could take on an entire galaxy...and win." She turned pale. "And I should not have even mentioned that. Never, ever reveal that to anybody."
She straightened. "The Zords I have in mind are quite powerful, nonetheless. Since they are run by Zeo Power, Trey, you will have to pilot the other one after I authorize control. I want you to take temporary control of the Thunder-Bobcat megazord. It is currently in Thunder- megaship mode, but it can also transform into an excellent, quite-powerful fighting machine for hand-to-hand combat. It is a very powerful and mighty weapon, and also has an Ultrazord mode for worst-case scenarios."
"And the other one?" asked Trey, his eyebrows raised.
"I will have control of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord. It is also quite powerful, with several settings and fighting modes. Both zords are in cloak right now, they are in a hidden valley not far from Angel Grove. If you wish to go there and see them, I can show you what they do."
****
They materialized in a beautiful valley, well-hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world, the perfect place to keep Zords, or Megaships.
"Where are they?" asked Carlos, looking around and seeing nothing.
"Right in front of you. I have called them up from their hiding spot, and they are cloaked and ready." She smiled. "Zeo cloaking sequence three, deactivate!"
Carlos suddnely felt a dull roar buzz his ears and gave him the feeling of his brain buzzing, while the air around them shimmered for a few seconds. Then, out of nowhere, came the magnificent forms of two enormous ships, obviously even more powerful than the Astro-Delta megazord that Trey had used to defeat the enemy the first time he had helped the Astro Rangers.
Carlos's jaw had been slightly ajar, staring at the wonders of this. And Sharie had referred to these as lesser powerful zords of her arsenal? He wondered what was so dangerous about the others she never dared used them, or expose others to the knowledge of their very existence, when just one machine could eradicate all evil once and for all?
"Let me show you what they can do," she murmured, smiling. "Thunder-Bobcat animal mode, now!" she called.
Trey watched in sheer amazement as the huge ship he was to control began to change shape, taking on the form of an animal body, growing a head, powerfully massive legs, and an equally powerful tail. Thunder-and- lightning designs decorated it's back, and within the black depths of it's eyes showed golden dagger-like lightning bolts. It let out a mighty bellow, it's claws scratching the earth, as if impatient to do some real action.
"Thunder-bobcat Megaship battle mode!" Sharie cried. The big cat in front of them rose on it's hind legs, where it straightened up, it's tail vanished, and various other things appeared and disappeared. The cat's face vanished, to be replaced by a typcal zord face, and the body reassembled to form a massive fighting Megazord of notable strength, complete with a shield and Power Sword.
Trey's eyes were like saucers. "And you want me to *control* this, Sharie?"
"Yes, Trey, but do not worry, because when I transfer control, the knowledge to use this zord will also be transferred." She turned to Delphine and Carlos, who could not tear their eyes from what they had just seen. "I will also, with your permission, of course, do a knowlede infusion so that, in case of extreme emergency, you two will have the authority and knowledge to hot-wire the zords and pilot them yourselves. I say hot-wire because they do not usually respond to non-Zeo influence. Nobody is to know that it is even possible, I discovered it by accident myself."
Carlos nodded along with Delphine, still a bit shaken at the idea of controlling one of those zords, a feeling remeniscent of when he had first become the Green Turbo Ranger. "When do we begin?" he asked.
"Tomorrow morning, early. Delphine, there are no rehydrators of any kind on these ships, you will have to make do with the showers in the living quarters, I am afraid."
"It is no different than the other times I have had to rehydrate outside of Aquitar," she answered. "I will do fine."
****
Jeanette snapped awake suddenly. She glanced out the window, it was still dark, with barely a glow in the east. She rarely awoke this early, sleep helped to fill her lonely days..but for some reason, an unknown giddy feeling and a crowd of butterflies in her stomach were preventing her from sleeping further. With a sigh, she got up, tossed off her nightgown, and flung on a robe over her willowy figure, going into her bathroom to shower. It would, she mused, do one of two things: make her sleepy so she could go back to bed, or wake her up further and focus her mind so she could think.
*Which I cannot seem to do much of right now,* she thought, almost incoherently, arm-wrestling her long, thick, very golden hair from it's shimmering, waist-length ringlets into a topknot on top of her head.
After she had showered, her mind became clear, granting her the mercy of thought.
*About what?* she asked herself. What on Triforia's name was making her feel like a six-year-old? Was it because of what Dyson had told her, that if his plan worked, she could go home at last? Finally see her precious children? Get on with her life? She was only 23,000 years old, she still had over half a lifetime to live. Her son was grown. And Sharie...well, if she had indeed grown up on Earth, like Dyson had said, she would be considered nearly an adult there, as well.
Why Earth, of all places? Jeanette got up and began pacing her prison. Earth was so backwards, it's people both good and evil, so she had heard. Would she want her little girl growing up there? Probably not. Then again...Zordon lived there, more or less. H had placed his trust in the planet, and Jeanette, like everyone who knew the ancient sage, trusted and admired his judgement. Perhaps Sharie had also grown up under his guidance, if she had sought him out. And, after all, she *had* grown up, and she still had the power, and was using it for good purposes, and with her brother at her side where he belonged.
Jeanette felt herself nearly choke as she thought again of the agony those two must have endured, being seperated for so long. Sharie must have looked and acted so strange to him. If she had been older, it would not have mattered so much, she would have retained most of her Triforian values. But no, she had been a child, a tiny child, small for her age and still desperately needed a parent's love and guidance to show her the way, for all her adult mind and brains, and mental talent. But she had had to grow up and depend on the guidance of humans, so she had had to adapt and live like a human until she was old enough to care for herself, and by now was probably fully assimilated into the human world...
With an effort, Jeanette shook herself out of her trance. Her daughter had grown up, and that was what was important. And now she was with her brother as well, and that is what mattered...
Shaking, Jeanette turned to the window, where the sun was now halfway up the horizon. *Why do I feel so giddy, like I was drunk?* She thought desperately. *I wish I knew, I really, really wish I knew...*
****
"Gosh, it's *early,*" mumbled Carlos sleepily as he stumbled onto the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord the next morning. "What do we do now, to take my mind off sleep?"
Delphine was already there, and Sharie was typing furiously into a nearby console, Carlos noticed she had a comm system open.
"I have to explain this to Aunt Marisha and Uncle Marek," she sighed. "And they are not happy. Not that they don't want me to find my mother, but they think that I do not need to go through this right now. They are insisting on coming aboard so they can talk to me. I see no way around it."
Carlos knew there was no way to talk Sharie out of what they planned to do, so he said nothing as a teleportation beam shimmered and four figures, two tall and two smallish, formed in front of them.
Sharie had turned, arms crossed and a resolute look on her face. Marisha, as soon as the beam had released her, immediately strode over and placed her hands on Sharie's shoulders, her golden eyes looking down into Sharie's purple ones.
She opened her mouth, then shut it, then tried again, drawing a deep breath. "I know we cannot talk you out of this, Sharie. Just please understand our feelings on this matter. We cannot bear to see you hurt, especially with whom you are dealing with and what happened just days ago. It nearly broke you, and I don't want this mission to be the straw that broke the camel's back."
Before Sharie could venture a reply, her uncle Marek, whom she also adored, spoke up also. "I know how important this is to you, Sharie. I admire your willingless to go after your mother and help her, and forgive her after all that has happened. Just--be careful, okay?"
Tears burned the back of her eyes despite herself. She did not blame them for their feelings, they cared about her and loved her, and they held a very special place in her heart. She returned their fierce hug, grateful for their concern and support. The twins Toby and Tami wedged themselves in somehow, silently showing their support. Being deaf, it was their way of loudly agreeing.
Delphine could not help but smile at such fierce family unity. She could see now where Sharie had picked up some of her mannerisms from, and they seemed like good people.
The twins unwedged themselves from the others and looked around, frankely curious. Their golden eyes glittered brightly, for they had never seen this particular Zord before. She wondered if they had ever seen an alien besides Trey before, either.
Sharie had said they were deaf, and understood the use of telepathy and the Universal sign language. She was now glad of the lessons Corcus had suggested she take for just this purpose as she quickly signed a greeting. She smiled at the look of delight on their faces. Within seconds, they were chattering away like magpies while Sharie and Trey held a private discussion with Marek and Marisha.
"Okay, then," said Marek, hugging Sharie once more and shaking Trey's hand. "Just be careful then. We hope to see you again soon...in one piece, if you please."
Sharie giggled as she hugged her Aunt goodbye, then was nearly bowled over as the twins flung their slender frames into her arms. She hugged and kissed them goodbye, and waved as they stood back with their parents. Just before they shimmered out of existence, she was amused to see them quickly make the traditional Aquitian gesture of good-bye to Delphine. She smiled, and her return gesture was the last thing they saw.
****
"So, how do we begin?" asked Carlos, much more awake this time.
Sharie shot Trey a glance, he dug in his pocket and handed her the slip of paper Troy had given him. "I hope you have a better chance of making sense of it than I could, Lallinka," he sighed. She nodded her head, smiling slightly.She had not as yet read it, so she unfolded it and read aloud the first passage.
"..."I cannot say why a prison would be placed in the Ceti Alpha galaxy anyway, and he said..."
She looked up, her eyebrows raised high. "The 'Ceti Alpha Galaxy'? Which one? There are four of them--Ceti Alpha Galaxies I-IV! It would take *ages* to thoroughly search each one."
"Read on," said Trey. Sharie sighed and reluctantly read aloud the next line. "...So I said, put two and two together and figure it out, like you do that galaxy..."
She sighed and looked at Trey skeptically. "'Put two and two together?' 'Your own galaxy'..." Her eyes widened. "You know, that does make sense. Two and two together, and your own galaxy....it *could* mean Ceti Alpha IV..."
"You know, I think you may be right," spoke up Carlos. "It does make sense."
Trey grimaced. "I have never been to that particular galaxy, and the rest of the list, I think, hints at details within the galaxy I would be unfamiliar with. Trey, Sharie, have you ever been to Ceti Alpha IV?"
Delphine shook her head as Sharie nodded--slowly. "Once, I have been there. I helped a small moon civilization beat off invaders a few yars ago, since they had no planetary defense team. Before I left, I helped them set up one by showing them how to use their planet's distron crystals to access the Morphin Grid. The new team, called the Unity Force Rangers, were building new zords when I left. I would always be welcome there, the Lord High Emperor of the Moon would be glad to give directions."
Trey smiled in relief. "That is great," he said. "For I know nothing of the place. We will need plenty of directions, I can tell you right now."
"I propose we leave at once to find out if these 'suggestions' have any more merit," said Sharie, rapidly reading the list for future refrence and passing it on to Carlos and Delphine to look over for themselves. "The sooner we know the truth, the better I will feel."
****
Jeanette did not cease her restless pacing, even when the current guards opened the door to check on her. She ignored them. They shrugged their shoulders and shut the door, dismissing it as the constant cravings of movement one would recieve after nearly twelve years of imprisonment.
****
"Glad I could help, Miss Triesta. It is the least we could do after your assistance in helping our world."
"Thank you, your majesty," said Sharie, bowing slightly. "The information you have provided us with will help a great deal. Good-bye, and once again, thank you."
The regal figure on the screen bowed also before saying, "Goodbye, Sharie, Princess of Triforia, and Trey, Lord of Triforia. Until we meet again." He vanished.
Trey spoke over the lingering silence. "Well, that was...interesting," he managed. "Notice how much more....regal and high-and-mighty he became upon learning our ranks?"
Carlos laughed outright, and Delphine smiled indulgantly. "He started acting with all the nobility he could muster," said Carlos through his laughter, "He felt he had to do it to address his apparent equals in rank. How so like an Earth man!"
Sharie also laughed softly, but she had to remind him, "It is what they are used to. His world is totalitarian, but fair, his people do not suffer in any way, and are content. It is just that the royal families rule all around here. And since his people are content, they see little reason to change."
Now Carlos looked surprised. "You would think they would never have heard of personal freedoms."
"They have it on a limited basis. On a local scale, they can sway things to a better favor. And their personal opinions do matter to the ruling person. It might not seem enough, but I can do nothing about it. And at least they were able to give us a bit of information we may need."
"I am glad Emperor Lerion mentioned the Dryseran presence in this galaxy," said Trey soberly. "It bodes well in our favor."
He held the list, Delphine leaned over him and read it aloud over his shoulder. "...And I said, 'how can you put it there, right next to a system with six suns?' and of course, he had to reply..."
Sharie had already brought up a map of the galaxy. "Highlighting the six- sun systems," she said softly, her fingers dancing over the controls.
A moment later, she had isolated, out of the billions of systems within the galaxy, sixty-three systems.
"Too many," said Carlos. "That would take days to cover inch-by-inch. Which ones are under Dryseran influence?"
The screen switched to twenty-seven systems.
Trey jumped in then. "Which ones of those have single-sun systems within closest proximity to them?"
Fourteen still flashed.
"And they are all very far apart," mused Delphine. Sharie heard that and, having memorized the list, recited the next clue aloud.
"...But how could you also set up a dilithium mine there? I asked him. He started to get mad, and said..."
She stopped, wondering. "Dilithium mines? Are they still using that old- fashioned method of travel? It is so slow--a ship powered on Dilithium would take nearly a year to cross from one end of the galaxy to the other. It only took us a couple of hours to come here from the Milky Way galaxy."
Still, she punched the information into her computer.
"I know it is impractical," said Trey. "But is is still useful for brief interstellar travel between nearby solar systems." He stopped, his eyes growing wide as only two lights now flashed on the screen. "Oh my goodness..."
And they were on opposite ends of the galaxy. Sharie groaned.
Carlos did not look happy either. "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo..." he muttered under his breath, to no one in particular.
"What was that?" asked Sharie, turning toward him. She was not amused.
"Sorry, just a random thought," he replied, blushing. "But can you blame me?"
She looked at him a moment, then shook her head. Carlos now held the list, and, to not appear all bad, looked at it again.
All it said was, "Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."
Everyone stared at each other, the words suddenly making perfect sense. It was Carlos who broke the heavy, emotional silence.
"We have a rescue to perform, right? Let's get going."
****
The two ships stopped, cloaked, about half a light-year from the supposed dilithium mine. As thoroughly as possible, they would search the area.
Sharie was setting up the sensors to detect dilithium crystals, lifesigns, and weapons systems. She was trying very hard to not let her whirling emotions affect her, while she was on the verge of success, but still, she had difficulty. When at last, the sensors were set, she sighed and sagged in her seat. Now she was grateful for Carlos's presence as he came up to her, hugging her from behind in a comforting way. He was much faster at picking up telepathy toward a telepathic person than she had thought, for she sensed, faintly, a *Will you be all right, Querida?* coming from him, and a look of concentration on his face.
*Very good, Carlos. You pick it up fast for telepaths. Maybe sometime you will be able to do it with non-telepaths as well. Yes, I will be okay. And...thanks."
He smiled and kissed the top of her head, hugging her shoulders lightly before letting go. She straightened her back and tugged on the shirt of her black, violet, and gold tunic. For once, she was dressed in Triforian style, and Carlos could not help but admire it. The shirt was tucked into a short skirt of the same colors, which were over form-fitting, spandex- like pants underneath. Even the Mark of Triforia, which every Triforian was born with, was visible on her face as a golden streak above her left eye and extending onto her upper cheekbone.
It felt like a long-lost feeling, but still, when she looked into a mirror, she squirmed slightly, simply not used to it yet. She was beginning to wonder if Triforia would ever really be home again, like Earth was in her heart.
"I am getting some results," she said, manipulating the controls. "Scanning for Dilithium mine...results...positive. Checking for Dryseran presence....four Dryserans present on base or in orbit of third planet."
"Is there a fortress of some sort, or anything to indicate a prison?" asked Trey weakly, trying not to hold his breath.
Sharie checked the controls, her face going pale. "Yes...on the planet's surface. There is a fortress, heavily protected by dampening fields, booby- traps, two more Dryserans...and much more."
"Are there any other lifesigns?" asked Trey, a heaviness gripping his chest. He was grateful Delphine was beside him and hugging him, for this question would reveal the complete truth.
Sharie took a deep breath and willed herself to look down. "Y-yes...I am picking up one more lifesign....female, Trif-Triforian in origon." She could speak no more, her body was frozen. Only two lone tears stole down her face and showed her distress.
Carlos gathered her to him, and held her for several minutes as she absorbed the information into her tired, disbelieving mind.
****
Jeanette glanced out the window for the umpteenth time that day. As it had wore on, she had grown more and more restless. Every pore of her body screamed at her to get out...move around...something was going to happen!
*But what?* she asked herself again and again as she desperately tried to find something to do to steady her nerves. She was too restless to read, or watch movies from the database. Sleep eluded her. Even excercise failed to calm her down or at least make her tired. HEr body was poised and ready for an adreanline rush. All it needed was a signal.
****
Dyson examined his personal scanner, reading the Zeo trails he had picked up with old information gathered from Dark Dresden's reign of terror on Triforia. They were out there, the Zeo duo. They had gotten his 'messages' all right, he thought gratefully. He would try to make it as easy for them as possible to rescue their mother, but they would still have a tough time of it. He prayed that they would succeed. For if they attacked, all hell would break loose.
****
Carlos sat, staring at the screen. Complete silence resounded over the whole bridgen as everyone, somewhat recovered, contemplated what to do.
"Sooo...." he said at last. "What would work best? A direct attack or a sneak-up?"
Sharie, to everyone's surprise, spoke up before anyone else could. "I suggest we disable the mine and processing plant first," she mused, looking through everyone else as she stared at the viewscreen. "Knock out as many Dryserans as possible. *Then* we can take on the fort."
"But how?" asked Delphine. She was staring at the readouts. "The place looks impenetrable. Maybe we should sneak in."
"It is not logical," Sharie responded patiently, almost woodenly. "A direct attack is better. Getting to the main Power Supply aboard the processing plant in orbit will be easy if we *don't* use the sneaking method. Their sensors operate on several frequencies at once, and over a very wide range. They might detect us slipping through and attack us before we could even raise our shields. The direct approach is safer in the long run. I have a plan." For the first time, she turned around and looked the others in the eyes. They put their heads together and quietly discussed strategy for several minutes.
"Okay," said Sharie at last. "Do you understand?"
They nodded their heads and set out. Trey took Delphine's hand and teleported over to the Thunder-Bobcat Megaship. Trey held his wrist to the activation scanner, letting it read the presence of his Zeo Morpher.
It beeped, indicating he was allowed on the bridge. The doors hissed open, and, Delphine's hand still in his, he stepped onto the bridge.
"Welcome, Trey, Gold Zeo Ranger, and Delphine, White Aquitian Ranger." said the sugary-sounding voice of the ship's computer. "Sharie Triesta has given authorization for Trey Triesta to pilot this ship, and Delphine authorization to co-pilot, and pilot in emergency. I am Zelpha, the ship's computer."
*The ship's *sentient* computer,* thought Trey in amusement, remembering DECA. "Thank you, Zelpha," he said instead, glancing at Delphine. She smiled and shook her head, also amused.
"Is there anything you require?" asked Zelpha politely. "Just ask me any question, and I will be able to answer it." Her tone remained consistently polite, as if eager to please. Trey wondered if she shared DECA's smart- alek sense of humor.
"Not now, thanks anyway, Zelpha," Trey said, his tone still amused. "Delphine and I will take a quick look around, then set up a piloting sequence."
"Would you like a tour?" she suggested. "You would be able to find your way around much easier that way."
"No thanks, Zelpha. Sharie used a power transfer when giving me control of this ship. I know how to pilot her, thanks."
"Understood." Zelpha finally fell silent. Trey could feel his ribs shaking with laughter he tried to suppress. If the ship's computer was as sentient as he thought, then he might very well hurt her feelings by laughing at her...and if she was anything like DECA, she could very well pay him back for it.
****
Though still jumpy, Jeanette finally tired of her incessant pacing. She flopped down on a couch to rest, not caring as her golden curls fell into her face. She curled her knees to her chest and laid her head on her arms, trying to relax and will her heart into a more normal rhythm.
Her mind still raced, but settled on an unplesant reminder she often tried to forget. The diary manuscript she had written shortly after she had been forced to send her daughter away for her own safety. She had written it hoping that it would ease some of the aching burden in her heart, and help her deal more easily with it, and with the fact her son was, at the time, just a short ways from suicidal.
And then, she had destroyed it, not wanting the written reminder to linger. Still, having a typical Triforian's photographic memory, she recalled precisely every passage ever written.
*My child, my Sharie, one day, I hope to see you again. I cannot tell you of the burden losing you has placed upon my heart, in my soul. I cry at night, the tears seeping down my face and into my pillow, knowing quite possibly, I have lost you and your sweet warmth forevermore. If this war gets over with soon enough, I may be able to trace your wherabouts before you get too far. I will have to let my son know as soon as the war is over, and if he can forgive me enough, we can look for you together.
*My son, my Trey, if you ever learn of my deed, I pray to any listening spirit that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. You do not know what anguish this is causing me, watching you fall deep into the depths of despair and your own private hell of guilt and pain, watching you lose weight and seeing the horrifying torment in your eyes, knowing that you cannot even find the solace of tears. I have overheard some of your thoughts without meaning to, I know that sometimes you yearn to take your Power Staff's destructive powers and use it on yourself. I am grateful that it is your strong sense of duty and self that prevents you from doing that. How I pray that we can all be reunited again one day.
*My children, please, please forgive me for what I have done! How can I assure you what I have had to do came from the very deepest depths of love a person can posess? How can I make you understand that there was no other way to give Sharie a chance at life, since otherwise her death was certain? How can I tell you, oh *how*?*
Tears filled her eyes again, but they did not fall. Jeanette was too uptight for that. So she rocked, and waited, and endlessly rocked to the rhythm of an inner turmoil surely only she understood.
"Ready to 'rock 'n roll' as you would put it, Lalinka?" asked Trey over the comm system. He was seated at the helm of the bridge, poised for action. Delphine was right beside him in the other seat, ready with the backup systems and damage control.
"Ready, Trey." Sharie sounded amused. "You can do the rolling as you do the blasting, because as soon as you get their attention, your ship is going to be rocking--with weapons fire. Let's do it."
"Right." The Thunder-Bobcat Megaship took off, getting as close to enemy lines as he dared. Trey's fingers flew over the console as the ship decloaked suddenly, swept down close by the mining-processing plant, and began to fire.
Of course, he knew that these parts were so heavily and sturdily built (due to the dangerous mining and processing operation) that they could withstand a lot of damage without ah hitch. So essentially, what he was doing with all his weapons fire was nothing more than an itch to their systems, and he intended to make them scratch.
Sharie had been right, however, about their reaction. They decided to take care of the itch by eliminating the irritating cause. Machine-controlled Dryseran aircraft took off from the place and attacked him with an unrelenting vengence.
Trey gripped the console tightly as the bridge rocked violently under the stress of the weapons fire.
"Shields are holding," called Delphine over the noise. "Their weapons fire is not penetrating our defenses." She gripped her own console as the bridge rocked again from the blasts, otherwise she would have flown across the room.
"You know how annoying itches are, Delphine?" asked Trey as he reset the controls. She nodded quickly. "Well," he continued. "They are about to get one that will drive them completely crazy."
He looked almost wicked as, with one press of a button, he sent another volley of fire at non-essential systems on the mining plant and on the enemy crafts. It drove them into a frenzy as they doubled their fire on the Thunder-Bobcat Megaship. One return blast rocked the bridge so violently and so quickly, Delphine lost her grip and was sent flying out of her seat, tumbling to the floor and rolling to a stop on the opposite wall.
"You okay, Delphine?" came Trey's concerned voice as she moved, biting back a moan of pain, located squarely in her backside.
The ship was rocking so hard she was forced to crawl back to her seat, her hindquarters protesting all the way. "I am okay," she mused, crawling back into her chair and yelping in pain. The discomfort eased as she switched her center of balance to her hips, a sort of sitting-leaning posture in your chair.
"I hope you did not break your tailbone," said Trey, his fingers dancing over the console. "It would take a few days for that to heal."
"I don't think I broke it," she mused, squirming uncomfortably. "But I probably bruised it. Why do zords never have some form of safety harness?"
"Makes for easy bail-out, probably," he said, letting go another volley of fire. "Okay, Lalinka, it is your turn. Do your stuff," he said aloud.
****
Sharie had been waiting for this moment. The Dryserans and the fighters were easily distracted, almost as if their lives were so boring they welcomed the chance to destroy. She smiled, intending to be the itch impossible to scratch.
She snuck through enemy lines as slowly and carefully as she could, desperate to not be detected.
"Ready, Carlos?" she asked her boyfriend, unable to quite hide her amusement.
"Ready, Querida. Let's see the action," he grinned at her.
As soon as she got close enough, she decloaked. Her finger was already on the fire button, all she had to do was press it.
She did.
With a single shot, over undefended systems, she knocked out the entire power supply to their weapons and most major systems. The Dryseran base was left almost entirely without power.
The Dryserans on the orbiting base were beyond furious. With the automated fighters already there, with independent systems, they got into their own fighters and attacked.
The fierce battle that followed was quite rapid. Shots were fired so brightly and so quickly that the battlefield looked like a sun itself, the blasts radiated such energy, heat, and light. Fireworks could not have been more dazzling.
There was heavy damage sustained, but not on the side of good. The warships of the enemy soon became so badly damaged that, one by one, they imploded, the ships giving way in fierce balls of light that looked like miniature supernovas, lighting up the sky with a blinding intensity, and their pilots, living or automated, fell victim to their ship's own damage or the terrifying vaccuum of space.
When the fighting was over, Sharie let out a long breath. She had not realized she had been holding it. She glanced over at Carlos, who was grinning at her broadly. He lifted his hand in a high-five gesture, and she impulsively reached up and clapped her hand against his in the universal gesture that meant, "success!!"
Sobering slightly, she then switched on the comm system. "Well done, guys!" she called into it. "You in one piece over there?"
"We are a little sore," said Trey, and Sharie could hear him trying to suppress a snicker. "But we are alive. Great job, Lalinka! We did it!"
****
Jeanette was startled as the light outside one of her prison windows suddenly became momentarily brighter, once, twice, then more. Curious, she stopped rocking and got up, wandering over to the window. She glanced outside just in time to see another bright flash.
Having been a power ranger for so many mellennia, she recoginized the sight at once. They were exploding ships! Gods, the station in orbit was being attacked!
Her heart racing, she sat down hard onto the window seat, thinking. Was this how her life was going to end, an unknown victim of an invasion? Especially if this prison fortress was next.
She could not dare to hope that her own salvation, her own rescue, was at hand. The thought was simply too tempting, and too impossibly cruel.
****
Now that the orbiting processing plant was out of the way, the group gathered once more on the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion megaship to discuss things further.
Sharie brought up what the sensors had recorded about the fortress on the surgace. Being a prison fortress, it was unusually well-built, even for a Dryseran building. There were numerous dampening fields in place to prevent teleportation, and several booby-traps, crude and sophisticated. It was like an iron cage, seemingly impossible to get into.
Carlos was studying the readouts. "That huge fortress has just one prisoner?" he could not help but ask. "Why? It looks like it could hold hundreds of people without a hitch. And yet it sits out here, all alone."
Sharie gave him a slightly pained look. "That is the purpose," she said softly. "It is a subtle method of torture. At least in most prisons, the prisoners get to see and talk to other prisoners daily. This one has the design of a prison to make the prisoner feel small and alone, completely worthless on the scale of things, and full of despair. I have seen them before."
"Dryserans use money, at least on an intergalactic scale, don't they?" asked Carlos, hoping he was not pressing his luck. "Why go to all that expense for just one prisoner."
"Dark Dresden was a powerful man," said Sharie softly, her eyes going blank on them. "If it could get him what he wanted, or extracted such revenge as he desired, he could do it. You are right, Carlos, even for the Dryserans, this fortress would have been an expensive feat--hence the dilithium mine and processing plant also here," she said softly. "If any of Dark Dresden's family is left alive, they probably are still paying off a debt for the building of this place."
"Any ideas, then?" asked Carlos, seeing her reaction and hoping to quickly change the subject.
Sharie studied the readouts for a moment. She motioned Trey over and they whispered for a moment, discussing everything.
Finally, they seperated. "I have one idea," said Sharie. "It is dangerous, and most of it will take sheer luck and circumstance. The dampening fields around the edge of the fortress are the weakest. If we persistently fire, concentrating all our blasts on just one weak dampening field, we might be able to lower it briefly enough for us to teleport through. But it will raise behind us. Once we are on the surface, we will be entirely on our own. Our only other advantage is we will still have communication systems, and can call on our zords for assistance. Our main objective, though, will be to dodge the two Dryseran guards still present, the numerous fighting robots I am sure are there, find our mother and get her out unharmed."
Carlos and Delphine looked at each other. They nodded at the same time.
"Then let us proceed," said Delphine. "I am willing to try this if you are."
Sharie glanced at her brother, he also nodded. "Let's do it, Lalinka," he said softly, and for the first time, she could see the real hope in his eyes. She raised her wrists and crossed them. Delphine mirrored the action, while Carlos flipped open his morpher.
"It's Morphin' Time!"
"Let's Rocket!"
The power from the Morphin Grid flooded their bodies, accessed by their various morphers and powers. In four flares of light, their civilian clothing disappeared, and was replaced by their ranger costumes and helmets.
Without another word, Sharie set her controls, and directed her most powerful blasts to a small, concentrated section on the Fortress surface. She had to blast with superconcentrated energy three times before her sensors indicated a break in the dampening field.
"Let's go," she said. In four swirls of colors, they vanished.
****
Dyson clutched his console as the room rocked under the intensity of the fire. Obligingly seeing where the fire was concentrated, he induced a little sabatoge so the shield lowered for a few minutes. He smiled as four telportation signatures could be sensed--two Zeo, one of Lightstar Ranger origon, and one he was unfamiliar with.
*Jeanette, my friend,* he thought, a smile curving his lips. *Your nightmare is about over.*
****
Jeanette yelped in surprise as the violent rocking caught her by surprise. She tumbled off the windowseat as her prison shook, causing her to land with a painful *thud*.
Grimacing in pain, she stumbled over to her bed to huddle upon it.
*What is happening?* she thought frantically.
The shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Nothing looked different than it had been, but every pore and fiber in her body was screaming danger signals, to get out before the upcoming danger engulfed her....
****
The group of rangers crept silently down the hallway, every muscle in their bodies taut as they were on alert, jumping at every sound.
Anytime, they knew, they could encounter booby traps.
Indeed, Sharie was the only one to hear a soft *click*. Pure instinct made her fling herself at her brother, sending them both crashing to the floor and against the wall, just as several small darts came out of nowhere, hitting the wall above them.
"Goodness," Trey lay on the floor for a moment, holding onto his sister and gasping for breath. "That was....quick, Lalinka, thanks."
"Are you okay, Trey?" she asked, helping her dazed brother to his feet. "I landed on you kind of hard."
She could hear the smile in his voice. "Not that hard, Lalinka. You don't weigh enough to use your weight alone. You would have had to put considerable force behind throwing your body weight to hurt me--though considering your skills, there is no dobut in my mind you could do it. However, I have no wish to test that hypothesis, so let's get going."
Behind her own helmet, Sharie smiled, and she could hear Carlos snicker softly.
Despite all their searching, they could not find any way into the heart of the fortress. Sharie, usually the patient one, was the first to get restless.
"If we are to get in there at all, we need to stir things up a little," she mused. "Trey, I suggest we use the zords to do a little damage to the place."
"I agree, Lalinka," he said, sounding amused. "Thunder-Bobcat animal mode, now!"
"Hurricane-Mountain Lion animla mode, now!" called Sharie into her communicator.
Instantly, the two ships still in orbit began to change, growing tails and taking on the epitome of the animals they represented. Roaring, they raced down to the surface, and, lumbering along so forcefully the ground shook, they flung themselves at the fortress from the outside, tearing into it for all they were worth. It was so well-built that they had some difficulty, but little by little, they made slow progress.
****
The violent shaking of the compound began again. Jeanette huddled on the bed as things fell down and crashed all around her. Quietly, she prayed that if death was intended for her, it would come so quickly she would not even realize it.
She was rather startled when she heard the telltale buzzing sound of her prison door being opened. She was even more surprised when Dyson stumbled in, clutching the doorframe for support.
"Jeanette!" he gasped, stumbling over to the bed and clutching her hand. She was a little dazed as he grabbed her and started pulling her toward the door. "Dyson! What are you doing?" she gasped as the floor rocked beneath her feet.
"Now is your chance, Jeanette!" he panted. "You must flee while you have the chance! We are being invaded, and they are destroying this place. Get out, while you have your neck on your shoulders."
p"But Dyson..." she started to protest, not wanting him left here to die.
"No buts! Do as I say or you could be killed! Go! Now! And good luck!"
"What about you?" she protested angrily. "I won't leave you here to die, Dyson!"
"I'll survive, Jeanette, I always have. Don't worry about me. Now go!"
She gave him one last, pleading look, and he could no longer stand the anguish on her face. He turned her around quickly and pushed her out the door of her prison for the first time in almost twelve years. "Goodbye, Jeanette. If you survive this, it will not be the last time you see me, I promise! Now flee this horrid place!"
"Godspeed, Dyson," she choked after him. "You will always be welcome on Triforia, and will always be my friend!" She could not bear to bring herself to look behind her as she turned on her heel and sped down the hall, tears misting her eyes and nearly blinding her vision.
****
Back out on the surface, things went from chaotic to absolutely crazy. Sharie and the rest of the group had managed to find an exit outdoors, (although not further inward like they had hoped) and found that robots, in giant zords of their own, of sorts, were gaining on their Zords to pick a fight.
"We can go after them," panted Delphine as she watched the spectacle. "You two, Sharie and Trey, go on in and find your mother. As soon as we can, we will join you."
Trey gave her a long look, hoping this would not be too dangerous. Gods, he would hate to lose her, not after....abruptly, he raised his wrist and spoke into his communicator. "Zelpha, I am transferring pilot control to White Ranger Delphine."
"Acknowledged," said the computer cheerily. Sharie was glad they could not see her smile as she instructed the computer of her own zord to do the same with Carlos.
"Be careful," she whispered to the two other rangers as they prepared to go fight. "They look kinda mean."
"Don't worry, Sharie," said Carlos. He started to go, then suddenly turned around. He quickly stepped up to her, and to her surprise, hugged her hard. "We will be okay, promise. Now go and find your mother so I can meet her and get over my nervousness at meeting my girlfriend's mother."
A weak, surprised laugh escaped Sharie's lips as she hugged him back, revelling in his presence for a moment. The he had to let her go, for the danger was mounting. She seemed almost unaware as Trey grasped her hand and pulled her back inside the fort. All her emotions were in a turmoil. Her last sight of the Zords were them transforming into gigantic fighting Zords.
****
She was being persued. Behind her, she heard wailing, robotic cries of "stop the prisoner! Don't let her escape!" The words hammered in her ears as her well-toned body took advantage of it's firm fitness and she began to run, really run, somehow managing to keep on her feet despite the rolling floor, the robot guards in hot persuit.
Just when she was sure she could not run at that pace much longer, she felt her world collapse as she came to a dead-end room with a balcony overhead, built into the wall.
With nowhere else to go, she was sure she was going to lose her life in this madhouse. Sudden determination siezed her, and she had one single thought as she thought of her former Power Ranger career.
*I won't go down without a fight.*
With the robots exploding into the room, she took up a defensive stance. Twelve years of not having used her martial arts had not fazed her ability in the slightest, but she was *not* going back into that prison. With a determined gleam in her purple eyes to take at least a few down with her, she uttered the timeless cry.
"Sie-kyuh!" An inner crescent kick sent the first robot whirling, spinning to the ground. Promptly, two more pounced upon her, and it took all her skill to keep her body intact.
Doggedly, she kept fighting, sure at any time she was going down. As the robots began to close in on her, and she took up a final stance, she felt a shiver run through her spine as there were two distinct "Ki-Yah's!" and twin whirlwinds of black-gold and violet-gold dashed into the room, momentarily dazzling her senses.
****
Sharie and Trey had been alerted by the cries and the noise emenating from nearby, just as the shaking of the floor stopped. Without thinking, she and Trey turned on their heels and ran toward the calamity. Running, Sharie dragged out her scanner and set it up. She read several robotic presences...and one female Triforian presence. The woman's heart was racing as she fought to defend herself.
Telepathically, Sharie told her brother, and in response, they both picked up speed, only stopping short when they reached the open door to the dead- end room. Before they even looked inside, Sharie felt the adrenaline rush to her heart, for the gasps of pain she heard in the room were of a voice she had not heard in many, many years.
They carefully glanced inside, and her heart nearly stopped. A streak of blonde curls flew around the face of a beautiful young woman dressed Triforian style. Her willowy body was desperately trying to fight off her persuers, who seemed hell-bent on taking her prisoner again by force.
"Surrender, Jeanette!" one of them cried, launching himself at her.
"Never!" she snarled, and she threw her long hair back, and the two silent observers could see the fiercely glittering purple eyes that so matched Sharie's, set in a face also identical to both of theirs. "You creeps may kill me, but I will never go back into that prison again."
"This is your last chance to surrender, Jeanette, and keep your life."
"What good is my life, so empty? Without the love of my family, my children to sustain me?" she spat out. "I have only survived with the determination to get out and get my family back together again, and I intend to do just that, or die trying!" Once again, she took up a defensive pose. "So try me."
That is when the whole crowd pounced at her, the only thing overshadowing her defensive senses was that of the two rangers, clad in Zeo Costumes, that also sprang into the room.
They pounced upon the nearest robots and sent them flying with two rapid blows to the head and abdomen areas. The other robots turned, registering this, and Jeanette felt herself become completely frozen, as if ice had taken hold of her body.
Zeo costumes! The Gold Ranger! It could only be her son. The Violet Ranger, with the identical faceplate to the Gold Ranger's, was obviously female, small but just as determined to fight as her counterpart in gold.
She felt her heart flip in her chest when the thought really sank in. The way they worked together, in unison, like another pair she remembered from years before. And she had given those powers to one person only. Gods, after all this time, they were here! Her children! After all these years of desperate lonliness, she finally was graced with the sight of their forms again. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched the duo, but the logical part of her mind was strong enough to insist she keep fighting, alongside her children, who obviously saw fit to rescue her. Her heart hammering in her ears, she sprang on the still robots once more, knocking the sense out of them.
One by one, the robots went down. Sharie felt her heart clench in fear as one of the robots managed to corner her mother, raising a dagger for a death blow. Without a hitch or a word, Sharie drew her staff and fired, hitting the robot square in the back. Startled, the robot dropped to his knees, then keeled over, leaving a surprised Jeanette pressed against a wall. Astonished, she looked straight at her daughter. For a moment, they just looked at each other.
Then, Sharie turned stiffly away, still not saying anything, and resumed fighting.
Jeanette felt a stab of fear and anguish. Gods, had Sharie, after all, not forgiven her? Was she only fighting out of obligation to her brother? Would she *ever* reach her children again? If this was the case, then her life was no longer worth living.
At long last, Sharie and Trey managed to corner the last robot. This one was the leader, and the most powerful, it would take both of them to take this one out. Sharie looked around quickly, spying the balcony above. With an idea forming in her mind, she ran a short distance and made a single leap, her powers giving her enough bounce to easily land above them.
"Ready, Trey?" she called as the robot quickly (almost frantically) looked in two directions, unsure of which to attack first.
"Ready, Lalinka." The name jolted Jeanette out of her despairing trance. If she had any further doubts of the identity of the Violet Ranger, it was now dispelled. Few people had called Sharie Lalinka.
Simultaneously, both drew out their staffs and aimed it at the robot. He panicked, knowing he had not a chance. He spun on his own heel and tried to flee the room.
Twin blasts of fire, from two directions and precisely on target, hit him in the back and the head. There was a bright glare as he emitted a strange sort of groan, and vanished as the sheer power of the blasts vaporized him.
As the smoke cleared, silence fell on the room, except for Jeanette's ragged breathing. She stared at the vaporized spot for a moment, then straightened her back. Turning, in complete silence, she faced the two rangers behind her.
****
She had never felt such uncertainty as she did now, facing her very own flesh and blood. She still did not know whether or not they would ultimately reject her. She was sure her torment showed in her violet- purple eyes, directed at her children.
An eternity seemed to pass as her gaze settled on that of her son's spandex- clad figure. She was only vaguely aware of the two other Rangers, ones she had never before met, slip into the room in complete silence, stepping unobtrusively into a corner.
An eternity seemed to pass before Trey finally allowed himself to move. The staff vanished from his hand, and, too slowly, he crossed his wrists. "Zeo Gold Ranger, power down."
A glitter of gold showed as the costume melted away from his body, and at last, Jeanette saw her handsome son in the flesh.
Gods, he has not changed, was the first thought to reach her muddled mind. He is still the same son I am so proud of....
Her eyes met his, and she inwardly knew he saw the utter torment in her eyes. She was almost afraid to read his dark depths, but she had to force herself to. She could not have been more surprised to see his eyes also full of torment, tears that did not fall--and the deep, unyeilding love she had never really expected to see again.
During this time, Sharie flipped herself back over the balcony, so silently it barely registered with anyone else. So strong was the sudden desire to put distance between them and herself--for just a few moments, so she could clear her mind! She was so confused.....
She made not a sound as mother and son continued to stare at each other, their eyes speaking volumes. She watched as her brother's feet finally seemed to unlock, and, swiftly, he crossed the room into his mother's welcoming arms.
How can one describe a loving, desperate reunion of long-lost mother and son? It is not something that can easily be described by words. Love is a light word compared to the deep bonding between mother and child, though Trey was no longer a child.
It is a connection of souls, a blending of spirits that first begins the moment the child is concieved and carried in his or her mother's body until life outside the womb can be granted them. For several months, they may have been joined both physically and spiritually, but the spiritual bond never fades, even should the mother be forced to give the child up for reasons beyond her control.
She contributes to the child's life, bonds with the child in ways that cannot be understood, and nothing can change that, no matter how un-obvious it seems. It is heartbreaking, sometimes, that it would take a tragedy like this one to really bring a realization like this to the surface, and one wonders that it should not have to take a terrible event to draw such loved ones together, to realize their bond, or to simply say, "I love you."
The strength of that bond was revealed now as mother and son held onto each other with an uncommon desperation. He held the tallish woman to him, finally feeling, in a small way, a burden on his overtortured soul lift. He ignored the tears streaming down his face, simply grateful to relax in the old, comforting presence of one he so loved, and had missed with a terrible fire burning in his soul.
Silently, from above, Sharie continued to watch. Her heart had been pounding, and a serious burning pain had set it afire, a terrible pain borne of long seperation. Unable to help it, she was flooded with feelings of yearning, forgiveness, and love so powerful, it drowned out every other sense and obscured her breathing, making her feel that, surely, she was going to drown from the sheer impact of it. *My mother....*
She did not realize it, but her face was wet with tears beneath her helmet, too.....
It seemed to take a long time, but finally, Jeanette released him, drawing back and finally smiling slightly as she studied his face, eagerly absorbing the sight of him after so many years of deprivation.
*Can you ever forgive me, my son?* she asked, echoing her mind into his like they had used to do.
*It has already been forgiven, mother. I know the truth, but I still cannot deny why you did it.* He hugged her again, and then turned his glance toward Sharie, still morphed and not making one sound.
Trembling, Jeanette turned to face her daughter. She could not read anything in her daughter's morphed posture; nothing betrayed what she might be thinking or feeling. Trying to sense her was like trying to sense a rock--nothing, absolutely nothing.
Her despair would still be too overwelming if her daughter had failed to forgive her, for surely she remembered every sordid detail of being forced out into the unknown against her will, despite the heartfelt reason: her foremost safety. If she had not forgiven her.....or if she never would.....Jeanette thought her heart would sieze up and rip in two at the thought. *Even if I did it for her safty I cannot stand the thought of her hating me! Not now....not after all this!.....*
Slowly, painfully slowly to Jeanette's eyes, Sharie crossed her wrists. "Zeo Violet Ranger, power down."
Jeanette found herself staring in utter shock at a person virtually a mirror image of herself, only smaller. The same hair, the same face, the same eyes--the same deep purple eyes that were now glittering over with tears, streaming down her fair face. Her lips trembled, and hesistantly, Jeanette rasied her eyes to meet that of her now-grown daughter's.
In them she saw many emotions. For once, Sharie's eyes were not sheileded over by a wall that prevented others from reading most of what was in their depths, that usually obscured others from seeing her very soul.
Thus Jeanette could see a furious swirling of emotion, many of them fighting for dominance and failing miserably to gain any more ground than the others. She could discern torment, sadness, pain, what she expected to see. But she felt joy light up in her chest as she saw the emotion which, after what had to be an intense internal struggle, suddenly surge forth and overshadowed all others. It was what she had seen in the eyes of her son, the fierce, unyeilding love, the kind that sustains strongly throughout the worst hardships.
Above all, there was no sign of anger or hatred anywhere.
Jeanette could not stand it. Trembling, she reached out imploring hands to her little girl, her eyes silently begging. *Please, my little girl, my only daughter....please don't turn me away now!....*
Sharie needed no further urgings. She flung herself into her mother's eagerly awaiting arms, and her mother cradled the small girl to her chest, not wanting to let go. She felt the whisper in her mind from Sharie, assuring that, whatever had happened, all was forgiven.
"Oh, Sharie, my only girl. At last I have you back..."
"I missed you.....despite anything else I might have felt....." Sharie choked, feeling a new sense of peace steal over her that she had not felt in a very long time.
At long last, Jeanette pulled back and studied her daughter all over, and over the complete joy at seeing her beautiful girl alive and well, she felt concern and guilt stab at her heart. Sharie was so small, so petite. She looked downright fragile, and Jeanette only hoped living on Earth had not done this to her. There was so much different about her, she was far different from the child Jeanette had last seen her as. But one thing was clear: She was still Sharie, inside and out, no matter how different she had become.
Without realizing it, Carlos made a small sound in his throat. Sharie turned, a smile appearing on her lips, and she laughed softly, waving them over. "Mom, these are the other two rangers who helped us." The two rangers demorphed obligingly as Jeanette turned to them. "This is Carlos Perez, Black Lightstar Ranger, and this is Delphine, White Aquitar Ranger."
Jeanette politely greeted each, nodding especially at Delphine. "I have heard of you," she said admiringly. "I thank you for your help." Her eyes riveted to Carlos. "I have never heard of the Lightstar Rangers, but thank you, just the same."
It did not dawn on her until then why two rangers, from seperate teams, had chosen to join her children in her rescue. Any confused thoughts on the subject were immediately dispelled when Trey walked over to Delphine, hugging her tightly, and Sharie found herself in Carlos's comforting arms. Her children turned to her, arms around each respective ranger, their eyes telling her what the situation was.
"Oh, my..." was her first thought. She was too surprised to think coherently for a moment. Delight, relief, and awe, and a little concern, hit her all at once.
She felt nothing but delight for her son. *My gods! One of my wildest wishes for him has come true! He's in love again! Despite his grief and fear, which he'll always have....he trusted himself to love again!*
She knew of Delphine well, and she knew of her strong character and fiercely loyal streak to others. The Aquitian could not possibly have been anything less than Trey's perfect mate in Jeantte's eyes....except for one thing, one small, trivial detail.
She was Aquitian.
How on Triune's Peak did Trey manage to date her without splintering? Their species was rather fragile outside of their own environment; surely he'd have had to visit her homeworld at *some* point.....
Oh, well, she'd ask that later. Somehow they must have overcome such a hurdle, since it was clear to her that it was, in part, Delphine making Trey's life that much more peaceful, and giving him some measure of happiness.
Sharie's lover, though.....this was different. The boy from a world said to be savage and backwards. An earthling.
She was concerned, to say the least. This boy looked as young as she did, he could not be more than eighteen, considering how fast and short human lives were. Were it not for the fact that the ancient Sage, Zordon, had placed his heart and trust into these people, seeing a side in them not a whole lot of others seemed to see, Jeanette would have, in a streak unusual for her, rather prejudiced against the idea.
Besides, her baby was still so young....should she have grown up so soon?
But one look in her daughter's eyes convinced her that this boy had been pivotal to her daughter's happiness, and that she would not change for the universe, no matter how young he or her daughter were.
It took only two seconds to slightly change her opinion....she knew that look too well. It was that type that she knew had reflected in her own eyes when she'd been with her now-deceased husband, Teryan, whom she'd loved more than words could have expressed--even by the most talented of poets.
Jeanette swallowed. If her daughter truly felt this way, then she'd at least attempt to get to know Carlos first, and give him the benefit of the doubt. If he proved was truly capeable of being what her daughter needed so much, then she'd say little or nothing in the long run.
"All I can say is," she said after much hesistation, "Is thank you, for making my children's lives happy. For that, I am grateful to you."
Sharie and Trey reached for their mother's hands, and silence settled over the group as they walked out of the room and down halls, finally to the outside, where the Zeo Zords stood in a victorious posture, for Carlos and Delphine had managed to easily win over their foe.
As Jeanette breathed in the first fresh air of nearly twelve years, looking at the proud zords standign in the sunlight, she felt a new, radiant energy flood her chest, a new desire to face her future. With her children at her side, perhaps one was now in store. There were questions to be asked, explanations extended, but she no longer dreaded it as much.
She was free, free to live, and free to soar once again.
****
Of course, he had been right. She knew he had escaped, but she had to make sure. Once the group stepped onto the bridge of the Hurricane-Mountain Lion Ultrazord, Jeanette tugged her daughter toward the consoles. "Please, I need your help," she said softly. "I have to find out where he went, I owe him so much for helping me with my freedom..."
"Whom, Mother?" Sharie asked, surprised, thought she had a sneaking feeling she knew.
Jeanette hesistated. "Well...he is Dryseran, one of the few Drysera I ever knew that was fair and kind. He was often my friend, though he had to act as my jailer. Ultimately, he helped me to go free. I know he escaped just before you found me."
"Dyson!" Sharie exclaimed at once. "It was him, was it not? I thought so, but I was not sure..."
Jeanette paused, looking at her daughter thoughtfully. There had been no trace of anger or animosity in her voice. "You knew of Dyson?" she asked, to make sure all fit into place.
"Of course I knew him. He was my only Dryseran friend when I was kidnapped, he used sneaky methods to give me an opprotunity to escape, and was involved a few days ago, when..." Sharie stopped suddenly, wondering how to say it. It was too painful.
"He is a good man," she said at last.
Jeanette sighed softly, laying a hand on her daughter's arm. "He told me of the attack days ago, when Dark Dresden attacked Earth and met his end. It was Dyson's reputation for kindness that had his life spared by the servants and slaves that had taken over the ship. They had enough compassion to let him live. He showed up shortly afterwards, looking like he had survived a holocaust. He told me what had happened, that he had seen you and Trey both on Earth, also. It was my first indication of anything since my imprisonment, and certainly the first time I knew for certain you had survived, Sharie."
Tears filled her eyes, and she closed them painfully. "Sharie must have told you by now, Trey. I do not know how you can forgive me."
Trey did not even squirm, though a small part of him was glad that what had been written by Jeanette in her diary was so obviously true here. He reached out and gently took his mother's hands in his own, sitting her down in one chair and sitting in another one across from her.
"I think it is time for total truth between us all," he began uncomfortably. "Yes, Sharie told me what had happened, detail by painful detail. But I already knew by that point."
Her eyes widened in startled surprise. "But how could you know!" she exclaimed, going white. "I had to keep it a secret! You would not have let me do it if I had told you, and I told no one else either!"
Trey blushed for some reason. He drew a computer padd out of his tunic, turned it on, and handed it to Jeanette. "Does this look familiar?"
Jeanette felt any remaining blood drain from her face as she stared in horror at a copy of the manuscript she thought she had done away with. "But--I destroyed that! I never meant anybody to see those words. It had only been intended for my peace of mind. How did you get this--*where* did you get this?"
"Mother," said Sharie softly, holding up a hand and stopping her mother's outburst. "It was that very manuscript that led Trey, and myself in a way, to forgive you so completey. It was found some months ago by a human boy named Tommy. When Trey was splintered, another former Earth Ranger named Billy went to Triforia to try and help. Your file had only changed to a sort of virus that attached itself to another unimportant file Billy downloaded and sent back to Earth. Tommy found the manuscript, had it translated, and read it. He did not mean to pry, but he did not tell anybody for several months what hidden pain was in Trey's past."
Jeanette could not keep the tears from streaming down her face. "Then this..." she touched the padd, "Was the sole reason you forgave me? What was in it, other than sheer evidence of my guilt? I sill stand by my actions, and I feel they were completely justified."
"Tommy finally told my team about it," spoke up Carlos, hoping he was not butting in. "You see, I was drawn to Sharie the moment I first saw her. She told us a condensed, slightly changed version of her backstory, but did not mention her brother had happened to be the Lord of Triforia. She certainly had no notion he was the Gold Ranger. I wondered why she and Trey seemed so familiar, so I am afraid I am the nosy one here. Tommy told TJ (another ranger) and I what he knew, and gave us the manuscript to read. It made us determined to reunite the pair. Our Yellow Ranger, Ashley, was the one who broke the news to Trey of what she knew."
Jeanette stared at him for a long moment, and Carlos got the sudden feeling that he had gotten when she first looked at him....thoughtfulness, and reservation. He understood somehow that she wasn't all that wild about him dating her daughter. But she'd also made no move to condemn him--yet. He could see in her amethyst eyes that she was battling with herself over what he'd said, and knew that it could either warm her to him or color her opinion of him further--he wasn't sure, yet.
"I expect you reacted with anger," said Jeanette after several moments, hanging her head slightly. "It must have been such a shock, knowing it was your own mother whom was responsible for your sister's disappearance..."
Trey heistated then, then admitted, "At first, for a short while, I was a little upset. I wondered why you did not trust me to protect Sharie, to keep her from harm. But I dismissed a grude right away, mother, since I love you too much to hold one against you. Reading your own words finalized the thought, for I understood completely then. I am not angry, and I bear no resentment."
Trembling, Jeanette hugged her son tightly. She could feel him trembling also as he held her tightly. She felt much better all of a sudden, except for one matter. Sighing, she let go of her son to face her daughter.
"My Sharie..." she sighed, touching her daughter's chin. "I hope and pray with all my heart you did not suffer too much for what I knew I had to do. You have read what I have written also?"
Sharie nodded. "I have, I did the day Trey and I were reunited." Her eyes lowered. "I must admit, I was upset, very upset, at first after you placed me in that craft. But I saw the space station behind me explode, and I came to realize that I could not hold a grudge against a mother and brother I had thought dead. I forgave you then, mostly, but I think..." her chin started to tremble, "maybe I was still a little bit resentful. I was raised by a wonderful couple on Earth, they adopted me and loved me, and I loved them as much as I had loved you guys. I eventually lost them both, and now their brother and sister, my aunt and uncle, are my legal guardians. I certainly did not know that the mysterious gold ranger who showed up at one point was my own brother." She sighed. "Many months later, I read your manuscript. I completely forgave you then, for I saw your anguish through your eyes." She reached out and hugged her mother tightly, crying softly. "I really, really missed you, Momma...."
"I missed you too, my child. More than you could ever understand," Jeanette murmured, hugging her own daughter tightly and rubbing her back soothingly. "I never thought to tell you about your brother's powers. It would have been a secret for more weeks yet until you turned six. But I see you made good use of your own powers, the ones I gave you."
"That brings another question to mind, Momma," Sharie quivered, a smile on her lips as she wiped her wet cheeks. "Where did you get the powers you gave me?"
"I discovered them by accident, two centuries ago, while exploring Triforia's uncharted territory for myself," Jeanette admitted. "They were far too powerful to consider telling anybody about, and Triforia was at peace at the time. So I put them away in a safe spot and told nobody. If it had been known, especially to the evil side, Triforia would have been swamped. I certainly had no notion that I would ever have another child, I was thought to be sterile. I considered using them myself should the need arise, but it never did. When I was forced to send Sharie away, I gave her the power to protect herself from harm. The could not do much for her until the powers deemed her mature enough to handle them, but she would have had some protection."
"I have been an active ranger since I was eight years old," said Sharie quietly.
"That young..." said Jeanette, gaping at the girl in astonishment. "How? Sharie, you were a child! I would have thought maybe fourteen or fifteen at the earliest.....not eight!"
"It just happened," Sharie shrugged. "You said yourself that when I was ready, and the powers deemed me ready and worthy enough, they would open up fully to me for my own use."
"I presume you contacted Zordon," said Jeanette hopefully. "He could have trained you quickly to handle the powers."
Sharie shook her head. "I have never met Zordon. It is a long story." Carlos came up behind her and she leaned into him without thinking. "Now, I just sort of travel back and forth between Earth and Triforia. I have a life on Earth that I built for myself, and now I share it with the other rangers there, especially Carlos. Trey is there quite often, too, and once in awhile, he will travel to Aquitar."
Trey blushed and held Delphine a little more tightly. Jeanette eyed the couple for only a moment before sighing. "I have only one question concerning you two," she said to Trey. "Dyson told me that the first time you went to Aquitar, you crash-landed and splintered. *How* have you managed to go there subsequent times without a repeat performance?"
Now it was *Sharie* who turned red. "I discovered what you did to me with that shot you gave me just a day before I left," she said softly. "You messed with my DNA sequence, Mother, and as a result, chances are practically nil I will ever splint due to 'genetic incompatibility.' I discovered it years ago, and when Trey and I were reunited a couple of weeks ago, I introduced the same substance to the general Triforian public. Now we need never fear splintering again."
"I only discovered it days before the Dryseran invasion," said Jeanette, her cheeks red flags. "And I never tried it on anybody, either. I could not tell anybody and let the Dryserans know we hold such weakness. They would have attempted to do it to us on purpose, split our soul into it's three levels, and then kill at least one for the other's misery. I tried it for the first time on Sharie because she needed the protection."
"As you can see, it worked," said Sharie with a smile. "I am no different because of it, I assure you. I am glad you were treated so well while in prison. Truth be told, I expected you to look much worse."
"I am well, physically," said Jeanette, giving her daughter another once- over. "I could say that I expceted the same of you, Sharie. In many ways, you look different that I pictured you."
"How would you have pictured me?" Sharie asked in curiosity. Jeanette blushed.
She hesistated, but decided truth was the best policy. "I liked to think of you as...well, Sharie, I am right in the fact that I knew you would be beautiful, but..." she squirmed, "I hoped you would be much taller, and more robust. You look so fragile...." she turned even redder, "I wonder how you managed to remain a Power Ranger at all. After Dyson told me you had grown up on Earth, I did not know what to think. I hope the environment is not the reason you are so small. Everyone else in our family has always been at least above average in height. But then, you were always small..."
"Sharie, weak?" chuckled Carlos in amusement. "I don't think so. She is at least three times my strength. And her martial arts skills---no one ever dares mess with her."
Jeanette, to her own surprise, found herself smiling suddenly at him.
Trey grinned in spite of himself. "She is almost as strong as *me*." he put in. "Growing up on Earth has toughened her considerably, since the environment there is a little more harsh and the diet is different. As for her height...."
"I always was short, and that is that," Sharie put in. "It was not the diet, or the atmosphere. And Mother, you told me Trey had one last growth spurt just before he quit aging. I am approaching that age, maybe I will gain a few more inches."
Jeanette's face was still flushed. "I would not wonder if it is my fault, in a way," she confessed. "I had so much trouble carrying you to term, Sharie. You were quite small at birth, under five pounds. I almost died giving birth to Trey, and it was even worse with you, I am sorry to say. It was worth it, though. But maybe it was my difficulty that made you so small..."
"Nonsense," Sharie put in. "Trey was almost as small, and look at him now. My great-grandfather on Daddy's side was on the short side, remember? Shortness in this family is just as rare as the eye color you gave me." Twinkling, her purple eyes met her mother's matching ones. "Doesn't it usually skip four or five generations?"
Jeanette chuckled, relaxing. She smiled a bit indulgently at her son and Delphine, feeling almost in debt to the white ranger for being what her son had so depserately needed. The story of how they met was something she looked forward to hearing.
She was still a quite uptight about her daughter and that human boy. Carlos seemed intelligent enough and, surely his soul was fairly pure. She knew Sharie would not settle for less than that. But not only had her son's first love, when he was almost as young at the time--thirty-two-- ended in disaster, Jeanette could not bear for her daughter's heart to be ripped to shreds as well, and she'd heard of the humans' high divorce rates and tendencies among some to be fickle. She did not want to stand for it if Carlos was like that.
But then, surely Sharie would not have fallen in love with such a shallow character. And Jeanette had never before defined one person by stereotypes she'd heard about their races. She knew it would be an awful thing for her to do, to start that now. Carlos did not strike her as anything but a good person. It was probably that she just did not know him, not like she knew about Delphine--anyone who'd ever heard of the Aquitian Ranger leader knew of her good heart. She'd give Carlos his chance to prove himself to her. She would not stand in the way of her daughter's happiness.
Jeanette's purple eyes riveted to the viewscreen, she saw the stars streak by in hyperrush mode. Stars. She only had seen glimpses of them outside prison windows for so many years, it seemed almost unreal that she was seeing them in such spectacular beauty as they were now, even though they were only streaks of light while the ships swirled through a hyperrush tunnel.
Triforia. How she missed home. During her 23,000 year lifespan so far, she had been away from her home planet longer times than that, but she still always missed it. And while she had also been a prisoner of war before on more than one occasion, it had never been for so long, so achingly long. Another wave of longing welled up in her, to see Triforia's blue skies, three bright moons, smell the sweet air, and see her home again, her friends, other family members.
Sharie glanced at her mother and saw her heart in her eyes. "We will be headed back to Triforia soon," she said softly. "I need to stop by Earth first to assure my family there I am all right. You might want to meet them, mother--Marek and Marisha Thoene are wonderful people, and their children Toby and Tami Lynne are dear children. You would love them instantly."
"They are your aunt and uncle, the ones legally responsible for you on Earth?" asked Jeanette quietly. "If that is the case, I have a few things to say to them."
Sharie raised a cautious eyebrow. She hoped her mother would not misalign them because they were human, and her mother's ideas of Earth would still be a bit primitive.
Jeanette saw the cautious shadows in her daughter's eyes, and wondered if she'd picked up on her reservations about humans. Probably so. Even without reading others' minds Sharie was very astute.
"I must thank them," smiled Jeanette. "For helping to raise such a wonderful girl. I am very proud of you, Sharie, and yes, I would like to meet them."
This was true. Sharie had changed in many ways, but Jeanette could see that the strong force of purity was within her, more powerful than ever. It had to have been reinforced by good people, and surely she'd been loved by others, ones who'd given their heart over when she was such a tiny child and needed it so much just then. There was no other explanation. That could and often did happen, no matter what the race....love was even known to exist among the evil Dryserans. Dyson had told her often how much his own parents had loved each other so deeply.
Even Earth had families.
Sharie smiled in relief. "Good. They and my adoptive parents taught me much about Earth culture, and this is the planet where Standard evolved naturally without much 'outside' help. I have taught them all High Triforian and how to use telepathy. Don't say anything against it, it is especially good for Toby and Tami, because they are deaf."
"I won't," said Jeanette. "But I am surprised you let go of your stringent mental training enough to do that."
"I have not let go of my training," said Sharie seriously. "My mental powers are too strong for me to dare to lose control. Few others on our planet could dare to match what I have, it is my main curse."
"I would have thought that with all that menal power, it would be a blessing," said Carlos.
"Not with everyone's thoughts, emotions, and urges constantly battering and overwhelming against your mind," answered Sharie with a sigh. "Even for Trey, should he lower his guard somewhat, it would not usually be much more than annoying. I lower mine too much, and it is so overwhelming I can completely lose my own awareness. It does not take much, and it can do too much damage."
Carlos nodded, contemplating this, as the computer announced cheerfully, "Approaching Earth."
Sharie sighed again and sat at the computer console, rapidly typing out a specially coded IM to her family--nobody on earth's technology level could bust through this kind. No sooner had she sent the "send" button than she got a reply. Her aunt and uncle must have been glued to the computer waiting for a message.
*Sharie?* it was her aunt on the computer. *Are you all right? You are back?*
*Yes, Aunt Marisha,* she typed rapidly, leaving much to her poor aunt's imagination. *I am fine.*
The next line trailed in, showing her aunt's uncertainty. *....Were you.....how did the mission go?* Jeanette, reading over Sharie's shoulder, suddenly knew that her family was perfectly aware of what Sharie had been doing.
Sharie paused for a moment before typing, simply, *Mission successful.*
*Sharie!* exclaimed her aunt through cyberspace. *You mean you managed to find....are you in orbit yet?*
*Would you like to come aboard?* Sharie had a smile on her lips as she typed this.
Marisha's *yes! We are coming.....*all* of us!!!*
Sharie smiled despite herself.
*Then stand by,* she typed. *Teleporting.*
Jeanette paled at her sudden nervousness and the suddenness. From what she read, it seemed that this is where Sharie got some of her occassional impulsiveness.
*Don't worry,* Sharie assured her mother mentally. *Marisha and Marek may regard you a bit closely at first, but they will grow to like you quickly. You are that type of person.*
*Yes,* Jeanette thought in a way she hoped her daughter could not hear, *But how much will they respect a woman forced to send her child into the unknown for her own protection?*
The sparkling sound of teleportation beams, as well as the bright effect, filled the room as Jeanette slipped into the background by her son, her nervousness still evident in her eyes.
Sharie stood to face them as the glittering columns of light released her family from it's clutches. She smiled inadvertently as she saw her two cousins Toby and Tami cradling her two cats, Topaz and Violeta, in their arms.
"You had to bring the kittens," she remarked with signs to them before turning to hug her aunt and uncle. They both held her tightly, making it quite plain to Jeanette that there was indeed, a fierce family bond evident before her very eyes. It made her heart clench with shame for how much she had missed.
"Are you all right?" asked Marek, releasing Sharie and touching her chin lightly. "'mission successful?'"
Sharie nodded, her eyes dancing. "Yes, very successful. Turn around." While they did, she beckoned her mother forward. Jeanette hesistantly and shyly did so. "Aunt Marisha, Uncle Marek, this is my birth mother, Jeanette Triesta. She was kept prisoner on a Dryseran outpost for several years when we found her."
For a moment, there was silence as Jeanette endured the expected srcutiny. Of course these people would be very protective of Sharie, and she sincerely hoped they did not view her as an unwanted intruder, veying for Sharie's affection after so long being gone from her life.
So she was rather startled when Marisha moved suddenly, taking the initative and raising her hand, palm up, addressing her formally in fluent High Triforian. "We greet you, Jeanette Triesta, former Lady of Triforia. If you are ever on Earth, you will be welcome into our home for as long as you wish it."
Although the words were formal, Jeanette was grateful to hear the underlying warmth in the tone of voice. However, as she also raised her palm, pressing it against Marisha and entwining their fingers in the traditional gesture of greeting, she also sensed the hint of caution in the tone. She might have to assure these people that she was indeed not an ogre woman who had carelessly abandoned her child to the wilderness.
"I thank you," she began in her native tongue, then abruptly switched to Standard. "And I also must thank you as well, for taking in my daughter when she needed it so desperately those years ago. In fact, I am deeply in debt to you, and I owe you more than I ever hope to repay for helping to raise and love her."
"We love Sharie as if she were our own flesh-and-blood child," said Marek, also extending his hand palm-up. "Alhough it was my brother and Marisha's sister who formally adopted her, Sharie was like the child of all four of us, even after Marisha and I finally managed to have our own children." He gestured to Toby and Tami, who were watching the whole affair with wide gold eyes.
Jeanette could not help but smile, almost wistfully, at the children. They were her weakest point, she loved children, and it had always made the raging desire for her own more painful all those years she had been denied them. They were a welcome sight to her lonely heart.
She remembered Sharie telling her they were deaf, but used the universal sign language and telepathy. She decided not to use the mental intrusion as yet while she quickly signed, "Oh, I see you like animals. They are very cute. Are they yours?"
Tami smiled, almost gratefully, Jeanette thought. "No, these kittens belong to Sharie. The one I am holding is Violeta, Toby is holding Topaz." She had had to put down the kitten to sign, and Violeta had gone directly to Sharie, giving a requesting *meow* before kneeling on her haunches and leaping gracefully into Sharie's arms. The kitten looked at Sharie adoringly, then looked at Jeanette, then back at Sharie. "Meow?" she asked.
"Mrrrow?" echoed Topaz as he hopped down from Toby's arms and leaped on a chair, then onto Sharie's shoulder. Toby watched this in amusement, signing gracefully, "I think they want to know why she looks so much like you, Sharie. Your mother is almost your mirror image."
"I figured Sharie would resemble me one day," Jeanette answered the boy, and she could not hide the sandess in her eyes. "But even I expect I never dreamed she would so closely resemble me."
"You don't even look older than her," said Tami, her features a bit puzzled. "She could be your twin sister, more than Toby is my twin brother. How old are you?"
"I am 23,000 years old," signed Jeanette, smiling as she saw their astonished looks. Probably for as often as Sharie had told them Triforians lived at least 50,000 years, it might still be quite a bit for them to think about. "But her twin? Twins are very, very rare in our society, kiddos, and it is considered beyond luck when it happens. A pair like you would certainly warrant attention."
Toby shifted and shrugged. "Don't we know it," he signed with a sigh. "Wait until you meet Ashley, the Yellow Lightstar Ranger. She is a triplet."
Jeanette raised an eyebrow, turning to Sharie for confirmation. She felt a flash of surprise when Sharie nodded. Triplets! Outside of splintering! On Triforia, it had almost never happened.
Realizing she was letting her mind wander, she shook her head and glanced back at Marisha. She felt a private relief when she saw the caution in the other's eyes fade. She was glad she was quickly earning the couple's trust, with her attention toward the children and her devotion to her own.
Sharie seemed to whisper to the kittens, setting them carefully on the floor. She smiled as they approached Jeanette, looking up and chiming in with a friendly, "Meow? Mrrrrioww?"
The woman could not resist. Cats are simply the most adoring creatures when they wanted to be. They have a way of grabbing and holding your attention that is quite endearing, and they worm their way into your heart, and they never let go. She knelt carefully, gingerly touching the head of Topaz. He purred and pressed his little head into her palm, encouraging her touch. Violeta rubbed against Jeanette's ankles, then lightly hopped onto the woman's shoulder like she often did Sharie. Jeanette shared her daughter's sense of ticklishness and could not help but giggle when the kitten nuzzled her neck and licked her ear in a friendly fashion.
Marisha and Marek relaxed completely. Cats are masters of sensing a person's personality, and the way they acted made it perfectly clear that Jeanette was an honest, caring woman with more love to give than it seemed possible for one woman to have. Indeed it was only unfortunate circumstance, nothing more, that had forced her to give up her little girl so she could live, and the seperation had anguished her. And they were grateful it made Sharie so happy to have her back.
"What do you plan to do now?" asked Marisha in a gentle, friendly fashion.
"I wish to go back to Triforia," said Jeanette, her eyes suddenly misting at the thought of home. "I want to be with my friends, and with my children. I have so much to catch up on, and so much I have to make up for."
Sharie nodded to herself, seeing the longing in her mother's eyes. She was hit with an idea, since her aunt and uncle were just starting their vacation anyway. Carlos would have nothing to do....
"Well...." she signed to the twins. "You have been begging me to show you Triforia, why don't you come with us? All of you? The recent series of events has made me realize again just how important you all are to me, and I would not like being pulled in two directions just now."
Sharie had certainly caught their attention, for instantly, the twins were at their parents, begging with loud, exaggerated gestures, "*Please*, may we go? All of us? Please, Momma, Daddy, please?"
Good-naturedly, he laughed while kissing their heads. "Sure, we can go, if it is all right with Trey and Jeanette, as well as Sharie. Triforia is not our world to rule, after all."
"Of course you may come," said Trey at once. "We would love to have you visit our world. I overlook things on Triforia, I don't consider myself it's master, remember? And the children would like Toby and Tami, I know it. They would find lots of ways to communicate, I am sure."
The twins jumped up, clapping their hands together in a high-five.
****
Two sihlouetted figures walked one of Triforia's tropical beaches that night, basking in the eerie glow of Triforia's three moons. One which glowed a blue-green, since it also contained life, one which glowed white and was as dead and airless as Earth's moon. The third glowed an interesting pink-red, due to the high content of Iron Oxide in it's crust. It cast many colorful shadows on the two figures who walked, one tall and one small, hands clasped.
"Your world is so beautiful," Carlos murmured, feeling the pull of the tide tickle his toes and the wind blow freely through his longish, black unbound hair. It was the most refreshing feeling he could recall in a long time, and it was made even better by having the girl he loved by him now.
"I am glad you think so," she murmured, letting the wind whip her own unbound locks every-which-way. "It is a beautiful universe, after all."
The peaceful night was having it's intended intoxicating effect. Slowly, Carlos stopped, barely hearing the musical wind in his ears. Sharie, his Querida, he mused as she stopped to face him. The combined moonlight of all three moons cast their eerie, colorful glow as she looked up at him, lighting up her blazingly golden hair with candy colors, increasing her innocent appearance. Her eyes danced with the same colors, and she looked so positively sweet it was impossible to resist. She lifted her chin, feeling her breath disappear as his mouth covered hers very softly.
She felt her own heartbeat pick up, then skyrocket, and her free hand groped, feeling for his. He gave them a warm squeeze as the gentle kiss went on and on, blending their hearts and souls in one whirlpool of warmth and understanding, binding them with ties only love and devotion could create and few things could shatter.
When the kiss ended, it was very slowly. She felt the gentle pressure of his lips lift, and some inner desire made her lips follow his, not wanting it to end, until she was on her toes and only his height prevented the contact from staying.
"Carlos?" she asked, sounding so innocent he felt a flicker of amusement. Maybe this was how she had sounded as a girl.
"Yes?" he asked, not letting her hands go. Her innocent tone and posture evoked the strongest feelings of protection, and he could not help but smile. Sharie, in most ways, had lost most of her innocence the day she was kidnapped.
"Carlos.....what I have to say goes so much beyond words....the best I can come up with is thank you, thank you for being there for me, yesterday, today, since you first shown your light into my life. It means much more to me than you could ever understand."
For a moment, he was struck purely dumb. He still did not understand how she managed to do that. Her seeminly innocent words struck a chord in him he did not realize he had.
He opened his mouth, shut it, then stumbled over the lump in his throat, "I did not do anything I would not have done, Querida. I wanted to be there for you, don't you understand? I hate to see you in such misery. I am rejoicing with you because you are finally starting to get some of your life back. And I'll make Jeanette see who I truly am. She should have some idea already or I'm sure she would have said something by now otherwise." He grinned wickedly, then his eyes filled with pure emotion. "I love you, Sharie. You are a part of my own soul now, a part I cannot live without and don't want to even try to do."
Now it was her turn to be rendered speechless, and she stood still for a moment, trembling. Suddenly, moving fast, she wrenched her hands from his and flung her arms around his neck. Understanding her emotions, he caught his hand behind her neck and another around her slim waist, catching her to him and his lips crushing hers, a wild kiss of promise, the sweetest of promises and with the pressure of eternity.
****
In the privacy of his bedroom, Trey stood at the open window, staring out at the deep sky and the colorful array of light bestowed upon him by the three moons of Triforia. Clasped at his side, watching the same moon, was Delphine, the love of his life, the one who had opened his heart to romantic love once again, when he had thought it impossible.
He heard her sigh softly, and he held her a bit tighter.Three weeks, he mused. His whole life had turned upside-down in just three weeks. He had found his sister, fallen in love, avenged an old enemy, and found his mother in such a short span. A nagging thought in his mind told him that his good fortune seemed too good to last, it would, quite possibly, blow up in his face one day. The thought sent a chill up his spine. If he lost any one of those he loved, he would be a basket case, unreachable. He could not go through it again, he was certain.
He felt Delphine's hands move to rub his back soothingly, and he gratefully let the thought go. He closed his eyes, his head atop hers, letting her soothe him for once.
He could not tell her often enough how much he loved her, but he wanted her to know how grateful he was for her presence in his life of so late, when he had needed it the most. But mere words were not enough, to feel your feelings pulse through you, to make the connection beyond words, using the soulful bond, was true achievement, much more than flowery language. Language was a start, but the bond moved beyond words.
And it was much more pure, Trey mused idly as he lifted Delphine's chin with his finger, so her eyes met his. Yes, they were beyond words at times like these, when emotion, thought, and language both blended and became one with true understanding. Both understood it now as their lips met, and they understood that love was powerful, deeply moving, and eternally binding.
What started out as gentle swiftly caught up in a heated passion, the passion that ignited not only the flesh, but the soul. Her arms went around his neck, and while his lips were still pressed against hers, he caught her up easily in his arms, carrying her over to the bed, with the understanding that what had been started would only lead to infinity.
****
The dark pressed against every corner of Jeanette's sleeping chambers, save for one spot, where she was curled on the window seat, watching with tears streaming down her face at the beloved sight of her Triforia's night sky again. Home, she was home. Her family beside her, her sins forgiven, her future bright with promise. The only thing missing was her beloved Teryan, her deceased husband, whom she had never ceased missing. The one who had given her the two children now peacefully occupying Triforia's night sky.
*But we will always be connected,* she thought with age-old understanding as she watched the sky, her vision not blurred by her tears. *Even should I marry again, should I find love again, no one could ever take Teryan's place.
*Wherever you are, Teryan, I hope you understand,* she thought to the empty room. *Your family is back together again. May, by the grace of all we know, it remain so.*
And maybe this time, it could turn out right.
