Sorry about the delayed update, guys! Graduation was crazy, and I'm still trying to get my bearings. Fun stuff! I can't blame it all on graduation, though: WoW has taken over my life, and I hate it. Oh so much. That game is addictive beyond words.

As for this crazy fic…this chapter is much shorter than the others. Why? It's filler.

I know you hate me for it, but I needed a filler so I could add Tyzonn into the fic, and it's really hard to just jump into another full chapter when there's been a brand new character introduced. Especially when the next chapter needs to take place at least six episodes later than the episode referenced in the last chapter.

Someone asked me about the continuity of this fic, and here's so say…it's pretty screwed up. The first chapter happened relatively early on, I'm thinking somewhere between Heart of Blue and Pirate in Pink. Same goes for the second chapter, seeing as how it continues directly from the first. The next four chapters exist in the time hole I created between Lights, Camera, DAX and Face to Face I & II. Heh.

As for this chapter, it takes place on the night right after Just like Me.

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"The forceps of our minds are clumsy things and crush the truth a little in the course of taking hold of it." -H.G. Wells

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Interlude: Daybreak Reverie

Rose smiled in accomplishment as she finally managed to fix up the latest damage that had been done to the zords. She dusted herself off and stretched, her arms reaching towards the ceiling. After letting out a large yawn, she patted the zord admiringly before heading over to her own zord to assess the damage done to it.

She was tired and it was late, but hers was the last zord to be fixed so she figured sleep could wait. Spencer had originally been helping her, but he had left a few hours earlier, warning her not to stay up too late.

She chuckled slightly at the thought, looking down at her watch. The small device was flashing the numbers 3:17, and she knew Spencer would be horrified at the thought of her staying up so long to finish work that they both could easily handle in the morning.

Honestly, though…she couldn't sleep; her mind was a whirlwind of thought. Her eyes traveled briefly over to the Flashpoint zords, and she quickly closed them again. She sighed.

The past month had been unbelievably hectic.

It had turned out that it wasn't exactly a trip that Mr. Hartford waned to speak with Mack about. It was actually about the new zord Mack was getting. She knew about it, of course; she helped to the thing together, for goodness sakes. Though, she really wasn't expecting him to go berserk over it. Freaking out about new technology was mostly Ronny's department, but she was glad for Mack all the same.

After that, though…

Things began to spiral out of control. Meeting Tyzonn had been an eye-opener. It was intriguing to meet an alien, no doubts about that, but that was the extent of Rose's interest in him. She laughed. He was a good friend, to be sure, especially after he decided to join the team. But there were definitely better looking men living in the mansion.

Rose shook her head, clearing her thoughts before she could begin to daydream about Mack. It was a practice that she had recently taken up, and while it was certainly fun to do, it was very distracting.

Between meeting Tyzonn and the horrible encounter with the Fearcats in Brazil, she and Mack had been spending more and more time with each other. They had spent quite a few nights together on the balcony of the room next to his, simply stargazing and talking. She had gotten to know more and more about the red ranger; his hopes and dreams, his fears…and he had gotten to know quite a bit about her.

It was strange being around him. She put more trust in him than with practically anyone else she knew. She found herself telling him things that she hadn't ever told any other person before. She, like anyone else, had a closet full of demons, and it was nice to be able to talk to him about some of her deepest secrets.

It was scary, trusting someone like that. He had enough dirt to blackmail her into doing just about anything he wanted for the rest of her life. But… he wasn't that kind of person. She almost regretted telling him some things, but later on she would look into his eyes and know that he would never take advantage of the information he had given her. Betrayal of her trust in him was something she couldn't see him risking.

Rose wiped the sweat off of her brow, and continued wrenching a part into place. She briefly wondered if some of the things he had told her about himself had ever been mentioned to anyone else. She thought about asking him, but then mentally shrugged. With all the talking that they had been doing, she'd figure it out in due time.

Her eyebrows came together as a frown crossed her features. 'Or I might not get the chance to figure it out at all!'

She huffed. After Tyzonn had joined the team, he had been given the room next to Mack's. Ever since he moved in, the constant nights with Mack had dwindled because neither of them wanted Ty to find out about their relationship. The talks with him had been less frequent lately, and it was really disappointing, but there wasn't much either of them could do about it.

She was still bitter about the loss of her favorite chatting spot, and was depressed at the thought of losing the nights or stargazing. It was silly, she knew, but it couldn't be helped. She had grown attached to the small space, and she didn't want to give it up. The only consolation was that Mack wasn't exactly fond of giving it up either.

He had wanted to complain to his father about Tyzonn's room assignment, but she had been forced to talk him out of it. She knew Hartford would want to know why his son was so adamant about keeping the room vacant. It would lead to too many awkward questions, and Mack couldn't very well tell his father that he was using the room's balcony to have late-night bonding sessions with the team's pink ranger. Ronny and Will were taking enough slack from him as it was, and Rose wasn't too keen about getting on a multi-billionaire's bad side.

Ronny and Will… oh, that was a funny topic of conversation nowadays. Rose laughed to herself spitefully. The chat she had had with Ronny before they had met Ty seemed to put the yellow ranger into a strange mindset. Rose couldn't tell if Ronny had talked to Will about her feelings or not, but it didn't seem to matter.

Rose had seen how flirtatious the yellow ranger was with the newest member of the team. It was impossible to not to notice. She had been trying, but she couldn't seem to get a read from Will about the love triangle that was beginning to form. Will was just as cocky as ever. He seemed to genuinely like Tyzonn, even after the mercury ranger had tried to take over his style. Rose had to smother a smile. The thought of Tyzonn with cornrows still made her laugh.

Still, she was worried about Will. Sometimes she thought that he was blocking out the budding relationship between Ronny and Tyzonn, or just pretending nothing was happening. Rose quickly shot down that idea. Will was a smart guy; he knew when something wasn't right. But then… why was he acting this way?

Rose frowned as she got up to inspect the job she had done on the zord, half of her mind on inspecting her work, and the other half on the situation between the three love-struck rangers. She knew that Will cared deeply about Ronny, and wanted only the best for her. It confused her how he could just give up on the yellow ranger so easily, especially to competition. He just didn't seem like the kind of guy who would back down to the challenge Tyzonn posed.

The pink ranger tightened a few loose screws and walked over to the toolbox in the back of the room to put her supplies away. Had Will had talked to Ronny? Or had he set up a deal with Tyzonn? She knew that the black ranger had been teaching Ty how to flirt with the girls from Earth, so maybe his master plan was to trick him into liking someone else. That seemed like something Will would do, but Rose couldn't know for sure. She supposed she would just have to wait and see where the future would lead them. Rose just hoped that her friends wouldn't wind up getting their hearts broken in the process.

She yawned, her lack of sleep finally catching up with her. She looked over the zords once more before standing in the doorway to admire her handwork. Satisfied, she shut off the lights and made her way through the command centre and up the stairs to the main house.

As she went over the other ranger's situation in her mind one last time, she was infinitely glad that her relationship with Mack was so comparatively simple. They had their spats, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. She figured that the reason for Ronny's predicament was the fact that she never talked to the guys about how she was feeling. Rose knew exactly where she stood with Mack, and she knew that Mack felt the same way. The two of them were always on the same page, but Ronny didn't have that luxury.

She was sympathetic. Rose knew that Ronny herself was probably confused about her feelings for Will and Tyzonn. She hoped that the other girl could find out a way to sort out her feelings before she ended up seriously hurting one of the guys. Rose loved the girl to death, but she knew that the whole thing was just a disaster waiting to happen.

Andrew Hartford didn't add too many happy feelings into the mix, either. He was a great mentor, but he was adamant on not having any couples in the house. Mack had told her that he had overheard his father giving Ty the rundown of rules when he had moved in, and that the elder Hartford had spent a good half-hour on the no-couples subject.

She laughed at the thought. Poor Ty was probably confused to death!

Rose reached her room and entered, closing the door behind her quietly so as not to awaken any of the other rangers. She slipped into her pajamas and then entered the bathroom that was connected to her room. She washed her face and brushed her teeth before making her way back into the main room. She turned off the lights and practically jumped into bed, sleep coming almost immediately to her.

Before she entered dreamland, she had one last fleeting thought about the other rangers; she hoped that everything would turn out for the best. In the end, Rose just wanted her friends to be happy.

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