Disclaimer: Buena Vista Entertainment owns the rights to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. This story involves characters and concepts from PRLG.
Taurus Rising
by Starhawk
They were screwed. The quiet weeks that followed their escape from Mirinoi, the rescue of the galactabeasts, and the sense of a phenomenal power at their fingertips had conspired to lull them into a false sense of security. They'd had no idea what was coming, no clue what they were really up against.
The new Rangers had all managed to forget, somehow, that the enemy from whom they had stolen the Quasar Sabers had turned a whole planet to stone in their wake. That this enemy had turned its weapons on entire population in a fit of pique, sparing no one, showing no empathy for life of any kind. The power they held had been there and it had changed nothing.
That power was here now. It had been useless against the insidious infiltration of shapeshifting bugs that had numbered in the hundreds by the time they turned on the inhabitants of Terra Venture. The AIs had locked down the city in a matter of seconds, buying the Rangers time to figure out what was going on and take care of the things one by one.
When the last one had disappeared back into what they assumed was some kind of ship-to-ship teleportation beam, the real attack began. The only thing that had saved the colony was the fact that Scorpius started with an agricultural dome, land that had been lying fallow in preparation for crop rotation, and its destruction took long enough for the Megaship to launch. None of them had battleship training, but Kai could fly and, thank god, Kendrix could shoot.
While they were desperately trying to mount some kind of external defense, stingwingers started to invade the city dome. Only the galactabeasts' intervention kept the bugs from defeating the AI lockdown through sheer force of numbers. Outside, Damon's knowledge of the Megaship scored them a lucky hit on Scorpius' attack ship, and the hive fell back with it.
No one knew for how long, how badly damaged the ship had been, or how likely it was that Scorpius would rethink his strategy after realizing the colony wasn't completely undefended. The Rangers retreated too, regrouping on Terra Venture to spend one long night and more than half the next day rooting out leftover stingwingers. They had managed to get some sleep then, before they took the Megaship out again to look for Scorpius.
The search was a futile one, but that first day had proven that they couldn't just wait for him to come to them. The domes were too vulnerable, and the weird teleportation capability meant that even the ship section of the colony wasn't safe. Leo held an emergency conference with the Council and Commander Stanton to discuss lockdown response, evacuation procedures, and hastily established colony-wide self-defense classes. The rest of them tried to get better at space battles.
He could already tell that today would be improved by not waking up. Kai was pretty sure the colony was on the edge of annihilation and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He hated being helpless. He hated the sense of wasted time, of focusing on the wrong things, of being totally unprepared for something he should have seen coming from the start.
Leo's voice made the world even more screwy. He was supposed to wake up to the sound of Evanescence, which was really the only thing that would make this morning bearable, assuming Scorpius didn't return during "Bring Me To Life" to blast them all out of the sky. If he was hearing the voice of his ridiculously good-looking team leader instead of his alarm, it probably meant one of two things: he'd gotten really drunk the night before, or they were about to die.
Possibly both, Kai decided, reluctantly trying to open his eyes. Except that he didn't feel like he had a hangover. Maybe having a morpher meant that he didn't get hangovers anymore.
Couldn't save the colony, he thought grimly, but could get drunk enough to forget about it without consequence.
"Hey, do you wake up angry?" Leo was asking. "I swear I'm not trying to piss you off. But I don't think you'll want to miss this."
He was leaning against the bunk above Kai's, tapping both hands against it impatiently. Kai had a weird, dream-fogged memory of one of those hands on his shoulders, and he wondered if Leo had actually shaken him awake. Maybe he had been drunk. He never had this much trouble getting up.
"We--" He struggled to sit up, and it was a struggle, but he could feel energy rising even as he tried to force himself into it. So willing themselves awake actually worked for Rangers. Good to know.
He cleared his throat and tried again. It was suddenly much easier than it had been before. "We're not at a point in our relationship where you should be waking me up, Leo."
Leo's expression brightened, a grin dissolving away the impatience, and it was twice as good as music. "Really?" he asked, and there was something more curious than contrary about it. "You sure about that?"
Kai groaned, rubbing his eyes even as the rest of his body started to notice how close Leo was. "Unfortunately, no," he muttered. "Back off and tell me what's going on."
He didn't think it was his imagination that Leo hesitated, and he knew he'd asked for it with such an honest answer. But he wasn't really on yet, caught in that defenseless period between sleeping and waking, and so many things had gone wrong these past few days. He just didn't have time to keep himself from saying stupid things around Leo.
"I tried to get you on the comm," Leo said, hitching his hip up on the nearest chair and folding his arms. "You didn't answer, and we were worried."
"I'm tired," Kai grumbled. He swung his legs over the edge of the bunk and he could feel something inside him, pushing him to his feet. He went automatically to brace himself against the middle bunk, but he didn't need it. "I probably didn't hear it."
"Well, I can't imagine why you'd be tired," Leo said dryly. "Next time you decide to clear the entire south and east sides yourself? Save some of your sixty-seven stingwingers for us."
He didn't really want to look at Leo while he asked, but he was heading for the bathroom anyway so he threw over his shoulder, "Is that an order? Sir?"
"Would you take one if I gave it?" Leo called back.
"I'm not you," Kai muttered, leaving the door open behind him. He heard Leo laugh, obviously overhearing, and he felt himself smile. He honestly wasn't sure whether he would take orders from Leo or not. So far it hadn't been an issue.
Running water woke him up the rest of the way, and to his surprise, there was no constant commentary from the doorway about the latest catastrophe. Leo was quiet. Kai gave his reflection a second look, wondering if he really looked angry when he woke up.
"I assume if we were about to die," he said, coming out of the bathroom a moment later, "you would have told me by now." He hadn't expected this kind of patience from someone who had barged into his room uninvited.
Leo grinned at him. "Maybe the last thing I want to do before I die is see you first thing in the morning."
Kai eyed him, because if there was one thing he'd learned about Leo over the last few days, it was that he didn't take the threat of death seriously at all. "I really hope that's not true," he said at last.
"No," Leo assured him. "I'm much more ambitious than that. Trust me," he said with a smirk, "when we're about to die, you'll know."
He shouldn't say it. He knew he shouldn't, and he was going to anyway. "It's so wrong," Kai muttered, "that you just made me curious about dying."
Leo didn't move from the chair he was leaning back against, but neither did his smile fade and he lifted one hand to crook his finger in Kai's direction. Come here, the gesture said. So easy, so casual, the invitation extended with so little thought that Kai sometimes wished he could respond the same way.
It would have been just as simple to roll his eyes, to brush it off and get dressed and demand to know what was so important that it had Leo in his room at... whatever hour it was. Instead, he found himself walking over to the chair. When Leo stood up he just waited, not surprised by the hands on his shoulders but somehow caught completely off guard by the mouth pressed carefully against his.
He didn't like being caught off guard, and it was rush or run or ride it out. He leaned into the kiss, acutely conscious of his bare chest and low-riding sweats against Leo's jeans and nylon jacket. It was a closeness he hadn't felt in a long time, and he could feel it spreading through him, warming him from the inside.
He felt Leo's grip on his bare skin. He felt him push back, evening the pressure on their bodies. He felt the involuntary breath when Kai's tongue brushed against his lips, a gasp or a flinch or just the smallest expression of surprise.
Kai pulled away. Leo had asked for it, he'd been asking for it for weeks, he flirted like there was no tomorrow. But he was like that with everyone, and Kai had returned the mostly innocent teasing too hard and too fast. He just--he really wasn't good at this.
"You're good at this," Leo told him, slow smile spreading across his face. "I think you've been holding out on me."
Kai couldn't meet his gaze, and he could feel his skin warming under Leo's stare. "Because we've had so many opportunities to kiss recently," he muttered, just for something to say.
"Recently," Leo repeated, clearly amused. "Try ever. I hope this means you're still planning to make me dinner sometime."
Like there was no tomorrow, Kai thought resignedly. He turned away before he could take that invitation again, another kiss that he hadn't realized he wanted so much. It was just Leo, he tried to remind himself. Just Mike's little brother, barely out of high school and prettier than he was smart.
"I made you dinner yesterday," he said over his shoulder, grabbing his uniform and deliberately not looking at Leo as he started to change.
"You made all of us dinner yesterday," Leo pointed out.
"You were all hungry," Kai countered.
It was just Leo. Just the Red Ranger who had listened to the AIs three days ago, deployed them like counterinsurgents across the city, and gotten the galactabeasts to understand the fragility of the dome before they mounted a defense that destroyed everything they were trying to protect. Just the same guy who had stepped back on the Megaship, letting his teammates do what he couldn't, and stepped forward on Terra Venture, calming the Council and reassuring the rest of the city.
Just a man who knew enough to ask for help when he needed it, and to ask for trust when he deserved it. Just a man doing a job he hadn't wanted at the cost of his brother's life, who cared enough about his team to do his best. Just a man who cared enough about Kai to count the number of stingwingers he'd taken on, to check on him when he didn't answer his comm, and to back off when asked.
He was so screwed.
"While this is true," Leo was saying, "and also, that soup was really good, I still don't think a team dinner counts as a date. And that's really what I was angling for."
Kai glanced back at him as he pulled his shirt on, and he found Leo studying the far wall. Not making a big deal of it, just giving Kai the privacy he figured he'd want. Leo had somehow figured out an alarming amount about him without ever asking.
"Tonight," Kai said, before he could change his mind. He ran a hand through his hair to even it out as he added, "Assuming the colony is still here, I'll make you dinner tonight."
"Great!" Leo beamed. He glanced over at Kai and added, "So, want to know why I'm really here?"
"Probably not," he said with a sigh. A better wake-up call than he'd expected, but a wake-up call nonetheless. "This has been a nice vacation from my life, actually. Weird," he admitted, "but nice."
Leo pointed at him, grin still firmly in place. "I'm flattered by that," he said. "Seriously. But it's going on fifteen minutes now since I first tried to call you, and I told everyone where I was going."
Kai closed his eyes. "When you say 'everyone,'" he began.
"Well, mostly Kendrix," Leo said. "And Councilor Renier. Plus whoever was in the room with her, since I talked to her over the comm. Stanton's shift hasn't started yet, though, so that's good."
"We need to go," Kai said, looking around for his shoes.
"Yeah, well." Leo looked sheepish, hand on the back of his neck, shrugging just enough that Kai could see it out of the corner of his eye. "Probably."
"What happened?" Kai reminded him.
"Oh, lots of things," Leo said, waving a hand idly. "Had a dream about Mike, really good biscuits for breakfast, and, oh yeah, there's a Ranger here to see us."
Kai leaned against the arm of the couch to pull his shoes on. "You had a dream about Mike?"
"Yeah." Leo sounded absent all of a sudden, and Kai looked up to find his shoes apparently the source of that distraction. "I thought I saw him yesterday," Leo was saying, "so I guess my brain--"
Then Leo's eyes caught his, and he frowned. "Did you just hear what I said?"
Kai smiled. "I assumed you started with the most important thing," he said.
Leo looked like he was fighting to hold onto his frown. "Fine," he replied. "There's a Ranger here to see us. Blah blah blah, some other things. But," he added, in all seriousness, "those biscuits were really good."
"You should have saved me one," Kai remarked, nodding toward the door.
He won, because he could hear the smile in Leo's voice when he said, "Next time."
As soon as they were out of his room, Leo started briefing him on the situation. On any other day it would have been strange, because this was the sort of thing that should have happened behind closed doors. But when it was Leo behind those closed doors, and he had the flirt factor turned on high, priorities somehow got rearranged.
"There's going to be a quiz later," Leo said, as they got into the elevator. "Are you listening?"
"Of course I'm listening," Kai scoffed. Like it was his fault he was distracted.
Leo punched in their destination, and there was a moment of silence before the doors closed. Then Kai felt a hand on his shoulder. The awkward grip slid down to his elbow, rubbing his upper arm briefly before letting go. "It'll be all right," Leo said quietly.
Kai almost smiled, because Leo had already moved on. His head was back in the game. He was probably trying to coordinate several different plans at once, and Kai wasn't even listening.
"Sorry," he said, because he knew he should be. "That's not what I was thinking about."
Leo squeezed his shoulder again, and really, he was in more trouble than he was letting himself believe. Because if there was one thing Leo wasn't, it was subtle. The odds of the colony being completely destroyed within the week--even the day--were high, and he wasn't going to agonize over his career in the meantime. But he knew that the more he allowed from Leo now, the less room he'd have to complain later.
It wasn't until they stepped out of the elevator near one of the heliship bays that he realized they'd been going down instead of up. Maybe that had been one of the things Leo was trying to tell him. "Uh, where are we going?" Kai asked anyway.
Apparently not, because Leo just shrugged. "Kendrix said to meet her in Hangar 5."
The Megaship bay. He wanted to ask why, but it seemed clear that Leo either didn't know or had already told him. He raised his eyebrows at the security outside the hangar, and Leo caught his eye as they were allowed in without a second glance. He looked just as baffled.
There were soldiers and uniforms and something that was definitely not a heliship, and that was all he had time to see before a strangely metallic whine echoed in the cavernous bay. Weapons came up all around him, pointing at the thing that wasn't a heliship, and a tingle from his wrist made him look down. The whine was followed by a growl as his transmorpher lit up, glowing briefly blue.
A quick look at Leo confirmed the phenomenon. He was holding up his morpher as well, but his gaze went from Kai to the giant cat-like shape looming over them. "Zord," Leo said aloud.
"Leo!" That was Kendrix's voice, and Kai found and focused on her in seconds. Standing beside a blonde woman in a brown bomber jacket, she looked more excited than worried. Neither she nor the woman were paying any attention to the guns. "Over here!"
Leo started in her direction without question, but he stopped and waited when one of the officers from the graveyard shift caught Kai's attention. "She claims she's a Ranger," Casey said under her breath. "But the computer puts an image correlation with Astronema at ninety-eight percent."
Leo just waited. Kai tried not to roll his eyes. Yeah, like it would mean anything to him. He must have been, what? Twelve when Astronema invaded? Kai nodded to Casey, letting her know he got it.
Leo strode forward, his eyes on the woman with Kendrix. Curly blonde hair held away from her face with a headband, hanging past her shoulders and threaded through with charms, she did bear more than a passing resemblance to the villainess of old. But her clothes were new: tawny trousers and a purple shirt, while her jacket bore what looked like a squadron logo with the letters "KPD."
No visible weapons, Kai noted. But no visible morpher, either.
"Hi," Leo was saying, holding out his hand with a smile that Kai could hear in his voice from here. "Leo Corbett. Red Galaxy Ranger."
"Hello." The woman returned his smile with a pleased expression that made all trace of Astronema disappear. She looked very young, very sweet, and completely incapable of evil as she shook Leo's hand. "Kerovan Ranger Kerone Tyuseabe. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Leo agreed, as Kai joined them. "This is my Blue Ranger, Kai Chen. And I guess you've already met Kendrix."
"Hi," Kai muttered warily. He shook her hand only because she offered it, but she didn't seem to take offense.
"Hello," she repeated, smiling at him too before she told Leo, "Kendrix and Damon greeted me on arrival. They've been very kind."
"Where is Damon?" Leo wondered aloud. "I should have known he'd beat me here."
"Oh, he wanted to have a look at Magic." The woman looked over her shoulder at the giant cat that had put its head down on its paws behind her. One tremendous ear flicked in their direction, and the eyes blinked once. "My zord," she added, turning back to them. "I'm afraid your weapons wouldn't be very effective against her."
"I'm sorry about all this," Leo said, with every indication of actual apology. His gaze took in the soldiers and the security all at once. "We were invaded by shapeshifters three days ago, and I'm afraid everyone's a little on edge."
"I understand." She looked like she did, too, and Kai couldn't decide whether that made her more or less suspicious. "I actually came here to ask for your help, but if there's anything we can do, we'd be happy to lend ours in return."
We, he thought? Her and her zord?
"What can we do for you?" Leo asked immediately. As though they were in any position to be offering someone else assistance.
The woman hesitated for the first time, and she cast a frank look at their surroundings. "I mean no offense," she said, and she did sound contrite. "But you're not the only ones to have experience with shapeshifters. I respect the fact that you trust these people, but could we talk privately somewhere? Maybe on the Megaship?"
Kerovan Ranger. That was what she had said before, and it had taken him until now to make the connection. It had been the Kerovan Rangers who brought the Megaship back to Earth to help with the construction of Terra Venture.
"Sure," Leo was saying.
"Leo." Kai had to intervene, because this was ridiculous. Fine, she looked angelic. And she had a giant animal thing that reminded him of the galactabeasts. What exactly did that tell them? He still hadn't seen a morpher. And agreeing to accompany Astronema to a supposedly neutral, unarmed location was asking for trouble no matter what.
"Oh, yeah." Leo didn't seem to need any more than that, but his approach wasn't what Kai might have wished. He just jerked his head in the direction of a random soldier and remarked, "Some of them think you look like Astronema. Astro Ranger enemy from a few years back?"
"Yes," the woman agreed, with a small, rueful smile. "That was me."
Kai blinked. "You're Astronema?" he blurted out. He hadn't expected her to admit it.
"Well." She gave him a very apologetic look. "Not anymore. But I was. That's part of the reason I'm here, actually."
"So you gave up being evil to become a Power Ranger?" He didn't have to look to know Leo was grinning. "That's cool."
She pulled something out of her pocket and showed it to him and Kendrix, then offered it to Kai. "My digimorpher," she said. "Your morpher should recognize it."
He took it without apology, even if he had no idea what she was talking about. But it made his morpher light up the same way her zord had: a blue flash and a sense of something right, something recognized. Something familiar. The little phone-like device in his hand glowed violet for a moment before darkening.
"Cool," Leo repeated. "I didn't know they did that."
"Neither did I," Kai said, frowning. He held out his hand to Leo. "Give me your morpher."
Leo took it off and handed it over without protest, and it flashed red the moment Kai touched it. Blue and violet light touched his and Kerone's morphers simultaneously. This time the sense of recognition was stronger, making his fingers tighten around the red transmorpher before he realized what he was doing.
He shook his head. "They do seem to... acknowledge each other," he said, handing Leo's back. He studied the other one for a few extra seconds, the first time he had ever seen another morpher up close. When he passed it back, Kerone slid it into her jacket pocket.
"Damon, Leo," Leo said, talking to his transmorpher without putting it back on his wrist. "Conference on the Megaship."
The reply took a moment, and Leo nodded to Kendrix. She lifted her left wrist, turning away, and Kai heard her calling Maya. Then Damon answered, "Leo, Damon. Be there in a minute."
He appeared on top of the giant cat seconds later. Rolling its head onto one paw, the cat extended the other out to one side, allowing Damon to scramble down to the deck. Kai raised his eyebrows, glancing over at Leo. But Leo was listening to Kendrix's conversation, and he ended up catching Kerone's eye instead.
She smiled at him. "We don't have a dedicated engineer on our team," she offered. "I think Magic likes the chance to show off for someone who can really appreciate her."
"Is she--" He frowned, realizing he had started in with Damon's gendered pronouns. Then again, for all he knew, it was appropriate. "Is she alive?"
"Alive, yes," Kerone agreed. "Organic?" She wrinkled her nose, freckles and all. "That part's debatable."
"Maya's on her way," Leo said, just as Damon joined them. "She'll meet us on the Megaship."
"Casey." Kai paused long enough to wave her over, and she fell into step beside them as they made their way around "Magic" toward the Megaship. "Councilor Renier is waiting for word, probably in the control tower. Let her know we're meeting with Kerone on the Megaship and we'll brief the Council afterward."
"Understood." Casey peeled off, heading back the way she'd come.
Kerone reached out to touch something as soon as they boarded the Megaship, and there was the sound of the click. Nothing else seemed to happen, but Kai gave her a suspicious look. "What was that?"
"Data disc," Kerone said, offhand. "Automatic zord linkup. I brought a friend."
An oddly familiar voice seemed to come from all around them. "DECA 335, currently of the Astro Megaship Mark II out of KO-35. Crew complement, seven; mission, to assist the Powered team known as the Kerovan Rangers.
"And," the voice added after a noticeable pause, "allies."
Kerone just smiled. It was Damon who got it.
"DECA," he repeated. An odd expression flickered across his face, and then he lifted his gaze to the ceiling with a look of sudden comprehension. "You're not the computer. You're an AI!"
He was looking at a little device that Kai had written off as an internal monitor, some sort of shipboard camera. They lined the hallways here, and he assumed they had once served some sort of security purpose. He had never seen them online. Now, though, the nearest one was lit with a red light that blinked when the voice replied.
"I modified the computer interface to suit the original crew," it said. "I see that the audio interface and speech circuits retain that configuration."
"Yes," Kerone interrupted, throwing a fond smile in the direction of the camera. "She's an AI. She has a holographic interface too."
That was all the warning they had before the transparent image of a young woman appeared in the hallway with them. "Some people find this easier to relate to," she remarked, apparently studying them.
"Okay," Damon said, looking much too excited for a guy on a battleship that had just been taken over by an AI with unknown intentions. "The references to 'DECA' make a lot more sense now."
"Damon's been retrofitting the Megaship," Leo explained. "He knows more about her than any of us."
"Which honestly isn't saying much," Damon added quickly. "We've done the best we can--we really needed her these last few days. But I don't have anyone who's familiar with this technology, and even the Power only gets us so far."
"We can help you with that," Kerone promised. "DECA just needs to borrow the scanners for a few minutes--"
"I have located the Lights of Orion," the hologram interjected.
"Or a few seconds," Kerone amended, "and once we've found what we're looking for, we can give you some pointers."
"What are the Lights of Orion?" Kendrix wanted to know.
"To tell you the truth?" She made a face, which Kai thought was disingenuous considering her AI had just redirected systems that were at least nominally under the jurisdiction of the GSA. "I don't really know. All I know is, they're some sort of tremendous power source that could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands. We're trying to get to them before that happens."
"Why did you need the Megaship scanners to find them?" Kai asked, frowning. It was a vague explanation at best, and he could already see flaws in it. Who was to say hers were the right hands, after all?
"I still need them, actually." She smiled at them like that couldn't possibly pose a problem. "A friend of mine has been chasing them all over this galaxy--they're moving, you see, evading us, or maybe following something, it's hard to tell. He hasn't been able to catch them, but until Scorpius showed up, he wasn't worried.
"When he realized that there was an evil with Scorpius' resources so close by, he asked me for help. He doesn't want the power of the Lights to be misused any more than we do. Any of us. It sounds like you're familiar with Scorpius and his kind already..."
"Too familiar," Leo agreed, when she trailed off. "So the Megaship scanners can track these Lights?"
"Hello?" Maya's voice called from the space hatch, and soft footsteps announced her bare feet on the deck immediately. More footsteps than there should have been.
"Over here," Leo called, just as Maya peered around the corner. She had her hand behind her back, holding on to something, and as she stepped forward, they could all see that Jewel was with her.
"Hi," Maya said apologetically. "I'm sorry, but Jewel couldn't go back to sleep and I didn't want to wake her share parents--is it all right that we're both here?"
Kerone answered before any of them could. "Of course," she said, her gentle voice even softer now. "I have two children of my own; I know how it is. Please, join us."
Maya and Jewel came forward, still holding hands, and Kendrix reached out to touch Jewel's shoulder as she joined them. Jewel reached for her hand too, looking around with wide eyes. She'd probably never been on the Megaship before, Kai thought with a sigh. For good reason.
"I'm Maya," Maya was saying, smiling happily at Kerone. Because saying she was a mother automatically made someone trustworthy. "This is Jewel. We came to Terra Venture from Mirinoi."
"I'm Kerone, from KO-35." Kerone waved at Jewel, who looked up at her for a long moment before looking back at Maya.
"Where's KO-35?" Jewel wanted to know.
"I don't know," Maya admitted.
"It's a Border planet in another galaxy," Kerone offered. "There's a small colony there. My family and I are the Power Rangers that defend it."
Jewel seemed to consider that. "Everyone in your family is a Power Ranger?" she asked at last.
"Pretty much," Kerone agreed. "Our children are a little young, still, but my brother and sister and my husband are all Rangers."
"That's kind of like my family now," Jewel decided. "Only I don't have any brothers and sisters anymore. Maya and Kendrix are like my parents, and they're both Power Rangers."
"It sounds like you're very well taken care of," Kerone said. There was a sadness in her eyes when Jewel said "anymore," but it didn't touch her voice.
Jewel looked up at Maya again, tugging on her hand this time to get her attention. "Who's that?" she wanted to know.
Kai looked around and realized that the hologram was now half hidden behind Kerone. It walked right through her as it came to "stand" inside their little circle, apparently looking down at Jewel. "I'm DECA," the transparent blonde woman told her. "I'm a holographic projection of the AI currently controlling the Megaship."
A description that made Kai nervous, making as it did zero pretense at answering to anyone else's authority. But it made Jewel light up. "You're an AI?" she demanded. "I like AIs. I know an AI named Ryan. He's my friend. He always talks to me, even when my parents are busy."
"Your parents only have two ears each," the hologram observed. "AIs can have as many as they want. This gives us a considerable advantage when it comes to engaging young children in conversation."
Jewel looked surprised--and not by the complexity of the sentence, Kai realized a moment later. "I didn't think of that," she said.
"We've come looking for something," DECA remarked to the group at large. "If we might borrow the Megaship for a short time? The scanners should be able to follow the Lights wherever they go, and their retrieval will make this part of space much safer."
"That'd be great," Leo agreed, and Kai was about to protest when he continued smoothly, "but right now the Megaship is Terra Venture's only line of defense against Scorpius. We scared him off once, but he could be back any time and all it would take is one shot--did you see the destroyed dome on the lower ring when you came in?"
"Scorpius did that?" Kerone looked as worried as they'd seen her. "I didn't realize. I thought maybe there'd been some kind of accident."
"Well, insofar as Scorpius accidentally fired on an agricultural dome instead of the population center," Kai muttered, "it was an accident. Luckily it was in our favor."
"What does he want with you?" Kerone insisted. "A defenseless colony ship with no weapons or resources other than those that keep her people alive? What could he possibly stand to gain?"
Leo lifted his left wrist, twisting it just enough that his transmorpher appeared again. "These," he said. "We ran into Scorpius on Mirinoi, and we got to the Power before he could. Now he's out to even the score."
"Your planet," Kerone said, glancing at Maya. "Mirinoi? What's your Power doing here on Terra Venture?"
"We are all that's left of my world," Maya said softly. "The Power chose us, but we couldn't save Mirinoi. Terra Venture was our safe haven in a time of great peril. Now I fear we have done nothing but bring that peril here."
Kendrix transferred Jewel's grip to her other hand and put her free hand on Maya's shoulder. Maya gave her an apologetic look, even as Jewel crowded closer and leaned her head against Maya's arm. "I'm sorry," Maya murmured.
"No." Kerone was shaking her head. "No," she repeated, "the Power chose you for a reason, and it brought you here. This is where you're supposed to be. There's something about this colony that can protect you, that needs protecting itself, and I think your team is it.
"The strength of a Ranger is the team," she continued, when Maya lifted her head and caught her eye. "You're all here, you're together, and together you can protect this place. Never doubt that you're strong enough to handle anything the forces of evil send against you."
Kai couldn't help it. "Is that the voice of experience speaking?" he wanted to know.
Her reply was the last thing he expected. "Speaking as a former force of evil?" she said. "I promise you, it's not as easy as it looks."
Damon sounded disbelieving. "Well, it's not so easy from where I'm standing, either. This ship has no defense other than us, and I've gotta say, we're no superstars when it comes to the Ranger thing."
For some reason, this made Kerone smile. "I think every Ranger before you has said the same thing," she told him. "It isn't heroes who become Rangers, Damon. It's Rangers who are made into heroes."
"We aren't heroes," Kendrix said, shaking her head.
"Tell you what," Kerone suggested. "Launch the Megaship. It can circle Terra Venture, and DECA can feed me coordinates and vectors while I take Magic out to track down the Lights. When we come back, we'll see what we can do to make the colony more secure."
It wasn't any more specific than anything else she'd told them, but it was a safer compromise, and when it came right down to it they didn't have a choice. Kai was very aware of the hologram that represented an artificial intelligence currently controlling every shipboard system. With the upgrades Damon's crew had made, hardwiring the Megaship's access to bay controls, the AI could launch the ship herself if she chose.
He was also aware of Jewel, whom Maya wanted to leave on Terra Venture, but Kerone successfully argued that the battleship was a safer place to be than the colony at this point. Not a comforting thought, but unfortunately true. Jewel seemed inexplicably delighted.
Leo contacted the control tower to tell them that they were taking the Megaship out on patrol with their new Ranger escort. Kerone closed the space hatch and then walked out through the hull in a show of magical teleportation that creeped Kai out. The rest of them headed for the Bridge and followed "Magic" out into space.
It wasn't anywhere near as easy as Kerone had made it sound. Oh, it started off well--sort of like their first two weeks as Rangers on Terra Venture. Disturbing, unexpected, and uncertain, and about as easy to understand as the arrival of a former princess of evil in their midst. But when things started to go wrong, they went wrong in spectacular and frighteningly rapid succession.
The Lights, once found, refused to be caught. Kerone had managed to chase them in the general direction of Terra Venture when a second zord appeared out of nowhere and opened fire on her transformed cat. She fought back, rejecting the Megaship's offer of help, and that was when Scorpius showed up.
Kai had figured that was as bad as the day could get. But the Lights chose that moment to abandon their idle butterfly-like dance and make a beeline for the colony, arrowing past the hive ship with two zords in hot pursuit. Leo yelled to Kerone that she couldn't hit the dome, to which she replied she was well aware of that, thank you very much, and she hit the other zord instead.
It looked like a sort of bull shape. Or it did until her cat collided with it. The two ships locked together, tumbling through space, trajectory skewed but not enough... burning toward the colony at a speed that a dome built to deflect space dust and high-intensity radiation would never withstand.
The Lights arced over the dome, curving around it like they were skating on ice. The two zords flared bright purple as they crashed right through it, unresponsive and out of control. Scorpius' weapons opened up on the Megaship.
Everything went gold and bright.
Kai found out later that the Lights of Orion had been following them all this time, and when they found Rangers in trouble they reacted without instruction. He found out at some point that Kerone could actually teleport very large objects through solid things like a space hatch or, say, a colony ship dome. And eventually, he learned that the zord she'd taken on was the most impossible thing they'd seen.
In the meantime, all he knew was that everything was gold. He wasn't dead. It turned out the dome was intact. And Scorpius had stopped shooting at them, had fallen back, had retreated. For a second time.
Kai hated feeling helpless. But he liked it when things went right. Right now, he didn't know what to feel.
DECA was telling them something about ship systems, or Scorpius, or both, and Leo was asking about Kerone. Maya was hugging Jewel, who seemed to be cheering for no apparent reason, and Kendrix was trying to pull Kai out of his seat. He objected to that, in principle, but in practice he couldn't quite remember why.
"What do you mean," Leo was asking, "teleport us?"
The holographic woman turned so that it was clear she was addressing Damon. "I thought," she said sternly, "that you said you knew something about the Megaship."
Damon lifted his hands from the controls, and, with a completely straight face, declared, "No, ma'am!
"Leo said that," he added as an aside. "Not me."
DECA didn't seem appeased. "I will maintain this ship's position outside the colony," she informed them. "You will go to the surface and ensure that Kerone and her zord are safe."
She didn't wait for an answer, which should have bothered Kai a lot more than it did. Ultimately, though, he was too busy being disoriented by what had to be a teleportation beam and horrified by the wreckage that greeted them when they found themselves abruptly on the surface of the city dome. The mere fact that he was still breathing indicated the dome was intact, but the two zords had cut a huge swath through the outer mall, leaving dirt and smoking debris in their wake.
"Call Medlab," Leo said, even as a giant head heaved itself up out of the crater left by the crash. Violet-tinted ears twitched in the wash of gold that suddenly flooded the dome, and every last one of them looked up.
"Just like the Megaship," Kendrix whispered.
Maya kept her head better than any of them, already talking to Medlab over her morpher. Kai could hear her trying to explain the inexplicable with an earnestness that he would never be capable of. Leo nudged Kendrix--"Control tower," he told her--and then headed for the big cat zord at a run.
A run that was checked by the cat's vocal warning as one enormous paw emerged from the dirt, then another, and then it was hauling itself to its feet and shaking off the rest of the loose dirt. That was where it froze, making a pained sound before it limped forward a few steps and lowered itself to the ground once more. Head resting in the dirt, eyes closed, it looked truly pathetic there in the middle of the ruined land.
"Kerone," Leo was saying to his transmorpher. "It's Leo. Are you all right?"
A violet silhouette appeared beside the cat's lowered head. It occurred to Kai to look up again, but the golden glow had faded from the dome. When he glanced back at Kerone, she had her hand pressed against the bottom of Magic's nose and he thought she might actually be using her zord for balance.
"I'm okay," she called, as they all began to converge on her. Her voice had been sweet and gentle since they'd met her, but now it sounded weak, and the closer he got the more sure Kai was that she was only standing with the help of her zord.
"Is this going to completely disrupt your ecosystem?" she was asking, and somehow she knew that it was Kendrix she should be looking at.
"Maybe," Kendrix admitted. She was reaching for Kerone's arm, and Kerone smiled, eyes closing in an echo of her zord's. "But nowhere near as much as losing the dome would have. Are you okay?"
Kerone shook her head, lifting her free arm before Kendrix could take it, and violet sparkles swirled around her fingertips. With a flick of her wrist, they burst outward, dissipating as they left. Kerone stumbled and fell, one hand bracing herself against the ground, her head resting on the side of Magic's face.
"I'll be all right," she promised, her voice muffled under all their exclamations and the metallic echo of her zord. "You should check on the other pilot."
The other--
Kai lifted his head and stared. The crash crater was gone. Two zords rested on the perfectly groomed grass of the outer mall, dirt and scarring still apparent on their frames but vanished from the land around them. It was as though they had been transplanted, picked up out of a war zone and dropped here, in the middle of a park that had never seen anything more disruptive than a severe thunderstorm.
The golden light, he thought at first. This was obviously supernatural, that was supernatural, perhaps a connection. Except that they had run into ruin to reach Kerone, so...
Kerone. She glowed violet when she used magic. If she could do more with it than teleport, then that might explain the purple glitter. At least insofar as "magic" was a valid explanation for anything at all.
The bull zord had collapsed onto its side, looking worse even than Kerone's cat, and it was definitely not moving. Even as he watched, it sparkled into nothingness, leaving a prone but vaguely human-looking figure on the ground behind it. A vaguely human-looking figure in GSA soldier gear. Who was also not moving.
Everything in Kai told him to stay where he was, to stay with Kerone, to avoid this new danger as long and as thoroughly as possible. This was bad. There was something about it that he didn't want to know. Something none of them should know, a threat that could pull this team, maybe this entire colony, apart.
It was the Power, he realized, somewhat dazedly. The Power was warning him to stay away. And everything in him agreed.
Everything except the part that was watching Leo run recklessly into danger, into fear, into the thing that might destroy them all. "Leo!" It was too late, he already knew it, but he had to try. "Leo, wait!"
Leo didn't wait, because that wasn't what Leo did. And Kai couldn't watch him do this alone. "Stay here," he told Damon and Maya. Kendrix was already running, following Leo blindly, and if that wasn't what they did he didn't know what was.
So he was there when Leo fell down beside the unconscious pilot, saw Leo roll him over, and something inside him screamed a warning when they found themselves staring down at a soldier who wore Mike's face. Kai was shaking his head when Leo looked up at him--maybe that was why the Red Ranger looked to Kendrix, on her knees across from him.
"Oh my god," Kai heard her whisper. She was reaching out, instinctively wanting to confirm what her eyes told her by touching the body between them. "Mike?"
"No," Kai said. He could hear sirens. That wasn't his imagination; Medlab was responding, and he had heard what Maya told them. The EMTs would bring security with them. "That's not Mike."
Mike's eyes snapped open. Kendrix was caught by surprise as he shoved into her, knocking her off balance even as he rolled into a crouch, slamming his elbow into her jaw in the process. He leapt at Leo--and, remarkably, Ranger reflexes won out over familial instincts.
Leo slid out of the way like he'd never even been there, but it wasn't enough. Mike came back with a grip that knocked Leo over and a raised fist he didn't bother to use when Leo's head struck the ground and he lay still. Rage gave Kai a frightening calm, a deadly stillness as the man that looked like Mike launched himself up off of Leo's body and spun to face him.
Kai registered nothing but threat in that face.
Violet electricity briefly outlined GSA soldier gear, and then Mike was falling. Kai whirled, catching sight of a bomber jacket and an all too familiar wrath staff before Kerone lost her balance and lurched into Damon. He caught her easily, lifting her limp form as the staff vanished and her head rolled back against his shoulder.
Maya and Jewel were running toward Kendrix, and Kai's gaze swept across Mike--an unmoving and ostensibly neutralized threat--to land on Leo. While Kendrix was sitting up, hand pressed against her cheek, Leo lay where he had fallen. Unconscious, injured, it was impossible to tell.
"Leo." He could hear sirens wailing louder, closer, then falling silent one by one as they arrived and urgent voices started to take their place. He could hear Kendrix talking, the words blurring together, Jewel calling for Kerone.
Kai couldn't move, frozen to the ground like holding still could keep this from being worse. He didn't know when he'd gotten so close, put a hand on Leo's shoulder, on his neck, maybe looking for a pulse even though it was clear that he was breathing. Leo's expression changed, face tightening, a grimace that didn't belong to an unconscious person.
"Leo," he repeated, and it sounded loud to his ears but the name was drowned out by a quiet groan as Leo rolled his head to one side. One hand moved to cover his eyes, and Kai closed his own in relief. Just a concussion. Obviously. It wasn't like him to let things paralyze him like this; he had to get up, make sure everyone else was okay, get a status report from--someone.
When he opened his eyes, Leo was squinting up at him. "Hey," he said, and the word was a drawl that sounded more than a little confused. "We're really not at a point in our relationship where you should be waking me up..."
How he sounded and how he was clearly had little connection. Kai didn't mean to smile, and he didn't realize he was doing it until it was already there on his face. He couldn't help asking, "Are you sure about that?"
Leo's confused expression vanished in a heartbeat. "No," he said, grinning up at Kai. He held out his hand with obvious intent. Kai wasn't sure that was a good idea, but he was a Ranger, after all. Pushing himself to his feet, he grabbed Leo's hand and hauled him up.
"Whoa." Leo caught his shoulder briefly, squeezing his eyes shut and deliberately not shaking his head. "That's not fun."
"You should be sitting down," Kai told him, feeling ridiculous for not insisting on it before. But now Leo did shake his head, looking perfectly normal when he let go of Kai's shoulder.
"I'm fine," he said, his hand going to the back of his head. "Going to have a hell of a bump, though. Kendrix?"
She was up too, standing on her own, but she touched her jaw gingerly when he asked. "Ow," she complained. "Otherwise, fine."
They were both looking down at "Mike" as the EMTs swarmed around them, and Kai was right: stun guns all around, two energy rifles guarding the group from a safe distance. Leo paid no attention, ignoring the people who tried to ask him if he was all right. "So," he said, still staring at the figure on the ground. "Shapeshifter, huh?"
Kai relaxed minutely. So Leo had decided not to be stupid today. That was one problem they wouldn't have to deal with, then. "Looks that way," he agreed.
"Remind me to listen to you next time," Leo muttered, and Kai snorted.
"With pleasure," he replied.
The EMTs were bundling Kendrix and Kerone into an ambulance. Leo was packed off to the nearest clinic despite his protests, and Kai made Damon ride with him. Maya had proven herself good at handling communication with the rest of Terra Venture--possibly because no one really expected her to know anything--and she still had Jewel, so she wasn't going anywhere. Kai left her in charge of cleanup and explanations while he grabbed another soldier, someone else's stun gun, and a ride in the emergency vehicle transporting "Mike."
The news when they reached the clinic wasn't good. The other shapeshifters had reverted, after all. Knocked out, incapacitated, any fluctuation in their energy seemed to send them back to their original form. But not this one. This one persisted in looking like Mike.
The EMTs were replaced by a clinic staffer named Andrea who didn't wait for permission to start doing tests--understandable, considering they all thought they were dealing with an enemy combatant rather than a colony citizen. But when they started coming up negative, no anomalies, no alien genetic code, no unrecognizable idiosyncrasies, she began to look worried. "Is it possible he's human?" she asked at last.
"No," Kai said shortly. "How can he be human? He looks just like Mike Corbett."
"Well, that's just it." Andrea was frowning at the man in the isolation room, now under heavy guard both inside and out. "He's got normal human vitals, and they match Mike Corbett's exactly. I even ran dentals. Perfect match."
"He's a shapeshifter," Kai reminded her. "Obviously there are some superficial similarities."
"Dental x-rays aren't superficial," she countered. "I've got the computer working on DNA tests, but so far, there's nothing I can do to prove he's not exactly who he looks like."
"Good disguise," Kai muttered.
"Impossibly good," she said. "This isn't anything like the shapeshifters we've seen before. This is sustained, testable, and very thorough. Not even some sort of hypothetical clone would have identical dentals."
"Mike Corbett fell off a cliff on a planet that was being turned to stone," Kai told her. "I saw it happen. I don't know who this is, but it isn't my senior officer."
Andrea set down her stylus on the desk beside the head of the bed. "If you're that sure he's dead," she said, "you'll want these." She'd taken off a set of dog tags to do the x-rays, which Kai had tried not to think about. Now she picked them up, turning away from the bed--
Three stun guns armed in a rush of motion, reacting to the hand on Andrea's arm. She froze, but there was no flinch as she allowed herself to be held in place. "You're awake," she said calmly, still facing Kai but clearly talking to the man on the bed behind her. "How are you feeling?"
Did they train them to ask that question, Kai wondered? She was effectively a hostage in a barely controlled situation that could blow up at any moment. And she wanted to know how the man in front of the stun guns was feeling.
"Those are mine." Mike's voice was rough, too quiet, like he was straining to talk. That was all he said. He didn't let go of Andrea's arm, but he didn't move, either, and he allowed her to turn slightly toward him.
Andrea opened her hand slowly, revealing the dog tags. Being the good hostage--except for the fact that she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "They have Mike Corbett's name on them," she remarked.
He snatched them away from her, and two stun guns fired simultaneously at the sudden movement. Andrea yanked her arm back. Both blasts caught him in the chest, effective as any stun gun should be on a human, and he was still, dog tags slipping from his suddenly slack grip. Andrea, on the other hand, was rubbing her wrist and eyeing him with a frown.
"All right?" Kai asked, reaching down to pick up the dog tags. The double stun blast had probably spread to her fingers, at least.
"Numb," she said, flexing her fingers and shaking her hand gently. "I wondered how long that electric discharge would keep him down."
The tags did indeed have Mike's name on them. Kai lifted a hand to his chest, where his own dogtags were hidden under his uniform shirt. Could a shapeshifter duplicate what it couldn't see?
"Please," Andrea said, apparently reading his mind. "Don't tell me those convince you when the x-rays didn't."
He glanced over at the soldiers, then caught her eye. He didn't bother to lower his voice, because everyone in the room--not to mention everyone listening outside--was going to have the same question. "Is it possible that this actually is Mike Corbett?"
She sighed. "As far as I'm concerned, yes. It's more than possible. Medically speaking, until something proves otherwise, I have to treat him as though he is."
Kai stared down at the tags for a long moment, then shook his head. "I'll get the others," he muttered, turning to go. Because he had no idea what to do.
He found Leo and Kendrix out in the main ward, hovering around Kerone of all people. She was sitting on the edge of a bed, arms braced on either side of her, legs swinging carelessly as she laughed at something. Kendrix stood nearby while Leo leaned against a chair, grinning at them. There was security at the door, Kai noticed, but no clinic staff anywhere in sight.
"Hi," Kerone said, her smile fading a little as she noticed him and his expression. "Bad news?"
"Where's Damon?" Kai demanded, irrationally annoyed by his absence. Leo was just standing around like there was nothing wrong with him.
"DECA wanted to talk to him," Leo offered. "Something about the Lights boosting Megaship performance... but as soon as we left, they followed us to the colony. She thinks they're probably doing something for Terra Venture now."
"Damon's trying to figure out what," Kendrix said. "They didn't just block Scorpius' attack on the Megaship; they repelled it. That's what made him back off. If they could do that for Terra Venture..."
She didn't have to finish that sentence.
"We're feeling much better," Leo added. "Thanks for asking."
"Actually, I'm kind of hungry," Kerone put in. "Could I have some more crackers?"
Kai opened his mouth, but he really didn't know what to say. He saw Kendrix hand over an open package of crackers--clinic saltines, no doubt--and Kerone smiled happily in thanks. Leo was still watching him, though, and a slight smile was all that remained of his grin. Even that faded as Kai stared back at him, until he started to look concerned.
"You okay?" Leo asked, straightening up from where he was lounging against the chair. "How's the other guy?"
The dog tags were still clenched in his hand. He let them fall, just the chain wrapped around his fingers now, and he held up his hand without a word. The silver tags dangled, drawing Leo's eye, and Kai offered them when he stepped forward.
Leo took them, turning them over. He read both of them like it would somehow make a difference. Then he looked up, searching Kai's expression. "Can a shapeshifter do this?" he asked neutrally. As though Kai would have the answers he was looking for.
"No," Kerone said, frowning from one of them to the other. "Did you take those off of the other pilot?"
Kendrix came forward and took the tags from Leo, but he didn't let go of the chain. She took one look at them and handed them back, turning to Kerone. "Those are Mike's dog tags," she said.
They must have told her who the zord pilot looked like, because Kerone's frown deepened. "Military identification?" she said, standing up. Her gaze sought Kai. "Do you wear them all the time?"
For answer, he fished his out from under his shirt and held them up.
"And they're correct?" she insisted, glancing at Leo. "You're sure those are exactly as your brother's identification would appear?"
Leo hesitated, and he looked to Kai for confirmation.
"Yeah," Kai answered. "They're exactly the same."
"A shapeshifter would have to know an awful lot about you to duplicate something like that," Kendrix said. "Wouldn't it?"
"Yes," Kerone said slowly. "But the fact that you have those while he's in another room worries me even more."
"What--" Kai didn't get a chance to finish, because she lifted her right hand and flicked it to the side. A transmorpher appeared on her wrist.
"How did you do that?" Kendrix exclaimed.
Kerone pulled it off of her wrist and offered it to Kendrix, who took it hesitantly. "I'm a shapeshifter too," Kerone admitted. "Try walking away from me."
Kendrix stared at her with wide eyes, then down at the transmorpher. She took a step back. And another. On the third step, the transmorpher glittered into nothingness. She held up her open hands, looking back at Kerone.
"It's an illusion," Leo said. "You can't sustain it past a certain distance."
"Well, it's complicated." Kerone made a face. "I actually can make small things that are self-sustaining, and there are illusions that I can maintain much farther away than that one. But in principle, yes: my shapeshifting is mostly a glamour. It can't be separated from my person."
"Not like this," Leo said, flexing his fingers around the dog tags.
"Not like that," Kerone echoed. "There are shapeshifters that actually rearrange matter, living matter, but it takes a tremendous amount of energy. It's hard to imagine someone expending that kind of effort on something so... so trivial.
"Relatively speaking," she added hastily. "I mean, just in general, there would have to be some pretty complicated reasoning behind that kind of deception."
Leo wasn't listening anymore. He was looking at Kai, searching his expression, and it was with a sense of dread that Kai anticipated his next question. Like it was that easy. Like Leo could ask, and Kai could decide, and by offering an answer he would somehow make it so.
"Is it Mike?" Leo asked simply. His thumb was tracing the edge of one of the tags, but he didn't take his eyes off of Kai.
Kai wanted to be the voice of reason, the one who said no, of course not, because it couldn't be. It was impossible. Wasn't that enough?
But Leo knew that. He could see that for himself. He didn't need to be convinced; he knew it couldn't be Mike. Yet still he asked, and because he asked, Kai found he couldn't give him anything but the truth.
"I don't know," he said quietly.
Leo just nodded, accepting the inadequate answer for what it was. "I'm going to go see him," he said, announcing this fact to all of them, to none of them in particular. "I'll let you know."
"Leo..." It was Kendrix's voice that stopped him, and she didn't look like she knew what she was going to say. But when his gaze fell on her, something in her must have decided, because she straightened up. "We're going with you."
Kerone just nodded, and Kai felt compelled to warn them, "There's security all around that room. They've already had to stun him once."
Leo didn't answer.
They passed Andrea on her way out as they entered, filing in past the soldiers on either side of the door. She took one look at them and didn't say a thing. Kai stopped her, though, just outside, and she shook her head. "I'll let you know about the DNA tests when I get the results," she said quietly.
He nodded and let her go. The soldier inside the door was Miller, and Kai stood next to him as the others surrounded the bed. Leo and Kendrix went around either side without hesitation, standing over the guy who looked like Mike with apparent fearlessness. Kerone stood by the foot of the bed, though, and her stance was clearly that of a person on guard.
"Kerone," Kai said, getting everyone's attention. He ignored it, holding up the stun gun he'd picked up earlier.
She understood. Her staff appeared in her hand a moment later, and she hefted it in return. She didn't need a stun gun. Of course. He thumbed the safety off on his and glanced sideways at Miller.
"Keep the guys in the clinic," he said under his breath. "Two on the door, the rest guarding the other wards. We'll be fine in here."
"He's not sedated," Miller replied in kind. "He's only out from the double stun. Should be wearing off any minute."
Kai nodded. "We can handle it. Leo wants to talk to him."
"Understood." Miller jerked his head at the other two soldiers, and they followed him out of the room a moment later. Probably to spread the word that Leo, at least, thought the guy in isolation might be his brother.
Kai couldn't shake the feeling that this was going to end in disaster. There didn't seem to be anything he could do about it, though, so he just folded his arms and leaned back against the door. He might not be able to do anything from here, but he sure wasn't going to do any good over there.
He saw Leo put the dog tags back in Mike's outstretched hand. He saw Kendrix put a hand on his shoulder, which he thought was brave considering what had happened the last time she'd tried that. He saw Kerone take a couple of steps back, idly rolling her staff over her wrist before letting it come to rest against the floor.
Otherwise, there was very little to see until Mike's eyes opened. As before, he went from what looked like complete unconsciousness to full alertness in a single blink, which Kai could only assume meant he'd been aware of them for several minutes before he'd opened his eyes. He didn't know about Kerone's magical attack, but the stun guns didn't work like that.
"Hi," Leo said warily. He didn't move, not closer or farther away, and he didn't take his eyes off of this person who looked like his brother. "Want to tell us who you are?"
"Want to try not shooting me?" His voice was still rough, low, like he was forcing the words out past sand in his throat. His eyes flicked across the entire room, then scanned it again, more slowly. "No guards?"
"They're outside," Kendrix said quickly. "We wanted to talk to you alone."
Mike's gaze found and fixed on Kai. "Can I sit up?" he asked, the words carefully aimed at the only person in the room with a recognizable weapon.
"Leo, Kendrix." Kai didn't take his eyes off of the person staring back at him. "Back up. If I have to shoot him, I don't want to hit you by accident."
Kendrix actually did back up, but Leo just gave him a look. He could feel it, even if he didn't glance away from Mike long enough to return it. He wished Leo would be even half as cautious. He was standing next to someone who had thrown him down hard enough to knock him out, and he wasn't even looking at him.
Moving very slowly, Mike got his arms underneath him and pushed himself up, slow and careful as he eased his body into a more upright position. They'd stripped his armor, but the soldier coveralls rustled a little as he moved. "Thank you, Kai."
Kai didn't react.
Kendrix did, of course. She lifted wide eyes to his face as she blurted out, "You know who we are?"
She got a sideways look, but it was Leo who took the full weight of his stare as he said simply, "Yes."
Leo didn't blink. "How?"
"Well, for one thing--" He stopped, trying to clear his throat, but it didn't seem to do any good. He went on, "Kai is wearing his dog tags over his shirt. And he just said both your names, so."
Kai felt the corner of his mouth lift, and he tried to suppress the expression. Kendrix looked surprised. Leo looked deliberately blank. Kerone had her back to him, so he couldn't see what her face was doing.
"For another," Mike continued. "You've been my brother for the past twenty years, and up until about three weeks ago, I was the First Officer of Terra Venture. So I've got a pretty good idea who's in the room with me."
His voice was getting worse, and it finally occurred to Kai that he might have sand in his throat after all. Or soot, or smoke, or something. Kerone had walked away from the crash with nothing more than dizziness and a minor fainting spell--but she was a sorceress and a shapeshifter to boot. It was entirely possible that the other victim hadn't been so lucky.
Kai took a step back as Leo remarked evenly, "There's some debate about that, actually." The movement put him in the doorway instead of in front of it, and he leaned back without taking his eyes off of Mike.
One of the guards outside turned, and Kai said quietly, "Can we get some water in here?"
"Which part?" Mike was asking. He hadn't moved at all since sitting up. Doing his best to present as unthreatening a target as possible, Kai thought. Smart.
Not necessarily convincing, but smart.
"They saw Mike Corbett die," Kerone said bluntly. "We're working under the assumption that you're some sort of shapeshifter."
No one else said anything. Mike looked at her for a long moment. Finally, he said, "Except you. I don't seem to have any idea who you are."
Kai frowned at that. Something about the way it was phrased, maybe. It seemed off. His gaze left Mike for half a second, catching Kendrix's eye just as she looked over at him. She'd heard it too.
"I don't seem to have any idea who you are..."
"You first," Kerone told him.
Mike let out his breath in something that might have been a sigh. "Michael Jeremiah Corbett," he said. "Born nine May nineteen seventy-eight. I don't know what else I can tell you, except that this is just as weird for me as it is for you."
"You're the one who opened fire on me out there," Kerone informed him. "I'm the one who kept you from destroying the colony dome. And no matter how 'weird' this is, we're not the ones who came out of that crash swinging."
"No," Mike said carefully. "You just shot a disoriented pilot." His gaze went to Kai, and he added, "Several times."
Kai meant to let it go. This was Kerone's interrogation, and so far she seemed perfectly capable of handling it. But he heard himself saying, "You gave Leo a concussion," and the first flicker of worry touched Mike's face.
He craned his neck to look up at Leo. "You okay, kiddo?"
"Don't call me 'kiddo'," Leo retorted. Then he froze, and Kai could see realization of what he'd just done on his face. He'd reacted automatically, instinctively--like this was in fact his brother.
Mike saw his flinch, and the rasp of his voice was quieter than it had been when he said, "Sorry. Leo."
Kai saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and he reached back to take a cup from the guard outside. "Leo," he said, holding it out. He wasn't leaving his position by the door.
Leo looked surprised when he saw what Kai was holding, so he nodded toward Mike. "Water," he said. "For your throat."
Mike sat forward a little, then seemed to realize he still wasn't allowed to move when Kerone took a pre-emptive step in his direction. For someone for whom the most appropriate descriptor seemed to be "cute," she knew how to look threatening when she wanted to. Clearly not everything about the "princess of evil" had been glamour and show.
Leo brought him the water, and Mike drained half of it before he tried to clear his throat again. He was only partially successful, but he made an effort at speaking anyway. "Thanks," he said, taking another sip of water when his voice broke.
"Why don't you start by telling us how you survived on Mirinoi," Kerone remarked conversationally. "From there you can go on to how you got here and what you were doing chasing the Lights of Orion."
The first sentence made Kai raise his eyebrows. They really had filled her in while he was busy. She was well-informed.
"Someone was watching over me," Mike replied. His voice was still scratchy, but it was a little louder than it had been. "Literally. A Power Ranger from three thousand years ago saved my life. Rescued my body so that I could free his spirit.
"He gave me his powers, and I gave him--" He lifted one hand to tap his temple. "Room in my head. Free ride out of that pit. In exchange, I got to live. With a couple of morphers and some cool toys; you might have noticed."
"Room in your head?" Leo repeated.
"Yeah..." Mike hesitated, then admitted, "I've gotta tell you, it's a little stranger in here than it used to be."
"Which is saying so much," Leo said, rolling his eyes. If he noticed what he was doing this time, it didn't show on his face.
Before Mike could react, Kerone interjected, "How did you get here? If you didn't even know where Mirinoi was, how could you find your way back?"
"Followed Scorpius," Mike said simply. There was something on his face that made his tone seem strange, but Kai couldn't pin it down. "Where else did I have to go?"
"You followed Scorpius all the way to Terra Venture just to try to destroy the colony yourself?" Kerone's skepticism was unmistakable, and Kai couldn't tell if it was her attitude or her accusation that made Mike react the way he did. But it was a reaction that dispelled any ease he might have been feeling.
"I followed Scorpius to the Lights of Orion," Mike growled. "I recognized the obvious danger and I did what I could to prevent it. Maybe someone operating on a couple weeks' worth of starvation and sleep deprivation doesn't make the best decisions, but next time you can be the one trapped in stone for three thousand years and then we'll compare scores!"
Even with the little twirl over her wrist that she was doing, Kerone had her staff pointed at him before Kai had finished lifting his stun gun. "Who are you," she demanded, "and where's Mike Corbett?"
"Right here!" he shouted, throwing his plastic cup at the floor by her feet. "What the hell does it take to convince you that Mike Corbett is sitting right here!"
Kerone didn't so much as flinch at his improvised projectile. "Who are you," she repeated, a violet crackle running the length of her staff. Kendrix had backed away, but Leo was just standing there, staring at them.
The man wearing Mike's face seemed to crumple, sinking in on himself as he clutched his arms with his hands. Better to implode than to explode, Kai reminded himself. But he couldn't deny a flicker sympathy for this man, this person who looked so much like his friend, when confronted by what was apparently an impossible question.
"Three thousand years ago," he said hoarsely, "I was the Magna Defender." Staring down at the bed, he whispered, "Three weeks ago, I was Michael Corbett.
"Where is he?" He bent forward, burying his face in his hands, a gesture that seemed to bring no comfort. No one dared to speak as he continued, "He's right here," and his abused voice was muffled by everything that was between them. "I'm right here."
There was a wild look in his eyes when he lifted his head again, like he couldn't look and he couldn't make himself not. His words were haunted as he muttered, "We're both right here."