Karone was staring at the screen before her, her eyes glazed over in exhaustion. She'd been up half the night trying to figure out what their next move would be once Dark Specter was gone. She was so tired she didn't hear the footsteps behind her.

"Karone," Ashley called.

"Oh...hi Ashley," Karone replied with a yawn.

"Did you ever go to bed last night?" the Yellow Ranger asked.

"I think i got a few hours of sleep. I've just been so busy making sure we stay one step ahead of Darconda," Karone murmured.

"Well…" Ashley said, taking Karone away from the counsel. "You need to get some sleep. I'll watch for any activity ok?"

"But-,"

"No buts missy get to bed," she said.

"Someone has been hanging out with my brother too much," she muttered sleepily.

With one last look at Ashley, Karone wandered off in the direction of her room. She had to admit she was beat. Just as she reached her door she heard her name being called.

"Hey, Karone," Zhane greeted.

"Hi..um...I'm going to bed," she said. His face fell a little.

"Oh...ok," he murmured and watched her slip inside. It took a minute for Karone to realize how rude she had been to Zhane, and she walked back outside to apologize. She saw Zhane walking the opposite direction, and jogged up to him to catch up with him.

"Hey," she said surprising him.

Zhane turned and looked at Karone.

"I thought you were going to sleep," he muttered.

"I was...I mean I am...I just wanted to apologize for being so snappy," she explained. He gave a half-hearted smile.

"It's ok. You have a lot going on," he said, trying to brush it off.

"But I didn't have to be rude about it…" she said sleepily. Zhane chuckled at her sleepy face.

"I forgive you. Now go get some sleep," he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek gently. She smiled at him and ducked back into her room. Zhane continued on down the corridor, running into Andros on his way to the simu-deck.

"Hey...I don't think Karone's been sleeping too well lately," Zhane commented to his friend.

"I know...I'm trying not to worry but I can't help it. She's obsessing over this Dark Specter thing," Andros sighed.

"Have you tried talking with her about it?" Zhane asked, worried about Karone.

"She doesn't really talk with me too much about it…" Andros sighed.

"Me either. You think she talks to Cassie or Ashley about it?" Zhane suggested. Andros just shrugged. They reached the simu-deck and Andros set the simulation.

"Mind if I join you?" Zhane asked.

"Why not. I'll kick your butt," Andros answered with a smirk.

Elsewhere on the ship, TJ was heading for the bridge. He found Ashley staring at the monitor. "Hey Ashley…"

"Hey TJ," she said still staring at the screen in front of her, still looking for any activity from Dark Specter.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Saving Karone the trouble to continue looking for evil when she should be sleeping," Ashley replied.

"She's really focused on this taking down Dark Specter isn't she," TJ commented.

"Yeah...I half expected her to just blurt a percentage when i saw her this morning," Ashley admitted.

"Yeah...I mean it is a good plan and so far he hasn't figured it out," TJ sighed.

"She is sleeping now. I wonder how long we kept her awake when she was Astronema," Ashley mused.

"Us? Probably all night," TJ joked. Ashley let out a small chuckle and turned back to the screen once again.

"So what are you doing her Teej?" she asked.

Just checking how things are going... so how are things going?" TJ answered.

"Well…they seem to be ok. We've drained almost half of Dark Specter's power already. I guess our Ranger robots are doing a lot of good," Ashley answered.

"I guess so. I just hope that Dark Specter doesn't figure it out before we drain all of his power," TJ muttered.

"Let's hope…" Ashley sighed as she continued to stare at the screen in front of her.

Before TJ could say anything more alarms began to go off and DECA's automated voice spoke.

"Rangers, Darconda is attacking Angel Grove," it said.

"Man…doesn't he ever take a break?" TJ groaned just as Cassie, Carlos, Zhane and Andros appeared.

"Come on let's go," Andros said, directing the team towards the teleportation room.

"What about Karone?" Carlos asked.

"Let her be. She needs some sleep," Andros replied. Carlos just shrugged and they teleported down to Earth.

The Rangers looked around, trying to find where Darconda had gone. He didn't appear to be anywhere.

Where did he go?" Cassie asked sounding confused.

"I have no idea," Andros answered just as they were swarmed upon by Quantron.

"Man these guys are really starting to bug me," Zhane complained, sending a group of them flying.

On the Mega ship

As Karone slept peacefully, Darconda silently made his way onto the ship. At the moment he was shielded from DECA, so Darconda headed for Karone's room. While the other rangers were distracted, he was going to go ahead and kidnap the ex-evil princess, once again. The doors to Karone's room opened up, and silently Darconda entered the room. Karone being fully asleep didn't hear him come in, until he grabbed a hold of her and yanked her out of the bed.

"Let go of me!" she shouted, and started to struggle, and felt a fear deep inside of her submerge.

"Ah Princess cat got your tongue?" he cackled. Karone fought in his grip more, not wanting to go back to being Astronema. "Well at least you are struggling this time, it was boring when I first kidnapped you," he said chuckling evilly. Out of nowhere the robotic rangers came out and broke his grip on Karone, and she kicked out at him hitting his gut.

The rangers took it from there, fighting him until he fled.

Back on Earth the other Rangers were doing their best to fight off the Quantrons. All of a sudden they disappeared.

"That was too weird," TJ commented.

"It was like they were trying to keep us busy," Ashley began but Andros was already ahead of her.

"Karone," he gasped and they transported back to the ship. Karone was sitting on the bridge in her pajamas, a cup of tea in her hands. Andros noticed the tear on one of the sleeves and went up to her. "What happened…are you ok?" he asked worried about her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Um…I'm ok," she whispered, a touch of fear in her voice still. "The robotic Rangers saved me…from Darconda…"

"I should have known it was a trick," Andros spat.

"Take it easy. We had no idea. She's safe. I guess the Robot Rangers are good at protecting the innocent," Zhane commented.

"But...he knows what they are now. He's going to go after them, try and stop them from completing their mission," Karone sighed.

"No he won't. We won't let him," Zhane promised, squeezing her hand. Karone nodded her head numbly, still in shock that she nearly got kidnapped again.

"Thanks," she whispered to Zhane.

The rest of the team dispersed, off to do whatever they needed to do. Andros turned his attention to the onboard computer.

"DECA, resume scans for Zordon," he ordered.

"Resuming scanning now," DECA answered. While DECA continued to search for Zordon, Andros headed for Karone's room, but already found Zhane comforting Karone, holding her close to him. Just as he was about to interrupt them, Ashley walked by.

"Hey Andros," she said.

"Hey Ashley," he replied, following her down the corridor.

"I can't believe Darconda tried to take my sister again," he sighed. She wrapped a hand around his arm and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"But she's ok," she reminded him.

"I know," he sighed. Just then, DECA voice sounded throughout the entire ship.

"Zordon has been detected on the planet Edonoi," Andros's head snapped up as DECA said that, and instantly him and Ashley headed for the bridge.

Karone and Zhane appeared right behind them, along with the rest of the team. Could it be true? Have they finally located Zordon, or was it just a trap for them? "Karone…maybe you should stay behind…" Andros suggested. "You haven't had much sleep at all…"

"The last time I stayed behind I almost got kidnapped. I'd say I'm a heck of a lot safer down there," she retorted. Andros gave her a woried look but just nodded.

"You know I think I heard about this planet before," Cassie commented.

"I think another team of Rangers has been here," she added.

"Yeah...how'd that turn out?" Zhane asked.

"Uh...I think they got chased off the planet," she admitted.

"We're screwed," he whined.

"No we're not. Stop being a pessimist and come on," Andros shot at his friend.

Karone wrapped her hand around Zhane's and he smiled. Andros saw it, and was about to open his mouth, not really approving, but Ashley dragged him towards the teleportation room.

"Ashley…"

"Don't Ashley me…Karone is growing up Andros,"

"I know..." he sighed. He had to admit that he was glad it was Zhane she was interested in rather than some total stranger.

"I guess I just missed her grow up so much...I have to catch up myself," he said with a laugh. The rest of the team joined them and they headed down to the planet.

"Whoah...this place looks deserted. Good place to keep an interdimensional being...I guess," Zhane commented, trying pick up any trace of Zordon with his scanner.

"Spread out," Andros called and they began moving in different directions.

Karone walked, eyes on the scanner in her hand. The gadget began to pick up some signal and she headed in the direction. From the corner of her eye she thought she saw a flash of green. Her brow furrowed and she inched closer, astro-blaster drawn just in case. She wasn't going to be caught off guard again. She rounded a boulder to see a massive covered tube. She knew it was Zordon. But what most caught her interest was that Ecliptor was there. She backed away, raising her communicator to her mouth.

"I found him," she whispered.

"Where are you?" Andros' voice responded. She looked at her scanner and whispered the coordinates.

"Be careful, there are probably Quantrons lurking...and Ecliptor is here," she warned. Karone decided against her wishes and waited for everyone else to show up before confronting Ecliptor, despite how much she wanted to save him. Andros was there in minutes, expecting Karone to try and talk with Ecliptor. Karone could clearly read the surprise coming from him.

"I decided to wait for you guys," Karone said.

"Well...good. We don't want you getting kidnapped again," her brother remarked just as the rest of the team arrived.

"So what's the plan?" Carlos asked, peering over the top of the boulder.

"It looks like it is just Ecliptor. We can take him right?" TJ whispered.

"Quantrons are probably not far away. We'd be better off mounting an aerial attack," Andros remarked.

"Well it's a little late for that approach. We can just go in shooting," Zhane suggested.

"Zhane…you do know that going in would be suicide?" Andros snapped. Zhane shrugged his shoulders, and was about to angrily retort, but Karone stopped them.

"What we need is a distraction," Karone sighed at them.

"Distraction…what are you thinking about?" Andros asked, suddenly worried that Karone would do something stupid and use herself as bait.

"Me," Karone said simply.

"No...Absolutely not. We are not using you," he hissed.

"Why not?" she retorted.

"Because... because we just aren't," he replied.

"Lame argument, Andros. I'm going and that's final," she snapped, standing up. Andros tried to reach out to stop her but she eluded his grip. He had no choice but to watch his sister walk out towards Ecliptor.

Karone didn't care to mention to Zhane or Andros that she was just winging this plan, but hey it worked right? Give them enough time to look for Zordon…and it gives her a chance to try and break Dark Specter's hold on Ecliptor. "Ecliptor," she called out and instantly he turned to her.

"Princess," he said coldly, and totally un-Ecliptor like. Andros was itching to go and grab Karone away from Ecliptor, but Zhane stopped him.

"Let her do it Andros," Zhane whispered.