Kim was thankful that the phone was ringing as she held her cell phone to her ear. She had rung many of the contacts in her phone but had hit dead ends. She now had the hope that this call would be answered. The call that was the difference. The call to Billy Cranston.

KO-35

The long awaited return to their home planet was finally over as the spaceship carrying Andros, Zhane and the other original Space Rangers landed in the port at KO-35. Desperate for a decent meal and a decent sleep, Gia, Micah, Kareem and Cathan asked the other two if they could put them up. Zhane took Micah and Cathan back to his place while Gia and Kareem went with Andros. With neither the Red or Silver Rangers accomplished cooks they both decided to order take-out; after all, the best food was fast food.

At Zhane's home Cathan had gone to sleep in the spare room while Micah was sat on the sofa in the living room. Zhane himself had been doing everything in his power to avoid entering the room for more than a few minutes; intent solely on avoiding long conversations with Micah. He thought she was gone. He thought they were all gone. But now she was back in his life and the fact remained: Who did he choose?

He had been settled with Micah, in fact they were due to be married. But then the unexpected attack led by Darkonda took her and the other rangers. Only Zhane and Andros had been left and it was believed that the raid had resulted in the deaths of the other four rangers. But clearly Darkonda preferred to see them suffer, stranding them on Onyx with no means of communication in the hope that they starved.

While he had carried on, blissfully unaware of his wife's existence as both he and Andros tried to move on. The nature of his relationship with Karone had sprung from her time as Astronema, when she was evil. But the strength of their feelings overrode their conflict and Zhane was more than glad to see her return to the side of good after the Alliance of Evil's defeat. The relationship blossomed and they even moved in together, Zhane feeling it was time he moved on and hoped Micah gave her blessing.

But now she was back and it made things incredibly difficult because not only had he moved on but he loved Karone just as much as he had loved Micah. He knew that with his current girlfriend off gallivanting on a quest of her own that his former fiancée would slowly creep back into his life.

Power Chamber, Earth

Kim was glad to finally hear a voice other than that of the answering machine as Billy picked up. She had been frantic but the original blue ranger had been quick to calm her and get to the heart of the problem. Remembering he too had a teleportation device, Billy attached it to his wrist and joined Kim in the Power Chamber.

"Something terrible must have happened here." Billy devised as he observed the damage in the chamber. "It may be beyond repair."

"I need to get the computers online at least. They have data on every ranger and I need some assistance to get this place up and running again." Kim replied, slightly holding back on the truth.

"I can probably reboot a computer or two if you need them to increase the labour force. I guess I don't know the extent of the damage until I've inspected it closer and therefore do not know if the Power Chamber is irreparable." Billy told her, glad to see the hope in her face. In truth though, they were facing a mammoth task.

Terra Venture

Karone had just got off the phone following a long distance call to Andros. After escaping Onyx with the Sabre she had ventured to Karasa to hand it back to its true owners. That was an adventure in itself; finding herself falling to her death before being saved by Kendrix's spirit and being chosen as the new Pink Ranger. What a turnaround from being Princess of Evil, she thought to herself.

In truth, the adventure was only just beginning for her. She had called Andros and told him not to expect her back for a while. After receiving some much needed Pink Ranger know-how from Gia, Karone told her brother to send her love to Zhane and that she will return to him soon. She of course was oblivious to her boyfriend's relationship with Micah.

She had just got back from her first mission with her new team which involved her dangerous battle with Trakeena and her first taste of using the Galactabeasts. Now she was back aboard the Astro Megaship, a place she had once hoped to call her home from home before being recaptured and reprogrammed by Dark Spectre.

Damon was in the process of repairing a few faults on the Megaship while Leo and Kai were playing pool. Maya was in deep thought, probably pondering Kendrix's death and the impact it had had on her life. Karone felt bad; she was Kendrix's 'replacement' but at the same time it didn't feel like the previous Pink Ranger should be replaced. Going back to her ranger count, she noticed that Mike was nowhere to be seen and was probably aboard Terra Venture's main headquarters; he had a lot of work to be getting on with after his long absence.

Karone decided to take a shower, and a long one at that. Exiting the room, she passed Damon as she neared the bathroom. Stepping inside, she sighed as she pondered her memories as well as the ones she was about to make by stepping in as the next Pink Galaxy Ranger.

KO-35

After hanging up the phone, Andros retold the details to Zhane via another call. As the Silver Ranger listened intently he felt the heavy burden of guilt on his shoulders, as if just he being in the same room as Micah was the ultimate betrayal.

After finishing the call, Zhane entered the living room again, hoping for only a brief stay. But overhearing his conversation, Micah was full of questions that she was eager to ask the Silver Ranger.

"Zhane?" Micah tried to get his attention as he went to leave the room once again. He turned to face her and face the inevitable decision: Micah or Karone.

"What is it?" he asked casually, not wanting to induce the topic for himself in case Micah wasn't planning to either.

"Did you ever move on when you thought I was gone?" she had asked the question nervously, hoping he said no but still that he was telling the truth.

"Micah look," Zhane decided to tell her everything. "After Darkonda captured you I thought you were gone forever. I persisted with the idea that my heart was with you and that I'd never move on..." The Silver Ranger trailed off as he came upon the subject he had been avoiding ever since Micah's return.

"But..." Micah encouraged him to keep going. The two had always had a close relationship in which they'd been able to share most things, if not everything. She wanted Zhane to feel like he still could share things with her, namely this.

"I was injured in battle," he continued. "Andros preserved my body for two years in a cryogenic tube until I was ready to support my own life. Due to an incident on the Megaship, there was a power failure and the cryogenic tube begun to defrost. Luckily, when I finally awoke I was stable and joined the new team of rangers. Andros had told me he recruited them after they were bought within the Megaship in a ship of their own. A common goal united them and he gave them your powers to replace the powers that they had lost. Anyway, I joined them and eventually met their enemy, Astronema..."

Zhane had now paused. He was getting ever closer to telling Micah; he couldn't stop now. "Despite being on opposite sides of the conflict, we fell in love. It turned out that Astronema was in fact Andros' long lost sister Karone and she temporarily reformed after remembering her connection to him. Unfortunately, she was reprogrammed by Dark Spectre and returned to his side unwillingly. It wasn't until the final battle and Zordon's destruction that she reverted back to her original form and joined us on KO-35. As expected, we continued where we left off but now your back and she's not here and I'm really confused."

After blurting out everything to Micah, Zhane felt a lot better but feared what she would think. If it came down to a choice, he had no idea who he would choose. His look betrayed all his worry to Micah and she attempted to calm him.

"Zhane, I understand. You made a life here for yourself and Karone, believing that you had to move on. I would have given you my blessing had I been destroyed by Darkonda and I'll give it you now if it is what you want."

"That's the problem; I don't know what I want. All I know is that with you here and Karone with the Galaxy Rangers, the likelihood is I'm going to end up with you again and hurt Karone. I don't want that, but nor do I want to hurt you. This is so difficult."

Overcome by the emotions and the impending decision, Zhane stormed out the room and out the house. He couldn't face Micah, he couldn't face Karone if she were here, he couldn't face anyone. He needed to be alone, and he needed time to think. With that, he took off towards the local park despite Micah calling to him from the door.