Chapter 53—For the First Time

Jay

She always knew what was on my mind.

And despite what a lot of people thought of me, it wasn't for lack of thinking.

I never noticed it until a few days ago.

—53—

"So you and Patrick worked things out, then?" I asked as Aaron and I headed to the palace for more ice and drinks.

His eyebrows twitched in confusion as he took a sip out of his cold can of beer.

"Well, before we left," I said slowly, "I kind overheard you guys arguing. Or something."

"Oh!" he realized, laughing somewhat. "We weren't arguing. He's upset because he's still healing from his surgeries—so, you know…we can't really do anything."

"Ah," I nodded, "I gotcha. Why's he so upset about it?"

He frowned. "He thinks I'm gonna go cheat again because I, apparently, need a sexual outlet." As laughable as it was, I could see how genuinely irritated Aaron was by this. "I mean, it's not like I'm this sex-starved douchebag who needs to have sex all the time. I dunno what made Patrick think that."

I nodded. "Well, I'm assuming things are okay now?"

"You could say that." He grinned as he grabbed a cooler of ice. "We make due."

I grinned back, slightly confused. "I mean, is everything cool, though? I haven't really gotten the chance to talk to you lately, so I have no idea what's even going on in your head after all this...shit!" In the moment I'd finished my sentence, it was like we'd both suddenly realized how incredibly hectic our lives had been for the past month. We'd graduated college and it was like it didn't even matter. We'd become so detached from the normal lives we could have had that we forgot how many accomplishments we really had behind us. We didn't even realize how far we'd come.

"Man," he sighed, setting the cooler down, "it's fucking insane. I'm trying to be so perfect and know everything, but dude...I'm just winging it." He laughed helplessly, my own laugh joining his when I saw how blunt he was being. "And Patrick! Patrick is a whole different story, dude. He's so messed up—emotionally, ya know? And I know he sort of looks to me to make everything better whenever he can't. It's been that way since his mom died. But when I 'died,' –which, by the way, can I just say that I'm still pissed my Dyn kept that secret from everyone?"

I laughed at his scatter-brained rant, oddly more excited than I should have been that my old friend was still inside this new Eyr Aryn ban Eltar/AKA Orion/AKA Boss-Of-All-Effing-Bosses guy. It was good to know that underneath all the supernatural add-ons of life, he was still that same old carefree kid who just wanted to make everyone happy.

"I think all that really did a number on him, though," he was saying now, somewhat quieter and more somber. "He really needs some help to get back to where he was—to who he's supposed to be—but we'll get there. I just need him to realize it..." he paused and grinned, wagging his eyebrows, "which he will."

I chuckled. "Of course, dude; you guys are probably the most disgusting thing ever because you're so fucking perfect."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion again. "Uh...Patrick and me? Perfect? Are you kidding me? How about you and Mrs. Amy Owens!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, dude, whatever."

"Seriously. I mean...not to sound douchey at all, but...you and I are guilty of the same crime; we both cheated on our significant others. Look at the different outcomes. We've got me fucking a cyborg and getting it broadcasted to everyone. And then we've got you gettin' your experimentin' on with Sanders!" As hard as I tried not to, I ended up laughing at the way he was comparing our situations. "Amy barely batted an eye at that! It's like she already knew but was just...waiting, or something."

"What do you mean?" I asked seriously.

"I'm just saying, you guys are like...perfect."

"Too perfect?" I wondered after several minutes of thought.

"Nah, I mean, every couple has fights. I'm sure you guys have had some; you've been dating for like...3 years," he said, shrugging and taking a swig from his can.

—53—

I sighed as I opened my eyes, stretching the sleep from my bones. Amy had fallen asleep in my infirmary room in a comfy-looking chair by my bedside. Her hair was pulled into a sloppy half-bun-half-ponytail, and I could tell by the bags and smeared makeup around her eyes that she'd probably cried a few times since I passed out last night.

She'd been so worried about me after I went down. To tell the truth, though, so was I. I'd never been hurt like that before. Granted, the medical machines on Eltar fixed me right up like it was nothing. But they kept me overnight just to be safe.

We'd had a meeting in my infirmary room sometime after I was better. Under the guidance of Zordon himself, we were instructed to start trying to bond with each other's Zordians. He had everything planned out—down to the very last detail of SPD's most probable retaliation. He figured the ELF could keep them in place for at least a week, by which point Gabriel would most likely be ready for action.

We had a week to learn how to BURST Execute with any one of 6 other Zordians.

"Hey."

I half-jumped, glancing at Amy, who had woken up sometime in the few minutes I'd been reflecting.

"Hey," I replied, chuckling somewhat, "I didn't even know you were awake."

"Just woke up," she said sleepily. "How you feeling?"

"Fine, actually," I said, stretching to examine my bare chest. It was free of the gnarly burns it had on it yesterday. It was perfect. I had to remember to thank Aaron for his Eltarian connections. "I feel like nothing even happened."

She smiled faintly. "I'm glad."

But I could tell she was still worried about something. Probably about the way she reacted to me going down. Probably because she had no idea I knew.

Just then, her dark blue eyes met mine, a hint of fear in them. Like she didn't know I knew about it. Like she was reading my mind.

"What?" I asked her, suddenly concerned.

She seemed speechless, literally unable to form a coherent thought.

"Are…are you reading my mind?"

Her eyes darted away from mine quickly as she tried to form an answer. But I already knew the answer.

"You are…aren't you?"

Finally, she spoke. "Yeah," she sighed, defensive. "Yeah, I am. I'm sorry."

"How long have you been?" I asked, disregarding her apology.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, her voice getting higher. "I was just doing it really quick to make sure you were actually feeling better."

I blinked a few times, trying to decide whether or not she was lying. I had never had to think of this before. I never once, for a second, ever thought Amy would lie to me. For some reason, I had always trusted her from day one. Even when I was the one doing stupid shit.

But Aaron was right. Amy did forgive me way too easily with the Sanders situation. She…she didn't really freak out as much as I thought she would. Especially with the way she found out. And Aaron was right about the fact that Amy and I never argued. Somehow, she always saw my point of view. Somehow, we always ended up agreeing. On everything.

"Hello?" she wondered, agitated. "Are you done accusing me of reading your mind?"

"But you did," I said simply, "you still read my mind. You just admitted to it."

"Yeah, but only to see if you were really okay."

"It doesn't matter," I shot back, "you still read my mind without my permission. How do I know you haven't been doing that for the past 4 years? How do I know you weren't always in my head?"

"Jay, it's not like that," she said quietly, reaching for my forearm.

I pulled away angrily. "Then why don't you tell me what it's like? Because I feel like I can't trust you to not be in my head all the time. My thoughts are mine. You can't just barge in on them like a fucking all-you-can-eat-buffet!"

"YOU DON'T GET IT!" she snapped, shooting up from her seat. "You really don't know what it's like to be able to hear everyone's thoughts if you let your guard down. You don't know what it's like to hear the deepest, darkest, most perverse thoughts of every single human being around you."

I glared back at her, frustrated beyond belief. She was playing the guilt card, like it was my fault she had the Sigma Morpher. Like it was my fault that she was invading people's minds.

"And I'm not invading people's minds!" she added haughtily.

"Look what you just did! You just invaded my mind!"

She growled in frustration. "You are so impossible."

"No," I said firmly, "I know what I'm talking about. I was there the day Doc Ol talked to you about controlling your powers. He said there was a failsafe to keep the Morpher from overtaking you. Your powers are under your control."

Her face paled slightly as her eyes frantically met mine.

"I listen," I said a few seconds later. "I pay attention. That's how I got to know you. But now, I'm not sure if I really know you at all. How do I know you haven't been reading my mind to find out what I've always wanted in a relationship? How do I know that you're really the girl I'm in love with, or if you've just done a good job imitating her?"

She was crying now, for probably the third or fourth time in 24 hours. She made no attempt to stop the tears, and she didn't open her mouth to respond; and suddenly, I felt the gravity of my words bearing down on us in deafening silence.

"We need to tell Doc about this," I finally said.

"Why?" she asked through the pain in her voice. "So he can psychoanalyze me?"

"Yeah, actually," I said back, returning her bitterness. "It's not normal for you to be using your powers to read everyone's minds."

"I don't see why it's such a big deal."

"Are you kidding me?" I laughed, spitefully. "That would be like me using my super speed in football. Or lighting douchebags on fire when they piss me off. Or teleporting into my Students Records office and changing my transcripts. It's fucking wrong."

"Call it what you will, I never used it to hurt anybody," she said, turning away from me as she wiped her face. "And I'm not going to sit down for some stupid therapy session just so you can tell me I'm just an imitation of who you want me to be."

Before I could open my mouth to stop her, she was outside of the infirmary.

—53—

"Okay, so where did she go?"

I looked back at Doc, irritated beyond belief.

"I. Don't. Know."

"Well she's left the bunker," Doc said back pointedly, "and I'm not sure what happened in here, but we need to find her. SPD has recon teams patrolling, and the ELF is still awaiting orders from the new Dyr ban Eltar." He paused to take in a calming breath. "We need to find her."

As angry as I was with Amy and how ridiculous she was being, I had to concede to Doc's logic. Beneath all my fury, I was worried about her. She and I had never really fought before, so I wasn't really sure of how to handle it. I didn't know if I should chase after her or let her cool off. I was so confused.

"Alright," I said, sitting up and throwing my legs over the side of my medical bed, "let's go."

"Are you sure you're up for this?"

"I'm fine," I said shortly, "where are the other Rangers?"

"Beth is being kept for a diagnostic," he said, "her body is exhausted after BURST Executing with Omega—it definitely did a number on her. Aaron is with Zordon dealing with damage control on the invasion, but Patrick, Grace, and Matt should be able to help you search for Amy."

"What about the Mecha Squad?"

"Corey's with Dustin in Hunter's medical chamber, but the others are trying to talk their DigiMech into traveling to Eltar to back us up."

"What do you mean 'talk them into' it?" I demanded, my irritation resurfacing.

"The DigiMech and Zordians are mortal enemies and have been for thousands of years. They don't work well together," Doc answered, standing from his seat and assessing my body for injuries. "I'll advise the Mecha Squad to hang back until they can manage to get their DigiMech here. You, Matt, Grace, and Patrick should be plenty for finding Amy."

I nodded, sighing.

He stepped to the side and ushered me to the door, where we both stepped out of the infirmary and into the hallways that led throughout the bunker. In silence, we made our way to the bunker's command center and called the other Rangers to meet us, then Doc went over the plan.

I zoned out for most of it.

All I could think of was whether or not to tell Doc about Amy's condition—about her disregard for peoples' mental privacy. Was I wrong for being so pissed? Was I just overreacting? Or was I right on point? I mean, I knew some of the things Amy could do with her powers. She could put thoughts in peoples' heads. She could reach into their minds and alter their perceptions of reality, or drive them insane by erasing memories or planting false ones.

Had she ever done that to me? Did she make me fall in love with her?

"Jay?"

"Huh?"

I looked up to see Grace staring at me curiously, her sharp green eyes trying to pry into my thoughts. Almost just like Amy.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked me.

"I'm fine. Ready to go?"

Patrick frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Let's roll," he said instead.

—53—

Eltar was a mess.

Our battle with SPD had left the entire capital city devastated by explosions and Zords that had crashed through entire buildings as if they were twigs. As Frankilos sped through the ruins with me in his driver seat, I couldn't help but feel guilty for being knocked out of battle so early on. If I had been there to help in the Zord/Zordian battle with Gabriel, we would have stood more of a chance. If I could have been there to help protect the palace while Amy was trying to contact the Zordians on Earth, maybe Hunter—my best friend's Dyn—wouldn't be dying, or whatever he was doing. Maybe I could have prevented all of this.

"Jay," Frankilos said, reading my mind, "stop."

"It's true, Frank."

"No, it's not," he responded matter-of-factly. "Everything happens for a reason—you're lucky to still be alive after what happened to you. Don't you think I feel terrible for not being here? Cuz I do. But the fact is, I wasn't. I wasn't here and I can't do anything to change that. But we're here now, and we need to focus."

For some reason, hearing this from Frankilos was shocking. It was weird to hear him so adult—so mature and enlightened. And then it dawned on me that he was hundreds of years old. He had seen hundreds of planets, seen countless wars, and gained enough experience to become one of the most respected and powerful beings of his kind. He was important enough to be reformatted by Zeta himself—the father of all Eltarians and Zordians alike.

"You're right," I said, pulling myself from my pity party. "You're right."

"We can win this," he said, sometime later. "We can find Amy, and we can figure out what's wrong with her."

I didn't respond, somewhat thrown by how Frankilos knew something was wrong with her.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I…I overheard you thinking about it."

"Jesus!" I snapped. "Is everyone in my fucking head?"

"It's not like that," he argued, "I can't help it. You and I are linked. If something's bothering you that much, I'm gonna notice."

"There's a difference between noticing and knowing," I shot back.

"Look, you think really loud. You think loud and fast. And you feel so passionately. You ever wonder why your element is fire? Cuz I promise you—it's not a coincidence."

"What does that have anything to do with it?"

"Everything, Jay!" he half-shouted. "There is a reason the Morphers 'choose' who they bond with. It's more than just physical compatibility. It's a mental and emotional thing—a deeper bond than you might be able to understand as a human. And that's to be expected. You don't need to understand it—you just need to respect it."

"Fine. I respect the bond. But no one seems to respect my mental privacy. And I guess I wouldn't expect you to understand that since you've been communicating mentally for hundreds of years. I haven't. I don't have psychic powers like you, Aaron, or Amy."

"I'm sorry," he finally said, "I didn't mean to invade your thoughts. But if we're gonna be partners, we have to be bonded. With all those emotions about Amy clouding your mind, how do you expect to focus on finding her?"

I glared out the driver window, grinding my teeth. I knew he was right. It was just weird to me—to not have any privacy. And I knew the issue stemmed more from Amy than it did with Frankilos. I never minded when he read my deeper thoughts, because I knew he had a reason to. But Amy didn't. She had sat by and read my thoughts for who knew how long, and I wasn't so sure if I would be able to forgive her for it.

Sure, I was worried about her. But I was furious. Especially with how she just stormed off and avoided the problem. That wasn't my style—confrontation never frightened me. Apparently, Amy was the opposite.

My mind lit up with adrenaline as I felt Frankilos' anxiety spike.

Together, we swerved to the right, banking hard and avoiding the falling pieces of the buildings around us. Several fresh explosions popped out of the windows of the few standing buildings, and Frankilos and I gunned the gas to dodge stray debris.

"AMBUSH!" Patrick suddenly screamed through the commlinks. "We got bogies on our six!"

"I don't see anything on my radar," Grace responded, "they must be cloaked."

"Matt, you and Grace are with me. We'll circle around and see if I can get them off our tails," Patrick ordered. "Jay, you and Tonyxyn go ahead to see if you can find Amy."

"But I can help," I argued.

"Not up for debate," he said back quickly. "Frankilos is the fastest on ground, and Tonyxyn's fastest by air. Not to mention he can detect Amy's bio-signature. Now go."

"He's right," Frankilos said to me telepathically. "If we're gonna find Amy, we need to hurry, before SPD finds her first."

"Fine," I said aloud, confirming Patrick's orders. "We'll be back as soon as we find her."

"Let's move out!" commanded the Green Ranger.

"We need to hurry," Tonyxyn suddenly said, "the odds are way against them."

"Against who?" I asked.

"Patrick, Matt, and Grace."

"Aren't they just Titan Runners? Amy said you guys had no problem with them yesterday."

"These are different," he responded. "They're all fliers."

"What do you mean they're all fliers?"

"The ones we fought yesterday were a mixed team," explained Amy's Zordian partner as Frankilos sped down the road. "These units have a different design altogether; if my data's right, they're based off the Delta SWAT Flier Zord units SPD utilizes as an upgrade to their Delta Runners. And even though Gabriel's out of commission, it looks like Messiah's still able to use the Titan Technology."

"How many fliers are there?"

Tonyxyn was quiet for a few minutes, either running a scan or picking his words carefully.

"70," he finally said. "Ten of each different make of flier. My scan is limited, but I can tell their armor is different from each other."

"They can't form a Megazord, can they?" Frankilos interrupted. "You said the ones yesterday didn't, right?"

"No, they didn't. But that's because we didn't give them a chance. Let's hope these fliers can't combine."

—53—

We found Amy.

The only problem was that she was being hunted by Titan Runners. Tonyxyn was outnumbered in the skies, and Frankilos and I were barely able to dodge their fire—let alone return any.

Frankilos switched to Zord mode—an enlarged form of his normal-sized vehicle mode that stored me in my BURST Chamber and gave me control of him. I felt his car body expand around me until I was elevated to five times Frankilos's normal height.

We tried to stay in vehicle mode as long as possible, trying our best to get to Amy. She was hardly putting up a fight—hell, she was lucky to even get out of firing range of the T-Runners. But she was pinned down, and Tonyxyn couldn't get to her. And she couldn't get to him.

"We need to BURST Execute," I thought to Frankilos. "You ready?"

"Let's do it."

My BURST Chamber began to glow, a bright yellow light heating up the inside of it until I felt like a miniature sun. I felt Frankilos' body transforming around me, arms and legs formed from armored pieces of his vehicle mode. As the whirring of his mechanical body died down, I looked through our merged eyes at our opponents.

The T-Runners were advancing on our position—hidden in a forest of huge, blue-leafed trees. We weren't blending well, though—not with our bright yellow paintjob—so we blitzed.

We ran in, wrist blasters firing, shoulder cannons blazing. We registered the explosions of our attack, but never let up. As we got closer, the energy blade in our right wrist and energy hammer in our left wrist sprang forward. We smashed and slashed, tearing through the T-Runners at every opportunity we got.

We took 4 direct hits to the chest, but our body was tough—especially with our Inferno Deflector Shield burning up most of their bullet fire. A rocket from the sky slammed into our left shoulder, shorting out one of our cannons. Then loose laser fire took out the other one.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, we activated our ankle boosters and hovered over the ground by a few feet. Then we tried to get to firing range, making a quick retreat.

We didn't quite make it.

Someone shot out our right booster, and we tripped, stumbling forward. As soon as we hit the ground, round after round of energy bolts slammed into our fallen body.

"Jay, you've gotta go," Frankilos thought to me frantically. "You've got to get Amy and get Tonyxyn to take you back."

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you!"

"You don't have a choice," he snapped. "If you stay here, we both die. I can be repaired. You can't. Now go!"

I ground my teeth nervously. What the fuck was I supposed to do?

God!

This was all my fault. Maybe if I hadn't freaked out on Amy, she would've never run off on her own and gotten into this mess.

"Stop blaming yourself for the past and focus on the present!" Frankilos yelled into my mind. "You're wasting time. Get to Tonyxyn and get Amy."

I didn't have time to think of a response, because the next thing I knew, I was flying into the air. Frankilos had ejected me from the BURST Chamber and sent me high up into the sky, where Tonyxyn could see me. And the flying T-Runners could see me.

"I got you, buddy," Tonyxyn hollered to me as I heard his engines roar into overdrive.

He came at me so fast that I didn't even remember getting into the cockpit. He must've literally scooped me out of the air while flying at warp speed.

"Thanks," I said to him, catching my breath. "We gotta get Frankilos out of there."

"I know," he said coolly, "but we've gotta take care of these last few aerial T-Runners—then we can get Frankilos and Amy."

I nodded as I looked around the cockpit. "Do you need my help with anything?"

"Well," he said, preoccupied with dodging laser blasts, "not unless you think you and I can BURST Execute. But I don't see that happening in the next five minutes."

"What would we have to do to make it work?"

He seemed skeptical. "Well, for one, we'd have to share a mind. And based on what I've gathered from Amy—you're not really a big fan of that."

I fought not to roll my eyes. "Are you kidding me? Does everything have to be psychic? Can't we just bond over being similar or something?"

"We're not similar."

I groaned. "Okay, well what the hell am I supposed to do? Just ride bitch seat and hope you can take out the rest of these things in time to save Amy and Frank?"

Several laser bolts from the ground whizzed by and Tonyxyn and I both noticed at the same time that the terrestrial T-Runners had chosen us as their new targets.

Frankilos was in recovery mode. They'd left him alone, but his mind was off limits to me. It was like he was offline. I hoped he wasn't offline. Not permanently.

"Where's Amy?" I asked, trying to make sense of Tonyxyn's scanners.

"She's underground, hoping that the T-Runners can't pick up her Morphing signal."

"Tell her to demorph!"

"If she demorphs, she won't have the power to make a strong enough force field to block the T-Runners fire if they find her."

"But if she doesn't demorph, they will find her!"

"Too late."

He banked, hard, and dove toward the ground, dropping dozens of bombs on the unsuspecting T-Runners, who had been about to capture Amy.

"Shit!" Tonyxyn swore.

"What happened?"

"Amy had a force field up when I bombed them, but it failed. She's demorphed down there!"

"You hit her?" I half-shouted.

"Not on purpose!"

"Take us down!"

"I can't," he said firmly. "If I do, we're dead. We're gonna have to try to get the other T-Runners to follow us away."

He didn't wait to see if I agreed—he only climbed higher into the air and jetted off in the opposite direction—toward the other Rangers. Toward a cloud of black smoke, and a swarm of color-coded metal.

The T-Fliers were on their way.

"Oh no," we both sighed.

"What happened to the others?" I mumbled.

Tonyxyn was silent as he tried to contact the other Zordians. "Communications are down."

"Does that mean…?"

"I doubt it," he said confidently. "The T-Fliers must have disabled comms and gotten past the others. But I doubt they were able to finish them."

"Still, that doesn't help us," I pointed out. "We're alone now. And it's not like we can do much with you stuck as a space jet."

"I won't be able to transform to Cherub Mode until I can get Amy into her BURST Chamber. And I'm not sure how I could go about doing that without getting us both killed."

"Do you really think the only way we can do it is if you read my mind?"

"It's a start. I mean, it's the only way I can think of that will let me get to know you quickly."

My stomach turned as Tonyxyn performed a summersault and spiraled to dodge the oncoming fire. He shot up into the upper atmosphere of the planet, and I felt my organs all slam into my back. God, I hated flying.

"Alright," I finally said, "alright. Do it."

"Take the controls, just in case I go non-responsive. I shouldn't; but just in case."

"That's comforting," I mumbled, following his orders.

I tried to relax as we hurtled into the upper atmosphere, the stars of space just out of reach. I felt Tonyxyn's presence creep into my mind carefully, brushing past the barriers of my mind.

Then everything faded out.

The laser fire in the background dulled to a whisper, all the Zords below and their growling engines died to a low hum, and the swirling wind outside of Tonyxyn's armored cockpit sounded like nothing but a quiet breeze. Reality ceased to exist, like I had slipped into some dreamlike state that was slowly sucking me in. Like I was suddenly dunked into the warm waters of another dimension inside my head.

All at once, my brain started reeling to reflect the pieces of me that Tonyxyn delved in to find. In seconds, he was crossing the oceans in my mind like they were just letters in a word—words in a sentence. As if every single memory of my life was nothing but a speck on the page of the universe.

And it was true.

Compared to him, I was nothing—just like with Frankilos. I had barely begun to live my life, but everything seemed like it had happened so quickly that I felt I was almost at the finish line. It was like my mind was on overdrive, but my body had yet to catch up to it. And that was saying something, considering my body could literally move at super speed.

Frankilos had tried to tell me that our Morphers' programmed elements somehow reflected who we were in some way. And as Tonyxyn flew through every chapter of my life in nanoseconds, I started to come to an epiphany.

Frankilos was right.

I was fire. Hot-headed and unpredictable. Uncontrollable and ever-expanding. And too fast to anticipate. Too terrifyingly wild and punishing to be around without a safeguard.

Was that why people were always in my head? Because my thoughts were too fast to keep up with? Because I had been accelerated by the Upsilon Yellow Morpher?

But as soon as I even started to feel my emotions react to my thoughts, Tonyxyn brushed them aside with a wave of relief. Suddenly, I was calm. Suddenly, I was fine. Nothing bothered me. Everything made sense. For one quick second in time.

"Jay?"

I blinked.

"Are you okay?"

Slowly, the world around me came back into sight. The haze of my thoughts lifted slightly, and I remembered where I was. What was actually going on.

"Yeah," I finally managed to say, "yeah, I'm fine. Are we good?"

He thought over my question for a few seconds, no doubt processing all the information he'd just taken from me. I noticed that we were almost stationary, floating in the upper atmosphere of Eltar, out of firing range of the T-Fliers. The silence was weird.

"You really care about Amy…don't you?"

"What? What are you talking about? Of course I do, what the hell kind of question is that?"

"It's just that…I've noticed how you humans are with your emotions, and you're not so different from us. It's just that with your species, your life expectancy is so low, you're all so afraid to make mistakes. You're so eager to make the most of every day and that sometimes clouds your judgment. Especially when it comes to love. And you humans misuse that word a lot. Like, a lot. We have an Eltarian word that refers to true love that you hardly ever hear. And that's because it's so important to us." His engines began to hum as we picked up speed, descending toward the planet. As his speed picked up, his voice grew louder. "But, every once in a while, I see real love in your kind. And looking into your mind, knowing what's in Amy's—I know you two have it.

"Even if Amy has been reading your mind since the very first day you got your powers, what does it matter? It should show you that she loves the real you like only you could love yourself. All the darkest parts of you, she knows. And she's still here. She still cares. She still loves you. And deep down inside, beneath all that anger you're feeling, and under all the pain, you know it. And that's why it scares you."

We were flying right back to the T-Runners and Amy in a supersonic nose dive, and I could see the trees forming beneath us like blobs, the purple mountaintops jabbing toward us like jagged fingers. I saw the planet rushing toward me faster than I could process. All I could think was one thing.

Tonyxyn was right.

"Let it go."

The moment I heard his voice in my head, I knew he was right. Our feelings resonated, understanding each other on a different level. Tonyxyn's mind opened to me, revealing his centuries of life to my mind's eye. I felt our presences merge, our beings mixing between human and Zordian.

And then the BURST Chamber lit up with millions of little stars that burned like falling cinders. I felt my suit burn as a golden aura wrapped around me and filled the chamber until Tonyxyn's entire body was on fire. His spaceship form skyrocketed toward the ground in a burning aerial dive, golden flames trailing behind us like we were lighting the sky on fire.

"BURST EXECUTE!"

Tonyxyn's razorblade wings detached from his main hull as his body began to transform. I felt his body growing, magnifying to Zord Mode size in the blink of an eye. The laser fire of the T-Runners below zinged by harmlessly, and the few lucky laser bolts to hit were shrugged off by the transformation shield wrapped around us.

Tonyxyn's body began to fully assemble, a stronger angel like figure with grand wings and a heavy arsenal. But his standard pink and cobalt armor shifted, changing under a brilliant golden light that hid his robot body from view. The light built and built until it erupted into an enormous explosion, fire engulfing everything in my sight. In our sight.

We smashed into the ground like a meteorite with perfect landing precision, denting the planet's surface with a massive crater. As we stood from kneeling, we gazed through the smoke around us before immediately switching to a battle stance.

"TONYXYN—FIRESTORM CHERUB MODE!"

Inside the fire, Tonyxyn and I stared through the golden flames at our enemies with a renewed spark. With a confidence I never even knew was possible.

The battlefield seemed to still as the SPD pilots tried in vain to analyze our new transformation. They didn't know whether to attack or run.

They should've run.

We flexed our leg forward and a pair of booster rockets on our calves burst to life. In seconds, we were gliding through the air, barely grazing the ground before us. We sped through trees and feigned right, then spiraled into the air and took aim. Our sniper rifle appeared and assembled from various panels along our right arm. By the time our leap reached its peak, our finger squeezed the trigger and blew away the main cockpits of two T-Runners. The bullets continued onward, ripping the treading of another and tearing a power mane on one more. Seconds later, the bullets erupted in a dome of fire had just erupted from a missile strike.

"Incredible," we thought to ourselves, marveling at our power.

The experience and control Tonyxyn had from all his years of war flooded our brain and coursed through my powers. Our new body was scorching in a coat of pyrotechnic armor, and beneath that, some of the most ancient and powerful armor known to the universe.

Even if they could touch us, it wouldn't do them any good.

"We need to find Amy," we thought to ourselves, landing perfectly in a plume of smoke, "let's take care of the rest of these T-Runners and get her out of here."

Our sniper rifle retracted as a pair of molten plasma pistols ejected from compartments on the underside of our wrists. Immediately, our fingers grasped them and found the trigger, itching to squeeze it. On our shoulders, twin molten plasma cannons.

"Engage Glider Combat Mode!" we roared, our wings springing out to full length and extending back like blades.

We burst out of the black smoke, ripping toward the other T-Runners. They were bigger than us by far, but their size didn't matter. It just made them easier targets. Even easier than they already were.

As our pistols sniped out tires and critical areas, we scanned the vicinity quickly for Amy's presence.

200 meters to the immediate right under a pile of fallen tree limbs. Alive.

We summersaulted through the air and fired all of our main cannons, a spiral of devastating fire falling from the sky on the T-runners. Just before any could hit Amy, we had a force field of fire around her—incinerating anything that tried to touch her.

As the last of the T-Runners crumbled to the ground, small explosions randomly popping in and out of their hulls, we scanned for Frankilos's energy signature.

His repair mode had locked down his entire body in a fiery cocoon or something, but his vitals were stable. He was good to travel, but definitely not for a fight.

"We need to get Amy to Frankilos. He can take her back to the palace while we join the others and take down the T-Flier Armada." I paused in my thinking, making sure this was the right choice. "We don't really have a choice, though. If we don't stop them, those Fliers are gonna overrun the Palace."

No choice but to fight.

For a moment in time, I saw through the epic battle and caught a glimpse of Amy in our palm. I was so glad she was safe. And so was Tonyxyn. So much that it I could barely sort his feelings from mine.

We shook our head, focusing on the task at hand. Our calf boosters sprang to life again, and we ventured off toward Frankilos, the ground now noticeably quieter. We could still hear the hum of the T-Fliers on the horizon, though.

"Frankilos," we spoke, our voices joined, "are you okay?"

"Jay?" Frankilos muttered. "Jay, is that you?"

"Yeah. Or…kinda."

Frankilos's optical sensors came online as he took in my appearance. Our appearance.

"You…you merged?" he wondered. "You did it?"

"Yeah. I finally listened to what you said and understood why I am the way I am. I figured out a lot of stuff, actually. Pretty quick."

Tonyxyn's mind pushed against mine, threatening the stability of our mergence.

"Anyway, we don't have time for that," Tonyxyn and I said together again. "We need you to take Amy back to the palace as fast as you can. Stay low and don't stop for anything."

"I might be banged up," he said, "but my sensors are still online. There's a huge armada on its way here."

"We know."

"You're gonna fight it alone?"

"We're gonna meet up with the others. Now go."

He hesitated before opening his driver door for Amy. Tonyxyn and I set her inside and stepped back. "Be fast, Frankilos."

"Always am. Be safe."

We nodded.

—53—

There were a lot more Fliers than we'd originally thought. And there was no sign of the other Rangers, or the other Zordians. It was like they just disappeared.

As we stared at the massive, metallic cloud of space fighters, the heat of the fight crept into our souls. Our vision grew tighter. Our mechanical muscles flexed. And our trigger fingers itched.

Three.

Gears clicked as different armaments on our body fell into place. Our shoulder cannons. Our pistols. Our missiles. Our rockets.

Two.

Our vision adjusted to compensate for glares and visual disturbances. Our weapons locked into place, power just starting to tickle their circuits.

One.

The high-pitched whine of our plasma pistols and shoulder cannons blocked out the dull roar of the Titan Fliers.

A massive torrent of energy formed from the two separate beams, and it tore through the sky like a bolt of lightning. Upon impact of the first flier, it exploded outward and took out a chunk of the cloud. Our pistols laid waste to another group. As one pistol reloaded its energy, we twisted our forearm and fired a volley of missiles to the middle of the pack. We flipped one pistol back into its compartment, moving so fast that seconds felt like days, leavings us time to assemble one of our rifles. One mag later, another chunk fell from the sky like fiery meteors.

The wave of enemies kept coming though, and they were getting closer. It was time for some close combat.

"Engage Cherub Commando Mode," we said together, our six wings joining as two and our shoulder cannon's retreating to our back. From the topside of our wrists, two blades extended and glowed a bright gold. "Let's do it!"

Our calf boosters lit up again, joined by our plantar and solar boosters that skyrocketed us forward. We collided with the first Titan Flier in a shower of sparks, tearing it to shreds. Our wings launched retro-boosters in a ring of fire and exploded another 3 fliers near me.

Leveling out some, we waited for the next Flier in midair, and then latched onto its upper hull. Our wrist blades tore open the cockpit and its pilot was sucked out into the sky. Pushing our feet into the flier's falling body, we launched to the next and tore its wings off. To the next. And the next. Until we were tearing apart the fliers before they could react.

Finally, they broke rank and scattered. Several bogies flew in from the rear, but we spread our wings and launched the missiles from the three wings that comprised each main wing.

Bull's eye.

And then someone hit us. And so did another one.

We spun, trying to regain balance, but another flier swooped in and slammed into us. We managed to barrel roll away, but we were immediately chased by laser fire from another swarm of fliers. Finally, we pulled away, looping around and trying to scope out our enemies.

"There are too many of them. They're starting to catch on," we panted, analyzing the situation. "We won't last much longer, even with all of our new power."

Before we knew it, the fliers were back. We braced for impact, but just before its laser could charge, it was struck from the sky in a bolt of blue.

"What the…?"

We heard them before we saw them. Tonyxyn's sudden wave of happiness almost knocked us out of our merger because I had no idea why he was so happy. Until we saw them.

The Eltarian Fighter Force. Also known as the EFF, Tonyxyn's Alma Mater of sorts.

They appeared from a distortion in the sky, some kind of portal from their headquarters. Tonyxyn seemed to know of this form of attack, but it was new to me. But I loved it!

Our communication channel buzzed to life. "This is Eltym-Filos 01, Air Commander of the Royal Eltarian Fighter Force. Please identify yourself."

"We are Tonyxyn and Upsilon Yellow, Jay Owens. We BURST Executed."

The Air Commander was silent for a moment, no doubt scanning our energy signature to see if there were any similarities. Obviously he was satisfied when he said, "That is good news, isn't it? Good to have you, Tonyxyn, Sir."

We nodded, mostly out of Tonyxyn's will.

No sooner did we do so did the other Rangers appear through the Eff's portal. Grace, Matt, and Patrick—safe and sound.

"Dude, you did it!" Patrick enthused. "Awesome job."

"Thank you," we replied through our commlink. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're fine. Did you get Amy?"

"Frankilos is on his way to the palace with her."

"Sounds good." With that, Zeta and Patrick transformed into their Seraph Kaiser Mode. When they were done, Zeta's and Patrick's joined voices meshed together. "Ready to finish this?"

—53—

"Thanks for trusting me, Jay," Tonyxyn said, the telepathic communication somewhat unexpected. "Amy owes her life to you. And so do I. So do all of us, actually. You stepped outside of yourself and put everyone else first. So don't be so hard on yourself."

I smiled to myself, gazing out from the observation room of the Zordian repair bay. Frankilos was in some super advanced healing chamber being supervised by Zeta, and Tonyxyn was in the process of being analyzed by Eltarian Fighter Force commanders. Probably so they would know what side effects Hybrid BURST Execution could exist.

"Thanks, man. I couldn't have done it on my own. So thank you for getting me through it."

He didn't reply. At least, not with any form of words. I got a telepathic visual of him, as a flesh-and-blood Eltarian. He nodded casually, and disappeared from my mind.

"Hey, man, you okay?"

I turned around to see Patrick. He stood out a lot in his blue jeans and DePaul hoodie, but the normality was slightly refreshing.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just got done debriefing a few higherups in the Eff on the whole battle. They mostly wanted to talk to Tonyxyn since he used to be one of them. I get the feeling they don't like me too much..." I felt myself rambling and remembered some social manners. "How are you?"

He grinned at my rant but nodded. "I'm good, about to take a power nap sometime soon. I'm exhausted. Have you been to see Amy?"

I shook my head slowly. "Not yet. I figured I'd just get in Andrea and Nike's way."

"You need to go see her. All they're doing is running tests. They took her Morpher for the time being, but she's fine - if a little tired."

"Are you sure she wants to see me?"

"Just go, dude."

It took me about 10 minutes, but I did go.

Amy looked fine enough, maybe a little pale and tired, but nothing too bad. There were a bunch of blinking lights attached to her body that acted as monitors, and there were screens displaying all sorts of different vital signs in Eltarian.

"Just the person I need to see."

It was Andrea, Aaron's youngest aunt and Green Astral Fury Ranger. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a pair of square, pink-framed reading glasses. Her clothes were alien to me, but still slightly human and casual. But her face was serious. Worried.

"How is she?"

"Well," she sighed, "she'll be okay. But Amy and the Sigma Force Morpher are incompatible."

"How is that possible? Don't these Morphers choose us?"

"In a way. But they're not foolproof. They can be tricked."

"Yeah, but Amy didn't trick the thing. I was there, I saw her put it on."

"Did you see her slap it?" she asked, knowing I hadn't. "Because that was enough to trick the Morpher into thinking Amy was a proper host."

"A slap? Really?" I found myself all but sneering. "These Morphers are the most advanced thing in eons but they can be tricked from the oldest technology fix in the book?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Just the Sigma Morpher. It's different from the others because of the nature of its powers. It requires a person with an assertive personality - someone who will use the telepathic enhancing properties to act, not react. Amy is extremely passive. But when she struck the Cyber Morpher, she acted and forced the Morpher to respond. As you learned today, the powers attributed to the Morphers is reflected in the user."

I heard what she was saying - she was making sense. I just didn't get what we were supposed to do about it. Or how the Morpher suddenly rejected her. So I asked.

"Well, it only began to reject her when she overused the powers. The Morpher was never meant for such extended use. Whn she started using her powers to read everyone's minds all the time and molded herseld to adapt, she defeated the purpose of having telepathy. It wasn't until she used the Psychokinetic Transceiver that the Sigma Morpher really started to reject her."

"So that thing overloaded her Morpher?" I wondered angrily, wishing I could have stopped her from using it.

"Yes. But it's not to say it wouldn't have happened sooner or later." She let her worda hang in the air before she explained why, her older brunette sister, Nike, entering the observation room of the infirmary.

Instead, Nike took over for her. "Not that I disagree with Tommy's actions, but this is one of the reasons the council is so upset that you guys are using the Cyber Morphers. They're meant to be used by Eltarians. Especially thw Sigma Morpher. It's by far one of the most dangerous for humans because you're not used to psychic energy - at least not in abundance. Amy's body has done an excellent job accommodating the Morpher's needs, but ultimately, it's not enough."

I looked between the two sisters, confused and thoughts unorganized and frantic. "So...what do we do?"

The two royal Rangers exchanged glances, as if trying to decide which one of them got to be the bearer of bad news.

It was Andrea.

"If Amy continues to use the Sigma Pink Force Cyber Morpher...it will kill her."

—53—

"Hey," I said, trying to ignore the guilt struggling to burst from inside of me. I could hardly look her in the eye.

"Hey," she said back nervously.

Queue awkward silence.

"So," I ventured, "how are you feeling?"

"Other than idiotic, okay, actually."

I shook my head, giving way to a small grin. "Don't waste time beating yourself up. Everything's okay."

She let her silence ask me how that was possible after everything that had happened in the past 6 hours.

I took a deep breath, taking her hand in mine and keeping eye contact for as long as I could muster. "When Tonyxyn and I Hybrid BURST Executed, he helped me come to this realization that had been on the tip of my brain for a while. That, though you violates my privacy and knew all my thoughts, you stuck around. I mean, you knew every part of me like no one else ever has, and you still love me. Yoy loved me so much, in fact, that you changed yourself to fit my inner needa and wants." She broke the eye contact, hers starting to shine with the slight chance of showers. I couldn't blame her, because even I was feeling a little misty eyed. "At first, I was angry that you were keeping mental taba on me. But now...now I see why."

She sniffed loudly, laughing somewhat. "You know, it started because I was afraid I would 'turn another boyfriend gay.' But when all that stuff with Sanders happened at the lake house, I already knew. But I didn't really care because I knew how guilty you felt. And I knew you didn't mean it. But now, in this moment, I don't have a clue as to what you're thinking. And I have to admit, it's terrifying. But it's exciting. It's surprising. It'll take some time for me to get used to not knowing everything on your mind, but if you're patient, I promise I'll try."

"You don't have to try. You should already know me by now," I said, shrugging. "But, on the off chance that you don't, it'll be just like we were meeting for the first time."

"Oh God," she groaned, fighting a smile. "I don't think I could deal with meeting you for the first time again. You were so confusing."

I didn't know whether to laugh or frown, but I found myself doing more of the first. "You know, I can't even blame you for saying that, cuz that's very true."

She nodded, smiling. "It's weird…," she said after a few moments. "We just had our first fight in like…years."

I processed what she said, thinking about it for a few seconds. She was right. But for some reason, I was so happy that we did fight. For some reason, I felt like the conflict had given us the resolution. It was like it had made me appreciate her so much more—like it brought the spark back to our relationship. Things had been so easy for us that we didn't really appreciate what we had. And now we did.

"I kinda like it," I said, confused by my own feelings.

She laughed, a heartfelt, genuine sound that seemed to brighten her skin and eyes.

"I wouldn't know without my powers," she joked back.

And in that moment, I was so glad she didn't have her powers. It made it a lot easier to keep the front of happiness up. It made lying that much easier. Because I didn't have the heart to tell her she wouldn't be getting her powers back.