Hide and Seek Chapter 4: Crop Circles in the Carpet, a power rangers fanfic

Chapter 4

Crop Circles in the Carpet

Notes: An abundance of thanks to the lovely Real Vampire for sifting through this monstrosity for errors. Vamps, we have all benefitted from your keen eye and patience, thank you for donating your editing skillz to this cause :). If you guys are looking for some Ninja Storm romance to counter all the angst, check out Vamps' story 'My Brother's Keeper', it is truly good business :D

-:-:-:-:-:-

There weren't a large variety of options available to them from that point onward.

The list Shane had built for himself was deceptively straightforward, offering comfort in structure he knew very well could be useless. There were too many unknown variables, too many loose ends unraveling in haphazard disregard that he had absolutely no hope of enforcing any kind of control over.

In the moments Shane risked thinking about it, the uncertainty made him physically ill; the anxiety of the worst possible outcomes hanging over his head like the blade of a guillotine, made worse by the fact that there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it. It was as frustrating as it was disheartening, and every day Shane had to echo Hunter's sentiments to disengage, detach, keep focused. He couldn't indulge in feelings, even if he wanted to. Shane couldn't feel the guilt, even if it was rightfully his, even if it only served to enhance his caution, to spare the others from a fate like Cam's.

He knew it wasn't healthy, but there were times when Shane pretended Cam was with them. As though he was standing behind the air ninja's shoulder, just out of sight. Shane would pretend to sense the Samurai's displeasure at this, or to hear his judgment on that, or listen to his stern lectures on the benefits of certain tactical approaches.

Sometimes, when he was alone, Shane talked to him.

It wasn't healthy, it probably wasn't even helpful, but like the nagging craving of an addict, Shane couldn't fight the urge.

Hunter was beginning to sense something was off, but he allowed Shane his psychotic indulgences. Shane wasn't sure if he was grateful for that or not, but he couldn't dwell on it. He couldn't, or one day he would find himself screaming at Hunter for daring to show such levelheadedness. How could the blond seem fine? How could he move on like everything was the same as it always was? Didn't he care? Cam was dead.

Cam, Shane's friend, his slowly-earned friendship, the one Shane had to fight tooth and nail for, was dead. Ranger down, ranger down.

At times like that, Shane would come back to himself with a start, eventually coming to the same conclusion he always did with vicious clarity. Hunter seemed fine because he had to be, because he had done this.

And if the blond could do it, Shane could do it, come hell or high water. It wasn't like he had just lost his parents.

You couldn't play the comparison game though- Shane knew it was selfish to even try, even if, in a very selfish way, it helped him wrap his head around things. To cope. As though this murder, unlike their murders, was less-bad, when in actuality death by the hands of others was just as horrifically inhumane no matter who it occurred to, or in what function.

Shane was becoming more philosophical these days, and he wasn't sure it was a good thing. On a scale of how Cam's loss could affect him, he guessed he didn't suffer the worst on his team. That was easily recognized – without any verbal confirmation necessary on their part – in Dustin.

At first Shane had hoped, had kindled a brave, stubborn flame fighting against the rage of negativity, that Dustin's silence would be a temporary thing. The Earth ninja had grown more withdrawn in the days after Cam's death, but that was to be expected, right? Cam was Dustin's… Shane couldn't even begin to explain that relationship. There weren't really words for it. Shane was Dustin's best friend, but Cam was another classification of being entirely to the yellow ranger. He was, in Dustin's words, 'just Cam' – like that explained it all. He was Dustin's brother and his friend and his family and his shoulder to lean on and ear to listen and fountain of patience and advice. They were fire and water, they had nothing in common save for a battle they shared, and it shouldn't have been enough.

In proper Dustin-and-Cam fashion though, it had been. The two had combined their knacks for making the impossible frustratingly in reach, and never once were they lesser for it. There would never be a day in Dustin's life where he would be able to understand all the techno-jargon coming out of Cam's mouth, but the green ranger never – had never – held it against Dustin.

Shane had always been worried about Cam's naturally sarcastic and gruff disposition, but Dustin never registered any barbs from Cam save the few that had been offered as a shared joke. A private conversation for them.

When they had started traveling, hiking the system of underground tunnels in search of a Zhar-ptitsa base with any kind of computer system, Hunter had pulled Shane aside. Not enough that the red ranger had even noticed it, but a subtle shift.

Shane had been matching Hunter's pace, keeping his eyes on their teammates marching steadily along in front of them. Tori was on point, Filiss's support unit attached to her back, the little program projecting blueprints and directing her on the most efficient course of action. Next in line, only half a step behind her, was Blake. His footsteps were silent, an effortless glide.

Beside Tori, it was a picture of eerie synchronicity. Shane almost wanted to chide himself for not seeing sooner. It hurt, in a way, seeing how painfully blue they both were. Shane couldn't even think of a proper way to describe it; he just knew that sharing their color was not only appropriate, but necessary. Shades of blue, different, but still of the same brood. Blake had Tori's back – that was how he'd changed. Without so much as speaking a word, Blake was on the defensive, split between keeping guard over Hunter and Tori. Strangely enough, his attentions seemed to focus more on the latter, though Shane could not say the reason as to why. It might have something to do with the glances the younger Bradley cast between Shane and Hunter, how the reds rarely separated nowadays, or maybe he just knew Hunter could take care of himself.

Tori, on the other hand…

She was harder. It was a decision Shane admired, but he was afraid that one day she would become so brittle she would shatter, and then what would they do? Who was going to cajole Dustin into eating when hers was the only touch the brunette acknowledged? What would Shane do if Tori – if his friend, his stubborn, fiery, brilliant friend – collapsed under the weight of her own frustrations and grief?

Didn't she know how much that would kill him? Didn't she care?

For things like this, it was probably for the best that Blake was playing at being her guardian angel. For all the times Tori had coddled Dustin into taking care of himself, Blake had done the same for Tori. He kept her temper in check the same way he had for Hunter when the Thunder rangers had first joined the team.

Shane knew Blake cared about Tori – he always had – but the tired part of him, the world-weary part that stayed awake even after working through the anxiety and hopelessness, wondered what the other Bradley brother was getting out of it. Was it nice to be needed? Did he volunteer because it had to be done, the same way Hunter had stood up? Did he even care, or was it simply necessary?

It was crazy-talk, rubbish. Stupid. Shane only had to remember all the times Blake stumbled over his words at Storm Chargers, all the goofy smiles and stupid pickup lines he had thrown Tori's way back in the real- back on Earth, back home. Shane only needed to do that to remember Blake's devotion was true.

It was terrifying, how easily those thoughts slipped away from him sometimes. How the foundation of what he knew seemed questionable, when back home they would have been undisputed and revered. It was another change for Shane, and it was not one he took any gratification in.

Thankfully, Hunter was there to serve as an easy distraction. He pulled Shane from his less-conducive perusals back to the present with mild nudges, with simple statements, by demanding strategy. He was- Shane didn't have the words to describe how grateful he was for Hunter's actions, only that he was, and it was a debt he probably would never be able to repay Hunter.

Hunter, whose greatest change since Cam's death seemed only to be noticeable by Shane, in that, he hadn't changed all that much at all.

His edges might have been softer, he might have been more talkative, more social than he would have been for the benefit of the team, but for the most part, Hunter persevered as he always had. It was an odd sense of normality that had thrown Shane, leaving him mentally floundering to adjust in the wake of Hunter's impassive stare. The blond did not weep for Cam, he did not baby the others, but he didn't disrespect Cam's absence either.

Maybe he was different- Shane didn't know, he couldn't- he couldn't really know, right now. There was only so much he could manage.

They were walking, exploring the latest set of tunnels, when Hunter pulled him back. He slowed, and Shane copied his pace, matched his stride step-for-step, until they had enough room, Shane realized, for a private conversation. By ninja standards, it was nothing, but with their abilities restrained to that of average humans, there weren't any advanced hearing-ranges they had to worry about keeping out of. It only took about ten feet before Hunter was satisfied, the backs of the others a comforting presence, covered in the glows of stolen weaponry and space-lamps.

Shane expected another conversation about the best approaches to use on Tori that day, and was startled when the blond took a completely different point of focus.

"How long were they dating?" Hunter asked.

From the corner of his eye, he could see that Hunter had never taken his eyes away from their teammates in the distance, hadn't so much as bothered to glance in Shane's direction.

It took the Air ninja a few seconds to actually register what the crimson ranger had said.

When he still came up with nothing, Shane cocked his head to the side, allowing the confusion to be read on his face. "What?"

If he was referring to Tori and Blake, Shane wasn't sure why he would bother asking. Despite loving Tori like a sister, Hunter would be way more informed on the blue rangers' relationship status via his brother, and his brother's less-known-but-very-existent propensity for gossip, than Shane would.

It had been kind of funny, the stuff Blake and Dustin had gotten up to when they thought no one was around. Cam had walked in on them speculating about Hunter's newest haircut once over hot chocolate and gingersnaps. Shane knew this because he and Cam had formed their own mini-gossip team from that point onward, but they usually focused on team relations as a whole, not just-

There was a gentle prodding against his side, insistent enough to drag Shane out of his haze of memory. When he looked up, Hunter still hadn't bothered glancing in his direction, but there was a small frown on his face.

Right. Not now.

"How long?" Hunter repeated, as though that had been the part Shane had missed.

While the skater appreciated Hunter's faith in his abilities to connect point A to point V from seemingly nothing, Shane actually needed a little more context before he could attempt an answer.

There was a headcount, a brief thing – one, two, three, the others still there, still in one piece – and then Shane's attention was back on Hunter. He reached a hand out, but hesitated, unsure how, or if, or–

He swallowed, and decided to use his elbow instead, prodding it against the hard muscles of Hunter's side.

It earned him an annoyed glance, and Shane used that second of Hunter's sight to communicate his confusion.

Who?

For a second, he thought Hunter didn't believe him; the blond's nose crinkled, annoyed that Shane was playing coy maybe, but the Air ninja wasn't shaken by it. He didn't know.

Eventually, Hunter realized this.

"Dustin," he said quietly, after they had traveled a good ten feet down the hallways, still lagging behind the others. "Cam."

"They weren't."

Shane said this before he could really process it, said it with a surety based on his own observations.

When that occurred to him, it was enough to make the red ranger want to halt, want to stop and reevaluate, reconsider, but he didn't. They hadn't been dating, he would have noticed. He wasn't even sure Cam had been gay. The tech and Dustin may have spent an extended amount of time together, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. That didn't immediately imply romantic entanglement.

It didn't. Hunter was just pulling a Hunter. Growing something from nothing.

The blond gifted him with a dubious look that Shane chose to ignore, keeping his gaze focused on the teammates in front of him.

One, two, three, everyone in one piece. They were good.

"They weren't," Hunter echoed. There was no inflection in his tone, but Shane's skin felt tight and uncomfortable anyway.

Hunter neither believed nor disbelieved, he just needed to- to process. Maybe.

Or, Shane realized when the other teen continued speaking, he needed to reevaluate. "But there was love, right?"

It was a weird way to phrase it. Shane had either heard him wrong, or the exhaustion Hunter wasn't showing had accumulated all on the inside, muddling up his words.

Shane's throat was dry, chalky, as he contemplated his response.

"Of course," he said eventually.

He couldn't outright reject Hunter, not when the older Bradley was attempting to reach out to him. Shane couldn't shoot down the other teen's ideas as idiotic, couldn't roll his eyes at the futility. Hunter had brought this up for a reason. In his opinion, this warranted some attention.

It was placating, and Hunter knew it, because Hunter cut through bullshit as though it were his sole mission in life.

"Of course," Hunter repeated. Again. It was about as antagonist as he got nowadays, but he let it go.

They moved on.

There weren't a large variety of options available to them, but the ones they did have, the ones they were capable of achieving, were straightforward in a way that was almost painful, leaving plenty of room for wandering minds, to collapse into pitfalls of doubt or emptiness. Shane had entertained both, despite knowing better. Most of the time he could cling to the present with a desperate fierceness that revolved around the defense of his team, but other times…

Shane was glad for Hunter, was all he had to say on the subject.

The days had passed slowly, in an irritating kind of lag. In the tunnels, there was no real way to tell time. Filiss could keep track of twelve hour periods well enough, but without a starting input, she had no way of discerning when it was day or night. Ultimately, it didn't matter, but Shane could see Tori's fingers itch against the pocket of her military cargos that held Cam's little notebook. The same one that contained the note he knew she had kept. Sure, she had tucked it away, safe from Dustin's prying eyes, but it was still there. It was hidden behind her hurried scrawls, her obsessive notes tracking the time rendered effectively useless in the isolation of the tunnels. It was another thing this place had stolen from them.

The tunnel system the colonists had set up was extensive and, with no real point of reference, it was difficult for Filiss to navigate them through, even though she did her best. Most of her information remained accurate – based on her estimates on where they had started – but a lot of the hidden bases had been destroyed. The paths leading to them were buried under rubble and twisted metals. Some of the tunnels were rudimentary at best, reminiscent of old mineshafts, and if any of those had suffered an attack, they stood no chance of remaining structurally integral.

Those tunnels they had to ignore; the bases that were clogged with ash and soot, rubble and destruction mixed with seemingly innocent things- shoes, laptops, a helmet.

Too many times the remains bore the uncomfortable stench of decay, and they would turn back, away from the copper smell of blood. Away from the death, from the graves that were not marked.

Like Cam's.

Shane brought his mind back to the plan. The plan was safe; the plan was good.

They needed to find functioning computer banks. From there, Filiss could determine how much, if any, of the original colonists were out there still fighting the Koshmar. She could track Agent Cal's last location, maybe connect to his communication equipment – if possible. It was a long shot, she had explained; he would have masked his signal if things had gotten very dire, but it was worth trying. At the very least, she could find the last location of his emergency tracker.

From there…

Damn, the entire planning session had been a mess, too many 'what if's' and unknowns and variables for anything concrete to ever be determined. It hadn't stopped them from falling into what was habit, clinging to something that had always worked in the past, but it should have.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"So what do we do then?" Tori was saying. Her lips seemed to be twisted in a permanent frown, chiseled from stone as unyielding as her demands. "We find how many colonists there are, find Agent Cal, maybe, and then what?" She looked at each of them expectantly, with the clear exception of Dustin. The Earth ninja was more or less snuggled against her side, his eyes blank and distant as he rolled the Samurai amulet between his fingers, shifting it from one hand to the other.

No one commented on it, least of all Dustin.

"We have to get out of here," Hunter said, his tone even, strong. "Maybe Filiss can get us to one of the colonists' ships."

"And then what?" Tori's eyes were bright with an unruly challenge Shane hadn't seen since they were kids. The nostalgia was counteracted with the usual petulance that had accompanied this look being replaced with bitter criticism. "Project Freelancer sent one guy here because anything more than that could be detected by the aliens. By that logic, any ship big enough to carry all of us would definitely be detected."

"What about the colonists, Hunter?" Blake leaned forward, the subtle movement enough to momentarily pull Tori's ire away from his brother. "Do we just leave them behind? What if some of them are still out there?"

"Are we just supposed to fight this war for them?" Hunter asked. On any other day, it would have been a challenge, dripping with sarcasm and sharp enough to wound, but not now. "I don't like the idea of leaving anyone behind any more than you do Blake, but we can't fight off an entire armada, and for all we know, those Koshmar guys are out there in unlimited force. The colonists have the know-how to turn their weapons against them, they aren't exactly helpless."

"And that makes it better?" Tori said it in a low growl. Somehow, that was worse than any shout or exclamation.

Dustin stirred momentarily, thrown by the change of tone, but eventually stilled, his mind a void.

Shane didn't blame him. An awful part of him wanted to do the same – but he did not.

Instead he swallowed, and tried to summon the leader in himself that Sensei had always insisted was there.

"Hunter has a point." Tori snorted and rolled her eyes even as the words left his mouth, but Shane pushed on, ignoring the feelings her actions attempted to ignite in him. "We aren't in any position to fight off an army."

"But we're more qualified than they are," Tori snapped.

She was right, but she also wasn't. Shane didn't want to be the one to explain that without their ranger powers, their ninja powers, they were about as useless as five other teenagers would have been in this situation.

Maybe Cam could have done something, but Cam was dead.

Shane still couldn't get used to that.

Instead, the Air ninja breathed, slow and calming, and shook his head. "We might not be able to help," he said quietly. "But that doesn't mean we can't find people who can."

He gave them a moment, allowing this to sink in. Shane knew without looking that Hunter's expression would be one of quiet understanding, that he had already seen where Shane was going with this.

"We have a responsibility to the Earth," Shane explained. "Hopefully, in our absence one of the other ranger teams is keeping Lothor occupied, but we have to remember that above all else, we have a duty to defend the Earth and all of its inhabitants from Lothor's attacks, and that comes before this."

"That's bullshit." Tori's eyes burned, but he could see the distant acceptance in them, that she knew but did not want to acknowledge it

"We can get reinforcements from Earth," Shane said. "The GSA, right? Or Bio Labs, or Lightspeed Rescue? We get them to come help. Hell, we can come help after we get our powers unsealed and we've taken care of Lothor. But until then, our focus has to be…"He swallowed, and it was hard, thinking about the destruction and the science he didn't understand and Cam's unblinking eyes. "Until then," he said finally. "Our number one goal has to be getting home. That's what matters."

"It's bullshit," Tori repeated.

"It's what we have to do." Shane didn't like it, but at the end of the day, that was the truth they had to hold to. There was a hierarchy of needs forced upon them by their duties as rangers, and that, however Shane felt on the subject, was what came first.

They needed to get home. Needed to get to people who would be more qualified to handle alien invasions on distant planets, who could get through a skirmish without losing a teammate. Who could provide hope without being hopeless.

Without his ninja abilities, Shane was just an average high school student. They all were.

What chance did they have of standing in the wake of the giants of war, expecting to not only survive, but prevail?

It all seemed grossly unfair.

But that was the point, wasn't it?

-:-:-:-:-:-

"So is this how it's going to go now?"

Shane held his breath, trapping the air in his chest until his lungs started to burn, counting down the seconds until spots began to dance in his vision. It wasn't the greatest coping mechanism, but something about it brought him peace. It was the closest he could get to injuring himself without leaving any lasting damage – and it was bad; he knew it was awful to punish himself and pretend it was helpful, but he was only human, okay? He had faults and gross limitations to which he had to abide.

Beside him, Tori waited him out, perpetual patience riding out behind a stoic expression.

They had set up camp for the night, another makeshift living quarters – ragged bunks with thin mattresses not unlike those that came with camping cots. They were plastic and thin, but the foam provided enough of a barrier from the rough cement floors to be a blessing. Maybe there would be less nightmares tonight. Yesterday hadn't been great for them, between Dustin and Blake (it surprised Shane more than Hunter, which made the red ranger discover a new level of douchebaggery for not considering the possibility that maybe the younger Bradley was hurting too), there hadn't been a lot of sleep to go around.

The day had been trying, but tonight-

Against the opposite wall, Dustin was curled into a pile of scavenged blankets, a couple layers of thin mattresses buffering him from the floor. Tori and Shane were supposed to be sleeping as well; the two Bradleys were guarding each of the entrances on the opposite end of the barracks. Shane and Tori were going to relieve them later, but-

But Shane hadn't been able to get close to Dustin since that ill-fated trip with Cam and Hunter, and the brunette hadn't seemed in any state to rectify it. Dustin had his own grief, it wasn't like he had time to deal with Shane's, but it just didn't seem right to move forward without Dustin's approval.

It was forgiveness that Hunter would say Shane didn't need to ask for, but Hunter wasn't here and Shane was the one who had been best friends with the Earth ninja all throughout their years of training, so Shane was going to allow himself to entertain whatever illogical beliefs helped him get through the day.

Structure. Or punishment, maybe. Shane didn't know. With the amount of time he had to think about it, he probably should by now, shouldn't he? But he just didn't.

He didn't like thinking about it.

He had expected Tori to join Dustin's pile as she always did. Maybe when they were both asleep, Shane could risk getting closer. Even that didn't seem right though.

But instead of indulging in habit, Tori broke the evening ritual and sidled up beside Shane, joining him in his vigil as Dustin slipped into an uneasy sleep.

He thought, maybe, that she was being kind.

It hurt a bit when he realized that was not the case.

"Is this how it will be for now on?" Tori pushed. Her tone was without inflection, but the hard set in her brow was all Shane needed to tell she wasn't happy by the prospect.

It was an instigation, clear and simple. Even if Shane didn't know what she was referring to exactly, asking for clarification was not going to be well-received, even if it was necessary. It would be best to wait it out.

Light blue eyes glanced at him, narrowing into vicious slits, silently calling out his tactic. "Are you just going to echo whatever Hunter says until we get out of this? Or is that your new life goal?"

Shane started to object before he could really process it. "I'm not-"

"Yes, you are," Tori hissed, leaning into his side. Before, it would have been friendly, but now he could tell it was just so she could keep her voice down. Protect whatever silence Dustin could take refuge in. "You keep agreeing with everything he says-"

"That's because he's right-"

"That's because you're lost," Tori snapped. Her lips were pulled back in an unpleasant smile, more like she was baring her teeth in the beginnings of a snarl. Animalistic and brutal. "Like relying on anyone's opinion but your own is better because you think-"

"Tori-" Shane felt a hint of panic build up in his stomach, squeezing his chest like vice.

"You think your leadership's compromised." The blonde was past the point of indulging his concerns. "You think it's-"

"Please," Shane whispered.

He didn't know what else to say. He knew he didn't deserve it, knew feeling this way was useless, but he had to- a part of him needed to try.

"Shane," Tori echoed his urgency with no-nonsense determination, the way she would have way-back-when during a mission debrief, when she demanded the boys stop roughhousing so they could get on task, please. "There is no one here that blames you for what happened to Cam except yourself."

Shane's pulse jumped. "Don't-"

"No." Tori would have none of it and leaned into his space threateningly, as though Shane had any more of his personal bubble to give. "I'll say this once and then I hope I'll never have to say it again Shane, but that was not your fault. All three of you agreed to go out there. Cam wrote the damn note- It was your job as team leader to hear him out and it was your job to trust his judgement, and you did both of those things. You couldn't have known the severity of the situation. You couldn't have known how it was going to end, and punishing yourself isn't going to fix anything so could you please-"

She cut herself off with a sharp inhale, the need for air finally catching up with the torrential downpour of wisdom that Shane was fighting to register, struggling to comprehend.

"Please," she said again, softer and…more vulnerable, the hard edges giving away to the grieving ranger who was at the center of this terrible situation. "Please just come back to yourself," she whispered, resting her head against his shoulder.

It was almost like old times.

"I don't need two Hunters," she continued. "I need- We need-" She nodded towards Dustin meaningful. "-Shane back, okay? It's not like you're forbidden from agreeing with him, but could you just act like… you? Please?"

The last was said with almost quiet desperation, as though she thought Shane would actually shoot her down.

And he- as broken as he felt, he couldn't be the cause of the rest of his team's potential suffering. He needed to get his head together; he needed- they needed him. He was needed.

"Keeping yourself away isn't going to make it any better," Tori continued in a sorrowful whisper. "He might not be talking to us, but that doesn't mean he can't hear you." She paused, turning to look towards Shane, their faces barely three inches apart. "Or your silence."

Shane didn't know what he could offer to make it better- He could try, but that seemed so monumental and- wasn't he allowed to grieve?

For a moment, he felt selfishly insulted by the audacity that he wasn't allowed to cope. But even when the indignation tried to set in, he was overwhelmed with the case Tori had stated earlier.

He was team leader. It was his job to keep them together, to keep them safe and as happy as they could be.

It might not be much, but if… if pretending things were fine would help Tori- could possibly help Dustin, it was worth it.

Shane was willing to fake it for them. They were his family.

He would never be able to deny his family anything.

He swallowed, taking a moment to compose himself. "Okay," he whispered. It was with all the strength he could manage, but he hid it under the need for quiet. Fortunate, for him. "Okay, Tor."

In his peripherals, he could see a tiny smile grace her features – an almost bounteous thing. He hadn't seen it in so long – god damn had he missed it.

"That's a good start," she noted, sounding…relieved, he guessed.

She seemed rough all the time now – he hadn't thought that it had been a shell to keep her insides together, a threatening façade to keep everything from falling apart.

He should have realized that sooner.

They didn't speak when Tori led them over to Dustin's pile; there was no need for words as they settled in, one guarding each of the Earth ninja's sides, a silent promise to offer what protection they could.

Sleep didn't find Shane for a long time, after that.

-:-:-:-:-:-

He didn't know if it was two-steps backward when Hunter woke him up for his shift. The sleep was good, but the mild disapproval in the blond's features wasn't, as much as he had trained himself to project a wall of constant stoicism.

What did he want from Shane? What could he have possibly done wrong?

Shane didn't ask. That was a mystery which didn't need delving.

Though a small and truly terrible part of him wondered if the crimson ranger was jealous.

What a stupidly childish thing to consider at a time like this.

-:-:-:-:-:-

They hit pay dirt a few days later.

The tunnel system they'd been traversing had wound into an area that had managed to remain unscathed by the war waging above. It was promising in a way most of them dared not to articulate – as though superstition lay in wait, trying to dash their hopes should they voice them aloud. Maybe it was just Shane – maybe the others were just too tired for conversation, but intact hallways, clean with no signs of cave-ins… that was something worth celebrating.

He chose to communicate his elation with a gentle nudge to Tori's arm – probably the only ranger who would appreciate it, and got a miniscule smile in response.

It was fleeting, there and gone in a second before she was turning back towards Dustin; her self-imposed duty of herding the yellow ranger in the appropriate direction taking priority over humoring Shane.

He didn't take it to heart though, he would rather focus on Dustin himself, to be honest.

By the light of their weaponry and pilfered lanterns, they discovered another cavernous room, but this one…

This wasn't another resting area. Filiss scanned the space to confirm it, but taking three steps inside was enough for Shane to know they were in a whole different ballgame of underground base development.

It was a lab.

There were two stories, at least, with an upper railing running around the entire perimeter of the room, jutting out in a five foot platform, maybe. There were doors all along the outer sides, wait- just three of them. The third, far side seemed to disappear into what looked like a…loading dock kind of area? Vehicle maintenance, perhaps, or whatever was the underground equivalent. And there, not but ten feet in front of them, was a set of computer terminals.

Shane had never been so happy to see signs of technology in his life.

The holographic projector on Filiss' unit opened up after Tori completed the scan, metal plates pulling back to allow for Filiss' tiny form to hover just above the blonde's shoulder, her shifting form practically vibrating with intensity.

"I know this place," she said – somehow communicating this muted enthusiasm through her voice processor. "These are the Eastern Labs. It was one of the Zhar-ptitsa colonists' main hubs. If we can access the terminal, I should be able to determine the status of the rest of the colonists through the remaining active networks."

After the dragging monotony of walking through the dark, fighting around dead ends of rubble and destruction, the prospect of actually getting some answers renewed a dying sense of hope Shane hadn't been aware of.

It was such a small thing, but he found a grin stretching across his face until his cheeks hurt, huge and goofy – but Tori was echoing it. She shared the look with an almost disbelieving sense of wonder, and it was all he could do not to pick up the blonde and spin her – like he could have done before, would have, but-

But even with this discovery, it didn't seem right – too lighthearted, too irreverent – so Shane turned his attention to Blake instead, who wore a tiny smile of his own. For the navy ranger, it was practically an all-out celebration.

"Will those things turn on?"

Hunter, not one to indulge in premature revelry, cut to the heart of the matter. Shane couldn't fault him for his practicality, even if it killed the mood with the swiftness their training impressed upon them since day-one.

"In their current condition, I do not believe so." Filiss had the speed of programming on her side; she must have already analyzed and expected this inquiry. "But these labs possess an emergency backup generator. If properly accessed, we should be able to power the terminals."

Shane swallowed. That seemed doable. "Can you guide us to them?"

"Certainly." Filiss' hair swirled around her in angelic whispers, bright and… free, almost, in the wake of their progression. "Though I suggest only a select few attempt to access them. Based on the projected damages inflicted on the labs, the most accessible route to the generators will offer limited mobility."

"How limited?" Hunter asked, jumping in before Shane could manage a 'Hell no'.

They couldn't split up. That was what they needed to avoid and they didn't have any way to communicate with each other if they-

"The service tunnels are roughly the size of a generous Earth-styled heating duct," Filiss replied. "While you would all technically be capable of following the path, more than two individuals would greatly hamper mobility, should evasive maneuvers be necessary."

"What?" Shane's heart leapt into his throat. "Are there Koshmar in the air ducts?"

"I was leaning more towards an instance of unstable structure, Mr. Clarke." Filiss dimmed as she said this, her light turning into a paler, more comforting green – because Shane couldn't keep his shit together, and that was her coddling projection. "I apologize, I did not mean to infer-"

"It's okay," he said it before the humiliation could creep in. "Thanks for the clarification."

"We can't split up."

The room seemed to still at the rare moment of vocalization, but Dustin wasn't finished. The brunette stepped into the conversation, meeting their eyes with a kind of desperation that couldn't really be defined. One hand was clutching the Samurai amulet around his neck – though that seemed to be a permanent fixture, nowadays.

"We can't split up," he repeated, panic building in his voice. "What will happen if we-?"

Hunter stepped forward, one hand reaching out tentatively, as though he were unsure of how best to approach the brunette. "Dustin-"

"No." The yellow ranger flinched away from him, from all of them, shaking off Tori's hand as she tried to reach for his shoulder. "No. We can't do it. You can't," His voice caught, getting thicker, and even in the pale light of the lanterns Shane could see the moisture build in his eyes. "Not after what happened last time."

Shane didn't flinch, didn't move, even though he felt a burning hot stab of pain lance through his body. He wondered if that was what being shot felt like, if it tore through muscle and bone with no regard to structural integrity, leaving an unapologetic void in its wake of things you needed to survive.

He was being melodramatic, but-

They hadn't split up since the first time. It hadn't been intentional, so much as the best possible move on their part. It hadn't been needed; why should they pull apart? What use did it offer them?

But maybe, hidden under the 'usefulness' had just been fear – it was hard to do headcounts if they weren't in the same place, impossible if any one person was out of his sight-

"It won't be like last time," Hunter assured.

He edged in on the brunette with both hands up now, offering a quiet surrender.

Shane couldn't even tell if the blond was lying, but he hated himself for being unable to move. He should be doing this, he was the leader, but every instinct within him was screaming for the same thing. They couldn't separate, they couldn't- they just couldn't.

In the real, painfully logical and level-headed world, Hunter continued.

"We're down here now Dustin," he said quietly, his tone level. Maybe even friendly. "We didn't just escape some battle after setting off some alarm; we are in a hidden base that no one's touched in ages. I mean, look around." He gestured to the area surrounding them – dust clogging the air, covering every surface – untouched by time.

"This place was abandoned, not attacked," he continued. Shane kind of hated how confident he seemed. "We split up now, we're fine. Okay? It's a different set of circumstances."

"Would it help if you could maintain a line of communication?" Filiss altered her projection, moving her digital form farther until it was a few feet in front of Dustin, the green light pooling over Tori's shoulder. "It is understandable to be concerned in situations that limit long-distance dialogue," she continued, her lecture having a more calming effect than Hunter's tirade. "Agent Cal has been faced with this discomfort as well. If we can mitigate that concern, would this seem like a more appealing proposition?"

No, was the honest truth in Shane's mind – but if he wanted to be a reasonable model leader he was expected to be, he knew he couldn't say it. Having some way to communicate with each other would make everything much easier. He just wasn't sure how though.

The radios Hunter had discovered – while they had offered celebration at the time, weren't functional. They had kept them around anyway – Blake stubbornly messed with them every time they stopped, as though he could leap into Cam's humongous techno-savvy shoes, but the navy ranger hadn't had any luck.

It had been disheartening, but no one dared to mention that much.

While he could still manage it, Shane swallowed, pulling himself together for an answer. "Yes," he said quietly. "That would help."

He had no way of knowing for sure, but he was almost certain that Filiss would not have brought up the subject were she unable to do anything about it. She had been the one who'd determined the radios nonfunctional the first time around; even as an AI, she wouldn't be cruel enough to offer the hope of substantial long distance communications without being able to deliver.

Of course, a majority of this belief was based on Shane's understanding of Cyber Cam, his only point of reference for AIs, molded by Cam's programming, efficient to the end - even if his attitude was all broken quirks and a laughable imitation of popular culture.

Not that Shane ever had the heart to express as much. Truth be told, he had found Cyber Cam's personality mostly endearing – as much as Cam protested that it hadn't been intentional. That his disposition had been a glitch-y afterthought.

If- When they got home, Cyber Cam would be the only remnant of the flesh-and-blood Cam.

Shane wondered how the program would take the news, if Cam had programmed him to cope with loss, or if the reaction could not be predicted.

Filiss brought Shane back to the present, cutting through the depressing train of thought with quiet wisdom. "Then that is what we'll do," she decided quietly. "The radios you carry are non-operational due to a diminished power source. If we replace the charging units, they should be functional once more." She shifted, body coming to rest over Tori's shoulder again; the program's default position. She angled towards the right wall. "Over there is a supply closet. There should be backup batteries for communication equipment inside."

"What kind of lab keeps radio equipment on hand?" Hunter asked it conversationally, but Shane knew a distraction when he saw one. Blake had already wandered off in the direction Filiss had indicated, his blaster leveled in front of him, moving back and forth to take in every detail.

The red ranger desperately wanted to go after him, but knew it would do little to calm Dustin's nerves if he continued to act like they could be attacked at any moment. Blake would be fine, he was still in eyesight. The storage room wasn't that far away; if he left the door open, they'd still be able to hear him, no problem.

Besides, if Hunter wasn't going to go overprotective papa bear on Blake, then Shane didn't have any ground to stand on, no matter how discomforting it seemed.

"The Eastern labs were modified near the beginning of the Vasilian war," Filiss explained, her tone gentle – the wisps of her 'hair' tangling in whimsical patters, capturing Dustin's attention. "The security detail, aided by the engineers of the Zhar-ptitsa initiative, altered the labs into a weapons facility. While a majority of Zhar-ptitsa's experiments revolved around biological and medicinal advancement, quite a few talented mechanical engineers, electricians, and programmers had been assigned to the initiative. The Eastern labs had been their headquarters, making it the most appropriate option for a weapons depot. Vehicle maintenance, firearm experimentation, and a majority of the Koshmar tech reprogramming took place in this facility."

"So it's only natural that they'd have practical equipment on hand," Hunter concluded, nodding his head, like he quietly agreed.

Tori tilted her head ever so slightly, prompting Filiss to hover in front of the blonde so she could get a full view of the hologram. "If this place was their main weapons facility, does that mean they have other stuff here to fight the Koshmar? Besides, you know…" She offered her laser pistol up in example.

Filiss nodded slowly. "Indeed. Once power has been restored, I should be able to navigate you towards the secured weapon storage areas. Aside from basic weaponry, the colonists had a number of experimental weapons in various phases of testing to use against the Koshmar. In our absence, there is a chance that some of these projects have been completed."

"If they didn't get taken when the colonists evacuated this place, maybe we can use them," Hunter muttered, his eyes narrowing in thought.

It was- Shane didn't even know how to describe it; discomforting seemed like such a pitiful description of the conflicting emotions he felt listening to Tori and Hunter speak about weapons so casually – things they would use to kill things. Things that had already been used to destroy lives. They sounded like hardened soldiers, and that-

That wasn't wrong. Okay… he could, he would wrap his mind around that. They were soldiers now, in a way, trapped in a war that was not their own because of Lothor. That interference had made it their war. It was… logical that they should adapt themselves.

That was how doctors got by, right? They saw tragedy every day in the hospitals, had to give people – good and bad alike – death sentences, offer families quiet consolation when there was nothing they could do for their children, for their spouses, for their parents and siblings. They had to face death and gore every day and then go home and live as though none of it had happened, keeping that destruction at bay while they took their kids to their piano lessons and gossiped at book club and got the oil changed on their cars.

They couldn't live in that perpetual battlefield; they had to keep it separate, to live.

Because the world would always need doctors, and what use was a doctor completely immersed in the visceral misery of the world?

If they could do it - doctors and Hunter and Tori - then Shane could do it. Had to do it.

He took a step forward. "You said they had vehicles here too. What kind?"

He doubted the answer would be 'spaceships', but he would be lying with every bone in his body if he said he didn't wish for that answer.

"The majority of the automobiles are all-terrain vehicles later adapted for combat. They had been specially produced for Zhar-ptitsa, though the closest earthly equivalent would be a jeep or Humvee."

Across the room, Blake slowly picked his way back to their huddle, a wooden crate balanced in his hands possessively.

"In what way were they adapted for combat?" Hunter prompted. "Are we talking greater defenses, or added weapons?"

"Both," Filiss seemed to hum in reply. "All vehicles were coated with an alloy to defend against the Koshmar's laser weaponry, as well as receiving more durable tires, and hover-transition technology."

"Wait." Tori held a hand up, causing Dustin's gaze to flicker from Filiss to her briefly. "Are you saying they have cars that can fly?"

"Nothing nearly so impressive, I'm afraid." Filiss sounded mournful as she said it. "Each vehicle was fitted with limited hover capabilities in the instance of a tire blowout – the hover backups could act as the missing balancing point until a successful retreat could be made. They were for emergencies only."

"Still," Blake whistled, placing the crate on the ground and digging through his knapsack. "That's pretty cool. Limited or not."

"I suppose so." It wasn't condescending, from Filiss. Her tone was more along the lines of someone who didn't entirely understand the concept of 'cool' and how it could be relevant.

"The batteries should be easy enough to switch out," Blake continued, conversational, smooth, and raising every hair on the back of Shane's neck despite his attempt at casual communication. "Once we get these things fixed up, I can take Filiss and get the power situation sorted out."

Tori's stance shifted, her arms folding across her chest in an unshakeable expression of stubborn refusal. "You're not going alone," she said, harshly. "I'll back you up."

Blake didn't take his eyes off the radios as he pried off the backs of the battery casings. "You heard Filiss, it's going to be a tight squeeze as it is-"

"Which is why we, as the smallest members of the team, will be the ones going." Tori's eyes narrowed, that special look of scorn indicating just how much she would not budge on this issue hard on her features. "You're not going alone."

Out went the old batteries and in went the new, Blake working in quick, efficient movements. "There's no point in risking it," the navy ranger muttered. "We'll have the radios, you'll be able to hear me the entire way."

"Which is why it's not a problem if two of us go." Tori's eyebrows furrowed. "In case of some 'structural instability', you'll have backup."

Blake frowned. "Tori-"

"Stop it."

The two blues snapped their head towards Shane, and he managed, somehow, not to flinch under their joint scrutiny.

He couldn't take it anymore, and if he didn't say something soon – as the person who should say something – then Dustin was going to, or worse, Hunter, or-

Or would that be better? Shane honestly wasn't sure right now.

Shane widened his stance, attempting to ground himself. "You'll both go."

As much as he didn't like the idea, his detest for someone being on their own out there outweighed his disinclination towards separation altogether. If something happened, if Blake got injured, he needed to have someone there, and as the next-slimmest member of their team, Tori was the most logical candidate for the job.

He knew the younger Bradley didn't like it, could tell by the way his hands curled into quivering fists against the dirty floor, but honestly, the appreciative look Tori shot him drowned it out.

It was – just as it should have always been – like old times. Shane had her back, he did, and since words meant nothing at the end of the day, he offered up this action to prove his sincerity.

Tori nodded her thanks slowly, showing she understood, then snatched one of Blake's functioning radios off the ground, snapping it to the waist of her cargo pants.

"Filiss can guide us," she explained quietly, handing off her knapsack to Dustin (to give the brunette something to do, to guard, to make him feel useful – damn, Shane loved her for it). "And we'll keep talking over the radios. You can keep asking her questions, you know? Might as well get as informed as possible."

On the floor, Blake was gradually uncurling from his crouched position, hands laden with the four other radios, one for each ranger. He was glaring at Shane, when he thought the Air ninja wasn't looking.

Hunter didn't comment on it; instead he grabbed two of the radios out of his brother's hands wordlessly, handing one over to Shane. Blake had turned to give the other to Dustin – relieving Shane of his ire for all of two seconds.

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe Blake wouldn't be able to keep focused if Tori, his – whatever they were, not girlfriend, because the Bradleys didn't really do dating, but he loved her, they all knew it, Tori freaking knew it-

But they were survivors. First and foremost, that was what the Bradleys did, and if they had gotten this far in life, if they had survived mind control and deception and their parents' deaths, then Blake could get over Tori going on this expedition with him.

Besides, it was supposed to be harmless. It would be comforting if Blake could shake off his annoyance and actually act like he believed that.

"What frequency are they on?" Hunter asked quietly, staring the display screen of his radio.

"Keep them on channel six," Blake advised. "If anything squirrely happens, change it to three, then nine."

Hunter nodded absently. "Got it."

It was an easy enough code to remember; Shane found himself nodding along too.

They could do this.

He walked over to Tori quietly, allowing Hunter and Blake to share a private moment before they separated.

He leaned into the blonde, Dustin already a fixture against her other side, head buried into her shoulder as though she were the only thing holding him up. Shane completed the huddle as best he could, molding around the other two – not wishing to disrupt them – but Dustin surprised him by wrapping an arm around Shane's back and reeling him in, as close as he could get.

For some stupid reason, Shane found himself blinking back tears.

He swallowed them down. This wasn't the end. "Be careful, okay Tor?"

She smiled, something only for him since Dustin was too busy trying to become one with his teammates, and it was a little sad and a little tired, but entirely a signature of Tori. "You know it," she said quietly.

Shane wanted to push, wanted to say 'I mean it' – but that would be more insulting than helpful. Out of all of them, Tori probably had her head on the straightest, even through the anger.

"Hey," she whispered quietly. "Hold onto this, okay?"

Before Shane could ask what, he felt something slide into his back pocket, shape thin and rectangular.

Cam's notepad.

Of course.

He shook his head. "This isn't permanent," he muttered, somehow managing to keep that slight tinge of hysteria out of his voice. "Keep it, you're coming-"

"Just in case, okay?" Tori interrupted, her eyebrows raised. "Humor me. It'll make it easier to focus."

"Okay." Shane found himself surrendering before he could think about it. He didn't want Dustin to tense further, didn't want this parting to end on a bad note, he didn't want to be here, but they didn't really have a choice in the matter. "Okay."

"Good."

The blonde shifted, the ghost of a breath brushing against his face before Tori leaned in, kissing his cheek. It was platonic, bringing more comfort than Shane could ever hope to describe, which was a response he knew Dustin parroted. The brunette leaned into his own kiss, Tori's hand light under his jaw, and Shane – he just, took it in. Took in the sibling-like bond these two possessed, that he possessed with them – that was greater than anything he had with his own family.

Once upon a time, Tori had been a spunky golden fox that Shane had chased after, all enthusiasm and fake swagger, trying to play himself up into something he thought the Water ninja might be impressed with. It seemed so stupid now - their awkward days of flirting - before they had figured out that they worked better as friends than they ever would as boyfriend and girlfriend; a companionable relationship far superior to any romantics they could entertain.

They still laughed about it now, from time to time. They could do that.

There would always be a part of Shane that loved Tori, that had reserved her a piece of himself – but that was what their ranger duties had brought to them. Even as the Academy's worst training team, they hadn't been this close. But here and now, Shane could say he would gladly die for Tori, should it be necessary.

Hell, he would die for any of them – even Blake and Hunter – if only to avoid similar repercussions of Cam's fate.

That was probably more selfish than considerate though.

Tori clucked her tongue, quietly chastising her teammates. "I'll be fine," she insisted, mustering the strength for a smile that seemed genuine. "Stop worrying. It's just a simple crawl through the air vents."

"One does not simply crawl through the air vents," Dustin muttered – his voice gravely in a poor imitation of Sean Bean.

It did the trick though.

As one, Shane and Tori were startled into laughter – unable to keep a straight face at the absurdity of it. Maybe it was more from relief, that Dustin – their Dustin – had come back, in this very tiny capacity, but–

But Shane wasn't going to overthink it, not when they could separate on this note. This was something he could live with.

"Children," Blake called, sounding almost as smug and playful as he had before, when they had reached that tentative peak where chastisement could be seen as a joke instead of insult. "If you're quite ready?"

Tori rolled her eyes. "We are," she said, still smiling.

Filiss flickered to life, her hologram aimed in an area over Tori's right shoulder. "The access panel is this way," she explained. "There should be a ladder leading up to the second floor, that will take you to the closest entrance to the vents."

"By all means," Blake drawled, hitching a medical pack higher on his shoulder. "Lead the way."

Filiss bobbed. "Of course."

And ultimately, that was that.

Shane couldn't help but replay Tori's words as they followed the blues towards the ladder Filiss had indicated. 'We are' she had said – lying blissfully through her teeth. Conceptually, sure, they were about as ready to clamber through air vents as the next ninja student, but here and now, who could ever be ready?

At some point, Shane was going to have to get over that, but he wasn't sure when. Or how, really.

The levity seemed to dissipate the same time that Tori and Blake finally disappeared from view, the two squeezing into a three-by-four vent with the guide of Filiss' light. Maybe fifteen feet down, they turned a corner, leaving nothing but the glow of Filiss' hologram, until even that was gone.

A silence descended over the three remaining rangers that landed somewhere in the area of 'painful'.

Predictably (the new predictable, not the old – every previous frame of reference Shane had before this incident had been compromised weeks ago), Hunter was the one who broke the quiet. In a deft movement, the blond pulled his radio up to his lips, turning the dial to the designated channel – six, for now.

Six, then three, then nine.

One, two, three rangers. Two more out of sight.

"Hunter to blue team," the blond murmured. "Come in, blue team."

"Blue team hears you loud and clear." Tori's voice was so achingly grounding that Shane released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, listened to Dustin do the same beside him. "Though with Filiss, shouldn't it be more like the blue-green team?"

"It is my intended purpose to act as technical support to any freelancer operatives." Filiss' voice was clearer than Tori's had been, perhaps the program had communicated directly through the radio somehow, instead of allowing it to capture her emitted voice. "As such, I am considered specialty equipment. I would be considered more a part of an agent rather than my own independent unit."

"So," Blake began, and from the corner of his eye, Shane watched Hunter's shoulders loosen. "You're blue by association then?"

"Exactly," Filiss replied. "Turn left here."

"Roger," Blake and Tori echoed.

So far so good.

"You mentioned land vehicles," Shane began, trying to head off the silence before it could fall over them. "Does this base have any other methods of transportation?

"Indeed." Filiss' reply was thoughtful, emanating as much comfort as her circuits would allow. "A lower portion of the Eastern Labs was modified into an aquatic docking area for submersible and surface water transportation. The submersible units could launch directly from the wet dock, and there is a separate system in place for surface crafts – a series of levies to increase the water levels until they reached the surface."

"Like a water elevator?" Shane asked, seeking to clear up the confusion on Dustin's face so the brunette wouldn't have to.

"Essentially, yes," Filiss replied. "To the right, there's a maintenance ladder. Climb up it two levels."

"Got it," Blake replied. Even over the com, Shane could hear he was slightly winded; the effort necessary to navigate close quarters proving more difficult without the aid of their morphers or ninja enhancements.

Beside him, Hunter tensed up again.

"What about air travel?" Shane asked. It was information that would be useful to them, but more than anything else, they needed the distraction. "Are there any planes?"

"Some, though they were more targeted by the Koshmar due to their visibility. The Zhar-ptitsa command structure had limited their use to strictly night-raids, though they had been working on updated cloaking technology before I was powered down into standby mode. The air vehicles have a mixture of plane and jet components – easier maneuverability and hover capabilities, allowing room for cargo."

"That's…good." They had stayed underground because the tunnels had been their main concern, but Shane understood now why the colonists had took to the sub-terrain. It was safer.

How goddamn lucky they had been, before? They had been running around blindly, off-grid, no weapons, no gear of any kind, and escaped Koshmar notice by pure fucking chance. Maybe the area they had started off in hadn't been of any interest to the aliens. Maybe they had only come out of hiding when the rangers had entered that storage facility. Maybe they had been watching them the whole time.

It was all a jumble of possibilities, and the only thing Shane knew for certain was the courage boosted by their total ignorance of the situation. At least they had gotten in two weeks of blind comfort before the world had come crashing down. Before Cam-

He had to come to terms with the fact that those weeks would be the most comfort they would get for a while. Shane had no idea how he could tell the others to savor it when the memories were still tainted by the realness of Cam, the comparison of his absence too sharp a blow for them to risk dwelling on before. Before it had gone down. Before they had been transported. Before they had been rangers.

Cam had only been a ranger for a goddamn week, and in that time, Shane had succeeded in a place where Lothor had always failed.

He should get a trophy.

"Anything else?"

It was Tori. Calm, level-headed Tori, psychic with her 'female intuition' that had boggled Shane and Dustin so many times. Shane had always assumed she threw out the excuse just so she wouldn't have to explain herself, which was a short-lived plan with Dustin's incessant, but heartbreakingly genuine requests for clarification. Because he wanted to understand.

But that was then, and now Tori was just as attuned to them as ever, probably knowing Shane's train of thought. Or maybe she had already traveled it herself, because hey, Shane didn't own the market on grieving right now.

"Aside from individual vehicles, there is an expansive rail system between the different underground facilities. Its creation was necessary, once it became clear that all above-ground installations were at substantial risk of Koshmar attacks."

"But not the underground bases." Hunter's eyes were narrowed in consideration, his gaze unfocused at some point in the distance as he trailed off, lost to his thoughts.

"Correct," Filiss replied. "Subterranean investigation has proven to be the greatest deterrent to the Koshmar threat. Agent Cal suspected that the Koshmar possess a natural avoidance of enclosed areas. He had incorporated this fact into his plans when the time came for launching a counter-attack to the Koshmar's assaults."

"Yeah, that's right." Dustin managed a weak grin. "Fear the Earth power."

There was a muffled laugh from the radio. "As well they should." Even through the weariness, Tori sounded like she was grinning, and that was what mattered.

"How long has this war been going on that they had time to create a rail system?"

Whatever joviality they had managed to created dissipated in an instant with Hunter's question – Hunter, who didn't have time for games when met with the prospect of something threatening their continued survival.

"That they could create underground bases?" Hunter pressed, ignoring the dejected expression on Dustin's face. "That they could build levy systems and underwater docks to house their boats in?"

"The Zhar-ptitsa initiative was put into action shortly after the launch of Terra Venture," Filiss answered evenly, ignoring the rough threat in Hunter's tone, or disregarding it altogether. "They began colonization on Vasilisa uninterrupted for five months before the Koshmar appeared. Constructions on underground fortifications began shortly afterwards, extending for an estimated two year, seven months-"

"How could they build all this in such a short time?" Hunter was a man on a mission, plagued with the questions the rest didn't have the courage to ask. "This many tunnels? This many vehicles and transport stations-"

"You misunderstand." Filiss' detached calm was a strange comparison to Hunter's quiet fury, and Shane almost found himself lost in the whiplash. "The Zhar-ptitsa colonists did not pull off total construction of the underground hubs." She said it with a calmness that was almost unfair. Hell, she seemed almost earnest. "Most of their efforts were towards modifying existing structures to make them more suitable for homo-sapiens habitation."

"Existing…?" The words caught in Shane's throat.

He felt like a computer program stuck in an endless logic cycle. Does not compute. Does not compute. Does not-

"Existing structures," Hunter repeated, talking as though he had never heard Shane's failed attempt to speak. "There were existing structures on the planet they discovered, structures that the Koshmar wouldn't, in any way, use – due to the whole underground thing – and you didn't think to bring that up before now?"

The blond finished the last part with a growl, hands tugging at his hair thoughtlessly, his mind clearly somewhere else.

"This has happened before," he muttered, rubbing a hand across his face. "Those Russians were the second coming, delivering whatever the Koshmar were looking for on a silver platter, all the while someone or something else had already done this song and dance."

"Hunter." Even over the radio, Tori's voice managed to carry a low thread of warning, refined in a way that was almost elegant, but just as effective. "Don't-"

"They discovered structures on a planet they were supposed to be the first to inhabit," Hunter continued, disregarding the aqua ranger with a growl of his own. "And instead of, I don't know, moving on-"

"The underground structures were not uncovered until after the Koshmar invasion," Filiss interrupted the blond with a tone that Shane could only describe as 'icy', defensive of the people she had previously served. "Had they been exposed earlier in the settlement process, they would have been reported and the situation re-evaluated, but as they were not-" Her voice cut off like a recording, clear and sharp. "Take a left here, the backup generators should be at the end of this ductwork."

Shane remembered how to breathe again, the momentary panic of communication being ended for good striking with vicious effectiveness.

"But as they were not," Filiss continued, her primary duty now addressed. "The Zhar-ptitsa colonists had limited options of investigating the structures beyond adapting them for future use. I must remind you, Mister Bradley, that regardless of the millions of planets existing in our universe, very few in the relativel-immediate vicinity of Earth are habitable to humans. Vasilisa was a miraculous discovery, but it was not one approached without caution."

Hunter's jaw clenched, a painful thing to look at, his shoulders rising with unpleasant tension. Even without the aid of enhanced senses, Shane could hear the blond exhaling through clenched teeth, hear him trying to calm himself.

Trying, and falling hopelessly short.

After a few seconds of failed meditation, the crimson ranger opened his mouth, ready to take on a battle with an artificial intelligence that couldn't really lose.

"Everything we've seen so far seems to be human-sized." Blake's interruption felt like a godsend, but really, there was no one else on the team that knew Hunter better than Blake did, or who could cut off a fight before it escalated into something useless and unproductive. "Not like the warehouses the colonists had hijacked. That feels pretty coincidental."

"It's true." Whatever frustration Filiss had been… communicating before was abandoned when she addressed the younger Bradley. "We suspect that the creators of the underground bases bore a humanoid structure – there are many species that bear an appearance similar to humans: Xybrians, Andresians, Mercurians-"

"So basically, a bunch of 'ians'." Blake huffed out a laugh, and to his credit, it didn't even sound forced.

It didn't do much for the tension in Hunter's shoulders, but his jaw unclenched slightly, which was something.

"I suppose that is an accurate summation." Filiss' tone was back to being melodious, now that she was on the path of informing without the burdens of protecting the people she had been sent to aid. "To date, there is no definitive answer as to the identity of the early-Vasilian settlers. Though I suppose in the time I have been inactive, that may have changed."

What had happened to them? It was the one question Shane wanted to ask couldn't risk, because in a way, he knew. They all did. The Zhar-ptitsa colonists hadn't had any idea that there had been other settlers. There hadn't been a trace of them – and maybe that was the work of the Koshmar. Maybe the first settlers had gone underground to fight a war, barricaded themselves in, and lost.

Maybe they had buried their secrets with them, leaving the Koshmar with nothing to do but wait for the next line of intergalactic explorers to take the bait.

It was horrible, but… but not debilitating. Maybe the numbness had finally begun to set in, but Shane just didn't have it in himself to give in to the devastating horror the picture presented.

In the end, he decided to label that as a good thing.

"Is this it?"

The question had all three of them staring at their radios, as though they could somehow view what Tori was looking at by extension of the communication devises.

"Yes," Filiss replied. "It is in better shape than I had anticipated. Follow my diagrams; I can walk you through reactivating the power."

"Had you expected it to be broken?" Shane kept up the conversation for the team still in the lab; the chatter would be enough to distract them from the fact that they couldn't contribute here.

"I had theorized as much," Filiss replied over the quiet mutters of the two blue rangers, coordinating and navigating where to put what as they tried to reactivate the power supply. "Similar to any emergency protocol, the backups should have automatically been activated when the primary power shut off. Their failure to do so indicates either a disruption in the signal to trigger the generator, or an intentional override of the safety protocols from someone within the lab proper."

Dread, a familiar companion now, creeped into Shane's stomach, anchoring him in place, almost like he was unable to move.

"With the structural integrity of the ductwork still sound, I had suspected it was the latter option, but there is a greater probability that the colonists simply did not have the personnel capable of navigating the ductwork. Or perhaps they had already abandoned the labs before the power had failed. Either are quite likely options."

"How could we determine the actual reason?" Hunter snapped, radio hovering just inches from his mouth, as though the lack of distance would make his anger that much more righteous.

"We could not, until the power is restored," Filiss replied evenly. "Speaking of…"

It was a start- their surroundings morphing from immeasurable shadows to only semi-darkness, the perimeters of the room flashing with orange backup lights. Dustin startled at the sudden change, but Shane was still rooted in place, working around a lump in his throat.

"Hey, check that out," Blake drawled, sounding very contented with himself. "Power's on and no one's hurt. You can hold off on the panic attack now, Hunter."

"I'm not panicking," the blond muttered coolly.

The poor, unsuspecting radio being clenched in his fingers so tight they were shaking probably disagreed, but Shane wasn't going to call him on it.

"Then now would be a good time to approach the main console," Filiss advised. "I can remotely activate them from here and begin searching the files while I direct the blue team back."

"Yay for multi-tasking," Tori muttered, sounding more tired than amused.

Filiss took it all in stride. "Indeed."

"Guess there's nothing to do but move on, since that's all been decided," Hunter drawled, his brows furrowing in an angry crease. Without waiting for Shane or Dustin's reaction, the blond took off towards the ladder.

Shane took a step towards his retreating back instinctively, the urge not to split up echoing nasty alarm bells inside his head- but he was torn. Dustin was too, by the look of it; the brunette was casting anxious glances between Hunter and the air vent. Unlike Shane, he hadn't moved, one hand clutched around the Samurai amulet and the other leaning against the air vent's outer casing.

The lights were- not perfect, but enough. Shane stole a glance at the initial consoles they had come across and found them easily in view, Hunter's silhouette outlined in the artificial glow of the computer's launch screen. He made a choice.

"Dustin." The brunette's eyes jolted to him in shock, startled out of whatever panic-spiral reverie they were about to commit. "Stay here, alright? Wait for them."

"Okay." The nod was shaky, but enough shit had been thrown at them that Shane could recognize the relief easily enough. Dustin would still be able to see them from here; it would be fine.

"Great." Shane spared enough time to return the nod before he was darting towards the ladder, sliding down the outer rails 'secret agent style' – so dubbed by the Dustin of last year, the one that still smiled and reveled in viewing terrible movies. Now, Shane was glad for the skill, as much as it tired him.

It had been a blast when they had figured it out – Tori was actually the best at it, which was a surprise to none of them (least of Cam, who at the time didn't bear a begrudging friendship towards them exactly, but there had been something more substantial than hate and annoyance). They had ended that Saturday afternoon with friction-burned hands and more bruises on their backs than they could have possibly imagined, but it had been worth it. Dustin would vouch it was for gaining a skill, but truly, it was the moments afterwards when they had hijacked the Hanson's kitchen (and Cam, through the magic of Dustin), building impromptu sundaes with too much fudge ("Dude, I'm pretty sure it's scientifically impossible to have too much chocolate. Tell them Cam." "I will do no such thing. Now pass the strawberries" "Dude, you're killing me. How could you live with the guilt of abandoning a bro in need?" "Somehow, I'll manage."-).

They hadn't even believed in rangers then. Secret ninja societies? Sure, no problem, but there was no way Power Rangers could be real.

Shane swallowed down the shame of his ignorance the same way he had learned to block out everything else and made his way to Hunter's side, joining the blond in his examination of the console screens. The start-up process seemed slow, probably due to lack of use. Who knew how long this lab had been abandoned. It was probably a miracle they had found functioning computers at all.

He activated his radio. "Filiss, are these consoles still accessible?"

"Primary analysis indicates as much," Filiss responded immediately. "The initiation cycle may take longer than expected due to disuse; however, these computers seem to be in proper functioning conditions. Now-"

The monitor shifted, what appeared to be the Russian loading screen switching out whiteness bearing some kind of logo – familiar to the one stamped across the wooden crates from the warehouses, the one that had only sporadically graced the underground levels. The Zhar-ptitsa initiative symbol, he guessed.

It was there for a second before the picture flickered out, the bright whiteness replaced with a pale green, looking somewhat akin to a-

Sign-in screen. It was a sign-in screen, two blank bars labeled with Russian squiggles that called for a user name and password, but even with those differences, Shane could have laughed at the familiarity of it all. It was almost like home, with the upstairs computer he had to share with his little sister Dana (the brat; bet she didn't even remember what it was like before the internet).

"One moment, please," Filiss hummed. "It will take a few seconds for me to confirm the security protocols are the same as- I am in."

The log-in screen gave way to a bigger version of the Zhar-ptitsa logo (some kind of large bird, its wings outstretched as though it were about to take flight, tail curling beneath it to serve as the first letter of the bottom word. Artsy). But this- this was definitely a desktop. Shane might not be able to read what any of the icons were, but the shape was the same, they couldn't change that.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shane caught Hunter bring his own abused radio up to his lips, blue eyes locked onto the screen. "Filiss, can you translate this into English?"

"The process of translating the entirety of the console information would be a lengthy endeavor," Filiss replied. "However, for the moment, I could translate select files for your review while I determine the status of the Zhar-ptitsa colonists and Agent Cal. Is there anything you would like to look at in specific?"

Hunter's eyes narrowed, speculative. "Any way to get an idea of Koshmar troop activity?"

"I will access the monitoring equipment used to anticipate Koshmar assault while I try to reach out to the colonists. In the meantime, is there any lab research I could pull up for your review?"

"Do you…" Hunter looked to Shane sharply as the red ranger stumbled over his words, but he- he wanted to know- "That element," he tried again, quietly. "The one that made all the plants grow? Could you pull up stuff on that?"

"And a weapons index," Hunter added. "Vehicles too, located at this base. Give us an idea of what we're working with."

"Of course," Filiss replied.

Their current station had five monitors in total, and the two outmost of each side started lining up with the requested files, Hunter's on the left two, Shane the right. Filiss kept the middle monitor, information blazing on and off the screen so quickly that it made Shane dizzy just to look at it.

The Air ninja swallowed. He should have focused on the more practical stuff first, like Hunter. He felt almost dumb for looking through research he probably wouldn't understand, but- but he felt something calling to him. This was information the Koshmar started a war over; there had to be answers there. There had to be something.

He pulled his radio back up. "What's your progress guys?"

"We've been better," Blake huffed. "We're gonna have to take the long way around to get back down. I'm not trusting those handholds we used to get up here."

"Take your time," Shane replied immediately. "No need to rush things."

Blake laughed. "Roger that."

"Dumbass," Hunter muttered.

Shane didn't ask to whom he was referring; the red ranger didn't really want to know.

Instead, he settled in to scroll through his own screens, clicking through some kind of index that Filiss had translated for him.

He didn't understand any of it, and the disappointment of that was almost overwhelming. Even in English, the folders were labeled in code or something, or maybe it was dates? It was hard to tell, combinations of letters and numbers made it difficult to determine what the hell he was looking at – an added difficulty considering he hadn't even known what he was looking for. Who had he been kidding? He wasn't a botanist, but…

He started clicking through random files anyway, hoping to catch sight of something. It all seemed relatively straight forward. Pictures of diagrams with what he assumed were progress reports. Dissections and magnified views of the altered plants. There was one particularly boring report on soil conditions, maybe. At the very least, the writer had been a soil-enthusiast. There was way more here about dirt than Shane would have ever cared to know.

"Huh." Hunter sounded thoughtful, the rough edges of his frustration pulled away in the wake of genuine curiosity. "They have mechs here."

"Mechs?" Shane echoed.

He wondered if they were like the robots they had seen battling the Koshmar before, or if they were bigger. Did they belong to the Koshmar or the colonists, or to whoever the mysterious settlers were here before?

"They call them Titans," Hunter continued, clicking down his screen. "It looks like the ones we saw before are run by some kind of auto-pilot system, but these guys can hold a pilot."

"There are three standards of mechs," Filiss added. "This facility houses a selection of the smaller of the two units – the autocannons and the Titans. The largest class of mechs are housed in a different base – codename, the Shadow Den."

Over the com, Blake scoffed. "That's not foreboding at all."

"We should try to access some of the Titans," Hunter continued, seemingly ignoring his brother's quip. "Depending on our next course of action, their added protection could be useful."

"Affirmative," Filiss agreed. "I can direct you to the mech bay after we have finished our work here."

Work. Right, Shane's plant reports weren't going to read themselves.

Sighing, Shane collapsed the folder tree he had been navigating and selected another one at random, clicking on folders with no particular guide. He should ask Filiss to analyze this stuff later, see if she could have some luck with it.

He opened another file and scanned over it, wondering what kind of plant the scientists were inspecting this time. Maybe it was potatoes. He hadn't seen a lot in the tuber family. He wondered-

Shane paused, frowning at his screen.

There was a picture of a person in this one.

The other files had all been impersonal – technical feeling, pushing out any kind of emotional connection for the feel of cold, hard facts. This was almost the same, except instead of a picture of a carrot splice, it was a man with a wounded arm.

With a new sense of urgency, Shane read over the file. The man – Kadri Yudashkin – had gotten caught up in some kind of excavation accident during land preparations for farming. Shane skipped over the details of the event, flinching at the sight of the mangled arm. The next few photos revealed that the colonists had eventually decided to amputate the injured limb. Those shots were cleaner, but still disconcerting.

Shane wondered why they had this file here; shouldn't it be under the medical records? Maybe someone had misplaced it. Maybe the fairytales of 'government ineptitude' his parents had so often preached weren't exclusive to America; maybe the Russian initiative wasn't immune either.

The next few shots sort of disproved that though.

He wasn't sure how to phrase it, how bizarre it all seemed, but a few paragraphs of technical jargon and some incomprehensible graphs later, and the next series of photos appeared to show the man – Kadri – to be… re-growing his arm.

Shane didn't understand it. He caught the words 'locally-originated strengthening agent' and 'stimulating re-growth'. There were theories, he guessed, phrases like 'duplication based on origin tissue integration' and 'mapped recreation founded on information contained in Pituitary gland-'.

This… this thing, this whatever they had found, this mysterious element that made their crops adapt and survive- the colonists had taken it and found a way to use it for medicinal purposes.

As he scrolled through the rest of the file, he saw that they had succeeded. The arm had regrown. Good as new. Better even. Initial reports had it out-performing the original arm.

They had discovered a medical breakthrough so unspeakably amazing that they had… rebuilt a man. And that was just the start. What else could it do?

Shane cleared his throat. "Hunter-"

"Fuck!"

The expletive had both of them staring at their radios. In the distance, Shane heard Dustin bang against the metal wall, surprise throwing him out of his watchful stupor.

Hunter pulled his radio up to ask Blake what the hell was going on, probably, but before he could speak, a series of what sounded like explosions echoed through the device. More shouts from Blake.

It was just like before- but without the shouting. The world was coming down around them. The world-

"TORI!" Blake's voice rang through the radio, garbled and desperate. The connection was breaking up. Oh god, it was breaking up. "TORI! Hold-"

His voice cut off into static.

There was nothing. Nothing but the silence and their own labored breathing, staring down at their stupid radios as though they could possibly help.

Shane's mouth went dry. "What-?"

The room- the base- shook, throwing both of the reds to the ground.

"Detecting foreign combatants," Filiss' voice blared – through the consoles, not the radio. "Base sanctity has not been breached by enemy soldiers. Weapons detection system indicates multiple barrages to the surface levels-"

"What about Blake?!" Hunter snapped, rocketing to his feet so quickly it was almost like he had never gone down, both hands braced on either side of the far left monitor. "What the hell happened?!"

"Status Bradley – functional and cognizant," Filiss replied. Her voiced sounded precise, but rushed, like she was spitting out the information as quickly as she believed them able to process it. "Status Hanson – unknown. Holding unit has been transferred into Mr. Bradley's care. Structural integrity of ductwork has collapsed – blue team has separated."

There was a pause, seconds of thunderous echoes shaking the lab chamber, the ceiling above rumbling under the Koshmar assaults.

How had they known they were here? How did they know-?

"I am attempting to navigate Mr. Bradley back to the main lab. Exit strategy must be determined. Under current assault levels, main labs is projected to collapse in eight minutes."

"Eight-?" Hunter's jaw snapped shut, his face flushing an uncomfortable shade of red. His grip tightened around the console. "I thought you said they hated the underground."

"This deterrence has mitigated all invasion attempts; however, it does not prevent them from collapsing the base on top of us."

Buried alive. Just like those collapsed tunnels they had seen before, the dead ends they had worked around.

The Koshmar had found a way to continue their assault, and now Shane's team was going to meet the results of those tactics head-on.

"Beginning remote download," Filiss' voice brought Shane back to the present. "Projected completion time: two minutes. Exit strategy must be determined."

"Where the hell are we supposed to go?" Hunter snapped. "They're caving us in!"

"What about the mech bay?" Shane swallowed. It had seemed like providence before – access to a mode of transportation that offered defensive and offensive capabilities. Could those withstand an avalanche?

"Reviewing vehicle inventory." Filiss paused, the seconds of her scouring her records prolonged into what felt like an eternity - an eternity of earthquakes and panic and Shane wondering how Dustin was holding up. "Exit strategy determined: Muromets' Spear is located in the submersible docking bay. Titans: Hyperion and Tethys are prepped for load-in. Estimated total board time and launch preparations: three minutes."

"What's Muromets' Spear?" Shane asked before Hunter could step in, the blond's eyebrows furrowed in a furious crease. "Is that some kind of boat?"

"A submarine would be a closer equivalent," Filiss replied. "Mr. Bradley has almost reached the lab proper. I will finish the remote download as we go to the docking bay."

"What about Tori?" Tension and fear roiled in his gut, but Shane could focus on neither when Hunter took off, back towards the direction of the air vent.

The red ranger had no choice but to follow. The consoles weren't going to be any use to them anyway.

He made it to the top of the ladder just as Blake fell out of the air duct, sooty and coated in a fine sheet of crushed rock and dirt. Dustin was on him in a second, pulling the navy ranger up as he fell into a series of angry hacks, desperate to replace the debris of explosions with relatively cleaner air.

It took Shane a moment to realize it, but he had Filiss' holding unit clutched to his chest.

Dustin divided his attention between worrying over Blake and the air vent. "Where's Tori?" His voice was pitching into something extremely close to hysterical. "Where's-?"

"Filiss got her an alternate route," Blake gasped between rough hacks that shook his body. "She'll be fine, but we won't be. We gotta go."

The brunette's expression twisted with fear, fear and uncertainty. "But-"

Blake shoved Filiss' backpack into Dustin's arms. "We've got a rendezvous point. Now stop worrying about her and focus on us."

"Got it," Hunter snapped, answering for Dustin.

He knew as well as the rest of them that the yellow ranger wouldn't be able to respond to that.

Without further ado, Hunter lugged one of Blake's arms around his neck and took off running, aiming for the end of the upper pathway, towards another door.

It was move then or be left behind, and Dustin was the one with their acting tour guide.

Shane latched onto the brunette's wrist – ignoring his keening protest – and took off after the Bradleys, running flat out until they were side-by-side, Filiss' light projecting the way.

They would be fine. Tori had an exit strategy and they had an exit strategy and it would be okay. They were split up, but they weren't broken. That was what mattered.

They would get Tori back.

"Take the next hallway to the left," Filiss urged, her voice rising above the blare of the alarm. "I cannot determine the current status of acting elevator bays. This hallway-" As one, they scrambled to make the turn, dodging debris and leaping over abandoned supply boxes. "-should lead to the maintenance stairs. While there are no monitors in this particular area, the maintenance zones were built to withstand extreme assault. They should offer sufficient protection to make it to the submersible docking bay."

Apocalyptic elevator vs apocalyptic stairs? Yeah, Shane would have taken the stairs too.

Like some kind of blessing from kind lady luck herself, the maintenance stairs were just as intact as Filiss had promised them to be. At this point, Dustin handed off Filiss' unit to Shane and took over navigating Blake himself. Being closer to the navy ranger's height, it was easier for him to help Hunter get the younger Bradley down the stairs, and Shane took a moment to be grateful for the other teen's practicality. He was still in fighting condition, that was good. They didn't have time for shock.

How far down they went, Shane didn't look. He had to stay in front to guide the way, as much as he hated it. He had to use the labored gasps and sharp breaths echoing behind him to act as a head count. Tried to differentiate their natural sounds of traversal to keep track of where they were, how they were doing, over the distant explosions and siren call of the alarm. The orange lights were useful in theory – but the flashing along with the dull light emitted didn't help where it was needed, where Shane needed it.

"Remote download complete," Filiss announced. "Estimated distance to Muromets' Spear: three minutes."

"Can you access the submarine the same way you accessed the lab consoles?" Shane asked. Maybe if they could get that thing powered on now- did it have a start-up time? He had no idea.

"Negative," Filiss replied. "For safety purposes, Muromets' Spear can only be powered up from the Command Deck. To mitigate the risk of enemy hijacking-"

"Understood," Shane gasped. He got it, they just- they'd have to get there. Down the stairs. Down the flights and flights of stairs.

By the time they made it to the bottom, Shane hoped that it had only been three minutes. Or two? Had the estimated time included getting in the submarine?

It didn't matter; either way they were going to need to get through those metal double doors at the bottom of the staircase, and they didn't have time to waste on specific details.

Using the momentum built from gravity, Shane thundered down the last flight of stairs and threw his shoulder into the door. Unlike the set at the top of the maintenance area, these doors flew open after a brief but panicked struggle. Great, that was great. Pain flared through his shoulder, but it didn't matter, they were in, and-

Holy goddamn shit.

It was like something out of Atlantis.

The Spear - whatever Filiss called it - was so much more than a submarine. It was an underwater mammoth, with glass viewing decks and machines - weapons everywhere. It was like Star Wars and Star Trek had come together to build this thing on an alien world miles and miles from home, and for a moment, Shane was struck still in awe of the sight. Even half-submerged in the dock bay, the thing was gigantic, making the massive size of the underwater harbor seem almost inconsequentially small by sheer volume.

"Shane." A hand latched onto his arm- Dustin's, the brunette staring at him in a look overrun with fear and concern, the wonder of the view completely lost on him. "We gotta get moving."

"Right." Shane nodded and grabbed for Dustin's hand.

It wasn't much, but it would offer some comfort, and that was what mattered.

The Bradleys were already running ahead of them, towards what Shane assumed was the loading bay area of the submarine behemoth. There were huge stacks of crates there, similar to what they had seen in the initial warehouses, but inside, in the ship proper, there were some of the land vehicles Filiss had mentioned before too. A jeep/Humvee hybrid seemed to fall laughably short for describing these things, they were all-terrain tanks. Not like actual military-grade, but compared to a run-of-the-mill off-road vehicles, they were the alpha car, no fooling.

But those were nothing compared to the Titans.

The two mechs were bigger than the versions they had seen before. The autocannons, or whatever they were, had been impressive (and terrifying and nightmare-inducing and-), but the Titans were in a league of their own.

They were about a third of the size of a zord, but even at that height, the loading bay had room to spare for them. There were what looked like rocket cannons mounted on one of the shoulders, maybe a Gatling gun, lasers? So much, and so big. And safe, but-

But that was something they'd have to explore later, after they got in the boat. Safety first, safety and escape and rendezvousing with Tori, and then weapons. There would be time.

"Access the panel at the far end of the loading area," Filiss urged, her light narrowing in on a small console on the far distant wall. This place was as big as a football field, maybe even bigger, making the panel seem that much farther away. "We can close off all points of entrance from there to ensure safe submersive travel."

"Dustin, here!" Shane tossed Filiss' unit to the Earth ninja.

Of all of them, Dustin was the lightest on his feet. On a good day, Blake could tie the yellow ranger for that honor, but with the younger Bradley's hacked coughs worsening after the run down to the submarine, Shane wasn't going to exacerbate his condition with additional stress.

Without waiting for further instruction, Dustin took off with a nod.

It would be good for him; he could burn off the excess agitation and take his mind off of Tori for a few seconds. She was going to be fine; they were the ones in trouble. Shane understood the worry, he did, but it wasn't practical.

Maybe later, Dustin would understand that.

They were still running when the loading doors behind them seemed to creak into life, the orange emergency lights from the docking day disappearing in a narrow slit as the submersible doors finally ground to a close.

Thanks to their weapons and Filiss, they weren't thrown into complete darkness, but it was enough that Dustin was shaking by the time they finally made it to him, the Earth ninja almost frozen against the control panel, one hand still on the console and the other tight against Filiss' unit.

They needed to get going. They weren't out of the fire yet.

Shane reached for the Earth ninja's hand again. He could admit that the action brought him comfort as well.

"Get us to the command deck, Filiss," Shane urged, tugging Dustin along towards the nearest door. By the guide of his Maglite, finding a human-sized exit was easy (or maybe it was Xybrian-sized or Mercurian-sized or-).

"This way." Filis' green hologram projected along the walls, a light stream of arrows guiding them up to the main part of the ship.

At that point, wonder and evaluation had to take a back seat to running. In the Spear, they were relatively safer, but if the Eastern Labs collapsed when Filiss had projected them to, simply being in the ship would only change their fates from slowly-crushed-to-death to slowly-drowning-to-death, and Shane wasn't a fan of either option. They needed to get the Spear out of range of the Koshmar's assault, and who knew how many minutes they had left to do so.

With that practicality in mind, Shane ignored the hallways they were dashing through, blocked out everything besides which metal staircase they needed to take, the feel of Dustin's hand in his, and the sound of the Bradleys keeping pace behind them.

They may have passed a room with tanks, some kind of observational hallway with glass walls that offered a clear view into the murky depths. They might have run through a mess hall, some kind of storage facility, a weapon's deck, but Shane ignored it all.

The only thing that mattered was Filiss' light and his team, and damn everything else in the world.

They exploded onto what Shane assumed was the Command Deck with a few strangled gasps, their chests heaving from the exertion of running through a miniature city. Later, Shane would be dazzled by the size of this thing, how something so gargantuan could possibly function, but now he just needed to move it.

Priorities, and all that.

"Get to the navigation station!" Filiss lights danced around a console off to the left, a communal thing with two chairs. "Initiate power-up sequence by activating here, here, and-" Her lights glimmered across the buttons and knobs splayed across the cool gray of the console. Shane struggled to keep up, flicking the indicated switches and hoping that whatever he messed with wouldn't break as a result of his ignorance.

"Here," Filiss finished. "Startup sequence-"

'Initiated', was what Shane assumed the next word was. He hadn't heard it above the sounds of the Moru- screw it, the M-Spear coming to life; the noise of a giant futuristic watercraft powering on not for the tender-eared.

The lights came up in such startling unison that Shane could help but cry out, temporarily blinded by the action. These weren't like the emergency lights from before; the dull orange had nothing on the crisp whiteness of the M-Spear. It was a clarity much sharper than anything on Earth – leaving no item in darkness, no reprieve for shadows that was not difficulty fought for.

"Take the pilot's chair!" Filiss pressed, voice tight as Shane struggled to blink away black spots. "My holding unit can be hooked up to advise navigation, but Muromets' Spear must be manually navigated out of the dock-"

"I'm on it." Hunter slid into the designated pilot's chair, leaving Blake huddled behind them, with Dustin. "Can you walk Shane through hooking you up as the navigator while guiding me out of here?"

"Affirmative." For the first time since they began their retreat, Filiss' small body materialized to address them, hovering above the area between the pilot's and navigation station. "Vocal processing will be delegated to Mr. Bradley. Mr. Clarke-"

"I can follow visuals," Shane assured, already zeroing in on some kind of side panel he assumed was used for maintenance. The appearance of glowing holographic arrows bolstered his confidence and he followed their lead, allowing Filiss' piloting instructions to fade into a comforting murmur as the M-Spear slowly began to lurch to life.

"Slowly move the throttle-"

The green wire needed to be rerouted to the whatever-that-was-circuit, leaving a space for the black wire to go into the holding unit's-

"The underwater exit tunnel is located deep enough within the Eastern Labs that it should be safe from Koshmar assault. If we can manage safe retreat from the docking bay-"

And then the black wire had to go to a different circuit, which had a ribbon of wires that needed to-

Distant rumbles clanked against the- the top, he guessed, of the M-Spear, not akin to moving. Not the natural vibration of this thing powering itself but-

Rocks. Debris. The docking bay was coming down around them.

Oh god-

"Slowly," Filiss reminded. "The situation may seem to call for haste but-"

"I got it, damn it. Okay?" It sounded like Hunter's teeth were ground together, his jaw clenched shut from either frustration or concentration, or a combination- and hey, look, Shane was a rapper now. Or a poet.

The green wire had to go back to the first whatever-circuit-

"Slowly," Filiss said again, her voice gentle.

In his peripherals, Shane could see- view screens, he guessed. Hah- it was like a submarine's equivalent to a windshield; this really was Star Trek.

From the view screen/windshield, it was obvious that they were moving down, the row of orange lights trailing down the underwater docking bay wall disappearing in a blur. There were numbers too- Russian? Alien? Maybe they explained the depth, where they were going, how far down they were.

"There you are," Hunter whispered. There was something close to triumph in his voice. "Gotcha now."

"Careful," Filiss reminded. "Push forward on the guide-"

Then the green wire went into the second ribbon circuit, and Shane was the grand champion of Russian/Alien navigation side-panel operation. Go him.

"Connection to Muromets' Spear navigation panel successful," Filiss proclaimed. "Charting course. Approaching Eastern Lab's outbound submersible tunnel."

"Hell yes, we are," Hunter murmured.

It was almost like the cocky Hunter from before; the insufferable one Shane had wanted to compete against so badly during Total Trek, just to put him in his smarmy place.

Now though, it didn't seem so bad.

"Are we gonna…?" Blake cut off Dustin's question with a frantic hiss – but Hunter, stubborn, headstrong Hunter – showed no signs of hearing either.

'Make it?' – had to be the end of the question.

Shane wondered the same. Wondered when hijacking foreign underwater vehicles to escape certain death had become a standard of normality in his life. He didn't even feel all that offended by the concept. It was either a sign of maturity, or insanity.

He wasn't going to delve deeply into figuring out which was more appropriate.

The rubble was still collapsing into the top of the ship, the assaults growing heavier and more frequent, but Hunter kept his eyes narrowed on the giant tunnel in front of them.

Without the navigation panel to occupy him, Shane could see their goal clearly through the front viewing panel. In a different life, it would have been frightening – an ominous black void lurking in front of them. In a different life, Shane wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere near it – there were no backup lights guiding the way in this tunnel, aside from those lining the entrance. The massive channel projected no light, leaving its contents to remain a mystery.

Hell, what if the tunnel work ahead had collapsed by now? What if they couldn't get out? How much air was there on the M-Spear? Would there be a way to get out of the tunnel that wasn't by submarine? Was there scuba gear? Had Shane led them into a death trap?

Only one way to find out. They were committed now.

Almost there. Almost there.

They were the longest few minutes of Shane's life.

He held his breath when they breached the entrance of the tunnel. The attack of debris became a distant echo, now that the front of the ship was protected.

M-Spear's lights showed the tunnel ahead as secure- It was safe, they'd be safe, fine, just a few more minutes.

Shane needed to get ahold of his imagination. They had enough things to worry about without him throwing hypothetical situations into the mix.

A few minutes later, the rumbling died down – leaving nothing but the M-Spear's ambient sounds of operation, and four very hyped up shinobi.

It seemed almost too good to be true.

"Muromets' Spear has safely entered the submersible travel tunnel," Filiss informed them, breaking the silence that hung over the Command Deck. "Autopilot functions can now be successfully activated. I can chart a course to the Eastern Labs secondary fallback position, if you would like it." Her tiny form swiveled, hair weaving delicate patterns as she addressed each of them one-by-one. "In the event of an emergency evacuation, Agent Cal had designated a selection of locations to which the colonists could retreat. Based on the information I have gathered from the Labs, the secondary location remains secure. Shall I chart a course?"

"What about Tori?"

Whereas Dustin had been timid before, the brunette found his voice for this question. Still latched on to Blake, the Earth ranger shouldn't look intimidating, but the stubborn set in his brows begged to suggest otherwise.

Hell, how could Shane have forgotten-?

Adrenaline. It was understandable. He had gotten lost in the moment, but Dustin was right, they needed to get to Tori.

That meant they couldn't go too far- there was no way for her to cover much distance on foot, especially without her powers. Maybe they'd have to bust out one of those Humvee things when they found a safe place to dock. Take it for a test drive to pick up Tori. She'd get a real kick out of that. Probably demand to take the driver's seat herself.

"We need to go to the rendezvous point, right?" Dustin looked between Blake and the two reds by their stations. "It couldn't have been that far. We set a course for that and then-"

"There isn't a rendezvous point."

"-we can just…" Dustin trailed off, eyes widening.

Shane watched him struggle to process the comment, blinking rapidly as though he hadn't heard Blake correctly. The Air ninja focused on his best friend because that was easier than taking in Blake's declaration, even if the process was made somewhat difficult by the collection of low swears pouring from Hunter's mouth beside him.

In spite of it all, Blake looked… not at ease. Tired, would be the most accurate description. Weary, resigned.

He was resigned.

Even with Dustin half-hanging off of him, even covered in soot and a thin sheen of sweat, even through all that nonsense, Blake could manage the composure of silent resignation.

It felt like something burning hot had been stabbed into Shane's stomach, emanating this constant, insistent pain. He couldn't move from his position crouched by the navigation panel. He couldn't do anything to stop the disbelieving look on Dustin's face from transforming into silent betrayal- Could do nothing but watch the brunette's throat bob as he tried to swallow down tears.

There wasn't a rendezvous point.

After everything- the lab collapsing, somehow managing an emergency evacuation using a vehicle they had never even conceived they-

"No," Dustin exhaled sharply, his voice shaking. "You said there was a rendezvous-"

"I lied," Blake interrupted.

Shane wanted to hate him for how devoid of emotion the blue ranger seemed to be. He wanted to go across the room and punch Blake right in his smug little jaw.

He could. It wouldn't be difficult. He was tired, but he was pretty sure Blake wouldn't put up a fight over it.

In the pilot's chair, Hunter remained silent. Waiting.

Shane waited too, blood pounding in his ears like a furious drumbeat, keeping time with the continued pace of life.

It wasn't stopping. It felt like there should be a pause, a moment of silent, but it wasn't stopping.

There was no rendezvous point.

"The first set of explosions broke the structure of the ductwork we were in. The whole thing just…" Blake trailed off with a vague gesture of his free hand, the one unclaimed by Dustin. "It broke, clean in half. Gaped over some huge elevator maintenance thing. She was on one side, I was on the other – near you guys – and-"

"Did she fall?"

Hunter didn't sound angry as he said it. He made the question sound innocent, almost like he was asking about the weather instead of the possible death of his teammate.

Shane, like Dustin, flinched at the inquiry.

This shouldn't be happening.

Blake had the gall to chuckle. "Nope," he said, voice bitter. "No, something took her. Like nothing we've seen before. It was like a- a spider mech thing. It grabbed her and hauled ass upwards, towards the surface. She threw me Filiss' unit before it got her, like she knew-"

The navy ranger jerked his head to the side, as though he could cover up his voice cracking.

The sound struck a withered part of Shane, sharp, like a pressing need for air.

"She must have seen it before I did," Blake admitted quietly. "The explosion left me disoriented, but even on the wrong side-" He swallowed.

Shane followed the movement of his throat, unable to do anything else.

Suddenly, Blake's head turned in the red ranger's direction. "She told me to go, Shane," he insisted. His eyes were wet, red from something other than dust or remnants of explosions. "Without my powers I couldn't- There was no way for me to follow. We didn't have anything that could keep up with that robot thing and she knew it, so she-"

There were tears now, small rivulets flowing down Blake's cheeks that the navy ranger didn't seem to address, couldn't even acknowledge.

"She told me to go," he said quietly. "Us to go, because the whole place was coming down."

With that, he tucked his chin down into his chest, as though he had used every ounce of energy on the explanation.

He probably had.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

Tori was gone. Cam was dead, and Tori was gone, and they still weren't any closer to being home.

At the very least though, they had their next plan of action. The only thing driving them for the past few weeks had been the need to find a functioning console. With that out of the way, things might have seemed…empty, Shane guessed. But with Tori gone, there was only one way for things to go.

They had to get her back.

"But not enough that you wouldn't lie."

Sometime during the fallout, Shane had shifted his gaze to the metal floor of the Command Deck, its dull metallic glint a friendly reprieve from the chaos that had descended over them. At Dustin's comment – the brunette's voice detached, no, closer to dead – the Air ninja forced himself back into the situation.

Across the room, Dustin and Blake remained huddled together, but Dustin wouldn't look at Blake. Didn't look at any of them, really. His gaze was unfocused, aimed at the forward view screen, though Shane doubted he took in any of the sights.

Though the brunette put on a show of ignoring him, Blake turned to face Dustin anyway, his free hand curling into a fist against his side. "You wouldn't have left if I had told you otherwise."

His voice was flat, soft to be gentle, but no amount of effort could hide the looming danger in his justification. He wasn't going to apologize.

"There was nothing we could have done," Blake continued. "But you would have tried to go after her anyway, and then what? We barely made it out of there as is-"

Dustin's reaction was immediate and violent, volatile as an explosion when he jerked away from the navy ranger, leaving Blake to fend for his own stability. "So you left her to die? That robot thing- the Koshmar robot spider- the explosions? They all mean the same thing. The minute it got her, she was dead. You let it take her to die-"

"Get a hold of yourself." Hunter snapped out the order like a shotgun barrage, his tone so contrasting to the way he had smoothly risen to his feet that it left Shane floundering. "If they wanted her dead, that thing could have just thrown her down the maintenance shaft and been done with it. Instead, it made an effort to capture her, which, between those two things, will always be the more difficult option."

Hunter, who had been advancing on Dustin in slow, measured steps, finally came to a halt about four feet from where the Earth ninja had retreated against the far wall, keeping all of them in his sights.

"If they caught her," Hunter began slowly, his voice low gravel so rough Shane wanted to flinch. "Then they want her alive. They need her alive. So-"

Though Hunter was in front of him now, smack center in the triangle made by Shane, Blake, and Dustin – broken beings scattered across the Command Deck, Shane could picture the hard look in Hunter's eyes. Had witnessed it first-hand before.

"Pull your shit together," Hunter murmured. "You're not the only one hurting here. You're not the only one who's entitled to pain."

It was an agonizing truth.

Shane made a conscious effort not to look at Blake.

It had always been a kind of running joke, between Shane and Dustin – playing audience to the awkward song and dance that had been Tori and Blake's relationship.

For Tori, it had always been a done deal. She was just waiting, she had explained with a smirk so wicked it could promise world domination on its own, and a knowing quirk of her eyebrow – for Blake to make his move. For her, deciding things had been easy. She could ask him out, sure, but she had no intention of pursuing anything with the younger Bradley until he had worked through whatever internal angst he had bottled up that prevented him from mustering the courage to ask the aqua ranger out on a date.

Though things were never official, there – as Hunter had so eloquently put it – had been– was– 'love' between them.

Maybe later, Shane would be able to applaud the strength Blake had mustered to get them to move on without Tori. Maybe he would even talk to Blake about it too, vocalize the respect.

For now though, as much as he understood the need, Shane was with Dustin.

Not so much out of necessity, so much as someone had to be.

They couldn't break apart over this.

Dustin held Hunter's gaze with watery eyes, his jaw trembling and tense, exhales sharp and heavy through his nostrils. "No," he croaked, voice strangled. "I guess not. I guess…" He swallowed, staring off to the side, away from Hunter's offending gaze. "I'm not cut out for this. I'm not-" He bit the words off with a scowl, and in a second, his whole demeanor changed. From sorrow to righteous fury to everything Dustin wasn't, and he stared Hunter down, giving as good as he got. "I guess I'm not enough of a robot to get through this. Good thing we have you guys around, right?"

"Brooks-" Hunter took a step forward.

"Stop."

Shane found the will to move, managed to get to his feet in time to see Dustin furiously shake his head and start moving towards the door.

"Dustin-"

"I get it," the brunette murmured. He hadn't looked back. "I get it. I do. I just can't- I can't do it now, alright?"

In the shadow of the doorway, he paused, glancing back over his shoulder, towards Shane.

The red ranger felt his lungs seize in his chest, tight with anticipation.

"I'll get it later, I promise," Dustin said quietly. He was crying now, earnestly. "But I can't right now."

Shane nodded, wanting to show he understood, but Dustin had already turned away again, disappearing into the bright lights of the hallway.

Off to the side, Hunter was already moving towards Blake, eyes aimed up to the ceiling as though searching for strength. "Jesus, goddamn-"

"I'm gonna go after him," Shane interrupted with deceptive composure. Or maybe he too was detached now. "Have Filiss take us to the secondary retreat location. I'll take care of him, and then-"

"And then we'll give them hell."

Surprised, Shane turned.

The Hunter he was greeted by was not the angry general that had addressed Dustin before, or the aloof teenager that had first walked into Storm Chargers. This Hunter was pure fire, a silent maelstrom curled around his brother, as though his body could protect Blake from any hardship the world had to offer them.

This Hunter was out for blood.

"We'll give them hell Shane," Hunter promised. In his arms, Blake's stare was vacant, but he returned Hunter's grip. A silent acknowledgement. "We'll take whatever Filiss has got and burn them to the goddamn ground. You hear me?"

Shane swallowed. Nodded. "I do."

He had never been one to hold grudges, but those were old-world rules that Shan e– with this permission from Hunter – needed to no longer entertain.

They had killed Cam, and now they had Tori.

There wasn't any point in abiding to Ranger Code when they weren't rightly rangers anymore.

Forget defense, they were going on the offense.

They were going to get Tori back.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

So hey, this story isn't dead. When I started this endeavor I was juggling three active stories, and after chapter 3 I had planned to just 'quickly wrap up the other two' before proceeding with chapter 4.

Well, one of those stories was 'Filled with Good Works', which ended with a whopping twenty six chapters, and the other one was 'Simply Elementary', which is currently thirty four chapters and still going strong, because my imagination does not understand the concept of 'brevity'.

Clearly, the old plan requires some modifications. I'm bringing this behemoth back to life, though it may take a bit. Due to the serious content matter, and the fact that each chapter takes about a month to write (the brevity-thing is a work-in-progress), I will do my very best to get these chapters out in a timely fashion. I'm aiming to do better than updating every three years. Pretty sure I can accomplish that much.

A huge thanks to Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley, Rogue Ranger, Silveriolu16, and Siyavash for the reviews! It only took roughly forever to update this story, but if you guys are still around, I hope this chapter lives up to the hype :)

But onto the story:

Xybrians – Time Force

Andresians – Super Megaforce or whatever. It's terrible, don't watch it.

Mercurians – Overdrive

-All kinds of winging it with the medical stuff. All kinds.

-To get a better idea of what the Titans look like, you google 'Titanfall' – as the mechs with piloting capabilities were essentially borrowed from that franchise. For the 'autocannons', the Mantis vehicles from Halo would be a pretty close approximation, except without the piloting capabilities. Think a smaller scale sort of deal.

Muromets' Spear- When Shane said it looked like something out of Atlantis, he was referring to the Disney animated feature 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire' that came out in 2001. Google 'Disney Atlantis Ship', and you'll get a rough estimate of the 'M-Spear'.

Until next time :)