Sixty days since the previous update. I had a creative block - or, more accurately, open ends from Tread Softly - to work through. You may want to check out And Who in Power if you haven't yet.

Source of chapter title, the second version of Don't Cry: "If you could see tomorrow/what of your plans/no one can live in sorrow/ask all your friend"

Love and Gratitude to the Constellations Team: Mara and Camille (friends and beta readers) and Roie (who's made this possible).

Enjoy, and please review!

40. To See Tomorrow

General Audiences were a lot more fun than they used to be, Kapri decided. Zurgane and Choobo never had to compete for attention and anyway, their interaction never exceeded the level of a boxer and his favorite punching bag; Vexacus and Zurgane were amusing only off the record – they had half a dozen assassination attempts between them – and Motodrone’s social programming was nonexisant. It was worth it to literally dig up Shimazu simply for the colour he added.

Fashionably late, Shimazu sauntered onto the bridge, bowing deeply and gesturing with his fan.

Zurgane scowled. Motodrone looked bored. Vexacus stood a little bit straighter.

Sitting at the stairs to Lothor’s throne, Kapri applied another nail jewel.

“My glorious Sir,” said Shimazu, voice whispery as always. “If I may present to you fruit of my past week’s labour, in the hopes that it will meet your approval?”

“You’re late,” said Lothor, “So you might convince me you’re not slacking off, yes.”

Shimazu explained. As he spoke, Lothor slowly straightened in his throne. As the general wrapped up his scheme, Lothor rubbed his chin.

“Nice,” he ruled. “Very nice. I like it.”

Shimazu bowed. “Thank you, sir.”

“Careful, Zurgane,” drawled Kapri. “If you keep making that ugly expression you’ll get stuck like that. Oh, what am I saying?” She put her hand up to her mouth as if surprised. “You already are. Perhaps if you made yourself useful…”

“Perhaps if you made yourself useful, instead of busying yourself with useless adornments…”

Kapri laid out her hand to inspect the stupid jewels which would fall off within a day, feeling very much like her sister as she did so. “Well, being pretty is more than you manage.”

“As fascinating as this exchange is,” said Lothor,“We have a plan to finalize. Not you,” he snapped as Zurgane stepped forward, “your new toy is not ready yet; and not you either,” he told Motodrone, “you had your chance last time. Vexacus, I believe today is your turn.”

Vexacus inclined his head curtly. “Sir.”

It was a bright, warm day of early summer. Or that’s what it was outside; inside the school cafeteria it was neon-dull and the same temperature as always. Tori didn’t notice, though. She didn’t notice Shane intently looking at her, either.

“You’re not eating.”

She looked up from her plate. “I’m eating,” she protested.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

It was a silly argument, one that should’ve made her laugh; once upon a time she would’ve been pleasantly surprised that Shane had noticed. Instead, she wished that she wouldn’t have arranged this semester’s course schedule to match with Shane’s and Dustin’s as much as possible, that she would’ve been spending her lunch breaks with Tanya and Gaby instead.

“What?” she said irritably as he pulled the corner of his eye.

“That’s called playing with your carrots, Tori, not eating them.”

“Quit fussing, Shane.” There was a time when that was just friendly care, and welcome. Nothing had been that simple in far too long, and for a moment Tori felt like she wanted nothing more than to be able to walk down a street and know she was on her own.

Shane just stared at her and, eventually, she caved. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, or that he wouldn’t have cared anyway; and if she wanted to move three tables to the left and pour her heart out to her AP pals who would understand, she also knew that they wouldn’t understand, not really. There was a reason that she wasn’t spending breaks with them, anymore.

“It’s just,” she said hesitatingly, “It’s the last week of April.”

Shane looked at her, definitely not blankly but not marking the significance, either.

“College application deadline,” she said.

He still wasn’t getting it. Her annoyance and discomfort flared into true anger, bright and hot. “I got accepted to over half a dozen of places,” she said. She sounded far too calm for someone who wanted to shake another person and spend the rest of her day between the waves. “I have until Thursday to make the deposit, commit to a college.”

“And you’re having a hard time choosing? Just pick the closest.”

Shane was being either dense or a jerk, and she was finding it hard to care. “Blue Bay Harbor only has a community college, Shane. I won’t stay here unless I don’t go to college. And even if there was a decent place less than half a state from here, college is not high school. Do you get it now?”

“Hey, hey.” Shane raised his hands. “Easy, Tori. It’s not really that bad. Cam can cover the commute thing when stuff happens – even from the East Coast, now – and you’re still going to need only four hours of sleep a night. You’ll be fine. And even if you have to wait a year…”

She pushed herself up suddenly and picked up her tray.

Naturally, that was when their morphers went off.

Tori sat down again, nearly gritting her teeth in frustration. Typical.

“Trouble downtown.” Adam’s voice, hushed, counting on their Ranger hearing to pick it up. “Lothor’s been reading the Hobbit.”

“Now what?”

“We seem to have wargs on our hands.”

Tori’s anger didn’t so much cool down as got pushed behind an icy wall of professionalism.

“We have what?” asked Shane.

“Mythical wolves,” said Tori. “Extra-big, extra-vicious, extra-smart.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Well, we currently have five thousand-pound wolves, three at Alder Boulevard and two at Erlington Tower.”

Shane grimaced. “Alder Boulevard at lunchtime, it’s probably packed. Damn.”

Erlington Tower. It sounded familiar.

“Hunter and Blake have it covered,” said Adam. “Cam’s at Erlington Tower. So far it doesn’t look like these things can hurt a Ranger.”

Suddenly, Tori remembered, “Hey,” she asked, “What floor did you say at Erlington?”

“Twentieth.”

Shane flinched minutely, but his expression didn’t waver. Tori’s anger got pushed that much farther back.

“Well, these things didn’t come in the front door,” said Shane.

Tori frowned.

CyberCam chimed in. “No teleportation traces,” he said. “It’s something new. I’m still working on it.”

“Keep me posted. Thanks, guys.”

“No problem. Ops out.”

“Shane,” said Tori carefully.

“Look, I’m sorry – ”

“Your mom’s law firm is at Erlington Tower, isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s not her firm – ”

“Shane.”

“Yeah, that’s where she works.”

“Twentieth floor.”

“No.”

“I just watched you, Shane,” she said wearily. The irritation pounded like a slow toothache.

“Doesn’t matter. The guys got it covered. Let it go, Tori, all right?”

There, it burned a bright beacon again. Tori swallowed back a nasty return. Let it go was what she’d wanted to tell him, and what none of them could do. She got up and picked up her tray again, though not as sharply as before. “I think I’ll eat lunch with my school friends today. Am I allowed?”

There’d been a time she wouldn’t have been that scathing; there’d been a time, a little more recently, when Shane would’ve dished it right back. Instead he just nodded, leaned back – almost tiredly – and watched her go.

Cam contacted her again after English class. Tori ducked back into the empty classroom and answered the hail.

“Those were not wargs,” said Cam succinctly. “This is trouble.”

“You mean more trouble than the usual?”

“I mean werewolves.”

“What?” She shook her head. “This doesn’t make sense on so many levels.”

“Five people were reported missing after the attack, three from Erlington Tower and two of the Alder Boulevard crowd. This matches the number of so-called wargs at each site. We also picked up the same number of yet-unidentified energy spikes from these locations.”

She exhaled slowly. “Werewargs,” she said, tasting the word. “In broad daylight, and correct me if I’m wrong but we’re not at a full moon.”

“No, but we’re at the end of one. It’s not like the fairytales, but it matches.”

“All right, then,” agreed Tori. “Do we know how to turn these people back?”

“I’m working on it. It depends very much on how Lothor’s done it.” There was a pause, and then Cam continued. “Tori,” he said, voice hesitant. “There’s something more.”

“What is it?”

“It’s the people Lothor’s got,” Cam said carefully. “Specifically one of them.”

Tori closed her eyes briefly. “Shane’s mom.”

“Yes.”

“Does he know yet?”

“His dad fetched him from school.”

“But his dad wouldn’t know that – ”

“Only that she went missing around the time of the attack. Still, Tori, five people, five wargs – the police aren’t stupid.”

Something terrible occurred to her. “Do you think Lothor did it on purpose?” she asked, speaking slowly and clearly.

Pause.

“Probably not,” said Cam. “But I’ll lay on some extra security around your family and Dustin’s mom, just to be on the safe side.”

“Thanks, Cam.” She closed her eyes. “I’ll stay home after school today. Keep an eye on Daphne myself.”

“All right. I’ll let the guys know.”

“Thanks, Cam.”

“Just take care.”

It had been a while since she had watched a kelzack pour champagne. She’d forgotten how hilarious it was, and the sparkling wine didn’t hurt either.

“Now, this is how it’s done, gentlemen!” announced Lothor over the howling of the wolves. They were holding the party just outside the makeshift pound, for entertainment value. “Quite a nice touch for your first operation, Shimazu.”

The warlock bowed. “Thank you, sir.”

“I hope the rest of the operation will continue in this vein. Now, Vexacus – my, where has the old shark gone to?”

“Preparing for his assignment, sir,” said Zurgane stiffly. “Or so he says.”

“Just making sure the maintenance on his toy of a ship has been done right,” said Kapri idly, sipping from her flute. “Didn’t you know? He intends to use it today.”

“In the atmosphere?”

Kapri shrugged. “It has an atmospheric mode. I checked.”

Zurgane huffed, probably certain that she couldn’t tell a hyperdrive engine from a propulsion one. She was no Marah – who could fix anything, damn her – but she wasn’t about to be conned, either. Vexacus’s plan was legit, and Choobo would alert her immediately if the bounty hunter tried to double-cross them at a bad time.

The wolves howled again. Zurgane scowled. Motodrone ignored them. Shimazu whispered incantations under his breath.

“Hey,” she said suddenly, brightly. “You!” she snapped her fingers at a kelzack who dared idle for a moment. “Get me doggie snacks!”

Hunter had called in sick. Kelly, who’d heard the news through a grapevine called Dustin, blew the lie out of the water but was understanding about the situation. Hunter just showed up at the Clarkes’s front door. Shane’s father didn’t seem to mind his presence, and Shane wasn’t about to complain about not needing to be babysat so long as Hunter didn’t bring up the reason he was there. The afternoon was shaping up to be fine up until the second alarm came, and obviously it had to be two battle foci at once.

“Vexacus is mine,” said Shane automatically.

“Nobody thought otherwise,” Cam assured him.

“I don’t want everyone out at once,” said Shane. “We’ll have more aliens on our hands before this one’s over. You two have fought these things. What do you say?”

“We’ll need brute force and not much firepower out there,” said Hunter.

“What kind of extra trouble are we expecting?” asked Cam.

“Good question,” muttered Shane. “You’re saying the transformation isn’t pure Dark Ninja?”

“No,” said Cam. “I’d know.”

“So Lothor didn’t do this himself and we’re expecting a new player. Possibly a general, if Marah’s intel is correct.”

“That will need heavy firepower,” Hunter told him.

“Send Blake, Tori and Dustin for the werewargs,” said Shane. “You two will have to handle any new trouble.”

“And you’ll need an excuse,” said Hunter. “Your dad’s been coming upstairs to make sure we haven’t vanished every half hour.”

Shane shrugged. “We’re going out for a run?”

It was the worst battle she’s had in a long time. The wolves were twice as heavy as any of them, just as fast and had claws that could tear through metal. In a proper battle Tori was fairly certain that any two of them could’ve killed the five creatures in a few minutes, but this wasn’t a proper combat and these weren’t monsters or aliens, but people the Rangers were supposed to protect. She, Dustin and Blake were trying to avoid so much as breaking a bone of the creatures currently trying to kill them. It was all they could do to keep them from hurting civilians.

She swore as she left a decoy suit behind and rematerialized behind a car. “I hate this! Somebody come up with a plan already!”

“Don’t look at me!” shouted Dustin in reply.

“I’ve got an idea!” said Blake. “CyberCam – I’m going to need a map – ”

The last time he went against Vexacus, Shane had kicked his ass. Vexacus had come in armed and ready to face a Ranger; he hadn’t counted on the manner in which the Karmanian power would react with a morpher. Shane fully expected Vexacus to catch up and give him a proper fight.

He was only partially disappointed. Vexacus had added a layer of body armor and wore some gadgets that gave him a lot more of a punch, and he’d gotten loads better at dodging. These meant that Shane couldn’t beat him unconscious in two minutes flat as he’d done the previous time. The outcome of the battle still seemed pretty much known in advance, being that between the extra speed and the intuition that came with the Phoenix state Vexacus couldn’t so much as lay a finger on Shane. The space fish was still full of speciesism but even he had to get that he couldn’t win this one, and try to even out the odds.

By calling in a freakin’ jet fighter.

Shane didn’t think twice, just fired up his own jet pack and went after Vexacus. The Hawk Zord was ten times the aircraft’s size and, unless he could destroy Vexacus’s craft in a precious few shots, would’ve been far too clumsy for this kind of air fight. Shane had better trust in the plasma cannons mounted at the tips of his jetpack’s wings, the ones Cam had exasperatedly called “narrow-focus H-bomb launchers.”

The aircraft had damn good shields, though. The first barrage made it rattle and shook it off-course, but didn’t bring up any smoke. Shane kept firing intermittent bursts, looking for any vulnerabilities.

Vexacus just kept westwards.

Blake switched to helmet comm only, ordering her and Dustin through a strictly-structured chase through the city’s streets. One of them would streak ahead of the wargs and play bait, while the other two held the rear and kept the creatures from straying away. The wargs were a lot faster than they, though, and every few minutes they’d switch so that nobody would tire too much. They tried the tsunami cycles, but the wargs were far more inclined to run away from something that noisy than towards it. CyberCam fed them streaming real-time video, and they led the chase through the emptiest streets they could find. Thankfully the townsfolk were used enough to random alien attacks to lock themselves in and get out of the way.

It was a winding track but, a little over ten minutes in, it became apparent that they were heading steadily west.

“We’re going to have to get them two blocks south!” yelled Blake over the comm. It was his turn to lead the chase. “Don’t let them get too north! Dustin, switch!”

“Again already?” complained Dustin, but streaked ahead. An earth ninja’s stamina meant he got to run in front of the wargs more than either Blake or Tori, though Blake was definitely the fastest runner of them.

Tori kept running ahead, occasionally shooting at the pavement to force the wargs to stay to the track. Seconds later Blake showed up at her side.

“Tell me you have a plan,” she panted.

“The shore,” he answered. “We’re strongest there, and they’ll have a harder time moving in the sand. No houses – ”

A dog which had been barking in one of the yards must’ve torn its rope, and came barreling straight into one of the werewargs. Blake threw himself in, getting in between the two creatures. Tori pulled her light blaster, pulled the setting all the way down and, gritting her teeth, shot at the dog. The blast didn’t knock it unconscious, but there was no way it could’ve kept up the chase after that. A few loud shots from the sonic blaster got all the wolves back on track.

“You all right?” she asked Blake as he lined up next to her.

“What the hell was that, an urban bear?” he demanded. He was limping slightly, but she knew from personal experience that so long as he hadn’t broken anything he’d be fine in minutes.

“Some kind of mastiff,” she said.

The comm flared to life. “Chestnut West!” yelled Dustin. “Open road!”

“Can you hold all the way to the beach?”

“I think so!”

“CyberCam, Tori and I need the bikes, now!”

Leaving the zord home had been the smart call – this mosquito was far to manueverable to be caught with a zord – but aiming for the engines had been a bad one. By the time Shane had figured that out they were already who knows how many miles over the ocean. Still, the craft was smoking at three different points and the sensors claimed the hull was beginning to give.

At first Shane hadn’t even noticed that Vexacus had started going up, it was such a gentle angle. Then, once they were high enough that the engines wouldn’t have boiled the ocean’s surface, the craft took a direct 90-degree turn up and the engines fired full force.

Shane swore, directed all power to the jets, and clicked open the comm. “CyberCam, what the hell!”

“He’s going for escape velocity!”

“Are you telling me this is a space craft?”

“Seems so! Shane – you may be in trouble if you leave the atmosphere. No air.”

He was still going full speed up, and Vexacus wasn’t getting away just yet.

“I’ll pull back if I’ll notice something wrong,” Shane promised.

“Shane – ”

But Shane shut the comm off and concentrated on the chase.

Hunter pushed himself up. “That’s it, I’m getting out there.”

“No, you’re not,” said Cam sharply from his perch by the computer. “We’re going to have a third scene at some point – ”

“Or maybe Lothor’s waiting on us to be stretched thin before he sends in the next team, wouldn’t be the first time he’s pulled that – ”

There was a short siren and one of the monitors switched to a different view.

“Incoming teleportation,” said Cam. “At the boardwalk.”

Numbers started running on the side of the monitor, an initial real-time threat evaluation. Hunter skimmed the numbers. “We’ll need at least three to blow up this bugger.”

Cam shook his head. “Two Rangers, five wolves is a no-go.”

“I can fight the wolves,” said Marah. “What?” she added defensively. “I used to fight you guys, remember? I’m not helpless!”

“No,” agreed Hunter. “You’re not.” He turned to the control board and, leaning over Cam’s shoulder and pushing his hand out of the way, switched open the comm. “Blake, Marah’s replacing you. Come eight yards north, Cam and I will be there.”

Shane could feel the air getting thinner. He had never known what a constant elemental affinity had become in his life until it started ebbing away. Strangely, though, he didn’t feel weaker. Shouldn’t he? And shouldn’t elemental einterference wreck havoc with his Ranger power? Yet it hadn’t. He felt fine.

The light was stronger, this high up. He could feel it on his power suit, as if it was gathering on its surface.

Shane’s eyes widened in a sudden understanding. Vexacus was in for a surprise.

The clown said its name was Shimazu and that he was Lothor’s newest general. Hunter cared for that information only insofar as it corroborated Marah’s version and gave Cam something to research. Between the Thunder Cannon and Cam’s sabre in Super Samurai mode, Hunter measured Shimazu’s life expectancy in mere minutes.

Then Lothor did something which he’d never done before: he sent the scroll before they actually destroyed Shimazu.

“The bad news,” shouted Cam over the noise of the transformation, “Is that he’s going to be a lot more powerful then we’re used to in zord combat!”

“And the good news?”

“The new power spheres were completed last week, and they’re just what we need!”

There came a moment in which the vacuum around them became so great that Shane lost his elemental connection completely. Vexacus had probably been measuring the air density – and done his background reading – because he chose that exact moment to pull his craft into a loop and turn around, weapon banks powering up. He had to have been counting on the disorientation from the elemental withdrawal messing with Shane.

It was: it was the worst fever of his life, head swimming and eyesight going out of focus. Fortunately, he had a second set of senses kicking in, senses that were made for vacuum and for the high radiation of open space. Funneling all the energy he could gather into a single blast, Shane fired.

Hunter stared at the display as the new zord configuration came on line. “This,” he declared over the internal comm, “Is the best one since the minizord.”

“Hell, yeah,” agreed Blake fervently. “With the speed of the Samurai Star and the firepower of the Thunder Zords packed into this one frame? Shimazu is going down and he’s going down fast and brutal.”

CyberCam came online, sounding a little more panicky than the usual. “Problem! I think Shane blew up Vexacus, but he’s crashing and I don’t think he’s conscious.”

“Teleport – ”

“Not at this velocity, I can’t.”

“Blake, can you pilot both our zords? CyberCam, we do have the control patch for that, right?”

“Any zord in a megazord can control the whole configuration,” snapped Cam. “Particularly any zords of the same set. The Winds have done this before.”

“I’ll be fine, bro,” said Blake.

“All right. I’m taking the glider cycle.”

“If you crash that abomination again – ”

“Hey, a little more trust here!”

“You think.”

“Hey!” yelled Dustin. “Did they just flicker?”

“I think they did!” answered Tori. “But Shimazu isn’t destroyed yet!”

“He has to be redirecting his power for survival!” said Marah. “He’s taken an awful lot of hits.”

“All right, then it’s almost over. Dustin, damn it, don’t let them drown!”

“You’re the water ninja!”

“Doesn’t mean I can levitate a thousand pound of dryweight werewolf!”

In the distance, Shimazu went down on one knee. The wolf-forms flickered –

“How about a few hundred pounds of soaking-wet human?”

“How are your healing skills?”

The civilians were bruised, disoriented, wet and exhausted. CyberCam did a remote scan and ruled that waiting for the ambulances would be less stressful to them than teleportation, so Tori dried them best she could and held back the hypothermia two had began to develop while Dustin handled the three sprained joints and one dislocated shoulder. Marah, having no means to protect her identity, had cleared out as soon as the civilians had been released from whatever spell Shimazu had cast on them.

They returned to Ops to find it suspiciously empty, no Thunders or Shane. Marah and Adam were playing with a puzzle Hunter had left at Ops once, and Cam was analyzing the most complex multidimensional spectral reading Tori had ever seen.

“Wow, what is that?” asked Dustin.

“Where are the guys?” asked Tori. “Don’t tell me they’re not back yet.”

“This,” said Cam, sounding particularly ticked off, “is data downloaded from Shane’s morpher. He pulled a Hunter and I’m still trying to figure out how he managed it with no critical injury.”

“Shane blew up Vexacus’s fighter spacecraft,” explained Adam. “He was at an altitude where his elemental powers should’ve been inaccessible and, by Cam’s reckoning, this should have interfered with his morphed state. He’s all right,” he added. “Don’t panic.”

“Insofar as a massive headache and sensory hypersensitivity constitute ‘all right’,” muttered Cam. “Best cover for that one was for Shane and Hunter to be evacuated alongside anyone who’d been too near to the battle scenes. They’re at the hospital now.”

“Blake returned to Storm Chargers,” said Adam. “Debriefing for today’s events will wait.”

Choobo was positively cackling as he crawled out from the air vent into her office. Or, more accurately, he was trying to: it came out more like slow-brained sniggers. “Oh, this was fun!” he said, settling down on her desk.

“What was?” she asked, popping up her feet right next to him. Her boots were taregrettably clean.

“You want to put some extra security on Shimazu,” he told her. “Vexacus hates him now. And he’s really, really pissed about his spaceship, too. Now he can’t leave unless he buys a shuttle from Lothor.”

She smiled unpleasantly. “Oh, really? Imagine that. And it gets even better.”

“How’s that?”

“Several of his zord’s systems need to be redone, now,” she said. “After the new configuration the Rangers pulled out today.”

“How come they’re always one step ahead?”

“They aren’t,” she reminded him. “Lothor’s after their power, remember? The more he forces them to learn, the more for him to harvest.”

“If he still can,” said Choobo, skeptical.

“We still can.” She dropped her feet to the floor, heels hitting with a satisfyingly loud smack, and pushed her face into his. Just her head was nearly as big as he was. “You ndand I, we’re taking all of their power. The Rangers and Lothor. Very soon,” she promised him. “Very, very soon.”

“How soon?” he complained. “You’ve been saying that forever.”

She shrugged. “We can go right now, if you want. But then you won’t have your potion. It takes time to brew, and you know how hard I worked to find the instructions, and how difficult it was to smuggle the ingredients without Lothor noticing anything. It’ll be such a pity to abort. Even before we consider…”

Choobo made a long, whining sound. Kapri waited.

“All right, all right,” he whined. “But can’t you please – ”

She unlocked the top drawer, grabbed the vial and shook it in front of Choobo’s face. “There’s always drugged dementia, if waiting’s too hard for you.”

“No! I’ve been humiliated enough!”

“So you’ll do as you’re told?” she demanded. “Have I lied to you?”

“No, no, you haven’t! You’ve been good to me.”

She tossed the vial back into the drawer and locked it. “I’m getting tired of your constant whining. Watch out or I’ll drug you just to save myself the bother, even if it loses me your excellent spying skills.”

He whimpered. “I promise.”

Her expression was as unforgiving and cold as she could make it. “And stick to it, this time.”

She found them in the ER’s waiting area. Hunter’s eyes followed her as she walked across the overpopulated room. Shane had his face buried in Hunter’s shoulder and was radiating tension, but that was to be expected, according to what Cam had said.

“I brought coffee,” she said.

Shane shifted. “Tori?”

“Hi.” She sat down on his other side. “One large, double-shot, no sugar.”

“Careful,” said Hunter quietly as Shane raised his head.

Shane’s eyes were screwed shut, and he didn’t even try to open them.

Tori stared at his hands as he took the cup from hers with unerring precision. “Are you seeing with your eyes shut?” she asked.

“Kinda. I can see people, not objects. At least the 360 degrees vision faded already.”

Hunter shifted in his seat, scowling. “Can they decide if they’re admitting or releasing her already? We should take you home.”

Tori frowned. “She wasn’t injured that badly,” she said. “Some bad bruising, but…”

“They’re disoriented, all five of them,” said Shane. “So the doctors are a bit worried.”

“Cam said there shouldn’t be any residual effects, that the magical link broke.”

“No residual effects doesn’t mean no recovery time,” said Hunter. He checked his watch. “Right, I’m getting us something to eat.”

Tori offered him her bag. “Turkey or tuna?”

Hunter practically snatched the offered bag. “You’re a goddess.”

“I’m trying.”

Shane turned his head slowly, as if scanning the room. “I’m picking up intent – there’s a doctor’s coming,” he said. He opened one eye, carefully, and then the other. “All right, still bright but pretty manageable.”

In seconds, a doctor was there. Tori guessed this doctor had already talked to Shane, because she didn’t bother with introductions.

“She’s fairly lucid, now,” she said. “You can come see her if you’re feeling better.”

Tori and Hunter both stood up with him, but Shane shook his head. “I can walk a couple of feet without collapsing. It’s all right.”

“Was he always that stubborn and I failed to notice?” complained Hunter once Shane and the doctor were gone.

“No. I think he got that from you.”

Hunter glared. She smiled cheekily.

Hunter fell back into the chair. “I can’t believe he took out a space ship.”

“A small one.” She sat down also. “But yeah. Pretty impressive.”

Pause.

“Some day.”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her forehead. “Puts things back in perspective, I guess.”

“The college thing?”

“What do you know about that?”

“Shane’s been trying to figure how that turned into an argument.”

She shrugged uncomfortably. “I can be an idiot sometimes, too?”

“I don’t think so,” he told her.

She gave him an odd look. “Huh? We’re fighting for our lives here and I’m pissed off because it’s messing with my college plans, looks a bit stupid to me.”

“Looks healthy to me,” he said. “I’m worried about things like food and my only family not dying and paying next month’s rent. You get to plan for a future, so good for you.”

She huffed. “Great. Now I feel even more ashamed.”

“Why, because you have enough life to share with the rest of us?” He shook his head. “Now that’s being stupid.”

She swallowed back her angry retort, and tried to think it over. “I was so angry, this morning,” she said. “I’ve been considering programs in sophomore year, you know? And now that I’m nearly there, I can’t. So it’s that, or feeling guilty about it. Guilt won’t slow me down in getting the job done.”

“Do you really think you can’t? There’s more to the Power than we’ve tapped, yet. Maybe you can – ”

“What kind of a life is this, Hunter?” she asked, exasperatedly.

Hunter was silent for a long moment. “You can talk to Adam,” he said finally, speaking so quietly she could barely hear him. “He said there were Rangers who moved on. Maybe you can…”

“No,” she said automatically, flatly.

He shrugged minutely. “Then you’ll just have to live with it.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s just that – ” She blinked, and then rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Damn.”

Hunter caught her wrist as she pulled tissues from her bag.

“I know this sounds weird,” he said quickly, intently, “And I can see you’re hurting, but – I mean it, Tori, you’re better off being able to hurt over this stuff. You don’t want to be someone who doesn’t care enough to fight, and you wouldn’t want to be someone who doesn’t really know what she’s fighting for. I get that this isn’t what you need to hear, okay? But it’s all I have to offer.” He released her wrist as suddenly as he’d grabbed it.

“Thanks,” she said quietly. It was an automatic response – like Hunter’s thin return smile – but somehow, the sharp-edged weight in her chest felt loosened a bit.

He shrugged a little, a shorthand for no problem. “Go home,” he told her.

“You think,” she told him, moving one seat to the right so that they were sitting next to each other. “Eat your sandwich, we’ll be here a while more.”