Cassie struggled to calm her breathing, muttering Eltaran curses under her breath. She should have known she'd curse herself by not getting out and exercising. She glanced at Ashley, who had fallen asleep about fifteen minutes ago, just before she'd ventured out to get information. She hadn't been seen, but she had seen a couple of people she didn't recognize and had run back.
"They have to be somewhere in the building," a voice growled. Cassie froze, hoping she hadn't been seen or followed. "I've checked everywhere. You have to put the computers back online, so we can access a layout of this place!"
"No way." The response was fuzzy, and sounded like it came across a communicator of some sort. "That would put communications up again, and I can't do that. That would bring the current team home way too fast."
"Then give me one of the students, one of the teachers, someone who would know this area. Will says the cameras are out here, too." Cassie gave a silent thanks to Droz for that bit of work; she'd seen him disabling one of the cameras before they'd captured him.
"The head mechanic is out for right now, and no one else is volunteering. Besides, I don't think we can trust them. The head master would rather die than let me get my hands on his wife."
Cassie nodded slowly. It had just become the first order of business to keep Ashley out of their hands. She twisted the communicator on her wrist and wished for contact of almost any kind, to anyone friendly. She half thought of morphing, but knew Ashley would want to do the same, and they really didn't know that much about what was going on with her and the baby. All they had to go on was Justin's tests and the experience from four years ago. There was no telling what effect morphing might have.
"...missing bodies, missing people, if we can't find her, then what?"
"Not finding her is not an option."
"We have a limited time here, Vincent. The team is due back in a couple of days."
There was a silence, and to Cassie, it sounded very ominous indeed. "All right." The voice over the communication equipment sounded furious. "Get everyone back here, and we'll figure out what to do next."
Vincent, Vincent.... The name sounded familiar. She turned around to look at Ashley, and met her eyes. "They're going to hurt Andros," she whispered.
"You don't know that," Cassie said, hoping she didn't hear anything more about it. "They might not." She didn't know if Ashley had heard that she was the target of this hunt. Vincent, why was that name so familiar? and bodies? Did that mean someone was dead?
"What did they say?"
"Droz is out for the count. I don't think we're the only ones that managed to get out, and they know the team is coming back in a couple of days." She sighed. "I think we're safe here."
"But the others...."
Cassie shook her head. "They are fine. There are five rangers and about ten ex-Rangers in here, not to mention Karone." She shook her head. "They'll be fine." Whose bodies? Please, not TJ....
"You don't know that."
Cassie turned to look at her friend. "No, I don't, but I have to believe." She sighed. "I know, I can say that really easy, I don't have a husband or even a boyfriend." The one I want is taken, she thought. "But Ash, we've fought with these guys, heard legends... They were Power Rangers. They can't be too wimpy."
"There are over one hundred Cadets, too," Ashley whispered. Cassie nodded.
"I know. And the timing was perfect. Almost all of them are in the Commissary, I bet you, with most of the teachers and some of the other staff. If any of them were found, they probably got taken there, too." She sighed. "At least, that's what I'd do, and that's what Astronema and Divatox tried to do, consolidate all the prisoners in one place." She laughed. "That would be a mistake. I can just see the teachers getting together and breaking out...." She chuckled a little more. "Well, I guess I can count on seeing people in medical once this is done."
"Just please, not Andros," Ashley whispered, and Cassie reached out to hug her.
"I agree," she said softly as her friend sobbed desperately. "I agree." It didn't take long before Ashley fell asleep again, but Cassie didn't move this time, needing the contact as much as Ashley seemed to.
She started awake at a noise in the room, surprised to find she'd dozed, and searched it quickly, then her eyes were drawn to a person in the vent. "Hi. Um. Dr. Chan. Is that Ashley?"
"Yes. Who are you."
"Um. The girl who tried to break her roommate's leg. Hang on a second...." The vent covering came off, then the blonde girl smiled at them. "Hi. Is she okay?"
Cassie sighed in relief; she hadn't really been sure. "Yes. They said something about bodies. Do you know what they were talking about?"
"They shot Carlos, and assumed he was dead," she said, and Cassie nodded slowly, something in her mind going crazy. "He's fine...." The girl drifted off, then shook her head. "He's back with Ast... Karone in our base of operations," her mouth quirked, looking for all the world like one of Adam's half smiles, "but it's getting crowded, and people keep going by. Have there been many people going by here?"
"Not really," she said, and shifted. Ashley opened her eyes.
"Is it safe yet?"
"No," Cassie told her gently. The girl in the vent took a deep breath.
"Andros is okay," she said softly. "I talked to him about an hour ago. He's been captured and hurt, but he's okay." She took something off her wrist and tossed it down. "You keep this. It's giving me goose pimples, and I just can't...." She shook her head. "Zhane is okay, too, they're together," she added, almost as an afterthought.
Cassie moved to pick up what the cadet had tossed down, and wordlessly handed it to Ashley. "His battlizer?" Ashley asked.
"He gave it to me, I think he wanted it away from whoever did it." She seemed to think. "Can you hold out here a while? I need to talk to Carlos and Karone, and see what they want to do. Um. Are the cameras out down here, too?"
"Yes. Some of them."
"Okay. We know they're out around medical too. I'll be right back." She backed up, replacing the cover, and they listened to her movements until they couldn't hear her anymore.
"Who was that?" Ashley asked, looking up from the battlizer she'd strapped onto her wrist.
"I don't know her name. Remember the cadet I told you about, who was trying to learn a move and nearly broke her friend's leg?"
"Yes, I remember. And Jason said something about it when he was talking to Andros the other night," Ashley said.
"That was her. There's something between her and Carlos - she stared at him the day he came in after he and TJ had that fight. He knocked them both over, and she just stared at him. Not like she was seeing a ghost, but..." She shrugged and grinned. "Probably just a crush or something."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Ashley grinned. "He's a good looking man. I thought he was cute as a teenager, but now...." She chuckled, then sobered and shook her head. "And something happened while he was gone."
"I know," Cassie said, and they sat in silence again, huddled together, waiting.
They hadn't been there long when the vent was removed again, and the girl jumped down. Behind her came... Astronema? Cassie got to her feet and pulled the cadet away from her.
"You're right," the woman said. "It is bigger here." She turned around and smiled. "Hi, Cassie.... Oh, sorry." She blushed. "I never did tell you, did I." She sounded a little ashamed. "I've been... perfecting the use of this, mostly to see if it will put my nightmares to rest. It's more instinctive than I like, and I wanted more control. It actually seems to be working, too. It's hard, but that's what I was doing when everything went off, including the Simudeck. I haven't had a chance to get back to my room."
Cassie let the girl go and went to help Astronema - Karone - with Carlos. "Good idea," she smiled. Carlos looked pale and tired, and sank to the ground as soon as he could. "Why aren't you healing?" she asked, kneeling next to him and taking his wrist to check his pulse. It was a little higher than it should have been.
He shook his head. "I am. And faster than before." He turned to look at Ashley and smiled. It looked forced. "Hey, Ash. How are you?"
"I'm fine," she said. Cassie smiled at her, then turned back to Carlos.
"It shouldn't be taking this long." He pulled his arm from her grip.
"He was hurt pretty bad," the cadet said softly. "Bad enough that they thought he was dead."
Karone sighed. "Here, Cassie." She handed over an Astro-morpher with distaste, and Cassie glanced at Carlos. "He won't wear it."
Ashley got to her feet. "Why not?"
"We don't have time for this," Carlos said softly. "We have to get rid of these people." He straightened with a gasp, but the pain did not hide his haunted eyes.
"What do we do?" the cadet asked, a little too quickly for Cassie. "We know they think Carlos is dead, but they also know his body is missing. They can't find any of us, obviously, so what are some possibilities? How do we use this?"
"What other assets to we have?" Cassie asked, forcing her mind away from TJ.
"I have a datapad with a lot of information for classes and a layout of the academy," the girl offered with a slight blush.
"We have two inactive but working Power Rangers and a former princess of evil, who actually has some control over her powers," Karone grinned, then scowled. "My morpher is in my quarters."
"Three Rangers," Ashley protested.
"Two." Cassie fixed her friend with a glare. "You are not morphing. I have no idea what that would do to you in your situation. So don't even try to think about it." Ashley sighed. "Okay. Anything else?"
"I've marked up the vents I've been in," the cadet offered. "I can find my way around pretty well in there."
"There's a sentient machine down here," Carlos said suddenly. "I heard them talking about it." He paused. "No. It's gone right now, to report home." He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it.
Cassie grinned at Karone. "What's the chances of being able to get a blaster?"
The other woman smiled slyly. "With or without an injury?"
"With," the cadet said suddenly, "but not around here. We can go somewhere else, and make them think we're somewhere we're not." They all looked at her in surprise, and she blushed. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "I just thought...."
"No, you're right," Carlos said, and the light that filled the girl's eyes made Cassie want to have a serious talk with her. Something was up... and that expression was a very familiar one to her. This girl knew Carlos somehow, and his opinion meant a lot to her. "So, who goes?"
"I'll go, and she'll..." Karone stopped and regarded the girl with frustration. "What's your name?"
The cadet sighed. "My brother called me Vie," she said softly. Cassie glanced at Carlos, but there was no recognition in his eyes. Maybe it was just a crush, she thought.
Karone nodded. "Vie here will lead me over to where there are no cameras, and we'll do an ambush."
"You can't use her as bait," Carlos protested suddenly.
"Why not?" the girl asked defensively, the color in her face deepening a little. "You can't run, Ashley can't run, and someone experienced has to watch over you two. Karone," she swallowed, "can get the gun away from him, especially if she is anything like Andros."
"Anything like Andros?" Karone asked. Cassie smirked.
"He didn't hand me that morpher. It floated.... Besides, you're trained more than I am in how to injure someone." She looked a little nervous and a lot scared. Cassie knew exactly how she felt.
"All right," Cassie said, glaring at Carlos when he opened his mouth. He closed it again, looking impossibly stubborn. "You'd better come back," she said softly to Karone as Vie started back into the vent. "I don't want to have to tell your brother and your husband how you died."
Karone hugged her. "Don't worry. You won't have to." She crawled up after Vie, waving one final time, then there was silence.
"What is wrong, Carlos," Ashley asked, and Cassie turned to look at him. He was pale and huddling in the corner, eyes closed.
"Don't ask," he whispered. "Just don't ask."
Cassie reached over, grabbed his chin, and forced his head up. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she said evenly, and watched as his eyes took on a panicked look. "Why did you come back if you weren't planning on talking to anyone?"
"I wasn't planning on coming back at all," he said softly. "Jharf gave me the job and just sent me. If I'd known...." He backed from her grip. "What do you want a blaster for?"
Cassie sighed and allowed herself to be distracted; she needed to give him room. She'd attacked him, and he'd gone on the defensive. She would have done the same thing, in his place. "To give us some offensive capabilities, and some defensive. They want Ashley."
Ashley looked startled. "Why?"
"They were after Andros," Carlos said. "I don't know who this is, but he wanted Andros, and he's concentrated everything on getting Ashley, now. At least, that was the last report we heard."
"Vincent, one of them said. And that name is so familiar, it's driving me nuts!" Cassie sighed and sank down against the wall, trying to figure out why.
A dull rumbling sounded throughout the room, and Ashley blushed. "Oops. Sorry." She pressed her hands to her stomach. Carlos chuckled softly.
Cassie got into her bag and grabbed one of the less than tasty rations and handed it over to Ashley, who made a face. "It's all we grabbed, it's all we had time for, but it's necessary; Justin made sure it was high in the nutrients you need. Just eat it, okay?"
She took it, reluctantly, and ate it with clear distaste. "I really don't like these," she muttered.
Cassie smiled half-heartedly at her, and turned her attention to Carlos. He leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, and she hoped he would recover fully from this whole thing. His health seemed to fail more and more as she watched him. The last time she'd seen him look even remotely this bad was after the accident.... She suddenly remembered the "stolen" files, and wondered if Zhane had explained to him that they had been downloaded; somehow, she didn't think he'd had the time. And from that, her thoughts went to the messages they'd saved for him.
"Carlos," Cassie said, trying for a softer approach. He lifted his eyes from the floor and looked at her, and she felt cheered. "Did you read those messages? Bulk said you downloaded them."
His eyes dodged down again. "Some of them, yes." He took a deep breath, almost as if he were going to speak again, but he remained silent.
"Did you call..." She couldn't remember the girl's name to save her life right now. She knew she would, sometime in the middle of the night, and sighed in frustration. "There were a lot from one girl, did you call her?"
He shook his head, and didn't even seem to notice that she'd left the girl's name out. "No. She has a life without me... it's better I don't. I'm just going to leave again when this is over." He said it so softly, but the pain he felt came out in his voice anyway, and she sighed again. Maybe they could change that.
Go on to Next Chapter | "I Wonder What it's Like...."