Karone walked towards Andros, "Zhane... that name sounds familiar..."

Andros put an arm around her shoulder, "He was my best friend... when we where little, remember?"

Karone nodded her head slowly, "Yeah... I think I remember..."

"What about Zhane? Is he okay? Are the rebels in trouble?" asked TJ.

Ashley shook her head sadly, "No... He's not."

Cassie walked over to her, "What happened?"

"Vixrothia kidnapped him and is holding him hostage on the Dark Fortress." Andros declared sadly, looking at the floor.

"You mean, Vixrothia is already here?" Carlos asked shocked.

Ashley nodded her head, "Yeah, we just received the transmission."

Karone looked at everyone. They were all sad and shocked about the news.

"What does she want?" asked Karone, not even wanting to know the answer.

"She wants us to surrender. Basically she wants us to give up this battle before it starts." Andros said, still looking at the floor.

Karone walked to the center of the bridge, "Look guys. We can't give up. We've got to show her that nobody defeats the Power Rangers."

TJ looks over at her, then to everyone else, "She's right. We can't let some girl with a weird name barge into our galaxy, threaten us, and kidnap our friend. I mean, when Astronema first attacked us we didn't give up."

Carlos sat up; "Yeah, let's show Vixrothia this universe belongs to the side of good."

"All right," Ashley said, concentrating; "Now we need to figure out a plan on how we can get Zhane back."

They all walked to the center of the room and started planning a rescue mission for Zhane.

Karone slowly stepped away from the group without anyone noticing, and left the bridge.

"Quantrons! Get in here!" Vixrothia screeched.

6 quantrons come running into the room, nearly knocking everything in their way down.

"Bring the prisoner to me!" she commanded.

The quantrons bowed, then left the room.

A few moments later the brought Zhane into the room. He was no longer gagged, but his hands where still bound by electronic hand cuffs.

Vixrothia smirked and walked towards him, "Sleep well?"

"Just fine." Zhane told her sternly and looked straight ahead, trying to avoid her eerie and cruel gaze.

Vixrothia laughed to herself, "Poor pathetic Ranger. Are you still hoping your friends are going to rescue you?"

"I'm not hoping. Because I know they're going to rescue me." Zhane declared angrily, still looking straight ahead.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked putting her hand on her hip, "I think you under estimate me Silver Ranger."

Zhane started to laugh, "You might as well just give up now. Good always defeats evil. Where have you been for the last 3 centuries?" Vixrothia scoffed, "Do you think your precious evil girl-friend is going to help you? I have news for you pal, she was just using you."

Zhane rolls his eyes, "Please, like I would ever fall for that."

Vixrothia walks away from him; "It's true. She had orders from Dark Specter to lure you away from the other rangers. However, her plan didn't quite work out, because of the whole Sentaur B ordeal. If you would've stayed with the rangers longer, she would've had you on the side of evil."

She looked over at him, some how he knew she was telling him the truth, she could see it in his eyes, "Oh... did I depress you Silver Ranger?" she laughed, "Opps. Sorry."

Zhane shook his head; "You can't beat me that easily Vixrothia. You see all I need are my friends. As long as I have them, I'll be just fine."

"Ugh, Quantrons! Take this disgusting ranger back to his cell!" she commanded in disgust, "Friends... Ha! Who needs friends when you've got power?"

The quantrons took Zhane by the shoulders and forced him back to his cell.

Karone sat down on her bed, trying to think back to when she was a little kid. Suddenly, her mind flashed back to when she was a little kid...

It was a sunny day on KO-35. She, Andros, Zhane where playing the park under an oak tree.

" Watch out Andros! He's behind you!" Karone warned and giggled.

"He'll never catch me! He's to slow!" laughed Andros as he kept running away from Zhane.

"Slow? Yeah right! I'll be you a telekinesis ball that I'm faster than you!" Zhane yelled as he ran after Andros.

The two continued to run around and Karone just stood there in her purple jump suit laughing at them.

Then, Andros and Karone's mother called, "Andros! Come inside for a minute I need to speak with you!"

Andros stopped running, "Awww man. I'll be right back guys!" he said then ran towards the picnic table his mom was sitting at.

Zhane stopped, and caught his breath, and then he looked over and noticed Karone standing in the sun looking at a bunny that was near a bush.

A mischievous smile came onto his face and he started slowly walking towards her, "Better run Karone before I catch you!" he yelled then ran towards her.

Her head jerked over and looked at them then she bolted up and started running away from him.

"Nooo!" she yelled and laughed.

They ran to the other end of the park, not knowing that a ledge that dropped 30 feet was nearby.

"Girls can't run and you're proving it!" Zhane laughed, closing in on her.

"Oh yeah? Then how come you haven't caught me yet?" she yelled back at him giggling.

Suddenly her foot slipped and she fell over the ledge, luckily her hand grabbed a hold on a rock.

"Help!" Karone screamed frightened.

Zhane stopped running and looked over to the ledge where he saw Karone's hand gripping on a rock holding on.

"Karone! Hang on!" Zhane yelled to her and ran as fast as he could towards her.

Her fingers slowly started slipping off of the rock.

"Zhane!" she screamed her hand almost completely off of the rock.

Suddenly, she felt a hand grab onto hers.

"Give me your other hand!" he yelled trying to get a grip on her right hand.

She tried to lift her other hand put started to fall so she grabbed the side of the ledge again.

"I'm not gonna let you fall Karone! Trust me!" he yelled down to her.

She lifted up her hand and he caught it just before the dirt she was leaning on gave way.

He slowly lifted her up and over the ledge, so she was safe again.

He dragged her away from the cliff and laid her down.

She sat up and they were both trying to catch their breath.

"Are you okay?" he asked concerned, still trying to catch his breath.

She took her hand and brushed her hair away from her face, "Yeah I'll be alright."

He looked over at her. Her face was smudged with mud, and the sunlight was catching her blonde hair. He smiled then looked over and saw Andros and his mom running over towards them from the other side of the park.

When he turned his head she saw he had a cut on the side of his face, "Oh no! You're hurt!"

He looked back over at her, then straightened up, "Oh it's...nothing." he said, even though it hurt him like crazy.

She took her right hand and tilted his head to the sunlight; "It's bleeding! It is not nothing!"

He rolled his eyes, but liked the attention she was giving him. Before he could say anything she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek where the cut was.

When she sat back down he straightened up and they both looked away from each other.

A few moments passed and then Andros and her mom ran up to them.

"Karone? Are you okay? Karone?" asked Andros shaking her.

She just looked at Zhane.

"Karone?"

"Karone?" a voice asked again.

"Earth to Karone!" the voice repeated.

Karone shook her head and the flashback was gone.

She looked up and saw Carlos standing by her.

"We were wondering where you were. We've got a plan." Carlos said, then added, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just... needed some time to myself for a minute." She covered then sat up.

"Your minute has lasted an hour! Come one, everyone's waiting for you." He said.

"Oh, ok. Let's go!" she said quickly and they walked out of the room.

Zhane leaned back on his cell wall sitting down on the cold floor.

*I should've known Astronema was using me. * He thought sadly, *The whole thing didn't make sense. Why can't I just get a girl that is nice, has only one or two hair colors, and actually likes me? *

He sighed heavily then remembers, "Well, I did have a girl that was like that. Except I was 5 years old." He whispered to himself.

He sighed again, but this time it was a happy sigh as he remembered his first crush.

"Karone." He whispered and smiled to himself.

He remembered when they were kids how he always picked on her, to hide how he really felt.

*I had a crush on her for so long, * he thought to himself and laughed, *Andros even threatened me once. *

His mind flashed back to the little conversation he and Andros had when they were 5.

Andros slammed the door to his room.

"What was that about Zhane?" Andros asked angrily.

Zhane shrugged his shoulders, "Huh? What was what?"

"You know exactly what! You kissed my sister!" Andros accused angrily.

"I did not! She kissed me!" he defended.

"Well... you didn't exactly hate it!" he stuttered.

Zhane smiled and leaned against the wall, "No I didn't."

Andros put up his fists, "Why I oughta...."

"Andros what's the big deal? I mean, we're 5 years old! I don't even know how to add and subtract yet!" Zhane said and backed away from him.

"If you ever even think about kissing her again I swear I will make you regret it!" Andros threatened.

"Look man, we're best friends. I wouldn't do anything to ruin that." He said calmly.

Andros put down his fists and shrugged, "I know it's just... she's my sister and I don't want anything bad to happen to her."

Zhane walked over to his best friend and put his hand on his shoulder, "Neither do I bud."

Andros smiled then walked over to his closet; "You wanna play with the telekinesis ball?"

Zhane put a big smile on his face, "Sure!" he said then walked over to the window and looked outside.

The sun was shining bright and he saw his mom outside with Andros' mom picking flowers. Then, Karone walked out from behind a tree looking for flowers.

The sun shined off her purple sundress she had changed into. She looked up at him through the window and smiled sweetly at him, waving her hand.

He waved back.

The flashback ended and Zhane's mind shifted back to the present time.

*And now Karone is off, God knows where, not knowing where her family is... and where I am...* he thought sadly.

Karone and Carlos walked onto the bridge and Andros looked up, "Where have you been? Are you alright?" he asked frantically.

"Yeah I'm fine. I remember Zhane now." Karone explained.

"Really?" Andros asked.

"Yeah, not all about him. Just the time that I fell over the ledge in the park." Karone said.

"Ok, well we'll talk about that later. I don't know if Carlos filled you in or not, but we've got a plan on how we can rescue Zhane." Andros said and then directed everyone's attention to a map hanging on the wall, "Here is the planet Samuri. She'll most likely want to us to meet her in the southwestern sector, since just about every other sector is heavily guarded. Here's the plan, 5 of us will meet her, since that's all she's expecting. She doesn't know that we have 7 rangers. She thinks we only have 6 including Zhane. That is one thing to our advantage."

"But... what am I going to do?" asked Karone.

Andros looked at everyone else; "The other person will sneak onto the Dark Fortress and rescue Zhane. But we haven't decided who that will be."

Karone looked at him weird, "But... I'm the Purple Ranger. She'll notice if any of you are gone. It has to be me."

"No." Andros said sternly, "It's too risky. I'll go."

Karone rolls her eyes, "Look Andros. This is no time for you to play the role model big brother okay? Face it, she's going to notice if the leader is missing. She doesn't even know there is a Purple Ranger. I will go onto the Dark Fortress and get Zhane. You guys stall her."

Ashley put a hand on Andros' shoulder, "Andros, she's right. This is the best way if we want to get Zhane out of there."

Andros sighed, "Alright. Karone will go onto the Dark Fortress and get Zhane while we meet her on the surface."

Everyone nodded 'yes'.

DECA interrupted their conversation; "We have reached Samuri."

Everyone exchanged nervous glances.

"DECA," Andros commanded, "Land in the center of the southwestern sector."

TJ handed Karone a backpack, "Here. This has a spare Astro Blaster, a cutting laser, and small Astro-Bomb in it just incase you get into trouble. You'll need the Cutting laser to get Zhane out of his cell. You won't be able to morph, since the Dark Fortress's computer will notice the high energy level." He explained.

She nodded her head in understandingly, "Okay, anything else?"

Andros pulled her into a hug, "Yeah, be careful."

She hugged him back, "I will."

They let go and the five of them lined up and looked at Karone.

"Good luck. We know you can do it." Cassie said encouragingly.

Karone smiled and nodded her head.

"Alright guys, Let's Rocket!" Andros said and they all morphed into their ranger forms.

With a flash of teleportation light, they disappeared, leaving Karone waiting for the Dark Fortress to arrive.

A few minutes passed and then DECA's monotone voice was heard "The Dark Fortress has landed in the southwestern sector. It is clear to board now."

Karone took a deep breath, and hit the teleportation button on her Astro-Morpher.