Authors Note: Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I appreciate it ALOT! If you are reading this series and you haven't sent me anything, PLEASE do because I LOVE getting feedback! Thanks! : )

Thypan turned to her and chuckled, "Young, naive, Karone. You already know what is going to happen. You may not want to admit it. But you know."

Karone shook her head, "No, we will beat Dark Specter. The Power Rangers will help us."

Thypan put his hand on her shoulder, "The Power Rangers cannot help us now. The attacks are to heavy, even for their artillery. We must consider surrendering."

Karone shook her head angrily, "No. We won't."

Thypan sighed, "Karone...we don't have a choice. The attacks are too heavy now. Rytan was never a fighting planet. We were always peaceful. Look around," he commanded, "Look around and tell me confidently that we're ready to fight a war. And win it."

She looked around, still crossing her arms, "Well we're a little .... unorganized... but.." she looked over at him and he was giving her a stern look, "Okay, you're right. This place is a disaster area. There's no way we're ready for war. But we are not surrendering."

Thypan nodded his head, "If we don't surrender, then we will never stop fighting."

Karone shot him a confused look, "But I thought you just said Rytan wasn't a fighting planet."

"Keyword, was." Thypan said and walked off to his office.

Karone sighed heavily and tucked her hair behind her ears. She slumped down in her Commander's chair and sunk really low.

She closed her eyes and thoughts raced through her head. What would Dark Specter's next move be? Would he eventually back off? Was this just a random attack? Or was it planned? Why did Thypan want to surrender? What would happen if she couldn't lead the Rytan's to victory? Would they blame her?

But her thoughts were interrupted by two warm hands covering her eyes.

"What the..??!!" Karone said abruptly

"Guess who." The voice responded.

She knew that voice. "Zhane!" she yelled and bolted up out of the chair.

She turned around and saw him standing there. Her face immediately formed an overjoyed smile and she ran over and hugged him tightly.

"What are you doing here? What about Andros?" Karone asked, still hugging him.

"Well why don't you ask him yourself?" Zhane said turning her around to see the others standing there.

"Oh my god, what are you guys doing here?" Karone asked running over and hugging everyone.

"Well we were in the galaxy and just decided to stop by...." Cassie laughed and gave her a big hug.

She hugged Andros tightly, then let go and he looked around.

"What's going on here? We saw the fighters on the north side. So we came in on the south side.....is Rytan under heavy attack?" Andros asked concerned.

Karone sighed and looked at the others, "Yeah, the attacks started yesterday. And they haven't let up since. There are 300 more fighters every 5 hours."

"300??!! Ever 5 hours??!! What is Dark Specter up to?" Ashley asked.

Andros and Zhane exchanged glances.

"Evacuate Rytan." Andros said firmly.

"Are you insane?" Karone asked him incredulously.

"If you want the Rytan's to have any chance of living, you'll evacuate Rytan. Now." Andros declared.

"Why? Dark Specter will eventually stop. He can't keep this up forever." Karone defended.

"But you guys can't keep this up forever either, Karone." Zhane said glancing around the un-organized room.

"KO-35 was attacked the very same way Rytan is now. You have to evacuate. Immediately." Andros told her looking dead serious.

Karone stared at him for a second then nodded her head, "Ok."

"Now, who's in charge around here? You'll need to tell them." Andros suggested, looking around.

Karone ignored his question and walked over to a soldier.

"Give the orders for evacuation now." Karone commanded and the soldier gave her and 'are you insane?' look.

"Are you sure commander? Maybe we should think--" the soldier started.

Karone interrupted him, "Don't think, just pick up the phone, and make it happen!" Karone yelled at him and the soldier got to work.

Karone ran over and picked up a walkie talkie, and started talking into it, while she read over the current radar reports "Attention all squadrons This is Commander Lanrydan, our mission objective is no longer defending Rytan. We are evacuating. Repeat, We are evacuating Rytan. Squadron A and C stay were you are and keep fighting. All other's move to the South Sector and prepare to take as many civilians as you can. Do not hesitate people we have to move fast." she took her hand off the button and voices began responding.

"Yes ma'am Commander." all the voices responded and the fighters began snapping into action.

Karone ran over to the other end of the room grabbing a map and spreading it on a table. She pressed the button again and gave out more commands.

"Ground Patrol, this is Commander Lanrydan do you copy?" Karone asked in to the walkie talkie.

A few minutes passed then a fuzzy answer came on, "This is Ground Patrol we copy."

"Ground Patrol we're sending you the evacuation orders. Evacuate the Southern sector first. Then the northern. It's mostly soldiers on the northern so they can hold off any ground attacks by Dark Specter. Take all civilians to Yobi. Repeat all civilians go to Planet Yobi in the Nebula Galaxy. Do you copy?" Karone commanded.

"Yes Commander. We will begin evacuation to Yobi." the voice responded.

Karone sighed and then finally looked at the others how looked at her in shock.

"You're in charge here now?" Carlos asked unbelievingly.

"I've been in charge for 5 years." Karone corrected, "I'll take you guys to Thypan."

They followed her to two enormous doors. Karone inserted her keycard and punched in a whole bunch of numbers, slowly the door began to open.

As soon as it fully opened they walked in and saw Vixrothia aiming her sword at Thypan, ready to fire.

"No!" Karone yelled and ran after Vixrothia.

But she was too late, with a flick of her sword, a bright yellow beam of light hit Thypan and surrounded him in a fire.

Karone finally got to Vixrothia and knocked her to the ground, "I'll kill you for what you've done!"

The others ran to her to help her but the flames got in their way.

Vixrothia and Karone struggled for a few minutes then Vixrothia pinned her to the ground and whispered, "The end is near." Then she completely vanished.

Karone stood up and looked around. She saw nothing but flames and the others screaming for her to come to them. No sign of Thypan anywhere. But just as she was about to run over to the others, she saw an unmoving figure near the flames in the corner. She put a step out to run over to it but something stopped her.

*No Karone.* a voice in her mind said.

"What? What was that?" Karone asked desperately, smoke almost consuming her.

*You have to let go Karone.* the weak voice said in her mind, *Let go...*

Karone felt like falling down and crying, but the smoke was stinging her lungs every second and she knew the voice in her head was right.

She covered her mouth with the sleeve of her uniform and turned around to run towards the others. But there was a slight problem. A line of fire had made a barricade around her, so there was no way she could get to them.

There was no way to go but through the fire. She started running as fast as she could towards the others, trying to forget about the searing pain in her lungs and the heated blaze that surrounded her. As she reached the fire she jumped as high as she could, but the fire still caught on her legs.

After that, all was dark...............

_________________________________________________________

Karone felt cold, and stiff as she came to. She opened her eyes a little but the light hurt it.

She squinted to see who was sitting by her, and saw Zhane fast asleep in a chair.

She smiled a little as her eyes adjusted to the light better. She could now fully see all her injuries.

Her legs were a little burned, but nothing serious. Her head hurt, so she assumed she had a concussion. She tried getting up, but her legs rubbed against the cloth of the medical bay bed and she moaned in pain.

Zhane opened his eyes slightly and saw Karone trying to sit up.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, there girl. Not so fast. You need to lay down." Zhane said softly helping her lay back down.

Karone moaned some more, "I hate laying down."

Zhane smiled a little.

Suddenly Karone started coughing uncontrollably.

Zhane quickly made her sit back up and rubbed her back.

"You inhaled a lot of smoke. It's gonna take some time for the coughing to subside." Zhane told her and she quit coughing and sat up.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked rubbing her head.

"2 years." Zhane said sympathetically.

Karone shot him an annoyed look and he smiled, "Ok, maybe it's more around like 2 hours."

She shook her head and gave him a small smile. "Is everyone else okay?"

Zhane shook his head 'yes', "Yeah, we're all okay."

Karone started to lay back down then remember, "Rytan!" she yelled and bolted back up.

"I've got to help them! It's my job!" she said in a rush and tried to get up, but Zhane stopped her.

She struggled with him, but she was too weak.

"Slow down! Slow down! It's okay! Everyone got to Yobi just fine. Except for a few casualties, everyone is there." Zhane said trying to calm her down.

"Thypan...." she whispered sadly, tears forming in her eyes.

Zhane hugged her, and she said, "He told me to get out of there."

Zhane pulled away and looked at her confused, "Who?"

"Thypan." Karone said.

"Karone....Thypan......he's dead." Zhane said sadly, not knowing how she would react.

"I know." She admitted sadly.

"They how could he tell you to get out of there?" Zhane asked.

"He didn't say it verbally, he said it..... in my mind." Karone tried to explain, but he just gave her a weird look.

"You mean, telepathy?" Zhane asked.

"No... not exactly it was more...." Karone's voice trailed trying to find the right word, but couldn't quite place it, "Oh never mind. It doesn't really matter. I'll miss him, but he'll never really be gone."

"Wow, I thought we were kinda gonna have a moment there for a second." Zhane joked and smiled.

Karone smiled and laughed a little, "Oh, you mean where I cry my eyes out for my fallen friend and you, the hero, comfort me and say it will be okay?"

Zhane laughed, "That would've been nice."

"I had something a little different in mind." Karone said mischievously, inching closer to him.

"Oh yeah?" Zhane commented slyly as he moved his face closer to hers.

"Mmmm.. Hmmm." she said and then kissed him softly on the lips.

Suddenly, they heard a knocking on the door.

The drew back, and sighed.

"Why does this always happen?" Zhane asked annoyed.

"And always to us. What a coincidence." Karone said and rolled her eyes.

Zhane laughed and they both sat up straight and face the door. It was Andros.

"Gee...what a surprise." Karone commented and Zhane laughed again.

"C'mon can't a big brother see his sister after she was brutally attacked?" Andros joked.

"Brutally attacked? Wow. I didn't know that," Karone said and shot Zhane a stern look, "I should be getting some flowers soon."

Zhane shot up and walked towards the door, "That reminds me I have something to do."

Andros and Karone laughed as Zhane ran out of the room in search of flowers.

Andros sat down in the chair beside her and Karone put her legs over the side of the bed so they were dangling.

"How are you feeling?" Andros asked concerned.

"Besides the searing pain on my legs and in my lungs," she said then put on a smile, "I'm great!"

"How's your head?" he asked looking at the bandage on her forehead.

"It hurts." She laughed.

He smiled then turned somber, "I'm sorry."

She looked at him confused, "For what?"

"For not being a good big brother to you for the past few weeks." Andros said.

"What??!!" Karone shouted, "Not a good brother??!! Andros are you insane?? Your are the big brother I have always wanted! You're nice, caring, and you look out for me. Even when it annoys me to death you still look out for me. No one has ever done that to me before. I've never had a real family. I was overjoyed when I found out that I had a brother. Do you know how excited I was? I could barely contain myself! I couldn't comprehend the fact that I had a big brother!"

Andros started to say something but Karone kept on lecturing him, "Did you feel that Zhane was going to replace you or something?" she asked but didn't allow him to answer, because she could read his face, "You did! Oh Andros no one and I mean no one could ever take your place in my heart! I'm sorry I didn't tell you all of this before, I just..... It was kind of awkward when I first came here. Since I just met you and all."

Andros smiled, "I felt the same way."

"Now. Your lecture is finished." Karone added with a smile.

"It made me feel a lot better. I know it was selfish of me to make Zhane say those things. They must've hurt you a lot. And I never wanted to hurt you." Andros said softly, "I never want anything to hurt you."

Karone, speechless, gave him a huge hug, "I'm so glad I have a big brother."

"Well, having a little sister isn't that bad." Andros replied playfully.

"Hey!" she said and mock hit him.

Suddenly, Andros turned serious again, "Karone, what did Vixrothia say to you today?"

Karone rolled her eyes, "She said, 'The End is Near'. What ever that was supposed to mean."

Andros sat back in the chair and pondered it for a minute.

"Do you think it was some sort of hint about another big attack?" Karone suggested.

"We got a transmission this morning from Dark Specter's ship saying the same thing. I think something big is planned. It's got me kinda worried." Andros confided.

"Do the others know?" Karone asked.

"No. I don't want anyone to worry about anything until I get the latest positioning reports back from DECA." Andros said leaning back in the chair.

"You seem really upset. Do you think this is something really big?" she asked, taking the bandage off her forehead.

Andros shrugged his shoulders, "I wish I knew. But I have this nagging feeling that something bad is happening that we don't know about. And it could blow up right in our faces."

"We should tell the others. They could help us. Sometimes it's good to be a little worried, Andros. It keeps you alert." She suggested.

"Alright, let's go. Everyone is probably eating lunch now." Andros said, "That is, if you feel like walking."

"Yeah, I can walk. But if my leg touches something, don't be alarmed if I scream." She joked and they walked towards the lunch table.

"Guys, we have something we need to talk to you about. Now, it's nothing major, at least, it might not be. But we're gonna tell you anyways, just in case." Andros said and took a deep breath.

Just as Andros opened his mouth to talk to them, DECA's voice said "Universal Evil Forces Positioning Reports are in."

Andros and Karone exchange glances, then look at everyone else.