"You sing it, Mariah," Shannon Kassandra Kaze murmured as she picked up the cordless phone and dialed out the phone number she had just jotted down onto a piece of paper. "Oh, Lady Of The Sun, please say this is the right phone number," she prayed to herself, listening to the dial tone over the speaker.

Finally on the fourth ring someone picked it up and answered, "Hello?"

Nervously, she replied, "Hello? Is this the Oliver residence?"

"Yeah. This is the Oliver residence," Shannon's heart skipped a beat as she recognized the guy's voice on the other side of the phone, "Are you looking for someone in particular?"

"Ummm, yes," Shannon paused, looking for the right words, "I'm looking for Tommy Oliver? Is this him?"

"Yeah, this is him," Shannon shrieked loudly, as her prayers were answered, "May I ask who is this?"

"You don't remember me," she frowned slightly, "You don't remember that one girl who loved you more than anything?"

"Sweetcheeks!?!?" Tommy Oliver, Shannon's long time lover, cried in surprise over the receiver, "How did you get my phone number? You don't even know where I live in Angel Grove!"

"Olive Oil, you know I can get whatever I want if I put my mind to it," Shannon chuckled over the speaker, the glee in her voice evident, "I knew you lived in Angel Grove, so I called information and got your phone number!"

"Why didn't you bother to do it before?" Tommy's voice questioned her; the two had been separated for a heart-wrenching three years.

"I, I, I've been really busy the past few years," Shannon stuttered over the phone, thinking back on all the shit she had gone through in the last three years.

"With what?" Tommy inquired, his voice curious as always.

There was a period of silence over the phone, as Shannon let her eyes fill with stinging tears. "A lot of stuff, Tommy," her voice cracked, as she was about to cry, "My parents died about eight months after you left, Oliver. I've been really busy trying to go to school, work, and trying to take care of Cam and myself."

"Oh, Sweetcheeks, I'm sorry," Tommy apologized sadly, the sorrow in his voice heartfelt.

"No. It's okay," Shannon responded, brushing the few tears that escaped from her eyes away with her hand, "Since my parents didn't have a will made out, everything that they owned went to me. The house, money, the car, everything became mine. I really needed you then, ya know that, Olive Oil? I still need you right now."

"I need you too."

"I've sold the house here in Summer Springs and I'm moving to Angel Grove within the next month with Cam to a new house. I'm working right now with a Martial Arts demonstration team that tours around in the Los Angeles area. We're due to demonstrate in Angel Grove sometime in August."

"Really?" Shannon could just imagine the proud look on her lover's face as he spoke, "Very cool."

"So what have you been up to?"

"Same old. I've made some really good friends. Some of them went on to better things."

"Really?"

"Unuh. My friends, Jason, Trini, and Zack went off to the Geneva Peace Conference."

"Wow," Shannon paused for a moment, "Tommy?"

"Yeah, Shannon?" Tommy questioned her over the speaker.

"I'm gonna be moving around for the nest month or two. I don't think I'll be able to contact you till I arrive in Angel Grove," she sighed heavily, not wanting to say good-bye, but she knew she'd eventually have to, "So, I guess what I'm trying to say is good-bye till then, because I gotta get to demonstration right now in Crystal Falls," Shannon, slowly and surely, moved to kiss the receiver lovingly, "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Bye."

"See you," Tommy bade her, the click of the other line hanging up following his sweet voice.

As she moved the phone away from her ear and onto the table, she called, "Star Staff!"

Responding to her call, a flash of light revealed a staff with a white star topping it in the girl's hands.

Shannon ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the white star and mumbled to herself quietly, "Is this staff and the powers that go with it, REALLY worth all the pain and suffering it has brought to my life? Or is it just a hunk of cursed metal? Just a year and a half ago I remember it bringing absolute horror to my damned life.................... " {FLASHBACK}

Shannon stood in the middle of a cavern on the planet, Phaedos; The rock above her protected head shaking violently. In her cradled arms was a wailing bundle of white. "Give her to me, Artemis, and everyone goes free. You, Selene, Helious, and Apollo. It is as simple as that," Zesta, Evil Enchantress Of Eltar, taunted her daughter; The villianess' arms were reaching out towards the white bundle.

Shannon's mind was racing; She didn't know what to do. On one hand she couldn't give her child to an evil villain, even she was her mother. Though, on the other hand, she couldn't let Apollo and Helious get killed. They were her friends. They were her teammates. Most of all, she was their leader. She was responsible for their lives as well as her own. The White Zeo Ranger had to come to a decision; A decision that would, either way, effect the way she went on with her life. "Selene, take off my helmet," the brunette turned to the Silver Katherian Ranger next to her.

"Artemis are you sure you..................." Selene was cut off by her leader.

"Dammit, Selene!" she barked viciously, her hurt and anger tangible in her voice, "Yes, I am sure! Just do it!"

As Zesta watched with her evil eyes, Selene slowly responded the command. Placing her hands on the latches of the white helmet, the girl removed Shannon's helmet; Sending cascades of brunette hair falling down her back. "Fine then, Zesta," the Zeo Guardian whispered just loud enough to be heard over the tremors, "You win. My child is yours. Now keep your promise. Stop the tremors and release Apollo and Helious from the Cat's Eye Chamber."

Zesta's ruby red lips turned into a hideous smile. "No, no, no. One thing at a time, Artemis," her voice turned bitter, "Give me your child first. Give me Caroline."

Shannon growled under her breath at the remark; Not only due to the fact that she was angry, but to also fend off the millions of tears rushing to her bright blue eyes. "Then hold on," she yapped, struggling to keep her voice from cracking.

Turning her back to Zesta, the Zeo Ranger's tear-filled eyes fell upon the baby crying in her arms. "Shhh, shhh," she rocked Caroline back and forth, but the child kept crying to no avail, "My lovely Caroline. My only true link to your father, the only man who will ever have my heart. I swear to you, I will get you from Zesta. She will not be your mother. She will not be the one to care for you. She will not raise you to be like her. You will always be mine, no matter what happens. You will always be mine and Tommy's. Always," as tears streaked her dirt covered face, Shannon laid one last loving kiss to her baby's forehead.

"Enough stalling, Artemis," the blonde villianess yapped from behind her, "Give Caroline to me!"

Slowly, the brunette turned to face her evil mother. "No! Release Apollo and Helious first!" Shannon rebelled against Zesta's wishes, her eyes glowing with a fury like never before.

Zesta store at her daughter for a moment, letting a sigh escape from her lips; She wasn't willing to fight with her at that moment. "Very well," Zesta threw the cat's eye pendant, which sat on her chest, to the ground, "Release the entrapped!"

Smoke immediately bellowed up from where the pendant was and revealed Apollo and Helious chained back to back. "Apollo! Helious!" Selene ran to them right away, leaving Shannon standing by herself; Which suited the girl just fine. She had always stood alone, after Tommy left her; She was used to it.

Once Apollo and Helious were returned, the earthquakes immediately stopped shaking the cavern, and the only sound that filled the tunnel was Caroline's consistent wailing. "I have respected your request," Zesta snarled, moving closer to Shannon, "Now, respect mine, or face the consequences."

The girl watched as Zesta's eyes shifted from their blue color back to green and took a deep breath, holding back her many tears that still plead to be shed. "Here," the young mother placed her child in the enchantress' arms, "Now, leave. Before I do something drastic."

"Of course," Zesta stepped away from the teenage girl, "But on one last note, Artemis, beware. Because the next time you will EVER see your daughter will be at the last few moments of your 'pure' life," with that Zesta and Caroline were whisked away into a cloud of black.

Right away, Shannon let strength ebb away, crumpling to the dusty ground. "Artemis," Apollo approached his friend and leader for the first time since he was freed from the chamber, "I am truly sorry," he whispered tenderly.

Her head in her hands as she cried, she glanced at Apollo long enough to whisper, "I know you are, Apollo. I know you are."

With her words of forgiveness, the White Zeo Ranger threw her head back and let out an ear piercing scream, not bothering to notice her three greatest friends as they watched Shannon scream her pain. "DAMN YOU, LADY OF THE MOON! DAMN YOU!" {END OF FLASHBACK}

Shannon began to cry once again, as she remembered the horrible memory of losing her child to the witch that was her mother. "Shannon!" a voice called from another part of the one story house, "It's 4:30!"

"Thanks, Cam," Shannon tried to respond Camellia Kaze, her sister, without cracking, "I'm gonna leave for the demo, okay?"

"Go ahead! I'll see ya tonight!" Camellia bade from another room, then added, "It's your turn to cook dinner anyway!"

"Okay," the crying brunette stood up from the sofa where she sat, "Too much crying and mourning is bad for the soul, I say," she murmured to herself, grabbing her white workout bag from the kitchen counter, "Just too bad I can't follow that advice."

Taking her keys out from jeans' pocket, Shannon opened the front door and walked out into the sun. As she closed the door behind her and started walking towards her car, the teenager stopped for a moment and looked around herself. She looked and listened to the familiar sights and sounds she had grown up around in her native city, Summer Springs. "I can't believe I'm leaving all this in under a month's time to help the Zeo Rangers fight off Rita and Zedd. I'd much rather be going to Angel Grove to reunite with Tommy; But in a way, I guess I AM doing both. Tommy is a Zeo Ranger if I remember what Lady Dimitria told me correctly."

Shrugging her shoulders, Shannon continued to head towards her car, not realizing she was going to leave Summer Springs for a far greater and tougher life awaiting her in Angel Grove.