And So Life Goes On, Part 5
By ZeoViolet
Astronema went sprawling onto the ground, the Wrangler falling out of her gloved hand and rolling away. She looked stunned for a moment as Ashley jerked away from her as if she'd been burned.
Ecliptor advanced on her, his hand going for the weapon at his waist. Johnathan, who had already been tense, saw his opprotunity and leaped on him, knocking him away from his sister. "Leave her alone, you sick...." he growled, kicking his sword away.
The commotion had even caught the attention of Andros, bringing him out of his foggy, warp-filled world. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog from it and push the memories away, trying to see what was really going on. He was dizzy and things were a bit blurry, but he saw enough to know Ashley was in trouble, as well as her brother.
The quantron, who had been pressed against a wall in a decidedly cowardly fashion, saw him struggling to rise and came over, saying something in his unintelligible language that probably meant something along the lines of "don't move."
Andros took a deep breath, squelching the nausea that roared in his stomach at the lingering visions that still danced in front of his eyes. Forcefully locking the guilt behind a temporary barrier to be dealt with later, he growled and pounced on the quantron, sending it skidding across the floor. He had to get to Ashley, his love and fear for her growing as he saw her grappling with Astronema over control of the woman's spear.
Having pressed all other thoughts back down, another thought loomed as he crossed the room, finally hitting him in the face and with a force he could not deny.
*I love her.* It was that simple. And it did not hit him with the surprise he somehow expected to feel, but it could have been because his emotions were in such turmoil already. *I love her, and I must help her, before I lose her!*
Somehow Johnathan had managed to get Ecliptor's sword from him, and had backed the guy out of the room. Instinctively, he stood guard as Andros grabbed Astronema from behind, releasing her grip on the spear. It promptly disappeared.
Ashley shot him a grateful glance and dove toward the Wrangler, still rolling around the room. Not bothering to hide her rage at what the device had done to her and Andros, she slammed it against a wall, shattering it to dust.
She then stalked over to the wall panel, examining it as Andros held Astronema immoble. She still held the metal skull that had been embedded in the top of the Wrangler in her hand, and she crashed it against the security protocol matrix, causing sparks to fly and rendering the rest of the device safe for use.
She turned back to Johnathan. "First thing's first, Johnathan. We have to get you out of here. You don't have a morpher, and I don't want you hurt." she looked at him with tear filled eyes. "But I still owe you a big thank-you, nonetheless.
"We both do," whispered Andros, holding a struggling Astronema down. "Th-thank you, Johnathan. Ashley, get him out of here before he *does* get hurt. Right now...I don't want to take that chance."
Ashley nodded, setting the controls for teleportation before returning her brother's gaze again. "Goodbye, Johnathan," she whispered. "I hope it won't be too long before we see each other again."
His eyes widened and filled with tears. Ashley knew what memories he was suddenly seeing behind his brown gaze. "You keep yourself safe, Ashley Hammond," he answered gruffly. "I won't have history repeat itself."
She ran over and hugged him. "Never!" she exclaimed fervrently. "Never!"
She released him and walked back over to the panel, hitting the button to teleport. "I'll see you soon, Johnathan Hammond, I promise," she whispered just before he dissappeared.
She turned to Andros. The door was open, so there was no reason they could not leave and find someplace to reactivate their morphers and own teleportation systems. "Let her go. We can't take her with us, but we have to get out of here, and see if Carlos got out of here yet. Come on!"
Andros obeyed her, shoving Astronema hard enough against the wall so that she was stunned, and taking Ashley's hand, they flew out of the room and into the corridor. Passing voyurisms of Quantrons were too surprised to react as they flew past.
"There is a sensor and control area ahead," he called behind him. "We can find out what happened to Carlos there, and maybe teleport." The flatness of his voice told Ashley how drained he was, he was running on autopilot, like she was. As soon as danger ceased, things were sure to come back and haunt them all over again...
Either Astronema was still stunned, or the quantrons around were very lax, but they made it to the control room uninhibited. Andros ran to a console and tapped on it.
"Carlos made it off," he announced a moment later. "It says here he teleported out and directly to the Megaship, where it is in space with the pyramidas...."
He tapped a few more buttons, and a familiar buzz sounded, almost gratefully, from Ashley's wrist as her morpher buzzed to life.
"Let's get out of here," she whispered fervrently. "I don't even care where anymore!"
"They blocked a direct route to the Megaship!" Andros hissed. Ashley knew he was near the breaking point--again. Ashley sighed in frustration, coming around and leaning over his shoulder. She tapped in a teleporation sequence that would take them anywhere she visualized--anywhere but here. But as the teleporter took effect, the only place she could call to her mind was the treehouse she and her brothers had built for themselves as children.
"What is this place?" asked Andros gruffly, getting his bearings.
"The only place that could come to my mind," she whispered. "This is the treehouse my twin brothers and I built as children."
"Brothers? I thought there was only Johnathan." his voice went even lower, as if trying to stave off something that was trying to take ahold of him again.
Ashley could not believe he had noticed, until she remebered how she had acted on the Fortress. "No, there--there was Clyde, also, my other twin--unitl--" she nearly choked. "Until he was killed in an accident!"
It was too much, and the memories came flooding back again to haunt her. If she had thought she had already cried herself dry, she was dead wrong. Tears flooded her eyes and again flowed down her face. She turned a tortured gaze toward Andros. "He asked me to go with him! I said no! If I had gone, then he would not have tried the first alcoholic drink of his life--and his last! *I* should be dead, not him!"
"No, Ashley, no." Before he knew what he was doing, he was over there and had his arms around her. "Please don't cry, Ashley, please don't..."
"But it *is* my fault," she insisted. "Not like you, you were a kid when Kerone was kidnapped! How could you stop Darkonda from taking her? A little kid against a big ugly monster?"
"I *could* have done something, I *should* have done something, besides stand there and call her name," he whispered, not noticing the tears stealing down his face. "Ashley, why did I not even try, when I had the chance?"
His grip on her tightened, and she drew his head to her shoulder. They could do no more, only clinging desperately to each other as, in the privacy of the treehouse, they got their chance to sob out their anger and hurt, which was the best thing they could have done.
****
"Andros and Ashley are *WHAT?*" demanded TJ, staring at Carlos in astonishment. "Are you *sure* there was no other way for them to get free?"
Carlos shook his head, glancing first from TJ and then to Trey. "No, I was in the best position at the time to get out of there and find a way to tell you. And now with Cassie missing also--" Carlos shuddered. "Astronema will turn the weapon on them if she gets the chance, I am sure of it. I don't know what Ashley has been through, but when I first met her ten months ago she was recovering emotionally from some big disaster in her life she never told me of. And Andros, a person would have to be totally blind to see the guilt he suffers over Kerone. It could be bad for both of them if Astronema..." He trailed off.
"Kerone?" Echoed Trey.
"Andros's sister. Something we only found out recently, because he did not bother to tell us." Sighed TJ.
"Would you make it a habit of telling everyone you met you had a younger sister who had been kidnapped when you were both little children?" asked Carlos. "He feels guilty because he could not do anything."
TJ did not miss the look of shocked surprise that crossed Trey's face, followed in quick succession by guilt, pain, anger, then coldness.
"And who could blame him?" the Lord of Triforia asked. "It would be very hard to talk about. Most would keep quiet about it."
"Yeah, maybe I would, too, but I would not turn to an icecicle because of it," said TJ glumly. "And that is exactly how Andros treats us."
Trey said nothing more on the subject, but both Carlos and TJ got the feeling, as he started scanning again for Cassie, that there was much more to his reaction than met the eyes....
****
Ashley did not know how long they sat there, clinging to each other and sobbing their hearts out in peace, but after what seemed an eternity, their tears slowed. Ashley felt her own tears stop as Andros stopped quivering. She was thourougly exhausted, but felt much better. After this, it would be easier to deal with her pain.
"Ashley?" It was so soft she barely heard it. "Are--are you okay?"
"Yeah," she mumbled. "And you?"
"I guess so..." he finally loosened his grip on her, and pulled back enough for her to see his face, as tear-soaked as her own. His hazel eyes met hers. "Ashley...."
Any response she might have had died in her throat as his eyes bored into her very soul. Instantly, she was aware of his strong arms around her, the way his pupils were dialated, the sudden longing she saw in the greenish depths of his gaze--
What she saw still did not quite prepare her for his leaning closer, and surprise momentarily registered as, very softly, his mouth pressed against hers.
His own actions seemed to freeze him also, and he pulled back again. "Ashley?" he asked, his eyes searching for any signs of disapproval. Instead, what he saw in her brown depths mirrored his desperate longing.
"Andros..." it was more of a plea than anything else. His eyes stayed on hers as he leaned over again and let his mouth cover hers. A moment later, she relaxed against him, her eyes closing and her arms creeping up around his neck.
The feel of her lips against his stole the last of any resolve he may have had, and he shuddered slightly. His eyes closed also, and his arms went around her as a slow fire began to pulse through his blood. Electricity rocketed through him when her lips opened beneath his own and her tongue sought entry into his mouth. Soon, he was kissing her so hard, and with so much pent-up passion, they were both completely dizzy and very nearly out of control. So much emotion demanded release it was very difficult to do anything but.
In the end, only lack of air forced his lips off of hers. She drew away slightly, gasping, the sheer wonderment and desire in her eyes also showing a question.
"Andros?" she asked softly. "Why?"
"Because I love you." His grip on her tightened again. "Gods, Ashley, I am tired of fighting this. I have loved you since I first met you. It was...my isolation, my pride, that kept me from realizing how much you meant to me...and your friends, too."
"'Our friends'." she corrected. She suddenly hugged him, hard. "Oh, Andros....I have wanted you to say that for so long...I love you too. I thought you only saw me as a jumpy nusiance."
"I thought I *did*." he admitted softly. "I thought you all were...only recently did I begin to realize that I was wrong. I am sorry, Ashley."
"It's okay." she hugged him fervrently. "It is not too late to change all that, Andros, if you want to."
"I guess I do want to," he admitted, hugging her back. "I don't want you to think badly of me, Ash. But I...may need your help."
"Anything," she promised, kissing him again, breifly. "Come on, we had better go. They are probably worried sick about us by now. We could probably teleport to the Megaship from here."
He nodded, glancing at his morpher. "Maybe we should have gone earlier, but I was too...distracted. We would have both shown up emotional wreaks, crying all over the place."
She gave him a faint smile. "We probably both still are, in a way. One fit of crying can't solve all that, but," she gave it some thought. "I do feel a lot better able to deal with it."
"Me, too," he assured her. He hugged her quickly. "Especially with you here." He released her and reached for his teleporter. "Let's go."
****
They appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on the bridge of the Megaship. The Astro-Zeo Ultrazord had long since disengaged, and it quite shocked TJ, Carlos, and Trey when they teleported in unexpectedly.
"Ashley? Andros?" asked Carlos in astonishment, bounding over in a second. "Are you *okay*? What happened to you?" he stopped and looked hard at them, not missing their red eyes, flushed faces, and circles beneath their eyes, all signs of suffering. "She...got you with that thing, didn't she?" he asked, voice deadly quiet.
Ashley and Andros looked at each other, knowing it would be impossible to hide what had happened. They looked back at the group and slowly nodded.
"*Damn*!" hissed Carlos. "How did you ever escape? And with your sanity intact."
Ashley bit her lip. "We almost did not. I don't want to talk about it." The pain that flashed in her eyes stilled his questions.
He nodded slowly. "Cassie is missing, guys. She went over to the Phantom Ranger's ship, and a little while later, they both vanished. I don't know where they are. Possibly another dimesion. We have been running scans. Until we get some hint of what happened, we can only do this."
Andros only nodded, staring off at the viewscreen.
Andros and Ashley were back. Now their main objective was to find the last missing ranger.