Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
(Writer's note: This story contains spoilers for the fanfic series 'Power Rangers: Overdrive (RW)' posted on Power Ranger Empire. I wrote this on a whim to break from the normal series and to add a little backstory for anyone who would be interested in it. The story can, however, live as a stand alone. Sorry, for the lack of fighting scenes, but I thank you for reading and hope you enjoy anyway.)
Cursed
"I really wish you didn't have to go," Ashley spoke sounding more annoyed than anything. It was getting late in the day and only a few lamps illuminated the room the two humans stood in.
"I know," Andros replied. "I tried to get someone else to take care of it this time, but no one was available. Alpha seems positive this lead he found is something big and needs to be taken care of."
"I understand," Ashley said with a sigh. That was one advantage of being married to another ranger. Ashley understood the responsibilities Andros was bound to. Ashley started to reach out toward her husband when her phone, which was sitting across the room, began ringing and stopped her. She instead lifted the same hand and held up her index finger. "Hold on."
"Sure," Andros responded. He had put off leaving for his mission for a few days already certainly a few more minutes wouldn't hurt. Ashley walked over to where her cell phone was lying on a counter. As she picked up the phone to look at it she pulled a strand of her hair back behind her ear.
"It's my grandmother's phone," Ashley announced as she stared at the caller identification. She looked back briefly at Andros. "I'm sorry, I have to take this."
Andros knew the call could take awhile and thus sat down on the couch as his wife answered the incoming call. The red ranger watched as Ashley paced across the room while holding her phone to her ear. She was expecting their first child and despite being only a few months pregnant she was already showing, Andros would never admit that to her of course, but most people wouldn't notice anyway.
By all means Andros should have been happy with his life. He was reunited with his sister and best friend after the long war against Darkspecter's army, a few years later he was married to a woman that meant the world to him, and now they were expecting their first child. What wasn't to love? Everything. By being reunited with his family and friends, not to mention getting married and starting his own family he was putting everyone he cared about at risk. Nearly everyone Andros had cared about in the past had been affected negatively by evil. It seemed like a curse that he brought to those he cared for, and one that he certainly never wanted to bring to anyone again.
Ashley had insisted there was nothing to worry about even with the rebellious groups that still held on to supporting Dark Specter's crusade lingering around. It was true the groups hardly ever showed much strength and were usually easily brought to justice, but with the most recent outbreaks Andros wasn't so certain Ashley was right. He feared for his family, his wife, and now his child. Sometimes he just wished he hadn't given into being a good friend and instead kept his distance from all those he cared about. That way he wouldn't have to worry about something happening to them, especially now when he was almost never on Earth to protect them. Most of all he just wished evil would be sucked into a black hole with absolutely no hope for return so that he could actually live his life and have his family remain safe at the same time.
Maybe Ashley was right, maybe there was nothing to worry about, but he doubted it. Even now he constantly had to leave Earth to deal with the groups of morons who still supported Darkspecter's war. They still believed they could take over the universe and endorse a careless way of living, which meant more money for them, and less life for everyone else. It wouldn't take much for anyone of those groups to become powerful enough to be a true threat. Including the one Alpha was currently tracking. Andros had searched for the same one for years with out luck. The masterminds behind the group were good and covered their tracks well. Andros just hoped Alpha had the trail figured out this time and there would finally be an end to this seemingly dangerous group.
"Andros," Ashley practically yelled, she must have been trying to get his attention for a while.
"What?" Andros asked as he finally came out of his thoughts.
"I have to go," Ashley spoke quickly before beginning to dash around the room to pick up her purse and keys. "My grandmother was taken to the hospital. It doesn't sound very serious, but I need to get there."
"I understand." Andros repeated his wife's words from earlier as he stood up from the couch. Ashley darted over to Andros and kissed him quickly on the side of his face.
"I'll see you later," Ashley spoke and rushed for the door. She seemed to have forgotten that Andros would be leaving soon as well.
"Ashley," Andros spoke as he tried to follow his wife to the door.
"I'll talk to you later, I promise!" Ashley yelled over her shoulder and waved as she climbed into her car.
"Good bye, Ashley," Andros spoke quietly as he watched the car drive away. Just as the thought entered his mind to follow her, his communicator started chiming. Disappointed and a little bit disgusted Andros answered the device on his wrist, "Go ahead, Alpha."
"Andros, I think you had better come check this out," Alpha's voice was urgent and the robot sounded slightly flustered.
"I'll be there in a minute, Alpha," Andros replied and sighed. He didn't like leaving like this, but he knew that was just one of the many risks involved with being a ranger.
"Andros," a male's voice suddenly brought the red ranger back to the present. He realized the car he had been riding in was now parked outside of the main Nasada building. He had just finished his last mission, which had ended up involving getting all of the past and present red rangers of the power rangers together to help fight against a rogue group of villains made up of the remnants of the machine empire. It had been a rough mission, but it would have been a lot worse had his fellow red rangers been unavailable to help. TJ's voice came again, catching Andros's attention. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just fine," Andros replied solemnly as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door to his former teammate's car. "Thanks for the ride over here."
"Not a problem," TJ replied. "Hey, you never told me how Ashley is getting along."
Andros dug for the phone he suddenly remembered was in his back pocket and sighed before answering the red turbo ranger. "If you've talked to her in the past five months you are better off knowing how she is than I am."
"Really?" TJ commented. "Wow, I'm sorry. I didn't realize what you were doing was keeping you away like that."
"I tried to get Zhane to handle this last one, but he's been too busy working with that SPD branch," Andros explained absently as he studied his phone. He had one missed call, and it was from Ashley only two days after he had left Earth.
"What are best friends for, huh?" TJ commented though Andros barely heard him as he tried to listen to the voicemail left on his phone.
"Hey, Andros," Ashley's voice sweetly came from the phone's receiver. "I just thought I would try to catch you, but I guess you are already gone. I'm sorry I had to rush out like that. Grandma is fine by the way. I also had something else to tell you, but I guess it can wait until you g-" Ashley had sounded excited up until that point, but her voice turned to a higher pitched shrill as if she were afraid. "Who are you? No, get away fro-"
Ashley's voice was replaced by the voicemail asking if the user would like to listen to the message again.
"Ashley," Andros whispered in shock and nearly dropped his phone.
"What?" TJ questioned and must have caught on that something was wrong when his teammate didn't answer. "Andros, what happened?"
"I think something is wrong," Andros was still in shock as he played the message through in his mind one more time. He finally shook the voice from his head. All that mattered now was finding Ashley. "I have to get back to the house."
"I'll go with you," TJ stated.
"This isn't right," Andros said as TJ pulled his car up to the small house Andros and his wife had been staying in when Andros had to leave.
"What do you mean?" TJ asked as the two climbed out of the car. Andros didn't answer as he rushed up to the house and frantically started knocking on the front door.
"Can I help you?" A young, dark haired woman answered the door. Andros didn't recognize her.
"Is Ashley here?" Andros questioned, though he didn't expect a positive reply.
"I'm afraid you have the wrong place," the woman answered and shook her head. She quickly shut the door and Andros barely heard the door lock as his mind raced over what would be his next move.
"Ashley sold the house?" TJ asked when he had finally caught up with the red ranger.
"I don't think so," Andros spoke and walked back down the driveway quickly. "We have to get back to the ship."
"What do you think happened?" TJ asked when he and Andros were back on board the Astromegaship.
"Exactly what I've been afraid of happening from the beginning," Andros spoke with both frustration and fear as he quickly began throwing all the switches to bring the Astromegaship back to life. "Someone has taken her. The house was probably repossessed and sold or else the woman at the door would have known who Ashley was. That phone call Ashley made to me was only two days after I left, it sounded like she was attacked while she was still talking."
TJ started helping to prepare the ship for lift off. The blue space ranger also contacted the people at Nasada to let them know the ship would be departing and filled Alpha in on the situation when the robot entered the bridge.
As soon as the ship was ready for take off Andros shoved the thrusters to their maximum to take the ship through Earth's atmosphere.
"I'm picking up a distress call, the location isn't far from here." TJ informed from one of the side consoles shortly after the ship had stopped shaking and eased into space. Andros didn't respond for a few seconds and TJ continued. "Andros, we have to look into it."
"Send it to my console," Andros instructed reluctantly. He didn't want to check on the call right now, but TJ was right, as rangers they had an obligation to help others. It didn't take long to reach the coordinances. The location was a mess with metallic debris everywhere. Judging by the shards it looked like a rather large ship must have recently exploded.
"Incoming transmission," Deca's familiar voice announced.
"Send it through," TJ commanded.
"Hello?" a man's voice came over the com. "Hello? Is there anyone there?"
"My name is TJ," the blue space ranger answered. "I received your distress call and came to help."
"Oh, thank you," the man's voice returned sounding relieved. "We are refugees from a slave ship. There was a mutiny on board and only a few of us were able to get away in the escape shuttles. Our supplies are running low."
"Alpha, start preparing the docking bay for the shuttles," Andros instructed. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as he could. The names of local planets started going through his mind as he tried to figure out which one would be the safest and fastest place to relocate the refugees.
"I think that is everyone," a man was telling Alpha when Andros entered the hanger bay. The bay was full of people now and smelled horrible. If this was only a 'few' of the slaves, as a man had communicated earlier, Andros didn't want to think of what the slave ship must have looked like earlier, not to mention think about how many lives must have been lost in the explosion.
"Andros," Alpha addressed the red ranger. "We should be able to leave soon."
"Sounds good," Andros tried to sound patient, but he probably didn't succeed.
"Did someone say Andros?" a female's voice rose above the constant murmuring of the combined voices of all those present in the currently cramped hanger bay. A woman and a man soon emerged from the crowd. The pair was zestra in race, but the woman held an infant human in her arms.
"Can I help you?" Andros questioned. He figured the pair had probably heard his name from someplace and were being, as his Earth friends would put it, nosey.
"I'm afraid so," the woman spoke sadly. That was a new term to the red ranger, most refugees wanted help rather than feared it.
"Could we speak with you privately?" the man asked.
"I'm afraid our time is rather limited," Andros tried to put an end to the situation kindly.
"This is important and it involves you," the woman informed. Andros felt like he had a jolt of electricity hit his nerves. He didn't like the way the woman had said that.
"Follow me," Andros instructed and led the couple towards the door that left the hanger bay. He looked back once to ask Alpha, "Are we good to leave?"
"I think so," Alpha answered while giving a thumb's up.
"Deca, execute the course for Morias," Andros commanded the ship. He looked down at his two companions when the trio had left the room and the door had shut behind them. Zestras were typically shorter than most humans, and these two were no different. "I promise the planet we are taking you and the rest of the refugees will take good care of all of you."
"We aren't worried about that," the man replied. He pointed to his wife, "First I want to introduce my wife, Jedta and my name is Qwinn."
"Nice to meet you both," Andros replied. It was getting harder by the second to remain polite, much less to keep himself from running to the bridge to see if he couldn't speed things up any.
"We knew your wife," Jedta announced quickly, probably catching on to the red ranger's impatience. Andros was about to question how that was possible, he knew Ashley had never been anywhere in space with out him and he couldn't recall ever being around zestras with her, but Jedta continued. "She was on the slave ship."
Andros felt his blood drain. His mind raced over the possibilities of what may have happened to her. He had to force himself to speak. "Did she-"
"No," Qwinn answered before Andros could finish. "She was still on the ship when it exploded."
Andros felt like the weight of the universe just came crashing down on him with those few words. Maybe they were wrong though, maybe they were lying, yes, they had to be, there was no way this really happened.
"We're sorry," Jedta spoke softly, her concern seemed so genuine. She took a step closer to Andros and lifted the child she held in her arms. "But this little one survived. Ashley had been stuck in the crowd, but she managed to get the slaves to pass her daughter, Kiana, to our escape shuttle."
Andros stared at the infant. Was she really his? Was this couple really telling the truth? They said his wife's name, but anyone could have known her name, that wasn't enough to say these people were really telling the truth. They could just be a couple looking for charity. Yes, that was a likely possibility.
"We know what you are thinking," Qwinn stated with what sounded like grief in his voice. "You can have a DNA scan done of the child when we reach the planet. I wish we weren't telling you the truth, but your wife was on that ship with us."
The door opened behind the zestras and Alpha walked through. "Oh, is everything okay?"
"Alpha," Andros barely got that much out due to the lump that had formed in his throat from the fear that the couple was telling him the truth. "We need you to take the child to the infirmary."
"She seems fine to me," Alpha observed the sleeping child. "I'm sure the medics on Morias would be able to do a more thorough medical scan on her than I could. It won't take us that long to get to our destination."
"Please, Alpha," Andros could barely hear his own response and he hoped the robot would not argue the point again.
"Okay," Alpha sounded very reluctant as he walked over and carefully took the infant from Jedta's arms. The robot probably did have more important things to do, but Andros didn't trust himself to the medical equipment and he felt that the sooner the scans could be done the better things were for him, the zestras, and, more importantly, the child.
The trio followed Alpha and the infant to the ship's infirmary where the robot began running medical scans on the child. Alpha was wrong when he said the planet would be better equipped to make sure the child was healthy, from medical personal it was probably true, but technology-wise the ship was packed with state of the art equipment, leaving no exception for the infirmary.
"According to these scans, other than being a little dehydrated, the girl seems perfectly healthy," Alpha informed after a few minutes.
"Alpha," Andros said, he kept his distance from the examination. He shut his eyes and braced himself for what he was about to say next. "I need you to tell me if she's mine." He couldn't bring himself to say Ashley's name.
"What?" Alpha exclaimed.
"Please, Alpha." That was all Andros could manage as he started to run out of excuses in his mind for the zestras' story to be false. He didn't feel like he could inform Alpha of what the two had claimed to happen even if he tried.
"We'll fill you in later, Alpha" Jedta stated quietly to Andros's relief.
After running the scan Alpha turned to face Andros. The robot didn't have to say anything the motion of facing the waiting red ranger said everything.
"We'll leave you alone," Qwinn spoke behind Andros.
"Will he be okay?" Jedta's voice came as Alpha followed the two out of the room. Andros was barely aware of their leaving as he fought still, to hold on to some kind of hope that the story was false. That Ashley was still out there, alive, somewhere. She had to be.
"You are sure it was Ashley?" TJ questioned the couple that was standing outside of the infirmary with Alpha. He had been wondering through the corridor when he had come across the trio, and they quickly informed him of the situation.
"The scans I ran proved that the infant is Ashley's," Alpha answered this sadly. "I'm afraid their story is legitimate."
TJ walked past the trio and entered the infirmary where Andros stood in the middle of the room. The red ranger looked completely dazed, that didn't surprise TJ after what he had just learned.
"Andros?" TJ questioned as he walked up to his teammate. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Andros finally responded after a few seconds though TJ could barely hear the words. The red ranger looked anything but fine.
"We'll be arriving on the Morias soon," TJ informed. Andros probably didn't care about that at this point and didn't make a move to acknowledge the information. The blue ranger knew his presence, or anyone else's for that matter, was probably unwelcome by the red ranger right now. "I'll leave you alone."
TJ felt horrible. Ashley had been a long time friend of his. He couldn't believe she was gone, but he knew the feeling was worse for his teammate.
Andros finally managed to walk over to where the infant lay sleeping on the medical bed. As he stared at the girl he noticed something shiny around the infant's neck. Reaching down he pulled the necklace out from under the infant's makeshift blanket and instantly he felt the tears start falling down his face, he recognized the pendant on the chain all too well. The necklace the girl was wearing was the same one Andros had given Ashley for her 18th birthday. It was true then, Ashley was gone. She was really gone.
Andros didn't know how much time had passed until he finally managed to look at the sleeping infant again. The more he stared at the girl the more he began to notice how much she looked like her mother. He felt sorry for the little girl, not only because she had lost her mother, but also because she had the worst father anyone could possibly have. Andros had feared this would happen and it did. The girl had at least survived her encounter with evil. At that realization Andros felt determination well up inside of him. He wasn't going to let this girl, his daughter, to risk another encounter with evil and suffer the same fate as her mother.
Gently Andros reached out and gathered the infant into his arms. She seemed so small, even for a newborn, and that worried him. If Ashley had been captured two days after Andros had left Earth then she had been on that slave ship for a long time. It was probably a miracle that the infant had survived at all.
"I'm sorry, Kiana," Andros spoke aloud. The words had so many meanings. He was sorry for not being there when Ashley was attacked, he was sorry for not finding them both in time to save them, most of all he was sorry for being a lousy father to the girl, and a horrible husband to his wife. He knew this would happen, but he had allowed himself to believe otherwise and now this girl, and Ashley, had paid for his mistake. Andros was also sorry for what he was about to do, but he saw no other way to protect his daughter.
As Andros left the infirmary with Kiana and made his way toward the hanger bay each step became harder to make, but with each one he became more determined to keep the girl safe. Ashley had been able to let Kiana go, so could he. The doors opened to the hanger bay and sunlight flooded through. The ship had already landed on Morias and most of the refugees had already filed out of the ship.
He was relieved to see that Jedta and Qwinn were still on board, with them were two children that looked to be their own. Jedta must have caught sight of the red ranger out of peripheral vision as she turned to look at Andros fully then to give him a sympathetic stare.
Andros inhaled and steeled himself as he approached the couple. This could possibly be the hardest thing he would ever have to do in his life, and it might not even save Kiana from the harm that was bound to be with her if she stayed with him. As he reached the two Andros became aware of the blue space ranger watching in the distance.
"We're sorry about your loss," this came from Qwinn. Andros simply nodded his response.
"I came back here to ask you for a rather large favor," Andros managed to get the words out.
"What would you like to ask of us?" Jedta asked patiently. Andros was sure the couple would probably like to get off of the ship soon.
"Would you be willing to take Kiana?" Andros chose to just ask the question rather than jump around it.
"You're serious?" Jedta questioned sounding shocked.
"I'm afraid of the danger I would be putting her in if she stayed with me," Andros explained. "I don't know if I would be able to protect her, especially after what has already happened."
"If that is what you want," Jedta spoke and looked at her husband as if to ask him what he thought.
"I'm afraid we don't have much in means of a home right now," Qwinn informed. Jedta stepped closer to Andros to take the human child.
"I can try to help you with that," Andros replied as he let go of Kiana. "In fact I'll help you in anyway I can, but everything will have to be discrete. I don't want anyone associating you with me for fear of one of Darkspecter's groups attacking you. That is a risk you would be taking with this."
"We understand," Jedta spoke as she stared down at the small human girl she now cradled in her arms. Andros noticed TJ approaching them at that point.
"Ashley was a great friend to us while we were captives," Qwinn explained. "We would be happy to help you out, even at that risk."
"It's not like we haven't been hunted before," Jedta added softly. That's when TJ finally reached the group. The blue ranger must have figured out what was happening.
"Andros," TJ addressed the red ranger, "Could I have a word with you?" Andros hesitated a second and TJ insisted. "Now?"
Reluctantly Andros walked a few feet way from the family with his teammate.
"What is going on?" TJ seemed to already know the answer, but was asking anyway.
"I know what I'm doing," Andros tried to get out of answering and walk back to the waiting family, but TJ forcefully grabbed the red ranger by the arm and spun him around so both of their backs were turned to the family.
"You can't seriously be giving your kid away to total strangers like that," TJ spoke low, but the sternness was still clearly in his voice.
"She's not safe with me," Andros replied. He had known the blue ranger would disagree with the decision if he found out. The two had often times seen different points of view when they worked together as rangers, now was no different. "I've already thought this through."
"I could take her," TJ offered, he obviously didn't see the reasoning Andros had for choosing to give Kiana away in the first place.
"That would be too obvious," Andros pointed out. "I don't want anyone finding out about Kiana at all, at least not in a way that would associate her with rangers. It's too dangerous."
"Oh, and handing her over to complete strangers isn't?" TJ asked.
"They brought her this far," Andros said and tried to turn back toward the family, but again TJ grabbed him. Andros looked at the hand that gripped his arm and spoke again, "I don't want to lose her."
"So you are giving her up, that makes a lot of sense," TJ had to believe Andros had gone insane by the sound of it, and maybe he had but he felt this was the right thing to do.
"If that is what it takes to keep her safe, then, yes," Andros basically muttered the words. There was nothing TJ was going to say to make him change his mind, it was already made up. "I'll keep an eye on her."
"With the Megaship?" TJ questioned. "That doesn't have 'ranger' written all over it at all."
"I have another ship," Andros informed. He didn't feel like continuing this argument. "Kiana is all I have left. I've made my decision."
With that the red ranger jerked his arm free of TJ's grasp and walked back to the family.
"This is the last time we'll be able to have direct contact," Andros spoke to Jedta and Qwinn. "You are sure a spaceship is fine for now?"
"Absolutely," Jedta answered. The ship, to Andros, wasn't much to look at, but the woman's eyes sparkled as she looked at the image of the craft on the console. "This is wonderful, thank you."
"I promise," Andros continued. "The moment I can get you a permanent place on a planet I'll get word to you."
"Thank you," Qwinn echoed the words of his wife and patted Andros on the back.
"It's the least I can do," Andros spoke truthfully. Finding a place on a planet and buying it discretely for the family was going to be difficult however, but he planned to keep his promise. Andros also planned on personally making sure the family was safe, he would have to be very discrete on how he did that as well. He trusted the pair though. Their kids seemed to be happy and well disciplined. The couple just seemed to be great parents making Andros feel that Kiana would be in good hands.
"We'll take good care of Kiana," Jedta promised.
"Thank you, both," Andros replied as he stared down at the infant in Jedta's arms. He still didn't like what he was doing, but he still felt it was the best way to insure Kiana's safety.
"Would you like to say good bye?" Jedta asked and lifted Kiana slightly. The words the woman spoke stung Andros. He never had the chance to properly say good-bye to Ashley. He would have to live with that for the rest of his life. He wasn't about to do the same with his daughter.
Andros reached out and carefully took the infant from Jedta. He would never get over just how small Kiana was. The girl was still wearing Ashley's necklace. It was a painful reminder of the hardships Kiana already had to endure and would have to endure through out her life.
There were too many things he could have said to the infant, but she wouldn't understand the words now anyway so he didn't see the point of trying to put them together. Jedta and Qwinn had been sworn into telling the girl that both of her parents had died on the slave ship. The story was meant to be a safeguard for Kiana. If she didn't know her real past then it would be harder for others to know it.
If Kiana and Andros were to meet face-to-face in the future, and if she learned the truth about her past, she would probably never forgive him, but that was a risk Andros was more than willing to take to keep his daughter safe.
"Good bye, Kiana," Andros nearly whispered. "I'm sorry it had to come to this."
"I don't suppose you are going to change your mind," TJ muttered as Andros walked onto the bridge after all of the refugees left the ship. The blue ranger was speaking of the red ranger's decision to leave Kiana behind, and Andros knew that. The red ranger ignored the comment as best as he could as he prepared the ship for take-off. TJ wasn't a fan of the idea and in all honesty neither was Andros, but he had made his decision and he was sticking to it, no matter how badly it hurt.
"Deca, set a course for Earth," Andros never would have believed those words would be a comfort to him when he was younger. In fact when he muttered them the first time they nearly made him cringe, but over the past few years he found that he longed to be able to give the command to return to the place he now called his home. Today the words only brought heartache. The planet was once again as vast to him as it was when he was a young teen.
Andros looked up one last time at the view screen to see the planet Marius slowly becoming more distance. The Astromegaship would have to get a certain distance away before it could make the jump to hyper rush. Andros had never been to Marius before today, but it felt like he was leaving his life behind on the planet.
"I'll take the Astromegaship to Ganymede," Andros spoke to TJ. He needed a distraction. "It should be safe there."
"Sounds good," TJ muttered, he refrained from bringing up Kiana again though. Just then the stars became streaks of light as the ship entered hyper rush. It was done then. Kiana was now in the hands of the zestras. Andros just hoped she would be safe. He would still be watching over her, but he could only do so much from a distance. The idea of being cursed came back to Andros then, perhaps distance from him was the best thing for Kiana. As odd as it seemed that gave him some hope.
End of Story
Editor's note: So, what happens after this? That's right, the story doesn't end here. Check out my fanfiction Power Ranger Empire. Kiana's adventures have only just begun. She is joined by four other teenagers in 'Power Rangers: Overdrive' to fight, as rangers, in the never ending battle against evil. If you aren't a member of the board and would like to join, please do and place me as a reference, same name as here, you don't have to if you don't want to, but I do hope to see you there!