Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers

Author note: I just saw countdown to destruction, and wanted to revisit the entire Space saga. I wanted to go further than the episodes do into the development of the characters. If you want to review, it would be appreciated. If the story sucks, go ahead and tell. If you really like it, tell me that too. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading. The stories will take place after the second episode, and the Rangers are on their way back to Earth.

TJ couldn't believe what had happened. He was now on a spaceship, traveling to earth, and trying to find Zordon in order to help in the war against evil. The Earth Rangers had all been through so much together. Now they had a new member on the team, or maybe they had all become members of his team when they joined. TJ was first taken aback by Andros' rudeness and unwillingness to accept help, but after being with him in battle, he felt much more comfortable with Andros being their leader. Andros might not be the nicest guy in the universe (two years on a space ship alone could do that to a guy), but he was the best fighter TJ had ever seen. Also, TJ noticed that Andros was very reserved. Andros had explained that he was from KO-35, but had not explained how he had become a ranger. Andros was incredibly hard to read. He always seemed to be in control of his emotions. Still, TJ knew that inside Andros was a caring person, he had just become accustomed to not accepting any help.

"DECA, what time is it?" TJ asked the ship's onboard computer.

"Five a clock in the morning," it replied.

Cassie had been stuck with monitoring and surveillance duty the previous night, and TJ thought she could use a few hours of sleep. He put on his uniform, and walked out of his quarters. He approached the bridge, and found a sleepy Cassie trying to stay awake by continuing to check the systems on ship.

"Hey, why don't you take the rest of the morning off, get a few hours of sleep." TJ said as he smiled at the girl.

"But you have monitoring duty tonight. I can't do that to you," Cassie stated.

"Don't worry about it. I like the late nights. Seriously, if you don't leave, I will carry you off to your room myself." TJ joked.

"Are you sure?" Cassie asked.

"Definitely, go to bed," TJ said.

"Thanks, I owe you one," and with that, Cassie left to try and get some sleep. Although TJ would never admit it, he had some feelings for Cassie. Still trying to sort them out in his own head, he didn't want anyone else to know. He also knew she might be in love with the Phantom ranger, and did not want to interfere with that. He placed her happiness above everything else, and wanted to make sure she got what she wanted.

As TJ started to monitor the ship's systems, he saw that one room was activated on deck four.

"DECA, what is happening on Deck four, section 6?" TJ asked.

"Andros is in the simudeck," the computer responded.

'Andros had never said anything about a simudeck,' TJ thought to himself. Placing the ship's scanners on automatic, he went down to see what Andros was doing.

Sweat glazed his face. He had been working since four in the morning. He had never been much of a sleeper anyway. Andros had always been a worker, and more than that, he was prepared for any situation. As he continued to fight the simulated "craterites", he kept on pushing himself farther and farther. He needed to be strong for his team. He needed to make sure that each of them could depend on him. He could not let what had happened to his planet happen to Earth.

"DECA, activate program multiply…level 10," Andros asked the computer to do for him.

"What is the access code?" the computer asked him. The program was possibly the most difficult in the entire simudeck, and a fighter not strong enough could be almost killed if they accessed it before they were ready.

"Code- Zahne," Andros stated remembering his best friend. As the program started, it was easy enough, one craterite. With each one he defeated, however, two replaced it. After only 5 minutes, there were 100 craterites that continued to attack him. He had placed them all at level ten, the maximum the computer would allow. After ten minutes, the simudeck had reached its limit of 458 craterites, and Andros was beginning to lose ground. His body was telling him to quit, but his mind was forcing him to continue. He couldn't give up. Would Astronema's forces ever allow him to give up? He kept fighting them. His fists began to hurt, he could feel his arms being bruised, but he didn't want to stop. He needed to be ready to defend Earth. He had to keep fighting. He needed to continue, for all the people he had let down.

At that moment, TJ opened the door. Craterites that were nearby saw him, and began to attack him instead of Andros. TJ was quickly overwhelmed, and couldn't morph after being knocked down.

"DECA, emergency shut down." Andros commanded. In a millisecond, all of the craterites disappeared. Andros offered a hand to TJ, and demorphed.

"What were those things?" TJ asked, still startled by his encounter with them.

"They were craterites, simulated enemies to help me…I mean us, train," Andros explained.

As TJ continued to look around the simudeck, his eyes eventually got to Andros. His arm had bruises all over it, and his fists were bright red.

"Are you okay, you look pretty beat up?' TJ asked pretty concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. See you at breakfast," Andros replied in his normal monotone. Obviously, Andros did not want TJ to see how beat up he really was. TJ, still, was concerned. He had never seen anyone train hard enough to cause that much damage to them self.

Andros walked back to his room and collapsed on his bed. He had really pushed himself today, maybe a little too far, but what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Andros had learned that lesson one too many times in his life.

"It was weird guys, I walked into this room and there were all of these fighting guys," TJ explained to his fellow rangers in the dining hall.

"And the fighters were like Quantrons?" Carlos asked as he drank some of his orange juice.

"Yeah, kind of, but here is the weird part, Andros had set it so that there were hundreds and hundreds of them. And when he got done, there were bruises over his arm, and his fists were swelling," TJ explained.

"Why would he train so hard that he hurt himself?" Ashley asked.

"Maybe that's his normal routine," Cassie tried to reason. As she said that Andros walked in.

"Hello," he said to everyone, "we should be approaching Earth in about twenty minutes."

They all sat quietly, until Ashley finally spoke up.

"Andros, when we get to Earth, we were thinking of going to the beach and relaxing. Would you like to come with us?"

"Sorry, but I have to do some monitoring and schematics checks on the ship," Andros lied. In truth, DECA could have done all of that, but he didn't really feel like he fit in with the group.

"I can handle all of the monitoring and schematic checks," DECA chimed in.

"But…," Andros tried to explain

"Then it's settled, we leave in an hour." Ashley said as Carlos, Cassie, and she left the dining area.

"Listen TJ, I'm sorry about snapping at you this morning. It's just, I 'm not used to having people around on the ship." Andros explained.

"It's cool, just why were you working so hard? I mean, that program looked impossible." TJ inquired.

"I like to be prepared," Andros said plainly. TJ just shrugged and left too. Living with four other people was going to be an adjustment, but, truth be told, Andros was happy they were here.

It was a beautiful day at the beach. Plus, the rangers were excited to be back on Earth, alive. Ashley and Andros were sitting and talking, while TJ, Cassie, and Carlos were playing soccer.

"So what was it like before we came? Were you always alone?" Ashley asked him.

"Pretty much," Andros answered plainly, not wanting her to know his true past.

"How did you become a Power Ranger?" She asked him.

"Probably the same way you did," Andros answered, trying to avoid the question. Andros couldn't put his finger on it, but she was different. He liked his other new teammates, but he felt differently about her. He had never felt this way before. He was, however, more confused than anything. It was a weird feeling, and he wished that he could spend more time with her.

Before she could press the issue any further, a bright light appeared, and from it, a group of Quantrons emerged. As the groups on the beach scattered, and once the coast was clear, Andros gave the order, "Let's rocket."

Inputting the familiar code, the five teens morphed into the power rangers. The fight was different than what Andros was used to. In the past, Andros had usually worked very precisely, defeating anything that moved. He had become very accustomed to watching his own back. Now, however, he felt he had to watch over the other rangers. They were admirable fighters, but nowhere near the level that the battle-hardened Andros was.

As the Quantrons continued to attack, the different styles of the five rangers were revealed. TJ was the "muscle" of the group. He pretty much used brute force to try and defeat them. Carlos was more of a well-rounded fighter. He focused on trying to make quick jabs, while trying to finish them off with a series of kicks. Cassie relied on her quickness to defeat them. An assortment of quick kicks and punches slowly, but surely, defeated them. Ashley was focused on the distance. She used her Star Slinger and Astro Blaster to fight the enemy from a distance. Andros was refined to a tee. He was amazingly efficient and precise in his attacks. Always doing just enough to defeat the enemy, and ready to tackle another. He combined all aspects of fighting to help defeat them.

As the battle raged on, more and more Quantrons continued to arrive. Andros had faced these numbers before, but the other rangers had not experienced this since the Power Chamber had been invaded.

"Ashley, watch out!" Carlos shouted as he saw a group of Quantrons approach her from the back. She tried to react, but before they had a time to strike, they were attacked from the rear by Andros.

"Thanks," she said.

"Don't mention it." The fight continued on. Quantrons continued to arrive until, after about 20 minutes of fighting. Astronema and Ecliptor finally arrived.

"So, finally wised up and decided to surrender," Andros stated.

"No," Astronema replied, "We have just come to add another planet to our evil empire. It would make a nice addition to KO-35, don't you think, red ranger?

"Andros isn't that where you are from?" TJ asked as he threw a Quantron to the ground. Andros, however, was too enraged to speak. He simply activated his spiral saber, and charged for the two of them. Ecliptor, Astronema's loyal companion, lunged at Andros. They traded blows, neither wanting to surrender ground. Ecliptor then waved a hand over his face, which caused his eyes to glow before emitting a red laser at Andros.

"Andros, are you okay?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine." Andros responded.

"Rangers, consider this a warning, I am taking Earth, and there is nothing you can do about it." and with that Astronema, Ecliptor, and the remaining Quantrons disappeared.

"Come on guys; let's get back to the ship." Andros said.

As they arrived back on the ship, one thing bothered four of the Rangers, and Carlos was the one to speak up.

"Andros, what did she mean when she said she was adding it to the empire, along with KO-35?"

Andros looked at them for a while, not sure if he should tell them the sad fate of his planet.

"Andros, we're a team now, you can trust us," Ashley said calmly.

Andros sighed realizing that he had to tell them what had happened to his home.

"It all started when I was four years old…"