Disclaimer: I still don't own the Power Rangers. That honor belongs to Disney.
That had been a complete waste of time. Karone sighed, walking through the Megaship corridors aimlessly. Kinwon had called to give them a status update of the recolonization, and to tell them that they hadn't received any word of her and Andros' parents yet.
Andros could have easily relayed that over the communicator, or waited until she got back to the ship. Karone debated going back to the beach, but it just didn't seem worth it. It would be dawn in a few hours anyway, she should probably try to get some sleep.
But a few minutes later, Karone found herself outside the door to her brother's room. Andros was still on the bridge, she knew that, so there was no sense in knocking. "DECA," she asked softly, "is Andros' room locked?"
"No" DECA said simply. Karone took that as permission to go inside. She knew that the ranges' quarters where private, but she hoped Andros wouldn't mind.
The lights turned on automatically when she entered the room. It was similar to her own in design, and there wasn't much more in the way of decoration. The one exception being the photographs, the same ones both she and Andros carried in their lockets.
Karone walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. She smiled seeing the Digi-album was sill there. Andros had showed it to her the first time she was here, before she had been captured again.
Karone sighed softly, sitting down on Andros' bed and started flipping through the photos to find her favorite one: a family portrait. She smiled sadly, touching the image of her mother's face. Andros had been right, there was a definite similarity between them. she wondered if her mother would recognize her. Karone closed here eyes, more importantly, she wondered if they could forgive her. She didn't really expect them too. But Andros had. And she hadn't expected him to either. She sighed. She just hoped she would have the chance to see her parents again, to have the chance to apologize for everything she had done as Astronema.
She shifted further onto the bed, leaning back against the wall. She wanted to look through more photos, but she really didn't want to invade his privacy any more than she already had. He had only showed her a few pictures last time, and she didn't know what else he had stored in the Digi-album.
She settled for looking through the few that she had already seen. They where mostly of her and Andros as children, all probably taken within a year or so before she was kidnaped. What would things have been like if she had grown up on KO-35? "Different," she said to herself quietly, "better."
It was amazing how much the air could cool down in just a few hours. Karone sat on a large rock on the beach, staring out over the waves. It was just before dawn. She had never watched the sunrise before. At least, not from the surface of a planet. And it was certainly different from space.
The wind had picked up quite a bit, adding to the chill in the air. Karone pulled her jacket tighter around her. She had considered going to an eastern coast line, so she could see the sun come up over the water, but it felt like it was too far away. That was ridiculous of course, DECA could teleport her to any point on the planet in only a few
seconds. And with the ship in orbit around Earth, there couldn't be any place that was closer. Still, anything outside of Angel Grove seemed foreign and far.
It probably would have been safer to go somewhere else, even one of the small uninhabited islands of the planet, or one of the more primitive nations, where she was less likely to be recognized.
Karone sighed, watching the grayness start to turn blue. She more felt than heard someone coming up behind her. She turned around slowly, "What are you doing up so early?"
"Worrying about you," Zhane said, sitting down on the rock next to her. "DECA told me you hadn't been to bed all night."
"I couldn't sleep," she told him.
"It's not what you thought it'd be, is it?"
Karone shook her head, "I don't know what I thought it'd be like. I guess I didn't think about it," she admitted.
"Regretting coming here?" Zhane asked in his usual light-hearted way, but his eyes where serious.
Karone didn't say anything. They both knew she hadn't really had a choice.
"We can go back to KO-35 if you want." Karone almost smiled, if she didn't know any better, she'd swear Zhane was able to read her mind.
She shook her head, "I couldn't ask that of Andros. I know how hard it was for him to leave, but he did it because he loves her. I could never ask him to give that up for me."
Karone could feel Zhane watching her. She looked up at the sky, the stars where fading quickly now, only the brightest still shown in the now bright blue sky. The first rays of the sun would break over the horizon behind her any minute now.
"It won't be like this forever you know. People will get tired of us soon enough," he said grinning. When she didn't say anything, Zhane put an arm around her. Karone closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder.
She trusted Zhane, she had trusted him even before she had found out about Andros. She had hated herself for that when she had still been Astronema, for the feelings she had for him, for making herself vulnerable like that. Now, she was grateful for it.
Zhane smiled as he felt Karone's breathing slow to a steady rhythm. He was having a hard time adjusting to this life, he could only imagine what she was going through. Carefully, he leaned down to kiss the top of her head as the first rays of the sun spilled out behind them.
