Disclaimer - I own nothing but the plot and the upcoming surprise.

Who is Ashley?

"We meet when we were 6 years old. We were both in the hospital, I had a broken arm and she was in a coma. They put us in the same room and it was very awkward for me for a few days. Then one day I heard a mutter, she had woken up. I called the nurse immediately. The nurse said that she was in a plane crash and had no one. Nobody came and visited her she had no family, no friends. Plus she didn't remember anything but that she liked the name Ashley for some reason. When she woke up she was confused she saw me and smiled. We did eventually decide to call her Ashley. We became best friends. I left to go home and gave her my phone number. She was going to an orphanage. Then one day about a month later a family moved in next door to my house. I saw a girl my age get out of the car. It was Ashley. I ran outside and hugged her were never been separated since."

Everyone looks at Cassie in disbelief this was the most she has spoken all day.

Carlos speaks up "Once they entered Angel Grove Middle we all met and became best friends. About a year later we met Tommy, Kat, Tanya, Adam, and Justin. Once we all entered Angel Grove High School TJ, Cassie, and I got our powers."

Zhane looked confused again "What about Justin and this Ashley?"

TJ nods and answers Zhane's question.

"Justin was prompted to High School too and he still claimed the blue morpher with us like he did before. Ashley never took her morpher she refused it."

Zhane laughs "Why would anyone reject great power?"

Cassie nods in agreement with a smirk on her face, she explains further. Cassie seemed to get comfortable telling those about who were lacking knowledge about her old friend.

"Being Ashley she didn't think she was good enough for it."

TJ and Carlos tried to fight back laughter but failed.

TJ spoke in between laughs "That's Ash" (laugh) "For you!"

Karone speaks up with a smile on her face."What's so funny?"

Carlos stops laughing first."Because when you first look at her or just meet her she's one of the sweetest and the friendliest girl you'll ever meet, then you get as close as we were she turns out to be one piece of art."

"Explain." Asks Zhane

By now everyone but Andros had taken a seat on the floor of the bridge. He just sat in a chair trying to be good.

TJ replies after thinking of a nice way to explain.

"Ashley is a unique girl. One minute she'll be giggling and hanging with us, then if someone does something to her and gets her mad. Well you better run if you want to live, because once Ash gets really mad you'll be lucky if you survive."

"She's a female version of Andros now that I think of it." Giggles Cassie.

Everyone burst out laughing even Andros has a tiny tug on his lips.

Zhane is surprisingly the one to continue the conversation.

"How much damage can a little, non-power ranger girl do?"

TJ and Carlos shrugs, not wanting to answer the question.

But lucky for them Cassie did answer

"Well..." she glares at the two shrugging boys "She did like to watch and help us train."

Zhane is about to argue when Cassie put her finger up to stop him.

"Even though she refused the power we allowed her access to the chamber so we won't shut her out from our lives because we were Rangers, she was our best friend and we respected her choice. Now back on the good point. Oh yeah she helped us all the time I faded remember no, I totally remember her battling TJ once"

Karone glares at TJ who saw and moves farther away from her.

Zhane threw his hands in the air.

"So TJ hit a girl what's the problem, her fault right?"

Cassie continues "Actually she was also fighting Carlos, Adam, Tommy, and Justin"

Andros's head shoots up "What! One on five that's not fair. Plus she didn't have any powers…"

Andros kept babbling until Karone's purple magic covered his mouth.

Everyone knew she had witch-like powers, she made sure to use them often, mostly on Zhane.

Andros glares at her.

"It is fair Andros, if Ashley whipped these five boys' butts to shame." says Cassie

Andros eyebrows shoot up in confusion.

Soon Karone's magic fades from her own shock.

"Yep, even though Ash didn't have a morpher she did beat the boys all at once. Ashley never saw herself as strong, smart, or a leader." Cassie grins as she looks at the two boy's embarrassment.

Zhane's jaw looked like it was about to fall off.

"What do you mean leader?" Andros asks.

TJ finally finds his nerve and spoke.

"Ash was always a better leader than all of us combined."

TJ sees the confusion between the three space rangers.

"I know she would have been given the red morpher but there is a gender thing going on and I was offered it instead. You don't know how many times I almost gave it to her but it was linked to me."

"Don't forget how many times you got your morpher taken away from you." Cassie jumps in excited.

"What?" says Zhane.

"Oh yeah, we finally got Ashley up to the chamber one day and Carlos found some very sticky glue and glued the yellow morpher to her wrist. Ashley freaked out until Justin came and calmed her down. She was always partial to him. After that things went good and if you did something to dishonor your power like hurt someone, give up, or disbelieved in yourself Ashley took your morpher away from you but gave it back when you deserved it again in her eyes."

Cassie stares up at Karone and smiles, a real smile for once today.

Karone looks over at Andros, he was still. She turns to Zhane who is biting his lip. He asks "What happened?"

TJ makes a questioning sound.

"You know, that day you lost our chamber. I'm clueless."

Carlos and Cassie tense at the question.

Karone mutters something under her breath along the lines of "Brainless too"

Cassie looks up and tells the tale.

"We were in the chamber. Divatox had found it, we never thought anyone could or would find our secret chamber. We were hiding in the control room waiting for what will happen. We couldn't run, it was one of our three rules. Never run from a fight unless you're forced. We had nowhere to run to though. TJ was trying to think of a plan. He looked over at Ashley for help and she nodded. Ashley looked down a Justin and I saw pain flash through her eyes. Justin saw that Carlos and I were frightened and that's when he became scared too. He was only 14 years old. Ashley was always close to Justin ever since they met. Justin grew up without a mother; once Ashley came into the picture she filled that missing piece in Justin's life. Ashley was practically his mother she treated him like her own son. Ashley loved him like a mother and her son. It almost killed Ash to see him hurt or scared. I know with all my heart that the worst one effected about the explosion and Ashley dying is Justin. I remember Ash getting down on her knees to look into his eyes as she spoke to him. She explained to him that everything was going to be fine and that he will see his dad again. Ashley finally got up and took charge, telling us that if we put our minds together and worked as a team, we will win this fight. But then the ceiling was about to collapse right above Justin, we hear and saw Ash scream and launch herself to throw herself and him across the room while the ceiling fell. That's when we all morphed and the battle beginning I saw everyone fighting hard most Ash I saw she was also get beat up pretty hard. A few months after she got her morpher we established at she fought better un-morphed. So she wasn't doing so hot in this fight."

Andros and Zhane shared the same thought and they both spoke it.

"But that's impossible she would have to be powerful than, well Zordon."

Cassie shrugs and goes back to the story.

"That's what we thought and believed. Well we knew we were losing the battle and I saw Ash look around for something. I didn't know what it was; now I do. Ash got hit in the helmet and stumbled back, she settled herself when we heard Ash yell at us to back up. We did but I saw that Justin was still in the battle fighting his hardest when Ash grabbed him and pulled him back kicking off a few enemies while she was at it. Justin was trying to keep fighting when Ash begged him to stop."

Zhane, Andros, and Karone's eyes widen in shock that Ashley was begging for him not to fight.

"Ashley pushed Justin into TJ while he grabbed him. We wondered what Ash was going to do when she ran and slammed her fist on the escape button, an escape pod enclosed around us. None of the enemies were inside they were just staring at the pod like idiots. Also Ash was not in the pod. We yelled at her to let us out when she shook her head and said something, she said that she wouldn't let us die when there was another solution. She also said that she loved us. At that moment her same fist hit the launch button. We were thrown from the chamber. We landed somewhere far from the chamber but we could still see it. It seemed that Divatox didn't see us escape. We got us and looked at the chamber about to go back when it exploded. The explosion was so powerful it threw us onto our backs. Ashley sacrificed her own life for us and all her family knows is that she died in a factory fire. After Divatox left we searched everywhere for her, we found nothing."

Tears started to fall from the three Earth ranger's eyes.

At that moment Justin entered the bridge.

Not knowing anything about what was going on.

Justin just asks sadly he clearly knew what day it was."What?"

Karone got up and gave Justin a big hug holding him close.

Justin looks around at the other ranger's faces and sees Cassie in tears.

Tears start to fall from his own eyes as he held onto Karone's embrace.

He knew why Karone hugged him

He knew why his friends were quiet

He knew why Cassie was crying

He knew he couldn't be strong anymore, so he let go and cried into Karone's arms.

Andros saw Zhane almost crying too.

Andros now knew why they cared so much about this girl.

Ashley wasn't just another ranger, friend, or mother that died.

She was the reason any of them were alive.

And she's wasn't here.

All the rangers cried or in Andros's case felt bad.

For one person

Ashley Hammond.

R&R Hope you enjoyed it!

AshlenH