Chapter 3

Andros stood in his room, looking in the mirror. It had been a week since the incident. The jumpsuit he was wearing had had the left sleeve removed because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to fit his arm in with it in the splint. As he had known it would, the mark from the incision had almost totally disappeared and it was only a week since it had happened. His chest didn't hurt continuously anymore; however it still flared up when he had been playing hard with Zhane, something he tried not to do but was a nearly impossible task. The bruises were starting to disappear; however, a few were still tender.

He and Zhane were supposed to be going out today to get off of the base. Andros was worried because this would be really the first time he left the grounds since he had arrived there. Just then the door nudged open and he jumped. It scared him if anyone tried to enter without announcing themselves because of Zimri.

"Oops, sorry, Andros, I forgot for a minute," Zhane called from the other side of the door.

"It's okay, you can come in, Zhane," Andros called as he went to sit down on his bed.

"You alright?" Zhane asked, and Andros just nodded, "Well, this ought to be interesting; I was just downstairs and Ture arrived. He sure took his sweet time arriving."

Andros' eyes widened. "What do you think is going to happen?"

"Well, I know for sure that unless someone is crazy, Zimri will not be restored but I highly doubt he will face any charges beyond his expulsion. It's unfortunate how much children like the rest of us can get away with just for being who we are; while we are to protect the law its almost as if we are above the law," Zhane explained as Andros dropped his head.

Gaynor knocked on the door. "Hey, you two, Ture just arrived and Kin-Won wants to see everyone, including you, Andros, downstairs ASAP."

Andros looked at Zhane and Zhane just shrugged in return. They both stood up and left the room following Gaynor down the stairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs Andros looked to see a man that looked a lot like Zimri standing with Kin-Won and he didn't look happy. He watched as the five rangers-to-be lined up with Gaynor first, followed by Esiila, who was standing next to Kasch, followed up by Azalia and Zhane. Hurrying to stand beside Zhane, Andros looked a little sheepish and hung his head slightly. Zhane indicated that he should raise his head and look at Kin-Won and Ture in the eyes. He mimicked Zhane's pose as best he could and stood at attention while he listened to the two adults banter on.

"I don't know what the big fuss was about that made me come all the way here abandoning my mission, Kin-Won. If my son was reckless in any way, you could have just contacted my estate and my people would have taken care of any of the damages," Ture said.

"Yes, I could have done that, but it doesn't change the fact that the order has come across that he be expelled," Kin-Won explained to the man.

"Kin-Won, what could my son have possibly done that would get him expelled and his rights as my heir revoked?" the man demanded, oblivious to Andros or the rangers in training.

"Where should I begin Ture? The rule breaking, the beating up of members of this base? Do you want me to continue Ture?" Kin-Won demanded.

"No, but I want clarification on these charges. And why do you have the other rangers in training assembled?" he asked, finally noticing them.

"And is that an assistant to one of the rangers?" he said, noticing Andros. "Go on, boy, you should know you place. Get lost," Ture said, trying to shoe Andros out of the room.

"No, Ture, I asked Andros to join them. He knows his place but the fact is he is related to this case. Six months ago, Andros was placed in my care to fulfill a promise I made to his father," Kin-won explained.

"So does it look like I care? Did I ever care about the stupid assistant program? No, I never did. In fact, if my son is the reason he has that splint on his arm I say good for my son."

Andros felt sick as he heard the man speak. How could he be so harsh towards someone just because of how they were born and the class they were born to? He didn't sound much like his hero the red ranger he had heard so much about from when he had been growing up at home with his parents. He felt like crying and he knew Azalia knew it too, because though she stood at attention her eyes shifted ever so little in his direction.

Kin-Won looked Andros' way. "I think we should continue this behind closed doors seeing as it is not going as productively as I had hoped."

As soon as Kin-Won and Ture went into the office and closed the door the Rangers in training turned to Andros. "Andros, I know he is a jerk but you have to try to compose yourself better," Kasch said to his face.

Azalia turned to Kasch. "He wasn't raised how we were; he has never been conditioned to stand in a salute that long. Go easy on him," she said as she turned and stalked off going her own direction.

Slowly, everyone started to leave and go their own directions to do what they wanted to do, seeing as there was no training. Andros started to head back to his room where he was going to finish getting ready to go out with Zhane to get off the base when Esiila stopped him.

"Andros, I know you had plans, but I was wondering if you would come with me to the computer core. I want to investigate some things my uncle seems quite suspicious; he had a certain glint in his eye when he looked at you."

An hour later, Andros was sitting beside Esiila as she searched the databases for anything that looked relevant to her uncle. She finally found an article that looked relevant, but when she clicked on it, a message came up informing them that it was in a protected folder and an access code was required to enter. On the code line there were places for ten numbers.

"Oh, come on what kind of a code has ten numbers," she exclaimed. As she looked around for inspiration, her gaze fixed on Andros' locket. "Andros, can I see that for a minute?"

Andros gave her a questioning look before slipping it off his head and handing it to her.

"Andros, you said your father gave you this, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "Is your sister's exactly like this one?"

Again he nodded and gave her a questioning look. He watched as she looked it over turning it around in her hands. She opened it up and looked it all over. She was about to hand it back to Andros when she caught a glimpse of the reflection of the locket on a shiny surface; the designs when turned backwards in a reflection took on the appearance of numbers, She immediately started decoding the designs of the locket. When she was through she had filled up each number spot on the codes line. She handed the locket back to Andros.

She hit enter and to her surprise the code went through. Now she was puzzled; why would the son of a laborer have a locket with a pass code encoded onto it? Andros looked at her as he put his locket back around his neck. He had gotten good at doing everything with his right arm in the last week.

"Guess what; I'm in!" she said, sounding excited as the hidden and locked files showed up on the screen.

As she scrolled through the files, she gasped as she came to one that had Andros' sister's name written as the title. She opened it and started scrolling through it. "Oh my goodness, Andros, look at this. It's about your sister's kidnapping."

Andros turned around and looked on the screen reading the article. "Zimri's father was the one who pulled the plug on the search on my sister? He said it wasn't worth the while to be searching for a commoner's daughter," he gasped, as he summarized the article.

Esiila clenched her fist as she read it. "I can't believe my uncle could be so mean. He is almost worse then his son, if not worse, but this is one article. Do you want me to see if I can find anything else related?" she asked, and he nodded, so she backed up the search till she was back at the list of files. Just out of curiosity, she hit the sort by date tab and the files reorganized.

She found an article that had been entered fairly recently. It was a personal journal entry written by Ture himself. She gasped as she looked through a few more files before going back to the last file. "I don't know how but somehow we hacked into my uncle's personal network. These all are files in his personal database, Andros."

She read the file a bit then summarized it to Andros eager to log out of the database as soon as she could. "My uncle, Andros, he had your father killed for some reason. It wasn't an accident, they had some form of grudge as children; I am not sure what as it isn't clear but we need to take this matter to Kin-Won."

Esiila and Andros ran to Kin-Won's office to find him doing paperwork and Ture nowhere in sight. "Kin-Won," Esiila cried as she ran into the office. "First, I want to apologize for looking at restricted files in the database but my curiosity got the best of me. I found a file here in the database that allows a hack into my uncle's personal network. My uncle was behind the halt of the investigation of Andros' sister and I found a personal entry log that said he was behind Andros' father's death."

Kin-Won raised his hand to signal her to stop. "Yes, I knew about the hack. I was aware of the grudge between your uncle and Andros' father. It happened right here inside these walls." He explained and Andros got wide eyed. "Emmett was Ture's assistant; however, he didn't last long here before he was blackmailed out. I knew your father, Andros, was a righteous man and that he couldn't have done half the things that were laid claim to so we worked together through out the years to try and clear his name. We hacked Ture's files and found out some of the information; however, Ture caught on and had your father murdered, Andros."

Andros fell to his knees and cried. It hurt him to know the truth. After a few minutes, he wiped his tears and looked at Kin-Won, "Were you just using me as a tool to try to clear my father's name?"

Kin-Won shook his head. "No, I was never doing that. I saw a look in your eyes that told me you could stand against the storm that your father was never able to." He paused and looked at Esiila. "Esiila, take him upstairs and pack a bag of civilian clothes. It is going to get rough in here for the next few days. When you have that done, take him to this address. I have a friend there who will take him in till this cools down."

He handed her a piece of paper. "You must hurry, though, because Ture will be returning with Zimri very shortly."

Esiila did just as she was told and within five minutes they had a bag packed and were running out a back entrance so they wouldn't be seen by her uncle if he happened to return before they got out of the neighborhood. When they got to the address, they stopped briefly to straighten their messed hair and make themselves look presentable to meet a stranger. Going up to the door Esiila knocked and when the door opened she curtsied.

"Are you Tykwa?"

"Yes I am. How may I help you two?" the woman asked, and noticing the symbol on their uniforms, she ushered them inside. "You were sent by Kin-Won weren't you?"

Esiila nodded and Tykwa continued as she looked at Andros. "You're Emmett's son, aren't you? You look just like him."

"Kin-Won told me to bring Andros here to stay for a few days until he can settle things down at the base," Esiila explained and Tykwa cocked an eyebrow. "Ture is at the base trying to get his son, my cousin, restored to his station and Ture was behind Emmett's death and Zimri, Ture's son, was the one who beat Andros into this condition."

"I see," she sighed, looking at the two children. "We put this plan together several months ago, knowing when Kin-Won took you in, Andros, that it would come to this." She paused as she pulled something out of her desk. "Esiila, before going back to the base, stop at the market and pick these things up. It is your cover story if your uncle questions why you left the base. Say nothing about bringing Andros to me. Just pick these up and when you return just go right to Kin-Won's office and set them on his desk. If your uncle asks you anything about running errands tell him you were bored and volunteered to go to just give you something to do."

Esiila ducked her head before taking the supply list and the change pouch before leaving the house.

Tykwa turned to Andros. "How about we get you upstairs and all settled in?" She led him upstairs and into a spare room where she took the bag and put the clothes away in some drawers, leaving one set out. "Change into this and hide your jumpsuit so that if anyone was searching this room it wouldn't be found, then come down stairs and I will fix you an early dinner."

"Why do I need to hide my jumpsuit?" Andros asked as she started to leave the room.

"There is no guarantee you are safe even here for the next few days. If you hide it and someone comes and searches the room, how are they to tell that it is you who is staying here?"

Andros nodded and as soon as she left he did as he was told. Coming down the stairs, he found Tykwa in the kitchen cooking something for an as-promised early dinner. However, he got a surprise when she told him to sit at the table and put his left arm on the towel that was sitting there. He looked at her questioningly but obeyed.

"Andros this is probably going to hurt a fair bit but the splint is regulation, so I am going to have to take it off and hide it for the time being. I have a temporary one but it is made for sprains and after this kind of splint is no longer needed. It will allow for your arm to move more but try to resist moving it, alright? It will serve to restrict the motion and keeping you from rebreaking those already broken bones in that arm."

Gently she released the clamps that kept his wrist motionless. He bit his lip as the movement across his skin made the pain flare back up. As she went to remove the second clamp in the same area, he just about screamed. She handed him an apple and told him to bite into it if he felt the urge to scream. By the time she had undone all the securing clamps he had bitten through ten different apples splitting several of them nearly in half. However, that wasn't the end of the torture, as he found out.

Gently, she removed his arm from the splint and placed it on the towel, where she gently rubbed it down with some warm soapy water. Every little rub on his skin felt like torture. After drying it off, she gently placed his arm in the temporary splint and did the straps up tightly enough to immobilize his wrist, but as soon as she was finished he realized how right she was that it wasn't as sturdy as his old one.

After she was done she picked everything up and hid the splint. He sat there holding his arm and fighting back the tears from the agony. Tykwa soon brought the food over and along with it she brought a mild painkiller. It was nothing compared to what he had gotten from the infirmary but it numbed the pain a small bit.

LLLL

Later that night, Andros tried to sleep in the strange bed; however whenever he moved he found his arm in a very uncomfortable position. He didn't know when he finally slept but he knew he didn't get much of it. The same routine happened for the rest of the week.

It was Sunday before he saw anyone from the base and then it was Azalia and Gaynor. They walked up to the door and Andros hid as Tykwa had told him to anytime anyone came to the door, even if he knew who they were. When she let them in, he came out of his hiding spot. The first words out of his mouth were, "Can I come back to the base now?"

Azalia laughed. "Yes that's the whole reason we were sent here to get you. The ceremony for removal is later today and Kin-Won wants you there."

He got a huge smile on his face; he wanted nothing more then to go back sleep in his own bed and get his real splint back on. He didn't think he could stand another day with the flimsy one on.

Tykwa nodded and led the three of them into the kitchen where she changed the splint back to the hard one. It hurt just as bad putting on the hard one but he tried not to scream. He just nearly twisted Azalia's arm off every time she did something. "There, when you get a chance it will have to be resized in the infirmary, but it will do for now."

Going up to the room he put his jumpsuit on and left with Azalia and Gaynor. Upon arriving at the base, they led him straight to the auditorium where everyone else was and took a seat in the front row with them and the rest of the rangers in training.

The first to walk out on stage was Zimri and when that happened Andros' five friends stood at attention in respect to their former teammate. During this time his badges and insignia were removed from his uniform and it was announced that he was hereby forbidden to be within a hundred meters of the base and that if he broke that or any other rule he could face banishment. He was led between two armed guards and forced to stand between them for the rest of the ceremony.

It shocked everyone greatly when two more armed guards approached Ture and took him into custody and led him towards Kin-Won, where it was announced that he was as well here by stripped of his title and power. The morpher was removed from his wrist and he was sentenced to the removal of all his property and estate along with twenty years of jail time in the Eltarian imperial prison for misusing his power.

Ture was led to the wall as well and forced to watch the next part, which surprised everyone. Kin-Won turned to address the audience. "As you all now know, we no longer have a red ranger in training or an active red ranger. As such, I am standing here now to announce who the next person is that will train to be the red ranger."

He paused as he searched the crowd before letting his eye's fall on Andros. "Andros, will you please come up here?"

Andros remained sitting, not really registering what had happened in the last few moments until Kasch started pushing him towards the stage. When he got up there, Kin-Won placed his hands on his shoulders and turned him around. With out asking out loud the other rangers in training walked up and stood at attention.

Kin-won turned to them. "Will the five of you agree to follow Andros and take him one day as your team leader?"

Each one of them nodded individually and after picking up a uniform jacket similar to what they wore and draping it over his shoulders, he led Andros to stand at the end next to Gaynor. The whole audience stood and applauded Kin-Won's decision.