Ch 9
Ashley had been quiet all day.
Too quiet.
In fact, for the past fourteen hours, Ashley had spent most of the night outside of her room, walking around the ship almost aimlessly. She had ventured nearly every room on the Astro Megaship in one night, looking for something or perhaps looking for nothing in particular.
And Andros had noticed.
Even as he sat on the bridge, he was using DECA's eyes around the ship to watch her, wondering what she could have possibly been up to. When he had first run into her earlier that morning, she had seemed a little off. She had acknowledged him with a glance before disappearing into the Megalift, though DECA had informed him later that she had only just arrived on the bridge moments before he had.
And what was stranger still to him was that she had been silent. In the five days that he had known her, she had never failed to speak out something that was on her mind. Even if she thought he might be angry or annoyed with her, she had always spoken to him anyway. But when she had looked up to see him on the bridge, she had cast her eyes down and hurried past him, saying nothing at all. And that was what had peaked his interest in her current activity.
Andros could tell in an instant that she had not slept that night at all, even before checking with DECA. Ashley's eyes had been swollen and red, something that he could see in the short time that he had seen her face. Something was bothering her.
But nothing had changed since yesterday that he could think of, except maybe…
Andros turned his head suddenly when a familiar scent filled the bridge followed by the sound of shuffling feet came from behind him. He must have been staring into oblivion for quite some time now. Ashley was no longer on the screen in front of him but behind him now, standing quietly by the door leading to the bridge.
"Ashley?" he asked, craning his neck to see her, stopping her in her tracks with his voice as she turned to walk away. "Ashley, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Without a word, Ashley walked onto the bridge and stood a few feet in front of Andros, her head down and her eyes cast away from him just as she had done before.
"Is everything okay?" Andros asked her after a moment.
Ashley nodded and said nothing.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes," Ashley said softly.
She was talking again, a good sign as far as he was concerned. "It's just that you seem a little… distant," he said. "I just wanted to make sure that nothing was wrong."
"Nothing's wrong," she said.
"Well, I was monitoring the ship earlier and it seemed like you might have been looking for something," Andros said.
"I was just a little bored," Ashley said. "I couldn't sleep, so I walked around for a while. That's all."
Andros let out a sigh and reached into his pocket, pulling out the envelope. "If this is about yesterday, I'm sorry if I yelled at you about this," he said. "But it's really important to me and –"
"You didn't yell," she said, glancing from her feet to the envelope in his hand. "And you don't have to explain anything about the envelope, Andros. If you don't want to talk about it, I don't either."
"But it's something that I did, right?" he asked. "I said something to make you mad."
"You didn't do anything, Andros," she said, shaking her head. "And I'm not mad or sad or whatever you think I am right now. I'm just… fine. Now, can I go?"
"Sure," Andros said, stuffing the envelope back into his pocket as Ashley gave it a last glance before leaving the bridge again.
Whatever was bothering Ashley, Andros could say without a doubt that it was something that he had done. But if she did not want to talk about it, there was not anything that he could do about it right now.
Andros turned back to the main viewing screen, shutting off the small screen that he had been using to watch Ashley as he wondered how much of what she had said had been a lie. Maybe she really was not sad, but she was definitely not in the best of moods at the moment.
The more he thought about it, the more concerned he felt. No, not concerned, he corrected himself. He just needed to make sure that it was not his fault that she felt that way. And she had assured him that she was just fine, though not very convincingly. So he kept thinking about it, just knowing that she would come back at any minute and tell him what was bothering her so much. And he sat there waiting for her even as his eyes begun the close…
***
When Andros opened his eyes, he was still on the bridge and he let out a long sigh.
"What's the matter?" Arcadia asked, coming up behind him and sitting on his lap. "You thought I wouldn't be here?"
"Well, the last time I saw you, you told me quite a few things that didn't make much sense to me," Andros replied. "And I'd like to steer clear of those topics if you don't mind."
"That's okay with me," she said with a nod. "I'd much rather talk about that Ashley girl this time."
"What?"
"That Ashley girl," Arcadia repeated with a smile. "She's obviously very important to you."
"No, she isn't," Andros said.
"Then, why is she here?" she asked, nodding behind him.
Andros swiveled around in his chair to face the doorway, finding Ashley leaning against the wall. She smiled at him and waved briefly before slowly backing out of the bridge.
"What did she want?" Andros asked, unable to put aside his confusion through Arcadia's light kisses on his neck.
"You're the one who called her here," Arcadia answered, running her fingers through his hair.
"I can't imagine why she would need to be here," Andros said.
"Because we're perfectly happy on our own," Arcadia agreed. "We don't care that she's upset, even if we're the ones that caused it."
Andros pulled back from her. "How did we cause it?" he asked. "She was fine. You just saw."
"You see what you want to see," Arcadia said. "And Zhane's next, so be careful."
"What do you mean 'Zhane's next'?" he asked her as she got up from his lap and began to walk away.
"Just be careful," she said.
***
"I am so tired of waking you up all the time," Zhane said as Andros' eyes fluttered open.
"Then, stop waking me," Andros replied, sitting up in his chair and taking a quick glance around to confirm that he was still on the ship's bridge.
"We're going to Onyx, Andros," Zhane said. "Things are getting very serious very fast… The guys and I decided that we should take a night to relax before we get there, maybe have a movie night or something. You kind of already missed the first one since DECA couldn't wake you… again."
"The Simudeck?" Andros asked.
"Yeah," Zhane confirmed.
"Is Ashley there?" he asked as he got to his feet.
"Of course," Zhane answered. "Why?"
"It's just… Did she seem a little…different today?"
"You mean, did I notice how quiet she's been since yesterday?" Zhane asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, I did… But she kept saying that she was okay, so I haven't tried to talk to her about it since this morning. That's why we all decided on relaxing for tonight. Something's weighing on her mind and I was hoping to help get her mind off of it. She seemed kind of tense… So are you in or not?"
"I'm in," Andros said, following Zhane to the Simudeck.
When they reached the Simudeck, everyone else was already there, sitting in the simulated beanbag chairs and on sleeping bags enjoying some very real buttered popcorn. Andros looked around, seeing the two spaces on the floor for him and Zhane in front of the large screen. Ashley would be sitting right behind him in a chair once he sat down and Andros glanced over at her, wondering if her mood might have changed. But she never looked his way, staring distantly at the screen as he and Zhane sat down on the floor.
"So, what are we watching?" Zhane asked.
"It's the same movie, Zhane," Cassie answered. "You missed the part where the guy gets sucked into the bed."
"Aw, man," Zhane whined a little. "That would've been cool."
"Scary stuff?" Andros asked.
"Some of it," Kim answered. "But I doubt any of these movies would scare you."
"I just want to make sure that I understand," Andros said, shaking his head. "We're relaxing by watching scary movies all night?"
"Not all night," Carlos said. "We agreed on some other types of movies too."
"But this is one of the better ones," Tommy said, passing Andros and Zhane a bowl of popcorn. "Unfortunately, it's also almost over now."
Andros took a handful of popcorn, eating it piece by piece until it was gone, watching the fairly gory movie about a monster with long metal claws and teenagers who fought to stay awake. It was actually interesting, to his surprise. And he could admit that he actually felt relaxed watching it instead of the ceiling as he had planned to do in his room.
Before he knew it, he had watched two more movies with them with sharks, psychos, and fiery explosions. He could not help feeling that these images were meant to frighten him, especially once the lights were turned off, but he found himself oddly excited whenever something unexpected or completely expected seemed to happen. It was almost… fun. And even he groaned in disappointment when T.J. announced that they were down to the last movie.
"Well, I have a few movies," Zhane said with a smile. "But they aren't very scary."
"Cool," Cassie said. "What are they about?"
"Did you want to see?" Zhane asked.
"Yeah, put it in," Aisha said as the others agreed.
Zhane walked up to the screen and pulled a tiny white disc from his pocket, placing it in the compartment on its side.
Andros looked up at the screen as the entire room seemed to go dark just as an orchestra of music filled the room and the title 'Mind Snatcher – a film by Zeke Ian' stretched across the screen and protruded out toward them in three dimensions. They must not have had holographic films on Earth, Andros assumed as the rangers gasped a little in awe.
The title sounded familiar, Andros thought to himself, trying to remember what it was about as more music played and credits seemingly rose up from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling. But as the music subsided and the opening credits ended, Andros' eyes widened as he suddenly remembered something important about the movie.
"We can't watch this," he said, leaning over to whisper to Zhane.
"Why not? It's a good movie," Zhane said.
"But Camilla's in it," Andros said.
"We all are," Zhane replied. "Besides, I like Camilla."
Andros shook his head with a sigh, sitting back up and looking at the screen as Camilla walked across the floor and smoothed down her hair, seemingly waiting for someone to walk up to her as she turned to no one. After a few moments and a quick gesture to someone offscreen, a holographic Andros stumbled into view, looking back at the extra hands that had shoved him with a frown.
"Deas, it's been a while since I've seen you around," Camilla's character said to him. "What brings you here?"
"Harlequi called, said something about it being urgent," he said, rushing through his dialogue. "I wouldn't be here otherwise. Did she call you?"
"Mesmerus called me," Camilla replied. "He told me he was ready to make me an offer."
"Offer?"
"On his reason for living," Camilla said. "I've been waiting for an answer for two months now and now I'm finally close enough to get it."
"Or so you might think," a dark-haired teen said, jumping dramatically into frame with a smile and fake moustache.
"Who's that?" Cassie asked Zhane.
"Tylan," he replied, shaking his head at the giggles that Tylan's entrance had caused on and off the screen. "He was the Blue Ranger. He was always a little melodramatic."
The rangers continued to watch the amateur movie, smiling as Tylan stumbled through his dialogue and broke out into cheesy monologues, usually laughing harder than his audience by the end of his scenes. Andros glanced around at the others, not feeling comfortable enough to laugh with them just yet, although it was pretty funny to him too. And even Ashley smiled a little, still seemingly not in the mood to laugh just yet, but she appeared to enjoy the movie as much as the others.
And Andros was okay watching it for now, he told himself. He was really okay. But it would very quickly turn into a test for him. Would he really be able to handle seeing Arcadia? But had just seen her in a dream and he had handled that well. And yet, somehow it would be different seeing her image protruding from the screen. In his dream, Arcadia was alive and they were happy. There was no feeling of loss when he was there.
But in front of them, the rangers that reminded him just by being there that his first team was gone forever, it was hard to see any of them onscreen and he wondered if he would be able to watch the rest of their horrible movie. He would know soon enough though. The movie was nearing its end and Arcadia's lines were coming up.
"So you're the one that I was looking for all this time?" Andros asked someone out of frame with a sigh. "I can't believe it was you."
Walking gracefully into view was Arcadia, wearing a paper crown on her head. "Of course it was me, Deas," she said with a smile. "I told you then that I would never leave you. And I've stayed true to my word."
"Except… I'm not Deas," Andros said to her, stepping closer to her. "Can't you look into my eyes and see that?"
"Irosin?" she questioned as he held her hand. "Is it really you?"
"It is," he answered, gradually improving his acting as he looked into her eyes. "Deas has been gone for some time now, at least seven years. And he was the one who tried to drown Mesmerus, but I knew no one would ever believe me. And he never loved you like I did… So I used the power of the Shuwan Challis to switch minds with Deas and I've been watching over you ever since."
"Turn it off," Andros whispered to Zhane, staring at Arcadia with tears in his eyes.
"Why?" Zhane asked, not bothering to notice his friend's tears. "There's only thirty more minutes."
"Turn it off," Andros said louder as his character and Arcadia's faces slowly came toward each other in a kiss. "Turn it off, now."
"It's almost over," Zhane said. "And my part's coming up."
"Then forward to your part," Andros said angrily. "I don't want to see this anymore."
"Andros, I know you feel like –" he began.
"Stop simulation," Andros said firmly as he got to his feet, making the screen, chairs, and sleeping bags immediately disappear before walking over to the small panel. He walked back to Zhane after ejecting his disc and dropped it into his lap. "You can watch something else."
Zhane stood up angrily. "What's wrong with you?" he asked. "Can't we do anything without you ruining it with your inability to let things go?"
"I told you that I didn't want to see that movie," Andros said. "I had hoped that you cared enough about me as a friend to put in something different. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by that. You didn't care about how I might feel when you invited these people onto our ship or when you handed out our friends' rooms and clothes. You didn't even see how I might feel about seeing Arcadia when you started the film."
Zhane glanced around at the other rangers, who either pretended to not listen or who lowered their eyes guiltily, and Zhane narrowed his eyes at Andros. "I thought that you might feel the way I feel when I'm reminded of them or when I see them in stuff like this –happy. I like remembering how much fun we used to have together in this room and I thought that I would share a few of those memories with our new friends, who never got to know our team. I didn't do this to upset you."
"But you didn't even ask me if I thought it might bother me," Andros yelled. "I lost –"
"Shut UP," Zhane shouted over him and all eyes were immediately on him. "I have listened to you whine all year about what you lost and how you feel. But you're not the only person who lost someone, Andros! I lost Camilla and Arcadia and Tylan and Zeke just like you did. And I've tried to do everything your way since then, following orders from you like your Second-in-Command because you made me feel like I had failed as a leader. But somewhere along the way you forgot that I led our team six years before that without issue."
"The team that isn't around anymore?" Andros snapped back.
"Say that again," Zhane said, walking up to him.
Adam stood up and put a hand between them to separate them, being the closest one to them at the moment. "Calm down, guys," he said. "We can't fight Astronema on different teams. We have to prepare for Onyx tomorrow and we're going to need each other to get out of that place alive."
"He's right," Cassie said, tugging at Zhane's pants leg from where she sat. "We can watch something else. We'll watch the end of the movie some other time when Andros is ready. It's okay."
"When Andros is ready," Zhane repeated, shaking his head and walking out of the room. "Unbelievable."
"I'll be on the bridge," Andros said after he heard Zhane's footsteps fade away to nothing.
He breezed past the others with a heavy sigh, none of them daring to look at him as angry as he seemed. Even then, Andros glanced back at them, knowing that at least Ashley would go after him armed with words that he was in no mood to hear. But when he turned around, he found that she was no longer on the Simudeck with the others. In fact, he had not remembered seeing her at all anymore once the lights had come back on and he had ended the movie.
He really did not care that she had left, he thought to himself as he stormed to the Megalift and waited to arrive on the bridge, sitting down in his usual seat. He did not need her opinion anyway, nor did he want it. The last thing that he needed was her showing up and telling him that he needed to apologize and make things right between him and Zhane. It was the last thing he –
Andros turned around suddenly as the bridge filled slowly with a familiar scent.
"Ashley?" he called out to the nothingness that he saw behind him, hearing the nothingness answer him with silence.
Andros turned back and rested his head in his arms, closing his eyes and hoping that Arcadia could help him relax more than movie night did. He did not need answers now, just good old-fashioned sleep, he decided suddenly. He did not need to talk now and Ashley was the last person that he wanted to hear anything from, he decided. It was not as though she could really understand what he was going through.
Andros momentarily lifted his head as Ashley's scent faded from the bridge and rested his head again with a sigh.
But if Ashley did want to talk his ear off about things he did not want to hear about his relationship with his friend, he was not sure that it would be the worst thing that she could do, he decided, even if it was the last thing he wanted to hear.
