No Man's Land
Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers
Summary: AU. Andros/Ashley Zhane/ Karone Cassie/TJ. Takes place after Countdown to Destruction. On their way back to Earth, the rangers land on a barren planet and face their worst enemies yet…themselves.
JasonLeeScottFan: Thanks! I'm glad you think so. I'm trying to make it all make sense. Let me know if I'm achieving that. Please.
Vampire's Heartache: I'm happy you love it. Here's the next chapter.
Chapter 10: Face Yourself – Part two
"Okay. Wait." Zhane ordered looking from Ashley to TJ. "You guys have been friends for years and now suddenly you're at each other's throats? Does anyone else see something wrong with this?" Ashley and TJ seemed to deflate at Zhane's words.
"I don't know where that came from." Ashley stated, her voice wavering. "I'm sorry TJ."
"Me too." TJ rubbed his forehead. "It's like I was pissed for no real reason." He looked at Ashley. "Part of me wanted to hurt you."
Andros instinctively wrapped an arm around Ashley. "Let's just finish this."
"Alright." TJ started. "I'll go." He looked to Cassie and grabbed her hand. "Johnny was a friend of mine. We did everything together. He was 17, three years older than me, but it was never really an issue. Four years ago, Johnny decided that we should go to an old lake in the woods just outside of Angel Grove. I didn't think it was a good idea from the beginning, but I went with him anyway. He was my friend." TJ looked down and closed his eyes as tears ran down his face.
"It's okay, TJ." Ashley encouraged. "Keep going."
TJ looked at her and nodded. "The sun was setting by the time we got there and you could barely see past the surface of the water. I told Johnny that we should leave and go back tomorrow when it was light out. He just laughed and pulled a lantern out of the back seat of the car. He told me everything would be fine, and that it would be cooler to swim at night. I didn't argue."
TJ took a deep breath. "There was a rope swing and Johnny thought it would be fun to swing into the lake. I told him not to. I told him he shouldn't, but he just told me to stop being such a loser and that he would prove that there was nothing to it, so he jumped from the swing…but he never came back up. At first I thought he was trying to scare me, so I grabbed the lantern and held it out over the water near where Johnny had jumped. I couldn't see him, but I saw the bubbles and the ripples in the water. I was never a good swimmer so I didn't go in after him. Instead…I ran. I ran through the woods screaming my head off hoping that someone would hear me. Luckily this couple was camping that night and the found me. One of them called for help and the other followed me back to the lake, but I knew it was too late. Even while I was running, I knew it was too late to save him. They found his body the next day. When he jumped, his foot got caught in the wire of an old fishing reel."
"You did everything you could, TJ." Cassie stated. "If you had jumped in there after him, you both would have died."
"Part of me knows that, but part of me can't help but think that he would have gone after me. If I was the one who had been in trouble he would have gone after me."
"No, TJ." Ashley interrupted. "You wouldn't have done anything that dangerous. You warned him and he didn't listen to you. There was nothing you could do. You didn't make him jump in that lake."
"No." He looked at her now. "But I let him die. And it hurts."
"Trust me; I know what you're feeling." Ashley knew it was time to tell all of them what had happened to her family. "I caused my parents' deaths. Yes, I did." She added when she saw TJ about to object. "I was 12 when it happened. A couple of friends from school had talked me into sneaking out and going to a midnight matinee at the movie theater. I waited until my parents were asleep before I snuck out. When I bumped into the table down stairs, I just knew someone had heard me, but no one woke up so I left the house."
Her breath caught as she fought back sobs. "I felt weird that whole night. I wasn't afraid that my parents would catch me. I just felt like something was wrong, that I was running out of time somehow. When the movie was over, I practically ran home. I heard the sirens from two blocks away and saw the smoke before then. I was praying that it wasn't my house, but inside I knew that it was."
She was sobbing now, but she continued. "The fire consumed our whole house. I didn't see my parents outside and I panicked. I nearly made it inside my house, when a fireman grabbed me. I kept yelling that my parents were in there, but they already knew. My parents were asleep in bed, and by the time one of the neighbors reported the fire, it was too late. The firemen couldn't get to them."
"Ashley this was an accident." Karone started. "Why do you think you caused their deaths?"
"Because I started the fire." Tears continued to fall from Ashley's eyes. "My mother loved candles and that night she'd forgotten to blow one of them out. When I bumped into that table on the way out of the house, I knocked a candle over, and started the fire."
Andros wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his shoulder. Everyone was silent because no one knew what to say. Ashley really had been the cause of her parents' death. Accident or not, she snuck out of the house and managed to start a series of events that would end her parents' lives. "I guess I should go now." Andros said more to take the attention away from Ashley than because he wanted to tell his story. He kept his arm around Ashley when everyone looked at him.
He didn't like telling what had happened. In fact, he had never actually told anyone. "I've been seeing someone from my past; his name was Landon." He started. "Landon was your typical jerk. He was older and bigger and he constantly picked on me, even though we were both supposed to be rangers. It started out harmless enough, but as we got older, things got more violent. Landon never liked me and I never knew why until it was time for us to officially become rangers." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "You guys all know that there were rangers before you." He continued when they nodded. "What you don't know is that, originally, I was supposed to be the black ranger." He was happy they didn't say anything; their shocked expressions were enough.
Andros continued. "When it was time for us to officially step up and take our places as rangers, Kin Won and the rest of the council, decided that Landon was too reckless and headstrong to be the leader, so they appointed me. Apparently, the council had been thinking about it since we were kids and somehow Landon found out. And he decided to make my life hell as long as I was the red ranger. The other rangers were all Landon's friends, minus Zhane, and they did whatever he said, which meant doing the opposite of everything I said."
"About a week before Dark Specter attacked KO-35, a distress signal from one of the deserted areas of the planet came through. I talked to Kin Won about it and we both agreed that there was something off about the transmission. So I ordered the team to wait until we had proof that the transmission was authentic."
"But Landon decided that he wanted to be the hero and prove that I was wrong. So he took Zana and Trace, the pink and blue rangers," He looked at Karone and Ashley. "I didn't have the heart to replace the yellow ranger at the time. Anyway, they went out to the point of the distress call and sure enough it was an ambush."
"Zana and Trace were killed immediately." Andros voice was void of emotion, but the others knew it was only a façade. "Landon was taken back to their ship. Zhane and I didn't find him until three days later. They'd tortured him and sent him back beaten and broken…but he wasn't dead. He had a message for me, and he held on long enough to deliver it to me."
"What do you mean?" Cassie asked.
"He means," Zhane interrupted. "That even minutes from death Landon still found a way to get in Andros's head." He looked at Andros. "The fact that he had the audacity to blame you for his half cocked plan was as low as he could get. You didn't do anything wrong."
"That's because you don't know the whole story." Andros took in Zhane's shocked expression.
"What do you mean? What else is there?" Zhane asked.
"When Landon said that I could have stopped this, he was right." Andros took a deep breath. "I knew what he was planning the night before. I heard him talking to Zana and Trace in the bridge. When he was leaving he saw me there, but he never said anything. I should have gone to Kin Won right away, but I didn't. I let them go. I just wanted to knock him off of that fucking high horse of his. I didn't know that three of my teammates would die."
Ashley's hold on Andros tightened. Even though there were different circumstances, choices she and Andros made, cost people their lives. "So what do we do now?"
Before anyone could answer, the door to the observatory came open and Carlos barged in astroblaster in hand. "I just want Astronema." He had dark circles around his eyes and he constantly pulled at his hair with his free hand.
The rangers were immediately off the floor. Zhane stood protectively in front of Karone. "Carlos you have got to calm down." Zhane tried to reach the crazed ranger. "This is Karone, not Astronema."
"I know what she is!" Carlos yelled as he leveled the blaster at Zhane. "She's a murderer. A child killer no less. And apparently a manipulator." He stepped towards them. "She's got a hold on you and Ashley, but once she'd gone, you'll see her for what she really is." He moved towards them again but stopped short. A confused expression flashed across his face before he fell to the floor unconscious.
"Is he okay?" Cassie asked as TJ cautiously knelt down to check his friend's pulse.
"He's alive." TJ said to them and stood.
"How did he get untied?" Karone asked clearly frightened. The fact that Carlos kept calling her Astronema wasn't helping her state of mind.
"By the looks of his wrist my guess is he freed himself." Zhane answered.
"I think the more important question is," Andros started as he kicked the blaster out of Carlos's reach. "How the hell did he get his blaster?"
"Didn't you lock that in the bridge?" Ashley asked and ran her hands through her hair when Andros nodded. "How would he know where to look?"
"Even better question." TJ responded.
"What if something led him to it?" Cassie suggested what they were all thinking. "What if-" She was cut off when a wave of fatigue hit her and her knees went weak.
"Cassie?" TJ was at her side in a heartbeat. "What's wrong? Is it the baby?"
"I don't know." She responded sluggishly as TJ lifted her and put her on the love seat. "I just got really tired." Her eyelids slid closed.
"Cassie?" TJ knelt beside her and shook her but she didn't respond. He looked nervously at the others.
"Zhane." Karone barely whispered. She would have fallen to the floor if Zhane hadn't caught her and lowered her into the recliner.
"Guys," Zhane started lazily. "I think we're in trouble." He slumped to the floor and fell asleep with his head in Karone's lap.
"I think he's right." TJ mumbled as he laid his head next to Cassie and closed his eyes.
Ashley and Andros began to panic as they took in the sight of their now unconscious friends. Their panic only grew when Ashley spoke. "Andros, I don't…" She slumped in his arms and struggled to keep her eyes open.
"No, Ashley." He wrapped an arm around her waist and cupped her face in his other hand. "You have to stay with me." He begged her, but knew it was in vain.
"I'm sorry." Ashley whispered before her head fell limply against Andros's shoulder.
Andros wavered slightly as he felt the fatigue coming on him, like nighttime overcoming the day. He lifted Ashley and lowered them both onto the sofa. With Ashley cradled in his arms, he succumbed to the darkness.
(A/N: Hope you liked it. Let me know what you think. Sorry it took me so long to update. But school has been crazy. On the Brightside, classes will be over at the beginning of May and then I'll have plenty of time to write over the summer. On the other hand, you might not get any more updates until classes are over. Sorry, but I must do my course work. Please be patient and don't hate me. Thanks!)