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: Glad you love it and as always, glad to hear from you! I can't really explain the fatigue right now, but I can tell you it was necessary and will probably be explained in the end.
Vampire's Heartache: Thanks Again! I decided that I'm going to explain the planet's origin in the end. I can't really stop at this point and go into that. But I will tell you that it's not the planet itself that's doing it, but the presence of something leftover.
Sunflowerlily: First of, Where have you been?! Lol! I missed your reviews. Don't disappear on me again please.
Chapter 11: Nightmares
Carlos
He fought his way through the quantrons trying to get to her and the group of people being held captive, who were about to plummet to their deaths. Astronema was having them pushed over the edge of a cliff. He knew his friends were fighting with him and trying to make a way for him to get to her and the others.
"Sylvie, hold on!" Carlos yelled as he finally pushed his way through the quantrons, but he knew he was running out of time when the first few people started to fall.
Sylvie managed to slip away from the quantrons and was running towards him. "Carlos, help!"
"Get her!" Astronema commanded.
Carlos nearly had a hold of Sylvie when Ecliptor appeared and grabbed the little girl slashing Carlos with his sword in the process.
Carlos fell to the ground disoriented and wounded. He could hear the people scream as they fell to their deaths, but even in the chaos, one voice stood out.
"Put me down!" Sylvie struggled in Ecliptor's grasp.
"I'll put you down alright." Ecliptor muttered
"Carlos!" Sylvie screamed his name as she was thrown over the edge.
Cassie
She knew this place like the back of her hand. It was her old house, the one she had lived in before she moved to Angel Grove. Childhood memories played in her head and she smiled remembering.
The memories faded when she heard the voices coming from downstairs. She felt an ache in the pit of her stomach as she descended the stairs and the voices got louder.
"I'm leaving and that's final!" Her father shouted.
"You can't just leave us!" Her mother countered. "What about me? What about our daughter?"
"I never asked for her." He spat.
"And you think I did?" She pointed to herself. "Why after 10 years do you decide this isn't what you want anymore?"
"I never wanted this!" He yelled. "I should have left when I found out you were pregnant!"
The shocked expression on her mother's face had Cassie in tears. But what really caught her attention was the 10 year old version of herself that stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking at her parents with tears in her eyes. "Daddy?" The 10 year old cried.
He looked at her in disgust. "Didn't anyone teach you any manners?" He looked at his soon to be ex wife. "I'm not dealing with this." He turned and walked past his young daughter.
She quickly ran after him and grabbed his arm. "Daddy, please don't go." She cried. "What did I do?"
He looked down at her and snatched his arm away. "You were born." He walked out of their home.
The younger Cassie sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands as her mother walked into the room. "Go to your room, Cassie." Her mother said emotionlessly.
"But mommy…"
"Go!" She shouted.
The older Cassie watched as her mother simply vanished from the room and her younger self faced her. "We were the reason he left." The young girl stated. "And mommy wanted to leave us too." She ascended the stairs. "They didn't love us. And no one else ever will."
"That's not true." The older Cassie stated when her younger version turned away. "We have TJ and he loves us."
When the little girl turned around she no longer resembled the younger Cassie, but a beautiful little girl with long curly black hair and golden brown skin. She looked at Cassie with big brown sad eyes. "And how long before he leaves us too?"
Cassie didn't understand how, but she recognized the little girl immediately and put a hand to her stomach and the baby growing inside of her. Cassie shook her head as her the little girl began to walk away.
"Wait." Cassie ran down the stairs after the little girl, but as soon as she reached the bottom, she doubled over in pain. She wrapped her arms around her stomach as the stabbing pain went through her abdomen.
The little girl turned towards Cassie with tears in her eyes. "Please, don't let me go." She pleaded and reached for Cassie.
Cassie strained to reach the girl, but she vanished before Cassie's eyes. "No!" She cried as the pain took over. She knew what this pain meant.
She was losing her baby.
Karone
She couldn't stop it. Karone looked at the ground littered with bodies of the people Astronema had killed.
"Karone please, I'm your brother."
Karone stopped in her tracks at the sound of her brother's voice. "Andros." She followed the sound to its source and saw Andros on the ground badly injured with Astronema standing over him. She wanted to go and help him, but her limbs wouldn't move.
"Karone please, you don't have to do this." Andros pleaded.
Astronema placed her staff to his chest. "I am not your sister." The smile she sent him was purely evil. "I am Astronema." With those words she plunged the staff into his chest, watching the life drain out of his eyes.
"No!" Karone screamed and fell to her knees. Astronema pulled the staff out of Andros. Karone watched the blood drip down the handle. "You killed my brother!" She spat. She was on her feet in a flash and lunged at Astronema, but Astronema evaded her.
"You can't hurt me." Astronema laughed.
"And why is that?"
"Because I am you." Astronema stated as if it was an obvious fact.
"No." Karone refused to believe that. "You killed Andros."
"I didn't kill Andros." Astronema stepped closer to the girl in front of her and began to transform into a mirror image of Karone. "You did."
Karone gasped at the sudden weight she felt in her hand. She looked to her right hand, where she held the bloody staff used to kill her brother.
Zhane
The demorphed silver ranger sat in the debris holding the limp and broken body of the woman he loved in his arms. "I'm so sorry." Zhane whispered to her and kissed her forehead.
"You should be."
The accusation was gentle, but it caused Zhane's body to tremble. "Krista?" When he looked down at the woman in his arms, tear filled green eyes stared back at him.
She sat up slowly and painstakingly got to her feet, standing over Zhane. "Why did you leave me?"
He tried to reach for her but she drew away from him. "I had to. I'm a ranger, I had a responsibility."
"What about me?" She cried and began to move towards him. "I needed you." Tears streamed down her pale white face.
Zhane turned his head to look at the crumbling wall behind him when he heard it creak. He turned back to find Krista right in front of him. He couldn't hold back his gasp.
She threw herself into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Stay with me, Zhane."
"I will. I promise." He hugged her, but winced when he felt her grip tighten. "Krista?" When he looked at her this time, her eyes were damning.
"Stay with me, Zhane…forever."
Zhane couldn't see it, but he could feel the gust of wind and hear the groaning cry as the wall fell over them.
TJ
TJ found himself standing in front of someone he hadn't seen in almost four years. "Johnny?"
"Hey, Teej."
"What's going on? You shouldn't be here." TJ looked at his surroundings. Everything from that night was the same. There was a soft breeze in the forest. It gave relief from the heat that came with the summer nights.
"Let's go for a swim TJ." Johnny's voice wasn't like TJ remembered. It held no real emotion. "I hear the water's nice and cool." Johnny pointed to something behind TJ.
He turned and saw the lake where his life had changed. The rope swing still hung from a branch. But this wasn't right. They shouldn't be there. "We can't Johnny. It's not safe." TJ said urgently. He couldn't let it happen again.
Johnny tilted his head slowly to the side. He face was expressionless, but his brown eyes blazed. "What do you mean TJ?" TJ stepped back as Johnny walked towards him. "You mean something bad could happen?"
TJ stumbled and nearly fell. When he looked behind him, he realized that he was at the edge of the dock, right over the murky water. He looked back at Johnny and nearly jumped backwards over the edge.
Johnny's blond hair was matted and he was soaking wet. His skin was a sickly grey color and his face was contorted in a mixture of pain and rage. "What's the matter TJ?" He spat. "We're just having a little fun." TJ was frozen in fear as a demented smile formed on Johnny's face. "Let's go for a swim." He lunged at TJ and sent the both of them flying into the water.
Ashley
Ashley sat up in her bed her when her watch beeped. She quickly grabbed it and turned it off. When she got out of bed, her reality hit her.
She wasn't on the Megaship. She was home. The home she shared with her parents before the fire. And upon looking at herself in the mirror, she realized that she was the 12 year old girl she had been then too. She was wearing the same flannel pajama bottoms and yellow tank top she had worn that night before she changed and went to meet her friends at the movies.
"Mom, dad." Ashley called as she hurried down the hall to her parents' room.
"Ashley, sweetheart," Mrs. Hammond called sleepily. "What's wrong?"
Ashley breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her parents. Her father hadn't been woken up by her cries. "Sorry mom. Bad dream."
"Come here baby." Mrs. Hammond held her arms out to her daughter and Ashley climbed on the bed between her mother and father.
"I'm just glad you guys are okay."
Mrs. Hammond's smile was sickly sweet. "Everything's going to be fine now sweetheart. This is how it's supposed to be."
Ashley shifted to look at her mother and her heart nearly stopped. "Mom!"
The burnt and disfigured skin on Mrs. Hammond's face stretched as her smile widened. "Hush now baby. You'll wake your father."
"No!" Ashley struggled in her mother's grasp as the smell of smoke filled the room. She caught sight of the foot of the mattress and to her horror, saw the fire creeping up towards her. "Mom, please let me go!"
"You'd better sleep now. That way, it won't be nearly as painful." With that Mrs. Hammond shut her pitch black eyes.
Ashley could only scream as the fire consumed her.
Andros
He pulled at the straps that bound him to the table. His chest was bare and the coldness from the table sent chills down his spine.
"You can struggle all you want Andros," An all too familiar voice spoke to him from the shadows. "It won't do you any good."
"Landon?" Andros couldn't quite keep his voice from trembling.
"Ding, ding, ding, give the boy his prize." Landon taunted as he stepped into the light.
Andros struggled with the straps more but nothing gave.
Landon's grey eyes burned into him as he stalked over to Andros and wrapped his hand around the red ranger's throat. "Didn't I say not to struggle?" Landon shouted. "You're stuck here, trust me, I know." He released Andros and grinned when he gasped for air.
Andros watched as Landon strolled casually around the table he was stretched out on. "This place brings back memories." He started. "Pain, fear…longing for death." He leaned over Andros and grabbed a handful of hair. "All of which you'll become very familiar with soon." Landon slammed Andros's head against the table and continued to walk.
Andros groaned in pain and tried to fight the fear bubbling in him. He knew what was coming. "Landon, please…"
"Landon, please." He mocked. "You're so pathetic. I never begged for my life. Even after three days of brutal torture, I never begged for life…or death." Andros cringed when Landon leaned in to whisper in his ear. "But you will. You'll suffer and you'll scream and then you'll beg for me to end it."
Andros breath hitched at Landon's words. He could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his chest. He watched Landon step back and uncover a tray he swore wasn't there before. Landon's eyes seemed to shine with thoughts of what he would do to Andros with the varying objects of torture laid out before him.
Landon picked up a scalpel and pulled up a stool out of nowhere. Andros's stomach churned at the sick look of pleasure Landon got from simply holding the scalpel in his hands. "We'll start off small." Landon told him. "And work our way up." Andros couldn't help trembling when Landon put the cold metal of the scalpel against the skin of his chest. "Let's get stated shall we?"
Andros screamed as the blade was dragged across his skin.
(A/N: It took me way to long to get this chapter out. I hope you guys like it. Thanks for hanging in there. Tell me what you think. Check out my story 'Not as it Seems' if you get a chance.)