Author's Note: Thanks to all who read, reviewed, and began to follow or favorite this story, particularly since its return from hiatus last chapter. I really appreciate the feedback! And now, Cookie and Candy time again (!).

I don't own or have rights to Power Rangers.

In The Absence of Destruction

Chapter 11: Revelations

On The Megaship

Andros, Zhane, Ashley, and Carlos stood dumbstruck at the sight before them, no more so than the two citizens of KO-35.

"Power Rangers," Astronema addressed the Space Rangers in a menacing tone. "This is a communication," she paused to stare directly at Andros, her eyes seeming to linger on Zhane for a moment before reaching her brother, "to inform you that despite your best efforts, particularly from you, Red Ranger, you have failed to defeat me or my forces." Her face fell for a moment after she said these words to her twin, but a split second later the sneer she had been wearing up until that point returned to her face as she returned her eyes to a neutral position from which she could address all of the Rangers before her. "And as you can see," she pointed to a large energy tube behind her, "your precious Zordon is still in my possession." She flashed her eyes to Andros in particular once more. "Another failure," she nearly whispered.

Andros couldn't help but catch a glimpse of something in her eyes that seemed to be communicating something deeply to him and him alone. But both times she had focused her attention squarely on him, the moment he caught wind of some intuitive feeling of secrete communication, her visage changed back to the evil nonchalance of a villain he had come to recognize as the being who stole his sister's mind, body, and spirit. He supposed his hopeful heart had just imagined what he thought he saw. This hope was killing him.

"So hear this, Power Rangers!" Astronema continued in a strong and menacing tone, addressing the Rangers as a whole. "Your failed efforts to defeat me, The Queen of Evil, and those under my command, has only forced me to redouble my efforts to crush you into dust. What you once feebly labeled 'The Battle of Angel Grove' is now a war," she cautioned dark and directly with that same soul wrenching wickedness Andros had come to associate what the enemy who had once been his sister. "Prepare yourselves for one Hell of a fight, Rangers, because I won't back down from bringing about an end to this interminable waste of my time struggle with you. This. Will. End. Soon," she drew her last declaration out slowly and cruelly so as to emphasize her sincerity. Such sincerity caused Andros's nerves to steel while his heart simultaneously broke.

"You have been warned," Astronema advised before the image of her in front of the Rangers blinked out and the message ended.

Andros shook his head and sighed at the end of the communication. Leaving his eyes on the screen where the remnants of his sister had appeared moments before for another few seconds, he turned on his heel and left the bridge, having never even registered the fact that after that first initial, almost longing, glance at Zhane, Astronema had avoided eye contact with him for the rest of the dispatch.

"Andros!" Ashley called after Andros's retreating form, but the hatch closed behind him and her voice fell on deaf ears.

She began to chase after him, but Zhane held up his hand to stop her. "Wait here, guys. I'll talk to him." He paused and stared down at the floor in seeming remorse for a moment before continuing almost to himself, "I need to talk to him."

On The Dark Fortress

As the communication screen in front of her faded to black, Karone let out a deep sigh and began to nearly hyperventilate as she strode over to the nearest wall, clutching it for stability. She shook her head and tried to get control over herself, but was having little success at this endeavor.

She couldn't believe how hard that had been. Sure, she knew in some measure that contacting the people she'd put through the most grief during her time as an evil empress would be difficult, but she never guessed it would affect her this deeply. The shock and unmistakable look of pure joy that lined the edges of Zhane's face had been so unbearable for her to view that after that first lingering glimpse of him at the beginning of her verbal missive, she'd had to force herself to avoid his gaze at all costs. He was actually happy to see her. After all she'd put him through, her violence and betrayal after she'd temporarily found her true identity, he was still happy to see her. He still believed in her, Karone's, innate goodness and had hope that she, Karone, would overpower the identity of Astronema once again. She loved him for his hope and confidence, but it was just too much to bear as long as she was supposed to act the part of her villainous alter-ego.

And it was also too much to see as a juxtaposition of the face her brother, her TWIN brother who had never in all the years since their childhood given up hope in finding her alive and of her innate nature, which held nothing but the complete absence of hope amid shock and an unmistakable glimmer of rage. Andros was, simply put, defeated. She as Astronema had defeated him. She as Astronema had taken away his last vestige of hope. He truly believed that evil had one-out and Astronema had fully taken over Karone's body and mind and that not even the humanly death he'd thought he'd inflicted upon her in their last battle could erase that personality from his sister's self. She was THAT good of an actress, and she hated herself for it.

Now straightening up and attempting to regain control over her faculties, Karone let out one more deep breath. She'd attempted to give the Space Rangers a warning of what was to come as well as a message that this all, all the destruction and violence, would end soon. She'd warned them to expect an attack shortly so that they would be ready, willing, and able to defend themselves against her forces, but she'd also told them that the fight wouldn't last forever. But, from the looks on Zhane and Andros's faces, the two people she'd anticipated would be receptive to her veiled, cryptic message, it seemed that this information had not really gotten through. Sure, they'd be expecting an attack sometime soon, but they had no reason to believe that such an attack would only be subterfuge in an attempt to convince the myriad forces of darkness that Astronema was still in the game as a force of evil. They wouldn't know that it was all meant for the greater good.

In this moment, with this realization, Karone decided on an immediate course of action. She would kill the two birds of keeping up appearances and keeping her loved ones safe by sending Elgar with a pack of the dimmest Quantrons to attack Angel Grove's 'abandoned warehouse district.' In her studies to be a villainess, she remembered learning about some of Rita's less cerebral goons attacking said area in attempts to 'intimidate' the people of Earth. She'd always found those attacks worthless wastes of everyone's time, but now she would use that precedent to her advantage. Elgar being a complete moron would only facilitate her plan. Plus, the whole busy work assignment would give her more time to figure out how to get Zordon back to the safe protection of the Power Rangers.

Such a thought towards the timeless being brought her attention back to the present and tangible. She looked up at the floating head of a mentor to see if he approved of her performance with the Rangers. He simply smiled down at her as best he could in his weary and drained state.

"That was a remarkable display of self-will and determination, Karone," he attempted to assure her.

"Yeah, they seemed to buy it pretty well," she frowned. "That's the problem. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up this act knowing how much pain I'm putting the people I love through."

"You will have to, Karone," Zordon said sternly. "It is all part of the quest you must undertake to atone for all of your evil actions in the past."

Karone nodded her head while looking down at the floor morosely. "Yes, I know." Looking back up at the Eltarian once more, her face took on a more determined look. "But I can keep up this act while protecting them and restoring some of your energy at the same time," she said as she walked over to the control panel that had been used to suck out Zordon's power. "The Quantrons stopped the process of draining you, but I bet…" she trailed off as she fiddled around with some knobs and switches and a computer program in binary code appeared before her on a small screen on the console. "If I just re-write this code a little, I can reverse the process and return some of the energy we took from you and stored in the Dark Fortress."

She smiled to herself in silent thanks, for the first time, that Darkonda and Ecliptor had insisted she be tutored in in some basic technological and computer studies. What she once found to be dull and distracting from her studies in the great evil forces that preceded her, she now finally found of the utmost usefulness in her quest for redemption.

She typed in one last sequence of commands on the keyboard of the panel and smiled at the screen in front of her before turning it off. "There," she said as she turned back to Zordon with the first look of confidence she'd had since he had restored her to her true self. "I set the reverse energy transfer so that you will slowly be restored to some of your strength, but to low so that it won't set off any alarms or alert anyone to what I'm doing."

Zordon nodded once in reply, a look of thanks and pride in her abilities and fortitude towards the mission he had assigned to her on the waves of energy that passed for his face.

"And now," Karone said as she turned away from him and replaced her features with the same look of villainous malice she had worn during her communication with the Power Rangers. "It's time to continue with the plan."

She strode confidently up to the intercom on the wall, pressed the open channel button, and shouted, "ELGAR! Report to me at once! I have a new mission for you," she said darkly, a sneer returning to her face as she further got back into character.

Yes, she knew that this mission would only continue to be as difficult as it had been to make that initial contact with Andros and Zhane in the entity of Astronema once more. But it was a mission, Zordon was right, she needed to perform with success. The safety of her loved ones, the universe, and her overall redemption in their and her own eyes, depended on it.

On The Megaship

Zhane tracked Andros down to the training room. Opening the door to enter, he felt a strong sense of nostalgia as the site inside the room struck his eyes; Andros was running a program of KO-35, the KO-35 from before its occupation, the KO-35 of their youth. Staring at his best friend as he looked out into the distance of the old familiar, free, wilderness, he knew exactly what the other man was thinking: you can't go home again, not to the home of your carefree and simple past. Zhane knew this intuitively, because he felt it too.

"Hey, Andros, listen—" Zhane began, but was cut-off by his friend.

"I'm not in the mood to talk, Zhane," Andros said curtly with a slight air of dejection.

"Well that's too bad." Zhane strode over to sit beside the closest person he had to a brother, family. "Because I am."

Even as Zhane placed his hand on Andros's shoulder, Andros continued to stare out into the distance that he could not, in his mental preoccupation, actually see. "Look, man," Zhane began, mimicking terminology he'd heard the Earth Rangers use with each other in endearment. "I just want to apologize for before. That's what I came to the bridge to tell you before…" he trailed off as a smile non-consciously lightly lit his visage. "Before we got that communication from Karone. Even if she wasn't alive, as she so clearly is," he continued, unable to mask his joy, "My reaction to the news you gave us earlier was uncalled for and rash—"

"She's still dead," Andros cut him off, still refusing to look his best friend in the eye.

Zhane was incredulous at Andros's curt and defeated statement. How dare he find fault in the miracle they just witnessed before their very eyes? "No she's not, Andros! We saw her! She spoke straight to us!"

Andros finally turned his head to look the Silver Space Ranger in the eye. "Who we saw was Astronema, the evil Queen who usurped my sister's mind and body, the evil Queen who killed her spirit."

Zhane shook his head at Andros's faulty conclusions. "But don't you see?! Before we thought she was gone completely, but now we have reason to hope again. If Astronema is alive, then Karone is alive somewhere too, just buried beneath the surface. We still have a chance to get your sister back; it's not over!" he declared enthusiastically in a manner he hoped would strengthen his friend's resolve.

Andros shook his head and nearly sneered in derision. "You don't get it," he began in that same dejected tone he'd used since his return from the Dark Fortress. "As difficult and as heart wrenching as it was to see her laying their dead in the clothes and make-up of Astronema, I was glad it was over." His words shocked Zhane like a stealth stab to the heart, but he just continued unencumbered by any feelings that might be engendered by the pained look on his friend's face. "I just wanted it to be over. I just wanted closure after all these years. And now," his voice broke, but he pressed on to finish his confession. "Now Astronema is back in my sister's body and I've lost all hope that we'll ever get Karone back."

Zhane shook his head while simultaneously shaking Andros's shoulder in an attempt to steel his determination. "But hope is all we've had for so long, Andros. It's what's kept us fighting, what still keeps us fighting. We have to still believe that Karone is still out there and that KO-35 will be returned to the land we once knew as kids."

Andros shook Zhane's hand off his shoulder and looked down before staring his friend straight on again. "Hope isn't action. It gets us nowhere. And," he shook his head as he stared back out at the fabricated view of his lost home in front of them, "if I allow myself to hope that I'll get my sister back again, I know I won't be able to survive if I lose her to death once more, either physical death, or the death of Astronema controlling her body for the rest of her life."

Zhane forced the Red Space Ranger to look him right in the eye during his response. "You know your friends, Ashley, won't let that happen to you, won't let you give up. I won't let you give up. I promise you that, brother."

A light seemed to dimly shine in Andros's eyes at this declaration, but before he could answer, Ashley ran through the door and ended the KO-35 program that was running.

"Guys! TJ and Cassie's group is fending off the fight in downtown Angel Grove, but now Elgar's leading another attack on the outskirts of town." She paused to assess Andros's mood before continuing. Seeing the slight shadow or beginning of hope that Zhane's words had just inspired, she smiled lightly at him and continued to address both men. "We've got to get down there. Earth is depending on it!"

Andros nodded once. His defeated mood towards his sister's current state was not fully assuaged, but he trusted friends like Zhane and Ashley would never let him venture into too dark of a place if circumstances didn't end in their favor.

As Carlos ran into the room to complete the team that was currently on the Megaship, he nodded once more with at least part of his typical leader confidence. "Let's ROCKET!" he shouted as a battle cry and command.

Additional Note: Man, these guys are all drama queens! They really need to catch a break (!). I may or may not let that happen. I'm known for mentally and emotionally maiming people in my stories, so, yeah. Okay, back to the action of TK and the rest of the old Rangers next chapter.

Please leave a review and let me how this is going. The more reviews I get, the more motivated I become and the quicker I update the story.

Happy Monday,

Eals