Chapter 13

After teleporting back to the Mega Ship, I spent a few minutes, pretending to look for Zhane when I was actually rehearsing what I was going to say to him. I had to word it carefully, yet make it truthful, but I had to be careful not to hurt the guy too much. I didn't want to break his heart completely....just crack it a little bit. This has got to be the most hardest thing I had ever done. I paused. Okay, the second hardest thing that I've ever done. The first thing was to learn how to pilot the Bear Zord, and at the same time keep a cool head while being attacked and struggling not to throw up due to all the shaking and rattling. I smiled as I remembered losing my lunch and breakfast this one time, and all over poor Tentomon's feet. Imagine my embarrassment and shame especially when Blue Elf began luaghing his head off. I had teleported away mortified and crying. Kimberly and Tommy both found me and reassured me that, actually throwing up after all the shaking and rattling that came with fighting in a Zord was perfectly normal and they had reaccounted the times when each and every one of them had managed to hold it in until they could race for the nearest bathroom. Blue Elf had apolized and it turned out, for luaghing at me, had been punished by cleaning up my sick and giving Tentomon a good cleaning. I turned my mind back to the situation at hand. Zhane, I'm flattered but....uh...actually I'm already taken. I shook my head. No, that won't work. You have to break it to him gently, yet firmly. Show that pretty words and endless compliments are not going to win a girl's heart, a girl's heart that has already been taken. Even if I do break it to him as gently as I could there will be a heart broken Ranger on the team. Not to mention some uncomfortable after math. I stopped and took a deep breath and let it out. The only way to properly do this, is to find Zhane and to tell him straight out. I nodded to myself. I guess that's the only way to go. I continued to limp down the hall thinking that Zhane might be in the SimuDeck putting in some training, but when I got there it was empty. Next I tried the mess hall, only Cassie was there, I ducked out before she could see me and continued my search getting more and more anxious. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do this to Zhane, this was probably the first time that he had ever felt strong emotions for another person in a long time and to be rejected....this will hurt him but I hope not too badly. I'm pretty sure that he'll find someone else who'll return his feelings for him. I began to feel hopeful. Yeah, sooner or later people find someone to love, to completely give their hearts to: Dad with Mom, me and Dex, Billy with Cestria, Adam with Ashley and Rocky with his girl. And people are bound to get their hearts broken, it's painful but it's a part of life. But those people find someone else to love like Tommy. He had his heart broken when Kimberly broke up with him(Kim told me that as she had written the letter to send to Tommy her heart had been breaking, so in a way her heart had also been broken) But Tommy had found another person to love: Kat. I thought about my parents, I had a feeling that my mother had also broken my father's heart, but he must have forgiven her, I had needed a father to help raise me. Besides.....she had no idea if dad had been killed or if he had survived the assault on Eltar. I was in the doorway of the bridge and I saw with a mixture of relief and dread that Zhane was there with Andros. I took a deep breath and limped into the room.

"Hi Zhane, Andros." Both boys turned and said hi. Zhane's eye had lit up at my approach. I cleared my throat, forcing myself not hesitate I asked Zhane if I could talk to him. He nodded.

"Yeah sure."

"I–in private" he nodded again and with a glance at Andros he followed me out of the room and down the hall. He kept pace with me once we were out into the hall and several times brushed his hand against mine. I felt more uncomfortable as we continued down the hall, the ship appeared to have sealed off any and all rooms that would have been used for a private chat, does DECA know that I'm about to break Zhane's heart? I glanced up at the ceiling then gave a start as I felt Zhane's hand slip into my own, I turned to him and was about to take my hand away when I saw that he was tugging me into a room, I breathed a sigh then followed him. The room, I realized a bit too late was Zhane's!

"This all right?" he asked me. I swallowed hard as the door closed. Don't panic. I took a deep breath and moved away from Zhane, taking my hand out of his. He had turned toward me.

"I'm glad that you asked me to talk....because I.....I want to talk to you as well." He said. My stomach squirmed uncomfortably as we both looked at each other.

"Um Zhane?" I swallowed and took a deep breath, suddenly I wished that I had called Kimberly, she would have told me how to go about this, told me what to say, how to act.

"Zhane...." But he interrupted me.

"Listen I.....uh...well....ever since I first met you....I've....well...." He looked uncomfortable. Finally deciding that it would be better to act his feelings than talk about them, he placed his hands on my shoulders and began to bend his head toward me, slowly I inched my head away from him.

"Zhane? Zhane stop!" He opened his eyes, confusion written on his face.

"What is it? I thought...?" I took a deep breath, heart pounding with a mixture of fear and unease.

"Zhane I–I'm sorry. It's just that..." I held up my hand with my engagement ring on.

"There's someone else." Zhane's eyes widened as he looked at my ring and he took a step back, his arms fell slack at his sides. I stayed where I was, thinking that it wouldn't be wise to make a move toward him.

"Zhane I–I'm very sorry. I–It's just that all this time I–I thought that all of those questions that you asked where because you were curious about me, I didn't know that you had taken an interest in me." I hated the look on his face. But I plunged on.

"I was so focused on finding my father and protecting Andros, you and the others that I had no idea that....." I faltered not sure if he was even listening anymore. I took a deep breath and took a step toward him.

"Zhane...." But he had turned his back on me. I stopped and stared at him in silence for a bit. Finally he turned around to face me, his eyes were filled with hurt. It took him a moment to regain his voice.

"A–are you happy with.....?" I cocked my head a bit at the odd question. But answered truthfully.

"Yes, I–I'm happy with him." I took a deep breath.

"Zhane, I'm really, very sorry. I had no idea that you felt this way.....And I'm really sorry that I've been leading you on, I never meant to hurt you honestly I didn't." He took a step toward me, I stood my ground even though I was afraid that he would strike me. I think I would deserve it. Instead he took a deep breath, at the same time closed his eyes and when he opened them he exhaled. What he said next caught me by surprise.

"Well, I'm glad that you're happy with your guy Amy, I just wish that.....you know..." he averted his eyes away from me I reached out a hand toward him.

"Hey, I'm sure you'll find someone some day, my mom was always telling me that you may plan each and every direction that your life is going to take but the thing that you don't plan, the thing that you won't see until the very last second...is falling in love." Zhane looked back at me. He smiled and the hurt in his eyes faded after a moment.

"Thanks Amy." He gave me a small smile.

"No problem Zhane. Are you sure that you're okay? I mean I really didn't mean to....." I said after a pause. But he waved me away.

"Yeah, I'm okay, er, I will be in due time if you want to know the truth." I breathed a sigh of relief as we went out into the hall and back toward the bridge. I was relieved that Zhane was okay with this, that he was taking this so well....on the surface he seems fine, but what about underneath? Zhane went back on to the bridge and for a few moments I stood in the doorway, then turning I limped toward my room, sat down on my bed, pulled out my mini-computer and began to type to Dex. A while later Dex answered, happy that I had cleared the air between Zhane and I, though he was also sympathetic with Zhane.

You should leave him be for a couple of days, try not to be in the same room with him for too long okay? This should resolve itself in a few days or so, a broken heart takes time to mend. Er that's what I've always heard from the television and from Mom and Dad. I typed back.

Okay, will do Dex and thanks. Say hello to Molly and Albee for me.

Will do.

Signing off I set down my computer and stretched my myself, curling my toes I let out a sigh. I was a bit worried about Zhane, but if he was as strong as Andros kept telling the rest of us, then he should be able to get past this. I felt bad for breaking his heart and even though I wish that I could fix it somehow, I knew that there wasn't anything that I could really do. I got up and began to make my way to the mess hall thinking that some ice cream will cheer me up. Coming out of the mess hall, after a while later I sighed to myself happily. Nothing like ice cream to lift up the spirits a little. Cassie was walking down the hall toward me, I smiled at her and gave her a friendly hello, but she didn't returned my greeting. Instead with a angry look on her face, she reached out, grabbed my arm and began to drag me back the way she had come.

"Hey! Cassie! What's the deal?" I stumbled as she continued to march and I struggled to keep up. We marched toward the bridge, Cassie released me and went to stand beside Andros, TJ, Carlos and Zhane. I glanced at all of them and was surprised that they were all glaring at me, all except for Zhane. He hadn't looked up when I had entered instead he kept his eyes to the floor. I looked at all of them.

"What's up?" I asked. Cassie's eyes flashed and so did Andros's. He took a step toward me.

"Amy, why didn't you tell Zhane sooner that you had a boyfriend? W–Why didn't you tell the rest of us?" I looked at him in surprise. How did they.....? I glared up at the ceiling.

"DECA! Were you eaves dropping on our conversation?" I demanded angrily.

"DECA didn't eaves drop. Zhane told me." said Andros. I stared at Andros, then it hit me. He must have seen the pain on Zhane's face and asked what was wrong and Zhane told him. I opened my mouth to explain. But Cassie interrupted me.

"Why did you keep it a secret? I'm telling you right now Amy Karmer I'm getting sick to death of your secrets."

"Okay, first off I didn't keep my fiancee a secret." I snapped back. Zhane's head shot up and the others were staring at me, mouths dropped open.

"Fiancee!" shouted six voices. I winced. Heh heh....wrong thing to say Karmer. I took a deep breath.

"Yes, fiancee. He...well...we plan to getting married as soon as there is peace in the galaxy." I shifted from foot to foot. This was met by silence.

"Why did you keep this from us? Were you ever going to tell us?" demanded Carlos. Inwardly I flinched, remembering I had shouted the exact same thing(or close to it) to my father. I took a deep breath.

"The reason that I didn't tell you guys was because...." I tried to think of a reason that would satisfy them.

"Well...because....look I know that right now, it seems really important for you guys to know that I'm engaged, but to me......it....it's not a.....high priority. And truthfully I didn't think you guys would find out. Besides with everything that's happened it....it was pushed to the back of my mind so....can you really blame me?" I looked at all of them, wondering if any of them understood. Andros had a thoughtful look on his face.

"I think I understand." he said at last. All heads turned toward him.

"It's like when you guys found out that I had a sister," he glanced at Carlos.

"Or when I had to tell you about Zhane, I thought that I would be able to keep them a secret...never expecting for you guys to find out about them but..." He spread out his hands and gave a shrug of his shoulders. I breathed a sigh and nodded toward Andros.

After the initial shock faded everyone began to crowd around me and began to ask about "my fiance" I told them as much as I could without mentioning Dex's name or that he was a prince(that would have been way too obvious if they preformed research on the planet Edenio. Hey, you never know).

A few weeks later while we were following yet another lead on my dad and ended up walking into an ambush. Astronema made one of her rare appearances on the battle , Carlos, Cassie, Zhane and I were fighting off Ecliptor, Darkonda and an army of Quantrons(they were being taken care of by yours truly) while Andros was battling Astronema. The army of Quantrons had me completely surrounded. I smirked underneath my mask. Heh, no problem. I began to spin rapidly, throwing up dust and blinding all of the Quantrons. As soon as I had a nice thick cloud up and swirling around, I stopped, concentrated and sent the ground in which the Quantrons were standing on, to fly up from underneath them. I looked up at all of them as they flew into the air. They fell to the ground in a series of thumps and crashes. That takes care of that. As the Quantrons staggered to their feet and took off. I turned and raced toward Andros's aid. He was struck hard on the chest and blasted away by Astronema's staff, I leapt over him and my sword flashed out, Astronema gave a yelp as I struck her. She turned her head toward me as I landed behind her, blood drip from a cut on her cheek. She wiped at her cheek and stared at her hand, lowering it, she fully turned and raced at me, her staff raised. For a brief second I pictured Lord Zedd during our last battle. Unsheathing my sword I morphed and flew at her, she froze for a second then continued the charge, I materialized as the distance closed between us. She was yelling a battle cry as we passed each other, sparks of energy flew through the air. I stood up a bit and relaxed my grip on my sword, while behind me Astronema fell to her knees uttering a moan. Ecliptor turned.

"Empress!" He shouted, throwing off TJ and racing at me, eyes blazing. Smoothly I stepped to one side, Ecliptor slid to a halt, swung himself around and continued to charge, at the same time making a double appear.

"You're finished!" So what else is new? I leapt into the air preforming a cork screw spin to dodge the swords that were slashing at me, then I dove straight down and grabbed one of the Ecliptor's around the waist. He gave out a yell as he struggled and slashed at me. I let out grunts of pain as his sword connected with my back. I spun on one foot then raced back at the other Ecliptor. I began to send energy through my body and into the Ecliptor that I had.

"W–What are you doing? This power..." I heard him breath. Gotta time this just right. I thought as I flew at the other Ecliptor, I was mere feet from him when I sent the one that I had flying, I flew backward out of range of the explosion, when a bit of the smoke cleared there was only one Ecliptor and he was on the ground flat on his back. Nice. Suddenly I let out a scream as my back suddenly lit up as though someone was setting it on fire, I threw up a shield and spun to face my assailant. Astronema! She was staring at me as she continued the attack even though it was pointless now.

"What are you?"

"Right now I am pissed off at you and your army lady!" I shot forward yelling My sword glowed with power. At the last second though she vanished. Huh. Even Lord Zedd and Goldar put up a better fight than her. I thought as I touched ground once again and looked around. I really have to stop doing that. Andros was struggling to his feet, I sheathed my sword and began to limp toward him, ignoring Ecliptor as he began to stir. Darkonda was still standing, the other Rangrs were on the ground near him. He turned toward Andros and I as I healed Andros and helped him up to a semi standing position.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Look out!" Andros tried to push me out of the way but only succeeded in giving me a bit of a nudge, I turned. Ecliptor and Darkonda were both racing at us. I merely looked at them as they began to close the distance between us. Darkonda warped, I spun and at the same time shot out my fist. I felt a thud and Darkonda appeared, he had an astonished look on his face as he fell back and landed with a thud on the ground. I spun toward Ecliptor, morphed and raced at him as soon as I had enfolded Ecliptor into my morphed state. I turned and shot toward Darkonda who was raising his sword to finish off Andros. Darkonda gave out a yelp and tried to fight me off but soon he had also turned silver. I heard Andros cry out as I shot into the air and began to circle around and around, faster and faster, everyone was on their feet and gazing upward as the blob that was Darkonda, Ecliptor and I materialized to show that I was gripping the both of them by the ankle and swinging them around and around.

"This is where you get off!" I grunted as I released them, they both yelled as they flew through the air. They either teleported or warped away. I lowered myself until I touched ground again, I faced my team mates breathing hard. After a couple of breaths I managed to finally slow down my heart rate. Limping over to the others and healing them, I murmured "thanks" and "no problem" as my team mates praised me and thanked me for getting rid of Astronema and her gang.

"Come on." I said with a weary sigh.

"Let's get back to the Mega Ship and see if we can pick up anything of dad's trail." Though I doubt it. My team mates began to follow me except for Zhane, who was glaring at me with an almost angry expression.

"What?" I asked him. But he shook his head and turned away. I looked at him for a few minutes, lately he had been acting weird, especially if one of us mentioned Astronema. He would usually avert his eyes and shift around uneasily and up until a couple of weeks ago he acted that way around me. Fortunately though as the weeks had gone on he began to act more and more like his old self. I shrugged my shoulders and began to limp forward again.

"Hey, what's that?" I heard Cassie say. We all turned and looked in the direction to where she was pointing. In the distance we could see what looked like a large black cloud and , if I'm not mistaken, we also heard a sound coming from the cloud.

"What is that?" said TJ. I shook my head unable to answer.

"Is it just me? Or is that cloud getting more closer?" said Carlos. There was a hint of nervousness in his voice. I glanced at him, turning back to the cloud I had to agree. The cloud did seem to be betting closer.

"Andros, Zhane do you get space storms out here?" I asked. The two boys gave me bewildered looks then glanced at each other.

"No." They both said. I looked again at the cloud, then once again turned and began to limp away but I froze when I heard Cassie say

"Hey, do you guys hear....cawing?" The others murmured agreement. I had slowly turned toward the "cloud" and was staring at it, a growing sense of horror going through me.

"Everyone get to the Mega Ship." I said in a voice that shook. But they remained where they were as through transfixed to the ground and continued to stare at the dark mass that was coming closer and closer.

"Get to the Mega Ship." We could all hear that the noise was indeed cawing.

"GET TO THE MEGA SHIP NOW!" I screamed, that seemed to snap everyone out of their hypnosis. All of us began to run toward the ship but we had only gone a few feet before the army of Tengu Warriors and Goldar descended on us.