Nicky- Thanks for the compliment!

DV2- Thank you, glad you liked the chapter! You'll see a bit more of AA in this chapter.

Phantom Rogue- Mrs S was just trying to sway the rangers to her side, and Andros probably won't kiss her yet, not until Haley's Comet. Hey, did you like their first date?

Nyx- You could have told me this in an email, and since you probably aren't reading this, I'm not saying anymore.

STORY BEGINS HERE!

TJ was so tired from using his powers he went straight to his Rogue room and collapsed.

Ashley explained to the others that if he were found then he would probably be sent to a counsellor and a foster home in Stone Canyon, so he probably just wanted time to think. Then she set off for his rooms, checking his Astro room first. When she found him, she asked if he was okay.

"Tired." He answered.

Ashley nodded, and pulled the fake earring out of his ear, and took off his imager. "Sleep well Shadow. You're going to need the strength, phase one kicks off tomorrow." She said gently.

TJ was struck by the fact she had often used that tone of voice with Jeff and Emma when they wouldn't take care of themselves properly.

He went into his bathroom and came out dressed in his ship uniform T-Shirt and checked pyjama bottoms.

While he had been getting dressed, Ashley had slipped to her own room and wiped off all her make up, and dressed in yellow pyjamas. Her hair was still the same though.

"Shadow," She began uncomfortably. "What's going on with you and Cassie?"

TJ sighed. "I don't know Star. I really like her, and I think she might like me too…" He trailed off.

"But?" Ashley prompted.

"She deserves someone normal Star. Not someone like me."

Ashley stared at him. "Shadow, in what way are you not normal?"

TJ began listing the things he thought made him different, with plenty of interruptions from Ashley.

"I'm a ranger." "She is too!"

"I'm not from Earth." "Why does that matter?"

"I won't be around for awhile." "So, she'll forgive us!"

"We live together." "In different rooms Teej, it doesn't matter."

"I have powers." "How would that affect a relationship? Teej, what's the real reason?"

"We're best friends, and I don't wanna screw that up."

Ashley was quiet for a moment. "It wouldn't screw up your friendship Shadow."

TJ looked at her incredulously. "How do you know that?"

"Because half of your friendship is based on the fact that you two are in love with each other." Ashley stated.

TJ began to deny this with such fever he just proved Ashley's statement. Realising this, he flopped down on the pillows behind him, defeated.

"I'm worried about how she'll react to me being the prince of another planet." He admitted.

Ashley lay down beside him. "She loves you Teej, it won't matter. Besides," She added. "Andros is from another planet, and everyone accepted him easily enough."

"There's a difference in the situations Star." TJ started. "Most of the Kerova system thought Madre was a planet filled with the lowest of the low, because we didn't teach our children telekinesis. The Silver and Red Astro ranger's fathers' were two of the more... vocal against us. Their sons shared the opinion."

Ashley felt her heart break. "How do you know this?" She asked.

TJ used his powers and made his eyes darken to the deep sapphire blue Ashley had seen in his eyes at the picnic. "A Kerovan mechanic who died of natural causes, shortly after making this ship. This was two and a half years ago, six months before KO-35 fell. His name's Jin Ohm, and he was an acquaintance of Andros'. He's been hanging around the ship's echo in the ghost plane, that's how I found him so easily."

He smiled at Ashley, sadly. "So basically, we can't count on Andros to vouch for us on this one."

Ashley felt her eyes fill with tears, but pushed them back instinctively. TJ saw this and frowned.

"Star, it's not good for you to bottle everything up like that. Cry, let it out." He advised.

Ashley looked at him. "I don't cry." She said, and TJ suddenly understood. She didn't know how, not after putting her feelings back for so many years.

Ashley went to her rogue room, and hugged Stripes to her. Andros would hate her even more than he already did when he found out she was Rogue.

Ashley let her powers take over her body completely, and found solace in the hyperspace that DECA resided in.

"DECA, is it okay if I stay here for a while?" She asked, her cyber pattern a yellow figure with purple hair Deca was a young woman with green outlines and grey skin and grey hair, down to her waist.

DECA responded immediately. "Yes Star. Why do you wish to be here though?"

"I'm safe here."

"From your own feelings?"

"That would be what I'm hiding from, so yes,"

DECA softened. "Andros has changed during his travels. Perhaps he isn't as prejudiced as he used to be."

Ashley asked to talk to Andros through DECA. DECA agreed, keeping two files away from Ashley's cyber path.

The files were on Ashley's powers and the other one was about Zhane. Ashley's powers had grown significantly, DECA had no doubt that Ashley would be able to control technology one day, rather than just entering it's systems and understanding it. Ashley had progressed beyond Technologic, and into Technopathic, an extremelyrare form of being able to ask favours from machines, without leaving your own body defenceless.

Ashley found herself in a camera of DECA's, the one in Andros's room. Had she been attached to her emotions and her body, she would have blushed. She had caught him just as he was taking off his shirt and putting on a new one.

"Andros, Ashley was searching the Databanks when she found something of interest to her." She said, in DECA's voice.

Andros pulled his new shirt over his head, and began brushing his hair. Ashley saw it was wet, and realised he had had a shower in the half hour since she and TJ had left the others.

"So? Unless it concerns Zordon, or the forces of evil, it's not important." Andros said.

"She wishes to know why Kerovan's looked down on Madres'."

Andros shrugged. "They let their powers develop, they didn't take control. They just let their society go to hell because they believed in it."

Ashley responded. "Is that what you believe, or what your father did?"

Andros shrugged. "It's not a belief, it's a fact DECA. They didn't teach their children the right way."

"Some might say the same of KO-35, because the way the children were taught stopped them from reaching their full potential. What if your own power had been sorcery? You would have been Astronema's equal, even unmorphed." Ashley pointed out, still in DECA's voice.

Andros looked at DECA's camera suspiciously, and then laughed. "Very funny DECA, I suppose Ashley taught you a sense of humour. You know as well as I do that I would have been a freak if my parents had allowed that to happen."

Ashley knew her heart, already broken, would shatter into millions of pieces once she returned to her emotions. "Andros, Ashley made an interesting point about this."

Andros looked at the camera, still amused. "Lets hear it."

"Do you remember the discussion about race and racism that the others had a few weeks ago?"

Andros nodded in confusion. "Racism is completely pointless. Treating someone differently just because of their skin or beliefs is just plain stupid. On KO-35, that was gotten rid of centuries ago."

"Are you certain Andros? Because the way Kerovans treated Madres seems very similar in Ashley's opinion."

And with that parting shot, Ashley left the circuitries of the Megaship.

And discovered she had been right. Her emotions hit her like a tidal wave, and she came close to tears, while at the same time blushing the colour of the P on Jeff's cloak. Blinking her tears back, she hugged Stripes even closer to her chest.

Breathing deeply, she tried to go to sleep. She really tried. She got up and turned the thermostat down, twenty minutes later she turned it up again. She went over the plan, read a book, did some of the next days school work…

She tried everything she could think of. Five hours later, despite being exhausted from using her powers, as well as being genuinely tired, she was still wide-awake, thoughts ofAndros running through her head.. Glaring at the digital clock in her wall, she saw it was now midnight. Groaning, she left for the simudeck.

As she stormed over there barefoot in her faded yellow pyjamas, she focused on what program she was going to use. Stopping suddenly, she ran back to her room.

The Rogues were going to come back, and she'd be damned if she didn't use her weapon properly. When she eventually reached the simudeck, she immediately put program difficulty to five, and chose to fight thirty cratorites. She was cranky and tired; it would be good for her.

Soon, thirty became twenty, twenty became eight, and eight became none, with Ashley slashing, cutting, kicking, flipping and punching her way through the cratorites.

When she finished, she ran back to her room to sleep.

Elsewhere

Andros had done some thinking after 'DECA' had left her camera. The more he thought about what she had said, the more he realised Ashley had a point. His father's belief wasn't right, and as the red ranger, he shouldn't be so prejudiced.

He wondered why she cared so much about his opinion, and this led him back to his inner debate on Ashley and Sabrina.

Did Ashley have a secret or something? If so, why didn't she tell any of them? No, she'd told TJ and Sabrina, Andros knew that. He was still confused by what Ashley had meant when she had referred to the RV shuttle ship, but maybe it was just something her blood loss had brought on.

On the other hand, the issue of her hiding behind a mask seemed to be solved. She was so used to it, that long after she should have thrown her mask away, she kept it. And now he had seen a glimpse of the girl behind the mask, Andros was determined to get Ashley to leave it behind for good. Her smile had always been real, and the emotions in her eyes were still the window to her soul, but she could hide them so skilfully that he didn't know who she was.

He wanted to find out. He could admit it now, just to himself. He knew he liked her as a friend, because of the little things she did that were a part of her own personality, rather than her persona of the sweet cheerleader. He didn't like the way she would talk about a new outfit like it was the most important thing in her life, but he liked the way she fully committed herself to being a ranger, and never backed down from a fight unless she couldn't see a better option. He liked her compassion and integrity. Well, maybe integrity wasn't quite the right word. She wasn't always honest to anyone except herself, and now TJ and Sabrina.

How had those two met anyway? Why had she made up a past for Sabrina as well as one for herself and TJ, didn't his sister have a father? Or was it just to make things simpler when dealing with Mrs S?

He sighed, he was doing it again, making more questions when he hadn't even answered the ones he had. Maybe he should just go to bed and stop worrying.

Still, it bothered him. Why did she care about Madres? Ashley was still naïve to the ways of the universe, and this bothered her more than anything else they had faced in battle.

Suddenly, Andros heard someone walking passed his room. By the way they walked, he knew it was a certain yellow ranger he hadn't stopped thinking about since Cassie had declared them boyfriend and girlfriend.

Andros sighed. He had heard Carlos say something about women being the greatest mystery of earth, which Cassie had told him meant that Carlos didn't think he'd ever understand the way a female's mind worked. Not before she and Ashley had pelted him with their dinner though.

So, if women were the greatest mystery of Earth, what was Ashley?