Chapter 27
Astrae was kneeling in front of the Grand Monarch of Evil on his ship. A mixture of minions were wrestling Zordon's energy tube on the far side of the room. For the energy drain to work properly, Dark Specter had to be close to Zordon two days every month. Those two day were up now and Zordon was transferred into the custody of yet another of Dark Specter's followers.
However, the activity was ignored by the evil being and the bounty hunter.
'I have a job for you, Astrae,' Dark Specter's voice boomed through the ship.
'That's what I figured when I received your summons,' Astrae replied.
'You have done well these past months. I don't know how you did it, but the intelligence you've gathered has been invaluable.'
Astrae smirked but stayed quiet, not about to reveal her secrets.
'But you are to quit your spying. I have named Orion my heir some time ago, but for the future to be truly secure, he needs one too. Him appointing one has little use. So I have decided, due to the nature of your dealings with each other, that you will carry his heir for him.'
'You want me to have Orion's baby?' Astrae asked shocked. 'I have my own business to deal with, a baby would be in the way.'
'You will be sufficiently compensated for your missed bounties. Once the child is born, they will not be any of your concern. Someone will teach the child until they are able to take their place of command.'
Astrae's hands balled into fists of fury, but otherwise she held in her anger. 'Who would teach them?'
'Darkonda,' Dark Specter replied. 'Now, you are to go to the Dark Fortress and make yourself available for Orion. You will stay there until a child is delivered.'
'I have one more thing to do on Earth and finish up my affairs there.'
'Finish them quick,' Dark Specter told her and waved her away.
On her way out Astrae heard a familiar voice screeching orders on where to take Zordon. She filed the information away for later use.
'Sorry I'm late.'
Zhane watched Ashley run over to where they had spread out a picnic in a secluded spot of the park.
'My family wasn't letting me leave.'
'No apologies necessary,' one of the Karovans smiled at her. 'I am Tareq and you must be Ashley. Zhane tells me you are quite the aspiring mechanic on the ship.'
'Zhane loves to exaggerate,' Ashley replied, shaking his hand.
'Ashley, I want you to meet my sister, Amira,' Zhane joined them, pulling his sister with him.
'Actually, we've met,' Ashley smiled at them. 'Just hours before I became a ranger.'
'You were helping with the girl with the burned arms,' Amira smiled back.
'Well, in that case, let's eat and mingle,' Zhane grinned happily. He slipped off to Karone and wrapped his arms around her waist. 'Hey gorgeous,' he whispered in her ear and dropped a kiss to her neck.
'Behave,' Karone laughed and twisted out of his arms. She caught his hands and looked at him. 'You're happy,' she commented.
'Why shouldn't I bed? We've found colonists, including my sister. Our fight is going well and Orion hasn't attacked for a while. We're going to locate Zordon one of these days and save him. We made some great friends and let's not forget I have the best, most awesome and beautiful girlfriend in the whole universe,' Zhane grinned, stealing a kiss.
'Suck up,' Karone laughed again. 'But I guess you're right.'
They joined the others on one of the picnic blankets. Everyone last track of time as they were enjoying themselves. Zhane looked up from playing with Karone's hair and looked around for his friends. Soft cords alerted him to Cassie having brought out her guitar and was gently strumming it for a small audience. TJ and Carlos had produced a basketball and were playing a free for all kind of game with a few colonists.
Zhane had to search a bit before he finally spotted Ashley. She stood a little away from everyone in the shadow of a tree. At first glance she looked to be observing the picnic, but on closer inspection her thoughts seemed a million miles away and there was a shadow on her face. As he watched Tareq approached her. A smile appeared, but Zhane noticed even from a distance that it wasn't quite reaching her eyes.
Just then the world exploded around them. Everyone jumped to their feet and rushed to crowd together. The six rangers gathered at the front of the group, dropping into a fighting stance.
'What do we have here?' Orion commented, stepping into view from the line of trees. 'Karovans disguised as Terrans, ingenious. Dark Specter would've never found you.'
'No one invited you, Orion,' Carlos snapped, inching slightly closer to Ashley.
'Yeah, it's been so quiet lately, we thought you had finally given up. Let's go back to that,' Cassie agreed.
Orion shrugged. 'You've been providing enough entertainment without me having to create any. But now I've grown bored and wanted to introduce you to my new ally.'
A laugh sounded and it chilled Zhane's blood. He had heard it but twice before and it never signalled anything good. To his surprise he noticed Ashley started shaking from the corner of his eye. A creature joined Orion from out of the line of trees.
'Time to meet your end, rangers,' the creature said and started advancing. His sword appeared in his hand and extended.
For a moment everyone stood frozen. Then Zhane spotted Ashley stepping around Carlos and started meeting the monster half way. Shouts of warning were ignored. But as Zhane caught a look on her face, he thought maybe she honestly didn't hear them. Her face was a blank mask of determination and single minded focus.
'So we have a volunteer to die first,' the monster commented. 'How noble.'
'Yeah,' Ashley hissed. Her tone of voice sends chills down Zhane's spine. 'You.'
In the blink of an eye, Ashley was holding his sword as the creature disintegrated. Sparks of gold were crackling around her balled fists. The sword disappeared. Everyone watched breathlessly as Ashley and Orion seemed to be staring each other down, the sparks growing more erratic until finally she raised her left arm and fired a bolt of gold at him. Orion dodged and disappeared.
Only then seemed Ashley to remember where she was and that she had an audience. Her shoulders squared and she slowly turned around. Cold golden irises met them where there had once been smiling brown eyes.
'You!' Karone shouted. 'I can't believe we ever trusted you!'
'Karone?' Cassie looked between her friends in fear.
'That's Astrae!' Karone hissed.
Zhane saw the last three confused expressions turn hostile, mixed with a good degree of hurt and betrayal.
'You helped capture Zordon, didn't you?' Carlos accused. 'You supplied the necessary information to get to him! And to think you actually fooled me enough into dating you.'
Ashley, or Astrae, Zhane reminded himself, seemed to realise the game was up. Slowly, and without a word, she reached to her wrist and pulled the strap of her morpher loose, letting the device fall to the ground. Then she turned on her heels and stalked off.
Zhane wasn't sure if he imagined it, but her shoulders seemed to slump a fraction of an inch. She looked like she was trying to keep from running. And had he seen tears glittering in her eyes or had that been the sparkle of her irises? If he hadn't known any better, he would've been sure about the tears.
But… did he really know better?
