Ch 34
It had to be a trick, Andros thought to himself as he made his way down the corridor to the bridge. If Astronema wanted to talk to him, what else could it possibly be other than a trap of some kind?
He stopped in his tracks momentarily, wondering if he should even bother talking to her at all. So what if she was his sister. She was still evil and unless she had some information about Zordon, he really did not care what she had to say about anything.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and he looked over at it, eventually meeting Ashley's eyes and continuing his walk to the bridge. The others were already there waiting for him as the impatient Astronema paced back and forth on the main viewing screen.
"I don't like to be kept waiting," Astronema said angrily as Andros walked into the room with a sigh.
"Next time, leave me a message then," Andros shot back with a frown. "What do you want?"
"I want the Demon Sword of Kurakk," she answered, folding her arms.
"As you already know, we don't have it," Andros said. "Darkonda, your partner in crime, stole it."
"Darkonda doesn't work for me anymore," Astronema said.
"Well after he stole the Demon Sword of Kurakk, I can't say that I'm surprised," Andros replied. "So I'll ask again, what do you want?"
Astronema smiled a little. "I need you to get the sword back for me," she said.
"That's funny," Andros said, though his expression showed no amusement. "You think that we'd fight Darkonda while he's that powerful and hand over the weapon that we might get back in the process and hand it over to you? How stupid do you think we are?"
"I'll answer your question with another question," Astronema said. "Did you know that an Oracle will speak to a child from its universe if the intentions are pure enough? It doesn't even have to be used on the planet of origin."
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" Andros asked with a shrug.
"Well it seemed to mean something to Sadi when I mentioned it to her," Astronema smiled, watching the Red Ranger's eyes grow dim with worry and anger. "But if it doesn't mean anything to you, then –"
"What do you expect us to do?" Andros asked, frustration seeping into his voice. "I can't guarantee that we'll get the sword back."
Astronema let out a sigh. "That's very unfortunate," she said. "Then, I'll let Sadi know that she can bring the little girl here."
"Astronema," he said firmly as she prepared to disconnect the transmission. "We'll get the sword."
"Good," she said with a smile. "You have three days to get it to me."
"We don't even know where Darkonda is," Ashley protested, but Andros raised a finger to stop her words before Astronema could respond.
"If she's coming to us with this, then she probably knows that Darkonda will run into us first," Andros said, turning back to Astronema. "How do we contact you after we get it?"
"I'll contact you when your time is up," Astronema said. "Just make sure to be careful, big brother."
"Goodbye, Astronema," Andros said, pressing a button to end the transmission.
"So that was her?" Aeden asked with a sigh.
"Yeah," Andros answered, still staring at the now blank viewing screen. "That was her."
"She kind of looks like your mother," Lyell said softly.
"I know," he muttered.
"So are we really going to give her the sword?" Cassie asked, putting her hands on her hips. "Because it kind of seems like one of those huge mistakes that influences the prophecy… Maybe I'm wrong."
"I know," Andros replied.
"We don't have a choice," Aeden said. "When Astronema starts bringing kids into her plans, we can't take any chances."
"If using children is part of her plan, then won't she go through with it anyway?" Carlos asked. "I mean, this is kind of a trap no matter what we do."
"I know," Andros said quietly.
"We have three days to figure out what she's really up to," T.J. said.
"No, we have three days to get this stupid sword," Lyell corrected him. "She was talking about using Talli, wasn't she?"
"Yes," Andros said distantly.
"And, like Carlos said, if Astronema already thought far enough ahead to use Talli, then we might not be able to protect her," Lyell pointed out.
"Well, we can't let Astronema get to her at all," Zhane said. "We always agreed to keep her as far away from this stuff as possible."
"I know!" Andros snapped. "I know. Just… be quiet and let me think."
It was quiet for a moment as Andros instead stopped thinking for a while and calmed down. There was no need to worry now. He had three days to figure everything out.
"Who is Talli?" Carlos finally asked no one in particular. "I get that she's a kid and we don't want her to be part of Astronema's plan, but why did she choose her?"
It was uncomfortably quiet as Lyell and Aeden turned to Andros and folded their arms. "They don't know who Talli is?" Aeden finally asked.
Andros shook his head sadly. "I was about to –" he began.
"More secrets?" Carlos asked, rolling his eyes. "How many more secrets could you possibly have?"
"Just a few more," Zhane answered.
"Like what?" Ashley asked.
"Sadi," Andros said simply. "What I told you earlier… That was one of the big ones."
"What about Sadi?" T.J. asked, understanding when Andros lowered his eyes. "Not you and Sadi?"
"You and Sadi?" Carlos repeated, shaking his head when Andros nodded. "And after all the crap you gave Zhane about sleeping with her, you were with her first? How long ago was this?"
"About six years ago," Andros answered, though he wondered why he felt so compelled to tell them. It was something from his past that really was not any of their business, but he had answered before the thought entered his mind.
"You don't have to answer anymore questions about it if you don't want to," Ashley said, putting a hand on his back.
"Apparently I do," Andros snapped at her, though he glared at Carlos.
"If we're going to be fighting your battles, then we need to know everything you know," Carlos said. "I understand how hard it is for you to talk about it and it's not like I don't care about how it makes you feel. Like I said, it's probably really hard for you. But we're involved in this now… We have to know."
Andros lowered his eyes a moment and let out a sigh. "Then, stop fighting my battles," he said softly after a while. "I didn't ask you to and I don't need you to. I'll take care of everything myself."
"Andros," Ashley called after him as he turned and walked out of the room. "Carlos, why can't you just leave him alone?"
"That's easy for you to say," Carlos muttered.
"Meaning what?" Ashley demanded.
"Meaning that he's telling you all this stuff," Carlos answered. "You don't have to ask because you probably already know. And he'd tell you anything that you asked him."
"How do you figure?"
"Oh come on, Ash," Carlos said, rolling his eyes. "Like we haven't noticed how close you two have gotten lately."
"Lately?" Ashley repeated. "He just got back a couple of days ago."
"I saw you two," Carlos said. "You were…"
"We were what, Carlos?" Ashley dared him.
"You kissed him, that's what," he replied. "And it happened the day he got back, which makes it 'lately'."
"Really?" Aeden asked with a smile. "He kissed you?"
"Well, he didn't tell me anything that you would need to know," Ashley shot back at Carlos, ignoring Aeden's question. "You were getting kind of personal back there, Carlos."
"He kind of volunteered the information about Sadi," Carlos pointed out. "I only asked one question about it, and yeah, maybe it was a little personal. But you can't deny that I'm right… We're being thrown into this prophecy with him and we don't know anything about it."
"Neither do we," Aeden said with a shrug. "We probably know about as much as you do right now."
"Maybe we've been too nice with our questioning," Carlos thought aloud, turning to Aeden. "Or maybe we haven't been asking the right person our questions."
Aeden stared back at him, shaking his head. "You want me to betray my brother by telling you all the things that he hasn't volunteered to tell you?" he asked rhetorically. "I think that I've managed to be one of the only people who hasn't ticked him off in the past two years and I'm not all that interested in changing that."
"We don't need to know everything," Cassie said. "I just want to know who Talli is."
"She's Sadi's daughter," Aeden answered, glancing at Zhane. "I'm a little surprised that she didn't mention her while she was here. I mean, didn't she tell you why she kicked Zhane and Andros off the ship in the first place?"
"Andros told me that he hurt her boyfriend," Ashley said softly, a bit uncomfortable discussing the whole thing without Andros around. "That wasn't it?"
"Well, sort of," Zhane replied. "Andros, Aeden, and I had run into Sadi and her boyfriend in the middle of the shopping district on KO-35. She had her little girl with her and Talli was acting kind of strange with that guy around, so Andros asked her if she was okay and she said no."
"But with Talli being only two years old, she really couldn't explain it to us," Aeden said. "But I felt a strange vibe coming off of that guy and I made the mistake of reading him. Then Andros and Zhane read me and, before I could stop him, Andros just started hitting him."
"What did Sadi's boyfriend do?" T.J. asked.
"He had done something to Sadi's daughter," Ashley concluded softly. "And Andros hurt him to keep it from happening again, right?"
Aeden nodded and put his hands into his pockets with a sigh. "By the time Zhane and I reacted, Andros had already done enough damage to put the guy in intensive care. And we were taken before the A.D.A. Galactic Force almost immediately."
"Is that when Sadi lost her morpher?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah," Zhane replied. "They said that she was unfit to care for her daughter, but had no authority to take Talli from her. So they took her morpher instead."
"And because they didn't blame Andros for reacting like he did, they were much easier on him that we'd expected," Aeden added. "They kept him in their custody for a couple of months, but they let him keep his morpher. Sadi wasn't too happy about that because she technically didn't do anything but she lost her morpher."
"She did enough," Lyell said. "She knew what her boyfriend was doing and she took no steps to end it. Taking her morpher away was too good for her."
"Zhane and I didn't receive much of a punishment because we weren't directly involved," Aeden continued on. "We got a lecture and a suspension from any ranger duties for two weeks or so."
"So what happened to Talli?" Ashley asked.
"She was released to Sadi," Zhane answered. "On KO-35, you can't take a child away from its mother based on something like that… It's kind of complicated."
"Well, why didn't Andros just tell us that?" Carlos asked with a sigh. "Did he think that we would care that he was in custody for a couple of months for beating up a guy who got what he deserved?"
"Maybe," Zhane said softly, deep in thought about it himself. "He still doesn't know you guys very well, so I never really expected him to talk about it. And I figured that he didn't want me talking about it either. That's the only reason I never mentioned it before… but you're right. It's important for you to know these things."
"Yeah," Ashley said, turning to leave the bridge. "It is."
-0-0-0-0-
Ashley's curiosity had reached its peak by the time she stepped off the Megalift. She had not realized how fast she had been walking until she reached Andros' door. She took a moment to catch her breath before knocking lightly on the door, preparing to be greeted by a testy and just as impatient Andros. But when the door opened, he glanced up at her with tears in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Ashley asked, slowly walking into the room and sitting beside him on his bed.
"Nothing," Andros said, shaking his head until Ashley stopped him with a look. "I had another vision."
"What was it this time?" Ashley asked worriedly.
"Same as the last one," he replied. "The sword, blood, Darkonda laughing… It was the same, just more intense than before."
"Intense?"
"Painful," Andros corrected himself. "But I didn't hit my head this time and I stayed conscious, so you don't have to worry."
Andros stood up and reddened a little, realizing suddenly that Ashley was sitting on his bed. "So how much did they tell you?" he asked her, trying to hide his discomfort.
"Zhane and Aeden?" Ashley inquired, receiving a nod. "Quite a bit… You hurt Sadi's boyfriend because he had done something to Talli, right?"
Andros nodded again. "So, what did the others say?" he asked, folding his arms and preparing for the worst.
"Not much," Ashley replied. "We did wonder why you couldn't have just explained that to us… but I'm pretty sure that I know why you didn't. And the more I think about things, the more obvious it is. You didn't mention Talli very much when you got here and Sadi didn't mention her much either. Astronema knew that mentioning her would upset you and she made it seem like she got a reaction from Sadi too. Then there was that thing that you were going to tell me before we were interrupted, the thing you were going to say after you told me that you and Sadi had had sex once."
Ashley looked up at him sadly as he avoided her gaze. "Talli's your daughter with Sadi, isn't she?" she asked, waiting for his tiny nod before continuing. "I already had a feeling, but I ignored it because you told me that you were thirteen when you were with Sadi. I couldn't picture you as a father at thirteen, but then you told me that you didn't regret being with her and I couldn't think of any other reason why you wouldn't regret it… But it's true, isn't it?"
"Yes," Andros whispered, lowering his head.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Ashley asked softly. "We'd have understood everything… We'd have known why you wanted to give up your morpher when you came back from Omni-8. And why you seemed so angry and so sad all the time. We'd have –"
"You wouldn't have understood anything, Ashley," he interrupted.
"Of course we would have," she said. "We were willing to let you lead us whether or not you had killed three people on Omni-8. We were willing to be your friends… If this is about you and me –"
"It isn't," Andros said firmly.
"Then why?"
"Because I didn't know who she was," Andros snapped, a tear falling down his face. "I came back to this ship with no real memories of what happened on Omni-8, even with no memories of things that had happened to me in my past. Not too long ago, I thought that she was my little sister until Zhane corrected me… But I wouldn't have told you about her if I had remembered everything because I had no reason to. I've tried my best to keep her away from all this stuff and I'll keep trying as best as I can."
"You didn't know who she was?" Ashley asked, struggling to hold back her own tears. "They made you forget that you had a little girl?"
Andros let out a shaky sigh and leaned back against his bedroom wall. "That's what Sadi was waiting for me to ask her about," he said. "She was waiting for me to ask about our daughter, her only real means of torturing me and I believe that's the only reason she wanted me to have my memories."
"Did she keep Talli away from you?" Ashley asked.
"No," Andros answered gently. "She did the exact opposite… Sadi waited until she was noticeably pregnant before she even told me about it. I think she was worried that if I knew ahead of time, then I might've asked her to get rid of the baby. But she said that she decided to tell me because she didn't want it anymore."
"Anymore?"
"Sadi already told you that she's half-human," Andros began.
"Like you," Ashley said with a nod.
"Not like me at all," he said. "My father was human and my mother was Abruxian, just a different kind of human. Sadi had half-human parents, but the other half were monsters and they definitely didn't look human. Their children had some physical traces of humanity in them and it bothered them. She always wanted to impress them with the awful things that she did, trying to prove that she could reject the part of her that was human. I still have this feeling that Sadi hoped that by being with me, she could accomplish what her parents couldn't –two half-humans creating something that wasn't human. But she didn't know that Abruxians were humans too and when she found out that she was carrying a human baby, she didn't want it anymore."
"She took your virginity and ruined your life to prove something to her parents?" Ashley asked. "She really is sick."
"She didn't ruin my life," Andros said in frustration. "Stop saying things like that… I told you that being with Sadi was the most important thing that ever happened to me. I became a father but that didn't ruin my life."
"Andros, even discussing this now, you're upset," Ashley pointed out. "How can you say that Sadi didn't ruin your life?"
"This ruined my life," Andros said, holding up his arm and revealing his Astromorpher. "If it weren't for this, I might have had a more normal life. But I chose this… I've chosen it over my own daughter many times before and that's the only thing that I have regrets about. If I say that I regret being with Sadi, then how can I not say that I also regret being a father?"
"It isn't the same," Ashley said, shaking her head.
"How is it different?" Andros asked. "To say that I wish that I had never been with Sadi, that takes Talli out of the picture, right? I can't have regrets about decisions that can change someone else's life… or take it away."
"Then, do you wish you had been able to go home to her instead of staying here with us?" Ashley asked quietly.
Andros shook his head to himself. "You want me to say yes and prove my own point?" he asked. "Saying yes means I choose my daughter over you… but I –"
"You don't have to finish," Ashley interrupted, staring down at her lap. "Like you said, this isn't about you and me. This should be about her… What are you going to do when you find her and the other Rebels? Stay behind, take care of her? …Marry Skye and give Talli a mother and a happy ending all wrapped in a pretty bow?"
"So this is about you and me," Andros said, folding his arms.
"What are you talking about, Andros?" she asked. "There's no 'you and me'…"
"So half an hour ago, everything that we said to each other meant… what?" Andros countered. "I mean, I told you that you mean something to me."
Ashley let out a sigh. "What do I mean to you, Andros?" she asked tearfully. "We barely know each other, but we kissed and now you say that I mean something to you. But what? …Do you love me? Are you telling me that you're going to break your engagement with Skye for something with me that won't even last because you're going to die and –"
"Take it easy," Andros said, making his way to her as she buried her face into her hands when more tears came. "I know this is a lot to take in. But Ashley, I like you a lot… I share a telepathic link with you and I thought about you when I wasn't here. I don't think that I can say that I'm in love with you, especially not when I'm going to die. But I care about you and I liked kissing you –the kiss that you admitted meant something to you too."
"It did," she said, lifting her head and wiping away the tears on her face. "But what are we supposed to do?"
"Whatever we want," Andros answered, kneeling down beside her. "If Talli and Sadi complicate things between you and me, then I don't blame you… I know how disgusting you think I was to have been with Sadi and I know how weird it is for you to picture me as a dad."
"You don't know anything," Ashley said as more tears fell. "You don't know anything about who I am as a person at all if you really think that I wouldn't want to date you because you have a child or because you were with Sadi."
"I didn't say –"
"You didn't have to," Ashley said. "That isn't what this is about, Andros. Not for me… But you say that you like me. Didn't you say the same thing to Skye at some point? Didn't you tell me that you didn't mean what you said to her?"
"So now you think that my feelings for you are –?" he asked.
"I think that I've seen you hot and cold since I've met you," she said sadly. "You almost always say the opposite of how you really feel. You say that you're fine when you're not. You keep things from me and the others. Then you get angry when we find out and want to help you. And I don't know if that's just who you really are or if it's all an act."
"An act?" Andros scoffed. "I've never shown pride about leading Skye on… I told Skye that I'd marry her with every intention of marrying her and I told her that I loved her when I didn't. But I never kissed her or made love to her or even held her hand… But I've kissed you and held your hand because I lo– I like you. And I'm trying to be very careful with the words I use to describe how I feel about you because I know how hot and cold I can be."
He looked up at her and gently took her hand. "I would never lie about my feelings for you," he said. "But I can't promise that my feelings for you won't change either… They'll only get stronger as time goes by. And you'll know when they do."
"How will I know?" she asked.
"Because we're Oaeta," he answered. "The stronger our feelings for one another, the more connected we'll be. And as fast as you've been reading my thoughts lately, I'd say that we're pretty close already."
Ashley smiled a little. "Do you have a picture?" she asked after a moment.
"Of Talli?" he asked, smiling back as she nodded. "I've got something even better."
Andros stood up and gently pulled her to her feet, leading her out of his room and to the Megalift by the hand. In moments, they were on the Simudeck and he finally released her hand as he pressed a sequence on the Simudeck's wall panel. He quickly walked over to Ashley and motioned for her to hold her arms out. Though he received a confused look from her, she held out her arms and waited.
"Start simulation," he said, glancing over at Ashley nervously.
Immediately, Ashley felt her hands grow heavy in front of her and she looked down at them with a gasp as a baby girl with hazel eyes began squirming in her arms.
"Meet Kitallia," he said with a smile. "Nicknamed Talli by Zhane."
"She's beautiful, Andros," she said, holding the baby closer to her. "I didn't know that you could make people on the Simudeck."
"It takes time, but it's possible," he said. "It's just a modified Craterite that I shrank down and gave a face to."
"Well, she's gorgeous," Ashley replied, staring down at Talli with a smile. "She looks a lot like you."
"Thanks," Andros said sheepishly. "I made it before she was born to practice everything that I didn't know how to do –changing diapers and things like that. I made it look like her later and I've been adding onto this program since then."
"Adding onto it?" Ashley repeated.
"Level One-B," Andros called out, watching as the baby in Ashley's arms transformed into a laughing one year old that struggled out of Ashley's arms and clapped her hands happily as she took a few steps toward Andros.
"She kind of has your hair," Ashley giggled, stooping down to get a better look at Talli.
Talli turned to Ashley, revealing the blond hair on the left side of her head and pulling a bow off her head that held up the brown hair on the right with a smile.
"I kept going with the program to make a playmate for Talli," Andros said. "But sometimes when I had to leave on missions and leave Talli with my mother, I'd just sit in here with this program and listen to her laugh or watch her play. It was the only way that I could bear leaving her behind for longer than a day."
"She was sitting on your lap that day that I saw you in here, wasn't she?" Ashley asked, standing up straight again. "The night that you came back from Omni-8, you were here and you stopped a simulation that I never saw… It was this one."
"Yeah," Andros said. "Even then, I missed her but I didn't know who she was to me… I just knew that she was important and that I loved her."
"Do you have one for every year?" Ashley asked.
"Up to age three," Andros answered with a sigh, picking up the simulated child that whined and stretched out her arms to be picked up. "I haven't seen her so I haven't aged the program. Anyway, I'd much rather see the real thing."
"I doubt that she's changed all that much in two years," Ashley said.
"I'm pretty sure that she has," Andros replied softly. "She's five years old now. Her hair's probably longer, she's probably made lots of friends by now, and she may have even lost her first tooth already. And I wasn't there to explain to her that it'll grow back… I've been wondering who was there for her and who she brought all her questions to without me there."
"You left Talli with your family, didn't you?" Ashley asked.
"I did, but Sadi had started developing this awful habit of wanting to spend time with Talli," Andros explained as Talli began pinching the bridge of his nose and laughing. "She kept changing her mind about wanting to be in Talli's life and I couldn't legally keep her away from her daughter, so I wanted to give her a chance. Even now, I'd never want Talli hating her mother. But in the end, Sadi was always Sadi. She'd leave her by herself when she was a baby and forget to feed her… During the evacuation of KO-35, when all the shuttles left for the planet Yur-ik, she left Talli behind."
"It wasn't a mistake?" Ashley suggested.
"No," Andros sighed. "I had hoped that it was an accident and that in the panic, Sadi had forgotten that Talli was there… But I found Talli in Sadi's house all by herself… She was so scared when I found her that she wouldn't come to me. I don't even think that she knew who I was anymore and she had seen me as the Red Ranger her whole life. So I demorphed and she still kept screaming. She finally cried herself to sleep once we were back on the ship."
"That's awful," she said as Talli reached for Ashley to pick her up next.
"I confronted Sadi about it once we got to Yur-ik," Andros continued, smiling a little as he let Ashley take Talli from him. "And she told me that she left Talli behind because if she hadn't, Talli would have slowed her down. I thought she was just messing with me until I saw how close she was to actual tears."
"She actually said that?"
"She did," Andros replied. "And knowing how Sadi can be, I was still more shocked to hear her say what she did than to see the tears in her eyes."
There was silence between them as Ashley wondered what she could say to him. She looked sadly from his hurt expression to the playful one on Talli's face as she held the girl close to her.
"Andros, I –" she began until DECA's alarms began to sound.
"Stop simulation," Andros said quickly, waiting until the little girl disappeared from Ashley's arms before looking up at DECA's camera. "What is it, DECA?"
"Darkonda is attacking Earth," DECA replied. "The others are in the workbay waiting."
"Tell them we're on our way," Ashley said when Andros froze at the mention of Darkonda.
She could feel what he was thinking and she could not help thinking it too. It was time to get the Demon Sword of Kurakk back and it would not be an easy task. Of course, now there was the added pressure of protecting Talli from Astronema as well as the vision of Darkonda and blood.
He thought of the vision more than anything else, suddenly aware that his death would leave Talli without him for the rest of her life. She would be without her father just like he had been for years. Maybe she would be better off without him in her life, he thought to himself. She probably would not even miss him, if she had bothered to miss him now.
"Stop thinking like that," she said. "You'll come back from this, Andros. We won't let you die, not today."
"Right," Andros replied with a forced half-smile that revealed every ounce of fear in his mind to her. But before she could say another word, he was already halfway to the Megalift. "Let's get that sword back."