Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers.

Notes: I'm sorry it took so long! This chapter was really hard to write--I don't do so well writing Ashley angst, I don't think. I want to say that the next update will be sooner, but I'll be on vacation from the day after tomorrow until August 8, so I'm not making any promises. We'll see, though. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 37

"You knew." His arms folded, Andros glared at Arietis.

"I... suspected it," the Phantom Ranger admitted. "I saw the resemblance when we met on Onyx."

"You brought them here to see how Ashley would react. They don't know anything about Zordon, do they?"

"They know where Dark Spectre is likely keeping him," Arietis said. "But yes, I did bring them here to see how they and Ashley would react to each other."

He had no idea how to respond. Andros stood there, eyes narrowed, staring at Arietis. Ashley had run off of the Bridge after a moment of stunned silence. Eiran and Val had quickly followed, leaving Andros alone on the Bridge with Arietis, whose suspicions were now confirmed.

"I don't understand," he said finally. "Ashley's been on the Megaship for almost a year. Deca would have noticed."

"There is no uniquely Karovan DNA," Deca offered. "And although Ashley's blood type is common on Earth, it is rarely seen anywhere else."

"But it's her family I've been looking for," Andros said. He turned slowly to look at her, his eyes still narrowed. "Even if there's no such thing as Karovan DNA, you had hers."

"The DNA records stored in my database tell me that Aileana of KO-35 and Ashley Hammond of Earth are not the same person," Deca informed him. If he didn't know better, Andros would have sworn that she sounded defensive. Before he could question her, she added, "However, I noted the DNA of the two men as I teleported them onto the Megaship, and I can tell you conclusively that they are Ashley's father and brother. I am currently investigating the DNA discrepancies."

"Tell me what you find out," Andros said, frowning at his morpher in distraction. "Where's Ashley now?"

"Ashley has left the Megaship."

"Where did she go?" he asked impatiently. "I need to talk to her."

"Ashley has left the Megaship," Deca repeated calmly. "I am now attempting a remote login to Eltare's Ranger database, but the computer has been neglected and we are not within optimal range."

Of course Ashley would want to be alone, he told himself. Seeing her father and her brother again after so many years would have been enough of a shock on its own, but with everything else... Andros wasn't sure what else was going on, but his own world had fallen apart enough times.

"Will you tell her that I want to talk to her, then?"

He expected her to refuse, and was surprised when she didn't. Satisfied for now, Andros turned back to Arietis. "You told me that the Aquitians matched them to Val and Eiran."

"Because they did." Arietis didn't so much as blink. "The Aquitians matched their DNA both to Val and Eiran of KO-35 and to the DNA of the men that stopped on Aquitar six years ago claiming to be Val and Eiran of KO-35. They are Val and Eiran of KO-35."

They'd disappeared after leaving Aquitar, he remembered. And then they'd turned up on a slave world. Andros tried not to sigh. "Deca, is Zhane awake?"

"He is," she confirmed. "It seems the gravity in his room momentarily malfunctioned."

Despite himself, Andros had to smile. "Thanks, Deca," he said quietly, and went looking for his best friend.

He found Zhane sitting crossly on his bunk, arms folded across his chest and a sleepy glare on his face. "What'd I do this time?" he demanded.

"There was a call from Arietis last night," Andros said quietly. "He'd found Val and Eiran alive."

The names took a few moments for Zhane to place, but then he leaned forward with suddenly wide eyes. "Alive!"

"Yes," Andros said. He tried not to sigh as he told the rest of the story as quickly as he could. "They've all left the Megaship," he finished. "Ashley's probably gone home."

"You could go after her, you know," Zhane said. "And Deca can track them."

"I think she wants to be alone."

"And Val and Eiran?"

"I have no idea what to say to them," he admitted. He doubted that they were especially eager to speak with him, either.

"Why did they come here?" Zhane's face darkened as he asked the question.

"Arietis said that they had information about Zordon," Andros told him. "I'm not sure if it's true or not."

"Tan," Zhane said suddenly.

Andros frowned at him. "Tan?"

"They're his cousins, aren't they?" Zhane was frowning still. "When he hears... he already doesn't like you."

"Maybe not, but there isn't much he can do about it." Andros shifted uneasily. Theoretically the Council of Eltare could strip him of his morpher, but it was a long and complicated process not made easier by the war or the fact that the three surviving Council members were Tan, Cia, and Arietis.

"I hope so," Zhane muttered. He laughed softly, and Andros raised an eyebrow. Zhane just shook his head. "I'd follow you, you know."

"I know," Andros said quietly.

He stared down at his morpher for several minutes before shaking his head. There were other things he should be worrying about now--like where Val and Eiran were now. If Astronema captured them as two potential informants... Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

"Deca, where are Val and Eiran? And Ashley?" He added her name almost hesitantly, unsurprised when Deca told him that Ashley had requested that her whereabouts not be revealed.

"Val and Eiran are at Ashley's home in Angel Grove," Deca said, adding, "Ashley is not with them."

"Will you tell her..." He hesitated, not sure what to say. "Forget it. Just keep an eye on the other two."

"Are you all right?" Zhane asked quietly.

Andros shrugged off the hand Zhane laid on his arm. "I'll be fine."

They sat there in silence for a very long time.

Her parents hadn't divorced after all. That was what bothered her the most, and she didn't even understand the full story yet. For five years she'd resented her father and her brother for leaving the rest of them, and Ashley didn't know what to do know with the revelation that they hadn't.

She swallowed hard as she stared at the picture in front of her. The edges of the frame dug into her palms as she clutched it tightly, but she didn't care. She just stared at their faces, tears rolling slowly down her face, and wondered what they were doing back at the house without her.

She'd run away from them--twice, in fact, and she would do it a third time if Deca told anyone at all where she was.

When there was a knock at the door, she glared at Deca's eye and reached for her communicator. The voice on the other side of the door made her hesitate.

"Ash?"

"What is it?" she asked, wary.

"Arietis thought you could use a friend," Cassie said, and the door slid open. "Deca agreed."

Ashley narrowed her eyes. She hadn't complained when Deca had done that to Andros, but she didn't appreciated it now that she was on the receiving end. She had to admit that it was an effective move, though--by the time she could think past her irritation Cassie was already sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Ash?"

"I..." She swallowed. "Oh god, Cass, I--I don't know what to think." She saw Cassie open her mouth, but shook her head. If she didn't speak now, she'd change her mind.

Cassie listened as she spoke, her expression growing more and more disbelieving. Ashley paused for breath at the part where she'd run away to go home, and Cassie shook her head. "Wow," she murmured. "I can't believe that you're... wow."

"Neither can I." Ashley stared down at the picture, swallowing. "They were at the house. I went there looking for Mom, and... it was all a lie. Everything she told us about them, about... everything. It wasn't true."

Cassie slid closer. She laid her hand gently over Ashley's, squeezing. Ashley squeezed back, slowly shaking her head. "They were trying to protect us," she muttered. "Mom and Dad. That's what they said."

She'd left before they could try to explain how they thought it was protecting her to fake a divorce and have her brother and father literally disappear off the planet. She wasn't ready to hear that now. She wasn't sure if she ever would be, really, but she didn't think she'd be able to avoid them forever.

"I don't understand," she said. She wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. "I just... They lied to us, Cass. To me and Jeff. My mom should have told us. Even if she didn't want to, when we went into space and met Andros..."

Ashley paused. "Andros," she muttered. "That's why she didn't like him. She must have... recognized him or something. Or when I told her he was Red..."

"I don't even know what to say," Cassie said finally, when Ashley stopped again. "But Ash... your mom might be the only one with the answers to all your questions."

"Why?" Frowning, Ashley pulled her hand away from Cassie's. "She lied to me."

She sighed. "I don't want to talk to her," she whispered. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she spoke, and swallowed. "I just... I want them all to go away, and I want to go back to how it was yesterday when my life made sense."

Cassie leaned closer to hug her again. Ashley closed her eyes and leaned against her best friend. "I don't want to talk to her."

"I didn't mean now," Cassie murmured. She squeezed harder. "Just thinking for awhile won't hurt you."

"I just don't understand," Ashley said again. "We could have handled it. She knew I was a Power Ranger. Why didn't she..."

Cassie didn't have an answer for her, and Ashley stared down at her lap. She could almost understand how it had happened. Once she'd told them the story the first time around, her mother had just let it go until... this had happened. But that didn't make it any easier to understand.

"I've been angry at them all this time," she said. "For leaving us, and they've been stuck in this horrible place while I was so mad at them."

"Ash, you had no idea," Cassie said. "You had every reason to think that they'd just disappeared--I mean, it was what your mother told you."

"It was what both my parents told me." Ashley rubbed at her eyes again. "My father said that we--that we could come visit as soon as he and Jonathan were settled, and that was the last we heard from them."

"I'm sorry, Ash," Cassie said softly.

"Me too," Ashley muttered. No matter how she tried, she couldn't quite seem to look away from that picture. They all looked so happy there, so... normal. Like they belonged there, as it registered for the first time that they really didn't.

She'd never thought to wonder if Earth was really her home. The idea that it wasn't was still too surreal for her to make sense of, but it was a distraction from thinking about her family and she welcomed any distraction.

Andros must have mentioned her birth name when he'd told her about Val and Eiran. She couldn't remember it now, though, and she wasn't in any hurry to ask him, either. She didn't want to be anyone but Ashley.

She didn't know how to be anyone but Ashley. Whoever she'd been born, she didn't remember being that person

Ashley bit her lip. Cassie looked at her, and she sighed. Torn between not wanting to explain and wanting release, she stared at her hands, hesitating.

The choice was taken from her a moment later when the alarms shrilled. Ashley jumped, badly shaken by the noise as the silence broke.

Cassie was halfway to the door when Ashley finally stood, and she followed her friend less than eagerly. Astronema wouldn't care about her feelings--or if she did, she would only take advantage of her current emotional turmoil. She only hoped that it wasn't the Psycho Rangers; she didn't know how she'd manage to find the energy to fight them, though she knew somehow that she was about ti find out.