NOTE:
I have been told by a few friends of mine that this particular chapter is a little heavy and therefore readers should be forewarned that things get a little rough in this chapter. 'Rough' refers to a main character bleeding to near death. And for better or for worse, this chapter lingers on that moment for a page or so, which leads me back to the warning. While not especially graphic, it is not for the sensitive either. Happy reading!
Ch 35
"Come out and fight me, Red Ranger," Darkonda shouted as he struck the wall of a tall building with the edge of the Demon Sword of Kurakk using a powerful stroke. The base of the building crumbled and Darkonda laughed evilly as he watched several Angel Grove citizens exit the building before it finally fell.
"You can't hide from me, Red Ranger!" he shouted to the skies. "Face me!"
"I've never been a fan of hiding games," Andros said, shooting his Astroblaster at Darkonda several times as he zipped by on his Galaxy Glider.
"Neither are we!" Zhane said, striking Darkonda with the blade of his Silver Silverizer.
Darkonda staggered backward, looking at the Demon Sword of Kurakk curiously. "It's not working," he said to himself.
"Something wrong, Darkonda?" T.J. asked, attacking him with his Astro Axe just as Carlos hit Darkonda with the Lunar Lance.
Darkonda began to laugh now as he stared down the rangers, momentarily glancing down at the sword. It was only now that he finally realized how little of the rangers' attacks he had actually felt. Maybe the sword was working after all. His eyes glowed as he prepared to the release the energy against the rangers, his concentration broken when he felt several hits from behind and he turned to see the Yellow and Pink Rangers standing triumphantly in front of him with their weapons aimed at him.
"Is that the best you can do?" Darkonda asked, quickly regaining his concentration and sending a blast from his eyes that had more than amplified since the rangers had last fought him.
Darkonda walked toward the fallen Astrorangers, laughing as he got closer and closer. His laughter ended when sudden barrage of bright spheres of energy struck his body, sending him down.
"The Green Astroranger?" Darkonda growled, gripping his sword tightly and planting its tip into the ground to pull himself up as Aeden helped the others to their feet.
"I take it you didn't enjoy my Stellar Flare Blasts?" Aeden asked, aiming his hand at Darkonda and opening it, revealing a small device in his palm that clicked briefly before sending out several of the same small spheres surrounded by green fire that had hit Darkonda before. But this time, Darkonda was able to block the attack with the Demon Sword of Kurakk.
"Six rangers or seven, I can destroy you all," Darkonda shouted, charging at them with his sword.
"Combine your weapons," Andros said, firing his Astroblaster at Darkonda as he charged. "Fight him like you fought the Dolo-Uham Nir. Use the training that Sadi gave you."
The rangers all fired against Darkonda at once –the Quadroblaster, the Silver Silverizer, and the Stellar Flare Blasts. But Darkonda was not fazed by the attack and the Demon Sword of Kurakk began to glow ominously in his hand, its red glow spreading to his entire body. The monster thrashed around violently as the glow grew brighter and brighter until, in a sudden blast, the rangers were sent flying back.
"You don't really think that you'll win this, do you?" Darkonda asked with a laugh as he sped toward the Red Ranger and lifted him by his neck, throwing him against a nearby building. "I told you when we last fought that this was a fight between you and me, Red Ranger. Your friends can all live if they stop fighting all your battles for you."
"I don't need them to help me beat you, Darkonda," Andros said, quickly aiming his blaster again and firing as the others fired at Darkonda's back. Darkonda fell to the ground again, the Demon Sword of Kurakk still gripped tightly in his hand.
"I think that sword is making you sloppy, Darkonda," Aeden said. "Why not let us take it off your hands?"
But even while on the ground, the red glowing energy around Darkonda forcefully struck out in all directions and the rangers found themselves joining Darkonda on the hard ground. Darkonda allowed the energy around him to lift him to his feet and he laughed.
"Sloppy, am I?" he asked. "Not only does this sword act as a shield against all your pathetic attacks, but it's been absorbing the energy from them as well. And that energy only transfers to me… If I absorb anymore of your attacks, I'll be unstoppable!"
"Until the sword destroys you," Zhane pointed out.
"It's true that the Demon Sword of Kurakk drains me of my life energy," Darkonda said. "But thanks to Dark Specter, I have plenty of lives to spare and the sword grows more powerful with each life it consumes. Fortunately for me, you don't have more than one life to spare."
The rangers stood in front of him, unsure of what to do next. This was a fight that they could not win, not with weapons anyway. But Andros' mind was racing now. Fight or lie down and die. Those were always the choices and this time they might both result in death… his death… The death that would start the prophecy and rip him away from his family.
It was moments before Andros realized that the others had begun to fight again, discarding their useless weapons to go hand-to-hand with Darkonda instead. He charged at Darkonda, allowing the others to distract him briefly as he unsheathed Darkonda's old sword and swiped at him with it. The sword connected, but as he had expected, the strike had no effect on Darkonda.
He was not thinking clearly. Weapons would not work on Darkonda. He already knew that. But there had to be a way to get Darkonda to drop that sword.
"What do you think you can do with that?" Darkonda laughed.
"Take you down," Andros replied as he blocked a strong strike from the Demon Sword of Kurakk, countering with his own. Darkonda's old sword's blade erupted in flames as he swiped at the monster, which seemed to surprise Darkonda as he staggered backward.
"I don't know how you're able to use my sword, Red Ranger," Darkonda began, the red glow of his body transferring to the sword suddenly and leaving it as a blast that sent Andros flying back without Darkonda's sword. "But you were lucky to have lasted this long and you'll need more than that to beat me today."
Almost seconds later, Darkonda rushed at Andros using a speed that rendered him nearly invisible, laughing as he grabbed up the Red Ranger.
"Astronema stopped me before, but the sword seems to be crying out for you," Darkonda said, pressing Andros against something hard with one hand on his neck and preparing to thrust in the Demon Sword of Kurakk with the other. "And who am I to deny its request?"
Andros glanced quickly from the sword to the others, who all ran to his aid, the moment beginning to slow down in his mind as Andros realized that he was against a tree. A tree… Darkonda's laughter… Next would be blood unless he got out of Darkonda's grip. But he could not. Other than Darkonda's steadily increasing strength keeping his back to the tree, the sword itself seemed to be paralyzing him. His legs could not move, nor could he reach down to grab his Astroblaster. And now he could feel his airway closing as Darkonda applied more pressure against his throat.
The others had already drawn their blasters, hesitating to fire in fear that they might hit Andros. Any efforts by the rangers now would only get someone hurt. And anyway, the blasts would not be enough of a distraction to allow Andros to get away. So Andros could only watch helplessly as the rangers continued to run to him while Darkonda slowly moved the Demon Sword of Kurakk toward him.
But in reality, it had only taken a split second. The pain was instant, yet surprisingly brief. However, the blood had started to flow in volumes and Andros looked down at his hands, only now aware that he was no longer morphed. Beyond his bloody hands was the Demon Sword of Kurakk, firmly skewered through his abdomen and stuck into the tree behind him.
'But the desire to wield its power is dangerous and it is not to be underestimated. Such desire will consume others and will ultimately result in your death.' That's what Iides had said to him. And he knew now that this was it. It was Darkonda's need to possess it, the rangers' need to get it from him, and even his desire to save Talli that had led to this moment.
Everything seemed to be moving as slowly as it had seemed before the sword had pierced his flesh. There was no sound anymore as Darkonda pressed him firmly to the tree to free the Demon Sword of Kurakk and he had somehow been spared any pain that should have accompanied the sword's movement. Andros was certain that Darkonda was laughing as he sped away with the sword at full speed, a blur that quickly left them all. But the Silver and Green Rangers soon called their Galaxy Gliders to follow him, their bodies tensed and fists clenched tightly.
Ashley had briefly called after them before demorphing and turning her attention to Andros. He could not hear what she was saying to him as his legs gave out and he slid down the tree to the ground, but she seemed calm enough so it may not have been as bad as he thought.
But she had tears in her eyes as she said things to him that he could not hear. But she and everyone else soon became a blur as he fought to keep his eyes open. She and the others finally faded into darkness for a while until the brightness of the sun began to shine directly into his face and he opened his eyes again at the sudden warmth. Sound slowly returned to him as the incessant siren of an ambulance passed by.
Andros turned his head, finding Ashley on his right and holding his clammy, blood-stained hand as Carlos kneeled by her and applied pressure to Andros' bleeding wound with both hands. T.J. did the same to the wound in his back, while Cassie held up Andros' feet about a foot off the ground –probably things that DECA had instructed them to do. Zhane and Aeden were still gone and he would have asked where they were had the first words out of his mouth not been preceded by blood.
"Don't try to talk," Ashley said gently, smoothing back his hair. "The emergency room is packed, but they're sending doctors out here as soon as they can. Just hold on."
"I'm okay," Andros managed to say with a shiver. "It doesn't hurt."
But a sudden squint of his eyes as Carlos applied slightly more pressure to his stomach proved otherwise.
"You're a terrible liar," Ashley said, smiling a little. "Now stop talking."
"How bad is it?" Andros asked, looking into her eyes.
"Not too bad," Ashley said with a sigh. "But you'll be okay if you stop talking."
"You're a better liar than I am," Andros said. "But not by much."
Ashley laughed tearfully as he smiled a little and shivered again. "Are you cold?" she asked worriedly.
"Kind of," he replied softly, his eyes beginning to close again. But he forced them back open and focused on Ashley's face. It was wet with tears as she grasped his hand with both of her own. He struggled to breathe over the small clump in his throat, knowing that it must have been more blood. He could feel his heart pounding furiously in his chest, seeming to beat faster and faster every second. As he focused on it, he found himself breathing just as hard and fast.
"Ashley," he said. "Where did Aeden and Zhane go?"
"After Darkonda," Ashley answered. "They haven't been gone that long but I'm sure they'll be back soon. Just… hold on."
"How did we get here?" he asked her, finally noticing the hospital in front of him.
"We teleported," Ashley said.
"What if someone had seen you?" he asked. "You said that we weren't supposed to…"
"You take priority over our secret," he heard T.J. say.
Andros looked down at the other rangers, who concentrated on pressing down on his wounds with tears in their eyes. They were realizing it now, he determined quickly as they pressed down harder to stop the bleeding. From the increasingly pale hue of his usually pink skin, they could see that the blood was flowing out of his wounds relentlessly and that their efforts were becoming futile.
"Thank you," Andros said to them with a small smile. "I'm sorry to be so much trouble."
"Didn't she say to stop all that talking?" Carlos asked him as Andros' eyes closed for a moment. "Stay with us, but don't talk."
"Yeah, you need to save your strength," Cassie said gently. "Focus on healing yourself. Zhane said that you could do that."
"If I could heal something this bad, I wouldn't have been so afraid of dying today," Andros replied, his breathing becoming more labored as his heart continued to beat faster.
"What do you mean?" Carlos asked.
"Carlos," Ashley warned with her tone, quieting him.
"Okay, I lied," Andros said suddenly, his eyes darting back and forth as he became somewhat anxious. "It's starting to hurt again."
"Good," Ashley said with a nervous smile. "I'd be more worried if you couldn't feel it anymore. Pain means that you're trying to stay with us. The doctors are already here, so I'm going to move out of their way for a while, okay? But we're all right here with you."
But his eyes were closed now and he had become very quiet and still as she released his hand. A team of doctors and nurses swarmed around him, not daring to move him until they assessed the situation. It was a while before the rangers could make out anything that the doctors were saying to one another, but nothing of what they heard seemed good to them.
"What's his name?" a nurse asked as she began cutting his shirt off to reveal his wound.
"Andros," Carlos said when Ashley continued to stare ahead of her as the team worked on Andros.
"Andros, can you hear me?" the first doctor asked, shining a light into his eyes. When he failed to respond, the doctor continued her exam as the other doctors worked to stop the bleeding.
"There's probably about 1100cc's of blood on the ground," the nurse said, quickly hooking Andros up to a few monitors that they had rushed out with them. "Pulse is weak."
"Get the gurney ready," the other doctor ordered. "We have to get him off the ground."
"We can't move him as long as he's bleeding out like this," the first doctor protested.
"The wound goes all the way through," he pointed out. "I need to turn him on his side and stop the bleeding from over here."
"BP's 98 over 75," the nurse informed them. "Whatever we do, we have to do it now."
"We need to stabilize this kid first," he said, beginning CPR on Andros when they checked his pulse again and decided that they were not satisfied with what they felt.
Kid.
The rangers knew that Andros was not a kid, but he was not far from it either. At any rate, the word seemed to strip away any hope that they had for Andros' recovery. A kid was so innocent, so helpless… The word reminded them that they were someone's children, their parents' children –parents that did not know and could probably never understand the danger that they faced every day. And so all they had now was each other, so Andros just had to make it… He just had to.
"Let's move him to the O.R.," the first doctor said, pressing down on Andros' wounds and turning to a nurse as they prepared to move him. "Get as much O-negative to O.R.-3 as you can."
"Are any of you family?" another nurse asked the rangers as they watched the doctors lift Andros onto a gurney and roll him into the hospital.
"We're family," Ashley said, taking her eyes off of Andros only when he disappeared through the hospital doors. "And he has other family coming."
"If you could follow me, I'll need one of you to help fill out some paperwork," the nurse replied, motioning for the rangers to follow her inside.
"Is he going to be okay?" Cassie asked as they hurried inside.
"Your friend needs surgery and he's going to get it, but in the meantime, we're going to need as much information as you can give us," she said, leading them into the hospital's E.R. waiting room. She turned to face the solemn group and smiled. "You all did a wonderful job. Your friend would be in worse shape if you hadn't been there for him."
"Is there anything else that we could've done?" Ashley asked sadly. "Anything that we should've …?"
"You did everything right," she replied, placing a hand on Ashley's shoulder. "You got him here in enough time and I know he's not out of the woods yet, but he's a lot better off thanks to you all."
Ashley let out a soft sigh, her eyes filling with tears. Andros had been paralyzed just before the sword struck him, but she and the rangers had not been. They should have fired at Darkonda when they had the chance, but fear had stopped them. Fear had stopped them when she had promised him, not more than an hour ago, that he would not die today. And now it would happen because of their hesitation.
This was their fault.