Chapter 50: Revelations

A few weeks later, things were falling into a new normal now that Karone was around. Dark Specter's newest mission wasn't just to drain Zordon's powers but to get back "what was his". Ashley was able to finally figure out how to balance her relationship with Andros and spending time with the others so no one had hurt feelings. And as far as they could see, it was working. With Zhane back on the ship for a short visit, it was easy to say the Megaship was completely full.

The young men were all on the simudeck playing a game of basketball. "Hey, Andros, over here!" Zhane called out. Andros passed the ball to him and Zhane tossed it into the basket. Andros grabbed the towel from the bench nearby and wiped his face. Even with the simulated weather it was still hot.

"So, Andros, how's Karone adjusting?" TJ asked.

"She's actually doing alright," Andros replied.

Andros reached up to unzip the sweater to try to cool down a bit. Their jackets followed his, but when Andros turned around he saw the shocked looked on their faces. "What?" he asked.

"What the hell happened to you?" Zhane asked.

Confused, Andros looked at what his friends were looking at and sighed. "Dammit," he muttered when he noticed the long red scratches on his shoulders. Then if they were on his shoulders they were definitely on his back too and it was obvious they were seen.

"I haven't seen you hiding any of your exes on this ship lately," Zhane commented as he smirked, "Unless you're better at hiding them than I thought."

"Shut up," Andros replied.

Then Andros looked at him. "Which to add to that I have never brought any of my exes on this ship," he added.

"It looks like someone has been having some fun," Zhane answered.

Andros grabbed his jacket off the ground again. "Shut up," he insisted.

"Is it Cassie?" TJ said suddenly, making the Red Ranger look over at his friend.

Andros pulled his jacket back on. "After all this time, I would think you know I'd have a little more respect about your feelings for Cassie," he replied. TJ looked relieved, but then Carlos's mouth dropped open.

"Ashley?" he asked.

Now Zhane looked just as surprised. "Is it Ashley?" he asked. Knowing there was nowhere to run, Andros let out a sigh.

"Yes," he replied.

He held his arms up a little as if to say 'and?'. "You two are hardly ever in the same room…" Carlos said.

"No, that's not true, they separate whenever one of us comes in the room," TJ answered.

Zhane nodded in agreement. "It's the little things," he agreed.

"Like what?" TJ asked.

"His hands brushing her shoulders when he thinks no one is looking," Carlos replied.

The team was silent, staring at Andros. "Just drop it," he insisted.

"This is huge!" Zhane exclaimed, "I thought after Hathai you'd never date again."

Andros looked offended at the comment. "You make it sound like I vowed an infinite single life," he answered as he left the simudeck, "Stop simulation!"

On the other side of the ship, Ashley was showing Karone the blasters when she noticed Cassie staring. "What?" Ashley signed.

"Nice hickey," Cassie replied.

Ashley immediately looked in the mirror in her locker, seeing the purplish bruise on her neck. Her cheeks burned as she pulled her hair over the mark. "Andros?" Cassie asked. Ashley looked at her surprised and the Pink Ranger just smirked. "Just so you know, when you two think you're quiet in his room, you really aren't," Cassie told her.

Ashley sat down on a bench with a groan and her head in her hands. "I think you embarrassed her," Karone commented. Cassie sat next to her.

"Hey, I'm happy for you," Cassie said as Ashley pushing her hair from her face, "It's about time you went after what you wanted."

The Yellow Ranger lifted her head. "As opposed to you just giving TJ googoo all days all day?" she signed with a smirk. Karone giggled behind her hand at Cassie's expression. "Even Karone went after Zhane and they didn't even know each other," Ashley signed.

"Hey!" Karone said, her cheeks flushing.

Ashley just smiled at her. "This isn't about TJ and me," Cassie insisted. Ashley rolled her eyes.

"So Andros and I are in a relationship," she answered trying to be nonchalant about it.

"Does Kimberly know?" Cassie asked.

"Andros had to go through the 'talk' with Tommy already," Ashley replied.

"Oh and I missed that?!" Cassie exclaimed as Ashley got up to leave the room.

Ashley shook her head slowly and she saw Andros down the hall being barraged with questions from the guys. The two of them shared the same glance. Ashley took off running first and Andros was right behind her.

Ashley reached the jump tubes first and jumped down, heading right back to Earth.

Reaching Angel Grove park, Ashley looked around and at herself in her civilian attire. She pushed her hair from her face when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye and Andros was there in his own attire. "Well, that went…well," Ashley commented.

"You think?" Andros answered.

Ashley sighed. "How did they find out?" she asked.

"Well, they saw the scratches you left on me," he replied.

"No," Ashley groaned, "This isn't how I wanted them to know."

"I know," he sighed.

"How did we get so careless?" she asked.

"We got too comfortable," he replied.

Andros walked over and hugged her. Ashley hugged him back and buried her face into his chest. Andros kissed the top of her head and she let out a heavy sigh. "At least they know now," he commented. Ashley hugged him tighter and nodded a little.

Later, they were at the Oliver house watching television. Andros had his arm draped over Ashley's shoulders and she was leaning into him. "So, Ashley, where are your friends?" Mrs. Oliver asked.

"We just needed some time away from them for the day," Ashley signed.

"Yeah we kind of had an awkward morning," Andros replied.

Before Mr. Oliver could inquire any further, there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Oliver got up to answer the door and she saw Karone standing there. "May I help you?" she asked confused.

"Hi, is Andros here?" Karone asked nervously.

Andros immediately got off the couch. "Don't worry, it's my sister," Andros said to Mrs. Oliver. The woman looked relieved and then Karone entered the house. "Mr. Oliver, Mrs. Oliver, this is my sister, Karone," he informed them. Karone waved shyly, biting her lip as Ashley smiled at her.

"Well, it is lovely to meet you, Karone," Mrs. Oliver said smiling.

"Thanks, it's a pleasure to meet you both," Karone answered, "The others thought you wouldn't want to see them so they sent me."

Andros raised his brow. "For?" he asked.

"They just wanted to make sure you were okay, you two kind of just abandoned ship," Karone replied.

Ashley smirked a little. "Quite literally," she thought to herself.

"Well we kind of just wanted to spend the day in Angel Grove after what happened this morning," Andros replied.

"What exactly happened?" Mr. Oliver asked.

Ashley rubbed the back of her neck, clearing her throat. "Our friends didn't know Ashley and I were together…." Andros replied slowly.

"Why?" Mrs. Oliver asked.

"We share so much of our lives together, we just kind of wanted something to ourselves for a little while," Ashley signed.

"And the way they found out wasn't really…ideal," Andros put in.

Andros let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead. Ashley had an idea and stood up from the couch. "Come with me?" Ashley signed. Andros nodded as Ashley took his hand. "We're going to show Karone around town," Ashley signed to her foster parents.

"You three have fun, be careful," Mrs. Oliver called out.

"Bye," Karone called out as they left.

They were walking along the street when they reached the Scott house. "Oh looks like Jason's home," Andros commented as she opened the chain link fence gate.

Jason was walking out of the house when he spotted them. "Hey you guys," he said smiling. Ashley walked over and hugged Jason tightly around his waist. "How are you, Pretty Girl?" he asked, hugging her tightly.

"Good," She said softly as he kissed the top of her head.

Jason looked up and saw Andros standing there. "Hey," he greeted as he and Andros shook hands. When Jason saw Karone they saw his eyes grow wide. Ashley released him and smiled as Andros had his arm around Karone's shoulders.

"Jason, this is my sister, Karone," Andros said.

"You found your sister?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a long story," Andros replied.

Jason held out his hand to Karone. Karone stared at his hand, but she followed Andros's example and shook it. "Karone, this is our cousin. Our mom and his dad were brother and sister," Andros explained to her.

"And you look just like your mother," Jason answered, "I can't say I met her myself, but my dad has pictures of her everywhere."

Karone looked at Andros. "We have more family?" she asked. Andros nodded with a smile.

"Come on in, you're in luck dad's home," Jason said as they walked to the house.

Opening the door, Jason walked inside first. "Dad, Mom, Andros and Ashley are here," Jason called out.

Steven walked down the stairs and smiled. "Andros, welcome back to town," he greeted Andros.

"Uncle Steven," Andros answered, shaking his head.

"Enough of this shaking hand stuff," Steve told him, embracing Andros in a one-armed hug.

Andros hugged him back with a smile, patting his back before Steve released him. When Steve saw Karone, he looked stunned. "Uncle Steven, this is Karone," Andros told him, his hand resting on Karone's shoulders.

"I swear if I didn't know any better, you look just like my sister the last time I saw her," Steven answered.

Karone smiled nervously and Steve pulled her into a hug. Karone hugged him back, still trying to get used to all of these new customs she hadn't experienced since she was a child. "My mom was your sister?" Karone asked.

"My little sister," Steven replied, releasing her.

He cupped Karone's cheeks in his hands, taking in her face. "You have your father's eyes though," he commented. Karone shifted anxiously and Steve released her. "You found your sister after all," Steven said. Andros nodded.

"I did," Andros replied.

Ashley watched as Karone's eyes examined the house and she saw what Steven was talking about. She walked over to a beautiful picture on the wall of a young woman with shoulder-length blond hair and hazel eyes. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her head was resting on her arms as she was smiling at the camera. Karone reached out and her fingers traced along the woman's features. Andros noticed and he walked over to stand beside her. "That was her senior class picture," Steven said. Karone looked over at him.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It's a label they give students in their schools here on Earth, it's their last year of their schooling before they go to their bigger universities to find a career," Andros explained.

Karone looked back at the picture on the wall. "She was beautiful," she said softly.

"That she was," Steven replied.

Ashley watched as Karone looked along the wall to see there were many pictures of her mother. There was another one she stopped at where Sandy was wearing a purple and red bathing suit and a guy was holding her in the bridal position and she was holding a drink in her hand. It was obvious she was laughing. "Who's the man?" Karone asked.

"My dad," Ashley said softly.

Karone looked at her. "My dad and your mom were best friends," Ashley replied.

"In all honesty we all thought Sandy and Samuel would've ended up together," Steven admitted.

Karone looked at the picture beside it and saw that her mother was playing a sport of some sort. Her face was red and her hair was disheveled, but she had a determined expression on her face. She looked to be in mid run. "Your mother was an adventurous person, she played any sport she could get her hands on," Steven explained.

"What was she playing here?" Karone asked.

"It's called 'track and field', she was running a race," Ashley replied.

Karone was staring in awe at the pictures of her mother. Her fingers tracing over each picture and there was even one where she was riding an animal of some sort. She was leaning forward with her arms around the animal's neck and she had the most graceful smile on her lips. "We don't know where that one came from," Steven commented, "We found it in her room after she disappeared."

"Dad," Andros replied.

Steven looked at him. "Dad said mom had taken him horseback riding during a date. He had never seen a horse but he went with her anyways because she begged and begged," he explained.

"That would be Sandy," Steven answered.

Andros then had a thought and he reached into his back pants pocket. "I almost forgot, I think you'd want this," he said, "My dad always carried around the Terran camera for whenever we came back." He handed Steven a picture and he looked at it. It was a family portrait. Alec and Sandra were sitting on a blanket in the grass. Alec had Karone sitting in his lap and Sandra had Andros. "Mom would've wanted you to have that," Andros added, "For you to see that she was okay."

Steven looked at the picture in his hands and then looked at the two young adults standing in front of him. "You two are spitting images of your parents," he said, "I guess knowing that Sandra was indeed happy…it makes it easier."

"She never meant to hurt anyone," Andros answered.

Steven nodded and he smiled at Andros. "She'll never be completely gone," he said, gripping the young man's shoulder. Andros nodded with a slight smile and then their uncle pulled both Andros and Karone into another hug.

When they made it back to the Megaship later that evening, they saw their friends waiting for them. Ashley reached over and she gripped Andros's hand tightly. Carlos stood up first with a sigh. "Listen you guys…we're sorry about earlier today, reacting the way we did," he said to them.

"It was just a shock, you guys were hiding in plain sight," TJ answered.

"Well if you think about it, we weren't really hiding at all," Andros stated, "You just didn't notice."

"Either way we shouldn't have just jumped you like we did," Zhane answered.

"Or embarrassed you," Cassie added.

Ashley smiled a little. "Well, then it is official," she said softly, surprising everyone around her. Andros wrapped his arm around Ashley and kissed the side of her head as Ashley leaned into him, her hand on his chest. The team surrounded them and Ashley felt so much love and comfort she couldn't help but smile as their friends congratulated them on their official announcement of their relationship.