Chapter Six
The next day he awoke and went to command. It was the first time since his fall, but it was time for him to resume command of his ship. He went to Karone's room first, and after knocking he let himself into her room using his override code. Finding her uniform hung neatly on its hook beside her bed told him that she wasn't on board.
This angered him a small bit. "What has she been doing for two years that she thought it was alright to just run off into unsupervised areas without permission?" He then remembered the others that were on board maybe they knew.
He walked onto command to find Carlos monitoring a few of the screens with the view screen displaying that they were orbiting earth. "Carlos, where is my sister?" he asked.
Carlos didn't look up. "Oh, you know, I think she's with Shawn, like she has been almost everyday for the last week."
Cassie and Ashley walked onto the deck to hear Carlos's response and sucked in their breath. The both of them had heard how protective he was of his sister and now feared for Carlos's safety. But to their surprise, Andros didn't take a piece out of Carlos. He just got huffy and demanded, "Who is this Shawn?"
Carlos looked up. "Uh-oh, I didn't just say that to you, did I?"
"You did, and whose idea is it that it is okay for my sister to run around unsupervised?"
Carlos put down the board that he was writing on. "I don't see what the problem is. She is her own person and very independent, plus she is sixteen. She doesn't need a chaperone; that is so elementary school."
Ashley gasped as Andros exploded and stormed off the deck. She told Cassie to stay and talk some sense into Carlos. As she ran after him, she called his name.
"Andros! Where are you going?"
"Going to find my sister," he said shortly. "She knows better than this. Why would you let her do this?"
"Well, for one thing, dating on Earth is a lot more informal. She's not really dating, either, because she just goes to the park and meets this one guy there. I met him one day, and he is really sweet. And if you go down there dressed like that, people will think you're crazy."
"I can't just let her go on dishonoring our family," Andros said, looking into her eyes.
Ashley sighed and led him to the living deck. There she knocked on the door to have it opened by a half awake TJ. "Sleeping in, are you?"
"I was, but only because I am not going to get much sleep tonight. My parents and I are going to an all night bonfire like we do every year."
"Well, I need a favor, Teej."
"Oh what? You better not be begging out of your chores again, cause I can't do them tonight."
"No, I don't need you to do my chores. I need you to loan Andros some clothes, so he can go down to Earth. From the looks of it, you wear close to same size."
"Alright." He turned into his room. From his dresser he found a pair of jeans and a long sleeved red shirt. Handing them to Andros, he returned to his closet and found an old jacket. "Don't destroy the pants or the jacket, but the shirt you can keep."
Ashley reached in and kissed TJ on the cheek. "Thank you for this."
Andros went to change. Ashley was faster. "Took you long enough," she commented.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I am going with you. You don't know where your sister is and you don't know much about Earth culture, I am guessing."
"I do know where she is," Andros protested. "I know how to track her position from the morphers."
"That still doesn't mean you know anything about Earth culture."
Karone sat on a bench near her and Shawn's normal spot waiting for him—he was late. She was just thinking that maybe he wasn't going to make it for that day when she heard him laugh at her.
He stood against the tree across from her. "Hey, why the sad face, 'Rone?"
"I didn't see you come," she said. "I was just about ready to go back home; I thought you weren't going to make it today."
"I thought you weren't going to make it. You ran off in such a huff yesterday, what with an emergency and all?" he said. "Besides, my parents needed me for something this morning."
Karone laughed and pushed him slightly. "Let's go for a walk around the pond?"
"Sure, that sounds good. I think I saw someone over there with a hot chocolate stand. My treat?"
Karone laughed as she walked off with her hand in his. And as they did so, she found herself putting her head on his shoulder and smiling while smelling the sweet smell of his coat.
"So yesterday, what was the emergency about? If you want to tell me, of course."
"It wasn't really an emergency, per se, just kind of… an unexpected happening."
"Oh? What's the difference? They sound like they are the same thing, just one being slightly less urgent then the other."
"Oh, ha-ha," she laughed. "Very funny, Shawn."
"No, really. I'm serious." They reached the hot chocolate vendor and he asked for two cups while handing the man a couple of dollars. "Do you want marshmallows or whipped cream in yours?"
"Hmm… how about whipped cream?" She looked up to him and he asked for the two cups to have whipped cream.
A few minutes later with the cups in their hands, they continued on their walk. "So are you going to tell me or not?"
"Yes, what it was was my brother made an unexpected return home. He wasn't supposed to come back from his adventure for some time. He surprised me and all our friends, I guess you could say." She smiled and reached up to wipe some whipped cream off of his nose.
"Is your brother the protective type?" he asked as he did the same to her. He knew he had to cut this off with Karone immediately if Andros was back.
He knew the red Ranger would see through his deception. But at the same time, he loved having this time and didn't want to completely break her heart.
"You could say that." She giggled.
He turned to her and looked at her with sad eyes. "Karone, I have to go. I am sorry that this has to be sudden, but I am glad I got to have this last time with you. My parents told me this morning that we are leaving this evening. I wanted to stay just a little longer, but they won't. They say we have been away from home long enough."
Karone nearly dropped her drink as she looked at him. "Does this mean we will never see each other again?"
He noticed a few tears brimming on her eyes. "Karone, I want you to remember the good times we've had this last week and a half. I know this was very short lived, but still, you have taught me so much about life." He rubbed the tears from her face. "I should probably go help them pack."
Karone stood there feeling broken and betrayed; she had felt like they were becoming more than friends. She felt like she knew him from elsewhere and she just wanted him by her side forever.
"Karone, if it was up to me I would stay here forever, I love you and I wish we could be together forever." Hugging her, he stepped away. "I will promise you that this won't be the last time you see me."
"You'll come back eventually?" she asked with a hopeful look on her face.
"I will try, just keep an eye out for me. I don't know when I will be able to come back, but I like it here more then I do my small town. This might be a small city but there are so many opportunities here."
He walked away with a kiss on her cheek as she stared out at his retreating form. She was lost in thoughts until she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was a hand that told her she was in trouble; just the feel of it told her who it was.
"Karone, what are you doing here?"
Ashley saw Karone's face before Andros did. "Andros, stop, you're not going to help matters any." She ran in and hugged Karone. "What happened?"
"He's gone," she said. "He said he had to leave, that his parents are pulling out tonight and I probably won't ever see him again. We met like usual, did our normal talk, we went for a walk got hot chocolate, and then he broke it to me that he was leaving.
She sighed. "He promised that we would see each other again but I don't know. I was really falling for him… he and I had something we both felt that we were meant for each other. I should never have gotten so close to him… I knew that he was only visiting."
Karone turned and saw the disappointed look on Andros's face. She just couldn't face him right now, so she turned and pushed past her brother. She loved him to pieces, he was her big brother, after all, and she had just broken tradition of their people.
She ran till she was out of sight of anyone and returned to the ship and her room. With the doors locked, she told DECA not to disturb her. She didn't know how long she lay there crying on her bed, oblivious to anything in her room, but she felt someone sit down next to her on her bed and place his hand on her back.
It was Andros; she had forgot that he had the master code to get into any of the rooms at any time. She tensed.
"Karone, I'm sorry. I'm just disappointed. I can't imagine how lonely you must have been. Ashley told me what she knew. You have had two years all alone, you are at the age of searching, you're just looking for a boy to keep you safe and protect you like any girl your age would do."
"You understand, 'Dros?" she said, drying her tears. Looking at him, she smiled as she saw his face smile back at her.
"Yes, and I am not going to yell at you. I think you learned your lesson, just promise from now on you will ask my permission—I'm technically your guardian. I don't want to see you get hurt." He hugged her as she sat up to him.
"I promise, Andros, I won't disgrace the family." Standing up, she took off her coat realizing how warm she was. "Andros, do you mind, I do want to get changed now."
"Oh, yeah." He stood up and went out into the hall. He knew he had to talk to Ashley again. He thought she was beautiful and felt that there might be something between the two of them, but he wanted to make it clear that they couldn't be together. However he didn't find her; Karone found him a few minutes later all changed.
"Andros, how come you're not changed?" she asked, looking at him.
"I needed to find Ashley."
"You won't find her on board. She's probably with her parents. It is Saturday and she goes home Saturday nights cause it's family night. Oh, and if you are thinking about telling her to keep her distance from you emotionally, you might want to reconsider doing that."
Andros paled as he looked at his sister. "Seira?"
"She is gone, Andros, no one knows what happened to her. She never checked in at any of the refugee camps. High ranking officials were asked to report to the heads of their camps and that included Seira, seeing as she was your promised."
"No, you have to be mistaken, Karone. I know you never liked her," Andros said, running to a console to check the lists for himself.
"I never liked her, but I wouldn't make up a bogus story about her dying just so you would break contract and shame the family, would I?"
"No… I guess not… but it's just starting to... I still can't go on and let her think that I like her," he insisted. "That just wouldn't be a good idea because—because what if this is all a mistake and Seira is alive out there?"
"What if she's not? And by passing this up, you pass up the only other opportunity you have to be happy," Karone tried to reason with him.
"I will take that chance, Karone." He sighed as he looked at his sister.
Ciarán, having returned to the Dark Fortress, was in his own room again, changing for the last time from Shawn back into his armor. He left his hair still the golden shade of brown that was Shawn's and picked up the picture of Karone, He stuck that in the box. The red Ranger had returned, and he would see through Ciarán so quickly that he didn't dare have any further contact with Karone while her brother was alive and around.
Waving his hands over his hair, he changed the color from brown to lime green with dark, angry, red streaks. Grabbing his staff, he marched out into the throne room. "Ecliptor, prepare some troops; today we return to the old battle plan. I have tired of playing with the White Ranger." He turned away and looked out through the view screen, knowing that somewhere hidden from his sensors Karone was sitting probably with a broken heart. For a brief few seconds he let his mind wander and he found him imagining what she looked like as a little kid.
A smile broke on his lips as he fondly remembered her kiss on his cheek and his on hers. This thought was broken by Ecliptor reporting, "Sire, I have gathered what we could but because you haven't attacked in almost two weeks, some of our contacts that we had are now broken links. I have secured one mediocre warrior on such short notice and he should be here momentarily."
"That will do, I just want to shake the Rangers up. That and welcome the Red Ranger back to the battle," Ciarán replied. "But tomorrow I want to have as many good warriors as you can muster, we must not make ourselves look weak." He turned on his heels to go to his armory to be suited in his battle armor.