Chapter Eight
After the debriefing, Ashley walked through an isolated corridor. It was a corridor on a lower deck that really had no important features—the most interesting thing about it was the ambassador's suite. There was no ambassador onboard now, and there hadn't been for a very long time.
Ashley wouldn't have been there herself if she hadn't found that Andros was there and alone during a routine scan. She found him sitting in one of the few observation points on board. "A penny for your thoughts?" she asked, standing behind him.
He jumped. "What? Why would you want my thoughts?"
"I'm joking. It's an expression." Ashley smiled as she sat down. "It means, do you feel like talking?"
"Oh, I was just thinking." He paused and looked at Ashley. "Don't tell Karone, but I was wondering could there be a connection between Shawn and Ciarán. I know I never met him, but I think it's odd that the time between attacks was about the same as the time that they were seeing each other."
"Well… I have to admit that they do look similar, but Shawn's eyes were lighter… happier, you know? Ciarán's are always filled with hatred." Ashley described her mental image of him. "Then there is how kind and giving Shawn was, Ciarán is the exact opposite."
Andros shook his head. "Forget it, I'm not even sure myself. If I could have just met him even for a split second, then I'd know, but… it's over and done with, and I'm going to be keeping a close eye on Ciarán."
"Andros, I do have one question," she said. "Why have you been so distant? I mean, you just rejoined your sister. I know you were really in Cryo. Karone explained it to me but so far the others still think you have been on a trip." Ashley placed her hand on his, looking into his eyes.
"Did Karone send you here?" He stood, jerking his hand away from hers.
"No, she told me actually that I shouldn't get myself involved with you. I just came down here because I want to be your friend. Is it so hard to be friends with someone? I don't really want a boyfriend right now, anyway. I broke up with Carlos not too long ago, and things are still a little weird," she said.
"I have nothing against being friends," he said. "Do you really want to know?"
She nodded.
"Except for Karone, everyone that I've ever been close to has been taken away from me," he said quietly. "As a child, my best friend in the whole galaxy—Karone's true love—was kidnapped while we played in the park.
"When the war started, my parents dropped the White morpher on Karone. My father was my hero growing up and he and my mother ran with their tails between their legs, not looking back. My betrothed never checked in at her refugee camp, and I have no idea if she's alive of not, but I hope…"
Before she could help herself, she hugged him. "Andros, you never have to worry, we will never leave you. We are a family." She stepped back and turned away blushing, "Sorry… I didn't mean to…"
"No, it's all right." He sighed. "It's almost dinner time; we should head up."
Ashley just nodded and followed him.
It was a few weeks later and they had found themselves on Centaur B with the Kerovian rebels. Ashley, Cassie, Carlos and TJ had almost faced a public execution when Karone and Andros had found them. As Kin-Won said, the rebels had to move again, but he had insisted that they stay one more night and that the Rangers tell what had been happening on their end in the war.
Everything was merry, with drinks going around celebrating the reunion and relocation of the two key fighting points for the colony. That is, everything was merry until, as ordered, some of the scouts returned to help move the rebels to another location. All troops were being called back. But in this one particular group there was a very familiar face. It was Karone and Andros's neighbor and sometimes training partner back on KO-35, Diallo.
Andros smiled warmly and went to greet him. "Diallo, I didn't know you had joined the rebels."
To both Andros and Karone's surprise, Diallo was everything but welcoming to his old friend. Instead, he paled and refused to make eye contact. Silently, he looked around for an escape.
Andros let him. He didn't understand why, but there was some rift between the two of them now. They only had one night with the rebels and then they would forever lose contact. Well, not forever, but at least until the war was over.
Andros went off in search of other familiar faces. Not long after, he bumped into a lithe form wearing a canvas cloak. The woman was carrying a basket of food from the hydroponics cavern, or at least she had been before he bumped into her. She kept her hood up as she scrambled to pick up the food. He bent over and started to help her.
Once the food was gathered and put back in the basket, the woman nodded and started to walk away.
Andros watched her walk away until he spotted a potato that had rolled away. "Wait, I found one more."
She didn't turn around, though, so he went to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You forgot one; I'm sure on a planet like this you don't want to waste food on the rats."
She turned and took the potato from him, but as she did he caught a small glimpse of her face.
He pulled her hood off of her face before he could help himself. "Seira!?"
She backed into a corner and looked at Andros with frightened eyes. Even though she had seen him helping her with the basket, she seemed surprised. "No, no, you're supposed to be dead. I was told you were dead."
He held out a hand. "I'm not dead, just injured, and I was in need of serious healing." Taking her hand, he helped her away from the wall.
She whipped her hand away from him. "No, Andros, you don't understand. I have broken our contract because of misinformation."
"What do you mean, you have broken our contract?" he asked as someone pushed through the crowd grabbing Seira by the shoulders.
"Andros, why couldn't you have just stayed down? You were gone, your girl was grieving, what was I to do? I was your best friend, I couldn't just let your betrothed suffer. It was a small matter in the affair of wars," the man said, placing himself in front of Seira.
"Diallo, what are you talking about?" Andros asked.
"I always loved your girl, but I was never good enough for her. You were classes above me and so was she. You fell during the battle and I was there to witness it; I thought you were dead. Rumors were flying around and most people believed you were long dead because of the way you fell. In the hours before evacuation I ran to her and told her what I had seen. I told her that I would take care of her," Diallo explained defensively, still standing in front of Seira protectively.
"Seira is this true?" Andros asked and she nodded
"The war had been hard on us all. At first I was just keen on protecting her and keeping her high class eyes from seeing too much pain. But then no news came of you or your sister, reinforcing the rumor that you had been taken down in battle. I then stumbled upon the rebels and they needed more men. Women were encouraged to return to the refugee camps, because only the strong ones that had proven themselves in battle were considered useful here. I couldn't do that to her though and there was a loophole, that the women could stay if they were your wife and had a useful skill." He paused, taking her hand. "She had that useful skill, a green thumb; she could make anything and everything grow back on the colonies. The only thing that was against her was that she was not my wife. I couldn't just turn her away and send her to the refugee camps."
"Diallo, the refugee camp plans were set up beforehand. She would have been safe there, just as much as with you watching her," Andros said bitterly.
"Will you stop talking about me as if I am not here? I have to say men can be stupid at times," Seira said. "I didn't want to go to the refugee camps. I was scared about what would happen to me there. You can only trust fact so much. I agreed to the marriage with Diallo but only out of convenience. I never loved him the way I loved you, but…" she said, looking down.
Karone walked in. "But because you married him at all it is binding for life, officially ripping the contract your parents had with our parents." Karone looked at Andros and then walked to Seira, "If I was in your place I might have made the same judgment. I don't hold it against you and I am sure Andros won't as soon as he cools down." She held her hand and hugged the girl.
Andros stormed off, leaving Karone with Seira. "There is one thing that will free you from me, Seira," Diallo said, watching his childhood friend storm off.
Seira looked rapidly up. "Diallo, no. You won't go and do that. The rebels need you too much. Andros will recover; he always does. He can fight his emotions most of the time. That is what drew my parents to making a contract with his. They admired stoicism."
Karone nodded. "I have to go now, but I wish you two the best in life. Diallo, don't you even consider that option. Andros would hate you more than ever."
"How could he hate me? You can't hate someone if they are in their grave," Diallo said, as he nodded to Karone and guided Seira away.
Karone raced to find the team. It didn't surprise her when they were not in the base. Running onto command, she found the four of them sitting there talking. "Guys, when you see Andros, don't say a thing about love. He has just had his heart ripped out and stomped on. I can't go into it right now, though. Just trust me that it is bad. You remember after he came back and got all mad about me dating. I wasn't even held down by a contract he is or was up until ten minutes ago."
Karone left the deck and Ashley followed. "Karone, is there anything I can do to help the two of you?"
"No, not right now, Ashley. This is something Andros needs to work out on his own. If you want the story, go ask him. I would be betraying him to tell you."
Ashley was stunned; Karone had never been in this way. Something serious must have happened and it wasn't the fact that he thought his betrothed was dead.
Ashley dropped it right then and went her own way; however, she soon found herself laying in bed with sleep avoiding her. She got up and put her sweat suit on. Maybe she would go for a run around the ship to help her sleep.
As she was running, she heard something from the Simudeck. Peeking her head inside, she found Andros had the basketball simulation open and was tossing the ball around.
"Hey, I didn't know you had really gotten into basketball," she called from the edge, causing him to turn.
"I never did. It was just the first program in the queue that seemed like it would be good for blowing off some steam."
"Can I join you? I can't sleep and basketball is more fun with two people, cause you can have a one on one game." She caught the ball on rebound and teased, "Or maybe I can give you some pointers on how to make a basket."
Andros shrugged. Ashley was his friend and she had made it clear that she didn't want to see him upside down emotionally. They played for a little bit when Andros asked her the question, "Why did you break up with Carlos?"
"Will me telling you make you feel better?" she asked, turning to him. He caught the ball when she threw it to him.
"I am just wondering. You and Carlos seem like you are good friends; if you had something more, why didn't you continue?"
"Well, last year, during our first year as Rangers, I was on the cheerleading squad at school but I got an internship working for a fashion designer. It was already hard balancing school, cheerleading and Rangering, so I had to drop cheerleading to take the internship which I can use to better my career." She paused, making sure she hadn't confused him. "Carlos and I had been childhood friends and everyone said we made a cute couple. We really liked each other, and I was his cute cheerleader during games and such. Well, after I quit the squad I got out of my internship and headed to an after game party to support Carlos. I was running late and I found him tonguing another cheerleader. I turned and left, and didn't speak to him until a few days later when Justin, Cassie and TJ cornered us in the Power Chamber. After talking it out, we realized that it wasn't really our past that made us a cute couple but instead the fact that he was my best friend so my cheers always went to him during a game. We decided that it was better to be friends and not let that get between us. I'd let our relationship get a little too close to me and it hurt me," Ashley concluded.
"I think I follow you." Andros sighed.
"You know, I am here for you, though, Andros, and I will be for as long as we are a team and into the future if you allow it to be so," Ashley said, "I think I'll go to bed now; I have school in the morning."
"Alright. Goodnight, Ashley—and… thanks for talking with me," Andros said, taking the basketball and rolling it back to the center of the simulation before ending and following suit.
Winter came and went, leaving a beautiful spring. Andros slowly moved on from the guilt that had befallen him upon learning of Seira and her choices following the war.
Karone noticed that as the weather got warmer, Andros was spending more time with Ashley. She knew he was free to do this because he was over eighteen and his contract had fallen through, making him free from their mother's matchmaking skills. She decided she totally wouldn't mind if Ashley was her sister-in-law, she just had to convince Andros that he really needed her.
She got her answer at the end of April at Ashley's birthday party. Everyone gave Ashley a joke present; a fire extinguisher from Carlos and things of the sort. She gave her a reading primer from KO-35, after hearing about her intention of learning Kerovian eventually.
Andros sort of sat off to the side watching the gift exchange, and Karone couldn't blame him. Ashley had not made a big deal about it; in fact, this had been all due to Cassie's planning. She only knew of the gift giving because Cassie had had her birthday back in the fall just after they had come together as a team.
Seeing him watching some kids in the distance, Ashley walked over to him with a piece of cake. "Hey, what are you doing?" she asked handing him the piece of cake.
"Sorry, this is all sort of new to me. We don't celebrate birthdays on KO-35; for special years we might acknowledge one's age with a special privilege or something of that sort," Andros apologized.
"Hey, it's all right. I should have filled you in, but here, I brought you some cake; Cassie made it, in fact she planned it all." Ashley handed him the cake.
"Thanks. I… umm… I do have something for you. I wasn't sure when to give it to you, though. It's not the same as what they were giving you." Andros produced a little box.
"Andros, you didn't have to get me anything. Your friendship is enough for me, I just want to know you are happy." She took the box and held it in her hands and smiled.
"It's not much, but it is a token of my friendship, if you want it, of course." He nodded to her indicating that she could open it.
And she opened it slowly, snapping the lid back. Inside lay a delicate chain with a yellowish stone mounted in a ring the same metal as the necklace. Ashley couldn't figure out what it was—it was gold in coloring, but not the gold she recognized as gold on Earth. "Oh, Andros, it is beautiful. It's more then friends, though, to me this is something serious. If we are to remain friends I could never accept this."
"Ashley, that is what I have been meaning to ask you. I—I need someone like you. If you would like to give it a try. Would you be my girlfriend?"
"Oh, Andros… if you're sure that I won't hurt you," Ashley said, hugging him. "Yes, I accept. I have to admit we have grown beyond friends. It was nice being friends with you and I hope I can be half as good of a girlfriend to you."
"You will be." Andros smiled. Her smile had grown on him. "I couldn't ever replace you."