disclaimer: I don't own the power rangers. Also I don't own Zeri, Saryn, Aura and Cetaci and any other ranger from Aquintar, I read their names on Starhawk's website and thought they were kool.
timeline: Nine years after 'Better Late Than Never'.
summary: Something has it's eyes set on ranger children. Every ranger is scared of losing his or her family, especially Andros.
the-power-of-love; It isn't too soon, but I hope it's soon enough.
Jeanka; I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best not to make you wait that long again. As for your questions, one: I meant threat, I'm dyslectic so my spelling isn't too great. Two: read and find out, hope it's good enough for you. Three: I'm not sure yet.
TF princess; I know it's sad, remind me why I wrote it again? Hope you like this chapter too. I need to take the train to get to my school, so I've started writing during the trip too, since the view got boring, I can dream it by now.
Protecting The Next Generation
Chapter 15
Rocky and Andros were on the Megaship, for two days everybody was taking turns in trying to pick up something, anything that might point out where Armin, Paige and Brian were being held. Ashley was still in a stat of shock and the rangers kept a close eye on her and Andros, thought Andros was in a better stat than Ashley, they still didn't trust them to think there actions through.
Rocky glanced at Andros. Something had been bugging him since Cassie had explained why Andros had lost Armin and Paige again. He was wondering what that reason Cassie wouldn't state was. From what he had seen Andros and Ashley's love was way too strong to let their relationship crash, but then again, he had thought the same about Tommy and Kimberly and still Kim had sent Tommy that letter. Did he dare ask Andros what had happened? Deciding to take a change he took a deep breath.
"Andros?"
"Hm?" Andros replied, not really paying attention.
"I was wondering what had happened to tear you and Ashley apart, so you found out about your children nine months after they were born."
Andros looked up and sighed.
"You want something to drink?"
Rocky was taken aback by the question. It didn't have anything to do with his. Was Andros trying to avoid answering? Could it be that whatever happened still bothered him, even if it had been solved? Or wasn't it solved? Was his marriage to Ashley just a charade and was it still an issue?
"Uh, sure." He said when he noticed Andros was waiting for an answer.
"Come on then." Andros replied and left the bridge.
Rocky followed him and soon found himself in a room with lockers, a balcony with holes in the wall behind it and bars above the holes. A table stood in frond of him with chairs around it. Andros walked over to a microwave-like machine build in the wall.
"What do you want?"
"Coffee, please. I could use a caffeine-shot."
Andros laughed.
"Deca."
That was all he said, but it seemed to be enough for the AI for when Andros opened the glass door, two mucks had appeared. He took them out and gave one to Rocky, before sitting down at the table. Rocky took the hint and sat down across from him.
It was silent for a few minutes, both sipping their drinks. Then Andros sighed and took a deep breath.
"You really want to know?" He asked.
"Well, no, I was just wondering. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Rocky replied.
"No, it's okay, I don't mind."
"Well, I'm all ears." Rocky grinned.
"It started about eleven years ago. Zhane, Karone and me missed our home and decided to return for a while. Ashley wanted to come with us. When we told her we weren't sure when we would return to Earth, she said she didn't mind, ever since she came to space, she began to see Earth less and less as her home. She was even willing to stay on KO35 with me indefinitely. At that moment we both thought that meant forever and what happened between us on the way there only made us believe in that even more, but when we arrived it went wrong. An old 'friend' of Zhane, Cath, showed up. She and Zhane were only friends for a week or two when they got into a fight, I never found out what it was about. Anyway, Zhane didn't seem too happy with her being there and neither was I. When she spotted me, she ran up and threw her arms around my neck as if I was her boyfriend. Ashley didn't seem too happy with it, but she didn't say a word. The next five days I tried to avoid Cath, but she always seemed to find me and when she did she stuck to my arm like glue. One day she was somehow able to corner me and..." Andros trailed off and took a sip of his drink.
"Let me guess, she kissed you full on the mouth, Ashley just happened to walk in on you two before you could push Cath off and when you did Ashley was already packing her bags and leaving." Rocky finished.
"Yeah."
"Man, sounds like a bad soap opera."
"So, what did you do?"
"I was in a daze. I yelled at Cath. It didn't even cross my mind I should have gone after Ashley."
"Problem."
"Yeah, when I realized what I should have done, I didn't dare to go after her. It took me one and a half year and a pep talk from Karone to work up the courage to look her up and see if I could fix our relationship."
"Pep talk from Karone?"
"Yeah, she had enough of me being depressed, so she convinced me I had nothing to lose and I should go to Earth to look for Ash."
"And you found her with Armin and Paige."
"That's right and I'm still thankful that Karone talked me into it."
"I can imagine."
"Andros, I'm picking up a signal." Deca reported.
"Where from?"
"Sector 39, the Taton system."
"The Taton system? No living soul has gone there since that black hole appeared close by."
"I'm still picking up a signal coming form on of the planets. It's a ranger frequency."
Ten minutes earlier
"Think it still works?"
"Only one way to find out."
"The light's not blinking."
"I can see that, thank you very much."
"I've got an emergency toolkit with me."
"Hand it over."
"I don't see anything wrong with it."
"Neither do I."
"That wire is it suppose to be disconnected?"
"No good job."
"Can you fix it, bro?"
"Of course, just give me a minute."
"Finished?"
"Yeah, let's try this baby again."
"The light's still not blinking, Armin."
"I've had it with this thing." Armin cried frustrated and threw the transmitter against the opposite wall.
If it hadn't landed upside own the three would have noticed the red light started blinking.
A/N: I know, not too long, but it is an update. Hope you liked it. Please review.