Voyage: Part II, Chapter III
Disclaimer: If you think I own power rangers, you should be locked up for your stupidity.
Within a few minutes, nearly everyone had arrived on the observation deck. As the call had gone out Kira had been pacing nervously as she pondered the reaction, to her soon to be made observation. Just as the last person arrived, Kira quickly said, "everyone, cover your ears." Without further warning, she let loose her ptera-scream, directing it at the red eye of DECA. In a matter of moments, DECA's audio and visual sensors exploded.
Andros threw Tommy a confused look, and received a shrug in return. Tommy knew that she would never so something like that without a good explanation, so he waited for her to begin her reasoning. Kira waited patiently until she was sure that everyone had recovered and then began. "I'm sorry that I had to do that, but I think I found the root of the problem, DECA." Most of the gathered rangers appeared shocked at Kira's large jump in logic.
Andros was the first to recover. "How did you jump to that conclusion?" he asked. "Is it as large a jump as you think?" she shot back. Seeing Andros' negative reaction, Kira tried to reason with him. When I was ambushed, DECA didn't alert anybody. I men, if it hadn't been for Conner…" she stopped short as a single tear fell down her cheek.
Cam chose then to speak up. "I think she's right Andros. There's something wrong with DECA." He looked to Hayley, Billy, and Trini in turn. "I'm sure you've all noticed this too. There are just way too many subsystems for DECA to have. There's even some programming that is completely inaccessible.
Billy nodded, "I agree, there is definitely something wrong." He then looked at Hayley. "So what did you find Hayley?" Andros turned to Hayley in surprise. 'So that's where she went.' he thought. "When I began hacking into DECA, I didn't know what to look for. I spent hours without getting anywhere. Then just before this impromptu meeting was called, I had an idea. I had been looking for programming that had been initiated recently. Then I began a search through DECA's archives as to when these programs had been loaded. What I found really surprised me. According to the logs, this corruption was put in during the original DECA's construction."
Andros knew what that meant, but he wanted to clarify anyway. "What does that mean?" She looked at him solemnly. "What that means, Andros, is that DECA is a virus." He couldn't believe what he had just heard. DECA has been the closest thing to a friend he had had since leaving active duty. "That means," Hayley continued, "that even is we reset DECA, the corruption would still be there."
He wanted so badly to believe that they were wrong, that DECA wasn't the problem, but he knew that she was. "We have to destroy DECA's consciousness," he said quietly. "The only way to get there is through the simulation deck. Come on."
As they entered the lift to the simulation deck, DECA made her presence known. "Andros, is there something wrong?" He wanted to tell her right there and then but stopped himself. "No DECA, we're just going to do some training on the simulation deck."
When the doors slid open, he knew that she had caught his lie. Arrayed before them lay at least thirty Quantatrons. Taking the leadership role once again, Tommy led the charge right into the middle of the Quantatron formation. After a while, Tommy realized that despite the effort that him and the rangers were putting forth the Quantatrons were not backing down. 'We aren't getting anywhere,' he thought. "Guys," he yelled, "it's time to take it up a notch."
Both Andros and Kira nodded, since they were the only other ones with active morphers. "Let's Rocket!" Andros called out, moments later the Red Astro Ranger began to weave his way through the foray. "Dino Thunder, Power Up, Ha!" he and Kira called. Soon the yellow and black Dino Rangers joined Andros and the others into the chaos.
Slowly, the tide began to turn as the rangers managed to push back the Quantatrons. When they appeared to have beaten all of them, thirty more appeared. Again the battle was joined.
"Andros," Tommy yelled above the confusion, "you go ahead. You're the only one who knows where she is." Andros blocked a kick, then nodded. Taking out his spiral saber, he began hacking his way through the seemingly endless waves of Quantatrons. As he grew closer, the Quantatrons began to disappear, only to be replaced by the various monsters he had fought.
Not letting them deter him, he continued to push through. Just as he was about to reach the door, Psycho Red appeared in front of him. "I don't have time for this," he said. "Battlizer, Activate!" With his Battlizer he made quick work of Psycho Red, then powered down to his normal ranger form. Expecting anything, Andros charged into the room, then stopped short. DECA's consciousness was a sphere floating between two horizontal blocks. DECA had chosen her last line of defense very carefully, for blocking his path stood the one thing that he had not expected, Ashley.
Outside the room, the Quantatrons began to change their forms. Just as Cam was halfway through a punch, he stopped himself short, at the person that he'd been about to hit. "Dad?" he asked. Around the room, various names could be heard, as the rangers were confronted with various individuals from their pasts. Among the most prominent was Tommy's exclamation of "Kim?" Immediately the fighting halted, and confused conversations began to spring up.
"Andros?" she asked. Slowly a smile began to blossom on her face as she ran forward and enfolded him in a hug. "Ashley?" he asked, "what are you doing here?" She looked at him, and then allowed her hands to slide into his gloved ones. A clanking could be heard as his spiral saber fell to the deck. "I'm here to stop you from making a huge mistake," she said. "Andros, I'm sorry for what I did. I know it was stupid. Please take me back." He gently caressed her face, as she leaned into his palm.
Inwardly smiling, she could see his resolve weakening; it was time to start pushing. "Come on Andros, unmorph, then we can go back to the way it used to be. We can be in love again," she said hopefully. "Ashley, I love you, I need you, but not like this." Suddenly he sprang forward and grabbed his spiral saber. Inside his helmet, a single tear made its way down his cheek. "Sorry DECA, sorry Ashley," and with one swipe of his spiral saber, it was over.
Tommy had unmorphed, and had been kissing Kimberly passionately. Suddenly she jerked away. He reached for her again, and just as he was about to grab her hand, she faded away into nothing. Banging his fist on the wall, Tommy cursed his luck. He had been so close to having her. Of course, the rational side of his mind knew that she had been nothing but a carefully constructed simulation, but his emotional side was mourning the loss and emptiness he felt inside his heart.
He saw Andros emerge from the room wearing, what he had to assume, a similar expression of his own. They both looked at each other, a tired smile appearing on their faces. "Love hurts, huh." he said. Andros nodded then began the trip to the bridge. "Everything should still work without her," he said nodding his head to the now vacant room.
After seeing that the engine was indeed there everyone gathered in the bridge. "Good job everyone, but I think that this time we need a real break." Everyone tiredly laughed. Let's meet back on here in four hours. I'll keep watch until then." Jason stepped forward, "no, get some rest bro. You need it more than me. I'll keep watch." Too tired to argue he just nodded.
Once again, the rangers separated to their own quarters. This time when Kira got to hers, she knew that she wouldn't be having any problems falling asleep this time. Just as she was dozing off, that song came to mind. And just as she had the title of the song, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of a familiar brown haired boy, and all the times they could have been together.