Disclaimer: See Part One

Author's Notes: Here ya go, Vamp Charisma grins I wrote out this chapter for ya! Thanks so much to you and others who have been supportive of my fanfiction. I deeply appreciate your support. This is my promiseevery chapter every week!

Second Chance
Part three: Fatal Ideas Lead to a Discovery
By: stargazer1017

The five rangers stood before the cloaked man. Andros narrowed his eyes, hidden behind his helmet. "You're obviously someone you claim to be, if you can teleport onto the Megaship," Andros reasoned. The other man nodded. "But we still don't trust you. Two Astronemasthen two of us. How do we know it's not a trap?"

The cloaked man's face was covered by the hood, but Andros saw a bitter smile creep on his face. "If I had really wanted to hurt you all, don't you think I would have attacked you all instead of attacking Astronema?" His expression softened and he lowered the hood covering his head. Cassie had to stop herself from gasping. She didn't realize how much the other Andros looked worn down and beaten, and she could see the grief in his eyes. "I have somehow stumbled onto your reality when mine was destroyed."

Without warning, the Red Ranger demorphed. His eyes were wide as he approached the cloaked man. "Brenan?" he asked suddenly. While the other rangers frowned in confusion, the cloaked man's eyes widened.

"Brenan. . ." he repeated. "The only person to ever call me that. . ." he shook his head. "No, this can't be"

"I was the Andros that stumbled onto your dimension," Andros finished, his mind racing. How is it that he's here as well? Unless that explosion. . .

"Whoa. . .wait a minute, what is going on here?" Zhane spoke up, breaking the interaction between the two identical men. He and the other rangers detransformed. "Brenan? Wasn't he. . ." He trailed off, unassure of how to finish.

The cloaked man blinked several times and then closed his eyes. When he opened them, he gave a faint smile. "I'm glad to see you made it back home," he said softly. He shook his head and swallowed. "Andros. . .was in my dimension when Astronema's mission was fulfilled."

Realization struck Cassie. "Oh my God. . .you mean," she turned to Andros, "this is Brenan? The other you? From the other dimension? How is this even"

"Possible?" Andros asked. He shook his head and held his gaze with Cassie. Cassie couldn't read what was going through his mind at the moment, but she could see the myriads of emotion passing in his eyes. Before she could ask another question, Andros had turned back to Brenan. "When those blasts destroyed your universe, I had assumed I was the only one lucky to get out. It appears that you were lucky to get out as well."

"Lucky?" Brenan gave a bitter laugh. "Surviving only to be left alone. . .my friends. . .Cassie. . ."

Cassie felt her heart go out to the man, and without thinking, she walked over to him and was about to reach down and take his hands into her own. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing and instead, looked up into his eyes. I can't even imagine what he's going through, she thought as she tried to read the emotions in his eyes. If I had lost everything. . .if everything I knew was gone. . .my mom, Ashley, T.J., Carlos. . .Andros. . .Cassie felt a chill go through her. His eyes were conveying too many emotionsall dealing with pain and grief. "Cassie," Brenan whispered.

Before he could get another word out, Cassie spoke up again. "You need help, Brenan. Why don't we take you to the Med Bay to get you cleaned up?" she asked.

"Here, why don't I take you?"

Brenan turned to the voice. Zhane had walked over to him and Cassie when she started talking. Brenan had been so busy concentrating on the woman in front of him, everything around them disappeared from his thoughts. "We can catch up on times," Zhane continued. What times, Brenan thought inwardly, but didn't push it. Suddenly, he could feel the weight of his previous injuries and nodded.

He gave Cassie one last look before he and Zhane walked out of the room. Cassie sighed and turned back to the others. T.J. raised an eyebrow. "Intense, huh?" he said.

Cassie shook her head and looked at Andros. She gave him a soft smile and asked softly, "What are you thinking?"

Andros looked at her. "This is just to weird. I thought I was lucky to survive that blast. . .and here several months later, we learn that my other counterpart made it too." He shook his head. "If Brenan made it out here, then that means the other Astronema. . ."

Ashley's eyes widened. "You mean, she probably came from the other dimension too!"

Andros nodded. "If she's here, then we might all be in danger."

"I'm so sick of this!" Astronema spat out. An energy bolt appeared in her hand in frustration, she flung it at the nearest Quantron. When the Quantron blew up, another energy bolt appeared in her hand and she threw it at another Quantron.

"If you had wanted to get rid of your army, you might as well have sent them down to earth to be destroyed by the Power Rangers," the black-haired Astronema said. The red-haired Astronema turned to her and narrowed her eyes at the other woman who had her feet up on her small table, sitting back leisurely.

With a yell, the red-haired Astronema jumped over the table and grabbed the other woman by the throat. "You were the one who said we should go after Cassie's mother. Again. And again they were therethis time, the whole cavalry was there."

The black-haired woman gave a smile. The red-haired Astronema felt her blood boil at the site of her "self" smiling so calmly. "Revenge on the rangers isn't a one-time shot, my dear, uneducated self," she replied just as calmly. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

The red-haired woman's eyes widened when a thought struck her. She looked away for a moment. Desperate times. . . She released her hold on the other woman. "You know what I mean," she heard the black-haired woman say. She looked at the other woman. "You know exactly what to do." The black-haired woman got up and started walking to the front of the table. "Our loyalty has been questioned by many. . .and many are starting to doubt our status as the Princess of Evil." She turned back to the red-haired woman. "Am I correct?"

The red-haired Astronema nodded, but said nothing. The other woman continued. "In my dimension, I was able to achieve my revenge. I hate the Pink Ranger. I hate her with all that I have. . .everytime I look at your face. . ." she looked at the red-haired woman, "I am constantly reminded of what she did to me."

"Your dimension?" the red-haired woman echoed.

The other woman nodded. "Obviously, I was not the only one who made it out of the doomed dimension. That man. . .he's probably here to warn them."

"All I want is revenge," the red-haired Astronema said. "I don't care much for storiesall I want is revenge."

"You feel it. . .the anger. . ." the black-haired Astronema said. "And I'll help you achieve it. End life and all its misery."

The red-haired woman's eyes widened. End life? Before she could say a word, the other woman spoke up again. "You understood what I meant when I said 'Desperate times call for Desperate Measures'. Use them."

"No one has been able to contain them, except for the Wizard," the red-haired Astronema said. "Even as desperate as I am"

"What difference does it make?" the other woman shrieked. "Your loyalty's being questioned. . .in the end, nothing matters. As long as you can destroy everyone, your revenge will be fulfilled."

The red-haired woman paused for a moment. "The planet is being monitored by the Rangers. If I get close enough, they'll be notified."

The black-haired woman gave a chilling smile. "I'll deal with them. If I'm correct, you won't need to worry about them finding you."

Zhane crossed his arms as he tried to listen to Alpha talk to Brenan about his health situation, but he had a hard time concentrating. Zhane knew it was a shock for Brenan to see him. After Zhane had awoken from his camatose state, Andros had confided in him the details of what happened in the other demension.

Zhane and Andros had been best friends since they were young boys training to become Power Rangers. When Zhane was badly injured in a battle with one of Dark Specter's minions and went into his coma, Andros had shut himself off from anyone who tried to befriend him. Many times Andros had come to Zhane's pod to talk to him. . .unaware that Zhane could hear everything he was saying, but he wasn't able to respond back.

Zhane smiled inwardly. Fortunately, Andros had run across the four Earthers who had forced him to open up and shown him what it was like to be humanwhat it was like to feel again. What had surprised Zhane most of all, though, was Andros' connection to Cassie. Zhane had never seen Andros so protective of someone before, at least not in the way that he had seen with his best friend and the Pink Space Ranger. It was good to see the effect she had on him. Andros was never one to be as carefree as the pink ranger had influenced him to be, and Zhane was happy to see his best friend happy.

"Right, Zhane?"

Alpha's voice broke Zhane out of his reverie. "I'm sorry Alpha, what?" Zhane asked.

The robot shook its head. "The tools here? I think there are more in the Med Bay," Alpha repeated. Zhane gave a small laugh and nodded. Alpha nodded back and walked out of the room.

Zhane turned back to Brenan. "That must have been some trip," he said lightly.

Brenan smiled slightly. "Some trip," he repeated, rubbing his left arm with his right hand. He shook his head. "I never thought I'd see you again, Zhane. It's good to see you here, safe and sound."

Zhane paused before speaking. "Andros told me. . .about what happened."

"Did he tell you everything?"

Again, another pause. "What happened in your dimension. . .will it happen here?" Zhane asked. He took a seat on a chair leaning against the wall.

Brenan shook his head. "I can't be certain. Our dimensions are different. Just because something has happened in one doesn't automatically make it true for the other. After all, you're still alive." He sighed. "The odds don't look too well, though. With the Astronema from my dimension here, she might be feeding this dimension's Astronema ideas. And if she does that, I don't know if the rangers of this universe are prepared for the disaster. We sure weren't. . ."

"But it's not your fault."

The two turned to the door, where Cassie and Andros stood. They walked to the foot of the bed. "It's not your fault," Cassie repeated.

"How can you say it's not my fault?" Brenan said. He shook his head. "If I was truly doing my job, none of this would have happened. We would have discovered Astronema's plan earlier and I wouldn't have lost everyone."

Cassie suddenly turned to Andros and Zhane. "Would you guys excuse us?" she asked suddenly. Andros' eyes widened in question. Cassie smiled gently and reached for his hand. When she squeezed his hand, his gaze softened and he nodded at her. Brenan noticed the exchange and felt a pang, but said nothing. Andros squeezed her hand back and nodded at Zhane. Cassie watched as they left the room and she turned back to Brenan. She cleared her throat. "I can't even imagine what you've gone through. . .the pain. . ."

Brenan smiled at her gently. "Seeing and hearing you makes it go away," he replied softly.

Cassie looked into his eyes, fighting the heat that was climbing to her cheeks. "Andr. . .Brenan. . .I'm not"

A sigh escaped Brenan. "I know, you're not her," he said quietly. "But when I look at you, I can see her. I miss her. . .I haven't told her all that I wanted to tell her before everything went away, and I'm not sure she even knew"

Cassie grasped his hand. "She knows, Brenan. You were with her for a time longer than Andros and I were together, and even though things are different with you and your Cassie, I know that she knows." She gave him a smile. "We're smart like that."

That got a laugh out of Brenan. "You both feel different, but you sound the same," he said. Cassie squeezed his hand.

"So what happens now?" Cassie asked.

Brenan took a deep breath. "I don't belong here really, Cassie," he replied seriously. "I can't help feel like something's going to happen. Especially with the other Astronema here. . .I'm only hoping that what happened to end my world won't happen here as well."

"Then where should we begin?"

Brenan couldn't answer the question outloudat least not completely. Where do I begin?

"I'm going to check on the scanners," Andros said to Zhane as they walked down the hallway.

Zhane nodded. "I'm hungry."

Andros rolled his eyes and couldn't help but smile. "Eating. . .sleeping. . .talking. . .you do them all at the most inappropriate times," he joked with his best friend.

He got a grin out of the blonde-haired man. "What did you want me to do, starve?" He gave a pat on his friend's back and continued walking down the hallway. Andros smiled as he walked into the Command Post. As the doors closed behind him, his smile dropped and he narrowed his eyes. Something's not right.

He looked around. Nothing was undisturbed, but he couldn't help shake the feeling something was wrong. The room was darker than usual.

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air. Before Andros could react, he was knocked to the floor. His eyes widened as he recognized the person on top of him. "Astronema!" he growled. The woman's blue eyes pierced into him as she leaned to reach for his neck. Andros reacted quickly and knocked the woman away. As she rolled away, Andros quickly got up. He watched as the woman shook her head to free the black hair that had moved to her face. "How did you"

"No time for talk," she growled and again moved forward to attack. Andros backflipped to avoid the jump kick Astronema thrown at him. He quickly regained his composure, but realized Astronema was no longer in front of him. Before Andros could look around, he felt a kick to his back. As he fell to the ground, he felt a kick to his stomach. She's too fast. Andros hadn't remembered Astronema being this fast at all. "You pathetic rangers" she kicked him again in the stomach, "are always" and came another kick, "in the way." Andros felt himself gasping for air. Pain shot through him as he tried to protect his stomach by curling into a ball. The woman above him was now gasping for breath. "And now it's time to get rid of you."

Andros had to use all of his might to roll out of the way. The move surprised Astronema. In that quick moment, Andros forced himself to kick at Astronema's feet. The woman anticipated a move, however, and jumped to avoid the attack. With another yell, she reached downwards and picked Andros up. Andros' eyes widened at the physical strength she had. He had no time to react as he was being flown over the consoles. Unfortunatley, he landed on the top of his own console and rolled off the front and onto the floor.

He rolled most of the way on the floor, which absorbed the pain. He took deep breaths to try and calm his body down and ignored the deep pain in his stomach. Astronema was laughing from behind T.J.'s console. "Instead of going after the Pink Ranger's mother, I should have just come after you," she said, coldly. She jumped over the console and landed between the two consoles. There was now only the first console between her and Andros. Andros watched as Anstronema gave another chilling laugh. "I get my. . ." her voice trailed off as she looked in front of her.

Andros frowned. He watched as her eyes widened and she gasped. Her hands shakily made their way to her face and she gave another gasp. Andros slowly got up, confused. What had made Astronema stop? Andros cautiously started to move forward, his gaze still on the other woman. She now started blinking quickly and her body started shaking.

Astronema shakily brought her hands down to her stomach and opened them. Andros suddenly realized what she was looking at. A colorful ball started floating up towards Astronema, and floated between her open hands. Andros felt his blood run cold. How did she. . .

Astronema looked up at Andros and he saw something in her eyes. "What ishow did you get this?" she whispered.

Andros forced himself to move and walked over to the side of the console, still apprehensive. He shook his head, unable to speak.

"Where did this come from!" The woman screamed. She started shaking again and the ball dropped. "I. . ." Suddenly, Andros' eyes widened as an image flashed in his head. Karone. . . The image of him and his abducted younger sister playing with the ball as children flashed through his mind.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He looked at the crazed woman in front of him. A tear ran down her face. "No. . ." she whispered. Andros' eyes widened as he suddenly saw the image of his sister replace the woman in front of him.

"Karone?" he asked, just as the image disappeared and was replaced with Astronema. She looked at him when he said the name. Then she shook her head. Suddenly, she spun on her heel and ran towards the door. To Andros' surprise, he felt himself run towards the door to cut off the woman. "Karone." He tried again.

"Augh!" Astronema cried out as she threw out a kick. Andros dodged the attack and realized something on the woman he had never seen before. A necklace. He felt for the necklace around his own neck.

Astronema leaned forward to throw a punchthen stopped. Andros had opened up the locket around his neck. Again, Astronema started to tremble. "Karone. . ." Andros tried again. "It's you. . .I finally found you. . ."

Astronema shook her head, trying to regain what little control she had over her actions. Too many thoughts were racing through her head and she couldn't stop the tears from falling onto her cheeks. "Get away," she warned weakly.

"The necklace. . .the one you have around your neck," Andros said softly.

The necklace. Astronema's eyes flew open. "No"

"You have the same one, Karone. Our mother gave it to us when we started training to become rangers. . .so we wouldn't lose each other. . .so we wouldn't forget."

"No!" Astronema threw an energy bolt at Andros. Andros didn't expect the attack and tried to move out of harm's way, but his left shoulder was caught by the bolt. As he flew back, Astronema's eyes widened. Karone. . .Why had the name struck something in her? She unconsciously reached for the necklace around her neck.

"This connects you to your past. . .but never forget your future."

She grasped the locket around her neck unconsciously. Ecliptor had given her that cryptic message when he put the necklace around her neck. He had given it to her when he had started training her. She had never thought about her past and only focused on her future, so she hadn't even opened up the locket.

"It's our locket, Karone. . .it connects brother and sister!" Andros said firmly. He looked up to watch Astronema's reaction. Instead, the woman dropped down to her knees. She didn't appear to have heard Andros' words, and she shakily reached to the back of her neck. She unclasped her necklace and held the locket in her right hand. Slowly, she opened the locket and gasped.

Andros watched as Astronema dropped the locket. He took in a deep breaththe locket was identical to his, just as he expected. He got onto all fours and started to make his way towards his sister. "Karone" he choked.

When he reached her, she threw out another punch. Luckily, Andros was able to move this time around and the weak punch missed him. When he regained his composure, he realized how frail-looking the usually powerful Astronema was. He reached towards her and she started to throw more punches at him.

"Don't call me that! Get away from me!" she cried out weakly. "Getaway. . .get. . .away. . ." she started sobbing uncontrollably as she weakly hit Andros' chest. Andros winced slightly at the contact, but took his sister into his arms and held her tightly.

As Astronema started sobbing uncontrollably, Andros tightened his hold around her, trying to stop her from shaking. "I found you, Karone. . .I finally found you. . ."

Too many thoughts ran through his head. I found her. . .Karone is Astronema. . .

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of the doors to the Command Post opening. Andros and Astronema looked up to see Ashley and T.J. gaping at them in shock. "Andros. . ." T.J. started quietly. He stopped when Astronema suddenly jumped out of Andros' embrace. Before Andros could even call out to her, she had taken off and disappeared down the Megaship's hallway.

To be continued. . .