Disclaimer: Not mine, please don't sue me, I have no money anyway.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: :smiles innocently: Ravenna seems familiar? Hmm . . . Tell me who you think she is, you'll guess right, and I'll say no, and at the end you'll find out that you were right all along. : )
Juzblue: Good guessing. You didn't actually say who you thought they were, so for all I know, you could be right, but I won't tell you untill the end, anyway.
Jenny: Even IF you're right, how do you know Aria and Ashley will be sisters-in-law? I could kill of Andros at any given time. Or Ashley. Which would be better:pouts: Just kidding. I can't kill them. Stupid emotional attatchment.
GreenDayfan1: Glad you like it. I'll have a lot more Andros/Ashley in the next chapter. This one's mostly about Ravenna.
Chapter 14:
Onyx
Ravenna sat calmly at her table, waiting.
"What do you want?" a voice growled, and Ravenna smiled. She'd been expecting this.
"Astronema," she said, hiding a smile. "I've been wondering if you'd show up at all."
"Don't call me Astronema," the cloaked figure before her hissed. "No one can ever know that I met with you."
"Who are you then?" Ravenna asked. "I don't imagine you'd take well to the name Karone."
"I don't need a name," Astronema said stiffly, sitting down across from Ravenna. "What is it you want?"
"Why do you hate the red ranger so much?" Ravenna said smoothly. "You single him out in your attacks more often than the others."
"I used to," Astronema said, obviously annoyed. "Until his precious yellow ranger showed up. That girl guards him with her life. And then the silver ranger woke up."
Ravenna laughed outright. "Just call him Zhane . . . unless of course you spend more of your time kissing him than you do getting to know his name."
"How-"
"I've been watching you," Ravenna said. "And neither of you is very good at hiding it."
"The red ranger hasn't noticed," Astronema said, remembering what she had been saying before Ravenna interrupted. "Out of all of them, he should be the easiest to get to. Do you know how stupid he is?"
"Of course I do."
"Do you know how hard it is to get an attack to him now?" Astronema ranted.
"But why?" Ravenna lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "Why do you want to?"
"He killed my family," Astronema replied bitterly. "My brothers, my sister."
"The red ranger is your brother," Ravenna said bluntly. "And in your heart, you know it just as well as he does. You can only repeat the lie for so long."
"What makes you so sure of this?" Astronema asked, her voice dangerous.
"I've been watching you," Ravenna said quietly, repeating her earlier statement. "You and him both. You don't want to fight him any more than he does you."
"Who are you?" Astronema demanded. "How do you show up one day and in less than three months rise to the best of the best at this? How old are you? Where did you come from?"
"I am Ravenna," she answered simply. "And here, my name is enough."
"That may be true," Astronema hissed. "But it is not enough for me."
"Darkonda took you from your family," Ravenna said, ignoring her last comment. "Darkonda took you, Karone, and made you into Astronema. He came back for Amara and Jadon, but someone saved them. He's hired me to kill them."
Astronema closed her eyes. "Darkonda?"
"Darkonda," Ravenna repeated.
Astronema stood up abruptly. "I have to go."
"I'll be on Earth next week at this time," Ravenna said. "I'll find you. Be there."
Astronema said nothing, but stormed out of the tavern, and Ravenna smiled. This had gone better than she'd expected. For one, she wasn't in need of immediate medical attention.
"Ravenna."
"Red Ranger," Ravenna said quietly, without turning around. "Your voice is easily recognizable. I suggest that you change it."
"No," Andros said, sitting down. His hood covered him from head to toe, but if she had been able to see her eyes, Ravenna knew that they would be troubled.
"What do you know?" Andros asked, unable to keep a pleading tone out of his voice. "I want to know, no matter how awful it is."
Ravenna was silent for a moment.
"I do have some information for you," she said finally. "But before I give it to you, you should know that Darkonda is paying me to find them."
"Are you going to?"
"Find them?" Ravenna said. "I intend to. But whether Darkonda gets to them is another matter entirely."
"Why are you risking your life for this?" Andros asked, his suspicions aroused.
"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said it was out of the goodness of my heart," Ravenna said dryly, and Andros knew that he'd get no more out of her.
"What did you find?" he asked.
"Darkonda trailed them to Earth," Ravenna said. "It took him thirteen years, but he found them."
She paused, thinking. "But then . . . he lost them again, somehow. I haven't quite figured out how. My, uh, consultant theorized that they were in the company of an experienced telepath, one who manipulated Darkonda's mind into forgetting their energy."
"So why doesn't he just go down and search for them?" Andros asked. "There's only a few billion people there, and less then half would even match their descriptions."
"He's afraid of drawing attention to himself," Ravenna said. "He seemed to think that this was a more discreet method."
"No one's ever betrayed him before," Andros said. "Do you know what you're doing?"
"Of course not," Ravenna said lightly, struck with the realization that indeed she didn't. "Where would the fun be in that?"
Andros sighed. "I don't mean to seem rude, but we're talking about my brother and sister, who I've thought were dead for thirteen years. Can you please be serious?"
"I'll be serious," Ravenna agreed. "If you tell the silver ranger to join us instead of standing over there staring."
"Zhane's here?" Andros repeated, startled. He turned to look, but Ravenna caught his head in a telekinetic grasp.
"You don't want to be drawing attention to yourself," she said softly, dropping her hold on him.
Andros nodded, greatly unnerved. Her hold had been very light, but he could feel how deep her power went. To both his and Ravenna's relief, Zhane finally wandered over.
"Silver Ranger," Ravenna greeted under her breath. "What are you doing here?"
"I was, um, I was keeping an eye on Andros," Zhane said, a little too quickly. "You know, he gets himself into these situations-"
"Much like this one?" Ravenna said, suppressing her laughter only with an effort. It was entertaining to watch him panic. "You have that talent as well, Silver Ranger."
"Exactly like this one," Zhane confirmed, eyeing Ravenna suspisciously. "Do you, um, I mean, have you . . . "
"Have I seen what you've been doing lately?" Ravenna asked. "Yes, I have. And I find it highly amusing as well."
"What am I missing?" Andros asked, a little disturbed to see Ravenna conversing so easily with Zhane. She didn't have the aura of a bounty hunter, he realized.
"Nothing that you would care to know," Ravenna said. "But tell me, is it working?"
Zhane sighed. "No . . . she likes me, but I can't get through to her."
"Someone will," Ravenna said. "And as much as I doubt that it will be you . . ."
"Stop talking around me!" Andros snapped.
"We're done talking," Ravenna said, standing up. "When do you wish to meet again?"
"Next week," Andros said. "Same time."
"I'll be on Earth," Ravenna said, trying to remember what she's said to Astronema earlier. "I'll find you."
"Can I see your face?" Andros asked abruptly.
Ravenna stared at him, and even with her hood, Andros could see the glare.
"I'm sorry," he said. "But I want to see who I'm trusting with the lives of my brother and sister."
"Not to mention your own," Ravenna said.
She sighed heavily, although she'd been expecting the question. Leaning forward, Ravenna lifted her hood enough for Andros and Zhane to catch a glimpse of sparkling brown eyes, and long dark hair. Her features remained in the shadows, but Andros felt a flash of uneasyness at seeing her.
"Happy?" she muttered.
"For now," Andros said, growing more and more uneasy by the minute. He felt as if he was missing something. "How much do you want?"
"Five thousand credits," Ravenna said, and Andros paid her without hesitation. If there was nothing else to convince him that she had ulterior motives, the cheap price was it.
Ravenna stood and hurried out of the tavern, weaving her way through Onyx before vanishing in the midst of the street fights. When she got to her destination, she tore off her cloak and bent her face forward into her hands, blinking furiously. The cheap contact lenses she'd purchased on Earth were hell on her eyes, but no one would ever suspect that she was using such a primitive form of disguise.
She laughed softly to herself, before somewhat reluctantly ghosting out of her present form. Disguises came in many forms, and she intended to use them all. Yet, Ravenna's body felt more natural to her than the one in which she lived her daily life, as if she herself was permanently disguised.
Ravenna groaned. I should think less . . .