Disclaimer: Not mine

Juzblue: Of course there's going to be fun. Some dark and depressing stuff too, but we'll focus on the fun for right now. : )

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: They'll get used to it eventually. Unless I kill them off first . . . : )

Jenny: I was having such a bad day, and then I came and read your review, and I feel so much better now. : ) Anyway . . . yes, Andros and Ashley are the most perfectest couple ever.

DV2: I think this one's a little bit longer. I try not to make them too short, but sometimes they come out that way.

Maresia Eterna: If you're waiting until the end to kill me, I think I'll make it several chapters longer. : ) I'll write one where Andros stays on KO-35 as soon as I finish both stories that I'm working on right now and I write a sequel to Twist of Fate. So sometime this summer probably.

Melissa: If you thought that was a cliffhanger, you're really going to hate the rest of the story. I know, it's fun looking at the celing in detention. This one time, our whole class had detention, and everyone was looking up counting the ceiling tiles. It was funny.

Miss Natalya: I'm glad you liked it.

dancer1: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it, even though they're not your favorite characters. Really, I like Zhane best, and then Andros and Ashley. Who are your favorite characters?

Chapter 16

The Megaship- the medical bay

"You two are . . . " Carlos let his voice trail off, not quite sure of what to say.

"Yes," Ashley said, more defensively than she'd intended. "We are."

"Oh," Carlos said. "That's . . . wow."

"How did you . . . When did you . . . " TJ asked. He'd recovered from his shock and was grinning at them wider than Zhane was. "If it's not to personal," he added hastily.

"Yesterday? The day before?" Andros said, looking at Ashley, who nodded. "I'm not sure what day it is."

"Look, you guys," Ashley said. She glanced at her friends nervously before looking at Andros. "Do we really need to talk about this?"

"We're a team," Carlos reminded her. "We're supposed to trust each other."

"You don't need to know all the details," Ashley said, exasperated. "Andros and I are together. That's it."

"But-" Carlos began, then shrugged. "Never mind," he said, and left.

"Don't worry about him," Cassie assured her friend. "He'll get over it."

"Am I missing something?" Andros asked, looking from Cassie to TJ to Ashley.

Ashley sighed. "Carlos - he-"

She shot a helpless look at Cassie, who understood.

"Carlos had a small crush on Ashley," she explained. "It's not much, but he's jealous."

"Oh," Andros said. He opened his mouth again, and caught himself before he said something stupid. He didn't own Ashley, and he didn't know how deep her feelings for him were.

"We'll leave you alone," TJ said hastily, seeing the expression on Andros' face. He and Cassie left, dragging a disappointed Zhane with them. Ashley sighed.

"That went better than I expected," she said, lightly, but from the way she was staring at the floor, Andros knew that something was bothering her.

"Ash?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing."

Andros shrugged, and not knowing what else to do, pulled her into his arms. He felt Ashley relax against him, and smiled.

"Ash," he said several minutes later. "I really want to leave this room."

Ashley looked up at him, and smiled. She slid off the bed, and Andros stood, carefully testing his legs before attempting to walk. Ashley wrapped an arm around his waist for support, and he leaned on her gratefully.

The bridge

"I don't like this," Carlos said in a low voice. "Andros is ..."

"He's my best friend," Zhane protested, much more loudly. "He'd never hurt her."

"You weren't around to see him before," Cassie said softly.

"Exactly," Carlos said.

"But they were getting closer," Cassie added, and Carlos shot a glare at her. TJ gave the black ranger a warning look.

"Maybe Ashley actually knows what she's doing," he suggested.

Cassie shrugged. "We should stay out of it for now."

"Can't we have a little fun?" Zhane pleaded.

"This is serious," Carlos snapped. "Andros doesn't deserve Ashley."

Their conversation was quickly abandonded as alarms went off all over the ship.

"Deca?" Zhane asked questioningly.

"Astronema is attacking Angel Grove," Deca reported.

"Visuals," Zhane ordered.

"Astronema and... Darkonda?" TJ asked, surprised. "Didn't Arrow blow him up back on the base?"

"Darkonda was granted several lives by Dark Specter," Zhane explained. "Ecliptor as well."

"Why?" Cassie knew they should be morphing, but her curiosity got the better of her.

Zhane shrugged. "They never felt like sharing that information."

"Why are you all standing here?" Andros demanded. They looked up to see him and Ashley standing in the doorway.

"You're going?" Cassie exclaimed, when she saw Andros reach for his morpher. He nodded stubbornly.

"Please?" Ashley begged him. "Stay? Just this once."

"Don't be an idiot," Zhane added. "Do you know how close you came to dying?"

Andros looked from Ashley to Zhane to Ashley again. He sighed. "Just this once."

"Thank you," Ashley whispered in his ear, and he sat down in his seat, not at all happy. Zhane looked at the others.

"Ready?" he asked. "Let's rocket!"

"Deca, teleport five," Andros instructed, and sat back to watch the battle from the safety of the Megaship.

"No red ranger?" Astronema laughed. "Is he too much of a coward to face me?"

"What do you want now?" Cassie demanded.

"Your surrender," Darkonda said, drawing his sword and charging them. Astronema snapped her fingers, and her staff appeared, readying her for battle. The rangers sighed and called upon their own weapons. This was going to be a long day.

Andros watched tensely for several minutes, before realizing that the rangers were faring well, and he allowed himself to relax slightly. No matter how well they were doing, however, he couldn't keep his heart from nearly stopping whenever he saw Ashley in trouble. When Darkonda managed to land a hard blow to her right shoulder, Andros felt a faint jolt shoot through his own shoulder, and he winced. Whatever Ashley had felt had to be much worse.

Suddenly, Astronema laughed, a sound filled with utter triumph. Andros was jerked out of his thoughts and stared at the images before him in horror. Demorphed, he saw TJ and Cassie stagger to their feet, supporting a half-concious Carlos between them. Zhane was swaying unsteadily on his feet, trying to keep Ashley from losing her balance as well.

Darkonda's head came up when he laughed, and Andros had a clear, unobstructed look into his great, bulbous yellow eyes, eyes that triggered a long-forgotten memory, buried under years of nightmares. Then the laugh registered, and the memory grew clearer, sharper, and Andros started trembling with fury.

"Deca, get them out of there," he ordered. "Teleport them directly to the medical bay."

"Affirmative," Deca replied.

Andros wasn't listening. He slipped a small disc out of his locket.

"Play this," he said teresly.

This time, as he watched the kidnapping of his little sister, Andros listened carefully for the laugh that he knew was coming. Darkonda's laugh. When he heard it, he stopped the footage, unable to watch anymore. Closing his eyes, Andros let his face fall forward onto the console, and he sat there numbly, letting his anger and sadness overwhelm him.

"What's wrong?"

Andros didn't move as Ashley took the seat next to him, nor did he react when she touched him shoulder gently.

"Andros?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

Her voice sounded small and scared, and this more than anything compelled Andros to look up at her. When he did, he saw her face, still dirty and bruised, staring down at him. Her warm brown eyes were filled with concern, and Andros let her take his hand.

"Darkonda," he managed. "Darkonda took Karone."

A/N: Okay, so omething finally happened. Umm... I hope you really, really like this story, because at the rate it's going right now, it'll be about thirty five or forty chapters. So I hope you like it, please review.