Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: I'm responding to people who reviewed the last chapter of Twist of Fate here too, so if you're looking for a response, it's here...
Sandra: There's lots more. It just took me awhile to get the last chapter up, but you'll see what his parents think of him now in this chapter.
Melissa: I've actually never thought of that... Hey, thanks! Are you going to have him say that too?...
Princess Emmie: Thanks.
DizneeDol: I'll update as soon as I can, and I'm not putting up anything else until I finish this one, so I'll update quicker.
Ani: Sorry it took me so long to update. I'll try to update faster from now on.
Jenny: Okay, this will take awhile... No, I didn't recycle the parts from Twist of Fate. At least, I haven't yet, and I'm not planning on it. And I know it was rushed. That was because the chapters from the time Andros and Ashley get together and this one could have been left out, but I realized that after I'd already written them, and I didn't feel like changing it. And actually, the story is about Arrow. He'll be back pretty soon, and then the stuff that's actually relevant to the story can happen. I don't think there's going to be a sequel to this one, but we'll see...
the-power-of-love: Sorry, this really wasn't all that soon. : )
Responses for Twist of Fate:
Juzblue: Yeah, I guess it was pretty sweet. For some reason, I can't write Andros/ Ashley as anything other than sweet.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Actually, LucyE has the closest birthday, but if I have time, I'll write you one too.
Jenny: Umm... Well, as long as you know that you're crazy, I guess there's no harm in me agreeing with you. : )
Melissa: I'll try, but I'm not promising anything.
DizneeDol: I'm not putting up the sequel until I finish Mirror, Mirror. Okay, I probably will, but I'm trying not to write two things at once... even though it's more like three or four or fifteen...
LucyE: Yay, you have the closest birthday, so you get the standalone.
Princess Emmie: I love happy endings. Especially when it comes to Andros and Ashley. : )
Arwennicole: Thanks... A lot of people liked the story, after they figured out what it was about. Maybe I should explain stuff more... : )
the-power-of-love: Sorry, LucyE has the closest birthday. I'll write you one next year. : ) I should really stop promising to write people stuff...
Chapter 20
"Approaching KO-35," Deca announced primly, Earth's blue-green twin visible against the vast blackness of space, blending in nicely amongst a spattering of red and yellow-white stars.
"Descend," Andros ordered briskly, succeeding in concealing all reservations he had about returning to his homeworld. They had won the war, and in their eyes he had redeemed himself for whatever failures were his, but in their eyes, he had never truly failed them to begin with.
Beside him, Karone was struggling to keep from running around, shrieking with joy. For the first time in eleven years, she was going home, to the family that she barely remembered. Andros watched his sister with a smile that faded as he thought about his parents. He hadn't told Karone about the nightmare that became his life after she had disappeared, not wanting her to either blame herself or feel sorry for him. He knew that she was going to figure it out sooner or later, but he wasn't quite sure how he should do it, especially since Karone remembered their parents with love.
He exhaled slowly as Deca brought them down smoothly through the atmosphere, feeling his stomach growing more uneasy with each passing moment.
"Are you doing all right?" He looked up, startled, as he heard Ashley speak to him telepathically.
"I'm fine," he replied, his mental voice no doubt sounding as forced to her as it did to him, but he couldn't have handled talking to anyone just then.
"Okay," Ashley shrugged at him, and he glanced at her, feeling slightly guilty. She met his eye, and smiled slightly. Andros gave her a strained smile in return, and took a deep breath as the Megaship slowed to a halt. He waited for at least a full ten minutes before finally standing up.
"Let's go," he said, turning and motioning at the others to follow him. Karone gave him a curious glance as she practically ran past him, but the others seemed to understand. Zhane grabbed him by the elbow, and pulled him aside.
"Listen, man," he said, giving his friend an unusually serious look. "Don't lose it, all right?"
"I'm fine," Andros said through grit teeth. He knew Zhane was only trying to help, as Ashley had been, but he didn't care. He didn't want any more advice or pity. He just wanted this to all be over.
He spotted his parents the instant the doors hissed open. He watched their expressions change from contempt as they saw him to utter joy and disbelief as Karone ran past him.
"Karone!" his mother shouted, recognizing her daughter, and flinging her arms around her, his father following soon after. Karone and his mother were in tears, and Andros watched the reunion progress with the other rangers. Finally, his mother stopped crying long enough to look at him.
"Where did you find her?" Her tone was not yet spiteful, but all that would change when the truth came out.
"Can we talk somewhere else?" Karone asked anxiously, looking between them. "It's a long story."
"Of course we can, darling," Aldrick assured her, his arm securely around Karone's shoulder. "Come on, Katheri. Let's go home."
"Andros, come on!" Karone urged. He hesitated, but Karone had grabbed him by the arm, and was pulling him along. With a heavy heart, he followed his parents and his sister to the house that had never been his home.
It was exactly the same as he had remembered it. The dark, crowded living room, stuffed with an impossible amount of hideous furniture, and decorated with cheap, tasteless 'art' greeted him as it always had, down to the forboding that settled into the pit of his stomach. To his right, he saw the door to the kitchen unit, to his left, the hallway that led to his closet of a room.
"Karone, angel, where were you all these years?" his mother asked, practically shoving Karone down onto the couch. She sat down next to her, and his father took Karone's other side. Andros remained standing, edging as close to the door as he could get without it becoming blatantly obvious. "We've missed you so much."
"Darkonda was the one who took me," Karone began.
"Darkonda?" Katheri repeated. Her eyes narrowed at Andros. "You said you didn't know who took her!" she said accusingly. "How could you not recognize Darkonda?"
"He didn't see it happen," Karone said. "Darkonda, he took me to Dark Specter. Dark Specter... he made me... he made me Astronema."
There was utter silence for perhaps thirty seconds. Andros held his breath, waiting for the explosion, but when nothing happened, he forced himself to relax. Karone was looking between her parents anxiously.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know who I was, or what I was doing. Whatever I did, I didn't mean to do."
"We know, sweetheart," Aldrick assured her quickly. "It's just a shock, that's all. You being Astronema, and him being the red ranger." Andros remained silent, and his father kept talking. "How did you remember?"
"The locket," Karone said, her fingers closing around it as it hung gracefully from her neck. "Andros saw it, and he saw the pictures, and he made me remember."
"Your brother saved you?" Katheri asked skeptically. "He finally did something right?"
"He saved me twice," Karone said, completely missing their mother's tone. "That time, and then when Dark Specter captured me again."
"Dark Specter captured you again?" Aldrick repeated, his eyes darkening towards his son. "And how did that happen?"
"I snuck onto the Dark Fortress," Karone explained, beginning to realize that something was wrong. "I needed to reprogram an asteroid that Dark Specter sent to Earth. The rangers didn't want to let me go, but I made them. I wanted to do something to make up for all the evil that I'd done."
Aldrick whirled on Andros. "You let your sister return to the Dark Fortress? Alone? What were you thinking?"
Andros flinched as his father took a step closer to him, his fists raised. He tensed, bracing himself for a blow that never came. Suddenly, his father must have remembered that Karone was in the room, and he turned back to her.
"What happened after that?"
Andros shot Karone a pleading look that he hoped his mother didn't notice. If they found out that he'd killed her, he didn't doubt that they would try to kill him. By now, Karone had a rough idea of what had happened during the eleven years she had spent as Astronema.
"When the Countdown started," she said, "Andros snuck onto the Dark Fortress to resuce me. Zordon was there, and he told Andros how to win the war."
She finished talking, and Andros breathed a silent thanks to his sister. His parents were looking from him to Karone, unconvinced that there was nothing more to her story.
"Are you sure that nothing else happened?" Katheri asked, not bothering to hide her disappointment that Andros hadn't made more mistakes.
"Nothing else happened," Karone said firmly. "I'm sure."
"Well, we're so glad that you're alive," Katheri said. "Now, we can forget the last eleven years, and be a family again."
"You," Aldrick said, beckoning to Andros. "Come with me."
"We can talk here," Andros said cooly, speaking for the first time. The walls, a sickening greenish color, were beginning to make him feel ill.
"Now," his father insisted. Andros glanced out of the corner of his eye at Karone, who was still sitting next to his mother, looking startled.
"No," Andros said. He was not about to walk into whatever trap had been layed for him this time.
"Why do you always have to be so difficult?" his mother asked, as if his father only wanted to have a friendly father-son talk. "Andros, just go with your father."
Maybe it was the old habit of always capitulating in the end, or maybe it was hearing her speak his name in a civilized tone for the first time in years, but he nodded, berating himself even as he did so. He was strong, but they were stronger, they still controlled him.
"Maybe we should go back now," Karone suggested, her eyes widening slightly. "I need to get my things from the Megaship..."
"It's all right, Karone," Andros said, though it took most of his will to keep from turning around and running. He wasn't going to hide anymore, he told himself. He should have done this a long time ago. "We'll go in a few minutes."
He followed his father down the short hall as he had countless times before. This time he felt no fear, only anger. This time, he wouldn't be beaten. His room hadn't changed at all, either. It was about the size of the prison cells that he'd seen when he'd been unfortunate enough to be captured. The walls, a brilliant yellow, against a dull red, glared down at him, a constant reminder of the sister he had lost. The room was soundproof, he knew, so the neighbors wouldn't hear his cries as he was pummeled repeatedly with whatever object had been the nearest reach for his parents, or, if there was none, then their fists.
"Well?" he demanded as Aldrick slammed the door behind them. "Get it over with."
"If I had my way, you'd be locked up in here for the rest of your life," Aldrick growled, taking a step closer to Andros, who stood motionlessly, waiting.
"I brought her back," he said, almost sadly. "Isn't that enough?"
"It will never be enough," his father spat. "Until you can give us back the eleven years that you cost us with Karone, it will never be enough, you worthless piece of trash."
Andros felt his temper come close to snapping, and as much as he would have liked to drive his fist straight through his father's angry face, he restrained himself. He was not going to be the one that started it.
"I've heard all this before," he said icily. "I'm leaving now."
"Not yet, you're not," Aldrick snapped.
This time, Andros was ready as Aldrick's fist came at his head. Dodging it, he threw his own punches, catching his father in the right eye and below the jaw. Without waiting to see what happened next, he turned and stormed out of the room.
"I'm going now," he said calmly as he passed his mother and sister. "Karone, I'll see you later."
"Wait," Karone said, running after him as he left. Only once he was out of the house did he turn and wait for her to catch up. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to burden you," he sighed. "I'm sorry, I should have told you, but I didn't think things would be this bad, not with you coming back."
"They did it all because of me?" Karone's blue eyes flashed furiously.
"They love you, Karone," Andros said softly. "I cost them their little angel."
"But it wasn't your fault," Karone protested. "Couldn't they see that?"
"No," Andros said, shaking his head. "Even before... they didn't like me."
"Does anyone know?" she asked suddenly. "Did you ever tell anyone, or ask for help?"
Andros shook his head. "I never told anyone, but Zhane knew. The others don't... Ashley a little of it."
"You should tell her," she suggested. "It might make you feel better."
"I know," Andros admitted.
"Go back to the Megaship," Karone said firmly. "I'll be there later."
"Karone-" he started, but she shook her head.
"I know what I'm doing," she said, turning around and walking away from him.
