Disclaimer: Not mine

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: I thought it was free, I just had to check. If my parents get stuck with a bill for anything, I am so dead. Quite literally, I think... I know, Karone has to stick with Andros. Ooh, what part did you claim?

Juzblue: I really, really hate them too. Karone has a nice little 'talk' with them, but you get to imagine what happens.

Jenny: Sorry, I lied. There will be a sequel. It start where the next chapter leaves off, though. And Andros will swallow his pride and tell someone. Don't worry, you're still psychic. : )

Arwennicole: Yeah, I hate his parents, too. They kinda went crazy after Karone disappeared.

LucyE: Of course I'll keep writing. : )

Melissa: It's okay, I don't remember either. I wrote the response about a week before I updated, so it's okay.

Tori Bradley: She does, but it's just implied.

Chapter 21

Andros watched his sister go, a faint smile on his face, before teleporting back to the Megaship. As he landed on the bridge amid a shower of red light, he wasn't at all surprised to see Ashley and Zhane waiting for him. He looked at them both guiltily.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you guys before," he muttered.

Zhane laughed at him. "You've done much worse that you haven't apologized for. So... how'd that go?"

"It could have been worse," Andros said, sighing. He could feel Ashley's eyes on him, and sighed again. Karone was right. He wanted to tell her. He was just afraid to. "Ash, can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Ashley said, taking his hand as he started walking. "Where are we going?"

"The observatory?" Andros suggested. "It's quiet there."

"All right," Ashley agreed. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Andros said. "It's complicated."

They entered the observatory still hand-in-hand, and Andros sat down on the floor, his back against the wall. Ashley dropped to the ground beside him, slipping her arm around his shoulder as she did so. For a moment, Andros simply stared at her, unsure of how to begin.

"Karone thinks that I'd feel better if I tell someone," he said finally. "I do too. Ash... would you mind listening?"

"Of course I'll listen," Ashley said immediately, pulling him closer to her.

"You've met my parents," Andros said, laughing bitterly. "You know they hate me. But when I was growing up, it was so much worse than that." He paused, as his old habit of keeping everything inside started to kick back in. The words strangled themselves, and the desire to hide in himself crept over him. He gave Ashley a pleading look, begging her to save him from himself.

"It's all right," Ashley whispered. "You're safe here."

Andros nodded as he was bombarded by memories that he would much rather forget. Memories of his weaker self, the self that begged for mercy already knowing that there would be none but was terrified of pain of any sort.

"They beat you, didn't they?" Ashley asked him gently.

"Yes," he answered dully, feeling himself tense. His shoulders hunched forward as he drew his knees up. His hair wasn't pulled back for once, and it fell in front of his face, making him appear more vulnerable than he ever had before. Ashley touched his shoulder softly, and he reached up, taking her hand, using her as a link to his world as he slowly opened up a different world, one buried long ago. Swallowing hard, he continued, "There was never any warning. They could just explode at any given time, over anything. If I did something wrong, if I did something right, it didn't matter. I was so afraid."

The last sentence nearly drove Ashley to tears, more than anything else that Andros was saying. He was shaking, and when she pulled him into her arms, he wrapped his arms around her, clinging to her.

"Everything was my fault," he whispered. "All the bad, it was all because of me. What they did to me, it was just a punishment for it. And I believed it, too. They convinced me that I was worthless, that no one cared about me, that no one ever would.

"My father always started it. My mother... he had to make her hate me. She never liked me, but she didn't go out of her way to hurt me, either. I always thought that she would stop him, until she started, too." Andros stopped, waiting until he could speak around the lump in his throat. "They vented all their anger out on me. Anything that was heavy enough or hard enough, I was hit with."

He paused, swallowing several times. Looking into Ashley's warm chocolate eyes, it nearly killed him when he saw the sympathy in them. He didn't want anyone feeling sorry for him, Ashley least of all people.

"Don't pity me," he pleaded. "I can't take that, Ash, not from you."

"I'm sorry," Ashley whispered. "I'll try."

"Thank you," he whispered. "Just don't stay here with me because you feel sorry for me."

"I'm here because I want to be," Ashley said firmly. "Do you believe me?"

Andros nodded his head slowly, giving her a small smile. "I believe you, Ash."

For several minutes, they sat in silence, as Andros debated whether or not to keep talking. Karone was right, he felt better, as much as it hurt. "Did I depress you too much yet, or will you still listen?"

"I'll listen for as long as you keep talking," Ashley assured him. Andros took a deep breath and kept talking.

"One thing was always the same," he said. "Everyday, after school, they locked me in my room. It was like a prison. There weren't any windows, and it was so small. There wasn't even a bed. I slept on the floor. If they were really angry with me, they would leave me in there for days. They wouldn't let me out to eat or to use the bathroom. I actually think that they managed to forget about me."

With his last sentence, the monotone he'd been speaking in slipped, and his voice started breaking. Biting his lip hard, he waited for several minutes, concentrating on breathing evenly.

"When I morphed for the first time, it just... stopped. There weren't anymore beatings. For awhile, I thought that it was all over. Then they started screaming instead. Being screamed at was worse than being hit. I could block out the pain, but not the voices. I heard them all the time. I couldn't even sleep without hearing them. When KO-35 was abandoned, it was almost like a miracle..." He stopped again, completely drained. "I can't talk anymore."

"It's all right," Ashley whispered in his ear, her arms wrapped around him. "Will you be okay?"

Andros nodded, and stood up. Ashley stood as well, and he held her for several minutes, his eyes closed. "I love you so much," he whispered.

"I love you too," Ashley whispered back.

"Ash," Andros said seriously, pulling back. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"No," Ashley promised him. "Did you ever tell anyone?"

He shook his head. "The only thing worse than no one knowing was everyone knowing."

"Are you still ashamed of it?" Ashley asked softly.

"Yes," he whispered. "I always will be."

"You don't have to be," Ashley said softly, brushing his hair out of his face with one hand as she looked up into his sad eyes.

"I will be," Andros said. "But I can live with it now."

Ashley took his hand, and tugged on his arm gently. "Come on," she said. "Let's go see what the others have been up to, all right?"

Andros nodded, and walked out of the observatory feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. As they stepped off of the Megalift and onto the bridge, Andros saw Karone waiting for him.

"How are you?" she asked him.

"I'm okay," he replied truthfully. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Karone said lightly, smiling vindictively. "I just came from a nice, long talk with my parents."

Andros looked from Karone to Ashley, not quite sure what he should be thinking. In the end, he laughed, but only because it was easier to laugh than cry.