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Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: I'm much happier with your update. :P

DizneeDol: Thanks, here's more. :P

Jenny: You want my Demon brother to be the bridesmaid? I LOVE YOU! I don't wanna be the flower girl... Oh well, Demon has to wear a dress. :P

the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more. :P

Arwennicole: Relax, the one thing I won't do is kill them. Yet. Well, I won't kill the one and make the other one live, but that's not this story. :P

JakiBlue: Yeah, the last version had some problems. You find out later where they are, but this story isn't like Unsealed Fate, so don't worry. :P

GreenDayfan1: Okay, I'll go back to almost killing them. :P

Chapter 9

The Megaship

"I am picking up the signal," Deca announced.

Zhane and Karone looked at each other in relief.

"If she's hurt, Andros will never forgive me," Zhane muttered. "She'd better still be alive, and that baby, too."

"They're okay," Karone assured him, laying a hand on his arm. "Ashley's not helpless."

"Not under usual circumstances," Zhane pointed out, and Karone frowned.

"Do you think it's gotten that far yet?"

"Karone, I don't think she'd put her child in danger. Especially if she thinks she'll never see Andros again. If the baby's all she's got left of him, she'll do whatever she has to do to keep herself alive."

"Deca," Karone said anxiously. "Hurry up, will you?"

"Do you feel that?" Zhane asked, tapping his head, frowning. "It's... Andros?"

"He's not listening to us," Karone said a moment later, after a dozen fruitless attempts to get through to her brother. "Or he's too weak to hear us."

"Don't think like that," Zhane ordered. "You got your morpher?"

Karone held up her left wrist. "Got it."

"Deca, how much longer?"

Elsewhere

When Andros opened his eyes again, the first thing that he was conscious of was that he was alone again. Ashley was gone from his arms, and he closed his eyes as they filled with tears of dread at what was being done to her.

No matter what he'd promised Ashley however many hours ago, there was no way that he was about to let the Psycho rangers, Arcanus, or the body that belonged to the phantom voice take the lives of the woman that he loved and his unborn child without taking his first.

Granted, he had no idea how he could protect her when she was currently in better fighting shape than he was, but Andros was not just going to lie there helplessly while he watched Ashley and the child she was carrying tortured to death.

"Just make sure to kill her first," Arcanus had been ordered by the disembodied voice that had floated throughout the room. The vindictiveness of that voice made Andros sick to his stomach with fear, to the point that if he had been able to move painlessly, his terror would have prevented it and left him paralyzed.

"Ash?" he called telepathically. "Where are you? What are they doing?"

"I'm in that same room from yesterday," came Ashley's reply, made terse by fear. "He wants to run another test on me."

Andros closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ash."

"Andros, you don't think the baby can feel it, do you?"

"I'm sure that the baby doesn't feel it, Ash." Andros had no idea whether or not this was true, but he could tell from her voice that Ashley was petrified with terror and guilt. "Don't worry about the baby, Ash, worry about yourself."

"Andros," came Ashley's terrified whimper, just before Andros felt his mind exploding in pain. This time, he felt it as well, and in some odd way, it made him hurt less. When he'd learned that Ashley had felt everything that had been done to him, the guilt had nearly killed him, and somehow, feeling what they were doing to her slowly chipped away at the guilt.

He curled up when the sensation faded away, shaking, and his throat aching from screaming. This was different than feeling it first-hand. It was no less painful, but somehow less intense, and the pain vanished instantly, leaving only a feeling that there should be pain where there was none.

"Ash?" he asked softly, reaching out for her.

"I'm okay, I think," he heard her reply hesitantly. "It just hurts so much... Andros, there's something wrong."

"What happened?" Andros felt his heart racing, and in her fear, Ashley nearly broke the connection that he was struggling to maintain.

"Arcanus and the Psychos... he's talking to them. He's found something that he doesn't like. Andros, I think... I think he knows... Psycho Red, he's coming to get you."

"Ash, calm down," Andros ordered her, hearing her panicking. "You have to pretend that you have no idea what's going on, all right? If they don't know about the baby, you can't let them know."

"I'm trying," Ashley whispered. "I can't hear them talking anymore. Andros..."

Andros curled up as the door opened, doing his best to look like he'd simply been recovering from the aftershock of Ashley's torture. Psycho Red seized him and hauled him to his feet, stalking away before Andros even had the chance to attempt to find his footing. He stumbled, and was dragged down the hall to the room where he half expected to find Ashley lying dead on the cold floor.

Instead, he saw her sitting on the cot, unrestrained, although her arms were held down by Psycho Yellow and Arcanus, who was laughing gleefully. Ashley had on a brave face, but Andros could practically feel her pulse racing.

"Well, Red Ranger," Arcanus laughed. "This seems to be a most interesting turn of events now, doesn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Andros snapped.

"Is that so?" Arcanus sneered. "So if I were to tell you that the yellow ranger was carrying your child, the news would shock you?"

Andros swallowed, and did his best to look confused. "She's not pregnant. She can't be pregnant."

"Don't lie to me, Red Ranger," Arcanus snapped. "It will only go worse for her."

He paused to give his words time to take hold in Andros' mind, who was suddenly visualizing slow, agonizing deaths for both Ashley and their baby.

"I have adjusted the testing process for her, but it is nowhere close to where it should be," Arcanus explained. "That leaves only one explanation. There is another life inside of her."

"How fitting," came the floating voice again. "You took my child, Red Ranger, and now I will take yours."

"Ecliptor had a father?" Andros burst out. "I thought he was created by Dark Specter."

"He was my son, and you killed him!"

The voice suddenly gained a body to go with it, as an armored figure that strongly resembled Ecliptor appeared in the center of the room. Andros felt his breath catch in his throat as the figure ignored him completely and turned to Ashley.

"She is most certainly carrying the red ranger's child." He glanced at Arcanus. "Do it now."

"Certainly, Master." The old man, anything but frail bowed out of the room, carrying the sword that Andros recognized as Ecliptor's, and a small, clear vial containing a single grain of sand.

"Well, Red Ranger, this is ironic, isn't is?" Ecliptor's father laughed sadistically.

"Who are you?" Andros demanded, stalling desperately.

"My name is Sol, but that does not matter."

Arcanus placed the sword and the vial on a small table, and attatched one electrode to each of them. Sol held up a hand, and approached the cot where Ashley sat, her arms pressed to her stomach.

"I will let your child live if you agree to one small request. I keep your child."

"I'd kill my child myself before I handed it to you!" Ashley spat. In one swift motion, Sol backhanded her across the face, and Ashley fell back across the cot. Andros could only watch in helpless dread as the straps were fastened across Ashley's body. Then it hit him: in place of him, they were using his child. They were going to keep him alive, until he begged them to kill him, and they never would.

"Then you will both die," Sol snapped.

"Andros, I'm so sorry," Ashley cried. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to kill the baby. I just can't let him take our child."

Her voice snapped Andros into motion, and he tore himself free of Psycho Red's grasp, the adrenaline coursing through him the only thing keeping him on his feet. Instead of going straight for Ashley, as they had expected him to do, Andros headed for the table that held Ecliptor's sword, pulling it into his hand telekinetically. His movement being misread was the only thing that saved him, and the split second that it took for his enemies to correct their path towards him was all the time he needed to slice through the straps.

The sword fell from his hand and clattered to the floor as the Psychos and Sol closed in on him. Andros had no strength to fight, and it was only by a mixture of will and fear that he didn't collapse when he was kicked.

"Ashley, run!" he shouted at her, knowing that she wouldn't, but hoping that something in her would force her to.

"Do you really think I'd leave you?" Ashley retorted, and suddenly, Psycho Red fell against Psycho Yellow as Ashley swung the sword with all the strength in her. A moment later, the yellow ranger was standing where Ashley had been a second before.

"Why didn't you tell me you had your morpher?" Andros asked her weakly, as she seized him by the arm and pulled him away from the Psychos, her arm wrapped around his waist to support him, her other arm clutching a blaster that she was firing blindly over her shoulder.

Ashley practically threw him out of the room, and continued firing at the Psychos and Sol, who advanced on them nonetheless. Andros spotted the door lock, and slammed the button telekinetically. Ashley stumbled back, her arm back around his waist as they made their way down the hall as fast as they could go.

"How long will that door hold?"

"Not very long," Andros answered. The sound of wood splintering and metal creaking made Ashley start walking faster, nearly pulling Andros off of his feet.

"Is there a way out of here?" Ashley asked him calmly, and Andros envied the effect the Power had had on her. Wishing he could morph wouldn't get him out of here any faster, however, and he tried to concentrate on what Ashley was saying.

"I don't know," he said. "I never got very far."

"Let's try this way," Ashley said, pulling him down a hallway he'd never been down before. Or had he? They all looked alike, and Andros had a sickening feeling that this was all one giant maze, designed to keep him in.

"Ash, this isn't working," he said, frustrated, a minute or two later, his ears tricking him repeatedly into believing that he heard the Psychos crashing through the door. "I don't think we'll find a door in time."

"Do you think this is an outer wall?"

"What?"

"Do you think this is an outer wall?" Ashley repeated, and Andros shook his head.

"I don't know."

"It better be," Ashley said, taking her blaster and firing several times at the wall. It took a dozen shots, but finally a hole appeared, and she looked through it. "Not it."

She turned and did the same to the surrounding walls, and found nothing. Sighing heavily, she headed for the next corridor, dragging Andros with her, painfully aware that she was draining any energy he had left in him.

"I've found one!" she cried.

"Hurry, Ash," Andros said, staring down the hall as she fired repeatedly, switching to the laser setting, hoping to burn through the wall faster than she could shoot through it. "I keep thinking I hear them."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Ashley assured him, and the arm that Andros had around her neck tightened for an instant before he let her concentrate on what she was doing. Five minutes later, there was a hole large enough for them to climb through if they went either feetfirst headfirst.

"How far is it to the ground?" Andros asked her.

"There is no ground," Ashley said dimly. "There's a fifty foot drop into the ocean."

"Who's first?"

Ashley hesitated. Did she want to be the first to jump to her death? No, not particularly, but she had a feeling that Andros might not stay afloat without her help. "I'll go."

"Be careful," Andros pleaded as she lowered herself through the hole. Ashley closed her eyes as she let go, not wanting to see the dark waters swallow her up. The water was cold, even through her suit, and must have been extremely salty, as she was more bouyant than usual. "Ashley, swim!"

"Andros, what's wrong?" she demanded, knowing that he had been found.

"Psycho Red," Andros replied. "Go, before they start shooting at you."

Ashley hesitated before she started swimming again, but towards the building, instead of away from it. They wouldn't be able to see her unless they looked straight down, and she hoped that they wouldn't look straight down. She resisted the urge to say something to Andros, knowing that he'd have his hands full trying to fend off the Psychos and Sol singlehandedly, especially in the state he was in.

Who was she kidding? It was impossible. Why did I ihave to jump first?

Ashley bit back a scream as she suddenly saw Andros' body flying through the air, heading down at a much too unnatural angle for him to have jumped.