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Chapter 2

The planet surface

"See anything?" Andros asked, scanning the horizon with a hand shading his eyes as the sweltering sun beat down on them.

"Nothing," Ashley said beside him. She shrugged off her jacket, and found that it did little good to relieve the intense heat. "You sure this is the right planet?"

"I'm sure," Andros said. "And if it wasn't, Deca would never admit to it."

"Wait, I see something," Ashley said, pointing. Andros followed her gaze, and was nearly blinded by a bright silver glint in the distance.

"Do you think that's the ship?" he asked.

"Let's find out," Ashley said. She started walking and he followed. As they got closer, the silver glint took a different shape, and Andros reached out, grabbing Ashley's arm, pulling her to a stop. She looked over her shoulder at him. "What?"

"That's not a ship," Andros said in a low voice. "That's a mirror."

"A mirror?" Ashley repeated skeptically. "Don't those have to be in space?"

"If it's a space mirror," Andros said, a knot slowly forming in his stomach, growing larger as he kept talking. He couldn't help feeling that they should be running as fast as they could in the other direction. "Some mirrors appear on planet surfaces... Ash, I think we should go back now."

"Scared?" Ashley teased him. "Aw, come on. Let's go through it. What's the worst that could happen? We've already seen our future. We were happy."

"But there was something that happened," Andros said anxiously. "Something that they didn't want to talk about."

"Don't worry so much," Ashley said. She started walking again, and pulled on his arm insistently. Andros gave in and went along, though the feeling that something was very wrong didn't dissapate.

The mirror, a swirling silver vortex, stood out clearly against the reddish dust that made up the planet's surface. As they neared it, Andros saw a flash of sudden movement, and turned, but saw nothing. Ashley laughed at him when it happened several more times.

"Ashley," Andros hissed. "I think we're being followed."

"No, I think you're being paranoid," Ashley said. "I don't see anything. Besides, didn't we come here to find people?"

"Ash, we should go back now," Andros said firmly, raising his communicator to his mouth, intending to tell Deca to get them out of there. The familiar noise of a laser blaster being powered up stopped him cold. Within seconds, Andros and Ashley were surrounded by a ring of dark figures. One slowly advanced towards them, and Andros felt his heart sink as he recognized the dark gray armor. It was Arrow.

"It seems the red ranger walked right into our little trap," he sneered.

"What are you doing here?" Andros snapped. "What do you want now?"

"Revenge," Arrow said, stepping closer. Andros kept his eyes trained on the blaster, which slowly shifted from being pointed at him to Ashley, and back. Taking a step forward, Andros put himself between the blaster and Ashley.

"Ashley, run!" he shouted at her telepathically.

"To where?" she responsed."I'm not leaving you."

"May we chain them now?" one of the guards asked. Arrow shook his head, and laughed.

"There is no need, Killian," he said. He turned to Andros and Ashley. "Even if you could get away, Red Ranger, you wouldn't leave your lover behind."

Killian nodded, his cold blue eyes appreciating the simplicity of it. "What would you like us to do with them?"

"Ready?" Andros asked as Arrow considered.

"Yes," Ashley answered distantly, managing to keep the fear out of her voice. They were gravely outnumbered, and they had no morphers and no weapons.

"Now!" Andros shouted, and as one, they attacked. Arrow fired, and Andros cried out as he was burned with laser fire. Ashley managed to knock the blaster away, leaving Arrow weaponless, but not defenseless. In seconds, the guards had come to his aid, subduing Andros and Ashley quickly.

"Take them with you," Arrow ordered as he marched to the mirror.

Struggling against the grasp of the soldiers, Ashley managed to wrench one arm free. In her mind, she could hear Andros screaming at her, telling her to get away, to run, but not only was there nowhere to run to, there was no way she could abandon him here.

As she was tossed through the mirror, Ashley was filled with the sensation of falling. Had this not been the situation that it was, she thought she could have enjoyed the experience. She landed hard on her stomach, the wind knocked out of her. Gasping for air, she felt Andros fall beside her.

"Ash," he muttered, dazed. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, gulping down air. Andros staggered to his feet, the burns he'd received stinging painfully, and pulled her up, holding her to him fiercely. Arrow laughed, and motioned to Killian, who dragged them apart. Arrow turned to the guard holding Andros.

"Kill him."