Disclaimer: Not mine
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yup, that makes everything mostly okay. :P
Juzblue:Thanks. I'm glad too. Here's more.
C.C.C: Thanks. I kinda figured you hated Arrow. If you liked him, you'd be more twisted than I am, and I created him:P
DizneeDol: Andros and Ashley are so adorable. Maybe not in this story, but in general.
Mz. Daydream: I think we've got the same daydream. But we're not Ashley. :sigh:P
Jenny: You couldn't find ANYTHING to babble on? That's just an excuse. You never babble about the actual chapter. Well, sometimes you do. :P
GreenDayfan1: You jumped off a balcony? That's hilarious. Except for the part where you hurt yourself. :P All your brothers do is sleep, cry, and eat? I remember when my sister was that little... I miss that... :P
Sandra: Probably.
the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more.
RisingGundam2004: Thanks. Andros and Ashley were the cutest PR couple ever, I think.
Chapter 17
"Andros?" Ashley whispered, rolling over in bed so she was facing him. She felt his fingers brush against her cheek, and she smiled, moving closer to him as he wrapped his arms around her. "We can win, can't we?"
"Of course we can," Andros assured her, his voice much calmer than he felt. "Ash, you can't lose hope."
"Why not? It's not like we're winning."
"Because if you give up, then so will I," Andros said after a moment. "I'm serious, Ash."
"I know you are," Ashley said with a sigh. "You really think we can stop him?"
"I know we can," Andros said, stroking her hair with one hand. "He's not invincible. Zhane and I stopped him, four years ago."
"How'd you do that?" Ashley asked. "You never said."
"You can watch it if you want to," Andros said. "It's just... there was nothing spectacular about it. It was just us against him, without Killian. There was an army, but Dark Specter disliked him as much as we did, and destroyed them. I don't think there's much that you can learn from it, but if you want to, Deca's got it."
"I want to," Ashley said firmly.
"Let's go, then," Andros said, climbing out of bed. He pulled her to her feet and led her out of the room. "The viewing screen on the bridge is best."
Ashley didn't bother to say that she already knew that. Instead, she reached for his hand, wondering what he didn't want her to see. Knowing Andros, he wouldn't want her to see him if he'd taken too many blows. She wondered if he thought she would ask to see the tape of when Arrow had escaped. That she wouldn't ask for; it didn't have anything to do with what she wanetd to know, and Andros was already blaming himself enough without having to watch himself setting his enemy free.
"Deca, can you play the recording of the battle where Zhane and I captured Arrow?"
"Certainly," Deca said as Andros and Ashley took their seats at the bridge.
"Thanks Deca," Ashley said, looking at Andros anxiously, but he was doing a good job of avoiding her gaze as the viewing screen sprang to life.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a clear, sunny day on KO-35, but the streets were deserted as battle raged. Arrow's footsoldiers, as well as quite a few Quantrons, lined the streets, closing in on the red and silver rangers who stood back to back, slowly circling around, doing their best to keep up the fight.
An hour passed with no side gaining much ground. Andros and Zhane took out as many Quantrons as they could, but Arrow's soldiers came at them more quickly than they could handle. The only reason they were still holding up was the second battle between the Quantrons and Arrow's soldiers.
Then the Quantrons were gone, the soldiers as well, and only Arrow stood before them, proud and triumphant. "Surrender to me, and I may spare your lives."
"Never," Andros spat, his voice weary from the long, hard fight. "You'll have to kill us."
Arrow leapt at them, his sword slashing across Andros's chest, and then grazing Zhane's shoulder as it made a full arc. Zhane stumbled back, his left hand going to his shoulder automatically, but Andros collapsed forward onto his hands and knees as his suit brightened, and then vanished.
"Now do you surrender, Red Ranger?"
"I'll never surrender," Andros said weakly as Zhane drove Arrow back with blow after blow from his Silverizer.
"Stubborn," Arrow mused. His next words were cut off by the sound of Zhane's Silverizer firing, but a moment later, Andros cried out, "What?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Just like your sister," Andros said, not looking at Ashley as he paused the video. "That's what you don't hear. He planned it all... and I fell for it."
Ashley didn't know what to say and stared at the frozen screen. It didn't matter that Andros was alive and well, she hated seeing him hurting, whether right now or four years in the past.
"It's not your fault," Ashley found herself saying yet again as Andros glared at the image of his younger self. "Andros..."
"Deca, resume footage," Andros ordered, looking away again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andros scrambled to his feet as Zhane held off Arrow. A moment later, he had morphed again, although his suit seemed duller somehow, not the fiery red it normally was.
Although the two rangers put up a strong fight, it was only a fluke that brought them victory. Arrow's dark gray suit shimmered for an instant, allowing them a view of the man who hid behind it. While Arrow faltered, Andros fired, the blast demorphing Arrow completely, and the two rangers overcame their shock to move forward and capture him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why'd his suit do that?" Ashley asked, her eyes narrowing in thought. "It did that when we fought him on Centuar B, when he almost killed you."
Andros shook his head. "I don't know... It could be similar to the Phantom Ranger's ruby. Phantom doesn't demorph until his ruby is drained. I think Arrow remains morphed as long as he possibly can. It makes him less real, more frightening."
"Then why hasn't it happened again?" Ashley asked. "We've been fighting him so often."
Andros shrugged. "I'd say that he figured it out. Alana and Blaze would know."
"If we kept him fighting long enough, do you think it would happen again?" Ashley asked.
"It's possible," Andros answered. "We can always try it, anyway. Just don't count on anything, Ash."
Ashley sighed. "I won't."
"I didn't mean it won't work," Andros said quickly, seeing the look of disappointment on her face. "It probably will. I just -"
"I know," Ashley interrupted. "It's okay..."
"I should have shown you this sooner," Andros muttered. "All of you. I wasn't thinking..."
"Andros, it's all right," Ashley broke in before he could get any farther. "It's-"
"Don't say it's okay!" Andros interrupted. "It isn't, and we both know it."
Ashley remained silent. True, Andros shouldn't have witheld the information. It was his role as the leader of the team to do whatever was necessary to bring them to victory, no matter the cost to his pride... but if they had known it, Ashley doubted that it would have changed anything as it was now. Arrow had ambushed her and Andros, not giving them a chance to fight back. The only difference the knowledge could have made would be that it might have prevented her from being scarred.
"Is that all there is?" Ashley asked. Andros nodded, glancing down at his hands again.
"Arrow was in a maximum security cell for three days. Karovans rarely captured villians, and when they did, they liked to make examples of them. The nigt before Arrow was supposed to go to trial, I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about what he'd said, about Karone... and I thought that, if I could find her, that maybe then they'd forgive me."
"Your parents, you mean?" Ashley asked gently. Andros nodded, swallowing visibly.
"I was an idiot," he mumbled. "Arrow had it all planned, in case he got captured. He knew about her, and he knew that it was my fault."
"Andros-"
"Let me finish," Andros pleaded, finally meeting her eyes when she broke in to remind him that he hadn't been responsible for Karone's kindapping. "If there was even a chance that Arrow knew where Karone was, I had to take it. I couldn't just let the one person who had ever hinted at knowing where she was die... so I snuck into the prison. My father was the one who was standing guard that night."
He stopped. Ashley felt her heart breaking for him at the look in his eyes. "Andros..."
"I'm okay," he assured her, gripping the hand that she laid on his arm. "My father was the one standing guard over Arrow. It was the first time in my life that I'd ever hit him, and I didn't even have the guts to do it to his face. I snuck up behind him and got him in the head. Then I went past him to get to Arrow. He told me that if I set him free, he'd tell me where Karone was. I agreed, and he knocked the wind out of me, laughing. I knew then that he'd tricked me, and I couldn't stop him again. He was just... gone."
"And then?" Ashley prompted gently, knowing that there was more. Andros sighed.
"And then my father woke up."
Ashley's grip on his arm tightened involuntarily. "How bad was it?"
"Have you ever had a collapsed lung?" Andros asked with a bitter laugh. "Then there were the broken ribs, the concussion, the dislocated shoulder, not to mention all the cuts and bruises. He'd stopped beating me when I became a ranger, but that night, he just went crazy, and I didn't do anything to stop him. I didn't want to."
"Andros," Ashley whispered, leaning forward to wrap her arms around him. "You made a mistake, a big one, but you didn't deserve that, and you don't deserve what you're doing to yourself. Stop punishing yourself for it."
Andros was suddenly on the verge of tears. Ashley's kindness and love were causing him far more pain than the beating he had taken that night. After everything that Arrow had done to her, why did she still love him? Didn't she see that he was the cause of it all?
"If you really think that it was your fault," Ashley continued, hesitantly, not sure of how he was going to react, "then wasn't being beaten for more than half your life enough punishment for it?"
"Ash," Andros whispered hoarsely. "I..."
"Just answer me," Ashley said softly.
"Almost," he told her after a long moment. "Maybe I'll feel differently when we've stopped him."
"I hope you're right," Ashley said softly, squeezing him hard. "Andros, I love you."
"I love you, Ash," Andros replied, yawning, wondering how she'd managed to take away so much of his guilt. "Let's go back to bed."
A/N: Sorry for the wait. I started school today, and everything's been crazy. I'll try to still update soon, but I do have homework and stuff. (Insert sick smilie here) Please review.