Disclaimer: If I haven't told you that it's mine, then it belongs to Saban or Disney or whoever I said I borrowed it from.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Sorry, they have to leave. They're too smart to stick around. :P

Juzblue: I never said I wouldn't hurt them! I just said I wouldn't kill them. There is a difference. :P

Mz. Daydream: Yeah, I needed the rest of them out of there. You'll see why later.

Jenny: Fine, I'll forgive you. You did name the story, after all. :P

Mel: Thanks... Don't worry, the earthquake can't be that bad, can it?

Chapter 13

Andros watched Ryan spar with Melanie, their battle swift but not difficult enough for his liking. He refrained from commenting with some difficulty. They had been shoved into this quickly, he reminded himself, and were doing the best that they could. Every now and then a small voice in his head piped up, saying that they'd known how to fight when they'd gotten themselves into this, and they weren't pushing themselves hard enough.

He sighed and tried not to take his frustration out on them. They were fighting against Skylar, Ximena, and Spyridon every day, and had started winning the battles, but had yet to face the Overlords themselves. Andros wasn't worried about the rangers; they had proven that they were capable of taking care of themselves. It was his family that he was worried about.

Ever since that awful night when he'd almost lost them all, Andros had been wondering why he hadn't been more alert. Just as Zordon had been taken, leaving his rangers without a mentor, Andros should have expected something similar to occur here, especially with eight mentors to only seven rangers.

Four, he corrected himself glumly. He couldn't blame them for it in the least, but TJ and Cassie, and then Carlos and Aura, had decided that it was in their children's best interests to return to their own homes, at least for the present time.

The Simudeck doors opened, giving Ryan and Melanie an excuse to take a short break. Both were drenched with sweat, and Andros wondered if maybe they were pushing themselves harder than he'd thought.

"Hey, Ash," he said softly, pulling his wife into his arms. Ashley smiled and returned the hug.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked. She glanced at Ryan and Melanie as Andros nodded. "Good job, you guys... Just don't work yourselves to death, all right?"

"Don't worry about us," Ryan said. "We're fine."

Ashley snorted with laughter. "I've heard that too many times to believe it." She slipped her arms through Andros's as she dragged him off of the Simudeck. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Andros demanded, noticing that she was still limping slightly. "Aren't you supposed to still be on crutches?"

"I can walk," Ashley insisted. "Deca gave me permission to... and we're going to the med bay."

"Why?" Andros demanded, fear building up in his stomach. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Ashley said, seeing the anxious look on his face relax. "I was just going to have Deca run another test on the baby... and I was wondering if you'd want to know whether it's a boy or a girl."

Andros hesitated. "Do you want to know?"

Ashley shrugged. "Do you?"

"Ash!"

"Sorry." Ashley grinned. "I don't know... We wanted Aidan to be a surprise."

"Aidan was a surprise," Andros reminded her. "In every sense of the word."

"Did you ever regret that?" Ashley asked suddenly, her voice so soft Andros nearly didn't hear her. When he did, he stopped walking abruptly, and turned to face her.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" he asked.

Ashley nodded apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said. "I always meant to ask you that, but there never seemed to be a right time. Would you just... humor me? Answer the question."

"All right," Andros agreed, reaching out to touch her face, circling her still-blackened eye with his thumb. "I've never regretted a moment of my life with you, Ashley."

Ashley beamed at him, throwing her arms around his neck. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Feel better?" Andros asked in her ear, holding her as close to him as he dared.

"Yeah," Ashley said, stepping back as they started walking again. "So, do you want to know?"

"It'd be nice to know," Andros said thoughtfully. "But it was nice being surprised, too."

Ashley groaned. "This is getting us nowhere."

They entered the medical bay. Ashley started to giggle as Andros scooped her up in his arms, setting her down gently on one of the patient beds. He stepped back and watched anxiously as Deca began running tests on their unborn baby, and prayed that everything was all right. In the three days since the attack, neither Ashley nor the baby seemed to be suffering, but Andros knew that he wasn't going to truly relax until he was holding his son or daughter in his arms.

"Everything is normal," Deca reported a few minutes later, and Andros sighed with relief as Ashley hopped down, wrapping her arms around his neck. He felt her exhale slowly with relief, and rubbed small circles in her shoulders, silently thanking whoever might be listening that the Overlords hadn't taken his children from him.

"Let's go for a walk," Ashley suggested a moment later. "The rangers have enough to worry about without us scrutinizing everything that they do."

"We're supposed to," Andros protested, and smiled broadly at her, wrapping an arm around her waist. They hadn't gotten nearly enough time to themselves lately, and something told him that it was going to be a long time before he had the entire afternoon to spend with her again. "Let's go."

They ended up on the couch in the Observatory, Ashley curled up in Andros's arms, her head resting on his chest. Ashley stared up at the stars all around them, her ever present smile widening as she remembered Andros's reason for naming their daughter Seren. Ashley tried to remember anyone ever saying something that meant as much to her as that had, and the only times she could recall, Andros had been the one speaking then, too.

"You're really sweet, Andros, did you know that?" Ashley laughed softly at the look on his face, and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. "I was being serious."

Andros smiled down at her, and pulled her closer to him. "I love you."

"I love you too," Ashley said. She paused then and added softly, "Do you know that we've known each other for ten years?"

"We have?" Andros repeated. "It's been that long?"

"Yeah," Ashley said. "Longer... I turned seventeen a few weeks after you gave us our morphers, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Andros retorted. He slipped his fingers under the neckline of her shirt, fishing out the necklace that still hung by a golden chain around her neck. "Have you ever taken this off?"

Ashley shook her head. "Not that I can remember, and I don't intend to."

Silence fell again after she spoke, and she was completely content just to lie in Andros's arms and let the rest of the world slip away as he held her, one hand resting on her swollen belly. He'd done that four years before, when she had been pregnant with the twins, she remembered, and four years before that, when Ashley had been pregnant the first time, with Aidan.

Vaguely, Ashley could recall being terrified to tell Andros of her pregnancy, in fear that he would leave her, and now, she couldn't remember why. The thought probably never even crossed his mind. They had only been eighteen, but Andros had asked her to marry him only hours after Ashley had told him about Aidan. He'd admitted to her later that he'd had her engagement ring ever since he had gone back to Earth with the rangers, but that he'd been too afraid to ask her, thinking that she wouldn't want to tie herself down to him. Ashley sank deeper into his embrace, wondering how she could have ever wanted her life to turn out any different than it had.

"Are you still awake?" Andros asked softly, and Ashley nodded her head against him.

"Yeah."

"What were you thinking about?" Andros asked, stroking her hair with one hand.

"You," Ashley replied instantly. "I love you so much, Andros."

"I love you, Ashley," Andros whispered, kissing the top of her head. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you."

"You're not going to," Ashley said firmly, tilting her head back to look up at him. "I'm not going anywhere, Andros."

"I know," Andros said with a soft sigh. "I just keep thinking about the other night..."

"That wasn't your fault," Ashley insisted, hearing the heavy guilt in his voice.

"I know," Andros admitted a moment later. Ashley looked at him skeptically, and he smiled sheepishly, knowing that she wasn't going to believe that. His smile faded as he added softly, "I can't remember ever feeling more helpless. I thought I was about to lose all of you, and no matter how hard I fought I would never be able to save all of you."

"We're all going to be okay," Ashley said, and Andros nodded, reassured but not entirely convinced.

"I don't like putting your lives in someone else's hands," he said softly. "No matter how good of a person they are... I'd die for you, Ashley. I'd die for our children, but I couldn't ask that of anyone else."

"I know you'd die for us," Ashley said, entwining her fingers with his. "But I'm telling you, you're not going to need to. The rangers can win against the Overlords, and no one's going to take us away from each other or our children."

Andros simply nodded and pulled Ashley closer to him. His worst fear was that he would not only lose his family, he would be unable to help them when they needed him most.

"Andros, we're going to be fine," Ashley said again, feeling his tension.

"I love you," Andros whispered by way of reply. Ashley sighed and relaxed against him again, only to sit up and glare at Deca a moment later as she interrupted them.

"What?"

"There is an incoming transmission," Deca replied.

"Who's it from?" Andros asked, hoping that it was nothing important.

"It is from Tykwa," Deca replied, and Andros groaned. He really shouldn't ignore that.

"I'm coming with you," Ashley informed him as he started to walk away. "Wait for me."

He stopped and reached for her hand, knowing somehow that this wasn't going to be good news. He was right. Tykwa's face stared at him somberly, and Andros felt his stomach clench as he realized what had happened. The door was now open for the Overlords to attack KO-35 with everything they were willing to risk.

"Say it," Andros said, his voice deceptively calm. From Ashley's shaken expression, he knew that she'd figured it out as well, but like him, needed to hear the words to make them real. Tykwa stared at him for a moment before she nodded. When she spoke, her voice was as steady and even as his.

"Kin Won is dead."