Disclaimer: If I haven't already said it's mine, then it's Saban's or Disney's or whoever's I said it was.
Mel: Thanks... so your school isn't poor? If they lose enough money, then the school has to close, and then no more school! I wish... :P
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Thanks. It's all right, I need sleep to. That's why I didn't update yesterday. I fell asleep as soon as I got home from school. :P
Juzblue: Maternal instinct plus ranger instinct. This story might go off in a darker direction for a few chapters. :P
Mz. Daydream: Yes, Ryan and Tempest know that Jenny and Marieke are Skylar and Ximena. They've sort of become bodyguard for the twins, to keep the Overlords from getting to them. Andros and Ashley and the others will find out later. I've got it all planned out, sorta. :P
C.C.C: You won't know where the rangers parents are at the end of the fourteen years, when the rangers get sent back in time, but you'll see what happens at the beginning of the fourteen years.
Jenny: I did title the chapters, until I spent more time thinking of a name for the chapter than I did writing it... Andros and Ashley can't be the Overlords. I've got other plans for them... Yeah, Skylar's gold, and Ximena's crimson. I'll have them talk in this chapter. I was starting to run out of ideas, thanks:P
the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more.
Chapter 18
Ximena cast a worried glance at her twin, and groaned. "What's the matter now?"
"The rangers," Skylar said. "Fighting them seems... wrong."
"A lot of things are wrong," Ximena said with a shrug. "We do them anyway."
"But they're our family," Skylar protested.
"No," Ximena snapped. "We are family. Spyridon is family. They are not family."
"Ximena-"
"Skylar, listen to me," Ximena said firmly. "If Ailbhe or Idris hear us, we'll never be trusted again. They rescued us from that life, remember?"
"No," Skylar said sadly. "I don't. I don't remember much of anything."
"Neither do I," Ximena admitted after a moment. "But they wouldn't have taken us if we hadn't been in danger of something, Skylar. Don't you trust them?"
"Of course I do," Skylar exclaimed. "If they say something, it must be the truth... but maybe they made a mistake?"
"The Overlords don't make mistakes," Ximena said stubbornly, but something deep inside of her knew that it was a lie.
"Spyridon," Skylar shouted, and their black-clad 'brother' appeared in the doorway. "Where were you going?"
"Ciela gave me a new mission," he said. He paused thoughtfully. "Actually, it's the same mission. I just haven't completed it."
"Which mission?" Ximena demanded. "Why just you?"
Spyridon shrugged. "I don't know. Ciela told me that this mission was for me alone, and Ailbhe and Idris agreed with her."
"What's the mission?" Ximena repeated. "Come on, just tell us!"
"They want me to kill the yellow ranger."
"Which one?" Ximena asked, ignoring the look on her twin's face as she feigned curiosity. "The current one or her mother?"
"Both," Spyridon said. "Since the older yellow ranger is seven and a half months pregnant with the current one, it has to be both."
"Have fun," Ximena said with a wicked grin as Spyridon teleported himself away.
"Ximena!" Skylar exclaimed. "You can't... this..."
"Isn't right?" Ximena finished with a sigh. "I know. But what can we do about it?"
"We could stop him," Skylar suggested, her hand already reaching towards her gold-hilted sword.
"We could," Ximena said thoughtfully. "But should we? If we stop Spyridon, the rangers will kill us, if Spyridon and the Overlords don't beat them to it."
"We'd only have to worry about the Overlords," Skylar said. "Spyridon wouldn't hurt us, and the rangers are too trusting for their own good."
"You're actually considering this?"
"It's our mother," Skylar pointed out, watching resignation spread itself across Ximena's face. "And our sister."
"They're not..." Ximena started to say, and sighed. "Maybe you're right."
"Then let's go," Skylar pleaded. "Before it's too late."
"Skylar, we can't rush into this," Ximena protested. "We're supposed to be killing them, not saving them."
"But if we don't do anything, then they'll be dead in five minutes," Skylar retorted. "We don't have to join them... just keep Spyridon from killing them. We can go in disguise. He won't have to know who we are."
"He will, though," Ximena pointed out. "Maybe we shouldn't..."
"Ximena!"
"Let me think for a minute."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Daddy, come on!" Jenny insisted, tugging on Andros's arm. "I'm hungry."
"Me too!" Marieke said, climbing into his lap. "I wanna go out to dinner now!"
Andros looked at the pile of work he should be doing with a rueful grin and stood up, setting Marieke down on the floor as he took each girl by the hand. The three of them walked into the kitchen were Aidan and Ashley were waiting for them.
"Ready?" Andros asked.
"Only for the last three hours," Ashley teased him gently. "You work too much, you know."
"That's what I keep you guys around for," Andros said with a grin.
Ashley pouted at him. "That's all we're good for? To keep you from working too hard?"
Andros smirked at her, wrapping one arm around her waist as he rested his other hand on her pregnant belly. "And I love all of you. Better?"
"Much better," Ashley said with a wide smile. Andros gently kissed her nose, suddenly aware that Aidan was making faces at them. Ashley laughed, slipping one arm around his waist. "Relax, Aidan, we're going now."
"Finally!" Aidan shouted, dashing out the door, reappearing a moment later, his face pale. "Dad, someone's out there."
Andros's grin vanished instantly, and he let go of Ashley, shoving Aidan behind him as he moved over to the doorway. The instant he stepped outside, he found himself throwing up his arms to block Spyridon's attacking blow.
"Dad!" Aidan shouted.
"Aidan, take your sisters and go to the Megaship," Ashley ordered him. "There's a communicator upstairs on my nightstand."
"But what about you?" Aidan asked as Ashley grabbed the twins and ran upstairs. "You're not going to stay here, are you?"
Ashley sighed, wrapping her arms around the two whimpering girls as best she could. "Andros, I-"
"Go!" he shouted back at her. "I'm all right."
"Come on," Ashley said as they reached the top of the stairs. Aidan ran ahead of them into the bedroom and emerged a moment later, clutching Ashley's communicator in his hand. "Deca-"
"Ashley, look out!"
Ashley whirled, nearly throwing the twins at Aidan as Spyridon appeared only a few feet away from them. She threw up her arms to block one of his punches, and realized too late that he had fooled her. He drove his other fist hard into her stomach, laughing as Ashley kneeled over.
"Mom!" Aidan shouted.
"Go," Ashley gasped. "I'm all right."
Andros recovered as Aidan, Jenny, and Marieke vanished in streaks of red and yellow light, and reached Ashley and Spyridon just as Ashley started screaming.
"Leave her alone," he shouted, shoving himself between Ashley and Spyridon. "Get out of my house."
"That child must not live," Spyridon shouted. "It cannot survive."
"If you've hurt my child, I will kill you," Andros said, his voice a low, threatening growl. "If you ever touch my wife again, I will kill you."
"Touching," Spyridon remarked lightly. "But I've already killed your child, and if I'm lucky, your wife too."
Andros was nearly completely blinded with rage, and he would have certainly been killed if something hadn't stopped Spyridon as he moved towards Andros. Two figures, both tall and slender appeared between Andros and Spyridon, wrestling him back. All three of them vanished, a sudden silence falling.
Not bothering to wonder what had happened, Andros knelt down by Ashley's side, gently helping her into a sitting position. Ashley's screams had died down into whimpers of pain and fear, and she was clutching her stomach, her eyes wide with terror.
"Ash, what's wrong?" Andros asked, his heart nearly stopping as he saw blood.
"I think I'm in labor," Ashley whispered, trembling all over. "I hope I'm in labor. Or else the baby..."
"Shh," Andros said, forcing himself to sound calm. "Don't worry, Ash. The baby just decided to come a little early, that's all. Let's get you to a hospital, all right?"
Ashley nodded weakly, his voice calming her more than his words. She knew it was six weeks too soon. Not even the twins had come this early, and twins were supposed to be born early. She held her stomach as tears started to roll down her cheeks. The baby couldn't be dying...
"Come on, Ash," Andros said. "Can you stand?"
"No," she whispered, crying out as a contraction hit her, much more painful than it should have been. The world seemed to be spinning, nothing standing in place for more than a second. Ashley was dimly aware of Andros wrapping her in a blanket and lifting her up into his arms, and then darkness overwhelmed her, pulling her under even as she struggled against it.
Ashley had passed out by the time Andros had settled her gently into the car, and he drove recklessly, unable to think of anything but Spyridon's taunting that he'd already killed their child, and Ashley as well.
"Hold on, Ash," he said, reaching for her hand as she stirred a little. "We're almost there. It's all going to be all right."