Disclaimer: If I haven't said it's mine, then it belongs to Saban or Disney or whoever.
Mz. Daydream: Yeah, writer's block. The story wasn't really supposed to happen quite like this, but it did, and it seemed to work, so I'm just working on finishing it. Andros doesn't know all of it yet... that's what this chapter is for. :P
Jenny: The fourteen years was from Skylar and Ximena's point of view, sorry. All those relationships you mentioned? I thought it'd be kinda funny, and if it's not, it was still really fun to write. :P And I actually did update soon!
C.C.C: Yay, you're back! They'll be together again in the next chapter, don't worry.
the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more, don't worry, they'll be together again soon.
Chapter 27
Andros hissed in pain as Ximena tried to bandage his wounds, and twisted away. "I'm fine," he insisted stiffly. "Don't bother."
Ximena rolled her eyes. "If you could see your back, I think you'd disagree."
Andros didn't reply to that. "Where are we?"
"A shuttle," Skylar told him, handing Ximena some more bandages. "We're on our way to Elon."
"Elon?" Andros repeated, trying to associate the name with the correct planet. The moment he did, he groaned, the color draining from his face. "Ashley's not there?"
"I'm sorry," Skylar said, touching his shoulder. "But she is."
Elon was a slave world, and one of the harshest. If the captives weren't baking under a desert sun, they were drowning in icy rains, and the physical labor was exhausting. Elonian days were thirty hours long, and the slaves were worked nonstop for twenty-five of those. Andros had no doubt that there was enough strength in Ashley to survive in that environment, but he would have spared her from it if he could.
"She's still alive, isn't she?" he asked, his voice breaking.
"Yes," Skylar said. "She's alive and mostly unharmed."
"Mostly?" Andros repeated, his eyes narrowing, vowing a painful end for whoever had laid a hand on his wife. "What happened to her?"
"Elon is not a pleasant place to live, that's all," Ximena said. "Nothing was done to her."
Andros bit his lip and nodded, accepting her words as the truth. "Why are you helping me?"
Skylar sighed. "When we said that the Overlords took over the universe fourteen years ago, did you believe us?"
Andros nodded reluctantly. "I don't know why, but I did."
"What we should have said was that the Overlords took over the universe fourteen years ago from our point of view."
"Are you saying that you've travelled back in time fourteen years?"
Ximena nodded. "The rangers, uh... they're also from our time."
"Who are they?" he demanded, detecting the sudden reluctance in her tone. "Tell me!"
"Well, Ryan and Tempest are our brother and sister," Skylar told him. "Mira and Matt are brother and sister. Ciaran and Melanie are brother and sister. Damien and Spyridon are brothers."
"That doesn't tell me who they are."
"They," Skylar said slowly, "are the children of the Astro rangers."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Tem, are you sure about this?" Matt asked.
"Very," the yellow ranger replied, twirling one of her red curls around her finger. "Deca, hail them."
"What do you want?"
Tempest rolled her eyes. "So nice to see you too, sister."
Skylar sighed. "We offered to help you."
"And my brother was an ass," Tempest finished. "Where are they?"
"Andros is on the shuttle," Skylar said. "He's, well, he didn't exactly react well to hearing that two of his daughters became the Overlord's prized soldiers."
"I can imagine," Tempest said dryly. "Where's Ashley?"
"Elon." Skylar paused. "What's happening on KO-35?"
"There's four ranger teams down there now," Tempest told her. "We've been taking it in turns to attack... so they wear out, but we don't."
"Smart," Skylar nodded approvingly. "You'll need everyone in the last battle, though."
"We'll get there," Tempest said. "I want to come."
"Come where?"
"Elon!"
"Oh," Skylar said. "Won't Ryan-"
"I don't care what Ryan thinks," Tempest broke in. "I want to do this."
Skylar hesitated. "I'll send Deca our coordinates."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sun glared down upon her as Ashley pushed the shovel downward into the ground, her badly blistered hands screaming in protest as she struggled to pull it back up again.
Biting her lip hard, she managed not to cry out in pain, and continued digging slowly, not seeing a single trace of the blue-ish green mineral used to create starship fuel.
She groaned softly, already much too familiar for her liking with the punishment dealt out to those who failed to fill a barrel a day with the minerals. The barrel behind her was barely half full, and seemed to be getting emptier instead of fuller, and the sun would set in less than an hour.
One of the largest blisters on her right hand burst suddenly. Ashley gasped softly in pain, her mouth opening in a silent scream as her eyes began smarting with tears. She tried to continue digging using only her left hand and found it next to impossible. Tearing off a strip of what was left of her shirt, she bandaged her hand as best she could, and went back to work, her hand burning in agony.
She forgot her own pain for a moment as there was a loud whimper to her right. Ashley glanced over to see a boy no older than Aidan holding a broken shovel in his hands, looking about in abject terror for one of the guards.
Ashley bit her lip, groaning inwardly. She knew she didn't have it in her to watch this boy beaten half to death. Not that she was eager to be beaten half to death herself, especially as she already felt half dead, but that child reminded her of Aidan... she would gladly have died to save her little boy.
"Trade with me," she whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse. Petrified with fear, the child only stared at her. Cursing silently, Ashley pried the broken tool out of his small hands and shoved her own at him.
The boy suddenly squeaked with fear and snapped out of his daze, hurriedly going back to work as Ashley exhaled slowly, bracing herself for what she knew was coming.