Disclaimer: Not mine, unless I say it is. It's Disney's or whoever I borrowed it from.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yeah, he's on the way. Assuming I didn't kill them all, that is. :P
Juzblue: Things do look bad, but do you really thing I'd kill Andros and Ashley? On second thought, don't answer that...
Jenny: I know you love calling people idiots... And I didn't make up Saving Angel, either. Marieke did. :P
Mz. Daydream: Thanks... Don't worry, I didn't do anything bad to them. :P
Chapter 33
Thrown backwards through the air by the bright white light, Ashley landed hard, sprawled on her back, the wind knocked out of her. Gasping, she struggled to sit up, feeling two strong arms slip beneath her shoulders as the light faded away.
"Breathe, Ash," Zhane ordered her gently, rubbing small circles in her back to calm her as she struggled to force some air back into her lungs.
"What - "
"Energy readings were off the charts," Zhane informed her. "I think... it was their energy, fading away."
"So they're gone?"
Zhane nodded. "It looks that way."
"Andros," she gasped suddenly. "Is he - "
"He'll be fine," he assured her. "He's just knocked out."
"Where is he?" she demanded, struggling away from him.
"Ash, rest for a minute," Zhane tried to convince her, but she shook her head, crawling on her hands and knees to the spot where her husband was laying, unmoving.
"Andros," she whispered, cradling his head on her lap. "Come on, open your eyes."
Encouraged when she saw him stir a little, she stroked his cheek, feeling him twitch beneath her fingers. His hazel eyes opened slowly, and gazed up at her in confusion.
"Ash?"
"It's all right," she assured him, exhaling quietly with relief. "We're all still here."
"What happened?"
"I think that's something we'd all like to know," she told him dryly, helping him into a sitting position. "Deca, can you get a visual on the rangers?"
"Affirmative."
The viewing screen was filled with snowy static for a moment or two, and then burst to life, giving them a clear picture of KO-35. The streets were empty of either footsoldiers or Overlords, the only people being the fifty or so rangers congregated in the park.
Ashley's clear laughter snapped Andros out of his stunned silence. "We did it," she said quietly. "It's over."
He nodded silently in agreement, wrapping his arms around his wife and holding her close. After everything, she was still in his arms, and for that, he had never been more grateful.
"Deca, get us down there," Zhane ordered.
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"We don't belong here," Tempest said quietly, drawing away from the battle scene, her teammates following close behind.
"We don't belong anywhere," Skylar corrected her sadly. "We're from a future that doesn't exist now."
"Then what do we do about it?" Damien demanded. "Kill ourselves?"
"Don't talk like that," Tempest snapped. "Of course not."
Ryan sighed. "Can we... go back?"
"To where we came from, you mean?" Ximena regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "Why would we want to?"
"We're from a future that doesn't exist," Ryan said slowly, repeating what Skylar had said a moment before. "I find that hard to believe."
"And you want to see it for yourself," Tempest finished, giving her brother a knowing look. "You can't, Ry, not if it's gone."
"What if it isn't gone?" he countered. "What if it's still there, exactly as we left it?"
Mira bit her lip. "With all those people who needed us..."
"That we didn't save," Matt finished glumly. He paused. "Can we even go back?"
"There's only one way to find out," Melanie said firmly. "If we can... we've saved this world. We can save our own."
"Yeah," Tempest said with a faint grin. "We can..."
"Then what's wrong?" Ximena prodded.
Tempest sighed. "It's just that... here, we have family."
"We'll always have family," Skylar told her sister fiercely. "We've found each other now, haven't we?"
"But they're dead there, aren't they?" she said softly.
"All our parents, you mean?" Ciaran asked, his eyes darkening. "I don't see how they could have survived..."
Skylar and Ximena exchanged glances. "Rangers are hard to kill," Ximena said finally. "No matter what happens."
"So you're telling me that our parents are still alive?" Tempest demanded. "Still slaves?"
"Not slaves," another voice said.
"Spyridon!" Ximena gasped. "You're alive."
"I am," the black-clad boy said quietly. "I should have fought with you."
"At least you didn't fight with them." Ryan sighed. "What happened to our parents?"
"They escaped," Spyridon said simply. "All of them. It took fourteen years for all of them to find one another again. They knew where you were. We were ordered to go after you because they were on their way back."
"So they're waiting for us?" Melanie demanded, her dark eyes shining.
Skylar nodded. "If we can get back."
"We can," Tempest said determinedly. "Somehow."
"Hey!"
"They'll understand, won't they?" Mira asked softly, sadly, as the past forms of their parents approached. "I mean, we have to go, but..."
"But we were happy here?" Ciaran finished. "We can be happy anywhere."
"Besides, we've got a world to fix," Melanie added.
Tempest unstrapped the yellow morpher from her left wrist, offering it to Ashley as her mother reached her, Marieke in her arms and Jenny in Andros's. Aidan followed close behind with Seren. Tempest smiled at her baby self, but pressed the morpher firmly into Ashley's hand.
"Thank you."
"For what?" Ashley demanded, her fingers refusing to close over the morpher. "You can keep it."
"It belongs here," Tempest said quietly. "I can't take it with me."
"Take it with you where?" Andros asked suspiciously, noticing that the rest of the rangers had removed their morphers as well. He took Ryan's reluctantly. "What's going on?"
"We have to go," Tempest said. "There's no other way."
"You're leaving?" Marieke demanded, struggling down out of Ashley's arms. "You can't!"
"She has to, sweetie," Ashley said, kneeling down next to her daughter. "She has to go home."
"She can live with us," Jenny suggested hopefully. "Him too."
"We already do," Ryan said dryly. Tempest grinned and shook her head.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "But we have to go."
"Go where?" Marieke demanded.
"Home," she said simply.
Before the word had left her mouth, they were gone, as if they had never been there, vanishing into the air in ten streaks of colored light.
Cassie was the first to break the silence. "They're gone."
TJ wrapped his arm around her. "They've gone to put their world back together," he told her soothingly. "They'll be all right."
Ashley glanced down at the morpher she still held in her hand, taking a deep breath to mask her sadness. "They did a good job," she said softly, biting her lip. "But we've still got some work to do."
Author's Note: Okay, so it was a little longer than a few days, but I updated! Only a chapter or two left in this story, and I swear it'll be done by the end of the year, hopefully. I hope you liked it, please review.