Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Please don't sue.

A.R: Sorry, that was the wrong chapter. I put up the real chapter 24 as soon as I realized it, but it took a few hours to show up. Hope you like it.

Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yes, you did. And you had the most disturbing reason for guessing, too:D

TrueRomantic: Yup, more reason to hate Kale.

CSIMel: You were thinking Kale was Cosmos? I was wondering who'd guess. :P

Juzblue: I fooled you:D Here's more...

Lita Lightning: Here ya go.

Mz. Daydream: I thought all of you would have seen that one coming, but I think I fooled some people. You were my 200th reviewer, btw. :D

hmmart: Thanks. Here's more.

Jessica01: More reason to hate Kale, but that's really all that there is.

Mel: Yeah, Kale is Andros's brother. Andros didn't kill his parents, and I don't remember having a story that did... Kadri/Lyra stole Andros's morpher two years before this, so that's where Kale got it.

the-power-of-love: Thanks, here's more.

Jenny: I thought it was predictable too. :P Marieke's twisted mind figured it out at the most random moment of the story, you did, and so did DV2 and C.C.C, but that's all that I know of. Glad you liked the morpher thing.

Funky In Fishnet: I love plot twists. A little too much sometimes, but it seemed to work out good here. :D

C.C.C: I thought that's what you were going to guess. :P Here's more.

Ashley: Thanks. I e-mailed you some titles, and I hope you like the stories.

Chapter 25

Andros only blinked. Ashley dragged her sleeve carefully across her lip again, watching his expression intently. What little remained of his carefully constructed defenses after his parents deaths had shattered now; one look into his clear hazel eyes revealed every emotion he was grappling with.

Hurt and betrayal, shame and mortification, fury and betrayal, and then confusion, so much confusion... Countless feeling flashed through his eyes as Andros held his face blank and his body stiff. The blood had drained from his pale face, leaving him completely white.

Ashley wondered briefly if he might actually pass out, but then quickly discarded the idea. Andros wasn't the fainting type, no matter how extreme his emotional overload.

"Andros?" She reached out to him again, laying a hand gently on his elbow. "Andros, I--"

Her voice jerked him out of his daze. Andros caught the arm resting on his and forced her back to where he could see her eyes. Sorrow and pity glared at him from behind her eyes, and he snapped.

He had trusted her, and she had betrayed him too. She didn't care for him; she only felt sorry for him. Ashley had been the first person in years he had let into his heart, the only person to whom he had ever bared his soul so completely, and it was all only to realize that she cared nothing for him. He was worthless to her.

"Don't touch me." Andros didn't recognize the low growl as his own voice until Ashley drew her hand back, watching him timidly.

"Andros--"

"Leave me alone."

"But--"

"I said, leave me alone!"

His his mind was struggling to grasp the events of the last few minutes and Andros didn't stop to think. With another growl, he shoved Ashley hard, sending her staggering back. He turned on his heel and strode down the corridor.

Some of his rage dimmed when he heard Ashley stumble into the bulkhead. He didn't turn, but the urge to was difficult to suppress. He hadn't really meant to do that, but it was too late to take it back. All he could do was hope that he hadn't hurt her.

But why should he care if he had, he wondered, pausing only to let his bedroom door slide open. He was just someone for her to pity. He was just someone to make her feel better about herself. He was just someone to need her. He was just...

Andros sighed and sank down onto his bunk, realizing that he wasn't angry with Ashley at all. She had just been standing so close, and it had been so easy to lash out at her instead of himself and Kale.

Cosmos, he corrected himself sternly, biting down hard on his lower lip. Kale was gone. His brother had never really been there in the first place, but Andros still felt his heart ache at the thought of losing him. Karone was all he had left now that his parents were dead.

He choked as his mind tried hard to sheild him from the truth. It was an obvious one, but one he would have given anything not to see. Wishing didn't change anything, though, and slowly, the facts sank through.

Kale was Cosmos. Adya and Kieran had been killed by Cosmos and Lyra. Adya and Kieran had been killed by Kale. Adya and Kieran had been killed by their own son.

Kale had taken everything from him, he realized dimly. His home, his powers, his parents, his first love, his second love... Andros felt the cry that ripped from his throat more than he heard it, a wordless scream of grief and anger.

His eyes landed on his dresser, scanning the photos that covered the top of it. Snatching up the ones Kale was in, he tore them from the frames and rushed across the room to the trash recepticle, not wanting to touch them. After a moment's thought, he shoved the frames down after them.

"Deca," he nearly shouted. "Get rid of these. You have to get rid of these."

"I will dispose of them," came the calm, almost soothing voice.

Andros only nodded. Kneeling, he tore out the bottom drawer of his dresser. Most of his civilian clothes from KO-35 had been Kale's first. He shoved them down the trash recepticle, frantically purging himself of anything Kale might have worn or owned or even been associated with.

His clothes and the photos gone, he concentrated on the few momentos he'd kept of his childhood. He felt a twinge of regret as he trashed the telekinesis ball he and Karone had learned on, but Kale had used it too. He couldn't keep it, couldn't taint himself with anything that reminded him of his parents killer.

"Andros?"

The voice on the other side of the door wasn't Ashley's, nor was it Karone's. Andros glanced up from his impromptu cleaning frenzy and cocked his head at the door, wondering what Cassie could probably want with him. Then he remembered nearly throwing Ashley into the bulkhead and winced.

"Let her in, Deca," he muttered, half expecting her to tell him he'd done Ashley some serious injury. Cassie's eyes were narrowed as she stepped into his room, but she didn't look ready to throttle him, either. "What do you want?"

"I told Ashley I'd check on you," Cassie said softly, leaning back against the doorway. "She wouldn't let Carlos and TJ stitch her lip until I did."

"Is she all right?" Andros asked anxiously, suddenly remembering how Cosmos had caught her full in the face with the cuffs.

"She's fine," Cassie said gently. "She only needs three stitches, and she won't even have a scar if it heals right."

"I didn't mean to push her," he blurted out, wondering why Cassie didn't look as surprised as he felt she should. "I didn't think--"

"I know," she interrupted, her voice still gentle and soothing. "Ashley knows that too. It's why she was worried about you."

"She's not," he muttered, forcing himself to remember that Ashley didn't care anything about him. "She doesn't care."

"Doesn't care?" Cassie repeated. "Andros, we had to drag her to the infirmary to keep her from coming after you! You're her friend. Of course she cares."

"I'm not her friend," he insisted. "I never wanted to be."

"You wanted to be more."

Andros was nodding before he realized what she'd said. "No," he exclaimed. "I don't."

"I think you do," she said quietly. "You trust her, don't you? More than you've trusted anyone in a long time. And she makes you happy, doesn't she?"

"Yes," he muttered. "But I--"

"You make her happy too," Cassie continued, effectively silencing his protests. "There's this look in her eyes whenever you're around. I don't know what it is, but she never look like that when she's with Ben. She never has."

"Of course she doesn't," he snapped, unsure of what to do with the sudden surge of hope he felt deep within himself. "She doesn't feel sorry for him."

Cassie blinked at him. "Andros, she wouldn't be a friend if she didn't feel for you... but that's not why she's your friend," she added hastily, watching his mouth open.

"It's... not?" Andros felt a twinge of guilt now, but firmly ignored it.

"Of course it's not," she exclaimed, clearly exasperated. "Andros, Ashley cares about you. She loves you whether you're a ranger or not, whether Cosmos is your brother or not, whether--"

"She loves me?" he demanded, his head snapping up. His heart sank when Cassie winced, and it took every ounce of self control not to gasp in shock as realization hit him hard.

He loved her. Andros didn't know when, or how, or even why. He hadn't known her for more than three and a half weeks, but he'd fallen in love with Ashley Hammond of Earth, and the knowledge that he would never have her cut him to the core. Even if she were to leave her boyfriend, she would never spare him more than a passing glance. She was too good for him, and he knew that he had never done a thing in his life to deserve her. He could accept that. He had to. He just didn't want to.

"I... I didn't mean..." Cassie's voice brought him out of his daze, and he stared at her blankly. "Andros... there's more than one kind of love."

"She doesn't love me," he stated calmly, feeling his hands and his heart clench. "It's all right. I wouldn't expect her to."

"Umm..." Cassie shifted awkwardly. "Y'know, why are we even talking about this? Ashley'll kill me if she finds out... I was just supposed to... Why'd you run so fast? I think I know, but--"

"You don't," he snapped. "You can't know."

Cassie arched an eyebrow at him. "Who were you angry with? Cosmos? Yourself?"

She did know, and he sighed, not wanting to say it. "Ashley, he mumbled. "I thought she... felt sorry for me."

"Andros, she's sorry you're hurting," Cassie explained. "She's not sorry for you. If you'll just go talk to her, she'll--"

"I don't want to talk to her," he said desperately. He couldn't do that, now that he knew. He couldn't ever let her talk to him alone again, for fear that he would do something to make her leave him forever.

Guilt stabbed at his heart. He shouldn't even be thinking about her, especially not now. His brother had killed his parents, and he had to deal with that first. He couldn't sit around and dwell on unrequited feelings for Ashley, not when he had so much work to do.

He had to get his morpher back somehow, once he knew what Cosmos wanted with it. He had to tell his people that it had been their own who had betrayed them.

"I have work to do," he said abruptly and pushed passed a bewildered Cassie. Without daring to look over his shoulder at her, Andros stalked off down the hall, his mind running on autopilot. When he was sure she wasn't going to follow him, he stopped, glancing up at Deca's blinking red eye.

"Deca," he said. "I want all the others on the bridge in five mintutes. Tell them that."

"Affirmative," Deca replied. "May I ask why?"

"Because I want them to be there," he said simply. "Tell them I'll explain more when they get there."

Deca blinked at him once in understanding. Andros turned and headed for the bridge, his shoulders set with determination. He was still the red ranger, after all, and it was past time he acted the part.

Author's Note: The seventeenth makes one year since I first posted "Out of the Darkness," and this is also the first time I've gotten 200 reviews for a story. :skips happily: Thanks to all of you for your reviews, you guys are the best!