Disclaimer: The Power Rangers aren't mine.
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yeah, Ashley to the rescue... :D
Arwennicole: Nothing too bad happens to Andros...
TrueRomantic: :laughs: So I can torture him all I want as long as he lives? Cool! And I figured Deca wasn't going to let him commit suicide without trying to stop him first.
Star Fata: I'm stubborn too, although I haven't done anything nearly this stupid yet. :D
JDPhoenix: Andros's brother is very irked that his girlfriend is all touchy with Andros. And, yes you should be writing a sequel of some sort! Please?
Sasja: Yeah, I like torturing Andros a little. :D Nothing really happens here, though.
Tal: I think it's sweet, too, but the people he was trying to save will see it a little differently. :D
C.C.C: He broke the record of stupidity that was previously set by him! Probably in one of my other fics... Okay, that's it, he's smart in my next story. :P
the-power-of-love: This one actually is soon! And I hope you had a happy birthday!
Mita427: Hope this is just as exciting...
Chapter 34
Ashley crouched low on her glider, urging it to take on an even more impossible speed than it already had. She should have known that something was wrong the instant Deca's light had blinked on and the AI had asked if she cared for a drink of water, but when she had seen Andros just sitting there alone in the dark, she had thought that there was nothing more to it. So she had said good night and left, pausing when the sound of Andros's argument with Deca had floated down the hall to her ears.
A stationary blip appeared on her scanner, and she sped towards it, praying that it was the Dark Fortress. It had taken her a moment to figure out exactly what Andros was talking about, and she had rushed back into the room just in time to see him vanish in a shower of red sparkles.
I should have called the others. It was obvious now; she was all alone in enemy space, the bright yellow of her ranger suit practically flagging down Velocifighters. But she hadn't stopped to think before rushing for her glider, stopping just long enough to grab the handheld surveillance device that was now her only guide. Going after Andros and dragging him back to the Megaship alive and in one piece had taken priority, though she was almost positive she had shouted some orders at Deca regarding the rest of the team before throwing herself into the jump tubes.
The speck that was her glider was rapidly approaching what she thought was the Dark Fortress, but she had yet to lay eyes on the ship. This was beginning to make her nervous. It was unlikely that she hadn't been spotted, which meant it was likely that she was being watched, which meant she was likely walking into a trap.
Just like Andros... Ashley pushed the thought from her mind, focusing her attention firmly on the scanner in her hand and the darkness of space around her. He was fine. He was alive. She wasn't going to be bringing back only his body. She just couldn't be.
Almost dropping the scanner, she choked, blinking rapidly to clear her eyes. On her glider in the middle of enemy space was not the best place to break down, she reminded herself sternly. There would be a time to cry later if she needed to. And you won't need to!
She couldn't lose Andros. Ashley couldn't explain what it was about him that was so... irreplaceable. She couldn't explain why the thought of never seeing him again threatened to send her entire world crashing down. It just did, and those feelings only made it more urgent that she find him in time.
A flash of motion ahead of her snapped her back to reality. Scolding herself for daydreaming at a time like this, Ashley quickly pulled herself together, and after a moment of indecision, sped after the Velocifighter. If she could just position herself so that the Quantron pilot couldn't see her if it glanced over shoulder... Ducking low on her glider, Ashley maneuvered herself over to just below and behind one wing, easily matching the Velocifighter for speed.
The blip on her scanner came into view, and Ashley was relieved to see that it was the Dark Fortress. It wasn't anything more than a fuzzy dot in the distance, but they were rapidly moving closer and even this far away, Ashley could see the distinctive green lines that outlined half of the ship.
Only a few minutes later, the Dark Fortress loomed directly in front of her, and in a split-second decision, Ashley leapt from her glider onto the Velocifighter as it flew smoothly through the bay doors. She latched onto the wing, flattening herself down low as the cockpit opened up with a small hiss and the Quantron disembarked.
Her heart was thudding in her ears, but the pilot didn't glance to the side and none of the Quantrons milling around just behind her took any notice of her presence, either. Ashley exhaled slowly and slumped back against the wing to collect her nerves.
Now that she'd managed to get herself in, all she needed to do was get Andros out. That posed a bit of a problem, she realized, chewing anxiously on her bottom lip. Ashley hadn't the faintest clue where to start searching, and she was going to have to stick to the more secluded areas of the ship until she had a general idea of where she was and where she was going. Sighing quietly, she shook her head, knowing that she was making up a plan as she went along, and while it seemed to be working out for her so far, this was unquestionably the most nerve-wracking experience she'd ever had.
Ashley waited only a moment more before swinging her legs over the side and pushing herself down. The maintenance crew wouldn't wait long before starting work, and she hadn't come this far to be caught now. Landing almost silently between the Velocifighter and the wall, Ashley darted off into the shadows. She had to hurry.
---
The bright yellow-white lightning twisting and twining around his body vanished as quickly as it had appeared when Lyra called it back. Andros felt his knees almost buckle and groaned aloud at the extra strain it put on his arms. Wincing, he forced his legs to support him, even trying unsuccessfully to lean back against the wall for leverage. Lyra watched him squirm around uncomfortably, laughing in genuine amusement when he tugged on the chain that pulled his wrists up.
"It didn't work the last time you tried that," she reminded him, twirling the longer strands of her hair between her fingers while she studied him. "But keep trying. I'm sure you'll pull yourself free eventually."
Andros scowled at her before he let his head slump forward again, wincing as he felt sweat drip into the gash just above his left eye. The wound was more for show than anything else; it wasn't long or deep enough to scar or cause him to bleed dangerously, but there was still enough blood to drip down into his eye and it stung furiously.
"Maybe we'll ransom you back to the rangers," Cosmos mused thoughtfully. "I'm sure Karone, at least, would be willing to give anything we asked of her to save the last member of her family still living."
Andros gaped at him in disbelief. "They wouldn't be dead if you hadn't killed them!"
"They were against me," Cosmos told him coldly. "It didn't matter who they were in relation to me; someone had to kill them and no one had. Now, what do we offer to trade Karone for you?"
"Well, the purple Astromorpher seems like a logical choice," Lyra declared brightly. "I'm sure she feels you're worth it, Andros."
"She's smarter than that," Andros said dully, blinking in annoyance as blood continued to trickle down his face. "It won't work."
"Oh, I think it will," Lyra disagreed. "Karone would never be heartless enough to let her twin brother die slowly, helplessly... I don't care much for purple, though."
"You already had a morpher," Andros growled, trying very hard to believe that he hadn't cost the team another ranger after all. "You betrayed us."
"Betrayal implies disloyalty." Lyra shrugged. "I had no allegiance to you."
"How can you say that?" he demanded, stunned to hear the words despite the niggling voice in the back of his mind that told him he shouldn't have expected anything else. "You trained with us every day for six years and you fought with us!"
"I had a mission," she informed him coolly. "That's all any of you were to me."
The sting that followed her words caught Andros by surprise. He thought he'd known that. He should have known that, if not when he'd woken up to see Lyra's wrath staff aimed squarely at his chest then definitely the moment he had stumbled across the bloodied bodies of half his teammates.
His face must have shown much more than he'd wanted it to, for Lyra laughed quietly and shook her head. "You can't expect me to believe that you still thought I actually loved you."
Andros didn't respond, clenching his teeth and glaring down at the floor instead. As much as he hated himself for it now, she had still been his first love. She had been his first everything, and though he hadn't admitted it to himself until just now, some small part of him had hoped that had meant something to her.
"You were just a mission to me," Lyra repeated softly, mirth in her tone as she added, "and an annoying one at that, even if you were particularly amusing to me."
That hurt too, and Andros berated himself for it in self-disgust. She had used him, killed his teammates, ripped the girl who actually had loved him almost to shreds, and killed his parents, not to mention that she clearly taking great pleasure in telling him repeatedly that he had meant nothing to her. He shouldn't have expected anything different from her, and it irked him to no end that he had.
"Poor baby," Lyra cooed, correctly reading his expression and grinning widely when Andros glared daggers at her. "If it makes you feel any better, you would have been a halfway decent--"
"Lyra." Cosmos interrupted her loudly and Andros stared in disbelief, almost thinking he'd heard jealousy in the other's voice. "Someone will notice he's gone soon."
"Right," Lyra agreed. "Are you sure you want to trade for him? It would be so much more fun this way..."
"I want him off of my ship," Cosmos growled. "As soon as possible."
"Right," she said again, though her frown was almost a pout. "How much do you think they'd give for him?"
"Karone would give her morpher," Cosmos said. "I know she would, and we could get something from Zhane and the yellow ranger as well."
"The yellow ranger?" Lyra's lips quirked in amusement. "Another one? Is this a fetish or have the pink rangers all been unattractive?"
"Leave Ashley out of this," Andros snapped, opting to ignore the latter half of what she had just said.
"The best way to hurt you is to hurt the ones around you," Lyra explained patiently. "So, no, I don't think I'll be doing that... I'll get the rangers on the comm, then," she said to Cosmos. "Let them worry for a bit before we tell them what we'll take in exchange for losing his such... entertaining company."
Cosmos nodded once in acknowledgment of her words. She flipped her hair out of the way and strolled out the door while they both watched, neither so much as glancing towards the other for several minutes after the door had shut behind her.
Andros sighed and tugged hopelessly at the chains, rising higher onto his toes to ease the pressure on his arms. He closed his eyes and tried not to imagine what Lyra and Cosmos were going to cost the rangers--what he had cost the rangers when all he had wanted to do was keep them safe.
Footsteps approached him and he opened his eyes reluctantly, blinking just in time to see the fist that slammed into his right eye coming at him. He grunted in pain, jerking his head to the side to avoid another black eye.
"I should tear you apart," Cosmos spat at him, driving the hilt of his sword hard into Andros's stomach.
Andros groaned and coughed while his body strained to double up but the chains fixed to his wrists held him upright. "What for?" he demanded when he could speak again. "You have no reason to want to!"
"I have every reason," Cosmos growled. "Lyra is mine."
"I don't want her!" Andros exclaimed, his head coming up in shock. "I haven't for years."
"I don't care." Cosmos was silent for a long moment and Andros wished that he could see his brother's face, but the helmet he wore made that an impossibility. "You did enough already."
"What are you talking about?" Andros almost rolled his eyes. "You're the one who stole the morpher."
"Because it should have been mine," Cosmos snapped back. "Everyone thought that it would have been me--no one expected you to be chosen at all, much less to be the red ranger. That should have been mine."
"So you could do this with it?" Andros looked at him incredulously. "Besides, it's the Power that chooses."
"Normally, yes," Cosmos agreed. "But with a little... persuasion, it will answer to anyone."
"What did you do?" Andros demanded. The Power didn't work like that; it wasn't supposed to, at least. If Cosmos had manipulated the Power somehow... he wasn't sure what he would do then.
"It doesn't matter," Cosmos said, waving a hand through the air dismissively. "It's mine now."
"It's not," Andros insisted. "It's mine."
"I paid more than enough for it," Cosmos hissed. "That makes it mine."
"It doesn't, because it's mine and you took it," Andros retorted. "And what do you mean you paid for it? You killed half my team for fun!"
"You slept with Lyra," Cosmos shouted in return. "She's my bondmate!"
"I didn't know that!" Andros insisted. "It wasn't something I thought to ask her!"
"Do you know how long I had to wait just to kiss her because of you?" Cosmos demanded, catching him in the gut again with the hilt of his sword. "Years! I knew the moment I saw her who she was, but because of you--"
"What are you talking about?" Andros cut in, gasping slightly. "She just said that she had a mission and that's all any of those years were to her!"
"She lied."
Cosmos made to hit him again and Andros bent his knees as best he could, wrapping the chain around his hands and leaping into the air. The muscles in his arms screamed in protest but he pushed the pain from his mind and planted both his feet into his brother's chest, forcing him back several feet. The momentum slammed Andros back into the wall and he winced in pain, shaking himself free of it when Cosmos drew his sword.
"I didn't meet her until she had been on KO-35 for three years already," Cosmos informed him. "It didn't take long for her to realize who I was, either, but she was a ranger and I was already part of Dark Spectre's army."
"How tragic." Andros shot him what he hoped was a withering look. It must have been enough, for a moment later, he was leaping up again to kick away the sword whistling through the air towards him.
"Be quiet," Cosmos hissed at him. "I'm not done yet."
"I know the story," Andros snapped. "I was the one who ended up in the middle of it, remember?"
"This isn't about you!" Cosmos thundered. "She never loved you! I told her to do whatever she had to do to get me that morpher, and she did! You didn't mean anything to her!"
Andros bit down on his tongue to keep himself from pointing out that Cosmos was contradicting himself, deciding to refrain from mentioning that the fact that he had waited until Lyra was out of the room to broach the subject hadn't escaped his notice either.
So Cosmos and Lyra were bondmates. He'd suspected as much, of course; they all had, but Andros had never been able to fathom why Lyra would go so far as sleeping with him if she had already bonded herself to someone else. He hadn't known that it was even possible to betray a bondmate that way, but clearly it was--unless she hadn't bonded herself to Cosmos until after... That would explain both how it was possible and why Cosmos was acting so... jealous.
"I don't want her," he said aloud. "I came here for my morpher."
"It's mine," Cosmos maintained stubbornly and Andros sighed. This argument seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't figure out quite how.
"It--"
An explosion from the hall rocked the walls and effectively drowned out the rest of his sentence. Andros and Cosmos glanced at the door in equal alarm when it slid open and Lyra appeared, her back to them but clearly wielding her staff. A moment later, she had backed up into the cell completely, her opponent little more than a blur of yellow battling not only her but a half dozen Quantrons.
Ashley! Andros stared in astonishment, unable to comprehend what she could possibly be doing on the Dark Fortress yet it couldn't be anyone else--and she was winning. Even with the low doorways, she had enough room to flip forward into the cell, landing on her feet and whirling before Lyra had turned to face her.
"Are you okay?" she demanded without turning to look at him.
"I'm fine," he said automatically, his heart beginning to pound in both trepidation and hope. If she didn't get him out of here, he knew he would watch her die.
Andros threw himself forward when Cosmos grabbed his sword, his legs reaching just far enough to knock Cosmos off of his feet. Ashley planted a foot in Lyra's stomach and whirled around, firing her Star Slinger at the chains restraining him.
Andros forced himself to hold perfectly still when the first shot missed and she tried again, knowing that she would be more likely to hit him if he was moving around but unable to help the feeling that he shouldn't just stand there and let her shoot at him.
Then he felt his arms drop and he threw himself at Cosmos without second thought, tackling him. They both went down and Andros struggled to hold him there while Ashley was kept busy with Lyra.
"Hurry!" he shouted, his arms too tired to hold him for much longer. "Ash, I need you to shoot him."
"What do you think I'm--" Ashley grunted when she took Lyra's staff hard in the stomach but recovered quickly, grabbing the middle of the staff and throwing Lyra to the side. "Trying to do?" she finished, ducking when Lyra swung at her.
Crouching low, Ashley fired her Star Slinger several times in succession before she was forced to leap back up and deal with Lyra. Andros heard Cosmos cry out and knew that all her shots had hit, but nothing was happening... He caught his breath when the blood-red armor Cosmos wore suddenly brightened, lunging for his left arm the instant it vanished completely.
Cosmos tried to yank his arm away, but Ashley's attack had weakened him. Andros's hand closed over the Astromorpher Cosmos wore, ripping it away and leaping to his feet. He thought he felt one of his ankles twinge at the motion, but adrenaline was pounding through him and he couldn't be sure which one. As he slipped the morpher back over his own wrist, though, any injuries he had accquired seemed unimportant.
"Andros!" Ashley shouted, throwing herself between him and Cosmos and grabbing ahold of his arms. "Hurry up!"
"Right," he agreed, slightly dazed. Snapping out of it, he flipped open the catch on the morpher and shouted, "Let's rocket!"
