Notes: Well... this story now is older than I was when I posted it.

So, this is what happened. I had a couple of... very bad years. Then things got better, but the more time that passed, the harder it was to come back to this story, because the authorial choices I made when I was sixteen were wild, and not the choices I would make at twenty or twenty-five or thirty. I tried to rewrite it from scratch a few dozen times over the years and I didn't succeed, because the premise isn't one that I would choose to write now.

I've been processing some things from this period of my life lately, and... quite unexpectedly I find myself able to come back to this and not look at it like, "wtf were you even thinking?" This story was what I needed when I wrote it, and I'm okay with that now.

If you were with me when I started writing, I love you more than words.

If you don't remember what's happening... that's okay, I didn't either. lol. BUT BASICALLY, Andros does not turn the Megaship around in the pilot episode and instead is promptly captured by Darkonda, because of course he is, and also there is a whole bunch of unnecessary additions to his ALREADY ACCEPTABLY TRAGIC backstory (... I think, if I had to guess, teen!me was like "but I have to justify his incredibly poor choices" and thought that the best way to do that was though even more trauma? Look, I don't really remember this time of my life but this sounds like something I would do.) And then, because I did not do a fantastic job at foreshadowing, it is revealed mostly out of nowhere that Ashley's family is secretly from KO-35 also! And there is drama but not too much drama, because then Astronema invades the Earth so we don't really have time to process any of that information. Then Andros was kidnapped by Darkonda for like the forty-fifth time, which brings us to where we are now.

SO CLOSE TO THE END HERE WE GOOOOO

Chapter 43

She had to find Andros.

Ashley chewed at her thumbnail, her stomach a mess of nerves. Night had fallen hours ago, and there had been no sign of him since he'd vanished with Darkonda during their fight earlier that day. It had happened right in front of her, him within touching distance, and then a gaping hole in the mass of quantrons where he'd been only a second before-

"You need to rest."

Ashley covered her face with her hands, her exhaustion speaking the truth of Cassie's words.

"How?" she demanded.

Cassie gave her a wan smile, and took her hand. Ashley gripped her friend's fingers hard, her thoughts still running wild in her head. So much had happened. Astronema had given them a day to surrender themselves or she would destroy the planet.

Darkonda had taken Andros to who knows where.

Somewhere out there in Angel Grove was her family.

Her family. Ashley swallowed. She had no time to think about that, either.

"Hey."

The unexpected voice made her jump, but it was only TJ, coming to join them in the makeshift shelter they'd erected among the rubble of downtown Angel Grove. He touched Ashley's shoulder as he passed.

"No sign of him," he said grimly, before she could ask. "Not Andros or Zhane or Phantom."

"I'm sure they're…" Ashley couldn't quite bring herself to finish.

"Right," Cassie said, and this time when Ashley squeezed her hand, it was for Cassie's comfort.

In her heart, she knew that Andros was still alive, if for no other reason than knowing how Darkonda would want to make him suffer first. It made her sick to think of what he might be enduring right now, but there was no way to go after him even if they knew where he'd been taken. They couldn't leave this fight, and they'd had no contact with the Megaship for hours.

Carlos found them soon after. He only shook his head in answer to their silent questions, and the four of them sat quietly around a small fire with their heads bent together.

This was like nothing they'd ever experienced together. Even when the Power Chamber had exploded, there'd still been hope. Was this, Ashley wondered, what her parents had been hoping to spare her from on KO-35? Was this why they'd lied?

She stared at the morpher on her wrist. Whether by coincidence or by destiny, she'd found it anyway. Or it had found her.

Ashley blinked, and in an instant things sharpened into focus.

Ever since the truth about her family had been revealed, she'd felt… adrift. Lost in her own self, unsure of who she was. So consumed by the shock that she'd lost sight of the fact that the truth was, she did know.

That she was who she'd always been.

Tonight, it didn't matter what her name was. What mattered was that she was the Yellow Ranger, and these people with her right now were her team. Her friends. Her family, with whom she'd sworn to protect the Earth.

One of the knots in her stomach loosened, and Ashley looked up, rejoining the conversation the others were having while she'd been lost in thought.

"It's not over," Carlos was saying, drawing a line in the dirt in front of them with a pipe he'd found on the ground. "The quantrons are mostly concentrated here, and here…"

"Mm." Cassie nodded. "If we could just… We need reinforcements."

"The people want to fight," Carlos said. "I've heard them talking."

"They're civilians," TJ objected. "We can't risk their lives."

"Maybe we could organize them somehow…"

Andros would agree with TJ. He would want them as far out of the way as possible, both for their own safety and also to minimize the threat that untrained civilians posed in a situation like this. She was inclined to think that Arietis would agree with Andros, and Zhane with Carlos.

Andros wasn't wrong, exactly, but Andros also wasn't here, and the four of them couldn't take on Dark Spectre's entire army alone.

"I think we should give them the choice." Ashley hesitated before adding the next part, because were they not already there? "As a last resort."

TJ didn't argue, which confirmed to Ashley that she wasn't the only one who thought they were far past last resorts and more in the territory of final desperate hopes. "Some of them have to have tactical experience," he allowed. "Military or police or something. We can go and ask around. Divide into smaller groups, and…"

This was not a good plan, but it was all they had.

Ashley touched her morpher again. The next time she used it would probably be the last.

And Andros…

I love you, willing him to hear her, wherever he was. I'll find you when this is over.

She had to believe that.


Andros still believed.

Despite what Ashley said, despite what Zhane said, he knew that he could get through to Karone if he only had time. It wasn't such a big ask, he thought bitterly, as he peeked around a corner in the Dark Fortress. The universe owed him some time, after it had robbed him of so much of it.

The corridor was clear, and he leapt through the nearest door with his saber raised, only to come face-to-face with-

"Andros."

He gaped, freezing with his saber in mid-air. "Zordon?!"

After all this time… he'd been here. Of course he had been. Andros kicked himself for not having thought of it sooner. Astronema had taken Ashley prisoner on this very ship. Of course she would do the same for Zordon. She'd have wanted to keep her enemies close.

"Yes," Zordon said gravely. "It's me."

"I thought we'd never find you," Andros said, and a hope he'd lost a long time ago began to rise within him. Now that he'd found Zordon, this changed things. Zordon would help them turn the tide of the battle raging back on Earth. Maybe he could even help Andros break through to Karone.

"There's very little time." Zordon wasted none on pleasantries. "Dark Spectre is gone, but his forces will soon destroy the Earth."

"My team-"

"They are alive," Zordon said, and Andros expelled a breath of relief. "But they can't continue this fight for much longer. You can help them."

"I know." Andros swallowed. "I just-I need to find my sister."

"Your sister can't be reasoned with," Zordon said. "I've tried. Dark Spectre's brainwashing has proved too powerful."

"But now that Dark Spectre's gone…"

"It's possible that his power over her is weakening," Zordon allowed. "We can't wait to see. Her victory will be complete before his hold over her breaks."

Time again, Andros thought. He just needed time.

"So what do I do?"

"Shatter my energy tube," Zordon said. "There's enough power left in my tube that I can destroy them."

Andros looked to his saber, then back at Zordon. He couldn't mean...

"But you'll…" Andros hesitated. "Without your tube…"

"I will be gone, yes."

Before Andros could argue, before he could tell Zordon all of the reasons why he couldn't do as he was asked, there was a split-second warning as the door hissed before it opened. Alarmed, Andros spun around, looking for a place to hide on the bridge.

Seeing none, he dove behind Zordon's tube and flattened himself against it. It would do only as long as no one looked in his direction, but it was all that he had the time for.

Gripping his saber, he closed his eyes and held still.

What Zordon was asking of him was inconceivable. Zordon had been a guardian of the Power for millenia. Even those Rangers such as himself who hadn't served under Zordon directly knew of him and respected him.

To imagine Rangers in a universe without Zordon… Andros couldn't do it.

"You lost him?" That was his sister, and she sounded cold as ice.

"He can't have gone far." Darkonda's voice now, and Andros shuddered at his tone. "I'll find him."

"See that you do." She laughed darkly. "My brother and I have unfinished business."

Andros felt his conviction waver. To hear her sound so cold, so emotionless… what if the others had been right all along, and there was nothing left of her? What if he couldn't get through to her? What options did that leave him?

At his back, Zordon's tube hummed. Andros shook his head.

He hardened his resolve. No. She was his flesh and blood, his only remaining family, and he wasn't leaving this ship without her.

Darkonda mumbled some vague respects and withdrew from the bridge. Despite himself, Andros smiled faintly. He knew Darkonda hated to bow to anyone. That was why he'd made Andros do it so often.

Andros opened his eyes, daring to peer around Zordon's tube. His sister was alone, her back to him as she contemplated the viewing screens. His gaze slid past her, taking in what was happening on Earth. The scenes of destruction hit him like a fist to the gut. He hadn't seen the likes of this since KO-35, and somewhere down there were his teammates, fighting without them.

He couldn't let things end that way again.

The door opened again.

Andros straightened up, cursing silently to himself. He'd wasted his chance, and he couldn't stay here forever. Someone was bound to notice him soon.

"You." Astronema sounded incredulous.

"We need to talk," said a new voice, and Andros almost dropped his saber in astonishment.

Zhane.