Chapter 2: Discovery
This is an updated version as of January 2019, I apologize for the wait. I love all my readers so much and I hope you stay until the end of this story.
Disclaimer - I own nothing but the plot.
The silent and spiritless atmosphere was shattered as Zhane's words echo through the walls of the Megaship. Within the next sixty seconds, the doors of the lift glide open to reveal Andros, Carlos, TJ, and Cassie.
Andros takes one glance at Karone's frozen figure as he races onto the bridge with the other ranger following him, as proceeds to freak out.
"What's wrong?" Andros demands.
Karone shifts her attention to her older brother and simply states "There was a monster on Earth."
The newly arrived rangers gasp and TJ yelps "What? Why didn't the alarm go off to alert us?"
Karone shrugs her shoulders "DECA didn't tell us because there was no danger to anyone."
"I understand that there was something that could harm Earth, but if it was away from any civilization and not causing damage, what's wrong with DECA not alerting us?" Cassie asks.
Andros rolls his eyes, annoyed with the simple question "Because, safe or not, we should investigate any disturbances that Ecliptor sends onto your planet. That way we can use that information to either use it against him or on how to find and save Zordon."
Karone gives her brother a menace look, "Be nice." She turns to give Cassie a small smile, "What Andros said and when I brought up the video feed from the satellite, I found something that doesn't look like it was made by accident. I thought that the disturbance that happened earlier caused this but there is no evidence of it being destroyed recently. I think Ecliptor may have been looking for something there."
Cassie nods at Karone's explanation. Andros moves from his stance on the side of the consoles and moves next to Karone. He glances up at DECA's camera and asks, "Can you bring up the satellite image that Karone and Zhane saw?"
All at once, DECA's camera light blinks red in agreement, and the front screen brightens up with the picture of the remains of a building in the middle of the desert. To the bystander, it looked like the destruction was caused by a bomb going off inside.
As they take in the image that was pulled up on the screen, TJ and Carlos let out a small gasp as Cassie releases loud croaked sob, tears once again falling down her face.
"What's wrong guys?" Zhane asks, startled by their reaction.
Him, Andros, and Karone turn their attention away from the screen to face the other rangers that obviously has an audible reaction to the information that they had uncovered.
Andros glances between the screen and the distressed rangers. As he raises his eyebrow in question, he asks. "Do you know what happened to this building?"
The three Earth rangers take a moment to compose themselves. TJ and Carlos give each other worried glances, and each of them put a hand on Cassie's shoulders, as if to help ground her as well as themselves.
TJ lets out a forced sigh and looks at Andros, "You're right. What happened to that building, it was not an accident."
Karone turns around to look at him, "How do you know?"
With a sideways glance at Cassie, who has yet to stop the tears, TJ nods towards the screen, "Because that building is what's left of our old Turbo Power Chamber."
As the words left TJ's mouth, Karone's heart sinks, Zhane's jaw drops, and Andros stares at them in a shocked silence, but of course keeps a calm expression on his face. Karone finally shakes her head from the shock and slowly walks over to Cassie and wraps her arms around her shaking form.
"I'm sorry." She whispers as she rubs her friend's back.
"Don't be, you didn't know." Cassie sobs.
Andros blinks a couple of times to regain his composer and asks TJ, "Why didn't you tell us about this?", waving his hand towards the screen.
TJ shakes his head in agreement, "We had just gotten your trust. We didn't want to lose it because we failed to keep our chamber in one piece. At the same time, we were mourning the loss, that due to our failures, we were unable to protect the place where Zordon formed the first Earth Power Rangers."
Andros nods, not quite agreeing with all the ranger's reasons, but he knew better than to make a comment with the rather emotional Cassie. Karone might finally take his head off.
Zhane finally speaks up, " I understand that you were mourning the loss of something that was significant to your ranger team. No matter what happened, you still have my trust. It looks like you all were ambushed, and with a big area like this," Zhane points at the screen, "and it being out in the opening. The other side wouldn't have an interference by citizens and they could have come from all angles of the building. This must have been one huge battle and I believe we all know that it would have been hard trying to save your chamber with only four Rangers."
Carlos's head shoots up from where he was staring at the ground. He stares at Zhane in confusion and Zhane only holds his hands up in surrender, afraid that he had offended his fellow rangers.
"Well there's only so much you, TJ, Cassie, and Justin could have done alone right? Though when I said four rangers, I still think Justin counts as a half a ranger." Zhane chuckles to himself, proud of his own joke that he voices to the former blue ranger on various Earth outings.
Cassie lifts her head up from Karone's embrace to stare at Zhane with bloodshot eyes.
"What? Oh, come on! What did I do now?" Zhane cries as he falls into his chair and covers his eyes dramatically.
Cassie speaks up with a shaky voice, "There were five of us, not four."
Zhane slowly removes his hands from his face and cocks his head to the side with confusion. Karone looks a Cassie with wide eyes while Andros turns to TJ for an explanation.
TJ gulps as he looks up hesitantly, to voice the words that you can visibly see that he didn't want to create, "Our Yellow Ranger died in that explosion."
Cassie clings onto Karone and starts to sob loudly. TJ and Carlos move closer to her and pull her from Karone's arms as all of the Kerovan rangers watch, Cassie fall into the two boy's arms.
Karone was the first to speak, "In three days, it will be the one-year anniversary from the first time you stepped foot on this ship. I remember because Zhane and I were planning a fun day out."
TJ nods in confirmation.
"So today would be the day your chamber was attacked and destroyed?" Karone pauses to take in a wobbly breath, "Today's the day your yellow ranger died?"
Cassie lets out a loud cry on Carlos's shoulder.
Andros turns to face TJ, not shocked by the new information, "Teams lose rangers all the time, we all know the danger of being rangers. Why is this one so different?"
TJ's head shoots up like a bullet, "We don't push people away, unlike you."
Eyes widen, Andros looks down at his feet and mutters a short apology. Cassie finally controls herself to halt crying and moves away from the boys to get closer to the other rangers to begins to speak softly.
"She wasn't just another ranger, she was our sister and to Justin, a mother."
Karone and Zhane look at her hopefully, encouraging her to continue talking.
"Her name was Ashley Hammond."
R&R Hope you enjoyed it!
AshlenH