Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers.

Chapter 6

This was rapidly becoming old, Andros decided, taking an instinctive step closer to his teammates as he surveyed the thirty story monster wreaking havoc across Angel Grove. And this was only his first battle, too, he reflected wryly, wondering what the other rangers must think of routinely defeating each monster twice. He wondered what Cosmos and Lyra must think. He wondered why he had chosen now to think about that.

There would be time for this later, he scolded himself, snapped back into reality as the Body Switcher shrieked incoherently. He glanced over his shoulder at his fellow rangers as though he could see them through their visors, and nodded once.

"Ready?" he inquired pointlessly. He received six nods in return as expected, and raised his morpher up to where his mouth. "Mega Voyager, transform!"

"Mega Winger," Zhane called into his own morpher, summoning the zord that he shared with Karone. The evacuees on Centaur B had built the sleek zord for them when it had become apparent that the two remaining Karovan rangers were in dire need of firepower, and with all seven morphers now in use, it was an added bonus that made for quicker battles.

The sky darkened as the shadows of the two Megazords spread out across the ground. Andros followed TJ, Carlos, Cassie, and Ashley into the Mega Voyager, the fact that he had absolutely no clue how to control the thing dawning on him as he took a quick glance around the cockpit.

It couldn't be impossibly hard, he decided, taking his seat calmly. There were five stations, as there were on the Megaship. The zord had no need for a flight control console, but Andros supposed he had the equivalent for a zord, whatever that was. Zord control? A look down at his controls confirmed that suspicion. So he was supposed to make the zord move, then, he thought, relieved. He could control the Megaship, and there wasn't such a huge difference between he Megship and the Mega Voyager.

"Cassie, shields?" he questioned, quickly testing out the controls and discovering that the Mega Voyager was far more responsive to subtle commands than the Megaship was.

"At full," she reported.

"Weapons?"

"Ready when you are," Ashley said briskly, a smile in her voice.

"Thrusters?"

"Full power," TJ assured him.

Andros paused. He was forgetting something important. "Engines?" he asked finally, and hoped he didn't sound too sheepish. He was going to have to put in some serious hours with the zords until he knew what he was doing.

"Powered up," Carlos responded. "You guys ready?"

"Ready," Andros heard a chorus of answers and smiled to himself. Despite his tendency to isolate himself from others, in battle he was always grateful for the security that his teammates brought.

He gave the controls a slight tweak, keeping one eye on the success Zhane and Karone were having holding off the monster on their own. As long as they were as safe as could be expected under the circumstances, he could afford a few moment to give himself a crash course in piloting the Mega Voyager.

"It's just like a video game," Cassie told him. "You move the stick forward, we move forward."

"Right," he agreed distractedly. Carefully, he put the zord into motion, maneuvering a little jerkily around some buildings. By the time he pulled up alongside Zhane and Karone, the movements had smoothed out, and all he had to do now was throw in some combat moves on top of keeping them on their feet.

The Body Switcher must have caught Zhane by surprise; the Mega Winger stumbled slightly, and that was all the warning Andros had before he found himself clumsily blocking punches. His fingers gripped the controls, his entire body stiff as he concentrated.

He was concentrating too hard, he realized a moment later. There was a dull ringing in his ears, and his head was swimming now too, everything he saw being either too bright or too dark. Giving his head a quick shake, he relaxed his grip slightly, grimacing to feel his hands sweating inside his gloves.

"We've got a clear shot, Andros," Ashley called, and he nodded to her.

He saw a bright flash as the Mega-V 3 appeared as a missile, and his fingers reflexively curled tighter around the controls. They were too close. If he fired now, the Mega Voyager would take some serious damage and probably the Mega Winger would as well. Carefully, and as quickly as he dared, Andros tugged back on the controls, putting the zord into reverse.

He had the Mega Voyager right where he wanted it when his head throbbed in pain, causing him to see stars for several seconds. Wincing, Andros let his hands still on the control console. He closed his eyes, the overgrown Body Switcher momentarily slipping from his thoughts as his concentration was completely diverted by the Power. Something was wrong with it. It might have been two years since he had last fought, but he distinctly remembered that wearing the suit wasn't supposed to cause side effects.

He snuck a quick glance over his shoulder to be sure no one was paying any attention to him. The other rangers all faced him, but were too distracted with their own work and there was no way that Zhane and Karone could see him all the way from the Mega Winger.

Andros let his head slump forward a little and clenched his teeth. He had to focus. What was wrong with him? The fight hadn't been either a lengthy one nor a particularly difficult one, yet the Power was protesting against it. Against him.

"Andros?"

"Yeah?" His head jerked up and he half-turned to stare at the blue ranger.

"Awaiting your orders," TJ responded calmly. "Zhane and Karone can't hold him much longer and we have a clear shot. We should take it."

"Right," he agreed, and let out a sigh that he hoped no one heard. "Fire on my command."

He paused, waiting for the Mega Winger to move just a few feet to the left. Andros knew that Zhane would take the zord into the air to avoid the blast, but he didn't to put them at more risk than they already were. Quickly turning impatient, he gave his friend a mental nudge, the order to fire following a moment later.

His headache intensified when the others behind him cheered, sharp pain stabbing at him. Maybe he needed to talk to Deca after all, he thought glumly. The Power surge the night before he almost would have expected, if he'd thought about it long enough, and possibly the one before this fight, but definitely not the headache.

"Let's get out of here," he suggested, hands moving for the controls. No one argued against that, and Andros headed for the Megaship as quickly as he could.

The pounding in his head subsided the moment he demorphed and he frowned, now certain that it definitely had something to do with the Power. He really should get Deca to take a look at him. And he would, he decided. Really, he would. But first, there was something else that he needed to do.

---

"Who's there?" Ashley called distractedly, not pulling her head out of the closet to open the door. It wasn't locked and she was more than a little surprised that whoever it was hadn't just barged in already, as was their usual habit. When she heard Andros's voice reply, though, she decided that she could use a break and hurried across the room to let him in.

"Hi," he said, eyes anywhere but on her as he shifted his arms around awkwardly. "Can I come in?"

"That was the idea here," she smiled, stepping back to leave the doorway wide open. "And you don't have to knock, you know. No one else does."

"They always do when they're looking for me." He shrugged, finally looking at her. "I wanted to make sure that you were okay..."

His voice trailed off, and it warmed her heart to see the worry clear in his soft eyes. Smiling to alleviate his concerns, Ashley slid both her arms around him in a hug, her chin resting on his shoulder as he returned the embrace.

"I'm fine," she promised. "Maybe a few bruises, but Lyra just wanted to get us to the Dark Fortress, and Cosmos didn't seem interested in hurting us."

"Yet," Andros said quietly, his arms briefly tightening around her waist. "They would have killed all of you."

"But they didn't, did they?" Ashley gave his neck one last quick squeeze before drawing out of his arms. "And they're not going to," she told him firmly. "I'm fine and so's everyone else, and we're staying that way."

If nothing else, her determination could always bring a smile to his face. "Yeah," he agreed, his spirits lightening considerably when she grinned back at him. "You'll be fine."

"Glad we're clear on that," she told him cheerfully. "Sit down for a few minutes," she continued, gesturing towards her bed. "I'll just be a second..."

"I can go," he began, but Ashley shook her head and he fell silent.

"You're not interrupting anything," she assured him, talking over her shoulder when she headed back to her closet. "I'm having dinner with my parents and I just need to get changed, that's all."

"It's dinnertime already?" How long had the fight lasted?

"Not quite," she said, still digging through her closet. "But before we can get to the restaurant, my parents have to tell me how far I've come in the last year and make me promise all sorts of things for the next one... You know, good grades, no drugs, things like that."

"Oh." Andros wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. The mention of her parents caused his mind to drift back to his own mother and father, not dead even a month yet and already he was beginning to forget them. Not that this was anything new, after the two years he'd spent apart from them, he'd found that he couldn't quite summon up their faces, but they were gone forever this time...

"Hey," he heard, the mattress dipping as Ashley sank down beside him. "What's wrong?"

He took a deep breath when she pulled him into her arms, exhaling slowly. "Nothing," he muttered, the momentary wave of sadness passing. "I'm fine," he added, more steadily now.

"Are you?"

Andros nodded, catching her in an impulsive hug when she released him. "Thanks," he murmured, and she nodded her understanding as he pressed a warm kiss to her lips, his mouth lingering near hers as a smile formed. If she beamed at him like that after every kiss, he was going to have to start doing it more often, he decided with a grin of his own.

"I should go now," she muttered regretfully, slowly drawing away from him and then heading back to her closet.

"I'll let you get dressed, then," he said. "I'll see you tonight, I guess."

"Actually, probably tomorrow morning," she said, a simple yellow blouse in her hands. "I think I'm sleeping at home for once."

"Tomorrow morning, then," he amended, disappointed that he wouldn't have more time with her until the next day, but unable to recall her spending the night in her own home more than four times in the month that she had been on the Megaship.

"Have fun," he remembered to add on his way out the door, unable to help himself from planting one more quick kiss on her lips.

"Thanks," Ashley smiled at him as she disappeared into her bathroom, and Andros took the hint. He heard her call "Bye!" after him as he left her room and smiled to himself, the expression becoming a yawn. Suddenly sleepy, he turned into his own room and collapsed on his bunk, his good mood lingering despite his tiredness.

He was going to ask Deca about his headache, he remembered abruptly, wondering for a moment whether his exhaustion had anything to do with the Power as well. Deciding that whatever it was could wait until he'd taken a quick nap, Andros gave Deca orders to wake him in an hour and kicked off his boots, tumbling into a peaceful sleep with Ashley's face in his mind and a faint smile on his lips.