Disclaimer: I don't own the Power Rangers.

Chapter 23

His morph formed instantly. Andros waited only that long before charging forward at Psycho Red, summoning his Spiral Saber as he went. Time was not something that he had much of right now; he didn't know how long he had before things went wrong.

He should have known that it wouldn't be that easy. Psycho Red was waiting with his sword drawn, and Andros was almost too distracted to realize it. Cursing silently to himself for not being more aware, he leapt backwards.

His eyes strayed to Ashley as he spun himself around. She hadn't moved from where she lay on the sidewalk, but it was her closed eyes that made his heart thud in fear. Andros could only hope that she would be all right.

Psycho Red didn't hesitate to take advantage of his distraction, and Andros took several blows straight to his chest, one after the other. Pain ripped through him and he cried out, his knees buckling as he swayed on his feet.

"Surrendering so soon?" Psycho Red taunted, kicking him over onto his back.

"Never," Andros gasped, choking as Psycho Red stepped on his throat. Desperately, he fumbled for his Astro Blaster and fired it upwards, rolling onto his hands and knees when Psycho Red stumbled back.

His brain throbbed as he struggled back to his feet. Andros closed his eyes and tried to think past it, tried to ignore it while he still could. That uncontrollable urge to just destroy was crawling around inside of him, wanting to claw its way out.

His Spiral Saber clattered to the ground as he balled his hands into fists, holding his body tense as he struggled for control of himself. Psycho Red flew towards him and Andros squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself. White-hot pain tore through his left side, and the ache to just give in beat itself against him more strongly.

He ground his teeth together and opened his eyes, moving jerkily to pick up his saber. Andros watched himself step forward towards Psycho Red, fighting as hard as he could to break the through the hold on his body. Yes, he needed to fight, but he couldn't do it like this. He'd be turning on Ashley again if he gave in.

Ashley. Yes, think of Ashley... Karone and Zhane. TJ, Cassie, and Carlos. His friends and family. Who should be here right now fighting with him, he realized, annoyed. Where the hell are they?

He grinned to himself as he pictured the look on Zhane's face when he dragged them to the Simudeck in the middle of the night for training. That would be appropriate punishment... to start with.

His head cleared.

His eyes snapped open as whatever it was that had had a hold on him released him. Andros felt for a second that he was flying, just floating. Then his knees gave out on him again, and he collapsed as someone approached him from behind.

"You know," Lyra remarked, "this really would have been simpler if you'd just given me your morpher that day in the park."

Andros blinked at her dizzily. "You didn't do anything."

"That's why it would have been simpler." Her eyes strayed over to Psycho Red. "Shouldn't you be killing him?"

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" he growled, grabbing his Spiral Saber as he struggled back to his feet. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope," she replied cheerfully. "Oh, and I thought you might like to know that Cosmos and Psycho Violet will be distracting your friends for awhile longer."

"What?" Andros grunted after a kick to his stomach and doubled over, determinedly ignoring her after that.

Psycho Red wasn't as strong as he looked, Andros realized. His weak point was the same as the other Psychos--breach their energy shield and they went down.

Andros leapt forward, his saber slicing across Psycho Red's face. He paid for it with a blow to the chest, but it was worth it when Psycho Red clapped one hand to his "eye" and staggered back.

"Booster mode," Andros muttered, and fired. The resulting explosion forced him to turn his head away, but he knew that he'd hit right.

His elation quickly dimmed when he found himself in a chokehold.

"Impressive," Lyra murmured, dragging his head back a little further. "I'd forgotten how well you fight. I'd demorph now if I were you, though," she continued, and he saw her staff materialize in her hand. "You might lose your yellow ranger if you don't."

"If you--"

"If I hurt her, you'll kill me, I'm sure," she said in a bored tone. "But if I kill her, she's still dead, yes?"

Andros growled furiously. "Power down," he muttered, and gasped in pain as his left side throbbed.

His eyes watered as he clutched his chest. Lyra muttered a curse and released him, letting him drop to the ground. He groaned weakly as his forehead scraped hard against the pavement. Andros rolled over onto his back, determined to get back up.

Then he blacked out.

---

"Andros."

He groaned loudly in response to the soft murmur in his ear. He couldn't quite place it, but it was a voice he knew well and instinct told him to shy away from it. However he tried, though, he couldn't, and he flinched as consciousness slammed him back into his body.

His situation didn't look promising. A thick manacle was snapped securely around each of his wrists and ankles, each attached to a chain that was pulled taut. His arms and legs were pulled apart, leaving him completely vulnerable to attack. He judged from the smirk of the woman before him that she knew he knew this and was quite pleased with the fact.

"Lyra," he mumbled unevenly, blinking as the image of the black-clad sorceress swam before his eyes. "What... Ashley," he breathed, his eyes sliding past her and widening with horror as they took in the crumpled form of the yellow ranger.

"Don't worry, she's not dead," Lyra informed him with a frown. He heard the unspoken "yet" at the end of her sentence and swallowed, desperately trying to think up a way to save her before he lost someone else that he loved.

His eyes closed as he felt her hands on his face, hissing in pain as her fingers came into contact with what felt like a large gash above his right eyebrow.

"You seem to have an affinity for head wounds," she remarked, sparing a glance at Ashley. "As well as an apparent fetish for the color yellow."

Andros bit back the retort on the tip of his tongue and stared ahead stoically, ignoring her as best he could with her breathing almost down his neck. He hoped she would grow bored with him if he didn't answer. He knew she would. He knew her.

He shivered involuntarily from the chill in the cell, and then realized he wasn't wearing nearly as much as he had been when he'd left the Megaship. "Where's my shirt?" he demanded.

"Psycho Red sliced you open with that blow." Lyra shrugged. "If you're going to be ungrateful about it, I could always let you bleed to death."

Andros glanced down at himself with a frown. Sure enough, the wound that he knew had stretched from his chest to his hip was gone without a trace. Suspiciously, he looked back at Lyra.

"Why'd you heal me?"

Her smile widened. "Half the things I have planned for you are only fun if you're alive."

He really didn't like the sound of that. "And Ashley? What did you do to her?"

"Nothing." Lyra shrugged. "Psycho Red attacked her when she was halfway through morphing. The backlash from the Power knocked her out cold."

Andros narrowed his eyes at her. "You really haven't done anything to her?"

"No." Her eyes glittered dangerously. "I'm having trouble deciding what I should do to her."

"Lyra..." Nausea swirled around in his stomach as he stared at her. "Let her go."

"Sorry." Lyra shrugged. "Hard to put a dagger through her heart when you don't behave yourself if she's not here, isn't it?"

"If that's all you want her for, let her go," he pleaded.

"As much as I enjoy hearing you beg..." She shook her head. "You won't even try to escape as long as she's here."

Andros glared at her. Lyra prodded his chest with her fingertips. "Well?" she demanded. "Am I right?"

He glowered at her, but looked away and muttered, "Yes."

"Much better." Lyra smirked at him before settling back against the wall. "I'd forgotten how much fun you could be."

Andros bit down hard on his lower lip to keep from retorting. He needed to concentrate on getting himself and Ashley off of this ship alive, and getting dragged into an argument with her wasn't going to help him in the least. He fixed his eyes firmly on Ashley and tuned out anything else Lyra might have said.

He didn't know how much time passed before the cell door clanged open. Cosmos locked the door behind him and leaned against the wall, his eyes moving from Ashley to Lyra to Andros.

"Hello, little brother." He smiled faintly when Andros scowled at him.

"I'm not your brother."

"You are," Cosmos sighed. "And there's nothing either of us can do about it."

"What do you want?" Andros growled in reply.

"We're still deciding that--but there's no need to hold back while we figure it out."

Andros glared at him, tugging hard on the chains holding him to the wall. "I will kill you if you hurt her."

"Don't make threats you can't keep," was all Cosmos said, his attention fixed on Ashley. "Can't you wake her up or something?"

"If you want me to." Lyra tilted her head towards Andros. "It kept him quiet to leave her like that."

Andros bit his lip hard; he wasn't going to answer that. And if they'd wake Ashley up, that would be one less thing for him to worry about.

Lyra knelt and laid one hand against Ashley's cheek, faint golden light flowing from one into the other. Andros held his breath when Lyra straightened up, but Ashley didn't stir.

"What's wrong with her?" he demanded, struggling vainly against the chains. "Why isn't she awake?"

"Your fault." Lyra shrugged. "Wore out my magic saving you. Don't worry, she'll be fine in half an hour."

"Until then, we'll just have to amuse ourselves with you," Cosmos continued for her. His eyes slid from Andros to Lyra. "What do we do with him now?"

She smiled coldly, and strode across the room until the tip of her nose brushed Andros's. He met her gaze without flinching, glaring furiously at her when she touched his cheek.

"I have the perfect idea." Lyra smirked at him. "It'll be fun."

Author's Note: Just two chapters to go, I think... I'll have the next one up as soon as I can, but it's just about time for finals and I really should be studying. I will update All I Am in the next few days, but I can't promise anything else until the 20th or so. Although, I actually wrote the first version of this scene way back in May instead of studying for the math final I had then, so who knows. ::smiles:: Original scene was far more twisted, too... Anyway, this story will be finished by New Years. I hope you like it, please review.