Andros pulled Karone close to him, wrapping his arms around her. He tried to comfort her and stop her crying but maybe its what she needed. Maybe she needed to get it all out. He looked up at Zhane.
"Can you give us a minute?" he asked of his friend. Zhane looked aprehensive for a moment but nodded and headed towards the bridge. Quietly, Andros led Karone to his room and sat her on the bed.
Andros sat next to her, and the tears finally stopped pouring out of her eyes. "Looks like I am just as weak as I was before,"
"Karone, what are you talking about?" Andros said gently.
"If it wasn't for Zhane following me, I could have been kidnapped again, and all that I found out about you guys…they could have used against you," She whispered.
Karone leaned her head on Andros' shoulder. "But the good thing is that you didn't get caught, and that you are safe here," Andros said wrapping an arm around her.
"Well I may be safe, but what about Ecliptor? He is not safe, and Dark Spector has him," she snapped.
"I...I don't know. I think we have to worry about ourselves right now. Dark Specter is going to try and come after us again," Andros sighed. He still didn't like the fact that Karone was being protective of Ecliptor.
"We need to be ready for him," he added, brushing a lock of her short hair out of her face.
"I know we do...but I just can't shake the image of Ecliptor from my head. He was...so different. It scared me," she admitted.
Andros nearly let out a sigh. He knew he should be a little more supportive of his little sister's feelings about Ecliptor, but he couldn't shake off the images of him and Ecliptor fighting each other.
"He had all these machine parts, covering his eyes…and his voice was so cold and unemotional. He tried to hurt me Andros. Even when I was a child, he never was that cold," Karone said rubbing at her eyes again, tears forcing themselves to come out of their eyes. Andros wrapped his arms around his little sister, not wanting to say anything to make her snap or become angry with him.
"We'll save him, I promise," he breathed in her ear. He wasn't sure it was a promise he could keep but he would try.
"Thank you," Karone sniffled, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. Suddenly there was a knock on the door before it opened.
"Just thought you might want to know that Ecliptor and Darconda are attacking Angel Grove," Zhane informed them.
Andros nodded towards his friend, and pulled away from the hug. "Alright we are going, we will talk more when I get back," he promised his little sister, and started to head out her bedroom door.
"You think I am just going stay here? I may be a little shaken up, but I am still a Power Ranger whether you like it or not. I am going," Karone instantly said getting up.
"Karone I am not letting you put yourself in danger again," Andros said gently grabbing her hand again, and started leading her back towards her bed. She shook his arm away, and glared at him.
"I don't think that is your choice," Karone snapped back.
"It was my choice to let you go, and you nearly got captured again because of me,"
"I would have gone even if I didn't have your blessing. I would have sneaked out," Karone shot back. "I am going," Before Andros could even put in a word, Zhane stepped in.
"Now is not the time to be fighting each other. We need to get to Earth with the others, and having one more hand to help fight couldn't hurt," Zhane said briskly.
Andros sighed but nodded, leading Karone to the teleportation room.
"Just be careful," he told his sister before they headed to Earth after the rest of the team. They landed and saw the other Rangers doing battle with Quantrons.
"Man those things are really annoying aren't they," Karone commented. She looked herself over, the first time had morphed as herself.
Cool, she thought to herself. She went into the battle and saw a Quantron trying to sneak up on Cassie, and took it out with a roundhouse kick. "Thanks," Cassie quickly said before heading out again at the Quantrons.
Karone dodged another strike from one of the Quantrons, and grabbed it's weapon, twisted it's arm, and use the weapon against it. She turned and saw Ecliptor, attacking some of the townspeople. "Ecliptor stop!" she shouted at Ecliptor.
Ecliptor didn't even turn towards her, and Karone ran at him grabbing one of his arms, giving the civilian a chance to run away. "Get a hold of yourself!" she shot at him, knocking his legs out from under him.
Andros watched as Karone knocked Ecliptor off his feet. Did she ever give up? He ran at a cluster of Quantrons, sending them scattering like startled geese.
"You're coming with me!" Darconda cackled, trying to grab Karone by the arm.
"Get your hands off me!" she shouted, managing to elbow him in the gut.
"Karone!" Zhane shouted, rushing to her aid. He grabbed Darcond by the arm and flipped him onto his back. He called for his weapon and had at the villian as if he was trying to butcher meat. Finally Darconda disappeared.
"Thanks," Karone said, breathless.
"Any time," Zhane said, a smile in his voice.
"He'll be back though," she groaned.
"What are you talking about? He looks pretty dead to me," Zhane said confusion entering into his voice.
"He has more than one life! He is going to come back again," Karone explained quickly. Ecliptor was back on his feet and started to head for Zhane. She pulled Zhane out of the way, and kicked away the sword from Ecliptor's grip.
"Ecliptor, you need to snap out of it!" Ecliptor ignored Karone's plea, and swung at her face. Karone ducked, and saw Zhane fly over head, kicking Ecliptor in the face.
Zhane shook his head. This was pointless. Ecliptor wasn't going to listen to a word Karone said. The rest of the Rangers had sufficiently beaten the Quantrons into submission. Ecliptor stumbled backwards and made to reach for his sword but Andros hit him in the back with his blaster. The creature fell to to his knees in defeat He quickly disappeared.
"I wonder what that was about," Carlos commented as he and the rest of the team joined Zhane, Andros and Karone.
"I have no idea," Ashley replied. She looked around. The civilians that had been under attack had gotten to safety and the Quantrons had disappeared once Ecliptor had left.
"Let's get back to the ship," Andros instructed. They teleported back to the ship and Karone felt a little out of place being with the other rangers, not sure what to do as they bustled around.
Ashley saw Karone, and saw her face in a mask of confusion. "You ok?" Karone stood there.
"Can we go talk somewhere?" Karone asked quickly.
"Sure," Ashley answered and followed Karone back to her room.
"What's up?" the Yellow Ranger asked.
"You're pretty close to Andros, right?" Karone asked nervously.
"I guess so, yeah."
"Does he keep his promises?" Karone wanted to know. Ashley looked at Karone, she looked nervous.
"Well I am not sure if this counts as one, but he promised to find and save you one day, and he did," Ashley said, hoping that it would be enough for her. "Besides that, he has always been truthful to what he has said," Ashley added. Karone didn't look that much at ease, and Ashley knew something was up. "Why do you ask?"
Karone sighed, "It is just that, I was talking about what happened when I went into the Dark Fortress. They changed him Ashley, did something to his mind," Karone sighed again. "After I was done, he promised he would save Ecliptor,"
Ashley stared at Karone for a moment. She could see why Karone was asking. She wasn't sure herself if Andros could keep that promise, no matter how hard he tried.
"Well...I'm honestly kind of shocked he said that," Ashley remarked.
"But he loves you and I'm sure he's going to try the hardest that he can to keep it," she added, taking Karone by the hand.
"You sure?" Karone asked, sounding not so sure.
"Yeah," Ashley replied.
On the brdige Andros was staring at the main viewing screen, the stars passing them by. He didn't hear Zhane walk up to him.
"What's up with you?" the blond asked.
"I made Karone a promise I don't know if I can keep," Andros answered automatically.
"What kind of promise?" Zhane inquired.
"That I would save Ecliptor," his best friend replied.
"Oh," Zhane said, thinking that was going to be a hard promise to keep. "I don't think Karone is going to expect you to hold up to your promise," Zhane said.
"I don't know, it's just I don't want to do anything to get her any more mad at me," Andros said sighing.
"Andros, come on. She's still getting used to being good. It's going to take some time," Zhane tried to reassure his friend.
"I just don't know...honestly...I don't know how to be an older brother," Andros confessed. Zhane had to keep himself from making some snide remark.
"Just give it time," Zhane muttered and disappeared from the room. Zhane started to walk past Karone's room when Ashley and Karone popped out. "Whoa," Zhane said stopping before they crashed into him.
"Sorry Zhane," Ashley instantly apologized. "Hey, you know what I am going to see how Andros is doing, so see you guys later," Ashley said zig zagging away from Zhane and Karone.
: Zhane watched Ashley walk away. He hoped she could cheer him up. He was way too depressed and moody lately. He turned back to look at Karone.
"How are you holding up?" he asked, beginning to walk towards the simu-deck.
"I don't know...I mean...Andros promised me that he would save Ecliptor but I don't know how he can," she explained in big breath.
"I know he is going to try and do everything he can to keep that promise. I've been his best friend for years," Zhane assured her.
"That's what Ashley said," Karone mused. As they entered the simu-deck she was struck with an idea. She wasn't sure she could convince the rest of the Rangers to go along with it but she might be able to at least get Zhane on her side. He caught the glint in her eye and stopped what he was doing.
"What are you thinking?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well," Karone started, "I was thinking about when I was Astronema…and all the horrible things I did as her," Zhane cut her off though.
"Karone you aren't that person anymore," Zhane said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Oh it's not that this time," Karone quickly explained. "I was thinking about what Astronema had planned on doing…before I finally came to my senses...and came back to Andros, and becoming a Power Ranger."
"Oh ok. So what was she planning?" Zhane asked, now interested.
"She had plans to drain Dark Spector's powers…creating pretty much an evil version of the Power Rangers, to combat you and drain his powers until the point he died. I still think we could use that plan, but in a different way…"
Zhane stared at her. Was she crazy? How could that possibly work? And he was pretty sure none of the other rangers would agree to such a plan.
"Did you hit your head or something? That's crazy. No one would agree to that," Zhane protested.
"But think about it...if we destroy Dark Specter then he can't take over the universe. And we might actually have a chance at saving Ecliptor," Karone explained, grabbing his hand.
"I don't know..."Zhane trailed off.
"Please say you'll help me," she begged, leaning up and giving him a kiss on the lips. He blinked in shock. He had not been expecting that.
"Uh...ok," he answered.
Come on," Karone said, dragging Zhane with her back towards the bridge. The sooner they got the rest of the team on board with her plan the better.
"Wait...I was going to work out," Zhane whined.
"You can work out later," she retorted as they reached the bridge. Ashley and Andros appeared to be in deep conversation.
"Guys...can we talk to you?" Karone interrupted. Andros and Ashley looked up at the sound of her voice.