Disclaimer: Still not with the ownership, sadly. Sue not

Chapter 2

"Cassie!" Ashley squealed and rushed her best friend. The girls jumped up and down hugging each other and screaming. It took a whole 20 seconds for Carlos and TJ to recover from the shock of seeing their friend before they too joined ran over to Ashley.

Ashley escaped from Cassie's grasp, turned to the boys to give them a hug and was instantly smothered by both of them, "Guys, I kinda need to breathe."

"Oh right, sorry." Carlos and TJ released Ashley from the hug but didn't break contact completely. They just couldn't believe she was really here. "How long have you been here? Are you all right? What happened to you?" Carlos could barely contain himself; he was just so relieved to see Ashley safe.

Andros hung back through this display of affection. He wasn't interested in getting involved in their messy emotions. Andros was getting impatient. He wanted to get to repairing the ship before Astronema attacked again, "Look, we need to fix the ship before Astronema attacks again. You can carry on with your little reunion later."

TJ nodded, "Andros is right. We've got all the time in the world now. C'mon let's get patched up and get on to patching up the ship." Thankfully all of their wounds were superficial and there were no broken bones.

Once everyone was bandaged, they set out to different parts of the ship to repair the most critical damages first. All they had to do was get off the ground and out of orbit. Andros was mildly surprised that the Turbo rangers could manage most of the repairs without him holding their hands through it. It only took about two hours for the rangers to fix the ship to flying status. Andros decided that he would take the terran rangers back to earth, fix his ship, and take off and continue on his mission. He had already taken more time away from his search than he ever imagined.

Once they were assembled on the bridge, Andros took command, "Deca, set a course for earth, hyper-rush 9."

"Course set. Hyper-rush 9 will put too much strain on the accelerators. The safest hyper-rush is 7." Deca informed the red ranger.

"Fine, hyper-rush 7. What's the approximate travel time?" Andros was hoping that they'd be able to get to earth quickly, he didn't want to interact with these people longer than he had to.

"Approximate travel time is 24 hours." Deca seemed almost happy about this fact, while Andros was distinctly the opposite.

"Fine. Let me know when we're close, or if anything goes wrong." Andros tapped a few buttons on the console in front of him, and then left the bridge, leaving the Turbo rangers alone.

"Well since we've got the time," Cassie rounded on Ashley, "tell us what happened."

Ashley sighed, knowing this was coming, but still reticent to broach the painful subject. Ashley sat herself on the front console while Carlos, Cassie, and TJ sat down in the chairs facing her. Ashley took a deep breath and began, "Well after Divatox kidnapped me, I was thrown in a cell on her ship. I had no idea where we were going, but from the tiny porthole in my cell that we were in space. I was mostly ignored, but the one time Divatox did visit she had one of her piranhatrons leave an impression." Ashley lifted the left side of her sweat jacket to reveal a long scar running the length of her side, breast to hip, "Then I was knocked out. When I came to, there were metal lackeys in the cell. The picked me up and brought me to another room on another ship, where I was chained up to the ceiling. It was a while before anyone came in the room, but eventually she came in. A woman with purple hair and an ugly pleather outfit walked in with a green and black robotic thing. They talked at me a little, and then when the woman got bored, she ordered the sidekick to start getting physical." Ashley hesitated, this is where it hurt, and she knew that telling her friends what happened next would feel like she was reliving the abuse, but Ashley knew she would feel a little bit better after, "F-first he jammed the butt of his sword into my stomach, then he proceeded to cut all of my clothes off. He wasn't too gentle about it either, that's how I got the majority of my injuries. They left me to hang there for a while, my toes barely touched the floor, so I was in constant pain and completely exposed; I'm amazed my shoulders didn't dislocate no that I think about it. Anyways, the pair came back, I don't know how much time passed between beatings, but this time she participated. She used her staff, which channels her magic, and hit me a couple of times with lightning bolts. She laughed and greeny took over from there. They never did anything major, I think they were saving that for later. I don't know how long I was on their ship before Andros showed up. At that point I was only partially conscious and all of a sudden he ducked into the room, clearly avoiding something in the hallway. He didn't realize I was there at first" Ashley gave a small laugh and smiled slightly, "I shifted slightly, that caught his attention, he turned and he seemed to stare at me for minutes. In reality it was only seconds, but then he used his blaster and shot the chains. I was dazed and scared, so as soon as I hit the floor I scrambled to the nearest corner. He came after me, told me that he wasn't going to hurt me; he wrapped me in a nearby curtain, picked me up and carried me out of there. He brought me back here, treated my wounds, and then I guess you guys showed up." Ashley had stared at a particularly interesting spot on the console between her legs while she recounted her tale. She couldn't look her friends in the eye; it would've made it all the worse to say.

Carlos, TJ, and Cassie could only stare at her once she finished. Carlos was the first to speak, "Wow Ash… that's awful. You are so strong." Carlos put his hand on her knee, hoping to reassure her, but she flinched. Ashley was clearly still reliving it in her head.

"Hey, it's okay. We don't need to talk about this anymore. You know, we could all use some sleep. Deca, where can we sleep?" Cassie took hold of Ashley's hand as she nodded and slipped off the console.

"There are sleeping quarters on Mega deck 2." Deca replied evenly.

"Great come on. I know I'm beat." TJ led the way to the Mega lift.

On another level on the opposite side of the ship, Andros was brooding in the Observatory. He was less than thrilled with the length of the journey and intended to hide the whole time, "Deca, are you sure that we can't do hyper-rush 9?"

"Affirmative. The accelerators are not at 100 capacity, therefore, hyper-rush 9 would damage the accelerators further." Deca seemed to becoming impatient.

"Where are the terrans?" Andros was determined to know where they were at all times when they were on his ship.

"The rangers are on the bridge. Ashley appears to be talking a great deal while the others listen." Deca, knowing this would get a rise out of Andros, waited for the response.

"Rangers, you mean terrans. They aren't rangers anymore, they lost their power." Andros' voice was cold.

"Incorrect. While they no longer have the ability to access the power, the power is still in and responds to them." Deca replied.

"What are you saying?" Andros glared at the red eye, "You can't possibly be suggesting that I give them the astro morphers! That's ridiculous! They can't possibly handle astro morphers; they already lost their own terran morphers! Besides, Those morphers are meant for Karovan rangers only! What could they possibly know about being space rangers? They're terran rangers, it's completely different!" Andros was pacing back and forth in front of the couch fuming. He couldn't believe was Deca was suggesting he do!

"While it is true that the astro morphers were originally intended for Karovan rangers, that is not a current option. Also, the earth rangers lost their morphers because they were outnumbered, overwhelmed, and their power source was attacked in such a way that could not defend it. They have also proved adequate in repairing the ship, which shows evidence that they are capable of being space rangers." Deca sounded smug as she rebutted every single one of Andros' arguments.

Andros was at a loss for words. He knew Deca was right, but this was something he wasn't interested in discussing. Andros flopped down on the couch, fighting his urge to concede. He sighed in frustration and ran his hands through his hair, "I'm going to get some sleep. Alert me when we're close."

"Very well." Deca said as Andros dragged himself out of the observatory towards his room.

Seven hours later Andros woke up from his reoccurring nightmare of Karone's kidnapping. He was amazed he slept so long. Andros pulled on his boots and jacket and headed into the corridor when his stomach growled. He realized that in all the commotion he had forgotten to eat.

Andros was sitting in the hangar bay eating when all of a sudden Ashley appeared in the doorway. She was startled, "Oh, sorry I thought everyone was asleep."

"Apparently not." Andros replied not so nicely.

"Whatever." Ashley was in no mood to deal with his attitude. She went to the synthetron and order a drink, fully preparing to go back to her room without another word.

"Why are you up?" Andros was genuinely curious for some reason.

"Couldn't sleep. I've been walking around for about an hour." Ashley sat down on a stool across from Andros, "What about you?"

"I woke up and realized I was hungry. Besides, I don't need that much sleep. You should be resting though, you know with your injuries." Andros said. He only vaguely stared in Ashley's direction and he never made eye contact.

"Yeah, so I've been told. But sleep isn't really my friend at the moment, you know with the nightmares and all." Ashley frowned and shook her head like she was trying to shake images out of her head.

Andros finally looked at her, "Oh… yeah, sorry." Ashley looked up and was staring straight into his eyes. Andros felt like an electric current was running through his body, and he couldn't look away. The pain and sadness in her eyes seemed to draw him in further.

Ashley couldn't believe the depth of emotion she saw when she looked into Andros' eyes; she couldn't pick one from the other. Yet there was a warmth there, behind it all, and that's what kept her staring into his big brown eyes. She smiled sadly and looked away feeling vulnerable and exposed to him, "Well, I guess I'll go lie down. We still have quite awhile till we reach earth. Goodnight." Ashley smiled and rushed out of the hangar bay.

"Goodnight." Andros whispered after her. He didn't quite want to believe what just happened. A distraction like Ashley was something he did not need. Andros shook his head, hoping the erase the past five minutes, to no avail. He sighed, stood, returned his empty plate and cup to the synthetron, and left. Maybe a couple of training rounds on the simudeck would help him clear his head.

AN: So there it is. What'd ya think? I think I'll be able to post the next chapter relatively soon cause now I kind of have an idea of where I'm going and what I want to accomplish with this story. We'll see. Shiny Love!