Return of an Old Evil
Disclaimer: Same as chapter 12.
A/N: I hope everyone likes the story so far!
Chapter 13
The room was filled with gasps of horror. "DECA, can you shut it down?" TJ asked the ship's AI.
"I'm afraid not," DECA responded regretfully. "I cannot access it from where it is. You all are going to have to find it in order to stop it.
"Oh shit!" Rocky exclaimed loudly as Jason and the others rushed in, having heard the alarms on the Simudeck and wanting to find out what was going on.
"We must go now, there's no time to lose!" Andros cried urgently, dashing for the door with the others right behind him.
In the Medical Bay, as soon as the alarms started going off, Astronema leapt to her feet. She looked around wildly; she didn't have a clue as to what was going on. Just then, she heard the sound of running footsteps in the hallway and dashed to the door.
"What the hell's happening?" She shouted as the others ran by.
Andros paused just long enough to answer. "There's a bomb in the hangar bay!"
She paled and looked frantically toward Zhane, still unconscious, and quickly back to he brother. She was torn. She wanted to help, but didn't know if she should leave Zhane. After a few seconds of deliberation, she yelled for Alpha to keep an eye on Zhane and rushed after the others.
A few moments later, they arrived in the hangar bay. DECA, where is it!" Andros yelled, looking around wildly.
"The energy readings are coming from close to the backup storage area," the AI replied. Everyone immediately headed that way. "I am unable to pinpoint the exact location."
TJ, get the scanner and set it for explosives. Hurry!" Andros yelled and TJ took off running to the primary storage closet as they frantically began to search the specified area.
"This is hopeless!" Kim cried in despair.
"We can't give up, Kim," Tommy responded as TJ ran up, the handheld scanning device in hi right hand.
"Here it is!" he said breathlessly, holding it up.
Andros took it from him quickly turned it on. He began to run it over the entire area until it began beeping shrilly. He zeroed it in on that spot. It was a small access panel. "It's behind this panel, help me get it off!" he yelled to no one in particular.
Jason pushed forward and wrenched the cover off. Andros handed him the scanner and dug hurriedly around inside, and in a few seconds, pulled out a small black box about half the size of a shoebox with a timer on it that read 0: 30 and counting down. "Here it is!" He cried.
Billy stepped forward quickly and held out his hand. "Here, allow me," he said and Andros passed it to him without a word. He opened the access panel and studied the wires for all of five seconds before getting to work.
"Hurry, Billy!" Trini urged him.
"You can do it, Billy!" Kat added.
Billy didn't respond as he continued his delicate work. "Wire cutters," he demanded, looking up briefly. Ashley rushed to get him a pair and when she gave them to him he began cutting a series of five wires one by one. When the last one was cut, the timer stopped at 0:04 and everyone present let out a big collective sigh of relief.
"Whew, that was too close," Cassie said, wiping sweat off her brow.
TJ slipped his arm around her. "You're telling me," he replied.
"How the hell did a bomb get in here anyway?" Jason asked loudly.
"That's what I'd like to know," Carlos said.
Billy, who had been examining the bomb, spoke up. "I think I know who's responsible. Take a look at this," He told them gravely. He held the diffused bomb out to the others, indicating several drops of purple goo on the back.
The sight caused several gasps of horror. "Ivan Ooze," Rocky said, stating the obvious.
"But how did he do it?" Andros asked. "No one enters the ship without DECA knowing about it."
"He did it because he didn't enter as a person," Tommy answered the confused Andros.
"Huh? Andros and Cassie asked at the same time.
"Ivan has the ability to liquefy himself into purple ooze," Billy explained. "My guess is that that's what he did to get in."
"But she still should have detected the bomb," Ashley objected.
Billy shook his head. "Not if entered the bomb in his liquefied state, and shielded it from detection with his ooze," He pointed out.
"He can do that?!" Carlos's voice was incredulous.
"Unfortunately, yeah," Billy replied.
"Damn it!" TJ swore. "That means we're not even safe on the ship anymore!"
"Then what are we going to do?" Ashley asked, sounding terrified.
"What can we do?" Carlos asked. "We're basically sitting ducks now!"
"I don't know, but I'm really scared," Cassie added.
"Maybe we should abandon ship," TJ suggested uncertainly.
Andros spun to face him. "No! We're not abandoning ship!" He said hotly.
"But Andros, we're not safe here," TJ insisted.
"We'll figure some---," Andros began but was interrupted by Billy.
"Actually, we're quite safe here. I can, with DECA's help, set it up so she can detect him in liquefied form and his ooze," he said.
"Can you really do that?" Andros asked him. "That would be great!" f
"It would save our asses," Carlos added.
"Yeah, I really can, thanks to these drops of ooze he left behind on the bomb," Billy assured them.
"Then I'll help you," Andros told him.
Bill nodded. Thank you, Andros."
Just then, Alpha's voice came over the intercom. "Rangers, Zhane's awake!" His words were met with cheers.
"He's actually awake?" Astronema repeated.
"Yes, Astronema, he is," Alpha replied. "He's confused; as I'm sure you could guess." At that, she took off running for the Medical Bay. The others were right behind her.
When she arrived, she saw Zhane was indeed awake. He was pale and looking scared.
"What's going on?" he asked, his voice weak.
"Oh Zhane!" she cried and rushed to his side.
"Astronema! Is that you?" he asked, hearing the familiar voice.
She took his hand in hers and squeezed gently. "Yes it is," she told him. "I'm here."
"There was all these alarms going off and it was so loud and I didn't know what was going on and I got scared and my head hurts!" He rambled.
"Shhh," she soothed him, gently smoothing out his hair. "You're going to be just fine. Andros told me so."
"But what happened? I know something happened! Tell me, was it Ivan Ooze?" he demanded. "And why does my head hurt? And why am I dizzy?"
The rangers exchanged glances with each other, not certain how much they should tell him. They didn't want to disrupt his recovery by getting him all worked up or something. Finally Andros sighed.
"Yes, Zhane, something did happen. Ivan planted a bomb on the ship." Zhane looked horrified and ready to leap up so Andros hurried on. "But we got were able to get to it in time and Billy diffused it. And your head hurts and you're dizzy because you have a concussion. You also suffered four cracked ribs, contusions of the shoulder and a bruised pelvis on the right side. Do you remember the last battle?" he asked his best friend.
"I think so," Zhane replied. "We were fighting Tengus and Oozemen and I got slammed into a wall. Then everything went black."
Andros nodded. "Yeah, then we brought you back here for treatment."
"But before that, I heard Astronema. She spoke to me!" He insisted. "And then everything went black again. When we got here I woke up again but I couldn't see her." He looked accusingly at Andros. "And you wouldn't tell me where she was. I asked and asked, but you wouldn't tell me!" His voice rose in anger as he got to the last part. "And then you did something, because then I blacked out again and didn't wake up until now. What did you do to me?"
"I sedated you." Zhane looked at him in disbelief. "I had to. You were thrashing around so much that you would have injured yourself further if I didn't," Andros replied.
"But why the hell wouldn't you tell me where Astronema was and let me see her?"He all but screamed back.
Ashley stepped forward. "Because first he had to find out how bad you were hurt and start treatment; that was the most important thing. Then he was going to tell you," she explained.
"And also, she wasn't here at that time," Cassie added and the blushed. "We were so worried about you that we teleported you here so fast and just kind of left her there."
Astronema nodded. "Then Ivan showed up screaming at me for helping you. I screamed back and after a brief shouting match we started to fight," she said, continuing the story.
Andros spoke up. "Then DECA alerted us to the fight. We saw that you were in serious trouble and had her teleport you here."
"After we made sure you were okay, we went to the bridge to discuss strategy, only Astronema refused to leave your side, and we did that until DECA sounded the alarms and alerted us to the bomb. The rest you know."
Zhane looked at Astronema. "You really helped us?" He asked her.
She nodded firmly. "Yes. I was monitoring the battle on the Dark Fortress. When I saw you go down, it scared me to death. I just told Ecliptor that there was something I had to do and strode out of the room and down the hall and teleported straight to the battle."
"Wow," Zhane said. He looked Astronema straight in the eye despite his dizziness and pain. "But you never did before. Why did you do it now? You treated me like garbage!" He cried, his eyes bright with unshed tears.
"Zhane, she's the Princess of Evil," Andros reminded him. "Her goal is destroy us, not help us."
"Andros, could you please give us some privacy. Astronema and I need to discuss some things alone."
"Yeah, sure," he replied and gestured to the others and Alpha. They all left the room and closed the door, leaving Zhane and Astronema alone.
"Well, why did you?" Zhane repeated once they were alone.
"Because I was a fool!" She burst out. "Ever since that day in the campsite, I've been feeling things that I've never felt before. These feelings scared me so I tried to run from them and hide from them. On top of that, I was afraid Dark Specter would think me unworthy to serve him, so I just kept attacking you guys like nothing happened."
"Okay, I get all that, but what changed it? I mean, something had to have happened or you wouldn't have helped me." He wanted to know.
"Yes, something happened. I saw you get hurt." Her voice choked up and she had to stop to take a breath before continuing. "I've never been as scared as I was when I saw you go down and not get back up. It felt like my heart just stopped and in that instant, I Just knew I could no longer fight or hide the fact that I'm in love with you. So I teleported myself down there and blasted the hell out of Ivan's henchmen." By now, tears were streaming down her face.
"Oh Astronema," Zhane murmured, reaching up to brush the tears away. The gesture just made her cry harder, though. "I'm in love with you, too. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you or missing you since that day in the campsite. I've felt such a connection to you since that day. Not that I've wanted to. I've never felt this way about anyone before and I have never wanted anything as much as I want to be with you." Zhane was crying as well by the time he finished speaking. He reached out and drew her close.
Astronema snuggled against him and kissed his cheek. He responded by kissing her on the lips. The kiss was long and deep and left both of them aching for more as they pulled back to catch their breaths.
But Zhane had one more question for her first. "But what about Dark Specter? He asked." What happens when he finds out, which we both know he will eventually, one way or another?"
"We'll deal with that when it happens, not before," she said, caressing his cheek. "All I know is that whatever happens, I'm not going to lose you, no matter what," she said firmly. "It's just not an option."
Zhane gazed at her, his eyes full of love. "I love you, My Princess," he murmured tenderly.
Astronema's eyes mirrored his. "I love you too, my Silver Knight," she replied lovingly. No more was said as their lips came hungrily together again and Astronema lay down next to him on the bed. They continued kissing hungrily and passionately until Zhane drifted off to sleep almost ten minutes later.
While this was going on, the other rangers had went back to the bridge to talk about the bomb and what Ivan's next move could be as well as Zhane and Astronema.
"What do you think is going on with them?" Jason asked Andros.
"What do you suppose they're doing in there?" Adam wondered at the same time.
Andros shook his head. "I don't know, but judging from both their actions over the past several hours as well as Zhane being upset and sad lately, I can almost say for certain that something happened between them not long ago," he said.
Cassie looked thoughtful. "Do you think that's why he refused to talk about it?" She ventured. "I mean, it make sense if something did happen between them."
Andros nodded. "Yeah, it does make sense Cassie. And we to find out exactly what in order to fully understand what's happening with them now," he stated.
A/N: What will happen when Andros and the others find out exactly what happened between Zhane and Astronema that day in the campsite? Will it disrupt the team? I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions! If I like them, I just may use them! Stay tuned for chapter 14! And as always, please click that little button and leave me feedback!