Ch. 13 Disappearance

Four years later Andros and Karone's relationships were growing stronger day by day. Karone had seen the biggest change in her brother since he had started dating Jenna and both her and their parents were glad for the change. Today they were going to their parents' anniversary party while their friends went to spend time with their own families.

"Did you remember the present?" Andros asked as they made their way towards the house.

"Of course," Karone replied, rolling her eyes. "Did you remember the card?" Andros nodded and they walked into their house.

"Mom, Dad!" Andros yelled. "We're home!"

"There's no need to yell," Alden stated as he walked out of the kitchen.

"Uncle Alden!" They both yelled, rushing over to hug their uncle.

"You two have sure grown a lot," he told them. "If it wasn't for the fact that you two are identical twins to your parents I would say you were two completely different kids."

Before either of them could reply Bella emerged from the kitchen and stated, "There are my babies."

"Awful big to be babies," Ajax corrected as he rounded the corner. Andros and Karone rushed over to hug their parents. Once their mother let them go they handed her the card and their gift.

"Well," she began, "what's this?"

"It's a present," Alden stated. "Ajax I thought you had a smarter woman than this." He could barely move out of the way fast enough to avoid being hit by the group of pillows that came flying his way.

"Got anymore remarks?" Bella questioned and he shook his head. "I'm starting to realize why he still doesn't have a wife."

"Can we please get back to this mystery present?" Ajax asked.

"Still can't stand a surprise huh?" Alden questioned but shut up quickly when Bella raised her hand. She carefully opened the present that her children had got for her and her husband and gasped when she saw what it was. It was two necklaces, almost identical to the ones she and Ajax had gotten them for their sixth birthday, that had two pictures, one of Andros and one of Karone. On the back of the necklaces Mom and Dad were engraved.

"Thank you," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes as she handed Ajax his necklace and put her own on. "We love them."

The next three hours were filled with laughter, stories, and threats, mostly toward Alden. Andros and Karone loved the opportunity to spend time with their parents and uncle mainly because while they did see their parents almost every day they never really just got to sit down with them and enjoy just being kids. It was all cut short as their communicators beeped.

"What is it?" Andros questioned, already feeling that this was going to be bad.

"There's a monster attacking," Xadrian reported. "We could really use some help."

"We're on our way," he replied and the turned to his parents. "Looks like we'll have to cut this reunion short. We'll come back as soon as we're done." Ajax and Bella nodded, watching as their children went into battle.

Suddenly the ground shook and Bella asked, "What was that?" Any answer that Ajax or Alden may have given was cut short by an explosion outside the front door.

"Stay here," Ajax ordered Bella as he and Alden went to see what was going on.

"You're coming with me," a monster announced as he smashed through the front door.

"Who are you?" Ajax questioned, trying to figure out any possible way that they might be able to escape.

"My name is Darkonda," he stated, "but that doesn't matter. Soon you will be part of the Alliance of Evil."

"Never," Ajax replied and Bella joined them just as Darkonda threw a blast their way. All three adults were rendered unconscious but Darkonda only teleported two of them away.

A little over an hour later Andros and Karone along with Jenna and Zhane returned to the house. They began running when they saw the fire trucks and the ambulance in front of the house. They were restrained as they got closer to the house and Andros began to fight harder as he saw a stretcher with a body bag being placed in the ambulance.

"Let me go!" Andros screamed but the police officers stood their ground. Jenna quickly made her way over to him and pulled him away from the same. Zhane did the same with Karone, after calling their friends, but she seemed to be in a state of shock. "Let me go! I have to get over there!" Jenna tightened her grip on Andros, her heart breaking as she felt her shirt dampen.

"It's okay," she whispered, silently praying that this was all some sort of nightmare. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the arrival of their teammates. Brylee stopped to help her and Zhane while Aalion and Xadrian went to find out exactly what was going on. By the time they made it back Andros was in the same state as Karone.

"Let's go home," Aalion stated soberly. They teleported to the Academy and everyone but Aalion escorted Andros and Karone to the team's REC room. Meanwhile, Aalion went to fill Kinwon in on the events of the day.

"Andros?" Jenna questioned, hoping to snap him out of his daze. Slowly, his eyes met hers and she shuddered at the emptiness that met her.

Suddenly Aalion rushed into the room and stated, "Alden is alive!" That snapped both Andros and Karone out of their dazes and they rushed for the door. They were stopped by Jenna and Zhane before they had made it far and were forced to sit back down.

"We need to see him!" Andros shouted, fighting against Jenna's hold.

"Listen," Aalion began, "I know that you want to know what happened but Kinwon told me that the doctors are saying that he needs emergency surgery and it will be a while before you can see him."

"We still want to be there," Karone whispered and Andros nodded in agreement. "And we need to know if the police have found out anything about Mom and Dad."

"We'll let you go on one condition," Jenna began, "you have to come back here when we decide. There's no need for you two to make yourselves sick. Especially now that we know Alden will probably be able to give us some clue as to what happened." Andros and Karone nodded, both willing to do anything just so they could get to the hospital to see their uncle with their own eyes. They made it to the hospital in record time, mostly because Kinwon had ordered that all the roads from the Academy to the hospital be closed to all other traffic.

"Are you the family of Alden Karovan?" a doctor asked as he walked out the door that led to the ICU.

"We are," Andros and Karone managed to croak out.

"Dr. Waldman," a familiar voice stated and Andros looked up to see Alasdair standing there, "why don't you go check on your other patients? I'll take care of this." When the other doctor left Andros and Karone rushed over and Alasdair wrapped them in his arms. "He'll be fine, I promise. He did hit his head pretty hard and there were some internal injuries but he'll be fine."

"Why did this happen to us?" Andros cried against his shoulder.

"I don't know, Dros," he whispered. "I don't know."

"Why are you here?" Karone questioned once they had all calmed down.

"Once I got the news I rushed over," he explained. "I promised Alden long ago that if anything ever happened to him I would be the doctor to take care of him." Alasdair noticed that Andros still looked scared and he turned his attention to getting him calmed down. "Will you be okay?" he asked Karone and she nodded. "Come on, Andros, let's go get something to drink." Alasdair led Andros to his temporary office and then used his phone to get a nurse to bring them some drinks. Once the nurse left their drinks Andros started crying again and Alasdair rushed over. "What's wrong?"

"I just don't understand why this stuff keeps happening to us," Andros sniffled. "I just don't know why bad things keep happening to people I love." He paused to scrub at his eyes and then continued, "Sometimes I think it would be better if I wasn't even around."
"Listen," Alasdair started, "I don't ever want to hear anything like that from you again. I know for a fact that everyone's life wouldn't be half as great without you. Jenna wouldn't be in love. Karone wouldn't have a to protect her from Zhane. And everyone on KO-35 wouldn't have the best red ranger. Now, the police searched your house and found some sort of alien residue. So, I think that your parents were kidnapped, not killed. Which means that you have to search for them like they searched for you. Okay?" Andros nodded and took a drink from his cup.

"When can we talk to Alden?" he questioned, now determined to find his parents as soon as possible.

"He'll probably need a couple of hours to wake up enough to understand," Alasdair answered, "After that he should be good to go. Although he does have a concussion I don't think it should affect his memory to much."

"I think I need to let Karone know I'm okay," Andros stated. "Maybe we can come up with a search plan before we talk to Alden." Alasdair nodded in agreement and they made their way back to the waiting room.

Two hours later Andros and Karone were allowed in to see their uncle. They were frightened when they saw all the tubes and wires but Alasdair assured them that he was fine. For the next thirty minutes Alden told them what he could remember about the attack and about the creature that had taken their parents. After about an hour it was obvious that Alden was forcing himself to stay awake so the rangers left the hospital to start searching for Bella and Ajax. Little did they know, they would be seeing them soon enough.

A/N: Please Review!