A\N: This is up on AO3, but I wanted to see if anyone was interested over here. Please review if you are-reviews are candy!
She had defeated the Rangers.
Astronema considered them. Her mind was growing fuzzy. The heat, she vaguely realized..."Take the Rangers to the Dark Fortress, Elgar." She ordered. "Team 12 Alpha." The Quantron stepped forward. "Take everyone back up to the Fortress. We'll plot the trajectory of the satellite from there and vaporize it from a fighter ship."
She followed her own orders, teleporting out, and then she must have lost track of time, because Ecliptor was saying something and guiding her to a seat, pressing something cold into her hand. Liquid. Astronema drank, suddenly thirsty, and Ecliptor replaced the cup, and she drank that, too.
"My Princess? Can you hear me?"
Astronema mumbled something. "Heat exhaustion." She tried again. "I got too hot."
"Yes. Here, lay down." Astronema complied and realized she was in med bay. "Sleep. Drink when you wake. There was an alert a minute ago, I have to go."
Astronema sighed. "Elgar." She said disgustedly. The idiot.
"Probably."
Astronema let her eyes drift closed.
One of the med androids woke her to drink again, and then she dozed instead of sleeping, half-awake and half-not. There was some annoyance going on; from the sound of it, it was busy and messy but not dangerous. The med androids were talking irritably about how half the Quantrons and herself had gotten near heatstroke on that damned planet because Elgar had run the mission too long...
There was a crash. Astronema opened her eyes.
Somehow, against every bit of logic, the Red Ranger was standing in the med bay doors.
"Oops," He said.
Astronema's training kicked in before her mind did. She summoned her staff, sweeping onto her feet and attacking. Unfortunately, Black Ranger crashed into Red from behind, asking, "Dude, what-?", and Astronema tripped into both of them.
There was a flash of light and suddenly they were not in the nice dark, cool medbay.
Astronema groaned.
"Astronema!" Someone shouted.
Black Ranger screamed like he'd seen a spider and tried to scrabble away. Red tried to grab her in a hold. Astronema punched him in the balls. He shrieked, and Astronema tried to scrabble up, only to end up tangled as he tried to grab her. She retaliated, punching anything she could get her hands on, and at one point trying to bite him.
Someone looped an arm around her waist and physically hauled her up.
"Put me down!" Astronema shrieked.
"Someone wanna tell me how she came along?" Blue Ranger asked.
"I don't know, she just crashed into us!" Black complained, supporting Red. Unmorphed, they were about Astronema's age, and clearly not very well trained if she was still nearly slipping out of Blue's grasp. He was surprisingly good at grabbing her when she slipped away, though.
"Where did you two even—ack." Blue stopped asking questions and finally wrestled Astronema down onto the ground. "Could you stop fighting already?" He demanded.
"Let go of me!" Astronema demanded. Her head was swimming for some reason. She needed to keep...
She pulled on her magic, trying to stay awake, to heal herself.
The power of storm and lightning surrounded her and she drifted away.
#
"Dude," Carlos said, breaking the silence, "Is she glowing?"
All of them had backed off. Astronema was standing, eyes closed, glowing. Yup, definitely glowing, Carlos decided.
"I think she did a healing spell." Andros volunteered. He walked up to her, holding up his morpher. "If I can scan her, this will tell me—ACK!"
Astronema, as soon as Andros was in arms reach, collapsed on him and grabbed him like a toddler holding a teddy bear.
"Uh. Help?" Andros said.
TJ walked up and gently tried to pry Astronema off. Her hand snapped up, and lightning crackled, aimed at him.
TJ backed off. Astronema sighed happily and went back to glomping Andros.
"Maybe we'll get more luck if we get them down to medbay?" Cassie suggested hopefully.
"Why is she attacking me?" Andros asked plaintatively.
"Snuggling." Carlos told him, snickering. "The word in English is 'snuggling' you." Like a five-year-old with a teddy bear, he manfully refrained from adding.
Ashley made a sound that was definitely her trying to smother a laugh.
"Okay, come on. Let's get you two near a scanner." Cassie said, gently looping an arm around the two of them and starting them moving. "Here, Andros, you help me move her."
"Why is she clinging to me?"
"I have no idea how you think we can answer this question." TJ said.
Ashley gave up and burst out laughing.
"The satellite knows too much!" Astronema burst out.
Suddenly they were all staring in confusion again.
"Uh. The satellite knows what now?" Andros asked hopefully.
Astronema blinked at him. Her eyes were glowing purple. "You know," Carlos said conversationally, "She might not really be awake right now."
"Awake." Astronema parroted. "I'm awake. The satellite. It was spying. Should not. Should not have been spying. That was not something I want America knowing. America needs to. Needs to mind its own business."
"Whyyy?" Andros asked slowly.
"It's a weapon." Astronema said, sounding slightly annoyed. "America doesn't need weapons. America needs a plague of lobsters."
Everyone tried valiantly to parse this.
"Hang on. You shot the satellite because it saw a weapon? Not Zordon?" Carlos asked, to confirm.
Astronema 'looked' at him. "There are rules. You don't get weapons. Not until your country joins the galaxy. That's a rule. Because...because otherwise things go boom. Bad boom. Not fun boom."
"Ooookay." Cassie said. "Come on, let's try going to the medbay now, okay?"
Astronema nuzzled Andros' shoulder. "I have the snuggliest kitty-cat."
"DECA, please tell me you're getting footage of this." Ashley asked quietly.
"That's not a kitty-cat, that's Andros." Cassie said patiently. "Did you hit your head?"
"Nooo." Astronema said, glancing up, eyes still glowing. "Heat exhaustion. 'Cliptor said. Heat. Not concussion. Too hot on the planet. Elgar kept. Kept fucking up. Too hot and your brain. Isn't happy."
"Okay, come on. Let's go sit down and drink some water."
"Water?" Astronema asked.
"...H2O?" Cassie tried. "Uh. Come on, let's just-"
Andros said something in Kerovian.
"Oh." Astronema said, then a word in Daos'e. "Water." She added.
"How do you know Kerovian and not English?" Carlos asked rhetorically.
Astronema laughed. "Was Kerovian. Am. Was. Don't know. Planet died. Rangers killed them..." She sniffed Andros' hair. "Kitty. Nice smelling kitty."
"You...are Kerovian?" Andros asked, sounding scandalized.
"Kitty!" Astronema suddenly said at top volume.
"Here." Ashley said, finally recovering from the quiet laughing her ass off she'd been doing before. "Tanya taught me some magic stuff. I think she just did the spell wrong and it's making her a bit drunk." She gestured, and yellow magic flowed around them both.
Astronema collapsed, and Andros caught her.
Astronema blinked. Her eyes, and the rest of her, were no longer glowing. "What the fuck?" She asked.
"You're going to sit down and drink some water." TJ said, picking her up and steering her over to the kitchen. "And then I'm going to ask what in the hell that weapon the satellite saw is."
"Wait, what?"
Carlos glanced at Ashley. "So...DECA recorded that, right?" He asked.
"I really hope so." Ashely agreed.
