Ashley watched the stars overhead, lost in thought. I wonder how many of those planets I've been to since becoming a ranger. How many of them have rangers? How many of them have surrendered or been captured by now? Is Earth truly the only planet left? Has the rest of the universe already surrendered? Has the rest of the entire universe already surrendered? Is this the last time I'll ever see the stars? What will happen tomorrow? Do we even have a chance of winning? One concern, however, was the biggest of them all.
Is Andros all right?
She lay on her blanket and shifted around, trying to get comfortable. The planning for the upcoming battle had not gone well. Carlos still believed that organizing the citizens was their best way to go, but TJ and Cassie were having none of it. They both refused to risk the lives of innocents. Zhane had kept drifting off in his own thoughts, and would only contribute ideas at random intervals. Probably still upset about losing the MegaWinger, and he's probably worried about Andros too. After all, they are best friends.
An especially bright star caught her eye. Could that be the Dark Fortress? Is Andros there now? Has he talked to Astronema yet? Did she catch him? Did she hurt him? Is he dead?
No. He couldn't be dead. If he was, I'd know. He's not dead. Ashley sat up. She couldn't just lay there and brood. Maybe a walk will clear my head, and I'll be able to sleep.
As she rose from her makeshift bed, she accidently kicked Cassie, who blinked at her. "Ash, what are you doing? Even Astronema is still asleep."
"Sorry Cass. Just going for a walk. Didn't mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep."
Almost before she finished speaking, Cassie had rolled over and fallen back asleep. Lucky. She falls asleep so easily. Wish I could tonight.
Walking around the area where they'd secreted themselves, Ashley couldn't help but remember her last conversation with Andros. Wait, it's not my last, because we'll have more. It's simply my most recent conversation.
Cassie was talking about the location of the velocifighters when I got a weird tingly feeling on the back of my neck. I looked around, and saw Andros sneaking away. I just knew he was going to leave. So I followed him and confronted him.
He seemed so surprised to see me. Like he actually thought he could sneak away, and none of us would notice. He couldn't even come up with a good excuse for where he was going. I could barely keep from crying as he left. I acted pretty confident that he'd come back, but inside, I definitely felt like this was the last time I'd see him. I memorized him.
And then he left, to go try to talk to his sister.
For some reason, Andros was convinced that he could get through to Karone, who was hidden somewhere inside Astronema. He thought talking to her was all he needed to do. Why doesn't he realize that Astronema's reprogramming removed the parts that made her Karone? That the . . . thing on the Dark Fortress was only the shell that his sister had been. All the goodness of Karone had been sucked out or repressed. Zhane was right. There is no more Karone.
Yet Andros hadn't been able to accept that. And she could almost understand why. He'd spent most of his life looking for his sister, and he'd finally found her. Now, she wasn't Karone anymore, and there was nothing he could do about it. He simply wasn't the type to give up.
She looked at the bright star again. Astronema, we're your friends. At least, we were Karone's friends. Dark Specter is gone. You don't have to fight anymore.
She came to a stop in her walking. On the other side of the debris was where the "ringleaders" of the Angel Grove civilians were. In the dying light of the campfire, she could just barely make out who they were. Bulk, Skull and that professor were there, as was Adelle. She could also pick out her math teacher, her physics teacher, TJ's baseball coach, Carlos's soccer coach, Cassie's voice teacher, and the new student teacher for her English class. They're all counting on us. They expect the Power Rangers to save them, like they always have. Like we always have.
But what if we can't?
Leaning against one of the few still standing walls, Ashley couldn't help but remember how much her life had changed in the past year. A year ago, she'd been the Yellow Turbo Ranger, under Dimitria, fighting to protect her home from the evil space pirate Divatox. Since then, her world had flipped upside down. She'd lost her powers and left home, going into outer space to get back Zordon. She'd told her parents that she was a Ranger. She'd been to countless planets and galaxies.
And she'd fallen in love.
And the one she loved had left on what could only be likened to a suicide mission, and she could only pray that it somehow turned out for the best. That she'd see Andros again.
She had fallen for him as soon as she'd seen him. I never thought that love at first sight had any chance of actually happening. How can you love someone before you've even gotten to know them?
But she had. She'd fallen hard and immediately. Andros did not have that instant reaction. It took me forever to break through that barrier around his heart. Of course, he had good reason for having it, since his sister had been kidnapped and his best friend had practically died trying to save him.
Surprisingly enough, what had finally induced Andros to actually admit his feelings was Zhane. It wasn't until Zhane and I became friends that Andros finally asked me out. We went to go check out Haley's Comet, and had a great time. After that, it was hard to keep us apart.
Except when he let his obsession with finding his sister take over. When he thought he was close to finding Karone, nothing any of us said could convince him to take a few extra precautions. He went to Onyx to find Darkonda, he went to KO-35 to meet with Astronema, he brought her onto the ship, he had us go to Utoba, where Zordon supposedly was . . .
And he went to the Dark Fortress tonight, to try to talk to Karone. And all he'll find is Astronema.
Staring at the bright star, she realized that the other stars she could see earlier had faded away. Dawn was coming. All too soon, Astronema would be back and demand their surrender. And they still didn't have a plan.
Ashley gradually became aware that her hands had taken on a mind of their own and had begun fiddling with her necklace. Her birthday present from Andros. He had seemed so nervous when he gave it to me. Almost as if he was expecting me to hate it. But it's wonderful. Much better than the fire extinguisher that Carlos gave me. A fire extinguisher! Right! Where's the thought in that?
That had been such an odd birthday. The high point of Andros's present, the low point of getting kidnapped by Ecliptor, and the general weirdness of looking like Astronema. I never thought that I'd be glad for Elgar's stupidity, but he really came through then.
She couldn't see the bright star anymore. The sky in the east was much lighter than at the beginning of her walk. It's almost morning. What's going to happen to us? Will the people of Angel Grove really surrender us? What if we can't save them?
What if Andros doesn't succeed? There's no way he can get around the reprogramming Karone went through. Like TJ said, she'll destroy him on sight.
Andros, you have to come back to us. To me. If you can hear me, just, be careful. There's so much of our lives left. So much that we haven't done. You're too young to die. We all are.
She shivered, suddenly remembering that she was wearing a short skirt and a sleeveless shirt. At the camp, she could see Skull sitting up, awake already. She could also hear movement coming from the rangers' camp.
The day was starting. The day that would bring so much. It could be good. It could be bad. But whatever happened, it would change her life and the lives of her friends forever. She didn't know how. She didn't even know why she knew.
But today was the day.
Making her way back to camp, a single thought ran through her head.
Andros, just come back to me.