Power Rangers Fan Fiction ❯ Too Great A Leap ❯ Center of Absolute Morality ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

But it was a slippery slope, Cassie knew. She was on the verge of trusting Astronema, and she found herself feeling the first pangs of grudging admiration for Ecliptor. But they were the exception to the rule; most of the other monsters that she had fought were not worthy of the same consideration.

�Were they?

Non Anime: Power Rangers Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Angst | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 07.31.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 434 | Status: Work In Progress

“So, what exactly do you have to do?” Cassie asked Ecliptor as they stepped into the Engine Room. “Sorry, I have to ask. Andros would kill me if I broke his ship.”

Astronema smiled almost imperceptibly. Ecliptor grunted with annoyance.

“I must siphon a small quantity of your engine power in order to initiate my auto-regeneration process.”

Cassie nodded, quietly impressed. So that's why he's able to show up to kick our butts so often, she realized.

“Uh, alright, then. Alpha?”

“Way ahead of you, Cassie. Right this way,” Alpha said, holding out his hand to Ecliptor. As expected, he did not take Alpha's hand, and the smaller robot shrugged.

“Well, hey, no reason for all of us to stick around, is there?” Cassie asked Astronema with forced cheerfulness. “How about if we just wait outside?”

Astronema looked at Cassie incredulously, but said nothing.

The two women exited the Engine Room, and Cassie sighed and leaned up against the doors, stretching her arms in front of her.

Astronema took a few tentative steps toward the Pink Ranger, and frowned.

“What?” Cassie asked.

“I'm surprised you trust him,” Astronema said, one eyebrow raised. “I thought you'd think this was a trap.”

“Well, it's not, is it?”

Astronema shook her head.

“Then, see? Nothing to worry about.” Cassie smiled. “I just hope you're telling the truth; I'm way too tired to fight anymore. I could just fall asleep right here.”

She yawned and slid down against the wall into a seated position. She stretched her legs out in front of her and reached for her toes.

Astronema awkwardly continued to stand, and Cassie let out a little laugh.

“Come on, sit down. You must be tired, too.”

Astronema involuntarily took a step back and bit her lip. Cassie sighed. Becoming Astronema's friend was going to be much harder than she'd thought.

She heard Alpha speaking in his usual cheerful manner, and a garbled counter by the increasingly irritated Ecliptor. She smiled and shook her head.

“Somehow, I don't think they're gonna come out of this best friends.”

Astronema looked at her, confused.

“You know. Those two,” Cassie clarified, pointing at the door.

“Oh.” Astronema said no more.

It was Cassie's turn to bite her lip, and she sighed.

“Look, Ast—Karone, I'm sorry.”

“Why?” Astronema asked.

“I… I guess you're not in the mood for jokes.”

“I suppose not,” Astronema said quietly.

Cassie looked down one hall, then the other. Time was passing excruciatingly slowly, and she noticed that Astronema's gaze kept shifting from the floor, to the door of the Engine Room, back to the floor.

“You guys…” Cassie said, clearly her throat awkwardly. “You guys must be close, huh?”

“Close?” Astronema asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Yeah. I mean, you and him.”

Astronema paused.

“I-I suppose so. I've known him ever since…” she trailed off. “For years, my very first memory was of him.”

“Yeah? That's… that's good.”

Astronema frowned.

“Good, I mean, that you had someone that you were friends with.”

“Friends…” Astronema said the word as if she'd never heard it before. She silently repeated it to herself a couple times, and gave Cassie a strange look. “No. Not friends. More than that. And… less than that. He's the only one who's ever really understood me. The only one who understands what I am, and… what I'm not.”

She looked at Cassie as if to gauge the other woman's interest. Cassie was nodding; a thoughtful look on her face, and Astronema took that as her cue to continue.

“Where I grew up, you couldn't trust anyone, no matter who you were. I was so young, and I had to learn to fight just to survive. Honestly,” she gave a strange, humorless laugh, “I was so clumsy, I ran my training staff into a door once and couldn't get it out. I was hopeless, but he taught me how to stay alive. For so long, it was like… we were alone in the whole universe. Just me and him.”

“It must have been lonely,” Cassie whispered. “There wasn't anyone your own age?”

“My own age?”

“No kids to play with?”

“No…” Astronema frowned, a mostly forgotten memory playing at the very edge of her mind. “I don't… I don't think so.”

“Boy, and here I get lonely in the bathroom. I'm always talking to the girl in the stall next to me. Usually she thinks I'm crazy. Sometimes I wonder if the conversation is livelier in the men's room.”

Astronema blinked, confused. Cassie sighed, realizing she'd done it again.

“Look, Karone… I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. I can't even imagine it… not having any friends.”

“There are more important things than having friends.”

Cassie was stunned into silence, and Astronema suddenly felt worried.

“Aren't there?”

“I don't know,” Cassie said earnestly.

The two were silent again, and Cassie leaned her ear against the door. She wasn't able to make out any of the conversation, but she still heard Alpha cheerfully prattling on.

"Jeez, he really saved our butts back there, didn't he?" she asked, unable to suppress a strange, highly uncomfortable feeling of reluctant awe. It was actually a rather disgusting emotion, one laced with unwanted vulnerability, and she instinctively crossed her arms across her chest in a gesture of self-preservation.

Which part of her self she as preserving was hard to pinpoint exactly; the idea that not just one, but two of her mortal enemies were in her territory now was difficult enough to reconcile, even without the underlying truth that she was now indebted to them as comrades in arms.

She still had her preconceived notions of good and evil. Good is good forever, evil can never become good. While she was more often willing to give others the benefit of the doubt than the rest of her teammates, it was still a fact that she had distrusted Astronema. It came naturally to her to distrust Astronema. Astronema was one person who did not deserve the benefit of the doubt. Of this, she had been unquestionably certain.

As she hugged herself in the Megaship corridor that evening, with a self-proclaimed mission to prove to her arch nemesis that there were no hard feelings, she realized that the part of her self she was failing to protect was her center of absolute morality.

It made sense. Cassie was a Power Ranger. A soldier fighting a war. What good can come of a soldier who thinks of his enemy as human? At war, there must be absolutes. Absolute righteousness, absolute evil.

Absolute evil, Cassie thought, cocking her head at the supposed embodiment of said evil. Not only were they both human females of the same species and approximate same age, but with some work, they could actually be friends.

…Were they?

Astronema clearly appreciated the sentiment, in any case; and Cassie relaxed as she saw a genuine, albeit tiny smirk cross the blue-haired woman's lips.

"Yeah,” she said slowly. “I guess so.”

Cassie cocked her head and peered at Astronema.

"Must be where you learned it,” she said suddenly.

Astronema was taken aback, and she shook her head vehemently.

"No… I didn't save anybody."

Cassie couldn't help but be touched by Astronema's earnest self-deprecation. It stirred oddly maternal feelings within her, and she was struck with a desire to build the young woman up a little. Just to see what happened.

"Really? Because... I happen to know at least five people who beg to differ on that. And I'm one of them."

A pained look crossed Astronema's face.

"Don't say that. It's my fault-"

"It wasn't your fault!” Cassie cried suddenly. “You were tricked, just like the rest of us!"

"But… I almost got you all killed."

"You didn't know."

"No," Astronema admitted. "I... I really didn't."

Cassie nodded. She uncrossed her arms, and took a shaky breath. The bravado was gone now; the false cheerfulness and the awkwardness that followed. She met the other woman's eyes.

"Everything bad is always somebody's fault. But what good does it do to dwell on that? I think… what's important is that we all got out of there alive, thanks to you guys."

Astronema smiled, then. A genuine smile.

"It really... felt good. I'm glad I was... able to help." She shook her head. "I really am."

Cassie nodded.

"I know you are."

Astronema nodded, too, and took another step closer to the Pink Ranger. She opened her mouth, not necessarily to speak, though if words should have happened to escape from between her lips, she had no intention of stopping them.

The doors suddenly opened, and Cassie jumped. Alpha and Ecliptor stood in the doorway. The simplicity of the gentle mood was suddenly complicated, the moment was broken, and Astronema's lips clamped shut.

"All finished!" Alpha announced happily.

"What, already?" Cassie asked, scratching her head and stretching in a manner that she hoped appeared nonchalant. "That was fast. How'd it go?"

"Quite well! I must say, Ecliptor, you really are quite the marvel of technology!" Alpha said. "I mean, for a bad guy."

Cassie stood up and smiled at Astronema, hoping that they could share a grin at the robot's humorous remark. The cold, deliberately emotionless look on the other woman's face disintegrated Cassie's smile, and for a moment, she almost forgot that a minute ago, she had so warmed to this girl. Whereas before, she knew she'd been looking into the eyes of Karone, now, Karone was nowhere to be found. Astronema had eclipsed her. Completely.

Ecliptor stepped toward Astronema purposefully, and Cassie realized she was reaching for her morpher.

"Princess, I must speak to you immediately," Ecliptor said. He turned to Cassie. “Alone.”

Astronema heard the urgency in his voice, and she looked at Cassie with an inadequate facsimile of humanity on her face.

Cassie swallowed, and tried to plant a smile on her face.

"Oh, uh, sure. If, uh, you guys need to be alone. Um... why... why don't you guys go to my quarters? There's so much laundry piled up by the door, it's practically soundproof. Just don't step on the pile of CDs."

Astronema looked at the floor.

“Where are these… quarters?” Ecliptor asked, condescension dripping from his every word.

Cassie allowed a flicker of “Don't mess with me, Buddy” pass over her face, and she made a show of putting her morpher back in her pocket.

"Megadeck 4, third door on the left. The door is covered with stickers, you can't miss it. Come on, I'll show you."