This was born out of my frustrations while writing "Sisterly Love". It contains a slight spoiler for that story. It also kind of follows up on "The Author and The Rangers", although if you're familiar with the OA characters you don't need to read that to understand this.

Disclaimer. DECA, Andros and Ashley belong to Saban, as do the Power Rangers concepts. I'm mine, and Lucas is as well.

"The Author and the Rangers II"
by Selma McCrory
copyright 1998

It was almost silent on the spaceship. The computer was doing its routine monitoring, the automatic systems were behaing well. Nothing was wrong.

Okay, nothing unless you counted the two current inhabitants of the ship. They were sitting on the SimuDeck, on a grassy, holographic field. The young man was in some sort of grey uniform with a red shirt underneath his grey jacket, the young woman sitting across from him wearing a comfortable, yet fashionable, set of clothes that seemed quite the opposite of his uniform.

Every once in a while, one would attempt to say something, but then they'd look at the other, and close their mouth again. Whatever the reason for the picnic, it apparently wasn't working.

Finally, they were interrupted by the pleasant voice of DECA, the ship's computer. "Andros, there are intruders on board."

The young man immediately got to his feet. "Where? How many?"

"Two. They are wandering the corridors. They are quite near to your location."

The young woman sprung up at that point. "I'll go with you," she said.

For a second, she thought he was going to refuse, but he nodded. "DECA, end simulation."

The simulation ended. Andros and the young woman edged out the doors. It turned out that they didn't have far to go. The two intruders practically ran into them. "There you are!" said a woman in a white t-shirt and jeans. She turned to her companion, a boy about their ages. "I told you I'd get us here!"

"Who are *you*?" Andros managed to ask.

"I'm Selma. This is my friend, Lucas. You're Andros, and over there is Ashley. And you're not cooperating."

Ashley tries to figure that out. It looks like Andros wasn't faring much better. The young man in red beside Selma, Lucas, speaks. "She's an author. She writes about us, and right now she's trying to tell the world about you two and your situation, but apparently you're not cooperating, and she really wants to finish your story up and stop bugging you."

"Thanks, Lucas," the woman says. "Couldn't have put it better myself."

Ashley sighs. "You do know that this isn't exactly the world's easiest situation?" she snaps. "This is hard for both of us. We'd like to work this out too! Unless you have some idea of how to resolve this, miss smarty pants?"

"Ashley's right," Andros adds. "This is not a comfortable situation for either of us. We don't know where to go from here."

"Let me see if you've got this straight," Lucas says. "You're brother and sister. You primarily grew up on two different planets. And while you were on the same team, you dated a few times and nearly ended up in bed with each other, right?"

"Right," Andros and Ashley chorus.

"How about you both get used to each other, and each other's planets. Each of you spend some time on the other's planet, and maybe one will eventually decide to live on the other's planet. Until then, just keep on visiting. By the time you're eighteen, Ashley, you might know what you want."

Ashley nods. "Sounds good to me. Andros?"

"I'll think about it," Andros says. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Luccas replies. He nods to his semi-dazed partner, takes her arm, and walks off. As the two disappear, Ashley hears him say, "That's a story you owe me and Teresa."

"I know," the reply comes back, and then DECA speaks again.

"They have disappeared, Andros."

Andros nods. "Thank you, DECA."

He heads back to the SimuDeck. Ashley follows him, eager to finish the story.

Selma isn't the only one impatient to see this story come to an end.

-the end