Work Text:
Something most people wouldn’t tell you: Earth humans technically aren’t.
Genetically, Earthlings are identical to humans. They call themselves such. They vary in thinking just like any others.
No, the difference is far more subtle than that. In the unexplained nature of soulmates.
On other planets, humans have Colors since birth. It isn’t magic in the way it is for the heroes you know.
No, instead they get marks.
Two things Earthling and human soulbonds share are the mind links… and that they usually come in pairs.
There’s one on your arm, that’s the one that represents your partner. There’s a second on your heart.
Of course, Earth is more than a bit behind. Rangers, throughout history, are known for collective soul bonds. Teams meant to be.
Andros learns all of this in time.
He has a red five pointed star at his heart.
There are black and blue and yellow squares on one arm, one purple four-pointed star.
Five five pointed stars on the other.
Silver. Yellow. Pink. Red-and-Blue. Green-and-Black.
Not that he knows the colors. That’s the thing. Because he can’t see color. He looks it up, and he knows that somehow his soulmates are humans of Earth. Or at least some of them are.
Karone has similar ones. A purple four pointed star at her heart, matching his. Silver, Black-and-Green, Pink, Yellow, Blue-and-Red, and Red-matching-him five-pointed Stars on one arm. Yellow, Green, Red, Black, Blue, and Pink four pointed stars on the other.
She can’t see colors, either.
And then, one day, she’s gone. She’s looked for, of course she is, she’s little and loved and now missing and Andros is distraught. (He hears the adults taking like she’s probably dead.)
He shuts down, decides that he doesn’t want to lose someone again, or let others do so. So he works towards helping others but never gets too close to them.
(He forgets about soulmates.)
And, when he’s only 14 years old, he’s chosen for the great honor of being the next Red Ranger.
(KO-35 is a colony without Rangers of their own, but the Space Rangers have a base, there. Andros was… lucky.)
But then, of course, something happens.
Or rather, someone.
The Silver Powers are the most powerful and the most secretive, but Zhane is the next chosen successor to the Power of their world. And, when Andros is introduced, he sees… something. He can’t pulls his eyes away.
Is it the Color? But it’s just in a few places. The world’s gotten brighter. Zhane whistles.
“I think I’m seeing red,” he says. Andros pulls his eyes away. “I’m Zhane, by the way.”
Andros nods.
“I know,” he says.
Zhane’s a Sixth, and they always have different rules applied to them. But Andros trains with him, becomes a team with him, because none of the other Rangers have chosen successors, yet.
But, more than a team, Zhane becomes his best friend. In a little less than an earth year (as he tells the story later), Andros opens up to Zhane like he never has to anyone else.
He understands why the other Ranger is his soulmate.
(And Zhane’s Purple Star which matches Andros’ which matches Karone’s gives him more hope than he wants to admit.)
Then Artan finds his successor, Sedos. Yellow. Then there’s Aria. Black. Kasro, Blue.
And Zhane is the Sixth.
So now it’s different. They have others. And they’re Andros’ soulmates, too. But not Zhane’s. He doesn’t train with them, anymore.
(But it’s Zhane who Andros promises to always fight beside, Zhane who he trust the most simply due to time.)
Dark Spectre’s forces come to KO-35. They come in force. And, when three of the five Rangers are from there, they all but settle into the Rangers of the colony for the battle. Aria dies first, and Andros wasn’t even there to see them overwhelmed.
Kasro of course follows Aria, a day later. He’d been with Aria when they’d died, and those two had been so close. He didn’t even properly fight back.
Their mentors are already incapacitated.
So many people die before they’re even ready to fight.
Sedos is next. Several honest to god monsters are sent. Sedos still manages to kill 2 of them before he dies.
By now, it’s been a year and a half since they’ve started fighting. By now, Andros has three scars on his arm edged in Colors he can’t see.
By now, it’s just him and Zhane again, in the worst possible way.
It’s three months later when Zhane kisses him, and things are alright, for a moment. They’re both breathless from a difficult battle, and yet…
“Why did we wait so long?” Andros asks. Zhane laughs.
“Not a clue,” he says. “But we already promised forever.”
Andros smiles.
“Yeah,” he says. “We did.”
A week later, Zhane is gone.
But… not. He’s there, still. Barely. The world would go darker if he’d died. And Andros barely, barely, saves him. And he manages to hold back Dark Spectre’s forces for long enough to evacuate KO-35.
And then, alone, he heads out into space.