Disclaimer: Primeval isn't mine. It belongs to ITV and the BBC. Power Rangers belongs to Saban. Takes place directly after Nick meets Jenny and a few months after Crown and Punishment.

Primal Fate

1. Primal Question

He sighed to himself again. How could it be that the person he longed for – that he loved – had vanished from existence? How could it also be possible that the disappearance of a single person could cause major repercussions in the time line? It just didn't make sense. As far as he could remember, the Future Predator had been killed – presumably eaten – by the Gorgonopsid in the Permian. Why then did he return to a radically changed world?

Professor Nick Cutter ran through the mental images one more time. He knew that the Future Predator had been soundly dealt with – and that Tom Ryan was dead. The skeleton that they had seen on their first trip to the past had been Ryan's…but that thought brought up a lot of different paradoxes and theories of alternate realities and timelines. He would have scoffed at the last one…if he wasn't where he was. For all he knew, he was in a different world with a different office, different people and no Claudia. He hadn't even had time to scrutinise the differences – the raptors in the shopping mall had thrown him back into his "Indiana Jones" mode. He had kind of cleared the air with Stephen – but even doing that brought up one or two issues. Issues that dealt with his true reality and what might or might not have happened there. Anyway – he didn't want to think about it. He had other issues to worry about.

Two hours ago – after he had briefly rested and talked to Connor – he had come face to face with a version of Claudia. One called Jenny Lewis…and he was sure he'd made an ass of himself in the process. Lester had told Jenny that he was suffering some sort of "post traumatic stress-related amnesia" – something that he'd heard only once before. In a way, it was true – he was suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress, but he knew who he was and what he was supposed to be doing. He sighed again and ran a hand through his light brown hair. He knew he had to pull himself together, but that was surprisingly hard to do with a total amount of three hours sleep. Adrenaline was pumping through his body and it was keeping him awake – which would have been a good thing if he had something to hunt. Now, it was just plain irritating.

He looked around at his surroundings and bit back yet another sigh. He had looked up what had happened to his house in this timeline – only to find out that it had been sold off a few months ago. When he looked into the sale records – he found out that it had been himself who had sold off the house. Well – not himself but the Nick Cutter that was native to the time. He squeezed his eyes shut and forcefully willed thoughts of parallel universes out of his mind. It was like something out of a bad dream – but at least he had a bed to sleep on…even if said bed was property of the Anomaly Research Centre. He opened his eyes again and exhaled heavily – looking at his room. It was no bigger than a large walk-in closet, but still managed to hold enough space for a double bed, a small bedside table, an iMac, a bar fridge and an intercom/telephone. Surprisingly enough there was no television, but he had asked for a newspaper to read. Granted, it was a few months old – but it was better than nothing. He swung his legs off the bed and reached for the newspaper on the table. He was surprised the thick paper had even stayed on there – despite the force he used to fling it down. He wanted to know more about this new timeline and what else had changed.

As his eyes skimmed over the front page, he felt disbelief overtake him. There was a full colour picture of six brightly coloured figures holding a crown of some sort. He could easily see that the costumes were not made of cloth – but of something that looked a lot like spandex. The six figures were all colour coded – Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, Pink and Silver. He blinked again and let out a slightly forced laugh. No way. There was no way that something so fictional would be real – no matter what the timeline. He remembered talking to Connor earlier – about his unique situation and recalled what the young man had said.

"I mean, it's not all Power Rangers and wormholes – your situation is sexy stuff!"

No – it wasn't possible. Nick knew that it was probably a promotional shot of a new series or something. It was all so unreal – but then again, he was someone who literally travelled through anomalies on a weekly basis. No, Connor was probably talking about the TV show – something the Connor in the original timeline had done on and off. There was something about the headline though…even if it was a new show or a new season – it wouldn't have sounded so…triumphant. His eyes skimmed the headline again – soaking up every word.

OVERDRIVE RANGERS FOIL EVIL AGAIN!

Nick sighed again and replaced the paper. He was in a world where the Power Rangers were apparently non-fiction and where Claudia Brown was nowhere to be found. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes again. As he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, one last thought crept into his mind.

God…even for me this is messed up.

TBC…