Author's Note: I'M BACK! See my profile for an explanation. I'm re-releasing this, along with "Personal Affairs," one chapter a day over the next few weeks. I should never have deleted them! File recovery is running in the background. By the way, if anyone by any chance had downloaded "Personal Affairs," could you please contact me? I might need an extra copy to compare...

Disclaimer: Power Rangers and all related characters belong to Saban, yada yada yada. The scenes you recognize from the show also belong to them; the rest of the story is mine.

Continuity: This fic takes place in Power Rangers ZEO, during/after the episode, "There's No Business Like Snow Business." I'm assuming that Tommy got the letter in early December 1996, which I realize kind of flies in the face of the "middle of winter" proclaimation in TNBLSB.

The Replacement
Prologue
by MegaSilver

What happened?

Visions of his life with Kimberly flashed through Tommy's head as he strolled along the beach. It had seemed like everything was fine. Then, that afternoon, he'd received one last letter from his girlfriend: a Dear John letter. What could possibly have gone wrong?

How could she do this to me? After all we've been through… how could she just drop a letter on me like a time bomb?

But what would he have preferred? A phone call? Certainly not. And given Kimberly's schedule, a visit would have been impossible. On December 15, she'd be leaving for Copenhagen to compete in her first international exhibition. Then she'd probably spend Christmas with her mother in Paris—and resume training in Fort Lauderdale the first week in January. There would be no time for her to come to Angel Grove.

If nothing else, at least she'd told him right away… presumably.


Rita cackled as she watched Tommy through the VileGazer telescope at her father's palace in the M-51 Galaxy. "Well, would you look at that?"

As she spoke, Zedd trotted into the observatory. "Look at what?" he growled.

"Looks like Kimmy finally dropped Tommy-boy!"

"So?" Zedd snorted. "I'll have you know your father's loathsome canine—if one could call it that at all—just dropped something else in our bedroom and I had to clean it up!"

Rita glared at her husband. "Oh, get over it, Zeddy! If you don't stop complaining soon, Daddy just might throw us to those machines!" She resumed looking through the VileGazer, grumbling inaudibly, "I'm about ready throw your neon sphincter to those rusty alloids myself."

Zedd walked over to Rita and stood next to her. "So just what's so interesting about all this? It happens to be out of my personal range of sight."

"Forget it," Rita snubbed. "You said you didn't care!"

"Just who do you think you are?" Zedd's body turned a fiery red. "You may be my wife, but don't forget that I'm still your superior in the United Alliance of Evil!"

Rita looked up and made a face. "Oh, so that's how you wanna play, huh?" She smacked Zedd upside his head. "Have at it! See for yourself! And don't forget you had to whine to get your way."

Zedd observed Tommy's actions for a few minutes. "Hmm… this is more entertaining than I thought!"

"Finster!" called Rita. "FINSTER!"

Her loyal assistant came running into the observatory. "Yes, my queen?"

"Think you could hook this thing up to a screen so we can all watch?" Rita pointed toward the telescope.

"Of course I can! It's really quite simple."

"Then what are you waiting for? Get started!"


Zedd, Rita, Finster, Squatt, Baboo, Scorpina, and some Tengas sat on lawn chairs in the observatory, munching on popcorn and cracking tasteless jokes about the Power Rangers' personal lives as they watched them on TV.

"Well would you look at that!" Rita snickered. "Looks like Tommy Boy's already got himself a new fling!"

"Hoo hoo hoo hooo!" Baboo giggled.

"And that doo-gooder Kitty Kat's set them up! Now watch—she's just praying Heather never finds out what she asked me permission to do with Tommy when she brought him to our dark dimension last winter!"

"I know!" squealed Scorpina. "This is better than a soap opera!"

"All right, all right!" Master Vile's voice broke into the mood. He marched into the observatory and stood in front of the TV set. "Just what are you kids doing? I'm going to need to use the VileGazer soon!"

"Aw, Dad!" whined Rita. "We're making fun of the Power Rangers!"

"Not that I object to that one bit, but you've been all over this room for two days straight. In fact, you've all been all over this palace for four months straight! Why don't you find something useful to do?"

Rita suddenly perked up. "I've got it!"

"There! That's my girl!"

"Wait!" cried Baboo. "What do you have?"

"An idea that'll help us wipe out the Machine Empire—and weaken the Power Rangers so we can take them out, too!" Rita's eyes glowed with glee.

"Well, spit it out already!" demanded Zedd. Rita whispered it into his ear. "You have to be kidding me!"

"How dare you insult my daughter in my home?" thundered Master Vile. "If she has a plan, you will help her put it into action."

"We leave at sunset!" Rita proclaimed.

"Where to?" Squatt asked.

"A brief stop to get something from the Ghost of Darkness. Then, back to the moon!"


As Serpentera cruised through space toward the Solar System, Rita sat inside reading an instruction booklet. "This is gonna be so much fun! It's like no plan we've ever tried before!"

"Is that right?" Zedd grunted, slumping on his throne. "If you will recall, we've tried the Secret Agent approach several times—and not only do they always betray us, sometimes they even become Power Rangers!"

"Well, this time we ain't relying on mercenaries, Zeddy. It'll be one of our own!"

Zedd drummed his fingers on his armrest. "I still don't like this idea… and I don't think I should have to explain why."

Rita looked underwhelmed. "Oh, is that so?" She set down her book and marched over to Zedd's throne. "Look, musclehead. Monsters are out of the question; the Machines would know we were back and then they'd crush us for good! We have a chance to slip in a monkey wrench, and you are not going to ruin it with your testosterone-driven possessiveness. Do I make myself clear?"

"And I suppose you haven't thought about the possibility of the Power Rangers throwing that monkey wrench back at us?"

Rita flashed a toothy grin. "Just remember… he who gives, can take away!"

TO BE CONTINUED…