Power Rangers: The Alternate

Chapter One: The Exchange

Kim didn't ask for the life the Great Power handed her and she certainly didn't ask to be possessed by the demon Kemora. Now that her own world is lost and Thomas can't return her where she belongs, will her substitution for a dead Kimberly in an alternate universe help him to stabilize another doomed world?

This is the story of the alternate Kim that appeared in The Coins: Chapter 8: Evil is as Evil Does. She's the young Kim who was possessed by Kemora and rescued by Thomas.

The story takes place in an alternate universe.

Dedication:

For Katey, who thinks my other stories are way too long and boring…and way too smoochy

and to all Alternate Universes and the imaginations that created them.

Author's note: Just to clear up some confusion, the Alternate takes place between three different dimensions: The dimension in which The Coins is based, the alternate Kimberly's home dimension, and the dimension in which Thomas placed her (where she is now). All three are similar, but have noticeable differences. I'll do my best to clarify things as the story progresses.

In the AU where Kimberly was replaced as an alternate: The Rangers are all turning sixteen, they are still using the MMPR uniform and zords and do not have Ninjetti powers. Zedd has just sealed Rita back in her dumpster and, although Katherine Hillard is a known to be student at Angel Grove High, the Rangers don't know her. This story will not include a Tommy/Kat pairing, even though the pairing is mentioned as being a stable timeline. By stable timeline, I mean that Tommy and Kat were/are a legitimate PR couple and this story is merely giving a nod to that. Any eventual pairings will mostly likely follow those in The Coins.

In Kimberly's previous AU: The Rangers were turning 15 and had already been Rangers for nearly a year. Rita and Zedd had already reunited (Rita's love spell) and Katherine was already "dating" Tommy, but she was not a Ranger.

Kim wasn't sure this was such a good idea, but she trusted Thomas… and it wasn't really like she had any other place to go. Thomas had finally located her dimension, only to find that it was a blue world. A blue world meant that the timeline was progressing normally and stably toward a dimension devoted to evil. There was nothing that he or anyone else could do about it and Thomas promised her that he hadn't saved her life only to let her die in an evil realm.

How things could have changed so much in the short time she'd been gone, she didn't know. Her life had been pretty good up until the point where Kemora had possessed her. Well, as good as anything else in her life had been since her mom, brother, and twin sister had been killed a car accident five years ago. No one was sure why she had survived, she just had. Life living with relatives had been pretty harsh since then, but things had definitely improved since she'd been tapped as a Power Ranger just over a year ago. Zordon and the Rangers had become her family.

Had, Kim thought miserably. Once Kemora had possessed her, she had set about systematically murdering each and every one of them. She had no memory of this, but the information Thomas had uncovered was crushing. She had murdered the Rangers and then blown up the Power Chamber, also killing Zordon and Alpha. The Rangers gone, Rita and Lord Zedd reined supreme over a broken world.

Thomas had pounded it into her head that it wasn't Kim who had done it, it was Kemora, but Kemora had done it all using Kim's body, so it was the same thing. She couldn't go back. Even if Thomas had been willing to doom her to blue dimension, Tommy's girlfriend Kat had witnessed Kim murder her boyfriend and had made it her mission in life to destroy her. Going back had been the most horrible experience of her young life and nightmares had ruled her dreams ever since.

She couldn't stay with Thomas either. He was a very old dimensional being who floated from one universe to the next and there was no place in his life or his work for a young girl. She was lost. Finally, after what seemed like ages of uncertainty, he had an idea. There was a dimension where Kemora had posessed a young Kimberly, but the team had survived. That Tommy was an incredibly strong version for one so young and it was one of the extremely rare instances where Kemora had been beaten. The problem was, even though that Tommy had managed to save the Rangers, in order to defeat Kemora, he had been forced to kill the resident Kimberly. The timeline for that world had then spiraled out of control. It was something called a red world, a very dangerous variation that couldn't be controlled and would eventually destabilize and affect the entire dimension.

Thomas took her back through time to just a few minutes after the resident team's battle with Kemora. At first the team had been ecstatic that Thomas had returned with Kimberly, until they realized she wasn't their Kimberly. They stared at her silently while Thomas explained her story to Zordon and suggested his idea to leave her in this dimension to see if it would stabilize the timeline.

"Her history will be a little different," Thomas continued. "Her memory of events will be slightly off from those that occurred in your dimension, but the two timelines are similar, so she should be able to adequately adjust."

"And if she is unable to adapt to this dimension or if the timeline continues to disintegrate?" Zordon asked.

"Then we will contend with that scenario when the time comes." Thomas responded. He didn't add that he had already witnessed the destruction of this world. Taking the girl this far back into its past was risky. The girl would either stabilize the timeline or she wouldn't. It was a gamble, but one where he had very little to lose. If he left the girl on her own world, she would die. If her presence failed to stabilize the timeline on this world, she would also die, but at least he would have given her a chance.

"I am concerned that you have not fully discussed the possible ramifications of your decision with the Guardians," Zordon said from his power tube, "However, I can not deny that her presence will greatly simplify matters for the Rangers of this world the short term." A pink Ranger was needed to keep the team at full strength. Now that Zedd had displaced Rita, the battles were only escalating in their intensity. He had a young girl in mind to take the fallen Kimberly's place, but this solution worked well too. Thomas wouldn't have risked a second visit so soon if Kimberly's place on this team wasn't important to the timeline. "And what do you say to this substitution young Kimberly." He asked, the massive shape of his head turning to regard the young visitor.

Kimberly looked up at the face she had grown to love as a father. It was identical to the one she had left just a few days ago, but this was not her Zordon, these were not her friends, and this was not the Power Chamber she had called home for the better part of a year. This was not even her world. Her world was gone and her friends lost. Even if Thomas took her back in time to before Kemora had possessed her, hers was still a doomed world.

A balance had to be maintained; for every green world that stabilized into a dimension which served the good, there was an opposite blue world that must be devoted to evil. Better to take her chances on an undetermined world than return to a place and time where she knew for certain all were condemned. "I don't think I have a choice." She said honestly, wishing more than anything else to just crawl in a hole and stay there the rest of her life.

"Thomas, I will accept your proposal and take charge of the girl. However," Zordon said sternly, "I do not relinquish you of your responsibility towards her. She is aware of your existence and aware of the Guardians. You must return at regularly scheduled intervals to review her progress and provide council. If the timeline for this dimension fails stabilize or in the event that her presence as a Kimberly from a blue dimension begins to seriously disrupt the future of this world, I charge you with the responsibility of placing her elsewhere."

Thomas raised an eyebrow at the great master. This last statement was not what he'd been expecting. He had planned to leave the girl and be done with it. If the timeline stabilized, then he had done a good thing for her and this planet in general, if it didn't, well…

He turned and walked over to the girl. She was so like the wife he had lost eons ago. He realized he should have left her to die in Rita's evil dimension with K, but he simply couldn't. Part of him, deep down in a place long forgotten, still cared what happened to the Kimberlys he met. He couldn't help it; he had seen too many of them die. "I will return to this time and this dimension every six of your months." He said flatly and the girl nodded silently, huge brown eyes regarding him mournfully. He turned and bowed respectfully to Zordon and then he was gone.

For a long, agonizing moment Kim regarded the Rangers in front of her and they regarded her. She was painfully aware that she was a look-a-like replacement for a dead team member. It was creepy. She was the living image of someone who didn't exist anymore. She was about to take over the dead girl's life; her place as the pink Ranger, her place at school, her place among her friends. The world would never know it had lost its Kimberly Hart and an alternate had taken her place.

"Tommy." Zordon called and Tommy's gaze left hers and turned to his mentor.

"Yes Zordon."

"We must begin by fitting Kimberly with a communicator and morpher that will respond to her bio-signatures and function properly in this dimension. Then you and the others must arrange a narrative that will account for her lack of memory and confusion towards the past events in this world."

Tommy nodded and turned his gaze back to Kim. He had just held his dying friend in his arms less than half an hour ago, just brought her lifeless shell back to the Power Chamber where Zordon had taken it and absolved him of her death, had just mulled over and over how he was going to explain things to her mother. Except for her hair, the girl looked exactly like Kimberly, sounded like Kimberly, but could she really take Kimberly's place?

Something about the whole idea made his skin crawl. Kimberly deserved better than that. He had been at odds with her since she had devoted all her spare time to gymnastics, effectively shunning her group of friends for extra practice sessions at the gym, but she was still his friend and teammate. She deserved to be honored for her life and her service as a Ranger; not replaced by a look-a-like.

Squaring his shoulders, he walked over to the girl. She had just lost her entire team and her Zordon, she had to be experiencing ten times the emotional upheaval he was. As he approached, he saw her shoulders square up just as his had, which made it easier for him to smile at her. "I'm Tommy." He said, holding out his hand. "It's nice to meet you Kimberly. Welcome to our world."

"Call me Kim." She said quietly, firmly shaking his hand.