"And then what happened?" asked the young boy.
"Yeah, did you die?!" his impatient, alien sister pleaded to know.
"If I did, do you think I would be here telling you about it?" Jen smiled at them.
The year was 3003, two whole years after Jen and her team were transported to the year 2001 to destroy Ransik and his escaped gang of mutants before they destroyed the entire city. Ransik had supposedly murdered her fiancee, Alex, in cold blood, before escaping to the past, and Jen had sworn revenge ever since, becoming the most determined to bring him down. Unfortunately, this quest for revenge led to her often acting out of order, letting her emotions get the better of her, and led her to do arrogant and often brash things, including becoming an uptight, "by the book" leader. But that all changed when she met Wes, Alex' ancestor from 2001. He had begun to grow on her, and in time, so did she. Jen was now 26 years old and upon returning two years earlier, was treated as hero, along with the others. Speaking of, she hadn't spoken or seen them in over three months. They had been transferred to a military base across the country, but she had to remain behind to continue serving as Time Force Ranger Pink. Although they weren't permitted to go around telling their story, considering the events of 2001 was now permanently inducted into history, coupled with the fact that it was discovered many Ranger groups existed throughout history, space, time and even reality, it was allowed to be acknowledged.
"So did you kiss?" the girl asked.
Jen was caught off guard by this question, too busy lost in thought.
"W-what? I mean, no, of course not!" she quickly denied. "Besides, you two kids don't need to know about that, anyway".
"But you just showed us footage of your fights, you blowing up monsters, and bleeding all over the place, I think we can handle seeing a kiss" the boy folded his arms.
Jen sighed. Kids. Wes was somewhat like that when they first met. Nothing but a spoilt, rich kid. At least, that was Jen's initial impression. In time, as she was mentally, physically, emotionally and literally beaten down countless time, she learned to open up to the team, and mostly to him, to trust them like she had Alex. In fact, even more so than Alex. When it was revealed he was alive, it both broke and repaired her heart. For months, she wanted to believe he was alive, but as time went on, Wes begun to grow on her. And when Alex came back, she was relieved, but inside she was locked in a fierce debate over who she truly cares for: Alex or Wes. Alex turned out to be an arrogant, spiteful leader, who took his mission above his loyalty to the others, often blaming them for their failures. Perhaps his near-death experience, and his shocking discovering of what the future will be should they loose was to blame for that. Whatever the case, he wasn't the same, and Jen knew exactly what she was doing when she interrupted the mind-erasing machine and returned the engagement ring Alex gave her to him. Despite all that, it was his pressure that forced their leaders not to have their memories of 2001 wiped, and she was eternally grateful for that. She didn't want to forget a single thing about it, especially Wes.
"Let's just say, I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his dad and Eric" Jen finally said. "Besides, sometimes a hug can be better".
"Aww..." the two groaned.
Eric. Now he was an arrogant one. At first, he wanted nothing more to do with the rangers, and took his own mission to stop the mutants more seriously, which Jen somewhat respected. After all, so did she when they first arrived in the city. Yet at all this, he was the only one to know of their origin, that they had come from the future, and refused to reveal it to anyone, up until the final battle with Ransik and the tearful goodbye Jen and her friends delivered to Wes and the Silver Guardians.
Then it came to her, a flood of emotions came pouring in as she was reminded once again of that heartbreaking time. Sometimes she wished she had said something more, perhaps a gentle kiss wouldn't have hurt, but something was preventing her. Perhaps it was the thought of "betraying" Alex, despite seeing his true colours. Maybe it was the fact that they had come from era's so far apart that it almost seemed freakish to even consider it. Whatever the reason, she regretted it.
"I have another question" began the girl. "If you could go back and change it, would you stay with Wes?"
Jen thought about this question. She had asked herself this countless times, and her answer would always end up with:
"No, I wouldn't change a thing, because then I wouldn't be here, perhaps time itself would've become affected by my disruption of a bunch of boring stuff that you don't need to wrap your heads around just yet" she answered.
Just then, the parents could be heard calling. The sun had begun to set, it was getting dark.
"I guess we'd better go" sighed the boy.
"Yes, go on, enjoy your nice life, after all, it's because of me it's still around" Jen urged them. She waved to them as the ran off, and then began thinking.
She stood up and walked off into the sunset.
She had a small place just outside of the city, in a beautiful, never-ending field that stretched on into the now night sky. There were hundreds of stars littered in the sky, accompanied by a perfect full moon. She had created her top floor to be similar to the Clock Tower from 2001, that her and the others called home during their long stay. She had so many memories there, that she preferred to always be reminded of. A thousand years on...Wes was long dead, even she wanted to, there was no way of seeing him again. There had been a full moon in the sky the final night before the final battle began. Sometimes she silently cursed Ransik for not putting up more of a fight, just so she could have spent more time there. But it wouldn't have mattered, the result would have been the same. And if she had kissed him, it would only have made her want to stay, which she knew wasn't an option. Staring through the round window at the velvet night sky, Jen somehow knew that across the stars, a thousand years in the past, Wes was staring right back, through more than just a window.
Jen slowly wrapped the blanket around her, as she lay on her bed, just in front of the window, allowing the stars to shine on her, and taking the time to think about Wes. Gently she closed her eyes and fell asleep. As always, she dreamt about Wes.