Gaby, Gunn, Kane, Klezmi, and Silva are mine.
Rated PG-13 : sexuality; harsh language, strong violence.
Year: 2202
Jen hurried along the path to her building. There was very little crime in the regimented society she lived in, but she still didn't like being out, alone, in the dark. Maybe it was instinct, she thought. Her nerves were on edge in general recently, since the dreams had started.
She gasped in alarm as something moved in the trees lining the front of the building she lived in. It was a human shape, two of them, darting forward to intercept her. She fell back a step and went into a fighting stance.
"Jen! Take it easy. It's just us."
She straightened slowly, staring at them, a young Asian man and a tall brown-skinned woman. His hair was hidden under a knit cap, but she knew it was bright green. A smile started to stretch her face. "Trip! Katie!" she exclaimed, and stepped forward to hug both of them tightly. She laughed as Katie squeezed her almost painfully. "What are you doing here?"
Trip's smile vanished. "We had to see you, and Lucas. Something's happened. Something bad."
"We got passes out of the compound, to visit you. We still have a few extra privileges, because of our mission with you," Katie added.
"So are you going to invite us in?" Trip inquired.
Jen smiled. "You don't even need to ask. Come on."
It took Lucas only fifteen minutes to arrive after Jen's carefully worded call to him. He walked in and stopped short when he saw his friends and former teammates. In an instant they were hugging.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. "You're not supposed to be off the compound after curfew."
"We know," Trip said. "We had to talk to you, and we managed to get overnight passes."
"Yeah, but it's still dangerous. Mutants aren't supposed to be out after dark. And someone may decide it's suspicious."
"This is too important to wait," Katie said.
"What's going on?"
Trip took all of them in with a glance. "Katie and I have been having a dream. Both of us, the same dream."
Jen and Lucas traded a startled look. "So have we."
"We've been dreaming we went back to the past again. We were on another mission with Wes. Someone stole the Quantum morpher and killed Eric."
"And you brought Wes back to our time. There were fights, with men dressed in black. At the end Eric was alive again," Jen said quietly. "All four of us have been having the same dream."
"It's not just a dream. I'm sure it really happened."
"We've started to feel that way too. What do you think it means?"
Trip sighed. "It means something's wrong. I can feel it. This whole world, this reality... It's wrong. Things weren't meant to be this way."
"I think someone's changed reality again," Lucas said softly.
"I think you're right."
"Why didn't Time Force stop it?"
Trip shrugged. "Who knows? For some reason they couldn't."
"Are you saying this isn't the original reality?" Jen demanded.
"Yes," Trip said. "I know it isn't. I've started to get some memories of another world -- another reality -- a better one. It's like a double exposure in my head." He looked at all of them. "You've felt it too, haven't you?"
"I've felt like something's wrong for awhile. But to think that the world we live in isn't real..." Jen said slowly.
"It's real, all right," Lucas interrupted her. "But Trip is right. It's not the right reality."
"There's evidence this is an altered reality. There are inconsistencies," Trip went on. "For example, why were Katie and I sent with you when we went after Ransik?"
"Command thought having a couple of mutants on the team would give us a better chance."
"Has Time Force ever included mutants before? Would they have given a couple of mutants those morphers and trusted us with the Ranger powers?"
"It was special circumstances..."
"Come on, Jen," Katie said. "Trip's right. Time Force has never hired a mutant before, even as an... office cleaner. They don't trust any of us. And now they suddenly gave us their most powerful weapons and sent us on a vital mission? I don't think so."
"You're right," Lucas said. "It doesn't make any sense."
"And Alex..." Jen said. "Why is he so different from what I remember, before our mission to 2001?"
Lucas spoke again. "Why do all of us seem to feel so differently from most people? We don't distrust all mutants. We don't like some of the things Time Force does." He lowered his voice. "We don't think Klezmi should take over the government."
"But why should we be like this, even if reality has changed? We should have changed along with it," Jen asked.
Trip answered her. "I think it's because we were in the past, we were involved with changing history in 2001."
"But if we were still in 2001 when our world changed, we should have all our memories of the original timeline. We would have known we came home to an alternate reality."
"You're right. But I think we went on another mission, recently. We came back home, and the shift happened after that. But what we did in the past was involved somehow with whatever's created this reality now."
"I don't understand how that would make a difference."
"Maybe because of the two times we changed history during our original mission -- it made us more resistant to reality shifts. And -- there's a theory that the timestream resists drastic changes, that it tries to put things back. Maybe that's why. We remember because we're supposed to fix it."
"Whatever the reason, we do remember," Katie said. "The question now is -- what do we do about it?"
Trip looked grim. "I have to get into the Time Force computer system."
"It's too dangerous," Lucas said. "You'd have to go to Time Force headquarters. The system isn't accessible from the outside."
"It has to be done."
"Even if you cover your hair, someone's going to recognize you," Jen objected.
"Look, reality's been changed. We have to try to correct it. That's our job. That's what we joined Time Force for. The real Time Force, not this -- cover for a would-be dictator." Trip leaned forward, speaking even more earnestly than before. "I can remember enough of the original reality to know it's a thousand times better than this. Time Force is something we could be proud of working for. Mutants and humans working together, accepting each other, like we do."
Katie took over, looking Lucas and then Jen in the eyes. "If we don't do something, Klezmi's going to take over the world government. Can you imagine what things are going to be like then? I don't like taking this kind of risk either. But I don't think we have any choice."
Lucas and Jen looked at each other. Jen straightened her back and lifted her chin. "You're right. I'll take you in tomorrow, Trip. We can say you're visiting, for old time's sake. It might even work."
"Look. Look here." Jen and Katie bent closer to the screen as Trip pointed. They had been in Jen's office for two hours, and Trip had succeeded in getting into Time Force's protected records. What he had discovered had horrified all of them.
Getting them into Time Force had been easier than Jen had feared. Katie had insisted on coming, and it had made their cover story -- that Trip and Katie were visiting their former teammates -- more convincing. They hadn't even had to use it yet, so far no one had recognized them. Katie looked human, and Trip had covered his green hair with the knit cap again.
"This proves it," Trip said softly. "Records of an alteration to reality. And here, traces of the original."
"But why didn't Time Force stop it?" Katie asked.
"It doesn't say. But look, evidence of some kind of problem within Time Force itself, at the time of the shift." His brows contracted in concentration. "Traitors -- sabotage..."
"Where does it say that?"
"It doesn't. I have a feeling... a memory of it. Can't remember any details. But someone, an insider, stopped us. I'm sure of it."
"What happened to change history, and create this reality?" Jen asked.
"The histories diverged in 2003. Look. In the original, there are records of Wes, and Eric, and Mr. Collins after that point."
"And in our history, they were all dead," Jen said. She smiled, feeling tears suddenly sting the backs of her eyes. "They weren't meant to die. If we can save them..."
"After they died, in our history, the new management of Bio-Lab started the policies that led to this version of Time Force. You're right. We have to save them."
"But how?" Katie demanded. "We don't have access to a timeship."
"We'll find a way," Jen said grimly. "But we'll have to do it soon. We don't even know exactly when or how they died."
"Who do you think was behind it?"
Jen's voice lowered even more. "Someone who stood to benefit from it. Someone who gained a lot of power because of the shift."
"There would be a lot of people who profited. And it may not have been anyone in this time. Maybe it was a native of 2003. Or someone from our time who went there intending to stay and changed history to keep us from coming after him, like Lorent tried to do."
"Trip said someone sabotaged Time Force, remember. That person may still be in our time."
Trip spoke up again. "I think there were several people. Some who went back to 2003 to take over Bio-Lab and change it to the way they want. And some here in our time, to keep Time Force from stopping it. I guess the ones here also ended up getting power and money in this reality."
"What are we going to do?" Katie asked again.
"I don't know," Jen said. "We should meet with Lucas again. Maybe he'll have some ideas."
"Our passes were only good for one night. We'll have to leave before curfew."
"I'll ask Lucas to come as soon as his shift is over. Now let's get you out of here."
She saw him as soon as she opened the door. Alex was standing there, in a soldierly at-ease position, his face grim. She tried to hide the stab of fear that went through her and nodded at him.
"Hello, Katie. Trip. Good to see you again," he said evenly.
"Hello, Alex," Katie said faintly. Trip nodded and smiled nervously.
"Jennifer, I'd like a word with you."
"Of course, sir." Jen turned to Trip and Katie. "Why don't you wait inside my office."
"They can wait down there." Alex nodded down the corridor. Silently Trip and Katie walked to the next corner.
"That was rude," Jen said, keeping her voice low.
"You know you can't leave civilians unescorted in your office, with access to Time Force computer systems."
"Especially mutants, right?"
His mouth tightened. "That's right."
"You didn't used to be like that, Alex."
"I didn't make the rules."
"What rule did I break?"
"You shouldn't have brought them here. You spent too much time alone with them, with the door shut."
"We didn't do anything wrong." She heard the resentment in her own voice.
Anger flashed over Alex's face. He grabbed her arm, painfully tight. "I'm trying to help you, Jen. Are you too stupid to see you're putting yourself in danger?"
She twisted her arm out of his grip, biting back angry words. His face was already blank and cold again. "Sorry, sir," she said crisply. "It won't happen again."
He only stared at her for a moment before turning and walking away, ignoring Trip and Katie as he passed them. They rejoined Jen and watched until he turned a corner.
"What did he say?" Katie asked.
"Nothing. Nothing worth repeating."
Lucas had listened quietly to Trip's explanation as they all sat in Jen's small living room. Now all four were silent as he thought.
"We'll have to go back again," he said finally. "Prevent Wes and Eric, and Mr. Collins, from being murdered."
Jen nodded. "Right. If there's a chance to save the original timeline, we have to do it."
"But how?" Katie asked.
Lucas answered her. "We can't just wait to be assigned a time travel mission. That may never happen again. We'll have to steal a ship."
"How?"
He smiled. "I'm still a pilot. I can request a practice flight in a working timeship. I think they'll give it to me. It should be easy to get you on board, Jen."
"What about us?"
Lucas looked at Trip and Katie. "I don't know. For now, you'll have to go back to your compound. We'll try to arrange a way for you to come with us, but it may not be possible." Both of them looked dissatisfied, but they nodded in agreement.
"Now," Jen said, "we have to get you out of here. You have just enough time to get back home."
Downstairs, Jen lead the way out of the building. She knew something was wrong the moment she walked through the door. The others followed her and stopped, taking their places next to her as they faced Alex, who was standing outside where they could not see him until they had come out. Behind him, she saw a squad of men and women in the black and silver uniforms of Time Force Special Services, the dreaded soldiers who reported directly to Klezmi, and handed out their own version of justice without much regard for law or individual rights. Cold fear settled on her.
"Alex. What are you doing here?" Jen asked. She was rather proud of how calm she sounded.
"I'm sorry, Jen. Lucas. I had to do this. I hope someday you'll understand." He nodded to the officers behind him. "Arrest the mutants," he said. Jen, Lucas, Trip and Katie moved closer together as they were surrounded.
"Alex! You set this up?" Jen cried.
"I'm sorry."
"You turned us in?" Lucas said, his voice shaking.
"You'll only destroy yourselves by associating with these mutants. I'm doing this for your own good."
"Our good?" Jen was shouting now. "You don't know what you've done, Alex!"
"You won't be harmed. I've explained that Trip and Katie deceived you. They were using you to get into Time Force."
"That's a lie!"
Trip turned to them. "Jen, Lucas -- it's all right. Just let them take us."
A blond man wearing a squad leader's insignia stepped forward with a cool smile. "You are all under arrest for conspiracy to commit unauthorized time research by mutants," he announced, waving his officers forward.
"Wait!" Alex exclaimed. "You're only supposed to arrest the mutants!"
The squad leader smiled. "We've been doing our own investigation. The other two are just as guilty, if not more so."
"The humans work for me. I was supposed to take responsibility for them. That was the bargain."
"We don't bargain when it comes to protecting the timestream." He stared at Alex coldly. "Or maybe you're more loyal to your former fiancée than to Time Force."
Alex straightened, his face stiffening. "My loyalty is absolute."
"Good." The leader turned back to his prisoners. "Bring them along."
Alex's eyes followed Jen as they were led past him. He moved to stop the blond leader. "Where are you taking them?" he asked.
The man smiled again. "The Temporal Offenders' prison. We have a great deal of evidence against them, beyond what's in your report. They'll get a fair hearing. Then you can attend the execution if you want."