Tommy sat up slowly, only to discover that the wires that were once attached to various parts of his body were gone. He was still a bit groggy, and he was weak, but for the most part, he was aware of what was happening.
He managed to slide off the examining table he was on, but it took him a second to get his balance. There were a moment of disorientation, a little dizziness, but it passed, and he was able to walk around the room. It was a medical bay of some kind, full of equipment and machinery. Finally, he was able to determine where he was.
'This has got to be Bio-Lab in Silver Hills,' he thought to himself. It was only thing that made sense.
He recognized Wes as soon as he saw him. Granted they'd only had the chance to work together very briefly, but after the incident with the Machine Empire, he did his best to keep in touch him Wes. Wes always spoke of Bio-Lab, so it seemed logical to assume that's where he was. 'But why am I here?' He wondered. He couldn't recall being sick, or injured, but obviously he was in a medical bay being treated for something.
Tommy wandered over to what looked like an exit, but couldn't find a doorknob or a panel of any sort. Before he had a chance to react, the doors slid open, and a woman wearing a uniform walked in. She had long, curly black hair, and he quickly recognized the uniform as the same one Wes wore earlier.
"Oh my God, it's really you," the woman said cheerfully.
Tommy shrugged his shoulder slightly. "Yeah, it's me," he sighed.
"I've read the history logs a thousand times, reading over the missions you were involved in and the lives you saved. You're what inspired me to join Time Force in the first place," she told him.
"History logs?" he inquired.
"Yeah, your missions with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the Zeo Quest, all of it is required reading at the academy," she mentioned.
Still, Tommy seemed lost. "Academy?"
"That's enough Katie," they both heard a voice say.
Tommy glanced over her shoulder only to see Wes walk in the room still wearing his sunglasses. There was something different about Wes, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It seemed a little more, serious, not the same free spirited Wes he'd known before.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. It's just that he's….." she was cut short.
"That will be all Katie," he repeated.
With a nod, Katie politely excused herself from the room.
"How are you feeling?" he asked him.
"I still have a headache, but I'll be okay," he sat down on the examining table. "What's going on Wes? Why am I in Bio-Lab?" Tommy inquired.
He took off his glasses. "I'm not Wes, and this isn't Bio-Lab," he told him.
"What?"
He took off his sunglasses, pulling up a chair next to the examining table. "This may be a little difficult for you to accept, but this is the 31st century. By your calendar, it's July of the year 3000. My name is Commander Alex Collins," he introduced.
"Whats going on?" he asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
"In the year 2003, you became ill, and you were taken to Bio-Lab to be treated. Unfortunately, there was no cure for your illness at the time, but the lab had been working on Cryogenic suspension technology, and it was decided that you be put in Cryogenic status until a cure could be found," he explained.
"Illness? What kind of illness?"
"Your exposure to the radiation of the Zeo crystal had begun to break down your molecular structure on a cellular level," he said.
"But how?"
"When you were originally given your green ranger powers in the early 21st century, the green candle that contained your power was linked directly to your life force. When that candle was extinguished, you were unable to maintain your green ranger powers. The history logs indicate that Zordon tried on many occasions to restore your power, but with no luck. It wasn't until you were given the white ranger powers that your life force was restored with a new source of energy, completely cutting you off from the green candle. The problem was, your body had grown accustomed to the green energy it was receiving from the candle. It wasn't a problem until you gave up the white ranger powers in favor of the Zeo crystal, which was known to give off high levels of radiation. In moderate amounts, the radiation was harmless, but your body had already been damaged on the cellular level, and when the Command Center exploded in combination with the Zeo radiation, it because an irreversible effect on your body," he explained.
"I don't understand. If the Zeo crystal made me sick, why didn't I ever feel anything? I as never in any pain," he brought up.
"Because of the explosion, your body was forced to absorb the radiation all at once, linking you to the red Zeo crystal permanently. Eventually, you were able to adapt to your new power source, but it wasn't until you attempted to accept the Turbo powers that your body began to reject the new source of energy. You see, the human body isn't meant to withstand so many different types of energy, which is another reason a new group of rangers were selected every generation," he told him.
"But if that was the case, Rocky, Adam and the others would have been effected as well," he said.
Alex shook his head. "Not necessarily. Your situation was different because of your past with both the green and white ranger powers. It was one of the reasons you were asked to step down as the red Turbo ranger; your body was beginning to reject the energy. It was believed that if you weren't in contact with any external energy source, your body would eventually heal itself and you would be able to live a normal life," Alex explained.
"So what went wrong?" Tommy asked him.
"Everything was okay until you and the other red rangers joined together to stop the Generals of the Machine Empire. You exposed yourself to the Zeo crystal again for the first time in years, and your nervous system couldn't deal with it. Shortly after the battle on the moon, you became ill, and TJ and the others took you to Bio-Lab to be treated. Again, there was no cure, so you were put into status until something could be done for you," he said.
"And no one was able to find a cure until now?" he replied.
"There are reasons that you were left in status for all this time, one of them being that there was a debate on whether or not you should be allowed to have knowledge of the past," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"In instances like this, Time Force implements the memory adaptation procedure. It erases any previous memories, allowing you to re-adjust to life in the 31st century. My superiors felt as though you would a high risk jumper and wanted to give you the procedure," he told him.
"Jumper?" he inquired, hoping Alex would elaborate.
"Jumper is a term we use to describe someone who we consider to be a risk of attempting to go back to their own time. You see, sending you back to your own time with knowledge of the future would disrupt the time line and alter the future," he pointed out.
"I see your superiors didn't get their way," he brought up.
"I told them it would be a waste to give the procedure to someone who is so highly respected in the history logs. In a sense, you paved the way for the Time Force rangers and have a heavy influence on everyone who hopes to join the academy. You're a legend, and I felt you deserved more than to just have your memories and experiences wiped away in the name of protocol," he said.
"Won't that alter destiny?"
"Someone once told me that we make our own destiny," he said as he stood up, extending his hand to Tommy.
With a nod and a slight smile, Tommy obliged him, shaking his hand firmly.