Rachel, Lorent, Klezmi, Silva, and a few others in minor roles are mine.
Rated PG : language; sexuality; violence; some mature concepts.
Loosely based on Destiny and End of Time episodes. Shares plot and some dialoque with my story 'A Year of Time'.
Please review, it keeps me going.
We wheeled in the sky above the city on our Timeflyers, the enemy in our sights. It was a flying robotized warship, rather dramatically decorated to look like a dragon. Frax's robot, his doomsday weapon. We seemed like only gnats, not strong enough to do more than annoy it, even with the Ranger weapons.
This was our second encounter with it. The first had been yesterday, and it had gone as history described, except with me as the Red Ranger instead of Wes. He had been at Silver Hills hospital, watching over his father, who was destined to die today. Wes would then take over Bio-Lab, while I would continue as a Ranger. He might even survive the coming cataclysm.
Yesterday I had briefed the team after my conversation with Jen. And then it had been time. The Dragon had attacked, flying above Bio-Lab, blasting a complex of storage facilities. We had flown in, I had taken command, we had approached in attack formation -- and the others had rebelled, broken off before we could engage. They said my strategy -- a direct confrontation -- would get them killed.
None of them have been in a real combat situation before, none of them have been at war. They haven't seen the things I've seen, lost the things I've lost. Soldiers must obey, without question, or the enemy has already won. They don't understand. Luckily, the Quantasaurus Rex, with the Quantum Ranger, arrived in time to drive the Dragon off.
I was furious. I admit I lost my temper with them, when we got back to their clock tower base. Someone had to wake them up, make them see how serious the situation was, make them realize the importance of obeying orders without hesitation. I could see how angry they were. They don't like me. That's all right. I don't need them to like me, as long as they follow me, as long as they obey.
Now we faced the second battle, the one we had to win. My teammates still didn't trust my judgment, a possibly fatal problem. As we flew in, I decided to modify my strategy to one they could accept more easily, and, I had to admit, one that had a better chance of succeeding without getting any of us killed. We buzzed around the machine as it flew toward Bio-Lab and the city beyond, trying to slow and distract it, lead it over empty fields. One by one we flew close enough to fire on it, then fled when it turned to attack, with the others drawing fire away.
It was a high-speed, dangerous, and terrifying battle. Our tactics worked for a time. We ran it in circles, forcing it to expend ammunition without doing much harm. But I knew sooner or later it would hit one of us. Our only real chance was for Eric and the Q-Rex to help, as history said they would. But something else went wrong first.
Jen swooped low to fire on the Dragon from below. I was distracted, avoiding a series of blasts and trying to get in a few hits of my own. When I checked on her, to my alarm she was landing. From the way her flyer handled, I could see she had lost power. I knew casualties were possible -- but not Jen -- I flew low to see what had happened. The others followed.
Foolish. As we dropped toward the ground, all of us lost power, just as Jen had. We were barely able to land. In moments we were all down, safely, out of our flyers and running to stand together.
"What happened?" Jen asked. "I just lost power, for no reason."
"The rest of us did too," Trip said. "Something's drained our energy. Check your morphers, they're low on energy too."
It was true, we were all near the point of demorphing. I looked up at the Dragon, coming down at us. Above it, the Q-Rex finally appeared, coming in fast. The Dragon lifted up again to meet it. We were saved for the moment. But not safe.
"Look," I said. A tall, golden robot was approaching us, pointing a large, strangely designed weapon at us, followed by several cyclobots. Frax, Ransik's robot ally, now turned against his master and acting on his own.
"Fire!" I shouted. We all summoned our blasters and opened fire, with little effect. Something was still draining our energy.
"Alex, wait! We don't know what's going on here," Jen cried.
"Don't question me! Fire!" We tried again. No good. Frax aimed a blaster built into his arm and fired at us, knocking us down, leaving us seriously weakened.
I dragged myself to my feet. "Get up!" I shouted at the others. They just stared at me, gasping for breath. I flashed into anger again; if I could fight through pain and seemingly hopeless odds, so could they. "Fight! What's wrong with you? Don't you care what happens if we lose?" Maybe fear and guilt at my own tampering with history made me overreact.
That got Lucas on his feet, but to fight me, not the real enemy. He walked up to me and shouted, "I've had enough of you!"
Katie was right behind him. "You're the one who doesn't care! If you did, you wouldn't have replaced Wes!"
"The team is stronger this way!"
Even Jen turned against me. "They're right. We don't know you. And you don't know us. We were stronger with Wes."
While we were wasting time on useless argument, Frax moved closer, raising his energy-draining weapon. I shouted at the others again. Just as Frax was about to fire, a beam struck him from the side, sending him reeling to the ground, dropping his weapon. A moment later it burst into flaming wreckage. We turned to look. It was Wes, several meters away in front of a small group of buildings, his motorcycle behind him. He was holding a large blast rifle. He had left his father, to help his friends. Luckily for us, but at the moment I felt only anger for him.
As Wes aimed at him, Frax cried, "You've destroyed my energy drainer, but your weapons are weakened. My machine will still defeat you!" In another moment he was gone in a sparkle of teleportation.
We started back to our flyers, as I heard Jen call, "Alex, please..." She looked at me pleadingly. I knew what she wanted. I might have known it wouldn't work. There was no time to build trust with them, to make them see... and like it or not, they weren't soldiers. I couldn't depend on them to obey me. There was no choice. I had to give up, let Wes take his place with them, let history take its course. Slowly I raised my arm and demorphed, then removed the morpher and handed it to her.
Taking it with a smile, she turned to Wes, who had stopped a few feet away. She tossed it to him. He caught it and paused long enough to give me a grateful nod. Seconds later I was watching all of them take to the sky to join the battle against the Dragon.
There was no need for me to stay. Nothing I could do to help, at this point, and I knew they were destined to win this fight. I left, taking Wes's motorcycle. There was only one useful thing I could think of to do.
In a very grim state of mind, I walked into Silver Hills hospital. The staff must have thought I was Wes, despite the uniform; no one attempted to stop me. I slipped into one of the intensive care rooms and stood for a moment looking down at the patient inside.
Alan Collins, founder, owner, and CEO of Bio-Lab. I tried to find a resemblance to my own father. But Dad had died when I was a small child, in the war, of course. I knew him only from photographs. My mother was gone, too, I had no one who could even tell me about him.
Suddenly I found myself wondering why I was trying so hard to preserve my world, the reality I knew. War, death, a world full of lost friends, lost parents, lost lovers. A world in which I had lost everyone I cared for. In which I was afraid to love again, afraid to risk more loss. The image of Rachel rose before me.
I looked down again, at Alan Collins. At least I could prevent this death. He had created the Silver Guardians. In a hundred years, they had become Time Force. He was one of my personal heroes. Now I watched him fighting for his life. According to history, he would die within the hour, from the effects of a blaster shot. Another of Ransik's victims. But not if I could prevent it.
I can't really explain why I did it. Partly for him... partly for Wes. He was also destined to die soon. I had tried to take his place, to spend a little time with Jen before we all died, perhaps to have a chance to save her... now that plan had failed. Wes would die as he was fated to die, sacrificing himself for the future of his world. Because of his heroism -- and Jen's, and the others' -- Bio-Lab and Eric would survive, and the Guardians would eventually become Time Force. If I could make his remaining months a little happier, I would. It shouldn't have any harmful effect.
I set up the medical unit I had retrieved from my ship, and turned it on. Treatment was quick, and effective. He opened his eyes as I was packing the unit and getting ready to go. I left before he could react, before he realized I wasn't his son.
We said goodbye on the beach, at my ship. Jen, Lucas, Trip, and Katie lined up, managing to look almost disciplined. I felt a sharp sense of regret, now that it was over. I could admit I had made a mistake with them. They weren't soldiers, but they were something just as valuable. When it really counted, they had all performed with courage and intelligence. And I knew they would do it again, in their final battle.
As I was walking up to them, we heard the sound of a car. It pulled over and parked at the edge of the beach. Two people got out, Wes, and Eric. They said something to each other, and then Wes came running over to me.
"It was you at the hospital, wasn't it? You saved my father," he asked breathlessly.
I nodded. "I brought medical equipment with me that's more advanced than what your friends have."
"Now, wasn't that playing with destiny?" he asked with a smile.
"We each make our own destiny. You showed me that. You've chosen your fate. I thought saving your father was… the least I could do."
Whatever he made of that, all he did was smile again. "Whatever the reason, thanks."
"Goodbye, Wes. Good luck."
I couldn't resist the opportunity. I walked over to Eric. Another of my heroes. He stood there, dark and harsh-faced, staring at me with curiosity and instinctive wariness struggling in his face. I remembered that my resemblance to Wes must be startling for him. "Eric Myers?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"It's an honor to meet you."
"Why? And who are you?"
"Wes can explain." Enough. It was time to go. I went to the line of my former teammates.
"Sorry I was hard on you. You don't operate the way I'm used to, but I see now that you're excellent Rangers." We shook hands, we smiled. Jen was standing at the end of the line. I faced her, finally, and said, "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything," she replied. "I know you were trying to do the right thing." We hugged, too briefly. I almost couldn't bear to let her go.
"When you come home -- we can talk." She said nothing. I went into the ship. She would never come home, if history went the way it was supposed to. But I was already thinking of a way to change it.
I tried. I thought it through over the next three months, back home in 2200, back in those dismal hallways and empty rooms. Back home without Jen. I knew what would happen. Frax would rebuild his robot warship, and attack again, this time under Ransik's control. This time, things would go differently. Our team, Jen, Lucas, Trip, and Katie, along with Wes, would die in a conflagration that would take a large part of the city with them. They would be killed, but they would accomplish their mission, Frax's machine would be destroyed, and Ransik, Frax, and Nadira would also die.
Eric would survive to rebuild the Silver Guardians. By all accounts, the loss of his new friend Wes, and of his Ranger teammates, and the carnage he saw in that struggle changed him, made him harder and colder, and gave him an obsessive hatred of mutants. He had the strength to do what he felt he must, but little kindness. Under his control, the Guardians would go on to become a leading force years later in the campaign against mutants. And in a hundred years, the Time Force I knew would be born. It would lack the compassion it had had in the original version of reality; it would do nothing to temper the hostility between humans and mutants. But it would prevent the total destruction in the previous alternate timeline.
The timestream would take its course, but I was unwilling to let Jen pay the price. There was a way. It meant disrupting history. But I was beyond caring. I would give them a chance. Bring them home, before the fight, before they were supposed to die.
I contacted them in secret, alone in my office. Told them what was going to happen. Saw the pain and fear in their faces when I told them they would all be killed in the upcoming battle, unless they did what I said. Told them they could escape, use the timeship I was sending for them. Told them Wes would have to stay behind, to give up his life for the future of his world. All I could do was wait, and hope they would do what I wanted.
As I found out later, they didn't, they wanted to stay, and face the final struggle with their friend. But Wes decided for them, somehow tricked them into the ship, and activated the autopilot. It brought them back, brought Jen back to me. I was there when they arrived; I walked to the door of the time travel recovery room, hesitating, wondering how much of the truth to tell them, wondering -- too late -- what they would think of this reality, if they would think it was worth the sacrifice of Wes's life.
The door opened, and there they were. There she was, tears on her face, staring at me in shock and hostility. Blaming me for the loss of her friend and teammate, instead of being grateful to me for saving her. All of them crowded around me, upset and agitated.
"What happened in 2001?" she cried. "What happened to Wes?"
"I'm sorry, Jen. All of you. Wes didn't make it. But he's remembered as a hero."
"No!" The anguish and rage in her face was painful to see. "We should have been there to help him!" She shrank away from me.
"Jen. All of that happened a long time ago. Wes is a part of history now. You'll have to forget him."
"How can I forget? We were a team for a year. We couldn't have done anything without him. And now he died… to save us. It isn't fair! How can you be so cold-blooded about it?"
"I would have taken his place, if you had let me. I tried. But Wes chose his own destiny, just as he said."
She stiffened. "You knew about this all along."
"Yes. I tried to change it. But it was Wes's fate to die the way he did."
"No! We have to go back and help him."
"You can't. Please, try to accept it. There's nothing more you can do."
It took a little time, but I got them calmed down. That lasted until I reluctantly confronted the issue of Trip and Katie.
"The two of you will have to be sent to an appropriate facility," I told them. "Your permanent disposition will be decided in a few weeks."
"What do you mean, an 'appropriate facility'?" Katie demanded.
"You have both been classified as mutants. I'm sorry, and I'm sure your service on this mission will be taken into consideration. You'll probably be able to choose which relocation center you're sent to. But you must be removed from human society, for your own protection."
"This is… unbelievable!" Lucas shouted. "What kind of a world is this?"
"I'm starting to think it's not the kind of world I want to live in," Jen said.
"Whether you like it or not, this is reality now. You'll have to live in it, and make the best of it." I was abrupt with them. I had saved their lives at considerable risk, and they hated me for it.
I gambled with fate, and lost. By removing the Ranger team from 2001 before their last battle, I changed history. Wes died, as I had expected. But without the rest of them to help him, Eric failed to stop the attack, and lost his own life. I had made a terrible mistake, and had only my own weakness to blame.
Rachel explained it to them the next morning, as soon as we were sure. "According to our analysis, without your presence in 2001, Ransik's final attacks were successful enough to cripple Bio-Lab. Eric Myers died, and without him, the Silver Guardians did not survive. No Silver Guardians, no Time Force."
"When I found out about your existence in 2001, it seemed like a second chance," I told Jen. "I did it because I didn't want to lose you again. So I tried to change history, to save you. Now -- we may lose everything because of my weakness. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Alex." Her eyes fixed on my face. "When you came back to 2001 -- were you really going to take Wes's place? And die instead of him?"
"Yes. Maybe I could have found a way to save all of us. And I would have been with you."
Jen's face was unreadable. "What can we do now, to fix it?"
"We have to send you back again. There's still a chance you can change it. But you have to go now, before the timestream becomes impossible to travel through. We know we're asking you to risk your lives again, but there's no other way."
They all smiled. "We're ready," Jen said simply.
"Good. We're getting a new ship ready for you. It's a fighter as well as a timeship. And we're loading it with the best weaponry and medical equipment we can get together. It should give you a very good chance of getting through this." I looked each of them in the face. "Let's go."
After they were gone, Rachel and I stood on the timeship landing field, looking up into the sky, watching the timehole close after them. I sighed.
"According to our projections, they will survive this time, and save both Wes and Eric, thanks to our ship and weapons," Rachel said softly.
"Yes. History will change again."
"Wes's death was the difference between our timeline and the original version. Now, we'll revert to the original, or something very close. Our world, as we know it, will be gone."
"Look at this world. This reality. The war, the suffering. Are you sorry to see it end? When there's something better that could exist in its place?"
"Maybe not. But... our lives, our memories, the things that make us ourselves, will all be gone. Aren't you afraid?"
I looked back into the sky. A wind was coming, a wind to blow away this miserable world, this pit of war, loss, and hatred. "No, I'm not," I said, and turned to go back home, to spend my last hours alone. Soon this whole timeline, this reality, would be no more than a fading dream. I welcomed it, even if it meant I would be gone, too.
And that night, the world ended...
TBC...