Second Chances #5: Tommy

Author: hanspam

Disclaimer: Alice is mine, the rest are someone else's. Saban? Disney? Does it look as though I know?

Author's Notes: This chapter took a while.. sorry. I've been busy collecting exam results, working and the like. Hopefully the next two chapters will be up before too long.

This New Year's Eve was just the same as anybody else's.

Sitting in a bar, a half-drunk pint of beer placed before him, Tommy Oliver could almost believe that life would, one day, become normal again.

Again? Maybe that was the wrong choice of word. Nothing in his life so far could be legitimately described as 'normal'.

Having a father who was a high-ranking Army officer wasn't run-of-the-mill. Until he was nearly 16, the Oliver family had never stayed in one place for more than two years.

Maybe there were many people who shared his position in life - so far. When you introduced being turned evil and being instructed to aid the destruction of the world by an evil empress... that tended to rule out practically every other person he knew. And a whole lot of other people whom he'd never met.

Then, being invited, still as a teenager, to become one of a group of superheroes whose main objective was to defeat the very evil empress who had placed him under a spell, brought him peers who shared his experiences of dealing with aliens.

Aliends whom many other people in Angel Grove didn't even believe in - despite frequent visual evidence to the contrary.

While he was a member of the Power Rangers, life was... was good the right word to describe it? he wouldn't call the battles that occured almost daily 'good' - painful was a much better synonym. For the first time in his life, Tommy had had a group of friends who he could rely on, and in one of them, his first serious girlfriend, for whome he would do anything. And he thought she felt the same.

A year and a half later, when Kim moved away and subsequently broke up with him, was the beginning of the end of the good times.

That wasn't to say he hadn't cared deeply for Katherine when they had dated. For a while it had begun to feel as though, maybe, life would go on after all.

And then things went wrong for them, as well.

Since their break-up - almost seven years ago now, although it didn't feel that long ago - Tommy had dated a few women, even seriously considered spending the rest of his life with one of them. The problem came with the inevitable questions about his teenage years. What exactly was he supposed to say in reply to questions on extracurricular activities?

"Before I graduated high school, I'd held three different superpowers, and been the leader of the Power Rangers for two years. Oh, and occasionally I played football."

"My grade point average was lower than it should have been because, instead of doing homework or studying for tests, I was either fighting monsters or practising self-defense techniques. You played hockey? Well, that's almost the same..."

Somehow it didn't make for dinnertable conversation.

As he sat at the bar, Tommy wasn't thinking about any of the women in his life that got away. He was thinking along the usual lines that occupied his mind whenever he'd had a drink or two.

How had he allowed himself to become evil? When he had been attacked that fateful day behind the Youth centre, why hadn't he been a bona fide martial artist and been on his guard?

He hadn't paid much attention to his fellow drinkers that evening. Despite his morose mood, he had managed to drag himself away from his apartment, so at least he would be in the company of other people when the clock struck midnight.

It came as a sudden shock to him when he vaguely heard someone approach him, and a female voice say lightheartedly,

"You weren't on your guard because you'd just won a martial arts tournament. I imagine you'd thought the fighting was over, and you weren't really expecting a cavalry of beings made of clay to attack you and transport you to the moon. Not many people would."

He had expected the person speaking to him to be the bartender, perhaps handing out free drinks to celebrate the beginning of a new year. He hadn't been prepared for a complete stranger to provide the answer to the rhetorical question he had mentally been asking himself.

Especially if, in his heart, he knew that the answer the stranger provided was true.

Alcohol had slightly loosened Tommy's tongue, so instead of using the hushed tones reserved for discussing Ranger business in public, he told the woman in his normal voice, "Yeah, that was my problem back then. Young, naive, and totally unprepared for monster attacks by aliens with a personal vendetta against me."

He didn't even question who Alice - for it was she- was, or how she knew what he had been thinking. He was edging his way towards the blissful state of drunken-ness where you accept anything that is thrown your way without question.

Alice, being an angel, was aware of how humans react to alcohol, but wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to prise a prime second-chance moment out of him.

It was obvious defending himself against the putties, Rita, and other evil enemies the first time he faced them would be a definite contender. But how could she be sure. Could she risk telling him here, in a crowded bar with plenty of other people present, that she was an angel, without him causing a scene and aiding her discovery?

Alice was only a novice angel, and to be perfectly honest, she couldn't risk anything going wrong which would result in her being demoted or punished in any way.

In life, she had been headstrong, and she quickly decided it would be handy to use this quality in the afterlife as well.

"Don't you ever wish you could go back and beat the crap out of your... adversaries? That first time you saw them?"

Tommy looked at her blearily, not quite seeing her for who she was, but not totally ignorant either. There was definitely something different about her, but he put it down to alcohol impaired vision and concentrated instead on answering her question. "Do I _ever_ wish I could do that? I wish it all the time. But there's nothing I can do to change the past, so I have to go on living for the future," he said philosophically.

"Right..." Alice queried skeptically. "And is this you or the drink talking? Come on, don't tell me that if you got a chance to go back and redeem yourself, you'd say no?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tommy asked suddenly, after about ten seconds of tense silence.

Alice shook her head at him, and signalled the bartender. "Never mind." The bartender came quickly to Alice's aid - helped in no small part by her looks - and she said, "Could you please ge me a glass of ice cubes? My friend here has a fever, and he could do with cooling down."

The man gave her a strange look, but complied with Alice's unusual request. he brought a tall glass filled with ice to the pair, and said, smiling, "No charge, little lady."

Alice hadn't even thought of methods of payment, although she supposed Tommy must have a wallet somewhere, but didn't let her relief should outwardly. "Thank you very much," she said to the barman, (who, incidentally, still tells stories about the gorgeous woman on New Year's Eve who asked for a glass of ice. None of his friends believe him.)

She pulled the glass toward her, and shook a few drops of her now infamous liquid into the glass.

"Sure you don't want any whisky with that?" Tommy asked curiously. "That stuff doesn't look suitable for frogs, let lone humans."

In what felt like a weird game of pass-the-glass, Alice slid the glass a few centimentres along the bar so it rested in front of her companion. "You need to wait until the ice has mostly melted, and then drink it all."

He looked suspiciously at her. "Will it stop me having a hangover in the morning?"

Alice smiled to himself. If only he knew... "I can practically guarantee it."

"And what's in it?"

"It tastes of aniseed, but believe me. If you drink it, it'll do you the world of good."

Another pause, and Alice surreptitiously crossed her fingers, hoping he would get on with it so she could go and find the last of her charges.

She heard him mutter, "Oh, what the hell," and in a flash, the liquid was gone.

Moments later, so were they.

******

Because Tommy had no preparation for what happened after the liquid was consumed, he was more than a little shocked to find himself in his old bed in his parents house in Angle Grove. He sat up, absently running a hand through tousled hair, and noticed it was considerably shorter than it had been only moments ago.

What was happening to him? "I know I'm drunk, but I didn't think I was _this_ drunk."

A female voice inside his head made him jump so high he nearly hit his head on the ceiling. "Tommy, it's Alice."

Time to panic. "Who?"

"The woman at the bar who made you drink poison."

"That was poison?" Tommy almost yelled.

"Would you have drunk it if I'd told you? Listen to me before you start yelling again and wake your parents up.

"You've been given 24 hours back to have a second chance. To change anything in your life you wish could have happened differently. You were supposed to choose this time yourself, but considering you were well on the way to becoming paralytic, I didn't quite trust you not to make a scene when I told you I was an angel."

"An angel is giving me a second chance in life," Tommy rephrased cautiously. "So you chose for me? Where am I? How did you know?"

"I didn't have much to go on, so I chose the period of time that you were moaning about when I met you."

He closed his eyes as events began to dawn on him. "The karate tournament."

"If you defeat the Putties and any other adversary Rita cares to throw at you, it may make the decision you'll have to make after 24 hours are up a little easier for you."

Tommy was slowly beginning to get the hang of this plan. "So I'll basically have to choose between lives. How is that supposed to work?"

"I don't have the time to explain, Tommy, I'm sorry. I'll be back after the day's up for your decision. And don't feel you're alone in this. Trini, Kim, Rocky and Tanya are getting second chances as well."

Tommy's mouth gaped open until he began to look like a fish.

"You'd better get some sleep, the tournament begins in about eleven hours, and if you don't reach the final you'll probably miss out on meeting the friends of your opponent.

You can call me for help, but I have 4 other people to shepherd, so don't expect a rapid response rate, okay?"

And with that, it was almost as though a radio had been switched off; a tiny click sounded somewhere in his head, and Alice was gone.

Time to face the reality? The challenge? The second chance that the day held.

And if, as he very much suspected, Alice was right, and he did have to take part in the karate tournament for the sonc time tomorrow...

Well, he'd better get some shut-eye.

******

Breakfast that Saturday morning was a quiet affair, aminly because Tommy was unsure as to whether significant events in his family life had occured yet, and so couldn't make reference to them in case he aroused suspicion. He made polite conversation about the weather and the forthcoming tournament, but omitting that, he was the same quiet person he had been before making the friends who had changed his life in so many ways.

A few hours later, and he was standing in the familiar surroundings of Angel Grove Youth Centre. It was eerie to see a younger version of Jason warming upin a distant corner of the hall; when you see someone regularly you don't notice how they age until the evidence is presented to you. It was even stranger to think that in this universe they'd never exchanged words, never become friends or shared experiences... yet.

He risked a look at the sidelines, where the meagre group of spectators were sitting or standing. It didn't take him long to pick out faces who were familiar to him; Zack, Kim, Billy and Trini were among the people gathered in the Youth centre, looking a lot younger than he remembered them the first time they met.

There was no point in thinking any more about all the experiences the group of friends had shared; in this strange, parallel world the events hadn't occured yet, and he hadn't officially met them yet.

Or exchanged blows with Jason, in either a martial arts sense or good- versus-evil sense. One way or another, that was all about to change...

The competition went according to plan - that is, it was almost identical to the one he had participated in many years ago. He met Jason in the final and won, but only narrowly, remembering the skills that he had left alone for almost seven years. The event also served to remind Tommy that Jason was the most talented opponent he'd faced in years of competitive martial arts.

The two shook hands after the fight, a gesture that was not required but was more of a pleasantry, without exchanging words. Tommy was vaguely reminded that they had spoken after the 'real' fight, but was too nervous about stepping outside the Youth Centre in a few minutes time to make converstion.

As expected, Jason walked over to join Trini, Kim, Zack and Billy, and Tommy walked alone to the locker rooms. He planned to take his time in showering and changing so there would be noboody left in the vicinity to witness the attack he wassure would take place sooner or later.

He had showered and was just pulling on a clean tshirt when the door swung open and Jason walked in.

On seeing Tommy, Jason grinned and said, "Hey, good match out there. I haven't met you before, are you new around here?"

Tommy nodded as he put his dirty clothes into a sports bag and zipped it shut. "Yeah, my parents just moved here. I start Angel Grove High next week."

Jason nodded approvingly. "That's cool, you'll like it. Good sports facilities and the teachers are mainly alright. You'll have to keep an eye out for me on Monday, I'll show you around."

Tommy was gratified by the unprovoked act of kindness. "Thanks, man. You'll be the only person I know there, I haven't really had the chance to meet anyone yet."

"You won't be on your own for long, I can tell you that much," Jason promised as he slammed his locker shut and grabbed his own bag. "I've got to run, but I'll look out for you on Monday and introduce you to a few people."

"Thanks," Tommy called after the retreating figure of Jason, and then checked his watch. It was twenty-five minutes after the tournament had ended. This should mean that, although there would still be people around, there would not be the onslaught of exiting spectators that would have awaited him had he left fifteen minutes ago.

'Why am I so nervous about this?' he thought as he pushed the locker-roon door open and entered the expansive area of the Youth Centre.

'It's not as though I haven't faced a few Putties before. Compared to almost every other opponent the Rangers have faces, Rita's Putties were nothing more than an annoying fly that kept travelling through your line of sight no matter how many times you tried to swat it away.'

His interesting analogy came abruptly to an end when he turned a corner, intending to make his way home, and was faced by at least twenty Putties, and the rturn of an old friend who _hadn't_ been sorely missed, Goldar.

"Did you think that a little delaying tactic would make us go away?" Goldar sneered from his commandeering position standing in front of an army of Putties.

"Uh-oh. It looked as though someone was on to Alice's inter-galactic time- swapping scheme.

"What the hell are you talking about, Goldar?" a voice snarled. Tommy barely had time to remember that he wasn't supposed to know his name, before it registered that it hadn't been him who had spoken.

He turned around and came face to face with the original Rangers. "It'll be alright," the Yellow ranger said placatingly. "Just stay behind us and don't get involved with anything."

Although it was physically hurting him not to take pat in the fight between the Rangers and Putties, Tommy quietly withdrew to the airconditioned haven of the Youth Centre and waited.

And waited.

Finally, he decided that his parents were going to roast him alive if he weren't home within twenty minutes, and got up from his table to leave, when Jason, Billy, Kim, Zack and Trini hurried in, out of uniform and out of breath.

Jason strode over to where Tommy was standing and stopped directly in front of him. "You know?" he said incredulously.

There was no point in denying it. "I know."

"How?" Zack asked curiously. "Jason said you told him you only just moved here."

"Wait a minute, let's move out to the hall. No-one ever goes out there at this time," Trini advised.

Once the six of them were assembled in the hall, Tommy had made his decision to go for broke and tell them the truth. He had tried to ask Alice - in his head, of course - whether this would be okay, but there had been no response.

"This is going to sound very strange, but I need you all to listen to me with open minds," Tommy pleaded with them. "If you don't believe me, then that's fine. But you deserve to be told the truth."

Five gazes were fixed unerringly on him, and this made Tommy feel more than a little uncomfortable.

"I've been sent here for a second chance; I'm from ten years in the future, and when the tournament happened in my universe, I was kidnapped by Rita Repulsa and turned into the evil Green Ranger."

If that didn't get their full attention, then nothing would. And he was gratified to see that some of the looks of disbelief on the other faces were gradually disappearing.

Over the next few minutes he told the full story of his time as a Ranger. The roster changes, the switches between different sources of power, all up until his eventual retirement as a ranger.

For a few tense moments after the end of his monologue, noody spoke. Finally, jason turned to Billy and asked,

"Billy, do you have any idea at all whether this is possible? In a scientific sense, could the story be true?"

Billy coughed, and adjusted his glasses. "The situation he has described is feasible, but I am yet to become convinced. Nothing of a personal nature, you comprehend, merely a natural defense mechanism."

"He says it's possible, but he's not sure, although don't take it personally," Trini translated automatically, unaware of the fact that Tommy had understood what Billy had said.

"Shouldn't we ask Zordon? Kim suggested, speaking for the first time, even though Tommy had noticed her sneaking a few glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking. "If what Tommy says is true, then Zordon will know and it won't matter. If it isn't true, then we could work something out."

"It's the only way to know for sure," Zack agreed. "Jase, what do - "

"Let's go," he said tersely, and in a flash of multi-coloured light they disappeared.

******

The Command Centre was its normal reassuring self, but what Tommy was defiitely not prepared for was to find Alice standing next to Alpha-5 and talking to Zordon as though they were best buddies.

"Ah, Rangers, I was beginning to wonder when you would return," Zordon greeted them.

"Zordon, is all of what Tommy says true?"

"As far as it is possible for me to discern, Tommy's story is true. Alpha- 5 has run some tests and found a discrepancy in time occuring on December 31st, 2003."

"Tommy, you have to make a decision quickly," Alice murmured to him as Alpha-5 and Billy discussed the adjusted time hole. "I can wipe your memory, and theirs too if I have to, but there's no way you'll be able to live out the remaining time. There have been all sorts of problems with the time scale, and you're gonna have to make a decision now."

"What decision?" Zack asked curiously, having heard the last part of Alice's speech.

"Whether to return to my old life or stay here in the new one," Tommy mumbled under his breath, while still thinking hard.

What on earth was he going to do? In the background, he dimly heard questions being posed to Alice about the concept of second chances.

He finally raised his head after several minutes of hard thinking, and saw Jason' walking over to him.

"Any idea what you're going to do?" he asked sympathetically.

Tommy awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and sighed. "Yeah, I think I have."

Alice turned from a deeply scientific conversation with Billy and Trini, and hearing Tommy's words, gently prompted, "You have? What have you - No, wait." She turned to the group of teenagers and said apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this, even if you are superheroes. Angel protocol." She concentrated, clicked her fingers while the assembled group looked on bemusedly, and then the five Rangers stopped moving, blinking, or even breathing.

She turned back to Tommy, who was staring at his friends in amazement. "They'll wake up and it will be this morning. They won't even remember meeting you, but they'll meet you again just the same."

"We are not affected by Alice's magic, Tommy," Zordon informed him. "We will always remember this second chance, but neither I nor Alpha-5 can advise you on which choice to make."

Tommy swallowed hard, aware that his mouth had turned the texture of sandpaper, and moved his gaze from Zordon to Alice. "I'm ready..."