Author's Note #1:Oh my god, she lives!!!!!!!! Or rather, this fiction lives. I don't really need to tell anyone that knows me that I have exams to revise for, and am putting it off by writing. It's what I do.

Can I be perfectly honest? I have never seen a full PR episode with Tanya in, only T:APRM and I'm not sure that was the best example of her character. I've had to draw on various interpretations of her character for this chapter, and I'm aware a lot of the plot doesn't fit with the show. But hey, I never claimed to be normal.

And I know the formatting's weird. Blame the antique that is my computer.
******
Everyone knows my story. My reason to deserve a second chance.

Or at least, they think they do.

According to, ooh, every other person living on this planet, I am destined to end up marrying Adam Park, having adorable babies, and living happily ever after. If I were given a second chance, ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have me running after Adam and begging him not to be a stuntman, but to go to New York with me.

Congratulations to everyone who didn't have me playing the romantic heroine. You figured me out better than those who know me, even if it was only a lucky guess.

*****

I can imagine telling this story to my grandchildren, if I have any. I'll be sitting by a roaring fireplace, if they actually have any in California, with several toddlers at my knee. One of them will ask innocently if I ever met a superhero, or a monster, or something that only toddlers and certain people in the know believe in. I'll smile and say to them,

"Grandma believes in superheroes, monsters and angels. You should too."

Why did I add angels into the equation? It may have something to do with the angel standing beside me, staring in a know-it-all way at me as I try to keep my emotions in check.

I have no doubt that she's an angel. In fact, I'm damn certain that she's not of this earth. No human I've met has managed to infuriate me as much within five minutes of meeting them.

It all started with a tap on my knee. Which was faintly surprising, seeing as there was no-one else in the house, and I don't have any pets to jump up and cause me unnecessary alarm. So, I look up and find this shining deity beside me, although she looks a little flustered to be an angel. I was brought up to believe that angels have infinite patience, but they'd obviously never met Alice.

"I'm Alice, you're Tanya Sloan, ex-Power Ranger, now singing in a bar at Angel Grove after failing to launch your career in New York. Can you please choose a day in your life you'd like to change in, ooh, ten seconds?"

Stop.

What??????????

I hadn't quite figured out she was an angel yet. I thought she was some drunken intruder who was destined for the funny farm, but how did she know my name? More to the point, how did she know who I'd been?

My emotions must have played out over my face, because she pulled a spectacularly strange face at me, tutted, and told me, "I'm an angel, I know everything about you, but you have to choose a day in your life that you'd like to relive. You and a few of your buddies have built up a few... credits, shall we say, for all your do-gooding over the years. This is the celestial way of saying thank you."

*****

Neither of us have said anything since, except for me asking Alice to be still and keep quiet more times than should be necessary, and that was at least three minutes ago. I've sat, perfectly still, trying to work things out in my head although thoughts keep slipping in from nowhere and stealing my concentration. Alice, however, has been wriggling, tutting, and shifting from side to side as I try and make my mind up as to whether I really do want to rescue my sister from wherever she may be.

I've never met Michelle. Although she's my sister, I sometimes forget that she exists, and live my life as an only child. Why shouldn't I? I have the undivided attention of my parents, and I've never lived with her, I've never shared clothes or experiences with her.

I've never heard her speak my name.

Michelle Sloan was thirteen when she left home. My mother and father told her that she was going to have a baby sibling, a kind of miracle as my parents weren't as young as they used to be. I don't think I'm all that terrifying, but the thought of having to share her parents with a squawling baby was apparently enough for her to behave so badly my father eventually sent her to live with a distant aunt in a tribe two settlements away. I was born, my mother asked her if she wanted to come back home, and she declined. She stayed with Aunt Lillian ever since.

Since then, she's become a kind of legend in our family. When we were still in Africa, my parents went to visit her occasionally, but Michelle never wanted to see me. They asked her to come to America with us, to make a fresh start, and according to my aunt, she almost accepted. Then she changed her mind and said no. She writes to my parents but never mentions my name.

Breaking the awkward silence as an idea takes shape in my confused mind, I ask an ever-impatient Alice,

"What if.... what if it were a day you hadn't lived? Could you somehow manipulate a person's mind into making them do or feel differently?"

Alice's eyes dawn in recognition, and she says softly, "Of course, your sister."

I nod, disconcerted that this annoying woman knows my every thought, probably knew the decision I was to make before she entered my apartment. "I want to know if I can change her mind about me. I don't know why she never wanted to meet me, but if I can subconsciously try to convince her that I'm not all that bad..."

"Then you could grow up with a sister," Alice finishes for me, and I nod in agreement. "I could try for you, Tanya, but I'm a trainee angel, and I've never heard of this being done before. If it goes wrong... well, enough tonight has gone wrong already, and you would probably lose your second chance altogether. There's no time left to give you another."

"What's gone wrong?" I ask, and a question occurs to me that I can't believe I ignored earlier. "Who else has been given a second chance?"

"Trini, Kim, Tommy and Rocky. But time is moving in different speeds for all of them, and they won't all get 24 hours to relive before they make their decision. I don't think I can risk the damage a subconscious permutation would cause if it went wrong, Tanya, I'm sorry."

"Okay...." I say slowly, strangely angry that now I will have to meet this sister, meet my flesh and blood who has rejected me for all my life. What will I say? Will she tell me why she never wanted to see me, never mentioned me in any of her letters?

Should I be choosing a reconciliation with Adam instead?

This thought hits me like a bolt of lightening from nowhere, and startles me with the impact it has.

Adam and I parted mutually; neither of us wanted to commit, or be in a long- distance relationship. With his stunt work meaning he was in California for half the time, and my singing keeping me in New York all year round, we would never see each other. Yet it was hard maintaining relationships with people who hadn't held superpowers. They would never know the nightmares that only happened rarely but shocked me to my very soul. The feelings that sprung up at inopportune moments to remind me there was so much more I could have done in the earth's fight against good and evil. When Adam and I were together, we could share and discuss these feelings. With Roy, Steve, Josh... that was impossible. I had to invent a recurring dream about falling to disguise bad nights of sleep.

"Think clearly, Tanya," Alice urges softly, and I get the feeling that she's reading my mind. Again. "You could telephone Adam and talk to him any time to find where you stand after all this time. When will you get the opportunity to meet Michelle on your own terms without causing guaranteed hassle and spending outrageous amounts of money on a plane ticket?"

The girl makes sense, I have to admit. "How can I relive this? I've never had an encounter with her to relive. I'm not even sure I want to see her if she's going to shut me out again."

Alice shrugged. "This is only a suggestion, but - " she broke off, and tilted her head as if listening to a voice in her head. After a few unique expressions crossed her face, she turned back to me and spoke rapidly. "Look. My only suggestion is that I send you back to the day you left Africa for the United States. Write a letter for Michelle and ask Aisha to make sure it reaches the tribe your aunt's family belong to. To be honest, it's all you'll have time to do before I have to send you back."

This suggestion sounds plausible, but - "What if she doesn't get the letter? How am I going to know when she gets the letter? I presume after this I'll have to decide which of the two alternate lives I go back to. How will I know if I don't even know if she got the letter?"

"I will know," Alice said softly, so quietly I wasn't even sure if I'd heard her correctly. "The others don't know this, and I have no idea why I'm telling you out of all of them, because I don't even think you like me all that much, but -"

"I do like you. Your fidgeting got on my nerves, that's all," I hasten to reassure her. She's not all that bad, once you get past the badgering to hurry up, and the fact that she holds my future in her tiny hands.

She smiles. "Thanks, you're not all that bad yourself, although whichever life you go to, sort it out with Adam or you'll be a spinster with several Alsatians. From the mouth of one who knows!" she says to make me realise that she's probably right. "Once the time is up for all six of you, I will, or should have, the ability to know how each of your lives will turn out, barring natural weather phenomena such as earthquakes. I shouldn't give any of you any guidance to which choice would be better to make, but because you'll only have about ten minutes in the alternate world, and won't even see the person you're trying to make amends with, I should be able to sort out a way to aid you."

"You'd do that for me? Even after I yelled at you and asked you to stop moving or I'd put you in a noose to keep you still?"

So I may have slightly under-estimated my asking her to be still and quiet earlier. I was stressed, okay? It's not every day that an angel comes along and offers you a second chance.

Alice smiled. "I was a lot like you when I was, you know, alive. Forthright and pissed off when anyone annoyed me."

Can't really argue with that.

From nowhere she brings out a vial of what can only be described as bright green sludge. I notice immediately that it's half-full, and pity my friends who have already had to drink the vial's contents. "Drink a spoonful of this. I'll send you back to the day you left Africa. Your mind will be as you are now; so you'll know exactly what you need to do. Just write a short letter giving Michelle the name of the town you'll be living in, and asking her to write to you, or whatever. Do what the hell you like, but you won't have time to do more than that."

I nod, slightly apprehensive regarding the task that I am about to carry out. For so many years, I wondered about the sister we left behind, or the sister that left us behind, I should say. Now, finally, I am to have the opportunity to find out what happened, and if there could be any chance of reconciliation.

And I have to drink a spoonful of seaweed to get there.

*****

This is distinctly underwhelming.

I expected to land flat on my face, or at least land in an unattended bucket of water. Instead it's as though my head has suddenly cleared after suffering a headache, and I can see without a fog blurring my vision.

I look down at myself, remembering vividly how awkward I felt at sixteen. My mind is older now, and I can see I wasn't all that bad. Clear skin, hair slightly on the frizzy side of course, but this was before America and my discovery of straighteners. Nothing to complain overly about, of course.

I remember why I am here, and quickly stop staring out of the ramshackle door, struggling to find a piece of paper and a pen in my packed rucksack that lays on the floor behind me. It takes me many precious moments to find these vital implements, and many more to know what to write.

I have no idea what to write.

Should I be jokey? "Hey sis, mind explaining why you've never wanted to see me, never wanted to hear my name spoken?"

Serious? "Michelle, we really need to make contact. We're both grown-ups now, surely we should at least meet?"

Finally, I come to my senses and begin scribbling. As quickly as I can, writing my jumbled up thoughts on a crumpled piece of paper, and aware that they make no sense whatsoever, I write until Alice's voice in my head startles me and prepares me for the fact that I have to leave in a minute.

Sixty seconds to say goodbye.

There is no time to look over the hastily written letter, but the words will stay with me forever. It was more apologetic, more sorry for myself than I would have liked, but there was no time to change it. The words would have to stay the same.

*****

Dear Michelle,

It's your sister Tanya. I don't know if my aunt told you but today is the day I move to America and I can't go without saying goodbye. Or should that be hello? We've never met, after all.

No-one's ever told me why you never wanted to see me or speak to me. Was it something I did wrong? My - our - parents said you needed a change of scene, to live with different people, but I can't understand why you wouldn't meet me, just once. Did you really hate me so much?

We're probably different people now. I don't think we'll ever have a close relationship, but I would really like to hear from you, even if it's to tell me you never want to hear from me again.

I'm moving to a town in California called Angel Grove. An American girl, Aisha, is with our parents tribe now, my replacement, I suppose you would call her. If you find some way of passing a letter to her, she's agreed to send anything for me to California.

I'm sorry if this letter has caused you pain or hurt in any way, but as I said before, I couldn't leave Africa without saying goodbye.

Your sister, Tanya.

*****

There was barely time to leave the letter with scrawled directions written on the back of the sheet of paper, before Alice transported me to the place where all our decisions were to take place.