"Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Its how you handle those types of situations that separate those who can lead, and those who only follow," he said.

"Sounds like the kind of speech you give before a promotion," he stood up. "Like I said, I'm happy where I am. I'm not really interested in a……" he was cut short.

"Just hear me out Tommy," he sat back down. "What I'm offering isn't a promotion, it's a special mission. Consider it a black bag operation," he said.

"What do you want me to do?"

"To you believe in self-fulfilling prophecies?" Alex asked him……

Tommy sat up in his bed in a cold sweat. 'A dream,' he thought to himself as he stood up, wrapping his housecoat around himself.

It was the third night in a row he'd had the same dream. It always the same; Alex was sitting behind his desk and asked him about self-fulfilling prophecies. But it always stopped there. The thought had been lingering in his mind for a while now as he tried to make sense of the dream, but it all felt so real.

Finally, he dismissed the dream as he headed over to his closet, reaching for his Time Force uniform, but a sharp pain shot through his head. He fell to the ground, holding his head in pain, screaming to the top of his lungs.

~

Jen walked through the halls of Time Force headquarters on her way to his office. There were questions that she knew he would have the answer to, but wonder whether or not he would tell her what was going on. Things were changing in Time Force, and under normal circumstances, changes this big meant something was about to happen. Something serious.

She walked into his office, clearing her throat to get his attention.

"Well, if it isn't Captain Scott," he said, putting down the paperwork he was going over and turning his attention to her.

"Its good to see you Captain Logan," she sighed, smirking slightly.

"Actually," he motioned to the pin on his uniform. "Its Admiral Logan now," he corrected.

"Yes sir. Of course sir," she said firmly as she stood up straight, upset with herself for not noticing sooner.

"You can drop the ranks Jen, it's okay. What can I do for you?" he inquired.

She sat down in the chair in front of his desk. "I need you to tell me what's going on? Why the promotion all of a sudden?" she replied.

"The counsel felt that I would be better off training the new cadets as they came in. I was promoted to Admiral and put in charge of the training division," he said.

"Why was I promoted?"

"You practically ran the place anyway. You deserved the promotion," he said.

"Drop the act Admiral, something is going on. Something is about to happen, something more than likely I'll be forced to clean up. I need to know whats happening,"

He paused. "You know that even if I did know something, I wouldn't be able to share it with you," the Admiral reminded her.

"If Time Force expects me and the other rangers to do your dirty work when the time comes, I expect a straight forward answer from you,"

He sighed. "All I can say is that the counsel is concerned that something is coming. All available employees are being re-directed in the organization to prepare. I was sent to train the new cadets in hand to hand combat and martial arts, you were promoted to Captain, a few ensigns were promoted and given commands of their own. Whatever the counsel is afraid of, its big," he told her.

"What about Tommy's meeting with Alex?"

"I didn't know anything about it," he said.

"They scheduled a meeting, but Tommy said Alex had to reschedule. Since then, Tommy has been getting headaches," Jen pointed out.

"Headaches?"

"The kind of headaches that are usually a side effect of memory adaptation," she told him.

"You think Tommy was given memory adaptation?"

"It explains a lot: the meeting with Alex that never happened, the headaches. It also ties into fact that Time Force is scrambling," she said.

"If you're right, that means that whatever is about to happen, we're not suppose to know about it yet," the Admiral said.

"I don't know about you," she stood up. "But I'm not going to sit around and wait for whatever it is to come after us. I'm going to find out what's going on," Jen said with determine as she headed out the office.

(*)

He opened his eyes slowly, only to find himself in one of the medical bays. He tried to move, but quickly realized that he was strapped down to the bed. He glanced over, where he saw Katie standing next to him.

"Its about time you woke up. You had us worried there for a second," she said.

"What…happened…"

"When you didn't show up to the lab on time, we tried to contact you, but you didn't answer. Trip and I decided to stop by your quarters to see if everything was okay, but we found your unconscious on the floor. We brought you here and the doctors are checkin' you out," she explained.

"Do they know whats wrong with me?"

"Unfortunately no, but we plan on running a few more tests on you," the doctor said as he walked into the room with a clipboard in hand.

"Can you tell us anything about his condition? Why would Tommy just pass out like that?" Katie asked.

"It could be a number of things; lack of sleep, stress in the workplace, anything could force the body to shut down. It's the body's way of healing itself. If you're looking for an official opinion, I think he works too hard, but to be on the safe side, we're going to run a few more tests," he explained.

"I should be fine Katie, really," Tommy sighed, trying to comfort her.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, get to work. I'm sure the others are waiting for you," he told her.

She leaned down, kissing him gently on the forehead, then headed out the medical lab.

~

She walked into the science lab, where Camille and Trip were impatiently waiting to hear something about Tommy's condition.

"What did they say?" Trip asked, not wasting any time.

"The doctor thinks that Tommy is just overworked, that's all. We'll know more in a few hours," she told them.

"Personally, I think there's something more going on," Camille said, injecting herself into the conversation.

"Like what?"

"I think that Tommy is the black ranger," she said.

"What would make you think so?"

"Think about it, it all adds up. Tommy goes to talk to Alex in some top secret meeting, but it never happens. Tommy claims they had to reschedule, but he was gone for over two hours. Now hes having weird dreams and headaches," she pointed out.

"That doesn't mean anything," Katie said.

"Think about it: The one mission that Tommy doesn't come with us, and the black ranger shows up to save of us at the last minute," she turned to Trip. "Didn't you say that the black ranger knew we had to get back to the transfer point?" she asked.

"Well, yeah,"

"If the black ranger wasn't from our reality, how would he know that? I say Alex recruited Tommy to be the black ranger, but that much power is beginning to have side effects on him, just like it did 1000 years ago," she said.

"Time Force would never risk Tommy's life by giving him two morphers," Katie said.

"They don't intend on Tommy being two rangers, Alex is more than likely take over as red ranger again," she said.

"It does make sense," Trip agreed.

"I don't buy it. If Tommy were the black ranger, he'd just come out and tell us. He wouldn't try to keep it a secret," she mentioned.

"He isn't keeping it a secret, he doesn't know," they heard a voice say. They turned around and saw Jen as she walked into the science lab. "If your theory is right, Tommy doesn't know he's the black ranger because they gave him memory adaptation," she said.

"But memory adaptation is a one time thing. If they were going to make him the black ranger, they would have to give him the procedure every time he used the morpher if they didn't want to him to tell anyone," Camille said.

"That would do serious damage to his subconscious, and the effects would leave him with permanent memory loss, severe headaches, maybe even brain damage," Trip added.

"Then you have to consider that the technology needed to create that level of sophistication is beyond our capabilities. Even if Trip and I worked on it for months, we wouldn't be able to construct a morpher with that much power," she added.

"Its just a theory, but to be sure, we're going to test that theory," Jen told him.

"How?"

"I have a plan," she sighed. "Trip, how long before the slipstream is ready to go?" she asked.

"Give me two minutes Captain," he said, rushing over to the control panels.

"Set it for coordinates 139741.6," she said.

He quickly inputted the coordinates. "But Jen, those are temporal coordinates, that will take us to…" he was cut short.

"I know where it leads Trip," she told him.

"I'm ready when you are," he sighed, activating the portal.

Without a second thought, Jen walked through the portal.

"What is she up to?" Katie asked.

"I don't know, but this is going to be interesting," Camille said as she followed suit, walking through the portal.

Trip was next, and finally, Katie let out a reluctant sigh as she stepped through. Moments later, the portal disappeared.

(*)

"Is everyone okay?" Jen asked, making sure everyone was accounted for.

"We're good," Trip said, speaking for the group.

All of them got a good look around the room. It appeared to be the science lab, but it was much darker. The room wasn't very well lit, but Camille recognized it right away. "Oh God," she sighed.

"What is it Cammy?" he asked.

"This is prison planet," she groaned.

"You've been here before?"

"Camille, the other Katie and I came here once with Tommy, but we were able to escape just in time. This time, we're not trying to escape," Jen told them.

"Why?"

Before she could answer, Jen headed out the room and down a hallway, coming to the end. The others followed, and Jen quickly pulled out of disrupter, firing at the wall, blasting a huge hole in it.

"What are you doing?"

"If memory serves me correctly, prison planet is surrounded by a dome that keeps them safe. Outside the dome are creatures, which is where prisoners go when they are exiled from the prison," she said.

"You're trying to leave the prison?" Katie asked.

"Yup," she said, walking through the hole she created.

Reluctantly, the others followed her, coming to the edge of the dome itself. It was transparent, allowing them to see through to the other side. The surface of the planet was rocky, and it seemed to be glowing red. The wind was blowing violently, made obvious by the huge rocks rolling pass the dome.

"Everyone set your disrupters on the highest setting and fire," Jen said.

"Where?"

"Here," she told them, blasting a small hole in the dome.

"But Jen, if we do, the dome will collapse and…"

"You have your orders Lt, carry them out," she snapped.

Without question, the others put their disrupters on the highest setting and aimed for the exact spot Jen was shooting. Soon, the dome began to crack, and seconds later, the entire thing collapsed, allowing the winds to come through the dome. The strength of the wind was enough to knock all of them over, but Jen was quickly back to her feet.

"TIME FOR, TIME FORCE," she called out, morphing into the pink ranger, then called for her chrono saber and went through the hole in the dome.

"Shes trying to get us killed," Camille said. "I'm not going out there,"

"Trust me, if those creatures out of there, they'll eventually find their way in here too. Its no safer waiting here," Trip said.

"Alright guys, lets go," Katie said.

"TIME FOR, TIME FORCE," they all called out, replacing their clothes with their rangers uniforms, then quickly called for their sabers as well.

They stepped through the hole in the dome and made their way towards Jen, who was battling with a huge creature of some sort. He had to be almost five feet tall with scales covering it's entire body, and long, sharp claws.

It backhanded Jen, knocking her up against the side of a cave. Katie checked on her as Camille and Trip double-teamed the creature. Trip went for a leg sweep as Camille hit a spin kick, knocking it over. As Trip stood up, Camille did a flip, landing on Trip's shoulders, then used him for extra momentum as she did a flip in mid air, coming down and stabbing the creature in the chest. It let out a sickening roam as blood poured out the open wound.

"Is Jen okay?" Trip asked as he turned around, only to see another creature was attacking them.

Trip rushed towards them to help, but a spider-like creature grabbed from behind Camille, actually wrapping Camille in a web. "Trip, help me!" she screamed.

Trip threw his chrono saber at the spider creature, stabbing it in the eye, which gave Camille enough time to cut herself free from the web. They raced over to Jen and Katie, but two more creatures came out the cave, attacking them.

The spider creature got the saber out it's eye, using the web to entangle Trip and Camille. The two of them fell to the ground trying to get free, but couldn't.

Katie picked one of the creatures up, throwing it at the spider creature, knocking them both over, then tried to free Trip and Camille. "This stuff is too sticky, there's nothing I can do," she cried.

The four of them found themselves surrounded by a group of beasts, each of them closing in slowly. Just then, the black ranger appeared out of nowhere.

"Looks like you guys could use some help," the ranger said as golden blades extended from his forearms.

He rushed at the spider creature, slicing off four of its legs, knocking it down. Another creature rushed at him, but the black ranger dropped to the ground and held his arms upward, stabbing the creature in the stomach as he tried to pounce on him. Three more creatures made a move, but the black ranger pulled a disrupter out, and with one in each hand, blasted holes in the creatures. Soon, the remaining creatures retreated, allowing the black ranger to use his blades to free Trip and Camille.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you," Camille said.

"You should get out of here, this world isn't safe. How did the dome collapse?" he asked.

Trip tried to answer, but Jen cut him off. "We don't know. When we arrived here, it was broken. We came out here to fight the creatures so none of them would get through," she said, limping over to him.

"I'll make the necessary repairs, but the rest of you better get back to the lab. If any of those creatures did make it through the dome, I'll take care of them too,"

"Who are you?" Katie asked.

"A friend," he sighed, and then disappeared.

(*)

The four of them stepped through the portal, finding themselves back in the science lab. Trip headed for the control panel, shutting down the slipstream.

"What the hell were you trying to do Jen? Get us all killed?" Camille snapped.

"Another outburst like that and I'll have you relieved of duty Lt. Is that understood?" she asked calmly.

"Yes sir," she moaned, making it obvious that she was still upset.

"Jen, you're hurt," Trip noticed, observing a huge gash on her side.

"I'm going to get down to the medical bay and have them patch me up. Here," she reached for her morpher, powering down, then handed the morpher to him. "Download all the audio my morpher recorded into the main computer, then isolate our voices from the black rangers," she told him.

"Why?"

"She wants to use his voice to identify him," Camille said, finally realizing what Jen had been up to.

"Almost everything in Time Force is controlled by voice authorization, so compare the black ranger's voice to every voice identification we have in the Time Force data base, starting with Tommy. If it is him, I need to know," she said, holding her side as she walked out the room.

~

Jen walked into the medical lab, only to find that Tommy was gone. She glanced around the room, but there was no sign on him. "Just what I thought," she sighed as she sat down on one of the examining tables.

"Who are you talking to?" a voice asked.

She glanced up and saw Tommy walking towards her. "Where did you come from?" she inquired.

"I was in the bathroom," he noticed the gash on her side. "What happened to you?" he replied.

"You don't know?"

"How would I, I've been in here all day," he pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that's right," she sighed in an unconvincing tone.

"I'll find the doctor so you can get cleaned up," he said, walking out the room.

Jen watched him walk out the room as she leaned back, lying down on the examining table. "Sooner or later, I'm going to find out your secret Tommy Oliver," she sighed.