Eric, Wes, Jen and all other characters from Power Rangers belong to Disney/Saban. I am using them without permission, however I have not and don't expect to make money from this.
Gaby is mine.

Rated T: mild language, some violence and sexual references.

A/N: This is a sequel to 'Crossroads' and part of my 'Year of Time' series. It can, however, stand alone, with most of the background from the series being mentioned along the way.

Reviews are always appreciated.

Reversals of Fortune

Mirrorverse - Part 1

- - -

"Jen, what happened? Why didn't we get home?" Wes asked, his voice lowered.

"I don't know. We'll have to contact Trip again."

"They screwed up again is what happened," Eric growled.

"I said, who are you?" Eric's twin in this dimension took a step forward, his face hard and suspicious. "Wes, what are you up to? Who is this guy and why does he look like me?"

"Um... That's a long story. And I'm not exactly who you think." Wes made a face at Jen. "Man, I'm getting tired of explaining all this."

"I'll do it," Jen said. She faced the other two men and said briskly, "We're from another reality, a parallel universe. We were brought here by mistake, in an experiment in dimensional travel. We're - sort of your doubles; we're you but from another timeline."

"Another reality? What the hell are you talking about?" The other Eric raised his blaster. "If this is some kind of trick, Wes..."

"It's not a trick," Wes said. "We're not the Wes and Jen you know. Look, why don't you call them? Then you'll see we're telling the truth."

"Boss, I checked in with Wes a few minutes ago, and he was home," Steve said quietly. "So was Jen. I don't think they could have gotten here so fast."

"Some kind of look-alikes, maybe? But why?" Dark Asian eyes examined all three of them carefully. "Who sent you? Who hired you?"

"No one." Wes sighed. "We told you, we're from a parallel reality. We're only here because of an experiment by Time Force that went wrong. You have a morpher; you've probably traveled through time. This shouldn't be so unbelievable."

"Time Force sent you?" It was soft and struck Eric as almost - menacing, as his counterpart's eyes narrowed.

"Not sent exactly, like Jen said it was an accident. And not the Time Force here, the one in our own dimension."

"Come on, just use your eyes," Eric cut in. "I'm you. I look like you; I sound like you. I even have the same morpher as you. How do you think I got it if I'm just a look-alike?"

"Could be fake."

Eric smiled ironically. "But it isn't."

With a thin and dangerous smile, the other Eric said, "Prove it."

Do I really look that - mean? Eric wondered, even as he lifted his arm and said, "Quantum Power!" As the light of morphing faded and he stood in his Ranger suit, he saw his double staring with a look of shock on his face, quickly replaced by comprehension, and then - a disturbingly calculating expression that came and went so fast Eric couldn't be sure he had seen it.

"Want more?" he asked.

"No. I've seen enough. You're not here for any reason? Just an accident?"

"That's right. An experiment that went wrong," Jen said.

"A Time Force experiment... What was the purpose?"

Jen shrugged. "Just exploration. Getting an idea of what we could expect to find in other dimensions."

"And your Time Force sent you on this - exploration?"

"Yes. We're all technically Time Force officers, even though we live in 2005."

"I see..." Eric's double hesitated only for another instant before holstering his weapon and advancing, hand held out, a suddenly warm and cheerful smile wiping away the suspicion and hostility as if they had never existed. "Sorry about that, but it's my job to be careful, and you have to admit it was pretty startling to see myself staring back at me like that. But - I guess what I should be saying is: welcome to our dimension! Not a very good start, was it?" His tone became apologetic, his expression slightly anxious as he shook hands with Wes. "Man, you guys must think I'm a real jerk! I hope you don't think that's how I act all the time. Just give me a chance to make up for it."

"Thanks. No, we can't blame you for not believing us," Wes said, sounding a little startled himself.

The other Eric glanced at Steve, who was still holding a blaster. "You can put that away," he said. "These are our guests, and we want to make sure they're comfortable." He waved an arm at the door. "Come on in. I can't wait to hear all about your dimension, and get to know all of you better. Are you hungry? Want something to drink? Anything we can do for you, any way we can help?"

"Well, thanks," Jen said. She looked slightly dazed. "But all we need is someplace where we can contact our own Time Force and find out what went wrong, and figure out how long it'll take them to get us home."

"Of course, of course." Other-Eric held the door open for her. "Maybe it's selfish, but I hope we'll have some time for a nice long talk. You must have some exciting stories to tell, and I'd love to hear them. And I can't wait to see Wes's and Jen's faces when they see you!"

"Man. I guess the other versions of us aren't always exactly the same," Wes murmured.

"Yeah," Eric muttered, privately deciding that he liked this one even less than the first two as he demorphed and followed the others. The guy might be smiling and laughing and talking a mile a minute like a used car salesman now - but Eric couldn't forget the cold menace in his double's eyes as he held a blaster on them only minutes before.

- - -

"Trip?" Jen said again. She frowned, and adjusted a tiny control on the sensor-communicator which was lying on the table in the small meeting room they were using. The three of them were alone; the Eric of this dimension had let them in and left, saying he was going to contact his own Wes and Jen. Now, the faint, static-filled voice they had heard deepened, grew louder, and finally became understandable.

"... Jen? Are you there?"

"Yes, Trip, we're all here."

"Great! We were worried. Are you okay?"

"We're fine. Trip, what happened? Why aren't we back in our own timeline?"

"Not sure yet. We're working on it. Last time the transfer energy wasn't enough, because of - you know. This time, according to the instruments, it was too strong."

"What could have caused it?"

"That last dimension you were in - it was very close to ours, wasn't it?"

"Well, there were some pretty noticeable differences-"

"I mean, it sounded like everything there was about the same until pretty recently. No basic changes like everyone being the opposite gender or whatever. Maybe it only diverged from our reality a few months ago."

Wes leaned nearer to the device. "Maybe. What's the point?"

"Our theory is that the dimensional transporter had trouble locking onto that reality since it's so close to ours. The transfer seems to have - overshot, I guess. Pushed you into still another reality."

"Okay." Eric sighed. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Fine-tune the detection algorithms to filter out overlapping spatial-temporal patterns and differentiate the causal chains-"

"Never mind," Wes said. "Just get us home."

"That's what I said."

"How long will it take?" Eric asked.

"Don't know yet... We need to figure out how similar the dimension where you are now is to our own. Anything you can find out about what's different there might help."

"They seem pretty much alike so far," Jen said. "We'll have to get back to you when we have more information."

"Okay." There was a hesitation. "Sorry guys. Next time we'll get you back."

"Yeah, right," Eric said just before Jen closed the connection. "Just try not to screw it up again."

"Eric, it was an accident. No one's fault. Leave it alone," Jen said sharply.

"Yeah, nothing is anyone's fault, but we're still stranded here."

"Lighten up," Wes said. "They'll get us back soon. Meanwhile, this seems like a pretty nice place so far. No big crisis, no fight we landed in the middle of for once, and Eric seems to want to help us out. The Eric here, I mean."

"This is going to be confusing," Jen said, "with two of each of us."

"You can call mine Myers," Eric growled.

"So formal." Wes smiled. "How about Eric's nice twin?"

"Eric-two. Wes-two and Jen-two, when we meet them," Jen said with a stern look at her husband.

"Whatever," Eric muttered. "And I hope you're not going to tell me he's exactly like me."

"No, we won't say that." Wes chuckled. "But he seems like a great guy."

"I don't trust him."

"You wouldn't," Jen said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean you don't seem to like being around yourself in any dimension." She met his glare without flinching.

Eric opened his mouth for an angry retort, and closed it again. Something was wrong here; he could feel it, and getting into a fight with Jen would only decrease the chances that she and Wes would take his opinion seriously. And... could he really be sure he was right? Had he disliked Erica and the last Eric for being too much like himself? And this one - so what if he was friendly, if he smiled so easily and talked so much? Was that the problem, that he was too different?

Before he could organize his thoughts enough for a response, a knock on the door interrupted. Probably for the best, he thought, as Wes called, "Come on in!" No point in arguing among themselves, at least not until they got safely home. He looked up to see the smiling face of his double, and again felt that little shiver of - wrongness.

"Hello again. Got everything taken care of?" the other Eric - Eric-two - asked as he stepped into the room.

"For now," Jen said. "Looks like we won't be leaving right away, though."

Another voice came from the doorway. "Every cloud has its silver lining. Gives us a chance to get to know each other." Looking past Eric-two, they saw Wes - a duplicate Wes - standing there, leaning casually against the frame. He grinned at them. Involuntarily, Eric glanced at the Wes he had come with and back again. Identical, except for something subtle and unidentifiable in his expression.

"So?" Eric-two said. "What do you think?"

"They're everything you said they were." Wes-two came into the room and took a seat, staring at his counterpart. "Amazing. Just amazing. We could be identical twins."

"I guess the relationship is even closer than that. In a way, we're the same person."

"An interesting thought." He seemed to find it almost amusing. "So... Eric tells me you're here by accident. How long can we expect the pleasure of your company?"

"Until our Time Force solves whatever problem brought us here." Jen shrugged. "We don't know yet how long that will be."

"If you don't mind, we'd like to hear more about this dimension," Wes said. "Obviously you're commander of the Silver Guardians, Eric. Are you two partners? What about Jen, is she here permanently? And the others: Trip, Lucas and Katie? What happened to Ransik and Nadira?"

"That's a lot of questions," Eric-two said with a smile. "And we'll be happy to answer as much as we can." He traded a quick glance with his own Wes.

"Okay," Wes-two said. "To start with, Eric and I run Bio-Lab together, so we're partners in that sense. He's in charge of the Guardians, and I'm in charge of the company."

"The company? What about Dad? I mean your father. Isn't he still running Bio-Lab?"

There was another unreadable glance between the two of them. "No. Dad died years ago."

"Died? How?"

"Murdered," the other Eric said. His brow lifted slightly as he added, "By Ransik."

"You mean... when Ransik attacked at Bio-Lab and injured him?"

"During one of Ransik's attacks, yes."

Wes looked down at his hands, clasped on the table. "Wow. Dad... Man, I'm sorry."

"Thanks. Like I said, it happened years ago."

"I guess in this dimension Alex never saved him."

"Alex?" Wes's counterpart stared at him. "Alex is dead. Has been since before all this started."

"Ransik again, I guess."

Eric-two was watching them intently now. "In your world, Mr. Collins and Alex never died?" he asked.

"Yeah. Ransik almost killed both of them, but they recovered." Wes hesitated. "I guess here Ransik had a lot more to answer for when he was taken back to the year 3000. Did he reform, like ours did?"

"Reform?" Eric-two looked blank.

His partner cut in smoothly. "Your Ransik went back to his own time?"

"Yes, we captured him almost four years ago, and Jen and the others took him back to stand trial again."

"Stand trial. I see." Wes's counterpart smiled again, with an ironic twist. "In this world, Ransik was never captured, by us or anyone else. He's still here. Still attacking us. Along with Nadira and Frax, and their allies."

"Still here?" Wes glanced at Eric and Jen. "After all this time?"

"They're pretty tough."

"They were in our world, too. I guess we were lucky."

"Maybe you can give us some mutant-fighting tips. Frankly, we could use the help."

"Whatever we can do while we're here," Wes offered.

"Thanks. We may take you up on that."

As he fell silent, Jen took over. "We have more questions, if you don't mind. We need to try to find out exactly how different your reality is from ours. Our Time Force thinks that would help them get us home."

"So you need to know as much as you can. We'd be happy to oblige." Eric's double leaned closer to Jen, smiling again as he added in a playful tone, "As long as you promise not to leave without saying goodbye!"

"Uh... of course not. Do you think we could take a look around Bio-Lab?"

"Not a good idea." Eric-two was still smiling, but his tone did not encourage argument. "It might be too confusing for the people here to see you and us together. It would mean a lot of explanations."

"And no point in letting Ransik find out about you," Wes-two added.

"I suppose," Jen said. "How about your versions of Lucas, Katie, and Trip? Can we talk to them?"

"They're all on assignment right now," Wes's double said, with a glance at his partner that Eric couldn't quite interpret.

"Assignment? You mean they're still doing odd jobs?"

That got another blank look from both of them. "They all work for Bio-Lab, with the Guardians," Wes-two said after a moment. "That's what they've been doing since they got here."

"And the clock tower? Is that where they're living?"

"Not for a few years now. I gave them a townhouse near my home, but Jen is living with me."

"Are you married?"

Wes-two raised a brow, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile. "No. Not much time for personal relationships with Ransik still around."

"More differences," Wes said.

"Speaking of my home, you can stay there while you're here."

"They might find it more convenient to stay here, with the Guardians," Eric-two said.

"The house is much more comfortable, and we can keep them out of sight of everyone who shouldn't know about them. Station a couple of Guardians there if you're worried about - Ransik." They stared at each other for just a moment longer than the exchange appeared to warrant, as something very subtle but out of place in the friendly atmosphere seemed to flash between them just under the surface.

And then it was gone, as the other Eric grinned and slapped his Wes on the shoulder. "I guess I'm just being paranoid," he said. "You're right, the house it is. Gaby and I will drop by tonight to see how you're doing."

"Come for dinner. We'll make a party out of it." Wes-two got to his feet. "I'll make sure Steve has cleared the corridors so you can leave without being seen, and arrange for a car."

- - -

"Still think this is such a nice, quiet little dimension?" Eric asked very softly, for only Wes to hear, as they followed the other Wes and Eric. Their doubles were a couple of yards ahead of them in a Bio-Lab hallway with Jen walking between them, both talking to her cheerfully.

"Well... it does look like they need our help."

"What we need is to get out of here as soon as possible."

"But maybe we were meant to be here, too. To make sure they capture their Ransik." Wes grinned at him. "And don't try to tell me what a stupid idea it is, not after you said it yourself in the last dimension."

"That was different."

"Sure it was." Wes was still smirking annoyingly.

"Shit." Eric walked a few more steps before continuing in an angry mutter. "A quick, simple, perfectly safe little dimensional experiment. That's what Jen said."

"Come on, it's not that bad."

"Oh sure. So far it's only been three days and we've only been in four fights and almost gotten killed twice. If we're lucky, maybe we'll make it out of this one without Ransik kicking our butts a few times. But I doubt it. And - I'm telling you, there's something wrong here. Something's strange about those two." He nodded at their counterparts.

"Because they're being nice? Eric... You're such a cynic." To his surprise, Wes draped an arm across his shoulders. "But what would we do without you?"

"I hate to think, rich- I mean Wes."

"So do I."

It was strange, but the brief conversation left Eric feeling slightly less gloomy as they caught up with their counterparts and Jen. He even managed to smile as they all piled into a Guardian SUV and took off in the direction of Wes's house. Maybe Wes and Jen were right; he was just being paranoid and pessimistic. But - he still had to suppress a shiver as his eyes met his double's.

- - -

TBC...