Disclaimer: Power Rangers Time Force and Power Rangers S.P.D. are registered trademarks of Saban Entertainment and/or Disney Entertainment. I am using these characters without permission. If you work either of these companies and want to sue me, by all means go for it. What's 50 of nothing?
A/N: This takes place moments after "The End of Time pt. III"
Please take a few minutes to review, I live for'em.
New Silver Hills, California 3001 AD"I know, but this is our only shot at this. I can only keep it open for a few seconds, so whoever's going to go, I need to know now," Trip said.
Jen removed her morpher, handing it to Alex. "I'll go."
Alex shook his head. "No, I'm not going to let you risk your life like that. I'll go, it makes more sense. Besides," he handed her morpher back to her. "Pink isn't really my color."
"I'm going. If I don't make it, you need to be here with Trip and Katie. You know more about this time line than I do, and all of you will have a better chance of surviving with you here. Don't waste your time arguing with me Alexander, I've made up my mind," Jen told him.
He cracked a smile. "Just be careful Jennifer."
"Don't worry, if this works, you won't even remember this conversation," she said, touching his cheek slightly.
Though neither one of them said a word, they were tacitly saying goodbye to another one. There were things she wanted to tell him, things he deserved to know just in case something did happen to her, but there was no time to worry about it. The future… all of history was in danger, and if things went according to plan, there would be plenty of time to discuss her feelings with him.
"I'm opening the time portal… now," Trip announced.
A small portal began to form, and the equipment began to smoke. "Jen, just go!" Alex shouted.
Jen nodded, and without a second thought, jumped through the portal. No sooner than she went through, the machine exploded, closing the vortex.
"I hope she made it," Trip said.
"Yeah, me too."
Trip and Alex tried to fan away the smoke coming from the machine, both of them coughing. Finally, the smoke cleared, but they found themselves surrounded by a group of robots. Each one of them were at least seven feet tall with huge metal frames and blades in each hand.
"You are surrounded, stand down or be destroyed," one of the robot's announced.
"Don't be silly," they paused as the seemingly endless sea of robots parted, allowing Frax to step through. "They're going to be destroyed anyway," he assured them.
"Frax!" Alex groaned with contempt in his voice.
"I should have known that Time Force was lurking around here. No matter, in this place, in this time, you are no match for me," he paused, looking at the equipment on the table. "A trixyruim crystal? A time portal? You no doubt sent an agent to the past to stop this reality from happening. I bet it was that pretty pink ranger of yours, wasn't it?" he walked over to what was left of the equipment. "Looks like I'll be taking a trip."
"You'll never get away with this Frax!" Trip told him.
"You pathetic ranger, I already have. Now, I'm going to follow your little friend into the past and destroy her before she has a chance to do any real damage. Then, I'll bring her body here as a trophy, symbolizing my ultimate victory over your wretched species," Frax announced.
"No, we won't let you."
Trip rushed at Frax with a roundhouse kick, but two of the robots grabbed him, allowing Frax to aim a fire, hitting Trip in the chest. Trip fell to his knees howling in his pain, and eventually disintegrated, leaving only a pile of dust in his place.
"Oh my God, Trip!" Alex screamed.
"Believe me, God has nothing to do with this. Your feeble planet is mine, and there is nothing you can do about it," he picked up the trixyruim crystal, placing it in his chest, and moments later, a vortex opened. "Take comfort in knowing that when this is over, this time line will be gone, so your green haired friend will be alive and well, just long enough for me destroy him again," Frax said with a sinister laugh, walking through the portal.
Alex struggled to get free, but it was no use. The robots had a tight grip on him, and the portal was beginning to close. Just then, one of the robots collapsed to the floor, immediately getting Alex' attention. Katie snatched the blades from one of them, stabbing a second in the chest, taking it down.
"Katie, go!" Alex instructed.
Katie looked at the portal, gave a quick nod to Alex, and then jumped through the portal before it completely collapsed.
New Tech City, California 2025 AD"So what's your story?" Sky asked.
"I think we have time for my story. There's a robot from the future out here somewhere ready to destroy you and everything else that gets in his way. When this is all over, if you want to swap stories, we can do it then," Jen told him.
"There's not much we can do at the moment, not until main power is restored. Besides, I'm not trying to be social, I'm trying to figure you out. Your story doesn't make much sense."
"It makes perfect sense, I'm…"
"Yeah, I know, the future. How is that possible if this Frax creature changed the past? Wouldn't that mean the future was changed?"
"It was, that's why I'm here."
"But in the future, it would be too late to change anything. You shouldn't even be aware of the changes in the time line if you were there when it happened."
"I wasn't there when it happened."
"So what's your deal? You from the future? Or the past?" he asked.
"Yes." She paused. "I mean, both."
"How is that possible?"
"I was on a mission, a mission in the year 2001 when it happened. I was working to capture a renegade mutant who'd escaped to the past. We managed to capture him, but…"
"Wait, you're talking about Silver Hills, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"My dad was the red ranger."
She paused, getting a good look at him. "Wes? Wesley Collins was your father?" she asked him, not seeing any resemblance at all.
He shook his head. "No, my father's name was Gregory. Gregory Tate."
"He must have taken over after Wes then."
"My mother's maiden name was Collins, maybe she's related to Wesley," he suggested.
"What was her name?"
"Leslie Collins."
"Never heard of her. There's a lot going on that I'm not sure of," she paused, trying to remember some of the information she'd read in the history logs about SPD. It was required reading at the academy, but he had been years since she was a cadet. "Wait, you're the blue ranger?" she asked.
"Yes," he said with a tone of confidence in his voice.
"In the history logs I read, during the biggest battle in SPD history, you led the team as the red ranger," she turned to Bridge, noticing his outfit. "And you were the blue ranger."
"You must be mistaken… unless I'm going to be red ranger in the future," Sky said with optimism in his voice.
"If I'm the blue ranger, does that mean Syd will be green? Or will Jack be pink? Maybe Boom could be orange ranger again and…" Bridge paused. "Wasn't there a tangerine ranger once?"
"There was a Psycho Silver ranger once," Jen mentioned, recalling her ranger history.
"But no Psycho Tangerine, are you sure?"
"She's sure," Sky mentioned.
"So," continuing with her story. "After we captured all the mutant and headed back to the year 3000, things had changed. Frax was the leader of this robot alliance and Time Force was destroyed. We were able to determine that the changes started here, in this time. I was sent back to fix what went wrong."
"If all of this is true, aren't you altering the time line just by being here?"
"In a way, yes. If I'm successful and I stop Frax, this time line will cease to exist and things will go back to normal. None of us will have any knowledge of these events. It'll be as though it never happened," Jen explained.
"If it never happened, that means that you were never here, and if you were never here to stop whatever it is from happening, does that mean it still happens? And, if it does happen, doesn't that mean you'll come here to stop it again? Maybe this isn't the first time you've been here. Maybe we're all trapped in a causality loop and we've done this a dozen times! Maybe hundreds of times! Come to think of it, possibly millions," Bridge said, chiming into the conversation.
"Don't pay him any attention, he always does that."
"Actually, he's right. The time line is very fragile, with an infinite number of possibilities. I could have been here before, and I may be here again."
"Or, this is a collective dream," Bridge suggested.
At that moment, the power came back on. Bridge rushed over to the control panel, going over all the systems. "Everything is up and running again, but the station took a 20 power loss."
"Can you track Frax?" Jen asked.
"He's moving through the station, looking for an exit. I'm going to seal all the access points and force him out of the main doors. When he gets there, we'll be waiting," he said.
"I'm coming with you."
"Its best you stay here and let us handle this," Sky said.
"I've the only one here who has dealt with him before, you need me there."
"I don't think…"
"I'm not asking, I'm telling. I'm coming with you," Jen repeated.
"Well… lets go then," Bridge said.
Jack came to his senses slowly, standing up and getting a look around. Commander Cruger was lifeless on the floor with a hole in his chest; Z and Boom were still unconscious. Still unsure what was going on, he reached for his morpher.
"Sky, this is Jack. Come in."
"Jack, meet us at the main doors. We've got the robot sealed off, and the only way out of here is through these doors. We have to stop here before, before he gets out."
"On my way."
Before he left, he turned to Z, trying to revive her. She opened her eyes slowly, looking around. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Still not sure, but we need to get to the main doors. We have a robot to stop," he said.
She stood up, following him to the door, but stopped when she saw…
"Oh God, Commander," she sighed, tending to him, but it didn't take her long to realize it was too late.
"Come on, we have work to do," Jack sighed.
coming soon... Forever Red II