Disclaimer: own nothing of the Power Rangers, just Ink and Alice who I created myself.

Ranger References: This chapter contains scenes from the Time Force episodes 'Dawn of Destiny' and 'Fight against Fate'. I have named the sunglasses the TF Rangers use to scan for mutant DNA 'scanner-shades'. It seemed the most appropriate name. The weapon Alice uses is from Power Rangers in Space. I've been trying to update this for a while but was down when I wanted to! Shout-outs at the end as usual. Enjoy!

HURT THROUGH THE HEART

Time slipped past for the Rangers at a leisurely pace. Their lives consisted of making as much money as they could through the odd jobs and fighting off the mutants as well as they could with the powers bestowed upon them. None of them had forgotten Ink's haunting prophecy to them and had been working double hard to help her prevent it from happening. Ink herself overlooked everything that happened. She was present at every battle, well-hidden and protected (of course) by Alice and since seeing Eric that day, made regular appearances at the Clock Tower. It was not unusual for the Rangers to come back after work and find her and Alice playing cards in the upper room, ready to greet them with a kind word. She had become part of the Ranger team without even trying. Usually merely a silent presence as they discussed how best to tackle each mutant Ransik sent out to destroy the city. They never asked for advice on what to do. They had learnt that she would not tell them anything about their futures and they could tell that this fact made her upset as she became friends with them all. Sometimes it seemed she was desperate to say something, to prevent things from happening but they knew she simply couldn't and Alice had had to restrain her several times to prevent her from letting anything slip out.

Ink had not managed to convince the surly Quantum Ranger to join her in her frequent visits to the Clock Tower but over the past few weeks, Eric had changed noticeably in the other Rangers' eyes. He would never be 'Mr Social' but the strides he'd made through spending time with Ink were astounding. He was more willing to compromise and be a team player. The changes were barely noticeable to outsiders who might still view Eric as an arrogant unrelenting grump but Eric was now fighting to save the city. Not to better Wes.

Everything was turning out well.

Until the future needed to be set back on track.

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"Something is happening," murmured Ink.

She stood looking out of the Clock Tower window. She and Alice had stayed back at the base as the Rangers had gone to stop Severex, the newest of Ransik's released mutants, from leveling Bio-Lab. Although she usually stayed nearby at their battles, this time she had chosen to stay behind. Ever since the serum cure for Venomark's sickening bite had been produced a hundred years ahead of its time, she had been uneasy. Eric had commented on it more than once. She felt great unrest as though things were shifting beyond her control. Things in the future were not aligned as they had been before and it frustrated her that though she had guided them away from the darkest path, things were even more unclear before her and gave her no indication of how to guide her friends to the more promising paths before her. There were things she desperately desired to tell her charges but she knew she would be tampering even more greatly with the future by doing it.

"What is it, sister?" asked Alice concerned.

Ink's hunches on things were never wrong and usually had something of grave importance attached to them. As impatient and short-tempered the Protector could be towards Eric because of how much she disapproved of his attitude to Rangerhood, she also cared about what happened to the Rangers since she had begun to accept them as worthy allies.

"Someone is traveling back," Ink continued as she concentrated hard on the hazy horizon and the vague images that began growing in her head. "Someone is trying to realign the present to suit the future that is known."

"Isn't that our summoning sister? Is it some interloper trying to prove his worth by destroying our mission and stopping the lineage of Rangers from continuing?" asked Alice, worry flooding her words.

"No," Ink sounded confused as she honed in on the images in her head. "He is not of our time, he is from far into the future. He comes with…..with definite answers, a clear way to show the Rangers to capturing Ransik and preventing the explosion of the future."

"But Ink, you know that everything is uncertain in the future," protested Alice. "The future can't be clear or definite; it's decided by mortals not heavenly beings. No one has all the answers."

"He believes he does," replied Ink, her voice getting fainter. "And if this path is followed, then we must disappear away from our Rangers."

"Disappear? Where to?"

"Somewhere where the Rangers cannot find us. They will not be happy with what I have concealed from them and I will not be needed."

"Not be needed? Sister, I don't care who this man is," declared Alice fiercely, spurred on by the defeated look on her sister's face. "We're the ones placed here to guide the Rangers, no one else and definitely no one with clear straight answers. That's not the way ahead."

"He is of technology and better suited to our team Alice," reasoned Ink flatly. "He will best guide them and they will desire him more than me anyway. He will provide the answers they need, not the unclear muddlings I am privy to."

"I'm not leaving them Ink, they're our friends." said Alice, tears dripping from her last word which she struggled to control. "And you know that the bonds you have built with them will be broken once you go, you may not survive."

"That is still ahead Alice. I still have Eric to guide and maybe another also if the path remains stable but there are many curves ahead." Ink answered. "We must prepare ourselves for great upheaval."

So saying that, Ink stood watching the city out of the window. The images in her head had become sharp and clear as the paths ahead was revealed to her. She braced herself for the confrontation she knew was coming.

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The Time Force badge shimmered a deep blue over the smoking miniaturised form of Severax and a glass container formed around it. Happily Trip picked it up, showing it to Wes as the Red Ranger whooped and celebrated with Lucas and Katie over their successful capturing of another of Ransik's mutants. Jen stayed on the outside of the joyful huddle, her face serious as her mind ticked over to other more uncertain matters. Trip noticed her worried expression and padded over to her, concern written all over his face.

"You're still worried huh?" he ventured.

Jen nodded. Worry was clearly etched on her pretty face. It concerned her that by staying so long in the future and practically becoming 2001 citizens, they were changing the very future they had traveled back to save.

"We've got to capture Ransik before the future changes," she stressed unhappily.

"Its already too late," a voice called from the distance.

Slowly the other Rangers' expressions changed from happiness to confusion. A mysterious man walked towards them through the burning smoky debris from the battle. They could make out the familiar white Time Force uniform but his face was masked by a serious expression and the equally familiar scanner-shades. As he drew closer, Wes realised there was something strangely familiar about the man's face. Then it hit him. He was looking at a perfect replication of his own features though the guy's hair was slicked back smoothly and like his eyebrows, was coal black. The man stopped before the group.

"History's already shifted and I'm here to set it back on track," he stated.

He reached up and pulled the shades from his eyes. Jen gasped. She was looking at the man she had thought was dead. The man who she'd held in her arms as his last breath was gasped out. But he was real, staring sternly at the whole team.

"Alex?" she asked unconvinced.

Her mind exploded with thoughts and sensations at seeing him so alive and real before her, instead of haunting her dreams. He was here, he was alive. Joy threatened to bubble up inside her when suddenly; another realisation hit her like a bucket of cold water and severely dousing her happiness. Ink hadn't told them and she had probably known. They had all thought it was strange when she hadn't turned up at the battle to watch as they defeated the mutant. They'd guessed she was probably tired and resting in the Clock Tower but now her absence spoke strongly of her desire to avoid a confrontation. Anger boiled hard inside Jen. Ink had become her friend yet she must have known that Alex was still alive and had chosen not to tell her this. Ink had deliberately let Jen forget about the man whose engagement ring she still wore, no matter her burgeoning feelings for Wes who now looked shell shocked at Alex's physical similarity to him. It wouldn't have changed the future to know about him still being alive. Jen was furious; she couldn't wait to speak to Ink face to face.

Then she properly focused on Alex again. He was looking at her, waiting for a reaction.

"Unbelievable, you look just like me," said Wes, venturing forward to look at Alex closer up.

Alex treated him to an uninterested glare and moved closer to Jen. Suddenly her initial feelings came flooding back. Her fiancé, the man she was in love with, was still alive. A huge smile swept over her face as she rushed forward for a hug.

"You're alive!" she proclaimed, throwing her arms around Alex.

Wes watched somberly. Jen was gone from him again; there was no chance he could compete with the man who had captured Jen's heart in the first place. She was sobbing quietly into his shoulder.

"I thought you were gone forever," she managed.

Gently Alex disentangled himself from his fiancée's grip and held her in front of him.

"I barely survived Ransik's attack," he told her carefully.

Jen ignored his emotionlessly flat tone and stared up at him starry-eyed, choosing to forget everyone else around them as she ran her hands over his smooth black hair.

"Are you okay?! Ohh, I want to know everything," she said happily.

"Jen, there isn't time," interrupted Alex.

Jen stepped back, hurt in her eyes at his abrupt brush-off of her raw emotional outburst. He turned to the rest of the shocked Time Force team who still stood staring at him and were unsure of what to say

"I need you to all follow me," he said, beginning to walk away from them and expecting them to follow him.

"Let's go," muttered Katie, beginning to run after Alex.

The others, shaking off their shock and clicking back into Ranger mood, began to follow her. Wes and Jen were somewhat left behind, both wrapped up in their differing confused thoughts. Wes spared a glance for a hurt Jen before running off after the others. Jen paused. Before she followed Alex, she wanted to see Ink first. She needed for the Keeper to be gone by the time they inevitably took Alex to the Clock Tower. What would he think if he found they were being guided by a sorceress who didn't have any definite proof of what she saw and was not mentioned in the history banks? He'd say they were using unreliable sources, no matter what she and the other Rangers had seen.

"Go ahead and let me know where you are through our Morphers," she called. "I've got to see someone first."

By the time Wes turned back to ask her where she was going, Jen had run off.

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"Ink!" Jen screamed.

She stormed up the stairs and found the person she was looking for sat at the table, watching as Alice played patience with their ever-present pack of cards. The look she sent Jen as was one of expectancy with perhaps almost a glint of all-too-human dread. It only served to make Jen even angrier. Alice leapt to her feet, cards forgotten as she glared at the rampaging Ranger.

"Satellite Stunner," she hissed causing a medium sized silver and pink gun with a satellite dish fixed over the front of it to appear in her hand.

"So it has happened. He has returned," Ink said softly, not stopping her sister from having possessing a weapon this time.

"Yes he's returned!" tears streamed down Jen's face as she yelled. "He's returned and that means everything's wrong, everything's changed to how I thought it was….."

Lacking the words to express herself sufficiently, Jen gasped for breath as the full weight of the situation hit her hard. Alex was alive. He hadn't even bothered to contact the Ranges to tell them that he'd survived Ransik's violent attacking strike on him. That thought twisted at her gut. He hadn't told her, his own fiancé who loved him so much, that he was still alive and that now he was her superior officer. He was back to help them get the future back online. Where did that leave Wes? That thought left her cold and bruised. She hoped Wes and Alex would get on, as improbable as that brief hope was. She knew she should be with the others listening to Alex's explanation but she'd had a strong urge to find Ink and deal with her first when no one else was around to see it. She had told them nothing. Prepared them for nothing, least of all the completely unexpected.

"You could have told us….me……he's my fiancé Ink, I had a right to know that he was still alive," she pointed out, breath recovered. "You didn't have to tell me he'd return; just that he'd survived and was helping us from the future."

"I cannot tell of the future Pink Ranger," Ink said her voice somewhat shaky. "You know my duties, Eric is my priority and…….."

"Yes but we're your second priority as his team and as your friends!" cut in Jen angrily. "We're people who trust you and I'd have wanted to know about this, to help me prepare for all this……all this confusion and the way he's treating us……"

Ink rose to her feet as Jen spluttered for words again. Thoughts span in the Quantum Keeper's head. Slowly things became clear to her. Alice gathered the cards together and handed them to her sister. She stood protectively in front of Ink, her gaze hardening on Jen and the Stunner held tightly in her grasp, ready to use if necessary.

"I see," Ink murmured. "It all becomes clear to me now. I am not needed here. I am being replaced by one who can provide all the answers for you. A technological leader who knows the future from the history banks who is better suited to guiding you, a technological team. He knows for certain what is ahead while all I see are paths and choices. You are better off with Alex."

She took a shaky breath and felt Alice take a step back. Her Protector grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it lightly, encouraging her.

"I will go now Jen," said Ink softly. "I hope you will accept my friendship. I wish I could continue to stay with you all as I count you all as friends and I care about what will befall you. For now, I will keep out of your sight. Alex is now your guide. I will see you sometime soon."

Jen felt the purple magic as it exploded softly behind her, devouring Ink and Alex. When she turned, they were gone. Some of her anger burned away. She knew that Ink was bound by her duties to say nothing, no matter how painful it was for her to conceal things from her friends. She had also heard the sadness and hurt in Ink's voice. She hadn't liked hiding so much from her friends anymore than she liked departing from them. Jen shook her head frustrated. It was all too much to think about. When this whole thing with Alex was sorted out in her head, then she could think about Ink again.

Author Shout-outs

White Time Ranger: aww thanks for the compliments! Wow your favourite Eric fic? Thanks a lot, that means so much as he's my fave Ranger (joint with Merrick) and I'm glad I write him properly. I've been reading ur work avidly, I hope the reviews got through. Thanks again for always reviewing!

TF Princess: I'm glad the last chapter came off as calm. I figured it needed to be done, for Ink to have a proper talk with Eric with no one fighting around them and I hope everything made sense. Things are about to get explosive again as you can probably tell from this chapter. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!!