It was the longest school day of Cassidy's life. Seemingly being a Ranger made her paranoid, constantly expecting a Tyrannodrone to jump out at her. The concerned looks Dr. O and the other Rangers kept sending her threw her off as well. She'd often wished she'd been more friendly to them in their Ranger days, but having someone besides Devon actually care about her was unsettling.

Devon...that was another problem. She could barely stop herself from leaping into his arms and spilling out the whole story the moment she saw him in homeroom. The only thing preventing that initially was the realization that she wasn't his girlfriend yet. At best, Devon would have been very confused. At worst, he might have thought she'd gone crazy. It only got worse when a another thought passed through her mind. She checked his left arm--no morpher. Great. Just great. She was in the wrong time, the wrong universe, there was a psychotic humanoid dinosaur out to kill her, she was best friends with four people who shouldn't even be giving her the time of day, and she couldn't breathe a word of it to the man she loved.

The only bright spot was that she remembred enough of her past lessons to breeze through her classes.

---

Haley sighed as yet another scan came up empty. She'd been searching for the mysterious (and very evil) White Ranger all day, and had achieved absolutely nothing. She could detect the other Rangers; why couldn't she find him?

Giving up for the moment, she turned to look at Cassidy, who was sitting on a chair in the corner of the basement, arms wrapped around herself and eyes fixed on the floor. While she wasn't exactly close to the teen, she could tell something was deeply wrong.

For all the faith Haley and Tommy had in the wisdom of the Power, letting Cassidy Cornell become an active Ranger had not been an easy choice. The girl simply did not give a good first impression, and that had only been compounded by the other Rangers' accounts of her behavior for her entire school career. They had seriously considered asking her to just stay on the sidelines and out of the way. In the end, though, Tommy had decided to give her a chance. He didn't say so, but Haley knew his reasoning: the original Rangers had had even less reason to let Tommy himself on their team.

So far, Cassidy was proving herself. She still had moments of great air-headedness, but they were becoming fewer as time went by (and to be honest, Connor had the same problem). She was becoming a fairly good martial artist. More importantly, she was becoming a good team member. Haley knew the female Rangers were traditionally the heart of any Ranger team, and while Kira and Cassidy weren't quite there yet, they were heading in that direction. Kira was the tough one who no crap from anybody. Cassidy was the softer one, not afraid to fight but able to help keep the Rangers linked to their civilian lives.

Just now, though, Haley was deeply curious as to what was bothering the Pink Ranger. She'd already asked once, but Cassidy had firmly replied that she needed to tell the whole team. Haley just hoped she wasn't planning on quitting.

The rest of the DinoThunders tramped down the stairs, scattering to the various seats in the room. Tommy looked at her with an expression of did you find him? Her expression answered in the negative. Tommy sighed in his turn.

The students (except Cassidy, who was still staring at the floor) interpreted this exchange correctly, though they responded with more than a sigh. Connor slammed his hand against the wall. "Great! What are we supposed to do, wait until he shows up and beats the crap out of us again? He nearly killed Kira!"

Haley could tell Tommy was about to launch into a morale-boosting lecture, and normally she would have let him, but she wanted to get Cassidy's problem out of the way first. So she cut her friend off: "Cassidy has something she needs to say."

The team turned to look at the blond, who finally looked up, though she seemed to have a hard time meeting their gaze. Kira asked, with surprising gentleness, "Does this have something to do with why you're acting so weird today?"

Cassidy took a deep, shuddering breath. "This is all wrong..."she whispered.

Ethan misunderstood her. "No lie! We're facing an evil Ranger!"

"That's not it!" Cassidy cut him off sharply, then winced. "I'M all wrong. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be a Ranger."

Haley was very surprised. This wasn't like Cassidy at all. "Cassidy, if this is about how the White Ranger taunted you..."

Cassidy shook her head. Then, seeming to draw on inner strength, she asked something that threw everyone in the room for a loop: "What do you guys know about alternate universes?"

Everyone stared at her. Then Ethan blurted "Since when are you interested in science fiction?"

"Because I woke up today in a science fiction story," Cassidy said evenly. Before anyone could speak, she continued, "I went to bed last night at age 19 in my dorm room on the UCLA campus. I'd already graduated from high school. The Power Rangers had beaten Mesogog. I wasn't the Pink Ranger. There WAS no Pink Ranger. Devon and I spent the whole year trying to figure out who you guys were. We found out right before the last battle by sheer accident. You people were NOT my friends, though god knows I never gave you any reason to be. So this is all wrong. And, no it wasn't a dream, and no, I'm not crazy," she finished, looking at each of them in turn.

An uncomfortable silence stretched out. Finally, Tommy managed, "Cassidy, I really don't know what to say."

Cassidy turned pleading eyes on him and Haley. "Tell me you know how to send me back?"

The two adults looked at each other helplessly. Haley replied "I'm sorry, Cassidy, but we don't."

Cassidy seemed to crumple in on herself, trying desperately not to cry. The other teens hesitated for a moment, then went over to her, embracing their teammate. For several minutes they comforted Cassidy, as Tommy and Haley looked on impotently.

Finally Cassidy straightened up, quietly thanking the people who were, in this reality, her friends. The other high schoolers retreated back to their seats. Then Connor said, "So, we're really going to beat Mesogog?"

Ethan looked thoughtful. "If she's really from another universe, Connor, we shouldn't make that assumption. She wasn't a Ranger. If things are that different, nothing's guaranteed to be the same here."

"I just hope my being here doesn't screw everything up," Cassidy whispered.

Kira leaned forward. "Cass, even if you're not a Ranger where you come from, you are here. And I'll be the first to say, you're a pretty good one. You're NOT a liability."

"But I don't know how to fight!" she wailed. "I don't even know what my power is!"

"Flight." Cassidy looked over at Dr. O. "You can fly."

"Oh." She thought for a moment. "Well, that's useful." Then she visibly squared her shoulders. "Okay, assuming things are MOSTLY the same here, I've got some information that might help."

Haley was the first to catch on. Her eyes widened. "You know who the White Ranger is!" The others stared at her in shock.

Cassidy nodded. "Trent Mercer."

Kira was the first to break the shocked silence. "NO! No way ! Trent would never do that to us!"

Cassidy looked at her fellow female Ranger compassionately. "He doesn't have a choice, Kira. Mesogog found the White Gem first and turned it evil--we never figured out how--and Trent found it accidentally; it bonded with him. The Gem has a will of its' own; he's not in control when he's morphed."

The others digested that. That Kira asked hopefully "But...but it can be broken, right? I mean..."

Cassidy sighed. "In my universe, it was, but only accidently. A high-powered laser beam hit the Gem for several seconds and, well, literally burned the evil out. I'm sure Haley can whip up something..." she looked over at the genius.

Haley thought for a minute. "A laser is child's play...but how on earth are we going to get him to hold still long enough to hit the gem?"

Cassidy shook her head. "I don't know...and there's another problem." When everyone looked at her, she continued, "his father is Mesogog."

The shocked silence lasted a lot longer this time. Finally Tommy asked in a whisper "How?"

"The science is beyond me, but in a moment of great stupidity, Anton Mercer consumed a formula that wasn't nearly as safe as he thought it was. It made his dark side manifest itself as Mesogog. Mesogog is dominant, which is why Anton has been acting so strange and trying very hard to avoid you guys." She held up her hand. "And before you ask, I don't know to separate them. It did happen, but we never found out how." (AUTHOR'S NOTE: I haven't seen the episode where Anton and Mesogog split, so I'm ad-libbing here.)

Connor rubbed his head. "I have a headache..."

"You're not the only one," Tommy commiserated. "We've been so blind..." He shook his head and looked wearily at Cassidy. "Any OTHER bombshells you'd like to drop on us?"

She actually smiled. "Just one...Principle Randall is Elsa."

Yet another silence, yet again broken by Kira, "That...explains a lot, actually."

"Man!" Connor exclaimed. "We're surrounded by bad guys and didn't even notice!"

Suddenly a computer monitor began to bleep loudly. Haley ran over to it and swore softly. "Speaking of bad guys, White Ranger is tearing up the market district!"

Connor immediately assumed a mantle of command that would have greatly surprised anyone who didn't know he was a Ranger. "Haley, get to work on that laser. The rest of us will bring him in." He looked at Cassidy and hesitated.

She understood---and stood up. "I'm a raw rookie," she admitted, "but the evil Trent I knew kicked serious ass. You might need my help." She paused for a second. "The only tactical advice I can give is to hold on as long as possible. The Gem is morphing him against his will, which means it can't hold the morph for long periods of time. If we drag it out, he might unmorph."

The other Rangers nodded and lined up. Cassidy joined them with great trepidation. They summoned their morphers.

"DinoThunder power up, ha!"