Next Day, Landscaping Job in Town

"Wes!" A happy female voice called from the street as the five rangers were cleaning up and landscaping a large commercial building in the downtown area. Wes looked up and squinted to see his sister waving from the curb from where her black convertible was sitting and running up the hill toward him. A girl with short red hair was sitting in the passenger's seat, watching Rachael behind her black framed glasses. The black haired girl finally caught up to him and stopped, today wearing blue jeans and a light pink t-shirt. "Why the heck didn't you tell me there are power rangers in Silver Hills?" She breathed out, blue-green eyes glittering.

Wes laughed, "I didn't know you didn't know! It's been all over the news."

"Hello, boarding school in a foreign country?" Rachael crossed her arms in amusement at her brother.

"You'll have to tell me how France was later." Wes leaned on his rake.

"It was Germany you dolt, and I'll let you get back to work. We do have a lot to talk about thought." She gave him a motherly look that made him think of their own mother who'd died of cancer when they were fourteen.

"Meet me for lunch tomorrow?"

"Café on Main?"

"See you there, noon?"

"You got it." Rachael grinned and turned back to her car, sliding her sunglasses back on her face before getting in the driver's seat and driving away, her black hair shimmering in the wind.

"So?" The redhead said in the passenger's seat as the rangers slipped out of sight.

"He pretended to be clueless." Rachael replied, driving around and pulling into a parking space to an apartment building. The two girls got out and walked up the stairs as the redhead unlocked and opened the apartment door and they both went in, Rachael sitting herself down on a chair. Her red haired friend walked in and grabbed the top of her hair and yanked, pulling the red locks free. "Welcome back Blondie." Rachael grinned at her friend, who shook shoulder length blonde hair around her face.

"Gee thanks." The blonde shot back, a smile lighting her face. "It's odd to see Time Force Rangers doing landscaping though." She pulled off her glasses with flair and set them down on a table with the wig.

"Bronwyn!" Rachael jumped up and checked the window. "Shut up, that landlady might be listening."

"Stop being so paranoid." Bronwyn said, rolling her eyes at her dark haired friend. "She spends her days in the Laundromat downstairs, and none of the other apartments have occupants."

"And you picked the one on the top floor?"

"I don't like noisy neighbors above me."

"I thought this place was empty." Rachael shot back. Bronwyn glared at her but grinned and pulled out a silver case and set it on the kitchen table.

"Well, you never know, and speaking of this, we really need to get me a fake identity." She said thoughtfully, setting up a computer that looked exactly like the one the rangers used.

"I've been thinking about that, Whitney Matthews."

"Whitney?" Bronwyn looked at Rachael with curiosity.

"It sounds like the end of your name, unless you want to be Brittany." She wrinkled her nose.

"I guess that'll work." Bronwyn said, starting up the consol. "I just wish I didn't have to wear the wig."

"Well we can't have Jen recognizing you."

Bronwyn rolled her eyes and pressed a combination on the keypad. A dark figure appeared on the screen and both sat in front of it neither bothering to move much.

"Lieutenants." The figure spoke with a deep voice. "I trust your mission is going well."

"So far we've managed to save them." Rachael replied. "But Mac is still out there."

"Your main objective is to destroy him and then help the rangers when they need it."

"We know." Bronwyn rolled her eyes at his reassessment of their job. "It's kind of the reason we're here in the first place.

"You two are lucky you're the best Lieutenants at Time Force otherwise you'd never get away with talking to me like that." The dark figure scolded.

"We know and we totally take advantage of it." Rachael responded, her tone bored.

"Bronwyn, you need to assume a false identity and live a life here." The man said, ignoring Rachael's comment. Rachael sat up and grinned. "Whitney is perfect, it's close to her name!" She grinned broadly.

"Bronwyn?"

"Fine." Bronwyn threw her hands up. "I'm now Whitney Matthews. We'll work on getting actual jobs."

"I think I can manage that." Rachael grinned brightly.

Next Morning, Silver Guardian headquarters

Eric walked through the front door of the office and made his way through the reception area and only slightly noticed the new redheaded receptionist sitting at the desk. Her black rimmed glasses had just sent a flash of light at his face and he blinked away, annoyed. But when he got to the office that he used for the paperwork, he froze.

"Hey Eric." The raven haired beauty grinned up at him. "Long time no see."

"What are you doing here?" He asked rudely, mentally kicking himself a second later.

Rachael rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I'm the new secretary, so be nice." She turned to the computer screen and Eric suddenly remembered that the redheaded receptionist was Rachael's friend.

"Oh." He muttered and went into the office and closed his door. This was not going to work out well with her in the office all day with him. Seeing her around town affected him, now seeing her every few minutes was going to be pure torture. As he sat there his memory went back to the first time he'd met her.

Eric's Memory

Seventeen year old Eric followed slightly behind Wesley Collins as they went up the long drive to Wes' huge mansion. All of the kids at their prep school had gone to their homes for break, and Eric didn't have the money fly back home. He didn't want to tell Wes that, but the other kid hadn't asked a single question but invited him without any strings attached. The door opened and an elderly gentlemen stuck his head out and grinned.

"Hello Master Wesley, and you must be Master Eric."

"Hey Phillips, and you know it's just Wes." The blonde guy said with a grin. Once inside Eric looked around the giant front hall, jealously filling his veins. But he kept his mouth shut to be polite.

"Wes!" A female voice called from the top of the stairs. Eric looked up and saw a girl with waist length black hair standing at the top of the stairs. She flew down them and right into Wes' arms laughing the whole way. She pulled back and looked at him with the same green eyes. "Didn't miss you a bit."

"Back at ya." Wes grinned and then turned to Eric. "Eric, this is my twin sister Rachael, Rach, this is Eric."

Rachael blushed and stepped forward, offering her hand. "Nice to meet you." He shook her hand and nodded.

Later

Eric walked down the hall of the house from his room and heard voices in Wes' and stopped to listen.

"So Rach, how do you like Eric?"

"Actually, he's the first one of your friends who actually looked in my eyes when he shook my hand. It was a nice change." He heard her laugh lightly, not the annoying giggle of most girls her age.

Christmas Morning

Eric got up early that day and snuck downstairs and wandered through the dark, looking at the brightly lit evergreen in the Collins' living room. He looked at the sparkling tree for a fee moments before but jumped when a voice startled him.

"You're up early." The soft voice of the only female inhabitant of the house said from the couch. Eric blushed but it was covered by the glow of the Christmas tree as his mouth gaped as he tried to think up an excuse. "It's alright, I'm not accusing you." She smiled and pulled her legs up to her chest. "Sit down." She pointed to the opposite end. He sat down and looked at the tree for a bit, before looking at Rachael.

"What are you doing up?"

"So you can speak." She grinned. "I don't sleep well on Christmas." She answered. "It's just the kid in me." Her eyes went to the pile of boxes under the tree. There were probably about ten, pretty modest for the age of the two kids at the house, and then their father. "There's one for you too." Her eyes were on him again.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we wouldn't leave you out." She laughed as if it was an absurd thought.

"Oh." He sat in silence for a moment before standing up. "I should go shower." He mumbled and left the room, feeling her eyes on his back the whole way.

Present Day

"Eric?" Rachael's voice jolted Eric out of the memories he'd gone through in what seemed like minutes. A glance at the clock told him it had been at least a half and hour and he swore before pressing the intercom button.

"Yes?"

"Dad wants to see you. Well, Mr. Collins." She amended, a grin lighting her voice. Eric couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"Tell him I'm on my way."

"You got it." She quipped. Eric grinned at her comfort of talking to him, they hadn't seen each other in almost five years, but she'd never really left his thoughts. For a while he'd even seen another girl, but when he saw Wes again, it was only a step to thinking about Rachael.

After Eric left his office quickly, he strategically placed his beret on his head while he passed Rachael to avoid seeing her face. Rachael grinned as she watched the gesture and leaned back in her chair at the new desk. She'd worked summers as a secretary at BioLabs for her father, and the Silver Guardian HQ was run the same way, so she knew all the protocol and such. Suddenly a beeping came from her purse under the desk and she dove for it and pressed the button on the side of her Chrono-morpher.

"What is it?" She hissed, holding it under the desk. Bronwyn's hologram appeared crouched down like she was.

"Mac returned, that's our cue." She replied and shut off the communication channel. Rachael got up and told the secretary for the next office to cover for her break as she ran through the building and met up with 'Whitney'.

Downtown the rangers were losing their battle with Mac badly. The Quantum ranger had shown up and was helping them, but even his power wasn't doing much to help them. Mac laughed with a maniacal grin and started charging the rangers but a large blast interrupted him.

"It's the other rangers!" Katie shouted from the ground as the looked up to see the dark navy Theta ranger and the purple Delta ranger struck fighting positions opposite the monster. Mac turned his attention toward them and started lumbering at them. Suddenly a voice entered Jen's helmet.

"Use your V-Weapons and hit him in the back while his attention's on us." The voice was female, oddly familiar, and Jen couldn't pinpoint where she'd heard it before, but she wasn't about to ignore the good advice.

"V-Weapon!" She shouted, standing. "Come on guys." The other four rangers and Eric stood up and called on their weapons as well.

"Fire!" They each called and their blasts struck Mac in the back.

"Fire!" Both auxiliary rangers shouted a second after, their blast striking his front. Mac stumbled backward and fell, falling into an explosion of fire. He stood up weakly and pulled the patch of skin off and grew as tall as the skyscrapers. The rangers called their zords from Time Force HQ, but Eric confronted the two new rangers as the others battled.

"Who are you?"

"That's none of your concern." Theta ranger replied. She and the Delta ranger both focused their attention on the zord battle, but Eric wasn't giving up.

"Are you on our side?"

"Depends on what your definition of 'our side' is." Delta replied coolly, "It's not like you're a part of their team."

Eric reeled at the insult the ranger had thrown at him. "Not like you stick around." He snapped back, stepping forward. Delta moved forward and they stood twenty feet apart.

"I don't need them."

"Right." Delta scoffed as the battle ended. The five rangers returned and stood to the side but between the two angry rangers. Theta moved forward and grabbed her partner's arm, but Delta shook it off. But they both turned and ran from the scene, jumping over a bike rack and out of sight.

"Eric!" Wes demorphed and ran over to the Quantum ranger who released his morph as well. "What did they say?"

"Nothing." Eric muttered, and turned and walked away, leaving the five rangers confused at the scene.