With A Snap
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 38: Shattered Realities
Tommy Oliver stood at the computer console of the makeshift commander center, inside his home. He said his home, but since the incident, it wasn't feeling much like home. Not since his wife and son vanished.
Tommy forced the thoughts out of his head; they were far too painful to revisit. He had to focus on the mission.
He looked over to the computer screens and checked out the status on the screens, he wasn't Billy or Haley, but he had his moments with tech. He checked over the various feeds; there was news from all over the world. It didn't look like any corner of the world had gone unaffected; one moment, people were there, and the next, they all crumbled into ash.
It had been a few days, but the world was still reeling from it. Even now, the news again reported news about rangers all around the world doing their part t help.
Tommy did feel a bit of silent pride in it to be part of something so significant that it had helped so many people.
He refocused his thoughts, In Silver City, the Silver Guardians lead by Eric Myers the Quantum Ranger's were keeping the peace and helping where they could. From Mariner Bay, at the rebuilt Lightspeed Aquabase, the LightSpeed Rangers did their part. Tommy had to met Carter Grayson a long time ago and was happy to hear he survived the Incident and was still fighting the good fight with the rangers.
He had heard from Cam at the Wind Ninja Academy; they were doing their best to help people; they were staying in contact, and Cam was helping him find everyone. Ninjor was working trying to locate any rangers but he was having little luck, something was off with the morphing grid.
When he had a chance, he sent out a message trying to find all the rangers that remained, he was unofficially the most trusted ranger on the planet, and usually able to gather everyone. He was a big part of getting everyone for the Legendary Battle a few years ago. But the more he searched, the more he could be missing.
No one knew what happened, but he had heard from other rangers. He did hear from Billy alerting him that the Incident had occurred on Aquitar too. Andros and Karone confirmed it reached into deep space as far as Mirinoi.
"Dr. O?" A familiar voice called out into the room.
"Kira?" Tommy let out relieved.
"Dr. O." The young woman ran up and hugged him glad her teacher was still around. "This gold and red robot outside messing with the wiring told me to come in and-"
"Yeah, that's Alpha he's keeping himself busy, it's just so good to see you. It's good to see you, Kira."
Do you know about the others?"
"Trent is with his father at Reefside; I haven't heard from the others."
From another room, Adam Park and Jason Scott walked out.
Jason nodded, "Tommy, I think we got the teleporter working."
"Kire," Adam greeted the ranger, "It's good to see you."
"Yeah," Kira smiled, seeing another familiar face, "What this about a teleporter?"
Tommy looked over the screens to make sure everything was working and contact the other end.
Jason smiled at her. "With how everything is after- well, it's been difficult to contact each other or even travel. Even for use rangers. Using something tech we've gathered over the years, we think we got a working teleporter."
"Okay, I think they're ready on their end. Stand back." Tommy announced,
In a flash of light, a young blonde woman with a red top appeared.
"Well, that looked like it worked," The young woman said.
Tommy introduced her, "This is Lauren Shiba, the red ranger for Super Samurai Rangers."
"Nice to meet you," Kira greeted her, "I didn't think there were any red female power rangers,"
Tommy and Jason just traded looks.
Lauren just said, "Yeah, well, there are a couple of us."
Coming from the other room came out a large dog like man, "Kat, says the readings all look good. Z and Syd are helping her look over the data." Kira looked on, surprised at him, "Kira?"
"Have we met? Because I think I'd remember."
Tommy and the dog-man shared a look, "That's Anubis Kruger Commander of the SPD Power Rangers. They're a team from 2025, they went back into out time chasing a criminal who could take control fo technology, and they caught him. But before they could go back to their time."
"Th dusting happened," Lauren suggested.
"Yes," Cruger admitted, "We lost half my team and can longer connect to our future."
The air started to distort, "Speaking off which,"
Three before appeared, Wesley Collins took a step forwards a device on his wrist.
"Bad news."
"Half the population of the universe seems to have just vanished, how is it worse?" Tommy asked, hesitantly.
Adam noticed Kira's confusion, "That's Wes. He's the time force red ranger. Ranger from the future, most when back home, but contact him from time to time. I think they're setting up stuff."
"But I thought we couldn't go into the future."
"We haven't been able to, no, but they left him with a device that lets him jump into other universes. He went to get help from Rangers from other worlds to help us."
Wes continued to explain it to the group, "It happened in the other worlds too. I went to Koda's world but-"
A young woman with a tight ponytail and a pair of glass took a step forwards. She wore a casual business suit with a purple top, "Hello, I'm Kendall Morgan, and if Wes explained it correctly, what happened to you happened to us as well. One moment everything was fine, and the next people, including Koda, he just vanished."
A woman with long black hair stood forward, "The same Story for us too."
"Gemma?" Tommy asked.
"I'm sorry, we lost so many, Gem included." It was a hard hit for Gemma to lose her brother, especially after everything they had been through together, "We had just bounced back from Venjix, and this happened, our population has been halved. Dr. K is working on discovering the source of this but losing Ziggy…"
"It's hard for all of us," Wes confirmed, "Dr. K gave us a device that she thinks will allow us to communicate. We can put our greatest minds together and try to solve this thing."
There was an uneasy silence, Jason broke the silence first, "So did the same event happen parrel to each other in our universes or…?"
Lauren finished up, "Did the same event affects all our universes?"
Crugger shook his head, "We aren't allowed to give away too much of what happened in the future, but- I can confirm that there are no historical records of something like this happening. Whatever has happened has changed history in a massive away."
"Ay ay ay!" Alpha Five walked in with a woman in a white dress following her. "Uh, Tommy, we need to talk."
"You're Udonna? You're the mentor and the White power ranger for the Mystic Force Rangers, right? I'm Tommy Oliver we-"
"I know who you are," She smiled or tried to.
"I'm sorry to hear what happened to your son and husband- I know- I understand what's like…."
"I know, its a fate I'm sad to say has become too well known."
Alpha spoke up, "Tommy! We really need to talk! We have a guest and I-"
"Yes, you might want to brace yourself for this one."
Someone else walked into the room, and Tommy's eyes went wide. The room went tense, even those who didn't recognize the woman felt the tension and were unsure how to act. Adam and Jason quickly moved to Tommy's side, and Cruger grew tense as if ready to fight.
"Rita?" Tommy said his throat dry.
There standing before them was woman dress in white robes, a gold crown in her long white braided hair.
Standing before Tommy was the woman that made him the green power ranger, the woman that brainwashed him and turned him against his friends. On top of trying to conquer the world once a week and kill him and said friends.
Tommy motioned for his friends to take a step back, and he walked forwards.
Rita made no move but whispered, "I suppose this meeting is a long time coming."
Tommy just looked at her, his face emotionless.
The witch continued to speak, "I've changed; after everything, I used my magic for good. I've lost Zedd, he became an archaeologist and stumbled onto a crystal. He was curious about who he had been before he was good, and those changed him back. He was captured, and... I took up a student," she motioned Udonna, "I tried to make up for all the evil I had done."
Tommy stood in front of her.
"…" She tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.
"I forgive you," those were not something anyone suspect would come from him, "It's taken me years to get to a place where I could forgive you. I knew what Zordon's death did for you, how it removed your evil, how Zedd was evil again, and lost to the void. I also knew how you became the Mystic Mother and a force for good. One day I realize holding my grudged and my anger against you didn't make any sense. All that rage was just dragging, and it was just- I just had to let that go. For all the evil that you did, all the pain you caused me, it let me be a ranger; it lets make the best friends I've ever had; it let me help in more ways than I could imagine. I wasn't easy, but I forgive you." He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
The Mystic Mother looked at him, unsure of what to say or do.
"If you're willing to work with us to find out what caused this, and maybe find a way to reverse. Then I'd be glad to have you onboard."
The Mystic Mother took his hand and looked away as she forced down a sob. Warm tears streaked her face. She could never remove all the guilt she had for all the evil she had done, but the weight of it felt lighter even if a little.
An old proverb goes: to save someone is to save yourself.
Maybe with that in mind, they could save everyone else.
But in the darkness, beyond the reach of reality, a crystal clung. For what seemed to be an eternity, the crystal had been out of reach. But he sensed it, changes shifts in all of reality. A blood-red hand grabbed the time crystal, and the darkness cracked and began to peel away. The figure in the dark held out his silver staff, one topped by a trademark Z.
"Now, take me to the source of this."
Author's Notes: There you go, Power Rangers. I hoped I did them justice. I always wanted Tommy to run into Rita one more time so I wrote it. Tommy was hurt by her, but we've seen him confront his dark past and grow stronger and he'd certainly know about what happened to her afterwards. I thought someone like him, would int he end forgive herself. Forgiving your enemy is something that be a great relief for you. And I certainly think Tommy deserves it and has the he's strong enough to work and get it. So I hope i did it justice, there are over 25 years worth of rangers so I couldn't do everyone but I hope I got a good sense for the world. Someone let me know if this gets a tv trope page. Feels theres enough here for one. Leave a review people, it's keeping me going.
Q&A:
S Goku and Z Goku: Pretty much, the encompass pretty much everything.
Thunderstrike: Fine last, request, I'll add it to the list. But you guys do realize this has been going on for over 30 chapters, I can't start the actual story until I finish these. Its in the summary, no more request or suggestions. The list is already already two dozen. If we hit 50 and I haven't started the story I'm shutting this whole thing down.
I'm really getting tired of finding new ways to have the same incident happen.