Time Force: Secret Origins
The Alex Paradox
2001
Jen pursed her lips, looking at Wes while he goofed around with Katie and Trip. He looked so much like Alex, yet acted so different.
What games were the universe playing with her?
She lost her fiancé, only to meet a doppelganger of his, a thousand years ago in the past? This thing was next to impossible. Sure, there were incidences of people resembling their ancestors or even completely unrelated people, but what were the odds that she encountered Wes the moment they arrived in the past, and right when they needed his help?
What was more bizarre was the fact that his DNA was an exact match of Alex, which was supposed to be impossible! Even if she considered Wes to be Alex's ancestor, the chances of it happening were miniscule… Heck, even an identical twin would not be able to bypass the complex DNA lock, let alone any ancestor from the distant past.
"Still thinking about it?" She looked up to see Lucas taking a seat beside her in the couch.
"That obvious?" She asked.
Lucas frowned.
"I thought we agreed not to look a gift horse in the mouth." He said quietly.
"It is not that easy, Lucas." Jen sighed, relaxing her shoulders, and leaning back into the couch. "I lost the man I love, travelled a thousand years in the past to avenge him, only to meet another man who not only looks like him, but shares the same DNA?"
"I know it is not easy, and it should not be, especially for you, given your relationship with Alex, but Jen, you cannot let this distract us. Like you said, we are on a mission. Till we recapture the mutants, we cannot get sidetracked."
Jen nodded, looking away.
Months Later…
Everything should be right, yet nothing was.
Jen felt conflicted.
Throughout her time in the past, being forced to work with Wes in proximity, she kept hoping it was Alex instead, and now that Alex had miraculously returned from the dead, it still felt wrong.
Maybe it was because Alex didn't act like himself… But she could hardly blame him. People rarely remained the same after going through traumatic experiences, and almost dying certainly qualified as one.
She should be bouncing with joy.
However, she was not.
It felt wrong.
Though he was right before her, Alex still felt gone.
Year 3001
After Ransik's defeat
Jen could feel his gaze on her as she left the command room for another mission.
It was not just Alex. It was others too.
Except Lucas, Trip and Katie, nobody understood why she did what she did. Breaking off the engagement with Alex even though she knew being with Wes was impossible.
True, she had fallen in love with Wes, but she would have never made a move on him, not so soon after Alex's death… not before she was ready to move on.
Then, Alex had returned, and all was supposed to go back to the way it should have always been, except it had not.
She had learnt to trust Wes.
Wes was nothing like Alex, except in his looks, but still he had managed to win her over as a friend.
Alex on the other hand, did not feel like Alex.
She knew she should be more patient, and give him another chance.
He had been through a lot too, as everyone liked to remind her, from her friends to even Captain Logan.
Jen did not know what to do, but despite seeing Alex, she felt as if he was not her Alex.
Just like something had told her Wes was not Alex.
It was not fair to Alex, but she would not pretend to be in love with him when she was not.
And if her feelings changing was evidence of her unfaithfulness, then Alex deserved better.
She had loved Alex, she truly had.
The only thing she could not understand was why she still felt her heart break when she thought of him… as if he was still dead.
The Vanishing Point, a dimension outside of time and space
Outpost One
Seven years in the future from Jen's perspective…
She went on missions in the past and established a regular contact with Wes, continuing to date him though they lived in separate timelines. If they could not spend eternity together, they would gladly take whatever time they had left.
The doubts of Alex and the questions of how Wes could have broken the gene lock had left her thoughts over time, but the whole adventure with Cyra the Black Time force ranger rekindled her doubts.
It hadn't been just her, who felt as if Alex was different after his apparent resurrection and something told her that the reason for his different behavior wasn't random timeline changes.
She should not be even looking into this. She had Wes now, and a chance of living a whole life on Outpost One, unbothered by the consequences their union can have upon the timeline or be afraid of Time Force coming after them for breaking their regulations.
Everything was fine, but she could not shake the feeling she was missing something.
A soft groan brought her back to the present. She turned around to see Wes groggily open his eyes.
"You are awake…" He murmured, getting up to a sitting position.
"Just because we don't have a definite morning or night on Outpost One, doesn't mean we can laze around all day." She huffed.
"You are evading." Wes frowned. "What's really troubling you?"
Jen chuckled. She should have known Wes would figure her out. Like he always did.
"It's nothing you need to worry about." She reassured him.
"If you are worried about this enough to wake up in the middle of the night three days in a row, it certainly warrants some attention." He pointed out.
"You have been spending too much time with Eric. That was a full sentence of formal speech patterns. I am impressed." Jen smirked.
"Jen."
"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "Remember how our morphers are locked to our DNA and only certain passcodes from Time Force can unlock it and allow us to transfer our powers?"
"Yes?" Wes asked. "That's the only reason I became a ranger, wasn't it?"
"Not the only reason, but yes." Jen nodded. "Except there is no way your DNA should have been a match with Alex. Even if somehow, you are an ancestor, there are several generations between you, and the chances of your DNA being a match to his, even a close one, is very miniscule. Our morphers are so advanced that even a close relative, a child, a parent or even a sibling, can't unlock it. Even an identical twin, because DNA is unique to everyone and yet you unlocked the morpher."
"I never thought about that." Wes whistled. "But why now, after all this time… Wait, is it because of Cyra?"
Cyra Drake, after her rescue from the prehistoric times, had been working with Jen and other Time Force officers in missions, developing Project Hyperforce and reformatting Outpost One for a new ranger base.
"Yes." The pink ranger inhaled deeply. "Because what she told me mirrored my own feelings. She, like me, couldn't recognize Alex after he returned from the dead, hence why she went through all the troubles to get her 'true' brother back."
"So, it's about Alex? Look, Jen, I know we are not buddies, but he is a good guy. You know that, more than me. It's not like after his return, he became evil or anything."
"I know. Except I can't explain why I think of Alex as gone… why I mourn him, when he is alive."
"And it's not just you, it's Cyra too."
"More than that, Time Force is very particular about its property… yet it never asked you to return your morpher or Eric to return his." Jen pressed.
"That… I thought they forgot." Wes murmured.
"They never forget. Heck, we never forget what even history forgets." She bit her lips. "Which makes me think there is something far more dangerous going on. First with Dr. Ferrick's experiments being part of Time Force and then this… It is not an oversight."
"What are you saying, Jen?" Wes asked.
"I am saying I am not sure if Time Force can be trusted."
Hope you like this story and please review.
Cyra Drake and Outpost One are from the graphic novel "Sins of the Future".