Trip to the Library

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2024 @ 10:11pm by Kilena Keithron & Damien McGinnis & Spencer Gustaffson & Ellie Evans

1,769 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Secret of Corvus
Location: Megaship Archive Room
Timeline: January 5th 2051

Damien walked into the archive room with the other Rangers. He stopped for a minute to look at the display with five cylindrical mounts coloured red, blue, black, pink and yellow, along with a silver rectangular alcove within it, before moving on to the computer terminal. He had no idea what they were looking for in the database, or how they'd be able to identify shifts in the timeline. After all, history had changed; that meant their knowledge of things before were inherently changed too. At least it should do. Time travel stuff gave him a head ache.

"Okay, so where do we want to start?" He asked the room "Timeline of the war with the Imperium or personal histories?"

Spencer walked into the room, having only been in here once or twice before. Thankfully, the maps on the ship and his one impromptu tour had helped enough for him to walk alongside everyone else with confidence. He saw the blue pillar, and thought for a moment, pulling out his solar crystal. He knew that it would adapt and do something, but he didn't know exactly what that would be. That was where his mind went to, He also looked over to the side briefly before returning his focus to that which he knew had to be for the Rangers present, trying to push the expectations of the Silver and Cyan Rangers out of his mind. When Damien asked about where they started the research, he looked up and shrugged with a distracted expression. "Hm? Uh... ladies' choice, I say. If we go with anything personal, I really only care if I've gotta somehow explain things to a pair of parents I haven't known since before I was in school."

He looked toward Ellie, Kilena, and Val and gestured for them to make their decision. Meanwhile, his attention was on the seemingly nondescript pillar which matched his Solar Crystal.

Valdana took a deep breath and stepped up to silver cylinder. “I want to know about the war first” She did not feel any different other than any time she had spent with the missing rangers was fading fast. She suspected in a couple of days she would remember that they existed but nothing about them at a deeper level.

Kilena could not argue that at all it was a good theory especially when she was very much not sure she wanted to know who she had married. She could vaguely remember them and that fact she had strong emotions for them but it was confusing and she was not ready just then and there to confront those emotions or changes.

"Okay. Let's see the war." Damien said, leaning up against the cylinder and keying in a few commands slightly awkwardly "The war started at the same point. Looks like the Imperium didn't take Earth. That's an improvem-"

He trailed off midway through the word as he saw what was in front of him. He pressed a control, maximising the casualty reports.

"That's not possible..." He said "This says the death toll is in the millions... It wasn't in the millions. Some kind of massive attack... Total destruction of whole cities. Turtle Cove. San Angeles. Mariner Bay. Ocean Bluff. Harwood County. All wiped out. Some kind of orbital strike. Surgical."

He keyed in another command, a holographic display of a space battle, showing a number of Imperium ships engaging in battle with the zords and the Megaship. The Zords came together into the Megazord, charging the flagship only to bounce off of it's shield, moments before a massive pulse of purple energy fired from the flagship down at the Earth below, carving swathes from the planet. Damien swallowed hard as he looked at the sight in front of him, his fists clenching involuntarily while tears began to well in his eyes.

Spencer turned, watching the screen with a somber expression. The loss of his hometown hurt, but in a more distant way that he couldn't really express right now; an aching in his chest, rather than the sharper pains he'd so recently felt. Maybe it was just shock from everything else still. The displayed footage made it clear that no matter what, he'd lost his family in this timeline. Whether it was the original timeline, or a new one, that was his fate. He looked over at Ellie, wondering how she was taking the news as well, and all the people she'd lost. Still, it wasn't her reaction that bothered him yet. Seeing Damien about to break pushed him to action. He walked up to stand beside Damien, seeing their leader more upset than ever. Standing beside him, the Blue Ranger spoke quietly. "We will fix this. We're Power Rangers, like you've said - we're heroes. We save the day. As long as we are together, and we are alive, we have reason to hope. We can't dwell on the past - this past or any other. Only on what we do about it in our future."

Ellie pushed herself to the front, a determined expression set on her face as she shifted the viewer across the ocean towards Europe. The scars were visible immediately, but as she zoomed the view in a faint sense of relief washed over her as she noted her home was still standing. And that meant her family was likely still alive too. That relief was mixed with guilt as she glanced at the other rangers; some of them would not be so lucky. Her eyes looked between Damien and Spencer, sensing their shared discomfort. "Spencer's right. We'll fix this, won't we?"

"Of course we will." Damien swallowed hard "It's what we do. We're the Power Rangers."

Jamie stood alongside Kilena. "What about your home?" he asked softly. "KO-35, right? Is it still there?"

Kilena had been in her own world as she tried to keep hold of what knowledge she had of the first time line where millions of people were not gone because they did not win. “Hmm?” She wondered before she remembered what he said. She moved over to where Damien was and brought up the other planets details. “KO-35 is fine. It has survived numerous attempt’s from the Imperium.why they moved onto Earth.” She said sadly.

“Sentai 6 has stayed neutral.” Valdana said from a different screen. That was not surprising to her really it was why she had been allowed to operate as the Orange Ranger using her vessel as a cover.

"I honestly can't decide if I think that's cowardice or genius." Damien replied, moving to another terminal and keying in a few commands "Looking at this map, the Imperium has taken over about twenty percent of alliance territory. By some miracle, their attacks on Earth haven't yielded them any fruit. Hell, it looks like in this version of history we weren't even forced off the planet but instead actually repelled the invasion successfully. Prompting that attack we saw earlier. It's our fault..."

“No it’s not.” Valdana said firmly before she glanced at the pink ranger who was deep in thought. She wondered what was going on with her as she had never seen the woman quite so deanimated.

Spencer turned to Damien and shook his head, firmly. As much as his tone and expression was aggressive, there was also a sense of familial protection behind it. "No, it is absolutely not 'our fault' - I don't know even as much as you right now, but I know that for sure. They were the ones who attacked us. We are not responsible for the actions of murderers. Stop trying to beat yourself up over what our enemies, the people who attacked us, did."

"Not how I'm reading this." Damien replied coldly "But that's not for right now. Right now, we need to get down to that planet and stop the creature with that time crystal from messing with history anymore."

Spencer glared at Damien, his tone just as cold. "Then you're misreading it completely. But you're right. It's time we pull a plan together, morph, and get that thing." He glanced at Ellie, then at Kilena and the others. "Red - whatever doubts you have, leave them here, because we need you to lead out there. Let's get moving." He turned toward the doorway, pulling out his crystal.

"I guess he's right." Damien shook his head before twisting his wrist, his morpher appearing as his crystal appeared in his other hand "Anybody know what time it is?"

“The time is 17:43 by the Earth Standard Time.” Melody spoke up as no one else did. Earth Stabdard Time was formally called Greenwich Mean Time. “Local time for Angel Grove is 10:43.”

"Oh...." Damien said as his morpher disappeared in a flash of red energy "I was fishing for the other thing..."

“I still have a lot of questions.” Kilena muttered feeling like she did not at all have enough time to process the changes or work out who she was anymore. She grabbed her crystal and watched as it disappeared where ever they did when they were not with them.

"Well then, get asking." Damien replied, folding his arms over his chest "What else have we got?"

"I am married for one thing?" Kilena held up her hand to show the wedding ring. "Anyone else sporting a ring they did not have yesterday?"

"Married?" Damien asked with a surprised expression "Who's the unlucky guy?"

"I do not know... why I am asking if anyone here has a ring because my file is not telling me as it is corrupted," Kilena commented.

"Oh..." Damien said, looking down at his hands "Nope, no ring here. Sorry, you're out of luck pinky."

“Please stop calling me that.” Kilena whispered as Valdana touched her shoulder in a comforting gesture.

“We can figure it all out.” She offered gently trying to offer some support when the pink ranger was clearly wanting answers that no one had.

"Do we..." Ellie hesitated. "Do we go after this time-travel monster thing? Do we want to put things back to how they were, or...?" She faltered. The memories of older friends had all but faded. A strange sadness remained, and an uncertainty about whether she should feel guilty about that lingered too.

"We don't know that we can put things back to the way they were." Damien noted with a sigh "Whatever our lives may have been before this change, that's gone now. Our best shot is to take out the monster so it can't change anything else, then work damage control. Who's with me?"

 

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