Metal clicked upon the floor as Logan briskly hurried into the deepest parts of the building that was headquarters to Time Force. There was a look of worry in his eyes, being that, unlike the hopes of his superior, things in 2006 had not been going as planned. As such, drastic measures were sure to be taken.

"The progress of our plans hass been halted, Logan."

With a nod as he enter the darkened chamber, Logan looked toward the faint glowing pair of eyes that watched him from in the shadows. "It is the influence of Wesley Collins having defied the fate that was set in place for him." A pause. "We also suspect that the TimeShadow as well is a cause for the shifting of the timestream."

"And just what do you plan to do about the deviation to history?"

For a moment, Logan was silent. "We will retrieve the Time Rangers," he finally replied. There was again a pause in his words. "Once we remove them from the factors, it will be only a matter of time before Ransik is eliminated, and the full closure of this cycle ends as it did with the last."

The eyes shifted in the dark. For a moment, the form which held those eyes could be seen, but then it pulled back into the shadows. "Simply removing them from their mission is not enough. All trace of what they have experienced must be erased, Logan. The Time Rangers must be eliminated."

For a moment, Logan looked to be in shock. "Is such a course of action nesessary?" he asked, but after a moment, he nodded. "Yes, agreed. Asami and her task force will be recalled to our time and handled properly."

"We must hurry," the voice hissed. Stray strands of light flew out from the shadows, only to die off once removed from their source. "With the events which involved the Lightspeed Rangers and the awakening of the demon lord Agahnim, the continuim that is being born cannot be allowed to become a threat to our own. Eliminate the past era, Logan, and preserve the singularity of our timeline."

Elsewhere within Provider Base, a man shaped ripple crept through the hallways, searching for something. The figure quickly halted against a wall and vanished completely just before someone turned the corner to enter his corridor. With a sigh of relief, he hurried past and headed for a secure place before tapping his arm and dropping the cloak field to reveal the TimeShadow.

"Security is way too tight around here," he muttered, but continued on his way down the hall, soon finding the area he was looking for. The odd thing was, contrary to the map on his arm mounted data screen, there was no room to be enter from here. "Very strange," came his musing. "There should be a door around here somewhere." TimeShadow grunted as he looked about, then, finding an odd seam in the wall, dug his hand in to tear the panel away and reveal the data room behind it.

There was a chuckle from him as he stepped into the room. TimeShadow quickly hooked his arm computer into the main data base, then began tapping on the small keyboard. "Search for all files relating to Alexander Murphy."

Searching...Access to files denied. Data restricted to high level clearence only.

He tapped something into his arm comp. "Transmit access codes, security clearence blue."

Accessing...Access denied. Security clearence blue insufficint level.

He tilted his head slightly. "Level blue isn't high enough? Very odd." He again tapped on his arm comp keypad, then glanced back to make sure he was still in the clear. "This should bypass the access protocols..."

Access granted. Downloading files.

He smiled under the silver plate that hid his mouth. "Booyah," he remarked quietly. As he watched the download of data on his visor, the man noticed something in the files that were stored in this room. "Project Trigger? FATE?" he whispered, then tapped at his keypad while waiting for the download to finish. "Start download of all files on Project Trigger and regarding FATE."

Accessing...warning, files are protected by high level security.

"Bypass and reroute to retrieve files," TimeShadow continued. "I want those files."

Accessing...Download starting. Retrieving files.

He sighed and looked back again, then noticed that his first file retrieval was complete. With a heavy sigh, TimeShadow opened the data onto his visor, and began to read the information that Time Force kept on Alex Murphy, the original TimeRed. As he continued down the file, under his helmet, the TimeShadow paled once he saw several lines of report detailing the incident at Hades Island. "Son of a...they meant for me to die there!" he hissed. "They set me up!" A low growl of anger now escaped his helmet. "That's why there was no TimeShadow in the last cycle, Time Force set me up to die there!"

"I'm not sure how we set you up for death," came the calm and cold voice of Captain Logan. TimeShadow spun around to see a full squad of robotic soldiers standing behind Logan, weapons trained on the Ranger. "But you are correct, there was not supposed to be a TimeShadow, which begs the question where you came from."

There was a moment of hesitation from the Ranger. TimeShadow slowly glanced to the read out on his file retrieval, then inwardly smiled when the data finished download. "That, Logan," he hissed, slowly reaching his hand toward his beamsaber, "is something you really should have kept an eye on." He quickly grabbed the handle and raced forward even as the squad opened fire. His blade flashed repeatedly from deflections, and as he swung the weapon to cut through several of the robot troops, he spun about and stared at Logan for but a moment. It was enough, though, for his visor to open and reveal the rich sky blue eye behind the black visor.

"Dead or alive," he whispered. "You're coming with me." With that, the visor snapped shut and TimeShadow raced down the hallway, leaving Logan to stand in the ruins of his robot squad.

"Full alert!" the man yelled just as alarms began to blare throughout the building. "Capture the TimeShadow at all costs, he must not be allowed to escape!" There was a pause from the man. "Shoot to kill, I repeat...shoot to kill on sight!"

The End of Illusions
Part 1

The red lights continued to pulse through the halls of Time Force, all the while shots being fired as TimeShadow raced to escape. A couple pulse blasts had almost burned into his armor, but somehow, he seemed to know the entire complex like he had been there for years. He quickly ducked down a corridor toward a secondary 'lift, then stabbed his saber into the doors and burned in a hole. He pulled open the panels with his hand, then jumped down into the shaft, falling down several floors before he locked his saber back onto his pack and grabbed the side of the shaft.

Sparks flew out as he dug in, slowing his descent enough so that he was able to land safely on the roof of the turbolift. His saber flashed out again, and TimeShadow took the chance to cut open the top of the 'lift so he could drop down in and force open the doors to get out into the hallway. "Glad I still remember this place enough," he muttered while racing down the corridor. There were several approching shouts, but just ahead was the glass walling that led out of the building.

Just as he neared the end of the hallway, several robotic guards stepped out to stand in his way, causing TimeShadow to come to a halt. His saber hummed violently as he tensed himself for another fight.

"I'm interested to know just how you knew where to look," Logan's voice stated just as he came out from the ajoined corridor. He flashed what looked like a smile before continuing. "For that matter, we're very interested in finding out just who you are, TimeShadow."

He adjusted his grip on his saber. "You set me up to die at the prison," he replied angrily. "You set me up to die there, and I don't even know why!"

"Perhaps if we knew who you are," came Logan's voice from behind. TimeShadow spun about to see Logan walked out from the hallway behind him. His head turned back to see that the man was still standing before his sqaud, but he was also coming from behind. This was impossible, how could Logan be in two places at the same time?

He growled, now realizing at least bits and pieces of the truth. "You arranged everything," he hissed, turning toward his way out. "You set me up to die, and it all has to do with why you let Ransik escape into the past. It also has to do with FATE, doesn't it?"

Both Logans acted surprised at TimeShadow's words. "How do you know about FATE?" the first of them demanded. "For that matter, what do you know about FATE?"

"It has to do with something called Project Trigger," he replied. He shifted his footing again. "And right now, that's all I need to know until I get out of here!" With a lunge, TimeShadow raced toward the glass walling, dodging and deflecting the rounds fired at him and slashing hard into the robot squadron. He dipped down when Logan swung at him, then whipped his saber up and caused the man to gasp in shock when the blade cut clean through the center line. Instead of blood and organs, sparks, wires, and circuits were exposed while thick white fluids gushed out. TimeShadow grunted as he found his suspicions confirmed, then ran at the window and smashed through just in time when a second squad of robots arrived.

"Shadow Winger!" he cried into his helmet com. "Retrieval, and fast! Emergency priority!" There was a moment of fright for the Ranger as he continued to fall toward the earth below. Suddenly, the Shadow Winger shot down from the sky after dropping its own cloak fields. With exacting precision, it came about underneath TimeShadow and opened the top hatch to allow him entry. The man raced to the cockpit of the craft and switched over to manuel control before pulling up and tearing off into the sky again.

The remaining Logan ran over to the broken glass wall and stared in contempt while the stealth black jet craft tore off in escape. He knew that once TimeShadow was ready, he'd travel back in time and warn the Time Rangers of what he'd learn. There was little time left now for the designs of his superiors. "We must retrieve the Rangers at once," he stated before turning and heading back down the hallway. "Have this wall repaired at once, and prepare a time ship for autopilot to the year two thousand-six." He paused a moment. "It seems that the Time Rangers will finally recieve their last orders."

2006.318

Much time had passed by since the battle with the demons, and the day that the Time Rangers had fought alongside Lightspeed. Over a month had gone by, and in that time, because they'd recieved no orders from Time Force for so long, they had decided to do what they could to change the future as they knew it. With each event they knew that was to come, they made sure they were there to change it, and the more Wes watched his father, the more he became convinced that now, the Silver Guardians had earned their help.

More and more incidents involving non-human enemies had been cropping up, some demons, others alien incursions. But over all, something was building up to happen. Lightspeed had left several weapons for the Rangers to use in case of demon assualts, because, as they all had known, the Lightspeed Rangers could not return to Silver Hills every time there was an attack by the infernal armies.

And for the first time in that long month and a half since, the Time Rangers returned home to the clock tower. They were exhausted, both physically and mentally. So when the holo-screen began blinking to indicate an incoming message, Yuuri wasn't exactly in a huge hurry to answer. When Logan's image appeared onscreen, however, she mustered up as much energy as she could to gain a respectable appearence. "Captain Logan, sir."

"At ease Lieutenant," he replied. Something was off about his expression, but Yuuri chose to overlook it. She already figured that it had to do with how much she and the others had actively been changing history. "I wish to congraduate you all on a job well done."

Now she was worried. First of all, the mission wasn't finished. In fact, she and the other Rangers had been purposely not following their mission objectives. Second, they had defied Time Force regulations to preserve history. Why was Logan giving them congradulations on everything. "Nani? Sir, I'm not so sure I-"

"We know of your activities in changing the timestream," Logan interupted. "However, because you have done so with the best interest of Earth and its future in mind, we cannot find fault with your team. We also have concluded that there is no need to continue your pursuit of Ransik, since he does not pose a threat anymore." He glanced off screen, then looked back to face Yuuri. "We're sending a time ship to pick you up, Lieutenant. You're coming home."

And the transmission ended. Yuuri turned back to see that the other Rangers shared her surprise. The trouble was, like Yuuri, they had mixed feelings. Even Domon wasn't so sure if he really wanted to go back to their proper era. They'd spent so much time here in this time that it was like they belonged here. Syon was the most vocal about how he felt.

"I don't want to go back."

There was silence. Yuuri only nodded as she knew that she felt the exact same, and no doubt Lucas and Domon did as well. This was their home now, not the future. Syon had even more reason to desire staying; he had a chance to stop the war that would destroy his world, to save Xybria from death, and to save his people. Domon had a life to explore here, unhindered by the events that had not yet happened to him. And Lucas, he could take up racing again. He'd always talked about how having quit the racing circuits because he'd lost a friend to an accident, and how he'd wished he hadn't left. Here in the past, he had the chance to return to his dream.

And Yuuri, she of all knew what she wanted here. One look at Wes, and she knew that this is where she belonged, where all of them belonged. It was because of this man that their lives had changed. And now, it was going to come crashing down around them, torn away by a single man.

Domon finally spoke up. "We'll refuse," he said, glancing about at the other five in the room. "We pack the cryo-frozen inmates we have in the ship, then send it back, with a big 'up yours' to Time Force."

Eric tried resisting a laugh. "Well, you guys already are not on their payroll, what right do they had to give you orders? Hell, ever since Logan and Katie went back, they've cut off all contact with you guys. That is enough of a reason to give them the finger."

At that, Lucas snorted in amusement. Eric was right, they didn't have a reason to listen to orders. Or at least, that's what they tried to tell themselves. "One problem," he noted. "They'll take us back, willingly or not. We've done enough in this time, and as much as Logan says that they're happy with the job, I don't think that the higher-ups would like us screwing with history anymore."

At that, there was an air of depression in the loft. They knew that Lucas was right, that Time Force would not let them stay. Domon resoundly got up from his seat and started packing up their equipment, pausing at the cryo-chamber, then sighing. "It's not fair," he whispered. Clenching his fist, the man drove it into one of the yellow cases and plowed right through the hard plastic. "It's just not fair!"

"Domon-kun!" Yuuri snapped. "Calm down!"

"He has no right to take this life away from us!" the man continued. He pulled the case off his arm, revealing how cut up from the casing it had become, but that seemed not to bother him. "How can he understand what we've been through, what we've experienced?! It's like Logan doesn't even care how we feel, like he's a god damn machine programmed to do what he'd told!"

She got up, walked over to Domon, then slapped him hard. Yuuri winced from it, knowing she probably hurt her own hand more than she'd hurt Domon's face, but it had to be done. "You think I don't feel the same way? That none of us think that this isn't right?! Yes, it's unfair, but so is life, Domon!" Yuuri shook her head, knowing that she was starting to cry. "I lost Alex to all this, Domon, but life continues, and so did I! We have to deal with everything we're given, both good and bad."

With a sigh, she turned to resume the packing that Domon had started. "I have to give things up too," she whispered. "You think I like the idea of leaving my life here, of leaving Wes behind?"

"Yuuri..." Domon stopped. It had been obvious to all of them that Wes and Yuuri had really grown attached to each other, but for the woman to actually openly admit that attachment was not like her at all. This was really tearing her up more than anything. He sighed, then nodded in understanding. "You're right, we have to accept both good and bad in our lives. I just wish this hadn't been one of those things."

As the time ship burst from the timestream, the Time Rangers waited at the beach with all the cases and equipment waiting to be loaded. Tears were still in Yuuri's eyes, but she stood with back straight, knowing that there was nothing she could do to change what had to be. She was the first to walk up the ramp as soon as the ship had landed, carrying a pair of cases in her hands.

With the main cryo-storage unit in his arms, Domon followed. Lucas and Syon came aboard with several more equipment cases in their arms, and minutes later, they walked out again to grab the rest of the equipment. Wes, however, took the chance to walk into the ship. He saw Yuuri in the main cabin, crying. "Yuuri?" he called, walking over and sitting down next to the woman. "Yuuri, I know that none of us want to be seperated, but-"

"It's not fair!" she cried, turning and burying her face into his chest. "I don't want to leave, I don't want their future! I want the one that I've helped make here!"

At first, Wes wasn't sure of what to do. He finally rested his hands on the back of Yuuri's head and gently stroked her hair. "I know," he whispered. "I know. But this isn't your time, it's not your home, no matter how much we want it to be." There was a faint smile as he helped her sit up again. "Who knows, maybe you'll be able to come back here someday."

She only nodded, but hugged Wes tightly. "I hope so," she replied. Tears continued from her eyes while she held him tightly. "Because...I love you."

3000.327

Logan stood at the platform while he and several others awaited the return of the time ship. He knew that the Rangers would be taking their time, being that he had a good idea they were reluctent to depart the past. He turned to one of the white clad people beside him. "Have they re-entered the timestream?"

"The time ship just departed. They should be entering our time within two minutes."

Logan only nodded. The guards here were present more than just for welcoming, they were an escort. He knew what his orders were in regards to the Rangers, and he had no remorse over it. He was a servent of Fate, after all.

A massive sonic boom echoed out as the time ship came into existence. It raced over the city, most traffic being diverted so that the craft had a clear path toward the landing platform at Provider Base. One craft, however, that did not move aside, was the cloaked Shadow Winger. TimeShadow narrowly managed to swerve out of the way when the time ship came blasting out of the timestream. He was quick to realize who was aboard, and turned the Shadow Winger about, punching in overdrives while doing what he could to maintain the cloaking field.

"God, no!" he yelled while following the ship. "They have no idea what's going on, of what Time Force will do to them!"

Even as TimeShadow raced to catch up, the time ship landed upon the platform at Provider. There was a hiss at the boarding ramp lowered, allowing the four Rangers to exit. Logan nodded to them, then gestured for the four to follow. Something made Syon hesitate though. He looked to Logan, then glanced about at their escort. For some reason, the guards were carrying some rather heavy weaponry. In fact, they also didn't look like the usual welcoming escort he'd seen before. They looked more like machines, and despite he wasn't sure if he'd seen them before, something was oddly familiar about them.

"Move along," came the metal tinged voice from one of the guards. Syon quickly moved into formation with the others, but his mind could not calm down. He could read no thoughts from any of these guards, nor any from Logan. It was like Matt had told them when he'd met Logan; no thoughts, only a white noise like computer data being forced to play as sound.

They continued to walk into Provider Base, but as they kept traveling deeper into the complex, Syon was not the only one to notice that something was wrong. None of them recognized these parts of the base, nor did they recognize the room they entered at the end of a hallway. Several tube chambers were arranged about on the walls, while technicians and several robots were making adjustments to the machines attached to the tube chamber. "Sir?" Yuuri questioned as she looked around. "What's going on?"

Logan hesitated. "Just a simple process to adjust you back to our time," he at last replied smoothly. "You've been gone so long, such is needed so that you get used to the year three thousand again."

They hesitated, getting the sense that something was wrong. Logan quickly picked up on their reluctence to accept his explination, then nodded to his guards. "I think some persuasion is in order," he remarked while snapping his fingers. The guards moved quickly then, aiming their weapons at the Rangers without any hesitation. Now, for some reason, Logan was smiling. "Let me put it in a more simple way. Get in the chambers, or give me an excuse to have you all shot where you stand."

"That won't be nessesary."

Logan stiffened as the green energy blade surged from the shadows and cut down the guards to reveal their robotic true nature. Holding that blade was none other than TimeShadow, dropping his cloaking field and revealing himself to now be standing between the Rangers and Logan. He tilted his head at the officer, almost tauntingly. "I do think," he continued in an amused tone, "that you're starting to lose your cool, Logan. Although, considering how much more machine than man you are, that shouldn't surprise me."

"You're one to talk," Logan snapped back. "I don't know who you are, but you yourself seem to be very much a machine."

TimeShadow snorted. "Only some parts," was his reply. He turned to the Rangers and nodded. "Get to the landing platform," he ordered. "I'll be right behind you." Just as Logan started moving, he brought his saber to aim at the man's neck. "And I'd like it if you stayed still," he continued. "After all, I've killed one of you already, so I'd hate to have to kill two."

The Rangers hesitated, but then finally followed TimShadow's orders and ran from the room. TimeShadow himself paused for a moment to make sure they were out, then snapped about to slice off Logan's lower body. White fluids sprayed out while the smell of ozone and burned circuits hit the air. While Logan screamed from his injuries, TimeShadow ran, catching up with the Rangers and taking lead. "I don't have much time to explain!" he stated while turning a corner to head toward the landing pad. "But you do have to trust me here; Time Force has lied to you all!"

Blast rounds went off, forcing the TimeShadow to bring his saber up and deflect the burst. He paused a moment to stab to the side, impaling the auto-turret in the wall, then stabbed to the other side to take out another before resuming his run. "They were going to kill you in order to get rid off all traces of the timeline you have created through your actions!" he at last began to explain. "The mission of Time Force has never been to protect the timestream, it's been to have dominion over it!"

They burst onto the landing pad, and as the Rangers headed toward the time ship, TimeShadow stopped them, knowing that they could not use Time Force's craft. "This way!" was his order while tapping at his arm computer. The Shadow Winger decloaked then to reveal itself, side hatch opening to allow the Rangers entry. Laser rounds now fired at them, forcing TimeShadow to use his saber to deflect the blasts back at their source, then climb into his craft and shut the hatch.

The Winger began to power up even as he ran into the cockpit and grabbed his controls. It lifted up from the platform and pulled away just as Logan arrived, waist and legs attached as if nothing had happened to him. A second Logan, however, was carried out by one of the robot soldiers, bleeding white fluids from below to reveal that he was the one who had been dismembered by TimeShadow. "He is terminating us far too quickly for new bodies to be made."

The undamaged Logan nodded before turning to his injured twin. "We fear that there will not be enough time to construct a new body should I be destroyed as well. You will be kept online for repairs, in case such an event happens."

As the Shadow Winger raced through the sky, TimeShadow engaged the cloaking fields so that Time Force could not track them so easily. It was then that he set the Winger to autopilot and walked back to talk to the other Rangers. "I'm sorry that the situation was like this," he apologized. "But I had no other choice."

"Logan was a machine," Yuuri whispered before looking over at their mysterious ally. "How did you know?"

"Because as I'd said," he replied calmy. "I'd killed him once already." There was a chuckle, but his heart was obviously not into it. "Yuuri, Time Force has lied, to all of us. Your mission in the past wasn't to capture Ransik so that history wouldn't be destroyed, it was to stop him from preventing the horrors that shaped our future." He paused, knowing that even though it was simple to explain, more clarification was needed. "Your mission was to make sure that the Earth would experience the horrible events that are to come, because they all make sure that this exact future comes to pass."

Domon shook his head. He understood now, true, but some things didn't add up. "But our future and history has already happened in its own continuim," he stated, pointing out the now obvious fact of time. "Nothing we do will ever change how our timeline is shaped. All we do is forge a new timeline that will have no effect on our own."

"And there is the threat," TimeShadow said. He sighed and sat down, shaking his head. "What you have to understand is that travel to other parallel timelines is possible. So far, Time Force has insured that all timelines are forced to lead into the one we now know. By manipulating certain key events, they insure that control, so that another timeline can't try the same thing they are."

There was a pause as TimeShadow tried to find the right events for explaining it. "Matthew Corbett is a very good example," he finally stated. "In the original timeline that Time Force maintained, Matthew Corbett was never the Silver Ranger, he died during the initial attack on NASADA. As such, his fate could not be fulfilled, so his older brother, Michael, was chosen to take his place when the time came. In that cycle, Miradon was known as Miranoi, and the Delta Sabers were called the Quasar Sabers. Michael was the one who drew the Saber of Light and became the Red Ranger. From there, events were shaped that way."

He paused again, letting the information sink in so that his companions understood. "However, in the next cycle, something caused events to change. Matt still died, but when Mike drew the Saber, a key event happened so that he could not become the weilder. He fell into the chasm opened by Furio, and because he could not fulfill the fate that was meant for the youngest brother, it was passed to Leonard Corbett, the middle brother, to carry on Matthew's destiny while Mike was able to resume his own fate. From there, Leo was the Red Ranger, the Ranger of Fire, not of Light. From there, history continued, with the Lightspeed Rangers, and thus then the involvement of Time Force." He glanced to Yurri and Domon now. "You two never became Time Rangers there, and Syon was not one of Xybria's survivors, another was, who was called 'Trip' by the humans who found him. In your places were Jennifer Scotts, Katie Walker, and the Xybrian Trip, who was Time Force Green."

"Katie was in my place?" Domon assumed, which got a nod from TimeShadow. "Funky, though I don't like the idea of my role not existing."

There was a sigh from TimeShadow. He still wasn't done yet. "Time Force began to see massive changes in the time stream after that. Originally, they had purposely engineered Ransik to be a maniac obsessed with power. But in the third cycle, things changed to a point where their history was threatened. Matthew Corbett survived the NASADA attack, rescued by Andros of KO-35. Because he survived, his fate was finally started, and he became the Silver Ranger. However, before he could go into space, he was kidnapped in those five years. As such, Leo again became the back-up to carry on his destiny. It wasn't until the fifth cycle that Matthew at last became the Red Ranger."

"That's our history," Lucas surmised, but TimeShadow shook his head.

"No, because in that cycle, Matthew died fighting Scorpius, and he was the one who passed his Saber onto Karone, not Kendrix. It wasn't until the seventh cycle that events began to shape as those we now know. From what I understand, the history you know is actually the ninth cycle of time." He paused, then sighed again before continuing. "This cycle of time will be the tenth continuim, but there are only two timelines remaining of the ten that should now be. The events of all the others have been altered and assimilated into the first. Only those events which favor this history you know were absorbed, all other 'deviant' events were erased."

As he allowed there to be silence, it was starting to dawn on the Time Rangers that they had indeed been lied to and manipulated to a degree they never could have imagined. Their entire history was a well arranged story all for the benefit of Time Force and those in charge. When events happened that they could not erase, they assimilated those key moments, then terminated the others, but how was the question. More so, what would they do about this new tenth cycle of time?

And now, Yuuri knew she had the chance to find out just who their mysterious ally was. The time for secrets was over, and it was now that they deserved to kow the truth; all of it. "I have just one question," she said, standing up as she once again became the leader of her team. "You said when you first arrived that you could not then reveal who you are. I ask this now. How is it that you know all the key events in which we needed your help? Our timeline's history makes no mention of you ever appearing, nor the presence of the Shadow Winger."

He shrugged. "The simplest answer is the correct one, Yuuri. TimeShadow didn't exist in the last cycle, because I died at Hades Island. I was supposed to die there again this cycle, but something changed the course of events that Time Force plotted." Again, he paused, because then he saw Yuuri's eyes go wide. She was starting to understand now at last, as were the others. He didn't need to tell them who he was, because they already knew him. "That's right. I've been doing my best to protect you, just like I promised. It wasn't Ransik that I told you to find, it was Wes. I never meant for you to go after Ransik, because I knew that he wasn't the monster Time Force had meant for him to be, not after this many cycles."

She shook her head, unable to believe it, though deep down, she knew it to be true. She still had to see, with her own eyes, that she wasn't just hoping beyond reality. "Take your helmet off," Yuuri finally whispered. "I have to see...with my own eyes..."

He nodded, and, at last, reached up to unlock the clamps of his helmet. There was a hiss while he tilted his head down, allowing his mouth plate to slide open. A click filled the air for a moment, and he pulled away his helmet to reveal long black hair, but there was a patch of light brown growing out from the roots for about an inch. He breathed in, then continued, drawing his helmet away from his face and looking up.

There was shock in the eyes of the Rangers as they saw at last the face of the TimeShadow. His left eye was gone, replaced with a green cybernetic optic, and his ears were now replaced by mechanics that doubled as hearing systems and the locks for his helmet. There was obviously even more massive trauma still to his body, obvious by the metal plates under his cheek on the right side that ran down his neck, but despite all this, it was him. Against everything they knew, everything that they had been told, he was still alive, and now Yuuri understood why she always had the feeling of comfort around him.

"Oh god," she whispered softly, breaking into tears. "Alex!"

To Be Continued...