"Oh god," came the horrified whisper from Wes' lips as he saw the sheer numbers that were pouring forth from the time gate. Hundred upon thousands of enforcers were now taking step onto the streets of Silver Hills, beginning the slaughter to erase the past. This, he knew, would probably be the last battle that he and his two companions waged, but it was all they could now do.

He glanced to Eric, then smiled softly. "Still glad you got involved?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Okibi replied while gripping his fist tightly. "May as well get to being suicidal, cause those guys ain't gonn'a wait around."

Jen simply nodded while she and Eric brought up their transformation devices to their lips. "TimeThunder!"

"TimeFire!"

Wes took his stance, and tapped the controls of his Changer. "Chrono Morph!" he called, and was drawn into the flow of time, armor building around him. The cascades of lightning and fire around both Jen and Eric burned about their standing points, and as they dropped out of the transformation flows, both took posture with weapons at the ready.

"TimeFire!" Eric yelled. "Ranger of the Continuim!"

"TimeThunder!" came Jen's call. "Ranger of Justice!"

As Wes dropped down from the stream of time, he stepped to take position alongside Eric and Jen. Chrono Vectors in his hands, he looked to his remaining allies, then nodded. "Let's do what we can," he said. "There's nothing more I can ask here."

The End of Illusions
Part 3

Blasts fired as the Guardians swarmed the scene as best they could. Thousands of the enforcers fell, but dozens of the human soldiers now lay injured or dead in turn. The battle for the future of Earth had at last begun in full, and despite the best efforts of the Silver Guardians to fight back, they were hopelessly outnumbered by the armies of Time Force. It seemed utterly hopeless as the hordes of machine continued to march from the still open time gate. But still, they fought on, rather dying than watch these invaders destroy everything.

Out in the middle of the swarm were the three Rangers, each wielding their weapons without concern for anything but destroying the waves upon waves of robots that they faced. With a cry of rage, Eric brought the V-Defender blazing through a group of enforcers, the FireBlaze blade mode weapon causing a massive conjoined explosion even as he stabbed back into the head of a lone enforcer. There was a flash as one of the enforcers tried to fire at him with its rifle, but the crackling blade of the Thunder Stinger came cleaving through the machine and detonated it almost instant.

"Thanks!" Eric called to his companion. Jen merely nodded before returning to her own enemies, coming about with a yell and slashing through the chest plates of three of the enforcers. With a kick, she sent them crashing back just before the chain-reactions in each of them exploded out violently.

There was a boom in the air, and as the three turned, they saw a group of large machines emerge from the time gate just before it collapsed. These massive mechanicals were covered in weaponry, ready to destroy anything that stood in their way. As the ground buckled under their feet, the machines turned toward a group of Guardians and fired to release a cluster of miniature missiles. Nothing could be done while the three Rangers watched in horror. Explosions blossomed across the landscape while the remains of those unlucky men and women were flung about the ground.

"God damnit!" Jen screamed. The Thunder Stinger crackled violently with electricity just before she jumped up and over the heads of the enforcers. With the cry of rage still coming from her lungs, she brought the blade cleaving through one of the massive tank drones, then spun about and sliced through the legs of another. "We can't win this one!"

There was, for a moment, the same doubt in Wes' mind, that the battle they fought now was a futile one. He had known the minute they left the Guardian main building that they were most likely going to die, but it hadn't mattered to him. All that he had thought about was trying to give his world a chance, but now, it didn't look like his efforts were going to mean much.

And then, just when he seemed ready to accept defeat, the air was rattled by a massive sonic boom. The sun darkened as another sonic boom split the air, and then, surging forth from the timestream to materialize in a swarm of energy was the Shadow Winger. The black craft dove down from the sky, firing upon the legions of robots to give the defenders of the past a chance of victory.

"My god," Eric whispered as he looked up at the jet, unable to believe that it had appeared. "Is it really them?"

The hatch of the Shadow Winger slid open, and as the Time Flyer was thrown out to mass expand into full size, the four Rangers leapt aboard the craft while TimeShadow shot out from the rear hold, mounted on his hover cycle. The repulsors of the cycle fired beyond the safe limits of anything that was Time Force standard issue, but as he descended to the ground, the vehicle slowed to a point where he landed softly. There was a smile under his helmet when he looked up to see the Time Rangers land their own craft, then turned toward the armies of enforcers and drew forth his saber.

"Give them hell!" he cried to his team. "Syon, Lucas, full spread fire with your V-Cannons!" He turned to TimeYellow. "Domon, you help out the Silver Guardians!" There was a pause as he glanced to TimePink now. "Yuuri, you and I will help out the resident era's Rangers!"

She nodded while her fellow Time Rangers raced into action. With a cry, Yuuri summoned her Chrono Double Vectors and followed Alex toward his past self. There was a shot that nearly grazed her, but the blades in her hands quickly flashed out and ran through the head of the attacking enforcer. There was a grunt from the woman as she then swiftly spun about, time slowing around her while the blasts from several more enforcers flew by without a scratch to her armor. The moment her feet touched the earth again, her Vectors were flung out hard, impaling two of the enforcers, while she summoned out her V-Cannon and fired back at the remaining three.

Domon, on the other hand, was swinging his Chrono Vector widly while Syon and Lucas laid down suppression fire upon the robots. He chuckled and brought his Vector about to impale an enforcer, then flung the robot away while it detonated, taking three more out with it. His free hand drove into another enforcer's chest, and as Domon kicked the machine off his fist, it sparked wildly before exploding. "This is why," he began, kicking back hard to send two more robots flying into their fellows, "you never doubt the gifts that an Alberian half-breed gets from his non-human side!"

As one of the enforcers thrusted at him, Domon slid aside and grabbed the robot's arm. He grunted a moment before he tore the limb right out of its socket joint, then spun about to swat the now one-armed robot with its own arm. The blow sent his opponent flying high up into the air, where a blast from Eric's V-Defender caused it to explode.

TimeShadow looked about as he found himself flanked by the enforcers, but he wasn't one bit worried. He braced himself while a sharp hiss came from his large boots, then, with a click in his legs, shot up just before a volley of shots form his foes flared from their rifles and went screaming past under him to tear into and detonate an idle car. Alex went sailing high while the fireball roared out into the air behind him, his saber crackling and flashing as he used it to deflect the rounds of laser fire sent in his direction. The force of the explosion was enough to give him plenty of forward momentum on his descent, and when he landed, the TimeShadow spun about to bring his saber cleaving through several enforcers, then dipped down and rose again to uppercut slash another. Another swing erupted a trio of enforcers, and then, locking his saber back into its pack, Alex focused to send electrical bolts crackling over his armor and into the handle of his saber.

"Shadow Strike!" he screamed, unlocking his saber and slashing out to send out a massive electric blue energy blade that slammed into a cluster of enforcers before coming about and down-swinging to bring the blade crashing into the ground while cleaving straight through another group of the robots. A third attack sent the blade racing through the next cluster before Alex finally brought his weapon around and thrust forward to create a massive spike of energy that shot out and tore through anything in its path.

His own Double Vectors whistling through the air, Wes took his chance to try and catch up after his moment of surprise at the arrival of his friends. With a yell, he brought the swords ripping through an enforcer, but was shot in the back just as he turned to take on another of the robots. The attacking machine was quickly impaled from behind by Eric's V-Defender, and the man flung away the deadweight machine to a place it could safely detonate.

He held out his hand to Wes, tilting his head slightly. "Come on!" he stated while TimeRed took hold and was hoisted up. "Can't let them have all the fun!"

It was then that the Shadow Winger came about again to rain upon the enforcers with an assualt that left their numbers vastly dwindled. It wasn't too much longer that the Rangers finished up the job and at last gathered togther once more. The Winger itself landed nearby, while the surviving Silver Guardians moved to get medical attention for their injured members.

TimeShadow, as the three Rangers of the present era ran to join him and his group, chuckled while locking his saber back on his armor's pack. "Good to see you again, Wes."

"Been a while," Wes replied, though the fact that TimeShadow was still on the side of the past was something that slightly surprised him. "So how about some answers on why the hell Time Force is the ones attacking Silver Hills now?"

Alex hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. "Time Force is seeking to erase your timeline," he said plainly. He didn't have to see the faces of the era native Rangers to know their shocked expressions. "The mission of Time Force, the purpose of their creation, has never been to preserve history, it has been to manipulate and control events so than only one single timeline will survive to be the one 'true' timeline." He sighed a moment, glanced to Yuuri, then looked back to Wes. "There's a reason Logan didn't want Jen involved in the fight, and it's very likely that Logan is the one who killed Circuit, so that there wasn't chance you all would figure out what was really going on."

A growl came from Syon at the mention of what had happened to Circuit. He now more than ever hated the future he'd once called home, and the people he'd loyaly served in the protection of history. "They all deserve to die," he hissed, looking to Domon as if wanting the man to restrain him. "Ever single one of them in the future deserves to die!"

"Calm down," the man stated while grabbing Syon's arm. "Not everyone in our future wants this to happen. It's Logan and those like him, not the innocents and the other worlds that have nothing to do with Time Force!"

There was a sigh from Alex. "The problem is," he said softly, "that Syon is unfortunetely right. If we're to save this era, we have to destroy our own timeline, so that the continuims it killed will not have been erased for nothing." He paused and glanced to Wes and Eric, then to Jen. "We should go to Bio-Synth. I have some things I need to explain, namely who I am, and what I am in relation to everything." He tilted his head before walking over to his hovercycle, then mounted it and started up the repulsor engine. "And no, I don't need to be told the way."

Fires were burning everywhere as TimeShadow led the drive toward Bio-Synth's Guardian headquarters. Sections of the building had been damaged to an extent, with several window panels blown out from the fighting, while the metal supports of the walls were blackened. With a sigh, Alex pulled into the underground garage area and shut down his hovercycle, then glanced back at the SUVs while they found their own parking spot. For a moment, he ran through his head just how he was going to explain everything, but then decided that the best way was the same way that he had told the Time Rangers; he had to show them.

As the doors of the SUVs slid open, Wes jumped out and walked over to the black armored Ranger, not knowing exactly what to say. "So," he began. "What is going on?"

That same hiss came from the helmet of the TimeShadow, and as he pulled away the cover for his face, he smiled, but it was a sad smile. Both Wes and Eric gasped in shock at the face behind the mask, most of all Wes, because he realized who this was, he knew what this meant.

"I..." He shook his head. "I owe you an apology..."

Alex blinked. "For what?" he asked softly. "For making a bid for Yuuri?" There was a faint laugh from the man. "I don't see why you should be sorry, you were only doing what I did the first time around, and second, Wes, I can hardly blame her for falling in love with myself."

For a moment, he didn't understand. But when Alex smiled and once more ruffled up his hair to resemble Wes' own, it was then that Wes noticed that there was more than just a physical similarity between him and the original TimeRed. It was him, in every way, save that this future version of himself was more learned, a wisened mind, and someone who greatly understood things better than any of them. "You're me," he whispered, then glanced to Eric, who also was staring in shock. "You're my future. You went with them at the end of your mission, it-"

"The mission in my cycle was never finished," Alex corrected, stop Wes with his hand raised. "We never captured Ransik in my timeline, because when Time Force forced a temporal storm to form in this era, both Ransik and I were pulled into rifts, abit seperate ones. I ended up in the year two-thousand ninety-five." He paused. "As for Ransik, I can only hope he found a better era to live in." With a smile, Alex gestured for everyone to follow him. "I can explain things better if you will follow."

As he led them down the halls, everyone found it disturbing just how much he knew this building like the back of his hand. Each turn and corner were the ones that led straight into the main planning room, and there were gasps as Alex pushed open the oak doors and stepped inside. He glanced to Jeremy Collins, head tilted slightly, and then the smile on his face of having finally seeing someone he cared about after so long. But he also knew that to see his face in the state it was, without the holographics he had last time used, was a shocking sight.

"Wesley?"

Alex smiled at being called that name again after so long, but as he had told the Time Rangers before, he'd long since ceased to be Wesley Collins. "Once I was," he whispered before moving aside to let Wes run into the room. It almost hurt Alex, to not be able to greet his father like he'd once been able to.

There was a pause in Wes' movements, and then he looked back at Alex, realizing something. "It was you," he stated before glancing back at his stunned father. He turned back to Alex. "It was you that save my father's life when he was dying."

Alex nodded, and that smile was still there, though it was now pained. "I wasn't going to let you go through what I did," he replied while looking past Wes to lock eyes with Collins. "I didn't have a TimeShadow to save my father, so when he died, so did I, and I became Alexander Murphy."

For a moment, a smile tugged at the corner of Wes' mouth. "Alexander Murphy?" he muttered. "You used my middle name, and-"

"Mom's maiden name," Alex finished. "It was too fitting for me not to, Wes. Besides, I lived up to the name, didn't I?"

"Wes?" came the call from Collins. "What is going on?"

The young man turned to his father. "Dad," he began. "There's something you need to know, and someone you need to meet. This is-"

"Alex Murphy," the man interupted, holding up his right hand toward the man he'd once known as his father. "I'm the TimeShadow, we...met during the attack by the V-Rex some time ago, and again a couple months ago, a bit after you'd been attacked."

Now Jeremy Collins felt things click as well while he stepped toward his son's temporal twin. "You...you look so much like Wes, but-"

Alex nodded, knowing what Collins meant. "I know, I've got some extra parts," he cracked. His optic dimmed for a moment, as if mimicing a blink in timing with the motions of his remaining organic eye. "And yes, it was me that you saw in the hospital, not Wes...though in a sense, it was Wes you saw, being that I am him from a previous cycle of time."

He could see the confusion in Collins' eyes, then sighed as he began to explain. "We don't have much time, so I'll say it as simply as I can. Time operates in cycles, one line running in tandem with the previous and the next. I am from the previous cycle, and yes, I was Wesley Alexander Collins in that timeline." He paused. "While I don't think we have the time for me to explain that cycle completely, I will tell you all what is going on now. Time Force is the true enemy, and they're moving to eradicate this era so that the future you all have created will never come to pass. The enforcers are just the start, I have no doubt that next will be the TimeMega, heavier weapons, and possibly forces we haven't yet imagined."

"So how do we fight an army like that?"

For a moment, Alex didn't answer Eric's question. He glanced about to everyone around him, then sighed. "We still have the Shadow Winger, the V-Rex, and the ThunderCat," he finally said. "Judging from what reseach I've done on this 'Tigerzord' that Matt says the ThunderCat was built from, we might have a chance with all three of our machines." He glanced to the Time Rangers for a moment. "Though, I get the feeling you guys would be rather left out when it comes to that fight."

Domon shrugged, like it wasn't much of a concern to them. "Wouldn't be the first time," he quipped, thought it was more in reference to now realizing why they had been refused aid so many times in the past by Provider Base. "I wish we had time to get some new machines built so that we could join, but we don't, nor do I think that Bio-Synth can scrounge up any more salvagable Zords."

"You'd be surprised," was all that Jeremy Collins said in reply. He glanced to the Rangers, but then smiled and shrugged. "If I was able to find the remains that enabled us to build the ThunderCat, what says we didn't obtain more remains for other similar projects?" Again, there was his smile. "It's an offer, with no strings attached other than save this world."

There was a gleem in Alex's eyes. He'd never had the chance to see his father become so caring about everything else around him, not wanting something in return. He almost felt that he wanted to go back and change what happened to him, but he knew that it was impossible. His own past most likely, like so many other cycles, had been pieced apart by Time Force before being erased. Still, he was having a sense of pride in the man he'd once known as his father, at the fact that at least in a way, he was able to see what could have been for him. "Best start work, just in case we have the time to get them some new battle machines," he said, then turned toward where saw Ransik standing.

There, indeed, was someone who he needed to speak to. Taking the inititive, Alex stepped past his companions and walked over to the mutant. He could see the shock and pain in the man's eyes, shock in that Alex had survived, but pain in the terrible injuries he had caused. There was silence while Alex slowly brought his hand up in an offer of peace, and to show that he knew. "I already knew I was supposed to die there," he said calmly. "I don't blame you, Ransik, nor do I have any hate for you. You did what you knew you had to in order to further a rightous cause."

Ransik didn't know how to respond. He glanced to the heavy armored hand, then to Alex's face. It was then, with a nod, that he accepted Alex's hand. "I still ask you to forgive me," he replied softly. "Even more so know that I know who you really are, and all the troubles and pain I caused you long ago, in your own past."

He shrugged as if it didn't matter. "My own past was erased by Time Force," Alex stated. "Yes, I died in that cycle, but I have your kind and the Replicants to thank for the fact that in this one, I lived." There again was that smile of his, the one that said all things were alright. "In a way, Ransik, you're the reason I continued to help the Rangers, because I knew that you weren't a power hungry maniac. I knew that you were truly fighting for a noble reason."

Alarms went off at that moment. Alex spun about while instincts kicked into place. His optic brightened momentarily before he glanced to the Rangers and nodded. "It's time to go," he said, then looked to Jeremy Collins. "I know you want to help," came his statement. "But the best thing you can do is not involve the Silver Guardians. This is something only we can handle."

Collins hesitated, but then nodded, knowing that this version of his son was right. If he sent the Guardians, they'd only get in the way, and even more lives would be lost. "I will at least send out teams to evacuate the city," he replied, still insistent on doing something. "The fewer civilians involved, the better."

Alex gave a nod, then ran out of the room. His helmet came up to lock on his head again while the other seven Rangers fell into line behind him. There was an odd feeling, as he knew that now he was the one they all looked to for leadership. Was this how Matthew Corbett felt, when the universe would look to him to lead the armies of Light against the Empire in the days to come? More over, was he, Alex Murphy, ready to bear the responsibility of saving the Earth and its new future?

I died once already, he thought to himself. I'm not afraid to die again if that's what it takes to save them all.

The time gate tore open violently to release the armies of enforcers, but in addition to them, now something else came through. It tore out of the massive temporal rift, racing up into the sky before seperating sections and recombining into the Mode Alpha TimeMega. There was a silence before it reached back, gripped its fist, then slammed down on one of the buildings nearby it. People screamed as they tried to escape, but those inside were crushed in the resulting collapse, while those who escaped the building were met by laser fire from the enforcers that cut them down.

"Holy shit!" Jen cried as she arrived on the scene, the other Rangers getting out of the SUV while she looked about in horror. "I didn't actually think they'd use that thing against us like this!"

Alex slowly nodded before tapping his arm comp. "Bring out the ThunderCat," he stated. "Considering how much more size it has on the TimeMega in beast mode alone, we can use that to our advantage." He paused for a moment, then glanced up while the Shadow Winger tore by overheard. With a chuckle, the TimeShadow turned to Eric. "Get out V-Rex as well, we're gonn'a need him."

"You got it," Okibi replied just before he raised the V-Fire to his lips in timing with Jen and the V-Thunder. "TimeFire!"

"TimeThunder!"

The storm of fire and lightning surged over their bodies, transforming them into their respective armors and crackling over their forms. Jen tapped the switch on her exposed V-Thunder, and the result was a loud roar that echoed in the air. Moments later, the massive form of the ThunderCat arrived, and Jen fired her boot jets to go flying up and landing on the machine's head. "Time to rock, kitty," she commented before dropping down into the cockpit.

"V-Rex BattleZord!" Eric called into his changer. "Engage systems, battle ready!"

With a mighty roar, the V-Rex BattleZord raced toward the city after tearing up from underground. Chunks of earthen debris were still flaking from its body by the time it arrived, and upon seeing the now sinisterly controlled TimeMega, the V-Rex bellowed in rage and fired its shoulder cannons at the gestalt. It didn't take much thinking to know that the V-Rex already knew of what was happening, and that the machine it once had called friend was now an enemy.

The ThunderCat, on the other hand, quickly tranformed into humanoid battle mode, and now stood to tower over both the V-Rex and the TimeMega. Like Alex had said, its sheer size alone would give them a great advantage in this fight, and with a swing of the golden tail blade, the machine once long ago known as the Tigerzord showed its power by cleaving off the left arm of the TimeMega.

On the ground, however, was an equally great battle. The Time Rangers had already transformed into their armors, and were now blasting their way into the hordes of enforcers. TimeShadow was quick to set the Shadow Winger to autopilot with orders to target and destroy all the purely mechanical targets on the ground that were obviously not on the size scale of the giant battle machines.

His saber in hand, Alex swung back in impale one of the robots just as Domon flung away another enforcer away. There was a bright green flash around Syon, and in an instant, he had donned the armor of the Dragoon Defender, his Lance blazing with light even as it struck hard and true through several of the enforcers. He cried out just as he leapt up into the air, green energy cascading about him into a blaze with his descent that caused a blastwave from his impact into the ground. Several enforcers spontanously exploded as the wave touched them, leaving the Xybrian to turn about with his Lance and thrust to catch a lone enforcer in the back.

"I think we can win this!" Lucas called out, his V-Cannon flaring repeatedly as he laid down supression fire. It was then, looking out for new targets, that he saw the man he hated most of all right now walk out from a cluster of enforcers. Still clad in his spotless white uniform, Logan had arrived in the present, most obviously to direct operations in person. "You son of a bitch," Lucas growled while taking aim. "You can give our regards to hell!"

A bright blue burst fired from the V-Cannon's barrel, screaming through the air toward Logan. As it impacted, the man was flung back, but he landed perfectly on his feet while his false skin split to begin revealing the robotics underneath. Logan turned to face Lucas' direction, then smiled as he began walking toward the Time Ranger. "Very impressive, Mister Delgado!" he called to the human. "To have picked me out so quickly, and I didn't even have to announce myself!"

He readied his weapon again, this time making very dangerous modifications to the output of his V-Cannon. Lucas didn't know if the weapon would survive such a high-power setting, being that it was never designed for this kind of warfare, but it was a chance he'd have to take. "You're fouling up the air in this era, Logan!" he snapped back, finger ready to squeeze the trigger at any moment. "You should have just left well enough alone, instead of trying to control all events to better your own agendas!"

There was a laugh as Logan halted. He shook his head as if prepare to explain to a child why the sky was blue. "It's not an agenda, it's the will of FATE! The original timeline was a failure, a disaster that resulted in the Great War killing almost everyone in the universe!" He smiled now. "Matthew Corbett died in that timeline, Mister Delgado! He died fighting Asmordian, as it is his fate to die!"

"Then why erase the first timeline?!" Lucas spat. It had made sense even before that the first cycle Alex had spoken of was in fact only the first one Time Force had created. Hence, there had to have been something before it, one that, logically, resembled the continuim they were witness to the birth of. "Why did Time Force destroy the zero cycle?!"

Logan hesitated. It seemed that the Time Rangers knew of the other timelines, but that was hardly a concern in the end result of everything. "Because by killing Matthew Corbett," the android replied, "we could insure that the Great War never happened! Because of our success, it was the decision of FATE to erase the original timeline completely and replace it with one of our design, a perfect cycle!"

His mind knew what Logan was talking about. "A Continuim Matrix," Lucas muttered. It had been something spoken of by several temporal researchers; by choosing specific events to absorb into a timeline, one could create a perfectly designed cycle of time. It was something they dubbed a Continium Matrix, for the fact that after enough selections and insertations, it was no longer a function of time, but a programmable cycle that could be changed at the will of the functionary controller. It seemed that the reality was that Time Force, and the being known as FATE, had been working to create such a 'perfect cycle' since the beginning.

Again, Logan smiled. "So what will you do?" he asked calmly. "We were the ones who killed Corbett in the first cycle we designed, and since then, we have done everything possible to maintain an equilibrium."

"And have been failing," came Lucas' reply. He knew well why Logan was trying to convince him of Time Force's justifications in this entire matter. And he knew well now that time was not just a flow of existence. Time had a mind, a desire to see certain things happen, and ever since that first cycle designed by FATE, it had been fighting to have that balance again, to have that original design of true fate be what had to be. "Every cycle since then has been actively altering events so that the original course can be resumed in some way!"

There was merely a shrug from the machine. "Hence why we have taken what events are most useful," Logan noted non-chalantly. "I'm offering you, and thus the other Rangers, a chance to come back to us and not be erased with this abboration timeline."

"Yours is the abboration!" Lucas spat angrily. "You and Time Force created the false cycle, and because of it, Time itself is trying to resume its proper course, but you won't let it!"

Logan took a step forward, and that was all Lucas needed. He pulled the trigger of his V-Cannon, causing an overload that blew out the side of the weapon, but the charge lasted long enough to fire out a pulse that tore out of the barrel and flew toward the robot. There was a hanging moment, when, to Lucas, time seemed to stand still. And then, the bolt impacted, sending Logan flying back through the air for over a dozen meters before he came crashing down.

His artifical skin had been blown away from his upper half, and as Logan stood, his metal structure beneath glinted while his teeth flashed a smile. "I guessed as much from you," he hissed, then suddenly grew into a massive machine. The rest of his uniform and false flesh tore away to reveal the heavy machinery hidden underneath, and his red optics blazed madly while his body enlarged to its true form. Dark blue was his metal skeleton, a red sensor gem in his forehead. Muscles made of pistons and myiamer bundle packs flexed while he laughed, and his feet caused the concrete beneath them to buckle and crack.

With a gulp, Lucas slowly backed away, knowing that with his weapon completely burned out, he couldn't hope to fight this monster. "Big trouble," he whispered.

"Logan!"

The machine spun to see the black armored form of the TimeShadow standing behind him. Logan gave a grin while Alex brought up his saber, very pleased that he'd have a chance to finish this fight. "It seems that this time," the robot said while flexing his fingers, "I will not merely stand by and be disembowled by you, Lieutenant Murphy."

"You figured it out," the man replied while opening his visor and mouth plate. The green optic glowed dimmly, trying to mimic the organic right eye in narrowing. "I was wondering when the thought would occur to you or FATE."

Again, Logan laughed, but it was an empty laugh. "It was after you had left our era that we realized the meaning of your words, and thus, we went back into our archives of the ninth cycle." He paused, then flashed his red optics. "Ingenious, Wesley Collins. To be swept into our time period and assume the identity of a man who, in that cycle, didn't exist." There was again a pause. "I'd always wondered what happened to Alexander Drake, the man who was supposed to die at Hades Island."

"Rejected by Time in our cycle," Alex replied. "Or rather, given a different fate so that I could take up the destiny that was meant for me." He smiled, tilting his head slightly. "To be the TimeShadow, the Ranger of Fate."

It was then that Logan growled. "FATE has her hand," he hissed. "And you, Wesley Collins, are-"

"It's Alexander Murphy now!" the man snapped back angrily. "The Wesley Collins of your past died the minute you let my father die, because of your own damned desire to dictate fate!" Tears began to pour now from his remaining eye, but for Alex, they were tears of pain, of rage. "And just as I died a second time at Hades Island, I was reborn again as the TimeShadow, because of the ones you sent me to hunt down!" He grinned now, letting Logan know that there was more to his rebirth than chance. "That's right! The mutants and the Replicants saved me, you titanium-plated piece of shit! They took me from Time Force and gave me a chance to live!"

With nothing at that moment to say, Logan didn't know how to respond. All he knew now was to rush forward at the cyborg before him in attempt to kill this man, to eliminate the one factor in everything that had disrupted the plans of FATE.

Alex grunted as he stepped aside to dodge the lunge, then, locking his saber to his pack, allowed the surge of electricity to flow over his armor and into his saber. "It's time that you felt retribution!" he screamed. In a flash, as Logan came about for another attack, Alex pulled forth his weapon, now blazing whitish-blue as it came crashing through the machine's chest. "This is for my friends!" Another slash swung about and cleaved through again, this time causing a massive eruption of sparks to fly from Logan's body. "This is for me!"

Another strike tore the left arm from Logan's shoulder, and as he stumbled back, a round of blasts slammed into his back, forcing the machine to look and see the other Time Rangers with V-Cannons ready. He turned back to face Alex, knowing that he'd already lost. "No!" he screamed all the same. "The will of FATE is absolute!"

There was a moment of pause for the TimeShadow, and then, as he readied his saber, the blade exploded out to grow in both length and thickness. "And this," he hissed, reaching back for one final swing. "This is for my father, you son of a bitch!"

With a scream of fury, Alex brought his saber forward, leaving a huge trail of energy behind the blade as it tore through the ground and came up to cleave Logan in half. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, as the faint traces of electric surging was seen, the machine exploded violently, throwing Alex back a few meters to the ground. It was then that a secondary explosion ripped out, sending debris flying while a crater was blown into the ground.

The remaining enforcers suddenly shorted out, and the TimeMega, half destroyed by the efforts of the ThunderCat and the V-Rex, lost all power. Instantly, the gestalt shut down, tipping over and crashing down on its back. All the lights in it and on the hull went dark, and everywhere, the invasion was falling apart.

For a moment, Alex stared around in shock. They had won. The invasion had been stopped, and Logan had been the control center of this entire force. With him destroyed, there was nothing more to fear. The new cycle had been saved from death, and they had preserved the future; their future.

3000.328

There was silence as the entity known as FATE looked down upon the black suited figure standing before it. There was disappointment in the energy being's eyes, but there was also sadistic amusement. "It seems that the Time Rangers indeed have banded together to fight for their future. I am impressed by their ability to now focus on this new continuim, their desire to protect what they have made."

The black clad figure only nodded in reply at first, then gave a smile. "I believe that they will desire this new future to continue, FATE. They have fought for it since realizing that their own timeline cannot be changed, but not every threat they now face will be of their future ." He paused, then turned about to let light reveal part of his face to the waiting staff and enforcers. "What they should have realized is that someone else has been waiting for this moment as well."

FATE nodded, but its expression was still neutral. "Your fate in the cycle we took you from was to die fighting the Riders. However, because we had much use for you, you were taken from your fate and given a new destiny."

The figure nodded, stepping out of the shadows to reveal his pale blonde hair and icy blue eyes. He flashed his grin, knowing well that this moment was when he'd be able to have his joy again, to embrace the power and the bloodlust that he'd felt for countless ages. "Let them think they've won," he suggested while tilting his head back to FATE. "Give them time to think that we will leave them be, and then, in one week's time, we will release the very thing they have feared."

There was silence, and then, for the first time, FATE laughed. It was a cold laugh, devoice of true emotion, but it mattered not, for FATE was a being of logic. "And so, you shall be the only one left, then, from the era that you had willingly forsaken."

The figure nodded. "Just as I always have been. Cold, and uncaring. After all, what does one expect of someone who was the Soldier of Air?"

And in that, the person once known as Ryan Cole laughed.

MISSION END