Moments before the rift breached the time barriers between the two Mirinoi's, Kai and Maya took an afternoon walk together through the forests lining Terra Venture, at the request of Kai. His asking caught Maya off guard at first, but she happily accepted anyway.

As they walked through the tall trees and colorful leaves, the sun broke through the clouds to warmly welcome them. Maya put on a wide smile; even now, still enraptured by the majesty of her home. "What a beautiful day for a walk."

"Yes. It's a beautiful day," Kai replied in a stiffer fashion than his normal brand of stiffness.

Maya easily sensed Kai's uneasiness. She'd been feeling it for quite a while now. "Kai... did I do something wrong?"

Kai looked back at her, caught off guard by the comment. "What? No, of course not."

"Even now, I'm still getting used to the way humans act. But I can tell something's been bothering you. Something about me."

Kai stopped his walking and nodded. "I'm sorry about that. It's just... hard."

"What is?"

Kai took a deep breath before continuing, "Maya, I really—"

Suddenly, a strange sound rang out from somewhere in the woods. Maya quickly cupped her ear with her hand to listen in. "You heard that too, right?"

"Where's it coming from?"

Maya's head started to turn before she got a lock on the sound. She pointed further down the path. "Over there."

"Right. Let's check it out."

Maya raced ahead with Kai quickly following until the pair approached an ever-growing dark rift tearing through the air and spitting out tiny rocks, leaves, and tree branches.

"What is it?" asked Maya.

"It looks kind of like a time portal," replied Kai.

Maya smiled excitedly. "Kendrix! She must be coming home!"

An enforcer then spat out of the rift and took a violent tumble onto the ground. He picked himself up while grunting and gripping tightly to his shoulder.

Maya immediately raced over to the man to help him to his feet.

"Wha... where am I?" asked the groggy enforcer.

Kai came in to check on him as well. "You're on Mirinoi."

"Are you alright?" asked Maya.

"Mirinoi...?" The man looked every which way. "Where's the rest of my men? And the Queen? And the Rangers?"

"Try to calm down," Kai said. "You must have been transported here from the future if you know about the Queen. Although, you don't seem here by choice."

The enforcer tried to walk forward, but his right leg writhed in pain as well. "GAH! My leg!"

Maya carried him by his side to help take the pressure off of his injury. "Don't worry, we'll get you looked at. We've still got some good doctors in this time, too."

"I'll call in to let them know to expect a patient," Kai added. "I'll contact the others, too. Just in case."

The pair continued towards Terra Venture while the growing rift continued to spit out larger rocks, larger branches, and entire trees. Moments later, the rift spit out the remainder of Queen Diane's enforcers, Diane herself, as well as Alex and the Rangers before collapsing onto itself and vanishing from sight.

Jason started to come to and lift himself from the ground as he took in the vibrant forests surrounding him. "Wait a second... this doesn't really look that different. Guys, get up! I think we're still on Mirinoi!"

Ethan got up rubbing his head and looked around. "Ugh... It sure looks like Mirinoi. So all that build up was for nothing?"

Jason helped Kendrix up who immediately recognized the far more familiar Terra Venture skyline in the distance. "No. It did do something." She pointed out towards the tallest building. "I think we've been transported back to the year 2000."

"No!" Diane cried as she forced herself back on her feet. "How could this have happened...!? Hmm, no matter. Until such a time as I can properly arrest all of you in the year 2990, you'll just have to make do with being arrested here."

Her enforcers, still befuddled from the trip through time, all collectively caught their breath and rubbed the throbbing pain from out of their heads.

"In case I wasn't explicitly clear, arrest them all!" Diane stated forcefully.

The enforcers quickly stood at attention before preparing their blasters and locking them onto the team.

"How are you even here?" Alex demanded. "We locked you away."

"Did you now?" Diane replied. "And who do you believe funded those 'locks'? Even under the guise of independence, Verinox 12 will always recognize their Queen, as will all resistance, as will all planets. If you Rangers really wanted me punished, you should have done it yourself. Instead, your weakness will be your—"

Just then, a group of enforcers fell to the ground from the backlines. Another line quickly followed, hitting the dirt in agony. Diane's eyes darted around in every direction. Just as soon, Leo, Kai, Damon, Maya, and Karone all stood next to the Chronic Storm team with Quasar Sabers in hand.

"Hey guys," Leo said. "Looked like you could use a bit of backup."

The remaining enforcers looked hesitant to strike after seeing their comrades knocked around so easily.

"What's with the hesitation?" Diane asked. "Detain those criminals by any means necessary! Kill them, if needs be."

Kendrix smiled and nodded at her old teammates. "It's good to be home."

"Alright everyone, together," Carter stated. "Ready?"

"Ready!" replied the other Rangers in unison.

"Go, Galactic!"

"Chronic Storm, Ranger form!"

The enforcers unleashed a bevy of blaster rounds upon both teams. The Galaxy Rangers stayed in front and used their Quasar Sabers to deflect and repel the blasts. Then, they ducked down, allowing the Chronic Storm team to unleash their blaster rounds upon the enforcers.

"Remember guys," Carter started. "Avoid anything fatal."

Blaster shots and sword clanks decorated the forest in dense smoke and vibrant sounds. It quickly became evident that the enforcers were no match for two teams of Rangers. A frustrated Diane started to make her way into the fray, only to be held up by Jason. The sight of him in that green and black Ranger suit only served to further infuriate her.

"You have to stop this!" Jason pleaded. "We don't even know how to get back to our own time! Fighting won't achieve you anything here! Mother, please!"

While trying to reason with his mother, a blaster round caught Jason square in the shoulder. "Gaaaah!"

Stricken by fear at the sight, Diane quickly, and intensely, stared down the enforcer who took the shot. She clenched her fist and started emitting sparks of electricity from out of her specialized gloves all while keeping her nerve-shattering gaze upon the quivering man.

The enforcer dropped his blaster upon the ground while his arms shook and shivered. "M-My Queen, I d-didn't mean it! I swear, I swear!"

Diane discharged her gloves and walked towards him. "I can recognize an honest mistake when I see one." She offered her hand to help him up.

"Oh. Thank you, My Queen!"

But Diane avoided his hand and grabbed the enforcer's face, tightening her grip around his nose and mouth. While he struggled to breathe, Diane riddled his entire frame with electricity, not letting up until every inch of his person sweltered and charred under the heat of the surge.

Jason looked on as a cold shiver crept down his person. Those eyes, eyes void of compassion, regret, remorse. The eyes that raised him had disappeared, replaced by a darker, sinister look that he couldn't recognize. His vision grew hazy and the colors around him started to jump about, as if to mock him.

"For example, sympathy was once a mistake I made," Diane said as she tossed the deceased enforcer aside. "I have since learned from it."

The other enforcers still standing stood frozen with fear after they all bore witness to what remained of their fallen comrade.

Jason fell to his knees before dropping his head. "You... you're a... a monster..."

The other Rangers began to surround Diane.

"End of the line," stated Carter.

Taylor loaded up her blaster. "Don't make me shoot you, because I really want to."

Diane calmly looked around before powering up her electrical gloves again and firing a surge into the ground in front of her, buffeting the Rangers and several of her remaining enforcers. The group reeled back from the flash of light. As their senses returned, the Queen had vanished.

"Man, she got away," said Damon.

"She'll be back, you can count on that," Carter replied. "In the meantime, we need to find a way to reactivate the portal that brought us here and get back to 2990."

"Let's head back to Terra Venture," replied Kai. "Our Science Division is our best bet."

"I like the plan, but..." Ethan added while turning his head to look back at the enforcers still looming.

The remaining enforcers either helped each other up or just stood around, trying to make sense of the fate that befell them.

Kendrix walked over to the enforcer who looked to be in charge. "Follow us. All of you need to get home too."

The older man slowly nodded before breaking his silence. "Rangers... on behalf of all of my men, I apologize. What should have been clear to us before is quite clear now."

"Better late than never," replied Taylor.

One of the enforcers carefully approached Taylor. "Sorry about that hit before, miss."

"Attempted hit," Taylor corrected. "And I'll get over it."

...

After all this time away from home, Kendrix looked almost relieved to see so many familiar people, consoles, and hallways again as the Rangers made their way through Terra Venture. But she wouldn't allow the comfort to taint her focus. Once the teams arrived at central command, Commander Stanton awaited them.

After the Rangers explained the situation to Stanton, he proved surprisingly accepting of the time travel narrative presented to him, and willing to help. The teams were then lead to the Science Division, Kendrix' old workstation, in an effort to search for solutions.

"This area is all yours for whatever resources you may need," said Stanton.

"Thank you, sir," Carter replied. "Hopefully it won't be too long. Ethan, think you can figure all of this out?"

Ethan's eyes widened as he stared at Carter. "Uhhh, look, I may be a geek, but I'm no Stephen Hawkings. Where I come from, everything that just happened, whatever happened, is still science fiction."

Kai walked around the room thinking through the situation before coming up with an idea. "The Galaxy Book!"

"That's it!" Leo replied. "There's all kinds of crazy stuff in there."

"The Galaxy Book...?" asked a confused Taylor.

Kai perused through a bookshelf and picked out a large, old, beat up brown text. "A spell from this book is what brought us to the Lost Galaxy almost a year ago. We haven't even begun piecing together all of its secrets, but we do know it can create rifts in space."

"And time?" asked Carter.

"We'll find out." Kai handed the Galaxy Book to Ethan. "You may not be Hawkings, but it sounds like you're the best chance we have."

Ethan looked through the book, his eyes immediately widening again as he gazed upon the foreign language. "Okay, what?"

Kendrix walked up to a computer and uploaded a program. "I was able to translate a lot of the Galaxy Book's text. You should be able to use this program to figure out the rest."

Ethan took a deep breath. "I'll do what I can, but now spells and magic are real, apparently, so..."

"I can help from my workstation," Kendrix looked to Stanton, "assuming I haven't been replaced yet."

Commander Stanton chuckled. "Not a chance, Miss Morgan."

"We're counting on you two," stated Carter.

"In the meantime," Kai added, "you'll need to catch us up a bit on why we were fighting those armored soldiers from the future."

"And why you guys were being arrested," added Karone.

"Didn't you say you were trying to save the Queen?" Damon asked. "It looked like the roles were reversed."

Carter nodded and began explaining the details of everything that happened to them since Kendrix joined Chronic Storm. It proved an arduous retelling to sit through for all involved. He soon reached the deeper, darker aspects of Queen Diane's involvement.

Kendrix immediately stopped her work to look back at Jason. She noticed it immediately, him trying to hold it all in again, trying his best to keep everything he felt under the tightest of wraps.

Carter finished the last few details of the story to this point, "Once she had escaped lock down, her enforcers were on us. And then, that temporal rift somehow brought us here. That about sums it up."

The room remained silent for a long spell. Only the clacking of keyboards and the beeping of workstation indicators could be heard for many monotonous moments.

Kai finally broke the silence. "We can't let her get away with this... Any of this."

Leo turned to Jason. "Jason, I can't even imagine what you're going through right now. But all of us are here for you."

Everyone else turned to Jason to deliver a nod of encouragement and support.

Jason chuckled slightly while waving off the sympathy. "Guys, thanks. But I'm fine... I realize now that the woman that used to be my mother no longer exists. And then there's her body double, so... maybe she never did. We have to do whatever it takes to stop her or more people and planets will suffer. That's all we can afford to focus on right now."

"No, it isn't," replied Karone.

Jason turned to her.

"Take it from someone who knows a lot about world-shattering reveals. You have to confront it head on, or you'll never really be free. If you run from it, try to bury it deep inside, like I did, it'll only follow you."

Jason understood her words, but he couldn't allow himself to fully accept them.

"Well, first things first," Damon said. "We need to track her down."

Leo turned to Maya. "Any chance those big ears of yours can find her?"

Maya shook her head. "I tried before, but it's much harder to hear a cold heart. Especially one that doesn't wish to be found." Just as soon, an idea struck her. "Let's call upon the Galactabeasts for help! With them working with us, there won't be anywhere she can hide here."

"Galactabeasts?" Taylor inquired. "Those are your Zords, I'm guessing?"

"Sometimes," Maya replied. "But most of the time, they are living creatures, just like you and me."

"Good idea, Maya," Carter replied. "We'll find her in no ti—"

Just then, a siren started to blare all throughout Terra Venture.

"Typical," said Taylor.

"Let's get moving," added Carter.

Ethan rose from his seat. "Guess this'll have to wait."

"We'll have some of our own keep working on the Galaxy book," Stanton replied. "You Rangers have a job to do."

Kendrix nodded. "Thank you, Commander."

...

The Rangers and Alex all rushed outside. They quickly bore witness to hordes of people running to escape a most horrifying scene: a nearby building up in flames with thick smoke puffing out from the top. Just as soon, a second building adjacent to it become enveloped inside a white net of electricity. The resulting explosion sent broken window shards flying down upon the streets like a rainfall of daggers and hot chunks of metal soaring through the skies. Before long, it became cloaked in the same flame.

"What's going on here!?" asked Kai.

Jason stared painfully at the familiar sparks of lightning while trying to keep his emotions in check through tightening fists. "It's her. It has to be her. She's using her electrical powers to destroy the colony."

Carter turned to Leo. "Leo, this is your turf. What's the call?"

Leo nodded. "We need to get everyone here to safety. My team can handle that. You guys know Diane best. Go after her and we'll be right behind you."

"Got it." Carter turned to Alex. "Think you can help with evac?"

Alex nodded. "It'll be tough with just six of us, but we'll get it done."

Just then, a group of enforcers entered the scene, the leader of whom saluted the Rangers. "My men and I are ready to lend our support. We've run training simulations like these countless times."

"Thank you, sir," replied Carter.

"Yeah, thanks," Leo added. "Then let's get to it. Ready guys?"

"Ready!" cried the other Rangers.

"Go, Galactic!"

"Chronic Storm, Ranger form!"

The ten Rangers all morphed into battle mode. The Galaxy Rangers, alongside Alex and the enforcers, took to aiding the civilians while Chronic Storm followed the path of destruction.