Fate of the Clone

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. All characters are the property of the current copyright holders, likely Saban Brands. This is a fan work and no profit is being made from it.
Author’s note: This story takes place after Tommy leaves his clone in the past in Return of the Green Ranger Part 3.

Fate of the Clone

Colonial Angel Grove, Long Ago

A personal battle between good and evil, light and darkness, had been fought, and the little colony of Angel Grove had been almost wiped from the map. In the days that followed what many recalled as the worst storm since they had arrived in the Americas, it had only been the intervention of the neighbouring Spanish colony that had allowed them to endure.

But on that night of the storm, the people had been so enraptured by the bright lights and explosions in the sky that they had failed to observe the battle taking place within their community as a lone man, a stranger to their town, wrestled with his nature in a confrontation that would leave its mark upon the future. Tom Oliver, a clone of Tommy Oliver who had recently returned from a trip to save his friends in the future, had discovered that the Evil Green Ranger was not as gone as he had believed.

The Evil Green Ranger was more than a spell. It was a creation that had formed in the mind of Tommy Oliver during a time when he had been unable to control the darkness around him. The real Tommy Oliver had closed himself off in the corners of his mind as he waited for the opportunity to retake control. In the time after the Evil Green Ranger had been defeated, Tommy had taken back control and used the Green Ranger’s powers for good. But the Evil Green Ranger had remained, it had endured, and it had grown stronger and more real the longer it was contained.

When the Wizard of Deception had cloned Tommy Oliver to create Tom, he had extracted the essence of the Evil Green Ranger, leaving only a trace of the evil in Tommy Oliver’s mind; Tommy would later deal with that evil in his way. Tom had been created to embody all of the darkness inside Tommy Oliver, all the traits that had once made the Evil Green Ranger unstoppable. But the Evil Green Ranger could not exist without Tommy Oliver, and so despite the Wizard of Deception’s best efforts, Tom would always be a good man at heart.

But the Evil Green Ranger had not been destroyed this time. Tommy had used the Wizard of Deception’s wand to give Tom back control, but the Evil Green Ranger remained. And when Tom had used the power to help the Rangers, the Evil Green Ranger had awoken once more. Instead of trying to seize control of Tom at the moment of its awakening, it had waited until Tom had used the Wizard of Deception’s wand to open a portal, and then it had attacked.

This had led to what many would have considered a fight between twin brothers. It was a physical manifestation of the battle going on inside the clone. Neither the good nor the dark side of Tom was the original Tommy Oliver; neither could claim to have a solid claim to their shared existence. The Wizard of Deception’s wand accommodated their battle by conjuring bodies for both combatants.

It was a long and brutal fight. Punches and kicks turned to swords and knives. Before long, the blades were accompanied by blasts of magical energy as they tried to destroy each other. But in the end, one walked away, and the other was left face down upon the battlefield, their existence seemingly at an end. And in the time where both had originated, the outcome of this battle would remain a mystery until the day the victor chose to make his presence felt once more, as the Green Ranger returned once again. Whether the man behind the mask would prove to be Tom Oliver or whatever name the darker personality had chosen, would soon be revealed.

A coin had been tossed in the air, the fate of the planet depending upon which side it fell. But the coin did not fall; it landed on its edge. And in the time that passed thereafter, the coin would spin and the coin would roll, and at some points, it looked as if the coin would topple one way or another, but it always remained on its edge. But the time would come when a decision was needed and the path of the key player had to be declared. When it came time for that player to re-enter the game once more… a decision was needed.

And then the coin flipped one last time, and the answer was known.