Loop 1

If the memories hadn't been so clear Jason might have believed everyone when they said he was crazy. But it was this clarity, this sharpness in his thoughts and of the events that he had lived once already that convinced him that no, he hadn't gone mad.

'Granted,' he thought to himself with a mental eyeroll, 'the straight jacket I'm wearing isn't helping things much.'

It had been nearly a year since his parents had placed him in Happy Meadow's Home For Mentally Unhappy Folks... aka The Nuthouse. They'd thought they were helping him, that the doctors would be able to find the right dose of medicine and therapy that would help cure him and return him to the son that they knew and not the ranting madman who had rushed about his suburban neighborhood yelling about space witches at 5 in the morning. Breaking into Kimberly's house at 7 in the morning dressed just in his boxer shorts demanding she show him her pink power coin hadn't helped matters either; honestly he was lucky she heard the 'coin' part of that statement as otherwise her dad probably would have shot him. Nor had him swinging a broom at some cops, demanding they reveal their true monstrous forms just before they'd tazed him.

No matter what he'd said it hadn't helped. The only facts he could call upon involved monsters and giant robot battles... when one therapist had asked him to prove he had traveled back in time by telling him who won the Super Bowl that year Jason had only been able to comment that he knew a cheerleader-based monster had attacked around that time and her pom poms really hurt.

That had led to two weeks of the shrinks thinking he was denying his 'latent homosexual urges'.

He'd at first assumed that this was a spell that Rita or some other space overlord had created, trapping him in an alternate world or a dream. He'd bided his time, being patient, waiting for his friends to save him or for an opening to fight back to present itself. For Gthe villain to appear to taunt him or flickers of the real world to appear; things that would allow him to escape the madness (and he knew how ironic that sounded what with him in a padded room) and return to the real world.

He'd even tried to remember what exactly had happened to send him to this alternate reality. The last thing he remembered was some evil monster taunting Angel Grove, using it as the base for their invasion of Earth. He couldn't remember if it was Astronema or the Armada or some other group… after everything that had happened with Divatox his memories got jumbled and fuzzy. At times he swore he was in his forties, other times that he'd imagined that and he was only in his twenty. There was even a brief memory of him being an old man and his grandkids telling him he was too old to fight, to let SPD handle things.

He did know that he had gone to the ruins of the Command Center, seeking out something that would let him help. That was clear. He had just found his old Power Coin, drained of power when Zordon had created the duplicate for Rocky but hopefully still useful, when the entire building had shook and something heavy had struck him. The next thing he remembered was waking up in his old bedroom. He'd assumed that it was some sort of monster the alien overlord had brought with him or her, maybe an evil Sleepy Sheep or a Sandman-Based creature, and it had put him under a spell. He'd, sadly, been through enough of that to grow used to such things.

But then the news had begun reporting about the Power Rangers... and how they were defeating all sorts of monsters.

'If this were a dream Rita or Astronama or someone else had created... why would they have the Rangers around and WINNING?' Jason thought to himself. 'It would be better to torture me, to let me see the team losing, being defeated time and time again while I was trapped here. They could gloat and mock me...' Jason paused, shoulders slumping, "And I am thinking way too much like an evil supervillain."

But the Power Rangers. That had been another blow. He'd kept quiet at first because, just in case he wasn't in a dream world, he'd worried about revealing his identity. Zordon's rules were too ingrained in his mind. But when the Power Rangers had appeared... and were led by another Red Ranger... Jason had decided the time for subtly had passed. When Kim had come to visit (and at the very least his friends came to visit him once a week, which was nice if a bit annoying that they looked at him like a crazy person and talked slowly like he was 3 years old) he'd begun to drop hints about her being the Pink Rangers. She'd stared at him blankly. So he'd dropped bigger hints.

More dead-eyed staring.

So he'd just come out and declared that he was the Red Ranger and he knew all about Rita and Zordon... and then realized, as Kim signaled for the orderly to sedate him that Rita actually hadn't appeared that much on Earth and no one knew about Zordon save those selected to be Rangers. Angel Grove and its ordinary citizens, which now apparently included his friends who had certainly NOT been selected by Zordon in this reality... just knew monsters began appearing but didn't know why. They probably thought GOLDAR of all people was the leader of the monsters.

Thus Jason was back to being the crazy guy ranting about moon witches.

"Well Rita, if you did do this you did a wonderful job of setting me up," Jason muttered to himself as he shifted a bit, trying to get more comfortable even in the straight jacket. He'd been thrown into the cell for a 'mental time out' as the doctors called it because he'd gotten a bit too uppity, in the words of his current shrink, when another patient had tried to take his pudding cup. So what if Jason had thrown him over his shoulder and done a chest strike that broke three ribs? That was his pudding!

"...well, if I wasn't crazy beforehand," Jason muttered, realizing just how crazy he'd come off... again. "But I'm not crazy... I knew about the Rangers before they even appeared! I know how to fight with the Power Sword... I know battle tactics and how to pilot a zord! I know how to deal with putties and how to spot spells and now I'm talking to myself!" He hung his head. "Jason, you are losing your-"

Half of the wall was reduced to rubble as a massive golden foot crush it.

"-mind," he finished. The foot pulled away and Jason watched, jaw dropping, as he spotted the Megazord doing battle with Goldar, Scorpina, and a giant Green Ranger (who was doing that stupid evil laugh of his that Jason TOTALLY didn't try an imitate whenever Tommy got on his nerves and needed to be taken down a peg... totally). The sky had gone dark and Jason realized two things. One: this was the fateful battle when the trio would take down the Megazord, giving the Rangers their worst defeat.

Two... it really sucked to be in one of those buildings that always seemed to get in the way of a Zord Battle.

Tommy kicked the Megazord and Jason could only watch, shoulders slumped and a resigned look on his face, as several hundred tons of mystical metal came crashing down on him and Happy Meadow's Home For Mentally Unhappy Folks.

Loop 2

"Stop it before it gets away!"

"Billy, block it!"

"It's endeavoring to make a hasty withdrawal towards the egress!"

"Ai ai ai!"

Jason wasn't having a good day.

When he'd woken to find himself back in his old bedroom he'd realized that somehow Rita's spell (and he always blamed Rita... for everything; traffic jams, magic spells, burnt toast, llamas) had restarted with his death. Or that dying had caused him to wake up. Or yet another one of those mystics that Zordon was friends with but seemed to always fail to mention had given him two information dumps (one where he treated being a ranger with dignity and respect and one where he was a raving loon) to teach him a lesson or... something. Honestly Jason didn't know. What he did comprehend was he couldn't go about ranting and raving about Rangers and Rita... he remembered spending two years in the Nuthouse and that was enough for him!

So he'd kept his head down, gone about his days as normal, and watched. When Zordon had teleported them into the Command Center he'd faked his best 'shocked and amazed' look he could. When the others bailed Jason had fought the urge to call them back and instead followed them, knowing they would return. When he'd accept the morpher and felt the power fill him once more he'd repressed the urge to sigh in relief.

He was back and it felt SO good.

Not to say that Jason didn't just accept things and go about repeating everything the same. Be it spell or memory dump Jason knew there had to be a reason for his knowledge and he wouldn't be a good leader, Ranger, or man if he didn't use it. So late at night, while everyone thought he was studying (and it was nice he just had to do refreshers on what each class was about... saved a ton of time, honestly) he'd work to remember every battle, every monster, and every strategy. If he could prevent a monster from causing someone pain he'd do it. If he could stop one of Rita's schemes before it fully blossomed he'd do so. He had around 3 total years experience being a ranger, first Red and then Gold, and he was going to use every advantage he could.

An attack on a shopping mall? He got his friends there before the creature showed up so they were ready to morph.

A monster destroying the civic center and costing Angel Grove millions? Jason commanded the Megazord to take the hit, knowing it could take it.

Rita sent the Putties to ruin Kim's float because... reasons? Jason had stopped them though he still didn't get that one. Most likely the demented loon had been having an off day and decided to stage at attack because she was bored.

When Tommy had been captured and bespelled to be Rita's evil minion (and Jason had debated that one for several weeks, finally deciding that as much as it had hurt Tommy's psyche they needed him to be a Ranger if only because if he wasn't at least 3 other teams would be leaderless) he'd easily taken him out with his now greater skills and taunted Tommy with his sword, calling him weak, knowing that it would cause Rita to create the Sword of Darkness sooner... which would also leech the evil from the Green Power Coin and thus become the only thing that needed to be destroyed to free Tommy.

'Rita was really into self-sabotage,' Jason thought to himself as he ducked behind a control panel just before some blaster fire flew past right where his head had been. 'Zedd too, with those Destroy-A-Putty buttons. It's like they wanted to be-AAACK!' Jason rolled away just before the Power Axe struck him, leaping to his feet and running out of the room. 'Focus, Jason, focus!'

It had been freeing Tommy though that had led Jason into this mess. Apparently Tommy had found his saving to be far too simple and He-Of-Too-Many-Ranger-Colors had begun watching Jason and noticing that while the rest of the team had problems with monsters Jason never really had an issue (because he'd fought them all). That had led his best bud to naturally assume the rational answer was that his capture had been a massive long-con by Rita and Jason was in fact a monster duplicate who had replaced the real Jason while everyone was focused on Tommy.

...why a monster duplicate would free Tommy and ensure the Rangers got another team member and the Dragonzord, Jason didn't know.

'Tommy probably has a reason for that... too bad he's too busy trying to destroy me!' Jason thought as he tried to find a way out of the Command Center, the footfalls of his friends as they chased him echoing behind him. He took a quick left, waiting for his friends to pass, then darted back down the way they had come, doing his best to be utterly quiet. He should have known something was odd when Billy had asked him to come to the Command Center but he hadn't expected all his friends, Zordon, and Alpha to try and place him in the same forcefield they'd used against Tommy ('or would have used... this is hurting my brain!') and demanded he release the real Jason at once. No matter how much he'd argued and pleaded with them his friends had just kept firing back that he had to be a fake because he was too good at being a Ranger.

Admittedly getting frustrated and snapping that he should have just let some innocent people die then hadn't been the smartest of responses.

Nor had him revealing that he knew the vocal commands to shut down the force field. Well, he'd thought that it would prove that it was really him only to realize a few seconds too late that he'd only learned those commands in the NEW Command Center when he'd been the Gold Ranger. His friends had watched him easily take down their trap and in response morphed and come at him Power Weapons raised and Blade Blasters firing.

He needed to get out of the Command Center, ditch his communicator, maybe figure out a way to keep Zordon from teleporting him in, and then wait for things to cool down. Maybe show up pretending to be the actual Jason? With Tommy in full paranoia mode and having convinced everyone he was some Putty Clone there was little chance of his friends cooling down. No, he'd have to fake it, figure out a way to make them thing that Tommy was right...

...Jason stopped short as he turned a corner and realized he'd ended up right back in the Command Center.

"Crap," he muttered, staring up at the giant blue face of his mentor. "Listen... I know this looks bad..."

"I do not know how you managed to take Jason's Power Coin but I will not allow this to stand!" Zordon said firmly. "I will stop you myself, if I have to!"

His frustrations getting the better of him Jason snapped, "By what... talking me to death? Hopping the tube rocks back and forth enough for you to smoosh me?" Zordon glowered at that and Jason took off his helmet. "Zordon... I'm not a fake! Come on, we've seen Putty Clones before and they aren't this good!"

"You're just an advanced model then!" Kim declared as she and the rest of the Rangers burst into the Command Center, the Pink Ranger taking aim with her bow.

"Look, let's just take a breath. Here..." Jason removed his blaster and set his sword down. "Removing my weapons."

"Wanting us to remove our weapons so you can use your evil magic on us?" Tommy demanded. "Not likely."

"No, you can keep your weapons if that makes you happy! Just don't shoot me or stab me or blow annoying flute music at me!"

"You think that will make us trust you?" Trini demanded even as Tommy muttered, 'Annoying?' and Kim quickly looked away.

"Clearly not but it would be nice if we took a moment to talk about this."

"Trying to lull us into a false sense of security?" Zack said. "Just what a Fake would say!"

Jason scoffed, gesturing at his friend. "Come on... if anything you saying that makes YOU sound like the Fake!"

"What?"

"Wait..." Tommy said, holding up a hand. "It brings up a good point-"

"Him, Jason... either works," the Red Ranger grumbled.

"-how do we know YOU aren't a Fake!"

"I'm not a Fake!" Zack shouted, turning from the other Rangers who were now staring at him. "Come on, you know me!"

"That's what I said!" Jason complained.

"You leave me out of this, Fake!"

Billy tilted his head. "It is conceivable thata Fake would plant another Fake as Jason so he could have a Triple Bluff. It would be very sinister."

"Or none of us are fakes..." Jason argued.

Zordon rumbled. "We must be careful... Trini, watch Zack. The rest of you deal with the Imposter Red Ranger."

"Come on! At least call Zack an it too! That's only-EEERRK!" Jason looked down, staring dumbly as the tip of the Power Sword that was sticking out of his chest.

"Aiaiai!" Alpha declared, yanking the weapon from Jason's back.

"Oh come on!" Jason gasped in exasperation before falling to his knees.

"He's... he's not exploding," Tommy whispered with dawning horror, Jason staring at him with a look that he hoped conveyed just how annoyed he was at the moment. "Monsters... monsters explode..." Tommy took a step forward, reaching out even as Jason stared at the white diamond on his chest that was rapidly turning just as red as the rest of his outfit. He let out a little chuckle that it took him dying to get them to believe him.

"Jason?" Kimberly whispered. "Jason?!"

"I... told you!" Jason cried out as his friends hurried over, gathering him up and holding him as he bled out. He could hear Billy trying to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and Trini crying and Zack wondering how this could have happened and Zordon whispering, "no... no..." over and over. His friends stared at his ashen face, their eyes growing red and tears falling onto him as they silently begged him to say something... anything. His vision was getting funny and it sounded like he was in a tunnel and they were driving further and further aay but he had to speak. They needed him to speak. To say something. Some parting words of wisdom. A command that would save him. Forgiveness for their grave error.

Jason looked at them all, brow furrowing.

"Alpha killed me?!" Jason gasped out. "Son of a-"

And everything went black.

Loop 3

As he came to Jason rapidly reached several conclusions.

1) Dying sucked. A lot.

2) He wasn't in his bedroom.

3) Where ever he was it was moving

4) He was MUCH younger than he had been the last time he'd woken up confused and befuddled.

Taking stock of his surroundings Jason realized that he was a little older than 10, maybe 11 or 12. Same slightly pudgy frame he'd had at that age that would turn to solid muscle when he really got into karate and decided to dedicate his life to it. Same squeaky voice. Same lack of height (Kim had playfully made fun of him for years that he was the shortest in their group, the jokes only ending when he'd turned 14 and hit his growth spurt). Definitely not a teenager as he had been the last two times he'd waken up.

But his body was the only thing that was familiar to him. He was wearing a dress shirt with a dark tie and slacks, a long robe thrown over the top of this as well. There was a trunk under the seat he was sitting on and looking out the window Jason realized he was on a train... an old-fashion train from the looks of the décor... that was steaming through a countryside that was decidedly NOT Angel Grove. Thinking back to his time at the Peace Conference Jason wagered he was somewhere in Europe... maybe England, but it could have been Germany. He was all alone in the compartment with only an odd book entitled HOGWARTS: A HISTORY and a weird carved stick that made his hand tingle when he touched it.

"Okay Jason... if this is still a Rita spell then she is really going deep."

He felt a weird tingle along the back of his head but just as quickly it was gone.

After looking about the cabin some more Jason had begun debating either stepping outside or going through his trunk when the door opened and a boy his age (or the age his body was at the very least) stepped inside, looking him over critically. The kid had messy dark hair that looked like it had never seen a comb that did little to hide the odd scar upon his forehead. He was wearing a similar outfit as Jason but was much thinner, to the point of looking underweight. He also had on a pair of glasses that did little to hide his shockingly bright green eyes.

"Ah, was wondering what this Loop would bring. Never seen you before." The kid, who sounded British from his accent, dragged in a trunk of his own as well as a cage that contained a snowy white owl and set himself up on the padded bench chair across from Jason's. "You look a bit familiar... have we met?"

"UH... I don't think so?" Jason said, startled by how familiar the boy was with him, talking to him so openly.

"Hmmm, must have not been awake when I visited your world. So, what Loop is this for you? Or are you at the point where you don't keep count anymore?"

"Loop? Awake?"

The kid stared at him before nodding to himself. "Ah, first Fused Loop, huh? Been a while since I've gotten one of you guys. For some reason Naruto seems to get all the newbies nowadays... used to be me but something must have happened with Yggdrasil to redirect all the baby loopers to him."

"...okay, what are you talking about?" Jason said, getting frustrated. Of course his anger didn't come off as intimidating when he had the voice of an 11 year old.

The kid held up his hand. "It's okay. This is a lot to take in. You've been Looping by yourself for a while and I bet you have all sorts of wild theories. Honestly, I wish the Admins would just step in and give every new Anchor and Looper the low down. But I can answer all your questions, starting with: NO! You are NOT crazy!"

Jason ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek. "That might mean more if I didn't think you were crazy."

"I really want to make a joke about all of us being crazy but you are new and that would be mean. Let's start at the beginning: My name is Harry Potter."

Jason looked at the offered hand, considering his options before deciding it couldn't hurt to be honest and at least give his name. "Jason Scott," he said, taking Harry's hand.

"Huh, cool not to have someone star struck," the kid said before his eyes went wide. "Wait… Jason Scott. The Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger?" Jason's jaw dropped and he moved to jerk away from Harry but the brit held onto his hand. "Calm down! I know all about Zordon! 250 or so odd Loops ago I was a Ranger myself!" Jason stared at the boy, his head shaking slightly, and Harry let out a sigh. "Well, at least you aren't trying to hit me. That really gets annoying with you new Loopers." He let out a long suffering sigh. "Zordon's Three Rules: Never use your power for personal gain. Never escalate a battle unless Rita forces you. Always keep your identity a secret as no one may know that you are a power ranger." Jason felt much of the tension in his body disappear with those words and the kid smirked at him and finally released his hand. "Now do you believe me?"

"How… I don't…"

"Alright, listen, sorry if this is all coming at you at once and I know it is super confusing but I'm going to do all I can to explain it. First thing though…" Harry held up his hand and there was a slight shimmer in the air. "Normally I give this lesson earlier but you are used to the more fantastical elements of life. So this-" he gestured at the rapidly growing shimmering crack that was floating in the space between them, "-is a subspace pocket. Experienced Loopers and Anchors have them so they can store whatever they want to take with them doesn't get erased when time is reset. Now then…" Harry reached inside the crack like it was a backpack and after a moment pulled out some asprin and a bottle of water, along with an odd device that looked like a calculator. "Take this. You felt that tingle before, right?" Jason nodded and, deciding if the strange kid was going to kill him he'd probably just wake up again back where he started. "That was a Ping. We use it to alert Loopers we are around. I'll teach you." He wiggled the device. "This lets me scan you and tell where you are from, where your anchor currently is and I am so having a talk with him because he should…huh." Harry stared up at Jason who was still struggling to follow everything. "You are the anchor for your universe. But that isn't right. Tommy Oliver … he's the Anchor for the Power Rangers reality." Harry stared at the device before shrugging. "You must be from a slightly different reality. Maybe the comic books or something. Doesn't matter. Now then," Harry said once he'd put the device away, "Let's focus. You've been experiencing some odd things recently, haven't you? A feeling that you are reliving your life?"

Jason nodded. While it still felt strange to talk to Harry about being a Ranger the fact that he clearly knew Zordon's rules meant he could be trusted. "First everything was normal, or as normal as it can be when I am dealing with evil space women that want to destroy the planet-"

"Ever notice it is almost always evil space WOMEN?" Harry asked. "Rita, Divatox, Astronema, Bansheera-"

"Who?"

"You aren't missing much with that one. Anyway…"

Jason went into detail about the three lives he'd lived, Harry at times muttering in agreement or wincing in pain, mumbling about knowing how 'that felt'. The one comfort though was that he never once looked at Jason like he was insane. No, it was clear from the way he was encouraging Jason to speak that he knew all too well what Jason had gone through… and most likely had gone through it himself.

"And that's when I got the sword in my stomach," Jason finished. "Woke up here."

"Who stabbed you?"

"Doesn't matter."

"…Alpha?"

"Little rat fink," Jason muttered.

Harry nodded in sympathy before taking a stick out that was similar to Jason's and giving a few flicks of it, swirling blue light coating the walls of their cabin before fading away. If it hadn't been for his years as a Ranger and the repeating of his lives he would have been startled by that but now just found in slightly odd. "Privacy spell. Sorry, should have done that earlier. Okay. So there is something called Yggdrasil, named after the World Tree of Norse Legend in most realities. Yggdrasil is a Super Computer and upon each 'branch' is a reality. A world. And strangely enough what is fiction in one reality is actually real on another branch" Harry splayed out his fingers. "On my thumb is Middle Earth. My index finger has Star Wars. My middle finger Godzilla and my ring finger Marvel comics. My pinkie is My Little Pony. Every book, every show, every movie, every fictional world ever created… exists on the World Tree's branches."

Jason rubbed his chin. "Sounds a bit odd but I understand that better than if Billy were explaining it. So in my reality I can watch that Batman cartoon show…"

"…and in Bruce Wayne's reality The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers airs every morning before 8am," Harry finished. "There are Conduits, people in each reality who are highly tuned to another reality and believe they are creating the stories when they are just… hearing and seeing in their mind actual events. George Lucus, Tolkien, so on. In realities that make into the 2000s a woman named Rowling creates books based on my life."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain what is happening to me."

"Getting to that, sorry about that. Now, no one is quite sure when it began happening… I've been looping for probably a billion years now, but Yggdrasil encountered an error. We weren't for sure why but recently I've come to believe Kratos and his kid, Atreus, are the reason for this mess. They were fooling around with Yggdrasil apparently at some point. But that might be something totally unrelated. Not important. Yggdrasil, encountering this fatal error, put every reality in 'Safe-Mode', causing them to continually repeat over and over until it could fix itself and get back to normal."

"And how long is that supposed to take?"

"Estimation time is currently at Infinity +1."

"Great," Jason said drolly.

"Oh, it gets better," Harry said with a smirk. "So reality just keeps going on repeat, over and over. But as time goes by someone in that reality, the 'Anchor', becomes aware of the repeats. We call them 'Awake'. Once an Anchor is awake the reality begins to alter. Different events, different outcomes…"

"And that's how I end up in the Nuthouse and then stabbed by Alpha."

"Correct!" Harry said with a laugh. "The moment you die or reach a point in the timeline where all the major drama of your life is settled you go to bed and time rewinds back. Sometimes to the original starting point, sometimes later, sometimes sooner."

"You mentioned Loopers," Jason brought up, glancing out the window as the English countryside flew past.

Harry nodded. "Those who hold a special bond with an Anchor can eventually become Awake themselves. You can't force it though… trust me, I tried. Been in the asylum myself though here we call it Azkaban. You just have to wait for them to become Awake."

"So wait… you mean my friends… my team… eventually they'll be like me?" Jason grinned. "Kim? Trini? Billy? Zack? That green traitor that got me killed? They'll see things like I do?"

The kid shifted a bit and grimaced. "There… is a problem."

"Because of course there is," Jason said dryly.

"See, just because they are Awake doesn't mean they are Awake in EVERY Loop. That is the difference between Loopers and Anchors. A Loops only remembers the Loops they are Awake for… an Anchor is forever Awake. Might not wake up before a looper but they will always wake up at some point for each Loop."

Jason rolled his head back and groaned. "So there might be times when all of us are Awake and other times when it is just me or me and Billy."

"Right," Harry said. "We're not sure WHY it is… it just is. You are the Anchor for your version of Power Rangers so you will go through every Loop."

"You mean… just live my life, over and over again? No rest? Just… forever the battle? I'm going to go mad for real."

"I did that a few times," Harry said with a shrug. "The going mad thing. Then, as one guy from the Ben 10 reality told me, I got bored and decided to become sane. Very sane."

"How can you be so flippant about this?" Jason demanded.

Harry though wasn't fazed by his annoyance. "Were you freaked out the first time you called your Zord? Morphed? You got used to it… and you will get used to this. I'm just… further down the road than you."

They sat in silence for a while after that.

"Wait," Jason said, pulling at the robes he was wearing, "if reality just keeps repeating, over and over… why am I on a train in Britain instead at the Juice Bar in Angel Grove?"

Harry turned to his owl, who gave him a look that screamed, "You idiot" and the kid smacked his head. "Right, sorry, forgot about that. Honestly I think I should take up Spike's idea of making pamphlets to hand out whenever I meet a new Looper." Harry paused. "The dragon, not the vampire."

"I am disturbed by both of those options and I fight a golden monkey man on a daily basis."

"Right. So there are two main types of loops. First is Baseline and that is your standard "Everything is basically the same" loop. You wake up, become a ranger, so on. Then there are variants… you are a woman, you are black, your mentor is evil and your foe is now the heroic guide. That kind of rubbish. Then we have this: Fused Loops.

"A Fused Loop has three subsections, according to Hermione. The first sub we call Understudy. Basically you and/or several Loopers replace people in a reality and play their role. Using Star Wars, you'll Awake to find yourself as Luke Skywalker, or at least playing his part. Luke isn't around… most likely he is in his own Fused Loop or popped over to another reality for a while, and you have to fill in. The second is a Merger and those can be intense. I did one where Hogwarts was all about raising Pokémon and Voldemort was a Spiritomb. That was an odd one. Finally we have what you are in: A Guest Star Loop. It's pretty much what it says on the tin… you are inserted into another reality as yourself but with tweaks to your personal history."

Jason scratched his head. "So what… I know have to live a life doing… whatever this is?"

"Pretty much. Roughly 7 years but recently its been going longer and involves Voldemort and Bella's love child. Honestly I don't mind skipping that stuff as being a bad dad isn't in my bag, nor is watching my second born not get it through his head that it's okay to be gay… even if it is with Draco's son. Ugh. But you and I will go through this loop and eventually we'll go to sleep and you'll pop back to your reality for a new loop and I'll continue on to a different one. On the plus side you're going to get to learn magic."

"I am?"

"Oh yeah, forgot your reality is before my books came out. I'm used to people getting excited to go to Hogwarts. So in a lot of the realities there is one or two major things that can be considered their "Great Power" or whatever you want to call it. Some are more interesting than others or better to learn and that makes them attractive to Anchors and Loopers. I mean… musicals are fun but knowing how to dance in tandem isn't that interesting. Knowing how to fly and throw Ki blasts? Better. Your reality, or the variant most of us have been to where Tommy is the Anchor? That is actually one of the big ones. Usually in the Top 10. Mine is one of the Top 3, along with the Hidden Ninja School and learning how to be a Jedi." Jason's jaw dropped and Harry, with a smirk, reached back into his subspace pocket and pulled out an actual friggin' lightsaber, activating it. "Yeah, the Force is awesome. And you get to retain your connection to it… same with a lot of the other mystical and spiritual powers." Harry returned the lightsaber with a flick of his hand and smiled politely at Jason. "For more hardware stuff I recommend subspace and getting spares. I have like 20 lightsabers and doubles of nearly every power coin except Pink."

The casual, flippant way Harry talked about the Force and the morphers left Jason's head spinning. He knew that there would people that would have grown complacent with power if they had a morpher as long as Jason had, but perhaps that was why he was a ranger and they weren't. For Jason he'd never grown used to be a Power Ranger and while he was confident with the strength and power Zordon had given him he still respected it and felt awe in what he could do. Seeing someone else wield power with such casual ease made him think of Rita and Zedd or King Mondo… yet he also sensed no ill-will within Harry. Merely a jadedness that came from, if Jason was reading Harry's thinly veiled hints correctly, a long series of lifetimes that stretched into the billions of years. Possibly trillions.

That… was worrisome.

"And your world offers magic?"

"That is correct. It would be egotistical to claim it is the best magic but it is certainly one of the favored ones. More than Middle Earth or Narnia or the Realm of Fairies. Wand magic at first but with enough practice you can just do it with a gesture." Harry took up his wand and said "Lumos", causing a glow of pure light to appear at the tip. He then held up his hand and, without saying anything, made a much larger orb of light appear between his palm and fingers. "Knowing Rita and Zedd like I do from the last few times I looped through your reality it is nice to have some magic power of your own."

Jason bobbed his head back and forth. "Would be nice to stop some of their spells before they caused too much trouble. Bad luck spells, punk spells, Rocky told me about being addicted to a Japanese gaming machine… get those taken care of."

Harry snorted. "Bad enough when you have to think of an excuse to fight a monster but dealing with them screwing with dates and barbeques? That is bloody annoying."

The two of them lapsed into silence again, a much more comfortable one, as Jason began to process what Harry had told him. There was no doubt in his mind that Harry was telling the truth… it just made too much sense. And that was before he'd seen just how powerful Harry was. No, he was this Anchor and it meant he was going to be living his life over and over again, possibly forever, until Yggdrasil finally got fixed…

Jason blinked before looking at Harry. "Okay, so we just keep looping… how do Anchors and Loopers keep themselves from going mad?"

"Some of them don't, which is why we do our best to keep an eye out for anyone showing Sakura Syndrome."

"Sakura Syndrome?"

Harry let out a weary size, for once an emotion other than flippant amusement and curiosity flashing across his features. Jason instantly felt an intense sadness coming from Harry, one that made the boy suddenly seem all his many years. "Named for one of the first non-anchor Loopers from the Hidden Leaf Village. When she was Awaken she… didn't take the Looping well. Unlike the rest of us she came to the conclusion that life was meaningless so there was no need for morality. Where people like Darth Vader realize being good feels good Sakura decided that being evil or good didn't matter. She basically just does what she wants, without a care, feeling that existence is pointless. At first it was just sleeping around or acting up but eventually she was worst than most supervillains. She's… finally getting better… but it's going to take a long time to get her fixed." Harry sighed again. "We learn from our mistakes and won't let another Sakura happen again, if we can help it."

Jason nodded at that, feeling sympathy for the poor girl. He could easily see how one, if not probably prepared and lacking the mental and spiritual strength to stay true to their values, would fall to darkness. It was the same thing all Rangers feared, especially after seeing just how bad a Dark Ranger could be. It was why Zordon had his rules, to stave off any who would take such a mindset with the morphers and the Power Coins and the Zords.

The Red Ranger finally looked at Harry and asked, "So what do you do to keep yourself grounded?"

The young man shrugged. "Depends on the Looper. Some use the time to become an expert in something… developing new skills or hobbies. I know Bull Shannon learned how to play the piano during one of his loops. Others use it as a chance for redemption, to make up for their past sins and mistakes. Some want to connect with old friends or, if they died early in their original timeline, to meet children or grandchildren they never got to spend time with." Harry allowed a smile to blossom onto his lips. "Some just begin having fun. Not as bad as Sakura Syndrome but hey… sometimes it is fun to just cut loose. A few times I was a Dark Lord… no murder and torture but I did make my minions bow. But I have a feeling you're going to be more like Son Goku."

"And what does he do?"

"Become better. Stronger. Ready for the next fight, the next foe. Take out the ones that made him struggle in the baseline and be ready for the fused loop where there truly are nightmares."

Jason picked up the stick that had been sitting beside him, which he knew was a wand now, and considered it before nodding. "Yeah… that might be a worthy goal. I've always pushed myself to be better… to learn more when it comes to karate, to being a good man, and lately being a good ranger and leader. This is a chance to push my development in new and interesting ways… so that I am ready for the next threat."

"There you go!" Harry said, clapping his hands before casting another wandless spell that caused, of all things, a mystical digital clock to appear. "We have about 2 hours before the candy trolley arrives so let's go over Admins and recalling memories, then we'll move on to the basics of magic…"

"Wait!" Jason said, his eyes going wide. "If I am here… what about my friends? Angel Grove?"

Harry shrugged. "Usually when you end up in a Fused Loop that isn't a Merger someone else takes your place."

~In another Loop Concurrently Occurring~

"Alan," Zordon intoned, "you will embody the power of the mighty Tyranasaurus Rex!"

The teenage Alan Grant rolled his eyes. "Wonderful… Roxy will never let me live this down."

~M~M~L~R~

Author's Notes: So this story is inspired by the Infinite Loops subsection of fanfics you can find online that was started by Innortal.As stated by Harry in this chapter, the basic premise for all stories in this subgenre is that every show, every book, every reality is part of Yggdrasil, the super computer that controls all. That computer hit a glitch and put everything into safe mode, causing reality to forever keep repeating. The first person to wake up in a reality is the Anchor; there must be an anchor in every loop. As they loop other people will Awaken; these are just Loopers and they can sometimes be awake and sometimes not.

A lot about the classifying of fused loops and such is my own invention.

Let me also state here… no, I am not part of Spacebattles nor have I met or interacted with any of the writers of those other fics. I just saw that these things existed and thought it would be fun to do my own thing. I honor what they do and give credit to those writers but I want to play around on my own. I have no problem if this is considered canon or not. For anyone going "You should only do this if you are part of their team!" my answer is "Hi! Welcome to Fanfiction writing where we all steal characters from other things to tell our own stories. You must be new!"

Now, normally this type of story is written by a ton of people and one person edits it to put it up on this site. But not this story. If you haven't guessed from my Downton fanfics… I get a ton of story ideas and I like to experiment, so I am doing this all on my own. If you are a fan of Looping stories this will cause a few changes:

We will rarely, if ever, skip loops. That means that while most fics will see character start looping then jump to them having a ton of experience, we will see Jason in every loop. This will make him special as he is going to develop quicker than most baby loopers do, as most characters get thousands of loops before you really get into the meat of their stories. With this story you will see every loop Jason is in. Sometimes a small bit, sometimes a TON

Because of this the story won't jump around. We won't see us going back to a loop or suddenly we have a looper awaken and then later see HOW they woke up. This will be told in linear fashion.

Because only I am writing this there will be a more, oddly enough, straight forward narrative. By that I mean it won't feel like ideas suddenly pop up and disappear. I will be keeping track of how Jason is progressing, new skills and items, and we will see him develop.

This also means that it will take a while before others begin looping with Jason from the Power Rangers reality. We will see some fused loops but I am right now around Loop 20 and haven't gotten yet to the first new character to Awaken.

According to TVtropes Tommy is the Anchor of the Power Rangers Universe. Now, no one has gathered up the Power Rangers stuff for this site but to honor what came before I am stating that the Power Rangers Universe of Spacebattles and the one I am writing here are different universes. For sake of ease let's say that my Jason is from the old Power Rangers comics. Tommy is anchor of TV land, I am doing Comic Land. They are literally the exact same thing but now we can have a clear division for the worry warts. It is not the modern comic because 1) I want Jason to not know a ton of pop culture and 2) I have plans for that. In fact, the lack of pop culture is why I made Jason's memory fuzzy after the Astronama attack, so that he wouldn't know about Harry Potter.

I will be doing this whenever the heck I like, and focus on what I want to. Sometimes I will do a chapter that is one giant fused loop. Othertimes I will do random crap. This is purely something to stretch my writing muscles before I write my other stories. And if you are a fan of those stories don't complain that I am doing this instead… I do this to MOTIVATE me to write other stuff. It's like stretching. This is just a rare time I am actually posting my random story stuff.

Now then, the loops. The first and second are obvious and the third is a fused loop where Jason is a new Hogwarts student. Next time we will be spending a load of time in the HP universe seeing how Jason does.

Finally, some references in case you missed them. Jason being short is a reference to Of Love and Bunnies, where it stated he was the shortest of the group until he got his growth spurt. This is why he started doing karate in the first place and why Bulk and Skull called him a dweeb. Apparently one of my stories was a fused loop for Harry. And poor Alan Grant from the Jurassic Park loops!