Chapter Seven: Family Ties

"Why do we have to memorize this again?" Conner whined as an answer to their mentor's question. The three of teens were in the woods, sitting on the ground, Conner in the middle, Ethan on his left and Kira on his right. The two other teens were told to tackle him to the ground if he tried to escape, but they looked about as enthused as he did and there was only a fifty percent chance they'd tackle him instead of following his lead. In front of them, Kim sat cross-legged, slightly annoyed with the teenager's complaint.

"Because, Conner," she sighed, holding her head. "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

"We watched the video, Kim. We got it," he tried and the other two nodded quickly in agreement. Their mentor rubbed her temple a bit before answering.

"The video gives a good outline of Ranger history, but it was less than thirty minutes long, guys. There is little to nothing about various problems that we went through. Besides," she said, her voice a little quieter and sadder as she spoke. "Tommy and I won't be around forever. We need for someone to carry on the history."

"What about the other originals? Other Rangers? Your own children?" Conner asked, emphasizing the last one. It wasn't that he didn't like Kim and Tommy, but he didn't want to get stuck doing something boring when they could torture their own children eventually. Kira frowned and smacked his arm. He looked at her in confusion until she pointed over in Kim's direction. He glanced over and winced at the broken expression on Kim's face. "What did I say this time?"

"Children," Kira whispered and Kim took a deep breath and looked at them. Conner had a confused look on his face, mixed with a little guilt for bringing it up. He didn't know why he wasn't supposed to, but he understood that it had been bad for some reason. At least when he looked at Kira and Ethan, they looked just as confused.

"Tommy and I agreed that we can't have children. Tommy seems to become a Ranger over and over again and I'm constantly involved. If it happened this many years after last time, it could happen again. I can handle putting my own life at risk, but not a child's. Tommy feels the same way," she answered, deciding it was better to let them know than have them ask someone else. All three teenagers looked at each other and Conner broke the silence, swallowing.

"So, uh, Goldar, huh?" He asked, changing the subject the best that he could. At seventeen, nearly eighteen, he wasn't quite sure how to answer that and was even less sure his mentor wanted him to. Kim, fortunately, grasped at it and quickly went back into teacher mode.

"A lot like Zeltrax, except that he was a monkey in shiny gold armour. Trust me, it was a lot worse than it sounds," she assured them when they began to snicker. "He always had to go after Jason or Tommy too. He was a very specific psychopath. Like Zeltrax." She paused for a minute and chuckled a bit. "Tommy really seems to attract these people, doesn't he?"

Ethan nodded. "Oh yeah. Doctor O definitely gets more than his fair share."

"Well, whichever he chose that day would get into a fight with him, by themselves, while the rest of us fought the monster of the week," she continued. "Can anyone guess why this might be important for any of you?"

To her dismay, the one Ranger she wanted to impress upon was the only one who looked blank. She sighed and looked over at the yellow Ranger. "Kira?"

"Because if something happens to Doctor O, then he might decide that Conner is a good target," she answered, glaring daggers at her companion. Conner shrugged it off.

"Come on, Kim. Nothing is going to happen to Doctor O. I mean, come on. Has a Power Ranger ever been killed?" He asked in a flippant way. He paused when she didn't answer right away and the other two looked over. All three looked a little scared for the first time that day. His voice was a lot smaller when he asked again. "Kim?"

"Yes," she answered. "A pink Ranger."

The three sat there for a few minutes, taking the information in. Kim took the time to think over how the information could affect someone. Sure, they'd all had close encounters, but after a while you tended to forget that it was a real possibility. Some part of you felt cocky, like there was nothing that could happen to you. To hear that it had happened to someone else in the same line of work shattered the illusions that you didn't know were there. Tommy and Kim were adults now and had dealt with death due to Rangering with Zordon. They fortunately hadn't had to deal with that yet and she hoped they never would. She turned to the three teenagers, taking pity on them. "Class dismissed."

"Down boy! Black! Stop! Come here! Black!" Tommy yelled, trying to grab the black raptor as he managed to jump over Tommy's head. The black Dino Ranger was beginning to regret fixing the raptor's leg. The table was tipped on its side, breaking some of the objects on it since Black had decided to leap off of it. The worst part was, Black seemed to decide it was a game at some point and was currently playing keep away now. "Drop that! Drop it! Black!"

A noise that sounded like a snicker came from behind him and he glared over at the red raptor who was watching everything in amusement. Red had been handling the new raptor since they got him, but Tommy had decided that he needed to be able to control his own raptor. Therefore, he'd told Red to sit this one out and let him handle it. Red had chirped something at Yellow and Blue and now they were all just watching. Well, Yellow and Blue were nipping at each other over something again, but Red was definitely just watching. "This isn't funny, Red!"

The raptor gave a noise of a snort. He could handle Black. It was easy enough, but no. Alpha male human wanted to try it himself. He was starting to understand why humans had female alphas instead. At least, he thought they did. Kim and the other female, Hayley were always letting Tommy know when he did something wrong, often by hitting his head, and the young female, Kira, was constantly pummeling the younger males when they did something wrong. Except in battle where Conner was the alpha. Human hierarchies were very confusing. He heard the door open and glanced over to see Kim coming down the stairs. Finally, some sense was coming. She could stop her mate and let Red take care of Black like he was supposed to. He raced toward the door and let her pat him on the head a few times before she saw the mess her mate was causing.

"Tommy? What's going on?" Kim looked at the lab, or what was left of it. Fortunately, the computer was in one piece, but there were things turned over, broken, and scattered throughout.

"I'm training Black to listen to me!" Tommy yelled, leaping at the youngest raptor, who easily dodged. Blue and Yellow lifted their heads from their argument to watch and when Kim glanced at Red, he just snickered again.

"So, why isn't Red helping you?" She asked, wondering if the red raptor was ignoring Tommy again.

"I can do it!" Tommy yelled and Kim sighed, walking over to him. Enough was enough and they didn't need to lose the computer too.

"Red, get Black," she commanded. Red immediately leapt on the smaller raptor and snapped at his face a few times. Black immediately calmed down. "Are you alright?"

"He won't listen to me, Kim!" Tommy growled. "How am I supposed to work with him if he won't listen?"

"I think it's going to take more time, Tommy," she answered soothingly. "Besides, doing it now isn't the best idea. Your emotions are already going nuts."

Tommy sighed, accepting she was right and they both went to start picking up the lab. Yellow and Blue helped with the tables and larger items while they took care of the smaller things. "I can't believe he did that, Kim."

She nodded, knowing he wasn't talking about Black. "It surprised me too, but you said he's been acting like an ass."

"He tried to take away Hayley's Cyberspace, Kim," Tommy reminded her. "He… he never acted like that before the island blew up."

Kim patted his back. "It's not easy when mentors change or leave us, is it?" She asked. Tommy shook his head.

"How did lessons go?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not well. They're frustrated, I'm frustrated, and some big issues came up," she answered. Tommy just looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "Like death."

The black Ranger nodded. "We knew they'd ask eventually," he quietly reminded her. "So, that's why you're back early."

She nodded and sighed a bit. He touched her arm and smiled a bit, hopeful. She laughed at the expression on his face. "No. They're adjusting and when they finish, they're going to run back here."

"Why?" He asked, disappointed, wanting a free night for Kim and him to have some alone time.

"Because we're their mentors, their Zordon. We make them feel safe," she answered. "So as much as I'd love to snuggle up on the couch and watch whatever movie you grabbed from the video store, we can't."

Tommy groaned and leaned back, knowing he was going to lose this argument. "I don't like logic."

"You're a scientist. You live by logic," Kim argued and Tommy snorted. "The teens also found out about our decision."

"The children one?"

"Yep."

Tommy nodded. "How did they take it?"

"They were a little confused, I think. Same as Jason and Trini were, but neither of them became a Power Ranger again after ten years," she answered and paused. "I think that they just felt bad."

"They're good kids," Tommy said, hugging her. "Besides, we're taking this slow. We just wanted to make sure we both agreed before we continued."

"I know," she answered and looked at him. "So, are you going to try to teach Black again?"

"He's a menace. I can't believe he's mine," Tommy muttered. "He'd go better with Conner."

"Hey!"

"He's got a point, Conner," Ethan said as he followed the red Ranger in and Kira followed both of them. While both Conner and Ethan had tried to joke, it sounded flat and all three looked a little scared. Tommy looked over at Kim who just nodded. He knew she'd been right, but seeing them now proved it.

"Are you guys okay?" Tommy asked, letting go of Kim and standing up. Kim followed. The three looked at each other and then back at their mentors.

"Who was she?" Conner asked. "How did she die?"

The other two waited patiently as Tommy answered. "Kendrix was the name of the pink Ranger. They were fighting the bad guys at the time, Psycho Rangers. The pink one started an energy storm that would have destroyed their ship. She sacrificed herself to stop it. Later, she was brought back to life, but she was the first of us to die."

"But not the first on our side…" Kim whispered. Even after so many years it was hard for them to bring up Zordon. Conner looked at Ethan, who looked at Kira, who looked back at Conner. After a few seconds of silent disagreement, Conner looked at their mentors.

"What was he like?" Conner asked. The other two looked over, curious, yet like Conner, not quite knowing how to broach the subject. Tommy and Kim looked at each other and sighed as they sat back down.

"You want to know this now?" Tommy asked. "What happened to being afraid of dying?"

Kira looked over at her personal mentor. "We are afraid. Really afraid, but you're alive even if he isn't. I guess… I guess we trust you to make sure that we live through it."

Ethan nodded. "We talked to Jason and Trini and they told us that why you might worry about each other, you feel responsible for us. So, we figure that we don't have anything to worry about."

"You'll take care of us. But it will still make us feel better if you talk about Zordon," Conner mentioned. None of the teens wanted to mention that Zordon had died and he'd been a mentor, like the two in front of them and while Kendrix's death scared them about dying, they also knew that Kim was a pink Ranger. In terms of death, their female mentor had two predecessors that had died. "Please?"

Kimberly sighed. "Alright."

"He was patient, good, and he understood the best what we were fighting for. We told you that he died, but when he died he destroyed all of the evil at that time. He didn't want us to give up everything, but he helped us understand that sometimes you have to give a lot in order to win," Tommy explained. Kim nodded.

"He'd try to talk us out of things that were extremely dangerous, though Tommy or Jason would insist that we could handle it and the rest of us backed them up. We almost always backed them up. He rarely got angry or annoyed with us and we tried to make sure he was never disappointed," Kim agreed, her expression changed a bit as a memory surfaced. "Though, we weren't always successful. When Tommy was powerless and the city was kidnapped on Power Rangers Day, we ended up fighting this monster, Cyclopsis. Our Zords were torn up, badly, and we lost the first battle. He wasn't angry with us, knowing these things happen which often happened when we lost a battle. He would just prepare up for the next one. Zordon told us that it would take hours for the Zords to replenish and Jason insisted that we should take them out at half power. Zordon warned us that if we did and we failed, we could lose everything in the morphing grid, including us. Still, Jason insisted and we backed him up."

Tommy had heard this story before, but not in much detail. He'd pretty much heard that they lost a battle, went out with half-ready Zords, lost again, found their way back, and eventually won. He wasn't sure why Kim had chosen this story, but she was messing with her hair a bit, like she did when she was nervous. She looked a little embarrassed as she continued. "There wasn't another option since the city and its people wouldn't make it if we didn't, but we still lost. The Zords vanished, we had to evacuate out of them, we lost the power to morph, we lost communication with the Command Center. We're lucky Zordon's warning didn't happen. It was horrible. Billy managed to get us safely to the Command Center by fixing the frequency and we were so relieved to be safe in the Command Center. Jason even grinned when he saw Zordon and called out to him. In an irritated tone, Zordon asked if we were alright. He hadn't yelled, but his annoyance and disapproval were definitely there. We all answered that we were and we didn't show it, but his tone hurt, a lot, and especially to Jason. I don't remember him doing that half-power thing again."

"So, you were afraid of him?" Conner asked, a bit confused. Both adults shook their heads.

"No," Tommy answered. "It was more like we were worried about disappointing him, like he was a second father."

"And he worried about us," Kim added. "He also let us know when he was proud of all of us too and that happened on a far more regular basis. After we beat Cyclopsis, and it wasn't easy, he let us know that he was proud of us. That's also when he gave us the choice to retire, which we didn't take at the time."

Tommy nodded, having heard that story. He chuckled to himself. "One lecture we got is why the communicators and the morphers are together."

Kira looked at it and back at him. "Uh… why?"

Kim and Tommy both looked embarrassed. "Ours weren't," Tommy started. "Zordon gave us the morphers and Billy created the communicators. We, uh, often lost one or the other."

The three teens just looked at them. Both Kim and Tommy looked a little more embarrassed, but Kim continued. "Well, the communicators were wearable, but the morphers weren't, so we sort of carried them around in our bags. It seemed like a good idea at the time…"

"But," Tommy added. "Whenever someone went evil or tricked us, it wasn't hard to get their hands on a morpher. While he told us to get them back, Zordon let it go for a long time. It wasn't until Kat got a hold of Kim's and Kim nearly died that he finally stepped in."

"I can't blame him for that and he was still patient about it, but I think it even scared him that I almost died. We'll tell you that story later," Kim finished. Tommy sighed.

"And not all mentors were that great either. Way after Kim left, we got stuck with Dimitria. She answered questions with questions and never helped. We were better off without her." The three teens looked surprised at their mentor's opinion.

"Seriously?" Ethan asked. "You hated her that much?"

"Zordon was a good mentor, giving us information when we needed it, and a friendly opinion for things going on in our lives. He helped push Kim toward gymnastics when she was uncertain along with the rest of us. Dimitria… just wasn't good at it. I'll admit that moving on with my life or not, it wasn't as difficult of a decision once she was in charge. Other than Justin, who was new anyway, we all changed over and ran." Kim snickered at Tommy's opinion of the second mentor, but she'd also heard horror stories from Adam, Tanya, and Kat as well. They all carried the same opinion of the woman and had jumped at the chance to leave with Tommy.

"You guys feeling better now?" Kim asked, changing the subject away from that one. If there was one goal that Tommy and Kim were trying for, it was to be better mentors that Tommy's second one. They didn't expect to be as good as Zordon, but they still wanted to be decent ones.

"Yeah," Conner answered. "This is all just new to us, you know?"

"And we almost lost you guys before Doctor O became a Ranger," added Kira, biting her lip. "We know that Jason and Trini will help us if something happens to you guys, but…"

Kimberly just nodded and smiled. "How about we go get some ice cream? Ice cream makes the world seem better."

Relieved that they didn't have to say anything else, all three Dino Rangers ran out of the lab, yelling "Shot gun!" the entire way to Tommy's jeep. He just looked at her and she laughed. "I hope you're paying, Kim."

"Well aren't we Doctor Gloom today," she answered and looked at him more seriously. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Tommy answered. "Not a subject I like talking about."

"Which is why we're going to get ice cream! Red, watch the lab. Let's go!" She was finishing as she raced out the door after the teens letting them know that she was getting shotgun and to get in the back. Tommy listened to the bickering and sighed, looking at Red.

"Try to keep Black from destroying anything, okay?" He asked and Red bobbed his head. Tommy followed the others out more slowly. Red gave a snickered chirp. Yes, human females were definitely the alphas. Red turned to Black and Red's expression changed as he leapt at the younger raptor. Blue and Yellow made a new noise and rushed out of the way. Red needed to give that juvenile a lesson about how to treat his human partner.

Kim stared at the computer, laughing when she noticed that Red was copying her. She pushed the raptor rider away a bit playfully and looked at him. "Red, will you stop that?"

He looked at her and then put his head under her hand so that she'd pet him. Kim chuckled and did so, only to have Black try to push Red away to get some too. Blue and Yellow looked over at the display. While Red headed the pack and Black was obviously the at the bottom of the food chain, neither Tommy nor Kim had been able to figure out whether Blue was higher than Yellow or vice-versa and once they went through the memories of hatching the raptors, they both realized that neither was higher than the other.

"They hatched at the same time?" Kim asked. "Are you sure? I don't remember that?"

"Well, Kim, you were a little busy jumping around squealing that they were hatching in the first place," Tommy answered dryly.

"I didn't squeal," Kim argued. "I just yelled, happily."

"No, you squealed," Tommy fought back. "I was busy making sure the other two would hatch too. And they did. At the same time. They're twins."

"Wouldn't twins come from the same egg?" She asked. Tommy gave her a look.

"Identical twins do, but these two are fraternal twins. Or the equivalent of," he answered.

"Oh. Have we figured out what they are yet?" She looked over at Blue who jumped on Yellow, knocking the other down to try to get the metal the other was carrying. Yellow, not wanting to drop it, tried to dodge the attacker and swung its tail. Blue jumped and fell over Yellow, knocking both into the wall. Black decided that this was the best time to interfere and rushed at them, but both Yellow and Blue saw him coming and used their tails to cause Black to go flying back. Red made a loud chirping noise and decided to ignore them.

"I'm guessing, there isn't a lot of evidence from Paleontology, but I think that Blue is female and Yellow is male. Blue is slightly bigger and with raptor birds, sometimes the females are bigger," Tommy answered. Both Blue and Yellow looked over and then went back to what they were doing. Kim nodded.

"Makes sense, I guess," she answered.

"Kim," Tommy started and she looked over at him. "Do you realize that we have four raptors living in the lab like a bunch of family pets?"

"Yep," she answered. "We're Rangers. We don't do things the normal way. Besides, you said no when I said I wanted a puppy."

Yellow went flying past them and into an opposite wall as Blue charged at him. Black followed, chirping the entire way over and Red picked himself up to try to calm them down, only to have Black thrown into him. Thoroughly annoyed, Red threw off Black and charged the twins who squawked and ran the other way as Red smacked Yellow with his tail and leapt on Blue. The wrestling headed into walls as Black and Yellow joined the fray. To make matters worse, it looked similar to the fight Kira, Conner, and Ethan had had a week before during training. The way that Yellow had just thrown back Red was similar to how Kira had handled Conner. Tommy groaned.

"I was an idiot. Red! Not near the cycles!"

Kim chuckled to herself over it. She was right: Rangers just couldn't do anything normal. Tommy and herself were proof of that. The computer beeped and she was dragged from her thoughts. She diligently looked at to see where the trouble was this time before she would call to let Tommy and the others know. Haley's would be going off too, but the poor woman had a harder time getting to it. She'd only worry about it if Kim didn't take care of it quick enough. She pushed the button so that the screen would show the problem, but it wasn't in the city. It was right outside the house.

Kim hadn't been a Ranger for no reason and she sprang into action. Knowing she'd need help, she pressed a button that would hit Hayley's side and let her know there was an attack on the lab. They had never had to push the button and Kim just hoped that Hayley remembered what the difference was. After that, she pressed a couple more buttons, locking the secret entrance so that the way through the house was the only way in. There was no sense in being surrounded. The computer was turned off and the cycles' hidden room was locked. Everything on the computer was backed up in case the computer itself was destroyed. Then she grabbed a normal bow and arrows, stashed away just in case something like this would happen.

As she'd hoped, the four raptors fell into place behind her, other than Red who was right next to her. They could hear the Tyrannodrones tearing apart the house looking for them and she felt a shiver fall down her back when she heard Zeltrax's voice ordering them about. It wasn't going to take them long to figure it out. She stood ready, the arrow ready to fly through the first thing that entered the door. All she could do now was wait.

Class was ending when Tommy's communicator went off. He was lucky it hit when the bell rang, though most students had accepted that it was a cell phone or a watch or something that he didn't know how to put on silent. PhD or not, he accepted their theory and went with it. It made his life easier. "Class dismissed!" He called out, waiting for the students, other than his three Rangers to leave. "Kim?"

"Not quite," Hayley answered and Tommy could tell that she was both stressed and worried. "Tommy, your house, the lab, the alarm went off here. It's under attack…" Tommy didn't wait for her to say anything else, but instead grabbed his jacket and raced out the door without a word to anyone. All three teens chased after, but all of them knew that it took longer to get to the house than away from it since all of their technology was where they were heading.

They piled into the jeep and Tommy's history as a racecar driver came into play. He sped down the road toward his house, wishing that they had teleportation capabilities. The three teens hung on, though buckled, trying not to yell or scream when Tommy nearly hit the truck or when he played chicken with a Semi to pass a car. Kira looked as everything went by and her mind grasped that he was going too fast and reckless for this to only be about the lab. "Doctor O? Is Kim at the house?" She asked.

He gripped the wheel harder as an answer and she nodded, not saying anything else since the jeep could still go faster. Conner, on the other hand, sat up and looked much calmer. "There's enough room for you to get past this guy, Doctor O, just pass on the right."

Tommy actually listened to the suggestion, performing the illegal and dangerous move. They fortunately made it past that and Ethan and Kira stared at their leader as he took command of the situation in order to make sure Tommy did less deadly stunts yet kept the same pace. He made sure to keep his voice level and worked with Tommy to get around things faster. Both of the other occupants hoped they wouldn't be stopped by the police. Tommy certainly seemed to be trying to do that.

Kim heard the door open and she stood ready. She caught the first Tyrannodrone as it came in, shooting it in the eye. It fell to the ground, twitching for a moment and died. Kim grabbed another arrow, nocking it into place and raising it up to aim. She was able to get one more by the time there was more than one in the room. She still let another fly and moved back to the edge of the room to give herself more time. Red took the opportunity to chirp a three chirp call. Blue attacked from the left, Yellow from the right, and Black leapt over Red to get in back. Red didn't need to chirp again. With a ferocity that their flesh ancestors had, they began to snap and bite.

Even Zeltrax seemed a surprised by the attack and tried to fight through them. Kim was busy nocking, aiming, and shooting any Tyrannodrone that got past the raptors. It wasn't until Zeltrax was six inches away from her, however, that she wished she was more proficient with close range weapons as well. That said, she did try to stab him with the arrow she'd been ready to nock, but he ripped it from her hand, along with the bow, and tossed them aside. Against the wall, and without a weapon, she tried to fight back a bit, but without her Power Ranger abilities, it was a futile effort. At most, she was stalling for time.

Red tried to break away from the Tyrannodrones to help her out, but there were too many. He was managing to keep his pack from being overrun, but he couldn't do too much more than that. He smacked another with his tail and snapped as one got close enough before he felt something leap off his back. The largest raptor worried for a moment that one of the Tyrannodrones had done it, but he saw Black running toward Zeltrax instead. The young raptor threw Zeltrax aside with his tail. It would have been a perfect move, if the cyborg hadn't been holding onto Kim. She was dragged along with as he was flung into nearby wall. Still, it had damaged Zeltrax as well, so Kim had a longer time before he killed her. Red still felt approval for the youngest member of his pack and oddly enough, the creatures they were fighting seemed to decrease. Red looked up to see the other humans fighting them back and trying to get to their own pack member. Red approved of that and was happy that help had arrived.

Tommy was fighting through, trying to make his way down the stairs as Kim and Zeltrax were both picking themselves back up. By the time he got there, after getting through the mass of Tyrannodrones, the fight might be over. He fought back with full willpower, but after a moment, he was thrown by one of the Tyrannodrones and powered up or not, it was going to hurt. Yet, the landing came and he was still moving. Surprised, he looked to see that Black had somehow managed to catch him in the air and was heading in the right direction.

He leapt off the raptor and got in Zeltrax's way, which was just fine by Kim as she was still hurting a bit. In less than a minute, the fight turned to favor the Rangers and the Tyrannodrones were led away by a wounded Zeltrax. The room was torn up a bit and there was blood on the floor and walls, as well as dead Tyrannodrones on the floor, but it was still a victory as the computer was in one piece and anything else could be replaced. At Conner's command, they powered down and raced down to their mentors. Kim smiled up at Tommy and pointed in the direction of the four anxious raptors who were looking at their human companions. "They're better than a puppy."

"I take back every bad thing I ever said about them," Tommy agreed and looked over at the teens. "Are you three alright?"

"We're fine, Doctor O," Conner answered, Kira nodded, and Ethan gave a ghost of a smile. Tommy pulled Kim back up, carefully making sure that nothing was too hurt.

"I'm fine," she assured him and was about to playfully chastise him for it, when she felt arms pull her into a hug. She looked over and saw Tommy standing next to her, pointing at the culprit. Kira had pulled Kim into a hug and both boys quickly followed in suit. Tommy couldn't even see her anymore since she was so small to begin with. She tried to hold all of them the best that she could and she wasn't surprised when she felt Tommy join. It wasn't his normal style, but it felt right. The five humans close together while the four raptors just looked on. They heard footsteps and looked up, relieved to see that it was Hayley.

"I, uh, closed the café," she whispered. She stood there for a minute before Tommy motioned her over. Hayley joined in and there was a sense of completion. Even before Zordon's death, the former Rangers were less in contact. They were still family, yet more apart. With his death, the family had been renewed, but the loss of their mentor had left a huge hole in their hearts. At that moment, Kim and Tommy felt that hole change and the sense of loss weaken. For the first time in nearly ten years, they felt whole.

"Did you finally get them to go?" Tommy asked as he tossed the broom aside. The lab was beginning to look the way it was supposed to look. There was nothing dead left inside and the blood had been scrubbed out of the walls and floor. The teens had stayed for as long as the adults let them to help clean. Kim was coming back downstairs from walking them out as Hayley had had to give them a ride home. Conner's car was still at the school.

"Yep," she said. "Though it was a fight."

"They're good kids."

"Are you okay?"

Tommy looked over at her last question and she stood there, arms crossed and worried expression on her face. Tommy sighed. "I thought I was going to lose you."

"Tommy, it's fine. I'm just surprised they actually attacked the lab," she muttered. Tommy laughed but there wasn't any humour in it.

"I doubt they'll do it again soon. Between you and the raptors, they wouldn't survive long." He ran his hand through her hair and pulled her close. She leaned into him, letting him do it. They were both quiet for a minute. "Remind me to tell both Black and Conner how impressed I was with them today."

"Why Conner?" She asked.

"In the jeep, when he found out why I was driving like a mad man, he stayed completely calm and gave me some options that didn't involve racing against Semis. They weren't the safest options, but they were better than what I was doing," he admitted. "He led and for once, I followed."

"Good for him," she said with a sense of pride. Conner was, after all, her main student. "How about we finish with the table. They were working on it earlier, but there's still a lot of it to clean up."

To be truthful, there was no more table. It had been completely trashed by the battle. Still, they needed to clean it up as well as everything under it that had been on top. "After the table, we're going to bed."

"Deal," Kim agreed, feeling tired and a little sore. She began to pick up some broken pieces of glass that had belonged to power only knew when she saw a sheet of paper lying in the middle of it. Confused, she picked it up and looked at it. "Tommy, come here."

"What is it, Kim?" He asked, slightly worried. She held it up so that she could see it to and his worried expression became a smile. He turned to see that she was smiling as well. She pocketed it and they finished cleaning, heading back upstairs so that they could get some sleep.

Dear Kim and Doctor O,

After the talk yesterday, Ethan hacked into more of the video feed. You're right, Dimitria sucked. So, thanks. For being good mentors and stuff. –Kira

And for putting up with us, especially Conner. We're sorry we were a pain during the lesson. –Ethan

We thought that Kim was going to die. It freaks us out. So, no dying and we're writing this because if she would have died, she wouldn't have known we were sorry and how great she is. You too, Doctor O, but you didn't almost die. Did I mention no dying? –Conner

Thanks,

Conner, Ethan, and Kira

Author's Note: This chapter was one of the more difficult ones that I've had to do in a while. That, along with this term of college ending, means that it also took a while to write. So, I want you all to know that next week I'm graduating college and my family is coming up for graduation. That means that I have to make sure the apartment is clean, get ready, do finals, and my sister will actually be staying with me. What this means to you guys is that the next chapter may not be out next week. I wanted to let all of you know beforehand. So, I'll do my best, but no promises.

There are a lot of things about this chapter that people might have questions on, and I don't know where to start. So, if you have any, just let me know in the reviews and I'll try to answer them in the author's notes next chapter. I will say that the death aspect in where they finally understood it to be more of a reality was based on my own experiences. At seventeen and eighteen, I knew people could die from speeding or driving upset or not paying attention, but there was still a large part of me that seemed to think that she was immortal until I was in college and got a wake up call. Consider this their first wake up call.

Finally, I know I said Kira/Trent in the beginning chapter, but no matter what it's not going to play a huge role in the story. I did it mostly because it was canon. That said, I'm not adverse to changing it to Kira/Conner as it isn't an overly important part of the story. I've already had one reader asking me to change it, so I thought I'd give the rest of you a change to say your piece as well, if it matters to you.

Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews for the last chapter. As always, I appreciate them so much.