Present

"Drop to the ground now!" The voice had yelled. He didn't think or question, he just reacted and followed the voice's instructions. He noticed the other Rangers had done the same thing, and then a bright light flashed across the battlefield.

Trent shut his eyes tightly against the blinding light. When he finally opened them he noticed that all the tyranodrones were gone. He sat up and looked around confused until he saw her. She was running towards them in her human form. She reached Kira first. Lilly stopped and helped her up.

"Wha, what happened?" He heard Kira say a little dazed. At the same time he heard a cry off to his right and a blur of red caught his eye. He turned around and saw Conner running, then dropping to the ground near...and then he remembered. The image of Zeltrax standing over Dr. Oliver with his sword raised.

Trent lept up off the ground and ran as fast as he could. "No, no no no." He kept saying to himself. He was about 5 feet away when he saw Conner yelling and shaking the limp form of Dr. Oliver. "No! This can't be happening!" And he fell to his knees. Suddenly it felt as if the air had been sucked from his lungs. He never thought his dad would let something like that happen. He shook himself. Of course his dad wouldn't, but he wasn't in control anymore. Mesagog was. He should have told Dr. Oliver months ago, but his dad said he could handle it. 'I should have told them, they could have helped. Oh my god! This is my fault!' He thought. The emotions finally hit him hard and tears formed in his eyes. He was brought out of his musings when he heard Kira's anguished cry as she rushed past him and collapsed next to their teacher and friend grabbing his lifeless hand.

"NO! Dr. O wake up! Please, wake up. Dr. O!" She sobbed. "Pleeaasse!"

Trent took a deep breath and forced himself to his feet. He hurried to her side and put his arms around her. She collapsed against him burying her face in his chest. How could he ever tell them the truth. Would she ever talk to him again? He pulled her in close, burying his face in her hair, trying to hide his tears.

Lilly watched in horror. She couldn't believe it. How had this happened? He couldn't be gone. Tears stung her eyes as she took in the sight of Conner, Trent and Kira huddled around Dr. O. The restorer, her guardian; after all he had been though, she never thought...

Ethan came up on her left and grabbed her shoulder frantically. "Lilly you've got to do something! You have magic right? You can heal him!" The others had heard this and looked back at them. Exclamations of a similar line of thinking to Ethan's comment came and looks of hope.

She walked over closer to the group. "I've never done anything like that before, but I can try." She said. She was about to kneel down when a woman's voice stopped her.

"It won't work." The teens all looked at the figure that was standing a few feet away. They were shocked by her presence and appearance. Before they could protest or comment, she continued. "She has the power to heal yes, but she cannot restore life once it is gone. Especially not someone as young as she."

"How would you know?" Conner's voice had a defiant and dangerous edge to it. He had seen what happened. Dr. O had surrendered his morpher to save her. This was obviously someone who was important to their teacher, but Conner didn't care. In his grief, logic failed him. Dr. O was dead, and it was because of her. "Who are you anyway?" He said angrily. They all looked at the woman intently waiting for the answer.

The woman turned her head and locked eyes with Lilly. Lilly stared into those brilliant blue eyes and her breath caught in throat.

"Máthair?" Lilly said timidly. Fearfully. She began moving towards her.

"Iti mana." The woman said softly, smiling.

"Mom!" Lilly cried as she hurried to close the distance between them. She threw her arms around her mother, but pulled back when Niriinya grunted in pain. In the midst of the tragedy she was relieved to have her mom there with her, but her relief faded quickly. She opened her eyes realizing that she did not hear or feel anything coming from her. Normally her mom would be in her head with thoughts of love and comfort, but there was nothing. She stepped back and and took in the state of the woman before her; dirty, bleeding and bruised all over. "Mom? Are you..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

"What's going on?" Ethan asked.

Niriinya looked at the young humans, shock and grief on their features. They were her responsibility now. As much as she wanted to collapse in her grief, they needed a leader now. They needed focus. They needed hope. She looked at her daughter. 'Yes.' She thought. 'Now there is hope.' She grabbed her daughter's hand and approached them.

"I promise all will be explained, but right now we need to act fast. Quickly, everybody join hands."

Lilly grabbed Kira's hand. Trent already had a hold of her other one. He looked over to Ethan who was between him and Conner. Ethan nodded and slowly reached out. Trent took his hand. Ethan knelt down and reached over Dr. O's body for Conner who sat there just looking at them. Niriinya saw the hesitation, and still holding Lilly's hand positioned herself in front of Conner. He flinched as she came near. He was holding the hand of his teacher close to his chest with both of his hands, as if afraid to let go.

"He was my friend too." She said holding the young man's gaze. "We cannot let his death be for nothing."

"Come with us." She said softly and held out a hand. Conner was confused. 'Go where?' He looked around the circle that had formed at his teammates.

"Conner." He looked back at Lilly. "Trust ME." She nodded towards the woman she had called Mom. Conner looked into her sad, yet strong eyes, then at the outstretched hand. He took a deep breath as he heard Ethan's voice as well. He reached out with his left hand, keeping Dr. O's in his right, and grasped the hand of Lilly's mom.

She smiled and looked at her daughter. "Take us to their command center." Lilly hesitated. "Concentrate Lillyana. You can do this." Niriinya continued. Lilly closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Kira gasped as the forest dissolved and the Dino lair reformed around them. Similar exclamations of surprise came from Ethan, Conner and Trent.

"That was, different." Ethan said.

Niriinya released her grip from Conner and Lilly. She looked down at the body in the middle of them. "Conner, Trent, Ethan." She addressed them. "Help me move him." She guested towards a metal table off to the side of the room. To their credit the three teens did not argue, while they did move slowly, and set about the task she had laid before them. She bent down to grab his shoulder and cried out in pain as the deep gashes on her back protested.

Lilly grabbed her, keeping her from falling and walked her backwards out of the way. "Here, let me help." She brought her hand up to her mom's chest and closed her eyes. All the other teens stood frozen as a white light began to grow underneath Lilly's palm. It slowly moved under Niriinya's skin, throughout her whole body. Suddenly there was a bright flash, and when the teens looked back they were amazed.

The woman standing before them looked completely different. She now had a full head of long silver-gray hair and her skin was flawless. No more cuts or bruises were visible. The only blood remaining was that which was on her "clothing." The boys had been looking her over, simply taking in the healing that Lilly had preformed, and realized very quickly just how poor a job those small rags did at covering her breasts. All three averted their eyes. Ethan scratched his head and turned away. Conner blushed, looking at the ground. Trent dropped his eyes, but moved to take off his white button down shirt. He walked over and handed it to Lilly, keeping his eyes elsewhere.

"Thank you Trent." Niriinya said as Lilly handed her the shirt. "Alright gentlemen," she said as she put on the shirt and began buttoning it. "Focus on Tommy." The three boys went back to the task of moving their teacher's body, sadness overwhelming them again.

As Kira watched them. A realization hit her. "I have to call Hayley!" She said and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Moving to a far corner of the lab.

Niriinya turned to her daughter and hugged her. "Oh my precious one." She pulled back and looked at Lilly's face. "I need you to do something for me now, okay?" Lilly nodded. "Go to Coren and have him get the Heart Stone to the council. Let them know of my situation and tell them it is time and to have everyone prepare. Have Coren and the council follow you back here. Can you do that?"

"Yes." She nodded. Niriinya kissed her on the forehead.

"Go quickly now, and be safe."


The late afternoon crowd was thick at the cafe and Hayley found herself running around frantically. Trent hadn't come in because of a call from Tommy, and she had only planned two other staff that day. As much as she wanted to go to the lab and see how the ranger's were doing, she couldn't leave.

"Hayley!" A shout came from behind the bar. "Phone for you!" Hayley huffed as she set down the two drinks she had been delivering, and headed back behind the counter. She grabbed the phone from Derek.

"This is Hayley?" She said, trying not to sound flustered.

"Hayley?" Kira's voice was strained. Hayley waited for her to continue. She could barely hear Kira take a sobbing breath over the noise of the cafe. Hayley held her breath in return. She felt it in her gut, something was wrong.

"Kira? What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's, something happened." She paused, her voice was a little stronger. "We need you at lair, as soon as possible."

She looked around at the chaos that was the cafe at the moment. "Is it something I can help with over the phone? The cafe is really busy right now, I'm not sure I can leave." Even as she said the words she knew how ridiculous it was. Deep down she was hoping it wasn't that serious, teenagers tended to be over dramatic, and she was praying that's all it was.

"No, it's not something...I can't...Hayley we really need you!"

"Let me talk to Tommy." Silence from the other end. "Kira." She said slowly, "put Tommy on the phone and I'll see what I can do."

She heard muffled sobbing on the other end of the line. Her hope that Kira had been over-reacting to something started to slip away.

"Hayley?" A new voice said into the phone.

"Trent, what's going on? What's wrong with Kira? Where's Tommy?" She asked frantically.

"Hayley, Dr. O..." another pause. They were driving her crazy.

"Just tell me!" She almost screamed into the phone.

"He's dead." Her heart seemed to stop for a second. She grasped onto the counter with her free hand. "Zeltrax killed him." Trent continued. Her legs became weak, but she held herself up, not wanting to cause a scene. 'It can't be!' She thought.

"Are, are you sure? Maybe it was a trick, maybe..."

"We're sure." He interrupted her. "Just come to the lair." His voice sounded defeated. "You'll see." The line went dead.

"Trent? Trent?" She slammed the phone down on the counter, startling the people around her. She heard their exclamations of surprise, but she didn't care. She collapsed to the ground, hand over her mouth, hyperventilating.

Derek knelt down beside, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hayley are you okay?" She tried to wipe her eyes with her hands, not looking at him.

"No. Derek, I have an emergency, I have to go." She motioned for him to help her up. "I'm sorry to leave you and Ben in this mess. Call Lauren and Chris, see if they can come in to help. If it becomes too much, go ahead and close up early." She walked away, not looking at him, and headed into the back. She grabbed her purse and keys and ran out the back door.