Kira ran at Xander's side now, no longer trying to turn back. She knew that Hayley was beyond their help now just as Tommy was and Ethan and Connor and Trent. And they were now the last hope for humanity, the Rangers running from the battle.

"Where are we going?" she shouted. Xander shrugged.

"No idea!" he called back. "Wherever Rose and Dominic end up, I guess!" The Jungle Fury ranger and the Overdrive Ranger were in the lead and it was a surprise to Kira when they stopped running not three minutes later.

"Why…are…we…stopping?" Zhane asked, doubled over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. "Sorry. Not as in shape as I used to be."

"We need to decide where we're going. If they found us at Tommy's lab, it's safe to say they know where all of our hideouts are. I think it's safe, also, to say that they have assimilated the knowledge of the vanished Rangers – no one knew where the lab was except for us Dino Rangers and the Ninja Rangers. You agree?" Dominic was standing more or less at the head of the group, his hard stare seeming to compel agreement from everyone.

"So if they've assimilated knowledge, then it stands to reason that the only places they won't know about are the ones where no one was vanished from that team. Anyone here not have anyone vanished from your team?" Hunter paused. "We lost Trent and Blake to the vanishings. So Ninja Ops is out."

Xander shook his head. "We lost Chip and Vida. Rootcore's no good."

Dominic agreed. "Lily was vanished. JKP won't be safe."

Billy and Kimberly looked to Jason, who hesitated before he spoke. "Angel Grove's too far out to be any good. Besides, Rocky, Adam, Tommy and Kat were all vanished. We can't go to anywhere that we used or that was used by the Zeo Rangers or the Turbo Rangers. They're all compromised."

Zhane nodded agreement. "Even if we could get to the NASADA spaceport and onto the Megaship, Andros, Carlos, Ashley and Cassie were all vanished. We're out."

Ryan shook his head as well. "Aquabase is out since they vanished Carter."

Eric's voice was heated . "And since the Clock Tower was destroyed long ago, it seems like there's nowhere we can go! But we have to go somewhere, or Wes' sacrifice and Leo and Casey's will have been for nothing! Come on!"

A quiet voice spoke up then. "Mr. Hartford's manor won't be compromised. All my teammates were killed outright. We can go there. Only…" her voice trailed off and Dominic put his arm around her.

"Only what, Rosie?" he asked softly. Eric made a noise of impatience but Dominic's fierce look silenced him.

"They vanished Adam and he was one of the five who came back to use the mansion as a base when we lost our powers. They'll be able to find it." Rose's voice was forlorn.

"It's as good a start as we've got. Come on, let's go." Flynn looked to each Ranger in turn. "But I think it's time we called some speed. Let's get where we've got to go as fast as humanly possible."

Hunter nodded. A few seconds later, the whole group was on bikes or in cars or Jeeps and headed for the center of San Angeles. When they pulled up in the driveway, Rose walked hesitantly towards the doors.

"I told myself I'd never come here again," she whispered. Dominic's arm returned to her shoulders and he gave her a squeeze. She squared her shoulders and continued. When they reached the front porch, she pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door. Then she led the way inside.

The other Rangers followed her to the library, where she took a seat in a stuffed armchair. Everyone else either sat or stood and looked at each other anxiously.

"Well, what now? They've gotten three more of us. Are we just going to let them keep killing us or vanishing us or whatever it is they're doing to us or are we going to fight?" Hunter slammed his fist into the side of a bookshelf and glowered at anyone who dared to make eye contact with him.

A voice suddenly came from the doorway and everyone's heads whipped towards the sound. "Miss Rose? Is that you?"

Rose's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Spencer? Spencer, what are you doing here?"

The butler made his way slowly into the room, taking in the faces of Rangers he knew and Rangers he didn't. "Kira, good to see you again. And Xander. Very nice to see you. Why, I've come to help you, Miss Rose. I heard about all the trouble you were having and thought you might could use someone to bounce ideas off of or something."

Rose looked thoroughly confused. "But, Spencer, I thought you went into seclusion with Mr. Hartford, to help him recover from losing Mack. And I thought you couldn't stand to be in this mansion anymore, just like I couldn't either. What's going on?"

Spencer smiled then, but it was a smile full of sadness and grief. "Mr. Hartford is still very much in seclusion. But he is in fact the one who sent me here. It would appear that he had planned for something like this and built a device that would counteract the use of a Ranger's powers against his or her will. Sort of a blocking device, I suppose."

Zhane caught his breath. "So you mean that we can keep these Psycho Rangers from using the dead Ranger's powers? Their weapons and their fighting techniques? Seriously?" There were murmurs all around the room as the other Rangers realized what this could mean.

"Not only that, my boy. This device, when activated, will render the villain who tries to use a Ranger's weapons or powers immobilized for ten seconds, which should be long enough for you to capture said villain or defeat him or her. Or it."

Rose jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Spencer's neck. "Oh, Spencer, you're amazing!"

The butler disentangled himself and looked around the room once more. "But there are so few of you left. And this device, it will only work once. It may not be much of a help after all. How can you hope to survive?" He wasn't being pessimistic, simply realistic. After all, he enjoyed playing the part of devil's advocate sometimes, in order to help the whole picture be seen.

Eric slapped his hand against his leg. "We'll survive. We have to. Will your device work on just one villain at a time or multiples?"

"As many as are using a stolen Ranger power or weapon at that time. And don't ask how it knows the person using the weapons isn't a Power Ranger – I don't begin to understand." Spencer laughed bitterly. "I only hope this helps." And he pulled a long red gun from his pocket and handed it to Jason. "Something tells me you are in charge, Mr. Scott."

Jason turned the gun over and over in his hand. "I never asked to be in charge again." He whispered.

"Some things aren't asked for; they're just given to those who deserve them." Spencer clapped a hand on Jason's shoulder before turning to face Kira. "Miss Ford, would you accompany me to the billiard room? I have something there that you need to see." He turned and strode from the room, obviously assuming that she would follow him. She did, with a worried look back at Xander. He made a move as if to go after her, but she motioned for him to stay where she was.

Kira walked quickly behind Spencer all the way to the room that had held a pool table the last time she'd been there. Now, in the center of the area rested a coffin. Kira gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Spencer turned to face her, his expression one of sincere concern.

"I'm sorry to spring this on you, my dear, but Hayley had his body brought here after the battle at Ninja Ops. Tori's body is here too but…I thought you would want to see his body. Or at least…well, I thought…" his voice was the one to trail off now and he silently moved off, leaving Kira to approach the coffin or not.

For a long moment, Kira simply stood there, staring at the oak box, willing it to disappear, praying that this was all a joke, all just a big laugh. But she knew it wasn't and so slowly, oh, so slowly, she walked closer. The lid was raised on the coffin and, once she was close enough, she could see who lay inside.

Connor McKnight was the stillest she had ever seen him. His eyes were closed and he might have been resting. Someone had changed his shirt and now he lay there in a clean red polo. Kira figured it was Mack's. He was wearing those faded old blue jeans that he was so fond of and his hair had been brushed so that it lay perfectly on his head, not a hair out of place. Kira stifled a sob and reached out. Before she thought twice about what she was doing, she rubbed her hand through his hair, messing it up, taking it back to a semblance of what it had been. Then she let her sobs come, great, gut-wrenching sobs and collapsed to the floor in front of the coffin. Her fingers scrabbled uselessly on the floor and she kicked her heels against the wooden bottom of the coffin. A small scream left her mouth as she tried to come to terms with the reality in front of her.

* * *

Xander had watched Kira go with worry in his heart. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that what Kira "had to see" was not going to be good.

"She'll be okay," Jason said reassuringly. "Whatever it is, it can't-"

He cut off as Kira's sobs filled the air and then the soft scream echoed down the hallway. Xander cried, "Kira!" and leapt up from his seat. No one moved to go with him as he pounded down the hall towards the billiards room – if Kira was being attacked, they could be there in seconds and if she was simply undergoing some painful remembrance or seeing something painful, well, Xander was the only one she'd open up to.

Even in the midst of such utter heartbreak and devastation, something more can still develop, Kim thought to herself.

Xander had his wand out as he entered the billiard room at a dead run. His brain didn't register the coffin at first, just the girl lying beside it, face buried in the carpet. His heart jumped into his throat at the thought that she might be hurt.

"Kira?" he asked urgently. A hand raised slightly off of the carpet was her only response. "Kir, are you ok?"

"He's really dead, Xander. Really and truly dead. All this time, ever since Hunter came back from Ninja Ops, I thought maybe Connor was just pretending and would come back. Maybe he was faking so they wouldn't vanish him and he just let the joke go on too long. Even when Wes and Eric told me that he was dead, I didn't want to believe it. But…there he is. In that box."

Xander stepped up to the coffin and peered inside. He hadn't known Connor as well as he knew Kira but there was no doubt in his mind that the boy lying inside was the leader of the Dino Thunder Ranger. "I'm so sorry, Kira." He dropped to his knees beside her and tried to put his arms around her but she shook him off and shrank away from him.

"His hair…" she paused before continuing. "His hair was too neat. His hair was never neat, never. Connor was a soccer player. It was always windblown and he was always pushing it out of his eyes. I messed it up. Spencer made it look nice but I messed it up."

Xander looked again at Connor. Yes, his hair did look mussed. "I think it looks more like him. He wouldn't have wanted it to be all neat."

Kira didn't let him talk any further. She pulled herself to her knees and slid over to sit beside Xander in front of the coffin. "We can't win, can we, Xan? Connor and Tori, Wes, Leo and Casey, they're the first of the rest of us aren't they? Flynn's big battle, all of us dying, it's all true, isn't it? You, me. We're going to die." She paused and then spoke again before Xander could get a word in edgewise. "Why is this happening again? I thought it was over. What did we do wrong?"

Xander set a hand on her shoulder. He didn't know the answer himself but there was one thing he could promise. "I don't know, Kira. But I do know that I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Kira glanced at Connor's coffin once more before looking up at Xander, defeat in her eyes and defeat in her heart. She'd given up on surviving. "Trent promised the same thing and you know what happened to him. Connor died protecting Tori and Hunter. Xander, you can't promise me that."

Just then, there was a shout from the library. "Xander! Kira! Guys, get in here! You're not going to believe this!"

Kira looked at Xander and Xander looked back at her, confusion written on both of their faces. Then, almost simultaneously, they jumped to their feet and ran back down the hallway and into the library. Once there, they found that it wasn't quite the same as when they had left it.

Besides Spencer, there was one additional person in the room. "Casey!" Kira cried upon seeing the wounded Ranger surrounded by his friends. "You must be good luck if you keep escaping from them."

Casey's expression darkened. "This makes two times Leo has given up all for me. Once he was able to cheat death, much as I did. This time, he wasn't so lucky. He and Wes sacrificed themselves so I could escape. They held the Psychos off long enough for all of us to escape. I don't know why they did it, why they would push me away, make me run away. I don't know. What I do know is this – we have to win. Their sacrifices must not be in vain. We will avoid Flynn's outcome. We will not all die. We will not."

"These Psycho Rangers you speak of; they will be the ones using your comrade's weapons? Then they will be the ones who will need to feel the blast of your new gun first. I suggest you defeat them as soon as possible." Spencer said plainly. "As soon as possible."

"Gun? What gun?" Casey asked.

Eric spoke over him. "Defeat them? Defeat them! You're crazy. We can't defeat them. We're dead already. Man, we're walking dead. Walking dead."

Dominic shook his head. "They spoke of a master. Someone they were working for. We have to get to him and kill him. And to do that, we have to get rid of the Psychos. Which I suggest we do quickly, like Spencer said. As soon as possible."

"I don't have a morpher but I want in on this. That Psycho Red is mine." Casey's tone was flat. This was something he would not give in on.

"Hmm…you'd be Casey Rhodes?" Spencer asked. Casey nodded. "You have a Spirit Animal within you?" Casey nodded again. "I can help you there, actually." Spencer pulled what looked like a cell phone from his pocket. "This is Mack's morpher. It's usually configured to work only with Mack's biosigns but, after Mack died, Mr. Hartford made it compatible with any Ranger's biosign. If you'll summon your Tiger spirit, it will be transferred to this morpher and then you'll be the Overdrive Tiger Ranger. Has a nice ring to it, hmm?"

Casey hesitated for just a second before calling forth his spirit Tiger. Moments later, Spencer handed him the morpher, which was glowing with a faint red light.

"I'm in too. Let's bait and trap us some Psychos." Jason nodded. "Two reds and we can't lose, right, Casey?"

Kimberly nodded. "Count me in." She cast a swift glance at Jason, who seemed to study her for a minute and then nodded sharply.

Zhane frowned. "You're not leaving me behind on this one."

Eric's face was an unreadable mask. "I'm in too."

Ryan nodded. "One more ought to do it. I'll go. That way, we have the rest of you here for backup and, should we not be successful, you'll still be up and fighting."

Jason looked at Kimberly. "Well? Let's do it."

Author's Note: So what do you think? Please read and review. It's about to get crazy, don't worry. And I know the story is really straying from the really cool trailer that I had but I hope to update the trailer and make it work. Who knows? Anyway, I'm pretty sure I know where this story is going now but the whole thing with Spencer never crossed my mind until I started writing this chapter so who knows? Anyway, please please please read and review!! PLEASE!!!