Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, I guarantee it.

Elsa had gotten a hold of a laser of some kind. Kira realized with a sickening wrench that it wasn't a laser, it was one of the ThunderMax Sabers, one of the Rangers must have dropped it during the fight with the drones. Elsa was charging the blaster, was aiming it at Conner...Kira clapped her hand to her own hip and felt nothing but empty holster. It was hers. "Conner..." Kira started to yell, and then Elsa was firing, firing, again and again, and there was a flurry of light and smoke, and Conner flipped in the air and collapsed on the ground. He shifted slightly, but seemed unable to get up. He powered down involuntarily, too stunned to maintain his morphed form. Kira's own weapon. Where were Ethan and Dr. Oliver..? They were getting swarmed by drones, but no one was attacking Kira. Elsa approached Conner with a nasty smirk on her face, pointing the blaster and firing at point-blank range. Conner twitched, and didn't move. Elsa, satisfied, dropped the smoking blaster to the ground next to the fallen Ranger, and disappeared in a flash of green. "Conner, no, Conner..." Kira muttered, running to her friend's side. She kicked her weapon aside as she fell to her knees, grabbing futilely at Conner. "Power down," she said, using her bare hands to judge the warmth of his flesh and fumble for a pulse that she wouldn't have been able to gauge through her heavy gloves. She felt nothing, no breath of life beneath his skin, and the acrid cloud of smoke rising from her discarded gun was swamping the air around her. She choked on it, coughing, spluttering, as she pressed her fingers to his wrist, his neck, back to his wrist again, feeling for a pulse, but there wasn't one... "Conner!" she pleaded with him, tears creeping to her eyes. From the smoke, from the horror of what was happening, she didn't know, but things were blurring in front of her. He was growing cold beneath her. "CONNER!" Kira shrieked, rocking the air with one of her patented Ptera screams, but strong as it was, it could not rouse the dead.

Kira screamed. It pierced the air, pinched the air, numbed out all other sound for a few seconds until she heard a clattering and the door to the room opened. Conner was standing in the doorway, a look of pure panic on his face. Kira was sitting up in his bed. "Kira, oh my God, are you okay?" he asked, rushing over and kneeling by the side of the bed.

"I…you're not dead," she realized.

"No…" he said, frowning. "Are you all right?" He reached up and touched her forehead gently. She realized she was sweating profusely and jerked away from his hand.

"I'm fine. Fine. Really. I just…bad dream," she said, and cast a nervous look at him. He looked concerned. For her. Kira remembered all the times during battle that he'd shouted her name, either as a warning, or when she'd gotten hit or something. Making her a priority. Now he was staring at her, with worry in his brown eyes, and…

Kira shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was more awake now than she'd been in their previous encounter, at least, though every time she awoke, it was like she was coming from a decade-long coma. This was the first time she'd dreamed, that she could recall, but it had been so intensely vivid.

"Bad dream?" he said. "You nearly blasted a hole through my wall. You're lucky no one's home. Want to tell me about it?" he asked in a softer voice.

"We were fighting. And something happened, I dropped my gun, and Elsa got it, and she…" Kira swallowed, forcing the tremor out of her voice and said much more steadily, although still with a note of fear, "She killed you."

"Are you sure?" he said.

"Of course I'm sure, Conner. I touched you, and I held you, and you were dead. You were dead and it was my fault." Kira was suddenly hit with the memory of holding Conner's limp form in her arms, heavy and cold, and the memory was so unspeakably real that she started to cry, loudly and out of control.

"God, Kira…Kira!" Conner climbed onto the bed and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. "Kira, ssh, it's okay, it's okay. It never happened. It's a dream, Kira."

"It wasn't a dream," she said. "It was too real. It wasn't a dream, it couldn't have been."

"It was."

"Oh, God…" Kira pressed herself into him, trying to usurp every ounce of strength that she could. "What's wrong with me, Conner, what is wrong with me? Nothing is making sense, everything's weird, it's…cloudy, somehow. And that dream…I know it was just a dream, I know it was. But it felt too damn real! You were dead just a few minutes ago, Conner, I was there!"

"I'm not dead," he said. "I'm here, I'm fine, everything is fine."

"Fix me," she said. "I'm not myself. I want you guys to fix me, please, find out what's wrong with me and fix it. Please. I just…I don't know who I am anymore, I don't know what I am, I don't like it."

"We'll find out what's wrong, Kira, I promise," he said.

Their bracelets flashed simultaneously, yellow and red lights flashing patterns on his cream-colored walls. Conner went to answer his, keeping his other arm around her still. "Reading you, Dr. O. What's up?"

"School's out, Ethan and I are at my house, if you guys are up to coming."

Conner glanced down at Kira, who was wide-eyed and scared, pressing against him, looking much younger than she really was. "We have a bit of a situation, Dr. O. It's not serious…I don't think. Not yet, anyway. We need to look Kira over."

"That's okay. Bring her over."

"On it. Conner out." He looked down at Kira, who had stalled her flow of tears. "Kira, are you okay?"

"Define 'okay.'"

"Do you think you're up for heading to the lab?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Then let's go." He pushed the covers off of her and helped her up. "Come on. Let's go."

Kira stumbled the first step or so, but she straightened and walked firmly. She didn't need Conner's assistance, but she neglected to tell him so, enjoying the comfort of his arm around her shoulders. The thought stunned her, the feeling that being so close to him brought to her. He helped her into the car, and they drove in silence to Dr. O.'s house. Kira kept dwelling on her dream, and Conner had the presence of mind to know that was what she was thinking of, and let her.