Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Disney and the like, which I am not affliated with.
The first face he saw was Kira's. Her cheeks were wet and shining, and she threw her arms around him. "Oh, thank God."
"What..?" he asked tiredly, and sudden shooting pain up and down his body made him cut off sharply with an injured wail.
"She stabbed you," Kira explained.
"Elsa?" he asked, once stars stopped dancing in front of his eyes. He was beginning to piece things together: he was lying on the medic cot at the Rangers' headquarters. Kira was perched on a stool next to him on one side, Hayley standing over him on the other, checking his vitals. His entire body was in screaming pain, and he met Kira's eyes to distract himself.
She was nodding. "How much do you remember?"
"The fortress was self-destructing," Conner said softly. "I was trying to get you and Trent out. Elsa stabbed me with her sword." He swallowed hard and winced. "Who made it out?"
"We all did," Kira said. "You, me, Ethan. Dr. O. But he's still under Mesogog's mind control; we had to put him in custody. Trent." He couldn't read the expression in Kira's face, it was still darker than average in the basement thanks to Trent's sabotage. "You risked your life for him, Conner. He's been trying to kill us, you in particular, and you almost died saving him." She sighed, and it was shaky. "I'm so proud of you," she breathed, and whatever painkillers Hayley had administered made him numb to the pain, so he only felt the momentary pleasure of her sweet kiss.
It only lasted for a few seconds, though, and he keenly felt the loss. "Kira--"
"He's okay," she continued. "Unconscious still; you really did a number on him. But you're worse off." She frowned, trying to order all the facts in her mind. "The portal took us back to that one intersection about a mile from Dr. O.'s. Remember? The one where we first fought Zeltrax?"
"When you escaped from Mesogog," he remembered. "The day we met." He had to close his eyes, as he still felt some pain. He wondered what she must think of him. "Where's Ethan?" he asked finally.
"Ethan and Hayley are trying to figure out a way to reverse Mesogog's work on Dr. O.," she said. He didn't recall seeing Hayley leave. Of course, since he'd woken up, he'd only had tired eyes for Kira.
"Kira," he tried again, "what happened? When I got hurt."
She looked away. "Elsa stabbed you. She was trying to stop you from getting out, she was trying to get out herself. You asked me to stop her." He'd ordered her to, as the team leader. She'd listened to every command he'd given her in the past few days, no matter how crazy. "So I did."
"Did she get out?"
"When I saw you get hurt, Conner, I was so scared. You were bleeding, and I had to drag you and Trent through myself, and you wouldn't wake up, and I was just so scared..." She still wouldn't meet his eyes. "I hated her so much. I still do."
Kira pushed his hair out of his face. "You should sleep." She stood up, brushing her lips across his forehead very slightly. Conner felt a small smile tug at his face from the gesture, but his eyes were already closed.
Ethan put his hand on her arm. "How's he doing?"
She shook her head, misery in her eyes. "He's holding on, but it's...he's sort of disjointed. I don't know. He remembers. He's not totally with it, though. He didn't really follow the conversation." She pounded her fist into her hand. "I should've killed her. I had the chance."
"No, you shouldn't have. Conner never would've forgiven you."
"If he doesn't make it out of this, I'm never going to forgive myself," she said, her voice shaking. Ethan moved to embrace her tightly. "Do you think I should have told him how bad he is?"
"Of course not. He doesn't need to know that. Listen, Conner's going to make it through this, okay? He's tough. You don't get to wear the red suit if you don't have something to put in it, you know?"
Kira nodded, and Ethan relaxed his grip on her. Hayley came over to join them. "How's Trent?" asked Ethan.
"Better than Conner," Hayley admitted reluctantly. She flashed Ethan a wan smile. "How's Tommy?"
"It's a good thing we had some of that amber left over," Ethan said. "It's holding him down. Mostly he just keeps muttering Anton Mercer's name."
"Tommy really respected Mercer," Hayley said. "It must be hard for him to come to grips with the idea that Mercer and Mesogog are one and the same. It's not that easy for me. But there's some good out of that--it means that Tommy isn't too far gone into the mind control."
"Silver lining, huh," Ethan muttered.
Hayley touched Kira's shoulder. "Are you doing okay?"
The Yellow Ranger didn't answer for a long time, then finally mumbled her "Yes."
"He'll be fine."
"I wish people would stop saying that." She sighed. "We have a lot to do. I shouldn't be thinking about this." Kira looked to Hayley, resolve in her eyes. "Mesogog killed Zeltrax. And Elsa died when the island exploded. But what about Mesogog?"
"I didn't see him," Ethan said.
"Me neither."
"I think he was trapped under the rubble."
"There was only one portal used, according to my readings," Hayley said. "And five Rangers went through it."
"Trent's never going to join us now," Kira said. "We're essentially responsible for killing his dad."
"He wanted to kill Mesogog himself," Ethan reminded her.
"That was before we knew he was Mercer."
"Was it? Trent said he'd suspected for awhile..."
"Suspected, Ethan, not knew. I know Anton Mercer hasn't exactly been the shining example of fatherly love, but Trent couldn't possibly want him dead."
"There's nothing we can do," Ethan said, and Kira stared across the room at Conner, who wasn't even aware that he was fighting for his life. With Hayley's and Ethan's hands on either of her shoulders, Kira repeated the useless mantra to herself: There's nothing we can do.