When only Buzz arrived at the SUV, it didn't take long for Fiona to get worried. When roars rose from the woods and Veloci's helicopter slowed to a hover, they knew something had gone wrong.

Fiona was the first to transform to check in with their teammates. She could sense confusion from Max and Roger, though they weren't talking. Frustration and anger resonated from Riley.

Fiona roared and swung her muzzle to show she wanted Buzz and Caruso to follow. They quickly transformed. Their eyes widened at the flurry of emotions.

"Riley, you can't take him to the lighthouse." Max's protest got the trio running toward the copter. "He'd lead Veloci right to us!"

"We could find some other way to show him," Riley told Max. "I'm not going to put the team in danger."

"Who are they talking about?" Fiona wondered.

The conversation between Riley, Max, and Roger only became more mysterious and ominous. Buzz had already vanished over the trees, and Fiona sped up until she left Caruso in the dust. Fiona burst through the trees. A burst of feral anger shooting through the mental connection and the confusion of what she saw brought Fiona to a grinding halt.

Almost all of Veloci's goons were gone, the backs of a couple of ATV's vanishing as Fiona watched. A single man stood in front of Riley, who was writhing and snarling. Roger struggled to free Max, who was covered from the waist down in tar.

"Fiona!" Buzz called when he spotted Fiona. "Riley's gone full feral!"

Buzz dropped from the sky and landed on Max's shoulder to pull. "I've got these two. Go stop Riley!"

Fiona nodded. While the squad didn't really care for Veloci's men, they never wanted to see them get hurt.

Fiona rushed toward Riley as the younger dino started to charge. The man spun away from her at the last second, but didn't flee like Fiona had hoped. He turned to face Riley once again.

Fiona reached the pair before Riley could rush the man again. She planted her paws and roared at Riley, startling her into stopping. Fiona glanced behind her, and noticed the man had run back around her and was trying to approach Riley.

"Hey!" Fiona swept the man roughly back behind her with her tail. "Does this guy have a death wish or something?"

"I think it's 'or something,'" Max said. A quick check found the other three of the squad nearly had him free. "He seems to know Riley very well."

"Well, he's going to get himself killed if he doesn't stay out of the way!"

Riley must have sensed Fiona's divided attention, because she leaped at her. Fiona dodged away, just barely being quick enough to grab the man's collar and jerk him out of the way. She put him down more roughly than necessary, so he lost his balance and fell on his back.

"Stop it!" the man yelled, jumping back to his feet. "Let me talk to her, I can help!"

Fiona's head jerked back. "He's more talkative than the average goon."

"Yes, and apparently he can understand dino," Roger said.

Fiona blinked at Roger, then roared as a small set of fangs dug into her tail. Fiona whipped around and hit Riley with her muzzle, sending her rolling. Fiona ran after her and planted a hind paw on Riley's back to keep her down. The smaller dino roared and thrashed, squirming free in seconds.

Fiona hurriedly backed away and would have stepped on the man if Roger hadn't called a warning. She turned and lowered her head to snarl at the man.

"If you can really understand me, then get out of here. You're going to get yourself killed."

The man gaped at her. "You speak, too?"

Fiona snorted in his masked face. "Of course I talk. Now, are you going to get going?"

"I can't. It's my fault Riley lost it."

"Oh, for the love of everything prehistoric!"

Riley crashed into Fiona, and both dinos tumbled to the ground. They rolled to a stop near the rest of the squad. Max scrambled sideways, breaking free of the last bit of tar.

"We have to get her out of here to calm down," Roger said.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Max asked as the squad lined up to face Riley. "It's too late to startle her out of it, and I'm not sure if Buzz could calm her down."

"I could still try."

"Not while you're in dino mode. That might make it worse," Fiona pointed out.

"Uh, guys?" Caruso said when Riley edged away from the larger dinos.

"There's no way to contain her like we do at the lighthouse," Roger said.

"Guys?"

"She's going to take off," Fiona warned. "There's too many of us for her, even when she's full feral."

"We have to stop her before-"

"GUYS!" Caruso's mental bellow cut off Max. "We forgot about someone."

"Who?" Fiona asked, tensing when Riley turned.

"Veloci's goon!"

Everyone flinched in horror. The man was still out there, and Fiona then realized that Riley had turned to him. Before anyone could move, Riley lunged and tackled the man.

"Oh, no, no, no!"

Fiona rushed forward, only to freeze when she realized that Riley wasn't mauling the man. Her eyes were still dark, but her snarl was lessening already while the man talked softly. When he raised a hand and rested it on Riley's muzzle, her snarl turned into a whine. Her eyes cleared to stare mournfully at the man.

"I'm sorry," Riley whimpered.

"It's okay," the man said soothingly. "Everything is going to be fine."

Riley sniffed and repeated, "I'm sorry."

Riley burst into a run, away from the man and her stunned squadmates. Max was the first to shake off his shock and push the others into a run.

Fiona trailed the others to the edge of the trees, where she paused and looked back. The man was sitting up, but made no motion to chase or send anyone after them. He had his arms draped across his raised knees, and his face buried in his arms.

Fiona shook her head and ran after the others.


Max was the first one to break the silence, five miles down the road in the ATV.

"That was way too close."

"They set us up," Roger said.

"Veloci really wants Riley back," Caruso said.

Buzz leaned forward from the back seat that he shared with Riley to swat Caruso's shoulder, saying, "Veloci's always trying to trap us."

"Veloci wasn't even there," Roger said. "This was different."

"We don't know that," Buzz said defensively.

"It was," Riley snapped. "I don't think my father knew what Rob was doing."

"Why would one of Veloci's men go behind his back, though?" Max asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror.

"Knowing Rob, he might have convinced Father to try and get me his way," Riley said.

An uncomfortable silence fell as everyone waited for someone else to ask the inevitable question. Fiona finally sighed and voiced it.

"Why would Veloci listen to that guy?"

"Because he isn't just a goon," Riley said. "Rob is young, but he is one of Veloci's smartest scientists. He developed some of the most recent batches of ooze. As you saw, he's also one of two people who can talk me out of full feral. He helped develop safe houses for me to go dino safely." Riley took a deep breath. "He's also my brother."

Everyone was thrown to the side when Max jerked on the steering wheel. He swerved across the road before straightening.

"He's your brother?!" Roger exclaimed, bracing his legs and arms to turn around to see Riley. "You never mentioned you had a brother!"

"He's not my brother by birth," Riley interjected. "You know how Veloci will sponsor kids from orphanages?"

"I figured it was a publicity stunt," Caruso said.

"Okay, it kind of is. But he will also keep an eye on the kids he sponsors and they usually end up working at RaptorDyne when they are old enough. Most have real, up-front jobs, but if a particularly smart kid catches Father's attention, he invites them to work in the secret labs."

"And Rob was one of them?" Fiona asked.

"Father adopting him was the start of his sponsoring kids. Rob was particularly smart at six years old, and Father wanted Rob to work at RaptorDyne for sure. At the time, I was two and there weren't any kids around. We kind of grew up together, and most of what Rob knows about dinosaur behavior came from me."

"Why didn't you mention him before?" Fiona asked.

Riley turned her head to watch the passing forest.

"You must really miss him," Buzz ventured.

"I do," Riley said quietly. "For most of my life, he was my only real friend."

Max startled Fiona by saying, "Maybe we should have brought him with us."

Riley shook her head. "Rob is dedicated to Veloci. You're as likely to get him on your side as you would be to find a way to keep Veloci from mutating any more creatures."

"I don't know," Roger said. "Before you met us, did you ever think that you could leave Veloci?"

"No," Riley said slowly.

"Do you think Rob would come with you?" Buzz asked.

"I already tried," Riley said with a wince. "You saw how that ended. If you guys hadn't been there… I might have listened to him."

"Rob knew that you would be there," Roger said. "He had time to plan how to confront you. If we could find a way to surprise him and get him alone…"

"Even if he did agree to come, we can't guarantee that he'd really listen to us. The only reason we were so open with Riley is because we didn't realize she was connected to Veloci," Fiona said. "Sorry, Riley."

Riley shrugged. "It's the truth."

"If we could find some way to turn the tables on Rob," Roger mused. "We could at least talk to him alone."

"After this way didn't work, I don't think Father is going to let Rob try again," Riley said.

"But he might still be there during other attempts. Veloci has to know he can't catch you as long as you're with us. It would be better if you chose to go with Rob," Max pointed out.

Riley was silent for a few minutes before shaking her head. "It's too risky. I don't think Rob would join us, he's too loyal to Father."

"Okay," Max said, sounding resigned.

Fiona leaned between the front seats to look at Max, curious at his quick agreement. Max glanced at her, then shot her a quick grin. Fiona gladly returned it, knowing that it meant that Max wasn't wholly giving up on the idea yet.