Author's Notes: I'm going to just get this out of the way and say that I know my decision about what was revealed in this chapter may not be as widely accepted as some of the things I've wrote so far. Try to keep an open mind, though. I had this planned from the beginning, though I don't know if I had planned on it being this soon. There's still at least one more episode I want to get through before Whitey gets intro'd. Still, though, I hope everyone enjoys that direction I'm starting to take it… there's many more twists ahead! Please, all comments and concerns go straight to the review box.

Disclaimer: Power Rangers is owned by Saban. Power Rangers Dino Thunder was owned by Disney at the time. I only own the story and the words, as well as the character Caroline.

It was early Sunday morning, which was against Jason's better judgment; he'd been overruled by his friends. Together they walked up to and opened the front door to Tommy Oliver's forest home. The sight that greeted them was slightly surprising: Tommy and Kimberly were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast and talking quietly. It was surprising because they all more or less thought they'd be too exhausted to be awake yet. At the incredulous stares from their former teammates, the two breakfast eaters smiled and said, "Morning guys."

After blinking away their confusion, they all shrugged as one and took seats at the center island, deciding that breakfast was more important than questions. Once they were all finished they retired to the backyard and Trini almost dragged Kimberly away to talk with her in private. Once they were far enough away from the guys, she asked, "Okay, spill; what happened last night?"

Kimberly just looked at her really innocently and said, "Nothing happened. We talked and caught up, and then went to bed."

Trini narrowed her eyes and said, "That's all, huh? So you slept together, then?"

Kimberly just smiled back and replied, "Well, we did sleep in each others' arms, and in the same bed, but outside of sleeping… Nope, nothing else happened."

The boys were having a similar discussion and were getting similarly stonewalled; at least, that's how they regarded it. An impromptu sparring match actually broke out between Jason and Tommy, which baffled Dr. Oliver ever so slightly because he thought Jason was the one that wanted to know the least of all of them. Of course, that's not to say there was anything to tell in the first place, but none of them believed him.

A short time later, a shout could be heard from the other side of the house. They knew it was Conner as he tended to do the announcing for the kids and he was the only one of them that simply called Tommy "Doc." Another shout alerted them that they were around back and once again the original Rangers found themselves in the presence of three teenagers and a small child.

Billy stepped forward and addressed the Blue and Yellow Rangers. "If you're ready, I'll start your training now. The first step is all mental preparedness, so it'll be better if you're both trained on it together. Come with me."

Together they walked to a secluded portion of the backyard and sat in a sort of circle. There, they started performing basic mental exercises to help clear their minds and focus them inwardly. The first thing was something they both needed; an off switch. Billy began explaining methods of closing off their minds and their powers, such that they can block out everything at once. After mastering that they would go on to only letting in what they want.

After yesterday Conner had been itching a little to practice his soccer game some more, so he brought his soccer ball with him and started into a basic routine that he used to do when feeling the need for exercise or was just bored. Caroline watched him intently, yesterday being the first time she'd had the chance to watch him play. Conversations among the others erupted everywhere, and soon everyone in the backyard was busy. Things had continued for a few hours before Billy hurriedly walked up to his host and said, "Tommy, can I use some of your analysis equipment? I need to test a theory…"

Tommy looked confused for a second before saying, "Sure, but what for?" He didn't get an answer, as Billy simply turned around and beckoned to his students. They followed him in the house with the others staring after, unsure of what was going on. Tommy turned to each of them in turn and said, "Come on; I don't know what's going on, but it has to be important."

Everyone followed after and found Billy down in the Command Center waving a scanner of some sort over Kira. They waited for him to get finished before Conner stepped forward and said, "What's going on? Is something wrong with Kira?"

Billy shook his head and said, "No nothing's wrong with her, if you don't count her not being human being nothing wrong." This statement was met by resounding silence.

Kira turned to Billy and asked, "What do you mean I'm not human? I'm just like everyone else here, aren't I?"

Once again, Billy shook his head. He answered, "Oh, you're mostly the same as all of us, but you have very subtle differences…" He turned to face the others. "This is going to be easier to explain if we're all sitting down. Shall we go upstairs?" He went ahead and walked up, causing the others to follow behind. Once they were in the living room and seated, he continued. "I first became suspect that she may not be human when I learned of her gift; empaths are rare enough in the universe as it is, and it's the first time I've ever heard of one from Earth. I'd been wanting to perform this scan since yesterday, but hadn't had good reason to until we started our training today; among the things I was trained to do on Aquitar was to analyze brain waves to determine what race a person is, even if they were surgically altered to look another way. I was practicing that on them while they were trying to block me out when I noticed a different pattern than I was expecting from Kira."

"What are you trying to say, Billy? I'm from another planet?"

"Precisely." She gaped at how calmly he spoke the answer, but he ignored it and continued. "Approximately 17 Earth years ago, the planet Melodia was conquered by Dark Specter; its people were subjugated and the royal family was eliminated… but for one small child, or so they say. Rumor currently states that the youngest daughter of the Royal Melodian House was smuggled out at the beginning of the invasion and taken someplace for safekeeping. Since Dark Specter's defeat, the Melodian people have been trying to reorganize their government, but have been having a problem of it. The people have been demanding that search parties be sent out to find the missing princess, but those currently in power keep dismissing it as a legend with no truth to it." He paused to gather some thoughts. "Kira, you were adopted about 17 years ago, were you not?" She nodded but said nothing. Conner scooted closer to her and put an arm around her for comfort, which she gladly leaned into. "What seals this isn't even the scans I took or the brain waves I sensed… The members of the Melodian Royal Family all had the same gift of empathy; it's what made them such respected rulers. They could always sense when the people were dissatisfied or when what they were doing was keeping the people content. You, Kira, are the missing princess."

The room lapsed into silence. That declaration was almost too much for Kira; she wanted to faint, or run away, or something… the last thing she thought she would learn was that she wasn't even from the planet she was living on. In some small way, it made sense, what with her ability and the fact that at times she didn't honestly feel like she belonged. Until now, at least. She found her voice during her musings and asked, "What are my people like, the Melodians?"

Billy smiled at her acceptance and answered her, "They value the cultural significance of music above all others. Almost all of its citizens learn an instrument of some sort, if not multiple ones. They were a peaceful people, whose music was known all over the galaxy… But when Dark Specter appeared, all that changed. They've been trying to rebuild their former glory, but it's been slow going. Still, so long as nobody tries to follow in Dark Specter's footsteps, though, they shouldn't have any more problems."

"So…" Kira thought out loud, "What does this mean for me?"

"It doesn't mean anything you don't want it to." She turned to see Conner smiling at her as if nothing had been said. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had thought this would make everyone see her differently; the looks on everyone's faces and the emotions she could feel coming off of them all told a different story. "What you choose to do now is entirely up to you."

Smiling back, she said, "I still have obligations here; I'd like to get through high school before even thinking of leaving the planet, plus there's the fact that I'm a Ranger here, and you guys need me." Although she had barely any mental training as of yet, she tried her best to project her unspoken feelings to them all; whether they were received or not, she couldn't tell.

Caroline looked up at Kira with sparkling eyes; she said with more than a hint of awe, "I know a princess…" Conner grinned at his daughter and tried to pull her onto his lap, though she lunged for what little space was between her father and Kira and snuggled in-between them; it was quite the heart melting scene.

Ethan, however, had had enough of it for now and stood up; looking to each of them in turn he said, "As gut wrenchingly cute as this is, I'm taking off; I have to get home to work on something." Conner started to disengage himself from his make-shift family, but Ethan held up a hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm gonna walk. Bye guys."

Ethan walked out the door just as Hayley was walking in. He excused himself and took off down the road. Tommy was about to greet her when he saw the look on her face. "What's wrong, Hayley?"

She half smiled and said, "I got a detection this morning from my computer in the back of the café… I'm not sure if you're gonna like it." She walked past the group and headed down to the Command Center; the others followed two steps behind. She sat at the computer terminal and punched up the same scan that her own computer had done but a few hours ago; within minutes a signature was pinging. She turned back to the others and asked, "Can you guess what this is?"

Tommy stared in disbelief. Most of the people gathered were confused as to what was going on. Conner, however, ventured a guess. "Another Dino Gem."

Everybody looked at him. He shrugged and Hayley said, "Exactly right. Anyways, it might be a good idea if we retrieve it before Mesogog detects it."

Conner looked over to Kira, who nodded. "We'll go." They got into position and called out, "Dino Thunder, Power Up, Hah!" In an instant, they were morphed; they looked over to Hayley and waited for her to teleport them.

She shook her head and said, "There's too much interference from that Gem to teleport within a couple of miles of it… Fortunately I was prepared for this eventuality…" She hit a couple of other buttons and a wall slid away, revealing a bay with four color-coded motorcycles. "These are the Raptor Cycles; I designed them for cases like these where teleportation was out for some reason." Conner and Kira nodded and headed for their respective cycles. Revving them up, they turned them towards the exit that led out to the forest. Before they headed out, Hayley called after them, "I'll keep the communications open to guide you there."

Hayley's directions brought them to a field far outside of town. Since she didn't have a precise location for the Gem to be found, they started a coordinated search of the general area, going out in a spiral. As Kira crested a ridge, she noticed what looked like a figure standing alone in the field. She turned and shouted, "Conner! I think I found something!"

He jogged up to her and she pointed towards what she found. It was a fair distance away, and had she not pointed to it, he likely couldn't have seen it from this position. He placed a hand on her back and said, "Good eyes. No wonder you pilot a flying zord."

She beamed back at him as they started towards the lone figure. As they approached, the figure turned out to be a stone statue; something in its forehead seemed to be either emitting light or reflecting it at a higher intensity. The closer they got, the brighter the light became. They were within a few meters when they first felt it… it was like a dull pain, like a mild headache. Kira could see her companion holding the side of his helmet like he couldn't concentrate. "You can feel it, too." She stated.

"Yeah, it's that thing in its forehead. I think that's the Gem we're looking for… It's shaped differently, though." The statue was not exceptionally tall, but with the base, the head was too far out of Kira's reach. Conner reached up and managed to pry the stone-like object out of its head; the mild pain continued as it had before, but now a strange sense of oppression washed over him. Kira could feel him getting more apprehensive just from holding it; she theorized that their suits were dulling whatever sensations that the gem was emanating.

Before she had a chance to speak her thoughts, a harsh voice rang out, "That does not belong to you! Hand it over or suffer the consequences!"

They looked up and found Elsa and a squad of Tyrannodrones at a distance from them; her sword was drawn and she looked quite angry. Conner handed Kira the White Gem and said, "Take this back to the Doc for analysis. I'll hold them off and follow you in a few minutes."

She hesitated for a moment before nodding and starting off for her cycle. She turned back and said, "Be careful, and don't get yourself hurt… Come back to us."

He nodded and said, "I promise; now get going! We can't let them have that Gem!" She turned and ran to where they had parked the cycles, revving hers up and speeding away. Once he saw she had made it, he turned back to the unwanted visitors and said, "Bring it on."

The 'drones charged him and he drew out his Tyranno Staff; he blocked several swipes and laid a few of his enemies out before breaking free of the throng and charging Elsa. She parried his staff swing and slashed back at him, the two of them trading blows back and forth. Elsa appeared to be getting more and more relaxed as the fight wore on, which unnerved the Red Ranger considerably; he hadn't noticed the opening and closing of several more Invisiportals throughout their fight. She disengaged from him suddenly, which caused Conner to stumble a little before reassuming a defensive stance. Before he knew what was really happening, hundreds of Tyrannodrones had surrounded him and were piling on top of him; try as he might, he couldn't escape from under their attacks. He disappeared in a sea of 'drones and for a moment, everything was still.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant red glow from the center of the crowd; Conner emerged from under the cover of the 'drones and began a fierce counterattack. He appeared several times stronger than he'd been before, with bony protrusions like spikes covering his Ranger suit. Several 'drones at a time were falling from each strike, and within minutes, none were left standing. He turned his attention to Elsa, who simply stared at him with her sword drawn; with a mighty snarl, the Red Ranger leaped at his lone adversary and began attempting to cut her down. She managed to block a few of the strikes with her sword, but with each swipe, new cracks were forming in the mighty blade. One time too many she attempted to defend herself with it and it finally shattered; Conner continued his assault and with a few cuts from the spikes Elsa was left crumpled on the ground and bleeding from several deep gashes. When there was no more retaliation, he stopped and finally saw what he'd done; he nearly threw up in his helmet from seeing the destruction he'd caused. The Ranger's transformation disengaged itself, and he was left in his regular suit. Realizing he had no business sticking around and feeling incredibly drained, he headed for his cycle and sped back to the Command Center.

Kira got into the Command Center and parked her cycle next to the others. She stayed morphed, however, because the suit seemed to help act as a buffer for whatever the Gem was emanating. She brought it over to the others by the computer and held the Gem out to show them she had it. Tommy asked, "Where's Conner?"

Kira drooped her head a little and replied, "Elsa and some drones attacked; he ordered me to get back here while he held them off, promising he'd follow." She closed her hand around the Gem before anybody could think to touch it. Tommy was holding his head like he had a migraine; Kira said, "You can feel it too, Dr. Oliver? Kind of like a dull headache and an oppressive force?" He nodded but said no word. He was about to reach out for it when she cried out, "No! Don't… at least not without morphing. I think the suit absorbs some of whatever this thing is putting out before it reaches us."

Tommy backed away from everybody and looked about ready to morph when Hayley jumped up and put a hand on the device. "Don't do that, either. That Gem's White, right? You're Black… I don't think you should be handling that thing, morphed or not. The effect will probably be amplified with you." She walked over to a corner of the Command Center and picked up a small glass dish. "Kira, please put the Gem in here. I'll put the lid on the dish and we can analyze it like that."

She did as she was told and waited for the sample to be in the analysis section of the base before finally demorphing. Once she was back in civilian form she turned to the forest entrance and softly said, "Come on, Conner… Where are you? You promised you'd be right behind me…"

She felt a tug at her sleeve, to which she looked down and saw Caroline staring up at her with concern in her eyes. She said, "Is my daddy coming back?"

Kira crouched down and pulled the little girl into a hug, whispering to her, "He promised he'd come back; just have faith that he'll return…"

They stayed like that for several minutes before they heard the sound of the door sliding open and the Red Cycle slowly ambling in to the base. Conner parked the vehicle before climbing off and slowly starting towards the others. Kira and Caroline raced up to him and hugged him, nearly causing him to fall backwards. He powered down while still embracing them and said, "See, I told you I'd come back…"

Kira felt his body go limp and she slowly lowered him to the floor. Billy rushed over and felt for a pulse while listening to his breathing. He said, "He's just exhausted. I'd suggest we find him a bed to rest in." He nodded to Tommy and Zach to help him carry the boy, and Tommy started to steer them into the next room. Billy looked at him and said, "No, Tommy; I said a bed, not a medical cot. He doesn't need treatment, he needs sleep. Don't you have a spare bedroom or something?"

Tommy nodded sheepishly and began leading them upstairs. Kira held to Caroline's hand as they followed them up. Another flight of stairs up and they managed to situate him in the bed. Conner hadn't stirred throughout the whole ordeal, which was bothersome to Kira, though since the others weren't worried, she supposed it was to be expected. Once the older men had left the room, Caroline let go of Kira's hand and jumped up onto the bed, curling up close to her father. Kira looked at the scene and decided that she didn't want to leave them alone; she crawled in next to them and whispered to the little girl, "Stay quiet so we can be here for him when he wakes up." She didn't reply; Kira found that she'd already fallen asleep. Smiling, she curled closer to the pair and fell asleep as well, having also felt a little strained from the day's events.

While the others were carrying Conner up the stairs, Hayley and Trini were marveling over the new Dino Gem in their midst. It was putting out far more energy than all of the other gems combined, and it had some strange encoding on it that seemed to resonate oppressiveness. The other Dino Gem holders seemed to have adverse reactions to it.

"I get the feeling that we don't want anybody to get access to this gem…" Trini stated.

Hayley nodded. "Even so, that doesn't mean that it won't be useful someday. After some testing, we may be able to remove whatever is causing this Gem to react this way."

While they were gauging the power of their new acquisition, Jason and Kimberly were worrying over Conner's status. Kimberly said, "What could cause a Ranger to exert himself that much? I know he was by himself, but that same thing never really happened to us… The closest was when Kat had stolen my Power Coin."

"Yeah, it's pretty unnerving. Still, though, we should be thankful he even came back at all." Said Jason.

Tommy, Zach, and Billy came down the stairs a moment later. Zach asked, "Was it such a good idea to leave them alone like that? I mean, they are teenagers."

Tommy laughed and shook his head. "Don't forget that his daughter is in there with him, and even if she wasn't, I trust them to not take things too far." He then smirked and said, "Besides, he's unconscious." He approached Hayley and asked, "So, what do we know?"

Hayley looked up at him and frowned. "We know we don't want anyone to have this Gem until we can remove the encoding from it."

Billy walked forward and asked, "What encoding?"

"It's emanating negativity. I imagine that whoever is supposed to have this is already a very angry person."

Tommy now frowned as well. "So it's evil?"

She shook her head. "I wouldn't say that. I'll admit that should the rightful owner get ahold of it they may turn evil, but neither is evil on their own."

Tommy gave it some thought before saying, "Well, at least we already know who it belongs to for certain, now." Hayley gave him a funny look, prompting him to continue. "The kids informed me yesterday that they ran into 'an oppressive destiny' at the café that morning. I think they mentioned his name was Trent, or something like that…"

Her eyes widened in shock. "Trent? As in my new employee Trent? He didn't seem to be off balance or anything…"

"He might be internalizing whatever is causing him to be qualified for this Gem. We should probably see if we can't help him through his problems, or at least find out why he feels the way he does."

Jason walked up behind them both and put an arm around each of their shoulders and said, "Well hey, why don't you just lock that Gem up for right now and lets all go out for some dinner, 'cause I'm hungry and I think we could all use the break!"