A/N: Hi!
Guest: Thanks :)
ChillPillBerry: Thanks for reviewing:)
Turned-By-William AKA Spike: Ty XD
hewhoreaps: Yep, Kim's being really considerate about Tommy. And Kira and Trent's relationship is about to hit the rocks.
brankel1: Thanks.
Hayley was currently running scans over the crystallized Black Ranger, in the Dino lab.
"Is he okay?" Ethan asked, the shock evident in his voice, even though they'd found Michael in this state a while ago.
"This internal scan should be able to tell us more," Hayley replied, putting the scanner down and waiting for the computer to process the information.
"What's the deal, is he frozen or something?" Kira questioned, coming to stand near Ethan. The pair of them had just about convinced Conner to stop hurling curses at the absent White Ranger and calm down. The red ranger was distraught about his father's condition.
"Not exactly, it's more like he's fossilized, fused into this amber-like substance," Hayley answered, trying to sound professional. Michael being in this state was affecting her more than anyone would ever know, except maybe Kimberly. But she had to be strong for the kids. Conner finally entered the lab and joined his teammates.
"Can you get him out?" Conner inquired, trying not to look at his father.
"Too risky, he's able to stay alive in there, but I hate to think what would happen if I broke him out," Hayley explained to the team.
"A palaeontologist turned into a fossil, the White Ranger has a great sense of humour," Ethan stated dryly.
"Personally, I've had enough of him," Kira declared, her head growing hot. Too much was going on and there simply wasn't enough time to handle it all. Kim stood there silently like she had been for the past few hours. Like Kira, she had been too absorbed by her love life and the White Ranger's dramas that she hadn't had time to think about anything else. She couldn't help but blame herself for the ordeal.
"Let's find out who this guy really is, and deal with him," Conner announced, feeling an insurmountable amount of rage directed towards the White Ranger. "Now."
"Maybe Hayley's got some ideas," Ethan suggested, as he, Conner and Kim stood near the entrance of the cybercafé, staring at its owner.
"She's far too busy," Kim observed, watching as Hayley and Kira disappeared behind a sea of thirsty teenagers. "Kira looks exhausted."
"Yeah, where's her boyfriend?" Ethan asked, scoping the area for Trent.
"Let's hit the streets," Conner proposed, crossing his arms. "It's not like the White Ranger is just going to walk in here."
As if on cue, Trent entered the cybercafé and squeezed past Conner and Kim.
When he reached the bar, both Kira and Hayley rushed forward to meet him.
"Hey, Trent," the purple ranger greeted with a grin, despite all the hard work she was doing.
"Hey," Trent responded half-heartedly, making her smile drop in an instant.
"Thank goodness, Kira and I are getting slammed here!" their red-head boss exclaimed, walking to the end of the bar. Trent followed while Kira went away to take another order.
"Hayley, listen I've got to talk to you," Trent urged.
"Later, grab a tray," Hayley ordered
"I can't, I'm quitting." The rangers, who were also at the bar right next to Trent, stared at him in surprise. Kira, who handed a smoothie over to someone at the bar, almost dropped her tray.
"Why?" Hayley questioned exasperated. "Trouble with your dad again?"
"No, it's not that. I just...I just have to quit." Trent forced out, backing away from the bar. "I'm sorry."
Kira ripped her apron off in frustration. Hayley gave her a somewhat fearful look. "Hayley, I'll be back. Kim, cover for me." Before waiting for an answer, Kira threw her apron in Kim's direction and followed Trent.
"Hey, wait a minute," she called, and Trent stopped, pushing the door slightly. "You're just going to bail on us like that?"
Trent looked back at Hayley, before turning his attention to Kira, "Yeah, I know it seems a little sudden."
"Don't you think you owe Hayley some kind of explanation?" Kira implored.
"You don't understand," Trent claimed, grabbing her hands. Kira was stunned by how sweaty his hands were. "Kira, something weird happened, and I feel like if I don't tell someone, I'm going to explode."
"What is it? You can tell me," Kira reassured him, squeezing his hands.
Just as he was about to answer her, Cassidy walked into through doors almost hitting them. Kira almost exploded at the blonde; she was always thinking about herself. Trent saw the fury in Kira's eyes and pulled her back towards him, telling her it wasn't worth it.
"Excuse people!" she called, "important announcement! Attention! Look at me!" Kira and Trent walked forwards to see what the commotion was about as Cassidy walked towards the stage. "I have to scoop of the century! Excuse me, girls, I need the stage." They all watched as Cassidy walked up the steps looking happy. "And as my faithful core audience, I thought I'd share with you guys first."
"What do you think this is about?" Ethan asked Conner, as they shared amused smirks.
"Maybe she's decided to run for Queen," Kira joked, glancing at the guys who chuckled.
"I have uncovered the identity of the one and only White Ranger," Cassidy announced, earning bewildered looks from the rangers, including Kim, and even Hayley. "And any minute now, my assistant Devin is going to come through that door with videotape evidence." Everyone gawked at the door, waiting for Devin. "Any minute." Cassidy laughed nervously. Conner and Ethan whipped back to look at the blonde while Kim and Kira shared anxious looks from across the room. "Where is he?"
Just then Devin run through the door looking like an idiot, as per usual. "Oh, Cas!" He called once he saw her, "I'm here! Sorry, I'm late!"
Cassidy rolled her eyes. "So?" Devin came to a stop next to her on the stage, "Devin, where's your camera?"
"See, that might be just... a little problem," Devin answered.
"Only if you don't have it," Cassidy threatened before Devin smiled nervously and whispered something in her ear.
"We're waiting!" someone from the audience yelled.
"Ladies and gentlemen..." Cassidy turned back to everyone. "It appears that the White Ranger is...taped on a camera that Devin stupidly loaned his sister, but when she returns it, I'll be sure to let you know."
Everyone in the cafe groaned while Cassidy turned to say something to Devin. Hayley and Kim shared disappointed looks while Kira sighed and turned to her right.
"So Trent?" she started. "What is it you wanted to say to me?" She quickly realized that Trent wasn't there anymore and looked around in confusion.
Trent was hanging around in the warehouse area by the docks when he started to feel his gem activating again.
"It's happening again," he moaned, glancing at his gem. He morphed into the White Ranger, against his will. "Now that's better."
The White Ranger was walking around the dock when Elsa and Zeltrax teleported near him via an invisiportal. "Looks like I've got company."
"We have a special invitation to you, from Mesogog!" Elsa announced, her voice booming with superiority.
"It's more of a command," Zeltrax elaborated as if it was a great honour to be chosen by Mesogog. "Join him or be destroyed."
"I don't know how many times I have to say it," the White Ranger complained. "I'm not interested."
"Maybe this will change your mind?" Zeltrax growled, sending waves of blue energy towards the White Ranger. He and Elsa then charged towards him, weapons drawn.
The White Ranger donned his Drago Sword and effortlessly took them on. He pushed Zeltrax away as Elsa locked her sword against his.
"Haven't we met?" he snarled, making the woman sneer in anger. He hurled her to the ground like a toy. Simply put, the pair of villains were no match for the evil ranger. "You guys are a joke."
The White Ranger swung his sword behind his neck just as the other rangers arrived on their raptor cycles.
"Hold it right there!" Conner hollered, dismounting his bike along with the others.
"Great, that's all we need," Elsa spat sarcastically, struggling to stand still.
"We don't wanna see you either!" Kim remarked.
"Whoa!" Ethan cried out, upon seeing the Mesogog's dogs with the White Ranger. He faced his leader. "Whose side do we take?"
"Good question," Conner answered.
"We'll make it easy for you," Elsa bellowed before she and Zeltrax vanished. The White Ranger turned to face his fellow rangers.
"If you had any sense you'd run too," he advised haughtily, pointing his sword at them.
"Dream on," Kira retorted, pointing at him.
"Let's do it," Conner ordered as they all pulled out their weapons. The White Ranger followed suit and easily slashed through Conner, Kim and Ethan, flinging them to the ground. Then he locked his sword with the handle of Kira's whip and shoved her up against a wall.
"Had enough?" he taunted, moving closer.
"Hardly," Kira roared. "Super Dino Mode!" She grew wings and the 2D spikes on her spandex suit sprung to life. The purple ranger pushed Trent off of her and attacked him, eventually flooring him.
"You'll pay for that," the White Ranger rumbled, drawing arrows in the air, "I'm taking you down." Kira was knocked to the ground by the arrows and lost her Super Dino Mode. Conner, Kim, and Ethan jumped in front of her to protect her.
"Lasers, fire!" The trio fired their thundermax blasters at the White Ranger only for him to deflect them. They joined Kira on the ground.
"That's enough," she shrieked, getting up and running towards the White Ranger. She tried to fight without weapons but he was too strong.
"You're a little out of your league, don't you think?" he jibed, before slashing her across her chest and once again sending her to the ground. "See my point?"
The White Ranger drew arrows again just as Kira stood back up, determined to defeat him, even though she was in pain. "Fire!"
Within seconds, Kira was on the ground, demorphed. The other three intervened, trying to protect the purple ranger but in vain; they ended up on the ground again. "Back off!"
The White Ranger approached Kira while he straightened his gloves. "Never did like the colour purple." He kneeled down behind her. "Well, Purple Ranger, time to say goodbye."
The White Ranger forced Kira into a sitting position by painfully wrenching her by the wrist. He raised his fist to punch her but stopped in his tracks when she peered up at him, her face contorted in pain and confusion. She was feeling a major sense of deja vu.
"Huh?" he spluttered. In that moment, he wasn't the White Ranger anymore but Trent. Memories of the good times he shared with Kira flashed across his mind. "Kira?"
Kira's heart plummeted to the underworld. She'd recognise that voice anywhere. Suddenly, everything started falling into place. She recalled Ethan telling her about Conner's joke: good guys don't wear white. And then his own joke back when they were watching Michael's video: maybe Trent could be a white ranger. Moreover, the way Trent was always exhausted, no matter what he was doing; he'd fall asleep in class when he never used to before... She closed her eyes in agony, unable to face the White Ranger, who was just gaping at her.
"I…I…Ah!" he howled, hopping to his feet. Trent Fernandez-Mercer and the evil of the white gem battled for control, giving him an awful migraine. Conner and Ethan took the time to gather their strength and get to their feet while Kim scurried over to Kira, helping her up. Kim was confused as she could clearly see that Kira was catatonic with grief, rather than anger. She suddenly saw a younger version of herself in Kira and wondered why.
"You ready?" Conner asked Ethan.
"Oh yeah," Ethan answered. "SUPER DINO MODE!"
Both boys launched themselves at the disoriented White Ranger. As he stood up slowly, they ganged up on him, kicking and punching mercilessly, giving him a taste of his own medicine. There was a massive explosion and the White Ranger decided to call it a day. "I'll be back!"
"Power down." Once the guys demorphed, they ran over to their female teammates.
"Kira?" Conner called gently, walking over to Kim's side, the still morphed yellow ranger releasing Kira so she could demorph.
"Are you ok?" Ethan asked in concern, as Kira swayed a little, holding her wrist.
"Yeah," she managed to reply before walking forward, in the direction the White Ranger had gone. "I'll be fine."
After the White Ranger's recent attack, Kira found herself wandering towards the lake clearing, somewhere she knew Trent would be.
"Trent?" Kira called, walking over to her crush who saw her and closed his sketchbook, "is that you?"
She sat down next to him on the bench, feigning innocence. She didn't want to confront him about it, she wanted him to tell her. "Hey, where did you go?"
"I'm sorry," Trent apologized, "I shouldn't have just taken off like that."
"Look, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on," Kira told him before he let out a sigh and showed her his drawing of the White Ranger. "Trent, if you're gonna dream about being a superhero, the White Ranger is not who you wanna be."
"I wish I had a choice," Trent told her.
Kira pursed her lips tightly, knowing this was it. Her fears were confirmed when Trent held out his wrist to show her the White Dino Gem Bracelet. "You!" Trent just nodded his head. "But you almost annihilated me."
"But I didn't," Trent told her. "Once I knew it was you..." Kira stood up as if she was about to leave when Trent got up and grabbed her hand.
"Let go of me," she demanded, pulling her hand away. The betrayal hit her full force. She had given him everything and all the while, he had been playing her. Did he ever have feelings for her or was it all a rouse to gain her trust?
"Kira, I couldn't help it!" he exclaimed. "The gem… it's changed me. I can't take it off or control what I'm doing. You've gotta believe me."
"Why should I?" Kira asked, looking away.
"Because I would never intentionally hurt anyone, Kira," Trent answered, bringing his hand up to her face and gently moving it to face him. "Especially you." She put her hand on top the tip of his; she could feel the warmth radiating from him, something that she'd always found to be sincere.
"I should have known my Trent could never be evil," Kira blurted out, blushing when she realised what she said. Her Trent. "I think I know some people who can help." Kira put her hand on top of the one he put on her face. "I'm going to get Kim, Conner and Ethan."
"Why them?" Trent implored.
"Well...because..." she trailed off awkwardly, unsure of what to say.
"Wait a minute," he interjected as it hit him. "Them too?"
"Hard to believe, but true," Kira answered, dropping her hand from his and he did the same. "Look, I need you to wait here till I come back."
"Okay," Trent agreed, making her smile. Kira nodded and left to find her friends. Sitting back down, he resumed drawing in his sketchbook until he was met with a nasty shock. A net came dropped down over him and he was hauled to his feet by a mob of tyrannodrones. Due to the struggle, the bench toppled over and the sketches went flying to the ground as their architect was dragged further away.
"What do you want?" Trent demanded as he grappled against the tyrannodrones. Unfortunately, they overpowered him and took him through an invisiportal.
"Trent?" Ethan repeated, the name sounding foreign to him. "Oh, there's no way."
"Nice," Conner grunted, punching a wall. "Pretending to be our friend one minute and then kicking our butts the next. I can't believe I fell for that."
"I told you he can't help it!" Kira argued, disgusted at Conner's opinion of Trent. "The gem is too powerful."
"Stop defending him," Conner told her, gentler than before.
"I'm with Conner on this one," Ethan agreed. "I'm mean, look at what he did to Doctor M." Kira turned to glance at her mentor before looking at her teammates again.
"So that's why you were so devastated when we saw him last. You knew, didn't you?" Kim spoke up for the first time, remembering what Kira was like when Trent demorphed her.
"Wait... you knew before?!" Conner spat out, clenching his fists. She didn't have to reply for him to know it was the truth. "My dad is encased in amber and you didn't think to tell me?! All you could think about was your boyfriend!" He chuckled sadistically.
"Why would you say that?!" Ethan cried out at his leader, seeing the hurt in Kira's eyes.
"How dare you! You're not the only one upset about your dad, so stop acting like it's all about you!" the purple ranger snapped. "I had to be sure first; that's why I didn't tell you earlier! I wanted so badly for it to be a whole misunderstanding but you'd never be able to understand... if you actually stuck to one of your 'babes' instead of five at the same time, every time, maybe you may have been able to comprehend how I feel now! If this is how you talk to one of your best friends, it's no wonder you haven't met anyone!"
Conner looked at the floor in shame, knowing he had gone too far.
"Okay, I think that's enough," Kim stated firmly, throwing Kira a glance that screamed that she understood. "It was like this with Tommy."
Kira only nodded and Tommy appeared at the doorway, as if on cue. He cleared his throat, having heard the argument from upstairs.
"Umm, okay, it's not really my place to tell you what to do but like Kim said, I was in this situation before. The White Ranger, or rather Trent, can't control his actions when he's under the gem's influence, the same way I couldn't combat Rita's hold over me. All I know is that if my team had given up on trying to help me when I was the evil Green Ranger, I wouldn't have been here today." Kim and Tommy shared a smile, as he came to stand next to her. After too much staring, Kim tore her gaze from his and turned to address the boys.
"We have to at least try and help him. We save innocent civilians almost every day but what kind of rangers would we be if we didn't even, at least, try to help one of our own?"
Kira smiled at both original rangers in thanks before turning to her boss.
"Hayley, he needs our help?"
"I don't think there's anything I can do," Hayley admitted hopelessly. "But I'll try."
Sadly, the attempt to help Trent had been futile. When they arrived at the lake clearing, Trent was nowhere to be seen. The boys, especially Conner, had been completely unhelpful and had told Kira not to trust him. The rangers were all currently back at the Dino lab, waiting for Trent's next inevitable attack.
"I'm picking up the White Ranger's signal," Hayley informed, from her seat at the computer. "He's back."
The quartet watched as Trent called on his dragozord and stegozord to come out of their waterfall cavern and form the Dino Stegazord.
"Great! Major megazord attack right off the bat," Ethan mumbled.
"This might be a good time to use a new dinozord," Hayley insisted.
"Let's do it," Conner agreed.
The four rangers stood in a line before the fossilized Michael.
"Kira, I'm sorry about before," Conner apologized, turning to his friend. "But we've got to do whatever it takes to stop Trent, you know that right?"
Kira nodded reluctantly, not really keen on fighting Trent again but knowing that Conner was right. As long as Trent posed as a threat towards civilians, they would always have to stop him.
"Okay, ready?"
"Ready!"
"Dino Thunder, power up!"
The primary trio of rangers leapt into their zords as they formed the Thundersaurus Megazord.
"Here you go guys, the ankylozord" Hayley notified.
An orange dinozord dug itself out of the ground to walk into between the two megazords.
"A new dino zord, ey? I'll add it to my collection."
"I don't think so," Conner retorted before the two megazords grabbed the ankylozord. The Thunderous Megazord and the Dino Stegazord proceeded to play tug of war until the ankylozord got fed up and sent both megazords to the ground. As Kira watched from the ground, she couldn't help but think that this fight represented the inner conflict she was going through now; that of her heart and her mind.
When the two megazords got back up they started to fight but the Dino Stegazord knocked Thundersaurus Megazord off its feet. However, the ankylozord sent explosives in the Dino Stegazord's direction, giving the good rangers time to recover. Soon enough, the Thunderous Megazord stood up once again and this time, it combined with the ankylozord.
"Lasers fire," Trent ordered, but the Thunderous Megazord simply deflected the lasers. Trent was finally defeated when the other megazord attacked his own with drills, flooring him. They all cheered before the Dino Stegazord got back up.
"Don't think this is over," Trent growled before he vanished. 'What should I do with you?' Kira thought to herself before sighing.
Kira stood by the lake, staring intently at one of Trent's White Ranger drawings in her hands, wishing she could just switch off her mind.
"I thought I might find you here," a voice claimed and she turned to see Trent standing there, looking normal again.
"Why didn't you wait for me?" she questioned, her voice full of emotion.
"I did, it's just…it's a long story," he said truthfully before looking down at the drawing in her hands. "You know it's funny...I always thought it would be cool to be a superhero. But…this isn't how I'd draw myself."
"Look... let us help you?"
"No, it's too late," Trent answered, shaking his head. "The gem's already taken over just like he said."
"Who?" Kira asked.
"It doesn't matter. I have to go away..." Trent paused to look over at Kira. "I have to go away; it's not safe to be around me."
"But..."
"Look I said no!" Trent shouted harshly, snatching the drawing from Kira's hands and tossing it into the lake.
"But you can't go away. What about me?" she choked. It wasn't fair.
For the first time, she'd met someone who had made her feel special but he also had to be someone she could never have. It was eating her up inside and she did everything she could to keep her tears at bay.
Trent felt bad when he saw how broken she was. "I'd stay if I could. But I'm doing this for you."
Kira nodded as the truth sank in. He was going to leave her either way, either physically or mentally.
"Be safe," she muttered, pulling him into a bone crushing hug. Trent nodded against her as he hugged her back. After a while, he gently pried her body off his to find her unable to look at him. Before he lost his nerve, he leaned in for a kiss so quick that by the time Kira realised, he was already scurrying off, leaving her heartbroken.
"Trent," she whispered quietly, finally letting her tears fall freely as she watched him go.
A/N: Now this one really is the longest chapter I've ever written for this fanfic and I think all the others too. REVIEW!