Ethan couldn’t help but think of Angela as they stood there, trying to work out how to foil Mesogog’s latest evil plan. And to his surprise, more than her offer to save him a place he kept remembering her smile, and the way she’d known instantly what he was talking about.

He wanted to see her again.

“What’s up?” Kira muttered at him. “You look distracted.”

“Just thinking.”

She nodded, misunderstanding. “I can’t believe it either.” She looked down at the unconscious woman on the table before them. “I wonder what she did to make Mesogog do this to her. And why Zeltrax had her. None of it makes sense.”

“Well, we’ve rescued her,” he said. “That’s what matters.” And there was something he never thought he’d be saying about Elsa. But like that, lying on the table, she just looked like any other woman.

Dr. O handed the scanner he’d been using to Hayley, and turned to look at Trent. “Trent, do you know what happened?”

Across the table, Conner looked away, and Ethan knew it was at the reminder that Trent had been visiting Mesogog’s lair. It was enough to make any of them uncomfortable, but Conner had been against the plan most of all. Not that he’d told Trent, of course.

“Mesogog’s powering up a laser that will transform humans into mutant dinosaurs,” said Trent, walking around to stand beside Conner. Conner shifted a few inches away. “He drained Elsa of her energy to use for the beam.”

Hayley shook her head. “That can’t be enough to run that kind of equipment.”

“He’s going to use the dino gems to get the rest of the power.”

Okay. Something about that sounded slightly wrong. Like the fact that Trent sounded so certain Mesogog would get the gems.

“What do you mean he’s going to use the dino gems?” asked Conner.

“Yeah, how’s he going to get them?” said Ethan.

Trent shrugged. “I’m going to give them to him.”

Conner turned to face Trent more fully, and Ethan wondered if getting between them would be a good idea. On the one hand, it might stop this developing into violence. On the other, Conner looked pissed enough that it might be best not to get in his way. “I’m not going to give anyone my gem,” said Conner.

“Just hear me out,” said Trent. “You want to get onto that island. Mesogog wants the gems. If I hand them to him, I can open a portal for you. Once you get inside, you can destroy the beam and Mesogog in the process. And I can rescue my father.”

“No way,” said Dr. O. “It’s too risky.”

“Do we really have another choice?” asked Hayley.

“She’s right,” said Kira. “I mean, he’s going to get that thing going eventually. This could be our only shot.”

----

For a moment, Trent thought Conner was going to refuse to hand his Dino Gem over. The other boy stood frowning, the red stone clenched in his fist. But then he uncurled his fingers, reaching out to put it in the case with the others.

Trent did his best to keep the relief off his face. Conner would probably take it the wrong way.

“This better work,” said Conner. He didn’t need to add any threats: they all knew the possible consequences if it didn’t.

But Trent forced those thoughts out off his mind, nodding as confidently as he could. “I’ll call when the portal’s open.”

He took one glance at Dr. O before leaving, going on his own to the one place he could be certain of finding an invisiportal.

Home.

----

He arrived in the green-grey hall that led from the basement to the main laboratory. The doors were just a few meters away, and he walked towards them, clutching the silver box containing the Dino Gems tight against his side.

He tensed as the doors slid open. For a moment, he hoped the lab would be empty. And for a moment, he thought it was.

But then he saw movement in the shadows, and there was Mesogog, sitting on his throne and staring straight at Trent.

“It’s about time,” he growled, getting up. Trent forced himself to keep walking, reminding himself of all the times he’d confronted Mesogog in the past.

He’d just never been holding a box full of Dino Gems before. But he knew the part he had to play, the part Mesogog was expecting. Any hint that Trent intended to double-cross him, that this was a trap . . .

Mesogog reached out a claw. “Now give me the Gems.”

Trent yanked them away. “Not so fast! Where’s my father?” He looked away, realizing as soon as he did that it was a mistake.

Mesogog’s mind-beam hit him, his skull suddenly seeming to spasm with pain. He barely noticed falling to the floor, his legs collapsing under him. He grabbed his head with his hands, as if digging his fingers into his temples would help.

Silver glinted in front of his eyes, and he realized that Mesogog held the box. Even through the pain he managed to grab at it, but Mesogog pulled it easily out of reach.

“You should know by now,” Mesogog gloated. “That I can’t be trusted.”

----

Conner sat between Kira and Ethan, strapped in and watching as the cliff in the distance grew quickly closer. He tried not to think about what would happen if Trent didn’t manage to open the portal for them.

There wouldn’t be enough room to stop in time.

“Hayley, are we at speed yet?” asked Dr. O from the front, where he sat beside Hayley.

“Almost. Better hope Trent’s ready.”

The cliff seemed to be rushing towards them faster and faster. “A few more ticks,” Hayley said, her voice tense. And then, “We’re at speed!”

“There’s no portal!” Ethan cried. The cliff in front of them stayed clear and solid. Too solid. Conner braced himself instinctively, knowing that if the portal didn’t appear nothing he could do would be enough.

“Everyone hang on!” yelled Dr. O. To Conner’s right, Kira gasped, closing her eyes for a moment.

They were only seconds from hitting the cliff. Conner could make out individual cracks in the rock as they hurtled towards it.

Then a white light appeared. It swirled, taking an agonizingly long time, but then green light flashed, a black hole appearing in the centre.

“It’s open!”

----

Trent fell back from the control panel, his muscles still too wracked with pain to let him do anything but lie there. But an alarm had started to blare, and Mesogog spun back towards him.

“You . . . You did this!”

“You should know by know you can’t trust me,” he said, throwing Mesogog’s words back at him with all the bravado he could muster. “It’s over Mesogog. You’re finished!”

But Mesogog didn’t even seem to hear him. “Thanks to your precious Dino Gems,” he said. “The world will soon worship at my feet! And this planet shall be as it once was: in the claws of the mighty reptiles.”

And with Trent helpless to do anything but watch, he powered up the beam. “No!”

Mesogog laughed. “Did you really think you could stop me? You are unimportant now, as is your father.” He nodded towards the viewing screen, which now showed tyrannodrones arriving to prevent the others from destroying the beam. “And your friends.”

----

Conner almost felt cheated. Here they were, on Mesogog’s island, unable to morph, and all Mesogog sent to fight them was tyrannodrones?

He decided not to voice this thought to the others. The fight had been difficult enough. He had been the only one able to catch the speeding truck; the only one able to clamber onto its roof to fight the tyrannodrones there trying to destroy the laser Hayley was going to use to destroy the beam. But now he kicked the last one away, watching it sail over the edge, falling against the trees lining the dirt road.

The laser looked pretty battered. Conner crouched down, feeling unsteady on his feet now he was still. He struggled with the laser, trying to force it down into its original position. The heavy metal groaned, and he worried for a moment that he’d damaged it even more.

But there. That looked like it had when they set off, right? “Hayley, is that good?” he called into his communicator.

“Close enough, get out of there!” came the response.

“Right.” Conner took a look off the edge of the van, judging the distance to the ground and the speed they were moving at. Then he felt the laser grow hot against his back, and jumped, white light exploding behind him.

----

Trent yelled in shock, raising his hands instinctively to cover his eyes. White light exploded around him, sparks flying from the control panel. He heard glass shatter, metal buckling and screaming as it twisted under the force attacking it.

The laser. It had worked! The others had done it!

But he didn’t have time to celebrate. A fire burned behind him. In front of him, metal beams fell to the grounds. And in the midst of all the chaos stood Mesogog, a dark shape against bright light destroying all around them.

The Dino Gems. Mesogog couldn’t do anything. His lab was falling apart around him. Trent watched as he danced out of the way of flying sparks and debris from what had once been the laboratory wall. Trent scrambled up, forcing his body to move as he grabbed the silver box and then the Dino Gems.

Yellow, white, blue, black, red. All of them. He shoved them in the box, not bothering to nestle them into the neat indents supposed to keep each one in place. As he did, his communicator bleeped.

“Trent!” came Hayley’s voice, barely audible above the noise. “You’ve got to get out of there before the portal network shuts down!”

Not yet. “I’ve got to find my father.” Something else exploded, making spots dance before his eyes. “I’ll be right there, I know another way out.”

“Trent, there’s no time! Go, now!”

There wasn’t time to reply. If he spent anymore time in the lab he’d be killed. Everything was exploding, collapsing, or just simply disintegrating.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mesogog slump to the floor.

He ran, through the halls and down stairs towards the prison cells. The lower floors seemed more intact, not yet suffering the same level of destruction as the lab. He still had to be careful. As he ran, he felt the floor move under him. For a moment, it felt like the whole island was trembling.

No time to think about it.

“Dad!” he cried, seeing the prison cells. The blast seemed to have disabled their locking system; his dad lay half-in, half-out of his cell, slumped on the ground. “Dad, come on, we’ve got to get out.”

“Trent,” he dad muttered as Trent grabbed his shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

Trent flinched as something nearby erupted with sparks, then sent fragments of white-hot metal flying across the hall. They had to get out of here.

“This is my fault,” his dad muttered.

“Not now, dad.” Trent hauled him up, finding strength he didn’t know he still had.

It was a good thing he did. He’d not pulled his dad more than three steps before a tyrannodrone appeared out of the smoke, followed by others: a gang of them, trying to escape the destruction. But as soon as they saw Trent, they forgot all instincts of self-preservation.

They’d been created to fight, and that’s what they did.

One swung at Trent, who somehow managed to kick it against the wall while still holding his dad. But then one grabbed him, and he had to let go to free himself. His dad fell back against the wall, but Trent couldn’t check if he was alright. If they were going to get out, this needed to end fast.

He grabbed another, throwing it against the wall with a grunt. Two more stood in front of him, stupidly surprised at the speed with which he’d moved. He kicked both of them, knocking them back. The exploding building did the rest of his work for him, enveloping them in a cloud of smoke.

But then he heard crashing behind him. “No! Dad!”

He grabbed his dad’s arm, still clutching the silver box containing the Dino Gems with his other hand. And then he ran, now ignoring anything else. All that mattered was finding the invisiportal. He didn’t let himself think of the possibility that it wouldn’t appear, that with the lab’s destruction the portals would cease to work.

But it wasn’t just the lab anymore, he realized. From deep under their feet came a low rumbling, and the building shook with more than the force of the explosions. The whole island was going to die, sinking back into the sea.

The portal had to appear. It had to. It had to.

There was a flash of green light. Trent thrust his father towards it. White light blinded his eyes, and he squeezed them shut.

He felt like he was flying. Then solid ground slammed against his feet, and he looked up.

The relief on Conner’s face was clear and bright as the others ran towards them.

Trent tried to push himself up, still clutching his father’s arm.

They’d done it.

----

“I just can’t believe how it’s all ended,” said Kira. She gestured around the Cyberspace. “I mean, it just seems mad, that after all that’s happened . . .”

“We can still sit here and drink smoothies?” Trent asked.

She nodded. “Exactly.”

‘Mad’ was a good word for it. He could still hardly believed that he had escaped from the island alive, but since then enough had happened to make him want to just sit down and laugh. It seemed the only appropriate response.

Zeltrax destroyed the Dino Lab, then arrived to terrorize the city in a zord capable of flattening mountains. Trent couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness when he thought about how Conner and Ethan had defeated it—by combining all their zords, and then self-destructing. He supposed he should just be glad it was only the zords they’d lost. He still remembered his moment of panic when he’d thought Conner was dead . . .

Kira gave him a gentle kick under the table. “What you thinking about?”

“Just everything that’s happened.”

She nodded. “Mesogog returning. That was whack. That transformation he went through . . . I swear, I’ve never seen anything that ugly in my life!”

He couldn’t help a grin. “Zeltrax, actually. I was feeling sad about the zords. But, yeah, Mesogog too . . .”

“We defeated him.”

But she made a face, the memory obviously not cheering her up anymore than it did Trent. He felt for his wrist, the bracelet that had once held his Dino Gem now missing.

He still had it, but now it was just a pretty piece of white rock, its energy used up in defeating Mesogog.

“Let’s talk about something more cheerful,” said Kira. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I got some really good news yesterday. About the prom.”

“What?” He couldn’t imagine her getting this excited over a date . . .

She grinned. “My band is playing!”

“That’s great!”

“I know. I’m so excited. But don’t tell Conner or Ethan, alright? I want it to be a surprise.”

As if he would have the chance. Since their Ranger duties had ended, Trent had hardly spoken to either of them. He’d given up his job at the Cyberspace to start spending more time with his dad, and although he still came often Ethan was usually engrossed in his latest game.

And Conner . . . well. Conner was a subject he still didn’t like thinking about. He’d heard through the grapevine that Conner had been concentrating on his soccer, putting in extra practices in an effort to make up for the time he’d spent as a Ranger. He’d been skipping math to do so.

Kira watched him sympathetically. “He still likes you, you know.”

At least Kira hadn’t changed. Trent tried to smile at her, shrugging. “I wasn’t really planning to go to the prom. But if you’re playing . . .”

“I probably wouldn’t have either if not for this. But, you know, Conner was really excited about it.”

“Who’s he going with?” Probably some blonde-haired cheerleader who’d wear a tight dress.

But Kira just grinned. “Krista.”

“Krista?”

“I know, isn’t it sweet? But he told me in secret, so don’t tell anyone else. I think he’s a bit embarrassed about it, to be honest.” She grinned again. “So, you see, there might be a reason for you to go after all.”

----

It was quite popular for students at the prom to occasionally wander outside, looking for a little fresh air and privacy with their dates. The teacher’s tended to turn a blind eye, taking the view that saying they were leaving soon anyway it didn’t really matter what they did anymore.

Conner, of course, wasn’t outside so he could have some privacy with his date, but so she could show him a tree. Apparently after having the honor of helping her plant it he should have checked up on it now and then.

They headed slowly back towards the lights of the school, neither of them in any rush to return to the crowded hall. Conner’s friends had seemed slightly taken-aback by his choice of date, and conversation had gotten awkward after Krista had told one off for not re-using his plastic cup.

He didn’t care much. He couldn’t imagine staying in touch with any of them, with the possible exception of Derek. He could, however, imagine staying in touch with Krista.

Who had stopped walking.

Conner stopped as well, about to ask why when he saw the figure walking towards them.

Trent.

Great.

“Conner,” said Trent, stopping a few yards away. He hesitated, glancing at Krista before looking back at Conner.

She got the message. “I think I have something I need to do. Conner, I’ll see you later, okay? I think the band’s going to start playing soon.”

Abandoning him and giving him an way to cut short the conversation in one. He watched her go, wishing he could leave with her.

“Conner,” Trent said again. “Can I talk to you?”

He couldn’t say no, not really. Not without sounding like a five-year-old. “Okay.”

“I just . . . I just want to say I’m sorry. Again, I know. But I am, really am.”

He hated to hear Trent sounding upset. “I know you are. But it doesn’t change anything.”

“I regret it, as well. I was scared, that’s all. Scared of what might happen to my dad, and scared of losing you . . . but I know I should have told you. I should have trusted you.”

Conner shrugged, so uncomfortable he wanted to run. But he couldn’t, not and leave Trent standing here. He had to say something. “I do understand why. I just . . .” Just couldn’t forget how betrayed he’d felt.

“Is there any chance? I mean, that you and I can . . . If we just pretended that none of it ever happened?”

“But it did happen, Trent. That’s the point. It happened.”

“No. I know. That was stupid, sorry. It’s just that . . . I find it difficult to trust people. After my parents died . . . I just stopped. And maybe that’s why I never noticed anything wrong with my dad until it was too late, and why I hid so much. But . . . I think I do trust you.” He paused, half-turning away. “I . . . I . . . I love you.”

Conner felt frozen to the spot. He remember lying in bed besides Trent, wanting to say those words but feeling too afraid of how Trent would react. And now Trent had said it, and he wanted to tell Trent but he couldn’t. He blinked, swallowing hard and trying to find some response.

Trent got there first. “Sorry. I just . . . no.” He paused, then nodded back towards the school. “Do you want to go back inside? Ethan’s probably turned up by now. He said the film finished at . . .”

Conner didn’t care what Ethan was doing. “Trent, no.” He took a deep breath, unable to think what he wanted to say. “Look . . . do you want to . . . do you want to meet up sometime? After this?” When he’d had a chance to think.

Trent smiled. “I’d even come play soccer with you.”

----

Krista didn’t seem to mind that her date now involved three people. They stood together as Dr. O got up on stage to do his speech, and the only person Conner noticed glancing sideways at them was Ethan, who probably wondered what was going on.

Conner would update him later.

Dr. O finished, stepping aside as the curtains opened and a familiar song started to play. “Kira!”

Beside him, Trent was grinning. “You like her surprise?”

“You knew?” Kira was going to get it for this. But then she started to sing, grinning down at them all.

And Conner felt Trent’s fingers brush against his palm.

----

You gave me something more
Than I’d ever felt before
We could be
Falling in love.

Just a little more time and
Just a little less thinking
Just a little more time is
All that I need.

Just a little believing
Just a little more breathing
Let’s give it time.

--