Worthy
On the two hundredth and thirty-second day of his imprisonment, the Earth was saved.
Metallic silver dust swirled and danced as the outer doors opened. Giganus heard footsteps and felt faint vibrations on the floor. He cracked his neck, one side and then the other, before willing himself back to his human form. Muscles, bones and sinews shifted and stretched until he was no longer the monster Giganus, but the charismatic young man known as Dru Harrington.
He never showed his true form to the guards. It was poor etiquette, and besides, he preferred that they think of him as human — soft, fleshy, weak. After so many years of deception, the persona came naturally. His manners were impeccable; his smile easy-going and friendly. Dru Harrington was someone you could like.
There were ten thousand, seven hundred and fifteen days left in his sentence. On the barren, desert-covered second moon of Tangar, the days were intolerably long, stretching out to thirty-two Earth hours. He spent twenty-eight of them here, trapped in the solitary world of his cell. His world was five paces long and four deep. It had a toilet, a sink and a hard bed chained to the wall. There were no windows, only a door though which he could see the cell across the hall. The other prisoner was a petty thief, inarticulate and unambitious. Every time Dru looked at him, the thief averted his gaze and slunk to the far side of his cell.
The thief understood that even here, in this lowly place, Dru had connections. His family clan was the wealthiest on Tangar and their influence had spared him from a lifetime of hard labor in the Galactic Core. Nobody in this provincial, backwaters prison dared to treat him with disrespect.
Every morning, the guards brought him the current issue of Galactic Times on a tamper-proof, titanium-encased datapad. Dru devoured every word once, twice, countless times until the next issue came. He memorized the pictures and created elaborate panoramas in his mind. Today was a special issue.
"Troobians defeated!" The headline blared. "Earth rangers victorious!" Anubis Cruger was on the front page. Once a refugee from a devastated world, the Commander was now the only-living Hero of the Galactic Republic. Dru sneered at the pictures of Broodwing and Gruumm, confined within their cards awaiting transport. He pored over the images of Newtech City, searching for familiar places amidst the destruction.
There was one photo that he wished he could forget. It was buried below the text on the sixth page, as if it's inclusion was an afterthought. The photographer had caught his subjects in an unguarded moment. Sky was turned slightly away from the camera as he gave a rare half-smile to a cadet with wild brown hair and gloved hands. The subtitle said, "Earth rangers, Sky Tate and Bridge Carson." Looking at the photo, Dru felt something rise up in him, a murderous, maddening feeling of wounded pride and jealousy.
Sky had rejected, abandoned, betrayed him. Dru understood that. He even forgave him. It was natural self-interest, and self-interest ruled all. But this — this was intolerable. Dru stared at the green ranger and wondered when he had been replaced. He wondered why Sky would settle for less.
"Why?"
He remembered Bridge from the academy. Bridge was the loser, the cadet who would never amount to anything, an awkward, slender teenager who was small for his age and shy around others. His classmates bullied him mercilessly, going far beyond the usual pranks and hazing. He cried himself to sleep every night. Dru lost thirty credits on a bet that Bridge would drop out within the first month.
"Why him?"
Bridge was the freak. A secret that large couldn't be kept for long, and soon the entire Academy knew about his powers. Even people who had once been friendly to Bridge now shunned him. Someone circulated a petition to expel him, on the grounds that his presence endangered the other students. The petition got a thousand signatures from cadets and concerned parents. Cruger had flatly refused. Bridge would stay, the Commander said, and his word was final. After that, half of the cadets avoided Bridge like he was contagious, flattening against the wall as he passed. The other half ignored him.
Bridge was hard to ignore.
Hard for Dru, and impossible for Sky. It was all so clear in retrospect. Sky and Bridge were drawn to each other, even back then. Sky remained silent when others laughed. He reported the bullies and defended Bridge against malicious rumors. Sky made countless enemies that year. Even Dru began to distance himself from the formerly popular cadet. If Sky wanted to commit social suicide, that was fine, but Dru had no intention of going down with him.
Then the unthinkable happened. Sky and Bridge were both promoted to D-squad. Maybe Dru could have tolerated taking orders from Sky. But he couldn't serve under an officer who knew his secret weaknesses, his deceptions, his doubts in S.P.D. and himself. He requested a transfer to the Nebula Academy the next day.
"He doesn't deserve to be your friend."
When he returned to Earth, he was prepared. He kept tight control over his emotions at all times. He buried all thoughts of his true mission deep behind mental shields.
But while Sky accepted him with open arms, Bridge remained suspicious. Was it their past history, or some hidden flaw in his defenses? Dru supposed he would never know. Broodwing's masterful training against mental probing worked. The psychic remained distant, never daring to confront him. Even with all his powers, Bridge was incapable of stopping him.
"He's not worthy."
Dru was proudly guilty. He had nearly killed the Commander. He had come closer to accomplishing that feat than anyone in the galaxy, even Gruumm. He knew the consequences for failure when he accepted the mission, and he was ready to face them. There were no last renunciations, no tearful pleas for leniency.
Sky never asked him why he did it — but that was to be expected. Sky had never doubted, not once, his place in life. He was the son of the A-squad red ranger. He was the most disciplined, strict and righteous cadet at the Academy. But who was Bridge?
He was nobody.
He was worse than nobody. Dru snarled in rage and hurled the datapad across the prison cell.
"I don't understand!"
~the end~
A/N: Please review!