Summary: After being defeated, Dru and Sky share a last talk. Just old friends realizing how their relationship had been torn through the time. Realizing how they had, at some point, begun to be more strangers than friends.
Farewell, my old friend
Dru watches as Sky and the other Rangers neared him. Sky slipped his Delta Morpher from his pocket. Dru tried to stand up, but found it nearly impossible as his body ached from the recent fight. His breathing was heavy, and he locked gazes with Sky.
"Old friend," Sky begun, rubbing his wrist slightly, "you are under arrest." Sentenced the Blue Ranger, his Delta Morpher being pushed forward, as if to state there was no space for any retort.
Dru let out a quivering breath, eyes falling to the ground. So this was how it all ended. A small smile broke to his face as his arms were firmly pressed against the ground. Sky took his arms, pulling them to his back, and put the handcuffs around his wrists.
"Let's go guys." Sky muttered, hands around Dru's arms to help the Tangarian to his feet. The other Rangers nodded, and powered out of their Ranger outfit. Sky's hold never left Dru's right arm, which only made Dru smirk in amusement.
"Afraid I'll escape?" Dru asked in a mocking tone. Sky simply gave him a harsh and cold glare, successfully making the smirk slip away from his old friend's lips.
Dru sighed heavily at that. His clear eyes looked at the rest of the Rangers, noticing how they were far ahead of them both. Perhaps because he was walking with a slight limp.
"Can I tell you something, Sky?" The aforementioned male grunted in response, and Dru stood with his back straight and chin up. "I'm proud of how far you've come, my old friend."
Sky's blue gaze lingered on Dru's green eyes, searching for something. "Why proud?" He asked after some seconds.
"You've gotten good enough to overpower me. You've learned to not make the same mistake twice. And that's something not many achieve."
"If you are trying to worm your way out of this with compliments, it won't work, Dru." Dru let out a laugh at that. "What's so funny?"
Dru's head shook. "You. You have changed. I'm proud of that." Then he smiled wide, teeth showing. "Wild and wacky wouldn't fit with you being a Ranger, I suppose."
Sky's cheeks flushed, remembering all those times he had been "wild and wacky" alongside with Dru. He wasn't so proud of how he used to be. "People change."
"They certainly do, don't they?" The mischievous glee that shone though his eyes made Sky frown.
"Not all do it to be better."
Dru scowled. "It's all in one's perspective. I've followed the path that I deem to be better."
"Crime leads nowhere, Dru. What happened to you?"
"As you've said: people change." He answered with scorn. "Being a Ranger isn't everything, you know?"
"It is for me."
"But it wasn't for me." His green orbs landed once again on the floor, feeling certain bitterness fill his chest.
Sky bit his lip for a moment, dwelling on the past shared moments he had had with his once-friend. This Dru wasn't the one he had befriended years ago. The Dru he knew would have fought any other ideal that centered around selfishness. Or that's what he wanted to think. How could he be sure the old Dru would have done that? What guaranteed him that Dru wouldn't have caved in in those ideals had they been presented to him years ago?
Sky stopped in his tracks, Dru mimicking his action.
"What happened to us, Dru? Since when did we became so standoffish to each other?"
Dru smiled softly at that, feeling certain reminiscence in this moment. "We each took our decisions, that's it. Don't beat it to much, Tate. We became more strangers to each other when we took different paths."
"I don't blame you, though. I can see why power seems more alluring." He truly did, but it still made him want to punch some sense to his old friend.
"Then stop judging me, Sky. I see more benefits in power than in rightfulness."
Sky inhaled deeply, and later let out a long sigh. "I will miss you, you know? Just as I had met with my friend after a long time, and this happen. Way to ruin the moment, Harrington."
Dru let out a honest laugh, noticing the playful tone on Sky. "Hush, Tate. You are to blame too. Arresting and beating up your best friend? That's not the welcome party I had in mind."
Sky snickered. "Just me making things go wild and out of control. Like old times."
Dru shook his head once more. "Old times are to never be spoken of. I'm impressed how Crueger never kicked us out of the Academy."
"Well, we knew how to cover most of our mischief-making."
"We were the best back then."
"We were best friends, back then. Having each other's back." His smile faltered, and he closed his eyes. He was really going to miss that friendship he had once shared with Dru.
"Now look at us." His shoulders rose and shook slightly. "Nothing more but old friends, mere acquaintances. Merely…" A rueful smile stretched his lips and his melancholic gaze meet with Sky's sad gaze, "strangers. Nothing more than that."
It stung. To Sky, it hurt to hear he had lost a friend. He wasn't very popular with people, and gaining friends was definitely a hard task. Acknowledging he had lost a once-good friend was sad, in spite of the aforementioned friend trying to kill someone.
His eyebrows rose and he let out a small huff. "You'd think that would make this more easy."
Dru smiled at him, wrinkles appearing on the joint of his eyes. "And you will still do it." Sky nodded. "Whatever happens, Sky, promise me to never change that. Keep that rightfulness you have, man." He bit his lower lip, thinking for a second. "That's the only thing I ask you for. As the best friend I once was."
Sky felt astounded at such petition, never expecting it to come from Dru of all the people on Earth. Not the Dru that he was now, on the very least. He smiled nonetheless, noticing the remains of the old Dru, the Dru that had been, probably, the one to spare his life when Sky had followed him after he had shot Crueger.
"It's a promise of a best friend to another." Sky answered.
"SKY!" Said male turned to see Jack standing a few meters ahead. "Are you coming or what?!"
"I'm going, Jack!" And with that, Jack turned the corner, head shaking in disapproval.
"I'd tell you to promise me to never listen to that jerk." Dru said, chuckling. "But he was the one to see through me. He was the only to doubt my intentions and my presence at S.P.D."
"He's still a jerk." Sky huffed, resuming with his walk, dragging Dru with him.
"I agree. But he's got the instincts of a leader, he's just got to work 'em." Sky huffed in derision at that. Jack apparently was a better leader than he was. Even Dru recognized that. "Nothing you cannot get to if you work on your pigheaded way to be."
"Ouch. That's not nice to say."
"Trying to give you the last tips, Sky."
Sky grinned. "You've got a soft spot for me, don't you? Always helping me."
"Just making up for my past mistakes. Besides, unless you are told your flaws or said flaws lead to a disaster, you wouldn't even acknowledge them."
They both laughed at that.
"I'll seriously miss you, Dru."
"So will I. It's hard to find someone as wild and wacky as you used to be." Sky's smile spread from side to side. It was nice to share a talk with the old Dru. "So I have to bid you goodbye, my friend."
"Farewell, then, my old friend."
With a last shared honest smile, they got to where the others were, their vehicles awaiting them. Sky helped Dru to get to the back of Syd and Z's vehicle, and once he got him there, he went to ride his own vehicle.
On the ride back, he couldn't help but think on the Tangarian way to show a supposed ever-lasting friendship connection. If it really had meant something to Dru, he had shown his idea he had of their friendship when he had blasted his bracelet into pieces, on the process his life being spared and his wrist being hurt. Sure enough, then. A bracelet didn't mean he would share a friendship with his old friend until the end of his days. Jack was right on that one, Sky begrudgingly admitted to that.
But they had shared some memories, and they had gotten attached to each other to the point the could fall back in their old routine when the mood allowed it. Maybe that wasn't friendship, but they were still something. Unlike Dru's words, Sky felt they were something more than strangers, if only a little bit more than that. Less than acquaintances or friends, but more than strangers. To people that had, in some point of their lives, shared experiences that would forever be a memory they would hold to.
They weren't friends, not as they were now. Their thoughts colliding and clashing in a battle of oposite sides, and their belief not helping at all. But still, they were more than strangers. They knew each other just enough to be able to predict certain behavior, to which Sky though gave him enough right to claim to himself that, even if Dru and he were no longer friends, they still shared a certain connection. One that no Tangarian or human way of expressing affection would ever understand.
Because Sky and Dru can't simply part their ways without some kind of err... reconciliation? I dunno! I guess these two should have shared more moments as friends.
BESIDES! LOOK, BEHOLD! Now one can pick Dru Harrington as a character! If you've written any story 'bout him, don't hesitate to use it!