CHAPTER TWO- "Idol"

"I'd rather have an enemy who admits they hate me, instead of a friend who secretly puts me down." -Author Unknown

Ten years later…

Thock. Thunkthunk. Thock.

Newly-appointed SPD Blue Ranger Sky Tate threw a jab, jab, and a cross at the punching bag he'd strung up between his and Bridge's beds in their quarters at SPD HQ. His eyes were laser-focused on the blue bag. Sweat beaded around his blue uniform t-shirt.

Looks like Christmas came early this year!

Fight the enemy-not each other.

Blue? I'm supposed to be the Red Ranger!

Thunk. Thunk.

You used to love this game!

Another voice, just a hint of an accent. Think fast, Schuyler!

Sky paused. It was a given that whenever she'd called him Schuyler, she was in it to win it. She would've given him so much hell about being Blue Ranger, knowing how much he wanted to be Red. The difference was, she wouldn't have been malicious about it. It would have been teasing, but she would be sympathetic to him in the end. Knowing Sky. Knowing his reasons.

Sometimes, he wondered if she'd been the only person to ever really understand him besides his mother.

He lashed out with a foot, sending the punching bag flying towards Bridge's bunk.

All these years of work…all that for nothing! Four years top of my class, and it's Jack Landors in Red instead of me! Jack, who just wandered in off the street and became a Ranger. Red Ranger. Jack, who during his first week as Red Ranger completely abused his position of power.

Jack, who didn't understand the responsibilities, and the clearance that came with stepping into that uniform.

Sky did. Sky'd been working toward that black #1 on his chest since he was old enough to walk.

It's obvious he wants to keep me as far from the action as possible.

The dressing down from Cruger over the diamond incident had stung more than he wanted to admit. He and his commander had never seen eye to eye since…not since that night. Sky had mostly tried to stay out of Anubis Cruger's way at the Academy, following orders and keeping his nose to the ground.

Sometimes he wondered if he'd been made Blue Ranger because Cruger didn't want him to have access to the WitSec list. A-Squad Red Ranger had that clearance. Second in command on the B-Squad meant he'd have to work that much harder to get into that position. B-Squad Red would've been a nice step up the ladder. And even with Charlie Ayers, the current A-Squad Red, MIA, it didn't mean Jack automatically received that information.

And somehow, Sky thought, throwing a combo at the punching bag, he was pretty sure that if he asked Jack to find a way into the WitSec list, Jack wouldn't do it. He and Jack weren't friends.

Not like her.

He'd made it through boot camp and beat patrol with Syd and Bridge purely out of familiarity. The three of them had grown up together, along with Luna Oliveira. Out of the four of them, he and Luna had been the closest through school. Luna had had no desire to join SPD, but Bridge, Sky, and Syd had been all for it.

I wouldn't look good in the uniform, Luna'd joked with them. And Syd, you really wanna wear just one plain, boring outfit for 12 hours every day?

Well, we can't all be as high maintenance as you! Syd had teased her back.

You just don't want to have to take orders from your boyfriend, Bridge had told her.

Sky saved Luna the trouble of giving him a whack in the back of the head.

If he was honest with himself, he missed those days when the four of them were close like that. It had all changed that night…after Luna…

As they got older, as Sky's ambition grew to get the better of him, they'd drifted apart. He'd seen glimpses of their old friendship here and there-Syd's teasing him with the diamonds that day had been a good example-but they weren't as close as they had been before the night that everything had changed. A piece of their puzzle was missing.

A piece of the puzzle that Sky was sure he could find, and put together…if-

The bag came swinging back at him, and Sky wrapped his arms around it, leaning his head into the fabric and closing his eyes.

Not gonna happen, Sky, he reminded himself. Jack's Red, and he's not giving up that position anytime soon. Get used to it.

He'd just have to find another way to find her. There had to be another way. Ten years of ground work. He wasn't going to quit now.


It just keeps getting better, Sky groaned inwardly a few weeks later. He, Jack, Syd, and Bridge were in the command center, under the pretense of holding down the fort while Cruger was gone. Sky was reading a field manual, biting his tongue at the fact that Jack had his feet kicked up on the main console and Bridge was half asleep in the ops chair. Some highly-efficient squad we are, Sky thought, rolling his eyes.

"Whoa. This place is jumpin," Z Delgado interrupted the silence. She startled Bridge enough that his head slipped off his arm and he nearly toppled out of his chair.

"Tell me about it," Jack agreed. "No aliens vaporizing stuff, no giant robots stepping on buildings-"

"Jack!" Syd's voice said sharply, but the Red Ranger ignored her.

Typical, Sky thought, setting down his book, and joining Bridge and Syd at the console. His eyes widened at the code rolling across the output monitor. Holy….that can't be-

"JACK!" the three rangers barked, and, Sky noted with some satisfaction, that ticked off their team leader enough to set down his comic book.

"What?" Jack barked back at them.

"A UFO just entered our airspace and is on a crash course for the center of town," Bridge reported.

Their team leader hopped off his chair and came over to join them at the viewscreen. Sky watched realization dawn on Jack's face. "Next time, Bridge, don't wait until the last minute to tell me!"

Bridge's face crunched into a frown, and Sky rolled his eyes, putting a hand on Bridge's shoulder as the five of them moved to morph and rush down to the Zord Bay. "Ignition!" Sky announced, fully aware that was Jack's call to make, and not his own. The Zords rolled out on an intercept course with the unidentified object, now a fiery bullet in the sky above the city.

Before the Zords could move to slow it down, the object slammed into a roundabout and burst into flames. Nice going, Jack, Sky shook his head in annoyance, praying that there hadn't been anybody there. Fortunately, it was early enough in the morning that there hadn't been any traffic. Bridge put the flames out with the Zord's water cannon.

Sky's readout blipped, and behind his visor, his eyes narrowed. "I'm seeing signs of life," he announced, using the Zord's thermal camera to zoom in on the object. Pieces of the hull were still reds and yellows, but in all the debris, he could make out a smaller figure, humanoid, in a lighter shade of red and yellow, moving around outside the craft.

"That ship is SPD!" he heard Z exclaim.

"I'll check it out," Sky decided, exiting his Zord and taking off at a run. "Hold it!" he yelled, blaster drawn at the pilot of the craft, who didn't appear to be any worse for the wear. They was wearing an SPD-issue flight suit and helmet and, Sky noted…there was something awfully familiar about the way the pilot said, "Boy, am I glad to see you guys. Sorry about the crash landing. I was chasing a criminal and I lost control."

I know that voice. It was one Sky never thought he'd hear again.

By this time, the others had caught up. "Are you all right?" Syd questioned the pilot.

In response, the pilot reached up to remove their helmet. They pulled it off to reveal a shock of brown hair and a humanoid face with distinct ridges over the eyebrows. "Yeah. Just a little shaken up," the pilot said breathlessly.

Sky was thrown back to a moment in boot camp, years ago, out on the high ropes course.

The cadet in front of him was swinging helplessly near the top of the rope, twenty feet in the air. On the platform, Sky stood, waiting his turn for it.

"Harrington! Get your ass off that rope!" their sergeant commanded, but Dru was frozen, hands wrapped around the rope in a white-knuckle grip.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Cadet Harrington's hands slipped. Before Sky could think, he was leaping off the platform, swinging onto one of the ropes. His gloves shot out and caught Cadet Harrington around the wrist, jerking him onto the rope with him as he slipped off the other.

Sky looked down at him as he carefully helped lower them both to the ground. "You okay, cadet?"

The cadet nodded, looking up at him. "Just a little shaken up."

A few hours later in the mess hall, Dru had found Sky sitting with Bridge and Sydney at their usual table. He had presented Sky with a metal wrist cuff, a friendship token, he'd explained, from his planet, Tangar. Tangarian friendship coil, Dru had explained. He'd engraved them with S.P.D, and their names on the insides of the bracelet.

"Dru?" Sky asked, his suit disappearing in a burst of blue light. He couldn't help the smile that broke out onto his face, and when Dru threw himself at him and hugged him, Sky returned it heartily.

"Who's this?" he heard Jack whisper to the rest of the group.

"I'm Dru. Dru Harrington. I'm a friend of Sky's," Dru said by way of introduction.

"Didn't realize Sky made friends," Jack muttered under his breath.

Sky rolled his eyes. "Dru was in the same class with Syd and Bridge and I at the Academy. I saved his ass from a twenty foot fall."

"That wasn't a fall," Dru argued with a glint in his eye. "That was strategy!"

"Strategy?" Sky raised an eyebrow. "How to look like an idiot in front of 25 cadets?"

"Nope. How to execute a rope course rescue," Dru shot back with a grin. "A rescue, I might add, that you performed perfectly," he added with a laugh.

"It's been three years," Bridge spoke up with a smile, remembering the other man from their flight. "Where've you been?"

"Well, just to show Sky up even more," Dru said, and Sky shook his head in mock annoyance, "I got reassigned to the Nebula Academy for some spec ops training."

Z gave a low whistle, impressed. "Were the four of you guys friends?" she questioned, gesturing to Sky, Syd, Bridge, and Dru.

Dru nodded. "Yeah, you could say that," he said, with a glance at Bridge and Syd. The awkward silence was broken with Dru's cough, and "So. Is this guy still wild and wacky?" he asked, tossing a thumb at Sky.

"'Wild and wacky'?" Z repeated, looking at Sky in disbelief. She could see Jack in her peripheral vision. Their team leader looked lost…and seriously frustrated by not being in control of any of this conversation. Sky also looked...well, she wasn't quite sure what the deal was with the expression on the Blue Ranger's face. She returned her attention to Dru. "Um, those aren't exactly the first words that come to mind."

"I think he's being sarcastic," Syd whispered to her.

"So what happened to you?" Sky redirected the conversation. "Last we heard, you went MIA like what, three years ago?"

"Whatever happened," Syd put in, "you look great." But the compliment didn't quite reach her eyes. "Uh, we're gonna give you two guys some time," she added quickly. "Sky, we'll see you later?"

"Yeah, sure," Sky said dismissively.

Syd, Z, Jack, and Bridge climbed back into their Zords and made their way back to SPD HQ. "That's pretty crazy," Jack said. "Guy shows up after three years MIA and completely fine and in one piece?"

"Maybe in one piece," Bridge agreed, "but I wouldn't go so far as to say 'fine.'"

"What do you mean?" Z asked.

"No, he's right," Syd agreed from Delta Runner 5. "It's hard to explain over the radios," she said. "Let's meet back at HQ in our room, and maybe Bridge and I can help shed some light on Dru Harrington."


Back at SPD, Delta Runners returned to their bays, they passed Sky and Dru headed for the firing range. "Shouldn't he be talking to somebody about a mission debrief?" Jack whispered as they walked past command.

Z nodded. "SPD protocols say so."

"Technically, mission debrief can only be done by the commanding officer in charge of that cadet," Bridge said. "Which in this case is Cruger, but since he's gone, what should happen is that Dru gets put in lockdown. With an assignment like that, especially for how long he was gone, there's no telling where he's been, who he's encountered…"

The door slid back to Syd and Z's bunks, and Jack and Bridge followed them in. Syd shed her uniform jacket and plopped cross-legged on her bed. Jack and Bridge found places on the floor while Z situated herself on her own bunk.

"So what's Sky's deal?" Jack asked finally. "I've never seen him that chummy with anybody since we got here-and that includes the two of you."

Syd and Bridge looked at each other. "There's something off," Bridge said finally. "Dru's aura…it's not clear. Kinda muddled. Like a static-y TV. I couldn't get a clear read off him."

"But some of that could just be because of his mission, right?" Z questioned. "You said he's been gone almost three years."

"Yeah, but in three years, a lot can happen," Syd said. She bit her lip. "And it's weird," she added. "Like, I don't know that I would have called Dry and Sky and us 'friends.' We were never really close. Not like us and Lu-"

Syd broke off sharply at a Look from Bridge. But Z caught the exchange. "What aren't you telling us?" she questioned.

Bridge eyed Syd. "It's probably gonna come up," he told her. "Especially since Jack made Red Ranger over Sky…"

"Something he's not keen on letting me forget anytime soon," Jack put in. "What's the big deal with it anyway? And what aren't you guys telling us?"

Syd picked up her stuffed elephant from her bed and hugged him to her chest. "Maybe you better tell this one, Bridgey," she told the Green Ranger.

Bridge nodded. "Okay." He fiddled with the Velcro on his gloves. "So…back when we were in high school, before the Academy and everything, there was this girl we hung out with. Luna. Luna Oliveira. Her, um, her dad was SPD, like our parents. Like Sky's dad," he added. "Anyway, something happened one night, and Luna's dad got shot. Some kind of home invasion gone wrong, I guess, or at least, that was the official report. Luna got grazed by a stray shot, and her and her dad both ended up in the hospital…except her dad, Hector, he didn't make it. And they put Luna in Witness Security."

"Did they ever say who attacked them?" Z asked.

Syd shook her head. "Nobody ever told us anything," she said. "My mom and Bridge's dad were the responding officers, but they couldn't talk about an open investigation. And when Luna went into WitSec, that was sort of the end of it."

"So what's that gotta do with Sky and Dru?" Jack cut in.

"We're getting there," Bridge promised. "Sky and Luna were super close. Like, we all hung out together, but Luna and Sky-there was something there, I could tell. You didn't need to read auras to see it," he added with a small smile. "Anyway, after Luna left, Sky threw himself into classes. The second he graduated, he was at SPD. Syd and I joined too, but Sky…from that night forward, Sky was all about becoming Red Ranger, and heaven help anybody who got in his way." He sighed. "Even Syd and I. Like, we made good marks and are good enough to be on B Squad, but Sky-"

"Sky's a great guy," Syd assured them. "He's just got a complex about needing to be the best at everything. As A-Squad Red Ranger, he'd have access to the WitSec list."

"Yeah, but he's on B-Squad," Jack said.

Syd nodded. "B Squad Blue," she emphasized. "Which is just that many steps away from A-Squad Red, and finding Luna." There was something else in her expression, but she didn't elaborate, and neither Jack nor Z questioned it.

"And Dru?" Z asked instead.

"That's the weird part," Bridge said. "Normally, back in boot, if you messed up, Sky wouldn't bother to help a guy out. Sign of weakness, right? But that day with Dru-"

"We think maybe he had a moment. Like, he was thinking of Luna, and in a moment of weakness, he helped Dru out. "Luna was Tangarian, remember, Bridge?" Syd added.

His eyes widened. "Oh yeah," he remembered. "The eyebrow ridges. She used to cover them up with makeup, or leave her bangs super long, because she thought they looked weird. Always had, ever since we were kids." He nodded thoughtfully. "I never thought about that 'til now."

"So Dru reminded Sky of this Luna," Jack said. "But not enough to like, be friends and hang out."

"But then Dru started hanging around like a puppy or something," Bridge continued. "We weren't ever friends, really. In fact," he added, glancing around as if the room was bugged. "Dru was kind of annoying," he confided. "I don't know why Sky put up with it. Even he seemed annoyed sometimes. Dru followed us all over the place, sat with us in the mess hall…"

"But if this kid reminded him of Luna, somehow, Sky probably was willing to put up with it," Z guessed.

"It's weird, but yeah," Bridge said. "And when Dru went missing three years ago, Sky went right back to being distant and super gung-ho about becoming Red Ranger again."

"He lost Luna, and then he lost Dru, and he needed to find them both," Jack offered.

Syd rested her chin on the elephant. "I don't know, it's an interesting thought, though."

"Sky's an interesting guy," Jack noted with some derision in his tone.

"Sky's been through a lot," Bridge defended his old friend, and Jack looked up at the younger man's tone. "Look, he might seem like a hardass, and you're not wrong, but you don't know Sky's history!"

"And it's not our history to tell," Syd added. "He'll open up when he thinks he can trust you. He'll probably be ticked at us for telling you this much, but you needed to know, Jack. Maybe try to be a little more open minded around him?"

There was a tone that sounded out in the hall, making the four of them jump in surprise. "Attention. Commander Cruger has returned. All personnel report to main hall A."

Syd hopped off her bed, tossing her elephant onto her pillow. Z squeezed her hand as the two of them walked out, leaving the boys behind them. Bridge uncurled himself from the floor and moved to follow Jack.

"Thanks," Jack said after a moment. Bridge looked over at him. "For telling me all that," he said.

Bridge shrugged. "Now you know why he's been such a jerk to you about being Red Ranger. It tore him up when Luna left. It's not a good reason, but it's his reason."


Sky, unsurprisingly, was already standing at attention when the rest of his squad ran to catch up with him. He'd left Dru back in his quarters. Something had been nagging him about Dru ever since he'd gotten back, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Something was…off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack and the others get into formation beside him as Commander Anubis Cruger stepped off the transport. He saluted automatically, his mind going over Dru's return over and over again.

Mission debrief. Dru should've known that was expected of him after an undercover assignment, and yet…he'd asked to go to the firing range instead. And Sky had let him, figuring that after the events of the crash, and his undercover mission, that the other man just needed to blow off some steam.

And when it was announced Cruger was back, Sky thought, that was when he decided he should go into isolation.

Something wasn't adding up.

As B-Squad filed in behind Cruger and Jack briefed their Commander on the events of earlier that morning, Sky kept his eyes on the escalator steps, mind racing. You let your feelings get the best of you, Sky, he thought to himself. Something's off and you should've seen it-

White-hot blaster fire exploded in front of him, and he saw Cruger collapse into Jack's arms. Jack staggered, easing their CO to the floor. Sky instantly dropped into a defensive position, eyes scanning the perimeter for the shooter.

"He's hardly breathing!" Z gasped.

"We gotta get him to the infirmary ASAP!" Bridge agreed.


Up at the top of the stairs leading out to the street, Sky spotted the perpetrator disappear in what looked like-was that an SPD flight suit? His heart pounding in his ears, Sky took off up the stairs, not waiting for backup, after them. He heard Jack yell his name, but he was too focused on catching the shooter. He ducked to his left, skidding in front of the suspect and leveling his blaster at him. "Hold it, right there!" he barked.

Dru Harrington smirked back at him. "You wouldn't shoot your best friend, would you, Sky?" he questioned him. The barrel of a stolen blaster from the firing range was still smoking in his hand.

"Newsflash, Dru: We've never been best friends," Sky shot back. "I should've known something wasn't right with you. What's with all the subterfuge? Why Cruger?"

The Tangarian quirked an eyebrow. "Money," he said simply. "You think being a Ranger is everything, don't you, Sky?"

Sky eyed him. "We both did."

Dru shook his head. "Please. You don't think I felt it? Every condescending look. Every conversation behind my back? I'm not stupid, Sky. I know we were never friends. I know you just put up with me because it made you look good in front of the brass." He glared at the Blue Ranger. "Do Syd and Bridge know?" he asked. "Or Jack? Do they know that you'd just as soon throw them under the bus to put yourself ahead?"

"You don't know anything about me," Sky hissed. Inwardly, Dru's words stung, and he was surprised at how much the other man had him pegged.

Dru shrugged. "I know enough. More than you think. For example," he explained. "I know SPD is still looking for Broodwing from the Oliveira murder ten years ago."

Sky's blood ran cold. "Yeah," Dru grinned, seeing the look on Sky's face. "Thought that'd get your attention. That's who I was sent to find. Well," he amended, "I was still a little bit of a screwup, so it was technically just supposed to be some small-time fence. But I did it. I found him. And then…Broodwing found me."

He never took his eyes off Sky, enjoying the turmoil on the Blue Ranger's face. "Broodwing told me everything," Dru continued. "How SPD's been after him for years for his black market dealings. How Hector Oliveira was onto him, so Broodwing had to eliminate him."

"Shut up," Sky whispered, but Dru wasn't done. The other man grinned at him, clearly enjoying Sky's discomfort.

"It's a whole lot different when it's someone else talking about you behind your back, isn't it, Sky?" Dru asked him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Now you know what it's like."

"SPD!"

Dru glanced at something over Sky's shoulder, then, he nodded to Sky. "We're not finished. See ya later, Sky." Without warning, he pulled his blaster, and fired a single shot Sky's direction. The Blue Ranger barely had time to throw his hands up defensively, the shield only half-heartedly formed. The shot shattered the shield, pinged hard off his wrist, and sent Sky to the ground, clutching his right arm in pain. Sky barely registered Jack's voice and footfalls behind him. Dru grinned at him, gave him a wave, and then disappeared out into the daylight.

His Tangarian friendship bracelet lay in pieces on the tile next to him, edges white-hot from the blaster fire.


Author's Note: I just love it when shows give us a one-off character that's supposed to be important for character growth, but then said character is never heard from again. I *hope* this was a good way to introduce Dru and weave him plausibly into the backstory, and give Sky some more character beats. Sky is a very hard dude to make likeable, but hopefully, this is just one more layer as to why he's so hell-bent on being Red Ranger, apart from the one we actually get in canon. (Which will be addressed, just not this episode).

And (spoilers), a certain someone makes her reappearance next chapter... ;)