A/N: Anything in Italics is Dustin's speech. Incase your confused. Sorry for long update, been busy.

Far Behind

Chapter 12: Never Forget

Shane snapped wide-awake from the sound of the gunfire. He looked around in the dark room, wiping his face away and turning to see Dustin's bed empty. Throwing the covers off him, he stumbled through the dark and over towards the window, listening to the rain pound against the window. He knew something was wrong, he swiftly spun around and ran out the door and out into the rain.

"Dustin.." He whispered.

He stood there in the middle of the campus field in his red boxers and shirt. The rain poured upon him as he spun around, figuring where that gunshot came from. He wiped the rain off his face and headed into the park, jumping over the bench and around the bush. He stopped and looked around as he near the edge of the blue bay harbor cliffs. He stopped and turned to see Dustin and Tori's body laying off in the distant.

"Shit!" He blurted out.

He dashed through and slide through the grass towards the body. He shook Tori's lifeless body, she didn't respond. He was breathing heavily as he moved over and turned his other best friend over. Dustin gasped for air, as he groaned. The former red ranger lifted him up as the brunette frantically moved, sitting up.

"What happened?" Shane shouted, "What happened!?"

Dustin looked around, wiping his tears away as he moved over to Tori's body. He whimpered a bit, as Shane crawled over to her too.

"I-I" He gasped, "I didn't mean to. Oh god." He squeezed his head.

It had been one week since the incident and Dustin had exited out of his dorm bathroom. He scratched his head as he went towards the window and sighed a bit. That was a night he could never forget, that whole thing changed his life around. He turned and sat on the bed, falling back on it. He could recall the feeling of the gun against his head as the rain poured down his cold face. He knew he couldn't do it, the way he turned the gun towards the tree near by and fired it a few times before throwing the gun off the cliff. He could still feel Tori's wet clothes against his skin every time he thought of that night. Shane entered the room, closing the door and stopping to look at him.

"Hey.." He trailed off.

Dustin sat up and sighed, "Hey." He responded.

"You know, they liked your speech so much. They stuck it on the radio." He smirked.

The brunette pushed himself off, wiping is face before groaning.

"Yeah, who would of thought a simple drug and alcohol counseling would have done some good." He smirked a bit.

Shane leaned against the wall, "I'm glad you quite."

"Did the others go home?" Dustin asked, "Hunter and all them?"

He nodded, "Yeah. They did."

Dustin headed towards the door, turning a bit.

"I'm going for a drive

"Its not your fault." Shane reassured him, "You couldn't do anything."

"It happened though. It shouldn't have."

"She did it because she loved you."

Dustin slowly nodded before exiting the room. He headed down the stairs outside, where the sun shined brightly upon him. Squinting a bit, he pulled out the car keys and headed towards his car and climbed in. Getting himself comfy, he sighed, placing his hand on the wheel and looking around. He was about to turn the car on when a knock on the window caught his attention. He turned and noticed Mark leaning over. Opening the window, the brunette waited to see what he wanted.

"I got a great deal on these drugs man."

The former yellow ranger smirked and shook his head, "Dude.. go fuck yourself."

With that said, Dustin turned the car on and stuck it in reverse. Speeding out quickly, he glanced to see a distraught look on his face before speeding forward and onto the road. Those words he said to him, never felt so good. He turned the radio on and changed the channels a bit and stopped when he heard his name on the radio.

"Now we have a special speech from a man from Blue Bay Harbor. Waldo Brooks." One of the radio announcer spoke.

"Yeah, its quite interesting. This guy talks in a language where kids can actually understand. Let's role that tape."

Hello, um my name is Waldo Brooks, well my friends call me Dustin. I'm here on my own account, no one is forcing me, no one is telling me to do this. I just felt like I should say something.

Dustin pulled a small smile on his face as he listened to himself. He turned and entered on the street, not sure where he was driving too.

Hunter had entered Storm Chargers, visiting his good friend Kelly. He turned and walked into the back, pulling his motto cross bike onto the table and grabbing his tool box. He wanted to tune up his bike, he had nothing better to do. He walked over and turned on the radio, expecting some music.

It's funny how things turn out. Never actually go the way you want, you grow up thinking life isn't fair. Were all kids just trying to make it through the real world, trying to ease the pressure and pain life has given us.

Hunter stopped for a sec, listening to the voice. He laughed a bit as he continued to work on his bike, listening to his good friend on the radio. Kelly walked into the room, holding a bunch of boxes, stopping to listen also.

I don't want to tell you something that your mother or friend can tell you. I wont say, life will get easier or that people don't play fair. Face it, there are hard things people deal with in life, but just how you deal with things is the question. Believe me, I've been there. And to be honest, I went about things all wrong. Guess my down fall all started with my father, the only person who I figure could understand me at my level.

"How doing?" Kelly asked, "I mean after everything that happened?"

He slowly nodded, "I'm okay I guess. I don't know."

Kelly smiled, "It'll get better. Tori was.."

He turned away, "A great girl. Yeah, I know." He smiled, "I know.." He repeated

Cam had walked down the steps to ninja ops where Sensei had sat down. Cam looked around, figuring out what he was doing. Making his way over, he sat down next to him.

"Did you call in the school?" Cam asked.

Sensei nodded, "Yes. I talked to the Dean to give Dustin another chance. So, he can still attend the university. Master ninja's have ways to reason." He smiled.

Every since my father's death, things started to get hectic. Heroine started to take over my life, sending things down the tube. Now, I wont deny that the feeling was good, it did numb the pain, but it wasn't the way to go. I started losing everything, the pressure of school started to show. More heroine, lower grades. Heroine was an answer to everything. Bad grades, do more drugs. Deaths, more drugs. Can you see the chain?

Sensei turned and sighed again, "I also took care of whole incident last week. All suspicions have been lifted off of Dustin."

"I don't think he can deal with that now." He responded, "It's bad enough that what has happened, happened.

Shane had driven Blake to the airport. He parked the car in the lot and climbed out. Blake went around and grabbed his bag, taking a look around. He sighed, knowing that it was time to go back to factory blue and his racing. Shane walked over and patted him on the back.

"You alright?" Shane asked.

He shrugged, "I lost Tori to my brother, then my friend. And now she'll never know how I feel."

He moved over and leaned against his car, "You cant keep doing this to yourself. Will you be okay?"

You spend your whole life, wondering what this is all worth. You start feeling things, getting ideas. Everyone seams against you, your friends. Your family. Life isn't as perfect as you want it to be. And its hard to deal with, that I know.

"I'll see you around Shane?" Blake smirked.

"No doubt." Shane nodded.

Shane watched as Blake made his way towards the airport. The wind blew gently as Shane leaned against the car watching his friend leave.

Things never go your way, you seam to hate it a lot. But you got to remember, that its not always the end of the world. Drugs isn't the way to go, no matter how much you think it does. People want to find a way to escape there problems, but I can only think of one solution.

Dustin pulled into the beach area where he parked his car. Climb out, he could hear the soft waves in the distant. Closing the door, he slowly made his way onto the beach. There was a single human life from miles, he had the whole beach for himself. He stuck his hands in his pocket and looked out into the water, as the sun slowly set.

Your friends will always be there, no matter how bad you have it. I like to think of them as my safety net. Think of them, think of your family before doing anything stupid. You love them, don't hurt them. I have this great friend, she was always there for me. Her smile was beautiful, the way she looked at me. Her words of encouragement have always gotten through. She never gave up on me, I can never forget her and I can never forgive myself on what happened to her. You don't realize how good you have, cause the drugs tell you things you don't want to hear. Even if you don't do drugs, don't forget your friends are always there.

Dustin couldn't but let a tear shed down his cheek as the sky fired from the sunset. He scratched his head as he took a deep breath. He looked down at the sand, letting his feet dig through the sand. He couldn't believe what had happened to Tori, he felt it was his fault. He bit his lips as he felt a warm hand clashed against his. He turned around and saw Tori standing there, with a big smile on her face. The wind blew through her hair as she pulled him closer and wiped his tears away. Dustin placed his forehead against her, as he put his hands and let them slide through her hair.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

She looked up at him, "It's okay." She whispered.

He moved his hands down the side of her body, stopping when she flinched. He slowly put his hand on where her wound once was, he looked at her with such sorrow on his face. They were lucky to get her to a hospital and saved her life. She gently pulled his hand away from it and back on her face.

"I love you." She said with a smile.

So I hope she is listening to this now, I want to let her know how much I love her. I'm sorry for everything I've done, sorry to worry people. I'm glad that my life is back together, and I hope that you guys remember one thing. That no matter what, your not alone...

She pulled him close and kissed him softly, wrapping her hands around his neck. The waves continued to crash as the sun was nearly gone. Dustin broke away and turned to see her baby blue van parked next to his. Grabbing her hand , the two of them walked towards it, Dustin finally had a smile on his face. For once, in a long time, he was finally happy again.

THE END