Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own anything you recognize.

KINGS AND VAGABONDS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Eight: Hidden Pride III

The case with the dolls had solved itself. It turned out that Z's theory had been correct – the little boy had been tied to the dolls. Sam, as it turned out, had been on the streets most of his life and was an outcast due to his power. As per Cruger, he was the last one on Earth that had powers that needed to be brought to SPD. Conner knew that the other three Dino Rangers were still out there – Doctor O, Ethan and Trent, but he wasn't about to reveal that he might know where they are. If there was one thing about Cruger he had learned, it was that he would be fair on all issues except people with powers. If someone with powers came up, he brought them to SPD in some form or another.

It didn't matter – he had chosen to come here and bring his family.

But had there been another choice?

Conner shook his head. The command center was quiet for the first time since he had been here. Cruger had gone to a conference for two days, leaving him in charge. The others were lounging around, doing something to pass the time. Sky was reading a book at the main computer console. Syd was filing her nails. Bridge was sleeping on the surveillance console and Conner didn't feel like waking him up. It wasn't like anything had happened.

Z came into the command center.

"Wow, this place is jumping," she commented.

Bridge snapped awake as his arm slid off the console, jolting him into awareness.

"Yeah, right," Sky muttered.

Conner yawned. It was getting close to midnight. Their official watch ended at midnight – and the actual graveyard shift people came in. Of course, Cruger left explicit orders. They were to take the day shift and the evening shift, going out together if something came up. When they left, they were to contact Kat and Boom and they would continue the surveillance while they took care of whatever problems were coming up.

"This is boring," Syd whined.

"Its orders," Conner muttered in reply.

Something beeped over by the console Bridge was supposed to be watching. He stood up and tapped a few controls. "Uh – Conner?"

"What?" he asked lethargically.

"There's a UFO in our airspace."

Trust Bridge to relate something like that in a completely calm voice, looking at the screen like what he was seeing was the coolest thing in the world.

"Let's go," he ordered. The others knew what that meant. They needed to morph and then take the Delta Runners to intercept the UFO. If they couldn't stop the UFO or if it was out of control, then it was essential to make sure it landed in a place with no people. All right, so the idea of getting a little time off with Cruger gone had been obliterated.

A few minutes later, he was watching a spectacular explosion from the seat of his zord in the Megazord. The ship had been out of control and crashed in an old abandoned warehouse section of town – it was also an SPD ship, leaving Conner to wonder where it came from.

"Look! There's a survivor!" Syd said over the communication system.

"Let's check it out."

With that command, they left the Delta Runners via a long jump from the emergency exits to the ground. As with his former powers, their ranger powers allowed them to take long jumps without feeling the impact like they might ordinarily in civilian form. Of course, when he had been a ranger the first time, he had learned he could use his power to make controlled jumps and landings using the air currents. There were some advantages to super-speed…

A single person was making his way out of the wreckage of his ship.

"Sorry about all this," he was saying. "I lost control of my ship when I entered Earth's atmosphere."

"At least you're okay," Syd offered. All of them were still in morphed form, so it was impossible to make out facial expressions.

The guy pulled off his helmet. "Yeah," he breathed.

Sky stepped forward. Conner frowned under his helmet as the Blue Ranger approached the unknown man. "Dru?" he asked. "Power down," he commanded, revealing Sky in civilian form. The man looked up at Sky and smiled.

The pair embraced like old friends.

What in the world was going on?

Sky picked at his breakfast, mashing things together with his fork, not really interested in eating any of it. Dru had been his best friend since they joined SPD together. They had been roommates for three years until Dru had been sent to the Nebula Academy. Dru was part of SPD and there was no reason for Conner to distrust him.

But he did.

The Red Ranger had made it clear that he did not want Dru in the command center and that he wasn't sure he wanted him at the academy at all. It didn't matter that Dru was a better shot than all of them put together – that he and Sky had been friends for years. He didn't befriend people who would harm SPD, what he had worked so hard for. Conner didn't understand friendship and he needed to stay out of his business. What had Conner been before coming to SPD – a soccer star. He knew nothing about real life.

"Okay, guys," Bridge was saying. All of the B-Squad rangers minus Conner were sitting around one of the tables in the lounge, eating breakfast. "So, I'm fighting this monster, right? And then the monster tears off its skin and, underneath, it's me." Bridge paused for dramatic effect. Sky had already heard about this particular dream – at least it hadn't been the nightmare that Bridge was chronically having.

"Simple," Syd replied. "Your biggest enemy is yourself."

"Or maybe you're just weird," Z added.

Sky was inclined to agree with Z on that one. Bridge had some of the weirdest dreams due to the fact that he was so sensitive to thoughts and emotions around him. At night, he couldn't block out the extra ones like he could during the day.

Conner entered the lounge and approached their table.

"Hey, Sky," he said softly. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He fought the urge to roll his eyes and set his fork down on his plate. There wasn't much left of his breakfast that he would consider eating anyhow. He followed Conner out of the lounge and into the much quieter hallway. He had a good idea what this was about – and he had already made his stance clear.

"I owe you an apology," Conner said softly. "I know that Dru is SPD and that you trust him. That should be enough for me."

Sky shook his head incredulously. "Just stay out of my business," he snapped. "You don't understand friendship and you don't understand SPD." He turned back towards the lounge.

"You're wrong."

The Blue Ranger whirled around and faced Conner.

"Maybe I don't understand SPD like you do, but I do understand friendship." He paused, his eyes pleading with Sky to understand. "I have had really close friends – and it was always enough for me to trust them. Bridge said—"

"What does Bridge have to do with this?" Sky exploded.

"He read his aura," Conner said softly. Sky felt his heart start to pound within his chest. No, not Bridge too. Was everyone going to gang up on him against Dru staying here? "He doesn't trust him." Conner paused. "Why do you think he's been avoiding you?"

"Bridge hasn't—" He stopped abruptly. Bridge had been avoiding him lately.

"I don't want to see you get hurt."

Sky glared at him. "I won't get hurt. Dru has been my friend for a long time. You don't know anything about it."

He turned on his heel and went back into the lounge. He didn't want to listen to Conner's excuses and reasoning. Dru was his friend. What more was needed than that?

It was late. Z let out a long breath as she walked down the hall. Cruger had gotten back from his trip and informed them of a security breach. It turned out that Conner and Bridge had been right about Sky's friend. Dru had attempted to assassinate Cruger, but hadn't succeeded. Sky had gone after him and got shot in the wrist for his trouble. He and Dru had matching bracelets called Tangarian coils. All the friendship and family jewelry came from Tangaria, so it didn't surprise Z until Dru claimed he was Tangarian. Sky's bracelet was broken now.

She took in where she was – this was the library. Bridge spent a lot of time in here, looking up information for their cases. Sky haunted the leisure reading collection. The others wouldn't be seen dead in this room. She glanced in the small cramped room adjacent to the library that held the archives – files, newspaper articles, media files and the like. This was used to look up information on suspects. One person was in there at a work station. She had longish blonde hair that was in a loose braid. The braid trailed over the back of her chair.

"Paris?" she asked.

The person at the work station turned around slightly. It was Paris. What was Syd's older sister doing in the archives room at this house of the night? She had a notebook open and was scrolling through birth certificate records. She also wasn't in uniform, which meant she wasn't in here because of academy-related business.

"Z, right?" she responded.

"Yeah." Z moved into the room. "Is this your hobby?"

Paris laughed. "I wish it was just a hobby." She let out a long breath. "No – I'm tracking down leads that might direct me to mine and Syd's real parents."

"Any luck?" Z pulled up a chair at the work station.

"Would I still be here if I had some luck?"

Z wondered if she meant here as in SPD or in the archive room. Paris shut down the window that held the birth certificates. "I can't get the court to release our real birth certificates since I don't have a good enough reason. If I could just get the town we were born in, I might have some success."

"The road trip didn't help?"

Paris gave her an appraising look. "Syd told you about that?"

"Yeah." Syd had told her that Paris had saved all her leave days from the previous year so she could take a trip to one of the bay area towns to do some research. Both of them remembered having picnics near a bay as children. Apparently, Blue Bay Harbor had been the wrong place to start from.

"Well, it didn't help. I did meet some interesting people, but no one who could remotely help me." She shook her head. "I don't know what I expected."

There was pain evident in those blue eyes. Z glanced at the other window open on the screen. It read that she was conducting a search for parents that gave their children up for adoption in 2006. The result number was staggering. "I guess there's no way you can go through all those in a timely fashion."

"If I had nothing else to do, then yeah. But, unfortunately, I've got a long shift tomorrow and I've been caught sneaking off before."

Z grinned. "Why don't you just take off anyways? Some of the other officers said that you do it half the time anyways."

Paris returned the grin. "I could. It's not like Cruger can fire me."

"Why?"

She held up her right hand, revealing a silver ring around her ring finger with a smooth, polished black stone in the middle. She ran her hand through the table – not underneath or around, but through the table. So the officers had been right when they said that she could phase through solid objects.

"He thinks I can defeat an army of invading Troovians," she muttered.

He thinks we can all defeat an invading army of Troovians on our own, Z thought, but decided it was a good time to change the subject. "So what's with the ring? Why didn't it come off when you phased through the table?"

"I learned early on how to phase with clothing and jewelry," Paris replied with a wry smile. "It'd be embarrassing if I ended up naked every time I phased." She shrugged. "Plus the ring is Tangarian. I'm the only one that can take it off, so it phases with me."

"Where did you get it?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I've always had it. Or, at least, I think I've always had it – since before the adoption." She gave Z a sidelong look. "Is this interrogation over yet?"

Z smiled sheepishly. "I guess I'm curious. You're the only person here with powers that isn't a ranger."

"Actually, one of the teachers has powers."

"Well, then." Z fell silent for a moment. There was something about Paris – she was driven to find her parents for no apparent reason that the others could see. Syd understood it, but hadn't articulated it to the others. "Can I ask one more question?"

"Sure."

"Why are you trying to find your real parents?"

Paris was quiet for a moment. "It's elusive. I remember going through backyards, trying to reach someone's house, but never getting there. I don't know if it's a dream or if it's something real that I've been trying to remember for years and can't." She shook her head. "You of all people should understand that."

Z nodded. She did. She had gone to live in that group home when she was three years old, but still had vague memories. It wasn't even a memory as much as it was a feeling, a dreamlike state, but she knew that her parents had loved her. Perhaps it was the same thing for Paris, trying to reach just past a veil to remember something, but it always remained just beyond the mind's grasp.

Her morpher beeped. Z pulled it from the holster. "Delgado here."

"Z!" It was Conner. "Meet me in the command center. Dru's resurfaced."

"I'm on my way." She turned to Paris. There was something unknown in those blue-gray eyes, like she was almost nostalgic about something. "Thanks," she said softly. "I'll see you around?"

Paris forced a smile. "Of course."

She left the archives room to see what Conner needed.

"You have to clean the entire entry area?"

Sky inwardly snorted at the question. So the others had been right – Dru had tried to assassinate Cruger for the money that Broodwing offered him. He wasn't the same person that Sky had known all those years ago. But he was in prison now – it was hard. He felt hallow, like someone had carved out all his emotions and he couldn't feel anything anymore. Although, the others had opened up after he captured Dru. Bridge was back to being overly chipper and irritating, jumping into his mind at odd moments to ask trivial questions.

"And all the other cement areas," he replied, scrubbing at the cement with an old toothbrush – he would have liked to have taken revenge on the others and used their toothbrushes, but the officer apartments locked, Bridge would notice immediately and he didn't feel like getting the girls angry with him. "Cruger thinks I'll remember that academy regulations are for everyone." He paused. "Not just pig-headed, ego-driven rangers such as myself."

"He said that?" Conner looked mildly surprised.

"He wasn't so nice." And perhaps Cruger was starting to show his true colors. Their commander wasn't as calm and cool as he would like to appear.

Conner sat down on the edge of the fountain next to him. "Here," he said, holding out Dru's bracelet. It was the one of the pair still intact, since Dru had broken his and now he had a burn mark on his wrist that hurt like hell. "I thought you might want this."

Sky stopped scrubbing and let out a long breath, taking the bracelet. "I guess a bracelet doesn't mean a friendship," he said softly.

"It doesn't," Conner agreed. "But, at least, you had someone you could feel comfortable calling your best friend."

That froze his mind for a moment. Dru had been his best friend and, even when he went to the Nebula Academy and went MIA, he still counted him among his close friends, but there was no rule that said a person could have only one best friend. He thought back to the past two years with their ups and downs and the one person who had been there with him through all of it…

"I still do have a best friend," he whispered.

"Yeah – it's me!"

Bridge bounded up from out of nowhere and plunked himself down on the other side of Sky, proceeding to give his roommate a rib-cracking hug. Sky made an incoherent noise in the back of his throat, trying to catch his breath. "Bridge," he gasped. "I can't breath!" Not to mention, he wasn't crazy about this blatant display of affection. He did view Bridge as his younger brother, in all senses except blood, but he didn't want Bridge to become an annoying younger brother that he couldn't stand.

"I should have guessed," Conner muttered.

"Bridge?" Sky said. "Could you let go of me?"

Bridge released him. "What for? Everyone here knows you're straight."

"People might not realize you're straight."

He shrugged. "Whatever. I've had weirder rumors spread about me."

That was true. While Bridge could read minds, people had spread a rumor a while ago that he purposely read minds. What they didn't realize was that most of the time, he couldn't help but hear thoughts and pick up emotions from objects. There was a time last year when Bridge had almost gone into sensory overload and had to take sleeping pills in order to actually sleep instead of staying up, letting the projected emotions pummel him.

"So," Bridge said, addressing Conner. "How long do you figure it will take us to get this done?" He looked around at all the cement.

Conner glanced at his watch. "I've got us booked for the simulator in an hour, so we'd better be done in an hour."

"How many replicates?"

Sky turned. Z was standing on the other side of the entry, waving at them. She had a large box of scrub brushes and cleaning supplies next to her. Syd was dragging a smaller bucket over to them.

"Us?" Sky sputtered.

"You'll be here doing this for a week," Conner told him. "Besides, you need to be there for the simulator and this is the only way to make sure you are."

Sky blinked. He had a feeling that, deep down, Conner felt sorry for him as did all the others and they were just being nice, but… it was kind of heart-warming that they were here to help him, grudgingly or no.

"We need to get this done in an hour!" Conner called back to Z. "How many do you think so it will only take that long?"

Z thought for a minute. Her eyes flashed a strange shade of gold, before replicates starting appearing around her. Sky had learned early on that Z's replicates followed the general example of what she was doing or what she directed them to. However, they didn't talk and that was the way to tell the difference between a replicate and the real Z. There were about thirty replicates standing around her.

"This enough?" she called.

Conner gave her an appraising look. "Should be!"

Syd came up to them and thrust the bucket at Bridge. "Come on," she said in a bossy tone of voice. "We need to get started."

"I did get started," Sky protested weakly.

"No," Syd corrected. "You were sitting out here daydreaming for thirty minutes and only got a square inch clean!"

Sky laughed. Perhaps something just had to give…

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Elements of this are from Sam Part 2 and Idol. Normal thanks goes out to my wonderful beta reader - Jepoliant - and to all my readers and reviewers. It never fails - I will forever be blown away by the enthusiastic response to this! I do have a little bit of time before my summer job starts up, so I hope to do shout-outs with the next update. As per usual, keep up the great feedback:)