I feel like I am walking to the principal's office, Dru thought. Though she wouldn't normally compare Dragon to a principal, being summoned to his office made her think of anything that she could have done wrong. My training was going well, but perhaps not as well as they hoped? Or maybe it was that Sabo and I still didn't really get along?
Koala was just finishing telling Dru that she would be heading out on another mission when a messenger gave her the summons, and escorted her there. Now she stood outside of Dragon's office, thinking up all the worst case scenarios instead of going in to find out what the truth was.
Dru finally decided anything had to be better than what she was imagining, so she knocked on the door. Once she heard "enter" she opened the door and slipped inside.
"Ah, Miss Dru. Thank you for coming. Though I did wonder if you were going to change your mind…" Dragon said as he smiled at her.
"Sorry sir," she replied. "I suppose I was worried that I was in trouble," she looked away in embarrassment.
Dragon smiled. "Nothing like that, I assure you." He gestured for her to sit, and she did so, getting more comfortable now that she was no longer worried she had done something wrong. Dragon cleared his throat. "I'd like to send you with a group on a mission," he said, taking her by surprise.
"But…" she responded, surprised. "Do you think I'm ready for that?"
He smiled again, almost looking proud. "I think so, and this will be an opportunity for you to prove it, to yourself."
Dru sat there, shocked. He could read me pretty well. I don't feel ready, she thought,but if he thought so, then I probably was.
She said the only thing that she could think to say, "All right, who will I be with, and what is our objective?"
Needless to say, his smile grew bigger at that.
Dru disembarked from the ship behind Wayne, the man who was leading the mission. The objective was simple enough, the revolutionaries needed information and their group had been sent to gather it. The unofficial ruler of this island, Mr. Phrat, was a man that controlled most of the land and businesses, and they were confident that he had the information they were after.
They were dressed as pirates, and tried to conduct themselves in the same manner. Dru was the ship's engineer, mostly because the stereotype was that engineers were strange due to their lack of contact with others. That way, she wouldn't stand out too badly if she messed up, though she was still a nervous wreck.
After waiting for the scouts, they finally were on the move. There were some that were tasked with distraction and the rest of the group were on infiltration. She tried to tell herself that nothing would go wrong, however she had a hard time believing it, and she stuck as close to Wayne as she could get.
They had spent most of that day shopping for supplies, which was their cover. In actuality, they were finding out anything and everything about Mr. Phrat and his activities. Come dusk, they all gathered back on the ship to share what they had learned.
"What?" Wayne asked, after hearing a horrible report.
"It's true," Anka, one of the scouts, said to Wayne. "They are little better than slaves, working all day to earn food and rent. The prices Mr. Phrat has set means that most people have no chance to better themselves."
"Very well," Wayne replied. "Moving on."
Anka and Dru seemed to be the only ones truly upset by this, but they followed along with the others. This was Dru's first mission after all, and she wasn't sure what all the protocols were, if she could speak her mind or not.
She sat in silence as the reports continued, and finally as Wayne outlined his plan. She would not be accompanying the group, rather stationed as a sort of look out, outside Mr. Phrat's mansion. It seemed like a job she would be able to do, so she nodded along.
The next day, she took her time walking through town. She needed to be outside the mansion at a certain time, and didn't want to botch things by arriving too early or too late. Having arrived at the appointed time, she gave the appearance of stopping to rest from her supposed activities. There was a large tree off to the side of the road, so she went and sat under it, closing her eyes and pretending to rest.
After a few minutes, she knew she needed to be moving on, but hadn't seen any evidence that the plan was even happening, though I suppose that was a good sign. Standing slowly, and making a show of checking that she had all her belongings, she started to walk away.
Suddenly, alarms were blaring and voices yelling, and she watched in shock as several of her comrades came running out of the front of the mansion.
"Run for it!" one of them yelled to her, and she ran in the direction of their ship. She kept glancing behind her, noticing that they were all faster than she was, and were rapidly catching up. They weaved back through the town, and headed for the docks. As they neared the ship, she heard someone calling out to them from behind.
"Please, take us with you!" she looked back, and saw a man barely older than herself with a young boy in his arms. The boy was hanging on for dear life, and the man was pushing as hard as he could in order to catch up.
Dru jumped onto the ship, as the others pulled the gangplank away. The man was close behind, and she could hear the shouts of the men running for them, sent to capture them all.
"Hurry!" she called, as the ship started to pull away from the dock. The man was exhausted from his run however, and just sagged in defeat. Without another thought, Dru jumped back to the dock, took the boy and yelled, "Anka! Catch him!" Then grabbing him under his arms, she hefted him up and tossed him out into Anka's waiting hands.
"Come on!" she called back, taking the boy over the railing and onto the deck.
Knowing there was no way she would make the jump again, Dru grabbed the man's arm. "What's your name?" she asked in a rush. They could see that Phrat's men were almost upon them.
"Just go!" he said, crying. "Please get my son free from here!"
"I don't have time to babysit, you're coming too!" she said and pulled him with her as she jumped into the water.
She wasted no time swimming towards the boat, pulling the man with her, and soon she was the one being pulled along instead. It seemed the water had given him a second wind, and he swam as fast as he could. Anka dropped the rope ladder, and Dru had the father go first, then climbed up after him, falling to the deck and panting, trying to catch her breath.
Feeling someone standing above her, she opened her eyes, and saw Wayne glaring down at her.
"What did you think you were doing?" he snapped. "Never make decisions like that for yourself! There is a chain of command for a reason."
"But-"
"No buts!" he cut her off. "If you are going to go on outside missions, you need to learn to look at the big picture. When it is right to go outside of orders, when you can make a difference!" he hissed.
Dru looked over at the father and son, hugging and crying all over Anka who looked uncomfortable but was smiling.
"It made a difference to them," she retorted, as she pointed at them, then stood and went to dry herself off.
This time, the summons to Dragon's office came as no shock to Dru at all. She knew that Wayne was upset with her, and that she would get a very bad review or whatever they did here for her performance on the mission. However, she also knew that she had done nothing wrong, in fact, she was proud of herself. If Dragon was really upset with my actions, then I would gladly not go on missions anymore, and may even rethink why I had even joined them, she thought.
Approaching the door and knocking, she then entered after being invited to. She stopped short as she realized that Dragon wasn't alone. Both Wayne and Sabo were with him in the office.
"Miss Dru, please join us," Dragon invited, and she walked over to the empty chair next to Wayne, facing Dragon who sat at his desk, with Sabo standing beside him.
"Thank you sir," she said calmly as she sat down. She smiled at Dragon, as if pleased to be there, while inside she was dreading the way this could go.
"I've gotten the reports from your mission, and from your mission leader, but now I'd like to hear it from you," Dragon said to her with a slight smirk.
I may not be as stubborn as my sisters, but I was plenty stubborn, and if they were rethinking inviting me to join them, I'd make them say it, she thought. "I don't know what insight I could give you sir, it is pretty straightforward."
She saw Sabo smirk as well, before controlling his features and asking, "How about motivation?"
"Motivation?" she echoed, wondering what he was asking.
"Yes," he responded, his face stern, but his eyes were laughing. "We know what you did, but why did you do it?" he asked.
She stopped and thought for a moment. "I don't know that I had any underlying motivation," she answered, and saw both men in front of her raise an eyebrow in question. "There were horrible stories from all the townspeople of what life was like on that island," she continued. "And then someone was brave enough to try to get away, and he asked for help." She cleared her throat and added, "so I helped him."
"You had never met him before?" Dragon asked.
"Huh? No," she responded, confused. "I still don't even know his name."
"The man is Daichi, and his son is Eichi," Sabo said. "They are very grateful for your help, and have asked to stay with us, and help others as you helped them."
Her mouth formed an "o" as she looked at him in surprise. "They did?" she asked, not quite believing it.
"They did," Dragon confirmed. "Wayne, you must be very proud to have had such a successful mission, not only completing your objective, but bringing back a recruit as well." Wayne looked shocked, then embarrassed as he realized that his complaint was undeserved.
"Of course sir, thank you sir," he said to Dragon.
"You are both dismissed," Dragon said to them with a twinkle of a smile in his eyes. As they stood and walked out, Dru stood even taller. It was always nice to have one's efforts validated! Wayne stopped her outside the door with an apology and a "good job". Dru shook his hand, and congratulated him as well for his great leadership, and they parted ways, both feeling better about the entire situation.
As Dru was walking back to her room, she was stopped with a hand on her shoulder, and spun with her hands up to block the intruder.
Sabo stood there laughing with his hands up in surrender. "Sorry Dru, but I was calling and you didn't hear me."
"Oh, sorry" she said, feeling her cheeks burn in embarrassment. "I guess I was in my own little world." She glanced back at him. "What did you need?" she asked.
Now it was his turn to look embarrassed. "I- I just wanted to apologize, for the way I've been treating you," he said. "Koala was right, though I would appreciate it if you didn't tell her I said that."
Dru giggled at that, "Yes, she would never let you forget it!" she said, and he groaned.
"So true! So it would be better if she doesn't know." He gave her a puppy eyed look, begging.
"Oh, all right. Your secret is safe with me," she said, giving in with a roll of her eyes.
He became serious and spoke again, "I've heard from Koala and Dragon that you've been through quite the ordeal before you joined with us. I'd be interested to hear about it, if you are willing…?" he asked.
Thinking for a moment, she realized he was offering her a chance to start over. "I think I would like that, though I must warn you, turn about is fair play," she teased.
"I think I would like that too," he said. "You hungry?"
"Famished," she answered, and they headed off to get some dinner, and to finally get to know each other.