Disclaimer: Buena Vista owns the Power Rangers. “Naked” is by Avril Lavigne from her album, Let Go.
Timeline: during and after "Down And Dirty".
Author’s note: it was a challenge to get this story done on time. but I succeeded. I love it! NaNoWriMo! woohoo! I would like to thank my entire support staff for the last month too. :) I can’t wait (well, actually I can *smirk*) to try it again next year. but working with you, Starhawk, makes it all worth it. :)
I wake up in the morning, put on my face
The one that’s gonna get me through another day
Doesn’t really matter, how I feel inside
This life is like a game sometimes
That had not gone as well as he had hoped. He had made the jump as he had hoped, but he had also hoped to stick the landing. Oh yeah, and he had hoped that all his friends would be not be there. As unusual as that sounded. All the races were over. Hunter, Blake, and Kelly should have been long gone. Or at least finishing up with loading up their team’s stuff before leaving. They really should have been gone.
But for some reason Blake and Kelly were still there. And for some reason they had decided to go watch the freestyle exhibition. And he really wished they hadn’t. Dustin hadn’t wanted any of his friends there for this. Other than Marah. But he knew now that she would not come.
Dustin had been practicing for this exhibition for months. He had passed up several other exhibitions just because he didn’t know if he was ready. He had been away from freestyle for awhile, what with the racing and Rangering and all. So he had picked an exhibition that was months away, and had been practicing for this to be his return.
He hadn’t wanted anyone there ‘cause he didn’t want to embarrass himself if he screwed up. Marah was different though. Marah wouldn’t laugh or make fun, even as a joke. She knew what it was like when even your friends and family laughed at you. They thought they were laughing with you, not at you. But they never seemed to notice that you weren’t laughing along with them.
Marah though, she was cool. He knew he could trust her with his secret. He had told her that he had gone back to freestyle. She was the only person who knew, other than his dad.
She and her dog, Waldo, had come to watch him practice often. Encouraging him, talking with his dad, just being supportive in a way only she could. And all of that practice had been in preparation for this day. But she wasn’t here to see it. And he didn’t know if he’d ever see her again.
He had asked her to come to the exhibition, and she had said yes. And as the day had grown closer, he grew all the more happy that she would be there. At the last minute his dad had had to go out of town on a business trip. But Marah had said she would be there. That was before the events of several days ago. That was before she had left Waldo with him and had disappeared back to space.
Marah had not been there for his exhibition. But Blake and Kelly had. And they had seen him wipe out. If only he had been able to hold on to the landing! It wasn’t like he hadn’t done that jump before. He had done it just a few weeks ago in front of Marah the night after that EyeDude’s attack. He had been all freaked out from monster’s attack, and he had still been able to land it.
Today the jump had gone okay, but he slipped on the landing. His bike slid when it hit the ground, and he couldn’t control it. Then he hit the ground. And after the emergency staff helped him up, the first people he saw were some of the last people he had wanted to see.
Blake had laughed and joked with him. About how he thought Dustin had given up freestyle so he wouldn’t get hurt for racing. Dustin tried to brush him off while trying to not be obvious as he grabbed at his aching shoulder. He had slid hard across the ground. He wasn’t really hurt, but his shoulder was really sore. Blake got the hint and left.
Kelly wasn’t as easy. She wanted to know why he would risk his racing future to go back to freestyle. She had asked, but she really didn’t act like she wanted to hear the answer. It was because he loved freestyle way more than he liked racing. It was just so much fun. And you got to be all creative and stuff. Trying something new and even more dangerous every time.
But he didn’t really get to explain. ‘Cause Kelly just didn’t see it. Or she was worried about him. Or about her team. Which he wasn’t a part of. She had only sponsored a 250 team that year. Which meant Hunter and Blake, not him. So why couldn’t he go back to freestyle? She didn’t care about his racing, and he’d rather do freestyle anyway.
She finally left though, with a parting comment that he guessed was supposed to knock some sense into him, change his mind, or whatever. She told him he was no Travis Pastrana. Like he didn’t know that. He wasn’t Travis Pastrana. He was Dustin Brooks. And he could be good at freestyle too if he really wanted to be. And he did.
Dustin walked back over to his bike. The emergency guys had picked it up, and it stood where they had left it. His loyal number 27 was leaning on its kickstand, waiting for him. He gave it a quick visual once over, and didn’t see too much damage. He would have to give it a better look if he wanted to try another jump in the exhibition today.
But honestly, he thought he might just be too bummed right now to try again. Marah was gone, and Kelly didn’t believe in him. It wasn’t shaping up to be a very good day, ya know?
He took hold of the handlebars, and kicking the kickstand back into place, he started to roll his bike away. He was headed back toward his dad’s truck that he had borrowed. He’d left Waldo there. The puppy had not wanted to be left at the house that morning. So Dustin had brought him along, telling him he had to behave. And remarkably the puppy had. He had stayed in the bed of the truck when Dustin told him to, leaving only when he was following Dustin around before the exhibition had started.
He was just passed the crowd, out in the open but still a ways from his truck, when he heard something behind him. Someone was trying to push their way through the crowd. Someone in a hurry who wasn’t being very patient. He kept moving but cast a glance over his shoulder to see what was up.
A brown haired girl in an orange moto jersey pushed her way through the crowd. Toward him. All the action was in the other direction, but the girl was moving toward him. And he stopped.
It was Marah.
His foot smacked the kickstand back down and he let go of the bike. He turned and started in her direction, but she reached him first.
“Marah!” He grabbed her up in a quick hug, then let her go so he could see her. “Dude, are you alright? Where have you been?”
“Dustin.” She looked a little stunned. Or worried. Or frazzled. Something was off. And when he tried to pull her away from the crowd, she stepped away from him. “I can’t stay.”
“What? Of course you can,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I told you I would come. It so wasn’t easy. And I can’t stay. But I had to see you,” she explained.
Everything seemed very weird. The girl who had disappeared back to space days ago was suddenly standing in front of him wearing a moto jersey. Orange Free Air. If the situation hadn’t seemed so horribly desperate he would have smiled at that.
But it did feel desperate. He had not been able to get her to stay before. He felt like he had pushed her to choose, and she had run away. He couldn’t push her again. But he had to do something. She was here after all. Something must be up.
“Dustin-“
“No, c’mon. Stay. Please,” he tried again. “My dad’s truck is over on the hill. Waldo’s there,” he tried to get her to follow him.
“Dustin,” she stopped him when he started to pick up his bike again. “Look, I need to talk to you. I only have a minute.”
The crowd behind them was cheering. An engine was revving. Someone was about to attempt a jump.
“But…”
“No, I…,” she stopped, looking down. She reached out, taking his hands from the handlebars. She held them in her own as she continued.
“Dustin, whatever happens today… just remember I’m sorry. Please believe me. I don’t want to do it. But I have to.”
“What? What’s going to happen? If you don’t want to, don’t do it. Whatever it is,” he was confused to say the least. But that much sounded simple. If she didn’t want to do whatever it was, don’t do it. But he knew it couldn’t be that easy. He had no idea of the pressures she was under from her Uncle.
“I have to. I just, look, I have to go. Just please, no matter what, be careful today. Please!”
“Marah, wait! What’s going on?” He heard the bike going up the ramp.
“’Bye,” she said. And quickly leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
And he just stood there. Behind him the crowd was cheering as the rider must have landed the jump. With their screams, no one could hear him screaming her name as she ran away. She was hardly down the side of the hill before she teleported. Apparently speed was more important than discretion to her today.
Marah was gone again. But she had come to see him. To warn him. With all the crap she was going through, all the danger she was in, she had come to try to help him. His hand went to his cheek. And he again wanted to smile. Marah wearing orange Free Air had kissed his cheek. But all he could think about was that he had a way bad feeling that there would be an ugly battle today.
He turned back to his bike, and started wheeling it back to the truck. Waldo was there to greet him, barking like mad and jumping up and down. Maybe it’s a good thing Marah hadn’t walked over here. Waldo wouldn’t have understood when she left again. Not that Dustin did, but he might take it easier than the puppy would.
He leaned his bike back on its kickstand. He neared the truck, and stuck out a hand to the dog. Waldo sniffed him diligently, then reached out to lick his face.
“What’s going on with her, boy?” he asked, and he ruffled Waldo’s ears.
He had been right. There had been a zord battle. It had been, well, not good at all. They had won, but other than that, he couldn’t find a good at all.
Kapri, Marah, and Shimazu had shown up in zords.
The last person he wanted to fight, and he had to fight her. What choice did he have? At least Marah and Shimazu had gone out pretty quickly. The majority of the time they were fighting Kapri. And she was so not a pushover.
She had made a comment about all her least favorite colors. That had sure fired him up. But once her zord was destroyed, she disappeared just like Marah and Shimazu had. And he was back to wondering where Marah was and if she was okay.
He had ended up at Blue Bay Point that night. Sitting at their cliff. The place they had been when they had seen Tori and Blake on the beach. The place not far from where they had watched the meteor shower. The place they had talked about how the world could be different, with this whole good and evil mess they were in.
He sat there now, alone. Well, Waldo was with him. Waldo was with him a lot lately. The young dog clung to him as if he expected Dustin to disappear on him as well. He had tried to assure the dog otherwise, but he wasn’t having any part of it.
So Dustin sat there with her dog, and wondered about the day.
She had said she didn’t mean it. That she didn’t want to do it. That she was sorry. And this was way serious stuff here. It felt like Kapri had been out for blood, even if Marah hadn’t. But had she? Marah had been getting in as many shots as she could before her zord was destroyed.
He wanted to believe her. He wanted to trust her. He wanted them to still have the same wonderful trusting relationship they had built over the last few months. But he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to believe any more.
He had always said that she acted like two people. One for him, one for the rest of the world. And he had always felt sure that his her was the real her.
She had asked him to trust her. And today’s events made him doubt for the first time. Which of her was real? Which should he trust?
Waldo whined, and laid his head on Dustin’s lap. He looked from the starry sky to the too big puppy trying to be a lap dog.
“I know, boy. I know,” he said. But he doubted Waldo believed him any more than he believed himself. Because he didn’t know at all.
THE END