“Fallen Angel”

Chapter Eight: Damaged

“Uh…” Nosedive’s mind felt as if it had been torn to shreds and stuck back together with tape and glue. He moaned, rolling onto his back and resting his head back onto the floor. He couldn’t focus; he couldn’t think. Every time he tried to figure out what had happened, another stab of pain writhed through his head, and he found himself more unsure of where he was than before.

He attempted to touch his head but found he couldn’t. Tugging gently as not to chaff his skin or jolt his head too much, he realized he couldn’t separate his wrists. Bound—he was tied up again! The bonds didn’t zap or sizzle—must not be energy bonds. Puck lines? Wildwing and the others had tied him up!

“Ahh…ahh…” His head tortured him even more so when he opened his eyes, and he decided not to try that again. Ouchies! Oh, Stars! It hurt so badly. Whoever hit him packed a wallop worse than his lord. Maybe if he sat up, it would cease to be so mind-numbing. Maybe it would just be skull-splitting.

He wiggled his legs to pull him into a sitting position, but he couldn’t do that, either. They tied his ankles, too!

“Huh…uh…Come on…” he murmured miserably to himself. Why couldn’t he just get a break in life?

He attempted to keep his mind blank, but blasts boomed in a distance, making it impossible to do so. Puck launchers returned the fire; it sounded like an all-out war. He had to do something, but first, he had to find out where he was.

With a sharp inhale of air, he cracked open one eyelid and hissed as the blinding light infiltrated his eye. When the brightness finally evened out, though a dull pain still lingered, he opened the other eye. Laying on his side behind the last row of chairs in the Migrator, Nosedive saw through the windshield that he was in the hanger at the Pond. The team had made it home in time to stop Lord Dragaunus.

He closed his eyes again and relaxed against the floor. He wasn’t going away for a while, whether he would be locked in the brig or taken back to the Raptor. At any rate, he was content to get some recuperation in the meantime.

As he was on the brink of sleep, a tremor shook the Migrator. It was mild at first before the car rocked like an earthquake. Nosedive’s head perked up, and he almost passed out from the pain that shot through it. Just as he became cognizant again, the door of the Migrator shrieked as it was twisted and ripped from its hinges. Nosedive gasped at the sight of a burly, red lizard who now stood in the doorway.

“Well, well, well, I didn’t expect this,” Siege sneered. He placed his hands on the sides of the doorway. With a heave and the indentation of his fingers in the doorway, Siege lifted himself into the Migrator. “Makes my life easier.”

“Yeah, my mission in life,” Nosedive bit off sarcastically and tried to distance himself from Siege, but it was no use. He was defenseless.

Siege stalked toward him, a malicious smirk etched upon his face. Laughing menacingly, the grimy lizard reached down and grasped Nosedive by the neck, causing the boy to gag. He lifted the teen to his eye level, chuckling and letting his putrid and rancid breath permeate the boy’s nostrils. Then, without warning, Siege tossed Nosedive with a grunt about the Migrator.

The teen let out a cry as he crashed into the side of the vehicle and slid down the wall, slumping to the floor. He opened his eyes but couldn’t focus. Everything whirled about him like he was stuck in the middle of the tornado, and he couldn’t get out. On his knees, head bowed, eyes squeezed shut, he waited, helpless except to wince. Lightheaded, he almost couldn’t do that.

*BANG!*

*CRASH!*

“Why you mangy—”

“Shadda up!”

Hesitantly, Nosedive peered through his strands of hair, yet he really couldn’t see anything. A huge splotch of red, another darker being, more lithe—then a kick by the darker one sent the red splotch out the newly-made hole.

Nosedive squinted his eyes to see who was there, and in the end, the pounding in his head matched the one in his chest and won out, dragging the teen from reality.

*^*^*

Cold—against his neck. It soothed the soreness of Siege’s attack, and Nosedive reveled in its solacing touch. He moaned softly, reality seeping back into his consciousness. Luckily, his explosion of a headache had subsided, but still part of him wished to be comatose again just to be out of the prolonged pain that seemed to penetrate every fiber of his being. His arms ached the worse at the moment, which was actually new, and he felt like he had slept in an uncomfortable position the night prior and his body protested.

Abruptly, a cloth was dabbed on his face. The water was lukewarm, not at all as shocking as one would suspect when waking from the dead. It once more touched his face and was wiped down his left cheek and neck, washing him. It then rubbed over his right cheek, and he pulled away stubbornly when pain seeped into that area. Leaning backwards so as not to be hanging forward, he realized he was in a seat. No—his eyes fluttered open, and he looked over his shoulder. Flexing his wrists, he hissed at the pain that flourished there. His hands were bound behind him, holding him fast to the seat.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a fond voice admonished, and Nosedive whirled around.

His eyes laid upon the person directly in front of him, a white mallard with a warm smile upon his beak.

“Welcome back, kiddo,” Wildwing greeted. His arms were crossed in a natural expression of anger, but nothing besides that seemed to convey his rage.

That was, of course, until the affectionate, tiny smirk faded into a dark glower that emanated from his face. It was the harshest expression Nosedive had ever received from his brother.

Shuddering, Nosedive averted his eyes, his eyesight wandering about the room. Behind Wildwing and to the left stood Duke and Mallory. Duke seemed less open than Mallory, which was a shock in itself, his arms crossed identically to Wildwing’s. His sharp eyes pierced Nosedive, alerting the teen just what the former thief thought about him. He didn’t trust Nosedive. Well, who the hell was he to talk? The teen quickly turned to Mallory. Hands grasping behind her back nervously, she sent him a sympathetic expression, to which he returned with a tentative grin.

To the right of Wildwing was Tanya. She dropped a compress into a water bin and threw the ice into a cooler on the side of Drake One. Next to her, Grin regarded Nosedive with impassivity, which the teen took as a bad sign. While he hadn’t known Grin that long, or any of these ducks for that matter—including his brother—Nosedive knew Grin could see right through people, and Grin saw what Wildwing didn’t.

Canard stood almost directly behind Wildwing, and it was then, with the same expression and body language, Nosedive grasped how much Canard and Wildwing really looked alike. It pained Nosedive to think just how much better a brother Canard was to Wildwing than he. They would have something he and Wildwing could never have: eternal security and acceptance, but more importantly, undying love. They were twins, brothers, but it was more than that. They were best friends.

Taking a deep breath, Nosedive let it out reservedly. It was only a matter of time before the team would do whatever it needed to, so all he had to do was wait. Right?

Wildwing affixed Nosedive with a harsh frown.

Right.

“There is one reason and one reason only why you’re not in the brig right now.”

“Because you still haven’t gotten it fixed since Siege?” Nosedive offered.

At the look on Wildwing’s face, Nosedive clamped his beak shut. Wildwing wasn’t in the mood for humor. Yeah, he probably should have known that.

“Okay…there are two reasons,” Wildwing amended. “One, because we really don’t have brig, and two, because I don’t think you’re a traitor.”

Nosedive perked up at the accusation and met Wildwing directly. “Traitor?” he echoed unsurely.

“Look, Nosedive, let’s be honest,” the white mallard broached. “Are you?”

“Am I what?” the teen retorted innocently.

“A traitor?”

Nosedive paused for a moment. He didn’t expect this. Huh. Nevertheless, he could still take advantage of it. Nodding slowly, he formulated just how he could work this.

“Yup,” he answered curtly.

A horrified silence engulfed the room.

“What!” the six, older ducks yelled in unison.

“What?” Nosedive objected in an annoyed tone. “You asked a question, and I answered it. I’m a traitor.”

“But you’re not!” Wildwing challenged, uncrossing his arms and walking toward Nosedive. “You wouldn’t help that blight of scales!”

“How do you know?” Nosedive countered with an absent shrug but regretted the action when his shoulder screamed at him. However, the pain wasn’t piercing, so he figured someone must have popped it back in.

“I know you, and you wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, you know me?” Nosedive scoffed and glared at his brother. “You know me?”

“Yes,” Wildwing replied flatly.

“Really? How much do you know about me? I think I can sum it up in five words: Brother, teenager, godfather’s son, blonde. That about does it, right?”

“Nosedive, it goes deeper than that,” Wildwing sighed, running a hand over his eyes. “I know you.”

“Really? Okay, what’s my favorite food? Favorite band? How about my favorite color? Got a guess?”

Wildwing opened his beak but had nothing to retort.

“What’s my favorite book? Favorite hang out? What’s my best friend’s name? Did you know we were in the band together? What was its name? Where was our long-standing gig? Where did I go to school? Hey, for that matter, where did I grow up? When did Dad adopt me? Where did I live for the decade before that!” His voice raised anxiously, and he began to yell. “Do you even have a clue that I lived in a quarter of the provinces? Do the math, and you’ll find I’ve lived in thirteen. I also lived off-world for a year. Yup, that’s right. I lived on Terra Krost. Try being a diplomat’s son there. And I went to public school. Totally different atmosphere, I gotta tell ya.

“But you know nothing of that,” Nosedive clipped, looking away. “So don’t tell me you know me because you know nothing about me.”

“And yet you seem confident enough to say you know me,” Wildwing retorted bitterly.

“I never said that.”

“Oh, no?” Wildwing reached inside his jeans’ pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

Nosedive rolled his eyes. “Don’t read that aloud.”

“Hey, you had your tirade. It’s my turn,” Wildwing said before reading. “ ‘Dear Wildwing, I’m sorry you wasted fifteen years looking for me. I know that I’m the last person you wanted to find out you share genes with, and I’m sorry you had to. I wish things could be different, but we’re different. I’m different. I’m just not the brother you want me to be, and I know that already.’ ”

Squirming in his seat, Nosedive cringed.

“So, you know what kind of brother I want, huh?”

Nosedive laughed dryly. “Well, hel-lo!” He nodded toward Canard. “I don’t need a puck to the head to figure that one out. You want—No!—you have Canard and that other guy you keep talking about—Shane, right? Both probably went to the Commissioner’s Academy and followed so diligently in Mommy’s and Daddy’s footsteps. Same as you. Stepford children.

“Me? I’m none of those. When Dad wanted to send me to that prison, you know what I did? I dyed my hair purple for the interview and had my friend Kallie draw a taint on my forearm. Nothing gets to a stringent military officer better than outcasts, freaks, and rock bands. Wore my Screaming Beaks tee-shirt and all.”

“But I don’t want you to be like Canard or Shane!” Wildwing blurted. “I want you to be you!”

“No, you don’t,” Nosedive remonstrated, shaking his head dismally. “If Shane is anything like Canard, then you’ve got two perfect brothers, Wildwing. You don’t need a kink in your chain, and you certainly don’t need me messing everything up for you. Trust me. I have a habit of doing that.”

“You make life interesting,” Wildwing admitted with a fleeting laugh and fond smirk. “So you give my hair a reason to lose its color early. Big deal.”

“Maybe not for you…” the teen commented dryly as he glanced at Wildwing’s already white hair. His eyes flickered downcast, and he shook himself to clear his thoughts. “You don’t have to be like this, you know? I get it.”

“Do you?” Wildwing looked at his brother with concern.

Nosedive returned his glare suspiciously before uttering, “Look…*Sigh!* you don’t have to be all calm and understanding. You have no reason to be. It’s fine. It’ll be better this way.”

“What way?”

“If you just send me back to Lord Dragaunus.”

The tone in his voice, Wildwing realized with horror; it was the tone in his voice. So certain, so determined. His brother truly believed that Wildwing would give him back to Dragaunus that it wasn’t even a discussion. It was flat out fact.

“Like hell,” Wildwing affirmed, fists and teeth clenched.

“Why? I’m a traitor! I belong there!” Nosedive spouted suddenly. “What else are you gonna do with me? Lock me in a room and slip food under the door?”

“Not a bad idea,” Canard agreed darkly.

“Wait. Wait.” Wildwing paused for a moment, rubbing his forehead, his eyes narrowed. “I’m lost. Clarify something for me. You’d rather be deemed a traitor than tell me you were in a gang or have a Stigma?”

Nosedive froze, eyes deadlocked on Wildwing, wide and horrified. His voice fell to whisper, a silenced shriek. “You…y—you know? Duke told you?”

“Well, technically I knew about the Stigma when you showed up the first time,” Wildwing admitted with a shrug. “Tanya asked me about it and if I had known if you had a taint. I told her not that I knew of. I didn’t think your father would have let you have one, but,” he let out a stifled chuckle, “probably Lucretia would have, huh?”

“But if you know…” the boy began, face scrunched in pensive contemplation, “…what am I doing here?”

“What do you mean, why are you here? You’re here because you’re my brother and a member of the team.”

“What game are you playing?” Nosedive charged softly, as tears threatened to trickle over his eyelids. “Why didn’t you just leave me at the warehouse? Why are you doing this to me?”

“Doing what?” Wildwing asked, genuinely bewildered.

“Why are you torturing me like this!” he screamed at his brother, leaning forward as far as his bonds would allow. “Why are you rubbing my face in the fact that I can’t be here? That I can’t stay! You know that this isn’t going to work out! You know that I’m just going to have to go back to Lord Dragaunus anyway! What do you want from me?”

Wildwing, expression determined and hard, forced Nosedive’s back against the chair when he leaned over the teen, their beaks not even millimeters apart. Hands clutching the console, Wildwing trapped Nosedive on all sides and stared gravely into the boy’s trembling eyes.

“You know what I want from you? I want to know why you voluntarily went back to Dragaunus! I want to know why you chose to stay there instead of being here with people who love and care for you! I want to know why you wouldn’t tell me about your past or your back, and I want to know what gives you the right to sit there and tell me what I want and don’t want! You have no right! Do you hear me? And I want to know what, damnit, is the matter with you!”

“I—I’m afraid!” Nosedive sputtered suddenly.

“Of what!”

“That you’re gonna to leave me!”

Wildwing’s heart stopped. His breathing halted with an abrupt gag. He leaned away from Nosedive, demoralized, straightening his back and regarding the teen with wide, shaky eyes.

“What?” he breathed.

Head ducking, Nosedive closed his eyes. “Everyone, Wildwing, everyone I ever loved has left me. My first foster parents, Falcone, Lucretia, Blade…” He sniffled and didn’t look up from the floor. “…and I’m not gonna kid myself, Wing. I know Dad’s dead.” He met Wildwing’s eyes tearfully. “It’s only a matter of time before I lose you, too.”

“Dive…”

“It’s true, okay? You don’t know the real me. You think I’m this innocent, helpless teenager who no one cared about for a decade, and that all you need to do is love me and hug me, and everything will be okay.” The teen sighed, closing his eyes solemnly. It didn’t stop the tears from streaming down his cheeks. “But everything’s not okay. I—I did some things when I was younger I shouldn’t have, and don’t say it’s not my fault because it was. No one was there with a gun to my head. I just did it because…” He paused in contemplation, “…I guess because I wanted to please people. I wanted to be good for them, so that they wouldn’t throw me back to Hell!” He shivered. “…and I’d take it all back if you’d accept me, but I can’t. And I know that, okay? Once you find out who I really am, you won’t like it, and you’ll just send me back to Lord Dragaunus. So, please, I’m begging you. Please, just let me go.”

Wildwing leveled a disbelieving glare at the boy. He uttered only one word in reply. “…No.”

“What?”

“No,” Wildwing answered flatly. “I’m not letting you go that easily. Simple as that.”

“Please…please don’t make me…” Nosedive slumped in the chair. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, head hanging, long hair dangling about his face and obscuring his features.

“Make you do what?”

“…I can’t watch you hate me. I saw Lucretia and Falcone…but not you. I—I can’t.”

Wildwing walked over and knelt down by his brother, touching the teen’s leg and rubbing it reassuringly. Haunted, tearful eyes looked up from under his sagging bangs, and the teen quickly looked away. Sniffles and choked sobs reverberated through the Ready Room.

“Nosedive, have you ever heard of unconditional love?”

Wildwing felt his brother’s leg tense rigidly, then observed a quick, dismissive shake of the head.

“It means I could never hate you, kiddo. No matter what, I will always love you.” Wildwing offered the sniveling teen a fond, hesitant smile. “I don’t care about your past or what some lizard told you.”

Nosedive winced; a fine tremor wracked his body.

Wildwing sighed heavily. “So…Dragaunus said some things about me, right? Let me guess,” he said, acting amused, though his heart burned furiously. That bastard brainwashed his brother…brainwashed him! “I don’t give a shit about you, that I’ll hate you for having a Stigma and that he’s the only one who would accept you for who you are now, right? His slave.”

Another wince, more painful, more tormented.

“Nosedive, it probably doesn’t matter right now what I say. You think he’s right, and that’s it. But…seriously, kiddo, the only thing I care about is you’re here, alive, and for the most part, okay. The rest is just…unimportant.”

For what seemed like an eternity, Wildwing knelt there, clutching his brother’s leg, hoping for any kind of response. His heart tightened, finally comprehending just how hard it must have been for his brother, so hard that they couldn’t even talk about it. But if they were going to make this work, if Nosedive was going to trust him finally, they needed this. Nosedive needed this. He needed to know Wildwing would love him forever, no matter what, and the teen wouldn’t as long as his past was between them.

It came so low, so desolately, Wildwing almost missed it.

“I was four when my foster parents were murdered.”

A ghost of smile edged itself onto Wildwing’s beak, and he reached beyond Nosedive, hitting a single button. After a beep, a metal panel on the floor dropped before a chair rose behind Wildwing. The older brother slithered into it, still holding his little brother’s leg, and listened.

“I don’t remember when they adopted me. It was like I had always lived with them, except for this promise that someone made that he would find me one day and everything would be okay. There’s this—this image of a white hatchling. I—I guess…that was you.” Nosedive shifted in his seat but made no move to shake off Wildwing’s hand. “I called them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad,’ and if I think really hard, I can kinda make them out, but…I was playing hockey in the driveway one day, and there was this blast. I didn’t even get a chance to turn around, and a hard hand grasped my shirt roughly. I guess I must have screamed or something because the next thing I knew, my parents were running out the house…and they were killed.”

“What happened to them?” Wildwing asked in a soft murmur.

Nosedive didn’t meet his eyes. “They were shot…I think. I don’t… exactly… remember.” He lifted his head and gave it a good shake, appearing to be clearing his thoughts. He then shook the hair from his face, but his eyes shifted downcast. Yet, Wildwing could see the intense concentration in his face. “Things get fuzzy after that. I remember this laugh and this guy. H—He kinda looked like you now but… different. I don’t know…but…*Sigh!* W—What I—I really remember are the hands.”

“Hands?” Wildwing echoed, not liking the sound of that.

A painful, hopeless cringe. “T—They were all over me,” he whispered helplessly. “I couldn’t stop them. I—I tried to shake them off, but they wouldn’t let up! They just kept…touching me. My chest, my back, my legs. And all the while, that guy kept yelling, but it didn’t stop them! And then the pain…and…and...I still get phantasms from it.” He shivered and looked upward, his long hair drooping down the sides of his face. “…I don’t remember anything else until I was in the hospital, and I was told I was gonna be adopted by some guy. I don’t even remember his name.

“But I wasn’t going. Not after that.” He shuddered again, just showing how much that one incident affected him and at such a young age.

“Nosedive,” Wildwing interrupted. He hesitated for a moment. “They didn’t…”

The teen flinched, but confided, “No…at least not that I remember.”

Wildwing took solace in that.

“But I wasn’t going to go through that again. I didn’t know who this guy was or if he was the one who had…touched me, or whatnot, and I just wasn’t going to take the chance. If I was going to escape, then it was then or never. So the day before I was going, I climbed out the window and shimmied down the drainpipe and never looked back.”

“Unbelievable,” Duke grumbled from behind Wildwing, uncrossing his arms and looking sideways.

“What was that?” Nosedive asked pointedly.

“Uh, that you were, what? Four? And you were able to escape a hospital,” Duke quickly elaborated. “So, that’s when you met Lucretia, I take it.”

“No,” the teen corrected, “that’s when I met Falcone. Know him?” He looked up at Duke, meeting the former thief’s eyes unabashedly.

Wildwing took a deep breath at the sight of his brother’s tearstained and trembling eyes. His face, clenched and worn, made him look older than he was and at the same time, so much younger.

“Yeah,” Duke answered curtly. “Not a nice guy. Not a family type of guy.”

This time Nosedive agreed with a nod. “I lived for a few days on my own, stealing food and whatever I needed until I wandered into the wrong part of the Metro, a part of town named Devicena.”

“ ‘City of Crime,’ ” the former thief translated in Avian.

“Wait,” Canard said starkly. “Devicena, as in the place where Draggy couldn’t conquer?”

“There was a place on Puckworld Dragaunus didn’t enslave?” Tanya questioned, riveted.

Duke confirmed, “Yup, that’s the place. Great town. Full of gangsters and all sorts of criminals who just wouldn’t submit to Beryllium Breath. Eventually, he just quit trying.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t too bright back then,” Nosedive scoffed, once more staring down at the floor. “Still not, but…I somehow found myself in a back alley with this clique, and…I really don’t know what they wanted, but they touched my hair and pushed me around. And I just kept thinking I was going to die. Then, like, out of nowhere, there was this guy in between us. He activated his sword, muttered something to the gang, and they fled. He saved my life, so I didn’t struggle when he brought me back to his hotel room. I just wanted to be off the streets, y’know?

“Homey cleaned me up al-ight—” He stopped short, and it was almost comical to watch the features of Nosedive’s face. His street slang was still a part of him, a decade later. “Falcone cleaned me up well, and he decided to keep me around. Brought me to his home province, Vancel, and fed me enough. He wasn’t the best guy in the world, but he was alright. Taught me a few things.” That produced a reminiscent, mischievous grin upon his beak, the same one Duke wore when he stole his teammates’ things. “He was gone a lot, though, but that was okay. I survived. Hit a lot more than I would liked, but nothing I couldn’t handle. It was only when he returned from a long trip empty-handed, which happened more times than not, but after awhile, I knew to get out of his way.”

“Hit?” Duke repeated apprehensively.

A somber nod. “Yeah. Hit, or if you prefer smacked, pounded…beat. Take your pick.”

“What got you out of there? Child services?” Tanya asked, her voice hopeful.

Nosedive snorted. “Are you kidding? Child services didn’t give a shit about us orphans, and they didn’t care I was gone.”

“So, what happened?” Mallory provoked.

“I was with Falcone a little over a year when his apartment got broken into by these two gang members. He was gone yet again, and there was no way I could stop them. They were looking for something Falcone stole from them. To this day, I don’t know what it was,” Nosedive confessed, “but when they didn’t find it, they decided to take me as collateral. They thought with me as a hostage, they could get whatever they wanted back. Didn’t work that way.

“See,” the teen continued dryly, “with Falcone, it was power. That’s the only reason he kept me around. He liked someone younger and defenseless looking up at him like he was this hero who needed to be worshiped, and since he was the only one I had, I guess I sufficiently played my part and boosted his ego. But when it came to his work, that was first, so he never contacted the gang to get me back.”

“That’s horrible,” Tanya gasped.

“Yeah, well,” Nosedive shrugged. “After that, I spent three weeks in a box, bound and gagged until they took pity on me and decided to raise me. And that’s how I became a Blood Beak.”

“Yeah, but…” Canard hesitated for a moment and cringed. “How did you—while you were in the—”

“Don’t ask,” the teen deflected. “Just don’t ask.”

“So that’s why you trusted her,” Wildwing realized. “Lucretia was like your…” He struggled with the word. “…mother.” While Wildwing had two mothers in his life, the thought of Lucretia, the person who surrendered Nosedive to the Saurians, as his brother’s mother, was more than slightly disturbing.

Nosedive was silent for a long moment, staring transfixed on the floor. Softly, he professed, “She was the first person I can remember ever telling me she loved me. She actually tucked me into bed at night.” A ghost of a fond grin formed on the edge of his beak. “She would whisk my bangs around before kissing my forehead and pulling the covers tightly, like a sleeping bag. I…I had never had that before.

“And Blade, he taught me how to fight, how to survive now that I was back in Devicena.”

“Why did Lucretia call you ‘Dauphin?’ ” Wildwing asked suddenly.

“Unlike the Brotherhood,” Duke interjected for the younger mallard, “in many gangs, real names aren’t used. Only one or two people in the gang actually know your real name to protect your family. Just wearing rival colors could get you killed by your own gang, so you made damn sure those around you didn’t know your real name, let alone your enemies.

“But Dauphin’s used by all gangs, even the Brotherhood. It means ‘next in succession.’ ”

Nosedive winced.

“It’s the name of the heir of the gang leadership.”

“Is this true?” Wildwing asked his brother earnestly. “Were you really the heir to Blade and Lucretia?”

“I told you my past wasn’t pretty,” Nosedive reluctantly admitted.

“Yeah, but did they ever use you as…a vessel?”

“A what?”

Wildwing’s voice hardened. “Did you swallow drugs to transport onto Puckworld?”

Nosedive gagged immediately, wide-eyed and panicky. “H—How did you hear about that?”

“Duke told me.”

“Oh…” Nosedive looked away. Beseeching with his eyes to the ceiling, he sighed despairingly. “Yeah…I was. I did that a lot, actually.”

Ever since Duke had told him about the Blood Beaks, Wildwing had been preparing himself for this moment. Somehow, like when Nosedive was brought in before, it was worse than he expected. Taking a deep, calming breath, Wildwing shared a quick commiserating glance with Canard.

“Oh…kay,” he managed to say, unfortunately not as strongly as he would have liked.

Nosedive’s head shot up, and his eyes focused squarely upon Wildwing for the first time since his confession began. “Oh—kay?”

Wildwing forced the anger smoldering in his chest down, knowing that he couldn’t show it to Nosedive. It wasn’t the boy’s fault, and the person whose it was, wasn’t present.

He gave a single, rigid nod. “Okay.”

“Okay as in, ‘It’s okay,’ or okay as in, ‘Okay, that’s it. It’s over. Adios. Arrivederci. Au revoir.’?”

“Okay as in you worry way too much for a seventeen year old,” Wildwing laughed and squeezed his brother’s leg. “What do you think I am? An elitist? I told you. I’ll love you no matter what, Nosedive, and I’m not taking that back. I just have one question: you’re not still on them, right?”

“Sure,” the teen replied, shifting in the seat and wincing from the pain radiating in his still bonded wrists. “Out of the last year, I’ve spent five months in a prison camp, three bunking with you and Canard, five in the Raptor, one with you guys here—it’s easy to get crack with that schedule.”

“I’ll take that as a no, then.”

Nosedive winked. “You do that.”

Bracing himself mentally, Wildwing urged, “So, were you addicted, or did you just swallow them?”

“Well, at first I just swallowed the packets, but after they started to break in my stomach, I got addicted to them for a while,” he said plaintively. “Actually, that’s why Dad took me away for my hatching day the first time. I was getting the drugs in between getting out of school and meeting him at his work, so he thought if I was away for a while where I couldn’t get them, then I’d be okay. Trust me when I say that there are no drug dealers on the top of a mountain.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Wildwing smiled gently. “So, when were you actually adopted by your father?”

“Well, I was nine,” Nosedive started, leaning back in his chair and slouching like a normal teenager with bad posture. He certainly was more relaxed now. “The Blood Beaks had just finished a shipment and were getting it ready for distribution when this whole posse of guys with swords attacked.

“I’m sure as Duke can tell you, the Brotherhood didn’t approve of what the Blood Beaks were doing, so they clashed a lot. I wasn’t there for any of them prior to that. All fights had always been off our home turf, so when the Brotherhood attacked us, it was a freakin’ ‘How you doin’?’ And…” He paused and shook his head. “…Falcone was there.

“When he saw me, the first thing he did was dive at me, but Blade was there to stop him. I watched as Falcone ran Blade through, then he come after me.”

Crossing his arms, Duke looked away, face hard.

“Falcone pinned me against the wall with his blade, and that’s where the scar on my stomach came from. He held me there for awhile, gloating about how I had been a bad boy to change sides and leaving him and that he would teach me discipline and where I belonged. After I told him I was so looking forward to that, he moved to hit me again but was stopped by one of his own guys. I don’t know what happened after that. I think the two Brotherhood guys fought, but Lucretia was there not too long after. She carried me to the hospital since I was too far gone to just go to the Beaks’ clinic, and she wasn’t even sure if the Brotherhood had attacked that. She stayed with me until I was taken into surgery, and then I didn’t see her again until the Resistance. When I woke up, Dad was there, and I went home with him.”

“It makes more sense now,” Canard said numbly, words garbled by his shock, “why you told her about you and Wildwing.”

Nosedive shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if it makes sense, Canard. She still betrayed me, still told Lord Dragaunus who I was, and then handed me right to him.” The hurt was evident in his voice.

“She betrayed the entire Resistance, Dive,” Tanya supplied. “It wasn’t just you.”

“Yeah, but…” He suddenly became chagrined and withdrawn.

Wildwing leaned forward in his chair. “Because of your dad?”

Nosedive sighed solemnly. “If I would have told her anything differently, or if I would said I didn’t know when you were coming back, or if I just wouldn’t have told her how close I was to you, she wouldn’t have attacked, and Dad would still be alive.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Dive,” Wildwing reassured, rubbing the teen’s leg. “The Saurians would have attacked anyway.”

“You don’t know that.”

“But you don’t either.”

Nosedive shrugged absently and remained silent, staring down at his grungy boots and bloodied jeans.

With an exasperated exhale, Wildwing reached over and tugged playfully on the strands of Nosedive’s long hair. “Look, kiddo, you’ve got to let me in there sometimes,” he affirmed affectionately. “I’m not a mind-reader, and I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on up there.” He ducked his head to look into Nosedive’s eyes, lost under his bangs. “You hear me under there?”

After a few agonizing seconds, Nosedive glared up at his brother, azure eyes skewing Wildwing with a myriad of emotions. “Who are you?”

“Huh?” Wildwing didn’t follow his brother’s thinking.

“I mean, what kind of person searches for someone for fifteen years? And then when they find him and he’s completely screwed up, you…you still love me…for no reason.”

“You’re not screwed up,” Wildwing assured, “and I’m sure your father didn’t want you for anything, either.”

“Dad felt guilty because he broke his promise to our dad. In a few years, he would have gotten over the guilt and shipped me back to the orphanage, especially after he became bonded with his life mate. It was only a matter of time.”

“What!”

“Dad didn’t tell you, huh?” Nosedive said with a crooked smile. “He was bonding,” he sputtered the line in a sing-song voice. “He would have been already, if not for the invasion.”

“But why would your father’s marriage lead him to get rid of you? Did the woman not like you?” As the words came out of his beak, Wildwing couldn’t believe he had uttered them. General Flashblade adored his son, almost as much, if not more so, than Nosedive did his father. He couldn’t imagine Harper choosing a life mate who didn’t love Nosedive as much as he did.

To his relief, Nosedive shook his head. “Nah, Mira was great. I loved her, and Dad even asked me about the whole bonding thing before asking her. I was cool with it.”

“Then…why?”

“Oh, come on, Wing. Do I have to explain this to you?” He would have slapped his forehead, if not that his arms still were constricted. “Well, duh! You’re the last kid. Of course you wouldn’t understand this!” He sighed with vexation. “See, in my house, I’m the first kid, but still adopted. And the only reason why Dad adopted me was because he felt guilty about Lucretia and Blade and Falcone, but that would have all changed as soon as he and Mira decided to have their own kids. Then Dad would have realized that six, seven years was enough for me in a good home and would have just shipped me back to the orphanage. Of course, by then I would have been old enough to escape and actually take care of myself this time, so it wouldn’t have been so bad.”

“That’s crazy!” Wildwing retorted brusquely. “Your dad, he loved you so much. When I first talked to him about you, I wish you could have seen the smile that just formed on us face.”

“Wildwing, I didn’t say my dad didn’t love me. I know that,” he dismissed as if his brother was insane.

“But you said he would have given you up.”

“I just know my life. That’s all, and now I’m screwed until Lord Dragaunus dies.” He blinked, and his face fell. “Simple as that,” he repeated Wildwing’s words from earlier.

“No, it’s as simple as that,” Wildwing challenged. “Dive, you can’t just give up like that. Just because you have a Stigma and your life hasn’t been what it should be, doesn’t me you’re damned. You have to glide with the puck.”

“I’ve glided with the puck all my life!” Nosedive exploded. He shot forward in his seat, startling Wildwing, but was jerked backwards before ever reaching his brother, restrained tightly by his bonds. “You have no idea what it was like for me growing up, and every time I felt safe and finally at home, something came along to screw it up! So, don’t sit there, and tell me not to give up because believe it or not, one day you’re not going to be sitting there telling me everything’s all right!”

As the last words spilled from him, gutted sobs escaped from the boy’s beak, tears coursing down his cheeks.

Instantaneously, Wildwing leapt from this chair and held the teen, despite the boy’s thrashing. Bound to the chair, Nosedive had no choice but to submit to Wildwing’s embrace and buried his face in his brother’s shoulder.

Abruptly, Wildwing, kneeling on the ground, pulled away and cupped the sides of Nosedive’s face, his own tears trickling down his face. “Now you listen to me, Nosedive. Dragaunus isn’t going to get you back, okay? I’m never going to let that happen. Do you hear me?”

“But Wildwing—”

“NO!” Wildwing shouted and gave his brother a good shake. “I’m not going to let that happen! As long as you don’t run off by yourself again, I promise you I will not allow that to occur.”

Nosedive scoffed, “Wing, come on—”

“NO! I don’t care what’s on your back, and I don’t give a shit about Saurian tradition. You will never go through that again.”

Nosedive remained silent until Wildwing shook him again. “Okay?”

“Okay!” Nosedive laughed.

“And I’m never going to leave you.”

“Wildwing, now that you can’t promise,” the younger brother seethed, rolling his eyes.

“Nosedive,” Wildwing interrupted, unrelenting seriousness tinting his voice. “I will never leave you. That’s it.”

“Stop. Okay? This is—” He tried to pull away, but Wildwing held him fast.

“I will never leave you.”

“Wildwing, this is a war! You can’t promise something like—”

“I will never leave you.”

“But you will! I can’t believe you’re—”

“I will never leave you.”

“But—”

Wildwing stared into his brother’s eyes one last time and emphasized truthfully, “I. Will. Never. Leave. You.”

Nosedive stared at in complete silence, his eyes rapidly darting back and forth, taking in Wildwing’s face. Tears slowly trickled down his cheeks.

“But what happens if I screw up again, and I get you killed, too?”

“You’re stuck with me, kiddo. There’s no getting rid of me,” Wildwing laughed euphorically and hugged him tightly, sheltering the teen in his strong arms.

Duke crept behind the two and sliced through Nosedive’s bond with his sword. The teen immediately wrapped his arms around his brother and for the first time in seventeen years, felt secure.

*^*^*

“Ouch.”

“That didn’t hurt.”

“Wait. I said, ‘Ouch.’ Doesn’t that indicate pain?”

“You’re just being a baby.”

“No, it really—OUCH! Stars, what are you using, a knife?”

“It’s called a scalpel.”

“WHAT!” The teen leapt off the table and immediately swiveled toward Tanya, wide-eyed and startled. “Are you insane? What are you trying to do?” Shirt off, hair still wet from his first shower in a month, and the majority of his wounds bandaged, Nosedive dropped a hand to his bare back and rubbed the injured area.

Tanya put her gloved hands on her hips and bellowed, “Nosedive, I have to examine it to see exactly what it is and what we can do. I need a sample.”

“Not with that thing,” he pointed to the red-tipped knife in her hand.

The older female immediately appealed to Wildwing, and Nosedive quickly scrambled behind his brother, using the leader as a shield. “No way! He’s my brother. He’s not siding with you.”

“Tanya, isn’t there anything you can inject him with to lessen the pain?”

“You’re going to let her stab your little brother!” Nosedive shouted incredulously. “See, an hour into your promise, and all ready you’re—”

“Fine, if that’s the way you want it. Canard, can you drag him to the table, so I can sit on him?”

“Oh, you think this is funny, don’t you?” Nosedive accused slowly. “You’ve only begun to know me, big bro. Wait. Now that I know I’m not going anywhere, you are so in for it.”

“Is that a threat?” Wildwing teased, tussling his brother’s hair.

Nosedive eyed him suspiciously and raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Sit on me, and we’ll see.”

Draping an arm over the teen’s shoulders, Wildwing lead his brother back to the table and ushered him onto it. “Now, be good, and I’ll give you a present.”

“Sure, try to buy my love.”

Wincing, he held Wildwing’s hand and squeezed hard when he felt the scalpel’s end pierce his skin. He hissed, then realized it wasn’t actually he who had. He looked at his brother and was surprised to see a pained smile.

“All done!” Tanya declared after a moment.

“Thanks the Stars!” Wildwing yelled once he reclaimed his hand. He flexed it a few times to get it in motion.

Nosedive stuck out his tongue. “Now, where’s this present of mine?”

Wildwing smirked and reached in his pocket. He pulled out his fist and then unfolded his hand until it was flat. In his palm sparkled a silver mask and a chain.

The two brothers shared a genuine, fond smile.

“I can’t believe you didn’t pawn it,” Nosedive said facetiously as he pulled it over his head.

“Wait a minute. There’s something I still don’t get,” Mallory snapped. “How did you get in contact with Dragaunus after you left here?”

Nosedive shrugged. “I didn’t. He got in contact with me.”

“So…he knew where you were? How?”

A dark scowl contorted on Nosedive’s face. “Man, do I have to say this? *Sigh!* With this Stigma on me, Wraith can keep tabs on me at all times. It’s radiates magic or something, and he follows the path.”

“Makes sense,” Duke nodded. “The Saurians attacked us both times when the kid was vulnerable.”

Nosedive rolled his eyes and squirmed nervously.

“But they should have attacked earlier,” Tanya stated factually. “We were on those slopes for over three hours before they attacked. Why would they wait that long?”

A seethe of pain cut through the momentary silence as Tanya pressed an antiseptic-soaked bandage to Nosedive’s back.

“The necklace,” Mallory pointed out, drawing everyone’s attention to Nosedive’s chest. “You took it off and gave it to me before the Saurians attacked at the mall. It fell off on the ski slopes. You left it here, and all of a sudden, Dragaunus can find you. The necklace must somehow block the Saurians’ magic.”

“Great,” Nosedive commented dryly, whisking the necklace’s chain in between his fingers, “my own personal ball and chain.”

“Thanks, Dive,” Wildwing said sharply, to which Nosedive slapped him on the arm.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“It also could block the Mask,” Canard said, sounding astonished. He hit his brother on the shoulder. “Remember? When Dive first appeared, you couldn’t see him, but why would Drake DuCaine have made something that could hide from the Mask?”

Silence.

“Draven,” was the doubtless reply.

Canard stared at his brother. “What?”

“Draven,” Wildwing restated as a matter-of-fact. “Drake knew that nothing was sacred or safe if the Mask ever fell into the wrong hands, not Saurian hands, obviously, but traitors. And just like the Marked, he was afraid that someone would go after the person closest to him.” He clasped Nosedive on the shoulder. “Draven. So, even though Drake wouldn’t be able to find his brother with the Mask, neither would anyone else.”

“Good to know,” Nosedive remarked with disdain. He waited until Tanya finished bandaging his back, then pulled on his tee-shirt over his bare chest.

“Speaking of magic…” Tanya contemplated faintly as she took off her gloves with a snap and tossed them in the garbage. “How did Wraith, y’know, put on your Stig—taint?”

Nosedive winced. “I really…don’t…know,” he admitted sheepishly.

Tanya was skeptical. “How can you not?”

“I kinda…blacked out from the pain way before Wraith…touched me.”

“Aiden had the same problem, too,” Mallory declared softly. She sent Nosedive a sympathetic gaze. “It must have something to do with the amount of power and sheer force of putting it on your back. The body just can’t take it, and you pass out.”

“So…what now?” Nosedive posed after a moment of silence.

“Now, you get some rest,” Tanya commanded firmly. “With your injuries, you’re going to be getting a lot of bed rest.”

Why, Nosedive thought, did that sound more like a threat than a request? He was good the last time…mostly. “But in my room, right? No offense to your personal decorator in here, but this place looks too much like my cell in the Raptor.”

With a solemn nod, Tanya let him head toward his own room.

“Kid,” Duke called right before Nosedive left the room.

Nosedive turned around half-way, his beak clenched in pain. “Yeah?”

“You never did say how Dragaunus got our codes and stuff.”

Tanya rolled her eyes, and Nosedive felt a bang of guilt. No doubt after she was done cleaning up the infirmary, she was going to have reprogram everything.

“Uh, yeah, I did. Remember?” When no one spoke up, the teen signed, defeated and mortified. “They…uh, mind-raped me.”

“What’s that?” Canard asked earnestly.

“It’s a spell or something.” Nosedive shrugged rigidly. Rubbing his forearm and shivering slightly, he leaned his left shoulder against the doorframe. “Wraith physically went into my mind and dug through my memories and thought-processes, taking whatever he wanted.” A violent trembling overtook his body. “H—He saw everything… everything…”

“Why didn’t they do that before,” Mallory interjected, shattering the silence that had staled, “when you were with them the first time?”

“Wraith said something about the laws of enchantment once,” Nosedive stretched to recall. His voice was vague, as was the look his eyes. “Something about someone named Kendra. I don’t know what he was talking about, but he had to take down some sort of mystical boundaries, he called them. I dunno.”

Wildwing patted his brother on the shoulder and graced him with a distracted smile. “Why don’t you go lay down, and I’ll check on you later, okay?”

Nosedive nodded and turned to leave—

“Hey, kid?”

Nosedive growled and turned slowly, so as not to hurt his back. “Yeah, Duke?” he demanded, impatient.

“There’s something you need to know,” the former thief said suddenly, shifting uncomfortably against the wall. “I don’t kill, all right? Especially not teenagers who had no business being where you were back then.”

Nosedive laughed wryly. “I meant it when I said I wasn’t afraid of you. I just know my limitations.”

“Sure, kid. I believe you.”

“Hey! I—”

“Nosedive,” Wildwing warned and thumbed out the door.

The teen rolled his eyes angrily, sent his brother an acidic glare, then left the room.

Once the doors shut, Wildwing sighed heavily, letting out the tension that had built in his chest. He shook his head.

“Therapy.”

The leader looked up at his twin brother, who stood tightly, arms crossed. “Therapy,” Canard uttered again, a slight smirk upon his beak. “That kid is going to need a goal-load of therapy when we get home.”

“I’m not even going there,” Wildwing said flatly.

*^*^*

Nosedive sighed, demoralized, as he peered over his shoulder into the mirror. Shirt off, jeans unzipped and tugged down, he glared at the taint staining his feathers and back, a chilling reminder of his plight. It was just as vibrant and petrifying as the first day it donned his feathers. In fact, even the sample Tanya had taken had already begun to heal. No shocker there. Nothing scarred him anymore—physically, anyway.

He tried to remember what his back looked like before the Stigma’s mark and found he couldn’t. It was like it had always been there, always stained upon his feathers, a burden never to be lifted. At the moment, he could practically feel the attachment, a lifeline condemning him to a hopeless existence of bondage at the mercy of Lord Dragaunus.

He was being melodramatic, but he couldn’t help it. He was a slave, whether here or at the Raptor. It didn’t matter. As long as Lord Dragaunus lived, Nosedive would always be hunted until he was back under his lord’s whip. He would never be free again. The only way out was for his lord to die, and then…

…he didn’t want to think of that.

He wiggled his back in the mirror, watching as the lines of the taint moved and contorted about themselves, yet never blurring or smudging. It was there forever…

Unless…

Unless…

What if what Wildwing said was true? What if he really never went back to Lord Dragaunus? The thought was almost too good to be true, and he didn’t want to jinx it by thinking about it too much.

He needn’t worry, for as soon as the thought crossed his mind, the door to his room opened, alarming him. He quickly zippered up his pants and grabbed his shirt off the sink.

“Dive?” a familiar voice called, and Nosedive smiled as he came out of the bathroom, tugging his shirt down over his midriff.

“Hey, bro,” Nosedive greeted from the bathroom door, causing Wildwing to jump.

The older brother cocked his head to the side, eyeing Nosedive, stunned. “You’re awake.”

“Good to see you, too.” The teen walked around his brother, making sure to pull his shirt’s back down over his jeans. He sat down on the bed, one leg bent inward, while letting the other dangle off the side.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” Wildwing chastised, though it sounded more like a reminder to the younger duck.

Nosedive shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep. Everything is just…out there, you know? In the open, and I’m just waiting for it all to come crashing down on me.”

“Nosedive,” Wildwing emphasized, taking a seat on the bed and shaking his brother’s leg warmly, “I told you. I’m here for you, okay? I’m not leaving you.”

“I know. I know,” the teen said fast. “It’s…just going to take some getting used to…all this…trust…and stability.”

Wildwing grinned. “You will, okay?”

Nosedive nodded absently. He traced the creases on the bedspread with his finger. “Uh, Wing…?”

“Yeah, kiddo?”

“There’s something you haven’t thought out yet,” Nosedive revealed after a reluctant pause.

“Like what?” his brother pressed in a concerned, firm voice.

Nosedive sighed loudly, his body slumping with the release of tension. “You know…if you were to kill Lord Dragaunus…what would happen, right?” He couldn’t bring himself to look at his brother.

To his surprise and relief, Wildwing clutched his leg with one hand and tilted his beak up with the other. “Don’t sweat it too much, little brother. We discussed that after you left. Nothing’s going to happen, okay? So stop worrying about it.”

“But…what if it came between me living and the world, Wildwing?” Nosedive said resignedly. “Then what? I don’t want the whole world to be enslaved because of me.”

Wildwing ruffled his little brother’s hair playfully. “It won’t come to that.”

“But what if it does?”

“You worry too much, you know that? It’s supposed to the older brother who does all that, not you. So stop it.” Wildwing’s grin widened into a wicked, mischievous smile. It was then Nosedive noticed the shopping bag, almost completely out of sight, hidden behind Wildwing’s left leg.

“What ya have there?”

Wildwing dipped into the bag and pulled out a pair of scissors, flexing them. “Hold on. I’ll be right back.” He dropped the bag on the floor and disappeared into Nosedive’s closet.

Cocking his head to the side, Nosedive surveyed the Modell’s bag. A sports’ store? What could Wildwing possibly have brought from a sports’ store that the ducks didn’t already own? Looking left, then right, Nosedive smirked as his fingers wrapped around the bag’s handle—

“Don’t touch that!” Wildwing’s voice boomed from the closet.

How did he—? Nosedive decided not to question and limped over to the doorway—then halted.

“What are you doing!”

Wildwing, holding a pair of pants, scissors in hand, stood in a pile of Nosedive’s new clothes. The bags, where the clothes had previously been carefully folded and kept, were overturned to the side, now empty.

Nosedive crossed his arms and anticipated an answer. All he got was, “I’m just cutting off the tags.”

“Why?”

Wildwing snipped off a tag of a pair of pants and flung the jeans into a pile. “Because you’re staying this time, and I’m making sure you actually wear these, instead of just keeping them here until you think you’re going back.”

“You’re insane,” Nosedive remarked, shaking his head in disapproval.

Wildwing gazed sternly at his brother. “I’m crazy? I’m not the one who’s convinced the whole world is out to get him.”

“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean the whole world isn’t out to get me. It means I’m one up on it.” Shrugging, the younger brother moved away from the door. “Do what you want, Wing.”

Settling on the bed, Nosedive laid down, resting his head on his pillow. For some reason, he felt more relaxed now, listening to the sound of Wildwing’s snipping. Closing his eyes—he was awaken with a jolt when his bed shook. He shot up, his eyes blinking madly.

“Wh-huh?”

“Sorry,” Wildwing whispered gently from the side of his bed. “Did I wake you? I thought you were just resting.”

Stifling a yawn, Nosedive sat up and shook his head. “No biggie. ‘m up.”

Wildwing studied his face, and Nosedive wasn’t sure how long his brother had been doing it when he blinked suddenly and noticed Wildwing.

A look of amusement washed over Wildwing’s features, and he plopped the bag onto the bed. “I asked Canard to go out for these.”

Nosedive eyed his brother tiredly but smiled. Opening the bag, he was jerked fully awake. He pulled out three jerseys and opened the first white one, grinning at the name on the back, “W. Bronzeplume.”

“Like it?”

“Sweet!” Nosedive cheered, tugging it on at once. He practically beamed with it on.

“Well, there’s an away one of mine and a home one with Canard’s name on the back, too. He said that he was like your older brother, too, and didn’t like being left out.” It was then Wildwing leaned over, yanked Nosedive’s sleeve, and snipped the tag off.

Nosedive was too ecstatic with his new gear to act annoyed at his brother. “Thanks, you know. You didn’t have to do that.”

Wildwing shrugged. “I wanted to. I mean, maybe it’s selfish, but I like it when you wear my stuff.”

“Good, because when you were gone, I stole some underwear,” Nosedive admitted brashly.

“As long as you don’t return them, be my guest.” Reaching into the bag, Wildwing produced a notebook and pen, before leaning back on the side wall and hitching up his knees to support the book. “Okay, so, Dive…”

“Okay, so, Wing…”

Wildwing snorted. “What’s your favorite food?”

“You’re joking, right?” scoffed Nosedive.

“Mine’s Loco Moco. Really good stuff.”

“I would tell you that you’re insane, but that would be repetition, so you’re mental.”

“Come on, Dive,” Wildwing urged. “You were right. We don’t know much about each other, and I want to know you.”

Gazing at Wildwing thoughtfully, Nosedive sat back. “Well, actually, I was wondering something myself. Who’s Shane?”

“What? I thought you knew about my older brother.”

“Well, not really. I told you my life, but…you never really told me yours.”

Wildwing put down his notebook, crossed his legs, and smiled.

They talked through the night.

*^*^*

Dragaunus stalked about the screen, eyes blazing, his nostrils flaring. Smoke permeated into the air. His hands cupped behind his back, his tail snapping, he stopped abruptly and straightened his back.

“You lost him, didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t our fault, Lord Dragaunus,” Siege’s guttural voice cut through the Command Room’s silence. “It was the ducks! They had us outnumbered six-to-two.”

“Hey! I took on more than you!” Chameleon’s head popped up from behind Siege and Wraith, but he was quickly silence by his lord’s braying voice.

“Was it also the ducks who stole your brains?!” Dragaunus dug his claws mercilessly into the console, tearing metal and wires like they were paper. “Be grateful that wasn’t your head.”

“My lord,” Wraith addressed with reluctance, bowing in submission, “what was needed to be done is done. He is ready.”

Dragaunus regarded his mage viciously. “What are you blabbering about? And I would speak quickly if I were you.” His hand with the blaster twitched, ready to fire.

Wraith clutched his scepter for balance and lowered his eyes. “The sanies has been prepared for those fowl. He knows what is needed of him.”

“And how is that possible? He has returned to those deplorable ducks.”

“Your command, my lord, will necessitate his obedience.”

Eyes narrowed sadistically, Dragaunus growled, “What command?”

Wraith’s ghostly mouth twisted in a malicious smirk. “Roast Duck.”

To Be Continued…