Good Intentions

Part 6

Written by Zelda

 

There was the squeal of several rubber shoe soles on the Pond’s metal floor as the team stopped quickly, and made the sharp turn into the brig.

                “Guys?” Wildwing called out, his voice ragged from being out of breath.

                Tanya reached out and flicked the light switch on, flooding the room with harsh florescence. She didn’t remember having turned the lights off before, but then again she was in a hurry. What concerned her far more, was that there hadn’t been any response to Wildwing’s call.

                Nosedive and Zelda both lay sagging against their treadmills, eyes closed and motionless. There were obvious signs of a struggle. Nosedive’s wrists were bleeding, where they had been tied to the bars of the machine. Zelda’s hind legs were splayed to one side, reaching the floor.

                “Guys?” Wildwing tried again, going over and opening the door to  his brother’s cell. “Come on, wake up.”

                The rest of the team split. Tanya and Duke headed for Zelda’s cell while Grin and Mallory joined Wildwing inside Nosedive’s. Tanya remembered Grin trying to contact Zelda on the way back, to see if Wraith’s spell had actually worked. He hadn’t gotten any sort of reply. Tanya knelt down by the dragon’s head, starting to unbuckle the muzzle as Duke was untying the straps from the treadmill.

                “Is she—?” he started.

                “She’s alive.” Tanya interrupted. “Just unconscious I think… We’ll have to get them both down to the infirmary.”

                Grin had already scooped up Nosedive’s body, and was moving towards the door as Tanya and Duke joined them with Zelda. It didn’t take long until the two were lain back down in the infirmary, and the Medicom had started work on both of them.

                “Well?” Mallory asked, blinking curiously at the endless feeds of data. “What does it all mean?”

                Tanya was silent for a moment, letting her tired eyes scan over the several screens at the main console. She could keenly feel the eyes of her teammates on her back. “I… think they’ll be okay.” she started. “They’re both suffering from severe over-exhaustion… I don’t know if Chameleon’s threat was real or not, but something went on while we were in the Raptor.”

                “What can we do for them?” Duke asked.

                “Bandage them up, give them some fluids, and that’s really all, for now.” Tanya turned around, shaking her head. “And hope that they’ll wake up soon.”

                “But Tanya…” Mallory started, pointing to the back of Zelda’s neck. “Those chips are still in there. They may not be under Dragaunus’s control anymore, but how are we going to get those things out?”

                “And how can we prevent Dragaunus from taking control again?” Grin asked.

                Tanya started to knead her forehead. It seemed as though the nightmare was just starting. “I’ve got a lot more work to do.” she sighed. “But for now, they’re safe.”

                “We can all take a breather.” Duke nodded.

                “I’m just glad they’re alive…” Mallory added in.

                Wildwing joined in the conversation, leaning against the wall behind the rest of the team, with a rather ragged sigh. “We’ve all got a lot to think about, thanks to today’s events.” he started. “But first thing’s first: we’ve all got some serious downtime coming.”

                “Wahoo…” Duke started, showing a fake smile.

                “Well, not for me, not yet.” Tanya shook her head, sitting down in an office chair and wheeling back to the console. “I’ve got to get started on these chips.”

                “Tanya.” Wildwing started, walking over to her. “You need your rest too. How can you think clearly after all that we’ve been through?” He put a hand on her shoulder and nodded. “I’ll stay in here for now, take care of these two. I’ve got a few burns to tend to myself anyway.”

                Tanya hesitated slightly. “You’ll call me if anything happens?”

                “Promise.” Wildwing nodded, then stood back as she stood up, and started walking out with Grin, Mallory, and Duke. “All of you rest up. You all know that we never get a good enough opportunity.”

                “Man, is that ever an understatement.” Duke shook his head, waving to Wildwing as the infirmary doors hissed closed.

                Left alone with his two unconscious teammates, Wildwing let out another sigh, and sat in the chair that Tanya had recently vacated. He was totally exhausted, having taken a fireball from Wraith nearly point-blank, and then having the multi-puck launcher blow up in his face soon afterwards. Absently, he picked up a roll of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant from a tray nearby, and stood again, walking to his younger brother’s side. Nosedive lay sleeping, an almost peaceful look on his face. Wildwing brushed back his long bangs to reveal a small cut on his temple, possibly from his head hitting the treadmill when he fell down. Wetting some gauze with the antibiotic, Wildwing began to clean out the wound, wondering what his brother would think when he woke up. Just how much did he know about what had gone on? He picked up one of Nosedive’s arms, dabbing at a wrist, the skin rubbed raw from being tied down. Something had happened while they were in the Raptor. Had Dragaunus really tried to kill them like that?

                Seemingly goaded to from the stinging of the antibiotic, Nosedive grumbled softly and tried to pull his arm away.

                “Hey.” Wildwing started, pulling the arm back a little. “Come on, wake up!”

                Nosedive responded by squinting his eyes, and making one last attempt at freeing his arm before he finally opened them, letting out a soft sigh, staring into space as his head was tilted sideways. His arm was trembling slightly, Wildwing could almost feel the muscles twitching through the gloves on his hands. He looked completely exhausted, as if he had just been woken from a short nap on the bus after a long, hard game.

                “Come on bro, say something.” Wildwing shook him a little, blinking nervously.

                Nosedive looked back at him, focusing his eyes a little, and frowned slightly. “Wing?…” he started, his voice dry. “What… happened?”

                “You don’t remember?” Wildwing mirrored his brother’s frown.

                “Not… much….” Nosedive squinted again as he tried to concentrate.

                “Take it easy.” Wildwing patted his shoulder, urging him to stay lying down. “I bet you’re tired. Just rest up, I’ll get Tanya in here for you.”

                Still frowning slightly as his brother opened his com, Nosedive twisted his head, looking around.

                “Tanya?” Wildwing asked, looking into the video lens in the bottom of his wrist armor. He caught her in mid-yawn.

                “What’s wrong?” she immediately snapped to.

                “Nothing, nothing.” Wildwing said quickly. “Nosedive woke up, I was wondering if you wanted me to do anything for him.”

                “Up already? That kid never gives us any rest.” Tanya gave a faded smirk. “I’ll be right down.”

                “Thanks.” Wildwing nodded, and closed the link. He lowered his arm to find his brother staring at him again.

                “What happened…?” he repeated.”

                “Long story Dive.” Wildwing sighed, sitting in a chair next to his bed. “First thing’s first: how do you feel?”

                “Tired…” he answered simply, leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling. “Hungry too…”

                “Why am I not surprised?” The leader couldn’t help but smirk slightly. “What do you remember?”

                Nosedive paused a moment, closing his eyes. “It was dark….” he started. “I couldn’t see… couldn’t feel… I think I was running somewhere… heard you guys.”

                “Good.” Wildwing nodded. “Then that did wear down the effects of the chips…”

                “Chips?” Nosedive asked.

                At that moment, the door to the infirmary hissed open again, and Tanya came trotting quickly in. “You sure do bounce back kid.” she credited, coming up by his bed, starting up the Medicom scanners again. “How come you don’t skate with this kind of endurance?”

                Nosedive offered a weak smile, his eyes still closed.

                “No witty comeback this time?” Tanya grabbed an IV bag and line, and hung it up next to his bed. “We’ll have you good as new in just a while, Dive. But you’re gonna need some fluids…”

                “Ow!!” Nosedive sprung to life for a moment as he felt a needle lance into his arm.

                “Hold still kid, it doesn’t really hurt, does it?” Tanya chided him. “There, all done.”

                Nosedive squinted his eyes shut again, continuing to grumble.

                “I suppose I’d better IV Zelda too, while she’s still asleep. I know how she hates needles…” Tanya spoke absently, yawning before grabbing a bag and line for her as well.

As she started hooking things up, Nosedive swung his head back over to face his brother. “Now… will someone please tell me what’s going on…?”

“Close your eyes and try to rest Dive.” Wildwing ordered. “I’ll tell you everything.” Nosedive complied without much resistance at all, and Wildwing rolled his chair a little closer, trying to sit back and rest himself. He didn’t get far into the story before Nosedive’s eyes opened in shock, and the scene repeated itself several times as events progressed. “And so…” Wildwing finished with a heavy sigh. “We’re left with getting these chips out. That’s it.”

“That’s it…” Nosedive echoed quietly, closing his eyes again.

Wildwing looked up from his chair, and found Tanya’s eyes looking back at him, as she bandaged the needle in Zelda’s arm in place. He had strategically left out the part of the story that Grin had been so reluctant to tell. The part that included Zelda’s death wish. They needed to talk to her first about that. And as Wildwing was just finishing the thought in his head, Tanya stepped back a little quickly from Zelda’s bedside, as she pedaled an arm up, apparently in a slow alarm about having a needle in it.

“Whoa, easy Zelda!” Tanya started, kneeling to get to her eye level. “Calm down, it’s me.”

Unlike her usual process of being slow to come back to full consciousness, Zelda’s eyes snapped open rather violently, and she let out a panicked squeal.

“Whoa!” Tanya repeated, retreating a little farther back. “Easy!”

Wildwing pushed himself up, leaning over Nosedive a little bit to see better.

Zelda’s eyes were wide open, almost in panic, staring out into space. Her breath was coming in short gasps. Was this how the Saurians had left them before they had collapsed from exhaustion?

“Shhh…” Tanya spoke gently, easing her way back toward her. “It’s just us, Zel. We’re gonna take care of you, you’re safe now.”

Blinking and confused, Nosedive turned his head to watch the scene as well, and wearily cleared his throat. “We’re okay Zel.” he added. “Whatever happened, it’s over.”

“Not over---“ she gasped, a violent desperation in her ruined voice. “The chips---“

“Wraith was using a spell, Zelda.” Wildwing explained quickly, not wanting her to work herself up. “He used a counterspell, that’s how you’re okay.”

“Still in!” she shook her head, pedaling her limbs again to try and push herself up.

At this, Tanya was back at her side, pressing her down gently. She had gotten used to handling frantic dragons after all of this time. “I know, we can’t just pull them out, remember? But don’t you worry Zelda, I’m working on it…” She trailed off for a moment, thinking to herself, and then knelt down to the creature’s eye level again. “Grin said that you trusted me with this, right? Will you give me some time?”

At this, Zelda halted her struggle immediately, her eyes snapping suddenly into a lock with Tanya’s. It was as if the world had suddenly come back to her, and the dragon’s expression grew amazingly calm, almost sad.

“He… didn’t tell you… everything…” she breathed, still tired from her ordeal.

“Yes he did, Zelda.” Wildwing spoke up again. “Just like you asked him to. He didn’t want to, but he did it for you.”

“You… refused…?”

“Of course!” Tanya shook her head. “Do you think we’d do something like that to you, if there was still hope?”

“And to Nosedive as well?” Wildwing added.

Zelda frowned slightly. “Dive…” Closing her eyes for a moment to gain strength, she turned her head sideways, to look at him. “You’re okay?”

“I think so…” He managed a slight nod. “I don’t remember anything…”

“Lucky Duck…” Zelda’s voice was laced with exhausted sarcasm, but her face showed that she was relieved.              

                “So, now that you seem back to normal,” Tanya started. “How do you feel?”

                Zelda sighed and turned back to her. “Sorry…” she started quietly. “Tired… I guess…”

                “They really did run you guys out.” Wildwing shook his head. “Chameleon told us, when we went to get the counterspell from Wraith. It was a last-ditch effort to kill you. We really must have had them on the ropes.”

                “Don’t.. be so hopeful….” Zelda closed her eyes. “We’ve… solved nothing…”

                “Don’t be so pessimistic.” Tanya wagged a finger at her. “You’ll both be back to normal in no time, you’ll see. Until then, you have to rest, understand?”

                Zelda nodded, keeping her eyes closed. “But the chips…”

                “Let us worry about them, alright?” Wildwing told her. “We’ll talk later. Go to sleep.” He patted his brother on the shoulder and drew a blanket over him, smiling a little as Nosedive settled down. It was good to have his brother back. Tanya tucked Zelda in accordingly, and they both proceeded to the door. For the sake of the two that would be spending the night within the infirmary’s walls, Tanya left the light on.

 

                Grin could tell that it hadn’t been a good night. He poked his head into the infirmary to see Zelda’s eyes staring right back at him. Nosedive was snoring on his table. Grin frowned slightly, seeing two very different pictures on the two different beds. Nosedive was at peace in his sleep, but Zelda was awake, and had been for some time. She had scooted back to the very edge of her bed, closer to Nosedive, huddled completely under her blanket. Was she afraid of something? “Good morning.” he finally spoke, walking in. “Do you feel alright?”

                Zelda perked her ears slightly, lifting her head from the table. “Better…” she admitted, although her voice was still ruined, and she still sounded completely exhausted.

                “Tanya’s going to be in here, in a moment, to give you guys some more IV fluids.” Grin stated, as he sat down in a chair and rolled it up to her.

                Zelda merely nodded, and lay her head back down, looking away. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. “Grin…” she finally started. “I… want to apologize…”

                Grin furrowed his brows a little. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Zelda.”

                “What I said, what I thought…” she started. “I… didn’t realize at the time, how much it would hurt you… You didn’t tell them at first.”

                “No, I didn’t. I knew you weren’t entirely in your right mind, Zelda.” he tapped the side of his head. “For what you went through, it’s understandable.”

                Zelda sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “Didn’t mean to… you were right…” And she trailed off. Again, there was another silence.

                “No offense.” Grin started. “But you don’t look too much better than you did last night.”

                “Didn’t sleep.” Zelda admitted. “…Couldn’t sleep.”

                “Why not?” he cocked his head to one side. “Does anything hurt?”

                “No.” she started.

                Grin reached out and placed his hand down on the flat of her head. He could feel Zelda still herself beneath him, the muscles of her face relaxing. “You were scared.” he spoke softly. He was surprised as Zelda gently pulled her head away.

                “I… was terrified…” she confessed, squinting her eyes shut, flattening her ears. “But… it wasn’t that… I’ve been scared before. But I’ve always had something… someone… And, with that chip active, I… I couldn’t sense anyone anymore… Not even back home…”

                Grin frowned slightly. Zelda disliked physical isolation, she always had. But mental isolation was a near impossibility for her. She was so close with the rest of her kind that she was always linked to them, somehow.

                “It was like… everyone was dead… I had to keep fighting against it… but--- but it hurt…”

                “Shhh…” Grin’s voice dropped to a whisper, a volume that even the gentle giant rarely used. The real reason that she hadn’t slept was because she knew the nightmares would come, and Grin knew how those would hurt her, far more than anything the Saurians had caused her to do through that chip. He reached out for the dragon again, this time gently pulling her head back in a cupped hand so that he could look her in the eyes. “I know you must have been afraid. But that counterspell saved you both. You’re not alone anymore. You never were.”

                Zelda sighed and tried to push herself up on the bed, towards him. She didn’t have the strength.

                Frowning slightly again, Grin used his other arm to gather the little dragon up and pull her into a loose hug. He was sure that she was terribly sore from overworking herself, he didn’t want to hurt her.

                She curled into him, nuzzling the flat of her head into his shoulder. She felt him gently pat her back, and she let out a tired, purring growl. “I’m sorry…”

                “Don’t say that.” he reminded her. He felt Zelda curl up further, and there were little spots of wet that soaked through the shoulder of the white shirt he always wore. She was crying. While she couldn’t see the look on his face, Grin frowned. Not only had she suffered a terrible scare from the event, but whatever echoes of instability that she had in the brig were still with her. He could see what was coming, and he was sure the other Ducks would as well. In her mind, she felt like she had failed her team. All of that frustration had been building long before she demanded to be put to death, back in the brig. He could literally feel the anguish oozing from her as she buried her head deeper into his shoulder and continued to cry silently. And, as if it were contagious, Grin was beginning to feel helplessly frustrated as well. This was too much of a pattern with her. If she’d only take a few steps back from the situation, she’d realize that none of this really mattered, that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d been the most loyal friend the team had encountered on Earth. He let out a low sigh as the infirmary door simultaneously hissed open.

                “Grin? Is she okay?” Tanya approached quickly from behind Grin’s back, her pitch rising as nervousness took over.

                Grin looked back at her as he felt Zelda move as well, drying her eyes on the edge of his shirt. “She’s alright, she was just scared.”

                Her eyebrows knitting with concern, Tanya rolled over another chair and sat quickly. “Zelda, why didn’t you call us?”

                The dragon looked up, perking her ears slightly and giving Tanya a weak smile. “Sorry…”

                “It’s okay girl.” Tanya smiled back, petting her head gently. “Just don’t be scared of us, you know? I don’t like seeing you like this. None of us do.”

                Zelda nodded a little sheepishly, purring again and closing her eyes.

                The trio were interrupted by a loud yawn, and they looked up to see Nosedive stretching his arms out from under his blanket. “Is it time for Bernie the Bear yet…?” he mumbled weakly.

                “Mind-rotting television.” Tanya grinned, standing again and reaching over for something she had left on the Medicom console. “Rise and shine Dive, you feeling better?”

                “Nope.” he stated with total honesty. “Feel like I got hit with a zamboni... What the hell happened to me last night?”

                Tanya shook her head as she walked over to him. “Well I’ll have to tell your brother that your beak is working just fine. Here, I thought you’d be hungry.”

                “Man, I’m starving!” Nosedive managed to sit himself up, with a little help from Tanya, and took a chocolate milkshake out of her hand. “You read my mind, girl.”

                “You’re welcome.” Tanya nodded, and looked back to Zelda, as Grin was resettling her on her table. “None for you though, huh?”

                Zelda shook her head, a look of regret in her eyes. “As per usual… I’m afraid not, yet…”

                “The minute you think you can eat, you let me know.” Tanya said, walking back and opening a few cabinets. “Until then, you get a brand new IV bag, heh. It’s that, and I’m off to the lab.”

                “Yeah, hey, the sooner the better Tanya…” Nosedive swallowed. “This thing itches…”

                “Hey, patience is a virtue kid.” Tanya shook her head. “On my watch, you won’t have to put up with those things much longer.”

 

                That much longer stretched for two days, and within that spanse of time both Nosedive and Zelda began to regain their strength. But with that strength came a growing sense of restlessness in them, and they could only pace and fret around the infirmary to which they were both confined. Tanya, meanwhile, was locked away in her lab, toiling for hours on end to try and figure out how on Puckworld she could get her two teammates out of this jam. The other Ducks took vigilant watches at Drake 1’s monitors, looking for any sign of Dragaunus resurfacing. But there wasn’t so much as a peep from either the Overlord or his henchmen. While on one hand the inactivity was a welcome break, a silent frustration was under it all. In the confines of her lab, Tanya began to run into roadblocks and dead ends when it came to removing the chips. Running out of options, she became brooding and silent, and eventually began to refuse answering questions on the subject. Many wanted to try and get her to break her silence, but the first one to lose her patience and try was Zelda. Running towards her wit’s end over those two days, she confronted Tanya one day as the entire team was in the infirmary to visit.

                “It’s time to end this.” she started rather suddenly, surprising the teammates around her.

                “What are you talkin’ about Zel?” Duke asked casually. “You’re getting better, so’s Dive.”

                “But the underlying problem remains.” She rose to her forepaws on the bed, shaking off her blanket. “We really haven’t solved anything.” As she spoke, her face began to change with her voice, becoming shallower and rising in pitch.

                “We got Wraith to use that counterspell. Just relax girl! You’ve got nothing to worry about now.” Mallory said.

                “But… but if the chips aren’t out, then what’s to stop Wraith from casting that spell again? From Dragaunus controlling us?”

                “Well…” Mallory was at a loss for a moment. “We know he can’t do anything to you guys now, not with Wraith in that poor shape.”

                “Not a good answer.” the dragon snorted. “The chip has to come out. I won’t be a risk to you guys.”

                “Zelda.” Duke started, frowning.

                “No!” she insisted, taking a bodily hop on the table, getting to her feet. “Don’t you get it? He could regain control any time he wants! In the middle of the night, during a game, he’d send us out to kill the rest of you!”

                “That’s not going to happen girl.” Tanya started.

                Zelda snorted in adamant disapproval. “I will not put the rest of you at risk.” she repeated, staring coldly. “If you won’t pull the chip out, then I’m going.”

                “Going?” Duke started.

                “Far away enough so that Dragaunus can’t get to you, through me!” she cut him off. “And I’m staying gone until a solution can be found to this problem.”

                “Wait girl, lemme go with you!” Nosedive reached a hand out. “I’m in just the same situation here.”

                “No way kiddo.” Zelda shook her head. “If Dragaunus regains control, and we were together, he’d just have us kill each other.”

                “But you can’t leave, not like this.” Mallory frowned.

                “Then lock me in the brig again!” Zelda gestured down through the floor.

                Grin stooped down to the dragon’s eye level, trying to calm her as she was now snorting loudly, upset. “Zelda, we know how much you hate cages, I know how you felt to be tied to that treadmill, like you were. We won’t do that again.”

                “But you have to!” she huffed, her eyes growing almost pleading and desperate. “We have no time to consider this!”

                “Just give us a little while more, please girl?” Wildwing said. “We’ll come up with an answer, I promise.”

                Tossing her head, Zelda turned tail and trotted to a far corner of the infirmary, where she began pacing.

 

                Tanya quickly exited the infirmary and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the wall heavily and let her head flop against her collarbone, a little too overwhelmed by what she had just seen. This was getting to be too much for her. The pressure was really on, and it was all on her. Nobody else knew what they were truly up against. There was nothing, she was wracking her brain for every possibility that she could think of, and coming up empty handed. Was there really no way to remove those chips? It was looming as a greater and greater chance, like a wave growing as it came in to crash on the shore. Nosedive seemed to be taking this all in stride, but sooner or later the threat of him being possessed and controlled by Dragaunus would rise once more. And Zelda… the poor girl, Tanya wouldn’t even begin to imagine the slow panic that was encompassing the animal. That wave of fear was growing overhead for the dragon as well. What would happen to her if she couldn’t remove the chip? Would she feel safe enough to stay here with the team? Would she feel safe enough to go back home? Tanya sighed and began to knead her forehead, not hearing the door open behind her.

                “Tanya?” Wildwing peeked out, and then closed the door behind him again once he had spotted her.

                Surprised, Tanya started a little, and then tried to look distracted by quickly taking off her glasses to clean them.

                “Tanya…” Wildwing started, walking up to her. He was still showing the last traces of the limp he had earned in the Raptor, two days ago. “Are you feeling okay?”

                “Fine Wing.” she nodded, keeping her eyes on the glasses and the tissue that encompassed them. “Just a little tired I guess….”

                “Please Tanya.” he started quietly, leaning on the wall next to her. “Don’t lie to me. We’re all tired. But it’s more than that. You haven’t been talking to any of us lately. This is too much to keep bottled up to yourself. I think Zelda just found that out.”

                “It’s…. it’s just that I’m not seeing it Wing.” she said, frowning at her glasses as if they were at fault for all of this. “I’m not seeing a way out for them. Zelda’s already getting desperate. She’s trusting me with this Wing, all of you guys are.” She looked sadly back up at him. “And I’m not seeing the answer, I’m not seeing the way out. Every solution I try ends up dead.”

                “We never expected this to be easy.” he said. “But it’s been too hard for you, and for Zelda, and for Dive… and maybe for Grin too. None of you guys are talking to us. We don’t know, we can’t help. I hate being in the dark about my own team, Tanya.”

                “Sorry.” she said quietly, looking at the floor.

                “Don’t apologize.” he patted her shoulder. “I think I know what you were thinking. Grin didn’t tell us about Zelda wanting us to kill her, because he was protecting both her and us. Even if you don’t know it, you’re doing the same thing. The news is always bad when the Saurians are involved. We don’t expect any simple way out of this, and we don’t blame you for not being able to find one.”

                “Doesn’t matter.” she sniffed, replacing her glasses. “I don’t really have a choice Wing, I’ve gotta find some sorta answer to this. I’m going back to my lab.”

                “Please Tanya, just try and relax a little?” Wildwing asked her. “I know this all seems pretty intense, but take a step back from it all, see the bigger picture. Maybe that’ll make it easier…”

                Tanya simply nodded and turned back, heading out of sight around a bend in the hallway, and leaving her leader behind, still against the wall.

 

                The bigger picture. The bigger picture. Right now, there wasn’t any picture bigger than the one she was looking at through the lens of a high-powered microscope, examining every fiber of the silicon chip before her. She had gone back to take more high quality images of both chips, and found them to be exactly the same down to the very last electrode. In a way, that was good news. It meant that if she found a way to pry one of them off, the other one would come off in the exact same way as well. The chips also attached  to the exact same nerves, electronically grabbing hold of little pieces of Zelda’s and Nosedive’s spinal cords. All they needed was a control mechanism, and they could manipulate every muscle in the body with a push of a button. Tanya shuddered a little. It was amazing, these little surprises that Dragaunus could pull on them from time to time. There was almost a pattern to them, she thought…. Tanya frowned slightly. A pattern…. With a sudden snap of her fingers, she pulled her eyes away from the microscope. That was it! There was a pattern to the electrodes in the chip, to the nerves which they held. If she could figure out a reversal to the pattern which the chips had used to take hold of their victims, she could figure out a way to safely pull them off! With renewed purpose, she pulled her chair over to a laptop computer on a nearby table, and she began typing furiously.

 

                So this was it. This is what all of these days of waiting and watching and worrying had come down to. It all seemed so agonizingly slow. And Duke thought that he had hated the waiting before all of this. Now he felt like chewing on his nails. Before him on their tables in the infirmary, both Zelda and Nosedive lay sedated and on their stomachs, covered in blue surgical paper except for a rectangular patch along the backs of their necks. Tanya was huddled over Nosedive, shifting in her office chair from time to time. There was a massive magnifying glass on a stand that separated her from the chip she was working on, and her hand movements were so slow and careful that it was difficult to tell she was moving at all. Duke was amazed as she calmly spoke to them, explaining that she was working on a nearly microscopic level. The talking, she told them, helped to keep her nerves. She really didn’t mind them watching, as long as they didn’t question her back. Nobody really had many questions either, the situation was too far beyond their understanding. The rest of the team was content to let Tanya ramble calmly along, explaining step by step, as if she were reassuring herself that she was making the right moves, going in just the right order. It was almost an hour and a half of constant work, before she finally pulled off Nosedive’s tiny chip, waving it in the air within the grasp of tweezers tongs.

                “That’s it!” she sighed, and looked up at a clock on the wall. “Three hours, my goodness…”

                “You’re done?” Mallory asked. “They’re off?”

                “They’re free!” she beamed, and lay Nosedive’s chip on a small tray, right next to Zelda’s. “Now we give them a counter-sedative and wait for them to wake up.” She stood slowly, sighing with relief, and wiped her brow.

                Duke walked over and patted her on the shoulder. “That’s some work Tanya, you’ve got the patience of a saint.”

                “Well I’ve had to put up with you for all of these years.” she grinned back. “I’ve got practice!” It felt as if an immense weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Even though the crisis wasn’t officially over until the two woke up, she knew that she had done all she could, and she was sure that she was right about the solution.

                Wildwing gently strapped a pair of face masks over the Duck and dragon, filling their lungs with a gas that would slowly wake them up. He stood back, folded his arms, and watched carefully. Seeing the rest of the team smiling again brought a great sense of relief to him too. His smile broadened as he saw his younger brother yawn and stretch, and heard Zelda sneeze.

                Her senses came back to her rather quickly for being sedated for so long, and she opened her eyes to find the team looking expectantly back at her. Zelda blinked quickly and flexed a hand, a slow smile spreading across her face. Cautiously, she stood, shaking the blue paper off of her back, and stretching herself out.

                “How do you feel?” Tanya asked her.

                “Heh, like a free dragon.” Zelda grinned from ear to ear back at her, and hopped up onto her shoulder, hugging an arm around her neck. “Thank you Tanya. I didn’t mean to put so much on you, but I knew that I could trust you.”

                “Yeah girl, totally three cheers.” Nosedive rolled over onto his back and sat up, feeling his neck. “It doesn’t itch anymore!”

                “Whew.” Grin smiled gently. “I believe I’m not the only one who is glad to have this all over and done with.”

                “Yeah. No more chips means no more threat.” Mallory nodded.

                “And if Dragaunus decided to pull that trick on us again,” Tanya started. “I have the sequence to take the chips off. We’ve found the cure, folks.”

                “Amazing.” Wildwing nodded. “I believe we all deserve a lot of credit here, for fighting back against those chips. Took a lot out of all of us.”

                “Yeah, at least you guys weren’t strapped to a treadmill! Talk about a workout!” Nosedive joked.

                “Complaining Dive?” Duke sneered. “Such a whimp.”

                “Whimp?!” Dive struck his forehead theatrically. “Why I oughta---“

                “Both of you cut it out.” Wildwing grinned. “I think we’ve had enough fighting for one day.”

                “What an understatement.” Tanya nodded. “Well I know the first thing I’m gonna do now: take a nap!!”

 

The End

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except me) are copyright and property of Disney. You may copy, print, or whatever with this document, so long as it is not altered and I (Zelda) am credited. Thanks!