I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

AN: I'm going to try to stick to one update a week cause otherwise I start to let things sit for too long. We'll see how this goes, hopefully I can keep up. Thank you to my readers for the kind emails and reviews. You guys are the best. :)

…..

"WRAITH! Where is he!?" Dragaunus' enraged voice echoed down the red halls of the ship.

Wraith shook as he stood before the irate Saurian warlord. "My lord, I fear the ducks have captured him."

"Well order him to escape and return immediately!"

Backing away, Wraith clutched his staff in fright. "I cannot. He has to hear a verbal command. Even then how he chooses to carry out that task is up to him. With this spell, he is not a mindless puppet like that fat manager was. We have convinced him that we are his allies by changing his memories and therefore he agrees to work with us… with some hypnotic persuasion included."

"How long will the spell last?" Dragaunus' nostrils steamed, his eyes glowed with barely contained fury.

"I can't be sure. He has begun to fight more frequently against my magic. The spells need to be recast every three days now." In the beginning Wraith only had to work on Canard once a month but slowly in dwindled down to every few weeks, then weeks, and now days. The old Saurian feared that only too soon, his spells would no longer be effective. "Canard has a strong mind. We need to break him and soon."

"We must get him back before the spell runs out. Otherwise we'll have only given the ducks back an ally and Canard has a way of … ruining my plans. Wildwing is even worse. With those two together I have no doubt that conquering this world will be close to impossible." Dragaunus grew quiet but then smiled cruelly. "How close do you need to be to place a spell on him?"

"I must lay my hands on his filthy feathered head." Wraith stuck his tongue out in distaste, an immature action for how old he was.

"We are going to let Canard return to normal for a time."

"My lord?" Wraith asked confused.

"Don't worry. I have a plan to rid us of those wretched water fowl for good. We're going to let those miserable mallards get comfortable with their friend again. Let them reunite and rejoice. Then we will get Canard, put him back under the spell and send him back to them with instructions. He will continue to pretend to be their friend, then take them out one by one from the inside out." Wraith watched Dragaunus, keeping his staff close. The red lizard frightened his underlings when he got this way. "They won't even know what hit them and when they do, it'll be too late."

…..

Tanya shook her head, looking at the charts. She turned to the others crowded around in the room. "Alright well - uh he uh, he has a concussion."

Wildwing sighed and rubbed his head. "Alright, everyone go to bed. I'll take first watch for the night."

"Wi-Wildwing, I think it would be better if I took the first watch. Because of his head injury, I'll need to keep a close eye on him and continue to provide care throughout the night. I know what to do. The first night will be the most difficult, so i-its important I take first watch." She advised her leader.

He nodded. "I'll be ready if you need anything. Everyone else, get some rest."

Duke and Nosedive left, the youngest member of the team looked back at the duck laying unconscious on the table. Duke put an arm over his shoulder to distract him. "Hey kid wha'd'ya say we play a game of air hockey."

Smirking the young duck went back to his carefree attitude. "Ready to lose again so soon?"

"Oh please!" The sound of their joking faded the further they got down the hall.

Grin looked over at Tanya, checking that she was okay but Tanya was studying her charts, a small blush was on her cheeks as she glanced over at him but then quickly looked away. Realizing that he wasn't needed the large duck made his exit. "If anyone needs me, I will be mediating in my room." His heavy footsteps could be heard going down the hall.

Mallory and Wildwing were the last ones to leave. "That means you too Mallory. You should change out of those wet clothes and get some rest too." He said, his mind still on his best friend laying in the infirmary.

"I don't want her alone with him. He can't be trusted." Mallory spoke up, still in her soaked clothes from her fight with Canard, Wildwing's white jacket covered her top. Seeing her condition, Wildwing gave her his jacket to help keep warm but also to cover her up a little, the shirt didn't hide anything when wet.

Wildwing sighed, running a hand through his hair. "He's tied down. She'll be fine. I'll be on call if she needs help."

Mallory wanted to argue but she could see the tension in Wildwing, he was stressed. "You're angry." She stated.

Looking at the redhead he kept walking to his room. "You didn't have to hit him on the head as hard as you did."

"I didn't mean to hurt him." She growled, getting annoyed that this is what he was angry about, so annoyed that she let some information slip. "He jumped on top of me and pinned me down. What was I supposed to do?"

"Pinned you down? Why would he do that?" He stopped walking and Mallory froze.

"I-I don't know. It was a fight, I didn't have time to contemplate why he was doing it." She said quickly. The team leader looked ready to ask more questions but stopped seeing Mallory pull his jacket off in the hallway. "Here. Thanks for letting me borrow this." She realized her shirt was still a little see-through but it wasn't something he hadn't already seen.

"Uh yeah sure." He took the white jacket mechanically, making sure to not outright stare at her chest and remain professional, though the task was difficult.

"I better take a shower so I don't catch a cold or something." She started to walk down the hall away from him, a little annoyed that he was more worried about Canard then her. Remembering he gave her his jacket, she felt a little guilty. Stopping she turned back slightly. "Thanks for being a gentleman and lending me your jacket."

"Sure." He threw it over his shoulder and watched her walk away, wondering what happened on that rooftop.

…..

An hour later, Wildwing laid on his bunk bed, staring at the metal ceiling. "What happened on that rooftop that she would hit Canard that hard? Mallory wouldn't do something like that on purpose unless something happened that caused her to react strongly." He knew Mallory, something about the situation and her description kept bugging him, it seemed off. "What is she hiding from me?" Realizing he wasn't going to be able to stop thinking about it he sat up abruptly and jumped down from his bed. Walking out the door he quickly made his way to Mallory's bunk. Knocking on the door, the sound of movement could be heard behind it.

"Who is it?" Mallory's muffled voice could be heard through the door.

"Me." He waited impatiently with his arms crossed.

The door opened a second later, Mallory had a towel wrapped around herself, her hair was still dripping from her shower. His eyes widened for a second then went back to normal as he looked at her scantly clad dripping wet form. "Uh…" He wasn't sure what he was going to say a second ago. Seeing that he was just standing there staring Mallory rolled her eyes. Grabbing his hand, she yanked him into the room for some privacy so she wasn't out on display.

"What's up?" She closed the door and walked back into her room, intending on finishing drying off.

"Tell me more about what happened on the rooftop." He sat down on her bed.

Mallory wasn't sure whether to be a little sad or angry that this is what he came to talk about. Again, it revolved around Canard. "I told you what happened." She put a brush through her hair, combing it easily.

Wildwing spoke again. "It's wrong." She tensed and paused with the brush in her hair.

Wildwing watched her intensely, not liking the reaction he was seeing. It only made him think that what he thought might have happened was more and more of a possibility. Canard had a weakness for beautiful women, quite literally couldn't help himself back on Puckworld. He had seen it himself first hand and with how see through Mallory's shirt had been… He could guess what happened that disturbed Mallory that she wouldn't want to talk about it.

"Did he do something to you Mallory that would make you react so strongly?" He stood up and walked behind her, placing his bare hands on her naked shoulders. He could feel how tight her muscles were under his palms.

"Yes." She answered honestly.

Wildwing took a breath, realizing now the situation may have been a little more delicate then he realized. "What did he do?"

…..

Five hours into her watch and Tanya couldn't help but think about how this could change the team dynamic and she wasn't sure it would be for the better. Tanya was in her own world until Canard started talking in his sleep. He was turning his head from side to side saying no repeatedly. She went to wake him from his nightmares but instead he started shaking uncontrollably, almost violently. Making sure he wasn't having a seizure she checked his vitals and found it to be fine, it was something in the dream that was making him do this. Opening her com she called Wildwing, who happened to be with Mallory, asking them to come down to the infirmary.

"No!" Canard started thrashing violently and yelling in his sleep against his restraints. The ties holding him slowly broke as his thrashing continued. Suddenly he sat straight up and looked directly at her.

She backed up a step and then put her hand on her chest. "Ca-Canard? Are you ok-" Canard lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her neck. He was off the table and standing over her before she could react. Tanya opened her mouth trying yell out for help but no sound could leave her mouth. "NO! FUCKING DIE!" Canard yelled, clearly not seeing Tanya. He picked her up only to smashed her down on the floor, refusing to release her throat. She grabbed at his shoulders and hands, trying to get him to stop, even started punching him but he wouldn't move. Panic was being to override sense and she slapped frantically at his face, her mouth wide open to take in air that wasn't allowed to pass. Everything was getting dark and all she could see was Canard sitting on top of her, baring his teeth down at her. Her slaps were getting weaker as she tried to push him off. Her face felt as if it was swelling as the blood was trapped in her head by his hands.

Wildwing and Mallory ran into the lab to see Canard wasn't in the bed anymore but was sitting on the floor and Tanya's feet where sticking out from under him. Running around the side of the bed they were horrified to see that Canard was strangling her. Tanya's eyes were wide and blood shoot from the lack of oxygen. Her mouth was open as she tried to take breaths that she desperately needed.

"CANARD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Wildwing yelled grabbing Canard's right arm while Mallory grabbed his left. Both trying to pull him off the suffocating Tanya who was fading fast. Wildwing saw her eyes start to roll back into her head and knew he had to stop Canard, even if that meant hurting him. However, Mallory had already come to this conclusion and moved in front of Canard, bringing her knee up swiftly into his face and knocking him out with one extremely hard hit. Canard went down, releasing Tanya's neck and falling on his back.

Poor Tanya lost consciousness. Picking her up off the floor, they placed her on one of the Medicoms. The machine whirled to life and began scanning her neck. Revealing her trachea was bruised and now swelling closed, her vitals were dropping fast. Tilting her head back they both quickly and carefully inserted a tube down her throat allowing air to pass and connected it to a mechanical ventilator which immediately began pumping oxygen down into her lungs. Once Tanya's vitals stabilized, Wildwing called the others down. He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a large sigh from the built-up worry.

Mallory watched her friend laying on the Medicom, the only thing keeping her alive was the tube that they forced down her throat. Grinding her teeth, she turned to Canard's unconscious form and marched over to him. "Wake up! You have to answer for this!" She grabbed his collar, hoisting him up by it and slapping his across the face with the back of her hand. It did nothing to wake him so she slapped him again, this time harder. "Wake up!"

"Mallory! Stop!" Wildwing grabbed her balled up fist, stopping it from colliding with Canard's left eye.

"This is your fault!" She yelled back at him, losing control of her temper.

He acted as if he had been slapped. "Wha-what?"

"You heard me! I warned you he was up to no good and you didn't listen!"

"We don't know what happened here yet. He obviously wasn't himself."

"That's the problem!" Mallory shouted.

"Stand down!" He ordered.

Mallory glared at him but dropped Canard harshly back to the floor and took a step back. It was then that the others arrived. "Wow! What happened?" Duke's eyes did a quick survey of the situation. His eyes lingered on Tanya strapped to the machine but he forced them away to look at what was happening with the two angry ducks facing off. Wildwing and Mallory were staring aggressively at each other, both refusing to back down. Tension in the air was thick, never had these two ducks been at war with each other like they were now. Walking over Duke moved right in between the two. "Alright guys. Take it easy."

Nosedive stayed back and out of the situation, his eyes moved back and forth uneasily between his brother and Mallory. Grin came in after Nosedive, the moment he saw Tanya, his fists clenched together. "What happened?" He demanded an answer. Everyone turned to him, his question demanded an answer.

"Canard happened." Mallory answered.

"Enough Mallory. I'll explain." Wildwing turned to face the others, expecting her to follow orders as usual.

"He tried to kill Tanya." She supplied for him.

"Enough! Get out!" Everyone took a step back with how vicious the order had been. Mallory glared but listened and quickly left the room without a word going back to her bunk.

Once she was gone, Wildwing took a breath and explained. "We don't know what happened. It sounded like he was having nightmares and Tanya called us to help with him because he was thrashing and fighting something. When we came down he was trying to strangle Tanya but I don't think he was seeing her."

"Is she going to be okay?" Nosedive asked, looking at the machine monitoring Tanya's health and then at the pale duck on it.

"She'll need to heal." He looked over at his best friend on the floor. "Duke help me get him onto the other Medicom. We need to strap him down and make sure he stays down." Duke and Nosedive helped without question but Grin stayed next to Tanya. He glared at the unconscious duck that had hurt his teammate.

Once Canard was strapped down, Wildwing organized a watch. Grin would take first watch with orders to contact him immediately if either awoke and under no circumstances was he to interact with Canard until he was present. The same went for everyone. Mallory had been left out because he believed that currently she couldn't be trusted around Canard. Making sure Tanya was okay, Wildwing left and went to track down Mallory. They weren't done talking.

…..

The talk he had been hoping to have with Mallory had not gone as he planned, emotions were running high for both of them right now. After learning what actually happened on the rooftop between Mallory and Canard, Wildwing was having a hard time with his hurt over the situation as it was.

"Mallory your condemning him before we've even had the chance to help him!"

"Oh come one Wildwing! First, he shoots me in the side, tries to blow me up and throws me off a building, then he tries to shoot you in the head, now he almost strangled Tanya! Who else has to get hurt for you to wake up! Get over your fucking man crush and really see what's going on! Dragaunus probably wants him here to screw with our heads!" She yelled, wanting to pull her hair out. She may have screwed up on the roof but she at least realized what she was doing and kicked him off. All the evidence was laid out before Wildwing and he wasn't doing anything, instead he was blatantly ignoring it!

Wildwing watched her, hurt and anger shown clearly in his expression. Then he said something that staggered her. "I think we need to take some time apart Mallory."

"What?" The potency of her voice died down to a quiet whisper, not quiet believing what she was hearing.

Wildwing took a breath, staring at her and thinking about what he was about to do. "As your leader, I need to keep a clear head. With everything that's going on, I can't do that with…" His voice died off, not sure how to go on. "There is a strict code in the military about not dating teammates and I think we need to be following it." He was angry but part of him hated himself for saying this. Throwing the military code of ethics at Mallory was definitely a slap in the face, after all it was he who pursued her no matter what she said about following the rules.

Her jaw dropped. She couldn't believe the nerve of him saying that to her. Not able to come up with anything to say, Mallory walked passed him, bumping his shoulder harshly on the way out. Instinctively he went to reach for her while opening his mouth to speak but closed it quickly and curled his fist at his side. This needed to happen even if it did hurt.

…..