One week later
Mallory walked silently down the large hall to the Council's meeting room. Officers were posted at every other door or so along the hallway, making the entire complex seem much more restricted than it really was. She nodded to them as she walked by, though they never acknowledged her presence.
She had signs of hypothermia when she had returned to the base, and had been hospitalized for six days recovering from shock. She'd not been allowed to see her teammates during that time, as she'd been quarantined to make sure no other spells lingered on her.
Apparently a rescued victim some years ago had been mind-warped into murdering a high Council member some weeks after their own liberation.
Thankfully, after a lot of sessions with reformed worshippers, she was free to come back.
Unfortunately, however, nothing had changed. She visited with her teammates the night before, but had found that Wildwing had been mostly on voluntary solitude since her rescue. Nosedive mentioned that he was working hard on meditating both with Grin and by himself, devoting all his time in trying to break the spell.
Nosedive said that Wildwing could recall Mallory's rescue, but that he had no memories of anything after Craithin had casted that spell on him. Nosedive had also awkwardly forwarded Wildwing's message to Mallory that he would visit with her the next day, and that he was glad she was okay.
Mallory still had not seen Wildwing since her return to the base.
Present Mallory knocked on one of the large double doors to the room, waiting for the muffled "Come in," before opening the door and closing it behind her.
Inside were three representatives of the Council, two sitting at the large meeting table and one standing beside a window, staring out with a mug in his hand.
He turned when Mallory entered. "Please, Ms. McMallard, have a seat."
Mallory obediently sat down, her back straight and posture tense—partly from military training, and partly from anxiety. She was slightly offended from them dropping her married last name, but chose not to outright comment.
Instead, still slightly stuck in military mode, she stated, "First Lieutenant Mallory McMallard-Flashblade reporting, sirs."
The one standing walked up to the table, placing his mug on the wooden surface. "I am Colonel Redferd, and these are Metropolis' Council representatives Honorable Becker and Fonderson." The colonel used his hands to introduce each of the male ducks. He turned back to Mallory when he finished. "We've asked you here to discuss the upcoming reveal."
"Of the Strike Force?" Mallory clarified.
"Yes, of course." The colonel picked up his mug and walked around the large table, sitting down across from Mallory. "You are aware of Mr. Flashblade's current status?"
"He still doesn't remember being a part of the Strike Force," Mallory answered, leaving all emotions out of her simple statement.
"We still plan on having him revealed, however, because he is a huge part of our campaign to help restore Metropolis—and much of Puckworld—back to its former glory."
Mallory frowned. "I'm sorry, campaign?"
"He is the public figure that Metropolis could use right now. He took over where Lieutenant Thunderbeak left off, and with his team—your team—he managed to take down Dragaunas. His return will further help rally those who do not remain loyal to the Council as they once did."
"I'm sorry, what does this have to do with me?" She broke from her military training briefly, feeling a tension in the room that she knew was not good. She hated politics.
"We were fully prepared to forgive your crime of relations with Mr. Flashblade during the course of your mission, without discharging you. However, this recent turn of events has made this situation hard.
"Wildwing cannot remember you, and we currently need him to relearn his feats on Earth, to be able to talk about his adventures publicly and candidly."
Mallory's anger rose, but she swallowed it down and remained silent.
The colonel looked to Becker, who took his turn in speaking up. "We need you to pretend for the time being that you two are not … involved."
Mallory took a deep, steady breath, looking to the ground to keep her voice calm and her thoughts rational. "They're working on reversing the spell. I'm sure it will be done before—"
"We've put a hold on that for right now," Becker interrupted.
"What? Why?!" Mallory's head shot up, despair evident in her expression. "He'd remember me and the Strike Force then!"
"There is a very real danger that reversing this—improper—spell could actually kill Wildwing rather than fix it. Junip has worked hard on the wording we received from the prisoner last week, but it's gibberish and she fears trying to reverse it would simply destroy him. While their leader had seemingly reversed the spell, we have no hopes that Craithin can be properly reformed like other Old Ways Worshippers: he has been around the dark magic for far too long. As of the moment, without the original caster, Wildwing would be risking his life to try and undo what's been done.
"I'm sure you agree that that's too high of a risk to take, yes?"
Mallory, for once in her life, was speechless. She had not been back long enough to know that tidbit of information. She'd only seen the other team members briefly last night, and none of them spoke of it. Perhaps they didn't know either.
"We understand how hard this is for you, Ms. McMallard."
"Do you?" she sarcastically asked, her eyes back on the ground.
"It would not be forever, mind you. Once the publicity dies down you and Wildwing may begin a courtship and subsequent binding when the time is right—I'm sure the public would eat that up."
"We're not your celebrities," Mallory growled. "This is my life you're dictating. What's wrong with simply telling the truth?" Mallory stood up, sending her chair rolling backwards. "Afraid to admit your security wasn't so up to par that day?"
"First Lieutenant McMallard, I suggest you watch your next sentence," Colonel Redferd barked back, staring coolly back at the red-headed duck.
Mallory shook her head, the anger subsiding from her voice. "I've had enough bureaucracy for a lifetime. If you wish for me to pretend that my lifemate is no longer mine, than you can also pretend that Mallory McMallard was never a part of the Strike Force."
The three male ducks were silent as they looked at each other. A silent agreement was made, however, and the colonel finally spoke up: "That can be arranged."
Junip watched from a distance as Wildwing and Grin sat facing one another in the large temple. They'd been that way for over two hours now, their beaks only moving a few times during the meditation. She was too far away to hear anything, but she didn't mind.
She didn't want to disturb them, mainly because she really didn't want to tell Wildwing what she knew.
"Hello, stalker."
Junip turned around to see Nosedive behind her, his arms crossed as he attempted—and failed—to look at her accusingly.
"Hello yourself."
Nosedive shrugged and sat next to Junip on the stone bench. It wasn't much longer than a week ago that he and Mallory had sat in similar positions, watching Grin help Wildwing remember.
"Please tell me you're here because you're ready to reverse the spell."
Junip glanced down before looking back at the meditating duo. She refused to look Nosedive in the eye. "No."
Nosedive sighed, rubbing his beak with his hands tiredly. "It can't be done."
The old raven duck paused, then shrugged. "It can be done, but at a risk."
"How much of one?"
"I'm not particularly good at statistics."
"Junip, you're gonna have to come up with some then, because Wildwing is to the point where, shy of a puckblaster to the head, he's gonna do it if it means remembering Mal."
Junip grimaced a bit. "Yeah, about that."
"What? About what?"
Junip looked at Nosedive almost pleadingly. "I am just the messenger, okay?"
Any sign of humor was gone from Nosedive in a flash. "What are you talking about? What's going on?"
"I was pulled into a Council meeting an hour ago. They told me to tell you guys first, and then to have you all meet with them to discuss logistics.
"Essentially, I am to not perform the spell on Wildwing due to its risk of, well, death. Wildwing is to relearn all that he can about his time on Earth. And," Junip reached into her pocket, pulling something out but keeping a tight fist around it. "And as of right now, there are only five living Strike Force members."
Junip reached out with her tightly fisted hand and dropped its contents into Nosedive's palm.
It was Mallory's ring.
"It was MY choice to make!" Wildwing yelled, his panic winning over his anger.
"Mr. Flashblade, it was also her choice to make. We did not ask her to leave." Fonderson calmly replied.
"No, you's jus' asked her ta pretend dat da last four years of 'er life was a lie," Duke sarcastically responded, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.
The five remaining Strike Force members were in the same room where Mallory had sat several hours prior, speaking to the same three male ducks. The conversation was not going well.
"Just tell me where she is and I'll talk to her," Wildwing pleaded, his pacing back and forth in the room only wavering long enough so that he could look at the military officer and two Council members.
"She asked to keep her departure secret for a few hours because she implicitly knew someone would try and talk her out of it," Becker filled in for Fonderson.
Tanya's eyes were red from crying. "You can't just expect us to, uh, forget about her. She was our teammate, and a part of our family."
Duke came up and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You can't just take Mall'y out of the story on Earth—she was a huge part o' it, wit' or wit'out 'er relationship w' Wing."
"We offered her—we wanted her to be a part of the story. We only asked that she hold off on revealing their relationship until things died down." Becker continued to argue their stance determinedly.
"No, you asked her to start over," Nosedive corrected. "You basically told her their time back on Earth didn't exist, but given a year or who knows when THEN they could pretend to date."
"To be fair, at this point in time their relationship DOESN'T exist," Fonderson's voice raised firmly but devoid of any emotion.
"I would have rather pretended it did then to lose her completely," Wildwing replied, his voice tired as he finally sat down in one of the chairs dejectedly.
"Not according to our reports. You had requested separate rooms, isolation time to meditate on your own as well as with Grin. In fact, you seemed more eager just to remember your past than to even acknowledge that you in fact had a lifemate within this facility. Trust me, we discussed this extensively with psychiatrists and the officers looking over you," Becker disputed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "By our accounts you were not ready to pretend any sort of relationship."
"You were watching me?" Wildwing spat out, obviously insulted. "You took all this information and assumed without even asking me. I was scared, all right? I didn't know HOW to act because I didn't want to confuse HER. Maybe it wasn't my best approach, but I could have told you from the beginning I wanted her to be a part of my life."
"She told us to tell you that she would return, but wished to lay low during the official reveal. Once the story was out and had died down, she would return; she simply wanted time to 'collect her thoughts,' or so she said," Fonderson offered, though his voice suggested he knew this was a lost cause.
Wildwing stood up, shaking his head. "This is ridiculous. Either tell me where she is or I'll go find her myself, and you'll have four living Strike Force members."
"Three," Nosedive agreed, standing up.
"None," Duke corrected, with Tanya and Grin standing next to him.
The Council representatives looked at each other and sighed. They looked to the colonel who had remained silent through the ordeal.
He looked at the rest of the Strike Force after a few moments of silence. "She was given a new identity and a lump sum of cash to live off of—all we know is that she asked to be dropped off at the train station."
"LET ME THROUGH!"
The collective of ducks looked to the door to see it burst open with Junip and two officers trying to hold her back. Despite the officers trying to pull her away, she looked excitedly at Wildwing. "Wing! I found Sprocket!"