Over the next month, Canard made his plan to take down the master tower. Anna helped him with the plans, and he knew she was preparing to go into the tower with him. He also knew he couldn't let her. If anything happened to him, she needed to be here to be able to lead the next resistance if they failed. They needed his second in command to be there to continue fighting the tyrant. Still, he hadn't quite gotten around to telling her yet.

Instead, he had been keeping himself and her busy training the ducks that had been chosen for the mission. They were training one on one, making sure the team would be ready for anything that might happen while in the tower.

Thus far today, Canard had worked with Mallory and Grin while Anna had worked with Nosedive and Tanya.

Now, Canard was in the training room with Wildwing while Anna was in the training room with Duke.

"So, when are you gonna tell Anna?" Wildwing said behind the shield as pucks bounced off here and there. Canard then sat the pucklauncher down, motioning for Wildwing to step a little closer to him. He pressed a button on a remote and hunter drones appeared around Wildwing. Canard stood behind him, the remote in his hand just in case his friend couldn't handle himself.

"I don't know yet." Canard admitted as Wildwing began to fire upon the drones.

"You've gotta tell her soon. If she thinks..." Wildwing stopped for a second, doing a tuck and roll before coming up behind the hunter drone that had gotten too close for his comfort, and then blasting the hunter drone to bits. He turned back around to another, "If she thinks she's going to the master tower, and you tell her no-"

"I have explained to her that as my second in command, she can't go everywhere with me."

"Well yeah, but how many times have you gone up one on one against Dragaunus?" Wildwing asked, turning back to glance at his friend with a knowing look, before dropping to his knees and sliding beneath a hunter drone, before blasting a puck at it destroying it. Wildwing now stood around a pile of debris.

"None." Canard muttered, beckoning Wildwing over to him, "Come on, let's spar." he said, readying his stance for his best friend. Widlwing followed suit as they started to circle each other.

"Canard, you've gotta tell her before it's too late, and you hurt her." Wildwing said. Canard lunged at him, not because of what he said but for sparring.

"Wildwing, it's a lot harder than you'd think." Canard's voice was strained as the two drakes wrestled.

"I know it's easier said than done, but you've just gotta treat it like ripping a Band-Aid off." Wildwing's voice was just as strained. With that, the conversation was over as they finished their training session.

Anna stood across from Duke, and he smirked at her. For the last month, Canard had been working with Duke while Anna had been working with Wildwing. Today was the last day of training and for some reason or another, Canard had switched up their training sessions. Probably to see how much Wildwing had learned or something.

"Listen, sweetheart. I'm not sure there's much you'll be able to-" he was cut off as she reached for her puckblaster, firing at him. He acted quick, activating his saber and batting the puck away from him. She was pleased. That's exactly what he was supposed to do and honestly, she had no idea what she would have done had he not acted so quickly.

"Jeez, sweetheart. trying to take the rest of my beak off?" he muttered.

"Why couldn't you have acted that fast the night Falcone attacked you?" she retorted, smirking at him.

"Sorry. I found myself distracted by an angel that night." came the charming remark. She rolled her eyes at him, drawing her blade. He blocked her and through the crossed blades, she smiled at him.

"Alright, Duke L'Orange, let's just see what you're really made of." she provoked, and soon they were circling the room, both having very good hits at each other, but also being able to block said hits. Finally, both fairly out of breath, they stopped. Anna deactivated her saber and Duke did the same. He felt a crazy adrenaline rush. He hadn't actually been able to spar with another blade in a while since it wasn't really Canard's specialty.

"Alright, Sweetheart. What's next?" he asked. She smirked, removing her puck launcher and saber and setting them on the ground. She widened her stance, and put her fists up, beckoning him to come at her.

"Look," he walked over closer to her, "I'm not gonna fight a girl." He went to put a hand on her shoulder, but she grabbed it, flipping him over and onto his back. He gaped at her, and she just smiled at him.

"Didn't seem to stop you a few minutes ago." she shot back at him. He rolled his eyes before doing a hand spring to come back to a standing position. He turned around to face her.

"Alright, sweetheart." he muttered, removing his own puck launcher and saber from his person, "but don't go crying to your brother when I beat you." he smirked. She smirked right back, dodging his kick.

Soon, they were going back and forth, throwing kicks and punches. Anna could tell he was holding back.

"Do you think saurians will hold back?" she finally asked him. He stared at her hard.

"Anna, I don't wanna hurt you." he tried. She swung a right hook, catching him on the side of the face. It caught him off guard and he just looked back up at her, a little shocked.

"There, I hurt you. Now come on, get your payback." she tried. He growled playfully, rushing at her. She hadn't expected it and he grabbed her by the waist, pinning her down to the ground. He got her waist under his, so her lower body was completely immobile. He then grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head. She squirmed beneath him but wasn't able to do anything. She looked up at him in defeat.

"There. Happy, sweetheart?" he asked. She smiled up at him, forgetting about the training session. Her eyes searched the features of his face, and Duke seemed to do the same. He leaned down closer to her and she felt herself gravitating towards him, although she was pinned.

"Duke." her voice seemed to bring him back to his senses and he stopped, instead swinging his leg around to get off of her. She sat up and brought a knee up, leaning on it and looking at him. He sat next to her and cleared his throat, as if he was going to say something. She cut him off, smiling.

"Good session." she said, patting his shoulder. He smiled at her and she leaned into his side, looking up at the training room's ceiling.

"What do you think tomorrow's gonna be like?" she asked him. He shook his head.

"Honestly, sweetheart. I'm a little scared." he admitted. She turned and stared at him hard, and he shrunk back.

"What, a hardened ex-criminal can't admit he's scared."

"No... I just-" she cut herself off, "I just never thought I'd hear you ever admit to such a thing." she said.

"What, you're not scared?" he asked her. She shook her head.

"No, the only thing I'm scared of right now, is losing my brother." she informed, standing up. She held out her hand, helping him up.

"Come on, let's go get Wing and Canard and get some chow." she said as they both walked for the door.

Wildwing, Canard, Duke and Anna made their way towards the mess hall. Anna was leaning against her brother, tired from the day. Canard had an arm wrapped around her sister. They walked into the mess hall and Canard let out a gasp, stepping in front of Anna, facing her. She tried to look around him but he stopped her.

"What is it Canard?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Wildwing," Canard's teeth were gritted and he was glaring at nothing, "take Anna. I've got a pest to take care of." Wildwing nodded, having seen what Canard had seen. He wrapped his arms around Anna's shoulders as Canard turned around. Duke grabbed onto his arm, stopping him.

"Don't do anything stupid." Duke warned. He too, had seen what Canard had seen.

"I'm not gonna do anything stupid. I'm just gonna go over there, step on his neck, and shoot him in the head."

"Shoot who in the head!" Anna exclaimed. She wriggled out from Wildwing's arms and pushed past Canard. She gasped, tears instantly filling her eyes. There, sitting at a table in the corner, was Trent, making out with another duck.

"Anna-" all anger left his face as he instantly felt sorry for his baby sister. Duke walked forward and Anna turned, falling into his arms, crying. He wrapped his arms around her, consoling her. Canard gritted his teeth once more, turning back to Trent. He went walking off, and Duke and Wing just watched him.

He stormed up to the table, and became even more pissed when the two ducks making out didn't even recognize he had walked up. He slammed a fist on the table, startling them. Trent looked up, his eyes going wide.

"Canard, I-" Canard drug him by his shirt, standing him up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" he growled at Trent.

"I-" he was cut off as Canard punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. All the ducks around them were quiet, watching the scene play out.

"Please don't tell Anna." Trent pleaded, laying on the ground.

"I don't have to." he sneered, pointing across the way. Trent looked to see Anna crying while Duke and Wildwing consoled her.

"But-"

"Look Trent, as far as the resistance goes, you're a good soldier and I'm not going to throw you on the streets, though Ducaine knows I should. But as far as we go, you're done with my family. Even look at Anna in the future, it'll be the last thing you ever do." His voice was dark and Trent gulped, nodding.

"Yes sir." he nodded.

"Good." Canard turned around, storming back.

He walked up, taking Anna from Duke, brushing her mane.

"Come on, sis. Let's get outta here." he said, guiding the distraught girl back to his room.

Duke and Wildwing watched them go.

"What a piece of shit." Duke muttered beneath his breath.

"I'd like to give him a talking to myself." Wing's eyes narrowed over at Trent who was pulling himself off the ground and was being babied by the girl he had been making out with before.

Duke rolled his eyes, moving to go towards Trent, but Wildwing stopped him.

"No, Duke. Canard already talked to the kid. Let's just leave it alone. Come on, let's go get some food." Wildwing tried, guiding the ex-thief over to get a couple plates.

Duke sat down across from Wing, all the while unable to forget exactly what he had witnessed just now. Nosedive had been right, Trent didn't deserve Anna. He just hoped Anna knew that. He shook his head, picking up his fork and digging into the pasta salad that sat before him.

Author's note: So I just wanted to take a moment to thank XxWolfLord95xX for sending me ideas for this chapter... Much love! :) And I also wanna thank everyone who's gotten this far... just thanks for reading, this is my favorite story I've ever written which is why I'm redoing it for possibly the third time now because I want it to be perfect.

Alright, I'm done! On to the next chapter :)