Thanks so much for the reviews guys! Sorry I disappeared for a hot minute. I graduated in April, got a new job and the new job has been working me 7 days a week nonstop. I finally got it down to 6 days a week (still working 57 hours a week though) so hopefully, updates can start happening again... anywho, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my troubles. You came here for ducks.
So, a quick side note. I love reading your reviews. They keep me going and honestly, I wouldn't have made it this far without you. To the reviewer that goes by Emery Watson, thanks so much for the critique. I love receiving in-depth reviews like yours. Thanks so much for your support in the parts that I've come up with and written myself. Yes, the episodes aren't as compelling to me anymore either, and I'm the one writing it. lol. It was something where I said, "Anna has to be there for everything!" and so this crazy venture started. The sad part is I've watched the series so many times (it's hard to have an obsession with a show when only 26 episodes were made), I can recite a lot of the episodes by heart. I have all this useless knowledge. I'm telling you guys right now, if you have any questions about the series or are thinking of a part in the series and can't pinpoint the exact point in the series it happens, reach out to me. My door's always open and chances are, I'll know exactly what you're talking about. Plus, you know, we're all here for the same reason. I mean, of course, let's talk ducks!
Anyways, I'm sure I've dragged this out too long as it is. You didn't want an author's note, you wanted the new chapter! So, without further ado, here it is! :)
The house was completely destroyed. Debris lay about randomly. Anna stepped over wooden planks carefully. This felt familiar. It all felt familiar. She heard the boards shift and she whipped around.
"Mom!" she saw Chloe standing there, covered in dust. Anna smiled, seeing her mom again. But then her smile faded.
"Mom?" Her mother glared at her, a hate Anna had never seen before.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
Chloe growled, launching at Anna.
"Mom!" Anna fell back in shock as Chloe crawled, so she was on top of Anna.
"Look what you did!" the voice growled. It sounded too hoarse, and too mean to be coming from Chloe.
"What!"
"You let me die! Is this what you wanted? Are you happy now! Why did you let me die, Anna!" Chloe's hands moved around Anna's throat and Anna found herself gasping for air.
"Why did you let me die!"
Anna shot awake, shooting up in bed. Tears entered her eyes before she even realized what had happened.
"Anna?" Duke stirred next to her before he was sitting up in bed with her. "Anna, what's wrong?"
It wasn't a second later that Anna put her hand over her mouth and rushed for Duke's bathroom, throwing the door shut behind her.
Duke sat on the bed, slightly confused. He yawned before flipping his legs out of bed and shuffling to the door. The fan was on, but over the fan, he could hear her muffled vomiting.
"Sweetheart? You alright?" he asked, knocking. She didn't answer, but a second later he heard the toilet flushing. He heard the water running and then the door opened. Anna stood there, looking exhausted.
"What happened, sweetheart?"
"Bad dream." She murmured, her voice coming out hoarse.
"Do you still have the flu?" he asked, kind of glancing around her. She shook her head.
"I don't think so. I had a dream I was being choked. I think dreaming about being choked caused me to get sick once I woke up."
"Come here, sweetheart." He pulled her into his chest as she started to cry again.
"How were you being choked?" he pried.
"My mother." She choked out. He said nothing, but he squeezed her tighter as to let her know she wasn't alone. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table, seeing it was only three in the morning.
"Come on, sweetheart. Let's try to get back to sleep while we can." He tried, guiding her over to his bed. She nodded, following his guidance. She seemed too exhausted to fight him as she slumped back into the bed. He settled in next to her and pulled her close to him. It'd been a while since either one of them had had a bad nightmare, and he was hoping this would be the last. At least for a little while. He felt her relax against him and soon her breathing signified that she had fallen back asleep. He let himself relax now and he had just barely started to drift off when Drake 1's alarm went off.
He groaned as he felt Anna stir next to him again.
"Can't those lizards leave well enough alone for one night?" He groaned, rolling over and getting back up. Anna laid for a second, eyes half open looking up at him.
"You don't have to come. I'll tell the others you're sick again."
"And how the hell would you explain that you knew I was sick without also telling them you're sleeping with me?" she mused, rolling herself up and standing up out of the bed. "Come on. Better find out what these dumb lizards are up to."
The ducks snuck into the jewelry store, following the trail of mud.
"They are seriously losing their touch," Anna muttered to the others as they came upon a big room.
"I fear the ducks will be here at any moment. If we hadn't tripped every alarm in the building breaking in." The wraith's voice echoed in the room.
"if you'd set the stupid teleporter to bring us inside instead of smacking into that mud puddle!" As soon as Siege stopped talking, both saurians stuck their tongues out at each other.
"That's mature," Anna muttered, positioning herself between Duke and Wildwing.
"Oh yeah, she's the real thing alright." Siege let his vendetta with Wraith go for a moment, examining the ruby he'd just picked up.
Wildwing took the opportunity to shoot the jewel from Siege's hand. Siege let out a yelp of surprise as Wildwing mused, "kind of gaudy for your taste, isn't it Siege?"
Mallory snickered, looking over at Duke. "Looks like they're muscling in on your old racket, eh Duke?"
Duke didn't say anything as he clenched his jaw at the comment. The saurians and ducks started firing at each other. Duke saw Siege moving for the jewel that now laid on the floor.
His teammates provided him enough cover to fire a grappling hook and fly through the air. He swiped the jewel just as Siege was coming down on it. He flipped, landing cat-like and sticking the gem in his shirt pocket, for safe keeping. As soon as he finished securing the jewel, a shadow fell over him as Siege lunged at him. He fell backward, using the saurian's weight against him and throwing him back against the wall next to where Wraith was.
"Hey, can't you bumbling boobs pull a simple heist?" Duke asked, drawing his saber. The rest of his teammates gathered behind him, firing bola pucks toward the saurians. In a flash of green, the saurians disappeared as the bolas clattered to the ground.
"Missed them again!" Mallory complained.
"I wonder how many of these jewels they were planning on taking?" Wildwing asked, rubbing his chin.
"Apparently one is enough," Mallory turned her attention back to Duke and walked over to him, her hand outstretched, "for some people."
"I was trying to keep those overstuffed iguanas from getting it!" he defended, pulling the jewel out of his pocket and dropping it into her hand.
"Yeah, right." She muttered, taking the jewel back to the pillow where it belonged. Duke rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in a huff.
"Alright, Mallory. Ease off." Wildwing ordered.
Anna sighed out, glancing between Duke and Mallory.
Back at the pond, Wildwing directed everyone into the rec room, circled around Drake 1.
"Alright, Lizards have decided they want to steal jewels now. Any ideas?" Wildwing asked.
"Well, they can't possibly be stealing them for their value. I mean, what would a lizard want with a jewel?" Anna asked.
"Could they replace the balarium crystals with jewels?" Jess asked.
"Oh, no way." Tanya denied, "I can't imagine that any of the rarest gems on this planet could ever amount to the power of balarium crystals."
"Either way, they failed tonight, but it's possible they'll try again. And when they do, we'll have to be ready. All of us." He glanced sideways at Jess and Jason. Chances are, the two wouldn't even be in the field this go around, but Wildwing liked to include them, making sure they knew that if push came to shove, they would be called on.
"Well, the last person who should be handling jewels is a former thief." Mallory glared across the room at Duke. Wildwing sighed out. That's not the reaction he wanted from what he had just said.
"We gain by what we leave behind." Grin said calmly, standing next to Duke.
"What's that supposed to mean!" Mallory demanded.
"Duke's outlaw days are over… right?" he ended his sentence with a sideways glance at Duke.
"eh, not according to some people," Duke muttered, glaring over at Mallory.
Mallory returned the glare, not letting it go.
"Well if the whole show's going to be about Duke, I'm just gonna go kick it with my comic books!" Nosedive groaned, starting to walk away. Wildwing reached out, grabbing his arm.
"Not so fast, baby brother, we've got work to do." He shot a look at Mallory before getting the meeting back on track, "what would Dragaunus want with the world's biggest ruby?" Wildwing asked.
"Well, gems can be used as focusing devices for rays." Tanya tried.
"But what kind of ray. That's what worries me." Wildwing murmured, rubbing his chin.
The rest of the morning was uneventful. Anna made breakfast, and the team practiced. Around 3 in the afternoon, everyone had started to laze about. Wildwing was on alert, waiting for the saurians to strike again, but no alarm sounded.
Anna felt extra exhausted, heading for her room. She kicked off her boots, planning to plop down on the bed, fully dressed. As she moved past the wall, something caught her eye. She glanced at the calendar, seeing the date.
"Wait." Her eyes adjusted, seeing that it was October 18th. She took a second, looking in thought as she counted on her fingers. Any tiredness left her as her eyes bulged. She quickly threw her shoes on, grabbed her jacket, and rushed back out the door. As she rushed past Drake 1, she ran into Wildwing who stood hovering, listening for any sign of the lizards.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked.
"Drug store! Need to pick up some uh, ibuprofen. I'm out."
"I have some if you need some." Wildwing offered.
"Yeah, but, you know me. Gotta have my own bottle. I'll be back in a jiffy!" she tried, jumping onto the elevator. Wildwing arched an eyebrow before shaking his head. He turned back to Drake 1, which sat as quiet as a rock.
A little after dinner, Jess found herself making her way down the bunker hall. She wasn't heading for her room, though. As she passed Anna's room, the door slid open.
"Did I say that?" Anna's voice was heard from in the room.
"You didn't have to!" Mallory snapped, stomping out of Anna's room.
She didn't see Jess and nearly ran into her.
"Watch it!" Mallory snapped, stomping away from the teenager. Jess looked taken aback before shaking her head and continuing on her trek. She paused, glancing around before entering in the code to the room she was going into.
Nosedive was sitting on his bed, reading a comic.
"Hey, girly girl." He smiled, seeing her enter. Once he saw the look on her face, he grew concerned.
"What's wrong?"
"I just ran into Mallory. She looked mad."
"She always looks mad." Nosedive shook off as Jess sat on his bed.
"No, like, extra mad. She was leaving Anna's room. They must have gotten into some sort of fight." She murmured.
"Probably over Duke's history. Have you noticed how buddy Anna's been with Duke lately?" Nosedive asked.
"Yes and no." Jess said, "but I've got a few guesses as to why you've noticed."
"Why?" he asked, looking taken aback.
"Dive, I'm not stupid. I know that this…" she motioned between her and Dive, "it's just some sort of cushion to deal with the fact that you're not dating Anna."
"What?" he looked taken aback.
"I was there, Dive! I was there when you were jealous over Trent. I was there to listen to you rant about how awful Oliver was for her." She looked down for a second, "which, in your defense, he was."
"And so was Elliot." He added.
"I was hoping we'd forgotten about that," she murmured, shuddering as she pulled a knee to her chest.
"My point being… you've always been jealous about all of these guys being with Anna, but you've never had the guts actually to go and ask her out." She snapped, "and not to state the obvious, but you're using me to forget that you don't have her!"
"Jess, I'm not using you!" he tried, moving his hand to her arm.
"Once again, what do you call this then? What would you label us as?" she snapped at him.
"Jess, I-" he looked down, "Look, I get where you're coming from. But did it ever occur to you that maybe I'm over Anna?"
"You don't act like it." She rolled her eyes.
"Jess, she's still one of my best friends. But that ship for a relationship with her? It sailed a long time ago. After the invasion, and the slave camps, and the resistance and everything else, I realized that I saw her more as a sister than anything." He paused for a second, "my little outbursts about the guys she's picked? Trent was real, but to be fair, that was before the invasion. And, Trent got his comeuppance, in the end, thanks to Canard," he smirked, remembering how Canard had laid Trent out when they'd all caught him cheating in the Mess Hall.
"And Duke," Jess added.
"Wait, Duke laid Trent out too?" Dive asked.
"Yeah, Anna told me about it later," Jess recalled. Dive snickered.
"My point being, when I was uneasy about Oliver, and other minor guys in the club, it was more in a big brotherly way than anything." He tried.
"So, you don't have any feelings left for Anna? Whatsoever?" Jess asked.
"I'm telling you, Jess. I do love Anna, but more like a sister." He promised.
She looked down for a second before she felt his hand on her cheek.
"Jess, you can't possibly think you're just some… some object I use when I'm feeling down. Do you?" he asked.
"No, Dive. You've been there for me through some rough times. You were there for me after the ordeal with Elliot, and honestly, you've been there since."
"Jess, this isn't just some hookup. You know that right?" he asked. She didn't say anything.
"Jess," he guided her face to his, pulling her into a kiss. He stopped for a minute, pulling into a hug, resting his chin on her head. "Wildwing would go nuts. That's why I've been keeping this a secret. Not because I've still got something for Anna. It's because I don't need my brother breathing down my neck about how dangerous a relationship can be while at war."
"You really think he would freak out like that?" Jess asked.
"Oh yeah. I heard from Duke that he already popped off at Mallory about how relationships could endanger the team somehow."
They sat like that for a moment, wrapped around each other.
"Jess," Nosedive got her attention as he lightly kissed her, "you know I love you, right?"
Jess smiled up at him, "I love you too, idiot."
