SVX: No long rant just enjoy the fic!
Enlightening Encounter Part 2
Nosedive inserted the small chip into the computer and watched as Lord Tanarius's ugly green face filled the screen. He furrowed his brow as a young female duck was brought behind the overlord's left shoulder. He saw several personnel shift nervously out of the corner of his eye as a droid aimed a blaster to the back of the duck's head. Nosedive turned his eyes away from the screen as the sound of a laser blast filled the quiet room. When He turned his haunted blue eyes back to the screen, the body was being dragged off and Tanarius's mouth was in a horrible smirk. "Well Commander Flashblade, what you just witness was the first, of what could be many, deaths of the passengers of your fallen civilian Aerowings." Nosedive let a soft growl form in his throat as he tightened his fists staring at the grinning Saurian. "Now I know that this upsets you, the girl couldn't have been older than 19 now could she. Now down to business, in order for these senseless executions to cease you must hand yourself and the five new comers over to me, and I will release the 3, 412 civilians. If my demands are not met with in twenty-four hours they will all be executed. Oh and by the way to quicken your decision we will execute one civilian every hour until you have told us your decision, have a wonderful day." The screen went blank and Nosedive lowered his head into hands and took in a shaking breath. He couldn't afford to loose that many lives, he would have to think of a way to get them out of there with out jeopardizing the resistance. He felt a presence behind him and turned to find Angel standing behind him her silver eyes shimmer with tears even if her face was that of a soldier.
"What do you plan to do sir?" Her voice was soft and shuddered and Nosedive felt his heart ache for this girl who he was like a daughter to him. Nosedive shook his head and frowned motioning for her to follow along with Lysander. Both young ducks followed him into the hangar and onto the Aerowing into his office quarters. "What are you going to do Nosedive?"
"I don't know Angel, if I don't come up with anything soon I will have to give into his demands."
"You can't do that, it is because of you that the Resistance has lasted this
long and with some order," interjected Lysander as he balled his fists.
"Tanarius will either kill you immediately or use your capture to dim the
peoples' hopes."
"What other choice do I have at the moment Lysander, those people will die if I don't, we can't afford such a loss."
"What about the original team, what about them are you just going to hand them over too!?"
"Of course not! Tanarius will have to settle for me, I won't drag them into this." Nosedive ran his hand through his hair with a deep sigh. "I'm giving myself and you two an hour to come up with something or I will send a message to Tanarius with my surrender."
~~*~~*~~*~~
Mallory was talking to several military personnel when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Angel standing behind her with worried expression on her face. The young girl saluted which Mallory returned before she motioned to the women's barracks. Once inside the young girl turned to face Mallory and a tear escaped her eye. "You have to help Nosedive!" Mallory's heart stopped for a moment afraid that something horrible had happened to Nosedive to cause this girl such grief.
"What happened?"
"The five civilian planes that went down, carried over 3,000 civilians all of which are now captives under Tanarius. We witnessed one girl no older than me executed and Tanarius gave Nosedive and ultimatum." Mallory stared at the young girl intently waiting for her to continue. "Either turn himself and your team in to Tanarius or all the civilians will die, and to quicken Nosedive's decision one civilian will be executed on the hour every hour until given an answer. Nosedive has one more hour to come up with something or he is going to turn himself in." Angel took a deep breath and wiped another tear from her cheek. Mallory nodded before running out of the room to find Wildwing. She only had forty-five minutes left.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"I am not going to let you face this alone Nosedive," Wildwing screamed at his brother who was now handing out orders to other soldiers. "You can't give yourself up."
"Wildwing if I had any other choice I would take it, I have waited an hour, no one has a plan, and another civilian has been executed," Nosedive turned to face Wildwing his eyes hard. "I'm handing out new orders and reassigning positions, I'm about to go make the video chip of my surrender, please don't make this harder than it already is for me or the others." He turned and headed out the door his green jacket flapping defiantly behind him. Wildwing felt his heart jump to his throat before dashing after him. He grabbed Nosedive's shoulder roughly and jerked him around ignoring the fact that this Nosedive was bigger than him.
"I will not let you do this."
"It isn't your choice."
"There has to be another way, if we could just think of something maybe we could…"
"WE DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME," Nosedive threw Wildwing's hand off his shoulder and stormed down the hall with Wildwing watching him leave.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"Lord Tanarius a video chip has just arrived," announced Wraith as he slinked in the large room a silver disk clutched in his withered hand. Tanarius smiled and ripped the chip from the ancient saurian and hastily fed it into the slot. The large screen was soon filled with the face of Rebel Commander Flashblade. Tanarius smirked at the tired and worn face of his enemy as the young mallard began to speak.
"Tanarius I here by announce my surrender into your custody, however I refuse to hand over the other members. I have provided a safe line in which I shall await your call." With this the screen went black and Tanarius smiled as Wraith handed him a communicator.
~~*~~*~~*~~
Nosedive jumped slightly as the communicator in front of him began to beep. He picked it up slowly and placed it to his ear. "Flashblade."
"Ah Commander Flashblade, how are you?"
"Cut the bullshit Tanarius, let's just hammer out the details."
"Very well, first before we begin I must say I am very disappointed about your decision concerning the other members of your old team."
"I will not hand them over to you and that is my final decision, it's me or nothing."
"Very well Commander, now for the conditions. You will be flown in to the coordinates I have here and will generate to you. There will be only the Aerowing that you occupy and no more than eight soldiers. After you arrive you will exit the Aerowing and walk to the center of the field, there you will be met be my two henchmen and many droids, they will escort you to me. As soon as you are in my possession I will send the hostages back to the field where you where brought where they may be picked up. Are we clear about this?"
"Crystal."
"Good I will be seeing you within the hour Commander," with this said the communication was cut. Nosedive slammed his hand down on the desk in frustration as a yell escaped his throat. He had lost, but at least the cause had not. He knew even after he was gone the others, Lysander, Angel, and all the other resistance members would keep the cause alive. He stood from the desk and exited the room ignoring the salutes he received from countless soldiers. The walk seemed endless as he passed faces of people he would probably never see again. Finally he reached his destination and as he entered seven familiar faces greeted him. Angel stood at attention until he halfheartedly waved her at ease.
"I have finished my discussion with Tanarius, I am to be flown to these coordinates where I will be picked up by Tanarius's men, then he will send the civilians to the same area to be picked up." He looked at the solemn faces in the room and shook his head. "Come on we need to leave now, and I want all of you to be my escorts."
~~*~~*~~*~~
Mallory watched the scenery passed by with little interest as she leaned in her seat. They would arrive at their destination in two hours and she was wishing it were longer. A rustling noise brought her gaze away from the window and towards its source. A very tired Nosedive entered the room and smiled at her solemnly. He sat in the seat across from her and his tired eyes gazed out of the window. They sat in silence for a moment before Mallory broke it with a very soft whisper.
"I'm sorry." Nosedive shifted his gaze to her and his face twisted in confusion.
"For what?"
"For everything, I was so horrible to you on Earth, always calling you irresponsible and a pest…"
"Probably because I was."
"No, you weren't, you were very mature but compared to us…well I would always forget that you are…uh…were just a seventeen year old kid. Now your sacrificing yourself for the others, and us I'm just…. I'm just sorry." She looked down at her hands suddenly feeling awkward and very out of character. That's when she felt the hands on her shoulders making her stand. She looked up at Nosedive who wrapped his arms around her in a soft hug before kissing her forehead.
"I always thought of you as my older sister Mal, and I never want you to apologize or feel you should have to," with this said he released her and walked away. Mallory watched him leave tears forming in her eyes, which she quickly brushed away.
~~*~~*~~*~~
The flight passed by, much to the disappointment of the crew, and they soon found themselves in the designated field. As they looked out the front window they could see Seige and Wraith and around fifty droids. Nosedive let out a tired sigh then headed for the door. Suddenly a small but strong hand grabbed his wrist. He looked down at the fifteen-year-old soldier who was staring at him with large silver eyes.
"Please Nosedive, don't go, please," her voice quivered as she spoke. Nosedive turned and gave Angel a big hug before Lysander came to restrain her gently. Nosedive nodded to the seventeen year old and opened the hatch. The sound of fifty safeties clicking off greeted him as he exited the plane. A strong wind whipped through the field blowing his hair around his head and sending his coat flapping behind him. Wildwing rushed to the door and looked out watching as his younger brother descended the steps and touched ground. He wanted to run down those stairs and fight each and every one of those droids, keep them from taking his brother. All he could do was watch, he used all his strength not to fight instead he called out to Nosedive. His brother paused and turned his cold blue eyes softening for a second as his blonde hair blew in front of them. Nosedive smiled slightly before turning and heading into the mass of green droids.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"You've been a thorn in our side for over ten years Flashblade, now to finally witness the last of the great strike team, the Mighty Ducks, fall; it brings joy to my old bones," said Wraith as he wrapped a luminating green band around Nosedive's wrists. Nosedive only let a low growl resonate from his throat as he was roughly pushed towards the medium sized, red, ship. As they entered he was escorted towards the back and shoved into a small caged off area. He turned to face the two aging saurians his blue eyes flashing with hatred. After a few moments the saurians were in their seats and preparing for departure, when Seige lifted a red communicator to his scaly lips.
"Destroy them!"
"WHAT?!" Nosedive flew towards the bars of his prison and began to hit them furiously. "You lying assholes, you double crossing scum buckets, we had a deal!"
"Right, a deal we had no intentions of keeping," laughed Seige as they lifted the ship from the ground and towards the horizon.
~~*~~*~~*~~
Wildwing cursed as the droids opened fire, a laser blast barely missing his head. "Those lying bastards." He ducked into the Aerowing and into the cockpit where Lysander and Angel were both frantically playing with the controls.
"They lied to him, those jerks," screamed the young duck as she fired on the droids with the Aerowing's main cannon. The battle heightened as more droids appeared over the horizon and opened fire on the aircraft. Wildwing felt his chest grip with fear as the craft carrying his brother disappeared over the horizon. They didn't have time to waist fighting these droids so he quickly yelled for Lysander to take off.
"No Nosedive ordered us to wait for the crafts with the civilians," he yelled back firing another round onto the oncoming droids.
"Don't you get it, they're not coming, they lied to Nosedive and now they want to destroy us so lets leave while we're still alive to do something to get Nosedive back!" Lysander glanced back at Wildwing for only a second before thrusting the Aerowing into the sky.
"I hope we're doing the right thing by leaving Wildwing," said Lysander his youth seemed to slip away from his features as he spoke.
"I hope so too Lysander, for Nosedive's sake I hope so to."
SVX: Well I know you all think I have died but I haven't. I know your dying to find out what is happening in Willing but I have hit a snag but I'll try and have it out before the end of January. Well I hope you enjoyed this second part of the Enlightening Encounters. Ja!
