Notes: And here it is...THE LAST CHAPTER! How long have we waited for this? Be glad, after you have read this, you can throw the story away and don't have to suffer through anymore cliffhangers*g* I know that it took me long, but my life is so busy right now, and then I have lost the ideas for the last part...It was difficult to write this. Writer's Block is an evil disease....However, I'm sorry. I'm just not a fast writer.

To Face the Fears

by Kaeera

Chapter 9: Coming Home

What's this feeling?

What's happening?

I'm floating...I'm swimming...where's my body? Where am I? Okay, remember...yeah...the dreams...we wanted to escape, exactly...so now, where did I go? Huh...difficult...I feel my body, feel something, feel that I am alive, but I am so tired, so deadly tired...and I want to know what's happening!

I guess I better should open my eyes.

Bright light, hurting in his eyes. Closing them again. The tingling feeling of something in his mouth, helping him to breathe and making him uncomfortable. The wetness around him, and his hair, moving around him like in water...wait a moment...he was in water! At least in some kind of liquid....

And then the crack, the noise, the sound of rushing water and the feeling of fresh air, the feeling of freedom...

I'm awake! Okay, okay, try to collect your thoughts...

"Uuuuugh," groaned Nosedive and opened his eyes again. Huh? What had happened? One moment he had been floating, and the next...he was lying on the floor, soaking wet, between shattered pieces of glass and Grin staring at him. "Huh?", was the only thing he could say.

"Hello little one," greeted Grin.

The blonde duck looked around and sat up. He had this strange dream, and then...uh...well, what happened then? His eyes swept over Tanya, who was clutching her head, to Duke, who was already standing, looking out of the room, checking if somebody was near, and then to his brother, who was just waking up.

"We are in the Raptor?", Nosedive blinked, when he finally could recognize his surroundings. Suddenly all the memories washed back to him and he shivered when he remembered the frightening scenes he had endured during his dream.

Grin smiled. "Yes. We are alive. But we aren't safe yet."

The teen finally stood up and tried to dry his wet hair. "That means that we have to fight out way back? Cool! I need something to do!"

"That was the hell of an experience," Duke told them and shook his head. "Did you have...dreams, too?"

"I did. Very frightening dreams, to be honest," Mallory said and rubbed her temple. "And I thought that they were true..."

"Didn't think that anything could frighten you.", Nosedive muttered wearily. He received an evil glare for that remark.

"I think that these dreams had only this purpose: to frighten us," Tanya clarified. "They were trying to control our mind by using our personal fears. Fears have an immense power, and if you find out the truly deepest fear of a person, you have an immense power over him."

Wildwing, who had remained silent until now, coughed and asked: "But how did they know our deepest fears?"

The blonde scientist only shrugged. "I have no idea. It must be a very advanced technology, and if I could study it further, I could give you an answer, but right now I am lost."

Nosedive glanced at his team-mates and noticed how tired and exhausted they looked. He himself certainly didn't make an exception, he was sure about that. Facing his deepest fear was something he wouldn't wish his worst enemy - well, maybe Dragaunus, but the rest...no. Briefly he wondered what the fears of the others had been...he somehow couldn't imagine a frightened Mallory, sitting in a corner and whimpering. Or a scared Duke who tried to run away. No. And it made him curious. What had they experienced? He wanted to ask, but something held him back. Nosedive himself wouldn't want to talk about his fears, and he knew that the others were feeling the same. Maybe one day, one day when this was over and they were back at home. Maybe...

"You okay?", came the worried question from his brother. Nosedive smiled. Okay, maybe he would tell one person...

"I'm okay. Just thinking."

Mallory glared at them. "Well, I don't know about you, but I want to go home as fast as possible. We don't have any weapons, guys, so we should better try to sneak out."

"She's right," Wildwing agreed. "Let's go."

The ducks gathered at the door and nodded to each other, then they sneaked, one after another, out in the hallway. It was dark, just a few dim lights illuminating the ship. It had to be night, Mallory assumed and looked out of a small window. Yep, the moon was shining. She smiled slightly at the sight of the glittering stars - Finally at home!

They didn't meet any saurians, and they managed it to sneak past some drones which were guarding the corridors. Then they reached the door and had to face a new problem:

"Does anyone have a key?"

"Very funny, Nosedive," Mallory snorted and examined the thick, metal door. Their was no way to break it up, for they had no weapons and even Grin wasn't strong enough for this task.

"Tanya?," Wildwing questioned, but the blonde scientist was already examining the lock of the door.

"I'm trying...," came the muffled reply. "But I don't have any tools!"

Duke sighed. He just wanted to get out, wanted to grab the next car and to go back home. For a short moment it occurred to him that it was a little bit strange that he, an alien, considered a pond on a strange planet as home, but he just waved the thought away. He had grown to like his team-mates, had accepted them as a family - Nosedive the little brother, Mallory the small sister, Wildwing like a father, caring for all of them, Grin like a big uncle and Tanya like an older sister - and no matter where you were, with your family it was always like home.

"Can you do it?", he wanted to know, after Tanya had worked for five minutes in silence.

The blonde female looked up and nodded. "I think. Just give me some more minutes, it's not that complicated," she turned back to the door, tuning out the rest of the world while she was concentrating on her task. A small image popped into her head - of a young duck who used to be her best friend. Tanya smiled.

I can manage it. For Nicole. And for the others. I will never fail again.

Her fingers worked softly on the mechanism, and suddenly a soft click could be heard. With a hissing noise, the door opened and the cool night air filled the room and their lungs. Tanya took a deep breath and felt joy in her heart. She was at home. She had fled the nightmare, she had faced her fear and now she knew that she could live with it. No suppressing of memories.

I will never forget you, Nic. Never.

But I will live my life. And I won't give up.

"Great," Nosedive cheered and headed out of the door. "Let's go!"

Wildwing followed. "Be careful, Dive, we don't know where we are..."

Duke grinned. "Well, I don't mind where we are, at least we're able to leave this place. I don't care if we are in Alaska..."

"The wise mind is always careful," Grin shared his daily wisdom with Duke, who only sweatdropped.

Mallory shook her head. "Stop it, you two, just follow the rest!" And she jumped out of the door landing on sandy, rocky ground.

Tanya was the last one to leave the Raptor. "I hope I will never have to see this place again!", she admitted and sighed relieved. Then the scientist looked around. The raptor was standing in a small valley in the middle of nowhere. The stars illuminated the scene and Tanya could recognize the sand on the ground and the brown rocks around them. They were probably somewhere in the desert.

"Oh GREAT, from one problem to the next!" Mallory spoke out what everybody thought. "I mean, why couldn't we land in the near of a small town with a nice little telephone? Maybe even a snack bar where I could eat something?"

"Yeah, pizza would be great!" Nosedive grinned happily at the thought.

"There's a cactus, maybe you can eat this," the red-haired duck pointed to a small, dusty plant not far away from them.
Nosedive made a disgusted face. "Why should I eat a cactus?"

"Because usually you eat everything, even one-week old pizza with mould on it!", snapped Mallory.

Nosedive tried to defend himself. "That wasn't mould, that was vegetables!"

"As far as I remember, it was Pizza Margarita - there aren't vegetables on that kind..."

"Well, maybe it was a healthy Margarita...," The teen pouted and crossed his arms.

The female duck just sighed. "Whatever! What I wanted to clarify is that..."

"Stop it!" Wildwing interjected. "Fighting has no use right now. We are all tired and exhausted, but that doesn't mean that we have to snap at each other, clear?" He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I would suggest that we try to walk away from the Raptor as soon as possible, because I certainly don't want to be here when they wake up and find out that we are gone - especially when we have no weapons!"

"Maybe we should climb on a rock and look for a street or something like that," Duke suggested.

Wildwing nodded thankfully to the thief. "Good idea, I think we will do that. And you two behave yourselves!", he glanced warningly at Mallory and Nosedive.

"Bah, you're no fun," muttered his brother, but followed the others when they slowly climbed a small hill. The landscape around them was dusty and empty, even plants where rare to be seen. The blue night sky stretched over them, his glittering stars the only light in the desert. Nosedive stared at them in awe. One of them is the sun of Puckworld...my home...so far away...

But I have two homes now. I'm at home on earth, and I am at home on Puckworld. I guess it's kinda strange, but I like this place. I like the people. I like the sun and the beach...and I like ice-hockey! And my friends. The friends who would never betray me, like they did in the dream. Hah! Deagaunus wasn't prepared for this, huh? He didn't know how strong friendship can be...

He chuckled slightly and scanned the landscape. Not far away a small grey band could be seen. Nosedive blinked. "Hey, I believe there's a street!"

"Where?" Duke stepped to his side. "Ah, I can see it! Finally a sign of civilisation!"

"A pretty poor sign, to be quite frank," Mallory commented, gazing at the small and empty street. "There isn't even one car!"

"But usually a street leads to a city, and there we can contact Phil or someone else to pick us up," Wildwing smiled slightly. "See the positive point: we have the rare opportunity to have a nice walk in the desert!"

"Oh great, can you see me jumping of joy?" Nosedive glared at his older brother. "Your jokes used to be better."

"Whatever," Wing grinned and ruffled through the blonde hair of his brother. "I just like the annoyed look on your face!"

And I like being able to see your face...because I couldn't stand it if you were dead, if you died in front of my eyes. I guess I wouldn't want to stop living, like I did in my dream, but nonetheless it would be pretty hard for me. You wouldn't want me to die, would you?

I'm just so happy to see you alive and safe, quarrelling with Mallory and joking with me. I'm so happy to see everybody alive, and not the dead faces, with blood and frozen lips. It has been so real, and I really believed that I was alone...I will never want to live through that again!

The two brothers continued arguing until they reached the street. Grin just rolled his eyes in mock-annoyance. "They are disturbing the inner peace of my soul," he whispered to no one in particular and closed his eyes, trying to meditate a bit.

"Hey, dude, can you see your way with closed eyes?" Duke wanted to know.

"The spirit is leading my soul, my friend," Grin told him wisely, eyes still closed - and stumbled over a rock. Duke started laughing. "Guess your spirit is a little bit blind, huh?"
Grin fell in the laughter. It was a friendly laughter, used to release stress and worries, and they laughed with their hearts.

"Oh man, I am SO looking forward to fall in my bed," Nosedive yawned. "I'm tired!"

"We all are, we all are." Wildwing told him. He felt the tiredness in every muscle, aching and hurting, and his eyelids would drop every second. It was a little bit strange, considered that they had just dreamed, had been in this prison the whole time without moving. Maybe the brain was projecting its feelings on the body...or something like that...Tanya certainly had an explanation for this, but, to be quite frank, he didn't want to hear it right now. The duck feared that he might fall asleep during her explanations, and that would be more than impolite...

And so, a tired and beaten group of six ducks walked through the peaceful night desert. An air of triumph could be sensed around them, because they had managed what only few achieve: they had faced their fears. And they had kept their spirits.

No words needed to be spoken. Each of them knew that the other one had had similar experiences, had endured a similar horror, and that only made their bond stronger. They walked in comfortable silence, regarding the sky and regarding the nature, lost in their thoughts.


The most important thing

To realize about your fears

Is that you can't avoid them

You cannot run away

And you can't forget them

The only way to win against them

Is to fight

To Face your Fears

You will cry

You will want to give up

But when you keep your strength

You'll learn to live with them

Learn to accept your fears

And they won't hunt you down anymore

Won't make you helpless

Because then

you have learned your lesson


It took them about an hour of walking until they reached the next city. They called Phil, who promptly sent them a car, and thirty minutes later they were back in the safety of the Pond.

As the ducks entered the familiar building, they felt as if they had been away for years. And it felt like coming home, like coming back to a place full of warmth and love.

Nosedive immediately burst into his room, threw himself on the bed and grabbed for a pile of old comics. "I missed you so much!" He mock-sobbed and hugged the books. "What would life be without comics?" The teen put his hand in the air in a pathetic attempt of imitating Hamlet.

"Just go to bed and be silent!" Mallory screamed from across the hall, not even bothering to put her head out of her room.

"Love you too, Mal-Mal!"

"Shut up!"

"Nosedive!" Wildwing sighed frustrated. "Just go to bed, it's four o'clock in the morning!"

"Aww, Wing...I'm hungry! Can't we order a pizza?"

"You're just hyper, that's all. Switch off the light and sleep."

"But I'm hungry!"

"....Then be hungry in silence..."

"You're mean..."

There were a few minutes of silence, and Wildwing retreated back to his room. He sat down on the bed and rubbed his eyes. He felt...like shit, like death warmed over or something similar. As stress-relieving the bickering with Nosedive was, sometimes it just got too much. But then again, a few hours ago, in his dream, he would have been very glad about exactly this bickering...

There was a soft knock on the door. "Come in," Wildwing called and raised a surprised eyebrow when Nosedive stuck his head through the door. He didn't look hyper anymore, and the duck realized that it had probably just been the excitement of being at home again, mixed with joy and tiredness.

"Hi bro'," he said warmly.

"Hi Wing," Nosedive replied, addressing his brother with his usual nickname. He shifted uncomfortably. "I just wanted to ask if...if I..." He seemed to be a little bit embarrassed.

"What?"

"Well...if I could stay with you? This night?" He pleaded, eyes big and round like puppy dog eyes. Wildwing could never resist this look, especially when it seemed to be that lost.

"Of course." he laughed. "Always. You know that."

Nosedive slowly smiled. A look of relief crossed his face. "I know. I just wanted to make sure after...after...you know what."

After the events in the Raptor. Yeah, I know. Your worst fear probably was that I abandoned you. The older duck shuddered at this thought. He would never abandon his brother, but yet alone the thought that he had endured something like this made him rage with fury. He didn't deserve this. He's just a kid, a cheerful kid, and he shouldn't go through that.

I'm just glad that it's over and that I'm here to comfort him.


Sometimes, when you wake up from a nightmare, you can't remember anything. There's just the vague memory of something frightening, something that scared the shit out of you - but you don't know what it was. The only thing which stays is a slightly numb feeling and your trembling fingers. Suddenly the darkness isn't comforting anymore, but it's a place where your fears have hidden. You take your blanket and curl together, trying to block it out, but it doesn't work.
Occasionally you will fall asleep and when you wake up in the morning, everything is forgotten and the sun is shining.

Then there are the times when you remember what you have dreamed, and they are far worse than the other nightmares. Because the pictures are haunting you even if you are awake, and it doesn't help to snuggle into the blanket. It frightens you, and never mind what your brain says, it won't stop.

These are the nightmares which can destroy you.

They have power. Immense power. About your will, about your feelings, about your body. It's like being totally helpless - when you feel this fear, you are a crying little kid, no matter how old you actually are. And you desperately want someone to hold one, want to have a person who hugs you, who soothes the dark figures away, who sings you into sleep.

Sometimes this person isn't there. And the only thing you can do is to wait - to wait until the nightmare is over. Wait until the sun is dawning and you finally feel strong enough to leave the bed. Strange, how the sun can change everything. The nightmare fades as soon as its first rays enter your room.

Then there comes the time when you learn to deal with these nightmares. You learn that running away and hiding has no use. And you have to accept that this person won't be always there. So you try to find your own method. Your own way of fighting your fears.
Maybe you try to think of something else.
Or maybe you start singing.
Or maybe you just repeat in your head: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!"
Whatever it is, it will help. And you will feel stronger. Much stronger. Because now you can fight. Because you aren't helpless anymore.

Because you faced your fear.

Morning dawned in the pond and six very tired ducks turned around in her beds, wishing the early light to hell and falling asleep once again.
It was actually the first time for months Tanya slept longer than 8 o'clock, leaving Drake One like he was and forgetting her numerous scientific experiments.

Even Mallory, who was used to the military routine, just snorted when her alarm clock ringed (she had forgotten to switch it off) and threw the evil thing around the room. It made a sickening crush and then wonderful silence filled her room.

That Nosedive slept long was no surprise. The teen was well-known for his laziness on weekends and his grumpy mood in the mornings. Alarm-clocks never survived long in his room; usually they were buried under masses of clothes, comics and old pizzas - something no clock could survive.

That was the reason why Phil Palmfeather found himself totally alone in the conference room this morning. He had advised the ducks a few days ago to meet here, because they had an important game this afternoon. But nobody appeared, and a nerve started twitching on his forehead.

"They are ruining me!", the man exclaimed dramatically and put his head in his hands. He had actually never realized that the ducks had been missing for the past day - there had been a new partner in advertisement and new contracts had to be made.

"That's enough!", he finally hollered and stormed into the pond. Unfortunately he hadn't the permission to enter the parts in which the ducks were living, so he just walked in circles like a lion in the cage. (A/N: I forgot about that. Did Phil ever enter the duck's home? If I am wrong, forgive me...I watched the series some years ago, and I couldn't watch every episode .)

"These ducks! Can't they take anything serious?? Argh! All the money!"

But all the complaining didn't help. The ducks were sleeping soundly in the safety of their self-made home, and neither Phil nor Dragaunus could have waken them up.

* * * * * * * * *

"Uhmmm....", Mallory groaned, once again waking up, and cracked an eye open. She blinked confused and wanted to look on her clock, only to realize that the clock wasn't there. Dazed parts of her mind tried to tell her that she had thrown this clock away a few hours before, but she didn't really remember. The red-haired duck swung her legs over the bed and stood up.

A crunching sound could be heard.

And then....

"Owwww! SHIT!", she jumped up, holding her left leg and quickly dashing away from the former alarm-clock on the floor. There was a sad little pile of metal, giving beeping sounds away. It sounded like a dying animal.

Well, that explained where her clock was.

Damn.

Slowly the duck cleaned her feet and winced when tiny glass pieces cut into her skin. Then she looked around and realized that she was in her room.

In her room.

Not in a twisted reality, created to drive her crazy and to scare her to death, no, it was *her* room with her pile of magazines in the corner, her clothes in the wardrobe and her pictures on the wall. There was nobody who frightened her, no scary voice which invaded her thoughts, just this room....

She sighed relieved. So the rescue wasn't a dream after all...

Yeah, it wasn't a dream. She was back in normal life. She was back at the pond. She was Mallory again, not a whimpering scared little child, no, she was strong like she used to be before - even stronger.

A grin spread over her face and she quickly got dressed. Time to start a new day, time to enjoy life again, time to....she opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

*splash*

"MWAHAHAHAHA!!!," maniacal laughter could be heard, as a bucket of water landed on the redhead, soaking her fresh clothes and leaving a puddle on the floor.

Nosedive was standing at the other end of the hallway and holding his stomach of laughter. "You look...so...haha....funnny...," he gasped between his chuckles and wiped a tear away.

"Nosedive....," growled Mallory and balled her fists. "You are so dead!!!"

He just smiled at her. "Aww, I just wanted to make sure that we're back to the old times, Mal-Mal! Love ya, too!", then he dashed away.

"NOSEDIIIVE!," came the furious scream, echoing through the whole pond and startling innocent ducks.

"Catch me!", the teen just replied and ran for his life.

Mallory snorted. "Oh, I will, and how I will!" She raced after Dive. The two ducks hurried through the rooms, running past Wildwing who had just gotten up and was sitting in the kitchen, reading the newspaper. The older duck shook his head at this sight and chuckled slightly.

Things were back to normal again.

He continued reading with a smile on his face, while the others came to life, woken by the noisy chase of Mallory and Nosedive. Tanya made herself a cup of coffee and went to the lab, Grin retreated back into his room to meditate. Duke seated himself beside Wildwing and grabbed a part of the newspaper. The older mallard flashed a quick grin to Wildwing and started flipping through the paper. Soon he was reading the sports news, muttering here and then something about the 'stupid human-beings who can't play ice-hockey'. Wildwing just snickered.

Indeed, things were back to normal again.

End

It's finally over, huh? Took me quite a while to finish this piece...*smiles sheepishly* And the ending isn't how I'd liked it to be, but I guess my inspiration was lost...I'm never good at writing endings. Sorry!*whines*

Thanks to everybody who has reviewed - it really helped a lot and without all these people, I wouldn't have finished this story. It was quite difficult at times

Orenda - Thanks for the constant support, the nice chats and generally being my friend. It's always funny when we meet on msn and complain about out writer's block!

Icelightning - You were a great beta for my digimon story, and if I'll ever write another MD fanfic, I will ask you to be my beta. And some day I will get all the commas and so on correct....*beams*

Dolphy - Well, thanks for beta-ing this piece and talking with me about silly stuff (school O.o). I *could* write this in German, but then the others won't understand it....we don't want to be unfair, do we? (Naja, ein kleines bisschen schon *teuflisches Gelächter*) And your art still rules!!

Ottercub - (or Lily C.) Your support is really a special one and I'm always looking forward to read your reviews. They are sooo nice and I feel really inspired to continue after I have read them! Thanks for that! I can't say *how* thankful am for all the reviews you wrote to my stories!

Eiflin - Again, thanks for the reviews and the support! You guys are all great, what would I be without you? *sniff*

Well...maybe we'll meet each other in another fanfic of me, although I have currently no ideas. Guess I have to wait for my muse....oh well..*sighs*