AN: Okay. I have no excuses. Well, actually, I have LOTS of excuses, but they're not worth whining about. …No, they are, but that's not the point. The point IS: I'm sorry this is so late. Hopefully it will make up for itself, and I'll try not to make you wait so long in the future. Real Life sucks, and the people up at the Kapole Payless are NUTS, yo. NUTS.

Disclaimer: O o

                        Part three: Breaking Faith

                                  Dark Days and Lightning

            Nosedive took a ragged breath, letting it out in a slow, controlled sigh. Nightmares. Why did it always have to be nightmares? At least he wasn't waking up screaming, due in whole to the fact that they were coming from that time in his life. Then again, if he didn't wake up screaming, no one knew he was having night terrors and Wildwing couldn't comfort him.

            Not to mention how it was affecting his game. Or, rather, what used to be his game. Now that Dryden was back with the sole purpose of reclaiming what he'd always referred to as his property, he was permanently distracted, on and off the ice. Only inline skating, which demanded all his attention all the time, could make him forget about Dryden.

            The teen glanced at his clock, still working on getting his breathing and heart rate back to normal. Four thirteen. The alarm wouldn't go off for another hour and seventeen minutes. What was he supposed to do in the meantime?

            Oh well, he sighed mentally, standing. Time to get going. Nothing better to do, right?

            Right.

            Wildwing almost jumped out of his skin in surprise when he and Canard entered the rink to discover someone had beaten them there.

            "We're not awake," he told Canard as he realized it was Nosedive, up and active before anyone else. "We've got to be dreaming or something. I mean, we've just got to be. There's no other rational explanation."

            Canard grinned lopsidedly. "Sure there is. The runt just woke up before us, that's all. Miracles happen everyday, you know."

            "Yeah, but this isn't a miracle. This is defiance of reality. My brother is the world's worst morning person. He doesn't think the day technically begins until noon. Why is          he up so early?"

            "Dunno," Canard shrugged, "let's ask." He called Nosedive over.

            The teen glanced back at him and had a quick mental debate before gliding over. "Yeah?"

            "What're you doing up so early? Your brother thinks it's the apocalypse. What made you wake up?"

            Nosedive shrugged, uncomfortable. What would Canard do if he knew? "Just got up."

            "Huh…no kidding. Well, that's strange. How long have you been up here?"

            "About an hour."

            "It's the end of the world!" Wildwing exclaimed, skating around his little bother. "Nosedive's practicing early!"

            "Very funny, Wing." Nosedive grinned, forgetting for a moment the severity of the problem facing him. "I've been known on occasion to get up early." He slid the puck he'd been practicing with toward his brother.

            "Yeah, on your Hatching Day."

            "Har har." He skated easily after Wildwing, who pushed the puck across the ice toward a goal. "You just can't take it cause this means I'm going to get even better than you pretty soon."

            Wildwing snorted disbelievingly. "In your dreams, maybe."

            Nosedive quickly stole the puck from his brother and raced it across the ice to the opposite net, where Canard had set himself up as goalie. Gliding behind the net, he tucked the puck in the corner, which made both Canard and Wildwing frown at him.

            "First shot of the day," Canard warned, passing the puck out to Wildwing. "You won't get another one."

            "Yeah," Wildwing agreed, "I won't go easy on you anymore, either."

            "Bring it on," Nosedive taunted.

            As the others slowly trickled up from their own rooms, they picked a side and joined the game. Mallory and Duke joined Wildwing, Grin and Tanya sided with Nosedive. Canard remained goalie, unwilling to halt the wonderful practice session they were having for anything. It was the first time in a long time Nosedive actually looked like he was enjoying himself on the ice, skating with two teammates at his back.

            "Leading," Nosedive panted softly to his brother as a taunt an hour and a half later while he skated backwards in front of him.

            "By one," Wildwing protested just as softly, looking for an opening. There were none, which was just as well.

            "Actually," the teen argued, stealing the puck and sending it to Tanya, who set it up and hit it back to Nosedive, who waited for Grin to check Duke before slamming it into the net, "by two."

            Wildwing actually stuck his tongue out at the younger duck. "Nya."

            "I've always admired your maturity," Nosedive laughed. Then he realized Mallory was about to score and hightailed it down the rink.

            In the end, Nosedive, Grin and Tanya won by one. The teen didn't look like he intended to let his brother forget it for a long, long time.

            "Good practice everyone," Canard congratulated as they all skated off the rink. "You too, Nosedive. Great to see you enjoying the game again."

            Nosedive smiled back at him, pleased for the time being.

            "You gonna head out first thing again?" Wildwing asked, walking behind him as he bladed.

            The teen shrugged. "Not sure yet. I might."

            "Where do you go?"

            "Here and there."

            "With Thrash and Mookie?"

            "Yeah. Them and Justin."

            "Who's Justin?"

            "Just this guy I met who's teaching me some skating tricks." Which was a delicate way of alluding to the fact that he was learning to inline skate without actually saying as much.

            The further they descended into the Pond the more withdrawn Nosedive became, sinking into a deep and silent melancholy. Finally he sighed and stopped skating. When Wildwing looked questions at him he explained, "I just remembered…I told Justin I'd meet him at the park."

            Wildwing arched an eyebrow skeptically. "The park?"

            "Yeah. The skate park."

            "What's a skate park?"

            "It's…hard to explain…Besides, I really gotta go or I'm gonna be late."

            "Tell me about it sometime, okay?"

            "Okay, bro. Catch ya laterz." The teen skated away quickly, flying from the Pond as though it was a prison from which he'd just been freed.

            "You think he's really going to a skate park?"

            Canard came up behind Wildwing, shrugging. "Totally depends on the definition of skate park. I don't think he's lying, though."

            "I wasn't asking if he was lying."

            "I know. I'm just saying, he's probably not. Stretching the truth, maybe, withholding information, definitely, but he's a teenager. It's practically in the job description."

            Wildwing sighed, crossing his arms. "We're never going to meet this Justin character, are we?"

            "No, probably not. Not if we don't take the initiative."

            "What're you suggesting?"

            "I think we should go see where the small fry's spending all his time, don't you?"

            "As responsible adults…" Wildwing seemed hesitant to say what he knew had to be said. Finally he sighed. "I don't think we have any choice."

            "I don't think this is a good idea," Nosedive insisted once again, clutching the hockey stick.

            Justin waved the concern off. "Piffle, as my sister would say. This'll be fun, I promise."

            "It's not that I don't think it'll be fun…"

            "Then what?"

            "I dunno, it just…it doesn't seem fair, you know?"

            "Nosedive. It's five to one."

            "See? It's not fair."

            Justin, flopped on the lowest row of bleachers, rolled his eyes. "It was their idea," he reminded the alien, indicating the other five teenagers standing excitedly before him. "Tell them."

            "Don't even bother," one of the teens said firmly, grinning, hockey stick in hand. "You have no idea how long we've been waiting for an opportunity like this."

            The other four, also holding sticks, nodded.

            Nosedive sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he reminded them, and set up.

            The court was small, the size of two basketball courts put together. One trashcan lay on its side at each end. It was five earth teens to one duck, but Nosedive maintained that it wasn't fair. The game had been Justin's idea, a break from inline skating. Plus, these five teens—four boys and a solitary punk-rock queen—were expert inline skaters. They had promised to show Nosedive some tricks, provided he could beat them.

            And still he told them it wasn't fair.

            When the game first began, the earth teens were cocky. They got immediate control of the puck and maneuvered it admirably to their goal, Nosedive trailing almost hesitantly behind whoever had the puck. The girl was the one to make the first attempt at a shot.

            Somehow, as the puck zipped toward the trashcan, Nosedive was just there, stopping the forward momentum of the puck and smiling almost pityingly at the other teens.

            "That was a nice shot," he complimented.

            "Oh, come on!" the girl remonstrated. "We're here for a workout, not a tea party. Do something!"

            Nosedive, thus asked, did.

            He moved about the court with a speed and agility that left the other five players and one spectator dazzled. No wonder he was in the NHL; this was obviously what he'd been born to do. They couldn't figure out how he managed the puck the way he did. Even without teammates, he ruled their small street hockey court. Eventually, as the game wore on, they began to realize that he was teaching them, calling out suggestions every now and then and setting them up for plays the likes of which they'd never dreamed of before.

            "Why are you giving us pointers?" one of the boys panted as they setup for another period.

            Nosedive grinned at him. "You're gonna teach me how to inline skate, right?" Meaning that he was going to win.

            The teen sighed. "Yeah. We are."

            "Let's call it returning the favor, then."

            The final score was 1-0, though that fooled no one. Nosedive's first and only goal remained by itself simply because he didn't see the need in racking up more points than that.

            "Plus," he told them, "imagine the bragging rights. You went against an NHL player with a final score of 1-0. Think of how that sounds."

            "Yeah," the girl argued, "but there were five of us and one of you."

            "So? Who's gonna ask about the numbers of people on the teams?"

            She grinned. "And you don't mind?"

            He shrugged. "What's it to me? I'm not even from this planet, why should I care what people think?"

            "Good point," one of the boys commented, skating up. "But what if it gets to your teammates? Don't you care what they think?"

            Nosedive was silent.

            "Let's go to the skate park!" Justin called over to the cluster of teens, practically bouncing up and down in his impatience.

            "Okay!" the others agreed.

            Just as Nosedive was about to join them, his com went off. "Probably another mission," he sighed, and checked the message. Instead of someone explaining things, there was just a map with the location of where the others would be waiting.

            Techno Tech. Huh. Sounded like something Tanya would like.

            He caught up with Justin and explained before skating quickly across the street and around a corner.

            "Cool guy," the girl observed. "Weird, but cool."

            "You have no idea," Justin assured.

            Dryden scanned the Raptor's files, looking for something.

            Dragonius stood behind him, glaring and smoking. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

            The duck ignored him.

            "I can have you sent back to your prison!"

            "Not anymore," Dryden commented lightly, searching deeper.

            "What?" Dragonius roared. The other three Saurians made a hasty retreat.

            Frowning, the dark duck turned slightly to narrow his eyes at Dragonius. "You called me here. You promised that I could have my property back. I'm not the one who cast the spell; you are. So now you have one of two choices: either step aside let me reclaim my belonging or I will make you back down and get it anyway."

            Dragonius, for the first time in his life, chose to back down.

            "Thank you. Now go away and let me finish my research. I'll call you when I need you."

            The Saurian warlord slunk away. When he saw Wraith, Siege and Chameleon waiting for him outside the door, he frowned at them. "This is all your fault!" he hissed softly.

            Chameleon winced. "What're we gonna do, Boss? That duck's taking over!"

            "What can we do?"

            "I could rough him up a bit," Siege offered.

            "Don't be a fool," Wraith interrupted. "That one has recourses I don't even want to think about. My lord, I believe we have summoned the devil himself and unleashed him upon ourselves as well as the ducks."

            Dragonius was silent, a twinge of fear in his stomach agreeing wholly with the statement.

            Logically, if one is incapable of doing something, one passes the something on to a different person who might be able to do more than that first one did.

            Thus a skitterish Nosedive was pared with Duke when the Mighty Ducks split up to explore the maze that was Techno Tech. Due to a chemical spill the day before no one was in the building, which was good for the ducks.

            "Kid," Duke began in a whisper when Nosedive jumped at a shadow, "why are you so worked up?" The two were checking out the chemical section of the complex, making sure everything was where it should be.

            "Dunno," the teen lied. Dryden was behind this. He had to be. So where was he hiding?

            "You're freaking out over little nothings that you wouldn't usually even notice," Duke pressed. "What's wrong?"

            Hesitation.

            "C'mon, kid, you know me. I won't tell anyone or tease ya, but ya gotta tell me so I'm prepared if it turns out you're on to something."

            Still Nosedive wavered. Finally he sighed. "It's hard to explain. It's just…that duck. Dryden. He gives me the heebie-jeebies. I…I don't want to face him. I'm not afraid or anything," he fibbed desperately to throw Duke off his trail, "it's just…he's a very, very bad guy, so much worse than Dragonius. Some of the things he's done…what kind of a person can murder their entire family? What kind of sick, twisted psychopath keeps his victims' hearts?"

            "I dunno, Dive," Duke sighed, shaking his head as he checked a computer database for anything logged as missing. "Hey, though. How'd you know about that Dryden character's history? You checked out before Canard told us about it."

            Nosedive flinched. "Uh, you know. People talk."

            Duke chose not to respond, but a suspicion began growing in him at that moment. "Kid," he began slowly, "weren't you in a camp during the invasion?"

            Another wince. "U-um…yes, I was."

            "What was it called?"

            "I, uh…I d-don't remember."

            And that was really all the answer Duke needed for the moment. "I got it," the older duck said, dropping the subject. "Here's a list of things that were taken last night."

            "If they were taken last night, why are we only here today?"

            "It was a break-in so there wasn't any teleportation energy for Drake One to pick up. We only heard about it this morning."

            "Oh."

            "Yeah. Okay, let's go." Duck put the copied filed on a disk that he handed back to Nosedive. The teen tucked it in his holster and turned to leave.

            Dryden decided to make a cameo. "Hello, ducks," he purred evilly.

            Nosedive immediately backpedaled behind Duke, who leapt forward and placed himself between the young duck and the foul creature before them.

            Dryden actually laughed. "You think that's going to help any?"

            No. Duke actually didn't have the faintest hope that his throwing himself in front of the duckling would help, but it was worth a shot.

            "Huh." The dark murderer had spotted the computer behind Duke that hadn't been turned off yet. "So you want to know what I had taken and why."

            "You did do it, then!" Duke exclaimed, pleased as though he'd personally dragged the information out.

            "Of course. Well, actually, to be more correct I ordered it to be done. The Saurians did the actual stealing, but it was my idea."

            "You…ordered the Saurians?" This idea totally baffled the ex-thief. Saurians could be ordered?

            "Why yes, as a matter of fact." Dryden grinned thinly. "Naturally, I wouldn't actually break any laws myself. Nasty habit. The Saurians, however, seem to enjoy it. It was quite easy, actually. I'm afraid the large lizards rather dislike my presence on their ship. I think I intimidate them. Ah well, though. What will be will be, right?"

            Duke, finding no retort available and becoming concerned for the young, violently trembling duck behind him, only glared.

            "Would you like to know why I stole what I stole?" Dryden offered pleasantly, stepping forward. Nosedive immediately gave ground though Duke refused to do the same. "Actually, it's very interesting. Each thing I stole is a small component I use to make a drug. Well, I call it a drug. Most call it a poison. My own creation, by the way. I use it to get rid of people who bother me." Smiling cruelly, Dryden produced a needle filled with a thin, bright red liquid. "Isn't it beautiful? My poison kills in under an hour. Most painful, too, if I recall."

            Nosedive fought the collapse he felt coming, fought the whimper building in his throat, fought the desire to run away screaming. He would not leave Duke here alone.

            Not that Duke was ever in any danger.

            Dryden attacked suddenly, lunging toward Duke in a characteristically violent move.

            Duke twisted to the side, shoving the needle and Dryden away, and darted back a few steps to draw his saber.

            Which was exactly what Dryden had wanted to happen.

            The ex-thief felt his heart and stomach drop through the floor. Dryden was standing behind Nosedive, the crook of his left arm pulled against the teen's throat to keep him close, the right pressing the needle ever so slightly into his neck.

            Nosedive was trembling so badly now it looked as though he was about to go into a fit of seizures. His eyes were huge and terrified, his hands limply by his sides.

            Dryden flashed his tiny sadistic smile again. "It all comes down to this: can you kill me before I stick this lovely young duckling?"

            "No, but I can!" Wildwing slammed into Dryden, sending him tumbling to the ground.

            Canard grabbed the younger duck quickly as he stumbled in the wake of the attack.

            Everything would have been fine again if it were ever possible to catch Dryden unprepared, but he was not rumored to be devil-spawn for no reason. Turning as he fell, the mass murderer grabbed Nosedive's wrist and jerked.

            Surprised, Canard felt the teen slip out of his grip and crash down upon Dryden. For a moment the two stared at each other, Canard is disbelief, Dryden in triumph. Then the dark Puckworldian criminal stabbed the needle as far as it would go into the soft flesh just above the teen's collarbone, injecting the liquid. Nosedive gave a small cry and Dryden, laughing, disappeared in a sickening red-green flash.

            Wildwing rushed forward, almost mad with panic, and ran terrified hands over his brother until he was sure the needle was all that was wrong. Then he focused his attention on the syringe and began to lose every partial of good sense he'd ever had. In horror he grabbed the protruding needle.

            "Don't!" Canard snapped, pushing Wildwing away. "You'll only hurt him more. You're no good the way you are. Go with Duke and find Tanya and the others."

            Wildwing stared at him. "Are you insane?" he almost shrieked. "I'm not leaving Nosedive!"

            "Go," Nosedive panted, "it's not that bad. I'll be fine. You have to get the others so we can get back to the Pond."

            Still Wildwing was going to refuse.

            Then a spasm of pain hit the teen hard and he clutched Canard's hand, crying, "Go!"

            He went.

            There had never been a journey from any one point to another that happened as quickly as that trip between Techno Tech and the Pond.

            Nosedive, panting and sweating, shirt long since stripped off, a sterile cloth pressed around the syringe, was rushed into the Medlab, where he was thoroughly scanned.

            "That bastard said it killed in an hour," Duke hissed to Canard, making sure the already distraught Wildwing wouldn't hear. "It's been forty-five minutes!"

            "What do you want me to do?" Canard demanded in return.

            "Anything. This team is finished if we lose the kid. Do you realize that? Finished."

            "I know," the haggard leader snapped desperately, "but what can I do?"

            "I don't know!"

            Tanya extracted the needle in one swift motion. Grin held Nosedive still and Mallory, in a show of maternal instincts kicked into over drive, bent over the teen's head slightly, making him maintain eye contact with her, holding one of his hands, stroking the soft back with her thumb. The other hand rested on his hair; the fingers were working gently, loosening knots and moving thorough the locks in rhythmically soothing motions. She was talking to him, low and soft and comforting, about anything and everything.

            At one point he even managed to gasp a laugh.

            Wildwing could not be made to leave the room, but he was also in no state to be anywhere near the younger duck. Agitated and terrified, he paced the far wall, watching the work happening around his most precious baby brother.

            Tanya took a blood sample and ran it through numerous tests as a body scan read Nosedive's vital signs and showed her what was happening to him internally.

            As the injection spread, it created a radius of pain so intense the machines had trouble documenting it. Though for the time being it had only infected the one set of muscles, soon it would enter the blood stream.

            "I don't know what it'll do to his primary organs," Tanya explained to the rest of her team. "I mean, so far, other than the pain, nothing's wrong with him. You can see here-" she pointed at a monitor- "that already the serum at the initial contact point has worn off. But once it gets in the blood, I just…I don't know. It could give him a heart attack or seizures or…I don't know. All we can do is wait." She shrugged helplessly. "That's about it."

            Nosedive had already blacked out because of the pain. He was lying on the table, Wildwing holding one hand, Mallory still holding the other. Every so often his muscles would spasm and he would gasp, squeezing his teammates' hands.

            Wildwing looked quietly destroyed. If his brother didn't wake up, he'd never recover. It was as simple as that. He'd waste away until he was nothing, then he'd die.

            Grin, though he tried to hide it, was furious. After a few moments of trying to meditate, he gave up and went to their workout room, where he exercised so violently he demolished all their equipment.

            Canard and Duke stood silently in opposite corners of the room, each thinking different thoughts about the same coincidences.

            The night passed slowly for every member of the Mighty Ducks. Though they each had only one shift of watching Nosedive's condition (which, other than growing steadily more agonizing for the teen, remained relatively stable) no one slept. Wildwing never acknowledged anyone's presence, staying by his brother's side unmoving all night and into the midday hours.

            At around one in the morning, Nosedive began to dream. The terrors of his childhood were dragged out and shown to him again in all their horrors.

            No one knew it then, but the nightmares had been the entire point of the poison. To make Nosedive remember, Dryden would do anything.

            At five fifty-three in the evening, Nosedive moaned softly and opened his eyes. Turning his head slightly, he saw his brother staring blankly at his hand. Tired beyond anything he'd ever been before, he closed his eyes again. For a while he dozed, weary in mind and body from the horrors of his waking nightmares. Then his brother stirred from his silent reverie and he opened his eyes again, smiling weakly at Wildwing's shocked expression.

            "Hey, Wing," he murmured. "What's up?" To his utter horror and confusion, Wildwing's face crumpled, and his older brother laid his head on the side of the Medlab table, his shoulders shaking. "It's okay," the teen soothed softly, patting his brother's head. "It's okay. Everything's fine. I'm awake now and everything's going to be-" He cut himself off, realizing the futility of the statement. Nothing was ever going to be fine ever again. For the first time, he knew exactly why Dryden was there. Nosedive's life lay shattered around him, but he couldn't let that drag his brother down, too. What could he do to save Wildwing from the tortures he had to face?

            Meanwhile, the older duck had composed himself and he sat up, smiling, eyes over bright. "Took you long enough," he managed in a strangled voice.

            "…Yeah."

            "Are you really all right?"

            "Better than I was."

            "Do you need anything?"

            "I think…a nap would be great."

            "Well, then, go ahead and nap. Tanya's shift is up next. I'll tell her you were up for a bit, then catch some sleep myself."

            "I bet you stayed up all this time waiting for me, huh?"

            "Yeah. Kinda."

            "Idiot."

            Wildwing smiled. "Thanks."

            Smiling in return, Nosedive drifted back to sleep.

            It was the last peaceful conversation the brothers would be allowed to have.

            The next day, when Nosedive showed up for practice, he was yelled at by the entire team and ordered back to bed.

            Slightly shocked and a little perturbed, he headed to his room.

            So he'd been hurt; so he'd been unconscious and they all thought he'd been dying; so what? Did that mean he couldn't practice?

            No, he'd thought not.

            He was kept under strict bed rest orders for the rest of the day. When the following day began to look like a repeat of the last, Nosedive started to lose his patience with the entire situation and resolved to get out.

            It took him hours to convince the older members of his team (which amounted to everybody) that he was well enough to go outside.

            "Back by seven!" they demanded, and he agreed, sighing.

            At the skate park, he was greeted by many people who had all been concerned about him. He made up a story for most of them, then pulled Justin aside and told him the truth.

            "Bummer," the skater summarized once the duck was done.

            "Seriously. I've got to figure out what to do about all the older brothers and sisters I seem to have amassed for myself."

            "Good luck, dude," Justin offered, shaking his head. "Look, I've got serious practice to do for an upcoming competition, but Tiger's here. She's the girl from the hockey match. She's not competing this time, so she could probably help you out."

            The girl, Tiger, skated over. "Hey, Nosedive," she called in hello. "What's up?"

            "Nothing much," he assured. "You got any spare time to teach me some tricks?"

            "Sure," she agreed, smiling.

            Justin waved. "I'm out. Have fun, dudes."

            "Bye, Justin." Tiger turned back to Nosedive. "Okay, time for a serious workout, hockey-boy. Prepare to sweat."

            "I've only got till about six thirty," he warned.

            She shrugged. "Three hours. Not bad. I can still give you a run for your money."

            "Please do."

            The workout was the best thing that had happened to Nosedive for the past week.

            It lasted nearly five and a half hours.

            Canard and Wildwing were at different stages of fury.

            Wildwing was irate, but the anger was born more of worry than anything else.

            As Canard paced the Ready Room, toying absently with a small machine, his frustration at the teen mounted.

            Duke felt sorry for Nosedive as he came quietly into the Pond.

            Wildwing called his brother into the Ready Room.

            Nosedive finally realized that he was in serious trouble and shrank back slightly. "Uh…hi, Wing. What's up?"             Canard tossed something at him. The teen caught it and blinked down at his com. "Ooh…I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

            "Yes," Wildwing bit out harshly, "you are."

            "Um…what if I said I was sorry?"

            "What if I said you were two hours late?" his brother responded. "What if I said you had us all worried but we couldn't get in contact with you? Do you know why we couldn't get in contact with you?"

            "Because…I didn't have my com?"

            "Very good."

            "I'm sorry."

            "Sorry!" Wildwing exploded, throwing his hands in the air. "You're always sorry, Nosedive! You were sorry last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, and you were sorry the first time you did this! Why aren't you getting it through your head that sorry isn't good enough?"

            The teen winced. "I'm really sorry, Wing. I didn't mean to forget it."

            "And you didn't mean to be late, but you are! You probably didn't mean for us to worry, but guess what? We did! All of us! Even Phil!"

            "I'm sorry, Wildwing! I just forgot, it won't happen again, I promise."

            Wildwing's anger began to fizzle out at the remorseful expression on his brother's face. "Well…"

            He would have left it at that. Had it just been him and his little brother, he would have sighed and let him go with yet another warning, and Nosedive would have eventually forgotten his com again and the whole thing would have started over.

            But he was not alone.

            "Wait."

            Canard's serious tone caught and froze Nosedive, who turned around very slowly to meet the leader's eyes.

            He was in serious trouble.

            "This is the fourth time you've done this."

            "I know, Canard, and I'm-"

            "If you were sorry," the older duck interrupted, "you wouldn't do it anymore, but no matter how many times you say it, you keep forgetting."

            Nosedive shrugged, something in the pit of his stomach squirming. He hadn't been in trouble like this for years.

            "There's got to be a consequence, Nosedive."

            Consequences. How had he known it was going to come to that?

            "Now, usually I'd just give you a workout, but that's not effective because you like working out, and that's not the point. The point is to make you uncomfortable, put you in a situation you don't like so you won't forget your com again."

            Wildwing turned away miserably, which made serious concern blossom in the pit of Nosedive's stomach.

            He wasn't talking about…

            "So therefore…because there's really nothing else to do…for the next two weeks…" Canard sighed, looking rather miserable himself but very determined.

            "Nosedive, you're grounded."

AN: Erm….yeah. ^^;;;;; It gets worse. Please tune in next time for: The Next Chapter! *echo effect*

*sets out a chunk of dry ice in the shape of a pineapple and runs away* BE AS THE NINJA!

-Angel Baby