The Lost: Chapter Five

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Wildwing/Mallory

Author's Note: Mmmmkay, it's time to get crackin' on this baby, and get it over with. Just read on, dudes. Oh, FF.net ate my spacing and whatnot as well. Please excuse the non-indentations and the ugly spacing.

The Lost – Chapter Five

The remaining four ducks circled around the tops of the rainforest trees in yet another search for their lost comrades, becoming more and more discouraged by the day. There was no sign of Mallory or Wildwing, it was almost as if they had descended into the jungle and vanished into thin air. There were no signs of their com tracers, and their aerial searches had come up fruitless, as it was impossible to see anything below the thick, vibrant canopy. It had been almost two weeks since Mallory and Wildwing had disappeared, and the remaining Avians were beginning to run out of hope that their teammates were still alive.

The team looked around as the fuel light was blinking and beeping, signaling that yet another four-hour aerial sweep had come up empty. Duke, who was now in charge looked up at the offending signal and sighed,

"Alright Tanya, take 'er down."

Tanya looked to Duke and sighed as she turned the Aerowing around and headed back to their hotel.

Twenty minutes later, everyone exited the Aerowing and headed to their rooms, ready to sleep off the weary aches that life brought, to escape the horrors of the day and fall into a slightly less disturbing state of unconsciousness. Duke, however, had other plans.

"Everybody!" The other three Avians turned around at Duke's voice, and looked at him with weary, forlorn eyes. "We need ta have a little meetin' in my room now, if ya please." He discontinued eye contact with everyone, and his head and shoulders slumped as he opened the door to his room. "So, are ya comin' in, or am I gonna have ta make ya?"

Everyone groaned and filed into the room. Tanya and Nosedive sat on the single bed in the middle of the room while Grin chose the floor. Duke paced in front of them all nervously as he gathered his thoughts, trying to decide on the correct choice of words to address the group. He sighed, and placed his head in his hand. 'Here goes nothin', he thought.

"Alright guys, it's been a couple o' weeks since Mal and Wing disappeared, right?"

Everyone nodded and braced themselves for the outcome of Duke's gathering, somehow, they all knew news of the worst kind was going to come.

"Look, guys, if we haven't found them by now..."

"NO!" Nosedive screamed in terror. He knew where Duke was going with his speech. He would try to talk about how it was getting to the stage where searching any longer for their missing team members was pointless, that there were good chances that Mallory and Wildwing would probably never come out of the dense, South American jungle. He would talk about how no search party would risk going into the jungle to look for them, that it was too risky, and that there were no other options left for them to follow. Then he would conclude with how sorry he was, but that they had to give up the search for their teammates, for Nosedive's brother. Nosedive would have none of it.

Nosedive's fists clenched around the neck of Duke's shirt, his knuckles white and straining, his hands and arms trembling, his eyes narrowed and glaring daggers. "I'm not giving up on them, I'M NOT GIVING UP ON MY BIG BRO!" He shoved Duke out of his hands, sending the older duck sprawling to the floor. Nosedive kept his hands in fists, standing and staring at the wall in front of him, breathing heavily. In the blink of an eye, a loud crack was heard, and the other three ducks winced at the sound. Nosedive had punched a rather large hole in the wall of the hotel, his hand obviously broken, and bleeding at the point of impact. With his good hand, the youngest of the team members opened the door and walked out, slamming the piece of wood behind him.

Duke looked up at Tanya and Grin from his place on the floor, courtesy of one distraught, teenage avian. "Pack your stuff up guys, we're leaving. There's nothing more we can do here." He picked himself up off the floor and caught up with Grin, just as he was leaving.

"Hey Grin, can I ask ya a favour?" Grin just stared at him, blank as ever. Duke envied his ability to keep his cool in any situation, even if he was troubled underneath the surface. "Can ya talk to the kid for me? He's taken this rather badly, and I know you two are close." Grin nodded an affirmative and placed his hand on the doorknob. "Oh, an' Grin?" Duke had remembered one more request. "Get him to a doctor, get his hand looked at, please. Whateva' he did, it looked painful."

Duke looked behind him to see Tanya, struggling to get up off of the bed and into a state of movement.

"Hey, sweetheart, lemme help ya up."

Duke grabbed Tanya's hands and pulled her to a standing position, her head hanging, and her entire body seeming weak and uncooperative.

"Hey, Tanya..." Her eyes continued to focus on the floor, her head still aimed at the ground. "Tanya, look at me..." Duke placed a hand under her beak, tilting her head up so that he could look her in the eyes. The amount of sadness combined with the unshed tears that he found there was overwhelming for him. "Hey, you okay?" She blinked, a single large tear raced down her cheek, and Duke wiped it away with his free hand. "Come 'ere sweetheart..." With his invitation, Tanya fell into his arms and began to sob, her emotions overwhelming her. Duke held her, absently rubbing her back, a few of his tears mingling with her own as he stared out the window at the full moon in the sky.

'Wherever ya guys are, please be okay...and if ya ain't, well, rest in peace..."

In the two weeks that Mal and Wing had been stuck in the primitive jungle village, they had been accommodated for, and the natives were trying their best to adjust them into daily life. Immediately noticing Mallory's talent for weaponry and accuracy, along with her small and stealthy size, she was cast as a hunter and a warrior. Wildwing found his place as a village healer, in his off time back in Anaheim he had read up and studied on seemingly every subject under the sun, including herbal remedies and botany. Wildwing's aptitude for academics made him well suited to work with the village healer, there was nothing that he couldn't learn. They each had their own huts, nicely furnished in the ways that the tribe could provide, and both were beginning to pick up on the local lingo and customs.

Mallory sighed as she sat on a thick tree branch a mile out from the village. As she was on guard duty all night, she knew that she was going to be bored out of her mind and lonely the entire time. 'If only the rest of the team was here, I wouldn't be so bored.' Mallory slumped against the thick trunk of the tree at thoughts of her teammates. She missed them terribly, even Nosedive who was a constant annoyance. She stared up at the stars above her, from her high vantage point she had a good view of the heavens and the twinkling skies normally hidden from the ground.

As Mallory stared up at the sky, wondering of her friends, Wildwing climbed up the tree that she was on, hoping to be able to keep her company throughout the night. He missed his team and his brother terribly, but he was comforted by the small fact that Mallory was there alongside him. He climbed up for what seemed like forever, until he finally reached the branch that Mal occupied. He climbed up behind her, the wind whipping at his hair and ruffling his feathers.

"Mal?" Wildwing's voice was unsteady, heights like the tree branch he was standing on had always made him nervous.

"Wing?" Mallory turned around slowly, her eyes unfocused and glazed over. She shook her head free of her mental cobwebs and smiled, inwardly amused at Wildwing's fear of heights. "What are you doing out here?"

"I just came to see how you were, I was bored and I couldn't sleep."

"Mmm..." Mallory hummed silently and scooted closer to him, staring up at the sky. "Look at the stars, I can't ever remember seeing a sky so clear. Anaheim is so full of pollution, light and otherwise."

"Yeah...Oh! Look over there!" He took Mallory's hand in his own and used them to point out an intriguing object, far off in the distance.

Mallory smiled, "A shooting star...I've never seen one of those..." She grinned in awe as Wildwing kept their right hands entwined.

Wildwing placed his beak right next to her ear as he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders. "Make a wish."

"I think we both know what I'd wish for. It wouldn't come true." She sighed and turned her head away from him.

"Make it anyways."

And so she did. She stared out at the sky, knowing that all that she wanted right now, to go home, was something that was not going to happen anytime soon, and she hung her head. The next thing she knew, Wildwing's arms wrapped around her and drew her into his protective embrace. For once, she let herself fall to her weaknesses, her weakness of sorrow and of love, and sank into his chest. She sat with him, unmoving until the rising of the sun. The changing of the guard allowed her to come down then, and Wildwing followed, holding her hand for the entire walk back to the village. 'At least,' she thought, 'I have Wildwing. Even if we can't be what I want us to, it doesn't matter. At least I have him with me. And that means that I'm not alone.' At that thought she smiled and squeezed his hand, continuing their hike back to the village...

TBC...