I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

When they landed and walked into the Pond, Mallory felt like she was a stranger going into someone else's house. She was so busy looking around herself that she jumped when Tanya took her hand and lead her to the infirmary to check over all of her wounds. Everyone else went to the rec room, figuring that Mallory needed some space with the only other female of the team.

Tanya had Mallory lay on the Medicom bed while she scanned her. "Okay well you didn't suffer that many injures it seems from the initial scan. Only slight scaring on your side there and it won't even be visible pretty soon. I'm gonna do an internal scan that is meant to track injures you've had over the past year. So any injuries that you have received, even if they have healed will show on this thing." Mallory looked at Tanya, wondering what she would think when she saw all the damage her body had truly taken and healed from while there.

"Okay starting scan. Knowing you Mallory I'm sure it was nothing that you couldn't handle." Tanya joked smiling at Mallory. As the scan progressed Tanya's face fell. "Oh uh okay the sc-scan is complete." Her voice sounding less cheery then before.

"Uh the Medicom will list it off for us... Okay here is the list. Oh there's a list."

Broken ribs, left should pulled out of socket, broke left wrist, deep cut in right side with some organ damage, small punctures wound around neck, electrical burns can be seen most vividly around where the collar was, ….punctured lung." Tanya looked up at Mallory sadly. "There is bruising around your neck Mal but I can't tell if that is from the collar."

"It's not. Orgg tried to strangle me. He almost did too but Kazor got him off of me."

Tanya didn't say anything to that. "Bruising to the back of your head, and along your spine, looks like you tore the stitches in your side a couple of times, cut across you left arm, deep laceration across your back... bruised and cut skin around your wrists and ankles?" Tanya looked at Mallory confused.

"Chains."

Nodding sadly she kept going. "Bruising across your face, puncture wound to the right shoulder, some burnt skin on your hands and arms. Finally three long lacerations across your abdomen and bruising around your ribs and stomach revealing repeated damage." Tanya sounded like she was going to cry once she finished reading off the damage. Mallory got up off the bed and walked over to her. Placing her hands on Tanya's shaking hands.

"Tanya. You don't have to do this. You don't need to see this."

"Did you have too..." She trailed off not wanting to ask but needing to know. Mallory watched her for a second but understood what she wanted to know soon after. "No Tanya. I was able to get out of that by stabbing Chargg in the neck. Everyone one was afraid of me after that." Tanya sagged in relief, emotionally distraught she just started crying her eyes out, shocking Mallory. Not understanding where this was coming from Mallory reached forward and hugged her. Tanya clung to her and whimpered. "Tanya what's wrong!?"

Tanya continued to sniffle. "We tried so hard. We went many days without sleep and still it wasn't enough. You suffer-"

"You guys did everything you possibly could. In the end you saved me."

"Yeah but were we really in time to save you?" She asked threw tears, sounding even more nasally then usual.

Mallory had been wondering that on the plane ride back to the pond. In the end she gave her the only answer she could give herself. "Only time will tell I think."

Once Tanya was done running diagnostics, Mallory was free to go. Getting ready to walk out Mallory turned back seeing Tanya seat forlornly in her chair. It was killing Mallory to see her like this. She realized now that this whole ordeal wasn't just weighing on her shoulders. Her whole team suffered. It wasn't the same as hers but they had suffered none the less. Just like she would have had it been one of them up there and her down here. She walked forward and put her hand over Tanya's shoulder, giving it a squeeze to show support. Tanya jumped at first but then relaxed and placed her hand over Mallory's, appreciating the support.

"Tanya, I'm not sure that showing Wildwing this scan would be the best idea."

Tanya understood what she was thinking. If he saw this then he would beat himself up over it even more then he had been beating himself up. The whole team saw it. He barely slept trying to find a way to get to Mallory. A couple of times Tanya had to help Nosedive drug him to make him sleep. When he woke up from that he was always angry at himself for sleeping when he thought he should have been working. Out of everyone on the team Wildwing had taken her abduction the hardest.

"If he demands it then I have to give it to him." Tanya said turning around to look at Mallory who let her go.

Sighing she nodded. "Okay but we need to soften the blow. I need to talk to him about it and walk him through it before you give him this information." Tanya nodded her agreement.

"Okay I can do that but you better do it sooner then later."

"Yeah... The others don't need to know."

Tanya nodded. "okay."

…..

Walking up to her bed she plopped down face first into her pillows. Breathing in deeply to relax and she caught a familiar scent,Wildwing's scent. He had laid on her pillows. Mallory wasn't given much more of a chance to think about it cause there was a knock at the door. Sitting up Mallory rubbed her eyes.

"Come in." The door opened to Wildwing standing there. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you... alone."

"I figured you would at one point." She patted the bed, telling him to sit down next to her. He did so and leaned his elbows on his knees while looking down at the ground. "You were lying about your health." He got right to the point.

"No I wasn't."

"Come on Mallory. I'm not stupid. I know when your lying. Grin could see it too." He scolded.

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I actually am fine. Though I was hurt a lot and badly, the wounds are mostly healed and there won't even be scars from them. With the technology the doctor used I won't even have future issues from them." She reassured him.

He stared at her hard then sighed and took his mask off. Taking his mask off Mallory could finally see the dark circles under his eyes. "Wildwing! When was the last time you slept!?" Mallory asked astonished to see him looking so rough. She went to touch his under eyes but he grabbed her hand to stop her, she felt a little embarrassed about it until he yanked her forward into his chest, hugging her. A very un-Wildwing like thing to do. Mallory could only lay there and try to process that he was actually hugging her.

"Tell me the truth Mallory."

"Honestly... I can't talk about it right now. Please give me time."

"Okay. At some point you need to talk to me." He reluctantly let her go and walked to her door. "Are you going to be okay tonight?" He wanted so badly to stay with her for the night but it would have been inappropriate. She seemed like she didn't want company anyway with how distant she was acting. He didn't show it but he hated how distant she was.

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Okay." Wildwing looked at her a moment longer then left.

She wouldn't look him in the eye or else she would ask him to stay. Wildwing's and Mallory's relationship had always been professional but now that she was back she really wanted it to be anything but. Part of her had hoped that he would offer to stay and take care of her but she knew he wouldn't do that. He was the leader, there was a certain decorum that he needed to follow. If he stayed it would look like he bedded her and he couldn't be involved with such things, even though she wanted him to be. Besides, he didn't see her like that anyway.

…..

Mallory had been back for two weeks and she was having nightmares. The worst was the dreams of Ashley. They were always the same. She would die in Mallory's arms and Mallory could do nothing but cry.

Shaking her head Mallory pulled her mind off of her nightmares and focused on the drills they were running for practice. Wildwing felt it would be good for her to go back to her old routines but he was always careful that they weren't too strenuous on her healing body. For the most part it was good for her but there would be moments when she would have flashbacks about being in the rink at the Dome.

The first time she went back out on the ice rink in the stadium for practice, she froze. Grin noticed her freezing and skated back over to her while the others started skating around passing pucks. He place his large hand on her shoulder and asked what was wrong.

"Why is it not pink anymore?" She whispered, still looking at the ice. Grin realized what was happening to her and gently took her face in his hands slowly making her look at him.

"You are not there anymore Mallory. You are safe. You must pull yourself out of there, your body is not there but your mind still wonders back to it. What ever is pulling you back, you must confront it and stop it. If you don't you could will hurt yourself or possibly others." Mallory's eyes focused back on Grin and she nodded.

He let go of her face and nodded to her. "Mallory I think you should practice meditation with me. It will help clear your senses and lighten the burden on your soul." Mallory looked like she was about to argue but Grin held up a hand and stopped her. "I can see it in your aura. Your soul is injured and trying to heal, let us help you heal it. Let us back in Mallory. You are pushing us away in an attempt to protect us but your only causing us pain and damaging your soul even more. This is not a burden you must bare alone. We are here for you. We all care for you Mallory. Speak with me when you are ready to try meditation." He skated to the middle of the rink leaving a speechless Mallory. She knew he was right but she was so torn in half by her emotions that she didn't know what she wanted. So she tried to figure it out on her own. She was less social and stayed in her room a lot. She would figure this out. She always did.

…..

A whole month of being back and she was even more distant from the others then she had ever been before. Trying to figure things out on her own was not as easy as she had thought. She was a solider. She should be able to deal with this on her own but she was failing. If anything it was getting worse. Most of the time she felt like something was wrong, that she was forgetting something vital and it was messing with her head. Making her jumpy and triggering flashbacks.

"Damn it your a solider Mallory! Get your shit together!" She growled at herself, looking at her reflection in her bathroom mirror. Leaving her room she made her way up to the rink for practice.

Practice had been going well until Duke went down hard and fell into Grin. Grin went down taking Tanya with him and accidentally cut Tanya's arm with his skates. The cut arm was bleeding a lot but it wasn't anything serious. However, the only thing Mallory could see was the blond hair and blood slowly flowing onto the ice. In her mind Mallory was standing over the poor Ashley's body. So lost in staring at the blood on the ice she didn't realize Nosedive had seen her frozen state and called her name. He skated forward, reaching out a hand to touch her shoulder. The others watched from next to Tanya who was sitting on the ice with Duke helping her patch up her arm. They had all stopped what they were doing to seeing what was happening with Mallory.

"Mal? You okay?"In her mind a lion guard was coming to drag her off of the ice to her cell.

"Wait Nosedive!" Grin called out but it was too late, Nosedive had touched her shoulder and Mallory reacted on instinct. Grabbing his arm she threw him over her head and smashed him down onto the ice in front of her. She used her stick to press into his neck and held him pinned, slowly cutting off his oxygen. He looked up at her surprised and slightly frightened by his teammate. Her eyes were dilated and she stared at him so coldly as she applied more pressure to the stick on his neck, it was like she didn't know him. Grin was fast he rushed forward and grabbed Mallory off of Nosedive. Holding her arms to her side he tried to talk sense to her while she struggled against him. Yelling about killing everyone around her and calling for Ashley.

"Mallory! Calm yourself! You are back on Earth! Your not in the Dome anymore!" Grin tried to reason with her. She continued struggling for a while longer before she started to come back to herself. Nosedive was being looked over by Wildwing and Duke and Tanya were staying far back from her. It took a moment but she finally realized that she had attacked Nosedive. She went limp in Grin's hold and he slowly put her down. Getting her balance she looked up at Nosedive to see him looking at her like she was a monster. "He's right to." She thought to herself.

"Nosedive... I'm so sorry.. I.."

"What the hell was that Mallory!?" Wildwing asked defensively, being a little over protective of his little brother.

"I don't know."

"You could have killed Dive!"

"Wow! Wildwing hold up." Duke tried to calm the situation. "Something weird just happened there. Mallory wasn't herself."

"Yeah did you see the look in her eyes. They changed some how." Tanya added trying to defend her friend.

"Look I understand but until you can control this I can't have you on the ice anymore. Your too dangerous." Wildwing said. Tanya and Duke gaped at Wildwing while Nosedive was still trying to understand what he did wrong. Grin looked sadly at her but chose to remain quiet. It was true until, she could get over whatever kept pulling her back to the Dome, she would be a danger to herself and those around her. She nodded and skated off the ice, agreeing with Wildwing. "What happened! I attacked Nosedive. I almost killed him. That place really did turn me into a monster."

After her figure disappeared into the locker rooms Duke turned to Wildwing a little frustrated. "How is this gonna to help her get over what is wrong with her." Duke was frustrated because nobody truly understood what Mallory went through. He had been there for some of her fights, they were brutal and cruel. Many times he wondered how he held himself back from running out onto the ice to save her but he couldn't. He would have been out numbered by Chargg's guards and then thrown into the game himself, completely screwing up the mission. A couple times Mallory was hurt and looked like she wouldn't make it out of the fight and he begged every god out there that she would survive. He didn't see the fight were Ashley died, yeah he had heard of Ashley. From what he heard the young ducks death was horrible but Mallory's anguish was worse. He heard the story from people in the crowd talking and laughing about it. Stars he hated everything about that place before but now, there was no words for how much he despised it. He saw her fights after and he saw how she was treated like an animal. Chained up to a wall so tightly she couldn't even scratch an itch on her face. He would go in to check on her, to find her beaten and bloody with Orgg always watching her. This was after she killed Chargg, seeing her treatment was worsening he got back to Kazor and told him that they needed to hurry and start the plans to attacked the Dome the next day if possible.

Duke wanted to punch a wall. "This is unfair Wildwing." Duke said skating away. Tanya watched him go and couldn't help but agree. It was unfair but at the same time Wildwing was right. The team had never seemed more torn.

"Wildwing do we really have to stop her from practicing with the team?" Tanya asked, worried for her friend.

"Yes Tanya. She almost killed Nosedive. Next time she actually might finished the job on him or one of us." Wildwing hadn't taken his eyes off of were Mallory had disappeared. "Mallory what happened to you in the Dome?"

…..

Duke went into the locker rooms hoping to find Mallory but she wasn't there. Opening his com he found her on the roof of the Pond. He changed and went to join her. Wanting to make sure she was okay, he made his way up to the roof where he found her leaning on the edge.

"Hey Sweetheart." She looked over her shoulder at him as he approached and nodded at him. "Are you okay?"

"Not really."

"What happened in there? Tell me. I won't tell the others."

She stared off into the distance and didn't look at him. "I had a flashback of some kind. I've been getting them a lot lately. It was the blood on the ice and Tanya's blond hair."

"Ashley."

She turned to him surprised. "I didn't see what happened but I heard about it. I'm sorry Mal. I know what it's like to hold someone you care about in their last moments... It's not easy." He said leaning on the railing next to her. She didn't say anything to that, just kept staring off. Seeing that she was silent he went on. "You know we're here for you. Your trying to do this on your own and you don't have to."

Mallory smiled and looked at her hands. "Grin said the same thing."

"Well I would listen to him if I were you. The big guy tends to be pretty spot on about matters of the heart and soul."

"Duke... I did a lot of bad things there. I killed a lot of people."

"You did what you had too in order to survive. Answer me this of all the people you killed, had you not killed them, would they have killed you?"

"Of course they would have."

"That means you didn't kill good innocent people Mal. They were murders and they did it for fame." He paused a moment and looked at her face which refused to meet his eyes. "You know it could have been a hell of a lot more but you choose to knock people out instead. Even when they were hell bent on killing you. If you had the choice you always knocked them out."

This was true and finally Mallory looked him in the eye. "Mallory your one of the best ducks I've ever met. You've got a heart of gold behind that steel exterior of yours. It's what we all love about you. Despite the situation you were in you still tried to save lives. If that's not a good person I don't know what is."

Mallory didn't know what to say to this but it still didn't excuse her for attacking Nosedive. "I know what your thinkin' Sweetheart. Nosedive will forgive you and so with Wildwing. Wildwing's reaction was a little... strong but it's just because he is concerned for you and he has had a lot on his mind. Even though I don't think it's right..."

"No Duke he is right. I'm dangerous. What if I had killed Nosedive? I couldn't live with myself if I killed one of you guys!" She looked down at her hands again. "Duke I think that maybe... I should leave."

"What!? No! That's a terrible idea!" He crossed his arms and stood up straight.

"Duke I need to figure this out. I'm a mess and I'm getting worse. At some point I might not be able to see the difference betw-"

"No Mallory!" Duke grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Please listen to me. Your doing it again. Your pushing yourself away from us instead of letting us help you! Just talk to me. Tell me everything. That's at least a start."

"I can barely talk to myself about what happened." She mopped.

"Stop being so defeated! This isn't the Mallory McMallard that I know! What happened to the Mallory that refused to back down from a fight! The stubborn one that trusted and believed in her team... We're all family Mal. Please... don't leave us." He pulled her into a hug, which she accepted. "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to but talk to someone. I know Wildiwng wishes you would talk to him."

"Please how can I look him in the eye when I almost killed Nosedive."

"Oh please, Wildiwng would go over the moon for you. Even if you did run away you think he'd let you leave?"

"Right now? ….Yes."

"The answer is no Mallory. He wouldn't." Duke finally let her go to look into her eyes. "Sweetheart he barely slept when you where gone. You were on his mind constantly." Duke looked around to confirm that they were still alone. "Don't tell anyone but I even caught him going into your room a lot of nights. When I went in to see what was up, I found him curled up on your bed. Didn't seem like he could sleep any other way."

Mallory though about how she came back to her room and her pillows smelled like him. "Could Duke be right? Does Wildiwng care for me more then he lets on?"

"So trust me when I say that he isn't going to hold what happened back there against you."

"I hope so."

"He won't. So please let us help you. The only way you are going to get better is with the help of your family." He placed his larger hand over Mallory's as comfort. "Please trust in us again."

She looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eye. "Okay but only cause you asked nicely." She joked.

He smiled hearing her humor, something she hasn't tried in a while. "That's all I ask Sweetheart."

…..