I don't own the Mighty Ducks

The next day Mallory went to Grin for guidance in meditation. He was very happy that she came to him for help. They worked for hours together and before she knew it the sun was down and it was time for dinner.

She was a little nervous about eating with the others. She wondered what Wildwing, Nosedive, and Tanya's reaction would be to her after the other day. She had not seen them since the attack on Nosedive but their reaction should be very telling on if they were angry at her.

When she came in Tanya was the only one there. She turned and saw Mallory by the door but didn't hesitate a moment to come up to her. "Mallory! How are you feeling? Are you okay? I was worried when you didn't come out of your room for the rest of the day yesterday."

Mallory was beyond relieved that Tanya wasn't angry at her. How could she have thought that Tanya would think differently of her. She always had her back. "I'm better now. I'm sorry if I scared you... Is Nosedive okay?"

"Oh yeah he's fine. Been running around acting like the usual goof that he is." Tanya laughed.

"Good I'm glad to hear it. I need to apologize to him again."

Tanya seemed unsure about that. "What is it Tanya?"

"I would just leave Wildwing for the time being. He doesn't seem himself." She tried to gently let Mallory down.

"He is angry with me." Mallory was afraid of that.

"To be honest I can't tell." Tanya said scratching her neck.

"Humm maybe it would be best if I take my dinner in my room."

"No! No stay and eat with everyone. Please you haven't joined us for dinner in a while."

Mallory looked at Tanya unsure. "Okay, I guess."

"Mallory I think I know what is wrong with you." Mallory looked at her waiting for her to continue. "Your suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. It happens to people who have been through, well, traumatic experiences."

"So I'm a basket case."

Tanya seemed taken back by that. "I've been in war Tanya and I know that soldiers can suffer from this but it's never been something that has happened to me and I've been in war."

"Yeah well you have been in war but what happened to you was torture for days on end. Nobody would walk away from that without having some side effects." Tanya soothed Mallory and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Tanya. About what happened the other day..."

"Yeah?"

"I had a flashback."

"Yeah I figured. It's what happens to people with PTSD. A smell, sound, or scene can set it off. You relieve a memory, it can be so real that you even feel the pain you were feeling at that time." Mallory nodded, that sounded spot on.

"Shit Tanya. I'm a mess." Mallory ran her hands through her hair.

"You can get over it Mallory. You have to work on it."

"I know. I have been practicing meditation with Grin. I'm going to do it with him every day until I can get a handle on this."

"I'm glad Mallory. I missed you so much when you were gone and now that your back I feel like your still not here."

Mallory turned to her surprised to hear this. "I'm sorry Tanya."

"Don't be. Just let us help you." Tanya reiterated Duke's and Grin's words.

"Yeah I will. I promise to open up to you more about what happened to me up there."

Tanya was about to say more but Wildwing and Nosedive walked in. Nosedive seemed shocked but Wildwing just nodded to her and went about his business.

"Are you okay Nosedive?" Mallory asked softly, while taking a seat at her table.

Nosedive seemed frozen for a moment but then grinned and laughed it off. "No problemo girly girl. Nothing keeps the Dive down."

"I'm glad. I'm sorry about what happened. I just lost control of my senses." Mallory kept her hands in front of her trying to seem as none threatening as possible.

Nosedive actually took a seat next to her. "What happened Mal? I've never seen you look like that before."

"I had a flashback. Tanya said it's from post-traumatic stress. I saw myself in the rink of the Dome again and to me you looked like one of the lion guards coming to drag me back to my cell."

Wildwing had stopped what he was doing hearing that but didn't turn around. Nosedive seemed surprised. "But I thought only people who have been in war go through that."

Tanya jumped in. "No Nosedive people who have been through traumatic life threatening events go through that. People who have been on the verge of death. Usually that is soldiers but well ya know, this was different."

"Oh man. Mal." Nosedive being the sweet kid he was reached forward and surprised Mallory with a hug. She wrapped her arms tightly around him and hugged him back. "I'm sorry Nosedive."

"All's forgiven Mal. Don't even worry about it." He let her go and soon the rest of the ducks joined them in the kitchen ready to have dinner. Mallory was beyond happy that Nosedive wasn't angry at her. She could have kissed him if she wasn't so worried about Wildwing's reaction. He hadn't said a word to her during the whole dinner, actually he hadn't said anything to anybody. He just ate his food while everyone joked and talked around him. When he was done, he just cleaned his plate and left. Mallory continued her conversation but she noticed his leaving. So did everyone else, it was a rather cold shoulder he seemed to be showing her.

…..

Wildwing made his way back to his room. He didn't feel like talking, he was glad that Mallory was being social but he couldn't face her at the moment. Not when he had failed her so momentously. It was while Mallory was still on Chargg's ship that he had received his first video from Dragaunus. Mallory's fights. They were brutal and some Mallory barely escaped with her life.

During her battle with the rock alien Wildwing watched tensely as she fought something that should have been almost unstoppable with inferior weapons. When she was almost cut in half by the monster's sword Wildwing went to turn it off, until Mallory was zoomed in on by the camera. She looked around the crowds hopeful that they would have been there to save her and they weren't. He wasn't. She sagged forward ready to die and the camera zoomed out again. The disgusting rock alien was pumping his fists in the air and licking Mallory's blood off the blade. The bastard. Seeing Mallory's defeated form staring at the ice, waiting for death hit Wildwing hard and he felt like he couldn't breath. He thought he was watching her die and that Dragaunus was taunting him with it. When she defeated the monster by making it kill itself with it's own sword he was speechless. First that was amazing, second she wasn't dead, and third he was unbelievably happy about that.

After that he didn't watch anymore of the videos that Dragaunus sent to taunt him. He just kept them and waited. Hoping that the video's would not stop coming, otherwise that meant that she fell in the rink and she was gone. So when they just kept coming, it gave him hope that they would save her.

Mallory is strong, by far the strongest duck that he has ever met. He knew that she would survive and he promised himself when he rescued her that he would find out what happened to her and part of that was watching those accursed videos. Which is what he was doing right now. This was going to take time though. He had started in his room the day before. After she had attacked Nosedive. He had to know what she had been through. He had to know what set her off.

With these thoughts aside. He started the next video. There was a week worth of footage that he still needed to go through.

…..

Duke was a duck on a mission. He was going to find out what was with Wildwing and his coldness to Mallory. This was not the reaction he had been hoping for and it certainly didn't match the behavior that he had described to Mallory. Wildwing was constantly worried for and searching for Mallory before. When Wing finally grabbed her up in his arms on the rink, Duke thought he wasn't ever going to let go but now he did a complete three sixty!

Arriving he knocked on Wildwing's door, waiting for an answer. He could hear the sounds of cheering, like he was watching a game but only vaguely. Wildwing wasn't answering so he was going to just go it. Letting himself in he found Wildwing sitting on his couch looking up at his large tv, not even bothering to glance at him. Duke approached intending to question at him a little when he saw what he was watching. There was Mallory in the rink with a cute blond duck, Ashley. The Ashley had a human woman on the ropes but Mallory didn't seem to be having that much luck. She was fighting a duck that was able to control blood it seemed. Right now Mallory was being suspended mid air and covered in blood, it wasn't looking good for her. That is until Ashley sacrificed her life for Mallory. Mallory lost it. Killed the human responsible brutally and held onto the young duck until she passed. Mallory's cries were horrible. Wildwing turned it off unable to watch Mallory rock the young duck back and forth. Duke swallowed the lump in his throat and fought back the tears that started forming in his one eye. Wildwing wasn't doing much better. Matter of fact he was doing terribly. He put his head in his hands and breathed in deeply. Taking a moment to compose himself before turning to Duke.

"How can I ever face her knowing I've failed her like this?" He asked, hoping to find some sort of answer with Duke.

Duke walked forward and sat down next to Wildwing. "She doesn't blame you. She doesn't blame anyone but herself." Duke looked over the tapes on Wildwing's coffee table. "Where did you get those?"

"Dragaunus. He sent them to Phil, saying they were for me. I didn't know what it was until I started watching them." He stood up and removed the tape he just watched, contemplating throwing it across the room to break it. Dragaunus had labeled this tape as his personal favorite. Wildwing fumed silently.

Duke seeing his angered state stood to look at what Wildwing was glaring at. The label across the tape was the obvious culprit. Duke took it from Wildwing's hand which was slowly starting to crush it and threw it in the waste bin. "You've gotta stop watching these Wildwing. He wants you to feel guilty about it. He's doing this to mess with your head."

Wildwing glared at the rest of the video's on his coffee table. He had already gone through most of it why stop now. He needed to know what she went through.

"And you need to stop giving Mal the cold shoulder." Duke interrupted his train of thought.

"What?" He seemed confused by this.

"You've been giving Mallory the cold shoulder. I get it now that you feel responsible for what happened to her but she doesn't understand why your not talking to her. She probably thinks you hate her right now."

"I could never hate Mallory." Wildwing felt disgust at the thought of hating Mallory. How could she think that. He loved Mallory. She just didn't know it.

…..

Mallory was sitting in her room, just staring off into space. Wildwing's behavior tonight at dinner was strange. Thinking back on it, something seemed off with him, besides the fact that he still looked like he wasn't sleeping. "But what is it?"

Frustrated she sat up and threw her pillow across the room. Glaring at it as in just bounced softly off the wall and landed on the floor gently. "Well that was unsatisfying... and now I have to pick up the stupid pillow." She mumbled to herself angrily, annoyed that it didn't help her at all.

"This is stupid! I'm going out to clear my head." She announced to herself. Grabbing her purse she opened the door and almost ran into Nosedive who was paused mid knock.

"Yo. Mal. I wanted to see if you were okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. What is it?" She said a little shortly.

"Look I know your upset okay and I know it's about Wildwing." Nosedive brought his hands up in the surrender gesture. Mallory snapped her head to him and glared.

"You don-"

"Somethings wrong with him Mal."

That stopped Mallory mid rant. "What?" She asked sounding confused and worried at the same time.

"Look, his always locked inside his room nowadays. He doesn't even want to talk to me. It's not just you Mal." He crossed his arms frustrated and leaned against her door.

"Maybe I should go talk to him." Mallory was really concerned for Wildwing now, her earlier anger forgotten. He always made time for his brother, if Nosedive was coming to her with his concerns then it must be serious. Making up her mind Mallory nodded her head and started making her way down to Wildwing's room.

Nosedive looked at her retreating form waiting for an answer. "Uh Mal? Where you going?"

"To talk to him." She called over her shoulder. Nosedive didn't follow her and she was glad for that. Standing in front of Wildwing's room now, she actually felt a little nervous. Bringing her hand up she knocked on the door. She could hear cheering on his tv. "Was he watching sports?"

Knocking again she didn't hear an answer. Contemplating what to do, she decided she would rather get yelled at and know he was okay then not check and find later that he wasn't. Opening his door she didn't see him anywhere, her eyes went up to his tv screen and froze in horror. There she was in one of her many fights. Getting closer she finally saw him curled up on his couch passed out, a large pile of videos next to him. Were these the video's that Dragaunus was talking about sending him? Why would he watch these? She felt hurt that he did and at the same time frightened and angry. Frightened because she was afraid of what he would think of her now that he had seen these. Angry because he had no right to skulk into her personal business! If she wanted to tell them what happened then she would have. It was like living through hell and she was dirtied by it but the fact that he was witness to it now... no wonder he didn't even look at her at dinner.

Turning around Mallory quietly walked out of his room, the door automatically closing behind her. Speed walking down the hall with her head down, she attempted to hide the tears with her bangs. She didn't get far as she ran right into Nosedive. Accidentally letting out a whimper when she ran into him.

"Mal? You okay? What happened?"

She went to walk around him but he grabbed her shoulders and forced her head up so he could see her face. Much to her embarrassment, his eyes were glued to her tear streaks. "Mal? What happened that caused this?" He asked softly.

Pulling her face out of his grasp she went around him. "Please leave me alone Nosedive." She voice shook, unable to take it anymore she sprinted down the hall to the elevators and ran out of the pond. She didn't know where she was going but she didn't want to be there.

…..

Nosedive watched Mallory disappear around the corner more worried then ever now. "Great. What did you do Bro?" He ran into Wildwing's room and found him asleep on the couch which was confusing but when he saw what was on the tv he understood why Mallory was acting the way she was. "Oh man." Walking over to his brother, he jabbed Wildwing in the side a little harder then necessary. He was a little angry too that Wildwing was watching this shit. "Wake up Wing." Wildwing groaned and rolled onto his back.

"Dive seriously what is with the wake up call?" He asked groggily.

"What's on your tv is what is up with my wake up call! How can you watch this!" Nosedive threw his arms up at the tv.

Wildwing seeing that he accidentally fell asleep watching the fights. Sighed. "Dive... I just... Needed to know what she went through. After her reaction to you on the ice I needed to find out in order to prevent it from happening again."

"Well good job on locking your door while doing it! Mallory just left here in tears!"

Wildwing was up like his butt was set on fire. "What!?"

"Yeah. She was pretty upset. Not that I blame her." He crossed his arms and sat down on the couch.

"Fuck. Where is she?"

"I don't know. She ran out of the pond."

"How could you let her leave?!"

"Look bro when Mal's upset the last thing you want to do is stand in her way. Reason one being she's a marital arts and weapons expert, two being that she has a temper, and three she's a red head, enough said. When that girl wants to do something a hurricane couldn't stop her, let alone little ol' me."

Wildwing had to agree with all points but still she was running around by herself and Orgg was still out there! "I have to find her. Orgg is still out there."

Nosedive jumped up, ready to go. "Then let's quit talking and start rocking."

"No you stay here and try to find her on Drake One. If she ran away on foot she wouldn't have gotten far. Besides this isn't going to be pretty, I'll need to talk to her alone."

"Good luck on that one Bro." Wildwing ran and grabbed a bike while Nosedive ran to Drake One to give Wildiwng updates.

Wildwing was out of the garage on his bike when Nosedive gave him Mallory's location. She was at the mall she was abducted from. "Why would she go there?" He wondered.

…..