I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left in Limbo

That very same night, back in the cave Canard found restless sleep. He kept tossing and turning, nightmares filled his dreams with images of him once again alone in limbo. His endless search to find Mallory had him thrashing in his sleep for hours, until his thrashing caused him to smack his head on the cave wall next to him. He grunted in pain, holding a hand to his head and glaring at the wall beside him. "Son of a- Ouch." Rubbing the sore spot on what was sure to be a new bump, he sat up, realizing that sleep was an impossible endeavor tonight. Looking out the front of the cave at the sky outside, it remained ever unchanging. "If you could call it night." The grumpy duck muttered, hating that there was no night or day here. "I despise this place." The thought drifted through his mind for what must have been the millionth time while stretching his arms over his head.

Standing up he intended to walk out of the cave for just a moment but the sound of Mallory's shaky breath caught his attention. Checking on her, he found her shivering on the cold ground. She looked uncomfortable. He had grown used to the rough ground and no longer had trouble sleeping on it, but Mallory wasn't used to this. Carefully as to not wake her, he gently slid his arms under her knees and under her shoulders, lifting her smaller body off the ground, he sat down cross-legged and placed her in his lap. After ten minutes she stopped shivering and sighed in contentment, curling into him in her sleep to seek warmth. Canard smiled down at her and hugged her closer. He probably shouldn't be doing this, she would most likely wake up soon, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing that she was better he leaned back and rested, within five minutes his eyes became too heavy and slowly slipped closed.

Mallory woke up to the best sleep she'd had in a long time, well since being here anyway. Yet to open her eyes, she stretched her arms out above her head, arching her spine and holding her breath. Her movement caused a groan above her, making her freeze. Realizing now, that she was on something warm, soft, and breathing, her eyes snapped open. Leaning over her, she found Canard resting against the wall with her wrapped in his arms and snuggly placed in his lap. She didn't know what to do. How did she get here? She certain didn't crawl into his lap, did she? Of course not! That's ridiculous… It could only mean that Canard had picked her up and placed her there when she was sleeping. Why would he do that?

Attempting to get away from a sleeping Canard was easier said than done. Slowly she placed one hand on the ground to help lift herself up, she moved one leg out of his lap placing her knee on the floor next to him, then did the same with the other leg. Now on her hands and knees, she slowly started to crawl out of Canard's lap. Just a little further and- "Its not every day I wake up to such a lovely sight." Canard snickered from behind her. Mallory froze, slowly turning to glance over her shoulder at him only to see her butt was kind of in his face. He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. Mallory stood up quickly and moved to the other side of the cave, a small blush lighting her cheeks. She crossed her arms and looked out the cave, the blush still having not subsided, if anything it was spreading across the top of her beak. "So today's the day. We're going to find the Brawns. Think you'll be ready to go soon?" She asked, trying to think about something else besides Canard's flirting.

"Yeah I'm ready. I'm just concerned about you." He stood up dusting himself off. Walking over to the mouth of the cave, leaning against the wall. He observed the rocks and spars trees of the landscape. They had a lot of ground to cover.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm trained to push through this kind of stuff remember?" She packed the few things that she had and checked her ammo. She would need to conserve it here. "What's your ammo look like?"

He turned to her, his arms still crossed over his chest. "Not good. I have a clip, that's it." Mallory's eyes followed the strong muscles in his arms but quickly brought her eyes back to his face. If he saw her checking his arms out he didn't give any indication that he noticed. "Don't worry about me though. I'm good with a knife."

"What kind of knife?" Mallory asked simply curious.

Canard smirked and pulled out a large knife as long as his forearm. "This kind of knife."

Mallory had seen all kinds of weapons being in the Puckworld Special Forces so this didn't surprise her but she wanted to laugh at how happy he was with how big it was. She raised an eyebrow at him as he wiggled his at her. "Is it a compensation thing?"

That wiped the smile off his face. "What? What makes you say that?"

"Oh you know some men feel they need to get things that are bigger if they're, well you know smaller." She snickered into her hand.

"Definitely not." All the amusement was gone from his face as he looked at her dispassionately from the side of his eyes.

Mallory laughed at his expense while he went about his packing. All joking aside, she wanted to know why he was so low on ammo and gear. "Canard what happened to the rest of your equipment?"

"I lost it in the fall. The only things I had left was one gun and my knife." Mallory wasn't sure if she should be concerned about that. She hadn't really seen any others here but Lucretia was out there waiting for the right moment to attack, what if she got a hold of some of his stuff?

…..

A full day of traveling and both Mallory and Canard were ready to call it a day. They found a stream to bathe in and took turns, Canard went first this time. He scrubbed the green soap into a lather on his body. Washing the sweat and dirt from himself while he thought about Mallory. She had teased him a lot today. Actually they had been teasing each other a lot lately, perhaps bordering on flirting. He wasn't sure about her flirting but he certainly was. The image of Mallory coming out of the water completely naked entered his mind again. She was beautiful. He zoned out, thinking about the beauty sitting not too far from him as he mindlessly scrubbed.

When Canard was done washing his body and he walked out of the water to the shore. There he stood in all his naked glory, ripped arms and stomach muscles with a strong chest. His legs were buff from all the running, climbing, and fighting he had to do here. Mallory was not far from him; her back was facing him while he bathed to give him privacy. She had talked for most of the day but now she was suddenly very quiet. Secretly he was hoped that she was sporting a blush on her cheeks.

The sound of something breaking and crashing came from behind Canard. Both he and Mallory looked back at it. Canard say a tree had fallen over but Mallory's vision had gotten stuck on the very naked Canard, one area in particular. When he turned around he caught her staring at, well his junk. She hadn't even realized he saw her yet. Canard couldn't stop the wicked and smug smirk from crawling across his face, for Mallory looked quite surprised. Feeling devious, he shifted his stance, pulling Mallory out of her trance. "Like what you see?"

Mallory gasped and turned around quickly. Not sure what to say. "Uh sorry… That tree fell over and I was just concerned. I wasn't checking you out." She became more defensive at the end of her explanation.

Canard chuckled at her embarrassment. "Not so small is it Mallory?" Besides he needed to give her a little payback for the harassment he got from her earlier.

"Oh shut up." She huffed, this only made Canard laugh harder. He pulled on some pants and told her it was safe to turn around. A blush still adorned her cheeks as she did. She was about to make a sarcastic comment when she saw that he wasn't wearing a shirt and her eyes became stuck on his chiseled chest. Seeing where Mallory's eyes were looking, he couldn't help but tease her again.

"Mallory, my eyes are up here." He pointed up at his face, imitating exasperation and sincerity.

"You're so full of yourself." She placed her hands on her hips, as if scolding a child.

"Just with you." He pulled his shirt on over his head. "Your turn. Don't worry I won't peak."

"Yeah right." She muttered sarcastically, walking to the water's edge and checking to make sure Canard wasn't getting a free show. Once confirmed she undressed and slipped into the cold water. Grabbing the pack of green soap Canard made, she got it into a good lather and cleaned her hair and body with it. The sigh that came out was one of contentment. She loved being clean.

Hearing her sigh, Canard twitched in his spot. He itched to glance at her, knowing that she would be a tempting sight. Breathing in deeply he calmed himself, trying to think of something else. He wondered what everyone was up to back at… wherever it was they were at. The sound of gentle splashing could be heard behind him as Mallory bathed. She hummed a soothing little tune; she had never done that before but he liked it. Another sound caught his attention, this one was not soothing, it sounded like a growl. Standing up suddenly to check his surrounds, Canard was tense. Mallory stopped bathing, wondering what he was doing. "Canard?"

"Quiet." He said harshly, his hand on his knife and the other had his gun out. Listening quietly to the sounds around them, the slightest cracking of wood and very gentle crushing of pebbles was coming from the left. Aim his gun at where the sounds came from Canard, stepped sideways towards the stream. "Get out. Get dressed." All humor and friendliness was gone from his person. Quietly as possible, Mallory got to the shore, not caring about how she was standing next to Canard naked. Drying her body with the small cloth she had, she left her hair wet, she would concern herself with that later when she was not in danger. She was about to pull on her pants when it attacked. Dropping her clothes, and diving out of the way, she barely avoids long claws aimed for her. Grabbing her weapons and taking aim at the attacker was difficult. She was too busy jumping away to miss another swipe of large claws.

Canard fired at the beast, it roared and turned its large head on him. This thing made polar bears look small. It stood at least fifteen feet tall. A long serpent like tail swayed back and forth behind it, not like a dog wagging its tail but like it was preparing to use it to strike with. It stood on four legs but unlike the last creature, this one couldn't stand on its hind legs. It was covered in dark scales; its face was that of a lizard but with very big teeth. There were four lines of iridescent dots going down its long back. The thing kind of looked like a Komodo Dragon from Earth but much bigger and the color was all off. It didn't drag its belly along the ground, it's legs were longer and stronger. "Mallory get to safety!" Canard yelled.

Was he serious? Did he think she was going to leave him to deal with this thing alone? No way. She shot the beast's back legs with a puck-rope tying them together. It didn't do much for long. The creature just looked over at her and she could swear that it smirked at her. It tauntingly took one long claw and cut the rope. "It's too smart for that Mallory! Don't waste your ammo." Canard yelled, pulling out his large knife.

The thing took a swipe at him but Canard rolled out of the way, slashing at him. Thinking fast he grabbed a handful of mud and threw it into the monster's right eyes, it flinched back, annoyed but not blinded. "You act like you have experience with this thing." Mallory said while running to Canard.

"That's cause I do."

"Well it seems smart enough. Why is it after you?" She was almost to him when the creature's tail wrapped around her waist and legs, pulling her legs out from under her so fast that she dropped her gun. She tried to reach for it but it dragged her away and lifted her form up in the air, held out of Canard's reach. Unable to do much else, she covered her breasts as she watched Canard fighting the beast from upside down.

"Hey! Give her back!" Canard yelled. The creature taunted him by shaking poor Mallory back and forth as if to say 'nah nah you can't get her'. The red head for her part was getting very dizzy. It wasn't that she was just upside-down but that she was being shaken and twirled every which way. Canard grabbed Mallory's gun and turned it to lethal taking aim at the beast but it saw this and would hold Mallory in front of itself, using her like a shield. "You coward. Let her go and fight me like a man!" It blinked at him and then huffed as if offended. Mallory looked at the creature from her spot above it, really studying it. You couldn't see it from the ground but this thing had wings! Seemingly tired of this fight the creature unfolded them from its back, spreading them out above itself. "Oh no you don't! You're not going anywhere with her!" Canard aimed at it but again it used Mallory like a shield. "Damn you!" He yelled.

With a giant leap the thing was air born with a still captive Mallory. "CANARD! HELP!" Canard moved fast changing the gun he shot a tracking device onto the beast's back leg.

"Don't worry Mallory, I'm coming!" Canard yelled, grabbing her things and taking chase on foot, he was so busy going after Mallory that he didn't realize he had left her com behind.

Out of the shadows, Lucretia walked up and picked up Mallory's com, smiling down at it. "This could be useful." She said, putting it on her wrist and opening it up find Canard's signal on the auto tracker. "Oh my! You've just made my life a lot easier." She said, looking at the bag of soap they were using to wash with. "Why not treat myself." She smirked and took off her clothes to take a bath. Lucretia would catch up with them, not like she could do much when that thing had Mallory. Canard would do the rescue work and Lucretia would take advantage.

…..