Everyday was easier for Mallory as she healed from the explosion that had destroyed her home. Duke was released quicker than her, though his freedom was spent more by her side than anywhere else.

Carefully lowering himself next to her, Duke put an arm around her, listening to her breathing. He had never felt the way he did about anyone like he did her. Sure he had been with many beautiful women in his life, but Mallory was different.

To be truthful, he had been first most attracted to Mallory because she wanted nothing to do with him. Then something happened, one of them screwed up and or both of them, he didn't know anymore.

Soft footsteps were approaching their hospital room, Duke's keen hearing picked out the mannerisms inlaid within the footfalls. It was their son coming towards them. Asher 'Duke' L'orange Jr.

…...

Somewhere in the slums of Ducaine City

Boron Flyght felt disgust, disgust that he had to worm his way around the shit of Ducaine City and disgust that he had to waste his time even coming near this place. The underground cavern of the Brotherhood never swam in its own waste, so why did the slums of the city have to?

Vermins...fucking whores and city trash. Ches wouldn't stand for - he paused, Ches Longtale, leader of the Brotherhood never stood for anything less than an individual's best. That was his downfall.

"How much longer do we have to wait before we take the Brotherhood?" Boron's crime partner, Cerberus Patterrn was beside him, for once not drunk out of his mind. "I wanna break something...preferably something of Ches's...maybe his legs. I've heard its painful. Or we could shoot him in the knees-"

"Shut up Ceberus!" Boron hissed.

Ceberus fell silent, his brooding air returning. "Why are we even here Bor?"

Boron didn't answer, instead he paused in front of a falling down shack. "Whatever you do Ceberus, don't talk...don't stare and don't move. Come."

"But you just told me not to mo-"

Boron jerked his partner into the shack with him, "shut up!" he snarled again.

The shack was dark and small. The only furniture was a wooden bed in the corner and a small table in the middle of the room. A single candle was lit throwing the shack into shadows.

Boron got an uneasy feeling as he looked for the shack's occupant. "He must be out-" He turned Ceberus around to leave.

"Welcome," a gravelly voice came from somewhere in the dark. The two ducks paused, searching for the voice source.

A figure sat up and smoothed out their clothes which Boron could see was an expensive business suit. The stark contrast to the surroundings and then their summoner's clothes was almost comical.

"Allow me to turn on the lights," the voice continued as the duck flipped a switch, granting a dirty weathered lightbulb to fizz on. Boron tried to ignore its whiny 'Bzzzt,' sound, all the while knowing Ceberus was staring.

The duck in front of them had canary yellow feathers, but that was all that marked him as their race.

His beak was much flatter than any duck Boron had ever seen, it appeared like it had been crushed and a portion of it was gone all together, showing toothless gums. As for the duck's facial feature, Boron didn't know what to think. The eyelids were missing, giving the duck a bug-eyed look, the skin was pulled back on his cheeks, making jutted cheek-bones sharp.

Boron realized he too was staring, quickly he coughed and averted his gaze. "Mr. Mox,"

The duck didn't reply right away. "And you are?"

"Boron Flyght, this is Ceberus Patterrn.."

Mox barely acknowledged Ceberus. "Do you know why I contacted you?"

Boron shook his head, "no."

Mox sank into a rickety chair. "I was once a multi-millionaire...Mox Corp was my castle and Ducaine City was to become my kingdom...and then it was ripped from me-" the duck's raspy voice grew ominous. "-ripped from me by Asher L'orange Sr."

"Who?" Ceberus asked confused.

Mox gave him a disgusted glare. "You know the f*cker as Duke L'orange."

"o-" Ceberus was cut short by Boron kicking him.

"How's he fairing these days?" Mox asked, "I'd keep my own tabs on him except I'm supposed to be dead. I've heard he and his bitch survived that explosion."

"That was you?"

"Yes, the CW5 is a give away but what ever, I want him to know I'm coming for him.

"Anyway, I have an assignment for you..."

"What is it?"

Mox stood. "I will back you for this Brotherhood trip you two are planning if you take care of someone for me."

"Who?"

"Regla Winglude."

…...

2 Weeks later

Asher stayed outside as Regla entered the convenient store for a few items. Regla was silently kicking himself at not being ready to have all the necessary tools for a twelve-year-old staying over. Mallory was released from the hospital a week ago and demanded to be taken to her home.

She spent three hours, studying everything in great detail before announcing she wanted to fix it. Regla tried to talk Duke into talking her out of it, especially since it was still a crime scene, but he should have known that the grey duck would go for anything she wanted.

In the meantime Asher was back to having a rotating schedule among himself and the Mighty Ducks. Regla was beginning to get this sinking feeling that they were too deep in the mess that the Brotherhood was spewing. The only way to live a normal life was to change their name, appearance and to move as far south as possible.

Asher leaned against the window outside, waiting for Regla to return. No one knew that he remembered a time when his mother was happy and Regla would spend all his time on the ice with Asher, playing with a puck that Asher still had from Wildwing. A time before his real father came back into their life.

Asher loved his dad like he should, but he couldn't help but feel like things would be better if Duke just abandoned him and his mother and just went back to the life he had had. Duke belonged with the Brotherhood and until he realized that, no one would be safe in their family.

The thing that scared Asher most was he didn't know who he preferred more, Regla or Duke. Regla was always there and so was Duke. Regla was always on the good side of the law and Duke skirted the shadowy line between good and bad without ever falling over. Regla didn't have siblings and Duke had a psycho, often physical-happy older brother.

Asher supposed he always held the two in the same hand, they were both his fathers; and no one could blow off the fact that Regla still loved Mallory. Asher had a sneaky suspicion that his mother loved Regla back while still loving Duke too.

She's caught in the middle like me...

A noise made Asher glance up. A duck was lurking near the corner of the store, staring into the alley, talking to someone. Asher strained to hear without moving, knowing the duck didn't know he was there.

"Ye're gonna shoot him? Why not something more glamourous? He's a cop for drake's sakes...they'll link ye for sure immediately."

"Regla," Asher whispered.

"No they won't, I've never seen the duck...cops have a harder time piecing together shooters when the shooter don't know their shootee."

"Ah..." the duck half turned and froze upon seeing Asher staring at him. Recognition dawned on the duck's face when he spotted Asher's grey spots lit dimly in the store's shining inside lights. Not bothering to keep his voice down, he said, "say, didn't you say Duke's kid had grey spots on him?"

Asher felt his stomach flip.

"Yeah," came the invisible reply, "why?"

"He's sittin right in front of me."

A second duck emerged from the shadows, staring at Asher. "What the f*** are you waitin' for? Get him!"

The first duck lurched for him as Asher sprang out of the way, grabbing a handful of embers from the smoke tray outside for smokers. He threw the embers into the duck's eyes, who howled in pain as he dove for the door. The duck tried to stop him by kicking the door shut, only succeeding in crushing Asher in between the door and the frame, punching the wind out of him. He managed to wiggle into the store, earning a disproving glare from the old fat store keeper.

Trying to ignore the sharp pain in his chest from being crushed, Asher searched the aisles for Regla, finding him in the last one, trying to decide between a slew of choices for cereal.

"Did you get cold?" Regla teased.

"Yeah, kind of..." Asher hid the fact he was in a lot of pain as he kept checking the door, expecting a gun-toting gunman to barge in. No one was there.

Finished, Regla led Asher up to the counter where the store keeper's eyes flickered over Asher in distain as she rang up the items. He wondered if Regla was ignoring her or didn't notice as she glanced at him for the third time. This time Regla caught her.

"Is there a problem?"

She quickly retracted her eyes to the computer screen and said the amount, not answering his question.

Numbly, Asher followed Regla to the door, worried. Outside there was no one around, Asher knew he should tell Regla, but he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. He was afraid, afraid of the Brotherhood. He was boxed in by all these members: his father, his uncle, his grandfather and even his best friend was a Blade member.

…...

Once back at Regla's apartment, Asher went to the bathroom and lifted his shirt to see an ugly dark bruise stretch across his stomach and ribs, where the door caught him as the duck gave it a powerful kick. He lowered his shirt and stared at his reflection in hate.

…...

Regla woke up to knocking on his door. Still half asleep he got up and opened his door to see Lex Goodall.

"Hey."

The duck smiled and walked in as Regla opened the door wider. Lex took in the couch made up, "the kid's here?"

"Ash...yeah, he must be up already." He half pointed to the closed bathroom door.

The two sat at Regla's counter drinking water as Regla attempted to wake up. It was around an hour later when Regla realized Asher was still in the bathroom.

He got up and knocked on the door, "Asher, are you okay in there?"

"Yeah," Asher's voice was an octave higher than normal. "I'm okay."

"Okay, what are you doing?"

"Takin' a shit," Lex answered, earning a pillow being thrown at him. He caught it laughing.

"I-" Regla heard a sniff. "Nothing..."It sounded like Asher was crying. Regla's concern went through the roof. If anything happened to Asher, Mallory would kill him and what was left of him, would be finished by Duke. He tried the door and found it wasn't locked.

He opened the door cautiously and came face to face with a scene he couldn't register right away.

Asher was sitting on the toilet his feathers dyed hot pink. His eyes were red from crying as Regla spotted the dye bottle sitting on the floor by his feet.

Taking a deep breath, Regla tried to maintain a straight face. "What did you do?"

"It said p-peach-" Asher started crying all over again. "I just want to die."

Regla covered his eyes for a second and then reached for the bottle, looking for anything on the label that said 'not permanent.' He finally found 'washes out after six weeks.'

"It's not permanent..." he said.

Asher let out a whimper, "I have to go to school-"

Regla couldn't help himself, he had to smile. "No you don't...we'll figure this out. Where did you get this?"

Asher refused to look at him, "I stole it."

"Stole it? From where?"

"The convenient store last night...I'm sorry. I'll never do it again, I promise."

"Asher, do you know what class stealing is in?"

He shook his head mutely, fresh tears rolling down his cheeks.

"It's a felony, and at twelve-years-old, you can be put right in Ducaine City prison next to a mass murderer, is that what you want?"

Again, Asher shook his head.

"Then you won't steal anything again. Normally I'd make you take it back and apologize, but under these circumstances I won't do that to you."

Lex had come to the door to see for himself what was wrong. "Neeria can get that out, her job is with that kind of stuff."

"Can you get her?"

…...

Regla could tell the guilt had slapped Asher hard with the stealing of the dye bottle on his conscience. In his opinion, the punishment of having hot pink as Asher's feather colors was a far better learning experience than anyone could have given him.

Neeria came by around noon and arched her eyebrows at seeing a preteen boy dyed the darkest hot pink color she had seen in years.

"It's coming out," she said kindly after a hour of washing and rewashing him in Regla's bathtub.

Asher didn't answer, instead sat miserably.

Neeria unplugged the drain to get rid of the floating pink dye and began to rinse him again. As she rinsed, she began to see large grey spots on his back. Surprised and thinking that they were some chemical reaction to the dye, she began to wash the area more vigorously. Then she realized as more of the dye washed out that the grey and the peach were mixed.

Everything became clearer as she realized he must have tried to dye himself with the "peach color" to mask the grey.

He's ashamed of his plumage.

She didn't comment, pretending not to notice as the grey patches became more visible. Finally all, but a few small spots were hot pink free. He muttered a soft 'thank you' and made no move to get out of the tub.

Neeria left him to tell Regla and Lex she was finished. She and Lex kissed and she said she had to return to work.

After she left and Lex soon followed, Regla went into the bathroom and sat on the floor by Asher who still hadn't left the tub.

"Asher, your feathers are apart of you," he murmured. "You gonna have to learn to be comfortable with yourself. It makes you unique."

No one knows me as Asher," the kid argued, his hot response startling Regla for a second. "They all know me as the kid with messed up feathers."

"Well I don't know about that kid, I know you as Asher." The phone rang interrupting Regla who had opened his mouth to speak again. He stood, "'I'll be back."

He picked up the communicator and answered it. "Hello?"

"Regla?" It was Mallory. "I got a call from the school, they said Asher wasn't there. Is he okay?"

Regla clapped his hand to his face. He had forgotten to call Asher out. "Um, yeah he's fine...I forgot to tell them."

"Why wasn't he in school?"

"He-" Regla glanced at his open bathroom door, not wanting to lie to her but knowing Asher was probably listening. "He-dyed himself." He moved to the opposite end of his apartment so Asher wouldn't hear him.

"D-dyed himself? With what? Is it permanent- No Duke shut up!" She hissed.

"He tried to make himself all peach except it turned out to be hot pink."

"Hot pink?" Her voice went up as she tried not to laugh. "Oh god...is he s-s-still that color?"

"No...Lex's wife Neeria got it out...he's feeling bad Mal...real bad."

She grew somber. "I know. I don't know how to make it better for him. Wait a minute, how did he get the dye bottle?".

Asher had learned his lesson with stealing Regla was fairly certain, so he didn't feel Asher needed anymore reminders. "He must have bought it on his own when we weren't with him."

"Oh."

After exchanging a few more words with each other, they hung up and Regla coaxed Asher into leaving the bathroom.

He sat unhappily as Regla made him something to eat and ate it dejectedly.

"Do you want to go home?"

Asher paused in a mid-chew and shook his head.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Asher finished the last of his food. "Thank you." He gestured to his empty plate.

Regla gave a half smile, "your welcome. I have to know something Ash and don't lie to me...you won't get in trouble."

Asher waited,

"How did you get the dye bottle without me seeing you?"

Asher shrugged, "I worked it up my sleeve. I had an inside pocket."

Have you seen Duke-I mean-your dad do this?"

"To my mom, yes."

Regla was silent.

"Regla."

He glanced at him, making Asher lose his nerve. Instead of speaking, Asher pulled his shirt up, wincing at the pain.

Regla took in the bruising in surprise. "What happened?"

Reluctantly, Asher told him, "Last night at the store, there were two people who were looking for you...they said they were going to shoot you. They saw me and recognized me because of these..." he gave his grey splashed arm a glare. "I tried to get into the store before they could get me...and one of them kicked the door shut in an attempt to stop me from getting inside.I was already in between the door and the door frame."

"Who were they?"

"I don't know. Blade members I think...they knew my dad."

Regla went to his fridge, pulling out a large ice pack. "Go lay on the couch." Asher did so, Regla following him and laying a towel in between the pack and Asher's chest. "Keep it on for a while."

He grabbed a blanket and draped it over the kid.

…...

Mallory woke up in throbbing pain. The doctors said she would be for a while as her body continued to heal. Beside her Duke was still asleep, his left arm still in a cast was laying still near her own arm.

Mallory looked away and nearly jumped out of her skin. Drebeer was sitting in a chair by her side.

"Do you mind?" She hissed.

He glanced at her amused, his eyes flickered to Duke for a change of wakefulness. He returned his eyes to her, satisfied that Duke hadn't been disturbed. "Not at all."

Suddenly cold, she burrowed deeper under the blankets, noting the window was open. "Is closing a window against your religion?"

Drebeer scowled at her, but got up and shut it. "Happy?"

She didn't answer.

He sat back down, "I checked out the house...most of the debris is gone."

"I know, Wildwing, Canard and Grin have been working hard on it. They refuse to let us help them."

He nodded. "It's not as damaged as it seemed when I saw it the first time around."

"No?"

He shook his head. "There's Heninite behind most of the wood...that's what Twin Height's rocks are made out of. They're tough."

Duke stirred, breaking up their conversation. He opened his eyes and glanced at Mallory, pausing on Drebeer before closing them again and shifting his position.

"You ignoring me little brother?"

"Yes," came Duke's sleepy reply. His shoulders popped as he stretched.

"At least you're honest," Mallory laughed, she reached out to play with his hair, at which he grumbled lowly like Asher did; his casted hand snaking up sluggishly to smooth it.

"You two are so sickeningly sappy with each other," Drebeer made a gagging noise. "It's a wonder Asher's made it this far, having to live with the two of you."

"Then get your own room Arren," Duke shot back, more awake. He turned over to face Mallory, taking her in his arms. She gave Drebeer a phony smile who returned it sarcastically.

"How's Ches?"

"He and Denny have 'disappeared' as far as the Brotherhood is concerned," Drebeer made quotation marks with his fingers. "They're living in the Ducaine rail system."

"On the streets?" Mallory interrupted, horrified.

"Yeah, it where Ches has been all his life...he's used to it."

"But-" This was her father, her father living homeless while the rest of them lived in houses.

"Mal, relax...Ches is resourceful and he's used to it," Drebeer continued.

"Just because he's used to it, doesn't make it right," she snapped.

Drebeer just shrugged and then became attentive, "someone's awake, the blonde one-Tanya..." He stood up.

"Wait a second, you can't stay?" Duke sat up with some difficulty.

Drebeer paused, "I really shouldn't-the Brotherhood has been keeping tabs on me."

"Maybe- Maybe we need to just march in there and have it out with them any way possible."

"A suicide mission you mean," Drebeer reiterated.

"Arren, I've forgotten why any of this started in the first place, it's so stupid, the whole thing."

"Well let me remind you, you had a son, in other words, an heir, then you refused to have him become a member making others think you think your kid is too good for the Brotherhood. And then twelve-years later, we all find out the girl you've been with for the last however many years is our leader's offspring. And the fact that people are growing tired of Ches's benevolent attitude. Does that sum things up?"

"You put it so bluntly," Mallory muttered.

"Gotta kid, it's the real world," he casted a glance outside, "I guess I'll stay."