To Forget and Forgive

Written by Zelda

 

                The last thing he could remember was that cold, wavy sensation over him. There was nothing more. Grin sat up and looked about him. Bright red walls shone around him. He rubbed his bruised shoulder. How did he get that, anyway? Suddenly, a figure came walking through the doorway. Grin suddenly had the urge to get up and run, when the figure spotted him.

                "Grin!" he yelled joyfully, coming over and helping him gently up. "Thank goodness you're all right."

                Grin looked slowly at the creature. It had a huge red crest on its head, was clothed in purple robes, decked in deep red scales, and had menacingly long claws.

                "Who are you?" he asked slowly. The figure stepped back, surprised.

                "Do you remember nothing?" he asked.

                "No." replied Grin, rubbing his head. "Nothing except my name."

                "Oh dear Grin, it must have been those nasty Ducks." snarled Dragaunus. "Don't you remember? They are the rebels who destroyed our kingdom, and then trapped us here in this dimension. You were in a battle with them, and you got hit in the head." Siege came walking up to Dragaunus. "You were lucky. Siege saved you just in time."

                "But who are you?" said Grin.

                "Don't you recognize Lord Dragaunus?" Siege asked. "The one who is our noble ruler! I'm Siege, remember?" Wraith and the Chameleon came walking up behind him.

                "And this is Wraith and The Chameleon. We are the last great resistance to these rebels." Siege grinned.

                Grin cocked his head. "I recognize the names..." he started.

                "There, you see? On the road to recovery already!" laughed Dragaunus. "My dear boy, I'd thought I'd lost you in that last battle. We can't afford to lose our top fighter."

                "Come on, we'll take you to the infirmary. Maybe you'll feel better after a nap." Siege gently led Grin down the hallway, and into a small room. He lay him on a flat, metal table, and shackled him down. "Don't worry Grin. After this, I'm sure your memory will be clear." assured Siege, walking away.

                Grin was concentrating, wildly confused. He couldn't remember a single thing about himself. He could have sworn he had heard the names just whirled by him before, but couldn't match them with any past memory. He concentrated hard, shutting his eyes, too confused to notice the ray gun that positioned itself over his head.

 

                Dragaunus controlled the ray from the next room. This was going perfectly. Disguising himself as a janitor, The Chameleon had done excellent work in sneaking into the Pond, and finding Grin and knocking him flat. Using his own com frequency to mask the Ducks' computer's scanners, Siege teleported in, and helped carry Grin out. As he thought, Siege entered the room.

                "I thought that Duck would have stayed unconscious for much longer." Dragaunus snarled.

                "Relax Lord." smiled Siege. "After our neurotransmitter ray has taken effect, that Duck will be no more than our own decoy!"

                Dragaunus grinned. The ray was locked. He took one check of the position, and fired.

 

                Mallory stifled a yawn. She had nothing to do. After finishing a trip to the mall, she had taken a look around for the others, and had found none of them. Even Grin wasn't in his usual meditating spot. She sat down on the Ready Room chair, just as Zelda walked in from the hall.

                "Oh hey Zelda, where is everybody?" she asked.

                "In the Rec. Room." she said, circling back. "I'm going up for some air."

                "Okay, seeya!" said Mallory. She got up and left through the doors, while Zelda entered the elevator tube.

 

                Zelda trotted rhythmically through the hall. Sheesh, this place was like a maze. Exiting though some plain gray doors, she entered the halls that were regularly used by the public. She ruffled her wings, and refolded them carefully as she walked. Turning back to

the hallway ahead, she heard something off to her right, beyond a pair of gray doors. Suddenly, the doors burst open, and Grin grabbed her around the neck. Zelda yelped playfully.

                "Grin!" she wheezed, as he gripped her by the back of the neck. "Put me down!" she squirmed, as Grin started walking away with her. "Come on Grin, that really hurts!"

                 Grin suddenly whipped his arm away, and Zelda smacked into the wall. "Shut up!" he snarled, pulling her close to his face.

                Zelda froze. "Grin, what's the matter with you?" she choked.

                "I said SILENCE you Saurian traitor!" he roared in reply. He threw Zelda against several school desks and chairs which were stacked against the wall. She crumpled up as she hit the floor, the desks toppling down on her. Grin swiped her up, and slammed her against the back of an overturned desk that lay on the floor. As she lay horrified, the metal tubing of the underside of the desk digging into her spine, Grin loomed over her, taking a leg of the desk and bending it as easily as cooked pasta.

                "No more games with me, you rebel." he snarled.

 

                "If I've told you once, I've told you a gazillion times Tanya, we're getting pepperoni!" yelled Nosedive, frustrated, walking out of the Rec. Room with Tanya and

Wildwing.

                "Well I'm just saying that I wouldn't mind some mushrooms on mine!" Tanya nipped back.

                They walked out of the elevator tube, still arguing.

                "Will you guys cut it out? It's just a pizza!" laughed Wildwing.

                They entered a hallway, Tanya nearly tripping over a fallen desk.

                "Terrific, we're going to have to get someone to clean this mess..." started Wildwing, when Nosedive noticed something.

                "Zelda!" he cried, and ran to where she was. Zelda lay against the still overturned desk, in a cramping predicament. Her snout was wrapped up in one desk leg, her left arm in another, the right arm tied down across her stomach, and the two back legs tangled up in the last twisted desk leg.

                "Zelda! What happened to you?" asked Wildwing, kneeling beside her. Zelda tried to respond, but the metal held her jaws shut, and so she only managed a bleary, low, broken whine.

                "Hang on, I'll have ya outta there in no time." said Tanya. Tapping at her Omnitool, she brought out a sonic metal cutter. She waked around to Zelda's left side, and started to cut her left arm free. As soon

as the cutter grated against the metal, Zelda suddenly lurched as far as the tightly wrapped desk legs would let her. She cried and panted in terror, straining in panic to get away.

                "Whoa! Easy Zelda!" yelled Wildwing, holding her down. Looking into her eyes, Wildwing could see she must have been exhausted from a fit of cramped panic. She must have been really scared. "Take it easy Zelda." he eased. Tanya started cutting again, and Zelda tried hard to keep still. Finally, the metal was sheared through, and Zelda swung her right arm about wildly, prying the twisted leg off. The legs and the other arm were freed, and finally Zelda leapt up, yanking the twisted

metal off of her snout.

                "Now what's this mess all about?" asked Nosedive.

                "It was Grin!" Zelda panted. "He attacked me just about ten minutes ago!"

                "Hang on Zelda." interrupted Wildwing, opening his com. "This is something the rest of the team should hear."

 

                "He did WHAT?!" asked Duke, affectionately rubbing Zelda's snout.

                "You heard me." she said. "He wasn't himself at all, and he called me a Saurian traitor!"

                "Tanya, can you get a com link on him?" asked Wildwing.

                "No, there's no signal anywhere." she said, turning away from Drake One's control panel.

                "Well we have to find him." Mallory said.

                "But where do we start?" argued Nosedive. "He could be anywhere by now!"

                "Are you kidding? Considering the way he's acting, he's probably heading strait back for Dragaunus!"

                "Mallory's right." said Wildwing, rubbing his beak thoughtfully. "It is a start."

                "Come on! We can look for him in the Aerowing!" said Duke, running out, as the others followed.

 

                "An excellent job Grin!" laughed Dragaunus. "But from what you tell me, you could have killed her." Grin stepped back. He was really confused.

                "Why did that dragon seem so friendly with me?" he asked. Dragaunus glanced at The Chameleon, and he suddenly ran off somewhere.

                "Why Grin, don't you remember what a mockery she made of the noble Saurian Empire?" he asked. "She is such a trickster." Grin nodded. Suddenly, he felt an incredible force, squeezing his head. He ducked, swiping blindly, but there was nothing to hit. The pain brought him to his knees, and as he fell, he could see images, swirling, flashing back to him so wildly and rapidly. Staring up in confusion and fear, he saw Dragaunus standing above him.

                "And I would never want you to fall for their lies again!" he roared. Suddenly, the intense pain ended. Grin stood up instantly and bowed.

                "It shall be as ordered, my Lord." he said. Dragaunus grinned.

 

                "Is there any way we can track him?" Mallory asked. The team had been flying around for about half an hour, with no results.

                "Well, I would try to sniff him out, but he probably teleported back to the Raptor, and that would be no good." sighed Zelda.

                "It might be a good idea to just wait and let Dragaunus make his next move..." started Wildwing.

                "But you know him, that could take months!" said Tanya. Suddenly, an alarm went off on the Drake One remote link.

                "Drake One's reporting a break in back at the Pond! With teleportation energy!" yelled Duke.

                "Well, we didn't have to wait very long for that one, did we?" said Nosedive, as the Aerowing swiveled around, heading back to the Pond.

 

                Zelda was so hasty to get into the Pond and see what the trouble was, she nearly slammed into Dragaunus as she leapt through a hole that had been blasted in the wall. She backed up, alarmed, as the rest of the team came up beside her.

                "What have you done with Grin?" demanded Wildwing, as Dragaunus and his henchmen turned to face the team.

                "Well why don't you ask him yourselves?" grinned Dragaunus. "They're asking for you already, Grin!" he called out. Grin marched out from behind Siege, brandishing a laser gun.

                "Grin?!" yelled Tanya in surprise. "What are you doing?"

                "What my Saurian Lord and I should have done a long time ago." he snarled. He raised the gun and fired, but the shot was badly aimed and hit the ground at Wildwing's feet. Surprised at his own bad aim, he held the gun up again and advanced. "Now, it's time to put you outlaw traitors in your place!" The team stood dumbfounded.

                "Grin, what it wrong with you?" asked Mallory. He still advanced.

                "It must be some kind of mind control device..." Tanya muttered.

                "Say again?" said Wildwing, backing away from Grin. Tanya tapped at her Omnitool's computer screen.

                "There's a strange pattern to his neurological brainwaves." she muttered.

                "So Dragaunus is controlling him." Wildwing snorted.

                "Well, I'm not sure...there's no mind control device on him that I can see.."

                "Hey guys..." started Nosedive.

                "Give me a second." Tanya interrupted, annoyed.

                "We don't have one!" Nosedive yelled back. A laser blast suddenly parted the team. Grin snagged Nosedive by the collar, and lifted him off of the ground. Nosedive instinctively groped for his launcher.

                "No Nosedive!" yelled Wildwing, as the team circled around Grin.

                "Grin, it's us. Don't you remember?" asked Zelda, coming towards him. Grin snarled.

                "I'm not going to fall for your pitiful lies again, traitor dragoness!" he roared. He threw Nosedive away, and picked up his laser gun again. Zelda stood her ground.

                "Grin, Dragaunus is controlling your mind.... you're one of us Grin." Grin raised his gun, but didn't fire. Duke sensed what was happening.

                "Fight it Grin." he urged. Suddenly, Grin collapsed to his knees, holding his head and groaning in pain. The team looked around, alarmed, to see The Chameleon holding a remote control device.

                "Careful with this, Ducks." he laughed. "Or I'll turn Grin's brain into tapioca pudding!" he waved the controller around tauntingly. "Because of small parts, not recommended for children under 3." Mallory seethed, holding her position. Grin slowly recovered himself, and stood again. Siege, Wraith, and The Chameleon advanced towards them. Zelda suddenly flew up and landed on Grin's shoulder. He immediately snatched up by the back of the neck and yanked her off of him.

                "Kill her!" roared Dragaunus. Grin raised his fist, but Zelda stared at him sternly. Grin was puzzled. He thought he knew this creature, but what he knew wasn't the enemy he was told to kill. He stood, searching for his thoughts, but they were vanishing from him sooner than he could find them. Seeing he was distracted, Dragaunus signaled to Chameleon to activate the control device again. The Chameleon reached for the device, and activated it. Suddenly, an intense, high-pitched screeching noise filled the room, making all cover their ears. Tanya was putting out a scrambling frequency, so that the control device wouldn't work. Siege lunged for her, but Wildwing fired upon him, forcing him to curl up and withdraw. Nosedive and Duke held Wraith back, while Mallory chased The Chameleon

around the room, trying to snatch up the control. Grin continued to hold Zelda, but was loosening his grip.

                "Fight it Grin." she yelped. "Remember who you really are!" Grin shook his head back and forth in confusion.

                "You idiot, kill her!" Dragaunus roared amidst the battle. Grin stood still, caught up mistrust and confusion. Enraged, Dragaunus leapt forwards and snatched Zelda up, prepared to kill her himself. Suddenly, Grin punched him hard in the shoulder, knocking him away. The Chameleon suddenly disappeared in a cloud of sparks and fumes as the control device in his hand had exploded.

                "Mind over matter." Grin smiled.

                "All right!" yelled Nosedive, realizing what was happening. Dragaunus roared in rage and frustration, as the Saurians reached for their teleporters. Before anyone could react, they disappeared in an immense green shadow. Wildwing walked across the room and placed his hand on Grin's shoulder.

                "Welcome back buddy." he smiled warmly. The team regrouped, as Tanya came up with the fragments of the control device.

                "Yep, this thing was attached to some sort of mind control ray or something..." she smiled, turning the charred bits over in her hands.

                "Ha, doesn't matter now." said Duke. Grin shook his head, putting the last of his strewn thoughts back into place.

                "You okay?" asked Mallory.

                "Yeah, yeah I am now." he sighed. The team shuffled back down into the infermary, where Tanya did a few check up tests on Grin.

                "Yep, he's okay." she grinned, turning the Medicom off.

                "Jeez Grin, that ray had to be pretty powerful to scramble YOUR thoughts." started Dive.

                "Well, it didn't completely work." grinned Zelda, patting Grin on the shoulder. Grin smiled. Indeed, it didn't work completely, as all of Dragaunus's plans would.

 

 

The End

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except mine) are copyright and property of Disney. You may copy, print, or whatever with this document, so long as it is not altered and I (Zelda) am credited. Thanks!