A Matter of Trust, part 3

Written by Zelda

 

                Wildwing was watching the screens carefully. He watched the red coloring pulsing slowly on the two monitors. He looked over at Gretchen, who had faded into unconsciousness not long ago. Although her condition had been contracted later than Zelda, her brain patterns looked nearly identical.

                "How's it going Tanya?" he broke the silence carefully. Tanya turned around and raised her eyebrows a bit as if to indicate annoyance at the question. Wildwing got the message and decided to let her work. He glanced back down at Gretchen and continued to worry about her. What could Tanya do to reverse this process? He looked up as there was suddenly a loud ping from Tanya's microscope.

                "That's it." she said, leaning back and sighing.

                "You did it?" Nosedive asked, hopeful.

                "I think so." Tanya got up off of the lab stool.

                "What do you mean you THINK so?" Silver asked curiously. "Are you sure?"

                "Well the chip's pretty complex... as well as I can understand it, I've reversed the process. The chip had been programmed to increase the magnetic wave frequency slowly. Now we can let them come down from this fear thing slowly, and let them adjust as the magnetite solution wears off."

                "Yeah.... but are you sure it's gonna work Tanya?" QJ asked. "I mean... there's a lot at risk here..."

                "You're telling me." Tanya snorted.

                "Guys, guys." Lindsay said. "I mean, if Tanya's given it her best shot, none of us can do any better."

                "I suppose you're right." Grin nodded. "It's either Tanya can figure it out or it can't be done."

                "So why aren't Zelda and Gretch getting better?" Diamond asked, still studying the brain charts.

                "I have to reinstall the chip for the effects to take place." Tanya slid her hands back into the thick gloves nervously. She'd better be right about this. She lifted the chip from the microscope and examined it one last time. She kneeled down on the floor beside the satellite dish, and carefully parted the tangled mess of wires with a hand. She placed the chip gently back inside, and took her hands out, removing the gloves. She replaced the metal panel over the wires, and carefully shuffled to the side so as to reach a control panel on the device. With the push of a few buttons, the satellite whirred to new life. Diamond sniffed the air uncomfortably. Wildwing took Gretchen's pale hand and held it in the enveloping warmth of his purple glove. So this was it. He looked up at the brain pattern charts on the Medicom screen nervously. He began to see a change. Slowly, steadily, the red started to recede. Wildwing sighed and bowed his head in relief.

                "It's working!" Tanya smiled.

                "Thank the stars." Northstar grinned. "You're a real pro at this Tanya." Tanya shrugged modestly in reply, as she went back over to the Medicom.

                "So what's happening?" Lindsay asked.

                "Well the magnetite solution is decomposing inside them...." Tanya began with a frown. "But the readjustments to the satellite are working slowly. They'll wean themselves off of it by the time the solution is gone."

                "It's working?" Silver asked.

                "It's working." Tanya assured with a smile. Gretchen yawned and opened her eyes. Northstar padded towards the door.

                "Where are you going?" Grin asked him.

                "I need to talk to someone." Northstar nodded. Grin understood as he walked out.

 

                Duke listened to the rhythmic sound musingly. Click, pad, click, pad. Two rhythmic claw clicks permeated by a nearly silent padding of the feet. It would he hard to hear for an untrained ear. Duke looked out over the skyline of Anaheim as seen from the Pond roof, then calmly over and down as he saw Northstar's feathered head raise into view on his left.

                "How'd it go?" he asked.

                "It worked." Northstar nodded. Duke sighed audibly in relief.

                "I thought so." Duke shook his head and closed his eyes. There was a long pause. "I still can't believe what I did to her." Northstar made a guttural rumbling.

                "What I said in the Ready Room the other day... I was wrong Duke." he sighed in his deep voice.

                "No you weren't." Duke said quickly. Northstar was about to counter him when Duke continued sharply. "You guys... your kind... you're all about loyalty and you're all so strong together.... I admire that about all of you. I violated that strength. You had every reason to give me a good slashing that day. You still do now." Duke looked out at the lights of the city.

                "That strength you admire Duke. It's not just between our kind. You're a part of it. I've seen your team at it's finest. You may not realize it, but you share a bond as close to kinship as I can draw. Things like this happen to us, things like this happen to you."

                "I was wrong to do what I did...."

                "We've all done a lot of wrong things." Northstar looked up at him with his golden eagle eyes. "Come on inside. I think someone wants to speak with you."

 

                Northstar came back into the infirmary slowly. The others were still standing around. Gretchen was already sitting up in bed. Duke slowly walked in behind him, acting a little sheepish. Everyone looked up at him.

                "Is... she up yet?" he asked, slicking back his hair nervously. Wildwing was about to shake his head, when Zelda shifted on her bed. She stretched and a creaking sound came from deep in her throat. She was waking up now. Slowly, she began to whine, a barely audible, high pitched broken whistling from deep in the back of her throat. Diamond, Silver, and Northstar looked instantly irritated. She was instinctively calling for them. Silver hopped up to her bedside and drew a wing over her.

                "Shhh, come on Zel, wake up." he smiled at her. The dragon grunted slowly, shifting a claw up and blinking her eyes open. She breathed in deeply.

                "What... what happened?" she asked slowly.

                "It doesn't matter, it's okay now." Silver told her, stroking her head gently with one of his feathers. "You feeling better?"

                "Much better." She rubbed a claw against the healing wound on her neck. Shifting herself again, she tried to prop herself up. The others let her test her strength. She rose up carefully and stretched. "Wow did that feel weird. What happened to me?"

                "Dragaunus injected you with this magnetite solution, and then used it to control your brain patterns...." Wildwing began.

                "Wait a second." Mallory said. "We know how the Saurians got the magnetite in Gretch back in the desert, but what about Zelda? When was she injected?" Zelda blinked.

                "I remember. Wraith attacked me in the woods... stabbed me with a needle right in my neck.... after I ran..." Zelda trailed off nervously. Duke took a deep breath and parted through the team around her.

                "Zelda...." he started slowly. "I know what I did to you was wrong... I can't believe I did it...." he started quickly. He paused and looked down at her. To his relief, the dragon was smiling at him.

                "I know you didn't mean it." she said. "We can all get that way. I should have listened to you and got off your back." She stretched a wing up to bonk him lightly on the head.

                "Awww." Gretchen cooed. "Looks like they've made up."

                "No harm done." Zelda smiled at her, starting to stand up gingerly. Although she took a while at it, she propped herself up and leapt down. The three leaders crowded around her, glad to see her. "And you were here the whole time, weren't you?" The dragon hugged her friends with her wings.

                "We'll always be here for ya Zel." Northstar assured her. He glanced up at Duke and smiled. "And so will the Ducks."

 

The End

 

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