Nosedive's heart jumped into his throat as he watched Siege throw his brother against a wall. So much force was behind it that even where Dive was standing he could hear the sound of breaking bones. Grin came out of nowhere and began grappling with Siege. In shock, Dive managed to get to his brother's side. What he saw turned his blood to ice. Wildwing's face and right side was covered in blood and a bone was poking out of the skin on his arm. Nosedive was almost thankful that his brother was unconcious, with the damage that had been done the pain would have been unbearable.
Around him the battle raged and only when Tanya had appeared beside him quickly administrating to Wild's injuries did Dive turn his attention back to the fight. Strangely the excitement he normally felt during a fight had vanished and all he felt in its' place was a tight ball of cold calculation. Grin was still in a locked grip with Siege, Mallory was busy with Chameleon, Tanya was looking after Wildwing and Duke was fighting with Wraith. Which left only one person for Nosedive to attack. Dragaunaus.
Dive silently stepped out of the shadows just in front of the overlord but the Saurian didn't seem surprised. "So the baby duck finally wishes to become a grown-up. How interesting."
Normally Nosedive would have made a snappy come-back to his taunt but this time Dive didn't say a thing, he just smiled a very cold smile and raised his puck launcher so that it pointed directly between Dragaunaus' eyes. Dive knew he was about to kill the Saurian overlord but he didn't feel anything. Not joy or anger or even excitement. He felt absolutely nothing.
"Siege, Wraith, Chameleon! I think it is time for a tactical retreat." With that Dragaunaus disappeared, soon followed by his henchmen.
Ever so slowly Nosedive lowered his arm. Turning he could see that the rest of his teammates had gathered around their fallen comrade. Robot-like, Dive allowed his feet to move in their direction. He watched Tanya and Grin feverously working to stop the bleeding for a moment and then asked in a quiet, steady voice, "How is he?"
He caught the other's exchange of looks and felt Duke gently pull him away from where his brother's broken body lay. "He's not doing so good, kid."
Dive nodded. "I could see that Duke. The best thing we can do for him is get him back to the pond as soon as Tanya says it's alright to move him."
Duke's eyebrow shot up and then his eyes narrowed slightly while he studied Nosedive. "You're certainly handling this well."
Dive didn't even flinch under Duke's harsh gaze. "What's done is done. If he lives he lives, if he dies he dies. There's nothing we can do except what's within our abilities."
"Nosedive! How can you say something like that? If it were my brother, Alex, who was lying there…." Mallory stood facing him, hands on hips and anger flaring in her eyes.
Dive held up a hand to stop her from continuing and than shrugged his shoulders. "Wild's… well if he dies he dies. No one has the power to bring him back to life…"
"Dive, kid, you're talking like Wildwing is already dead." Duke said softly his eyes just barely hiding his worry.
Nosedive shrugged again. "I'll go start up the Aerowing so it's ready when Tanya is."
He quickly left, leaving Duke and Mallory to stare after him.
*****************
Safe in the Aerowing, Nosedive started the engine and then wrapped his arms tightly around himself. Tears were brimming in his eyes but he refused to let himself cry. Back in the mines on Puckworld, before Canard had broken him and Wildwing free, he had gotten to know a lot of people even made a couple of friends. Then like so many things that happened to him back then, his friends had died in an explosion. He'd seen some of them afterward but the hope he had carefully nutured for their recovery was bashed when they later died of complications.
Dive had felt like he was going to die and he had sworn to himself then and there that he would just accept the fact that you just couldn't prevent the inevitable. And if Wildwing was as badly hurt as he looked… well he wasn't going to get hurt again.
******************
Back at the Pond, Tanya's friend Mr. Huggarman and his daughter had shown up quickly via the Aerowing and Mallory's piloting skills. All three of them, their guests and Tanya, were in with Wildwing which left Mallory, Grin, Dive and Duke waiting to find out how he would be.
Duke watched Nosedive out of the corner of his eye. To Duke the kid looked pale, withdrawn and his eyes held an emptiness he had never seen there before. The two brothers were close, everyone knew that but Duke had always thought that Dive would be able to handle Wildwing being hurt better than if the roles were reversed. Everything the kid had gone through, surviving it all with his spirit in tact… well Duke was still sure he was handling it better than his brother would. He'd been serious, practical and quiet. Nosedive hadn't been himself and Duke was beginning to worry about his apprentice and silently promised himself he would talk to Dive later.
As he made his resolve, Tanya stepped out of the infirmary. Clearing her throat and adjusting her glasses she began. "Wildwing's survived the surgery but he's still in critical condition. I'm afraid it'll be a while before we'll know, um, either way."
The room was deathly quiet for a moment before Mallory broke the tension. "How did this happen Tanya? I mean, Wild had his armor on when he was thrown. This shouldn't have been able to happen."
"I had thought of the same thing and I believe that the Saurian's blaster have been upgraded. I believe that a new component in their make-up is what accidentally weakened Wildwing's armor."
"Accidentally?" Duke prodded.
"I don't think they had any idea that it had those properties, however, I believe that they've probably realized it by now and will intend to take full advantage of it. Of course, that's just a theory. I won't know until I've tested the sample I took from Wildwing." Everybody once again fell silent and Tanya quickly dismissed herself, heading for her lab.
Duke's chance to talk to Nosedive arrived a couple minutes later when Grin went to his room to meditate and Mallory had gone to the gym 'to think', which probably meant kicking the stuffing out of the punching bag.
Before Nosedive had any thought of leaving Duke sat down next to him on the floor. "Hi Dive."
"Hi."
"Nosedive. Something seems to be weighing down heavily on you." When Dive didn't say anything Duke decided to get right to the point. The kid wasn't stupid and probably had already guessed what he was getting at. "Wildwing is hurt Dive. I know you've noticed and despite how you're acting I know you care. Now we've become good friends over the last few months and when something bothers someone it usually helps to tell a friend…"
"You don't."
"True. But I'm not used to having any people I can trust, to talk to."
"Neither am I." Dive started to get up but Duke pulled the kid back down beside him.
"Dive, you've had plenty of friends and even if you hadn't, you've always had Wildwing." Duke persisted, interested in what Nosedive had meant by his earlier comment.
"Not always, Duke. We were separated when we went into Foster Care and later on when we were sent to the… mines."
The falter in the kid's voice at that last word told Duke ore than Dive had since they had started their heart-to-heart. "Want to tell me what the mines were like?"
Nosedive gave Duke a blank look. "I thought you had been held in the mines, too."
"I had been. But you were in the mines longer than I was. You had no one to help you; you were on your own."
"Not on my own. Not really."
Duke gave Dive a moment hoping he would continue but when he didn't Duke was forced to speak. "Care to elaborate?"
This time Nosedive gave Duke a ghost-like smile. "You're determined to find out one way or the other, aren't you?"
"Yep. And preferably before I'm ninety years old."
"Duke, yah have ta believe me, I don't want Wildwing to - to die! I just… well it's just that I don't want to loose anyone else. First Dad and Mom, than Quickstrike and Trip… I can't loose Wild too."
Duke put a wing on Dive's shoulder, a little taken aback by the emotional explosion that had come from his young companion. "Why don’t you tell me about Quickstrike and Trip?"
Nosedive took a couple of shaky, deep breaths. Keeping his gaze riveted to the floor. "I-I met them in the mines. When Wildwing and I were split up. No one knew about our - friendship. We got along great. Quickstrike was maybe about 20 years old while Trip was 18. I was telling off a Saurian Guard when I arrived at the outer mine and ended up getting beaten pretty badly for my trouble…"
Duke felt a strange sense of over-protectiveness wash over him but managed to push it aside as Dive kept on talking.
"… They saw it and wanted to help me but couldn't because other prisoners held them back. Not long after that they purposely sought me out and well one thing lead to another and a strong bond developed between us. Quickstrike was a lot like Wildwing, steady and reliable. While Trip was more like a split between Tanya and Mallory. He was incredibly smart but had a really nasty temper. We became a tiny group of people who fought against the Saurians who held us captive."
"Quickstrike was our unofficial leader, Trip was the 'brains' and me, I was the 'doer' or troublemaker. Whenever anything needed to be done I did it… voluntarily. But needless to say we didn't do much mostly because we were worked to exhaustion."
"Yah, I remember that part of the mines pretty clearly." Duke sighed as bad memories flooded his mind.
"We were out in the mines when an explosion occurred. I was further from it than they were so I survived, but they were buried alive. I tried to pull the debris off them but the Saurians cam before I could uncover them both. I only managed to bring Trip out. He was breathing and I couldn't stop myself from hoping that he would be okay and then he took his last breath. H-he died in my wings and there was nothing I could do. That same day they moved all of the survivors to a mine in the inner city, the same mine Wildwing was being held at. If we hadn't been taken there… I'm not sure I could have survived, loosing the two of them like that. Anyway a couple of weeks later Canard broke us out and a few days after that we met you and you know the rest." Dive's head was bowed and though Duke couldn't see it for himself he was still pretty sure that Dive had tears streaming, uncontrolled, down his cheeks. "Duke?"
Duke managed to answer around the lump that had formed in his throat. "Yah, kid?"
"I don't think I can handle loosing Wild, too."
The door to the infirmary opened and Mr. Huggarman's daughter, the doctor, stepped out into the hall. A large smile spread across her face. "Don't look so glum guys. Your friend is going to be okay. He's out of danger. Now if you'll excuse me I think I'll go find the others and let them know the good news." With that she disappeared.
Duke patted Nosedive on the shoulder again. "Kid, I don't think you'll have to worry about loosing him for a long time. The one thing you two have in common is your stubbornness. And Wildwing is way to stubborn to die."
Nosedive looked at him through red-rimmed eyes and smiled. "You know, I think you're right, I really think you're right." Then the both of them got to their feet and went to see Wildwing."