The Mighty Ducks and all related characters are the property 
of Disney Corporations. No copyright infringement is intended.

This story and all original characters are the property of the 
author.

Author's Note: This takes place immediately after "Pieces of 
Home."
________

The Ones We Left Behind



"Aren't they cute?"

Mallory laughed softly. "Like two little kids," she replied 
softly. "Almost makes me jealous."

Duke smirked. "Does Mallory want someone to cuddle with?" 
he asked in the same teasing tone he would use on a child.

Mallory smacked him on the shoulder lightly. "Spazz off, 
Duke. I meant I missed my brother, that's all."

"Yeah," Duke said, all seriousness now. "Yeah, I know what 
you mean."

"You miss Rance?"

"Not really." Duke shrugged at the look she gave him. "We 
were never close, Mal. Not like brothers usually are. Certainly 
not like those two," he added, tipping his head toward the two 
brothers asleep on the other side of the Migrator. "We sort of 
tolerated each other. I'd stick up for him at school and we'd 
both team up against our parents, but when you got right down 
to it, we had nothing in common. We never saw eye to eye on 
a single thing in our entire lives - well, except that Mom and 
Dad set curfew *way* too early. But beyond that... The 
important stuff just wasn't there for us."

"Do you regret it?" Mallory asked. "That you were never close, 
I mean."

"Didn't used to," Duke replied thoughtfully. "It just was, ya 
know? But then one day Canard shows up with those two," he 
smiled lightly at Dive and Wildwing, "and suddenly I'm 
realizing what I've been missing out on."

Mallory nodded slowly. "You know, Rance was with us for a 
while before you came. He helped Canard break Tanya and 
Grin loose."

"I know. Your father told me."

"He volunteered to be the one to go in after you. Canard asked 
him why and he just shrugged and said, 'I always thought he 
was dead.' I think he cared about you more than you thought."

"Probably," Duke said softly. "If I've learned anything this past 
year, it's that I'm not half as smart as I thought I was. Not half 
as right either. Rance is just one of the things I've been wrong 
about. You know," he added with a tiny, sad smile. "I think I 
cared more about him that I thought, too."

"We'll see home again someday," Mallory told him. "You'll tell 
him then."

"Yeah, I will."

"In the meantime, you seem to have found yourself a new little 
brother," Mallory grinned at the embarrassment on Duke's 
face. "I think you've all but adopted Dive."

"He's a good kid," Duke defended himself.

"Mmmmm. He is, you know. I figured that out once I stopped 
paying attention to that smart-mouthed idiot routine he pulls."

"Self defense," Duke said quietly. "In the mines it pays to be 
underestimated. If they thought he was just a stupid kid they 
would have left him alone."

"Wonder how long it took him to learn that lesson."

"Not long. Too long." Duke shied away from those unpleasant 
thoughts. "Tell me about your brother."

Mallory stretched and settled deeper into her seat. "Alex was 
almost twelve years older than me. By the time I was in second 
rank he had already graduated and moved on to Secondary. He 
was in military university six years later - about five or six 
years ago. Really he wasn't home much. I was only eight when 
he graduated, and before that he was always busy with 
schoolwork and studies. He was great though. He'd come 
home for vacations and spend hours hanging out with me. I 
thought he was the coolest guy in the world. I practically 
worshipped him. When I was eleven he showed up out of  no 
where one morning and snuck me out of the house before 
Mom and Dad woke up. We spent the day out in the woods 
behind the house building a tree house. I thought Mom would 
kill him when we got back."

Trees?" Duke asked. "You had trees? I thought you were from 
the Metropolis."

Mallory shook her head. "At first. But when I entered school, 
we moved to Jense. Both my parents grew up there and they 
wanted me to as well."

"Country mouse?" Duke teased gently. "I always saw you as 
the city type of girl. Although," he added, "you always do seem 
happy to get out of the city. Like when we went to 
Sunnyville."

Mallory shoved her dark red hair out of her eyes and shrugged. 
"I like the city, there's always something, you know? Jense was 
nice, but it was so slow. Nothing ever happened there. Once 
night fell the whole town went to sleep. I'm a night person, 
myself, so the 'early to bed' shtick never really caught with me. 
When I started getting older I was always causing trouble 
because I was out past curfew. By the time I was fifteen Dad 
had finally had enough." She smiled  gently. "I'd always shown 
an interest in the military - it was something of a family 
tradition. Mom, Dad and Alex were all in the military at one 
time, and I guess I never really thought I'd do anything else. It 
wasn't that I didn't think about what I wanted to do," she 
clarified, "it's just that nothing else ever interested me as much. 
When I turned thirteen I started pressuring Dad to let me enroll 
in a military academy in Tevren. He finally gave in and when I 
started Fourth Rank I transferred to the Tevren Primary 
Military Training Academy." She rolled her eyes and squirmed 
in her seat, grimacing when she couldn't get more comfortable. 
"It wasn't like I expected. Not bad or anything, just a little 
harder. I was used to having free run around Jense, and the 
idea of curfews that were actually *enforced* took some time 
to get used to. After a couple months I got used to it. There 
was this professor," she said after a moment. "Randall 
Quingsley. He kind of took me under his wing, straightened me 
out. I could always go to him when I had a problem, or when I 
thought I couldn't go on much longer. I never much liked rules 
- well, rules that kept me from doing what I wanted, anyway," 
she added with a grin.

Duke laughed. "*You?*" he asked incredulously. "You didn't 
like rules? You practically jump down our throats when we 
forget to clear the table!"

"I *used* to have a problem with rules," Mallory stressed. 
"Now I'm fine with them. They *do* have their purposes, you 
know."

"Weird," Duke rolled his eyes.

"We can't all be criminals who live outside the rules of polite 
society," Mallory said primly.

Duke snorted. "We were talking about the Academy," he 
prompted.

"Hmmp. Fine," Mallory said snippily.

"Randall Quingsley," Duke prompted.

"Right. He was great, you know? Always there, no matter 
what. Classwork, social life, trouble with my parents or my 
friends, whatever was getting to me, I knew I could go to him 
for help. It made my life at the Academy so much easier. He 
kind of took the place of Alex and my parents after a while. I 
couldn't go home every time something came up, and 
communications with the outside world were strictly rationed, 
so I only saw my family or spoke to them every now and then." 
She offered Duke a wide grin. "At first I was so thrilled that 
my parents wouldn't be able to check in on me every five 
minutes, like I'd been afraid they would. Later I missed being 
able to talk about things whenever I needed to. Professor 
Quingsley made sure that I knew he was willing to listen. He 
couldn't always help, sometimes, there just wasn't anyone but 
me who could do whatever needed to be done, but he listened 
and let me get it off my chest, and that was such a relief." Her 
words drifted off, her gaze wandering around the interior of 
the Migrator for a moment before settling on the viewport. "I 
wonder what happened to them sometimes. All of them. My 
entire family was in the military, Duke. My parents, my 
brother, my mentor, most of my friends." She sighed and 
leaned her head back against the seat rest in an uncharacteristic 
display of exhaustion and emotionalism. "The military was all 
but wiped out in the initial assault. We had to resort to sending 
cadets and civilians into combat situations.  I know my Dad 
survived - at least he was still alive when we left, but everyone 
else? We had no way of contacting them, Duke. No way of 
knowing. Hell, I was in Jense on weekend leave from the 
Academy when the invasion came. Dad too. Mom and Alex?" 
She shook her head. "I can't even remember where Mom was 
that day. I know for a fact that Alex was stationed in Adres."

"Adres was one of the major cities in the province," Duke said 
softly. He knew where this was leading and his heart went out 
to the young woman beside him.

"*Was.*" Mallory repeated. "And unlike Ducaine Metropolis, 
it was also the site of a major military installation. The Saurians 
burned it to the ground, and the citizenry with it."

"Your brother..."

"I don't like fooling myself, Duke, or subscribing to false 
hopes. I know he's dead."

He said nothing for the longest moment, the weight of how 
much they had all lost pushing down on his heart. "And the 
rest?"

She shrugged, but there was no indifference in her eyes or in 
her voice when she spoke. "Like I said. The military was all but 
wiped out. I know for a fact that the Academy in Tevren was 
bombed along with the rest of the military installations. 
*Maybe* a few of them survived, but I'm not getting my hopes 
up that it's be someone I cared about."

"Like Professor Quingsley."

"Yeah," she echoed softly. "Like Professor Quingsley."

"Is there anything you regret?" Duke asked suddenly. 
"Something you never said or did because you always thought 
there would be time to do it later but when later came..."

"The Saurians came with it," Mallory finished softly. "I regret a 
lot. I regret never telling Alex just how glad I was that he was 
my brother, not telling Professor Quingsley how much I 
appreciated him. I regret never telling my parents I was sorry 
for being so difficult when I was younger, or thanking them for 
supporting me." The corner of her beak turned up slightly. "I 
regret never asking Jaan Avis to dance."

Duke slid an arm around her shoulders. "Cute classmate?"

"Cute upperclassman," she replied with a little sniffle.

"His loss."

She laughed shakily. "Thanks, Duke. What about you? Is there 
anything you regret? Anyone you miss?"

"I miss everyone and everything, Mal. I miss my parents and I 
regret never telling them why - why I left when I was so 
young, why I turned to the Brotherhood instead of the future 
they wanted for me. I regret never asking Adrin Birdy to marry 
me - I regret even more that I never said anything when she 
married someone else." His voice trailed off. Mallory glanced 
at him sideways before leaning sideways to rest her head 
against his shoulder. "You loved her?"

"Yeah," he smiled softly. "Maybe not as much as I thought I 
did back then, but I did love her."

"What else?" He hesitated and she elbowed him in the side 
gently. "It's only fair. And it does help, really."

Duke sighed and smiled at her. "Bossy. You know what I 
really regret? *That.*" He tipped his head at the two sleeping 
forms across from them. "Somewhere along the line, Rance 
and I had the chance to be real brothers, and we missed it. I 
think that's what I regret the most. Never getting to know him. 
Never telling him how much he did mean to me, despite our 
differences. I regret that I'll probably never have the chance to 
tell him now, or even see him again. That," he said in a choked 
whisper, "I regret."

Mallory slid her arm around Duke's waist and they sat in 
solemn silence for several long moments. "Do you think they 
know anyway?" Mallory whispered. "The ones we never told?"

Duke tightened his grip as he heard the tears in her voice. "I 
know they do," he murmured softly. "I know they do."


End