The Mighty Ducks and all related characters are the property of Walt Disney. No copyright infringement is intended. Lyrics are taken from the song “The Climb” by No Doubt. No copyright infringement was intended. I suggest you read my other stories, especially ‘Meditations’ and ‘Brotherhood’ before reading this. ________ The Climb ________ Step by step I come closer to reaching the top Every step must be placed so that I don’t fall off Looking down to see about how much higher I am Another cool wind comes through, brushes my skin ________ Once it would have been a temptation. Maybe it still was. Was that how it was, then? Still, after all this time? Was honesty that elusive for him? A sobering thought. Duke l’Orange liked the night. It was a comforting darkness that surrounded and protected him, like a blanket. In the dark he could hide from everyone and everything. Including himself. Including his past. He watched from the shadows as the last member of the Museum staff went home for the night. All that was left inside were three security guards and a security system that would be child’s play for even the newest apprentice into the Brotherhood. It was called the Kellerman Emerald. Some old rich guy with a lot of money and no one to love had died and in his will he’d left all his antiques and jewels to the Anaheim Museum. The Kellerman Emerald was the star of the exhibit. It was one of the largest and purest emeralds in existence. It was worth a fortune. It was one of the most tempting targets for thieves in the entire state. The country maybe. Even for Duke. Two years ago he wouldn’t have given a second thought to it. After all, what did a museum need with the jewel? In the Brotherhood it would be put to use, either to be studied historically, or to be sold on the black market and the profits used to further the aims of the Brotherhood. But that was two years ago. Here on Earth there was no Brotherhood and he had other loyalties to hold to. ________ The harder I push the tension does grow I gather my thoughts the further and further I go With some luck I just might keep on climbing So Better to climb than to face a fall ________ The Mighty Ducks were so different from the Brotherhood. They had aspects in common, of course. Both tried to keep crime down - although the Mighty Ducks fought crime to keep the streets safe, while the Brotherhood’s only intentions were to eliminate anyone who might challenge them or cause trouble with the authorities. But the similarities were nothing compared to the differences. How could you even begin to compare? As a member of the Mighty Ducks there was a morality, a sense of purpose and duty that went so much deeper than the codes of honor the Brotherhood preached. The Ducks were just… good. It was funny to Duke, to suddenly be on the good side of things. He’d grown up rather well, but he’d always preferred the wild side of things. He’d gone from a middle class home to a gang to an apprentice in the Brotherhood of the Sword in only months. After his initiation into the Brotherhood as a full member he’d never looked back. Until he was arrested. By his kid brother. He’d been shocked beyond words to see Rance l’Orange wearing a uniform and even more shocked to find Rance placing him under arrest. It had hurt, more than a little, for all that he knew Rance was right. Duke had expected to get caught sooner or later. In his way of life it was almost inevitable. But he hadn’t let it stop him; on the contrary, his shame and hurt had only fueled his resolve to escape from prison - which he had as soon as it was possible. He hadn’t been caught since, and he never intended to be caught again. But he also never intended to give anyone reason to arrest him again. He was on Earth now. He was a member of the Mighty Ducks. Puckworld and the Brotherhood were both behind him, maybe forever. In the last year he’d made a life on Earth, and it was a life he found himself liking much more than his former one on Puckworld. It wasn’t easy though. Every day was a constant struggle to remember that he had changed, that things were never going back to the way they were. Thievery was almost addictive; there was no greater high than getting away clean, leaving the authorities and your victims stumped, and it was hard to get rid of the desire to feel that high again. He hadn’t gotten rid of the desire yet. He probably never would. But he could find things to replace that desire. He could find reasons to ignore the desire. And he had. ________ Pulling myself up by a rope I better my view The only thing in sight is what I must do As I turned I could see myself falling Which in return gave me strength for the climb ________ The Saurians had conquered Puckworld just after he’d escaped from prison and for a time escaping from the work camp he had been prisoner in had taken all his attention. Then Canard had come and invited him into the resistance, to train for a special strike force against Dragaunus. The resistance had given him a cause to fight for and he’d gladly taken it. But Puckworld was free, Dragaunus was exiled here to Earth, along with the six surviving members of the strike team that had exiled him there in the first place. And now Duke was faced with the simple knowledge that he no longer had the resistance to keep him diverted every hour of every day. And he was faced daily with the remembrance of a job well done, of the elation of getting away with it. He had needed something else. And he’d found it in the last place he’d expected. Trust. Funny, wasn’t it? The thief was so horribly afraid that he wouldn’t be trusted, that he’d do whatever possible to earn that trust a hundred times over. Even turning his back on his former life. But beyond that, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be worthy of the trust he was given. Duke wasn’t sure exactly when he’d stopped seeing Wildwing as Canard’s replacement and started seeing him as the team captain, but he had. And he respected Wildwing in a way he hadn’t Canard, or the resistance leaders or the Council of the Brotherhood. He liked Wildwing. He counted the man among his few true friends. And he knew Wildwing trusted him. Wildwing had proven that fact many times, when he ignored Mallory’s warning’s about Duke’s past, when he trusted Duke with an important part of a mission, when he asked Duke to use his skills as a thief to defeat an enemy as if it were nothing different than asking Grin to pound on something. Duke was grateful for Wildwing’s trust. In face of Mallory’s suspicions their first several months on Earth, Wildwing’s trust had given Duke something to hold on to when he felt his past catching up to him. And then there was the kid. Nosedive was absolutely nothing like Canard had described him, thank the stars. And sometime over the last year Duke had grown fond of the boy. Some part of him, the traitorous voice in the back of his mind, whispered that he was only trying to replace Rance, but he knew better. Dive was - definitely - unique. He was no Rance. And despite the fact that Duke thought of the boy as a younger brother, he could never forget that Dive’s older brother was the man Duke owed more than his life. It had begun months ago, when he and Wildwing had both noticed Nosedive drifting away from all of them, locking himself away inside himself, away from the world. Worried, they had both tried to find a way to reach him before the distance between them became too great, but Dive kept them at bay, refusing every attempt they made to reach out to him. It was Duke who’d finally found a way. It amazed him to this day. He’d turned to Wildwing and said, “I have an idea that may work, but I can’t tell you. It would violate every oath I ever took as a member of the Brotherhood.” And even as he was consumed by guilt from the inside out for once again letting the Brotherhood come into his new life, Wildwing had given his consent, backed away and placed his little brother securely in Duke’s care. That Wildwing would do that, that he would place that kind of trust in Duke, had only furthered Duke’s resolve to earn that trust. To keep it. He owed those two a lot. Friendship, support and the ever-important trust. He wouldn’t - he *couldn’t* - disappoint either of them. He didn’t want to let them think they had been wrong to trust him. Staying honest was hard. Putting his past and the Brotherhood behind him was hard. But it was a hundred times easier than the idea he might let Wildwing and Nosedive - *any* of his new teammates - down. ________ Although many failed I must now prevail with no question Have no time to stop Onward to the top of the mountain And I can’t turn back now It’s so very high but I can’t turn back now If I keep it up, I’m gonna make it I’m so very close can’t you see? ________ This new life he had chosen was like a constant unending tug-of-war between his old life and his new one. But he was climbing away from the Brotherhood, away from the thievery and the lying and the life of living only for himself. He wanted to be honest, he wanted to live life for and with his friends and teammates - five people who were closer to him than any relative by blood had ever been. He couldn’t give up and he wouldn’t until he reached the top. Or died trying. Without a backward glance Duke turned his back on the empty museum and the Kellerman Emerald and headed back to the Pond. ________ I’m getting closer… ________