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mythomagically-delicious · 5 years

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Hang Ups

Duck let the incident go, because there ended up being a credible threat and he got pulled into a different world and he fought a giant not-bear thing and discovered a talking goat-man. He let it go that Pigeon shot the door to the camper after definitely drinking, despite the alarms that shot off in his head.

And he let it go, especially after he let Pigeon in on half the secret, to extort her help with H2Whoa That Was Fun! and all that jazz.

And then he forgot about it entirely.

And then he returned from the Telescope, Leo barely conscious and Dr. Sarah Drake going through the stages of shock and an alien warrior woman who'd been giving him training and told him they were all Chosen Ones in tow of a smashed up delivery truck and pulled into the devastation of Kepler.

He could barely see through the giant dust cloud rising to the sky and trying to settle back, floating, hanging in the air like a fog, but his revitalized condition because of Minerva's presence helped his sight. He drove carefully and listened to alarms all around them- cars, businesses, homes- all shrieking, the measly volunteer fire brigade joining the few professionals the city has to run between the buildings, checking for people and fires and problems they can handle.

Some people are crying, hands over their heads and knelt to the ground under the news stand, or the awning of the bait shop, and Duck slows his car on the street of the hospital so they can get Leo inside. Duck wants to stop and ask the people what happened, but first he has to take care of his people.

He carries Leo inside, and there are not enough people to contain whatever disaster has fallen.

Nurses and doctors are running ragged as the waiting room is filled with scared people with a barrage of injuries that don't make sense. How could things have gotten so bad in Kepler? Dr. Sarah Drake comes in beside him and says she'll make sure his friend is seen to. Minerva had told her Duck had other responsibilities. Other types of chosen people he has befriended and needed to check in with.

Duck puts a hand on her shoulder and nods his thanks, running back out to the truck. Minerva helps him navigate as they finally turn a corner and head to amnesty lodge.

The air has cleared slightly as the moon shines, the clouds having cleared from its path. And looking up to the distant Mount Kepler, Duck nearly swerves into a tree.

The top of the mountain is missing, jagged and ugly and *gone.* He wonders what sort of earth-shattering abomination did that. What sort of power they didn't realize the enemy had, how it could have happened?

Duck drives with purpose to the lodge but is thrown off track by stragglers running from the woods surrounding. He sees a few hornet jackets caught on branches and guns dropped on the ground as he approaches.

His path is eventually blocked by debris and can no longer take the road. He exits the truck and runs, Minerva beside him, a hand unfurling Beacon. He hears sound coming from deeper in the woods and he switches toward it, running full tilt through the worst of the hazy air, jumping over a cluster of rocks to soft earth like it's nothing. He is at full power as adrenaline and his chosen one abilities fill him.

He's at the archway, and he sees chaos and absolute calm at the same time. There are clear signs of a fight, the faint smell of gun smoke, a woman crouched over a body on the ground, scuff marks on the ground surrounding and an ugly sound coming out from the distance.

He races up to the woman, to the body, and yells a question to them. Mama looks up and he sees perhaps the oldest eyes he's ever seen, shining with tears and dirt and regret and a shake of her head tells him what he wanted to know, but nothing he needed to about it.

He looks down at the body and squeezes his eyes shut against how wrong it was to see Ned Chicane so utterly still. He was never still, always moving, distracting, posturing. It looked wrong to see a lifeless, glassy gaze come from those eyes, from the wrinkles usually pulled into smile lines, from the unnatural stillness of his body. To see a dark pool around his coat, and to know what it meant.

Duck felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Minerva nod her head solemnly. Mama didn't look surprised to see her, but then again, she didnt look fully there at the moment.

Duck came back to himself to ask over Aubrey. Mama shook her head again, lips tight, shoulders hunched and shrugged. She motioned at the Lodge. Duck knelt by Ned and felt for his pulse, just in case. Cold, from laying on the ground, dusty from the air, and lifeless.

He stood and ran to the lodge, shouting Aubrey's name, no longer concerned with stealth. He saw her sitting on the front steps, face in hands, a nasty gash in her leg and a hundred different cuts and bruises visibly forming on her.

Duck called again and she looked up, open-mouthed in grief, looking lost in a way Duck wasn't sure he could have imagined her looking. Not the confident Lady Flame. Not the wonderful and magical friend he'd made. Not Aubrey.

She stood shakily, bleeding profusely from the leg and ignoring it, and stepped into Duck's arms for a hug. For a life raft, to save her from overwhelming waves of emotion. Duck held onto her just as tight, having seen bits and pieces of devastation but not having a full picture.

Minerva asks what happened here, and Aubrey shudders and pushes her face tighter into Duck's shoulder. A new voice comes around the corner and answers, and Duck lifts his head and blinks rapidly to bring her into focus.

Moira. The ghost sylph. She floats toward them, head bowed. She had watched from much closer than Barclay and Mama warned them to. But she had to know, to be able to signal her friends if worst came to worst. And it had.

The pandemonium at the gate, the sylphs in the lodge who lopped off the top of Mount Kepler, believing it to be a planet-saving action, not one of destruction as it proved. A shot ringing off and killing Ned. Moira hadn't seen who, had already flown away to watch elsewhere.

Barclay, at the hot springs just now, cooling Dani off and bringing her back to herself.

Duck rubs Aubrey's back as she fights a new wave of tears. He lets her go and takes a half-step back, evaluating everything he's learned so far. His mind is shorting out between thoughts, though, like a faulty breaker. Trying to connect the dots and find a new plan of action is dying mid-stream as the information washes over him again. Ned is dead. The mountain has fallen. The city is in chaos. The sylphs are not safe. No one is safe.

When the sheriff turns back up at the lodge on his way to the gate, Duck asks what's happening. Sheriff Owens says he has to move the body, and as he says it Detective Megan walks by with two members of the hospital and stretcher equipment. They can't drive to the clearing, but they can get close and move him. Then the investigation to the lodge will start, Duck infers. As they disappear into the woods Duck turns on the spot and announces that the residents of Amnesty Lodge need to leave immediately.

Many bags are packed and ready before he says it. Moira's warning and the general atmosphere of that hunt more than enough to make the residents cautious. Barclay returns with a subdued Dani, dripping wet and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. They load the dented delivery truck and Barclay's truck loaned from Mama and pack everyone and everything away. They see Mama walking back towards them, reaching a hand out to Dani, to another lodge member Duck can't recall the name of. They both accept.

And then they move. Temporarily all out to the forest behind Duck's apartment. Later they'll all move in. But for now it is a pinch solution as state trooper sirens are starting to sound off, and FBI vehicles are spotted.

The aftermath of that night is a blur of days and ordeals. Mama is taken into custody and never returned. Leo comes back with Drake in tow, fully healed but with the knowledge she can't get to her job with the road blocks in place. There's a million and one things he says and does in those days immediately after, so for the life of him, he cant remember who told him.

He doesn't remember who told him the live account of what happened to Ned. Was it Mama, at the gate? Was it Barclay during the trips back and forth for residents of the Lodge? Was it Owens or Juno or a bystander at the gate that night? Who knows?

All he can think is, though, that he should never have let Pigeon off the hook. She shouldn't have kept her license, or her guns, edgy like that. He wonders if she was drinking the night it happened. If she showed up ready to fight and already a little drunk so she wouldn't lose her nerve.

Twitchy fingers. A scare, a startle. A roar inhuman or an image she couldn't understand. It wouldn't take a lot. Pigeon already knew the town was bad-weird.

Duck sits in a moment to himself, thinking about Ned. Knowing it was his fault.

He's faced a lot of what-ifs in his life. What if he actually gave a fuck in school? What if he hadn't turned Minerva down so insistently, so ignorantly?

What if he had done his dam job and reported Pigeon when the first shot went off?

Duck had let it go, then. But now? He knew he'd never have a sound sleep at night, knowing he was complicit in the death of his dear friend.

Maybe Ned wouldn't have seen it like that. But Ned wasn't there. Duck couldn't let that go.

#taz amnesty #duck newton #duck and ned #ned chicane #taz amnesty spoilers #the adventure zone #wanawp #pigeon #duck and pigeon #turned out waaay longer than i exoected.#took me an hour to type on my phone #mmd writes

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