None of us talk. A few look out the windows, searching for a sign. A sign of Canard. Nothing.

We all made it, bar Canard. The six of us. We beat the odds. We won the war.

We get to go home.

The swirls of blue and grey outside, how wild it all looks. Untamed energy, spiralling endlessly and effortlessly.

I close my eyes as we pass through the hole to my heaven.

Open them, and the sky is so blue. Bluer than the sky in Anaheim. As blue as a kingfisher’s feathers. As blue as a macaw’s tail. As blue as it ever was.

***

I step on to the grass. We landed in a small pasture, away from the city. It felt right.

On the horizon lies DuCaine Metropolis, shimmering in the light like a mirage in a desert. Dreamlike. A mystical paradise shown to the chosen in a fairy tale.

It isn’t, of course. Smoke rises steadily, and some parts look charred. But it’s there, right before us. Waiting.

Suddenly I’m in the middle of a group hug. Someone’s crying softly, and their tears soak into my clothes like a sponge sucking up water. I’d never complain though.

Our last moment as a team. As soon as we let go, the bond going to be gone.

Defeating Saurians, saving planets, lives. Stopping crimes, making things better. Finished. Completed, passed with flying colours.

I guess I should be feeling strong.

The embrace ends, I’m looking around, and I’m seeing my closest friends instead of ducks I used to barely tolerate.

We don’t have to spend our lives together, like I once accepted as my fate. We’re going to all go our separate ways, put it behind us, forget the pain we suffered, and lapse into a ‘card on special occasions’ friendship. That can’t be the only way. Shouldn’t we rebuild our lives together?

Freedom is what I want. Freedom, and the space to be me. To answer to no duck. Could I have that with them? I see their eyes, and no one knows what to do, where to go, who to find.

No. I fought long and hard to make my own decisions. I wont be reminded of my past.

I guess I should be moving on.