Disclaimer: I do not own Darkwing Duck, Gosalyn, Scrooge McDuck, or any characters from either Darkwing Duck or Ducktales...
Authors Note: OK, I hated the first version, so I'm trying again.
I Am Chosen: Chapter 2
As the black smoke billows toward the sky, a thick cloud of dust and ash looms low over the shattered building. Half of the museum is collapsed in on itself.
Those who were outside the building are shaken by the shock wave. The windshields of the surrounding police cars are cracked and busted out.
The police chief can only stare at the partially fallen building. He only hopes that nobody was inside when the explosion occurred. Finding his voice, he calls out to his officers "Get the fire department and the paramedics out here. Call for the Rescue dogs, start searching for survivors!"
Meanwhile within the collapsed structure.
What has happened? He can't think clearly, he can't move. He can't open his eyes.
Everything is dark. He is only vaguely aware of discomfort, pain throughout his body, but he doesn't care.
What has happened?
He can't remember.
Wait...the explosion...the bomb...
The bomb? Why is he still alive?
Is he alive? Maybe he's not.
"Maybe I'm dead." the thought plays in the recesses of his mind.
"No, You are alive, Darkwing Duck and you will live." he hears a melodic voice resound from all around him. A voice that is somehow familiar to him. Now he feels a warmth spread through his body, there is no more pain. And through the darkness a faint glow of light starts to illuminate all around him. Soon the darkness is overcome by pure light. Warm soothing light, like a world made of soft sunshine.
Darkwing finds himself standing in the midst of this light. He glances down at his hands. Where are his gloves. For that matter where is his armor. He looks at the attire he now wheres. A simple white Quack-Fu uniform with a black belt?
How?
It occurs to him, he isn't wearing a mask either – or visors! But the light! How can he see? Why is the light not hurting is eyes?
"I have to be dead! That's the only answer!" he says aloud.
"The only answer, Darkwing Duck? There's always another answer." he hears it again. That voice, so melodic and soft. It seems to emit from all around him.
"Hello?" he calls "who's there?"
He waits. Soon he can see the outline of a figure moving through the light towards him. As the figure comes closer, he can see that it is a young female duck, about 22 or 23 years old. She is about half a head smaller than him. She has medium length blondish brown hair and pale blue eyes. Her tomboyish face is round and smooth with milk white feathers. She is wearing a plane bluish white robe with a long sash. He notices something else about her as well. Light seems to pass through her. That's unnerving.
Then he realizes. "I – I know you, don't I?" he asks with a soft gasp.
The figure smiles at him. "Yes." her voice resounds softly around him as she speaks. She doesn't offer any more information than this.
He tries to make sense of what is happening. "Can you tell me where I am?"
"You are in between."
In between where?"
"Between what you know as existence and that which lies beyond. Between here and the here after. You are between life and death."
What? Between life and death?!
Oh yeah, the explosion. Right.
The explosion! Blast it McDuck!
The young lady seems to know his thoughts. "Don't judge him to harshly, Darkwing. Scrooge may be cantankerous but he'd never intentionally get anybody, including you hurt. Don't be angry."
Darkwing is embarrassed. "Uh it shows huh?"
She smiles and holds out a hand "Come with me. I have something to show you."
Darkwing gazes into her eyes. There is something in them that says he can trust her, unconditionally and completely. Without hesitation, he takes her hand. They begin to walk. AS they pass through the light, Darkwing can see things, images, scenes that seem to play out all around them as they go. But the images appear and disappear to quickly for him to make sense of them. Oddly, some of the things he sees are familiar to him.
A shocking realization comes over him! Is this his life passing before his eyes? Then he is – isn't he? Or maybe is going to be...soon.
Only one thought passes through his mind. My Family!
Again the female seems to read his thoughts "I've already told you, you are still alive," she assures him "You've just 'stepped out of your body' for awhile"
Stepped out of his body?She says that so a matter of fact.
For some reason, it really doesn't seem so big a deal to him at the moment. Not nearly a big a deal as getting back to his life his family and to ringing McDuck's neck for causing all this to start with!
They continue to walk and soon they step from the light into what looks like a field. A lush green field. There are no trees or shrubbery, just the grass and large rocky mountains on either side of the field. As they step from the light onto the field Darkwing feels something smooth under his feet, he glances down. It is a smooth shiny stone, one of many that form a small path through the field. The path cuts right through the middle of the field running parallel to the mountains.
Slowly he starts to walk down the path, curious of where it leads. His female companion is content to follow close behind him. But abruptly, the path ends halfway through the field. He looks down at the shiny smooth stone he stands on, the last stone of the path. He turns to look at the young lady "Why does it just end in the middle of the field like that?"
"It only ends for you Darkwing. This is as far as you are meant to come." she explains.
OK, he thinks he understands what she means, but why is he here to begin with.
Before he can ask, however, an unearthly sound draws his attention toward the mountains. He notices that the mountains are as ugly and cold as the field is warm and beautiful. He also notices that where the mountains cast their shadows on the edges of the field, no grass grows.
He also notices the purple and blue color that bridges the light and shadow. A small stream of twilight color that begins on the edge of light and ends on the edge of the dark.
Again he hears that hideous noise. It seems to come from somewhere in the dark shadows of the mountains.
Darkwing wants to investigate. He starts to step off the path but hesitates. He looks at the young lady for approval. She nods. With that, he steps into the green grassy field. He is pleasantly surprised to discover the texture of the grass is like fine silk. He starts toward the source of the sound.
When he gets to the area where the light ends, he stops to gaze into the darkness. He can see something moving inside the shadows.
He pauses. There is something familiar about this place. He's been here before...then it dawns on him. He knows what this place is. This isn't a field – it's a valley. The valley of the shadow of death?!
Darkwing whirls around to face the woman. "I've been here before!"
She nods.
"But, when? How? Why have I been brought back?"
But then the thought crosses his mind. Somebody he knows -sort of, Somebody from his past. He gazes at her still translucent form. Somebody he can almost see through! This is Christmas time and this place is part of a distant, nearly forgotten past. "Uh, you're not?" He hesitates. "Well, that is...you're a ghost...from my past...and..."
For the first time the smile fades from her face ( though not completely). "Ghost? Excuse me? Ghost!" she sounds almost offended. Her melodic voice echoing all around them. She looks him in the eye, silently, almost accusingly, for a long, discomforting moment, then, to Darkwing's relief, she laughs. "Don't worry, Darkwing. I'm not here to show you the errors of your ways. And there aren't three of us coming to see you tonight."
"Then, why are we here?" he asks.
"To remember and to learn." she takes his arm, her touch is so warm. "You were here before Darkwing Duck, more than once. Just relax, think back..."
Closing his eyes Darkwing travels through his memories, back, back to when he was a young man, a child, a baby.
He feels the ambiance change around him. He opens his eyes. Startled, he realizes where he is. This is the Westside Children's Infirmary. The place he was born. There are small children occupying the cots that line up against the walls. Some of the children are running around playing, despite the fact that it is extremely cold. Their little hands and feat are bundled in strips of torn cloth. Some of them should be too sick to play, but they play none the less, and somehow they laugh and smile.
Unfortunately, the building is just as he remembers it. The walls are stripped bare of paint and have absolutely no kind of insulation. There is cardboard nailed up over the vast hole that cover the walls. The windows are broken and boarded up, blocking out almost all the light. Yet, cold air still escapes in through the cracks creating an eerie whistle that haunts the building like the mournful wailing of a earthbound ghost.
"I was born here." Darkwing says almost to himself.
"I know." the female replies. She is watching the kids play. She glances around. "Didn't they have a nick-name for this place – the Lost Children's Clinic or the Lost Clinic? One would not think a child in these conditions in their state of health could still laugh and play."
"It's the only life most of them have ever known. They don't know enough about the outside world to understand they aren't suppose to be happy." He explains it to her with a deep understanding. He understands because he spent the first years of his life in the confinements of these deplorable dwellings. He had grown into childhood here, much to the astonishment of his doctor! He hadn't known about the traditional family of father, mother, sister, brother. He only knew the other children and the doctor and nurses. Some times there were volunteers who would come for awhile, but they never stayed around long.
"Strange, you know. I never felt deprived of anything back then. I guess I didn't know any better." Darkwing muses.
But this place doesn't exist any more. It was shut down years ago as inhumane!
The woman, again, seeming to read his mind pulls him toward a scene unfolding in an unlit corner of the room. The residing physician and a nurse are standing over a rickety wooden crib that stands against the southern wall, the warmest place in the oh-so cold building.
They are talking about the occupant of the crib. "Poor little fella, what a way to come into the world." The doctor is telling the nurse. "And what a dismal place for him to have to spend the few hours he has in this world." With that the doctor turns and walks away. The nurse still stands there, watching the grievously ill babe.
She is startled by the presence of a young woman who steps along side her. "Oh," the old nurse jumps in surprise, "I did not see you there." She gives the younger woman a quick once over. A pretty enough little thing, the nurses figures her to be one of the few volunteers they have. She sees that the woman is staring at the baby in the crib. "It's heartbreaking. Sweet little thing being born, just to die. He's got some kind of rare disease. I don't know a lot about it, but the doctor doesn't expect him to live through one night. Poor little thing."
The young woman smiles down at the baby. His little body is frail, one can see this at a glance. "But those are not the eyes of a sick baby, are they?" the woman says with great kindness.
The nurse leans down to better see the babies eyes through the duskiness. She is actually surprised at what she sees. The a baby's eyes are wide open – and focused. Very unusual for a newborn, even a healthy one. But more than that, the black piercing eyes are so full of fight and spirit. So full of life!
"Remarkable." Is all she can say, then turns and leaves the young woman to stand at the side of the crib.
The woman reaches down to pull the worn out piece of cloth, meant as a blanket, around the wee babe. "You're going to surprise a lot of people, aren't you?" she coos softly. In response the baby giggles at her.
Knowing he is completely unseen by anybody other than his mysterious companion, Darkwing steps up to the crib. He looks down at the baby, knowing full well, that this infant is him!
As he watches, the woman begins to sing softly to him. Darkwing can not make out the words to the song, but it is beautiful. Her voice is beautiful. Darkwing glances up at her face as she sings. He is shaken when he realizes who she is. Spinning to face his companion he motions toward the young woman singing to the baby "It's - it's you!"
Darkwing looks from the woman singing to him as a baby, then to the female that stands with him. "It is you! But...but..how..."
He only needs to look into her eyes to know the answer. He glances back at the vision of himself as a baby, sick in his crib and the kindly young woman caring for him. "You're – an angel?"
She doesn't reply, only watches his face with understanding as it all slowly sinks in. "You're my Guardian angel, aren't you?"
She nods her head.
A slight scowl crosses his face. "But why have you brought me here?"
"Because it's time, Darkwing."
"What? But you just told me that it wasn't my time! I can't go yet! I have a child on the way. I have a daughter to raise a wife who needs me. I have to protect St. Canard from criminals...I've gotta..I've...gotta break every bone is Scrooge McDuck's crusty old body!"
She laughs and places a gentle hand on his arm "No! It's not that time – not yet!" she chuckles. "And we're going to have to do something about your Scrooge McDuck issue."
"Oh." Darkwing sighs in obvious relief. Then managing to compose himself asks calmly "Then what?"
"It's time for the next step in your journey." she explains.
He looks at her suspiciously "What do you mean?"
"Come," she takes his arm. They start to walk through the clinic. As they walk, the ambiance again begins to transform. They are once again engulfed in a warm soft light. Scenes play out all around them as they walk. Darkwing sees himself as a small child, his legs bound in heavy metal braces as he tries to learn to walk. Yes, he remembers this. The doctors were sure he would never be able to walk without them.
Of course, the doctors were sure he wouldn't live through the night he was born.
Darkwing can't help but smile. Looking back, it seems he got in the habit of being unpredictable at a very young age.
"Do you ever wonder Darkwing, why your parents would just leave you in such a place?" She asks with a tone of voice that makes him feel as if he is being tested with the question.
"Nope. Most of the families that left the kids here were flat out destitute. They couldn't provide as much for the kids as the clinic did. I guess they did what they thought best for their children."
"But they just left them and never came back."
"Those were the rules. I guess it was easier on the kids or something."
The angel glances curiously at him "They didn't even give you actual names did they?"
Darkwing is silent as he thinks back "No. The ones born here weren't expected to live. They had numbers written on our right arms in red dye for identification purposes. They usually just called us by number." he says facetiously.
"And do you recall what your numbers were?"
"Hmmmm" he hadn't thought about all of this for such a very long time "No. I can't recall what they were. But it doesn't really matter does it?"
She smiles without answering then turns back to the scene that plays out before them.
It didn't take Darkwing long as a child to shed the braces, much to the awe of his doctor.
It didn't take him long to learn to run, jump, climb...get into trouble...
As if on cue, a new scene plays out before them. The children are all being taken into one room while exterminators are sent throughout the building to take care of a rat problem. A mischievous grin spreads across Darkwing's face as he recalls the cause of the exterminators being called in.
"I take it you have no problem remembering this part of your childhood," the angel says in a mock accusing tone.
"I just hope Gos never hears about this one. She'd never let me live it down." Darkwing replies.
"Now let me see. I believe somebody smuggled a book into the clinic that was not considered appropriate reading material for small children. One of the older kids read it out loud to the younger ones." she recollects. " And this inspired you , for some reason, to decide to try and tame and train rats!"
Darkwing laughed "That's what they get for not letting us have pets! Besides, I thought it was a clever idea, considering that there were more rats than people in that place. Wouldn't it sound logical to tame the things if we had to live with them?"
"It might have, if you weren't trying to train them from what you learned in the book." She looks at him with an incriminating smirk "You do recall the title of
that particular book don't you?"
Darkwing's face flushes "Eh...yeah...hehe, it was called...Willard." He sees her eyes fixed on him, accusing, yet playful. He shrugs "I was just a kid!"
She chuckles warmly "Come on." As they continue on, the scene changes again. This time, Darkwing sees himself as a small child, running with the other children in the clinic, playing and laughing with the other kids. He has an old worn blue piece of curtain over his shoulders like a cape. He is pretending to fly. He jumps off one of the rickety old cots landing hard on the floor and without warning he collapses to the ground and stops breathing.
This too, Darkwing remembers. He had collapsed many, many times in the Lost Children's Clinic. He had come close to dying several times, but he was never afraid. In the Lost Children's Clinic, dying was perceived as a very natural occurrence.
This time was different, however. This time he actually crossed over. He died – at least for a little while.
Again, the ambiance all around changes. Soon, Darkwing finds himself back in that valley. This time he is watching himself, as a child, entering the valley for the first time.
The small boy that was Darkwing's young self is more than a little disoriented. One reason being perhaps that he had never been outside the clinic in his life. He had never felt grass under his feet or taken in fresh air. The child finds himself on the path. Something seems to being beaconing him to walk the path. Still confused, he starts to slowly follow the path of smooth shiny stones.
Halfway through the valley, however, the path abruptly ends. The boys stops, his little webbed feet firmly planted on the last stepping stone. Now what? He is almost afraid to walk on the grass.
He lifts his eyes in the direction the path was leading. He sees somebody walking through the soft grass towards hi. It is a young woman dressed in a bluish white robe. She stops in front of him. "It's alright little one. You aren't meant to go any further on this path, not yet. She says with a soft kind voice. She offers the child her hand. Trustingly, he takes it and she begins to lead him through the valley.
"I knew I'd met you somewhere before!" Darkwing exclaims to the angel.
She grins at him then motions for him to keep watching.
They walk along the valley. The boy enjoying the feel of the silk like blades under his feet.
"So where am I suppose to go, then?" the boy finally asks.
Just then, a low unearthly growl coming from the shadows draws their attention. The boy can just make out the outline of – something, moving within the darkness.
"What is that?" he asks her.
"That is the soul of darkness – evil. That is why you are still here." the lady explains.
The boy looks toward the beast in the dark shadows then back to the lady, obviously confused.
She kneels beside him "You see little one, in the world you live in evil is very strong. It hurts a lot of innocent people and corrupts the hearts of many more. But look." She motions to the ground where the light ends. There are the colors of purple and blue before the darkness.
"That is all that stands between the light and the dark. It is like the twilight of evening that is always between day and night. That is what a Guardsman is. A Guardsman stands between the light and the dark, the good and the evil. The twilight forever separates the two. This is your job on earth, young one, to always stand between the light and dark. To stand between the evil and the innocent."
"Cooool!" the boy exclaims, finally grasping what she is getting at "Do I get super powers too?!"
"Uh... sort of...when you are ready...but that won't be any time soon, trust me! For now. It's time for you to go back."
With that the scene fades. Darkwing recalls his near-death experience and he recalls as well, coming too in the emergency room of the hospital after he had been pronounced dead! Ho boy! Three nurses fainted!
Darkwing shakes his head in amusement. "So, you're telling me that my becoming Darkwing Duck was all preordained?" he asks.
"Yes,"
There is an expression on his face that says he isn't fully convinced.
"But you were born for for a life of espionage and intrigue were you not?"
Well, I may have a natural born gift beyond that of mere man (there's that ego again). But To say that I was born just for this purpose. I mean, I did choose to become Darkwing Duck all on my own, ya know?"
"Oh you're sure of that?" the angel asks with a grin.
"Sure."
Taking his right arm she places a palm over the back of the forearm for a moment them slips the glove off his hand. She pushes back the sleeve to reveal three numbers in red dye. Darkwing's face flushes as he remembers, now, the three numbers he was identified by as a child in the clinic – 007!
To be continued...
From The Author: OK, as you can see, I did integrate parts of the old fic into this one. A lot of the scenes in the revised version will simply be copied and pasted from the old one(Being lazy here). But as I said, I wanted the story to include Scrooge McDuck. But Darkwing's attitude towards him right now, Scrooge may find himself in the Valley of Death!