(( A.N. A shorter chapter this time, but I hope you guys like it. ;P ))
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After giving his stepson the basics of the events that had just passed, Nosedive was just barely coming to grips with it himself. Of course it was great news to hear that he would someday be returned home and to his original body (However much fun he had in his human form, it was a borrowed body, and he missed the one he was born with) and to the homeland that he wanted so much to see again, but it was also a bit more bitter than sweet to know that it wouldn't be for a long time yet. He knew he was lucky that he would get there at all, but he couldn't help but wonder if his mother would live to meet his wonderful new family…
Wildwing was grim and pensive. Nosedive was sure he was thinking the same thing, but then he turned to Kendra, who had been abnormally quiet for a few moments after all that possessed chatter, and asked her, "Kendra… Please, tell me. The goddesses, do you remember if they mentioned anything to you about someone named Canard?"
The girl blinked at him, processing the question. As soon as he asked, the information manifested in her memories as if she had always known. But the look on her face told everyone before they had even heard her words that it wasn't going to be what they hoped to hear…
"…It's difficult to say…" She finally forced herself to mumble, still getting used to all the information that had been uploaded into her new form, both the mundane and the otherworldly. "And I'm afraid that his fate was the same in all timelines…"
Wildwing interrupted her, impatient with her hesitancy, "Please. Just tell me. I just want to know…"
"…You'll never see him again." She finally admitted to him, which caused his heart to sink. The rest of the ducks hung their heads in respect for him.
Kendra quickly continued before they lost too much faith, "But he didn't suffer! He was only stuck in dimensional limbo for a few hours, and then he escaped through another portal that randomly opened up for him. That portal took him back to Puckworld. However, it was not the same Puckworld you know…" She added quickly, as she saw them look up at her with hope in their eyes. "The Puckworld that the portal led him to... Was many hundreds of years in the past of the world you lived in. He eventually settled in, and he invented many important things for your world. He was just as loved in that community as he was in yours. He married a wonderful Puckling female, and fathered many children. His descendants include none other than the legendary Drake Ducain himself, and… You."
Wildwing's low-hanging head steadily began to look up at her explanation, and by the end of it he had sprung to his feet. "W-What?!"
"It's true." Kendra repeated, knowing he'd need to hear it said again to fully believe it. "Uncle Wildwing, Daddy-Dive… Your long-lost friend Canard and your hero Drake Ducain… They are your ancestors. So please don't be so sad by this news, because, even though you'll never meet again in this life, your friend lives on. Through you…"
After a short pause, Wildwing bent down to hug the girl, and Nosedive was quick to follow him. Soon all of the ducks were sharing in a big group hug. Not a dry eye or feathered cheek in the house...
Karen smiled through her own misty orbs as she watched them… And the vaguely tawny-colored spirit that appeared very briefly behind them, placing his palm on Wildwing's back for just a moment before disappearing.
How curious. Karen had never seen a ghost smile before…
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Karen was worried out of her mind.
Nosedive was worried too, and for the sake of his wife, he was getting a little righteously livid.
Cornelius and Kendra had gone out with their friends to a baseball game that night, and it was now nearing midnight and they hadn't come back…
It was completely unlike them. Cornelius was of course the type to never stay up that late unless it was for the sake of an important invention.
And Kendra, despite her increase of age and wisdom, was still just as pure in spirit and childlike as she had been before. She still loved playing with her dolls and watching kid's movies (though she preferred animated films and cartoon shows over her old Sesame Street-kind of programming), and she seemed so comfortable around them and in her new skin, that although it was hard to adjust their eyes to, it wasn't hard at all to adjust their hearts to. She even still ate her peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches cut with her favorite old dinosaur-shaped sandwich cutter, and she still favored the princess-pink dresses she always loved back when she was still a toddler, a little over a year ago.
So they knew she definitely wasn't the "party girl" type either, to say the least...
"Oh my god, oh my god…" Karen fretted as she paced, trying to call her son for the tenth time. "He said he'd call if he ever needed help, but what if he couldn't get out the phone quick enough, oh god—"
Nosedive was quietly contemplating what he would say or do if someone had laid a finger on either of his children… Suffice to say, he'd make the Dad from "Taken" and his tactics look like tea and crumpets with the Queen of England…
Suddenly, there was a knock at Karen's front door.
Her and Nosedive rushed to it. She unlocked and opened the door, while Nosedive stood with his hand hovering over his puck launcher. But it was no ransom-grubbing dark witch or wizard standing on the other side, it was their son, who was unhurt, but the boy that he had hanging limply on his and Kendra's shoulders was not…
It was Goob, and the poor boy's right arm, his pitching arm, looked as if a large wild animal had gotten hold of it for at least a few second. Blood was running down from several gashes and holes, and he looked extremely pale and weak…
"Oh my god! Get him inside!" Karen ushered them in right away. Franny followed closely behind them. "Cornelius, what on earth happened?!"
"It was a werewolf, Mrs. Flashblade-Robinson!" Franny immediately supplied for her still rather traumatized boyfriend. "After the game we went and got ice cream, then we cut through the park on the way back home, and a werewolf appeared and tried to kidnap Cornelius! Me and Kendra beat him up, of course! And Goob took a bat to it! But then it started yelling at us, "Stop, stop, uncle, uncle!" We asked him why he ought to show him mercy, and he said, "No you stupid muggles, I'm his uncle!" But when we finally let him go, he tried to attack Cornelius again!"
"And Goob took the bite for me…" Cornelius finished for her, full of guilt and sadness for his friend.
"Draco…" Karen exhaled, before momentarily forgetting about it, and setting to work to help the teenager.
Taking out her cherry-wood wand, she healed the superficial scratches and bite wounds, cleaned the blood and drool and then restored the fluids that the boy had lost. He still looked tired after she was through, but then, he apparently had been diagnosed with both anemia and chronic fatigue syndrome, which explained why he always looked and felt a bit like a zombie, even when exerting himself physically. It made his prowess on the field and in defending his friend even more impressive, because he was literally always exhausted. Despite diligently getting his eight hours of sleep every night, it did him no good. He would live his entire life never knowing what it was like to not be exhausted, to have energy. He was always running on empty, and he always would. Or so he thought…
"Thanks for the patch-up Mrs. Flashblade-Robinson," Goob mentioned languidly after she was done, using the name that only they knew for now. Though the Mighty Ducks were preparing to make an official announcement about it soon, as their agreed upon maternity leave of six years was coming up, and they would be soon going back to holding games open to the public. They would have to explain it all then, why one of their Mighty 'Duck' teammates was now apparently a human, but for another few months at least they could enjoy their privacy. And even after telling what they were prepared to the citizens of Earth, there were of course a few details they were leaving out too, as they'd been advised by several high-up magic-men to do.
"Oh Goob, no, thank you so much sweetheart…" Karen replied, giving him a hug. But then, pulling back from him, she couldn't help but still look sad. "And… I'm so, so sorry, sweetie… I can only heal the scratches… You do know what being bitten by a werewolf means, right…?"
He paused, then nodded. "Well… That does suck… But I still don't regret it."
Karen's eyes sparkled with gratitude, and she had to kiss his forehead and his cheek, too. "Oh, you brave boy! I promise you, I'll brew the Wolfsbane potion you'll need to stay in control of your mind during your transformation for the rest of your life. If I ever have to go somewhere, I'll be sure to brew as much as you need. I can't stop the transformation, I'm so sorry about that, dear… But I can at least make sure you never hurt someone when you're like that. The way my awful, horrible, -evil- little brat of a brother did to you! Oh…" She finally withdrew from the children and hid her face in her husband's chest, shaking with sobs. No matter how selfless the boy was, she couldn't suppress her guilt for what had happened to him.
And despite that too, Goob tried to ease her worries anyways. "It's okay, Mrs. F. Really. These things happen sometimes. I've had a pretty long sweet patch there for a while, a few bumps in the road won't get me down for long."
Cornelius hugged his friend too, and the girls soon followed to join him. After a few moments Karen managed to calm down and then have a short think, after which she began to mumble, "My parents… Must be being imprisoned, otherwise they'd never send that cowardly boy to do their work for them. They're punishing them for their failure. But they're scared of me, which is why they tried to get Cornelius as a ransom instead of trying to strong arm me, of course… I'm sorry Cornelius, but we'll have to be much more careful from now on…"
He sighed at the soon to be realized loss of his freedom, but he nodded in acceptance of it like a good son. "It's okay, mom. I understand."
Kendra spoke up too. "And, I'm sorry too mom! I had a chance where I could have taken out the werewolf, before he got Goob, but I hesitated… I thought that because he said he was our uncle, that he was the "enemy" that I was supposed to try to "love", as the goddesses advised me. But I think I was mistaken now…"
"No, Kendra…" Karen immediately denied, thinking deeply. "No, baby… I would never want you to do something like that unless you absolutely had to, to save your own life. But I understand…" She sighed deeply. "Between the Death Eaters blackmailing my parents, and the attack that we're always expecting from the Saurians… We can't deal with having to anticipate both of these problems at the same time…"
She sighed again, this time in a very irritated manner. "Love your enemy, huh… Damn it… I… I know what I have to do…"
Nosedive blinked at her, not liking the vibes coming off his normally cheery white witch of a wife. "What? What do you mean, what do you have to do…?"
She looked up into his eyes, giving him a special sort of grim and determined look. A look that told him that she was going to do this, no matter what. No matter how much she herself didn't want to.
"I have to go back to Malfoy Manor…"
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