Disclaimer: I do not own DarkWing Duck or any other Disney character.
If you haven't read "The Path Chosen", this story isn't going to make sense to you.
This fic derives directly from the original story. It's a look into one of the DarkWing realities that could have been. This is the story of the one called Tracker.
Tracker's Story Part 4
In light of his situation, DarkWing had decided to pass up going out on patrol to stay home with Morgana. He had not told her much about his case other than SHUSH discovering a disturbance in the time and space continuum. He didn't tell her that the whole thing evolved around him, and that their lives as they knew it may all be a mistake that was never suppose to be. She didn't need to be upset in her condition. Besides, DarkWing wasn't convinced that there was anything wrong. Life just seemed to wonderful right now. Though he did find himself jumping at his own reflection, expecting to run into a apparition of his alternate self. Boy, did Dr. Bellum ever get into his head with that one!
Unfortunately, things at home weren't exactly peaceful. Gosalyn was shunning both Drake and Morgana since her fight with her adopted father over the bedroom. Drake had not paid her little silent treatment much mind. He simply ignored her in return, which was less than a mature approach to such a delicate matter. He and Morgana had decided to turn in early that night. He was mentally stressed out after the days events. His head had no sooner touched the pillow than he was asleep.
"Come on Dad." A voice called. Drake looked up to see Gosalyn standing a few yards infront of him, beaconing him to come.
"Gosalyn! Young Lady, what are you doing out of bed in the middle of..the...night..." he trailed of as he realized it was broad daylight. And he and Gosalyn were both outside. What's more, he was dressed as DarkWing Duck, not Drake Mallard. "What's going on here?" He glanced around, finding himself standing on a large stone path in the middle of a valley of some sort. Nobody else was around. There were no trees or shrubbery. DarkWing looked down at the path under his feet. The stones were a mixture of colors. Some were purple some were blue, there were silver and white stones as well. The path was wide. DarkWing lifted his eyes to follow it. A short distance ahead of where Gosalyn stood, the path branched off into several smaller paths, all the stones on the smaller paths seemed to be a solid color, either purple or black or blue, all leading in completely different directions. All of them save the main path he was on, led into what looked like a wall of rippling light that hung in thin air, a short distance a way. He looked ahead of him to where the main path led. At the point where the other paths branched from it, the stones in the path changed to just silver and white and led up to a near by hill.
"OK, This is a dream." He shrugged "Might as well see what happens." He told himself as he walked up to join his daughter.
Gosalyn grabbed his hand eagerly "Hurry Dad. He's waiting for us you know."
"Who is." DarkWing asked.
She pointed to the hilltop. DarkWing looked to see that somebody was now standing at the top of the hill, at the end of the path. The figure was dressed in a white and silver
costume, the make of the costume resembled his own in some ways. "Who is that?" He asked Gosalyn who was tugging at his hand anxious to go.
"Don't be silly pop. You know who it is." Gosalyn giggled. DarkWing looked up again at the figure on the hill. He did know the duck in white from somewhere but he couldn't put his finger on it..."
BRRIIINNGGG!!!!! The harsh ringing of the alarm clock woke him suddenly. Sitting up in bed, Drake hit the silencer on the alarm. He looked at the clock, 9 AM, and he hadn't been out all night this time, it was time to get up. Drake sighed and lay back on his pillow . What an interesting dream, he'd like to have finished it. It had been so vivid, so real. He wondered what made him have such a dream. Who was that duck on the hill that resembled him. Drake shot back up in bed. Resembled him! Could that have been an alternate version of himself!
He shook his head trying to think clearly. It was unlikely that the Time-Continuum-reality-mix-up would be invading his dreams. It was just a dream, nothing more. He hadn't seen any specters of himself so far. Maybe Bellum was just wrong about all this time distortion stuff. He had a hard time believing things were meant to be any different than what they were. He was getting more respect from the people of St. Canard since that Christmas past and he and Morgana were expecting a baby! How could destiny possibly be intended to be different than it was! Maybe this was the way things were meant to be, besides there wasn't a lot he could do about it. In any case, he had his hands full with a certain red-headed little duckling who was not making life easy for him.
It was the day before Christmas eve, The Mallard's first holiday as a family, was looking anything but merry.
Gosalyn sat by herself in the kitchen, eating her breakfast of cold cereal. Morgana entered, going to the counter for some hot coffee. She glanced at her step daughter, who refused to acknowledge her presence. Morgana made an attempt to reconcile with her. "Cold this morning, isn't it?" She asked looking at the red haired child who sat staring down at the table. Morgana took her cup of decaf and sat down across from her. "Gosalyn can't you try to understand why we're doing this?"
"I already understand." Gosayln replied flatly without looking up.
"Do you?"
"Yeah" Gosalyn answered as she slipped out of her chair and started for the door "I understand. The better roomfor the better kid. After all I'm just adopted!" She marched out of the kitchen, leaving her stepmother feeling guilty.
A few minutes later, Drake entered the kitchen in his bath robe to find Morgana sitting quietly at the table, a look of concern on her face. "What's wrong?" he asked pouring himself a cup of coffee.
Morgana sighed wearily "I don't know Dark. Maybe we are doing Gosalyn wrong. She's been so depressed since we told her we were giving the baby her room."
Drake drew a long deep breath, he wasn't in the mood for this right now. "Morg. You and I talked this out thoroughly before we ever said anything to Gosalyn. We agreed it was the only rational thing to do. The baby needs the bigger room."
"What do children understand about rationality. That is a labor of the mind, and a mature mind at that, children see things with their hearts. And Gosalyn's heart is breaking right now." Morgana said with a a depth of sadness.
Drake looked at his wife and realized how concerned she was for the little girl. He hoped that Gosalyn would someday understand how lucky she was to have a stepmother that cared for her so much.
"I know Morgana, but what else can we do? The little room is just too little for the nursery."
"Well, you know, we could give her the loft and you could use the little room for your study, like Gosalyn suggested earlier."
"Oh no." Drake protest "I need someplace to go for peace and quiet, you know..."
"You have the tower for that Dark, and you're hardly in the loft anyways..." she paused and studied her husbands face. He didn't look to cooperative about the whole thing but at least he was hearing her out.
"Now, you're the one who talked about making sacrifices. Shouldn't you be willing to make a few sacrifices for the good of the family?"
Again Drake dew a deep breath. She had him there, but still, he wasn't ready to give in. "I know that Morg, but I don't want Gosalyn to have the loft."
"Why?"
"Because she has been pushing us away since we told her about the baby. She's avoiding us, not talking to us...." he paused for a moment to take a sip of his coffee. "Giving her a room that is set off by itself is just going to make it easier for her to pull away from us."
Morgana understood what Drake was saying but she didn't really agree with his logic. Still she knew the tone of voice he was speaking in. It was the I'm dead set in this, we're doing things my way, tone. And she knew better than to try and argue with him when he got that way.
Drake stood up from the table "We might as well get this over with. I'll start moving her into the new room." he said turning to go up stares to Gosalyn's room. All at once, he again was overtaken by a sense of foreboding. Again his surrounding seemed to change in some way. Things – little things seemed to be different. The kitchen table was a few inches farther to the right. There were pictures on the wall that weren't there before. The walls were painted a different shade of white. Drake glanced at Morgana, who for an instant seemed to disappear from where she sat at the table, then reappear standing next to it. She was dressed in a light blue dress instead of her usual red one.
Overwhelmed by the strange occurrences Drake attempted to sit back down, only the chair he attempted to sit in faded unexpectedly into thin air. Drake flopped down on the floor a couple of feet from where the chair now stood.
"Dark!" Morgana called getting up to go to her husband.
Drake sat on the floor gazing around the room with a dazed look on his face. Everything was back to normal, for now. For the first time Drake realized what was happening. What had happened to him the day before wasn't just his imagination. It was the anomalies Dr. Bellum had spoken of. It had to be! Reality, had been altered. Somehow, life as he knew it, now, as things were, was not how they were suppose to happen. Drake closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He felt like he had just entered the twilight zone.
"Dark?" Morgana said with great concern as she knelt next to her husband. "Dark, are you alright?"
"I – I don't know anymore Morg, I just don't know.."
To be continued.....
