AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again, I apologize for my lack of updates, especially so near the end of this story. There will be one more conclusive chapter after this, so stay tuned for the end of 'The Path of Consequence! And of course, thank you to my past reviewers!

DISCLAIMER: Jake Mallard is © me. Darkwing Duck and Negaduck are © Disney. That's about it.

CHAPTER 16

I didn't regain consciousness until over an hour later. The pounding pain in the back of my head was what woke me; it felt like a merciless jackhammer. As I began to regain feeling throughout my body, I slowly began to recollect what had happened. I had come close to capturing the criminal back at City Hall, but he was the one who ambushed me. Negaduck. Drake. My own son.

It took a moment to realize that I was in an awkward sitting position. I was in a chair, and as I tried to lift my head, pain shot down from my head and into my spine. I winced and moved to lift my hand to cradle my sore forehead, but I found that I could not. When I opened my eyes, I saw the rope that was tightly wrapped around me, bounding my arms at my sides and holding me prisoner in the chair in which I sat. They were tied so tight that every move and jerk I made to loosen their hold only made it more painful.

Struggling to break free was useless. I would have to go about another way to escape. Looking around, I saw that I was in a dark warehouse. The only light came from a few dim bulbs mounted in the high ceiling overhead. The air was musty, and towers of crates were scattered throughout the warehouse like tall pillars. Through the filthy windows near the ceiling I could see that it was still dark outside, but the faint light of the sunrise was on its way toward the horizon.

My mind quickly went to work to assess the difficult situation I was now in. Where was Negaduck? This was surely his doing, and he couldn't have been far. Did I have any tools that could benefit an escape? Surely the villain had taken my gun, but had he searched me and relinquished me of anything else?

A sharp, screeching noise from behind me interrupted my thoughts. I turned my head as far as I could to glance over my shoulder. Negaduck was standing at a sort of workman's bench, sharpening a large dagger-like knife on a whirring grindwheel. A moment went by, and I wondered if he even realized that I had awakened. Then he shut off the grindwheel and examined the sharp, flawless weapon in his hands.

"Well, well. It's about time you woke up," he growled deeply with his back to me. "All the waiting was beginning to bore me."

"Believe me, I didn't intend to take a nap," I fired back. But even though I was keeping up a cynical appearance, it was quite the opposite of what I was really feeling. Anxious. I did not know how to prepare myself for what would happen next. I did not know what was going through Negaduck's mind at that moment. Would he try to kill me in haste? Did he have other plans he had been concocting for years? I didn't know what to expect.

He remained quiet from where he stood from far behind me. The silence was quickly beginning to unnerve me. Every muscle in my body tensed when I heard his footsteps approaching. Seconds later, he calmly came up alongside me. He pushed a nearby crate a few feet in front of me and sat down on top of it to stare directly at me. I could see the pure hatred in his blue eyes that had once been filled with innocence. They were unrecognizable behind the black mask, and it sent a shiver up my spine. I could see no trace of my son left in those eyes.

"How did you get here?" I finally asked him.

"You're in no position to be asking questions!" he quickly barked back. "But since I already know how you managed to arrive here years ago, I can grace you with an answer. I've recently discovered a portal that transports between the two parallel universes. That's how I got here."

More silence. I did whatever I could to avert my eyes toward the ceiling, to the side, anywhere but those spiteful eyes that bore into my tainted soul. And this did not go unnoticed by Negaduck. He smirked and began to pick at his nails with the glinting knife in his hand.

"So, what's it been? Twelve, thirteen years?" he asked as if we were two old friends reuniting after many years.

"Thirteen," I clarified. I had never stopped counting the years. "That would make you twenty-two?"

"Twenty-three."

Now it was my turn to smirk and I managed to look at his face. "You're not wasting any time getting on the criminal bandwagon, are you, boy?"

Negaduck's eyes narrowed resentfully. "That may be true, but I am quickly on the rise to power. While you've been hiding here in this disgustingly perfect universe, I've been in the process of taking control of our homeworld, which has since been named 'The Negaverse.'"

"The Negaverse?" I repeated with a raise of my brows, and I gave an amused chuckle. "A little pompous, don't you think? The citizens won't stand for that very long."

"Oh no?" he countered. When he continued, there was a smug tone in his voice. "On the contrary, old man. I now run that city with an iron fist. I'm referred to as 'Lord Negaduck!' Everyone is terrified of me, and I shape the society in whichever way I choose. It's become my own personal playground. No one dares object to what I say or do, not even your precious SHUSH." He leaned forward and gave me a proud grin. "I rule our hometown, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."

"So why are you here?" I challenged. "If everything was so 'perfect' in the 'Negaverse,' then why leave it behind to come here? What's your reason?"

"The same as yours," Negaduck said as if the answer were painfully obvious. "I was getting bored and needed a challenge. That's why you came here."

"But I'm not the one taking hostages and threatening to blow up City Hall," I sneered, trying to uncomfortably shift my arms beneath the tight ropes. "I'm not the criminal, Drake."

Negaduck's stare went ice-cold--they sent another shiver down my spine. There was an eerie calmness in them, but they were filled with a sense of knowing. And the glimmer of hate was growing stronger.

"Don't be such a hypocrite," he scoffed in his growly voice that matched what mine had become over my years of bitterness and wickedness. "You're no saint either, old man. You're far from it," Negaduck continued to lecture as he stood to his feet. He began to circle me intently, staring down at me in my captured state. We were both feeling deja vu from thirteen years ago, but as irony would have it, our roles were switched. Now I was the helpless one and he was in control. "You had everything that anyone could ever want. Success, money, a family. The perfect life, right? You never knew what hardships were like. You took one blow to your ego, and instead of moving on, you wallowed in your own self misery and destroyed everything. You destroyed your family, you destroyed your life, and you destroyed MINE!" he snarled as he forcefully hit the back of the chair to which I was tied. It even made me jump, surprised at the fury I felt from him.

I regained my calmness and glowered defiantly at the mask mallard as he stepped around to stand in front of me. "Don't be preposterous. I didn't force you to choose this path."

"You were enough of an influence," Negaduck asserted accusingly. "I was forced to grow up in a shit-hole of an orphanage where I was pummeled and harassed until I ran away when I was seventeen. Because of you, my life had been a living hell. I was filled with anger and a thirst for revenge against everyone who had wronged me. I was a victim to you, and I was a victim to everyone else. But I wasn't going to stand it any longer! I left that dump and began my own life of crime!" He took the knife in his hand and violently hurled it at the wall where he had pinned a newspaper photograph of me. The knife pierced my photograph right between the eyes, and he grinned proudly at me. "And I'm damn good at it!"

"So that's how you justify the hardships you've had in life? By tormenting others?"

Negaduck smiled deviously and leaned toward me so that there was only a foot of space separating our glares. "Hey, you know the saying: 'Do unto others before they do unto me.' Isn't that the philosophy you live by?"

I didn't answer him, because I knew he was right. I kept my jaw locked and my glare firm. When I didn't respond, his smile fell into an a dark scowl. Then he drew his arm across his front and struck me hard in the side of my face with the back of his hand. The force made the chair teeter, threatening to overturn with me tied to it. I grunted loudly as the stinging sensation immediately covered my face and I hung my head for a moment to rid myself of the dizziness.

And I heard Negaduck sneer with disdain. "How does it feel to have the tables turned?"

I only hissed through my teeth in return. Now I was at his mercy and anything I had to say would fall on deaf ears. When I lifted my head, I saw him loading bullets into the carousel of a pistol. I stopped breathing as he locked his eyes with mine. His dark blue irises were merciless, cold, and filled with a hard hatred that had been saved over the years for this moment--for my demise. And at that point, I felt the slightest ounce of fear toward him. Toward my son.

"I hate you for all you've done to me. And now you're really gonna wish you had made sure I was dead that night," Negaduck growled. Then, with a purely evil smile appearing on his bill, he cocked back the hammer of the pistol, raised it to aim directly between my eyes...

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!"

Both of us jumped in alarm, but Negaduck was obviously more upset. "Ohhh, not him again!" he snarled. "Not now!"

"I am the pitbull that bites the ankle of crime!" the hero's voice continued. The cloud of blue smoke appeared again, just like at City Hall, and it dissolved to reveal the purple suited mallard. "I am Darkwiiiing Duck!"

Negaduck roared furiously, enraged that his moment of triumph had been put on hold. He removed his aim from my head, but only so he could redirect it toward his identical double and pull the trigger repeatedly in a blind fury. I watched with surprise as Darkwing effortlessly back flipped several times, dodging each bullet with flare until Negaduck's pistol began to click rather than fire. The chamber was out of bullets.

Darkwing landed on his feet and folded his arms across his chest with a smug smile while Negaduck examined his empty revolver. "Aww, is the big bad villain all out of bullets?" the hero taunted, which only made the villain more angry. Negaduck glowered and hurled the empty gun at Darkwing, which hit him hard in the side of the head.

"Ouchie..." Darkwing groaned and swayed a few times before collapsing to the ground in a head. I could help but pathetically roll my eyes.

Negaduck scoffed bitterly and approached where Darkwing had fallen. I took advantage of the distraction and began to twist and turn him wrists in every direction. SHUSH had taught me well in methods of escape. All I needed was an unhindered moment with my son's vengeance focused elsewhere. Negaduck stopped and stared down at Darkwing's unmoving body. The blow to the head had knocked him out cold. Or so he thought. He even gave Darkwing a hard kick to the ribs and received no response. A low chuckle from him gradually ascended into a maniacal laugh. "Some hero! His career is over before it even began! Ahahahahaha!--ACK!"

He choked on his laugh when Darkwing swiftly knocked his feet out from under him. Negaduck fell hard onto his back and Darkwing wasted no time in leaping onto his enemy. The two of them tumbled across the floor, both try to gain the upper hand over the other, I continued to try to free myself. My patience was wearing thin, but the ropes were slowly stretching and becoming loose. The ropes were beginning to sting, leaving harsh ropeburn behind on my wrists. But finally, I succeeded in pulling one wrist free. I looked up to be sure that Negaduck had not seen. He was still struggling with Darkwing, whom he had in a headlock and mercilessly trying to strangle. And in light of his recent attempt to kill me, my paternal instincts toward my son had disappeared. I felt no drive to rush forward and aid him, but I couldn't bring myself to assist Darkwing in the capture. Instead, I pulled my other wrist free, got to my feet, and silently slunk away into the shadows.

I hid myself behind one of the towers of crates and peered around its corner to watch the conclusion between the hero and the villain. Negaduck was gagging and still fighting to pull himself free from Darkwing's tight grasp.

"Give it up, evil-doer!" Darkwing boomed heroically. "There's no escaping from Darkwing Duck!"

Negaduck's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, but he wouldn't give in so easily. With all his might, he twisted himself around and thrust his knee directly into Darkwing's groin. The purple-clad mallard gasped and instantly let go of his adversary so that he would fall to his knees in a whimper.

"Of course, I could be mistaken..." he wheezed painfully.

Negaduck spun around in the direction where I had been sitting just moments earlier. But his eyes went wide and his bottom jaw fell open when he saw the empty chair and ropes. His shocked expression quickly turned to one of rage, and to this day I swear I saw blood in his eyes.

"No!" Negaduck howled furiously and threw his trembling fists into the air.

The sound of wailing sirens interrupted his fit and I heard the police cars screeching to a stop outside of the warehouse. Darkwing, being the newest vigilante, had mysteriously vanished to escape dealing with the official authorities. And while I was still hidden inside of the warehouse, there was no time for Negaduck to seek me out. At any second, a dozen police officers would burst through every door, and Negaduck knew it. He turned around in a circle once, knowing that I was still somewhere inside, watching him.

"This isn't over, old man!" Negaduck shouted into the air, his voice echoing off of the walls and reaching my ears. "One of these days, I will get you! While you hunt me, I'll be hunting you! One night, I'm going to return and bring you to Hell! That's a promise!"

After he had made his promise, Negaduck grabbed the corner of his cape and dramatically swept it across him. In an instant, he disappeared in a cloud of red smoke.

I found myself breathing heavier than I had realized. His departing words were so confident, so strong. I knew that Negaduck would grow to be a powerful crime lord, and he wouldn't rest until he destroyed me. There was nothing holding him back from committing the most heinous crimes--no conscience, no remorse, no compassion. All had been deleted from his psyche over the years; ever since that night thirteen years ago.

A loud 'BANG' jarred me out of my stoic state of mind as the SWAT team kicked in one of the side doors and swarmed inside with their rifles at the ready. I inhaled a deep, calming breath to regain my stature and smoothly ran my fingers through my frazzled feathers on the top of my head. I even made sure to straighten my disshelved jacket and tie before I stepped out from my hiding place to greet them.

"Who goes there!" the commanding SWAT team officer demanded as half a dozen rifles were instantly sighted on me.

I calmly held up my SHUSH badge as I approached.

"Agent Jake Mallard. This crime scene is secured."

One more chapter to go. Please review, and thank you for reading!