A/N: And now for something entirely different for this story ... plot continuity! For those not caring about that sort of thing consider this as just a set up for what happens in the very next chapter. For anyone else, this all takes place after 'Just A Nightmare'.

A/N: Hands up to those who've watched Law and Order and CSI?

A/N: My OC integrations are unavoidable in this episode. If you didn't guess from 'Wisteria', Simon Bushroot is too important to my subsequent plotline for me to simply 'edit him out of existence'. I seriously don't understand what you guys have against the poor kid! I need useful original characters to play off against the regular characters because the original cast isn't broad enough to do all the new things I want to do. Well, I don't care, because the more people that hate him, the stronger he'll get. That seems to be the thing with plants, doesn't it?

A Dark Verse: Part 1

'Just another average night ...' Quiverwing Duck, posing as Dark Duck, walked back to the rat-catcher after handing the robbers to nearby police officers.

"DW."
The radio on the rat-catcher? He turned on the ignition and the radio turned off.
The built-in screen activated. "That's a new feature." He reviewed the technology upgrade in curiosity.
"What's a new feature, DW?"
"Never mind, Launchpad. What's the matter?"

"DW, I don't know why you're flying below the radar, but you'd better call in."
"S.H.U.S.H. has a case?"
Launchpad raised an eyebrow. "Heh, maybe I'd better give you the street address, ol' buddy."

Quiver stepped into the foyer of the commerce building, feeling desecrated.

"You're frankly harder to get hold of than your universal counterpart."

Quiver eyed the security officer walking up to him.
"I'm Lawrence Eider, head of security for the St Canard division of Hamil Corporation." He gestured to the lift and Quiver followed him.

"While you're here in his place, you do realise you have to fill in for any ongoing cases we're going through?"
"I've given testimonies before."
"I'm afraid this'll be a little different. You're the one who has raised the charges."

Quiver sat down in the seat Eider directed him into. 'I raised a charge?' He looked around the board room table.
"Alright." The black haired duck on the far end of the table stared at him for a long moment as more people began filing into the room.

Quiver shrugged her weirdness off and considered the other people in the room. There were two women ducks directly opposite him. One wore an evening dress, the other a business suit. Both of them looked at him, one with confusion, and the other with interest.
"Elmo said you're from another universe." The curious one wearing a business suit said. Her voice was crystal clear, as if she were speaking from a high definition TV set. "I'm Felicia Sputterspark. This is my mother, Kyla Princeton."
"Pleased to meet you." He nodded to Kyla. "Ma'am."

A lanky dog stepped in through the doorway with a briefcase. He folded his lengthy self down into the seat beside Quiver. "Incredible, you're Quiverwing Duck." He held out his hand, grinning. "I'm Attorney Rex Euston."
"You work state prosecution?" Quiver shook his hand. "Maybe you can answer what we're doing in a commerce building for me?"
"Well, since you can't leave St Canard, the session is to be held here."

"Can I ask ..." Quiver's question trailed off as he watched Reginald Bushroot and a blonde duck walk in the room, hand in hand.

"Okay people. We are missing The Quiverwing Quack but we can't hold this up."

"Ladies and gentlemen ..." The woman at the front of the room stood up as she spoke. She looked turned her eyes in the direction of Felicia and Bushroot. "And surviving contestants. We have an apology from Elmo Sputterspark and The Quiverwing Quack who elected to save the multiverse instead of attending."
'Which reminds me ... why am I here?' Quiver wondered. 'I should be out there.'
"So the purpose for tonight is both unique and rather grave. Darkwing Duck has presented the Mastership with a significant dilemma. I have assembled you, so that we can mesh together hard facts and reason to come to a conclusion." She sat down.

"Are there any questions about the proceedings themselves?"
"Yes, Master." Rex Euston leaned forwards. "Your opinion usually stands on its own, Malduck. You suggest a bias in yourself?"
"Yes." Her dark eyes turned to Quiver. "I really hope Darkwing Duck is wrong. There is a short supply of proper peacekeepers as it is."
"Very well." Euston noted. "So here we begin."

Euston spoke. "The question that Darkwing brings to us tonight is 'has the peacekeeper in question turned rogue'. We all have a fair idea what a peacekeeper is. So I'll move on to-."

"I wanna know," piped a tiny voice. Everybody turned their heads, craning to see the child who had somehow escaped detection until now.

"Simon, what are you-how did you ..." Reginald stammered as he looked at his genetic proxy in front of him.
"Darkwing Duck," the brazen boy stepped towards the table, his head barely reaching past the edge, "Do you know what a peacekeeper is?"
Quiver gazed down at the errant young child. Gosh, he reminded him so much of Gosalyn, but so much younger. "Sure. A peacekeeper is a person who makes it their job to take action for the benefit of others. They make a choice of right over wrong for as long as they have that choice."

"What happens when they can't choose and they have to do the wrong thing?"
Quiver stared at the child. 'How can I possibly answer that question?'
"They get very sad." The blonde duck had turned her chair to face her child. "Simon, why aren't you with grandma and grandpa?"
"Because this is too important, mummy."

Malduck spoke. "Perhaps we should have a recess so you can get him back."

Felicia glanced at Kyla before turning her head back to the Bushroots. "Please, let him stay," she requested. "If Simon says it's important, I'm inclined to believe that he needs to be here."
"This isn't a discussion for children." Reginald Bushroot fixed his eyes on Felicia.
"Please, just ask him what he already understands about it, Reggie, before you decide if your son can handle it or not."
"Maybe you should ask the questions then, Felicia."
"Okay."

Felicia got up off her chair and knelt down away from the table in front of Simon. "What's the question we're going to answer here tonight, Simon?"
"Is the peacekeeper doing the wrong thing on purpose? Are they not doing their job anymore? Are they making things worse?"
"And why is this important for you, Simon?"
"Right and wrong are always important, Mrs. Sputterspark!"

Felicia nodded. "What happens if we do find him guilty, Simon?"
Simon was quiet for a moment in thought. "Are Malduck and Darkwing Duck both peacekeepers?"
"Yes."
"But Darkwing Duck was the one that asked the question, right?"
"Yes."
"Then it's Darkwing Duck's job to stop him."

Felicia stood up and turned around, a look of triumph on her face before she looked back down at Simon. "Simon, what does 'stop' mean to you, exactly?"
"What do you mean?" Simon rubbed his head in confusion. "Stopping someone means you stop them ... um, make them go quiet ... they ... stop ... thinking. They stop breathing. They stop ..." He shrugged and moved to Belladonna, "What's this one, mummy?" He took her hand and put it over his chest.

"Heart beats. That's the heart beating, sweetie." The blonde duck answered with a look of shock on her face.
"No more heart beats. And that's also really important and that's what makes me confused. If you have to stop life to save life then what's the line you're going to draw?"

Quiver fisted his hands under the table as Felicia sat back down in her chair. 'Boy, this sounds very ugly.' "Shouldn't we be taking this to a proper court?"
"It'll never get to a court, Quiver." Euston said quietly beside him.
Malduck sat forwards in her chair, addressing his question. "Our kind functions better under martial law. However, we do attempt leniency in our viewpoints."
"I object to killing anyone!" Quiver gritted.

"But you'll kill if you are certain you must. Now, if there's no further objection from the Bushroots, we can continue." For an answer, the miniature plant-duck climbed up into his father's lap.

"Very well." Euston began. "So now that we've defined the problem we are concerned with, we want to determine the existence of the problem. Let's start chronolo-"

"I'm sorry." Quiver interrupted. "But shouldn't the accused be here?"
"Not bloody likely." Eider the security guard growled from the other side of Kyla Princeton. "We've lost priceless prototype technology to him."

"... Chronologically, we must start at the first conviction and carried sentence." Euston continued on, getting slightly annoyed at all the interruptions. "Malduck?"

The discussion carried on.

Euston picked up a piece of paper from in front of him. "Darkwing previously listed out to me several altercations in the past including the conviction and sentence carried on drumhead for an unprovoked attack on Darkwing himself resulting in injury that ..." He coughed, "that required specialised medical attention."
Some of the people in the room shuddered, looking at Quiver with sympathy which was lost on him, since he'd personally been in another universe at the time.

"So we move onto the next significant situation involving the Lady Celeste Milton." Euston continued. A woman sitting on the other side of the Attorney cleared her throat. "The ramifications of the peacekeepers actions proved disastrous."

As the discussion continued on, Quiver was becoming increasingly tense.

'I'm beginning to like this 'peacekeeper' less and less ...'

"... I was not aware of this." Malduck remarked quietly. "Perhaps you should read out the full list pertaining to Quiverwing, Euston?"
Euston put two pieces of papers side by side on the table. "There was a comment made which Darkwing originally dismissed." He reviewed the left page closest to Quiver. "In light of subsequent events, Darkwing now believes there is a legitimate threat that the peacekeeper in question may attempt to turn The Quiverwing Quack into a vampire."

Quiver felt his hands going sweaty.

"He may have just been baiting Darkwing. It is a bit of a stretch; I can see why he would have dismissed it."
'I dismissed it?' Quiver could have had kittens. 'My little girl?'

"Darkwing also notes here that a few months later the peacekeeper kidnapped a ten year old and used her as bait. Quiverwing's statement on this is that: if it wasn't her, 'it would only have been some other kid'."
"Taken out of the unique context of Quiverwing and Darkwing, I remind everybody that interfering with any child's course and putting them in the way of potential harm is a serious contravention of our laws."

'Well, thank you for that.' Quiver sat there, stung. '…But I thought I could keep her safer if she was by my side.' Tears filled his eyes.

The discussion continued on.

Eider pronounced. "You can't rule on him for that one."

"May I remind you that Darkwing did not rule 'on him' for it. He warned him in no uncertain terms not to come back to St Canard."

"Alright, so for what I see, our peacekeeper has a personal vendetta against Darkwing Duck, just as much as Lady Princeton." Felicia said in her silver screen voice. "The only difference is that he knows Darkwing's weakness and has attempted in the past to exploit it. That gives credence to the initial threat of turning Quiverwing into a vampire."
"Well, I don't like that at all." Bushroot wound a few more loops of his viney arm around Simon in his lap. "It wouldn't matter if Darkwing was good or evil. Children are too important to bring into arguments."

"Is Darkwing aware of the danger to Quiverwing?" Malduck queried.
Rex Euston hesitated. " 'There are precautions in place.' That's all he said. He was somewhat ... dark on the subject and wouldn't tell me what those precautions were."

Quiver observed troubled looks on quite a few faces as the people in the room found themselves guessing what that could mean. 'I've got them beat.' He found himself grinning in a pseudo relief. That meant Quiverwing stood a chance.

Malduck laughed suddenly, breaking the awkward silence. "I'm sorry. Your reactions are priceless."

"It's not a joke." Reginald frowned. "Darkwing has given Quiverwing enough 'precautions' to make him comfortable enough to step back. Considering how I feel about my children ... why that's ..."
"Agreed, Bushroot." Eider backed him up. "Whatever it is, the girl's lethal at will."
"Oh." Reginald responded. A look of relief filled his face. "Of course, well, why didn't I guess that? Oh, that's alright then." He brought Simon closer to him and rubbed his beak against his head in affection.
Quiver couldn't have sold that visual moment. It warmed his heart.

"I think the case stands clear enough." Malduck sighed. "I give Darkwing clearance to do as he feels is required."

"Very well, the matter is concluded. This meeting is now adjourned." Rex Euston announced.

Quiver went to Malduck's side.

"One less peacekeeper." She said, looking up at him.
"Maybe you can look at it a different way." Quiver advised her. "If he's not stopping the bad guys, if he's interfering with the good guys, then maybe you've already lost him?"

"I need a new peacekeeper!" She gritted at him, standing up. "If you get the chance, tell your multiversal counterpart." She crossed her arms. "If Ducker dies, The Quiverwing Quack will have to take his place. As soon as she reaches her Ascension, she'll have a new title. From what I've heard tonight, I think she can handle being a Vampire Slayer."

"Are you threatening me-him with this?"

"That would suggest I was capable of changing the outcome. No; I'm merely stating facts."