A/N: So? I got bored.

A/N: I don't believe in FAIRIES, but I do believe in BIGGER FISH. So long as you believe 'there is always a bigger fish' you give yourself the opportunity to write a good role reversal story. Just like in this episode. Not all role reversals must involve someone with un-duck-like qualities, of course. You in fact see it all the time in the relationships between Darkwing, Gosalyn and Launchpad.

Disclaimer: Thank you, Joey the Ripper, for inspiring the scene between Drake and Raya. A hybrid sees a very different world than those born and raised all one way. You captured this reality perfectly, as I hope that I do...

A Dark Verse Part 3

Reginald woke up to find someone's feathered fingers in his mouth.
"No fangs." A gruff voice said from above.

The plant-duck blinked up at the owner of the voice. 'Ducker?' Ducker withdrew his fingers. It was Ducker, the Juan Ducker. The disreputable Vampire Slayer. "I would really hope you haven't hurt my wife!" Reginald's head whirled as half a dozen reasons instantly cropped up in his mind.
Ducker snorted and stepped away. "Collateral indeed," he muttered under his breath.

Reginald reached his vines around and ripped the Velcro off himself, and then he rushed to Belladonna's side and did the same. He was overwhelmed in relief that she was alright. She reached for him and grabbed him into a deep kiss that made him twine his vines tightly around her. After several moments passed he realised they weren't alone and he turned to look at Ducker warily.
"Oh, please continue. I'm morbidly curious." The Slayer pressed a button that lowered a giant glass jar over them.

"No!" Belladonna shrieked, pulling away from Reginald. She pounded on the glass. "Please! You can't do this to me! No! Argh!" As she spoke her voice grew louder and more intense, ending in a rabid beastly yowl.

From the sofa Drake watched Raya colouring in at the coffee table. She was attempting to colour in using three pencils at once.

He put down the newspaper he'd been reading. "That's an interesting colour for the sky, Raya."
"I want to make the picture timeless." She explained, holding up the pencils to him one by one. "See, this one's black for night-time, this one's blue for daytime."
He raised an eyebrow. "What about the other one? You've got another pencil there."
"That's grey for times when people get sad. Like you. All your days and nights are grey."
"What about a yellow sun or moon?" Drake asked. "Wouldn't that help to cheer things up a bit?"
"..." She took a breath ready to answer, but there was a knock on the front door and Raya closed her beak.

"Hold on, honey." He smiled at her.

Drake got up from the severely intellectual discussion to answer the door.

"Lawrence Eider?"

"Boy, you are hard to get hold of!" The security guard huffed. "It's like you Envys live in your own little bubble worlds, oblivious to-."
"Is this going to be a long rant?" Drake interrupted him. He dragged Eider inside and closed the door for privacy's sake. "Can we jump to the reason why you're here?"

Eider took a breath, unfazed by Drake's bluntness. " 'Jump' is the word, alright. Someone jumped the Bushroots going home this morning. The perpetrator used a gas grenade like yours and it knocked them out for the count."
"Simon was with them?" Drake asked tensely.
"He escaped, luckily."
Drake sighed in relief. He knew first hand that it was all too easy for children to become casualties.

"Poor kid watched them get carted away, though. It was all we could do to make him calm down. He's back at our offices. Since you're our expert, I figured you should handle it."
Drake ran his hand over his face. "That was hours ago! Why'd you only come to me now?"
Eider held up his hands in surrender. "Easy, Drake. Whoever pulled this used the word 'vampire'; Simon heard him loud and clear. Since that's the case, we've got a few hours before the kidnapper's expecting us."
"It would still have been nice to have a bit more time." Drake relaxed a small fraction.

Then he stared at Eider. "It's daylight now!" He prodded Eider. "Didn't you have to step through sunlight to get to me? That means the 'turning to dust in the sunlight' thing doesn't work in this universal reality."
Eider sighed. "I'm not getting into the mechanics of it today. Think of it as just a standard rule of engagement for most of us."
Drake turned his head to review Raya.
"Drake?"
"I'm babysitting," he replied.

"Raya?"
"Yes, daddy?" She stood up and came up to him.
"Who does your daddy get to look after you when mummy's working and daddy needs to go to work too?"
"That's easy. It's Q or Mr. Launchpad."

Drake hesitated. It was a relief because he also trusted Launchpad, but there was still a severe hitch in getting that plan to work. "I don't know where Launchpad is. He went out an hour ago and never mentioned where."
"I know where he is, daddy!" Raya smiled and took his hand. "He's gone to the morgue."
"Alive, I hope." Drake swallowed.
Raya giggled. "You're funny, daddy. Of course he's alive."

"Let me help. You've never managed one this little before." Drake raised an eyebrow at the remark. "You write the note to Morgana, Drake. Raya, why don't you collect up your colouring pencils and book and pick out another toy you'd like to play with this afternoon?"
"Okay, Mr. Eider." Eider strode past Drake towards the kitchen and Drake wrote the note letting Raya's mother know where she would be and left it beside the phone. Then he grabbed the red school bag from the hall stand. In the next few moments the bag was full with toys, a lunch box and a drink bottle. He zipped it up.

There was a dizzying flurry, and then he was standing in front of the morgue with the others. "Wait a second!" He looked down at himself. Between his house and the morgue, he was now wearing the black Darkwing Duck costume. He glared at Eider, "that is so wrong on so many levels."
"No; you're just thinking too hard, Quiver." Eider went to the door and opened it for Quiver and Raya.

Quiver walked up to the counter of the city morgue. "I'm looking for Launchpad McQuack."
"Huh, lemme giss, Daeecair Duck." She gazed at Raya.
Quiver tapped his fingers on the bench. "Pardon me, miss, but people's lives are in the balance!"
"Okee okee, cule eet." She picked up the phone. "Aahmee." She drawled, "I got meestah meelodramahtic duck out 'ere. Yah beeter come save him beefar he spraeens sometheeng."

Quiver blushed and stepped back from the counter. It was only now as the reality of the receptionist's words sunk in that he realised that he was interfering with Launchpad's private life. How that private life brought him in to a morgue Quiver couldn't guess, but it was his private life none-the-less.

The swinging doors pushed open. "Oh, hey DW, I guessed it was you." Launchpad chuckled, letting the doors swing shut behind him. "What's up?"
"Uh ..." Quiver back-pedalled. "I was hoping ... if you're not too busy ..."
"Of course not. Hey, Raya! I'm guessing you've come to spend a couple hours hanging out with your uncle Launchpad till your mum comes to pick you up, huh?" Launchpad smiled grandly.
Raya bounced up and down on the spot happily. "Yep!"
"Thank you, Launchpad." Quiver said soberly.
"No problems, DW, you know that. I'm always here to help."

Drake knelt down and hugged Raya. "Take care, sweetie."
"Be careful of that orange thing I told you about." She whispered in his ear and then put her tiny hand against his chest. He felt a surge of warmth stretching through his torso. "Go rescue them, daddy."

The doctor that greeted them at the floor level's reception smiled at Quiver and Eider.

"How's the kid, Karen?" Eider asked. "Is he still ... you know?"
"Oh, no, sir! As soon as we got O'Duck in to remove a couple of the window panes, the boy came straight back into sight. That sunbeam has an amazing effect on him."

She picked up the tray that was sitting on the reception desk and handed it to Eider. "I'm very curious as to what a plant-vampire hybrid looks like on the inside. He's been soaking up the sun all day." She gazed at the full tray. "I wonder what else that digestive system of his will soak up."
"What's that you've got there?" Quiver stared at the tray. "Are you feeding him blood?"
"It's fruit juice." Eider answered quickly. "So you don't know if he'll drink it?"

"No," Karen huffed. "If anyone from medical gets within three metres he makes like a Cheshire cat and disappears."
"Give the kid a break, Karen." Quiver considered Reginald's new 'formula' for Tarnia. "He probably gets enough of it at home."
Karen snorted. "Oh, so you agree with small, green and mild, then? It's only a harmless scan! It only takes a minute; I honestly can't see what the fuss is about."
"Cool off, Karen." Eider cooed.

Karen sighed, folding her arms. "It's just infuriating to be so close to so many answers. Well, come on." Karen took off down the corridor at a breezing pace and they hurried to keep up with her. She stopped outside a door. "One green pensive preschooler right in here, boys." She gestured to the closed door. "I'm going back downstairs where I belong if that'll be all."
"Thanks, Karen." Eider said.
She nodded and disappeared from the corridor.

Quiver opened the door and stepped into the west facing room. Eider followed with the tray.

In the sunbeam was the little plantling Quiver had met in the small hours of that morning. Simon was puffed up into almost a ball shape; all his feather-like leaves stood out on end, working to catch enough sunlight for him. This had the effect of making him look twice his actual size and nearly a foot taller.

The boy turned, looking up at the adults. There was a thoughtful expression on his green face as he considered them. "He's in warehouse number eight on 23rd Street." Simon announced as he flattened his feathers down and folded his vines across his now thin chest.

Eider knelt down next to the plantling so he was eye to eye with him. "We don't know what you eat, Simon."
"Gosh, thanks!" The child imbibed the bowl of fertilizer mixture and washed it down with the juice.
"Hungry little scamp." Quiver commented.
Simon blinked up at Quiver as he returned the glass to the tray. "Doctor Karen wanted to know if I could eat them both." He crossed his vines. "I told her that I'm perfectly healthy." He held out his hands. "See my leaves? I know that you're here to rescue my parents, so I'm not even wilted anymore." He smiled at them. "Thank you very much for that."

"Yes, you're fine, Simon. You're just the right size for your age, too." Eider said warmly.
Simon narrowed his eyes as Eider suspiciously. "How do you know how old I am?"
"Um ..." Eider glanced at Quiver. "That is, er ..."

With a huff Quiver ignored Eider and stepped in front of Simon. "We're going to get your parents back, Simon. You saw who abducted them, right?"
"Yes."
"Simon, can you tell us what he looked like?"
"He didn't look like anything, sir."
"You mean he was invisible?" Quiver raised an eyebrow.
"No, sir. He wasn't invisible."
"So, he wasn't a duck or a dog or a ..."
"Oh! I get it; you mean 'what I saw'. He was a duck. He looked sort of old, too. Um ... he wore an overcoat."

"You said he mentioned vampires. Do you remember what else he said?"
"He asked me where I was." Simon hung his head. "Mummy told me to hide. I didn't say a word back."
"That's good that you stayed hidden! That means you're alright, Simon. You're safe, and that's the first thing your parents want."
The boy stayed stiff and grim despite Quiver's consolation. "I don't like hiding." Simon frowned. "Daddy says I shouldn't have to hide. Daddy says I have just as much right to be here and stand tall in the sun as everyone else."
"That's very true." Quiver said, fighting back tears. "Gosh, you remind me so much of my little Gosalyn."

Eider stood up with the tray. "Well, so it's a start."
"No, wait a moment." Quiver considered Simon. "Simon, what did you mean: 'he didn't look like anything'? Can you give us an example ... what do I look like?"
Simon smiled. "You look like what Darkwing Duck should look like. You're protective of people but you're also dangerous to bad guys. Your heart's broken though." He frowned.

"Uh huh. Okay, well, what does Mr. Eider look like?"
Simon looked at Eider. "He looks like a very important police officer."
"Thanks, Simon!" Eider said hurriedly. "We have everything we need." Eider grabbed Quiver's arm and dragged him out of the room.

In the corridor Quiver waited for Eider as he collected himself.

"This is horrible!" Eider looked at Quiver, "Juan Ducker's kidnapped the Bushroots!"
"Wait a second; do you mind explaining to me ..."
"Simon's talking about delta waves. A person doesn't look 'like' anything to a vampire or a plant if their delta waves are blocked, and Ducker stole that technology from us."

"Juan Ducker, the rogue peacekeeper?"
"Yes."
"Why would he go after the Bushroots?"
"Well, it stands to reason. Ducker knows Darkwing Duck's soft on Belladonna. He's tracked her down to use against you."

"Guess he didn't think much of my threat after all."
"Not your threat, his threat, your counterpart's threat from this universe."
"What did my doppelganger do, threaten exsanguination?"
Eider stared at him grimly.

"Oh." Quiver took a breath, summoning his courage. "A minor setback."