Warning: (yet again) for vampire content. In the next episode I'll have a whole different assortment of disturbing things going on, so stay tuned.

A Dark Verse: Part 5

Part Five

At the very last moment, Quiver regained consciousness and managed to move two inches to the left. A shout of pain screamed through him. "You ... missed ..." Quiver gasped, and with every last ounce of strength, fisted his hand and punched Ducker away. "... My heart."
He got up, ripping the stake away from his chest. In the next moment he realised he had made a mistake. He coughed and blood splattered from his mouth, telling him he'd pierced a lung. He threw the blood covered stake away and kicked the fresh one out of Ducker's hand. "Pickled and pricked and skewered. What am I? An olive?"
Ducker raised his crossbow and Quiver web-kicked him against the glass. Ducker crumpled.
"You don't get it ..." Quiver rasped for breath and coughed up more blood. Maybe he also shouldn't have done that web kick, because now the injury from the arrow was ragged as well and he felt fresh blood dripping onto his feet. On the other hand, he'd caught Ducker.
'I don't ordinarily introduce myself as much as I've been doing lately.' He hooked the handcuffs on Ducker. "I am Quiverwing Duck."

Quiver searched through Ducker's pockets. "Aha!" He coughed again. "Here's the remote control to the jar." He pressed a button and nothing happened. Then he pressed the next button and the jar began to rise.
In a rushing blur the released woman slammed into him. Quiver went sprawling backwards, losing his grip on Ducker as he did.

Quiver's head spun as he hit the ground. 'Bushroot's wife ...' he struggled against her for a moment, feeling his strength failing him. He vaguely realised as he struggled for each breath that he was dying already without the vampire's help.

His attacker raised her hands and he heard the sound of fabric ripping. Another shout of pain arched across his injured torso. Amidst the swamping darkness he saw his daughter watching him with her arms folded and an expectant look on her face. 'Come on, dad, people need you, you can't let them down.'

Somehow it was becoming less painful to breath, and slowly he decided that he wasn't going to die from this experience after all.

The vampire raised her head and adjusted her position over him. She grabbed his beak and forced it wide open into a deep kiss, desperately lapping at the blood coating his mouth. His gag reflex caused her to retreat, much to his relief. The vampire then set to sucking on the blood saturating his clothing. After a few more moments, she let go of him.

The vampire swallowed, licking her beak and put her fingers against his chest injury in some sort of contemplation. At her touch, the pain eased into nothing.

"Quiver, are you alright?" Bushroot knelt down beside them, wrapping his vines possessively around the woman.

Quiver stared at Bushroot for a moment, somewhat incredulous at everything that had just happened. Add to it the genuinely concerned look on the plant-duck's face and there was no doubt that Quiver was in another universe. "Yeah ..."

Quiver's brain finally caught up to the situation and looked around. "Wait, where's Ducker?"
"Oh, uh, he left."
"He left!" Quiver repeated, squawking in shock. He felt his head start spinning as he struggled to get up. In a hurry, Bushroot unhooked his vines from Belladonna and fumbled to help Quiver to get on his feet.

Quiver pulled away from Bushroot angrily. "Why didn't you stop him?" He quacked in frustration. "We could've had him safe in jail!"
Bushroot drew back, startled by Quiver's outburst. "I ... that is ... i-it didn't ... Quiver," the hybrid's voice took on a pleading note, "I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I'm sorry."
"D'oh ..." Quiver rubbed his face. "It's not your fault, it's my fault; I should've hooked him to a handrail or something."
"Oh my gosh ..." Bushroot whispered, his eyes opened wide in horror. "He-he's gonna come back, isn't he? For you, for Simon, for Qui-for Quiverwing. I-I didn't even think of that." He blinked and tears fell from his eyes. "This is horrible!"
Quiver felt a surge of warmth for the plant-duck and put his hand on Bushroot's vine. "I wanted to catch him, Bushy, because my cuffs aren't as lethal as my counterpart's tactics." He recalled the expression on Eider's face when he spoke of the local Darkwing's ultimatum to Ducker. "When Darkwing comes back ..."

On that line of thought Quiver found himself staring at Belladonna's beak. "Where are they? Your fangs are gone."
"They retract." Reginald answered for his wife. He nuzzled her cheek with his beak. She purred back at him, closing her fiery eyes.
"So you really can't tell." Quiver quickly looked away from them, slightly embarrassed to be watching this display of affection. "Morgana was right; anyone could be a vampire."

Quiver put his hand to his ripped clothes, recalling how a few minutes ago he'd been dying of a mortal wound. "Thank you, Belladonna."
"She's not awake." Bushroot explained. "I mean; she looks like she's awake but she's not. She's all instinct at the moment. You know: blood, hungry, safe, friend, mate."
Quiver considered all things. "Awake or not, she did a good job of being hungry and yet not ki-."
Belladonna sprang forwards and hugged Quiver tightly.
"Belladonna!" Quiver struggled away, startled at the unexpected show of affection. He closed his eyes in shock. "The way you just hugged me, it was like ..." like The Quiverwing Quack had hugged him back in Megavolt's lab.
"Family." Bushroot finished for him. "Bear hugs and vampire kisses. We're all family here." Bushroot smiled softly, coiling his viney arms closely around Belladonna.
It was apparent to Quiver that the most significant thing he knew about Belladonna was that she was Reginald's companion and he was very fond of her. "Will she be okay? I mean ..." Quiver considered Reginald Bushroot's desperate search for a sentient companion, trying to find the sublime difference between her and Spike '... conversational?"
"After she gets a bit of sleep. Is Simon okay?"
"Yes. He's back at Hamil Corp ..." Quiver hesitated. He had to say something. "Your Simon is a brave kid."
"I'm trying to teach him to be a good kid!" Bushroot fretted, wiping from his blue eyes tears that suddenly sprang up. "He didn't do what he was told last night. Now th-that wacko Ducker knows about him! You ..." Bushroot gulped, shaking. "You didn't see the look in his eye when he talked about Simon to me." He hid his face in his leafy hands.

Quiverwing put his hand on Bushroot's shoulder. "Then I guess that while you're teaching him to be a 'good' kid, you should teach him how to duck too. He is a good kid, but he also needs to be a tough kid. He'd better learn how to fight with his fists."
"Wouldn't that make a bigger problem if he turns evil?" Bushroot asked hoarsely.

Quiver stopped and stared at Bushroot and raised an eyebrow. "How can you possibly say that? He's just a duckling!"
Bushroot looked up at him with a defiant look on his face. "He's a plant-duckling, more specifically a vampire-plant-duckling." He corrected. "And all my experiments turned evil. You had to stop every single one of them!"
"I don't recall Spike being evil in my universe."
Bushroot looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Quiver shrugged. "So you don't know why they turned evil?"
Bushroot shrugged. "... Because I was a criminal and therefore a bad influence on their behaviour as they used me as a role model?"
"I'm sure that fact didn't help ..." Quiverwing mused, "but they simply weren't stable. Your emotional equilibrium is your shortcoming, Bushy. A shaking tree drops more leaves."
"Oh, great, thanks."

Quiver shook his head. "Simon's been under a lot of stress and pressure and check me if I'm wrong, but his emotional control does seem better than yours." He grabbed Bushroot's hand. "And that's a compliment, Bushy. That means you've got to be doing something right." Quiver let go. "Probably the best thing you can do is to guide him, teach him and just be there with him."
Bushroot took a breath, staring back at Quiver.

"So what you're saying is that you can't live the rest of your life broken by several failed experiments? Or even one mistake?"
"Hang on here." Quiver put his hands on his hips, "are you preaching to me, Doctor Reginald Bushroot?" He asked suspiciously.
Bushroot rolled his eyes. "I only meant to remind you. They're just so wonderful to hold. And if there's one thing I know about Darkwing Duck it's-."

The air around them began to warp. "What's that?" Bushroot looked around nervously.
Quiver looked around too. "Uh-oh; I remember this. It happened right before I-."

In a flash, the crime-fighter was gone.

A/N: Argh! I have scanned through Crisis on Infinite Darkwings and I have amended some of my earlier posts. Not all of them. I kinda need to get some sleep right now.

A/N: Thank you, Joey the Ripper for your assistance in helping get this scene sorted out.