Disclaimer: I do not own Darkwing Duck, Scrooge McDuck or any other Disney character.
Authors Note: Reader's warning. This ties directly to my fic "The Path Chosen", it also bridges the other fics, Tracker's Story "Synthetic Hero" and "Hidden Dawn". If you haven't read those fics, I doubt this one will make any sense to you.
Meant To Be: Chapter 21
Dusk passes into night. Eventually, everybody goes to bed. After the dramatic events of the day, it is not surprising that both Darkwing and Scrooge want to sleep close to their children. Scrooge sleeping on a chase in the room the boys are in, Darkwing sleeps on the floor of the room Quiverwing is in. Webby is sleeping with her grandmother.
Tracker is content to take the sofa, feeling the need to guard the front door. Though he muses to himself, he'd almost love to see Bulba try to attack Morgana's mansion, for the simple reason, the mansion could attack him back!
As Tracker drifts into sleep, he is again haunted by the dreams of his scarred life.
The memories of his life, in the realty he created torment him still.
He sees himself as Drake Mallard, married to Morgana, living in their quaint little suburban home.
In his dreams he walks again through the house and the memories it holds. He sees himself watching a rented 3D horror flick with Gosalyn and Morgana. There is a scary scene that makes both his daughter and wife jump – into his lap! He's laughing so hard he spills the popcorn all over them. They all start laughing...
This is a warm memory. One of the few he still has.
Before him, the scene changes. He sees himself and Morgana arguing. He is yelling at Gosalyn, shaking a finger at her. She yells back at him and runs up stares in tears...
Again the scene changes. He and Morgana are standing in the center of the living room – holding their newborn son, Derek. They are cooing over him.
Behind them is Gosalyn, she looks so sad, so lost. But Drake Mallard doesn't notice, he is so wrapped up in his son.
As Tracker watches, Gosalyn walks up to her father and tugs at his shirt. He glances down at her. She's trying to tell him something – about the winning home run she hit in school that day, but he just walks off cradling his son. He leaves Gosalyn just standing there, watching him walk away.
Tracker turns from the scene and slowly ascends the stair case. He goes up stairs.
He hears arguing again. It's him and Gosalyn again. The voices are coming from the small room at the end of the hallway. The room they had forced Gosalyn into after the baby had been born.
Tracker opens the door of the room. He sees himself, as Drake yelling at his daughter, he says something to her, something about being tempted to take her back to the orphanage!
Tracker feels his heartbreaking. He'd forgotten! He'd forgotten, he'd said that to her!
Looking back, Tracker doesn't understand, how he could say such a cruel thing. Why didn't he see what he was doing to her?
Why is it that people too often only see clearly the terrible things they have done after it's too late?
Again the scene changes. He sees himself returning from crime fighting. He is no longer dressed as Darkwing Duck, but Tracker.
The chairs spin in the living room and when they stop, he is sitting in one of them.
He hears voices and look sup to see two small children, a boy about 5 years old and a girl about 2, running down the stairs to greet him. They hug him happily. But he does not return the affection.
He can't, not anymore.
He says something too them about being tired and goes upstairs. The kids watch him go, their tiny faces crestfallen, tears welling up in their eyes.
Now he is upstairs in his and Morgana's room. He flops down on the bed. He sits quietly for a moment, then reaches over to the nightstand on opens the drawer. He pulls out a small photo of Gosalyn. He stares at it for a long time, then he sobs loudly as tears roll down his cheeks. He keeps telling her he is so sorry, so very sorry...
"I'm sorry, Gosalyn, I'm sorry, forgive me." Tracker mutters in his sleep. He feels a gentle hand on his shoulder. He wakes up.
He opens his eyes to find Morgana standing over him. There is light coming through the windows, it's morning.
Tracker sits up. Morgana is staring at him. It's only then he realizes that there are tears in his eyes. He lifts a trembling hand to brush away the tears from behind the dark mask.
"I – I heard you calling out to Gosalyn." Morgana says meekly "Are you alright?"
She sits on the sofa next to him.
He nods, but doesn't speak.
"Dark told me about the warning you gave him concerning Gosalyn." She tells him in a soothing tone. "We put off getting married, hoping that it may help to keep those things from happening."
Again Tracker nods. This time replies in a raspy voice "I hope it does." Then he turns his eyes from her. "Uh, have you decided when you are going to get married?" his voice is soft and quivering.
Morgana realizes how awkward it must be for him. In his reality, they are already married and have children together. "Yes, we've talked about it. If everything goes well – the first of next month. That way, we'll have the summer to get use to -well being a family." She tries to smile "It's morning. I'm getting breakfast ready. It's – it's a normal breakfast, waffles – cinnamon waffles."
Tracker rises slowly. "The first part of next month?" he pauses and glances at the clock "Could I use your phone?"
Morgana nods politely. After she leaves the room, Tracker pulls out the phone book and flips through the yellow pages. He picks up the phone and dials.
There is a ringing on the other end, then somebody picks up.
"Hello?"
"Yes, I know it's early, I'm sorry, but I I'm calling to make a purchase ..."
Morgana offers to allow Scrooge's family and Quiverwing to stay at her mansion while Darkwing takes care of Bulba. Though, Scrooge is grateful for a place to sleep and a hot meal (especially a free hot meal) he isn't to comfortable staying in a real life haunted house . As kindly as possible he declines the offer, actually preferring to take his chances with a killer cyborg.
In light of the circumstances, Darkwing allows his daughter to also accompany them. Her presence seems to give the other kids something to focus on besides Bulba. Though, Darkwing isn't to excited about why the boys are so riveted by her company. Being the doting father, he doesn't care for the lovesick stares Quiverwing gets from them. He makes a mental note to step up her self defense lessons. Maybe he would buy her that big guard dog after all.
Mid-morning, the whole group finds themselves back at SHUSH headquarters.
The children are taken to the recreation room to play several virtual reality games, Sara Bellum had developed as recreation therapy for some of the agents.
Meanwhile, the adults are taken to the lab. Both Gyro and Sara Bellum show signs of fatigue from staying up all night developing the armor.
"We still haven't finished the Armor yet," Dr. Bellum explains as she picks up a small metal box from a table. She holds it up to Darkwing and opens it. "But we did come up with this." Inside the box is a pair of visors that look a lot like the ones Darkwing now wears. He takes them out to examine them.
On closer inspection, he realizes "They look just like the ones Guardian was wearing!"
"Yeah, well they are basically like the ones You're wearing now , "Gyro explains "But there is a button on the side that can change the tinting and the color as needed."
There is no chance to continue the discussion as agent Gryzlikoff rushes into the lab. "Director Hooter, you must see this!" he activates the monitor of the super computer. A scene appears on the screen.
It is one of chaos and destruction. Police cars and helicopters swarm the Audubon bay bridge. Atop the Audubon bay bridge, atop one of the bridges majestic towers stands the daunting figure of a modern day Frankenstein monster.
The news camera zooms in on Taurus Bulba. The newer, more deadly version of the monster criminal. Darkwing feels his heart skip a beat as he realizes Bulba hasn't just made himself an Armor from the stolen formula, he has rebuilt his cybernetic components from the Alloy. The B.E.A. Is part of him!
To be continued...