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 25
Darkwing can feel the panic mounting within him – for a moment. But strangely, a soothing peace washes over him. He calms.
The armor? Yes, the armor has something to do with it, Darkwing knows, he understands.
The sound of coughing draws his attention to the doorway Scrooge and the others had managed to get under before the entire corridor came crashing down. Turning, Darkwing sees movement through the thick cloud of dust. He steps carefully over the detritus of shattered masonry and glass. "Mr. McDuck?"
"Aye.. (cough)...aye, lad – Darkwing (cough, cough). Over here!" A raspy Scottish accent comes from the darkness.
With the use of the infra-red visors, Darkwing locates Scrooge and the others, trapped under a large fragment of stucco.
Taking a hold of the heavy chunk of plaster, Darkwing braces himself and lifts.
With incredible ease, he raises the thick plaster off of McDuck's family. Darkwing is amazed! He shouldn't have been able to do much more than budge it.
The B.E.A. again! It enhances his own strength.
But this is no time to ponder the wonders of the armor, he had to help the others.
Now the dust is settling and Darkwing can see Scrooge and Gyro huddled over the kids to protect them from the falling structure.
Realizing that they are free from the fallen material that had them pinned down, the small group slowly starts to move.
Darkwing reaches down to help Scrooge up when he hears voices calling to him.
"DW!"
"Darkwing Duck!"
LaunchPad and J. Gander.
"Over here!" Darkwing yells, flailing his arms over his head. "Come on, we need help down here!"
He watches as LaunchPad, then J. Gander, then several other agents enter what is left of SHUSH headquarters to help the victims caught up in Bulba's rampage.
As Launchpad comes to assist Scrooge, Darkwing begins his search for his daughter with a heartfelt prayer that he finds her alive.
Times passes, it seems like an eternity to both Darkwing and Scrooge, both fearing for the safety of their children.
They, along with many others, SHUSH agents, police, firefighters, and good Samaritans are rushing to saves those buried under the rubble.
Some of the SHUSH operatives have been rescued. So far, thankfully, there have been no casualties.
"I have a child, here!" a police officer calls out as he lifts a small boy from the debris. "Huey!" Scrooge cries out stumbling over the fallen rubble to get to his nephew. The boy is covered in a chalky residue. Scrooge leans over him, his heart racing. "Huey?"
The boys eyes flutter open "Unca' Scrooge?" comes a weak raspy voice.
"Oh lad," Scrooge sighs with relief as he takes his nephew from the officer and rushes him out into the fresh air.
"There are two more down here!" calls a female paramedic. In a few seconds, two
paramedics are helping Tracker out of the rubble. In his arms he clutches Quiverwing close to him. Darkwing sprints over the debris to get to them. As he approaches, he can see that Gosalyn has her arms wrapped around Trackers neck, her face buried in his shoulder.
"Sweetie?" Darkwing coos to his daughter. Slowly, she turns her head. Like Huey, her face is covered in the pulverized plaster. Her black mask is almost hidden by the powdery substance.
Gently Tracker places her in Darkwing's arms. Darkwing lifts his eyes to look Tracker in the eye.
"You saved her life, you know that?"
Through the dark dust covered visors, Tracker gazes in silence at his past self. No words are needed. But as their eyes meet, Darkwing again, is overtaken by a sense of foreboding.
Something isn't right.
"Take her out." Tracker finally instructs him with a weak raspy tone.
Reluctantly, Darkwing turns with Gosalyn in his arms and heads out of the building. The paramedics follow with Tracker.
Soon, both the children have been attended to and are now resting along with their parents. Darkwing is sitting with his daughter on the curb next to an ambulance. Scrooges family sits on the lawn behind them. They watch as Taurus Bulba is carted away in a heavily armored car. The military will keep him sedated and under guard until the B.E.A. components can be completely removed.
Dr. Bellum has suggested using an experimental SHUSH formula that would all but erase Bulba's memory. Under normal circumstances, such an act would be almost inhumane. But these are not normal circumstances.
A paramedic approaches Darkwing, a look of serious concern on his face. "Darkwing Duck!"
Exhausted, Darkwing merely glances up at him without offering to speak.
"Sir, it's your friend, the one who looks like you. He's seriously injured, but he won't let us take him to the hospital. We think he may be injured internally."
A look of fear passes over Darkwing's face. "Where is he?" he rises to his feat.
A few minutes later, the paramedic leads Darkwing, Quiverwing, LaunchPad, and Scrooges group around to the side of the SHUSH property.
There, slumped against a tree is Tracker. Darkwing kneels in front of him. Tracker's eyes are closed, his breath is labored. Darkwing notices that Tracker has replaced the visors with the old mask.
He opens his eyes to see his past self. Again their eyes meet. No words are spoken, no words are needed, they both know.
Quiverwing steps alongside her father. Seeing Tracker's condition, a sense of dread rushes through her body.
Scrooge steps along side of them. Kneeling next to Tracker, Scrooge can see the seriousness of his condition. "Don't worry lad, we'll get you to the hospital as soon..."
"No." comes a weak susurrus reply from the limp figure. "No...no-thing..can..be..done... It's...too...late."
Scrooge isn't one to simply give up"Nonsense lad, we'll get you..."
"No, Mr. McDuck, it is too late." Darkwing interrupts. Grief evident in his voice.
At first, Scrooge is ready to argue with Darkwing but as he gazes into the eyes that stare at him from behind the dark visors, he understands.
Darkwing knows. He knows because he and Tracker are one in the same. Darkwing can feel that Tracker's time has come.
"No..." comes a heartbreaking sob from Quiverwing as she drops to her knees next to Tracker. She looks down at the face of the duck in the purple mask. Until this moment, she has been able to view Tracker as an individual who only looks like her dad. But now the barriers are broken and she sees before her, her father, dressed in his old Darkwing Duck costume. Her father, as he might someday be.
Tears now flow down her soft feathered cheeks, she leans down and kissing him on the cheek, utters a single word softly in his ear "Daddy."
Trackers eyes shift to the child, tears roll down his cheek.
The eyes that have held only emptiness for so long shine with love and perhaps, at long last, contentment.
Tracker lifts a hand weakly to touch her face. Quiverwing takes his hand in hers holding it tightly.
Tracker turns his eyes to look at his former self. "You ... need to know. ...When..the others ...crossed through the vortex that day ...Dark ...Warrior...Nomad ...and ...and ...Flyer ...all ...ceased to exist." He struggles to speak "As I should have."
The look of horror on the faces of those standing around is obvious to him "There is nothing to grieve ...it's what we all wanted ...we wanted things set..right. None of us, save Guardian were ...were...ever meant to be ...And how can we die when we are all ...Darkwing Duck ...all..Guardian.
His eyes meat with Darkwing's "Different choices ...dif ...different ..lives ...but all one soul."
Trackers eyes begin to flutter. Finally, he closes them. He gasps out one final message to his former self "Live well Guardian." With that, he draws his last breath.
To be concluded...