Review Responses
Aronim) Then, don't think of it as a goodbye. Think of it as you having learnt something from having known these characters, and as a promise, between the characters and you, that somehow, somewhere, someday, you'll meet again.
ruthc93) You certainly did, and therefore, there's a fifth installment ready and waiting.
Disregarding what I said about the story being finished, per Miss Eccentric's request, I present to you all, the fifth chapter of Paperinik New Adventures: The After Years.
For Everett, life had begun not on earth, but in the deep reaches of space, on a planet called Corona, within the same galaxy as that green-and-blue diamond in the rough, but separated by nearly fifty 'parsecs', as the locals called it.
A strong sense of sadness came over his mind as the memories returned to him, in all their terrible and wondrous weight. He'd made a great choices along the way, and now, he wasn't altogether certain whether they had been the right ones to make, even if he had been at the time.
Fleeing Corona all these years ago, with his daughters in tow, had been the first of those choices. Had it really been right for him to practically abduct them, simply because he wished other things for them than rulership of an entire culture when the responsibility of the throne precluded literally all emotional attachment, whether family, lover or friend?
Regardless of whether it had been morally right to do, it had been a choice that Everett could readily live with, even considering the aftermath of his decision, as he lost his memories, and his daughters were frozen in suspended animation and buried in the depths of the sea.
Once he'd founded his company, retrieving the two had proven easy enough. However, making them familiar and accustomed to the strange new world that he hoped for them to someday call home would be more difficult, he knew, so he performed another act, that some might call hubris, and, aided by his mental powers, created a pair of AIs to keep them company, and aid them in experiencing the countless things he'd unwittingly deprived them of.
In hindsight however, that Two, who had been created as the ideal teacher and friend to Korinna, eventually went... Not quite 'Viral', should have tipped Everett off that the notion of an AI-and-biological entity partnership was a flawed and lacking one, but alas, both One and Two remained active, and the second of the pair returned time and time again.
Though he cared equally for both of his 'sons', so to speak, he had to admit that Two's seemingly indomitable will to survive was astounding, compared to everything One had accomplished, but One soon managed to upstage his sibling, by transcending the digital plane and entering the physical world.
There was an almost poetic, ironic, quality to it all, the monk mused, amid his meditations concerning one and all, everything that was, had been and would be, everything that might have been and might be, everything that might not have been and might not come to pass.
During his time on earth, he learned of Duckburg having its own self-proclaimed 'superhero', silly though the appellation was. After their paths happened to cross when Two made his initial bid for dominance, he had no conception of how fateful that chance encounter would soon prove.
Several years after, he happened across the masked duck once more, when they fought against the vengeful sorcerer Ahrimadz.
One year later, he made his return to Duckburg once more, for a stay which would last several months, before he eventually returned to Corona with his daughters, re-activating One on the eve of his departure, so that they could choose their own fates, without him to obstruct them from it.
After some starting difficulties, Korinna eventually proved his worries largely unfounded, as she proved herself a worthy queen of Corona.
With his daughters seemingly content with the life that he'd denied them, he decided that his homeworld was in good hands, and left once more, for that place that he had truly called home for so long; earth, and Dhasam-bul.
The months and years passed with quiet reflection and meditation on his ancient past and future, before his last matter showed it, needing to be resolved before he could shuffle off the mortal coil, and claim his rest.
Though the task of giving One a physical body has proven more difficult than he'd thought, a surprise appearance from Two had managed to overcome that problem, forming, from the Yin of One and the Yang of Two, something new, the whole being greater than the parts.
Odin Eidolon had been born, and with that, Everett Ducklair could die.