Bushroot had been so nervous to leave Negaduck's place. He had been terrified of just what the villain would do to them. That fear was still there in the back of his mind, but Bushroot thought that Darkwing was capable of keeping them safe. It was hard to trust anybody, but he was starting to get to that point with Drake.

He gave Quackerjack and Megavolt food, no conditions necessary. He didn't try to pit the four of them against each other. Bushroot still wasn't allowed out of the house whenever he wanted, just because a plant child would attract unnecessary and unwanted attention. But Drake made up for it and made it not seem so bad.

The man got him fertilizer, and seedlings to take care and encourage, as long as he didn't take things overboard. Drake left all of the windows in the house open so that Bushroot could bask in the natural sunlight.

Drake was so accommodating that when it was a rainy day he took all of them to a small park at the edge of town. It was rundown, and according to Gosalyn there were rarely people here even on nice days, so it was almost a guarantee that they would have the park to themselves on a gloomy day when it was still too early for school to be out.

Nobody was there, and they took advantage of that.

Quackerjack jumped onto a swing and started kicking his feet enthusiastically, trying to get himself up in the air. Liquidator was looking curiously up at the sky, reaching out with his arms as though to grab the rain. Bushroot found himself wondering if Liquidator could somehow share his sentience with the rain. How would that even work? Was Liquidator wondering about the same thing?

Megavolt made his way to the slide tunnel, sliding down and climbing up, not ever leaving the tunnel itself. He got hit with water every once and awhile, sending out visible sparks, but he didn't seem to be shocked enough to hurt.

Bushroot just laid down on the grass near the swings and soaked in the moisture, just like all the other plants. He closed his eyes as he let the water wash over him, making him feel clean and new.

This…this was beauty. This was life. It felt so right and natural. He could just stay here all day. Safe, calm, and comfortable. He couldn't really ask for more.

He could have dozed off, and he really wanted to, but something felt off. He had a bad feeling that he just couldn't shake. The grass started to feel a little prickly rather than comfortable. The blades of grass were reacting to his uncertainty.

Bushroot fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment before he reluctantly sat up. He stroked the grass and watched his companions, keeping a close eye out for anything that could be perceived as a threat. He needed to be ready to protect himself, or one of the others if he could.

Several minutes passed and nothing happened or changed. Bushroot started to relax. He thought about joining Quackerjack on the swings. Just before he stood up he saw the young duck's eyes widen in alarm. He let out a very panicked squawk and started to lean back. Quackerjack looked like he was trying to scramble away from something or someone, but he couldn't get very far while he was on the swing.

Quackerjack went back, and the swing continued forward. Bushroot felt panic in his chest before Quackerjack even began to fall. He jolted forward, reaching his hand out as though he could catch the other boy. A vine shot out of the ground and rushed to Quackerjack, wrapping around him and stopping him midair.

Still, Quackerjack let out a pained sound. The vine was too tight. It was hurting him. Bushroot was hurting him.

A choked sob escaped Bushroot and his vision blurred. His legs grew weak and he fell to the ground at the same time as the vine dropped Quackerjack. He landed with a thud. At the sound, Bushroot started crying and he really couldn't stop.

He'd just wanted to help. He never wanted to hurt anybody, and he'd done it when it was the exact opposite of what he'd been trying to do.

Was it just in his blood to hurt people? Was he just a bad kid? He didn't want to believe it, but he was having a hard time dismissing the thought. Negaduck had encouraged a temper in him, getting him to attack instinctively when he was pushed to the edge. Bushroot was scared that he was so bad at resisting Negaduck's control that that instinct to harm and bring pain was so deeply ingrained in him that it was now coming out, even if he wasn't mad or threatened. He just had to feel tense, which he was all the time, and the people around him were in danger.

Bushroot stiffened and whined when he felt a touch on his shoulder, but very quickly relaxed. The touch was firm, but it was light and didn't feel like human contact. He sniffled and lifted his head to see Liquidator looking at him in concern.

"Are you okay?" Liquidator asked quietly. Bushroot just felt bad when he heard the question. Quackerjack was the one that had fallen off the swing and been squeezed and dropped by a vine. Bushroot didn't deserve concern.

"Is Jackie?" Bushroot asked. He looked towards Quackerjack, who was sitting curled up on the ground, staring off towards the empty parking lot. Drake was kneeling next to Quackerjack, talking quietly to him. It looked a little like they were arguing. The more Quackerjack said, the angrier Drake looked, and when Drake said something in return, Jackie shook his head and started getting more insistent.

"I'm not making things up, and I'm not seeing things." Quackerjack said loudly. "I saw him."

Drake sighed, a darkness in his eyes. "You kids stay here. I'll make sure things are clear. "Don't move." He ran off towards the parking lot, where Quackerjack had been looking earlier.

Megavolt came out of his slide and came to Quackerjack's side, ignoring the sparks coming off him. "Jackie, what happened?"

"I saw Negaduck!" Quackerjack said. A sentence that would have made Bushroot nervous just made him a little irritated. This was the sixth or so time that Quackerjack had claimed that exact thing, and each time Drake checked things out, and came back to say that nothing was there. Either Quackerjack was playing a twisted game, or he was imagining things. At this point, Bushroot really didn't know which was the case.

Megavolt sighed. He looked just as tired of this situation as Bushroot and Drake were. "Jackie…" He reached out to his friend, but Quackerjack knocked his hand away.

"I saw it!" Quackerjack shouted.

"Well, whatever you saw, it's not there now." Drake made his way back to them. He looked on edge. Despite how frustrated he looked, when he went to Quackerjack's side he was really gentle when he brushed his bent and broken feathers out of his face. "Maybe you hit your head when Bushy dropped you."

Bushroot's chest tightened. "I didn't do it on purpose!" He cried out, but his words were ignored.

"I saw him before I fell." Quackerjack stomped his feet. "I saw him!"

"Alright, enough." Drake said. "I think that's enough excitement for today. Time to go home."

Quackerjack scowled and stomped off. Megavolt rushed off after him, leaving Drake with Bushroot and Liquidator. The dog held out his hand, and Bushroot accepted it, but when he pulled him to his feet his legs were still shaking and he fell to the ground again.

"Sorry, I…sorry." Bushroot said sheepishly. Drake sighed and looked at Liquidator.

"Catch up to the others." Drake said. "I'll take care of Bushroot." Liquidator hesitated for a moment before walking off. When they were alone Drake sat down on the ground next to Bushroot. "Alright, what's up with you? I haven't seen you freak out like this.

Bushroot wrapped his arms around his legs. "I'm fine." He had to be fine. He had no good reason to not be. He had no right to whine right now. He'd hurt Quackerjack. He didn't deserve to feel sorry for himself.

"No offence, Sprout, but I don't think you've ever been fine for one minute in your life." Drake said. Despite himself, Bushroot chuckled.

"I-I didn't try to hurt him." Bushroot said. "I never want to hurt anybody, I just…Negaduck."

Drake looked alarmed. "Did you see him too?"

"No, no." Bushroot said. "I meant that he…I let him get in my head." He pet the grass. "Negaduck wanted me to be more violent, and I guess…I guess I am." Bushroot felt like he was going to start crying again. He buried his head in his knees to hide his tears from Drake. "I don't want to be bad, but I don't know how to not be bad."

Drake awkwardly patted his back. "Y-you're not bad, kid. You're just…you did what you thought you needed to to survive. I know how scary Negaduck can be. Honestly, and don't tell anybody else this, because I'll just deny it, but I'm kinda scared of Negaduck a little too."

"What?" Bushroot's head shot up. "You?"

"I know, I know, it's unbelievable, but it's the truth." Drake said. He was looking up at the sky, and Bushroot didn't know if it was because he was deep in thought, or because he was trying to hide his embarrassment.

"I guess Negaduck himself doesn't exactly scare me." Drake said. "It's the constant reminder of what he represents."

Drake sighed, looking tired. "I'm sure you've noticed how similar me and Negaduck can be. The truth is, we really are two sides of the same coin. I try to be a hero, but sometimes I mess things up, or I let people get hurt because at the moment I think that something else is more important. There are even times when I find myself wanting others to hurt. I want them to suffer."

Drake closed his eyes. "I don't go as far as Negaduck does, but when I stop and let myself think about it, I can't help but see the similarities. I wonder if I could ever become a tyrant. More of a villain than a hero." Drake looked pained. "Sometimes Gos looks at me in a way that makes me think that she wonders the same thing."

Bushroot rocked slightly. "You try to be good, but feel like there's too much bad in you, and you can't get over it." He understood that feeling well.

"Yeah, sometimes." Drake admitted. "I thought that everybody was either good or bad. There was no murky gray area. If somebody wasn't good, that just meant they hadn't become bad yet, but it was only a matter of time."

"Do you still think that?" Bushroot asked anxiously. He and his friends did bad things sometimes, and Drake seemed to be just on the edge of trusting them. Was he just waiting for them to take things a step too far?

"I don't really know anymore." Drake said. "I thought only bad kids got in trouble at school, but Gosalyn is far from a bad kid, and she gets in trouble all the time. And I thought that villains were rotten down to the core. Always had been, and always would be, and any redemption that happens in a complete miracle. And then I see you kids, and you're not villains at all. You're just kids. You're mischievous, and emotional, and…and innocent. You're all completely innocent, and I feel like it goes against everything I knew."

Bushroot fidgeted uncomfortably, and not knowing what else to do, he apologized. "I'm sorry."

Drake's face scrunched up. "Don't…it's not your fault. Don't apologize for not being bad." He gave Bushroot a significant look. "And don't be too hard on yourself just because you're not perfect. You're trying. That's more than a lot of people can say."

"Do you think I can really get better and stop hurting people?" Bushroot asked. "You really think I can get control like that?"

"I do." Drake said sincerely. "Maybe you struggle more with your powers than I'm used to, but your grip on your emotions is actually way better than what I've seen from you. I mean, disregarding today's incident, you haven't strangled Quackerjack yet."

Bushroot grimaced. "Yeah, I did."

Drake rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Okay, well, uh, anything that happened under Negaduck's influence doesn't really count, does it?"

Drake stood up. "You know, if you feel really bad about hurting Quackerjack, why don't you just apologize? I can't promise that it'll make everything better, but it might help." He held a hand out to Bushroot. "And for the record, I think you're a pretty good kid."

Bushroot couldn't help but smile slightly. "Really?"

"I mean, I'm not sure how bad somebody can be when they're so clearly torn up after accidentally hurting someone." Drake said. "And just between us, I've always thought you had the potential to be good. You just needed the right environment to, well, grow."

Bushroot's smile broadened, though something was nudging at the back of his mind. "What do you mean 'always'? Did you know me before?" Bushroot had been so busy avoiding Negaduck's wrath that he had pushed his lack of a past to the back of his mind. It just hadn't been his priority when he was scared that he wouldn't have a future.

Now though, without the threat of Negaduck hanging over his shoulder, Bushroot could afford to think about it, and he realized that he wanted answers.

A startled and almost panicked expression crossed Drake's face, but it was gone in an instant as he held a hand out to Bushroot, offering to help him to his feet.

"Come on," Drake said. "We don't want to fall too far behind the others. Megs might short-circuit, and we have to get Quackerjack to calm down before he burns my home to the ground."

Bushroot didn't like it when his questions were brushed to the side and not even considered, but he couldn't just think about himself. Drake was right. The others couldn't really be left to their own devices. He tucked his curiosity away and took Drake's hand.

"Why does Quackerjack keep on seeing Negaduck?" Bushroot asked as he was pulled up.

"I don't know." Drake said. "But I'm going to find out. It's the least I can do."

"Can I help?" Bushroot asked. He wanted to make up for hurting Quackerjack. Besides, his mind was begging for a challenge to look into, to test the limits and look for answers. He couldn't remember doing a lot of that kind of thing, but the thought of researching and getting past a complicated problem, it just felt so right.

Maybe it was what he used to do. And maybe if he did what he had done before, then he could get his memories back. It was at least worth a try.

Drake didn't quite hide his grimace. "We'll see." It wasn't a yes, but it was far from a no. Bushroot could work with that. He may not know who he was before, but he knew that he was stubborn, and he knew how to get his way. It was just a matter of time.