OPPOSITE RECIPROCAL
Copyright 2008 by Q Illespont
All characters are property of their respective owners, mainly Disney.
Chapter 8

Darkwing and Dark Gosalyn stood by the TARDAT, looking back at the Friendly Four. The others had converged, rushing when the alarm had first sounded, but had only reached the base several minutes after Taurus Bulba's death. Megavolt had taken over holding Gosalyn when he arrived; he sighed inwardly, knowing that his choice of a more water-resistant costume, based on the girl's past, was one of his best investments.

'Well,' Darkwing said, 'it's time for us to get back to our world. Take care of her, OK?' The Friendly Four nodded as one.

The other Gosalyn finally lifted her head up, and looked to the departing ducks. By now she'd had her shatterred leg put in a cast, and was sitting in a wheelchair; she'd get a set of crutches before leaving. 'You'll be back, right, Gosalyn?' she asked.

Darkwing tugged nervously at his collar, while Dark Gosalyn fidgeted. The Negaverse was, aside from the disturbing FOWL icons around them, not a bad place to be in. 'It's not my phone booth,' Dark Gosalyn hedged.

She watched as the other girl wheeled herself over and hugged her tightly. 'I'll miss you,' she said. 'I'm glad I met my Darkverse duplicate.'

Dark Gosalyn winced slightly at that, but reached to hug the other girl. 'Glad to meet you, too,' she said. She did feel awkward, and was certain that if anyone ever saw this version of her she'd never live it down at school, but her heart still went out to her. Once in a while she'd think about the rougher parts of her past and feel sullen, but this version had it worse and was still true to herself.

Flashbulbs broke her train of thought, and she stared at two camera-wielding ducks. Quackerjack was winding the film in his, and answered, 'Hey, this is a priceless moment in Gosalyn's childhood!'

Dark Gosalyn grumbled, and sighed as she saw her father putting his camera away. 'And what's your excuse, Dad?'

'Research material, sweetie. By viewing you in close proximity to your Negaverse duplicate, I can more fully research the differences and similarities between the two worlds.' He then walked over and gave both girls a hair-ruffle. 'And this is about the only way I'm gonna ever see you in something as sweet as this dress.'

Gosalyn giggled at her double's discomfort. 'It'd look cute on you!'

'Right,' Dark Gosalyn said, 'let's get back to our world!'

The girls let go of each other, and Dark Gosalyn climbed into the TARDAT, followed by her father. 'You know what, Dad?' she griped.

'What, Gos?' her father grunted, trying to pull his leg in the cockpit.

'They could've at least sprung for a trailer!'

--

Darkwing let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back on the towel spread under him, and shifted his hat to cover his eyes better. A few metres away, he could hear ducks splashing in the ocean, and he smirked to himself as he tried to identify each one. He heard a huge splash, and chuckled. 'Launchpad, be careful out there with Gos and Honker!' he called warily.

'What was that, DW?' he heard from behind, and sighed. Apparently he hadn't quite judged the mass hitting the water surface quite right.

'I meant that when you join the kids, tell Gosalyn that she doesn't have to try to knock the water out of the ocean, there'll be plenty more to replace it,' he said to him. He still kept his eyes shut, and now could tell where she was, as well as her friend Honker; the other duckling barely registered as far as personal sound volume, but if you knew what to listen for you could tell.

The reason he was wearing his hat--and mask, too--hugged up close to him. 'Dark, darling, are you sure this is safe?' Morgana asked, and he turned his head to look at her; training was one thing, but he never could get too much of Morgana Macawber. Especially so close to him and wearing a black one-piece with red spider designs. He also saw she was very ill at ease, staring around as if frightened. 'It's so bright and sunny out here, darling. Sure the children are going to be allright? I keep thinking some lawyer or mailman is going to come by and do ... horrible things.'

Darkwing smiled to himself and answered, 'I'm sure. We're here for them.' He kept his eyes on her as she hugged herself, her own eyes darting around much as a typical person would glance fearfully in the dead of night. While both he and she were more night people, he had at least passing familiarity with daytime, and no superstitious baggage to accompany it. Morgana had been out in daytime before, but had been taught how dangerous bright sunny days were ever since she was a young girl. They were here mainly as a favour from J Gander Hooter, who'd let them have a bit of time at a SHUSH resort facility that was curiously not in use, likely to help protect his identity as well as that of those with him. A slight breeze helped ruffle his hat brim and took the edge off of the hot summer's day.

Morgana reached a hand up under the hat to ruffle his feathers, calmed by his closeness. 'Something on your mind, Dark dearest?' she asked.

'Just the two most important women in my life,' he answered distractedly. He then yelped as Morgana's fingers clenched in a fist in his head, and realised his error.

He found himself staring eye-to-eye with Morgana as she stood; he was dangling from her clenched fist, hanging by his feathers. 'WHO IS SHE?' she yelled.

'The athletic redhead over there!' he managed, pointing to the approaching Gosalyn; the girl did have a sense of when he was in danger. Normally he wanted to discourage her getting in the middle of life-threatening adventures, but here was an exception since she and Morgana got along pretty well. And she'd help verify he was telling the truth. 'I was just thinking about how much I love the both of you and what great kind wonderful sweet people you are!'

'He saw us in the Negaverse,' Gosalyn said in support. 'I was OK, but yeesh.'

Morgana looked at Gosalyn, then to the pleadingly-smiling Darkwing, and blushed. 'Oh ... um, I'm sorry, Dark,' she managed, and set him back on the blanket. Gosalyn chuckled as Darkwing wiped nervous sweat from his brow and ran back to cannonball back into the sea 'It must be how weird it is out here.'

'It's allright, Morg,' Darkwing said. A calm Morgana was what was best, and her hurling hexbolts would hiner his happines, he hastily thought to himself. 'I just wish--' he then cut himself off before finishing.

'You wish what, darling?' Morgana said, and Darkwing was sure a few degrees were missing from the tone in her voice.

'That you'd tell me more about how you feel. Are you jealous of Gosalyn?' he tried. Show caring, avoid blame, and not get fried. Smooth! I hope, he added to himself.

Morgana sighed and relaxed for a moment, and shook her head. 'Not of her, no, Dark dearest,' she answered. She then tensed as she continued, 'I just sometimes worry that you might ... well ... '

He hugged her closer. 'Might what, Morg?' he asked.

'Might leave me for someone who ... ' Morgana fidgeted more, fingers twiddling anxiously. She then groaned, and hurriedly said, 'For someone who was never a criminal. There.' She sighed and put her arm around him.

'I would never do that, Morgana!' Darkwing proclaimed. 'And I still love you the way you are now. Even the other version of you wasn't the same. Even though she was born a good guy, she's not you.'

'You don't think about her, then? Or wish I was her?'

Darkwing chuckled. 'It's something I've thought of, yes.' Indeed, he had; he'd been pondering how different, yet similar, the two were, as well as the others in the Negaverse. The most apparent opposite was morality, which everyone seemed to have there, save for two.

While most ducks wanted heroes to win, they tended to be morally neutral, no strong tendencies either way; their Negaverse counterparts would be similar, which would be why Gosalyn mentioned the citizens didn't seem that different until she met people who in their world were more or less aligned. And only Gosalyn and Morgana had good versions in both worlds.

However, they also had something in common: they both had met Darkwing Duck. He'd broken into Gosalyn's orphanage to take a look at her file, and it seemed that she was on her way to street thuggery--there was even a memo from the day he'd met her first, something about a pig in the boys' room. And Morgana was robbing banks when he first came across her. Yet both were, more or less, on the side of crimefighting and not crimecommitting.

The evil doubles were in his world, but they'd turned. He smiled and brushed off some sand from his chest. 'Something I think of a lot.'

'And what exactly are you thinking, Dark?' Morgana asked.

Darkwing then stood up, bringing her with him. He then dipped her back and gave her a long, loving kiss. 'That love conquers the laws of quantum physics,' he answered, and returned to his blanket.

Morgana felt like a little smoke came from her beak as she sighed and smiled, still staring up, and still floating at an angle from where Darkwing had dipped her back.

Thank you for your patience; this was delayed as the first draft was lost when I lost ... um, everything else on my hard drive. And thus ends 'Opposite Reciprocal'.

Darkwing Duck will return in 'Ducks in a Row'.