Reformation
Chapter Four
The door to Negaduck's cell creaked loudly as it opened behind him. Once again, he was flopped down on the bed with another magazine to serve as his only form of entertainment.
"Hey, Negaduck," the agent by the name of Terry greeted jovially as if the two of them were buddies. In his hands he carried a tray with a plate of food and a glass of water balanced on its surface.
Negaduck looked up at the clock on the wall which read 5:30 in the last afternoon. He sat up and tossed the magazine to the side. "Thursday. Must be steak night, eh?" he scoffed as he jumped to his feet and made his way over to the small table.
"Yeah, I know the variety isn't much, but--"
Terry suddenly tripped rather clumsily over his own feet and stumbled forward. The tray of food toppled out of his hands--and directly onto the front of the public enemy's black shirt. Negaduck stepped back, lifting his arms to look at the mess running down the front of his shirt. He then looked up at Terry with an unpredictable gaze.
The agent frowned pathetically--it almost resembled a smirk. "Sorry about that, Negs."
For a second, it looked as if the murderous villain was about to lose his temper just like many occasions before. His hands clenched into fists and he inhaled sharply through his nostrils. But surprisingly, he opened his fists and waved it away.
"Don't worry about it."
There was a silent pause. A pause of astonishment. Finally, Terry spoke as he began to leave before Negaduck could change his mind about harming him. "I'll send someone in to clean it up."
A minute later, Terry stepped into the observation lab where Jacob was sitting behind a computer screen and the two doctors were filing through charts. The agent had a smug yet relieved smile on his face. "Well, he didn't hit me this time."
"Even I could have made that fall look more believable," Dr. Grodin commented snidely from across the room.
"Hey, cut me some slack. I've already been walloped by that insane duck four times this week."
Jacob ignored the harmless bickering of his associates and continued to observe the data on the computer screen in front of him. He didn't break his gaze until he heard Dr. Bellum appear alongside him with the information he had been waiting for.
"I've got his MOA level," she informed flatly. This caught Jacob's attention. Dr. Bellum has been known to be an eccentric quack. Whenever she wasn't excited about something, it meant one of two things: Either something had amazed her or, more frequently, something was wrong.
"Well?" he asked anxiously and calmly faced her.
Dr. Bellum looked down at the graph in her hands to verify what she was about to tell him, and then handed the paper to him. "A 3.14."
Jacob blinked once before snatching the graph paper from her hands. His eyes scanned over all of the numbers and his face slowly fell.
"Incredible."
There was a short moment of silence before Dr. Bellum spoke again. "Sir, there is something else you should be aware of."
"What is it?" Jacob nearly snapped at her, wondering what news would come next.
Dr. Bellum's face went dark with worry. "I've heard some rumors from the main SHUSH facility," she reluctantly informed. "He is growing suspicious."
Jacob's eyes narrowed, quickly feeling threatened. He. The only threat to the experiment.
Chief Agent Jake Mallard.
His ice-cold green eyes scanned over the front page headline from last week's newspaper: 'PUBLIC ENEMY'S REIGN ENDED BY LETHAL INJECTION.' Despite the article being outdated by several days, he continued to read it and re-read it again and again for one reason: he didn't believe it. Something in his keen senses told him to believe otherwise.
But he had no proof, and that is what he is looking for.
With a grunt acknowledging a dead end, Chief Agent Jake Mallard crumpled the newspaper in his hand and tossed it begrudgingly over his shoulder into the wastebasket. Ever since Negaduck's 'execution,' Jake had a hunch that something was amiss. And he was smelling something fishy wafting through SHUSH. Director Hooter was constantly out of his office, tending to a 'confidential matter.' Yes, something was certainly going on which he did not know about. And Jake Mallard hated not knowing everything.
He sat back in his soft leather chair behind his desk in his large office. His fingers tapped restlessly on the desktop while his mind continued to work, turning over every possibility in his head. Then his eyes wandered to the stack of paperwork sitting on the corner of his desk which required his attention. Jake slid the top report toward him and gave it a quick read. At the bottom was the line requiring his signature, but instead of picking up a pen, he took the report and folded it into a paper airpline. With a mischievous grin, he prepared to the craft for flight, but he jumped in surprise when a dramatic voice echoed through his office.
"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" the voice declared as a cloud of blue smoke appeared in front of the door inside the office. "I am the papercut that ruins your day! I am Darkwiiiiiiiiing Duck!" the hero announced with a dramatic flourish of his cape.
Jake stared at the caped crusader with a raised brow, seeming unimpressed. "Have I ever told you that you could just knock?" he reminded.
"Knock? Moi? Pah!" Darkwing dismissed smugly, not dropping his theatrics for an instant. "The Mighty Masked Mallard doesn't need to knock when he can keep the element of surprise!"
"Indeed," the SHUSH agent muttered, but he was quick to dismiss the entrance and move right along to business. "Actually, I'm glad you showed up. I wanted to discuss something with you."
"Oh?" Darkwing asked, his interest perked upon hearing that Jake Mallard, whom he had come to see as a father figure in his life, wanted to speak to him. "And how, pray tell, can I offer my assistance?" he continued as he sauntered into the room.
"It's about Negaduck."
The hero's face fell for an instant before he scoffed with an amused grin. "Negaduck? That deceased devil of deviance? That felon has finally said his farewell and boarded the ferry to Hell. What could you possible want to know about him now?" he inquired and plopped down in the chair in front of Jake's desk.
Jake leaned forward, his expression dark and sincere, as always. "I don't think he's dead."
Darkwing blinked once as he stared back into the mallard's green eyes. Then, quite suddenly, he burst out into laughter. "Come on, Agent Mallard! You think he's still alive? Ha! You and a dozen other witnesses saw him pumped full of poison and die on that cold metal table! I'll admit ol' Negs was one tough bird, but not even he could have survived that!" he pointed out with a smirk still on his bill.
But Jake's hard expression didn't change, and Darkwing immediately dropped his jovial demeanor. "Really? You think so? Why?"
"Because something is going on inside of SHUSH. Something secretive," Jake informed, frustrated at the thought of being kept in the dark. "Director Hooter is always out of the office, supervising some confidential matter." He turned his head to stare distantly out the window. "And I just have a feeling that he's still out there. It was all too simple to destroy him."
Darkwing's brows raised suspiciously. "But why wouldn't you have been informed of this? You're the Chief Agent," he acknowledged skeptically. "No one knows of your relation to Negaduck but you and me."
That important fact raised a red flag in Jake's mind, and his eyes narrowed as realization hit him.
"And Jacob Mallard..."
Darkwing's eyes went wide. Jake was right. Aside from the two of them in that office and Negaduck himself, Jacob was the only one who knew of Jake and Negaduck's blood ties. "Do you think that slick SHUSH agent has something to do with it?"
Jake paused. Then he stood up out of his chair and wandered to a file cabinet against the wall. He pulled open the top drawer and shifted through some files toward the front before pulling out a single folder. Opening the folder, he looked over the few documents inside while he paced back and forth. "Several months ago, he requested to perform a scientific experiment through SHUSH. I don't have any details here because I rejected his proposal. But it wouldn't surprise me if Director Hooter overruled my decision."
"Of course! J. Gander and Jacob are close pals," Darkwing remembered with a disgusted sneer.
"And Jacob would go to any measure to keep me in the dark, especially if it involves Negaduck."
There was a silent pause before Darkwing dramatically jumped to his feet, causing Jake to once again jump in surprise. "Have no fear, Agent Mallard! For Darkwing Duck is not tied by the rules and regulations of the SHUSH handbook!" he declared while pointing a finger into the air. With a sweep of his cape, he spun around and darted toward the door, where he turned back around to face Jake once again. "If that volatile villain's veins are still pumping, Darkwing Duck will find him!"
With those final words, Darkwing turned and stealthily stalked his way out of the office.
Jake could only groan and roll his eyes.
It was night in the secretive SHUSH laboratory. Aside from a few security guards and a couple of nightshift agents, the rest of the staff had gone home for the evening, resting for another full day of work. But one mallard was not sleeping soundly.
Negaduck continuously tossed and turned on the uncomfortable bed, tangling himself in the thin sheets and burying his face in the scratchy pillow. His brows were furrowed over his closed eyes and sweat dampened the feathers on his face. Dreams were distressing his sleep, and they were the same dreams he had been experiencing for the past couple of nights.
Gunshots. Angry yelling. Frightened screams. All of the sounds overlapped one another in his mind. He saw terrified faces of his victims as he mercilessly gunned them down. But one face stood out from all the rest--that of a young girl with curly red locks and innocent, bright green eyes. She wore a pink dress despite being subjected to the hell she was forced to live in.
Gosalyn.
Images of that fateful day when she came into the villain's care flashed through his mind. Negaduck's distraught face twisted as he heard himself shouting and swearing angrily at the child who would only do everything she could to please him. Then he heard her crying, and saw her frail figure sobbing in the corner...
With a loud gasp, Negaduck sat upright in the bed, his eyes wide and his breathing labored.
The cane clanked loudly on the metallic catwalk at a fast pace. Jacob moved in quick strides through the quiet lab to where an agent and a security guard were waiting. Both of their faces were full of confusion, which added more concern to Jacob's expression.
"What happened?" he asked anxiously. The guard only motioned toward Negaduck's cell.
Jacob burst inside the small room to a shocking scene. Negaduck was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and his hands cradling his face.
And he was sobbing.
"What's happening? What's wrong?" Jacob asked as he rushed forward. He dropped to a crouching position in front of Negaduck and placed his hand on the villain's shoulder. When Negaduck lifted his face, tears were streaking down his face, and he was gasping for breath between his distressed sobs. "Negaduck, what is it?"
"I keep seeing her face!" he wailed in reply.
Jacob shook his head slowly, trying to understand. "Who? Whose face?"
"Gosalyn's!"
The older mallard's face fell as he understood. "From the Negaverse?"
"Every time I close my eyes, she's there!" Negaduck choked as he stared desperately at Jacob in front of him. "I was robbing a bank a few years back, and her parents were innocent bystanders who I gunned down while making my escape. I kidnaped her in hopes of getting a ransom, but I didn't know those were her parents!" He paused for a moment, taking deep breaths so that he could continue. His clenched his hands tightly in front of him and shook his head as he went on. "When I found out that plan had failed, I was just gonna dump her somewhere. But she began catering to my every demand, so I kept her around just so I could have someone to do whatever I wanted!"
Jacob's bill slowly fell open in response to the criminal's confession. Negaduck's shoulders began to convulse as he was racked with another round of violent sobbing, and Jacob gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"I would yell at the kid simply because I took joy in it," Negaduck continued as he began to slowly calm. His hands came up to cover his face again. "I liked exerting my power and releasing on my anger on her because she would take it. She would put up with it because she actually believed I cared about her."
"What's important is that you realize what you did was wrong," Jacob stated in an assuring, soothing voice.
"But why can't I sleep?" Negaduck demanded pleadingly, throwing his hands down from his face so that he could stare at Jacob with his teary blue eyes. "I just want to lay my head down, close my eyes, and not see her face..."
Jacob swallowed the breath he had been holding as the once hardened criminal's now broken eyes pierced his own. But he nodded once, and slowly rose to his feet. He placed his strong hands on both of Negaduck's shoulders and stared down at him. "It's going to be okay, alright?"
Negaduck grabbed at the feathers on his head, clenching them tightly in his fingers, and shook his head as he began to sob again. A strong feeling overcame Jacob right then as he watched the emotionally pained mallard. It was an emotion he thought had been lost long ago, and he suddenly feel it arise inside of him once again at that moment. And he obeyed that feeling by taking Negaduck's head gently in his hands and pulled him in a comforting embrace against his chest.
"You're going to be okay," Jacob whispered while Negaduck's distressed cries continued.
A few minutes later, Jacob reappeared in the control room where the guards and the agents were waiting, eagerly awaiting the news. The mallard calmly adjusted his tie and blazer with his free hand as he looked toward one of thee agents. "Terry, give him an insomnia pill, two for every time he can't sleep. And page the staff. I want everyone here an hour early in the morning," he ordered. Once he received a nod of compliance from the others, he slowly gave them a triumphant smile.
"Ladies and gentlemen...we have remorse."