"My reflection, dirty mirror,
  is no connection, to myself...."
 -Zero, Smashing Pumpkins

Two Sides of a Coin: Shadow Cast
Chapter One: Homefront


Nosedive leaned further under the hood of the Migrater and 
cursed, flinching back from the overheated engine as it burned 
his fingers. Muttering further obsenities under his breath, he 
stepped back and stared through the smoke to see the source of 
the problem. It had been a month since he'd crashed the 
supervehicle, demolishing the entire front end and therefore 
the engine. The process of repairing it was becoming a test of 
his, somewhat limited, patience. It wasn't that anyone expected 
him to fix the damage, as Duke and Wildwing kept trying to 
explain, but Nosedive refused to give up on it. For one thing, it 
was mindless work, which meant he had a few hours a day to 
spend where he didn't have to think about death and its 
consequences. Smirking slightly, he wondered what 'Wing 
would think of that particular subject matter.  It was wearing 
on Wildwing more than it was on him, Nosedive could tell 
from years of experiance. Ever since he'd gotten out of the 
Medlab Nosedive had become more and more withdrawn, 
opting not to explain the trip to the 'Negaverse' to his older 
brother. It'd only be taken  as a hallucination caused by the 
concussion anyway. Nosedive himself wasn't even convinced 
of the trip's reality anymore. It was easier on his frayed mind 
to think that Canard was dead, the Negaverse didn't exist, and 
Wildwing would never try to kill him. True, it wasn't fair of 
him to pretend it didn't happen and flinch every time 'Wing 
even looked at him, but the memories of the creature, the 
demon, with his brother's face that had threatened him, 
attacked him, almost kill him until Nosedive had been forced 
to defend himself refused to go away.

With another curse, Nosedive realized that his thoughts had 
drifted back towards the responsibility resting on his shoulders 
again. It seemed he didn't have a refuge from his own 
conscience anymore. Not that he felt guilty about killing 
'NegaWing'- no, not a chance that thoughts of that 
frighteningly familour face's melting eyes glaring accusingly at 
him through the flames haunted Nosedive every time he even 
closed his eyes. Not that his loss of innocence had tainted him 
at all. Not that  he knew that he had blood on his hands.

Oh, no. Not at all. 

"Nosedive!"

Straightening sharply at the uncomfortably familour voice, 
Nosedive smacked his head on the hood of the Migrater. He 
staggered back, grimacing as the pain of the concussion was 
renewed. Just as he regained his balance, someone glomped on 
to him with a childish shriek of delight that did nothing to 
cease the new pounding in his skull.

"How did you get here?" he demanded, making no attempt to 
escape Nega-Mallory's grip, knowing it would have been 
futile.

"Canard found a teleporter. Isn't that great?" she beamed up at 
him.

"Canard?"

"Hey, kid." commented Canard easily from the doorframe he 
was leaning on. 

"What are _you_ doing here?" The old anger flared up again, 
even though he had already forgiven Canard for asking him to 
court death. It was an immature reaction born from sleep 
deprivation and redirected anger- which didn't necessarily 
mean he was going to take it back.  

Completely undaunted by the undercurrent of resentment in 
Nosedive's voice, Canard watched him expressionlessly. "I'll 
explain later. What happened to your arm?"

Nosedive realized that he had been unintentionally favoring the 
wounded limb despite the fact that it had healed a week ago. 
"It hit the windshield the same time as my forehead. Not to 
sound rude, but what're you doing here? It can't be to just 
shoot the breeze with 'Wing, and you wouldn't waste your 
time to check up on me. So, what gives?"

Before Canard could offer his standard cryptic answer, the 
screeching noise of an alarm exploded in the silence.

"Oh, great." muttered Nosedive. "What now?"

****

It had started out as a bad day, and was going downhill from 
there. Closing his eyes and trying to ignore the migrane 
building behind his eyes, Wildwing wondered briefly if he 
could take the day off and actually get a decent nine hours of 
sleep. 

It didn't seem likely. 

Between stopping Dragaunus, hockey practices and games, 
Phil's publicity stunts, and trying to keep track of his younger 
brother's mental and physical health, Wildwing was beyond 
exhausted. His own health was beginning to give out, meaning 
that the entire team was now on edge. It hadn't been a good 
month for anyone, all things considered. 

"Canard," he snarled under his breath, speaking to himself and 
an empty kitchen, "if you're still alive, I'm going to kill you for 
leaving me to deal with this."

Taking the day off was really beginning to appeal to him. 

The unmistakable wail of the Drake1's security systems going 
off made him open his eyes and groan. "So much for that 
idea."

Entering the Ready Room with several quick strides, puckgun 
drawn, he asked of the female Duck already seated in front of 
Drake1

"Tanya, what's going on? Is it Dragaunus?"

She shrugged helplessly. "No, the security system's bioscans 
are differant from the ones we have on file. All I can figure 
from the readouts is that it's a Duck."

Wildwing's eyes narrowed. "Lucretia DeCoy?"

"Could be. We never had time to even take a complete medical 
scan, one that's more advanced than the Mask's readouts, let 
alone record them in Drake1."

"Turn off the security systems in the level they're on."

"What?!" Tanya swiveled the chair to face him, disbelieving. 

"Wildwing, those defenses are the only things standing 
between us and whoever's trying to break in!"

"I know." His expression didn't change in the slightest. "Can 
you change the drones' programs to  drag whoever that is back 
here? If it is DeCoy, that means she somehow escaped Limbo 
and she might be able to tell us how to get Canard back."

Glancing up at her leader and seeing the new spark of hope in 
his eyes, Tanya winced. There was no way they could have 
saved Canard then, and it seemed unlikely now that he had 
even survived after throwing himself to the 'worm', but once 
Wildwing got what Nosedive had once referred to as "the all-
knowing older brother look" it was impossible to de-convince 
him. With a heavy sigh, she typed in the command which 
would keep the drones from killing their 'guest', hoping for 
the sake of everyone involved that his decision wouldn't be a 
mistake.

The door to the room slid open, allowing Duke, Mallory, and 
Grin to enter. Mallory, looking agitated, was about to demand 
what was going on when the second set of doors across the 
room opened. Two silver, deadly drones carrying a motionless 
bundle of black clothes whirred into the room. They 
uncerimoniously dropped their burden to the floor and exited 
again. 

"That doesn't look like a Saurian." Duke commented easily, 
only a hint of tension running beneath his tone. The others 
remained silent, each eyeing the rags on the floor and waiting 
for someone to move towards it, Mallory muttering impatiently 
to herself at Wildwing's hesitation. Finally, Wildwing exhaled 
in defeat and stepped towards the person sprawled bonelessly 
on the cold metal floor.

"One way to find out," he murmured, mostly to himself, and 
pushed back the cloth hiding the intruder's face.

Lying on the floor unconscious was a broken, beaten, gaunt 
Duck with jaw length black streaked blond hair and a jagged 
cut across his temple. Bewildered as to how such a wounded 
child  had gotten past the security defenses, Wildwing 
activated the Mask and immediatly had to smother his 
expression.

This didn't do much to prevent Mallory's next question. 
"Well? What'd the Mask come up with?"

There was a pause before Wildwing could manage to answer. 
"Except for a few flaws, his DNA is an exact match with-"

The door from the garage slid open with a hiss, cutting his 
statement off. Instead, the five Ducks present could only stare 
at Canard, who leaned in the doorway while studying the 
intruder with an expression of dread.

"Canard?!" Wildwing demanded, praying this wasn't wasn't 
another illusion set up by the Saurians, that it was reality.
Maddeningly calm, Canard met his friend's gaze and nodded. 
"Wildwing."

The transdimensional traveler walked across the room to the 
intruder's side, ignoring all looks of bewilderment for the 
moment, and exhaled in an expression of stress that Wildwing 
recognized from years past. The older Duck turned, and called

"Mallory, did you have any idea that we were followed?"

McMallard stared at him. "What?"

She wasn't the person he was speaking to, however. A second 
Mallory, scantier clad and painted with gaudy makeup, stepped 
into the room, half dragging Nosedive behind her. She took 
note of the intruder and the happy smile on her face faded, her 
large eyes suddenly larger with fear.

"I guess they did, if Shadow's here. Cain must've sent him 
after us." The child shook her head, and moved towards the 
wretched teenager on the floor. "Poor guy."

"Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" Duke finally 
spoke up, looking mildly pained and almost exasperated. 
Looking skyward in hopes of divine patience, Nosedive said 

"Here we go again."
________

Next Chapter- Canard explains some things for once, a villian 
appears, and Shadows regains consciousness. All characters 
besides Nega-Mal, who is mine, belong to Disney. This story 
is dedicated to Celyna, who was recently in a car accident but 
is recovering well.