All characters besides Brittany, Reno, Cain, Shadow, 
Anderson, Emporer Klegghorn, and Marisol belong to Disney; 
the characters previously listed belong to me. Copyright 1997.



"You're a shadow of me,
what I used to be,
you're fading and
I still don't know why..."               
-Gravity Kills, Goodbye.


"Sides of a Coin: Shadow Cast".
 Chapter 2: Sadistic Souls


Canard exhaled as slowly as he could, fighting back the fatigue 
which lurked, everpresnt, an undercurrent of his thoughts. 
Never in his life had he felt so beaten down.

"So much for our calculations." he commented to the Nega-
Mallory, with a bitter laugh. "Cain still followed us."

In a futile effort to comfort him, Nega-Mal patted his shoulder 
and turned to the still bewildered Ducks who were watching 
her as if at any minute she might morph into a Saurian. 
Considering what she knew of Saurians, that was hardly 
surprising.

"I'm sorry about this," she murmured, mostly to herself, 
nervously wringing her hands, "us busting in on you and all. 
My name is Marisol for now," she glanced up at Nosedive for 
approval, accepting the slight smile he gave her with a faint 
grin, "y'know, to prevent confusion? Anyway, me and Canard-
"

"'Canard and I.'" Canard corrected, not bothering to open his 
eyes and therefore face the migrane looming overhead.

Overdramatically rolling her eyes, Marisol contienued "We 
came to warn you that Emperor James Klegghorn is about to 
enter this universe and try to either add it to his collection of 
lands, or destroy it."

"Oh, is that all?" Mallory replied, a tinge of sarcasm souring 
her tone.

"That doesn't answer my question." noted Wildwing, watching 
his best friend through narrowed eyes. After years of 
association with Canard, he knew when the older Duck was 
keeping something from him. "How did you get here?"

Canard winced; he had been dreading having to answer that 
question ever since learning that this trip was going to be 
mandatory. Once Wildwing learned of exactly what Nosedive 
had done, had been forced to do, in the Negaverse...

It wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Nosedive, go check on the kid."

Grimly sketching a mock salute with a particularly sardonic 
smirk, Nosedive complied.

<Great.> Canard drew in another breath, ignoring the 
increasingly bewildered atmosphere of the kitchen. <He still 
hates me. That isn't going to help this situation any.>

"Was that necessary?" Grin spoke for the first time in the last 
hectic hour, and there was a look on his face that might have 
been disapproval, if he hadn't meditated himself past that point 
long ago.

"Yeah." Tilting his head back to look at the ceiling, Canard 
added "Why bother telling him when he already 
knows enough already?"

***

Unconsciousness clung to Shadow like tar, holding him back, 
keeping him from waking.

Frankly, Shadow couldn't protest. The thought of his brother, 
waiting in reality with his malicious anger and that awful, 
knowing smile, made the young Duck shudder.

<I should have overdosed yesterday, when I found out about 
this.> Shadow thought, with the serenity that  
semiconsciousness always brought. <I should have killed 
myself a long time ago and saved Wildwing the trouble.>

The truth was, he'd never had the courage to risk survival, to 
face Wildwing's wrath upon waking. It had happened before; 
Shadow still bore the scars. After that, the energy required to 
inflict such pain on himself had never resurfaced again.

<I can't leave Wildwing anyway. It isn't his fault I get him mad 
enough to hurt me... he never means to. If I'd just do what he 
tells me, he wouldn't have to hurt me. I should know when 
he's angry at me by now, but I just have to get so stoned all the 
time like some kind of idiot!> Biting back the rising guilt 
which meant that he was close to waking, Shadow took a 
ragged breath and tried not to let the pain cut so deep.
<Dad would hate me for this; but then, he always hated me. 
That's why 'Wing killed him, right?>

Automatically wishing to numb the pain which never totally 
left, Shadow reached out to grab the bottle of pills he kept on 
the floor near the mattress which served as his bed.

<Not 'Wing.> he thought abruptly, still searching empty air 
with a lack of concentration unusual even for him, <Not 
according to Canard. His name's Cain here, now, and he'll get 
mad if I call him- where are those downers?>

Confused, but not distressed enough to actually open his eyes, 
Shadow let his hand drop and realized that the floor wasn't 
their either. 

<Would Wildwi-.... Cain, his name is Cain... would he put me 
on a real bed if he was angry? Maybe Mom came back, and we 
can go back to the way life was back before Cain killed Dad?... 
Wishful thinking there, Shadow.>

"Don't bother looking, there isn't a gun there."

The sudden sound of an unfamiliar male voice made Shadow 
open his eyes, to find himself vunerable in unfamiliar territory.

<That's it, I'm off cocaine-heroin cocktails for the rest of my 
life.>

"Who are you?" he demanded of the slim, blond individual 
lounging against the wall. As a result of its misuse, his voice 
couldn't warp itself into a threatening tone; the closest it came 
was a weary, harsh rasp that sounded as if he had been 
swallowing wallpaper.

Effortlessly striding to where Shadow lay, the blond Duck met 
his counterpart's haunted eyes. "My name's Nosedive 
Flashblade."

Shadow stared at the heathier, more innocent version of 
himself, then leaned his head against the ungiving backboard 
of the medical cot.

"Yeah," he sat up with a wince, "and you're the reason 
Wildwi-... Cain... has been trying to kill me for the last month. 
You're the traitor."

***

"It's scientifically impossible." Tanya argued, shaking her head 
in an attempt to clear away what Canard had told her to find 
the solid truth. "First of all, if as much alcohal was thrown 
around as you said the blast would've taken out two blocks, 
not just a few buildings. No one could've survived if they were 
in the bar, so if 'Shadow' was that close to the fire he 
would've been killed, or at least scarred, but judging from
readings Drake1 took he's in basically good heath!" At last, 
she had to pause for breath, but before she could continue 
Mallory spoke.

"It's probably my job to say that Nosedive isn't idiotic enough 
to pull a stunt like that, but considering the last year... I can't."

Irked, Marisol glared at her 'twin' and sniffed. "I thought it 
was brave."

"You would." was Canard's darkly amused comment, as he 
shifted to keep his face partially hidden by a hand.

Still somewhat overwhelmed by the entire affair, Wildwing 
shook his head and sighed. "It's going to be a really bad year."

Canard glanced up at Grin, and smiled without humor.

"I think it's your turn to say something."

The huge gray Duck just shrugged, remaining as neutral as 
always. "I'll save it for later."

Watching the somewhat ordered chaos with a bleak smirk, 
Duke L'Orange managed a bleak smirk of his own as he 
thought, <Why do I get the feeling Nosedive is going to end up 
grounded for life after this?>

***

 The small amount of shock on Nosedive's face was a slight 
comfort to Shadow, although not much consolation for the last 
month's pain.

"How did you figure that out?"

Completely ignoring that, Shadow bared his teeth slightly with 
a snarl. "Why did you have to torch Gary's? Why did you have 
to do it in my body, and make Wildwing blame me? What did I 
ever do to you?"

When Nosedive met his eyes again, any compassion for his 
counterpart's suffering was gone. "If you think I'm going to 
feel guilty because you're a masochistic idiot who doesn't 
know enough to run from someone who's smacking them 
around, you're so wrong it's not even funny."

"You think I could run? With Wildwing breathing down my 
neck 24/7? He chains me to whatever piece of furniture that 
won't move and leaves me there for days!"

A quick glint of pain at that image shot through the 'good' 
Duck's expression at that, but it was instantly gone.

"Right. Buy yourself a Hallmark card and get over it, pal, 
'cause you're in a lot more trouble than that right now."

A small, rational corner in the back of Nosedive's mind 
muttered that he was being unreasonable; Shadow was just a 
victim, like he himself had been only a few years ago. The 
Negaverse boy was just what his name implied, a Shadow, of 
things past and things still present in the darkest parts of 
Nosedive's own mind.  Nosedive didn't enjoy being reminded 
of his own shortcomings at three in the morning, especially 
when that personification of his id was blaming him for his 
pain.

"What do you mean?" the dark side teen growled, wishing he 
had at least one joint to steady him, to make his hands stop 
trembling, and to force the nausea back. 

"I mean that Cain, or Wildwing or whatever he calls himself, is 
lurking around somewhere in Anaheim and he will track you 
down, and then he will kill you, if he gets past our security 
systems."

"No!" Shadow drew into himself, unwilling to face the truth 
which threatened to shatter what little stability he had, the 
constancy of Wildwing's abuse. "He'd never kill me. He 
wouldn't go that far."

Closing his eyes, Nosedive took a step back. <So that was 
what it sounded like when I tried to keep the old man out of 
trouble for smacking me. Well, at least now I know what I 
would've become if Canard and 'Wing hadn't hauled me away 
from that particular section of our family tree.>

The thought that he had very nearly been trapped with his 
father, just as Shadow had been trapped with Cain, sickened 
Nosedive so severely that he re-opened his eyes to push the 
thought out of his mental reach. 

"I could've killed you just then." Shadow spoke to the table, 
although his words were directed at his 'twin'. 

"But you didn't."

"I'm not like Cain." Settling himself so that the side of his face 
rested of his knees, Shadow murmured to 
himself, "I never will be."

***

The man known as Cain spat over the side of the hotel room 
balcony overlooking Anaheim and looked sideways at Duke 
'Anderson'. "Any news from the freak?"

The assassin shrugged noncommitally. "No."

"Hmm." Cain crossed his arms over his broad chest and stared 
into the night with a hunter's intensity.

"Probably not the best idea to send the traitor after the people 
he betrayed you to."

Irritated with Anderson's impudence, Cain had turned to snarl 
at him when the hotel room's door opened. A tall, thin man 
with blazing red hair, a flowing black cape over black body 
armor, and icy dark eyes glided into the room. 

Startled out of gazing into eternity, the Nega-Tanya fell to her 
knees. Allowing a cruel smirk to etch itself on his face, Nega-
Grin, whose current codename was Reno, inclined at the waist. 
Knowing it was the only way to keep his skull attached to his 
spinal column, Cain bowed as well, gritting his teeth as he did 
so. "Emperor Klegghorn."

"Hey, Jim." Anderson commented with a lazy carelessness that 
should have cost him his life long ago. Instead, Klegghorn 
replied solemnly , "Good evening, Duke. Cain, where is your 
brat with the reports?"

"He hasn't returned since last night, sir." The title of respect 
seemed to burn Cain's mouth; he had to practically spit the 
word at his superior.

"Hmm. That is distressing. I trust you will deal with him for 
the delays when he gets back?"

Tanya, known as Brittany in any criminal records kept by 
Canard, looked up at the human emperor through a veil of hair 
as he paused at her side.

"Tanya," Klegghorn said, softly enough that none but himself 
and she could hear, "you could be my wife if you would just 
agree on the terms."

Forcing an inane giggle, Brittany inquired "Have you seen my 
doll collection? Missy is really very pretty."

Klegghorn stared at her for a moment longer, then shrugged 
and moved on.

"I'll be glad to hunt the punk down." Reno rumbled, a nasty 
look in his eyes that Brittany didn't approve of in the slightest.

"We don't have time." Cain snapped, angry with Shadow for 
making such an error for Klegghorn to jab at. Once thing was 
certain, he'd be sure it would never happen again. "We've got 
bombs to plant. Anderson, you with me so that the local law 
doesn't interfere. Brittany, Reno..." The red eyes of the Mask 
narrowed as they skinned over both of their faces, "stay here 
and guard."

As the hotel room door closed, Brittany noticed the leer Reno 
was aiming at her and couldn't suppress a shudder.



Next Time- The Call of Duty.