Starcrossed Lovers
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: Never was there a tale of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
Dragaunus has created clones of the team, creating a disaster that leads Missie to believe she killed Nosedive, Nosedive to believe he killed Missie, and the team to think they both killed themselves.
WARNINGS: Violence, "suicide"
DISCLAIMER: I NO OWN. NO MONEY. NO SUE.
"OK, I really hate this," Missie growled, shooting over the crates.
"Hate what?" Christé asked, sounding surprised.
"It's bad enough fighting Seige without having to fight three of him!" Missie waved a hand at their opposition,
and Christé shrugged.
"I'd like to know how they make such exact replicas." She paused. "Is it just me, or does that look like Grin?"
Missie glanced past the now four Seiges, and nodded. "Hey, Grin!"
The huge duck turned to look at her. "Yes?"
"Check it out!" Missie called back, pointing to the enemy.
He looked for a long moment, then shrugged. "It appears I have now doubled my abilities."
"Grin!" Christé yelled. "Quit goofing around!"
Grin grinned, then turned to speak to Wildwing.
Missie glanced over her shoulder, then did an abrupt double take. "Don't like me watching me sneak up on me," she
muttered, and her black crescent moon tckla formed in her hand. She whipped it, and it neatly took out Missie's double before
swinging back into her hand.
She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a small visor, which she slid on. Fiddling with the controls, she scanned the 'clones'. "Wildwing!"
He shot her a dangerous look. "Everyone stay together, so we don't shoot each other!"
"Wildwing, I have to go stop the production of these copies!"
"Did I not just finish telling you to stay together?" He glowered.
Missie tapped the ridge of her visor. "These copies have a lower body temperature. There's no risk of taking out
ourselves so long as I keep this thing on."
Wildwing paused. "Well..."
"Don't worry, big bro." Nosedive pulled one similar out of his own equipment pouch. He slid it one, then grinned. "I'll go the other direction, so we'll be doubly sure of stopping
them."
Their leader sighed. "Alright. Just...don't get hurt, alright?"
Both shot him the thumbs up. "No problem!"
***
Nosedive slunk along the wall quietly, watching for copies.
An arm suddenly swung slung him against the wall, fist around his throat, and he found himself staring at a visored
Missie.
Gasping for breath, he checked her body temperature with the mask. Impossibly low.
"This is for imitating my girlfriend," he growled, holding his hand forward. Even as his sight began darkening from lack
of oxygen, a black sword began to form in his hand, the exploded out - impaling his attacker.
She gasped as silver blood spurted from the wound, releasing him. "Nosedive," she gasped, clawing at the sword.
"You've...you've...got the wrong...one..."
His eyes widened, and he desperetly tried to catch her as she fell. "Missie...?!"
Blood bubbled out of her beak as she gasped, "I love you..."
"Missie! Don't die on me!" He clutched her shoulders, kissing her face desperetly. "No! I didn't...!"
"I love you," she gasped, then her eyes closed, and she went limp.
Nosedive stood slowly, staring uncomprehensively at the silver blood that was soaked into his clothes, covering his
feathers. "Oh...my God..."
***
Missie crawled across the wall of crates, glaring at the many copies below. "I hate fakes."
Someone tackled her from behind, sending her falling from the wall, fighting to free herself from the other's grip.
Just before they hit the ground, she got free, twisting so she landed on her feet. The attacker did the same, and she
found herself facing a masked Nosedive.
His body temperature was unnaturally low, so she slammed him against the wall, locking her fist around his throat. "This
is for imitating my boyfriend," she growled, raising her tckla, and slamming it into his stomach.
He gasped, and Missie released him as silver blood spurted from the wound. "Missie," he gasped, clawing at the
tckla. "You've...you've...got the wrong...one..."
Her eyes widened, and she tried to catch him as he fell to his knees. "Nosedive...?!"
Blood bubbled out of his beak as he gasped, "I love you..."
"Nosedive! Don't die on me!" She clutched him to her, kissing his face. "No! I didn't...!"
"I love you," he gasped, then closed his eyes and went limp.
Missie backed away, staring confusedly at the silver blood that covered her, soaked into her clothes. "Oh...my
God..."
***
Nosedive let loose with a cry that didn't even begin to encompass the agony inside of him...
***
Across the courtyard, Missie let loose a scream of absolute and heart-wrenching agony...
***
Nosedive glowed briefly, then disappeared, leaving his sword behind.
***
Missie glowed briefly, then disappeared, leaving her crescent moon behind.
***
"Heh. Will ya' look at that." Chameleon hit his communicator. "Yo Seige. I got a dead Missie copy here, with
Nosedive's weapon but no Nosedive."
Seige's face flickered into view. "Yeah, well, I got a dead Nosedive copy with Missie's weapon, but no Missie."
"Really? Hey, teleport that Nosedive, the weapon, and all the blood to the middle of the courtyard."
"Why?" Seige demanded suspiciously.
"Trust me." Chameleon laughed, and programmed his teleporter to do the same there.
***
"I don't like this," Wildwing said nervously. "C'mon guys. I think we need to go looking for those two."
The others agreed, and they set out to find them.
***
"Well, that oughta do it."
The Missie and Nosedive clones lay on the ground, his arm thrown over her. Another Nosedive clone lay a short
distance away, one Missie had gotten.
"Hmm. Reminds me of that human guy's play." Seige grinned at the scene.
Chameleon turned into a perfect, if green, version of Shakespeare, and recited,
"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardoned, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
"Yeah, whatever." Seige shrugged. "C'mon, let's scram before the ducks get here."
***
Mallory found them first. "Wildwing!" She screamed, backpedalling towards the group.
"Mallory, calm down!" Wildwing ordered. "What's the matter?"
"Oh my - Wildwing, it's horrible..."
"What's horrible?" He turned the corner, and froze. The rest of the team followed, nervously. Tanya let out a painful
gasp.
Duke went forward first, examining the bodies. He sniffed the blood, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Wildwing. They -
they've been dead for awhile."
Her eyes oddly dead and still, Rose went to join him, examining the scene carefully. "They - they were injured by each other's weapons."
"You don't think they killed each other, do you?" Mallory gasped.
"No!" Wildwing exploded forcibly. "No!"
"No..." Rose agreed slowly. "It's worse."
Duke gingerly touched the sword that stuck out on either side of her torso. "The angle this went in on, either he was
slightly higher up than her, or..."
"Or?" Mallory demanded.
He looked up, his eye troubled. "Or she impaled herself."
"What?!" Christé cried, frantic.
"L-look," Rose said, rising from her crouch. "This Nosedive copy over here, he was stabbed with Missie's tckla. For
arguements sake, we'll say that this copy had grabbed Nosedive's sword - that is possible, right?"
Christé nodded numbly. "Yes."
"So when she saw the weapon, she thought she'd killed Nosedive, so she took his sword, and...impaled herself." Rose
paused for a long moment, eyes closed.
"Are you alright?" Duke asked gently.
"Yes." She swallowed, then continued. "Nosedive then came around the corner, like we just did, and found her. He
saw what had happened, and felt so bad that he took the tckla from out of the copy, and stabbed himself."
"Would she do that? Kill herself?" Wildwing asked through gritted teeth.
"If she thought she'd killed Nosedive?" A tear slid out from between Christé's tightly closed eyelids. "Without hesitation."
"We can't know for sure until we perform an autopsy, to be-" Tanya began, but Wildwing interrupted.
"No! Don't you think they've been cut up enough?!"
The team was awkwardly silent, until Wildwing ordered, "Get them back to the Pond. We...we need to make funeral
arrangements."
Grin tenderly lifted the bodies, and the team started towards the Migrator. Wildwing didn't follow.
"Wing..." Mallory said gently.
"Go ahead." He glanced sadly at her. "I'll walk. I...I need to be alone."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
Mallory walked away, towards the Migrator, and glanced back once. Wildwing was walking slowly away, but she
didn't fail to notice that his shoulders were shaking.
***
"Hey! You alright?"
Missie looked up dumbly at the sound of the voice, her face darkened by the shroud of the cloak she'd thrown over
her blood-soaked clothes. A male duck looked at her, mildly surprising her. She must have landed on Puckworld when she'd
done her random teleportation.
"Don't I look alright?"
The other duck shrugged. "Frankly, you look like you just lost you're best friend."
Missie dropped her gaze as a single tear trickled from her eyes. "I did."
***
Falcons walked past him all day, some throwing money at him, thinking he was homeless. Nosedive sat on the
sidewalk, back against the brick retaining wall, face shrouded by the black cloak he'd used to hide the blood.
He had no idea how he'd gotten to Falconis in the first place. Missie was the one who could teleport, and Missie was...
Nosedive buried his face in his arms, biting his tongue to resist the urge to scream.
***
Mallory was waiting worridly when Wildwing finally arrived back at the Pond the next morning. His eyes were
red from lack of sleep and from crying, and he seemed to have lost the will to go on.
Neither spoke, but just sat together on the couch, holding each other, each letting the other sob.
***
Rose held Duke, whispering soft words of comfort into his hair, letting him sob into her chest. She didn't need to
speak. He understood.
***
Tolaïna and Tanya didn't cry. They couldn't. They just sat together in their darkened room, too much in shock
to even hurt.
***
Grin sat on the floor in Nosedive's room. On the bed, the two still ducks lay side by side, a sheet pulled up to
their chins. Their weapons lay on the floor before him, and he sat, quietly contemplating them.
His impassive, strong face showed no emotion, save for a single tear that trickled down his face.
***
Missie slept in an alley, half buried among the garbage bags. No one disturbed her - there was something about
her which told everyone to back off.
When the sun rose, the rays glittering on the frozen streets, she looked up momentarily. In her minds eye, she saw
Nosedive, skating along the streets. She buried her face in the bags, sobbing.
***
Nosedive woke, stiff. He hadn't moved from where he'd sat on the sidewalk, sleeping there. The sun warmed
his face, but as he looked up, all he saw was Missie running across the Anahiem mall courtard, laughing.
He turned his face towards the wall and sobbed.
***
Venio, Guardian of the graveyard, proceeded over the funeral. She sat regally at the head of the gathered
crowd, silent tears streaming down her quiet face. Even Haven seemed to be mourning, as rain poured down like tears.
No one remembered much about the service afterwards, save that Mallory read the Prince's final speech from Romeo
and Juliet, ironically mirroring Chameleon's words.
The ducks were laid to rest, their heads together, one large gravestone carved for both, one on each side.
As they had been in life, they were together in death.
***
Missie wordlessly took the bowl at the soup kitchen, sitting on one of the benches, listlessly eating.
Another duck sat beside her, and cheerfully asked, "Have we met before?"
Missie barely lifted her eyes. "I don't think so."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
He sighed. "Y'know, you are miserable at accepting pickup lines."
She blinked. "Pickup lines?"
"Yeah. Don't tell me no one's ever tried to pick you up before!"
"You wouldn't want to pick me up." She set her bowl down.
"Shouldn't I be the judge of that?" He grinned.
Missie turned slightly, so that her cloak opened, showing the silver blood soaked into her clothes.
"What's that?" He asked nervously.
"My boyfriend's blood." Her emotionless exterior began to break, as her face twisted, trying to fight tears. "I - I killed
him."
She flung herself away from the table, and raced out the door, tears streaming down her face.
***
"You look hungry."
Nosedive glanced at the speaker, a falcon girl his own age. "Yeah."
"Want to get something to eat?" She smiled sweetly.
"Sure."
At the restaurant, he ate woodenly, as the girl sat and stared at him. At last, she sighed loudly, and he unemotionally
asked, "What?"
"Here I am thinking inviting you to get food is the best way to get to know you," she pouted, "but you barely even
notice your food, much less me!"
"You don't want to get to know me," Nosedive insisted quietly, setting his sandwich down.
"And why not?" She demanded.
He shifted, just enough to expose the silver blood all over him. "My girlfriend's blood." He paused, tears welling up. "I -
I killed her."
Shaking, he pushed off from the table, and bolted out the door.
***
Wildwing set a bouquet of roses on Missie's grave, then settled himself on the grass that had grown over it.
"I had great hopes for you, you know," he said to the gravestone, to the air. "I really hoped you would help Nosedive
settle down, help him get stability. You know, I would have even liked it if you two had gotten married, and had kids."
He laughed lightly. "Could you imagine? You and Dive as parents? I liked you though, Missie. You were so
unpredictable. The voice of reason one minute, the one in trouble the next. I'm...I'm really going to miss you."
A hand rested on his shoulder, and Wildwing turned to see Venio supporting herself on her staff, a faraway look in her
eyes. "She understands, Wildwing Flashblade."
He turned back to the gravestone, tears welling up in his eyes. "They were so happy, Venio! How could that be
taken away from them?"
"I know." She soothed softly. "I know."
***
Missie lay on her back in an icy field, watching the bird wheel overhead in the sky. She wished she was with
them. But she hadn't flown since that day...
She hadn't noticed even noticed that tears had been pouring down her face. The constant ache and tears had become
so commonplace, she was almost afraid the pain had lost its edge. If it did, then she would have really lost him.
***
Nosedive chucked rocks into a pond, watching the ripples expand out. Life rippled like that. One action had so
many effects...
He wiped hurridly at his eyes. He wasn't ashamed of his tears, and he didn't fear the pain inside. If that pain left, then
he'd be scared. Then he would have really lost her.
***
Rose lay in the darkness of the room, thinking but trying not to. Someone knocked on the door, but she didn't
answer. She didn't have to.
The door slid open, and Duke stepped inside. "Rose?" He called softly, standing in the open doorway, a dark shilouette
against the golden light of the hall.
"What?" She asked sullenly, rolling over to face the wall.
She heard the door slide shut, then footsteps, then the creak of the mattress as he sat on the edge of her bed. "Rose - I'm
worried about you."
"Why? Because I stay in my room all day, never eat, and refuse to talk to anyone?"
"Well, yeah." He sounded surprised.
Rose sighed. "Duke. Missie understood me. She had been through so many of the same things that I had been...it's like, somehow, I've just lost a peice of me. You can't honestly expect me to pretend nothing's happened?"
"No." Duke smoothed her tangled hair. "But you could get on with life. Missie wouldn't want you to waste away. She'd
want you to heal."
Rose tentatively touched his hand. "Will...will you help me?"
He wrapped his arms around her. "For you, Rose, there's nothing I wouldn't do."
***
Missie walked slowy across the grass, eyes focused unwaveringly on the white headstone in front of her.
"Nosedive Flashblade," she whispered, reading. "1984 - 2002. Dearly missed brother, friend, and soulmate."
She began to sob, leaning her head on the cool stone. "What have I done...?"
***
Nosedive sat slowly on the grass, running his fingers over the carvings. "Missie DuCaine," he
murmmered, tracing the letters as he read. "1999-2002. 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.'"
Dry, racking sobs fought their way out of his chest as he began to sob. "What have I done...?"
***
Missie wrapped her fingers around the edge of the stone, jumping as her fingers touched someone else's. She
leaned forward, straining to see around it...
***
Nosedive jumped as his fingers touched someone else's. He rose to his feet, and turned to slowly look around the marker...
***
Their eyes met at the same moment, and both jumped.
"Impossible!" They gasped as one.
***
Venio sighed a deep sigh of relief, smiling at the scene in her graveyard.
Smiling, she whispered the English equvelent of her Latin name, "I come..."
***
They didn't know how, or why, nor could they have cared. Clinging to
each other, like lifelines, Nosedive and Missie sobbed into each other's shoulders, not
caring. All they cared about was that they weren't dead...that somehow they had been
reunited, that they had survived.
The universe was once again a good place.
***
Carrying flowers, the team crested the hill. They intended to mourn the
anniversary of their teammates deaths, but the entire team stopped in their tracks when
they saw Nosedive and Missie. They lay on the grass, tangled in each other's arms,
having cried themselves to sleep.
"Impossible," Wildwing gasped, but already he had dropped the flowers and
began sprinting towards them.
They stirred just before he reached them, sitting up. "You're alive!" He gasped,
staring at them, sliding to his knees.
"I thought I'd killed him," Missie whispered, head bowed.
"And I thought I'd killed her," Nosedive agreed softly.
"We thought you'd both killed yourselves." Tears were pouring down all their
faces, as the rest of the team rushed to join them.
Christé hung back, not quite sure whether she dared believe it. "You're - you're alive!"
Missie began to laugh softly, clinging to Nosedive's hand. "It was the clones, not
us!"
Wildwing suddenly swung the two ducks into his arms, hugging them fiercly.
"Don't you ever - ever do that to me again!"
Nosedive smiled, reaching to put his arm around Missie's shoulders. "Don't worry,
big bro. I'm alive, she's alive, and it's going to stay that way."
Missie laughed, pure, unbridled, innocent, mixed with tears of joy. "And that's the
way it ends!"
"No," Wildwing corrected, looking up at the twinkling stars. "That's the way it
begins."
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