Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Boy how exciting a third day of archiving had been. No really it was just fascinating. I've become the shadow of a globe trotting adventurer and here we were counting coins and jewels. 

Lena struggled to get a good look around her. She had hoped she would have at least the freedom her aunt had when she was a shadow, but she was far more limited. It was an effort just to keep mindful and look about. She couldn't bend her shadow or even speak to let her friend know she was okay.  

Scrooge had wasted no time in repairing his ridiculous vault. It had been only three days since the eclipse and most of the foundation for the bin had already been laid again. Say what you will about Duckburg, but their construction workers were no slouches. While they handled the construction, Scrooge had been meticulously collecting every coin Magica had displaced from his private swimming pool. 

Scrooge had managed to convince his family to help him in his recovery. He tried to swing it as a kind of family bonding activity. While no one was fooled by his real intentions, Donald and Ms. Beakley had managed to turn the experience into a fun beach camping trip. Unfortunately for Lena, it meant she was along for the ride as Webby meticulously searched for the coins. 

 Scrooge had tried to play it off as a family outing to celebrate their reunion as a family, but Lena and Louie had pinned it more likely that he wanted to make sure none of the citizens of Duckburg got it in their heads to loot half his gold as they had after the Moneyshark incident. Despite its original intentions it had become a kind of fun family camping trip. Which was something Lena had a few mixed feelings about. 

On the one hand, she didn't really expect there to be a funeral or even a whole lot of grieving on her behalf. She had barely talked to Scrooge, and most of it was while she was possessed. She was on good terms with the boys, but even when she had visited, they had their own stuff going on. Still she had expected something from Webby. Like a moment of silence, or a weird little shrine in her honor, or something. It wasn't like she wanted to see her best friend crying on her behalf. But on the other hand... she kind of did? 

Like, she survived her sacrifice, and the minute she figured out this whole 'being a shadow' creature thing, she would let Webby know she was alright. But in the meantime as far as anyone knew she was gone for good. Was a moment of silence around the campfire or a toast of marshmallows too much to ask?

Still she couldn't complain. Literally. But she also shouldn't. Seeing Webby run about talking passionately about each noteworthy coin and jewel they dredged up from the deaths reminded Lena of their sleepovers together; even if she had gotten a bit manic from lack of sleep. She had worked near round the clock since the cleanup began. 

"Hey, Webby! Huey! I think I found like a chest!" Louie called out.

Huey started to move towards him, but Webby jumped up "I'll help!" she sprinted across the reef full tilt across the rocks. Just before she got there, one errant foot slipped on the wet rocks and she ended up tumbling across the sharp reef. 

"Woah, Webby!" Louie said, taking careful steps over the rocks, and alerting the other two. "Did you trip over yourself?"

"I guess? I'm alright." she insisted 

" What happened?" Dewey asked coming up on the scene. Then as Webby tried to stand, he saw the thin cuts on her legs, and sucked in a breath. "Oh, that doesn't look great."

"I got the first aid kit!" Huey declared, pulling a small box of bandages and salve from his backpack. "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine" Huey said, pulling a roll of bandages out and started dressing the 'wound'. Lena rolled her... her eyes? Did she still have...? Anyways she didn't believe for a second that such minor scratches could really slow down her best friend. 

Dewey looked at Louie suspiciously, "Did you trip her?"

"What!? No! She just kind of slipped on the rocks!" Louie said gesturing to the guilty patch of rocks.

"That seems unlikely," Dewey said.

"Yeah," Huey said tying off the bandage "Can Webby fall down on her own? I mean, I've seen things knock her down, but..."

"That's what I saw," Louie defended.

"Sure now that your little prank's gone awry."

Louie was about to repeat his innocence before Webby stepped in, "No, Louie's right, guess I got a little too excited and... slipped..." Webby rubbed at her wing and the boys looked at each other, worried. 

"Are you feeling alright Webby?" Dewey broached first, "You look a little tired."

"What!?" Webby said shaking her head, "No, no I'm fine! Don't need to worry bout ol' Webby, I'm doing-" despite herself, a yawn tore out from her lungs "-just fine" she said.

The boys shared one of those looks that half convinced Lena they were able to communicate telepathically. 

"Are you sure? Cause I went to bed pretty late last night and you were still out in the Bay looking for treasure with a flashlight."

Huey looked surprised, "Really? Cause I got up just after Dawn, and Webby was up before me..."

Dewey looked at their friend "Webby, did you get any sleep?"

Lena considered this. Webby had in fact not slept in the past two days, not after a nightmare the night after the eclipse. It hadn't struck Lena as odd, since she hadn't needed sleep. She did fairly often, to get away from Magica, but she didn't need it. She looked up at Webby and the rings that appeared under her eyes. 

Webby tried to keep an upbeat face, "N-not last night but..."

"You-th didnth sthleep? Why?" Webby turned to see Donald, Scrooge, and Webby's grandmother came walking up to the commotion. 

"I just... there was so much to do and I wasn't really tired and-"

"Webby, you know its important to keep your wits sharp." Beakley tisked in a scolding 

"But, you taught me how to go days without sleep and-"

"In an emergency. But there is no need for it now." Ms. Beakley  scolded gently.

"But-but..."

Scrooge stepped forward putting a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay lass, take a little rest we'll all be here when you wake up..." 

Webby looked around, and her shoulders slagged a bit, realizing the ruse was up "Alright... I think I'll just take a short walk along the beach first... you know, clear my head..."

"Alright, sounds good." he turned to the rest of his restored makeshift family, and raised his voice, "Alright you layabouts, there's still light in the sky, let's get back to it!" the words, despite were infused with a doting note belying the words miserly nature. "Whoever finds the most gets to decide what we get to eat tonight" 

The triplets big farewell to their friend before sprinting off towards the sea again, "I'm gonna order lobster" "I'm gonna get steak!" "Covered in truffle sauce!"

Scrooge, who had seemed to recognize his mistake a moment too late as he chased after them "What we get from takeout, takeout!" he qualified following after them with his cane.

Ms. Beakley hung back for a moment,  sharing a look with her granddaughter that Lena couldn't quite parse. Must be one of those loving family things. 

Once everyone had left Webby turned and started to walk down the beach, alone as far as she knew. Lena kept thinking that at any moment she would, and should, turn back and head for a sleeping bag, but she kept walking. Lena wondered what was going through her friends head when the beech started to look familiar. Soon enough in the distance loomed the old broken down amphitheater, and Lena felt a wave of fear course through her. Webby walked onto the stage where the two of them had first met.  Lena looked up at her friend, but Webby's back was to her shadow, and she couldn't get a good look at her face.

She walked about a moment or two before her eyes seemed to lock on the trap door on the stage, and Lena felt a dread fall on her shoulders. 

Without hesitation Webby walked over and pressed down on the door, popping it open. She plunged down into the darkness lit only by the light above, after a moment of searching she lit the purple tinted light bulb. Painted on the walls was the plan to steal the dime and trap Scrooge in it. Her journal lay open on the table, filled with her betrayals. 

Well that explained why no one really missed her. They had found out she was a liar from the start. 

But why is Webby here now?

Webby took up the journal, and tucked it tightly against her chest before wandering to her bed. Lena felt a wave of embarrassment for how her little hideout looked. She had never been one for meticulous cleaning, but what little maintenance she had been doing had stopped abruptly when Magica had taken over her body. Still there was no word from Webby, Lena had expected her to be tearing through her journal for little facts and trivia about Magica and the blood feud, but she just... sat there, the journal held tightly in her arms. 

"You wanna hear a kind of funny story?" she suddenly spoke, her voice chipper and upbeat as always. Lena gaped, could she see her? "Well, uh, not funny haha. More like funny weird?" she said in the nervous way that she always did before she said something really sad. "I never really got to know my parents when I was growing up, I don't have many memories of them..." she said and was quiet again for a minute, "I think grandma was worried about losing me like she lost them, so the only time we really went out of the mansion together was to visit their graves. I would-" she sniffled wiping something away from her eye, "I would talk to them, my parents that is. tell them how I was doing. What grandma had taught me, and what I learned on my own..."

"I stopped a couple years ago, but... but I guess its time to revive that old tradition." she swung her right fist up, as if making a call to adventure, but her arm was shaking and quickly went back to clutching at Lena's journal. "I... I'm really gonna miss you Lena... I thought I could just shove all my feelings down like a used to, but I can't. You had so many secrets, maybe if I had paid closer attention or- or asked if anything was wrong maybe- maybe I could have hel-hel" Webby's scrunched up shoulders started to shake, her voiced hitched until Lena could only hear her best friend start to weep in grief. 

Wow. This is the absolute worst. Why did  I ever want this?  

At this moment Lena would have given literally anything to embrace Webby and tell her that everything was okay. But no matter how much she struggled she couldn't so much as lift an shadowy finger. 

Where were those three dorks or Betty Biscuit when you needed them? If Lena couldn't be here to comfort Webby, at least one of them could step up. 

As it stood, Lena just had to sit there uselessly, forced to face the results of both her betrayal and failure as her best friend grieved her loss. Eventually the days of lost sleep and emotional toll caught up with her, Webby fell asleep.

But it was worse when Lena could hear small choking sobs come from her friend. The unnatural sound felt like nails on the chalkboard at this point to Lena. 

Desperate she thought back to her childhood to the spells and incantations that had been drilled into her by Magica. These spells were supposed to be done with a focus, a steady chant, or components. Lacking a magical catalyst, voice, or herbs, Lena simply screamed the incantation in her own mind. After a near minute with no results, Lena was ready to give it up as hopeless. Then a few phantom fingers rose from the shadow. She pushed further with great effort formed a full fist.

She for a moment held hope that she had broken through her prison, but when she tried to push her shadow beyond the shade of Webby's body, something happened. For the first time in three days, Lena felt something, and that thing was searing pain. Swearing, she pulled her fingers back into the shade. 

Still hearing the soft (unacceptable) sobs from her best friend, Lena carefully laid her shadowy hand against the flat of Webby's back. Her hand felt weak, like a baby pressing against a boulder. But as she started to gently stroke her back Webby's silent cries began to subside. Quieting to the gentle hum of peaceful sleep. 

Magic was stressful enough when you knew what you were doing and were doing things right. This was like trying to move boxes while laying on your stomach. It was tedious, but it was something. 

Fortunately Webby seemed to continue sleeping soundly through the day. 

Lena settled in to rest for the day. She didn't exactly sleep anymore, but she could enter a sort of peaceful trance. Time passed quicker in this trance and she watched as the angle of the sun from the trapdoor shifted. She shook out of it when a pair of feet thumped from above 

"I'm telling you, she's probably down here." Lena could tell it was one of the triplets, Dewey, she guessed. 

From the ladder, Dewey dropped down, but surprising so did Scrooge. She expected a snooty look to come to Scrooge as his eyes swept her loft, but he only had a mild concern "This is where Lena was living?" he asked 

"Yeah kind of a dump right?" Dewey said inspecting it with a disapproving shake of his head. Scrooge hummed a reluctant agreement as he walked over to where Webby was resting. He opened his bill for a what seemed like a gentle whisper , only for Dewey to shout "Hey Webby, dinner's here!"

Webby ever wound like a coiled snake woke up with a well placed kick to Scrooges stomach and hopping up into a fighting stance. "You'll never take me alive!" she shouted, but the look of fearlessness gave way to regret as she recognized who had 'ambushed her', "Oh! Uncle Scrooge, I'm so sorry I didn't mean-"

Scrooge waved her off, clutching at his stomach "O-oh, no worries lass, not your fault" he said punctuating this by scowling down at Dewey who sheepishly shrugged his shoulders. Scrooge recovered from the kick, drawing up to his full stature. "You have a nice rest?"

"Oh- uh, yeah." Webby said looking away. 

Dewey tilted his head looking at Webby "Hey Webby why are your eyes so-" Scrooge scowled at Dewey with a stink eye refined over a century of annoyances. "Soooo pretty?" he transitioned so obviously that only someone who been deprived of social interactions for most of their life would fall for it.

Fortunately, his target was exactly that kind of person, "Oh, uh, thanks? I was born with them." Webby shrugged, before a low growl was let out from her stomach. Webby laughed nervously, "did, uh I hear something about dinner?"

"Aye lass lets head back"

The group started to file out, but Lena noticed as Webby climbed out that Scrooge lagged behind a moment. taking in her crummy loft. 

Chapter Text

"Well, I think the engine's mostly fine, but I don't think that's gonna be the biggest problem..." Launchpad looked up at the Sun Chaser, that had been crashed into a dune... upside down.

Lena felt like if she still had a heart, it would be thundering out of her chest. After hours of an utterly bone chilling boring flight, suddenly the entire plane had lurched violently and it was announced that they were crashing.

Lena had been sent into a frenzy of worry for Webby (and to a lesser extent everyone else), but they had reacted like it was the most natural thing in the world. Everyone sat down, buckled in, and rode out the crash calmly. Afterwards everyone just evacuated the upended plane.

Despite this terror, Lena felt a little bead of thrill bubbling within her. It was always a drag whenever Webby was away before, that she had come to resent the family outings a bit. But now that she was on one, she couldn’t  help but be excited. She only wished she could be of more help.

Lena had done some experiments with her new found magic, but they had been disappointing. She could do magic in the dark, but not while Webby was awake. She guessed whatever she was doing to manifest her shadow, it was some light form of possession, and Webby's willpower just reflexively repressed it while she was awake.  Which had made almost impossible to relay any message.

There was some part of Lena that knew that if she pushed hard enough... she could gain control, could take some part of Webby for herself. No longer borrowing it for scraps of moments. She knew she couldn’t. but some power hungry echo of Magica kept whispering temptation in her mind..

'Webby wouldn't mind if you could only ask!'

'She'll be overjoyed to know your alright, she'll forgive you.'

'Doesn't she owe you for saving her life?'

Each time, Lena shook the thoughts away. She knew what it was like to have a monster lurking in herr shadow. She refused, even for a moment, to put Webby through that.

Scrooge sighed, shaking his head at the old cargo plane, "Yes, well. Figure it out before we get back Launchpad. Come on the lot of you, we have an adventure to get to!"

There was a rally of cheers as the group began to walk across the heated sands towards a tall white stone building that shone bright against the blue sky. Spikes forked up from his roof like the claws of a bird.

"So what are we doing here again?" Louie asked to no one in particular.

"What!? Were you not listening to me on the flight over?" Huey said indignantly "I gave a whole lesson about this place! I HAD HANDOUTS!" he said digging out one said paper from his pack.

"Oh! Right, yeah, when you start talking for more than two minutes in a row, I just sort of zone out." he admitted with a shrug. "In my defense, I thought you were just doing it for a badge. I didn’t think it was important"

"I was! But I still put a lot of work into it!" Huey grumped.

"I can't believe you Louie! Our brother went through all that trouble and you have no respect for his hard work!" Dewey said putting an arm around Huey in solidarity.

"Oh really? Then maybe you can tell me why we're here." Louie challenged.

Huey turned expectantly to the middle child of their group. Dewey had a nervous look in his eye "Well, obviously it's a big tall tower in the desert. Where a very important... king"

"Assassin." Huey corrected with half lidded eyes.

"Yeah, assassin lived and where he-"

"She"

"Right, she kept all her gold-"

"Ivory!" Huey near shouted at his brother "You weren't listening either! GAH!" Huey crumpled his handout before throwing it overhand over the edge of the dune. Out of nowhere a swift bird appeared and tore apart the handout with its talons, "AH!" Huey fell back on the ground "What was that!?"

"Ooh! A steel talon falcon!" Webby announced excitedly

“A Steel talon what?” asked Louie. “

Webby flipped out her notebook and opened to a page populated by little doodles by her own hand. "They were legendary birds that were used in ancient wars in the mountains!" Lena smiled, looking at the cute pictures of little stick figure archers atop hills being harried by swooping falcons, "Their talons were sharpened to the point of tearing apart armor!" she spoke with the excited tone she always did when she got to tell people about her interests. "They’re supposed to live wild in the mountains now, but the person who used to live there" she pointed toward the building they were heading to, "actually bred the first of them for her hunts, there's probably an old aviary set up in there."

"Wow," "Cool," Louie and Dewey agreed in unison.

"Oh, so you'll listen to Webby, but not to me?" Huey asked with crossed arms.

Louie and Dewey looked at each other, before Dewey spoke for both of them "Webby has pictures." Louie nodded sagely in agreement.

"Bah!" Huey said before marching off in a huff to catch up with Uncle Scrooge.

"Well... Any more to this story Webby?" asked Dewey.

"Yeah, like, is there really no gold here?" Louie asked.

"Oh, well let's see." Webby put a finger to her chin "Her name was Talon Sabbin, she was supposedly a mythical hunter and assassin." Webby began, flipping to a new series of pages.

Lena smiled and settled in for story time. Listening to the melodic sound of her best friends voice had been something she had begun to miss, since Webby seemed a bit more reserved around the boys about her interests.

"She started out by hunting animals, from the small for dinner to the great and mighty for glory. She became known crafter of Ivory, and many nobles sought her out for her skills! But as time wore on, she became frustrated by the petty evils of nobility and started to hunt them, too!" she said with a respect for the long dead murderer, that clearly put the two boys at slight unease. Both of which only served to amuse the lurker in the shadows. "It was said that she could find anyone, no matter how far they ran or how deep they hid"

"So, was this place just like, her house?" Dewey asked

"It was her home base, it was said that anyone who had an evil ruler could come here with a cabal of like minded allies to ask for an end to their reign. There were trials to prove the hearts of your company."

"So what happened to her?"

"Well legend says that on one of her missions she fell in love with one of the evil kings beautiful daughters," Lena  went from passively taking in the story, to active interest. "Before she could finish her mission. They were discovered and had to flee back to this tower. The king sent wave after wave of men into the trials but they all failed. So, he decreed that the tower would be besieged for  three-hundred years! The two lovers resisted until their dying day, refusing the King’s cruel commands." Webby sighed. "How romantic..." Lena sympathetic odd flutter deep inside her.

"A tower full of dead people is romantic?" Dewey whispered to Louie who just shrugged. Webby rolled her eyes.

"Now listen here!" Scrooge said over his shoulder. "these trials will be very dangerous, you have to take em seriously!" he said eyes facing forward “Let me handle the lion’s share.”

"Is there gold or not?" Louie asked throwing up his hands in frustration.

"It was said that Talon Sabbin recovered her bounties from the kings themselves, stealing a sack full of gold from her targets."

"Great! Thank you! Someone with their priorities straight!" Louie said appreciatively, marching forward with renewed determination.

Webby looked at Dewey who just shrugged they finally neared the base of the tower. Soon they all stood beneath the front door of the tower, dozens of steel talon falcons circled above, daring any who might wish to skip the trials. Once all five of them stood beneath the door frame, old writing glowed.

"It says-" "Oh It-" both Scrooge and Webby spoke up but stopped for the other. After a moment Scrooge graciously bowed and motioned for her to continue. Webby nodded and spoke.

"The first trial begins now. Those who seek the death of a king must a leader be. One to replace the monarch you see. Let your leader step forth and give what he most treasures. If you succeed, it will be returned, with pleasure." Webby said and everyone looked at Scrooge.

"Well, I guess that's the end to this adventure" Dewey said with a shrug.

"Yeah, that means giving up the dime. I think we're done here." Louie agreed.

"One of us could give up one of our treasures," Huey offered holding up his scout book.

Wouldn't work. Lena thought sarcastically

"Wouldn't work," Webby said, "Scrooge is definitely our leader, and magic cares about that sort of thing."

Lena looked over at Scrooge. She knew the power the dime held, it had trapped Magica for fifteen years before her own meddling set her free. Beloved heirlooms held a lot more power than most gave them credit for. She cast am appreciative look to the little band of woven yarn around Webby's wrist.

As the children resigned themselves to return to the Sun Chaser, and ear piercing screech from one of the falcons was loosed. Lena turned her gaze to see the shiny dime soaring up from its successful dive.

"It has the dime!" Louie shouted.

"Not for long," unholstering her grappling hook in a way that spoke to hours of practice. She aimed for the bird as it arced through the air

"Hold your fire Webbigail. Ah gave the bird the bauble. Let it fly." Scrooge said stunning them all. Before they could question the statement the falcon, along with the dime.

"You gave up your dime?" Louie asked, sounding a little disappointed.

"I didn't think you'd give up that dime for anything." Huey chimed in, "Whatever in there must be some treasure."

"Aye, there aren't many things more valuable to me than that dime." he cast a look back at the children and a small smile came to his lips "but there are a few. Now come on, Ah intend to win it back! Are ya ready?" he asked, hoisting his cane up like a sword.

As he stood poised before the door, most of the glowing words faded and the sand encrusted door parted way into a dark chamber beyond. One of the words remained illuminated, a symbol that Lena recognized from old texts that meant 'leader'. It floated off the wall and onto Scrooges chest. "Huh, well that's interestin'’" he mused mildly waving his hand through the word as they all filed into the tower.

As Scrooge followed in, the large door shut fast behind them, leaving them in pitch dark. Lena felt herself relax for the first time that day. Everything was nicer in the dark. Then, dozens of torches caught fire all around the room, confining Webby's shadow to a narrow cramped circle about her feet. At the center of the room there was a single pedestal on a raised platform. A new message started to glow, along the rim of the raised platform

"The Second Trial" Scrooge announced, beginning to read by walking around it in a circle. "The trial of the scholar. A quick wit is needed to rule wisely, but a no nothing has no worth assisting a monarch blindly. Choose a champion." Scrooge scoffed, dusting his jacket. "Well, that should be simple enough for an old duck like me, don't worry kids I'll handle it." Scrooge lifted one wing and tried to slam it down on the pedestal to claim the challenge. Unfortunately as he tried to press down the symbol on his chest suddenly flashed a bright light and threw Scrooge from the Pedestal

"Uncle Scrooge!?" the chorus of concerned children called out.

"I'm fine, I'm fine" the old duck waved off their offers of help, getting back to his feet. "What in the blazes was that?"

"Oh, Oh! The text is changing!" Webby started to jog around the pedestal "A leader must trust in his advisers, as he can not do everything on his own. Your companions must prove themselves worthy."

"Oh, that's not good." Dewie pointed..

"So one of us needs to take on the very dangerous trial created by a crazy assassin lady?" Louie said.

There was a moment of silence before Dewie spoke, "Okay, so it's definitely Webby or Huey for this one right?"

"What? Why!?" Huey said

"You two are the most knowledgeable of the group." Scrooge admitted.

"Oh-oh I'll do it!" Webby said, sprinting for the pedestal.

"Wait!" Louie said, stopping Webby in a mid motion slap for the pedestal. "Huey has to do this one."

"Whhhhhyyyy" Huey lamented to his brothers, looking betrayed.

"Listen, there have got to be more trials, right? Well, at least one of those is gonna be like 'dodge through these dozen traps' or 'fist fight this three headed bear', and we're gonna need Webby for that one."

"True." Dewey said, "Yeah Huey, sorry, but I think this first one's on you."  the two triplets nodded confidently, "of course, if you would like to fight the bear then Webby can take this first one.."

Huey looked at everyone before frowning, "Fine might as well get it over with." he said taking Webby's position on the raised platform. Webby stepped back with an elaborate bow.. He let out one more lamenting sigh before placing his hand on the smooth marble and the glowing blue word.

The little symbol broke apart and a massive crystal tube hut up from the ground around him. He looked around in a panic. The rest of the family looked on in surprise and pounded at the translucent crystal before they felt water start to wet the bottoms of their feet. Lena felt a odd discomfort of being completely immersed in water without the need to breathe.

Huey after a moment of panic looked at his family, banging on the clear crystal as well, only to feel the weight of a gaze behind him. He whirled around to see a ghostly blue owl-man staring at him, with a gleeful look in his eyes "Welcome young scholar! Here is your trial! Tell me something I don't know!"

“Oh boy...” Huey whispered under his breath as the first of the trials began

Chapter Text

"Watch out children, there may be somethin’ swimmin’ about in this!" Scrooge warned, pulling Louie and Dewey behind him, while Webby stood prepared to fight at his side. The water was steadily rising. They had tried to plug the holes, but there seemed to be too many, and the water was too dark and brackish to search once they were covered. The water now lapped at their waists

Lena had a unique position thanks to Webby's shadow getting cast through the crystal, she was able to shift her view between in and outside of the barrier. She shifted her perspective inside to Huey to see how he was doing.

Inside Huey was frantically flipping through his field guide in a fervor, "What about Scandinavian geography?"

The ghost smiled "Oh, certainly! Should we start with Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, or Iceland?" the spirit asked with a mocking smile.

Huey flew through his book and smiled seeming to think he found something, "How about this! Who invented the light bulb?"

"Well, Thomas Edison is often credited with its invention, but really he just made it economical, Warren de La Ru is the true creator of the first successful light bulb."

Huey's face fell, and Lena began to feel nervous as she looked out at the rest of their party who were starting to tread water outside the crystal. Fortunately, everyone could swim so it wasn't causing problems yet.

"Care to try again?" the ghost taunted.

Huey started to soar through his book at an increased pace, asking question after question, and the spirit answering each in kind. Eventually he just tried stating facts, only for the spirit to repeat the phrase, 'I already know that, ' in response. This went on until the water started to near the ceiling Huey was sweating, looking stumped.

"So much knowledge in your hands but so little time left."

Come on Huey, figure this out or Im gonna find a way to haunt you!  

The torches had all long burned out at this point only leaving the dark and the single illuminated pedestal that Huey was desperately trying to read from.

"So many wise men come here, and so few seem capable of learning anything."  a small lip at the top of the crystal tube allowed the water to come over the edge and start to fill the small space Huey was trapped in as well. Scrooge and the rest of Huey's family came to rest around the lip, holding onto it as a way to keep their heads above water. "Looks like our time is about up, anything else you wish to lecture me on?"

Huey scowled at the ghost as the water was quickly rushing up his ankles.

"Come on Huey, you have to know something this guy doesn't!" Dewey called down.

“Yeah, your a huge nerd! How is this so hard for you?” Louie complained

"I really don't! I've gone through the whole guide book! He even knew the secret of Mount Neverest!" he called back in defeat

"Well there has to be something he wants to know, otherwise this isn't really fair." Scrooge called down, " Some people were supposed to be able to succeed at this, there must be a trick to it!"

"Well how am I supposed to know what he wants to know!?"

"That's enough from the peanut gallery" the ghost announced. With a wave of his hand and a short incantation everyone above was silenced, leaving only him and Huey able to speak, "This has tarried on quite long enough, I will allow you one more question..." the ghost said haughtily.

Huey looked as the water pooled around his knees and then seemed to have some kind of epiphany. He looked at the ghost suspiciously and then asked, "Mr. ... Ghost Owl, is there anything you would like to know?"

There is no way that's the solution. Lena thought to herself in frustrated impatience.

The ghost got a wide smile on his lips. Like he had cornered Huey "Are you sure you want to ask that?" he asked. Huey looked down at the water collecting around his feet and then up at his family, and gave a sort of 'might as well' shrug. The ghost nodded, and his face suddenly became much more pleasant, "Then tell me young scholar, why do you think this tower exists?"

Lena looked up and could see Scrooge's bill mouthing the words 'To kill children you-'

Oh wow, he’s really taking advantage of the fact that none of the kids can hear him.

Huey looked like he was going to give a gut answer, but instead gave it some thought. "Well, this place is out of the way, but your not hiding much either..."

"Hm..." the ghost mused nodding its head.

"Talon Sabbin, your... boss?" Huey probed and the Owl nodded, "wanted to kill evil kings, but that doesn't really work on its own. If you kill a king and then leave, it  just creates chaos..." Huey said and Lena could see a smile appear on the ghosts lips. Huey was too deep in thought to notice, "So the trials are not just to ward off people. They were applications!" Huey said seeming to realize his break through, "She wanted to replace the  evil kings with better ones! You test both them and their companions to leave kingdoms in capable hands!" Huey said pointing at the ghost triumphantly.

“Ah, something that is always useful… perspective” The ghost snapped his fingers, the crystal tube fell through the ground and its absence acted like a drain. Huey who had been the only partially dry one became swamped by the onrushing water. The group swirled about the room until all the water washed away down the drain, leaving everyone, Lena excluded groaning on the wet stone floor.

Huey was the first to be up, helped up by the obnoxiously dry ghost, "Well done young scholar, you have passed your trial. Remember, it is just as important to know what to impart as it is to know it in the first place..."

As the ghost faded away, a glyph appeared on Huey's chest in the same vein as Scrooge, only this one had the symbol of the scholar. Huey just looked up at the empty space, baffled by the comment, "... Okay?"

Scrooge got up, looking to be screaming up a storm, but the silence over him was still active. Then a moment later, it wasn't, "I Will Tear Down This Tower Brick By Brick You Feather-Brained-" he stopped when he realized everyone was looking at him, straightening up a bit. "Right. Well done Huey."

Huey idly swished his hand through the glyph now in front of him. It passed through like a hand through smoke, quickly reforming. "Well, guess I'm also banned from the next challenge..."

After a moment a series of stairs lowered along the tower wall, leading to a new room above. Scrooge looked over the kids, who all seemed ready and raring to move onto the next challenge. They all started up the stairs.

"Man that water smelled awful!" Dewey said flicking off some drops from his arm.

"It's probably been sitting here for a few hundred years." Huey guessed

"Gross." Louie rung out his sweatshirt.

-

After that came the trial of the chancellor, where Dewey had to talk to an angry crowd of ghosts about their day to day problems and how Scrooge, the monarch, would have to solve them. Whenever he told someone off or failed to mollify them one of the stones in the ground would just poof out of existence. Support for the monarch literally falling out beneath them.  It didn't help that the ghosts could see through any lie Dewey tried to tell.

Near the end Webby, Louie, and Huey were all stacked up holding onto Scrooge on the last remaining stone. Finally the endless line came to an end with a dispute between two neighbors who had argued about the ownership of an apple tree. Dewey dutifully decided that a fence would be built up to the tree and any apples that fell on either side of the fence would decide on who owned them. After finishing Dewey slumped in the ornate chair he had been provided, exhausted from all the conversations, but received the symbol of the governor on his chest. The rest of the floor reappeared in a snap of the ghosts hand before disappearing.

"Agh... that was so boring! I thought I'd get to make a speech or something, not listen to a hundred bickering people's problems!" Dewey complained

"I thought you did a great job Dewey" Webby encouraged trying to pull him out of his chair but only managing to drag him onto the floor.

"Come on you two! We have a few more challenges yet" Scrooge called out.

Webby tried to pull him up by his arms, but Dewey remained reluctant, so she started dragging him across the floor. He finally decided to stand up again when Webby had banged him up the first two steps going up to the next floor.

The next trial was that of the spymaster. It was a narrow decision between letting Louie and Webby take it. Dewey supported Webby because between the two of them she was clearly the better secret agent, which seemed to flatter Webby. Meanwhile Huey believed that with all the manipulating and sketchy decisions a spymaster would have to make, Louie was the clear choice. This did not flatter the youngest triplet.

Ultimately Webby suggested that a spymaster would probably be more about guiding other spies rather than actually executing such plans, so Louie was who they decided upon.

After Louie placed his hand against the symbol, a woman dressed all in dark robes stood before him. The central pedestal expanded into a rather ornate gambling table. It was explained that they would be playing a complicated game in lieu of managing the intrigue of an actual kingdom. Resources abstracted, acquired and spent to foil or fulfill plots. It all sounded like nerd to Lena. Webby seemed confused than anything by the explanation of the rules, but Huey was nearly vibrating with jealousy that he didn't get the chance to play the game, and set about writing down all the rules as fast as he could.

Louie seemed to take the explanations in stride. It was only two turns into the game when Lena realized that the one giving the test was cheating, and one more to realize Louie had been as well. The both of them palmed cards, swapped dice, and straight stole resources when the other was distracted. There were supposed to be consequences if Louie started to lose at the game, like the disappearing floor on the previous trial or the impending drowning of the first trial, but they never experienced the one for this room. At every turn no matter how cleverly the ghost played or how desperately they cheated, they just couldn't get out ahead of Louie. After a little under an hour, the ghost admitted there was no way he could win.  

Through gritted teeth the woman in robes spoke "There was meant to be a lesson here, but it is clear you have learned it well already." She said before disappearing and the symbol of the spymaster appeared on Louie's chest. Louie walked up to his brothers, a smug grin on his face. When no one said anything he looked about "Oh hey! No one almost died! Well isn't that great!"

His two brothers rolled their eyes and said in a low annoyed tone, "Thank you, Louie."

"What was that? Sorry I still have water clogging my ears "

"Thank you for saving us Louie," the two praised reluctantly.

"Yeah that was super impressive, though I wasn't really sure what was going on for most of it..." Webby mentioned.

"Why thank you Webby, you see it’s all about misdirect-"

"Like why were you hiding cards in your sleeve? Or why did you hide that one card when she was trying to foil your plans? And why did you always roll what you wanted but she kept getting terrible rolls, and why-" Webby went on pointing out each time Louie had managed to get away with cheating in the game.

Lena couldn't help but snicker at the look on Louie's face, and Scrooge seemed to feel the same by the mirth in his eyes.

"Aye, great job lad, you little rogue.” he affectionately mussed up at his hair, “Come on you lot, should be just one more challenge, eh?" Scrooge said and pointed up the next flight of available stairs.

As they reached the top the room looked similar but had major differences. Where the others had been near pristine with only the wear of time, this room had scratches and chipped stone nearly everywhere. Weapons, arrows, and occasional bones littered the floor or were embedded in the wall. Piles of armor from every age could be found towering in uneven stacks.

Lena felt a wariness, but Webby vibrated with excitement. She looked ready to slap her palm on the pedestal immediately. Intellectually Lena had always known the adventures had been dangerous, but seeing them first hand really brought it home to her. And they were saving the most dangerous challenge for Webby herself? What were they thinking?

“Huh, the inscription for this one is short.” Huey said looking at the small platform of repeating symbols. “What’s it say?”

Scrooge adjusted his glasses. “Trial of the Marshal. Fight me!” he scowled raising an eyebrow “Well, rather straightforward, isn’t it? You ready Webby.”

“Yes!” Webby nearly jumped but was stopped by a tug on her shirt from Louie “Hey!”

“One sec. Hey, Uncle Scrooge quick question. What are we doing here?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, like sure, adventure and all but this tower isn’t, like, that big, even if that top floor is packed with gold and not just bird poop, its barely going to make a dent in the bin.” Louie said and then scoffed “I mean, obviously I’m crushing it.” his two brothers rolled their eyes. “But we’ve nearly died twice now. I know the dime is important to you. But should we really be pressing for a third?”

“Aw! Come on! You all got to do cool trials by weird ancient ghosts!” Webby complained. “It’s my turn”

Scrooge was silent for a bit before speaking. “What is up there is very important to me for a numbah of reasons. But this is a bit more than ah expected, I must admit. I would do this on my own if ah could, but ah can’t. Ah can’t ask you for your trust. Not after everything, but please, this once I ask you for your help.” Scrooge’s head was bowed slightly.

This seemed to surprise the boys and Lena could hear Huey whisper, “Man he really likes that dime...”

“Well what’s one more death defying trial right?” Dewey said shrugging his shoulders.

“And it’s Webby’s turn too, if anyone is going to do as well as me, it will be her. ” Louie said, earning another groan from his brothers.

“So, can I?” Webby looked over to the pedestal and everyone else gave a nod of affirmation. “Eeee!” Webby squealed, all but prancing to the pedestal.

As she started the challenge a huge muscle bound dog immediately materialized from nowhere. All across his ghostly visage he had scars and bulging muscles. A large pale scar crossed over his eye, giving his gaze a piercing quality.

“Hi, I’m Webby!” she greeted.

That seemed to give the warrior pause, and he gave a slight nod of respect. “Welcome young marshall. To accomplish this trial is simple. Fight me. Win.”

“Okay, but how do I know I won? To the death doesn’t really seem applicable here.”

“Not to my death, no.” a wicked grin game over his features. Without looking, the warrior reached out and grabbed a long glaive that had been stabbed into the floor. Without even flinching he swung out the blade at the child before him.

Without flinching either Webby made a hop backwards and the blade sailed cleanly through the air. He pursued and Webby easily dodged this way. The sudden assault sent Lena’s heart into a panic. After one such blade that came treacherously close, Lena watched helplessly as her friends pretty pink bow fluttered to the ground.

As Lena watched on helplessly, the voice returned to her, taunting, ‘ Oh my, looks like your little friend is in trouble. ’ 

Shut up.

Webby continued her dance with the spirit, dodging swing after swing with ease, trying to put the piles of armor between her and the warrior, but slowly she was getting backed toward the wall of the room.

‘ You know this fight might go better with just a bit of help. ’

I’m not going to-

‘Oh, I know, you would rather die than inconvenience her.’

Webby was backed into a wall and narrowly ducked out of the way of a strike.

“Webby!” the boys called out in a fear that Lena sympathized.

‘ But would you rather she die? I mean, I thought you are friends. ’

Lena tried to force the voice far from her mind. She watched with smug satisfaction as Webby jumped over a sweeping slash of the blade, only to hop off the wall and into a wild kick at the ghosts face-

Only to sail clean through the ghost and stumble her landing. “W-what?” Webby said, confused for a moment before she was forced back on the defense.

‘ I wonder how long she can keep this up? ’  

Webby looked about. Each of the other tasks had seemed simple enough, but always had some trick to them. She decided to take up one of the long abandoned daggers and flung it with precision at the ghost. The warrior dog didn’t flinch and the knife sailed clear through his chest, “Well this doesn’t really seem fair...” Webby frowned before diving out of the way of another swing.

The warrior laughed, punctuating his swings with barbs, “Fair!? Do you think- it will be fair when enemies come at your gates? Do you think they will play fair- when they come for your family? A general should not concern themselves with fighting fair! They concern themselves-” He reared his blade high in the air, drawing Webby’s attention. “-with winning!” he suddenly kicked out a foot, hitting her square in the stomach.

‘Oh! that one had got to hurt. ’

Lena watched fretfully as the warrior stalked menacingly closer to a prone Webby.

‘Not much time left... might want to say goodbye. ’

Lena fought with her baser to do something, anything for her friend. She tried to summon a shadowy hand but was left with only a headache and no results.

Just as the great dane of a warrior was about to slice down, several rocks flew from the side. One knocked him in the head and pushed his helmet askew. The rock thudded next to Webby.

“Leave her alone!” shouted Dewey, who had thrown the rock.

“Yeah, why is everyone in this tower, so okay with killing kids!?” Huey demanded

The warrior tried to wrestle with his helmet one handed, but it was stuck. This forced him to drop the glaive and grapple it with both hands.

Webby rather than jumping up and away to safety, instead looked contemplative “Wait a second...” Webby picked up the rock by her feet, and underhand threw it at the warriors head. It sailed harmlessly through both his head and the helmet. “Oh! Heh heh, duh! Marshall.” Webby rolled her eyes before grabbing a broken spear shaft and started to tap it against the stones.

Lena was trying to figure out what Webby's plan was here, other than alert her blinded opponent to her exact location.

“Is that a song?” Louie asked.

“If it is, its terrible” Dewey put in.

“Hey cut her some slack, she’s improvising in battle, that’s tough.” added Huey

“Its Morse code you ninnies, now come on she needs our-”

Lena’s attention was pulled away from the conversation as the warrior had removed his helmet and tossed it to the ground and the battle began anew. Webby again managed to dance away, all the while tip tip tapping on the ground.

At some point Lena managed to catch the sight of one of the triplets hiding behind a pile of armor giving a thumbs up. Webby led the hulking brute in their direction. Despite how nimble she was, Lena could tell the fight was pushing even Webby’s endurance. Sweat beaded on her brow.

Right as they were about to pass under it, Webby called out “NOW!”

“Come on boys! HEAVE,” Scrooge called out

There was a grunt of effort from behind the pillar, then the tower of armor washed over the warrior in a wave of bent and battered metal. At that moment Webby pushed forward jabbing her broken spear shaft straight through the ghosts face, it passed through harmlessly as everything else had.

Once he realized what had happened a smug look came to his eye. Then one of surprise as Webby let go. The wooden spear shaft stayed embedded through the ghosts head.

He tried whirling around, causing Dewey, who had grasped the shaft on the other side, to be thrown to the ground in a lump. “Ow!”

The warrior stood for a moment, poking at the stick that was stuck through his head. “Yes.” he remarked, “that is without a doubt fatal. I concede” He snapped his fingers and the spear fell to the ground in a clatter. “Congratulations young marshal, you have overcome my trial.” The symbol of the marshal appeared on Webby’s chest. “Remember, a good general seeks glory for his army first and-”

“Can We Do That Again!?” Webby let out nearly hopping up and down “That Was Amazing!”

“Webby!” Louie frowned, “Don’t antagonize the ancient murder ghost.”

The warrior seemed to consider her and then laughed, “Perhaps another time. Go on, your prize is near at hand!” he gestured to the appearing staircase.

“Great so are we done or-” the ghost evaporated in a puff of astral smoke “-and your gone. Great.” Dewey sighed.

“Well done Webigail, clevah using a code he would have never heard before.” Scrooge praised, Lena could see Webby practically brimming with joy over it.

“Well I mean we’re all done right?” Huey asked, “We each had a turn and none of us can do another one.”

“Only one way to find out.” Scrooge said moving towards the staircase with an air of rigid determination.

As they cleared the last stair, just as with all the past rooms, they were replaced by the solid stone. However there was no piles of gold or grand pieces of carved ivory. It seemed for all intents and purposes to be just another trial room.

“Hey, what gives?” Louie asked

On the raised ground a new challenge was issued. Webby rushed forward to read it for everyone

“Through these trials you have been tested. A leader tested for their sacrifice. A scholar of their wisdom. A chancellor for their charisma. A spymaster for their cleverness. And a marshal for their strength.” The letters morphed, webby did a half jog to find where it started again “but one has refused these trials. Six entered, but one has shirked from the challenge. So, here is your challenge.” The words changed one more time and Webby slowed a distressed look on her face.

Scrooge finished the last message for her, “Last Trial. Trial of the Martyr. Sacrifice yourself, for the good of the kingdom.”

“Well... that’s morbid.” said Huey.

“Hey! There’s only five of us! Did we really have to bring more people!” said Dewey.

“They should really put that on the entrance,” Webby agreed.

Scrooge looked around the room trying to find some sort of clue or trick. Like it was a puzzle to solve.

“So, we’re heading home, now right Uncle Scrooge?” his three nephews and honorary niece looked up at him, some weary, others hopeful. It didn’t seem like there was a way forward, but this was Scrooge McDuck. If there was a trick to this somewhere, then he could find it.

Lena watched as he gripped his cane tightly, clearly not comfortable with backing down. He seemed frustrated, then all at once he relaxed. “Aye, its about that time I guess. Wouldn’t want to put you kids through a test as sketchy as that anyways… Let’s get out of here. I’ll have to earn my dime back another day.” he said letting just how grumpy that made him show on his face.

“Okay, but like, how?” Huey asked. After the staircase had disappeared the room was basically featureless aside from the central platform and symbol.

“Yes, fair point,” Scrooge muttered under his breath. He stepped toward the center shouting out to the room, “We would like to concede to the trials. We have no sixth member to. We are bested.” there was no response, just Scrooges voice echoing off the four walls. He rapped his cane three times on the ground, “Let. Us. Out!” he said “Ache, typical.”  

“Hey did anyone else notice something weird about this room?” Huey asked looking about with a critical eye.

“What do you mean?” asked Dewey warily.

“Well… were’t all the other floors circular?”

A moment passed, and then as if on cue, the entire room started to shake. Two of the walls with the bone stinging screech of stone against stone started to push forward from each side.

“Oh, come on!”

All at once the five of them rushed to one wall trying to push against it, but to no avail.

“So that's it!? We just die!?” Dewey shouted angrily over the grinding stone.

“Wait the central platform! It will stop the two walls if we stand near that then-” as he spoke, said platform started to descend to the ground, leaving the symbol of the martyr on the now flat floor. “Of course...”

”What should we do Uncle Scrooge? Louie shouted, his voice starting to rise towards panic.

Scrooge gritted his teeth but there didn’t seem to be any trick to this. “Is it me? I haven’t done any of the dangerous trials yet...” he reasoned looking intently at the symbol on the floor. “A King must make sacrifices...”

“Wait- Uncle Scrooge”

Not listening, Scrooge rushed forward towards the symbol, diving to slam his palm on it. Just as with the first room, he was bodily thrown back away and hit the wall. Hard.

“Uncle Scrooge!” the four of them went to Scrooge, who was knocked out cold. They dragged him away from the wall.

Once scrooge was safe, Webby was already back at the wall trying to do anything to slow down its grinding pace. She had tried jabbing her broken spear shaft into the crack between the wall and the floor, only for it to be ground to splinters. Then she tried to chip away at the stone with a pickax she had packed, but it didn’t even make a crack on its face. She was starting to look desperate.

“Well now what do we do?” Louie asked, his panic now skyrocketing.

“What can we do? There’s only five of us! None of us can try with these things on our chest!” Huey said, trying to wave away the symbol again to no avail. “We’ll just be thrown back like Scrooge”

“Maybe it’s a trick! We’re just supposed to not sacrifice anyone and we’ll pass” The walls ground ever closer. Dewey spoke nervously “We don’t need a sixth person because sacrificing someone is messed up! ” he shouted accusingly at the shrinking room.

“Well if that’s the case they’re sure taking their sweet time!” said Louie

That’s when Lena realized. She was the sixth member. The trial was for her.

In a panic Lena looked at the symbol as the walls grew ever closer together. She tried to summon any piece of magic, to grab and claim at the symbol. But her magic was fragile and weak.

She watched as the walls drew closer and the triplets and Webby all tried to work together to find a way out. No such escape made itself available. They were forced to go back to back pressing against the walls in a desperate attempt to slow them,but it barely made a difference.

Lena continued to strain herself, but each fleck of shadow she managed to pull from Webby’s fell apart in the light with a burning pain.

If only she could reach.

If only she could help.

If only she could do anything right.

If only she had Power.

At that moment Lena felt some binding on her break, she could move again. She felt limber and strong. Like getting to stretch after sixteen hours in a car. She dived head first for the symbol on the floor, Webby’s shadow stretching unnaturally across the floor with her. As she moved one shadowy hand across it, the symbol lit up, and a jagged rusty knife suddenly stabbed upward where the symbol had been. It was harmless to Lena’s shadow form, but it was still unnerving.

Lena felt her heart lighten as the walls started to pull apart again. She did it, she managed to save them. Maybe she could do this. Go on adventures with Webby and help out. Become part of this family and not just another burdan. Maybe-

“Webby!” Lena turned her attention back to her friend and saw something that sent a knife through her core.

The triplets were gathered around Webby. “Webby! What’s wrong?”

Webby was curled on the ground gripping at her head, tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. Soft cries of pains erupted unnaturally from Lena’s  her best friend.

‘ Aw. Look, she’s just like you when you were little.'  

Lena reached out but she still couldn’t touch anything, she could give no comfort.

‘ Don’t worry… she’ll get used to it.... ’ the voice cackled in her mind with mocking glee.

Lena looked on in horror for a moment more. She was never meant to be this, or anything.  She slowly faded back into all she was meant to be.

Nothing more than a shadow.

Chapter Text

“Webby! Come on what’s wrong?”

Webby groaned while laying on the cool sandstone floor. She wasn’t sure what happened. At first she thought she was feeling her body being crushed by the walls, but then she realized all the pain was in her head. It had faded for the moment, so now her brain only felt like someone had played hacky sack with it instead of it actively happening.

She risked one eye open to see the three boys standing about her. They all looked worried for her but relaxed as she opened her eyes. The room beyond them was larger again, the two walls having receded back to their original positions. The glowing marks that had been adorning each of them had left, and were now circling up in the air above them. As Webby was absorbing the state of things, she realized that the triplets were waiting on her for some kind of response.

“Oh, uh, hey guys whats up?” she gave a little awkward wave.

“Oh thank god!” Huey said, rubbing a hand down his face.

Dewey nearly shouted, “Webby, what was that!? You looked like you were really hurt...”

“Oh, uh...” she tried to grasp at some reason for her pain. She remembered the slow press of the walls when she was back to back with Dewey, but then it was just… pain. “I’m uh, not sure?” It felt a little like that one weekend when she was so excited to train with her grandma that she forgot to drink any water. Only much worse.

“Well, are you still hurt?” asked Louie.

Webby’s thoughts still felt like they were making their way through a thorn bush, “No, I think I’m alright.” she smiled.

“Ach… no, no need to check on your Uncle Scrooge, Ah’m just fine ” grumbled their granduncle, rubbing his head and struggling to his feet. The boys assured of their friends safety went to check on their uncle.

Webby hung back, unsure of what else to do took out a water bottle and took a few deep drinks before getting to her feet. She walked over towards the group who were all standing beneath the swirling marks above them. One for each of the trials that they completed.

“So, did mah plan work then? I don’t remember much.” Scrooge said, rubbing at the fresh bump on his head.

“No, you were flung against the wall and were knocked out. It didn’t stop for like a minute after that.” Louie reported.

“Oh.” Scrooge said, a little disappointed, “than what did it?”

“Dunno, We all kind of got distracted by Webby” Huey said pointing a thumb back at her, “Webby, did you do anything to stop it?”

Webby, with mouth full of water shrugged, struggling to swallow, “N-not on purpose...”

“Maybe the solution really was ‘don’t sacrifice your friends like a monster’ ” Dewey accused in a raised voice to the room.

Before they could speculate further, the symbols floating all lifted to the top of the room and slotten into six carved versions of the letters in the stone. Then a floating staircase descended from the ceiling leading to a room cast in bright natural light.

“Well, no way forward but up” Scrooge said and started up the staircase. The boys followed after, but as Webby moved to follow she whirled around. There was nothing in the room behind her and she frowned. Ever since the eclipse Webby had sometimes felt like something was watching her. Each time there was nothing behind her but her shadow. Not that she should necessarily trust her shadow after it went rogue.

Before she could give a warning glare to her shadow, Louie called after her to hurry up. She quickly caught up to the rest of them as they ascended through the threshold into another dark room.

Everyone, Scrooge aside, gasped in excitement and wonder as the room revealed mounds and mounds of treasure and artifacts. The steel taloned falcons flew in and out through open windows, perching atop the gold leisurely. Webby’s gaze wandered until it rested on an ancient and ornate looking stone desk. Carved into the stone were reliefs of old myths that Webby could easily identify. Behind the desk sat an equally ornate and beautiful, though not matching, throne of gold.

“So you have passed my trials… Well done...” From the throne a ghostly figure started to appear from behind the desk, “I welcome you to...” the figure looked up dramatically, but stopped mid sentence “McDuck, is that you? Again? ” her eyes passed over the rest of the group, “Did you bring children to complete my trials? Don’t you know how dangerous they are?”

Scrooge sighed, “Hello Sabbin. In order, yes, yes, and no, if you recall, you erased my memories of the trials.”

“Well sure, can’t have everyone waltzing in here with a cheat sheet...” Sabbin defended. She looked over the four kids before her with scrutiny, “Are these your kin, McDuck?”

Webby chuckled, rubbing the back of her head nervously “Well uh, actually-”

“Aye, they’re my family” Scrooge announced without exception. Webby looked at him in surprise and felt a beat of warmth spread throughout her body at the inclusion.

“Impressive, well while you know, I suppose I should exposit a tad for your kin, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all” Scrooge obliged, knowing full well that denying a ghost even a simple request could agitate it.

“Well then” The ghost stood, as if to push back her chair, but instead phased through it. “I know legends state that should you reach this towers top, I would bring down a corrupt king. However, sadly, I have become bound here in death, so I can only offer you a boon. Each of you may choose a minor boon for yourself, and you dear ‘king’ may take a major boon...”

“Can I have some gold?”

“Could I get a copy of the game Louie played?”

“I’ll get what Louie’s getting!”

“Could I get a baby falcon!?”

The assassin laughed, “All in due time all in due time, however I do believe it is only fair for your elder to get the first choice...” she said gesturing to Scrooge, and all the kids looked at him in anticipation.

“Well first of all I do believe I have earned back my wager...” he held out his hand, Sabbin nodded and tossed the dime back to him on its diamond filament necklace. He quickly secured it around his neck. A nervousness Webby hadn’t noticed for most of the day seemed to evaporate off of him. “Now, Sabbin, tell me if I’m wrong, but before you were an assassin you were a hunter, yes?” the assassin nodded “And you were able to find any living thing, man or beast prior to being trapped here?”

“Yes, as you well know…” Sabbin said with a boastful smile.

“In that case for my boon, there is someone I wish for you to find...”

Huey, Dewey, and Louie looked on in awe and anticipation, whispering to one another

“Is he?”

“I think so...”

“Mom?”

So that’s why Scrooge was so determined to get up this far. I’m… I’m really happy for them.

Webby thought to herself, scratching absently at her cheek. She buried the little gem of envy deep down to appraise later. If this was a lead to rescuing Della then she wanted to be able to celebrate it with everyone.

The spirit from behind her desk pulled out a huge rolled up piece of patchment. She unfurled it across her table revealing a massive map of the world. “Alive or dead, if they remain upon this Earth I can tell you where they are.”

“Excellent. Then I would like you to find a young lass named Lena de Spell”

Webby looked up to her idol dumbfounded, confused, with a little bubbling of hope

Lena?

“ WHAT!? ” cried Huey, Dewey, and Louie at once; one in confusion, the second in anger and the third in slack jawed surprise. After a moment they looked over at Webby and schooled their expressions to be less outraged.

“Done!” the assassin’s eyes grew unfocused and milky white. She reached out one claw,  and her finger started to trace over the map, stopping in some places for a while then moving gently over the paper.

Scrooge tightened his shoulders and turned back to the rest of his party, bracing himself for the triplets rage.

“Why didn’t you ask for mom?” demanded Dewey, looking betrayed and angry.

Huey noticed Webby’s conflicted face. “sorry Webby but...” Huey said trying to prevent the frown, but not finding the right words.

Scrooge looked tired and old in a way that he rarely allowed to come to the surface, “boys I’m...”

“I can answer that!” called a sing song voice from above. From a long broken down staircase, a ghostly woman came strolling down with a tray full of tea cups. She wore fine silks with embroidery that might have looked vibrant if it wasn’t all tinted in ghoulish blue. “The truth is that my darling is a hunter, no astronomer. Her magic can only find those upon the earth, not those out among the stars... ” she explained which seemed to frustrate but mollify Dewey. “I assure you it was as frustrating for her as it was for your uncle ten years ago.”

Everyone but Scrooge seemed surprised by the woman’s sudden appearance “and you are?” Huey asked as the woman served one of the cups of tea to a willing Scrooge.

“Oh, well I’m-”

Webby gasped as the scattered thoughts in her brain finally put two and two together, “Your princess Alya, of the Kingdom of the Endless Sea! You’re the one who ran away with Talon!” she nearly shouted.

The woman seemed pleasantly taken aback  but smiled in Webby’s direction “Why- yes, yes I am. And who are you little ones? I haven’t seen children in quite a long time”

“I’m Webby, and this is Huey, Dewey, and Louie” Webby introduced rapidly as she could, pointing to each boy in turn. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Webby asked nearly bouncing on the tips of her toes.

Scrooge seemed inclined to interject, but the pleasant woman answered before he could. “Certainly dear.”

Webby whipped out a pad of paper and a pen from her pocket, “How do you know Uncle Scrooge? Why are there six trials, is it a significant number in your culture? Who are the other ghosts who run the trials? Do you ever have game nights with them? Do they live on those floors? Did you and Talon get married or did you not have the chance? What is she doing now, and how will it help find Lena? Is there any way I can help? What’s it like to kiss another girl? How did you both become ghosts? Do you have any baby falcons I can adopt? Do you know any magic?” Webby’s voice grew fainter and fainters until she was completely out of breath, wheezing from trying to get all of the questions out.

Alya only blinked for a moment, clearly floored by the sheer volume of questions. She spoke again, once she gathered herself “Well, I caught a few of those, let me do my best. First Scrooge has come through the trials twice before, the first in search of gold and the second in search of Della, his niece. As how Talon is helping find your friend, she is using her magic and map to trace her entire life from her birth until now. Once she catches up to today, we should know where she is...”

Alya went on trying to sift through each of the questions in turn, but Webby’s attention was almost immediately diverted towards the retired assassin, so it became hard to listen closely. She wanted to see her best friends life play out, but she also knew that it would be rude to suddenly walk away. As a compromise she simply started to vibrate anxiously, trying and failing to not glance constantly towards the map.

Fortunately Alya seemed to pick up on this, “Would you care to watch?”

Webby only nodded before running over to the table to watch. The conversation continued on without her, but she was engrossed in observing Lena’s life playing out before her. There was a thin glowing line wherever the her tallon crossed over. So far most of her time had been spent in Europe. Jumping from Italy to France then down to Spain and north to England.

Webby started to connect some of the visits to some of Lena’s entries in her journal. She had been reading it every night, it helped her feel a little more connected to her. Some of the stories were about Magica and her schemes, but a lot were about her life. Pranks she pulled at boarding schools and parties she managed to crash. Webby had even found the entry for the concert that Lena told her about when they first met. Her friend was so cool-

Is.

Is so cool.

Even if Scrooge didn’t want to get her hopes up… she would be lying if she said they weren’t pretty high right at this moment.

Suddenly the claw departed from Europe and made a slow journey across the sea, landing in what Webby realized was Duckburg. Webby was excited cause she thought it meant that it was almost time, but then it just sort of stayed there a while. It stayed there for… a little too long. How long had Lena been on her own in Duckburg?

As she watched intently suddenly a cup of tea was thrust in her view. She took it from the insistent ghost “Oh, uh, thanks.” She looked down at the tea, “So is this like special magic tea?” Webby chuckled. Looking around the room everyone else had finished their tea.

“Why yes, it’s made from forget me knot flowers, it will erase all knowledge of the trials from your memory,”

“Oh… well what happens if I don’t drink the tea? I thought the trials were really exciting and fun. I’d hate to forget them all...”

“Then you will stay here until you die” the woman said her chipper voice not failing for a moment. “Like him!” she pointed to one pile of treasure that had a bony skull stuck in the gold.

Webby was suddenly reminded that these two pleasant hosts were the ruthless spirits of an assassin and her bride, “Oh… hahaha” she laughed nervously. Webby moved to take a drink but was distracted by a sudden tearing noise. Looking back to Sabbin, Webby could see a huge tear running from Duckburg to half way across the world. Sabbin’s claw had cut through it and seemed to have left a scrape on the otherwise unmarked table. Sabbin shook her head in confusion for a moment before her eyes were drawn to Webby.

“Oh, are you done already?” asked Scrooge, standing from his couch of gold, “have you found her?” he sounded hopeful.

Sabbin’s eyes grew hard and cold as she turned to Scrooge. “Is this some kind of joke Scrooge?” she demanded.

Uncle Scrooge looked utterly baffled by the accusation “Ah have no idea what you're on about. Did ya find Lena De Spell or not.”

A scowl appeared on the assassin’s brow, “Let me ask you a question McDuck. When you have a hole in your roof, do you call upon the greatest architect to patch it? When your cart has a broken wheel do you ask a master engineer to fix it?”

“No of course not, that would be a waste of my money and an insult to their talents!”

The assassin’s eyes were nearly bulging out of her head at this point “Yes! Yes It Would Be, Wouldn’t It!” She pushed herself away from the table and Webby felt herself be pulled away by Alya, “No… no I understand it now, you mock me!”

Scrooge stepped back, pulling the triplets behind him defensively, and beckoning Webby closer. Scrooge, looking frustrated let his more combative side surface, “Mock you? I just want you to find a child… or is that also outside your expertise?”

Talon Sabbin looked floored for a moment, then she started chuckling. This chuckle grew into a manic laughter “not once in three thousand years has anyone completed my trials twice, and here you come, completing it a third time with children as your champions. My legacy trivialized by you. Then. Then you take my boon, a gift good men sought desperately for centuries before you… and make a joke of it?” her form started to lose cohesion, starting to look more and more monstrous, darkness seemed to ooze and spread from beneath her robes. “ That is unforgivable ”

“Oh dear, honey’s wroth is boiling over again.” Alya said with a sigh. “Well, I wish we had more time, oh well...” she put two ghostly fingers to her lips and blew into them loudly. From each of the open windows several of the large razor taloned falcons came swooping in through the windows.They picked up each of the triplets in turn, Louie desperately scooped gold into his hoodie pockets even as the bird plucked him up from the stone floor.

“I’m gonna go hide out down below, goodbye!” Alya said phasing through the floor just before the black ooze covered it.

Scrooge pulled Webby up in his arms as he easily climbed to the top of the nearest gold pile. “I didn’ come here to insult you, I just need to know where-” the demand died on his lips as one of the falcons gathered him up “Wait you blasted bird of-” and flew off through a window. Leaving Webby as the last one in the room.

Webby managed to dodge the bird swooping toward her and  whirled around looking at the dark red eyes within the robe. Webby plucked up her courage and called out “I- I don’t understand, is Lena okay?”  she sidestepped the bird again, even as the black ooze threatened to overtake the tower of coins.

“ Of Course You Are ! BUT NOT FOR LONG! ” the voice shouted, deep and cavernous as any ruin Webby had explored.

“What? No, I’m Webby! Where’s Lena! ”

The eyes went from enraged to… confused. The spread of darkness slowed for a moment “ you’re not lying but how... ” the monster paused as if trying to find an answer

Before she had managed it, the steel talon falcon managed to catch Webby from behind, and pulled her forcibly out of the tower. She was dropped roughly onto the sand by the indifferent falcon who went back to roost upon the top of the tower.

The triplets greeted her warmly as they watched Scrooge shout frustrated obscenities at the tower. These were fortunately censored by his own sputtering anger and thick accent. It also helped that most of them hadn’t been used in the past half century. It did really paint in the family resemblance to Donald though.

Webby laid still on the ground for a time, looking up at the circling falcons above. Her mind kept trying to piece together all the information she had learned, but was having difficulty doing so. It was like a magic eye picture that she couldn’t quite focus in on. It didn’t help that the echoes of her earlier headache had only gotten worse with the sudden adrenaline spike.

“Well that was a bust...” Huey acknowledged, voicing everyone’s disappointment. He and the other boys offered her a hand up. She took it gratefully and stood up and the four of them watching in silence to the rage of a very old man.

After a few minutes Scrooge was reduced to muttering as he tried to catch his breath.

“Ready to head home Uncle Scrooge?” Dewey asked cautiously  

Scrooge gave one last scowl to the tower before sighing, “Yes. Yes its about that time...” he said and started to trudge up the sandy dune.

There was some silence as they made their way, Webby lost in her own thoughts. Then Louie spoke up “Okay, I guess I’ll say it, why Lena?” Webby frowned at him and he rushed to clarify, “Don’t get me wrong, I like Lena, she’s cool. But has Scrooge even like, talked to her for more than a minute?” he asked confused. “He could have asked for anything! Like all the gold in that tower! And Lena’s basically his arch-nemesis’ kid right?”

“The gold up there is fake lad, meant to trick the greedy into wasting their boon.” Scrooge said without turning around.

“What!?” Louie shoved his hands into his pockets only to pull out fistfulls of sand “aw, come on!” he wailed before trying to scoop out the remaining sand.

“Okay, but still, why’d we all come out here for Lena’s sake? I mean isn’t she...” Dewey looked at Webby apologetically, “you know, gone?”

Scrooge sighed and stopped in his trek, “That girl saved both you and Webby, and she paid a terrible price. She might be gone, but magic is a fickle thing. If there is even a tiny chance that she is trapped in that monstrous woman’s shadow, then it’s the least I can do to ensure she’s freed from it...” he then looked pointedly at Webby and smiled “This is but one dead end. Ah’m not gonna give up yet.” Webby smiled as her hero started scaling the Dune again “come on you lot, we have a… a...” as he stood atop the Dune he stopped speaking. The kids were going to ask why before they too got to the top of the dune.

The rest of the short walk back to the sunchaser was made in silence as they found Launchpad outside making some finishing touches on his…

“Launchpad… what is this?” asked Scrooge gesturing to his ship.

“Well, it was really hard to get it to flip over in the sand, so I decided to improvise!” he announced proudly. The main body of the Sun Chaser was still upside down, but the wings, engine, and tail of the ship had been inverted so they were now the right side up on an otherwise upside down  plane.

“I’ll be a bit of rough flying, but it should get us home alright!” Launchpad said proudly.

Webby was too busy trying to keep hold of her lunch to really reflect on the days events for the next fourteen hours.

Chapter Text

Webby sat down in her attic, rubbing at her eyes. She looked at her large cork board, filled with her notes on Lena. It had been about a week since they had come back from the tower, and most of Webby’s time had been dedicated to finding her friend.

One corner of the board was full of their time together, with doodles and journal entries from both her and Lena’s journal’s. Which hadn’t been very helpful in actually finding Lena, but it did bring a smile to her face.

The rest of the board was full of details about Lena’s l she had learned. Magica Despell, who was represented by an unflattering portrait of Webby’s design, took up a large part of it. Scrooge guessed Lena was still connected to Magica, so there was a long list of possible places the witch had retreated to. Several of these were marked with a large red 'X'.

Webby had been going over her notes fervently for days but kept running into dead ends. The most frustrating were her notes from talon tower. At first glance, it seemed like a normal adventure for the McDuck family. However, something about it itched at the back of her mind. Whenever she explored other, more likely avenue’s, she kept coming back to the adventure.

What really frustrated her was the last trial. She had been knocked into blinding pain at the moment of its completion, so she had no idea how it was solved. She didn’t even know what had caused that pain either! It didn’t help that, because she hadn’t drunk the tea, she was only one with clear memories of the trials at all. Everyone else's memories were foggy or indistinct. They remembered feelings and the order of events, but no details at all.

She studied her notes with greater focus. Moving closer, and closer, and closer until her forehead was flat against the corkboard. She hummed in thought for minutes until she reared back and headbutted into the corkboard in frustration. She staggered back, rubbing her head.

She was about to take a break for a time when sudden inspiration took her. Slowly she took a fresh pin and red yarn. She made a connection between a post-it note that said ‘6 trials, 5 challengers?’ and up to her cluster of notes about ‘Ghost Lena’ and and their friendship bracelet. She then connected that back to her notes on everything Talon Sabbin had said. Talon had seemed to think Lena was where Webby was…

Webby bent down low to the little woven bracelet on her arm and whispered, “Lena? Are you in there?”

“Come on Lena, if you’re in there you can tell me. I won’t be mad” Webby promised the little bracelet for the twentieth time. Some part of her felt ridiculous for trying this, but her gut told her she was on the right track. If there was anything she had learned from her time studying the McDuck family, it was that sometimes you had to follow your gut, even if it made you look like an idiot.

She had placed a small pillow underneath her bracelet, to make Lena more comfortable. She wasn’t sure if she felt anything in the bracelet. Maybe she’d clean it. Or would that hurt too?

As Webby continued on looking at the little bracelet she decided to do a little thought experiment. Assuming Lena was in the bracelet, what were some reasons she wouldn’t come out?

Maybe she needed more magic? The bracelet had never been empty before. No wait… each time the bracelet had worked in the past, Webby had been in danger. First with the money shark and then again against Magica. Webby really hoped she wouldn’t have to fling herself off a roof just to get her friend out of it. Let’s keep thinking.

Maybe she had to cast a spell? She dug out the The Grimoire du Merlock. She flipped through the book not finding any spell that was really about this situation. She tried a few that seemed close, but they either didn’t work, or just fizzled out unhelpfully. After almost accidentally summoning a demon thanks to a mistranslation she made, she decided to give it a rest.

Okay other possibilities.

Maybe Lena… didn’t want to talk to her? That thought didn’t feel great, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t consider it. So, why would Lena not want to talk to her? Maybe she was mad? She tried to think of something she had said or done in the past few weeks that might have made her friend mad. No… she couldn’t think of anything. In fact, she had bragged a few times about the things she had read about her in the journal…

Oh was that it? It was really rude to read someone’s private journal. Maybe Lena was embarrassed or angry that she read her private thoughts… “Lena? I’m really sorry about reading your journal. I just really missed you… b-but that isn’t an excuse.” she hastily added to the braided fabric on the pillow. She waited a few moments to see if the words had managed to mollify her friend. It had not.

What other reason might make Lena not want to come out? If she was right, then whatever it was wasn’t enough to keep her from helping in the last trial. Suddenly the memory of the crippling pain she had felt echoed from the back of her mind. With a shaking hand and another pin and red thread, she connected the web to her notes about her pain during the last trial. She bit her lip. If Lena had caused that pain, maybe she didn’t want to cause it again?

She swallowed hard, but braced herself, narrowing them in determination. She spoke softly trying not to shake, “Lena… if your worried about hurting me… don’t worry I can take it.” she said clenching her fists.

As the moments passed by, the weight of her near sleepless nights and fruitless efforts started to wear on her. Doubts started to creep in. What if she was wrong, what if Lena wasn’t hear to listen to her pleas and apologies? What if the ancient mad ghost had been mistaken? What if Lena was gone and... never coming back?

She dug her clenched fists into the folds of her skirt. The pain she had buried down since the eclipse, and had been forgotten in favor of hope, washed over her. Tears stung at the corners as her eyes as her overtaxed and under slept mind couldn’t handle the strain anymore.

Webby whispered in a voice, this time meant for no one else “I just want to see you again...”

She felt a headache coming on and resolved to get a meal and some medicine. However, this became impossible as the headache was replaced by blinding pain.

Webby fell back on her head and started to take in deep breaths. Pain wasn’t fun, but it could be managed if one stayed calm. After a few moments Webby was able to focus again and looked to the bracelet with a desperate hope. Only to see it lying on the pillow unresponsive.

Then what was…

“Uh, Webby?” a tentative voice called out. “Over here...”

Webby angled her head back towards the wall. She realized that what she was seeing was her shadow, but somehow loomed over her despite the light source also being above her. It was a bit taller, slimmer, and its hair was much cooler. It had bright white eyes shining down at her.

“L-Lena?” she asked a smile shining out despite her pain.

“Hey Webby,” the shadow spoke in a soft  voice, her otherwise shapeless eyes looking sympathetically at her. “Are you-” Webby flipped off her back in a fluid motion and all but collided into the wall, arms outstretched, slamming her body flat against the wall “-alright?” Lena smiled and bent her shadow so that her arms wrapped around Webby.

Neither of them could feel the others embrace, but a bubbling feeling of comfort flowed through both of them. For a few moments they stayed like that, but Lena, worried for her friend, bent her shadow away from Webby. She waited for Webby to notice, but the girl just kept blissfully embracing the wall.

Lena roughly mimicked the sound of a clearing throat, causing Webby to finally notice and back away from the wall. She apologized, laughing nervously in a way that Lena had found endearing since the day they met. “Hey Web’s, you wanted to talk?”

Webby fired into a fount of questions that had been lying just beneath the surface. She spoke so quickly that Lena had to hold out her hands to slow her, “Wait wait, come on, one at a time...” she insisted.

Webby took a moment to sort through her various questions and then asked, “Are you okay? You’re not in some kind of hell-dimension are you?” she asked first, a little worried.

Lena smiled and shook her head “I’m okay Webby. Just kind of stuck here...” she said gesturing to herself.

Webby let out a little huff of relief before moving on, “Have you been… uh, watching this whole time?”

Lena pointedly did not look towards the little corner of the attic that Webby had set up as a little shrine to her in the worst of her grief. It was actually quite tasteful and Lena had found it flattering. “Nope. I had to sleep sometimes,” she lied.

“Oh! Good, good.” Webby said nodding.

Without letting it show on her shadowy face, Lena frowned inwardly. She didn’t want to lie to Webby anymore, but it was really easy. She had to be careful not to fall back into bad habits.

“So you’ve been in the shadow and not the bracelet?”

Lena intended to nod, but realized it didn’t really show well on a two dimensional body. “Oh, yeah.” she looked to their friendship bracelet with a smile. “Right idea, wrong-” Then entire view suddenly shifted. She looked to Webby who was rushing to her pin board. She moved one red string from her notes on the bracelet next to notes about Lena being a shadow.

Webby smiled, contented with the fix made. She turned back, looking to the wall that Lena had been on, shocked to find her missing. Lena gave a wave from the ground, getting her attention. Webby grinned apologetically, “Sorry.”

Lena sighed and shrugged, “It’s okay. I’m used to following your lead.” she said with a smile.

Webby’s eyes grew wide in realization, “Oh! We need to tell Scrooge!” Webby said clearly excited.

Lena’s eyes opened wide in sudden alarm, “Webby, no, please-”

Webby bowled over her friends words and started to make speed towards the door. “He’s been working really hard to find you, I think he’s spent more looking for Magica then in the whole year before he met the triplets!” Webby assured, pressing on towards the door.

“Webby, wait- I” Lena continued to protest bending her shadow to the wall in front of Webby, her eyes wide with worry.

Webby neared the door reaching out, “he won’t mind, don’t worry so much Lena, I’ll-”

As Webby reached for the doorknob, Lena’s shadow expanded to encompass the wall and door around it, her voice boomed, deep and frustrated, “ Would you wait for one second - ”

Webby froze. Not in fright or surprise, but her body actually froze in place. Her outstretched hand couldn’t move. Webby felt real fear bloom in her. She could untie ropes and throw off a villain grabbing her. For once, she had no leverage or wiggle room.

Doubts in the corner of Webby’s mind started to shout at her that this wasn't really Lena. Just another petty vengeance Magica had set to work. She fought desperately to move her body again, to run and warn Uncle Scrooge and the family. Her eyes teared up a little as her heart started to break at the hope made false.

Then suddenly she regained control. The sudden release caused her to slam into the door in front of her. She staggered back looking up to Lena in fear, glancing for one of her dozen escape options she had put in the room. She was stopped when she noticed Lena looking down at her in wide eyed in horror, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” she whispered, once looking down at herself with as much fear as Webby had felt. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Lena began to whimper, her shadowy body shrinking and shaking before Webby.

Webby felt all doubts of her friend vanish as . She wanted to rush forward and comfort her friend, but her nerves still felt frayed and raw. By the time she had gathered herself, Lena had quieted into shallow, shaky breathing. Webby took in a breath to settle herself before sitting down next to Lena on the wall, “Okay… I won’t tell Uncle Scrooge,” Webby offered, earning a thankful nod from  “but, uh why not?”

Lena took a few deep steadying breaths. “I don’t want to cause you all any more trouble.” she sulked.

“Whaaaaaaaat? Come on, when have you caused us any trouble?” Webby exclaimed.

Lena’s bright white eyes went lidded with disbelief, “I unwittingly unleashed a money shark into Scrooge’s money bin? That nearly ate your whole family?” Lena started

“Well I mean-”

“I betrayed everyone’s trust to release my evil aunt and almost ending Duckburg?”

“Uh...”

“Oh, and there was last week, when you all almost died looking for me in a crazy murder dungeon...” Lena finished in a deadpan voice.

Webby seemed to try and hold her words but couldn’t help herself, “it was really more of a murder tower ” she offered weakly.

Lena roller her eyes “Whatever!” she said, exasperated, before sighing and sulking again.“All I do is hurt you Webby...”

“No you don’t!” Webby said, adamant in her voice. “Your my best friend and are always helping me!”

Lena looked her in the eyes “Webby, I’m hurting you right now...”

Webby faltered for a moment, “wha-what, no I’m good!” Webby assured. “I’m fine.”

Lena glowered at her, “Webby, don’t. I know.”

“No really I’m totally-”

“I know …” she emphasized.

Webby looked at her for another moment before letting her forced facade drop a bit, the pain she was suppressing more obvious on her face. “Oh...” there was silence between them for a few moments, “Is this… what it felt like with Magica?” she asked, clearly more concerned for Lena than herself.

“It…” Lena started hotly, but then cooling “it got easier. Eventually...” this earned a look of sympathy from Webby, which Lena tried to push past, “Anyways, I just wanted to say goodbye...” Lena couldn’t bring herself to look Webby in the eyes.

“What?” Webby said clear worry in her voice.

“I was never supposed to be , Webby. I had a good few years, more than I was ever meant to have...”

“And you don’t want any more” Webby questioned. Before Lena could counter, Webby continued “You don’t want to spend more time with me?” she asked a little plaintively.

“Not if it means hurting you...” Lena said seriously, “What I did to you in Talon Tower… it’s unforgivable...” Lena said her mind going to the years of being a minion for Magica.

“It is?” Webby asked surprised. “Cause I do. Forgive you that is.”

“Well I don’t.” Lena said stubbornly. “I hurt you Webby!”

“You saved all of us from a deadly trap!” Webby argued, waving her free hand around in exasperation.

“It’s not just-” she sputtered a bit, this conversation was supposed to be short and cathartic. “What about the eclipse?” Lena continued on. “I helped Magica get free. I realized my mistake too late and almost got everyone killed, including you… I’m just supposed to stroll in and expect everyone to be fine with it?” she said laughing incredulously at the idea.

Webby took this in. This was a part of Lena she hadn’t seen before. One a little less confident and aloof, finally able to lay her true feelings bare. Webby decided to take a different approach, “Magica made you do all that right?” Lena reluctantly agreed, “Then I don’t think anyone will hold what happened against you.” Webby reached out and placed a hand on Lena’s shadowy one. “ I certainly don’t.”

Lena smiled at her, but remained unconvinced, “Really? When you first found my journal and found out what I did, you were just… okay with it?” she said with a self defeating laugh.

Webby didn’t even need to think about it, “Well, sure at first I was really upset, but then I had like thirty flights of stairs to think it over-”

“What?”

“Not important,” Webby could tell all about that day later. “Anyways, I eventually figured that if we weren’t going to be friends we would be like, fun rivals? Always butting heads and trading quips? Like Uncle Scrooge and Glittering Goldie!” she said with a smile. Through her mind, she imagined some of the adventures she had read about the two adventurers. Their competition for the Lost Golden Monkey of the Pyrenees. The time they teamed up to escape the Ghostly Palace of the Last Khan. Even a romantic encounter Webby had found in one of Scrooge’s old journal’s. Her grandmother had confiscated that one before she got too far, but she had gotten to the point where they were kissing~

As Webby was momentarily lost in her daydream, Lena referenced the extensive amount of Scrooge-lore Webby had hammered into her. “Oh yeah, you told me about her. She’s like his girlfriend right?”

Webby’s very active imagination immediately started to replace Uncle Scrooge and his old rival with herself and Lena. The two of them struggling over the artifact on a cliff. The both of them furiously chanting an incantation to break the hold the ghost had on the both of them. Both of them underneath the Southern Jewel Star after foiling each other's capture of it, sharing memories and drink in the golden glow. Growing closer and closer to each other before they-

“HAHAHAHAHA!” Webby suddenly blurted out, as if the embarrassing thought could be drowned out by her voice. When Lena raised a brow at her, Webby blushed furiously, “I uh… remembered something funny.” she said, convincing neither of them.

“Right...” Lena said slowly, used to her friends eccentricities by now. “You really don’t… hate me? Not even a little?”

“Of course not you sweet dummy.”

The utter genuineness in Webby’s voice would have brought tears to Lena’s eyes if they were still capable of it. Instead she schooled her voice so it wouldn’t crack like some kind of dork, “Thank you Webby…” she said softly, bending the shadow beneath Webby’s hand until a shadowy hand was holding hers.

They enjoyed the silence for a bit until Webby clenched her eyes shut, holding onto her head. Lena looked at her in worry and Webby pushed herself up, “anyways, I think we’d both be a little more comfortable if we can get you a new body...” she turned looking at Lena plaintively, “I think Uncle Scrooge can help with that, should we go ask?”

“Beakley!” Scrooge shouted from his library. “Get Quackfaster on the phone! I’ll need more books from my private collection.” He called in a weary tone that had long gone past frustrated and into acceptance.

His usually prim and tidy library, where he could relax and read on a quiet days, was in utter disarray. The bookshelves had long overflowed and now towers of books were stacked randomly on the tables. Reports from hired detectives and old acquaintances were dumped in the trash after their useful information had been extracted.

Scrooge had never known how frustrating it could be to find one villainous witch in the world. Most of his enemies tended to find him, not the other way around. He was kicking himself for just letting Magica pathetically scramble out of the money bin with Lena still trapped.

He felt another headache coming on and decided to take a break for a moment. He took off his glasses, cleaning them absently as he rested his eyes. Just as he was starting to feel a bit better he heard the large library doors swing shut with a bang. He looked up, but the usual open sightlines of the room were blocked by stack after stack of book. “Aye? Who’s there?”

“It’s me Mr.- I mean, Uncle Scrooge,” came the voice of Webby who next to the bookcase, giving an awkward little wave.

Scrooge frowned a bit at her near slip back into her formal way of talking to him. He had said something just awful to her back when the truth came out about the Spear of Selene. The guilt had only worsened when Mrs. Beakley had informed him of the young girls plot to get his nephew and grand nephews to forgive him. “Greetings Webby, how’s the day finding you?”

“Oh, good, great actually...” Webby nodded awkwardly looking around at all the books.

“Unfortunately I’ve made little stride in our search...” he said gesturing at the books, “That old witch has avoided her usual haunts. I’ve been looking for other places she might decide to nest...” he said, sighing. “No luck yet though...” he grumbled

“Oh, well, I uh… found something...” Webby led off.

Scrooge perked up, “Didja find something in Lena’s journal?” the idea had crossed his mind, but he was loath to ask to even borrow her last connection to her friend.

“Um, not exactly...” Webby said and looked down at the ground beside her expectantly.

No. Not the floor. Her shadow! Webby flinched in pain as her shadow started to move and quickly formed into a silhouette of Lena, whose bright white eyes looked worried, her silhouette meek in shape. “Tada!” Webby gestured weakly with an awkward smile.

Scrooge placed his glasses back on his face and blinked a few times. “Hm...” Then he leaned in the direction of the nearest door, “Mrs. Beakley? Nevermind about that call!”

Chapter Text

“I am a billionaire. I have more money than I know what to do with. And here I am. Renting a car. ” Scrooge grouched as they shuffled a little closer in a long busy airport line.

“Sorry Mr. McD, I thought I was crashing in the right spot. Usually I only get distracted when were just about there...”

“Well at least you got us in the right region.” Scrooge said, pulling out a well worn map from his pocket. “I’m no expert magician, but if Lena is right and her shadow powers came from Sumerian Lore” he said staring down at the map. “We should be able to find some clue to help her in one of these temples...”

“I certainly hope so,” Mrs. Beakley nodded in agreement, arms folded across her chest.

“We’ll find something! I know it!” Webby said with a nod of confidence to her own shadow.

It was just the five of them on this trip. After Talon Tower it seemed like it would be a good long while before their next trip, so Donald had taken the opportunity to take the boys out for a vacation before the summer finished. Webby had been invited of course, but the boys had kindly let her off the hook for coming when they realized how conflicted she was. Since this was likely just going to be more of a research trip than anything, they decided to leave as soon as possible.

They arrived near the front of the line of the car rental, but the line had suddenly stalled for over ten minutes longer than anyone else had took. A woman in a dark brown shawl ranted and raved at the dead eyed employee behind the counter.  

“No! I don’t have a licence you irredeemable twit. Never before had I been forced to use one of these peasant carriages! So help me, if I have my way, I never will again!” the shrill voice declared angrily.

“If you don’t have a license then you cannot rent a car, miss...” the drained man behind the counter said, trying his level best to remain calm and collected. This was not the first angry foreigner he had to deal with today, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“Ugh, what nonsense,” Scrooge muttered with increasing irritation. “Some of us have places to be you know!” he called at the woman, to mutters of approval from the people behind them in line.

The woman at the counter stiffened up and slowly turned around, shocking the entire assembled group of adventurers.

“Magica DeSpell?” the group said in unison.

Webby felt her pulse pick up to a fever pitch at the sight of the old witch, balling her fists and letting out a guttural growl of a suddenly bitter and angry twelve year old girl.

“Scrooge McDuck… and tagalongs, wonderful.” she rolled her eyes “Do you do anything alone these days, or has age forced you to rely on others like a crutch?” she stated, herself, ironically, grasping a gnarled looking wooden staff.

“Where have you been you contemptuous creaton,” Scrooge spat out, moving into a combative posture. What through him off was the fresh flowers that were weaved into her hair. Nested within her hood was a feisty looking squirrel, “What in the world happened to you?” he asked the usually gothic clothed woman.

Magica sighed a heavy breath, “Ugh, don’t remind me. I had to find a nature spirit and cut a deal with it to get some magical power back. Do you know how hard it is to find an old growth forest in this day and age?” she complained bitterly. “Still I don’t plan on becoming some forest witch, so I have come here to this ancient land to reclaim my true mantle, as the mistress of darkness!” she cackled

With a raised hand Magica pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it down. It was much more potent than the one she had used in the money bin, t quickly filled the entire room with pitch black smoke. A startled ‘hey’ was heard in the choking coughs of the rental store. As the smoke started to clear, the sounds of peeling tires could be heard from the parking lot, Magica behind the wheel.

Webby looked on in horror at the retreating vehicle in the distance “We have to go after her, quick!” She looked back at Scrooge who didn’t look overly worried.

He turned to the man behind the counter. “You ah… have that gps in all of these cars right?” Scrooge asked.

The man behind the counter let out a weary sigh and brought out a small gadget, “If you can bring both cars back we can give you a discount.”

Before long they were underway in a jeep down a long dusty roads. While Launchpad was managing to not fling them collectively off the road, he was giving Mrs. Beakley minor heart attacks with each turn.

While Webby didn’t like the great amounts of stress the trip was giving her grandmother, it did give her a little moment of privacy. For reasons that Webby had still not deciphered Lena really didn’t want to show herself to anyone else if she could help it. She whispered to her friend “Hey Lena! Isn’t this exciting, we’ll be able to help you and defeat your jerk of an aunt at the same time!”

White eyes appeared in her shadow and spoke softly back at her “Yeah, it’s uh… it’s great,” she said distractedly.

Belatedly Webby realized that the last time Lena had seen Magica, she had tried to destroy her. She hadn’t thought about it, mostly because she really, really didn’t like to remember that moment. Webby touched a hand down to her own shadows and put a smile on her face. Lena’s eyes grew a little softer and give a little nod before her shadow returned to normal.

The next hour and a half continued to follow increasingly rural roads, leaving the paved roads for dirt one’s, and then leaving even those for just tire tracks in the dirt. Scrooge became increasingly frustrated, none of the places they had planned on investigating were anywhere near where they were heading.

As the light began to fade, they came across the car Magica had stolen, abandoned in the brush, the front of the car wrapped around a boulder, smoke rising from its engine

Launchpad left his position in the driver’s seat to look upon the wreck, “Oh, this is amateur work. I bet she did this just to annoy me.” Launchpad said with a disapproving shake of his head.

“Doubtful,” Mrs. Beakley said getting out the car with everyone else, “Does Magica even know your name?” she asked with her arms folded.  

“Our rivalry goes beyond names,” Launchpad announced melodramatically, “She kept me from crashing during the eclipse. Obviously she is threatened by my skills, and insults me with this pathetic excuse of a crash.”Mrs. Beakley rolled her eyes.

Scrooge came out with a nod of approval “Well done Launchpad, with a little tuning we should be able to bring this back for the discount! And you didn’t even crash our own car!” Scrooge said patting the jeep on its hood. Then slowly, and before anyone could stop it, the jeep they had all arrived in started to slide down the hill. Everyone watched in stunned silence as it careened down the hill and smashed into a different rock. “You didn’t use the parking brake, did you Launchpad?”

“The what?”

“The parking brake” Mrs. Beakley clarified, “the little stick near the cup holders?” she said condescendingly.

“Oh.” Launchpad nodded “you mean the drift stick! It’s great for getting around tight corners at high speeds!” Launchpad lectured. This led Beakley to sigh and rub at the bridge of her nose.

“I found tracks!!” Webby alerted, bringing everyone’s attention to her.

Taking out a flashlight they were able to follow the heel shoe imprints in the dirt. Eventually these turned into normal duck tracks accompanied by a broken heeled pair of shoes.  The footprints let to a stone outcropping in the mountain. Scrooge turned to the others and put a finger to his lips, speaking in a low voice, “Now everyone stay quiet, if we’re smart about this then we should be able to sneak up and-”

“Ah!” Launchpad yelped in surprise earning a scowl from his employer.

“Launchpad, what did I just-” before he could finish admonishing his chauffeur he realized what had distressed him. In the dark, they had paid little mind to the odd vines and plant growth that had collected near the cave. Now, in alarm the four of them struggled as the vines they had ignored snaked around their bodies.

Launchpad quickly rendered himself immobile by trying to punch the vines and simply falling to the ground. Scrooge lasted only a bit longer, he spent so much time struggling  to keep his cane, that by the time he freed it his waist was in a deathgrip. Webby followed soon after, she just had less body mass to trap and despite her fierces survival knife cutting at the new growth. Beakley lasted the longest, her raw strength weeding vines left and right, she continued to struggle as Magica came cackling from behind a rock.

“Oh Scrooge, you really think I didn’t know that you would try to follow me all the way out here? How naive!” Magica laughed maniacally her nature staff in hand. She continued to do so until she observed Beakley coming close to breaking free. “My my, look at you go. Well that won’t do...” as Beakley started to work on freeing her legs of the vines, Magica tossed a fistfull of seeds at Beakleys feet. With a murmured chant and a flash of her staff. Dozens of vines leapt out grabbing and binding Beakley’s hands that were low to the ground in their efforts to free her legs. Soon enough Even Beakley was overgrown and bound.

Magica breathed heavily, leaning on her staff as an actual walking stick, “ugh- nature magic, it’s so… wholesome. ” She shivered in disgust. With Beakley secured she rounded on Scrooge “Now then, my hated enemy, tell me, what gave me away?”

“What are you talking about you daft duck?”

“I spent near two months plotting my trip here to avoid your spies! From the forest I took a unmarked fishing boat across the atlantic. From there I stowed away on a train to not leave a paper trail. I purchased three flights to different locations across the world under three different pseudonyms, and only boarded the one landing here, and still you managed to uncover my schemes. How did you do it? Who told you? Was it that dirty fisherman? I knew I couldn’t trust anyone with a name like ‘Craig’” she said with disgust.

“You did you deranged demon!” Scrooge said, “Back at the rental place.”

“Oh! You expect me to believe that you just happen to be in the same store on the same day as my arrival? That this is all just a coincidence?”

“Yes!” Scrooge said indignantly, “Why else would I ever need to rent a car? My plane was damaged and I was desperate. Your the one that went on about an evil scheme, we came here for something completely different!” Scrooge spoke, and Lena appreciated that he left her out of it.

Magica stared at him unbelieving for a moment, then slowly shifted to mortification. “Well, perhaps I was a little too quick to gloat... no matter, your finally trapped and at my mercy!” she sneered wickedly and raised her staff that glowed a menacing green while her eyes grew bright. “Now, die McDuck! Let this blood feud bleed another from your accursed family line!”

The vines around Scrooge started to constrict, with everyone in the party calling out in fear. Then Magica lost focus, and started hacking up her lungs. The vines slacked, leaving everyone just looking at the old witch who was physically rejecting the nature magic. When she finally composed herself, she scowled at the group and dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “Ugh. I’ll deal with you when I return to my true power!” she threatened. “Not like you’ll be going anywhere...” Her gaze went starward as the previously overcast sky cleared to leave a full moon overhead, “Oh, that is my cue! Ta ta~” as she moved away to cackle maddly, the squirrel atop her head started chattering at her. “What? No I don’t have any fresh nuts! I fed you already!” she made her way up into the cavern continuing to argue with the squirrel, “CASHEWS!?”

“Well this certainly is a situation,” Mrs. Beakley stated between frustrated grunts of effort to free herself. “Trapped here while she does god knows what in that cavern.”

“Well, let’s not be too hasty… We may not be out of options,” Scrooge leveraged himself as best he could to look over at Webby, “Lena is there anything you can do?”

Webby’s face lit up, “Oh yeah! Lena!” She moved her eyes to her shadow, “you there?”

Lena was reluctant to show herself, but she supposed there wasn’t really a choice. She formed herself, and winced at Webby’s sudden look of discomfort. “Um, hey there,” Lena jumped away as some of the vines lunged for her animated shadow, but relaxed as they failed to grab onto anything. “So yeah, I uh really don’t know what you think I can do here.” She waved a hand over the vines, but the shadow just slid across them without disturbing the plants.

“You sure you don’t have any ideas lass? I’d rather not just wait here for that hell witch to return.”

Lena remembered the weak little shadow hand spell she had managed to make when she was still trapped. She hadn’t bothered with it since its repeated failure in the tower. It was a half thought out failure, just like everything she did on her own. “I mean… I guess there’s something ?” she said uncertainty.

“Try it Lena! I believe in you,” Webby encouraged. It annoyed her how easy it was for Webby to motivate her. Still she wanted to feign inability, at least then she could save everyone the trouble of disappointment.

Scrooge seemed to sense her hesitation and spoke up, his voice just on the friendly side of stern, “There is no shame in failure lass, only in failing to try.” he said with a knowing look.

Well now she would be letting them down either way. Great. Stupid old feather brain. Concentrating, Lena called to mind her half forgotten spell. She put a lot more focus and power into it than before, not wanting it to be a complete failure like last time. She stopped when she heard a gasp of surprise. Opening her eyes to see that a shadowy hand has held aloff in the shade of Webby’s body. It didn’t look feeble or weak as it had before. Aside from its menacing dark coloration it seemed to be as real and solid as any arm.

“Well that certainly doesn’t look like nothing!” Scrooge said with a hint of... pride? A complicated knot of emotion broiled in Lena’s guts. Well, this would just have to wait for later.

She tested the boundaries of the shadow, but if she extended the arm beyond the edge of it, it still burned in the moonlight. Though… now she controlled where that shadow was didn’t she? She moved the hand to around Webby’s trapped arm, and pulled at the vines several snapped with inhuman strength. She looked at her friend, feeling proud fill her, but fell seeing her friends expression.

Webby’s eyes were clenched shut in more obvious pain than before, she gritted out a smile “Maybe, uh, hurry?” Lena cursed herself and went to work. Webby let out a weak cheer as her knife hand was freed and started to assist in cutting. The vines continued to try and bind Webby’s feet but they were no match for the two of them. Once Webby was free Lena dispelled the arm looking at Webby with worry as a goopy black tear escaped the corner of her eye.

Once free, Webby began to free her grandmother, then an ominous chanting started from within the cavern. Suddenly a decision had to be made. If they waited and freed everyone, they could fight magica together. However if they delayed there was a chance of Magica regaining her old powers.

Lena and Webby both looked to Scrooge as if searching for permission. He guided their gaze to Beakley who looked troubled. As the chanting grew she took a shallow breath and looked at her granddaughter. “You two go on ahead” she said punctuating her point by tearing more vines away from her. “We’ll have more trouble if Magica gets her way… be careful...” she said meeting eyes with both of them.

Webby nodded handing off ber knife before rushing off. Lena merged back into Webby’s shadow to avoid giving her any more discomfort. Webby easily traversed the uneven ground by moonlight, heading straight into the same cave Magica had disappeared into.

After only a few moments the rough rock gave way to carved stone. The walls were covered in script that Lena immediately recognized as Sumerian, though she was never taught to read it.  

At the end of a long hallway was a massive temple hidden in the rocks. The walls had once been decorated with statues that now lay in rubble. Great carved patterns stretched across the chamber. There was an opening in the roof that lead to the surface, leaving a clean rectangle of moonlight shining down in place of an alter. .

As she chanted, Magica struggled with the squirrel that was skittering all about her body. Finally with satisfaction she grasped at the furry creature, forcing out a little squeak of surprise. She tied a string around its arms, binding it.

Webby hung back a moment, trying to think of a plan. She wouldn’t be much help if Magica just noticed her and trapped her again. Webby started to stalk closer, going from pillar to pillar.

“Great Mistress of the shadows! I bring you a paltry offering, but have others waiting nearby, please speak to me once more!” Before Webby or Lena could spring to action, Magica tossed the bound squirrel into the pale moonlight. Webby’s heart shattered as the little rodent started to screech in fear, its body beginning to merge with its own shadow in the moonlight. Eventually the scratching stopped as the little creature became one with its shadow.

On instinct the squirrel bolted away in fear but bounced off the edge of the light. It started to cower near the center of the light as the room took on a different hue. The previously soft grey walls shifted to a deep black that seemed to encompass the entire chamber around them.

Webby felt a nervousness take hold of her, but Lena felt a much more intimate feeling. It felt like an oppressive weight had settled on her chest. She couldn’t move and a nervous panic of the hunted settled in. It felt as if she was lying just beneath the body of a bear that hadn’t deigned to notice her yet. For the first time since possessing Webby she felt fear for herself.

A pair of great red eyes settled onto the back of the room and a great booming voice echoed through the chamber, “ WHO DARES... ” the voice faltered as its focus seemed to settle on Magica. “ Ah, Magica. My lone believer. It’s been… entirely too long. ” the voice critically examined her.

Magica for the first time in Lena’s life seemed a bit nervous as she spoke, “Well, your grace,” she bowed deeply, “I’m afraid I became a tad… sidetracked by my nemesis.”

“ Tell me De Spell… where is my staff? ” the voice asked it’s red eyes growing wild.

“Staff? What staff?” Magica feigned ignorance.

The voice spoke in a tone that Webby had only heard in predator animals before. In their growl before the pounce, “The staff, Magica, that I gave you as my herald. The staff, Magica, that held a portion of my power! THE STAFF, MAGICA, MEANT TO EMPOWER YOU TO STAGE MY ESCAPE FROM THIS TOMB!”

Magica swallowed hard as she looked up at the eyes of what was increasingly enraged minor deity “Ah… that staff. Yes, well I’m afraid that while trying to bring about your return, it may have been... destroyed?”

The room started to shake with frustration and rage, dust shook from the roof. “ Incompetence! You are my herald, you were meant to spread my cult throughout the new world, and here you are with naught but a rodent and a child! ”

“A child?” Magica asked alarmed.

Webby, realizing her cover had been blown, made a mad dash for the witch. Magica turned and threw herself to the side just in time to avoid a flying kick to the head. An enraged glare erupted from Magica “You again!?” the witch let out incredulously.

“ Ah, so you have brought me no new believers. Only brought your petty squabbles to my doorstep... ” the voice said with a tone of bored exasperation.

“You little brat. You have interfered in my plans for the last time.” with a grunt of anger she struck a portion of the floor, lifting a massive boulder from the carved floor and hurling it at Webby. The young adventurer dodged out of the way easily, slowly advancing while dodging each boulder.

Magica grunted out angry words between each throw of marbled stone, “That. Is. Enough, ” instead of flinging the next boulder she brought it up before her and reeled her staff back like a baseball bat. As Webby attempted to close the distance, Lena was horrified to see the boulder in front of Magica shatter into a hail of shrapnel.

Webby dug her heels in hopes of dodging, but Lena knew she didn’t have time. She focused on her shadow and strained against the presence. After what felt like a herculean feat of will, she summoned up an effigy of herself to protect Webby. She winced as shrapnel dug into her shadow form. A few pebbles still nicked and scratched Webby, but she was largely protected.

Lena let her effigy drop with its shrapnel. It had been exhausting using magic in the presence of the creature. Not that she let it show in front of Magica, who she now stared down alongside her best friend.

Magica stared uncomprehendingly at Lena. “You little roach. I thought I was finally rid of you!” Lena, in answer, placed a shadowy finger to her eyelid and pulled down, relishing another chance at defiance.

Just before battle was joined once more, both Webby and Magica froze as webs of darkness prevented any movement from either of them. Lena looked worriedly at Webby, but then felt a hand of darkness pinch at the back of her neck. With only a tiny amount of resistance, and a scream of pained protest from Lena and Webby, the teenage shadow creature was forcibly sundered from her best friend.

Lena was hurled into the rectangle of bright light, her instinctual attempt to escape as useless as the squirrel before her. She slowly looked up into the suddenly excited eyes of the god. They had been intimidating before, but having them focused directly on her made her quiver in awe.

“ Well. Aren’t you just fascinating... ”

Chapter Text

Lena looked up at what was demonstrably the most powerful being she had ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on. After a lifetime of sticking to the shadows and acting below people’s notice, having her entire existence scrutinized now was very unnerving.

“ You are a shadow made from my power but your… aware aren’t you? ” it announced while poking Lena in the chest. “ Not just a construct… you have a soul, ” its voice was excited in a way that she really didn’t appreciate. After looking her over, Lena felt the awkward sensation of being let go back into the altar of light. Lena felt untethered without a body to cast her shadow, like if she left this rectangle of light she would simply dissolve. “ How did you come about? ”

Lena looked back to Webby, fearing for her friend’s safety. Webby was still trapped by threads of darkness, but otherwise seemed unharmed for the moment.

“ I asked you a question, ” the voice warned and Lena looked back.

“Uh-” she stuttered but then plucked up her nerve and tried to speak confidently.  “I- I’m Lena. Magica… created me? When she got herself trapped by her own magic”

Magica blanched, “That is a gross oversimplification!” she was cut off as a few strands of darkness closed around her beak. The red eyes turned back to Lena expectantly.

“Anyways, she gave me a real body. Then possessed it to get her own body back. Then tried to imprison me back as her shadow again. Then tried to kill me when I escaped to try and fight her.” Lena said listing out each on a finger.

The spirit considered her words, “ hmm… well, I cannot say I blame you for opposing our vision for a new world in that case. Though nor can I abide your assault on my- What? ” the god glared down on Lena who had a raised finger.

“Yeah… uh… who are you?” the eyes grew deranged and seemed to simmer with rage, “h-hear me out!” she added quickly. “I was bossed around by Magica for fifteen years and she never mentioned anything like you. You talk as if you two are like friends… or allies? But she literally never mentioned you in the fifteen years I was forced to listen to everything she said. ” Lena tried to keep the whine out of her voice on that last part, but she couldn’t help it. “We came her to thwart her, we had no idea you were even here.”

The eyes did not lose their anger but turned on Magica. The witches bill was unbound, but she was suddenly far less forthcoming, forcing the god to ask, “ Magica? You shirked in your duties for fifteen years ? ” it chuckled darkly, “ At least? ”

“Well I mean… as I said I was a bit sidetracked-”

“ For a decade and a half!? ” Magica kept trying to justify herself, but eventually the god silenced her again before turning to Lena. Its eyes seemed to grow contemplative, then a smile appeared in the darkness. Slowly the shadows shifted until instead of being a amorphous darkness, the god appeared as a giant made of shadowy velvet. “ Well then… Lena was it? I have a offer to make to you. As my current herald is incompetent I would like to offer you the position. ” the spirit offered magnanimously.

“Uh...” she wasn’t sure what a herald was exactly, but the way Magica was absolutely freaking out about it made it tempting, “What would I be doing?”

“ It would be your job to spread knowledge of my legends throughout the land, bringing new believers to give prayer and sacrifice. In exchange I will give you power and influence beyond your wildest dreams. ” as it spoke the shadows on the ceiling danced, and depicted silhouettes of each of thing happening in turn Lena stood atop a grand pyramid decked out with a crown and jewels. “ You will be my right hand and trusted with my goals and secrets... ”

A call came from the tunnel that they had come from, “Webby! Lena, What’s-?” the opening was closed by to heavy stone doors that looked weathered but clearly still effective.

“ My, how popular I am tonight... ” settling that it turned back to Lena. “ And of course, once I figure out how Magica made you, we can create more. You wouldn’t have to be alone in this world. ” suddenly the Lena shadow puppet was joined by half a dozen others. The sight made a little bulb of longing bloom in her chest.

“Neat! I wonder what my shadow being would be like!” Webby announced gaining everyone’s attention “Oh, sorry. Ignore me!” the shadow god seemed to only then remember Webby’s existence. It seemed to shrug a bit and turned to look back at Lena.

Lena’s eyes lingered on Webby for a moment longer, and the longing was gone. She had a home. “Sorry, it’s a really generous offer… but I don’t think I’m ready to be a minion again. Just got out of being one recently for a real piece of work.” she said nodding toward Magica, “I’ll tell anyone to swing by though, if their having like, a crisis of faith or whatever.”

The god looked down and while it still kept the smile, Lena could see the kindness leak from its eyes. The silence stretched for an uncomfortable amount of time and then a heavy sigh was let out by the entire chamber, “ Fine, if not the carrot then the stick . ”

Lena felt herself grabbed and roughly thrown back in the room. She narrowly managed to cling onto Webby, once again becoming her shadow. She wasn’t sure what would happen if she was lost in the dark void around them, but she didn’t want to find out.

“ Now if this was back in a civilized time, I would dole out your punishments assuming you knew your crimes, but as you are modern savages I will explain them, ” it hissed, its rage and charisma giving way to coldness. “ You, ” the eyes focused on Webby and Lena, “ have invaded my temple and brought violence into it when none was prior, ” Magica sneered at the twelve year old, clearly drawing in a petty sense of superiority. Whatever pleasure Magica had gained was wiped away as the spirit rounded on her, “ And you failed in even the simplest of your goals, and rather than slink away to some crevasse to wait out the rest of your days in failure; you came here. To ask again for my power, like a drunkard after a bottle when he lost his own. ” it was fortunate for Magica  that she was muted at the moment, otherwise she would have certainly said something she would have regretted.

“ Ordinarily the price for either of these crimes is death! ” the spirit accentuated this point by forcing a squeak of pain from both Webby and Magica before relaxing their grip. “ Fortunately for you, I have use of you. So, each of you will be given a task. ”the shadows binding the two moved into a black noose around each of their necks, “ complete it and you will be forgiven. Fail, and well... ” both Webby and Magica gave out a squawk and the bind around their necks tightened, Lena’s eyes growing wide with fear, “ I’d recommend against it… ” she let the threat linger before speaking again in a mocking generous tone “ However, as to not be too demanding, whoever finishes first will be granted an additional boon, ” “ Tomorrow is the last full moon of the month you have until next dawn… good luck. ”

As quickly as the creature came, they were gone with an echoing cackle. The cold shades of the moonlight alter slowly gave way to a warm dawn. The oppressive dark seemed to dilute in moments returning the stone around them its natural grey hue.

Magica turned hateful eyes on the two girls. Lena braced herself in reflex, figuring the fight was back on. Fortunately, before Magica got the chance to strike, the doors that had been barred let the rest of their party thunder inside.

Magica seemed to think better than to fight all of them at once and turned to flee. She leaned down to pick up something from the ground before turning to the opening in the roof.  She extended her staff to the opening, branches and vines grew from the staff and reached out. They latched onto something outside, and pulled her away to safety.

“Come back and fight you cowardly crone!” Scrooge yelled after her with a shaking cane.

Beakley fussed over Webby, picking her up and asking faster than Webby could actually answer. Lena leaned to the side trying not to intrude. She instead watched as Launchpad wandered in, hands on his hips surveying the empty chamber. “Well, another adventure well done. Great work everyone!” Lena rolled her eyes, she had found the lug a tad annoying at a distance, and terrifying as a passenger, but she was starting to see the endearing qualities of the doof.

Lena planned on disappearing into her shadow again, but before she got the chance Scrooge wandered over and sat on a bit of the rubble Magica had created in her attacks. His usually immaculate red jacket were stained green in places from the vines. “Something tells me Launchpad has a case of misplaced optimism. Care to share what we missed?” Lena glanced toward Webby, figuring he must have been talking to her, but no. No, he was definitely looking down at her.

Lena started to relay what they had witnessed to Scrooge. When Beakley began to listen as well Lena waited for Webby to jump in with explanations, but her friend seemed more than happy to let her explain. She finished pessimistically with “... so now we have this ‘task’ we have to complete, but I have no idea what it could be.”

“Maybe it has something to do with this weird grocery list?” Launchpad asked holding up a stone tablet from the ground in front of them.

“Oh, that appeared after the dark spirit disappeared!” Webby informed them.

“Give me that!” Scrooge demanded, snatching the tablet from his hands. “Obviously this is not some mundane… shopping...” Scrooge’s frown deepened as he studied the carved clay,  “Well Launchpad you weren’t too far off. This is a recipe for some kind of potion I think...” He grazed his hand over the ancient tablet. “Ingredients and instructions...” he hummed.

“Well what does it say?” Beakley asked impatiently.

“Give me a moment,” he waved a hand in annoyance before realizing he couldn’t hold the heavy tablet with just one hand. “Well I haven’t the foggiest in what it does. All wrapped in flowery prose and cryptic nonsense. But the process is fairly straightforward, by magic standards anyways.” he shrugged.

“So, what do we need for it?” Webby spoke excitedly, as if her life wasn’t under threat of ending.

“Well, most of this would have been outrageously expensive back in the day, but most of it can be found at a local grocery or hardware store… this last one though, petals of the moonlit flower, would have been much easier even a few centuries ago.”

“Never heard of it...” Beakley said with a furrowed brow.

“You wouldn’t have,” Scrooge leaned the tablet on his leg and Lena looked over it briefly before remembering that she couldn’t read Sumerian. Scrooge pulled off a pack on his back and retrieved a weathered book, before flipping through its pages to a earmarked page,. “It’s a flower that coils into itself in the day to protect against birds pecking at it. It blooms with moonlight, and was said to have healing properties... It used to flourish in this region, but as the nocturnal bee species have died out around here, so has the flower. It's said to be restricted to just a few pockets in the local mountains.”

“Well that doesn’t sound promising...” Beakley said pessimistically. “Is there any way to just get rid of this curse?” she said looking at Webby’s new collar.

“Not reliably, and not before the next dawn. As much as I hate to consider it, obliging the spirit for the time is our best move,” Scrooge grumped, scribbling down a list of things on a piece of paper. “Launchpad, cannibalize what you can from Magica’s car and fix our own, then go into town and...” Scrooge looked at the well meaning lug, and then turned to Beakley and handed her the list. “Beakley acquire everything on this list, get extra if you can. Webby, Lena, and I will find the flower” he said pulling out a map.

“What? You think after all this I’m going to leave Webby?” Beakley’s eyes were hard, “We can all go shopping together and-”

“There’s no time” Scrooge said with a shake of his head, “I happen to have a lead on the last groves of the moonlight flowers, I had hoped we’d have the opportunity on this trip. I hadn’t expected it to be quite so dire a visit but… in any case, it's away from known roads and in the opposite direction of the last town we stumbled across out here. We need to split up or we won’t finish in time...” Scrooge’s words were hard edged. It wasn’t his usual air of flippant stubbornness. This had stopped being a fun family outing and had become a proper adventure. “Unless you think you can decipher a dozen conflicting maps and directions to find the right area for the flowers? Or trust Launchpad to gather everything else alone?” Both looked to Launchpad who was begging his masterful repair technique of the cars by hammering a bent piece of engine back into working order.

Beakley grumbled before agreeing. Webby was excited to get started but after a night without rest and a empty stomachs, they decided to take breakfast first. They would meet back at the entrance to the cave that night once they had everything.

Lena felt a little bad as Webby and Scrooge began their hike across the desert. She had tried to use her powers to help in some way, but under the harsh glow of the sun she couldn’t manage much. She did her best to keep them company, but after the first hour or so the pair had descended into a determined silence. Both Scrooge and Webby worked to find places where people claimed the moonlit flower could still be found, but each came up barren.

As the day waned into afternoon they came across the last rumored location of the flower. A Mesa loomed above the pair of intrepid adventurers. After a short lunch they started to make the climb. Scrooge took the lead, establishing cables and moving at a pretty quick clip. Lena had to admit, for three-hundred years old or whatever he was pretty spry.

Lena was actually more worried about Webby. She wasn’t dehydrated and she had eaten plenty, but she was slowing down and making mistakes. Little mistakes, but they were becoming more frequent. Lena had constantly asked if she was okay, but her friend had kept insisting that there was nothing to worry about.

Near the top of the Mesa, Webby started to sway, missing reattaching her safety line. “Webby? Are you sure you're looking a little loopy...” Lena tried to mask her concern with a smile but Webby saw right through it and wave a warding hand.

“I-I’m fine don’t worry-” as she waved the still unattached carabiner slipped from her grip and fell down around her waist, “darn it...” Webby started to reach down for the carabiner but seemed to waver, her eyes fluttering and losing focus.

“Webby?” Lena asked trying to get her attention, and then without another word, Webby let go of the wall, “Webby!” Lena called out, Scrooge briefly looked down but then felt the additional dead weight on his back. Lena prepared to create a shadow net of some kind to catch Webby and Scrooge, but to her surprise, Scrooge just started to free climb the side of the mesa, dragging Webby along with him. Lena instead focused on keeping Webby’s unconscious body from continuously bruising against the stone.

Without any other assistance Scrooge managed to get to the top of the mesa on his own and hauled Webby up by his own strength. Once at the top Lena huddled worriedly as Scrooge checked over Webby.

“She’s fine. I think it’s just the sleepless nights catching up to her,” he pronounced, wiping sweat from his brow, “She had quite a few of them searching for you.” Scrooge said in a conversational tone as he placed a folded blanket beneath her head..

The relief washed through her, “Thank god… gods?” she looked contemplative, “Was that really god I met back in the temple?”

Scrooge shrugged, “eh. Maybe. I wouldn’t think about it too much, when you’ve been adventuring as long as I have you see a lot of weird magical nonsense. What’s to say one god isn’t just a powerful sorcerer or another is truly divine? In either case, I doubt the threat of whatever you met was idle.” He set up Webby under the shade of a fairly large boulder and looked about. “So, let’s find that flower.”

After looking about briefly they saw what they were looking for. Unlike the other areas that had long been barren, there was recent life up here. Huddled around a nearly dry pond of water was a small bushel of flowers. Most had withered and died, but two seemed to be holding on next to each other. In the midday sun they were coiled up, awaiting the moonlight to bloom once more.

“Well there we have it!” Scrooge said striding forward, “Let’s collect these up, and meet up with Beakley,” he said reaching down to pluck the flowers.

Lena watched nervously for a moment, “Wait!” Lena let out in a squeak. Scrooge paused for a moment looking at Lena’s shadow. He stood up straight and leaned on his cane looking down at her curiously. Lena felt kind of stupid, trying to correct an adventurer who had fought and won against staggering odds. “I don’t think we should harvest it, not until nighttime...”

Scrooge’s brow scrunched up at this, looking down at the flower, “Why wait?”

“Well… most magic potions Magica made me make cared about if the flower had bloomed.” Lena’s eyes grew tired at the remember, “nearly lost my hand when she made me rush one of the potions with a flower bud instead of the bloomed petals...”

Scrooge rolled his eyes and groaned, “ugh, magic. Do these even count as buds? They less bloom and just sort of open at night.”

Lena bit her lip in thought, “If we had more time, or more flowers I would agree to try it, but we might only have one shot at making that potion...” she led off looking back at Webby worriedly.”

Scrooge nodded looking at the sun overhead, it wasn’t quite ready to sink, but it was getting later in the afternoon. “We should have some time to get back.” He wandered back to the boulder he rested Webby against. Sitting on the opposite side with a sigh.

Lena felt nervous, hoping she had made the right call. She bent her shadow around the boulder so that it appeared she was sitting next to Scrooge. An awkward pall fell between the two of them.

Lena still wasn’t sure what Scrooge thought of her. She was the creation of one of his greatest enemies. He seemed to have a general annoyance with magic, which she was basically born from. She had concluded that his concern for her was mostly for Webby’s sake, which made the most sense to her.

“So… did they offer you unlimited riches?” he asked in a conversational tone.

“What?”

“The spirit, did it offer you fabulous riches? Unimaginable power perhaps?”

Lena had kept what she had been offered when she relayed the story. It wasn’t exactly super cool that her deepest desire had been to not be alone in the world. “Yeah, you know the normal stuff I guess.” she shrugged “Never really done this before”. She looked back at Webby and the band around her neck, “I guess I should have taken it huh?”

“Oh lord no!” Scrooge laughed.

“Really?”

Scrooge wiped away a tear, “Yes, really! Never accept a deal from anything that thinks it's a god. Never turns out well. Even if they hold up their end, you end up regretting it!” a nostalgic mirth came to Scrooge’s eyes and Lena let out a chuckle just seeing the old man laugh like that.

“Guess you never fell for something like that though did you?” Lena probed with a raised brow.

“Of course I did!” That surprised her. Both that he made such a mistake and how open he was about it, “I was young, greedy, and impatient. It was the first and last time I took a shortcut to my goals. It took me near a year to get out of that devil’s service.” he took off his glasses and wiped a tear from his eye.

“Now when you say devil...”

“Ah, yes, horns and everything. Thought I was so clever, haha. Turns out there’s no smart way to dunk yer head ina snake pit...” he clarified.

Lena laughed, and for a time just listened to the stories that Scrooge had about his life of adventure. At the start she believed she was humoring him, all of Magica’s stories had bored her to tears. Her aunt went on and on about her few achievements and petty victories. Soon however she found herself hanging on the old adventurers every word. While he was no less petty in his goals sometimes, he never strayed into hurting the innocent. He had no qualms about punishing his enemies, but even then he was above the brutal revenge that seemed to consume her aunt’s every decision.

The sun made its slow crossing of the sky, settling on the horizon. Webby showed no signs of waking yet, but the time seemed to fly by. In between stories of his grand escapades, Scrooge encouraged her to tell stories of her mischievous youth. When the eclipse had been years away, Magica had only been able to visit her briefly, giving her much freedom. Scrooge really liked her story of the time she got her boarding school principal into tearing down his own indulgent statue.

Scrooge was finishing up his own story “and after all those brainwashing shenanigans, I ended up the mayor of the largest city on the western seaboard. Stealing the whole election from that undead tyrant. After handing off the office to  my friend, he gave me a nice tax credit for McDuck industries.”

Lena rolled her eyes. Each story always ended with what treasure he had gained, or penny he had pinched. It always felt like such a cynical note to end on compared to the rest of the story, “So is adventuring really all that profitable?”

Scrooge shrugged, “eh. Not really if I’m being honest. I’m sure if I really just wanted to make money I could do better whittling away each day on the stock market...” his voice seethed with loathing for the concept, “No, adventuring is a hobby… a passion. Fell in love with it during my days as a miner in the gold rush and never looked back.”

“Even after all these years? Haven’t you like… seen it all at this point? I mean, you even visited that crazy tower three times already.”

Scrooge took in a slow breath looking out over the stretching wilderness they had come across as the bright red hues gave way to purples and blues of the night sky. “That’s part of why I love it, no matter how much I travel, and no matter how much I see, I always manage to find something new in a forgotten corner of the globe.”

As the sun finally set and the moon became visible, the two still living moonlit flowers unfurled their petals. Little motes of glowing pollen drifted up from the lavender colored petals. illuminating the mesa like fireflies. The little glowing pollen rose and mingled with the stars up above, creating dozens of new vibrant and momentary constellations.

Scrooge smiled “This...” he whispered,“Moments like this is why I keep doing it...”

“Wow...” Lena let out. All of the magical events she had bore witness to had always been dark rituals with strange (and if she was honest, frightening) forces. The moment was all the more potent when she realized she might be one of the last people to bear witness to this humble bit of magic.

“Pretty...” Scrooge and Lena whirled around to see Webby was now on top of the rock looking up around them. Realizing she had revealed herself she flinched, “whoops...”

“Webby! How long have you been awake?” Scrooge asked getting up from his sitting position.

“Oh… uh, a while. I just didn’t want to intrude...” she said with a shrug.

“You should have joined us” Scrooge said, sauntering over to the two flowers with Webby close behind

“Oh, uh, I don’t have any great stories” Webby deflected. “Or none that you guys hadn’t been there for...” she said with a shrug.

“I still never heard how you got Mama Beagle to hate you” Lena mentioned offhand.

“You made an enemy of Mama Beagle?” Scrooge asked

“Oh yeah. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and I trapped her in a ball pit at the funzone.” Webby admitted with a humble shrug.

“Well now I have to hear this story! But let’s walk and talk, we still got an adventure to complete!” Scrooge reached down, and with a little regret, plucked the last two flowers off the mesa.

Before long the three of them had packed up and made tracks back towards the cave.

Chapter Text

While they couldn’t keep up a full sprint for the long distance back to the cave, Webby and Scrooge managed to keep at a good clip under the starlit sky. No overcast as far as the eye could see and the full moon lit their path well.

Eventually they caught sight of the cave. At the mouth of the cave they could see Beakley and Launchpad with a small horde of supplies in front of them, “There you tw-three are!” she announced angrily marching down the path. “I’ve been worried sick, we only have a few hours left!” she said glancing at an ancient looking pocket watch. “Were the flowers truly that far away? Webby’s life hangs in the balance!!”

Lena sighed, “Actually...”

“The flowers needed to be blooming, which meant waiting for the moon.”

Beakley scowled, raising a brow at Scrooge “Is that what the tablet said?”

“No. But that was Lena’s judgement, and since she’s the only one who’s mucked about with this potion nonsense before, I’m going to take her word for it.” he said steadfastly.

Beakley hummed looking down at Lena with a just a hint of suspicion. “Well fine, let’s get this done then.”

Scrooge looked over the materials and the old tablet and got proper portions of everything that Beakley and Launchpad had gotten in town. Before long they had a little cooking fire  fueled by the dry brush around them. Scrooge stood before looking to Lena, “Alright lass, what’s our first step?”

“What? You want me to do it? Don’t you know like, everything.”

“Eh, I know lost histories and half forgotten legends. Know of lost and found artifacts imbued with magical power. Hell I could tell you which fountain of youth a glass of water came from by taste alone; but when it comes to actually making all that… eh,” he shrugged his shoulders. “Not exactly my field of expertise.”

Lena supposed that made sense, “Okay, what’s the first step say?”

Webby took up the tablet this time, Lena looked over her shoulder at what appeared to be gibberish, “Says something about… grinding the fruits of the earth together and-”

Lena nodded “Okay, that should be any minerals and root vegetables in the recipe. Next it says to mix it into the water right?”

Webby nodded, “Yep.”

“Then that’s the base of the potion I’m pretty sure, something for everything else to sink into...” Lena hummed and everyone got to work. The base of the potion ended up a series of vegetables and mud with a chunk of quartz and adding it into a paste. They mixed this into a bucket of collected river water and started the potion.

Lena explained that the key to most potions was timing, if you added the right thing at the wrong time, or the wrong thing at the right time; it could doom the potion to impotence. Everyone helped as they were able, but the key was keep the pot stirring. The final thing to be added was always the most magically potent of the ingredients, which this time was the lavender moonlit flower. They were getting on towards morning, but fortunately the potion was nearly complete. Only the flower was left to add. At this point however, the liquid looked more like a saucy brown soup than a magical potion.

“Are you sure you did this right lass?” Scrooge asked skeptically sniffing over the cauldron, “Smells more like soup than a potion.”

“Pretty sure, potions don’t really come together till the end. And they use a bunch of herbs and animal bits, not surprising it smells like soup.” Lena heard a slap of a hand and looked back to see Mrs. Beakley, who had kindly volunteered to stir the pot slapping away Launchpad’s hand. “That being said Launchpad , this potion is also filled with many poisons!” Lena instructed for the third time.

“Okay, but like, are we talking about bellyache poison or a” he made a wet noise drawing his thumb across his throat “kind of poison? cause I’m getting real hungry over here...” he said with a little whine in his voice.

Lena rolled her eyes and refused to answer.

“So we’re almost done?” Scrooge asked looking at the horizon. The night was still heavy, but in the distance the dark hues of the night sky gave way to lighter blues signalling the coming dawn.

“Should be just a couple more minutes, once everythings at a full boil again it should be ready, if we read the tablet right.” Lena confirmed. She was worried about the end of the deadline, and even Webby was starting to look a little nervous. “We should have plenty of time Webs, don’t worry.”

Webby looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “What? Pssshh, me? Nervous? Naw!” she shook her head, but her hands kept fiddling with the moonlit flower in her hand.

Lena slid a shadow hand over hers for a moment, partially to comfort her, but partially to keep her from tearing the flower apart. “Come on Anglabeth, you think I’d let you down?”

Webby laughed suddenly, remembering their first night together and shook her head. “No, I trust you...”

Scrooge took a step away to give the two girls their moment, his attention was taken by a small brown bunny that had come wanerding up to the little outcropping. “Oh… hello there?” Scrooge ventured. He had adventured for far too long to just assume that a bunny was just a bunny. Despite this it seemed to be utterly normal rabbit, its little nose twitching as it looked at them. “We don’t have any lettuce...” he turned back to Beakley “That’s what rabbits eat right?”

Scrooge turned back to the rabbit just in time to see it lifting a little pebble in its tiny paw and hurling it at his head. The sheer surprise kept him from reacting in time and the pebble bounced off his head and startled him into stepping back, “Gah, rotten little-” before he could get the full insult out another pebble bounced off his jaw. He sputtered and settled for just stepping forwards and using the crook of his cane to catch the critter and fling it off out of the fire light. “What in the world had gotten into that rabbit!?” he could hear the snickering from his two employees behind him but shrugged it off.

Before long a rabbit came bounding into view again, “ah, come back for more have you? It’s been a while since I’ve had rabbit stew... you... know” he slowed at the end recognizing something odd. Did this rabbit have a different pattern to its fur? Before he finished pondering that, another rabbit came into view. Then another, and another until near a dozen could be seen. Dozens of them started menacingly hopping towards them. “Ah, I was wondering when Magica would make her move...”

“Are we really going to fight rabbits?” Beakley asked, handing off the stirring spoon to Webby and going to stand beside Scrooge.

“Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice” Scrooge said, readying his cane.

Launchpad walked up on Scrooge's other side, cracking his neck with a serious expression on his face, “I’m gonna hug so many bunnies. ”

With that the battle started. It was madness. Adorable and hilarious, but madness all the same. The rabbits charged and catapulted into their targets with abandon. Scrooge made wide swings, every flung rabbit falling into a soft bed of other charging rabbits. Mrs. Beakley had started with a similar straightforward hurling strategy. However, she had now started to pick them up and juggle them in one hand to keep them from rejoining the fight. This would be funny on its own, but her deadpan expression really made it hilarious. Launchpad had a similar strategy by holding all the rabbits in his arms while adding more with his other hand. Unfortunately this left him open to be constantly kicked in the chest by the platoon of rabbits in his arms.

While the three of them managed to keep most of the rabbits away, a few got through. Webby would have preferred to simply avoid the rabbits, but they seemed hellbent on tipping over the potion pot. After a little prodding from Lena she started to fight back, mostly by hurling the rabbits back out towards the horde.

Lena would have helped, but she trusted Webby to manage it. More importantly she had to keep an eye on the pot, they were so close to finishing the potion and they wouldn’t have the time or materials to salvage it if she screwed it up.

As Lena focused on the broiling pot Webby caught sight of the first person she had ever come to hate. She tried not to hate people. She disliked plenty of people who were mean, or rude, or tried to abduct her or her friends in wacky schemes; but she didn’t hate them . When she saw Magica however, swaggering up to the battle with a smug amused smile on her face, Webby felt a hot coal burn deep in her core. She wasn’t sure what to do with those emotions, but it came out with her trying to hurl the rabbits at magica. While the first one went a little wide, the next knocked that stupid grin off of Magica’s face.

“Settling for rabbits for minions now, eh Magica? I knew you didn’t have high standards, but this is low even for you.” Scrooge said before mimicking Webby’s move by trying to fling one of the rabbits at Magica. This one she side stepped while glowering at her rival, “Well unfortunately that little cretan you call a niece and that mistake of my own spoiled my efforts to return to my true power.”

Don’t listen, just focus.

“If two children can throw a wrench in your plans, maybe it wasn’t all that solid to begin with, eh?” Scrooge asked, before getting kicked back in the chest.

“If a few widdle wabbits are giving you trouble maybe you’ve grown too old for this. ” she barbed while looking up to where Webby was fending off rabbits around the pot, “Oh, did I interrupt you preparing your last meal? How terribly rude of me-” her eyes focused on the purple flower in Webby’s off hand as she tossed another rabbit. “Wait is that...”

“Webby, now!”

Webby was startled by Lena’s sudden command, but only for a moment as she tossed the flower in the pot. The previously muddied soup of ingredients suddenly flashed brightly blinding everyone who as looking at it, This included the rabbits, who began to scurry away in a literal blind panic.

When Webby and Lena were able to look back at the pot, there was now a purple broth bubbling. Finally, they had what the creature had asked for. Now they just had to… get it to them. “What do we bring it in? Like a flask? Magic potions are supposed to be in flasks right?”

“We don’t have time!” Lena said with a wary look to the the eastern sky. “Just- take the whole pot and let’s go!”

“Webby complied trying once to pick the handles up with her bare hands, wincing at the heat, she prudently pulled on some oven mitts.”

“That is… Get them! Get them you useless furry cowards! Get them!” The horde of bunnies that had recovered their nerve readied their pounces to go after Webby.

“Pull back to the door!” Scrooge instructed, as he and Beakley moved to cover the girls. Launchpad at this point was practically buried under several dozen fluffy bodies. Webby was moving slowly, trying to navigate the rocky slope without spilling the sloshing potion was difficult enough without rabbits circling around them. Lena did her best to fend them off, and while they lost a spoonful here or there, they managed to keep most of the potion in the pot. They fled into the entrance and down the winding corridor to the buried temple. With the bottleneck of the entrance, Beakley and Scrooge were having an easier time of fending off the rabbits.

“Go on ahead and finish this!” Mrs. Beakley called before sweeping aside a dozen rabbits.

Webby nodded and started to sprint down the hallway. They didn’t get far when a large crash sounded from behind them. Webby just kept running but Lena spared a look back. Magica had burst into the side of the corridor, burrowing through the rock from the outside. She was sweating and looked exhausted, but still started to run after us, “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” she asked. She swung her staff and for a brief moment the corridor seemed to teem with new vines. Then Magica let out a wet cough and the vines shriveled before they could do anything to stop Webby.

Magica recovered and started sprinting again, making swinging motions with her staff. Lena deflected any that seemed to get too close, but they hurt. Alot. Unlike things grown or thrown with magic, true magic staves were made of the stuff and it hurt to intercept them. “Do you know the power in which you amatures are meddling with?!”

Lena tried to throw a round stone just beneath her feet. This made Magica stumble and bought them some time, the soft light of the temple in the distance.

Magica realized she wasn’t going to catch up again and stopped, charging her staff full of magic, Lena realized quickly that she couldn’t stop that, if it hit them, and there was no space at the end of the tunnel for Webby to dodge to without spilling the pot. “To think for once, I get to play the hero!” she called preparing to hurl the staff like a javelin.

“Webby…” Lena warned, but her friend’s eyes were hellbent on the entrance to the temple, puring all her energy into making it.

Just as she was about to throw it, she suddenly stumbled forward, throwing the staff into the ground where it flowered and bloom as a new sapling. Lena and Magica both looked back to see Scrooge, covered in little angry rabbits, having used the hook of his cane to trip Magica’s ankle, “What was that about me growing too old?” he asked with a smug grin.

Magica looked back as Webby crossed the threshold, a look of horror on her face, “Noooooooo!” she called out before the great stone doors of the temple slammed shut.

Suddenly all the sound and chaos that had surrounded them cut out, replaced by a  serene, eerie silence. Webby walked forward nervously.

“Ah! You’ve come back! ” the voice greeted them, darkness once again pouring over the room. Lena once again felt constrained by the presence and took on Webby’s natural shadow shape. “ Cutting it a bit close, huh? You humans sure like living dangerously...”

A crashing bang started to sound from the stone walls.

“Ah, I suppose Magica made it before the deadline as well. Unfortunate. ” It let out a sight that shook some dust from the ceiling. “ Still, let us settle our business first... ” it refocused on the two  them. “ Congratulations, as you have completed my task first, you not only have saved your own life- ” the shadowy silhouette snapped its fingers and the little band around Webby’s throat disappeared, “- but have also earned a boon! Bring me what I am owed...” the spirit demanded, gesturing grandly to the moonlit square altar in the center of the chamber. Webby looked down to Lena, who managed to wink back at her, feeling too strained to do much else.

Webby walked forward into the Moonlight, her own shadow stretched out before her.

“Pour the potion out onto the altar… and your task will be complete.”

“... Won’t that make a mess?” Webby asked a little concerned.

The spirit seemed to pause at this, then chuckled in delight “Well aren’t you polite. Do not worry, I have my ways of cleaning up around here...”

Webby nodded and started to tip over the cooling liquid onto the stone.

As it hit, Lena didn’t consider that Webby was basically pouring it over her own shadow, and became alarmed when she felt it cascade over her. Despite the amount Webby poured out, it never seemed to spread past the boundaries of her own shadow; filling up her silhouette like it had found a new container.

Lena saw Webby’s worried face as the liquid poured over her eyes, “Lena?” then she was blinded, and felt cast out. She felt as if she were adrift beneath the sea with one patch of light. That was when she realized that she had a body again! She wasn’t just a thinking projection, she was real honest to god flesh and blood.

And she was sinking. She flailed for a moment before starting to swim for the surface. It was hard, like trying to move through sludge

Webby stepped back in horror, out from the roiling muck the potion had turned into. The once deep purple had turned to pitch black. She looked for Lena, but found herself shadowless. The room was dark, but there still should have been some patch where she could spy Lena’s bright white eyes on the ground. As she frantically searched for her friend on the ground, she saw a hand burst from the black muck on the altar, “Lena!?” Webby said, her eyes full of hope.

Lena tried to haul herself to the surface, but just before she managed to pull her head up and out to the fresh air, she felt a snag on her leg. She tried to free it, only to be pulled back into the abyss, “Lena!” Webby cried out, diving for her best friend. She managed to grab her hand before it went under and started to pull with all her might.

Lena looked up at her friend from beneath the surface looking around for the source of the pull. In the darkness she could find the red eyes of the dark god looked at their efforts with amusement.

“Like a fish to the bait, how easy.” as it spoke several ropes of shadow flowed out from below Lena and went up and started to grab and bind at Webby’s legs. She probably could have fought them off but that would have meant letting go of Lena. She jerked her body and legs to ward them off but they gracefully coiled around her efforts

“We had a deal!” Lena shouted, finding it odd she could speak but just wrote it off as magic weirdness.

Mirth showed in the eyes of the creature, “I did! I will spare her life and as a boon for win she will be able to work for me alongside you!” the voice chuckled,

“What!” Lena looked up seeing that one of Webby’s feet had started to sink into the opening. She was resisting it, but it was like fighting quicksand.

“ You think I didn’t catch that forlorn look you cast your little friend when I offered you a deal the first time? ” the spirit scoffed, “ Fools like Magica might have taken that as an insult and tried to kill that connection of yours. But me? I know better. It would only make you resent me. No, I promised that as my herald I would give you what you want. That includes whoever you want! ”

Webby gasped as a dozen inky black ropes suddenly emerged from the water. She tried to move out of the way, but couldn’t do much without letting go of Lena’s hand. Once they had a tight hold of her they started to drag her down into the muck.

Webby felt tears start to sting at the corner of her eyes when her friendship bracelet fell out from her sleeve. As she looked down at it she felt a little glimmer of hope and her eyes became stern with determination.

“ Despite all the strength that I might lack,

Give me my best friend Lena back! ”

The bracelet started to glow with a soft light that seemed to cut through the darkness. The light spread across her arm to the rest of her body. She felt reinvigorated and power flowed through her as she pulled her feet out from the muck. But even as she gained ground the light was starting to fade. She kept chanting out the incantation, but even if it bought her time, it wasn’t going to save them on her own.

Lena felt frustrated, She cast another look up Webby who seemed to be feeling the same. Her foot kept slipping and she was getting dragged, slowly but surely, down.

Lena looked around for something to help them but found nothing but the grinning god in the abyss. Lena tried to kick her feet to make it a little easier for her, but her legs were bound tight, the best she managed was an useless wiggle.

“Why are you doing this? Leave Webby out of this!” Lena demanded

“ No, can’t have you feeling lonely… as to why, well, you are something interesting. And if there’s one thing that being trapped here has taught me, it’s to value interesting. ”

Lena looked up at Webby and a part of her wanted to let go, to give Webby the chance to save themself. She couldn’t though, she hated herself for it, but she couldn’t bring herself to let go.

“ I know humbleness is considered a virtue among you mortals, but there is no need for it with me, ” the voice consoled, “ The only thing mortals love more than money, power, and influence are their little relationships. Here I am offering you all four! What else could you need? ” the voice asked, not angry or impatient, but curious.

Lena felt all of her frustration build up as tears started to well in her eyes “I don’t want any of that! I don’t want to work for you! I don’t want to work with Magica! I just want to be strong enough to not be a burden! Why is that so hard to understand! WHY CAN’T I JUST BE FREE!?” she screamed into the void. She expected some incredulous indignation over her insolence. Another tirade by a ‘guardian’ who would never care for her.

Instead, after a moment of potent silence, she felt the ropes binding her legs slacken and fall away into the abyss. She looked up to see the binds dragging Webby had fallen away as well. She pulled each leg out from the muck and onto stone and started to pull. Lena took hold with both hands and started to kick through the muk.

Webby now on sure footing pulled with all her might.

Once Lena was free of the inky muck, they both ended up stumbling backwards across the slick stone floor and falling over each other. They thudded onto the ground with exhausted groans. They looked into each other’s eyes, before descending into jubilant relieved giggles. Webby wrapped her arms around her friend and felt at ease for the first time in weeks.

This was short lived as the main door to the temple shattered open. Magica came charging in “What did you two idiots do!?” Magica asked, her eyes alight with anger before settling in horror as they looked back to the altar..

Webby and Lena picked themselves off the ground as they looked back. The potion persisted and was starting lift from the ground, soon the loose approximation of a body was barely holding together. Bright red eyes peering out through the sludge.  As it spoke, its voice was distorted and broken. “ Ah, MaGiCa. ExCeLlEnT, hAvE yOu BrOuGhT yOuR oFfErInG? ”

The sludge creature extended a hand, its shadowy ichor dripping off it and to the ground.

Magica, shakily reached into her robes and pulled out a raw purple gem, the same hue as her staff had before “I do, but before I hand it over there are somethings we much to discuss, first-”

“ Ah LoOk At ThAt, ThE dAwN ”

Magica squaked mid sentence as the warm hues of dawn entered from the ceiling. The bind around her throat went taught, and she quickly tossed over the crystal her hands going to her throat. She fell to the ground gasping desperately for air.. She looked to the god as it inspected the crystal skeptically before nodding

“ AcCePtAbLe. ”

Magica took in a sudden deep breath as her airways were finally opened, the brand around her neck falling away.

The creature held up the crystal and suddenly all the darkness that had coated the room rushed from the walls and into the glowing gem. Once it had all been sucked away the inky creature held up the crystal high, causing it to glow brighter. The form of the creature shifted, features shoring up, and body becoming defined. A grotesque snapping sound came as bones were created and set into place. Elegant silk garments started to cloth its body embroidered in gold thread. It started to take the form of a duck that didn’t quite look like Webby, and didn’t quite look like Lena; but looked enough like either of them to unnerving.

The god took in a slow deep breath of air as its body finished transforming and the crystal ceased glowing. For a moment it looked about and stretched its new body. When it finally spoke, its voice was much more feminine and distinct but still carried a weight to it that was undeniable. “Ah… that’s better.”

Magica, Webby, and Lena stood aside,

“You know what’s funny? At first, it was my siblings who trapped me here. Bound me in their fear of my power. But as time passed, as their chains around me rusted and their influence waned, I trapped myself here. ” she stretched her back with an audible popping of a brand new spine. “ As long as I remained here my power, while limited to these halls, was as potent as I was at the height of my cults power. I refused to leave until the day I could emerge as the God I deserved to be...”

She pressed her hands around her jewel, encasing it within for a moment before revealing a tasteful copper amulet She pinched it at its top and as she pulled it back around her neck a silver chain materialized into a necklace.

“I so greatly feared living poorly, that I refused to live, my mind and sanity withering in this forgotten place. In my fear I forgot the simple joys of the world. I forgot the joy of chaos! A momentary untended cook fire setting a city alight. Of minor disagreements giving way to blood feuds. I forgot the thrill of intrigue. Of weaving webs of alliances and plans to unseat kings and crush upstarts. I forgot the simple joy of being... ” for the first time she looked at the group of them, staring straight into Lena’s eyes, “ Free.”

“Well you have both completed your tasks and so I will spare your lives, ” she gestured generously “ For now I think I will see what I have missed of the world. Perhaps see if any scraps of my true servants may yet exist. ” She stepped back out of the light and nearly became unseeable in the shadowed back of the temple. “ So, until we meet again… goodbye...” and a moment later all trace of her had disappeared.

A short silence past between them

“Do you know what this means?” Webby said in a low whisper.

“That we unleashed a long forgotten horror on an unsuspecting world?” Lena speculated.

“That I have now been twice foiled by literal children?” Magica hissed bitterly.

“WE MADE OUR FIRST NEMESIS!” Webby said shaking Lena back and forth in excitement. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lot of fun squaring off against Scrooge’s old villains, but now we have one of our very own!” Webby was nearly buzzing with excitement at the prospect. As she came down from her mania she chuckled “You know I’m a little surprised, usually when a god leaves there ruined temple there’s a-” a sound of stone cracking took all of their attention to the back wall. The previously pristine stone  now had a large crack in it that was splintering out in all directions, and spreading to the ceiling, “collapse...”

As the first chunk of ceiling came down, the three were already sprinting towards the entrance. Magica had a head start on them and chuckled as Lena let out a yelp as a stone exploded two feet away from her. This smile faded when she saw an angry Scrooge at the entrance, cane ready.

Thinking fast, Magica threw a hand into her cloak and pulled out a little cloth bag. Before Webby or Lena could react, she upturned the bag behind her, scattering dozens upon dozens of ball bearings onto the stone ground, making the ground treacherous to run across. Webby managed to only fall to a knee, but Lena slipped almost immediately.

Scrooge looked alarmed at this as Magica grinned wider, “you can stop me or help them, but not both Scrooge!” Magica began to cackle as Scrooge rushed forward, abandoning his role as sentry of the doorway. He tried to trip her up as he ran past, but she nimbly skipped over his cane and into the tunnel.

Webby was helping Lena to her feet, but time was running short as a piece of the ceiling came crashing down a few feet away. Scrooge whipped off his coat and used it to brush swaths of the tiny metal balls away. He helped get Lena to her feet and they made a sprint for the entrance, tiny sharp shards nicking and scraping them as they ran. There was a moment of respite as they passed out of the threshold, but before they could catch their breath even this tunnel was starting to fall apart. The collapsing dirt and debris followed them right up until they burst through into the morning light. The three of them diving onto the dirt together, their lungs  heaving as they tried to catch their breath.

“Oh thank god you’re all safe.” their attention was pulled towards Beakley who held an unconscious Magica under one arm. She was now sporting reddening bruise applied to the head.

“You didn’t come in after us? That was a close one you know,” Scrooge gruffed sitting up.

“I was, but when I felt the rumbling and saw Magica fleeing, I figured an extra body clogging up the hallways wasn’t going to do anyone much good.” her attention turned to Lena “Oh, Lena, you got your body back, how’d that happen?”

“Long. Story,” Lena said still huffing through her newly formed lungs, “Basically, magic...”

“Well at least it saved us a trip. This is turning out to be quite the efficient outing,” Scrooge said gaining his feet again.

Lena decided to keep the bit where her and Webby unleashed an ancient horror for later. As her breathing finally started to normalize she managed to stand up.

“So, what do we do with this?” Beakley asked, holing up Magica by her cloak.

“Let’s bring her back, I’m sure we can find some bounty we can cash in on our way back. I doubt she’s made it these last few months without rubbing someone the wrong way. Launchpad, is the car functional?”

Launchpad wandered up, sporting two black eyes and petting a content rabbit “Full’a gas and ready to go Mister Mc D!” he proclaimed proudly through a broken lip.

“Wonderful! Let’s head out, We have some important business to attend to back home.” Scrooge said and everyone started to move towards the frankenstein jeep.

Lena held back looking at the ever so slightly shifted mountain. She had barely had a moment to process the last five minutes, but slowly the weight of what had happened was settling in. Whatever power Magica had used to create her had originated here. Despite all the madness of the past few days, she felt a kind of loss at its destruction. As her eyes scanned over the rock face, they caught sight of some odd movement. She was going to write it off as a shifting shadow, but reconsidered when she realized it was a shifting shadow.

Curled into the corner of a rock was the shaking silhouette of a squirrel. Lena quickly realized this was the one that Magica had sacrificed to the dark god. “She just left you here, huh? I’d say I could relate, but really, I had the opposite problem.” the shadow squirrel looked up suspiciously with its bright wide eyes. “Don’t know how much I can help, but if you want to come along for the ride… I’ll see what I can do.” Lena stretched her arm out, allowing her shadow to form a bridge.

The little squirrel looked curious and then jumped onto her arm, and ran up it until it sat on her shoulder. Lena wasn’t sure if it was just a part of her nature or what, but she could feel it there.

“You coming lass?” Scrooge called to her from near the car.

Lena looked back, Webby hadn’t walked to far, and offered her hand out, “Come on Lena, let’s head home...”

Lena looked at her, eyes raising at the mention of home and smiled. She took Webby’s hand in hers as they walked back towards the jeep together.