Chapter Text
“Are you totally useless?” Magica pointed her staff at the shadow as she sneered. “Do I have to do everything myself?”
The shadow looked at her and shrugged, unsure of itself. Lena felt bad for it; she knew exactly how that felt. It wasn’t the shadow’s fault it wasn’t perfect or that the kids fought back. Magica was just entitled and lazy.
Maybe Scrooge was onto something about magic and laziness after all.
Magica scoffed, a sound that made Lena’s feathers puff up. “I should have known you would have been useless. Very well. This will be an excellent show of my true power.”
“What?” Lena spun around and stared at Magica with wide, disbelieving eyes. She couldn’t--Even if it was just a shadow puppet, would she really--
Lena saw the spell spark across the staff and she knew what it meant. Even if it was only a puppet, she couldn’t bring herself to sit back and watch it die. Maybe they weren’t like her, maybe they really were mindless puppets, maybe they were attacking the very real children. But she couldn’t… she couldn’t.
She barely thought anything as she began to run. Her shoes slipped and slid over the coins beneath her, but she continued steadily and quickly until she was right in front of--
Her heart pounded in her chest and her head as she stood in front of what would have been a finishing blow for Louie’s shadow. Her vision erupted into spots of blindness as the shot hit her stomach and knocked her back harshly into the coins below her.
She couldn’t breathe.
“Lena!”
She heard several of the kids call out to her but she couldn’t move. She only laid there, dazed, as Magica’s voice cut through the air like a knife.
“You fool. ” Magica hissed, “You’re even worse than I imagined. Sacrificing yourself for a shadow? It’s not even real. ” Magica rose to her full height and sneered down at Lena. “But neither are you, so I suppose it makes sense.
Lena managed to open her eyes and squinted as she peered down at herself. The front of her shirt was absolutely ruined; charred by heat and magic that went down as far as her feathers and skin. It didn’t hurt yet. But it would.
She coughed and could taste ash in her mouth. Whether that was from being turned into a shadow or was a very worrying affect of the blast she had no idea, and she was willing to put off finding out. For now all she could do was breathe.
She looked up, her heartbeat still loud in her ears, and saw Magica staring hard at Webby.
“Lena’s my friend!” Webby screamed in a voice so hurt it made Lena want to cry, “Don’t talk about her like that!”
But it’s true. Lena felt tears well in her eyes as she struggled not to submit to the raw emotion Webby conveyed, I’m a monster. I’m nothing.
A figure approached her and she looked up, curious and terrified at who or what might have found her, only to come face to face with Huey.
“Stay still.” He said seriously, “That looks bad. Webby’s got this.”
She looked over and sure enough Webby had begun to make Magica lose her ground. She even felt a bit intimidated by the way Webby seemed to go to town on Magica with sheer anger and hurt obvious in her voice.
She couldn’t believe anyone cared that much about her.
Louie kneeled beside her and looked down, worried. “Lena, why are you losing your color? You’re in like, black and white.”
Ah.
“Hm. That’s--not good.” She managed to get out through her dry throat that ached as she spoke. “Mm--’m a shadow--turning--back I think--”
She swallowed hard. She really didn’t want that to happen, especially since this felt like it might be more… permanent. Was she--dying?