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Della knew she had long since lost control of the ship.
Which was both hilarious and ironic. Della Duck, best aerial pilot of her age, had finally bitten off more than she could chew when she jumped into the Spear of Selene and honest to god uttered the words, “It’s just a rocket ship. I’m just taking it for a test drive. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Let it be known that she had learned her lesson about tempting fate.
She hissed as she pulled at the controller, trying to steer it back into Earth’s orbit, hoping the field of gravity would pull her back. But the cosmic storm was messing with everything, including Uncle Scrooge’s frantic transmission as he tried to guide her back home. The transmission was cut short, and Della cursed loudly, still trying to bring the ship back to her control.
(She saw white mist at the edges of her vision and resolutely ignored it. She had far more pressing matters to attend to.)
“Come on, come on, come on,” Della hissed. “Please, I need to get back to my kids, please.” She begged for anyone, anything, with all her heart, to bring her back home safe and sound.
For a moment, it felt like she ship was finally following her order, dipping down for a split second, and Della’s hope soared. Then the cosmic storm hit mercilessly and she was swept away.
Bright white exploded in her eyes. Her ears caught the sound of a distant explosion, and she felt something rocking her down to her bones.
Everything went dark.
Okay, so. The ship was pretty much wrecked, her leg was a goner and she had to cut it off herself, and she was stranded on the moon. On the bright side, her new metal leg was cool as hell, she was all for being a cool mom.
On the other side, well… everything.
But not all hope was lost. She would just keep sending transmissions to Earth; Uncle Scrooge was resourceful and she had high hopes the transmissions would reach him. There were manuals, too, and she was a Junior Woodchuck, between the manual and her training there had to be something she could do about rebuilding the ship eventually.
She chewed on the OxyChew, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
(If white mist rose around her, she wasn’t aware of it.)
Her sense of time was pretty much shot because she didn’t have the same day-night cycle anymore, but she estimated it happened around the third month.
She was making her way through the wreckage, and she was suddenly hit by the realization that she felt much more alive than she had been. The bright alertness of the adrenaline shot when she was caught in cosmic storm felt like it never truly left, with how aware she was of herself right now, but it felt wrong to call it adrenaline. More like her eyes was opened, like her senses broadened.
She made use of Moon’s gravity to jump up, and was surprised to see how much higher she jumped compared to usual. She looked down and paused when she noticed a trail of white mist she left in her wake, nearly impossible to see with Moon’s bright, silvery shine in the background.
How she floated, suspended by nothing in mid air, was a lot harder to miss.
Della lost control of it the moment she became aware of it. She fell to the ground, and only Moon’s forgiving gravity let her escape another injury.
She learned about her ability, slowly but surely. Between rests and rebuilding, she willed herself to float, to jump higher, to flutter like leaf in the wind. In time, she managed to create wind of her own, and she used it to twist around herself and let her fly with a lot more speed, finesse, agility than she ever could with a plane.
She felt invincible. She felt alive.
And how ironic was it, that when she was most alone in a place where she shouldn’t even be able to live, that she felt most alive?
“You shouldn’t have taken the Spear,” her inner voice, one that sounded suspiciously like Donald, hissed into her mind when she closed her eyes to sleep.
“Shut the fuck up, Inner Don,” she hissed back. She didn’t need to hear it; she knew it already.
“Get the fuck away!” Della screamed when the Moon Mite attacked again. Plumes of white rose around her, and she shot like an arrow loosed from a bow, punching the mite in one of its oversized eyes.
It screeched in pain and ran off. Della stared at her hands, surprised that the flight she had managed to learn was even capable of being used this way.
She never used her ability in front of the Moonlanders, not really. If they noticed her hanging in the air a little longer than what they consider normal, they didn’t say anything.
She mingled with the Moonlanders, telling them bits and pieces of Earth cultures when they showed her theirs, rebuilding the Spear little by little until everything was right, functional, swallowing her longing to go home all the while.
When the rocket was built fully, she swallowed another wave of longing. Not yet, not yet. It was untested, she was still helping the Moonlanders – she needed a little more time to make sure she would leave without regrets and get home safe and sound.
She woke to the rocket readying itself for a launch and panicked immediately. Penumbra told her to go home, and Lunaris assured her the Moonlanders would build more Spears, and they would meet Della on Earth. With the countdown hunting her and her planet calling her home, Della shoved the Spear’s manual to Lunaris and let the rocket lock her in.
The moment she entered Earth’s orbit, she could feel the changes in herself. The gravity pulled on her, harsher than she was used to – Moon’s gravity was much lesser than Earth’s and she would need time adjusting to it – but at the same time, she felt lighter. Like the air was hugging her and pushing her up, like the clouds infused themselves into her bones and let her float, like the sky itself was pulling her up to fly forever. Her vision exploded in sunny, bright white with speckles of sky blue for a split second, and then she blinked the colors out her eyes, looking down to search for Duckburg among the ocean blue – and then, searching for Killmotor Hill.
The ship landed roughly at the base of the hill, not too far away from the main road and the bus stop. Della scrambled out, desperate to get back to the manor, and fought the gravity that was so intent in bringing her down. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt her limbs so heavy. With a grunt, and breathed out and let the power she had come to master envelope her, and her steps became lighter and she climbed up the hill, jumping and shooting forward with each gust of wind, leaving a trail of white cloudlike plumes behind her.
The gates of the manor stood as tall as imposing as ever. She stared at it, breathing deeply, letting the white that she summoned fade away.
“I’m home,” she whispered.
She didn’t see the Spear taking off again. She didn’t hear the hum of its engine, roaring through the atmosphere – the wind didn’t bring the sound to her. Her mind was solely focused on her kids, her family, and in her mind, the Spear might as well not exist anymore.
She took a deep breath, let it out, and jumped over the gate – or, at least, she tried to. Earth’s gravity clung to her mercilessly, and she growled and summoned the winds to push her up. With that, she jumped over the gate easily, and almost without even realizing it, she had used the wind to push her up to the door of the manor.
(She botched her first impression, because of course. But the point was that she was home, the kids were with her, she was back with Uncle Scrooge, she was back with her family, she was home.
The names were wrong, but that wasn’t important. They were her kids, and she loved them, whether their names were Jet, Turbo, and Rebel or Huey, Dewey, and Louie.)
The girl approached her, introducing herself as Webby, looking as touched as one could be at the family reunion, looking like she wanted to ask a million questions but unable to speak clearly. Scrooge coughed to hide his laugh.
“She’s Mrs. Beakley’s granddaughter. Donald called her his bonus kid,” Scrooge explained.
“Of course he would,” Della snorted, and she looked around. “Where is he?” She didn’t say about how much she missed him, how she longed for her twin, the person she revolved around just as he revolved around her, like planets caught in each other’s orbit. It must have shown anyway, because Webby immediately reassured her.
“He’s off on a relaxing, remote vacation,” she said. “He’s stress molting, and we thought it was best to get him to relax somehow.”
“Aaah, instead of welcoming back her sister. Must be nice,” Della said. Donald was a worrywart, though, a vacation would do him good. “Well, I guess I’ll have to wait until he gets back, then.” She jumped to her feet, excited to finally bond with her kids, and accidentally summoned the white plumes around her again. She bit back a curse and landed down on the floor again. She had kids now, she had to self-censor.
Dewey gasped loudly. “You can fly?!”
“Umm, yes,” Della answered reluctantly. “I still don’t know the full extent of what I can do.”
“You couldn’t fly before, what happened?” Scrooge asked.
“Well, one day on the Moon I kind of just realized I could float in the air,” Della explained. “And then I pushed that further and further, and now I can fly, sort of. It’s different here than on the Moon, though. I feel like my whole being is itching for a flight and it’s all so much more powerful than in space.” She held up her hand and twisted her hand, and a gust of wind blew Louie’s hood up. “Whoops. Sorry.”
“It’s no problem,” Louie answered, pulling his hood back down.
“Maybe we got it from her, after all,” Dewey said excitedly. “So it’s not a thing that just appeared out of nowhere, but it’s like, um…”
“Hereditary,” Huey finished for him. “We got it from Mom. But it’s different.”
“Boys, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about here,” Della interjected.
“Oh, um.” Huey fumbled around for a moment, then he looked down at his hands. Heat rose around him in alarming speed, then his hands caught fire. Della bit back on a surprise squawk, but it was clear that the fire wasn’t hurting Huey. If anything, he carried it like it was a small pet he was eager to show Della.
“Yeah, we each have something!” Dewey said, eyes twinkling. The air around him buzzed, and when he held up his hands, she could see blue-white light jumping from one finger to another – electricity. “See? Isn’t it cool? Come on, Louie, show her what you’ve got!”
Louie looked around the room as if in search of something. When he seemed to have found it, he stretched out his hand, and Della got the sudden impression that he was pulling something. A flash of gold flew and shot through the room, landing perfectly in Louie’s hand. He swung the golden khopesh with ease that spoke of experience. “I guess this one needs an explanation. I can control gold. Magica called me a gold-touched.”
“Who called you a what?” Della asked. This was getting a little absurd, honestly.
“Magica,” Louie repeated. “He called me a gold-touched. I guess it’s a term for someone with magic to control gold?”
“She also called Huey a flame-born and me a lightning-kissed,” Dewey said. “I think she also said something about you?”
“She said borne from a sky-called.” Huey tilted his head in thought. “I think she also mentioned something like a sea-called… it might refer to Uncle Donald?”
“Huh,” Della blinked, leaning back. She hadn’t thought of the possibility of her kids having powers. Granted, maybe she should have, with her being able to fly and all, but it just occurred to her that maybe her journey to motherhood wasn’t as typical as she thought it would be.
(But of course it wouldn’t be. She was a mother of a set of triplet, and she was born of the Duck and McDuck family. They were anything but typical.)
“Mom?” Dewey called, soft and hesitant. “This… this is okay, right?”
Her breath hitched for a moment, and she gathered all three of her kids into her arms. Huey’s flames dissipated the moment she reached out and Louie was quick to angle the khopesh to keep it from hurting anyone, but Dewey was a little late and she felt a jolt of electricity buzzing through the four of them for a split second. She ignored it and hugged them close. “Of course it’s okay! It’s more than okay. This is us, and I will never trade it for anything in the world.” She let go and grinned. “If anything, this makes us even cooler! Look at us here, having superpowers!”
“Yeah!” Dewey grinned back, instantly mollified. Della knew things were going to be hard, but maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought it would be.
Oh, yes. It was worse.
Her own recklessness had woken the Gilded Man and now it was hell-bent on destroying her family. Well, okay, she fucked up, and she was all for un-fucking her fuck ups, so she had to save her family and stop the Gilded Man somehow.
Her pride soared when she saw her kids bravely running about, catching the giant ape’s attention and slowly weakening it (and subsequently angering it, oh boy) with the horn Della had given them. Louie, the bright boy, had Huey fetch some tape and put together the three horns and threw it to Dewey, who easily threw them to Della, who was able to slip them inside and step on them and sound the horns at once. The Gilded Man began to crumble, and Della swiftly took off her metal leg and summoned wind to her air, flying up to the sky. Her eyes caught Louie, trying to push the gold away with his powers, but the Gilded Man was too big, too heavy. Its hand fell straight to him, and Della found herself screaming his name, shooting to him faster than she had ever flown.
She slammed to him bodily just as the gold hand fell on them, with Louie glowing brightly like the golden sun, speckled with emerald green. The hand stopped its trajectory and fell sideways instead of straight down, and Della peeked out when she heard it thump heavily to the ground. She blinked out the light in her eyes and realized Louie was still glowing gold.
“Louie,” she called softly. “Louie, can you hear me? It’s okay, we’re safe now.”
Louie looked up, and Della realized for the first time that his eyes looked like flat discs. The effect faded little by little as the golden glow dissipated, the glittering green disappearing, and Louie slumped forward a little, tears in his eyes. Della held his face in her hands and smiled.
He rushed forward and hugged her midsection. “Thank you, Mom.”
“No, thank you, Louie,” Della breathed into his ear. “You saved us both.”
Yes, her journey to motherhood sure was shaping to be a rocky one, but nothing could stop Della Duck. She was prepared for anything that was thrown to her.
Okay, so her kids’ magic was apparently something she wasn’t exactly equipped to deal with, but that’s okay. She could learn.
Louie seemed to have his magic easily controlled, at least. He had sensing gold down pat and summoning his khopesh was child’s play to him, but controlling a large amount of gold at once seemed to drain him. Della tried to tell him to slow down, don’t burn himself out, and she was thankful that he was at least willing to listen to reason.
Huey, as well, had his own magic controlled to an extent, but when he was lost in thought or too emotional, heat haze would rise around him, and something would inevitably catch fire. On good days, it would be himself. He was pretty much fire-proof, and his clothing was never singed or anything, which was a good thing. But sometimes he would be holding to something – a map, a book, a pen – and the object instead would catch fire. But as long as he was aware of it, he was also quick to extinguish the flames.
Dewey proved to be the one most careless with his magic. He zapped basically everyone with his electricity, apologized and said to be more careful, and zapped the very same person in the very same breath. He was absentminded at best, and Della racked her brain trying to find a way for him to reign the magic in.
“Uncle Donald usually talks to me and hug me until the zapping passed,” Dewey said. He was frowning. “I thought the zapping’s not that bad. He can take it.”
Not for the first time, Della felt gutted. She was busy playing catch up to be able to care for her kids, and Donald had been doing it for a decade and he wasn’t here to teach her the ropes. He knew the kids so much better than she was, and that was so painfully obvious even to her.
It was weird, though. Dewey’s zaps were enough to make even Scrooge scream, sometimes, and Donald was able to take it? Was he even okay? Another thing she needed to ask him. Later, though, after he was back from his cruise.
“Maybe we should find someway else to help you deal with it,” Della said. “I don’t know about Donald, but I know I can’t take your electricity. Do you know how powerful it can get?”
“I don’t know,” Dewey admitted. He winced. “We, um, can find out?” he offered, but he didn’t seem too thrilled about it.
“No, no, we don’t have to,” Della assured. “It’s okay if you don’t want to find out. Now, let’s see… have you ever tried discharging your electricity somewhere safe?”
Dewey blinked. “Where?”
In the end, it turned out the best way they could deal with Dewey’s zaps was to bring him to an empty field and have him discharge his electricity into the ground. As it turned out, the buildup was what made him zap people, and having him exhaust the buildup helped tremendously.
It helped Dewey, but it made Della feel less, still, how she was still trying to give the boys all she could give and it still wasn’t enough.
The sky felt like it was beckoning her, sometimes, calling her up to stay with the clouds and bask in unfiltered sunlight. She wondered, sometimes, if should float and never come back down if she didn’t have her kids – usually Dewey – calling her down for something. An adventure, a meal, a simple question.
They asked, once, how it felt like to fly. Her answer to that was to hug Huey in one arm, Louie in the other, have Dewey clinging to her back, and bring them up to the sky. Later, after they landed, Webby asked shyly if Della could bring her up to the clouds, too, and Della was more than happy to let her feel the wind up in the sky.
Mrs. Beakley yelled at them when they got down, but relented when Webby promised to bring parachutes if she ever went again. Mrs. Beakley then proceeded to shove more child-sized parachutes to Della’s arms, and Webby was soon teaching the boys how to use it. The next time Della brought them all on a flight on her back, they jumped off and used the parachute.
Della instructed them how to steer the parachutes as she floated on wind of her own making, and Dewey stared at her with stars in his eyes. “How do you know all this?!” he yelled, more because they were riding the wind and the noise made it hard to have their voices carry over.
“I wasn’t always able to fly like this, but I’m great at anything that requires a vessel to fly!” Della answered. “I’m boss when it comes to paragliding!”
“Teach us sometime so I can get a paragliding badge!” Huey requested.
“Sure! But let’s land first, okay?” She blew gentle breeze them down, and they concentrated on landing.
They landed safely at the backyard, and this time Scrooge was the one yelling at them. Della somehow managed to placate him by promising to fly him up, though, so that wasn’t really a problem.
This was getting out of hand. Everything was.
The hurricane outside was getting worse, the flow of space-time was getting tangled, Beakley was missing, and Louie Duck was absolutely grounded. How did he even get the idea that stealing from time was a good thing? It sounded worse than her and Donald’s worst ideas combined, and that wasn’t even counting how Donald’s luck would put everything through a blender.
Pirates of all things were attacking her family, for god’s sake. Huey had long since abandoned his careful demeanor and had started throwing fire around just to keep their attackers off their backs, and Dewey was basically just punching lightning everywhere at this point. She should really have listened more to Beakley. Her feelings were in the proverbial blender right now, she was thrown back in time and she had to witness her kids disappearing in front of her eyes. Louie needed to learn that his actions had consequences and he could’ve hurt so many people.
It felt like he had stabbed a knife through her heart when he muttered venomously, “I wonder who I got that from.”
She sent him to his room after banning schemes and having him stop Louie Incorporated. She knew it was the right thing to do, but the knife in her heart felt like it was being twisted when she saw his retreating back.
(“You’re not doing this right,” her Inner Donald said to her quietly.
“Then how do I do it right?” she asked him back.
He didn’t answer.)
It got sorted out, somehow, between Louie somehow managing to usurp both Glomgold and Scrooge’s riches and finally giving Scrooge his company back.
And then the Moonlanders attacked, because of course. Nothing ever went smoothly, with her family. It made her wonder if Donald’s luck was just something that was uniquely his or if it was actually a family curse that somehow ended up manifesting more clearly in him. Neither of them sounded like a good option, honestly.
“We can take them,” Dewey yelled, when they were discussing what they should do with Gyro, after seeing Lunaris had landed one of his ships above the manor. “They don’t know we have superpowers. And Uncle Donald mentioned magic not mixing well with technology, so that’s another thing in our corner!”
“Yeah, I doubt they would be prepared for three kids being able to use fire, lightning, and gold magic coming to them. Plus Louie could probably damage the ships, right? They’re gold,” Huey said, looking at Louie for confirmation.
Louie nodded and made some sort of smooshing motion with his hands. “It’ll take a while, but I can probably total the ships if I want to. Do they know you can fly, Mom?”
“I – I don’t think so,” Della said, mind reeling. Her boys wanted to fight? Right there, in the thickest of the danger, letting themselves walk right in the middle of the line of fire? She glanced in panic at Scrooge, and he seemed to be concerned, at least. That’s good, Scrooge’s Concern was usually Della’s Panic and Donald’s Absolutely Losing His Marbles In Fear. That meant her fear wasn’t irrational.
“Great, so we can go to town and just start burning, zapping, and crushing stuff,” Huey said. He opened his Junior Woodchuck book. “We should plan more, though. Hang on, let me check on battle strategy for a bit.”
“No!” Della yelped before she could stop herself, and she froze in place when the kids stared at her. “We, uhh… we should go find… find more reinforcement! Yes! There are a lot of Moonlanders and there are only so many of us. If we can get help, surely our chance of success will be better too!”
To her relief, Scrooge caught on quickly. “Ah, yes! Yes, that’s a good point, lass. I should be able to round up some more help here. Della, you and the kids go scour the globe for reinforcement. Perhaps Selene and Storkules would be willing to help.”
“Oh, yes! Ithaquack! Perfect place,” Della smiled. She exchanged meaningful gazes with Scrooge, and soon, they departed.
She would do anything to keep the kids safe – including Webby, because Donald was right, she was their bonus kid, as precious as the triplets were. She needed someplace she could keep them safe, and she didn’t care that they would think her a coward for it. Anything was better than letting them come to harm’s way.
“At least Don’s safe in a cruise,” Della muttered bitterly under her breath.
Okay, so, Ithaquack’s fucked too. Fine. Okay. Fine. They could find someplace else safe. There had to be some uninhabited island somewhere that the Moonlanders overlooked. The Earth’s littered with it, anyway.
And also they’re being chased. Fuck.
And the kids found out they were there to run away. And they got shot. And the plane was downed.
Fucking hell. Was Donald’s bad luck contagious? It felt like it was.
It took Della’s all to channel her magic to summon enough wind to counter Earth’s gravity so she could keep them safe. The downside of it was that the brilliant white and sky blue was too bright, blinding her and taking away her vision, but it was fine – somehow, the wind enveloping the Cloudslayer gave her enough sense of where they were, and they managed to land relatively safely. It didn’t stop the plane from getting totaled, but they were alive, and that was what was important.
“We made it! We’re safe!” Della exclaimed when they set foot on the sand.
“And stuck,” Hewey pointed out. “You’d have to be pretty unlucky to be stranded here.”
So of course Donald of all people was stranded there.
(Oh man, he wasn’t safe in a cruise. He’d been stranded this whole time. How did they not know about this.)
They fought almost immediately after they set eyes upon each other – typical – but the overlaying deception of anger melted immediately to reveal the longing underneath, and they exchanged teary-eyed hug that seemed to last forever. The moment was ruined when his sculpted melon companion made appearance, and hoo boy was that weird.
“Has the melon been a thing the whole time I’ve been gone, or…?”
“No, that’s new,” Huey answered, and good, the kids were as concerned as she was. How long had Donald been stuck here, for him to get a melon that looked like Mickey of all people and start treating it like the actual Mickey? What were the chances of him actually finding a Mickey-shaped melon in the first place? Melon shaped like that shouldn’t even be able to grow in the wild, what in the world, Don.
And he was all for going back in the fray and danger and laser shots to bring the Moonlanders down. What the fuck, Don. And this was the Moon all over again! What even was going on! She was Della Duck and nothing stops Della Duck, but this – all this – the possibility of losing her family again, the Moonlanders attacking, Lunaris betraying her – she didn’t know if she wanted to be mad or scared or what and she just landed in bunk up in a deserted island and pray no one finds them. She hated this.
Louie pulled her out of her funk, and Fethry and Gladstone appeared, riding a giant purple krill. Somehow, the fact that they were riding a giant krill was a lot less painful to bear than the fact that Gladstone was eating Donald’s Mickey-placeholder. Fethry was always good with animals, after all, but this was their cousin eating Donald’s only companion while he was stuck in an island.
They all rode on Mitzy and braved the sea to get back to Scrooge. The sea was rough, but their course was true, and Della couldn’t help but notice how Donald kept glancing at the ocean every now and then, an unreadable look in his eyes. Maybe he was worried about slipping and falling into the sea, it wouldn’t be that weird for that to happen to him.
They reached Duckburg and saw it a frozen wasteland, a giant golden ship pushing Earth to orbit the Moon. They saw Lunaris holding their uncle hostage, and Della saw red.
“Lunaris, let go of my uncle,” Della demanded.
“And lose any potential advantage I might have?” Lunaris shot back as he tightened his grip on Scrooge’s collar. “I don’t think so.”
Della growled. “What is wrong with you?” she barked. “You helped me when I was in the moon. I thought we were friends! And then you turn around and do this?”
“Friends?” Lunaris asked back. His laugh was derisive. “Do you even hear yourself? Are you so foolish that you don’t even realize people can lie?” He levelled a cold gaze at her. “We are not friends,” he spat. “You are but a lowly Earthling. I am General Lunaris of the Moon. For you to even consider the possibility of us being friends is an insult to my name.”
Della recoiled feeling like she had been slapped. All this while she had thought she had been making friends but it was all just a lie. The very air stirred around her, white plumes materializing as it always did when she called to the very sky to her aid, thin but undoubtedly present. She narrowed her eyes at the Moonlander. “You lied to me. All this time, all you wanted to do was just to get here.”
“Oh, so you finally realized after all,” Lunaris said with a mocking smile. “I honestly thought it would take you longer to understand.”
Della took a deep breath. The air was cold, but she felt hot with raw anger. “I had high opinions about you,” she said. “You helped me in the Moon. Was that all a lie? All of it?”
Lunaris didn’t even hesitate. “All of it.”
Della felt something in her snap. The white plumes surrounding her strengthened as a sudden gust of strong wind blasted Lunaris in the face, making him flinch back while his cape was blown. He squinted at Della but made no move otherwise.
“I will give you to a count of three,” Della began, “and if by then you have not released my uncle, I will make you sorry for being born.” She narrowed her eyes at Lunaris. “One.”
“Do you honestly think that meager threat is enough to scare me?” Lunaris asked.
“Two!”
“I do not care for your countings, Della Duck.”
“Three!” Della paused, eyeing Lunaris closely. When he made no move to release Scrooge, she rushed ahead and jumped off Mitzy’s head. The wind carried her and she glided effortlessly like a feather riding on a breeze, for all intents and purposes weightless. Then she shot like an arrow to Lunaris, leaving a trail of white while her metal leg aimed at his head as she spun a kick. Lunaris dropped Scrooge to block her kick, and chaos reigned.
It didn’t take long for her to convince her kids to mess up the ship. While she summoned the wind to bring her to dance in mid air, she saw how Louie was able to crumple the ship like it was paper. Penumbra, of all people landed on ice on a smaller ship, immediately rushing ahead to throw a punch at Lunaris.
“Hi, roomie!” she cheerfully greeted Della.
“Penny! You came here!” Della greeted back, delighted that she was around, and that she wasn’t attacking her. At least someone wasn’t lying.
So of course Lunaris would declare her a traitor.
They fought side by side, and it was so much easier bringing Lunaris down like this. Penny seemed intrigued at her being able to fly, but she knew it wasn’t time to ask questions.
Mitzy’s massive legs fell from above, destroying the docks and smashing ice. Della could hear Donald reprimanding Fethry, but her attention was taken by her kids, who she could see were losing their balance in the ship while Louie clung to one of the ship’s legs to keep himself from falling. His khopesh had fallen and skidded away.
Lunaris took him prisoner, and Della’s blood ran cold.
“Stand back or I will stab him,” Lunaris threatened.
“This is rich coming from the guy who yelled I will not fall!” Louie yelled. He looked miffed that he was taken hostage at all, and Della had to suppress a laugh at that. Somehow, it was typical of their family’s trend, to be insulted that someone was keeping them hostage instead of feeling scared. Louie was so alike to Donald that way.
Lunaris frowned, clearly confused. “I have you at bladepoint. Don’t you realize what position you’re in?”
“Oh, sure, go ahead, get the guy who seems like he can’t defend himself and take him as hostage, why don’t you?” Louie grumbled. “If you’re so high and mighty I would’ve thought you’d think or a nobler plan.”
Lunaris’ frown deepened into a scowl. “I hope you realize I am perfectly capable of slitting your throat right now, if I so choose.”
This time, it was Huey who answered. “No you won’t,” he said, matter-of-fact, and his tone was dry enough to turn this frozen ocean into barren desert, and Della had to feel proud at that.
“You see, about that,” Louie spoke up again, “I’m sure you’ve seen my brother conjure fire and my other brother conjure electricity. You’ve seen my mom fly, too. Haven’t you considered I might have something up my sleeve, too?” With that, he lifted a hand and jabbed up, brightly shining gold with glittering green, eyes flat discs of gold, and the fallen khopesh lifted up on its own and slashed through the air to Lunaris.
The Moonlander moved to block the attack with his dagger, and Louie took advantage of the distraction by biting Lunaris’ hand so he’d be released. As Lunaris did in surprise, Louie shimmered brighter and made a pulling gesture. The dagger in Lunaris’ hand was ripped away and clanged to the ice.
“You filthy Earthling!” Lunaris spat. He slapped Louie backhanded, hard enough to send him reeling and falling to ice and landing on his face, the gold glow disappearing abruptly as the boy cried in pain. He grazed his cheek on a rough patch and came out with red welts. Della gasped, stomach lurching, and she felt the white plumes around her freezing its motions.
Lunaris wasn’t done. He marched with purpose, eyes locked at Louie. Louie, for his part, extended his hand and called to the dagger, once again shining gold as he motioned so the dagger moved according to his will. The dagger shot to Lunaris, but he simply slapped it away. He lifted his hand, a murderous glint in his eyes
Della yelled at Lunaris to stop, feeling desperate to save her kid, and her magic rose to the forefront. White mist escaped her beak as she breathed, and she could feel herself glowing, glowing, and her vision was starting to get overtaken by brilliant white and specks of sky blue, wind whipping around her and pulling at her hair, slapping at her cheeks.
Someone beat her to the punch. Seawater burst from cracked ice and rushed ahead like tsunami, effectively sweeping Lunaris off his feet and leaving Louie safe and dry. It rolled Lunaris over in its waves and pinned him down on ice, effectively drowning him mercilessly.
“Stop hurting my family!” Donald yelled at Lunaris, feral in every way Della could think of, looking even wilder than when they found him on that island. His whole being was glowing sea blue, and even so far away, Della could see his eyes had turned blue with specks of white, like rising wave, like the sea and its seafoam. She could feel his magic rolling off like waves, the sea singing its song and magic through Donald’s hands, and suddenly it all made sense, how Donald was less clumsy at sea, how Donald was the best person you could have to get you safely through naval voyage, how Donald was so at home among the deep blue like she was with the clouds. The power receded, and Lunaris sputtered on cold ice. Penny went ahead to put cuffs on him.
There was an alarming creak, and Della saw the golden ship careening down to hit Donald. Judging by the trajectory, it would hit Louie, too, and the kids were still inside.
“Look out!” Della yelled, releasing her magic as her sight whited out, but she couldn’t do much – Donald was only pushed back a little. She gritted her teeth, suddenly realizing that her power wasn’t much at all when she wasn’t really using it for flight, but her yell had done the job well. The people in the ship’s way scattered, and while Louie tried in vain to keep it upright, the whole ship was too heavy for him to bear. Dewey and Webby snagged him, and his golden glow dissipated, and the ship fell into the sea.
When the sea and the ice settled, Della rounded on Donald. “You can control water?!” she asked, almost insulted that he hadn’t told her about this. He’d seen her fly, in the island! The least he could do was tell her about what he could do!
“You can fly,” he protested, but he scooted back all the same.
“You never told me you can control water!”
“It never came up! And I can only do the sea! What am I supposed to say, anyway? Hi, Dell, remember how I always loved to be by the sea since we were little? That’s cause I can make some waterworks a little, no biggie!”
“That would have been better than radio silence!”
The argument was broken when Glomgold voiced his disbelief on what was happening – and really, that was rich coming from a guy who came up with the plan to attack a golden ship with sharks wearing parka, having Scrooge dress up and Santa (that was honestly cruel, that was absolutely crossing the line), getting Scrooge to gift him back his company, and having Beakley dress up as a boy to sling shot Launchpad dressed up as a rock into the ship.
Really, how were they the weird one when Glomgold was the one who came up with that?
“Why didn’t you come home when you were in that island? You can control the sea,” Della asked after the whole thing started to quiet down.
“It wouldn’t let me,” Donald said. He let her lean into him and used his shoulder as a pillow as he leaned into her, propping his chin on her head. “The sea’s kind of possessive.”
“It’s sentient?”
“Not really? …kind of.”
“Huh.”
Donald nuzzled his cheek into Della’s hair. “I thought you were dead for ten years.”
“I sent transmissions.”
“We never received any.”
Her stomach churned with guilt. She didn’t know. “I’m sorry.”
She snaked her arms around his torso and hugged him tight. He hugged back, just as tightly, and they stayed like that for a while in their old room back in the manor, and she could feel things slowly settling back down into their family’s wacky sense of normal.
She was back, and she had all of her boys with her, and their family can do magic.
And she would fight Lunaris all over again to keep them safe and sound with her.