Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was it. The biggest moment of Huey's life. Today was the day he finally became a Senior Woodchuck! It was what he'd been waiting for ever since he became a Junior Woodchuck three years ago, he could barely contain his excitement. Others, on the other hand, were doing nothing to contain theirs. 

"Woo-hoo, the legacy is alive!" Della cheered once Launchpad had a pause in his speech. From next to her Donald continuously swatted away a bug while taking pictures. "Oh, he was kicked out because he's got a... bad attitude about nature." She said in response to Webby's question, watching her brother try to attack said bug.

Launchpad resumed his speech and Huey stood there proudly, waiting for his name to be said. "... My close, personal friend: Violet Sabrewing!" Wait, what? 

"Sorry I'm late," Violet said, appearing out of nowhere and making her way to the front of the room. "I was helping an elder person cross the street." The audience clapped and Huey quickly got her attention. 

"You're a Junior Woodchuck? But, I haven't seen you at any of the jamborees or fun time functions." Violet explained why and showed him her many badges, he looked at his own sash with uneasiness. Okay, so she had more badges than him, that didn't mean anything, he was still becoming a Senior Woodchuck, that was what mattered. Until Launchpad said that they had to compete for it and almost everyone started cheering Violet's name. He quickly shrunk in on himself and sought out his brothers once Launchpad concluded his speech, they would know how to make this better. 

"How did this happen? If I'm not the best Junior Woodchuck who am I?" His brothers shared a look. 

"Huey?" Dewey suggested unsurely. Huey sighed. "Look, who cares if you're not the best, you're still a good one. You totally got this in the bag!"

Huey cheered up a bit, "You know what? Nothing can stop me with my trusty Junior Woodchuck Guidebook in my ha-!" He said as grabbed it from underneath his cap, but was then interrupted by Launchpad taking it out of his hand, saying that 'they were no Guidebooks allowed during the challenge'. Well, that wasn't good. How was he supposed to do this without his Guidebook? How was he supposed to do anything without his Guidebook?! "Huey, Huey needs a book of rules!" 

Louie looked at him, "I think what Dewey is trying to say is that you were born for this." He put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Now get out there and show the nerds that you are King Nerd." Huey smiled and confidently marched off after Violet. He had this in the bag. 

He only made it a few more steps before he was stopped by his Dad, who bent down and gave him a hug. "No matter what happens today I am so proud of you. I know you weren't expecting any of this, but you can do it. Not the Guidebook, not you with the Guidebook, you- Huey Duck can become a Senior Woodchuck all on your own. Try not to overthink it, we're all rooting for you." 

"Thanks, Dad." 

"Oo, whose this lady?" Dewey asked, walking up to his Uncle. 

"Isabella Finch." 

Della excitedly made her way over to them, "Adventurer? Chief of Woodchuck exploration? Chronicler of the unknown?" The other kids silently came up and looked at the portrait during Della's spiel, and they all listened as Scrooge talked about how much she meant to him. Apparently she was one of his hero's growing up. He explained that he had only had enough money for one adventure book and that he had chosen Isabella's. He then went on about some of the different adventures she had had, Webby letting out a gasp at them all. 

"This woman made history, and deserves the utmost respect." Scrooge gently put his hand on her portrait then viciously ripped a paper from out of her painted hands, making the others exhale in shock and look at him angrily. "What? She hid this map here for future adventurers to find." Their angry looks went away. "And here on Woodchuck Island Finch hid her greatest treasure..." The rest of what he said got muffled as the others were distracted by a bird outside the window, who was getting louder and louder. "Oi, do yew mind? Ae'm speechifyin'!" He was about to go on when he was interrupted once again, this time by Donald. 

"Yeah, yeah, greatest adventure of all time, the challenge is about to start!" He gestured to the door and the others looked at each other before racing outside. Donald shook his head and went after them. 

Huey listened as Launchpad explained how the challenge would work and tried to look more confident than he felt. He knew what his Dad and brothers said, but Violet was a great Woodchuck, it would take a lot to beat her. But with his family's support he could do anything. He just had to not get in his own head so much. That was easier said than done. His mind often felt like his worst enemy and now without the Guidebook... No, he could do this! He had to believe in himself, just like everyone else did. And besides, if he got too much in his head his brothers could pull him out, even if they weren't physically there beside him. "I was born ready." 

"If you are as prepared as a helpless baby then I will beat you easily!" Violet taunted then grew sheepish. "Apologies. Lena told me that friendly smack talk is expected in competitions such as these." She did what? 

"Call him a clown!" Lena suddenly said from next to him. 

He looked at her, "Lena!" She was supposed to be on his side, they lived together for crying out loud! She shrugged. He looked at her annoyed then straightened up and turned to Violet with a friendly smile. "Hey, may the best Woodchuck win." He said, holding out his hand. 

She shook it, "Likewise." An air horn was blasted in their ears, signaling the start of the race and they took off. Huey ran through the forest until he came across multiple paths and quickly dug through his pack, pulling out a water jug and taking the lid off. 

"When you don't have a compass," He poured water into the lid and grabbed the pin off of one of his badges. "Make one." He got a magnet from his pack and moved it against the pin a couple of times then put it on a leaf and put the leaf in the water. "Now just have to find north and," He walked in the direction the compass told him to. "Place the first trail marker." He took a couple of more steps then saw the trail marker in the distance. "Good job, Huey. Already in the lead." He slid down a log then made this way to the trail marker. He had this. 

He supposed he could've just made a compass magically, but using magic during things like these always felt like cheating. Yeah it was his just as much as his knowledge was, but it was something the other kids didn't have and it wasn't fair of him to use it against them. Besides, he liked making things without it, that was part of the reason he liked the Woodchucks so much! He didn't want to always rely on his magic, recent events had shown him that it wasn't as sturdy as he thought it was. And what was sturdier than a book? ...Right, he didn't have the Guidebook, he'd have to try harder not to think about that. But that became harder to do when he realized he hadn't gotten there first like he thought. 

"'Hubert, who is second place and holding this letter? You are! Best wishes, Violet.' What the?" How? How could she have beat him there? 

"Was that good smack? Do you feel appropriately razzed?" A voice suddenly called from above him, he looked to see Violet standing at the top of the winding uphill path. He made an angry noise as he crumpled up the letter. He threw it aside as he placed his own flag in the trail marker and raced after her. Yes, it was. 

He then came back and picked up the letter: littering was never good. 

"We're on the exact path Finch took in her very last adventure. Now let's stick to her- what is this bird doing here?" Uncle Scrooge asked as the same bird from earlier ran out in front of them. They were currently following Isabella Finch's map on what was promised to be their biggest adventure yet. Or they were until they were interrupted by the bird. Dewey couldn't find it in himself to complain. 

The bird danced and Dewey ran out next to it, "Giving me the irresistible urge to bust several moves." He said as he copied it. It then began singing and so did he, what? It was just so catchy! They started to dance around the others who watched them with differing expressions, some -Scrooge- more annoyed than others, and others -Louie and his Dad- with fond smiles.

Dewey and the bird suddenly crashed into Scrooge, interrupting him, once again. Louie busted out laughing. Webby joined in his giggles but stopped once their Uncle turned to look at them angrily, each saying how they weren't laughing and how rude that would be. Donald swatted at the bug that kept hovering around him until he got annoyed enough to blast magic at it, making it drop to the floor. "Well, that was rude." Della blinked. Donald let out an angry quack and she grinned before taking off, him and the bird following after. 

"Hey, we were just getting a flow going! Come back!" Dewey cried as he took off after the bird, his remaining siblings quickly leaving as well. None of them paying any mind to their Uncle Scrooge and whatever he was raving about now. 

Eventually they all settled down and started walking at a slower pace, their Uncle Scrooge taking the helm again, making Donald and Della share a look. It wasn't that he tended to get a bit overzealous when it came to certain adventures but... okay it was exactly that. They had seen this before, where he would get so caught up in his way and wouldn't allow deviation, it never ended well. This really wasn't needed today, not on such an important day to one of the kids, and it was only serving to annoy Donald further. He just wanted to see his kid become a Senior Woodchuck, was that too much to ask?! Apparently. Well, at least the others were having fun. And it was a nice day out all things considered- warm, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. 

And then it started pouring down rain. 

He let out an aggravated quack and they all rushed for cover as soon as they discovered the rain was electrified. "Urgh, why would rain ever be made of lightning?!" Louie asked, annoyed as he currently felt. And why would it rain in the first place? This place didn't make sense. 

"This is the lightning rain of Chilipopo. Old Isabella braved a 183 lightning rain with only grit, determination, and the hat on her head!" 

"She had a hat?!" Was all Louie had to say to that. 

"Come now, we are walkin' in the steps o' a giant." Webby let out a gasp. "Not a literal giant." Webby 'aw'ed. 

Donald turned his attention back to his sister, who was trying for the thousandth time to get him to like nature. Right now it was hard to believe that she liked nature, what with all the raindrops that kept plopping on her skin, he could appreciate the effort though. Until it got him punched in the face that was.

As he fell face forward on the ground he heard the bird from earlier and got a bit suspicious. That thing kept following them around, there had to be a reason why. Maybe it had something to do with the 'greatest adventure of all time' they were supposed to be on. Either way, Dewey really liked it so he wasn't complaining. 

He picked his head back up to see Scrooge going into the log and the kids missing, guess they were moving again. 

Huey steadily continued on the path he was on, until a thud of thunder stopped him in his tracks. "Junior Woodchuck Rule 38: when you hear thunder it's time to get under cover." He said as he looked at the darkening sky. "But stopping would put me behind." He turned to the path in front of him unsurely until a bolt of lightning knocked him out of it. "No problem," He started to run. "Rain never hurt any-ow!" He rubbed his beak after he felt it get shocked by, water? The electrified water persisted to pelt him and he rubbed at the spots it was hitting. "Electrified rain?! HEEELLLP!" 

He stepped into a puddle as he started running and shook his foot, stumbling into a plant. "Oh, uh, rubber plant yeah, ow!" He yelped then relentlessly yanked at the plant, hoping to get himself some cover. If he couldn't stop that was the next best thing.

Violet suddenly ran by him wearing some sort of leaf contraption, she turned back, "You need to sever the rubber leaf at the base." She told him. What was he doing? He knew that, he was letting this whole thing ruffle him way too much, he needed to relax. That was the only way he would win this. But relaxing was easier said than done, especially during an electric downpour. 

"Yes thank you very -ow!- much. I knew that- ow!" 

"Very well. Now eat my dust! That was the smack-talking!" And with that she was off again, leaving him to haphazardly grab the plant by its roots and holding it over himself. Which soaked him in water... Relaxing, he was going to relax. 

"Easy, Hue, the Guidebook says that every setback is an opportunity for- ah!- growth." He shook the water off his hand and let out an uneasy breath before going forward at a steady but slow pace. The faster he went the more he would get shocked. He missed his Guidebook, he missed his brothers, they would know what to do. Or, they would help him know what to do, they were always the best at that. 

He walked until his injuries got to be too much and sat down at the base of a tree, debating whether or not to use his magic to heal himself. Healing magic was his specialty, so it would do it better than any other alternative, but... No, that would be cheating, if he was winning this he was doing it the right way. He opened his pack and pulled out some aloe, pouring out the goo and applying it to his injuries, "Put aloe on your ouchies, prevents the mean and grouchies." He sang harshly. This day was really starting to get to him. At least the pain went away. 

"Ahh," He sighed in relief. "See? I don't need the most badges to prove I'm the best Woodchuck. All I need is my wits, a little know-how, annnd IIII am lost." He realized as he glanced around and saw nothing familiar looking. "Okay, when lost a Woodchuck retraces their steps. But then I'll far even further behind, then I'll lose." He started panicking. "No Guidebook, no map, no clue, no Guidebook, no hopes, no chance, NO GUIDEBOOK!" Of course, the solution was so simple, how didn't he see it sooner? "I'll just go to the Guidebook in my mind. Manic episodes, mass hallucinations, mental breakdowns, moss-"  

"I reckon you're searching for navigation techniques." An unknown voice suddenly said from next to him. He looked to see a floating, talking Guidebook. Yup, he had lost it. The Guidebook continued to talk to him, making him reach out for his brothers' energies like he always did when he was scared or unnerved- this time was definitely the latter. Both energies immediately washed over him and he felt a calmness overtake him, that was better. He slowly turned to the side to see the Guidebook was now gone and let a sigh of relief. Okay, he could do this, he just had to figure out another way to get back on track. Wait, that was it! He could track his direction by the sun, all he needed was a stick! 

He quickly found one and stuck it in the ground, making it cast a shadow. "Ha! I'd like to see Violet use a magical bond to refocus herself! You're gonna do it, Huey, just you, and nature, and," A large shadow fell over him. He glanced up to see some sort of bear hybrid behind him; he started slowly backing up while letting out gasps and eventually ran into a rock. Okay, Hubert, stay calm, remember your training- make yourself big and intimidating. He climbed the rock and bravely stood on top of it, more than ready to let out loud bear noises. But that wasn't what happened. 

Instead, a huge blast of magic soared out of his body and hit the bear. Before he could question it too much he decided to run, he only made it a few steps before a huge tree blocked his path. Behind him he could hear the bear coming to his senses. "Come on, Huey, you know what to do. What do I do?" He searched his mind for an answer but all be could come up with was something about stringing up his food- wait, that was it! "I'm the food!" He climbed a little bit up the tree and rested on a broken branch, pulling a rope from out of his pack. But the bear didn't seem to have any trouble climbing either, he had to work fast. 

He tied the rope around himself then throw the other end up, lassoing it around another tree branch. He got to it just in time for the bear to completely demolish the other one. Now that was some real Senior Woodchuck thinking. 

If there was one thing Louie hated it was walking, and he hated it even more when the ground kept giving him splinters. He was starting to understand why his Uncle wore spats. But Dewey was hellbent on following the bird for some reason and his Uncle was annoyed -which was always fun to see-, so walk he did. Even though his feet were killing him and the log was making him start to feel claustrophobic. Never let it be said he didn't do anything for his family. 

Just as he was about to start complaining he felt Huey's energy reaching out for him; he instinctively reached back and felt Dewey do the same. They sent calming pulses through it and felt as their brother's energy settled. But not for long, soon it was getting restless again, and worse. Before they really knew what was happening they felt some of their magic fly through the bond and in the direction of Huey's energy. Things settled after that. The two of them shared a look, that was new. 

They were about to say something when light shone through the neverending darkness, letting them know they were reaching the end of the log. The brightness of the outside hurt Louie's eyes a little bit but it was definitely better than before. He came to a stand next to Webby and they both listened as their Uncle began talking, "Alright, if we turn back now we can still brave the devil's teeth on the eternal quicksand, slay the unfathomable phoenix, gather the treasure, and be back before Huey finishes his challenge. Unless that bird ruins our adventure again." 

"Hey, that bird lead us to safety." Dewey protested. 

"What? A bit of electrified rain?" 

Louie raised an eyebrow at him, "Yes." Scrooge gave him a look then turned back the way they came, but was stopped by the bird. He griped at it before a growl interrupted him, they all looked to see an angry-looking bear creature, covered in bumps. Louie and Dewey shared another look, that must've been what they had felt. Well, if the bear was here then that meant it wasn't near Huey. But that did mean it was near the rest of Louie's family. 

"Everyone follow that bird!" His Uncle commanded after it stole Finch's map and fled into the cave. The rest of them did so, though it was mostly to get away from the bear.

Scrooge took the lead and everyone followed him, Dewey turning to his brother as soon as he felt it was safe too. "What was that about?" 

"I don't know I mean, sure we've known whenever we've been in danger before when we've been separated, but we've never actually been able to do anything about it." 

"Do you think we did anything about it?" 

Louie looked at him, "We had to of, you saw that thing." Yeah Dewey did, and he was so glad they were all able to get away from it. He only hoped it didn't start chasing Huey again.

He and everyone else came to stop in front of multiple different paths and he heard Webby ask which way the bird went. Oh right, the bird, the whole reason they were here in the first place. He couldn't believe he forgot about that. Well, life-changing moments did do that. "Or maybe it's just a different adventure!" He added on to his brother's words. 

"Well, it's not the right one! We're supposed to be following in the footsteps of greatness, following the map!" 

"Adventure isn't about following the same old path," Webby took of few steps in front of the others and pointed a finger out, resolutely. "It's about discovering new things and going off the map!" Scrooge brushed her off. "You!" Dewey and the others said in response to his rhetorical question. Or at least he thought it was rhetorical, Huey was always better with that kind of stuff. 

"But it's history." 

Dewey looked at him determinedly, "So let's rewrite history!" He shared a look with the others, his Dad sporting a proud one, and his Uncle started to walk away. But then he stopped. Suddenly he began singing and dancing just like the bird and Dewey had never felt so proud. He stopped after a few seconds but it had been long enough for the bird to respond. 

"What do you think, family, should we follow this crazy bird to some unknown adventure?" They let out cheers and the six of them chased after the bird. Now, this was an adventure Dewey could get behind. 

"Ha-ha! There's the next marker!" Huey cheered as he saw it. "Let's see Violet pull.. this.. off..." His words started to slow as he heard grunting from next to him. Oh please don't be... Violet, it's Violet. Of course it's Violet, why wouldn't she be one step ahead of him once again! "Violet, no." He distraughtly groaned after she noticed him. 

She attempted to comfort him but grabbed onto a weak branch making her fall. "Violet, no!" He said again, this time more worried. She thankfully landed on another branch below but the bear was quickly gaining his way there. She thought quickly and cut down the beehive at the end of the branch, making it hit the bear. But she looked to be stuck. Rule 17 said that a Woodchuck always helped out their fellow Woodchuck, whatever the cost, but he was so close... "You know, I bet if I made it to the final checkpoint first there'll be someone there to help, I could win the challenge and look out for my competitor." He said to himself in an attempt to feel better. 

But was that him? He risked a look down and saw how helpless she looked. No, it wasn't. But right now he couldn't be him, he had a contest to win. He hooked his rope around a further ahead of him branch and swung across the tree, landing and sliding down on another branch, successfully getting on the mountain path. And there it was! The next marker right in front of him! He tiredly placed his marker in one of the slots then whirled around as he heard a voice creeping up the mountain. He ran off before she could get all the way up. 

He continued running until he had to start climbing, and since he was a bit ahead he allowed himself to start thinking. What happened before with the bear was so strange. That magic felt off, like it wasn't his. But he knew it as well as his own- it was his brothers'. But it had never done that before, was it possible their bonding was shifting again? That was most likely to be the case, there was still so much they didn't know about it... It wasn't like there was no rhyme or reason to it, if Huey wanted to think on it hard enough he could figure it out, but his brothers weren't there, and for all they could do they couldn't read each other's minds. It wouldn't be fair to them. 

....Yes he realized he was a bit of a hypocrite but they were much more important to him than Violet was. They were much more important to him than anybody was. How could he be the best possible oldest brother if he couldn't even make Senior Woodchuck? 

"Soon to be Senior Woodchuck summits the insurmountable mount-" His narration was interrupted by him noticing the final challenge: a rickety rope bridge strung across a pit of lava. "Ooof course."

The pit of lava completely encompassed the whole of the mountain, and the place he needed to get to was smack dab in the middle of it. Looked like the bridge was the only way. 

Okay, this was easy, all he had to do was make it across and he would win. Even if he did abandon his compatriot to do it. Agh, no time for that! He had a challenge to win!

He determinedly walked to the bridge, ignoring every warning siren going off in his head, and placed a foot on it. Then heard movement from behind him, knew it could only be one person and panicked. He ran further onto the bridge and before he knew what was happening it was splitting apart in front of his eyes, making him fall. Luckily, he was able to grab onto one of the planks. 

"Hubert!?" He heard a worried voice shout from above him. Violet. This was the first time he was glad to see her in a while. She held out her hand and he grabbed onto it and started pulling him up, "Junior Woodchuck Rule # 726 check out every-" 

"Yes I know!" He interrupted, loosening his grip on the edge in his anger. She quickly grabbed onto him again and pulled him completely out. They landed next to each other in a huff and shared a look that promptly became determined once they re-noticed the final marker. Huey watched as Violet got up, ran towards the tree, and pulled out a couple of sticks. He started panicking and rummaged through his pack. "When you're between a rock and a hard place- ugh I don't know I'm gonna throw this rock!" He wrapped his rope around it and swung that over his head, making it loop across one of the bridge poles on the other side. He tied the other end of the rope to the bridge pole next to him and gulped. Here goes nothing. 

He carefully climbed up the tightrope he made and started making his way across. "She might have more badges but Ol' Huey put in the time! Huey's gonna be the Senior Woodchuck, Huey has to be the Senior Woodchuck!" Huey... has lost it again. Without his brothers around he tended to do that, but wait, he always had them with him. He reached for their energies again and let out a calm sigh. Yeah, he could do this. 

His feet suddenly got hotter and he let out a yelp. "Never failed a Woodchuck test before, be better!" He put his foot down on the rope and shivered. "Almost there, you're going to be a Senior Woodchuck, you're-" He got cut off as a gust of wind came by him and he looked up to see Violet flying by in a hang-glider. Why was she always one step ahead of him?! "Oh, come on!"

She maneuvered around the sky until she was next to him and he started sprinting, "I deduced the most effective use of this rising heat is a hang-glider. See you at the finish line! Chump!" And then she was off, once again. 

"What'd I do? JWG I need your help!" He thought to the Guidebook in his mind, though hopefully it would stay in his mind, but came up with nothing. What did you do when there was someone better than you in every way? 

'Try not to overthink it, we're all rooting for you.' 

Dad. 

Dad always knew how to help him, Dad would be proud of him no matter what. But would he be proud of the way he had acted today? Urgh, what was he doing?! Why did getting this mean so much to him?! He looked down at the lava bubbling below him and realized just how in over his head he was. What was he doing? This wasn't how he wanted to do anything of this. He couldn't do this, not yet. He wasn't ready. 

Just as he came to that conclusion lava spewed up burning the rope in front of him. He jumped over it and twirled to face away from the lava then started hastily pulling himself to the other side. But it was only a few moments before the rope snapped. "Violet, HELP!" He screamed as his half of the rope began plummeting towards the lava. He was picked up just in time and looked up at her, "Thank you." He said softly. 

She nodded, "Junior Woodchuck Rule 162: A Junior Woodchuck looks out for their fellow Woodchucks whatever the cost." He hung his head in shame, 

"You really are a better Woodchuck than me." 

Donald felt something off as they all chased after the bird, and his suspicions were only confirmed when he saw his remaining boys share a look: Huey was in trouble. Every instance in him was telling him to go find and save him but... the boys were growing up. He had to trust that he could get out of his one on his own. He looked down at the charm he always had around his wrist and watched as it blinked white. It had helped him out so much over the years but now... now his boys could get themselves out of trouble. And that was okay. 

He took it off his wrist and put it in his pocket. 

Huey took off his sash and held it in his hands, "I broke the rules. I left you behind, I didn't just fail the challenge I failed my oath." Violet put a hand on him and he looked down. "I don't deserve these." He held his sash over the lava, more than ready to throw it in when a voice came from next to him, making him pause. 

"I too have failed." Violet admitted. He turned to her and she gave him a weak smile then pointed to one of her badges. 

He got up, "Wait, there's a failure badge?" How did he not know about that? 

"I tried to qualify for Senior Woodchuck three times before I was accepted this year. Yes, failure is a logical and natural conclusion of trying something new. Junior Woodchuck Rule #7: work harder, make yourself better, and try again." She grabbed his hand. "Come, let us finish together. Perhaps we can both be Senior Woodchucks." But no, he couldn't do that, he had come to that decision before and he wasn't backing down on it. He wasn't ready. 

And that was okay. "No, you earned it, I haven't." He turned back towards her with a hopeful smile. "Yet." She smiled at him and grabbed her final flag then stuck it in the marker. Nothing happened until she something about thinking it would be more climactic. The flag slotted into the pole and rose up until it reached the top then the ground beneath them stayed to descend, making them both panic. 

He stayed in that state until Violet turned his head and he saw her parents, Lena, and Launchpad. "Launchpad?" Both of them said when the platform stopped. And that was when his family came running in. Boy, was he glad to see them. 

"Hey, I'm Launchpad!" Launchpad responded after their family called his name as well. "You guys are just in time to see the winner!" They made their way over to the stands, Huey's Dad and brothers looking relieved to see him. Yeah, that was to be expected.

His Aunt Della let out an excited cheer which made him grimace. Here came the hard part. "Actually, I lost." His family gasped and Della started making her way towards the stage before his Dad made her sit down. "And that's okay." Huey walked over to Launchpad and held out his hand, "Launchpad, I will take my failure badge please." 

Launchpad bent down to his level and opened his sash, revealing a plethora of failure badges, "Here, take one of mine." He presented it to him and Huey gladly stuck it on his own sash. After that he walked off the stage and Violet was named the newest Senior Woodchuck. He was so happy for her. 

As soon as their brother sat down Dewey and Louie tackled him in a hug, "Are you okay?" Dewey asked. He seemed like he was, and he was much calmer than before, but Dewey always chose to be safe than sorry when it came to his brothers. 

But luckily, he smiled at them and said, "Yeah, I am."

The three of them had a silent agreement to talk more about the new development in their bond later. 

Their Dad then hugged him, "So proud of you." He said softly. Huey beamed at him. 

"We learned an important lesson today," The bird popped over Scrooge's shoulder without him noticing. "The adventure is not always about the treasure that awaits us at the end but the journey that-" The bird bumped into him. "Would you knock it off with the song?!" And that was when Huey noticed something, 

"Wait that song, is that the titter twill bird of knowledge?" The bird flew off as Louie asked him a question. "The legendary mascot of the Woodchucks! Descended from the personal pet of Isabella Finch herself!" The bird suddenly threw itself into the JWG crest embroiled in the mountain, making it spin. As it spun it separated the mountain and the top half rose up revealing some sort of ladder. 

The family made their way over to it, "It wasn't distracting us, it was guiding us to Finch's treasure!" Dewey exclaimed as their Uncle made his way past him and Huey. Scrooge gasped as he got to the top, in a container surrounded by hay was a box, and it the box was, 

"Finch's Lost Adventure Journal, it contains all the adventures she had and advice she left for future generations." The kids surrounded the journal as the bug that was bothering Donald earlier came buzzing back, making him sprint off while trying to swat it away. But no one paid it any mind, when perhaps they should have. "Or almost everything." Scrooge amended Webby's statement. 

"The Missing Mysteries?" Huey questioned. "This is a list of legends Finch never found! The Stone of What Was, The Lost Harp of Mervana, The Third Eye Diamond! This could help us find the greatest lost mysteries of all time!" 

"Now that is an adventure! What do you say family?" Everyone sans Donald and Lena cheered. The bug following Donald now on a wall, staring right at them with blinking eyes. 

Donald wasn't that surprised when Huey came to find him later that day, he had had such a long one and so much had happened. He was probably feeling overwhelmed. Which is why Donald decided to make him some sugar-free hot chocolate. And why he decided the best place to do it was in the houseboat. He didn't go out on it as much as he used to, but it was still a big comfort place for him and his boys. 

"I lost my way today." Huey announced as soon as he handed him a cup. Donald raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. "I broke the rules, I abandoned my fellow Woodchuck, my friend! And all to get an advancement." He put his head in his arms. "I don't deserve hot chocolate." 

"Why did you do it?" Was all Donald said, more curious than anything. Everyone lost their way once or twice, Huey needed to know it was okay. His son said something that was muffled by his arms. "Gonna need you to speak up, Kiddo." 

He picked his head up, "I wanted to be Senior Woodchuck so bad, and it severely blinded my judgment. I know you told me not to overthink it, but she just kept being better than me! No matter what I did she was one step ahead! I don't know how to deal with something like that." He admitted and Donald nodded, that did seem like most of it but there was something else. One issue at a time. 

"It's hard." Donald told him while nursing his own hot chocolate cause it was, it would do him no good to lie about it. "The truth is there will always be people that are better than us at things, but that doesn't diminish what you bring to it. Huey, you like being a Woodchuck, right?" He nodded. "Then the rest doesn't matter. The thing you like is special because YOU'RE the one doing it, not because you're the best at it." 

Huey smiled at him, "Thanks, Dad." Then looked down. "I left Violet behind. I tried to reason that I could win the challenge and then get her some help, but I knew what I was doing. I feel so bad about it." 

"Well, that's something." Donald said to comfort him. "You say you lost your way but it sounds like you still had it, and just forgot to listen to it. That happens sometimes, especially when you want something really badly, but you came to your senses and that's what's important." 

"It was because of you actually." Donald hmmed, trying to cover his surprise. "Yeah, I was, in a pretty tough spot and panicking. I thought about what you had said and how you would be proud of me no matter what, but, then I thought that you wouldn't be proud of the stuff I did today and realized I was over my head, and that I didn't want to win that way." 

Donald smiled at him, "And that is why I'm proud of you. You're a good kid, Huey, you just had a bad day. The important thing is that you learn from it and do better." Rule #7 of the Woodchucks if he remembered correctly. Della and Fethry would know better than him. "Why did you want it so badly?" 

"I wanted to be the best." Donald gave him a look. There was more to it than that, he knew his kids well. "It was what I wanted since I first joined the Woodchucks, I thought that it would be my greatest accomplishment ever, and maybe when I get it it will be, but- I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could do something. Everyone in our family has achieved so much, Uncle Scrooge is the richest person in the world, you're one of the greatest Socrerors ever! I wanna do something like that." Ah, so that was it. He knew this feeling all too well, being related to Scrooge McDuck did that to you. 

"Things like that take time, experience. No one is telling you you have to make a huge mark right now, or ever! I know having Scrooge McDuck as an Uncle makes you think that, and I know he expects a lot out of us, but I never want you to be anything but yourself, and neither do your siblings or aunt. If you want to make a mark on the world someday that's great, and we'll all be behind you! But you don't have to do it. You're not Scrooge and you're not me. You’re Huey, and you make your own way in the world."

Huey hugged him tightly, he could always count on his Dad to make him feel better. He settled into the booth as his Dad got up to make fresh hot chocolate more content than he had been all day. He may of lived in the mansion, but the houseboat would always be his home. 

Chapter Text

After the day they had all had Louie wanted nothing more than to crawl in his bed and go to sleep, which was why he got so upset when his blanket was pulled off of him. "I was a hermit, I was fine with being a hermit, let me be a hermit!" 

Huey blinked, "I don't think you know what that means." Dewey jumped on his bed, making Louie's body flop slightly.  

"Something to do with crabs, right?" Huey gave him a look while Louie snickered. "Alright, Hue, why'd you gather us?" 

"Right, that. We need to talk about what happened yesterday." 

"Now? Right after we just dealt with those creepy-looking creatures?" Louie asked but sat up anyway. He knew how this ended. "Fine, but we are sleeping eventually, right?" 

His brothers shared a look, "Probably." Dewey shrugged. "So, like, what exactly happened? Talk us through it." And so Huey did. He told them how the bear had come from out of nowhere, and how he had intended to make himself bigger to scare it off, but instead a huge wave of magic flew out of his body. He told them how he knew it was their magic without even thinking about it and how he wanted to wait for the three of them to be reunited so they could figure it out together. And then it was their turn to talk. 

Theirs wasn't as detailed as his was, just that they had been walking along and suddenly felt their magic being pulled in his direction, but it did offer some information. "So it was instinctual?" 

"We knew you were in trouble, but we didn't send our magic through it- it did it on its own. We didn't know what happened either, when the bear showed up next to us all messed up we figured that was why you had been in danger and what our magic attacked." Dewey explained, grabbing one of Louie's pillows and picking at it. He was just as lost as his brothers were. Yeah, that figured. 

"I think Violet also threw a beehive at it but it was pretty scratched up before that. What does this mean exactly? That we can always protect each other when we're in danger, no matter how far apart we are?" 

Louie raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that a good thing?" 

Dewey perked up, "Yeah! Haven't we always wanted to protect each other no matter what? Now we can!" He paused as if thinking of something. "Wow, when we said there'd never be a moment where we'd be apart we really meant it." He gasped, "Future vision!" His brothers smiled at that and the three of them agreed to call it a night. They could always find out more tomorrow during their magic lesson. 

The sweet siren of his bed was the only sound Donald cared to hear right now, and as soon as his head hit his pillows he knew he'd be out like a light. But it looked like fate had other plans. "Della? Did you walk to the wrong bedroom again?" He asked when he noticed his sister perched in his bed. She glared at him, 

"No! I wanted to check on you." He let out an oh. "Yeah, dummy. How are you? And more importantly, why did it take a stupid wish for you to say anything about any of this?" He sighed and walked over to his bed, seemed like sleep would have to wait a while. 

He sat on the bed and forced his sister to move over with his side. "Honestly? I didn't want to hear Scrooge's spiel about how 'adventure is on our blood!' and 'it's who we are'. Look, I know that trying to change everybody was wrong, I love all of us just the way we are- flaws in all. It's just hard sometimes, doing everything all the time. And it's definitely not good for the kids. There needs to be some sort of medium, I thought Scrooge already knew that." 

"Ah I'm sure he's just excited to have all of us together and being a family, it'll wear off eventually." Yeah, that made sense, Donald was overjoyed about it as well. And it was nice when they all were together, no matter what they were doing. Scrooge just needed to realize that they could do more together than adventure, they were a family- they didn't need high stakes to bond, they just needed each other. "What if we take a break and do something tomorrow, just the two of us?" Della suddenly asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. 

"Can't. Boys have a magic lesson and then Panci and Jo are coming over." She raised an eyebrow at him teasingly and he fought back a groan, he knew he'd regret saying that. 

"Are they?" She started making kissing noises and he whacked her with his pillow. She instantly retaliated and in a few moments a full-blown pillow war had begun. There was just something about being with your other half that made you act like a child. The war escalated, including feathers strewn across the bed and incoherent yelling that was sure to reach the other side of the mansion. Neither of them could remember the last time they had had this kind of fun. 

A voice suddenly came from the doorway, "Oi, what's with all the noise?!" They stopped what they were doing, 

"Sorry, Uncle Scrooge." They said, Della getting one last hit in. He tried to give them a stern look but it quickly faded into something fond and he just ended up shaking his head with a chuckle. Then he told them to keep the noise down and that he was heading to bed. "Goodnight!" Their Uncle left after that and they looked at the mess they had made. Della got off the bed, 

"Well, it's not my room." Donald glared at her and magically cleaned up the mess, then threw the feathers at her. "That's fair. But seriously, do something after Panchito and José leave?" 

He smiled, "Sure." She left and Donald all but hopped in his bed, falling asleep before something else could stop him. 

The next morning Donald was awoken by the sound of his door opening. He cracked one eye open to see three figures creeping into the room and bit back a yawn. Then he turned to look at his alarm clock and saw it was nine. Wow, they must really be eager to have their lesson. His bed moved and he carefully waited before springing his trap. He suddenly shot his eyes open and wrapped his arms around his kids- making them shout out in surprise. He placed kisses on their heads as they struggled against him and just pulled them closer to him- they gave up after a few seconds. "How did you know?" Dewey demanded to know. 

"Dad instincts." He placed one last kiss on their heads then leaned against his headboard. "What's up?" He asked, as if not already knowing. 

They looked at him, "Can we have our lesson now?" Now? What was so important that it couldn't wait until after they had breakfast? Or at least he was more awake. Did something happen yesterday? All the more reason to regret it. "Sorry, I didn't mean like now now, we should let you wake up first. We're just really eager." Huey explained. That made more sense, and confirmed his suspicions. Now that things were back to normal they could get back to things like this, without it being so heavy. Donald was eager for it too, but he definitely needed to wake up more. 

"How's after breakfast sound?" 

So that was what they did. Once they finished it the four of them made their way to their magic room and got settled in. Donald turned to the boys, "Okay so, I think we should try offensive magic again. I know it didn't go too well last time but that's why you should give it another go. But if you don't think you're ready yet that's completely fine, we can do something else if that's the case. Just say the word."

The three of them looked at each other, they remembered what happened last time all too well, but they also remembered it was because they rushed themselves. They were ready now. Their Dad conjured up some moving targets and they blasted them away before they could get too close. "Don't just blast magic at them, use some offensive stuff." He reminded them.

And that was when Dewey lit up. He used his kinesis to bring some weapons towards him and shot them at the targets. "How did you know where to find those?!" His Dad quacked at him with something that sounded like protective anger. 

"Mrs. B showed me!" Dewey cheerful told him. Donald shook his head with disbelief then turned his attention to Louie, who had converted his defensive magic into offensive and shot tiny bubbles at his targets. They shattered into pieces upon impact and Louie grinned. Dewey held his hand up for a high five which he took, then they both looked at their brother. The targets were getting pretty close to him which made them share a worried look, but that seemed to be what Huey had intended cause as soon as they got within a certain distance they fell to the floor. Huey held up one of the weapons that Dewey had flown in there. 

He held it proudly, "The Rod of Impervia!" 

"Good job, boys," Their dad told them, then looked at Dewey sternly, "But next time no weapons like that. You could've gotten hurt. Or hurt someone else, especially since you weren't looking where those were going until they got here. You need to be more careful." 

Dewey gulped and nodded, "Yes, Dad." It had seemed like such a good idea at the time... But now thinking about it, he should've done something else. But the targets had been getting so close, he had just gone with his first instinct. Why was it never a good one? Oh well, there was always next time. "Now what? Are we going again?" His brothers came to stand next to him and the three of them looked at their Dad, who looked back at them inquisitively. 

"I wanna try something. Let's see how strong you're multi-person magic has gotten." The boys glanced at each other and shrugged. More targets flew around them and without even thinking about it they grabbed each other's hands and let their magic flow between themselves. They let it charge up until they couldn't contain it anymore then flung it out of their bodies, taking down every target seamlessly. They let go of their hands after that, but instead of their magic going back to themselves they stayed intertwined with each other. All of them stared at it bewildered. 

Louie blinked, "Well, that's new."  

"This has to have something to do with two days ago." Donald looked at Huey, 

"Two days ago?" And that was when his boys filled him in. He had to admit, it hadn't been what he was expecting. The boys' bond was, unique, but this was something else entirely. Magic didn't intertwine permanently, energy maybe, but not magic, even in people like twins or triplets it was just too different, too disconnected. Whenever people had tried to force it in the past it had never ended well, but now the boys' were doing it voluntarily. Something didn't add up here. 

"This is weird, right? Even for us?" Dewey asked after Donald had been too quiet, he sighed. It was weird, that was the whole problem, but how could he tell them something like that? He knew how much they treasured their bond, he didn't want to do anything to upset that. 

But he had to be honest. "It is. But that doesn't mean it's bad. These events definitely have something to with each other, it seems like your bond is shifting again. The only question is why. What's changed between now and the last time it shifted?" The boys shared a look- right, the last time it shifted was when they had first started to reconnect with Scrooge. What hadn't changed since then? "Okay, bad question. Why now? When everything's back to normal?" 

"We've got as much of a clue as you do, Dad." Dewey admitted. Which was none. Alright, there had to be some way for them to get answers, they just needed to find it. 

But before he could begin to think about how their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door. Della popped her head in a moment later, "José and Panchito are here." Donald let out a quack as he realized at the time then looked at the boys. 

"It's okay, we can pick this up another time." Huey told him and he nodded then started to clean up. "Go ahead, we got this." Huey waved him out of the room, ignoring his brothers' protests. Donald asked him if he was sure and once he reassured him he was Donald left, but not before reminding them to lock up when they were done. 

Dewey and Louie glared at their brother, "Thank you for that." He gave them a questioning look before saying a cleaning spell, which put everything back where it was supposed to be. "Oh." 

"Normally I wouldn't, but that session left me drained." They nodded understandingly and the three of them left the room, Huey locking up as soon as they were out. After that they roamed the halls thinking about what had happened. Instead of getting answers like they had wanted they had just gotten more questions, but that seemed to be the norm when it came to their bond. It felt like they were just missing one tiny piece, and as soon as they had it everything would fall into place. But how would they find that piece? Nowhere they looked had any answers for them, it was starting to seem like nowhere had any answers, like it was just something they had and that was all there was to it. But, no, there had to be a reason, there had to be an explanation. There just had to be. 

Donald grinned as his boyfriends came into his view and pulled them into a hug as soon as he was close enough, "Sorry I'm late, the boys had a magic lesson. I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?" 

"We only got here a few minutes ago." José reassured him. "I'm just glad Della opened the door and not Mrs. Beakley. That woman scares me." He whispered to the two of them, which made Donald smirk. When you lived with her for over a year you tended to get past things like that. She was an intimidating woman to be sure, but she also loved all of them very much and was his family, he loved her just the way she was. Even if she terrified his boyfriends.

Boyfriends, he would never get used to saying that again. They had gotten back together only a few days ago but he was already just as in love with them as he had been before they had broken up. He was aware that might not be the smartest thing, but they were it for him. They always would be. "How was the lesson?" Panchito asked as they moved into the den. 

Donald sighed, "Confusing." They looked at him questioningly, "Their bond is shifting again. Apparently now they can send their magic through it to one of them -if they're in danger- when they're separated, and just now it permanently intertwined." 

"Permanently? That's-" 

"I know." Donald finished the shook his head. "Sorry, I shouldn't be talking about this right now." 

They raised an eyebrow at him, "Donald, I asked about it." Oh, right. Donald let out an embarrassed chuckle. He wasn't embarrassed to talk about his boys by any means, it was just that he was aware he had a tendency to... ramble when it came to the kids. He couldn't help it, he just had so much love for them, he couldn't not talk about them, it was almost physically impossible. He was thankful he had people who understood that. "Okay, back to the permanently intertwining thing." Donald filled them in, 

".... and instead of going back it just," Donald made a flippant gesture, "Stayed. It doesn't make any sense. None of this makes any sense." He groaned, then felt hands rubbed his shoulders not even a second later. "Thanks." 

José hummed, "Well, if anyone can figure it out it's us." Donald smiled, yeah, the six of them could figure it out. 

"So what do we do now?" Dewey asked his brothers. "Not about our bond, just in general." He clarified. He wouldn't say the last thing he wanted to do right now was keep thinking about it, but it was pretty far down on the list. He wanted answers, but right now he was too confused to think of any, he just needed a break from thinking about it, they all did. Maybe continuously taking breaks from it wasn't helping the situation, but this was too big to figure out at one time and they knew it well. It wouldn't any of them any good to get overloaded by information. 

Huey knew that too, but he couldn't help but want answers immediately. This had been a puzzle for so long, and things kept getting in the way of them solving it, and now with the whole Missing Mysteries... he was worried they would never figure it out. Ugh, he couldn't think like that, they would eventually, they just had to change how they did this. So far they only really did something when they had free time, or when there was a new development- they had to make time for it. Later, they were all too drained right now. "I think Dad and our Tios are in the den so we could do something in our room?" He suggested unsurely. 

"Wow, for such a big mansion we sure stay in the same places." Which was more than fine with Louie, those places were the least likely to cause any chaos, and he really didn't like chaos. Not unless it was fun, like beating Scrooge at Scroogeolopy. And anyways, after just getting out of being stuck in a TV show he was good on chaos for a while. He shuddered, don't start thinking about that again. Instead he should be thinking about what just happened in their magic room... No, he shouldn't, what kind of a dumb idea was that? His brothers clearly didn't want to anymore and he wasn't doing it alone. Although if he were he would think about how strange it was. Magic didn't just permanently intertwine, cause otherwise magic users would be doing it left and right- their Dad and Tios definitely would've done it by now. No, this was something exclusive to them, and for once he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. 

Dewey looked at his brother, "You're right, we should do something somewhere else like outside or- oo we should see what Webby's up to!" His brothers shrugged and the three of them made their way to her room, Huey knocking on her door as soon as they got there.  

"Come in!" A cheerful voice came from inside. They did so. 

"Hey, Webs, whatcha up to?" Dewey asked as he got sat on her desk chair. She looked up from what she was doing and at them, 

"Oh just practicing my interrogating techniques, what're you guys up to?" 

"Just got done with our magic lesson so we thought we'd come visit." Louie cooly explained and she beamed at them then shoved a dagger into one of her stuffed animals, making them flinch, and stood up. They were so glad she was on their side.  "Right... wanna hang out?" 

And so they settled in in the room part of her room, Webby and Louie on the bed while Huey and Dewey chose the floor. For a few moments none of them did anything, content to just stay there, before Dewey let out a groan and flopped on the ground. The others looked at him unimpressed. "Comfortable?" Huey asked him teasingly; Dewey weakly flung a hand in his direction. Louie got a mischievous look on his face then threw a pillow at him. "Louie." Huey said with a blank face, then got a pillow in it as well. He and Dewey threw them back at him making him yelp and dodge them. The room fell silent once more. 

"Do you guys ever wonder what it'd be like if we were dogs?" Webby asked them, effectively breaking it as each of them clambered to get their answer heard. There was truly no dull moment with the Duck siblings. 

After that was resolved Donald ended up getting lost in his thoughts, he didn't mean to but there was something he had been thinking about for a while now. Telling the others he and his boyfriends were back together. He had wanted to when they first got back together, but things had kept happening and he never got the chance. But now, nothing was happening, it was the perfect time. He just had to ask them first. 

"So what do you guys think about telling everyone else that we're back together?" He casually asked, hoping it would hide his nervousness. 

They shared a look then Panchito jumped up in excitement. "Now? Can we do it now?" Donald smiled. 

Okay, they were actually doing this. Donald had to admit he was a little nervous about their reactions, he knew the boys would be fine- happy even, but the others were a different story. Webby would probably be just as happy as them, and Della would be happy she had something new to tease him about, Scrooge and Mrs. B were the real wildcards. There was some part of Donald that always wanted his Uncle's approval- he was better at hiding it than his sister but it was still there, and he was scared he wouldn't get it. Scrooge had always made his opinion about the two of them clear, and even if he was getting better he still had a distaste for them. But, no matter what he thought Donald wasn't breaking up with Panchito and José ever again. 

That thought didn't make telling him any easier. But he would have his boyfriends by his side, and that did. 

"I don't get it, what even is a 'eeby deeby'?" Huey asked his siblings. Their earlier discussion had died down once they got all their thoughts out and now they were talking about memes- or more specifically the 'eeby deeby' one. He didn't get it, but then again, he didn't get most memes. Well, at least his siblings had fun with them. 

"It's not anything really, that's the point. It's just fun to say." 

Webby slumped over the front of her bed, "When I found about it I was crawling through the vents at like three am and I just whispered 'eeby deeby'." 

Dewey whirled around at her, "That was you?!" Louie started cackling. "That scarred me for life!" Louie got louder and Huey shook his head with a fond smile. He hoped his wonderfully strange brothers never changed. 

Louie stopped laughing, "Honestly, Webs, that's so on par for you." He said as he wiped his eye. 

"Yeah..." Dewey was forced to admit. Then his phone buzzed, "Dad wants us downstairs." He told the others and got up. "Huh, I wonder why." They hadn't done anything, bad, lately so what could be so important? And why was he the one that was texted? Ah, Louie's phone must be dead. Didn't happen much, but when it did it was usually cause he was distracted. And his siblings together always made for a great distraction. 

When they got to the foyer they were surprised to see everyone else there as well and shared a look with each other, this would be good. 

"What's with the family meeting, Donald? Ye didnae release another curse, did ye?" Their Uncle asked making their Dad glare at him, 

"No," He took a deep breath in. "There's something I need to tell you guys." Another secret? Louie thought. They were supposed to be done with this. Oh well, at least they were hearing it now. His Dad grabbed his Tios hands and Louie widened his eyes. Oh. "We're back together." He announced sheepishly. His Aunt Della let out a smug cheer and hugged the three of them. "Sorry I didn't say anything sooner, stuff kept happening and made the timing feel off." Okay, that made sense. Louie really couldn't fault him for that. 

As soon as their Aunt let go the kids tackled The Three Cabs in a hug and started excitedly asking them questions. Donald made them stop after a few seconds, knowing if they kept going none of the questions were getting answered. But honestly he was just so happy they were excited, he would've let them go on forever if they wanted to. Of course he couldn't help but notice the silence from the other people in the room. Judging by the tightening grip on both of his hands his boyfriends had noticed it too. 

"That's... nice, lad." His Uncle said very carefully. He would take it. Mrs. B on the other hand had a confused look on her face, like she didn't know why she was there, it made him frown. 

"Family meeting, Mrs. B, you're family." He told her in response to the look, surely she knew that by now. She had to of. The look grew into a soft smile that seemed almost out of place on her face, like it wasn't used to being there. If she didn't know before she knew now. 

"Well," She started, just as careful as his Uncle had been. "If being with these two makes you happy, I'm happy for you. But I'm watching you." She said to his boyfriends, who fearfully nodded in response. Donald grinned, their responses hadn't been what he was expecting- they were better. He couldn't be more thankful for his family. 

"So when's the wedding?" Della asked teasingly and he quickly took that thought back. But the damage had been done and they were already talking about a nonexistent wedding, Dewey calling the role his best man much to his brothers' chagrin. Donald shook his head then shared a look with his boyfriends, who were watching the scene just as fondly as he was. Okay, maybe he could be more thankful for his family, but he definitely couldn't be more thankful for them. 

Later that day, after everything had died down, the triplets were in their room hanging out just them when the question was asked. It was a question that needed to be asked, but wasn't sure how to make itself known.

"How are you doing, Louie?"

Progress had been made, with all of them, but it was still important to check in with each other- maybe more important now. Having a relapse now would be more harmful to them than it was a few weeks ago, they needed to check in with each other. Louie most of all. 

So even if the question couldn't make itself known they still knew they had to ask it. 

"I'm, okay." He said honestly. "I'm not completely better and I don't know if I ever will be but, I'm better than I was." He smiled at them with tears in his eyes. "I don't feel stuck anymore." They grinned and lept forward to hug him, which he immediately sunk into. Their arms always felt like home. They always felt like home. And no matter what happened next he knew that they always would. That no matter what was around the corner -which could be anything, really, with this family- they would get through it as long as they were together. 

And they felt the exact same way. 

Chapter Text

The first thing Dewey did after getting back from Funzo's was seek out his brothers, it was really muscle memory to him at this point. He found them in the den discussing something and frowned, whatever it was looked serious and he didn't like that they were talking about it without him. Maybe it just didn't concern him, but if his brothers were involved yes it did. "Hey guys." He said, staying in the doorframe. 

They turned and smiled when they noticed who he was. That made him feel a little better. "Hey Dewey." They both replied, Huey patting the seat next to him. He gladly took the invitation. 

"What were you talking about?" He asked as soon as he sat down, needing to know more than he's ever needed to know something before. Okay, maybe that was a little strong, but these were his brothers and they were doing something without him- that didn't sit right with him. Yeah, he just got back from going to Funzo's without them, but this wasn't a trip to Funzo's, this was something serious. They didn't keep each other out of the loop with serious stuff. 

"What happened yesterday." Oh. He tried not to let the hurt show on his face, that was the worst thing to talk about without him. They knew that, so then why were they...? "It wasn't much, mostly just how weird it was." Huey was quick to reassure him. But that didn't really make him feel any better, why did it come up if he wasn't there? 

Louie studied him for a moment, "Yeah, we were about to switch to a different topic when you came in." Dewey knew they wouldn't get too deep into it without him, right? It didn't look like he did, but he had to of, because he would do the same. There were just some things they didn't talk about without all three of them and they all knew it, so why was he acting like he forgot? "You know, considering it was just us and it wouldn't be right to go into any more depth." He added on, hoping that would get some form of a positive reaction out of him. 

Huey looked in between his brothers, something was going on here and he didn't know what. He didn't like it. "Right, yeah." Dewey sighed. "I just, I don't like that it came up at all." Oh. That was what was going on. He needed to fix this, Dewey couldn't go on feeling like he was being excluded. Especially not from something like this. 

"Well it's been on our minds pretty much since it happened, and there wasn't anything else we could really talk about. But we really were going to change the topic, promise." Dewey smiled a bit at that and he felt a wave of relief wash over him. Okay, this was something that could be easily fixed, he could work with that. "We had just started talking about it actually, the uh," He pointed at the TV. "TV had just gone to commercial so..." He trailed off after that hoping Dewey would get the point. 

It looked like he did. "Okay. That's fine, I was just, worried," He and Louie grabbed his hands and he smiled again, this one larger. "But I shouldn't have been, huh? You guys wouldn't, I know you wouldn't," Dewey rubbed his face. "I think I'm just having one of those days." Huey immediately pulled him in for a side hug and felt him sink into it. He always hated when that happened to one of them, he hated even more that he couldn't do something about it. But then again, being there was doing something. "Do we wanna go more in-depth now or...?" 

"No." He replied as Louie joined the hug. "Let's just sit here." 

They didn't think about that again until the next time they saw their Dad, which was a few hours later. He had come into the den, probably just getting home from work, and plopped down next to them on the couch. The triplets shared a look and wondered if it was a good time to bring it up, but their Dad ended up making the decision for them, "What's up?" He asked, turning to them- he had always been the best at knowing when something was wrong. With them at least. 

"We've been thinking about what happened during our magic lesson, with our magic. We want to know what it was." 

Donald sighed, he didn't know what it was. And really wasn't good. These were his boys, he needed to know what was going on with them. "So magic permanently intertwining, it's not a thing. It's never happened before. It's not made to, even the most intune people's magics are on different wavelengths, they can intertwine for a spell or magical discharge, sure, but they're not meant to stay that way. Too many bad things can happen if they do, but your's chose to. ...I don't know what it means." Admitting that upset more than he thought it would, especially when he saw how their faces fell, but he had to. If they were gonna get answers he had to be honest. 

Huey looked at him, "So what now?" What now indeed? For once, he didn't know. They were looking to him for answers that he just didn’t have. And nothing hurt him more. He wanted to help them with this, he just had no idea how to. It was the worst feeling a parent could experience. 

"Now, I don't know. But whatever we do, we'll figure it out together." They smiled at him and he pulled them in for a side hug. But while their minds had been eased his hadn't, he was their parent, he needed to have the answers. If he didn't who did? They were counting on him to know how to solve this whole thing but he didn't, there was no way he could've. He felt like he was letting them down. But what was the alternative, lying? No, he would never do that, but that didn't mean the truth was any easier. There had to be some sort of way for him to get an idea, any idea, about what was going on. But how? 

Somewhere had to have the answers, but where? Ugh, he was trying to get answers, not more questions, but everything about this was shrouded in mystery- it was a lot simpler to get questions than answers. Good thing the Duck family thrived on mysteries. 

His Dad didn't have the answers, Huey wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. His whole life he was the one person Huey counted on to know everything, even though he knew one person could not know everything. But if even his Dad couldn't provide any answers then who could? Maybe he was right to think they wouldn't find any. They could look at their Dad's library again, or their Uncle's, but what would be the point? Nothing was there, looking again wouldn't change that. And the public library certainly wouldn't have anything, but Webby had found all that stuff there when she was looking for Lena... Maybe it was worth a glance. 

He couldn't give up hope, even if it was getting harder to keep it, then they really wouldn't find anything. A self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one. And that was the last thing they needed right now. So later he would bring up the idea of going to the public library to his brothers and they would see where that led, even if they hated the library, even if he wasn't sure there was anything there at all. And if there wasn't there was always the library at the money bin, and other places besides libraries. Their search hadn't reached a dead end, it had only just begun. 

Realizing you didn't have all the answers was a harder pill to swallow than Donald thought, especially when it was in accordance to your kids. He told them they could figure it out together, but he also knew that it wasn't quite as simple as that. He needed to have some sort of an idea but he just didn't, and he had no idea how to get one. He wasn't sure anyone did, and he didn't know if that made him feel better. Right now it felt like he didn't know anything, no matter how untrue that was. He hated feeling that way. What he hated even more is that he didn't know what to do about it. 

But yes he did, he had a whole body of people he could talk to. The only question was who would be best. A fellow parent obviously, but there wasn't a lot of those around. Maybe he could call up Goofy...

Just as he thought that he crossed paths with his Uncle and got a different idea. Scrooge wasn't exactly a parent but he had raised him and Della for a long time, and there was almost no one who knew him better. Maybe he would know what to say. Or maybe Donald would end up yelling at him, but it was overdue. "Hey, Uncle Scrooge?" He called, hoping he wouldn't regret it. 

"Yes, Lad?" 

"Can I talk to you about something?" His Uncle looked taken aback by that and he really couldn't blame him, Donald couldn't remember the last time he had sought his Uncle for something- that didn't directly involve him at least. 

"O' course, yew dinnae need ta ask." Well that was a relief. 

Now, how to start this? "I'm worried, that I can't provide the boys with the answers they need." 

"Aboot their bond, ye mean?" Donald nodded. "Yes, it's really a unique phenomenon, isnae it? Ae cannae make heads or tails o' it, ae dinnae have the most information aboot magic but ae know enough ta know that it's nae somethin' that just, occurs. Ae dinnae think anybody has the answers those boys need." Ugh, that didn't help. 

"But I'm their Dad, I'm supposed to have the answers!" 

Scrooge gave him a sympathetic look and rested a hand on his shoulder, "That doesnae mean ye always can. Ae know ye want ta help them, but sometimes helpin' is comin' ta terms with thin's like that and figurin' oot a different angle. It'll do nobody any good fer yew ta keep dwelling on this." He paused, as if considering something. "Yer nae lettin' them down by nae havin' all the answers, the only way yew would do that is if ye gave up- and we both know that's not in yer blood." Donald smiled at that, yeah, it definitely wasn't in him to give up, especially when it came to his boys. Okay, a new angle, he could do that. 

He just had to find out what that would be. They all had to completely change how they thought about this, it was like something they had never seen before- their current thinking process wasn't enough. And it couldn't be enough to just accept that anymore. Now they had to do something about it. The boys deserved answers, they had been wondering about this practically their whole lives and he could see it was really starting to weigh on them. They wanted to know what this was all about, and he couldn't blame them. Something so integral to them was surrounded by so much mystery, that had to be really hard to deal with. But no more, they were getting answers, no matter what it took. 

They had to. 

Dewey wasn't surprised to see Launchpad had chosen to hang around the mansion, he practically lived there really, but he was surprised at the way he was acting. It was the same way he had been acting since they defeated that spy game. Off, but only to those who could read him well. So, Dewey. And maybe Scrooge. The point was he was being weird, and Dewey wanted to find out why. 

But when he noticed Huey looking like he had something he wanted to say Dewey knew that might have to wait. 

After their Dad had left the den the three of them had decided to venture into the kitchen, which was when he saw Launchpad acting weird again. He wanted to do something about it but if Huey needed to talk that took precedent. "What would you guys say about going to the public library?" The library, that was what he wanted to talk about?! Oh Huey was so lucky they were brothers! 

Louie wrinkled his beak, "Gross, why?" At least he agreed with him. 

"I was thinking, we haven't been able to find any information about our bond in any of the libraries here- so why not try a different one?" Huey looked at his brothers hopefully, he really wanted them to hear him out. He shouldn't worry about it, they always did when it was important. 

"Yeah, that's a good idea, unfortunately. You wanna go now?" Thankfully for his brothers he could feel their hesitation from here, and it looked like Dewey had other things on his mind, so he decided to decline. They could always go tomorrow. Wait, in his family that wasn't always a guarantee. Decisions, decisions... Well, he already declined, it wouldn't be right to take it back now. They would figure something out. 

"Does Launchpad seem off to you guys?" Dewey then asked, solving the mystery of what had been on his mind. 

He and Louie shared a look, "I mean, maybe." Huey turned his attention to Launchpad who was making himself a sandwich. That in itself wasn't unusual, but it did seem like something was on his mind, which was unusual. Huey loved him like family, but he wasn't the most introspective person. Maybe something happened that involved Darkwing Duck, otherwise Huey had no idea why he would look like that. Dewey was closer to him anyways, he would have a better idea. And he only would've asked if he wanted someone to back up his opinion, "Why do you ask?" 

"I'm worried, I've never seen him like this." He admitted. 

"So why don't you just ask him about it?" Louie replied, like it should've been obvious. Although thinking about it, maybe it was. It wasn't like Launchpad had any secrets. 

Dewey brightened up, "Oh yeah, I can do that!" 

"So what do you think we'll find at the library, anything?" Louie asked his brothers, not sure of the answer himself. He wanted to believe they would find something, and if his brothers thought that then he would too, but right now he just didn't know. Hence, asking them about it. They always had a way of making things clearer to him, and he really needed that now. 

Huey tapped his cheek in thought, "Honestly, I don't know, but it's worth a look at least." Well, great, they were just as unsure as he was. ...Okay, that did make him feel a little better. 

"And if we don't find anything?" It was Dewey's turn to ask. And it was just the question he didn't want to think about. 

"Then we look somewhere else, the important thing is that we don't give up hope. There's still a ton of places we can go, like anywhere magic is involved, and who knows? Maybe one of the missing mysteries could have something." They could, but what were the chances of that? Well, they were called 'mysteries' for a reason. And it did give Louie a good reason to want to find them, so there was that. But anywhere magic could be found, that could be something. He knew that didn't really narrow it down and that magic was pretty much in everything, but places where it was more prominent was a good call. The only question was what those places were. 

Duckberg could be one of them, but they had pretty much agreed a while ago that they wouldn't find anything here, they were just checking out the public library to be safe. You never knew 'till you knew after all. 

So what could they be? Ithaquack was home of the Greek gods, and there was that temple thing... and they hadn't exactly had the chance to explore the two times they had been there... It could be a shout. Okay so then where else? Maybe that's what they could find out at the library. And now he was excited about going to a library, wonderful. 

"Is this settled for now, because I really want to go talk to Launchpad." Dewey said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Oh right, that. Why were their lives always so frenetic? 

Louie looked at Huey, "Yeah, go ahead." Their brother beamed at them and then took off, making both of them shake their heads fondly. Only Dewey. 

He found Launchpad in the backyard, helping his Aunt do repairs on the Sunchaser and smiled to himself, glad the two of them were getting along. Though Dewey's smile turned into a frown when he noticed that Launchpad was still acting off. Yerp, he was talking to him. He walked up to the plane, grabbing both of their attention, and thought about how best to approach this. Best to just rip the band-aid off like he always did. "Hey, LP, can I talk to you?" 

"Sure, little buddy, what's up?" 

Dewey glanced to the side, "Alone." He prompted. Launchpad made a face of realization and handed whatever tool he was holding to Della. He then hopped down to the ground and gave Dewey a smile he picked up as a little tense. The two of them walked a few feet away from the plane and once he was sure no one would overhear Dewey cut right to the chase, "Are you okay?" 

Launchpad rubbed his head, "I dunno, ever since we got back from Funzo's I've been feeling something in the back of my mind, like an itch. Oh what if there's a bug in my head?!" He started freaking out and Dewey held out a hand to stop him, he really didn't think this was a bug. Although...  

"Like you're forgetting something?" He asked just to be sure. 

"Maybe." So not a bug, that was good. But Launchpad was blanking and that possibly wasn't as good. It could be nothing, but if he's dwelling on it this much... It has to be important. "I could've hit my head, it wouldn't be the first time." Well that was concerning for a different reason. 

Dewey wrinkled his beak in thought, "I don't think you did. Maybe when we blacked out during the game while fighting that guy with the weird beak? But that doesn't make any sense, it was just a game. VR doesn't affect real life -not according to Huey at least. So what else could it be?" He suddenly got an idea, "Oh! What if Gryo has a machine that can get back lost memories? Then you wouldn't have that feeling anymore!" It was worth checking out, to him at least. And if Gryo didn't maybe there was a spell that could help. Oh wait! "Better idea! What if there's a spell that could help?" 

Launchpad perked up, "Yeah that one, let's do that one!" 

"I don't know any, we need to get my Dad." Dewey admitted. He looked back at the plane where Della was still working and cupped his hands, "Do you know where my Dad is?!" 

She looked up from what she was doing and jumped down to their level, then came over to them while wiping her hands, "No, why? What's wrong?" There went that plan. Okay, where could he be? Well, after work he was usually exhausted and if Dewey or his siblings didn't want to do anything he would rest in his room until dinner, so probably there. Ugh, that was so far away, and he was turning into Louie. Yeah, that checked out. When they were younger they always talked about how they might merge into one person someday, maybe it was happeni- wait, focus! Getting Dad to help Launchpad! 

But he still didn't want to go all the way upstairs, oo family meeting! Those were always fun. Plus, more minds might more ideas, right? Maybe they would have a better one of what was happening, Dewey was only eleven after all. "Dewey, honey, what's going on?" Oh right, she was still there. 

"We'll explain inside!" Dewey grabbed Launchpad's hand and pulled him to the mansion, forcing Della to follow after them. "Family meeting!" He called as soon as they got in there. 

Everyone was packed into the den a few minutes later, looking at Dewey and Launchpad for answers as to what was going on. Dewey stepped back to let his friend explain, chiming in whenever it looked like it was needed. Which was often. Launchpad really wasn't the best at explaining things. Neither was Dewey, but he could at least get his point across. "So Launchpad might be missing some memories and you want something to see what they could be?" His Dad summarised when they finished. The two of them nodded. "Alright, yeah, I can do that." 

"Ae knew there was somethin' oaf aboot that place the minute ae got sucked inta that blasted ball rollin' game." Scrooge griped as he sunk into his chair. 

"Yeah it was the place." Louie retorted making the other kids snicker. "Wait, does this mean we can't go back there?" He realized with a hint of worry. 

"No," Donald was quick to assure him. "If Launchpad does have some missing memories they probably have nothing to do with Funzo's, that's just where he lost them. You two didn't go anywhere else today, right?" Dewey shook his head. Alright so something happened at Funzo's. That wasn't a cause for concern, knowing Launchpad he probably just fell and hit his head again. Well, a possible head injury was concerning, but Donald was convinced he could bounce back from anything. His own kind of magic. 

Donald walked up to Launchpad and scanned his head- no injuries, that was good. But what else could be making him miss memories? There wasn't a real way to know, but there was one to know if he was missing memories. He snapped his fingers and his potion bag appeared in front of him. Potions weren't something he used too often since they were one of his weaker subjects, but sometimes there were no alternatives. Like now. He got out the ingredients he needed while the boys came up to him curiously. Oh right, they had never seen this bag before. "This is my potion bag, a potion is the only thing that can help right now. Specifically a memory retrieval one." He explained to them. 

Huey's eyes lit up, "When do we get to learn them?" Donald thought about it for a few moments, 

"Probably not for another year or so, and I'll probably need Panchito's help." He put the last ingredient in the potion then handed it to Launchpad. He looked at it for a few seconds before shrugging and moving it towards the top of his head. Donald quickly stopped him, "No! You drink it." 

"Oooh, that makes much more sense!" He drunk it and they all watched in anxious anticipation, waiting for something, anything, to happen. A few seconds later his eyes widened, "I remember! I was smart! And I talked like Mrs. B!" Everyone turned towards Mrs. Beakley who sighed. "I saw something, it looked like, a plan," He became more frantic, "By FOWL, FOWL'S back!"

The only sound was a cup crashing to the floor and shattering into millions of pieces. 

Chapter Text

"FOWL, or the Fiendish Organization fer World Larceny is an organization dedicated ta takin' over the world. They are not ta be takin' lightly." Scrooge explained as Mrs. Beakley cleaned up the cup she dropped. Everyone could see how shaken up she was. Scrooge began pacing, "Ae've faced many o' their operatives in my day and have come oot on top every time, though it wasnae easy. We need ta be ready fer whatever they're plannin', the fact that they're back now is nae a coincidence." 

"They must be after the missing mysteries." Mrs. Beakley concluded. "The only question is how are we going to beat them to them?" 

"And why." Huey interjected making her look at him. "That has to be important too. If we can figure out what they're doing and why we have a better chance of stopping them." She nodded at that. 

"So how Dewey do any of that?" Dewey asked as he joined his brothers on the sofa. They immediately made room for him. 

"Ae was plannin' on havin' us look fer The Lost Harp o' Mervana in a few days, but it looks like it'll have ta be moved up. Are we all free tomorrow?" Everyone but Launchpad said yes. "Alright, looks like Della's pilotin' the sub then. We'll have yew in the next adventure, Lad." He addressed Launchpad who nodded eagerly. There was the question of what he was busy with, but everyone just assumed he was doing something with Drake. 

"Wait, I have to go near fish!?" Della realized in an upset tone. 

The next morning the boys were all set to head to the library. It was true FOWL was a big threat looming over their heads, but, they wouldn't live their lives in fear. They could handle whatever they threw at them. Besides, their Dad didn't seem to be worried about them going which meant he thought they could handle themselves. That and he knew how important this was to them. So with all that in mind they headed out. 

The walk there was short and filled with mindless chatter about what they would do once they got there. They all agreed that the magic section was the best place to look, and if nothing was there they'd call it a day. They did have a harp to find after all. And then their conversation turned to that topic and it stayed there until they were in front of the library steps. They shared a look and made their way in, determined to find something, though they weren't sure what that something could be. It wouldn't matter, just as long as it was useful in some way. 

Louie looked at his brothers as they started examining the books and bit his beak, was now a good time to mention it? He would have to eventually, he wasn't getting back into the habit of keeping things from them ever again, but was now the right time? Well, good a time as any he supposed. "So you know how our magic has intertwined permanently?" He began, turning away from them. "I'm not sure if it's a good thing." 

"Well, that's something we have to figure out, right?" Huey said in an attempt to reassure him, Louie could practically feel his yearning to reach out to touch him. But he was holding himself back for some reason, and Louie didn't like what that reason could be. 

"Yeah, but, everything that's happened with our bond has been good so far. And this is something that's never happened, which means only we can do it... and I don't know if that's good." He hoped they would get what he was trying to say. 

Dewey made a sound like he found something from next to him. "If it's exclusive to us then of course it's good." Oh, they did. 

"But how do you know that?" Louie pressed, turning to see what it was. A mysterious-looking book with no title, promising. The three of them walked to a nearby table and sat down, Louie looking at his brother to see what his answer was. 

"Cause it's us." And he really wished he had the blind optimism his brothers did. He wanted so badly to believe it was a good thing, that everything involving them was a good thing, but he knew it wasn't. Whatever, one of them should be skeptical, and if it protected his brothers then he would be that one. And, well, they had proven him wrong before. "Okay, now look at this," He and Huey turned their attention to the book, Huey giving him one last glance. "Its cover is completely blank, that's gotta mean something." 

Huey furrowed his eyebrows, "Why it is blank? The title is how people know whether or not the book interests them."  

"We picked it up, didn't we?" Alright, fair enough. But there was only one way to know for sure. Huey opened it and was greeted by a blank page. "We've been bested by a book." He held up a finger and ignored Dewey's giggle, then flipped the page to reveal another blank one and frowned. Oh wait! Invisible ink, of course! He knew just the spell for this. 

He performed the spell but it didn't reveal anything, "What? No, there has to be something. Why would there be a completely blank book here?" He felt a hand being placed on him, 

"Hue, drop it." Dewey told him, though not unkindly. And he understood why, he tended to get overzealous when it came to this stuff, but something was telling him that this was important. That it was connected. But if a spell specifically designed to make invisible ink visible didn't work what would? "You're not dropping this, are you?" 

Huey shook his head, "I have a gut feeling about this." He closed the book the placed a hand on it, moving it around to study and a few seconds later two other hands were also placed on it. And that was when it started glowing. 

"I don't read much, but are books supposed to Dewey that?" No, they weren't. But magic was nothing if not unpredictable. Just to prove his point a symbol started growing on the book. It stretched out from the center that looked to be a swirl of some kind, encompassing the whole thing with wavy lines that reminded them of vines or tree roots. They stared at it entranced until Dewey gasped, "Secret book!" Was that even a thing? What else could explain what this was? "Huey, what does this mean?" 

He looked at it, what did it mean? "I don't know." He admitted, finding it easier to do that when it was just the three of them. 

Louie grabbed his free hand and squeezed it. "That's okay, you'll figure it out. That's what you doooo."

Huey turned to him, "What if I can't?" Dewey grabbed his other hand and smiled at him. He felt himself already getting reassured. 

"Then we will, that's what we do." Dewey then looked at his phone and realized what time it was. "Oh, crap, we gotta get going." So the three of them hurriedly got out of their seats and went to check out the book. The librarian on duty just let them have when they realized there was no identification on it, saying something about how someone must of brought it in by mistake. The triplets weren't too sure about that but let it go due to the time. And then they were off to the mansion, hoping their Uncle wouldn't decide to leave without them. It wouldn't be the first time. 

Once their Aunt had the sub up and running Louie pulled the book out from his hoodie pocket and carefully held it in his hands. His brothers, who were sat on either side of him, squished their faces into his so they could all look at it. He rolled his eyes and opened it, not really expecting there to be anything- so imagine his surprise when there was a page full of words suddenly in it. 

He was about to read through them when a set of footsteps came up to them, "What'd you have there, boys?" Their Dad asked them. 

They looked up and Louie raised the book to show him. "We found it at the library. It was all blank before we all touched it, then the cover and words appeared." Huey explained. Their Dad wordlessly asked to see it and Louie handed it over to him. He studied it for a few seconds then turned back to them, with a face Louie knew all too well. Magic lesson time. 

"This is a secret book." 

Dewey's brothers looked at him, "Calllled it!" Donald smiled at him before continuing, 

"Secret Books are books that are charmed to only show themselves to certain people. This revealed itself to you because you're Coots and it needed multiple people to activate. It's easy to tell by the magical energy floating around it, and yes I will teach you about how to recognize that eventually." He added on before they could ask. "This was made by one of our ancestors, I've read some other ones but I've never seen this one. Every time a Secret Book appears to you it's for an important reason, so keep it safe and read all of it." The boys nodded and he handed it back to them, then went over to see how Della was doing with the whole 'being-around-fish' thing. 

Pretty good actually, a lot better than he was expecting. Then again, if she didn't crash the sub it was a step up from last time. "Are you sure you don't want me to take over?" He asked, fully anticipating her to wave him off. 

Which she did. "I'm fine, Donnie, it's just," She gagged. "Fi-" She gagged again. 

"Don't wear yourself out." She took one hand off the steering wheel to swat at him and he let out a quack then reached to steady the wheel. "Both hands on the wheel!" She mocked him and they broke into a squabble, which was shortly interrupted by a cane flying in between them. They looked at their Uncle sheepishly. 

"Ae swear ye two haven't aged a day." He then turned to the others. "Alright, who's ready ta go find the Lost Harp o' Mervana?!" Every kid but Lena cheered. She let out a half-hearted one after a second, and after Scrooge gave her a look. "Good enough, ae suppose. Huey, this is technically yer adventure, would ye like ta take over from here?"

Huey nodded eagerly and stepped up to where his Uncle was. He started explaining Mervana and the mermaids, with his Uncle excitedly jumping in every few seconds. "...and the missing mystery will no longer be missing!" Huey finished with a wide grin at the others, his brothers shook their heads but he could see the small smiles they were trying to hide. Even if they weren't excited as he was he still had a way of pulling them into it. 

The kids, specifically Webby and Louie, bantered for a few moments but were broken out of it when Webby noticed some mermaids. Almost all of them went to look at them with wonder, which was quickly interrupted by the torpedo alarm sounding. They looked at the one person who wasn't at the window, "Della no!" They told her. 

Huey watched as his brothers grumbled at their Dad helping them put on their scuba suits while putting his on without any problems, being a Junior Woodchuck has helped him once again. Before they left the sub he made sure the Secret Book was in a safe spot, heeding his Dad's words. He had so many questions about it but he knew they had to be on hold until this adventure was done. The adventure he was technically leading. It was so exciting! Finally, a chance to really be in charge! He would solve this Missing Mystery, and make sure it stayed out of any possible danger. He couldn't think about what would happen if he didn't. 

From what his Uncle and Mrs. Beakley said, FOWL was a big deal, and even if their Dad wasn't being overly cautious it was good to remember that. Right now beating them to the Missing Mystery was the most importa- the second most important thing, nothing was more important than anything involving his brothers. Speaking of, they were making their way out of the sub, which he should probably do so as well. He hesitated for a moment, remembering what happened last time he was out in the ocean.

"Huey, are you okay, Honey?" His Aunt asked him with concern. Oh right, she was staying on the sub. 

He looked out at the sea, "Yeah, yeah." He stilled himself then opened the hatch and swam out. Okay, so far so good, at least this time there were no underwater volcanoes. Just a mysterious cave leading to who knows where. You can do this Huey, it's just water, and your Dad is there if something goes wrong. Yeah, he could do this. 

By the time he caught up with the others they were making their way through the cave. His brothers gave him a concerned look as he swam up to them, but he just smiled at them. He was fine, really. This wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. His mind was often his own worst enemy, he didn't need to be told that. Maybe experiences like this would help it see it didn't have to be. That was his hope anyway. And that hope only became stronger once they swam up the entrance to Mervana, this place was beautiful! And if he had to do something challenging to be there then that was what he had to do. 

"Many generations ago our ancestors spent their time equally between the land and the sea."

"Until our enlightened leader King Honestus brought our people down here to escape the troubles of the land." Aletheia and Vero explained to them all; Louie then asked what happened to him, a fair question really. Aletheia told them that he left one day and never returned, Huey could visibly see the cogs turning in his brother's head. But he didn't say anything, one of them should be skeptical, and he was too excited to find the Harp to be. "We honor him by living our truth, in the hopes that he shall return," 

"And those who are worthy can learn all the secrets of Mervana." So they just had to prove themselves worthy? That seemed easy enough. ...Louie might be onto something. "Anything you seek can be found here." Aletheia put a hand on his Dad's chest, to which he pushed away with a 'phooey!' Was this all phooey? Living truthfully seemed like such a good thing. Lies and secrets never got you anywhere, Huey knew that better than anyone. But it wasn't like his Dad to be wrong about things like this. 

Okay, living truthfully, Dewey could Dewey that. His Dad had always said honesty was the best policy, and it had been proved to him time and time again that it was. Dewey considered himself a pretty honest person, not as honest as Huey -no one was that honest, except maybe Webby- but still pretty honest. He didn't like lying or keeping secrets, he only did it when he thought it was necessary, and there were always two people -baring that one incident- that he could never do that too. So this should be pretty easy. But as his older brother would say, there was a difference between being honest and living truthfully, and he wasn't good at figuring out nuances like that. 

Good thing Louie was, he could just ask him- oh bongos! They were like small drums! And he got to play one?! Best adventure ever! 

He looked to see if Lena was enjoying herself, she seemed like she'd be good with instruments and she hadn't been having fun before, maybe she was now! And even if she wasn't he was sure Webby could find somewhere for her to. He turned to talk to Webby but found she was missing. Huh, hadn't she just been right here? Eh, she was probably talking to some of the mermaids, probably more than ecstatic to finally learn their secrets. He was happy for her, it wasn't every day you got to live out your biggest dreams and, where did Louie go? 

Of all the ways he thought he would die being attacked by an unknown monster was actually pretty high on the top of Louie's list. Okay, maybe die was a bit dramatic -he had magic and Webby was Webby- but he didn't see this ending well for either of them. Especially since they were now at a dead-end. Alright running didn't work maybe fighting would. Or being saved by Mrs. B, that would work too. And that meant less for him, so there was that. 

The only issue he really had with all this was what Mrs. B was now trying to reassure Webby that this was all some misunderstanding and that didn't sit right with him. Obviously, the Mervanans knew something was up, otherwise what were all those warnings for? She had to of known that, she was Bentina Beakley for crying out loud! Which meant she was straight up lying to Webby, and he was all for lying, just not like this. Webby deserved better than that. And well, if he had to go up against the world's greatest ex-spy to get it, then that was what he had to do. That didn't mean he wasn't nervous about it though. 

And it turned out Mrs. B did know something was up, and he seemed to be right when he least wanted to, sometimes his shrewdness was a curse. "And if she doesn't she'll be fish food!" He said in retort to Mrs. B's explanation. 

"Her optimism is her strength!" Yeah, okay, that was true but there was such a thing as blind optimism and Webby sometimes fell in danger of having that. He should know, he's seen it in both his brothers, it never ends well. "I kept her in a mansion for a decade, that worked out pretty well." ...He had his work cut out for him, if she believed that... well then she was clearly being too stubborn to see reason. Why did he always have to be alone when that happened? If his brothers were here all three of them could've figured something out, they were like, the perfect team! This might be too big for him on his own. But, he had to try. 

Surely something would make her see reason, and surely that something would be nothing short of their doom. Agh, he couldn't think like that, he had to be positive! Okay, channel your inner Huey and Dewey- what would they do if they were here? If they were here he wouldn't have to worry about that! Urgh, no, this isn't working, he has to think like himself. It's not like he's never positive, it just that out of him and his brothers he was the least likely to be. But it was possible, and he had done it, he just had to do it again. 

That really was easier said than done, now stairs were involved. 

Oh wait, he had magic. He didn't know how to teleport yet so he did the next best thing, he made a square around them on the ground and rose the platform up. The other two gave him grateful smiles. Once they got to the top of the staircase he stopped it and they hopped off, giving the decaying stares a once over as they did. "Whoo, those stairs are a mess." 

"Corrreccct! I told King Honestus we needed to repair them, but did he listen? No, he didn't want to hear the truth." Huh, was that...? Well, that part was easier than he thought it'd be. 

"Where's Louie?" Dewey asked him and Donald frowned, where was Louie? He concentrated on his energy and found it... in the tunnel. Mrs. B and Webby were also missing so they were probably with him, he would be fine. Which he relayed to Dewey, who visibly relaxed. He went back to working on his tail and Donald watched him for a few seconds before turning back to his. Dewey had been awfully watchful of his brothers ever since the Senior Woodchuck challenge, Donald wondered if something else happened that he didn't know about. 

He turned to ask Huey but noticed he looked like he was deep in thought. He let out a small noise to get his attention. “Is living a truthful life really phooey?” Huey asked. 

Donald sighed, “It’s not as simple as that. Sometimes the truth isn't the best option, and sometimes we have to lie to protect ourselves or our loved ones. We should live as honestly as we can, but no one can have a truly truthful life. No one's honest a hundred percent of the time. Especially with themselves." He hoped Huey understood that, he knew how much he valued things like truth and honesty, how high his standards were for them, but if he got so caught up in them he would lose sight of a lot of stuff. And blind belief was never a good thing. 

As he put the finishing touches on his tail he felt himself getting more and more relax, this may not be his Uncle's thing but, it really seemed like it could be his. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this calm. For the past eleven years he had been so worried about the boys, so sure that something would happen to them like it did Della, but they weren't Della and they were learning from her mistakes. And before those eleven years he had been worried about Della, and his cousins, and his friends. It seemed like he was always worried about something. 

But he didn't like being like that, not really, he wanted to trust that the people he cared about could take care of themselves. And they could, for the most part, but then Fethry would fall off the pier or José would open his mouth just a little too much and Donald would have to fix it. So he always worried, because it was better to be safe than sorry. But he didn't have to- the boys were getting older, his friends had learned how to clean up their own messes. Della was back. He didn't have to worry so much anymore. 

"We may have just met but this, Donald Duck, is your soul." His soul, he liked the sound of that. 

"So what's your soul, like a giant book or something?" Lena asked Huey who ignored her, save for an eye roll, and Dewey giggled. "Whatever, where's Webby? This is getting boring." 

"You will never find your true self like that." Aletheia told her; Huey nodded at her with a smug look on his face. Lena shoved him in the water. "Neither of you will with your negative and judgemental attitudes." Aletheia continued, bringing Scrooge into it.

Huey pulled himself out of the water and gave them a look, "Come on, just give it a try, we need to find that Harp!" If they didn't FOWL would and that wasn't acceptable. His Uncle sighed and nodded, then looked at the Mervanans with a determined stare, 

"What do ae have ta do?" 

"So could you tell us the truth about what happened here?" Mrs. B asked the Harp, which had turned about to be some sort of half-lady half-harp sort of thing. Eh, weirder had happened. The important thing was that Louie was right, something was going on here. Now he just had to find out what and they could- oh man is she singing? Ugh, he'd probably better pay attention to this. But so far this was information he already knew, the merpeople used to be on the land and sea until Honestus came and made them sea only people, nothing new there.

Oh wait, he fled and didn't just leave? That was new, but not really surprising, he didn't seem like the type to stick around when everything was falling around him. "For the longer the merpeople stay under the sea, the more monstrous their bodies grow to be!" Wait, what? So the sea-serpent they saw before, that was Honestus. "Correct!" The Harp said in response to Mrs. B. 

"And you have no idea if the merpeople are going to feed us all to their monster King?" The Harp repeated herself. Great, just great. They definitely were, there was no way they weren't. Oh man, they had to get back to the others- quick Louie, what's the fastest way back? 

Right, he still didn't know how to teleport. 

Okay, so he just had to make another platform, that was easy enough. "We gotta get the Harp down to the Mervana so that we can find out the truth or we're all gonna die!" The harp affirmed that. "Oh man." Alright, platform time. He once again made a square on the ground but this time held it in place so they wouldn't go crashing down. He slowly lowered it, trying not to let the fact that Webby was catatonic on the ground get to him. 

"Wow, you are very good at magic." The Harp told him. 

Louie quirked his beak, "Correct." 

It wasn't that he wanted Webby to get hurt, -the exact opposite actually- which is why he had pushed for Mrs. B to tell her the truth, it was just that not everyone was a good person, and that was a lesson she needed to learn. He didn't mean for her to take it this hard. He was not cut out to handle this, so he just focused on lowering the platform and hoped this would work itself out on its own. But, he sighed, he couldn't just leave her like this. He couldn't just sit there and do nothing. But how could he fix this? He was the pessimist, she needed someone like Huey or Dewey. Well, they were about to reach them so hopefully they would be able to do something. 

...If they weren't all eaten alive first. Man, sometimes he hated being the pessimist. 

"Dad," Dewey said as he looked around at what was happening- which was a sea monster that was apparently King Honestus attacking the Merpeople. Man, you'd think he'd see stuff like this coming by now. "It's time to use that famous temper of yours and save us." Dad would know how to fix this, Dad knew how to fix everything, but right now he wasn't really being himself. And it had been nice to see him so relaxed, before all this stuff started happening, now they needed him to save the day. But what could break him out of this? 

He had an idea, it was a stupid one, but it was an idea. "Hey, King Honestus!" He cried, going to stand by the water. "Your crown is dumb!" Honestus bought the bait like Dewey thought he would and came charging straight at him. He really didn't think this through, he was supposed to be getting better at that. 

Donald watched as the world seem to fall into slow motion, his peaceful attitude leaving his body as the sea monster rushed towards his son. He felt his infamous anger envelop him and tore his mermaid tail off, he couldn't be all 'peace and love'- not if it hurt his family. 

Before the monster could get any closer to Dewey he pushed him to the side and punched it right in the face, sending it back into the water. Dewey cheered and Donald turned back to give him a look. “I know, I should’ve thought that through.” But Donald really couldn’t blame him for doing it, even if it put him in a lot of danger- that had been the point. He had just been trying to get him to snap out of his peaceful state, which had been greatly needed. So he gave him a reassuring smile before slinging him over his shoulder and grabbing Huey’s tail, they were getting out of there- now.  

But before he could go any further the monster came flying out of the water, looking way angrier than he had been previously. He set the boys behind him and held up his fists. "You want some more? Come and get it, you no good palooka!" He ran at the monster and started attacking it, moving around in that way he always did when he was beating up something. 

Once he felt that the monster was weaker he jumped off of him and let him fall into the water, quickly running off with the others. They frantically made their way through the tunnel and stopped when they were on higher ground. His relief lasted less than a second as the walls around them began to rumble, Honestus was smashing into them. They climbed up the tower, stopping again when they realized there was nowhere else to go. Except for the water, but Huey said it best himself, 'nowhere in the ocean is safe.' So they just had to make a break for land. 

They jumped and swam for the land as the tower started to fall and Honestus busted out of it. They swam faster but were no match for his speed, thankfully the Mervanans popped up just in time. They rode them up to the shoreline, getting pushed onto land once a piece of the tower fell into the ocean and created a giant wave. Donald looked around to make sure everyone was there then let out a sigh of relief when he saw all seven of them, but what happened to Honestus? Ah, whatever, as long as he was no longer a threat Donald didn't care.  

And as Honestus pulled his way onto shore he knew he wasn't, that tower piece had really done a number on him. Though Donald did have to wonder why he looked like that. 

"He stayed under for too long." Webby explained. Oh, that made sense. 

Donald was then cut out of his thoughts by the sound of his sister's voice. He watched as she threw a flying kick at Honestus and grinned, good for her, she had really come a long way- oh never mind she was complaining again. Baby steps. 

Honestus transformed back into a person and he started complaining as well. The Harp quickly put him in his place and the Mervanans did their whole thing- it was time for the McDuck Clan to go. The Harp staying where it was most needed. Though they were definitely keeping tabs on this place, couldn't risk FOWL getting their hands on it. And maybe it would've been better to take the Harp with them, but if the Mervanans were willing to do some hard work, who were they to stop them?

As soon as the boys got back in the sub they crowded around the secret book once more. “Thank God nothing happened to the sub this time.” Dewey said and his brothers let out noises of agreement. If they had let something happen to the book after promising their Dad they wouldn’t… Well, it really wouldn’t have been their fault but they still would’ve felt bad about it. And there also would’ve been the thing of the book being damaged. 

But thankfully it was fine and they would keep it that way until they got back to the mansion and could store it safely in their room. Now all that was left for them was to finally read it. “So what do you think is in here?” 

Huey shrugged, “Only one way to find out.” He opened the book and was about to read its contents when Webby slumped into the seats behind them. They turned around, “Umm, Webby, are you okay?” 

Webby was not okay. Her and her Granny had talked things out, but she couldn’t help but feel like something was still off. “I don’t know,” She sighed. “It feels like Granny is keeping something else from me.” She didn’t want to admit that, or believe it, but her instincts were telling her that was the case, and she always listened to her instincts. “She promised she had no more secrets, but… I think she’s lying- or not telling me the whole truth. I don’t know what to do.” 

The boys shared a look, “Well whatever’s going on we’ll help you figure it out.” 

She sat up straighter, “But you guys are trying to figure your bond out, and now with FOWL being back,” 

Louie cut her off, “Webs, this is important too. If Mrs. B is keeping something from you that’s not okay, let us help you.” She smiled at him. 

“Yeah, we know first hand how bad keeping secrets can be.” Some of us more than others, Dewey added on silently. His brothers looked away awkwardly. “Which is why we don’t have any!” He declared to lift the mood. 

“Right,” Huey said with a slight smile. “We’ll help you in any way we can.” Webby beamed at them, 

“Aww, thanks, guys.” 

She started talking to Lena after that so the boys were left to assume the issue was resolved for now. They turned their attention back to the book, “Do you think it’ll have anything about our bond?” 

“It’s very likely, otherwise why would it appear to us?” 

“Dad said books wouldn't have information on it.” 

“Yeah and he also said he’s never seen this one before.” Dewey countered; Louie didn’t reply. Huey was about to say something when he decided it was best just to drop it. His brother didn’t seem too upset, so he was probably just annoyed Dewey one-up’d him like that.

Huey stared down at the book, he hoped this had information that was useful to them. But he was still excited to read it regardless, information was information after all. So why wouldn’t he actually read it? 

It was like he was nervous for some reason, but what reason he couldn’t figure out, they had wanted answers for so long and this could be their first shot at actually getting some. But what if it wasn’t? What if it didn’t have anything and they were back to square one? Well, not quite square one, but not as far away from it as they needed to be. They needed to make progress with this, they needed an actual lead, he needed to read this book. He looked at his brothers to see them also just staring down at it, at least he wasn’t the only one. 

“None of us are reading this, are we?” 

Louie groaned, “Why? We’ve wanted to all day, why can’t we just do it?” Huey had an idea, he was pretty sure they all did. 

“Look, no matter what happens, no matter what we do or don’t find out- we’re in this together.” Huey grabbed his brothers' hands and squeezed them. “We can do this.” He gave them each a reassuring smile then turned his eyes back to the book and started reading. And he couldn't believe what he found. 

Chapter Text

While his brothers were helping their Dad and Tios Huey decided that he wasn't going to just sit around and do nothing, there were better ways to spend that time, like looking into the missing mysteries some more. They had found the Harp a few days ago and they knew nothing about any possible following one. They had no leads, no information, nothing. Nothing other than what was in Isabella's journal. He intended to find out more. 

But that was easier said than done, they were called missing mysteries for a reason, but, if anyone could do it he could. He just needed a good place to start. 

He could always use a locater spell, except it was a multiperson spell and the logistics behind it were finicky. In order for it to properly work someone needed to have an idea of where the thing you were trying to locate was, and Isabella didn't know where a bunch of things could be. He supposed they could do it regardless, but it would leave a lot to be desired, the spell could be miles off and they didn't have that kind of time. Not with FOWL out there. 

What else could he do? Ugh, if Dewey and Louie were here they could see the things he was missing. Maybe... maybe he just needed someone to do this with, he could always ask his Aunt, or Uncle- he was pretty sure Louie hadn't included them in his scheme, they should be around here somewhere. Oh wait, wasn't his Aunt busy helping Penumbra today? He shouldn't disturb that, and what if his Uncle had something better to do...? Maybe he was better off doing this on his own. 

But this was a big task for someone to do on their own, that's why they were finding them as a family, shouldn't they be researching them as a family too? Well, his brothers weren't really interested in research and just helped him because he asked them too, and his Dad was so busy with work and taking care of them that he didn't really have time for things like that, but his Uncle, his Uncle could be promising. He was just as eager in learning the history of the artifacts that they found as Huey was, and was dedicated to the entire process of treasure hunting. He could help Huey research for sure. 

Now there was just the thing of asking him. And Huey really wasn't good at asking for help.  

Daisy's here? Oh no, this just got a lot harder. Nothing got past her, it was one of the things Donald admired most about her, but now it was a huge problem. How were they gonna get on stage now? "Maybe if she sees we're here she'll get you guys up there." Dewey suggested hopefully. 

Donald shot that down, "She'll know something's up immediately. And she doesn't look like she's in the mood to deal with schemes tonight." Watching her it was clear that she was five seconds away from completely exploding, Glamour had kept her busy for weeks now, she was exhausted. This was the most important social event of the year, if something happened Daisy could be fired. Nothing was worth that, not even fame and fortune. He loved playing music, but he didn't need to be successful in it to be happy- he already was happy! He had his family, his friends, his boyfriends, this was the happiest he had been in a long time. But the others wanted this so much... 

If it made them happy he would go along with it, but they needed a new plan. "Daisy can't be involved in this at all, if Glamour figures us out,"

"She could get fired." José finished. Donald nodded and they all started walking towards the front. "So, once we get in we just have to avoid her. Should be easy enough. The hard part is getting past whoever the security is, they're probably trained to sniff out party crashers." As if proving José's point a body suddenly flew past them. They looked at the front of the building and Donald heard someone let out a gulp from behind him. 

"Oh no." Dewey said. Well, that answered that. "What is Falcon Graves doing here? He's gonna recognize me and know we're not invited to the party." 

"Maybe he won't remember you." José said optimistically. He was quickly shut down. 

Panchito made a face, "That does make this harder... New plan, Dewey's not going to the party!" Donald gave him a look and he faltered. "Okay, new new plan, we'll sneak Dewey into the party! I think I know a spell for that...." 

"Wait," Louie held up a hand. "Tio José, can you conjure something, even if you don't know what it is?" José nodded. "Good, I need you to conjure a helmet, but a specific one." Dewey perked up at that, knowing exactly what helmet he was talking about and grinned at him. Louie gave him a look, did he honestly think Louie wouldn't get him into the party no matter what? Not only did he need him for his scheme to work, he knew how much this party meant to his brother, there was no way he wasn't attending it. Plus, if he was being honest the wrenches in his scheme were starting to make him nervous, and he needed Dewey to help keep him calm. This couldn't fail just because Louie let his nerves get the best of him. 

As if reading his mind a hand was placed on him and felt a calm wash over him, yeah he definitely needed his brother here. Both would've been preferable, but Huey wasn't up to stuff like this- he would've gotten them caught in no time at all. So it was just forgery for him, Louie had to include him somehow after all. He smiled at Dewey and grabbed the hand that was on him. "I'm okay now, let's get that helmet on you." 

Huey knocked on his Uncle's office door and went in after he was told he could. His Uncle looked up at him from whatever he was doing, "What can ae do fer ye, lad?" He asked him with a smile. 

"Umm, well, I was wondering, you're not too busy, if you could help me with something." Huey refused to make eye contact as he fiddled with his hands, he really wasn't good at this. But he needed to be, there was nothing wrong with asking for help- that was what he always told his brothers. He had to believe it for himself too. He looked up at his Uncle who gestured for him to go on. "I want to look more into the missing mysteries and I don't think I can do it on my own. If you're too busy I understand-" 

"Lad," Scrooge cut him off. "Ae would be mare than happy ta help yew. Honestly, ae'm glad ane o' yew kids are takin' in interest in it, well there is Webby but ae dinnae think she's here right now, the point is ae'm happy ta help ye whenever ye need it. Just have ta ask." Huey smiled at him and sat down. "What do yew have so far?" 

He grabbed Isabella's journal out from under his hat, "Just what's in here. I have no idea where to start, if they're missing it means no one's ever found them, and that means that no one has information on them, which makes this really hard." 

His Uncle got a thoughtful look on his face, "Just because somethin's never been found doesnae mean there's no information on it. People did know where they were once upon a time, and legends get passed down from generation to generation all the time, we just have ta find them." Right, how did Huey forget about that? That was how they had found so many treasures before. Asking for help was already starting to pay off, there was a lesson in that somewhere. 

"So how do we do that?" 

"Ae'd say the best way would be ta go ta the places in this journal and askin' the locals, but we dinnae have that kind o' time. Okay, here's what we'll do- we'll go through this journal and see which o' these mysteries have locations, those'll be the easiest ta find. Then we'll look at the ane's that dinnae and see if there's some sort o' pattern with the anes we do. We'll need a map." Huey conjured one up and laid it out on his desk. They taped it down and he put the journal where they could both see it. They got to work. 

Looking for a pattern, that was smart, if there was one they could use it to determine where the remaining ones were. And even if there wasn't they would have a clear guide to where some of them were, which was more than they had before. Of course, there was still the issue of Isabella not knowing where a bunch of these were, but legends were written down, right? They just had to find out where. And lucky for them, there was a spell he could do for that. 

As they combed through the journal Huey instinctively checked his and his brothers' bond to make sure everything was okay with them. It was. He let out a quiet sigh of relief and focused back what he was doing, it was always easier to concentrate on his own thing once he knew they were okay. Like something in him settled, brotherly protectiveness he called it. It was hard to be away from them, but they all knew they were times when they would have to be away from each other- their bond made it seem like they weren't that far at all. He couldn't tell you how many times that had comforted him. 

Speaking of their bond, the missing mysteries weren't the only thing on his mind, he hadn't stopped thinking about that book since they read it. They hadn't been able to finish it on the ride home, but they had gotten a good ways through it. They would've completely finished it once they got home, but as soon as they got up to their room they had collapsed on Louie's bed in exhaustion. That was four days ago. 

The next morning they had decided to ruminate on what they had found out so far before going any further. And ruminate Huey did, he had been thinking about it so much that his mind had demanded a break. Which was why he was here in his Uncle's office, looking over a weathered journal in the hopes of finding something out about another mystery. So far they had the locations of two more artifacts: The Fountain of The Foreverglades and The Sword of Swanstantine, no pattern so far. Well, it took more than four things to make a detailed one, they would have to keep going. But having the locations was still a good thing, for those ones all there was left to do was make a plan to secure them. That was where everyone else would come in handy. 

If the McDuck Clan put their heads together there was nothing they couldn't conceive. 

This night was going from bad to worse, Donald was now stuck in an elevator with someone who could sniff out his intentions in less than a second. And it seemed like she already had. "What are you doing here, Donald? You know how important this night is for me." 

He sighed, "I know, I'm sorry, Dais. We were trying not to involve you but we weren't able to get away from the crowd and couldn't conjure a stage pass. I thought that if I could get you in the elevator at least Glamour wouldn't see." He rubbed his neck, "Dumb I know, but Panchi and José want this so bad and you know how I can get when it comes to them."

Daisy smiled slightly, "Overzealous. You love them a lot, I know. I suppose I can't be too mad at you guys, I'm doing the same thing you are after all- using Ms. Glamour. But of all nights, this one?" She teased and he got a smile of his own, she wasn't upset, thank god for that. 

"Yeah, sorry, Louie's idea." He looked around the elevator, "How do we get out of here? I really need to get back to my boyfriends, who knows what trouble they could get into unsupervised?" Daisy laughed. "Plus, they can't perform without me- well, they could, but they won't. I can't be the reason they don't get the recognition they deserve." He zeroed in on the vent hatch above them so he missed the fond look that Daisy got on her face and used his magic to open it. A ladder fell down. "I like your dress by the way." He said as he looked back at her. 

"Thanks." 

Dewey watched as his brother walked away from Glamour in a daze, something was wrong here. He glared at Glamour, even though she couldn't see -it was the thought that counted-, and went after Louie. Dewey had spent the whole night helping him, he wasn't about to stop now. It didn't matter that he had kept brushing aside his suggestions, it didn't matter that he had only brought Dewey to shove a harpy in a vent, it didn't even matter that Louie didn't think he could be any real help- all that mattered was that he was upset. 

When he reached Louie he put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to get his attention and jumped slightly as his brother frantically whirled around at him. "Whoa." He said holding his hands up placatingly. Louie deflated a bit, 

"Sorry, what's up?" 

"Oh I don't know, just the fact that something's clearly upsetting my youngest brother and how Emma Glamour definitely has something to do with it. What happened?" Louie told him and he felt his whole body be enveloped with anger. How dare she say that stuff to him?! Who did she think she was?! He was going to give her a piece of his mind! Or was going to try to, but something would stop him. He looked to see Louie holding his arm. "Louie, let go. She can't get away with that." But his brother did no such thing, just gave him a look that he knew all too well. 

"It's not worth it." Yup, there it was. 

Dewey gave him a look right back, "You are worth everything, Louie, no one gets to talk to you like that. No one." 

"If you go and make a scene you're gonna ruin the plan, please, just leave it alone." And that got him conflicted. He didn't want to ruin the plan, they had all worked so hard on it, but Louie was obviously more affected by this than he was letting on. But his brother would get mad at him if ruined the plan, like actually mad, Dewey didn't want that. ...He had been doing what he wanted all night, he shouldn't stop now. "I'm gonna be okay, promise." Louie added on after he stayed silent for too long, like he still needed to be convinced. 

Of course Louie would be okay, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that he wasn't okay right now, and that wasn't okay with Dewey. He looked back at Glamour to see her lounging in her seat boredly and felt his anger rise back up, then a hand was placed on his cheek. Louie turned him back towards him and gave a smile. "Dewey, it's okay, I don't believe her. I mean maybe at one point I would've but after everything I've been through... I see her for what she really is, a stuck-up bully. Sorry I know you admire her." 

Dewey shook his head, "No, you're right, that's exactly what she is. Okay, what do we need to do now?" Louie grinned at him. 

So far there was still no pattern, Huey and his Uncle had gotten through Isabella's Journal and were now looking over some legends that Huey had found. The legends were a big help, they had managed to find a ton more locations- not all of them, but many more than they had had before. The only locations they hadn't managed to find were the ones for The Papyrus of Binding, The Solego Circut, and Circe's Medallion. "The Papyrus will show itself ta my ane true heir ane day." His Uncle explained. "Ae found it years ago with yer Dad and Aunt, and ae wrote that ta keep it away from... someane, ae cannae really remember who." He scratched his head and frowned at that. "Hmm, that's odd. Definitely somethin' ta look inta." 

"Who's your one true heir?" Huey asked curiously and Scrooge looked at the map in thought.

"Ae'm nae sure, could be any o' yew. Guess we'll see when it shows itself." Huey grimaced at that. "Ae know its nae ideal, but at least FOWL cannae get it either." Yeah, that was true. Now there was only the other two to worry about, it looked like there was no pattern so they could be anywhere, that really wasn't ideal. "We can work oot a plan ta secure these anes tomorrow with the others, and as fer the last two... Well, ae'm sure we'll figure somethin' oot." Huey took that as a sign that they were done for the night, they had found a lot out so he wouldn't complain. Couldn't figure everything out in one night. 

He smiled, "Thanks for the help, Uncle Scrooge." His Uncle smiled back. 

"How's that book yew lads found the other day?" He asked as they cleaned up, and man, was that a loaded question. 

"Interesting, it has a lot about the Coot side of our family. Apparently we're one of the most powerful bloodlines magic-wise, which makes how powerful Dad is make much more sense." Not that he thought his Dad was incompetent or anything -far from it actually-, it was just he was so powerful, too powerful at times, and finding that out had made things click for Huey. Of course, there were also other things in the book. "We haven't finished it yet, we're waiting for the other stuff to sink in first."  

Scrooge opened his safe and placed the parchments that held the different legends in it, "Has it helped you figured anything about your bond out?" And there was the other thing. It had, that was the whole reason it appeared to them in the first place, he didn't quite know what to think about what it told them. None of them did, that was why they put a pause on reading it, why they had to think so much. Why his brothers were focusing all their attention on Louie's scheme and he the missing mysteries. 

None of them actually wanted to think about what it meant, the implications. And they certainly didn't want to do it alone. But Huey had a tendency to pull in on himself when these things happened, and until they were ready to talk about it they would leave him to it. Provided he didn't get too into himself of course. It was just easier that way, but it was also part of the reason he sometimes felt a disconnect from them. They constantly did fun and 'childish' -usually due to Dewey- things together, cause if one or both of his brothers were down to do something he was choosing them over anyone else, and when Huey got like that they tended to hang out a lot more. Like now. He didn't mind it, really he didn't, but he still felt that disconnect. 

"Lad?" His Uncle asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. 

"Sorry. Umm yeah a little bit, we'll have to finish it before we decide our next steps though." They would have to talk about what they found when his brothers got home, he had been ruminating for long enough. As for that other stuff, well, he would talk about it eventually. 

Something else had gotten in the way of his plan, of course it had, nothing could ever go smoothly for Louie Duck. Graves had turned out to be planning some sort of robbery, and that had turned out to be orchestrated by Mark Beaks, who had turned out to be Glamour's son. This was one crazy night. 

His scheme was falling apart and he didn't know how to put it back together, couldn't he have one win? Was that too much to ask for? Apparently it was, cause now Dewey was the one rushing to save the day- even though Louie had been less than kind to him all night. The guilt was already starting to override him, but regardless he was proud of his brother, and if Louie couldn't save the day he was okay with Dewey doing it. Dewey had been helping him all night, because he knew how much this meant to him... When this was all over he would have some serious apologizing to do. But for now he would free the hostages and stay back as they and his Dad and Daisy took on the robbers. 

Once everything was taken care of and his Dad and Tios were performing on stage he turned to his brother and they had a heartfelt conversation that concluded with Louie showing him the plans for his next scheme, called 'The Dewey Dozen'. It was the least he could after all. "Oh, our brotherhood is the greatest scheme of all..." Louie smiled at him then looked away, 

"I'm sorry for how I treated you tonight, it wasn't cool." He felt a hand be placed on him and turned back to his brother to see him smiling at him understandingly. 

"It wasn't, but I forgive you, tonight couldn't have been easy for you." 

Louie sighed, "I just wanted everything to go perfectly so bad," He smiled a bit ruefully, "It probably would've if I had listened to you more, the three of us, we're a good team, and even if Huey couldn't of come I should've remembered that that's what we are- a team." 

Dewey squeezed his arm, "I don't think you're the only one that needs to remember that." Right, speaking of Huey, he had been doing that thing again, ever since they read that book. They had to stop letting him, it wasn't healthy. "We're a team, no matter what, I'll always have your back, no matter how much of a jerk you're being." Louie chuckled a bit, okay, he deserved that. "And I know you'd do the same for me, and same with Huey. You just had a bad night, try not to beat yourself up over it." He nodded, he could do that. He was getting better at it after all. Really, he had no one to thank but his brothers. If they asked him not to do something, well then he just had to not do it. 

Once he and his boyfriends finished their performance Donald decided it was time to go, they had cause Daisy enough problems for the night. So he rounded everyone up and after saying bye to Daisy they all left. He thought Dewey might've protested, but he seemed surprisingly okay with the turn of events, something happened. But his boys looked like they were fine so he would leave it alone. 

He felt an arm being placed around him and saw Panchito tucked in between him and José. "Ah, it was so fun to perform with you guys again! It felt like old times, especially since we're going out again." 

Donald raised an eyebrow, he was acting like they hadn't done it in years. They had a gig last week. "Panchi, we've performed together since then." 

"I know, but every time feels like the first time when we're together." He was about to respond when he heard a gagging sound from behind him. He looked to see Louie sticking a finger in his mouth and Dewey giggling at him. The sight made him fondly roll his eyes, sometimes it was easy to forget how young they still were. Other times he prayed with everything he had that they would always stay like that. He wasn't quite ready for them to grow up yet, but he was pretty sure he never would be. "What's wrong, chiquito, don't like me being sappy with your Dad?" Panchito asked teasingly. Both of them made a face at that and Donald quietly chuckled, and he didn't have to look at them to know his boyfriends were laughing too.  

"But seriously, thank you for helping us out." José said, changing the mood from light to sincere instantly. "It was really nice of you to plan this whole thing out for us, Louie." Louie brushed him off, 

"Eh, it's what family does. I'm just glad everything worked out in the end." Dewey wrapped an arm through his and they shared a smile. 

The adults grinned at them. "Me too." Donald turned to his boyfriends. "We should do stuff like this more often." They wordlessly agreed. And despite everything that had happened Donald couldn't help but think that this was a good night. 

Huey was lost in deep thought when the door opened and his brothers came through it, he jumped out of them and gave them a grin. He hoped their night was better than his, well, his night was actually pretty good, he and his Uncle had found a lot out. He couldn't wait to tell them about it, but there were more pressing matters. "We gotta talk about what was in the secret book." He told them and they nodded in understanding, clearly they wanted to talk about it too. That made this easier at least. He was about to start when Dewey held a hand up; He looked at them confused. 

"First, we need to talk about that thing you tend to do when stuff like this happens. You pull in on yourself, and we've been letting you do it but that ends now. It isn't good for you, Hue. You gotta let us in. We're a team. You said it yourself, whatever we do we do together." 

Huey nodded, "I know, I just," He sighed. "I don't know, it's easier to try and figure everything out in my head and then talk about it. You guys know me, I don't like not knowing what to say, but... you're different, I know you are. I know I can know not what to say around you, I know you won't judge me for it. I guess I just like having all the answers for you guys." Of course he did, that was his whole purpose as an older brother, and there was nothing he liked being more. He knew he didn't have to have all the answers, but sometimes it was hard to remember that. But they were always there when he needed them, and there was nothing that could ever make him forget that. 

The fact that they were bringing this up also meant they didn't like doing stuff without him, maybe he wasn't the only one that felt that disconnect. Maybe they just hung out together so they weren't alone. Why was that news to him? Why was it so easy to forget that they needed him as much as he needed them? It wasn't, so why did he do it? 

"You're our brother, you don't need to have the answers, you just need to be yourself." That was something else that he already knew, he knew all this stuff, why was it so hard to put it into practice? Well, whatever the reason it changed now, they were his brothers, if he couldn't do it with them who could he? "We know you know this already, you've gotta stop doing this, man." Louie told him. 

"I do." He agreed. "I will." They smiled at him and he picked up the book that he had placed on Louie's bed. "We have to talk about this now." 

Dewey and Louie shared a look, yeah, they did. The only question was who would start. When neither of his brothers spoke up Dewey decided he would have to be the one to, anything to make this easier for them. "I'm confused, still. I don't, I don't know what it means. And how would it know something like that? Someone had to of written it, right? Books don't just write themselves, well, it's magic so who knows really? The point is, how does it know something we didn't know? How does that make sense?" It was their bond, if they didn't know something, nothing or no one should know it either. But, they had been looking for answers, and something had to have them. 

Still, before this all the information they knew was because they found it out- this was the first time they had been told something. He wasn't sure what to think of that. "It doesn't." Louie replied, then grabbed the book from Huey and flipped to the one page they had been thinking about nonstop. The page about their bond. 

Well, page is a little much, it's a quarter of the page at most, but that quarter still changed everything. It talked about how their line of magic was so powerful that any siblings born at the same time that all had magic would have their's connected and be greater than anyone else's in their bloodline. But it didn't say that their bond was what would connect them, which is why they were confused. It had to be their bond, what else could it be? 

"Why would it say we're connected but nothing about how? And who wrote this- who knew our bloodline so well that they would know something like this would happen, but also didn't know enough to know the specifics?" 

Louie took over from Huey, "And what does mean when it says 'greater than anyone else's'?" The three of them looked at each other, what was going on here? "Why is it the more we look into this the more complex it gets, I mean, we always end up with more questions than answers, why does it seem like the answers don't want to be found?" 

"Well, whether or not they want us to we will find them, nothing can stop us. We're the Duck Boys, whatever we do we do together, and when we're together there's nothing we can't do. We'll figure this out, no matter what gets in our way." 

Chapter Text

Huey was pretty sure 'National S'mores Day' wasn't a thing but if it could keep his thoughts lighthearted he was all for it. Between the secret book and the missing mysteries... his thoughts were the most troubled they'd ever been. He needed a break from it all, and with his brothers lounging around the mansion for the day he was sure they agreed. They could get back into it all after some downtime. They may of been in a bit of a rush, but they still had to take their time with this stuff and do other things so they didn't get burnout. He knew that now.

Today would be good for him, he was sure of it.

....Even if all the other kids thought he was a robot. What did they know? There was nothing wrong with doing things exactly the right way, his Dad had told him that and he was always right about that stuff. And, he had made a new friend who thought the exact same way. Finally, someone just like him, someone who liked the same things he did and liked doing things the same way he did, someone who didn't think they were weird or 'nerdish'. Someone (outside of his family) that didn't see him like a robot.

Someone who had laser eyes that were malfunctioning and burning down the whole forest. He had to get Boyd to Gyro, and quick- something was happening to his newest friend and he’d be damned if he just sat back and let it happen.

"I don't like it, but I really think my Granny is lying to me." Webby said to Lena, who was laying stomach down on her bed and looking at her. "I just, after the whole thing with the mermaids she promised she wasn't keeping anything else from me, but,"

"She sounded like she wasn't telling the truth." Lena finished and Webby nodded. "Well, there's only one way to know for sure."

Webby joined Lena on her bed, "I'm afraid if I talk to her she'll lie to me again."

"What? No, I meant spying on her." Lena faltered a bit. "Okay, you could talk to her but she probably will lie to you again, even if she doesn't want to. ...If people keep secrets it's for a good reason, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt them or that other people don't get hurt. If you want answers, Pink, I think you have to find them yourself." Webby sighed and looked at Lena, keeping secrets... she did know a lot about that. Even if she had fallen out of the habit since moving in with them, she still knew more about it than Webby. So, Webby would take her lead on this one.

"The boys already said they would help me," She looked at Lena. "But I don't think I can do this without you."

"Webs, of course I'm helping, duh." Lena answered her unspoken question. Webby smiled, okay, with her brothers and Lena backing her she could definitely figure this out. She just hated that she had to in the first place. She hated that her Granny was lying to her. Her Granny was the one person who had always been there for her, the one person she had counted on most, knowing she was keeping something from her, hurt. She didn't think anything had ever hurt more.

Things were more complicated than Huey thought. It turned out Boyd somehow knew Gyro, though he didn't remember how. And according to Gyro Boyd was some dangerous machine. But he didn't seem dangerous, just glitchy. He hesitated to say Gyro didn't know what he was talking about, since he apparently helped build Boyd, but he only saw Boyd as a machine, a robot, when he was so much more than that. He would never get some downtime, would he?

Okay, that sounded selfish, Boyd needed his help and he was more than happy to help out, but today was supposed to be easy. He hoped his brothers day was at least. 

And now they were going to Tokyolk, to get the equipment necessary to help Boyd. This sounded like the kind of thing he should run by his Dad. So he did, and after stressing to Gyro the importance of Huey's safety his Dad allowed him to go. 

"I'm heading home for the day, so just come there when you're back, okay?" His Dad told him, patting down his pockets for his car keys. 

Huey furrowed his eyebrows, "You're done here already?" 

Donald hummed, "For today, yeah, didn't have that much to do. Besides, I have to make sure Uncle Scrooge doesn't hole himself away in his office the whole day." He was looking some more into the missing mysteries or why he couldn't remember who he kept the Papyrus of Binding from, Donald couldn't remember which. But either way it was going to make Scrooge forget about his health, and it was Donald's job to remind him, no matter how forceful he had to be. 

"Good luck!" Huey cheerfully said making Donald snort. Yeah, he was going to need all the luck he could get. 

His Dad left after that and everyone got ready to go. Or in Fenton's case, Gizmoduck got ready to go. Apparently they needed him to protect them from Boyd, which was the dumbest thing Huey's ever heard. "Aren't you overreacting? Look at him, he's a kid like me. Just wired a little differently. Besides, dozens of your inventions have tried to kill us and you always say they're 'wildly misunderstood'." But Gyro wasn't having it. 

"I understand 2-BO all too well, don't get too close to it." 

Spying on her Granny would be difficult, she was a SHUSH agent and she taught Webby everything she knew. Plus, there was the moral dilemma of spying on one of her loved ones. It was wrong, she knew it was, and wanting answers wasn't an excuse, but what else could she do? Her Granny wasn't going to tell her anything and if she could find out what she was hiding then she could understand why. It had to involve her so she had a right to know anyway. 

She could keep telling herself this, but it didn't change the fact that it was wrong. This situation was messy. Her-brothers-mom-coming-home-from-the-moon messy, one-of-said-brothers-getting-possessed messy, break-up-the-family messy.  

And that terrified her, after spending so long not wanting her family to separate she could be the one to cause it. That should've been enough to just let this go. Should've. But for once she was putting herself first, she was getting answers no matter what it took. That didn't make her feel any less uneasy. 

But the fact that she had help helped a little. Still... "Are you sure this is a good idea?" 

"No." At least Lena was honest. "Can't turn back now." They could technically, they hadn't been noticed yet, but if they were doing this she was getting some answers. But so far her Granny wasn't doing anything, nothing she didn't normally do. Right now she was cleaning up the kitchen- Aunt Della had been experimenting with food again. It never ended well. She would probably be at this for a while. But, Webby was patient. It would help if she knew what she was looking for though, it wasn't like her Granny would just start talking about all her secrets. Maybe spying wasn't the way to go, maybe snooping was better. 

If she was treading the waters she may as well go all in. 

"Can I help you two?" 

Gyro's old lab was... interesting. It looked like it had been abandoned for years but had very high tech machinery that was unknown to Huey. But they needed some of it to stop Boyd's malfunctioning apparently so he would trust that Gyro knew what he was doing. He only hoped it worked. 

"No need to be scared. Just a normal checkup where we jam wires into your computer brain to view your digital memories and- Okay, this is not even a little normal." But he was used to not normal by now, he knew how to roll with the punches, maybe Boyd would too. Neither of them had had conventional lives by the looks of it and as they viewed more and more of Boyd's memories Huey's theory became reality. From Mark Beaks to Doofus Drake Boyd never had a chance of a happy life. 

And Gyro was like an Uncle to him at this point but if this was how he always acted around Boyd... He must've had it really rough. But maybe once they fixed his glitching they could figure out something better for him. Even if Gyro didn't agree he was sure Fenton would. 

"Hey, Huey, how come you didn't try to fix his glitching?" Said intern asked. 

And that had crossed his mind for a second but, "Magic and Technology don't mix." 

Fenton hummed, "Oh, right, I think Donald said something about that once. That must cause some trouble for you."

"Sometimes." He answered honestly. Because while they weren't inherently opposites it was hard to be in love with both and do things that incorporated both. When the two things you were most passionate about didn't mix... "It feels like they're at odds with each other." He quickly changed the subject. "Fenton, do you really think Boyd is just a dangerous machine?"

And that was how they found themselves chasing down robbers.    

Drats. They were caught. "Hiii Granny." Webby awkwardly said, stepping out of her hiding spot. Her Granny looked at her unimpressed. 

"Webbigail, if you're going to invade my privacy I'd hope you'd do it better than that." She sighed, "If you need something you know you can just ask." But Webby couldn't, she couldn't confront her like that. She couldn't handle being lied to again. 

"No, I don't need anything. Sorry." Her Granny narrowed her eyes at her and she fought the urge to start fidgeting. She was a horrible liar. 

Her Granny stepped away from the sink and kneeled down in front of her. "If there's something you need to talk about you can tell me. You can tell me anything, dear. But I don't want you to get into the habit of spying on your family members, it's a breach of trust and I know I raise you better than to be okay with that." 

"Unless it's necessary. You raised me to be okay with it if it was necessary." Webby stood her ground. 

"And why would it be necessary?" Her Granny challenged. 

"Because!" She hesitated and looked at Lena who gave her an encouraging smile. "Because I know you're keeping something from me! And I'm sure you have a good reason but I deserve to know whatever it is!" 

The room fell silent. 

"I'm not- Webby, I told you there would be no more secrets. I promise I'm not keeping anything from you." 

Liar.

While their brother was at the Junior Woodchuck campfire, which somehow turned into him going to Tokyolk, Dewey and Louie decided to take it easy. Naturally that meant that something would come and find them. Granted, that something was something they were expecting but still. "I need you guys' help looking up something." It was only a matter of time. And Webby was their sister, they would do anything for her. 

"What?" She filled them on what had just happened and they shared a look. This was really not good, the last time a secret was kept from one of them... 

Well, the less said about that time the better.

"Okay, what do you need to look up?" 

Webby started pacing, "I don't know! All I know is she's keeping something big from me and it's about me. I don't know what to look up, I don't know where to look it up! I don't know anything." Oof, if they couldn't relate to that. 

"When we started looking up stuff for our bond we used the resources we had, which was Dad's library. What resources do you have?" Dewey asked and she thought about it. 

"There won't be information just laying around, our best bet would be her bedroom, but," The kids shared a grimace at that. "That's not a good idea. Is there anything magical that can help us?" 

To say Huey was feeling anxious was an understatement. "We're totally lost and the city is massive. What do we do?" Wait. He could be the map!- He needed two more people for that spell. Okay, think, there had to be something else he could do. Locator spell! Wait, no, that was a rune. 

He needed to get his head on straight. 

"-he local culture!" Huh? Sight-seeing? That sounded like a bad idea... "We can write down our experiences and analyze them later!" Well, when he put it like that... How could Huey say no? They could just find Gryo and Fenton later. 

Tokyolk was so amazing! The cuisine was exquisite, the cafes were unique, even the ice cream tasted better than the kind back home! This was one of the best days of his life. The only thing that could've really made it better was his brothers being there too. Even if they weren't interested in his commentary they still listened, and the three of them found ways to make it fun for everybody. Maybe he was just missing them, they had never been this far apart before. 

Boyd sighed, "What an informative day." Or maybe Huey should just focus on being present. It wasn't like he'd never see them again. And he was making a friend of his own. And getting an amazing view from a top the Tokyolk Tower. 

"Boyd, I don't think you're a killer robot. You're just a kid." 

He smiled at Huey, "That's, the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."... Okay, don't unpack that just accept the compliment. They turned back towards the city when a gust a wind came out of nowhere and blew the picture he had taken of the two of them from out of his guidebook. Huey reached out to grab it and toppled over the side of the tower. 

He let out a scream. 

After he got Scrooge out of his office for a bit Donald made his way to the kitchen for some lunch. He was debating whether or not to make some for the kids too when he noticed Mrs. B. She looked like something was on her mind, "Hey." He said to get her attention. 

She turned to him, "Hello, Donald. Short day today?" 

"Yeah. Just had some paperwork. Everything okay?" She sighed. So no then. 

"Webby thinks I'm hiding something from her, she's not exactly wrong." Oh. Okay, how to best approach this? She probably wouldn't tell him what it was but maybe he could get her to tell Webby. Maybe, hopefully, this didn't have to snowball. 

"I know you're trying to protect her, but she deserves to know the truth." 

"The truth will break her." If she really believed that this was the first time he had more faith in her granddaughter then she did. He knew Webby, he knew she was stronger than any kid had a right to be. She could handle whatever life threw at her. And she had them if she couldn't. 

"She wouldn't be alone, she'd have this family, no matter what it is. But at the very least, she wouldn't lose her trust in you for keeping it from her." Cause, honestly, he knew how this ended, he knew it very well. He knew how lucky he was that his boys didn't completely hate him for keeping the truth about Della from them. He knew he was lucky that he still had their trust and that they still came to him with most things, things they couldn't solve themselves. 

He didn't know if Bentina would be that lucky. He didn't want to find out. 

Donald gave her a look, "Trust me, I know what I'm talking about." She looked back, clearly caught off guard. 

"I'll think on it." It was better than nothing. 

Don't panic, Hubert, panic is the enemy. How could he stop falling? Levitation, obviously. He didn't know how to do that yet but Louie had made a magic elevator a few days ago. He just had to take inspiration from that. Focus, think about what you want, feel the energy... There! He held his hands in front of him and stopped in midair. 

"That was amazing!" Boyd said, coming up next to him with rocket feet. "How did you do that?!" 

"Magic, but I don't know how I pulled that off." He answered honestly. Cause really, he shouldn't have been able to, levitation was above his and his brothers skill level. Was it just cause he was in a life-or-death situation? Even if Boyd would've been able to save him he didn't know that a few seconds ago. It had to be that. What else could it be?

He felt himself fall a few inches and held his hands out again, now was not the time to be wondering about that stuff. Now he just needed to get himself back on the ground. And he did so, with the help of Boyd. Then they ran into Fenton and Inspector Tezuka. Apparently Fenton had changed his mind about something because now he was agreeing with Gyro. Huey couldn't understand, why couldn't they see Boyd just wanted to be a kid?! 

"Because, deep down, you're this." Gyro handed Boyd a tablet. "Dr. Akita and I invented 2-BO to be the city's prime defense robot, but during the test drive... 2-BO lost control and attacked the city... until Tezuka finally took it down. 2-BO was the first invention I worked on that turned evil, and I have spent my whole life trying to live that down. 2-BO, Boyd, whatever, is dangerous down to its core." But that was just wrong, if Boyd was really dangerous he wouldn't have tried to save Huey. He had plenty of time to hurt him and he didn't, even the others couldn't see it Huey knew Boyd was good. 

"Boyd, run!" Huey told him after attacking Gyro. He would definitely have to deal with that later. "Get out of here." So he did, but... something was off. They followed him to find him with some dog in a lab coat. That must be Dr. Akita. 

"Activate Revenge Protocol Omega." That wasn't good. 

If there was one thing Louie hated, it was research. He knew there was a point to it, he just wished it wasn't so tedious. Or he wished Huey was here to do the hard part of it. But, if their bond was anything to go by, he was clearly dealing with his own thing. So it was down to the others. 

He and Dewey didn't know if there was something magical that could help Webby. They were sure there was, just not what it was. The closet thing they could come up with was that spell they did when they first moved into the mansion- the one about finding out something. But that turned out to be more for finding out what happened to someone missing than someone's secrets. Which, made the response they had gotten to it back then make much more sense. They really had to get better at reading everything about a spell before performing it. 

So now the four of them were in their Dad's library, flipping through every book that had spells about secrets in hopes of finding something. Some, were looking more meticulously than others. 

Louie didn't understand why Mrs. B didn't just tell Webby whatever she was keeping from her, it was clearly distressing Webby. Surely she could see that. Honestly, he hoped they did find something, he hoped they found out whatever the secret was. He hated seeing his sister like this. And he knew the others did too. 

Dewey tapped his finger as he read one of his Dad's books, normally he would be all in about learning more about magic, but he was a little too worried about Huey to focus properly. His side of the bond had calmed down since its flare up a few minutes ago, but that panic had been stronger than anything panic they had felt before. He wanted to call him, to make sure he was really okay, but that seemed rude to do while he was helping someone else out. All he could do was rely on their connection to tell him if something else happened. He hoped he got home soon. 

"Nothing." Lena said, closing another book. "How is this possible? We're just looking for some information, not trying to uncover some government conspiracy." 

"People respect privacy apparently." Louie replied. Dewey grabbed his hand, needing some comfort and Louie squeezed it back, sending reassuring waves through the bond. 'He's okay.', it seemed to say. 'He has to be.' Right, right, of course, nothing could happen to Huey. He just had to keep believing that. "We just have to keep looking." Louie turned to Webby. "We'll find something." He promised her. Dewey didn't think this was the time to tease him for finally being an optimist. 

But Webby looked unsure, "Maybe we should stop, Granny's entitled to her privacy." 

"You're entitled to know things about you." Dewey countered. "There shouldn't be anymore secrets in this family. We've had enough." As one of the centers of, well, all of them, he knew that better than most. 

"You're right. We have to keep going." Webby said determinedly. They smiled at her and all of them got back to work, Dewey actually focusing. Huey was fine. He would be home soon and tell them everything. Right now was his sister's time. This situation was what needed his attention and she deserved answers. Cause honestly, this was killing her, anyone could see it. And as someone who's had his view of the world shifted by a life-changing secret he didn't want that to happen to her. Especially if she didn't find out from someone she trusted. That's why he was really hoping Mrs. B would tell her. Either way would change things but one would be better than the other. Or, preferable at least.     

As if things couldn't get any worse. Boyd was now under Dr. Akita's control and was besting Fenton. They had to do something! "I've got to destroy 2-BO for good!" But not that! "It's just made to look that way! You saw it's first memories!" Gyro shoved the tablet in his face. "At 2-BO's core it's a weapon!" But, wait, what was that?

"There's more there, hidden under all of those old memories." He took the tablet from Gyro and flicked a video off to the side, revealing another one. It revealed what Huey knew all long, that Boyd was a real boy at his core. And Gyro was the one who made him that way. 

Dr. Akita was a monster. "Not all of my inventions are evil! Some are just wildly misunderstood!" Gyro lept up on Akita's hoverboard and, A slap fight? Seriously? 

There had to be something Huey could do, something to give them the upper hand. But what? Magic and technology don't mix, that had been told to him for years and he couldn't risk hurting Boyd. Or Gyro. But he knew how to be precise and he knew how to incapacitate people. Let's hope this worked. He held out his hands and tried to push himself off of the ground but was unable to. It really was just reflex then. Phooey. If he could get a direct view of Akita he could do it from there but they were moving around too much. Wait, Fenton was falling. Fenton was falling!

Without thinking too much about it he conjured a mattress where Fenton would hopefully land and prayed it would break the fall. It did. He landed with a soft thump and quickly got back up. Huey breathed out a sigh of relief. But that relief was sort lived when Boyd flew down and pushed Fenton back on it. He started cracking Fenton's visor when something attacked him from behind. A taser, Tezuka had a taser. But it didn't work for long. Boyd flew back up and there was nothing any of them could do but watch, the Gizmoduck armor was out of service, Huey couldn't use his magic, and Boyd would shake off anything else Tezuka threw at him. Gyro was their only hope. 

"2-BO you are not evil. You are good. You're more than your programming. You are a definitely real boy." Gyro held out his arms as the rest of them waited to see what would happen. Boyd flew into Gyro's arms and hugged him. It was over. He did it. 

He and Fenton cheered as the hoverboard came down and Huey ran over to them, "You did it! You chose your programming!" He hugged Boyd. "Now all you need is your own real name." 

"How about Boyd? Be Only Yourself, Dude." Huey smiled. Which grew even wider as Fenton finally got the recognition he deserved. "So, what should we do next?" Next? There were so many things they could- nevermind Tezuka was telling them to leave. One day. 

"Okay, I need to get you home and hope Donald doesn't kill me." Gyro said to Huey. And he was inclined to agree. Not about the killing, but he was ready to go home. He had so many things to tell his family. 

What an eventful day this was. Phooey.

Their search ended up being a dead end, but that made sense considering who the triplets Dad was, so they decided to wait for Huey to get back home. 

"Now what?" Webby asked dejectedly. The others shared a look. 

"Now, we expand our search. We can try the library at the money bin, it's got a pretty big magic section." 

"What if Uncle Scrooge finds out what we're doing and tells Mrs. B?" Dewey asked. 

Webby's eyes widened, "No, we can't risk that! If Granny finds out I don't believe her she'll get upset!" That complicated things. Webby was too.... Webby to be okay with hurting someone. Even if she was hurt. It was one of the things everyone adored about her, but right now the boys wished she wasn't so selfless. They shared a look, they would just have to be for her. "Okay, maybe magic's not the way to go. I might know what I need to look into." But she said no more so they didn't push it. 

"Let us know what you need, okay?" She nodded. 

The front door opened and the siblings perked up. Huey was home. And he was with someone most of them didn't recognize. But that didn't matter right now, they were just glad he was back. Dewey and Louie ran over to him and grabbed him in a hug, he hugged back. "I'm okay." He promised them. They breathed out a sigh of relief. 

"What happened?" 

It was Huey's turn to sigh, this time in exhaustion. "A lot. But first," He gestured next to him. "This is Boyd, Boyd these are my siblings- Dewey, Louie & Webby, and my friend, Lena." They waved. Boyd waved back. 

"Nice to meet you! I'm Boyd- Being Only Yourself Dude!"

"I love that." Dewey gasped in amazement. "I'm gonna make my name an acronym too." 

"Good luck with that." Lena said sarcastically. He ignored her. "So, story-time?" She asked Huey. And so, he filled them in on everything that had happened. Needless to say, his brothers had yet to relinquish their grips on him. He couldn't blame them, he'd be the same in their positions. He had been the same in their positions. God, their lives were too hectic. But today had been the good kind, he helped Boyd out, he helped Gyro out, he even indirectly helped Fenton out. Sometimes the good hectic was worth the bad. 

Although he did have to stop Dewey from trying to levitate. So there was that. 

"What'd you guys get up to?" And it was their turn to fill him in. Oh right, Mrs. Beakley was keeping something from Webby... there was the bad kind. He did not see this ending well. For anyone involved. But Webby was his sister, so of course he was going to be on her side and do whatever he could to help her. "There are definitely spells out there to help with that, but they're the kind we shouldn't mess with." If their Dad didn't have anything on them they were best left alone. Besides, this was Webby's thing, they could help but they couldn't take the moment of getting the answers from her. 

Lena fidgeted with her friendship bracelet, "Are they like, dark magic?" 

"I don't think so, no, just not something to trifle with. Secrets can get messy." An awkward silence fell on the group. "Does anyone know where Dad is?" Huey asked to break it. 

"Babysitting Scrooge probably." Louie smirked. Then became more serious. "We should tell him what we found in the secret book, right?" His brothers agreed. 

And that was when Gyro came in the room and told Boyd it was time to go. Everyone but Huey said goodbye to him and he followed Boyd to the door for their own goodbyes. Louie turned to Dewey, "We approve of Boyd, right?" Despite his own experiences with him he knew he was a good kid, and that was Doofus' fault, and a little bit of his. 

"He seems cool. And Huey could use more friends." 

"You're assuming the worst of Boyd?" Webby asked. "You're a hypocrite!" 

And, well, Louie couldn't really argue with that. "I know!" 

Dewey cut into the conversation, "It's not that Huey doesn't know there are bad people in the world, it's that he trusts everyone with a sad story. And that's where we come in, dealing with the people who take advantage of that with either fighting or conning/blackmail, I'm sure you can tell who does what by now."

"Huey's smart, you don't think he's noticed by now?" 

"There's a lot he doesn't see, that's why we have to protect him. He likes to think he's our big brother and looks after us, but we're triplets, we look out for each other." Dewey answered Webby. Huey came back over to them and the conversation was dropped.  

Gyro was a Dad, that was the least weird news Donald had gotten in awhile. Still, he offered to help his friend in anyway he could. It sounded like he would need a lot. Not that Donald was judging, not by a long shot, he still remembered what it was like being a new parent. He was happy to help. What he was not happy about was that apparently Huey fell off of a tower. Gyro hadn't been around to stop it, but that had done little to ease Donald's anger. He asked him to do one thing, one thing! Donald sighed, all that mattered was that Huey was okay now. But he really needed to see his boys. 

It looked like they had the same idea because the four of them ran into each other in the middle of the hallway. "Hey, Dad. Everything okay?" 

"Yeah, just wanted to see how everyone was doing." 

"I'm fine." Huey answered his unspoken statement. "I mean it was, terrifying. But I was able to get myself out of it and even if I wasn't Boyd was there to catch me." That, admittedly, did make Donald feel better.

"Good, good. So how was Tokyolk?" Huey lit up and even if he had been in danger Donald couldn't regret his decision to let him go. He ended up having a lot of fun, which was all Donald had been hoping for. 

After Huey was done with his story his boys shared a look and he knew they had something to tell him. "It's about the secret book." He nodded to show he was listening. "We found something about our bond, maybe, but it's caused more questions than answers."

"Again." Louie interjected. 

"Again. It talked about how our magic line is so powerful that any siblings born at the same time that all had magic would have it connected. And that it would be greater than anyone else's in our bloodline. But we don't know what any of that means." Donald didn't either. That was the thing with those kinds of books though, they were cryptic. Connected didn't mean their bond, greater didn't mean powerful. But he did know one thing. 

"I think it's time to get in touch with some of our other family members who have magic." Donald hadn't talked them in a long time, some never at all, but they could have some information on this. Anything was better than what they were working with. They were right, they always got more questions than answers, well that stopped now. His boys deserved answers, and he was gonna make damn sure they got them. 

Chapter Text

"You know you don't need my permission, right?" 

Della gave him a look, "Yes I know. I just need... I dunno, what's something they all would like to do?" Advice, that was much more understandable. Still, something all the kids would like to do? Besides the movies and Funzo's there wasn't a lot every single one of them would enjoy. And neither of those made for great bonding experiences, which is what Donald knew his sister was looking for. Plus, none of the adults were exactly eager for the kids to go to Funzo's right now. There wasn't a ban perse as none of them knew how involved FOWL was in it but they were trying to avoid it. 

"Can't go wrong with ice cream." He shrugged. "I don't think it'll matter what you're doing, Dells, they just wanna spend time with you." Donald knew that because they kept talking to him about it, but even if they hadn't of course he knew they wanted to spend time with Della. They hadn't exactly had any one-on-one time with her since everything settled down. And now that things were picking up again he could understand how they'd be worried about that. 

"I want that too! I just don't wanna mess up again." That, he could also understand. But, 

"I'm not gonna keep running interference, Della, you're just gonna have to risk it." He placed a hand on her shoulder, "You're not as bad at this as you think you are. The boys want you to be a part of the family, you're home, we're all together again. The rest will fall into place." 

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Thanks, Donnie. I'll ask them myself." He smiled, he was so proud of her. She left his room after that and he got back to what he was doing before she came in- getting in touch with people in their family who had magic. Just the Coot's side, the McDuck's weren't powerful enough to know anything that could help with the boys' bond. And most of them hated magic, even if they had some form of it. But the only problem was, he couldn't remember who had magic and who didn't. 

But there was one person who did. Grandma Duck. God, he couldn't remember the last time he had seen her. He talked to her over the years of course, but he had had to sacrifice a lot to raise the triplets. If anyone could help him with this it was her. So he sat down and wrote her a letter. 

He explained what was going on, she already knew all about the boys bond, and asked her for help. Then he sealed it up and sent it on it's way. Huh, he thought that would take longer. Well, at least he could have breakfast now. 

Huey pushed back the nudge he felt at his side of the bond and started eating. He was fine, just tired. And he didn't want to hear Dewey's 'I told you so' after he stayed up too late for once. It was an accident, he got too into the legends he was reading and lost track of time. It wouldn't happen again. 

"So," Aunt Della suddenly asked. "What do you guys wanna do today?" He shared a look with the others. 

"Can we go to the pier?" Dewey asked. "Webby's never been to Hamburger Hippo." 

She nodded solemnly. "It's a travesty." Their Aunt looked at them shocked, 

"Wait, really? But that's Callisota's favorite restaurant! Oh, we have to go to the pier now." They all cheered and the boys' Dad walked in, smiled when he saw them, and sat down.

"Donald, Webby's never been to Hamburger Hippo, can you believe that?" 

"Somehow I knew you were gonna be upset about that. Have fun." He addressed the kids.

Scrooge came in and took his seat making Huey raise an eyebrow. Looked like he wasn't the only one that had a late night. "Donald, surprised ta see yew here, thought yew were lookin' inta somethin'?" 

What? Dad was looking into something and didn't tell them? Wait- it was probably something to do with contacting the coot side of their family. Huey really shouldn't have stayed up so late. "Didn't take as long as I thought. Figured I'd eat something before I left for work." 

Their Uncle waved him off, "Ah, take the day oaf." 

"What? Really?" To be fair to him Huey was surprised by that too, and one look at his siblings confirmed they were the same. It wasn't often Scrooge did something like that. 

"Ae'm sure that place can survive withoot a secretary fer ane day."

Aunt Della turned to his Dad, "Wait, that's what you do for Uncle Scrooge?!" 

He raised an eyebrow at her, "What did you think I did?"

"Oh, you know. Babysitting."

Donald raised his eyebrow further, "The kids or his employees?"

"Yes." The kids giggled as he rolled his eyes. Della lept out of her seat, "Okay, who's ready for the pier?!"

Donald waved them goodbye and thought about what to do for the day. There was no boat work to done, he had to wait for Grandma to get back to him before he went any further with that stuff, maybe he could call his friends and see what they were up to. It wasn't like they hadn't hung out lately, they had a bunch of times since the moonvasion (as Dewey had taken to calling it) happened, but it would never feel like enough to him. Well, that was what happened when you still had your childhood friends. 

Luckily, everyone was free and wanted to meet up. He would meet up with Daisy, Panchito and José at some cafe in town and the others would join them later. That was one of the hardest things about having said friends be adults, they weren't always in the same place. But, the eight of them were determined to make it work. Nobody was drifting away again. 

The walk to Hamburger Hippo was long but Dewey thought they deserved a treat after saving the earth from a world-eating serpent the other day. Well, he saved the day but, semantics. Plus, everyone played their part. He couldn't have done it without any of them, but especially his little brother. Louie's pep talk really saved him and he still had no words to thank him for it. Not that Louie needed it, he didn't do things for credit- not when it came to his brothers. Still, Dewey wanted some way to show his appreciation. Maybe there was something at the restaurant, they did have really good desserts. 

And now he wanted ice cream. 

"So it's a hippo... made of hamburgers?" Lena asked the triplets. 

Huey shook his head, "The restaurant is a giant hippo head." 

"That looks like a hamburger?" 

"No!" Huey exclaimed, not noticing Lena's hidden smirk. The others did and giggled. 

"Relax, red, I'm just messing with you. I know it's hippo meat." She gagged. "Why did I just say that?" Dewey wrinkled his nose and quickly assured Webby that it was regular hamburger meat. He wouldn't let anyone ruin this experience for her, not even Lena. 

Huey sighed and Dewey patted his arm, not saying the 'I told you so' that he wanted to. But come on, how often was Huey in the wrong about that sort of stuff? He was the one who knew how important sleep was, yet he was the one who was up all night last night. And now he was more agitated because of it. One half of Dewey wanted to say 'I told you so' and the other wanted to wrap his older brother up in a blanket and make him go to sleep. The joys of being a triplet.  

"And I'm no longer hungry! Congrats, Lena." Louie said. 

"It might be a bit too soon to go right after we had breakfast. Let's check out the rest of the pier." Aunt Della suggested. 

Webby gasped, "Rollerskating!" 

"Rollerskating!" Their Aunt cheered. "It's been forever since I did that!" The triplets shared a look, they were definitely doing that then. "Last one there's a rotten egg." She then said, taking off. 

"HEY!" They took off after her. 

Donald smiled at soon as he saw his boyfriends. He couldn't help it, it was like something overtook him every time he saw them. No, he knew what that something was, but now wasn't the time for it. They had just gotten back together recently, even if they had years of history it was best to take things slow. That didn't mean he couldn't kiss them though.

"Hcc-hmm." Oh right Daisy was there too. The three of them turned to her sheepishly but she just rolled her eyes, used to this by now. "You saw each other yesterday, remember?" Donald just stuck his tongue out at her. He was happy, he was- really happy, he wasn't gonna let anyone ruin that. Besides, he got enough teasing from Della. "So are we going in or what?" 

"I just had breakfast so I probably won't get any- are those macarons?" Donald asked as soon as he noticed them in the display counter. 

"Ooo and croissants! It's been such a long time since I've had a croissant." Panchito lamented. "I'm glad I decided we should meet here.” 

"Minnie decided." 

"So glad." The others rolled their eyes and they went up to the counter to order. Donald -unsurprisingly- got a macaron, and a coffee, he couldn't get through the day without coffee. He glanced around the cafe as the others placed their orders and wondered if the kids had ever come here before. He hadn't brought them, but it wouldn't shock him if they had found it on their own. It seemed like a place they would really love. He was such a Dad. He hoped they were having a good time with Della, but he was sure she'd do great with them. Mom may of not been a good role for her but she was a wonderful aunt. He was happy for them. 

"Order 25!" Oh, that was him. 

He grabbed his stuff and went to find a table for them. Luckily for him he found one pretty easily, usually he couldn't find any at all. Any where he went. He was really starting to believe that bad luck magic Lena talked about. But, this time was his break and he quickly claimed the table before someone else could. Once he sat down he felt himself sag into the seat- he had been so busy lately, he couldn't remember the last time he got to truly relax. Thank god his Uncle had given him the day off. Maybe he had seen just how exhausted Donald really was. 

Either way, he was glad for it. There was a part of him that was worried about the kids, there always was, but he was learning to curb it. To trust the others. It was a work in progress to be sure, but he was getting there. And he was going to enjoy his day off- hanging out with his friends and boyfriends. 

And it started with this incredible macaron. There was something about cafes that just made them have the best food. Especially the ones in France. "Donald, do you think any of your kids would be interested in modeling?" Daisy suddenly asked. 

"Dewey, yeah, definitely. Why?" 

She got a coy look on her face, "Oh I didn't tell you guys? I got a venue for my first fashion show." Donald let out a surprised quack and quickly hugged her. Two bodies immediately joined in. 

"Dais, that's amazing!" Panchito and José said similar things.

"Thank you! But," She paused. "I need help planning it." The three of them grabbed her hands and she smiled at him. Then, they got to planning. 

Aunt Della was bad at rollerskating. But that wasn't such a shock, funny though. Louie wanted to get out his phone and film her, but that seemed to be too far. He had no qualms laughing though. Until he fell on his face, then he was the one being laughed at. He really hated karma. 

Huey helped him up and regain his balance, then they giggled as Dewey zoomed past them. Seemed he was in a race with the girls. No way he would win, even if he was great at skating, but it was fun to see him try. "Well, at least it's not cards." Huey said, which, fair. The five of them were known to get pretty competitive when it came to card games. Or board games. Any game really. "And at least you're not racing."  

"And what does that mean, Hubert?" 

"That you cheat at everything!" Dewey yelled from the pier's fence. 

Louie let out an offended noise, "I do not cheat, you have no proof of that!" 

Huey gave him a disbelieving look, "You constantly cheat." "You cheat all the time." Dewey said as he rolled up next to them. 

"Slander! Slander from my own brothers!" 

Webby joined them, "It's okay, Louie, we all have our strengths." He couldn't believe this, he was getting ganged up on. Betrayed, back-stabbed, two-timed, he- he was starting to sound like Dewey. "Can we go get burgers now?" 

Aunt Della checked her phone, "Oh wow, we've been skating for a while. You guys hungry?" They nodded. "Okay, but if you don't have dinner it's not my fault."

"Sure, Dad'll believe that." Louie quipped. 

Huey took off his skates, "It is almost lunchtime anyway." Time flew by when you were having fun. And despite how tired he had been at the start of this it had been really fun. He couldn't remember the last time he got to hang out with his family and do kid stuff. But it was clear they needed to do it more often. And Aunt Della seemed to be the person to go to with that. She was like a giant kid, probably because she had been on the moon for so long. 

Huh. No weird emotions with that. Cool. But maybe this was how they could hang out with her. Just her, adventures were more their Uncle's thing. "Hey, you don't seem as tired, that's good!" Aunt Della said as the others walked ahead of them. Was he that obvious? 

"Skating woke me up. But that won't be happening again, Dewey and Louie would never let it go. They probably won't let this one go." Out of concern for his health he knew, and he also knew he would be the same with them, but it was still annoying. 

Della smiled, "It's good that you guys are so close. And you're your own people too, which is great! There's so many same multiple birth people who are like carbon copies of each other, not healthy at all. And kinda creepy." She wrinkled her beak. "When I found out I was having triplets I was so excited, but that was a worry of mine. I'm glad it didn't happen. Even if I had nothing to do with it. But it is a wonder how such different personalities get along as well as you do." 

"Well, we're all like each other in different ways: Louie and I are more reserved, Dewey and I are more adventurous and Dewey and Louie are more skeptical. That helps. Plus, it's always been us against the world, you know?" 

Her smile grew fonder, "I know. Trust me, I know."  

Planning took longer than Donald thought, and by the time they were out of the cafe it was lunchtime. Not that he was hungry, per se, but the others probably would be. "Pizza?" Panchito suggested, as if hearing his thoughts. Donald didn't think that was possible, but you never knew. Besides, they were two different types of magic users, what was possible for one of them wasn't the same as the other. There was a lot of overlap, sure, but Donald had a lot more capabilities since sorcerers were the strongest type of magic users. So, actually, if anyone could read minds it would probably be him. 

What were they talking about?

"I'm not hungry, you guys decide without me." 

José smiled at him teasingly, "And that is why you don't eat vinte macrôons right after breakfast." 

Donald lightly hit him, "It was only ten. Don't tell me what to do, you're not Scrooge, or Della." Not that either of them really could, but, they liked to try. 

"I'm sure that goes well." His friends know him well. "Pizza sounds good, but no pineapple." Panchito let out an offended squawk. Oh no, not this argument again. The only thing that could split their group up for good, everybody had opinions and everybody was right. He shared a look with José, this had to be nipped in the bud. 

"Separate pizzas?" His namorado suggested. The other two looked tentatively at each other but agreed. Whew. That was close. 

Thankfully by the time they got to the pizza place it was like there was no disagreement in the first place and once again Donald was left to choose a table. He checked his phone after he sat down and saw he had a text from Mickey. He looked at the doorway of the restaurant and smiled.

Everyone was here. 

As soon as everyone had their pizza Donald was regretting not getting one. He still wasn't really hungry, but it was a bit awkward to be the only one not eating. At least he could make fun of their messy faces without getting karma for it. Other than stuff getting thrown at him of course. He was surprised they weren't being asked to leave the restaurant with as much noise as they were making. But, the employees were probably used to that. Kids loved this place. 

"Sorry we're so late, I was really looking forward to that cafe." Minnie pouted. 

"We were getting closed to getting kicked out, but maybe next time?" Daisy said hopefully. "What happened? Traffic?" 

Mickey scoffed, "I wish! As we were getting ready to leave the house the sink exploded!" The others, minus Minnie, let out sympathetic noises. "Took us all morning to fix."

"Emergency at the bookstore. Someone miss stacked an entire category of books." Goofy explained. 

"We're such adults!" Donald groaned, throwing his head in his crossed arms. "How did this happen?" He felt someone pat his back and sighed. Adulthood. He remembered when he absolutely loathed the idea, then Della left and he was thrust into it. And now, well, he wouldn't do anything different truthfully, but he was still allowed to complain. 

"You say that like you're not the self-proclaimed father of the year." Mickey said teasingly. Donald smiled at that. Like he said, he wouldn't change a thing. Besides, the triplets said it first. 

He lifted his head up and saw Goofy staring at him playfully with narrowed eyes. He shrugged, "I'm just the messenger. Can't help that my boys are so smart." 

Minnie smiled at them, "I think you're both wonderful Dads." The others agreed and really, how could Donald argue with that? He smiled at Goofy and asked to see his new pictures of Max. To which his friend eagerly showed him, both ignoring the others jests. 

It was nice to have a friend who understood.

"So, Webs, ready for your first Hamburger Hippo hamburger?" Dewey asked as soon as they sat down. 

"Am I!" The rest of them smiled at her enthusiasm and their Aunt Della got the attention of the waiter, ordering them all a burger. Well, it was in the namesake. 

"God, I can't remember the last time I had a burger." She groaned out after the waiter left. 

Huey shared a look with his siblings, "Aunt Della?...What was the moon like?" He hesitantly asked. She hadn't talked about it all after she got back as far as they knew. And he knew how unhealthy that was. He didn't think she'd go into a full explanation, that was for the other adults, but even some minute details could help. As long as she was talking about it. 

She sighed, "Cold. Dry. Lonely. I thought it'd be this cool thing, I mean I was away from my family, but it was The Moon. I thought that'd count for something. But it didn't." She looked at them. "Trust me. No adventure is worth leaving your family for." 

"It must've been hard." Webby said sympathetically. "Making a mistake like that, losing everything." Louie, who was sitting closest to her, grabbed her hand and squeezed it. 

"I feel like something more is going on here. Webs, everything okay?" 

Webby looked at her, "If adults keep secrets it's for a good reason, right?" 

Their Aunt's eyes widened. "Uhhhhh..." She sighed again. "They, we, like to think so but no. It's worse to lie about something horrible than to admit to it. Cause when people find out, and they will, they'll feel like their trust's been broken." Webby frowned at that. Aunt Della became panicked, "Who wants to hear more about the moon?!" 

"Me!" Dewey was quick to say. "Come on, Webby, weren't you super interested in this stuff?" 

"I was." She started fidgeting with her clothes. "Do you think my Granny's a bad person then?" Her siblings and Lena were quick to deny that but Della held up her hand and got down on Webby's level. 

"Grownups make mistakes. It's hard for us to admit, because we're supposed to have all the answers for you kids, but we're human too. We don't always get it right. Sometimes we keep secrets, sometimes we push the people we care about away, sometimes we get into a rocket even though we're expecting kids soon and end up stranded on the moon for eleven years. It doesn't mean we're bad, it doesn't mean we don't care or," She choked a bit and looked at the triplets. "We don't love you." They smiled at her in understanding and she gave a small one back. "It just means we mess up," She grabbed Webby's shoulder. "And the ones who really care do whatever they can to make it up to you." 

Webby sniffled, "She said no more secrets, she promised. But I know she's lying." Their Aunt grabbed Webby in a hug and the others quickly joined her. "How can I trust her right now?" 

"You can't." 

After they finished up at the pizza place Donald and his friends decided to wander through the town to see if there was anything interesting going on. It was Duckberg, so something was always happening, but that didn't mean Donald wanted any part in it. Of course, since he was related to Scrooge McDuck he usually ended up being involved anyways. That didn't mean nothing in town interested him though. He lived there most of his life, and he couldn't imagine anywhere else being his home. He cared about Duckberg very much. And with Magica being banished it felt the safest it had been in years. 

Except for FOWL. But, he wasn't worrying about that today. Today he was out with his friends and his kids were out with their Aunt, today was a good day. They just had it take it one day at a time.

"Oh, wow, that's a lot of semi-trucks." Minnie noted. 

Right. That. "Flintheart Glomgold brings a attraction to town every year. He thinks it'll one-up Scrooge." Donald rolled his eyes. "They're always super unsafe though." 

"Sounds about right." 

"Wonder what'll be this year." Panchito pondered, then paused. "Why do I kinda wanna ride it?" Donald just shook his head at that, used to his novio's ways. Still, if he actually tried to ride it, Donald wouldn't be happy. He had enough of a heart attack from Dewey almost being stuck on the roller coaster one year, he didn't want any of his loved ones near anything Glomgold made. Not that he'd be able to do anything about it if Panchito put his mind to it. 

"Please don't." Daisy, ever the voice of reason, replied. "I'm sure there are safer rides somewhere you could do, like a carnival." The sad part was that was probably true. 

Panchito perked up at that, "We should go to a carnaval!" He looked at Donald, "I bet the niños would love that!" Donald smiled at that, they really would. 

"Maybe over a weekend, it'd do them good to have some fun." He knew with everything going on they'd been super busy lately, busy with things that really shouldn't concern kids, but that was what happened when you were associated with Scrooge McDuck. The best thing he could do for them was keep the weight of the world off their shoulders. The best thing he could do for himself was have people to lean on. And for the first time in ten years, he had an abundance of that. He would never understand how he got so lucky. "You guys are the best friends a fella could ask for." 

"Right back at ya, pal." 

Everyone looked at Huey shocked. "What? She's straight up lying to her! I mean, keeping secrets is one thing, but you can't trust someone who lies to you, even if they feel bad about it." 

"But," Louie added on, eyeing his brother. "It can be regained. Once everything's out in the open." Of course it could, but what good did that do for Webby right now? They all knew Mrs. Beakley wasn't gonna tell her anything and.... you just can't trust someone like that. Their Dad told them things when they asked about Della, even if it wasn't what happened to her, and it wasn't like they asked him anyways. Dewey told them the truth as soon as he was backed into a corner and he never wanted to keep something from them, and it wasn't like they didn't have some idea. But this... 

This was different. Mrs. Beakley wasn't telling Webby anything and she's clearly very adamant about keeping whatever this is a secret. 

"When will that be?" Webby quietly asked and Huey felt himself soften up. Now wasn't the time to be mad, no matter how righteous it was, that wasn't what she needed. 

"Eventually. But until then you have us." He promised. She smiled at him and dried her eyes. "Do you wanna try your burger now?" 

They got back in their seats and started eating. "It's good!" Webby said, perking up. The others smiled at her. Huey's brothers looked at him with concern but he just shook his head and sent reassuring waves through their bond. He was fine, really, just let his temper get the best of him for a moment. He really had to work on that. 

Dewey let his eyes linger on his older brother for a few more seconds before returning to his menu. There it was, the perfect dessert! He discreetly got the attention of the waiter and ordered it for his younger brother. The waiter gave it to Louie a few minutes later who looked at it confused. "I didn't order this." 

"I did." Louie turned to him. "I wanted to thank you for the other day, with the whole pep talk and everything. I really appreciated it." 

Louie gave him a look, "You don't have to thank me for that, dummy. Of course I did it." He said like doing anything else wasn't an option. And Dewey knew that to him it wasn't.

"But, you do know how to tempt your audience." 

Dewey smiled, "I just know you well." Louie smiled back at that, albeit while rolling his eyes. But Dewey would take it. He teasingly nudged his brother then went back to his burger. He did know his brothers well, that's why he knew something else was up with Huey. And he was gonna find out what.

When he got back to the mansion Donald was surprised to see the kids and Della were already back, but he saw Webby's tear dried face and became less surprised. He gave his sister a concerned look and she shot him a sad smile. He frowned, "Hey, Webs, how was your first Hamburger Hippo burger?" She grinned, and it seemed genuine, which eased his worries. 

"Good! I will eat no other kind ever." Donald sighed, just like his boys. They started chanting 'one of us!' as if to prove his point and he bit back a fond smile. Then raised an eyebrow at his bonus kid. 'I'm okay now.' She mouthed at him. 

He nodded, 'Here if you need to talk.' He mouthed back. 

"Hey, Dad?" Huey asked him curiously. He hmmed. "Do you know anything about Circe's Medallion?" Circe's Medallion, that did sound familiar.... it was one of the missing mysteries, wasn't it? But the name also sounded familiar... 

"I don't know much about the medallion, but I do know Circe was a Greek sorceress. People assumed she got her power from the medallion, but that's not how sorcery works- we draw our power from ourselves. She wanted to rule Ithaquack back when King Homer was around and it was more than a vacation place for the gods. He defeated her and turned her into a non-anthropomorphic pig. I guess either the medallion got destroyed or it's somewhere in Ithaquack." 

"What about the other mysteries? Do you know anything about them?" It was Webby's turn to ask. 

Some of them, yeah. He had no idea what the Solego Circuit did, but that was more Huey's speed anyways. "Let's see- The Third Eye Diamond is a mythical jewel that can enhance cognitive acumen, your ability to make good judgements and quick decisions." He elaborated for Dewey, Louie, Lena, and Della. "The Fountain of the Foreverglades is a fountain of youth, stay away from those, there's always a cost. The Sword of Swanstantine is a mythical sword once owned by Swanstantine the Great, it channels its user's inner strength and amplifies inner qualities- last I heard it was still in Istanbird. The Blessed Bagpipe of Clan McDuck is something Scrooge won't tell me anything about, go figure. And The Stone of What Was is a relic no one knows anything about, other than what was in Isabella Finch's journal." 

Dewey blinked. "So yes." Then turned to his siblings. "We're looking for the fountain next, right?" 

"Next week, yeah." That reminded Donald, he needed to make sure his Uncle wouldn't do something stupid with that around the kids. 

Everyone sort of split off after that as it seemed to be the end of the conversation. Della went with Donald to see what he got up to, the girls took off somewhere- probably to get Webby's mind off of earlier, leaving the triplets on their own. Not that that was surprising. They always seemed to be, didn't they? And some amalgamation of the triplets were always together if the three of them weren't. 

It came in handy in times like this. "You guys trust me again, right?" Dewey softly asked. He thought they had, but after earlier... He had to know for sure. Even if he had been sure before. 

And Huey felt like hitting himself. "That wasn't what I was talking about, Dewey, I never stopped trusting you, or Dad. Promise." His immediate younger brother smiled a bit. "I don't think I could stop trusting you guys if I tried." He admitted. 

"Same." His brothers immediately agreed. 

He smiled at that. "I was just mad because, it's Webby, how could someone do that to her?" Anyone. But especially Webby. Webby, who was the kindest most thoughtful person Huey had ever known. Who could make you feel better about anything just by smiling. Who was terrifyingly awesome in a way only Webby could be. 

His brothers shared a look, "We did." Louie pointed out hesitantly. "I know it's not the same, but we had a good reason, maybe Mrs. B does too."

"We had a selfish reason." Huey correct. And well, none of them could argue with that. "It worked out in the end, we just have to believe this will too." None of them could argue with that either. 

Chapter Text

The girls were having a sleepover, that should've been sign number one that things were gonna go wrong to Huey. It was nothing against them, per se, but the three of them had a tendency to create chaos. And of course- wherever there was chaos there was Dewey, and wherever there was Dewey there were his brothers. And if the girls could make chaos.... the six of them were a calamity waiting to happen. 

Bringing a video game to life was to be expected really. 

It was a good thing their Uncle Scrooge was around. 

The six of them fell out of the TV with a scream and tumbled onto the couch, Scrooge correctly guessing what happened making Lena sink away from them. Huey felt bad for her, he knew how hard it could be to control your magic, but there wasn't time for it right now. One of the monsters from the game crawled out of the TV and shot a blast at them from one of its eyes, causing them to scramble off the couch. His Uncle thought quickly and used the tray to deflect it back at it, vanquishing it back to the realm from whence it came. 

Dewey jumped in front of the TV. "Game, over!" In his excitement he accidentally created a blast of magic and it pinged around the room. Most of them jumped out of its way, but Huey and Louie were too busy giving them what they patented the 'Dad glare' to do so. He knew he could do nothing to get them to move so he just hoped it didn't hit them. He was wrong. It shot straight at them, it

....Bounced off of them? It hit something else in the room but everyone was too stupefied to notice. "That... was awesome!" Dewey cheered, rushing over to them. "It didn't hit you at all, right?" He asked to confirm they hadn't gotten hurt. 

"It didn't." Huey replied, mystified. His brothers could tell he wanted to look into it immediately. They couldn't blame him. That was why when their Aunt Della came into the room talking about a goat that needed Scrooge's help they elected to stay behind, as did the girls for some reason. 

"If yer all sure..." Scrooge said, then sighed. Aunt Della offered to go with him and he perked up at that. They bid the kids goodnight and asked them to tell Donald what they were up to. Huey promised he would. "Oh, and Lena, lass, if yew want some help gettin' that magic o' yers under control ae've picked up a few things recently that might be worth a read." He gave her a wink and the two of them were off. 

"Oh, goodie, reading." Lena looked at the others unsurely. "Do you really think it'll help?" 

The triplets shared a glance, "Our Dad's library would probably be your best bet, but it couldn't hurt. Uncle Scrooge might know more about shadow magic than our Dad considering..." Huey trailed off, but they all knew what he was going to say. 

"Bringing a video game to life is not shadow magic." Violet pointed out, making them pause. 

"Yeah, no, it's not..." Louie frowned in concentration. "Uncle Scrooge's books might be worth a look after all." With that decided- and the other girls deciding they would help Lena- and the boys wanting to look into what had just happened, they chose to split up for the night. The triplets wished Lena good luck and Webby made them promise to keep her updated on what they found out. Which was of course a no-brainer, Webby was always the first to know whenever they found something new out- the first after their Dad. 

The boys got to their room, after making a pit stop at their Dad's, and plopped down on the floor. They each had their own opinion on what happened but nothing definite. It had something to do with their bond, obviously. It seemed like every thing involving magic in their lives was due to their bond lately. They didn't know how to feel about that. 

"So we can't hurt each other anymore, that's cool." Dewey stated, ever the optimist. 

"With our magic." Louie countered, ever the most realistic. His brother poked him. "Ow." He said blandly. 

"It looks like it's only magic, interesting... I wonder why this has developed now, it seems like the kind of thing that would've kicked in years ago. Well, so does the sending magic through the bond thing. Is it just what it always is? That it's evolving as we are?" Huey frowned, that didn't seem right. "Nothing's really changed though." 

Dewey hummed in thought, "Yeah, but when that bear attacked it wasn't the first time one of us was in danger all by ourselves. Maybe it's that and the fact that we're getting stronger." But that didn't make sense either, not really. It still felt like something was missing... 

Oh! Louie figured it out. It seemed so obvious now. "Our magic just permanently intertwined, that's bound to have some side effects." His brothers looked at him. He waited for them to piece it together, and when it seemed like they wouldn't he elaborated. Honestly, it was difficult being the sharp one sometimes. "It's something that's never happened before, and magic is volatile. Something like that can't just happen and nothing else comes of it." 

"It... makes sense. More than anything else." Huey got his magic book and started writing. His brothers shrugged, one of them should be keeping track of everything that's been happening. Written track anyways, that was much more concrete than the mind. And, well, as much as they loved their bond and wanted to know more about it they weren't gonna do it. Best to leave it to the professional. 

Someone banged on the door downstairs. The triplets shared a look. "Dad!" They screamed, running to his room. 

Donald opened the front door with a sigh, making sure the kids were behind him. On the one night Scrooge and Della were away something had to happen. That was just his luck, wasn't it? 

Gladstone came through the doorway and fell onto the floor. It was really just his luck, wasn't it? "Gladstone, what are you doing here? It's almost midnight." He went onto the describe how he had had the worst day ever, which sounded like a normal person's day to Donald, and that he needed Scrooge's help. "He's not here, went to some other world with Della." 

"Wow, Uncle Gladstone, it's really not your day." Louie noted, then squinted. "How is that possible?" That, was what Donald wanted to know. Looking at him it seemed like Gladstone's luck had just magically disappeared. But as far as he knew, there was nothing that could do anything like that. Maybe a powerful enough sorcerer or a God, maybe, but he didn't see how. There was balance to the universe, disrupting that was no easy feat. One would even say it was impossible. 

Then again, they were McDucks. 

Donald clenched his beak, "Okay, whatever's going on has an explanation. Stop freaking out and let's figure it out. Kids, go to bed." They protested but he wasn't having it. "Nah-ah. This is for the grown-ups." A noise came from upstairs. 

Webby gasped, "That came from Uncle Scrooge's room!" The eight of them made their way up, some faster than others, and to said room, where a figure cloaked in black was stood, right in front of the portal that had Scrooge and Della in it. It closed it. "The portal to Goat'hool!" 

The figure started coming for them and Donald placed himself in front of the kids as they backed up. It honed in on Lena. "You." It raised it's, glove? What the hell was that? Towards Lena and shot a beam at her, specifically where her amulet was. Oh no it didn't. Donald thought quickly and attacked it, knocking it off balance and down the stairs. It raised it's glove again and something came out, making Donald feel weak. The figure noticed the glove was broken and took off before any of them could catch it. 

"Uncle Donald, are you okay?" Webby asked from next to him. 

"No." He placed his hand on the wall. "I'm not." 

"Dad." A weak voice said. "Something's wrong." He looked at his boys who were leaning on each other, just as weak as he was. He looked at Lena who was clutching her chest. 

He wanted to know who that figure was. He wanted to know right now. 

The triplets and Lena sat down on the first floor's steps and Webby sat next to them worriedly. Violet paced in front of them as she tried to figure out what was going on. She deduced that Gladstone's luck must be some form of magic, which made a lot of sense when they thought about it. It did always seem... supernatural. 

"But who was that guy?" Dewey asked, struggling to hold his head up. He was having a hard time doing anything right now and he couldn't draw on his brothers' power because they were feeling the same way. Whatever was going on, he wanted to know and he wanted it fixed. He couldn't stand seeing them like this. 

"The Phantom Blot." Violet answered. The rest of them looked at her confused. Most of them. 

Their Dad widened his eyes, "That guy? Oh no, nononono." He ran a hand through his hair and glanced down at them. "He's a magic hunter. Wherever he goes magic disappears, if Gladstone's luck really is magic then that would explain why the Phantom Blot targeted him. He hates magic, thinks it's dangerous and wants to get rid of it completely. We still have our magic, we'd be able to tell if we didn't, so that gauntlet must've done something else. The question is what." 

"Can you reverse it?" Huey said with a glance at Lena. She was made of magic, if he and his brothers were feeling this bad... he couldn't imagine what she was going through. 

"I need to figure out what happened first but yes." The triplets breathed a sigh of relief. Lena had yet to say anything. "You three are feeling off too, right?" They nodded. Their Dad held out his hand and made a simple flame. He couldn't hold it for very long without stumbling. "Our magic is as strong as ever so the only explanation is that it was corrupted somehow." 

The triplets shared a look. "Last time didn't feel like this." 

Something passed along their Dad's face before it settled. "She has magic, the Phantom Blot doesn't. There's a difference in corruptions." Oh. They hoped he didn't know that from experience. "Plus, she messed with your bond more than your magic. Corruption like this, I know how to get rid of. We need a cleansing stone. I have one in my library but I," He stumbled a bit. Gladstone quickly steadied him. "Don't know if I can make it up there." 

"I'll go." Gladstone offered. "What's it look like?" 

Their Dad sat on the steps above them. "White, smooth, round. It's the drawers right by the entrance, can't miss it." Their Uncle nodded and took off. 

"What happens when Phantom Blot fixes his glove?" Webby asked quietly, worriedly. 

"I assume he'll want to finish what he started with Lena." Violet answered blatantly, though not without any emotion. "Will this cleansing stone her help as well?" She asked their Dad. 

He looked at her, "I hope so." 

Their Uncle came back downstairs with the stone and handed it to their Dad, who took it with a grateful smile. He moved it around his body presumably where his magical energy was and slowly looked more vitalized. "Don't worry, Webs, we'll protect Lena. I know how to deal with him." She shot him a hopeful smile as he made his way over to the triplets, who were looking at their hands, in one specific spot. Oh. 

"I thought the protection rune would stop things like this. It's supposed to be foolproof." Huey said as their Dad moved the stone around them. He sighed. 

"It is. I promise it is. But corruption... it's not like possession. It's not like anything. It's the most dangerous thing a magic user can face. That's why I have this cleansing stone. There's a balance in the universe, but magic has always had its own rules. So we have to make balance ourselves. For every corruption or possession there is a cleansing stone or a protection rune." 

"And for every Magica there's a you!" Dewey exclaimed, already feeling back to his old self. His Dad grinned and rubbed his head. He moved over to Lena as Dewey overlooked his brothers. They did the same to him. "Hey, we know how to reopen that portal, right?"

"No. Dad probably does though." Louie glanced over at him. "Do you think he's up to it? I mean, it sucks, but Aunt Della and Uncle Scrooge can wait til morning if it's gonna exhaust him." Their Dad had done enough for the night. He seemed fine but having your magic corrupted and then having to fix everyone had to be draining. Besides, the two of them could totally handle themselves for a night. If anyone could survive being trapped in a different realm it was them. 

"He looks better but he probably won't want to chance it. If you mess up reopening a portal it could stay closed forever." Louie shared a look with his immediate older brother. Yeah, they should probably wait. 

Donald sighed as he ran the stone over Lena. She wasn't getting any better. Maybe it wasn't the right kind of cleansing? As much as he hated to think it, she was different from him and the boys. She also hadn't said a single word since the corruption happened, which was worrying in itself. 

Okay, think Donald, what could help? She was made of magic, but the source was the amulet and he couldn't access that. Only she could, and he didn't think she was up to it right now. But... it was their only option, he had to ask. "Lena?" She sluggishly raised her head and looked at him, that was a good sign. "I know you're feeling horrible right now, but I need to look at your amulet and you're the only one with access to it. I promise to be as quick as I can and that you won't go anywhere. Do you think you can try and get it?" She didn't move. Oh phooey. "Okay, I'm going to give you an energy boost. Just enough to help you get it out." He steadied himself and concentrated. What he was about to do was really dangerous, a person only had so much energy and replenishing it took a while. 

But if it was the only thing that could help her... He pushed a portion of his energy into her and gripped the railing. God he was gonna crash hard after all of this. "Lena?" He strained out. 

"I'm good." He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Are you okay?" He assured her he would be fine, since he didn't like lying to the kids, and she let out her own sigh of relief. She reached inside of herself and pulled her amulet out, and just like Donald suspected it was filled with dark energy. "Do I just use the stone on it?" 

He shook his head, which he quickly regretted. "No, you need to submerge it in cleansing water. I don't have any. But I know someone who does." 

And that was how José ended up at their house at almost one in morning. 

"Lena, lovely to meet you finally. I just wish the circumstances were better." She gave him a weak nod, already having lost the energy Donald gave her. Donald shot him a grateful smile and subsequently ignored the disproving look he was giving him. He did what he had to and he didn't regret it for a second. "Do you think you can give me your amuleto or would you feel better holding it yourself?" José addressed Lena. She clutched it as tight as she could. José smiled understandingly and handed her the water. She dunked her amulet in and the effects were simultaneous. In no time at all she looked back to her old self, just like his boys did. Thank god. With how tightly Webby hugged her it was clear she thought the same thing. 

Donald smiled at the two of them as he gestured for his namorado to help him up. He shot Donald another look. "Don't worry, I'm going to bed now. Just need help to my room, and to get the kids to bed." 

"I will handle that. You go rest." José sternly but gently told him. And he was about to dissuade that, he could totally handle getting them to bed, but then Gladstone was grabbing onto his free arm and directing him upstairs. Looked like he didn't have a choice then. 

His boys came up to him and gave him a light hug, telling him to feel better. He placed a kiss on each of their heads. He really did have the best boys. He told the kids goodnight and made them promise to actually go to bed, to which he was met with different levels of agreement. He would take it. José promised he would come see him once he was finished up and that was enough to make him want to already be there. 

He was exhausted, he was allowed to be sappy. 

The boys were quiet on the way to their room, they had told the girls goodnight when they reached Webby's room, but other than that they hadn't said a word. Too tired from everything that had happened and worried about their Dad. They hadn't seen him like that since... he had given Lena her body. But they didn't know what had gotten him so exhausted. 

"Why is Dad so tired?" Dewey asked their Tio as soon as they got their room. 

He sighed, "He gave Lena some of his energy. Which is very dangerous and something you should never do, not even with each other." He pointed at them then softened up. "He'll be fine in a few days. Well, up to being active again at least. It'll take him a while to replenish the energy he lost- weeks, months even. Energy isn't like blood, it's not regenerable, it's finite. Your body needs a certain amount to survive so when it loses some it has to create it again. He's gonna be a little off for a while I'm afraid." José finished quietly, looking just as upset as the triplets were. 

"But we exchange energy all the time." Huey replied, confused. 

"Magical energy is different. Everyone has energy, magical energy is unique to magic users. You know that stuff you can see from each other, your bond?" They nodded. “That's your magical energy, the one you can learn to see in all magic users, eventually. Every sorcerer can see it, just takes some practice."

"Magical energy can make you feel better?" Dewey asked. 

José frowned, "No, it just helps you with magic." The boys shared a look. "Is that what happens when you exchange energy?" 

"Yeah, we do it all the time when one of us feels weak. Is that not normal?" 

"No. Not at all."

Webby had refused to let go of Lena since they got back to her bedroom, which was fair enough really. It did make it hard to get ready for bed though, and she was tired. José fixing her amulet had helped but she was still exhausted from the day's events. Maybe she could just sleep in her clothes, wouldn't be the first time...

"Are we assuming Phantom Blot isn't coming back tonight?" Violet asked from her sleeping bag.

Webby shook her head, "We can't afford to take that chance." Lena groaned, of course they couldn't. "We have to take the fight to him." Of course they did. 

"Pink, not that I'm not all for spiteful revenge, but it's late and I'm tired. Surely we just fortify the room and call it a night?" She gave Lena a look. 

"What about the others?" Right. The Phantom Blot probably knew they had magic too. "Uncle Donald said he knew how to take care of him, but waking him up right now is not an option." The other two nodded in agreement. "So what do we do? Maybe Tio José  knows something?" 

Violet hummed. "Maybe. But he's probably busy taking care of Donald. And I doubt the boys know anything, no offense to them." Yeah, this doesn't seem like the type of thing their Dad would tell them until he had to. So what could they do? None of them knew how to deal with the Phantom Blot and she wasn't going to go to the other person she knew had magic under any circumstances. Never again. "We will just have to confront him ourselves." Oh. Wonderful.

The triplets sat in silence after their Tio José left. None of them said a word, not really sure what to say. But they all knew what was on their minds. Not the Phantom Blot attacking, not their magic being corrupted -again-, not even the fact that their Dad was pretty much in a coma right now. No, they were thinking about the bombshell José had dropped on them. Other people couldn't exchange their energy without consequence. 

That, okay. That was a lot to take in, and it had been an already admittedly long day. With that in mind it was no surprise that they didn't stay awake for long. Dewey was the first to fall asleep, unwilling to really think about everything as tired as he was. Louie was next, knowing that if he kept thinking he'd never fall asleep. Huey was last, the sounds of his brothers slumber always being able to send him under.

For a few minutes everything was peaceful. Then that changed. 

The first thing they noticed was how strong the magic in the air was, and the fact that it was even in the air at all. They were in the woods, though in what woods none of them could say. This was clearly a dream, because they had fallen asleep in their beds. But the fact that they could tell that this was a dream meant it was something important. None of them were able to lucid dream, not that that was what was happening, but it was close and it felt just on the cusp of that. They also didn't share dreams a lot, surprisingly, so that was another sign something was happening. If only they knew what. 

There were no identifying markers in the woods, but Huey noted it was hotter than what he was used to. The trees weren't tall enough to block out the sun, and it was beating down on them even though they had fallen asleep in the middle of the night. There were also no animals in the woods, which Dewey found weird. It was like they were wary of it for some reason. Apprehensive. There was no sound at all, and that put Louie on edge. Usually there was water somewhere or wind blowing in the air, what kind of woods was just trees?

The scene changed. 

Now they were right in front of a cave. It looked ancient, like it had been there since the dawn of time. The magic in the air had grown even stronger and they were left to assume this was its source. But when they tried to move forward they found they couldn't. They were completely stuck. And when they tried to unstuck themselves.... 

Well that was when they woke up. 

"What... was that?" Louie asked, taking the words right out of his brothers mouths. 

Confronting the Phantom Blot themselves apparently meant sneaking out of the mansion without telling anyone where they were going, not that they knew that themselves. And maybe once upon a time Lena would've been all for it, but now she just wanted to leave the hard stuff to the adults. But with Donald knocked out, Scrooge and Della in another realm, and Mrs. Beakley... well, she didn't know where Tea Time was exactly, they had no other choice. She was still exhausted. 

And nervous. She knew she was nowhere near ready enough to confront the Phantom Blot, and even with Webby and Violet's prowess the three of them were not capable of taking him down. Not enough to get him off of everyone's backs. No matter what they did he would come back later, but maybe... maybe if they just held him off for tonight, weakened him enough to where it would take time to plan his next attack, the adults could figure something out. Yeah, that sounded much more doable. The question was how? What could Lena bring to the table?

Earlier, the three of them had looked through Scrooge's books and found that Lena... was kind of her own entity. She didn't fit neatly into one magic category. She could do more than shadow magic, like bring a video game to life, but there was a lot Donald and the triplets could do that she couldn't- and not just because she wasn't at their skill level. Spell books and Tomes didn't seem to give her extra energy, she could conjure things but that wasn't the only thing she could do. Before today she thought she was someone who just specialized in one type of magic like... ugh. But she wasn't, obviously, and according to Donald there were only five types of magic users, and the fifth.... well she definitely wasn't that. She despised dark magic. So she was her own thing, just, Lena. Because she was magically created, because she had to be given something to have jurisdiction over her own body. She wasn't like anyone else so she couldn't fit the labels of everyone else. 

It was freeing, in a way. 

But did make her question just what she could do. Guess she was about to find out. "So how do we find this guy exactly?" 

"Can you-?"

"I can't do location spells." 

Violet closed her mouth, "Never mind then." They thought for a few minutes. "If you were hell-bent on destroying something and the only thing you could use to destroy it got messed up what would you do?" 

"Fix it." 

"And then?" 

Webby and Lena shared a look. "Go after the people who broke it in the first place. But, Violet, we already knew that, that's why we're taking this to him. Before he can fix the glove." Webby reminded her.

"What if we let him fix the glove?" 

"No seriously, what the fuck was that? What was that cave? Why did magic feel so potent? Where were we?" Louie fired off at his brothers after they gathered on his bed. He didn't mean to take everything out at them, but it had been a stressful day with a lot of information and he was tired. They'd understand. 

They grabbed his hands and he instantly calmed down. See. "It has to be something to do with our bond. After getting two bombshells like we got... it has to be." Dewey repeated. Then slumped down. "I'm tired of this, guys." He admitted. "We just keep getting more questions." 

"I know this is hard, and I know things keep happening, but we just have to hang in there. We'll figure things out eventually and we'll do it together." Huey attempted to comfort them. 

Dewey sighed in frustration, "But what will we do together? We just keep going around and around and nothing gets solved." And Huey, well he didn't have an answer for that. What they were doing wasn't working, they already knew that, they had to venture out for answers and they were going to do that before FOWL got revealed. "That place, what if it was the place where magic's visible?" 

Huey widened his eyes, "It comes to people in a dream, of course! If anywhere has the answers we're looking for... it's there. What if that's why we got the dream?" But Louie didn't look as convinced. 

"I don't know, that seems like too big a coincidence."  

"You said it yourself, people who listen to their intuition listen to the dream. We're some of the people meant to find this place. We have to look into this." 

"Obviously." Huey replied, excitedly. This was a new lead. A lead that ended their questioning once and for all. They'd be stupid not to take it. 

Louie hadn't said a word but Huey and Dewey shared a look and knew he'd come around because they knew for all of a fight Louie put up if they really wanted him to do something he'd do it. 

And sure enough, a few minutes later he was shrugging. "It couldn't hurt." They cheered and hugged him, and the three of them fell back against the bed with a laugh. They were doing this. They were getting answers. 

"I'm sorry, what?" Lena asked.  Let him fix the glove? Violet was smart but she sure was stupid sometimes. "There's no way that's a good idea." 

"Think about it, if we let him fix the glove he'll come straight to us and we can take him down. We have no idea where he is, we have no way of knowing, by now he's probably already fixed it anyways. Or is close to being done. We take the fight to him, yes, but we let him come to us. Then we have the upper hand." Okay, that, Lena sighed, was a good point. Dammit. 

Webby looked at Lena, "It is the best we've got." That was also true. Lena nodded her agreement and plopped down on the ground, hoping to get a nap in before they had to deal with this guy.

"DESPELL!" Guess not. The three of them whirled around to see the Phantom Blot pointing his glove right at Lena. He fired it and they moved out of the blasts way. "Where is she?!"

"How should I know?!" 

"Don't lie to me, shadow," He spat out like it was a curse. She bristled. "You have her amulet." 

"So? It's my magic!" As if to prove her point she fired a shot right at him. Light blue magic- purple nowhere to be seen. "It doesn't belong to her anymore. She doesn't even have her orb! She's powerless. And I am not her." She shot out another blast of magic at the same time he did. 

"You're still magic. And I will destroy you." 

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Webby lept onto the Phantom and reached for his glove, struggling to get it off. He shook her off and she landed on the ground with a thump.

Lena saw red.

No, actually she saw pink, and purple, and red, and green, and many shades of blue, and gold, and every color everyone she cared about was made of. But mostly importantly she saw herself. She added more power to her stream. 

"No! I will not let you hurt me! I will not let you hurt the people I care about! This is my magic, and I'm going to use it to protect the world from people like you!" She added as much power as she could muster and little by little the Phantom Blot was weakening.

She kept thinking about how Scrooge offered her his home, just because she needed somewhere to stay. She kept thinking about how Mrs. Beakley would give her things to calm her down, how Della helped her adjust to being real again. She kept thinking about how Donald taught her magic lessons, how the triplets were so kind and compassionate- even after everything she'd been forced to do. She kept thinking about how Violet was the best friend she's ever had. She kept thinking about Webby. Everything about her, how incredible she was, how loving she was, how good she was. How she made Lena want to be good. How there wasn't a word to describe the all encompassing love Lena felt for her. She kept thinking about how much she loved herself, how much she loved her magic. She kept thinking about how whole she felt.

The Phantom Blot fell. His glove completely destroyed, making it send out different beams of light. She hoped it was the magic he stole going back to its rightful owners. 

She stood over him, ready to strike if he tried something else and felt Webby and Violet come next to her. She smiled. "How? No one's ever-" He weakly asked. 

"I'm my own category." He took off after that and she couldn't find it in herself to follow him. In the morning they would tell the adults what happened and they would take it from there. Tonight they did their job. Webby let out a whoop and grabbed her and Violet in a sweeping hug, making her grin. 

"Let's go home." 

It was now past 2'am and the triplets have determined they were not getting any sleep that night. They were still camped out on Louie's bed, but each of their minds were racing. They shared a look and got off the bed, heading out of their room and to somewhere they knew they'd be safe. 

Tio José was sleeping next to their Dad but they could make it work. They carefully crawled into the bed and got situated around the adults, breathing out a simultaneous sigh of relief. Their Dad pulled them closer in his sleep and they snuggled into him, falling asleep within seconds. 

Everyone was content tonight. 

Chapter Text

A week later and Donald was feeling better, better enough to move around again at least. He had called Panchito over to reopen the portal to Goat'hool so Scrooge and Della had been watching the boys. Not that he hadn't seen them at all the past week, no, for the first few days after the attack they barely left his room. But when he calmed them down and assured them he would be just fine eventually they started venturing out again. 

His boyfriends hadn't let him out of their sights. 

They weren't mad at him anymore but they were extremely worried and he could understand that. Plus, it was nice to have them around. They hadn't been letting him do anything for himself and that was annoying, but he was stubborn to a fault and he could recognize that that wasn't a good thing right now. It would be slow recovery, and as much as he hated it, he couldn't rush it. It would only make things worse. His mind realized that, his body was tired of being prone. 

So he was carefully making his way downstairs to join his family. He needed to talk to the other adults about the Phantom Blot anyways. The fact that that guy was around really wasn't good, the fact that the girls -apparently- took him on themselves was terrifying. Even if Donald was proud of them. He was dangerous, and the sooner he was out of Duckburg the better. The sooner he lost access to his glove was best but beggars couldn't be choosers. 

Beggars could have breakfast however, and one of the side effects of energy depletion was hunger. He would probably be hungrier than usual until his body got caught up completely. Which was... great, he was really looking forward to dealing with that. It was his own fault and if he had to do it over again he'd do the exact same thing. Of course he would, the alternative... well, he didn't really want to think about the alternative. 

Breakfast. It was time for breakfast. 

Hopefully Mrs. B made pancakes. 

A week later and the triplets were still reeling over everything they had learned. They had wanted to talk to their Dad about it, but he was still recovering. They talked to their Tios a little bit but they hadn't been able to reassure the triplets about anything other than that their Dad would be okay. 

Tio José still looked concerned that they could share energy without consequences and they knew he wanted to talk to their Dad about it. Which, admittedly, was not helping anything and only bringing up even more questions. 

They looked a bit into the place from their dream but since people who went there weren't allowed to talk about it it quickly turned into a dead end. Not to mention the fact that they couldn't magically harm each other, which they were more than fine with, or that their magic had gotten corrupted again, which they were the furthest from fine they could be about. 

So to say they were stressed was an understatement. At least this time they weren't making it worse. 

At least this time they knew how to handle it all. And that included taking it easy for a little bit. They would figure it all out, but not while they were stressed beyond belief. Once they were more calm, then they could break everything down. 

"Hi, everyone." Their Dad said with a tired smile as he sat down at the table. Well, that helped things a bit. 

Everyone looked relieved to see him, which didn't surprise Huey in the slightest. He knew how worried they all had been about his Dad- it wasn't like him to stay down for so long. But he needed to recover, and Huey also knew that would be a long, tedious process. "Dad. How are you feeling?" He asked, trying not to fret. It was unsettling when his Dad was hurt, Huey had always seen him as infallible. The reminder that he wasn't, wasn't a pleasant one.

He sent Huey a smile. "I'm okay, just tired of laying down." 

"If you don't take it easy I'm tying you to the bed." Aunt Della said in the loving way only a sibling could. He shot a glance at his brothers, yeah, he definitely understood that instinct. 

His Dad snorted, "You can try." 

"Alright, alright, settle down." Uncle Scrooge said before they could rile each other any further. He turned his attention to his Dad, "Lad, it's good ta see yew up and aboot again. If yew need anythin' let me know." 

"Thanks, Uncle Scrooge." He replied with a soft smile, making Huey smile. He always loved it when his family was getting along. After everything they've been through, they deserve to be at this point. And it was a good reminder, he could get through anything if he had his family- even getting 5 bombshells in one day. If today went right he could even start to break it all down soon. Cause, yeah, it had been a lot. 

When Louie suggested they calm down before proceeding he had been more than happy to go along with it. He had been overwhelmed, and he didn't have to feel his brothers emotions to know they had been too. It was for the best they took a step back for a bit. But if he was being honest he wanted to get this all sorted out as soon as possible, if for no other reason than knowing unsolved feelings could be disastrous in the wrong circumstances. These were definitely the wrong circumstances. 

After breakfast the kids decided to hang out outside, knowing the adults probably wanted to talk about the Phantom Blot. Webby wanted to go through defense techniques but the boys just wanted to relax. In their minds the adults could handle that guy from here and they didn't need another thing to worry about. She clearly felt differently. 

"Okay, the Phantom Blot. Donald, what do you know about him?" Mrs. B asked him. He told them what he told the kids last week with Panchito and José throwing their own comments in. "Is he still a threat?" 

"As long as he has his glove: Yes. But the more pressing thing is getting him out of Duckburg. The fact that he's showing up now is not a coincidence, we need to assume the worst." 

"That he's working with FOWL." Della filled in. He pointed at her. "How do we get him out without getting them out?" As much as Donald hated to admit it, that was a valid question. They were no where near ready to disband FOWL permanently. And right now he was the more pressing issue. 

Uncle Scrooge steepled his fingers. "Would that anti-prison we set up help?" 

"If he had magic." His Uncle let out a curse and he had to agree. There was always something. "How do we make someone like that leave? Leave and never come back, without making him an worse issue for other magic users?" There was no way, if they drove him out with brute force he would just come back, if they drove him out with magic it would just strengthen his resolve. It was a lose-lose situation. 

"There is one way." Panchito started. 

"How can you guys want to relax at a time like this? The Phantom Blot could strike again at any time, we need to be ready!" Webby said with her fists clenched at her side. 

The boys shared a look, "Exactly! That's why! We want a break before the next big thing!" Dewey exclaimed. Huey placed a hand on his arm to steady him. 

"We've learnt a lot lately, Webby, we need to relax before diving into it all." He said in a much kinder tone. "Besides, the adults can handle him. You guys did once, and that was great, but he's too big of a problem for us." He offered her a gentle smile, hoping to deescalate the situation. Hopefully she would see where he was coming from. Huey got why she was so worried, but this wasn't their fight anymore. It couldn't be. 

------------------------

"He could take away your magic at any point again! Don't you care about that?!"

Louie narrowed his eyes at her, "Hey, lay off, he didn't do anything wrong. And it's not your place to say what we do and don't care about." 

"It's not your place to police her reactions." Lena shot back with a glare. "She's allowed to be upset about this." 

"No one's saying she isn't!" Huey said, throwing his hands up. "But we're allowed to want a break. Our magic is changing, again, it was corrupted, again!-"

"My magic was corrupted too! You don't see me acting like a jerk!" Lena spat. Huey gasped. And that was enough for Dewey. 

If Huey got Donald's temper Dewey got his protectiveness, and there was no one he was more protective of than his brothers. 

He got right in Lena's face. "If anyone's being a jerk it's Webby! She never knows when to leave something alone." It was Webby's turn to gasp and Dewey could see where he fucked up immediately. But if it was between his sister and his brother he was choosing his brother every time. "And you shouldn't be defending her this time! Huey was trying to help her and she threw it in his face!" He felt something grab his hand and instantly knew who it was. Dewey squeezed it reassuringly and sent calming waves to his older brother, then mentally felt around for his younger one- who hadn't said anything in a hot minute. 

Louie felt angry, angry in a way he only seemed to get when his brothers were involved. How dare Lena say something like that? Where does she get the right to say that? Webby was completely out of line! She wasn't listening to any of them, she was assuming things, she was refusing to see any point of view other than her own. There was definitely something more going on, but right now he just didn't care. Nobody treated his brothers like that. 

It was funny how protective the three of them were over each other. 

Funny, how scary it was. 

Without even thinking about it Dewey and Louie made a bubble that forced the girls out. "Go away. You've done enough."

---------------

"Destroying his glove."He finished gravely. And Donald could see the merit in that, but it was definitely easier said than done. They would have to get a hold of the glove first off, and that feat alone was harrowing. He was about to open his mouth to bring this up when the back door swung open. The six of them looked towards it. 

Webby and Lena came in and Uncle Scrooge opened his mouth, probably about to politely request that they go back outside when they all noticed their faces. "What's wrong?" Mrs. B asked. 

The girls shared a look. "Nothing." Webby said, though Donald could immediately tell that was a lie. "We'll be upstairs." He looked outside as they left. Everything seemed fine, the boys looked like they were heavily discussing something but that wasn't unusual for them. He'd keep an eye on the situation but leave it alone for now. The kids were getting older, they had to solve their problems on their own. It seemed not everyone shared that opinion. 

"I should go check on her." Mrs. B said worriedly. "It's not like her to be that upset." 

He and Della shared a look, "If you want... it might be best to leave them alone for a while though. Let her figure out her thoughts." Della suggested. Donald shot a smile at her, she may've struggled with being an Aunt at first, but she was really getting the hang of it. 

Mrs. B sighed. "That might be best." 

"I'm sure she'll bounce back in no time." Panchito attempted to comfort her. Donald didn't have the heart to tell him how stubborn she could be about Webby. "Should we table the Phantom Blot discussion or....?" 

Scrooge looked at Donald, "Is there a way ta destroy his glove?" 

"Probably, I don't know of any though. And it'd take too much time to look up one, we need a solution sooner rather than later." He looked at his boyfriends. "The best we can do is buy us some time. Hold him off temporarily, until we're ready to deal with FOWL. When we disband them we can take his glove and keep it somewhere safe until we figure out how to disable it." The others agreed that was the best course of action, just in time too cause he was running low on stamina. A lazy day on the couch was due for sure.

As soon as the girls left the bubble was popped and Dewey and Louie were turning their attention to their brother. Who was staring blankly at the space in front of them. "Huey...?" Dewey carefully asked. "Okay, that might've been a bit too far but they were being totally unreasonable and we had to do something- Oh." He was cut off by Huey hugging him and Louie tightly. There was his big brother. Huey being frozen like that was always unnerving. 

"Yeah, that, maybe. But still, thank you." He and Louie shared a look and held him tighter. 

"Anytime." Louie promised. 

They stayed like that for a few more minutes, helping calm Huey down, before they felt like letting each other go. "This was supposed to be a relaxing day." Dewey said, making his brothers sadly laugh. Yeah, that was just how it ran in their family. "Is it bad I was expecting something like this? Not a fight but, I dunno something." Something going wrong, some kind of mishap, something bad happening. It always happened to them. 

Why did it always happen to them?

"It's a little bad, yeah." Huey agreed, wiping his eyes. He sighed. "That's totally gonna come back to bite us." 

Louie shook his head, "Don't think about that right now. Are you feeling better?" That was a good question, and one Dewey also wanted an answer to. Of course, he wasn't sure if he was okay or not, and he had a feeling Louie felt the same, so who knew what Huey's answer would be?

Was he feeling better? Honestly, Huey wasn't sure. That argument took him off guard more than he'd care to admit. And now that he was out of it he could see something was clearly going on with Webby, and he wanted to talk to her about it, to make sure she was okay, but he wasn't sure she'd want anything to do with him right now. Of course, he had only been trying to help and hadn't meant for it to escalate this far, but at the same time... He wasn't mad at her, he was mad at Lena. She was the one who called him a jerk for no reason, and okay, that stuff Webby said hurt, but, again, something was clearly going on with her so he couldn't hold it against her too much. Everyone was entitled to having less than stellar moments when they were hurt, but that didn't mean what she said didn't hurt. 

"Huey?" A soft voice asked. 

He looked up to see his brothers staring at him worriedly. "I- I don't know. I think we should talk to the girls, but I don't think they wanna see us right now." 

"What? Why should we talk to them? They were in the wrong." Dewey adamantly protested. 

"Because something else is clearly going on." 

"It's not on us to help her deal with it when she's being mean to us." Louie gently countered. And yeah, maybe that was true, but they had been mean too. And that was what he told his littlest brother, who didn't like that very much. "Because they were mean to you first! Huey, please," Louie held his hands. "Stop putting other people before yourself all the time." Huey looked at Dewey who nodded in agreement. 

He didn't do that a lot, did he? 

"Hey, everything alright out here?" Their Dad asked. The three of them looked to see him standing in the doorway. "You can come back inside if you want. We're done talking about the Phantom Blot now." Huey frowned, his mind still on what Louie said. He wasn't surprised when he was tugged along, it seemed his brothers had made the decision for all of them. 

He took his hand back once they were inside and turned to his Dad. His brothers got the hint and left the room. "Am I too selfless?" He asked his Dad. If both his Dad and brothers thought so, then it was probably true. They did know him best. 

His Dad sat on a stool and gestured for Huey to join him. "Sometimes. You can be, yeah." He said once Huey sat down. Oh, that, he didn't really know how to take that. "I don't have to tell you how important it is to care about other people, but you have to care about yourself too. I'm not saying you don't! But sometimes, yeah, you do push yourself to the side. Like your feelings don't matter as long as everything's okay. And I know your brothers have been trying to break that habit, but I also know how hard it is to unlearn you don't know even exists. Just," He placed a hand on Huey. "Remember you matter too, okay? That your feelings matter. Always. Do you think you can try and do that?" 

"Yeah." It would be hard, but it was his Dad asking, and he never asked anything of them that wasn't good for them. 

Louie sighed as he and Dewey ran into Lena. Great, just what he didn't need right now. He tried to pull Dewey away but he refused to budge. Of course. "Come on, man, Huey doesn't need to hear more yelling." Louie tried to persuade him. Dewey glanced at the kitchen. 

-----------

"Of course you're both still on his side." Lena sneered. And that, okay, there was really no need for that. 

"I will defend the people I love until the day I die, make no mistake of that." Dewey stepped in front of Louie, as if proving that point. 

"So what's Webby to you then?" She shot back. Nope. No, they were not doing this. 

"Our sister. Who we obviously love but was way out of line. You know she had no right to say any of that, even if she was upset or worried. You know you had no right to treat him like that when he was just trying to help. So stop acting like either of you did nothing wrong." 

"Or what, you gonna throw another bubble at me?" 

"The first one clearly didn't work so obviously not." Louie grabbed his brother's hand before he could do something he'd regret. Dewey sighed, "No. No more magic! We're family, we don't do that to each other! Just, leave him alone, okay? You've done enough to him." 

She glared at them. Seriously? Louie thought. "Well your sister, who you claim to care so much about, is upstairs, crying her eyes out, because she thinks you three hate her now!" Louie shared a look with Dewey, both clearly torn. 

"Huey had a meltdown." Dewey dropped. The room fell silent. Each side at a standstill. 

And that was when Della poked her head in, "What's going on out here?" 

Dewey ignored her, "You saw, you were there for it. Do you just not care?" Louie shot a look at Della. Don't let this escalate, he seemed to say to her, not where Huey can hear. 

"Dewey, honey-" She tried. 

"Sorry, weren't you the one who said you can't tell people what they care about?" 

"That was Louie, actually." Dewey grit out. 

"Oh, sorry, it's easy to get you all confused." Lena said mockingly. Louie tightened his grip on Dewey's hand, for multiple reasons. 

Della stepped in between them. "Lena, that was uncalled for. You need to apologize." She turned to Dewey. "You do too." 

"No, not after what she said to Huey. Not after the way she's been acting. I'll apologize to Webby when she's ready to talk, but not to her." Della sighed, she needed to be more stern. Clearly, both sides needed to settle down. And two of them were too ramped up to see that. She looked at Louie who seemed to agree with his brother’s words. Or maybe all three of them were and the last one just didn't want to make Huey more upset. Which, was fair. She didn't know what exactly happened, but she didn't want that either. 

Still, this wouldn't end well if it kept going. 

"Well if neither of you are going to apologize then some time apart is what's needed. Get space, calm down, and then the five of you are going to talk." 

None of them looked at her, "I have nothing to say to her." Dewey said seethingly. "I can't believe we ever agreed to be your friend." 

"I can't believe I ever thought you were good brothers." Lena shot back just as seethingly. 

"Go away." Louie stepped in. "Go away or I swear to god I will make you. Go comfort Webby, at least that's one thing you can do right." 

-------

Lena ran off. Dewey ran off. Louie stayed. 

"Okay, I can recognize how that was wrong to say." He immediately told her. Okay, that was good at least. "But I can't regret it right now. Not after all that she's said." He looked upstairs and then to the kitchen. "Honestly, I just want Huey and Webby to talk it out. Without the rest of us getting involved again. That's the only way this gets fixed." 

Della could see the point in that but, "You two and Lena also need to talk it out. But it'll definitely be easier once they fix things." She paused. "It's nice to see one of you being mature about this at least. Mostly mature. I don't think I would be." She admitted. "You're not overly involved in any of this?" 

"I mean I'm pissed at Lena for Huey's sake but that's about it. Or at least it was." 

"Really?" She tried not to sound shocked, but dammit these kids kept surprising her. It made her feel like she didn't know them at all, which was not the point right now. 

Louie turned away from her, "You don't have to look so surprised."

"It just seems like you're the type of person who would take advantage of- I'm gonna stop talking now."

It was silent for a few moments. "They're fighting." Louie said softly. "I don't like fighting."

Ah. That, actually didn't surprise her. "Got it."

"But I will, if it means protecting my brothers I will." And neither did that. She pulled Louie close to her. No, that didn't surprise her at all. 

Okay, Donald decided, it was time to talk to the kids. Huey had just finished telling him about the fight and, this one definitely needed adult intervention. The fact that Dewey and Louie had felt the need to use their magic... They wouldn't do that to family, not unless they thought they were a threat. Donald knew those boys well, had raised them well, and one of the first things he taught them was that they didn't use their magic against friends and family unless they were in danger. If they did that... then they just weren't mad at Lena, they were scared of her. And it seemed like they weren't the only ones. 

And if Webby had said all that stuff something else was clearly going on. Something else was clearly going on with all five of them and it was time to get to the bottom of it. 

"Family meeting." Donald declared as he stepped into the foyer. Thankfully, Louie and Della were already there. Both shaking their heads. "What?" He asked, confused. 

"Dewey and Lena literally just stormed off. They said... some really not great things." Della informed him. Louie looked down, which told Donald he had also said some really not great things. "I tried to get them to talk it out, but I don't think they're ready for that. Huey," She said, noticing him trailing behind Donald. "How are you feeling, Honey?" 

"Been better." He answered honestly. Donald bit back a sigh at that. "I want to talk to Webby though. Is she in her room? Have any of you seen her lately?" Donald looked at Della but she shook her head. Louie looked up. 

"It's not good, Hue. According to Lena she thinks we hate her." He said seriously. Huey gasped. "But I don't, I was just,"

"Worried." Donald filled in. Louie nodded. "And that's okay. You did what you thought you had to do to protect your brother, and I'm never going to get mad at you for that, but the rest of this? I know you know it wasn't okay. If Dewey and Lena aren't ready to talk then at least need to get Webby down here and clear that issue up." 

"Lena's probably with her. I don't think they'll separate right now." Donald agreed with that. It looked like they had to get her and Dewey to see each other then. Not ideal, but hopefully with more adults around it wouldn't break into another fight. 

The four of them split off to get the rest of the family and re-met in the den. Lena tried to leave as soon as she saw the triplets but Mrs. B stopped her. Webby however, immediately started tearing up, which made Dewey soften up. He and shared a look with his brothers and they rushed over to her, grabbing her in a hug, and reassuring her that they didn't hate her. 

Good, that was one problem solved. 

"It's safe to say things have gotten very out of hand." Lena scoffed at that and Mrs. B gave her a look. "The five of you need to talk things out, now, before they get any worse. Who wants to go first?" The triplets had a silent conversation, with Dewey adamantly shaking his head. Louie shot a look towards Webby and Huey reached out and grabbed her hand. 

"What's going on, Webby?" He asked with so much concern it made Dewey wince. He might've been focusing on the wrong girl today. "Why did you say that stuff?" 

Webby looked away from everyone, "Seeing all of you like that, it was terrifying. I didn't know what was happening, and I didn't know how to fix it, and- and you guys were acting like it didn't even matter. Like the fact that it could happen again wasn't even a concern of yours. Honestly -in the heat of the moment- it felt like you weren't even listening to me, even though I know that wasn't true." 

"Maybe," Dewey said hesitantly. "Maybe we weren't. Maybe we were so concerned about what we wanted that we didn't consider how something like that would've affected you. I'm sorry, and I'm sorry for saying you don't know when to leave things alone, you just care a lot. There's nothing wrong with that." 

"You pushed me out." She said quietly. 

"It wasn't just you." Louie grabbed her other hand. "Huey," He shot a look towards his oldest brother who nodded. "Huey wasn't doing well and we were angry and worried, and honestly we weren't sure what was going to happen next, we had to protect him." Because they may of fought with everyone else from time to time but trying to truly turn them against each other was like trying to move a mountain, impossible. 

"What." Lena said flatly. Everyone turned to her. "You can't really have thought..." She trailed off. 

"We did." Dewey let her know. "We still think that. You didn't see how you were acting." She looked at Louie who glared back at her, then at Huey who averted his eyes, and finally at Webby who frowned. 

"I didn't, I wouldn't have," She stuttered, walking backwards. "You guys are my friends, I would never," She stared at her hands, which were now shaking. "What's wrong with me?" 

The triplets' Dad bent down to her level, "Nothing's wrong with you, it sounds like you're still dealing with the effects of your corruption." The boys gasped. "Our magic was affected, but you're made of magic, it was bound to have more repercussions on you. We should've seen it sooner, I'm so sorry, Lena." The look on his face was one of nothing but understanding, and one Lena didn't deserve. She still said all those horrible things, she still escalated things. If she had stayed out of it... it wouldn't have gotten this bad. But how could she not defend Webby? 

...She still should've realized. 

"I didn't mean any of that stuff, not really." She let the triplets know. They smiled sadly at her. 

"We didn't either." Dewey told her. "We should've realized something else was going on with you too."

She let out a humorless chuckle. "How? I went after Huey, there's no way either of you would be level-headed after that." They shared a look and a small laugh. She turned to Huey. "You're not a jerk, I know you were just trying to help, I think I knew it then too." She admitted. "I was just so mad." 

"Yeah," Louie said. "It's not fun having your feelings contaminated." His brothers nodded softly in agreement. 

"Was it that bad this time?" Their Dad asked them. 

"No," Huey said honestly. "But with everything else that happened that day," He nodded in understanding. "Webby, are we okay?" 

She looked at him, "Yeah, yeah of course. Always." He looked unconvinced but a nudge from his brothers had him speaking up again. 

"Both of you, I know you were going through stuff, but what you said still really hurt me. I haven't had a meltdown in a while and I just," He paused and Webby reached out and grabbed his hands, giving them a gentle squeeze. "I don't like the fact that my trying to help got thrown back in my face like that. I don't like that you made my brothers mad and made them feel like they had to do something like that." He squeezed Webby's hands and continued in a softer voice, "I don't like that you didn't just tell us what was really going on." 

She threw herself at him in a hug, "I know, I should have. I'm sorry this went as far as it did." 

"Me too." Lena agreed. 

Louie and Dewey shared a look, "Yeah, yeah." And joined the hug. Huey offered a hand to Lena who took it shakily and got pulled into the hug. The adults shared a smile. 

"Now that that's settled." Donald started. The kids looked at him. "Panchito?" He asked his novio. 

"Ah, right, Lena, I think I have something that can help you. A spell. If you're interested?" She nodded and the two of them walked to a corner of the room to discuss. 

Mrs. Beakley nodded at the rest of the kids and honed in on her granddaughter. "Dear, I promise you you are not useless for not being able to do anything right now. This Phantom Blot business really is best left to us adults, but if you really want to help you can be there for Lena and your brothers." The triplets nodded. Webby beamed. The two of them shared a hug and Mrs. Beakley pulled her away so they could talk more. 

The triplets shared a look, "Dad, there's something we need to talk to you about." He made a noise to let them know he was listening. "It's about this dream we had that night..." 

Once the boys were done explaining Donald had to sit down, and not just because he was still recovering. The place where magic was visible. He'd heard of it, of course he'd heard of it, there wasn't a magic user worth a lick of salt that hadn't. He had never gotten the dream. He wasn't bitter about it, he knew only certain people did, but the fact that his boys were apparently part of those certain people... he wasn't sure how to feel about it. "And you got it on the night you found out two major things about your bond?"

They nodded. And that... okay, not being able to hurt each other magically was a relief- not that they ever would, but, accidents happen. The worrier in Donald was soothed by that. Being able to share energy without consequences? Something that should be impossible. Very impossible. Mortal bodies just didn't work like that, there was a finite amount of energy in each of them and losing even a smidgen of that could have very disastrous consequences. And he didn't doubt that if they tried to share energy with anyone else it would. He didn't know what this meant. 

That wouldn't stand when it came to his boys. 

"I think... this is something we definitely need to look into more." He said gravely. "I've never known anyone who's gotten this dream. And I don't think Panchito and José have either. I don't know anything about the place where magic is visible other than the fact it exists and I don't know where to find more information." He sighed. "I think, you should pay really close attention to your dreams in the upcoming weeks." 

"Could it have something to do with our bond?" Dewey asked hopefully. 

"That's my leading theory. You've wanted answers for years, are you prepared to get them?" They nodded without hesitation. He smiled proudly. Of course they did, those were his boys. He only hoped they liked the answers they were given. He only hoped those answers wouldn't change everything. 

He didn't have to hope they were strong enough to face whatever happened next, he knew they were.  

DSZG SZKKVMVW RM HGLIB LMV XSZKGVI HVEVMGVVM ZTZRM?

Chapter Text

When the triplets got to their room the first thing they did was divvy up their candy. Dewey and Louie shared a look and silently agreed to let Huey have the most. He had had a hard night. 

He didn’t notice their look, which was worrying in itself. 

Louie bit his beak, trying to figure out the best angle to take. He fucked up, he knew that, he just wanted to make it right. And that started by actually apologizing.

“About tonight-“ He started to say, but was cut off.

“It’s fine, Louie, you don’t have to say anything.” But it wasn’t fine, and they all knew it.

Louie held out a Reese’s cup -Huey’s favorite- to his eldest brother, who took it in surprise. “I do, though. Cause I wasn’t listening to you, and that’s a real shitty thing to do.” 

Huey looked down, “Yeah, it was. If I’m being honest you really upset me tonight,” He handed a packet of M&M's -Louie’s favorite- to him. “But I know you didn’t mean anything bad by it.” At least Huey hoped he didn’t. 

“You’re doing it again.” Dewey pointed out. “Since when do you do that with us?” 

Donald collapsed on his bed with a sigh that turned into a groan when Della fell on top of him. He couldn’t even lift his head up to glare at her. He loved Halloween but, tonight had been a lot energy-wise. All he wanted to do now was sleep for a week. Which was a coma. Sounded festive. 

He pushed Della off him and let out a weak laugh as he heard her tumble to the floor. “Hey!” He didn’t have to look at her to know she was glaring at him. “Rude.” 

“I’m so sorry.” He said sarcastically. She hit him with a pillow. 

“Just for that I’m not giving you any kit-kats.” He sat up and whirled around. Both of them eyed Della’s bag on the floor by the doorway. She got to it before he could even get out of bed. “You must be tired, you didn’t even try to use magic.” He collapsed back on the bed and she held out the bag to him with a soft smile. “Recent circumstances withstanding, I’m glad I’m here.”

Oh.

“Me too.” 

“Huey, if you’re mad at me, be mad at me. I’m mad at me.” 

Huey shot off the floor. “No, I-!” He sighed. “I don’t know.” The truth was, for most of the night he had been mad at Louie. Mad that he was ignoring him, mad that he was getting annoyed about what made Huey Huey. But this was his brother, and if there was anyone he could trust to not be malicious with that it was his brothers. And that didn’t make it go away, but it made it easier. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” He repeated. “And that doesn't excuse it, but it’s enough.” 

Louie sat on his bed. “I’m still sorry.” Huey sat next to him and bumped his shoulder. “Next year we can do Halloween however you want.” Louie promised. 

“If there is a next year.” Huey said ruefully. 

“What?” Dewey asked confused. “Of course there’ll be.”

“We’ll be thirteen then; teenagers don’t go trick-or-treating. It’s too childish.”

“So? Dad and Aunt Della went and they’re in their thirties. Uncle Scrooge went and he’s like a thousand.” Huey and Louie cracked a smile at that. “Being too old to do something’s a myth. As long as we still wanna go we’ll go.” 

“Yeah, we’ll go. And we’ll stay far away from Hazel House.” Huey and Dewey shuddered at that and agreed. The monsters may have turned out to be friendly, but the house was still unsettling. 

Dewey’s eyes lit up, “Maybe next year we can rob a candy store!” Huey and Louie laughed at that and shared a small smile. Yeah, things would be okay between them. 

Della fell on the bed next to him this time as Donald dug through the bag, his own mere inches away from him. It was always more fun to steal from his sister. And that was a side of himself he hadn't fed into for... a long time. Petty squabbles, taking something that belonged to the other person, annoying the living hell out of each other- it was all so easy to fall back into with Della. Doing any of that with the kids was absolutely a no-go, he never felt comfortable doing stuff like that with Scrooge, and he just didn't have that kind of relationship with his boyfriends and friends. But Della... 

It was like no time had been lost between them at all. And that made him happy in a way he couldn't describe. Different from his boyfriends, different from his kids, Della had always been her own category. His best friend, his other half, it finally felt like the missing piece of him was back. That was worth all the pillows to the back of his head as far as he was concerned. 

That being said, if she took another one of his Twizzlers he was throwing her out of his room, weakened magic or not. 

"So what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" She asked him as she opened a wrapper. Tomorrow, he kinda wanted to sleep in but, he cheerfully sighed, he had a date with his boyfriends. "Uh-oh, I know that look." She teased. "You're going out with Panchito and José, aren't you?" 

"Maybe..." She lightly shoved him and he laughed. "Yeah, I am. What're you up to?" 

"Penny wants to give some earth things another try, you know, since she saved Dewey and Webby from that deathwheel." Donald let out a humorless noise. "So I figured we'd go on an adventure somewhere. I know Uncle Scrooge is planning to take the kids to the Foreverglades in a couple of days, but is there any other missing mysteries we know the location of?" 

"All but three." He responded. "Looking for Circe's Medallion could be a good bonding experience." 

Della made a face, "Too much research." He rolled his eyes.  "Maybe I could talk Uncle Scrooge into giving me a location?" Maybe, but he'd probably have the same reservations Donald did. That only two people going was dangerous, especially if FOWL happened to be there. It wasn't worth the risk. While they would probably enjoy said risk, if they got captured... Yeah he really hoped Scrooge had the same reservations as him. 

Then again, he was bringing the kids along. But the four of them -Lena didn't adventure often- were very capable and Scrooge knew it. He had gotten better at being smarter over the years, Donald trusted that. Della had gotten smarter, he was learning to trust that.

Donald surprisingly got some sleep last night and was more than ready for his date. The kids had plans with their friends, Della had plans with Penny, Uncle Scrooge was still looking into his memory loss. Nothing was keeping this from happening. He quickly knocked on wood. 

The doorbell rang and he fought the urge to rush down there, knowing it would only get him teased by his family. Besides, it was probably the kids friends. 

"Donald, your boyfriends are here!" His sister called up to him. Never mind. 

He finished getting ready as he knew they wouldn't mind waiting a few minutes, and his kids would be more than happy to entertain them, and headed down. He wasn't sure what the plan was for today, but was excited nonetheless. Of course, this date wasn't all pleasure as they had some things to talk about, but hopefully that wouldn't take too long. Hopefully they would get some things figured out. Enough had already been going on, and now the Phantom Blot was a threat? He was bound to start molting again. Baby steps, that was what he had always told the kids. 

When he got downstairs his boyfriends immediately noticed him and smiled, which grabbed the attention of the others. "Dad, Tio José not telling us where you're going." Dewey pouted. Donald fought the urge to laugh.  

"He's not telling me either." Dewey's eyes sparkled, it was a surprise! He made his Dad promise to tell them all about it when he got back and the three of them left. It was always weird, thinking about his Dad dating, but he was happy and that was all Dewey really cared about. Though he hoped he never looked that love struck, it was just embarrassing. 

"So, uh, anyone know when they're supposed to get here?" Louie asked, which was a good question to be fair. He looked towards Huey, if anyone would know it would be him but he just shrugged, 

"Boyd said Gyro was bringing him, and I haven't heard from Violet." 

"I have!" Webby interjected. "She'll be here any minute, something about wanting to stock up." 

The triplets shared a look, "Whatever you three are planning, no." Huey shot down. "We're just a bunch of normal kids, having a normal day." Lena snorted. Dewey could tell his younger brother was fighting the urge to agree with her. "We just need one, normal, day." They all knocked on wood. 

Dewey frowned, he definitely agreed, but he didn't like how insistent Huey was on it. Well, Dewey would just have to make sure this was the most normal day ever! Maybe then they could talk about everything. 

They hadn't really, they had been too busy trying not to get swept up by it all to. It was, a lot. It was confusing. He loved that he and his brothers couldn't hurt each other magically, he was worried about his Dad, mad their magic had been tampered with again. He didn't know what to think about that dream. It was cool, and he was super excited to see the place where magic was visible! But with the revelation magic users couldn't transfer energy without consequence... It just felt like too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. 

Why did they get that dream now? What changed? Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why was this happening now? 

More questions. They always got more questions. 

They would get answers this time, the place where magic was visible had to have them. It had to. 

José's surprise turned out to be a restaurant Donald was nowhere near dressed for. He shot his namorado a look and noticed Panchito do the same- he wasn't alone at least. "Look, if I had told you guys to dress fancy it would've ruined the surprise." 

Donald's look just deepened. José held his hands up, "Okay! I messed up, I am sorry! But I think you both look magnífico." 

"Cause you're not biased." Panchito replied, but a smile started to creep up on his face. And that was all it took for Donald, who cared if he was under dressed? He was here with his boyfriends, and that was all that mattered. "You're paying." 

"No." Donald cut in. "We'll split it. Just like always." Panchito shrugged, fair was fair. 

They made their way to a table and grabbed some menus. Everything was in french, which, okay, how did José even find this place? Donald was pretty sure that of the 12 languages José knew french was somehow not one of them. He shook his head, deciding to let him keep his secrets and deliberated over what to get. This probably wouldn't be as good as genuine french cuisine, but it had been awhile since he had had anything like it. Ugh, he sounded so rich. "So, business first?" 

His partners shared a look, "Business first." Panchito confirmed. "Phantom Blot. I know the ninas held him off temporarily, which buys us some time, but how long is it gonna take him to fix the glove? Again." 

"Well Lena said it was completely destroyed, so longer than last time. Is there a way for us to hold him off, besides breaking his glove over and over again?" Donald asked. 

"That would be the only way." José paused. "I think we're focusing on the wrong things. How do we protect the kids?" Yeah, that had been the main thing on Donald's mind too. He could take their magic, and without their magic... Donald didn't even want to think about it. The sound of a glass breaking broke him out of his thoughts. He let out a quack and quickly set to clean it up. "I know." 

Donald sighed, "The protection rune on the triplets should keep them safe." Unless their magic gets corrupted again, he thought to himself. "Lena... I don't know. I don't know what putting a rune on her will do. We just, have to be on the lookout." It wasn't a solid solution, but it was the best they had. And sometimes... sometimes that just had to be enough. 

Once Boyd and Violet got to there the seven of them played around the mansion until Mrs. Beakley got tired of cleaning up after them and kicked them out. Which, in Louie's humble opinion, was very rude. But not a surprise. He and his siblings were enough chaos on their own, adding three more people... yeah it wasn't a surprise. He didn't know what they were supposed to do now though. He really didn't feel like going all the way to town. Not that that there was anything to do now that Funzo's was off-limits in everything but name. 

Well, there was ice cream. And ice cream was always good for getting his mind of off things. 

Look, it wasn't that he didn't want to think about everything -well- it was just a lot and if he could be distracted for a bit that would be nice. He had been somewhat distracted for a week, but that didn't feel like enough. How could it? So much had happened. And he knew not thinking about it was bad, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to think about his Dad being seriously hurt, he didn't want to think about his and his brothers magic being corrupted again, he didn't want to think about how they can share energy without consequences. He didn't want to think about that dream. 

He just wanted to forget most of it ever happened. But that wouldn't be fair, not to his Dad or his brothers. So he would think about it, eventually. Not today. Huey wanted a normal day, Huey was gonna get a normal day. 

It seemed like while he was lost in his thoughts the others decided what to do next, which was kind of a shame because he really wanted ice cream. "What're we doing?" He quietly asked Dewey. 

"Pier. You okay?" Dewey asked just as quiet. Huey looked up from his conversation with Boyd and Violet at them in concern; Louie shot him a smile. He turned back to the conversation with a furrowed brow. Louie sighed. "You're thinking about it all too?" 

"Trying not to." He started fiddling with his hoodie sleeve. "How are we supposed to deal with this?" 

Dewey bumped his shoulder, "Like we always do." Together. Yeah, Louie could do that. 

His brothers were thinking about everything, Huey didn't have to hear their conversation to know that. It was written all over their faces. It was probably all over his face too. They needed to talk about it, it wasn't doing them any good putting it off. He needed to know what they thought about it all because he, he didn't know what he thought. Some of it was good, some it was bad, most of it was... stressful, very stressful. He could understand his Dad would be okay eventually, the fact that he and his brothers couldn't hurt each other magically was a relief- especially with as powerful as they were getting. Their magic getting tampered with again... it was scary to think how easy something like that could happen, or something worse. And there was nothing that could protect it from getting corrupted. But corruption could always be fixed, he had to keep remembering that. 

Which lead him to the two biggest bombshells: the three of them being able to share energy without consequence and the dream. The dream was good, he was sure of it, it would lead them to the answers they had been searching for for years. There was no way it wasn't good. He guessed his only question was what made them people who could see the place where magic was visible? What made them so special and not their Dad? And then the other thing... 

He looked into it, he couldn't not, and what he found didn't soothe him in the slightest. It was like his Tio José said, people had a finite amount of energy and losing even a little bit of it had disastrous consequences. They had done more than lose a little, and they had done it for years. 

And they were the only ones who could. 

The next topic. The one Donald had actively been trying not to think about. "I don't know about this, Donal', first their magic permanently intertwines and now they can send each other energy with no consequence? That's two things that should never happen." And that was why he had being trying not to think about it. He knew their bond was a good thing but that... He hesitated to call those things bad, and it seemed to be working for them so far. Still... 

It worried him. More than he cared to admit.

Just what was this thing exactly? 

"Yet they have." Is all he had to say to that. What could he say to that? Their family... practically lived in impossible, both lines- it wasn't a surprise something like this happened. "I know this is a big thing, but it's working for them. Their magic has never been more durable, til the Phantom Blot incident- and even then it bounced back super fast, and sharing energy is apparently what has kept them from getting weakened over the years. I can't, see this as a bad thing." 

"I hope for their sakes you're right." He did too. "Have you heard from anyone?" He had only reached out to his Grandma and she hadn't responded yet so no, he hadn't. It was a bit worrying that she hadn't gotten back to him yet, but she was a busy woman, and looking into something like that took time. He'd give it a few more days. "Well, from the family members I talked to no one's ever heard of something like the boys bond." Right, sometimes he forget his boyfriends came from heavily-magical families like him. 

"Same." Concerning, but to be expected. He didn't think anybody has ever heard of something like that, he only hoped someone knew something that could help in someway. "But apparently one of mi primos knows someone who's gotten the dream. He didn't know anything about it, obviously, but he said that the person told him that wherever the place is- it's very dangerous." 

Great, just what he didn't want to hear. 

The pier was packed, which was to be expected for the day after Halloween, but was not helping Huey's uneasiness. But Louie perked up when he saw the ice cream booth and dragged him towards it and really, how could he say no to that? Dewey followed after them, because of course he did, leaving the rest of them to go off and do their own thing. The three of them would join back up in a little bit; there was something they needed to do. 

"BULLSEYE!" Dewey cheered. Huey grinned and squeezed his brother in congratulations. They had been trying to get a bullseye at the dart game booth for years. Years. "I shall get the big tiger, in honor of Dewey Junior." He and Louie shared a look and shook their heads fondly. Louie handed Dewey's ice cream cone back to him, and he struggled with it and the tiger before looking around and sending the plush home. Huey rolled his eyes, at least he looked around before. "So now what, more games?" 

And Huey hated to be the one to have to do this but, "We need to talk about everything." 

"It can't wait?" Louie asked nervously. Huey shot a look at Dewey in concern. Seemed he was right to be worried earlier. "I thought you wanted a normal day."  

Huey looked towards the sea. "It's not doing any of us any good. We can't distract ourselves properly cause we keep thinking about it and we're not gonna stop until we talk." He went over to the railing and leaned over it; his brothers followed after. "I don't know what to think about all of it." He admitted. 

"It is a lot." Dewey said softly. Louie didn't say anything. "I can come to terms with most of it: we can't hurt each other magically and that's awesome, Dad... he'll be fine- he has to be, our magic getting tampered with sucks- but we've bounced back from it before. I don't know what to think about the other stuff. Why did we get the dream after finding out about sharing energy having consequences?" 

"That's.. pretty much my thoughts." Huey agreed. "What makes us so special? Is it... is it just our bond?" 

"No." Louie suddenly said, which made both of them turn towards him. "Of course not. We're not special; we're just some kids who happen to have this bond, who happened to have had this dream. I'm not saying it doesn't mean anything, but we're not special." Huey frowned, not special? Louie wasn't being self-deprecating, so what was he talking about? 

"Sorry, what?" Dewey asked, sharing Huey's confusion. Of course they were special, they were McDucks and Ducks, they had magic, they had a bond that literally no one else had! They were special. There was no way they weren't. 

Louie sighed, like he realized something they didn't. And knowing him... "No one's special, not really. Stuff like destiny and fate are things of fairy tales. We're just here, we're just... us." He finished lamely. "Everything that's happened has just been chance. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but nothing more than chance." 

"Then why did we get the dream?" Huey counteracted. 

"Cause we needed it." Dewey realized. "We've been looking for answers for years; we've gotten nowhere; we're only getting more frustrated. Maybe people who've gotten the dream are the people who've needed it?" He suggested. "Maybe it's not some characteristic or trait; maybe it's people who've needed an answer for something that only a place like that could provide." It made sense, it made a lot of things connect. There was only one problem. "But what about our bond?" It can't be just something they have, that wouldn't make any sense. "What about everything that's come with it? I mean, we've done something that's literally impossible for years!" 

"Why do we have this bond? I think that's a question we've forgotten over the years. We've been too focused on trying to figure out what it is. What if we've been asking the wrong question?" Huey, Huey had a great point there. 

Louie pushed back from the rail, "We should go home. I think there's a book we need to finish." 

With the heavy stuff out of the way and their food arriving it was now time for the fun part of the date- the actual date. Donald had been waiting for this for weeks, he wasn't about to let the heavy stuff ruin it. There would be more time to focus on that stuff later, they had good enough solutions for right now. Sometimes, sometimes you just had to enjoy the moment you were in with the people you were with. That was something he needed to remember more. 

"How's your Tartiflette?" He asked Panchito. He, himself, was having galette complète while José chose to have a salade niçoise. 

Panchito looked up from his bowl, mouth full, a piece of bacon falling from his face. The three of them laughed. Well, that answered his question. "So I talked to Daisy the other day, about her upcoming fashion show." Panchito said once he swallowed. "She says she needs music. She asked if we would be interested." Donald shared a look with José. 

"Does she have a date yet?" 

"She just got the venue so I don't think so." Donald hummed in thought. It depended on the date, for him at least. If it was anytime soon he would have to say no, there was just too much going on right now. And that was what he told them. Panchito nodded like he was expecting that. "Well, I still want to help either way. José, you in?" 

"It would help us get more recognition... Sure, anything to help out." Donald smiled at them, not at all bothered by them doing it without him. They couldn't do everything together, even if it was band stuff. His life was just too chaotic to take on big projects like that at a moment's notice. He couldn't remember a time when it wasn't. Sometimes he wished he did have time for stuff like that, but when he looked at his life, it was well worth the sacrifice. He wouldn't trade his life for all the normalcy in the world, maybe at one point he would've, but he was more than content now. Besides, it would've gotten too boring. 

The Secret Book was exactly where they left it, on their desk. The three of them settled in on the floor and picked up where they left off. "Do you think this'll have any more information?" Dewey asked his brothers as they read. "What if we already found what it wanted to show us?" 

Louie shrugged, "Only one way to find out." 

They went quiet after that, trying to focus entirely on what they were reading. And for a while it was like Dewey said, interesting information, but nothing that would help them. It talked more about the Coot bloodline, which made sense considering what their Dad told them when they first got it. It wasn't until they got to the end that they found what they were looking for. 

"If you have gotten this book it means you are searching for an answer to something, and have come up with only more questions and mysteries." Huey read. "I am here to tell you not to give up on your search, to not be disheartened or discouraged, and to only let these setbacks embolden you to find what you seek. We are Coots, we are hardy, we thrive in turmoil. We do not give up. And most importantly, we have each other's backs." They shared a smile at that and Huey continued. "When you are in the dark, turn to your family. When you are lost, trust in yourselves. You are more capable that you realize. Nothing is out of your reach- Cornelius Coot."    

They let out a gasp, "Sorry, Cornelius Coot, as in founder of one of our bloodlines, Cornelius Coot?" Dewey asked incredulously. 

"Holy shit." Louie whispered. Huey was too shocked to admonish him for his language. "Holy shit!" He repeated louder. "Everything makes so much more sense now! Who else is gonna know more about our family than the founder of it?!" 

"But shouldn't he be...?" Huey trailed off. "I know we live longer than mortals-" 

"Uncle Scrooge is like a thousand." Dewey pointed out. "And he's not even a magic user." 

"Yeah, but he's way older than Scrooge." Louie countered. "Could he see the future or something?" 

Huey frowned, "I don't think he's the one who sent us this book. But then who...? Or what?" 

"Great. More questions." Louie groaned. 

Dewey held the now closed book in front of them. "Well it's like the book said, questions should only make our determination stronger." He looked at his brothers. "We're gonna do this, guys, we're gonna get answers." 

"Wait, what's that? The cover's changed." Huey noticed. His brothers looked at it and realized he was right. The swirl lines had become straighter and as a result the swirl looked more runic in nature. "Does this look familiar to either of you?" They both shook their heads and he found himself agreeing. They had only memorized a couple of runes, but this didn't look familiar at all. 

They opened the book again and found a map to a place they had never seen before, written in a language they couldn't understand. 

Huh. More questions, indeed.