Chapter Text
Saturday afternoons at McDuck manor meant one thing and one thing only to Louie Duck: laying on the couch and watching TV. His brothers, like usual, were probably off doing something dangerous with their uncle Scrooge. And Louie wanted no part in that. This was the much safer (and easier) option.
For once, though, Louie couldn’t get his mind to focus on Ottoman Empire reruns, as it kept wandering. He wasn’t sure why, but he couldn’t stop thinking about that day from a few months ago, when he watched Scrooge get berated by his nemeses in some kind of magical courtroom. Specifically, his mind kept replaying Magica’s story about her brother, Poe, who Scrooge had severely wronged. Though in Louie’s correct opinion Magica and her brother were the literal definition of evil, he couldn’t help but feel bad about the whole situation. And weirdly, guilty? But what could he even do about it? That’s when his thoughts wandered to Lena, Magica’s niece.
Lena!
Scrooge never told a soul about the incident, making Louie the only one to know. Magica was Lena’s aunt, and Poe was Magica’s brother. Did that make Poe Lena’s uncle? Or father? Somehow? Louie didn’t want to think too hard about how the magic of that worked. But now he realized where the guilt was coming from. Lena doesn’t know. She probably doesn’t even know Poe exists. He needed to tell her.
In a panic, he fished his phone out of his pocket and pulled up Lena's contact. But when he tried to write a message, he didn’t know what to even say. Hey Lena, turns out you have a long lost relative on your evil aunt’s side! Crazy, huh? No, a text wouldn’t cut it. So, he stared at the screen for a while.
“What are you doing?” Webby screeched, popping up in front of him seemingly out of nowhere. Louie yelped and dropped his phone.
“Webby, you gotta stop doing that,” he sighed, retrieving his phone from the ground. “Can’t you see I’m being lazy?” He noticed her clutching sleeping bags. “What’re those for?”
“Hm? Oh, Lena and Violet are sleeping over tonight! You are more than welcome to hang out with us too, if you want!” She grinned.
Lena was coming over? Perfect! He could just tell her in person and not have to worry about his guilt ever again. What could go wrong?
“Oh - um, actually, when they get here, could you tell Lena to come find me? I - er - have to give something back,” he stammered. Man, he was too distracted to even come up with a convincing lie.
“Sure thing! Gotta go!” Webby disappeared just as fast as she had appeared. Man, was she freaky.
Later that night Louie, already bored of the TV, laid in his bed on his phone. He was startled by a knock on his door. Too tired to get up and open it, he yelled out a weak “come in”.
The door opened to reveal Lena, looking confused and slightly angry. “Good, you're in here. Webby says you have to give me something back. Did you steal something of mine?” she accused him.
Louie quickly sat up in his bed. Somehow, he had almost completely forgotten about telling Lena, and a knot formed in his stomach. Better to just get it over with. “Oh, Lena. Yeah, I lied, sorry. I actually have to tell you something.” Now her expression was just one of confusion.
Lena crossed the room and sat in a chair near the bunk bed. “What’s up?” she asked cautiously. She clearly wasn’t expecting this, and he couldn’t blame her. The two got along, but they weren’t particularly close. Which made this a lot harder for Louie.
“Okay,” he started, “this is going to sound weird, and please don’t be mad at me for not telling you until now. But it has to do with Magica.” Lena’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she motioned for him to keep going. “A few months ago I was forced to go with Scrooge to some kind of weird magical courtroom…? To tell you the truth I don’t really know what was going on. But I had to defend him against his enemies, and one of them was your aunt.”
“She’s not my aunt,” Lena interjected.
“Sorry?” Louie asked.
“I said, she’s not my aunt. She’s not my family.”
“Right, ok… well anyway, uhhh… gee, I probably should have planned out what I was gonna say…”
Lena rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. Time stopped around the two, and the room became grayscale. She watched in annoyance as Louie stood up, eyes wide at the scene around them. “...what did you do?”
“We’re in your mindscape. Just show me the memory,” she said, rolling her eyes. A large door appeared in front of them labeled TOP SECRET. “Go on,” she motioned to the door, “open it up!”
He did as he was told, and the door opened to reveal a familiar courtroom scene through his own eyes. His memory wasn’t perfect, so bits of it were choppy, but it was enough for Lena to understand. She watched as Glomgold and Ma Beagle recounted their own face-offs with Scrooge. She was starting to get bored until it was Magica’s turn. Lena stood from her chair. She was horrified to see her former aunt and her twin terrorizing a village, but she also wasn't surprised. At least, not until Magica stole her own brother’s amulet to fight Scrooge. And when a blast of magic intended to turn the rich duck into a raven misfired, Lena watched in shock as Magica’s brother took the fall for her. He flew out the window, leaving Magica alone. And Scrooge simply left.
The door closed on the memory, and Lena snapped her fingers again to leave the mindscape. Back in the triplets’ room, she sat on the ground and attempted to collect her thoughts. Finally, she turned to where Louie was on his bottom bunk and asked, “Why didn’t he tell me?”
Louie couldn’t read her face at all. It’s like she was frozen in place. “He never told anyone,” he told her. “When he left, he didn’t even try to help the village they had destroyed.”
“I don’t know who I’m angrier with,” Lena said calmly, “Magica, for treating her brother that way, or Scrooge. For never telling me. This Poe guy was clearly evil too, but-”
“But Scrooge shouldn’t have just let him leave like that, I know. He knows too. He’s very ashamed of himself. It’s why he never said anything, and it’s why I was supposed to keep it secret too.” Louie looked at the ground.
“Hey,” Lena said, standing up and forcing Louie to look up at her. “Thanks for showing me that. I have… a lot to think about now.” She smiled at him. “I should probably get back to the sleepover and pretend to be normal after all this.” With that, she left Louie alone in his room without another word.
He flopped down onto his bed and stared up at the bunk above him. Although he felt better now that she knew, he couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he had made a big mistake.
That Lena was never gonna let this go.