⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️
Unicorn death, Implied blood
Webby was the only one happy about being woken up. The boys turned down breakfast in exchange for their beds. I didn't blame them; it was too early even for me so I chose something simple, strawberry muffins.
All I had to do was mix in milk and let them sit in the oven, but my nervous energy had me bouncing around the kitchen. I channeled it into cutting up strawberries and oranges.
I was glad Webby was keeping me company, even if it was by continuing to read the Clan McDuck book. It kept my mind off impending doom. The constant chatter and the rhythmic sound of the blade was almost peaceful.
I jumped at the sudden slapping of feet on the ground, nearly cutting off a finger. Donald had walked in and it took a minute for me to process he had spoken.
"There you are. Where have you guys been?"
"Sorry, Donald. But trust me, you're probably glad you didn't come." He glanced at the book Webby was reading.
"You went there? I'm definitely glad I got left behind." He took a seat beside Webby. "I finished fixing the house boat. Should be back on the water by tomorrow."
"Congrats, Donald!"
The timer rang for the muffins and I put on the oven mitts. LaunchPad walked in as I pulled them out of the oven.
"Those sure do smell good." He all but licked the pan. I could tell he was asking for one.
"Go ahead LP. I made plenty. Careful though, they're hot," I said, pulling out some plates.
"Thanks, ______!" He picked one up and started throwing from one hand to another like a hot potato.
"Here." I handed him a plate.
"Thanks." He looked a little embarrassed.
Webby hadn't stopped reading despite Donald's and Launchpad's entrance.
"Alright Webby." I handed her a plate and pushed the book away, much to her dismay. "Eat. I am going to find your grandmother and bring Scrooge some breakfast."
I walked out of the kitchen with a plate that held a muffin and a bowl of fruit.
"There's food in the kitchen, Mrs. B." I told her as I passed her vacuuming the hall.
"Thank you, dear. How was the trip?"
"It was interesting," I said, nodding.
"I'm just glad you're back. I've missed you and your cooking." She turned off the vacuum.
"We weren't gone that long," I laughed.
"Yes, but you seem distant recently. You seem like you're back to your normal self now." I blinked.
(She had noticed? I wonder who else noticed.)
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot," she apologized.
"No, you're fine. I just didn't know anyone had noticed." I gave a weak laugh. She placed a hand on my shoulder.
"We are family, of course we noticed," she said, seriously. Then her tone lightened. "Now, what was this about breakfast?"
"Muffins and fruit." I showed her Scrooge's plate, and she walked back towards the kitchen. I continued down the hall.
(What is with these people and family? I never had one, and it's all these people can talk about.)
I sighed.
(I guess that's why I don't see the importance.)
I knocked on the door of the study. A grumbling came from the other side. I took it for a 'come in'. I walked in and I didn't see anyone.
"Uh? Mr. McDuck?" No response. I walked over to his desk and placed the food down. "Scrooge?"
"Ow." The entire table jerked, and I jumped back. Scrooge rubbed his head and crawled out from behind his desk.
"Why were you under the table?" It was a dumb but fair question.
"I was lookin' for this." He held up a piece of paper. It was covered in money totals but didn't look important, so I just nodded. He pulled it back to look at it. "It's me financial report for - "
He didn't finish the sentence. The paper went limp in his hands, so I see the date at the top of the paper.
"Isn't that the boys' birthday?" I thought out loud. He looked like he was going to be defensive, but instead, he sighed and nodded. I had a quick debate with myself, then blurted out, "The boys are planning on getting all the documents shred that week from the Bin."
His eyes went big, and it took him a moment to process what I said.
"Where would they get an idea like that?" He knitted his eyebrows together.
"They are looking into the Spear of Selene." Scrooge flinched. I added quickly, "I told them I was from a different universe last night. I didn't tell them about anything else. Nothing about me knowing the future or finding the note or anything."
"So they don't know you know anything about their mother?" I shook my head. "Then how did they-"
"Webby." He sighed like that, explained everything. He plopped down in his chair. I hated to bother him about anything else but I had to ask. "Magica?"
"If I know her, she will try to attack tomorrow due to the solar eclipse. I've been thinking about my options and I think if I place the dime in The Other Bin, it will be safe for a little while longer." I clenched my jaw. "Don't look so worried, lassie. Not much happens in my own home that I don't know about."
I sighed and nodded. The doorbell rang.
"Now who in tarnation would that be?"
"I have a feeling, I know. Lena." He looked at me. I rolled my eyes but smiled. "Webby's friend."
"Oh. Well, don't worry, I'll put the dime in the Other Bin after breakfast. Now go have fun with your friends, love." He pushed me out the door.
I walked downstairs and found Lena and Webby talking in the kitchen.
"These are amazing." It was the first time Lena sounded genuine about something. "You made these?"
"I was trying to tell you. _____ is an amazing cook." I blushed at Webby's compliment.
"Awww. Thanks Webby and thank you Lena." I pulled Webby into a hug. Lena looked at me suspiciously. "So, what are we doing today?"
Webby wanted to read her new book. Lena suggested a movie marathon. I was down. I could monitor her that way at least. Webby was out cold after the second movie. I started to doze off at the beginning of the fourth movie. I probably would've fallen asleep too if Lena hadn't shifted the cover that Webby insisted that we all three share. I watched her inch towards the door. She left the room, and I got up to follow her. I caught up to her as she entered Scrooge's room. She leaned over him, searching for the Dime.
"Oh, where is it?" she muttered to herself.
"Wow. He must have some bad jet lag." I leaned against the door frame. She shot me an evil look. "Can I help you find something?"
"Where is it?" She got off the bed. We paused while Scrooge rolled over.
"Where's what?" I crossed my arms. She growled.
"Why are you suddenly buddy-buddy with them?" she whispered aggressively.
"They actually care for me. You should know what that feels like. To have someone who cares about you." She didn't respond.
"Lena? ____? What are you doing?" Webby asked.
Lena looked panicked. I rolled my eyes. Scrooge started to sleep talking.
"Get your filthy chimney hands off my," I grabbed their hands and pulled them into the hall closing the door, "hard-earned milk and cookies, you ahh."
Webby didn't stop there. She pulled us to her room.
"What were you two doing in Scrooge's room?" Webby used a lamp as an integration light.
"What were you doing there?" Lena turned the light on Webby. I laughed.
"Oh nothing. Definitely not collecting drool samples while he sleeps." Webby dropped a test tube and kicked them behind her.
"Why?" The word popped out. "You know what? I don't want to know."
Webby seemed embarrassed.
"Anyway, Lena told me she caught the obsession bug from you. Then drug me in there to check out his Number One Dime." Webby jumped and hugged Lena.
"Oh, no! Sorry, you've caught the greatest disease ever! Ooh! Ooh! Let's start a fan club! Ooh! The fan club should start a blood oath! Ooh! Let's take a blood oath!" Webby ran downstairs. Lena gave me a 'what did you do' look.
"Good luck dealing with her now. I would never tell her that. No matter if it was true or not." I laughed and slid down the ladder to join Webby.
"Webby," Lena tried to get the young duck's attention. "We could start by checking out his number one dime."
"Oh, I wish. He keeps it to himself, that selfishly lovable genius. But I do have an exhaustively researched presentation on the life and times of Scrooge McDuck!"
"Oh, no," Lena muttered. I laughed and Webby started reading from a book.
"Scotland, 1867. A duckling is hatched to humble beginnings," Webby started. Lena sighed, and I tried to slip out of the door, but she caught my sleeve.
"No, you got me into this. You're staying for the whole thing."
"Not fair. I've heard it before."
Not exactly true, but Webby had bounced questions off me and made me help her rewrite some books. I refused to let her present them to me, however, because I know it was torture of a different kind. At least unlike most boring history teachers, she cared about the topic and I found it kind of interesting. However, Scrooge's life seemed like a non-stop adventure with a bullet point for every single day since he was seven.
"Until Scrooge realized that his worst nightmare was being caused by the mythical dreamcatcher he found back on January 8th, 1977! On January 9th, 1977," Webby droned on.
I punched Lena in the arm; she had dozed off. "Hey, we are in this together."
She nodded awake.
"Ugh. There are two of us and one of her can't we just put her in a headlock or something," Lena asked and I laughed.
"But she's having so much fun."
"Yeah, well, I am dying," she moaned in protest.
"...making Scrooge McDuck the finest venture capitalist the world will ever see. Now onto the slide show. I am gonna get the projector." Webby ran out of the room.
"Okay. I'll stop her." I followed Webby to her closet. She was trying to dislodge the projector from under some boxes. "Webby, don't you think you need a break? I mean, you've been going full force McDuck for the past four days."
"No, I could talk about Uncle Scrooge forever!" She stated matter-of-factly. I facepalmed as she got the projector loose.
"Okay, most of these are the artist rendering of the facts, but I drew them so they're amazing." She ran back into her room.
"Sorry, I failed." I told Lena, plopping in the chair beside her.
"Okay, I'll try." She walked up to Webby as she plugged in the machine. "Uh, real quick, what's 'The Other Bin?'"
Webby gasped. I facepalmed again.
"Could we go ten minutes without breaking Webby, please," I mumbled, walking over to join them.
"Good. You've heard of it. Let's go." Lena tried to pull Webby, but she didn't move.
"Oh, no-no-no. The Money Bin is where the money goes. The Other Bin is for the other. The bad things!" Webby protested. She clapped, turning off the lights. The projector came on, and Lena and I shielded our faces. "Where Scrooge puts all his most dangerous finds and artifacts to keep them from prying hands. Why would you want to go there?"
A crudely drawn picture of the mansion with an elevator in the center that led to a large grey square label: 'Things Mysteriously Disappear!' She clapped again, and the photo was gone.
"Because I just heard Scrooge say he put his Number One Dime in there." That got Webby's attention.
"He almost never takes off the dime."
"Then we better go check it out before he takes it back." Lena started to walk away, but Webby and I didn't move.
"Uh, I don't know." If Webby was nervous about it, then I was nervous about it.
"Did you not read the picture? Things Mysteriously Disappear? No thank you," I added.
"So you two are telling me there's a mystical room in your own home that you've never been to that contains Scrooge's greatest secrets, and you don't want to go there?" Webby was still nervous about it, but under peer pressure.
"Ahh! Okay, fine! To adventure!" She grabbed our hands and pulled us towards the garage.
"Based on Duckworth's old cleaning schedule, the entrance to The Other Bin is somewhere in here." Webby said, looking at the notebook that had Duckworth's schedule next to a drawing of the garage label wing of secrets. A box fell over and zombie parts fell out, freaking Lena out.
"Don't worry, it's just some assorted zombie parts." Webby brushed it off.
"Ahh!" Lena ran into a picture of Scrooge fighting a Minotaur. "Scrooge sure seems to be good at hunting monsters."
"He's never met a mystical foe he couldn't defeat. Right, Zombie Hand?" Webby asked, and the thing gave a thumbs up.
"Well, that's comforting." Lena seemed scared. Webby nodded and turned back to her book.
"I thought so." I gave Lena a smile, but she still looked dejected.
"According to this, to find the bin, we must see through Scrooge's eyes and get into his head."
"Looks like someone already got to his head." She pointed at the decapitated statue that's head was now used for Manny. Webby walked over to it.
"Through his eyes?" She gasped. "I see a painting!"
We walked over to the painting of Scrooge in front of the Money Bin. His gaze was funny, though. It wasn't straightforward; it was downward.
"This must be it, but how do we get into his head?" Lena asked.
"What's he looking at?" I asked, officially giving up on any chance of not going through with this.
Webby walked over to a barricade pole that was meant to divide a crowd. Lena went to the painting to inspect it. Webby messed with the pole and a key popped out the bottom. Lena noticed and asked to see it. She stuck the key into a slit in the painting. The pole disappeared into the painting, then spokes emerged from the center and turned like a safe opening. We gasped and jumped into the hole in the wall. The small, dark hallway led to an even smaller spiral staircase that opened into a massive cavern of doors.
"Wow! For a forbidden danger chamber, this has been pretty easy. We should find the dime in no time." Webby jumped up into the entrance. Her voice echoed off the walls.
"You were saying?" Lena asked, staring at the rows of doors that were miles long and deep.
"Does this look eerily like a jail to anyone?" I asked. Webby gulped.
"Nooo, Uncle Scrooge wouldn't lock a person down here." Webby seemed to reassure herself more than me. "Besides, if they were locked down here, there would be a good reason. Like a really good reason. Right?"
I nodded. Even Lena seemed to agree.
"Maybe we should do some more research before we're, you know, lost in here forever." She gave a nervous chuckle and turned around.
"So it's a little bigger than we thought. It's still worth it to find the dime." Lena grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back.
"Uh. Fine, but we need some time to figure out which door to open." Webby said, as Lena opened one at random.
We were blinded by a flash of light that it provided. Webby gasped at its view. It was like a pocket dimension of green fields and even a river.
"Or we can open the first one we see." I rolled my eyes.
"Why is Scrooge hiding a frilly unicorn?" Lena asked.
"If Scrooge is hiding it, then I don't want to know," I interjected.
"Sword horse!" Webby corrected her.
It ran straight for us as if offered by Webby's naming choice. I jumped left, Lena right, and Webby turned and blotted towards a ladder behind us. She made it half up before the thing head butted the ladder. The force broke the metal, causing Webby to fall on the deadly creature's back.
"This is so dangerous! Whee!" she called.
The horse bucked, throwing her off. I saw Lena talking to 'herself'. I noticed Magica wasn't draining me of energy anymore. Webby was lying on the ground, about to get stabbed by the sword horse.
"Lena!" I grabbed her hand.
"What?" She was annoyed. I pointed to the situation. "Oh, no! Webby! Catch!"
Lena threw the diamond bladed dagger. It landed by Webby, and she managed to push the unicorn back into the room. Lena and I leaned on the door, slamming the door shut.
"That was intense. We should go back, develop a system, figure out where to look, safely."
"A system? That could take months. We got to find the dime now, before Scrooge decides to take it back!" Lena shot back, but Webby was interested in the blade.
"Why? What's the hurry? Follow-up question: where'd you get a diamond dagger from anyway?" Lena stuttered, trying to come up with something.
"Webby, what does this number mean?" I pointed above the demon horse door. She whipped around.
"6-4-5-6." She read, then gasped. "Or 6/4/56!"
"Yes. Mm-hmm. Numbers." Lena nodded, pretending to know what was going on. I rolled my eyes.
"She means they're dates."
"Oh." Lena seemed kind of interested.
"Exactly! June 4th, 1956. The day Scrooge captured the sword horse and as you'll recall from today's lectures, the date earned his Number One Dime was," she waited for us to answer. Lena didn't know.
"1877."
"Yes! Come on!" She squealed, grabbing our arms, and ran down the corridor. "Here we go! 1877, Scrooge's Number One Dime."
We reached the door. I took a step back.
"Uh, Webby, isn't this," I started, but Lena opened the door and a white light flashed. I shield my face and walk into the room.
"Uh, what? What is that thing?" Lena pointed to the glowing Dreamcatcher.
"It's supposed to show us our worst nightmare, but I don't understand why it didn't."
"Because I deactivated it." I flinched and turned around to see Scrooge crossing his arms. He was holding the dime in his hand. "What do you two think you're doing? Snooping around down here? I can't imagine what would've happened if I hadn't been down here to find ya?"
"It's on me. We wanted to see your dime, and _____ told us you were keeping it in here," Lena said. Scrooge eyes widen.
"Why would ya do that, ____?" He narrowed his gaze at me.
"Uh, why would you deactivate, wait two? Where's Webby?" I panicked mid-thought. Scrooge blinked.
"You brought her down here too?"
He didn't have time to be mad. A loud scream came from the hall. We ran out, the unicorn was trotting at us and Webby clung to his snot.
"Who let that beast out?" Scrooge asked.
We ducked into the room with the glowing dreamcatcher as the horse galloped by. We stuck our heads back out. The mythical horse bucked. Webby went flying into the air, striking the wall with a sickening thud.
"Webby!" I went to run to her, but Lena held me back. "Let go!"
"Help!" Webby yelped. Her leg looked broken.
Scrooge jumped in front of her to block the monster, but he got thrown to the side by the marble tip on the monster's head before it impaled Webby's shoulder. She cried out and dropped the dagger. Scrooge scrambled to her and picked up the blade and threw it at the sword horse. It whinnied and reared back on two legs. Rainbow liquid spilled from the wound.
Webby groaned. I ran to her. Her head had a cut and she was holding her clearly broken leg.
"Webby no. I don't understand. Why?"
Magica's laugh echoed throughout the halls behind me. I turned around.
Lena's eyes and amulet were glowing a hellish pink. She had an evil smirk on her face and Magica was a black shadow behind her.
"It is time. Now hand me the dime, ____." Lena and Magica's mouth moved together, voices mixing. Lena held out her hand.
"____?" There was so much hurt in Scrooge's voice.
The dime was laying at Webby's feet. He must have dropped it, trying to protect Webby. I wasn't focused on them, though. Webby had my undivided attention. There was so much blood for such a small child.
"Webby, wake up." I shook her. She groaned, but her eyes didn't open.
Magica growled and a pink ora covered Webby. Webby's limp body flung across the floor towards Lena. She didn't even struggle as the shadow held her by the ankle.
"The dime or the girl gets it," Magica growled. I felt my eyes watering.
"Let go of her!" I scrambled to my feet and threw myself at Lena. Webby fell to the floor. Her head made another unearthly sound.
"Noooooo!" I ran to her and Scrooge pushed Lena into the room with the Dreamcatcher. He locked the door.
"Scrooge! Help!" I could barely see through my tears.
I didn't even know where to start. The girl looked like she had gone through a blinder. Her outfit was torn and stained. Her eyes were milky white, and she wasn't breathing. God, she wasn't breathing.
"Get away." Scrooge snatched my arm, pulling me away from her. I didn't even register the pain.
"Help her!" I demanded, but he didn't listen. He walked away from her.
"You were working against me all along. No wonder you lied to me."
"No. I never. I didn't. Please, Webby! Help Webby!" He opened a random door. "I never meant to hurt you."
"But you did." He slammed the door in my face.
"I thought we were family." I sunk to my knees.
I cried and screamed for what felt like hours. Then there was a soft voice. Webby's voice. It was calm, steady, and sweet. I tried to push it out of my mind but it became louder.
"_____. Lena. Wake up, you snoring angels."
I blinked awake under the soft glow of the Dreamcatcher. I sat up slowly. My face was soaked from tears. Lena was beside me, looking about the same and Webby was giving us this worried look.
"Webby?!" Lena and I both yelped and wrapped our arms around her. She just laughed and hugged back. Lena was the first to pull away.
"Where's the dime?" Lena asked, standing confused. I was still on my knees. That had been worse than a nightmare. It felt real.
"There's no dime. There never was. The Dreamcatcher from the lecture. It sucks you into," Lena and I finish Webby's sentence.
"Your worst nightmare."
I shuddered at the memory. Lena's face wasn't giving off happy emotions either.
"Awwwe, you were listening. I got the code wrong. _____ noticed as you opened the door. This one is 1/8/77. We need 1877. Come on!" She pulled Lena's hand, but she didn't move.
"No. I'm done. Let's get out of here before anything else bad happens," Lena said, pulling Webby back in the direction we came from.
"To any of us." I gave her a smile and nodded.
"You know this was fun, but I'm kind of glad we stopped," Webby said as we made our exit.
Lena stopped walking. The door up head was ajar slightly.
"Webby, the Number One Dime wouldn't be in the first room, would it?" I said, looking at the open door that had the numbers 0001 above it. I couldn't see in it but I knew the answer. My heart sank.
"Why would it be in there?" Lena tried to sound casual, but I caught the glimpse of panic in her voice.
I walked up just enough to peek into the room. The room was the same dull gray metal as the rest of the place and the only thing in the room was the dime on a necklace holder that you see in a mall. Webby pushed past me.
"Oh, of course! The Number One Dime would be in the number one chamber. Duh." Webby slapped her forehead.
"I guess Scrooge thought no one would think to check the first one."
"Well, this is anticlimactic," Lena said, inspecting the dime closer.
Webby and I followed. Pink started making gurgling noises as we got closer.
"Webby would have to disagree." I pointed out that our friend may have gone into shock. "Honestly, would it be too much to ask for a fully functioning Webbigail for ten minutes?"
"We should head out before Scrooge finds us." Lena started walking out.
(Grab it now and I'll give you whatever you want. Just grab it.)
It was the first time Magica had spoken to me since the night I told Scrooge she was trying to escape. I could feel Magica urging Lena to take the dime as she inched away from the center of the room. I sent her a look.
"Guys, this has been fun, but I think it's time to leave," I prompted.
"What? Why? We just got here," Webby squealed in protest.
Lena collapsed on the floor. Shadows engulfed her form. I could tell it was now or never for Magica.
"Lena!" Webby went to run towards her. I grabbed her shoulder, and she tried to shake me off. I wasn't having it.
"No, get her out of here!" Lena told me. I pulled a protesting Webby out of the room, but not before grabbing the necklace.
"I didn't know I could do that. Neat." Magica's voice disappeared behind us.
"Webby, take this and," she cut me off.
"Why did you take Scrooge's Dime? What's happening to Lena? Why are you telling?" She wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I put the cord around her neck.
"Webby! Just run."
Webby took off. I turned to face Lena. That was now Magica.
"I don't think so!" Magica flicked her wrist, and the Dime was pulled towards her. Webby pulled the cord around her neck towards her, but Magica was too strong. The chain flung off her neck and into Lena's hand.
"Lena, what's going on? Why are you doing this?" Webby cried.
"Webby, she's not doing this. It's Magica."
"Magica? Like Magica DeSpell?" Webby gasped.
What looked like solid black shadows seeped out of Lena. Magica laughed.
"Yes, I have returned!" She said as the shadows entered the dime. In a pink puff of light, she was standing in front of us. She tore the pink gem off Lena's neck and it changed into a staff. "Feed my power, Dark Eclipse. Free my form from the abyss. Dormant magic now unchains the Shadow Queen whole again. Ha ha! Yes! The magic. The body. I'm back!"
"Dramatic much?" I rolled my eyes.
"Silence. I haven't decided what to do with you yet, pet."
(Did she just call me her pet?)
"You've got your stupid body back. Now leave us alone." Lena cried, crawling towards us. I grabbed her and pulled her closer.
"But I just got here!" She shot a pink light at us. It made a web of pink bars above us. "I wouldn't want you going and warning Scroogie before I was at full power now would I? Since ____ suggested the dime be kept in here till tomorrow. I'm sure there will be no one down here for quite a while. You might as well get comfy."
Magica flew up the spiral staircase to the main rooms of the mansion. We sat on the hard earth. We were all out of bread. Webby glared at Lena.
"Lena? How could you?" Webby sounded heart broken. Her eyes watered.
"I didn't have a choice. She's my aunt, but I changed my mind. If we could've gotten out of the Bin, she wouldn't have gotten the dime. I'm sorry," Lena begged.
"Lena, you did your best, it's. Okay will figure this out." I gave her a small pat on the back.
"____, why did she call you her pet?" Webby asked.
"It's my fault. I tried to convince ____ to help me, but she wouldn't." Lena took the blame. I smiled at her.
"You knew this was going to happen, and you didn't try to stop it!" Webby screamed at me.
"Webby, I warned Scrooge. He put The Dime in the Bin. It was Lena's idea to come down here. How was I supposed to know the door was left open?"
The building shook.
"Ahhh!" Webby screamed and hugged me instinctively. I shielded her. It only lasted a moment. She pulled away. "Alright, do you have a plan?"
Word Count: 4854