Trapped
Prompt: Gagged
"But you shouldn't be checking at all! The Other Bin is far too dangerous!" Scrooge said.
"It's on me," Lena said, still feeling guilty about what had happened earlier. "I wanted to see your dime, and we overheard you were keeping it here, and-"
"Sorry, Uncle Scrooge," Webby said.
"Ye should know by now that if you want to know something, all you have to do is ask," Scrooge said, and Lena's heart clenched. "Be straight with me, lassie. What if you were lost? Or hurt? Or eaten by the dragon?"
If any of those things ever happened to Lena, all Aunt Magica would care about was that she wouldn't have a lackey to get her revenge on Scrooge.
Webby hugged Scrooge, and they began to walk away. "Aw, man! There's a dragon in here?"
"Bleh!" said Magica, clearly disgusted by the display of affection. "Now, listen to your aunt, and grabbed the dime, grab the dime!" Magica whispered in Lena's ear.
Anger surged in Lena's chest. "No! Family is supposed to help you, not hold you hostage!
"They'll turn on you! Call you a monster!"
But the niggling doubt that Aunt Magica was right was gone. "You're the monster here! And I know just the hunter to take you down!" And even if Aunt Magica was right...well, Lena never wanted to see Webby turned into a Quacky Patch doll, or anything else, for that matter, ever again.
Lena marched towards Webby and Scrooge.
"Mr. McDuck? There's something I need to tell you." Lena took a deep breath. "My aunt is Ma-" Lena felt something like a tug on her whole body, and her mind started to cloud. She shook her head. "Ma-Ma-" What was happening? Why couldn't Lena speak? She put her hand in front of her mouth and tried to pull the words out. "Ma-aad that I haven't-checked in with...her." Wait, no that wasn't what she wanted to say. "I got to go." No no no no no no no no!
"Well, come on then, lass. Let's get you home to your family."
Family?
Lena tried to open her mouth, to tell Scrooge who her family really was, but she couldn't. It was stuck tight. She tried to take a step, but her feet were stuck, too. She fell to the ground, and Magica's shadow grew over her.
Lena breathed heavily, trying to figure out what on earth was going on. Suddenly, her body felt like it was being covered in static. The feeling sank deep into her bones and she felt sick to her stomach. Her head jerked up, and for a moment, she could have sworn that she was back in the Shadow Realm. That hazy curtain that always separated the Realm from the tangible world was back, but it wasn't quite right. Lena could still feel things, and she knew she still had a body.
"Huh. I didn't know I could do that. Neat." Her voice was intermingled with Magica's, and all she wanted to do was scream. She couldn't speak. She couldn't move.
She was a passenger in her own body.
"As the eclipse nears, my powers grow!" Magica shook Lena's head, and when she spoke again, it was just in Lena's voice. "Guess I'll just have to get the dime myself."
She ran towards Webby and Scrooge. "Hey, where do you guys keep your sharp knives?"
Lena wanted to scream and yell and cry. It's not me! she shouted in her head. It's Magica De Spell! Get her out of me! But no words came out. None, that is, except for Magica's.
Lena watched helplessly as Magica piloted her body upstairs, pretended to call herself on Scrooge's phone, and then let Launchpad drop her off back at the amphitheater.
Lena lost track of time as Magica gathered the ingredients she needed for a potion. She barely attended to Lena's physical needs. Lena wasn't sure if Magica could feel it, but Lena certainly felt her eyelids turn to sandpaper, her mouth become dry, and her stomach grow so empty that her muscles were weak and tired. And she wouldn't stop monologuing to herself about what she was going to do. In her own voice, in Lena's voice, in Scrooge's voice-because that was apparently something else Magica had the ability to do. But Lena couldn't say anything even in her own voice.
Lena would have given anything to regain control of her body for a few minutes. Just long enough to get a message to Scrooge or Webby. They needed to know what was going on. It was too late to worry about what they'd think about her if they knew the truth. If they didn't know the truth, people were going to get hurt.
Some time later, Lena found her body being walked to McDuck Manor. She knew what Magica was planning to do (boy, did she know; Magica wouldn't stop talking about it), and she was scared.
"Big day, Magica, real big day," Magica said in her own voice but through Lena's beak. "The eclipse is at hand, my plan is flawless-"
Fear giving her strength, Lena was able to gain a small measure of control. She dropped to her hands and knees and expelled Magica from her body, painfully throwing her up out of her eyes and mouth, forcing her back into her shadow form. But Magica refused to release her grip.
"Let me go!" Lena said, pulling away, but Magica's tendrils wrapped around her head and pulled her back.
"Oh, that's right, I forgot you were here," Magica said.
"I won't let you do this!" Lena said.
"Yeah, uh-huh. Oh, except at the moment of the eclipse, my powers will finally unleash, and I'll be an invincible juggernaut of dark magic! So, you know." Magica reentered Lena's body the same way she left, and it was definitely one of the more painful moments of Lena's life.
"Now that you've gained the trust of Scrooge's brats, I can use your body to get inside the house. Then, I'll weaken Scrooge with this," Magica held up the potion she'd been working on all these weeks, "snatch the number one dime, at the height of the eclipse, unleash my full power, and use it to destroy everything Scrooge has ever loved!" Magica laughed, and Lena felt her gut twist. Everything Scrooge has ever loved. That included just about everything that Lena cared about, too.
Why hadn't she yelled and screamed for help when she'd had the chance?
A limousine came rushing by, knocking Magica off of Lena's feet. Magica ran and hid in the bushes as Launchpad rambled into the speakerphone about Scrooge's family moving out and Launchpad wanting to take him out for ice cream.
"Out? Moved? Ice cream? Without those kids to let me in, how am I supposed to get my evil, evil vengeance?" Magica pulled on Lena's eyelids in frustration, and ow. "No, I will defeat Scrooge McDuck. I am the dark shadow lying in wait. I am the stuff of nightmares lurking in the hidden recesses of your mind. I. Am-"
Magica screamed and dove out of the way as Launchpad backed into the bush she'd been hiding in.
She stood. "All right. I just have to convince Scrooge that I'm a typical little girl."
Magica skipped Lena's body over to the speakerphone and pressed the buzzer. She adopted a stupid, vapid expression that Lena had never willingly worn in her life. "Gee whiz, mister. It's me, that insufferable whelp, Lena? The little urchins invited me over to, uh, what do children like, play marbles?"
No! Don't believe her! Don't let me in!
"The children are gone. Leave me alone. Forever."
Huh. Maybe Scrooge had heard her, after all.
Magica punched the speakerphone with Lena's fists, which also hurt. Magica's blatant disregard for the body she was borrowing was nowhere near the worst thing that was happening, but it certainly didn't help, either.
Lena felt Magica get an idea, and she strained against her, trying to interfere, get her own message out. But it was no use.
"Aw, shucks. Webby said this would happen."
"What did she say?"
"That you wouldn't be able to handle the kids leaving and have an old man meltdown. I thought better than you. Guess I was wrong."
Lena hadn't known Scrooge McDuck for very long, but she knew him well enough to know that his pride wouldn't stand for such a jab, no matter what he was going through.
Sure enough, the gate swung open.
Magica continued monologuing as she walked up to the front door, and that was definitely on the list of "things that really, really suck right now." Lena was almost thankful when such a disheveled, depressed Scrooge opened the door that Magica shut up.
Magica followed Scrooge with Lena's body into the disgusting, dirty house. Magica stepped into a slice of pizza.
"Ugh. How long has your housekeeping staff been gone?"
"Three days," Scrooge said, holding up an equal number of fingers. Man, this guy had no coping skills.
"So, how are my so-called 'kin'? Miserable, no doubt, living on that disgusting boat? I'm obviously doing much better than they are." Before Magica could answer, Scrooge started chasing a possum with a broom.
This time, it was Magica who expelled herself from Lena's body. Lena wasted no time.
"Scrooge!" she shouted, but Magica quickly clamped her beak shut with a shadowy tendril.
"That sad sack of feathers is not Scrooge," Magica said as Lena fought against her gag, desperate for Scrooge to notice what was going on.
Lena grabbed a nearby pigeon and threw it at her captor, but, Magica being a shadow, it didn't do much.
"The Scrooge McDuck I know is a shrewd, conquering hero of legend."
They both watched as Scrooge rolled listlessly across the floor, tried and failed to reach a nearby slice of pizza, and pulled a second one out of his greasy, dirty undershirt. If Lena wasn't already half throwing up Magica's shadow, she probably would have puked.
"Unless...this is all a trick! Yes, that's it! Of course! He senses something! He's trying to convince me he's a pathetic loser, hoping I'll make a mistake! Ha ha, you can't fool me, Scroogey! I am the one who fools!"
Scrooge pushed himself along the floor and underneath a pizza box.
Magica's shadow took the vial of poison from Lena.
"One sip, lights out, grab the dime! Then, I enact my vengeance!"
Lena continued to fight, trying to say something, anything, but she was trapped.
"Thanks for the pep talk, Lena!"
Lena wanted to cry as Magica sucked herself back into her body.
The phone rang. Scrooge clearly wasn't going to answer it, so Magica answered it, instead. Lena recognized the voice on the other end as Launchpad, inviting Scrooge to some sort of party.
"I'll be there," Magica said with Lena's beak in Scrooge's voice. Oh, how Lena wished she could butt in. Launchpad wouldn't know what to do, but Lena could hear Webby with him, and she would definitely be able to do something. "But I'll only eat the finest lobster caviar canapes. And make sure no one starts eating until I get there, as I consider it the height of rudeness. Bless me bagpipes, good day." Magica hung up the phone and rubbed her hands. "Dinner officially ruined. Hm! Now. Back to destroying Scrooge."
"Where is that blasted nutmeg tea?"
"Oooh, convenient!" Magica took the poison out of Lena's shirt and switched back to her voice. "Don't worry, I'll get it!"
Magica easily made the tea and gleefully poured the poison in. She went to find Scrooge and gasped whens he found him moving a tower of pizzas into one of the bedrooms.
"One man's nephews' former bedroom is another man's pantry, I always say," he said between grunts. The pizzas toppled over onto him.
"He is very committed to this looking pathetic trap." Magica walked over and pulled the boxes off of him. "Have some tea. It'll settle you," she said in Lena's voice.
"Thanks," Scrooge said, lifting the cup. Lena wanted to shout, to knock it out of his hand, but then he set it down on a pile of boxes, and Lena's panicking levels went back down even while Magica seethed in frustration.
Scrooge moved some pizza boxes out of the way and found a loose floorboard. He started rambling about the stuff his nephews had left behind inside, but between trying to regain control and Magica angrily trying to get him to drink the tea, Lena couldn't make out what he was saying.
"Yeah, there's nothing worse than marbles," Magica said with a fake laugh that rivaled the fakest of Lena's own fake laughs. "Tea?"
"I'm talking about family!" Scrooge snapped.
"Ugh, tell me about it," Magica said, sitting Lena's body on a pile of pizza boxes. "They disobey you, run you ragged, don't follow through on elaborate revenge plots…"
Lena felt hope rise in her chest. If Magica went ahead and exposed herself, all of Lena's problems would be solved.
"They spend your money, take over your home, cause trouble, worm their way into your head with fond memories that you cannae get out, no matter how hard you try!"
Lena felt about ready to explode.
Magica slid over with the tea. "Cheers to ridding fond memories!"
But Scrooge walked right past her and plopped down on a throne made of pizza boxes. "And then they leave without so much as a thank you."
"Forget family. Who needs 'em?"
"I'll drink to that!" Scrooge said, taking the tea.
No!
And by some miracle, a pizza box fell on top of Scrooge and made him spill the poisoned tea.
"Of all the idiotic-" Magica said, slipping into her own voice. Seriously, how did Scrooge not have any idea what was going on? "-I mean I'll go make you another."
Magica added poison to a second cup of tea and brought it to Scrooge, who was now slumped in a chair (an actual one this time, not made out of pizza boxes).
"Here! Tea! This time in a convenient no-spill cup!"
"Finally, without those kids dragging me off on rip-roaring, unforgettable adventures, I can just sit here in peace. Stare vacantly at my money, and sulk like an earned recluse."
Magica looked out the window, and Lena could see that the eclipse was getting closer.
"On an unrelated note, how's that tea?"
Scrooge let the cup drop from his hand. "Spilt. Like my life."
Magica was so angry that Lena could actually feel it. It took a lot of concentration to remember that the anger wasn't her own.
"Oh my word, it's not a trap. He's actually become this pathetic." Magica turned to Scrooge. "How dare you make me pity you! This is not how I pictured killing you in my head for the last fifteen years!"
There was no way that Scrooge wouldn't realize now.
"Go on, scram now! Let me wallow in peace" Scrooge said, and Lena could not believe that anyone could be this dense.
Magica slapped Scrooge across the face and went back to using Lena's voice.
"Toughen up, man! You conquered Plain Awful, you found the last crown of the Mongols, you even defeated some very powerful dark forces! You don't need family, you're Scrooge McDuck! Act like it!"
Yeah, act like it and get me out of this mess! Lena wanted to scream.
"I am Scrooge McDuck!" he said as if he were just realizing it for the very first time. "I was adventuring before them! No one helped me then, and I don't need help now!"
"Yes! They were all in your way, mooching, freeloading, trying to weaken you with compassion and caring!"
"I'm going back to basics. Doggedly driven, bare, barmy Scrooge, flying solo! I don't need Duckburg, or the mansion, or the Bin! I can start from scratch! I dinnae need these pince-nez spectacles," he threw them into the fireplace, "this handmade silk top hat," that too, "these satin spatterdashes." Those went into the fire as well, along with his robe, leaving him in just his greasy, dirty undershirt, just like when they'd first arrived. "Yes, yes! I don't need anything!"
"Not even your Number One Dime!" Magica said behind him.
"Well, that's crazy. Of course I need my dime," Scrooge said, taking it out from under his shirt.
"What about starting from scratch? Just give me the dime, and I'll throw it away for you!"
"Why would a young lass be so interested in getting her hands on my old Number One Dime?" Scrooge asked.
Now he was getting suspicious?
Magica looked out the window and both she and Lena saw that the moon was almost covering the sun.
"Maybe you should be going," Scrooge said, replacing the dime underneath his shirt, and Magica pounced on him.
"Lena, what the-have you gone daft?" Scrooge said, struggling against her. He pushed her off of him, but she immediately ran back at him.
Scrooge pushed against her head to hold her back.
"I'm not gonna fight a child!" Scrooge said, but then Magica bit him (with Lena's beak-he tasted like sweat and pizza grease; gross). "Ok, fine!"
Scrooge kicked at her, but Magica easily dodged it and landed a few well-placed hits of her own, sending Scrooge down hard. She took the dime off his neck and put Lena's foot on his head to keep him down just as the moon eclipsed the sun.
Magica exited Lena's body, again through her eyes and mouth but much more easily this time. Lena felt lightheaded and weak, too weak to speak now that she was finally free of her gag, and she fell to the floor, vaguely aware of Magica laughing in the background.