A/N: Did you notice all that ended rather abruptly compared to how I usually end my stories? Well that's 'cuz the story wasn't ready to end yet! Good for you for noticing the A/N that I had stated would be at the end of the story seemed to be missing…maybe that should have been an indication to you that we are not in fact done, haha.

Part 2 – June Will Come

No sooner had she slipped quietly into her room did Webby notice that she was not the only one standing there.

"June?"

The young duck across from her visibly jumped and looked around with wide eyes. "Webby?"

She could tell it was June. Though their pajamas were identical, Lena had previously used some low-effort magic to change the colour of May and June's sets to their respective colours. A vibrant splash of turquoise blue, along with twin pigtails, stood out in the moonlight that streamed through the bedroom windows.

They stared at each other across the room, similar to how they had done so just before engaging in a violent brawl as May had slipped out the window with the Sword of Swanstantine and Blessed Bagpipes. In fact, Webby's room still hadn't been tidied up from the fight; her belongings were still scattered everywhere.

Webby stepped towards her. "What are you doing up?" she asked. Though her mind was very tired from her previous chat with Dewey, it was able to process a mental picture of her younger triplet sister before she had made her presence known: June had been standing before her family board, just staring up at it.

June hung her head in guilty fashion. "I'm sorry," she mumbled pitifully, "I couldn't sleep. I'm not breaking any rules, am I?"

"No, of course, not," Webby said with a kind smile. She wrapped her arm around her sister's shoulders. "Sometimes I can't sleep either. Especially when I have stuff on my mind. That's why I was gone just now."

June met her eye and smiled a small smile back. But even in the dim light, Webby could tell that something was bothering her. It was all in the way that her shoulders sagged and her eyes spelled fear and unrest. Webby was all too familiar with this look. This was her body language after all.

And because of this, she knew that June was unlikely to sleep until all her fears and questions were conquered.

"C'mon. Let's go get ourselves a midnight snack."

"Snack?" June asked, perking up a little.

"Yeah," Webby replied as she led her sister out of the room. "Haven't you ever snuck out to get snacks late at night before?"

June shook her head, her pigtails waving about. "No. Heron never let us out of our tubes when we were in storage. Sometimes Pepper saved us scraps from F.O.W.L.'s break room. Does that count?"

Just like when May had revealed that she and June had never once slept in a bed, Webby was painfully reminded that her sisters had been created as nothing more than mere lab experiments.

A short while later, they were sitting at Scrooge's long dining room table, two glasses of warm milk and a plate of chocolate chip cookies laid out on the polished oak surface. Webby let June eat most of them; she watched with fascination as the girl in blue wolfed them down hungrily, just like Della, who had devoured that huge feast after making her surprise return to Earth and having not eaten solid food for over 10 years.

Now that she was up close, Webby finally took notice of the blue friendship bracelet still looped around June's wrist. It complimented the one that she herself was currently wearing.

"So what's your final verdict on chocolate chip cookies?" she teased.

June grinned widely, chocolate smeared all over her beak. "I love them!" she giggled, spitting crumbs everywhere. "I never had cookies or chocolate chips before!"

She had already stated this as they had been retrieving the sweet loot from the pantry cookie jar, but Webby had the strong feeling that this was quite possibly the first time that June had eaten anything related to the sugar-department aside from the birthday cake they had all enjoyed for dessert after dinner (bless Huey, who had been the one to have the idea to finish Webby's birthday party where they had left off with a brand-new cake, as well as making the suggestion to logically mark today to be May and June's birthday as well).

It justified June's reaction upon finding that bag of marbles and believing them to be colourful pieces of candy. Knowing F.O.W.L., Heron probably would not have seen any point in spending extra expenses on childish treats for the clones. Especially ones who had failed to retrieve the Papyrus of Binding themselves. And being Webby's clone, it meant that June was programmed with her genetics (and clearly her love for chocolate). The thought of all this was just hurting Webby's insides too much.

So she tried to shake this feeling off. "Well, now you can have all the cookies you want," she assured her. "Uncle Scrooge keeps his supplies fully stocked. You're always in good hands in our family."

As if she had said the magic words, June's grin faded away. Now she was looking sad again. "Webby?"

"Yeah?"

June fumbled with her chocolate-stained fingers. "I'm…sorry."

Webby blinked in confusion. "Sorry? What for?"

The younger girl seemed to wilt in her seat, all joys of eating a midnight snack evaporated on the spot. "I couldn't stop thinking about today. All the mean things May and I did to you and everyone else. All we did was trick you into thinking we were nice…but we weren't nice at all…"

Webby frowned. "Oh, don't feel bad about all that," she interrupted. "You guys were only working under Heron and Bradford's orders. It wasn't you who did all that."

Tears had started to form in June's eyes. "But…but I was so mean to you! I beat you up so much. I wrecked up your room and tried to kidnap you. I was just so…so desperate for Bradford to tell me and May why we were made. I was willing to do anything he wanted…"

Listening to June's sad confessions, Webby could recognize her own strong conscience shining through this girl. Just like her, it was clear that her cloned sister could not rest easy until the feeling of guilt was out of her system.

She nudged her chair closer to June's so she could put her arm around her again. "Well, I wasn't exactly nice to you either," she reasoned. "I knocked you out…swapped places with you…tied up and gagged you, then dumped you in a storage crate. So now we're sorta even."

June looked up at her, her cheeks wet with rolling tears. Catching her gaze, Webby could still remember the extreme hurting that had been flashing in those same eyes after Bradford had confronted her and Granny in the interrogation room, revealing that he had found June locked away. The girl had certainly been upset over what Webby had done to her.

"But like I said," Webby continued soothingly, "you did nothing wrong because you were only acting on F.O.W.L.'s orders. They're the ones to blame for all this, so it had nothing to do with you or May. Ever heard of the phrase 'forgive and forget'?"

June still didn't look convinced. She hung her head in shame. "You're all so nice to us, even though we weren't nice to you," she mumbled. "How can you forgive and forget what we did?"

Webby tightened her grip around the girl gently. "That's what you do in a family."

"Am I…a part of this family?"

Her question, out of the blue, caught Webby off-guard. She knew the answer, but she also knew that June may not be completely sold on what the term 'family' truly meant. She had seen the way she had called Black Heron 'Mommy' while held captive in the dungeon, and subsequently her and May's devastation following the evil scientist's death.

So Webby took a few moments to formulate a different approach.

"Do you remember what I told you while me and the boys were tied up? About family?"

June slowly lifted her head to face her and nodded. "Y-Yeah," she replied. "You said 'family are the people who stick by you. Fight for you. Blindly invade a sinister villain secret stronghold for you. Family would do anything to keep you safe and sacrifice everything to love you…"

"…no matter who or what you are'," finished Webby, feeling quite impressed by F.O.W.L.'s technology to perfectly replicate her insanely-sharp memory skills into June. "Like Scrooge. Like my granny. And like you."

June gazed at her, but said nothing. Studying her features carefully, Webby noted how her eyes, normally so full of bubbly excitement, were vastly devoid of such jovial radiance.

"Do you…do you…see us as evil?" June asked worriedly. "We were F.O.W.L. creations after all."

Webby felt a punch strike down to her gut.

"No," she answered immediately. "None of us do. Just because you came from them doesn't label you. You're who you want to be. And I'm telling the truth when I say that I don't see you or May as evil at all. You're my sisters. You're our family. Just like Lena. She was also created by a villain to do her evil bidding and…"

Webby's voice trailed off as a disturbing memory of her last interaction with her best friend came flooding back. "Oh man, I gotta apologize to Lena…" she muttered dejectedly to herself.

She glanced at the girl in blue, who was peering at her with confused eyes. Maybe she heard some of that.

"June," she whispered softly. "Even when you tricked me into thinking you were just failed experiments left behind, even when we were fighting in my room, and even when you tied us all up captive, I still didn't believe you or May were evil. I knew that you both had something in your hearts, cuz it's something that I have. A conscience. The wanting to do good and to do anything to achieve that. You really just wanted to please Bradford and Heron because you thought you were doing the right thing…because to you, they were your family. But you were already better than them and anybody from F.O.W.L. You were your own self, just manipulated to do their work. And you redeemed yourself by setting us free and helping us take F.O.W.L. down."

Webby paused as she recalled Heron's stinging words to her when she had been caught searching the computer while in disguise:

You are my experiment, and I expect discipline!

Looking at June, Webby knew that she would have to lay down some facts that were going to be very hard on her, but were necessary if June was to enter her new life with her new family. Webby spoke as tactfully as she could.

"Heron created the three of us. I know that's why you called her your mom. But the thing is…she never loved us. A true family member loves you just as much as you love them back. We were her experiments that meant nothing to her."

June's mouth quivered and she closed her eyes, releasing more tears, no doubt thinking of their deceased creator. "I loved Heron," she whimpered. "But deep down…I knew she didn't love me back, no matter how hard I tried to make her proud. When May and I both failed to find that piece of paper…I was so crushed when I saw how mad she was. And…we weren't completely lying when we told you we were failed experiments. It's true. Bradford really did call us that, and wastes of time. May and I were both scared…"

Webby could sense by June's tone alone that there was more lying behind this. "Scared of what?"

"Scared that they would get rid of us. They warned us before putting us to sleep in our tubes for you to find us that if we didn't succeed in bringing you to the library, they would…dispose of the rejects. Heron always said that making us was too easy…and she could just as easily replace us with better clones if she had to."

June shivered and met Webby's gaze with fear in her eyes. "They could have gotten rid of us, Webby. Or worst…just one of us. Bradford disposed of so many of his own clones because they couldn't file documents in alphabetized order…he didn't care about his brothers."

Webby's heart ached painfully as she heard this confession. But she also noted an important detail: June was more scared that May would be taken away from her than she herself be disposed of. That alone spoke volumes.

"I know," she said in a low voice, stroking June's shoulder in gentle circles. "You were willing to do anything so you wouldn't be separated from your sister, weren't you?"

June nodded.

"And even though you knew that Heron didn't love you…she was still the only mom you had. And it was…traumatizing, wasn't it? To see her disappear just like that."

Tears fell as June squeezed her eyes tightly, nodding again.

"But I love you," Webby whispered with strength. "May loves you. We all love you because we're your real family. We've accepted you into ours. And you'll soon start to feel a part of it as soon as you find your place in it."

June wiped the tears from her eyes. "Will I find my place in it?" she asked, balling her little fists to her chest anxiously. "I mean…you guys have so much history together. How will I be able to fit in too?"

Something about June's statement of having a history with everyone in her family triggered something in Webby's mind, making her go quiet for a few minutes. But despite having a memory like a steel trap, she couldn't quite remember where that was from. Regardless, she did remember Dewey's words to her from earlier. She gazed down at June's friendship bracelet.

"You know, a good friend once told me that a place in your family is something you have to earn," she explained with careful pauses. "And it takes some time to do that. But you're already well on your way. Don't you see, June? You chose to give up being Bradford and Heron's minion to help us save our family. You and May made the first step by choosing to join us. And Uncle Donald would not have wanted to take you on his boating trip if he didn't consider you one of us. I promise you that you will find your true place in this family. I know you will…because I sure did."

Webby watched as some light began to return to June's eyes while the fear that they had held for all this time was gradually fading. She placed both hands on her shoulders, facing her directly.

"You belong to the greatest family you can ever ask for," she stated. "You're going to see and do so many cool and awesome things that you never got back with F.O.W.L. In a few months, Donald and his girlfriend Daisy are going to take you and May on his houseboat to travel the world. They're some of the sweetest people I've ever met, so they'll take good care of you while you're out on the open ocean. You'll see so many places and things that I've always wanted to. Every day from now on will be a great adventure, I guarantee it."

"But most of all," Webby said, her tone heavy with sincerity as she now pulled June in for a warm hug, "you will never be treated like an experiment again. You don't have to live in fear anymore. May will never be taken away from you. You're more than safe now, June. You're free. And we'll help you find your place not just in the family, but in the world."

"And when you do that…" she added, knowing that the girl she held so tightly in her arms was truly a younger Webby about to embark on the same adventure she had experienced upon stepping into the real world, "…you'll finally be home."

She held her new sister closely, and soon, she felt a pair of arms traveling up her back to hug her in return and her sister's face burying itself into her shoulder. After a few silent moments, she pulled back to look June in the eye again. Gazing into her tear-stained face, Webby could finally see it: a faint glimmer; the light of hope returning ever so slowly to her sister's eyes as she sat a little straighter.

"I'm free?" she asked in a hesitant whisper, as if the word was of another language.

Webby smiled and nodded. "You sure are. From now on, you start living. We're going to have so much fun together. We'll go on picnics and play board games…pull pranks on the boys and eat hamburgers…battle sea monsters and…and…and all kinds of other fun stuff!"

A timid smile began to take shape on June's face now as she listened to Webby's growing list. She looked down at her hands in thought, then slowly raised her head again. "How will I…how will I know when I really am free? Will it be scary?"

Webby looked at her carefully, recalling how she had lived for a decade in this mansion, but had never fully experienced true living until she had received her own freedom. She had had so many people help her on her journey through the world; now it was time for her to take charge over the reins. "It's going to take some getting used to," she admitted. "And it's going to feel really weird. Sometimes even a little scary. But I promise you that it'll all be worth it. This is an adventure that we'll all go on together, every step of the way. The boys helped me to start my new life. It's my turn to help you start yours. If you let me, that is."

June was quiet, but the light in her eyes was shining through as she smiled bravely. "I'll let you," she whispered gratefully. "Thank you, Webby."

Dewey's words floated back to her and Webby smiled, filled with a warm, fuzzy sensation that she had thought she had felt before with the boys or with Lena and Violet. But only now, by talking with June, she finally knew what it was: newfound sisterly pride.

"Make sure you let Huey, Dewey, and Louie too."

June nodded. "I will," she murmured. "I like them. They're sweet, just like you. Especially Dewey."

Webby grinned fondly. "Yeah. He's pretty sweet all right."