"I still maintain that this is a bad idea, Violet," I complained to Violet once again as we sat waiting for her dads to finally arrive. I could hear her sighing beside me, but I was somewhat glad to see her do her best to avoid responding to my complaints. I knew that I was being a jerk, but I was still feeling absolutely horrid from the morning. Things just weren't settling in my mind properly, and with Webby off dealing with the mess in the manor I was feeling somewhat awkward being on my own with Violet.

A part of me was somewhat curious to see how a normal family functioned, but I knew that I had to keep on my guard. Of course, my defensiveness did make it a little difficult to not complain endlessly. "At least here everyone has some experience with this magic junk. I doubt that your dads have ever had to deal with conjured spirits."

"I can provide the magical knowledge while they provide the sustenance" Violet replied to me, not bothering to put much effort into her response. She had seemed to somehow pick up on the fact that I really just wanted someone to complain at, not to have an actual debate over whether the decision was the correct one or not. We both knew that there really wasn't much of a choice anyway, for all my protests I was well aware that they weren't just about to leave me unmonitored. I was a mage with no idea how to control my own magic, and they already suspected that something was wrong after I passed out.

In some respects getting magical issues past Violet and her dads should be much easier than Webby or her grandma, but it still struck me as more than a little awkward to be shuffled off to be monitored in case I messed up again. Eventually, I gave up on complaining and just slumped over and leant against the front gate of the McDuck property. I couldn't help rolling my eyes at the sharp glance of concern from her as she yet again checked me for signs of exhaustion. Webby had annoyingly been talking to Vi about some of the issues over the last evening, and how much I had been avoiding the others, so I was not all that surprised to see her near constantly keeping a watch over me.

It was more than a little dehumanising, but I wasn't normal anyway. At least she had stopped asking me annoying questions about whether I remembered that I had a corporal form, honestly you walk into one wall and she just never lets it go. Okay, I may have done it more than once, but it was still annoying. To make things that bit more irritating, the stupid impulsion was starting to make itself known again. I had seemed to naturally recharge when I had spent time around Webby for lunch, so it seemed that I could leach a small amount of energy from what the others seemed to naturally extrude. However, the energy reserve did seem to be finite and I was finding the hunger return. I kept subconsciously grabbing my stupid talisman whenever it happened as if I could push it away.

"You realize that you're staring at me," I groaned, giving Violet a gentle shove as I rolled my eyes, I kept on wishing that I still had my phone, but apparently when Magica took over she misplaced it. Or she threw it into the ocean as she was a completely vindictive brat, I suspect the latter. "So where are your folks, I thought your place was only a few minutes away, and this is taking forever-."

"They are here," Violet muttered with barely any inclination that she had even heard my complaints. Of course, she was also entirely correct and I looked up to see a small European import trundling its way up to us, stopping in front of us. I'm reasonably sure that the parking brake hadn't even fully set before the door was flown open as one of Vi's dads already had her wrapped in a hug. I hadn't had that many interactions with them, but I at least knew that the bigger one with the buzzcut was Tyrian and the smaller one was Indigo. Actually might have been the other way around. Whatever at least I remembered their names. I quickly checked that the talisman was properly hidden under my shirt, if I was going to act normal it would probably be easier with a suspiciously magical looking item that is not in plain sight.

"Hey, Lena, right?" The bigger one greeted me, holding his hand out for a handshake. I gave him a simple nod and took the offered hand. "Our little hummingbird told us that you needed a place to stay for a few days, and we're glad to see you wanted to as well. I'm Tyrian, but feel free to call me Ty."

"Oh yeah, are you going to give us a proper introduction to your new friend kiddo?" The one I now realised was Indigo asked as he finally let go of his daughter, who seemed only slightly annoyed by having all of her feathers ruffled.

"This is Lena, she's a sentient ma-." Violet began, before pausing as I shot her a rather annoyed look. I only had one chance to really make a good impression on these two and she was already bringing up the magic rubbish within less than a minute. I gave a small shake of my head and she nicely seemed to actually pick up on what I was demanding. "Lena's a friend of mine who is happy that she gets to stay over a few nights as Mr McDuck's manor is currently having some issues that Webby is hopefully assisting with."

"Well, we're always willing to help someone who needs it," Indigo responded as he ruffled Violet's hair again, I was starting to suspect that he only did it because she found it annoying. "Especially if it is a good friend of our kids. What was the issue in the manor, something personal with the McDucks?"

"Not personal, but fairly common" I shrugged, unsure how to explain it without bringing up the magical elephant in the room.

"Well, either way, it's good to be able to spend time with a friend of Violet's" Indigo held out a hand as well.

"Thanks" I responded with a little bit of a static smile, I was more than a little nervous around them, if I was going to be honest with myself. I wasn't worried about them harming me in any way, I had dealt with people who actually wanted to harm me that I could tell that they were both very pacifistic in attitude. Still, I did need to somewhat watch myself or they might ask me to leave. "It's fantastic to meet both of you, Violet has told me a fair amount about both of you and we hoped that you would be okay with me spending the next few days as a sort of learning opportunity for Violet. I promise that I am safe to be around and you can just treat me like any other non-magical creation."

I immediately slapped myself in the face as I realized what I had just said. That was barely one step away from just straight-up admitting that I was some evil magical creature who might steal their child's soul, which wasn't that far from the truth in some ways. Stupid magic. There was a rather awkward silence as I shook his hand before letting it drop awkwardly. "Maybe I should just stay here?"

"It's fine kiddo. Ty and I would be happy to have you stay over a few nights," Indigo chuckled as he stepped over to me, throwing an arm around my shoulder and leading me towards their car. "Honestly I think we're both happy to see Violet inviting friends over. Until she met you and that Webster girl last week we were both worried she was becoming a bit overly solitary."

"Dad, I would prefer if you cease this line of discussion," Violet called out as her other dad helped her load her bag into the back of the car. Thankfully, for Violet, Indigo actually did drop the discussion and we were soon on our way to their home, Violet taking the opportunity to pull out a book to try and catch up with her reading. I knew better than to try to check what she was reading, I was already feeling weird enough and I didn't need to feel car sick as well.

A large part of me was actually rather excited to finally find out what it would be like to pretend to be normal for once. Sure I had slightly messed up earlier but, judging by the questions they had been throwing my way, it seemed that they had decided I was merely a touch eccentric and not a shadow demon that lived off stealing life energy from their friends. Well, Violet's dads were at least believing that. Violet was a whole different story. I knew that Webby had been a little vague with exactly what I was, despite Violet's questions, and that I was rather thankful for. Violet knew that I was trapped in the shadow realm, and I had some form of connection to Magica, but Webby had at least not told her that I wasn't real.

Thankfully the trip home was mercifully short and quiet as well apart from a few casual questions from Tyrian and Indigo, that I made sure to give entirely non-committal answers to. However the second we arrived home things began to stop being quite so simplistic for me. Indigo had finally managed to open the door and was welcoming us inside, but I was stuck. I just couldn't enter. I don't entirely understand why, but a part of me was not comfortable with this at all. I felt like I was a wolf being let into a hen house like I was going to do nothing more than hurt them all somehow.

I was so worked up with this fear that I jumped when Violet nudged me, a look of worry hidden in her words. "Tell us if there is a problem." She told me simply, but even in her stilted emotive voice, I could hear the concern dripping out.

I felt the panic begin to grow in me, and I honestly could not work out where it was coming from. However before I had a chance to react, Violet shoved me through the doorway and like that the panic fell to nothing. I realized that I could control my impulses and that for today everything would be fine.

Indigo immediately took the opportunity to give me an impromptu tour of the small Sabrewing residence. Of course, as it was a small two bedroom home the tour lasted all of two sentences before ending with Violet's small bedroom. It was considerably smaller than the McDuck manor. As someone who had lived a significant portion of their life with storage rooms as a bedroom, I was not fazed by the small home. Honestly, a decent bed and proper climate control were really all I needed.

"You can leave your things in Violet's room..." He trailed off as he noticed the distinct lack of any luggage at all for me. "Oh ah sorry, did we forget something?"

"Nah," I quickly waved him off and made an excuse for my suspicious lack of anything. "I don't really have that much actual stuff, Vi and Webby have been letting me borrow whatever." In hindsight, I maybe should have had a smarter lie.

"Okay?" Indigo responded his concern poorly hidden in his voice. However, he did allow the topic to drop. "Well make yourself a home, I'll get started on lunch, I hope you're hungry as I was planning on Casado."

I just gave a positive thumbs up before taking the opportunity to sprawl out on the couch as they busied themselves doing whatever it was they were doing. I was feeling sleepy again, but nowhere near as bad as I had before. So rather than taking a nap I kind of just laid on the couch and stared out their window at the passing clouds.

Violet had already run off to her room for some reason and dragged her other dad in there. I wasn't stupid enough to not know that they were most likely talking about me, but I honestly just wanted to pretend that everything was normal. I closed my eyes and let myself drift off as Indigo crashed around in the kitchen and occasionally swore in another language to himself.

So far things at Violet's home had been odd to say the absolute least, her dads were incredibly trusting of their daughter to just let me stay over with such little notice. I was more than a little suspicious of exactly how trusting they were of me, but I had a few ideas to test them. The fact that they were clearly letting me pretend to be normal despite my rather poor attempts at actually being normal was kind of nice for a change. In Scrooge's place, I always felt that I was one magical cast away from being shoved out on my rump, here it seemed that the rules were entirely different.

Violet's parents were too good and I couldn't stop focusing on that. I knew from dealing with Magica that even the most vile, irritating, jerks could put on a nice face for a very long time. So I knew better than to just trust them implicitly, they were a long way of earning my trust like Webby or Violet. Still, despite that rather annoying roadblock between us, I was enjoying the atmosphere of the apartment, it was a much quieter environment than the manor. It was strange in some ways but in a weirdly peaceful way. It was interesting to think that, despite the considerably smaller and more cramped home keeping everyone so close, it was much quieter than the manor.

I don't know how long I laid there daydreaming out the window and enjoying the quiet, but it was apparently quite a long time. "Food's up" Tyrian yelled out, casting his voice high in a transparent effort to get Violet to hear him without him needing to bother actually walking the few feet to her room. I didn't really want anything, but the eager face plastered on Tyrian made it impossible to not head over. Stupid, guilt tripping eyes should not work that effectively on a grown adult.

So we all soon were sitting around a cramped dinner table, I pointedly tried to ignore the fact that one of Vi's dads was on a fold up seat. Clearly, they didn't have all that many others over, not that was really much of a surprise judging by how small their home was, it would not exactly be the easiest place to entertain when you struggle to fit five in the living area. Apparently, he had made us something called Casado, some dish from somewhere that was probably relevant to him. I was not really paying much attention to the food, well I wasn't paying much attention to the name or history of it. I was rather distracted just by getting to eat it. It was actually really nice, and something about us all sitting so close together and chatting just made everything somehow easier.

"So the dish is named marriage?" I asked between mouthfuls, not taking quite as much care as normal to avoid talking with my mouth open. Magica was the only one I grew up under, do you really think she bothered to teach me basic table manners. Unlike Webby's grandma, both of Violet's fathers pointedly ignored my table manners and instead just made sure that my plate was piled high with food. I don't know why, but I was feeling stupidly hungry as soon as the meal was before me. I might need to revisit that whole shadows not needing food idea. "Seems like a name designed to confuse everyone?"

"It's a dish consisting of a lot of foods from the area it originates all 'married' together," Violet responded, actually taking the time to properly swallow her food unlike me. "Though some have said that it was a meal normally served at home and was named by the restaurant industry to imply that it was a healthy home-cooked meal by equating it to marriage. However, I am not sure if the second is true."

"So it's a normal dish for families to have?" I asked cautiously, more than a little cautious about where this was heading. Webby had been wanting me to be shoved into her family from the first time I met her, and returning from my apparent death had only made that worse. I didn't really want to deal with yet another thing that I didn't understand. "Haven't really had that much experience with it."

"Well, it's not that common in this region," Tyrian amended as he reached for another drink. "Did you want some refrescos, ah I mean refreshments?"

"I'm stuffed," I just shrugged and waved him off before pushing my meal away, most of the food cleaned from the plate. Unfortunately with food no longer distracting me, the others seemed to take it as an opportunity to ask annoying questions.

"So, how old are you?" Indigo asked me, in what was transparently just another attempt to get to know me. A part of me did like the attention they were throwing my way, but it was a pity they chose such an insanely loaded question. Still, even Violet looked somewhat interested in the answer, just a pity that I didn't really even know the answer. "Are you around Violet's age?"

"I'm not really sure the answer if I'm honest." I began, a part of me wondering if I should just lie and pretend to be my apparent age. However, I was just getting sick of everyone nagging me for information while also refusing to let me at least pretend to be normal. At least Violet's folks seemed willing to at least do the latter, so maybe they deserved some sort of real response, pity I honestly didn't know the answer. "Here's a philosophy question for you Vi. If you were created fifteen years ago in the form of a twelve-year-old, but you never aged or really had sentience until a few years back, how old are you? Are you twelve, fifteen, four or twenty-seven?"

"Lena..." Violet was frowning at me, and okay admittedly my question had more come out as a direct accusation. Her dads just were looking rather bewildered by the whole conversation, and I was honestly sick of this whole thing. I couldn't even pretend to be normal for more than a few minutes before I messed everything up, as usual.

"Look, can we just not ask me anything?" I spat back, before stopping myself. These were Violet's folks and I did need to at least stay somewhat on their good side. "Sorry, things have just not been great and a lot of others are bugging me about the same stuff. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's fine, Violet didn't tell us much but we could kind of tell that there was something up between you," Indigo told me with a chuckle before sighing and his tone became considerably more serious. "If you want we can just leave it and we can assume that everything is normal, but wouldn't you prefer to instead just be open and let others accept you for what you are. You seem like a nice teenager who was given a few bad hands."

I wasn't about to put up with another adult trying to tell me how much of a bad influence I was, it seemed to be the only damn thing they ever wanted to tell me. "I know that I am a bad influence who doesn't have a bright future like Violet," I growled at them as I shoved my food back and stood up for the table, though I did take a second to take a deep breath to get my magic back under control. "I know I am a magical mistake that no one wanted to deal with, I had hoped that I would get to at least pretend for one stupid night that I wasn't just a burden that everyone has to deal with, but I guess that was just asking too freaking much."

"Lena, we di-" Indigo tried to interrupt me, but I was having none of it.

"I don't care what excuses you try and make, the truth is that you're right." I knew that there was a lot of anger I was throwing their way and it was all I could do to stop myself from letting my magic control me. I did throw up a shield of some sort to keep Violet's dads in their chairs, how I couldn't tell you. Emotional instinctive magic is strong and impossible to really comprehend at times. "I am a problem that you can't deal with, and I am not safe to be around. You can feel it stopping you from moving, can't you? Well, it's worse than you think. Since dinner, I've been stealing energy from all three of you and I can't stop it."

"Lena, stop this!" Violet had gotten up and actually grabbed me, but I just shoved her off and made my way to the door. "We are here to help you."

"And I am here to be nothing but a problem. Well, I am sick of being a problem that others just need to deal with." I shot back angrily, before pausing. I was in her house, yelling at her parents, and yet she seemed to stupidly want to help me still. I blindly reached my magic out and groaned as I felt the stupid magical bond hovering in the magical mana before me. I tried to influence it, but it was impermeable and unmovable. The talisman around my neck was glowing and I could feel the energy hovering beneath its surface. There was really only one explanation for all of this, the magical connection was back and I was losing control over it.

I shoved Violet off me, wincing as she hit the ground a fair bit harder than I intended before I shoved open the door and left, letting it slam shut behind me. I had to get away from them before I sucked the life out of them. As soon as I was outside I ran. I didn't know where I was going, all I knew was that I didn't want to be around anyone. I could feel the stupid talisman hanging around my stupid neck, bouncing with every footstep as if to remind me of my permanent connection to magic. I wanted to just yell out or pull my hair, but I was approaching the more heavily populated parts of Duckberg.

So I ducked down an alleyway to get some semblance of privacy and tried to regain my thoughts. The connection was back, even with the talisman I was unable to stop its return, and I was now a danger to everyone. I had to fix this and I had to do it quickly.

I just didn't know how.