To Scrooge McDuck, there were few things more relaxing than to arrive back home from another successful adventure with the loot that came alongside it, however, getting the opportunity to properly tally up his richest came in close. Glancing at the tired trio of brothers behind him, he was quite impressed that they had managed to stay awake through the entire night to finish the entirety of bin inventory, thankfully the overall tally from their night had even been a perfect match. Frequent counts made aligning the books that much easier on his auditors, and perfect books made his vulturistic board almost easy to work with.
"In my youth, an all-nighter like this would have never made me so exhausted" Yawning tiredly to himself, Scrooge made his way up to his front door and reached out to knock on the large oak doors, when the door was suddenly thrown wide and a small purple hummingbird trotted out straight into him.
"Oh, sorry Mr-" The young hummingbird froze and then her eyes opened wide as she took in the sight of the old adventurer before her. Despite the youngling's almost monotone voice, he could tell that she was excited the meet him. A worrying sign for him these days. "You must be Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge of the McDuck Manor and founder of far too many companies to name here, including McDuck Water and Electric. I've got so many questions I want to ask about magic with you."
"I'm sure you have any questions, but let's start with one of mine," Scrooge told her as he gently pushed the strange bird out of his personal space with his walking stick. Happy that she was now a much more respectful distance away, he continued. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Violet, a friend of Webbigail." She proclaimed, waving aimlessly back into the manor, an action that Scrooge presumed was in the vague direction of his housekeeper's granddaughter. "I was here for a sleepover as Webby wanted some help with a little occult reading. Now tell me, what do you know about the shadow war?"
"Okay, not the question I was expecting, but as a friend of Webbigal's I probably should have," Scrooge muttered to himself, eyeing up the strange girl before him, wondering what was it about him that attracted the more peculiar individuals. "I'll straight with you lass, I am not the biggest fan of magic in general and that night was not one that I want to talk about. We lost someone close to us that night."
"Oh, that's okay. Thank you for your time, Mr. Scrooge." Violet, recognizing that the conversation was over, made a simple goodbye and trotted off down the driveway of the manor. She frowned as she trotted off, somewhat miffed that he held back so much knowledge from her, while also understanding that he had much right as Webby to not want to talk about that night.
"Why does Webbigail always attract the strangest of friends?" He quietly asked himself as he finally stepped into his home, noting that the triplets had already managed to get inside and where bragging about how many billions of dollars they had managed to play with the previous night.
"When we hit the first billion we were barely a tenth of the way through and the counting robot started breaking because it couldn't remember the numbers," Huey exclaimed to Webby, trying to shove some paper in front of her as if to provide evidence of his claim. "Gearloose had to adjust it with a hammer before it would continue."
"I think it was more him threatening it rather than fixing it," Louie cut in dryly, his arms tucked into his jacket and his eyes barely remaining open. "I'm heading off for some snooze time on the couch. Grab me if you see any decent adventures starting."
"Ah kids, if Gearloose got the robot working, it still counts as fixing it." Scrooge interrupted, smiling. There was no reason to let their little discussion get ruined by such a silly argument, besides he quite enjoyed the questionable way that they described their little adventures.
"Well his little fixing did result in the robot trying to attack us, so I'm not sure if I agree." Dewy interrupted, trying to not think about where that stupid robot tried to hide the supposed 'excess' coins. "I'm going to go join Louie, I miss sleep."
"Sounds like you guys had a bit of an adventure without me." Webby somewhat complained, though Scrooge and Huey could tell that she didn't mind.
"It was like a two out of ten compared to most." Huey tried to half-heartedly defend their exclusion of her. "I mean it was mostly counting. What about you? Have a fun sleepover?"
"Well, I also had quite a bit of fun and even better I had an almost-normal sleepover," Webby exclaimed, showing them her friendship bracelet tied around her wrist. "I got to finally learn about the shadow realm and I've got a massive surprise."
"We already saw you somehow managed to get another friend," Huey muttered, he let out a yawn as well. "Guess I'd better go get a bit of shut-eye as well. Morning." With that, all three triplets were off trying to catch up on their missed sleep.
"Okay, have fun. I've got to go write down everything that happened last night. It was awesome." She exclaimed, fiddling with her friendship bracelet. "It w-" She cut herself, noting that the bracelet was still glowing from the previous night. "Huh. I thought that would've stopped by now."
Scrooge glanced down at the faintly glowing friendship bracelet, the blue sheen seeming glowing from inside it. Had it been anyone else with such a magical artifact on them, he would have immediately forced them to remove it, but something told him it was a mere remnant of strong magical events. Color him intrigued by the young teen's story.
"What exactly did you get up to last night?" He asked cautiously, knowing full well that Webbigail's idea of fun all too often involved fights against the undead.
"I got to go to the Shadow Realm thanks to Violet and met Lena!" Webby exclaimed as she gave a happy little hop. "It was all shadowy and cool until the Tulpas showed up. Then it was exciting as well."
"Tulpas?" Scrooge couldn't help but ask, his worry making himself somewhat louder than he intended. He marched over to Webby, horrified by what she had done. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to mess with shadow magic? You could have been lost in the shadows alongside Lena, and none of us would have known what happened to you. If I had known that you were going to mess with Tulpas... Never mess with magic if you don't know what you are doing lass."
"Well you don't need to worry about that, I pulled Lena back. That's the surprise." Webby has giving Scrooge quite a disappointed expression, clearly not happy with him trying to stop her from helping her closest friend. "She's back with us and I'm not letting some stupid shadow stuff keep her away. That's why I had Violet over to help me with the more dangerous things, and the séance. She knows heaps about shadows and Tulpas Shadow things."
Scrooge found himself at a loss for words at the news of the rebellious teenager's return. He had felt no end of guilt for pulling that poor girl into his decade-old rivalry with Magica and to find out that she had survived was a large weight from his back.
"When you say that she is back, what do you mean?" He asked cautiously, ignoring the excited yammering of his nephews as they tried to overwhelm Webby with questions of their own. "Is she a voice or a shadow, or some kind of other apparition? Or is she actually back?"
"Nope, she's back completely. Flesh and all." Webby replied, a massive smile covering her face. "She accidentally pulled us into the Shadow Realm trying to protect us from these Tulpas things. But they just turned out to just be manifestations of her guilt. So she was able to work Violet to get us out. It was awesome. It used the power of friendship and everything. "
"Curse me kilts, so she is back?" There were some surprises that Scrooge didn't mind, and finding out that the teen who had stood up for his family had not perished was a very welcome one. The Tulpas worried him somewhat, desperate manifestations of deep emotions wasn't something he ever wanted to get near, but if they ultimately did no harm to Webbigail then it said a lot about Lena.
"So, where is the lucky lass? I've got quite a few things I want to talk to her about. Planning on an extended sleepover" He asked quietly, hoping to have a quick chat with the girl later tonight. They did have a lot to discuss after all, especially about Magica and if she knew of any information about the inevitably numerous plans Magica was brewing in the shadows waiting for his family.
"Oh she already headed home," Webby responded, frowning a bit. "Not sure why she was so eager to head there so quickly. I wanted to surprise you and granny with her return."
"I suppose she wanted to talk to her family. They would probably be very relieved to hear that their daughter is back." Scrooge mused, rubbing his chin as he pondered the strangeness that Lena embodied. "I know if Della came back I'd want to see her on my doorstep the minute she touched the ground. Please tell me she at least called her family if she stayed the night."
Webby bit her lip, wondering if she should spill Lena's secret without asking. She had been quite insistent that Webby didn't tell anyone that her only family was Magica and had headed home insisting that she just wanted a day alone to get her bearings, however, Webby knew that Scrooge would keep the secret as well. Making her decision, she pulled Scrooge into the nearby sitting room, shoving the door shut in case the triplets tried to join.
"Lena wanted me to keep this a secret, so you had better promise to not tell anyone." Webby insistent as she turned to face him. "Do you promise?"
"I swear on my family to not tell unless it needs to be said." He agreed, with a slight stipulation. "I'm here to help."
"Okay, well Lena didn't want anyone to know because she wanted to be left alone," Webby began as the two of them sat in the comfortable recliners in the room, though both were sitting on the edge in a poor attempt to hide their deep interest in the ex-shadow that was Lena. "She doesn't have any family apart from Magica and she told me that she is heading back to her underground hideout to clean up so I can come over for a sleepover tomorrow. She doesn't want anyone to know she's there because technically she doesn't own it. It is super cool though. "
"She has an underground lair? I haven't seen many remaining these days." Scrooge asked, think that it was in some ways nice to hear that Lena at least had something of her own to escape to, however, the lack of a family was much more of a concern to him. Lena might enjoy the chance to be independent, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't need any help. "Have you gotten to see it?"
"Only once, and it's more of an underground room, rather than a lair, and it's just a bedroom hidden under the amphitheater that doesn't exactly have running water. But it is pretty cool." Webby described to him, her mind straying to the fun sleepover games she could play with Lena tomorrow. "Which reminds me, I need to ask Granny if she's okay with a Lena sleepover. I've got to ask now."
"Ah, Webbigail, before you go. Could you tell me where exactly Lena is staying?" She'd tried to save his family, it was only fair he made good on his promise. Besides, maybe she had some information about Magica's whereabouts.
