Hi, again!

This chapter was a little crazy to write. It has a lot of action scenes, some lore about Lena's magic that I kind of made up on the spot, a few character 'deaths' , as well as a long-awaited romance scene. (Gasp! Spoilers!)

Please enjoy!

……

For a few seconds, no one knew what to do except sit there, dumbfounded. The woman who had been by far their strongest team member, gone.

Then, they remembered that the Hayfelday would be on the lookout, probably sensing it had made another kill. Not knowing what else to do, they worked together to roll Beakley out of the hideout to avoid their safe haven being viciously searched and wrecked, cringing as they heard the beast scoop her up and slide away, slime squelching all across the carpet. In a way, Dewey's horrific Waddle-translated paragraph had come true: they had essentially sacrificed a party member. However, unlike the paragraph, it was not 'for very good'. Not for very good at all.

Finally, pondering the old bird's last words, Gizmoduck broke the silence.

"Alright. Other diamond." He said, nervously tapping the couch cushion next to him with all fingers on one hand. "I guess I've still got that cheese grater."

"I once forged a Vesuvian diamond dagger, but it's at home in my kitchen drawer." Lena said.

"I can't tell if you're being serious or not." Said Fenton.

"Are we really ready to face the tentacle again?" Violet asked. "Taking into account the horrific failures of the past three times? Perhaps a better and more detailed tactic is in order."

"Yes! That sounds good. Alright, kids, what've you got?" The last adult standing asked in his deeper, more heroic voice.

"Well, it may be easier to attack if it were restrained." Said Huey. "Webby, do you know how Scrooge killed the entire Hayfelday in the first place? Or anything about a way to trap it?"

She tapped her chin. "According to my research, he had the area's military and police force on his side, and a lot of high-tech weaponry."

"Oh. That doesn't really help us." Huey said.

"I could go call the police…" Fenton offered.

"I doubt even they could get through a few of Granny's front gate defenses." Webby replied with a shrug.

Looking over to the family and friends they still had to save on display in front of the hearth, Violet suddenly got an idea.

"Everyone, wait a minute!" She said. "We need diamond weapons, right?"

"Yeah." Agreed Huey. "Probably a whole arsenal of them."

"Well?" Violet gestured to the diamond array that was their family. "There's your arsenal, take your pick."

The three glanced at each other uncomfortably. "Uh…."

"Trust me." She said. "Where else would we find such large masses of diamond, already equipped with weapons, in some cases?"

Webby, Huey, and Fenton glanced at one another worriedly.

"She has a point." Gizmoduck said. "As strange as it sounds, we'll need to use your family members as weapons. Also as human shields."

"If it's to save their lives, I'm sure they'd be fine with it." Webby said. "It could work. We'd just have to stay clear of the ones with the plague version of the diamond curse, like Goldie, Scrooge, Louie, and Della." She squinted and pointed these individuals out, as if reminding herself who was safe to touch and who wasn't.

How would we carry them?" Wondered Fenton.

They all looked to Lena. She sighed. "Yeah, I get it. Levitation power. I'm on it. I'll just need to conserve enough….enough..energy."

Lena suddenly slumped over in agony, moaning and digging her fingers into her hair. Webby moved her attention to her best friend. "Lena?"

"Don't tell me you're infected, too." Violet said, also scooting in closer.

"No, it's just this darn headache." The shadow girl said, clutching both sides of her head as if worried it would split open if she didn't. "I don't know where it's coming from, but it only happens whenever I'm around that creature!"

"Maybe you're connected." Suggested Huey. "I don't know exactly how magical beings work, but maybe you and the Hayfelday have similar kinds of magic. Similar….magical signatures?"

"That's not how magic works, you nerd." Lena moaned. "It's probably nothing."

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Webby said. "You can sit out and rest, if you want. We'll stay on the ground and fight it."

"No. I'm fighting, Webs. Without airborne advantage, that stupid thing will kill all of you like that." Lena said, snapping her fingers. "I might be in a little bit of pain, but I'm still helping out!"

Webby stared at her friend. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

Webby turned from her to the rest of the group, reassured. "Alright. Everything will be fine. We'll pull through like always. We've got this, guys! We're the clan McDuck allies, for crying out loud!" She gestured to the small, ragtag team. "These are the people that stopped the Moonvasion and faced F.O.W.L at Alexandria!"

They looked to one another, feeling much more encouraged.

"Okay." Said the young girl, her father's leadership instincts and a reckless glimmer appearing even more noticeably in her eyes. "Team, we need to split up and attack from all sides."

"I agree." Said Fenton. "This thing may move fast, but an attack from three or four angles with the levitated diamond victims as weapons should be enough to overwhelm it!"

"Onward, family!" Said Huey. "To the fireplace to get the weapons, then, to the skies!"

……

It wasn't instantaneous. Although Webby would have definitely wanted to attack sooner, Fenton insisted they wait for an opportune moment to crawl out from behind the busted couch. They carefully waited nearly fifteen minutes to strike. Finally, the Hayfelday, growing bored, decided to do a random once-over of the house to search out new prey it may have missed. Once it left the room, they all hurried to the fireplace and chose a statue. Webby tapped a finger on her chin while looking at Dewey, who still had a practically positioned sword in one outstretched hand. Fenton studied Beakley, muttering. "No weapon, but she has by far the most strength. I'm assuming. It's not like anyone made cards of the McDuck family members that show their stats or anything."

"Think again!" Whisper-sang Webby, pulling several heavily-crayoned homemade cards out of her pocket. Violet stopped her. "We don't have time."

Webby put her cards away with a frown and a small, disappointed, "Aw."

In the end, Fenton did end up picking Beakley, while Webby dragged Dewey out of the bundle. No one picked May or June, feeling sparing them the experience of being a human shield would be the most humane option. Violet settled on Daisy. Huey chose Gearloose.

"Are you serious? You guys are leaving me with Donald?" Lena complained. "Ow."She gingerly touched her head yet again, frowning at the Donald statue posed in a crazed position.

"Lena, are you sure you're okay?" Huey asked.

She shrugged. "I'm gonna have to be."

Her blue form enveloped her, and energy surrounded the statues and the last remaining fighters (besides Gizmoduck) and they all arose to the ceiling to start yet another fight.

The Hayfelday re-entered the battle ground, took one look at over half of its collection missing, and roared furiously, shooting its gaze to the five warriors floating above. The monster reared up and snapped at all of them, projectile vomiting acid. They dodged it and zoomed away, realizing they all had the power to maneuver on their own. Lena wasn't controlling them completely. Wouldn't that take more energy out of a person? Webby briefly wondered. Using enough magic to give us all telekinesis over our statues and ourselves? She didn't have time to ponder this much further. The Hayfelday nipped at her, and she used her mind to hover the Dewey statue over to shield herself. Slime splashed against her cousin, with no effect on his state. Okay, being able to mind-control my friend as a shield without hurting him is pretty darn cool.

Nearby, the Gyro, Donald and Beakley statues rammed into the Hayfelday, making it wobble off-balance on its snake-like coils. None of them were really sure what to do to weaponize the diamond people. All they could really think of was jabbing the statues against the creature's flesh using their minds. Webby definitely had the best idea in claiming Dewey: with the middle triplet's sword still in his hand, she could control him to jab at the Hayfelday and defend herself from acid attacks at the same time. All the others were pretty much human shields for the fighters.

Duckworth, once again as a possessed cutlass, now also wielded the diamond cheese grater and another deadly-looking saber, expertly commanding all three at once, opening several shallow gashes all across the giant tentacle.

The others continued with their attacks, using their respective diamond statues as very effective shields against the monster's acids and bites.

This bizarre strategy went on for some time. They dodged, attacked, jabbed, stabbed, and swirled around the room with the Hayfelday close behind for several minutes. Nothing seemed to injure it more than a few small cuts from the weapons. The diamond only bruised it. However, the constant barrage from five separate angles did seem to be wearing it out. It grew delirious and its eyes went out of focus. Small bruises and cuts were dotted all across its slimy surface. It was almost ready to collapse after about fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, so was Lena.

Violet was the first to notice. Her adoptive sister was blinking slowly, holding her head with one hand, huddled into a little ball in midair. She appeared to be either deep in thought in or absolute agony. It was hard to tell which. She suddenly shuddered and twitched, and the glow around all of them flickered on and off a few times.

"Lena can't use this much magic when she's not feeling well!" Webby worriedly realized, swimming through air and putting her hands on her best friend's shoulders. "It'll make her headache worse."

She turned to her and grinned. "That's the thing, Pink. I just realized my headache was my magic trying to tell me: I have the key to defeating this thing once and for all."

"What do you mean, 'your magic was telling you'?" Wondered Huey, also coming over.

"Um, I don't even really know. It's hard to explain, but I think we sorcerers might have a system in our nerves that alerts us with pain to when our magic would be of help. I think Aunt Magica said something like that once, anyway. This is the first time it's actually happened to me."

"Wow! Who knew headaches could be so useful?" Webby said.

"Oh, it does not feel useful, believe me." She shakily laughed, saw the Hayfelday behind them, and blasted it in the face with magic. It retreated, howling in pain, allowing their conversation to continue.

"So, you have an idea for the cure? Or on how to kill the Hayfelday?" Fenton summarized, also hovering over, positioning Beakley over them.

"Oh, I have no idea, dude. I just know that my magic is supposed to be part of it, somehow. It's a really weird feeling. It's almost like…like-oh, gosh, my head." Lena's glowing aura slowly faded from around her; she lost consciousness and sunk like a stone toward the ground. Along with everyone supported by her magic.

……

The four kids plummeted to the ground, no longer with any magical floatation, screaming as the ground grew alarmingly closer and closer, besides Lena, who was knocked out cold, mouth slightly open, normal grey clothes back on her, as her magical form had dissipated with her magic.

Realizing the children were about to fall to their deaths, Gizmoduck reacted quickly. He grabbed Huey and Violet in his arms. The unexpected extra weight dragged him down a little, but the three of them remained in the air. The other two weren't so lucky. From the other side of the room where Fenton couldn't reach them in time, Webby grabbed the lifeless Lena protectively in her arms and braced for impact. She swam through the air so that they were in line with the mantelpiece, spun into a flip, and landed safely atop diamond June's head. The surface was surprisingly cool and glassy. Webby slipped off the statue and onto the carpeted floor, still holding Lena close. June fell on her side and crashed into the other statues, working like a domino and knocking the others all over in rapid succession. The Hayfelday, who'd been swatting at Gizmoduck and trying to reach him and the kids in vain, made a weird gasp, turned around, and immediately zipped over to start rearranging the toppled statues.

Webby hurriedly dragged Lena out of the Hayfelday's line of sight, panting, one of her arms scraped from impact with June's pointy diamond bow. Amazingly, that was the only damage done to her. Not one bit of diamond plague anywhere on either of them. Once out of danger, she collapsed to her knees, looking toward the rapidly rearranged diamond family and the Hayfelday wearing a satisfied expression at the returned order. It hadn't even noticed the two girls crawling away.

Webby pulled her unresponsive friend onto her lap. She was still breathing. Sighing in relief, Webby smiled. "It's okay, you perfection of a sorceress. Rest now." She gently set Lena down, grabbed the nearby Dewey by his diamond-ified hair, and dragged him and his sword across the carpet with a battle cry. "YAHHHHH!"

……

Still suspended in the air, Gizmoduck and the two kids watched the girls drop from the sky and land safely, the Hayfelday ignoring them completely. "What do we do?" Said Huey, cupped in one arm of the suit. "I don't think even the diamond statues are gonna cut it!"

"Perhaps we could land and take refuge behind the sofa and come up with a plan C?" Violet said from the other arm.

The Hayfelday suddenly returned and snapped at them, nearly taking Gizmoduck's wheel off.

"Woah! Aagh!" Fenton said. "Landing would be nice."

They sped to the ground. But, before they could reach the couch, the monster caught up to them, forcing them to zoom back upward. Even there, the Hayfelday could just barely reach them, occasionally nipping at Gizmoduck. So, he flew even higher, panicking and attempting to hold on to the children. At one point, the monster surprised him by popping up in front of his face, so he flew across the room, backwards to avoid being snapped in half by wicked fangs. He didn't really pay attention to where he was going.

"Gizmoduck!" Cried Huey in alarm. "The chandelier!"

Fenton noticed it too late. He slammed, backward, right into the ornate decoration, becoming entangled in it. He tried to pry himself out of the beautifully curved metal strips, only making the situation worse. He pulled and pulled at the suit, resulting in the chandelier swinging slightly, nothing more.

"Well, kids, we appear to be stuck." He said.

"Oh, come on!" Huey yelled.

"I'm attempting…to dislodge…the armor." Gizmoduck said, trying to free himself every few words of the sentence. "Annnd, it's not working. I'm sorry guys. I've never really flown this thing indoors before."

"Fenton!" Huey said.

Violet looked surprised. "Fenton? As in Doctor Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, assistant to Gyro Gearloose of McDuck Enterprises?"

"No!" Both Huey and Gizmoduck quickly said in unison.

Violet raised an eyebrow.

"Well, at least up here we're safe from that-that-OH, BLATHERING BLATHERSKITE!" Huey screamed. The others swiveled to see the Hayfelday ascending the staircase. It made a leap to the fireplace and jumped all the way up to a second chandelier by the entryway. It swung menacingly toward them on the other chandelier, a delighted smile on its face. Violet and Huey screamed.

"Not to worry." Assured Fenton, awkwardly turning so that his back was to the monster, shielding the kids, still, in his arms. "This armor is protecting my entire body and it's completely carbon free. There's no way Gizmoduck can be-"

The end of the tentacle slapped down on his beak, starting a slow diamond spread. The Hayfelday retracted its tail, screeching in celebration. It then lost its balance and toppled off the chandelier. Fenton stared at his mouth, eyes wide. "Ah. That's…unfortunate."

The diamond spread all along his beak, muffling his last words. Huey still understood them: "I should really tell Gyro to redesign that, at least for situations like this. Tell Gandra I love her!"

Although the suit didn't freeze, Fenton's body was quickly infected. The suit shuddered and sparked a little, then the hero was motionless, diamond beak protruding from the armor, still tangled in the chandelier, Huey and Violet still stuck in his metallic embrace.

"Fenton!" Huey screamed. He caught sight of Violet. "I mean…"

"Your friend, 'Not Fenton' really didn't think things through." She pragmatically responded, wriggling in the armor's hold. "Now we can't escape."

"Don't worry." He said to Violet with a shaky sort of smile. "We'll get down there somehow."

"Do we even want to be down there?" Violet pointed out.

"Uh…"

They lowered their eyes to the floor far below, where the Hayfelday still lurked, staring right back up at them, probably contemplating whether or not it wanted to jump up there again. Then, something small and pink lurched out of hiding along with a diamond statue about her size: Webby and Dewey.

"Hi-yah!" The girl said, keeping up with the Hayfelday's quick movements, lifting diamond Dewey above her head to intercept attacks. "That's right, freak of nature! You're not gonna hurt Lena or any more of my friends today!" She launched herself into the air and flipped over the beast, landing smoothly on the stairs, still holding the statue. The creature pursued her, and she kicked Dewey so that he slid across the carpet, stopping several feet away. Webby took a mighty leap. As she landed her second flip, she landed beside Dewey across the room and smacked his shoulder proudly. "And that is how you Dewey it! Woah!" She stepped back and slashed with Dewey's sword as the creature advanced. For maneuverability, she finally left the statue behind and picked up a sword for herself from the nearby umbrella stand, swinging at the Hayfelday as if they were fencing. She held it off magnificently, stepping and dancing in a deadly rhythm. But then, she jumped back to dodge the thing's tail as it tried to trip her. She accidentally bumped into one of the statues. It was Della.

"Aw, phooey." Webby said. She looked up to the chandelier hostages. "I guess I'm freezing now; this wasn't anywhere on my list of death traps, but it's still really cool! I believe in you guys, you have the power of your love! Protect Lena for me, okay? Okay, going now!"

She said this all very fast as, like many before her, she became beautifully and horribly crystalline and still.

"Webby!" Violet and Huey both screamed.

"This can't be! We're only down to three fighters?" Violet asked.

"How did things go so wrong so fast?" Huey panicked. "We can't even get down there to help; your sister's all alone against that heckish chunk of flesh!"

"And we're stuck up here alone together indefinitely." Violet added. Their eyes widened, and they both went pink and glanced away, only a few inches away from each other in each of Gizmoduck's arms.

Looking up longingly at the diamond-beaked Gizmoduck, the Hayfelday finished arranging Webby next to her sisters and slithered out of the room, once again, to seek out any new prey it might have missed before.

"So…." Huey said to Violet. "Come here often?"

"Not really, no." She responded.

Silence fell again.

This is mortifying. Huey thought. Mortifying, but also….maybe another chance? To tell her everything? Maybe? Ugh, I don't even know what's happening between us at this point.

She's so close to me. I could just open my mouth and finally tell her…or maybe even just show her…

Violet exhaled before he had the chance to say a word. "Hubert, can we please stop stalling and look at this logically?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Well," she replied, "we are very good friends, and we have been for years, but we recently went on an outing you confirmed to consider a date…" She reddened. "Forgive me if I'm speaking boldly, but, does that imply any sort of, well, 'romantic connection' between the two of us? Or was I kidding myself to think in such a way?"

Huey stared at her. Then, something in him shifted. It was as if the Duke of Making A Mess took control of his brain completely, but much less violently than it usually did.

He leaned over to Violet and kissed her freckled cheek. She turned to him, looking very surprised. Huey smiled, becoming the same shade as his hat. "Did that answer your question?"

She smiled back, wrenching her arm out of the metallic armor, making the chandelier rock a little. Huey, following some weird instinct, did the same. Their fingers intersected.

"What's this, another diagnosis?" Huey asked.

"No." She said. "Just a mutual intertwining of digits with someone I very much admire."

"I…very much admire you, too."

There was a small silence. Violet chuckled, still holding his hand. "This worked out well, didn't it?"

"Yeah, statistically speaking, we're due for another freak accident that ruins our moment." Huey said.

At that instant, the chandelier's chain snapped and they all plummeted to the floor along with it.

……

Author's Notes: Okay, okay, I know I promised this would be the last chapter, but, as you can see, we need just one more to wrap it up because I had no concept of how long certain parts of the story would take and I don't want to upload a 5K-word chapter. I don't know what this story has become, but I don't think it's just romance and humor anymore. Oh, well. It's been an absolute blast to write and see your reactions to it!

Thank you! Please keep reviewing, and I'll see you next week for the thrilling conclusion!