Chapter 6

"Y, you look just like her. But you're not, are you?"

"We're not really letting him do this again, on his own. Right?" Lena asked, she looked at Webby with concern.

"Hell no." Webby growled. "I'm taking care of this, once and for all. But first," She grabbed her best friends' hand. "I need you to do something for me."

She pulled Lena towards the massive library with Violet closely behind them. Once she pulled them both in and locked the door she whirled around and started crying her eyes out.

Both Lena and Violet looked at her in alarm then rushed at her with hugs.

"Webby," Lena said softly. "It's going to be okay."

"Yeah," Violet agreed. "Look, at least the kids are safe." She added. "Louie can talk himself out of a situation for the time being, we have plenty of time to figure out a way to get him back." She finished.

She looked over at Lena who stared back gloomily. Even she didn't feel like none of this was going to end well for them.

"Y, Yeah." Webby sniffled, breaking away from them. "Sorry. I didn't intend on brawling my eyes out. I really did need Lena for something." She looked over at Lena, who looked back confused. "I, I need you to do the thing we've been practicing -."

"No." She said, firmly, backing away from her friend. "I, I'm sorry. Pink. But I will not put you in danger by -."

"Please." She begged. "I, I can't save Louie like this. I, I need to -."

"Think about what you're doing," Violet interrupted. "What's the point? Even if you manage to save Louie, it's not worth the cost of -."

"I DON"T CARE!" Webby shouted.

She fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands and started crying again.

"Please." She begged, between sobs. "Please. Help me save him, for good."

Lena and Violet looked at one another.

"It's your call." Violet told her.

Lena sighed deeply, but a hand on Webby's shoulder. Webby looked up at her friend with tears streaming down her face.

"Okay, Pink." She said softly. "For you, I will do this."

Webby gave her a small, watery smile.

Louie made it back to the island without any trouble. This time though, no robots greeted him. Soran must have felt confident he'd come alone.

His heart pounded hard against his chest as he landed the plane and got off. He clinched the microchip even tightly in his hand as he walked along the beach. This time the ocean didn't calm him down, instead, he felt anger build up inside him.

Sure, Luca was just a Humanoid Clone, but he was a part of him, and Soran took that away. She wasn't going to get away with it.

Louie made it up to the castle, he's been here so many times now that he knew where to go. As he made his way inside, he tried remembering what Lena told him about vampires, and how to kill them, and to make sure they stay that way.

"You have to cut off the head, then the arms, legs, and then cut the organ she uses as a heart to stay alive, and only the mate has to do it."

"How, How, am I supposed to do all that on my own?" Louie had asked.

"I'm just the informant." Lena remined him. "Aren't you supposed to be the sharp one?"

Louie sighed in frustration as entered the castle.

Why did he even bother asking Lena for anything?

"There he is." Soran's voice floated down to him from the enormous staircase.

He slowly shut the door and turned to face her. She slowly came down the stairs and strolled up to him. He cringed when she cupped his face in her hands and brushed his bangs out of his face out of habit and gazed into his eyes.

"Now then," She said, removing her hand from his face, "the chip." She folded her hand out in front of him. With Louie's heart pounding hard against his chest he held it out to her. Soran smiled at him as he took it.

"Our Luca is going to be better than ever once this child is born. It will make it so much easier since I don't have to clone this one."

She grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"Come along. I got your room all ready for you." She said a bit too brightly.

"R, Room?" Louie asked as she started dragging him back up the stairs. Soran glanced at him and arched an eyebrow.

"You didn't think I was just going to let you leave, did you?" She asked. She stopped at a door and opened it then pushed him roughly inside.

"You did make an oath with me, did you not?" She said, her hand on the doorknob. She leaned in close to him and hissed, "No matter what I do to you." She recited.

Louie swallowed hard.

"Now that it's just you and me," Soran continued, as she straightened herself up. "I'm never letting you go." She told him.

"Webby will come for me." Louie said, sounding a bit braver than he felt. His heart was pounding hard against his chest.

"I'm counting on it." Soran told him.

Louie stared at her, as a sudden thought occurred to him.

"There's something else isn't there?" Louie said, suddenly. He could practically see the malice gleam in her eyes as Soran raised an eyebrow at him. "What is it you're planning?" He asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"Let's just say," Soran said as she slowly started to close the door,

"that once I'm done toying with Webbigail, the play Romeo and Juliet will have had much different ending." She finished in a whisper.

Louie's eyes widen as he made a dash for the door, but Soran was too quick for him as she slammed it in front of him. He heard her lock it. Louie turned slowly around and closed his eyes as he leaned up against it.

"I'll see you tonight, darling!" Soran called out as her footsteps faded away. Louie slowly slid down to the floor. "For our annual blood ritual!" Louie hugged his knees close to his chest. "Got to get ready before our guest of honor shows up! Which, I'd say won't be too much longer!"

Louie buried his face in his knees as he heard a far-off door slam shut.

Then started to cry.

Garret awoke with a start. His heart pounding hard against his chest and sweat pouring down his face. His nightmares were getting worse. Of course, he's always had a few more nightmares then the average person, it was really rare for him now days to have a nice one.

But the one he just had would keep him up for weeks.

He had been in a closed room. It was dark, except for one small light. A small shadow stood in the middle of it and as he crept closer to, he could tell it was a girl by the way she was crying. He immediately went into older brother mode and rushed towards her.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked.

He reached out a hand to tap her shoulder, but the crying suddenly stopped. The girl slowly stood up and turned to face him. Garret stared at her. She looked just like Soran; except she had his Dad's eyes. He reluctantly took a step back from her as she smiled slyly at him.

"Y, You -." He stammered as she took a step towards him. "You look so much like her." He said, still staring. "But you're not. Are you?" He realized.

"No." She said, softly. Her voice sounded oddly sweet with a hint of bitterness.

"Don't tell me, you're -." He began, but he didn't want to finish the sentence.

She walked up to him and started circling him, studying him. He swallowed hard and wished he could wake up, he tried. Pinching, slapping himself, none of it worked.

"You'll do nicely." She said, finally stopping in front of him.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, nervously.

But she just smiled at him and flicked her wrist, looking so much like Soran when she did that Garret's heart nearly stopped, as he finally felt himself waking up.

"See you soon." She told him, then smiled, "Darling." She added.

That's when he shot up in bed.

Something was wrong. Garret could feel it in his bones. He slowly got up off his bed and winced as the sharp pain stabbed at his rib cage.

He groaned in frustration.

This was getting irritating. It's been over four hours since Aunt Lena looked him over and did her magic on him. She said it would be awhile before he felt himself again, even with magic doing most of the work. She told him to stay in bed.

Garret wasn't the one to sit still. That's the one thing he inherited from both his parents. He walked over to the door and opened it a crack. He peered out to make sure the coast was clear then started walking down the hall.

He peered into his Great-Uncle's study and saw him staring out a nearby window with a gloomy expression on his face. He walked in quietly and shut the door.

"Uncle Scrooge?" He asked.

His Uncle looked over his shoulder in alarm.

"Lad, you are supposed to be in bed." He told him firmly. "You had it rough the last couple of days." He rushed up to him as Luca stumbled towards him and sat him in a nearby chair.

"Something is wrong. Isn't it?" Garret asked. He squinted his eyes at his Uncle who quickly avoided them by walking behind his desk and sitting down.

"Everything is fine." He told him, but even as he said that Garret heard the lie.

"Don't lie, Uncle Scrooge. I can feel it. It's my sixth sense, remember? Tell me, what's wrong? And don't do that grown-up thing you all do when you fudge the truth, just tell me." He urged him.

Scrooge McDuck stared at his great-great nephew and sighed deeply.

"I guess, you've shown how mature you can be when it comes to this sort of thing, considering all you've been through." He said, then started telling Garret what all went on downstairs just hours ago.

Garret listened as Scrooge talked and he felt the blood drain from his face as he realized the dream he just had wasn't just a dream. He slowly stood up but slumped down on Scrooge's desk. He groaned as Scrooge jumped up and rushed to his side. He helped him up and put him back in the chair.

"Why is this happening?" He muttered. "Hasn't our family been through enough?"

Scrooge pierced his bill together.

"How come Mom never told us she was a spy? We could have prepared ourselves better for this sort of situation. Did she not trust us?" He continued.

"Lad, don't be too hard on them." He told them. "They wanted to protect you from that kind of life, and what it would lead to it." He explained.

"A lot good that did." Garret grumbled, indicating his wounds.

"Yes. Well..." Scrooge said his voice trailed off as he studied his nephew and felt something else was bothering him. "What's wrong, Lad?"

Garret hesitated before finally telling him the dream he had.

"Well, that was..." Scrooge's voice trailed off not able to find the right word.

"Disturbing?" Garret suggested.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Scrooge told him.

"But," Garret began, "it's got to mean something, Uncle Scrooge. I can't just ignore the fact that I knew about this kid even before Mom and Dad did!" He told him. "This mean's something. I just don't know what yet..." His voice trailed off.

"Why not sleep on it some more then?" Scrooge suggested. He felt the Lad was right, but he's been through so much already and he shouldn't have any extra added stress on him.

Garret looked down at the ground and shook his head.

"I'm afraid I'll see her again." Garret grumbled and shivered.

"Then why not go find your Aunt? I believe she and Hope are in the garage." Scrooge suggested. "Get a little bit of fresh air. It's good for a lad your age." He added.

Garret nodded in agreement. He hadn't seen Hope since she practically watched her first and only friend blow himself up. He staggered to his feet, still trying to pull himself together from his wounds. He blinked hard to keep the dots from exploding behind his eyes, and his dizziness at bay as he walked out of Scrooge's study.

He made his way slowly out the door and into the backyard. He saw his Uncle Huey standing beside the garage, leaning up against it listening to Gosalyn and Hope talk. His bill pressed together tightly, and he was glaring at the ground, arms crossed.

"Uncle Huey?" Garret said.

Huey blinked and looked up at his nephew.

'Hey, kiddo." He said, ruffling the kid's hair as he came up to him. "How you are feeling?"

"I'd feel a lot better," Garret grumbled, "once we get a break from all this adventuring." Huey stifled a laugh. Garret glared at him. "What?" He asked.

"You remind me so much of your father." Huey said. "He tried taking a break from adventuring once," Huey told him, as he thought back to the day, they all had their first family game night. "Didn't work out so much in the end though, we still ended up on an adventure."

"What happened?" Garret asked.

"He basically had the whole family shrunk down, getting them into a fight with some Nomads, and practically ended up saving the day." He told him.

Garret blinked and stared at him. Huey chuckled.

"Best not to fight it kid, we are the McDuck family after all." He advised.

Yeah. Sometimes though, Garret wished they weren't.

Suddenly Huey looked up at the mansion in alarm. Garret looked at it too and saw a bright purple light coming from the library. Garret looked back over at his uncle and saw his eyes had glazed over and he was frowning.

"She wouldn't!" He growled.

"What?" Garret asked, confused. "What's wrong?"

"Stay here." Huey told him and he started racing back to the mansion towards the library.

Garret stared at him, watching him disappear into the house.

Stay here? Yeah right.

Since when did he do as he was told?

He glanced behind him at the garage and winced when he heard a loud crash.

"OW!" Hope bellowed. "This stupid, no good -."

A smile slowly spread across his face as he listened to his sister grumble. Hope was starting to sound like her old self. She was good for the time being.

He looked back towards the mansion, and without hesitation ran after his uncle towards the library.