Although she knew what the answer was going to be, Magica still asked that everyone stay and let her handle the mess she had unintentionally gotten Scrooge caught in but of course, no one would agree to just sit back while Scrooge was in trouble; however Magica couldn't help feeling slightly hurt that they all still seemed to hold her solely accountable.
That wasn't new by any means but Magica had found herself getting kind of attached to the boys after the pillow fight those months ago and then helping Huey get free of that awful ring… she realized as she watched them prepare for a rescue attempt that she'd gotten pretty comfortable around them and how fragile that small bit of trust they'd had in her really was; that they obviously had been expecting her to follow old routines and betray Scrooge as soon as she found the opportunity.
Scrooge. The thought of him being trapped by Rochelle or even the elders weighed heavily on her; she needed to get him back, even if it meant facing whatever punishment the elders would give her for refusing the task they had given her.
Once everyone was ready, they suspiciously eyed Magica, Poe and Lena stood beside her supportively, and Mrs. Beakley asked her if she had any idea where Scrooge may have been taken.
"She said she was sent by the elder witches so most likely he's with them. I can take us all there with a transportation spell. You're all certain you want to go? It may be significantly dangerous…" Magica asked, wanting to be sure they were still sure.
"Of course, we're going to go save Mr. McDuck." Mrs. Beakley replied. "Yeah, we're not gonna leave Mr. McDee in the hands of some scary witch!" Launchpad added. Donald and the triplets all agreed and then Webby spoke. "We're stronger together so naturally we're going with you to save Scrooge!"
Lena smiled at her friend. "You're right, thanks Webbs." Poe smiled. "The girl is right; we're all in this together so we need to put our differences aside and work with each other to save Scrooge." "Right. Well, let's be off then." Mrs. Beakley said curtly. Magica nodded and cast the transportation spell.
"This is so ridiculous. She technically completed her task so I don't see what the problem is." Hexa sighed as she and her sisters tried to plead Magica's case to the elder witches, who just sat in their seats looking unamused.
"She was supposed to bring the amulet back as proof." One said. "But she didn't." The second added. "In fact, she returned the dime. She blatantly refused her task and all because of her soft heart." The third scoffed.
"Okay, it's true Magi has always been a softie but really she is a wicked witch in her own way." Castandra tried to defend her sister. "Exactly; I mean just give her one more chance and I'm sure she'll come through." Winnicent added.
The DeSpell sisters may have agreed with elders about their sister but even among witches loyalty means something and they couldn't, in any sort of conscience good or otherwise, allow their sister to be punished by the elders without at least trying to defend her.
"Silence!" The first elder snapped. "Magica DeSpell has failed repeatedly and we've given her multiple 'second chances' already." The third elder rolled her eyes. "Clearly we've made some oversights." The second elder crossed her arms. "No more, Magica DeSpell will answer for her failures."
The DeSpell sisters all shrank back, realizing their pleas weren't helping. Suddenly there was a loud bang and a large plume of smoke behind them. They turned around and saw Rochelle with her golem and Scrooge in tow. Scrooge's expression was still blank, as though his body was just vacant.
"Magica DeSpell should be here soon; and I have the amulet." Rochelle said, bowing respectfully to the elders. "Why is McDuck here?" The second elder asked, raising a confused eyebrow. "And what did you do to him?" Hexa asked, trying to hide any trace of concern from her voice. Rochelle chuckled coldly. "He's my toy now; and I expect he's more than enough motivation for DeSpell to come here and face the music." She grinned wickedly while demonstrating her control over Scrooge.
"And what makes you think Magica will come for him?" Hexa asked skeptically. "Because, it seems she loves him, so of course she's going to come for him," Rochelle looked at Scrooge disapprovingly. "Don't know what she sees in this old buzzard though, don't seem worth much to me." "He's worth plenty." Castandra scoffed, annoyed with Rochelle's attitude. "Well, yes, plenty of money; but I wouldn't reckon much else." Rochelle shrugged. "Although, I'm gonna have fun watching her reaction when I turn him loose on her." "You wouldn't!" Castandra gasped before she could stop herself. Rochelle just cackled coldly.
Winnicent looked at the elders. "You're going to allow this?" They conversed with one another for a moment before any of them answered the question. "It wasn't what we intended and we will discuss it with LaQuack later but for now… we'll just see how it goes." Winnicent and her sisters hid their shock and outrage, knowing it would only cause more trouble but they all began planning potential revenge on Rochelle for such an under-handed stunt. Loyalty among witch sisters also meant something, even if they didn't always like each other or get along.
Then Magica, Poe, Lena, and Scrooge's family all appeared in the elder's domain.
"Alright, I'm here… what are you three doing here?" Magica asked, surprised to see her sisters. "We're here trying defend you." Castandra explained. "You'd better be grateful." Hexa quipped, the hints of concern easily detected. Magica nodded. "Thanks, but I'll deal with it now."
Suddenly, she was nearly knocked over by Donald, who'd caught sight of Rochelle and Scrooge. "You let go of my uncle Scrooge! You, no good, rotten…" He went into an indecipherable rant and Magica pushed him aside. "Shut it you, looney duck!" She then turned to Rochelle. "What did you do to him?"
Rochelle grinned wickedly. "He's my pet, and if you want him back then you'll need to fight for him DeSpell." Magica's eyes narrowed as she met Rochelle's cold stare. "Fine, let's have at it then." Rochelle laughed. "I'm afraid you misunderstand… I never said you had to fight me…" She looked at Scrooge. "Do me a favor and get rid of her if you please."
Scrooge then launched forward at Magica and swung his cane. She quickly summoned her own staff and blocked the hit. "You will pay for this LaQuack…" She hissed, pushing back against Scrooge. He swung again and she parried, then swung her staff only to be blocked by Scrooge.
Everyone just watched, Beakley, Launchpad and Donald making a few attempts to go at Rochelle, who just summoned more golems to fight everyone off while Scrooge and Magica clashed as they had many times before; although this time Scrooge wasn't holding back as he'd done before, not being above taking cheap shots which Magica managed to block every time. No matter the circumstances, Magica could still match his movements and read him easily; but the same could still be said of him.
Eventually, Magica halted, her back to Rochelle, huffing to catch her breath. Scrooge stood, blankly watching her. She let a small chuckle, he was still a gentleman even now, go figure. After a moment Magica hung her head and lowered her staff. "This is going nowhere."
Rochelle eyed the back of Magica's head victoriously. "Are you giving up? What's the matter, can't bear to hurt him? You're such a weakling, so soft and pathetic. Let me put you out of your misery then!" Rochelle shot a magical attack at Magica, not seeing the smug grin spreading across her face.
"Hey Scroogie, heads up!" Magica suddenly called out as she easily dodged the attack and it flew toward Scrooge. Everyone was silently horrified that she was letting Scrooge take the attack… for about two seconds before Scrooge grinned and swung his cane; it illuminated as it made contact with the crackling magic bolt and sent it back at Rochelle, who barely managed to cancel it out in time.
"WHAT? How did you do that, I don't remember enchanting your cane!" She shrieked in surprise. Magica turned to face her, grinning smugly and an equally smug expression spread across Scrooge's face. "You didn't. She did." He said, nodding toward Magica. "What…" Rochelle was beyond confused. "But you're supposed to be my puppet…"
They couldn't help it, Scrooge and Magica just started laughing out loud. "Oh, come on! Just who do you think you're dealing with here? A couple of amateurs like you?" Magica cackled. "Of course, I took precautions after Castandra told me what was happening."
Scrooge nodded. "After Magica explained it all to me I agreed to let her cast some protective spells." He looked at his family. "Obviously, we said nothing and I do apologize for that but I didn't want to alarm anyone; after you abducted me, I just went along with it and played my part as long as was necessary so you wouldn't go after anyone else."
Magica, still focused on Rochelle, laughed more. "The thing I can't believe is that you didn't even notice that your spell didn't stick! And you say I'm pathetic!" Scrooge just grinned proudly. "My superb acting had something to do with it; you have no idea how hard it was not to react to some of the things she said." Magica nodded. "Point taken."
Rochelle's expression grew darker with every word until she'd finally had enough. "Curse you both! How dare you make a fool of me!" She screeched as she launched more attacks at them.
"Up for a game of badminton Scroogie?" Magica asked. "Sounds like fun." He replied and they both began to use their respective weapons, his enchanted cane and her staff, to return the attacks to their sender.
Everyone just stood, either entertained, shocked, or both, and watched Scrooge and Magica run circles around Rochelle. Even when she summoned more golems, they took the slow-moving brutes down easily, the enchantment on Scrooge's cane allowing him to easily knock off heads or limbs, leaving piles of dirt everywhere; in fact, Scrooge's lack of any other magic made no difference given his speed and quick-thinking so with Magica's magic the two proved to be quite the duo on the battle field.
"Okay, fine. So, I couldn't control Scrooge, but I still have the amulet and the dime! I'll use that to finish this little farce!" Rochelle held up the amulet and the dime. Scrooge just looked at her smugly. "You mean the dime I was wearing when you abducted me?" "Yes, that dime you, geriatric fowl!" She snapped, placing the dime in the amulet and attempting to use it… it gave absolutely no response.
Magica yawned. "Are you done grandstanding yet?" "Why isn't this piece of junk working!" She screeched. "Oh, come now… surely you didn't expect to actually get your hands on Scrooge's number one so easily, did you?" Magica's grin became even more smug as she pulled the number one from inside her dress by a cord around her own neck. "WHAT?!" Rochelle sputtered. Scrooge just shrugged. "I figured that given the circumstances I would rather trust my witch than take a risk."
Rochelle's face began to turn red with anger. She was furious that they had made her look foolish at every turn, and in front of the elders no less. This had to end, now. Just before she could cast another spell, she heard Magica's taunting voice.
"Hey Rochelle," she turned to her only to see her cursed ring flying toward her, springing to life, and latching itself to her finger, causing her to start uncontrollably slapping herself in the face. "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself." Magica cackled wickedly.
"You'll-" slap! "pay-" slap! "for this!" slap! Magica just grinned evilly. "Oh, I'm terribly frightened." She and Scrooge then high-fived as she used her magic to retrieve the amulet from Rochelle, who proceeded to retreat with another loud bang and plume of smoke.
"You know, she has quite a bark but very little bite." Scrooge said, a smug and thoroughly amused grin on his face. Magica just chuckled.
"Again, I find these two together mildly questionable." Poe grinned "They're not together." Donald huffed, refusing to admit the obvious. "I certainly hope not…" Mrs. Beakley said slowly, realizing what was going on wasn't so simple as a feud anymore.
The victory against Rochelle was short lived as the elders reminded Magica of their presence and her situation.
"That was quite the show you two put on." The first elder said with brief applause. "LaQuack failed miserably and will be reprimanded for her actions when she can bring herself to return." The third elder laughed. "In the meantime, there's still the matter of your indiscretion DeSpell." The second said and all eyes were laid on Magica.
Magica stepped away from Scrooge. "Fine. But this has nothing to do with anyone else." "I'm not going anywhere." Scrooge said firmly. He remembered what happened last time they were angry with Magica and he didn't think they would settle for turning her into a fairy this time. Magica sighed. "Let me guess, no one else will leave either?"
It was pretty much unanimous that on one was going to leave Magica to her fate; surprisingly even her sisters refused to leave.
"Fine then." Magica said and then waved her hand and chanted a spell that created a barrier around everyone and Scrooge, preventing anything from entering or leaving. She turned back to the elders, removed the dime from the cord and placed it into the amulet. "Technically I have now completed my task, I'm here and I have the amulet." She said.
Scrooge felt a stinging in his heart; was she seriously going to hand over the amulet to the elder witches? Was she betraying him now? Had she really gone as far as all that had happened recently just to get the dime?
"You think that counts for anything now?" The third elder asked. "Surely you don't think that earns you any forgiveness." The second said. "You still failed and it's clear that you only stand before us with the amulet in hand because of LaQuack's actions." The first said.
Magica sighed again and gathered all her courage for what she knew she had to do next. "You still want to punish me for failure? If you had just summoned me, I would have faced my punishment willingly but instead a line was crossed. For that I will accept no punishment." She said boldly.
"Are you challenging us DeSpell?" The first elder asked incredulously. The second and third elders just laughed. "Silly little witch! What makes you think a failure like you has the right to even speak to us like that, let alone challenge us?"
"MAGICA! Are you crazy?!" Poe cried. "She's gone totally crackers!" Hexa gasped. "Have you LOST YOUR MIND?!" Castandra screeched. Winnicent just shook her head.
"Poe, I know I can trust you if I really have lost my mind." Magica said, not breaking eye contact with the elders and suddenly both Poe and Scrooge realized why she'd raised the barrier; to protect them.
She was doing this to protect them and to give everyone the chance to get away instead of getting caught in any sort of crossfire. Scrooge now felt panic, knowing Magica was likely going to get seriously hurt, or worse, and all because of him and everyone else there. Poe was also afraid for his sister but knew exactly what she wanted of him, she really meant she knew she could trust him to get everyone out if necessary, especially because Lena was there and she knew he would put his daughter's safety first, no matter what. Poe had never been a particularly evil warlock and as much as she tried to deny it, Magica wasn't really anymore evil than he was. She really picked a heck of a way to demonstrate that though.
"Lena? This is bad isn't it?" Huey whispered to Lena. She nodded. "Really bad. No one challenges the elders. Ever." "So, your Aunt is basically risking her life right now?" Webby gulped. "Yeah." Lena said quietly.
Lena scooted closer to her dad, doing her best to maintain her cool despite knowing the severity of the situation. Huey felt guilty… it didn't take a genius to figure out that Magica was trying to protect them and that the 'line' crossed was that witch Rochelle being allowed to go after them to get to Magica. He made a mental note to apologize for blaming her if things ended well.
"I stand firm." Magica said, placing the complete amulet around her neck and raising her staff. "Very well then. If, by some miracle, you are victorious against us then all will be forgiven." The first elder said. The other two nodded. Magica nodded. "Agreed."
Then the elders proceeded to attack her with powerful spells.
Magica did her best to parry and dodge the elders' attacks, while casting her own attack spells, most of which either did little or missed completely and ricocheted off the walls in the elder's cavernous domain. The battle waged on for what felt like an eternity and it was obvious that Magica was getting tired while the elders seemed to have limitless energy. Magica still continued to fight however, even after being knocked down a few times by the elders' magic.
"Why don't you just admit defeat? You're not winning this fight DeSpell." The second elder said after Magica had once again been knocked down by one of their spells. "You can't hardly even hit us, how can you expect a victory?" The first added. Magica got back to her feet and laughed. "You're assuming I intended to hit you." She smirked.
"What?" The elders questioned in unison, truly confused by her words.
Scrooge was equally confused until he noticed it; the lighting had become brighter than the sparse light provided by the torches on the walls and when he looked up he saw why, Magica's barrier was a dome and several of her spells had been lodged strategically in the top of it, illuminating the area and causing everyone to cast multiple shadows.
Magica took the amulet in her hand and it began to glow with its pale turquoise light. "Even if you use the amulet's power it still won't be enough!" The third elder snapped. Magica just continued to smirk. "I've done some research on this amulet, it's creator left several journal entries in the pages of his spell book. The amulet has no power of its own." The elders laughed. "You're more foolish than we thought DeSpell! You're lying to us!"
"No, I'm not. The amulet has no power on its own because it amplifies the user's power. I still don't know how that worked to defeat Haguk but this time I have my full power." The glow began to envelope her and she levitated above the ground as she chanted her spell and brought everyone's multiple shadows to life, sending them all after the elders.
The elders hadn't expected the swarm of shadows that just kept coming. Then the shadows of the DeSpells showered them with magical attacks. "How is that possible?!" The first elder screeched as all three of them did their best to dodge and dispel the shadows and the magical barrage. "Of course, my shadows and those of my siblings can use our magic and it's all amplified by this amulet." Magica explained as she watched the elders scramble to get the shadows under control.
Eventually they had dispelled all the shadows and stood, huffing and puffing, visibly exhausted yet not quite willing to call an end to the battle. "That was an impressive trick DeSpell but it'll take more than that." The first elder said. Magica still smirked. "Did you forget that you're casting shadows as well?" The elders slowly turned to see their own shadows standing behind them, magic crackling from shadowy fingers.
"Oh, all right! You win!" The second elder yelped. "We concede defeat! The third added. "You're forgiven, now make these shades stand down!" The first bellowed. The elders weren't stupid, they were tired enough from dealing with the first wave of shadows but their own, using their own powers against them, wasn't a fight they wanted to take on. Magica silently snickered as she returned to the ground and their shadows did the same, becoming normal shadows once more.
"So, Am I still a failure?" She asked, trying not to be too smug with the elders though she couldn't help but feel just a bit prideful over her victory. "No… in fact, with more training," The third began slowly. "Much more training," the second added begrudgingly. "You actually have the potential to join our ranks… eventually." The first admitted reluctantly. "Who would have thought that little softy was so strong…" The third muttered. "Only because she has that amulet." The second grumbled. "No, even I have to admit, it was down to her strategy. Yes, the amulet aided her but, she played well with a bad hand." The first said, still somewhat annoyed at having to compliment Magica.
"Alright, you've defeated us and won a small amount of our respect, now leave before we change our minds!" The second bellowed. Magica respectfully bowed to her mentors and then cast a transportation spell to return everyone to McDuck manor.
"Magic that was terribly reckless… and incredible!" Poe wrapped his sister in a huge hug once they were safely in Scrooge's foyer, tremendously relieved that things ended well. "Well done, Magica. I'm truly impressed. But don't EVER scare us like that again!" Hexa said, a rare smile on her face. "You actually are marvelous Magica! I'm sorry I ever doubted you!" Castandra joined Poe, turning his hug into a small group hug. "You'd better be." Magica smirked at her sister. "That was scary but really thrilling, I'm proud of you." Winnicent added.
Magica would never be able to put into words how she felt at that moment, a combination of gelatin knees about ready to give way from the exhaustion and fear she felt every moment of the fight with the elders and an overwhelming warm feeling mixed with a little ego inflation as her sisters told her how proud they were of her. She had finally vindicated herself, finally proved she wasn't a failure. Then the need for air as she suddenly felt dizzy and those aforementioned knees gave in.
Poe helped her to the nearest seat as best he could and used his magic to conjure a glass of water from the kitchen. "Are you okay?" He asked as she drank the water down. "Yes, I'm fine, just really tired." She finished the water. "Is everyone else okay?" She asked, looking around the room, eyes landing on Scrooge. Then she felt a soft hug and looked down. Huey was hugging her for the third time. "I'm sorry I blamed you what happened. Thank you for everything you did!" He kept thanking her and she softly chuckled. "I suppose you brats have grown on me."
Then Scrooge stepped up. "Thank you. But I agree with your sister, don't do something that reckless again!" He snapped. "I just risked my neck to protect you and that's how you thank me?" She snapped back. "Well it was my dime that boosted your powers." "Exactly; don't think the irony of that is lost on me Scrooge." Their smiles gave them away, and no one was going to ruin the moment, instead Huey let go and Scrooge helped Magica to her feet and to the room she'd been staying in so she could rest; and stole a few small, sweet kisses once away from prying eyes.