The goons were pinning her down again and she drew breath to scream, but nothing came out. She kicked and her legs wouldn't move. Her body didn't respond to any commands and she was powerless to prevent them from attacking her again and again. She could feel them within her and she screamed, curling into a ball and begging them to stop. She hated what she'd been reduced to, this pathetic child. Sobs choked her and she woke up, staring flat at the ceiling and feeling more exhausted than she'd been when she'd attempted sleep.

"Man, your dreams must be pretty intense," a familiar voice said and Webby turned toward it. Lena! The older girl was perched on the end of her bed and looked somber.

"You talk in your sleep," Lena continued and Webby froze.

"I already know what they did. They were bragging about it." There was a thinly disguised rage beneath her tone and Webby wondered what she'd done to them. Yet Lena's hands were clean (or could she have washed them?) and although the teenager seemed ill at ease, she wasn't fidgeting like someone who had just committed murder.

"So, you know, then," Webby said and her voice sounded flat and unemotional. "You know what they did to me."

"Not all the lurid details, but yeah, I do," Lena confirmed and Webby turned her head. She couldn't bring herself to look at her friend right now. Maybe not ever. The thought that someone she cared about and loved knew what had happened to her, exactly what had happened, twisted her stomach. Scrooge probably had suspicions, but if he knew too? She didn't know how she'd face him either.

"I guess you don't want to be around me anymore, then," Webby said and waved a hand at the door. "It's okay. I understand. I don't wanna be around me either."

"The only reason they didn't attack me the same way when I was your age was that Aunt Magica wouldn't let them. Aunt Magica needed me alive to get her body back. It wasn't some altruistic thing."

Webby's throat was tight and she didn't trust herself to speak. Lena moved closer to her on the bed and Webby shifted position so she could fend her off. The idea was laughable-she wouldn't really hit Lena-but she felt a little better knowing she could at least defend herself here.

"I'm not attacking you, Webby."

"Why are you really here, then, huh?" she countered, feeling nauseated and full of vitriol. "Here to propagate Magica's message again? To-"

Lena put a finger to Webby's beak.

"If I were here to do that, I would have done it earlier, hours ago, rather than hugging you," she pointed out. "And before you say it, it was not so you would lower your guard against me. You know why I'm here and why I came back."

To Lena's credit, her voice was gentle and intended to calm Webby's shattered nerves.

"I found them so I could identify them and Scrooge can nab them later," she said. "Then I returned here to check up on you."

"I don't need checking up on," Webby huffed. She felt like her younger self, a girl wearing a pink dress and a pink bow. She'd worked so hard to eradicate that image of herself as a weakling and whiny. And she couldn't push away the triplets, because they lived here. But Lena didn't. Lena could be forced to the side.

"And you're not having any problems sleeping, either," Lena commented.

Webby folded her arms across her chest. "Since when do you ninja around McDuck Manor?"

"Scrooge knows I'm here," she said. "He never went to bed."

Webby's stomach tied itself into further knots. Scrooge hadn't slept because of her. On the plus side, she hadn't known he cared that much about her. On the minus...she hadn't really wanted this to be the reason why. She felt weak like this was her fault. She should have known better. She should have been able to protect herself.

"Oh."

"You don't want me to see you because you're ashamed of what happened," Lena said. "I get that. I understand where you're coming from, even if I didn't go through the same thing. You feel alone and you want to be alone because you're scared and you hate yourself for it happening. I get all of that."

Bitter tears burned the corners of her eyes. No, she'd done enough crying today. She swiped at her cheeks angrily and mentally reprimanded herself. She was Webbigail VanderQuack and she was not a hatchling to cry at the smallest provocation. If she had been, her granny would've been there to comfort her. Webby's lower lip quivered and she gasped back a sob.

"Why are you staring at me?" Webby choked out.

"I don't exactly have loads of experience with crying people," Lena said, shifting uncomfortably. "You're my first real friend and any time someone was crying around me, I found out the hard way not to get involved."

"Just go away," Webby said, turning away and burying her face in her pillow.

"You know, I kissed you for a reason," Lena continued, ignoring her. "And it wasn't to get kicked out of your room."

"That was before you knew what happened," she muttered.

"No, it wasn't. I knew as soon as we found you what had happened," Lena said and flinched. "Sorry. I've seen it enough times."

"Why didn't you try harder to stop me?"

"You were running pretty fast," Lena said dryly. "And you really didn't want to be caught."

"This was probably why Granny didn't want me out of the house," Webby said in a broken voice. "She knew this would happen."

"I doubt that was the reason specifically," Lena said. She leaned forward and although Webby didn't move closer to her, she also didn't push her away. She was powerless to stop the tears slipping down her cheeks and kept her face buried in the pillow. It was easier to talk to her when she didn't have to face her.

"What do you know?" she huffed, muffled thanks to the pillow. "Your aunt killed my grandmother."

"I'm not disputing that," she said and then sighed. "Fine. I'll go. But maybe you ought to take something to sleep. I'm sure there's a sleeping cordial around here. Otherwise, you're just gonna keep having nightmares."

"I know where Uncle Scrooge keeps them," she muttered. Lena's weight left the bed and Webby's heart wrenched. She ought to tell her to come back. Instead, she watched Lena move toward the doorway. The older girl looked back once before disappearing from sight.

She huffed again and threw her pillow over her head. Even when she wasn't sleeping, she could feel the thugs violating her. It was like the motion was stuck in her head on a loop. She wanted to scream. How were you supposed to get these things out and return to normal?

Throwing the pillow aside, she shuffled over to the door. Lena, to her surprise, was lingering in the hallway.

"I knew you'd come out."

"I...I might've said some things that I shouldn't have…" Webby admitted.

Lena shrugged. "Let's go see your uncle."

"You're not upset?" she asked, surprised. She moved to Lena's side and the two of them headed for Scrooge's office.

"Compared to what I've been through, that was tame," she said. "Besides, you didn't really mean it."

Webby resisted the urge to fidget while she walked. It was on the tip of her tongue to admit something embarrassing, like that she'd had a crush on Lena ever since they'd met. Between the lack of sleep and tonight's trauma, she wasn't sure how well she could curb her tongue.

"You know…" Webby said and cursed herself. So much for resisting impulses. "I've kinda had a crush on you for ages now."

"I know," Lena said and smiled. "You weren't exactly subtle about it."

"How long have you known?" she asked.

"Since we met," she said. "Like I said, you're not subtle."

"And you still want to hang around me? Even after what happened? And this? And, you know, the whole your aunt killed my granny thing?"

"I'm not Aunt Magica and you're not Mrs. Beakley," Lena pointed out. "And I'd never hold it against you something that wasn't your fault."

"Did you mean to kiss me earlier? Or was that an accident?"

"Do you mean did I mean to lean over and kiss you on the cheek in front of three boys who are doubtlessly planning to tease you unmercifully in the morning, if one or more aren't jealous?" Lena asked and raised her eyebrows. "Are you asking if I tripped and fell on your cheek with my beak?"

"When you put it that way, it sounds kinda silly," she admitted, blushing.

"You've never been kissed before, have you? No, wait. You haven't even had a hamburger. There's no way you've been kissed before."

Webby folded her arms across her chest again. "I'll have you know that I was just waiting for someone to kiss me."

"So you were waiting for me?" Lena countered.

"Yes. No. I mean, maybe. I mean...argh!" she said.

Lena was still smiling and Webby glared. Still, she couldn't maintain the irritation and her expression melted back into her normal, calm one. She'd forgotten again what she was so upset about. How was that possible? How did Lena do that?

They arrived at the door and Lena knocked. Uncle Scrooge bade them enter and seemed unsurprised to see Webby still awake. He patted the chairs in front of his desk.

"I assume you went to see Webby before coming to see me," Scrooge said.

Lena shrugged. "She was having nightmares."

Webby huffed. The sensations behind the nightmares lingered and she clamped her beak shut on another scream. How was it possible that hours later, she could still feel them moving inside of her?

"It's okay, lass," Scrooge said, bringing her attention to him although she felt like she wasn't all there. It felt like she'd been disconnected from her body and she was floating somewhere in space.

"They're hiding out in the abandoned subway tunnels beneath the town," Lena said, looking at Webby with a frown. "Webby?"

"I'm fine," she said, but her voice felt like it was coming from somewhere else.

"Maybe you ought to go watch some TV. That might take your mind off things," Uncle Scrooge suggested.

"I'm fine," she huffed.

Lena frowned but didn't press the matter. Thankfully, Scrooge didn't either, but he looked concerned.

"Think they'll be down there a while?"

"That's where their base seems to be, yeah," Lena agreed.

"Then I'll see what I can do about them," he said and his expression turned dark. His eyes flashed with anger and hatred and Webby was distantly alarmed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Uncle Scrooge that furious. It was alarming.

"Go ahead," he said. "I have work to do. Calls to make. I'll speak to you two later."

Webby followed Lena out while feeling the same depersonalization she'd had before. It was kinda nice in a way. It was like floating on air, except not quite. She led Lena to the TV room and let her pick something to watch. At least in this state, she couldn't feel connected to what had happened. It had all happened to someone else, someone far, far away.

Lena fell asleep before Webby did. Webby stared at the TV screen for hours without really seeing anything. If she pinched herself, it hurt, which was weird when she didn't feel connected to her body. She wished she could've done this earlier when they'd attacked her at gunpoint.

What bugged her too was that if it had been anything else, like knives, she could've fought it off. She'd dealt with a woman with a sword before. True, the odds had been in her favor, along with Huey, Louie, and Launchpad. It'd been three against four. This time, it'd only been her and four armed assailants. But even so...she should've been able to do something.

She banged her head lightly against the back of the sofa. She didn't want to wake Lena. All of that training and it all flew out the window. Yeah, okay, so she'd managed to nearly unman someone and had probably broken a very important part of his body. And yeah, she'd gotten a few licks in too. But they'd still violated her. She balled her fists and huffed, wishing she could do something, anything, just to get it out of her head for five minutes.

She left Lena alone and drifted through the house. Fatigued but too tired to sleep, she dragged her feet. She was sure if Scrooge or any of the others knew she was awake, they'd order her to sleep. Well, maybe not Launchpad. She wasn't even sure where he slept if he didn't have his own pad.

What she could really use was her grandmother. Webby sighed, sinking to her knees and balling a fist against her thigh. She wasn't going to get what she needed, though. Maybe if she could just pass out for a few hours, that'd be acceptable.


She doubted she'd get that either.

"Webby?" Huey asked, waving a hand in front of her face. "Uh, Webs?"

"Weird," Louie said. "It's like she sees us but there's nothing going on in there."

"You okay?" Dewey asked.

"She's just staring at the wall," Huey remarked. "What happened after we went to bed?"

"It doesn't look like she did," Louie observed. "She looks like she's been up all night and frozen in that position."

"1942!" Webby cried and then bolted upright, staring around her in alarm. "What? Where am I? What's going on?"

"You fell asleep with your eyes open?" Louie exclaimed. "How is that even possible?"

"Can't...relax my guard…" Webby gasped. "What if something else happens?"

"The only thing that's going to happen is us taking you to your bed because you clearly need restful sleep," Huey said.

"I had sleep," she said defensively, but her voice was weak and drained.

"Uh huh," Louie said, not buying it. "Then what's 1942 about, huh?"

"Uh…" Webby faltered. "Hang on, it'll come back to me."

She yelped when the triplets grabbed her and hauled her back to her room. "C'mon, guys! I'm fine! I swear!"

"You'll be fine once you get some sleep," Huey said.

"I can't sleep," she protested. "It just keeps happening again and again when I fall asleep. You don't know. You weren't there. You didn't feel them."

"Hold up a sec," Dewey said. "What exactly happened?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," she said, turning her head away.

"You can't start a sentence like that and then not tell us," Louie protested.

"I said I don't want to talk about it, okay?" she growled. "Scrooge knows and Lena knows and that's two more people than I wanted to know in the first place!"

"You told Lena but not us?" Huey gasped.

"I didn't tell her anything," Webby said, exhausted. "She found out when she tracked the Bloodhound Gang down. They were bragging about it."

"Oh. Well, that's different," Huey said and frowned. "You know you can tell us anything, right? We're your best friends."

"Guys, I appreciate it, but...no, I can't," she said and sighed. "I'll be okay. I can walk the rest of the way. You don't have to keep following me around like I'll fall apart."

"If you say so…" Huey said, but he didn't believe her. His brothers didn't either. Webby lowered her head and let them guide her back to her room. Huey didn't think she'd stay there long. Maybe they needed to post a guard. How could Lena know but not them? He felt betrayed by that, even if Lena had found out through bragging rather than from Webby.

And how could Webby not tell them? What was so painful that she had to keep it secret? She never kept secrets. She was normally so open and excited. Ever since Magica had attacked Mrs. Beakley, it was like the light had died in Webby's eyes.


They were reluctant to ask Uncle Scrooge what had happened with Webby. It had taken a while for things to resume any sense of normalcy after the Spear of Silene incident and no one wanted to rock the boat. The only other person to ask would've been Lena and so the teenager awoke to discover the triplets staring at her. She jumped, reaching for the amulet she no longer possessed, and her fingers twitched like she wanted to attack someone. Huey noticed that one of her hands had gone down to a blade strapped to her leg.

"Hey," Huey said, putting his hands up, as did his brothers. "Calm down. We just wanted to ask a few questions."

Lena's eyes narrowed. "You want to know what happened to Webby."

"Well, duh," Louie said. "We also want to know why you're still allowed in the manor, but we'll start with the other thing first."

"I'm still Webby's friend," Lena said and her eyes flashed. "That's for starters. And to answer your second non-question, I'm not telling you because it's not my secret to tell. It's Webby's. And if she doesn't want to tell you, then she has a right to keep it to herself."

"At least tell us what the Bloodhound Gang said," Louie snapped.

"No," Lena retorted, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm not saying anything. You can ask all you want, but I'm not responding."

"What about a hint?" Dewey asked and Lena's eyes flashed again warningly. She jumped to her feet and if looks could kill, the middle triplet would've been incinerated. Huey could literally feel the rage coming off her and he stepped back, apprehensive.

"Here's a hint," she snapped back. "Stop asking."

"If something happened to us, we'd tell Webby," Louie protested.

"Not if something like this happened," Lena countered.

"How would we know if you won't tell us?" Louie retorted.

"Guys," Huey said. "Leave it alone for now."

"No," Louie huffed. "I want to know what she knows that we're not allowed to."

Lena's gaze seared through them and Dewey likewise took a step back. Huey really thought they ought to let the matter drop, at least for now. It was clear Lena was disinclined to tell them anything and after the debacle with Scrooge, creating more rifts wasn't a great idea. They were lucky to be back in the manor after everything that had happened.

Yet Louie persisted. He met Lena's glare head-on.

"Why did you kiss her?" Louie asked, a pained note in his voice.

Lena shrugged; the rage remained simmering in her gaze, but she played it off like it was nothing. "Don't you normally kiss girls you like?"

Whatever she expected, it wasn't the explosion that came next. The triplets started talking all at once, talking over each other, and, admittedly, making it impossible to follow who was saying what in what order.

"-you think you can just waltz right in here and steal Webby's heart-"

"-what gives you the right-"

"-she doesn't even like you like that!"

Lena raised her eyebrows. "That's for Webby to decide, isn't it? Not you three."

"You're not even-you don't even live here!" Louie huffed, outraged. "And we saw her first. If anything, you should be saying this to us."

"I was right," Lena said with a tight smile. "You do have a crush on her."

Louie didn't answer. He only glared. Huey's heart clenched painfully. This conversation was headed downhill at an alarming rate. He held up his hands again to forestall further argument; Louie bit off whatever else he intended to say.

"It was something bad, wasn't it?" Dewey said quietly, returning Lena's attention to him. "We saw the blood and her tattered clothes. And you and Uncle Scrooge won't talk about it, which means it's something we're not supposed to know about."

Lena's face softened slightly. "That's right. Look, I know you're all worried and concerned about Webby, but I'm not telling you anything. And I had every right to kiss her."

"No, you didn't!" Louie began hotly and Huey elbowed her in the ribs.

"You could've asked," Dewey muttered.

"Right," she said. "Well, if Webby's asleep and you three are going to give me 20 Questions, I'm going to take off."

"Where do you go?" Huey asked, curious. "When you're not here, I mean."

Lena shrugged. "I have a place."

Her tone invited no further questions and Huey didn't pursue the line of questioning. Louie and Dewey were still glaring at her as she left the room. Huey wasn't sure how he felt about Lena kissing Webby. He felt protective over Webby, especially considering what she'd been through before this had hit the fan. More than anything, he didn't want to see her hurt. But he didn't have the same feelings for Webby that his brothers had. His was more the brotherly instinct than a romantic one.

"So...how long have you had a crush on Webby?" Louie asked in a would-be casual voice.

"How long have you had a crush on Webby?" Dewey countered.

Huey facepalmed. "I'm going to go set up the video games. You guys are welcome to keep arguing or you can play games. Your choice."

It still left him with the same question, though. What was so bad that no one wanted to say it? Webby hadn't died, not like their mom and Mrs. Beakley. So, what was worse than death?