Disclaimer: Sorry for the slow update. I've got a midterm next week, two labs, and one assignment all in the same class this week. While they're all done now, it took forever to finish them. Seeing how I've got not much time to write, and I'm making this up as I go, future chapters might take a while.

RainbowCelin: Good guess, but I'm pretty sure he's older than mid-50's. Much, much older than that. And… my plush! Get your own demonic triangle overlord!

ultima-owner: Older, definitely.

kakashiluckyblackcat: Episodes, you mean. Hard to have a favorite with only nine released so far.

twilight-sweden: Well, she can't possibly hang around Scrooge all day.

Jarjaxle: That's my profile picture. While I try to have personalized covers for each of my stories, I haven't made one for this yet. So, what you thought was April was Mini Angel. As for what you're thinking with the pairing, I am not confirming nor denying anything. Right now, it's more of an older brother and younger sister relationship. What you're suggesting is still being thrown about in the land of wacky ideas inside my head. Daisy Duck won't make an appearance, and for the age thing… (shrugs).

DaSaVage: Webby would be around the same age as the triplets, but maybe a few months younger. Scrooge couldn't be 75 if it was 75 years when he tried to climb the mountain. Which means… I'm going to make it a running gag on the duck's age!

WolfGirl01: It was an idea I came up with at the last minute. Figured, why not? Yeah, Louie's crush is going to be a running gag. It'll probably play an important role in an episode in the future. Donald and April? There's going to be lots of teasing and insults thrown around.

snake screamer: I already knew all of that, actually. This chapter will be split between Louie, and Dewey and Webby trying to figure out the boys' mother's history.

grapejuice101: I wasn't around for the original, and I can't find it anywhere online. Plus, the reboot reminds me of Gravity Falls, which is my main fandom.

"Speaking"

Thinking

"Reading"

"April. April, are you in there? It's me, Dewey. Can I come in?"

"Oh. Sure. Just, uh, watch your step."

The door to my room swung open, and Dewey looked around. "Why would I need to-whoa." The boy certainly had caught me at an interesting time. Pictures and documents were scattered across the floor, over my desk and window seat, and all over my bed. Dewey looked at the floor, and carefully began to traverse over the maze I ended up creating. "What's going on here?"

"Personal and business work. I'm trying to deal with your uncle's finances, while doing some of my own while I'm at it. Taxes and paying your employees are a real pain in the tail feathers." Dewey nodded, and picked up one of the images. "As for the photos, that's uh… personal reasons." I knew which photo he grabbed. It was an image of myself when I was younger, perhaps his age, playing in the yard with my mom. Dewey's face smiled sadly, and he handed it back to me.

"April, can I ask you something?" Well, you just did, but sure. I nodded, and he took a breath. "What do you know about my mom?"

"I… I'm so sorry, Dewey. I am about as clueless as you are. Whatever happened with your uncles and your mom was before I started working for Scrooge. I never even knew he had more nephews until Donald showed up. But," I stood up, stretching my back. "But I believe I know just the person to go for answers."

"Really? Then let's go!" Maneuvering back to the door, I took the lead in heading off down the hall. "Ten years, huh? So, you'd have started working at 15."

"Yep. Pay's good, and I get food and a roof over my head. Scrooge was welcoming when he took me in, and Mrs. Beakley and him showed me the ropes." Sure, the guy had his... moments, but he wasn't as bad as Donald kept saying. Under his breath. A lot. Dewey paused for a moment in thought, and quickly jogged to catch up.

"April, are you… are you an orphan?" There it was. Only a matter of time before one of them pieced it together. Breathing deeply through clenched teeth, I nodded as I stopped in front of the door we needed.

"Once we're through with you, I'll tell you, okay?" The response seemed to satisfy him, and I opened the door. "Hey, Webby! You in here? We need your disturbing knowledge of the McDuck family!" We moved to stand in the middle of the room, looking around for said girl.

"Why didn't you say so?" Webby dropped down from the top of a bookshelf, holding a red notebook covered in glitter. "What are you looking for, Dewey? Shoe sizes? Dark secrets known only to your Uncle Scrooge that could change the fate of the world as we know it?" No, but I wouldn't mind hearing those down the road.

"What do you know about my mom?" Webby gasped, and she hurried to close the window's curtain and close the door behind us.

"What do you know about your mom?" She asked. That's what I would like to know. If my age guessing was right, the triplets would have been months old when they were put into Donald's custody. Did… did they even have memories of their mom?

"Uncle Donald just told us she was… gone. The only thing we have of her is this photo." I moved to look at the image myself, and smiled. It was of a laughing Della shoving Donald, then in a blue sailor suit, into a pink frosted cake.

"Photographic evidence! I've gotta add it to my Della Duck file." She took the picture, and pulled out a file from the bookshelf. Sticking it in, Dewey took it from her to look for himself.

"You have a whole file on my mom?" He opened it, and we both frowned. It was only the picture. Nothing else. No papers, or images. Nothing. "Seriously? This is it?"

"I've been looking into her for years, but there's nothing," Webby explained. "No photos, no records. No on even talks about her. One time, a piece of junk mail with her name on it showed up at our door, and a day later, Scrooge bought the post office, and I never saw our mailman again." I stared at the family tree she created, and the question mark drawn above Della's name.

"I can vouch for that," I added. "I never knew about Donald having a sister, but from what I'm getting here is bad things happen to people who talk about your mother."

"So who are we gonna ask?" Dewey asked. Webby's face melted into a sly smirk, and she gestured for us to follow her.

"Your uncle has a meeting today at his money bin. Where we're going, we're going to have to tag along for the limo ride." She looked to me, and I picked up where she left off. If I'm correct, I know just who she's talking about.

"The building is home to your family's archives. Everything and anything you want to know is located right there. Webby, and myself included on the rare occasion, have tried to check it out, but the librarian wouldn't let us pass." The woman was downright terrifying with that sword of hers. The first time I went down there, she tore a good chunk out of my jacket. "She won't let anyone who isn't related to Scrooge inside."

"I see what you're laying down," Dewey smirked. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go find Uncle Scrooge!"

(Time Skip)

"You have arrived at your destination." I… hate… this! Scrooge, I swear, you need a better driver! Launchpad had rammed into one of the columns in the parking area under the money bin, crushing the front against the cement. Scrooge, not bothered by this in the slightest, opened the door and let us and Louie out. Huey, for some odd reason, didn't come along. To be honest, I wasn't sure why the green triplet was coming with. With how he kept looking at Scrooge, I had a feeling there was a lesson going on.

"Be back at 6, Launchpad," Scrooge told him. "We've got a long, hard day of work ahead of us." Louie was rubbing the back of his head, still sore from the impact of the crash. Groaning under his breath at his uncle's words, he looked to the ground depressingly. Gee, what's up with him?

"Gotcha, Mr. McD." Launchpad backed out of the area, with the front having popped up to reveal the engine block.

"I'll… I'll message him and let him know," I informed Scrooge.

"Thanks for letting us tag along, Uncle Scrooge, but… I… suddenly very much have to use the bathroom." Dewey backed up, glancing at me and Webby slyly.

"Oh, and we will show you where to go to that place." Taking his hand, Webby dragged him off towards the stairs behind us, and I glanced back at my boss.

"Am I needed, Scrooge? Dewey and Webby sort of had something planned with me today." Scrooge nodded, and rested a hand on Louie's shoulder.

"The lad is going to be learning about business today. Seein' how you've started workin' a few years his senior, why don't you come along and show him the ropes?" Louie gave me a hopeful look, silently asking for me not to leave him alone all day.

"Alright," I relented. "I'll message them and tell them I'll join up later. Let's go." The three of us headed towards the elevator across from the stairs, and Scrooge pressed the button to bring us up to the floor. Taking out my phone, I quickly sent a text to Webby. Well… more like I texted Dewey. Webby didn't own a phone, and while we were in the limo, Dewey came up with the idea that I should have his contact information in case something happened. Louie had a phone on him, so I got his number too. Huey's I had to get from them, and I also got Donald's while I was at it.

The elevator door opened, and Scrooge and me directed Louie across the large waiting area. A globe was standing beside the office desk, with a series of mailing tubes coming down from the ceiling. One of the tubes delivered several documents, and I scooped it up to crack it open. "This is what I do, kid. Run errands, make appointments, deal with finances. As an assistant, I do many jobs, and see many things. It's difficult, but it's certainly rewarding." So, yes, this was actually where I worked when I came to the bin. Scrooge gave a pleased smile, and Louie was watching the room in fascination. A huge painting of Scrooge in working clothes hung behind the desk, with two other workers beside him. We were almost to the other side of the room when he finally caught sight of the money bin. Why Scrooge decided to have the office right in front of the door, I don't really know… or why the door was left open, anyway.

"The money!" Louie gasped, running over to get a better look. "You want me to count the gold? Can we go out and spend some gold to make sure it doesn't expire?" Scrooge walked over to him, shaking his head.

"There's more to money than just money." Grabbing his hoodie, he dragged the nephew over to a pedestal by the wall. Ah, the number one dime. Don't you just love a decoy? "Gold is a beautiful thing, but even something as small as a dime can have meaning." Personally, I loved this story. That simple coin was the inspiration for him to find his fortune, and for him to hire me. I never got tired of hearing it. "For instance-" Scrooge stopped short, seeing Louie had run off to the money bin again. He beat me to the door, and managed to catch Louie before he dove off the platform. "Are you out of your head? You'll crack your skull open."

"But you swim in money all the time," Louie protested.

"Yes, but I worked hard to prefect that skill, building muscles and dexterity." He had a point. Not anyone could pull it off. I've at least gone down the ladder to check it out myself. It's… there's a lot of air in that pile, but it's pretty hard to pull it off. You'd have to have a good amount of lung capacity before you dive, and be able to go deep enough through the coins to consider it a dive. "If you want something, you work hard to get it." My phone gave a buzz, and I quickly checked it.

"Scrooge, the board is here to see you now." Confused, Scrooge took out a pocket watch, checking the time.

"We don't have a board meeting today. No matter. Come, lad. Welcome to the fast-paced world of business."

(Time Skip)

Business meetings: love, and extremely despise them with a passion of a thousand burning suns. Those vultures-figuratively and literally-tried to cut costs in everything Scrooge does. The three birds sat at the far end of the table in the board room, gesturing to the charts put up behind them on the wall. Scrooge and me listened while Louie looked close to falling asleep. I had my notebook out, jotting down a summary of key points they were making. Revenues going down in international markets. But, what else is ne-?

"Shut up, everyone. I've done something brilliant." The door right beside me burst open, and a chicken came barging in with a box in his arms.

"G-Gyro!" I cried, holding the table with a death grip in one hand, and gripping my notebook with the other. "Give a little warning next time!"

"Sorry, April," he quickly said, dismissing me. Louie climbed back into his chair, having fallen out of it, and Scrooge visibly relaxed once he saw who it was.

"Ah, Gyro. Gyro Gearloose, my head of research and development," he introduced the man to Louie.

"I'm sorry, but we-" one of the vultures tried to explain that they were in a matter of business, but Gyro waved him off.

"Apology accepted. Now try to keep up with my mind-numbing genius." Gyro Gearloose. He's… I, uh, don't really know what to call him. He's certainly a nerd, as that is to be expected with his department. But he's pretty fun to be around. Whenever I went on break, I'd make sure the inventor had something to eat and actually rested in between his planning and testing. Gyro could be down there for ages, completely swamped with an idea that had gone overboard, and be there for days.

"Gyro, what did we say about interacting with other people?" Scrooge asked. Yeah, also should mention that Scrooge and me were the only people who could have a proper conversation with him. To others, he made them feel lower and more slow-minded.

"The cards. Fine," Gyro grumbled, pulling them out of his brown vest. "Hello, Mr. McDuck, and others. Are you tired of all those single-use gadgets cluttering up your junk drawer? What a mess. There's got to be a better way." He sat down the box in the middle of the long table, and pulled out a light bulb with a robot body. "Meet Li'l Bulb, the tiny, all-purpose robot that does it all." The robot waved at the businessmen, and I grinned at how adorable it was.

"Wait, what does it do?" The lead vulture asked, looking from it to him.

"It all." Gyro slapped a hand to his forehead in exasperation. "Li'l Bulb is an artifcially intelligent personal robot helper. He can make toast-" Gyro held out a piece of bread, and the robot burnt it with its head-"find your keys"-the robot then jumped at one of the men, and pulled out his keys-"serve as a book light for your late-night reading." The robot then got extremely bright, blinding the three. "You'll never have to do anything yourself again."

"Mm-hmm. And how do you ensure this one won't achieve sentience and turn evil like all the others?" The leader asked, as they all rubbed their eyes, blinking back spots.

"Only half my inventions turn evil. The other half are just wildly misunderstood." Li'l Bulb made several motions to the vulture, and while I couldn't tell what they were, I doubted they were pleasant.

"What's it doing?"

"Waving. It likes you." Gyro picked up the robot, letting it stand on his hand. The three men exchanged a look, and turned to him.

"Request denied." Gyro sighed, sitting the robot back into the box, and headed for the door. Scrooge got out of his chair, and held it open for him. I frowned, and leaned closer to him as he went past.

"Well, I think Li'l Bulb's pretty great," I whispered.

"Li'l Bulb is something great," Gyro muttered, and flashed me a small smile before scowling again. "I'll show them. I'll show them all!"

"And maybe wait until you're out of the room to say that next time," Scrooge added, closing it behind the chicken. Moving back to his seat, Louie leaned towards him.

"A robot that does everything for you? How could you say no to that?"

"Part of hard work is knowing how to work with others. My board are the only people cheaper than I am. I trust them completely to make good financial decisions-"

"Indeed," the main bird interrupted him. "Which is why we've called this meeting to discuss cutting your unnecessary spending here at the Money Bin,"

"Unnecessary!? I'm Scrooge McDuck. I don't spend one penny more than I need to." Scrooge stood up from his seat, flabbergasted at the accusation.

"It says here you're spending 15 million dollars on magical defense." It's an extremely practical purchase! I've seen why we needed them, and it's sound investment!

"Do you have any idea how many vengeance curses I have on my head?" He sat down in a huff, and I winced at the building tension. Louie seemed to see it too, and slid out of his chair.

"Think I'm just gonna go and, uh… get a drink. Yeah." He went out the door on the other side of Scrooge, leaving us to the meeting. The vultures shuffled through the files in their hands, and I leaned back against my chair, breathing deeply. Man, I hate these meetings.

"Be that as it may," the head bird continued. "Perhaps eliminating redundant employees would be more suitable." He cast a look at me, and I hardened my own gaze.

"As you well know, I was hired to fulfill the position of a personal assistance and secretary. Something Mr. McDuck did not have at the time. True, it may not be essential, but he hired me on his own decision. If I am to leave, it will be by his choice. Without me, this place would not run as smoothly as it does now." Gripping my pen and paper in my fist, I was certain I was going to break the ink cartridge at any second. "If you will excuse me, I have to go attend to my boss' other nephew and my friend, who no doubt have stumbled into trouble at this point." With that as my last word, I got up, and exited the door Gyro took.

Yeah, this happened a lot. More than I could count, actually. It was exceedingly worse when I was younger, but I had grown used to it. Oh, just because you're the board, you think you know everything! NOT! That magical defense Scrooge was talking about had proved useful at most ten times since I've been here. Protective barriers, spells, and charms kept every possible evil creature out. "Ugh, I need to punch something!"

"April?" Stopping, I turned to see Louie walking up to me, a can of Pep in hand. "Something wrong?"

"N-nothing, Louie. Just need to go check on your brother and Webby. And… and take a bit of a breather. I really hate the board." I'm mentally drained too. Maybe the kid was on to something with the drink break. "Just be on your toes when you go back in there. Your uncle looks like he's about to blow a fuse."

"We don't have toes. We're ducks," Louie chuckled. "But I'll take you up on that advice. See you, April." With a wink, the triplet walked past me towards the door I had left. Still need to discuss that flirt thing with Donald. Heading to the elevator, I pulled out my phone to message Dewey while I waited for it to come to my level.

"Wonder how they're doing," I muttered, seeing the three dots showing a reply was coming. With a ding, the message appeared, and I blinked in confusion. "Seriously? Dewey, what did you do to make her bring out the sword?" She only did that to prevent Webby and me-sometimes, usually it's just her-from getting inside. He must have really annoyed the librarian. The doors opened up, and I stepped into the elevator. "Basement, here I come." It took a while to get to the right floor. I had to switch out at one point when Gyro got in, as he was heading to another floor entirely. With a smile and a quick excuse, I filed out and went to the stairwell instead.

The ground shook above me, as I took the next few flights downwards, and I bet it had something to do with Li'l Bulb. His inventions... not always the greatest, but they were fun to be around when they weren't trying to kill you. I didn't trust the elevator anymore, and took the stairs all the way down to the lower level where the archives were. Stepping out through the door, and checking my surroundings carefully, I began maneuvering through the halls to the archive room. So far so good. Everything would have been fine, until the ground to begin to rumble under my webbed feet. "What the-HOLY!" Diving back against the wall, Louie and a giant robot came barreling past me, and broke down the archive doors. "… seriously!?" Gyro, why can't you build something that won't go mad and try to destroy us!? As fast as they entered, the boy slid back out from under the machine's legs, and continued down the hall. The robot backed up, and stormed after him, leaving cracks in the tiled floor from its weight. Breathing deeply, I straightened myself back up, and headed to the hole in the wall. "Kids? Dewey? Webby, are you both alright?"

Seeing that the two are still running from Quackfaster, and throwing books at her, I'd say no. "Don't come any closer, or the book gets it," I heard Dewey shout from the back of the room. "I will crease this corner, man, so back off. Tell me about my mom."

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Quackfaster asked. Heading into the room, I looked around each bookshelf, searching for the three as they talked.

"This is it. This is it! This is… nothing." What was nothing? What did they find?

"Wait. I've seen that number before. Follow me." Webby and Dewey ran out from a row of books ahead of me, and the girl grabbed my wrist as they went past. "We got a lead. Come on." Running to another area of the archives, we came to a stop in a corner with a panel on the wall. "I don't understand. It should be here somewhere."

"W-wait. These books. They're all out of order." Dewey looked at the shelves on either side, and I saw he was right. But… why would they be out of order, unless…? "Quackfaster's a lot of things, but she's not sloppy."

"Use your training. The most valuable knowledge must be learned," Quackfaster's voice echoed from within the room.

"Okay, how much of this is about us doing your work for you?" Dewey asked, clearly annoyed by her antics.

"About fifty percent." Figures. The three of us nodded, and we split up to reorganize the books. I took to the higher shelves, while the kids got the lower ones. While I wasn't one for library cataloging, my skills with organization I had picked up as an assistant surely was paying off here. Hopping down from a ladder, I watched as Dewey put in the last book, and a bright blue light lit up around the book, coming down the shelf and leading straight to the panel on the wall. Did we… trigger something? That was not normal, was it?

The panel lowered, revealing a hand scanner inside. Webby and me backed off, letting Dewey approach with an outstretched palm. "O-okay, here goes. Ow!" He yanked his hand back, and we saw a needle had come up from the index finger. Shaking his hand, he looked at us. "What is up with this stupid library?"

"McDuck family DNA recognized." Freezing at the computer voice coming from the panel, we stepped back as the wall began to split apart, and open into another room. "Whoa," the three of us breathed. The ceiling was painted like the night sky, with mountains and ancient architecture surrounding the crescent moon. Lowering our gaze, we saw dozens upon dozens of artifacts mounted and displayed around the cerulean room. Webby brought out her camera, and began clicking away as fast as she could.

"Mom." Glancing at Dewey's saddened face, I looked up to see him staring at a portrait of Della on the wall above us. Still in her pilot's gear, standing atop of a plane with a happy expression on her face. "But why would this stuff be hidden? I gotta show Huey and Louie."

"Wait. What's this?" Webby pointed at a frame hanging on the wall, with a note written in cursive stuck inside.

"Scrooge, I've taken the Spear of Selene. I'm sorry, Della." The Spear of… that's the thing Donald was arguing about with Scrooge in the temple. How… Scrooge was not responsible for what happened. Did… did Scrooge have anything to do with Della's disappearance? "Wait, what did she take? Why is she sorry?"

"It's the same thing your uncles were arguing about in Atlantis," I murmured, ignoring the two turning away from the paper. I stared at the note, confused. "Whatever happened with your mom… Scrooge and Donald had a role in it."

"Did she betray your Uncle Scrooge?" Webby asked, baffled. Dewey, conflicted with the discovery, gave her a firm shake of his head.

"I dunno. But we can't tell anyone about this until we find out what it means." Webby nodded, and I quickly pulled out my notebook. I need to remember this. I need to. Furiously scribbling down the words on a fresh page, I snapped it shut and turned to them.

"Let's go, guys. I-I think we've had enough excitement for one day."

Sending a quick message to Scrooge to alert him that we were done, we headed to the parking garage. The meeting actually was let out early, probably due to the robot rampage. Whatever it was, he had already called Launchpad to come and get us early. Louie and Scrooge came out of the elevator just as we came up the stairs. Louie seemed… more depressed than when I last saw him. What's eating him? Looking to my boss, Scrooge fished in his coat, and flashed the chain around his neck for me to see. The lucky dime, huh? Why do I get the feeling this involved the decoy dime and the robot that was right on his back?

"Something wrong, Louie?" I finally spoke, drawing his attention. "Long day of work, huh?" Louie sighed, sticking his hands into his hoodie and nodded glumly. "The stress of what we do is exhausting, but it's worthwhile. How much something so small, can mean so much." Grinning, I fished into my jacket's pocket, the one not holding my notebook, and pulled out my wallet. "You deserve this." Flicking my fingers, I sent the coin flying through the air and into his hands. Catching it, he stared at it in shock. "Don't go wasting it, alright?"

"I'll treasure it forever," Louie said in aw, gripping it tightly. Sticking the pocketbook away, I laughed at his answer.

"That's what I like to hear." The limo pulled up beside us, and I opened the door. "Alright, kids. We've had a long and tiring day, but I think we all deserve a treat. How about ice cream on the way home?" Louie, Webby, and Dewey whooped loudly at my offer, and scrambled into the car. Scrooge chuckled, patting my shoulder. Nothing more was said between us. The smile was all I needed to tell I did a good thing, giving the boy the coin. What can I say? Hehe. I learned from the best.

I've been busy. As much as I love working on stories, school always comes first. Unfortunately, I have a midterm next week, so the next chapter should be delayed as well.

See you all soon!

Angel