Magica laughed. "Ooooh, what a sweet little family reunion!" she said. "Won't Scrooge be happy to see you all?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Louie spotted Lena inching away from Magica and towards an alleyway. He couldn't blame her.
Magica pointed her staff at Huey and pulled him around to Dewey. "Look at me! I'm a color-coded princling, and I'm going to inherit an incomprehensible fortune simply due to being born to the right family!" Then she pointed her staff at Donald and made him jump up and down. "Ahhh! I'm the prince of all Scotland, and I can't even control my temper!"
Magica suddenly stopped and let the ducks droop like marionettes at rest as something caught her eye.
"Oh, no, you don't!" she said and pointed her staff at Lena where she'd nearly disappeared into that alleyway.
Louie's heart seized.
Magica dragged Lena back to the rest of the family. "I don't know why you all let her hang around with you, tagging along like an annoying little twerp. Why would you even trust her? She's just a part of me."
"Hey!" Louie shouted.
"All the good parts!" Gladstone shouted. Then he added in a mutter, "If you ever had any good parts."
Magica made Lena dance over to Gladstone. "For all you know, she's been working for me this whole time!"
Lena squeaked indignantly.
Gladstone shook his head. "You can't fool me, Magica. I know Lena better than you ever did."
Magica let go of Lena and turned her staff back on Donald and Gladstone.
"You two never could get along, could you? It's only a matter of time before you remember that you can't stand each other."
Donald started hopping up and down again, this time of his own accord, red-faced and squawking. "I'll show you 'not getting along!'" he said. He struggled to break away from Magica's control, but the staff still held him in his spot.
"Ho hum," Magica yawned. "Look at you. All alone, with no one but each other. No one in this adopted city of yours is coming to save you." She grinned wickedly. "Not even dear old Uncle Scroogie!"
Donald dissolved into unintelligible angry sounds.
"Stay away from my family!"
Seven heads whipped towards the source of the voice.
The shackles of Magica's magic disappeared, sending everyone crashing to the ground.
Louie had never been so glad to fall flat on his face.
"Ah, speak of the devil," Magica said. "Long time no see, eh, Scroogie?"
"Not long enough, you withering old witch!" Scrooge shouted back.
"Hmm. That's not a very nice way to greet an old friend, is it?" Magica pouted.
Scrooge spat at her.
Meanwhile, Louie and his brothers were picking themselves up off the ground.
"'The Amazing Dewford?'" Louie said, quirking an eyebrow.
"Yeah! It's my hero name," Dewey said.
"It makes you sound like a magician."
"Hey!"
Lena snickered.
"Focus!" Huey said.
Nearby, Donald sprang up and started angrily flailing in Scrooge and Magica's direction while Gladstone followed at a distance, looking like he was trying to convince him to tone it down.
Magica yelled something back, and then Uncle Scrooge yelled at her, and then Uncle Donald yelled again, and now Uncle Scrooge was yelling at Donald, and all of a sudden all of the adults were engulfed in a huge cloud of dust as they began fighting with one another.
"That's Uncle Scrooge?" Dewey said in awe. "I thought he was old!"
"He is old!" Huey said, smacking him on the shoulder.
"Should we…help them?" Louie asked.
Gladstone crept away from the kerfuffle, and Louie could see that, based on his still-immaculate appearance, he hadn't actually been involved.
Louie resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Gladstone started to walk over to them, smoothing back his curls. "You know, I think they've got it under control—wak!" Gladstone yelped as Donald yanked him into the fight.
Lena looked at the fight with a critical eye. "I think Gladstone's right," she said. "It looks like they've got this under control."
"What are you doing?" Huey asked as she turned to leave.
"Getting out of here," Lena answered.
"We can't just leave everybody behind! They're family!" Dewey protested.
"Not my family!" Lena shot back.
"Uh, ok, rude," Louie said.
"Yeah. Haven't you been with Uncle Gladstone this whole time?" Dewey said.
"If that doesn't make you family, I don't know what does," Huey said.
Lena rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. I know better than that."
Louie narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Come on. Do I have to spell it out for you? You guys aren't going to want me around. I was a double agent. A traitor."
"Not at the end," Dewey said. "You tried to fix it at the end."
"Yeah. You saved us," Huey said, gesturing to himself and Dewey. "If it weren't for you, we would have ended up like Louie. Or…worse." Huey turned to his brother. "No offense."
"Ok, maybe so. But I've seen the way that Donald looks at me. Any moment now, he's going to lose it on me."
The sentiment was punctuated by Donald letting out a particularly loud and angry yell from the dust cloud fight.
"You're just a kid, and Uncle Donald has, like, a massive soft spot for kids," Dewey said.
"Yeah. And I think you've made it pretty clear that you aren't working with Magica anymore," Huey said.
Lena shrugged. "To you, maybe."
"After all we've been through, you're just going to turn around and leave?" Louie demanded. "Just like that?"
"What, like you weren't going to do the same to me once you got your real family back?"
"Who said I was going to do that?"
"I'm not stupid," Lena said.
"I'm thinking maybe you are."
"Fine. If you weren't going to leave me high and dry, what were you going to do when Donald didn't want me around?"
Magica let loose a huge bolt of magic, making the ground shake.
"I'm sure he'd listen—"
"And what if he didn't?" Lena said. "What then?"
"I—I don't know, I—"
"See?" Lena said. "I'll never be part of your family."
An idea suddenly popped into Louie's head. "Gladstone's luck!" he said hopefully. "With Gladstone's luck, Uncle Donald will have to at least let you stick around."
"Gladstone's luck does what's best for him, not what's best for me," Lena said. "I don't think that me 'sticking around' is all that important to it."
"I don't know," Louie mused. "I'm betting his luck put you to pretty good use these last few years. Someone had to keep him out of trouble."
Lena scoffed. "He doesn't need me for that anymore."
"Gladstone?" Louie said. "He wouldn't survive a week without you around."
"His luck would take care of him just fine."
"By keeping you around," Louie insisted. "It wouldn't have let you stay around if you'd been dangerous. Uncle Donald will have to believe that." Louie made a face. "If he believes in Gladstone's luck."
"Oh, he believes in Gladstone's luck," Huey said.
"He believes in Gladstone's luck a little too much," Dewey said.
"He can't stand it."
The ground shook again, this time nearly knocking Louie off of his feet.
"Maybe we should be paying more attention to what's going on," Huey said nervously.
"You do that." Lena gave a lazy salute. "I'm out of here."
"Lena, wait—"
Another explosion shook the ground. This time, Louie instinctively threw his hands over his head and hit the dirt.
By the time he stood up, shaking and jelly-legged, Lena was gone. He looked towards the fight. Scrooge was painfully attempting to pick himself off the ground. Gladstone was peaking out from inside an alleyway—Louie wasn't sure how he'd gotten there—and Donald was still jumping up and down, swinging his fists, face beet red.
"Oh, you never give up, do you?" Magica asked him.
Donald yelled angrily in response.
"When he does that…" Louie said. "Is he…saying something? Or just…screaming?"
Huey and Dewey both shrugged.
Magica shot another bolt of magic at Donald, sending him tumbling head-over-heels.
He got back up.
He came at her again.
She sent him down with another bolt of magic.
But he got back up.
And he came at her again.
She shot a third bolt of magic at him.
This time, it took Donald a little longer to get back up.
But he did.
And he came at her again.
Once more, she shot a bolt of magic at him.
Donald took even longer to get back up.
But he did.
And he came at her again.
Magica shot one last bolt of magic at him.
And this time…
…Donald didn't get back up.
"Should we…?" Dewey asked.
"I don't know!" Huey said. He pulled a book from his hat and started frantically flipping through.
"What are you doing?"
"He's looking in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. It's supposed to have all the answers in it." Dewey took Huey by the shoulders and shook him. "Right? Please tell me it has all the answers!"
"There's gotta be something!" Huey said, hysteria creeping into his voice.
"Calm down!" Louie said, pulling his brothers apart. "This is not helping!"
"Then what do you propose we do, Captain Lost?" Huey said.
"Literally anything," Louie said. "Let's go."
He rushed over to Uncle Donald, his brothers following close behind. He held his hand out.
"Get up," he said.
Donald opened his eyes. He saw the faces of his three nephews looking back at him, and he gave a firm nod. He took Louie's hand and pulled himself up. Then he dove head-first back into the fight.
"What exactly are we supposed to do against Magica De Spell and her magic?" Dewey said underneath Uncle Donald's renewed yelling.
"Get her staff away from her?" Louie said.
Huey went back to frenetically flipping through the book.
"I hope one of you has a plan," Dewey said.
"Why don't you? Don't you enjoy diving head-first into danger?" Louie shot back.
"Where did you get that idea?"
"I don't know, the laser bridge in Atlantis? The worm holes on Mount Neverrest? Literally diving head-first into the Money Bin?"
"Dewey doesn't like diving head-first into danger so much as he doesn't bother to think about how dangerous it is first," Huey said.
"Then stop overthinking this and get in there!"
"But she killed you back in Scotland!"
"She didn't kill me! I'm right here!"
"Yeah, and I didn't know that until a few hours ago!"
"You have about thirty seconds to get over it before she kills us again!"
"This isn't working. We need a plan," Huey said. His page flipping grew even more frenzied.
"Put. The book. Down," Louie said.
Huey froze. When he saw that Louie wasn't budging, he slowly slid the book back underneath his hat.
"I'll distract Magica while you two grab the staff," Louie said.
"But—" Huey started.
"Don't worry." Louie offered his brother a smile. "We've got this."
Before his brothers could protest any more, Louie ran towards Magica.
"Are you tired of your old, run-down magical items?"
"What?" Magica said, turning.
"Otherworldy talismans not working as well as they used to?"
"What is this? What are you doing?"
Louie waved. "Yeah, hi. I was just wondering if you wanted to buy any magical objects? Amulets, staffs, enchanted mirrors? You sure look like you could use some!"
Magica's face began to turn red.
"Why you little—" She pulled back her staff, getting ready to unleash another energy ball.
"Thank you very much," Dewey said, grabbing on to the other end of the staff.
But the staff didn't come out of her hands. Instead, Dewey's feet came off the ground as Magica brought the staff in front of her face.
On the ground nearby, Huey slapped his hand to his forehead.
"Um." Dewey laughed nervously. "Hi?"
Louie slapped his hand to his forehead, too.
Magica grinned wickedly
Louie cupped his hands around his beak and shouted, "Dewey, let go!"
"But I'll fall!" Dewey shouted back, kicking his legs as if still trying to dislodge the staff from Magica's grasp.
"We'll catch you!" Huey shouted.
"Wait, what?" Louie looked sharply over at Huey.
"Ok!" Dewey said. He squeezed his eyes shut…
…And let go.
Huey held out his arms and started running towards him. "I've got him! I've got him!"
Uncle Donald looked over from off to the side where he'd been catching his breath, gave a startled "wak!" and started running over, arms outstretched. "I've got him! I've got him!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Louie could see Gladstone running towards them, but there was no way that his luck could save Dewey from spending the rest of his life as a pancake.
Louie saw his life pass before his eyes. Not the life he had led, but the life he could lead. Two brothers who loved him, shared jokes and insults with him. Three uncles who loved him, protected him, took care of him. Servants to tend to his every need, a bin full of money to swim around in, fine china on which to eat delicious delicacies prepared by someone else.
Ok, maybe not the servants. Or the china, come to think of it. But either way, it didn't matter.
It would be gone as soon as Dewey hit the ground.
Louie winced in anticipation. He looked away, not wanting to see the moment that his brother hit concrete.
But the sound of brother splatting against pavement never came.
Cautiously, Louie cracked open an eye.
Dewey was hovering just a few inches off the ground, bathed in a blue-white light.
"Am I dead yet?" he asked.
"I don't…think so?" Huey said.
"No," Magica said in disbelief. "It can't be!"
"It's over, Magica," came Lena's voice.
Louie turned around. Lena was standing at the end of the block. The pink in her hair had turned blue, and her striped sweater had been replaced with a flowing blue and white outfit…and a cape? Even her eyes had lightened to blue.
She floated into the air, enveloped by the same blue-white light that surrounded Dewey.
"I knew she could still do it!" Louie heard Gladstone say somewhere off to the side.
"Whoa," was all Louie could say.
Dewey sank gently to the ground and the light receded.
"Where are you even getting this from? You don't have any friends! The pink girl is gone, and by the way, she hates you now."
Lena threw two blue bolts of magic at Magica, knocking her back. "You're not the only one who gets power from an eclipse!"
"What—stop that!"
Lena threw another bolt of magic at her.
"I command you to stop at once!"
Lena threw more bolts of magic at her.
Magica threw her own bolt of magic back.
They went back and forth, bolts of magic flying through the air and illuminating the buildings in purples and blues. Hardly any time passed between each shot. Neither sorceress waited to see the effect of each blow.
"That's right, lassie! Show her what you've got!" Uncle Scrooge said gleefully.
Suddenly, Magica's beam of purple collided with Lena's beam of blue-white and they pushed against each other, wrestling in a battle of strength. The collision point moved much like the center of a tug-of-war rope, first towards Lena, then towards Magica, and then back again.
"Come on, Lena! I know you've got this!" shouted Gladstone.
Soon, the purple light began to ebb and the blue light began to build.
"No!" Magica screamed as her grip on her staff weakened and it fell from her hands.
There was a mad rush as Louie, Scrooge, Gladstone, Uncle Donald, Huey, and Dewey all ran to grab it before Magica did.
It was Gladstone who got there first.
"Ah ha!" he said, holding it up triumphantly. "I've got it!" He looked around as if he were expecting something to happen.
But Magica was still floating on her purple cloud of magic.
"Now what?" Gladstone asked.
"Now THIS!" Lena said. She pulled back her arms and blasted Magica with what was by far the biggest bolt of magic either of them had created. It threw Magica back off her dissipating magic cloud and onto the street below. She skidded about two dozen feet before coming to a stop.
Magica painfully propped herself up on her forearms. Scrooge marched over to her and put his foot on her chest.
"I win this time, Magica."
Magica grinned. "I still took your crown. That's something you'll never get back!"
"Yeah, well. I'm still the richest duck in the world, so." Uncle Scrooge shrugged. "I'm sure I'll manage." He held out his hand. "The dime, laddie?"
Confused, Louie took the dime from his pocket and passed it to his uncle.
"You know what to do, lass?" Uncle Scrooge asked Lena.
Lena gave a nod, though Louie could see the uneasiness in her eyes.
She glanced at Gladstone, who was still holding Magica's staff. He was now glowing purple, which was…probably fine? He gave Lena a thumbs-up.
Lena raised her hands, and they began to glow blue-white. The dime started to glow the same blue-white as it floated out of Uncle Scrooge's fingers and hovered in mid-air. A force began to emanate from it. Uncle Scrooge took his foot off of Magica, and she scrambled to her feet. Louie could feel the air around him start to rush towards the dime, leaving him untouched. But Magica wasn't so lucky. The dime began pulling her in, even as she tried to run away.
"No!" she cried. Magica ran and ran, but no matter what she did, she continued to move backwards towards the dime. The sound of her screams died away as she shrank down to the size of a bug before she disappeared into the dime with a flash of light so bright Louie had to shield his eyes. The blue-white glow slowly faded away and the dime floated back down into Uncle Scrooge's hand.
"I'd best hold onto that," Uncle Scrooge said, slipping the dime into his breast pocket.
"But—" Louie's mind raced. Where was Magica, exactly? Would she stay in there? Could she get out? How had Lena done that? "What about the promise?" he blurted out.
Uncle Scrooge looked at Donald. "I think it's time we talk."