( Author's notes: For those who haven't read any of my DuckTales works and are curious about my version of a Darkwing Duck reboot, I will warn you that this fanfic is a sequel to my story "Twisted Strings of Fate". If you're wondering if you need to read that story first, the answer is no. You can dive right in, although this prolog is a basic "Flash Back" episode that tells the entire story of "Twisted Strings of Fate," so you don't have to go through all 400K words of my fanfic (but if you do, enjoy!) I do suggest after reading this prolog to go back and read the short story "Heart" which is a bridge between TSoF and this story. My DuckTales fanfic isn't relevant for the story except in regards to Charity, who will not be a critical character until the very end.

For those who have read Twisted Strings of Fate, you can skip this chapter or go through it because it's nice to have a refreasher to such a long fanfic. I even had to recheck some of my facts. It did take me over two years to write TSoF

I'm excited to finally be writing the DWD reboot. When I first saw "The Duck Knight Returns", I had been hoping for a reboot and I still hope for one. But until then, I'm going to write a bunch of episodes that will comprise of several seasons (how many, I'm not sure) but this first season will be 9-10 episodes, each episode being 3-5 chapters. I plan on posting every week or every other week, and always post on Saturday.

For those who are waiting for my other sequel, the one I've titled DuckTales 3.2: Backstage Adventure, which is an alternate universe that continues the story from the ending "Serenade", the release has been postponed at least two weeks if not a month. Please follow this story for any updates to that story.

Thank you, and Let's Get Dangerous together!)

Darkwing Duck: Year Zero

Prolog

Gosalyn waited in line patiently as the woman in front of them and her four children decided on which ice-cream flavors they wanted, as if they didn't have enough time standing in the long line to make up their minds. She was impatient. She had been impatient for a whole week and with good reason.

Just behind her, standing to her left and to her right, was Drake Mallard and Launchpad McQuack, the latter here for half of the day before commuting back to Duckburg. Gosalyn didn't know how he did it or even when he slept. But he was determined to remain Scrooge McDuck's chauffeur and fight crime in St. Canard.

Even with his busy schedule, she envied Launchpad.

Why? Because she was also supposed to be helping Darkwing Duck fight crime every night. When Launchpad and Darkwing went out in the Ratcatcher, patrolling the city and using top-tech weapons to bring down the baddies, she was supposed to be right there with them. Drake promised she could.

But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Not while she was still a "ward of the state." With her grandfather—her legal guardian—missing, she became the government's problem. Luckily, instead of being put in a foster home, she was placed in the care of a church-run orphanage temporarily. According to Drake, he was working on the paper work to become her legal guardian—her foster-father. He had explained it was going to take some time, especially since it wasn't usual for a single male to adopt a teenage girl. In fact, in most cases, that would be a giant red flag for the government.

Luckily Drake had friends in high places. With special permission—and some rubbing of elbows—he was going to be able to take her home soon. At least soon in a broad, general sense. But it wasn't soon enough for Gosalyn. She couldn't wait to get out of the orphanage now. But at least she did get to have the occasional visits, like today. Drake and Launchpad had taken her to the park to get ice-cream and get away from the orphanage. It was a breath of fresh air, but she dreaded going back.

The family of five in front of them finally chose their ice-cream and moved out of the way.

"Order what you want," Drake said, taking out his wallet. "I'll just have a vanilla cone."

Launchpad took full advantage of Drake's offer, getting a triple scoop of Chunky Monkey with several toppings on a waffle cone.

As Launchpad ordered, Gosalyn peaked into Drake's wallet, not meaning to be a snoop, but her eyes caught a photo of a girl. Nobody had ever accused Gosalyn as being shy or unobtrusive, so in her usual bold manner, she asked, "Who's that?"

"Uh…what?" Drake asked, looking around before figuring out where Gosalyn was pointing. "Oh. She's…a friend."

Gosalyn smirked. Yeah, right. No guy would keep pictures of girls that were just friends in their wallets. It was obvious that she meant something to him, maybe more than a friend, but he didn't want to talk about her. But Gosalyn wasn't going to take no for an answer. If she was going to be living with Drake, she needed to know if he had a girlfriend or if there was going to be a future girlfriend.

"What's her name?" Gosalyn asked, plowing in.

"You really should order your ice-cream," Drake said, nodding his head to the vendor who waited expectantly.

Gosalyn got two scoops of cookie dough on a dipped cone, and the three moved to a park bench to eat their treat.

"So, what's her name?" Gosalyn asked again, not letting the question go.

"Who's name?" Launchpad asked.

"The girl in Drake's wallet. She's got curly white and blue hair. Looks like some sort of parrot," Gosalyn said unabashedly.

"She's a lovebird," Drake corrected.

"Oooooh, a lovebird," Gosalyn teased, licking her ice-cream.
"You're talking about Charity," Launchpad said easily but that quickly reminded him of the state of his childhood friend.

"Charity? Who is she? How did you two meet? Where is she now?" Gosalyn rapid-fired off her questions.

"Now hold on. I…I…" Drake stumbled over his words. He didn't really want to talk about Charity, not right now.

"She's one of the bravest people I know," Launchpad said, his eyes locked onto his ice-cream. He wasn't eating it, which just went to show how much talking about Charity had dampened his spirit.

"Really? Is she a super hero, too?" Gosalyn asked.

Drake realized that Gosalyn wasn't going to let this go, and he couldn't imagine Launchpad telling the story in the correct order or getting all his facts straight. Launchpad didn't think in a linear way, more of a sight-on-scene, creative way.

"Okay. Okay," Drake said, giving in. "But it's a long story, and it…well…it's a little weird and unbelievable. You're just going to have to take my word on everything I say."

"Since I met you, I've experienced enough weirdness that I think I can handle it," Gosalyn said confidently.

"Well, it all started several months ago, sometime after the war with the moon," Drake started, his voice going to story-teller mode. "I was chasing some bank robbers through the streets of St. Canard on the Ratcatcher. They were dodging through the streets left and right, thinking that they could get away from me, but I was hot on their tails. I reached for my gas gun, ready to take them down—"

"Is this story going to be long because you embellish?" Gosalyn interrupted.

"I don't embellish," Drake said, but decided to cut back some of the details. "Suddenly, there were bullets raining down on me. Luckily, I got in a good shot, sending a gas canister up and over their vehicle. It landed on their windshield, obscuring their vision and making them crash. I called the police for them to be taken away, and once I was back in Darkwing Tower, I found two holes in the arm of my suit, just right to be bullet holes."

"So the bullet nicked your suit. You got lucky," Gosalyn guessed. "When are we getting to the part where you meet this girl?"

"Patience. It's crucial to the story. So, I thought the same as you. I dodged a bullet, no pun intended," Drake said with a wink. "The next night, while out on patrol, I get a warning that someone was inside Darkwing Tower. I rushed over there only to find this lunkhead having brought a girl into my secret lair where they were playing with all my toys, including trying on my extra costume."

Gosalyn laughed but then looked at Launchpad. "Wait, I thought that Charity was Drake's girlfriend."

"We've been friends since I was fourteen, although she's a few years younger than I am," Launchpad explained.

"Anyway, that's how I met Charity," Drake said, smiling at the memory of the lovebird challenging him to a karaoke contest. "She is a big fan of the Darkwing Duck show, and Launchpad thought it would be awesome to hang out with the actual hero." Drake preened at his own praise.

"I bet," Gosalyn said with an exaggerated eye roll. She was getting used to Drake bragging about himself. "But what about the bullet hole? You said that it was crucial."

"Well, at one point, Launchpad went out to get some food and was captured by…a man that would eventually go by the name Negaduck, a name that your friend Dewey gave him, although we all know him as the actor Jim Starling."

"Wait, I know that name…" Gosalyn said, trying to recall where.

"He's the actor who played Darkwing Duck. You remember the incident I had at the movie studio," Drake said.

"Oh, yeah. Your 'origin story'," Gosalyn said, using air quotes.

"Well, Jim Starling survived the movie studio fire and he wanted revenge on me. He recognized Launchpad from before and held a gun to his back and forced him to take him up to Darkwing Towers," Drake said, his voice picking up tempo. "When Launchpad returned, I realized something was wrong, my super hero senses tingling. When the elevator doors opened, Launchpad lay on the ground, knocked unconscious. I pulled Charity to safety, assessing my opponent to gage his weak points. Then I—"

"No embellishing. Move the story along," Gosalyn demanded.

"Fine. Well, I was able to knock the gun out of Negaduck's hand, and we got in some fisticuffs, but every time one of our punches landed, Charity would cry out where I had left her," Drake recalled. "I thought she was just scared and I was too busy with Negaduck to go help her. However, Negaduck got the best of me and jumped out of the window—"

"What? One of the tower windows?" Gosalyn asked.

"I replaced them with reinforced glass now," Drake said. "They were only single panes from when the bridge was originally built."

"That's not the amazing part. It's like a mile down to the bay," Gosalyn said. "Did he die?"

"No," Drake answered. "He's very much alive today, and when you meet him, you'll understand that Jim Starling is quite the resourceful man."

"So he's still out there, waiting to take his revenge on you?" Gosalyn asked, her eyes widening. She was excited to go against yet another super villain.

"Hush and let me get back to the story," Drake berated softly. "When I was sure Negaduck was gone, I went to check on Launchpad and Charity. Launchpad was only unconscious but unharmed, but Charity was…battered and bruised as if she had just gotten in a fight." Drake's voice turned soft.

"How? Negaduck couldn't have gotten to her because you were fighting with him," Gosalyn said.

"Well, I didn't know it at that time, but Charity was under a very powerful curse. She would fall completely in love with a person if they were to save her, and from that point on she would take on every sickness and every injury and source of pain they would have," Drake said.

Gosalyn was expecting any number of strange things, but a curse wasn't one of them. "Wait! What?"

"That's what I thought. I thought she was spouting nonsense, but then she showed me her arm," Drake said. "She had a gunshot wound in her arm in the exact place where the holes in my costume were."

"Whoa! So, you were, like, invincible. Nothing could hurt you," Gosalyn said excited, jumping to her feet.

"Yes, I was. But it came at a cost. And Charity paid that cost," Drake said. "She had been paying that cost for over a month for me at that point. It took me a while to believe her, but I couldn't deny it after seeing her gunshot wound."

"So, you hadn't gotten sick or hurt for a month and didn't think anything of it? In your high-risk job?" Gosalyn asked with a smirk.

"Hey, in my defense, I was really busy trying to get my life together after moving to St. Canard and trying to establish myself as Darkwing Duck. Plus, who's going to question if they're not in pain?" Drake said. "And besides, Launchpad had been part of the curse since Charity was twelve, so don't get on my case."

Gosalyn turned to Launchpad.

"Hey, I just thought I was that awesome," Launchpad said with a big smile but once more his happiness faded quickly. "As I said, Charity is a brave person."

Gosalyn wasn't sure she was buying this whole story. Drake tended to exaggerate and Launchpad was sometimes unreliable in his facts. After spending a few days with the pair trying to save St. Canard from a bunch of super villains, she couldn't imagine taking on their pain. She winced, remembering Darkwing's clash with Megavolt.

"But you still had an advantage. You couldn't be hurt. You should have been able to beat up Negaduck," Gosalyn said.

Drake cocked an eyebrow. "Except Charity had an old childhood crush on him."

"Him too?"

"Yeah. His role as Darkwing Duck inspired her and saved her from a bad family situation, so he was the first. Fifteen years," Drake said. He realized he hadn't been eating his cone as some of the ice-cream drippled on his hand. He slurped up the melting treat.

"Whoa. Talk about a bad childhood," Gosalyn said.

"Her mother pretended she was really sick," Launchpad said. "She was kept indoors most of her life…I guess I was a really active and clumsy guy back then."

Back then? Gosalyn thought but didn't say it. "So, then what happened?"

"I took Charity and Launchpad to my house. Apparently Charity and Launchpad had come to St. Canard not to hang out with me, but to recruit my help to break the curse," Drake said. "But they also needed Jim Starling. Charity had asked Scrooge McDuck earlier for help, and he sent Mrs. Beakley and Donald to help us get Jim Starling. And Dewey snuck on the airplane, so he was there."

"Classic Dewey," Gosalyn said. She had kept in touch with the young duck, texting and messaging him on social media. She had yet to meet anyone else in Scrooge McDuck's family except a glancing moment, so she didn't who Mrs. Beakley or Donald were. But she didn't want to interrupt the story.

"Well, we left Charity and Dewey at my place while the rest of us went looking for Jim, but he found Charity first, capturing her and taking her into the sewers," Drake continued the story.

"Ew," both Gosalyn and Launchpad said together, even though Launchpad had been there.

"Yes, ew," Drake agreed. "Dewey contacted us, and we were able to locate them. There was a small…fight, but we captured Negaduck soon after." He didn't want to get into the details of how he had been taken out early from the fight with his own weapon that Negaduck had stolen. He also felt humility wash over him as he remembered how Charity had been the one to save them all, causing herself even more pain as she had choked Negaduck until they both had fallen unconscious. He wasn't embarrassed that she had saved him, but that he had been so determined to be her hero that he had made a big mistake.

Launchpad was right that she was so brave.

"Okay, so Charity needed the three of you to break the curse, right? So did Negaduck…er…Jim help?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well…it wasn't that simple," Drake said. "Because there was one more person that Charity had fallen in love with."

Gosalyn's face drew out in an exaggerated surprise look. "No way! How many times can this girl be saved by a hero?"

"Well…Launchpad only saved her from some bullies, and it was only my association with Jim Starling through Darkwing Duck that connected me to the curse, but the last hero was the only one who actually saved her life," Drake said, feeling his jaw already tensing.

"Who was it?"

Drake gritted his teeth. "Gizmoduck."

Gosalyn snorted at the disgust in Drake's voice. She knew about his rivalry with the mechanical super-hero which seemed to be one-sided. Fenton was friendly, even when Drake was trying to be difficult.

"We returned to Duckburg and brought in Fenton in the group, and we finally learned the origin of the cur—"

"Wait, you skipped a bunch of stuff," Launchpad announced.

"Well…I didn't think some of that was relevant," Drake said. "I'm trying to get to the good parts."

"What? Why? What happened?" Gosalyn asked. If he was skipping any good details, she wanted to know.

"It isn't really all that relevant or exciting," Drake said.

"Not exciting?" Launchpad asked. "But what about when Charity was kidnapped by a super-powered robot and Gizmoduck went off to save the day?"

"Whoa, I want to hear about that," Gosalyn said, giving a big smile.

"Maybe another day," Drake said. He didn't want to tell that part of the story. He wasn't in it.

"Or what about when we got back to the McDuck Manor, and Negaduck had taken over the entire house and set up all these traps an—"

"Let's skip that part. She doesn't need to know any of that," Drake said, slapping a hand over Launchpad's beak.

"Now I definitely want to hear that part," Gosalyn said. "Come on, that sounds much more exciting than the origin of some love-curse."

"Nothing really happened," Drake lied.

"We'll save it for later," Launchpad said. "Besides, Jim tells the story much better."

"That's because he's the one that was chasing us with a chainsaw," Drake protested.

"Chainsaw! Negaduck's return! Traps! Sign me up," Gosalyn announced.

"I think it's a little too graphic for a little girl to hear about it," Drake admitted. He shivered. That part of his life still gave him nightmares.

Gosalyn crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders.

Rather than address it, Drake continued on. "That's when we finally learned the origin of the curse. Centuries ago, there was a pair of magical sisters, a black and a white swan. They were as close as sisters could be and very beautiful. Despite that they were almost identical save for the color of their feathers, most thought that the white swan sister was more beautiful.

"Then one day, they were both captured by a bandit who wanted to marry both of them. Luckily a hero was able to save them both, saving them from a tawdry fate."

"Tawdry? Where did you learn to tell stories? Shakespeare?" Gosalyn snorted. "And what kind of story is this? It sounds like a fairy tale. It can't possibly be true."

Drake smiled, knowing better. "I'm just telling the story as I heard it. And this is very important. Both the swan sisters fell in love with the hero, but the black swan loved her sister more than she loved herself, and stepped aside for the white swan to pursue the hero. But the hero could see that the black swan had a kind heart and a selfless nature and fell in love with her and they were married.

"When the white swan found out that her sister had won the heart of the hero, she became enraged. She turned her magical talents to the dark arts, learning how to use her magic to force the hero to love her. She captured her sister and her husband and put a spell on them. All of the hero's pain and suffering, all his injuries and sicknesses, would be given to her, and would continue until she relinquished her love for him. The white swan tortured her sister through the hero for days, and her plan might have work if she didn't become so enraged that she used too much force on the hero and accidentally killed him."

Gosalyn gasped, not realizing she had been listening so rapturously to the story. This no longer sounded like a bedtime story.

"Filled with sorrow, the black swan used the last of her own magic and cast a spell that locked her sister away where she couldn't hurt anyone else. That might have been the end of things, but the black swan laid an egg not long after the death of her husband, and a daughter hatched months after. It wasn't until the daughter had grown up and was saved by her own hero that the black swan found out that her sister's spell was much more powerful than she thought. The daughter immediately fell in love with her hero and his pain and suffering was hers to bear alone. And it was the same for every generation afterward."

"Until it came to Charity," Gosalyn finished.

"That's right," Drake said. He had gone through the story several times in his mind since meeting Charity, and even now, it still had an impact on him. So many lives changed from one woman's jealousy. He hoped that he never came across someone as powerful as that ever again.

"Then what happened? How did you break a thousand-year-old curse?" Gosalyn asked.

"Well, it was more like a two-thousand-year-old curse," Drake bragged. "And Dewey's brother's research sent us to Ithaquack to ask Aphrodite…"

At that name, Launchpad grunted but he didn't say anything.

Yeah, I hear you, big guy. Drake thought. But don't give anything away.

"…ask Aphrodite about the curse," Drake finished his sentence. "We figured as the Goddess of Love, she could give us a clue."

Gosalyn opened her mouth with wide eyes, but then she settled down. "Why am I not surprised that the Greek gods are involved? It's already an unbelievable story. Are you messing with me?"

Drake crossed his heart. "I promise, everything I've said is the absolute truth. Scrooge McDuck had been to Ithaquack several times."

"Dewey owes me big. I want to go," Gosalyn said.

"You'd get along with Artemis," Drake said, recalling his and Fenton's trial that Artemis had personally oversaw. "After a few…difficulties, we were able to talk to Aphrodite."

"Difficulties?" Gosalyn asked, using her uncanny ability to sniff out where Drake was summarizing the story.

"Well, there was a roller derby game, and Darkwing and Fenton were chained together, oh and we went to the land of the dead. That was fun," Launchpad clarified. He had noticeably omitted his fight with Ares, a fight that had almost killed him. It had been a set-up of Aphrodite's to force Charity to reveal to Launchpad that he was a part of the curse, something he hadn't known until that moment.

"Why are you leaving out all the good parts?" Gosalyn demanded.

"Because I want to get through the story today," Drake said. Besides, there were a lot more parts he had left out, the ones that had been between him and Charity. Like the almost kiss in the hallway, her falling asleep on his shoulder, him taking off his mask and revealing his name, giving her a part of himself that he couldn't take back. Those moments were intimate, something he visited in his mind until his heart ached at her absence.

"Okay, skipping the good parts and getting to the nitty-gritty," Gosalyn acknowledged. "Did Aphrodite help?"

"She did. She showed us the Strings of Fate," Drake said, rushing forward before Gosalyn could ask. "The Strings of Fate are invisible threads that link us to everyone in our lives: friends, family, enemies, and lovers. She showed us that we were connected to Charity through the Red Strings of Fate that had slivers of magic woven into them. She then showed a Black String of Fate that was wrapped around Charity's neck that connected her to the white swan, the person who had put the curse on her family."

"The white swan was still alive?" Gosalyn asked. "She would be super old by now."

"Aphrodite told us to find the white swan. But we couldn't see the Strings, so she also said that we needed this…magic orb…it had a name I can't remember. The magic orb would help us see the Strings of Fate," Drake continued. "But the trouble was, we didn't know where the magic orb was. So we went back to Duckburg to figure out that problem. Meanwhile, Fenton brought in a psychiatrist to help Nega—I mean Jim with his problem. After a couple of difficult nights, he went on a special medication that helped control his mental problems."

"So no more Negaduck?" Gosalyn asked, sounding a little disappointed.

"Well, not entirely. There would be no getting rid of Negaduck," Drake admitted. "But Jim was able to manage the symptoms as long as he was on his medication. Anyway, Scrooge McDuck brought in another of his nephews, a man called Gladstone, who helped us locate the magic orb. So off we went to Japan.

"Again, skipping a lot of the details, we found the orb that could see the Strings of Fate."

"What details?"

"Nothing really important," Drake said. "Uh…drunk Karaoke."

"Charity won a singing contest," Launchpad said.

"And became famous on the Internet," Drake added.

"And we helped a mob boss find love," Launchpad said.

"See, nothing important," Drake said with a smirk.

"Oh, ha ha. You two are a riot," Gosalyn said. "But you have to be exaggerating. Charity was Internet famous?"

Launchpad already had Louie's Youtube channel up on his phone and started playing that momentous event when Charity fought off her stage-fright and sang in front of everyone at the event. Because of Louie already posting video footage from their adventures on Ithaquack on the pretense of making a movie, Charity had already been trending, but that particular video brought in millions of viewers.

"Oh, I remember this," Gosalyn said. "It wasn't my thing, but I remember some of my friends getting into it. That's Charity? She looks so different."

Gladstone had taken Charity to a beautician who had colored her hair and feathers temporarily with chalk and straightened her curls to a point she had been unrecognizable on sight. Drake had even danced with her for a while without realizing it was her. But in the video, some of the chalk had been wiped away, giving her a mixture of white, black, blue and purple feathers. She did look different, but the sparkle in her eyes and her smile had been the same.

"Anyway, we had the orb, so we used it to track the Black String back across the ocean, taking us back to Duckburg," Drake said.

"The white swan was in Duckburg?" Gosalyn asked.

"The other end of the Black String was. In fact, it led us back to Scrooge McDuck's mansion," Drake said. "We followed it down to his basement to a magical mirror. It was a mirror that could send us back through time. We thought that we could use it to travel back to the day when the curse first had gone into effect, but Scrooge McDuck forbid us from using it."

"No way," Gosalyn said, her hands becoming fists. "That's not fair. After all the work you'd done, he couldn't do that."

"Well, I thought the same, but it was Charity's call, and she respected Scrooge McDuck," Drake said. "However, we weren't completely without options. Your friend, Dewey, his brothers, and their friends found another path for us. We went into the Ghost Realm where we summoned the ghost of Charity's ancestor, the black swan."

He didn't bring up all the troubles they had come across in the Ghost Realm, how they had been attacked from the beginning and scattered, because he might think of that private moment he had accidentally come across, that he had seen Charity kiss Fenton. He didn't blame her. The curse was pushing and pulling her heart around that she had finally succumbed to her emotions. It just so happened to be when she was with Fenton. But he didn't want to think of that moment.

But it also brought good memories, how Charity had taken him away from the others for a private conversation, how he had promised her that when the curse was broken and she was free, he was going to ask her on an honest-to-goodness date, that he had feelings for her. And then there had been their kiss, her arms around his neck, his hands on her hips, their beaks together. The Ghost Realm hadn't been entirely bad.

"When we summoned the black swan, it changed things. The story we all knew, we found it was a lie. It appeared that instead of the hero's pain transferring to the black swan, it was the other way around," Drake said. "We couldn't talk to the ghost, so we couldn't know the reason why. However, we had come to a dead end. We didn't know what else we could do."

"Except for the mirror," Gosalyn said. "Please tell me you went through the mirror."

"Well, it took some convincing on Charity's part and it was mostly Jim who set things in motion, but yes, we went through the mirror," Drake confirmed.

"And let me guess," Gosalyn said. "More details that you're going to skip over."

"Oh, so many details," Drake said, although he was tempted to at least tell about the time he met the Scarlett Pimpernel, his personal hero. But he was certain that Gosalyn would have preferred the times when they met Baba Yaga, the witch, or fought a giant spider, or when they were in Egypt and Fenton pretended to be a god. Yes, so many details to be skipped.

"I'll skip to the part where we found the exact moment that the black and white swan had their confrontation," Drake said. "We watched the white swan attack her sister, whose wounds would only disappear and reappear on the hero's body. He was dying and couldn't take much more of the torture. But unlike the story, the white swan wasn't doing it because she was jealous of her sister and wanted the hero to love her, but because she wanted her sister back.

"To save the hero, the black swan took her own life, using her magic to trap her sister away. We saw the black swan die and when she did, the hero's life was saved. Charity also recognized the white swan, having seen her once before.

"The white swan was Aphrodite."

Gosalyn's eyebrows shot up. "No way. But all that looking around for the orb and going to the Ghost Realm and stuff, that was all for nothing? You had already found the white swan before? That's nuts."

"What's even more nuts is that Aphrodite had been cultivating Charity's family throughout all these years because she was feeding off of the pain that came from the curse," Drake said. "She even made sure that only one child was born each generation so there wouldn't be too much magic for her handle. And even then, she had to create the Greek gods to divide the excess magic among so she wouldn't burn out." That was what the muses explained to him afterwards since he hadn't been present during some of the confrontation between Charity and Aphrodite.

"So, you went back to Ithaquack and kicked Aphrodite's butt, right?" Gosalyn asked, giving him a big smile.

"Well…not exactly," Drake said, coming to the hardest part of the story. "As soon as we returned to our present time, Charity went off on her own and summoned one of the muses for help. Charity, the muse, and Lena—a girl who has some experience with magic, I guess they figured out how to break the curse. Aphrodite had to be destroyed, and the only way to do that was with Charity's blood. But they didn't have time to make a plan when Aphrodite found out and transported Charity and the muse back to Ithaquack."

Drake paused, not certain how to continue.

"You weren't even there during the big boss battle?" Gosalyn asked. "That's totally not fair."

"Oh, we were there, alright," Drake said. "Aphrodite transported us soon after and threatened to kill us if Charity didn't…um…I guess chose one of us and have a child."

Gosalyn made a strange face.

"Charity had made the decision to never have a child as long as she was under the curse, and Aphrodite needed the curse for magical power, which was the only thing keeping her alive all these years," Drake said. "But no matter how much she threatened, Charity would not relent."

"Isn't that a little selfish?" Gosalyn asked, sensing that that sentence was wrong even as she said it. "It's your lives. She was willing to let all four of you die?"

"Aphrodite was a monster," Drake said. "I was willing to die if it meant she wouldn't win."

"I would have died for Charity, too," Launchpad said.

"We all would have," Drake said, his voice becoming grim. "It was a stalemate. Charity nor Aphrodite would give in. Aphrodite finally relented to let us go. She would have until the end of Charity's life to siphon off more magic. And she hinted that Charity may give in to her feelings."

"And you left? You didn't break the curse?" Gosalyn cried out. "That's basically letting her win."

"No. Charity refused to leave. She wasn't going to go unless the curse was broken," Drake said, a little smile lifting the corner of his beak. "She was…" He was going to say "amazing" or something akin to it, but he changed his mind. "…relentless. Aphrodite made a deal with Charity. She would tell Charity how to break the curse, but if Charity wasn't able to break it, she would promise to choose one of us and have a child, continuing the curse to a new generation."

"No! It's a trap," Gosalyn cried out, shaking Drake's sleeve.

"You're right, but none of us thought of that, especially when we heard how to break the curse," Drake said. "She told Charity that in order to break the curse, she would have to kill one of us with her own hands."

Gosalyn froze, her eyes as wide as they could get as she waited silently for Drake to continue.

"Aphrodite forced her to choose one of us," Drake said, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. "She chose Jim. I suppose she thought because of the incident with Negaduck it would be easier for her. I watched as Aphrodite gave her a sword. She taunted Charity for a while, but it wasn't until the goddess turned her back that Charity stabbed Jim. And then Aphrodite started laughing. You were right. It was a trick, a way to break Charity down until she gave in to the goddess's whims. We were all shocked."

Gosalyn looked just as shocked.

"But not as shocked as when we saw Jim sit back up, not a speck of blood on him," Drake said, a sad smile on his face.

But Gosalyn was beaming. "Charity tricked Aphrodite back. That's awesome."

"Jim picked up the sword and approached the two of them without Aphrodite hearing, then he…he…" Drake couldn't say it. He couldn't, not after all this time, even when it was all over. The words stuck in his throat.

"He stabbed Aphrodite, right?" Gosalyn said, grinning, but that fell when Drake couldn't continue. "What happened?"

"Stabbing Aphrodite wouldn't have killed her," Drake said. "Charity's blood was needed to defeat the goddess. So he had to…go through Charity."

Launchpad took a deep breath, looking much more serious than the light-hearted pilot should ever be. He looked ready to run away, his eyes misty.

"She…she died?" Gosalyn cried out.

"No," Drake said calmly. He shouldn't have stopped there in the story, but he needed to get his throat under control. "The muse that had helped her, she gave up her life to save Charity, to heal most of the sword wound. And luckily Scrooge McDuck and his family guessed where we were, and they were able to pick us up and take us to the nearest hospital quickly."

"So Charity is okay?" Gosalyn looked relieved. "You're right. She is a brave person. That is a crazy story. I'd like to meet her." She was surprised she hadn't already. After an amazing adventure like that, she would have guessed Charity would have fallen in love with one of her heroes for real. Maybe she was Fenton's girlfriend. He had mentioned a girl once, didn't he? Or did Charity chose Jim? Was she Mrs. Negaduck?

"Where is she?" Gosalyn asked.

"Duckburg General Hospital," Launchpad said. "Long-term care ward." He knew those words so well.

Gosalyn's face fell and she looked to Drake for an explanation.

"Coma," Drake said. "She's been that way for almost a month."

"Will she wake up?" Gosalyn asked. She sensed that Drake and Launchpad needed comfort, and she wasn't good with the touchy-feely stuff, but she still put one of her hands on one of theirs.

"The doctors don't know," Drake said. "We're…hopeful."

Gosalyn nodded but then said. "I'm sure we'll figure out something," she said with determination. "We're going to find a way to save my grandpa, which is a whole lot harder than waking someone up from a coma. Or she may wake up any day. It happens all the time."

"Yeah," Drake said, reaching up and tousling Gosalyn's hair. "I know."

Miles away, in Duckburg, the medical equipment hooked up to a female lovebird beeped and whirred as it should, monitoring her vitals, her heartrate, her blood pressure, her brainwaves. Unlike most long-term coma patients, she had more machines checking up on her than what was necessary to keep her alive. That was because there was one person working on the mystery of why her brain wasn't waking up.

Sitting in a chair next to her, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera tapped at his tablet, studying the numbers from one chart to the next, comparing one day from another. He wasn't a doctor. He wasn't a medical student. His specialties were in a lot of things, but medical science wasn't one of them.

But he still had a plan. He just couldn't do it alone. In fact, he was failing miserably unless he could get the exact help he could. If only she would call him back, he knew that he could save Charity.

He owed her.