Hey everyone,
So originally this chapter was meant to be about Harry settling back in at home and getting used to being a mother.
But me rereading my story notes reminded me of something that I once saw in a Disney show and I thought: "Hey, I can make a chapter out of that and explain why it was never featured in the games." So that's what this chapter is about.
Let's do this,
Venquine1990
PS. It's partially because this series aired in 2017, KH has been around since 2002. Still.
Chapter 50
Reuniting the Ducks
30th of May
Radiant Garden
Lea's POV
For the rest of the day, Harry and our little girl had multiple visitors, though Madam Pomfrey constantly made sure they only came in when Erethea was awake.
Even some of my friends from other worlds, called and brought in by Roxas who had been visiting the Garden the other day, came to meet my newborn daughter and congratulate me.
Yet it's two friends of mine, one who lives here and one who lives elsewhere, who attracted my attention.
After Donald, Uncle Scrooge and the triplets were done admiring my baby girl and complimenting Harry on how beautiful she is, they had left.
Yet as they left, I couldn't help but notice that there was an aura of sad determination surrounding the older two ducks.
They even shared a meaningful glance before the door closed behind them.
Later that night Sirius, Harry and I decided that we would move the most vital furniture of the nursery to Sirius' house and that Harry and Erethea would move in with me once Harry had fully recovered and lost his pregnant weight.
This decision was based on the fact that Harry hadn't fully recovered his stamina by the end of the day and on the fact that, throughout the entire day, Harry had almost begged for at least one of us to be in the room with him.
Sirius and I oblige with his request as it's obvious that the loneliness of the last week has really done a number on his psyche.
But now that Harry is home, with his child, his brother and his father, he instantly seems to be feel much better.
This makes me feel reassured and confident enough to leave my partner and child alone for a while and investigate the weird behavior of the two ducks the other day.
I'm heading for Uncle Scrooge's office and I'm hoping that Donald is still there – or somewhere in town – and that he hasn't already left to return to Disney Castle.
My hopes are confirmed when I enter the man's office as the two ducks are bend over the elder's desk, which seems covered with all kinds of papers and mostly blueprints.
Uncle Scrooge notices me and tries to tell me that he doesn't have time right now. Yet I shrug and ask: "Why? Because you're continuing where you left off the other day with that shared glance and that saddened determined aura you both excluded?"
The two look up at me while I lean back against the wall next to the doorway and ask them what's up. They share a look and Donald sighs before Uncle Scrooge tells me to take a seat.
I comply and while Donald continues to study the blueprint in front of him, the elder duck begins his obviously emotional tale.
"Before you were born, lad, when Aqua was still just a wee babe and the only one of your friends that was around, Donald, I myself and Della were adventurers and explorers.
Della was the mother of the triplets."
Instantly the duck has my full attention as it only now occurs to me that – mostly thanks to my own upraising – I never questioned the fact that the trio was raised by their two uncles.
"We did all kinds of things, even if we all lived and roamed through the lands surrounding Disney Town back then.
Please note this was before I started my Gummi ship route across the universe. (I nod). Well shortly before the boys were mere eggs, we started dreaming of such a chance.
To explore the stars and land a craft on a world other than our own. And with the treasure we had gathered and the money I made, we build all kinds of crafts.
Our last one, which we believed could be the craft, we called the Spear of Selene.
One day, only a few weeks before the eggs were about to hatch, Della decided to take the rocket on a test run.
She was only meant to fly it around the world as we figured that was all it was able to do, at least according to our research.
But Della – heh – she was stubborn, and the most adventurous of us all. She believed, after five successful trips around the world in record speed, that the Spear could do more, go further.
Donald had no idea about this, he only knew that the Spear would go for a test flight that day, not that Della had talked me into the four extra rounds.
But she hadn't been able to talk me into agreeing on her other plan; to go further. Still, she went up and flew into the cosmos.
Neither of us had any idea that there was a comet storm passing by our world that day. When we found out, it was already too late.
And while Della and felt confident that she could fly through it – she was Della Duck, after all – two of the comets hit the worst parts of the rocket that were possible;
The communication device
One of the rocket parts at the bottom
And one of the engines that was near it.
I lost all communication with her before she crashed.
Still, I – I believed. I believed that she was alive. Della Duck wouldn't simply go out and die due to a mishap like that.
But as time went on, weird things started to happen. And they kept happening, no matter what I tried. And I tried everything.
Della's disappearance is not only the reason that I moved to Radiant Garden, that Donald and I raised the boys and that we actually didn't talk to each other for two years,
It's also the reason I build that Gummi ship route.
Why almost 39% of my fortune went into that endeavor.
And I wanted to spend more, but none of my accountants would let me.
Not even now that the route has earned me back double of what I lost in those years.
Still, no matter what I try, what technology I develop, what kind of Gummies I use on the ship – and trust me, I used thousands upon thousands of different kinds of Gummies – the same thing happens every time we approach the Disney Town moon.
It shrinks.
Even when I developed a rocket where Della and I would be seated back to back like this as there was no room for anything other than the essentials, the moon somehow shrunk to the point that my vehicle was too large to land on it.
And yes, I know it sounds bizarre and crazy, but even Donald can vouch for it. He experienced it himself. Just before he left to find the Key, which turned out to be Sora, he tried for 2 hours. It kept happening, no matter what he tried."
By now Donald, who has gone to sit in a really comfortable looking chair with his beak hidden by one of the blueprints on the table, lowers it and his head and sighs.
Uncle Scrooge, in the meantime, has gone to stand by the windowsill. His cane is in one hand and his other is holding his arms behind his back as he looks up into the sky.
"But you know what's the craziest of it all, lad? That regardless of everything, all my attempts, all our failure, all our need to keep this secret from the boys lest they do something reckless that could make us lose them as well –
I still believe.
She's alive, Lea.
I know it.
I feel it in me bones."
My gaze switches between the two ducks, one looking as if he's trying not to give into despair, the other somehow looking as if he's got the confidence of both ducks flowing through him.
I smirk as I remember something that happened a few times while I was Axel and gladly tell him:
"You're right."
Before I focus on what bothered and confused Axel those few times. I land my focus and activate the magic that has been part of me since I came back to myself.
I phase out of the room and onto an area that is as bare as it looks empty and wasteful. And yet also strangely beautiful and not entirely empty.
A duck who looks to be Donald's age, who wears a pilot's uniform that is obviously at least 2 decades old, and who has scratches over the majority of her form stands in front of me, shocked and with her beak open in a soundless yelp.
What really amazes – and worries – me is that she actually has a mechanical prosthetic for her left leg. Yet I decide to leave that for later.
"Axel always wondered why he sensed a heart on this empty rock.
Really wish Saïx hadn't constantly told him to just keep to his orders.
Either way, ready to go home? Your brother and uncle are still looking for you."
The duck shakes her head and asks: "They – they are? So, so it was them that I constantly saw fly over here and then fly away again? Why – why would they –?"
But while she almost started to ramble, a sound from the distance shuts her up and has us both on high alert.
Two beings approach us, both wearing gold while one is male, has blue skin and dark blue eyes, while the other is female, has a somewhat greyish skin and purple eyes.
Both are aiming a golden gun at me, yet I know my skills well enough that I can phase away before their shot can hit me.
"I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to take our pet. We are having too much fun watching it trying to survive our mighty world."
"So either you leave the way you came or you're going to end up in the hospital within our prison, pall. Consider that your only warning."
"THERE ARE PEOPLE LIVING HERE!"
I really don't know what to feel right now. Disbelief at the arrogance of these two. Disgust that they dare to treat a fellow creature as a pet and don't even respect Della enough to call her by her gender. Or rage that the poor duck had to live years without knowing she wasn't alone.
This last bit reminds me of Harry and the week he experienced just days ago. Instantly my mind is made up and I summon my Keyblade.
Everyone tenses up, but I just aim it at the duo and declare: "STOP!" The spell instantly takes effect and the two freeze up, the time frozen around their forms.
I rush over to Della, dismissing my weapon and whisper: "You won't ever be alone again. I'm bringing you home and then I'm going to report these jerks to Master Ansem."
And before she can open her beak to ask me a question, I phase us both off the not-so abandoned rock and back to Radiant Garden.
I arrive back in Scrooge's office and instantly takes several deep gulps of breath. The incredible difference in oxygen had been the reason for my silence between my first and last comment. It wasn't bad enough that I couldn't breathe, but enough that I knew I would get lightheaded if I spoke too much or took too many deep breaths.
"DELLA!"
Donald and Uncle Scrooge scream as they embrace the shaken female duck in our midst. The poor thing seems completely out of it and I guess she got one too many surprises on her lap a little too quickly.
Yet the sound of the other two ducks crying quickly helps her realize where she is. Her own eyes start to fill up and she shouts their names in their ears as she strongly returns their hug.
After a few moments of crying and laughing, Donald steps away and asks: "You found her? How did you find her? I mean, I know you can phase and all, but – how were you able to breathe?"
But before I can answer, Della exclaims: "Oh, that's right!" She runs to the bin that is in the left back corner of the room and spits something out in it.
"Ugh, I've been chewing on that disgusting piece of gum for the last decade and then some. So glad that I'm – wait, this isn't Disney Town. Where are we?"
The female duck had looked up and out the window as she said this and apparently noticed enough things different from what she knew to turn around and ask her question.
Uncle Scrooge, who still has tears in his eyes, walks over and says: "Radiant Garden, dear. It just has more technological advantages and better supplies than Disney Town.
And I spared no expenses to find you after you were lost to us, no matter what my accountants or others tried to tell me."
He then turns to me and tells me that he wants to hear an answer to Donald's questions. I shrug at him with a smile on my face and say:
"Axel may not have had to travel past Disney town very often over the years, but whenever he did, he sensed a heart of light there.
Because it was only one, neither Saïx or Xemnas ever considered it important and they constantly ordered him to leave it for what it was."
All three ducks look at me with their beaks somewhat open and Donald mutters: "So when you and Axel split, you kept all of his experiences and memories."
I nod and finish the explanation: "So I was able to locate her, phase over to her position and get her back here."
"But what about the shrinking planet?"
Donald asks and I shrug as I say: "I think that was done by the citizens there. Yeah, there are actually people living on the moon.
And I think, because they always saw your spaceships coming –."
Uncle Scrooge growls and snarls: "They were able to create some kind of optical illusion that kept me from believing I could land.
THEY KEPT ME FROM RESCUING DELLA FOR ALL THESE YEARS! WHEN I GET THOSE SONS OF BRIDGES I'M GOING TO SHOW THEM WHY YOU DON'T MESS WITH SCROOGE MCDUCK! JUST YOU WAIT! JUST YOU WATCH ME!"
Then suddenly three sets of padded feet are heard coming closer.
"Oh no, the boys!"
"The boys?"
Donald screams before Della repeats his words with a question in her voice.
And indeed three younger looking ducks, who look as if they could be the twins' age if they were human, rush in and chorus: "What's wrong, uncle Scrooge?"
"Is everything okay?"
"We heard you screaming."
"You sounded really angry."
Yet then the three of them gasp as they see – and obviously instinctively recognize – their mother who is standing in between the three of us.
Della actually slumps down at the sight of the three, tears streaming down her face as she stares at the three teenage ducklings, who stare back at her.
Only one of them, Dewey who is clad in blue, looks down and asks: "What happened to her leg?" And this draws the eyes of the others to the prosthetic.
"Lost it in the crash." Della whimpers as she tentatively raises her arms a little, as if she wants to invite her kids to hug her, but feels uncertain at the same time.
Yet these words and this gesture are enough to make the three teenage boys rush for their long lost mother.
I smile at the sight and then whisper to Scrooge that I will just leave his family to their reunion. Uncle Scrooge nods and I phase out of the room.
But not back to Harry.
Where is he going?
Well, to be honest, part of me wanted to turn this into a new storyline.
But there is still much left to cover and I want to keep this story mostly focused on Harry and Lea being able to raise their kid in a peaceful environment.
So next chapter is going to keep the Moonlanders (as they're called in the 2017 version of Ducktales, which inspired this story thread) from wanting to do what they did at the end of Season 02 of the 2017 show.
And for those who have never seen the series, that is the only spoiler you're going to get.
Let's move on,
Venquine1990
