Chapter Text
Lena blinked blearily down at the ancient, yellowed tome in front of her, letting her eyes meander from line to line. She hated studying. She was bored out of her mind going over all this esoteric shadow-magic bullshit. If it weren’t for the fact that she was literally incapable of falling asleep as a shadow, she was sure she would’ve conked out hours ago.
This was in stark contrast to Webby and Violet, who were each sitting on either side of Lena a little ways away. They were in Webby’s room, having come back from the library that morning, which—and Lena could not stress this part enough—had happened several hours ago. And they had been studying nonstop since getting back, with Webby practicing her shadow magic while Lena and Violet looked for any leads on how to restore her body. Lena had no earthly or extra-dimensional idea how the other two girls were still going, especially since Lena wasn’t finding anything at all useful in her book.
She groaned, letting the shadowy head and arm she’d summoned to page through the book poof away as she retreated back into the floor. “I’m not getting anywhere with this. Please tell me you’re having better luck, Vi.”
“Marginally,” Violet said distractedly, her eyes glued to the pages. “I’ve come across several points of interest, but nothing that can quite be brought together into a plausible path forward.”
“Dude, it’s been hours. I’ll take anything at this point,” Lena said.
“I found a description on how you can use shadow magic to sever a shadow from its caster,” Violet said. “I imagine that would be a necessary prerequisite to any sort of solution we may wish to pursue. Thankfully, it’s rather simple, all told.”
“But without a body, I’ll just fade away into the Shadow Realm,” Lena said.
“Precisely.” Violet flipped through the book she was reading. “You had a body before, correct? Before the Shadow War.”
“Uh—yeah.” Lena nodded. “Magica made it for me with her amulet. But she’s the most powerful shadow sorceress to ever live; Webby’s a fast learner, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to get to that level any time soon.”
They both looked over to Webby, who was summoning a goopy black claw out of the shadow her globe was casting on the wall. It flexed its fingers, and Webby let out a smile. “Lena, look! I did it! It’s—wahg!”
She yelped as the arm suddenly bent in an unnatural direction, writhing erratically and then swiping out towards her. She blocked with the outside of her right wrist, then delivered a quick straight jab with her left fist to the shadow-arm’s elbow. It squirmed frantically, as if in pain, and then with a gesture of her hand, Webby canceled the spell, the hand sloshing back into its home shadow.
She giggled nervously at Lena. “Haha. Um. It’s coming along!”
“Don’t worry, Pink, you got this,” Lena called, giving her a thumbs-up. Webby beamed, and turned back her spellbook as Lena met eyes with Violet. “Yeah, I’ll be real, I don’t know if she’s got this,” she said, voice low.
“Perhaps we don’t actually need her to be quite on Magica’s level,” Violet proposed. “After all, Magica already did the work, correct? What if we used that same body that she made you?”
“Vi, she destroyed that body,” Lena said. “Remember?”
“Did she?” Violet asked. “Because when we were all in the Shadow Realm together, it very much looked like you had a body.”
“Yeah, but that—” Lena blinked, frowning. “I never thought about that. She must’ve banished my body to the Shadow Realm when she dismissed me, but because I held onto Webby, it went without me. Or… something.”
“The exact mechanics don’t particularly matter. We just need to get you into that body while you’re separated from Webby, then move that independent, embodied version of yourself back into our own plane of reality,” Violet explained. “I simply don’t know how we would do that. Perhaps we could open a direct portal to the Shadow Realm?”
“What? No, no no no. Bad idea,” Lena said, shaking her head. “There’s a lot of shit in the Shadow Realm that would love to get out into our world, and we absolutely cannot let that happen. Even if we could manage to open the portal—which, I don’t know if we could—we’d be overrun by tons of monsters and demons and shit. No way we could fight them all off.”
“C’mon, Lena, I bet we could do it!” Webby chirped. She’d scooched closer, forgoing her spell practice to listen in on their conversation. “We’ve both got magic now, and we’re super duper strong! We could take on a few shadow demons.”
“Pink, this wouldn’t be like all the other stuff we do,” Lena stressed. “The entities in the Shadow Realm are on a different level.”
“Which is perfect!” Webby exclaimed. “Ever since I learned magic, and you got your magic back, all the adventures have been so boooooring. I mean, remember what happened with Gandra Dee?”
Lena thought back.
One Month Ago
Lena felt like she was going to die from secondhand embarrassment as she watched Huey and Webby try to serve dinner to an incredibly and very obviously uncomfortable Fenton and Gandra. It wasn’t long before Fenton excused himself to ‘talk to his interns’, leading Huey and Webby (and, by extension, Lena) off towards the ‘kitchen’ where the spaghetti was waiting. Out of Gandra’s sight, Lena manifested herself, throwing herself up onto one of the walls.
“This is a disaster!” Fenton hissed at them. “She's not into romantic accoutrement, she's into science!”
“But how are you going to hit things off without the correct mood!” Huey protested. “Trust me, this is all set up for maximum success potential!”
“Exactly! This date is gonna be flawless,” Webby said, pumping a fist. “Right, Lena?”
“Yeah, no, this is hard to watch,” Lena said flatly.
“What? Lenaaaa!” Webby cried.
“Fenton, you need to get back to Gandra,” Huey urged. “You can’t leave her waiting!”
“I need to get rid of all this junk first!” Fenton grumbled, ripping some of the decorative paper hearts off of the ceiling.
Huey made a high-pitched stressed-out noise, and Lena let out a sigh. “Look, I’ll go check on Gandra and tell you if she starts, like, shoving the breadsticks into her purse and running away, or whatever.”
“Okay. Would you? Thanks,” Huey said.
“Is this spaghetti tied together?!” Fenton exclaimed as Lena slid away across the floor, heading back towards the dining table.
Except Gandra wasn’t there anymore. Because of course she wasn’t.
“I told them it was a sucky plan,” Lena mumbled to herself. “Now where’d she—”
She turned at the sound of someone yelping in shock, followed by a strangled half-scream. Swooping around a nearby corner, she caught sight of Gandra standing over Gyro’s unconscious body, a grimace on her face and a phone wedged between her cheek and her shoulder. “It’s fine, Beaks . I’ll get the stupid code; just be patient.”
Of fucking course, Lena thought as Gandra hung up the phone. As she turned to go back to the table, Lena stepped out from the wall, a shadowy sneaker falling against the laboratory floor. “Hey.”
Gandra screamed, scrambling backwards. “Jesus fucking fuck what the hell are you?!”
“Wow. Rude,” Lena said. She brought up one arm, shadows rolling off her sweater in dusty, immaterial waves, and the amulet in her core pulsed, sending an eerie purple glow throughout her body. “And I’ll be asking the questions here, thanks.”
Gandra snarled, rushing forward and slamming the palm of her hand on Lena’s chest; electricity crackled, but Lena didn’t feel a thing. She smirked, and Gandra’s eyes widened with a hint of fear as shadowy tendrils shot out from Lena’s body, lashing themselves around Gandra and immobilizing her.
“Shit,” she grumbled, struggling fruitlessly against the magical bindings. “Just so you know, my soul probably tastes awful, so you should just let me go, okay?”
“Nah, don’t worry. I’m not really a soul-eating kinda gal.” Lena leaned forward, leering down at Gandra. “But I’m always down to expand my horizons, so why don’t you tell me more about this password that Mark Beaks wants before I change my mind, yeah?”
“Ugh, who knew eldritch horrors could be such utter assholes. Beaks could’ve told me Scrooge had a fucking shadow demon on the payroll,” Gandra spat. “Fine, whatever, you win. Working for him was a stupid idea anyway. He’s super not worth dying for, so if you just promise not to hurt me then I’ll tell you everything you need to know to stop his utter dumbfuck plan before it even starts. Okay? Win-win.”
“Deal,” Lena said.
“Yeah, I’m glad I managed to stop that one in its tracks,” Lena said. “I feel like that could’ve been a whole thing, you know?”
“But it could’ve been so fun if it had been a whole thing!” Webby groaned, throwing her hands into the air. “There haven’t been any good adventures lately!”
Lena rolled her eyes. “This is just like that thing with Donald’s mail all over again. Except this time, instead of beating the shit out of some anger management counselor, you want to unleash a horde of monstrous shadow creatures.”
“What about the bearwolf we had to fight off last week?” Violet asked. “I thought the bearwolf was a lovely time.”
“I thought we agreed not to talk about the bearwolf,” Lena said darkly.
Webby just sighed. “The bearwolf was fine, I guess, but it’s just… guh, you know? Guh!”
“Well, sadly, I’m still not entirely sure myself how to make this work,” Violet admitted. “It’s only a few loose threads at the moment—I’m missing the crucial piece to tie it all together. I’ll need to do further research.” She closed her book and stood. “Perhaps on my own, however. My fathers shall not look kindly upon me if I am late to dinner again.”
“Oh, okay!” Webby said. “See you later, Violet!”
“Yeah, see ya,” Lena echoed. Then she perked up, eyes widening slightly as she curled around the wall to get closer to Violet. “Oh—and you’re coming to the sleepover on Friday, right?”
Violet smiled. “Of course. I’ll see you then.”
When Friday came, Lena, Webby, Violet and the triplets were all camped out in Webby’s room, enjoying a variety of sleepover-y activities. As Webby and Huey did some sort of scrapbooking activity in one corner, Lena spectated a pillow fight between Dewey and Louie.
“Dew—ow!” Louie cried as one of Dewey’s pillows thwapped him hard in the side of the head. “Jeez, not so hard!”
“There is no mercy in a pillow war!” Dewey declared, gripping his weapon in both hands and swinging it roundhouse at Louie.
Louie yelped and ducked, and the pillow whizzed over his head, causing Dewey to spin off-balance a little. “Ha-ha! It seems your hubris is your downfall, Dewford!”
“That is so ironic coming from you,” Lena snarked as Louie slammed his pillow into Dewey’s back.
Dewey let out a soft ‘oomf’ as he fell over onto his sleeping bag, but quickly got up, face red with exertion and adrenaline as he gave Louie a determined look. “Ha! Come on, is that all you got?”
“Uhhh.” Louie looked unsure. “Ye—nooo…?”
Dewey let out a warcry and charged him, and Louie screamed, trying to slip away to another part of the room.
Lena left them to it, sweeping across the floor towards Violet, who had her beak buried in a book. She didn’t even notice Lena’s approach until she cleared her throat, at which point she looked over with a single, curt jerk of her neck. “Lena. Greetings.”
“Yeah, greetings,” Lena said skeptically. “Are you seriously studying during a sleepover?”
“You should know by now that social functions are not my forte,” Violet said. “Besides, I am tantalizingly close to cracking this conundrum. I am hanging on the edge of discovery; knocking on the threshold of progress; teetering on the rocky precipice of enlightenment, even. I just need to find that final missing piece of the puzzle.”
“Okay, well… maybe if you take your mind off of it for a sec, it’ll help you teeter that precipice even harder, or whatever,” Lena said. She gestured to their friends behind her. “Clear your head and all. I mean, shit, Vi, how long have you been hitting the books? Have you even been getting enough sleep?”
“I’ve gotten a perfectly acceptable eight hours,” Vi said. She frowned. “…Total. This week.”
“Vi!”
“I cannot simply abandon a research project like this so close to its completion!” Violet stressed. “I just need a little more time.”
Lena sighed. “Okay, well, you do you, nerd. But can you just give me, like, five minutes? I’ve… got something I want to do real fast. It’s the reason I wanted to have a sleepover today.”
Violet considered this for a second before glancing down at her book, resting a single finger below the page number, and then closing it, setting it off to the side. “Of course.”
Lena smiled. “Thanks.” She slipped away from Violet, scaling up one of the walls and spreading across the ceiling of Webby’s room, cupping her hands around her beak. “Hey, ghost butler dude!” she called out. “You around?!”
A few seconds later, Duckworth materialized in the room, floating at a perfect ninety-degree angle so that he was eye to eye with Lena on the ceiling. “‘Duckworth’ will suffice, Miss Lena.”
Lena waved him off. “Yeah yeah, whatever—can you go tell Colonel Crumpet that it’s time for the thing?”
“The… thing?” Duckworth repeated, his lip curling.
“Yeah, the thing,” Lena said. “She’ll know what I mean.”
Duckworth rolled his eyes derisively, but gave a “Very well” nonetheless, floating away.
“Lena?” Webby asked, looking up at her in confusion. “What was that about?”
“Right, so, uh—” Lena looked between all of them for a few seconds before putting out a hand. “Wait, okay, one sec. I need to grab something.”
She raced across the ceiling to the trapdoor and slid through the cracks into Webby’s loft, where she rose out of her shadow into her full-body form. She got down on her hands and knees and pulled a small box out from under the bed, cradling it under one arm, then lifted the hatch open and jumped down back into the main room.
“Okay, so—this is, um.” She swallowed, eyes flicking between her friends and eventually settling on Webby. “This is a little… dumb, but exactly a year ago today is the first time we met. Way back at the amphitheater, remember?”
Webby smiled warmly. “Of course I remember, Lena! It was one of the best days of my life.”
“Yeah, uh—” Lena swallowed. “Yeah, me too. So I wanted to have a sleepover today to celebrate our friendiversary, you know?”
“Friendiversary?” Huey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Friendiversary!” Webby exclaimed, eyes sparkling. “I love that! Aww, Lena!”
She ran forward, practically tackling Lena in a hug. She grunted slightly as she felt her physical form flicker from the sudden assault, but she forced it to hold its ground, hugging Webby back and laughing. “Yeah, Pink, I thought you might.”
“What’s in the box?” Louie asked as Webby pulled away.
Huey elbowed him. “Louie!”
“Whaaaat?” Louie whined, swatting at Huey’s shoulder. “You know I can’t resist a good box!”
“Right. Well.” Lena cleared her throat, taking the lid off the box and pulling out a brightly-colored friendship bracelet. “I was making a replacement bracelet for myself, since Magica made me throw away my old one. But I got a little carried away, so… I kind of made a bunch?” She fired up her magic, and four more bracelets levitated out of the box, floating over to Violet and the triplets. “I know it’s kind of cheesy, and you don’t have to wear them if you don’t want to, but I get really bored while Webby is sleeping sometimes, and making these is pretty relaxing, so—”
“Woah!” Dewey said, smiling wide. “Thanks, Lena! These are great!”
“These are really well woven,” Huey said, admiring his bracelet with a close eye. “You would make a great Woodchuck!”
“Hard pass,” Lena deadpanned.
“Thank you, Lena,” Violet said simply, though she offered a small smile as she pulled on the bracelet. “I’m glad to be your friend.”
Louie stared at his for several seconds, beak pursed, before pulling the bracelet on. He rotated it slowly around his wrist, then met Lena’s gaze for a split second before looking away. “It’s cool, I guess.”
Lena felt her shoulder sag with relief. “Thanks, guys.”
Then there was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Beakley came in, a platter with a chocolate cake in her hands. She gave Lena a kind smile. “One friendiversary cake, as requested.”
“CAKE?!” Dewey exclaimed, his face lighting up.
“Yeah, I was gonna bake it myself, but the kitchen’s too far away from Webby’s room, and I wanted this to be a surprise, and also I kind of suck at baking?” Lena shrugged. “So I got Teatime to do it.” She shot Beakley a nervous glance. “Uh—thanks, by the way.”
“Of course,” Beakley said simply. “You kids have fun.”
As the triplets swarmed the cake, and Violet surreptitiously returned to her reading, Webby sidled up next to Lena, taking her hand in hers and stretching up on the tips of her feet to kiss Lena on the cheek. “You’re the best, Lena. Thanks for all this.”
“C’mon, Pink, I barely did anything,” Lena said. “I didn’t even get you a present or anything.”
“Shut up,” Webby said simply, taking Lena in a hug.
Lena snickered, hugging her back. “Okay, shutting up now.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ve got it,” Violet declared, slamming a book down in front of Lena. She recognized it as Joufeather’s Theory of Planes of Reality.
“Uh, Vi? Hello?” Louie scoffed, annoyed, through a mouthful of cake. “You’re blocking the movie.”
Lena ignored both him and the movie that was blaring on the TV in front of them, seeping up from the shadows to stare down at the pages in front of her. “Got what? What am I looking at?”
“You mean a way to get Lena’s body back?” Huey asked, reaching over and pausing the movie, which elicited groans and mutterings from Louie and Dewey.
“Precisely,” Violet said.
“That’s great!” Webby exclaimed. “What is it?”
Lena, meanwhile, had already begun scanning the page in front of her, to mounting confusion. “Vi, what is this? Dream magic?”
“Indeed,” Violet said, a proud lilt betraying her usual monotone. “The Dream Realm and the Shadow Realm are both parallel dimensions that mirror our own, but in different ways. As they are both close to our world, they share a metaphysical boundary, and, critically, the Veil between the Dream Realm and the Shadow Realm is much thinner than the Veil between our world and the Shadow Realm. It’s our back door.”
Lena’s eyes widened as she scanned over the book again, following Violet’s logic. “That’s… wait, you might be onto something.”
“What? No, that’s ridiculous,” Huey said, scoffing. “There’s no Dream Realm. Dreams are a neurological process that our brains utilize to help process memory.”
Violet placed a hand somberly over her heart. “I, too, once thought as much, Huey, so I suppose I cannot blame you for your foolhardy, stubborn ignorance.”
“Wh—hey,” Huey muttered.
Violet went on undeterred. “But despite all the wonders of modern science, we are nearly entirely unaware of the actual mechanisms through which dreams occur. We may be able to identify the neurological benefits of dreaming, but we don’t know how the brain produces these visions; so, in fact, the idea that we project our consciousnesses into a separate Dream Realm is, as far as I am concerned, the best explanation we have.”
“Wh—no!” Huey protested. “No it isn’t! There’s—but—but science!”
“Some might argue,” Violet said, raising a finger, “that magic is a science.”
“NO!” Huey exclaimed, eyes twitching. “It’s NOT!”
“Dude, are you really gonna argue that dreams aren’t magic?” Louie asked. “I mean, didn’t you think that shadows were just, like, the absence of light, or whatever, and totally scientific? But then, nope, they’re magic!”
Huey looked like he’d just had the wind knocked out of him. “I’d… never actually thought about that.”
“Well, I think the Dream Realm sounds awesome,” Dewey said. “I’m all for this plan.”
“We don’t even know what the plan is,” Webby said, giving him a frown. “Maybe we should actually let Violet explain?”
“Thank you, Webbigail,” Violet said. “The basic summary is as follows: We all fall asleep, and Lena casts a spell to create a shared dreamscape between us, which she will then enter.”
“Sorry, hold up,” Lena interrupted. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“I have the spell prepared for you,” Violet said, pulling another book — The Ten Disciplines for Dummies — out from behind her and opening it to an earmarked page. “Oneiric magic is a subset of Astral magic, which is a sister-domain to Shadow Magic; and these are relatively low-level spells, all things considered. It should be no problem for a caster of your caliber.”
Lena looked at the spell circles in front of her, shadowy mist wafting off her beak as she bit her lip. “If you say so.”
“Normally, when we sleep, only our minds escape to the Dream Realm,” Violet continued. “But since Lena will be entering our dreams through magic, she will disappear from our world and physically enter the Dream Realm. Because she and Webby are inseparable—”
“In more ways than one,” Louie cut in wryly, causing a blush of magic to rise on Lena’s cheeks. “I mean have you seen them cuddling?”
Webby, whose own face was dusted pink, socked him in the shoulder, eliciting a pained whine.
Violet rolled her eyes. “Because Lena and Webby are metaphysically inseparable, Lena entering the Dream Realm will also pull Webby into the Dream Realm. The four of us, who will still be asleep, should be able to keep the shared dream stable enough that you two will be able to open a standing portal to the Shadow Realm. Lena will cross to the other side where she’ll have her body, we’ll sever her from Webby, and then the two of them will return to the real world, safe and sound. If the denizens of the Shadow Realm give us any trouble, the triplets and myself, who will be in no real danger other than waking up, will be able to fend them off while Webby and Lena work on getting back home. It’s a much safer and easier option than opening a portal directly between our world and the Shadow Realm.”
Lena listened intently, searching for any cracks in the plan. “I’ve… gotta hand it to you, Vi. This seems pretty sound. The only issue is if we run out of magic before we can make the return trip—you’re talking about four, maybe five major spells that neither of us have attempted before in quick succession.”
“The ambient magic levels in the Dream Realm are some of the highest in any dimension,” Violet said. “It shouldn’t be a problem. We can also give you some time to recuperate your magic after the initial oneiric spells before opening the portal, should you require it.”
“Have I ever told you how amazing you are, Violet?” Webby asked, eyes wide and awed. “Because you’re amazing. This is amazing. You actually did it! You found a way to get her body back!”
“Yeah,” Lena said. “Like, we only met a little over a month ago. You didn’t have to do any of this. Thanks.”
Violet gave them a satisfied smile. “I aim to please. And no need to thank me; it’s been a while since a project has challenged me in this way.”
“Wow, this is gonna be so cool!” Dewey exclaimed, clenching his fists. “Are we doing it tonight?”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Violet said. “It seems fitting, given the occasion. Assuming everyone is up for it.”
“If it’s to help Lena, then of course,” Huey said. He pointed a finger at Violet. “But if the Dream Realm isn’t a real thing, I get to say I told you so.”
“Mmhmm,” Violet hummed, unbothered.
“Yeah, sure, why not?” Louie shrugged. “An adventure where I get to sleep during the adventure sounds pretty great, honestly.”
Webby turned. “Lena?”
Lena was quiet for a few seconds, looking down at herself—the smoky, half-there material of her sweater, and the intersection against the carpet where it turned into a smooth black shadow that linked up to where Webby was sitting a few feet away. Then she looked up, her sharp, solid blue eyes meeting Violet’s deep purple gaze. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”
Much later that night, Lena was poring over the spells that Violet had picked out, committing them to memory. Once she was confident, she looked up, casting her gaze across the room and the five slumbering figures tucked up in sleeping bags on the floor. “Alright. I think I’m ready. I’m going in.”
From the door, Scrooge, Beakley, and Della looked at her, but their expressions were hard to make out in the dark.
“And you’re sure this is safe, lassie?” Scrooge asked.
“Aw, c’mon, old man,” Della said, nudging him with her elbow. “Since when have you been so obsessed with safety? You’re an adventurer!”
“Well, having one of my kids steal an untested rocket without supervision and get lost on the moon for ten years changed my perspective on a few things,” Scrooge said.
“Low blow, dude,” Della said, crossing her arms.
“Scrooge, you took the triplets to Atlantis the day you met them,” Beakley said flatly.
“Yes, where I could keep an eye on them!” Scrooge protested. “They weren’t gallivanting off into some unknowable dreamscape.”
“Well, that’s why I wanted you guys here,” Lena said. “So you could keep an eye on us. Bail us out if things go south.”
“And we appreciate your trust, Lena,” Beakley said resolutely, giving Scrooge a side-eye.
“You got this, kiddo,” Della said, punching out a fist. “Sock those dream demons in the face!”
“I’m pretty sure dream demons aren’t a thing,” Lena said. “Look, Violet knows her stuff. It should be fine.”
“If you say so,” Scrooge said warily. “But at the first sign of trouble, we’re stepping in, okay?”
“Please do,” Lena said. “Trust me, the last thing I want is anyone getting lost to the Shadow Realm or something like that. But we’ve been researching this for over a month now, and this is the only lead we have, so I have to try.”
“We understand,” Mrs. Beakley said, giving her a nod. “Good luck, Lena.”
Lena nodded back, then closed her eyes and concentrated, rising up from her shadow into a more solid form. Her magic flashed, pulling from the amulet and her own natural reserves, and she enveloped herself in a cool glow that steadily warmed into a creamy-pink color. She chanted out the incantation, the words twisting out of her beak in a language that wasn’t meant to be spoken by mortal tongue, and a glitter of pink light began to pour out of the ears of the five sleeping kids around her, gathering up into an amorphous cloud of dream-stuff that became more and more solid as Lena’s magic grew. Then she clapped her hands together, eyes flashing brilliantly, and just like that, she vanished from the room, along with the dream-cloud and Webby’s sleeping body.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Scrooge mumbled into the quiet darkness, sighing and adjusting his hat.
When Lena reappeared in the Dream Realm, she was casting onto the rotting wooden floorboards of the old amphitheater, the waves of the ocean licking up at the beach around them.
Webby was standing over her, looking around. “Oh. You brought us back here?”
“Yeah. The book said it’s easier to anchor a shared dream in a familiar location, and, well… I was living here for a good few years before you met me, so it’s pretty familiar.”
“Well, I like it,” Webby said, giving her a smile. “This is where we met! Perfect for our friendiversary, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” Lena said with a smile. She rose out of her shadow, standing up. “Sucks that I’m still stuck like this even in my dreams, though, huh?”
“Because you aren’t actually dreaming,” Violet said, approaching them from behind. She was wearing some sort of wizard robe, and had a few books floating magically in the air around her. “The two of you are awake, but physically located within the Dream Realm. Completely different situation.”
“So are you just… dreaming those books into existence?” Lena asked.
“Indeed. I happen to have frequent lucid dreams, so I am rather familiar with their malleability. Sadly, I can only reproduce book passages that I have fully memorized, so I’ll admit it’s more aesthetic than anything else.”
Suddenly, the trapdoor in the floor of the amphitheater flew open, and Louie clambered out onto the stage, coughing up clouds of dust. “Ugh… Jeez, Lena, you need to vacuum your room sometime.”
“I was homeless,” Lena said flatly.
“Why couldn’t you have waited a few minutes to pull us over here?” Dewey complained as he followed his brother out of the hatch. Huey came up behind him, dusting off his hat before setting back on his head. “I was in the middle of this great dream—I was in high school, and—”
“You dream of being a high schooler?” Louie asked skeptically. “That’s sad.”
“Well, what were you dreaming about, then?” Dewey challenged.”
“In my dream, I was about to have a nap. So don’t you talk to me about getting interrupted!”
Dewey threw up his hands. “Why were you taking a nap? You’re already asleep!”
“You can always be more asleep, Dewey.”
“Will you two stop?” Huey asked, exasperatedly. Dewey and Louie grumbled under their breath, but gave it up. Huey turned to Lena, Webby, and Violet. “I guess the dream spells worked after all, then.”
“Looks like it!” Webby chirped.
“What was it you said you’d tell me, Huey?” Violet asked. “Oh, that’s right—I remember.”
She spread out her arms, and ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ appeared in the air above her in big, shining purple letters.
“Yes, Violet, you were right,” Huey said, unimpressed. “Anyway. We need to open that portal, right?”
“Yes,” Violet said. “It should be—”
She cut herself off as the sky above them abruptly went dark, shrouding them all in a sudden artificial night—but just as soon as it happened, things went back to normal.
“Well that was ominous,” Louie murmured.
“I’m sure that’s fine,” Webby said, though her unshakable optimism seemed a little shaken. “That’s fine, right, Lena?”
“I have no idea what that was,” Lena muttered, narrowing her eyes at the sky. She peered around, scanning the scenery with a scrutinous eye. “Something’s not right.”
“Did you mess up when casting the spell or something?” Dewey asked nervously.
“I—I don’t know. Maybe.”
“It would appear this shared dream isn’t as stable as we would like it to be,” Violet said.
Huey wrung his hands together. “That’s… not good. Should we call this off?”
“We can’t!” Webby protested.
“We’ll just need to work quickly,” Violet said. “Lena, Webby; the portal.”
“Right,” Lena said, pushing down the eerie feeling in her core. “You remember your part of the spell, Webby?”
“Of course!” Webby gave a determined smirk, raising her hands as her bracelet began to glow a pure blue. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”
Lena nodded, then melted back down into the shadows. “Stand back, everyone,” she instructed.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Louie mumbled, backing away nearly to the edge of the amphitheater.
Once all of them but Webby were standing at a safe distance, Lena summoned up her magic, stretching thin across the planks below her into a single black line. Then she raised upwards, extending out into the air; but instead of shaping into her regular form, she took on a large, rectangular shape, morphing herself into a thin, smooth wall of smoky shadows that stood tall before Webby. Magica’s amulet pulsed in her chest, and veins of sickly purple magic thrummed within the shadows, mana pumping throughout her whole stretched-out body like blood. Her eyes flicked to life on the surface of the smoky film, meeting Webby’s.
“Now?” Webby asked.
In lieu of a beak, Lena blinked once.
“Okay. Here goes.” Webby took a deep breath, and approached Lena, an inky black aura surrounding her hands. She placed her palms over Lena’s core, and Lena could feel Webby’s magic intertwining with hers. Then Webby’s eyes clouded over black, and she began to chant.
“I seek the realm of darker dreams,
To return my umbral half to thee;
With aim to feed your blackened heart,
I command the Veil of Shadows part.”
Lena suddenly felt the familiar, ghostly pull of the Shadow Realm; it seemed to come from all around her yet, at the same time, from no direction she could consciously comprehend. It called to her, whispering sweet nothings throughout every fiber of her being—then she gasped internally as Webby dug the tips of her fingers into Lena’s essence, gripping her shadows and pulling them to either side. As her smoky body parted like a curtain, a torrent of deep purple magic poured out of her, settling into a swirling pool that filled the void space where her shadows once were.
“It’s working!” Violet called. “Keep going!”
Webby let out a grunt of exertion, eyes narrowed in concentration, and then sharply yanked her hands apart. In one second, Lena knew nothing, and then in the next, she was facing Webby, looking out at the amphitheater through a tall, rectangular portal that pulsed and throbbed with purple-black magic. She looked down, and allowed herself a small smile as she was greeted by flesh and feathers instead of smoky shadows. The world around her was filled with a thick, impenetrable darkness—the consuming pure-black void of the Shadow Realm. The only exception was the portal in front of her, and the smiling Webby on the other side; their shadows connected to each other, a matte black stretching out from Webby’s feet and meeting up perfectly with the stark white shadow that Lena was casting on the threshold between the two Realms.
“Violet,” Lena said softly, “you’re a genius.”
“I’m aware,” Violet said. “Now Webby—sever your connection to Lena. Then she can cross back over, and we can get out of here.”
Even as she said it, the world on the other side of the portal flickered. The sky turned dark, and the tall columns at the end of the amphitheater transformed into thick stone bricks for a split-second before everything returned to normal.
“Uhhhhh.” Louie swallowed. “Don’t like that.”
“Maybe hurry, Webby?” Dewey suggested.
“I know, I know!” Webby’s eyes flashed black with more shadow magic, and she reached her hands down to her feet. Her fingers, surrounded with a dark aura, dipped into the shadow, and she pulled it up, peeling it off of the ground.
“Okay, that is not right,” Huey mumbled.
Webby ignored him. She cinched the shadow connecting her and Lena tightly in one fist, then reached her other hand out to the side, her bracelet flashing and a hard-light dagger appearing between her fingers. She readied the blade at the edge of the shadow, and then turned to Violet, eyes hesitant. “You’re sure this won’t hurt her?”
“No,” Violet admitted. “This ritual doesn’t have much precedent, especially not with a sentient shadow. But unless you want her tethered to you for the rest of your lives, it has to happen. It shouldn’t kill her, at least.”
Judging by the look on her face, that hadn’t been the answer Webby had been looking for.
Lena sighed, taking a step forward, right to the edge of the portal. “It’s okay, Webby. I’ll be fine. Just do it.”
“But what if it goes wrong?” she asked, voice small. “What if… what if I lose you?”
“That won’t happen,” Lena assured. “And if it does, I’ll just find my way back, yeah?”
Webby held her eyes, beak pursed. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
Then there was a loud growl from behind Lena—she whipped her head around, but was met only by the expansive darkness of the Shadow Realm.
“Shit,” she breathed. “Quick, quick! Do it!”
“Yeah, uh—here goes nothing!” Webby called. She adjusted her grip on her knife, and then sliced it clean through the shadow; there was a sharp snap, and the two severed ends rushed to Webby and Lena’s respective feet before disappearing entirely.
It also hurt like all hell.
Lena let loose a blood-curdling scream as she writhed in pain—it felt like Webby had just sliced her arm off. The scenery on the side of the portal flickered and shifted with her cry, but she barely noticed, clutching at herself and doubling over, black, viscous tears of liquid shadow pricking at her eyes.
“Lena! Lena, are you okay? Lena!”
Webby’s calls were dull at first, as if coming from a room at the other end of a hallway, but they quickly cleared up as the pain abated, and Lena gasped, straightening herself up and blinking away the tears in her eyes. “God, that fucking sucked,” she rasped out. “I’m okay, I’m okay. Just hurt like hell. What is…”
Her eyes widened as she looked through the portal. The amphitheater and the surrounding beach were gone, replaced with an old, dim castle, with fraying tapestries and elaborate stained-glass windows. A tattered red carpet unfurled up the length of the room, leading to a throne, on which none other than Magica de Spell sat. She grinned down at Lena, a dark glee in her eye.
“Finally,” she announced, standing up from the throne. “Took long enough to get through those pesky psychic barriers, but maybe this piece of junk was worth the money after all.”
“Magica!” Webby accused, clenching her fists and staring down the sorceress. “What are you doing here?!”
“What, I’m not allowed to pay my niece a visit?” She began walking down the carpet towards them, her cloak billowing out behind her. “After all… she has something of mine. And I need it back!”
Lena gasped as something came up from behind her in the Shadow Realm, grabbing her around the arms and holding her back from the portal. “H-hey! Let go!”
“Lena!” Webby cried, eyes wide. She moved to follow Lena inside the portal, but Violet stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“NO! Webbigail, do not go through that portal!”
“But—”
“Listen to the purple one, Webster,” Magica sneered. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just back off and let me get what I need.”
“Leave me alone!” Lena cried, struggling against the shadows that were holding her. “I thought I was done with you!”
“Oh, Lena…” Magica’s voice was sickly sweet. “Done with me? No, no. You’re mine.”
“No she isn’t!” Webby protested. “Go away!”
“Jeez, this is bad,” Louie mumbled, cowering against the far wall.
“How’d she get in here? Isn’t this our dream?” Dewey asked frantically.
“I have my ways, Bluey,” Magica said smugly. “And it’s my dream now! So surrender the amulet, and maybe I’ll consider letting Lena go. Otherwise, I’m afraid she’ll have to live out the rest of time as just another aimless, lost shade in the endless darkness of the Shadow Realm.”
“No, you let Lena go, and maybe I’ll consider not beating you within an inch of your horrid little life!” Webby shouted.
“No, Webby—AGH!” Lena tried to summon up her magic, but then cried out as the shadows pulled harshly on her arms, sending pain shooting through her and snuffing out any spells that she may have been able to call on. “H-how are you even doing this? You shouldn’t have magic!”
“Oh, my sweet, stupid little Lena.” Magica spread her arms wide. “As long as I’m here, I have all the magic I could ever dream of—literally! And if that weren’t enough, you were kind enough to open a portal straight to the Shadow Realm, giving me access to all my lovely little servants. So if you want to live, you’ll GIVE ME THAT AMULET!”
Lena swore under her breath, looking between Magica, Webby, and the others. “Fine! Just… don’t hurt anyone else, okay?”
“Lena, no!” Webby shot her a desperate look. “We—we’ll think of something! We can fight her!”
“No, you can’t,” Lena said. She met Webby’s eye, giving her a loaded look. “None of you can use magic, so you don’t stand a chance. Just stand down.”
Webby looked confused. “What are you talking about? I can…” She trailed off, her eyes widening in understanding. Then she turned to Magica, crossing her arms. “Fine. We’ll give you the amulet, if you’ll let Lena come back with us safely.”
Magica seemed to consider this. “Sure. Why not? Once I have my powers back, I’ll just come to wipe you all out in person. It’ll be so much more fun that way, don’t you think?”
“Then it’s a deal,” Webby said.
“Webby, can we really trust her?” Huey asked softly, twiddling his fingers nervously.
Webby didn’t say anything. Magica smiled triumphantly, and walked past her, approaching the edge of the portal. “Long time no see, Lena,” she taunted. “Look at you, trying to be a person. How quaint.”
“Cut the shit, Magica,” Lena grumbled, pushing down the instinctive fear that Magica’s piercing gaze put in her. “Let me go, and you can have your stupid amulet.”
“As you wish,” Magica said. She gestured with one hand, and the shadows shoved Lena forward—she stumbled through the portal, but barely got a sneaker down before Magica’s hand flashed, and the amulet shot out of Lena’s chest straight into her fingers.
As Lena collapsed onto the floor of the castle, Magica let out a maniacal laugh, clutching the amulet tight. “YES! Finally, my POWER! Once I take this back to the waking world, I can—OW!”
She let out that last part as Webby nailed her in the back of the head with a concentrated blast of mana. She stumbled, and Lena leapt up from the ground, swiping the amulet out of her hands, throwing it around her neck.
“NO!” Magica shouted, her eyes blazing with anger. “SHADES! GET THEM!”
“Yuh oh,” Louie mumbled as a flood of living shadow creatures in all different shapes and sizes stormed out of the portal.
“We need to close that portal!” Huey cried.
“On it,” Violet said, her books circling around her, pages flapping wildly. “The rest of you, buy me some time while I cast the ritual to re-seal the Veil.”
Lena grit her teeth as she pulled from the amulet’s magic, sending explosive blasts and white-hot lasers shooting out at the army of shadows. “Make it quick, Vi!”
As Lena fought off the horde of shadows, she could see Magica and Webby battling in the corner of her eye; they were going fairly even, Magica’s dream-powered magic clashing with Webby’s own spells.
“Since when did you become a sorceress?!” Magica sneered, putting up a shield as Webby summoned a pillar of rock out of the castle floor to bash Magica in the face.
“I’m a warlock!”
“Ugh, whatever. You’ll bleed all the same!”
Lena had to divert her attention away from them, however, as the shadows swarmed her. Most were low-level apparitions: tulpas and lost shades that swiped out at her with shadowy limbs and smoky claws. Those were easy enough to blast away, but it looked like a couple higher order demons had snuck their way through the portal, too, and Lena grunted as a gigantic shadowy hand covered in multicolored eyes slammed into her, sending her rolling.
She managed to push up onto an elbow, and looked up to see a demon with the head of a swan leering down at her, two crudely-cut deep red gemstones where her eyes should be. She raised two long, spindly arms into the air, countless eyes blinking down at Lena from her palms, and laced her fingers together to form a giant fist—but before she could pound Lena into paste, a basketball, of all things, whizzed forward, slamming into the demon’s head and cracking one of the gemstones. She backed off, letting out a piercing, mangled screech, and Dewey appeared next to Lena, catching the basketball’s rebound and dribbling it against the floor.
“Don’t worry, Lena, we got your back!” he said confidently. He was wearing a blue letterman jacket, and had fuller, slicked-back hair. “After all, none of these shadows have anything on the high school heartthrob, Dewey the Popular!”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Lena said, getting to her feet and giving Dewey an odd look. “Thanks, I guess. Also, watch out behind you.”
“What?” Dewey asked dumbly, as Lena raised her hand and shot a laser past Dewey’s head, zapping a tulpa that was sneaking up behind him into scraps of loose magic.
“Don’t worry about it.”
The large swan demon roared, coming in for another pass, but Lena, prepared this time, leapt out of the way of the swing, summoning up a curved hard-light sword in her hand. She launched herself forward with a burst of telekinesis and twirled around, cutting straight through the demon’s neck. She let out a wail, curling her fingers up in pain as the eyes all over her hands went wide and bloodshot, and a second later, poofed into black smoke, which raced away back through the portal.
“Woah, nice!” Dewey commended, throwing out his basketball. It ricocheted between several different shades, causing a loud, fiery explosion with each bounce before landing perfectly back in Dewey’s hands. “Man, dreams are awesome!”
Lena landed back on the ground in the middle of several monsters, letting out a pulse of magic to stun them and then swiftly cutting them all to pieces with her cutlass. She was about to tear into the next group when a metal robot that looked suspiciously like Louie beat her to it, pummeling shadows and blowing them up with bright-green laser beams.
Lena blinked. “Louie?”
“Over here!”
Lena looked over her shoulder, and saw a green cat lounging on the floor a ways away, giving her a lazy wave with one paw.
Lena frowned. “Why are you a cat?”
“Why not?” He responded. “Anyway, that’s a Louiebot. It solves all my problems for me while I get to relax.”
“This is a very frequent dream of yours, I’m guessing,” Lena said flatly as she blasted away a couple more shades.
“Oh yeah,” Louie replied. “Here—take another Louiebot, on the house.” He snapped a claw, and a second robot appeared next to him, rushing into the fray.
Lena rolled her eyes, stabbing a tulpa in the gut and then throwing a mana bomb at a nearby demon that looked like some sort of goat, except with horns growing out of where its eyes and mouth should be. It bleated in anger, trotting away from her, and she was about to chase it down when she heard Dewey cry out from her left.
“WHY?!” he was shouting, despair in his voice. “DEAR GOD, WHY?!”
Lena turned. “Dewey, are you—okay what the fuck, Huey.”
Huey, whose legs had extended to strange and unsettling lengths, crossed his arms defensively. “You guys are just jealous that you can’t be tall like me.”
“HUEY, WHY?!” Dewey continued to shout.
“That’s just wrong, dude,” Lena said.
“Okay, look, I’m not super imaginative, okay?!” Huey protested. “At least I can reach the jars on the highest sheELLLLLLLP ME!”
He screamed as a shadow demon that consisted of a ball of tangled tentacles unhinged its jaw around his head, revealing a ring of jagged, razor-sharp teeth. It clamped its mouth down, and Huey vanished entirely, like a snuffed-out candle.
“Uhhhhhh,” Dewey said.
“He’s fine; he just woke up,” Violet called from behind them, as she set up candles around a spell circle on the floor. “I’m almost ready, by the way. Just hold them off a little longer.”
“Got it,” Lena said, snapping her fingers and watching with satisfaction as a flurry of small magical explosions lit up the air around the floating demon that had just eaten Huey. She followed it up with a concentrated beam of raw arcana right into its open maw, and the demon exploded into black smoke.
She and Dewey directed their attention back to the horde of shadows, where the two Louiebots were hard at work making sure Louie wouldn’t have to lift a finger. Dewey’s basketball shot forward with a concussive speed, bowling over the monsters, and Lena followed in its wake, her magical blade flashing back and forth, accompanied by a few spells here and there to take care of the enemies her sword couldn’t touch. The crowd of shadows was steadily thinning, and as Lena risked a glance over towards Webby and Magica, she was reassured by the sight of Webby delivering punch after kick to Magica’s shields, her fists wreathed in spiked hard-light boxing gloves as bursts of fire, ice, and even constricting vines flew at Magica from all sides.
Then there was a panicked shout from behind her, and she swiveled to see Louie—the real one, the cat one—staring down the goat-demon from earlier, eyes wide.
“Louiebots!” he cried. “Louiebots, kill this weirdo! Oh, god, it’s gonna—”
And then, as the demon rammed into him with several twisted horns all at once, he vanished from the Dream Realm.
“That one’s on him, honestly,” Dewey said as he continued his dribble.
“God dammit,” Lena huffed, twirling around to Violet. “How’s it coming, Vi?”
“I’ve got it,” she declared, standing in the middle of her spell circle with her levitating books circling around her in a flurry. The candles at her feet flared to life, and as she began chanting in Latin, the portal to the shadow realm slowly began to shrink.
“NO!” Magica cried out. She let out a grunt as one of Webby’s fists impacted her face, but she worked through the pain, grabbing Webby by the wrist and hurling her aside, rushing towards Violet and the portal. “I WILL NOT BE DENIED!”
“Oh no you don’t!” Dewey called out, sending his basketball flying towards her; but she absentmindedly summoned a shield with one hand, and the ball bounced directly back where it came from, angling straight for Dewey’s face. “Uh oh,” he muttered, right before the ball slammed into him and they both disappeared.
“Vi, hurry!” Lena called, even as Webby leapt to her feet and chased after Magica, her eyes narrowed in focus.
Violet started chanting faster, the candles burning brighter, and the portal dwindled in the air, nearly fully closed.
“You idiot children are so aggravating!” Magica roared, her eyes clouding with black magic. “But I’ve got one last secret weapon. COME OUT, I COMMAND YOU!”
Lena tried to throw a spell out at Magica to interrupt her, but one of the remaining shades got in the way—Lena’s laser burned through it, dissolving it into loose magic, but it had done its job, and behind it, Magica pulled one last shadow out of the portal before it disappeared with a soft pop. The shadow rose to its feet, staring at Lena with piercing purple eyes; it was in the shape of a young duck, with shoulder-length hair, a skirt, and a hair bow.
Webby’s eyes widened. “Is that…”
“Your original shadow,” Lena breathed.
“Bingo,” Magica said, voice dangerously gleeful. “And let me tell you, Lena, she was not happy to be replaced.”
Lena snarled, the amulet around her neck shining brightly as she blew through the rest of the shades and tulpas in her path, angling for Webby’s shadow. She threw out her hands, twin orbs of volatile magic shooting forward, but Shadow-Webby was faster, sloshing down into the floor and racing under Lena’s feet as a shadow. Lena whirled around, but stumbled as a beam from Magica hit her in the back, and Shadow-Webby took the opportunity to launch upwards from below, catching Lena’s chin in a rough uppercut.
“Hey! We’re not done, Magica!” Webby cried, and as Lena recovered from the hit, she heard the sounds of spells being exchanged behind her.
Lena had barely regained her balance before Shadow-Webby popped back up on her left, angling a roundhouse kick at Lena’s chest. She managed to summon a shield up just in time, Shadow-Webby’s foot rebounding from it with a burst of magical sparks, but she quickly seeped back into the shadows, coming up on Lena’s other side. Lena whirled around and blocked a punch, then slashed out with her sword—but Shadow-Webby made her head and neck incorporeal for a second, and the blade went right through without resistance. Vulnerable, there was nothing Lena could do to stop the punch headed straight for her beak—
Until a book flew in between them, absorbing the hit. Several more followed the first, each one pounding into the side of Shadow-Webby’s head before she was forced to retreat back into the shadows.
Lena turned to where Violet was standing a few feet away, her books swirling around her. “Thanks, Vi. You really saved my—” Lena stopped short as she saw a dark shadow climbing up Violet’s leg. “VI!”
“Drat,” Violet said simply as shadowy hands wrapped around her neck, and with a sharp, ruthless twist, Violet vanished.
Lena fired off another laser, hoping to catch the shadow while she was distracted, but she was too quick, twisting her neck unnaturally to the side to dodge the attack and then sprinting across the ground straight at Lena. Lena readied her cutlass, and in turn, one of Shadow-Webby’s arms warbled, its form shifting from a hand into a tapered sort of blade; they clashed, and the sheer force behind Shadow-Webby’s swing made Lena grunt, pushing her back a step. While their swords were locked, Shadow-Webby shifted her footing, then kicked out, catching Lena in the stomach. She wheezed, then flashed her magic, sending a pulse of energy forward—but Shadow-Webby was already racing under her feet, and she popped up behind Lena to give her a sharp punch to the back of the head.
“Fucking shit,” Lena cried, swinging out behind her and only growing more frustrated as her opponent once again disappeared. She waved a hand to dispel her cutlass, then readied arcane blasts in both her hands, curling her lip as she tracked the shadow swirling at her feet. “Alright, you slippery little bitch. Come on out!”
Shadow-Webby obliged, popping out slightly behind Lena and to her right. Lena was on her like lightning, letting the magic loose from her fingertips, but while one landed true, slamming into Shadow-Webby’s face, she grabbed Lena’s other wrist and nudged it ever-so-slightly to the side, so she was pointing at where Webby was fighting Magica.
“NO!” Lena cried. “Webby, watch out!”
Webby, who was still caught up fighting Magica, barely had time to turn before Lena’s stray magic exploded at her feet. She tumbled through the air, but Magica was quick to catch her, striking her with a beam of magic and sending her flying.
“WEBBY!” Lena cried. She ran forward to catch her, but Shadow-Webby slammed a kick into her back before she got very far, sending her sprawling. Then she let out a grunt as Webby landed directly on top of her.
“Ow,” Lena said.
“Hey,” Webby said. “Thanks for catching me.”
Lena snorted. “Yeah, no problem.”
“You doing alright?” Webby asked as she stood up, helping Lena back to her feet.
“Your shadow has all your combat training,” Lena said simply. “Plus shadow stuff.”
“Oh.” Webby frowned. “That’s not good.”
“Looks like you’ve finally met your match,” Magica said smugly, approaching them. Shadow-Webby was at her side, fists raised and poised for battle. “Now I’ll give you one more chance: give me the amulet.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Lena said easily.
“Perfect,” Magica said, smirking. “Because I cannot wait to kill you.”
Before the fight could start, though, there was a strange buzzing sound from behind them, and Lena turned to see a doorway rippling into existence in the air. Scrooge and the others were on the other side, standing in Webby’s room.
“Lassies!” Scrooge called out, waving them over. “Come on! Quick!”
“Whoops, nevermind,” Lena said. “Gotta go; our ride is here.”
She and Webby took off towards the portal, Magica shouting indignantly after them, a stray laser beam bursting at their feet as they ran.
“Bye, Magica!” Webby cried over her shoulder. “It’s been fun!”
“I am NOT letting you get away!” she yelled, running after them. “Shadow! Stop them!”
They reached the portal in record time, Webby jumping through first into the waiting arms of her grandmother. Lena moved to follow, leaping for the dimensional doorway, but just before she could go through, Shadow-Webby surged up from below her, hooking her arms around Lena’s ankles. At the same time, Webby grabbed her wrist from above, and the two opposing forces tugged her in opposite directions.
“LENA!” Webby shouted, straining against her shadow’s magically-enhanced strength. Violet quickly grabbed Webby around the waist, adding her meager strength to the effort, and the triplets soon joined in too, but it wasn’t until Beakley, Scrooge and Della began pulling that Lena actually started moving towards the portal.
“Come on, kids!” Della cried through grit teeth. “Pull!”
Lena didn’t make it very far, however, before Magica’s telekinesis wrapped around her, counterbalancing the extra strength from the McDucks. “You’re coming with me… where you… belong!” Magica roared, her magic darkening and sweat rolling down her face as she tugged Lena further and further away from her friends.
“HANG ON!” Webby cried desperately, gripping both of Lena’s hands with hers and she pulled. The upper half of her body was spilling over the edge of the portal as they lost more and more ground, but she didn’t let go.
“I’m—I’m trying,” Lena breathed out, feeling like she was about to rip apart at the seams. “I don’t—I don’t know if it’s enough!”
“Come on! Come on!” Louie shouted, his voice high-pitched and panicked. “We’re so close!”
“Webby—ung…” Lena hissed in pain as Shadow-Webby gave her ankles an extra-hard tug. “If—if I don’t make it out, I want you to know—”
“NO! Shut up! Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Webby cried, tears brimming in her eyes. “I told you I wasn’t ever letting go of you again, and I meant it! So don’t you dare give up on me now!”
Lena stared into Webby’s eyes, soaking up the raw love and determination within them, and decided, with all of her being, not to give up. Something sparked between her and Webby’s fingers, and Lena felt a strangely familiar magic begin to grow deep in her core. Her eyes widened as she and Webby began to glow.
“Wh-what’s happening?” Webby asked.
“I don’t know,” Lena mumbled. “But I think we should find out.”
She concentrated on the magic, willing it to build, and all of a sudden she could feel Webby on the other side of her fingertips, feel her magic singing in a beautiful harmony with Lena’s. The glow grew brighter, and brighter, until a pulse of magic rocketed out from Webby’s friendship bracelet. The blast blew away everyone in the real world aside from Webby, sending them flying backwards into a pile of bodies against the wall, and below Lena, it immediately turned Shadow-Webby into a viscous black paste on the throne room carpet and sent Magica reeling. The witch swore to herself as she clutched at her head, and her telekinesis flickered and died. Without any more resistance, Webby’s grip pulled Lena clean through the portal, and they collapsed into a tangled heap on the floor.
“NO!” Magica wailed. “GET BACK HERE WITH MY AMULET, YOU REPUGNANT LITTLE WHELP!”
She clawed her way to the edge of the portal, attempting to drag herself through, but Webby was quicker, jumping to her feet and delivering a hefty kick right to Magica’s jaw. She cried out in pain as she was sent flying backwards, and Webby let out a satisfied huff. “What a jerk.”
Violet rushed forward and slammed her palm down on an open spellbook, and with a quick chant, the portal to the Dream Realm fizzled out, leaving them all alone in the room.
“What was that?!” Huey asked, eyes wide.
“It appeared to be some sort of resonant feedback loop between their two magical signatures,” Violet said.
“Friendship magic,” Webby breathed.
“In… a sense, I suppose,” Violet allowed.
Lena didn’t really hear any of them, too absorbed with the sensation of being… well, of being. She held her hands up to her face, twisting and flexing her muscles with wide eyes. “It… worked.” She laughed. “It really worked. I’m… I’m here.”
“You’re here,” Webby echoed, leaning forward and taking Lena in a tight hug. “We did it.”
“We did it!” Dewey exclaimed, rushing forward and latching onto the group hug. From there, it wasn’t long until everyone else piled on as well; Webby laughed breezily, squeezing Lena even tighter, and Lena just let herself be hugged, reveling in the warm body heat around her. She’d nearly forgotten what it felt like; she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed something as simple as warmth.
She buried her face in Webby’s shoulder, and let herself cry.
Miles away, in a swamp on the outskirts of Duckburg, Magica’s eyes snapped open on her bed, the strange metal contraption on her head sparking and smoking. She snarled, taking it off and slamming it against the floor of her hut.
“Stupid piece of worthless trash,” she huffed, crushing it under her heel. With a growl, she walked over to the wall of her hut, and added another tally mark.
Some Time Later
“So,” Webby asked. “Did you really hotwire this limo?”
Lena chuckled, looking out at the long, dark roads in front of them as she loosely guided the steering wheel with one hand. Scrooge’s limousine handled smoothly; it barely made a noise as it sped along over the asphalt, the sunset in front of them splashing orange and lilac watercolors across the far horizon.
“Nah,” Lena said eventually. “Just nabbed the keys off Launchpad. Hope it’s still romantic enough for you.”
“It’s perfect,” Webby said softly. “How’s living with Violet, by the way?”
“She keeps trying to run experiments on me,” Lena said flatly. Then she smiled. “Other than that, though, it’s been great. Ty and Indy are, like, the nicest people ever. They’re normal, too, which, like—no offense, but I really needed some normal after all of the everything that has been my cumulative existence.”
“I’m really glad you’re happy with them,” Webby said. “It sounds like a great fit.”
“Yeah. It’s been pretty sweet.”
Webby leaned over from the passenger’s seat, resting her head on Lena’s shoulder. “You’ll always have a home in the Manor, too. If you ever need it.”
“Yeah, I know,” Lena said softly. “Trust me, the old man made that abundantly clear.”
Webby hummed. “He still feels bad. If he’s a little overbearing, that’s why.”
“Yeah, I know. I appreciate it, actually. His punchability factor has gone way down recently.”
She pulled the car to a stop, pressing a knuckle into the ignition button and letting the engine settle down. They were on a tall cliffside west of the city, overlooking the beach; the sand was a pale pink under the light of the setting sun, and the ocean was alight with little stars, sparkling and twinkling in reds and yellows and lavenders.
There was a soft buzz, and Webby pulled out her phone. “It’s Granny,” she said. “She wants to know where I am.”
“Well, a promise is a promise, Pink,” Lena said, taking Webby’s phone in her telekinesis and shoving it into the glove compartment. “We stole the limo, we drove out to the beach even though I don’t have a license, we’re out past your curfew, and Old Miss Fizzy Drink Dispenser is wondering where you are. Only one thing left, right?”
“She’s gonna totally kill us when we get back,” Webby muttered.
Lena smirked. “A shame; I just got this body. I guess if you want to cut your losses and head back now, we cooooould…”
“Shut up, you beautiful idiot,” Webby mumbled, reaching over and grabbing Lena’s cheeks between her hands. Before Lena could open her beak for a retort, Webby had pulled it down onto her own, and Lena quickly lost herself in the kiss. Soon, it was all lips on lips and hands twisting between feathers and the cupholders awkwardly biting into Lena’s ribcage, but who the hell cared, really, as Lena’s fingers brushed through Webby’s hair and the whole world was set aflame on the tip of her tongue.
The hazy warm light from the sunset intermingled with a growing, vibrant blue luminance building up inside the limo. As Lena felt their magic hum together in a powerful, radical concordance, and as their kiss deepened, she knew that even if they weren’t literally bound together any longer, it hardly made a difference—because they would always have each other. They were right where they needed to be.