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Louie couldn't sleep
That wasn´t new, he had suffered insomnia for a long time, but he could usually lie still in his bed, playing on his phone until sleep finally caught up him, now he couldn't do that.
He was restless, in a way he hadn't felt in a long time, he was very tired, but he just couldn't sleep and he knew his conscience wouldn't leave him anytime soon.
He was happy to have saved his inheritance and his Uncle Scrooge in the process, but something felt wrong, like things weren't supposed to end that way.
He wondered if he felt like a lawyer when, knowing that his client was guilty, he had to defend him and ended up winning the case.
The feeling was very uncomfortable, it didn´t leave him alone and he did not realize how much he was moving, which eventually woke up his brothers.
They were both very tired, they had been chasing his pets all day, so they didn't say much, they just slid into his bed, leaving Louie in the middle and hugging him, trying to comfort his baby brother, in a few seconds they were already asleep.
In general, that worked, Louie always felt better when his brothers were close to him, but this time it wasn't work, somehow, it made everything worse.
Because that reminded him of what others had lost and how unfair it all was.
0o0o0o0
A week later Louie knew he couldn't continue like that.
He felt bad, his chest felt tight, he couldn't see his brothers without guilt and fear running through him, now everything just felt bad.
He felt guilty for defending Scrooge without being sure if he deserved it, for being an accomplice to a terrible act that had cost someone so much, and afraid that his brothers would find out and be disappointed of him, or worse, that Magica wanted revenge and take his brothers away from him.
Now he also had his family all worried, they had realized how little he slept and how nervous he was all day, that was also unfair, his family shouldn´t feel bad for him when it was all his fault, it was his problem for sort out.
(and Scrooge, but that was a matter of him with his conscience, Louie was not going to get in there)
So he did what he did best, make plans, think carefully about how to fix the situation as much as possible, he had many resources and people with different abilities at his disposal, he could do this.
0o0o0o
Ok, this was more difficult than he thought it would be.
There were too many variables and too many ways for his plan to go wrong, even if he achieved his goal, it could all come back to him and end up hurting his family.
The worst thing was that, like Louie's Eleven, he depended too much on the help of others, but this time most had no reason to help, in fact, they had many reasons to stop him. But he still had to try.
His main objective was to reunite Magica with Poe, that in itself was a great challenge, Poe had been lost years ago, turned into a crow that could be anywhere in the world, that if he was still alive.
And then return he to his original form
It was not his intention at first, he had thought to find the crow and give it to Magica, but she could only return he to normal, according to her, with Scrooge's number one dime, if he returned Poe as a bird, she would turn crazy to get that coin and it could end in tragedy.
So, he had to return him to his natural form.
A good plan has its parts well defined, so he got some books, Webby's material for making boards, and went to one of the more secluded rooms in the mansion to start work. The first thing was to investigate how to find a raven among thousands, the best scenario was that Poe, even as a crow, would have retained some of his magic, there he would only need a magic seeker to help him identify him among the millions of ravens in the world.
Louie sighed, even with a magic tracker that he didn't know where to draw from, he would need to go nest by nest of crows looking, it would take years.
Unless he could increase the tracker's range.
He did not know if that was possible with a magic tracker, but he remembered seeing with his brothers a movie where a strange giant marshmallow creature increased the tracker to find another strange creature with a mask in a crowded city, maybe it could be done, but then he would need the help of Gyro or Fenton, ideally having Huey on his side, he could convince them.
He would also need Violet or Lena, they could inform him about the possibility of returning Poe to normality, although he sensed that they would not like it.
He wishes he could keep as many people out as possible, he knew they were going to try to stop him, but he couldn't stop, he would have to think about how to make them see his point, he just needed time.
"What are you doing?" He had been so focused that he didn´t notice when the door open, letting his brothers see his board full of crows’ information. Well, he didn't have time anymore, he would have to improvise. He sigh
"Sit down" he invite them, Huey and Dewey took a place on the floor near their little brother, sharing confused looks, the situation was very rare. The three of them were silent, Dewey did not resist it long
"Soooo, New love for crows?" It was a stupid attempt at a joke, but it helped Louie to relax, this was why he was going to do all that complicated plan in the first place, he loved his brothers, they were a part of himself, losing them was unimaginable, he couldn´t wish it to anyone ,not even his worst enemy, or stay on the sidelines while someone is suffering that because of his family.
"I never told you the details of what happened in the karmatic court we went to with Uncle Scrooge"
"He said that you were great and that you defeated all his enemies again, just using your words and your cunning mind" Dewey said confused, it seemed that everything was great, he didn´t know why Louie could be felling wrong about that.
"Yes, that is a summary of what happened, but there is much more, I learned a lot about Scrooge's life, how he made his enemies in search of treasures and power, in general I agree on how things ended, they deserve it, but there is a detail that I cannot forget and I cannot remain calm without solving it.
"You've been worried about that for more than a week, why didn't you tell us anything?" Huey asked calmly
"you´re going to think I'm crazy and try to stop me" his older brother put a hand on his shoulder, Dewey also moved closer to him.
"If we try to stop you it is because we care about you and want to protect you, it will never be to hurt you" Huey smiled affectionately "besides, you have the gift of words, I'm sure you can convert us to anything"
"Yes, dude, also, about the crazy thing, don't worry, everyone in this family is in one way or another" Louie laughed and began to tell them the story of Magica, how she was totally evil, but she had offered everything to Scrooge for getting his brother back and he just ignored her, leaving Poe to be lost forever.
"He was her family, her twin, Magica has been looking for him for years without success, I know that she is evil and that everything can go very wrong, but I want to try" he finished, his brothers looked at him indecisively "come on guys, we know what to lose to his twin for ten years made Uncle Donald, we know what it's like to wait for a lost family member to come back and we are triplets. Can you imagine one of us disappear like that? " all three shuddered, the older ones still looked indecisive, Dewey surrendered first again
"I think I understand why you want to do this Lou, I swear I do, she is evil, but she didn´t deserve to lose her family like that, nobody deserves it" he sigh "but why do you think we are going to be successful when she can´t found him in all these years?
“I don't know Dew, but we are the Duck family, we have many resources, many friends, we have defied the impossible hundreds of times and won. Why would it be any different now?” Dewey smiled
"So I'm with you dude, what do you say Hue?
"I say that you are both crazy and I don´t know how I keep ended up involved in these things" his brothers looked at him hopefully "I do not know if this will work out, there are too many variables... but we will solve it together" he smiled at his brothers who threw themselves excitedly to him "ok, ok, okay, tell us what you got Louie"
"The truth is that I don't have much yet" he scratched his head and went to the board, "I found out that the town where it happened is an hour south of here, is a town that has grown up with raising goats" he shuddered, his brothers did not understand it, but they let it pass "I read that crows don't move too much, they eat almost everything and live in large groups, looking for it could well be like looking for a needle in a haystack"
"but?" Louie turned to his older brother with a smile.
"But Poe was a sorcerer, maybe he still has some magic in him, if we can get something that tracks magic, maybe it would be easier, and if we get something that increases the power of the tracker, it would be much easier" Dewey jumped excited instead
"like in the movie about a marshmallow being a doctor?"
"Yes, something like that" Louie laughed at the emotion of his brother, this was much funnier with them there "then we would just have to catch him and return him to normal" his brothers looked at him surprised, he didn´t let them reply "if we return him like a raven, Mágica will go crazy trying to get the first dime from Scrooge, it is better to give him normal and just avoid that problem "
"I hate to say it, but you're right" Huey rubbed his eyes, Louie almost felt sorry for he "your plan is possible Louie, crazy, but possible, the problem is the consequences, What if Poe and Magical decide to take revenge and come after us together?"
“I can't assure that that won't happen Huey, but I want to believe that giving back Poe would make things between us easier, we have also defeated her before, when she had all her powers and we didn´t have a powerful sorceress on our side, if they come after us we will stop them "
"That brings us to another problem, the only one who maybe know how to return Poe to normal is Lena, do you really think she will want to help us do Mágica a favor? Louie shrugged
"I'll convince her" Huey sighed, his head was starting to hurt.
"We will need the help of Violet or Webby first, if there is an artifact that tracks magic they will know it" Louie began to play with his hands nervously, that was the difficult part
“I already thought about it, but I don't think any of them want to do it, especially Webby, they know what Magica is capable of and they have seen her hurt someone they love, I don't see how I could convince Webby to put that resentment aside and help.” Suddenly there was a metallic noise and the three of them jumped in fright when the ventilation door opened.
"Maybe saying please"
"Webby!"
"What are you doing here!?"
"How much have you heard !?
"Don't hit me please!"
Webby came out of the ducts and sat on the floor with her brothers "I was worried about Louie and I saw you come into this room so I decided to follow you, I have been here the same as you two and no, Louie, I am not going to hit you" she sighed and the boys approached her, curious "when you said what you wanted to do I thought it, but you're right, what happened was unfair and keeping it like that won't fix anything, I know I'm an only child but since you arrived I really know what it's having a family and siblings and I couldn't live without any of you "
"Thank you Webbs" Louie hugged his sister, the other two joined quickly
"Oww is fine, and before your next question, the answer is yes"
"yes what?"
"yes, I know where there is a magic tracker, there is one in the bin that is under the mansion"
"Wait, is there another bin under the mansion !?" Louie screamed, Huey looked at him confused for a moment before realizing
"Right, you weren't here the day we were trying to make the mansion safer, yes there is another bin, it's huge and has all the dangerous things that Uncle Scrooge has found over the years."
"Oh well, that saves us time, Webby you and Dewey get the artifact without the adults noticing, Huey talks to Fenton to find out if there is a possibility of expanding the scope of the tracker I will talk to Lena" he ordered, his brothers agreed, but Webby looked worried
"Are you sure you should talk to Lena? She may not take the idea very well.” Louie ran his hands through his hair
"Yes, sure, Lena could be angry but I was the one with the idea, if she wants to yell at me, she can do it"
0o0o0o
To Louie's surprise, Lena didn´t yell at him or turn him into a goat when he told her his plan, she just sat resignedly on the lawn that surrounded the mansion, where they had agreed to meet.
"It will not be easy Green, even with my magic and hers there is a lot of power that is needed to undo a spell so strong and old, I would have to do the spell with Magica and even then it would take a ritual to make things easier and I don't know anything about that, maybe Violet can help"
"Wait, are you really going to help us?
“Look, I'm not excited to help Magica, she's an evil witch, who had me as her shadow (literally) for years, but you're right, she loved her brother and losing him put her in a hole of revenge and sadness, she never get over it, when she wasn't plotting his revenge against Scrooge she was looking for him, but being a shadow doesn't help much, if you can find him, I'll help him get back to normal "
"Thank you Lena"
0o0o0o
"Huey, did you call me?" Louie met with his brothers in Webby's room, it had been a few days since they started his plan and Huey had finally managed to get the magic tracker working with the amplifier, now they could go out to find Poe.
Yes, everything is ready to go, but Louie, this artifact is not magic, even with the greatest range it can take us a long time to find Poe, if we can.
"Yes man, the more numbers and data says Huey the more impossible it seems, we would need all the luck in the world to achieve it"
"I’m glad you said that" Louie moved from the door revealing Gladstone Garner of all people "I already took care of that"
0o0o0o
"How did you convince him to help us?" Huey asked in a whisper to his younger brother, the five ducks were in a big and comfortable car owned by a man who offered them a ride on the road, something they would never have accepted if it weren't for his uncle that happened all the time.
"I reminded him of the whole Macaw thing and when he lost his luck and Magica technically helped him or something like that" he replied calmly "besides, it's not like he had anything better to do"
Webby shifted uncomfortably in his seat, watching the driver suspiciously “and are we sure getting in this car was a good idea? I mean we don't even know where we are going.
"Relax, it's part of the plan, we're using Uncle Gladstone's luck to our advantage, this car is taking us exactly where we need to go"
"I hope that place is close, if we take too long the adults will start to suspect"
"Again, relax Dewey, everything will be fine" Louie said and settled into his seat, pretending to sleep, the others just shrugged hoping he was right.
The truth is that Louie was as insecure as they were, his plans used to be focused on logic, with clear objectives and steps to take, but now everything was trusting on how rare his family was, with their luck, magical artifacts, mad science and ancient spells, he could not assure that things would go well.
Also, even if everything went well and they found Poe and the ritual that Lena and Violet had prepared worked, Mágica's reaction would still be lacking, there were too many things uncertain and much to lose if things ended badly.
But four nervous ducklings wouldn't do any good, so he kept quiet, trying to make others feel the confidence he didn't feel.
And when an hour later the car broke down just outside a forest full of crows Louie allowed himself to really smile a little.
0o0o0o
"Sooo ... how does this work again?" Gladstone asked moving the device around, it was a large cube with a screen that had the magic tracker inside, Dewey had said that the design lacked style, but they did not have time to worry about that
Huey sighed, squeezing his beak with his fingers, trying to stay calm "just point at the forest and hit the green button, it's not that difficult" Gladstone looked at him annoyed
"It's not my fault that your plans are so complicated, besides Lou never told me why the hell you want to identify a stupid crow" he growled, but he did what they told him
Huey approached his younger brother "Lou, I know you have faith in this" Louie almost, almost laughed, but he resist "but it is impossible that this work, Poe could be anywhere in the world and even dead, I know you feel bad for Magica, but you can't let this consume you too, you have to be able to move on if this doesn't work out ”Louie was about to reply to his brother when his uncle interrupted them
"Hey, Red hat, this is blinking, is it normal?" Louie smiled and felt a weight slip from him
"you know? Sometimes you just need a little faith, Hubert "
0o0o0o
Once they found the raven it took them a couple of hours to catch it, the crows were very cunning and it didn´t feel like going to a cage, but with the right incentive and the maneuvers of Dewey and Webby they succeeded
And Louie might or might not have let out a squeak of excitement when he saw that the raven had a lock of purple hair over his eye, but he wasn't going to admit it.
They took another car from a stranger back to Duckburg, where they dropped off Gladstone and joined Violet and Lena.
"I can't believe you found him"
"It's statistically impossible" Violet was impressed "even though with your family you never know"
"You said it Vi, do you have the things from that ritual?" Louie asked her while he called a taxi, without Gladstone there’s no way they going to get in a stranger's car
"Of course," Violeta began to check her backpack to be sure "clay chalk from ancient Egypt, whiskers from a black cat, an angry black cat if I may add, bat fangs, three gold coins, unicorn tears, blue dragon scales and a cauldron from Mesopotamia, you know? It is really impressive what you can find in that secret bin of your uncle "
"True, even though we shouldn’t abuse, if he knows it's so easy to get in, he's going to be furious" Huey said nervously, that was the last thing they said until they reached the swamp Magica´s live, none of them felt like talking.
0o0o0o
Louie took a deep breath looking at the large wooden door in front of him, this was the decisive moment and everything could go wrong, God, Magica hated him, maybe she would kill him even before he could speak
"Okay, let's get this over with" he knocks hard the door and wait, footsteps were heard from inside
"hang on, hang on, if you're another stupid alligator trap seller I'll make you one for the rest of eternity" Magica opened the door expecting anything, except the little green duck in front of her "but what the hell are you doing you here?" Louie looked into her eyes, he needed to convey to her how much he was sorry for what happened, to show her that he was sincere.
“I came to apologize to you, when we were in court I was so worried about getting us out of there and our inheritance that I didn't stop to think enough about what Scrooge did to you, I think you are evil and deserved to be defeated, but you should never lost your brother because Scrooge was more interested in the treasure than in doing justice to the people, if he had stopped Poe, you could have searched together for the form to return everyone to normal, you would have recovered your twin and the villagers their lives, away from that stupid farm "
Magica crossed her arms "Your apologies will not give me back everything I lost kid" She wanted to be more upset with him, this child had beaten her without much effort twice, just when she was about to get everything she wanted, she should kill him, but he was also the first in his family to admit that Scrooge had been wrong about her.
"I know, that's why we work with my family and friends to fix things, guys come here" Huey and Dewey came out of the shadows carrying Poe in the cage, Magica felt her legs weak
"It is impossible, if… if this is a sick joke from Scrooge I'm going to kill him, this is going too far, is, this is not, I..." she fell to her knees, that crow was his brother, she didn´t know how she knew, but she was sure, that was Poe "How? I looked for him for years, how did you kids find him? " the truth is that she didn´t care, she hug the cage crying "oh Poe, Poe forgive me brother, I never wanted this to happen, please forgive me" the triplets began to cry softly with her, holding each other "Poe I don't know how, but I am going to return you to normality and we will be together and I will do whatever it takes to make up for this to you, I love you ”she cried louder, the bird inside the cage didn´t understand her, but she couldn´t care less, for the first time she had a real hope of recovering her brother
Lena approached with Webby and Violet, "we will help with that" if Magica had not been crying so hard she would have noticed the tears that bathed the girls' eyes too "we are not sure it will work and you may have to sacrifice part of your powers, but it might work, do you want to try? "
"I will do anything"
0o0o0o
The boys stood aside while the girls prepared everything, they made a circle with strange drawings and put Poe in the center next to the ingredients that Violet had gathered earlier, then Magica took out her amulet and put it on Poe's cage
Violeta took a big book and stood to one side of the circle "very well sorceresses, enter the circle and hold hands, then concentrate and repeat after me" they did, the triplets and Webby got behind her, holding hands "obʺyednaty mahiyu tsykh dvokh istot i povernuty sylu mynuloho" they repeated it over and over again, as the objects around the circle began to dissolve into purple smoke and head towards Poe, Mágica's amulet began to shine brightly and suddenly the light focused on the cage, exploding and throwing them all away
Magica got up first, looking frantically around her, she could see the ducklings lying around and pieces of the cage where her brother used to be “Poe? ¿! Poe?
"Magica?
And there inside the smoke that remained was her brother, just as she remembered him, just like the day she lost him "POE!" she ran to her brother and he wrapped her in his arms still very confused "oh Poe, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, can you forgive me? Her brother raised her head gently "of course you silly, I am your brother after all" they hugged more tightly, crying, happy to be together again, they did not even notice when the kids reached an unspoken agreement to go and leave them alone.
0o0o0o
The way to the mansion was silent but happy, no one knew what to say, but everyone was calm and satisfied, if anyone had any doubts about whether it was a good idea to free Poe, it was erased when they saw Mágica's face when she was reunited with her brother.
When they reached their home it was already night, but they didn´t care, before entering Louie turned to the others
"I wanted to thank all of you, for trusting me and following me into this madness, you are the best" the six joined in a group hug and entered the mansion together waiting for the chorus of screams that awaited them, but only Donald was there, looking much calmer than they expected
"Thank god you came back, you had me very worried" there is sandwich´s in the kitchen for everyone, but Louie, Scrooge said he wanted to talk to you when you came back
"Donald took the rest of the children to the kitchen, leaving Louie alone, he encouraged and went upstairs to his uncle's office, he didn't bother to knock on the door
"How did you know? He got to the point, it was better to speak clearly with his uncle
"Lad, I don't know if they told you, but there's a professional spy living in this house." Scrooge got up and walked over to his nephew, Louie stood his ground.
"Look, I'm not going to apologize for what I did, I think it was the right thing to do, if you want to punish me or get me out of the inheritance just do it" Louie prepared for the worst, he did not expect his uncle to crouch down and hug him with love
"I'm very proud of you lad"
Louie was skeptical "Aren't you upset?"
"upset? How could I!? You did something that I should have done years ago, you fought against something you thought was unfair and you win, you were brave and altruistic boy, helping someone you love is easy, but doing it for an enemy, despite fear and grudges, makes you strong and a good person. You will truly be a much better millionaire than me one day. "
"Thank you Uncle Scrooge"
And it was all worth it, he still didn't know what would happen with the DeSpell twins in the future, but he knew that he had done the right thing and that felt better than he ever expected.