#anyway therell be one last golden heir post after this!!!

[lettheladylead]

The Golden Heir Chapter 7 - Family [Ch1] [Ch2] [Ch3] [Ch4] [Ch5] [Ch6] [Ch8]

Goldie didn’t know what to do. She thought Scrooge would’ve found a way out of this nonsense by now!

Watching Black Heron perish hadn’t been the treat she always imagined it would be. It’d been terrifying, instead, as Goldie watched the villain disappear into a bright red light. Next it could be her. It could be Twenty-Two or Della or Donald, who were kneeling next to her and looking just as helpless and scared.

But instead of finding a loophole or taking down Bradford in a surprisingly suave swoop, Scrooge was just mumbling over this paperwork and trying to buy time. Goldie knew stalling when she saw it and just hoped that meant Scrooge had some sort of back-up plan in the works.

“You need some incentive!” Bradford said angrily after sending a blast of energy towards Scrooge. “Perhaps the life of your most trusted ally?”

Goldie breathed a sigh of relief, happy to know that wasn’t anywhere near her role in Scrooge’s life. She did, however, immediately fear for Donald, and struggled a bit against her chains as did Beakley and Della.

He skulked over to Donald and picked him up like he was a toy, holding him over the vortex without hesitation.

“Donald!” Scrooge screamed as Donald cried and shook in fear.

Goldie stared at the scene before her and felt her eyes start to water. She knew, realistically, this wasn’t her fault. Bradford’s beef with Scrooge had nothing (mostly nothing?) to do with her. But she led them to Dickie. If she had to guess, they probably used Dickie to get that Papyrus. If she’d just let Black Heron kill her, they wouldn’t have been able to get it.

“What will it be, Scrooge? Adventure? Or your family?”

She looked down at Scrooge. He was going to find a way out of this, wasn’t he?

“You have til the count of five. One…”

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Goldie looked stunned. She’d never seen him give up so quickly. She’d never seen him give up at all before...except when it came to her. Surely this had to be part of his plan...he couldn’t give up adventuring. That was everything to him.

“No, don’t! Find a way out!” Donald screamed, still struggling in Bradford’s grasp. “You can beat him!”

“...it’s not worth the risk, lad,” Scrooge said softly, taking out a pen.

Goldie watched in awed silence as Scrooge signed the Papyrus. Adventure was such a vague term. If he couldn’t go on any kinds of adventure - nothing magical or mystical or worldly or secret...then she didn’t know where she stood. She could still go wherever she wanted, but it wasn’t worth it without him.

No one made a sound as Scrooge was surrounded by magical yellow light and he floated up into the air. He gasped as the Papyrus’ chains wrapped themselves around him and slowly forced him back to the ground. Goldie and the others just watched in miserable realization...the bad guy had won.

“I did it!” Bradford said happily. “The great Scrooge McDuck, now only a poor old man!”

Scrooge had never looked so defeated. Goldie felt her heart break.

“Normally I wouldn’t indulge in petty villainy, but since this is a special occasion…”

Bradford dropped Donald towards the vortex, laughing evilly as the duck tumbled towards oblivion, while Scrooge and Della screamed out in shock and pain. Goldie felt numb as she watched a duck she’d known for so long - and known as one of the kindest, genuinely well meaning people she’d ever met - head for an untimely death.

“Ow!”

“...ow?”

“Ow?”

Goldie blinked and leaned over the edge to see the vortex had disappeared and Donald had managed to get free of his chains. She wanted to revel in the joy of seeing one of her favorites of the McDuck family still alive, but as the red triplet’s voice reached her ears, Bradford was already back on his plan.

“No! No more adventures!” he screamed down at the kid - and she wondered who else was down there with him - before diving past the three ducks still chained on the ledge and drawing his sword with intention clear.

Scrooge screamed out and Goldie closed her eyes. She couldn’t save him this time. He was going to die and all she could do was sit there and listen.

Instead, she heard the clang of metal against metal.

“Get away from my grandpa!”

Goldie’s eyes widened and she struggled against her chains, shuffling her legs to move closer to the stairs so she could see what the hell was happening. Beakley and Della followed suit, clearly curious as to what was going on.

“Wait, what?!”

She looked down and saw exactly what she feared: Dickie was not just in danger, and not just with Scrooge, but she was holding a broken cane up to a giant magical sword wielded by a homicidal maniac. That was the opposite of the safe, danger-free lifestyle she’d tried to give her.

Webby and Dewey immediately flew down and kicked Bradford in the face, giving Dickie time to get away from him and rush towards Scrooge.

“You need to get out of here!” Dickie shouted, tugging on his arm.

Scrooge just struggled against the magical chains that disappeared and reappeared over and over again. “I can’t!”

As Louie ran around to grab the contract off the ground, Bradford gave chase and Dickie stayed with Scrooge to keep trying to get him to move. She watched helplessly as the kids ran for their lives and Gyro, Gandra, and Ludwig got blasted by a painful-looking blast of energy.

As Bradford transformed, Goldie, Della, and Beakley managed to wrangle their way out of their chains and the two McDuck Manor residents immediately rushed towards the villain, ready to fight for their lives. Goldie, on the other hand, tossed her chains to the side and rushed towards Dickie, who was visibly shaking in fear while still trying to stay strong for Scrooge.

“Lass, you need to get out of here,” Scrooge said to her sternly.

Dickie shook her head and sobbed. “But I just...I just learned about you now, I can’t lose you already!”

Scrooge looked both confused and sad at the strangely familiar teenager crying over him and wished he could reach out and comfort her somehow. As he opened his beak to say something, he was cut off by a voice he hadn’t heard in weeks.

“Dickie!” Goldie shouted, suddenly grabbing the girl by her wrist. “You need to get away from here! Come on!”

The teen didn’t fight as Goldie pulled her away, running in the opposite direction of Bradford’s fighting. Goldie glanced back at Scrooge with a sad, guilty expression, and Scrooge stared back incredulously. “Goldie?!”

As they ran away from the fight, Bradford flew over Scrooge and the kids and started powering up the sword for one final, deadly attack. Dickie pulled her arm out of Goldie’s grasp and stood her ground. “We can’t run away!”

“Yes, we can, they’ll be fine!” Goldie shouted, trying to grab her granddaughter’s arm again. “They’re the McDucks! They can take care of themselves!”

“But...I’m a McDuck, too!” Dickie said angrily, taking a step back.

Goldie stared at her sadly, then looked behind her to see Donald protecting Scrooge with a piece of the vortex chamber that fell apart. She looked back at Dickie and gave her a small smile. “...yeah, you are. And no kid of Scrooge’s is gonna run away from a fight, huh?”

Dickie smiled and reached out a hand, which Goldie grabbed with only a smidge of hesitation. They ran towards the rest of the family and joined them in holding up the one thing protecting Scrooge from death.

Goldie didn’t think about how it felt to be working alongside the family she’d known and avoided for so many years. She didn’t want to think about how long she’d kept Dickie from this group of people who would do absolutely anything for the people they considered family. How Goldie had never been a part of that before, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a part of it now.

Louie and Huey ran up to join them and huddled over the contract.

“The only way to break the Papyrus’ spell...is to find a contradiction on the Papyrus!”

“This contract’s air-tight! Scrooge only gets his family if he gives up adventure!”

The four kids who’d spent the last few years together echoed a simultaneous DING! before Huey took the lead again.

“Bradford! Your contract is flawed!”

The buzzard stopped in his attack. “What? Impossible!”

The shield went down and Goldie backed away, feeling the confidence radiating from Scrooge’s kids. They’d won and he was going to be alright...and she didn’t need to be there any longer.

“I worked on that contract for thirty years! Went over it with the finest tooth combs!”

Goldie took another look at Dickie’s back before turning to make her usual silent escape.

“According to this, Scrooge can be with his family as long as he doesn’t adventure!”

Completely by accident, she lifted her head and made eye contact with Scrooge, who was cycling between hopeful and desperate and tired and confused. She couldn’t look away from him. Her heart pounded in her chest like it never had before.

“But family is the greatest adventure of all!” Huey shouted.

“That’s...the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s no way that-”

Goldie turned back towards the rest of the family and Bradford, her feet refusing to move, and witnessed the Papyrus float into the air and disintegrate into nothing.

Bradford screeched in agony and reached out for the pieces of the contract, dropping the sword and sending one final blast towards the family. Goldie didn’t even have time to react as she realized the blast was headed right towards Dickie and Webbigail.

Scrooge, on the other hand, finally broke free of his magical chains and rushed towards the girls, tackling them both to the ground just as the blast singed the top of his hat.

Goldie breathed a sigh of relief as Scrooge and the girls nodded at each other before getting up to enjoy Bradford’s angry screams.

“I will not lose to Scrooge!”

“You didn’t lose to me,” Scrooge said with a confident smirk. “You lost to my family!”

“All of them.”

Goldie turned around to see a variety of people all walking up to stand behind Scrooge both physically and emotionally. She looked at him and felt an unfamiliar sense of pride mixed with her usual complicated feelings of love and adoration. He looked good in that moment. Strong and sincere. She knew she’d softened up quite a bit after spending time with Sharpie, but seeing Scrooge and his family standing tall together was making her heart do backflips.

Dickie walked over to Goldie and grabbed her hand, smiling softly. “Thanks for staying, Granny.”

Goldie rolled her eyes and scoffed, ignoring the conversation between Bradford and some familiar faces in Scrooge’s life and choosing to focus on how nice it felt to be with people she loved. Maybe she could stand to do it more often.

They both looked up to see Scrooge talking to Webby, who proceeded to hug him tight and then point directly at the two blondes. He looked back down at the girl he’d known for so long - his clone, apparently, which was giving him all sorts of confusing feelings - and then back up at the girl he’d never met before.

Goldie felt an urge to get away before this confrontation that she never wanted to have, but Dickie held tightly onto her hand and wouldn’t let go. Scrooge walked over to them and smiled.

“...grandpa?”

Dickie smiled awkwardly and let go of Goldie’s hand to wrap her arms around herself. “...yeah, um...my name’s Dickie. It’s nice to meet you!”

He looked over at Goldie who was avoiding his eyes, but when she felt his hand wrap around two of her fingers and tug her a bit closer to him, she couldn’t keep herself from him. Too much had happened for her to just walk away...she had to make it right.

“...surprise?” she said with a small smile.

Scrooge breathed out a short laugh and pulled both of them into a big hug. Dickie hugged back without hesitation, but Goldie’s face turned red and she stuffed her face into his shoulder to avoid looking at anyone else. She was fine with PDA but only when she was the one initiating it. The loved feeling he was giving her was overwhelming.

She looked up to see Louie and Webby and Della and Donald giving her similarly smirky smiles and Goldie sighed before finally wrapping her free arm around Scrooge’s back and holding him close. She loved him so, so much and was so happy he was safe. But there was no way she’d say something that sappy, so maybe a hug would be enough.

He finally pulled away from them and smiled happily, one of his hands still intertwined with Goldie’s. “Come back to the manor. Both of you,” Scrooge said.

Goldie looked down at their hands and then up at Dickie, who was clapping her hands in excitement. Dickie cheered, “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of that place! It looks awesome!”

The older woman sighed, but she couldn’t pretend to be annoyed. “...alright. Sure.”

Scrooge smiled brightly and leaned forward, capturing Goldie’s beak in a sudden kiss that it made her cheeks light up in embarrassment. He pulled away as fast as he started, but gave her a look that made her think going back to the manor would be the best decision of her life.

He let go of Goldie’s hand and looked back at the rest of his family. “We do need to talk, Goldie Girl. But...it’s been a long day.”

“You have no idea how long of a day it’s been,” Goldie mumbled, thinking back to her weeks of imprisonment.

“So we’ll talk tomorrow,” he said softly. “And...Dickie?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s nice to meet you, too.”