6Yep, another fic including these two, Duckworth and Bentina. The fic order goes like this.
1. I Preferred it When You Were Dead (Not Really)
2. Consider it a Second Chance
3. Undying Loyalty
Enjoy!
Bentina woke up at roughly three in the morning to the unholy sound of blood curling screams. She quickly tied her loose hair into a ponytail and stumbled out of her bedroom. She took the first weapon she saw, a sword, and ran in her pajamas towards where the screams produced. In the hallway, she saw the children, Donald and Mr. McDuck scattering out of their rooms.
""Beakley! What the bloody hell is going on!?" Scrooge demanded.
"I intend to find out, sir!"
Another scream echoed, this time closer, followed by the sounds of glass shattering and metal clinging.
"Duckworth!" They exclaimed.
They ran down the stairs, Beakley and Scrooge ran pass the children and Donald. What they saw made their blood run cold.
OOO
Duckworth's... current... situation made him unable to sleep or eat, seeing that there was no longer a need for it. So, he occupied himself with dusting off the portraits around the manor and basically picking up Bentina's slack while the inhabitants slept through the night so he could brag to her about how much work he had done during the night.
He did loved that angry red on her cheeks.
Since his return, he has been doing this as a way to occupy his mind when there was no one to talk to in the nightly hours. Sometimes, one of the triplets will get up to get a glass of water, mainly Louie, and would talk to him afterwards until the boy fell asleep in his chair. Duckworth would carry him back to bed. Other times he would read a book and spend hours on the library or guarding (more like haunting) the perimeters of the manor.
He heard a sound. Footsteps. Too calculated. An intruder.
He quickly turned himself invisible and and searched for the source of the sounds. It did not took him long to find the intruder lurking in the entrance of the manor. Duckworth took a moment to watch the intruder. In that moment, another turned up. And another. And another... all in armors and armed with swords and spears. They had crocked teeth, yellow eyes and horrofying appearances.
Duckworth turned into his demon form and appeared before them. "You shouldn't be here." He warned in a grave voice. He hovered above. In comparation to the creatures, he was larger than all of them when they could only be about a duckling's size.
The little dozen of ghostly monsters hissed at him. "We came on behalf of him, to finish some businesssss..." The first monster hissed. "Sssso off you go, sssspirit..." The monsters hissed again, this time, showing their snake like tongues.
Duckworth glared. "He? Who is he? What business are you talking about?"
"Sssilence, ssspirit! Thisss hassss no concern to you!"
Duckworth suppressed a hiss in the back of his throat. "You are in my domain! This concerns me more than you think."
The monsters hissed at each other before turning back to him. "Hadesss, Lord of the Underworld. And we've come to deliver hisss revenge on one Ssscrooge McDuck!"
Underworld monsters sent by Hades himself to kill Scrooge. Oh sir, did you HAD to piss off the god of the undead? Duckworth thought, a little angry at his old employer and friend, but not suprised in the least.
"We have our orderssss. Now banisssh!"
"One step closer, and you'll suffer my wrath." Duckworth warned.
"Good. We came prepared to fight a ssspirit."
The monsters leaped with their weapons at hand to attack the butler, only to be slapped with a slight movement of his hand and thrown onto the floor. The battle continued like this for a few minutes until one of the monsters managed to climb on his back and stab him with a strange blue metal knife.
Duckworth screamed in pain. Ghost were not supposed to feel pain or be wounded unless... oh no, He thought. Hades' Spirit Killer. He roared in anger, momentarily scaring the monsters. He could feel a glowing green liquid run down his back.
He reached out, grabbed the monster on his back by the neck and threw him agaisnt the window. The glass shattered and pieces scattered on the floor.
The others attacked him, seven of them jumped at him, pinning him down when he tried to remove the mythical knife. He trashed and screamed as the leading monster pushed the knife into his ghostly body.
"Join usss and we might let you live your afterlife."
Memories of Scrooge and Bentina plagued his mind. His red eyes glowed with a fierce intensity. "I'll never join the likes of you!" He stood up and clawed at the monsters. But the one on his back pushed the knife harder. "AHHH!"
"Get away from my ghost butler, ye poor excuse for a monster!"
The monster looked at Scrooge and charged at the old duck. "Lord Hadesss sendsss hisss regardsss!" Said one that leaped with a sword to deliver the killing blow, only to be blocked by Beakley's sword. The housekeeper pushed the monster away.
"Sir, Donald! Leave and take the children to safety!"
"No!" Scrooge said.
"Yes!" Donald said and started to gather the children to escape, but three monsters blocked their path. Beakley was about to fight them but three monsters pinned her down and raised their weapons in the air to dig them into her flesh.
Duckworth looked up and saw the monsters threating to kill the woman he loved. He gave a mighty roar and took out the monsters with his own ghostly body weight. He roared in their faces, making sure to witness the fear in their eyes before tossing them agaisnt another window, breaking it in the process. He flew towards the three monsters blocking the ducks' paths. He grabbed them and fought them, rolling onto the staircase and clawing at them. The monsters, seeing that they could not keep up with the butler, surrendered and disappeared in blue flames.
The manor's residents celebrated the defeat of the monsters. "Duckworth! That was awesome!" Dewey said.
"Um, Duckworth?" Huey asked in a worried tone.
Duckworth was looking down, breathing heavily. He attempted to move but fell foward. Beakley gasped and ran towards him and she and Scrooge kneeled beside the butler still in his ghost demon form.
"Curse me kilts! Is this what Ah think it is? Hold still, old friend, Ah'll get this out for ye!" Scrooge pulled the knife with all his might, causing Duckworth to roar in agony and drop his head on Beakley's leg. He whinned as she placed a hand over his head to comfort him.
The trillionare inspected the knife that was still covered in glowing green liquid. His eyes widened in horror. "Bless me BAGPIPES! AHH!" Scrooge threw away the knife. It landed in a near persian carpet and stained it with the glowing liquid.
Dewey reached out to grab it but Scrooge slapped his hand away with his cane. "Don't ye DARE to touch that, lad!" he replied angrily.
"What is it, Uncle Scrooge?" Donald asked as he held all four kids close to him.
"That's..." Webby started crying. "Oh, Duckworth!" She sobbed.
"Webby?" Louie said.
"It's Hades' Spirit Killer." Webby replied. "Hades' legendary knife that can wound, hurt and/ or kill any spirit." She sobbed. "He could have died a second time, but this time, not come back!" She cried. Donald hugged her.
Beakley bit her lip, trying to fight back the tears. Scrooge placed a hand near Duckworth's wound, causing him to flinch a little. "He must have known about Duckworth then."
Donald did his iconic angry sound. "You made an enemy in Hades!? THE Hades!? How, When and Why!?"
Scrooge sighed. "It was a long, long time ago. You were just a wee hatchling! Ah wasn't expecting Hades to hold a grudge."
"What did you stole from him?" Donald demanded.
"Ah didn't stole anything! Not that Ah managed it anyway. Ah was looking for the Fountain of Youth back then. He didn't have it and Ah..." He blushed. "Might have interrupted something between him and Persephone."
Donald stared. "Idiot."
"How was Ah supposed to know he would hold a grudge agaisnt that and try ta' kill me!?"
"You want the Greek gods to hate you, do you?
"Wouldn't be the first mythical beings to do so. Do ye know how many vengeance curses Ah have on me head?"
"First Zeus and now Hades!? Who's next? Poseidon!?" Exclaimed Donald.
"Not Poseidon, we have a good friendship... well, actually, a restraining order agaisnt me to keep me away from his trident, but you get the point."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they joined forces to conspire against you." Donald groaned. He sighed, calmed himself and asked. "How do we treat Duckworth then?"
"Yy.. you don't..." Duckworth's deep voice managed to say. With difficulty, he managed to sit beside Beakley. He still did not changed his form. "I'll heal."
"But Duckworth-" Beakley managed to say.
"I'll heal." He repeated. "I'll just need to stay in this form for a few hours." His voice gravelly said.
"But..."
"I'm a ghost, Bentina. I have my advantages." He looked at her with sweet, red eyes.
Bentina sighed. "Fine. Idiot."
"But I'm your idiot, right?"
"Well, you aren't Ma' Beagle's. So yes."
Duckworth groaned, half in pain, half annoyed. "Please don't mention that woman."
Scrooge tried not to smirk and ignored them in favor of the untouched knife on the carpet. "This is a dangerous object. Not even Ah would want to keep it. And Ah'm pretty sure Hades can track it."
"So, what are you going to do with it? Sell it?" Louie asked.
"Nonsense! Ah'm gonna send it to Glomgold and have Hades pick it there. Both are in for a surprise."
As the old duck and his nephews and honorary niece spoke about what to do with the knife, Bentina hugged Duckworth's arm. Duckworth caressed her cheek delicately with one claw.
"I've been meaning to ask, how did you, well, buffed out like this, so to speak?" She tried to hide her blush.
Duckworth, if he was in a better mood and with higher energy, he would have teased her about that adorable juvenile blush clashing with her gray hair. But right now, he was in a lot of pain and just glad that he could still be with her. "Well, after we die, some people are able to have a second form. It has something to do with what kind of soul you had in the world of the living."
"So you got a demon ghost form? Possibly for torturing me all those years."
"Probably, yes."
Bentina just hugged him and smiled. "Thank you for saving me. Just let's not make it a normal thing. I'm not a damsel in distress."
"Is the spy embarrassed?"
"Shut up."
They sat there together for the rest of the night.
BONUS SCENE:Glomgold looked at the strange package over his desk with an attached note. He arched an eyebrow.
"To Flinty," He read. "Found this in my house, thought ye might want it. Not so sincerely, Scrooge McDuck." He frowned. "What in the name of bagpipes would me greatest enemy send for me? It's not me birthday." He opened the box to find Hades' Spirit Killer Knife.
He smiled evilly. "Ah, Scroogey, what a terrible mistake to send this to me." He laughed.
He was not aware of the large duck with blue flames behind his back.
Hope you all liked this fic, took me more time to write down than the others. Glomgold's bonus scene was a last minute addition because I love him and couldn't keep him out. I know that ghosts can't be harmed, but this is Ducktales, I don't think they have limits. And it was the best excuse to give a nod to the "Spear of Selene" episode. I loved the Greek gods, especially Storkules. Tell me in your reviews what you think!