Heart's Desire, Heart's Pain {LouWebena}

Coma

AU chapter.

Louie felt off when he woke up that morning. He felt lighter and less anchored to the ground than he would've liked. He brushed it off as being sick. They did just take a trip to Mount Neverest, after all.

He stumbled -no, it felt more like gliding- to the living room. His whole family was there, just waiting for him. His mom, his uncles, his brothers, his Launchpad, his girlfriends. Everyone home, safe and sound.

It was perfect. Wonderful.

Then Huey looked at him in terror. Okay, his bed-head couldn't be that bad.

"Louie, you're transparent!" Dewey yelled not a minute later.

Wait, what?

Sure enough when Louie looked down at his hands they were fading away. And so was his vision, the black creeping in like hard-to-see tentacles.

---

One moment Louie was there, the next he was gone. It happened too fast for Lena to comprehend what was happening. She had seen summoning spells but nothing like this.

They all stared at the spot where Louie once was as if waiting for him to come back. Then Webby was by the spot, poking at the air.

"Louie are you still there?" she asked and frowned when she got no reply. "Where did he go? Uncle Scrooge?"

They all turned their gazes to him, hoping he would have some answer for this.

He could only shrug.

Lena sighed, standing up. "Guess I have to be hero or something..." she walked over to Webby and bent down to study the carpet. There was glittering black sand left behind, far too small to be noticed unless looked for.

"That's what I thought," she said straightening up. "It was a summoning spell alright, but not one I've ever seen before. From the quickness and this dust, I'd say it's an ancient spell from another dimension."

---

"We've tried everything! Please use your magic to save our son."

Louie was floating adrift on a sea of soft teal. He felt strange, different, naked. He couldn't move, his arms, legs, his whole body felt heavy as the waves shifted him. A conversation of people he did not know surrounded him in its unfamiliarity and surprising warmth.

"My magic can only do so little. Who I bring back will be a stranger."

Louie tries with all his might to open his eyes but they stay closed, leaving the strangers' faces a mystery.

"We know, Louie will not remember anything. Just help him! Please."

Cold washes over him. They can't know his name. He doesn't know them. It's all a trick. It has to be. He's dreaming. Soon he'll wake up in his bed at the mansion or possibly even Webby and Lena's bed where he passed out after a sleepover, right?

Right?

"As you wish, do not say I did not warn you."

Louie doesn't wake up in bed. Instead he wakes up in a gown in a hospital bed with three strange creatures staring at him in shock -well only two of them, the other looks sorrowful, but that isn't Louie's focus.

He's practically naked in a room with strangers that look like featherless birds with small beaks and weird mouths. He looks around frantically, gaze settling on his hands.

He screams.

---

Webby is spinning staring around at a part of the manor's library she never even knew of. Of course she understood why it was hidden behind a secret passageway only Scrooge knew how to find. It was filled with magical tomes that both detail dark and light magic.