Katie's feet froze to the carpet with uncertainty. Eggheads had them surrounded. Huey and the others stood around her, and in front of them, Bradford. She frowned as the eggheads moved inward. The only sound that filled her ears was the thundering pounding of her heart.

"Really, children, you're only embarrassing yourselves. Give up." Bradford snapped his fingers. The eggheads raised their weapons at his command. Lena's hands lit up with magic, the boys and Webby took up fighting positions, Violet readied a halbert she had with her, and Boyd's feet shifted into rockets.

Violet turned to Katie. She handed the robin the journal. Katie's eyes widened at the leather cover. "Here, you watch this."

"The journal? But-"

"I trust you."

Katie looked up. They exchanged a look of understanding. Violet trusted her? Why? After all the mistakes Katie had made and her heritage. And now, when they would probably lose, Violet trusted her. Warmth filled Katie. She nodded, clutching the book tight to her chest.

"Katie." Her grandfather's voice grabbed her attention. "It's not too late, you know. I will give you one last chance." He stepped forward, in response Katie stepping back. "Come back to me. Join FOWL and become the best agent you've ever wanted to be.  You're a prodigy Katie. You'll be my greatest achievement. All you have to do..." He stared her directly in the eyes. "Is give me the journal."

Her hands squeezed tighter on the book. Could she really betray the others? Her friends? They had been more family to her than Bradford had ever been. And all for what? A chance to be a FOWL agent? It had been her dream ever since she was young, but now... She took a deep breath. Bradford and the others watched her with anticipation. Huey gave her a soft smile. This was it. Now or never. Time to decide.

She stepped forward, hands trembling.

"There's a good girl." Bradford held out his hand for the book.

She bit down on her beak. She stopped. Now or never.

"No." The word escaped her in such a small voice, no one heard. She walked backwards, pulling the book away from him. "No," she said stronger, easier. She had made her choice. And being so confident never felt so good.

Bradford was taken back. Regaining his composure, he cleared his throat. "Fine. You've made your choice. Eggheads, you know what to do." He moved out of the circle, the eggheads in turn closing inward more.

The fight broke out. Webby attacked first, landing a kick to an egghead's head. Dewey shouted a battle cry and chaos began.Katie fought off a few eggheads, but found it hard to do while also defending the book. The more they fought, the more eggheads arrived. Soon they found they were outnumbered. Huey and Katie backed up to each other's backsides.

"Huey, I'm scared."

"Well, at least if we lose, I won't be alone anymore. We'll have hope." He locked arms with her, his voice cracking just barely noticeable.

Coming to join them, Louie nodded. "It can't get much worse than it's been, right?" He said it as a joke, but their was a sadness layered in his voice. He sighed, half turning to his brother. "Huey, I'm sorry.I was mad at you... I still am, but... I can't stay mad at you forever. We'll move past this."

A bright shield of purple appeared in front of them, pushing back any oncoming attackers. Lena stood in front of him. "Enough with the sappy last words speech. In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a battle, and no one's gonna die."

Webby, Violet, and Boyd took out a cluster of FOWL agents together. Swinging her halbert over her shoulder, Violet frowned. "Statistically speaking, it's likely-"

"Way to bring us down, Vi," Dewey said, shooting her a look.

The kids were pushed back to form a small inner circle. Lena kept them defended, while Webby and Boyd fought most of them off. Yet more kept coming. Katie held up her free hand defensively. Fear tugged at her, but she never once regretted her decision. She was with those who really cared about her, and that was what mattered. She squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation.

"GET AWAY FROM MY KIDS!" A figure rushed straight into a hoard of eggheads, wiping out a good ten of them. Katie's eyes widened. The figure moved to fast for her to see. Their attackers fell down like bowling pins.

"Boys!" A woman Katie didn't recognize fought through the masses! She rushed up to Dewey and Louie, squeezing them tightly in her arms. Katie assumed she was their mom. She liked the woman's hair. The woman dropped the boys at the sight of Huey. "Huey!" She held him tighter than the other two, tears falling from her eyes.

Huey nudged his beak into her, crying too. "Mom!"

Others came to help them too. Katie only recognized Gandra and the robot and caped hero who had broken into her room. And Scrooge of course, from the times Bradford talked about him. Was this the family Huey had talked so much about? Katie smiled a bit at how many their were. He had been upset at them, but Katie would be overjoyed to have a family like his. She started to wonder what would happen after this. Surely she wouldn't stay with Bradford. But then, where would she go?

A smoke bomb came from somewhere, allowing them to take out a handful of eggheads. Katie wasn;t prepared for it and wound up coughing, her vision blinded. She fell to her knees, wheezing and hugging the journal. Someone jumped at her from the smog. She let out a yelp. Bradford was o top of her, trying to get his hands on the book. Her fingers tightened around it, determined.

"Give me the book, Katie! No more chances!"

"No!"

"Traitor!"

"You lied to me!" She kicked him off of her, panting. She stumbled to her feet, hoping to get away. He yanked on her ankle, making her nearly trip. "You tricked Huey! You told me they hated me! That they would never trust me! You're supposed to be my family!" Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, all her feelings spilling out.

Bradford snarled at her. "You were supposed to be different! Your parents failed me! I hoped I could raise you different!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, struggling to tug her leg free. "What are you talking about?"

"Your parents were weak! They wanted to join SHUSH, because they couldn't see how much better a world would be without adventure. So I got rid of them."

"No, you're lying!" Her heart rate quickened, and she finally got her foot loose. Emotion welled up inside her. She knew deep down inside he wasn't lying. The man she had trusted all her life had betrayed her before she could even walk. His true colors were finally showing.

"Yes. That happy family you longed for so much was taken by a simple fire. I tried to be good to you, but I now I see you were simply ungrateful. Give me the journal!" He rose to his feet, reaching for her.

She shook her head, trying to get away. The thought of fire burned her heart. Everything she ever wanted was stolen from her by this man who dared share blood with her. Fire. An idea sparked inside her head. "Boyd!"

The robot boy came at her side. "Katie?" He looked from her to Bradford.

"Katie." Bradford glared at her, his hands ready to take the coveted book.

"Burn it." She handed the journal to Boyd. Before he could question, she said again, "Burn it with your rockets. If his thing can start up his plan, it's best that no one has it." She wiped her eyes with the quick swipe of her forearm. She set the book on the floor, and Boyd aimed one of his rocket feet at it.

"No!" Bradford lunged for it, but Violet came from the side, knocking him back. The pages caught flame, crackling with the scent of fire. Bradford watched with wide eyes as the journal burned up in a blaze until it was nothing but a pile of ash.

Katie huffed, putting her beak in the air. "Now the thing you wanted most was taken away by fire, Bradford." She clenched her fists, heart still stinging.

All the eggheads had been taken out. The Duck family closed in on the vulture. He panned over the all, processing his fate. Katie narrowed her eyes at him. Scrooge stepped forward. "Any final words Bradford?"

"I'm not done yet!" Bradford grabbed a smoke bomb from one of the heroes' utility belt and threw it down, making it hard to see. He got away before anyone could stop him. Katie waved away the smoke, followed by a fit of coughs.

When the smoke cleared, she frowned. "He's gone."

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see the mask hero. He took off his mask, revealing himself to be Drake. (That explained the weird incident in her room.) "We'll stop him." She smiled a little.

"We got what really matters!" Huey's mom lifted him up, laughing proudly. The whole family joined in in a tearful, joyous hug. All except Katie. She rubbed her arm awkwardly, watching them. Huey grabbed her arm, yanking her in. She chuckled lightly, feeing the warmth of a true family. It was more than she hoped it'd be. This was nice.

When they separated, Drake began counting heads. A tall chicken, Katie later learned his name was Gyro, crossed his arms. "Welp, if we're all done here, I would like to go home. I've got work to do and such."

Drake ignored him, looking lost in bought. He counted heads at least two more times. He stopped. "Wait. Where's Gosalyn?"

...

Hands shoved in her jacket pockets, Gos walked down a FOWL hall. "Stupid secret headquarters with no directional signs," she grumbled. She had felt bad for pushing Katie away, and had gone to find her and maybe even convince her to come back to the good side. Only she'd gotten lost very early on in her venture. She had heard distance fighting and had tried to follow that for a while, only to, again, wind up more lost than she started.

Thrusting her foot into a wall, she shouted a word her dad would probably not approve of. "Ugh, this is hopeless! You'd think the great Gosalyn Waddlemeyer Mallard would figure out her way around a building easier!" She rolled her eyes.

A shifting should stopped her. She whipped her head around. "Who's there?" No response came. She stared outward suspiciously, slowly loading her crossbow. "Show yourself."

A figure stepped around the corner and into the light. Her eyes widened. She was alone with Bradford Buzzard.

She aimed her crossbow. "You're a bad guy!"

"Ah, you're very perceptive." His voice was cool, but she could detect an underlying shakiness. He was scared.

"What do you want with me? You lost, didn't you? Show me the way out of here and I'll spare your life." She was scared too, but maybe he wouldn't detect her shakiness.

Bradford chuckled. "Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, was it? Like Thaddeus Waddlemeyer?"

"He was my grandpa." The moment the words left her mouth, she mentally slapped herself. She shouldn't give out information to the enemy, especially when her enemy was specifically looking for Waddlemeyer's work.

"Grandpa? Surely he gave you the code to his machine then, yes?"

"Shut up!" She raised her crossbow higher, but her arm wavered. Dang it, she shouldn't have told him that. "What's the machine do anyways?"

"It's an earthquake machine." Bradford put his arms behind his back. "Used too much can cause it to go unstable, cracking the world in half. Powerful stuff. Once I fire it up, Duckburg with certainly take some damage. Then I will force Scrooge to sign a contract on the papyrus that will trap him magically into no more adventures. And if he doesn't, well... The world shatters like an egg."

"That's stupid. You're stupid." At this point she was just throwing insults to hide her uneasiness. She blew her bangs out of her face. "It's not like I even remember the dumb code, and even if I did, why would I tell you?"

"Because if you don't, I'll blow this place sky high. Your stupid family might've burned the journal, but they're still in the building. And I've prepared for moments like this. This whole place is designed to explode at the push of a button, erasing any evidence of FOWL's presence." Bradford was gaining confidence, she could tell. He smirked at her. "I would hate if your dear daddy were to die all because you couldn't remember a sequence of colors."

She froze a moment, eyes wide. Shaking herself, she snapped, "You'll just blow yourself up too, moron."

"I'll get out the building and flip the switch. So, do we have a deal? Little Waddlemeyer?"

She frowned at the nickname. He reached out to touch her, but she pulled away. "Never!" She didn't even know the code. Her grandfather had never told her any sequence of colors for a co- A song started playing in her head. She mentally facepalmed. Dang it, she did know the code. Yellow, blue, red, blue, purple too...

"Alright then, say goodbye to all those you love..." He dug into his pocket, walking past her. He pulled out a thin cylinder, a red button at the top.

Gos' eyes widened. She bit her lip, hesitating. Her mind went to her dad, Launchpad, Huey, Dewey, Katie, the others. She shuddered, unable to believe the words falling out of her mouth. "I-I'll do it. Just... don't hurt them." Bradford grinned.

...

Drake was panicking on the inside. Gosalyn was the only one missing out of the group. He had lost his child! What kind of parent just misplaces their kid! He was just on the edge of a freak attack when Katie spoke up.

"Maybe she'll turn up soon? At least, I hope she does." The robin tried an encouraging smile at him. He gave a reassuring smile back. She was probably right. Gos would probably turn up any minute now.

A monitor emerged from a slot in the ceiling. Drake took a step back, the others behind him. Before the monitor could turn on, the earth began to rumble underneath them. He hunched down, clenching his fists. The roof began cracking apart. A good sized chunk broke from the ceiling, heading straight for Katie. She yelped as Drake swept her out of the way.

The monitor flipped on. Bradford's face was displayed on the screen. They all took up ready positions, glaring at Bradford. Scrooge stepped forward, wobbling with the earth. "You blasted buzzard! What are you up to!"

"You may have destroyed Finch's journal, but that wasn't the only way to get Waddlemeyer's code." The vulture grinned widely.

Drake's eyes widened and his heart stopped as a certain redhead appeared on screen, her face full of disdain. "Gosalyn!"

ALL RIGHT FOLKS! Friday, the finale for this fic is (finally) coming! Get ready! I've never really written an ending b4, unless Goldie's 3 Wishes counts, so don't get your hopes up too high for a good ending. (Unless the ending actually is good, then in that case, that was an accident lol). I'm gonna chop this fic up to a learning experience. Thanks for sticking around this far, and hopefully in the future, I'll have improved on writing techniques, story elements, endings, and just everything in general. Thanks for reading and thanks for the support and comments. It's greatly appreciated! Remember: Friday is finale day!