i never trusted my own eyes

Summary: Scrooge and Goldie go on a trip to the Bermuda Triangle.

Word count: 4369

Warnings: None

1914; Bermuda Triangle

“Goldie? Do you look...younger?”

“Oh, you know...I’ve got a great skin-care routine.”

---

Several years and dozens of adventures and meet-ups and whatever-they-call-thems later, Goldie and Scrooge found themselves in a boat sailing east from the coast of southern Florida. The ocean was surprisingly calm, but the ducks had a feeling there’d be danger lurking ahead.

“You’re sure there’s sunken treasure out here somewhere?”

Scrooge looked up from his book to see Goldie’s ponytail blowing in the wind as she continued to sail. He smiled, enjoying the familiar shade of blonde that reminded him so much of gold. “I’m sure. There’s detailed records of the pirate ship headin’ this way and never makin’ it to shore!”

“So we just look out for seamounts that might’ve ripped a hole in an unsuspecting pirate ship?”

“Exactly. The ship disappeared in 1793, so I’m sure the mount’ll be easier to spot now.”

Goldie leaned onto the steering wheel, staring at the waves with waning interest. “And your Austrian friend told you about this?”

Scrooge hummed in affirmation. “He’s an odd fellow, but honest to a fault. He wouldnae steer me wrong.”

She looked off to the side and gave a once-over to the giant metal contraption hung up next to her. “And you’re sure this diving suit he built is safe?”

“That’s a bit more debatable,” Scrooge said with a chuckle. “I willnae stay underwater for more than thirty minutes at a time. Just in case.”

Goldie sighed. She didn’t know Scrooge’s young friend, but he had a lot of confidence in the man’s competence as a confidante and inventor. Apparently they’d met during one of Scrooge’s adventures in Europe and had kept in contact ever since. Obviously Scrooge had other people he talked to about his life or went on treasure hunting adventures with or sought out for help, but Goldie couldn’t deny the twinge of jealousy. She didn’t have anyone else, not like that.

As she stood in silence, contemplating whether she should try making more adult friends instead of just casual business associates, Goldie’s eyes locked onto a small mass just ahead of them. “Scrooge!”

“Hm?”

“Look!” Goldie pointed out in front of the ship and Scrooge came up next to her for a better view. “Do you think that’s it?”

Scrooge smiled and closed his book, shoving it into one of his numerous pockets. “We’re about to find out! I’ll get the anchor ready.”

Though the trip had been boring so far, Goldie was starting to get excited. Pirate treasure! It was hard not to feel like they were about to be a part of something huge. And, unlike many of the treasures they went after, this was a lot less likely to be cursed. Unless the pirates had turned into ghosts and were haunting it...but that seemed unlikely. Probably not. It’d be fine.

A few minutes later, they were close enough to the landmass to stop. Scrooge tossed the anchor over the side of the ship and it locked onto something quickly. He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Seems like I willnae have to dive too far down.”

“Hopefully,” Goldie added.

Scrooge walked over to the clunky, terrifying-looking dive suit. He’d tested it for Ludwig a few times before agreeing to take it out, but he was still a little annoyed that the man hadn’t been able to come with. Who else would be able to handle repairs if something went wrong? Either way, there was no way he could find this treasure alone, so he was genuinely grateful to Goldie for coming along.

With Goldie’s help, Scrooge was fully inside the dive suit in ten minutes. She triple-checked all the ties to make sure nothing would come loose or leak, and then grabbed the window of Scrooge’s helmet. Once that was closed, he’d be ready to go.

“Wait, Goldie!” Scrooge said suddenly.

She raised an eyebrow, holding the window in her hand.

“I...I know I’ll be fine, but just in case somethin’ goes wrong…” he said nervously, avoiding eye contact.

Goldie’s eyes widened as her brain jumped ahead and made a dozen different guesses about what Scrooge might say.

“...please dinnae leave until I’m back on the boat,” Scrooge finished with a frown. “I may be the toughest duck around, but even I have my limits!”

She blinked at him and sighed. “Yeah, obviously. You don’t have to worry, Scrooge. I’m not going to let you die.”

She closed the window and tightened the screws around it, pretending not to notice that Scrooge had opened his mouth to say something else. With the dive suit completely sealed tight, she couldn’t hear him and as far as she could tell, he couldn’t hear her.

“Even I have my limits,” Goldie repeated in a mocking Scottish accent. “Whatever.”

As she turned the crank to rotate Scrooge and the dive suit above the water, she sneered thinking about how he felt the need to say that to her. As if she went about her time thinking of ways and reasons to leave him behind. Maybe if they were on land she could consider it, after all he was ‘tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties.’ But a four-hour boat ride away from the coast of Florida would be impossible. Even for him.

Scrooge gave her a wave and Goldie nodded before pressing the release, which loosened the chains holding up the suit and sent Scrooge straight into the water. She sure hoped his friend’s suit worked.

She’d keep an eye on everything up top, just in case.

---

He’d been underwater before. Scrooge had invested in the creation of submarines! Mostly they were being used by the military, but thanks to his investment he had access to many of the early prototypes. Being able to clearly see while in the ocean was an amazing experience. Even though he’d traveled to other worlds that looked completely different from his own, truly nothing was as fascinating as seeing the Earth from another view.

If they had time, maybe he’d suggest that Goldie try it as well. With all the help she was giving him, she deserved to see the beauty of the ocean that so few people got to enjoy.

Scrooge felt his suit hit land in just half a minute, proof of what he thought earlier that the seamount wasn’t too far below the surface. He took a minute to gather his bearings and remind himself how to move around, then started walking. As a careful explorer, Scrooge remembered to keep track of the time he was down there as well by counting the seconds in his head.

He couldn’t look down or up in the suit, only forward. So he made sure to turn his head often; the amount of money he’d spent on this excursion meant that he wouldn’t forgive himself if he came home empty-handed. Plus then he’d have to pay Goldie out of his own pocket for her help, and he sure as hell didn’t want to do that.

The light fixture at the top of his suit was a very handy feature at these depths. The tests he and Ludwig had done were in shallow water with lots of light nearby, so he hadn’t thought about it then. But Ludwig did, and that’s why Scrooge wasn’t an inventor.

He slowly trailed along the seamount, getting further and further underwater, until his light became necessary to see in front of him. It wasn’t completely dark, but it wasn’t comfortable, either.

Right when the counter in his head reached fourteen minutes, Scrooge saw an unnatural shape in the light. He quickly (relatively speaking) shuffled closer until he realized it was a treasure chest.

Excited, Scrooge tried to lean down and pick it up. He managed to get it unstuck from the seafloor underneath and checked the weight to see if he’d be able to bring it up to the surface with him. It was heavy, but with an added feature of the dive suit, Scrooge was confident that they’d succeed.

Before announcing his find to Goldie, Scrooge decided to scan the area in case there was anything more. He noticed two other chests and sighed. Alright, he would have to make multiple trips. That was fine - the more treasure, the better!

Once he’d made sure the first chest was secure, he pulled on his tether in the exact way he and Goldie had discussed.

He waited a moment, wondering if she’d fallen asleep or decided to leave him behind. He didn’t think she could be cruel enough to cut him loose and sail off, but she was unpredictable. Perhaps -

Scrooge was suddenly pulled back in the direction he came, shaking all the doubts from his head.

---

Goldie had spent a nervous eighteen minutes wondering how Scrooge was doing. They had no way to really communicate while he was underwater; all she could do was wait for his signal to bring him back up. And, of course, if he didn’t signal, then she’d bring him back up after thirty minutes.

When she finally saw what seemed to be their signal, Goldie’s heart did a flip and she rushed towards the crank to start bringing Scrooge back aboard. She was happy he was still alive, and signalling before the thirty minutes were up meant he’d found treasure! It was always nice when things went their way.

The pulley system was efficient but slow. Goldie’s arm was getting tired from cranking so hard, but this was what she’d agreed to and she was going to fulfill her duties.

When Scrooge’s suit rose above water, Goldie was ecstatic at the sight of a giant treasure chest in his arms. She pulled him around and set him down on the deck. Scrooge immediately dropped the chest, which fell with a loud clunk! that shook the entire boat.

Goldie unscrewed the window to the dive suit and smirked. “Looks like you did a good job down there, Scroogey.”

Scrooge squinted as he tried to adjust to the sunlight. “There’s two more chests! I need to go back down.”

“Oh,” Goldie responded, surprised. She didn’t enjoy sitting around and waiting for him, but at least this time she’d have treasure to dig through. “Right now?”

“The faster I grab them, the faster we can leave,” he said confidently.

Goldie shrugged and repeated the process from earlier, happy she didn’t have to get the giant suit on him again. It was so heavy.

As Scrooge went back underwater, she went to work unlocking the chest. It was a very old and rusted lock - technically she could’ve picked it, but experience told her it’d be easier to just smash it.

The lock fell apart easily and Goldie took a deep breath before opening up the chest. It smelled awful, but the shining, shimmering, splendid sparkles of jewels and gold kept her eyes facing forward. Her mouth was practically watering. It had to be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of treasure, and Scrooge said there were still two more chests. This was going to be one of the most profitable adventures they’d ever gone on.

---

They retrieved the second chest without a hitch. Goldie shared with Scrooge the news of what was in the first chest and he whooped in excitement as she sent him down for the third and last chest.

With Scrooge out of the way, Goldie started opening the new chest. She smashed the lock like she had the first one, but when she put her hand on top of the lid, she pulled it back in disgust.

“What the-?” Goldie said as she turned her hand around. It was covered in a dark, inky substance. She looked at the chest and realized there were splotches of ink all over it. She frowned, trying to remember if octopus or squid ink was safe to have on her feathers.

Just in case, she wiped what she could onto her pants and went back to opening the chest - paying closer attention to where her hands were.

---

Scrooge was happy to discover that each dive was easier than the last. He was getting a bit tired, but once he had the last chest he could take a nap on their boat while Goldie sailed them back to shore.

Or, well, maybe he’d take a nap after they’d gotten to shore. He didn’t want to risk Goldie swapping all of the good treasure into her chest while he slept.

As he made his way to the last chest - one that was weirdly darker colored than the others - Scrooge’s light showed him something in the distance. It was a sunken ship.

He frowned and looked down at the chests. If the ship was all the way over there, why were the treasure chests here? They were much too heavy for the water to have pushed them that sort of distance. Perhaps some other treasure hunters had made it to the ship and removed all the chests, but then something prevented them from bringing them up to their boat?

Scrooge locked his dive suit’s arms around the last chest and hummed thoughtfully. What could’ve stopped them from getting the treasure? Sharks? Faulty dive suit? Or…

He froze at a strange sight. It almost looked like a part of the sunken pirate ship had...moved. Scrooge blinked a few times, wishing he could rub at his eyes but not willing to risk compromising the suit’s mobility.

For a moment, Scrooge was struck with fear over something Ludwig had told him about water pressure and brain damage. But then the ship moved again. And then Scrooge noticed the color changing on the moving parts - turning a darker shade.

He tugged on the tether urgently, hoping to all hope that Goldie was paying attention and understood that he needed to go as quickly as possible.

The octopus finished removing itself from the sunken ship and started rushing towards Scrooge, its tentacles spread out and ready to wrap around its victim.

Just a few seconds before it made contact, Scrooge was roughly pulled back towards the boat. He squirmed in the suit as the octopus realized what happened and gave chase.

---

Goldie had just finished securing the two chests to the boat when Scrooge's tether started to shake. It started to shake a lot.

She quickly pulled Scrooge up, wondering if there was an emergency or if it'd just gotten caught on something. Maybe he was just really excited to get out of the water and be done with this.

As the dive suit rose up out of the water, Goldie noticed that it was shaking. Concerned, she rushed to use the crank to get Scrooge back on the boat.

He dropped the chest and Goldie could see through the window that he was screaming. She quickly unscrewed the window and just as she started to open it, something smashed into the bottom of their boat.

Goldie squawked and fell over. She'd gotten the window unlocked enough that Scrooge was able to push it open with his beak.

"WE NEED TO GO!"

She looked up at Scrooge who was trying to squirm out of the suit on his own, then out to the water. The waves were going crazy and water was splashing onto the boat from every side. Part of her, a younger and more scared part, wanted to sit there frozen in fear. But she shook her head and rushed towards the crank to pull up the anchor.

There was a slam on the side of the boat and Goldie looked up to see the end of what seemed to be a gigantic tentacle. Her eyes widened and she started cranking even faster.

As soon as the anchor was back up, Goldie ran to the steering wheel. She didn’t even take a moment to look back at Scrooge, hoping that he had a handle on himself and the treasure.

Scrooge somehow managed to squeeze his way out of the dive suit just as another tentacle wrapped itself around the suit and suddenly pulled it back into the water, ripping the tether as it went down.

“Bless me bagpipes!” Scrooge shouted, catching his breath. He looked over at Goldie who was at the helm of the ship and clearly putting her all into getting them to safety. The view of her steering the ship with her ponytail flapping in the wind - just like the view he’d seen earlier that day - was even more enchanting with the looming danger around them.

The giant octopus was smacking the waters and creating giant waves around them as it rammed its body into the bottom of the boat over and over again. Scrooge instinctively looked over at the treasure chest he’d most recently picked up and noticed it sliding towards the edge of the boat. He gasped as a tentacle appeared and aimed at the chest.

Scrooge shook out his limbs and jumped towards the chest, pulling it out of the way of the tentacle. Instead, the tentacle smashed into the wood of the boat and sent splinters flying every which way. One of them smacked into the rusty broken lock of the chest Scrooge was holding and broke it off.

Unfortunately for Scrooge, his grip was entirely on the chest’s lid and he suddenly fell back as it opened up.

“What was that?!” Goldie screamed, doing her best to avoid getting hit by tentacles smashing around the front of the boat.

“Nothin’!” Scrooge wasn’t sure if she was talking about the smashed wood, the broken lock, or the coins that had fallen out of the overflowing chest. He grabbed the coins and put them back in the chest, hoping there wouldn’t be another attack before he could get every piece.

For a moment there were no tentacles to be seen, and he took that opportunity to glance inside the chest for real. His eyes were immediately drawn to a scepter with a beautiful emerald on one end. It was the same color as Goldie’s eyes, and he looked up to tell her.

Then he saw another tentacle, poised and ready to attack, aimed right at Goldie.

In less than a second, Scrooge was between the octopus and Goldie, using the scepter to block the attack. Goldie hadn’t seen it coming until the last moment and breathed a sigh of relief when she opened her eyes to discover she wasn’t dead.

Scrooge swiped at the tentacle, happy the end of his new scepter was pointy. It left a nasty cut in the tentacle - not quite a slice, since he hadn’t grabbed a sword, but it was enough to get the thing to back off and dive into the water.

Feeling confident, Scrooge kept the scepter in-hand and scanned the boat. He was ready for another confrontation, ready to stab it and slice off a piece of it to take home! The thought of having a souvenir from fighting a gigantic, duck-eating octopus in his home made him chuckle.

Goldie glared at him suspiciously. “What’s so funny?” she asked, breathing hard.

“Nothin’, nothin’,” he answered quickly. “Just keepin’ a lookout here.”

She frowned and nodded, continuing to steer. They stayed silent for a few minutes, fearing that the octopus might react to any sort of unusual noise. But after twenty minutes without sight or sound of the monster, the two ducks felt confident that they were out of danger.

Goldie was still at the helm while Scrooge was securing the last treasure chest, happy to see that they hadn’t lost anything in all the commotion. Well, not lost any treasure. “Ludwig’s goin’ to be so upset I lost his suit.”

At first she didn’t respond. Then Goldie suddenly said, “Come here.”

Scrooge did as she said and walked over, stopping right next to his partner and taking in the view of the ocean. It’d be a few hours ‘til they reached Florida again, so he wouldn’t be surprised if she asked him to switch jobs.

Instead, Goldie grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his beak to hers, crashing them together in a fiery kiss. Scrooge took a few seconds to react and then wrapped his hands around her hips, squeezing her happily.

She pulled them apart and sighed deeply, going back to steering. “I’m glad you’re alive, Scrooge.”

“...yeah,” Scrooge mumbled, scratching the side of his head. Oh, where had his hat gone? “You, too.” He walked off to grab his hat which he found under a tarp at the other end of the boat. It was a good thing it hadn’t flown off or fallen into the water during everything that happened.

“Scrooge.”

He looked back at her curiously. “Hm?”

“Come back here.”

Scrooge looked down at the hat in his hands and then up at her before walking over again. “...Do ye want to kiss me again?”

Goldie had a frustrated scowl on her face. “I want to...celebrate our victory.”

“Oh?” Scrooge asked with a light blush on his cheeks. Thanks to years of experience, he knew exactly what that phrasing meant.

“But someone needs to watch where we’re going so I can’t.”

“Hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully. “I think we just need to be a wee bit more creative, Goldie girl.”

She smiled and looked over at him with a sultry gaze. “Then let’s get creative, sourdough,” she said as she pulled his beak to hers once again.

---

---

Three hours later, the two ducks had switched between sailing normally and celebrating being alive a couple of times, but they were finally to the point where they could see the coastline in the distance.

Scrooge yawned and stretched his arms, looking back at the three treasure chests. “I guess we should talk about which one of these is for you.”

Goldie froze and glared at the water, pretending it was at him. “Which one?”

“Yes, one,” Scrooge repeated with an equally frosty glare. “I paid for this boat and the dive suit and I’m the one who knew about the treasure in the first place. That entitles me to more of the profits!”

“Except you wouldn’t have any profits if not for me!” Goldie said angrily, wishing she could turn around and shove him in the chest. “I helped you out and then I sailed us out of danger! I deserve half!”

“Please!” Scrooge grumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I could’ve gotten someone else!”

“Oh really?!” Goldie shouted. This time she actually did turn around to glare at him properly. “Like who?”

Scrooge pouted and stared at her. He hadn’t expected her to ask that. “Well...Ludwig-”

“Ludwig, Ludwig, Ludwig,” Goldie mocked. “He’s just some kid you met at that English science club. He would’ve died out there!”

“...It’s the British Association for the Advancement of Science,” Scrooge corrected, but he knew she was right. Ludwig may have been a genius, but he wasn't even thirty yet and his only travel experience was going from Austria to Germany and England. He scoffed. Maybe he needed to make more friends that were interested in life-threatening adventures and treasure hunts. “Well...still! You still owe me money!”

“Oh, my God.”

“You’ve stolen thousands of dollars worth of treasure from me over the years,” Scrooge shouted and started counting on his fingers. “In Dawson, in Canyon City, and Skagway, and Juneau, and-”

“What do you want from me?” Goldie shouted back. “A formal apology? You’re not getting one! And you’re not taking my treasure from me!”

“Ach!” Scrooge balled his hands into fists and shook them angrily. “You’re allowed to steal from me, but I cannae steal back from you, is that it?”

She turned around and stuck her tongue out. “That’s it exactly, thank you.”

He huffed and rolled his eyes, then looked at the treasure chests again. The gold coins poking out of them, plus his previous mention of Dawson, reminded him of something he’d heard recently. And it was another adventure he didn’t think he could do alone. “Y’know what, Goldie. I think I know a way ye can repay me for all my stolen goods.”

There was a brief silence before Goldie spoke up. “I’m listening.”

“Do you remember how visitors in Dawson kept askin’ you about some golden lagoon?”

“...what about it?”

“It’s real. And I’ve seen the map that can take us to it,” Scrooge walked closer to her. “Help me find the golden lagoon and I promise not to bring up all your theft ever again.”

Goldie looked at him from the corner of her eyes. She always found it particularly annoying when he wouldn’t shut up about her thievery, as if he didn’t spend half of his free time stealing treasures from poor communities around the world. But a lagoon of liquid gold sounded amazing. There was no way she could say no.

“It’s in White Agony?”

“White Agony Plains, apparently,” Scrooge said. “Not too far from the creek.”

She nodded and tapped her foot. “So...you want to meet in Dawson?”

Scrooge smiled brightly. “Exactly one month from tomorrow. That should give us plenty of time to settle back home and then get ready for another adventure!”

Goldie rolled her eyes. She wondered if Scrooge realized that she owned half of the actively operating businesses in Dawson. Maybe he’d figure it out when he arrived and saw her name on every building. “One month from tomorrow. Sounds good.”

The two ducks looked at the water in front of them, excited to see they were very close to shore. Scrooge would have to do some schmoozing to get his deposit back on the rental, considering all the holes in the wood, but Goldie was happy. She was excited. It wasn’t often that she and Scrooge made plans in advance.

Though she couldn’t stop thinking about how interesting a golden lagoon sounded. Dangerous, hotter than hell, and fascinating. How would they even get it home? She supposed that was for their future selves to figure out.

She sighed and loosened her grip on the steering wheel. A nice, short treasure hunt in the Klondike was exactly what she needed.

REAL HISTORY FACTS:
- Ok embarrassingly I cannot remember why I chose 1793 for the year that the pirate ship disappeared. I can't find anything that specifies that year in relation to the Bermuda Triangle. But it's fine it's fine
- I did so much research on diving suits in the early 1900s. They are huge and terrifying. Here's a photo: http://cyberneticzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1914-macduffee-deep-sea-diving-suit-5.jpg
- The British Association for the Advancement of Science is a really thing and yeah Von Drake definitely would've been in it

DUCK FRANCHISE REFERENCES:
- From the DT17 book Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History!: "Escaping the Bermuda Triangle: In our quest for sunken treasure, she sailed us out of the reach of giant octopi and got us to solid ground with our trunks of treasure by day's end, without a single piece lost."