Part 1:

What happens in the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead in between the two Dia de Mueros that are shown in the fantastic movie Coco? What happens to Miguel? What happens between Mama Imelda and Papa Hector? What is Ernesto's plan? Maria will find out. This is a story that adds in my own made up character Maria Ruiz. A dancer, a football player, and loves the Rivera family, but what she doesn't tell anyone is that she can see the entire Rivera family, dead or alive. She can interact with the dead on Dia de Muertos, and she knows a lot about the Land of the Dead as well which comes in handy when you're battling against an insane former, now mystically powerful musician who's heart is set on a revenge. Pixar and Disney own Coco. Please review, and tell me what you think. If I get enough feedback, I'll continue.

"Are you alright Miguel?" Maria asked as she walked with her friend to school.

Miguel had been unusually quiet today. He usually would rant to her about how much his family was bugging him about 'being there for his family' and so on, especially after Dia de Muertos, but he wasn't saying a word. He was just looking down at the dusty path as they walked up to the school house.

She knew something bad had happened.

She knew the Riveras didn't like music. Correction: they hated music. Everyone in town knew that. It was so unusual that it was almost impossible not to hear about it. But what was more unusual was the fact that Miguel himself loved music. He had built his own guitar and everything, and he was actually really good. He would come over to her house sometimes when he wasn't shining shoes to play aloud where no one would judge him. She would dance along sometimes when she had her dancing shoes on. Her family didn't care that he was around.

Literally. They didn't care at all.

Maria wouldn't be surprised if her family didn't know Miguel even existed. They were always too busy with their jobs to worry about their children, and Maria's only company was usually her two guard dogs, Dogo Argentinos, named Veronica and Silvia, if her brother wasn't around. Her parents owned a huge company in Mexico City, but moved down to Santa Cecilia a couple of years ago to get away from said huge city. They were known to be the richest family in town, and owned De La Cruz's old mansion on top of the hill that overlooked it all. That had been the first reason that Miguel had introduced himself to her was because he was a huge De La Cruz fan and had wanted to see the mansion, but they became actual friends after that. They both knew the hardships of an annoying family.

But Maria wouldn't call the Riveras annoying in the slightest. Miguel's mama and papa were two of the nicest people that Maria had ever met, and were actually teaching her how to make shoes when she wasn't busy with her dance lessons. Miguel's cousins Abel and Rosa went to the same school as them, and Maria knew Rosa from their shared art and P.E. classes. Maria played football with Abel after school almost every day of the week. He loved football, but he weighed too much to be on the top football team at school. Miguel's twin, little cousins, Benny and Manny, were adorable, and she babysat them sometimes to give their mother, Carmin, and their aunt, Gloria, a break since they were little trouble makers. Their father, Berto, was nice enough, but he definitely got his attitude from his mother. Abuela Elena was in charge of the Rivera household after her own Abuela, Mama Imelda, died and her mother, Mama Coco, lost her ability to move around on her own. Poor Mama Coco was 99 years old, and Abuela Elena is only super nice when she's taking care of her. Whenever Maria came around to the Rivera family household and she came in with her dancing shoes, she would glare at her for at least 30 minutes before giving up. Miguel's papa, Enrique, said that combining music and shoes made her mad, and they had stopped making dance shoes after Mama Coco twisted her ankle dancing. Maria was sad about this because she knew that if the Riveras made dancing shoes, they would make a lot of people happy and they would make a fortune.

And Maria should know since the deceased Riveras told her themselves.

Maria's gift was that she could see the dead when they crossed over the bridge between the worlds of living and dead on Dia de Muertos. She had seen an alebrije in a dream when she had first moved to Santa Cecilia the day before Dia De Muertos, a huge feathered serpent, and the next night she was seeing skeletons. She had no deceased family herself to talk to, at least that she knew of, so she just went over to the Rivera household to talk to Mama Imelda, Papa Julio, Tio Oscar, Tio Felipe, Tia Rosita, and Tia Victoria. It had scared her as much as them when they realized that she could see them. Maria had screamed, and started running before accidently toppling right into Oscar, Felipe, and Victoria. Their bones had cluttered together, and Maria's apologetic, have-to-make-things-right instinct got the better of her fear. She, Imelda, Julio, and Rosita had helped them assemble themselves for a good 30 minutes, and that was all the time Maria needed to recognize them from the Rivera ofrenda.

They were good company, and told her all about the Land of the Dead and what it looked like. Maria wished she could just go there for a visit, and see all the bright colors they described. The way they talked about it, it was more beautiful than an untouched, Mexican landscape.

They hated music too, but the younger generations of the dead Riveras were interested in Maria's dance shoes. Oscar and Felipe started planning shoes that had glowing plastic on the bottom instead of metal, Victoria asked her to teach her a couple moves, and even Julio and Rosita taught Maria and Victoria some of their own moves they used to dance with before joining the Rivera family. Mama Imelda only allowed it because, as she put it, it was an enlightening approach in the world of shoes that they didn't dare step in, but Maria knew that she actually enjoyed the show. Maria even noticed her tapping her booted foot to the beat she was making with her dance, and it made her wonder why she disowned music. It obviously made them happy, and it wasn't the real thing that made her so sad. Her husband left to play music, true, but it was his choice. She should be punishing her husband not music. Maria honesty thought she banned music because it reminded her so much of the husband she loved that left her.

Mama Imelda never talked about him, but her brothers did when she wasn't around. They told her that he had been the love of her life, and made her more happy then she had been her entire childhood. He had loved her and Coco, and his only goal in life had been to make his girls as happy as they could be. He had gone on a tour with his friend to make money for the future he dreamed of for his family, but he never came back. It had stumped the twins from life into death. They never would have expected him of all people to leave their sister to defend for herself in a society that looked down on widow women. They had told her that it was a little suspicious since the letters he sent home just suddenly stopped. Maria did some research in the year between the last Dia de Muertos and this one and wanted to tell the twins what she had found, but they never came this year. They never showed.

Miguel didn't either, and apparently, if his family was telling the truth, ran away last night. Maria wasn't told any more information since the Riveras were running around town looking for him, but after seeing his smashed guitar in the middle of the Rivera courtyard, she knew why he ran away.

"I came to your house last night, and your entire family was in complete disarray," Maria continued. "They were running all over your estate and all over town looking for you. I saw your broken guitar, and knew why you left. Your Abuela was was crying over the fact that your Mama Imelda's picture was off the ofrenda, and your mama was nearly passing out so your Tia Gloria had to wet her forehead every now and then since the stress combined with how pregnant she is was giving her a fever."

"I didn't mean to upset everyone," Miguel talked for the first time all day, and it sounded like he was talking to some else, "I didn't mean to run away for the entire night. My Abuela broke my guitar, and I got mad so I left trying to find a guitar so I could play in the plaza but I couldn't find one so I went to De La Cruz's tomb to borrow his guitar—"

"You were the one who stole De La Cruz's guitar!" Maria gasped. She had heard that the guitar was missing, and someone had broken a window of De La Cruz's tomb to get it. It was the talk of the town this morning.

"But it's not his guitar!" Miguel said passionately which made Maria take a step back. Miguel realized he had scared his friend and shook his head apologetically. "Sorry. I've just had a crazy night."

"What happened Miguel? Tell me," Maria said. "You can tell me anything. Why isn't it De La Cruz's guitar? Where did you go last night? What happened?"

Miguel took a deep breathe, like he was going to reveal all his secrets, but he stopped himself with a sigh.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you the truth,"Miguel said sadly as he went back to looking at the dusty ground. Maria laughed at this which startled Miguel into looking back at her.

"I can believe anything Miguel. Trust me," Maria chuckled, silently referring to the fact that she could see the dead. "Tell me!" Miguel looked at her with confusion for a few more minutes. They had since stopped walking, and Maria didn't care if they were late. She cared about her friend more than her grade.

"Um well," Miguel scratched the back of his head, "I had a pretty interesting night… I ran into the cemetery for a guitar and left with the guitar and much more. The meaning of family I suppose…"

"Your straying from the point Miguel, and your getting cheesy," Maria tapped her foot impatiently. "What really happened?"

"I… uh…" Miguel shut his eyes right before saying through gritted teeth: "I went to the Land of the Dead!"

Miguel expected more laughter. For her to tell him he was nuts, and that he should go find a new best friend. It didn't happen though. Miguel slowly opened his eyes to meet Maria's, whose eyes were as wide as saucers and her jaw was touching the floor.

"What?!" She exclaimed, "You saw the Land of the Dead!?" This wasn't happening. Miguel must be making fun of her. He must be pulling her leg. But, like most children around their age, it was easy to tell if they were lying or not. Miguel's face spoke total seriousness, and it rattled Maria down to the bone. This was incredible! She wasn't alone anymore… but she wanted to make sure. "Was it as colorful and bright as your dead family said it was?"

"Yeah it was very colorful, and… Wait… what?" Miguel asked, tilting his head to the side. "How did you know it was colorful… what do you mean dead family!?"

Maria smirked at him. "Mama Imelda was wearing a purple dress with her hair in a bun at the base of her neck with a purple ribbon braided through it. She has purple half oval markings above her eye sockets and dots below, lip stick, and uses her boot as a weapon."

It was Miguel's turn to gape.

"W...w...what?" Miguel asked. "How did you know that?"

"Oh my gosh, you did go to the Land of the Dead!" Maria cried as she happily jumped up and down. "How did you do it? Where did you go? Who did you meet? What did you do?"

"Wait one second," Miguel stopped her. "How do you know what my dead great great grandmother looks like?"

"Yeah, I can see and hear and touch the dead," Maria smiled. "I talk to your dead family every Dia De Muertos!"

Miguel's face was priceless.

He didn't speak. He didn't even look like he was breathing which was making Maria nervous.

"Miguel? Are you alright?" After not getting a reply, Maria tried again. "Did I break you?" She poked his forehead. "Yep you're definitely broken."

"I'm just… how do you… I'm uh…" Miguel was tripping over his words, wondering where to begin. "How long have you been able to do this?"

"Since I first came to Santa Cecilia," María answered. "I saw an alebrije in my sleep one night, and it changed me if that makes any sense."

"What did this alebrije look like?" Miguel asked.

"Um… well, it was huge. Like 20 times taller than me, and was a serpent with feathers growing out of its scales. It scared me out of my sleep, but I always think of it when I talk to skeletons for some reason. It's like their connected."

"That sounds kind of like the alebrije that Mama Imelda has," Miguel pointed out. "Her name is Pepita and she's also huge. She's a jaguar, bird, dragon thingy. She mostly green with a little red, yellow, and blue with horns, and a roar that can shake buildings."

"Really?" Maria beamed at this knowledge, "That's amazing, and makes a great deal of sense." She knew Mama Imelda was a strong, sturdy woman that would never back down if it meant protecting her family, and she was one of Maria's personal heroes. Such an amazing woman was someone to look up to in any young girl's eyes. Having an alebrije that reflected her personality so well was absolute perfection.

"You haven't seen her up close in person," Miguel shivered. "She's like a normal, moody house cat, but she now has size, power, and flight on her side. She's…" Miguel tried to search for a nice way to say the words in his head. "Unpredictable."

"I have never been a cat person myself," Maria said as she recalled her 'precious puppies' that she had at home. "But I would love to meet her. There is a cat that shows up with your dead family every Day of the Dead, but she doesn't have wings, pretty colors, or horns."

"Well she might turn into a normal cat after crossing the Marigold Bridge," Miguel suggested. "Dante does that."

"Dante's an alebrije?" Maria cooed happily. "That's adorable. I'm guessing he's yours."

"Yep," Miguel smiled, "He's my alebrije. And get this. My family is allowing me to keep him, and they've also lifted the music ban."

"I'm so happy Dante now has a home, he deserves one… Wait! What?!" Maria cried at the top of her lungs which made a couple of older students that were sitting out in the school yard turn their heads in annoyance. "They lifted the music ban?! That's incredible, and highly unlikely. How did you do it? Does this have something to do with De La Cruz's guitar?"

"I should probably start from the beginning," Miguel said sheepishly.

As they made their way to the final stretch to the schoolhouse, Miguel told her all about stealing the guitar, getting transported to the Land of the Dead, meeting his dead family, abandoning them because they wouldn't send him home with the ability to play music, meeting Hector, playing in the competition in the Plaza De La Cruz, meeting Ernesto De La Cruz, finding out he and Hector were friends in life but De La Cruz murdered Hector for his songs, that Hector was his great great grandfather and husband to Mama Imelda and father to Mama Coco, and that he revived Mama Coco's memory with a lullaby that Hector wrote and he played on 'De La Cruz's' guitar. If Maria were dead, she jaw would have dropped to the floor.

"So wait!" Maria exclaimed. "What happened to Hector? Did Coco remember in time? Did Mama Imelda forgive him? Is he still in the Land of the Dead? I want to meet him! He sounds like fun!"

"I hope Mama Coco remembered in time," Miguel looked to the ground sadly again, "And I thought I wouldn't be able to find out until I died myself if he survived, but now you can find out next Dias de Muertos. We have the picture of him on the ofrenda so he will be able to cross over next year, and you can tell me."

"I'll make sure to tell you. I really want to meet him," Maria said. "To think that Mama Imelda has been mad at him for years, and just found out that he was instead murdered for trying to come home to her. Talk about a plot twist. I hope they get back together again. Mama Imelda deserves someone for her efforts. She's always liked music and my dancing, and now she can do it freely. Her brothers said she was once the greatest singer in Santa Cecilia."

"She's a very good singer," Miguel agreed. "She even sang in front of a crowd of thousands of people on Dias De Muertos!"

"What!?" Maria cried before the school bell rang. "Oh gosh dang it! This conversation isn't over!" Maria said as she ran to her classroom, and Miguel, in turn, ran to his. Maria needed to know everything about last night. It was an unbelievable event.

"It will take some time for these injuries to heal," the doctor said as she looked over his broken bones. "That bell did a wonder to your skeletal frame, but it will heal since you are so well remembered. A nearly forgotten skeleton would never recover from this."

"The world is just playing with me," Ernesto De La Cruz growled more to himself than anyone present. He had been rescued from under the bell by the police, and quickly arrested. He was now getting his injuries fixed in a room in the Police Station, and there were two officers in the room, and two officers outside guarding the door. He was trying to find some way out, but he had been very unlucky with their opinion on how dangerous he was. They now suspected him to be a full on psychopath, and kept tying him in those white bodysuits and placing him in high security cells. All of this for nearly killing a kid? It was ridiculous. At least they hadn't proven him guilt of Hector's death yet. That would be the final blow, and he would forever remain in a cell until he was truly forgotten. Who knew how long that would take."I'm being charged for something I could be imprisoned for, and I'm going to survive for years and years to come. It's awful." He still had many fans in the Land of the Living, and even if everyone in the Living World knew the truth, he would still be remembered for a long time. Great tragedies, such as the world's greatest musician being a fraud, would be dents in history for at least a couple centuries. He would be bored for a while just with the charges the Riveras made against him for Miguel, but if he was proven guilty of Hector's death… he would be bored out of his mind forever. There was no way around it… or so he had thought. He made it look like he was pressing his hand against his broken ribs to feel them, but he was really checking he still had that book that he was hiding under his prisoners uniform in his rib cage.

"Well you deserve it, don't you?" the doctor stated, and Ernesto could see the guards stiffen at her words. "You tried to kill the one living boy that has ever crossed into this world, and you were even dumb enough to do it on camera. Someone that bad should be locked up in this world, and every world that follows."

Ernesto let a growl rumble deep within his nonexistent throat, but didn't act on his anger. She thought he was dumb, but he would show her. The dumb thing to do would be to attack her, and get more charges placed against him. The dumb thing to do would be to stay in a cell for the rest of his life and rot. But he knew better. He could do better.

He let his anger settle for now because it would better to act on his anger when the entire family of fame-crushers were there.

"That's it Hector. You've got it!" Oscar cheered encouraging words to his brother-in-law. Hector strengthen his grip on the wooden bars that stood horizontally on either side of him. Imelda, Oscar, and Felipe were in the room watching as Hector attempted to walk on his own two feet with help from his arms. Oscar and Felipe stayed on either side of him to catch him if he fell, and the doctor himself had been watching Hector's attempt and monitored his progress. He was there for their assigned appointments, but they would sometimes come in to give Hector a break from the wheelchair which was now his only source of transportation like they were doing now. The doctor said the more he worked his legs, the faster he would heal.

It had been four weeks since the events of Dias De Muertos happened, and Hector, being almost forgotten, was having trouble getting back to his feet. The doctor said that "the more he is remembered the more he will be able to move on his own". He was forced to move in a wheelchair, but he was continuously getting better. Imelda watched with worry as she stood in front of him. She was, in fact, paying for all of this medical work, but she still had so many bundled emotions that she didn't know what to think.

Hector hadn't left her to play in some grand ballroom. He hadn't left her to fulfil a dream that would be impossible with a family. He hadn't left her for another woman… He made that perfectly clear when he gained his strength. She had shut him down multiple times since arriving in the Land of the Dead, but she now didn't have the right to. He had spilled out every apology, every compliment, and every kind word that he never got to tell her in the time they had been apart when he lay in her arms in the Sunrise Spectacular Stadium. It had reduced her to tears which shook her family. Mama Imelda never cried. She held them when they were crying, but they had never seen her cry. Hector had sat up as best he could, and wrapped her in his own arms. She had actually let him. She had rested her head on his shoulder, and cried all those tears she had held in for more years than she cared to admit. It had felt… good. She would admit that. It was nice to be the one being held instead of the one everyone expected to hold them. That didn't mean she didn't like being the holder, but it took a nice weight off of her shoulders to be held. She had him back, after so long, and she wouldn't let him go. And she wouldn't let him get hurt either, and she meant it as she protectively shot out her hands as Hector's arms gave way.

She caught him so that her arms were wrapped under his arms, and it brought their faces really close together. They stared at each other with wide eyes before Hector gave her a sheepish grin and tried not to but was looking down at her painted lips. Imelda raised an bony eyebrow at him, and Hector immediately looked away and tried to get to his feet. He's afraid to make me mad again, Imelda realized. He should be the one mad at her, and he shouldn't fear her wrath because she knew he didn't deserve it. He shouldn't be afraid of her anymore.

Imelda looked down at his bony lips as well and before Hector could figure out what the look meant Imelda pressed her lips to his in an innocent kiss. Oscar and Felipe's jaws nearly dropped completely, but they caught them just in time. Hector froze completely in surprise before relaxing into the kiss. Imelda smiled as he kissed back, and only broke it after she couldn't breath anymore. Hector's face could only be described as blissful, and his eyes were only focused on her face. If Imelda could still blush, she would be. As she looked down at Hector's lips, she started to giggle.

"You've got something there," she gestured to him with her head since her hands were full. Oscar and Felipe looked at what she was talking about, and started to laugh. Hector couldn't see it, but he had Imelda's magenta lipstick all over his lips. Imelda continued to giggle as she helped Hector up so he could use the horizontal bars again before running her thumb over his lips. She revealed to him the magenta on her finger, and he smiled with a laugh of his own.

"You guys are disgusting," Felipe stated.

"Now I wish Hector was still rejected," Oscar joked, but Imelda growled at the statement before smacking both her brothers across the face with her boot, causing their heads to spin on their spines. The action surprisingly made Hector smile. She's the exact same as when I lost her, Hector chuckled mentally as Imelda started cursing her brothers in Spanish.