FINALLY! I have finally completed this chapter!

Apologies for the slight delay though, I've been wrapping my head around how this chapter should go about, not to mention I was nursing a poor head from that chair shot.

(Rubs bandaged forehead).

Anywho... let's keep the ball rolling, shall we? Enjoy!

Ever since the defeat of Xehanort, things were becoming much staler in the life of King Mickey Mouse.

Slowly and gradually, his royal duties as King of Disney Town were becoming much of an everyday routine.

There were meetings, celebrations, and writing of letters and reviewing laws.

And not to mention the constant pattern of banquet after feast after banquet.

Without any dwellers of darkness roaming around the worlds anymore, there was little to no need for his Keyblade to be summoned out.

Even when he had time for training, it always seemed that his duties would kick down the door and drag him back into the heat of things.

Not that he was complaining though. Mickey was quite happy with the peace and prosperity that his world was now experiencing.

Without Xehanort around, no longer would his people be endangered at the hands of the Heartless, the Nobodies and the Unversed.

Only because Xehanort fell, could his people live out their lives happily and blissfully.

Still, Mickey pitied him.

Xehanort had so much talent, so much promise to be an exceptional Keyblade wielder, unlike any that came before him.

He had so much wisdom, so great a foresight, that Mickey was willing to bet that if he weren't such a power-seeking madman then he would be one of the greatest Keyblade warriors in history.

And yet, his hunger for knowledge was what led him to his fall from grace, as well as his eventual downfall.

On the outside, Xehanort had maintained the mentality of a wise old man who only wanted to maintain the balance of light and darkness in the world.

On the inside however, he was actually a worshipper of the dark, and that he would do anything to cloud all the worlds in darkness.

Just so he could satisfy his lifelong curiosity of the legend of the Keyblade War.

Thankfully, on many fronts, he was stopped by not only Mickey himself, but also by his friends.

At the beginning, there was only Terra, Aqua and Ventus.

And then years later it expanded to include other unlikely figures.

Such as Roxas, Lea, Xion, and even Naminé.

And finally there was Riku, Kairi…

And Sora.

The trio that both Mickey and Master Yen Sid believed that were destined to takeover the mantle from Terra, Aqua and Ventus as the next generation of Keyblade Masters.

But of course, he was not that surprised when the three of them, especially Sora, respectfully declined the offer.

They also had their own normal lives back on their own world, and Mickey could respect their positions on that point.

After all, outside of being a Keyblade Master, he too had a normal life here in Disney Town.

One that called for him to step up to become the usually benevolent, kind and cheerful King that everyone had come to respect and love.

As he finished writing down the last of his letters that were meant to be sent out to neighbouring towns, he could not help but wonder how everyone else were faring at the moment.

So far as he know, Master Eraqus had retired to live out the rest of his days on some unknown world.

Terra, Aqua and Ventus were investigating an extra-terrestrial event occurring in a far-off world.

Roxas, Lea, Xion and Naminé were spending time together in Twilight Town.

And as for Sora, Riku and Kairi, they were probably –

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" a high-pitched voice cried out inside of his office.

From his papers, Mickey's round ears twitched, and his head snapped up in alarm.

His eyes were focused on the doors – they were slightly ajar.

And then he heard the familiar quick pants of a chipmunk arriving upon his desk.

With a crisp salute, Chip started hopping out and down, "Your Majesty! We have an emergency!"

Mickey's brows furrowed seriously, "An emergency? Of what kind?"

"I-It's hard to explain…" Chip replied back, now seemingly hesitant, "I-It's better that you see it yourself."

Mickey tilted his head in confusion, "Hmm?"

And then he noticed that Chip was all by himself alone.

"Chip. Where's your brother Dale?" he asked slowly.

At the mentioning of his brother, Chip gulped down a lump in his throat, and then he slowly looked away.

At first, Mickey was not sure what this motion meant, but then he noticed a single tear tricking down the chipmunk's face.

Immediately, the King's expression turned grim and he quickly hopped from his chair.

"I'll go check it out," Mickey told him calmly, "You stay here and keep me posted for any sort of danger that pops up."

Chip made no move to salute his King as though he had not heard him. He seemed to be grieving.

With one final remorseful glance at the chipmunk, Mickey raced out of his office.

As he dashed down the main hallway of the castle, the mouse King caught glances of black dots littering the ground.

He skidded to a halt and bent down to pick some of it up.

He brushed one gloved finger against the bits, and it immediately became sooty and dirty.

Mickey frowned even more; he knew what it was.

Just then, he heard a female voice calling him by his title.

Turning around, he saw Daisy approaching as quickly as her regal dress would allow her.

"Mickey! Thank goodness I've found you!" she cried out.

The King noted that she did not perform common courtesy before him, but since he had never been one for tradition, he was silently glad that she didn't.

"Daisy, any idea what's going on?" he asked and showed her some of the black stuff in his hand.

Daisy shook her head, "No idea! Donald and Goofy and the entire Royal Guard are looking into it as we speak!"

Mickey acknowledged with a nod, "I'm heading outside to assess the situation. If you come across Donald or Goofy, tell 'em to meet me in the town square."

Daisy this time curtsied back, "As you command, Your Majesty."

King Mickey began racing off again, making a mental note to change a bit of the rules once this was all over.

Within five minutes, he was charging out of the castle gates, and he entered the square.

All over, he could make out more of the black soot covering the streets.

There were also a couple if residents in the area, and they appeared to be weeping over the piles.

Two of them he could easily recognise as Horace Horsecollar and Clara Cluck.

And as though they sensed his presence, they quickly turned towards him.

"Your Majesty!" Horace exclaimed out with relief, at the same time as Clara clucked out, and they both rushed over to the mouse King.

Mickey nodded at them both and asked, "Do you two have any idea what's going on? Why is there ash all over the town?"

Horace and Clara glanced at one another, and then Clara let out a softer cluck.

"W-Well… y'see Your Majesty, everything was all nice and dandy," Horace began saying slowly, "Regarding the preparations for the Dream Festival, but um…"

Slowly the expressions of both Horace and Clara turned sullener, and this did not go unnoticed by the concerned King.

"Then… all of a sudden… everyone all around just started to…" Horace mumbled.

"Started to what?" Mickey prompted him worriedly, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

Horace let out a deep sigh, "Started to turn to ash…"

Almost immediately, Mickey could not help but let out a small squeak of uncomfortableness.

So what he suspected was true, but the question that his mind was tightly wrapped around was how it happened, and who were affected.

Since Horace and Clara were apparently the ones who survived, he decided to go with the latter first.

Gesturing to the ash piles all around, he asked, "Who were the ones in this vicinity that were affected?"

Horace closed his eyes and clenched his hands tightly, "W-Well… there were Huey, Dewey and Louie… Clarabelle… a-and Pluto…"

It was the last one that made Mickey's eyes widen out in surprised terror, but then he slowly closed his eyes and allowed the grief to set in.

Never again would he ever be able to hear that playful bark of his, nor will he ever be able to play with him, and rub his head again out of affection.

"And then we caught wind that people outside the town were also affected," Horace added on, "Darkwing Duck… Max and his red-head gal…"

He looked too mournful to continue on.

Reopening his grim-looking eyes, Mickey told them both, "I'll get to the bottom of this and make sure whoever's the cause of all this pays accordingly. In the meantime, head on indoors and stay there."

With resigned nods, both Horace and Clara turned and raced off from the square.

As he remained the only one left in the square, Mickey began to ponder over his options.

From what Horace had explained earlier, it appeared that this calamity was also affecting towns outside of Disney Town.

And then a more concerned thought occurred to him.

Could it also be possibly affecting other worlds besides his as well?

He had better made sure that this one was a contained epidemic.

Mickey reached into the pocket of his jacket and fished out his Star Shard.

Ever since Xehanort's defeat, Yen Sid had allowed his former Keyblade apprentice to keep the item.

In the event of another incident on a universal scale, Mickey would be able to use it to traverse between worlds without slamming into the barriers.

This is so considering that the worlds were finally separate from each other, once and for all.

But before they parted ways, Yen Sid also instructed Mickey on another use of the Star Shard.

He clutched it tightly and held it close to his chest, to his heart.

He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply, and the Star Shard began to gradually glow a few seconds later, signalling his connection to the D-Link.

And then Mickey attempted to connect himself across time and space, to his friends on the other worlds.

He knew who to start with first.

"Aqua. Ven. Terra," he called out in thought, "How goes your search?"

Almost immediately there would have been a response from either of the trio.

But much to his shock, there was no response this time.

"Can y'all hear me?" he tried again, "Disney Town's havin' a situation, and I need your help now! Aqua?!"

Again, there was no response, and Mickey became concerned and worried.

"Something must've happened to 'em," he thought to himself grimly.

He decided to try his old master.

"Master Yen Sid?" he called out, "Can you hear me?"

Again, he received no response, and the feeling of dread was starting to creep in.

Desperately, he tried to contact the younger Keyblade wielders.

"Roxas! Xion! Can ya hear me?" he exclaimed out worriedly, "It's me, King Mickey! I need your help! If you can hear me, please say something!"

No response from either of them, and Naminé was somehow blocked off.

While Mickey was happy that Naminé was still alive, he could sense that the aura of the girl was filled with sadness, grief and despair.

And when he tried to contact Lea, it was the same result for him as well.

"At least Lea and Naminé are okay…" he muttered with relief.

And that now left the only trio that he hoped he could still reach out.

But before he could, he felt a sense of dizziness and uncomfortableness overcoming him.

And then slowly, he felt himself getting weaker.

Opening his eyes, Mickey looked to his left hand.

To his shock, it was starting to disintegrate into ash.

Hopelessness began to consume his thoughts.

Mickey realised that his time in this world was up.

But that did not mean that he was going down without leaving a beacon of hope.

He had to act quickly though, or else all will be lost forever.

Focusing on his D-Link, Mickey concentrated on finding someone, anyone who could possibly have the strength to fix everything and save everyone.

And then, he found her, and he opened his eyes.

He whispered something to the Star Shard, and with little effort, he tossed it into the air like a boomerang.

Immediately, the Star Shard began zipping off into the sky, and Mickey watched it disappear into the clouds with steely eyes of hope.

Hopefully, she would receive the message he had imprinted onto the Shard.

Maybe she would have the power to make sense of what is taking place, and how she could stop it.

Only time will tell.

As he looked down at his disintegrating body, Mickey knew with sadness that he would not be there when it happened.

With one final sigh of resignation, Mickey mumbled softly, "Sorry Minnie… if only I could've seen you one last time…"

His world turned black for the remainder of eternity.

Well... that got really depressing...

Who's the unknown person that Mickey's sending the Star Shard too?

Too bad we won't find out until the last chapter.

On the bright side, the next chapter will finally bring us to the main KH trio of the series. Yay...?

By the way, those "I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark" memes are going off the charts online!

See you guys next time!