The Mouse Who Would Be King

By Lynx (of Organization VI)

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

Summary: The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

Notes: Aaaand we're back with Mickey! Not much to say, except these sorts of chapters are still tons of fun to write. XD

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Back on the floating island of the colorful world stepped in long shadows, there was no war to be fought, but things were just as tense. Yen Sid had not been as relaxed (or as relaxed as the old sorcerer could be) since the meteor shower. In order to study what the material was, he took several small samples and placed them in his magical laboratory, although he didn't allow Mickey to touch any of them. The larger rocks were still left outside.

Since then, Mickey's days were more split: half the day was spent studying magic, and the other half Yen Sid locked himself in his private laboratory and worked on the fallen star pieces. Mickey didn't know what sorts of things Yen Sid was trying with the rocks, but sometimes he saw flashes of pink, green aned blue from the window of the tallest tower.

At first Mickey was truly worried, but then he became annoyed. During these times, he was left to his own devices, with nothing more than the occasional chore to keep him busy. Sure, he had all the other books in the library to occupy him, but now he just couldn't concentrate on neither books nor chores with all these new developments. It was clear the fallen stars worried Yen Sid.

But Mickey wasn't quite sure why. The rocks had only been dangerous when falling, but now they did nothing but sit there. After a week or two, the vegetation even started to grow back around them, as if considering them now part of the landscape. What could be so dangerous about them?

While learning with Yen Sid had made him more humble, Mickey still retained nearly all of his original curiosity. So he resolved to find out for himself what those star-pieces could be.

Making sure that Yen Sid was back in his study, he pulled his apprentice robes tight around him and tiptoed down the stairs. Along the way, he passed the room full of magic tools: rods, spears, swords, shields, and other weapons. Well, better safe than sorry. He grabbed up the magic rod he'd been using for practice, and continued out the front door.

Outside, the breeze was cool and crisp. Aside from the various piles of colorful rocks, the grassy island looked the same as always. Mickey crept out to the nearest rock: a big blue one with green and yellow spots. Wincing, he reached out his rod and poked the rock.

Nothing happened. Emboldened, Mickey now poked it with his finger.

Now he received a shock. The rock wasn't hard! It was definitely solid, but felt more squishy, like it could be molded into new shapes, grinning broadly, he knelt down and picked up one of the smaller rocks. Again, it proved to be less rock-like that it seemed: it was incredibly light. He tossed the non-rock into the air, and it seemed to hang there for a moment, as if wanting to defy gravity. Mickey laughed as he caught the squishy substance again.

Forgetting all about his previous worries, he picked up three more rocks and began to juggle them, delighted as they sparkled bright colors in the dying light. His next discovery he stumbled upon completely by accident: as he juggled the rocks, one fell on top of another, and they squished together. Mickey was able to pull them apart again with some effort, but when he stuck them back together, they stayed glued, as if wanting to be joined. Why, these rocks didn't seem like rocks at all...more like colorful, gummy blocks.

Mickey was so caught up in his discoveries that he failed to notice the shadows under the hedges begin to move.

They shivered, wriggled, shuffled about on the dark grass, and started to crawl. As they crawled, they formed arms and legs and heads with twitching antennae. And as the shadows separated into distinct entities, Mickey didn't see or hear them, but he did feel them. It felt like a thick cloud passing over the sun, or a cold patch in a warm bathing pool. He got little shivers all the way from his neck down to his tail. Something was definitely not right.

He turned around just soon enough to see them: the flat shadows rose out of the ground into solid shapes, which became small creatures. They stared at him with bright yellow eyes – the only feature visible on their blue-black bodies.

"Yipe!" Mickey cried, leaping back at their unexpected approach. "Who're you guys?"

They didn't answer Instead, they just continued to shuffle towards him, little antennae wriggling. Mickey would've almost thought them cute if not for the cold feeling in his blood. He somehow just knew that these things weren't friendly.

"S-stay back!" He brandished his rod at them, trying to sound threatening. Perhaps they didn't have ears, because they kept coming. Mickey suddenly felt a cold terror inside him, almost like when he'd nearly drowned, but still different. That had been an accident, but these things intended to do him harm! All of the weeks spent training suddenly felt useless in the face of a real enemy.

But still, he had to try. Almost failing to keep his hands from shaking, he pointed his rod at the nearest creature and cried "Fire!"

A fireball erupted from the rod on command, but it missed. The creatures didn't even seem to notice it, and now they were starting to surround him. One stood upon its two feet, showing that it had claws on its hands.

He needed a new spell. "Thunder!"

This one hit home, and the shadow-creature jolted with the shock of the lightning bolt. Mickey thundered it again, and this time it disintegrated into black smoke and dust. There was no blood or guts or any of the other nasty stuff Mickey had been fearing...just dust. It was almost as if the creature was made completely of darkness.

"Hot dog!" Mickey exclaimed at his victory. But he couldn't celebrate just yet. The other shadow-creatures continued to advance on him, seeming not to care that one of their own had just disintegrated. Knowing now they at least weren't invincible, Mickey launched a volley of spells at them: "Fire! Thunder! Blizzard! Thunder! Wind!"

The magic disintegrated the monsters one by one. But it seemed that for every one that disappeared in a puff of smoke, a new one crawled up from the ground to replace it. He just had to keep fighting! He used lots of his power to call down whole chains of thunder and swirling fireballs that blasted through the monster's ranks. The air was thick with the smoke and dust of disintegrated creatures. But it was working! He was winning—

When suddenly, the magic ran dry.

Mickey tried to summon a bolt of fire, but not so much as a spark came from his rod. His magical energy had run out!

But there were still at least a dozen of the creatures left, maybe more. And they continued to advance on him, heedless of the spells used on them moments before. Mickey glanced back towards the tower. Should he make a run for it? Maybe if he got back quickly enough, he could lock the things outside. But then what? Yen Sid could probably finish them off with his spells, but they would still threaten the tower. Who knew what damage they could cause to it? The way they slunk up from the ground like that, doors may not even stop them.

No, Mickey had to stop these things right now. If he couldn't use magic, he'd just have to try the next best thing. So he held up the rod as if it were a club, and brandished it at the creatures. "You better stay back, or you'll really get it this time!"

They didn't care. One shadow-creature even leaped up, its claws bared and ready to sink into him. Mickey swatted it back with the rod, and it landed with a soft thump in front of him. Before it could have the chance to try again, he hit it more, until it finally dissipated into black dust.

At least hitting them worked just as well as magic! His confidence renewed just a little, he set to the task of beating back the monsters. And once he got used to the idea of hitting (maybe, maybe not) living creatures, he discovered just using the weapon came easier to him even than magic. Mickey may not have been a big, tough guy like Pete, but he was quick. He could jump and dodge and dart and scurry like any other self-respecting mouse. And he used all those skills to avoid the monsters while hitting them back.

Strangest of all were not these darkness monsters trying to attack him, or how they exploded into dust when destroyed. It was how wielding this weapon seemed to come so naturally to him. After all, he'd never used weapons before on his home world. So why did this simple too feel like an extension of him? He could have sworn that, for just a single second, the rod looked golden and flashed the teeth of a key in the long-shadowed twilight...

Then, quite abruptly, there were no more shadow-monsters to destroy. He was completely alone on the star-sparkled grass. The exhaustion of this battle hit Mickey hard, and he collapsed onto his tail. He'd heard about it from Yen Sid, but he'd never actually fought for his life before. And those creatures! They didn't utter so much as a squeak of protest when he destroyed them. They didn't bat an eye when their comrades died. They only seemed to care about getting him. What sort of creature could possibly act that way?

If they consider the thoughts and feelings of others before themselves, they are a person of light. If they think only of themselves, their thoughts and gains, and care not for others' worries, then they are of darkness.

Darkness! Whatever those things were, they were so focused on whatever they wanted from him that they noticed nothing else. Could they have once been real people that were overcome by darkness completely? Had Yen Sid been right all long?

"Mickey Mouse."

He jumped to nearly twice his height at the voice, and spun around to face Yen Sid himself. How long had the old sorcerer been standing there?!

"M-Master Yen Sid!" he stammered. "I didn't mean to—"

"Thank goodness you're safe," Yen Sid said, his voice far from harsh. Perhaps he'd been just as afraid as Mickey had. "I realized you were not in the tower and feared the worst."

"Aw shucks, I can take care of myself," Mickey said with a nervous smile, although he was certain the sorcerer believed otherwise.

"That much I can see," Yen Sid said with a nod. "And it seems you have some skills with physical combat. I wish you would have told me sooner."

"I would've told ya if I knew!" Mickey shrugged. "I've never fought things like those before. What were they?"

Yen Sid gestured to the tower. "Come inside. I believe we both have important information we can share."

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