Chapter 13

In wake of the tornado, there was a lot of work to do. Several homes had been destroyed, but, thankfully, it seemed there were no casualties from the disaster. With it over, everyone began pitching in to rebuild their town, as well as the castle that kept them safe through the storm. In the end, Princess Minnie decided to give the whole castle a massive redesign, changing its look almost completely to a large blue and white structure.

With the damage repaired and no one hurt, the whole incident was quickly pushed so far into the backs of everyone's minds that it was all but forgotten, and life moved on.

But though no one really thought much about it, no one could deny that after that something had changed along with the castle, and while any notion as to what was anyone's guess, that change had consequences.

One of the most immediate changes it brought about was the end of Goofy and Clarabelle's relationship.

It wasn't because of any bad blood between the two. On the contrary, they remained quite fond of each other from a distance, but for some reason, the mere sight of the other would bring the former couple a crippling feeling of loss and sadness that neither could explain.

"It's like… like somethin's missing," Goofy tried to explain when they asked. "There's somthin' that's supposed to be here, and… it's not. And that missin' pieces feels like it's breakin' my heart."

Donald and Mickey exchanged glances. The duck looked utterly confused by what he described, but Mickey…

"I think I understand, sorta," said Mickey. "I can't really explain it, and it's not quite the same, but I know what you mean."

Donald looked alarmed. "You're not breaking up with the Princess, are you?"

Mickey jolted at his words and shook his head frantically. "No, no, nothing like that. Like I said, it's different. It's not Minnie that gives me that feeling."

Donald remained flummoxed. "Then what does?"

Mickey gave a helpless shrug.

Goofy gave a chuckle as he pulled his friends into a hug. "We're a buncha nuts, aren't we?"

Mickey snickered at his words. "That's one way to put it."

Donald rolled his eyes. "You two are the nuts. I'm the only normal one here." But he returned the hug all the same.

While their friends never fully understood, they were sympathetic of Goofy and Clarabelle through the breakup and did their best to be supportive in any way they could.

However, there were other little changes that would crop up from time to time.

For example, while they had never been friends, for some reason Pete now absolutely hated Mickey because the cat knew there was something he had done that ruined his life (even if Pete couldn't actually say what it was). This persistent hatred caused him to draw away from any offers of aid, and slowly become more and more like his treacherous cousin, and eventually leading to his banishment from the world entirely.

There were other such instances. Various people would around the castle and town would mention something or someone who should have been there, but when questioned would have no idea what they had meant.

The most prominent example of this was, of course, Mickey himself.

Like the others, there was a near constant ache that he was missing someone he couldn't recall. Often when telling his friends about the past he would use 'we' instead of 'I' to describe his shenanigans as a child but would never be able to elaborate on just who 'we' was. Or, when something amazing happened, he would start to say, "Oh boy, I can't wait to tell-" only to trail off as he was unable to recall who he had been talking about.

The most memorable event caused by this phenomenon was when he refused to have either Donald or Goofy as his Best Man in his wedding to Minnie.

"Sorry, fellas," he said to the two of them when they'd asked who he would pick. "But I promised that position to someone else."

Donald and Goofy exchanged confused glances. As far as they knew, they were the best friends Mickey had. Who could he have promised it to if not them?

"Well, who'd'ya give it to?" Goofy asked. "We gotta send 'em an invitation."

"It better not be Pete," Donald grumbled, the cat being the only person they knew of from before they met Mickey.

Mickey let out a snort at the idea of his former boss being his best man. "Of course not," he said. "I promised the position to…"

He trailed off as a confused expression overtook his face. "To… to… I know it was someone! It was…"

For the life of him, he could not come up with the name. He kept wracking his brain, trying to force the memory out. He knew it was someone important. Someone he couldn't imagine getting married without. But no matter what he did, the name eluded him.

His friends watched in alarm as Mickey began to frustrate himself to the point of tears trying to give them a name.

"Okay, stop!" Donald shouted, not wanting to see Mickey's distress anymore.

Mickey jolted and looked at them as though he'd forgotten they were there.

Goofy reached over and patted the mouse on the shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay if ya don't remember right now, Mick," he said. "An' tryin' ta force it won't do ya any favors. You'll remember soon as ya stop thinkin' 'bout it, an' we can send that invitation then."

"We can just be groomsmen," said Donald. "It's your wedding. Do what you want."

Mickey sniffed and rubbed the tears from his eyes, giving his friends a smile. "You're right, fellas. This is really important to me. I'll remember soon enough."

But he never did, and during the wedding, his half of the pews felt heartbreakingly empty compared to Minnie's being filled with extended family. Why it felt so, he never knew, and eventually chalked it up to missing his late father and the only family he'd ever had.

However, the greatest, and most notable change in Mickey was his new, and almost insistent drive to leave his home, to leave his world and search for… something…

A drive that became at odds with his new responsibilities as King at Minnie's side, no matter how supportive she was. As she was the one with the royal bloodline, she was in charge of most things anyway, but leaving it all to her left a pit in Mickey's stomach that was almost as insistent as the one pulling him to the stars.

Majority of their friends didn't understand why Mickey was suddenly so eager to leave and search for some unknown, despite it being clear he loved his home and everything there, but they (Goofy most prominently) supported him as well.

This insatiable drive was only enabled when Master Yen Sid returned to their world and found that Mickey's keyblade had manifested, and quickly took the mouse on as his apprentice.

Suddenly, leaving the world of Disney was more than just a fantasy, it was a possible and obtainable reality, and not even Yen Sid's tower and training could contain the mouse. The second he heard there was trouble and got his hands on a Star Shard, he was out the door and bouncing across the cosmos on an amazing adventure.

An adventure that heartbreakingly ended with a brutal battle, and three friends he'd made being lost.

Not dead, he refused to even think that. They were just lost and waiting to be found.

And so, Mickey continued to travel and search. Looking throughout the vast number of worlds for any signs of Ven, Terra, Aqua, and… someone… someone important.

If only he could remember who.

Ten years pass and he finds Aqua, only to lose her again to the Realm of Darkness, and gaining a new friend in a young boy named Riku shortly after. The two escape the Realm of Darkness soon after, gaining allies in the mysterious DiZ and Naminé, and with Mickey vowing to find a way back in to rescue Aqua.

But, unfortunately, Aqua would have to wait a little bit longer, as the more imminent threat of Organization XIII took precedence, no matter how much he'd rather rescue his friend instead. Added to the trouble was the fact that Donald and Goofy, along with Sora, Riku's best friend, had had their memories so altered they would have to sleep until they were restored.

Upon hearing about Nobodies, something struck Mickey as… familiar… As if he had encountered something like them before.

As such, he was utterly disgusted when he heard DiZ's thoughts on them. That they were abominations that should have never existed and should be wiped out completely. He'd lashed out against that, and caused a great argument between them. He agreed the Organization should be stopped, but wiping them all out like vermin was not something the mouse could agree with. This caused Mickey to go his separate ways from the man in red to find his own way to stop the Organization, trusting Riku and Naminé to keep DiZ in check while they worked to wake their friends up.

His vehement denial of DiZ's beliefs about Nobodies lead to Riku and DiZ keeping the majority of their plans for the Organization member, Roxas, from him, with the mouse only finding out what they had done to him after the fact. He couldn't deny that the discovery had left him disappointed in both of them.

Strangely enough, Riku now seemed afflicted by the odd memory problem as well. Often mentioning a 'she' that he couldn't explain, and miscounting how many members Organization XIII had (a very odd thing to do, as the number of members was literally in the name). Part of Mickey wondered if the phenomenon was contagious.

But with Sora now awake, they could finally move forward with their plans to take down the Organization, so Mickey pushed such thoughts to the wayside.

In the end, Sora, Donald, and Goofy did most of the actual work, and soon enough the Organization was defeated and Kingdom Hearts out of their reach, though at the cost of DiZ's (who, it turns out, was really Ansem the Wise, the thought-to-be-lost leader of the world, Radiant Garden, and the previously perceived one who had created the Heartless, but that was actually his apprentice named Xehanort who stole his name… it's complicated, okay, you had to be there) life.

But even with Organization XIII out of the way, there was still clear signs of trouble brewing in the future, and the seven seekers of light would need to be gathered. To do this Mickey's friends would need to be found.

(Unfortunately, the forgotten person he was searching for would have to wait a little longer, loathed though he was to admit it. It wouldn't do much good to find them only for them to all be swallowed up by the darkness.)

But first, Sora and Riku would need to complete their Mark of Mastery to become Keyblade Masters, and fully prepared for whatever lay ahead.

Of course, the whole thing turned out to be a trap from Xehanort, who seemed to have an unrealistic and annoying ability to predict their movements before they had even thought of them.

Still, with the two boys trapped in slumber, there wasn't much the rest of them could do to help, but they did what little they could.

Despite the complications, Sora and Riku still seemed to be unlocking the sleeping worlds one by one, until they reached one that had Yen Sid quirk an eyebrow in confusion.

"Interesting," he said, stroking his beard.

Mickey exchanged a glance with Donald and Goofy, before asking, "Master Yen Sid? What's interesting?"

"The world that Sora and Riku have now reached… is your own," Yen Sid said, looking thoughtful.

Mickey blinked in surprise and heard his friends give their own startled reactions. "Ours?" he asked. "But… Our world's not asleep."

"Not the whole world, no," Yen Sid said, still stroking his beard. "But it seems a small portion in history has been lost and forgotten by all who were present. While the two of them are in a more remembered portion, it is intrinsically linked to the forgotten."

"Forgotten?" Donald rasped. "What could we possibly forget that was big enough to make a whole world?"

At that moment, it seemed Sora and Riku reached the keyhole of the world, and the answer came flooding back to them in an instant.

Goofy fell to his knees in shock as memories of his son came rushing back into his head. Donald, who was not as affected as the others rushed to his side to comfort him.

In any other circumstance, Mickey would have done the same, but the mouse was frozen in place, and tears began streaming down his cheeks as years of forgotten moments filled his head for the first time in over a decade.

"Oswald…" he whispered, saying his brother's name for the first time in what felt like centuries.

In a small, dilapidated world known only as The Forgotten Wasteland, home to all those forgotten by all, a rabbit Nobody froze in his tracks, his ears standing straight up, and listening.

"Oswald…" said a voice in the wind, but was not spoken by any present. The second the word was spoken, a warmth flooded through him like he hadn't felt in ages.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit looked up at the stars, knowing full well what that whisper meant.

"About time you remembered, little brother," he said. "You better keep your word."

The stars glimmered back as if in promise.

Oswald's face split into a knowing grin.

"I'll be waiting."

A/N That's my story. I hope you all enjoyed this little fic. I had fun writing it, and I can only hope we might see Oswald in Kingdom Hearts someday, or any more Oswald content really. Still, this was an idea I've had sitting in my brain for a while now, and I'm glad to finally get it out there.

I originally meant to write one more chapter chronicling Oswald's awakening in the Forgotten Wasteland, but it just didn't want to be written. If I ever finish it, I'll add it as a bonus chapter or a spin-off. It was going to explain how the world they found themselves in world, and introduce the gremlins, Blot, ghosts, and maybe some forgotten skeletons from Coco (kind of a plot bunny that occurred to me as I watched that movie for the second time). Maybe it'll be added, maybe it won't. Also, I may someday write Mickey and Oswald's reunion, but that will be a sequel fic, and probably follow the Epic Mickey storyline a little more closely, or not, who knows what inspiration will strike me.

Until next time, thank you so much for reading. See you in the next fic.