"Now, the way there will be tricky and filled with traps to stop you. But if you remember what I told you, you should be able to succeed."
"Take out the head, show no mercy."
"Correct."
"Don't waste time with the others, they're just collateral."
"Correct again."
"He's more powerful than he looks, and he wont go for some magic spell, he'll fight me head on if I let him."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Strike before he can, and strike well."
Maleficent smiled, "You're ready."
"I wish you'd come to me earlier. I would have helped you."
"I don't need help I need someone they'll listen to."
"That's still helping!"
Yen sighed and rubbed his aching temples, sitting across from him in a small, brightly colored kitchen was a mouse with large black ears and a pair of red shorts. Despite the late hour he still wore his day clothes, possibly since they'd been talking so long. Well, Yen had been talking, Mickey Mouse had been listening in shocked, horrified silence.
"You and I both know who really has the power here," Yen continued, and yet despite that in times of trouble even my colleagues look to you."
"I don't deny either of those facts," Mickey sniffed, a tad put out by his former master's power comment, "I just want to know how I can help."
"Let me make the decision, but you do the talking." Yen said, "They wont listen unless it comes from you."
"So be a mouthpiece?" The mouse asked dryly.
"Yes."
Mickey sighed, "But I could do more right? I can't sit by! I have to help!"
"And you will, just get my comrades to converge with one another and we can direct them into a solution that will save everyone and restore everything to how it's supposed to be." Yen said, wishing Mickey would just agree and let that be the end of it. He was so tired, he wanted rest but the universes just wouldn't let him have it.
"What's her goal?" Mickey wondered, "Why would she bother to do this at all?"
"I don't know," Yen shook his head, "She's an Idea, someone forgotten by the magic that enables all life for us."
"Then why wouldn't she have gone to the Wasteland?" Mickey asked, "Isn't that where forgotten and retired ideas and characters go?"
"If they're truly forgotten after being imbued with Disney Magic." Yen said, "But it sounds like this one was always intended to be used-hardly anything new. Several Ideas go years and years as Ideas before becoming Characters. Some of the more recent worlds created are from Ideas older than the people who helped raise their statuses to Characters. But this one... I don't know. Somehow she forced herself here and has been wreaking havoc ever since."
Mickey nodded, "I'll tell them to listen to you, and then I'll help in anyway I can."
"Thank you." Yen sighed.
"Concentrate." Maleficent said, "Focus on the house as a whole. Where is he?"
"First floor..." Shedea said, eyes shut and fingers pressed to her temples, her tone sounded questioning but she was sure she'd given the right answer; especially when Maleficent said nothing to contradict her, "He keeps moving..."
"Focus." Maleficent ordered, squeezing Shedea's shoulder to where it almost hurt, "Tell me, is he alone?"
"Yes... wait... no-oh no, he has a dog."
"A dog?"
"Yes."
"Intelligent?"
"No," Shedea shook her head, "Just a normal dog."
"Then forget the dog. It's time, go and hurry. Someone as powerful as you or I are bound to be detected by someone."
Swallowing any trace of nervousness, Shedea breathed deep and willed herself to move, picturing what little of a map of the house she could piece together in her head and choosing a location: the Kitchen. Then, she felt herself dissolving, melting, disappearing into thin air bit by bit although if someone were watching her they'd see it as instantaneous. A flurry of black smoke and suddenly she was standing in a brightly colored yet barely lit kitchen, the whole house boasting of bright and modern. Hardly a home for someone in power but what could you do?
At least this way she was granted easier access.
As she walked out of the kitchen and into the hall, the words of her teacher filled her ears. Reminding her of her task, and warning her of the consequences should she succeed or fail.
"Now, the problem with this one is he's so deeply engrained into the roots of how things work that to remove him like you'd remove any other person would be like ripping the brain from a body, spine and all. Everything would crumble so far into chaos not even you or I could protect ourselves."
It was quiet, nighttime and sleepiness filling the whole house. Yet Shedea felt wide awake, felt ready for anything.
Felt alive.
"We need to take steps to remove him. We need to play our cards so perfectly, they'll never play the cards another way again."
The fifth stair up creaked and for a moment Shedea thought it was over. But when the dog didn't start barking, when the target of her being here didn't come running out to discover the source of the noise, she continued up the much quieter steps. Her throat was filled with her heart and her lungs, nerves caused her hands to shake and then she was standing at the door to the bedroom. Soft, even breathing could be heard as she eased the door open with a flick of her magic wrist and then it was just a simple matter of walking in as quietly as possible.
He was small, probably as small as a child in Shedea's opinion. He sure looked innocent, a perfect poster boy for the people who'd thrust that hell upon her.
He didn't wake as she removed the blanket as carefully as possible from under his arm, or when she eased him onto his back. He didn't wake as she traced an inquisitive finger down the side of his face or when she turned at the sound of growling.
Standing in the doorway was the dog, yellow and yet average in dog terms. He looked angry, enraged anyone would come at his master in their sleep. Shedea could see the promise of pain in his eyes and her smile contained hers. A second flick of the wrist and his neck snapped quicker than a blink of an eye. The loud thud as his body hit the floor was the last thing that happened before her target's eyes shot open and he became aware of the situation within seconds. He sat up, and the first thing he saw was the dog's dead body on the floor. But before he could do anything, Shedea had grabbed him and willed them away, his scream to his lost friend the last thing to be heard through the room.
"Pluto!"