Getting this chapter out took a lot longer than I like to admit. My internet has been one giant troll and it made it hard to get anything out.
But here it is; enjoy.
Turns out the idea is to dress the child, which Sully named Boo, to look like a monster. Mike wasn't up for the idea but didn't want to keep Boo longer than needed, so he reluctantly agreed on the plan. With the child disguised, Shion followed the two to a factory. She stops before the sign and tilts her head at it 'we scare because we care' quote standing over the large door. That's quite strange and something she will ask Saix about when the child is safely back home.
Mike's worries were warranted, though, for the whole place did crawl with monsters in yellow suits, scanning everything for the child. As the two monster's panic, Shion realizes that Boo has run over to some sort of crab monster and hurries over to catch her. The crab monster notices them both and is quite surprised. "Oh, hello, you two. Where did you come from?"
Before Shion can even try and figure out how to explain this, Mike and Sully have come running over. "Mr. Waternoose." Sully calls, get Shion somewhat behind him and picks Boo up, making sure the hood will keep her face hidden.
"Oh, James, are these two-" Mr. Waternoose gestures to Shion and Boo "yours?"
"Actually, they are my, uh, cousins' sister's daughters, sir." Sully quickly makes up and is so thankful that Shion jumps onto the idea by making a friendly bow and greets his boss, "Nice meeting you, sir."
Mr. Waternoose smiles to this polite young monster, "Likewise, here to see how it is to be a true Scarer?"
She has no wish to scare people, but a quick look at the two monsters, well… "I do sir." She replies, though very confused about this whole thing.
"Good to know the next generation take such a great interest in the future. Listen, James" Waternoose turns to Sully, not seeing how nervous the other monster is "why don't you stop by the simulator after lunch today and give us that scare demonstration we talked about?"
"Oh, uh, of course, sir." Sully replies, but right now, his thoughts are on getting Boo back home. Waternoose's attention is fortunately dragged away by the CDA, and that gives him, Mike, and the two girls the chance to slip away. They split up with Mike going after the keycard that gets Boo's door and while he takes the two over to the scare area. Here Shion asks a bit confused: "Why do you scare people?" Although he finds it a bit strange this young monster does not know about this, he still patiently explains it to her. "That's where we get our power from; children screams." He glances at a monster preparing himself to look scary. "But lately, we're having trouble getting the screams we need. People aren't that easy to scare anymore."
Shion is not entirely sure how to think on this, she does not like the thought of having these friendly monsters scare people, and it does explain why Boo is so scared going to sleep unless she has checked the closet. Because she gets scared by a monster. But Shion feels like she cannot tell the monsters to stop scaring people if they depend on those screams to have electricity. "Aren't there other ways to get your power?" She asks the big furry monster.
Sully shrugs, "If there is, we haven't found it."
Mike returns with a keycard, and a door arrives, but it's not the right one. "That's not her door." Shion points out and feeling quite annoyed from how this green monster brushed her off, saying: "What are you talking about? Of course, it's her door. It's her door."
But Sully disagrees as well. "No, her door was white, and it had flowers on it." Shion nods in agreement, but Mike kept insisting this is the right door and opening it, polka music can be heard from it.
"Hey, you hear that? Sounds like fun in there!" Mike gestures at the door, but even the toddler is not fooled that this is her closet door. He still keeps trying, though. "okay, send me a postcard, kid. That's Mike Wazowski, care of 22 Mike-Wazowski- you-got-your-life-back-lane." The only funny thing about this whole thing is that Boo tries to speak his name.
"Mike, this isn't Boo's door." Sully closes the door, and Mike facepalms before yelling at the blue furry monster: "It doesn't matter if it's not the right door. Just put that thing where it came from or so help me—" Right there, the two monsters realize that every other monster is staring at them.
While those two try to speak themselves out from that one, Shion notices that Mary has spotted a group of what she presumes are children monsters and running over to them. She follows, though right as Shion is about to catch her, Boo notices her and laughing loudly— which make the light stronger— the toddler happily runs away from her. Shion stops for a moment, startled at how the light reacted, but she quickly takes pursuit when she realizes the kid is running away from her.
Shion catches her in the hallway, making the child laugh again, and this time, these weaker lights pop out from the power surge. "Why does that keep happening?" She wonders out loud. Mary only giggles in response.
"Because children are our source of power." A sleazy voice replies. Shion turns but can't see anyone. Suddenly Mary gets yanked out from her arms and before she can react, a lizard-looking monster appears and throws Shion to the ground. "And I suggest you stay out of our business unless you want to get hurt." He warns her, freaking the toddler out.
Right this moment, Shion really wishes she can wield the keyblade; instead, she has to resolve in using what little magic she has relearned. The spell did throw the lizard monster off her, the fall makes him drop the crying out of fear girl, but that attack only seems to anger him more than hurting. "You little…" He sneers and speeds over to Shion, but right there, a blob of darkness appears between them, and out from it, Swift in its bigger form emerges. It roars, scaring Boo but also the lizard monster, who grabs the crying toddler and hurries away. Swift does not take pursuit, instead the creature looks back to Shion to see if she's okay.
"I'm fine." she assures her own pet monster, but the moment has to be short. "Swift, follow him!" Darkness surrounds the creature, and it takes pursuit after the lizard monster in its smaller form. Shion runs the other way so she can get Mike and Sully to help her out, doubting it will be a good idea having Saix running around from how scared the monsters are around people.
She finds the two searching for both her and Boo, "Over here!" she calls, Sully and Mike runs over, with the former asking: "Where's Boo?"
"Some lizard monster took her." Shion explains and gestures to follow; she brings them to the hallway where that lizard attacked. "He was able to turn invisible."
"It sounded like Randall." Sully observes from how Shion described this monster, but there's something he does not understand. "But what does he want with Boo?" The others do not have a clue, all they know that they have to get Boo back and return her to her world.
Shion whistles, and a moment later, Swift appears. "Did you find them?" The monster cat whistles in a slightly pitched tone, something it does when approving or saying yes. "Take us there." and Swift runs off. Shion and the two monsters follow the cat-monster to what looks to be a dead-end, but a quick checking the tool panel out, it proves to be a hidden doorway. They carefully head inside and find Randall putting the human girl onto a chair, right before a scary-looking machine. Shion did not like the sight of that, so without a second thought. "Sic him!" She commands Swift, and the creature transforms into its bigger form, jumping at the lizard monster that gets scratched by Swift's claws as he hasn't seen them coming.
While Swift keeps Randall distracted, Mike runs over to turn the machine off, but that took way too long for Sully, so he resolved to destroy the machine before it could reach Boo. She is quite happy to see him, "Kitty!" she calls. Dropping the now broken machine, Sully gets her free. "Thank goodness you're alright." He breathes out in relief and takes the happy girl up in his furry arms.
Seeing that Sully has the child, "Give that child back!" Randall commands. He slithers past that teen's pet and goes after Sully, who is holding the child.
Shion rolls one of the containers at the lizard, knocking him off his feet. Mike hurries to the path they came from "this way!" After having grabbed the again small Swift, Shion follows the two monsters.
Still running for pretty much dear life, Mike cries out to the others. "We got to get out of here now! We can start a whole new life somewhere far away! Good-bye, Monsters, Inc.! Good-bye, Mr. Waternoose!"
That gives Sully an idea and makes him change directions, "I got an idea!" and since he's the one carrying the girl, Shion has no other choice than to follow, and reluctantly, Mike did the same. Sulley heads over to the scare training room, hoping that everything can be fixed if they spoke to the boss of this place.
But Waternoose really didn't listen, more focused on that scare demonstration, so after leaving Boo with Mike and Shion, he makes the demonstration but realizes far too late that Boo had left her spot and gotten right before him. Which ended up she got scared by him. "Boo?" He gently follows her, but the human girl is now terrified of him, seeking cover behind Shion, and even that monster is shaken up by his demonstration. This really opens Sulley's eyes. He has never really thought on how much being scared all the time will affect a child. Not before he sees the look in the human girl's and the teenager monster's eyes. Boo runs off, accidentally pulling the hood down, revealing herself to Waternoose.
Mike hurries over to explain, leaving Sulley to try and calm the scared toddler down. "It's okay. I was just…" He stops himself when noticing what these two saw through the monitor screens. He truly looks horrifying.
Shion picks up the crying girl. She has more or less recovered from that scare but is unsure if this child will get over it very soon. She can see why Mary is so afraid to sleep if she deals with this every night. "I think you should bring her back home now." She reminds this blud monster, thinking the toddler has been scared enough for today. Sulley's shoulder hunched in regret and sadness but nods quietly in agreement.
"—and he was going to test it out on that sweet, little girl." Mike finishes his explanation.
Waternoose sighs, looks utterly broken by what he has heard. "How could this happen? Oh, how could this happen?" He walks over to the young monster holding the human girl. Asking both of his employees, "Does anyone else know about this?"
"No, sir," Mike replies.
"Good, this company can't afford any more bad publicity." Waternoose gently reaches a hand out to the child, "now, before we do anything else," the toddler, still sobbing, eyes him before turning back to the teen monster, who shows no fear towards the child. Waternoose sigh again, "Let's take care of the child. This way." He gestures the group to follow, and they do. He brings them to a door that works exactly like the Scares uses when gathering screams. He writes down a code as he apologizes to Sulley and Mike. "I'm sorry you boys got mixed up in this."
Sulley does barely notice the pitiful look his boss gives him, too heartbroken he scared two sweet girls, especially Boo, who won't even look at him anymore.
"But now we can set everything straight again." Waternoose continues righ as a metallic door appears, "For the good of the company." the entire group can straight away see that's not the right door, and Mike voices that fact. "Uh… sir, that's not her door."
"I know," Randall appears before the door, grinning as he opens it into a very dark place. Waternoose before sad eyes hardens as he tells the two, "It's yours." and right there, he shoves Mike and Sulley through, slamming it before they can get back. Randall turns off the door's power and, grinning menacingly, turns to the now very nervous teen monster that holds the human child close. "Told you should've stayed out of this."
Saix saw all of this happen from the dark corner he has been standing; he is very close to attacking those two monsters but restrains himself. Knowing that right now, those two friendly monsters need his aid, and besides. Swift is right beside Shion, so the moment she feels to be in legit danger, the monster cat will attack.
He lets this Waternose take Shion away; right before the door closes, Shion meets his eyes, and it's clear that she wants him to save Sulley and Mike as well.
Saix walks over to the metallic door and tries to turn it back on, but it does not work. He removes his glove and touches the door, flinching when the strong darkness tears into his Nobody skin. "You even have a door to that place…" He would've been morbidly impressed with these monsters if he got a heart. Instead, Saix teleports off and, after a bit of running inside the corridor, arrives inside the Realm of Darkness. The black coat protects him, but even with it on, Saix can feel the immense darkness surrounding him in this place.
'if my coat gets the slightest torn, the darkness will destroy me.'
It takes bit of searching, but he finds the two monsters, already gotten their claws full with this realm's residence. Also, it's only a matter of time before the Realm of Darkness will claim their hearts. No one is strong enough to reside inside this realm for very long without protection.
Saix summons his father's weapon and helps them take down these much more powerful Heartless. He then turns to the two monsters, both backing fearfully away from him. "I'm a friend of Shion." He simply says, opens a portal, and walks into it. "Hurry, before more arrive."
Sulley and Mike follow this fortunately friendly adult human, and it's such a relief to be back in their own world. "Thanks, we really owe you." Sulley thanks this adult human.
"You can repay it by sending the girl back home." Saix replies and returns back into the corridors of darkness.
The two monsters stare a second at where the adult human had disappeared, look at one another in determination, and hurries out to save both Shion and Boo, they find them at where that horrible machine is, but thanks to Sulley destructive thinking, Randall and Waternoose cannot do much other than yell at one another. Sulley jumps in and uses his scare roar to distract the two while Mike gets over and free the two girls before all take the run for it. Randall took pursuit after them. Waternoose tried the same but got stopped by an overprotective Swift.
Randall pursues the group all the way to the Scare floor, more than ready to fight for control over the child again.
Saix decided to step in about there; he didn't want to stretch this out further, so ignoring the panic of showing up among a bunch of human-scared monsters, he stands in between Randall and the group that is still waiting for a door. All of the other monsters flee while the lizard monster backs away, like any other residence, afraid of the adult vision of humans. Saix does snap out from his threatening glaring when the little girl makes roaring sounds at the lizard monster, showing no fear towards him whatsoever.
Noticing this as well, Sulley grins, "She's not afraid of you anymore." and before Randall can even think about getting away, he captures the fellow monster around the throat. "Looks like you're outta the job." Sulley points out, making Randall goes a lighter shade of purple.
He turns to the adult human, nods to each other and the adult human opens a random door, allowing Sulley to throw Randall in there and stuff the door into the shredder.
With that taken care of, "Better get the kid home." Saix says, eyeing the toddler doing the roaring gesture around them all. He might not know what to do around small children, but even he must admit; is rather adorable.
He eyes Shion that nods in agreement, and being the good kid she is: "Sorry for all the trouble we've caused." She apologizes to the two monsters.
"It's alright." Sulley replies.
Mike nods, "Yeah, it's not like we've put the whole factory down the toilet and…" his smile drops. "Hundred of people will be out of work. Not to mention the angry mob that will come after us when there's no more power, but hey," The green monster shrugs. "At least we had some laughs, right?"
That last part made Sulley realize something, "Laughs…" he turns to Boo, the kid has fortunately forgiven him for the scare after the save they did, now smiling back to him. "Before you go," He hides behind the door and does a peek-a-boo, making the toddler laugh and the lights in the now vacant room go brighter.
A large smile crawls over his face. "That's it! Child laugher is a source of power, too!" He picks up the giggling child, "Boo, you wonderful kid." and tells the friendly adult and unlikely monster teen. "I think we will be fine."
Sulley and Mike make their goodbyes to Boo, and Saix assures Shion that he will keep an eye on the toddler while she gets back to Twilight Town. Shion smiles, "Thanks, and sorry to have dragged you into all of this."
"At least it killed my boredom." Saix replies before going through the door along with the toddler.
Shion waves goodbye to the two monsters, and she too leaves the factory so she can get back to Twilight Town before the mother gets back home. Swift catches up to her, and for a moment, Shion feared that she had to deal with that monster named Waternoose, but her two monster friends distracted him by pretending they still got the young child with the costume they had used for her. Giving Shion the chance to get outside and be picked up by her Keeper.
It was a good thing Shion refused to bring Mary with her to the realm in between the worlds, for not long after she left the monster world, Heartless attacked. Although the Harpy eagle Keeper quickly dealt with them, it could've easily thrown a toddler off with some of the maneuvers it did during the fight.
After returning to Twilight Town and returning the Keeper to its passive form, Shion hurries to the house, finding Saix inside Mary's, standing before the quite upset child. Shion got a strong idea to why, but there's nothing they can do about it. so she introduces some toys to Mary, which fortunatly distracts her from the closed monster world.
They watches the toddler plays with her toys, for a moment, but Saix knows he can't stay for much longer. "I better get back." He voices to Shion and turns to leave.
"Will I see you soon?" Shion asks, sad her only remaining friend has to leave so soon.
Saix stops and honestly not sure how to respond, he knows it's only a matter of time before he's under Xemnas thrall. When it happens, he does not know. "if I get the chance, I will visit." he decides to answer, figuring it's the best way to explain that he might not be able to revisit her. Shion is understandable sad, but she nods in understanding. He does not like to see her like this, but she will be safer by staying out of this. "Take care." and Saix teleports back to the castle.
Right in time too, for not long after, Xaldin returns from his mission, but by the looks of it, he got quite the beating from Roxas's somebody, but he doubts that look is from the loss.
Well, not from having lost a battle, but if she had managed to find the former guard, then Xaldin has been reminded of what he has lost in his life. And that is a feeling Saix has become painfully familiar with lately.