Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I do try my best. Anyway, here's the conclusion of Mousedom, yet the story continues, but I think we're nearing the end. Again, I'm not sure about that yet. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy.
CH47: Ratigan's Demise.
Meanwhile, in the grand hall back at the palace, Ratigan's disguised thugs began to play the trumpets as the ceremony was about to begin. Many mice in the crowd waited with excited eyes as, unaware of them, the robotic Queen made her entrance as they foolishly believed it was the real one just as the curtains opened and they all clapped. As soon as she stood to a stop, the clapping ceased.
"On this momentous occasion, we are gathered here not only to commemorate my 60 years as Queen, but to honor one of truly noble stature!" The robot spoke, which, behind the curtains as a two other Thugs and Pete were standing around, Hiram was forced to read the notecards as he spoke into the speaker.
"I present to you a statesman among mice, a gifted leader, a crusader for justice freedom..."
While this was going on, the real Queen, having been tied up and gagged, was being carried by Fidget who was, with slight difficulty even with two Heartless helping, taking her towards a lone balcony in an empty hallway while the Queen struggled to free herself.
"Here, Kitty, kitty! Time for mouse chow!" Fidget called out, and when the Queen did her best to look to see what the bat was talking about and to her complete horror, Felicia was seen jumping up and down excitedly with her mouth wide open, eager for the taste of a royal mouse to fill her giant belly that was coming her way.
"...A majestic mountain of humility, and my new Royal Consort... Professor Ratigan!" The robot Queen announced while gesturing at the green curtains.
On cue, Ratigan burst out onto the balcony, dressed in a crown and purple robes decorated with medals, with a sinister grin on his face. The crowd backed away, horrified and disbelief. One boy in particular blew a raspberry at him, his alarmed mother almost instantly covering his mouth.
"Thank you, your majesty," Ratigan bowed happily to the Robot, before he reached into his robes and said to the crowd as he began, "And now, as your new Royal Consort, I have a few...slight suggestions."
As he unrolled it, apparently the few slight suggestions meant it was a shockingly long list as it rolled down the aisle of the Grand Hall and well past the curtain, where one of his men had opened it for him.
After clearing his throat, Ratigan began reading the long scroll, "Item one..."
Meanwhile in the dark streets above the sewers, Sora, his group, Basil, Dawson and Olivia exited out of Ratigan's lair to the waterfront, now back in their normal clothes. Basil whistled, which signaled Toby who came from around the corner and happily gave a happy Olivia a kiss.
"The game's afoot, Toby! Our Queen is in mortal danger!" Basil told his loyal hound who's expressed turned from happy to shock as the dog absorbed the words.
Knowing what needs to be done, Toby growled while leaning down and made his ear into a makeshift steps which had Basil and everyone else climb up onto his back as they readied themselves for another ride.
"To Buckingham Palace!" Basil shouted, and Toby took off with his passengers.
As Toby rushed towards the Palace while Sora's group took out many Heartless that attempted to knock them and three of their new friends off or hurt the dog, they eventually arrived at the place where Toby held his nose to a ledge, where Basil and everyone else rushed into a mouse hole and down the hallway. Their eyes widened in horror when they saw Fidget and the two Heartless carrying the Queen towards Felicia who was ready to eat the doomed female mouse up.
"Open wide!" Fidget told the Cat who did that and the Queen could only stare in utter terror at the jaws of death. "Ha ha ha! Bye-bye!"
"Not you don't!" Lea shouted as he and Isa quickly took out the two Heartless while Riku and Basil grabbed the Queen just in time as the Heartless and Fidget were about to toss her into Felicia's mouth. This caused the bat though to lose his balance and nearly fell into the mouth himself, but he saved himself when he grabbed the railing and winced as the cat came close in gobbling him up for the second time in less than 24 hours.
"Down, kitty! Down!" Fidget shouted, just as Mickey whistled out and at the King's signal, Toby's barking was heard and everyone looked up to see the dog running up towards Felicia who, seeing the dog as dogs are a cat's worst nightmare, screeched in horror before she took off running for her life, with Toby hot on her tail.
"Atta boy, Toby!" Mickey called out to the dog, while Riku, Sora and Basil untied the Queen.
"Serves that cat right." Myde smirked.
"All right, you." Lea turned to Fidget and grabbed him by the back of the shirt before he held him up and glared into the now terrified lacky's eyes. "Where's Olivia's father?" He demanded, darkly. He then grinned as he added while holding one of his Chakrams up to the bat's throat, "If you answer, I'll spare you."
Fidget gulped, knowing that he had no chance of escaping.
Back in the audience chamber, Ratigan was still reading the lists which everyone in the crowd didn't like at all. "Item 96: A heavy tax shall be levied against all parasites and spongers, such as the elderly, the infirm, and especially little children." He continued, and those who heard this were horrified and dismayed.
When he said the last part, he sneered at the little boy from before, who glared at him defiantly before his mother carried him off.
"That's ridiculous! You're insane!" A cripped and injured old man with a broken leg objected angrily as he approached Ratigan with a crutch.
"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear." Ratigan said while glaring at the old man, before snatching the latter's crutch and causing him to fall over, much to the rest of the crowd's horror. The villian then snapped the crutch in half easily as he declared, "I have the power!"
"Of course you do." The robot Queen nodded.
"I am supreme!"
"Only you."
"THIS IS MY KINGDOM!" Ratigan concluded as he laughed maniacally while everyone in the crowd looked on in horror and terror. He then cleared his throat and calmed down, adding to the Robot Queen, "That is, of course, with your Highness's permission."
A pause as the Robot didn't reply. Thinking that it was a slight failure, Ratigan gave it a gentle slap which caused it to activate again, saying, "Most assuredly..."
But to his shock, the Robot turned to glare at him as she continued, angrily, "You insidious fiend!"
"What?" Ratigan asked, taken aback.
"You're not my royal consort!" The Robot declared which confused the crowd, before Ratigan covered it's mouth.
"What a sense of humor." Ratigan said, sheepishly, only for the Robot to free herself.
"You're a cheap fraud and impostor!" She continued, and was held back again.
"Flaversham!" Ratigan hissed aside before grinning sheepishly at the crowd again.
Unaware to Ratigan behind the curtains, Basil was now at the controls as he spoke into the speaker while letting out all of his rage and thoughts about what Ratigan really was. As the detective was doing so, the worldly travellers all smirked as they watched the show after having taken out the Heartless, knocked out Pete who was seeing stars after being knocked out by Donald and Goofy and, along with the two other Thugs, was tied up and gagged.
Hiram and Olivia in the meantime were happily reunited once again, as Dawson stood by glaring at Fidget who was also gagged, and while Lea had his foot on the bat's head to hold him in place, the real Queen was tightening the ropes so hard that she was squeezing the evil bat while taking out all of her frustration and anger out on him.
"A corrupt, vicious, demented, lowlife scoundrel! There's no evil scheme you wouldn't concoct." Basil continued through the speaker, and he then thrusted the controls so hard and madly that outside of the small room, the robot began to go all haywire.
The Robot's neck sprung up and it's head quickly reached Ratigan's face before biting him hard on the nose. This caused him to push the head down and forcing it to let go, but then it's arms sprung out and punched him in the stomach. Seeing this chaotic mess, he tried to hide it behind himself while smiling at the crowd. Unfortunately, having seen all this, everyone now glared at him angrily as they realised it was all a ruse to take over and had used a fake Queen into his evil scheme.
"No depravity you wouldn't commit!" The Robot continued while she walked out from his robes, but Ratigan pulled her back in again. He had no luck as the Robot then sprung her legs upwards, taking him along for the ride and both then fell down painfully on the floor in a pile.
"You, Professor..." Basil grunted angrily as he decided to end this while beating the levers into pieces.
This chain reaction caused the Robot Queen to completely lose it as she starts flailing and falling apart until little remains but a pile of scrap metal and a pair of eyes and a set of teeth on a spring on a springy neck while she continued "...are none other than a foul stenchus rodentus, commonly known as a-!"
By then, Ratigan lost his nerve before he grabbed the neck of the destroyed robot to strangle it, yelling furiously, "DON'T SAY IT!"
"SEWER RAT!" Basil and Sora both concluded together as the former pointed at the villian, while Sora held out his Keyblade in hand after the two of them, and the rest of the worldly travellers emerged from behind the curtain, glaring at Ratigan.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"Ratigan screamed in fury as though he was stabbed in the back, before he turned and saw, to his shock and horror that Basil and the worldly travellers were there, still alive and having escaped.
"Game's over, Ratigan! You lose!" Mickey shouted, holding a tight grip on his Keyblade.
Ratigan growled, before snapping his fingers and to the crowd's shock and horror, Heartless began to appear, which forced the worldly travellers, Basil, Hiram and Dawson to quickly handle the situation while Sora's group fought the Heartless and the Thugs, some of them protecting the crowd while Basil and Dawson chased after the criminal who threw away his royal garments, furious that yet another plan had been ruined.
Olivia watched on from behind the curtain quietly as everything was crazy outside, unaware that Pete regained consciousness and both he and Fidget then managed to free themselves from their binds and slowly advanced on the girl...
Outside, Felicia was still fleeing for her life from Toby who wanted nothing more than tear her ito shreds. She darted through bushes and flower beds before scrambling up a wall, where Toby was unable to do more than jump up halfway and bark at her angrily. Felicia snickered mockingly at the hound, lifting her tail and making a show of jumping down the other side.
Unfortunately for her seconds later, Felicia let out another terrified screech while her bow and fur were seen flying into the air while Toby heard more dogs barking and growling along with the cat's pained moan due to her stupidly jumping into the royal dog's kennel and thus had doomed herself to death.
Around the corner unknowingly to Toby and everyone else, the Master of Masters, also only the size of a mouse, had been watching the entire thing and when he saw what happened, he had trouble trying not to laugh hysterically as he snickered in amusement.
"Not the brightest cat in the worlds." He snickered to himself, and while he had a liking to animals, Felicia was an exception.
Back in the Palace, everything was going all haywire as the fight continued on while the numbers of the Heartless and the Thugs decreased while Ratigan shoved off his captives after being pinned to the ground. He then heard a whistle and looked up at a balcony and saw both Fidget and Pete who were holding a terrified Olivia captive.
"The girl! The girl!" Fidget called out to Ratigan.
Sora's group, Basil, Hiram and Dawson also heard this and looked up in horror while Ratigan purposely stomped onto innocent citizens before he grabbed a rope to swing himself up to the balcony. All eighteen of them hurried to catch up but froze when Ratigan held Olivia over the edge.
"Stay where you are! Or the girl dies!" The criminal snarled before he took off and disappeared through the purple curtains.
"No! Olivia!" Kairi cried out, horrified.
"Hurry!" Basil shouted, leading Sora and the others, along with Dawson and Hiram, outside through the blue curtains, only to arrive too late as Ratigan's dirigible was flying away.
"Hey, get back here!" Donald yelled up.
Basil then looked at the flagpole and balloons and quickly had another idea. He then climbed up the flagpole while calling to the rest of the group, "Sora! Everyone! Gather those balloons!"
Realising what he had in mind, the worldly travellers, Dawson and Hiram quickly hurried to gather the large number of the colourful balloons while Basil pulled hard on the rope and the flag began to fall.
The sky was dark as another storm was coming in, sailing through this as the world was slowly descending into darknes, Ratigan stood steering the dirigible while looking into the distance angrily over his failure. Fidget was peddling the said vessel while panting for having to do all this, and Pete stood over Olivia who was glaring angrily at Ratigan.
"Just you wait! Basil and Sora are smarter than you! They're going to put you in jail." Olivia told him angrily before she moved past the now worried Pete and began to tug hard onto Ratigan's tail, continuing her insults and tired of being the captive. "They're not afraid of a big, old, ugly, rat like youÇ"
Finally having enough of the little girl's insults which angered him even more as darkness began to form around him, Ratigan turned hatefully at Olivia before easily pulling his tail away while saying, ending in a shout, "Would you kindly sit down and SHUT UP!"
The sheer force of his blood scream sent Olivia flying and colliding into the back of the dirigible, knocking over a stool and dazed while Pete flinched and slumped onto the floor with his hands over his head, quivering in fear. Just as Ratigan turned around to stare ahead of him again, to his, Fidget and Pete's shock and Olivia's relief, a huge flag appeared blocking them, having been turned into a makeshift hot-air balloon by Basil, the worldly travellers, Dawson and Hiram, who all held the balloons and the ropes of the flag while glaring at the villians while standing on a match box used as a platform that was tied up to the flag.
"Why do they always come outta nowhere?" Pete muttered in disbelief.
"Let Olivia go!" Xion shouted to Ratigan who only sneered and then turned the dirigible into the opposite direction while Fidget peddeled faster and sped away.
"Let her go, chaps!" Basil commanded.
"Got it!" Riku nodded as he, Dawson, Hiram and Terra released the air from an opened blue balloon, while everyone else held on tight as the released air sent their ride speeding forward and chased after the dirigible all over the sky and passing many buildings and statues. They even began to fly after the Tower Bridge, though Dawson, Myde, Donald and Goofy panicked before shutting their eye and ducked, fearing they would crash. To their shock and relief, they zoomed through it safely.
In the meantime, Fidget, who'd been peddling faster and faster, finally reached his limit and panted and wheezed as he was out of energy and caused the dirigible to slow to a stop, which Ratigan and Pete noticed.
The bat then climbed onto the floor and anxiously gestured to the olivious Olivia, saying to Ratigan, "We have to...lighten the load!" while the said girl was looking back in hopes of locating her father and friends.
"Ooh...You want to lighten the load?" Ratigan said mockingly as he caught on what his lacky said, and while Fidget was laughing evilly at Olivia, to his shock, his boss grabbed him by the ear as he said angrily, "Excellent idea!"
Pete watched in horror as Ratigan tossed Fidget overboard while the now doomed bat cried out in distress as he only had one fixed wing and hovered helplessly, "No, not me! The girl! I can't fly! I can't fly!" before he fell screaming as gravity took it's toll and he landed into the river to his death.
As he looked down having watched Fidget die before his eyes, Pete nervously turned to Ratigan who cracked his knuckles with an evil, terrifying smile as though he was about to throw him off as well. The fat cat gulped in horror at this.
"Uhhhhh, I think I'll let myself off...!" Pete squeaked trembling before he jumped off himself and just as he was halfway to the water, Pete quickly snapped his fingers and grabbed hold of the legs of the large Bat-like Heartless and he guided it to fly to safety.
"He's just as bad as Maleficent!" He said to himself, relieved to finally be away from the deranged rat. Plus, Ratigan was no help in locating the Book or the Box either, which, as Pete knew, Maleficent would not be pleased with.
With both Pete and Fidget gone, Ratigan went over to the propeller and with his enourmous strength he peddeled much faster than Fidget ever did. But they then, Basil's group had already caught up with him and Olivia and were almost close enough to stop the criminal.
"Steady!" Basil muttered, as he and Sora both prepared to jump. They did so and grabbed onto the tail of the dirigible, swinging forwards. They just barely missed Ratigan, and both Sora and Basil glared at Ratigan who glared at them until they all heard a terrified scream come from Olivia.
The three of them looked forward to see what frightened the girl and their eyes widened in horror as they were all heading straight towards the Big Ben, and Ratigan screamed in alarm, while Sora muttered, "Uh oh!" and shut his eyes, bracing himself.
Soon the dirigible crashed right into the yellow glass of the clock while making a cracked hole. High above all of this on their makeshift balloon that rocked slowly back and forth, the rest of the worldly travellers, Dawson and Hiram looked on in shock and horror as Kairi let out a shuddered horrified gasp, whispering, "No..."
All that remained dangling from the cracked glass was the wreckage of the dirigible.
Sora's head throbbed uncomfortably as he regained consciousness. He rubbed his head and sat up to the sound of loud tick tocking all around him, and Basil did the same. The disorientation wearing off, the two stood up and looked around in wide eyes as they realised they were inside the clock itself.
Unaware to both of them, Ratigan was creeping up silently towards them with a raised fist to knock them both down, with Olivia trapped in his arm as he had clamped a hand over her mouth. But she managed to pull the hand down and cried out to the detective and Keybearer.
"Basil! Sora! Look out!" Olivia screamed, and both Basil and Sora turned just in time for Ratigan to knock them all back with a single continuous backhand. They rolled, but managed to catch hold of the end of the rotating gear. Sora quickly pulled himself back up and then turned to pull Basil up with an offered hand. Ratigan was about to attack them angrily when Olivia, wanting to try and help her friends, bit hard onto his hand and caused him to scream.
This gave Basil the opportunity to pull himself up and grab the professor's cape, tangling it between two gears. Ratigan gagged and was forced to drop Olivia in order to hold onto his cape and keep from getting strangled while Sora grabbed the girl and rolled away to avoid the evil villian's kick.
"Let's get outta here!" Sora told both Basil and Olivia who nodded in agreement while the latter smiled at Sora in gratitude. Sora gave her a smile in return while Basil jumped from the gear and onto a lever, which was lifting up a chain before he and Sora grabbed onto it, with the teenager holding Olivia in one arm as the trio descended upward to the top of the tower.
Still choaking while trapped by his cape, Ratigan looked up at the trio hatefully and was furious as he saw them making their escape. It was all their fault! Their fault that his dreams and plans were all ruined, and that he lost everything! All these enraged thoughts with such anger that he kept back for years, and now it was finally breaking free as the inner beast began to take over, his body becoming covered in darkness as he glared at Basil, Sora and Olivia with blood red eyes as he teared his cape, his nails sharpening and tearing his gloves into shreds before giving chase.
Sora, Basil and Olivia stopped at an opening at the top of the tower, trapped as the storm raged on this time. The trio looked around desperatedly for the others to escape until they heard Riku's voice above them, "Sora! Basil! Olivia! Up here!"
The trio looked up to see Riku and the others approach in their makeshift balloon. Sora and Basil both held up Olivia, stretching to get her onboard first, while Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Ven held onto Hiram who leaned forward to grab his daughter.
"Closer, fellas!" Mickey instructed the others who nodded and tried to steer their ride closer to the trio on the clock.
"Daddy! I can't reach!" Olivia cried.
Then Roxas saw something coming up behind Sora and Basil and cried out, "Look out!" but it was too late as Ratigan, having caught up to them, barreled forward and knocked both Sora and Basil downward. Olivia was tossed into the air, but Hiram managed to catch her and pull her into an embrace.
Sora and Basil slid down the tower, Ratigan having a tight grip on both of them. The Keyblade wielder then grunted as he elbowed the villian right into the stomach, causing Ratigan to let go but all three of them continued to all and seperated. Sora and Basil landed on top of the hour hand and the former caught the latter before he'd end up falling to his death. Hearing the angry snarl, the two turned and their eyes widened to see that Ratigan was almost unrecongisable. His clothes were torn and ragged, a feral look was in his eyes, and a dark aura surrounded him. The evil mastermind was gone; in his place was a terrifying, dangerous monster.
"There's no escape this time, Basil!" Ratigan snarled, adding as he glared at Sora, "And you will join him!"
"I don't think so!" Sora snapped as he summoned his Keyblade, while Basil, noticing a broken piece of the dirigible next to him, grabbed it and held onto it as his own weapon.
Ratigan let out a howl of rage before lifting his hand and spreading his fingers wide, four black, razor-sharp claws popping out and glowing with darkness. He swiped at Sora and Basil, creating four dark energy blades that the duo barely managed to dodge. Sora quickly went on the offensive and charged forward, swinging his Keyblade with all his might and striking Ratigan five times. The evil professor dodged Sora's next swing and attempted to claw him, but Sora blocked it and then dodge-rolled away but knew he had to be careful and avoid in falling off.
As Ratigan had his attention on Sora, Basil whacked the evil mastermind on the back of the head and distracted him enough to turn before Ratigan clawed him, shredding the detective's clothes as Basil yelled in pain as the claws digged into his skin before he was knocked over. Sora came to the rescue as he fired Firaga at Ratigan who screamed when he was burnt by the flames before the Keyblade wielder thrusted his weapon at him several times before leaping back and avoided the rat's claws of darkness once more.
The teenager then used his Motionflow and glowed blue while leaping up onto the glass before descending down towards Ratigan who dodged this attack, but Sora saw this coming, as he then sped towards him and sprund around and around Ratigan who was trapped in the circle before Sora, using this power, thrusted Ratigan over where he hit the end of the hour hand and collided against the metal, yelling in pain and causing his anger to increase. Basil tossed the piece of the dirigble at Ratigan's chest which gave him a deep wound that began bleeding, but that again only increased his anger.
To their shock and horror, Ratigan sped forward with the power of Darkness and before Sora and Basil could do anything, the villian slashed at them again, hitting his mark; Ratigan's claws caught both of them across the chest, tearing through their shirts and leaving three bloody slashes in the skin beneath. Sora and Basil both grunted in pain before Ratigan tossed them aside as they nearly fell off the tip of the hand. Hissing in pain, Sora quickly used Curaga to heal himself and Basil, which also healed their clothes for a strange reason and then the Keyblade wielder used Barrier to block Ratigan's final strike, causing him to reel back and stumble backwards in surprise.
This gave Sora and Basil a chance to move away from the hand and the former chanted Blizzaga to freeze Ratigan briefly in place before he and Basil used both Keyblade and the broken dirgible piece to knock Ratigan even further back, but with the power of darkness, the mastermind broke free from the ice and smacked them with the wipe of his tail and they nearly fell off the hour hand. Sora quickly used Grativia to bring himself and his friend to safety and then tossed his Keyblade at Ratigan, hitting him twice while the evil rat yelled in agony before he roared in fury and charged at the two again.
This time Sora used the Stopza spell he learned from Mickey and Aqua, and then he and Basil moved out of the way before, with a determined nod, and Basil, cheekily, reached into the frozen Ratigan's pocket and took out the small bell before he and Sora moved behind him and with a single ring, the clock struck 10:00. Big Ben sounded off, and the vibrations of the bell which wore off the Stopza Spell and Ratigan realised too late, combined with realising that both Sora and Basil were now suddenly behind him, felt disorientated by the loud sound. This gave Sora the chance to toss his Keyblade at Ratigan one last time and hit him on the back, causing the villian to stumble and then fall off the edge.
Screaming, Ratigan tried to save himself by grabbing onto the ropes of the ruined dirigible, but he was too heavy and instead he broke it even more losing his grip and continued to fall screaming before he vanished into the mist below to his doom.
Having watched Ratigan fall, both Sora and Basil panted and shared a look before they heard Lea call out, "Hey! Up here!" and the two looked up to see their friends who all looked relieved, cheering on happily and both Sora and Basil waved at them before they were picked up by the group and onto the safety of the makeshift hot-air balloon.
By then the storm had passed, and they were all successful; the Queen was safe, the world was safe and the terror regime of Ratigan was finally over. The case had been solved and they had won.
A little while later, the worldly travellers, Basil, Dawson, Olivia and Hiram all returned to Baker Street in Basil's home, where pieces of newspaper hang on the wall that had pictures of Basil, Dawson and the worldly travellers bowing before the Queen who smiled at them in gratitude for saving her life, with lines that said, "Queen Honours Detective, Doctor and brave young travellers." along with, "Queen rewards them medals for bravery." and "Time Runs out for Ratigan." meaning that Ratigan did not survive the fall.
"I really like the Queen. I can see why everybody else love her." Myde smiled happily.
"To be thanked by the Queen herself. How very thrilling." Dawson said with a smile.
Basil smiled as well, while placing Ratigan's bell onto the shelf as a memento for finally solving the case, replying to Dawson, "All in a day's work, Dawson."
"You were all wonderful!" Olivia said to Dawson and the worldly travellers who smiled at her in return.
"Indeed." Hiram agreed, more than grateful for all of them for having saved his daughter as well as himself and saved Mousedom from Ratigan's evil. He then looked at his pocketwatch and muttered, "Oh my! We'll be late for our train. Come along, Olivia."
"Yes, father." Olivia nodded, happy to have finally have her father back and that they were going home, though she was sad to say goodbye to everyone who helped her make it this far. In a bittersweet moment, she hugged Kairi, Sora, and Basil.
"Goodbye, Kairi, Sora, Basil." Olivia said, sniffling. "I'll never forget you."
"Neither will we." Kairi smiled sadly, then asked Sora, "Right, Sora?"
Sora nodded, "Yeah. You bet we won't forget."
"Nor I you, Miss...Miss Flangerhanger." Basil smiled, surprisingly emotional himself, but as usual got the girl's last name wrong. Though Olivia just shook her head with a smile, deciding that it didn't matter anymore.
"Whatever." Lea chuckled with a shrug and a sad smile of his own, as did everyone else.
"Goodbye, everybody." Olivia waved, while putting her hat on and followed her father out to return home at long last.
The worldly travellers, Dawson and even Basil all smiled emotional, already missing the young girl. Basil then sniffled and said, "Well...Not a bad little girl, actually."
"I'm gonna miss that kid." Lea nodded in agreement.
At that moment, Ratigan's bell began to glow, surprising everyone until the worldly travellers realised what this meant. Sora nodded and summoned his Keyblade before holding it out as the crown shape appearing underneath him as the world's Keyhole appeared via a beam of light shooting out from the bell. Sora then thrusted the Kingdom Key upward and via another beam of light, he locked up the world's keyhole, protecting it from the darkness before things returned to normal.
"Amazing! What was that?" Dawson asked, both he and Basil in awe.
"Everything's safe from the darkness." Aqua replied, "It's time for us to go."
"I have to thank you all." Basil smiled as he shook hands with the travellers one by one. "Because of you, Ratigan is finally gone."
"So what're you going to now?" Isa asked, curiously.
Basil replied, "Simple, my friend. Keep on solving cases as I always do."
"Glad to hear that." Mickey replied happily.
"If you need help, we'll right right there." Sora nodded.
"You're all welcome here anytime." Basil said, "Farewell, my friends."
"Goodbye, chaps and dears." Dawson waved.
The worldly travellers said their goodbyes to Basil and Dawson before leaving Baker Street and once they were in a safe and quiet position, they all teleported back to the gummiship and left the world of Mousedom behind to continue their quest, not yet knowing what more dangers lied ahead of them. What they did know was that they had to continue their search and protect the Realm of Light.
{MOUSEDOM}
Meanwhile, at the train station in Twilight Town, Ephemer, Lightning and even Shantotto and Snow, along with a young woman with blonde hair, a long white plain dress and shoes, and a trident in her hand were having a private conversation of the situation that was at hand.
"...The Princesses of Heart are being captured, and Chaos has already gathered powerful allies." The blonde-haired woman spoke grimly to her allies. "Yet, there are those who could replace the Princesses, or be caught as well since they have pure hearts filled with light. Either way, it will soon begin."
"And thus the war of gods will start, putting the Realm of Light in danger." Lightning correctedly guessed, with the blonde haired woman nodding to comfirm her suspicions. The pink-haired woman gruffed a sigh in frustration, "This is what Bhunivelze would want. If he wakes up, he'll destroy everyone's hearts and souls and remodel them to become his play things."
"That means history's gonna repeat itself. Thousands of years without having to worry about him, now he's gonna be back with a vengence." Snow said with seriousness of his own.
Lightning nodded as she turned to face her future brother-in-law, "All he wants is for everything and everyone to be just like him; no emotions, no memories of their past, no free will." before admitting, "At least some gods don't think that way as he does."
"Even as Cosmos revivied Strelizia for aid, what would the price she will need to be paid?" Shantotto spoke this time. "Despite that once this is over, her life will be free, Strelizia does not yet know what is to come...or does she?"
"That price would be memories." Ephemer said, staring into the distance as he sat on the steps of the station, deep in thought of everything that's happened. "In order to pretend the tragedy from repeating itself, everyone who survive must forget the events that occured in order not to sink into grief of losing those they cared about."
He then sighed as he stood up and approached the wall railing looking over the lower parts of Twilight Town, staring at the sun set while admitting, "At least, that's what Master Ava told me when she gave me the task to become one of the five leaders of the Dandelions. Sadness leads into anger, and anger leads into darkness. To avoid that and the hurt, they have to be forgotten."
Ephemer gazed low this time, continuing in guilt, "When this is over, our memories have to be erased to avoid this happening again."
"Who told your 'Master' Ava that crap?" Lightning demanded angrily, startling Ephemer to turn around and realise that the woman looked furious and disgusted as she continued, "Did she really make you believe that forgetting those you lost but were still in your past would stop any war from happening again? That it would be alright and everyone would move forward, not knowing their past or those who died? Like they never even existed?"
"I...it had to be done to forget the hurt." The boy stuttered.
But Lightning shook her head as she disagreed, "No, you're wrong. You made many others forget the past to prevent the Keyblade War and the war of the Gods from happening again and pretend that they never happened. But in reality, it only made things worse and look what happened!? Xehanort still figured it out about the Keyblade War and wanted to search for it by creating one that would destroy the Realm all over again! Even though he's gone, Chaos awoke and now Bhunivelze is on the verge of waking up to repeat what he wanted to do all those years ago!"
As she said this, she stormed up to the now shocked Ephemer, before continuing, "Erasing memories and forgetting the past isn't the answer to prevent something bad from happening again, because if you don't remember, you can easily repeat it without realising it! Forgetting doesn't change the past. It will only destroys the future. Bhunivelze believed that those who did remember their past were prisoners, poisoned by their memories. He wanted to destroy the dead to make those who were still alive forget and start over and if he suceeded, I would've lost my chance of ever seeing Serah again, and it was my fault that she died before being reborn!"
"Lightning..." Ephemer trailled off, not sure what to say.
Lightning turned away, calming down and continued, "We all make mistakes, and we all have regrets. Each of us lost someone important to us, but forgetting them all together isn't right. It's not the right choice. Forgetting your past and how it happened doesn't help. Hurt and sadness is part of life, and if you don't have either, then you obviously don't care about those who were part of your life. That would also be erasing Love. The only way to cope with it as well as remember is not dwell into how the tragedy went, but to remember the good memories and never give up hope."
"I agree with Lightning." The blonde haired woman said, approaching the two. "Sometimes we move on from the sadness but still remember those had loved and lost, and sometimes the grief is too much. But forgetting about them would mean forgetting the feelings we have for them and the lessons that caused them. Those lessons would help us to prevent it from happening again, not forgetting about them."
"Hate to say it, kid, but they're right." Snow approached the three of them, rubbing the back of his neck. "It ain't easy to forgive the sins that you got, but forgetting them doesn't make them disappear or help ya' fix up the mess that happened, even though some of them can't be fixed. But that's part of life; And those who had died wouldn't want to be forgotten or the past to be forgotten and not told to future generations."
Ephemer's heart wrenched as he absorbed what the others were saying. Was it really true? Did forgetting the tragedy really just repeat it even though he, Skuld, Ven, Lauriam and Blaine did their best to stop it? What they did wasn't enough to stop any of this from happening? Well, if Xehanort nearly succeeded in creating a second Keyblade War just to prove how the first one ended and almost claimed the X-Blade, and that now Chaos was awake and Bhunivelze would soon follow, Ephemer realised that yes, the tragedy was about to repeat itself.
Worse, Sora's group had been involved and had gone through the hardships of struggles, seperations and losses before they were finally reunited, but not all losses were brought back, and now they were in more danger than ever, at the risk of losing each other and their lives permamently.
"Then...why would Master Ava tell me what she said?" Ephemer asked, slumping against the wall.
"Either even she did not know this, or perhaps she was part a plan that was amiss." Shantotto replied as she approached the rest of the group. "Given the short meeting with her master, it would have the situation grow worse even faster."
Hearing this made Ephemer gasp before he approached the Tarutaru and asked, urgently, "The Master of Masters? He's here?"
"Last seen in Agrabah, but he left before the defeat of Bizarrah." Shantotto answered, calmly.
"But that's crazy! He disappeared a year before the war and everyone thought he was dead." Ephemer shook his head in disbelief. "I never met him, but I heard a little bit about him."
"Either he was reborn like some of us, was revived like Strelitzia and others, travelled through time into the future, or...was like you and others who slept for a long time or was trapped in the Realm of Darkness, suspended in time." Lightning pointed out. "He's the one who knew about this and yet just let it happen."
Ephemer shook his head, "No. He wanted the war to be prevented. He wanted the light to be protected. There's no way he'd even let that happen! There's no way!"
"And how is it that he did know? Did he have the ability to see the future?" Lightning questioned.
"Lightning..." The blonde haired woman mumured, almost pleadingly.
"I don't think s-" The Keyblade wielder cut himself off, when his eyes widened in slow realization. "Wait a minute...The Book of Prophecies...that told future events, and he...according to Master Ava, he'd writtened it down and gave copies to her and the other masters except for Master Luxu. In the copies Skuld, Ven, Lauriam, Blaine and I had, it said something about a mysterious Black Box that should never be opened. But no one knows where that or Master Luxu went."
Snow caught on of what Ephemer meant and said, "So he did know and now all of those events are in that book?"
"Most of it, I think." Ephemer nodded, now knowing what he had to do. He then walked past the others and began to walk towards the town.
"And just where are you going, young man, without enlightening us of a plan?" Shantotto questioned which made Ephemer pause, but he didn't look at her or the others.
"I'm going to look for the Book. My memories are still hazy, but I think I have an idea where it is." Ephemer explained. "Then I'm going to find the Master of Masters and seek answers out of him. He's the only one who knows about what's going on, and I want to find out, so that we can figure out how to save the Realm of Light."
"By yourself?" Lightning asked, skeptically.
Ephemer sighed, turning to gaze at her and the others. "It's like Lunafreya said. Chaos already gathered allies and the Princesses of Heart are being captured along with other hearts of pure light. We don't have much time left, especially when the war will begin soon. The Master of Masters may be our only answer left to solve all this. I can't put this pressure into Sora and his friends or Skuld and Ven any longer. And I wouldn't want Strelitzia, Mog, Chirithy and Serah to be put into more danger, either. Master Aced is tough, and he's already enough of a problem for them."
"But they can't avoid it." The blonde haired woman, Lunafreya, or Luna for short, shook her head. "The only one who can really put an end to this is Sora. He may not have originally been chosen by the Keyblade, but his heart is the key of setting things right, because of the love and care he has for many others and determination to protect them and stop the darkness, not having any thoughts of his own safety."
"Still, finding him and the book is worth a try. We have to do everything we can to at least delay it for a little while longer." Ephemer said. "I owe...I owe a friend I lost that. I owe it to Skuld and Ven, too. They're all I have left."
He then muttered to Lightning, "You're right. Forgetting isn't the right answer. That just makes the heart empty. When this is over, we're all going to remember what happened, and do our best to make sure it doesn't happen again, by remembering the lessons we learned. It'll hurt, but we'll...have to bear it."
Lightning surprised Ephemer when she pulled him into an embrace, while the others watched on, as it gave Snow memories of their past of Lightning doing the same thing to someone else close to both of them, Luna memories of Noctis and made Shantotto smile.
"It's my fault." Lightning told him, sounding emotional. "I'm time, I'll set things right."
"Lightning..." Ephemer muttered, blinking as she released him.
"That's why I'm going with you, as well as protect everyone else." She continued, before turning to Snow and told him firmly, "Protect Serah and Strelitzia, Snow. You know what I mean, Mr. Hero?"
"Got it." Snow promised firmly.
"I should go with him, as things indeed have become grim." Shantotto volunteered.
"No." Lightning shook her head, ordering the tarutaru, "Snow can take care of himself. It's Lunafreya who needs protection, especially from Ardyn. Think you can do that, Shantotto?"
Shantotto thought about it, and then nodded, "If you insist, I will not resist."
"I will be leaving to find Noctis. I think it's time to see him once more. Our seperation has gone too long." Luna decided, then said to the others, "Be careful, all of you."
As Lightning and Snow both nodded, Ephemer felt embarrased, not sure what to say. Eventually, he muttered, "Guys...Thanks. And I'm sorry. Especially to you, Lightning."
"Call me Light." Lightning told him with a soft smile.
However, what they briefly forgot was Caius who, standing on top of the clock tower above them, had listened into the conversation and what he heard didn't make him happy at all.
It seemed he had a 'comrade' to question.
Meanwhile, at Disney Castle, a very worried Queen Minnie gazed up at the Cornerstone of Light in the Hall of the Cornerstone which shined brightly as it's magic protected this world from the Heartless. Yet for some reason an unusual lock has appeared and from what Chip and Dale had learned, no one could get in or out, which meant that something wrong had happened.
"Oh, Mickey. I wish I knew what to do." Minnie was saying to herself in despair. "If only I knew where you are now. How am I ever gonna know what's happening?"
Just then, the entire room shook so violently that the Queen gasped in fear as she nearly lost her balance and at first she was terrified that an unusual earthquake was happening. But then it stopped, only for two strange distruptions to appear behind the Cornerstone and Minnie gasped again while her eyes widened in shock.
In one, it looked like a mirror which showed her reflection at first. But then it somehow swirled and changed and she saw herself again, but only in her earlier years and more casual, with Mickey and the others she recongised, some whom she hasn't seen in years. In the other was another image, a portal of some kind which had giant footprints, a giant castle and everything. The first portal then vanished while the second faded slightly.
"Oh my goodness!" Minnie exclaimed, shocked and confused.
Back in the gummiship, the worldly travellers once again tried to piece the puzzle of the situation together, but again, they had no luck except for very few answers.
"Man, I wish we had some brains like Basil has in trying to solve things." Myde grumbled as he slumped in his seat.
"I agree." Skuld nodded. "So many worlds we've been to, and we haven't even discovered much of our enemies' goals aside from seeking out the Book of Prophecies and the Black Box."
"And we still haven't found out where Aced is or where he took Master Yen Sid, Angeal and Genesis." Mickey added in sadness and worry. It didn't help that Sora and Basil both nearly died by the crazed Ratigan and how dangerous the now dead evil rat had been.
"Yeah and what are Lamuria and Arlene up to? And Shelke and Shalua?" Lea said, frowning in concern. "
"It's clear that they're not working alone or in a seperate group. However, that still begs the question on what they, Aced, Ardyn and Caius are really intend on doing." Isa muttered.
Neither one could answer that one and tried to think again for an answer to all of this. As Sora thought hard, an idea came to him before he turned to his companions and suggested, "Why don't we head back to Radiant Garden? Maybe Leon and the others found something else while we were away."
"Good idea. It's worth a shot." Riku agreed, as did everyone else once they realised that it's been quite a while since they were all last in that world anyway. Plus, maybe the others do have another update on what they trying to find out.
"But what if they don't?" Aqua asked, concerned.
"Um...then, maybe Midgar? I mean, Strelizia and Serah did take Cloud and the others back there, right?" Sora shrugged, before sighing as he leaned back into his seat with his hands behind his head. "I'm just as lost as you guys."
"If not Radiant Garden or Midgar, then maybe back to Olympus Coliseum? Maybe Zeus would know a bit better." Kairi said thoughtfully.
Lea shook his head, "Nah. I don't think so. As far as we learned, even Gods don't know everything. Sure they're immortal and powerful, but they're not psychics."
"They did know about how to get into the Locker to rescue Jack and the Black Pearl, though." Roxas reminded.
"And they know about Bhunivelze." Xion added.
"Hey, didn't Strelitzia mention something about another Goddess that is causing trouble?" Ven suddenly remembered, which made everyone else's eyes widen in realization. During the voyage to Shipwreck Cove in the Caribbean, Strelitzia had mentioned parts of her and Serah's adventures before arriving in Twilight Town.
"You're right, she did. Someone named...Eris?" Terra replied, thinking.
Before anyone else could say anything, the navigator beeped which alerted the group again but to their great confusion, when they looked to see what world they were at now, all they found was...an orb covered in some kind of orange light, like a barrier. As they all shared a glance, to their further confusion, Sora's Keyblade suddenly appeared by itself which alerted him.
"Huh?" Sora muttered, then cried out in alarm when the weapon seemed to move all by itself and then pointed at the barrier orb before shooting out a beam of light towards it. There was a clicking sound like a keyhole was being unlocked and the entire barrier glowed in bright light which spread out so brightly that the worldly travellers cried out in alarm before they were forced to shield their eyes as the light engulfed them.
It didn't help that the gummiship's teleporter acted on it's own which caught the worldly travellers off-guard as they all screamed while being teleported into the sudden world they found themselves in, unaware that an orb of Light was floating above them in front of an unseen portal before it retreated into it and vanished.
{DISNEY CASTLE}
She had no idea what had just happened. All that Aqua knew was that she lost consciousness when the bright light engulfed her and everyone else in the Gummishp. As she started to awaken, she heard a very familiar voice, one of those she hasn't heard in years, call out to her name. Where was she? Who was it that was trying to awaken her?
Finally as her eyes began to flutter open, the voice became more and more clear as the owner of it came into view, standing in front of her as Aqua had been lying on her side. The figure looked like Mickey, but as Aqua's vision finally cleared, it was a female mouse who looked just like him, but with eyelashes, a golden Tiara with a Ruby Hidden Mickey symbol in the middle, wearing a pink long gown dress and long white gloves.
Memories returned instantly to her as Aqua pushed herself up in surprise, asking, "Queen Minnie?"
"Oh, thank goodness, Aqua! Are you alright?" Minnie sighed in relief yet was still worried.
"You remember me?" Aqua asked in return. Like Mickey, Minnie hasn't changed a bit.
"Of course I do, silly. But my goodness, you, Terra and Ventus haven't changed at all since I last saw you twelve years ago. It's almost like you've only been gone for months and not years." Minnie replied, giggling.
Aqua giggled sheepishly, then sighed in sadness, "I'm sorry. A lot has happened."
"Aqua, are you okay?" Ven's voice interrupted, causing both Aqua and Minnie to look to see him, along with everyone else who apparently woke up before Aqua did, gathered around in relief and concern.
"I'm fine." The blue-haired young woman replied, then asked, "Is everyone else okay?"
"Well...Not all of us." Myde replied, worriedly. When Aqua was about to ask what the problem was, she did a quick count and realised, to her great concern, Sora, Mickey and Kairi were absent.
"Where are Sora, Kairi and Mickey?" Aqua asked, worriedly which made Minnie gasp in shock.
"Mickey was with you? And Sora and Kairi!?" Minnie cried out, then asked while panicking, "Oooh! What happened? Last I saw most of you and Mickey recently was when those girls kidnapped Namine!"
Goofy shrugged as he replied, "Gawrsh, yer Majesty, a lot has happened. We couldn't get back home because a new bad feller named Aced somehow blocked us off."
"That's why we couldn't even send you or Daisy letters, your highness. But then as we were about to head to Radiant Garden for more clues, we noticed the Castle which we didn't even recongised because it was hidden by a barrier." Donald explained.
"Then Sora's Keyblade appeared and unlocked, but a big light swallowed us up and we fainted. Then we found ourselves here in the Hall of the Cornerstone." Goofy added.
"Hall of...Cornerstone?" Aqua, Ven, Terra, Myde and Skuld inquired, puzzled as they looked around and saw they were in a single white room and there sat the Cornerstone of Light itself. It was also Riku, Roxas, Xion, Lea and Isa's first time in here as well.
"The Cornerstone of Light is what protects our world from darkness." Minnie explained to the puzzled group.
"Wow..." Ven mumured in awe.
Aqua blinked, also amazed. "Interesting."
"Looks pretty cool." Lea admitted, before adding with seriousness, "But we still gotta figure out where Sora, Kairi and the King are."
"What's with that moving painting behind it?" Myde then spoke up, and when the group looked at him wondering what he was talking about, he pointed at the portal which they finally noticed and they all blinked in surprise and confusion.
Minnie sighed, "Oh, dear. That appeared before all of you suddenly came back. I'm not sure what it is, but it looks awfully familiar."
"Gawrsh, it kinda looks like the Land of the Giants." Goofy said thoughtfully as he and Donald stared at it, both of them getting senses of deja vu.
"Land of the Giants?" Roxas asked, puzzled.
"This wouldn't happen to be when Mickey climbed the Beanstalk, would it?" Riku asked, thinking back of when Mickey mentioned about meeting a Giant and climbed a Beanstalk when they, Isa, Terra, Aqua, Cloud and Zack were dropping Namine off in Radiant Garden.
"It sure is, and that wasn't a fun first visit." Donald grumbled in annoyance.
The Queen then continued, "But it's not just that. There was another one earlier, and it showed an image of me, Mickey and, all of us here in this room, all looking casual. It's almost like I saw another dimension."
"Another dimension..." Xion muttered, before she and everyone else realised what Minnie meant.
"Hey, we saw something similiar earlier in Agrabah with Mickey!" Ven realised.
"Okay, now this is really creeping me out." Myde muttered, shuddering in slight fear.
"Hmmm...As everything that has been happening, and given what Sora and Aqua mentioned earlier, it's possible..." Skuld began before she gasped in realization and told the others, "Not only the worlds are in danger and the realms of the Dead in turmoil, but the rift in time has become unstable, which is allowing us to see different images of alternate dimensions!"
"Oh, that's just great." Lea said sarcastically. "As if we don't have enough problems."
"But the image disappeared as soon as I saw it. The one that we're seeing now hasn't even vanished. I'm not sure what to make of it." Minnie added.
"Well, if I venture a guess, it's possible that the King, Sora and Kairi could be within that portal if they are not in another part of the castle or even elsewhere in this world." Isa theoried.
Lea sighed, "Your guess is as good as mine, man."
"I think maybe we should see if we can enter it. If not, then we'll either have to wait and hope that they're alright, or look around the town to find them." Terra declared, and, given that it made sense, the worldly travellers nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry, yer majesty! We'll find the King, Sora and Kairi!" Goofy said to the Queen as he and Donald saluted to Minnie who sighed in relief, knowing that she can rely on her husband's trusted friends.
"Oh, thank you everyone." Minnie said, before gazing at both Skuld and Myde, and said, realising that she hasn't seen them before. "Oh, dear. I'm so sorry. I don't believe we have met."
"Oh, begging your pardon, your majesty. My name is Skuld." Skuld replied quickly, bending on one knee and bowed her head to show her respect to the Queen.
"Hi there, Mrs. Q! I'm Myde." Myde greeted, only to be whacked hard on the back of the head by Lea, causing him to slump forward as though he was bowing.
"That's not how you greet the Queen, Myde." The redhead scolded.
To their surprise, Minnie giggled as she quickly said to Skuld and Myde, "There's not need to be formal, dears. It's nice to meet you both."
As everyone began their waiting and searching while trying to figure out how Sora's Keyblade managed to undo one of Aced's powers, within the portal leading to the place of Giants, were where another adventure was set for Sora, Kairi and Mickey.
A/N: Okay, so we're briefly in Disney Castle, and not where I had in mind. However, the Land of Giants, based on "Mickey and the Beanstalk" will be set in the next chapter when I'm able to post it.
It'll have to wait for while, though. So until then, see you all later!