In the Mean Street Ice Cream Parlor, Gabriel and his Dream Students sat at a table to hear Beth's story. It would be a while before Oswald could locate the next mirror shard, so they had time to learn the history between Beth and her brother.
"The first thing you guys should know is that my brother and I have been here in the Magical World since I we were ten. We're twins, and our mother was a Dream Keeper, so it was kind of a big deal when both of us started showing magical abilities early on."
"Wait, your mom was a Dream Keeper!?" Toren exclaimed in shock. "But I though Gabriel was the first one!"
"What made you think that?" Gabriel questioned. "The title of Dream Keeper has been around since the Magical World's inception and was held by Walt Disney himself. You know "one man's dream" and all that. After he died, Yen Sid decided that that the title should be given to those that have great skills and the willpower to help those in need. It's very hard to become the Dream Keeper; heck, you wouldn't believe how many times I almost screwed up during my final test."
"If it's so hard, why are you training us?" Double D asked.
"Because as the main Dream Keeper I can assign other people with the title as well to help lighten the load," Gabriel explained. "Once you all pass, you'll be Co-Dream Keepers."
"So… Will that put us above the Dream Defenders like Rachel and Logan?" Aline asked.
Gabriel shook his head. "No, because Rachel is the current Sorcerer's Apprentice, which actually puts her as an equal to myself. The Dream Defenders are really just a group name, with all of them being on around the same level as me. Besides, we're all one big team, so who's higher ranked is really trivial in my opinion."
"Anyway, my mom, Melinda, was the head Dream Keeper before Gabriel," Beth continued her story, getting their attention once more. "She always pushed me and my brother to be the best and protect the weak. My powers manifested in my singing, while Brian gained the ability to control shadows. Needless to say, while I was praised by others I helped, Brian got a lot more distrust from others."
"Typical: seeing dark powers as a sign that you're evil in nature," Gabriel sighed. "I my opinion, shadow powers are super cool. Just think of all that good that you can do my slipping into shadows to move really fast or call on them to extend your reach, or instance."
"Mom and I tried to tell Brian that, but he just kept getting cold and distant from us," Beth said. "In retrospect, I probably should have tried harder to be there for him, and some of Mom's advice did seem to benefit me more than him. Anyway, Brian started to get the attention of villains because of his powers, and that made him frustrated, which as we found out later makes his shadows grow wilder and out of control."
"Ah, the classic "negativity powers darkness" ability," Toren nodded.
"Yeah, and when Mom found out she tried to help Brian again, but instead I guess all his anger reached a boiling point that he just… snapped." Beth placed a hand on her chest. "His powers created a wolf of darkness, which ended up attacking me. I was fine, but then everyone else surrounded me, asking if I was okay, while Brian just sort of left before I could talk to him. That scene back in the volcano was the last time I saw him in years. The only other thing that came up recently was hearing that Bill Cipher had a new servant that sounded a lot like my brother."
"If I was evil, there's plenty of other Disney villains I would have picked before Bill," Aline said. "Like, the guy is an insane fourth-dimensional being that wants to plunge the world into chaos and madness and is known for double crossing those he works with. Not a good plan."
"I also noticed that there were two other villains that seemed to be within Brian," Gabriel said. "He had the orange eye of Night, otherwise known as The Core, as well as the purple face markings of the Collector."
"Ah geez, Night is bad news for sure," Double D nodded. "And if it's possessing your brother, Beth, then I hope it's not as bad as what happened to Marcy in Amphibia."
"But the Collector isn't a bad guy, just a child with cosmic powers," Aline said.
Belos frowned at that statement. "The Collector is a child with cosmic powers, but also an impossibly old being that never grew up. You know the story of Peter Pan? Well imagine if Peter Pan decided one day that he wanted to be a god and turn the entire universe into his Neverland with himself as king. That is who the Collector is. All the power, none of the responsibility."
"That kinda reminds me of Discord from My Little Pony," Toren noted. "Cosmic powers, can do anything, but also has a child-like mentality. Maybe what he needs is a friend to set him straight."
"Still have to wait for Season 3 to get his motives," Gabriel shrugged. "Honestly, I could have done without the cosmic plot, but I'll reserve judgement on that until the show wraps up. For now, we're dealing with a Collector that sided with Bill Cipher and Night, so not a good mix, especially if they're all in the body of a person with Dream Keeper potential."
"Them being in Brian's body does make them easier to defeat, though," Gadget said. "I can probably invent something to separate them all so we can lock them away."
"I just want Brian to know that I don't blame him for attacking me, I just want my brother back," Beth sighed.
"If you ask me, Lady Beth, I believe that your mother is to blame for all of this," Ben said, making the others look at the gator is confusion. "What I mean to say is, sometimes parents put a lot of pressure on their children without considering their feelings, which causes negativity and resentment to fester. While she didn't mean to, Melinda unintentionally used her methods of training in way that praised you while shunning your brother."
"What is it with Disney moms being unintentionally hurtful to their children these days?" Joy shook her head.
"I dunno, Joy, but it kinda makes me sick, especially since I have such a good relationship with my own mother," Gabriel said. "Either way, I think once we get Brian back you should all have a heart to heart with your mother, Beth. Get all of that family drama out there so you all can move past it together."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Beth nodded.
"Everyone, the next shard has been located!" Oswald called, coming into the shop. "Grab your cowboy hats and spur-heeled boots, because you buys are off to Disney Gulch!"
[***]
Going through a projector, the team soon found themselves in the wild west of Disney Gulch, a typical western town littered with various scrapped Disney floats. A train station was situated nearby, as was a river expedition tour of the area.
"Hey Gabriel, didn't you say once that you're from Texas? This must be like home to you then," Aline said.
The raven rolled his eyes. "I might be from Texas, Aline, but I'm from West Texas, which is mostly plains, cities, and suburbs. The most 'Wild West' we get is the occasional private ranch and the Fort Worth Stockyards."
"And there's the fact that this is an 1800s town and not modern day," Toren added. The Jaquin looked around, excitement bubbling as his scarf shimmered yellow. "I dunno about you guys, but I'm kinda excited now! I just feel like we're going to find the next shard here for sure!"
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" said a deep voice. The gang turned to see Peg-Leg Pete, though this one was dressed like a cowboy with a prominent sheriff's badge pinned to his chest. "Looks like we have some outsiders around these parts."
"We're not here to cause any trouble, Sheriff Pete," Gabriel said. "My team and I are just here to collect a mirror shard that was located here in Disney Gulch."
"You better get it fixed quickly then," Sheriff Pete chuckled. "The folks around here don't take kindly to newcomers, especially with how it was one of them that poisoned the river."
"Somethings wrong with the river?" Double D asked.
Sheriff Pete nodded and brought the gang over to the river expedition docks. Looking down into the water, it was immediately obvious that something was wrong, particularly how the water was a sickly purple color. "I bet that a mirror shard fell in the river and turned the water this way," Beth said.
"Yes, I can sense that the water has the same energy as the shards," Belos nodded, holding up his staff over the river.
"Whatever is going on, it's got my people sick, which is bad for business in a small town like Disney Gulch," Sheriff Pete explained. "We can't run the river expedition, and no expedition means we're out a major source of income, which means that people will want to up and move out. This place'll become a ghost town soon enough."
"Did someone say ghost?" a goofy voice called, a ghost in a big hat appearing behind Sheriff Pete and spooking the big guy.
"Ah, it's one of the Lonesome Ghosts," Gabriel noted.
"If all the people are moving out, then we'll gladly move in!" The ghost said gleefully.
"But you already have the Lonesome Manor," Gabriel pointed out.
"We were thinking of making this place a summer home for us," the ghost shrugged.
Sheriff Pete got back to his feet and turned to the heroes with a serious expression. "Please help us get the river back to normal. I'm not one to beg, but anything is better than having these ghosts bother us all day. It's driving more people away than usual."
"You can count on us, Sheriff Pete!" Toren said, giving a salute.
"Since the river is poisoned, we'll have to use the train to get around the area," Aline suggested. "I can pay for our tickets, so you guys don't have to worry about that."
"Just watch out for the Bandito Gang!" Sheriff Pete called. "Those ruffians have a habit for train robbing."
The gang soon got onto the train, the whistle blowing as they were set off out into the Thunder Mesa.
Author's Note
So now we have the story of what went down between Beth and her brother! First, a big thanks to Spyrorocks389 for giving me the backstory on their characters. In fact, the entire plot of "Across the Mirrorverse" might have been totally different if they hadn't done so! But yeah, Beth's mom Melinda was the previous Dream Keeper before Gabriel, and while she had good intentions, she ended up pressuring both her kids to be the "perfect" heroes, which drove Beth to being overly helpful and self-destructive at times, while Brian ended up fostering his anger and resentment to become disillusioned and vulnerable to villains like Bill Cipher.
And now are heroes traveled to Disney Gulch to find their next mirror shard that's poisoning the river! I had to get at least one Pete variant in this story, so I hope you enjoyed Sheriff Pete. As with all the places our heroes will be visiting, this wild west location is based on a scrapped attraction from Disney history, in this case the Western River Expedition.
You see, when Disney World first opened the Imagineers wanted to make it more unique from Disneyland in California, and part of those plans was to expand Frontierland into a multi-attraction façade of the wild west. Western River Expedition was going to be a boat ride similar to Pirates of the Caribbean but themed to the wild west, with the thought being that since Florida is so close to the actual Caribbean that the people of Florida wouldn't be interested in Pirates. But as soon as the park opened everyone asked "Where are the pirates?" and thus Imagineers had to change their plans, make a new (and in my opinion, inferior to the original) version of Pirates of the Caribbean in place of Western River Expedition.
Then they created Big Thunder Mountain in Frontierland and that sealed the original river ride's fate, but luckily ideas were saved for future parks: Frontierland got Splash Mountain, the area of Thunder Mesa was used as the basis of Disneyland Paris' Frontierland (where Phantom Manor resides), and even the bandits from the ride appeared in the Big Thunder Mountain comics! Once again Imagineers prove that they can take any old or unused idea and bring it back as something new.
Next Time: Banditos, a runaway train, and more!
