"Woah, check out all of this stuff!" Double D exclaimed, looking around the Museum of the Weird. The crow was practically skipping from exhibit to exhibit, gawking at all the strange displays the building had to offer.
"At the very least there aren't any ghosts to bother us," Ben said, his face that of deep concentration. "However, we haven't seen any of the others since we got here, and it was dumb luck that I found you after you thought I was one of the exhibits."
"Well, you were just standing there like a statue," Double D shrugged. He stopped and let out a whistle. "Woah, check out this guy."
In front of them was a cage, and within it a strange looking creature. It stood upright like a man on cloven hooves, with scaly thighs that led up to a human torso. One arm was a bird's talon while the others was a horse's hoof, with a butterfly wing and a bat wing attached to its back. Finally, the head was that of a lynx with goat horns.
"Hmm… 'The Beast Man,' a fitting name for sure," Ben read aloud. "It's a bit disturbing to see such a creature caged like this."
"I'm more confused as to why it's not moving," Double D said. "If it's not alive, why is it in a cage."
Suddenly, the Beast Man rushed to the bars, rattling the cage and frightening the two. "Intruders! You must leave before the master finds you!" the creature shouted.
"Master? Who's that?" Double D asked.
"He is a monster, more so than myself, and one that does not take kindly to those unwanted in this place," the Beast Man said. "You must leave, or else you will become-"
"In…Tru…Ders…." A voice called out from the hall, a ghostly blue flame coming closer to Double D and Ben. The two quickly hid behind some of the exhibits, watching as the figure came into the view. It was another monster, though this one seemed to be made entirely of candle wax melted into the shape of a human. On their head was a burning blue flame, with one arm outstretched at melted into a candelabra, their face blank and in a perpetual shocked expression. "Not… Welcome… Here…" the monster said.
"What is that?" Ben whispered.
"Whatever it is, I'm not going to just sit around and wait," Double D said. Th crow did a flip and took a fighting stance, raising a wing to the monster. "Okay, Mr. Candleman, I'm not afraid of anything, so how about you stup with the moaning and groaning and take us to your leader?"
"Sir Dee, this is not a plan!" Ben said, pulling out his sword.
"We don't need a plan, as long as we have the power of music!" Double D said confidently.
"Intruders!" the Candleman shouted, his flames burning hot. He shot out a blast of flames at the two, which Double D dodged while Ben reflected with his sword. Going on the attack, the alligator swung at the Candleman, but his attack was quickly healed by more wax.
"The Candleman is the guardman of the museum, and his will is unshakable," The Beastman called from his cage. "He will not stop pursuing you or your friends, so you must run! Your only chance to escape is to find Madame Z!"
Ben nodded, then grabbed Double D, throwing the crow on his back as the alligator raced down the hall on all fours. The blue light started to fade as they got away from the Candleman, but Ben didn't stop running, even as Double D asked him to. They went past man-eating plants, a talking chair, a demonic mirror, and many more oddities. Eventually, Ben stopped in an abandoned room, tossing Double D off of his back.
"Wow, I did not expect that kind of speed out of you," Double D said. He stopped talking when Ben growled in frustration.
"That was reckless of you, Sir Dee!" Ben shouted. "Our best course of action would have been to avoid the Candleman, but now he will be looking for us!"
"So what? Gabriel and the others will show up, we'll find the mirror shard, and get out of this place before you know it!" Double D shrugged.
"Must you take this so casually!?" Ben slapped a hand over his face in annoyance. "If you are to become a Dream Keeper, you must learn to think and not just act!"
"But Gabriel acts all the time with his music, and it works out just fine," Double D argued.
Ben sighed. "Sir Gabriel acts, yes, but he also has a plan behind his actions. Fantasia isn't just a power that you can freely use. If it was, everyone would have it. In my world, Sir Mickey tried to use the power, and he flooded Yen Sid's tower because he was just looking for an easy way out of his chores. All power must be used with intent, be it good or bad, or else you don't deserve the power at all."
Double D looked down at his feet. "Huh, never thought about that. I just let the music play and let my feet guide me. You know, follow your heart and all that jazz."
"And following your heart it a good thing," Ben nodded. He placed a hand on Double D's head. "But you must also be able to use your brain as well. Tell me, when Ariel wanted to go to the human world, was it smart of her to trust the sea witch?"
"No," Double D said.
"And when Judy Hopps had to make a statement to the public about the savage mammals, did she have all the facts before she made it?" Ben asked.
"No, she didn't," Double D replied. "But it did work our for them, right?"
"It might have, but unlike them, you are from the real world, not a fictional one, and those kinds of mistakes made without thinking it through can have dire consequences," Ben said. He reached into his cape and pulled out a locket. "It was only following my heart that I almost lost my love to the Chernabog, her soul cast into the fiery depths of Bald Mountain. But with the help of Mickey and the other friends we made, I was able to rise up, rally my fellow dancers, and we made our stand to bring back the day and cast the demon from whence he came."
Double D looked at the locket, then nodded. "Okay, I think I get it. So, what's the plan?"
"Well, the Beastman said to find this Madame Z, and a name like that most likely means that she is a fortune teller of some kind," Ben said. "However, I get the feeling that the master of this place as the mirror shard, so we must look for that as well."
The two stood up. "Then let's look for the others, get to Madame Z, and face whoever this master guy is," Double D said, doing a spin before smiling. "And I'll make sure to think it all through as well."
"It's okay to still listen to your heart sometimes," Ben chuckled. "The trick is to use both together. But yes, let us make haste!"
[***]
In the West Wing of the museum, Gabriel and Belos were looking for this mysterious master, noting that the hallway was eerily similar to that of the West Wing in Beast's Castle. "Whoever this is, they definitely aren't being very original," Gabriel mused.
"If we had more time to simply look around, I would like to study some of these objects and creatures," Belos said. "But I know that once our mission is complete, me and the others you summoned from the Stellar Mirror will return to our own worlds."
"How is your world doing?" Gabriel asked.
"It has seen better days," Belos sighed. "I won't go into all the gory details, but let's just say that The Collector in my world is just as ruthless as the one we're facing today."
"Oh… I'm sorry that we can't come and help you guys," Gabriel said. "Unfortunately, while the Stellar Mirror can summon people from other worlds, those living in the Magical World can't go through it. I'm just stuck here."
"A kind gesture, but I'm sure that we will get through our ordeal," Belos assured his partner. The emperor held up a hand as he heard something. The two pressed an ear to nearby door as the sound of arguing could be heard from the other side.
"How did we lose a shard that our servant collected!?" Night shouted in frustration.
"Hey, it's not my fault the bird didn't want to play fetch," The Collector retorted, sticking out his tounge.
"Will both of you shut up!" Bill shouted. "Look, this guy isn't affected by our powers because he was already broken when we summoned him. So how about we just leave him here to wallow in misery, get all the other mirror shards, and thee come back to complete the mirror?"
"Okay!" The Collector cheered.
"Ugh, fine. But I can sense the Dream Keeper nearby. No doubt they'll be hunting for the shard as well," Night said.
"This place is a mystical trap of the weird. I'm sure the attractions will take care of them for us," Brian said. The sound of a portal opening came from the other side of the door, signaling to the heroes that the villains had left.
"It's safe to say that whoever is on the other side now is the new resident," Belos said.
"Yeah, and they must be a Fractured summoned by the Trio to boot," Gabriel nodded. "Kinda wish the other were here right now…"
The raven got his wish as a part of the wall suddenly spun around, dropping Beth and Gadget out of it. "That's what we get for pulling random books on the shelves," Beth groaned.
The other side of the hall spun around, making Aline and Mittens fall on top of them. "Huh, so that's what a haunted blender does when you try to make a smoothie in it," Aline mused.
Finally, the ceiling flipped around, dropping Toren and Joy on top of the pile. "You guys have to check out the attic here. They've got all kinds of cursed gems!" Toren said with a laugh.
"So that just leaves Double D and Ben," Gabriel said. "You guys all good?"
"Never better!" they all replied.
The door behind them all swung open, with two large talons reaching out and dragging the group in. The door slammed shut, plunging them into darkness. Aline used a light glyph, and gasped as she saw who their captor was. He was a large ten-foot-tall creature, a monstrous snowy owl with serrated talons on both hands and feet, a jagged beak a semi-feral eyes. He only wore pants and a cape, but it was unmistakable who this Fractured was.
"LOGAN!?" the heroes exclaimed.
"G-Gabriel?" Fractured Logan said, reaching out a claw. "You're here, and you're real."
"Is it just me, or is this Fractured not as evil as the others?" Toren asked.
"Logan, what happened to you?" Gabriel asked, gently taking the owl beast by the hand. "I'm not the Gabriel of your world, you know that, right?"
"But you could be!" Logan said. "In my world, we were in the Sorcerer's Arena, and my team won! The underdog came out on top, and I used my wish to become as powerful as you were. You even let me become the new Dream Keeper after we defeated Hex, especially since you were… hurt…"
"What do you mean by that?" Beth asked.
"It's better if I showed you," Logan said. He pulled out his old, battered, but still working sketchbook and magically drew up images to show them. "Hex did a number on Gabriel, and he ended up losing an arm and a leg to defeat him- literally. So Gabriel retired, going back to the real world since all of his injuries would heal, but that also meant that he wouldn't remember anything when we went back."
"Huh, so in your world all the memories of the Magical World are erased once we go back to the real one," Gabriel noted.
Logan nodded. "Yeah, it was hard on everyone, especially Jasiri. She just went and put all of her time into leading the Outlands, and I took on the duty as Dream Keeper. It was nice, for a while, but then I went and messed everything up." He showed them a picture of his human self, surrounded by darkness. "I tried to be the leader, but ended up becoming to arrogant in my power, and pushed everyone else away. Then, there came a day that Sora got kidnapped by Organization XIII, and I… gave into my inner darkness to defeat them all by myself."
"That doesn't sound good," Toren said.
"I did defeat all of them, but the darkness… it felt so good, so powerful, that I just kept using it," Logan explained. "Soon enough, the other Dream Defenders were fighting me, and combined they defeated me. Yen Sid took my title of Dream Keeper and turned me into this." He smiled eerily at Gabriel. "But know, you're here, and you can break my curse! Turn me back to normal, and I can prove myself worthy!"
"Logan, did you think ask why you were cursed?' Gabriel asked. "I mean, it sounds to me like you went evil, gave into your darkness, and fought your friends! That's not what being Dream Keeper is about. No man is an island, but I guess you didn't learn that lesson in your universe."
Double D nodded. "Yeah, you gotta believe in yourself, and your friends! I get wanting everything to go your way, and thinking you can always win, but that's just not possible all the time, man."
Logan frowned. "Well then, If you won't help me, then I'll help myself! I can use the shard that the Trio wanted me to give to them, and instead use it for myself!" The owl beast pulled out the mirror shard, creating multiple dark clones of himself to surround the heroes.
"Why did I know this was where this was heading?" Aline sighed. "Even when we meet one of the nicer Fractured, they still have to be power mad and try to kill us."
"Ben, I think I know how we can get out of here," Double D said. "I have a plan."
"Then I'll follow your lead," the alligator nodded.
"And we'll take care of these clones," Gabriel said.
"None of you will leave here!" Fractured Logan shouted. "I'll use my powers to make you my friends, better friends that won't leave me again!"
"You drove everyone away yourself, dude!" Toren retorted, batting one of the clones away. "You let the title and power of Dream Keeper go to your head, thinking you were better than all of us! No one wants to be friends with a glory hog!"
As the heroes fought through the clones, Double D and Ben went back-to-back, tapping out a beat as they started dancing through their enemies. The Crow backflipped onto Ben's shoulders, before using his wings to bash two clones on the head. Ben then spun around with his sword out, before Double D used the momentum to launch himself over the clones and into Fractured Logan's face. "Backflip kick!" he shouted, decking the owl beast in the face and taking the mirror shard from him. "We got the shard, so let's bounce!"
Gabriel and Belos quickly made a shield to create a barrier to push through the clones and out into the hallway. Fractured Logan began chasing them, his darkness flaring up and creating a Shadow Tide to fill the hallway behind them. "Ugh, I hate chase scenes like this!" Beth shouted.
"Look out, we've got company!" Gadget said, pointing to the Candleman coming from the opposite direction.
Double D smirked. "That's just what I was hoping for." The crow slid between the monster's legs, before turning around and kicking it towards Logan. The Fractured Logan didn't get a chance to react as the blue flames touched his form, quickly consuming him in their spiritual energy.
"No, wait, Gabriel! I'm sorry!" Logan called, before the Candleman fully absorbed him. The monster turned to the heroes, before a cough caught its attention.
"I think that's enough," Madame Z said, pointing to the Candleman. The monster simply walked away as the fortune teller turned to the heroes. "Thank you for dealing with our newest resident. He was causing quite a mess throwing that pity party in the West Wing."
"I think I'm going to need some therapy after seeing a version of my friend consumed by ghostly fire," Aline said, Mittens cuddling up to her for comfort.
"Is it wrong to still feel bad for that version of Logan?" Toren asked. "Sure he was way more arrogant than our Logan, but maybe if we had tried harder in his world, he could have been saved from the fate of being cursed."
"We shouldn't ponder on the what ifs in life, only on what we can do now," Madame Z said. "For now, I think you still have one more mirror shard to find?"
"Yeah, we're pretty close now," Double D nodded. "And I can say now that this crow is ready to be a team player!"
"Good man," Ben said with a smile.
"Then let's go back to Mean Street. Oswald will have the shard detector back online by now," Gabriel said.
Author's Note
The Museum of Weird is a pretty fun concept, and it's nice that elements of it still get used in the parks today. There was even a comic book run about the place! The Beast Man, Talking Chair, Demon Mirror, Man Eating Plant, and of course the Candleman were all to be part of the attraction, among other things.
And oh boy, Fractured Logan. I figured that one of the evil versions of the Dream Defenders should be a fallen hero, and Logan was the one I decided to go with. Basically, in the absence of Gabriel after the battle with Hex as well as being more overconfident from winning the Sorcerer's Arena, Logan didn't have the safety net of his friends to help him when he fell to darkness. This Fractured self takes on a form that combines his owl transformation and aspects of The Beast, and that did not do well for his mental state. A tragic villain for sure.
And Double D gets his character growth! I wanted him to learn that while going with the flow and following your heart is a good thing, you need to make sure you think things through as well. When your heart and mind work together, anything is possible, and Ben Ali Gator was able to help his partner learn a similar lesson that he did.
Next Time: While looking for the final mirror shard, Aline confronts Belos about a question that's been bugging her…
