Author's note: Not much to say here. Enjoy this new chapter.
I do not own anything here. All rights belong to Disney, Nickelodeon, Toei/Naoko Takeuchi, Square Enix, Dreamworks, CLAMP, Nintendo/Pokemon Company and 20th Century Fox/Blue Skies.
Chapter five: Hearts and Sizes.
It took a lot of effort to reach the Castle again and this time Donald was careful in not offending the Dragonflies while Sora, Riku and Kairi had been shocked and amazed on the magic the giants casted around the place, but they, Mickey, Goofy and Aunt Moo finally made it back and were not crawling under the giant door again. Though Aunt Moo was having a problem with that because she was bit bigger than everyone else.
"Aunt Moo? What's wrong?" Mickey asked, worriedly as he and the others noticed.
"I'm...stuck!" Aunt Moo grunted. Judging on the fact that she was only half-way through, the cow was well and truly stuck.
"And she's supposed to be thinner than Manny." Crash teased, which had everyone shake their heads.
"I'm not fat! How many times do I have to tell everyone?" Manny groaned.
Cloud on the other hand, said, "I don't think you're fat. You do have strong muscles, though." which surprised everyone.
"Finally! Thank you, Cloud." Manny sighed in relief.
"Oh, dear. Who would call you fat, Manny?" Minnie asked, before she looked a bit suspiciously at everyone else. Only Sid and Ellie both looked a bit guilty on that part while Crash and Eddie both shrugged.
"Guys, that's just very mean." Rini scolded at the twin possums, finally tired of their interruptions and critism through out most of the story.
"Yeah. You two apologise right this instant!" Ash added, glaring at Crash and Eddie who both flinched and then slumped, now feeling guilty as they realised that they were causing quite a bit of tension through out the entire story telling.
So the two brothers looked at both everyone and said in unison, "We're sorry, everyone. We won't interrupt or make jokes anymore for the rest of the story."
Seeing how serious the two of them were, everyone else in the room smiled warmly as Mickey said, "Aw, it's okay, fellas. Just try and think before you speak next time, okay?"
"Okay, your majesty." Crash and Eddie both nodded, relieved that they were forgiven and given some advice.
"You're very mature and responsible and caring, Ash." Tifa couldn't help but praise the eleven year old.
Ash blushed a little and replied sheepishly, "I guess I got it from my Mom."
"Ash and Sora are both a lot like you, Mickey." Minnie whispered to her husband who chuckled sheepishly. Come to think of it, Mickey hadn't realised until now on how much both of his younger friends really did remind him of himself in personality.
After the apology and everyone calming down, Mickey continued on reading the story.
Seeing how Aunt Moo was struggling, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Sora, Riku and Kairi all took her front hooves and pulled hard, tugging the poor stuck cow while hoping not to make too much noise or worse, the giants end up seeing them by the time they get Aunt Moo out of the door way. Finally after five tries, they successfully pulled her out but all of them landed on the floor with a thud and shook their heads to rid the minor dizzy spells.
"Thank you..." Aunt Moo sighed, before she and everyone else stood up. "My goodness! It's much bigger than I thought." She softly exclaimed as she looked around.
"And creepy too." Kairi whispered, rubbing her arms as she felt her skin crawl with the goose bumps.
No one argued with her on that one, as Mickey whispered, "Okay. So we need to find something that is magical and unusual."
"Yeah!" Sora nodded, before asking as he realized something. "Um, how do we know where to look and what to expect that it looks like?"
A short pause.
"Hmmm...Good question." Mickey muttered, realising that Sora had a point. "I guess we'll just have to look and avoid in gettin' caught."
"That will take us forever." Donald groaned in irritation, turning to leave the castle. "I say we just forget about this whole thing and go home."
But he froze in his tracks as the ground tremored again, as did everyone else who looked around and heard a familiar roar, this time coming from one of the other doors. Apparently Willie was approaching and the group began to panic.
"Uh, oh...!" Mickey mumured, worriedly.
"We have to hide, quick!" Riku whispered urgently.
The seven of them looked around hurriedly as the stomping got stronger and the giant was getting closer, which increased the group's fear. It wasn't until Mickey spotted a giant mouse hole(despite him being an anthropomorphic mouse) in the wall next to the door which led into the hallway. Hurriedly running towards it to check, it seemed big enough to fit all of them and as he peered quickly inside it, it looked like it had a tunnel between the walls of the entire castle.
"Hurry! In here!" Mickey hushly called out to his friends who saw him wave them over. Without wasting anymore time and needing a place to hide, Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi hurried over as they heard the door began to creak open. "Ladies first!" Mickey gestured.
Kairi went in first, but when Aunt Moo tried to squeeze herself in, she found herself stuck. Again. "Mooo! Not again!" The cow grunted in dismay.
"Oh no!" Mickey cried out, and when he and his friends turned to see behind them, the door began to creak open. Panickly, the remaining five pushed hard to push Aunt Moo into the hole while Kairi pulled as she was stuck inside the tunnel. When Mickey looked back, he gasped as he caught the glimpse of Willie the Giant through the crack of the door, before pushing harder.
In desperation as she sensed more than heard the giant coming, Aunt Moo sucked it in, which was enough to have her pushed and pulled the rest of the way win. Though it also caused all seven of them to unexpectedly launch further into the tunnel and crashed onto the floor, just narrowly avoiding in being seen by Willie who closed the door behind him and slumped, looking dejected. But then he noticed a familiar scent and sniffed.
"Fee, Fi, with a group in the house, I smell a familiar teensy, weensy little mouse." Willie bellowed, looking and sniffing around the area, walking along the dining area, and towards the front door.
"I think we should move before he finds us." Sora suggested nervously.
The others nodded in agreement and silently snuck through the tunnel in the walls, managing to turn around the corner and hid themselves there while Willie continued to follow their scent in his search for them. Though Mickey couldn't help but feel bad for having to sneak in and out without Willie noticing this time, but despite what he heard, he couldn't trust himself to trust the giant until he knew more for sure.
"...Gee, I hope that little feller hasn't come back. I don't want him or his friends to get caught by Georgy." Willie thought to himself and while he did know that Mickey and his friends were trying to solve the problem and even Willie felt it was the right thing to do, he didn't want to get others involved or get eaten by the meaner giant.
Then he heard a ringing sound which got his attention before he looked to see the newly installed telephone on the wall. The giant got up and went to answer it, "Hello?"
"WILLIE! HAVE YOU FOUND THAT MAGIC YET!?" A familiar, yet very angry voice boomed so loudly that Willie had to hold the phone away from his ear and winced.
"Uh, not yet, but I'm still looking." Willie replied to Georgy after a second of silence.
He heard the mean giant growl before saying, "Well, you'd better be quick about it when you get back there later. Because right now, I want my back massage-AND I MEAN NOW!"
Quivering in fright, Willie stuttered, "I-I'm on my way!" and hung up before making a beeline for the phone, but not before looking at the hole and then looked around to block the scent out incase Georgy decided to come here instead.
Noticing a chest near by, the giant quickly heaved it before carrying it to the hole and placed it against the wall and effectively blocked it before sighing and then hurried out of the door to head to Georgy's castle.
Meanwhile, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi continued venturing through the tunnel in the walls while noticing that it was quite dark that they couldn't see properly on where they were going.
"Gawrsh, sure is spooky in here." Goofy commented nervously. "I can't see anything."
"Aw, I wish we had some light." Mickey sighed. But as soon as he said it, light shined in front of them and when he and his group looked up to see where it was suddenly coming from, it looked like it was coming from another hole in the wall. Sharing a glance with each other, the seven of them crept slowly and silently towards it, wondering where it would lead and hoping that they wouldn't find any trouble.
Risking a peak one by one, the group softly gapped in awe as they found themselves in a huge but spectacular room filled with treasure; from gold coins to rubies, to emeralds to sapphire, diamonds and crystals of all kinds. It also had a large door and a window with daylight shining through.
"Whoa...!" Sora breathed in awe.
"Could this be...the Sorcerer's treasure room?" Kairi wondered in amazement as she and the others slowly stepped into the room.
"I've heard about it, but I never thought I would actually see it with my own eyes." Riku muttered.
"There's so many of this stuff that everybody would be set for life." Mickey said with wide-eyes. "I wonder if this is the unusual thing connected to the magic of this castle?"
Aunt Moo, however, shook her head. "Treasure is not unusual, but this is still very amazing."
"Oooh! Shiny!" Goofy said in awe and admiring the treasure.
Even though it was nice to dream of having this much treasure, Mickey knew that he and his friends had a job to do and said to everyone, "Well, I know that everybody's fasinated in all of this, but we still gotta find the unusual thing that might be magical or not." which brought most of them out of their daze and realised that he was right.
The only one not paying attention was Donald who, so fasinated by the treasure that he went all ga-ga and just simply stared at the treasure almost as though he was in a trance. The urge to grab some of it almost made him do so had Mickey and Aunt Moo not notice and the two of them gasped when they saw him absently reaching out for a Ruby that was the size of his hand.
"Donald! Snap out of it!" Aunt Moo called out, and Donald yelped as he was snapped back to reality before the latter shook his head to get a grip on himself.
Just then, there was a growling sound which startled everyone who looked to see where it was coming from. When they looked, there was a huge shadow of what looked like a giant beast, or a dog and from the looks of it, the giant dog could very well be very angry, or worse, hungry. Screaming, Mickey and the rest of the group ran and leaped themselves into the pile of gold, covering themselves in it and did their best not to make a sound. Unfortunately, the dog had already heard them and caught their scent, because it was sniffing towards them.
Feeling the dread and fear of getting eaten, the seven of them held each other and braced themselves for their end, shutting their eyes and hoped that it would at least be quick. Though not long after the dog digged it's way into the gold and spotted them and then sniffed at them, they heard it bark and then licked all of them as they winced...but it didn't gulp them or eat them. It felt more like a...playful lick.
Hesitately opening their eyes, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi looked up to see that the giant dog wasn't even angry at all. In fact, he, and they were certain it was a boy, looked rather friendly, with light-orange coating and black floppy ears and big eyes, wearing a green collar.
The dog barked happily at them again and immediately most of them relaxed.
"Aww, he's not mean at all." Mickey cooed and relaxed even more when the dog allowed him to pet him on the nose, and laughed when the dog nuzzled him and the others playfully. "Whoa! Ha-ha! That tickles!"
"Nice doggy. Ay-yhuck!" Goofy chuckled.
"Who's such a good boy?" Aunt Moo cooed.
"Cute fella." Donald added.
"Hey, I know this dog." Sora realized as he, Riku and Kairi patted the dog. "He looks just like the Sorcerer's pet dog."
"That's because he is." Kairi answered.
"How do you know?" Riku asked.
The red-haired teenage girl pointed at the name tag on the collar which everyone noticed, and the name 'Pluto' was written on it, while she said, "Who else would name their dog Pluto?"
"Pluto, huh? That's a very swell name." Mickey thought, smiling. Pluto blushed in slight embarrassment at the compliment from the very nice stranger.
"He's the Sorcerer's Dog? I didn't know he kept giant dogs." Goofy asked, confused.
"That's because he wasn't always this big. He used to be, well, normal sized." Sora pointed out.
"Georgy must have used his own dark magic to grow Pluto into a giant too to guard this treasure room." Mickey realised after thinking for a moment, remembering what Fairy Moon said about using dark magic and what Willie the Giant said about Georgy the Giant. He then asked Pluto, "Didn't he, Pluto?"
Pluto blinked, then realised what the mouse was saying and nodded while saying the only known word he could actually speak, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" before a jiggling sound was heard behind him. Then, as though having an idea and coming to realise that these people were here to help, Pluto turned and raced towards around the corner.
"Pluto? Where're you goin'?" Mickey asked, confused. The next thing he found himself doing, he hurried to see where the giant dog had gone despite his friends' protests before they hurried to follow him. When they turned around the corner, they saw Pluto standing over a chained...magic Carpet standing next to a ruby in a glass case? From the looks of it, the Carpet looked to be struggling against the chains.
"A magic Carpet from "Aladdin"? Now that's unusual." Goofy remarked, while breaking the fourth wall unexpectedly again.
"I've seen the Sorcerer bring this guy along too." Sora said, as he, Riku and Kairi recongised the magic carpet too and they and everyone else felt sorry for it.
"Aw, you poor fella." Mickey said with sympathy to the Carpet. "Being chained like this is very horrible."
"Look, there's writing in that Ruby." Aunt Moo quickly spotted, which got everyone else's attentions and when they looked, they realised that she was right. On it was some kind of inscription.
"What does it say?" Kairi asked.
Mickey blinked before he got closer to it and began reading the writing aloud, "It says here, "To whomever shall enter the castle when my end is due, if you wish to find the source of the magic and protect it, the music of this place is the final clue." and it's signed by...the Sorcerer."
"Maybe this is what Fairy Moon had meant." Aunt Moo guessed with a shrug, and the others nodded in agreement.
"And the Magic Carpet is very unusual and magical." Riku added.
Deciding that the Magic Carpet could be their second clue and the ruby being the inscription to give to Fairy Moon, Mickey turned to Pluto and requested, "Say, Pluto. Would it be alright if we burrow the magic carpet for a while? We're on a very important quest to set things right and fix up the mess the two Giants made."
Hearing this honest truth from Mickey and feeling hope rise in his heart, Pluto nodded happily and licked him and the others as his way of saying thank you, which made most of them laugh at being tickled while Donald grumbled about having dog drool on him.
"Gosh. Thanks, Pluto!" Mickey said happily.
"But Mickey, how're we gonna burrow the magic Carpet if we don't have a key to unlock the chains?" Goofy asked, worriedly as he realised another problem.
As though having a salution to the problem, Pluto digged through the pile of gold with one paw before he found what he was looking for and gently picked a silver key from the pile with his teeth and handed it to Mickey who gently took it. Thanking the dog again, the young peasent unlocked the lock on the Magic Carpet which the chains fell off easily. Now freed, the Carpet cheered while it flew around in a wrapping motion around the group who laughed.
"Hey, maybe we can fly out of the window without the Giants noticing." Sora suggested as the idea hit him.
Everyone agreed to that idea.
Meanwhile, at Georgy's castle, both giants were in a massaging room that Georgy installed for himself and was lying flat on his stomach on the massage table, groaning happily as the slightly annoyed, scared and sad looking Willie rubbed and karate-chopped his back to get the tension out of his muscles and bones.
"Oh, yeah...Ah...lower, lower, lower." Georgy moaned happily.
"You know, Georgy. I was kinda thinking." Willie began after a moment of silence and thinking, as he thought about Mickey's group.
Georgy ended up rolling his eyes in annoyance as he asked, "What now?"
"Well, giants and normal people used to live in harmony, like when I used to sell Potatos to both our kind and the smaller people." Willie continued, suggesting, "Why can't we live in peace with everybody again?"
"Are you crazy?" The meaner giant demanded, shocked.
Willie shrugged, cluelessly. "Well, why not? I mean, a Lion, a Meerkat and a Warthog lived in a jungle together and became very bestest best friends."
"That's against the law of all nature." Georgy growled, beginning to quickly become angerier and angerier by the minute.
"Well, nothing stays the same, but everything shouldn't be bad." The nicer Giant pointed out.
Opening the window of the treasure room took a bit of effort, but thanks to their new friend Pluto who also helped heave them up to the window sill, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi boarded the Magic Carpet despite the bit of a tight squeeze ready for take off to make their escape before the giants could spot them.
"We're one step closer in solving the mystery and restoring peace, fellas." Mickey declared.
"And soon everything will be all right." Aunt Moo agreed, with the others nodding before they turned back to Pluto who looked a bit sad to see them go already.
Mickey smiled in sadness and promised, "Oh, don't worry, Pluto. We'll be back and we'll figure out how to turn you back to normal. I promise." which seemed to cheer Pluto up and the dog gave him another happy lick which made Mickey chuckle again.
"I think Pluto really likes you, Mickey." Kairi said with a smile, finding the newfound friendship between the two adorable.
"Well then, prepare for take off!" Donald declared.
The group waved Pluto a goodbye while Carpet, with a little bit of difficulty, took off in flight out of the window of the Castle and flew away with it's seven passengers, leaving Pluto behind for the time being with a promise to return and set things right. But as they passed the castle and over the giant grass with a sigh of relief, they immediately ran into more trouble.
The swarm of Dragonflies heading right into their direction and by judging in seeing those who weren't meant to fly and being in their way, the insects were not happy. So they all zoomed in towards the group who screamed and held on tightly when Carpet unexpectedly dived low to avoid collision, but soon the Dragonflies aimed to attack the group by flying all around them and the group had trouble in avoiding every single one of them, flying up and down in the process.
"Hey, shoo! We didn't do anything to you guys!" Sora shouted at the Dragonflies, and nearly fell off when Riku and Kairi both grabbed hold of him and pulled him back onto the Carpet.
As they were doing this, they were right in the view of the window of Georgy's castle which was the window of the massage room, though thankfully the Giants didn't notice this, but neither did Mickey or his group.
Fully unaware of the commotion happening outside, Willie continued to Georgy, "Even the laws change once and a while. Just because we're bigger than everybody, doesn't mean we can't go on and pick at them or eat them."
"That is where you are wrong, Willie." Georgy growled as he turned to glare at his fellow Giant, just missing Mickey's group who dived back down low, followed by the Dragonflies. "Think about it? Sharks eat fish because they're dominant over fish. Whales eat Krill because they're bigger than those miniture things. Do you have any idea how much effort it takes just to try and convince my parents and siblings in our kind that those miniture people cannot overpower us because we are more powerful, bigger and stronger than them?"
Finally managing to dodge all of the Dragonflies, unfortunately Carpet went into an out of control plummet while passing the giant grass but still couldn't stop even as Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi tried to stop him. They went flying all over the field and the village, causing many villages to move out of the way to avoid in getting hit, scrambling to safety while screaming.
"Sorry!" Mickey cried out an apology to the people.
They then flew back into the opposite direction, towards where Fairy Moon was still waiting with the wagon of the fifteen golden eggs. With her was Iago, along with a Gingerbread Man(Gingy), Axel, Roxas, Ash, Pikachu, Brock, a dark haired madien(Raye), Humpty Dumpty, the three Blind Mice, and Sinbad the sailor.
"You sure they're ones who found will save us all from the giants?" Axel skeptically asked Fairy Moon.
"I know they don't look like it, but the moment I saw them at that dinner theatre, there was something within them that I can't pick out, but they are definitely the ones to solve all of this, unless they need a little bit of my help." Fairy Moon explained.
"Not unless we all just move down there and go somewhere else." Raye pointed out in annoyance.
"As I recall, there's drought happening in Happy Valley." Gingy pointed out.
A slight pause.
"I have faith in Fairy Moon." Ash shrugged.
"Pi?" Pikachu suddenly heard screaming and didn't have time to alert the others when...
"INCOMING!" Sora shouted aloud, and when Fairy Moon and her group looked, they all screamed in alarm while ducking just in time to avoid Mickey's group dive-bombing into them, though Iago wasn't as lucky as was spun around from the impact.
When the red parrot recovered, he screamed and flew away while Carpet unexpectedly chased him out of control in high speed while everyone else on the ground ducked again while watching the preformance happening.
"Hey! Watch it! Watch it with the dumb rug!" Cried Iago. He then lifted himself up while narrowly avoiding in getting hit as Mickey's group on Carpet zoomed underneath him and once they were far ahead, he sighed in relief while wiping sweat from his brow, "Whew...!"
SMACK!
Only to crash into the side of a building so hard that he briefly turned into a feathered, small pancake with his tail feathers sticking out and some his feather molting off his body. He slid down while kissing the wall, only to plop it off with some missing teeth and collasped onto his back, half unconscious and dazed with miniture blue birds chirping around his head.
Seeing where Mickey's group were about to head towards to, Fairy Moon apologetically said to the others while holding onto the side of the wagon, "Sorry, guys. Gotta go check on them!" and instantly disappeared into sparkles and leaving the dumbfounded group behind who shared a glance.
"We're gonna crash!" Goofy screamed, pointing at the nearby house they were heading towards to.
"Hold on tight!" Mickey exclaimed, as he and soon everyone else braced themselves for the impact. They crashed right through the roof of the house and landed onto the floor with a thud and onto each other, but thankfully they didn't even have any minor injuries, but they did case some accidental damage.
Coughing up the dust from the impact, Mickey and his friends groogily looked up and flinched in shock and fright as they realised who's house they crashed into.
There sat the Wolf(the Sailor Team's friend) in a chair reading a magazine when he, obviously oblivious until now, looked to see he had company who were looking at him in shock.
"What?" He asked, cluelessly.
"Uh, no?" Willie shrugged, only to jump in fright when Georgy rapidly stood up and stomped towards him which forced the nicer giant to back away in the process.
"They still believe that is not the case and that we should be living in harmony. I disagreed, because no one at the moment can accept the truth; Those people can easily use us as shields and protectors if they demand it, because they are weaklings. Such weaklings that they are no better than fish and vegetarians." Georgy growled.
"But uh, w-what if that's not the case?" Willie nervously asked.
Georgy hissed, "You just don't get it, do you? Those minitures are only good for one thing; delicacy for our kind! They obey us! Should they even consider in trying to stop us, to stop me, there's only one place they will go as punishment." and pointed at his stomach to make the point.
Willie gulped, but Georgy wasn't quite finished yet and by now, the former had his back pushed against the wall with no way of escaping.
"I've put up with you not eating them should they come even near to the castle, but not anymore." The evil giant growled darkly. "Once that magic of secrets is in our possession, Giants will be the dominant rulers of both this world and the land below, and should you disobey me and not find it in time by midnight, you will suffer their fate."
The nicer giant felt his heart sink and his blood run cold by this. He had no idea that Georgy was so horrible, cold blooded, cruel, wicked and...very evil.
"Midnight?" Shrek couldn't help but interrupt incredulously, before slumping as he asked himself, "Why is it always midnight?"
"Poor Willie the giant." Lil said in sympathy.
Chuckie shuddered, "Oh, that mean, yucky Georgy is like that mean, yucky Queen for what she did to Snow White."
"Yup." Mickey agreed as he read on, "Things were lookin' pretty dark for our heroes. But don't forget, even if something were to go wrong, good always triumpths over evil. It won't an easy thing to do, but that didn't mean nothing good will happen."
Meanwhile, after apologising to the Wolf for crashing into his house which he shook off the accident lightly as he can fix it himself later, Mickey and his friends stepped outside with the Magic Carpet practically dazed from the crazy flying and Goofy gently caught it before it collasped onto the ground, exhausted. Donald had stars circle around his head as he was feeling dizzy from the flight as well.
"That was some ride." Kairi sighed, wiping her forehead and no one argued with her on that part.
"I hope we don't have to go through that unexpected flight again." Aunt Moo sighed. "Being above Happy Valley is unusual enough, but I don't think I'd like to be the Cow to jump over the moon."
"At least we made it out okay and we figured out a clue to the mystery of the magic in the castle." Mickey said optimistically.
That was when Fairy Moon made her entrance by appearing along with the wagon and golden eggs, startling the group who jumped before sighing in relief when they saw who it was.
"Speakin' of moon." Goofy remarked about Aunt Moo's comment.
"I guess that since you were riding on that Magic Carpet that you found that he's the unusual one from the Castle, and talk about unusual to have that in a castle." Fairy Moon remarked, then praised, "You guys did great! Despite the crazy flying part."
"Tell that to the giant Dragonflies." Donald grumbled while folding his arms in annoyance.
"That's not all we found. There was this treasure chamber and while we met the Sorcerer's Dog Pluto who was put under a spell to become a giant too, there was also a ruby that gave us a clue to the mystery of magic in the castle." Mickey quickly said.
"What did it say?" Fairy Moon asked, surprised.
The young peasent thought deepily and then remembered what the message said and answered, ""To whomever shall enter the castle when my end is due, if you wish to find the source of the magic and protect it, the music of this place is the final clue." It was left behind by the Sorcerer."
"Well then, that just pretty much gave you part of the final clue you need to find." Fairy Moon concluded. "Somewhere in the Castle, you need to find something that will keep the giants company, soothe them and put them to sleep at night; something that will sing a beautiful song."
A moment of silence, as Sora and Riku glanced at Kairi who looked nervous, which was noticed by Mickey and the others.
"Is something wrong, sweetheart?" Aunt Moo asked, concerned.
"Well...I do have a gift in singing." Kairi reluctantedly admitted. "So do Raye and Mina in the village."
"I said something, not someone." Fairy Moon ensured, before admitting sheepishly, "Though, I guess that something would have a personality too, but they're not made of flesh and all that everyone else's got...except for the Magic Carpet, Humpty Dumpty, Pinocchio, and Gingy..."
"Okay, okay! We get it." Donald interrupted in annoyance.
"Well then. Let's finish what was started." Sora declared. "I mean, this is the chance to set everything right."
Mickey however, having heard about Kairi being a good singer and that Willie did say he wanted someone who could put him to sleep, and that he didn't want the teenagers to get into more danger, suggested, "Uh, actually, Sora. Maybe it's best you, Riku and Kairi sit this one out this time. I don't wanna put ya's in any more danger than the four of us are goin' through."
He then sighed in guilt as he added, "Come to think of it, I don't want to put Donald, Goofy and Aunt Moo in any more danger than what we all went through today, either. I just want what's best for them, and for everybody else. And even though I still don't know if Willie the Giant was tellin' the truth or not, I feel so terrible in takin' those eggs and the Magic Carpet, especially with all the trouble's he's goin' through himself with Georgy."
Donald, Goofy, Aunt Moo, Sora, Riku and Kairi were shocked to see Mickey suddnely depressed and feeling guilty for what's been hapening and realised that, even though the giants had been causing terror ever since they took over the Sorcerer's Castle and reshaped it while ruining everyone else's lives, Mickey felt as though the entire thing was his own fault despite not having known about this until today. Not only that, he felt responsible for the safety of Sora and his friends, as well as Mickey's own close friends.
"B-But I guess no matter what I do, I only put the lives of everybody into all kinds of disaster." Mickey sniffled, trying his best not to cry. "Maybe it's my fault that we've been goin' hungry and everything."
"Oh, Mickey darling. It's not your fault. Come here." Aunt Moo muttered sorrowfully as she held Mickey into an embrace and rubbed his back as he hugged her back, burying his face into her clothes. Goofy and Donald both approached and did their best to comfort that friend.
Seeing Mickey like this made the hearts of Sora, Riku, Kairi and especially the now guilt-ridden Fairy Moon who, along with Kairi, felt tears form in her eyes.
"I'm sorry." Fairy Moon muttered to Mickey's group. "I hadn't meant for anyone to be put into danger. I knew it would be dangerous, but I didn't bonds to be broken. I just wanted everyone to be happy, like what you wanted, Mickey."
When everyone looked at her, Fairy Moon admitted, "I would've done all this by myself since I am a Fairy, but my magic isn't strong enough against Georgy's and he's very powerful. The only way to stop all this is for someone who, while not having magic, has enough courage in their heart to go through this and figure something else and only then I'd step in to help if they really needed it. But I guess that's my biggest mistake."
"Well, everyone else tried their best, but before these guys came," Sora pointed out while gesturing at Mickey's group. "Those giants kept kicking them out without even trying. Today's the first time since anyone's been able to get in and out twice without getting into too much trouble with them."
"Mickey's the one who got us out of trouble and come up with good ideas." Goofy pointed out.
"Yeah, and he's braver and smarter than all of us." Donald added.
Mickey blinked, confused as he was let go by Aunt Moo. "I don't get it."
"We're your friends, Mickey. We've been through so much together that we'd go anywhere you'd go." Goofy smiled to him.
"Yeah. You come up with the idea of using the wagon and the wood track to get the eggs from the castle." Donald reminded, smiling.
"And you got us out of danger from the giant by leading us into the hole." Aunt Moo added.
"And you read the clue on that ruby in the Treasure room." Riku added.
"That took a lot of courage, Mickey. You saved us a lot today." Kairi added.
Sora nodded. "Yeah. You're the bravest guy anyone's ever known!"
Mickey felt touched by the support and smiled emotionally, wiping away his tears. "Aw, thanks fellas. You guys are just swell."
He then said, "So, even though we're about to go back into the castle and probably gonna get caught, even though I wouldn't want that." Mickey turned around with his determination renewed, "I still promise to set things right and make a better future for everybody!"
"You will? Even after I've put you guys through so much danger?" Fairy Moon asked, stunned.
"Welp, you were askin' for help, in a bit of a funny way by givin' us those magic beans. But if there is any real problem, I promise to call you for help. Gosh, as far as that goes, everybody's involved. But someday, I know there'll be happiness again, both in Happy Valley and up here in the clouds." Mickey replied.
"...Thank you, Mickey. Sora's right; you're the bravest guy anyone's ever known, and one of the sweetest too." Fairy Moon said emotionally.
"And we're sticking by Mick' all the way! Ay-yhuck!" Goofy declared, with Donald and Aunt Moo nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, and so will we, despite the dangers." Kairi added, and despite the slightly alarmed looks on Sora and Riku's faces, they realised how serious she was in going back and then sighed before nodding in agreement as well.
Nodding again, Mickey then declared, "C'mon, fellas! Let's get that final clue and save everybody!" and his friends cheered while Aunt Moo, 'mooed' happily.
Even though the dangers in the castle has gotten worse, destiny was set for Mickey Mouse and his friends, both old and new.
A/N: I think the next chapter will be the last one of this story and I might be able to post it tomorrow(unless my computer dies on me before hand).
See you later!
