Hey guys! PrismRain13! Sorry this is so late, guys! Writers block on this chapter was killing me! To be honest, I'm just happy to finally deliver this to you guys! Yup, I still claim no ownership to anything from Disney and/or Square Enix, I only own the plot and my OCs. With that out of the way, enjoy!
Chapter 51: Brotherly Forgiveness
"You know one thing I don't get?" Sora said as he, Roxas, Mickey and Gus emerged from the projector. "The Blot had us in its grasp. Why did it want the King's heart when it could have easily taken mine or Roxas's?"
Gus pondered the idea for a moment before coming up with an answer. "An excellent question, Sora. I suppose it had Mickey's heart in mind because he created it."
"I guess my heart must have been some type of trophy for it..." Mickey sighed, then shook his head. "Well, there's no use pondering over it now; let's keep going. We gotta find Oswald."
It wasn't long before they found the Lucky Rabbit. The projector had taken them to some sort of run-down downtown area known as Mean Street. Oswald was found standing in front of a giant bronze statue of a tall, thin man with a mustache dressed in a suit holding hands with a statue of Oswald. Sora had remembered seeing a similar statue in the middle of Disney Town, only the man had been holding hands with a statue of Mickey. Sora could almost feel the strong sense of importance from the statue.
The rabbit heard the group of four approaching and immediately turned to face them with a grumpy look on his face. "You know, I'm starting to see why he liked you more." Oswald said, indicating towards the man in the statue.
"Can we focus!? Deadly peril...remember?!" Gus started to panic, but he went ignored as the tension between the two brothers slowly began to rise.
"Well, we got all the rocket parts..." Mickey started to say before Oswald interrupted him.
"Ya know, folks around here would die for a heart. But you just gave yours! Your friends I get, but for a gremlin you just met!?"
Mickey shook his head and smiled. "You would have done the same."
"I would...for my honeybunch Ortensia. But you..." Oswald sighed. "And now you're stuck here." He then turned to Sora and Roxas. "Why are you guys still here? You two still have your hearts."
"Because we can't abandon Mickey, he's our friend!" Stated Sora.
"Just like how he wouldn't abandon any of us. And we're not abandoning you either, Oswald." Roxas added.
Mickey was honestly stunned. "...Sora...Roxas..." After all this time, he knew how supportive and caring Sora was, and knew his nobody was from the way he acted around Lea, Xion and Naminé. But, Mickey had never thought that they would ever treat him the same way after learning what he'd done.
No one spoke a word for a few moments, until Gus felt the need to break the silence. "Anyway... Can we launch the rocket now?!" The gremlin asked awkwardly.
"The rocket is useless!" Oswald exclaimed. "Don't you guys get it?! We've lost! It's over, the Blot will destroy everything!"
Mickey shook his head. "So that's it?" He asked. "You're just givin' up? Without a fight?"
"Fight!? We can't even reach the Blot!" Argued Oswald. "It's basically a giant heartless! How do you expect we fight that?!"
"But, what if we fought it with light magic from our Keyblades?" Roxas suddenly suggested as everyone turned to face him. "If the Shadow Blot really is a type of heartless now then that should cause a fair bit of damage."
"Yeah!" Agreed Sora. "We'll take the fight to the Blot!"
Oswald pondered the idea for a moment. "I guess our keyblades could work, but it can regain its strength by absorbing the paint in Wasteland. "
"Then, I guess we'll just have to beat it before it can!" Sora said, clenching his fist. "We can do it with the five of us!"
"That's pretty wishful thinking." Sighed Mickey and shook his head. "It seems we won't cause much damage with just our Keyblades. We'll need more than that."
A lightbulb suddenly went off in Gus's mind. "I remember seeing some fireworks in Dark Beauty Castle." The gremlin suggested, feeling as though he'd just found a solution. "If we fill them with the power of light from the Keyblades and shoot them off at the Blot it should be enough power to finish the Blot for good! It won't have a chance to recover from all that damage at once!"
"You guys are nuts, you know that?" Oswald said. "But, I'm willing to try for the sake of Wasteland, my home."
"Come on, let's get back to the castle!" Urged Gus, ready to put the plan into action.
Both Sora and Roxas nodded in agreement, looking just as pumped as Gus.
"Okay, let's get going!" Roxas said as he, Sora, Mickey and Gus began to run back to the projector. However, Oswald didn't move for awhile, feeling as though there was something he had to get off his chest.
Finally, Oswald took a deep breath. "Hey Mickey..." He called as Mickey stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the rabbit.
"Yeah?" Mickey asked curiously.
Oswald managed a small smile as he looked into his brother's eyes. "Now I understand why dad chose you to be king. Walt Disney made the right choice." As he said that, his eyes shifted to the statue of him and the man holding hands.
Mickey returned the smile, feeling as though a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Thanks, Oswald. That really means a lot coming from you."
"Anytime, brother." Replied the rabbit as they both ran to catch up with the others.
~*KHIII*~
It didn't take the group of four long to return to the castle. As soon as they had jumped through Mean Street's projector while thinking of where they wanted to go, they had emerged right in front of Dark Beauty Castle.
The group of five didn't waste any time in searching the castle for fireworks, gathering as many as they could find. Sora, Mickey and Roxas got to work immediately, filling every colorful firework with powerful light magic. At the same time, Gus worked on wiring up the fireworks to a remote control so they could fire off the fireworks easily while fighting the Blot.
Mickey had just finished filling a firework, when he noticed that Oswald was nowhere to be found. Concerned for his brother, the king left the three to continue their work and search the castle for him.
It took a bit of time, but after wandering around the castle halls, he finally found the rabbit. He was standing in the middle of a round room in one of the towers with large windows. Oswald was looking up at a statue of a female cat dressed in a frilly skirt and matching hat with a flower. But, what really caught Mickey's attention about the statue was the horrified expression on her face.
Mickey took a deep breath before entering the room. "Hey, so it looks like the fireworks are almost ready. Gus is just replacing the batteries in the remote. Sora and Roxas are with him getting the last of the fireworks ready."
"Great." Oswald nodded, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice for fear that the plan might fail. But, Mickey couldn't help but notice that along with the fear in his voice, there was a hint of sadness as well. As the King continued to look at the statue, he began to see why.
Noticing that Mickey was staring, Oswald stood beside his brother. "It's not a statue."
All at once, Mickey's eyes widened. "That's...Ortensia?" Mickey murmured with a shocked gasp and wide eyes.
Oswald nodded his head sadly. "What's left of her; after we bottled up the Blot." The rabbit murmured as he placed his tiny hand on the statue's hand. Small tears began to well up in his eyes as he thought back to that time. He had been so helpless that day, he managed to protect his home, but he was powerless to protect the one person who meant the world to him.
"I'm so sorry." Said Mickey with a strong amount of remorse in his voice. "I really messed up." He couldn't imagine the pain Oswald was feeling, if he had lost Minnie in such a horrifying way...
"You didn't mean to." The Lucky Rabbit replied, shaking his head. "I believe that now. I've made my share if messes, I should have known. Seems we both need some forgiveness, Mickey." Oswald extended his hand toward his brother, but just when the mouse was about to shake it, the rabbit pulled back.
"Wait. Any more confessions?" Oswald asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow just as Sora, Roxas and Gus walked into the room with their eyes on the brothers.
Mickey shook his head. "No. No more confessions."
"You sure?" The rabbit questioned.
"Yes!"
"Really sure?"
"YES!"
"Really really really sure?"
"Just shake!" Mickey laughed, extending his hand towards Oswald. The rabbit smiled and reached out to shake his brother's hand.
But, before he could, an inky tentacle burst through the window and wrapped around his wrist. The two brothers looked outside the window, gasping in terror at the sight of the Shadow Blot looming outside and glaring into the room. The next thing they knew, Oswald was being dragged out the open window while another tentacle wrapped around the statue of Ortensia and dragged her out too, pulling them both inside it.
At that moment, Sora and Roxas barged into the room with their Keyblades in hand. They were both completely breathless, as though they'd just been running and fight through the halls.
"What's going on?!" Sora wheezed. "Heartless just started appearing in the castle-" The young keyblade master stopped himself mid-sentence as he and Roxas gasped at they saw the Blot. Neither of them had a chance to react before the Blot grabbed them. All they could do was scream and struggle in a futile effort to escape as they dissapeared beneath the Blot's inky coating.
Just as Roxas and Sora were being dragged away, Gus entered the room with the remote that controlled the fireworks, completely unaware of the Blot's presence.
"Ok, here's the remote." The gremlin announced casually. But the next thing he knew, one of the Shadow Blot's tentacles suddenly grabbed him, causing Gus to let out a shocked scream and drop the remote in surprise.
Now completely alone in the castle with the Blot laughing easily outside, Mickey knelt down and picked up the remote as he looked up at the Blot through the window. For the first time since he came to Wasteland, he felt ready to fight; there was fire in his eyes.
"No more running." The King of Disney Castle growled as he placed the remote in his pocket. "I have to finish what I started. I need to fix the mistake I made all those years ago!" Without another moment's hesitation, Mickey summoned Star Seeker, pushed himself up to his feet, rushed towards the window and leapt directly into the Blot.
Once Mickey had passed through the inky skin of the monster, he had found himself in complete darkness as he slipped and slided downwards. It felt like ages until he finally broke free of the inky slide, landing in the middle of a large, doke-shaped area at the Blot's core.
The dome itself was mostly black and had walls covered in ink just like the outside of the Blot. But, surrounding the walls were hundreds of black tentacles coated in ribbons of blue light that were holding Sora, Roxas, Oswald, Gus and Ortensia hostage. But the one thing that caught Mickey's eye was a cluster of tentacles at the centre of the dome. Those tentacles were holding a small pink and glowing object tightly. Mickey recognized it immediately; his heart.
"Mickey!" Oswald exclaimed with a smile at the sight of his brother charging in with his Keyblade brandished.
"Hang on guys!" Shouted the mouse king as he rushed towards his imprisoned friends. Raising Star Seeker, Mickey slashed at the tentacles, destroying them with the power of light from the weapon and freeing his allies.
As soon as Oswald was free, he moved to his feet and smiled at his brother. "Thanks, Mickey."
Mickey returned the smile. "Anytime."
Oswald nodded his head as his eyes narrowed towards the cluster of tentacles. The Blot must have sensed that it's prisoners were free and ready to fight back because the next thing they knew, more deadly-looking tentacles appeared beneath the heart and the dome became filled with shadow, neoshadow and blotling heartless.
But still, none of the heroes seemed intimidated. Their faces were filled with determination. "Come on everyone!" Oswald encouraged as a Wasted Past appeared in his hand. "Now's our chance to finish the Blot!"
"You got that right!" Roxas agreed, summoning Two Become One. He then turned to Sora, who was trying to protect Gus and Ortensia as they had become surrounded by the horde of heartless with his own Keyblade. "Sora, can we count on you to protect Gus and Ortensia and take care of the heartless?"
"You got it!" Sora responded, slashing through a few heartless as the dark creatures started attacking.
In the meantime, Mickey, Oswald and Roxas turned to face the cluster of tentacles holding Mickey's heart, pointing their keyblades towards it. Without another moment's hesitation, the three of them charged, ready to take down the Shadow Blot once and for all. Now was the time to free Wasteland.
I hope you guys enjoyed it! So, just a few things before I go; as you guys probably know I have quite a few future fics planned but I really need OCs for the Final Fantasy XIV one. So, if you have an OC you'd like to submit or give other ideas for any of my future stories or The Alchemist and The Homunculus don't hesitate to PM me :)
Anonymous Reviews;
Guest(May 25) - oh they will! Don't you worry!
Tashasaurous - sorry to make you jealous, but he really was amazing! He actually did Reno's voice a lot, I didn't need to ask him :)
Guest(May 26) - I'm assuming you're the same person who keeps telling me to update chapters "right now". As much as I'd love to give you guys more updates, that's not possible with my busy schedule and I want to make full chapters instead of just updating for the heck of it.
Guest(May 27) - well, here you are! I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
Amber O. - thanks you so much! I'm glad you love the story!
Guest(July 31) - you don't have to wait any more for this one, but now you have to wait for the next one ;)
Lucky7777 - thanks for all the advice and I'm happy to know I've been improving. To awnser your question of a World Order, my explanation for this story is that Xehanort and Makeficent are bigger problems than the world order issue so they need all the help they can get. Plus, some world leaders are considering connecting with the other worlds.
Guest(Sept 15) - sorry, but no little mermaid world. I can't fit it in. Plus, I'm planning on using Little Mermaid 2 for a sequel to this story.