As Oswald led Mickey and Minnie through the library, he browsed the titles of public domain books, looking for the one he was looking for.
Mickey looked at Minnie, and Minnie blushed bashfully. With all that had been happening, Mickey hadn't taken the time to think about it, but now that things had begun to slow down enough, Mickey suddenly felt a huge relief to have Minnie here with him; after what was starting out to feel like a very long day, it was nice to know he wasn't the only new face he knew here in the Public Domain, that his closest friend and partner was here, experiencing this strange twist of fate alongside him. Helped him not feel crazy. Or, at the very least, Minnie was going crazy with him.
"So, who's your friend?" asked Minnie, gesturing over to Oswald.
Mickey shrugged.
Minnie looked at him with interest, "You haven't talked before, have you?"
Mickey shrugged.
"Well, I guess it wasn't that hard for me," Minnie reflected, "I do recall at least trying to speak in 1928, even if I had struggled a bit with the vocals, you didn't, did you?"
Mickey just shrugged again.
Oswald continued to browse the books, everything lost and jumbled together with no rhyme or reason to the categorization: King Arthur, King Arthur, King Arthur, even more King Arthur, probably just as many Robin Hoods, Wizard of Oz, Great Gatsby, TARZAN (Yes, even that's in there I'm-looking-at-you-estate-which-I-will-so-graciously-leave-unnamed), and even... The Egg Laying of Mrs. Buttercup Easter Bunny? Hmm, some weirdo must've donated that to the Public Domain.
Finally, Oswald found what he was looking for. Oswald took out the book and tossed it out onto the table for all eyes to see.
"Winnie-the-Pooh," Oswald said bluntly, "by A.A. Milne."
There was silence in the room for a moment, an unspoken dread that even the atmosphere in the library seemed to remember.
"What happened to him?" Minnie said.
"I wasn't here when it happened, but I've heard stories," Oswald opened the book to begin his tale, but then stopped as he realized all the pictures inside were simple portrayals of the innocent adventures of Edward Bear and his friends. Of course it would be, that was the version of Pooh that was in the Public Domain, not the freaks-against-all-things-good-and-decent that arose as a result of it becoming such.
"As you can see here," said Oswald, flipping through the pages to show Mickey and Minnie, "all the pictures inside this book are a simple portrayal of the innocent adventures of Edward Bear and his friends," Oswald said, basically repeating the words that I put all that effort into writing, "but the moment he became Public Domain…" Oswald picked up the book and tore it to shreds, ripping it in his teeth, making all sorts of monster sounds for effect; it was supposed to look intimidating, but it just looked stupid.
Mickey and Minnie looked at eachother in confusion.
"The point is," said Oswald, going for another approach, "Winnie-the-Pooh was a big deal, a staple in so many childhoods. So the moment he's free for public use, how do people use him? They turn him into a monster," he looked down at the torn remainder of the page, still resting on the table, of Pooh sitting peacefully on his log under the name of MR. SANDERS, a look of pity on his face, "Pooh, once so innocent, friendly - maybe a bit of a dutz - now exists for nothing more than to terrorize the innocent."
"Wait!" said Minnie, "so this Pooh, he still walks among us?"
"Fortunately not," said Oswald, "the moment Horror-the-Pooh became part of his own derivative work, he again became subject to his own copyright beyond the Public Domain. I just have to pity any poor souls who got swept away with him."
"Wait a moment," Minnie exclaimed after a moment, "if all of that's true, then how are you able to tell us about this if this horror Winnie-the-Pooh is locked behind it's own set of copyright?"
Oswald laughed, "you think there's only one instance of horror Pooh? The moment he hit Public Domain, horror Pooh started popping up everywhere at whatever chance creatives could get, just some more popular than others," Oswald looked grim for a moment, "I think people are just afraid the same situation is going to happen here with you."
Mickey pointed at himself in shock.
"So now that raises the question," Oswald continued, half to himself, "How to handle you until we've found a way to properly assess this situation."
The room seemed to grow smaller at these words.
"Wait, you are not doing anything to my boyfriend that I don't approve of myself!" Minnie demanded, taking a step forward.
"We have to resort to certain measures to ensure the security of certain times," Oswald said.
No! Mickey was not going to have this, he realized, he was going to take things into his own hands.
He looked up at the rows of shelves, at all the books, an idea coming to him:
A Time Portal.
Before Oswald could process what Mickey was doing, Mickey leapt up onto the shelf and started tearing down books, throwing them onto the table. Oswald stepped forward to stop him, but Minnie held him back.
Mickey began dismantling the books, rearranging them: Mickey took the Mirror from Snow White - yes, this frame would do - kicked out the glass with his foot, replaced it with Lewis Carroll's Looking-Glass for some of that portally effect, and rigged it up with a few pieces from H.G. Wells' Time Machine, therefore completing the process. Now you could argue that Mickey should've just used The Time Machine from the start, but Mickey wasn't trying to build a Time Machine, he was trying to build a Time Portal, there's a difference.
Mickey took a step back to inspect his work, Oswald and Minnie looked at it with varying mixtures of confusion and awe.
Finally, Mickey opened his mouth, and for the first time…
"Looking Glass, Looking Glass…" Mickey cleared his throat - woah, that voice - he didn't know if that's what he expected or not; a little squeaky from the lack of use, though totally serviceable… he didn't know what to make of it. At least this voice wasn't copyrighten. Mickey forced himself to continue, "Show me my future being in the Public Domain."
The Mirror hesitated, then the glass quivered…
And suddenly, an image began to grow clear.
Mickey's heart stopped.
Aboard a Steamboat littered with carnage, back toward them, feasting on the corpse of what could only be Bessie the cow, was what appeared to be an anthropomorphic rodent, two round ears at the top of his head.
Then, the figure, as if aware of somebody watching him, stopped.
His head began to turn, slowly, crackly, a full 180 on the neck…
The ears atop his head remained unmoving, always facing forward.
And then the head snapped one final crackle to face them fully.
Jaws dripping red, eyes wild with madness, staring back at them from the time portal was the future face of Mickey Mouse.