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Chapter Text

Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.

Author's note: Welcome to the re-launched Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops compilation. Due to the original threadhead MrEgret essentially dropping out, I've been given the duties of running the Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops and, by extension, their compilation. Which will start with re-postings of the two chapters originally compiled by MrEgret (though with slight style changes), and then continue where he left off.

Author's note 2: Originally posted by MrEgret on 2014-12-14 as chapter 1 of the original compilation. Reposted with edits for formatting and spelling by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-02, alongside the second chapter. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

1.1 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Carrie - non-Looping]

Carrie White couldn't believe it. She, of all people, had been elected Prom Queen! Plus, Tommy Ross seemed to really like her! This was the best night of her life!

As she and Tommy ascended the stage to receive her prize, she happily toyed with the small mirror that her friend Minnie had given her. She knew that Tommy had a matching one hidden under his tux.

Really, Minnie was the one who made it all possible. After that horrible incident in the shower, Minnie was the only other student to comfort her, and she was her first friend in this school. She accepted her into her little circle of friends, and even introduced her to Tommy. Really, she owed everything to her. It was such a shame that she couldn't make it to the prom. She would have to tell her all about it afterwards!

Carrie beamed at the assembled audience of students and faculty as she was crowned Queen of the Prom. Nothing could go wrong now!

In the back, hidden among the students, a boy with two tufts of hair sticking up off his head jumped, as his coat pocket vibrated. He furtively pulled out a walkie-talkie larger than the pocket, and hit the reply button. "Oswald here."

Outside, in the bushes, Minnie held a similar walkie-talkie. "This is Minnie. Has the pig blood dropped yet?"

"They just crowned her and Tommy King and Queen, so it'll be at any moment."

"I hope this works, Oz. I don't want to hurt her if she goes on a rampage."

"Relax. Those Physical Mirrors they're holding deflect any and all physical attacks. I'm pretty sure that pig's blood and a falling bucket qualify. Oh, hang on; I think it's starting!"

At that moment, hidden in the rafters, Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan proceeded to dump their bucket of pig blood all over the Prom Couple.

Or tried to, at least.

When the blood came within five feet of Carrie and Tommy's head, the mirrors they were holding gleamed a bit too brightly to be caused by the lighting. Then, impossibly, the blood reversed course, and flew upwards, into the rafters. There was a shriek, and Chris fell from the rafters, bounced off of the force field being created by the Physical Mirrors, and fell into the crowd. There was a brief scuffle as the prom attendees tried to move away from her, as she was drenched in pig's blood.

Billy Nolan lay on the rafters, dazed from getting hit upside the head by the bucket, which fell upwards in a similar fashion.

Carrie was stunned. What was she doing here? She was banned from the prom, wasn't she?

And what was she doing, all covered in blood?

She looked at Tommy, hoping to find some answers. Unfortunately, he was as confused as she was.

As Chris staggered to her feet, and began to scream obscenities at the assembled company, Oswald opened the walkie-talkie to all channels. "Mickey, Donald, Goofy, now!"

Suddenly, three spotlights switched on, and several people flinched back from the unexpected glare. They then focused on the enraged Chris. Oswald put away the walkie talkie, and stepped forward into the spotlight. "Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention? It falls to me to explain all that has transpired here!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Chris shrieked.

"I'm Oswald Lapin, a student of Ewen High, just like you. However! I have also been employed by the faculty to make sure that nothing goes wrong tonight, of all nights! And what you have done is utterly inexcusable!"

Then, in front of the entire class, he proceeded to grab the bucket in the rafters with Telekinesis, and hold it up before everyone. Carrie gasped. He can use telekinesis? she thought. I thought that I was the only one. That's what Mom always told me...

Tommy looked at Carrie worriedly. "You alright?" he asked. Carrie realized that she was still on stage, and nodded quickly. There would be time to explain later.

Chris looked at Oswald with terror written all over her face. "How?" she asked plaintively. "How are you-"

"Lifting this bucket with my mind?" Oswald replied. "It's actually not as uncommon as you'd might think. But we're not here to discuss me. We're here to discuss you. Now, why were you up in the rafters with a bucket of pig blood?"

"I... I..."

"Answer the question, miss."

Chris suddenly glared, and whirled on Carrie. "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" she screamed hysterically. "I SHOULD BE ON THAT STAGE! I'M THE POPULAR ONE! NOT YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK! A FREAK!" Carrie reeled as if she had been hit. Tears filled her eyes. "No... no, that's not true..." she whispered. Several of the students surrounding Chris and Oswald began to mutter among themselves.

Seeing that the situation was starting to deteriorate, Oswald then proceeded to telekinetically lift Chris like a rag doll. "Alright, miss. You want to do this the hard way, it seems. Very well. Let's see if a trip to the police station loosens your tongue."

He then marched out of the gymnasium, dragging Chris along like a balloon. He would have to trust in Mickey, Donald and Goofy to wrap up any loose ends.

After dropping Chris off at the police station, explaining what she had done, and presenting the bucket as evidence, Oswald made his way back to the school. He met up with Minnie, who was picking leaves out of her hair. "That's the last time I hide in the bushes during a Loop in the seventies,' she groused.

"How are things going in there?" Oswald asked. "I mean, the Physical Mirrors worked according to plan, but I didn't anticipate her falling out of the rafters like that."

"Well, Mickey, Donald and Goofy managed to calm her down, and it seems that the class is siding with her," Minnie replied. She sighed. "It's an improvement over the baseline, at least."

"Yeah, well, you take what you can get, with the Loops."

"But now, we have something even worse to deal with."

"And what's that?"

Minnie looked at Oswald, and he could see the fear written on her face. "How are we going to deal with her mother?" she asked.

For once, Oswald couldn't think of anything to say.

1.2 (Crossoverpairinglover): [Disney] / [Carrie - non-Looping]

The five Disney loopers had gathered around in a circle to debate the great question of what to do about Carrie's Mother, as Oswald was drawing a blank.

It wasn't like they were Logan or Anakin, they didn't like using murder as the answer to your problems.

Albeit this was a case even Batman might struggle a bit on, considering how... tolling dealing with her was.

"Well, we could just turn her into a newt," Donald started.

"...Donald, that would be an insult to Newts everywhere and when" Mickey pointed out

"Plus, that woman would probably get eaten by someone's dog, and poison it. Let's try not to mentally scar anyone" Oswald recalled a story he had heard once about Sakura Haruno, Dolores Umbridge and Fang the Boarhound that worried him.

Donald sighed at the fact he would not be practicing his transfiguration today.

"Well, I have a vial of concentrated liquid atheism we can inject into her and see if that does anything" Goofy offered up as the other loopers (bar Mickey) just looked at him in confusion, Mickey just flinched.

"Liquid ath... that doesn't make any sense. Atheism is a viewpoint on religion, not a sports drink or a chemical!" Oswald stated in confusion as Mickey spoke up.

"Goofy got that bottle from a variant loop I don't really like to think about that much." Mickey sounded like remembering that loop was giving him a migraine. "And I would like to point out, for the sake of normal Christians, that Carrie's mother is clearly insane and not a true Christian. Atheism would not cure her insanity, in fact it probably cause her to become the atheist version of a fundamentalist Christian, which is just as bad. So, no liquid Atheism."

"What about liquid Mormon..."

"No."

"Liquid Islam?"

"No."

"Liquid Zoroastrianism?"

"...I have no idea what that is, but no." Mickey shook his head as he mentally reminded himself to get Goofy to dispose of those vials later.

"Well, I did once create a copy of Koh the Face Stealer's powers with some variant Master Weapon tech during a variant loop where he was Koh the Voice Stealer..." Minnie offered up as Oswald turned to Mickey if he had any suggestions to add, but he still seemed to have a headache from Goofy's liquid religion idea.

"Very well. Seems like the best option, well maybe bar Child Services and a lot of evidence like that time we saved a 5 year old Harry Potter..." Oswald stopped talking as he realized what a simple idea it was, and how morally unquestionable it was.

"Okay, Minnie and Oswald, convince Carrie to come with you two to the police station to file a report, Donald, Goofy and I will get some evidence from Carrie's home to prove it is a unsafe environment for her in the meantime too."

"How long will that take?" Minnie frowned at the thought of how long she would have to keep a scared, stressed and Jean Gray level teenage girl from freaking out in a very stressful situation."

"...Five minutes tops," Mickey figured.

1.3 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Bioshock - no natives Awake]

OSWALD IN BIOSHOCK

Oswald Awoke to find himself crawling out of the ocean towards a lighthouse. "Huh. That's new," he mused, as he wrung out his ears while climbing up the steps. As he pushed the door open, he felt a twinge as the Loop Memories came in. The images called forth were weirdly faded and scratched, like a section of an aged film reel.

Fake memories.

"This better be just plain amnesia, and not some hokey conspiracy thing involving this lighthouse," Oswald grumbled, as he summarily deleted the fake memories. He must remember to thank Raz for the crash course in Psychonaut training. Sure, having a Persona was nice, but psychic powers were simply invaluable.

Suddenly, he lurched, and fell to his knees, as his head begin to swim. Psychic command, very powerful, and deeply established in the unAwake mindscape. It consisted of three words, which would subvert his conscious mind whenever he even noticed them.

WOULD YOU KINDLY?

(And Oswald thought he detected another command, buried under the first, something more subtle, yet insidious...)

Oswald sat down on the steps leading into the depths of the lighthouse, and furrowed his brain in concentration. Deleting mental commands is a much trickier task than wiping false memories, and it takes a lot of mental effort. It would be several hundred Loops before he could do it as easily as Raz, barring any Loops that enhance or introduce new psionic abilities.

"Ngh... I kinda wish Minnie was here," Oswald grunted. "A Break Enchantment spell would be swell right about now."

He then cried out as his brain snapped a little, like a back snaps back into alignment. He suddenly felt much more alert, and in control of himself.

As a brief test, he wrote, "Would you kindly hit yourself in the face with a pie?" on a handy piece of paper, then wiped his memories of writing the command.

He then looked at the written command he had gotten from somewhere, and smiled when he felt no compulsion to pie himself.

"Okay, that's that taken care of," Oswald murmured. "Now, let's go see what's at the bottom of this lighthouse..."

He pulled out his remote, and began to descend into the depth of the lighthouse, the lights flicking on as he went. In the distance, he could see a gleam of bronze.

There, in the bottom of the lighthouse, was a bathysphere.

WELCOME TO RAPTURE

Oswald clambered into the bathysphere, and took a look around. Rather Spartan décor, aside from the lever. He gave it a yank, then looked around sharply as the door shut, and the bathysphere began to descend. "Well, no turning back now," he mused. Perhaps he could spend some time fiddling with the Hopper Beetleworx chassis he picked up last Loop.

As the bathysphere descended further into the ocean, a projector screen activated within the bathysphere. Oswald watched Andrew Ryan give his spiel about the conditions of the surface world with some interest while fiddling with the chassis.

Suddenly, at the halfway mark, the projector slide shut off, and Oswald got his first look at Rapture. "Wow..." he breathed. "It's like home, but underwater. Cool!"

He couldn't wait to get out of the bathysphere. If the city looked that good on the outside, imagine what it must be like inside!

-As it turned out, it was a hellhole inside.

Not five minutes had passed and Oswald already saw an innocent man get gutted by some maniac with two sickles, before he could even react.While Oswald was staring at the corpse with bald shock, the maniac suddenly turned towards the bathysphere. "Is it someone new?" he rasped. he then jumped onto the bathysphere and began cutting his way in.

"Nuts!" Oswald yelled, as he jabbed his remote towards where a sickle had punched through the outer shell, and delivered a 500-volt shock. There was a scream, the smell of sizzling flesh, and the sickle disappeared from the hole. Oswald briefly heard a body fall to the floor, and then staggered footsteps away from the bathysphere.

Just then, he heard a radio switch on, and Atlas's voice rang out. "Would you kindly pick up the radio?"

Oswald's ears pricked up. "Would you kindly..." he repeated.

The plot had thickened. Oswald smiled slowly. "This does sound interesting."He grabbed the radio, and stepped out of the bathysphere.

FINDING THE SECURITY-BOT

As Oswald slowly advanced through the Atrium, remote in one hand and the other hand cloaked in psionic energy, he heard the juddering sound of an automated door repeatedly opening and closing. He cautiously approached the sound, fully prepared to punch the bejeezus out of anything that so much as looked at him funny.

It turned out to be a deactivated Security Bot trapped in an automatic door. Oswald felt something very much like pity, and knelt down next to it. "Poor little guy. Here, let me fix you up," he cooed.

When the doors opened again, he quickly yanked it out from between the door, hustled over behind some cover, and got to work. "Ooh, this is quite nice," he enthused. "Not at all shabby, for something that appears to be made from scavenged supplies..."

Luckily, the Security Bot was only minimally damaged, and Oswald had it repaired in minutes. "Well, let's start 'er up," he muttered.

He connected one final set of wires, and closed up the casing. With a shudder and a whirring of propellor blades, the Security Bot activated, and began to float next to Oswald, its light giving off a cheerful green glow.

Oswald suddenly had a brainwave. He had seen what one functioning Security Bot could do against a group of Splicers. What if he activated more, and got them to work for him?

Oswald grinned, and began to make his long-term plans. Atlas seemed like a stand-up guy, but if he tried any tricks, then an army of Security Bots would be nice to have.

"Okay," Oswald mused, as he walked further into the Atrium, the Security Bot floating by his side. "If what Atlas' little demonstration showed is accurate, then those security cameras summon Security Bots. Now, if I hacked one, made it portable, installed a wireless function, and flashed Splicers with it, would that work? This merits further research..."

MEETING DR. STEINMAN

Oswald slowly approached the door, carrying a coffin lid like a shield with Telekinesis, and with a few Security Bots following close behind. He heard the sound of muffled sobbing coming from the other side. He cautiously opened the door and tiptoed in, holding the coffin lid in front of him.

Peeking out from behind the lid, he saw Dr. Steinman weeping over a comatose patient. Oswald felt ill. Splicing had not done either of them any favors, and the patient was looking much the worse for wear.

"What can I do with this one, Aphrodite?" Steinman wailed. "She - won't - stay - still!" He accentuated each word with a stab in the patient's midsection, blood spattering the front of his surgical gown. The patient gurgled horribly, then was still.

"I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong!" he continued, before lighting up three corpses pinned to the walls. Oswald noted the surgical cuts on the corpses with horrified fascination. "That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too symmetrical! And now..."

He suddenly paused, then looked directly at Oswald. "What's this, Goddess? An intruder?! He's ugly! Ugly! Ugly! UGLYYYYYYYY!"

"Yipe!"

Oswald ducked down, and a torrent of bullets punched through the glass window overlooking the operating theater, before burying themselves in the stout pine of the coffin lid. "Look at him! HIDEOUS!" Steinman howled.

"You're no prize yourself, you quack!" Oswald shot back. He then flung the coffin lid at Steinman as hard as he could. The lid struck Steinman square in the chest, flinging him back against the wall with a meaty THUMP, and the sick CRACK of shattered ribs. Steinman lurched back to his feet, blood dripping from behind his surgical mask, and he flung himself towards his machine gun with an animal scream. He then screamed even louder, as one of the Security Bots put a few rounds into his gun arm, causing it to hang loosely at his side.

Oswald ran into the depths of the operating theater, and considered his next move. He thought briefly of the Psycho-Portal stashed in his subspace pocket. If he could get inside his head, maybe bring him to his senses...

Then Oswald remembered the photographs of the mutilated women he had seen throughout the Medical Pavilion, and what he had just seen him do to his own patient. No, he was too far gone.

He listened for the sound of footsteps splashing through the water to his left, then he jammed his remote into the water, and pressed the button. Steinman screamed shrilly, as several thousand volts coursed through his body, then keeled over dead.

With brisk efficiency, Oswald searched his corpse, and came up with the key to override the security lockdown. He ignored Atlas's congratulations, and went over to the patient on the table. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."

He pulled out a sheet from his subspace pocket, and draped it over her. There was no time to give her a proper funeral, so that would have to do.

SAVING DR. LANGFORD

Oswald walked through the corridor leading to Dr. Julie Langford's lab and a swarm of Security Bots, courtesy of a sane Peach Wilkins, followed. He knew that he should be hurrying a little, what with all of the plants in Arcadia dying, and Rapture slowly running out of oxygen, but he was still making up his mind about Atlas's credibility.

Oh sure, he sounded anguished enough when the submarine exploded, but that didn't change the incontrovertible fact that there was no sign of a woman or a child in the wreckage. Even the most violent explosion would have left behind some psychic residue if a living thing was caught in the blast, especially if it was a human. Plus, there would have been at least a few bone fragments if the blast wasn't nuclear.

There was none of that in the sub wreckage.

Atlas was lying to him, this was certain. The question now was: how deep did the lies go?

"I'll find out the truth later," Oswald mused, "but for that to happen, I'd better stop us all from asphyxiating down here."

He picked up his pace, and jogged towards the office doors.

When inside, he saw two things.

First, he saw Dr. Langford working in her laboratory. Presumably making the Lazarus Vector that was needed to fix this sorry mess.

Second, he saw the reinforced glass that nearly every damn Splicer in this city can crack just by breathing hard its general direction. Not exactly something you want to see in a lab known to work with toxic chemicals.

Suddenly, Ryan's voice cut in on the intercom. "Ju-lie... we had a business deal, remember?" he said in a sing-song voice.

Julie looked up in surprise. "Mr. Ryan..." she began.

"Ryan Corp. maintains EXCLUSIVE rights to the creation, use and exploitation of the Lazarus Vector." Ryan continued. There was a hiss, and pea-soup green gas began to fill the chamber.

After he saw the green clouds out in Rolling Hills, and the plants that withered upon contact with them, Oswald knew poison when he saw it.

"Oh no you don't! Not again!" Oswald roared. "PERSONA!"

A blue card manifested in front of him, and he shattered it with a single Psi-Punch. "BUFUDYNE!"

If Dr. Langford could see outside the window, she would have seen the silhouette of a cross between a spaceman, a doctor and a rabbit point a laser gun at the window, and zap it with a blue laser beam that covered it entirely in frost.

Oswald then sprang forward, and punched the glass with a Psi-empowered haymaker. Weakened by the bitter cold of Bufudyne, the wire-enforced glass shattered as easily as spun sugar. Oswald bounded into the fog, grabbed Dr. Langford (who was currently barely conscious) and bounded out again. He then dragged her out of the room, which was rapidly filling with poison gas. He could hear Ryan droning on about how ownership was the cornerstone of civilization, or some such malarkey. It didn't matter. Right now, Dr. Langford's welfare was more important.

Dr. Langford jerked awake in the middle of the reception hall, and coughed violently. She was not dead in the middle of her lab. This was an improvement. The fact that she was able to breathe clearly was an even greater improvement.

She tried to get up, but found that she was still too weak to even sit up.

"Phew," an unfamiliar voice sighed, with what sounded like relief. "You're awake. That's good. That poison really did a number on you,"

She turned her head to the left, and saw a cartoon rabbit dressed like a man grinning at her. Okay, I've gone crazy, she noted calmly. Lovely.

"Assuming this isn't some dying hallucination, who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Oswald!" the impossible rabbit said. "I'm the guy you got to help you with the Lazarus Factor, remember?"

She did remember, and wondered why she hadn't noticed that she was conversing with a rabbit. Perhaps the stress of maintaining Arcadia was getting to her.

"Ah yes, now I remember." she replied. "I was nearly finished with the Vector, with that sample of Rosa Gallaca you brought back. Thank you for that, by the way."

She coughed a little. She still felt a bit weak, but would probably recover in the hour. Whatever that rabbit had given her while she was out, it was working wonders. "Unfortunately, Ryan's recent attack changes things. If I try to complete the mixture myself, he'll be sure to try to kill me again, only more thoroughly. You've done so much, but I'm afraid I'll need to ask another favor."

"Sure. Anything to put the wind up the old goat. What d'you need?"

"In my lab, the list of components needed to finish the Lazarus Vector is in a safe behind a painting of some flowers. The combination is 9-4-5-7. You'll also need to take the key inside the safe. It's for the Farmer's Market; you'll need to go there for most of the ingredients. Bring them to me, and I'll mix up the Vector."

Oswald saluted. "Can do!"

Dr. Langford nodded. "Thank you."

After securing the perimeter with some Security Bots and a turret, Oswald ran off to the lab, while Dr. Langford gave her attention to some pep bars that he left behind. "What a strange person," she mused, while she chewed on a pep bar. "He must have known that the Farmer's Market is full of Splicers, and he didn't even hesitate. Not even to get some sort of payment for saving me." She smiled softly. "How very unusual. Who are you, Mr. Oswald?"

OSWALD CRITIQUES SOME ART

Fort Frolic burned.

Oswald bounded through the flames, dodging the Spider Splicers that seemed to be hiding in every corner. Behind him, he could hear Sander Cohen's enraged screams. "He sounds real upset about something," Oswald mused. "Maybe I should have told him that setting fire to his Quadtych wasn't such a hot idea."

Of course, it wasn't like he was trying to burn his masterpiece. He had just been trying to hit Oswald with one of his fireballs, and missed. Not his fault that he couldn't aim worth a darn.

A support beam groaned, and buckled, before collapsing on a nearby walkway. Oswald thanked his lucky stars that he thought to rescue the Little Sisters before he carried out Cohen's dirty work. And that he took the time to pick Cohen's pocket for his apartment key. A place where he could crash and be relatively unbothered would be a godsend; this Loop was nuts!

A Spider Splicer reared up before him, and dramatically lunged for his throat with a sickle. Oswald hit him in the throat with a Psi-Punch, then swiftly kicked him in the balls. The Splicer crumpled up like a dead bug, and Oswald continued on to the bathysphere without breaking his stride.

"It's coming to something," he mused, "when a fellow can't even enjoy a night at the theater without some loony artist going crackers at the sound of criticism."

He sealed the bathysphere, just in time for a fireball to glance harmlessly off of the bronze hatch.

"He needed it, though," Oswald continued, as he pulled the lever to start up the bathysphere. "That Quadtych really was tacky. I mean, rabbit masks? How cliche can you get?"

MEETING MR. RYAN

Andrew Ryan, the man who ruled Rapture, was playing golf in his office, when a slightly singed and rather irritated Oswald burst into the foyer. Ryan looked up calmly at the intrusion. "So," he began, "The assassin has overcome my final line of defense, and now he plans to murder me. In the end what separates a man from a slave? Money? Power? No, a man chooses, and a slave obeys!"

Oswald eyed him suspiciously. If he knew his villains, then Ryan was about to go into the Big Rant.

"You think you have memories," Ryan continued, while lining up his next shot. "A farm. A family. An airplane. A crash. And then this place. Was there really a family? Did that airplane crash, or, was it hijacked? Forced down, forced down by something less than a man, something bred to sleepwalk through life unless activated by a simple phrase, spoken by their kindly master. Come in."

Oswald stepped into the room.

"Stop, would you kindly."

Oswald rolled his eyes, and kept walking towards him. Ryan looked at him.

"I said stop, would you kin-"

Oswald cut him off. "Look, Mac, I've already erased the mental trigger, and I know about the fake memories, so can we please move on?"

Ryan was utterly flabbergasted. This wasn't how the scenario he had written in his mind had played out. "What...?"

Oswald casually lifted him up off the ground with Telekinesis. "I have just fought my way through your hellhole of a city, saved the souls of over a dozen little girls, brought a man back from the brink of insanity with the power of my mind alone, and survived this place with only one Plasmid. Thanks to your petty little ego, all of that is going to be rendered moot, and all of my friends are going to die if I don't get that self-destruct key from you. Suffice to say, I do not have time for the whole devastating revelation bit."

"You'll have to kill me to get it! And that's what Atlas wants, isn't it?! What he ordered you to do?! A man chooses-"

"And a slaves obeys! Yes! I get it!" Oswald snapped. "Look; I'm almost entirely sure that Atlas is playing me for a sap, but I need to follow his instructions, or we all sleep with the fishes. So hold still!"

Despite Ryan's protestations and flailing about, Oswald then proceeded to frisk him thoroughly and efficiently. He pulled the self-destruct key out of his coat pocket, then abruptly dropped the Telekinesis. Ryan landed in an undignified heap on the floor, while Oswald walked towards the self-destruct mechanism. Behind him, he could hear Ryan yelling "Get back here! A slave obeys! OBEY!"

Oswald just kept on walking. He wasn't a man, or a slave. He was a rabbit, and rabbits care not for philosophical debate. Even when it involves mind control.

1.4 (MrEgret): [Disney]

"I'm home!" Mickey hollered, as he opened the door to his girlfriend's house, carrying a bag of groceries in one arm.

"Hey, Mickey!" Minnie called back. "Just leave the groceries in the kitchen, okay?"

"Got it!"

As Mickey walked into the foyer, and through one of the many winding hallways of Minnie's home, he passed a door that was emitting a bright light from the crack. He shrugged, and walked on.

A few seconds later, he quickly backpedaled, and looked at the door. He didn't remember anyone using this door. He thought it was a closet. So why was there light coming out from the crack? Curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the door with his free hand.

Inside, there was a room that was absolutely filled with television screens, each showing a view of a random street corner in Mouseton. A few even showed the insides of people's houses. Situated in the middle of the room, there was a wooden desk, a swivel chair, and a corkboard. Mickey's eyes widened as he saw the numerous photos simply plastered all over it, connected by various bits of string.

The photos were all of him and Minnie.

Mickey's eye twitched. This was creepy on levels he couldn't even begin to describe.

He heard a gasp, and spun around, holding the groceries out in front of him like a shield.

Minnie was standing in the doorway, with a downcast expression on her face, and a simply enormous ax in her hand.

"Oh, Mickey... I'm so sorry..." she whispered."You shouldn't have seen all of this."

"Minnie? W-what's going on?" Mickey stammered. "And what's with the ax?"

Minnie rubbed her ax arm with her other hand, while refusing to look at him. "It's just... I get so worried about you. When you go off on your adventures, and leave me behind, I just worry about all the trouble you're in. I figured that with this..."

She waved her hand at the room full of crazy.

"I would be able to make Mouseton safe for you. My love."

Mickey was flatly shocked. Minnie, his Minnie, the sweet young girl who liked cotton candy and long walks on the boardwalk, had built all of this? For him? "B-b-but why?"

Minnie smiled softly. For some reason, it sent a chill down Mickey's spine. "I don't want anything to take you away from me, Mickey. You're my life, the reason for my existence. I'll do anything for you."

She leaned in far closer than Mickey was comfortable with, and gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He tensed up as he felt her whisper into his ear. "Anything."

And that was when both Mickey and Minnie Awoke.

The two mice blinked at each other in confusion, before Minnie released Mickey from her embrace. The two just stared at each other for a few moments, their cheeks slowly reddening as the Loop memories trickled in. The bag of groceries, dropped during the confusion, laid on its side on the floor, forgotten.

Mickey finally broke the somewhat awkward silence. "I won't tell the others about this Loop if you won't."

"Deal."

Minnie looked thoughtfully at the ax. "I do like the ax, though..."

1.5 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Dead Rising]

In the city of Los Perdidos, all hell had broken loose. The dead had risen from their grave. There was mass panic in the streets, as the living were set upon by the zombie tide. For many, the stress was too much, and they killed themselves. Others went completely insane, and were even bigger threats to the remaining survivors. For many people, it seemed that all hope was lost.

Goofy was not one of those people.

"YAHOO!"

Several zombies were sent flying, upside down and on fire, as Goofy surfed through the streets on what appeared to be the lovechild of a snowboard, a jet engine and a missile. He was wearing a flaming boxing glove in one hand, and wielding a shield that was simply crackling with energy in the other. For reasons unknown, he was dressed like a reject from Saturday Night Fever, complete with white disco jacket and gold chains. The only thing that didn't quite fit was the presence of a pair of skiing goggles on Goofy's face. His one concession to anything approaching safety.

Nick Ramos had grabbed the most powerful motorbike that he could find, and he could barely keep up with Goofy's conveyance.

Not even after he strapped on booster rockets from a Star Wars Loop.

"HEY, RAMOS!" Goofy shouted, as he unintentionally clotheslined a line of zombies while turning around to look at him. "YOU SAID WE NEED TO GET TO INGLETON TO RESCUE ANNIE, RIGHT?"

"YEAH!" Nick shouted back. God-DAMN, was that engine loud, he thought.

"GOT IT!"

Goofy tossed a rope out to Nick, and he caught a hold of it. "HANG ON!" Goofy shouted.

"FOR WHAT?"

"FOR THE TURBO FUNCTION!"

"TURBO FUNCTIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

A group of Survivors who had been saved by Ramos and Goofy a while before looked up in awe, as they saw their saviors soaring through the sky. One of them shouted something, but it was unclear exactly which one.

"YAAAAAAAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HOOOEY!"

1.6 (MrEgret): [Disney]

Mickey sighed. It was one of those Loops. The kind where you head for the nearest bar the Loop after, to complain about and drink impossibly alcoholic beverages to try to forget.

It had started out relatively normal. He was a private eye this Loop, who worked out of his house in Mouseton. Minnie was Awake, and they were considering expanding their operations to include Duckburg. The plan was to find out if Donald and Goofy were Awake, and then go and try to get in Scrooge's good graces, to get an in with the Duckburg elite. Perhaps they could help him retrieve his Number One Dime; that was always a good way to earn his favor.

That plan was scrapped approximately five days in, when Mickey was coming home with some groceries. On the way over, he had been threatened by three evil twins swearing revenge for that one time in Budapest, except that was when he was under hypnosis, so it didn't count. On the way back he had been blackmailed by at least one agent from every single branch of the United States government, along with a few that Mickey knew for a fact didn't exist in Hub Loops. Luckily, the resulting infighting essentially nullified their respective schemes. Over the course of the entire trip, he had fended off no less than twelve different women claiming to be past lovers.

Half of them were pregnant with his children, except not really, that had been his evil twin.

Every.

Single.

TIME.

The organ music was also getting really irritating.

Mickey wiped his brow, and futilely tried to wipe some lipstick off his collar, as he finally saw his house ahead. "What a day," he sighed. "More plot twists than you could shake a stick at, and not a lick of sense among them."

As he walked down the path to the front door, he saw a man missing his pants (probably Unawake Minnie's secret lover, or some such hogwash) get thrown through the window. He winced. That was going to cost a lot to repair.

When he opened the front door, a horde of men, similarly beaten and sans pants, barreled through the doorway. Some were shouting about "you cheating heart" or how "you'll pay for this."

As he stepped into the living room, he saw a similarly tired Minnie sweeping a bunch of unconscious men into a pile, and out the door. There was a large baseball bat lying on the couch, next to a preposterously large pile of jewelry, lost deeds to this mansion or that, and death threats from everyone from the President to the milkman.

Mickey and Minnie exchanged looks of pure exasperation. "I hate soap opera Loops," they said in unison.

Suddenly Clarabelle Cow burst through the front door, all ready to announce that she and Horace Horsecollar were going to elope, but when she saw the downright murderous looks the mice were giving her, she grinned sheepishly, and quietly backed out of the house.

1.7 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Star Wars]

"Now, young Skywalker, you will-"

At that moment, the doors to Palpatine's throne room were blown off of their hinges. They flew the length of the room, and slammed into the glass wall behind Anakin (currently Vader), Palpatine and Luke, breaking the Sith Lord's concentration. The three Force-users stood agape as blue and green motes flew around the room like a swarm of angry bees, and a rasping voice called out, "PALPATIIIIINE..."

"Who dares enter my inner sanctum uninvited?!" raged Palpatine.

"It is I, Michael, Voice of Diz-Ni. You broke the rules, Palpatine."

Anakin had to fight down an attack of the giggles. Seeing the old tyrant turn even paler than normal at the sound of Mickey Mouse with a voice distorter was something he was going to remember for the rest of the Loops.

Luke (being unAwake) was simply confused by the ensuing events, but he saw an opportunity to escape when he saw it. While Palpatine's attention was directed elsewhere, he limped behind a pillar, and started to plan a counterattack.

His intervention was not needed.

"No! No! I never betrayed you, Master! Never!" gibbered Palpatine, as Mickey slowly walked towards him, Keyblade at the ready, and the Guardians of the Wasteland formed complex patterns behind him.

"You knew the rules when you made your deal with the Principality of Diz-Ni, Palpatine. Thou shall not strike down those who are marked by destiny."

Mickey suddenly looked at the pillar that Luke was hiding behind, and the young Jedi could have sworn that he winked at him.

"The young Skywalker?!" Palpatine cried out hysterically. "But he's not even a proper Jedi! Barely an apprentice-"

"SILENCE!" thundered Mickey. "You violated your contract with Us. Now you must pay the price."

There was a flash of movement, and Palpatine's body was stabbed through the heart, and pinned to his throne by the Keyblade. Immediately after, his body exploded in a burst of Dark energy, and his ghost began to coalesce. Almost immediately, a swarm of Tints formed around it. There was a flash of light, and Palpatine's ghost was writing and screaming within a crystal ball roughly the size of Luke's head.

Anakin suddenly felt a new respect for the mouse. "Nicely done. Now what're you going to do with him?"

Mickey pulled off the voice distorter over his mouth. "Eh, probably throw him into a black hole or something. So, I hear this place is gonna blow in a few minutes?"

"Yeah. Let me explain things to Luke over here, then let's get the hell out of here."

"Right. I'll go fire up the Gummi Ship."

1.8 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [DC Comics]

Mickey wandered down the ancient subway path, while considering his options. He was currently twelve years old, homeless, and barely scraping together a living as a newsboy. A tough corner for most people, but then, Loopers weren't most people.

He had Awoken in this subway, which did not appear on any map, and he was interested in seeing where it led. Especially when he saw the statues depicting the Seven Deadly Sins. His plot-senses were tingling, and he could almost taste the upcoming adventure hook.

Mickey realized that he had been spending way too much time in Loops based off of RPGs.

Eventually, he came into a large cavern, which was lit up by a brazier, the flames casting flickering shadows on the walls. In the back, there was a huge throne apparently hewn out of stone. Mickey stopped when he felt the absolutely astonishing amounts of magic radiating from the elderly man sitting on the throne. "Gosh," Mickey gasped. "He's even stronger than Yen Sid! I didn't think that was possible..."

The old man looked up and Mickey froze in place. He only relaxed when the man smiled, and beckoned him closer. "Come in, young mouse," he intoned. "I have been expecting you."

Mickey slowly edged into the cave. "Y-you have?"

"Of course. I can see the mists of Time hanging about you like a veil. You are not from this time, are you, young mouse?"

"You could say that," Mickey replied. So he's Loop-Aware, he thought to himself. This may be bad.

"Do not be alarmed," the old man-no, the wizard-continued. "I am the wizard Shazam. Much like yourself, I have spent my entire life fighting injustice and cruelty, but I feel my time drawing near. I need to choose a successor, and I believe that you could fulfill that role."

Mickey sighed inwardly. Business as usual, it seemed. "All right. What do I have to do?"

"Merely say my name, and you will be granted the abilities of six of the mightiest beings the world has ever known:

The Wisdom of Solomon!

The Strength of Hercules!

The Stamina of Atlas!

The Power of Zeus!

The Courage of Achilles!

And The Speed of Mercury!

You will become Earth's mightiest mortal: Captain Marvel!"

Mickey thought about it for a while. It had been a while since he was a superhero, and the ability to become a flying brick would come in useful...

He finally nodded. "Alright. I'll do it."

"Then say my name, noble mouse!"

Mickey braced himself, then shouted at the top of his lungs: "SHAZAM!"

Suddenly lightning flashed inside the cave, and Mickey felt a tremendous surge of energy course through his body. When the surge subsided, he had grown up into his adult self, while bedecked in a set of red tights with a golden lightning bolt on his chest, and a white cape around his neck. He could feel power coursing through his entire body, and he saw sparks playing along his fingertips. All of a sudden, he felt like anything was possible.

He smiled. He could get used to this.

1.9 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 122.1.

Oswald trudged along the surface of the moon, dragging along a mortar and pestle. "I swear," he grumbled, "if I ever get my hands on the guy that started the whole rabbit on the moon thing, I am gonna-"

"You're gonna what?"

"I don't know! Maybe cover his house in moon pies, or somethin-wait."

Oswald turned around, and then just stared.

There, standing in front of him was a navy blue horse... thing with wings and a horn. Her mane, Oswald noted, was apparently made of stars, and she bore a symbol of the moon on her flank.

Also, she was radiating magic on a level that Oswald had never seen before, excluding deities.

The alicorn and the rabbit just stared at each other for a few seconds. "Please tell me you know what Looping means." Oswald finally stammered.

The alicorn smiled. "Indeed. My name is Princess Luna."

Oswald nearly collapsed in relief. "Oh, thank the stars. I'm Oswald. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit."

Luna tilted her head confusedly. "I don't believe I have heard of you before."

"Not many people have. I've only just started Looping recently. Just after the Crash."

Luna nodded. "Yes, this makes sense. We have some Loopers from that time period. Anyway, welcome to Equestria. Or at least, Equestria's moon."

Oswald grinned. "Aw, neato! Mickey told me about this place after I started Looping!"

Then the Loop memories hit. Luna waited politely while Oswald got them sorted out. His grin turned into a pensive look. "...Okay, that's odd. Luna?"

"Yes?"

"Why the blazes are we married?"

Luna looked at Oswald in confusion, before her Loop memories came in. "Ah. it seems that the Magic Kingdom is an actual country in Equestria this Loop, and you and Mickey got hitched to me and Tia as a political move."

"Mickey's here? Then why didn't he respond to my ping?"

"He is probably not Awake this Loop. Celestia isn't Awake either, or we would not be sitting up here."

The two Loopers thought for a moment, then slowly started to grin.

"Oswald?" Luna asked. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Pranking time?"

"Pranking time."

"What."

Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's personal student, and Spike, her number-one assistant and King Mickey's personal apprentice simply stared at the chaos that was unfolding on the stage.

Celestia (who still wasn't Awake) was staring at the strange duo standing on the stage with an expression of shock. Mickey, (who was Awake) looked like he was desperately trying to fight off an attack of the giggles.

Luna, dressed in a white tank top with a large red N on the front and a matching white skirt posed on one side of the stage while Oswald, in a ridiculous purple wig, white shirt (also with the red N) and pants posed on the other side.

In the center, a strange bird-like robot with a tape recorder taped to it and a gold coin glued to the head scanned the crowd.

"Prepare for trouble!" Luna began.

"And make it double!" Oswald continued.

"To protect Equestria from devastation!"

"To unite all ponies within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Luna!"

"Oz!"

"Team Nightmare, undisputed rulers of the night!"

"Surrender now, or prepare for a fright!"

The tape recorder clicked on, and played, "Beep-boop! That's right!"

As Mickey finally burst out laughing, and Celestia couldn't make up her mind whether to attack the members of Team Nightmare or check on her husband, Twilight sighed, and brought a hoof to her face. At least this Loop would be interesting.

1.10 (Crossoverpairinglover): [Disney] / [Star Wars] / [Marvel] / [Aladdin] / [The Nightmare Before Christmas] / [Frozen] / [Percy Jackson]

Mickey mused curiously in front of a rather elaborate and complicated interconnected wall of ideas and concepts, labeled 'Feige', though it seemed to have lost several pieces recently.

Apparently they were in another loop where they were the living incarnations of Disney Company, and thus in charge of all future output of movie and television production.

It was both amazingly powerful, and incredibly fragile. One wrong move, and they could turn Frozen into the next Black Cauldron.

Of course, now they had to contend with the great responsibility that was owning the Hub Verse Kingdom Hearts, Marvel and Lucas universes.

It was...rarely easy to get right. One wrong move, or a lack of a move, could destroy them. Mickey knew that for a mortifying fact.

There was a reason you never let Goofy make casting calls for Robert Downey Junior's replacement actor. In hindsight Zac Effron was a horrible Iron Man.

On the other hand, that time Goofy was allowed to write the plot for Kingdom Hearts 3 (which Mickey had not experienced yet, and apparently neither had Sora), because it somehow managed to be less mind-screwy than previous installments.

But then there was that time Mickey had hired Hideaki Anno, Grant Morrison and Pendleton Ward to co-write it...it was popular but no one could really understand the ending.

But the MCU was different... it was, for one thing, 100% created on a generally sober mind (Unlike some Kingdom Hearts games in the Hub verse), and it had to appeal to more than just the video game crowd.

It had a plot that had been well planned out for at least a decade in advance, or at least it seemed it did.

Sadly, Mickey couldn't find most of Feige's notes, and he seemed to be channeling Erskine in not telling anyone, or writing anything down, about his plans when assassins from the nefarious 'Networking Illuminati Against Really Good Shows and Ideas' (N.I.A.R.G.I) organization had killed him and the other writers, caused so much damage to the Netflix team alone they had to call up Netflix and cancel, and torched most of their stuff.

Said group was also the reason Joss Whedon and Greg Weisman had issues with keeping their shows going, now further made so by the fact Whedon was no longer alive, and had crippled the anime industry in 2007 and further so in 2008, though it had recovered recently.

So, it would seem that they would have to go and rebuild the MCU from the ground up, with only the details of everything through Ant-Man left to base their plans off of.

"Garsh, those N.I.A.R.G.I people really made a ruckus out of things. They even ruined your show, Mr. Vader sir."

"No, that was a side effect of Disney obtaining the rights to Lucasfilm. Considering what I've heard about its former network, it probably was better they change pace and give their rights to a company that actually has a decent marketing team, and does not seem to think that quality action programming should be replaced by chibi freaks of nature."

The 'High Exalted Council of Disney Properties', as Darth Vader had decided to call it, were the entirety of the 'Disney' loopers who were awake this loop, consisting of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Groot, Captain America, Elsa, Genie, Jack Skeleton, and Percy Jackson, whose publisher was technically owned by Disney so one could argue he should actually be there, sitting around a round table.

"Okay, so all the notes on my third film were lost?" Cap decided to get the meeting back on track before Vader could get on a rant about bad television programs.

"Your film, Doctor Strange, the second Guardians film, the future plans, it's all gone," Mickey affirmed.

"I am Groot," Groot spoke in a depressed tone at the loss.

"What about Mr. Abrams?" Luke inquired for the sake of his own relaunch.

"He's fine, currently hiding in a bolt hole with Weisman and Filoni with all their notes intact," Mickey told the relieved hero "That's why we're not trying to determine if it's too late to get Luceno or Zahn to write episode 7."

"Okay then, what exactly do we have to work with on the big and mighty front, assuming we don't spoil any details," the Genie inquired in a completely spoiler preventing tone of voice as Mickey snapped his finger, causing dozens of holographic projections to form up on the table.

"Let's see, we have T'Challa, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Matt Murdock, Stephen Strange, Jennifer Walters, Nico Minoru..."

"What about Logan?" Jack inquired as Mickey shook his head.

"Fox has his rights."

"Peter?" Elsa asked as Cap shook his head

"Sony."

"Namor?"

"I am Groot."

"What Groot said Percy," Mickey commented. "Basically, Namor's a legal minefield, Man-Thing is complicated, and Spider-Man and the X-Men and related peoples are owned by different companies. That of course makes using characters connected to both tricky, as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch prove, and I haven't even asked about Jessica Drew and Brian Braddock."

"Maybe it's for the best, I mean who would go and see a 'Captain Britain' film anyway?" Donald asked out loud.

"I am Groot."

"...He has a point there Donald," Goofy sided with the Guardian of the Galaxy on a Captain Britain film. "Though I think it would be easier if we did clear up those minefields. After all, if you really think about it, Fox could raise a stink about a lot of things. I mean, that second Ant fellow was a member of the Fantastic Four for a long time, Black Panther first appeared in the Fantastic Four book and often still does, he even was a member after that Civil War-" (Cap shivered at that one. He honestly had no idea why he was so... dogmatic then), Carol was closely associated with the X-Men for a long time because of that Rogue thing and that time she was a member of those Starjammers with Scott's father, Thanos has a pretty strong arguing case with being part of the Silver Surfer's rogues gallery. If Fox knows that we've suffered a major creative blow, they might decide to steal some characters from us while we're down."

Mickey flinched at the sort of legal minefield Goofy had brought up, or the Social Darwinist viewpoint of legal attack. If Fox really wanted to, could they manage to be that obnoxious?

For some reason, the word 'Gifted' fluttered into his mind.

"You know what, before we even get started on recovery, let's just cover that base first," Mickey decided. "Anakin, I want to you get Fox to give up all their rights, at least to the Fantastic Four and all things that are not earthbound. Getting the X-Men back as well would be ideal as well."

Darth Vader nodded. "And what methods do you suppose?"

"...Whatever you deem necessary that leaves them alive, whole and sane," Mickey told the occasional evil lord of the galaxy. "Luke, Sony is far more agreeable, so you deal with them."

It was best to save the scarier, more imposing Skywalker for the stubborn ones.

"You two can take care of that after the meeting finishes, but first... anyone have ideas for the movies?"

"...Haven't read the script for Age of Ultron or Ant Man, but if it's possible, can we try and avoid a Civil War storyline unless we have a really good reasonable storyline?" Cap offered up immediately.

"Can we have some of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D characters appear in a movie?" Percy suggested.

"Do we actually need the Inhumans if the X-Men are being brought back?" Elsa questioned.

"I am Groot."

"Tree, we are not doing a Onslaught movie. Fans would almost rather want me appearing in your sequel," Vader snarked as the room quickly descended into loud arguments.

"Maybe this is why Walt had people problems," Mickey muttered to himself. It would explain the sudden images of 'Spider Oswald' and 'X Oswald' that just appeared in his head after all.

1.11 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]

Somewhere in Cairo, Mickey awoke to find himself in a luxurious hotel room. "Huh," he said, as he looked around. "Not bad. I've certainly Awoken in worse places."

He went over to the mirror to see how he looked this time around. Surprisingly, he had red eyes, and a small pair of fangs. He was also dressed in a set of fancy clothes, similar to his usual attire during Victorian loops. "Vampire, huh? Okay, not too bad. I can work with thi-"

Then the Loop memories came in.

Mickey reeled from the shock of the memories, and sat down heavily on the bed. The only thing he could think of was "I knew learning that time-stopping spell back in the Kingdom Hearts universe was going to bite me in the butt." Still, he thought that replacing freaking DIO, of all people, was going a bit too far. Even with Yggdrasil's rather peculiar sense of humor.

"Right, screw this Loop," he announced. "SHAZAM!"

There was a flash of lightning, the crashing of thunder, and Mickey stood proudly in his Captain Marvel uniform. Mickey felt the inside of his mouth with his tongue, and was pleased to note a lack of fangs. "That's one problem solved. Now, let's see who else is Awake..."

"YOU'RE NOT DIO-SAMA!"

"Oh, right; magic lightning does tend to stand out, doesn't it?"

Mickey leaped out of the way, as an orb of pure nothingness promptly put a hole in the bed where he had been sitting mere seconds before. As Mickey turned to face an enraged Vanilla Ice, he wondered if any other Disney Loopers were running into trouble.

"No, seriously-ACK! I'm on your side! WOAH! Hey! Easy with those vines, buster! YEEK!"

Minnie ducked and weaved around the flying metal objects that her new Stand kept attracting, while trying to explain to an Unawake Joseph Joestar and Avdol that no, she wasn't a servant of DIO, no matter what she might have said before, and would you please put those Stands away before somebody gets hurt?

Of course, given that she had announced that she would have taken Joseph for a lover if she wasn't already attracted to DIO literally minutes before she Awoke, this was proving to be substantially harder than usual.

"Oh, Mickey, where are you?" she fretted, before ducking, and narrowly avoiding getting clobbered by a flying trash can. While she might keep the Stand for later use, she wanted to know how to turn it off first.

1.12 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Soul Eater]

Goofy squinted his eyes, as he surveyed the courtyard of Magic Cinder Castle. There was nothing to be seen, except for the countless number of souls glowing faintly as they awaited consumption.

He didn't entirely know who those gangsters were, but they had tried to kill Angela, the Witch child he was looking over, so of course he had to step in. He had intended to simply talk them into giving up and going away, but they opened fire before he could even so much as say "Hello." If he didn't have the Ogre Shield equipped at the time, he would have been reduced to Swiss cheese. The bullets ricocheted off of his shield, and took out several unfortunate gangsters.

Goofy then tried to chase the remaining ones off with a simple Goofy Turbo attack, but he had severely underestimated the power that his current body had.

Long story short, there were now several Goofy-shaped holes in the surrounding walls, and the gangsters' souls seemed to be clustered around them.

"Gawrsh," he mused, "Maybe holing up in this here castle isn't the brightest idea. I wonder if there's anywhere I could take Angela to get some help lookin' after her..."

Suddenly, his heightened senses picked up someone sneaking up on him. He spun around, tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Well, looks like we found our Replacement, Tsubaki," a rather brash male voice said.

"Really?" a female voice (Tsubaki, Goofy wagered) asked? "He looks rather...odd."

"Yeah well, that's Replacement Loopers for you," the brash voice replied.

Goofy looked up from his position on the ground, and saw a blue-haired ninja boy holding a chain scythe kneeling down, and closely scrutinizing Goofy's face. Oddly, he didn't see any girls around to match up with the Tsubaki voice. "Uh, can I help you?" he asked.

"Let's cut the crap. You're Looping, right?" the ninja boy interrupted.

"Geez, Black*Star; these 'Loops' did nothing to mellow you out did they?" the chain scythe chided.

Goofy didn't even react to the talking weapon. He had seen weirder things working as a waiter at the House of Mouse. "A-hyuck! I sure am! Name's Goofy. You're Black*Star, right?"

Black Star grinned and struck an impressive pose, holding a rather embarrassed Tsubaki aloft like a flag. "That's right! The Master of Assassination, Black*Star, has entered the scene!"

Tsubaki shifted back into human form and bowed contritely. "Please forgive my Meister. He's like this a lot. My name's Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. I'm his Demon Weapon partner."

Goofy shook them both by the hand after getting up from the ground. "Nice to meet you both! So, what brings the two of you out here?"

"Well, we're students at Shibusen, usually, and we would normally need to collect the souls of evil humans and Witches. If a Demon Weapon consumes ninety-nine human souls and a Witch soul, they become Death Scythes, and gain the honor of being wielded by Shingami-sama."

Goofy looked at the two native Loopers warily. "You're not here to kill Angela, are you? I'll have to stop you, if you are." Tsubaki swallowed a gasp as she felt the intense pressure of Goofy's Soul Wavelength manifesting, like a shroud falling over the entire area. This Wavelength's stronger than Mifune's ever was! she realized. If he can do this without any concentration at all...

"Hey, hey, hey, hey hey! Cool your jets, dog-man!" Black*Star responded. "We didn't kill her in the baseline, and we're not gonna kill her now!"

Goofy relaxed slightly. Usually, guys who were as obnoxious as Black*Star currently was were also horrible liars. "Well, alright then. So, why'd you come here?"

Tsubaki relaxed as she felt the Soul Wavelength's presence dissipate. "We're here to offer you and Angela a deal."

Goofy leaned on a nearby wall. "Okay. What's the deal?"

"If you come to Shibusen with us, and help teach our fellow students, we'll make certain that Angela is raised safely, and protect her from whatever groups are hunting for her soul.'

Goofy thought about it for a minute. The students seemed to be on the level, and, well, they were Loopers. They knew this place better than he did.

"Aw, what the heck. You got yourself a deal!"

"RETREAT! RETREEEEEEEEEEAT!"

Arachnophobia members scattered among the trees, abandoning their base en masse. Some of the unluckier ones were instead launched through the walls of the base themselves, face-planting on the ground and promptly disintegrating, leaving behind softly glowing souls.

Mosquito looked on in shock, barely noticing the bleeding stump where his arm used to be. "How did this happen...?" he kept mumbling.

They had expected an attack from Shibusen, and they had naturally prepared for both a full frontal assault and for an attempt at infiltration and sabotage. Baba Yaga's defenses should have been able to repel any attack from the students of that hateful academy. They had hordes of soldiers to die for them, golems supplied by Giriko and his ilk to hold the line, the Artifact Soldiers waiting in the wings, and even himself, the major-domo to Arachne herself.

None of that did any good at all.

And now, the students were inside the base, and destroying every single demon tool they could find. Every single triumph that Arachnophobia had gained over several decades of toil, intrigue and murder, were now going up in flames.

A ninja that burned his way through our soldiers with green fire, that only seemed to grow in tandem with his will to succeed...a dog-man whose soul was akin to a mighty fortress, impenetrable to any madness attack that tried to breach it...how did Shibusen find such monstrous warriors to fight for them?! he wondered.

Mosquito roused himself from his stupor, and dragged himself towards the yawning black hole that used to be the front gates. He needed to get some blood in him, repair his wounds. He'll just use one of the scientists; that was what they were for, after all.

Then, he had to find Arachne. To warn her. To protect her.

She had invited the wrath of gods upon Arachnophobia's head.

1.13 (Bardic_Knowledge): [Kingdom Hearts]

Sora was trying what he'd heard was called a "challenge run," a concept introduced to him by Link of the Hyrule Loops. He was going to go through his whole Loop limiting himself, and in this case, he was limiting himself to a single spell. At first, he thought he'd limit himself to Curaga, but that pretty much negated the challenge altogether. So he picked a double challenge, just for the heck of it: Not only would he be restricted to a single spell, he wasn't going to directly attack anyone.

Which meant that the single spell would have to be Stopga, Aeroga, Reflega, or Magnega.

"Sora!" cried unAwake Donald (Sora was always mildly disappointed to find his friends weren't Awake, even if it was inevitable). "Help!"

Sora dashed in, quickly catching up to the court wizard. "Heal up, Donald, I got this. Reflect!" The hexagonal barrier of the spell appeared around them, causing most of the Heartless's attacks to bounce off. After a few good solid hits, he released the spell, blowing all the Heartless back to darkness.

1.14 (Blazingen1): [Kingdom Hearts]; addition by (wildrook)

"Order! Order! I'd like to call this court to... some kind of order."

Sora said as he banged the gavel on the table they sat behind. It was a weird loop this time, where people had very odd mindscapes. For people with only one presence living within them, they wouldn't be aware that they sat in a chair to control their physical body. But people housing more than one mind, they sat in a large conference room with everyone else they have within. Thus, in the business-type meeting table sat Sora and the people he shared his mindscape.

"Right! Roll call! Alright well I'm here. Roxas?

"Here." Roxas said in a deadpan voice.

"Xion?" he said to a slightly transparent Xion.

"I'm here too even though I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be."

"Sleeping Ventus?"

"zzzzzzzzzz..."

"...and finally, a very restrained Vanitas in a Keyblade-escape-proof chair. Hello there, Vanitas."

The non-looping Vanitas sat next to Roxas in a chair with many locks and chains that not even a single Keyblade could unlock them all. "I don't know who you are or how you got here but once I get out of these restraints I will end you idiots and..."

"Roxas, could you please put Vanitas into a comatose state?"

Without breaking his deadpan face, he lifted his right hand, and with it a large cartoonish mallet, and brought it down on Vanitas's head, knocking him out. A large anime bump inflated where he was hit.

"There now that that's all done, now we can get to more serious business, like-"

"Finding the bastard Xehanort. That body stealer. He borrowed my hand one time and he never even bothered to return it. I had to regenerate it elbow up!"

The gang was surprised to see a man in a black and red bodysuit, also known as Deadpool, the looping anomaly, sitting on the opposite end of the conference table.

"What the... Deadpool?! What are you doing here?!"

"Well, now that you mention it, since Disney's buyout of the Marvel franchise, I've been popping out randomly in different Disney worlds. Hey! Maybe this time you can finally make a Kingdom Hearts/Marvel crossover! It'll be epic!"

"I mean, what are you doing here? This is my mind!'

"Well how am I supposed to know? The author's the one who placed me here. I mean come on, where's the context? Aren't you going to go through some kind of exposition or something to explain what the (Bleep) is going on? See, even my curses are (Bleeping) censored."

"Deadpool; get out of my head!" Sora, Roxas, and Xion stood and Keyblades flashed into their open palms.

"Come on guys, do you really think you can take on me?" Deadpool arrogantly puffed his chest.

As soon as he said that, the walls of the conference room fell open to reveal the entire space behind all three Keybladers were full of Keyblades Sora had gathered throughout the loops. There was seemingly no end to them.

Looking at his uneven odds, "Well then..." Deadpool took the most manliest option... and ran away screaming like a little girl, not before he set a radio he found to a cheesy Benny Hill chase music.

"Get him!" and so the trio chased him around the empty space of the void. The Keyblades floated after them.

After 5 minutes of running, Deadpool suddenly turned around wearing a cop hat, held up a stop sign and blew a big police whistle.

"Bweeeeeeepp!"

This brought a screeching halt to the three.

"Hold up just a minute guys. If what the author guy said earlier about chairs and controls is true, if you're here, then who's controlling the body?"

Blink. Blink.

(Outside Sora's mind)

Both friends watched worriedly as their other friend went silent for one moment, then wildly ran around in circles before finally collapsing onto the sand, snoring.

Unawake Riku just stared and said, "I worry about what goes on in that head of yours, Sora."

(wildrook)

Awake!Kairi, however, just stated, "You and me both, Riku."

1.15 (Blazingen1): [Frozen] / [Big Hero 6]

"Do you want to build a snowman? It doesn't have to be a snowman..." sang a young Anna to the door that hid her sister from her.

"Go away Anna!"

"Okay bye," She finished sadly, as she walked away from her only Sister's room. Lonely Anna was disappointed that she couldn't even see her sister anymore. Mama and Papa were outside busy running the kingdom, and she had lost her only friend. Was Elsa mad at her for something? One could say that Anna was hurting.

She was so dejected that she didn't even notice, that just when she was about to return to her room, she bumped face first into a giant white balloon.

"Whoa!" she yelled as she fell on her rump. She looked up at the object and blinked.

And then blinked some more.

It appeared to be a large rotund Marshmallow man (I don't think they have balloons in her time period) stood in her path. It was large enough to fit the entire corridor, and had two big black eyes connected with a line.

"Hello. I am Baymax," said the Marshmallow man, as he lifted an arm to give a friendly wave. "I was programmed to heal the sick and injured. Are you alright?" he asked as he tilted his head sideways.

Anna couldn't really find the words to respond, for not only did she not understand what was said, but also because her eyes shined with wonder and fascination at the adorable and huggable creature that stood before her. It really was like a marshmallow; looked soft too.

She picked herself up and then poked Baymax in his large belly.

Boing. Boing.

It definitely wasn't a creature of her imagination. Then her eyes lit up with excitement. Finally, there was someone for her to play with. She brushed her skirt; had to act like a princess after all; and then greeted the marshmallow man.

"I'm okay. Ahem. I am Princess Anna. Do you want to build a snowman?"

Meanwhile, Princess Elsa sat in her room contemplating her sad existence. She had harmed her sister by accident, and for that she isolated herself from her to protect her.

It was a lonely existence, but one she would do out of protection. That was what she told herself even though the real reason is that she loved her sister so much that she feared the day she really harmed her, and thus bore the burden of solitude.

It had been a few hours since her sister was at the door. Elsa was glad that her sister had found something to do, but sad that she couldn't be there with Anna. It was a mixed bag of feelings. From her door, she could hear her sister's laughter.

'At least she had found someone to play with. I wonder who it is.'

"Wheeee! Ha ha ha ha!" laughed Anna as she bounced up and down.

Said princess was currently using Baymax as a makeshift trampoline. After a whole day playing with snow with Baymax, she had retreated to the warmth of her castle, in her favorite room, the one with the paintings. Not once did she think about Elsa shutting her out, not anything else. That is, until she heard the horns blow, indicating the return of her parents.

'Yay! Mama and Papa are home!"

Then her thoughts drifted to her new friend she was sitting on.

"Oh no! Mama and Papa are home! I can't let them see you." She was worried that they might scold her for talking with a stranger (technically) and take her new friend away. She had to hide him.

"Come on!" She ran out of the room. A few seconds later she ran back in and pushed the still waddling Baymax out with her.

"I am not fast."

"No kidding!"

Knock, knock, knock knock, knock.

It was Anna's favourite knock on Elsa's door. Mama and Papa were home, so she had to look her best, gloves on and everything. But Anna knocking on her door again, and not running towards their parents, was unexpected.

"Elsa! I really need your help here."

When she didn't answer, Anna's knocks became more frantic.

"Elsa?! I'm really serious here. I really need your help, or else Papa might take him away."

Had Anna taken in a stray again? It wouldn't really be the first time she did. Deciding against it, she opened the door to reveal a large snowman with a rotund belly not unlike their Butler, Kai. He lifted his hand in a friendly wave, and said "Hello. I am Baymax. Who are you?"

(To Anna, it looked more like a marshmallow, but to Elsa, I'm thinking that her connection to snow might make it seem to her that Baymax was more snowmen-like)

"Huh?" was her intelligent answer.

"Elsa!" yelled Anna from the other side of Baymax. She was currently pushing Baymax into Elsa's door frame. He couldn't fit. "Could you help me hide Baymax? I can't let Mama and Papa see him."

"Um what?" she asked as she walked out of her room for what seemed to be the first time this year. This felt like once again like Anna's mischievous schemes back when they were younger and more prone to get into trouble.

"Please. Just this once! Then I promise not to bother you ever again!"

Step, step, step.

Both Anna and Elsa gasped and looked towards the staircase with a deer in the headlights look. They were getting closer.

(Two seconds later)

"Hhhhrrrggg!" They were now both valiantly struggling to squeeze Baymax into Elsa's room. Curse those tiny bodies of theirs.

With a final heave, and a pop sound, Baymax finally squeezed through.

"I'll distract them. You go find a place he can hide in your room," said Anna as she went to intercept her parents.

Elsa went back into her room and slammed the door shut behind her, back against the door. The snowman looked at her, and blinked once more. 'Hello. I am Baymax." He greeted again with a friendly wave. "I was programmed to heal the sick and injured."

'Now what do I do with him?' thought Elsa helplessly.

1.16 (Blazingen1): [Frozen] / [Big Hero 6]

(That Night)

Once the entire Hullabaloo was over, the King and Queen left Elsa's room for the night. Elsa stood grinning at the door as it closed. Once it did, she dropped it with a tired sigh.

Opening the closet, the stuffed Baymax blinked as light flooded his optics. Thank goodness princesses had spacious closets.

"It's okay. You can come out now." Elsa then went back to her desk.

Blinking once again, Baymax stepped forth, maneuvering his balloon-like body until he reached her. It was like he could sense the sadness in the tone.

'What seems to be the trouble?" he asked her.

"Hmm? Oh! It is nothing. I am just doing my homework my tutors assigned me."

Peeking from the corner of her eye, she saw that Baymax still stood beside her. Now that she's looking at him more clearly, it was obvious to her that this was no snowman. While it was white, it had a metal head, much like the helmets soldiers wear. Its body was neither warm nor cold, and is made of a bouncy material.

Feeling a bit awkward that the creature was still staring at her, she took a deep breath, and in a very formal tone, implied, "Yes? Is there something that you require from me?"

"My scanners indicate depression from you. Why are you upset?"

"What?" This stopped Elsa's train of thought immediately. Did this 'Snowman' know what had occurred before?

The robot did a quick scan on her bio.

"Your neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing severe depression. In addition, your human body temperature is at 24º Celsius, which is 12º lower of normal body temperature. Are you ill?" he asked as he reached his hand towards her.

"No NO! I'm fine!" she responded in fear. In her fear, she had accidentally released her icy powers on the robot's hand, encasing it in a thin layer of ice.

"Gasp! Oh no. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Stay away from me! It's for your own good!" she backed away from Baymax, ice spreading from her feet to the floor.

Baymax however, did not move. He instead looked at his slightly frozen appendage, and switched on his heating apparatus within the hands to melt it.

"Conceal don't feel. Conceal don't feel. Conceal don't feel! Conceal... don't ... feel" she kept chanting the mantra over and over. She sat in a fetal position in the corner of the room.

Arms of fluff enclosed her prone form. She opened her eyes to see that it was Baymax who was hugging her.

"It is alright to cry. Crying is a natural response to pain, especially to where my hands cannot reach." he lifted her out of her fetal position and placed her sitting on her bed, and then hugged her tightly. "It will be alright. There. There."

Here was a creature so pure of heart, whose adorableness matched the sincerity of his comfort. Elsa could barely hold it in any longer. She had held her ground in front of her parents, so that they would see her as a good girl, but this 'snowman's' comfort had opened the floodgates, and so she cried softly into his soft hide, her tears forming ice as they dropped to the ground.

Baymax opted to use his heating apparatus once more to give her warmth. Elsa couldn't really complain about it. It was indeed a comforting gesture. They sat like that the whole night.

(The next morning)

Elsa Awoke, in both senses, to see a large inflatable thing sitting next to her bed. Her loop memories told her that this was Baymax.

That was the odd part as it was obvious to her that this root is way far back in time to even be developed.

The knock on the door indicated that it was Anna.

"Hey Elsa? Feeling loopy today?"

"Morning Anna. I just Woke up."

The door slammed open. "Oh! Good! Is the marshmallow man still in the room?"

"It's not a marshmallow. It's a robot, an inflatable one that is." She gestured to the robot. His eyes were still closed.

"Is he still sleeping? Yoohoo! Wakey wakey!... He's not waking up."

"I think the correct term is that he's in sleep mode. Let me see." She grabbed him with her snowy powers to form a hand and placed him in a standing position. There was a red light blinking dimly from its centre.

"Low batteries. Well, that's an easy fix. All we have to do is to charge ... him ... up." Anna finished lamely. They were in a period where electricity had yet to be developed yet. "Oh dear. Come on Elsa, you're the nerd in the family, is there anything we can do?"

Elsa responded to that quip with a glare and a pout. Baymax must have kept her warm through the night, thus using up all his power.

Looking through things out of her pockets, she checked for any electrical appliance or outlet. They often loop into fantasy or old-age like worlds, so nuclear era loop items were rarer.

She took out a solar panel and some wires, and got to work. Anna, no matter how well intentioned, was not meant for this kind of delicate work.

(Ding)

The beady black eyes opened. Baymax was once again active.

Looking over the two girls who were celebrating on their success, he lifted his arms in a polite gesture and said, "Good morning Princess Anna, Princess Elsa. Did you have a good rest? My scanners indicate that both of you are no longer in pain."

Thanks to lots of queenly training, it was Elsa who first responded with the improvised explanation, "We are fine, thank you. While you were asleep, we were able to reconcile and make peace with one another. Thank you for your help."

"I am designed to care. You are most welcome."

They sat in the room full of content. But then came the bombshell, which was triggered by Elsa.

"Now what? We can't keep hiding him in my room Anna, nor yours since it is more open. We can't pass him off as a balloon or a toy as balloons weren't invented yet. What to do." She put her hands in a thinking position.

Anna sat down too and folded her arms together, squeezed her eyes closed and thought about it.

Baymax looked bemusedly at the two sisters, not that he knew what was going on.

It was Anna who thought about it first. "Well, we could just roll with it."

"Hmm?"

"Can we keep him Papa?" Anna said with her cutesiest face. Elsa was there right beside her, making the same face. The King could only scratch his head in confusion. From what his little girls told him, this 'magical' creature just waltzed right into the castle, fixed the rift between the two sisters, healed Anna's 'condition' and had a solution to Elsa's magical problem. If it wasn't for the fact that it had mended the two sister's relationship, and fixed the problem within Anna, he would have called the guards by now. The queen, who stood beside him, was equally confused.

"Hello. I am Baymax, a personal healthcare companion. I am programmed to heal the sick and the injured."

"...Right. So you are a doctor?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes I am."

"I heard you had a solution to my eldest daughter's problem?" asked the King.

"Please. She can't be isolated all the time, no one deserves that. Is there anything we can do?" questioned the distressed Queen.

"Indeed there is. My scanners show that there is an anomalous energy within Elsa that allows her to produce ice and snow from her body, thus cooling her body temperature to lower than standard temperatures. However, scientifically, should this build up not be released in any form of manner, then the subject will experience greater difficulty in containing it until the build-up of the energy is greater than she what can contain."

Baymax then lit up his screen on his belly, then he pictured and said, "For visual reference, she is attempting to hold back a leaking dam full of holes with just two hands."

Shutting off his screen, he concluded, "Diagnosis: she needs to release all the pent up energy from time to time. She needs to 'Let it Go'."

Elsa face palmed at the obvious pun, then turned to the cheeky looking Anna. "You told him to say that didn't you?"

"Yep."

1.17 (ScyBlade): [Devil May Cry] / [Kingdom Hearts]

Virgil Woke Up. He was grateful that he was in a kneeling position when it happened. So many Wake Up while in motion, which tended to cause problems.

"Alright," he thought to himself, "where am I?"

"Hmm, I already have a Sword of Sparda?" Then the memories hit. "Oh, HECK NO! Wait, did just go 'heck' in my own head?"

He was a suit of armor. The very same armor he wore against Master Xehanort. That man had stolen his body, and only strength of will allowed Virgil to continue fighting. By possessing his own armor.

"Right, kick the thief out of my body, get my body back. Preferably in that order, less tedious that way." He began patting down his body for anything that might help him with his self-appointed task.

He pulled out the wayfinder. He could feel various pulls on his being from it. Apparently, he could use it to guide it to others that would help in his cause. "But, how to get off this... Oh, ho. That can be used as wings." Putting action to words, the Lingering Spirit, Nero Angelo, departed.

Riku looked at the animate suit of armor. It had dropped out of the sky and had used martial art skills, and what he recognized as the Beowulf Devil Arm, to defeat a batch of Heartless that Sora had clearly intended to use as a warm-up. Probably the source of the other Ping he had felt earlier.

"Nelo Angelo, I'm surprised to meet you here. Feeling a bit Loopy? I know I am." said the white haired Riku.

"Oh, you know this... being? Do tell." That had come a green faced, horned witch.

"Not so much know him, Maleficent, but know of him. He'll be useful. My name's Riku."

Maleficent grinned, "Tell me, oh Black Angel, do you crave power? I can offer you a great power. All you have to do, is come with us."

In Virgil's next Loop:

Dante was having the time of his life. Virgil could now manifest a katana from pure darkness. And let's not forget that his Sparda was now a Keyblade. And one must mention the Dream Eaters. Oh, yes, this loop was definitely what he needed to break the monotony of the Infinite Loops.

1.18 (Evilhumour): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Keys to the Kingdom]

It was the same pleasant day on Destiny Island when Riku Awoke. Immediately, he went through his memories and sent out pings to see who was awake.

He frowned as he got no response from anyone, which wasn't supposed to be pos-

He froze as his memories started to come in about someone replacing Sora this Loop. A sickly kid named Arthur Penhaligon was his old childhood friend this time around along with Kairi.

Riku figured that this Arthur person must be the Anchor replacing Sora but he had not heard of him before.

Turning his head, he saw this Arthur person walking towards him with confusion on his face.

Great, Riku thought to himself, I've got to give the Welcome to Loop speech.

"Hey," he called out to the boy, wondering how easy to break this to him. "Is everything ok Arthur?"

"Ye-yeah." He seemed very nervous, eying him with some hesitation and looking around the beach front.

"You seemed to be some sort of daze. Are you totally Awake Arthur?"

The boy stared at him, eyes widening a bit, taking a step back.

"I'm not sure...Riku." He took his time answering his question, continuously moving backwards in a defense stance.

Riku managed to keep himself reacting; something was off. He definitely was aware of the Loops with how he reacted to his comment but Arthur didn't seem to understand what was going on either.

Riku let out a sigh, leaning on the shack's door. "Don't worry Arthur, we got endless amount of time to figure things out. It seems like time is repeating at-"

"Are you aware of the time restarts too?"

That threw Riku off for a moment but he then smiled at the kid. "So you know about the Loops then?"

"Loops?"

That really threw older boy off. "Come inside, we have a lot to talk about Arthur."

Riku had just finished explaining the basic information of the Loops, Fused, Variants and the whole matter of the Yggdrasil-computer near system crash to the new Looper. Arthur had taken it in with a worried look on his face, occasionally reaching for his inhaler for some air. Riku remembered that Arthur's mom had let the kids go to this island on the scientific basis that the clear air could help clear his lungs and she was dedicated in finding a proper way to cure his asthma after dealing with the other diseases on the mainland.

"Is something the matter Arthur?" Riku asked, eyebrow rising as he watched the kid starting to stand up from the sand.

"I'm worried that I will have an asthma attack that will kill me and then Monday will show up." Arthur frowned.

"Monday?" There was other parts that got his attention like dying but Monday seemed to be a safer question for now.

Arthur gave him a sad smile, something he had only seen in older Loopers. He ran his fingers through his hair, taking his time and trying to take a deep breath before using his inhaler again. "I have to deal with so much that I am not sure how to really beg-" His eyes perked upwards. "You mentioned carrying objects through Loops through subspace pockets?"

Riku nodded his head, which Arthur smiled at him.

"Do you have any books on you?" Arthur asked as he bent down as he picked up some wood and made a miniature self of sorts.

"Yes, why-"

"Can you take them out and place them on here please?" Arthur asked, smiling at him with a twinkle in his eye that Riku recognized as mischievousness from his many adventures. Riku reached into his subspace pocket and placed three large books on the self and then stepping back.

Arthur smiled and chuckled, "It worked," as he bent down to pick up a small green notebook that wasn't there a second ago.

"What the?" Riku stared at the notebook which was titled The Compleat Atlas of the House and Immediate Environs before it the words squirmed around to read now The Compleat Atlas of the House, Immediate Environs and soon to be included the Endless Loops of Yggdrasil.

Arthur laughed, shaking his head. "This is the Atlas, and as you can read, it has a lot of knowledge and it can help me really explain what is going on to you."

Arthur placed the book down on the floor, with Riku squatting next to him. As Arthur started to open the book, the boy gave him a look. "You might want to step back. The Atlas gets big when it opens."

Riku blinked again, moving behind Arthur as the green notebook expanded widely taking up a great deal of space. Leaning over Arthur's shoulder, he saw an invisible hand start to write some text in a language he couldn't understand before changing to English.

'Greetings Keyblade Master Riku, member of the Sith Order, the Jedi Order, the Grey Jedi Order, etc.'

Riku's eyes went wide as the book listed all of his titles, with Arthur having a small grin on his face. Once the book was done writing his titles it then wiped the page clean with new text filling.

'I am the Compleat Atlas of the House, Immediate Environs, and soon to be all of the Endless Loops,'

"It's been adding that one since we figured out time is repeating for all the Secondary Realms, but I'm glad it's shorter now than before." Arthur said, causing Riku to turn his head to look at him. "Atlas, could please explain to Riku, simply, what our wor-loop is like?"

'The House, or as Lord Arthur once proclaimed the blasted Keys to the Kingdom world, is where the former Creator, the Architect, stepped from the void of pure Nothing, breaking off the Old One for reason known to her alone, and began to her eons long project known as the Secondary Realms from her post of what would become Incomparable Gardens, with the Elysium being the true center of existence. She then created the House and it's denizen to observe the Secondary Realms as the unexpected result of eons long project, mortals, were so fascinating. However, she soon grew weary and wished to return to Nothing.

Unfortunately, due to the fact she had bonded the Old One in chains before the creation of the universe, she was unable to fully return to the Nothing as nothing in the universe could break them.

She gave control of the House to seven superior denizens along with her seven Keys to be her Trustees would do what she could no longer do. She then had her Will created and given to her seven Trustees who were to cause the destruction of all creation so she may return to the Void. The Trustees; Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Duchess Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday, and Lord Sunday, disobeyed her will on the premise that they did not wish to cease to exist and thus broke her Will up into seven parts and hid them. However, each of the seven parts of the Will used their connection to their Key to influence the Trustee to act in ways that would cause the eventual destruction of the House and the Secondary Realms.

Mister Monday become slothful to the point where none of the records of mortals could be processed along with other facilities operating from the Lower House failing due to the excessive backlog of forms and paperwork.

Grim Tuesday was consumed by his greed for treasure and wealth, to which he stole from the Secondary Realms and used deals with the other Trustees to make various amounts of objects which required raw Nothing to the point where he turned his sustainable spring of Nothing into vast Pit that has ravaged the Far Reaches to the point where a breach into the Void of Nothing is the point where the House usually begins to collapse and dissolve back into Nothing.

Duchess Wednesday was the first Trustee to notice the changes being inflicted upon them when she was compelled to eat, something that Denizens do not require but like to mimic from the Secondary Realms. She had used her Key to restrain her appetite but was unable to attend to her domain, the Border Sea. She realized that this was the work of the Will and wished to fulfill it by finding a Mortal to become Rightful Heir so she would be free of her growing appetite. She had went to Superior Saturday for support against the other Trustees but was betrayed when Saturday, along with the other Trustees save for Monday, used their Keys against her. They stole her memory, and greatly restricted her power over her Key to the point where she could no longer could control her hunger and began to change into a hundred twenty six mile long Leviathan. She was unable to stop the Border Sea from expanding where it should not have been with many breaches into the Void of Nothing due her using her remaining powers over her Key to keep her size in control.

Sir Thursday was driven to great anger due the constant scheming of the Fourth Part of the Will-'

Arthur huffed, startling Riku. "Of all the parts of the Will I had to deal with, it's the Fourth that causes the most issues." he spoke in an acid tone, clenching his fist. Riku said nothing, letting Arthur explain that bit of history to him later. Turning his eyes back to the book, he saw that the invisible writer hadn't stopped writing.

'-nd causing the death of many of his soldiers. The only way for Lord Arthur retrieve the Fourth Key and free the Fourth Part of the Will was to fully anger Thursday to point he lost all control over himself. At this point, Lord Arthur had no choice but to strip him of his rank and power, thus removing any possible usage against those actively plotting the downfall of the House, namely Saturday, or the besieging army of the third son of the Architect, the Piper, using both the children he brought into the House and the New Nothings, which he created to be like mortals, to invade the Great Maze on the grounds he was the Rightful Heir to the House.

Lady Friday used her Key to steal the memories of mortals to 'experience' their lives, rendering them to be husks of their former selves, taking only the good memories from her victims. She seemingly abandoned the Middle House and her Key for whoever claimed it after the fall of Thursday, either the Piper, Lord Arthur or Superior Saturday but it was trap meant to kill whoever reached it first by opening a portal straight to the Void of Nothing. Her practice of experiencing was usually messy due to her lust of mortal experiences, and thus was in the hands of the denizens of the Middle House, leading to records of mortals lives being delayed for significant amount of time, the weather of the Lower Self being broken for several centuries and other crimes due to her desire to feel a mortal's experiences.

Superior Saturday was destroyed by the fact she believed that Incomparable Gardens should belong to her as she was the first denizen to be created and was determined to find a way to claim the domain for her own, creating a tower to reach the Garden's underbelly so she may launch an invasion. However, the Incomparable Gardens rested upon the Drasil Trees, which grew faster than she could build and the only way to slow them down was the destruction of the lower parts of the House. Her envy of what she believed she was deserved caused the death of many and is the overall foe for Lord Arthur when the Loops begin, although we now know that Saturday, along with the other Morrow Days, was changed by the Six Part to act like this in order to cause the destruction of the House per the Will of the Architect.

Lord Sunday, the first son of the Architect and the Old One, was given the Incomparable Gardens and the Seven Key. This was the highest point of the House and the most powerful of the Keys, the power paramount even in the other domains of the House, let him to proud to the point of grand arrogance and uncaring of what happened in the other parts of the House. His pride stopped him from informing Lord Arthur the truth of the matter of the Will when it could have changed the turn of the events to a far more desirable outcome for everyone involved.

Once Lord Arthur claims the Seventh Key, something forces him to use the Keys to fulfill the Will of the Architect and cause Nothing to destroy all of creation. After Lord Arthur, now the New Architect, recreates the universe and splits off an aspect of himself, not unlike the Old One, the Loop ends approximately ten minutes later.

Lord Arthur has to claim each Key and domain from the Trustee as the Trustees would target his family to get him to hand over his Keys and the only way to protect his family and new friends were to defeat them all so he could return to his normal life. This comes at the cost as the Keys and the Will begin to change him into a denizen, which began to infect his mind to the point where Lord Arthur had trouble keeping a destructive anger from building as well as start to affect his memory of his mortal family. Lord Arthur wishes to remain mortal as denizens have a negative impact when entering the Secondary Realms but he is constantly forced and manipulated by the collective parts Will's, known as Dame Primus, actions and inactions, among other events to use the Keys as much as possible. This overall plan and desire to stay mortal has become more difficult as the Loops progress, to which the possibility that some of the Trustees are becoming Loop Aware deserves questioning if the Administrator of Lord Arthur's Loop ever makes contact.'

"And that's pretty much my story Riku." Arthur sighed, leaning back against the shack's wall. "What do you think?"

1.1: The poor girl deserves a break.

1.2: Don't even get him started on the mythology pills.

1.3: Looping: Like Splicing, without the drawbacks.

1.4: This is why it's important for people in a relationship to be open about these things.

1.5: And no, neither of them are going to say who yelled.

1.6: Next time, on "All My Headaches..."

1.7: To be fair, that clause was in the fine print of the contract.

1.8: The Birth of a Hero.

1.9: Next, they're going to try to steal Angel Bunny for their boss.

1.10: This transcript was later found in the hands of a N.I.A.R.G.I spy, when the recent Avengers sequel starring Ultron gave Marvel and Disney the pull it needed to launch an attack on their regional headquarters.

1.11: Later on down the line, Giorno Giovanna would be quite surprised to Wake Up with mouse ears, and even more surprised to learn that he wasn't Italian by blood this time.

1.12: It wasn't until Maka Albarn and Soul Eater Evans killed Arachne for the umpteenth time that Goofy even realized that he was covered in imaginary spiders.

1.13: For his next challenge run, he would use only one spell, and he would channel it through a stick. Not a wand, a stick.

1.14: A confederacy of dunces. (Note: Deadpool is not actually Looping here.)

1.15: The defrosting machine arrives at Arendelle.

1.16: The defrosting procedure begins.

1.17: Kingdom Hearts: now more absolutely crazy.

1.18: A simple explanation of a very complex problem. (Expanded to include both 1.1 and 1.2 - the original compilation just had 1.2 in it for some reason.)

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by MrEgret on 2015-05-28 as chapter 2 of the original compilation. Reposted with edits for formatting and spelling by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-02, alongside the first chapter. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

Author's note 2: Some of the Big Hero 6 snips contain major spoilers for the end of the film. You have been warned.

2.1 (wildrook): [Disney] / [Goof Troop]

"Dad, what in the Wide World of Sports are you doing?" Max asked him.

"You Awake, Max?" Goofy asked him.

"Define Awake," Max replied, "because the last thing I remember is you Graduating College after winning the X-Games. Again."

"That kind, and I've been wondering when you've Awakened..."

Max then groaned. "I really don't look forward to enduring Puberty multiple times, Dad."

"Comes with the territory."

"Doesn't answer my question why you've turned the Garage into a Laboratory. People are going to notice that you're giving off the Doctor Franken-Goof vibe."

Only difference between the two is that Max is WARY of his Dad's health.

"If this affects my future friendship with PJ and Bobby," Max muttered, "I might as well see how far this goes before putting the kibosh on this."

Oh, if you only knew, Max. If you only knew.

"Don't worry, Maxie," Goofy replied. "I know what I'm doing. Just have to put this line together and..."

(Five seconds later...)

"AAH-HOO-HOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIE!" Goofy yelled, launching himself into Pete's house by accident.

And thus, was a beginning of a bizarre friendship...with Max along for the ride.

"Now I wonder if Huey, Dewey, and Louie are having better luck in Duckburg," Max said. "I had a feeling that one trip to Franken-Goof's castle would come back to haunt me..."

2.2 (DrTempo): [Kingdom Hearts] / [My Little Pony]; also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 85.13 continued.

Entry 1:

My name is... Houka... or is it Sunset Shimmer?...

I remember being born here on Destiny Islands... but also remember being born in a world called Equestria. I remember both talking to a friend named Twilight Sparkle who told me time was looping endlessly, and trying to kill her.

Both seem like a dream now...Anyhow, today, we're building a raft to see the outside world... I can't wait.

Entry 2:

Ever since that day the islands were consumed by darkness, I've been through a lot. First, I found myself in another world; something I'd always wanted to see since I was young...I then met a woman named Maleficent. She seemed arrogant... like I was in those dreams.

But she said she'd help give me strength to help my best girl friend, Kairi... OK, I had a crush on Sora... But I knew he loved Kairi.

Maybe out of jealousy, or wanting to do something to help, I let Maleficent teach me a few things. I didn't like her. With a name like THAT, come on, who WOULD trust her? But I had no choice at the time. When I saw Sora again, he had a weapon called a "Keyblade." I was curious about it, and when I had it in my hand, it felt like a part of me.

Maleficent tried to tell me that Sora'd abandoned me, but I knew better. Friends never do that. Still, her gift to control the Heartless-beings of pure darkness-was tempting, but I knew I had to be strong on my own merits. I did in, the end, take the gift, but only to use as a last resort in case I was surrounded.

Then "Ansem", a massively powerful Heartless, possessed me after Sora reclaimed the Keyblade after I somehow claimed it, despite my efforts at not becoming his new body...I still feel used.

After "Ansem" was stopped, as I journeyed through a place called Castle Oblivion to face my darkness by going through my memories, I found myself in a world similar to my dreams of Equestria and Canterlot High. I don't understand why I experienced what I'm sure were dreams at the time, but I went on my journey, nevertheless.

I faced my darkness and accepted it as a part of me, and faced "Ansem" again, and defeated him. Now I await for Sora to awaken as his memories are put back together again...

Entry 3:

Yesterday Mickey, a friend I'd made asked me what was wrong, when he saw something was on my mind. I told him about the dreams I had, and the odd world I'd seen in Castle Oblivion.

His response shocked me.

"So, you're Looping too, huh?"

It was then I learned what the "dreams" I'd had were; memories. They were the real thing: I WAS Sunset Shimmer. That was who I truly was. It explained why my "Dark Mode", the form I'd taken when I harnessed my darkness in my heart to its full power, looked the way it did. It was the form I'd taken when I'd put on the crown that fateful night. Apparently, I'd just begun to experience these Loops, and me having what's called a "Fused Loop" so early on threw my memories off so badly, I couldn't tell the difference in my memories.

And it also explained the odd looks Sora'd given me at first. He was "Looping" as well; in fact he was the "Anchor" for this particular part of the multiverse. Mickey was an Anchor for the "Disney" Loops in general, which were separate from the Kingdom Hearts Loops (though they did share many similar inhabitants).

I was gonna get Sora back for not saying anything when I saw him again. But for now, I need to make sure that meeting does happen.

Entry 4:

I've had to go through a lot, even having to look like "Ansem" when I had to stop Roxas, who had been created when Sora had to free Kairi's heart, so Sora could wake up from his sleep. But when we did meet again, I did give Sora a good talking to. He apologized for it, saying he wasn't sure where I was from and smiled at me, as he always did... Curse that smile of his.

After that, the whole "Mark Of Mastery Exam" business occurred, to be sure we'd be ready for Xehanort, the one responsible for all that had occurred, when he returned... Sora's gotten used to the darkness by now, so he didn't end up suffering what Mickey told me he did in the baseline. Even I hadn't gone that far back when I was still a jerk. I'd never literally shatter someone's heart like that.

The Xehadorks' faces when Sora leapt up from his seat during our encounter with the True Organization XIII, the group made of Xehanort's other selves, was PRICELESS. They did not expect their little vessel to have gotten past what they'd done to him.

After that, Sora said the Loop usually ended here, but told me that we would meet again someday, and as I held my Keyblade, Shimmering Sunset, in my hand, I smiled. Sora is a true friend, indeed...

Entry 5:

I Awoke in a bed I didn't recognize. Shouldn't I be home? I frowned, remembering what I'd been through with Sora and Mickey, and what my Keyblade felt like to give me hope...

And then a flash of light, and my Keyblade appeared. How? Then I remembered Mickey saying some things carried over between Loops... Guess this had, as well...

When I see you again, Twilight, I'll definitely have some questions for you. But for now, I have to find out where I am.

Someday, I'll be home again, and then, Twilight... I hope you forgive this fool.

2.3 (Blazingen1): [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles] / [Phineas and Ferb] / [Pokémon] / [Big Hero 6]

Donny, the smart one on the ninja turtles' team, watched confused as Mikey hugged an inflatable white robot. Said robot was currently wearing a cyan mask. He kinda looks like the Stay Puft marshmallow man.

"He's like an inflatable ninja! Can we keep him?"

"I am Baymax. My Ninja skills are sweet," said the vinyl robot, Baymax.

Donny could only scratch his head. The robot seemed unusual, and it was very high tech. Vinyl skin, carbon fibre endoskeleton, advanced scanning system tied to highly advanced fibre optics, to say the least. Oh and a very large range of medical techniques and procedures.

"Always wait one hour before swimming," as he had said it.

"I'm pretty sure master Splinter won't mind having him around. What I want to know is... where did you find him? Or rather, where did he come from?"

"MOM! MOM! MOM! LOOK IN THE BACKYARD! THE BOYS HAVE BUILT SOME KIND OF MARSHMALLOW MAN!" yelled a currently UnAwake Candace Flynn. Finally this was her chance to show mom.

Outside, the sudden rain was pouring heavily, considering it hasn't yet rained in Danville for months, it's coming down with gusto. The boys and their friends were working on something earlier but the rain stopped them in their tracks, and thus they were now in their living room.

"What is it this time-Oh my." What she saw in front of her stopped her in her tracks.

What she saw was her two boys, their friends and the fireside girls all leaning or hugging on the large inflatable balloon man.

"Are you satisfied with your care?"

"Hmm. Yes. Yes we are," purred Awake Phineas from under the lump of white. Awake Ferb silently agreed with his step-brother. After a loop of bad experiences with Tradition and others, having a relaxing hug from a soft robot was rather quaint.

"YES! She sees it. Finally, I've busted the boys building one of their crazy contraptions."

"Oh, we didn't build him Candace. He just suddenly walked up to us and asked us about our health. ""Say what now?" asked a perplexed Candace.

"What's going on boys? And who's this?"

The robot in subject turned his head to face her, lifted up his arms and recited, "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was programmed by Tadashi to heal the sick and injured."

"Um, hello there. Baymax? May i ask what you are doing to my son and the kids?" she said in a tone that expressed her confusion. This had got to be one of those science projects the scientists were making. They did put up a query on producing 'soft robots', as they called it, but to have one currently one in their own home?

"They had gotten wet in the rain, and their body temperature has dropped. i had offered to provide them warmth. They are my patients."

'Well that, and to comfort us I guess.' Phineas reasoned within his mind. It was... tiring to overcome trying loops. Even if they were hundreds of years old, such experiences don't leave very easily.

"Hmm, can I join?"

"Mom!" shouted an indignant Candace.

"Certainly." He answered as the kids made room for the adult. He then looked over to the stressed out teen.

"I heard the sound of distress from you. what seems to be the trouble?"

"But why would you?... but then how did you?... but but but... Urrghhh."

"I will scan you for injuries"

"Don't scan me-"

"Scan complete."

"Unbelievable!" she yelled out in frustration.

"You have sustained no injuries. However, your neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing great stress. Diagnosis: Use de-stressing methods, like enjoying the company of family and friends... would you like to join your family and friends?"'

"Yeah, c'mon Candace," Phineas and the others pleaded. After a few seconds of pleading Candace eventually caved in.

"Oh fine. Move over Buford." "Hey!" She then laid on Baymax.

She had to admit, this was nice. It was like leaning on a warm marshmallow. Nothing could beat this feeling.

"Oh no! This Charmander needs help right away," said a concerned Nurse Joy, as she dialed up the phone for emergency treatment.

Ash and Pikachu had Awoke early and were to the point where they rescued Charmander, who was UnAwake. This variant however, had left Charmander in a precarious state, and being locked out of their pocket and stuck with baseline abilities for some reason left them no other option but to rush to the hospital right away.

"Baymax, I need you to prepare a table for the patient right away, Emergency Procedures Alpha," she said over the phone.

In under a minute, the PokeCentre's door opened to reveal a large inflated marshmallow man, resembling the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to the loopers, with a nurse hat on his head, waddled in as fast as his tiny feet can go. He pushed a hospital bed along with him.

Picking up Charmander, he gently placed him on the bed.

"i will now scan you for injuries." He said to the unconscious Charmander.

"Scan complete. Your health has depleted, and you are soaked. You need to get dry."

"Baymax, use Heal Pulse please." Ash and Pikachu, and the rest of the gang, watched in awe as Baymax used a yet-to-be-made move on the fire lizard. He lifted both his arms and rubbed them together. A low hum was emitted from his palms.

"My hands are equipped with Heal Pulse Emitters. Clear."

He slowly released a beam of white that slowly healed all of Charmander's injuries. Then he powered down his hands.

Charmander's eyes fluttered open. Baymax, being the nurse robot that he is, took a Sitrus Berry from under the bed and handed it to the Awakened lizard.

"Here. Have a Sitrus berry. It will replenish your health. Are you satisfied with your care?" The Awake Charmander nodded.

"Thank you Baymax."

"you are welcome, Nurse Joy. I shall now take the patient to his room now." He pushed the bed to the doors.

(After awhile)

"He's not a looper?" asked Charmander.

"We don't think so. I tried asking him about it, but he didn't know what the heck were talking about." Pikachu answered him.

There were just some loops that seemed to be slightly odd.

"It's still not as weird as the time we-"

"We have made an oath to never mention that again Ash. Besides, this is quite normal compared to what we've gone through."

Yep. Just another day in the world of Pokémon.

2.4 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Star Wars]

Admiral Donald Duck sweated nervously as he faced a very angry (Unawake) Darth Vader. The guy was scary, even when he had no subspace pocket to call on.

"Perhaps you would like to explain, Admiral, how one lone officer under your watch managed to CRASH AN ENTIRE CITY?!" the Sith Lord roared.

Donald gulped. "W-w-well, Mr. Lord Vader, sir, after you secured Cloud City, I had received orders from Imperial High Command to move the city to a more defensible position before the rebels could attempt to recapture it. I had passed the order through the necessary chains of command, and it had fallen to Officer McQuack and his men to do the actual piloting. He had insisted on steering the city, and he accidentally landed it in the ocean!. It's the God-honest truth, sir!"

There was an agonizingly long pause, and Donald desperately went through a mental checklist of his subspace pocket, looking for something to fight Force-sensitive cyborgs.

Eventually, Vader turned away from Donald. "...I see. Very well. I will have words with Officer McQuack later. You may return to your duties."

"Yes sir, Lord Vader, sir!"

Donald wasted no time in putting several corridors of Death Star between him and Vader. Once he was reasonably certain he wasn't being followed, he nearly melted in relief. Maybe I'll defect a bit earlier than planned, he thought to himself. All this stress isn't good for my blood pressure.

2.5 (Blazingen1): [Marvel] / [Detective Conan/Case Closed] / [WALL-E] / [Big Hero 6]

"Oh, Pepper, hey. Come over for a sec. There's something I'd like to show you."

It was a standard awakening for the friends of Tony Stark. First send out a Ping, and then go to Tony's suite in Star Towers for some alcohol and loop discussion. Virginia "Pepper" Potts, secretary/best friend/sometimes girlfriend of Tony Stark walked out of the elevator to her friend's home/office.

"Good morning Ms. Potts," said the ever faithful Jarvis.

"Morning, Jarvis. So, what did you want to show me?" she asked.

"Take a look at who i found in the attic of my old home. An unawake me built him as a kid," he said as he motioned for the wall to open. The wall opened to reveal a red storage compartment, with a white something inside.

"Now watch. Ow."

Three beeps. Then the compartment opened to reveal a white head with two beady black eyes with a line connecting the two. It inflated itself into a large white blob. Blinking, it slowly moved forward, one step at a time, until he reached where the two were standing.

He lifted an arm, and waved. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted for the need of medical assistance when you said "ow"."

"Hey there, Baymax. Just showing you to Pepper. Say hello, Baymax."

He rotated his head to face the curious pepper. "Hello, Ms Potts."

"Okay, you can go do what you want now." With that, tony walked over to his holo-computer and began pulling out files.

Meanwhile, Baymax was currently looking around, until he spotted a soccer ball nearby. He approached it, his mechanical squeaks sounding as he did. The ball moved away. Intrigued, he moved forward again. The ball moved once more. Unbeknownst to the white robot, he was kicking the ball each time, making it move away from him. He continued to do this as both Tony and Pepper watched from afar.

"I'll be honest. It's really cute, but this isn't your usual MO. What brought this about?"

"Well, apparently an unAwake me wanted to help the world, so i built a robot that will help people. And I did. He's installed with all known medical procedures and is made to look huggable and non-threatening."

"He looks like a walking marshmallow," she confessed as Baymax continued kicking the ball around. "And its name, Baymax? Where have I heard of that before?"

"I'm pretty sure you've had. As soon as i woke up and found that I had built him; named him Baymax; i searched my entire database on the Marvel-verse to find a match. I found one, on Earth 616, of the Big Hero 6 comics." He explained as he pulled up images of the team surrounding a green hulk(no, not that hulk) of a robot alongside a young team of superheroes.

Pepper compared the two Baymaxes, looking at the images on the holo-screen then at the 'playful' Baymax. "They don't look or act anything alike."

"Personality-wise, they're different. But I assure you this is the same Baymax as earth 616's version. For looks however... I think I can fix that. Jarvis, equip Baymax with 'Backpack BH6."

"Certainly sir," replied the AI butler as a small claw descended from above and attached a red backpack onto Baymax, the backpack latching onto the inflatable robot. It turned to look at the additional equipment given to him.

"Don't tell me. Is it...?"

"Oh yeah. It's exactly what you think it is. Though I can't but fell like I'm forgetting something." Tony pondered for a bit, before just declaring, "oh whatever. Let's see what this puppy can do. Baymax!" he called out to the robot as it looked right back at Tony.

"Suit up."

As he said that, the backpack opened itself up to reveal all its inner mechanics. Armour folded into place onto Baymax's arms legs and chest. Finally, a red helmet plopped into place. As soon as he was finished 'armouring up', he did a little stomp, as if he was trying to show off his new visage. (think Baymax 2.0)

Tony looked proud of himself. Pepper was not so impressed.

"So you made a soft and cuddly robot into another you. Not very impressive," she said to him. But Tony wasn't listening.

"Yea! Big guy! Flex those arms!"

Baymax did as told, and flexed his arms, before pieces of his armour started popping off at great speeds, one of which almost hit pepper if she hadn't done a good rendition of the matrix and avoided armour parts as they flew by her. Tony wasn't hit by any.

"Oh yeah. He needs to deflate a bit first before 'suiting up'," he said unconvincingly.

Baymax approached the downed woman, and stated the obvious, "You have fallen."

"You okay there Pepper?"

"I swear one of these days, if you kill me, I will kill you ten times over."

"I love you too, Pepper."

Conan had had a normal loop so far. Ran was safe (And fully convinced that he was not Shinichi, thank goodness for shadow clones), the Shounen Tantei (Detective Boys) were safe, everyone he knew was safe as they can possibly be, but one should never underestimate what the loops could throw at them, as Conan had learned the hard way. All perpetrators of crime were behind bars as they should be. Everything was normal, except when the group consisting of Ran, Sonoko and he almost literally bumped into a wall of white in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Sugoi! It's a giant marshmallow!"

"No way! It'd definitely a giant snowman."

"You guys are such baka. Don't you see? It's Baymax from that movie!" exclaimed a bunch of kids from behind the white marshmallow man.

"You think it's really him?"

"No way. It's probably just a promo robot or something."

Said robot rotated his head around to face the group. Both ran and Sonoko were very curious. Conan just frowned deeper and sent out a ping. No response. Hmm. Not a looper, but definitely unusual.

The white robot lifted one of his hands, and said in perfect Japanese, "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was programmed by Tadashi to heal the sick and injured."

Just as Conan was about to ask what Baymax meant by that, he was interrupted by loud womanly screeches from Ran and Sonoko.

"KYAAAAHH! Kawaii." "It's just like in the movies, ne?" "That's right! That's right!" "He's so soft!" they said excitedly as they glomped all over the healthcare bot.

'... Sometimes, I just don't understand woman's infatuation with the soft and cuddly.'

Oh Conan. Women are always complicated to understand.

The robot, as though reciting from a script, intoned, "I will scan you for injuries."

Now that got Conan's attention. There was currently no other scanning technology in the health industry in his world more advanced than the x-rays, but then this robot just scans people for their health?

"Scan complete. You are all in great health, except for that boy over there." He pointed to Conan.

Conan was wide eyed. Everyone's attention was on him, especially Ran. He tried Pinging the robot, but he didn't seem to respond.

'Yabei! This robot is definitely out-of-loop. There's no way current medical knowledge knows about my condition.'

"The Patient is lacking an alarming amount of body cells, and has traces of..."

"AAAAAHHHHH!" he was interrupted by a scream.

Conan's senses were on overdrive. Not only was this robot threatening to reveal his identity, but there was a crime somewhere. Paranoia, honed into a skill, told him to look upwards, where he saw from a building across, there was a man swaying back and forth as if he were falling.

"You!" Conan grabbed the marshmallow-bot by his stubby fingers. "You're coming with me." He pulled the robot along with him as he ran towards where the man might fall.

"Conan-kun!"

"Brat!"

The man finally tipped over and fell off. Judging from the height of the building, Conan didn't have enough time to make it.

No one in the way and the car has stopped on the red light. Only one thing to do, he said mentally as he pushed his power shoes on.

"Get over there!" he yelled, as he kicked Baymax towards the landing point. The man fell into Baymax's large belly like an emergency trampoline.

(Pssssssshhhhh) Went Baymax as the extra air he had gathered for cushioning was released.

Conan checked the patient over and over. He seemed to be fine other than the fact that he had slight rope burns on his hands.

"The patient has sustained cranial damage, and has inhaled a dangerous amount of chloroform. He must be treated at once."

Thankfully this medical robot was here to help, but one question that came to his mind immediately upon his discovery was, "Where did he come from?"

This was it. Wall-e was taken to the place where faulty bots were repaired, the repair ward. He was currently doing a baseline loop as a challenge by mimicking one of the human's hub movies, like Agent 007, where he had gone incognito into the Axiom ship to get the plant back. Eve wasn't awake and there was no response from the Ping.

When he was placed into the slot where he usually was, he realized that VAQ-M was not placed in the slot to his left, but right across from him.

Looking to his right, he saw an inflatable white robot that resembled the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from those hub loops. He had two beady black eyes, and a line interconnecting them both.

He lifted an arm and waved. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Blinking curiously, Wall-e extended his arm towards the stranger.

"Wall-e."

The robot, Baymax, looked at the extended arm, then at his own stubby one, before extending it to reach over to Wall-e's side; which wasn't very hard considering his size; and shook hands/claws.

He didn't know where this robot came from, or how he got placed into the repair ward, but that doesn't matter. They were all in this together, so that means saving him too.

(A little while later)

*SQUUEEEKKKK*

That was the sound Baymax made when he tried squeezing through the trash compartment aboard the Axiom. Wall-e looked behind him, where Baymax's head poked through.

"Oh no."

"Ssshhhhh." Wall-e quietly admonished the bot.

"Excuse me as I let out some air."

*Bweeeeeeeeeeee*

It made quite a loud sound as Baymax deflated, and all Wall-e could do was stare and pray to any gods in Yggdrasil that no one noticed it.

(A little more later)

"Halt!" the security drones were currently blocking their way. Wall-e, who has avoided getting directly shocked by Auto, had prepared a bunch of gadgets for this situation was prepared.

That was, until Eve flew over to him and took back the arm he got from her, dragging the slower Baymax along with her. The picture of her going rogue was taken anyway, which annoyed her.

As the droids were firing their suspension beams at the defective robots, one of them tried shooting Baymax with it. It bounced of his white vinyl hide. The droid tried again, and failed.

This got Eve's attention, then grabbed Wall-e ("Whoaaa.") and prepared to use Baymax as a makeshift battering ram. Baymax turned to look at her, and then looked back at the security bots. As if knowing what she was attempting to do he softly said, "Oh no."

The security bots were pushed aside, like Moses, spread like the biblical flood, and toppled over. This allowed all the bots to move across safely by the path made by Eve and Baymax.

(And soon After)

Wall-e was using considerable strength to hold up the platform to stop it from closing fully. He was about to jam it with a small pike, when he felt the weight on his arms lift. Turning to look behind him, he saw Baymax, the gentle giant, holding up the platform all by himself.

"I am capable of lifting 1000 pounds. Go to Eve. I will hold this platform up until the plant is retrieved."

Nodding, he climbed up the walls, with his magnetic caterpillar tracks, towards the captain's control room.

(And finally)

The loop was ending. Thanks to Baymax, the humans learned a lot on keeping healthy, and thus the next generation was stronger than ever.

Looking to his new friend, it was sad to see him go, knowing that he will no longer exist once his loops end. They were currently looking at a sunset together, by the plant they saved.

He reached a claw to the standing figure.

"Friend. I will miss you. "

Baymax turned to look at him, and extended his own hand. They shook it. Then, Baymax lifted him up, and hugged him.

"You are my friend too."

2.6 (Crossoverpairinglover): [Big Hero 6] / [Star Wars]

"Hello, I am Baymax. Your daughter suggested that I should keep an eye on you. Apparently, you are not in good health."

KUUSH KUUSH KUUSH KUUSH

"Your breathing patterns suggest damage to your lungs. Tell me, are you a heavy smoker?"

KUUSH KUUSH KUUSH KUUSH

"Odd, you appear to have suffered extensive skin damage. Tell me, have you been scratching yourself because of illegal chemical ingestion?"

Darth Vader, the most feared man in the galaxy bar only the e\Emperor himself, barely managed avoiding force choking the robot.

Not only was that a habit he was working on quitting, but force choking robots never worked.

Particularly soft and squishy robots.

2.7 (MrEgret): [Disney]

Sweat rolled down Donald's cheeks as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the bomb. The opera box was already quite soggy from his past attempts at dousing it, but somehow, somehow, that confounded fuse was still burning!

"Alright, wise guy," he muttered. "Let's see how you like a little Aguamenti on for size..."

Before he could cast the spell, however, a familiar white hand holding a pair of scissors reached past him, and deftly snipped the fuse off below the burning section.

Donald whirled around in surprise, and saw Daisy smile knowingly at him, while putting the scissors back into her handbag. "Donald, if you were having problems with explosives again, you only had to ask!" she giggled.

Donald blushed and chuckled sheepishly while he threw the now-defused bomb away, but something about Daisy's choice of words got his attention. Wait a minute. Again? This is the first time that this happened this Loop. "Uh, Daisy?" he asked. "What do you mean, 'again'?"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "What, you don't remember that time when you tried to do that magic show? You needed Merlin's help to turn back into a duck afterwards!"

Donald nodded to himself. "Oh yeah, now I remember! Huh, that must have happened a few..."

He suddenly paused, and his eyes grew wide as saucers when he realized what he was about to say. "A few Loops ago..." he whispered.

Daisy looked at him worriedly. "Donald, are you alright? You look pale."

Donald looked Daisy in the eye, with a queer mixture of nervousness and hope building in his stomach. "Daisy, this may sound like a weird question, but...have you noticed certain events happening over and over? Like television reruns, only for reality?"

Daisy gasped. "Wait-you've been going through this, too?!"

She took a closer look at Donald's face. "Donald, is something wrong? You're crying a little-"

Donald suddenly pulled Daisy into a tight hug, ignoring her yelp of surprise, and just held her to his chest. Despite the tears rolling down his cheeks, he couldn't stop grinning. I'll never say anything bad about the opera ever again, he promised. This is the best night of my life!

2.8 (MrEgret): [Disney]

Mickey strolled up to the front door of Professor Ludwig von Drake, a bag of sandwiches in his hand. "I hope he's home," he thought to himself as he knocked on the door.

The door opened a crack, and a single blue eye peeked out. "Yes? Who is it? I am very busy with theories that may redefine the entire universe, don't you know!"

"Hiya, Professor! It's me, Mickey! I brought food from your nephew, Donald!"

"Mickey!"

The door flung open suddenly, missing Mickey's nose by an inch, and Ludwig pulled Mickey inside. "It has been such a while since we saw each other!" he chortled. "Come in, come in! Tell me, Mickey, how have you been?"

"Oh, I've been fine, Professor," Mickey replied, as he stared at the absolutely titanic piles of papers scattered around the Professor's living room. "Say, what's with all the paper lying around here?"

"Scrap paper, Mickey! I know that all these newer scientists like to do their explicating and calculating on their fancy tablets and notebooks and things like this, but me, I've always been a paper man!"

Mickey took a look at a piece of scrap paper, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the ridiculously complex equations scrawled all over it. "Gosh, I can't make heads or tails of this!"

Ludwig laughed jovially. "It's all really simple, Mickey! I'm trying to deduce the exact nature of Time itself! Quite a little puzzler, actually..."

Mickey started in surprise when he heard that. Time? Ludwig never showed interest in Time before. The future, yes, but not Time...

"What do you mean, Professor?" he asked, deciding to play dumb for now. "Time's just a linear sequence of events, isn't it?"

Ludwig chuckled, as he took off his spectacles and started polishing them. "Yes, that's I used to think, too. But now, I'm starting to suspect that Time might be a bit more complicated than that."

"How do you mean?" Mickey asked, even while he got a sneaking suspicion of what he was about to say. Don't tell me...

"People say that history repeats itself, yes?" Ludwig asked rhetorically. "Well, my history is repeating itself quite a lot! Why, just the other day, I found myself building a prototype for a bathtub teleporter that I distinctly remember never making any plans for. However, I also remembered just as distinctly, that I had made plans for a similar teleporter, and it worked!

"So Ludwig, I asked myself, how can it be that you remember doing something and not doing something at the same time? Such a thing is impossible, even when one takes forgetfulness into account! If memory is not the issue, and memory is how we know of the past, then it stands to reason that there was something wrong with the past! You follow me, Mickey?"

Ludwig's grin of triumph faltered a little when he saw that Mickey seemed remarkably calm about this revelation. "Mickey? Hello? Problem with the past? Shouldn't you be shocked by this?"

Mickey smiled to himself. "Professor Ludwig, I think I might know what's wrong with the past."

Ludwig's eyes widened, and he grabbed Mickey by the shirtfront. "Well, out with it, my friend! What's the problem?"

"It's a long story. Let's sit down in the kitchen, and I'll tell you over sandwiches."

After Mickey and Ludwig were seated in the professor's kitchen, Mickey then explained absolutely everything that he knew about the Loops, from the truth behind the Multiverse, to the job of the Admins, to the existence of Anchors and Loopers. Ludwig was confused at first, then shocked, and finally contemplative.

He finally got up from the table and said, "Wait here, Mickey. I need to check something."

He left the room, and Mickey heard the professor mumbling to himself and the shuffling of massive amount of paper.

At length, Ludwig came back into the kitchen, beaming happily, and holding a sheet of scrap paper. "Found it! Theory number three thousand, four hundred and seventy-two!"

Mickey took the paper from Ludwig and started reading it. For the second time that day, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he got to the second paragraph. "Professor? Isn't this...?"

Ludwig nodded. "That's right! Your 'Welcome to the Multiverse" speech, down to the letter! I came up with that one at two in the morning, when I had drunk enough coffee to keep an army awake for days on end, so you can imagine my surprise when you said the same exact thing!"

He chuckled to himself as Mickey just stared at him in blank shock. "The Universe always has ways of surprising us, it seems..."

2.9 (Blazingen1): [DC Comics] / [Samurai Jack] / [Animaniacs] / [???] / [Big Hero 6]

Nightwing, currently Robin, was finding it very difficult to not burst into laughter. Alfred, even though he is usually more reserved, had that twinkle in his eye that indicates his quiet amusement.

Why are they holding in their laughter? Bruce, his mentor and Batman, was currently in the embrace of a giant marshmallow robot. The inflatable robot wrapped its big stubby arms around him and had his 'head' rested on Bruce's as Bruce continued to work on his Bat-computer.

"Those who suffer from personal loss require contact from friends and loved ones."

"No." His response was quick but Baymax didn't let go.

Earlier, the robot had gone up to his Bat-computer and downloaded everything based on personal loss, and who suffers personal loss more than Batman.

"Other treatments indicate physical reassurance." The white medical unit said, as he lifted one arm and patted Bruce's head. "It will be alright. There. There."

Robin could not contain himself anymore, and burst out laughing at the adorable scene in front of him that does not suit Batman's dark scene at all. Alfred had a thin smile on his face as well.

He didn't know where Baymax came from, or how he got into the Batcave, considering Batman is beyond paranoid for a looper, but it was very amusing to see him not react to Baymax's kind reassurances. Bruce probably knew where he came from, but he's currently not saying anything lest he lose concentration and fall into the trap of cute and cuddly behind him.

'Inner peace.'

Samurai Jack sat on a clearing of a forest on the mountain, eyes closed, using a meditation technique he learned from a Kung-fu fighting Panda. After long loops of never returning home and constant fighting, he has come to accept the times of peace given to him in-between. A samurai he may be, and a warrior of justice even more so, but even heroes needed time to rest and relax.

The he was in is a fused loop between his world and one of another. The future that Aku sent him into was this one, according to his loop memories, and is a lot safer than his baseline.

And so he sat, enjoying the serenity offered by the forest. Down the mountain was a city named San Fransokyo. Although it was a very advanced city in what should have been American borders, it bore a lot of resemblance to modern hub-loop Japan.

He often would go down there to enjoy the culture offered by the mixture of two cultures. He would even go to road-side stands for food.

Regardless, peace did not often come to him. It was times like this too, however, that some form of evil other than just looping Aku, likes to disturb this serenity. Sometimes, they are not even evil, they just enjoy disturbing others.

Take the Warner Siblings for example. As if on cue, they ran past the foliage, with their loud theme music playing in the background, as a portly security guard ran past him to catch them.

"Dah, come back here with youse."

The clearing was empty once more, until of course, there was heavy stomping behind him.

"Ssshhh!" said a voice from behind him. Without even looking, he knew that a little girl in red was currently pulling a giant blue beast along with her, as they tried to find a door back to their own world.

Making no indication that he's heard them, they tiptoed across the clearing, then made a break for it and ran away.

The clearing was silent once more.

'Perhaps now it will stay this wa-'

"AHAHAHA! I'VE FOUND YOU NOW, SAMURAI JACK" yelled a currently UnAwake Aku from one of his robots. There was over a dozen or more black robots surrounding him.

"NOW! PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOO-"

"Hitokiri Strike," Jack muttered as he swung his blade once as he propelled forward.

*Shiiiiinnngg*

All robots in the vicinity were slashed cleanly in half. They slid down from their bodies and exploded soon after.

*Cher-clunk*

He sheathed his blade. When his finely honed samurai senses told him there was one more robot in the area, he was about to unsheathe his blade and slash it into pieces if it wasn't for the fact that it looked unthreatening at all.

The white robot looked more like a marshmallow, with a large potbelly and a small head, featured with two black eyes and a line. It radiated with a childlike innocence that had prevented it from being cut down with the rest of the other robots.

It lifted an arm, and waved. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare unit."

The unit looked very soft and huggable. Like something meant for children. Jack relaxed a bit. This was no minion of Aku. He has travelled and experienced too much to mistake this innocent creature as one of his creations.

"I will scan you for injuries." *Beep-beep* "Scan complete. You have sustained a small laceration on your right forearm."

Jack looked to his right forearm. There was indeed a small cut on it.

'Hmm. I seem to be getting rusty. I should hone my skills more.'

"May i suggest an alcohol spray, wiped with hydrogen peroxide to prevent any infections?"

"...Sure. Thank you."

The robot did as it suggested, and cleaned his wound. He then put a band-aid on it.

"You have been a good boy. Here, have a lollipop."

Smiling awkwardly, Jack accepted the gift. He then returned the clearing, back to where he sat. The sun was already going down, but he'd watch it go. Looping can often distract one from the beauties of nature.

'Inner Peace.'

The white robot waddled next to him, observing him, before plopping down next to him. His hands tucked into one another, as he mimicked Jack and watched the sun go down.

'Peace at last.'

2.10 (MrEgret): [Disney] / [Kingdom Hearts]

Mickey glared at Master Xehanort as the mad Keyblade master went on about his master plan to restart the Keyblade War. It's just a shame that Sora's not Awake, he thought to himself, as he got ready to cast some illusions to cover his and Riku's escape.

Suddenly, right in the middle of his gloating, there was a loud CHOMP, and Master Xehanort yelled in pain, leaping out of his throne and grabbing his rear. He landed in an ungainly heap on the floor and the other members of the new Organization XIII could only stare in open astonishment at what was now sitting on their leader's throne.

Riku did a double-take. "Mickey, isn't that...?"

Mickey suddenly beamed. "Good boy, Pluto!"

The dog in question was grinning, and wagging its tail happily. He held a piece of Xehanort's trousers firmly between his teeth.

Young Xehanort was the first to recover. "You...!" he growled, as he called his Keyblade into existence, and launched a laser beam at the insolent pup.

Except the dog wasn't there anymore. He had jumped off the throne when he saw the Keyblade, and the beam narrowly missed the tip of his tail.

Pluto landed on Master Xehanort, bowling him over, and then trotted over to Mickey. He looked at Ansem and Xemnas, and growled.

"Wha-what?! What is the meaning of this?!" Master Xehanort shrieked, as he got to his feet. "HOW DID THAT DOG GET IN HERE?!"

Pluto spat out the cloth, revealing a small, glowing star attached to his collar. Young Xehanort's eyes widened. "Impossible..."

"Now, Riku!" Mickey shouted, as he pulled out a sketch of a watch. He crushed it in his hand, and suddenly, time slowed to a crawl.

Riku was off immediately, taking full advantage of the slowed time to avoid Ansem and Xemnas. He grabbed Sora, hoisted his body over his shoulder, and was back at Mickey's side just as time snapped back to normal.

"Time to go, Pluto!" Mickey ordered. Pluto nodded and picked up the cloth in his mouth. Mickey and Riku grabbed a hold of Pluto's collar, and they vanished along with Sora in a flash of light.

Master Xehanort slammed his hand on the ground. "Hang that dog!" he growled "Now we'll have to wait for the thirteenth vessel of Darkness to appear on its own..."

He then noticed the time spell keeping him and the other members of Organization XIII pinned to this time period flaking away. "Hmm... No matter. The plan can still be salvaged. The x-Blade will be made anew..."

One by one, the incarnations of Master Xehanort faded away, until the throne chamber was empty once more.

"Wait a minute. Pluto's Looping?!" Riku asked disbelievingly.

Pluto nodded rapidly. He seemed extremely pleased with himself.

"Yep!" Mickey replied cheerfully, as he patted Pluto on the head. "Just Woke Up recently, too. Apparently he Replaced Rex the Wonder Dog in a Fused Loop with DC before we finally ran into each other while Awake."

He laughed to himself, as he went to go check on Sora. "Imagine my surprise when I heard him talk for the first time!"

Riku stared at Pluto with wide eyes. "You can talk?"

Pluto nodded.

"Then why didn't you say anything when you showed up in Castle Oblivion?"

Pluto shrugged and, replied, "Well, I couldn't think of anything especially apropos to say at the time."

Riku wasn't sure what he found weirder: the fact that Pluto could talk at all, or the fact that he spoke with a cultured British accent.

The silver-haired boy sighed and went to go check on Sora, with Pluto following close behind. Well, this is going to be interesting, he thought to himself.

2.11 (MrEgret): [Disney]

Oswald and the Blot faced each other on the blasted peak of Mickeyjunk Mountain. Despite the chills racing up his spine, Oswald stood his ground against the inky menace.

"Hey, ugly!" he yelled, drawing the Blot's attention to himself. "Pick on somebody your own size for a change, huh?"

The Blot surged forwards instantly, making a snatch for him with one of his claws, but Oswald was already moving, leaping out of the way, and bounding over to the exposed opening of the Thinner Bottle. He prayed that Ortensia would stay away, so that she wouldn't have to see him sacrifi-

Wait, what's with all these fireworks?

Oswald just stared at the piles upon piles of fireworks that were arrayed in intricate patterns around the Thinner Bottle. I don't remember setting these here...

Suddenly, he saw the shadow of the Blot fall over him. He slowly turned around and saw the Blot rear back to deliver the killing blow. There was nowhere he could run, not without compromising the plan. He closed his eyes and awaited his fate. Ortensia... I'm sorry...

"FIRE ALL!"

Suddenly, every single firework lit simultaneously, and streaked upwards in a graceful arc, before coming down on on the Blot's head. Oswald clapped his hands to his ears, as the air was filled with the sounds of rockets going off and the pained screams of the dying Blot. He stumbled away from the noise, tripped, and smacked his head against a giant bottle cap embedded into a large rock. Just before he passed out completely, he saw a familiar black shape looking over him.

Oswald awoke (and Awoke) in a comfy bed with large pillows, in a brightly-lit room. "Huh. Ortensia's house? Not a bad start."

"Glad to see you're Awake," Ortensia said, as she walked into the room with some aspirin and a glass of water. "Mickey said that you had some medicine for that bump on your head in your subspace pocket, but this should help with your headache."

Oswald looked at her confusedly. "What headache?"

Then, he winced as some sick maniac set off a firecracker in his sinuses. "Ah, that one," he wheezed.

He took the proffered aspirin, dry-swallowed them, and then knocked back the glass of water, while Ortensia looked on with some concern. "Feeling better?" she asked.

"Better."

Ortensia moved and sat on the bed next to Oswald. "So, what happened while I was out?" he asked.

"Well, Mickey and I set up that trap we were talking about last Loop, the one with the fireworks. When you went up to try to trick the Blot into the Thinner Bottle, we set it off and the Blot blew up something fierce."

She grinned weakly. "I maaaaay have overestimated the amount of fireworks needed to kill it, though..."

"How many did you use?"

Ortensia rubbed her arm, and blushed a little. "All of them."

Oswald's eyebrows shot up. "Wow."

"Yeah. After we got you out of the way of the resulting tidal wave of Paint, we had to reassure everyone living in OsTown that Mickeyjunk Mountain wasn't a volcano."

Oswald chuckled. "Must've been quite a bang."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"No worries; we can always make more fireworks. I imagine that reconstruction efforts have already started?"

"Yep! Gremlin Gus has a contingent of Gremlins patching Mean Street together as we speak. You planning on joining them?"

Oswald smiled. "Yeah, but I think I'll take a little breather first."

Ortensia crawled up onto the bed and curled up next to him. "Good. I'll join you."

For the next few minutes, Oswald and Ortensia just rested together in blissful silence. Oswald stroked Ortensia's head absently, and listened to her quiet purring while her tail flicked back and forth. Yeah, definitely not a bad start at all.

2.12 (Blazingen1): [Big Hero 6]

Waking up falling from his bed was not the way Hiro expected to start his morning.

"You okay there sleepy head?"

Hearing his brother's voice for the first time in over a year was even more so.

"Tadashi?"

Opening his bleary eyes to see his brother back

"Wha...? Tadashi!"

Hiro scrambled to get up and practically crashed into his older brother.

"Whoa whoa there, little brother, what's gotten you so worked up?"

Hiro was confused. He was crying. He had never hoped to hear his brother's voice again, not since that night where he went into the fire. Losing his only blood relative left in his world was devastating, especially for a growing 14 year old.

...But was that really the case?

Once Hiro has calmed down, he told his brother about what he had remembered. his brother concluded that what he had was merely a vivid dream caused by nervousness, since he was a rather shy boy and he was going to demonstrate his invention to a large crowd.

Hiro accepted the most probable theory.

'I hope he's right.'

'No...' he had been wrong. He had been very wrong.

'No no no No NO!' Hiro mentally yelled in his mind. It had all gone exactly according to the 'dream' he had. His brother is running towards the fire where he died that night.

"TADASHI! DON'T GO IN THERE!"

Hiro, still panicked at the same thing happening again, had mistimed his approach, and followed his brother into the burning building, at the exact moment the secondary explosive was triggered. The concussive blow was enough to kill anyone close to it, like a 14 year old boy. Hiro died burning.

"GAAAHHH!"

Hiro woke up once more falling off his bed.

"What? What?!"

It took a moment for the heavily breathing Hiro to calm down and answer his confused and panicked elder brother.

"NOTHING! Nothing. It was just a nightmare."

"That doesn't sound like just a nightmare."

"... I dreamt that I lost you." It seemed that Hiro didn't want to say anymore than that. Sometimes being the older brother is rather difficult when his little brother is a hormonal teenager. So he did what he could, and just gave him a hug. Hiro hugged him back, but his mind was racing at what he had remembered.

He was alive when he should be dead. He now had three sets of memories, and it seemed like he had travelled back in time.

'Just what is going on here?'

It had happened again. That was the thoughts of Hiro Hamada, the young prodigy, held a hand against face as he tried understanding what was wrong with time. Everything had gone exactly as it did in the first timeline, except for the part where Tadashi perished. He had managed to stop his brother from entering the building, but he had not prevented the effects of the fire on him.

(flashback)

"TADASHI! NO!"

Tadashi looked back at his distressed brother, holding him back.

"Someone has to help."

"NO! I'm not losing you! You're the only brother I have left. Don't leave me!"

"Hiro..." Tadashi was conflicted. Just as he was about to make his decision, he looked back at the burning building and noticed the secondary explosion.

"Look out!" as Tadashi his brother shielded him from the blast.

"TADASHI!"

(End flashback)

People say that Hiro should be thankful. He should be grateful. Because it could be worse, and at least his brother is alive and breathing. They were right. Worse things could have... had happened, but now his brother's pain is prolonged. He had avoided death that night, but the blast still burnt the right side of his face and probably had 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body. Not to mention the coma he is in right now. Hiro visited every day, when he's not busy that is. Right now, he was in his corner of the room monitoring the space probe he sent up there.

He needed evidence that time had repeated itself lest he look like a crazy kid with an overactive imagination. It had happened before, with that police officer. Over the period just before the presentation, in secret, Hiro had worked on a separate project. It was difficult to hide it from his older peers, but with some stealth, he launched a geostationary satellite to observe the earth.

Hiro sighed. For a genius, this dilemma was certainly taking its toll on his psyche. Usually it was simple for his big brain to comprehend the problems in front of him, but this time loop thing was defying all known theories on time travel.

"Sigh." He hit his head on his desk. "Ow."

Three beeps and the huggable white vinyl robot Baymax inflated himself from his red charging station and waddled over to Hiro.

Hiro had taken the liberty of visiting the Lab and borrowing Baymax for the time being. It was rather difficult to convince the other members of his former Hero group not to ask why he wanted to borrow Baymax, but in the end they settled for his reasoning that he wanted to make a system in Baymax that will help Tadashi heal faster.

Anyways, Baymax waddled over to Hiro. He lifted an arm and waved.

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?"

"Baymax I need you to scan me. Tell me of any abnormalities within my brainwaves."

"I will scan you now." *Beep-beep* "Scan complete."

"...Baymax?"

"Your neural transmitter activity indicates that you are experiencing stress and exhaustion; you should rest; but there are no abnormalities in brainwave activity."

"... So nothing's wrong with my brain huh?"

'So why am I remembering three timeline's worth of memories.'

"... This doesn't make any sense."

Although the details of each timeline were different, there always seem to be points that are the same, a 'fixed point' so to speak. How his parent's death differed each timeline. One was in a fire, another was in a car crash and the first one... he couldn't even remember.

"Tadashi."

Baymax spoke up after a few moments of silence. Hiro looked to the white marshmallow staring at the hat placed on Tadashi's bed.

"Tadashi."

Was that... grief he's hearing from Baymax? It sounded as if Baymax grieving for his creator?

"He's in the hospital, Baymax. He saved me from the explosion, and got 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body. He's currently in a coma, and the Doctors have no idea when he'd wake up... But that's not the only problem."

Hiro stood up and walked over to Tadashi's bed, completely missing the widening of Baymax's eyes. Baymax was 'surprised'.

"Baymax, you must think I'm crazy or something but it's true! I swear on all my knowledge that time is repeating itself... sigh. Now I'm just making myself look crazy in front of a nurse robot for all sakes. Heck, I'm sure you're gonna call for an ambulance right about now."

Silence followed after that. After waiting for a response and getting none, his attention pointed to Baymax, who appears to be wide eyed and blinking repeatedly.

"...Tadashi is alive? Did he not perish in the fire?"

Hiro's eyes widened. From what he said, it was if Baymax already knew Tadashi was supposed to die in that fire.

"...Yeah. He's alive. I stopped him in time before the secondary explosion kicked in. Why do you ask?"

"It is because I have conflicting data that suggests otherwise."

Hiro walked up to Baymax, eyes still fixed to his.

'No... It can't be him, right?'

"Baymax, repeat what was mentioned in the conflicting data."

With a quick scan to his memory card, he replied, "You said, quote: "Yeah. He should have. But there was a fire, and now he's gone." Unquote."

It really is him. Hiro's eyes watered up, not able to fully keep in his relief, his sorrow, and all kinds of other emotions. Whatever has happened to him was also happening to Baymax as well, but first, one final test.

"Baymax. Fistbump?" he said as he held out a fist.

Baymax lifted his own fist, and in and mimicked an exploding motion with his fingers. "Balalalalaalalaa."

"BAYMAX!" Hiro practically tackled and hugged the soft robot. It is really his Baymax, the one who stood by his side and became part of his family. he wrapped his arms around as tightly as he could onto the robot's large inflated belly.

"It's you! It's really you. I'm not alone in this," he said sobbing into Baymax's vinyl hide.

Baymax, who was still confused, but feeling the sentiment behinds the words of his friend, just hugged him back, wrapping his big chubby arms around Hiro. Two friends had reunited.

2.13 (MrEgret): [Disney]

It had started out as a relaxing vacation.

Just a quick visit to a neat old hotel that was recently reopened, before they set off on their flight to London the next day. Nothing fancy, nothing overly elaborate. Just a relaxing overnight stay, before heading off on their flight after breakfast.

"Ludwig, they're getting closer!"

"I know, Donald! Just focus on helping Mickey keep that ward up! Goodness me, the wiring of this elevator..."

They did not anticipate the hotel being cursed.

In retrospect, that was a rookie mistake. Always anticipate curses in old buildings, especially if there's a terrible fire in the building's history.

Proton streams crackled through the air as Minnie and Daisy blasted at the approaching ghosts with makeshift proton packs, made from vacuum cleaners and neon lights and held together with duct tape and sheer force of will. Those ghosts that weren't atomized by the coruscating energies shrieked horribly and clawed at the glowing bubble of force that surrounded the party. Despite the best efforts of Mickey and Donald, the force field was slowly shrinking.

"Oswald! Ortensia! I need a stuttered pulse of electricity through Connections 3 and 4!" Ludwig barked. "And quickly!"

Oswald and Ortensia pointed matching remotes at the indicated connections, and started zapping them in three-second intervals, while Ludwig pointed at some unidentifiable piece of machinery deep within the elevator with a sonic screwdriver.

Dodging an errant discharge of protons, Minnie fell back towards Mickey, who was still standing proudly despite his legs shaking from exhaustion. "Mickey, shouldn't you call down the thunderbolt now?"

"I tried that... when... the ghosts... showed up..." he panted. "Regular... sorcery's... all I've got left. Stupid... hotel... curse..."

There was a resounding CRACK, as the force field began to splinter. Donald and Daisy moved to stand back to back, because if they were going to end the Loop by being killed by ghosts, then by the Nine Old Men, they were going to go out in style.

Oswald snarled in frustration, and smacked the side of the elevator door. "Open up, darn it!"

As if on cue, the elevator door sprung open with a cheerful ding. Everyone, ghost and Looper alike turned to look at the open door. Oswald looked from the door to his fist, and back to the door. "Uhhh..."

"CHEESE IT!" Ludwig yelled.

The Loopers promptly hurled themselves into the elevator, right before the force bubble shattered completely, and the ghosts howled in outrage at being denied another set of victims. Minnie and Donald kept an eye on Mickey, who had collapsed after getting within the elevator, while Oswald punched in the floor number, and then hammered the "Close Door" button repeatedly.

The doors swung shut just in time, as one of the ghosts lunged for the clustered Loopers. Fortunately, thanks to the curse leveled on the hotel, the elevator was no more penetrable to the ghosts that haunted it than it was to the living.

"That was way too close!" Daisy stammered.

"Yeah..." Donald agreed. "Whose idea was it to book our rooms here, anyway?"

Everyone present slowly turned and looked at Mickey, who was just coming to.

"Ohhh, my head..." he groaned, as he sat up. He then noticed everyone staring at him with varying degrees of stinkeye. "What?"

After narrowly avoiding death by ghost, the Loopers spent a few minutes just bumming around on the elevator as it steadily rose to the top floor.

And rose.

And rose.

And rose.

Minnie was the first to realize that something had gone wrong.

"Um, guys?" she asked. "Shouldn't we be at the top floor right now?"

"Yeah, we should!" Mickey said, as he came to the same realization. "The hotel's messing with the elevator! Let's get out of here!"

Right before the Loopers could force open the emergency exit, the speaker in the elevator crackled to life.

"ATTENTION: THIS ELEVATOR IS SCHEDULED FOR ROUTINE MAINTENANCE. PLEASE CHANGE ELEVATORS ON THE NEXT FLOOR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION."

"Not like we have much of a choice," Donald grumbled, as the elevator slowly ground to a halt.

The elevator doors rattled open with a ding, and Mickey and Donald peered out into the brightly-lit hallway. "Donald, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Mickey asked.

"If what you're seeing is something that look like the set of an old episode of the Twilight Zone, then yeah."

The Disney Loopers tentatively stepped out of the elevator, and looked around the hallway. It resembled a regular hotel hallway, save for two important factors.

First, while the lobby and the lower hallways had looked old, though lovingly tended to, this hallway seemed to be brand new, as if the hotel had opened during the last five months rather than during the last eight decades.

Second, and more obvious, was the fact that absolutely everything, except for the elevator and the Loopers themselves, was in black and white.

"I'm having flashbacks to my cartoon days..." Oswald muttered, as he looked at himself in one of the mirrors. "If that stork shows up again, he's getting an earful."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about the stork, Oswald," Ortensia replied, while peering out one of the windows. "Look at that thunderstorm!"

Ludwig took out a preposterously ornate watch. After scrutinizing it for a few seconds, he then pulled out a cup of tea, dipped the watch in it a few times, then checked again. "That can't be accurate..."

"What's up, doc?" Oswald asked, walking over to him, and looking over his shoulder.

"Ah, this people-finder is on the fritz again," he lamented. "It should be pinging like a Looper with monophobia, what with all of the people in this hotel and the like, but right now, the only people it's registering are in our group!"

"Whoa, hold on! We're the only ones on this floor?" Oswald asked.

"No; we're the only ones in this hotel!"

Before the two geniuses could ponder the conundrum further, Mickey and Minnie peered around a bend in the corridor, and yelped in surprise. "Hey! Take a look at this!" Mickey yelled.

The others hurried over and took a look down the corridor. Some of them had to rub their eyes, to make sure that they weren't playing tricks on them.

There, instead of a hallway, was a rain-slicked street, like something straight out of a cyberpunk Loop. The tastefully wallpapered walls had given way to dilapidated storefronts, and the ceiling was replaced with a gloomy night sky, filled with rain clouds and the occasional flying vehicle. In the distance, there was enormous skyline, glowing with neon signs depicting various Japanese kanji. The rain was coming down in buckets, adding a distinct noir-like feel to the whole scene.

The only thing that remained of the hotel corridor was the elevator door at the end of where the hall was supposed to be. Its shining brass grille and ivory-white buttons provided a sharp contrast to the monochrome scene.

Mickey's eye twitched. He was being reminded of Mizrabel's castle, and not in a good way. Minnie's hand felt her way into his, and he gripped it tightly. "Well," he sighed, "there's the elevator, fellas. We better get moving if we want to get our stuff and check out of here."

"Right."

The Loopers braced themselves, before walking out into the stormy night. As they made their way down the street, Donald looked back for a second, to make sure that Ludwig and Daisy were following.

The hallway where they had just come from was nowhere to be seen.

As the elevator trundled ever upward, the Loopers were able to catch flashes of other floors through the brass grille. Much like the floor they were previously on, they looked nothing like hotel floors. Among other things, they saw:

A warped backstage area of a Broadway theater, where the lights bounced off of a thousand, thousand dusty mirrors.

A child's bedroom, all colored in pink and white hearts and clouds, except for a single closet painted black.

The burning remains of a city, with all of the people replaced with cardboard cutouts depicting screaming mobs.

A tableau depicting a party in a speakeasy during the Twenties, save that all of the people were faceless mannequins that desperately needed dusting (it took a while for the Loopers to stop sneezing afterwards)

A pitch-black area, where nothing could be heard, save the endless clanking of some great machine, and the monstrous groans of several unseen beasts.

And so on, and so on, and so on.

"Say, fellas?" Mickey asked. "You ever get the feeling that you just wandered into somebody else's story by accident?"

"How do you mean, Mickey?" Ludwig asked, while he and Oswald fiddled with the people-finder to pass the time.

"Well, normally, with the "cursed hotel with illusions" plotline, we'd be running into some sort of nightmarish confrontation with our own deepest fears and insecurities right about now. This just feels like a bunch of random rooms."

Donald nodded. "Yeah, I've been noticing that, too. We should be knee-deep in ghosts by now. What gives?"

Daisy was a bit more confused about Mickey's statement. "You've been through this before?"

"Yep. Eighteen times, as of now. It was scary the first few times, but it gets kinda boring after a while."

Minnie and Ortensia, in the meantime, were poking around the elevator, when they came across the compartment usually reserved for the emergency telephone. Seeing as there wasn't anything else noteworthy about the elevator save the occupants, they opened it up. As expected, there was no telephone, or indeed any way of calling for help. Instead there was a beaten-up, torn journal.

"Probably from one of the previous passengers," Minnie reckoned. "Maybe there's and explanation for all this nonsense." She cracked the journal open, wrinkling her nose at the scent of mildew, and started skimming through the pages.

To whoever comes after

If you are reading this, then I am, in all likelihood, already dead or worse. This hotel is a place for the damned, where they wander through twisted reflections of all they might have been and all they will never be. There is an evil here, vast and eldritch, that imprisons all that come here. We didn't realize, no! We were just bystanders, come for a costume party! We were once eleven, but now there is only me. The others were taken, by the ghosts and the floors and the hell of it all. Oh! Oh! Impossible angles, times that never should have been, things that should not be! There was a floor, where the dead walked again! Alive and not alive, dead and not dead! I was a doctor, you know, and I knew that they could only lie still! But they walked! They sang! They SHRIEKED!

I must escape soon. I can hear the walls beginning to whisper, sing softly of lands that should not be! But I am too clever for them! My escape is assured and my tale will be known to

Minnie flipped through the rest of the journal, which was blank, before gingerly closing it. "Okay, I think I know what's going on, guys."

Everybody looked up from what they were doing. "Well, what is it, Mins?" Mickey asked, while putting away a paddle-ball.

"We're in one of those cosmic horror story deals where a bunch of unsuspecting people are subjected to Things Man was Not Meant to Know, and go crazy."

The other Loopers looked at each other. "I don't feel particularly crazy," Daisy said. "What about you, Donald?"

"Nope. I feel fine."

Mickey shrugged. "Maybe it's like the Library at that Unseen University we visited a while back: the stuff we've seen would drive any man insane, but, well, none of us are actually men, are we? I mean, Minnie and I are mice, Donald, Daisy and Ludwig are all ducks, Oswald's a rabbit and Ortensia's a cat, so..."

The other Loopers nodded. They could see his point.

"So, if the whole point of this hotel is to drive men mad, and none of us are men... then what are we doing wasting our time here?" Mickey finished.

There was a few seconds of silence, save the clattering of the elevator as it rose into infinity.

Donald sighed, and pulled out an unusual metal rod that looked like a chrome, stylized version of his Mage's Staff. "Alright, if nobody's going to do it..."

He pressed a few buttons and several blue lights embedded within the rod lit up.

[Ready] "Okay!"

Donald planted his feet firmly on the floor of the elevator, and pointed the rod at the wall. "Royal Quackery! Engage Shooting Mode!"

Mickey and Minnie's eyes widened, and they quickly moved to the other side of the elevator. The newer Loopers just looked confusedly at them. "What's the big deal with that rod thingy?" Daisy asked.

"Daisy, remember when I gave you that rundown on the various magic stuff that you could find in the Loops?" Minnie asked.

"Yeah...?"

"That's an Intelligent Device. A magic item from Nanoha's universe. It's the thing that lets people do Divine Busters."

The other Loopers quickly joined Mickey and Minnie. They may not have been Looping long, in the grand scheme of things, but even they had heard of Nanoha. And her way of "befriending" people.

Donald grinned savagely, as Royal Quackery extended from a simple rod to a full staff, and a set of magic wings manifested around the "hat" of the device. "Releasing shooting locks!"

[Shooting locks released. Please install cartridge.]

Donald snapped his fingers, and a cartridge fell out of his subspace pocket into his hand. He attached it to the side of Royal Quackery, and a rather large magical circle manifested underneath him.

The brass grill of the elevator started to ripple and change, as if the hotel could sense the preposterously large amount of magical energy that Donald was about to bring to bear. Mickey could see it changing, from brass to iron and from iron to steel.

Donald snickered to himself. "It's been way too long since I did this." He flourished the staff, and jabbed it at the wall. "DIVINE BUSTER!"

Everyone within a quarter of a mile of the old hotel jumped in shock, as several floors of the hotel were obliterated by a massive blue beam of energy. Those who were especially close to the blast claimed to have seen or heard all sorts of unusual phenomena afterwards. The most common reports were of "shining figures" flying up and away from the hotel after the energy beam had died down, though reports of squamous tentacles being deep fried and inhuman mouths screaming in agony from the top windows were not unusual.

The local authorities could offer no explanation for these reports, other than a flimsy explanation involving gas leaks. The ruins of the hotel would be visited for months afterwards by all sorts of individuals form paranormal investigation teams interested in the reports of ghosts, to research teams from prestigious universities, who were trying to find what exactly caused such a massive burst of energy. The "Big Blue" incident would be a subject of national interest for years to come.

Donald wiped his brow, as he put Royal Quackery back into his subspace pocket. "I forgot how exhausting those Divine Busters can be. I really need to practice more often."

The other Loopers simply stared in shock at where the wall of the elevator used to be. They could see down the length of the entire hotel, where the beam had simply erased an entire floor's worth of rooms.

Mickey was the first to recover, and he gingerly stepped out of the elevator, which had stopped ascending after getting a second exit forcefully installed. "Okay. Nice work, Donald. Now, I think we should get out of here before the police arrive; this is going to be kinda tough to explain."

Donald flushed with embarrassment. He had forgotten about that. "Oops."

Daisy whistled. "Wow. You think you can teach me that, Donald?"

Donald got a bit flustered. "Uh, well, um..."

Daisy laughed, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "My hero."

It wasn't until he was on Mickey's Gummi Ship and flying away from the ruins of the hotel that Donald finally stopped grinning.

2.14 (Blazingen1 and Crisis): [Big Hero 6]

"How is it you remember that what happened in the last timeline?"

"I was not aware of what happened in the previous timeline but my memory data suggests otherwise. I also contain medical files scanned from many other patients, one that are not present in San Fransokyo."

"Hmm. Baymax, can I open your access port for a bit?"

Baymax nodded. Hiro pushed it open, revealing not only the Baymax's green data chip, but a purple data chip, that obviously wasn't there the first time as well.

"Did Tadashi program another data chip?"

"My internal scanners do not detect the presence of another data chip."

"Huh. Must be faulty."

Baymax not knowing Hiro was referring to the chip, he replied, "I will initiate an internal scan to check for any irregularities within my circuitry."

Hiro turned the data chip around to see the hidden message on it.

"To: Hiro Hamada?" he said curiously. Figuring that the data chip was meant to be sent to him, he inserted it into his computer and watched as over 400 terabytes of data poured out of it. Hiro's eyes widened.

"Whoa."

Quickly glancing over the contents, he selected one labelled "Blueprints".

"...this is some sick tech." Inside the file were detailed blueprints of many inventions, unknown to him and this world.

"Look at all this. 'repulsors', 'mutagen', 'tree house robots?' Look at this, it's a compact version of your armour. Whoever designed this is a genius. And this! 'Heal pulse emitters'! If I'm reading the calculations right, it's meant to stimulate quick and harmless cell regeneration to the point of healing! I could use this to cure Tadashi! But the materials required... oooh. They're not gonna be easy to get."

Meanwhile as Hiro engagingly scanned over the contents of the data chip as well as making mental notes of some ideas he concocted, Baymax had finished his internal system scanning, and had noticed a flaw.

"Hiro, I have some concerns."

"A-huh." He answered rather distractedly, still looking over all the files in the data chip.

His programming that once said 'You will not harm another human being' has become 'you can choose not to harm another human being'. Instead of being hard-coded into his programming, it's become an easily overridden subroutine. In other words, rather than an imperative, it's become a suggestion, one that he now actually has to consciously follow rather than being instinctive. Thus Baymax concluded that he may be malfunctioning.

"From my internal scans, it indicates that there is a fault within my programming."

"A-huh." Again, another distracted response.

Remembering the events that almost led to Callaghan's death at his own hands, and the minor injuries he may have caused to Hiro's teammates, Baymax silently decided that he should go somewhere else, since malfunctioning medical care units can possibly harm patients, especially with safeguards offline.

"In the interests of keeping you safe, I shall move to a secluded area where I can safely power down for repairs, since I cannot deactivate unless you say you are satisfied with your care."

"A-huh. You go do that."

Still distracted by all the data extracted from the disk, Hiro never noticed when Baymax walked out of the room.

Hiro hmmed as he scrolled through the contents of the data card. "Patients?"

He clicked on the icon, and was awarded with different video files and bio-data of many other patients. He quickly played a video of a cherry blond little girl playing in the snow, then to two boys, one with a triangular shaped head and the other looking like an "F", a platinum blonde little girl blast ice of all things to Baymax's hand, one depicting a purple unicorn, then one of a red lizard with a flaming tail and finally he glanced over one video about a rusty square-ish robot.

"Hmm. Interesting. Hey Baymax, do you remember any of these people?"

Finally noticing there was no response, did he turn to look at the room, empty of the huggable white robot.

"Baymax?" panic engulfed Hiro as he scrambled around the room. "Baymax?"

*Tire screech!*

*Beeep-beeep-beeeep!*

Poking his head out of the blinds, like he did the first time Baymax disappeared, his mind immediately went "Oh no." He looked out the window as Baymax waddled as fast as his short stumpy legs could go, not towards the abandoned factory where Callaghan was, but in the direction of the mountains.

"Oh no, Baymax!" he yelled as he scrambled for his clothes.

'Not again!'

Finally catching up to the white balloon, huffing and puffing mind you, did he stop to catch his breath, and saw that Baymax was sitting in a forest clearing completely alone.

*Huff**Huff**Huff*

"Baymax, are you crazy?! What're you doing?!"

"I was removing myself from your presence to safeguard you from any harm I can possibly create."

"Huh?"

Baymax explained the diagnosis of his internal systems, where his programming now is no longer followed the original settings. What Baymax doesn't know, is that from what is being explained, Hiro's genius mind went over all laws of robotics, and from that, did Hiro figure out that Baymax may no longer be following any of them at all. In other words, Baymax is now a robot with "Free Will".

"I do not wish to harm anyone." If Baymax had a face, he would be having a sullen expression as he looked down at his belly.

"Then don't."

*blink*

"Look, Baymax, accidents do happen at times, but part of having Free Will means that if you don't want something to happen, then you do your best to make sure it doesn't."

Hiro slowly walked up to the sitting robot.

"If you're worried about the time I removed your healthcare chip, then don't... That was my fault, not yours. I am never making that mistake again. That wasn't you, that was me. I programmed the karate chip, and I was the one who was angry to the point that for a moment, killing Callaghan was all that was in my mind. But you? You are a healthcare robot, one who was just given the 'freedom of choice'."

He placed a hand on Baymax's shoulder and looked at him straight in the eye. "You are what you choose, and those decisions will shape you to be who you are. You can choose to be healthcare unit, or you can choose to be a hero, it's your choice. Sure, it can be hard and scary at times, making your own decisions with no foreknowledge of what could happen, but that doesn't mean it's any less worthwhile. And you still want to help people, right?"

Baymax was silent for a bit, before answering.

"I do wish to fulfill my design as a health care unit."

Smiling, Hiro replied, "Well, you're not going to do that moping around here."

He reached out his hand. Baymax grabbed hold of it. Together, they hoisted his body upwards.

"I still have some concerns." (Looks like Baymax is still a bit indecisive. Let's remedy that, shall we?)

"You're just confused. Trust me; I know, after all, it's a human emotion."

Hiro wrapped his arms around Baymax's large waist. The marshmallow robot looked down at his patient/friend, and tilted his head in inquiry.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you a hug. It looked like you needed it." Hiro then proceeded to pat Baymax's head, akin to how he did it the first time, and using his words, said, "You will be alright. There. There."

If Baymax could smile he would right now.

"Now come on buddy. Let's go home."

"OoooOOookkaaAAyyYy."

"Baymax?"

"LoooOOoow BattteeeeErryyyyy." Baymax drooped a little as he swayed around like a guy on alcohol.

"Not again!" Hiro exclaimed as he slapped his hand onto his face, then proceeded to help Baymax drag his hide home.

2.15 (MrEgret and Evilhumour): [Disney] / [Kingdom Hearts] / [Keys to the Kingdom]

SATURDAY AND THE RABBIT

"Donald, are you saying that your plan to find our tickets to the opera... that took us months to get the money to buy... and that you lost after that freak windstorm... is to visit an ocean that exists outside of the known universe?"

"Don't worry about it, Daisy! Everything truly lost turns up there; we'll find it like that! Honest!"

"And how do you know that?"

"The Anchor from that universe told me so! You can ask him!"

"...Actually, I kinda want to see this for myself."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Oh boy, oh boy! I'll go tell Mickey and the others!"

"Okay, but if that bomb shows up again, there's going to be trouble."

In the middle of the endless storm, the little steamboat sailed on. Mickey was at the helm, naturally, and was doing his level best to keep the ship on course and right-side up.

"Riku!" he bellowed as a particularly large wave buffeted the ship, nearly sending him sprawling. "Do you still have that invitation?!"

"Yeah; I've got it right here!" Riku yelled back, holding it in his hand. Mysteriously, the invitation was completely dry, despite the pelting rain and crashing waves.

"Well, read it already! Donald and Daisy are running out of coal for the engine, and Minnie and Oswald say the darn thing's not going to last much longer in the storm anyways!"

"Aye-aye, sir!"

Riku wiped some of the rain out of his eyes, and tried to make out the words on the invitation. "I, Arthur Penhaligon, Rightful Heir to the House, invite the bearer of this invitation and his companions to join me and the Duchess Wednesday to a luncheon of seventeen removes, to be held a day from today, House time..."

Just then, the storm abruptly stopped, and the waves settled down to a much more reasonable level. The steamboat and its passengers were in a wholly unfamiliar section of Ocean. Despite only sailing a few miles away from the coast of Florida into the Bermuda Triangle, there was absolutely no sign of land anywhere.

There was sorcery on the air. Mickey could feel it in his bones.

"Well, fellas," Mickey announced, "here we are: the Border Sea! All hands on deck, so we can do a crew check!"

Meanwhile, in the Upper House, a particularly beautiful superior Denizen smirked as she read a report from one of her underlings. "So, the "Loopers" have arrived, have they?" she murmured to herself. "Excellent."

After a few hours of chugging through the endless Border Sea, Oswald saw a red speck in the distance. "Hey, Mickey! There's something ahead! Maybe a buoy!"

"I see it, Oswald! We'll be alongside it in a few minutes!"

Suddenly, a larger speck in the distance appeared, and started to grow in size, until it was no longer just a speck, but obviously another ship. Weirdly, it looked more like an office building that had been made to float, than like any actual ship.

Oswald pulled out a telescope to take a closer look. "Mickey! The other ship's picking up somebody from the buoy!"

Riku suddenly popped his head out of the window of the boiler deck. "That'll be Arthur," he announced. "I'll send him a ping."

There was a single loud chime on the air that reverberated through the Loopers' bones. Through the telescope, Oswald saw that nearly everybody on board the other ship had jerked to attention briefly before looking around in confusion. "Hey, Riku?" he asked. "Was a ping that loud really necessary?"

Riku frowned in confusion. "What? But I sent out the quietest ping I could manage. That shouldn't have happened at all..."

Suddenly, Mickey heard a faint shouting coming from the other boat. "We're being hailed! Where's my wand..."

He pulled out his wand from the Potterverse, pointed it at his own throat, and murmured, "Sonorus."

When he raised his voice again, it was as if he was speaking through a megaphone. "AHOY! THIS IS CAPTAIN MICKEY MOUSE OF THE STEAMBOAT WILLIE! PERMISSION TO COME ABOARD, SIR?"

It had not been a very good day for Arthur Penhaligon.

First, while he was recovering from his re-broken leg, his entire bed was swept into the Border Sea with him aboard, along with Leaf. He had no idea where he was or where she was, his cast was coming undone, and his bed was sinking.

He was able to grab ahold of the buoy, only for his hand to be stained red, and for those freaky birds to emerge and fly off while calling him a thief. Then, just when he was picked up by the Moth, that weird chime had gone off, and everyone except him had snapped to attention.

He knew of only one sort of being that could be responsible for this, and he was in no shape to take on one of the Morrow Days.

He clutched at the Mariner's Medallion, his only real defense, and thought, Mariner, I have no idea if you can hear me, but if you can, send help NOW!

His building state of panic abruptly turned to confusion when a steamboat that looked like it sailed out of a Walt Disney cartoon pulled up alongside the Moth, and the captain announced himself as Mickey Mouse. What the hell? Is this a trap or something?

Whether or not it was actually Mickey's voice, it seemed to shock Captain Catapillow. He couldn't' stop mumbling "Um", "Ah", or "Er," before turning to Dr. Scamadros. "Do you believe it to be prudent to let them onboard, Doctor? They may be Raised Rats looking for secrets to steal..."

Dr. Scamadros shook his head, as the tattoos on his face and neck changed from ticking watches to crowns looped around scepters. "Unlikely, Captain. None of the Raised Rats to our knowledge have the talent or the power to create a sorcerous chime of that magnitude. In fact, I believe that only a superior Denizen or similar creature of equivalent authority can do so."

"Oh dear. In that case, we should probably, ah, greet them. Mister Sunscorch, if you could..."

"Aye, sir!" Sunscorch replied, before turning to bark orders at the crew. Arthur started to move to get out of the way, but his busted leg put paid to that idea, and he collapsed on the deck.

Sunscorch pulled Arthur to his feet. "Easy there, lad," he cautioned. "You're no help to us with that bum leg of yours. You lot! Get Arth here down to the ship's doc, and get his leg fixed up!"

As a couple of Denizens supported Arthur and started walking him down below decks, he was able to catch a glimpse of several guy lines pulling the two ships together, and a rope ladder being brought out before the pain shooting through his leg made him black out.

In the confines of her office, Superior Saturday looked at the picture that her sorcerers had provided her of the 'Loopers.', complete with helpful notes and addenda on the sides. "Now, which one to bring to me?" she asked herself. "Not the female duck; she's barely more temporally significant than an ordinary mortal. I need a more experienced Looper to help me..."

She looked at the picture of the Mouse, briefly considered him, and then dismissed him. The last thing she needed was another rival, and according to the notes, he appeared powerful enough to rival even her glorious personage in strength.

She went through a similar thought process when considering the male duck and the silver-haired boy, but the rabbit caught her eye. "Oh? This one is different."

Yes, from the reports written on the margins, the rabbit was giving off a level of magical energy that was roughly equivalent to one of her sorcerers. Powerful enough to be useful, but not enough to be a threat to her exalted position.

Perfect.

She called the Sixth Key to her hand, and with a few quick flicks of the wrist, conjured a letter. She wrote out an invitation to tea for the rabbit, and him alone, to be held in her chambers forthwith. After folding it up, and sealing it with her personal seal, it was but a mere trifle to send the letter on its way. A regular Denizen would have to pay postage first, but she was Superior Saturday, and such concerns were beneath her.

"Soon," she whispered, "the Incomparable Gardens will be mine, as they should have been all of those years ago..."

Mickey and his friends looked up at the very confused looking men and women, who seemed to be better suited to be in an office then the seas, struggle with how to properly tie together the two ships. A man, the tallest of the bunch and dressed the best outfit out of them looked down at them, and bit his lip with indecision.

Finally, he turned his attention to Riku and spoke, "Um, ah, greetings Captain Mickey Mouse of the Steamboat Willie." He then turned his head to another man, and continued to go "um" as he tried to think of something.

"Wait a moment," Riku said, holding his hand up, "I'm not Mickey, he is."

He pointed to his friend, which caused all the being on the ship to wince, reminding Riku of what Arthur told him of Denizens. He decided to make it a bit easier for his friends. "Grand Keyblade Master Mickey, second to the Master Magician Yen Sid, King of his land, Captain of the Steamboat Willie, and other titles, may I help you up?" he asked. He gave his friend a sly wink, watching the Denizens straighten up and relax at the list of titles that Mickey had.

"Well of course, Riku, but I'd like Minnie and Daisy up first." Mickey smiled and nodded his head as the Denizens started to lower down rope for their group.

As the girls started to climb up the ship, they did not notice a speck flying closer to their group as few ever look up. As Riku climbed aboard the ship, and Oswald started to bring up the rear, the speck turned out to be an envelope that smacked him between the eyes and back down onto the deck of the steamboat.

"Oswald, are you ok?!" Mickey shouted, ready to jump back down.

"Yeah, not the heaviest thing I've ever got hit with," The rabbit grumbled, rubbing his head and looking at the letter. He stared at it; it was soaked with powerful magic and also had his name on it. Out of instinct, he opened it and frowned when there was nothing inside.

It took him a few second to realize the envelope was the letter and started to read it.

Greetings Oswald from the Secondary Realm, often called Disney Kingdom, first in precedence.

I, Superior Saturday, Mistress of the Upper House, Supreme Sorceress of the House, Wielder of the Sixth Key, do hereby invite you for meeting in my glorious chambers for tea concerning the matters of the Loops.

Crumpets will be supplied.

Superior Saturday

Oswald couldn't hold back his laughter. "Hey Mickey, can you believe this? I know you guys warned me how dangerous this Saturday chick could be and how crafty she is, but does she think I would really just go to meet her?"

"Yes I do, for that letter had a transportation spell weaved in it for once you finished reading my message, Oswald," a decidedly female voice responded.

Looking upwards, he could see he was no longer on his brother's steamboat but in a beyond fancy tearoom in front of a very beautiful and cross looking woman.

And in her hand was a peacock feather, the Sixth Key.

She then gestured downwards, which Oswald followed with his eyes. With a gulp, he picked up the cup and took a drink. "Huh, tea. Swell."

Superior Saturday and Oswald spent some time sipping tea in silence. While Oswald was loath to admit it, it really was rather tasty. He would have to filch some of it for Ortensia later on.

"So, Oswald, why don't we cut to the chase?" Superior Saturday asked, setting her cup and saucer down on the table. "What do you know about the history of this Loop?"

"Well, there's the basic stuff, obviously," Oswald answered calmly. "You and your cronies tore up the Will to prevent the universe from going kaput, but each of the individual pieces started messing with your minds so that you'll end up carrying it out anyways. Mister Monday picked Arthur Penhaligon, a mortal kid with asthma, to be the Rightful Heir as part of an attempt to exploit a loophole that would have left the Will impossible to fulfill, but through the First Part's meddling, he actually managed to survive. I'm sure you know the rest."

Superior Saturday nodded. "And the future? Does my invasion of the Incomparable Gardens succeed?"

"Nope."

Superior Saturday was momentarily stunned by the flat and matter-of-factly manner in which Oswald replied. Shock quickly turned to rage, and she rose to her feet. "No?! What do you mean, no?!"

Oswald was unimpressed. "I mean exactly that. No, your invasion does not succeed. In fact, it fails in the worst possible way."

Superior Saturday loomed over the rabbit, her beautiful features twisted in fury. "Tell me," she hissed. "Tell me how I fail, or I will strike you down here and now!"

"If you insist," Oswald replied. "Basically, the Piper returns after being thrown into Nothing, forms up an army of New Nithlings - essentially mortals with some extra bits wrought from Nothing-and launches his invasion around the same time as yours. While you find a way around the Drasil Trees' constant growth and actually get into the Incomparable Gardens, Arthur turns up at the worst possible moment to claim you Key, and your Army gets sacked by the Piper's. You surrender and become his Second in Command, only for him to stab you with a Nothing-poisoned blade when he finds out that you were the one to throw him into Nothing in the first place. A few minutes after that, Arthur gets the Last Key, Dame Primus merges with the final Part of the Will, and absolutely everyone dies."

He took a hearty bite out of a crumpet at the end of his spiel and gulped down some tea. Superior Saturday, not knowing what else to do, slowly sank back into her chair. "That's what happens? The invasion fails and my treachery is rendered moot?"

Oswald sighed. "Yes. In a baseline run, that is what happens. Your envy-driven plans lead to your own destruction, along with everything that you once stood for falling to Nothing. Bitter pill to swallow, isn't it?"

Superior Saturday could only nod. "Is there nothing that can be done to change this?"

Oswald poured himself another cup of tea. "There is one way."

"And what is that?" Superior Saturday asked.

"Let go of your envy, and call the whole thing off."

Superior Saturday was on her feet again instantly, and she was pointing the Sixth Key at Oswald's head like a revolver. "You DARE to mock me?!" she shouted.

"Not in the slightest, Superior Saturday," Oswald answered. "I've been down the road you're going down, and there's nothing there at the end. Nothing you'd want."

"And what makes you think that you can possibly relate to me? Tell me! Tell me!" she hissed, leaning down to stare him in the face.

Oswald suddenly grinned. "Perhaps I should show you."

Before Superior Saturday could react, Oswald pulled out a strange door-shaped device, and slapped it on her forehead. The door swung open, revealing a glowing vortex, and Oswald began to concentrate. Soon, an astral projection of Oswald formed, and floated into the vortex. If there was a telepath in the room, they would have heard one thing:

"Saturday's mindscape, here I come!"

The mental representation of Superior Saturday glared at the massive gray cloud, interspersed with earth and roots, which hung tantalizingly out of reach. She was so close to her goal, so close to reclaiming what was rightfully hers, she could taste it. All she needed was one more strong push, and the Incomparable Gardens were hers!

She clenched her fists eagerly, not noticing the faint outlines of vines that were forming all over her body. "Yes...soon I will reclaim what has been denied to me for so long..."

"Oh good!" an unfamiliar voice shouted. "At least we're on the same page!"

She spun around to see one of the many elevator doors surrounding her viewing platform open up, and disgorge a heaping mound of Censor parts. Standing on top of the resulting mess was a cartoonish rabbit dressed up like a classic British explorer, complete with pith helmet, false mustache, and machete. "Dr. Saturday, I presume?" he asked cheekily.

"Who... who are you, to enter my innermost sanctum?" she asked disbelievingly.

The rabbit ripped off the outfit, and took a bow. "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Psychonaut extraordinary, at your service!"

Saturday's psyche could only stare in disbelief. "What."

Oswald pulled out a set of battered files with a flourish. "You mentioned reclaiming what's been denied to you, right?"

"Yes..."

"Well here you are, then! One set of repressed memories, fresh from the vault!"

Saturday automatically reached out a hand to accept them, but before she could, the outlines of vines on her arms suddenly manifested, and jerked her arms back. "Argh! What is this?!" she shouted while struggling to break free.

Oswald started running forward to help her, when more vines exploded through the floor, coiling and writhing around like a bunch of crazy snakes. Saturday's vines quickly coiled around her midsection, pinning her arms to her sides. Tinkling laughter filled the air, as the central mass of vines began to sprout buds, which bloomed into beautiful-looking flowers. The largest flower of the bunch, with a bud wider than Superior Saturday was tall, blossomed to reveal the top half of a noble-looking lady dressed entirely in black. The vines wound together to form one large vine, and bent over so that the lady in the flower could take a closer look at Oswald. "So..." she began. "You're the one who's been meddling in this Denizen's mind, are you?"

"So what if I am?" Oswald answered. "I have a job to do, and I'm not going to let a bunch of stupid vines get in the way!"

The lady laughed again, and Oswald shivered involuntarily at the subtle, ugly undertones of that laugh. "It is no matter. Those vines can be regrown. Now, I believe that you've taken a few troublesome files during your little trip up here."

She extended her hand imperiously. "I'll thank you to hand them over to me for proper disposal."

Oswald pretended to think about for a few seconds. "...Nope."

The lady frowned. "The files. Now."

Oswald shook his head, as he put the files back into his subspace pocket. "No, I really think that Saturday needs to see these. Besides, why would I do business with someone who wants me and everyone I love dead, Part Six of the Will?"

The lady sneered at him, and the vines reared up to their full height. "You know who I am, and you still defy me?"

"What can I say? I've never been really big on authority figures. Kinda ironic, considering I am one back home..."

Oswald suddenly jumped to the side, and a vine shot up out of the ground, and slammed down where he was standing mere moments before. "Yes, let's try to catch the trained Psychonaut off-guard with a sneak attack!" he said sarcastically. "It's not like he's trained extensively in combat clairvoyance or anything!"

Part Six snarled in frustration, as multiple vines shot through the air, all aimed at Oswald's head and heart. He jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding getting skewered, and landed on one of the more horizontal vines. Using the vines like stepping stones, he bounced up to the top of the vine, where Part Six's main body was, and proceeded to do the unthinkable.

He, a mere mortal, punched one-seventh of the Architect's Will and Testament in the face.

Several vines crashed to the ground as Part Six was sent reeling, partly from the strength of the haymaker, and partly from the sheer audacity of what he had done. Saturday felt the vines binding her loosen, just a bit.

"Oswald!" she yelled. "Whatever you just did, do it again!"

"Gladly."

Oswald ducked as Part Six reared forward to grab him, the entire bud tilting along with the main body. He grabbed onto a petal, swung himself upwards, and landed on her back. He then proceeded to slam on her head repeatedly, his fists glowing with psi-energy. With every punch that landed, a few more vines dropped to the floor, and Saturday's bindings grew weaker, until at last she was able to break through them on her own. By that point, text was running like blood from Part Six's busted lip, and her face was starting to lose its coherence.

Oswald jumped off of his high perch, and landed more or less gracefully next to Saturday. "Now, how about that? Was that a beatdown, or what?"

Saturday looked past him, and her eyes widened. "I would be more impressed, Oswald, if she was not getting back up again."

She had a point. Part Six had forced herself upright, and she had a dangerous gleam in her eye. "You... DARE!" she screamed. "Insolent worm! You dare oppose the Will of the Architect?"

Oswald's ears drooped a little. "Oh boy."

Part Six threw her hands up into the air, and screamed, "Now, you shall know the fullest extent of my WRATH!"

Suddenly, every single vine throughout Superior Saturday's mental landscape changed into text, and flowed towards Part Six. She started laughing madly, as the text engulfed her, forming a dark cloud of adjectives and adverbs. As the laughter started to get increasingly rougher and scratchier, Oswald pulled out the files, and handed them to Saturday. "Read them, Saturday, from front to back," he instructed. "I'll try to hold off that mental construct for as long as I can, but for the love of Walt, read them! It may be the only way either of us will leave here with our minds intact!"

The dark cloud suddenly burst open, revealing that Part Six had transformed herself into a monstrous crow the size of a Boeing jumbo jet. She trailed three magnificent peacock feathers that vaguely reminded Saturday of the Sixth Key, and she had three eyes in each socket. She screeched horribly as she took to the sky, scattering inky-black feathers everywhere, before suddenly swooping at Oswald, talons bared. Oswald leaped way just in time to avoid being crushed, and was clipped in the shoulder by the resulting flying debris. He gritted his teeth, and began taking potshots at Part Six with psi-blasts.

As the battle between Oswald and Part Six raged on, Saturday ducked behind a pile of debris, and cracked open the files. Inside, there were a series of pictures. "Wait a minute..." she began. "Aren't these...?"

Suddenly, she cried out involuntarily, as a series of images flashed through her mind.

The Architect making her, the first Denizen, from out of Nothing, and placing her in the Upper House to maintain order.

The Architect splitting herself into her female aspect and her male aspect, the Old One.

Saturday looking over the Secondary Realms, with increasing levels of concern, as the Architect and the Old One quarreled.

Saturday reluctantly helping the Architect to seal the Old One away in the lowest depths of the House.

The Seven Trustees, discovering the Will of the Architect years after her disappearance, and tearing it to pieces.

Saturday, tossing the Piper into Nothing after he tried to claim the Incomparable Gardens for his own.

Saturday, looking upon Lord Sunday's Incomparable Gardens, as her piece of the Will whispered words to foment resentment in her mind, as it fell past her in the rain...

All of these images, Saturday dimly realized, were her memories, memories that the Will had stopped her from recalling clearly until now. But, there were another set of images interspersed with the first, images featuring a certain rabbit...

Oswald, being drawn by Walt Disney for Universal Studios.

Oswald, sadly waving goodbye to Walt as the former went to Wasteland and the other left to form his own animation studio.

Oswald, grumbling to himself as he read about how Walt's new creation, Mickey Mouse, was going on to fame and glory.

The Mad Doctor and Oswald, colluding to create animatronic pals similar to Mickey's friends, so that he could pretend to be Mickey.

Oswald, looking on in horror as a monstrous Blot ravaged his home, his people, and his family with the treacherous Mad Doctor's help.

Oswald, brooding alone in a cold dark room, next to the bottle holding the beast that petrified his wife...

All very grim images, similar to Superior Saturday's newly un-repressed memories. But, as Saturday looked on, the images began to change.

Oswald, meeting Mickey for the first time.

Oswald, teaming up with Mickey to save Wasteland from the Blot.

Oswald, hugging Ortensia after bringing her back with Mickey's help.

Oswald and Mickey, shaking hands, acknowledging each other as brothers.

Oswald, coming Awake to the Loops for the first time.

One didn't need to be Supreme Sorceress of the House to make the connection.

Saturday closed the files gently, and looked at the battle again.

Oswald was not in good condition. He was breathing harshly, and there were traces of ink dripping from several wounds all over his body. "Had... enough... you... old... crow?" he gasped, while clutching his side.

Part Six cawed harshly; presumably her way of laughing. "Now you see the folly of standing against the Will of the Architect? She created the totality of existence, of which you are merely an unfortunate by-product. I will re-establish myself in this Denizen's mind, and see to it that the Will is carried out. Have you any last words, mortal?"

Oswald grinned weakly. "Sixteenth-century... Italy... called. They want... their building style... back."

The raven glared at the insolent little mortal. "Then let the Will be done."

The beak came down, and Oswald knew that he wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time, not without opening himself up for a fatal gouge from the talons. He closed his eyes and waited for the beak to smash his skull in, and negate his astral projection with lethal amounts of feedback.

The blow didn't come.

Oswald waited for a few more seconds. The blow still didn't come. He opened his eyes, wholly expecting to be in the next Loop.

Instead, he found himself still in Superior Saturday's mental world, exactly where he was before the blow landed, with one noticeable change.

Specifically, Saturday was standing over him, and blocking Part Six's beak with a glowing blue shield half again as wide as she was tall. The files were nowhere to be found, and instead, she bore the peacock-feather quill of the Sixth Key in her hand.

Oswald smiled as he shakily got to his feet. "Found... something... interesting... in the... files... have we?" he asked as casually as he could manage.

"Oh yes, quite the read," Saturday replied calmly. "We must discuss them at length once you are out of my mind, but first, I have a few edits I need to make."

"Of course. I'll just... get out of... your way... then."

"Much obliged."

Oswald limped over to the elevator where he had come in, and collapsed on a soft-looking section of Censor parts, ready to enjoy the show.

The shield flashed and Part Six reeled back as if she had been hit. "WHAT?! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" she screeched.

Saturday flicked the Sixth Key and dismissed the shield easily. "Shut your oversized beak and listen, you pile of spelling errors."

"YOU DARE SPEAK BACK TO THE WILL OF YOUR LORD AND-URK!"

Part Six found herself quite unable to continue with her tirade, as her neck was suddenly ensnared with a great length of rope. Saturday smirked. "That's better. Now, let me explain a few things to you. I am Superior Saturday, the first Denizen ever created by the Architect. I was around when you were first written into existence, which makes me your superior as well, by dint of experience. Throughout your tenure in my mind, you have done nothing but addle my wits and lead me astray from my true purpose, which is to maintain the House and see to it that the Laws are upheld. You do not accept authority, and are a clear and present danger to the House and the Laws. Your continued existence is unacceptable, and will no longer be tolerated within the confines of this mind. Now, get out of my sight, and never return."

She punctuated every syllable of her last sentence with a swipe of the Sixth Key, which caused gaping wounds all over Part Six's body, and finished up by writing a single word with the Key: Erase.

Part Six let out one despairing, strangled cry, as a single massive Biblophage manifested in front of her and sank its fangs into her neck, causing her to dissolve into a disgusting pile of inky goop on the floor. The Biblophage slurped up the resulting mess, and then quietly dispersed into a cloud of Nothing that blew away on a passing breeze. At the same time, the clouds parted, and the mental Upper House was bathed in the glorious sunshine from the Incomparable Gardens. Oswald felt like applauding.

Mickey looked at Donald who also gulped from the glares that Minnie and Daisy were giving their husbands as they paddled on the Border Sea, with Riku and Suzy laughing up a storm from the adventure they had in the recently departed Duchess Wednesday. Leaf was shaking her head as well. This whole House thing was crazy enough, but the whole multiverse thing was beyond insane, and the fact that her parents were right was also scary in its own right.

"So, what happens now Riku?" Arthur asked, placing the third key into his belt, and he started to sink back into the water only to be pushed upwards by some unknown force. "You tell me that I do try to get home, but there is some sort of Nithling preventing me from doing it? I mean, I do understand that you said Leaf manages to get rid of it somehow but I really don't want to put her trouble."

"That won't be a problem Art!" a familiar voice shouted.

Everyone's head snapped to the side where an elevator's doors opened. A Denizen wearing a dove grey morning coat that wield a cane, surrounded by what could only be a full legion of Sorcerous Supernumeraries, stood behind a certain rabbit.

"Oswald, you're all right!" Mickey shouted with joy, seeing his brother back in one piece. He had thought that he would have to wait for the Loop to start over again to see him again, considering it was Saturday that kidnapped him.

"Sure am!" Oswald replied, as he walked towards the dock, with the Mariner finally showing up his own turtle ship with the Steamboat Willie being towed along.

"How are you still alive...and why are Saturday's goons with you?" Mickey asked with some concern, starting to bring out his Keyblade before he felt that ache in his mouth again. He was glad that he hadn't actually summoned his Keyblade yet; if a ping was turned into a fog horn, and if trying to summon a Keyblade was like an overload of pure magic, he was actually scared of what the actual presence of such a thing would do.

"Well, after I helped her clear up some trouble in her noggin, she was mighty grateful." He turned his attention to Arthur and his grin fell way to a simple smile. "She's destroyed your Cocigrue, Arthur. She also stopped all her plans against you, and has nearly all of her people willing and waiting to help repair the damages in the Far Reaches and the Border Sea. Also, she asked me to give you this."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out an object that caused every Looper's jaw to drop as well as the new Wednesday's Dusk.

"I, Oswald the Rabbit, Steward of the Sixth Key and the Upper House, do hereby grant you, Lord Arthur, Master of the Lower House, Lord of the Far Reaches, Duke of the Border Sea, mastership of the powers and domain per the desire and wishes of her ladyship Saturday."

Arthur blinked and then he shook his head. "I, Lord Arthur, Master of the Lower House, Lord of the Far Reaches, Duke of the Border Sea, do accept the Sixth Key, the Upper House and all the powers that fall beneath it." As Arthur spoke, the quill flew from the rabbit's hand towards Arthur's and surprising everyone, nothing physically happened to Arthur.

Blinking, Arthur placed a hand to his head and groaned. He then looked up at the wide grin that Oswald was sporting at everyone's low jaw. "Oswald, did you-"

"Yup!"

"Her ladyship does wish to meet with you, Lord Arthur." Saturday's Noon spoke, clicking his silver tongue. "By your reaction, I would assume you have 'Awoke', correct?"

"Yes-wait, are yo-"

"No, Lord Arthur," the Denizen bowed respectively, "All Superior Denizens, such as us true Dawns, Noons, and Dusks, as well as the Morrow's Days, are aware of the fact that time is repeating, but we cannot recall the time repeats. As the situation indicates, Saturday has overcome that limitation due to Lord Oswald's actions. She wishes to meet with you in an open council, well as start to train you in matters of proper House Sorcery, among other things."

Arthur stared at the Denizen for a moment before he answered, "I suppose, if Saturday has really changed, it would be nice to have her as an ally instead of a foe like always." Turning his head to his friends, and with a sad look as the Third Part of the Will had already disappeared on him (no doubt alerting Dame Primus of his 'betrayal') he asked, "Do you guys want to come? I mean, Leaf, you really don't have to get dragged into this mess, not if we can stop it this time."

Leaf shook her head. "If I'm going to be along for these 'Loops' like you said I am, then I want to be kept in the loop in case I really do wake up next time."

"You know me Art, I'm always up for sticking it to the old bat." Suzy grinned at him, her promise to behave properly forgotten.

"Likewise, buddy!" Riku shouted as he started to swim over to the dock. "I want to see more of this place, and I want to see if I got something that can give her a run for her money."

"And I am sure that I can finally get my papers now, Lord Arthur, now that we both have the Upper House working with us and my fellow colleague aiding me, right Noon?" Dr. Scamandros said with a bit of a hostile look in his face as he glared at Saturday's Noon, his tattoos showing cats and dogs hissing and snarling at each other. Sunscorch shook his head, clearly wishing to remain there at his post as Noon of Wednesday as well as Admiral of Lord's Arthur fleet.

"I suppose that can be arranged." Saturday's Noon responded with clear annoyance on his face and voice.

"Great!" Mickey shouted as his ship came within swimming reach, the Mariner helping the fellow captain up. "Let's get everyone settled and then we'll move on to meeting Saturday." He smiled, lending a hand to help up Minnie when Donald let out a shout of joy.

"Look Daisy, our tickets!" The duck held up the opera tickets to his wife. "I told ya we'd find them here!"

With that, everyone started to laugh as Daisy took a purse that she had lost long ago and started to smack her foolish husband.

2.1: Even if neither of them were Awake, this would still qualify as a "slow Tuesday."

2.2: An oldie but goodie from the MLP Loops.

2.3: The travels of a marshmallow robot.

2.4: It wasn't until it was too late that Vader remembered that he also let Goofy program the flight computer in his TIE Fighter.

2.5: The continued travels of a marshmallow robot.

2.6: The last time he tried Force-choking a robot was during a Fused Loop with the Terminator universe. It ended poorly, for everyone involved.

2.7: What do you know. An opera with a happy ending.

2.8: Genius and Caffeine: a winning combination.

2.9: Further wanderings of an automaton with the consistency of a popular spongy sugar candy.

2.10: Pluto would later receive one of his favorite doggy treats, and would play a game of fetch with his master. He considered this to be perfectly adequate compensation.

2.11: When she heard about the story later on, Trixie would rate it a "7 out of 10."

2.12: A boy and his robot, together again.

2.13: They were later awarded several million dollars from the franchise to which the hotel belonged, when they successfully argued in court that the abomination living within the hotel's walls ruled out by definition the possibility of the hotel becoming a death trap as an "act of God."

2.14: Baymax begins to follow in Pinocchio's footsteps.

2.15: Meet interesting people, and help them rip demonic legal documents out of their minds! Join the Psychonauts today!

Chapter Text

Author's note: This chapter consists entirely of Loops that were written and compiled in the MLP Time Loops prior to the founding of the Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops thread. It does not include a handful of Loops that involved the setting but no native Loopers.

Author's note 2: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-09. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

3.1 (Saphroneth): [Kingdom Hearts] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 19.5.

"Okay, guys," Sora said, summoning Fimbulwinter and Fafnir. The two keyblades crackled with frost and fire, and air began to swirl around him. "In fast, beat up Axel, then we can finally get our Gummi ship back this Loop."

"Gotcha!" Donald quacked, his own legendary weapon snapping with power.

He and Goofy fell in behind their Anchor, as he broke down the doors of Twilight Town's old mansion.

"GREETINGS!" a large, blue-black animal shouted. She (he?) reminded Sora of a cross between a unicorn, Hercules' friendly pegasus... and Saix, somehow. "YOU WOULD BE THE DESTINED CHILD WHOSE MEMORIES WE HAD TO REBUILD IN THY DREAMS?"

"Er... yeah?" Sora looked around, trying to spot something different. Nope, the mansion was the same as ever... but those winged-unicorn statues now looked kinda suspicious. "Where are you from?"

"EQUESTRIA." The... whatever-she-was said, lowering her voice enough that Sora could at least detect a gender. "NOW... WHERE IS THE NEAREST POOL? WE NEED A HOLIDAY."

"Filling in for Auntie Luna suuucks," Nyx grumbled. "Moon goes up, moon goes down. It's boring. Hmmm... wonder if I could make it go... sideways?"

Naminé shrugged. "I'm just grateful for the rest."

3.2 (Melavio): [Beauty and the Beast] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 19.13.

Rarity looked around as she Awoke, and noticed a few off things. First, she was in a castle that certainly was not the Royal Pony Sisters castle, nor was it Canterlot, nor even the capital of the Crystal Empire. Secondly, she was very much a human again. Lastly, and strangest yet, there was a candelabra and a clock that were currently conversing with her. They seem to be looking at her with varying expressions of worry and curiosity. Searching through her memories, Rarity noted that she was Rarity Belle and had come to this castle to beg for her father's release from the clutches of the evil Dragon.

At least Spikey-Wikey was likely in the loop with her.

"Ah! Mademoiselle, it is a pleasure to meet you! My name is Lumière, and this square fellow of mine is Cogsworth," the candle holder noted, gesturing to his friend.

"A pleasure to meet you Mademoiselle," the clock stated before bowing.

Rarity smiled and curtsied, "Why thank you for the introductions, monsieurs. My name is Rarity, and I'm looking for the Dragon to release my father."

Lumière's smile faltered, "Ah well, our Master is a bit temperamental, so let us go elsewhere first and-" *WOOOSH* A large creature descended from the rafters and landed behind the two animated objects. Gulping, Lumière and Cogsworth both turned around to find... their Master smiling tenderly?

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle Rarity. It is good to see you again," stated the large purple dragon. He bent down to take Rarity's hand in his claw and gave it a gentle kiss.

Good, Spike is awake this loop. "Enchente, Monsieur. As I explained to your wondrous servants here, I am looking to secure the release of my father."

Spike cocked an eyebrow, "I'm sure we can arrange something." Both of the loopers began to walk towards where Spike knew the dungeons would be, but were stopped by the loud rumbles of Spike's stomach and the matching sound from Rarity's. Both blushed before Spike spoke up. "Um... I don't suppose you would grab us a quick meal, would you Lumière?"

Looking back at the two, Spike and Rarity found Cogsworth desperately trying to clean his glass face and Lumière with his mouth open. Lumière quickly closed it as the question floated down to him and decided to go with the flow. Perhaps they would get this curse broken yet.

"But of course, Master. Follow me." Both loopers followed the bouncing candle into a grand hall before sitting down at an equally grand table. Coughing to clear his throat, Lumière began to speak.

"Monsieur and Mademoiselle. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight! Now, we invite you to relax, to pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents... your dinner."

"Marvelous," Rarity pronounced. "I must admit, I don't tend to eat meat, but this meal was good enough that I might – almost, almost! – consider doing so more often."

Spike nodded, seeing what she was actually saying. It was a reminder that she normally didn't have the palate for meat – on account of not normally being human.

"Anyway. My father?"

"Of course." Spike stood, hands on the table. "There is only one possible remuneration I can accept for releasing your father. Your service to me... forever!"

Rarity barely had time to react before Spike shrugged. "Worth a try. What about twenty years? Ten? Five? Okay, help me sort my wardrobe and a kiss for luck, and that's my final offer."

Unable to help it, Rarity burst out laughing. "You are the most atrocious negotiator I have ever dealt with!"

"Well, in my defense..." Spike paused, then shrugged. "Nope, got nothing. Anyway, my wardrobe?"

"Most certainly. Though it won't be any great hardship..."

As they left the room, Rarity frowned. "Wonder who the Anchor is? Maybe Twilight's around somewhere."

"Could be." Spike waved a hand – maybe yes, maybe no. "But then, this world's hardly small, and we could be on the other side of it from the anchor. Twilight was here once – she was a different kind of unicorn to normal, so maybe that's who the Anchor normally is."

Belle Bell, owner of a small bookshop in Ponyville, paged through a book on her counter. She was told by one of the local loopers, one Fluttershy, that the main anchor of the loop would be coming to meet her once she arrived from Canterlot. Belle was excited to meet another looper that loved books as much as she did. The door jingled, signaling a new entrant into the shop.

"Welcome to Belle's Books, where the whole world... is... *SNORT*" Belle was holding her hoof to her snout in order to contain her laughter. Before her was quite certainly the local anchor Twilight Sparkle. On her back was a quite familiar individual to Belle. If that individual was suddenly two feet tall and adorably fluffy.

The Beast snorted as Belle collapsed laughing. "I wanna go home."

3.3 (Masterweaver): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 26.8.

Twilight had a BRILLIANT plan this loop. She'd filled her friends in on it, arranged various spell matrices in the Everfree, and just managed to get back in time for the summer sun celebration. On cue, Nightmare Moon appeared, looking down at the crowd of ponies and going into her speech.

"And now, the night! Will last! Forever!"

Twilight smirked internally, opening her mouth--

"I wouldn't be doing that mate."

Twilight blinked.

A strange brown stallion, mane and beard tied up in dreadlocks and beads, swaggered forward. He was wearing a roughshod sort of jacket and a ratty old tricorn, eyeing Nightmare Moon lazily. The goddess of the night gazed down at him dismissively.

"And who are you to oppose me?"

"Oh, nonono. Not opposing the night thing, really. I'm just a humble sailor, stumbled into port for the Summer... set thing."

"...We're landlocked."

"See, that's the problem. I'm completely lost." The stallion waved around vaguely, half stumbling. "Sailor, use the stars to navigate. Love those things, by the way, great lil' pinpricks of light in the sky."

"Twilight," Rainbow whispered, "should we do something?"

The unicorn shook her head slightly. "I want to see how this goes..."

"Ah! So you admit the virtue of the night!" Nightmare Moon stamped a hoof. "Thank you, noble sailor. Now then--"

"But you see the problem is... if it's night here, then what's it out at sea?" The stallion held up a hoof. "Not. Not night. Thing of it is, if you're out at sea and it's day, you're completely lost. Less you find land. But that only ensures you're a little less lost, less you find a map. You need a lot more equipment when it's not night, then when it's night. You see? I love the eternal night, but put it here, landlocked, and when I get out to port I'm not going to be able to see the stars, lass."

Nightmare Moon blinked. "I... see thy reasoning, I suppose. Still--"

"Here's an idea. Let's make eternal night mobile." By now, the stallion had somehow stumbled onto the stage. "You and me, and all us night lovers, we go round the sea. And all the day lovers stay here, on dry land, and grow things. Then, when we get hungry, we walk up, take what we can, and sail off."

"Thou refers to piracy!"

The stallion considered her words. "Hmm. Yes, I think that is the right word."

"Why would we engage in such acts against those whom we wish respect from?!"

"Why wouldn't you? I mean, isn't that what you're doing now?"

Nightmare Moon looked genuinely shocked. "No!"

"Wait, so you're not asking for tribute?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Ah, sorry then. I think I misinterpreted things." He sighed. "Carry on with your hostile takeover, by all means."

Twilight tried hard to keep her face straight.

Nightmare Moon gave the stallion a long, strange look.

He tilted his head.

She snorted, and turned back to the now quite bemused ponies. "As we were saying, the night will last forever--"

"You know, I just realized something."

The alicorn growled, whirling on him. "What?!"

"I think, maybe, the night lasts forever anyway. I mean, the moon keeps moving, and the sun keeps moving, and really the only difference is which is in the sky. So keeping the moon where it is sort of seems redundant to me. Of course, I'm just a very lost sailor. Could be wrong."

"No," Twilight offered politely, "I'm pretty sure you're right." She got a brown hoof wave.

"So what I'm thinking is, keeping night here means that everybody else in the world, they end up not getting night. That doesn't seem fair to me."

Nightmare Moon stared at him as if he was insane.

"Show of hands! Sorry. Show of hooves, who here thinks that the night is too wonderful to keep locked on one place?"

Everypony in the hall shot up a hoof, Pinkie flipping over so all of hers could dangle upward. Nightmare Moon choked.

"Now, see, all these ponies love night so much, they want to share it... with the world. So, back to my original suggestion. Keep the eternal night, but keep it moving. Savvy?"

The black alicorn stared at him. "But... that's just the same thing as what there was before!"

"Is it?" He blinked, glanced up at the sky, and turned back to her. "I hadn't noticed."

Even Twilight wasn't sure if the stallion was being sarcastic.

Nightmare Moon held up a hoof, trying to formulate an argument, but her mouth merely opened and shut in confusion. Finally, staring out at the crowd, she released a frustrated scream. "FINE! Moving eternal night it is! But we're going to be watching closely and if we don't see proper respect for the night, we are going to stick Celestia back in the sun!" With a flash of her horn, she was gone, and a moment later Celestia stepped onto the stage slightly confused.

"Ah.... hum. Well. That was... not... expected..."

"I rarely am, love."

Twilight facehooved. Okay, time to host an intervention. Her horn glowed, teleporting the stallion and herself into the library; she had to figure out what the hay was going on.

"...so this is your first time outside your home loop?"

"I suppose it is." Jack shrugged. "Leastways, this don't look like anywhere in the Caribbean. I take it you've never heard of Davy Jones?"

"No. Well, welcome to Equestria, enjoy your stay, and if you do anything to destabilize or threaten the world I teleport you straight to the moon." Twilight smirked. "Other then that, you're pretty much free to do whatever, mister..."

"Sparrow Jack." He blinked and shook his head. "No, wait. Jack Sparrow. Captain. Captain Jack Sparrow."

"A pleasure to meet you captain. Oh, since it is your first time out of your loop, you'll need the Welcome to the multiverse speech. Oh I'm so excited, this is my first time giving it!"

Jack Sparrow suddenly felt a sinking feeling.

3.4 (Masterweaver): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 27.10.

"Jack. Sparrow."

The stallion turned around. "Twilight Spoirkle! Fancy seeing you on this fancy ship. Fancy, innit?"

The unicorn raised an eyebrow. "Yes. It's very fancy."

"Flying ships, I said. Flying ships. You know, that's very clever, I'm going to have to figure out this one."

"Do you know who this ship belongs to?" Twilight continued calmly.

"Hold up. Let me ask the crew. NAVIGATOR!"

A blonde pegasus saluted, swaying slightly. "Yes Captain?"

"Who does this ship belong to?"

"That'd be you, captain!"

Jack smiled, turning back to Twilight. "So, apparently, this is my ship."

The bearer of magic sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Cloudkicker, why are you helping him steal this ship?"

"Steal?" The violet pegasus fluttered over. "This. This isn't stealing. This ship is his, fair and square."

"THIS IS PRINCE BLUEBLOOD'S PERSONAL YACHT!"

"Was," Jack said calmly. "Right up till he gave me the deed, see, I've got a contract." He rustled at his pockets, muttering something about fingers before he finally pulled out a scroll. "Signature, legal mumbo jumbo, aaaaand... ah, seal of office. Which is his tattoo thing."

"Cutie mark," Cloudkicker corrected.

"That's what I said."

Twilight groaned. "I'd accuse you of casting some sort of spell if I could figure any of this out--"

"You hear that Berry? You're a witch!"

Berry Punch stumbled up from below deck. "Really? Want some of my brew?"

"Is it rum?"

"MOSTLY rum!"

"Bring it on up witch!"

The purple mare cackled as she descended again.

"We totally need to have a threesome with her," Cloudkicker commented.

"I agree. Twilight, care to join us?"

The unicorn let out a tortured groan. "Why are you being so... so childish?!"

Jack tilted his head. "I take it, that's a no."

"HOW DID THIS EVEN HAPPEN?!"

The pirate shrugged. "Funny story, really..."

Blueblood moaned as the light assaulted his eyes. "Ugh. That is the last time I ever drink... any. Any peasant drink. What was it called, Room or something?" He blinked and shook his head. "I should have it outlawed...."

He blinked again.

He blinked a third time.

He looked around his room.

His bare, unadorned, not-even-having-any-furniture room.

There was a frantic scramble to find his bed, before he realized it was out on the lawn... alongside every other item in his house... and a number of auctioneers.

"And that is why I am the grandmaster of liar's dice."

Twilight stared.

She couldn't figure out whether Jack was joking.

3.5 (Saphroneth): [Kingdom Hearts] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 29.11.

The pegasus looked around. "Okay, where the hell am I now? Donald, was this your doing?"

A unicorn trotted unsteadily over. "Wasn't me," he said, with a slight rasp to his voice. "I thought it was your clothes."

"Nope." The pegasus shrugged. "How are you doing with walking?"

"It ain't easy." Donald tripped and nearly faceplanted. "At least you've got wings, Sora. And experience at being four legged!"

"Hey, that's a point." Sora spread them, and flailed at the air until he was aloft. "I'll go look for Goofy."

"Sure, whatever..." Donald sat back, trying to work out how his magic had changed. And, for that matter, how to hold his staff.

"Huh, new Loopers," Twilight said, as Dash finished describing them. "Well, I don't recognize them from the description. One of each type?"

"Yep, same as usual." Dash nodded. "Strange thing is, only the pegasus is finding, well, walking easy. And even he moves more like Gilda."

"Really?" Twilight nodded. "Huh. Interesting. Well, I'd better go and meet them. Go let Princess Luna know, I think she's Awake."

"Aye aye, Twi!" Dash saluted, and vanished in a crack of displaced air.

"Oh, right..." Sora said, looking up. "So this is where you came from."

"It is indeed," Luna replied. "You would be Sora, yes?"

"That's right." The pegasus crossed his eyes, and a keyblade flashed into being between his teeth. "There we go, I've been trying to get that to work all morning..." he added in a mumble.

"You know him?" Twilight asked, interested.

"I Replaced one of the people from his Loop once," Luna explained. "That was the same Loop wherein little Nyx did my job."

"Oh, yes, the sideways moon incident," Twilight said, nodding. "Yes, you did tell me about that place. Keys, wasn't it?"

"Pretty much." Sora concentrated, and the keyblade flashed between a dozen different forms. "I've got a lot of choice by now. Anyway, what's your world like?"

"Mostly peaceful, actually..." Twilight said, shrugging. "We can handle most of the villains who show up just fine. Though, actually..." she trailed off, a grin spreading across her face.

"What?" Luna asked, seeing it.

"I was wondering how Sombra would react to being hit by a Keyblade." Twilight shrugged. "Should be interesting."

3.6 (Richardson): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 36.1

The sea babbled at the hull of the boat. It should have been a good sound, a welcome sound. So why did her head hurt so much? Her loop memories trickled in, tip-toeing around her semi-conscious mind.

"Oi, luv, my rum."

Her eyes snapped awake. Bad mistake, hangover plus mid-day sun reflecting off of the sea did not a charitable equation make. "Ooooh. My head."

"Well, that's what you get for drinking all of my rum. Here, take a bucket."

"To-URK- ugh, that in?" Twilight took the bucket, hiding it under her chin as her feet grew oddly wet.

"No, to bail out the boat it, though I have found it to be most delightfully useful for the first. We're sinking, and I would rather that we make our entrance to Port Royal in dryness and style. One must have a proper sense of showmanship in this line of work." The mysterious figure talked to much. Twilight tried to brain of who he was, but her think was broken and she had a case of the dumbs.

"Who are you again? Everything is all-JACK!"

"Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow. Good to see you're finally awake-awake. Ever since we met, this confoundable loop has kept on- what did your friend call it? Ah, yes, it kept on shipping me with you. My Rum please."

"The wha-? I was drinking this?"

"Quite fond of it." Jack took the bottle from her, distractedly pitching it overboard to her confusion. "You drank it all, love. Rum's gone. Now start bailing."

"Bailing, why-" Twilight stopped talking as a jet of water started hitting her in the face.

3.7 (Stainless Steel Fox): [TaleSpin] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 48.1.

Scootaloo Awoke looking through a grating. A quick self inspection first confirmed she had hands, but wasn't human, a pony-anthro? No, a pegasus anthro, though her wings were hidden under a shapeless green sweater. Down below a red wolf in a fancy braided jacket was going on in fractured common to a bunch of other dogs in various forms of scruffy gear about how rich the box sitting on the table in front of him was going to make him. Then the loop memories hit. Air pirates, the mouthy mexicano moron was one Don Karnage, and she was currently in an air vent on a pirate airship called the Iron Vulture. Awesome!

She was apparently one Scootaloo 'Scoots' Skyscorcher, and a soon to be ex-pirate cabin-boy. She rifled the memories, orphanage, bullied as a freak, while this world had bird anthros with wing hands, pegasi didn't exist, runaway, hooked up with the air-pirates because she was mad about planes. She'd managed to keep both wings and gender a secret from the bozos, which wasn't hard as apart from Karnage the entire bunch had more toes than brain cells. She'd been with them a year, gotten fed up a lot sooner, and wanted out.

Which led to her current situation. This was apparently Don Karnage's biggest score, stolen from some big wig industrialist by the name of Sher Khan, and she intended to steal it and set out on her own, acquiring a plane and license as soon as she was of age. As plans went, it was kind of shy on the fine detail, but then she was only twelve years old. Scootaloo decided to go with it, she certainly didn't know enough about the world to start making her own plans yet.

She opened the grating and dropped down onto the table beside the box. "Wow! That really is a neat treasure! No lesser pirate could have stolen it!"

As she expected the egotistical canine preened, "Yes, of course, I am the fantabulous Don Karnage yes/no?"

"Oh yes, and I wanted to thank you for teaching me how to lie, cheat and plunder. I guess you could call this my final exam..." She scooped up the box and sprung over his head, dropping the red bandanna that showed her pirate affiliation over his head. Using the head of the largest pirate, Dumptruck, as a stepping stone, she landed at the door and kept running. Thankfully this body had her regular lightning reflexes and acrobatic skill.

"It was... wait what?" The pirate finally caught up and yelled, "Stop that boy!"

Scootaloo charged out of the control room and down metal gantries, yells and cries following her. She met some pirates on the way down and yelled, "Get up there and help the Captain, right away!"

As they ran upstairs, she thanked Celestia for stupid villains. Dropping down to the floor of the main hangar deck, she snatched a grapnel launcher from the rack of blunderbusses along one wall and charged towards the open hangar door, shaped like a raptor's beak. Ignoring the yelling growing behind her, she charged up to the lip and dived off. She barely heard from above Don Karnage's voice yelling, "No, my treasure!"

Plummeting from several thousand feet would be a concern for most people, even a pegasus whose stubby wings didn't allow her to fly. She had plenty of fixes in her subspace pocket, but she decided to get some practice with her in-loop abilities. Her wings popped out of slits in her jumper and she angled her body to power dive towards a cloud, and plunged into it, arresting her fall. Her cloud-walking abilities were another secret she'd managed to keep from the pirates.

She popped her face out of the cloud to check the giant air-ship above her, which was already shedding single engined biplanes like a dog shedding fleas. Whatever else there was nothing wrong with their reactions when it didn't involve actual thought. They plunged after her, and she made sure none of them were headed right for her hiding spot before ducking back in. She tucked the box inside her jumper and made it secure.

She let them dive past her and buzz around below as the cloud floated away from the search area. As she waited for them to drift out of sight, she directed a thought towards Pansy. Any luck finding other loopers?

No-pony from our world, though they may simply be out of range. Locally, I don't have enough to work with yet. Clover's the real expert.

Don't do yourself down, I wouldn't trade you for a dozen Clovers. Keep trying.

She got an impression of appreciation from Pansy, and the question, So what's the mission plan?

Get to this Cape Suzette place where Shere Khan is, return his property, see what we can get out of it, if anything. After that, who knows, ascend and age myself a couple of years then go after a plane and a pilot's license. From what I know, this world is practically built for pilots. Which means I could have a huge amount of fun here. If I don't find some kind of quest... this looks like the sort of world that'll have one, and I tick all the boxes for a starting out hero.

The pirates had moved out of sight, and Scootaloo figured it was safe to move. She pushed her way down to the bottom of the cloud, and peeked out. Aha, a twin engined cargo job, just what she needed. She quickly fixed pads of clouds around her hooves, and power dived again, unslinging the grapple gun. A quick shot and a dash of weather magic wrapped the grapple around the leading edge of the rudder, and she swung her feet under her, pumping weather magic into them to act as flying skates. Her in-loop self didn't know how it worked, just that she could do it. Her wings could propel her as well, but not as fast as even a slow plane, and unlike her wings, a plane didn't get tired.

She'd been careful to dive below the pilot's line of sight, as the last thing she wanted was for anyone to see her abilities. After about half an hour, they started descending towards a tropical island with some sort of resort that looked to be part tree-house, and partly built out of a wreck of an old galleon. Various wooden docks stuck out into the water at odd angles, with dozens of seaplanes of various makes and models moored at them. The big neon sign said 'Louie's'. Now this looked like a fun place...

She unhooked the grapple gun and let it drop, flying down under her own power, looking for a quiet spot to land. She found it on a beach a short way around from the main docks, and made a neat two point landing. Folding her wings back inside her jumper, she strolled around and climbed up the docks and to the main entrance. She could hear singing from inside, some guy going on about how he was 'gone'. She slipped in the door to see filled tables and a big bear in a flight shirt and wearing a fruit salad on his head singing and dancing. However, he did seem to be looking towards the door and did a double-take as she entered.

Noting it for future reference, she made her way over to the bar where an orangutan in a Hawaiian was mixing up some cocktail concoction. She bounded up onto a stool and waited for him to notice her.

"Hey, short stuff, where'd you spring from?"

"Just flew in, but now I'm here, and I'd like a drink." She pulled an Equestrian bit from her subspace pocket. "I don't have local money, but I can pay."

The orangutan picked it up, weighing it in his hand, bit it and tapped it against the counter. "Well don't that beat all! Where'd a little guy get something like this?"

"Family heirloom." Scootaloo shrugged. "So, it'll cover a drink and a meal?"

"Cuz, if this is the real deal, you're covered for pretty much everything. Oh, hey Baloo, sounds like your pipes are all in tune."

"You know it Louie, heh... mind if I borrow your new friend for a minute?" The big bear was trying to sound relaxed and failing.

"Not my call cuz." He indicated the bear to Scootaloo, "This is Baloo, best pilot in the skies. He's good people. If you like planes, he's the guy to talk to. Tell you what, I'll make you one of my triple split specials. Finest sundae west of Timbucthree."

"Sounds great!" Scootaloo looked over at Baloo. "One for Baloo here as well?"

"I never pass up free eats." Baloo's voice was jovial, but still strained. He waited until Louie had moved away and said, "Who are you, and where's Kit?"

"The name's Scootaloo Skyscorcher, and the only kit I've got is what I'm wearing. Let me guess, you're a looper, and I've replaced someone called Kit who you were expecting instead."

"Hey yeah, but what's a looper... are you talking about the way things keep happening over and over?"

"Oh horse-feathers, sounds like you're new to all this. How many times has it happened for you?"

"About thirty, forty times, you know what's going on?"

"Oh pony, looks like my turn to give the 'welcome to the multiverse' speech." She glanced around, and whispered, "Pansy, holo-projector and a perception filter please."

She proceeded to give him loops 101, complete with pretty pictures. Over the loops they'd gotten it down to a fine art. As she put away the projector. "To sum up, looks like you're Anchor for this world, Kit will return next loop, and from how close you two are, he'll probably start looping soon too."

Baloo was shaking his head. "Kiddo, that's gotta be the craziest story anybody's ever tried to sell me. But I never saw anything like that gadget you pulled either, so I guess I've gotta believe it. So where's little britches?"

"Could be he's skipped this loop, could be he's swapped with me. Pretty much anything can happen with the loops."

"Great and Powerful Trixie, you've got to vanquish the ursa."

The Unawake stage magician freaked as she watched two hundred hooves of astrological ursine stride down the main street of Ponyville. "But... no-pony can vanquish an Ursa! I just made up the story to make my act better!"

Snips and Snails went through the border checkpoint of 'Uh oh!' and joined her in the land of freaking out.

She mustered her magic, got ready to try and stop it, when the beast's jaws gaped, and it said in a surprisingly teenage voice, "Hey, pony lady, I don't want trouble, I just want someone to tell me what the heck is going on! What kind of crazy dream is this? I go to sleep in my bed at Higher for Hire, and next thing I'm waking up in some cave somewhere with those two running around my feet! What am I, what are you, what's going on?"

"What? What..." Trixie was eloquent in her incomprehension, at least until her eyes rolled up and she fainted.

"Well that was helpful." The bear groused. "You two, do whatever you do for fainted ponies, I'm sitting right here until someone comes up with some answers." He sat back on his haunches in the main square, carefully, checking to see he didn't crush anything by accident.

"So what normally happens next?" Scootaloo asked, as Louie brought over their triple split sundaes, towering concoctions of fruit, ice cream and whipped cream.

"Don Karnage and his yahoos generally show up, looking for Kit and that gem. I usually have us hightail it out of here before then, but I don't think we can make it..."

The doors slammed open, and Karnage and his goons strode through them. Scootaloo dropped down behind her stool and whispered, "You go get your plane started, I'll distract them."

"You sure kiddo? These are dangerous guys."

"Don't worry, I've got this. Make sure those sundaes are to go, I'm not missing out on that."

"I am sorry to fracture the festivities," the pirate captain announced, walking in and picking up a drink off the table, "but I have a little announcement."

Scootaloo was already using the tables as cover to get around to a balcony, the perfect place to attract their attention. Meanwhile Karnage was wasting time posing and threatening Louie. Oh, he was getting extra for that!

She got in position and made her preparations just as one of the pirates fired a warning shot at the roof.

"Hey, no need to wreck the place, Karny!" she called out. "I was just leaving anyway!"

The red wolf crook's head snapped round, and he yelled, "Get him!"

Three pirates charged up the stairs towards her just as she jumped up on the rail, snatching a tiki mask to use as an improvised board, and slid down the bannister, springing and tumbling over the hands that grasped for her. She'd already plotted her route from when she flew off the end, and spun end for end while grabbing a bowl of soup from a passing table. The pirates finally managed to get themselves turned round and followed her back down the stairs. As they did, she flung the bowl to smash just under where the lead pirate, a whiny suck-up be the name of Mad Dog was about to put his foot. He slipped, fell and in the process tripped the pirates charging down after him, leaving them in a nice pile at the bottom of the stairs.

Of course, Scootaloo had other problems to cope with, namely a problematic pirate captain with a pointy cutlass who'd jumped into her path, legs wide and sword out. She'd turned back to face him, and he sneered at her. "It is the funny joke you are making, but I shall have the last ha ha!"

"Pass!"

Scootaloo snatched the nearest thing she could see, a serving fork from a half eaten roast, and folded backwards, limboing low on her board to slide between the pirate's akimbo legs, and fending off the cutlass with the fork. Just to finish off, she prodded him from behind with the fork as she slid onwards, sending him jumping with a yowl of pain.

She straightened up just in time to push her way through the now empty doors, and cursed not having enough time to say something like, The forks are strong in this one... Pansy, who'd gotten caught up on hub universe fiction, groaned inside her head. She was heading down the pier, slowing as she ran out of momentum, and at the end was a yellow cargo seaplane with a red bow and its engines turning over.

Baloo stuck his head out the open door. "You okay, kiddo?"

"Never better!" She bounded off the tiki mask as she noticed a familiar heavily armed tri-plane docked near him. "Get moving, I'll be along in a moment!"

She might not be in Apple Bloom's league when it came to gadgets, but she knew something about aircraft engines. She flipped the cowling and ripped out a number of important wires, throwing them out to sea.

There was a howl of fury as Don Karnage burst out of Louie's, followed by his goons. "Stop him... Shoot you ridiculous rodents!"

Scootaloo ducked as a blast from a blunderbuss shot over her head, then weaved her way along the dock as other blasts peppered the air around her. At least one took off half the propeller of another pirate biplane. She reached the already moving Sea Duck and dived through the doorway, slamming the door after her.

"I've bought us some time... Maybe I should have flown it away... no, too much start up time."

The seaplane was already surging forward under Baloo's skilled coaxing. "C'mon baby... wait, you can fly?"

"Anything from a Sopwith Camel to a Star Destroyer!" Scootaloo responded proudly, "Though in-loop, not yet, though I've been mad for planes as long as I can remember."

"Well you'd better buckle up!" The Sea Duck lurched as the keel unstuck from the water and it soared up into the sky. "Yahoooo! Oh man, there's no better feeling than hitting the blue!"

Baloo threw the Sea Duck into a barrel roll, taking the chance to check the island below, "Hey, looks like you got Don Kebab and his mixed meatheads all riled up."

"That was the idea. You should know that while that guy can keep an idea in his head, unlike the rest of them, two is beyond him. I didn't just escape, I publicly embarrassed him. He's going to want to catch me alive himself simply so he can personally chop me into bite sized pieces. That means he's not letting the rest of his goons follow us until his plane's fixed, and it should keep him from taking it out on the bystanders at Louie's."

"Yeah, but when he gets fixed up, he's going to be after us horse, foot and marines."

Baloo was slightly shocked by the calculation in the young ponies voice, and some part of it must have leaked into his voice, because Scootaloo looked over at the bear in the pilot's seat, then turned and hung her head. "I'm sorry. I've kind of taken you for granted. I'm not your friend Kit, I'm just someone who met you a few hours ago and already I've dragged you into danger with me."

"Hey kiddo, don't sweat it. Ol' Karny and me have crossed propellers plenty of times, and he's always been the one who ditched at the end of it. Besides, I'd never leave anyone in the clutches of that two bit pirate."

"Well anyway, thanks. So where are we heading?"

"Cape Suzette, you're going to love it!" They were straight and level, and he looked over at the pegasus, grinning. He flipped open a compartment to reveal two slightly melted triple splits. "I even got dessert. Chow down."

It only took a few moments to polish off the sundaes, and Scootaloo looked over the plane she was in properly for the first time. The cockpit had the look of long use, but had been well cared for and extensively customised. Some of the tweaks almost seemed familiar. She consulted her in-loop memories. "Wow, this is a pretty sweet setup. A Conwing L-16 with Super-Flight 100 customised engines? This thing must really move!"

"Good eye kiddo!" Baloo patted the console. "Yup, she's my baby. Me and Wild Bloom have spent a lot of time getting her just right... Wait... what?"

"If that's who I think it is, sounds like I'm not the only fused looper. Earth-pony, good with gadgets? Yellow coat, red mane in a bow?"

"Pretty much, though she wears a jumpsuit... Except she should be a male lion called Wildcat. But I remember meeting up with her, working together on the Sea Duck, everything just as clearly. Oh man, this is too weird!"

"Welcome to the wonderful world of fused loops. Your in-loop memories say one thing, your real memories say another. We've gotta get you doing some mental exercises to help you keep things straight."

"Whoa, I ain't any kind of brain, kiddo." Baloo shook his head.

"Neither was I, but even I managed to learn them. Besides, if you can get it down, you can learn to create a sub-space pocket, a way to store things so you can carry them between loops."

"Now that sounds like a mighty useful thing to know!" The big bear glanced over at the young pony, who was looking at the control yoke in front of her with a familiar eagerness. "So, you said you can fly. Can you fly a Conwing L-16?"

"Never tried, but I'd love to find out!" Scootaloo reached out and took hold of the yoke, closing her eyes for a moment as her fingers closed around the grips. She seemed to freeze for a moment, attentive to something only she could sense. "Hello, Sea Duck. Baloo's lucky to have you."

Baloo had seen Kit take his first grasp of the Sea Duck's controls dozens of times, and for all his natural talent, he was quite naturally somewhat clumsy when he actually took the yoke. Scootaloo was different. When her eyes opened, they flicked back and forth across the instruments as easily as his own. She held the Sea Duck steady and on course like a veteran pilot, and he started to believe what she'd told him, not just with his head, but with his heart.

"Can I, please?" she asked, and didn't need to say more. At his nod, she started doing gentle turns and banks around their base course. She'd flown planes far faster than this, and far more advanced, but she could feel that this one, for all it's primitive technology and limited flight envelope was something special. What she really wanted to do was try out some real stunts, she knew the Sea Duck could take them, but she was only too aware of the privilege she'd been given by flying the Sea Duck at all, and she didn't want to abuse it.

However, her piloting experience included a lot of combat flying, and it was that that caused her to suddenly go into a wing-over and dive.

"Hey what the..." Baloo was answered by the whistle of machine gun bullets behind them.

"Six coming in four o clock high!" Scootaloo rapped out, putting the Sea Duck in a tight roll that put her into a nearby cloudbank. "You have the stick?"

Baloo had grabbed his own yoke as soon as they'd started spinning, but he'd let Scootaloo complete the manoeuvre, as it was pretty much what he'd have done himself. "Roger little dodger, now watch this pre-formance!"

The cloudbank ran out unexpectedly, ejecting them into a maze of towering storm clouds, lightning crackling around them. The pirate biplanes shot out a few seconds later, but scattered and no longer in the deadly staggered echelon formation they'd previously held. Baloo played an expert game of tag with the pirates, swooping, zooming, turning and spinning to somehow out-manoeuvre fighters in a cargo plane.

Scootaloo was itching to get involved, but this was Baloo's world and his plane. She wasn't used to being a passenger while somepony else was paying the freight. However, she tried to sit back and appreciate the big bear's clear mastery of the situation. At one point he managed to do a wing-over and return to fly straight through the bad guys, scattering them like pigeons, then trolled them into following him into a power dive, right to sea level.

The seat of her pants that Scootaloo wasn't wearing felt distinctly uncomfortable as they headed for the water, but it was clear Baloo had some plan in mind, and she managed to hold on to her impatience and the sides of her seat as at the last split-second he pulled a lever whose function had puzzled her and leading edge flaps flipped up, altering the angle of attack and giving him the lift to pull out into level flight. Several splashes behind them indicated the lead pirates hadn't been so lucky.

"Okay, now that was cool!" The pegasus glanced up and back. "But there are some still up there and they've got us pinned against the sea. I've got some tricks of my own that might help..."

"No need kiddo, see those puffs of smoke?" Baloo pointed to some cliffs ahead with a narrow gorge between them. There were white puffballs appearing from around the tops.

"AA Fire?" Scootaloo asked, and was answered seconds later by bursting noises from above. She glanced out of the window and saw explosions above in the heart of the pirate pack. They scattered and high-tailed it out of there with Karnage's plane in the lead.

"Yep! The cliff guns of Cape Suzette. Drives 'em crazy!" Baloo said with a lazy grin as they climbed away from the sea. Scootaloo switched her gaze away from the approaching cliffs and to her companion, who was relaxing back in his seat.

"You know, you remind me a lot of Rainbow Dash... I think you saw her in the pictures. She's the rainbow maned pegasus and she's the most awesome flyer in Equestria. She's also the Element of Loyalty and would never leave some-pony hanging."

"Sounds like you think a lot of her."

"Well yeah, she basically took me under her wing, taught me everything she knew and is pretty much my big sister. I guess you and Kit have something similar. I really hope he starts looping soon himself. You both deserve it."

There was no calculation in the pony's voice this time, and Baloo made a decision. "Well until he gets back, seems I'll be needing a replacement navigator. You up for the job?"

"Am I ever!" Scootaloo returned eagerly.

"Then welcome aboard, Scoots." Baloo opened a storage compartment and handed her a green baseball cap. She put it on as they flew through the gorge and out into a wide lagoon.

"Oh, wow!" Once again, Scootaloo had seen far larger and taller cities in her time, but this was one of the prettiest. Art deco towers with sky bridges made a wide crescent around a vast lagoon with an island in it, and were built back into the hillsides of the bowl that enclosed it. And everywhere there was air-traffic, dirigibles, sea-planes, flying back and forth. It made Canterlot sky-port look like a village cross-roads in January.

She noticed one of the biggest towers had a logo which her in-loop memories told her stood for Shere Khan, and that jogged her memory. She pulled out the box. "Oh, hey, I've still got this. Want to hand it over to Khan before Karny and his merry mutts make another grab for it? In short, what's the plan, big man?"

"Huh, normally Kit hides it back at Louie's... Welp, I hook up with Kit, head on back to base, find out I missed the last six payments on the Duck and have to stump up three large ones, three thousand bucks or they'll foreclose at nine tomorrow." He grinned. "Of course lately, as soon as I find myself back at Louie's at the start of each... loop? I ring up a bookie in Cape Suzette and put on some accumulators I know will pay out. Easy money.

"But first time round, we did a high ticket mission which I blew when Karny captures Kit, and he offers to share the reward for the gem in that box, except it's not a gem, it's some sub-electron dohickey that can create a lot of power. Khan's willing to fork over a solid hundred thousand for it's return, and Karny wants to use it to build a lightning cannon to come plunder Cape Suzette."

He shrugged. "Man, first time round we went all over the place to try and get that thing back. Turns out Becky, that is Rebecca Cunningham, bought up the company from the bank to run, which made her my boss. Now I don't fuss about business, flying's all I'm interested in, so I was trying to find the fifty k to buy myself out of hock. Cutting out the drama, the pirates make their play, we stop them, destroying the stone in the process.

"I end up back behind the eight ball, flying for Higher for Hire, Becky's new name for the company, with her as the boss lady. Of course, now I've been round the block a couple dozen times, I can get round that easy enough, and did, but you know, it's like that time I saved Khan's life and he gave me pretty much anything I asked for, or when I found out I'd inherited a fortune and a big house. It got lonely being just me, or even me and Kit. So now I let her buy the place just to get her involved."

"Sounds like quite a lady." Scootaloo replied. "Is she your special some-pony... some-body?"

Baloo barked out a laugh. "Me and Beckers? Not in a million years! We'd drive each other crazy, heck, we do drive each other crazy! She's a stickler for everything being just so, and I like to take a more relaxed att-i-tude. She's pushy, bossy, mercenary, comes up with crazy moneymaking schemes at the drop of a hat... and she's someone I'd trust with my life, and a good friend."

"Except for the moneymaking part, that sounds just like another friend of mine, Diamond Tiara. I wonder if she'll be showing up here. If Apple Bloom is here, we might see some others..."

"Man, how many more are there?"

Recounting the other members of the Crusaders took them all the way round the bay and until they taxied up to the dilapidated dock that led to the ramshackle building that housed 'Baloo's Air Cargo Service'. Except the was freshly painted and now said, 'Higher for Hire'.

"What the Sam Hill?" Baloo shook his head in disbelief, and stormed out of the Sea Duck and up the dock.

A pink female pony of more adult proportions with wavy purple hair held back with a bandana was backing out of the doorway. She wore a white turtleneck and violet slacks, and was carrying a bale of old newspapers neatly tied up with string.

"Hey lady, who are you and what do you think you're doin'?" Baloo called out.

She dropped the bundle besides a bunch of others and turned to face him. "The name's Tara, Tara Cunningham, and as of 9 am this morning I own this place and that plane."

"But that's not till tomorrow, and you ain't Beckers..."

Wild Bloom came out, equally grown up, wearing a tatty set of overalls and carrying a box of junk. Her mid-Usland accent was even more pronounced than usual. "Sorry Baloo, I tried to boost the radio to get you the message, but the bank came with the paperwork yesterday. She's got a bunch of lawyer's papers and everything."

Baloo started to get mad, then realised something. "Then I've got just one question for you all. Are you Awake?"

The stress he put on the word clearly hit a bullseye. Tara slumped slightly and said. "Oh darn, and I wanted to see if I could turn this place into something that could give Khan Industries a run for their money."

He heard Scootaloo's voice behind him. "Guys, this is Baloo Von Bruinwald, Anchor and our host for this loop. He's still in his first century. I gave him the intro speech and told him about us. Do we have Sweetie Belle and Nyx on board?"

The two ponies in question came out, younger than usual and wearing rompers. Sweetie Belle exclaimed, "Present, and I hate being a rug-rat!"

Diamond Tiara waved a hand at them and said, "Meet my 'daughters', Belle and Nyx Cunningham."

Wild Bloom rubbed the back of her head and said, "Sorry guys, but this world doesn't have computer records, if you want to bump your ages a bit, it'll have to wait until we can find the paperwork and rig it."

Baloo was looking around at the five of them, and just shook his head. "Man, and I thought my life was complicated enough already!"

Scootaloo grinned as she joined up with the other Crusaders. "Don't think of it as complicated, think of it as interesting!"

3.8 (BlankSlate): [Gargoyles] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 51.7.

Twilight's head tilted so sharply she felt her neck crack. Ponyville had looked completely normal when she'd arrived there. No-one else had been awake, so she'd decided to take a mild vacation and run a vanilla loop.

Now, she was kind of regretting that idea.

The Castle of the Two Sisters was... rather different from what she'd expected. Instead of the graceful lines and elegant style of the Castle she was used to, this castle was...

...well, rather obviously actually a castle. In the sense of a fortified structure, with all the heavy, rugged stonework one would expect from a place designed to withstand an active siege. A forty-foot tall rampart guarded the interior buildings and towers, with sturdy battlements and wall towers at the corners providing cover for the massive (though rusted and, unfortunately, closed) iron portcullis at the gate.

Toss in that the whole thing was actually on a massive promontory sticking out over a lake that didn't exist in the baseline and Twilight was suddenly sure she was sitting in a fused loop.

Right about that moment was when she caught notice of several fliers inbound, coming from the castle. A howl split the air, and Twilight's head jerked down to see what seemed to be a massive diamond dog jump off the walls and run towards her and her friends. Answering cries came from above as five pegasi descended.

Even before they got close, Twilight could clearly see that the approaching pegasi were.. not the normal type. For one thing, their eyes were all glowing a brilliant green-tinged white. A quick glance down showed that the approaching diamond dog had the same eyeshine.

"Do you think Nightmare Moon has them under a spell, Twilight?" muttered Rarity. "Pony eyes don't... glow that way."

"I think a better question," Dash butted in, "would be why do they have wings like a bat?"

Twilight shook her head, though the combination was niggling familiar in the back of her mind. Glowing eyes, bat wings, howling...

Four of the fliers stayed above as one descended to land. Twilight set herself, ready to take action... only to realize that the pegasus just kept getting bigger. A moment later, the massive black-maned pegasus landed, and Twilight shivered.

The bat-winged pegasus was even taller than Celestia. More, it was massively built, to the point that in comparison Snowflake was a starving half-grown colt, though this one had wings appropriate to the great mass of the pegasus.

The eyes flared slightly brighter for a moment before the light faded away, leaving a pair of dark, yet otherwise normal eyes. "What brings you to this Castle?" The voice was deep, powerful, and male.

And familiar...

Twilight barely kept from yelling aloud. And just as tightly kept her body tense; suddenly relaxing as she now knew (well, 97% certain) that these newcomers weren't a danger to her or her friends would set off suspicions everywhere.

"I am Twilight Sparkle, student and protégé to Her Highness Celestia. I have journeyed here with my friends in search of the magics needed to defeat Nightmare Moon."

The pegasus growled low in his throat. "I and my clan will aid you then. This... Nightmare Moon is our enemy as well." He motioned to those above, who likewise descended.

"Yay!" cheered Pinkie. "So what's your names? We need to get the party planned for new friends!"

"Ach, always with names," grumbled an old brown pegasus with a scar across one eye. "Everything must always have a name."

"It never fails," chuckled the red pegasus with a white mane. He, and the last two pegasi, were all clearly younger, about the age of Twilight and her friends.

Twilight let her gaze wander from a chubby blue pegasus to the last, a green pegasus slightly smaller than the others who had no mane, as their leader nodded firmly.

"I am called Goliath. And this is my clan..."

3.9 (Detective Ethan Redfield, Gulping): [Gargoyles] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 67.9.

Chess was a game. The ultimate goal of the game was to place the King in a position where it cannot escape and it will be captured in the next move. There were many strategies, most were centered around controlling the central four squares. Twilight wouldn't say she was a master at this game, but in her many eons spent looping, she had read almost every book written on the subject, probably on every subject at one time or another. She knew every strategy that could be employed, from the Sicilian's Defense all the way to the Stonewall Attack. In her boredom, she read every chess game and even participated in chess tournaments, along with Checkers, Go and countless other board game tournaments.

But even with her experience, she was losing this game. The two ponies were laying across from each other at a Canterlot Resort Hotel in the city's finest district. Twilight rarely came to this district since it was populated by the richest snobs in Equestria. It was only at an Awake Shining's request that she came, since the pony across from her had replaced Blueblood this loop. Said male pony had a dark tan coat with a chocolate mane and beard, sporting a unicorn horn. His flank held a black chess piece resembling the king, not too dissimilar from Lelouch's when he looped here but lacking the symbol for Geass. Another dozen moves were made by both players, when it finally came to an end with a knight and a rook sealing her king in place. The female anchor sighed, only for her to look up as the Stallion started clapping, "Excellent game, Miss Sparkle, or should I say Princess Sparkle?"

Twilight replied, "Twilight, if you would. If you must though, I'm not a princess this time around, so Miss Sparkle will do, Mr. Xanatos... or do you prefer David or Chess Master?"

"Most call me Xanatos, you may as well. You're well versed in this game. The English Opening was inspired, not a common choice since reversing the Sicilian's defense to be used by white is quite complex a strategy. If I could rank you among the loopers I've played, you'd be at the same level of the girl I faced in the Fire Emblem Awakening loop, when I replaced Virion. Both of you favored protecting your individual pieces than protecting the King. An admirable trait, though unwise since in these loops, the anchors are the kings. If we lose the anchors, their loops will be lost forever."

Twilight crossed her hooves, "Do you have a point in there, Xanatos?"

Xanatos lifted the chess pieces and re-arranged them on the board, idly looking at the two kings, "I always have a point, Twilight. If you overextend yourself in chess, you will create openings for your enemies to slip through, capturing the king. For example-"

The looper stood up, walked over to his dresser, pulled out two sphere like objects, "This is an anti-magic generator, and the other a gravity generator that increases the weight of everything within its radius. If I were to activate it, how would you counter me?"

Twilight gave a smirk, "Shining knows I'm here, and he knows to check in on me within the hour."

Xanatos returned the smile, "Good, but what if you were the only known looper, I induced an attack by Chrysalis long before her appointed time and had her replace one of the Elements of Harmony? Of course, if you didn't have back up such as your brother then you'd have planned differently, but my point is – I wouldn't have just one plan, but several running in conjunction at the same time. What if it's in a universe where your powers are gone and subspace pocket inaccessible?"

Twilight's head ran both scenarios at the same time, however Xanatos held up a hoof, "Another time for that. My point is, always plan to win. Plan everything out days in advance. Practice every conceivable scenario and how it could go. Have multiple plans running at once. If plan A fails, Plans B through F may still succeed. Finally if you fail, have an out. Better to spend a loop in Eiken than have your entire universe erased."

"It's worth noting that I have... Learned a modicum of humility over these days." The bearded stallion flinched noticeably at this admission, something that Twilight had no trouble picking up on.

"You've gotten on one of the First's bad sides, haven't you?" Twilight's tone was surprisingly bereft of sympathy, sounding like she was speaking to someone who had built an extremely expensive house on a floodplain.

"Among others, yes. The problem with playing the Game is simple. Not everyone wants to play with you. Sometimes they're direct about it." A hoof came up to rub his jaw, nudging it slightly to confirm that it was, indeed, whole. "And that's if you're fortunate."

Twilight let out a low, soft whistle. "Finding out you were stuck in a time loop didn't really do much for your judgment, did it?"

"Not at first, no. And it did not help that my reputation tends to precede me. My name is, literally, synonymous with scheming. Complex scheming that operates entirely by eliminating the competition's winning conditions." He sighed, and shook his head.

"You've learned to appreciate the small victories, I take it?" Twilight's tone was more than a little sly, and there was really nothing Xanatos could do to object to her teasing, because really, that's his own fault.

"The value of being able to eat solid food over the course of an entire loop is well ingrained in my mind, yes. Also, checkmate."

Twilight's attempt to muffle her laughter cut off sharply as she looked down at the board. "...Was admitting to the drawbacks of being you something you did on purpose to distract me, or just you unconsciously seizing the opportunity after you'd already gotten going with your thoughts?"

Xanatos just stared at the chessboard. "...Truth be told, I don't know."

3.10 (Vulpine Fury): [Gargoyles] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 67.13.

"Mister Xanatos, I am reminded of one of my good friends in another Loop..." Celestia said as she gracefully navigated the room and decanted some exceptional Prench wine. "He said something that I think applies here."

Xanatos boggled as the peytral and tiara floated over his head and shoulders.

"As I was saying, Joshua said... 'A strange game. It seems the only way to win..." A surfboard crossed Xanatos' field of vision. "... is not to play.'"

3.11 (Dalxein): [Frozen] / [My Little Pony] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 77.2.

"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked after zooming in through the library's window. The unicorn hadn't even had time to properly reorganize the place after her arrival from Canterlot this loop. "Snowflake's been replaced by a looper, and... uhh... it's weird."

The purple mare sighed and nodded. "How weird?"

"Well, she's not used to being a pegasus... or flying. We got her to my place before she decided she wasn't going anywhere until someone explained what was going on, and I figured you'd do better than me with this one."

Nodding again, Twilight cast a cloudwalking spell on herself before teleporting the both of them to Dash's cloud flat. There sitting on a puffy couch made of cloud was a regal mare with gossamer wings, her coat an icy blue and her mane a braided silver. On her flank was an intricate snowflake pattern.

"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm the local Anchor here in Equestria." When the mare nodded understanding, she continued. "What's your name?"

"My name is Elsa... and I am very confused."

Twilight grinned.

After she'd finished her 'welcome to the multiverse' speech, Rainbow having left halfway through to go manage the Summer Sun Celebration while they were busy, Twilight asked, "So, are you your world's Anchor?"

Shaking her head, partially to clear her mind after the information dump, Snowflake- or rather, Elsa, answered, "I do not believe so. My sister's fiancé, Kristoff, is most likely our Anchor. He sometimes speaks of loops where neither myself nor my sister recall the loops. My sister, myself, Kristoff, and we believe his reindeer Sven, all began looping in time simultaneously."

Twilight nodded. "Probably the crash, then."

"The... crash?" Elsa tentatively probed.

"I haven't worked it into the speech proper yet because it tends to be very intimidating, especially with how overwhelming everything else is in one's first fused loop. Fairly recently, an entire reality collapsed. The strain on the system led to new loopers in established loops, and new worlds gaining anchors and loopers, to minimize the damage."

"An entire..." Elsa paused, taking a moment to recollect herself. "That is indeed very troubling to hear."

"Don't worry too much," Twilight said, trying to calm the mare down some. "There were extenuating circumstances, and in all my time as an Anchor I've only seen it happen that one time. Both our worlds are safe."

It wasn't much, but hearing that did help to comfort her a bit. "And... are there many other loopers and anchors about?"

This had the purple mare laughing "Oh, loads of them! I don't think I've met even half of them, but that's still quite a lot of po-eople..." She caught herself at the last moment. "I like to think that I'm fairly old and well-versed as far as Anchors go, but there are a lot that've been looping longer than me, and none of us even compare to the first loopers, who're truly ancient compared to the rest."

Seeing the goggle-eyed mare in front of her, she giggled. "Sorry, I'm trying to say that it's a big multiverse out there, and there's no end of new people to meet in the loops." Her grin faltered. "There's also no end of trouble you can get into in the other loops, as well. Some of them are pretty horrible, which is why we decided our loop would be a sanctuary. We do our best to make sure that our loop is as peaceful and pleasant as possible for any looper that needs a vacation. Our loops are usually about five years long, and that's not much compared to some of the longer loops, but we try to help with the time we're given to do so." Sensing a segue, she pounced on it. "So, how long are your loops?"

"Between five and ten years, usually," Elsa answered. "The only constant seems to be that they include my coronation somewhere along the line."

"Coronation?" The unicorn gasped. "You're a princess?"

This had the Pegasus grinning. "I am a queen. Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Of all the reactions she was expecting, having the unicorn speed in front of her staring intently at her forehead was not on the list. Flinching away from the sudden close proximity, she asked "What... are you doing?"

Something seemed to snap back into place in the purple mare as she twitched and her eyes widened. "Oh, sorry. It's not that common that we see royalty from other loops here in Equestria. Most of our 'royals' are alicorns - ponies with both pegasus wings and a unicorn's horn."

Elsa tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, what I meant was that Fused Loops have a tendency to be ironic or humorous with one's role or status or especially their name or job - the pony you're taking the place of this loop is named Snowflake, for instance. Given that's also your cutie-mark." She received another blank look and popped off a quick summary. "It's a magical glyph or symbol on our flanks usually received in adolescence depicting a strong aspect or talent deeply ingrained in us. Magical ponies are magical." She showed her own starburst as an example. "Anyway, yours is a snowflake. I'm going to hazard a guess that means something personal to you?"

The pegasus' mouth worked soundlessly, even as she glanced down at the ice crystal on her rear that she'd inspected for a time between Dash's exit and return, for a moment before she nodded. "I was born with a curse - incredible power over ice and snow..." She paused trying to find a nice way to put the rest.

"That doesn't sound like much of a curse," Twilight hazarded, tentatively.

"I accidentally plunged my kingdom into an eternal winter until I learned to control it," the queen said, deadpan.

Twilight was about to say something, but then shut her mouth with an audible 'click'. "Alright, that sounds more like a curse."

The Pegasus nodded. "It's controlled in part by myself, and in part by my emotions. It's taken several loops of trial and error to fully understand it, but negative emotions like fear and doubt wrest control away from me. I've been solving the issue by blotting them out with love and joy."

"That seems like a terrible solution," Twilight pointed out, worry clear in her voice.

Her concerns were waved away. "It's worked well enough so far, especially with all these loops of practice. I haven't accidentally frozen the entire kingdom in ages." She began to chuckle, but when the unicorn didn't share her mirth she stopped. "It was a joke, dear. I haven't lost control of my powers since my... baseline, was it?" At the mare's nod, she continued with a small grimace. "I'm not adapting to the loops as well as Anna and Kristoff. My sister jumps headlong into everything and her beau can be rather savvy when the urge strikes him, or he has need to be. Sometimes I feel like I'm still the stuffy princess locked away in her room, watching them have fun and play pranks while I manage trade agreements and paperwork..." She shook her head and chuckled. "No, I have enough fun when they drag me out to play, too. Maybe I should be the one to prank them next time, though... They just seem to be taking this so much better than me." She glanced down shame-faced.

The purple pony scooted over to nudge the queen. "Hey, it's actually pretty impressive that you haven't gone crazy yet. I don't know a single pony that didn't go a little nuts adapting to the loops." She made a show of thinking to herself. "Except Zecora, but I'm keeping a camera handy just in case."

"You've been at this for so long and yet you're still so... chipper about it. How do you manage it?"

"Our universe is approximately 40% Pure Harmony, 25% friendship, 15% love, 10% hijinks, 5% kindness, 4% sugary treats, and like one percent assorted evils, megalomaniacs and in-jokes," Twilight said. A moment passed before her deadpan straight face broke and she snickered, causing the queen to break down in giggles herself.

"So." The unicorn continued, "We've got about five years in a peaceful loop to look forward to. But first we have to make sure you've got the tools to enjoy it properly - since you're a pegasus, that means learning to fly." She gave a tentative smile to the regal mare. "If you think you're up to it?"

A meek smile mirrored back at her. "I think I can manage... but how are you going to-?" A bright flash and suddenly the unicorn in front of her also bore a pair of wings. "...ah."

"Sorry, I just think you're better off learning the basics from me before Rainbow Dash gets ahold of you..."

3.1: One of the earliest Kingdom Hearts Loops, if not the earliest, to be published.

3.2: He's so fluffy!

3.3: Can't argue with the man's logic here.

3.4: Also can't blame him for wanting a flying ship.

3.5: Notice the callback to 3.1.

3.6: More of Captain Jack Sparrow being Captain Jack Sparrow.

3.7: Baloo and Kit's introduction to the Loops. Still one of my favorites - I've referenced it in a later MLP snip.

3.8: Gargoyles in Equestria. Like the above, I've referenced it in passing in a later MLP snip.

3.9: Xanatos makes for an interesting Looper.

3.10: To quote Saphroneth's own response... "First order of Regent Xanatos: Come and help me with all this paperwork, Twilight."

3.11: Welcome to the multiverse, Elsa.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-16. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

Author's note 2: Content has been edited from original posts. Original version indicated you could tell who was Pinging, or at least what Loop they came from; I have modified the sentences to remove this aspect.

4.1 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 1

Minnie grumbled as she tried to start up the red pickup truck and set off to school. Of all of the towns in all the worlds in all the Loops, Yggdrasil saw fit to dump her into Forks, Washington.

The Forks, Washington featured in the Twilight Saga.

As Bella Swan.

With no indication if Edward was Replaced or not.

The only things stopping her from writing the Loop off entirely were the presence of an Awake Charlie Swan, and the fact that she had detected at least a few other Loopers the last time she pinged. So she wasn't entirely alone.

"Still," she said to herself as the truck finally started up with a roar, "I think I'll try to do a better job than Bella did. Can't be too difficult."

Okay, this is a bit harder than I thought, Minnie thought, as she looked around at all of the kids gawking at her. "Um, may I help you?" she asked.

She then spent the next few minutes answering questions about her life in Phoenix, Arizona, since the student population of Forks had apparently never been to the big city before. During a lull in the questioning, she was able to get a good look at the table in the corner, and sighed to herself at who she saw sitting there. Oh, Mickey...

Mickey was sitting with a group of unnaturally pale and beautiful teenagers, who were apparently preoccupied with staring at the wall. Out of the school lunches they bought, only Mickey's showed any sign of being touched. He was also paler than normal, and he looked rather grumpy about the whole thing. He was writing something on a piece of paper.

Mickey noticed Minnie staring at him, and perked up immediately. He waved nonchalantly, and Minnie waved back as demurely as she could manage with one hand occupied with a lunch tray.

As Minnie smiled (possibly drooling a little. Possibly.) a voice piped up behind her.

"I see you found the Cullens."

She eeped in surprise and nearly dropped her tray. Man, Jessica could be sneaky if she wanted to be.

Weirdly, Jessica seemed to be replaced with a teenage version of Jessica Rabbit. And now that Minnie thought about it, a lot of the students in Forks seemed to resemble younger versions of various Disney characters. Must be one of these "Cartoon Cast" Loops, she thought to herself.

"Who are they?" Minnie asked, to get the exposition ball rolling.

As Jessica began to expound on the history of the Cullens, Minnie stole another glance at Mickey. He was, unbeknownst to his adopted siblings, holding up a crudely done sign reading "HELP ME!" in bright red ink. Minnie nodded slightly and winked at him.

Jessica caught the subtle interplay between the two Loopers. "Got your eye on Michael, huh?"

Minnie blushed. "Maaaaaaybe..."

"I gotta admit, he's pretty cute," Jessica continued, "but I wouldn't waste my time, if I were you. He doesn't date. Apparently, none of the girls are good-looking enough for him."

While Minnie pretended to nod in reluctant understanding, she was laughing inside her head. Oh Jessica, if you only knew...

4.2 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 2

Minnie was especially on guard today, as she pulled into the school parking lot. If what Charlie told her was true, then today was the day that Bella almost gets hit by a van, and Edward all but blows his cover as a vampire to save her butt.

The first thing she did upon parking the truck was to immediately get on the sidewalk, and distance herself from the parking lot. The second thing was to check if Mickey was on standby. He was, and waved at Minnie again, to the disdain of the other Cullens. She then started moving towards the school in a manner reminiscent of a soldier trying to stay in cover as much as possible.

She looked back briefly, and saw the van suddenly come screeching out of nowhere, and nearly crash into the truck.

Then, it stopped, and backed up a bit. The headlights gleamed blood-red, and Minnie could have sworn she heard it growl.

The van reoriented itself until it was pointed right at her, then, to her horror, it started forward again.

"Everyone move!" she yelled. Luckily, her popularity among the students of Forks seemed to lend her some sort of authority, and the students in front of the van hurled themselves out of the way as it screamed forwards. She faked left, then jumped to the right, clinging onto the chain-link fence surrounding the school, and scrambling up and over it. The van's headlights swiveled slowly back and forth, casting a pallid red glow on the surroundings as it looked for her. Minnie took the opportunity to access a few powers that she hadn't used in a while.

A magic curtain suddenly manifested around her, as she exchanged her trademark bow for an explorer's cap. At the same time, a small outlet appeared on a nearby telephone pole. "I hope this works..." she fretted.

Mickey had, by this point, shrugged off the other Cullens' entreaties to not get involved, and was already moving into a position where he could intercept the apparently possessed van. "I'll say this for Twilight vampires: they can sure move if they want to," he said to himself as he prepared to jump onto the roof of the van.

Suddenly, Minnie, all dolled up in explorer getup, tossed out a grappling hook, which latched onto the school roof. The van snarled as it finally got a lock on Minnie, and roared forwards. Right before it could run into Minnie, she shot up out of reach, rappelling up to the roof. The van grunted in surprise, as it suddenly felt a violent pull to the right. It tried to fight against it, its tires carving deep grooves in the schoolyard grass, but eventually its engine gave out. It let out a final, despairing groan as it slowly turned upside down, and slid over to the telephone pole. The engine sputtered and died, and the lights went out.

Mickey looked up at Minnie who was working her way back down to the ground, and sighed. "Well, so much for staying inconspicuous..." He went over to the other students and started checking up on them, while the sirens of the arriving ambulances echoed in the distance.

4.3 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 3

Later, in the hospital, Mickey and Minnie compared notes with Charlie Swan.

"Let me get this straight: the van chased you when you got out of the way?" Charlie began.

Minnie nodded as she sipped a cup of hot chocolate. "That's right. There were also signs of the car acting like it was alive. And angry."

Charlie nodded slowly. "I talked with Tyler while you were getting your drink. He's the kid that was driving the van."

"What'd he say?" Mickey asked.

"He said that he initially thought that he had lost control of the vehicle due to the ice, but he panicked when the car started operating its own gear shift."

He turned to Minnie. "The poor kid's still in shock about what happened. Maybe you could talk to him, let him know that what happened isn't his fault."

"I'll get right on that, Mr. Swan," Minnie replied.

As Minnie got up from her comfy seat and went to go check up on Tyler, Charlie realized something. "Oh gosh. If this is happening here, then what's happening to the other Loopers?"

"You're joking."

Oswald stared at Leah as they sat around the campfire. In the distance, Oswald could hear crickets chirping. Rather loudly, too.

Leah shook her head. "I'm afraid not. You're the third wheel in a love triangle."

"Aw, for crying out loud! I got enough of that in the soap opera loop!"

Leah snorted. "Welcome to my life. Everything seems to revolve around those two idiots and their relationship, whether it wants to or not."

"Must be a rough life," Oswald sympathized.

"You have no idea."

Leah paused to think for a moment. "At least this isn't the movie variant. I get dropped in lava near the end of the Breaking Dawn phase when that happens."

Oswald shuddered. He knew the sensation of getting burned alive well enough to know it was one of the worse ways to end a Loop. "Well, let's try to keep the exposure to lava to a minimum, then, hey?"

Leah smiled. "Yeah, that's usually a good idea."

Oswald clapped his hand together. "So! On to a much lighter subject: is there anything funky about werewolves in this universe? I'm not as up to snuff on this series as I would like."

"Well, the only major thing you have to worry about is imprinting. Other than that, you basically can change into a wolf and back whenever you want."

"I'm going to deeply regret asking this, but... what is imprinting?" Oswald asked.

Leah sighed deeply. Hoo boy, Oswald thought. This wouldn't be pleasant.

"Well, it's like this..." Leah began...

A FEW MINUTES LATER

Leah watched on with some concern as Oswald set up a great number of restraining devices in the middle of the clearing, ranging in complexity from simple pairs of handcuffs and rolls of tape, to what appeared to be a stasis field and several robot drones.

The fact that he kept saying the word "Nope" over and over while he was doing so only added to the concern.

"Um, Oswald? Are you sure this is all necessary?"

Oswald paused in the middle of locking himself into a straitjacket with telekinesis. "If this imprinting thing is as integral to the minds of shape-shifters as you make it out to be, then removing it is going to put a lot of strain on the mind, yes?"

"Wait...Oswald, are you planning on removing the imprinting mechanism from your mind?" Leah asked warily.

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

Leah looked at the various chains, straps, stakes, and varieties of tape that were currently pinning Oswald to the ground. "Well, it's going to be extremely difficult. I needed the wolf-like part of my soul basically redesigned from the ground up to get rid of it, and it took me a few weeks to essentially relearn how to be a wolf afterwards."

"But you're fine now, right? Know all the ins and outs of being a wolf, right?"

"Right...?"

Oswald nodded firmly, as he finished buckling himself into the straitjacket with a flourish, before he settled himself in the middle of his elaborate containment devices. "Then you could teach me once I wrap up here, right?"

"I suppose I could..." she agreed. Her voice then hardened noticeably. "But this is going way too far! I mean, you're basically going to be doing the psychic equivalent of open-heart surgery on yourself, with a butter knife! I know how much imprinting sucks for people like us, how much it can hurt. But surely, rearranging your entire psyche to get rid of it would do a lot more damage in the long run?"

Oswald looked Leah in the eye, and the werewolf could feel the utter seriousness radiating off of him. "Leah, I appreciate the sentiment. I really do. It means a lot to me that you're concerned about my mental health when for all intents and purposes, this is the first time we've ever met. But Leah, you've got to understand: I'm a Toon. Our relationships define darn near everything about us. Do you think Mickey would still be Mickey if he didn't love Minnie with all his heart? Do you think Yosemite Sam could still be Yosemite Sam if he didn't hate Bugs Bunny with the passion that he does?"

His eyes started to fill with tears. "And do you think I'll still be Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, if I just gave up Ortensia for the monstrous spawn of Edward and Bella? I might die trying to do this, Leah, but at least the Loop reset will take care of that. I'm not so sure about the imprinting, and frankly... I don't want to find out."

The clearing was silent for several tense seconds, as Leah mulled over this information. Oswald's ears began to droop, just a little.

At last, Leah relented, sighing deeply. "I have enough food in my subspace pocket to last us both several weeks. I'll stay here and make sure that you don't go crazy, or kill yourself while you do this."

Oswald smiled, and wiped his eyes with his ear. "Thank you,' he whispered.

He steeled himself for the task at hand, and closed his eyes.

As Mickey, Minnie and Charlie left the hospital (having secured permission from Carlisle to let Mickey sleep over at Minnie's place), they heard what sounded like faint screaming, coming from the direction of La Push.

"Does anyone else have a sense of foreboding, or is it just me?" Charlie asked.

"I've got it too," Minnie replied.

"Same here," said Mickey. "I sure hope that other Disney Looper is okay..."

"Well, I'm going off to La Push in a couple of days, to check up on the Quileute tribe living there and make sure that the Cullens aren't planning anything," Charlie offered. "I'll be going over the weekend, so you two can come with if you like."

"Sounds good to me."

"Sure thing!"

4.4 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 4

Oswald blearily opened his eyes, squinting at the bright sunlight. He was lying upside down against a nearby tree, and was bleeding a little bit from his nose. Every single one of his restraints had been busted, and his straitjacket was in tatters. There were claw marks and tooth marks all over the wrecked restraints, and the robot drones were all smashed.

"Morning, sunshine," Leah quipped, as she strode out from behind one particularly clawed-up tree.

"What... happened...?" Oswald mumbled as he slowly rolled onto his side.

"I still don't know how you did it, but your little mental surgery worked. Your wolf aspect is now one hundred percent imprint-free."

"How do you know?" Oswald asked, as he sat up, clutching his head and wincing in pain.

"You're a really powerful psychic that was doing nothing to prevent his thoughts from being projected throughout this entire clearing. It wasn't hard."

Oswald flinched. "Sorry."

Leah waved him off. "It's fine. I needed the practice to maintain my personal shields anyway."

Oswald pulled out an Elixir from his subspace pocket, and chugged it. He sighed in relief as his nose stopped bleeding and his headache cleared up. "Did I do anything weird, or bizarre, while I was sorting things out?"

Leah leaned against the tree to think, counting on her fingers. "Well, around midnight, you were gabbling in some weird language I didn't quite understand. Then, about fifteen minutes later, you screamed really, really loudly. I wouldn't be surprised if they heard you down in Forks. After that, you shifted for the first time, and gnawed through the restraints."

"You are one speedy wolf, let me tell you," she continued. "Tough, too. I had a hell of a time trying to keep you from running off into the woods. I eventually had to tap into some Force mojo, and slam you into a tree to stun you. You kept on whimpering until around one, when you shifted back, and conked out."

"That explains where I woke up," Oswald replied, as he got to his feet. Just then, his stomach growled. Loudly. Oswald looked down and then blushed. "Uh, do you still have that food you mentioned?"

Leah nodded. "Yep."

She then pulled out what appeared to be a large bag filled with fresh meat. Fresh, raw meat. Fresh raw meat that looked like it had very recently been alive.

Oswald sighed. "Of course. I have to re-learn how to be wolf, don't I?"

"I figured that learning what wolves normally eat would be a good place to start."

Oswald nodded, then tapped into his Looping memories, trying to remember how to shift into wolf form-

And suddenly a rather stout little wolf with black fur was sitting on his haunches in the empty clearing. Curiously, it looked more like a wolf that stepped out of an old cartoon from the days of black and white, than it did an actual wolf.

Leah had to suppress a giggle at the sight of Oswald in wolf form looking confusedly around the clearing, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. He's really like a big old puppy, isn't he? she thought to herself.

She decided to speak up to get Oswald's attention, which was currently focused on his new fluffy tail. "Oswald."

Oswald looked up from chasing his tail. [Oh, man,] he responded telepathically, [this is awesome! I think I can smell the lake from here! And I have a TAIL, and it's LONG and FLUFFY and-]

"Oswald."

Oswald had the decency to look sheepish. [Sorry. New body comes with new instincts, it seems. Strong instincts.]

"Yes, that's one of the details that takes some getting used to, especially for a new shifter. Let's get you fed up, then we can practice for a while, okay?"

[Sounds good to me!]

Oswald drooled happily as Leah pulled out a dog bowl, and filled it with meat. As Oswald began mauling the food, Leah gave him some pointers. "Remember, Oswald, wolves don't have molars like humans do. You have to rip the meat apart into smaller chunks that you can swallow whole."

Oswald looked up, with a large chunk of meat hanging out of his mouth. [Mmmf ffmmf fm?]

"...How is your voice muffled? You're speaking telepathically!"

Oswald shrugged, which looked rather odd on a wolf. [Mmmf mfmmmf mffffmf mffmm mmfmff.]

Leah pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not gonna ask."

LATER, THAT VERY SAME PLOT...

It was a glorious, not-at-all-rainy evening as Mickey, Minnie, and Charlie drove over to La Push. Charlie had explained to the two mice that this was usually when Bella would meet Jacob for the first time, and hear his "scary story" about the existence of vampires.

"I never really got how she would instantly come to the conclusion that her boyfriend was a vampire, even if a lot of the stuff in the story matched up with what she knew about the Cullens," Charlie said. "Heck, I thought that they were just a bunch of rich snobs that didn't get out much, before they up and told me that they were vampires."

"Well, I know a bunch about what vampires can do, thanks to Loop memories," Mickey began, "but I still don't know a lot about the other supernatural stuff around here."

"The only other major supernatural faction around here are the werewolves," Charlie replied. "There's quite a few packs around here, all descendants of the Quileute tribe. I made a point of getting in touch with Leah Clearwater at the beginning of the Loop; she's the go-to person to learn about this stuff if you don't want to deal with the Cullens' bull."

"Who's Leah?" Minnie asked, while polishing her Voice Stealer.

"She's the Anchor of this Loop. Only female werewolf in this universe. Nice girl, if a bit moody at times. But then, given all the crap she's been through, I can't blame her. If those ponies hadn't helped her out..."

Mickey and Minnie shuddered. They knew what could happen if an Anchor went crazy.

"Maybe we should have a talk with her," Mickey said after they drove a while in silence. "If we're going to go off the rails--and I feel like we're going to go off the rails sooner rather than later--then maybe she has a few ideas."

4.5 (Mr. Egret; addition by wildrook): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 5

Mickey, Minnie, and Charlie walked along the beach, towards a small campfire burning in the distance. Mickey's special vampire eyes could tell that the smoke was a vivid blue, for some reason. Charlie just shrugged when he pointed it out. "I don't really know why it does that," he admitted. "Chemistry never really was my strong suit."

"Are you sure that Leah's campfire over there?" Minnie asked.

Charlie paused for a moment, then slapped his forehead. "I knew I forgot to do something," he muttered, as he proceeded to pull a large flashlight out of his subspace pocket. He pointed it at the campfire, then switched it on and off three times in rapid succession.

The campfire proceeded to go out and light up again three times. "A signal?" Mickey asked.

Charlie nodded as he put the flashlight away. "Yep, Leah and I came up with a system a little while after I started Looping. That signal lets me know that she's not with any non-Loopers."

The campfire then went out and lighted itself again two more times. Charlie started. "Mickey? Minnie? You said there was at least one other Looper here, five total counting us, right?"

"Yeah...?" Minnie responded, wondering where he was going with this.

"Well, it looks like he met up with Leah. That's the signal for 'Other Looper present'."

Mickey and Minnie promptly took off running. Mickey, forgetting about his vampire speed, suddenly shot forwards, kicking up a large cloud of sand, before tripping on a stray piece of driftwood, and falling flat on his face. Minnie and Charlie, being mere mortals, ran at a much more sedate pace, and did not trip on anything at all. Minnie stopped to help Mickey get to his feet.

"Well, that was embarrassing," Mickey grumbled, as he spat out some sand.

"Even vampires need to watch where they're going sometimes, Mickey," Minnie playfully replied, while she brushed sand off of his clothes with a feather duster.

Oswald fidgeted restlessly as he waited for the three figures in the distance to reach him and Leah. Even with his fancy new eyes, he couldn't make out who they were in the gloom.

Plus, he was smelling something sickly sweet, like a dose of cherry-flavored medicine, that he just couldn't place.

Leah set aside the blanket that she was using to obscure the campfire. "Okay, that was Charlie's signal. He's coming this way, and he's brought friends," she announced. "He knows you're with me, too."

"Well, that's fine and dandy," Oswald replied. "Do you smell something weird, or is it just me?"

"Yeah. Disgustingly sweet, right?"

"Yep."

Leah cursed softly. "Okay, that means at least one vampire. It's unlikely that Charlie got himself turned this early if he's Awake, so that means that one of his friends is a vampire. Poor bastard."

Suddenly, one of the figures started approaching the campfire at speed, a large cloud of sand rising behind him, before he abruptly fell on his face. Leah blinked. Vampires in this universe were far too graceful to just trip while running, even at that speed. "I think we found one of your friends," she said casually.

"Most likely," Oswald agreed, equally casually.

At last, the three figures moved into the light of the campfire. Leah recognized Charlie, and nodded easily to him, but the two other figures had her and Oswald doing a double-take.

"Mickey?" Oswald asked tentatively. "Did you get in an accident at the stained-glass factory or something?"

"Very funny," Mickey replied dryly. The light from the campfire, to his dismay, was making his skin sparkle again, and he was not happy about it.

Leah looked at Mickey, then to Minnie, who was holding a feather duster for some reason, then finally at Charlie. "Don't tell me..."

"Yeah; they've Replaced Edward and Bella," Charlie affirmed.

There was a pause, then Oswald suddenly yelled in disgust, and sprinted for the lake, diving in, and scrubbing all over himself with a bar of soap.

"What's with him?" Mickey asked.

"I imagine it has something to do with what happens at the end of the Breaking Dawn phase of our Loop," Leah replied.

"Breaking Dawn phase?" Minnie asked quizzically.

Leah passed out paper copies of the Twilight Saga to the two mice. "It's the last book in the series. Long story short, the person Oswald's replacing is destined to become the soulmate of the child of the two people you're replacing."

There was a pause.

"AW, GROSS!" Mickey and Minnie shouted in unison, before they sprinted off after Oswald. "Wait for us!"

Leah and Charlie just watched the three Disney Loopers try in vain to wash the disgust off of them. "They took it well," Charlie quipped.

(wildrook)

Leah just looked at Charlie with a deadpan expression. What DIDN'T help was that George Boy's "The Crying Game" was playing on one of the radios.

4.6 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 6

It was a few weeks after the Campfire Incident, and Minnie was feeling antsy as she walked down the street. "Ohhh, where is that restaurant?" she fretted aloud.

According to the books that Leah gave her and Mickey, this was around the time when Edward swooped in on his shiny silver Volvo to save Bella from some ne'er-do-wells. Despite the infuriatingly patronizing and frankly creepy way that Edward acted then, the books treated it like a Romantic Moment.

The universe, Minnie thought to herself, was far too attracted to what it thinks are Romantic Moments.

While she could definitely defend herself if it came to a fight, Minnie didn't want to deal with that right then, so she kept to the main streets, and moved as fast as she was able to without attracting attention, while she looked for the restaurant where she was to meet up with Jessica. She jogged pasts store after store, dodged errant traffic, and weaved in and out of crowds of people, all while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

Unfortunately, she was Bella Swan's stand-in, which made her the center of attention wherever she went. If she ran into a guy, he tried to get her number or just swooned over her. If she ran into a girl, she either tried to become her new best friend or spat hatred and malice at her.

This last group, Minnie noticed, was composed entirely of blondes.

Eventually Minnie dodged an autograph seeker, took a wrong turn, and found herself in one of the seedier parts of town. "Of course," she sighed. "Why did I expect anything else?"

Suddenly, her mouse ears picked up the sounds of footsteps. Three pairs of feet, she reckoned. "It's starting," she whispered.

She turned to face the approaching figures. They were dressed like a bunch of everyday thugs, but their faces... their faces were utterly obscured by a strange blurring. No matter how hard Minnie focused, she couldn't make out any features. They didn't move like humans normally move. They reminded her of CGI figures that hadn't been properly rendered.

One of the figures stopped, and appeared to sniff at the air, his head twitching back and forth. Then, all three figures suddenly looked at Minnie. She gulped. "Uh oh."

Suddenly, the figures sprinted forwards, just a little bit faster than was humanly possible. Minnie was already off and running, but she knew that the figures would catch up to her before she could reach the end of the block.

Luckily, she had prepared for this encounter all of last week.

Minnie dove into a nearby alleyway, and ducked behind a dumpster. "Looks like it's time to break out that costume..." she muttered.

The three figures slowed their run when they saw their target enter the alleyway. There was nowhere she could run, now. They could take their time getting there, and build up some dramatic tension before the vampire swooped in to rescue her. After all, it wasn't like she could defend herself, right?

The lead figure slowly peered into the alleyway. If it had eyelids, it would have blinked.

Minnie was gone. Nowhere to be seen at all.

The three figures walked confusedly into the alleyway, their limited minds trying to make sense of this recent development. If Minnie was not present for them to almost ravish, then they couldn't fulfill their role in the script. If they could not fulfill their role in the script, then what were they to do? The script was everything to plot devices such as them. Without the script... what use were they?

As the figures considered this, they slowly slumped to they knees. They could not fulfill their directives. As such, they had no purpose. Purposeless plot devices were to remain sleeping until they had a purpose once more. But this time, something was... different.

For the first time in their relatively short existences, the three figures wondered if they would dream.

Minnie looked down from her hiding spot on the roof and watched the three figures fall quivering into the fetal position. She was dressed up in her Cowgirl outfit, complete with popgun and stick-horse, and she was seriously considering doing the three figures a kindness and KO-ing them with magical cork-bullets. "Okay," she mused to herself. "I have to admit: out of all of the possible responses to me bouncing up here, I was not expecting that."

Different plot devices reacted in different ways to main characters going off the rails, she realized. Mechanical plot devices worked themselves to the breaking point, while biological plot devices had existential crises. "But how would other plot devices react?" she asked herself, as she bounced from rooftop to rooftop. "I'd better ask the others about this."

Just then, her stomach growled. She pulled a face. "Oh yeah; I came out here to go get a bit to eat..."

She put her question out of her mind for the time being, and began looking for the restaurant Jessica was at. "Okay, it's gotta be around here somewhere..."

4.7 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 7

"I wonder where Oswald went," Leah mused, as she walked away from the Emily's shack. She had been making a point of visiting Emily more often, but she could only stay in a house full of Sam Uley and company for so long before she had to leave or punch him in the face. Luckily, she was able to leave this time.

Leah looked at the note that Oswald left her, when she woke up in their tent, and couldn't find him in the campsite.

Leah,

Sorry I wasn't there for breakfast. I had to go off to La Push to pick up some supplies for the baseball game. I'll be back before lunch.

Take care,

Oswald

The only baseball game that Leah could think of was the Cullen ball game, which always went to hell one way or another. Either it cued the introduction of that coven led by James the Tracker, prompting Bella and the Cullens to bugger off to Arizona or some such nonsense, or it led to the Cullens bringing the wrath of the Volturi down on their heads early, if the universe had some form of logic outside of "Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are always right" that Loop. Either way, it just meant more shit to deal with.

Of course, that was when she and Charlie were the only Loopers present. Aside from Twilight Sparkle and company, Loopers from other universes weren't very common, but when they showed up, the Loop tended to go wildly off the rails at that point.

Leah's train of thought was interrupted when her unnaturally sharp ears picked up the sound of clanking and grinding gears coming from the campsite. "What's that, now?" she asked herself, as she took off running into the woods.

Leah just stared at what was left of the campsite. "What the fuck."

Oswald popped his head out of the chassis of the robotic dragon and pointed at her. "Oi. Language."

"No, I think it's appropriate for this situation. What the fuck is all this?"

Oswald clambered out of the chassis, and jumped to the ground. "With any luck, it's the answer to the whole 'vampires everywhere' situation," he replied, as he wiped off some oil stains with a dirty rag lying on a nearby log.

Leah stared at Oswald. "The solution for the vampires is a giant robotic dragon."

"Yep."

"That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard."

Oswald grinned. "That's the beauty of it: it's utterly idiotic. That's why it'll work."

Leah sighed heavily. "I'm going to regret asking this, but... why is it good that it's a stupid idea?"

"It's simple. Given the oh-so-clever and oh-so-speshul nature of those insufferable Cullens (Loopers excluded, of course), any rationally-planned attempts to fight them are doomed to failure. The only plans that have any shot of succeeding are the ones that they cannot possibly expect, which are, by default, the stupidest plans imaginable. They'll be expecting Mickey turning on them, and a couple of werewolves hunting them down. They won't be expecting this baby."

Oswald patted the dragon's leg affectionately, while chuckling. One of the dragon's wings snapped off, and hit the ground with a thud.

Leah and Oswald looked at the broken wing for a few seconds. Leah then slowly looked back at Oswald, with an expression of cynicism usually reserved for long-time politicians.

"It's meant to do that," Oswald said, though he didn't sound as certain as before.

Leah sighed again. I hope Mickey and Minnie have a better plan... she thought to herself.

4.8 (Mr. Egret; addition by wildrook): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 8

Minnie had experienced many types of pain over the Loops. She had been hit with the Cruciatus Curse, by Voldemort himself, when she had replaced Bellatrix Lestrange. She had been partially de-rezzed during a Tron loop gone sour. She had even been Dipped, and then reconstituted, during a particularly nightmarish Loop in a Toontown gone mad.

But this pain was an agony that surpassed all others.

"Ooh! This dress looks absolutely stunning on you! Much better than that tacky red one!"

Yggdrasil on high, grant me the strength to withstand this trial... Minnie prayed to herself, as she looked in the mirror at the unbelievably gaudy blue dress that Alice had forced her into this time. Her favorite dress, the red one with white polka dots was lying on top of a pile of similarly discarded clothing. Next to that pile was a much smaller pile of "acceptable" clothing. Minnie's inner fashionista wept as she saw that the dresses were all extremely expensive brand names, and not at all suited to her body shape. Or Alice's body shape, for that matter.

Still, she thought to herself, as she tuned out Alice's squealing over the supposedly appalling state of her shoes, it could be a lot worse. Mickey had to live with this awful woman.

Speaking of Mickey, Minnie wondered how he was holding up right now.

Mickey sat in stony silence while Carlisle and Esme lectured him on the impropriety of actually making friends with members of the Quileute tribe.

Well, Carlisle lectured. Esme just sort of stood in the corner, frowned prettily and occasionally chimed in.

Fortunately, it seemed that Carlisle loved the sound of his own voice, to the point where he was too caught up in his lecture to see if Mickey was actually paying attention. This gave Mickey time to think of a way out.

His hand strayed towards the salt shaker on the table. I'm not sure how effective some salt in the eyes will be on a bunch of vampires, he thought, but it should buy me some time for me to go grab Minnie and bug outta here...

His train of thought, along with Carlisle's speech, stopped abruptly when a sound not unlike a tea kettle coming to boil was heard coming from upstairs. Ignoring Carlisle's protests, Mickey went over to investigate. He had barely set foot on the first step when Alice and Minnie came tumbling down the stairs, causing a tremendous ruckus. Alice was hugging Minnie to her chest, and gabbling something about "future visions" and "the kewlest future ever," while Minnie was doing her level best to break out of Alice's grip.

Mickey was by her side almost immediately, and quickly pried her from Alice's grasp. "Are you okay?! What happened?!" he asked urgently.

Minnie coughed a few times. "We were *cough* trying on some of her dresses, when she *cough* got one of her freaky future vision things. I tried to sneak out of the room when she squealed, then tackled me and we *cough* fell down the stairs."

"But it was such an AWESOME vision!!!1!!!one! She was going to marry Mikey and be a VAMPIRE, and there was going to be a WEDDING with lots of DECORATIONS and PRETTY DRESSES and and and--"

Mickey and Minnie slowly backed away from the clearly deranged vampire lady while she was babbling about the right shoes to go with Minnie's theoretical wedding dress. "Well, guys, it's been fun," Mickey said hurriedly, "but I gotta get Minnie back to her father before he starts getting suspicious."

"But couldn't we turn Minnie now so Alice's vision can come true?" Carlisle asked.

"With all due respect, Mr. Cullen, I wouldn't let myself be turned if you paid me," Minnie answered primly.

Carlisle just looked at her confusedly. "But you'll be immortal! An angel among men! You'll be able to stay with Michael forever..."

"Actually," Mickey interrupted, "I would prefer being a mortal with her."

Carlisle chuckled in what was obviously meant to be a paternal way. "Michael, you know that's impossible. Once you become a vampire, there's no turning back."

Mickey frowned. "Then I'll cherish what little time we have together before she ultimately passes on. It's her decision to become a vampire or not, and she said no. Now, if you'll excuse us, father, I have to get Minnie home."

Carlisle flinched as if he had been hit. While Mickey had been responding, his posture and demeanor had unconsciously changed. He seemed to utterly exude sheer gravitas, the kind that one would associate with an emperor issuing a decree to his subjects, rather than an upstart teenager talking back to his parents.

With magnificent disdain, Mickey turned away from Carlisle, and offered his arm to Minnie. "Shall we, my dear?"

Minnie gratefully looped her arm through his. "I would be delighted, Mr. Mouse," she replied with an exaggerated posh accent, spoiled at the last minute by a giggle. Mickey was just so cute when he tried to act his age.

Noses firmly in the air, the two mice spun on their heels and strolled out of the house, with the nonchalant ease that only several lifetimes of running kingdoms and media empires can provide.

Carlisle and Alice just stared at the retreating backs of the mice with jaws agape, utterly shocked that someone could dismiss their radiant presences so readily. Esme, in the meantime had wandered into the kitchen, and was making cookies. Everyone ignored her.

(wildrook)

Oswald then chuckled as he put away the camera and sneaked off.

"This would be entertaining to pass to the other loopers," he replied. "Can't exactly send this to the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, though."

And to think, he was close to bringing in Ashton Kutcher for that one moment.

4.9 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 9

On the grassy plain, the standoff was absolutely rife with tension. The six Unawake Cullens stood on one end of the field, all dressed up for a game of vampire baseball, and obviously wanting to get far away from here. On the other end of the field, three slovenly vampires glared at the Cullens, with equal parts jealously and general malice. It was plainly obvious from the way that they flexed their fingers and jaws in anticipation that they would have dearly loved to rip the Cullens limb from limb.

The only thing preventing them from doing so, and the only thing holding the Cullens in place, was the third group on the field.

Smack-dab in the middle of the two parties, stood five extremely odd figures.

The most normal person in the middle group was a Caucasian man with an average build, dressed in a policeman's uniform. His mustache hid the grim smile creeping up on his lips, and he bore several sets of handcuffs in his hand. His pistol rested in his holster, and nobody present doubted he would use it if he had to.

Next to him, a slim young woman of Native American descent glared impartially at both parties on both sides of the field. She was dressed in a simple white tank top and jeans and she bore no visible weapons. From the way she was openly smirking, one got the impression that she didn't need them.

However, the most concerning members of the small band were three small, cartoonish figures who were paying no attention to the two clans of vampires in the slightest.

"Are you sure you don't need me to call up Murphy?" Oswald asked, while fiddling with his remote control.

Mickey thought about it for a moment, while straightening out his tux. "Better have it ready. I'm pretty confident that this'll work, but a robot dragon makes a good Plan B."

"All the instruments are in place, Mickey. We can start at any time!" Minnie said, while pulling out a baton.

"Thanks, Minnie! Leah, Charlie, you know what to do, right?"

Charlie nodded, while Leah gave Mickey the thumbs-up.

James the vampire looked at the motley collection of humans and unidentifiable creatures. "What the hell are they doing?" he snarled. Didn't they know that they were in between two packs of vampires? They should be frightened out of their wits!

"I don't know," his second in command Laurent replied, "but whatever it is, it's driving the Cullens nuts. Carlisle looks like he could pounce at any second."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the clearing, Carlisle was internally panicking. They had to get Minnie out of there. Didn't they realize that James could track them across several continents? They needed to get a head start when they still had a chance!

Behind him, his remaining family members watched the scene anxiously. They dared not act without his word. They wouldn't know what to do.

Of course, Mickey knew all of this. Telepathy had its uses, even if it was irritatingly speshul vampire-telepathy. "Okay, I think the others are ready! Places, everyone!"

Quick as a wink, he pulled out his Sorcerer's Hat from his subspace pocket, and put it on his head. Suddenly, three things happened at the same time.

First, scores of musical instruments of all varieties, from violins to trumpets to snare drums rose up off the ground, enveloped in a soft blue glow. When Minnie began to wave her baton, the instruments began to play of their own accord, launching into a rendition of The Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky.

Second, swarms of Wasteland Guardians began to materialize around Mickey's hands, before scattering all over the area, looping and swirling in miniature galaxies of blue and green.

Finally, James's group, taking advantage of the Cullens' open astonishment at this turn of events, surged forwards, eyes gleaming with hunger and rage, fangs bared--

Only for two outsize wolves to hit James and Lauren out of nowhere, driving them away from Charlie and the two mice. Victoria shrieked in shock, and cowered away from the transformed Oswald and Leah. Why didn't her enhanced self-preservation ability see them coming?!

"Good work, you guys!" Mickey shouted. He made a few short gestures, and swarms of Tints started to converge around every single vampire present, himself included.

"Wh-what?! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Carlisle roared, as he frantically flailed at the Tints that were surrounding him and the Cullens. "MICHAEL, AS YOUR FATHER, I ORDER YOU TO STOP THIS AT ONCE!"

Mickey only laughed in response. "Nonsense, Carlisle! This isn't meant to hurt you! It's meant to help you! You made me immortal, so I thought I'd repay you in kind!"

Minnie suddenly stiffened, as she caught something out of the corner of her eye. "Watch it, Mickey! Victoria's trying to run for it!"

Indeed she was. While Leah and Oswald were busy herding James and Laurent away from Mickey and Minnie, Victoria was taking the opportunity to slip closer to the edge of the woods.

Mickey shook his head. "Well, we can't have that, can we? Let's start the second movement!"

Mickey and Minnie stood back-to-back, and raised one arm each in tandem. Then, with a flourish, Minnie brought her baton down to begin the second movement of the Suite, while Mickey called upon a particularly potent magic used by his old enemy, Mizrabel.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the clearing was surrounded by a tremendous ring of fire, its flames reaching higher than any vampire could leap. Charlie jumped in shock. "HOLY CRAP! Mickey, what the hell did you do?!" he shouted over the roar of the flames.

"Don't worry, Charlie; it's just an illusion I cooked up to keep the other vamps pinned down!" Mickey responded cheerfully. He was now half-covered in Tints, but showed no sign of letting up in his performance anytime soon.

"Are you kidding?! I can feel the heat from here!"

"It's a very good illusion! Never do anything by halves, that's what I say!"

The vampires certainly didn't think it was an illusion either. Every time they tried to breach the flames, the heat flared up, and they fell back towards the center of the field, hissing in pain and fear. If any vampire, hunter or Cullen, looked like they were getting too close to Mickey and Minnie, Oswald and Leah intercepted them, and the vampires flinched away from the snarling werewolves.

Mickey could feel the sweat running down his back as he focused on directing the Guardian swarms and playing the instruments according to Minnie's cues. "Are you almost ready, Minnie?" he asked.

Minnie wiped her brow with her free hand, but her baton was steady as ever, and the time didn't slow a beat. "We're just about ready to head into the final movement! Are the Tints in place?"

"Yep!"

"Okay! Here we go!"

The music swelled to a crescendo, and then Mickey and Minnie suddenly waved their hand sharply. All at once, the music stopped, and the ring of fire vanished instantly. Without the harsh light of the flames bathing everything in orange, Charlie could see that there was absolutely no damage done to the surrounding area at all.

Oh, and every vampire in the clearing was now covered in Tints. Rather hard to miss, that.

Mickey took hold of Minnie's hand, and squeezed it gently. "I think it's time to wrap this up, don't you think, Minnie?"

"I would love nothing more, Mickey."

The music started out softly, but as Mickey played on and Minnie conducted, the music started to swell triumphantly. The Tints began to glow more and more brightly, until every vampire in the clearing was shining like a star in the sky. Charlie pulled out a pair of sunglasses to wear, while Minnie, Oswald and Leah simply averted their eyes.

As the piece went into its glorious finale, the light suddenly flared up, then died away. Charlie just stared in undisguised shock.

A miraculous transformation had overcome every single vampire in the clearing. Their skin was no longer reminiscent of sparkling marble, but instead looked like how human skin ought to look: natural, soft and healthy. Their eyes were no longer either brightest gold or deepest red, but were now the usual mixtures of greens, browns, blues and grays that one would expect from normal human eyes. Most noticeably, when the vampires were once supernaturally beautiful, to the point of being alien and terrifying, they were now only as beautiful--or as hideous-- as they were before they were ever turned.

Minnie felt the side of Mickey's cheek, and the two mice shared matching grins when she felt the warmth that he was missing from the beginning of this Yggdrasil-forsaken Loop. "It worked!" she squealed, before pulling him into a kiss. The instruments faltered for a split second, as his concentration was shattered in the best way possible.

Charlie whistled in admiration, before he went over to the Cullens to press charges. Never do anything by halves, huh? he thought to himself.

Oswald, who had shifted back to rabbit form, was cutting a victory jig. "That's my little brother for you! Oh man! Lugging all of those instruments from the school was totally worth it!"

Leah shook her head in disbelief as she shifted back into human form and got dressed again. "Well, I have to say, that was one of the more creative ways of dealing with the Cullens that I've ever seen."

"I think this calls for a celebration!" Mickey announced. "Let's meet up at Charlie's place, then we'll go out for drinks! My treat!"

The other Loopers agreed, with much enthusiasm, and said their goodbyes, before Leah went off to help Charlie keep an eye on the recently humanized Cullens, while Mickey, Minnie and Oswald gathered up the instruments to take them back to the school

James, Laurent and Victoria stood to the side forgotten. After a pause, Victoria asked the question that was on her former coven-mates' minds. "Well, now what?"

Laurent sighed as he massaged his temples. "I don't know about you losers, but I'm going to drink until I forget Forks is anything but an eating utensil."

"Same here," James replied.

"That makes three of us," Victoria sighed. "Let's get out of here, while they're still busy."

"Right."

The three hunters quietly slipped back into the woods, determined to put as much distance between themselves and Washington state as possible. It was way more trouble than it was worth, even before the wizard mice showed up.

4.10 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga] / [Fifty Shades of Gray - non-Looping setting]

SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 10 (EPILOGUE)

The Loopers had decided to celebrate the end of the Loop with a barbecue at Charlie's place. While Charlie was serving up some freshly-made hamburgers and hot dogs, Mickey took Leah aside for a moment.

"So, Oswald, Minnie and I were talking," he began.

"What about?" Leah asked.

"Well, we Disney Loopers have a tradition of giving our fellow Loopers a little souvenir at the end of a Fused Loop, and we had some trouble deciding what it should be this time."

"That's okay, Mickey; you didn't have to get me anything," Leah replied.

"Still, it seemed like the neighborly thing to do, and, well, we're all neighbors in a metaphysical sense. So, on behalf of the rest of us, I'd like to give you this."

And Mickey handed Leah a large glass jar that held a bunch of shimmering blue and green motes. Leah gasped. "A jar of Wasteland Guardians?"

Mickey nodded enthusiastically.

"...Are you sure that you want me to keep this?" Leah asked, as she stared at the jar filled with tiny little spirits of creation and destruction.

"Sure I'm sure!" Mickey replied happily, while helping himself to more mustard on his hot dog. In the distance, Minnie, Oswald and Charlie were engaged in a lively discussion about vampire-killing methods.

"I just don't know if I can accept something like this, after all the stuff that you've gone through in my home Loop--"

Mickey waved her off. "Just consider it payment for helping my big brother keep his sanity while he was dealing with the imprinting thing. Besides, once you take the godawful romance out of it, this Loop's actually kinda nice. Those puppies should help you with the "taking out" part."

Leah considered the point for a moment, before smiling and nodding. "I see. Thank you, Mickey."

"Anytime!"

Mickey then looked over at the others. "Hey! I think Charlie's getting ready to take the group photo!"

Charlie was indeed setting up the camera on a tripod, while Minnie and Oswald looked on with interest. It was one of those old Polaroid jobs, the kind that printed out the photograph immediately after the picture was taken. "Okay everyone!" he called out. "If you want to be in the picture, now's the time!"

Leah carefully put the jar away in her subspace pocket, before she joined Mickey in running over to get in front of the camera.

After some jostling, the five Loopers arranged themselves in a decent pose for a group shot. Charlie, who was holding the remote button for the camera, stood next to Leah in the back, while Oswald, Mickey and Minnie stood in a line in the front.

"Okay, everyone; on the count of three, say 'Cheese'," Charlie instructed. "One... two... three!"

"CHEESE!"

POOF!

After Mickey, Minnie and Oswald bid their goodbyes to Charlie and Leah, they were walking along the side of the road leading to La Push, while waiting for the Loop to end. The sun was setting, so it would be any minute now.

"Well, that was one of the stranger Loops we've done, huh fellas?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah, I with you there, bro," Oswald replied. "Still, I like the wolf thing, now that the imprinting's a non-issue."

"You're keeping the lycanthropy?" Minnie asked quizzically. "I'd have thought you'd ditch it at the first opportunity."

"You kiddin'? Being a wolf is awesome! I can't wait to start messing with that Phantom Blot jerk!"

Oswald looked at Mickey. "How about you, bro? You keeping anything from this Loop?"

Mickey shook his head. "Nothing except memories. Honestly, I'll be satisfied if the next few Loops had some less contrived--"

And then the Loop ended.

In the central HQ of Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc., Michael "Mouse" Grey Awoke in the middle of looking over some employment application forms. "--romances." he said, before blinking a couple of times. "Man, I hate it when a Loop ends mid-conversation."

He looked around the frankly opulent office he was sitting in, on the top floor of a rather large skyscraper. "Okay," he noted. "I'm the owner of a rather large company, with no particular focus on any one industry that I can make out. It's a step up from 'immortal high-schooler', anyway."

Then the Loop memories came in.

Mickey took a few minutes to process what had just entered his mind, then buried his face in his hands. "Me and my big mouth."

All of a sudden, the tie he was wearing felt a lot less comfortable. And a heck of a lot dirtier. He planned on burning it when he got home.

At least he wasn't a vampire anymore.

4.1-4.10: The "Sunset Over Forks" arc in its entirety, in which the Disney characters do their best to derail a setting that tries to railroad them.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-16. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

5.1 (SeaofFallingStars): [Kingdom Hearts]

Donald and Goofy were wondering where Sora had gone, since they had all fallen asleep in Aladdin's house. Genie had somehow whipped up a deck of cards and they were playing 'Texas Rummy'. How Genie knew the game, they didn't or want to know. They had completed six and a half games when Sora came back, covered in a purplish-black liquid and pot fragments.

"I am never storming a Pot Scorpion nest for Jasmine's dad again."

5.2 (wildrook): [Kingdom Hearts]

"Well," was what Sora muttered, "this is new."

He had experienced a circus before, and it involved one that turned Pinocchio into a donkey.

However, he found himself working with an old summon of his named Dumbo, and he's at the point where the clowns came in. Only one problem... it's less about the clowns that freaked him out...

...it was these guys that spawned Nightmares. Literally.

"Now I'm starting to see why I never went to THIS world," was what Sora muttered. "Wonder how Riku's doing..."

(On the other end...)

"Clowns," was what Riku muttered. "It had to be CLOWNS. I'm not even afraid of clowns, and this is terrifying beyond the capacity for rational thought."

On Riku's side of the story, he got involved with crows, clowns, and a building on fire.

"You're going to need something in order to glide," a mouse replied. "That reminds me, where's your friend?"

"Being tailed by some of the more dangerous villains I've met, Timothy. I'm going to need air support if I'm to take out these clowns. Can you two cover me?"

Dumbo nodded as Timothy saluted.

"You can count on us," was what Timothy muttered. "Let's hope you run into your pal before the guys you mentioned show up."

5.3 (Hvulpes): [Disney]

Mickey looked at his reflection and the physical changes in his appearance and wondered, "What do the others look like?"

As he thought this his loop memories arrived and his red cheeks sparked with electricity, "Who came up with the name Picky Pikachu?"

5.4 (wildrook): [Goof Troop/Goofy Movie]

Max and PJ were surprised at the scene in front of them... some rabbit-like things had managed to steal everything within Pete's house and now they were in the Goof Home, unopposed as they were packing lots of stuff.

"Uh, is that one of your Dad's experiments?" PJ asked him.

"Not this time, Peej," Max replied. "Because they managed to tie him up."

"Gawrsh," Goofy said. "I didn't expect to be captured...where did they come from?"

"Don't know, Dad," Max said, "but they're armed!"

The battle cry had been heard through Spoonerville as the rabbit-like monsters had brought up their stuff to go to the moon:

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Hard to believe that younger versions of future friends of theirs had been Awake that day, but those... are other stories.

5.5 (Evilhumour): [Kingdom Hearts / [Keys to the Kingdom]

"That sounds rough Arthur." Riku muttered, sitting down to let his mind contemplate all of this. He had heard of how one of the Spyro's baseline was a constant war and nearly impossible for him and his friends to prevent it. He had read about the lost loop, the one that was lost due to saving the Megaman loops. He had seen the Supernatural loop and the mess that was.

This was not as bad, but up there.

"But, this a semi special loop." Riku gave Arthur a smile. "I am sure that your loop can't cross over and this isn't a fused loop from what I can tell, thus I am sure that your problems won't follow us over."

"But," Arthur started to protest but Riku placed a hand on his shoulder. "What can I do here?"

"In all honesty? Come join me and my friends for an adventure, we have a lot stuff to deal with, some of it difficult but a lot of fun with my friends." Sending out another Ping, Riku smile grew. "And it seems that most of them are Awake, so they can help you too."

"I guess..." Arthur looked to the floor.

"That's if you want to, but again, you are replacing my friend Sora for this loop and a great deal of things are centered around him, I wouldn't want you to have to deal with them without backup." Riku frowned, deciding to see if Arthur was truly replacing Sora this time. "And I can teach you how to use this." He summoned his keyblade, watching Arthur's eyes grow in surprise.

He looked down at the Atlas, which had started to write something.

Lord Arthur, you have nothing to fear from the keyblades; they will not change you into a Denizen.

"Here, hold this." Riku handed the keyblade over to the looper, waiting to see what would happen.

As Arthur took it, something odd happened. For a split second, there were four different Arthurs. Two he could tell were the replacements of Ventus and Vanitas just by appearance alone. The third one was the same boy he was talking to. The last one...

He was tall, twelve feet tall, with perfect gold hair, with perfectly tan skin. He had no pupils, just pure red orbs. He was dressed in perfectly tailored, old fashion clothing, with a quill behind his ear, a key on a chain along with small mirror mixed with fused trident and baton. On his belt there were a pair of tucked in gloves, with a small sword at his hip. Obedience, awe, and absolute terror poured out from this figure, with Riku unable to do anything.

Then he was gone and Arthur was back, holding a strange keyblade that had moving texture and features on it that drew his attention to it. Riku began to see patterns in it, twisting his head-

"RIKU!" Arthur shouted, banishing the keyblade.

"Sorry Arthur, that was a weird keyblade." Riku shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

"I think it had properties of the Front Door," Arthur muttered to himself, summoning the keyblade again before dispelling it again, taking a long deep breath.

Riku stared at Arthur, and realized that this was going to be an interesting loop.

5.6 (wildrook): [Goof Troop/Goofy Movie]

"Note to self," Max muttered, "NEVER let Dad near the blue pony with explosive compositions again!"

In Spoonerville High, Max was dealing with a small post-Loop Crash Crisis. Mad Scientist Goofy had met Demomare Trixie.

"Bad Loop?" PJ asked him.

"Bad crash," Max replied. "Pray that your Dad never Awakens, because he'd be surprised that mine SUCCEEDED. Next thing I knew, I ended up as Julius."

PJ cringed. "Feel for ya, Max. Other than that, what's the plan to impress Roxanne this time?"

"Actually, I was hoping I'd go slow," he replied. "I mean, really, we're not going to attend a Science Slumber Party."

"You and me both," a female voice said, surprising them.

The fact that Max DIDN'T fall into the locker proved that he was under stress.

"Roxanne?" Max asked her. "But... how'd you find out?"

"You're not the only one who can bribe someone with cheese wiz," the redhead replied.

"Yeah," PJ said, "you two are DEFINITELY made for each other. I was hoping I'd surprise YOU this time, Max."

Well, at least Max wouldn't have to lie this time. "That makes things a bit easier," Max replied. "I was in a hurry, so I forgot mine. Finding out that you beat... wait a minute. You're feeling Loopy?"

"Ever since the incident with the Raving Rabbids," she replied.

"And that was when we were kids," PJ added. "Heck, BOBBY was the first to confront us. It just took a couple loops."

Max had a feeling that something crazy would trigger it. "Story of my life," he muttered. "Well, you've met Dad before. This time, he's got the Franken-Goof Gene active."

"Mad Scientist?" Roxanne asked him.

"Laboratory underneath both our old and new houses."

"Any actual monsters?"

"Just the one that looks like Big Pete." That sometimes follows him around. "If you see a look-alike, he's nicer than Peej's Dad."

"Guess that's a thing to watch out for. That reminds me, the Principal's on the Warpath."

Max and PJ were surprised.

"I didn't even start the stunt this time," he muttered.

"Not the reason," Bobby said, walking down there. "And no, you're not in trouble. He's trying to quell a riot."

Max then face-palmed. "Who's the leader? King of the Pharaohs? The guy who used to be Chief of Security? I made a lot of enemies when I was a kid, so it could be anyone."

"You might want to see this for yourself."

As they walked out to the front door, they had noticed the most cliche problem... as they saw a lot of Powerline CDs in a pile that looked like they were going to be burned.

"Okay," Max muttered, "now I'm DEFINITELY going to have to explain to Dad what happened today. Guy may be mad, but he's at least logical." Then he had an idea. "You guys have any change I can borrow?"

(Minutes later...)

"That's too cliche for words," Goofy said, bringing a modified version of his old truck.

"Yeah, feels like something out of the sixties," PJ replied.

"You weren't kidding about the Mad Scientist thing," Roxanne muttered.

"Again," Max said, "he's at least willing to help us out. His other career is Captain of the Royal Guard and he created his own Vibranium Shield. But we managed to get Powerline's number from baseline."

"I'm still a little surprised that you knew him AFTER the lie."

"We'll talk about this later. Right now, we have Freedom of Speech to save."

5.7 (Mr. Egret; wildrook; Evilhumour; Gamerex27; Crisis; VS21; Anon e Mouse Jr.) [Disney] / [Bar Loop - [The Nightmare Before Christmas] / [Kingdom Hearts] / [Marvel] / [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [Lion King] / [Hercules] / [The Sword in the Stone] / [The Little Mermaid] / [Lilo & Stitch] / [Big Hero 6] / [Gargoyles] / [The Emperor's New Groove] / [Mulan] / [Goof Troop/Goofy Movie] / [Aladdin] / [Snow White] / [Hunchback of Notre Dame] / [Tangled] - Happy Hour at the House of Mouse

CONTENT WARNING - contains discussion of bizarre romantic relationships.

Mickey looked out across the tavern floor as he polished a particularly dirty glass. There weren't a whole lot of people in tonight. But then, there was usually a bigger crowd when the House of Mouse was an actual nightclub rather than a simple bar. As it was, he thought that there were plenty of customers, so he was not concerned.

He heard the door creak open, and looked up to see Jack Skellington and an adult Sora walk into the bar, wearing matching thousand-yard stares. "Hey, fellas. Come on and pull up a stool; you look like you've got something awful on your minds."

"How right you are, Mr. Mouse," Jack replied wearily, as the two Loopers bellied up to the bar. "One glass of La Venganza de Escorpión, if you please."

"Oh jeez. It's that bad?" Mickey asked disbelievingly.

"Yep," Sora replied. "I'll have what he's having."

Mickey pulled out a waiver and pen and handed them to Sora, then pulled out the bottle from underneath the bar. When it hit the bar top, several patrons felt very cold all of a sudden, and the lights flickered noticeably. In the back, Judge Claude Frollo crossed himself, and quickly left the bar.

Mickey poured two steaming glasses of the stuff, checked to see if the waiver had been signed, then pushed the glasses towards the two Loopers. "So, what happened?"

Jack took his glass, and swirled the contents pensively. "Do you remember how Sora, Donald and Goofy helped me save Christmas by rescuing Santa Claus from Oogie Boogie?"

"Yeah; what of it?"

"Well, in our last Loop, when we turned up to save the day, we found out that we were in a variant Loop."

Mickey could all but see the oncoming trainwreck from where he was standing. "Go on..."

Sora shuddered, and grabbed his glass. "As it turned out, Santa didn't need rescuing. He was having a romantic tryst, and we walked in on him kissing...oh I can't bear it."

Mickey gulped. "With who? Who was he kissing?" he asked, feeling like an Investigator in Call of Cthulhu about to open a tomb.

Jack looked Mickey dead in the eye, and the mouse could read the sheer horror written all over the skeleton's face like a book. "Demyx," he whispered.

Jack and Sora both knocked back their glasses in one go. Jack, being a member of the undead, merely got a bit soused. Sora, however, was flesh and blood, and so he slumped over the bar unconscious then and there.

Mickey considered the situation, adjusted Sora's position so he would be more comfortable, and then poured Jack another glass, and a third one for himself. Demyx and Santa Claus was not an image that he wanted to remember. Ever.

Sora, within the bar of the House of Mouse, had quite the hangover.

"Considering what happened to me and Jack that one loop," he said, "I'm going to need something to look at and laugh. Anyone go through a variant involving a weird pairing? That you had to go through something strong in order to fry your brains out like we have or just de-railed it?"

"Ultron with IG-88," Tony muttered, catching Sora's attention. "We had to get the Death Star destroyed before it could be rebuilt because it was their honeymoon suite."

"What happened to Stan's Place?" Sora asked him.

"Caught in the crossfire. Most of the Marvel Loopers use this as a backup in case that happens."

Captain Jack Sparrow raised his bottle of rum, swigged it around and then looked at everyone in the room. "I was doing the deed with the other Captain Jack, Captain Morgan, Captain Hook, Barbosa, and that old biddy Maleficent while having that curse." He took a deep drink of his rum, shuddering. "I just drank myself to death somehow."

"Jack Harkness was Looping?" Oswald asked Captain Sparrow.

"That's the first thing you ask?" he asked the Lucky Rabbit.

"Sadly no, my good friend," Jack sighed sadly. "If he were, he'd known that I like have the whip hit a bit higher."

Riku muttered something under his breath, not bothering to take his head off the bar table before speaking.

"Uh, could'ja say that again?" Donald rasped. "I didn't hear you."

Riku slowly raised his head, with the kind of look that would put Eeyore to shame. "Simba. Pride Lands. Both lions."

Simba winced from across the room. "Oh. Good thing I wasn't Awake for that..."

"I guess it could have been worse," Riku said, taking a sip of his drink. "At least neither of us got pregnant, which happens way too often in these kinds of AAAARRRGH!" Cutting off mid-sentence, Riku clutched his head at the side-splitting migraine that hit him out of nowhere.

"I did tell you to start with something more mild," Kairi said sadly. "Maybe you should go back to the butterbeer for now. Leave that Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster alone."

As Riku nodded groggily, Hercules hesitantly raised his hand, then quickly put it back down.

"What's wrong, Herc?" Sora asked. "Whatever happened to you can't be that bad. Otherwise, you'd be in a therapy Loop instead of here."

"It's not-" the hero started, then paused again. "It is kind of disturbing, but it's nothing compared to what my dad-both local and Admin-did. It's just... weird. If you really want me to, I'll give you an abridged version."

In the aftermath of the story, a very drunk Sora mentioned that he was very lucky to have missed out on most of Herc's story. Riku only remembered bits and pieces of it.

"...Yeah, with Cloud... no, that happened before I Awoke, I would never do that... Yes, I said sunshine beam... turned into a hydra after Sephiroth did that... grew teeth and started trying to eat everyone else... yes, Cloud really called him Sephy-kins...Yes, I said they assimilated people...yeah, just like the Borg, but grosser...I got possessed by Ansem... then Hades came in while... yes, really, with Cerberus... and after that, I turned into a woman, for some reason... Sephiroth was somehow Leon's true love... had to use... vacuumed like a black hole... then, it started glowing... and then war broke out, we all died, and the Loop ended, thank the gods."

Simba, in lion form, then groaned.

"Not the craziest as Riku's encounter with me and Nala," he replied, and was thankful that it didn't happen, "but... I got shipped with Ariel when Scar met Ursula that one Fused Loop. It took the intervention of a plane crash from Baloo involving a carnival, Mowgli, fire-ants, and Pumbaa in the place of Flounder."

"Merlions are a thing in Singapore," Merlin replied.

"Don't remind me. You know how hard I tried to explain to Nala and Triton that my Uncle was involved? Or the fact that her sisters were part-fish, part-cat?"

Ariel blushed and hid her face. "At least you didn't have someone badger you for grandkids constantly."

Simba's jaw fell to the floor.

"I only Awoke before the Loop ended, but now that's happened, I can go merlioness now."

"No wonder I saw you with cat ears when we first met," Eric replied. "At least... before you went part catgirl that one time."

Ariel blushed again, her face matching her hair. "Mickey, your strongest drink please."

The blue 'dog' tapped its chin before it said "Juu Backta."

Everyone in the room winced, and took a drink with the young girl giving her pet a big hug.

"What did he say?" Hiro asked the others.

"You don't want to know," Wendy the cyclops alien replied.

"Though I no longer love her," Goliath said, "I once saw Demona engaged in courtship with... Chernabog."

Oswald winced. "Yikes. How did that end up?"

"Not as you would think," the leader of the Manhattan Clan of gargoyles replied. "She entered into a Faustian pact with him, then immediately betrayed him the moment she had received the power she was promised. I and my clan were forced to use the most fearsome of our out-of-Loop abilities in order to defeat her. And even then, New York had been completely leveled. And when Chernabog returned for revenge, their fight leveled the entire state of New York."

"On the bright side," Brooklyn added, "we didn't have to worry about the Quarrymen that Loop, since all the people who normally joined them were too busy focusing on fighting Chernabog's army of demons."

"The sad part," Xanatos said, "there were some things that fell apart in the initial plan I had, so I felt it was safer to work WITH Goliath and his clan the moment I Woke up."

Xanatos may have been morally ambiguous, but he wasn't stupid. A deal with Disney's version of Satan led to disaster, so better Goliath than Chernabog.

Minnie and Daisy quietly conferred over two cups of champagne, before Minnie raised her hand. "I have one," she piped up. "Remember that Loop where Mickey and I married for political reasons before we Woke Up?"

Mickey thought about it for a second, before his eyes widened. "Oh goodness. That loop?"

"Yep. As it turned out, the Unawake me liked girls. Specifically Daisy."

Daisy sipped her champagne. "Yeah, I thought it was weird that we Woke Up in the same bed, but we were able to make it work until the others Woke Up."

She smiled wistfully. "Heh. I still remember when Donald walked in on us when we were drying off after we tried out those hot springs..."

Minnie covered her eyes with her hand, despite her smile. "Oh gosh, I remember that! Poor guy looked as embarrassed as I felt. He got all red in the face, and he wouldn't look at either of us. Remember, Daisy?"

Daisy laughed out loud. "Oh heck yeah I remember! When I beckoned him into the changing room, he was giving off more steam than a sauna! And when you had him sit between us, oh my word..."

As the two girls descended into giggles, Mickey sighed to himself, pulled out a checklist, and put a checkmark next to "champagne". After some consideration, he added another check.

"You were Franklin D. Roosevelt, weren't you?" Oswald asked him.

"Yup," Mickey replied.

Kuzco looked at the crowd and said six words. "Yzma and a faulty gender potion." He then buried his llama head into the table and cried.

"Why does it keep happening to me?!"

Mulan tapped her chin for a moment, trying to think of something to share that wouldn't harm anyone too much.

"There was one where Po replaced Mushu..."

"And absolutely nothing was different," Shang added.

Max looked at the crowd, with his father taking a drink. "Fatherly love to the extreme."

The spit-take was enough to bowl over Hades, Donald, Herc, and a pillar.

The worst part is that the next one involves Oswald's pain being at the heart of 420 mouths asking the same thing:

"Daddy, what's a hooker?"

Oswald's eyes bugged out. "Where did you guys hear that word?" he asked them.

"From one of the Petes," one of the kids asked him.

Mickey just patted Oswald on the shoulder as they were in the middle of the game.

"Not exactly relevant," Sora muttered, "but that's just awkward."

"That's not the worst part," Oswald replied. "Ever have a stadium full of kids shouting that?"

"This is why I'm GLAD Max is the Anchor of his branch," Goofy said, sympathizing with Oswald outside of the area. "Otherwise... well, there was the time the ex-girlfriend met my current one."

"And this is why mine is worse," Max muttered. "Because 'The Missus and the Ex' is EVERY man's worst nightmare."

"Hey Mickey! We need a whole lot of brain bleach over here!" Genie called out to Mickey as he brought Aladdin and Jasmine into the bar.

Aladdin looked completely out of it as Mickey got the brain bleach and Genie and Jasmine worked to get the brain bleach down Aladdin's throat and once they got several gallons worth of brain bleach down Aladdin's throat, he finally said, "Jafar kept a harem of captured male thieves in one of the dungeons..."

Hades blinked. "Explains so much," he said. "I take it the brain bleach was because..."

"There were thirty-nine," Genie replied. "And his Dad was nowhere to be found. Saluk was the Beta."

Hercules had to LIGHTLY pat Aladdin in the back due to his super strength.

"Kid, that's worse than Zeus when he channels his original self," Hades said to Hercules.

"Don't remind me," Hercules replied. "Besides, guy could use a pat on the back... well... a light one..."

The Seven Princess of Light looked at each other, looked at their princes and sighed.

"One off to the right?" Jasmine asked Snow.

"One off to the right."

"No, Quasi," Rapunzel muttered, "Frollo and Gothel makes more sense than baseline role-reversal between him and Esmerelda."

"I wasn't going to say that," Quasimodo replied. "It involved Victor, Hugo, and a goat."

"Then I take it back."

5.8 (bubblesage): [Bar Loop] / [Disney] / [Hercules] / [Sleeping Beauty] / [The Sword in the Stone] / [Cinderella] / [Snow White] / [Lion King] / [Alice in Wonderland] / [Frozen] / [Power Rangers] / [The Little Mermaid] / [The Nightmare Before Christmas] / [Star Wars]

Mickey hummed to himself cleaning a glass. The House of Mouse was styled as a bar in what seemed to be a modern day Toon Town, thankfully without the Dip.

He looked up seeing Hercules motioning to a door with his head. After getting his brother to watch the bar(1) he followed the demi/actual god into a conference room usually reserved for business meetings (Herc's divinity scale sometimes moved depending on the loop).

Inside he wasn't really surprised when several Awake Royals were sitting at a large round table. Prince/King Philip, Princess/Queen Aurora, Arthur 'Wart' Pendragon next to Merlin, Cinderella and Snow White next to a Prince Charming each, Maleficent(2), Simba, Nala and Kiara (Kovu was sadly not Awake at this time), Alice, Elsa, what may have been Princess Shayla in a concealing cloak, Ariel and Triton in more humanoid forms, Jack Skellington with Sally, and Leia.

"Gosh. If I had known so many esteemed guests were coming I would have made the room bigger. What do your Highnesses wish of me?" He asked bowing politely.

Jack, being elected the spoke-skeleton, spoke up. "We wish to know how to refer to you Sir Mouse. Anchor, king of your own kingdom. Some would say Sovereign of our branch of the world tree. We were debating on High King before you entered."

Mickey tilted his head in thought. He figured this may be asked at sometime in the Loops. It was true; even without the thing with Kingdom Hearts he had had sovereignty before, usually through marriage to Minnie but the odd Prince and the Pauper loops popped up every so often.(3) And to paraphrase pre-Looping Oswald he was technically Dad's favorite, though he never really saw it that way personally.

Mickey nodded, hiding his surprise and fear as Maleficent seemed to follow every word.(4) "I can see your reasonings Pumpkin King, but I'm not one of them. In my heart, I'm just Mickey, and Walt(5) willing no matter what the loops throw at me, I hope i remain just Mickey."

(1) Mickey still gets a tiny thrill that Oswald is both Looping and not jealous of him.

(2) Who was slightly surprising but considering what had happened in her baseline, no one wanted her to feel snubbed, if only to avoid the annoyance.

(3) Usually with him as both.

(4) Who was not actually Awake but had befriended someone and knew how to play the Game.

(5) Does anyone else find it heartwarming that Mickey would swear by Walt?

5.1: Pot Scorpions are very tricky to handle.

5.2: Ah, Pink Elephants On Parade...

5.3: Good question.

5.4: Foreshadowing!

5.5: Conclusion to this arc. See the first chapter for parts 1 and 2.

5.6: Welcome to the Loops, Roxanne. (Note to self: Introduce her to the other Roxanne. The one from Jurassic Park.)

5.7: A lot of interesting conversations happen in bars. (By the way, Frollo isn't Looping. He's just there in the background.)

5.8: Yes. Yes, it is heartwarming. (And Maleficent isn't Looping either.)

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-23. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

6.1 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Sleeping Beauty]

Mickey and Minnie looked on in mild interest as Maleficent made her needlessly flashy entrance into the main hall. "Okay; here's hoping your plan works, Minnie," he whispered.

"If all of those legends about the Fae we studied are true, then I think it'll work," Minnie whispered back.

"And if they aren't?"

"I have a very large ax made of cold iron, and you have a Keyblade."

"Nice plan B."

"Such a lovely turnout for the young princess's christening," Maleficent drawled. "Why, you've invited the royalty, the nobility, the gentry, and... oh!"

She looked at the three Good Fairies, and chuckled darkly. "Even the rabble."

Right on cue, Merryweather tried to go for Maleficent, only to be held back by Flora and Fauna. Maleficent chuckled again. "Yes, it is truly a privilege to have been invited to this celebration among such august company."

This threw everyone in the room for a loop. Everyone except for the royal couple and the two mice. Maleficent smiled widely. "Oh, there's no need to be so shocked. The King merely saw the wisdom of inviting such a personage as myself to to this most joyous occasion. As such, I feel obligated to 'return the favor', so to speak."

She spread her arms wide, and lightning flashed in the background. Mickey rolled his eyes. Man, what a drama queen, he thought to himself.

"Hear me well, lords and ladies of this court!" Maleficent announced. "The young princess will indeed grow up to possess grace, and beauty, and the adoration of the people. However, she shall also possess the most cunning and brilliant mind in all the land. She will be possessed of a keen political sense, and the ambition and drive that she will need to rule her kingdom wisely and well, repel all those who would invade this land, and CRUSH her enemies under her heel! So say I, Maleficent!"

She laughed loudly as she teleported away in a burst of green flame, leaving the Good Fairies and the assembled nobility to wonder exactly what the hell just happened. Mickey and Minnie smiled at each other. "Well," Minnie whispered, "I think that being a political prodigy trumps being cursed to fall asleep after getting pricked by a spindle, wouldn't you say?"

"Yep," Mickey whispered back. "I think we can call this experiment a success."

"I'll check it off the list when we get a spare moment. Let's just enjoy the party for now."

"Good idea."

6.2 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Bayonetta] / [The Hunchback of Notre Dame - no Loopers present]

As the city lights of the Isla de Sol twinkled below them, and chunks of the wall of Father Balder's office whistled past them, Oswald and Mickey sat on a particularly large chunk of building as it hurtled through space towards the ground. "Mickey?" Oswald asked.

"Yeah, Oswald?"

"How do we get into these situations?"

"Cause we're too nosy for our own good, and like meddling in the plans of villains."

"Oh yeah. Still, I was not expecting Frollo to be Father Balder this time around."

The two Disney Loopers winced as they heard a particularly loud explosion further up. "Sounds like Bayonetta's starting her counterattack. Should we do the thing?"

"Probably, yeah."

Oswald snapped his fingers, and the Sixth Key manifested in his outstretched hand. He grinned. "Darn lucky that today's Saturday, huh bro?"

Mickey checked his watch. "As of five minutes ago, yes. Okay, you know what to do, right?"

"Oh yeah," Oswald responded, while sketching a hole in the air. "See you on the other side."

"Likewise. SHAZAM!"

Bayonetta neatly flipped out of the way of another of Father Frollo's salvos of energy balls. "My, my, we just can't hit anything today, can we?" she taunted.

"Silence, witch!" Frollo snarled, as he conjured up an immense glowing blade. "In the name of my Lord, I shall cast thee into the Pit alongside your sisters!"

Bayonetta smirked and drew Pillow Talk in response, the green glow of the blade contrasting with the golden light of Frollo's sword. "Really now? I'd like to see you try!"

The Lumen Sage and the Umbra Witch rushed at each other, and engaged in lightning-fast swordplay. Bayonetta had the years of experience given by Looping and the advantage of speed, but Frollo had the strength of a fanatic and simply refused to go down, no matter how many times he was cut, so they were evenly matched. Hmmm, not bad for an old judge, Bayonetta thought to herself, as she parried Frollo's overhead strike and locked blades with him. I might have to use one of those abilities to get an edge...

Suddenly a red and gold blur erupted through the chunk of concrete Bayonetta was standing on, breaking the stalemate and knocking both combatants back. "AGH!" Frollo yelled in surprise and pain, as Bayonetta jumped to another piece of concrete.

Frollo was sent hurtling through space, as his sword was shattered by the red and gold blur, which was continuing on into space. Bayonetta spared a quick glance upwards. Ah, this must be Mickey's little surprise, she realized. She smiled. This fight is getting more and more interesting.

Frollo regained his balance, and was shaking in anger. "Your vile arts will not save you, witch!"

Bayonetta laughed cheerfully, which only angered Frollo even further. "Oh, that had nothing to do with me, judge. I do suspect that my friends are quite unhappy with you throwing them out of the window. Can't imagine why..."

Frollo snarled in fury, before re-summoning his sword. "You will burn for this blasphemy! BUUUUUUUUUURN!"

He snapped his fingers imperiously. "SMITE HER!"

For the next few seconds, nothing happened.

Frollo snapped his fingers again. "I said, SMITE HER!"

Once again, nothing happened. Frollo snapped his fingers rapidly, then snarled in outrage. "Why. Isn't. This. WORKING?!"

"That would be my fault, I'm afraid," an all-too-familiar voice said.

Frollo whipped his head around, and hissed, "Impossible."

Oswald grinned cheekily at Frollo from within the confines of an old-fashioned elevator, which seemed to be descending smoothly like a elevator normally would, instead of tumbling around and around in free fall. He was tossing a strangely complicated piece of computer technology that was probably worth more than several countries' GDP in one hand, and holding a peacock-feather quill in the other. "I'd say that this nifty little doodad is a rather important piece of that particle beam you have in orbit, huh Frollo? Good to know!"

He laughed heartily and shut the doors as Frollo launched a ball of celestial fire at the elevator. The elevator popped out of existence before the fireball could connect, which did nothing to ease Frollo's temper. "Vile demon..." he growled.

Bayonetta took advantage of Oswald's brief appearance and brought back Frollo's attention to herself with a slash across the face. "You're not good at this, are you, Frollo? Never take your eyes off of the opponent during a duel. Poor form, you know."

Frollo, at this point, had been reduced to sounds of animalistic rage. While his swings were much stronger than they were before, they were also wilder and more sloppy. Twice, he cleaved through a piece of concrete that wasn't even close to where Bayonetta was standing. "Such a temper," she chided.

"ARGH!"

Suddenly, dozens of buildings wrenched themselves free from their foundations, and floated up next to Frollo. He bared his teeth in a crazed grin and pointed at Bayonetta. "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!"

And that was when the satellite crashed into Frollo at Mach 2.

Bayonetta shielded her eyes from the resulting explosion, and the buildings fell (more or less) harmlessly back to earth. The Umbra Witch looked up to see Mickey floating back down to her level. "Nice throw."

"Thanks. You alright?"

"Never felt better. I'll admit, the multiple building thing did catch me off guard, but nothing I couldn't handle. Still, it was a nice thought."

"Anytime. Now, why don't we wrap this up?"

"I'd like nothing more."

The Umbra Witch and Earth's Mightiest Mouse smirked at each other, before turning their attention to the wounded Lumen Sage. Mickey hummed along with the background music as the fight resumed in earnest. I gotta admit; this song is pretty catchy...

6.3 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Stepford Wives - non-Looping setting]

Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Oswald hid in the alleyway, and watched the perfect women walk by. They didn't react at all to the heat, despite being a sweltering August day. The four Disney loopers, on the other hand, were sweating buckets, as they planned their next move.

"Okay," Mickey began. "The facts are these: We're in Stepford, Connecticut. All the guys except us are members of some sort of men's club, and all of the women are replaced by a bunch of androids."

"These are no ordinary robots, either," Oswald added. "It's nearly impossible to tell them apart from the people they're impersonating. Well, unless you know where to look."

"Minnie's conducting her own investigations, and she brought along Daisy and Ortensia," Mickey continued. "Now, ten to one the men's club is behind this, but we'll need some concrete evidence to prove it in court."

"So what's the plan?" Donald asked.

"Easy. We petition to join the club ourselves, then make some noise about wanting our wives to be replaced. If my hunch is correct then we can spring an ambush after dark, when they come to snatch our real wives for replacement."

Goofy scratched his head. "Wait a minute. I'm not married this time around, so what do I do?"

"You can dig for evidence that the wives are being replaced by robots. Try looking around the area for signs of a holding area for the replaced wives, or a graveyard with a bunch of unmarked graves."

"Got it!"

"Okay, looks like we have a plan," Mickey said, clapping his hands to emphasize his point. "Now let's get out of this alley. It stinks like Horace's dirty laundry."

Later that evening, Minnie, Ortensia and Daisy holed up in Ortensia's house, and pored over the town records they had dug up. "Look at this," Daisy said, as she held up a particular newspaper clipping. "That's Eva Patterson, one of my co-workers at McDuck Enterprises. She moved here over six months ago. Last I saw her, she wouldn't take any guff from anybody, least of all her husband. Today, when we passed her in the supermarket, she was following his every order without a peep. That's not like her!"

Ortensia nodded, and pulled out another newspaper clipping. "Yeah, something similar happened to me. I ran into Gracie Netterly canoodling with her husband in public, but I happen to know for a fact that she wouldn't be caught dead doing that when we were working together on that mountaineering gig back in Burbank. And guess what: she also moved here six months ago! What d'you think, Mins? Coincidence?"

"I don't think so, Ortensia," Minnie replied. "Look at all of this. Every single woman on the marriage registrar here was famous for their feminist activism and led successful professional careers in their respective fields before they moved here, but when we actually met them, they were acting like housewives right outta the '50s. No, this is no coincidence. There's something big going on here, girls-wait, what was that?"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, and a group of men in uniform filed into the room, moving in a professional way to cover the room that showed lots of practice. Daisy and Ortensia shrieked in surprise, and started to back away. Minnie stood her ground, and began to mentally go through her subspace pocket, for a suitable weapon.

"You're coming with us, ladies," the lead grunt barked. "By order of the Stepford Husbands' Society."

"On what grounds?" Minnie challenged. "We've done nothing to break the law, and I highly doubt that you lot are law enforcement anyway."

"I don't give a donkey's patoot if you lot broke the law or not. The Husband's Society wants you three to undergo the Smiling, so you're going! Now get a move on!"

This doesn't look good, Minnie thought, as she slowly started to back away from the leering goons and their guns. She needed to get Daisy and Ortensia out of here. But how to do that without blowing her cover?

"Oswald, Donald, now!"

Minnie sighed, partly out of relief and partly out of exasperation. Of course. Wait for one of the guys to blow his cover first.

Suddenly, Mickey, Donald and Oswald burst out of hiding, from behind the surprisingly voluminous curtains, and rugby-tackled the goons. Daisy and Ortensia used the distraction to slip over to the kitchen and grab a couple of frying pans. Then, to Minnie's surprise, they proceeded to join in the ensuing fracas. I've underestimated them, she thought to herself, as she pulled out the Voice Stealer she had made during that one Mega Man Loop.

She then proceeded to set the microphone setting to "Godzilla", before clearing her throat. She inhaled deeply, and...

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK!"

The cloud of dust that had formed in the middle of the room was blasted away by the resulting shockwave, revealing the abruptly-stopped scuffle. Mickey had the lead henchman in a headlock, while the henchman was trying to throw him off. Another henchman was paused in mid-yell, while grasping his foot. Ortensia was caught in mid-swing, aiming at the other foot. Oswald and Daisy had punched the third henchman at the same time, and his face was squashed in between their fists.

Donald, somehow, had gotten himself in a rather intricate figure-four leg-lock.

Everyone present turned to look at Minnie, who daintily put the Voice Stealer away. "Now that I have your attention..." she said sweetly.

Chairman Wimperis examined the three women lying on the table before him. "Hmm..." he mused. "These are the wives of the three newest members, correct?"

"Er, yes, that's right," one of the suspiciously short goons (who was obviously Mickey in disguise) replied. "Mrs. Minerva Mouse, Mrs. Daisy Duck and Mrs. Ortensia Cat. That's them, sir."

"Yes, quite. Now, wheel them down to the laboratory. I'll need their brain imprints to complete the androids. Step lively! The sedative won't last forever!"

"Right, sir."

The goon motioned to the other two goons (also suspiciously short, and also just as obviously Donald and Oswald), and the three of them pushed the table out of the room, and down one of the hallways of the mansion. They passed through many twists and turns, steadily going downwards, until they finally entered a cavernous underground lair. There were discarded android parts littered all over one side of the room, and electrical equipment of all types, from the most innocuous voltmeter, to a gigantic Van de Graff generator dominating the far side of the room. In the center of the room, there were three tables with straps, obviously designed to hold down unwilling subjects. Unusual bowl-shaped devices with blinking lights and dials rested at one end of the tables.

The three guards wheeled the table into this mess, and then shut the door behind them. They then took off their uniforms, and sighed in relief.

"That had no business working, Mickey," Oswald admonished, as he went to check up on Ortensia.

"Hey, I thought you did a good job with the mind whammy," Mickey replied defensively. "Anyway, we should be thankful that it did work. Look at all this!"

"Yeah," Donald replied, as he gently shook Daisy awake. "All this tech stuff looks real suspicious. We have to get some pictures of all this, and maybe a few android parts as evidence..."

Once all three of the girls were revived, the six investigators pulled out cameras of varying sophistication and proceeded to photograph everything within the lab. They paid special attention to the android parts and the tables with straps. They even posed by some of the more incriminating evidence, for laughs.

Suddenly, a noise from behind the Van de Graff generator made everyone spin around, and pull out various bludgeoning instruments (either from subspace pockets or from Hammerspace). They tensed up, as a secret door opened up in the main body of the generator and a dark figure started to step out.

They then relaxed when that figure proceeded to trip on an exposed wire, and sprawl inelegantly on the floor. They recognized a Goofy pratfall when they saw one.

"Goofy, good to see you! Ya find anything?" Minnie asked.

"Sure did! I found out where all of those women were being taken after they were replaced! Follow me!"

The party followed Goofy into the passageway, and for a few minutes could barely see the ends of their noses (or bills, as the case may be). Eventually, they entered a large, circular room that was lined with huge glass tubes. In each of the tubes, a person floated in mysterious green liquid.

Ortensia and Daisy gasped. "These people... this is everybody that's been replaced!" Ortensia exclaimed.

"Are they dead?" Daisy asked worriedly, as she looked at the tube containing Eva Patterson. "They don't look like they're breathing..."

Mickey looked at the heads-up displays attached to each tube. "Well, if these displays are accurate, they're alive. Unconscious, but alive. Fan out everyone, and let's see if there's a control panel around here."

Eventually, they found a control panel tucked away in a hidden alcove, next to another door leading to the surface. After much hurried discussion and passing the buck, it fell to Oswald and Minnie, as the most tech-savvy Loopers, to free the imprisoned women. It took them seven grueling minutes to work out the fiendishly complicated control panel, and safely drain the tubes of the mysterious green fluid, which turned out to be an anesthetizing gel. Minnie sighed in relief, and Oswald cut a little victory jig when the women started to stir, and the others hurried to release them from the tubes.

"Now what?" Goofy asked, as he kept an eye on the doors, his shield at the ready.

"Now..." Mickey thought for a minute, then smiled. "Now, we pay the Chairman one last visit, before turning evidence."

Chairman Wimperis didn't bother turning around when he heard footsteps behind him as he took his ease in the smoking room. "Well? Did the brain-scan work?"

"Better than expected, sir. The subjects were extraordinarily responsive to the treatment. However, there were a few, um, complications with the activation of the androids."

"Really, now? What sort of complications?"

"I think you should take a look for yourself, sir."

Sensing something wrong, Wimperis turned around, then froze. His expression of irritation slowly gave way to a look of shock and horror, and he found himself unable to speak.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Oswald, Ortensia, and Goofy were standing there, looking very pleased with themselves. Behind him, every single woman he'd operated on glared daggers at him, their hair and clothes still dripping with gel, and with android parts in their hands.

"I think that some of your previous associates want a word with you," Mickey quipped.

"Eek."

6.4 (Jcogginsa): [Frozen] / [Pokémon]

"The cold never bothered me anyway."

With that, Elsa turned and slammed the door, ready to begin her new life in solitude.

"That was a beautiful song," said a smooth masculine voice.

Elsa's head snapped to the side, and she saw a strange, floating cat creature.

"You need to leave. It's dangerous around me." Elsa warned the... odd creature.

"I'm in no danger. You would not hurt me."

"That's not up to me. My powers... I can't control them." Elsa insisted.

The creature looked around, and spread his arms. "This beauty says differently."

"That's... it's..." Elsa struggled, but she couldn't find the words to rebuke him. "Who are you anyway?"

"My name is Mewtwo. I am a creature known as a Pokémon. I saw your palace being created, and wanted to see its creator. Your power is wonderful Elsa."

"It's dangerous. I nearly killed my own sister!"

"Beauty often comes with danger. But I can tell from looking at you. You are a kind, compassionate person Elsa. When you use your power, you do not harm others. You create beauty. You create life."

"I've never created life before."

Mewtwo waved his hand, and the surroundings changed. Elsa was standing on a transparent blue platform, looking down on a snowing forest. She could see something, a snowman, walking through the snow.

"Olaf..." she whispered to herself.

"Yes, I'm to understand he likes warm hugs." Mewtwo stated warmly. "He was the first thing you created after you began using your powers. A living snowman."

"I didn't even notice." Elsa said, as she continued to watch Olaf, enraptured. Soon, the kind Snowman ran into Anna and Kristoff.

"Wait, what is Anna doing out in the wilderness? She should be back in Arendelle."

"Your sister is looking for you, Elsa. She wants you to come back."

"I can't. It's safer for Arendelle if I'm alone. It's safer for her if she stays away."

"I'm afraid that's not true, Elsa."

The view changed once again, now showing Arendelle, blanketed in snow. Frozen.

"When you fled, Elsa, you left a winter in your wake. And only you can undo it. "

"I can't! I can't control my powers!" Elsa said in anguish.

"Yes, you can Elsa. Remember back, when you and Anna played together. You could control your powers fine then. It is only when you began to fear them that you lost control. Fear is your enemy. Happiness and love are your allies. Think of Anna. What do you feel for her."

"I love her." Elsa said. There was no hesitation in her voice.

"That is the key, Elsa. Love is the key."

A realization came over Elsa. And for the first time in forever, she smiled a true, happy smile.

Elsa moved the icy wand away from her head, and returned the memory to the Pensieve.

"That was a beautiful memory, Mewtwo."

6.5 (Hvulpes): [Frozen] / [Adventure Time - no Loopers shown active]

"Elsa, Elsa! I think I found out where your powers come from," said the non-looping Anna as the looping Elsa was enjoying the day, even as she wonder why the loop was extended beyond baseline.

Surprised at the news, she asked, "Really? Where Anna?"

"Apparently our twelve times Great Grandfather. I found it in the book, King Simon of Arendelle, of the Petrikov Kings line."

Elsa knew that name and a slight look of horror crossed her eyes, which Anna didn't see as she continued.

Showing a picture of a man with a blue robe, blue skin and a long pointed nose, wild and long white hair and beard, and a tall golden crown with a large red ruby with two smaller rubies on each side. Anna finished, "King Simon was nicknamed... The Ice King."

6.6 (Hvulpes): [Frozen]

"The Clones never bother me anyway.

Right, Elsas and Annas?" asked the unawake Snow Queen to the number of copies of herself and her sister. Some as young as eight or so.

One Loop Later...

"So apparently you were able to make sentient live ice and snow clones which looked like real people. Figure if you made people from snow, you couldn't hurt them," Anna explained.

Elsa just stared and blinked... and also wondered if she could do that too.

6.7 (bubblesage; wildrook): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Mortal Kombat]

Sora blinked looking at the pots in front of the Palace gates. It was obvious which one held the enemy considering one of them was painted yellow and black. Sora promptly turned around and walked out. "Nope. Not going through that headache. I refuse. I already have three Ultima weapons, this isn't worth it."

That's when Sora felt a kunai with a rope wrapped around his person.

"GET OVER HERE!" the one in the pot yelled.

6.7 alternate (bubblesage; Evilhumour): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Mortal Kombat] / [The Legend of Zelda]

Sora blinked looking at the pots in front of the Palace gates. It was obvious which one held the enemy considering one of them was painted yellow and black. Sora promptly turned around and walked out. "Nope. Not going through that headache. I refuse. I already have three Ultima weapons, this isn't worth it."

All of a sudden, Link had shoved him to the side and started to flat out defeat all of the pot enemies.

Sora looked at the massacre and then at Link. "You seriously need to get some help dude."

There was a screech as a pot monster tried to run away, before being dragged back into the melee.

"Seriously, you are scaring me."

6.8 (Mr. Egret): [Disney]

Mickey threw the office door open wide, and walked into the shadowy office. The large chair behind the ornate desk had its back turned to him, and the only light available came from the windows of the skyscrapers shining through the blind-covered windows, and the sickly blue glow of the computer monitor on the desk. There was a fancy-looking lamp on the other side of the desk, but it was switched off. On either side of him, file cabinets overflowed with papers and photos, and a single potted plant sat in the corner. Presumably to add a touch of color, but Mickey couldn't tell in the dark.

Mickey decided to cut to the chase. "Well, 'Boss Lady', I got your message," he said, pulling out a grubby letter from the pocket of his trenchcoat. "Now, start talking. What do you know about the Anderville mob?"

Smoky laughter wafted from the figure in the chair. "Oh, I know plenty, Mr. Mouse," a sultry female voice replied, with just a hint of artificial tuning. "I know who's in charge, what they're planning, and how they're going to do it. They may think that smaller operations like ours aren't worth anything except as tools, but we have ears."

"Well, unless they've been up against a keyhole, I'm not interested. Can we get to the point?"

"Tsk. Somebody's prickly tonight. Alright, here's the deal. You remember that assistant D.A. you busted last month?"

"Yeah, I remember him. Man had ties to some of the biggest smugglers in this town. What of him?"

"Well, it turned out that those ties were a lot more binding than he thought. Some of Caruso's goons jumped him while he was going to get some coffee, and put the squeeze on him. He spilled the beans about your involvement in the case, and Caruso was not happy."

"I'll bet. Some two-bit private eye from a nowhere town like Mouseton blows into his little kingdom, and takes out one of his friends in high places--that's gotta sting."

"Yeah, and you won't like what he's going to use for some ointment."

"What?"

The figure sighed deeply, as if she was carrying some burden that would put Atlas to shame. "He did some digging, and found out who your friends are. He's put out a hit."

Mickey put his hands on the Boss Lady's desk, and his voice would've given a penguin the shakes. "On who?"

"Your girlfriend. Minnie."

There was a pause.

"I see," Mickey said, his voice just a hint too light to be natural. "That's odd."

"What is?"

"From what I've heard of Caruso, he seems to be in his prime, and living high on life. So why would he want to commit suicide now?"

"I'm sorry?" the Boss Lady asked, her voice wavering just a little.

"I mean, it's the only possible explanation for a brilliant criminal mastermind who knows who I am and what I can do, going and doing something so monumentally stupid."

The figure in the chair was quiet for a while, as the sheer venom of Mickey's words hung on the air like a cloying mist. "It's not all doom and gloom, Mr. Mouse," she finally replied.

"Oh yeah? What's the silver lining for this cloud?"

"Caruso put out that hit when he had some bad intel. He still thinks that Minnie's in Mouseton, while we have it on good authority that she's on a nice long vacation."

"And how would you know something like that? If you've been spying on her--"

The figure laughed again, and Mickey definitely heard a change. It sounded lighter, more natural, and maddeningly familiar, like a song you've heard a thousand times before but can never name. "Nothing of the sort. We just happen to know her better than anyone."

"But that's impossible! Minnie doesn't know anyone from Anderville..."

But as he said those words, Mickey finally put a face to that laugh, and his brain came to a wholly unexpected conclusion. He felt the corners of his mouth pulling into a grin and his heart started doing the rumba. "Oh, no way," he laughed disbelievingly. "No way."

In one fluid movement, the figure spun the chair around to face him and flicked on the lamp, shining a soft incandescent light over the whole room. There, sitting in the high-backed chair, bold as brass and twice as beautiful, was a face that Mickey thought he had left behind in Mouseton, and showed up in his dreams every night since.

Minnie Mouse smiled, and put down her Voice Stealer to wipe some tears from her eyes. "Hi, Mickey."

"Minnie!"

The two mice all but tackled each other, and for a few minutes, only the sounds of kissing and cooing could be heard from the dark office. At length, Mickey and Minnie had calmed down enough to just sit together in the chair, cuddling.

"So..." Mickey began. "You're the head of a gang now?"

"Sort of. When I came looking for you, I ran into some guys that knew what you were up to, who were having some trouble with some of Caruso's lieutenants making it hard for them to do business. So, we made a deal: I help them take out the lieutenants, they point me to you. Then, all I had to do was bust out the ol' divine magic a bit, and put the fear of Yggdrasil into Caruso's men. I probably made an impression on my informants, too, cause they agreed to stick with me after I helped them out."

"Huh," Mickey replied. "Something similar happened to me when I first came here. While I was asking around for Sonny Mitchell, I found a diner where the cook and clientele all knew him. We became friends after I found out about that little fact, and they've been helping me with cases ever since."

"A diner? Is the food good?"

"Inasmuch as a greasy spoon's food can be, yeah. Wanna go get a bite to eat?"

"Sounds good to me. Most of my associates are gone, anyways."

The two mice left the office hand in hand, leaving it unoccupied, save for the plant in the corner, the files full of secrets, and the twinkling of the city lights.

6.9 (wildrook): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Aladdin]

Sora couldn't help but chuckle at the state Aladdin was in right now. Probably because Sora was older, for once.

"Laugh it up," the miniature thief said. "This tends to happen every now and again... other times, it sounds like Simba's narrating my every move."

"Sorry," Sora replied. "It's just weird seeing you like this... I never thought I'd be the older one in one of these scenarios."

6.10 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Mythos Hackers]

Ortensia hummed cheerfully to herself as she pulled a fresh batch of cookies out of the oven, and set them out to cool. "Ah, they smell perfect! I'll have to thank Princess Peach for this recipe later..."

Her ears perked up as she heard the the door slam. "Oh, hi Oswald! Come on in; I've just finished with some cookies!"

Oswald padded into the kitchen and gave Ortensia a quick peck on the cheek. "Hey, Tens. They smell good!"

As Oswald poured himself a glass of milk, Ortensia picked up his robes, and folded them neatly. "So, how did it go?"

"Well, I found the place where the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath were being summoned, and we worked out a way to talk without my brains leaking out of my ears, so it went about as well as any other time I chatted with our kids' boyfriends and girlfriends."

Ortensia sighed. "Did you set the place on fire again?"

"That was an accident and you know it. But no, they seemed on the level, surprisingly enough. They were all perfect gentlemen. Or gentleladies. Or gentlecreatures. I can never work out what gender Eldritch Horrors are..."

He laughed to himself as he remembered the meeting. "Some of the smaller ones actually looked nervous about talking with their dates' father. I guess some things really are universal."

6.11 (wildrook): [DuckTales]

Scrooge McDuck was downright annoyed.

Not because of the fact that Launchpad was flying. He was used to bracing himself for the crash that happened within every vehicle he let McQuack fly.

The reason he was annoyed was that he had experienced this event before. Donald had informed him of the Loops repeating certain events, but to involve the immortal Merlock and the Lamp that contained Genie, not to mention that his nephews and Webbigail hadn't experienced this got him over the edge.

"You didn't run into anything, did you?" Scrooge asked Launchpad.

"Not yet, Mr. McD," Launchpad replied. "I'm just about to land, so remain seated in the upright position!"

"TURN THE PLANE RIGHT-SIDE-UP BEFORE YOU LAND, MCQUACK!"

Much later... he was going to deal with an upside-down plane and destroyed ruins.

"Mental note," Scrooge muttered, "get Launchpad flying lessons next Loop." After finding a way to get the Treasure of Collie Baba... again... take out Merlock, and free Genie.

What's next, Magica DeSpell trying to revive Count Duckula... oh wait, that happened already. How he was able to breathe on the moon was something he questioned the first time he did that.

6.1: It's always better to be on Maleficent's good side.

6.2: Not being familiar with Bayonetta, I can't really comment.

6.3: Stepford is a disturbing place that needs derailing every chance you get.

6.4: Ah, Mewtwo and Elsa... a wonderful friendship.

6.5: That explains a lot.

6.6: Interesting interpretation of her powers.

6.7: A different take on "Pot Scorpion".

6.7 alternate: A second response to "Pot Scorpions".

6.8: Inspired by an actual comic series.

6.9: Inspired by The Thief and the Cobbler.

6.10: He's not kidding about the "some things really are universal" bit.

6.11: This is Launchpad, Scrooge. He's never going to be able to fly without crashing... and he takes pride in that.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-23. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

7.1 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Persona]

Oswald glared at the smirking duplicate of himself, as the standoff continued. He didn't know how he got into the TV, or why he was wandering through a much foggier version of Wasteland, but this... thing was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Aww, what's the matter? Getting frustrated, are we?" the duplicate asked mockingly. Oswald growled, and the duplicate laughed. Everything about this guy made Oswald want to punch him in the face.

Neither Oswald nor his duplicate were rabbits, of course. It seemed that he was replacing some loser named Mitsuo Kubo, and the species marker had actually kicked in, for once. He didn't Wake Up until he was in the TV World, but his Loop memories told him all he needed to know about the guy, and he felt the need for a nice long shower after this Loop. Perhaps with Thinner shampoo, to get the memories out.

The duplicate sneered, and began to pace around Oswald, who spun around to keep his face to him. "But then, I guess this isn't the first time you got frustrated, is it?" he snapped. "No, that would be alllll the way back in nineteen twenty-eight, when that rat bastard of a younger brother stole your spotlight!"

"That's not how it went down, damn you!" Oswald roared.

The duplicate didn't even notice, and went on with his speech. "You were a star once! You were big! But then the public got bored of you, and your own father dumped you into that hell hole you call Wasteland! You were bitter, and rightly so! You couldn't deal with being out of the limelight, with being ignored! Oh sure, you may play nice with that usurper nowadays, now that he's finally made up for trashing your home, but you still remember his other crime. Believe me, I know."

At this point, Oswald lost his temper. "Oh yeah? How do you know, you impostor?!" He rushed forward, grabbed his duplicate by the shirt front, and shouted in his face. "Tell me! Tell me, damn you!"

The duplicate chuckled, then started laughing maniacally. "Alright! The truth is quite simple, really: I am you... and you are me."

Oswald faintly heard the door opening behind him, and voices yelling at him to get back, to not say it, but he was too eaten up with rage to care. "Liar! YOU ARE NOT ME!"

The duplicate paused when he heard that, and Oswald grinned savagely. That's right, you jerk. Take that, and choke on it.

Oswald's cocky grin slowly faded away as the duplicate started to... laugh?

"Wonderful..." it drawled.

Suddenly shadows gathered around the duplicate, and blasted Oswald into a nearby pillar. He briefly heard someone (a female?) scream his name, before he blacked out.

Yu and the rest of the Investigation Team looked on in horror, as the Shadow of Oswald Kubo took on a much more monstrous form, after throwing the real Oswald into a pillar. Gone was the tall, thin exchange student with surprisingly large feet and searching yellow eyes, dressed in a tuxedo and tails. In its place was an enormous clockwork rabbit, with a cartoonish design, painted in bright gaudy colors that clashed terribly with the exposed metallic parts. It was pitted with rust, and its exposed gears clanked in an endlessly repeating pattern, in time with the turning of the key in the middle of its back.

Two gargantuan arms, one blocky and cheerfully painted, and one angular and obviously metallic, stuck out from its sides, and its globular head was balanced on a tightly wound spring. Oil, or possibly ink, trickled in steady rivulets from the rabbit's eyes, and two membranous wings seemingly made of the stuff exploded from the back, on either side of the worn silver key.

The transformed Shadow flared its wings, and pointed at the Investigation Team, as it laughed menacingly. "I am a Shadow, the true self," it intoned. "I'm going to make everything just like it was in the good old days, and I'm not letting a bunch of two-bit punks get in my way!"

"Oh my god!" Rise gasped, as she scanned Shadow Oswald with her Persona. "It's even stronger than Shadow Mitsuo was! Get ready, everyone!"

The Investigation Team brandished their various weapons, and Shadow Oswald roared in outrage. Battle was joined.

7.2 (Jcogginsa): [Frozen] / [Rise of the Guardians]

Elsa looked out the huge window, her heart a tumultuous storm. She wanted desperately to open her door and play with her sister. But she wanted to keep her safe even more, and that meant staying away.

She jerked back as the Windowsill iced over. She couldn't even touch something without freezing it. She'd never be able to touch Anna. Her thoughts were interrupted when a voice suddenly spoke.

"That's pretty neat kid."

Elsa whipped around, and saw a boy's face right outside her window, with white hair much like her own.

"W-who are you?" Elsa asked. The Boy chuckled and came into the room before answering.

"The name's Jack Frost. And you are?"

"Elsa." she answered, before taking a step back "You should leave. It's not safe around me."

Jack chuckled and began sliding around the room, the floor becoming ice beneath his feat "Won't really be a problem."

"You have powers, like me." Elsa whispered in amazement.

Jack only smirked.

"And you can control them?" Elsa asked, a tinge of hope in her voice that could bring tears to the eye.

"Eh, I can fling a mean snowball." Jack said with a smile.

"Can you teach me? Please?" Elsa practically begged.

"Sure thing." Jack said casually. Then he added "Just one thing though."

"What is it?" Elsa asked semi-frantically, ice appearing at her feet.

"This room is a bit small. We'll need to go somewhere a bit... bigger."

Elsa gulped. Leaving would put others in danger. "I-I'd need to convince my parents."

"Don't worry, I can help you with that. Just between you and me, i'm kinda hard to spot. You can't see me unless you believe."

Elsa nodded, and steeled herself. "Okay."

"Okay, so I had forgotten that the parents of a Ice creating 8 year old were probably a bit more open minded than most. I only got attacked with one sword before I managed to explain things."

Jack, Elsa, and King Agdar had journeyed out into the wilderness for the practice. Agdar was only there to ensure Elsa's safety, and make sure she returned home.

"Okay," Jack began, his arms tucked behind his back " the way I figure it, the best way to know how to not use your powers is to know how to use them. The more you know about them, the better off you are. Soooooo..."

Jack's hand suddenly whipped from behind and flung a snowball into Elsa's face "Snowball fight!"

Surprised, a certain... giddiness overtook Elsa, and she formed a snowball in her hand to return fire.

The battle was joined, and it was truly a spectacle. Jack flitting around on the wind throwing snowballs every so often, being pursued by Elsa using increasing elaborate constructs of ice, from slides to pillars.

"You're pretty good." Jack called "But you still haven't hit me with a-"

A Snowball struck the back of his head, thrown not by Elsa but by her father.

And yet again the battle was joined, this time with the King taking part. It might have seemed lopsided, two cryomancers and a regular human in a snowball fight, but the king held his own.

Finally, amid a storm of giggles and smiles, Elsa waved her arms in a wide twirl, flinging magic snowballs in every direction.

"Okay, you finally got me." Jack said with a smile, mirrored on Elsa's own face.

Until she heard a groan. Turning, she saw her father lying on the ground, clutching at his chest. Her eyes widened and her glee shattered as she rushed over to him, tears already falling "Papa! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Jack landed next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen Elsa, you can fix this, you can thaw his heart. Love will thaw, and i know you love your father. Remember all the times your father read you to sleep. Remember when he held you in his arms. Remember his love."

Elsa closed her eyes, and remembered. And then her tears dried, when her father's arms wrapped her into a hug.

"And that's how I helped Elsa get her groove back. After that, they unlocked the castle and Elsa could play with Anna again. And yes, they built many snowmen."

"A very good story mate," Bunnymund said. "But it doesn't explain how she's still here 150 years later."

He turned to Elsa and said politely "No offense."

"None taken." Elsa said with a wave of her hand. "That's another story entirely."

7.3 (Evilhumour): [Frozen] / [Doctor Who]

Elsa had to admit, this was one of the weirdest variants ever.

"DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOW-MAN?" The Dalek asked in a sing song voice.

"NEGATIVE, SHE WISHES TO BUILD A SNOWFORT!" The cyberman shouted at the Dalek, who was now arguing with more strange aliens about what snow features to build.

She sighed, knowing this would be a long Loop.

7.4 (Evilhumour; Xomniac): [Frozen] / [Codename: Kids Next Door] / [Megas XLR]

Anna Awoke to a strange scene. It seemed this time Elsa was being replaced by some bald boy, and she didn't recognize the Looper. Using her Loop memories, she started the Loop the way she usually did.

"Nigel, do you want to build a snowman?"

Her brother blinked, reached for his tinted glasses and stared at her.

"As soon as you explain what is going, where my friends are, where my treehouse is and who you are."

Anna smiled as she liked to give the Welcome Speech. Reaching into her subspace, she pulled the latest book that she got from the ponies.

"Well, you see, there is this tree..."

A few Loops later...

Father stood tall above those snot dripping kids from his nephew's treehouse.

"It seems that your precious Numbuh One isn't here to save you this time and once I am done with you all, you will be perfect little kids like my own!" He shouted, his flames growing larger the captured operatives Numbuh Two to Five. "Bring in Daddy's Delightitfier kids!" He bellowed to the collective group known as the Delightful Children From Down the Lane just as something blue and grey smashed into the side of his mansion, ripping it apart from what appeared to be a giant robot with a car on top.

"I don't think so." Stepping down the metal arm was his brother's son, shaking his head and grinning. "I think it's time for you to chill out old man." The brat said, smirking as he summoned a blast of snow directly at him, knocking him into the wreckage of his home. "Come on guys, let's get out of here. My friend Coop here has promised to show off his ride and I think it will be good to add it to the base's defenses."

Later (again)...

Numbuh 5 shook her head in disbelief with Numbuh 1 smirking at her and the scene below.

"I told you that Coop was one of us Numbuh 5." He watched Numbuh 4 shout with anger as Coop had defeated him again on their fighting game, which they settled on doing after they had tied on their belching contest had knocked down several houses.

"Numbuh 5 saw it but she doesn't quite believe it." She shook her head back and forth, watching Numbuh 2 and 3 eye Megas again. Coop had promised to show off his bot once he learned that Numbuh 3 had one herself but Numbuh 4 had challenged him to prove he was worthy of entering sector V.

"There are adults who are still kids at heart and they are wonderful allies." Numbuh 1 answered, grin growing as he watched Coop grab another bottle of soda and chugging it down with gusto and unleashing another powerful belch.

Numbuh 5 nodded her head, watching Coop look like a mirror image of Numbuh 4, tongue sticking out as they mashed the buttons with ridiculous speed. She then blinked, turning her head to her friend and leader. "Say, where did you get that freezing power?"

7.5 (Mr. Egret; wildrook): [Disney] / [Goof Troop/Goofy Movie]

Mickey ran through the mean streets of Toontown, with hell at his heels. No matter how he tried to shake them, whether by dodging into side streets, vaulting over walls, or grinding along railings, they were never far. He could hear the shrieking, and the sound chilled him to the core.

"EEEEEEEEEEEE MICKEY YOU'RE SO CUUUUUUUUUUUTE!"

"I WANNA HUG HIM AND CUDDLE HIM AND NEVER LET HIM GO!"

"NO WAY! HE'S MY HUSBANDO! MICKEEEEEEEEEY! MARRY MEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Mickey took a sharp left, and his eyes lit up as he saw the spotlights of the House of Mouse. "There!"

He took off in a dead sprint, and the fangirls swarmed after him like so many locusts. Mickey was fast, and he knew it, but the mob had been chasing him ever since he Woke Up, and he was running on fumes. Slowly, inch by inch, they started to gain ground on him.

Mickey's chest burned with the exertion he was placing on his lungs, and he could feel his legs slowly growing weaker and weaker, but he knew that if he let the fangirls catch up, unspeakable things would happen to his person. I can't give in now! But I'm so tired... I don't know if I can go on...The doors of the House of Mouse swung open, and a plunger tied to some fishing line sailed through the air, before attaching itself to Mickey's head. Before Mickey knew what was happening, he was pulled right into the House of Mouse, and the doors were slammed shut in the mob's faces.

The fangirl horde slowly came to a halt, before milling about confusedly. "Umm... what are we doing here?" one girl asked.

"I don't know. All I remember is seeing Mickey passing by the convention area, and now we're here..."

The mob eventually broke up, as the girls dispersed in different directions, still utterly confused as to what came over them.

Mickey pulled the plunger off of his head. "Thanks for the assist, Minnie."

"Anytime. Now, why were you being chased by all those girls?"

Mickey sat down at one of the tables to catch his breath. "I don't know. I was just walking down the street after I Woke Up, when I noticed some of those girls following me. I tried to shake them, and ran into some anime convention. Every single female attendee started chasing me, and I've been dodging them ever since!"

Minnie put the fishing rod away, and walked over to Mickey. "So, this happened out of the blue?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah."

Minnie thought to herself for a few seconds, then pulled her holy symbol out of her subspace pocket. "Here, let me try something."

She muttered a quick prayer to Yggdrasil, then held the holy symbol out in front of her like a divining rod. Incongruously, it started beeping like a metal detector, with the beeps increasing in intensity as she ran it over Mickey. After a few seconds, she put the holy symbol away, with a pursed look on her face.

"Well? What is it, Mins?" Mickey asked worriedly.

Minnie delicately clasped her hands together. "You've been cursed, Mickey."

"What?!"

"Yep. High-level enchantment, designed to make any female not already romantically inclined towards you to fall madly in love (or lust) with you on sight. From the looks of it, it could be either the Negi Springfield Curse or the Red-String Hex. Either way, I can't break it on my own."

Mickey gulped. He had heard of both curses, and neither of them were pleasant. "Walt on high... How are we going to do the show tonight? I can't act as MC if half the audience is going to mob me the second I walk on stage!"

Minnie thought to herself for a minute. "If I remember correctly, both of those curses can be broken if the victim gets married to his or her significant other in full view of the women under the curse. We can head over to the town hall, get a secretary or something to look at you, then sign a marriage certificate. That should do it."

Mickey looked uneasily at the door. "We're going to need some way to delay Pete before the show starts; Scrooge isn't Awake, so we'll have to stick to the contract for a few more weeks."

Minnie smiled. "Oh, I'll think of something."

Pete looked at the House of Mouse in disbelief. "What the devil?"

The entire nightclub had been sealed inside an absolutely massive mound of Jell-O. Lime-flavored Jell-O. Several of the guests were talking happily among themselves as they alternately bounced off of it, ate it, and swam through it like so many porpoises.

Looking for a way in, Pete examined every inch of the gargantuan confection, poking and prodding it in search of a weak point that he could tunnel through. "If that little pipsqueak and his girlfriend are behind this... Huh?"

There was an envelope addressed to him lying on the ground in front of the section of Jell-O blocking the front door. He picked it up and opened it to find a note. "What's this, now?"

He ripped it out, and began to read.

Dear Pete,

Sorry about the mess, but we needed to visit City Hall to get a curse lifted, and we didn't want to have our guests be bored in the meantime. Rest assured, your contracts with the staff are still safely within the safe in your office. You might have some trouble getting them back until the Jell-O is cleared away, though. Don't worry, we'll clean it right up when we come back to do the show. Say hello to PJ for us!

Sincerely,

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Pete crumpled the note in his fist. "They'll pay for this! No one, and I mean no one, makes a fool of me and gets away with it!"

A large blob of Jell-O fell on his head, causing him to curse up a storm while trying to wipe it off his nice white suit.

"SORRY, BOSS!" Goofy yelled from his perch on top of the Jell-O. "Gawrsh, and I thought he liked Jell-O!"

"Maybe he just doesn't like lime?" Max suggested, while practicing his backstroke.

"Maybe. He does strike me as more of a blue raspberry man."

Later...

"So THAT'S where those accursed Spectacles have gone," Scrooge yelled.

7.6 (Jcogginsa): [Avatar: Legend of Korra] / [Beauty and the Beast - no Loopers present]

Mako groaned in frustration.

"Hey, lighten up bro. Could be worse." his brother, Bolin, soothed.

"I should hit you for that pun. And why am I not the candelabra? I'm a firebender!" he asked. Being a clock was annoying.

"You're too stuffy. I'm a romantic." Bolin answered.

Mako sighed again. "Why haven't they undone the curse yet?" he asked, looking out at Asami and a very different Korra dancing to an admittedly nice song.

"I don't think they've checked their loop memories yet. They've been staring into each other's eyes since they woke up."

7.7 (Jcogginsa): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [LEGO Movie] / [Looney Tunes]

JACK SPARROW SWAGGERS IN!

Jack held his head and groused "Oy, keep it down mate. I'm still hungover."

Of course, Jack was always hungover whenever he woke up, in both senses of the phrase.

"And that's Captain Jack Sparrow to you!"

EMMET FOLLOWS THE INSTRUCTIONS!

"Oh man, this is gonna be so much fun!" said Emmet, who was inexplicably the same size as Jack.

FOGHORN LEGHORN COCKS UP!

"I say, now, I say now, that sounds mighty inappropriate!" The chicken fired back.

I WAS TALKING ABOUT YOUR FIST!

"Suuuuuure you were, mate" Jack slurred "And I've just got a sugar rush."

7.8 (Mr. Egret): [DuckTales] / [Shadowrun]

Scrooge McDuck sat by himself at his private table in the Gluttony section of the club called Dante's Inferno, and spat in the face of the club's tradition of improbable levels of self-indulgence by having a simple dinner of steak, potatoes and peas. Every so often, he would impatiently check his watch. "Blast that confounded dragon! Where is he?"

Right before Scrooge was going to pull out his cell phone and make a very strongly-worded call, a particularly tall, dark and handsome human dressed in a disgustingly elegant tuxedo sat down. Several of the patrons noticed the stranger among their midst sitting with the CEO of McDuck Enterprises, and started whispering animatedly among themselves.

Scrooge snorted. "Took you time, Dunklezahn."

"Sorry for the delay, Scrooge," Dunklezahn replied smoothly. "I had to convince the Secret Service that I didn't need an obvious armed guard for this meeting. If you look closely at the other diners around us, you could probably see a few that you recognize."

He was right; Scrooge counted at least five different agents all gathered around his table. Absolutely disgraceful. In his day, if the agents were at all decent, you wouldn't know they were there until you're being pinned to the floor after being a big enough fool to try to assassinate the President. Not that they would be any help against a sufficiently motivated member of the McDuck clan, but then, not much was.

Bother. He was woolgathering again.

"So, Dunklezahn," Scrooge murmured, "since you're still quite alive, I wager you've found a way around the whole blood magic fiasco?"

"Indeed I did. As it turns out, arranging for a corporate takeover of Aztecnology while they're still at the AA level does the trick. Well, that or sending in a few of the more adventurous Loopers to shut them down."

A young elf waitress suddenly appeared out of nowhere next to the table. "Welcome to Gluttony, Mr. LaCroix. Shall I bring you a menu, or would you prefer your usual meal?"

"Just my usual, if you please," Dunklezahn replied.

"Certainly, sir."

The elf curtsied, and vanished right in front of Scrooge's eyes. He didn't even blink. "Mage waitresses?"

"They're all the rage these days. Most of the larger clubs couldn't even function without them. And speaking of mages, how's your nephew?"

Scrooge thoughtfully sipped his water. "Donald's taking to the Loop well. He's officially employed with McDuck Enterprises, but we didn't bother with any of that SIN hooey."

Dunklezahn raised an elegant eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yep. With all these Shadowrunners mucking around and trying to infiltrate my HQ for one reason or another, it pays to have some deniable assets on hand, in case things escalate too quickly for normal security to handle. And before you say anything, it was all Donald's idea."

Dunkezahn smiled widely as that. "Heh. Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you Disney Loopers are a lot more ruthless than you looked."

Before Scrooge could come up with an appropriate reply, a troll wearing a balaclava and sporting some mean-looking cyber-arms and cameras for eyes smashed his way into the room, firing off a gun that half as long as he was tall, and nearly as wide around as his leg. "THIS IS A ROBBERY!" he roared over the resulting commotion. "GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR AND PUT YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD!"

Most of the patrons in the restaurant complied, prostrating themselves on the ground before the gun-toting menace, and covering their heads with their hands. Several of them were crying.

While the troll covered the exits with his appallingly powerful gun, two other figures, a human female dressed primarily in leathers and straps and an elf male in combat fatigues slipped into the room and began relieving the patrons of their valuables. Incredibly, none of the robbers noticed either Scrooge or Dunklezahn in the slightest. Scrooge looked at Dunklezahn accusingly. "What did you do, you barmy basilisk?"

Dunklezahn's grin practically radiated smugness. "Why Scrooge, whatever makes you think I did something?"

Scrooge snorted. "Oh, don't give me that. We're the only two patrons still sitting at our tables, and those goons look at least somewhat competent. So why aren't they looking at us?"

Dunklezahn raised his hands in defeat, while chuckling. "Alright, alright; lay off the cross-examination already. I set up an aversion field around our table when the troll burst into the room. Right now, all three of those robbers are receiving very subtle but very persistent subconscious orders to ignore us and leave this table alone." He shot the human robber a look and shook his head reproachfully. "Imbeciles didn't even bother to bring a mage with them."

Scrooge got up from his seat, and grabbed his cane. "If we were to purposefully get ourselves involved, would the field break?"

"Most definitely," Dunklezahn replied cheerfully, as he got up as well. His eyes had changed to a noticeable golden color, and his pupils had narrowed to slits.

"Right then. I'll handle the troll; you have your people clear out the other two."

"Feeling confident today, are we? Are you going to blow up his gun by bouncing on it with that cane of yours?"

It was Scrooge's turn to grin. "Hardly. Tell me, have you met Harry Dresden?"

"I ran into him at a party hosted by a bunch of vampires, when I was Replacing some joker named Ferrovax. The man really knows his pop culture, which surprised me. Why?"

"Well, soon after I had begun Looping, I met the lad when I Replaced a gangster named Johnny Marcone, and he was kind enough to show me the basics of magic in his world. Let's just say I picked up a few pointers."

Scrooge pointed his cane at the offending troll, and concentrated. He could feel the magic welling up within his soul, and flowing into the cane, causing several previously unseen runes to flare into life. He pointed the cane at the troll, and muttered, "Frigore." There was a flash of blue light, a sudden blast of warm air, and suddenly the troll was encased in a block of ice. The human and the elf whipped their heads around at Scrooge, who smiled grimly. "Yes, that was me. Now, you have a few options. One-"

"WASTE HIM!"

Scrooge dove behind the table, knocking it over and using it as cover, while bullets whizzed through the air where his head was only seconds before. The elf robber reloaded his pistol, and started to move towards the table. "You're fucking dead, old man..."

Suddenly, one of Dunklezahn's agents posing as a customer grabbed the robber's ankle, and broke it. The robber screamed in pain, and fell to the ground, where two more agents promptly jumped on him and wrestled away his gun.

The human, seeing that the robbery was going south fast, grabbed as much ill-gotten gains as she could carry and made a break for the door, cursing all the way. She had one hand on the doorknob, when there was a "zot", and she collapsed like a house of cards in a stiff breeze.

Dunklezahn massaged his temples while he looked to see if Scrooge was okay. He was a dragon, and a Great Western Dragon at that, but using magic while disguised as a human always gave him a headache. Especially offensive magic, like stunbolts. It was much like focusing a firehose's spray through a funnel. "Well, that was rather unexpected, eh Scrooge?"

Scrooge got back up to his feet, and briskly checked himself for wounds. "Yes, especially since security at this club was supposed to be top-notch. You can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be filing a complaint when I get back home."

"Understandable. Still, nothing like a bit of pre-dinner exercise, to get the appetite up!"

"Oh, go blow it out your ear, you loony lizard."

7.9 (wildrook): [Big Hero 6]

Hiro and Baymax were looking at the Nanobots that they created... then at the remains of the portal in the island.

"Scans detect you feeling hesitation," Baymax replied.

"I know," Hiro replied. "But we've been through this enough times to prevent Tadashi from dying, and I'll admit, I didn't think I'd need you for this early on. But... maybe I can use a different brand of programming for the Nanobots in order to go through defense and rescue."

"It did work to protect Callaghan. You could use them to protect Tadashi and enter the portal?"

"He never gave up on creating you, remember?" He then looked at the trash cans containing them. "Mass production aside, I think we can get through this early... and Baymax... thanks."

"All in my work to be the best Health-Care Companion," Baymax replied. "Flying is one of the few upgrades I believe would work well in this situation."

"And we don't have the debris to worry about this time." He then equipped the neuro-transmitter and put on his helmet as the Nanobots reacted. "Let's go surprise Callaghan."

7.10 (wildrook): [Five Nights at Freddy's] / [Disney]

Mike Schmidt growled.

"Of all the Loops," he muttered, "it HAD to involve working at Disneyland."

And the sad part was the Disney-Themed Underwear was the LEAST of Mike's worries. Instead, it was Five Nights at Treasure Island... meaning that the Disney Animatronics involved took the properties of the mascots HE worked with.

That's when Mike got the phone call.

"Uh, hello?" the recording asked him. "Didn't you get the memo? Treasure Island's closed down."

That's when it stopped.

"Mike, this is Mickey," the voice said. "Don't panic. We're Awake. Someone in the Administration has a sick sense of humor."

That... was Mike's relief. 'Well, this Loop isn't so bad,' he thought.

"Oh, and bring your own pair of underwear next time. That stuff's not exactly safe to wear."

'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--' Mike thought.

7.11 (Hvulpes): [Frozen]

Anna made sure she and Kristoff were the only ones looping, as her sister had to be unawake for the prank to work, as well as play to baseline no matter how disgusting it was to romance and be romanced by Hans knowing who he was. It was the moment of the argument with her sister about her 'fiance', where her sister's control slipped and she froze the water in the fountain. Everyone was stunned, and were doubly stunned when Anna said, "What's the big deal? Anyone can freeze a fountain, right?"

Everyone, including an unawake Elsa didn't know what to do as Anna continued, "The really tricky stuff is making a living snowman in summer like this."

Using the same ice powers as Elsa, since Anna and Elsa had been switched in many loops which allowed the current redhead to keep the power, she recreated Olaf including a little snow cloud to keep him cool. Olaf started to move as he said, "I'm Olaf and I love warm hugs."

As the Duke of Weasels and the Prince of Backstabbing reacted, her sister was shocked as she spoke, "Anna? How? Aren't you afraid of...."

"Of hurting someone or breaking stuff? Once I experimented with it, learned it was linked to my emotions, it's easy to control. Fear freezes, love thaws."

A look with a hint of betrayal she didn't like on her blond older sister appeared as the queen asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why do you think I kept asking if you wanted to make a snowman? Especially in summer? Even Arendelle doesn't freeze in summer. Where did you think we would get the snow for the men? I wanted to show you, to share it with you, but you just stayed in your room. Away from me." Anna let the sadness of the event come out, as she looked at her sister as she realized what had happened.

As everyone was stopped by the strangeness, Elsa took a moment and a breathe, smiled as she asked, "Anna, do you want to build a snowman?"

7.1: There should technically be an aftermath to this, but it was never written.

7.2: Ice-forged friends.

7.3: I feel for you, Elsa.

7.4: If any adult belongs in the KND, it's Coop Cooplowski of Megas XLR.

7.5: Making a fool out of Pete is like making a duck out of a duck. (No offense intended to Donald's family.)

7.6: Asami and Korra are one of my favorite couples. Always sweet to see them like this.

7.7: From a prompt by Conceptualist.

7.8: The Loops make for some interesting friendships. And Scrooge has been in The Dresden Files.

7.9: Never give up, guys.

7.10: This fan game exists. Be afraid.

7.11: D'aww...

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-28. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

8.1 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

Phineas Awoke next to Ferb, as usual. Waking up on a path in the middle of the woods wasn't usual, but as Loops went, it wasn't a bad start. It was a well-trod path through trees that were older than any around Danville and maybe even older than most of the trees in the US. Well, except maybe for sequoias. And redwoods. Oh, and bristlecone pines. And then there were some oaks and maples that some towns had preserved that... yeah, okay, maybe he should limit it to "older than the Danville trees." But they were pretty old, with trunks so big they'd need their usual group of friends plus the Fireside Girls and Candace and her friends to circle them. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the canopy, which was richly golden and amber, with occasional patches of red. So wherever they were, it was fall. That was useful to know.

A quick look at Ferb and then down at himself gave him an idea of their setting; both of them were dressed in pants, full-sleeved shirts, and waistcoats with thick woolen capes draped over their shoulders. It was a bit like what Hobbits wore, but the sturdy boots he was wearing told him that wasn't who they were. His outfit was in shades of grey and green, while Ferb's was in grey and blue; not their usual color scheme, but he could live with it. Ferb seemed pleased with his outfit, especially the number of pockets on his waistcoat, which seemed to contain all sorts of things that might or might not be useful.

A quick Ping told him that at least one other Looper was around; he hoped it was the Anchor and that they were pretty close. He wanted to know where he was. Which was the cue for the Loop memories to kick in, and he stopped in his tracks. Not only had he never been to this Loop, he'd never even heard of it. He and Ferb were brothers, of course, only this time it was by birth. Twins, in fact. Their father was local gentry, a good man and a respected one, and their mother was...

"Huh. Okay, witches are a thing here and they're good guys. Well, most of them are. Cool; I love doing Loops with magic. No Candace, though. Too bad, 'cause she'd have loved the clothes around here."

Ferb nodded. Their memories were of outfits that were faintly steampunkish with occasional meanders into classic fantasy styles, which were flattering on someone tall and thin like their sister. Phineas made a mental note to pick up some nice things for the others while they were there. But in the meantime, the memories were giving them some worrying information. As a Witch, even a fairly minor one, their mother knew about things the average person didn't, and she'd made sure her twin sons knew about them too. A lot of it was really just being better educated than most, but there was one thing in there that worried him.

"Hey, Ferb, what do you make of this Tradition thing?"

"Sounds like trouble to me."

"Yeah. We'll have to really careful around anything that looks like a trope. Can you think of any traditions about twins we should be extra-careful about?"

"Not off the top of my head, but if I think of any, I'll let you know."

This time it was Phineas who nodded, and they started walking again. The two reached into their Pockets and pulled out their phones, figuring that they might as well do it before they got separated. In a world like this, preparing for a situation might mean avoiding it, which was another reason to have them. Technically, the devices weren't really phones; the power supply was the next thing to permanent, they were indestructible, they worked anywhere, and no phone had ever had as many apps as these, but it was easiest to call them phones, so they did. The phones went into pockets, with the hope that they wouldn't be needed except for taking notes.

As they walked, Phineas thought about their home-for-the-Loop. It was a pretty nice place, although a lot quieter than Danville. Their hometown was the type of place guidebooks back home would describe as "unspoiled" and "bucolic", maybe even "quaint." Of course, by this land's standards, the place was pretty up-to-date for being so far from the capital, but for a kid from the 21st century, it was a living history setting. The town of Doylycart reminded him a bit of a town in Vermont they'd gone to with their parents for an antiques-buying trip, he couldn't remember the name at the moment but he had a vague idea it had something to do with a rock concert. What his Loop memories of the country Rederring told him sounded like the more romanticized descriptions of England: quiet country villages and towns with a few cities for industry and stuff like that. The Tradition mostly divided the nobility into three types: the conscientious landlords, who may or may not spend much time on their country estates but made sure they were properly maintained; the absentee landlords, who were never seen and were further divided into those who had honest Stewards and those who didn't; and the thoroughly dissolute, again divided into redeemable and not. The gentry also felt the hand of the Tradition, running either towards the bluff-and-hearty types or the quiet-but-kindly-intellectuals like Sir Lawrence. On the whole, there were worse places to Loop.

His phone rang, distracting him from his thoughts. Shooting a look at Ferb, he answered it on speaker setting.

"Hey, Phineas, what'cha doin'?"

"Isabella? You're here too? Where are you? And if you're the third Looper, then who's the Anchor?"

"Well, I'm in a beautiful meadow about... five miles from you, according to the map on this. I don't know about the Anchor. Maybe this is a really new Loop and they don't know about Pings yet, or they didn't answer because they want to check us out first, or we've got a Stealth Anchor. Is Ferb with you?"

"Yeah, we Awoke right next to each other. Apparently we're twins here, and we're out studying the local geology today."

"Beats what I got stuck with. I'm an orphan making my own way in the world with nothing but my wits. I was thrown out of my father's home by my Wicked Stepmother after he died. Kinda cliché, but I guess it does happen."

Phineas exchanged an alarmed glance with Ferb. That sounded like a situation just begging for the Tradition to mess with it if it wasn't already. And it probably was.

"Isabella, we'll be there as fast as we can. Keep an eye out for... I don't know. Anything. This place has some seriously weird stuff going on, and we'll explain when we get there. And, um, you might want to pick a good hiding spot, just in case. You probably won't need it, but..." He trailed off, not wanting to scare her too much.

"Okay, got one. See you in about an hour?"

"Yeah, unless the path gets rough or really hilly or something."

They hung up, and Phineas started walking a lot faster. Not running, because he knew that wouldn't help, but a pace that covered a maximum amount of ground without using all his energy. Ferb kept up with him easily.

"Plucky orphan girl alone in the woods," Ferb said quietly. "I should have asked if there were stepsisters as well; that might have narrowed it down. Well, at least we know it isn't Snow White; Isabella's too tan for that."

"Back home she is," Phineas replied. "But back home she spends a lot of time outdoors in the sun, and sunblock can only do so much. If her stepmother kept her inside a lot, she might fit that. But if the stepmother had wanted to kill her, she'd probably have tried already."

Ferb didn't respond to that, but Phineas knew they were thinking the same thing: what if she had, and the murderer just hadn't found Isabella yet? Phineas thought about using one of the vehicles from his Pocket, but decided against it; he didn't have any proof that anything was going to happen, and most of the things that would get them to Isabella faster would be really hard to explain if they met someone. He picked up the pace a little, and Ferb matched him.

Isabella wasn't as worried as Phineas, because unlike him, nobody had ever told her unAwake self about the Tradition. Her father had been a wealthy merchant and had always spent more time on his work than with his family. He'd remarried within months of her mother dying, not because he was in love, but because he knew that it was necessary for a man of his stature to have a wife. He'd married the first suitable woman he'd found, and never even noticed what an annoying shrew she was to anyone who couldn't benefit her. Isabella had been over-dressed by her mother in this Loop, she knew, but her stepmother had put her in the plainest clothes she could get away with and had put a stop to pretty much anything that Isabella enjoyed. She'd also been made to help the servants with various jobs, which is probably the only reason she'd survived on her own long enough to Awaken. Isabella had learned basic cooking skills and had been on good enough terms with the servants that when her stepmother turned her out, they'd smuggled out a bundle of her belongings as well as a pack for travelling. That had been over a month ago, and Isabella was glad that she hadn't Awakened later. It was cold at night, but there was still food to be found in the woods; much later in the year and things would be very different.

She looked down at herself and sighed; Phineas wouldn't be seeing her at her best. She was clean at least, and her hair was tidily combed and braided, but her clothes hadn't been attractive when they were new. Actually, the battering they'd taken had improved them: the hideous olive green bodice and skirt had faded into a nice moss color, and the beige linen chemise was several shades paler too. Constant wear had softened what had been very stiff fabric, and she had to admit that while she was heartily sick of her outfit and had been even before she Awoke, it had become pretty comfortable.

"A maiden!" Isabella whirled at the rapturous gasp behind her, then clasped her hands in glee at the sight of the delicate silvery creature moving gracefully through the wildflowers. Seeing a unicorn wasn't quite the shock it would have been before the Loops, but she still loved them, and this one seemed eager to meet her. "Oh, maiden, art thou alone in this cruel world?"

"Ummmm... Yeah, pretty much." Okay, so the unicorn was a little pretentious.

"I will protect thee! None shall dare stand against my fury should they dare threaten thee! But can I lay my head on your lap first?"

"Sure, why not?" She'd read of unicorns doing that, but none of the ones she'd met so far had been the type. She tried to imagine Twilight Sparkle or Rarity doing that and had to stifle a fit of giggles; she was pretty sure this unicorn wouldn't appreciate the joke. They sat for a while, just enjoying the pleasant autumn afternoon. After about ten minutes of that, Isabella got out her comb and started working on the unicorn's mane. It was the same comb she used on her own hair, but somehow it didn't seem wrong to use it on a unicorn. The unicorn certainly wasn't objecting. In fact, it sighed happily and advised her to keep any loose hairs and braid them into a necklace. She liked the idea to begin with, because the hairs were soft and silky, gleaming with a healthy light, but then he told her why and she immediately decided that not only would she do so, it was going into her Pocket along with as many others as she could make. If she interpreted his babble right, as long as the hair was freely given the necklaces would be unbreakable and would ward off both illness and curses as well as preventing anything really evil from getting too close. That would be useful if the magic remained after the Loop. If not, then they'd still probably be pretty and she'd give them to Loopers who would appreciate them.

She'd made three necklaces and stashed them in her Pocket, explaining to Eilyr (which is what the unicorn's name turned out to be when he finally got around to telling her) that it was a small magic she'd learned to keep things safe, when a shadow passed over them. They looked up to see a dragon soaring above and wheeling around to take a better look at them. Isabella tensed; she'd faced dragons in other Loops with varying degrees of success, and her Loop memories told her that there were dragons here that didn't just kill whatever they saw and might even be friendly, but there was no way of knowing which type this one was.

"Eilyr, are the dragons around here good or bad?"

"We have both. Oh, maiden, I swore to protect you, but I can do naught against the likes of this! We must hide!"

And with the alacrity that might be expected from a holder of the "Better Part of Valor" Patch, Isabella dove behind a tree that was almost as wide as her real parents' garage. Eilyr followed, trembling. She'd quickly learned that Eilyr was, in all honesty, as clever as an inflatable dartboard, but she gave him points for not running. Together, they watched the dragon land. It was a handsome beast, with deep red scales that looked almost translucent and amber eyes. It was also large enough that it could pick her up in one hand or claw or whatever. However, it didn't look like it meant to threaten anyone; those amber eyes looked surprisingly cheerful and curious.

"Er, hello? Miss? This is frightfully awkward, but would you mind terribly if I abducted you? Only there's this Tradition, you see, and my last maiden got rescued a few weeks ago by a knight—rather charming fellow, really, and he and Charlotta will be ever so happy together, but the Tradition around here says I have to have a maiden locked in my tower even though it's deucedly inconvenient for all involved."

"What." Isabella had to admit this was a first. She'd met all sorts of dragons during the Loops, but she'd never met one that sounded like an upper-class Victorian Englishman trying to explain a lapse in propriety to an equally Victorian Aunt. She looked at Eilyr, who gave the unicorn equivalent of a shrug.

"It's not true everywhere, but in Rederring, if a dragon's lair has anywhere to hold a maiden, he's expected to hold one. And this one sounds like one of the decent ones."

Isabella poked her head around the tree cautiously. The dragon visibly perked up when he saw her, reminding her of the way Phineas looked when Ferb handed him a new blueprint.

"I should have introduced myself, shouldn't I? Shocking lapse in manners, please do forgive me," the dragon said. "My name's Almandin, and my lair's in the ruins of Castle Bunthorne. Well, I say ruins, but they're in quite good shape really, only abandoned for a few years before I moved in. Last owner was a poet, poor chap, and moved to the capital when the girl he fancied took up with a less gloomy fellow. Closed up the whole place, and wrote this long gloomy piece about letting it crumble to dust along with his blighted dreams or some such rot, and that was enough to satisfy the Tradition and me. I really wanted a place with a decent library, you see, because part of my hoard is books. Great-Grandsire was a Bookwyrm, you know, and blood will tell. Unfortunately, castles will have towers, and that means I need a maiden. I promise I'm not one of those tiresome chaps who insists on fighting your would-be rescuers to the death; I'm more of a Challenge type myself. Sir Benedict ended up playing a seven-hour chess game with me to free Charlotta; haven't had a game like that in ages."

Isabella smiled and came out from behind the tree, Eilyr beside her. Almandin seemed nice, and her Loop memories indicated that dragons didn't bother pretending to be something they weren't. If he hadn't tried to attack her yet, he probably wasn't going to. And since the unicorn had relaxed, Isabella would too.

Until she heard the hunting horn. She wasn't sure how, but she knew that was for her. Almandin and Eilyr tensed too, looking toward the sound. There was a pressure like a building storm, and she knew she had seconds in which to act.

"Almandin, abduct away. Eilyr, my friends Phineas and Ferb are heading this way, and I don't want them in danger. Could you head down the path to the west and warn them?"

"Men?" Eilyr sounded horrified, but Isabella shook her head.

"Boys. My age, both of them. Please, Eilyr."

"For you, maiden, I will. Guard her well, Dragon, or you will face my wrath." The unicorn reared up, wheeled around, and raced off to the west, luckily missing Isabella and Almandin both rolling their eyes.

"Dramatic types, those unicorns. Well, shall we be off before that Huntsman reaches us? Odd; I think the Tradition's gotten crossed." Without warning, his claws grasped her very carefully and he leapt into the air. Isabella shrieked, not expecting him to move that quickly. "Sorry! Thought it best to be out of his range before he got here."

"It's all right, just... a little warning next time?"

"Right-o."

Isabella crossed her arms over the top of Almandin's talons and rested her chin on them, enjoying the view. At least the Loop wasn't going to be boring.

At the sound of a distant shriek, Phineas and Ferb broke into a run. A unicorn galloped towards them, shouting something, but they ignored it and kept running. They reached the meadow in time to see the dragon flying away, and Phineas somehow managed to find even more speed, leaving Ferb behind.

"Isabella! Isabella!!!"

It was no use; they were flying farther and farther away, and there was nothing he could do about it. He sank to the ground, just staring after them, not even noticing when Ferb came up behind him and stopped, or when Ferb put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. It didn't matter that even if the worst occurred, he'd see her again next home Loop; he'd failed her.

"Isabella..."

8.2 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms] / [Frozen]

"Phineas, I think-"

"Really, I think you need to listen-"

"—that maybe it's time-"

"—to me before you do-"

"—to start derailing things-"

"—anything rash. Are you-"

"—and quickly."

"—even listening to me?"

The dueling voices took a few seconds to sink in, but eventually Phineas looked around to see Ferb and a unicorn giving each other irritated looks. Just what the unicorn had been saying took a few seconds more to sink in, and when it did, Phineas' eyes narrowed dangerously.

"My friend just got taken by a dragon and you're worried that I'll do something rash?"

"Yes, well, about that—there's something you ought to know-"

Phineas was about to start yelling when a large pack of dogs burst from the woods and surrounded them. Or possibly a pack of large dogs. Both versions would be accurate. However one chose to phrase it, the dogs were not attacking, but they made it clear that it was an option if any of the three tried anything. Boys and unicorn alike froze, eyeing each other.

"Think they're after Isabella?" Phineas asked. The unicorn snorted.

"If you would just listen, I've been trying to—oh, not another one!"

A tall, grim-faced man joined the dogs, glaring at all of them.

"Where is she?"

Phineas glared back, knowing his wasn't anywhere near as effective. The unicorn snorted again, pawing the ground and lowering his head in a way that reminded everyone that he had a very deadly weapon at his disposal. The huntsman raised an eyebrow at that, frowning even more heavily. Ferb had his bow in his hand, not drawn but Phineas knew that could change before the huntsman had time to realize what had happened.

"I'm afraid there are no 'shes' around here," Ferb said, sounding calm. The huntsman shook his head.

"Maybe not now, lad, but my dogs tracked her here, so she was here, and recently. I'm not sure why you seem to be protecting the little harl-" The man broke off as Phineas lunged at him, only to be brought down by a few of the dogs. Ferb and the unicorn lunged forward but stopped when they saw that all but one backed off immediately and the last was keeping Phineas still by sitting on him. Phineas knew he had stuff in his Pocket that could deal with the situation, but decided to wait. He'd already blown it twice already; he wasn't eager to see if the third time really would be the charm. Besides, the man had trained his dogs to subdue someone without hurting them, so that might be a good sign. "Right, lad, you just settle down. Something's not right here. The tale I was told about Isabella Wellington-Wells wasn't that of a wench that would have a unicorn ready to defend her, nor two lads too young for her games. So she's more twisted than the lady said, or I've been lied to. Can't say as I like either notion. But I have to know which it is, which means I need you lot to talk."

"I will never betray a maiden to a foul cur such as yourself!" Phineas facepalmed and he just knew Ferb was rolling his eyes; this unicorn was really annoying.

"So she's definitely a maiden, then. Go on."

"Of course she's a maiden, and far too sweet and innocent to be given into the hands of a baseborn churl! You shall never find her now, however, for she is safe in the clutches of the dragon Almandin in Castle Bunthorne, and the likes of you will never pass his Challenges!"

"Safe in the clutches of a dragon?" The huntsman shook his head. "This is a new notion of safe to my mind."

"And you kinda just told him exactly where to find her," Phineas pointed out. "Stop helping, will you? This is a Huntsman sent by a Wicked Stepmother; we really don't want him to find her."

"Actually, we do," Ferb said. Phineas stared at his brother, who continued. "Traditionally, the Huntsman doesn't kill her and returns to the Stepmother with a deer's heart to 'prove' that he killed the girl."

"Here now, nobody said anything about killing," the huntsman objected. "The girl's guardian said the girl was a scheming minx who ran off before she could be locked away for her sins, and I was to retrieve her. Alive. I was told what to do if she was dead when I found her, but my orders were to return her alive and unharmed."

"And did those instructions happen to involve a heart in a box?"

"Aye. They did. The weather's turning colder, lad, but it's still too warm to transport a corpse that far. A heart's preserved more easily than a whole body, and that way her heart can be buried with her parents. Nothing shocking about it; that's just how it's done when it can't be done the usual way."

He was right, Phineas had to admit. It looked like the huntsman was just an innocent bystander, and would probably be the one to take the blame if the stepmother's plot panned out. Granted, the man could be lying, but so far the worst thing he'd done was badmouth Isabella, and he couldn't even be blamed for that if all he had to go on was the stepmother's story. At the moment, Phineas really had just one complaint against the guy.

"Uh, do you think you could call your dog off now? He's kinda heavy. I promise not to go after you again as long as you don't insult Isabella."

"Fair enough. Up, Despard! Good dog. Here, lad, let me give you a hand up. Name's Dickon, and you've likely guessed I'm a huntsman."

"I'm Phineas Oakapple, and this is my brother Ferb. Our father, Sir Lawrence, is the local squire. And the unicorn is... hey, we never got your name, did we?"

"Nay, for you were too busy panicking and ignoring my sound advice. I am Eilyr, protector of the maiden Isabella. Be warned that any who would threaten her must face my wrath!"

"Like the dragon?" Phineas asked, still worried. To his surprise, Eilyr shook his head.

"Almandin is one of the Dragons of the Light, and only keeps maidens because the Tradition obligates him to do so. He was most polite when he asked the maiden if he could abduct her, and when she heard the hunting horn, she agreed and sent me to find you. I was hesitant, for male unicorns usually do not associate with male humans, but the maiden asked so sweetly I could not refuse."

"And I'm Iolanthe, the Holly Fairy, and I'm glad you're already discussing this sensibly. When I sensed that tangle, I was sure I'd arrive to find an unholy mess."

They turned to find a woman standing by Ferb, looking at him curiously. She was tall and willowy, with thick glossy waves of rich brown hair crowned with a circlet of, yep, that was holly, which Phineas didn't think could be too comfortable. She had eyes as green as the leaves in her crown, a perfect snowy complexion, and a beautiful face. Not the most beautiful he'd ever seen, but probably in the top twenty at least. Her gown was holly-leaf green (of course) trimmed with berry-red beads, and skewed towards the fantasy end of the local fashion scale, which made sense if she really was a Fairy. And judging by the reactions of Eilyr and Dickon, she probably was. Dickon was down on one knee, hat in hand and head bowed. Eilyr stood at attention, looking proud. Phineas exchanged a look with Ferb before removing his own hat and bowing, but not kneeling. Ferb took his hat off, but Phineas could tell he was too unnerved at having a strange fairy pop up right next to him and start staring at him to do much else.

"Uh, tangle, milady?" Dickon asked cautiously.

"Too many Paths intersecting at once and something new trying to start its own Path. Oh, but you won't know about that yet. Do get up, and let's continue talking like sensible people. In fact, Tradition dictates that I make you as comfortable as I can under the circumstances. Here, let me take just a moment." She waved her star-tipped wand and chanted something in a sweet mezzo-soprano; a pavilion appeared in a shimmer of light. There were enough seats for all and a table filled with food. "Don't worry about the food; I'm a Fairy Godmother and it would not do for me to play those sorts of pranks. Or allow others to play them, for that matter."

She chivvied them into the pavilion in a surprisingly motherly fashion. Once they were all seated, or at least comfortable since Eilyr didn't sit, she gave a brief explanation of the Tradition to Dickon, who was the only one there who didn't already know about it. He'd frowned at it, clearly not liking the idea of being pushed around by some mysterious force that wanted life to imitate stories whether or not it was a good idea. Phineas couldn't blame him for that; he didn't like it either, especially since the Tradition just wanted a Traditional ending, and not necessarily a happy one. Dickon's story was exactly what they'd already guessed: he'd been hired by Isabella's Wicked Stepmother to bring Isabella, or at least her heart, back home for reasons Phineas wasn't sure he wanted to know about. The woman had told him all sorts of nasty lies, which explained his attitude. Dickon was an honest sort and expected honest dealings; he knew there were dishonest people out there but he hadn't been prepared for the kind of manipulation Mrs. Wellington-Wells the Second had used. She'd portrayed herself as a grieving widow dealing with a wanton stepdaughter, and Dickon wasn't good at dealing with crying women. Iolanthe looked both exasperated and sympathetic at that, but agreed that he'd done the best he could. Then she turned to Eilyr, who gave a florid but accurate description of his side of the events, and again Iolanthe assured him he'd done the right thing. Finally it was Phineas and Ferb's turn, and he'd just thought of what to say that would explain how they knew Isabella without bringing up the Loops.

"Well, we've known Isabella for years, although we haven't seen her for a while," he said. It was even true; his last Loop had been in Agrabah and nobody else from Danville had been there. Ferb's had been in Danville, but Isabella had been replaced by Susan Ivanova from that space station Loop. "She got a message to us that we should meet her in this meadow as soon as could all get there, so we were almost here when we heard her scream. I guess she must have been startled by the way the dragon was carrying her; she's not easy to scare."

"Oh, good; living with even a friendly Dragon takes iron nerves, especially around dinnertime. Now, I have some questions for you two. I've been keeping an eye on you; twins can run into some highly unpleasant Traditional Paths. I had been expecting one of you to go to the bad, but that's a little less likely now; Isabella's father died because Sir Marmaduke's heir decided to get clever and arrange his villagers' lives to suit his ideals. I really should have seen that coming; those rigidly self-righteous types are always easy to topple off their pedestals. Well, he got what he deserved, but poor Johnny paid for it."

"Mind if I ask? Isabella might want to know," Phineas said.

"The brat bought a very strong love potion and served it to everybody so that they'd get married without regard to rank, age, or common sense. Then he browbeat his betrothed into taking it too, and had a temper tantrum when the potion worked but it made her fall for a different man. Denounced her in front of the whole village, then demanded that Johnny break the potion's spell. An ordinary potion would have been difficult enough, but this was Johnny's pride and joy, and very complex: it only worked on unmarried people old enough to wed. But Johnny was always rather strict in his business practices, more of a merchant than a Sorcerer, really, which meant he insisted that the customer must be satisfied and so he sacrificed his life to break the spell. The brat had revealed his true character to the whole village, so he was disgraced, his father disowned him, and his betrothed broke their engagement and left the village to stay with her aunt at the Royal court. She's already showing signs of becoming the Sadder But Wiser Girl, which Traditionally leads to finding a man who deserves her but has to work to show her he can be trusted. There are a few Paths I don't mind encouraging, and that's one of them. Now how on earth did Ferb end up with green hair? I can't think of a single Tradition that's linked to!"

Well, that explained why Iolanthe had been staring. He should have thought of that, but he was just so used to it that it didn't occur to him that it was odd until someone pointed it out.

"Well, that's just Ferb," Phineas said. The Fairy opened her mouth, closed it, then shrugged.

"Right," she said. "At any rate, since we've had a Fallen Heir in this kingdom so recently, it's not likely either of you will go that way. The Tradition likes to repeat itself, rather by definition, but not that quickly. So, having established that, we really must sort out Isabella's tangle. A Snowskin, a Dragon's Maiden, and then there's all those Paths revolving around orphan girls and orphans alone in the woods... The poor child won't know if she's coming or going if we can't narrow the field a bit. I rather like her as a Dragon's Maiden, under these circumstances. Almandin might talk her ears off, but he'd never allow her to come to harm, and since he's the Challenger type, she can live with him for years in safety and comfort. That Tradition says he has to keep her in his lair, but it doesn't say she can't have visitors. Although once you two are old enough to be thought of as suitors, I'm afraid Almandin will be forced to keep you away, but that won't be for years. Give her a few days in the tower, and most of those other Paths will fade away. Unfortunately, the Snowskin path won't."

"Pity she doesn't have her usual tan," Ferb sighed. Iolanthe looked at him, smiling.

"You know, that might work. Most Snowskins are worried about tanning, because Ladies Don't, but if Isabella isn't the type to care—well, maybe that will break the path. It's worth a try, at least. We'll know by how the Stepmother reacts after she gets the deer's heart. I'm afraid that part's necessary, Dickon, but I'd advise taking to the woods as soon as you can get away without arousing suspicion. In some versions of this, the Stepmother kills the Huntsman for betraying her and I'm sure we'd all rather that didn't happen, you most of all."

"Aye, that's true. I'll tell the old besom the girl died from injuries got in that storm I passed through the other day, and I know where to get a deer where none will know to question me. Happen I know of a family that could make use of the rest of the carcass too. If it works, I'll come back and tell. If not, you'll have to fight her anyway and I'll consider that my vengeance. If you don't have any more use for me just now, it's best I be on my way. And however it turns out, I'm glad to have been of service to a Godmother. Lads, watch out for each other and try to stay out of danger. You're a little young to be Heroes."

"Yes. Yes, we are," Phineas said. "But if Isabella needs us, we'll be there."

"Reckon you will, lad, reckon you will."

Dickon smiled at them and stood up. With a bow to the Godmother and a nod of his head to the boys, he left, pack trailing behind him. The one that had sat on Phineas earlier dashed back to give him a quick lick on the cheek before disappearing into the woods. Iolanthe nodded, looking as though she'd thought of something useful.

"Now, Eilyr, do you know how to get to Castle Bunthorne?"

"Yes, Godmother! Give the word and I shall fly to the maiden's side and console her in her loneliness!"

"Yes, do that." She actually giggled as the unicorn bolted at the end of her words. But then her face grew very serious as she looked at them, and Phineas had a sinking feeling that she was about to make life awkward. "Now, lads, perhaps you'd like to explain why the magic around you has changed so drastically from this morning, and how you and Isabella are able to perform magic that not even a true Fairy Godmother can identify?"

"Oh, snap," Phineas winced, and Ferb heaved a sigh.

Back in Danville, Candace looked out the back door to see Anna and Elsa playing with the Fireside Girls. The sisters had replaced Phineas and Ferb for this Loop and were happy to have girls of their own apparent age around, although they were a little disappointed about missing Isabella, who had been replaced by Galadriel of all people. It promised to be as quiet a Loop as Danville would allow (in other words not very, but a little less hectic than usual), so why did she have the distinct feeling that she'd just missed out on a bust?

8.3 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

"Uh, true Fairy Godmother?" Phineas asked, stalling for time.

"I'm one of the few Fae still actively Godmothering. Your mother must have told you that most Godmothers these days are mortals, or at most half-Fae; I'm a full Fae, but I love my work too much to give it up." Iolanthe gave him a look that said she wasn't going to fall for any tricks, even if she did answer questions. Phineas sighed, but then a thought occurred to him.

"Hey, are you this Loop's Anchor? Have you noticed time repeating itself? Like it's Looping back around to a certain day and you start over from then?"

"No, I can't say that I have," Iolanthe mused, "not as such, anyway. I am aware that something odd has been happening; as a Fae, I do have certain senses even magical mortals lack. Please don't ask me to explain them at the moment, as it can be done but takes quite a while and I'm not sure we can spare the time. I assume you have been experiencing these Loops?"

"Well, yeah, but not here. See, there's this whole Multiverse thing going on—lots of different universes, each with their own reality, and almost all of them are Looping. And sometimes Loopers from one universe find themselves Looping into a different one, and that's what happened to us. There's a lot more to it, but it's kinda like your senses—it takes a while and we don't have the time. Maybe once Isabella's out of trouble, if the Loop doesn't end when that's done. I don't know this Loop, so I don't know how long it lasts."

"Fair enough. And I would guess that your strange magic is explained by that as well."

"The subspace pockets aren't... actually, they kind of are, aren't they?"

"Sufficiently advanced technology," Ferb said. Iolanthe spocked an eyebrow at him, and he continued, "There's a saying on our world that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to those unfamiliar with it."

"That makes sense. Well, at the moment I don't think we need to worry about these Loops of yours, but we do need to worry about your friend. I'd rather not have a Snowskin in Rederring, thank you, especially since the closest dwarfs are rather nasty types, as bad as that lot Lily had to deal with last year. I'm sure you wouldn't want Isabella to fall into the hands of rogue dwarfs, and if we can't stop the Snowskin Path, that could easily happen. Oh, wait, there is one question I'd like answered: how do you know so much about our Loop, and why do I remember meeting your mother?"

"When we Loop into another world, we Loop in as though we belonged there and the Loop creates a history for us," Ferb explained. "Once we Awaken—that's the point when we remember that we're Looping—we get the memories of our lives here."

"Very useful," Iolanthe nodded. "And quite a sensible way of arranging matters. Now, because of this tangle, you've drawn the attention of the Tradition, so I'd prefer to keep an eye on you while I work on Isabella's problems. I try not to be any more high-handed than I can help, but I must insist you return with me to my castle for a while. I'll send your mother a note explaining matters, or at least telling her that I'm trying to keep the Tradition from muddling things too badly."

"All right," Phineas said, feeling a lot more cheerful. He knew from his Loop memories that a Fairy Godmother could be trusted, and he really wanted to see a genuine Fae castle. It was also good to know that Isabella was relatively safe; he couldn't imagine too many things that could get to her with a dragon and a unicorn guarding her, and if they did, Isabella would probably have something from her Pocket ready to use on them. Even a Fireside Girl couldn't avoid occasional Distressed Damselhood, but that didn't mean they had to stay that way, and Isabella wouldn't.

The flight to Castle Bunthorne wasn't very long, and Isabella enjoyed every second. The view was lovely, all rolling hills leading up to mountains a little bigger than the Appalachians but not quite as pointy as the Rockies. There were woods and meadows, brooks and ponds, and even the odd waterfall. The weather was clear, and while she was a little chilly from the wind whipping past her, it wasn't as bad as it might have been because she was mostly protected by the dragon's claws. She even saw a few villages, although Almandin was careful not to fly too close to them for obvious reasons. And finally she saw the castle, which came as a bit of a surprise. For one thing, even taking Almandin's size into account, she hadn't expected the place to be very big; after all, the last owner had been a poet, and they weren't known for having a lot of money. She'd also expected it to look as English as the rest of the buildings she'd seen. Instead, the place was huge and decidedly French-looking. In fact, she was pretty sure she'd seen pictures of an identical castle in her home Loop. But Almandin was landing in the courtyard and a handful of very short people were coming out to greet him.

"I say, you'll never believe my luck," Almandin called to them. "Found a willing maiden first try, and she's young enough that she won't have any suitors for a while. Everyone, this is Isabella; Isabella, this is everyone. Brownies, actually, which isn't very Traditional of me, but I saved Col's life, so here he is and he brought some others when we moved here because it's a ruddy huge old pile and even a Brownie has his limits. You'll look after her, won't you, chaps?"

"Of course we will, and you know it," the oldest-looking of the Brownies said gruffly. Oldest-looking was a relative term; all of them looked close to the same age, which was a hard-working middle-age, but Col's hair was a bit greyer than the others and his face was a bit craggier. "And do you call that an introduction, you great lizard?"

"I'm a dragon; I'm not supposed to be good at that sort of thing. Besides, if I had done the thing, you'd still complain, so why not let you have my share of the fuss to begin with? Miss Isabella, I've got some cataloguing to do and I can't fit above the ground floor anyway, so why don't you let this lot show you around and let you choose a tower room to not pine away in? I'm afraid it does have to be a tower room; Dragon's Maidens have to live in towers or the Tradition gets frightfully tiresome. Best to let it have its way in the things that don't matter and save your energy for when it does." And without another word, Almandin slipped inside, leaving her with the Brownies. Her Loop memories weren't much help, as her father hadn't dealt much with the Fae and her education had mostly been that of a wealthy merchant's daughter; in other words, mostly useless.

"Um, hello," she said after a few awkward seconds. "So, what exactly does a Dragon's Maiden do? I probably should have asked before I agreed to it, but the unicorn told me I could trust him and someone seemed to be hunting me, so..."

"So you did the best you could," Col said. "Unicorns don't have much sense about most things, but if they tell you a creature can be trusted, that's safe enough to believe. And from the looks of you, the Tradition's trying to push you down the Snowskin's Path. Good thing there's only the six of us here including that fool dragon, or you'd be eating a poisoned apple by nightfall."

"But I'm too..." Isabella trailed off, looking at her hand. Her Loop memories told her she'd been careful to keep out of the sun to avoid unladylike tanning, which meant that at the moment she was black as night, white as snow, and red as blood. Well, she'd soon fix that. But first things first. "What Tradition? Almandin mentioned it a few times, and it seems to be pretty important. Is it the law or something?"

The Brownies chuckled and grumbled slightly, depending on their attitudes. Col just shook his head.

"That will take some explaining which we'll be happy to do after you're settled in. Come along, lass, there's a lot of rooms to be looked at."

There were, too. Almandin had said the place had a tower, but it actually had several and each one had multiple rooms. The Brownies were determined that unless one suited her perfectly, she would see all of them. It meant a lot of walking and climbing, but she took advantage of the time to get to know them. Col was fairly easy to read; he was the Gruff Old Codger With a Heart of Gold. Then there was Daw, slightly shorter than the other two male Brownies and bearing a faint resemblance to Sam Gamgee, who was even more quiet than Ferb and with the same air of competence. The last of the men was Noll, whose twinkling brown eyes always gave the impression that he was about to share a good joke; from what they said, Isabella deduced that he mostly helped indoors with tasks a dragon's claws couldn't handle. Zorah was a bustling, motherly type who seemed determined to put some meat on Isabella's bones; and Martha reminded her of a cross between Rarity and Fluttershy, a little reserved but not unfriendly and clucking over Isabella's clothes. All of them seemed likeable enough, and she got the feeling that being this Dragon's Maiden was going to be a lot of fun. She hoped that it didn't mean she wouldn't be able to see Phineas for the duration—and Ferb, of course, she really would miss him, just... not as much as she would Phineas.

The tour probably would have taken until supper, but in the third tower, Isabella walked into a room and couldn't resist a loud squee. The room was decorated in Practical Princess: pretty without being fussy, just enough lace, silk, and velvet to look rich without going so far that people would be afraid to touch anything. The colors were a little more adult than she usually favored, but the warm russet, gold, and brown reminded her of her Fireside Girls uniform. The bed was big enough to fit her whole troop, even including Candace, and it was beautifully carved with a vine pattern winding around the posts holding up the brocade canopy; the head and footboards showed forest scenes. The windows faced south and east, just the way she liked it; she'd be able to watch the sunrise from her window. She checked the doors on the west wall and found a dressing room/closet behind one and a true bathroom behind the other; there was even a Victorian-looking flush toilet, the type with a chain to pull that would probably make enough noise to wake everyone in the castle. Then again, maybe not, considering how thick the walls were; Isabella was willing to bet there were secret passages in them.

"Could I have this room, please? It's perfect!"

"Then it's yours while you're here," Zorah said. "Of course, you can look at the other rooms later, and if you want to, you can move. Doesn't hurt us to change things around every now and then; keeps us from getting lazy. Can you see anything here you'd like to change? Anything missing?"

Isabella took another look around, this time thinking of a long-term stay, but eventually just shook her head. Zorah nodded.

"Well, that's good, then. Col, you go tell Almandin she chose the Autumn Room. Daw, Noll, back to your usual chores. Martha and I'll tell her everything she needs to know as soon as we get her measured for a proper wardrobe. I can tell you've taken as good care of your clothes as you could, lass, but you need better to look the part of a Dragon's Maiden. Do you prefer tight sleeves, fairy-wing, or something in-between?"

Like most men hearing women beginning to talk clothes, the other three left quickly. Isabella, Zorah, and Martha spent quite a while discussing, sketching, and measuring; partway through Martha left and came back with an armload of fabric that turned out to be gowns left behind by previous Maidens. Most of them were far too big, being made for older girls, but at least one of those Maidens had been short, because a few only needed some hemming to fit. The only thing wrong with them was that they were white, which all agreed was not very practical; still, they would do until Martha could make something new. Isabella offered to help, but the Brownies looked shocked at the idea, so she backed off. Instead, she let Zorah haul her away for a good hot bath. At one point she'd have been uncomfortable letting somebody help her bathe, but between Looping experience and Loop memories, she'd gotten to the point where she didn't mind anymore. In fact, she had to admit that she liked having someone help her wash her hair; it reminded her of that one hairdresser back home who always did such a good job and never acted like she knew what the customers wanted better than the customers did. Isabella had just started toweling off when Martha poked her head in.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but Godmother Iolanthe is here and wants to talk to Isabella," she said quietly. Zorah straightened up from dealing with the bath and turned around.

"Godmother Iolanthe? Here? Dear, dear, this must be serious. Still, we'll have to take a few minutes; Isabella can hardly go down like this."

What followed was a dizzying flurry of activity, and when Isabella had time to think again, she found herself in a huge library with Almandin and a beautiful woman in a deep green gown. Isabella glanced down at her own gown and grimaced; it was made of some rich material that she couldn't identify, but it was rather plain. Still, she wasn't going to let being underdressed throw her off. The woman watched her walk in, clearly assessing her.

"Yes, I was afraid of that. My dear, I've been speaking with a great many people about your situation, which I'm afraid is graver than we realized at first. I am Iolanthe, Fairy Godmother for this and the neighbouring two kingdoms, and I must say that in all my years of Godmothering, I have never run into such a tangle."

"Uh, sorry?"

"Oh, it's not your fault, dear, it's that wretched Tradition combined with the Loops that Phineas and Ferb told me about. Before you ask, I'm not the Anchor, but I suspect I know a good candidate for it. But that will have to wait. You see, normally the Tradition wouldn't have pushed someone as young as you into either the Snowskin or the Dragon's Maiden Path, but because of the Loops of yours, you are technically much older than your physical age. The Tradition doesn't quite know what to make of that, so it's falling back on the most obvious Paths it can find. Oh, but have they explained the Tradition yet? I realize you haven't had much time."

"No, but it sounds like it makes things pretty awkward around here," Isabella said. Iolanthe smiled wryly in return.

"My dear, you have a gift for understatement. Please do sit down and I'll explain."

And she did. Isabella's jaw dropped as she realized that they'd landed in a world ruled by a mysterious force that insisted on trying to turn everything into stories and forcing people to go along with them no matter how miserable it made them. She'd understood the Snowskin references, as the name was pretty close to the story she knew already, but she'd though they were just referring to the fact that her story seemed pretty similar. It hadn't occurred to her that she might have been forced to live it out and she shuddered at the idea of some random not-Phineas prince waking her with a kiss and being forced to fall in love with him. It didn't seem very fair to the prince, either; if he knew about the Tradition, he'd always wonder if she'd have loved him for himself without being magicked into it. And there weren't too many ways to get around that particular Path either, unless she consented to having her magic drained, which she wasn't sure she liked the sound of.

"So what you're saying is, your best hope right now is for me to get a tan?"

"Sounds daft, doesn't it?" Almandin said cheerfully. "But sometimes the Tradition can be undone by the simplest things, so if you're willing, why not give it a go? The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work. Oh, and you might get a sunburn. Or heatstroke. Or-"

"Thank you, Almandin." Iolanthe said, rolling her eyes. "Isabella, we have a few days before Dickon returns to your Stepmother, and I do think it's worth trying. All you have to do is spend a good part of the day outside in the fresh air. And in the meantime, we'll all be working to see what we can do if it doesn't work, and I am including you in that. Almandin, didn't you tell me that there was a Poet's Nook in the garden when you got here? Is it still here? Because if it is, Isabella can use that as her studying space."

"No, last winter's big ice storm rather put paid to it, sad to say. There's a gazebo, but it's rather shady. Oh, I know! The pavilion in the ornamental pond! Charlotta used to bring her harp out there in decent weather and play for hours. Of course, she'd stay in the shady part, but it has sunny bits too. And there's fish in there, so we might get a Wise Carp to help. Just—if any frogs start talking, do be a good girl and ignore them, won't you? Especially if it says it's a prince. Last thing we need's another Path to muck us up."

Isabella giggled, but didn't argue. It sounded like the next few days were going to be busy. Good; she liked being busy, especially when it was with something useful, and she couldn't think of anything more useful than learning something to not get killed stupidly. Or married even more stupidly. She wasn't sure which she most wanted to avoid.

8.4 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

One of the good things about the Loops to Phineas' mind was the fact that there was always something new to discover. It kept him from going nuts when he couldn't be tinkering or helping his friends; doing both at the same time was favorite, of course, but not always possible. It was particularly bad, though, when he knew a friend needed help and he couldn't do anything, but having almost free reign to explore a genuine Fairy Castle housing a genuine Fairy Godmother made a pretty good distraction. Even if Iolanthe had been the modern pink-and-fluffy type of Fairy it would at least have been something to do, but she was an old school Fae, powerful, dangerous, and a lot of fun when she wasn't busy trying to prevent disaster.

Iolanthe had accepted their more detailed explanation of the Loops with the air of someone who heard stranger things on a regular basis. She'd asked sensible questions, too, and Phineas suspected she had some ideas about who the Anchor might be. He didn't mind that she wasn't saying anything; she probably wanted to make sure before getting their hopes up. He did mind that she wasn't letting them see Isabella, but since the Tradition was apparently showing a lot of interest in all three Loopers, he could understand why she wanted to focus on one issue at a time. Well, two, since from what she said Isabella had two different Paths duking it out to control her life. She hadn't said how the Tradition was going after him and Ferb, but it was pretty obvious she hoped having them in her castle would make it shut up for a while.

On the whole, he and Ferb liked Iolanthe, but they agreed that it was a little annoying that she kept acting like they really were the 12-year-olds they were in this Loop. They'd told her they'd been Looping for centuries and she had believed them, but that meant she treated them like exceptionally intelligent 12-year-olds: mature enough to get an explanation, but still kept out of the important stuff. They were being patient for now, but they had their limits. If Isabella needed them, they would go, no matter what the Fairy Godmother said. Luckily, they had an ally in Phyllis, Iolanthe's daughter-in-law, who admitted that she had learned the hard way that judging people by their apparent age could end badly.

At the moment, they couldn't complain about being left out of things, because Iolanthe was working some fairly complex Fae magic. Since this genuinely was an instance of a time they couldn't help, they took Phyllis up on her offer of a tour of the castle. And if they just happened to notice where the library was, well, a bit of reading never hurt anybody, right? Phyllis agreed that it was very important for them to keep up with their studies, somehow managing to keep a straight face as she said it.

The castle really was interesting and they did enjoy poking around, but the second the tour was over they dashed for the library. Iolanthe's husband, a grey-haired mortal man named Daniel, was just leaving as they approached.

"Good morning, lads, you seem rather energetic today. I wonder if I could presume on your good nature as well as your youth and ask you to put away the books I left on the table? At my age it's easier to get things down than to put them back up."

"Of course, sir," Phineas said, not even having to think about it.

"Good lads, good lads. Thank you, and I'll see you at lunch. Or perhaps supper."

Daniel wandered off down the hall, humming cheerfully. Phineas had the feeling he'd been got at somehow, and with a glance at Ferb, opened the library doors. A huge pile of books covered the table, and Phineas' heart sank; he'd promised he'd put them away, but they'd be lucky to even start looking for their own books by the end of the day. He sighed and reached for the top book, glancing at the title.

"Twins and Tradition: Double Trouble? Hey, this might be—wait a minute. Workings of Time in Traditional Paths? Random Maunderings That Might Be Of Use To Somebody? Snowskin Variations? Dragons and Maidens? Ferb, did he just do half our work for us?"

"I think the judge just ruled in our favor."

"There's even bookmarks in a lot of these. We'll still have to read them ourselves, but we can pay special attention to those parts. And stacks of paper and pens... Well, Ferb, I know what we're going to do today." Phineas sat down and started reading; Ferb joined him, chuckling.

Elena Klovis was worried. The Tradition hadn't acted up for over a month in any of her kingdoms, except in mostly minor ways that didn't need a Godmother's help. Half of the incidents she only learned of after the fact, when someone reported to her. One of the more depressing variants of the Sadder But Wiser Girl had been averted by Elena's own former Wicked Stepmother of all people, who had recognized the would-be seducer and ripped into him very publicly. She'd been ready to turn her vicious tongue on the girl as well, but the girl had a temper of her own and had ignored her in favor of breaking her mug over the man's head. Madame Fleur's letter had been very colorful, and Elena still found herself giggling over it. A Ladderlocks had been averted by the husband breaking his leg slipping on wet leaves while on his way to steal the greens; she'd practically felt the Tradition throwing up its metaphorical hands in disgust over that one. But that had been the biggest problem all month, and that worried her. The Tradition had to be saving itself for something truly unpleasant; there could be no other explanation. Not unless it had something to do with her other difficulty, but she couldn't think how mitigating the damage caused by events she knew would happen could throw off the Tradition that much.

She sighed, looking out at her garden. Alex was there, working hard, but it wasn't her Alex. This was the arrogant, obnoxious Prince Alexander who had thoroughly earned getting turned into a donkey. Again. This was the fifth time she'd had to do it, and while the process of undoing his earlier training became easier each time and always resulted in the man she'd been surprised to fall in love with, she still missed her Alex. Being with these Alexes almost felt like being unfaithful, but how could it be when it was still him? Or was she justifying it to herself? There was nothing in the Tradition to answer that question, and asking the Mirror Servants and the Fae had given her confirmation that she hadn't gone mad and imagined time repeating but hadn't been able to tell her any more than that.

"Godmother? Godmother Iolanthe wishes to call on you at your earliest convenience," Randolph, her Mirror Servant said, startling her.

"Iolanthe? Heavens, why would she be calling on me? Tell her she's welcome at any time," Elena said, and rose to make herself a bit tidier. No sooner had she done so when there was a small commotion from the direction of the pond in the bottom meadow; Elena remembered that she had a predilection for that sort of thing. She ran downstairs to be ready to greet her, warning the Brownies as she did.

Iolanthe was gliding gracefully toward her, not seeming to notice the gaping donkey she passed. The Fae greeted her cordially, if a little distractedly, which wasn't a good sign, but she paused before entering the house, eyes gleaming.

"I see you have a new donkey," she said. "What a fine beast; why, a king needn't be ashamed to own such a creature!"

"He certainly is a royal ass," Elena agreed, trying not to laugh. Alex made a noise the likes of which only an indignant donkey could produce and the two Godmothers hurried into the house before they ruined the effect by giggling like schoolgirls. Iolanthe had always struck her as remarkably human for one of the Fae; she'd certainly never met another Fae Fairy Godmother with a sense of humor like that, anyway. "Iolanthe, I'm always glad to see you, but what on earth is wrong?"

"Oh, where to start!" The other woman flopped onto a chair in a manner that should have been ungraceful. "My dear, I'm going to ask you something that may strike you as completely mad, but I do have my reasons. Has time been repeating for you?"

"You, too?" Elena blurted, staring. But Iolanthe shook her head.

"Not I, indeed. But I have been aware that something is strange in the world that isn't related to the Tradition, and I have now met three people who know why. In fact, they are experiencing it themselves. They are quite experienced at it, and I found myself in the unusual position of being the student rather than the teacher in this matter. I will leave it to them to explain what is happening to you, but one aspect of what they described made me think of you, and I was right. Now, I recognize the signs of trying to redeem a Failed Quester, but can you leave him for a while? These three have gotten involved in one of the worst tangles I've ever seen, and that's saying something. I've got a Snowskin who's also a Dragon's Maiden, twin brothers who are both childhood friends of the girl, the girl is over head and ears in love with one of the brothers, and all three are quite astonishingly clever. I've got the girl doing research and the boys have my castle and grounds to explore, but that will only distract them for so long. You see, I haven't told you the most awkward part: they're only twelve!"

Elena shook her head, trying to make sense of it.

"If they're twelve, then how can they be experienced with this?"

"Time Loops, my dear; who knows how many times they've been this age?"

"...Iolanthe, refresh my memory. Who was it who nearly broke up her son's engagement by giving him what she thought of as a motherly kiss in public even though she knew her son's fiancée didn't know he was half-Fae?"

"Well, that was me, but—oh. Oh! Oh, dear." It wasn't often that a mortal got to see a Fae looking sheepish; Elena bit back a grin. "Well. That would account for a great many things."

"Such as?"

"Daniel and Strephon have been trying to convince me to let them help, Phyllis has been giving me the look you give someone you love dearly even though they're being exceptionally dim, and the Brownies have been being very obviously patient. I of all people really should have known better than to judge someone by their apparent age. At least we've caught my blunder fairly early, and I can start making things right directly I return home. Can you come, my dear? I really do think it would be best to deal with this quickly."

Elena thought for a few minutes. At this point, Hob had most of the dealings with Alexander; she thought it best to keep her distance until he was closer to her Alex. He wasn't as nasty as usual, but if events otherwise followed their usual course, it would be a few more weeks before that happened. And he'd had his day as a human yesterday, so she could stay away for a few days without risking his mind turning beast-like due to the spell on him. The Brownies were certainly capable of running matters at home without her, and if she was needed back her, Randolph could contact Iolanthe's Mirror Servant.

"I think I'd better change into more Godmotherly clothes, but yes, I can come for a few days," she said. "Do I need to be the Rose Fairy, or will just looking like a proper Godmother do?"

"Oh, just the Godmother, I think. We've got quite a bit of work ahead of us, and all those silly frills will just get in the way. I do wish I could have put a stop to that before the Tradition got hold of it, but what can you do?"

Elena nodded sympathetically, then went to change. An elegant but sturdy gown in shades of rose-pink, her favorite wand, and a few changes of clothing carefully packed in a bag and she was ready to go. She spoke to the Brownies and Randolph, then joined Iolanthe out in the garden and headed for the path.

"I am glad you thought of me when you learned of these Time Loops," she told Iolanthe as they walked. "I've been wanting someone to talk to about this, but nobody else seemed to notice. I almost thought I was going mad."

"Time... Loops?" a hoarse voice asked from behind them. Elena froze. "Do you mean, time repeating itself? Living your life over again from a certain day?"

Everyone turned slowly to look at the donkey, who had a look of desperate hope in his eyes. Elena felt a slow trickle of hope of her own beginning to rise.

"Alex?"

"Elena? My Elena?"

She dropped the spell on him without another moment's hesitation, and he stood before her in the peasant's clothing he'd accepted with ill grace. She'd thought that odd, as he'd always insisted on wearing that ridiculous uniform of his the other times; it had been a clue, and she'd been too blind to see it. He took a step forward, and Elena flung herself at him, nearly knocking him over, and kissed him breathless. His response eliminated any lingering doubts that it really was her Alex, and she felt a brief temptation to ask Iolanthe to call for her tomorrow. Instead, she let the kiss wind itself down naturally, and the two stepped back.

"We are a pair of idiots, aren't we?" she said. "How long has this been going on for you?"

"Since about a month before we met in the woods. I hated to ride at you that way, but you didn't seem to know me so I thought it was just me, and I thought I'd better act like I had back then. Well, maybe not quite as bad."

"So this is your first time repeating, then," Iolanthe said. "Right, then, you'd better come along, because you're part of this too. A fairly important part, if that kiss was anything to judge by. Hob, do close your mouth, you look like a landed fish."

The stunned Brownie shut his mouth with an audible snap, then took a closer look at Alex. His eyes narrowed as he saw the changed demeanor, the soft smile as Alex looked at Elena, and the magic that was begin to gather around the man—magic that Elena also saw. Finally he nodded with a satisfied grunt.

"Don't pretend to understand what just happened," he grumbled, "but if it's made a decent man out of him, I'll not be the one to complain."

"Speaking of decent, I should probably bathe before going anywhere," Alex said. "I smell like an overworked mule. Which reminds me—a royal ass? That was terrible!"

"You're only annoyed that I beat you to it."

"That is entirely beside the point."

Elena laughed, glad that she had her Alex back. The Loops, if that was what they were called, had been so very lonely. Now she had someone to talk to, and that someone was Alex; she'd never have dared expect that, and tears of joy streamed down her cheeks as she kissed him again.

8.5 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

Well, if she couldn't have Phineas and Ferb around, at least she had a great place to stay while she missed him. Them. Isabella nibbled on a delicately rose-flavored lace cookie, took a sip of tea, and turned the page of her book. She'd set up a loose schedule for her days, and while it was only the second day on it, it seemed to be working: five to ten minutes in direct sun, then at least half an hour in the shade, no more than three hours at a time reading, get up and walk around every so often to keep from getting stiff. She kept the same morning routine in every Loop to make sure she and her skills stayed in shape, and adding that to it wasn't a hassle.

She also made sure to spend an hour each day exploring the castle, figuring it would be a good idea to know the layout. Iolanthe had hinted that while Dragon's Maidens could be abducted as young as fourteen (and she thought that Isabella had been accepted because the Tradition was confused by her Looping status), but they were almost never rescued before their sixteenth birthday, and more usually near their eighteenth. That gave Isabella about four years to wait, and she suspected she'd need it if she wanted to really know Castle Bunthorne. Medieval castles were designed to be essentially walled villages, and this one was no exception; the place could probably house her entire neighborhood back home with room to spare.

More importantly, though, she was also exploring the Tradition. She still didn't like it, but when she thought about how other universes were run, it really wasn't so bad in comparison. At least the Tradition liked to give people a fighting chance, and for those who knew myths and folklore pretty well it was practically a cheat guide. Isabella wasn't an expert, but she suspected she was a bit ahead of Phineas and Ferb in this world, simply because girls got told fairy tales more than boys.

"Excuse me, miss, but you're wanted back at the library," Daw said, appearing next to her without a sound. "The Godmother has returned and wishes to speak to you."

"Thanks, Daw," she replied. Closing her book, she snagged one last cookie for the walk. She'd have carried the tray, but the Brownies had made it very clear that for the moment she was to be treated as a pampered princess, in the hopes that it would further confuse the Tradition. It was nice for a change, but she didn't plan on getting used to it. She did insist on carrying her book by herself, though; that crossed the line from pampered to lazy as far as she was concerned.

It was a bit of a hike back, and mostly uphill, but she didn't mind. The weather was still clear and just cool enough that the long dress she wore was comfortable. Still, she didn't dawdle, because she wanted to argue the case for having Phineas and Ferb with her and goofing around wouldn't help. She made it to the library in a reasonable amount of time and entered after a quick knock to let them know she was there. Almandin was there as usual, but there were also a handful of others. The Knight In Shining Armor was hard to miss; tall and handsome, with longish brown hair and a beaky nose that didn't distract from his good looks. He looked a bit like a more buff version of Danny from Love Händel, which made her stifle a giggle. Next to him was a very pretty woman in her early-to-mid-twenties, blonde and blue-eyed and dressed in a rose-pink gown that Isabella envied a little. An older, grey-haired man stood next to Iolanthe, and next to him was a man who had to be their son, with dark brown hair and Iolanthe's green eyes. He had his arm around a strawberry blonde girl who couldn't be more than twenty but was visibly pregnant; Isabella was a bit surprised by that, but reminded herself that a) this was a world where girls were frequently married by the time she'd have expected to graduate high school and b) she knew for a fact that at least four people in this room didn't look their age and the girl might well be over a hundred. They looked up as she entered, exchanged glances, then drew apart to reveal—

"Phineas! Ferb!"

She glomped Phineas, almost knocking him off his feet, then did the same to Ferb. They'd talked on their phones over the last couple days, but it wasn't the same. If they were in a Loop together, then they wanted to be together. It was that simple. Besides, they always did their best work together; any one of them was pretty good by themselves, and Phineas and Ferb working together were amazing, but the three of them working as a team were unstoppable.

"My dears, I'm afraid I owe you all an apology," Iolanthe said. "I should not have treated you as children, especially once I knew your stories. Rest assured, I have been taken to task for it and am thoroughly contrite. Now, as you may have surmised, I wish to talk to you all together, and not just you, but everyone who may end up being of substantial help, with one necessary exception. You won't have met my family, Isabella, so please allow me to present my husband Daniel, my son Strephon, and my daughter-in-law Phyllis. Nor will you have met Godmother Elena and her fiancé Prince Alexander. That is another thing for which I must apologize, but this is directed mainly at Phineas and Ferb. Lads, we did not tell you everything last night, because we thought it best to wait until we had you all together. Elena and Alexander are both Looping, and we have reason to believe that Elena is the Anchor for this Loop."

"Oh, we figured that out last night," Phineas said cheerfully. Iolanthe's eyebrows almost jumped off her head, and Isabella had to work hard to keep a straight face. Most of the others didn't even try, and Phyllis even giggled.

"I do need to stop underestimating you two," the Fae sighed. "Really, I'm not usually so inept, I give my word."

"You did warn us they were clever," Elena grinned. "How did you figure it out, Phineas?"

"Well, it was kinda obvious you weren't telling us something, and you kept almost talking about it, then saying 'tomorrow', and then Iolanthe said we'd be coming to see Isabella tomorrow, and it just made sense. You wanted to do this when we were all together so we didn't have to explain stuff more times than needed, right?"

"That's it precisely," Iolanthe said, visibly relieved. "Now, my dears, if you could all sit down, I'm afraid we have a situation that is more difficult than I had hoped for. But before we get into that, I would like for you to explain the Loops to Elena and Alex."

Explaining the Loops was relatively easy, even though they didn't usually get the chance to give the "Welcome to the Multiverse" speech. Elena and Alex both learned how to Ping fairly quickly, and Elena had the basic idea for creating a subspace pocket within the hour. She was also pleased at getting a copy of Twilight's book; she stated outright that it would be the first item in her Pocket when she got it open. All of the locals were fascinated by the stories of the different Loops, understanding the logic behind the various types of Loop and impressed that some were determined to make their Loops Sanctuaries for beleaguered Loopers.

"I'd love it if we could offer something similar, but I don't think it will be possible," Elena said. "Somehow I don't think the Tradition will allow that. In fact, I'm wondering how the Tradition will react to the Loops; it might not make a difference, but I don't want to count on that. The Loops may become part of the Tradition, although I'm not entirely sure how that would work. It's something we'll have to keep an eye on. I think I'd like to discuss it further with some of the more magically-inclined Loopers, like that man Dumbledore you mentioned or the Equestrian Anchor—is her name really Twilight Sparkle?"

"That's how names work there; they tend toward the descriptive," Ferb said.

"Well, she probably found our names odd at first as well," Elena mused. "Oh, and I mean no offense to you; your help is invaluable, it truly is. It's just that this world is highly magical, and from what you say, yours is not."

"Oh, hey, no, that totally makes sense," Phineas said. "We've had some experience with magic, but to figure out something like that, of course you want to talk to people—well, beings, anyway—who really know about it. We're pretty good at what we do, but we aren't experts in everything, and for something that pretty much controls your world, you want real experts. We can give you a good list of who you'll want to talk to, if you'd like. Can't promise you'll meet them any time soon, of course, but the good thing about the Loops is you can afford to wait for stuff like that."

"A list would be a good idea," Alex agreed. "Also, when that's done, I'd like a list of beings to watch out for. The troublemakers."

"That's in the book," Isabella said. "But we can give you notes on the ones we've actually met, and how we handled them. One of the harder ones to handle is only hard because it's just so cute that you feel bad about attacking it, but once you start thinking about what it's done, it's a lot easier. Although Kyuubey may not show up here, since it targets girls around my age. I drop-kicked it, for the record. But getting back to the magic people, if you ever get to meet Gandalf the Grey..."

They spent most of the morning and a good part of the afternoon on Loop mechanics and giving notes and warnings about specific Loops and Loopers beyond the initial two categories. Ferb brought up Leah Clearwater, pointing out that there were werewolves, vampires, and the like who were Looping and might run into trouble due to the Tradition. All of them agreed that the Equestrians needed to be warned about how the Tradition treated unicorns; while the idea of, say, Shining Armor turning into a sappy idiot every time he got near a virgin was amusing, they knew it would quickly get annoying for all involved. They spent a good half-hour to forty-five minutes on the Doctor alone, wondering how each version of him would be affected by the Tradition. Isabella privately thought that the youngest-looking one would cause the Tradition to have a nervous breakdown.

Eventually they got to a point where they realized that they were gossiping more than giving useful information, and they turned to Iolanthe to explain what she had said earlier. The Fae grimaced and reached for her husband's hand.

"Well, I have something else to confess," she sighed. "I'm actually just getting back into the swing of things as a Godmother. You see, Fae and mortals aren't really supposed to have more than brief flings, but I decided I would rather have the pain of losing Daniel than never really having him at all. My Queen did not approve, and I was punished by having to spend twenty-five years at the bottom of a stream looking after Frog Princes. I was able to keep an eye on my son, but I had little other contact with the world. If it wasn't for one of the younger Fae asking what had become of me and two dear friends stirring up the rest of our band to ask for my release, I might still be there. But mortals can change so much in what seems to be a mere eyeblink to a Fae, and I am finding that there are many Traditions now that simply did not exist when I married Daniel. I believed that Sacharissa Wellington-Wells was simply a Wicked Stepmother, but there are signs that she may be far worse than that. I've warned Dickon, of course, but he's determined to do his part. I do hope that I'm wrong, Isabella, but I believe that the Stepmother is also a Necromancer, and that she married your father in order to get access to his magic. She wouldn't have realized that you were also a source of power for her, or she'd never have thrown you out, although that may have been the Tradition forcing her hand. However it fell out, she is now aware of the Traditional power around you—power that has only been increased by adding the Dragon's Maiden Path. In trying to confuse the Tradition, we have, at least temporarily, made matters worse for you."

"Well, it was worth trying, and I did volunteer after Almandin asked me," Isabella said. "We'd pretty much gotten ourselves into the situation before you even knew about it. But will she be able to find me here? She has some of my stuff, but I wasn't Awake when I left and now I am, so that might confuse a tracking spell. It does in some magic systems we've run across."

"Well, dear, we'll hope for the best, but I'd rather not rely on it. If the Tradition still considers you a Snowskin when she tries to find you, then she will probably find you if she's at all competent. And we know she is, because she managed to hide what she was from your father. Thankfully, we have a few days, but we'll need to be ready to act at a moment's notice."

"Elena and I will have to return to her cottage for at least a day," Alex said. "But after that, I'll hopefully be a Champion again, and if I take up residence here it should give you some protection. We just have to be careful of the wording when I swear myself to that, as I'd rather we didn't give the Tradition a chance to make us fall in love."

"That would be wrong on so many levels," Ferb said.

"What he said," Phineas agreed. "And I think Ferb and I should stay too. If she's looking for a Snowskin, she'll be expecting dwarfs, so the more not-dwarfs we have around, the better, right? Besides, we can study the Tradition together and compare notes easier, and then there's stuff we've learned while Looping that we might be able to use..."

"I say, I rather like the idea," Almandin said. "We Dragons don't usually care for each other's company for too long, but I don't mind having you folk around. Bit of a house party, what? And it also makes the numbers wrong for Snowskin's protectors; with just the Champion we'd be at seven, but with these clever lads we'll be nine, and whoever heard of a Snowskin with nine protectors? And when that unicorn gets here, we'll be ten. Rather a motley band, but that may work for us."

"Then it's agreed," Elena said. "We'll each keep searching our respective libraries and making sure we plan for various Traditions. And we have to keep an eye on the amount of Traditional power around Isabella, and do some scrying to see if our efforts are closing any of the Paths. I'd also like to train Isabella; it never hurts to have extra Godmothers about, and she might as well get some use out of all of that power swirling around her. I've done it before, in... in baseline, although they were older. Well, if you don't count your Looping age. Oh, heavens, that still confuses me, and somehow I don't think that will end any time soon."

"It won't," Ferb said.

"It takes a while," Phineas agreed.

"Well, I'm always up for learning something new," Isabella said. "I can use it for my Learning Otherworldly Skills Patch."

"...Is that a thing, or are you just messing with us?" Phineas asked, grinning. Isabella just grinned back and didn't answer.

Sacharissa Wellington-Wells glared at her Mirror Slave.

"Mirror, mirror, on my wall, who's the fairest one of all? And if you say Godmother Aleksia or any of the Sea King's daughters again, it will go badly for you."

"Well, it is a rather subjective question," the green face sighed. "Fair can be used in so many different ways. Still, if you want to know who the prettiest maid in this kingdom is, there are still three choices: Aline Sangazure, Princess Ida—although she won't count much longer, since she's heading off to that college of hers—and Josephine Corcoran."

"So the wench is dead, then," the Dark Sorceress gloated, fulfilling her Traditional role. "Not the ideal outcome; all that Traditional power wasted, after all. On the other hand, once I devour her heart I shall gain her youth and beauty, and then I shall have years in which to further build my power, and then I shall rule this land and not even the Godmothers can stop me!"

Her laugh was more suited to an anime noblewoman than a fairy-tale villainess, but as far as the Tradition was concerned, it was good enough. An evil laugh was necessary, whichever Tradition it came from. The Mirror Slave rolled his eyes, knowing she couldn't see him at the moment, mentally counted down the days until the Tradition dealt with her as it did with all her type, and wondered just what it was about going Dark that turned so many into melodramatic idiots.

8.1-8.5: A very interesting start to a very interesting storyline.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-28. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

8.6 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

The next week was very active for everyone. The three visiting Loopers continued both studying and exploring the castle, and when Phineas and Ferb located the old forge, they added that to their list of Things To Get Working. Alexander left for a day, returning with a literally visible glow that took a while to fade; he had been confirmed as a Champion in record time. Elena set up a mirror in the front hall to use as transport, and added mirror magic to the lessons. Iolanthe and her family returned to her castle, checking in every night to give or receive news; neither Godmother could stay due to their own duties. Iolanthe was only in charge of three kingdoms, but one was quite large and all were rather busy; Elena was in charge of at least a dozen and one of those was due to have a major incident in the next few weeks that Elena still hadn't figured out how to forestall. Since Alex's brother was involved, they'd be losing him for a few days when it happened; nobody was saying so, but they were assuming that if Sacharissa was going to attack, she'd do it then. It wasn't technically Traditional for villains to strike at the most inconvenient times, but it might as well have been.

Busy at it was, they mostly enjoyed themselves. The one exception was necessary, but left all three visiting Loopers hoping they never had to do it again: drinking Dragon's Blood.

"Blood? You mean like... blood?" Isabella squeaked, horrified. Phineas and Ferb nodded, both looking almost as uncomfortable as she felt. And she'd thought eating a grub would be bad! "Almandin, doesn't that hurt you?"

"Never a fear of it. It's no worse than pricking your finger on a needle; sting a bit for a few seconds, but five minutes later you've completely forgotten it. Honor bright, Miss Isabella, I give blood a few times a year for various Fae and Godmothers, and even for a Wizard I know on occasion. I'd hardly do it if it really hurt. Any road, understanding animal speech is a ruddy useful skill, and if it carries over to other Loops it'll be even moreso. And don't worry about hearing regular animals talk; spend a few minutes listening to chickens talk and you won't feel the least bit guilty about eating one of the daft creatures."

"Variations of 'hey'," Elena nodded. "Unfortunately, it tastes every bit as nasty as it sounds, but it's the quickest way of doing this as well as being one of the few permanent methods. I've done, Alex has done it, Daniel and Phyllis have done it... I promise it won't kill you. And you have to do it in a single dose."

"It won't be as effective?" Phineas asked. Alex shook his head.

"No, it's just that after the first taste you won't want a second no matter how useful it is."

The Danvillians exchanged looks, and then as one chugged the contents of their glasses. Isabella and Phineas gagged, and Ferb turned as green as his hair; glasses of mint water were thrust into their hands and they started a long rinse-and-spit cycle. It explained why Elena had suggested doing this outdoors. Finally, they were given a strong fruit juice blend to finish off the rest of the foul taste. Phineas summed up their feelings perfectly.

"Dude, that's nasty!"

"Well, with any luck you'll never have to do it again," Elena said. "I haven't had to take another dose, but then, I haven't left this Loop yet and it starts after I've already done that, so I really can't say if it will be sustained for you."

"I hope so," Ferb said. "I'd rather not do that again."

"Hey, there aren't any animals around!" Phineas exclaimed. Isabella hadn't thought about it, but most animals tended to avoid the area near a Dragon's lair. For some strange reason, they didn't want to live near a carnivore big enough to eat a sheep in two bites.

"I thought about that," Elena said, opening a crate and lifting out a large calico cat. "If there is any animal that won't panic at the sight of a Dragon, it's a cat."

"Why should I be afraid of an overgrown lizard?" the cat yawned. Phineas' eyes widened, Ferb blinked, and Isabella stifled a squee. The Dragon's Blood had worked. Almandin didn't seem insulted by the cat, and was actually chuckling quietly.

"Cats are good for keeping you humble, aren't they? Although I really ought to point out that this particular lizard has scales larger than you and breathes fire."

"Big and clumsy, and breathing fire doesn't help if your target's too fast for you to come near it."

"Fair enough on the second, but have you ever watched a Dragon fly?"

"Yes. It was crunchy, but it didn't taste very good."

"No, I meant... oh, never mind. Never argue with a cat; it always wins."

"You're pretty smart for a lizard." The cat wandered off, bored, and Almandin gave the draconic equivalent of a shrug.

"So what are all these glowing dust mites?" Phineas asked, waving his hand in front of his eyes. "It was pretty at first, but it gets kinda annoying after a while."

"You're seeing magic, which means a whole new set of lessons for you," Elena said.

"I'm seeing them too; how about you, Ferb?"

"Not me. I guess I'm not suited to this Loop's magic." Ferb didn't seem particularly upset about it, but then, Ferb wasn't really the jealous type. And it wasn't like they hadn't had other Loops where somebody got a perk that the others didn't. "Does that mean I can't help Phineas and Isabella with their lessons, or that I just won't be able to do any of that myself?"

"Oh, you can always help, if you're willing, and some spells can be cast by anybody regardless of magical ability, but the bigger and more complex a spell is, the more dangerous it would be for you. I suspect you have enough common sense to know your limits," Alex answered. Elena and Almandin agreed.

"That ruddy cat could cast some spells if it cared to learn them. Some do, but those tend to be the Wise Beasts, which aren't normal anyway. Wise Beasts are more likely to show up here than regular ones, and I never turn them away if they do. Charming conversationalists, Wise Beasts; never can tell what Tradition they're coming from, and some of their tales are quite exciting."

"More importantly," Elena said, "your support is invaluable, but a little dangerous. The Loyal Brother and the Loyal Twin are offshoots of the same Tradition, and while the brother you're loyal to tends to get a happy ever after, there's a distinct possibility of the Tradition leading you into a noble sacrifice. And if you start feeling anything you know isn't normal, tell someone at once; I'm sure you've found any number of Traditions involving brother against brother in your reading. Phineas, Isabella, you need to watch out as well, because the Tradition can push you into ignoring him as no longer important."

"Ferb, if I ever blow you off when I'm not right in the middle of something, you have my permission to give me a kick in the butt," Phineas said immediately. Ferb nodded, smiling slightly. Isabella sighed.

"I won't go that far," she said, "but definitely say something."

"I will."

"It'll be like that Hogwarts Loop where I was a Squib," Phineas said. "We got through that okay, and we can just try some of the same stuff we did then. And we've got that blacksmith's shop to get set up, too; from what I've read, having a smith who knows about magic is pretty useful."

"Once you've got it up and running, I can teach you how to forge with Dragonfire," Almandin said, surprising them. "That's a much rarer skill than magic, you know; not a lot of smiths willing to even try it and even fewer Dragons who know the technique these days. Call me a romantic, but I do hate seeing the old skills dying out, so I made a point of learning as many as I could. Now that I think of it, I rather fancy the idea of Dragonsmithing; care to give it a go, Ferb?"

"Sounds good; I'm in," Ferb said after a moment's thought. Isabella was relieved at that; she hadn't considered the Tradition earlier, and while normally Ferb wouldn't care about being the only one who didn't have something special, in this Loop it could lead to something ugly. Ferb had been awkward for several Loops after that ray turned him into Darth Ferb and he'd almost killed Phineas; Isabella hated to think how he'd feel if he got mystically brainwashed into doing something awful to either of them. But he had something he could do and enjoy now that would be his, and that should help. Even better was that this was a skill he'd be able to use in other Loops with Dragons.

The only thing that worried her now was the weight she sensed waiting to fall on them. The tanning sessions hadn't affected anything but her skin tone; the Snowskin Path was still a thing. She had a feeling that the Tradition was determined to play that out, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Phineas stepped through the mirror from Elena's cottage, clearing the way quickly for the others. They'd gone there because none of the Castle Bunthorne Brownies knew wandmaking, while two of Elena's did. It had been a little like Ollivander's, but not much; the similarity came in handling various types of wood until something felt right, but unlike Ollivander's, they were given raw wood, not finished wands. Also, they would get different types of wands that would be used for different types of work. He and Isabella had shown the Brownies their wands from those Loops, and while Robin had been pleased with the craftsmanship, he'd told them that they simply weren't the right tool for the job in this Loop. So Phineas would soon be receiving four walnut wands ranging from a standard forearm-length to a staff like Gandalf's, while Isabella would be getting six or seven rosewood wands, the smallest of which was no larger than her hand. Having seen Robin's work on Elena's wands, Phineas knew his would go into his Pocket when he wasn't using them.

He didn't envy Isabella the extra wands; a Godmother had more roles to play than a Wizard did, and he was likely to be a Wizard. He could play the friendly helper, the wise mentor, the stern guardian, and the oh-snap-who-did-I-just-mess-with avenger. Isabella had to be convincing as a fairy princess, an old beggar woman, a noble lady, and so many more roles; it wouldn't be easy, but he knew she could do it. After all, this was Isabella, and he couldn't imagine her failing at anything.

Ferb and Alexander were waiting for them as they came through, and both were looking pleased with themselves. That was good; he hadn't liked that it looked like this Loop was trying to leave Ferb out of the fun, but Almandin's suggestion had been perfect. Ferb had spent a few Loops learning to be all sorts of smith, and adding to his collection always made him happy.

"Hey, Ferb, what'cha doin?"

"Isn't that Isabella's line?" Ferb asked with a faint smile.

"Phineas can use it. And you. Don't want to dilute my brand too much." Isabella was looking more relaxed now that they knew they'd have what they needed to work with. She hadn't been joking as much the last few days, so it was good to see her tease Ferb. Ferb must have thought so too, because his smile got a little bigger.

"Alex helped with some of the heavy lifting in the forge and we found a chest full of tools in excellent shape. Not everything we'll need, but more than enough to get started once we finish cleaning it out."

"Sweet!" He'd been hoping Alex would be willing to help with that; he and Ferb were good at a lot of things, but they weren't full-grown and while they were both pretty strong for their sizes, for some things they just needed an adult. Or some of their gear from their Pockets, but even though everyone in the castle knew about them, they didn't want to get into the habit of using other-Loop tech just to make things easier, especially in a Loop whose tech level ranged from Bronze Age to Renaissance. He'd learned that lesson the hard way, and preferred not to think about how that Loop had ended. "How long do you think it'll be before we can get it up and running?"

"Depending on how much time we can spare from our studies, probably within the week. Less, if Alex is clear to help again. Sorcerer or Wizard?"

"Wizard. They're kinda magical engineers, and that just feels more me. I made up my mind on the way through to Elena's cottage."

"Good. Smiths and Wizards work together pretty well in a lot of tales I know, and if it's true in this Loop, that'll give us a leg up on the Tradition."

"As long as they're both on the side of the Light, they usually do," Alex said. "Of course, there are always exceptions, but those are due to clashes of character, not Tradition."

"Then I guess we've got a pretty good foundation now," Phineas said. "If we keep working, then as long as Mrs. Wellington-Wells doesn't pull anything too weird, we should be ready for her when she makes her move."

Nobody pointed out that Dickon's ploy with the deer heart might work, and that the Wicked Stepmother might be appeased. None of them believed it would. Their lessons were really planning sessions, in hopes that they covered every contingency; they had even learned a few spells that might distract her or deflect an attack. But Isabella had admitted that she still felt the Tradition weighing down on her, and both Godmothers had confirmed that they had not been able to disrupt the Snowskin Path. A confrontation was inevitable, and Phineas was not going to let anybody hurt Isabella.

Sacharissa sneered down at the peasant huntsman kneeling before her and proffering an oaken chest just big enough to contain a heart.

"She was dead when I found her, Madame, and the beasts had already left their marks. I preserved her heart in wine and brought it back as you instructed, that it might be buried with her father. And now, Madame, if you have no further need of me, one of my dogs is off his feed, and I wish to make sure of him."

"Thank you for your service, huntsman. You may go, and my servant will give you your reward as promised." She turned and left without giving him another thought, carrying the chest straight to her secret chamber. Once there, she stripped and put her clothes on a shelf with great care; it wouldn't do for them to get stained with any of the substances she'd be working with.

She did not speak from the moment she entered the room. The spell she had in mind was quite tricky; any extraneous words could have a disastrous effect. She lit a black candle with a taper and carried it to the nearly-complete circle already drawn in black wax; a minute of dripping in the right place and the circle was closed. She began the ritual, calling on the few demons who owed her favors to lend their power to her spell. Such a request would strengthen the spell, but would still leave the demons in her debt; despite what her insolent Mirror Slave thought, she was no fool.

She could feel the power around her, heavy with the weight of Tradition. As soon as she devoured the heart, she would take on the form of her late husband's late brat. She'd already planned for her return; she'd dropped hints here and there that the child was unhinged with grief and convinced poor Sacharissa had connived at her father's death (which had actually been a coincidence, although she'd had plans to get rid of him anyway), and so had run off to the woods to find a Godmother's aid. A Sorceress who she'd paid well would spirit her away, and then return her home publicly, disguised as a Godmother, only to find a house abandoned and ransacked by disloyal servants. Her husband's family would take her in, see the power she had, and train her, giving her all the secrets she'd been working to get hold of. By the time she appeared grown again, she would have enough to charm the current prince into taking her as his wife, and after that, the rest would be easy. The royalty here was smug and complacent, believing that the mere existence of a Godmother in the kingdom was enough to protect them. She would still have to be careful, of course, but the Queen had died years ago, the Princess was heading for a foreign land with foreign diseases, the King was so badly misshapen that none would be surprised if he died suddenly from a burst heart, and all of the Princes were warrior idiots who were likely to die in battle. As long as she didn't try to rush matters, she could be sole ruler of the country by the time she was thirty again. The power she would gain from each death, both political and magical, would make her undefeatable.

She ate the heart, chanted the last words of the ritual, and immediately knew something was wrong. Her body was stretching painfully, and she could feel herself morphing into something that couldn't be a child one the cusp of maidenhood. She screamed, fighting the changes, but she had done the ritual too well and poured too much power into it. Before she passed out, she had one last thought: the huntsman betrayed her.

Some time later, she finally woke up. The candles had gone out, leaving her only the light from the fireplace to see by. She knew the ritual had done something to her, but as yet she could not guess what it was. Slowly, she got to her feet, feeling off-balance and just wrong, and re-lit the candles from the fire. She brought them over to the mirror and set them in place before allowing herself to look.

A tall, gracefully slim creature stared back out at her. But creature was the right word; she no longer looked human. Her nose and jaw had become elongated, resembling a deer's muzzle. Light chestnut brown fur covered her body. Her formerly silver-streaked blonde hair was now a few shades darker than her fur. And her legs... she flexed her hands to be sure that they at least were still there. Now she knew why she'd felt so off-balance. She was walking upright on deer's legs, complete with dainty cloven hoofs.

She began to laugh. She laughed as she smashed the mirror. She laughed as she tore the room apart. And she laughed as she sent her remaining magic out to mark the huntsman so that she could find him and make him pay.

8.7 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

There would be no leaving the castle today. A few days ago a dangerous magical character had attacked the kingdom where Alex's brother lived, so yesterday he, Elena, and Almandin had gone to sort things out. Since this left Isabella with the Traditional seven defenders, they were being extra careful. It wouldn't have been so bad if Eilyr had shown up, but he hadn't; Elena commented cynically that he probably got distracted by a pretty flower. The Brownies were more dangerous than most assumed, and the Danvillians had enough experience to look out for themselves, but there was a difference between confidence and tempting fate. Isabella herself had insisted on staying in company until the non-Traditional numbers were restored, and Phineas was glad she'd done so.

They were standing on one of the parapets, looking out over the valley. They weren't talking, not because of nerves or any ill-will, but because they didn't feel the need. Even before the Loops had started, they had been good enough friends that silence didn't feel threatening. At the moment, they were simply enjoying a late autumn morning. The skies were cloudy, but they were the textured silvery clouds that were actually prettier than a clear sky, and the temperature was cool enough now that they wanted cloaks if they were going to be out for more than a few minutes. They had finished their morning chores and there would be no lessons today, so grabbing a quiet hour was all right; in fact, the Brownies had encouraged it, pointing out that they had been working almost non-stop for a few weeks. So here they were, quietly enjoying the day and each other's company.

A sound of stone scraping over stone was the only warning Phineas had before a hand gripped him by the throat from behind and lifted him. He hung there for a second, scrabbling at the fingers cutting of his air, then he found himself flying toward the crenellations. He bounced off the top of one, gasping as he felt his right shoulder dislocate, and started to tumble over the side; he managed to get a handhold with his still-working left hand, but it wasn't a very good one. He tried to remember whether he was over stone or one of the grassy bits, and grimaced as he realized that at this height, the only difference it would make was how bloody a splat his landing would create.

He could hear Ferb and Isabella shouting and the sound of a spell being fired off; seconds later, Ferb's face appeared between the crenellations.

"Isabella's holding him off; hang on for just a few seconds more!" Ferb began to climb out after him. "Can you give me your other hand?"

"No, my shoulder's messed up."

"Right. Pocket time, th—NO!!!"

Phineas' hand slipped, and he fell. He could see Ferb's horrified expression and felt bad about it, but there was nothing in either of their Pockets that could have helped fast enough. The last thing he heard before he hit was Isabella screaming.

It would be quite some time before Isabella would forgive herself for not looking into the castle's secret passages. The wall had opened behind Phineas and a tall figure had attacked before they could react. The man looked human enough, but there was something wrong about him; his face was slack, his eyes were a bit too focused, and he was stronger than he should have been. Phineas wasn't very big, but no normal human could have just picked up and thrown him like that, especially one-handed. She grabbed her wand from her Pocket and started with the Imperius Curse, just in case. She wasn't surprised when it failed, and she quickly switched to offensive spells. The Hogwarts spells weren't as effective here, probably because they weren't Traditional, but they were enough to hold the man back until Ferb could rescue Phineas. She backed toward them, keeping one eye on the man and another eye on the closest door, thankful that it wasn't too far from where Phineas has gone over.

She had just fired off a shield spell that seemed to hold pretty well when she heard Ferb shout; she turned just in time to see Phineas' hand disappear from view. Screaming, she ran to the nearest gap and saw him land hard in the grass. The grass was still soft, but it was such a long drop; even if he survived, he was probably badly hurt. He needed them, and he needed them now. Ferb had scrambled back down, white-faced and trembling; the two grabbed each other's hand and ran for the door, ignoring the man pounding on Isabella's slowly disintegrating shield. They'd deal with him later.

"Zombie?" she gasped as they pelted down the stairs.

"Re-animated corpse, at least. Damn it!" Ferb didn't swear often, and Isabella knew there was something more going on. It would have to wait, though; Phineas needed them. That was the foremost thought in her mind. She didn't even notice they knocked Daw ass-over-teakettle in their rush.

They didn't really take years to reach the courtyard, but it felt that way; a small part of Isabella's mind idly wondered if that was Traditional or just cliché. Phineas lay unmoving, and somehow they found a little more speed. They skidded to a stop on their knees next to him, careful not to touch him until they knew just how bad it was. They were relieved to see he was at least still breathing, but that was the best they could say. His breathing was off, slow and uneven. There was blood on his lips. One leg was bent beneath him at an unnatural angle. Even knowing that the worst that could happen was that they'd have to finish the Loop without him and they'd see him again the next time they were Awake, Isabella felt sick.

A sudden yowling got her attention; she and Ferb leapt to their feet, protecting Phineas. The man had come out of another section of wall, only to have the cat land on his head. She wasn't sure where the cat had come from, but then, it was a cat. The man reached up to grab it, but the cat jumped off before he came close. There were visible scratches on the man's face, but he wasn't bleeding; if they needed any confirmation that the man was past his use-by date, that would do it.

"He's really dead," she said, voice shaking.

"Yes. And he's about to be moreso." Ferb's fists were clenched so tight she was afraid he'd hurt himself and he took a step toward the man. Isabella readied her wand, trying to think of what spells she could use to end this quickly. The man took a small cloth pouch from his pocket and lobbed it toward them, and she blasted it; the explosion sent a cloud of powder in all directions, including over them. The second it reached them, Isabella lost her connection to her magic. From the shocked hiss she heard, it did something to Ferb as well. "I can't get into my Pocket. I'm back to baseline."

She tried to access her Pocket and failed. Whatever that powder was, it blocked anything beyond what a normal human could do. That was bad, but even in baseline they hadn't been helpless. They'd fought aliens, robots, zombie pharmacists... They could handle this. She hoped. She dropped her wand, now just a useless piece of carved wood, and readied herself.

"Okay, we've got to keep him away from Phineas. If we can lower the drawbridge, it shouldn't be too hard to trick him over the side. He's just attacking, not using strategy, so whatever's controlling him hasn't left him big on thinking. He's probably after me anyway, so I'll keep him busy while you get the drawbridge."

"On it." Ferb didn't argue; instead, he ran for the mechanism that controlled the gate, drawbridge, and everything. The man turned to follow him.

"I don't think so," she said. She darted away from Phineas before giving a loud whistle. "I'm over here, you big jerk! Can't catch me!"

He threw another bag of powder, and she rolled away at an angle so it missed completely this time. He didn't seem capable of running, but he also didn't react to the rocks she hit him with and showed no signs of tiring. That could be a problem if Ferb had trouble with the drawbridge; she had a good adrenaline rush going, but that wouldn't last forever. Also, the long skirts she had to wear were really encumbering. Another bag of powder sailed her way, and she dodged again.

A rattling rumbling clanking erupted from Ferb's direction, drawing the man's attention again. She headed for the gate, knowing he'd follow.

"Ferb, stay out of sight! I don't think he'll attack you unless he sees you!"

She hiked up her skirts and sprinted, but that meant turning her back on the man. She was almost through the gate when something hit her between the shoulder blades. She fell, awake but unable to move. Ferb yelled and she got the sensation of something large and silvery passing over her. Seconds later, Ferb was at her side.

"Better late than never," he said, picking her up. "Close your eyes for a few minutes; you really don't want to see what a unicorn's horn does to a corpse animated by Dark magic."

"He speaks truth, Maiden," Eilyr said. "I am truly sorry that I am so late, but at least I was here in time to destroy the foul revenant. But you are hurt!"

"Magic powder of some sort; I think she's paralyzed."

"I can fix that." There was a tickle on her arm as though someone trailed a pin just across the surface of her skin, then a warm, relaxing feeling slowly swept over her. "It is merely another form of poison, and a unicorn's horn is proof against any poison. She will be able to stand in a few moments. But where is the other—oh. Oh, my friends, I am so sorry. That is not in my power to repair."

Ferb set her down gently on the grass, and she opened her eyes. Phineas was still breathing, but she knew he didn't have much longer. This was something she would never get used to, no matter how many Loops they had. She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek.

"Oh, Phineas..."

"Isa...bella...?" Phineas' eyes fluttered open the barest crack; just enough to show that he was conscious. "Are you... okay? Ferb?"

"I'm here," Ferb said. "The Stepmother sent a... henchman, I guess. Eilyr took him out. We're okay. I think the cat went to get the Brownies—if you can just hold on until a Godmother gets here..."

"Sorry... bro..." Phineas smiled. "See you... in Danville. Don't cry... Isabella..."

"Oak, Ash, and Thorn, what happened?" Iolanthe exclaimed from behind them. Before anybody could respond, she was kneeling next to them, wand out. "On second thought, explain later. I've healed worse, but not often and not for a while. May I have your permission to draw on the power surrounding you, all of you?"

"Yes," Ferb, Isabella, and Eilyr chorused without hesitation. Iolanthe put a hand over Phineas' heart and held her wand over his head, then began to chant. They sat and waited, watching for any sign that it was working. Isabella thought his color was getting better and his breathing was evening out, but couldn't be sure it wasn't wishful thinking. As Iolanthe worked, Isabella felt her sense for magic returning, and seeing it gather around Phineas was a comfort; she just wished Ferb could see it as well.

The shadows had visibly shifted before Iolanthe finished, looking a little tired. As soon as she sat back, the Brownies lifted Phineas onto a wide plank and carried him into the castle. Ferb started to get up to follow, but sat down again with a bit of a thump.

"You'll be a bit dizzy for a few minutes, my dears," Iolanthe said. "Taking power, even the small amount of yours that I used, can be tiring for both involved. Not always or even frequently, but I didn't dare take the time for the usual safeguards. I'm just glad I felt something wrong here even before Daw sent that message; I came prepared for imminent disaster, and while I seem to have missed the excitement, I do believe I arrived just in time. Can you tell me as much as you know of what happened?"

Isabella looked at Ferb, who was sitting with his eyes closed, trying to keep himself together. To buy him some time, she began recounting what had just happened. When she had finished, Iolanthe sighed, looking sad.

"Ferb, was the man Dickon?"

"Yes."

Isabella clapped her hands to her mouth, horrified and a little guilty. They'd told her about Dickon, and she'd been looking forward to meeting him. He'd risked his life to help her, even though they'd never met, and she had no doubts at all that her Stepmother had been the one to kill him.

"Oh, Ferb, I'm so-"

"No." Ferb's eyes snapped open, and Isabella gasped; she'd never seen him so angry. "You have nothing to apologize for. You didn't choose to have the Tradition mess with you, and as far as that goes, even the Tradition was only working with what it was given. The real guilty party is Sacharissa. Even before she became your Stepmother, she was an evil woman, and if we'd known about her we'd probably have tried to stop her. But now—she murdered Dickon, she's trying to murder you, and she nearly succeeded in murdering Phineas. This. Ends. I swear, Isabella, I will devote every last skill and power I've gained in the Loops to making sure she does not harm you, Phineas, or anybody else we can help. I don't say I'll do anything, but whatever I can do without going Dark myself, I. Will. Do."

There was a feeling rather like the mystic equivalent of throwing lighter fluid on hot coals, and Iolanthe looked pained.

"Well, Ferb, the Tradition heard you. Congratulations; you are now Phineas and Isabella's Sworn Champion. And what effect that will have when you Loop out of here, I doubt anyone could say."

Ferb looked up at the place from which Phineas had Fallen, then toward the castle where the Brownies had taken him, then toward Dickon's body. He nodded sharply.

"Totally worth it."

Sacharissa snarled as she felt the backlash from her spell controlling the huntsman's corpse hit her. When had the wench learned magic? And who was that green-haired brat who shimmered with an odd power of his own? She didn't have to ask about the unicorn; of course it would protect the girl, especially against an undead man. She hadn't expected what had happened when its horn pierced the man's chest, but it wasn't entirely surprising, either.

She would have to hide now, regain her strength. She had expected to recoup the energy expended on the huntsman by draining the girl, and it looked like that wouldn't be possible for a while now. After such an attack, they would be on their guard. Well, she could wait. Nobody could identify her. Her Mirror Slave had probably died when she'd destroyed its mirror, and the fool who had once owned the castle hadn't survived her method of gaining his memories of the place. Only they had seen her new form, and they could not tell anyone. Yes, she could afford to wait, and use that new form to her advantage; nobody would connect a half-deer half-human forest spirit with Madame Wellington-Wells, and most would assume she had died in the fire that had consumed the house along with all the other inhabitants.

She drew back into the woods, smiling.

8.8 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

Phineas awoke, finding himself in a nice warm bed in a room that smelled faintly of lavender and woodsmoke. Even without opening his eyes, he knew he wasn't back in Danville; he knew his home bed well enough to know he wasn't in it. Obviously he'd Looped in somewhere else, but at the moment he just didn't feel like getting up to find out where. His Loop memories would kick in soon enough, and in the meantime, the bed was really comfortable. He sunk into a half-doze while he waited.

He would never admit to anybody, not even Ferb or Isabella, that it took him almost ten full minutes to realize that not only was he not getting any new Loop memories, he was in his bed in Castle Bunthorne because he hadn't actually died. When that finally did filter through to his half-asleep brain (that was his story and he was sticking to it), his eyes snapped open and he tried to sit up. It was harder than he expected; not because he hurt, which he wanted an explanation for even if he wasn't complaining, but because he felt like overcooked spaghetti. Eventually he gave up and just looked around his room without trying to overdo it.

The curtains were closed, but the shadows in the room told Phineas that it was night; there were no little pinpricks of light seeping through those curtains. He'd been out for hours. Well, that wasn't surprising. He knew from his studies that magic could heal people almost instantaneously in this Loop, but that it wasn't a total fix. That explained his exhaustion and complete lack of pain, but it didn't explain who did it. None of them had learned spells that advanced yet, and the Brownies didn't have that type of magic. Elena and Alex were hundreds if not thousands of miles away helping Alex's brother, and Iolanthe was dealing with a few minor crises before they became major. Strephon didn't have enough power, even if they'd gotten him here quickly enough to do anything. Daniel and Phyllis had no magic. It made no sense.

A sleepy sigh got his attention and he looked over to see that Ferb was also in his bed, sound asleep. Phineas frowned; his brother looked like he hadn't slept in a couple of days. There were deep shadows under his eyes, he was too pale, and his hair looked like he'd combed it with his fingers if anything. He hadn't looked that bad earlier, and Phineas began to wonder just how long he'd been out. A quick look told him that Isabella wasn't there, which made sense if it was as late as he thought. In a Loop like this, a girl wouldn't be allowed to sit in a boy's room overnight, no matter how badly he was hurt. A look back at Ferb had him debating whether or not to wake him, but Phineas knew he'd have been worried sick and would rather lose sleep than wait a moment longer than necessary. He struggled to raise an arm, noticing that it was getting easier to move, and poked Ferb's shoulder. Ferb's eyes opened immediately.

"You're awake. It's been a day and a half." Ferb, even barely awake, could still read Phineas' mind. "I think Alex must have put me in here; I was in the chair next to the bed."

"Plenty of room, bro; this makes a king bed look like minor nobility. What happened?"

"Sacharissa sent a revenant to attack us. The Godmothers are working on finding out how she knew about the secret passages. Eilyr showed up and took care of it though; purifying magic works well against the undead."

"Makes sense. How am I still alive?"

"When you fell, we ran down to check on you. It seems we almost knocked Daw down the stairs without noticing, and he guessed there was something wrong and sent for Iolanthe."

"Okay. Hope that didn't mess up her other projects."

"She says not. But there's no sign of Sacharissa, so we still have to be careful."

"Yeah, not planning on falling off any parapets again any time soon."

"Good." Ferb looked as grim as he sounded for a second, and Phineas grimaced in apology. It hadn't been fun for him, but it had to have been just as hard on them having to watch it. He put his hand on Ferb's shoulder.

"I'm okay, Ferb." He'd have said more, but a giant yawn prevented him. Ferb's answering yawn was almost as big. "Hey, Ferb, I know what we're going to do tonight."

"Sleep?"

"Sleep."

They settled down close enough that they could reach out and touch each other if they wanted to. Neither consciously thought about it; Phineas wanted to be able to show Ferb that he was still alive in case of nightmares, and Ferb wanted that assurance. But the worry wasn't enough to fight off the exhaustion, and before long both were sleeping soundly.

"Ferb did what."

Phineas' face had absolutely no expression. Isabella could see Ferb's eyes widen slightly, and he started to edge toward the door. Alex, who had already had a talk with Ferb on the subject, reached out and grabbed Ferb's collar without even looking. Iolanthe and Elena were pretending they hadn't seen, but Isabella knew better. Phineas obviously knew better too.

"Nice try, Ferb." Phineas got out of his chair to face his brother, starting to look annoyed. "You know what the Tradition's like and you just hand it an opportunity to mess with you? What were you thinking?"

"Phineas, the revenant she sent after Isabella was Dickon," Ferb said quietly. Phineas froze, color draining from his face as he realized what that meant. Isabelle felt another pang of guilt at that. It wasn't her fault that Sacharissa was an evil psycho, but she couldn't help but think that Dickon might still be alive if he hadn't tried to help her. "I could have thought things through more, but when I saw how far she was willing to go, I thought maybe we could fight Tradition with Tradition. There are any number of stories about brothers swearing to defend their brothers to the death or something less dramatic, and there are as many with happy endings as there are tragedies. And like we keep saying, if it goes wrong, the worst that happens to me is I end up in that Loop with that tiresome purple dinosaur. I thought it was worth the risk."

"..." Phineas sagged. "I guess, but Iolanthe's right, too—what if this lasts past this Loop? If you've sworn to protect both of us, does that mean we'll all three Loop together for the rest of the Loops? I love you, bro, but you know that would get annoying after a while. And... I don't want you to put yourself at that much risk."

"Well," Isabelle said, hoping her logic would work better on him than it had on herself, "he did specify that he was protecting us from Sacharissa, and he also said he'd do anything that wouldn't turn him Dark."

"Yeah, that should help," Phineas said. "If she isn't a Looper from somewhere else we didn't know about, then she might not even exist after this Loop ends. Or you might have created a nemesis for this Loop only. But the thing about not turning Dark was a good idea, I'll give you that."

"Thanks."

It looked like they'd averted a blow-up, which was good. Phineas didn't get mad very often, and when he did, he usually ended up regretting it, even when he'd been in the right. It was one of the things Isabella lo... really liked about him: he was basically a nice guy. Phineas sat again, Ferb sat next to him, and the summing-up continued. Eilyr, who was out searching the nearby woods for Sacharissa, had been delayed by a unicorn hunter. He'd had just enough sense to know that richly dressed maidens weren't likely to be sitting in the middle of a meadow for no reason, and so had stayed far enough away to remain unaffected by her. However, he hadn't been about to let some other unicorn get caught in that trap, so he'd done some hunting of his own before the hunter had decided that the girl had lied about her credentials and struck her, at which point, Eilyr could safely come to the rescue. It had not gone well for the hunter. Elena and Iolanthe had been very busy over the past few days, between Isabella's situation and Alex's brother's, so there was quite a bit to tell.

"—be starting an Order of Champions on Glass Mountain just as in baseline, because it's still a good idea," Elena said. "And no sooner did we get that settled than we got Iolanthe's rather frantic message. We got on Nightsong—Alex's horse, one of the Sons of the East Wind—and came straight here. Almandin beat us here, naturally, and has been searching the area ever since. I do hope he doesn't eat her if he finds her; I'm told he did that once a long time ago."

"Oh, he did," Iolanthe said calmly. "And while it's not a good idea for a Dragon of the Light to go around eating people, there are exceptions to every rule and some people just need to be devoured by dragons. Almandin is an exceptionally good-natured Dragon, but he does have his limits, and that man was truly appalling. I'll not go into detail, my dears, but compared to him, Sacharissa simply isn't in it."

Even the cat bristled at that idea, and Isabella filed under Things She Never Wanted to Know. Elena cleared her throat.

"Well, now that we've got that settled... Randolph talks to other Mirror Servants as a matter of course, and he told me something interesting. Apparently Sacharissa had her own Mirror Slave. The poor thing was bound to stay in his mirror unless she gave him permission to leave, so he got to see something very interesting. The woman is both a Dark Sorceress and a Necromancer, as we feared. She used the deer heart in a ritual, and because it wasn't what she thought it was, the ritual went wrong. Unfortunately, the way in which it went wrong caused something like an explosion of magic, which, well, it didn't exactly blind her Mirror Slave, but that's the closest description I can find to describe it."

"Like having a firework go off right in front of your face," Alex said.

"Yes, like that. So he wasn't able to see exactly what had happened. But he knows she was changed somehow, and that it may have driven her mad. Before he could see clearly, he heard her start laughing, and the first thing she did after that was smash his mirror. That's a dangerous thing to do to a Mirror Slave or Servant. He was lucky to survive. Still, by smashing his mirror, she released him, and he used his remaining strength to find someone to warn. He'll be a long time recovering, I'm afraid. And there's worse news: Isabella, your father's house burned that night, and it was assumed that Sacharissa died with her servants Your father's servants left after you did, so there weren't many left, but there were still people there and she murdered them all. And Lord Reginald, the poet who owned this castle, was found mysteriously dead in Savoy Park two days ago. Iolanthe went to check when she heard, and there were unmistakable signs of Dark Magic."

"Then she killed him too," Isabella shivered. She reminded herself again that this wasn't her fault, but she knew this Loop was going to be figuring in her nightmares for a while. "And I bet before she did, she somehow got all his memories about this place."

"Like secret passages," Ferb nodded.

"Okay, then, we'll just have to learn them all ourselves," Phineas said. "There might be a map of this place somewhere in the Library, and if there isn't, we'll make one. We know where two entrances are, anyway. Well, I know what we're going to do tomorrow. And probably the rest of the month."

"We'll all help," Noll, startling them as he set down a tray full of tea things. "We know some of them, but we've always suspected there were some we hadn't found."

"Hey, thanks, that'll make things easier. And faster. Uh, would it be bad if I put off my magic studies until we're sure of every last inch of this place?" Phineas looked a bit uncertain, but both Elena and Iolanthe shook their heads.

"My dear, under the circumstances, it is completely understandable," the Fae told him. "I would recommend reviewing for a while every day in order not to lose what you've gained, but that can be done when you need a break. Isabella, I'm afraid we won't be allowing you much privacy until this is done, and you won't be allowed in the passages."

"No, of course not," Isabella sighed. She understood, but... "No sense in basically gift-wrapping myself for her. But I still want to help; I can at least look for clues inside, and I can do that with somebody."

"I was thinking you could draw up the big map from all the little ones we'd be making," Phineas said. "You and Ferb could work on that when it's his turn to be bodyguard."

"And I'll be adding a new set of lessons," Alex said with an expression that did not allow for argument. "I'll be teaching you how to defend yourself."

Phineas and Ferb both looked like they were suddenly wishing they weren't so close to Alex, and when Isabella smiled sweetly, they shifted slightly away from the man. After the attack, she'd insisted on adapting her wardrobe to include a sash just like her Fireside Girls sash. In a flash, it was in her hands and she was using it as a whip to snuff the candles on the table without knocking them over. Then she adjusted her angle to snare one of the smoking candles and haul it in front of her. She looked at Alex again, and her smile grew at his gobsmacked expression. Iolanthe looked a bit surprised, and Elena was trying not to giggle.

"...Well." Alex shook his head sharply. "All right then. But how are you at hand-to-hand? Or archery?"

"I'm good at both," she said, understating matters a little. "If it's just about physical strength, yeah, I know I'm in trouble, but I know how to use what I've got."

"I've seen her fight," Phineas said. "Believe me, you do not want to mess with her. She can turn anything into a weapon, even her own cuteness."

"Why do I have a feeling there's a story behind that?" Alex asked.

"Well, when we've got some time, remind me to tell you about our friend Meap..."

8.9 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms] / [My Little Pony]

The mapping went smoothly, with no interruptions. With no sign of Sacharissa anywhere, they began to relax a little and return to their old schedule, with a few additions. Alex insisted on teaching all of them combat skills, or at least on making sure that what they knew would work in this Loop. Elena and Iolanthe would show up with books on Traditions that they thought might pop up. And then there were their own projects which cropped up at random, because even though they were in a mostly medieval setting, they were still Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella and they couldn't resist trying to make life easier and more interesting at the same time. They'd grown out of needing to do it daily, but it was rare for them to go more than a month without congregating in the courtyard (or the great hall if it was raining) and having a good build session. Most of them were just for fun, but a few were quite useful; Alex snagged a copy of the blueprints for their redesigned castle and intended to use them for his Order's chapter house in future Loops.

Their studies, to absolutely nobody's surprise, went well. Isabella found Godmother training to be not that different from what she considered being a proper Fireside Girl, but with magic added to the mix. Phineas treated his Wizard studies the same as any other subject, and he and Ferb frequently went into research frenzies in order to track down the rationale behind some of the rules. Ferb was the one who had the most difficulty, but he had expected that. His skills were a little rusty, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that certain smithing tasks couldn't be done without the proper tools, and either he didn't have them or they were designed for someone considerably larger. The first was an easy fix; he just made a list and gave it to Col. The second... he made a list of those as well and handed it to Col. Given time, he'd grow into them, but he didn't want to wait years to get his skills up to par.

On occasion, Ferb found himself feeling the beginnings of jealousy towards Phineas and Isabella; a little voice whining that they got magic so why didn't he? He always smacked it down as soon as he realized he was thinking it, knowing it was either him being a whiny little brat or the Tradition trying to turn him into the False Brother or some such nonsense. Either way, it was unacceptable. He wasn't going to say he'd never turn on Phineas, because that was just asking for trouble, but it wasn't going to be over something as stupid as that. A different little voice sometimes reminded him that he had actually turned on Phineas once and even tried to kill him, but he answered that by pointing out that being hit with a ray specifically designed to turn people evil was a bit of a mitigating circumstance.

It helped that Phineas and Isabella were also aware of the many ways the Tradition could mess with them and made a point of not letting it. They considered his smithing to be as important as learning magic, and more useful on a day-to-day basis. It was true that every so often one of them would get wrapped up in something and start ignoring the others, but when that happened, the others would give that person a day or two before hauling them out for some forced socialization. Or possibly getting involved in whatever had that one so preoccupied. On one occasion, it had been the Brownies who had hauled all three of them out of the forge because they'd gotten so into creating barding for a unicorn that they'd forgotten to eat all day. That one had been Ferb's fault; he'd wanted Eilyr to have some extra protection.

Eilyr was still around, and probably would be for the whole Loop, since he had also declared himself Isabella's protector. He still became a skitterwit when Isabella was around, but Elena swore he was better than most, and when Isabella wasn't around he turned out to be a good if somewhat pretentious conversationalist. He also had become so accustomed to the boys that he would protect them as well, as they discovered when they got treed by a wild boar while out in the woods. That was the incident that had driven Ferb to designing the barding; Eilyr had not come out of that without injury. They'd enjoyed the roast pork a bit more than usual afterwards.

Four years passed in relative peace and quiet. A Knight came sniffing around once, but left quite graciously after a brief chat; the fact that his hoped-for bride was only 14 and neither a princess nor wealthy might have had something to do with that. A Dark Wizard-wannabe came to challenge Phineas and left a little less graciously after Almandin smiled at him while telling him that Phineas was only there until he could be properly apprenticed to another Wizard, and would he mind waiting a few years, there's a good chap. Ferb noted at the time that a Dragon's smile was remarkably effective, depending on the results you wanted. Nobody came for or challenged Ferb, which was just the way he liked it; there were certain benefits to being a "mere" smith-in-training.

They made occasional visits to Sir Lawrence and Dame Linda, but their parents understood why they spent most of their time away from home. It wasn't quite as good as having them Awake and ready to help, but it was something. Luckily, the Loop had given them a little brother with no signs of magic at all, which meant that they could convince their parents to make him their heir, freeing them up to do what they needed to do.

They mostly enjoyed themselves. Running around a Dragon's Castle and studying all sorts of interesting things was never a bad way to spend a Loop, and they made the most of their chance. The only real shadow was that Sacharissa was never found, and the Tradition was determined to keep Isabella a Snowskin; because of that, Isabella couldn't leave the castle's grounds. It would have been worse if the grounds hadn't covered a few acres, but it was still annoying at times. The Tradition was crowding around her, though, making her an irresistible target, and none of the Danvillians were up to taking on any competent Dark magician yet without using items from their Pockets. That wasn't something they were willing to do until they were a bit more prepared to experiment on how that would work with the Tradition, which they had decided to hold off doing until they were officially Godmother, Wizard, and Dragonsmith.

Isabella's sixteenth birthday was only days away when Ferb noticed she'd become very quiet. Phineas was visiting Godmother Aleksia to help her deal with her latest idiot genius, but Ferb knew that wasn't it. He let her have her space for the first day and through his morning routine, but when she didn't show for lunch, he went looking for her. He found her sitting in one of the formal gardens, a blissed-out Eilyr's head in her lap.

He stopped for a few seconds and looked at her with a critical eye. They'd learned that her age had shielded her from Sacharissa's attempts at using her Mirror Slave to find her those first few times; the Mirror Slave had been given too broad a description, and had deliberately weaseled around the definition of "fairest of them all." He'd pointed his mistress at various icy blondes until she caught on, then chose to use the term "maiden" to describe someone of marriageable age, which Isabella was not. But she was now, by this land's standards. Oh, most girls married older, but it wasn't unheard of for them to wed at fifteen, and nobody would even blink. Different times and cultures and all that. And Ferb knew from his studies that one of the crucial Traditional times was someone's sixteenth birthday. That probably explained Isabella's silence, but he wanted to be sure.

He was just glad that they'd confirmed that wherever Sacharissa was, she hadn't acquired another Mirror Slave. They'd all grown over the years, and Isabella had gone from a pretty child to a beautiful young woman, and Iolanthe had confirmed with her own Mirror Servant that at the moment she was actually the fairest in the land. Isabella had snarked that she was probably the first person in the history of the Multiverse who hoped for an acne attack. She didn't get one, of course; if nothing else, the Tradition wouldn't allow it. She was tall, willowy, graceful, blah blah blah. Raven hair rippling down her back, ivory skin that never seemed to tan any more, deep blue eyes, and red lips that despite everything managed to smile more often than not. He'd fancied her at one point, before the Loops started, but it had never been anything serious and when he'd realized the depth of her feelings for Phineas he simply stopped considering her as a possible future date. Meeting Vanessa Doofenshmirtz had helped with that, but he'd already made up his mind before then.

The annoying voice he'd come to recognize as the Tradition trying to mess with him piped up as he watched, telling him that with Phineas still oblivious, he might have a chance if he played his cards right. He mentally told the Tradition to shut its gob and headed toward her. Eilyr's eyes snapped open, but closed again when he recognized Ferb.

"Hey, Ferb," Isabella said quietly. "Sorry I've been a little mopey lately. I just want this birthday over with so we can get on with our lives."

"Well, who could blame you? Don't take this wrong, but I'm hoping Sacharissa doesn't decide to wait until you're eighteen."

"I will wait as long as necessary to face the foul Sorceress," Eilyr said. "But it would be better for Isabella to have her dealt with with alacrity."

"Yeah. Oh, I've decided on my Godmother identity finally; I'm going to be the Snapdragon Fairy. I figured if I'm going to stay living with Almandin—which I am even if we do take care of my Stepmother—I should go for something dragonish."

"Makes sense." They'd all grown quite fond of the Dragon, and were working on ways to tweak the Tradition so they could all live with him. "Phineas will be home in time; he promised. Pinkie Promised, even."

Isabella giggled at that, remembering the look on Elena's face when he'd done so and again when he'd explained.

"The best part was when he said The Line, and Pinkie popped her head out of the fireplace to say 'FOREVER'. How does she do that?"

"That is one question I'm not sure I want answered," Ferb said. "I'm not sure even the Admins know how she does what she does. Just think of her as a less creepy Giant Floating Baby Head. No, on second thought, don't."

"Thanks, Ferb," Isabella deadpanned. "I'm blaming you for tonight's nightmares."

"Fair enough."

"Maiden, what is this Pinkie Promise? Is it an unbreakable vow? Is The Line part of the ritual? Would taking this vow aid in protecting you?"

Isabella looked at Ferb. Ferb looked at Isabella.

"You explain," they chorused, pointing at each other.

Whether it was the Pinkie Promise or not, Phineas was back in the castle the morning of Isabella's birthday. He didn't know how Godmother Aleksia did it; he was a pretty easy-going guy, but that jerk Hans could make a Quaker dope-slap him. He couldn't understand guys like that; what was the point of coming up with a cool new invention if you couldn't work on it with your friends? On the plus side, that Mage-Smith who'd been visiting was pretty cool, and had agreed to come visit them and work with Ferb for a while.

He still felt a little bad that Ferb hadn't been able to do the heavy-duty magic along with them this Loop, but not as often as he used to. After all, Ferb didn't care, so why should he? Besides, smithing was just as cool as Wizarding as far as Phineas was concerned. And it sure beat being in Isabella's position. He hadn't missed that she'd gotten quitter over the past few weeks, and he couldn't blame her. It had to be hard knowing that someone out there wanted to kill you just so they could get your magic, and that they were so determined that they'd kill anyone in their way. That kind of thing didn't happen in Danville, and knowing that there were places where it was a thing was one of the biggest downsides of the Loops.

After he'd poked his head in to say hello to Almandin, he headed toward the rose garden. It was one of Isabella's favorite places, and he hoped to set up her present there. He hoped she'd like it; he'd worked on it with Elena for a month.

"Hey, Phineas, what'cha doin'?"

"Oh, hi, Isabella, I—whoa." Whatever Phineas was going to say was driven completely out his mind as he looked at his friend. She was dressed in a crimson gown that clung gently to her figure, with her usual sash across her, um, well, her.... Phineas knew his face was as red as his hair as he tried not to follow the curve of the sash with his eyes. They weren't often in Loops together when they had a chance to grow up, but Isabella always liked to tease him like this when they were. He made a deliberate effort not to think about any reasons why, because no matter how old they got in other Loops, in baseline they were still less than fifteen. He didn't want to start anything they wouldn't be able to continue back home. "Uh, nice dress."

"Distracting, isn't it?" The change in voice warned him, but not in time. He tried not to breathe as the cloud of powder settles around him, but it didn't help; he felt himself freeze in place as the fake Isabella walked around him. "Typical male; show them a girl in a flattering gown and they stop thinking. So very useful to me, though, so I shouldn't complain. Now, here are your orders..."

He found himself a passenger in his own body, forced to watch as he headed for the herb garden. Isabella was there, not dressed up yet, but still beautiful. The force in control stopped and cleared his throat, giving Isabella a shy smile.

"Hey, Isabella, I got you something." Of course it was an apple. What else could it be? He tried to break free of Sacharissa's control, hoped that Isabella would be warned by the mere presence of the apple, but either Isabella was not paying as much attention as she should be or the Tradition was making her hold the Idiot Ball. She took it with a blush and an answering smile and bit into it. Seconds later, her eyes widened as the apple did its work. The horrified look in her eyes almost gave him the strength to break free, but not quite.

"Phineas? What did she-" and Isabella slumped to the ground. That was Sacharissa's cue, and she dropped her invisibility spell, laughing like the demented harpy she was. The Dark Sorceress scooped up her unconscious victim and disappeared again, leaving Phineas trapped until her spell wore off.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. He had just enough time to see cold blue eyes under a thatch of green hair before Ferb's punch knocked him sprawling. Even if he could have blocked it, he wouldn't have. He'd blown it again.

"Get up." Ferb hadn't sounded that cold when talking to him since the Darth Ferb thing, but this time there was no –inator to blame for it. Just him. "What the hell were you thinking? An apple? Today? What did you think was going to happen? If Isabella dies because you thought you'd be clever, I will never forgive you. I don't care if she'll be fine in her next Loop. Now get up so we can start fixing your mess."

He tried, but the spell still wouldn't let him go. Ferb growled and hauled him up, looking like he was ready to punch him again, but instead just dragged him to the library and tossed him down in front of Almandin.

"Oh, I say, what's all this in aid of?"

"Sacharissa has Isabella, and this idiot is the one who let her do it."

"WHAT?!?" Almandin surged to his feet and bent low over Phineas. He saw smoke curling out of the Dragon's nostrils and he knew he was going to die. Almandin took a deep breath, and Phineas wondered how much it was going to hurt.

8.10 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

Ferb stepped forward, horrified. Okay, he was furious at his brother for doing something so thoughtless, but that didn't mean he wanted to see him get flamed or eaten by a Dragon. He only stopped when he realized that Almandin had done the same and was staring at Phineas, eyes narrowed.

"Hang about; that's not right," Almandin grumbled, leaning down to look closer. Phineas wasn't moving. Or talking. In fact, now that Ferb thought about it, Phineas hadn't done anything on his own since handing Isabella that apple. He wished he'd been close enough and at the right angle to have seen exactly what happened even if he couldn't stop it; all he knew for certain was that the second Isabella, the one in the red dress, had to be Sacharissa. Almandin raised his head again and roared for Col, who came running.

"Sent for the Godmothers already. Lad's got a spell on him, no doubt. Must have walked right into the Stepmother's trap, though how he managed without leaving the castle I'm sure I can't say. We took care of every way in we found, and there's no way she got in through any of them."

"Then she bloody well found a way we didn't know about, didn't she? Start searching all of the passages, even—no, especially the ones we thought were too dangerous to use. Ferb, you go too. I'll deal with Phineas."

Ferb hesitated for a second, then left, hoping Phineas would still be alive later to be yelled at again. He must have left the castle at some point; there was no way Sacharissa could have gotten inside the castle without help and her magic wouldn't have worked on most of the people living there. How could he have been so stupid? And Isabella wouldn't have taken the apple from anyone but Phineas; it would never occur to her that Phineas would put her at risk. Well, not beyond what they faced in Danville, but despite what Candace seemed to think, they did take precautions when building their creations, and Phineas was as careful about that as Ferb. More, actually; Ferb had managed to get hurt a few times, but mostly because he'd been the one to flake on something. Like smacking himself in the head with a wrench, or sitting on a box with a lid that popped even though he'd been the one to build the thing. Phineas might act more scattered, but he usually had more sense than that. Had the Tradition blindsided him?

Ferb continued to think about it as he searched and the more he thought, the more that idea made sense. Even the Godmothers could get caught by the Tradition sometimes, and they were more used to it. It had become more and more obvious that the Tradition wanted Isabella to be a Snowskin; Isabella's sudden inability to maintain a tan over the last year was proof enough of that. And then there was her beauty, which had been growing exponentially. Isabella was pretty enough in baseline, but here she had become absolutely stunning; the fairest of them all, when you got down to it. If the Tradition could do that, how hard would it have been for it to make Phineas screw up so spectacularly? The Tradition, Ferb thought for the nth time, was a cheating bastard.

Something landed on his shoulder with a full load of claws and Ferb yelped. He was about to fight when a familiar voice hissed in his ear.

"Stupid twolegs! Stupid lizard! Why won't you listen?" It was the cat, and she was not happy. Ferb stopped, bracing himself so that she wouldn't slide off.

"Listen to what?"

"The only one who saw what happened and tried to get stupid people's attention before Badwitch took Softhands. Lizard won't listen, Fae won't listen, you won't listen! Be better off with dogs!"

"I'm listening now. What happened?"

"Longlegs went to the rose garden to set up a surprise for Softhands. Softhands came up behind him, but it wasn't really her. She smelled wrong, like blood and death. And deer, for some reason. Longlegs wasn't expecting her, and was surprised himself. Then false Softhands threw smelly powder on him and he couldn't move. She started giving orders and I went to get help but NOBODY LISTENED!!!" The cat's claws dug in as she screeched directly into his ear; he wasn't sure which was more likely to be bleeding afterwards. Then what she said filtered through.

"Wait—she was already in the castle when she got Phineas? How?"

"How would I know? If she was a cat, that would be answer enough, but you lot do things no sensible cat would try and don't do the things that do make sense. Now are you going to tell Lizard before he eats Longlegs? I like Longlegs; he gives me tasty things."

"So do I."

"Yes, but you're being stupid right now, and I don't like stupid."

"...I really wish I could argue that. Right, let's go." Ferb turned and headed back to the library feeling sick. He'd been angry with Phineas for screwing up, but he was beginning to suspect he'd done much worse, and without even having the Tradition for an excuse. He could hardly blame Phineas for being blindsided inside the castle, and not just on the grounds, but within the walls. Even now he had a hard time believing Sacharissa could have gotten in undetected, but the cat didn't lie. Which mean that he had just said some really awful things to Phineas for doing something he hadn't done or couldn't control. Knowing Phineas would forgive him just made it worse; he'd turned on his brother without even considering why Phineas would have acted that way.

He reached the library and entered without knocking, not surprised to find Iolanthe and Elena both standing over Phineas, who was still in the exact same position he'd landed in when Ferb had dropped him. Almandin watched them, still smoking more than usual.

"—still a ruddy idiot to leave the grounds. I told him nobody was to leave the walls today, and I meant it."

"He didn't." Ferb said, but they didn't seem to hear him.

"Believe me, I'll be talking to him about that," Elena said, a dangerous tone in her voice. "Even if the Tradition was getting after him, he should know enough by now to have figured out that's what it was. This is making me seriously wonder if we should allow him to continue training as a Wizard."

"Oh, my dear, it could be worse than that," Iolanthe sighed. "If he's lost us a promising young Godmother, we'll be lucky if my Queen stops at draining his magic. She may be merciful because of his youth, but considering she nearly executed me just for marrying Daniel-"

"No," Ferb gasped, staggering. The cat hissed, digging her claws in again, but still neither Dragon nor Godmothers noticed them.

"—I really wouldn't care to take a chance on that. Almandin, have you had any luck at gathering others to help us?"

"Devil a bit, when have I had time? Brownies are all out searching, Eilyr's half out of his what wits he had—had a job keeping him from skewering the young idiot on the spot, I tell you—and the few Wise Beasts we have are nowhere to be found."

"They're out searching too, stupid Lizard," the cat grumbled, also going unheard.

"Well, the important thing now is to get Isabella back. Sacharissa won't do anything until midnight, which gives us a few hours, but we have to find her." Elena shook her head.

"Well, there is one way that might work," Iolanthe mused. "He's under her spell, and we might be able to use that to track her. Use him as a compass."

"That's pretty dangerous," Elena said. "If he's still under her control when we find her, she could use him against us or just kill him."

"If she does the first, we'll stop him by whatever means necessary. If it's the second, well..." Iolanthe shrugged. "You know what the Fae consider justice. He might be better off if she does kill him."

"No." This time they heard him and turned. Iolanthe frowned and started to open her mouth, but Ferb silenced her with a glare. "You are not using Phineas like that, and if your precious Queen wants him, she has to go through me. You lot aren't too fond of Cold Iron, are you? Care to see how well you do against a smith with I don't know how many Loops worth of experience? If she hurts him, I'll spend the rest of this Loop making her pay, and if she kills him, then you've just declared war."

"Weren't you ready to let me roast him less than an hour ago?" Almandin blinked.

"No. Besides, I was wrong. I should have trusted Phineas, and that's what will really put Isabella at risk. If I hadn't lost my temper, we'd be over an hour ahead of where we are now." Ferb took the cat off his shoulder and put her on the table. "Now tell them what you told me."

She did. After what he'd just heard, it was gratifying to see the Godmothers turn pale and Almandin look as horrified as Ferb felt. The cat wasn't too impressed with any of them at the moment and wasn't shy about letting them know it. There are few living things that can deflate an ego like an unimpressed cat, and that was when they couldn't speak the same language. By the time she was finished, all of them felt like the biggest idiots in the history of a very stupid people.

"So are you going to take the spell off Longlegs or not?" the cat finished. Iolanthe was looking a bit shell-shocked; Ferb was willing to bet she'd never been dressed down by a cat before. Elena, on the other hand, twitched a little and raised her wand.

"Yes. I'm almost certain what spell she used, but give me a few more minutes to be sure. Iolanthe, you haven't told your Queen about this yet, have you? You did wait until you had all the information?"

"I didn't, but Fleta was visiting and while I told her not to go running off, you know what a gossip she is. She might be too distracted by Phyllis being expecting again, and I wouldn't put it past Phyllis to play that up; you know how fond she is of the boys."

"Go check, and if she's gone, go straight to your queen and make sure she hears what we just did. Cat—I do wish you'd let us give you a name-"

"Why? I'd just ignore it. But I'll go with her. And if that Queen won't listen, I'll scratch her wings off."

"She doesn't have—oh, never mind. Come along, cat." Iolanthe hurried off, staying far enough ahead to keep the cat from jumping on her shoulders. Elena turned back to Phineas and studied him, then looked at Ferb.

"I need you to go to the stillroom and fetch me small bunches of pine, thyme, snowdrop, rue, white pinks, mugwort, and most especially coltsfoot. Oh, and sumac. Fresh is best, dried if necessary, and a tincture will do in a pinch, which this certainly is," she said. "I can only hope he's been unaware of what's going on, or he may never forgive us. And at the moment, I'm not sure he wouldn't be in the right."

Ferb ran. It didn't take him long to find what they needed; the stillroom shelves were meticulously organized. He swept the items into a basket and got back to the library as quickly as he could. Elena had set up a small silver brazier next to Phineas, and Almandin was just spitting out a tiny spark to light the coals underneath. She nodded at him and grabbed the basket without a word, getting straight to work. She muttered under her breath constantly, sometimes drawing in the air, sometimes on Phineas, which made Ferb twitch every time it happened. She only stopped to drop something into the brazier, and before long the library was more full of smoke than the small amount of fuel justified. It wasn't hard to tell when the spell ended, though; as soon as she dropped in the last bit of sumac, there was a soft whumph and the smoke suddenly cleared.

Phineas sagged, moaning softly. Ferb hesitated for a moment, wondering if Phineas would even want to see him, until he saw his brother shivering. Within seconds he was on the floor, holding Phineas, babbling apologies. Phineas didn't respond, and after a few minutes slumped even further. For one terrified heartbeat Ferb thought that breaking the spell had killed him before he realized Phineas had just passed out. He looked up at Elena, who he wasn't surprised to see had tears in her eyes.

"He was awake for all of it, wasn't he?" he asked, voice shaking. Elena just nodded. Ferb closed his own eyes, wincing. It was Almandin who summed up what they were all thinking.

"Well, bugger."

8.6-8.10: And the adventure continues.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-28. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

8.11 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

At the moment, Elena rather wished she was the type to throw tantrums; it would be a great comfort to scream and throw breakable objects against a wall. Alex was busy fighting a Dragon who had started laying waste to the border of Acadia, and unlike the last time this had happened, the Dragon was doing it of his own volition. Calling in other Godmothers before they cleared Phineas was a Bad Idea, and it would have to be Iolanthe who did that anyway. Phineas was out of commission, and Ferb wasn't in much better shape. Which meant it was going to be up to her, Almandin, and Eilyr to rescue Isabella, if they could even find her in time.

She could feel the Tradition at work, which only added to her stress. Falsely Accused for certain, although she doubted they'd have to worry about one of the usual outcomes of that; the boys' culture didn't place honor (which in this case really meant reputation) over one's life, so suicide to restore one's honor was unlikely. Brother Against Brother, yes and no; Ferb had come around more quickly than most, and was actively working to atone for his lack of trust. There were others at work as well, but there was too much that needed doing to count them.

She was about to make a quick dash back to her own cottage to grab a few supplies when to her surprise Phineas moaned again; he was waking up. She knelt by him and Ferb, watching closely. Phineas' eyes fluttered open, and she could see the exact moment he remembered how he got there. He pushed away from Ferb and struggled to his feet, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"How long has it been?" he asked, voice rough.

"Almost two hours. Do you know how Sacharissa got in?" Elena asked in turn.

"No. How soon are we leaving to get Isabella back."

"Er, we rather need to find her first," Almandin said. Phineas just shook his head and took a device out of his pocket.

"Done. She's still got her phone; whatever else Sacharissa's done, she didn't search her for anything. And the readings say she's asleep, which I guess is close enough; they're not really designed for assessing the effects of magic. Have to fix that next time we're in a Loop with a high enough tech level." His voice had gotten stronger, but was still oddly flat; if Elena were to hazard a guess, she would say he was in shock. She was debating the wisdom of casting a sleep spell on him to keep him out of the upcoming battle when Col rushed back in.

"The daft old cow came in through the old cavern that you can reach through the well by the rose garden. We never thought to guard that one because of all the sinkholes—there's one in there no human could jump across and it fills the cavern from side to side, so she couldn't have walked around it either. And there's neither rope nor ladder in the well, so how she got up is anyone's guess."

"Free-climbing," Phineas said. "Ferb and I could do it. So could Isabella. But that's not how she left."

"No, she used a spell for that; it's how we knew something was up. You ready for a fight like this, lad? Control spells can take it out of a body."

"Isabella's in trouble." It was all the answer that was needed. Col nodded and walked off, with a purpose clearly in mind that he wasn't bothering to share. Almandin sighed, blowing all the papers and most of the books off the tables.

"Phineas, once this is over I promise you a ruddy great apology, but for the moment, I rather wish you'd sit this one out. Despite my recent bone-headedness, I do trust you, but you can barely stand right now. I'd rather grovel in front of you, not your grave. And if you get yourself killed, I'll see to it you have the most embarrassingly heroic grave this country had ever seen, and that's going some."

Phineas made a sound that might have been a quiet laugh; Elena hoped it was. Phineas was running on sheer determination, she knew. But she also knew if she didn't bespell him, he wouldn't let go until either Isabella was safe or he was dead. She was strongly tempted to do it, and at the same time she couldn't help but feel he should have the chance to fight Sacharissa. Twice now he'd been taken down without a chance to strike back, and she honestly couldn't blame him for either one. It was almost as though Fate had decided to go out of its way to make his life difficult, perhaps because he was both gifted and genuinely nice and it felt it had to balance the scales somehow.

"Good, you're still here." Everyone looked up to see Strephon striding in, face grim. "Mother sent me; the Queen's on a tear. She's planning on amassing an army to retrieve Isabella's body—she won't even bother checking to see if she's still alive—and then she's coming here to insist Almandin hand Phineas over. Fleta got to her first, and all the Queen heard is that a Godmother's Apprentice has fallen into the hands of a Necromancer. Oh, she'll regret any hasty actions later, but that's not much consolation when you're the one she's been hasty at. Mother's staying on to try to talk her down; she's usually the only one who can when she's in a mood. Oh, and she has learned one thing: Sacharissa's allied herself with a group of rogue dwarfs. Guess how many."

"Then we have to move quickly," Elena said. "Phineas, do you have a plan? Mine is mostly go in, I fight a magical duel with Sacharissa, and you free Isabella, but the dwarfs could make that considerably more difficult."

"I've got a plan. We'll use Ferb's and my phones to track Isabella, and I was kinda hoping you'd take Sacharissa 'cause I know I'm not up to it. And the dwarfs? If they're armored, Ferb and I are ready for that, and if they aren't, well, Ferb and I can handle them if Almandin doesn't beat us to it. I don't mind if you do, since I'm going to focus on getting to Isabella."

"And I shall ensure that you do not have a second chance to betray her," Eilyr said, striding in. "Why is the knave still alive?"

"Eilyr, shut it," Ferb said.

"Why do you defend him? The maiden was-"

"I. Said. Shut. Up." Ferb gave Eilyr a glare almost as impressive as Almandin's. The unicorn opened his mouth for a second before closing it with an audible snap. "Right. We haven't much time. I need to get a few things from the forge. Don't leave without me."

"And I need a few minutes myself, but I shouldn't be too long," Elena said. "Less than half an hour. Then we must leave if we want to rescue Isabella before the Queen gets her killed."

She and Ferb left together, Ferb heading for his forge, Elena for the mirror she used to travel. Ten minutes to change into an outfit the Tradition would recognize as a Godmother, which was essential if she wanted a chance against a known Necromancer; ten to warn various allies of what was about to happen; five to grab the wand she favored for battles along with the kit she kept ready for when that wand was needed. By the time she returned, the others had done the same. A Wizard-in-training, a smith, a unicorn, a Dragon, and a Godmother. Well, if anything was going to invoke the Unlikely Allies Traditional Path, this certainly ought to. She hoped it would; they were going to need all the help they could get.

Phineas had felt slightly detached from everything from the moment he awoke, and it didn't seem as though that was going to change any time soon. He supposed he should be worried about it, but he wasn't. If nothing else, it was keeping Eilyr's open contempt from hurting as much as it should.

Strephon had headed back as soon as he'd warned them, in order to give his mother plausible deniability. It was just as well; he was a good friend, but he wasn't a fighter, and if he came along he'd probably get himself killed. That would be bad on many levels. He had given them one bit of good news, though: Daniel was checking his own library for anything that could help. Since Daniel was the one who'd figured out a way to allow Fae and mortals to wed in this Queen's jurisdiction, Phineas had actually felt a small twinge of hope.

Col had returned with Phineas' staff and an outfit that he insisted was just the thing for a Wizard battling Dark forces. It was a little Ben Kenobi-ish, but if it helped Phineas wasn't going to complain. Ferb had produced leather and iron bracers for their forearms; he'd had them ready in case they ran into some of the hostile Fae, like the cabyll-ushtey that had tried to set up shop in the ornamental pond. Almandin had dealt with that one, and Phineas still wished he hadn't been told that it tasted like soggy burnt goat.

Ferb wasn't meeting his eyes, and that did hurt. He was almost sure it was because Ferb felt bad about punching him and not trusting him, but a small part of him was afraid that Ferb still hated him for letting this happen. He could hardly blame Ferb if that was the case; he knew perfectly well that he was going to spend the rest of this Loop and probably beyond hating himself for it.

He was angry that none of them had wondered how Sacharissa got to him, and that they had all assumed that he'd left the castle walls against orders. Iolanthe at least had pointed out that it could have been a bout of Tradition-induced stupidity, which he had to admit wasn't impossible, but everyone else seemed to think he'd done to show off or something. Even Ferb. And Eilyr now believed that he'd been Sacharissa's spy all along. How could they think he'd have put Isabella at risk like that? And if the cat hadn't seen everything, what would they have done with him? How could he trust any of them not to turn on him again?

He was distracted from this line of thought by Elena's return. She had also changed her outfit, and was more intimidating looking than a blue-eyed blonde in a pink dress had any right to be. With her arrival, everyone was there who was going to take part in the rescue, and they had no time to waste. If Iolanthe's Queen struck first, there would be no chance of rescuing Isabella; they had to leave immediately.

"Okay, so Godmother Elena tackles Sacharissa and the rest of us take on the dwarfs," Phineas said. "They might not be her only allies, though, so don't drop your guard. Isabella won't be happy if we get ourselves killed, and if we get ourselves killed 'cause we weren't paying attention near a Necromancer, well, don't think being dead will save you from her. Our friend Baljeet learned that the hard way. But Isabella's safety is the most important thing."

Zorah bustled in just then, holding something in her hands. As she drew nearer, Phineas recognized the items: Isabella's favorite wand, and her unicorn-hair necklace. He looked at the silver clasp Ferb had made for it, but it didn't look broken, so why hadn't she been wearing it?

"The poor dear will be wanting these," Zorah said. "Now don't you bother her about forgetting to put her necklace back on after she washed her hair last night, either; I dare say she'll have enough on her mind. I blame that Tradition, if you ask me."

"I can't think of a better reason," Ferb agreed. "She's not taken that off for more than a few minutes since I first made that clasp. Since the first day, the Tradition has been railroading—sorry, term from our world—it's been determined Isabella would be on that Path no matter what we did, and it certainly hasn't been shy about cheating to make sure. So I say we do some cheating ourselves."

He reached into his pocket and drew out a silver cylinder. Phineas almost smiled when he recognized his brother's lightsaber; he'd planned on using the phaser he'd snagged during that stint on DS9. It had been a depressing Loop, but the tech was pretty sweet. And non-lethal, which was still important to him. Nobody could Loop forever without eventually winding up in a situation where killing someone just couldn't be avoided, but he still wouldn't if there was any alternative. He planned to stun the rogue dwarfs and turn them over to their people, and Ferb mostly agreed. Granted, it wouldn't be doing the rogue dwarfs any favors, from what he'd heard of Dwarvish justice, but sometimes a shaky rationalization was all you had.

He took both wand and necklace from Zorah, and a small part of him felt mean-spiritedly satisfied at the look of shock on Eilyr's face as he did. Hopefully it would get the unicorn thinking clearly; after all, he'd been the one to tell them that it was supposed to ward off evil. One way or another, he would get these to Isabella so she could help rescue herself. Isabella just didn't do Distressed Damsel with any amount of patience, and he couldn't blame her. There were few things more frustrating than being useless, and fewer more horrifying than being helpless, as his impending nightmares were going to be reminding him.

"Thanks, Zorah. I'll make sure there are in her hands as soon as possible. Okay, now, judging by the tracker, she's about three hours' walk from here, in that stone circle—yeah, we probably should have seen that coming. Eilyr, Almandin can't carry you, but-"

"I'll go with Eilyr," Elena said. "My All Paths Are One spell should get us there as quickly as you can fly. Quicker, actually, but I don't want to warn her by using a spell that close. You three go your way, we'll go ours, and we can get her in a two-pronged attack. That should take her by surprise."

"Good." Phineas nodded, then froze as he saw what his screen read. "Isabella's awake. We gotta go now. Be careful, you two."

"You be careful too, Phineas. I agree with Almandin; I'd rather apologize to your face than your grave."

Godmother and unicorn left quickly, and Phineas could feel the magic building before she got out of range. Almandin headed for the courtyard, Phineas and Ferb behind him.

"Well, here's a how-de-do! Fight off the Necromancer's forces to rescue my Maiden, then fight off the Fairy Queen's forces to rescue my Wizard. Heigh-ho, but it's a wonder I don't start shedding scales from all this."

Almandin complained all the way out to the courtyard, which was a relief; if the Dragon had been really worried, he'd have been quiet. And... he'd called Phineas his Wizard. It didn't lay all doubts to rest, but it did help. A lot. He just wish he could be as sure of Ferb's forgiveness. But they were in the courtyard, and Almandin crouched down to make it easier for them to climb onto his back. Phineas went first and reached down a hand for Ferb.

"Well, Ferb, I know what we're going to do today."

For the first time since he'd been hit by Sacharissa's spell, Ferb met his gaze squarely. Phineas saw shame, even grief, in his brother's eyes, but they disappeared behind firm resolve.

"Yes. Yes, you do."

And Ferb grasped Phineas' hand and let himself get hauled onto Almandin's back. The Dragon leapt into the air, and the rescue was on.

8.12 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

Isabella awoke and immediately wished she hadn't. A semi-washed face with the nastiest teeth she'd ever seen was bending over her, and she couldn't get away from it. Something, probably a spell, kept her frozen. It was just as well, because if she could move she'd kick herself for forgetting her necklace; if she'd been wearing it, that apple would have had no effect and she'd have had a little chance to fight off Sacharissa, maybe even keep her busy long enough for Almandin to get there. She might even have been able to beat her, if she'd used the right combination of Godmother magic and Loop experience. She also might have been able to help Phineas.

Despite the whole deranged-Necromancer-wants-to-kill-her thing, it was Phineas she was most worried about. That evil witch—as it were—had done something to him. She'd been too lost in PhineasLand to notice his glassy eyes at first, or how still he was after giving her the apple, but she had noticed after a while. It would have been nice if she'd noticed before biting into the apple, but whatever. What mattered now was finding a way to break the spell on her, escape, break whatever spell was on Phineas, and then deal with Sacharissa. Anything else could wait, including the seriously sketchy dwarfs muttering around the clearing Their usual rule was to stick to in-Loop skills and powers unless there was an emergency; she'd be willing to bet this qualified. All bets were now officially off... once she was able to move again.

"So, the precious Snowskin is awake," Sacharissa purred. Isabella found she had just enough control to be able to roll her eyes. "You've led me a merry dance, but you'll not escape me now, and that gawky Wizard of yours is no doubt getting the blame for allowing me to take you as we speak. That will distract them long enough for me to perform the ritual properly this time. I'm surprised you all made it so easy for me; did you really think a few sinkholes constituted a barrier to one with my power? Or the lack of a ladder in the well? The hardest part was in creating a disguise that would fool people for just long enough; a few seconds was all I needed to get your swain under my control, after all."

Definitely just as well she couldn't move at the moment, because she was very tempted to use some of the ruder gestures she'd learned from Spike that time she replaced Cordelia in Sunnydale. She could see Sacharissa, still in the trampy red dress she'd worn earlier. (Okay, so it was a copy of one of her good dresses; since Sacharissa was wearing it, it was trampy.) Yeah, no doubt Phineas hadn't noticed anything wrong in time.

"I must say, it was good of the Tradition to provide me with seven dwarfs to keep guard over you until it's time to play your part. Saves me creating any more servants; that fool of a huntsman cost me a great deal of energy. If I'd known you had a unicorn... well, that silvery sycophant can't help you now, can he? Now shall I tell you what's in store for you? I'm afraid it won't be very pleasant. You see, for this ritual, I need your blood as well as your heart, and I need them while they are still fresh. That should break my curse and remake me in your image, and then I can return and lay claim to your inheritance as well as all your power. It's only the beginning of my plan, of course, but I'm sure you don't need to know how I will use your face and form to ensnare the Crown Prince and eventually take over the kingdom. I will be supremely powerful, and all shall worship my beauty even as they tremble at my wrath!"

She'd either forgotten how much of a drama queen her Stepmother was or the woman had gotten a lot worse over the years. It was hard to be properly afraid for one's life and soul when the person threatening her sounded even more ridiculous than Doofenshmirtz. She wished she could ask if the woman planned to take over the entire Tri-Kingdom area, but it would have gone over Sacharissa's head anyway.

"Now, you lot, take her and chain her to that flat stone there and be quick about it. Take any liberties and I'll skin you alive."

Isabella suspected that wasn't an empty threat. Sacharissa was a melodramatic psycho with delusions of grandeur, but she was also a vicious crazy; what had happened to Dickon was proof of that. The dwarfs hauled her to the stone and chained her in place, which is when the spell freezing her wore off.

"Nice Traditional villain rant," she said. "I don't think you missed a single cliché."

"Insolent child! How dare you mock me?"

"I stand corrected. Or lie. Lay? Whatever."

"I will enjoy carving your still-beating heart out of your chest and devouring it as you watch, little fool."

"Okay, one: ew. And two, another line like that and I'll have filled my Evil Overlord Quote card. One more and I win."

"I think not. You have lost everything, and I stand triumphant as is my destiny!"

"That's Bingo!" And Phineas literally dropped out of the sky to stand between Isabella and Sacharissa. Isabella suddenly realized she'd been hearing the sound of great wings but not noticing it over Sacharissa's blather; they must not be too far from the castle. "Let Isabella go and we'll make it as painless as possible."

"Why aren't you dead? They should have slain you on the spot when they found you there and the girl missing!"

"Uh, hello, good guys here? And magic types? You think they wouldn't notice a big honking spell on me?"

"Er, actually, we bloody well didn't... and you didn't want me to tell her that, did you. Sorry. Now would you be a good Necromancer and drop the illusion? I'd really rather not roast someone who looks like my Maiden; it's bad form, don't you know."

"You wouldn't dare," Sacharissa laughed. "We're too close together; you'd never be able to hit me without also risking your precious children."

"Besides, fighting her is my job," Elena said, appearing from behind one of the standing stones. Eilyr was beside her, looking like he had the day he'd faced the cabyll-ushtey and held it off until Almandin could take care of it. "I am Godmother Elena, and I challenge you. Face me in mystic combat or surrender. Or try to run and get eaten by Almandin; it's not Traditional, but I won't lose any sleep over it."

"You think you can defeat me? Very well. I shall add your power to the girl's and your Wizardling. Dwarfs, avoid the dragon, kill the green-haired oaf and the unicorn, but restrain the Wizard. All right, Godmother, fight me and perish."

Isabella couldn't see her Stepmother because Phineas was in the way, but she saw the bolt of sickly green light race towards Elena. It was deflected into a tree and the duel was on. Eilyr suddenly loomed over her, having shoved Phineas out of the way. It hadn't been accidental, either, and Isabella glared at the unicorn. He didn't seem to notice, focusing instead on trying to open the locks with his horn. Ferb was working on another lock, and Phineas was looking over his shoulder while sustaining a shield that the dwarfs were hammering on when they weren't dodging swipes from Almandin's claws.

"They're dwarf-forged, aren't they," he asked. Eilyr ignored him, continuing to attack the chains, but Ferb put his down and nodded. "Okay, then, we'll just convince them to unlock them."

"And if they do your bidding, that will be proof-"

"Eilyr." Ferb only said the one word, but the unicorn flinched and quieted down. Phineas looked a little annoyed, which wasn't a good sign.

"Hey, Almandin," Phineas called as loudly as he could. "You haven't eaten any of them yet, have you?"

"Not yet. Dodgy little buggers, in every sense of the word. Why?"

"One of them has the key for Isabella's chains. And whichever one does is going to come here and unlock them."

"Why would we do a damn fool thing like that?" a dwarf snarled. All expression drained from Phineas' face as he turned to face the one who spoke. The shield disappeared, Phineas raised a hand, and the mouthy dwarf found himself floating ten feet in the air. It wasn't magic, though; Phineas was using the Force.

"Next question?" Another dwarf tried to sneak up on Phineas, but before Isabella could warn him, the second dwarf joined the first. "Okay, see, that wasn't too bright. But I believe in second chances, so here's what I'll do: you unlock Isabella's chains and just walk away, and you get to live. It's a pretty sweet deal, considering what'll happen otherwise."

Yeah, she could have guessed that Phineas would be mad. She just hoped the dwarfs were smart enough not to make things worse. The two that were floating didn't seem to be, judging from their language, but the dirtiest of the lot stepped forward.

"We's all got 'em, an' I ain't dyin' for th' likes o' that one," he said. The other dwarfs tried to attack him, but he was too fast for them. As he approached them, Phineas kept one eye on the dwarfs and one eye on Isabella. Eilyr reluctantly stood to one side, as did Ferb, but not before Ferb made sure of him.

"Try anything clever and you'll wish we let the dragon eat you."

Again, not bluffing. The dwarf flinched and unlocked her as quickly as was humanly (dwarfly?) possible, then ran for his life. Phineas dropped his two dwarfs on top of the remaining four and turned to her. Reaching into his Pocket, he drew out her necklace and the wand she usually used. The wand he just handed over, but he stepped closer to her and very carefully placed the necklace around her neck, even managing the clasp without pulling her hair. Ignoring the sounds of combat behind them, he looked into her eyes worriedly.

"Um, are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they? You know, other than the kidnapping and chaining you to a stone altar, I mean."

"I'm fine," she said, smiling. The smile faded as she noticed the large bruise on one cheek. She reached out and touched it lightly, eyes narrowed. "Who did that?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, it's... yeah, we should probably help the others. You know, just in case Sacharissa summons something nasty," Phineas stammered, drawing his phaser. Before Isabella could stop him, he ran towards the fight. Isabella rolled her eyes and followed. Some things never changed.

As Desperate Struggles For Freedom went, it wasn't very impressive. The dwarfs were nasty, brutish (and short), and might have posed a problem for normal people, but not for three experienced Loopers, a unicorn, and a Dragon. Not that the fight was without a few tense moments: Phineas learned that his phaser didn't affect theses dwarfs for some reason, Almandin misjudged an attack and nearly got Ferb, Isabella kicked a dwarf where it wouldn't do him any good and broke at least one toe. Luckily, magic worked where the phaser didn't, so the dwarf she was facing at the time found himself much smaller, furrier, and with an increased appetite for acorns. Knowing she'd just become a liability, Isabella braced herself against one of the standing stones and kept an eye on the fight, firing off spells if things looked dicey. She saw that Phineas and Ferb were mostly trying to immobilize their opponents as usual, but that Almandin and Eilyr weren't. Two dwarfs lay on the ground, struggling; one against invisible bonds, the other cocooned in misty thread. That one had to be Ferb's, since it was from the Loop he'd been in Hogwarts with her, Lucy van Pelt, and Shaggy Rogers, when Donna Noble had been DADA Professor; that had been a fun Loop. Another lay—okay, not looking there anymore, thank you very much, and a fourth was lying in a pool of blood with a hole in his chest. The last one faced off against Phineas, who just shook his head and used his Wizard's staff as a quarterstaff. That one went down quickly and Phineas tried to get back to Isabella, but Eilyr shoved him out of the way again.

"Maid Isabella, you are hurt! I will-"

"You will explain why you're being such a jerk to Phineas, when if you had half a brain you'd know that none of this was his fault. Sacharissa told me she used that cave to get into the castle and you can see she disguised herself as me, and she also told me she put a spell on him. It was a Traditional Villain Rant, so you know she was telling the truth. And more importantly than that, Phineas would never hurt me if he was given a choice in the matter, and you should know that. Now, if you'd lost your temper at him when it happened, that would be one thing, but it's been long enough now that you should be over it. Now, are you just sulking and refusing to admit you were wrong, or are you being a complete idiot?"

Eilyr wilted under Isabella's glare, and if it wasn't for the magic duel still going on not far from him, it would have been pretty funny to see. Isabella didn't let up, though; instead, she stood up straight, ignoring the pain in her foot, and gave him the Look that had once cowed the Weasley Twins and Peeves at the same time. Eilyr shrunk into himself even more, and his ears flattened against his head.

"I am sorry, Maid Isabella," he said in a small voice.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

"...I am... sorry, Phineas." It wasn't as sincere as Isabella hoped, but it was something. For a few seconds, Phineas just looked at Eilyr, then he sighed and shook his head.

"Look, you were trying to protect Isabella, and I looked like a threat. Can we just agree to blame every stupid thing we've all done today on the Tradition and let it go? No, Ferb, that is NOT a song cue." Someday Isabella would find out how Phineas knew when Ferb was doing something behind his back; in this case, restoring a grand piano to his Pocket. Eilyr blinked at that, but since it wasn't close to the strangest thing he'd seen them do, he didn't react beyond that. He did look at Phineas for a good long while, even absent-mindedly dodging a stray spell as he thought.

"Very well. And the maiden is right; while I hate to admit it, we unicorns are not known for our wisdom, but I still should have known that you would not simply hand her over to a foul necromancer. I allowed my worry for my beloved maiden to over-rule my good sense. For that and all that I have said and done to you since, I am truly sorry."

Phineas looked like he was about to reply, but instead he whirled around and cast another shield. As expected, Sacharissa had started summoning; there was a horde of redcaps rushing at them, more than could be counted. Phineas, Ferb, and Eilyr placed themselves in front of her, and she set her back to the stone again. Broken toe or not, she had to be in this fight. Redcaps were evil little Fae, enjoying all the killing they did; she hoped Phineas didn't try to be merciful this time, because it would only hurt them in the long run.

That wasn't a worry, as it happened; the second the redcaps came in range, Phineas cast a fireball that incinerated at least half a dozen. Ferb did the same, and Almandin swooped down from the sky to carry off two bunches and drop them from altitude. He only did that once, because Sacharissa's second summons was a great pack of flying dog-like creatures and he faced them with a roar that could probably be heard three Loops away.

"What are those things?" Phineas asked, blasting another lot of redcaps.

"Gabriel Hounds," Eilyr said. "They steal souls."

"Yeah, that's not good."

"You think?"

Despite everything, Phineas snickered and Isabella had to giggle; after all these years, they had finally taught Eilyr how to snark. They didn't laugh for long, however, because the redcaps had enough of a numerical advantage that they could absorb their losses and continue to advance. Isabella was careful of where her spells went, and worried that she'd run out of power before they ran out of redcaps until she remembered some non-magical abilities she'd made a point of keeping from one Loop. Isabella used Moonblast. It was super-effective. Phineas let out a whoop and a devastating Razor Wind, then wondered loudly why he hadn't thought of it before. Ferb's Dragon Pulse also did a number on the redcaps, and before long it looked as though they weren't as badly over-matched as they thought.

The fight continued, frequently lit by the glow of Almandin's flame as he fought the Gabriel Hounds. A few of the redcaps got close enough that Eilyr, who had no distance-fighting capabilities, could get in on the action, and a couple even snuck around to try to get them from behind; they soon learned that Isabella was just as deadly a fighter as the rest. Redcap bodies piled up, and the numbers fell until there were just large groups attacking rather than a seemingly endless horde. Still, they were getting tired, and all of them were injured now. Ferb was bleeding from a gash on one arm. Eilyr's coat was streaked with blood, and some of it was his own. Phineas was limping almost as badly as Isabella. They'd probably be able to take the rest of the redcaps, but if Sacharissa summoned anything else, they were in trouble.

The redcaps finally got too close for long-range attacks; letting out a howl; they rushed forward as a group. Ferb's lightsaber was up and ready, and a heartbeat later, so was Phineas'. The reason for his delay became obvious as many of the redcaps tripped and were trampled by their own side: Grass Knot did have its uses. The lightsabers hummed and sang as they sliced into the redcaps; Eilyr bucked, reared, and trampled. Some got by, but Isabella was still able to fight and they didn't last long. She dispatched one last attacker with a blaster shot to the face, looked for the next, and discovered that there wasn't one. Phineas had swapped out his lightsaber for his staff and was leaning on it heavily, panting, while Eilyr and Ferb seemed to be holding each other up. Phineas looked over at her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I'll live. Ferb? Eilyr?"

"I've had worse," they chorused, then laughed weakly. They checked on the captive dwarfs and weren't really surprised to find that the redcaps had killed them all, then regrouped closer to Isabella, everyone watching for the next bit of bad news. They also watched Elena and Sacharissa, who were showing no signs of slowing down. Elena looked like she was worse off, but Sacharissa was still maintaining her Isabella illusion, so they couldn't be sure of how badly she was doing. They wished they could help, but even if they had the strength, there had been a formal challenge, so butting in would be highly frowned on.

A final gout of flame overhead followed by a groundshaking thump told them that Almandin had landed. He poked his head around the stone with a weary sigh.

"Tiresome things, Gabriel Hounds. But did you know they taste like roast goose? Almost worth the hassle, what?"

"Dude, TMI," Phineas groaned. Almandin just chuckled. "You do that on purpose, don't you? Just to mess with us."

"Of course. Dragon's got to have some fun, after all. And the look on your face every time just makes it irresistible. Oh, now, what's all this?" They looked over at the battle and saw that Elena had used a spell that wasn't reacting well with Sacharissa's illusion. It was flickering, blurring around the edges, growing and shrinking, and finally it cut out entirely and everyone was left gaping at what they saw. Sacharissa was dressed in tattered deerskin, which was in really bad taste considering that she herself had somehow become closer to deer than human. She still stood upright and still had human hands, but her legs were deer legs and her face almost a deer's face. That her eyes were also still human just made matters worse. "Oh, dear—oooo, I just said that, didn't I? Frightfully sorry."

"You think you have won, don't you," Sacharissa hissed. "My power is gone, my forces destroyed, and an army of Fae are only minutes from here. But I have not yet lost—there is still my Traditional Final Curse!"

"Oh, no, you d—OH, COME ON!!!" Elena shook her suddenly recalcitrant wand and the others discovered that they couldn't do anything either. Isabella sighed again.

"This is going to be annoying, isn't it?" she asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Phineas replied. "I'll find a way of breaking it, though."

"And someday I'll come back for a Variant where the Tradition is anthropomorphized and then I'm gonna kick it. Hard."

"I'll make you some special boots," Ferb said. Sacharissa just looked annoyed.

"Listen as I proclaim your doom, child! You will fall into a deep sleep until you are awakened in the Traditional manner, but for the rest of your life, the Tradition will never leave you alone! The Snowskin Path will end, but another will replace it, and when that ends another will come, then another, and then another, and nothing you can do will prevent a Tradition from meddling in your life! You will never be free!" She began the Traditional evil cackle, then plunged a knife into her own chest. Still laughing, she died.

"Well, that is annoying," Isabella said as she collapsed into darkness.

8.13 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

All Elena wanted to do at this point was find the nearest safe bed, crawl into it, and sleep for a week. Her duel with Sacharissa had been exhausting; having to use a lot of her power to keep Sacharissa from summoning more monsters while simultaneously defending against the Sorceress' attacks and launching her own was not what she'd hoped to do when she arose that morning. Not that the duel had come as a complete surprise; it was Isabella's sixteenth birthday, after all, and they'd all been expecting something. But knowing that something was coming and actually having to deal with it when it came were not the same thing, and no matter how well one prepared, there was always something that popped up to complicate matters. And the greatest complication was due in a few minutes, if Sacharissa had been right. She probably was; it was the most inconvenient option and therefore the most likely.

She watched Phineas catch Isabella and ease her to the ground, holding her. Despite his quips, he was visibly shaken. Of course, part of that was reaction to the battle; despite his experiences, Phineas was still an idealist. He hated killing. He was practical enough to know it couldn't always be avoided, as innumerable redcaps would be able to swear to if they weren't heaps of ash, but he hated it. It was admirable, but it was also hard on him. Ferb and Isabella had more pragmatic outlooks, also trying to avoid killing but not feeling it a personal failure if it happened. Still, Phineas would recover, if he was given time.

Elena looked around the stone circle as she headed toward her protégés, making sure that they hadn't missed anything. They hadn't. The number of bodies strewn around was appalling; how on earth had Sacharissa managed to call so many? Granted, they were redcaps, so the answer was probably that they'd heard of a fight and jumped at the chance for some bloodshed. She'd never know for certain, and it wasn't really important, so she pushed the thought aside. Instead, she assessed the group. Almandin was tired but uninjured. Eilyr was almost healed already, but was exhausted. Ferb was in the same shape, which was a bit confusing until she noticed that the two were leaning against each other; Eilyr must have bled into Ferb's wounds and transferred the healing virtues to the young smith. It might even have been deliberate. Phineas looked battered but not substantially harmed, and as close to collapse as the rest. Isabella, even in a cursed sleep, looked the healthiest of anyone there. If they had to fight an army of Fae and the Queen, they were doomed.

"All right," she said wearily, "let's try to wake her before the Queen shows up. We don't need any more misunderstandings. Try True Love's Kiss; that usually works."

There was an awkward silence before Phineas blinked up at them, bewildered.

"Why are you all looking at me?"

Even Eilyr looked incredulous at that, and Almandin rolled his eyes. When they looked to him for an explanation, Ferb just shrugged. Elena was struggling to find a tactful way of pointing out that any idiot could see he loved Isabella, even if he was too dense to have noticed, when the day's bad timing popped up again.

"Unhand her, knave!"

And there was the army of Fae, coldly beautiful in glittering armor, the Queen at its head. The only part that wasn't Traditional was Iolanthe just behind the Queen, grimacing and shaking her head. Wonderful. If it had been the Queen who reigned over the Fae in Elena's region, it would have been a lot easier, but this Queen was known amongst the Fae for making hasty decisions and then having to find someone to clean up her messes. Elena frowned as a thought occurred to her; each mess had been a long-time problem for the Fae, and had been resolved permanently during the clean-up with results that would not have been accepted by most Fae if there hadn't been such urgency. Marriage with mortals, for example, and Fae involvement with mortal politics. Was it possible that the Queen did it deliberately?

She added that to her list of Things To Find Out LATER and joined the others in stepping in front of Phineas and Isabella, shielding them.

"I say, doing it a little brown, aren't you, Rhiannon? The lad's a bit thick-"

"HEY!!!"

"—but calling him a knave is a bit much." Almandin acted like he hadn't heard Phineas' indignant squawk. The Queen just gave him a cold glare, which failed to have an effect. Elena envied the Dragon his composure; even at full power she was no match for a true Fae Queen, and she knew it. "Now why don't we all relax and try to discuss this like rational beings before we do something we'll regret? I'd really rather not find out if you'd taste as much like candy floss as you look."

"Not helping, Almandin," Phineas groaned, and again Almandin ignored him. The Queen glared even harder in reply.

"Do you deny that it was by his doing that Our Godmother-Apprentice was taken by a foul Necromancer?"

"More of a Sorceress, really; she never did much with the dead after that unfortunate incident with the huntsman Dickon."

"Almandin..." Ferb sighed, facepalming.

"Do you deny that Our Godmother-Apprentice now lies dead at that woman's hand?"

"Er, well, yes, actually. You see-" Almandin was going to get them either killed or turned into something unspeakable, and when he did, Elena just hoped that she became something big enough to step on him properly.

"SILENCE!!!"

"Oh, I say; how rude."

"She's not dead."

"Tremble as We pronounce Our judge—wait, what? Of course she's dead. All that Traditional Power and overwhelming tragedy? What else could it be?" The Queen seemed to shrink slightly, her glamour diminishing as she tried to understand what Phineas had said.

"Well, Sacharissa did this whole Final Curse thing, and now we have to find either Isabella's True Love or a handsome prince." Phineas didn't sound too thrilled at either possibility, and Elena couldn't blame him. Well, not entirely. She'd thought it was just the Tradition that made otherwise clever people complete dunces at noticing the tender emotions, but maybe it was just human nature.

"Be that as it may, it still does not excuse your foul-"

"—falling victim to Sacharissa's enchantment while she was disguised as Isabella and walking around inside the supposedly safe Dragon's Castle," Ferb interrupted. He winced slightly as the Queen shifted her glare to him, but didn't back down. To Elena's surprise, Eilyr backed him up.

"It is true, Great Queen," the unicorn said, bowing. "I too assumed he had betrayed her, to my everlasting shame, but Maid Isabella rebuked me for my lack of faith most resoundingly."

"I can attest to the enchantment and the illusion myself, Your Majesty," Elena said, stepping forward. "I was the one to break both, and it was no simple task. Sacharissa was more powerful than we knew."

"So I perceive," the Queen murmured, giving her a critical glance. It was Elena's turn to wince; being around these types made any human feel filthy, clumsy, and ugly, and right now it was closer to the truth than usual. Prolonged magical duels with Dark Sorceresses were rather rough on one's appearance. "But do you meant to tell me that We have ridden out with a full court for no good reason?"

"Uh..."

"Well..."

"Oh, dear..."

"Yes," Ferb said bluntly. "Unless you'd like to help us break the Final Curse."

The Queen gave him a Look, but this time he didn't flinch. For an excruciatingly long minute, the two faced off. Everyone—human, Fae, unicorn, and Dragon alike—held their breath, waiting for one to give way. Eventually, the Queen lifted a single brow and Ferb's eyes widened; he stepped aside, looking away, but Elena had the sneaking suspicion that the two had reached some sort of agreement rather than actually giving in.

"We like your courage, young smith," the Queen said, almost smiling. Behind her, Iolanthe looked as though she was about to faint from relief. "As for the Final Curse, why, the answer lies before you. Phineas Flynn of Danville in the Great Loops, I order you to kiss that maiden."

"WHAT!?!" Phineas started to stand up, remembered he was holding Isabella, and tried to keep from dropping her. The end result was Phineas falling on his backside, Isabella on top of him. Elena stifled an unholy desire to laugh, half afraid it would come out as an hysterical giggle unworthy of a Godmother. The rest of the Fae had no such inhibitions, nor did Eilyr or Almandin. The Queen did not join in the merriment, but raised that eyebrow again.

""We are certain We did not stutter."

"Yeah, but—me? Kiss Isabella?"

"Are you defying Our Royal Command?" The Queen's voice was casual, but the laughter stopped abruptly.

"Uh, well, no offense, Your Majesty, but... Yes. Yes, I am. See, I do like Isabella, but we're both still pretty young. In our home Loop, we're less than fifteen. Even when you take the Loops into account, we're still kids. Too young for all this True Love stuff. But... that's not the real reason. I guess I just don't want to mess with Isabella's emotions like that. If she ever decides she wants more, I want it to be her choice, not some mysterious force making her love me. That's just not right." Phineas met the Queen's eyes more easily than anyone else had that night, his sincerity clear to see. The Queen regarded him as she had his brother, and her smile grew.

"Well spoken. Although it does leave Our Godmother-Apprentice in an unfortunate situation. The nearest Princes are not what I would wish for her, although they do have good hearts, and it does not answer the other dilemma. If her heart was already given to one who could match either Tradition..." The Queen's smile became a touch sardonic as her hint went right over Phineas' head. But something in her speech had clearly touched a chord; his head snapped up with that familiar spark in his eyes, a smile—no, a grin—blossoming on his face.

"Your Majesty, we've been to a lot of different places and cultures, and while a lot of the basics are the same, there are always some details that are a bit different. I haven't needed to ask this before, but what exactly is the definition of True Love here?"

"True love must single-hearted be," the Queen declared.

"Exactly so," the Knight next to her intoned.

"From every selfish fancy free."

"Exactly so."

"No idle thought of gain or joy a maiden's—or a young man's—fancy should employ. True love must be without alloy."

"True love must be without alloy," Iolanthe echoed.

"Exactly so."

"I'd swear I've heard that somewhere before," Ferb muttered, but Phineas laughed.

"That's it! True Love, and even without the Tradition it would be love at first sight! How quick can somebody find a puppy?"

"Oh, you clever boy!" The Queen dropped her regal air, laughing along with Phineas. Elena slapped her forehead, disgusted with herself.

"Why did I never consider that?" she asked the stars, then wondered exactly when night had fallen. She'd been busy, but usually she noticed minor details like that.

"And if it's already named Prince, that might help too," Ferb added.

"Good thinking, bro. See, Isabella loves dogs—she's got one back home. And it's not called puppy love for nothing, right?"

"A dog's love is truly a noble and unselfish thing," Eilyr said approvingly. Almandin nodded.

"I rather like the beasts myself. Straightforward, no having to wonder whether they really like you or are just waiting for you to turn your back. Know where you stand with a dog. Although Daw will raise quiet hell while you train it not to dig in the gardens. And just wait until the cat finds out!"

"I'm right here, Lizard. Think I was going to let this lot muck things up even worse than they were? I'll tolerate the wretch for Softhands' sake, if it will break the curse."

"Uh, yeah, about that... Um, Elena? I think I got the gist of it, but it's more your thing than mine. Traditional Final Curses and all that, I mean," Phineas said, biting his lip. All eyes turned to Elena, who suddenly wished she'd run away with a footman before the Tradition had ever meant anything to her. The she remembered what their footmen had been like and decided she'd rather have to explain a cursed Godmother-Apprentice to a Fae Court and a cat.

8.14 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms]

While Elena told the Fae just what Sacharissa had done, Ferb ambled over to his brother and sat, waiting for the adrenaline crash to hit. Eilyr joined them with a weary sigh.

"There's no good way to say this," Ferb said to the unicorn, "but thanks for bleeding on me. That is what healed me, isn't it?"

"Yes, the blood of a unicorn, freely given, can do that. I did not notice I was doing so at first, but when I did, it seemed to be the least that I could do."

"And thanks for backing me up against the Queen," Phineas said. "What finally convinced you I wasn't the bad guy?"

"My maiden said so," Eilyr said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Ferb just managed not to roll his eyes; he should have known. Phineas wore his I-had-to-ask face, and the two avoided each other's gaze. Eilyr had become a lot smarter since they'd first met him, but some things never changed: to a unicorn, a maiden's wishes were paramount. Isabella wished for him to accept Phineas' innocence, so he did.

They sat quietly, watching and listening as Elena finished her story and the Fae set to work. There was quite a bit of confusion as Knights vanished and were replaced by a variety of other types. In less than an hour, seven dwarfs marched up to them, looking determined. This was a very different group, though: clean, organized, and with armor that Ferb itched to get a closer look at. These weren't just dwarfs, they were Dwarfs.

"We've been told there's a Snowskin who needs Traditional protection until her rescuer appears," the leader said, and somehow Ferb wasn't surprised that he looked and sounded like John Rhys-Davies. Phineas looked down at Isabella, then up at the Dwarf.

"Yeah, we do, but I'm hoping we'll have this done by sunrise."

"No reason not to do the matter properly, and besides, it's good practice. Never know when this'll pop up; need to keep the skills up-to-date. My cousin over in Barataria's had to do this three times, and he thinks there's going to be a fourth before much longer. So he and the rest of his lot are used to it, but we haven't had a Snowskin since I was barely big enough to lift a hammer. Now if you'll lay her down on the ground so we can get proper measurements..."

Phineas looked doubtful, but did as they asked. Or tried to, anyway. He'd been sitting for so long while holding Isabella that both legs had fallen asleep; Ferb and two of the Dwarfs had to pick him up and carry him. The leader looked amused, winking at Ferb, and one of the other Dwarfs confirmed that they knew what had happened, including Phineas' freakout over kissing Isabella. Ferb happened to agree with Phineas that it would have been a bad idea, but that didn't mean the floundering hadn't been fun to watch. He was just glad that nobody had noticed his miniature spy-drone; he'd started filming before the fighting started to show the kind of nasty that this Loop could throw at visitors, but was thinking of showing select clips to Isabella later.

Elena staggered over and flopped down next to them with a noticeable lack of Godmotherly dignity. Her dress was torn, stained, and even burned, her hair was the type of tangle that only curls can create, and she looked a fright. Her sigh was even deeper than Eilyr's had been.

"They've agreed that by handling Sacharissa, I've done my share for today," she said. "I don't expect any of us will have more than a few hours to rest, but at least we get that. We've played merry hell with the Tradition tonight, and are bound to do the same when they find a suitable pup. Thank you for that, Phineas; we've agreed to do what we can to make that a Traditional loophole. After all, the Loyal Hound is well known in many lands already, so this can be added to it. And there are Traditions involving other loyal animals as well, so we can build on that."

"Good," Phineas said firmly. "I don't like the idea of anybody having their minds messed with like that. And what if it lasted beyond the Loop? How fair would it be for Isabella to do the whole unrequited love thing until the Loops are over and we can grow up?"

Sometimes Ferb really wondered if Phineas was as oblivious as he acted.

"...Right," Elena said, blinking rapidly. "So, Ferb, could you tell me what all that was about. With the Queen?"

"It's... complicated. The Queen is playing a dangerous game, but from what I've seen of her court, I can understand why. The Tradition has saddled them with a number of laws, and most of the Fae don't think much about them. The Queen is trying to undo some of them, but needs the rest of her court to accept them, which they won't really do if she just issues an order. I suspected as much when I heard Iolanthe's story. She uses each crisis that comes up to force her people to become aware of situations beyond their own interests. I think this lesson was about jumping to conclusions and doling out too-hasty vengeance." He wasn't too thrilled that she'd taken chances with Phineas' life, but since he wasn't a centuries-old Fae Queen, he couldn't really be sure she hadn't been certain of the outcome, in which case she hadn't risked anything, so it wouldn't be fair to get annoyed at her. He ran that thought through his head again and decided that if his internal monologue was pulling run-on sentences, he really needed sleep. But Elena wasn't quite done.

"You've both managed to impress the Fae this evening. Between that and Isabella's curse, your lives are going to be unspeakably busy now. I'm glad that Phineas has forestalled every variation of the Sleeping Maiden that I know of, but there are still so many Paths that the Tradition can throw at you. We need to keep the King well away from Castle Bunthorne; King Arac is a good ruler, but he's not much of a thinker and has a roving eye as well as a jealous wife, which is exactly the setup for a Fair Rosalinda. Then there's the Dragon's Maiden, which we'll keep going as long as we may. Although I'm already trying to think of ways that a dog could meet a Dragon's Challenge, just to be safe. Well, thinking may be too strong a term right now. I feel as tired as you all look—sorry, that was-"

"Honest," Ferb said. "I think we all need a good sleep and a bath, maybe even in that order. We're in safe hands now, so..."

A huge yawn broke his chain of thought and traveled around the group. As if it had been a cue, Phineas' eyes drooped shut and he tumbled over onto Eilyr. Eilyr blinked at him, then tucked his head in carefully so as not to stab anybody with his horn and was asleep within seconds. Elena spocked an eyebrow at Ferb.

"I think they have the right idea. And I also think that any more thinking can wait."

"Fair enough. In the morning, then."

Elena curled up in a manner that suggested even to Ferb's sleepy mind that she had lots of practice sleeping in uncomfortable surroundings, and Ferb lay down next to Phineas. Neither noticed Almandin curling himself around the group protectively.

"When did it get to be morning?"

"After midnight, if you want to get technical about it."

Phineas threw his pillow at his brother. As soon as he had, it occurred to him that since he'd fallen asleep in the middle of a stone circle with no pillows around for miles, that was a rather strange thing for him to be able to do. He looked around and found himself on a large cot inside a large tent, a shaft of sunlight peeking through the silken curtains at the door. Furthermore, he was clean, his injuries had been healed, and he was dressed in clothes that could only have come from the Fae. Ferb was in the same shape. There was no sign of Eilyr or Elena, and Almandin wouldn't have fit inside.

"Okay, time to get up. I wonder how long we slept?" He stood carefully, but his twisted knee really was as healed as he first thought. Without another word, he and Ferb stepped outside to a scene that would make fantasy artists and RenFaires everywhere implode from sheer jealousy. The Fae could be amazingly subtle at times, operating so stealthily that nobody knew they were there until they were gone and the fruits of their labors were found. And then there was this: a small town of silken tents and pavilions, with various types of Fae, Wizards, Sorceresses, and magical creatures wandering around. The Dwarfs from last night were still around as well, and the first they saw pointed them towards the center of the stone circle.

"Just how long were we asleep, anyway?" Phineas gaped at the display. Isabella lay on a golden bier, beautifully molded/carved, with a dome over her of glass etched with a delicate lacy pattern that in no way obscured the sight. Phineas winced at first, but a closer look revealed that the Dwarfs had thought of the breathing thing; there were scallop-edged holes around the base of the dome. The head Dwarf stood on guard, with Eilyr beside him.

"Well there you are, slugabeds," the Dwarf said cheerfully. "It's just past noon."

"Of what day?" Ferb asked, and both Dwarf and unicorn laughed.

"It is difficult to believe it has been less than a day, but it is no less than the truth," Eilyr said. "I'm afraid we've become what I think you once called a teaching moment; it is quite rare to see someone find a new loophole in the Tradition, and nobody wants to miss out. This should actually help us; the more to spread the tale, the better."

"Okay, I can see that," Phineas said. "Oh, by the way, Eilyr, did you think about trying to kiss Isabella yourself? A unicorn's love for a maiden is true, and you did swear to be her champion, so it might work."

"Godmother Elena suggested it shortly before you awakened," Eilyr said. "It did not work, to our disappointment. Perhaps because our love only lasts while they are maidens; we can retain a fondness for them ever after, but it is not the same. Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds, as one of your human poets said."

"I guess... but it was still worth a shot."

Eilyr nodded, then sent them on their way to see the Queen. It took some time to get to her, as everyone wished to congratulate them on Phineas' bright idea. They'd already known how much those who knew of the Tradition hated how it would force emotions like that, but somehow the theoretical knowledge wasn't the same as seeing how happy everyone was that they now might have a workable solution. Phineas just hoped it actually would work; he'd hate to disappoint everybody if it didn't. The worry that the Tradition would see through his trick grew stronger and stronger, but he kept smiling; he'd let the others be happy for as long as he could. He had a feeling Ferb wasn't fooled, though, since his brother kept very close, putting a hand on his shoulder every so often if someone got a little too gushy.

By the time they reached the Queen's pavilion, Phineas was beginning to feel like he'd turned into the Joker. Then he remembered that stint in Gotham and hastily thought of as many other things as possible. The Queen was not sitting majestically on her throne the way she had most of the other times he'd seen her; instead, she was leaning over a table as an assortment of people and creatures looked at the same papers that she was assessing. When she saw them approach, she greeted them with a smile.

"Don't be scared, Phineas. I am certain that your idea will work. Now, do come see what we've already achieved in the way of songs and sagas—I was lucky enough to have knowledge of where to find some quite talented songsmiths, and Almandin flew up to see his cousin and brought back an actual Songweaver. They are all waiting to see the results of your idea and our search, at which point they shall all create the perfect endings for their works."

They did as requested, and were mostly impressed by what they saw. There were a few that needed tweaking, and one that Phineas had to work hard to find something positive to say about it, but all of them would do the job. He was pointing out to an oddly familiar poet with a strong melodramatic streak that actually, "indulgent" rhymed with "effulgent", so, yeah... when Fleta returned looking perkier than ever. Phineas had already forgiven her for her part in the mess; she was very earnest and had good intentions, but there was no denying that she had as much common sense as Doofenshmirtz. And that was on her good days. If there was a way for her to put her foot in her mouth, she would find it, and then apologize for hours once she realized what she'd done. There was no point in staying mad at her, so he didn't. Ferb looked slightly miffed, but he'd let it slide for now.

"We've found him! He's perfect!" she exclaimed, then remembered to bow to her Queen. Behind her, two of the more sensible Fae were standing beside...

"Uh, well, I said a puppy, but he does look friendly," Phineas said.

"Oh, he is still a puppy! Not even a year old yet!"

Phineas was speechless. Ferb was staring, open-mouthed. The Queen had the patient expression common to those who had to deal with centuries of well-meaning flibbertigibbethood. The pup just rolled over on his back, paws waving.

"I thought I was familiar with land animals," said a tiny blonde who had been staying out of the way during the brainstorming, "but is it possible to breed a dog and a horse?"

"No, Katya, although it looks as though someone may have done so anyway," the Songweaver replied. "Don't ask me how. I don't want to know."

The pup was almost big enough for Katya to ride, and if it was that big before it was even a year old, it was going to end up almost the size of an Arcanine. It was a handsome animal, though: long brindled brown fur, sparkling eyes, and quite obviously healthy. The Queen walked forward to take a closer look, and the pup reared up on its hind legs. The Queen stopped, raising an eyebrow, and the pup stayed balanced for a few seconds, looking hopeful. After a moment's consideration, she held out her arms and the pup allowed itself to fall forward so that its front paws landed directly on the Queen's hands. Even knowing that this was the Queen of the Fae, Phineas was shocked when she caught the pup's paws without so much as a wince.

"Hi! I'm a dog!"

"Yes, I know. Have my children explained matters to you?"

"Sleeping girl needs a kiss to wake up from someone who loves her or a handsome prince or both. I can do that. Mother says we must find someone worthy and give our hearts to them entirely. I can do that. Sleeping girl is someone worthy, I will love her, and I am Maelgwyn."

"Maelgwyn. It means prince of the hounds, does it not?"

"Uh-huh. See? I am good dog. Pup. Yeah."

"Yes. Yes, you are. But there are some we must ask first. Phineas? Ferb? Is he acceptable in your eyes?"

Phineas took a long look at Maelgwyn, as did Ferb. Then the two looked at each other and gave it a moment's thought before turning back to the waiting Queen and hopeful pup.

"I think he's perfect, and I think Isabella will love him," Phineas said. Ferb nodded.

"Yay! Can I meet her now?"

"I see no reason to wait," the Queen said. Without another word, she started toward the stone circle, and everyone followed. It became a procession through no effort of their own. Almandin swooped down to give his approval, and was vocally glad about having a dog he wouldn't have to worry about stepping on because he didn't see it; Phineas couldn't really argue that. They approached the bier as the Dwarfs carefully removed the dome. Eilyr stared at them, obviously not having expected them to produce anything that might outweigh him. Maelgwyn froze for a moment when he saw how many eyes were on him, but shook himself all over before drawing himself up and walking majestically forward. He reared up again to rest his front paws on the bier, looking down at Isabella thoughtfully.

"Yes. She is good and kind and smells like sunshine. She is Mistress, and I love her."

He bent his great head forward and licked Isabella's face from chin to brow, then pressed his nose against her cheek. Everybody watched, breathless, waiting to see if it would work.

"Ohmygosh, you're adorable!!!" Isabella was up and flinging her arms around Maelgwyn's neck, or trying to, before they knew it. There was another moment of stunned silence, then—

"YES!!!" Phineas jumped and punched the air, and seconds later the rest of the crowd roared approval. The Tradition now officially had a new loophole, and more importantly, Isabella was awake.

8.15 (katfairy): [Phineas and Ferb] / [The Five Hundred Kingdoms] / [Big Hero 6]

Nobody was surprised when Isabella grew to be the most beautiful woman in the 500 Kingdoms. The Tradition had her in its sights, and Traditional tales always insisted that the heroine was the most beautiful person in the history of ever, so it was inevitable. She didn't waste time whining about it, even though she knew that it would be several Loops before looking in a mirror would stop being disappointing. In other Loops when she'd had the opportunity to grow up, she'd been pretty, but this Loop had gone overboard. It attracted attention, of course; hardly a week went by without a Traditional hero popping up to rescue her from durance vile. Ferb started a betting pool on which Path would pop up next, and it took less than a month before Isabella found out about it. She would swear for the rest of the Loops that turning him into a squirrel had been an accident.

Sacharissa's Final Curse kept them busy in other ways as well. King Arac came to visit one of his Dukes who lived inconveniently near Castle Bunthorne, and avoiding him for the length of his visit was awkward. It didn't help that he'd heard of Isabella's great beauty and was thinking with the smaller brain, but when he failed Almandin's Challenge, he did leave with good grace, even thanking them for the fun. Someone started saying that Isabella was under a curse and would die if she looked toward the nearest town; Ferb knew his Tennyson and squashed that one before more than a small handful got to hear it. Isabella's hair started growing like crazy for a few days, but since she hadn't been traded to a Dark Witch by a father desperate to save his own skin, the Ladderlocks Path just couldn't take hold. A minor god from the next kingdom started paying too much attention, but the local deities didn't like him much, so that only lasted long enough to be annoying. They weren't sure which god-lusting-after-mortal Tradition had been intended, but they agreed that they were happier not knowing.

They knew exactly which Tradition was in play when an arrogant young twit from a kingdom to the southeast showed up, demanding that they hand Isabella over to him as his rightful prize. Apparently he'd been asked to judge a beauty contest between his local goddesses and had been bribed with the promise of the most beautiful woman in the world as his bride. His views on gender equality were noticeably backwards, even for this Loop, and he had expected Isabella to start obeying her Lord and Master—which he was actually stupid enough to call himself—the second he arrived. Isabella had not reacted well to that. She didn't even need Maelgwyn, now fully grown and almost big enough for Isabella to ride, to scare the twit away. Ferb had already gotten into the habit of recording every Challenge, and decided that one was going on the highlights reel. Although technically it never got to the point of a Challenge; Almandin had been laughing too hard at how thoroughly cowed the twit was within seconds of Isabella letting him know her opinion. Which she did at great length and with very thorough descriptions of his manners, demeanor, appearance, and upbringing. Brigantia, the most important of the local goddesses, actually showed up and took notes. When Isabella was through with the twit, the goddess marched up to him, caught his ear between thumb and forefinger, and vanished with both the twit and a promise of having words with the other goddess.

It wasn't all about Isabella, though. Phineas would have gained a reputation anyway, what with being a Wizard living in a Dragon's castle, but his intelligence and ability to use it on the fly (sometimes literally) gained him the title of Wizard of Wyrms. He discouraged the use of it, and it must be admitted that it had less to do with modesty than with being called, well, Wizard of Wyrms. As he pointed out repeatedly, it sounded like he ran a really geeky bait shop. His reputation brought him many challengers, and he gained another reputation for his success rate in turning Dark Wizards through a combination of impressive magic, unconventional brilliance, and sheer darn nice. Ferb became known as a Mastersmith, one of those whose skills were ranked second only to Dwarfs. He didn't get challenged as such, but many of the Heroes and Princes who came to try for Isabella ended up commissioning arms or armor from Ferb, with the understanding that they would never use Ferb's works against Dragons until they knew said Dragons were a clear and present danger. A rumor started that any who tried attacking an innocent Dragon while using Ferb's work would be cursed to die a horrible death; nobody ever found out where it started, but all agreed that anything that made Heroes think twice before attacking Dragons that weren't actively destructive was a Good Thing.

It was a busy but interesting life, and years passed quickly. The cat wandered off one day in their eighth year in the Loop and never returned. They mourned, but knew that it was how the cat wanted it. The next year, Eilyr fell to a Unicorn hunter; the hunter fell to Almandin, who saw it but couldn't get there in time to prevent it. Phineas and Ferb tracked down the Sorcerer who had hired the hunter; the man was left alive, but the entire city witnessed what happened when Phineas and Ferb were well and truly pissed off, and would not soon forget it. Unicorn hunting was not highly regarded in any land, but Rederring became one of the few that banned it outright; nobody wanted to try the brothers' temper a second time.

Maelgwyn became a dog of great dignity—when strangers were around. When it was just the castle residents, he was a gigantic ball of fluffy goofiness. He never wavered in his devotion to Isabella, and they suspected he wouldn't have even if he didn't have the Tradition backing him up. Some one-person dogs are standoffish or even hostile to people who aren't their human, but Maelgwyn considered everyone Isabella liked to be a friend and would defend them almost as fiercely. He lived to a ripe old age, as large dogs go, dying peacefully in his sleep at the age of twelve. They knew it was coming, but it was still hard, and naturally it was hardest on Isabella. She locked herself in her room for three days, refusing to see or even speak to anyone, and when she came out she was quiet and subdued for quite some time. Her first smile after that came when she and Phineas, out visiting a Sorceress on the other side of the Kingdom, overheard a peasant granny telling the local children a tale of a giant dog with an even bigger heart who once saved a Godmother with the purity of his love and became the defender of all innocents. It was a simplistic, even sappy story, but the old woman believed it and therefore the children believed as well. They couldn't have asked for a better memorial.

Nearly fifteen years to the day since they Awoke, Elena sent word that the Loop was about to end. They decided to gather at Castle Bunthorne for a Last Night party and see the Loop out together; just a quiet gathering, only the Loopers and Almandin. As the date approached, they said their goodbyes to those who were Loop-Aware and hadn't asked not to be told when the end was near. It had been a long Loop, sometimes fun, sometimes stressful, sometimes flat-out terrifying, but always interesting. They were disappointed it was ending and eager for it at the same time, hoping they'd Loop back to their respective baselines to see what had stuck with them besides memories.

"I'm really gonna miss this place," Phineas sighed. "I kinda wish the Fae were Dreaming instead of Loop-Aware so we could come visit them if we ever Loop back in here again and they'd at least have some idea why a bunch of strange kids were popping up."

"I'll check on things myself when the Loop resets," Elena said. "I wasn't familiar with this region in baseline; with 500 Kingdoms only the Fae are likely to know them all and this is quite far from my home. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that Iolanthe and her family didn't Loop in and just keep it quiet. It wouldn't be the strangest thing I've heard about the Loops."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the whole kingdom wasn't Fused from another unfamiliar Loop," Ferb said. "So many things are familiar, and I've never been able to put my finger on it."

"I won't miss the curse," Isabella grinned. The others laughed.

"Reduced to mere cuteness," Alex teased; Isabella bounced a raspberry off his forehead. He caught it on the rebound and popped it into his mouth with a smug grin.

"I wish I could say I'd miss you, but unless I start Looping now, I won't even remember you," Almandin said quietly. "But please believe that somehow I shall always consider you friends. In fact, I've got presents for you, and they'll serve a dual purpose: parting gifts for friends, and a way to prove to me that you know me if you ever need to in a future Loop. I chose things I'd never give up for exactly that reason."

"Almandin..." Phineas was about to object, but couldn't. For one thing, Almandin was sincere, and refusing would hurt his feelings. For another, Almandin was using puppy-dog-eyes, which was just surreal on a Dragon of his size. "That's cheating."

"It's not cheating if it works. Besides, if I don't do something to break up the mood I just created, we'll turn into a blubbering mess, the lot of us. A blubbering Dragon is not a pretty sight, I must say, so I'd really rather spare you all the mental trauma. Col's going to be bringing the gifts out once the sun goes down. Have you all packed what you want to keep?"

"I can't pack much yet," Elena said. "But I've got a number of books and the jewelry Alex commissioned from Ferb for my birthdays."

"Neither can I, so I'm afraid I have to leave my armor," Alex said regretfully. "But I was at least able to keep my sword; I'd have been more upset about losing that."

"I'll make you another set," Ferb promised. "I've kept my special supplies in my Pocket anyway, so I'll have plenty of time to make it as close to perfect as I can and do the final fittings next time we Loop together. And I've been checking every morning since Elena warned us to make sure I had everything packed."

"Me too," Phineas said. "Those wands are just too cool to lose, even if I can't use them in a lot of Loops. Plus we've all got presents for our friends in other Loops and our family back in Danville. Candace is gonna flip over that red dress with the white lace."

"So will Jeremy," Ferb deadpanned.

"I'm done," Isabella said. "I... might have kinda stolen that statue of Maelgwyn King Arac had in his courtroom."

"I'd shake my finger at you, but they're full of sugared berries right now," Elena laughed. "Besides, it would be a shame to let that disappear; it's a masterwork in every sense of the word."

"Yeah..." Isabella might have said more, but the sun finally dipped below the horizon and Col appeared right on schedule, carrying a covered tray.

"Right; here we go," Almandin said. "Save the sniffles 'til the end, please. Now, most of these are simply amazing works of arts, but one or two do have stories attached. Ladies first: Elena, I've given you the Crown of Banafrit, an ancient Queen known for her wisdom and kindness, and Isabella, yours is more recent, but I think it will suit you: the diamond and emerald parure crafted by Mihangel. Only made the one parure before he died—far too young, poor chap, but he would insist on drinking like a ruddy fish and challenging men to duels. There was almost a war over it, but I put a stop to it. Took it and the king's only daughter and flew away, and the other king's youngest son, who wasn't a bullying prat or hopelessly obtuse like his brothers, won the Challenge fair and square. He got the girl, she got him, I got the parure, happy ever after."

Crown and parure were duly admired before being stowed safely in Pockets. Both were impressive in their own ways, and Isabella already knew which Loop she'd wear the parure in.

"Phineas, yours is also one of Mihangel's pieces; look familiar?" It was a foot-high sculpture of a dragon made of gold, jewels, and enamel; it reminded Phineas of a Fabergé egg as well as-"Yes, I posed for it. Official court dragon, don't you know. Alex, if you can fit another sword inside your Pocket, I've got the legendary Ophiuchus, made by the very first Dragonsmith, whose name is lost even to us."

"I'll make it fit. Almandin, this is... I don't know what to say!" Alex took the sword, awestruck. The scabbard was simple and elegant, and the sword itself was exactly what a legendary sword should be. It did indeed fit into Alex's Pocket, much to his relief.

"It's more important than you know," Elena said. "I didn't bother telling you because it never mattered, but before this Loop, Dragonsmithing was not a craft in this world. I think it was imported from another Loop, or possibly a minor Variant. It's a useful skill, wherever it comes from, and I've got notes on it in my Pocket for next Loop."

"Oh." Almandin blinked at that. "So, I won't recognize it as such. But I will know something I would have had in my hoard when I see it, so that should do it. Ferb, son, I had a devil of a time making up my mind what to give you. The others—well, it's Tradition for a Dragon to give his maiden jewelry as a parting gift-"

"It is?" both Godmothers chorused.

"Well, it is for me. And a Champion always needs a good sword, Godmothers are perfect caretakers for historical artifacts, and if Banafrit exists outside of this Loop, Elena will love reading about her. There was really only one thing in my hoard appropriate for the Wizard of Wyrms—better luck on nicknames next Loop, old chap—but for my apprentice? Not so easy. So I rather cheated. Called on the Queen to help me make this, and nobody will ever mistake it for anything other than what it is." Col handed what looked like a polished gem the size of a tangerine to Ferb. A closer look showed it to be an orb of crystalline material with shifting flames inside. Elena nearly dropped her teacup.

"You captured Dragonfire in a crystal? How is that even possible?" she sputtered.

"With very precise magic and a tiresome amount of patience. Even if it can only be done in this Loop, that will still be crystallized Dragonfire, freely given. The Queen wanted to call it a Dragonheart, but that sounds like it could be asking for trouble."

"Thank goodness; that was a rubbish movie," Ferb said dazedly, staring at his crystal. After a few minutes, he took a velvet-lined silver chest from his Pocket, carefully stored the crystal inside, and returned the chest. Then he tackle-hugged Almandin. He'd grown very fond of the Dragon, and now he would have more than just scales and talon filings to remember him by. Almandin stood still so that Ferb wouldn't cut himself on the sharp-edged scales.

The gift-giving over, Col disappeared again, and Almandin hastily cleared his throat and began a rather jumbled story about a Wizard who had defeated a budding Necromancer by turning him into a strange animal that looked like a cross between a duck and a woodchuck, but with a broad flat tail. Knowing that he was trying to keep things from getting too emotional, they didn't bother reminding him that the Wizard in question had been Phineas.

As the evening progressed, they finally broke down and all but Almandin had some wine. After all, toasting fallen comrades with tea, milk, and juice just lacked a certain something. They all avoided mentioning that for this purpose, wine was Traditional. They toasted Dickon, the cat, Eilyr, Maelgwyn, and finally Daniel, who, like Maelgwyn, had passed away peacefully in his sleep at a respectable age. A flood of do-you-remembers followed each toast: Dickon's dogs, who had escaped Sacharissa's attack and were taken in by a kindly old hermit; the cat's refusal to ever be cowed by a Dragon whose smallest scale was still twice her size; Eilyr's way of switching between deep thoughts (for a unicorn) and featherheadedness when around Isabella; Maelgwyn's love of apple turnovers; Daniel's joy at helping with research. Nobody tried to hide their tears except Almandin.

Night faded; the sun was almost up. Elena had said that the Loop usually ended as she saw the sun break free of the horizon, so they had only minutes to go. Phineas started singing quietly; The Parting Glass was just too appropriate at the moment. After the first line, Ferb and Isabella joined in. The others didn't know the song, but recognized the rightness of it. They finished the final line just as the sun spilled over—

Isabella sat up in her own bed, waited for the memories to hit, then flopped back down, suddenly exhausted. She was glad it was a baseline Loop; the entirety of the last Loop had just kicked her in the teeth. Somehow it hit harder getting her memories in a flood rather than living it; she choked back tears as she saw Pinky, wondering how he and Maelgwyn would have gotten along. Then something else occurred to her, and she got up quickly, rushing to her mirror.

"Yes! I'm cute!"

She rushed through her morning routine and zoomed over through the pouring rain to see Phineas and Ferb. They were hugging a huge white marshmallow/balloon... thing, (okay, not as baseline as she hoped, but she'd take it) but turned around when they heard her. They looked as tired as her, but Phineas still grinned.

"Isabella! You're cute!"

"I know!"

Candace opened her mouth, closed it, and shook her head.

"Phineas is noticing girls? What's up with that?"

The three exchanged looks, sighed, and hugged the giant marshmallow-bot, glad to be home, safe, and as normal as Loopers and residents of Danville could get.

8.11-8.15: And so one story ends... but the adventures never will.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-10-21. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

9.1 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]

WHO FRAMED OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT? (PART 1)

In the middle of a poorly-lit office, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Awoke to find himself sitting at a desk, with a series of pictures strewn out in front of him, and two rather worn-looking gentlemen standing behind him. From the way the man in the suit was looking at him and at the photos expectantly, it was obvious that he was supposed to look the photos over, but hadn't yet. Deciding to humor the man while he waited for his Loop memories to kick in, Oswald picked up the photos in a single large pile, and began to idly flip through them. They depicted a scene in which a third, slightly portly man and a much more... voluptuous version of his girlfriend, Ortensia, were playing patty-cake.

Just then, the Loop memories hit, and Oswald nearly dropped the photos from the shock of it. Apparently, he was a major cartoon star, the equal of the likes of Bugs Bunny, or his little brother Mickey Mouse, but he had recently entered a slump. The man in the suit was his boss, R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios. Maroon had gotten it into his head that Oswald was having trouble with Ortensia, and it was screwing up his concentration. He had hired the other man, a private detective named Eddie Valiant, to take these pictures of his girlfriend (a lounge singer? That was new.) committing the Toon equivalent of adultery with Marvin Acme, CEO of the ACME corporation.

Oswald fell back into his seat with a thump, as he processed all of this. "Mickey never had to put up with malarkey like this," he muttered. He needed to find Ortensia, check if she was Awake. That was the first thing. They could work things out from there.

R.K. Maroon went over to Oswald, and handed him a handkerchief. "Take comfort son," he remarked. "You're not the first guy who had his wife play patty-cake on him."

Oswald decided that he didn't like Maroon that much, but accepted the handkerchief anyway. He dabbed at his forehead with it, and then put it in his subspace pocket. He could always throw it out later.

Eddie watched the exchange with a cool, calculating demeanor, but Oswald saw his eyebrows raise just a fraction of a millimeter, as if he had seen this scene play out before dozens of times, but saw something different happen. A Looper? He had to check.

Feigning a trembling, shocked demeanor, he turned to R.K. Maroon, and asked in a quavering voice, "Can I have a few w-w-words with M-Mr. Valiant, sir? I n-need to ask him a few questions. About wh-what he saw."

Maroon nodded, and stepped outside the office, shutting the door behind him. At once, Oswald dropped the act, and turned to Eddie. "Okay, what the heck is going on?"

Eddie walked over to the drinks cabinet, and poured himself a glass of bourbon. "Well, that depends. Does the word "Looping" mean anything to you?"

Oswald broke into a relieved grin. This might be easier than he thought. "You're a Looper?"

"Even better," he replied, before knocking back his drink. "I'm the Anchor for this Loop. So, let's get the basics out of the way. You ever leave your baseline before now?"

"Yeah, once or twice with my brother Mickey."

Eddie set the glass down. "Then you've already had the whole "Welcome to the Multiverse," speech, right? Yggdrasil, computers, all that jazz?"

"Yep."

"Good. I always hate giving that speech. So, let's just get down to the nitty-gritty, then. Currently, you're replacing my friend, Roger Rabbit, a cartoon star married to a lounge singer, name of Jessica Rabbit. Your Loop memories say anything similar?"

Oswald concentrated for a few seconds. "Mmmmmm... Got it. Don't remember Ortensia looking like a pinup girl, though."

Eddie looked over the pictures. "She your wife in the baseline?"

Oswald grinned sheepishly. "Not officially, but she might as well be."

Eddie nodded sagely. "Yeah, I get where you're coming from. She Looping too, or...?"

"Yep! Started a couple loops after me though, so she's still new to the whole thing."

Oswald looked at the door where R.K. Maroon was probably listening in on everything, and getting very confused. "So, uh, what usually happens here?"

Eddie set his glass down on the desk. "Well, Roger, assuming he isn't Awake, usually gets all worked up, yells about how he and Jessica are going to be perfectly happy together, then jumps out the window, thus setting himself up as a murder suspect in th' case of the death of Marvin Acme. He's the shmoe in those pictures playing patty-cake with your girlfriend, by the way."

"Fun. Well, I suppose I'll just go with that, check if Ortensia is Looping or not, then meet up with you at your office."

"Sounds good to me." Eddie pulled out a business card, with the address of his detective agency, and tossed it to Oswald, who stuffed it in his subspace pocket. "Hey, if you could, try to stop your girlfriend from showing up at my office tomorrow afternoon, will you? I'm trying to convince Dolores to not think that I'm a two-timing rat. Tends to make things much smoother during a baseline run."

"You got it."

The detective and the rabbit shook hands, then Oswald cleared his throat, before grabbing Eddie by the coat front and shouting at him. Eddie picked up on the ruse instantly (having gone through the scenario multiple times with Roger), and started shouting back. R.K. Maroon burst into the room when he heard voices being raised, and watched Oswald bounce off of Eddie's stomach, and through the window. Eddie smoothed out his coat front, then turned to Maroon. "I think he took it well," he quipped.

9.2 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]

WHO FRAMED OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT? (PART 2)

Oswald, not being one to do anything by halves, immediately rushed over to the Ink and Paint Club, where his Loop memories said that Ortensia sang five nights a week. It was, much to his distaste, a speakeasy located down a random back alley in the middle of the seedier part of LA. He knocked on the door, gave the password ("Walt sent me."), then rushed over to the dressing room. He stopped at the door, made like he was going to bust it down, then politely knocked.

"Who is it?" sang a voice Oswald knew all too well.

"It's me! Oswald!"

The instant he said that, the door burst open, and Ortensia grabbed Oswald, dragging him inside and shutting the door with a flick of her tail. They spent the first couple of minutes snuggling together on the bed. Oswald took the time to look Ortensia over. She was dressed in a slinky red dress that seemed to be nearly painted onto her rather, ah, generous figure, along with a pair of gloves, and a pair of red stilettos. She had also gotten an impressive mop of red hair, which hung over one of her eyes in a way that just screamed "sultry lounge singer"

However, the delighted grin on her face, and the way she was now covering his face with kisses was undoubtedly, undeniably, Ortensia. Some things never change, no matter how many Loops they shared or didn't share.

Oswald finally broke free of the embrace, and pulled out his locket from his subspace pocket. Ortensia looked at the locket confusedly for a few seconds, before her eyes widened in recognition, and she pulled out a plush toy of Oswald from her own subspace pocket. "Sorry Oswald," she apologized. "I'm still getting used to this whole signalling system of ours."

"It's okay, dear. We've only implemented it, what? Two, maybe three Loops ago?"

Ortensia sighed happily, as she put the plush toy away. "So, Oswald, how has this Loop been treating you so far?"

Oswald shrugged. "Can't complain, I guess. Things might be getting a bit hairy later on, though." He explained about his Awakening in R.K. Maroon's office, and Ortensia's eyes widened in recognition.

"So that's the reason why that guy was taking pictures of me and Marvin Acme last night! I was wondering about that. I mean, it's just patty-cake! What's the big deal?"

Oswald blushed a bit, and rubbed his arm. "Well, Ortensia, about that patty cake? That's the Toon version of adultery this Loop."

Ortensia's ears folded back onto her head, as she winced. "Oh. Oh dear."

Oswald smiled softly. "It's alright; you didn't know. Besides, you stuck by me during the Blot Wars, stopped me from going nuts trying to run Wasteland, and had all four hundred and twenty of my kids. We both know that you're committed to me."

Ortensia smiled back, and pulled Oswald close to her again. "I know, Oz. Still, I think I should make it up to you somehow..."

"What d'you have in mind?"

Ortensia gave Oswald a very sultry grin, and batted her eyelashes. "Oh, I think you know."

Oswald grinned back. "After you, my dear."

The next morning, a very exhausted and very happy Oswald and Ortensia were in the dressing room, just enjoying each other's company in the bed, when the door knocked twice. A rough voice shouted "Police! Open up!"

Oswald shot out of bed, and dived under it, while Ortensia went to answer the door in her dressing-gown. She opened the door, to see a sharp-looking man in plainclothes accompanied by an uniformed officer. "Miss Rabbit?"

"Who wants to know?"

The man in plainclothes pulled out his badge. "Lieutenant Santino of the LAPD. We have a couple of questions regarding an ongoing investigation."

Ortensia nodded. "Investigating what, if I may be so bold?"

"The death of Marvin Acme. He was murdered at around 10:15 in his own warehouse."

Ortensia's eyes widened. "Oh my god. Murdered?"

Santino nodded. "That's right. If you'll just come with us, so you can answer some questions, we would be very grateful for your assistance in this investigation."

Ortensia nodded. "Of-of course. Anything to help the boys in blue."

Once Ortensia left the dressing room with the policemen, Oswald popped out from under the bed, shaking slightly. That was too close. If he had forgotten about that murder, then he would have been landed in the hoosegow--or worse. He was all set to split for Eddie's office, when he noticed a piece of paper lying on the dresser. "Eh, might as well take it with me. You never know when you have to write a note for someone." He grabbed the paper, stuffed it into his subspace pocket, then jumped out of the window. Right now, if Eddie was right, the whole town would be crawling with cops. It was even odds that he would hit an ambush on the way over.

Oswald briefly entertained a wild, insane notion of using his Psychonaut training to mind-whammy any inconvenient cops into forgetting they ever saw him as he strolled down the street to Eddie's office. He was pretty sure that they didn't have any psychic training.

He shook his head. "Nah. Doesn't fit my in-loop characterization, and I'm already in deep doo-doo with the police."

Oswald looked at the dumpster, then at the roof of the Ink and Paint Club. "Of course, some good ol' fashioned free-running might work..."

With that, he jumped on the dumpster, then leaped up onto the rooftop quickly disappearing from sight. Sometimes, it paid to be a rabbit.

9.3 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]

WHO FRAMED OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT? (PART 3)

Eddie sat in his office, looking at the pictures of Marvin and Ortensia. The first encounter with Judge Doom had happened nearly identically to how it happened in the baseline, right down to Ortensia, Jessica's stand-in, slapping him and berating him for taking pictures of her. He only hoped that she wouldn't show up later, and get him in hot water with Dolores again. He was planning on wrapping up this case early, and actually taking that trip with her to Catalina. Maybe he'd invite Oswald and Ortensia; they seemed like good enough sports.

As if thinking of that rabbit was enough to summon him, the door to his office sprung open, and he dived in, slamming it shut behind him. He locked the door, then dragged a nearby file cabinet in front of it, before wiping his brow in relief. "Oh boy. That was not fun."

"I take it you ran into some cops?"

"Nope. Had a bunch of close calls though. It's a good thing I have four rabbit's feet, huh?" Plus the advantage of people never checking the rooftops, he thought to himself.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Eddie replied, smiling.

Oswald looked around the cluttered office. "What's with all of the files?"

"Past cases. Back before I started Looping, I used to do detective work in Toontown, along with my brother, Teddy. We did some good work back then. Remind me to tell you about the time we cleared Goofy of spy charges."

Oswald looked at a picture on the desk. It showed a grinning Eddie relaxing in front of the building next to a tall, thin man wearing glasses. He had a sort of vivacity about him, that not even the faded, dusty photograph could hide."He looks like a pretty cool guy. Where is he, anyhow?"

Eddie's smile faded. "He was killed, while we were chasing down a crook."

Oswald's ears drooped in shock and sadness. "Aw gee, I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories..."

Eddie waved him off. "It's alright. I've made my peace with him long ago. In fact, it's rather lucky you brought that up, 'cause that last case has a lot to do with what usually goes wrong in a baseline loop."

Eddie and Oswald then spent a good portion of the next hour going over the death of Teddy Valiant at Judge Doom's hands, how Doom bought the election in Toontown, and his plan to DIP Toontown off the face of the Earth. By the end, Oswald was shaking his head in disgust. "I can't believe any straight-thinking Toon would do all of that. And you dealt with that in the baseline?"

"Pretty much. 'Course, it took me a while to piece it all together, and it cost R.K. Maroon his life when Doom shot him mid-confession."

Oswald nodded slowly, as he processed this information, and thought of ways to throw the mad Toon's plans off the rails. He was at "call Mickey, and have him go Sorcerer's Apprentice on the lot", when he heard a car screech to a halt outside. He and Eddie shared a look. "Toon Patrol," they said in unison, right before leaping into action. Oswald jumped into the sink, and hid in the drain, while Eddie filled it with water, and began to wash his socks.

Right on cue, the roar of a machine gun cut through the air, as one of the weasels shot the lock off of the door. The weasels barged into the room, roughly shoving aside the filing cabinet, and began to search the place quite thoroughly. The head weasel, Smarty, pulled up a stool, then hopped up on it, so he could look Eddie in the eye. "Okay, wise guy. Where's the rabbit?" he snapped, pointing his pistol at Eddie to show that he meant business.

"Haven't seen him," Eddie replied nonchalantly, as he continued his laundry.

Smarty sniffed the water suspiciously. "What's in there?"

Eddie promptly pulled out a sock. "My lingerie."

Smarty turned away in disgust, giving Oswald enough time to come up for a brief gulp of air. He ducked back down right before Smarty whipped his head around. He glared at Eddie, narrowing his eyes. "Search the place, boys!" he ordered. "And leave no stone unturned."

While Eddie was dealing with the Weasels, Oswald suddenly got a brilliant idea. He could use the pipes connected to the drain to pop out elsewhere in the apartment! He sucked in his gut, wriggled a bit, and found himself sliding through the pipes with minimal difficulty. Twisting and turning, he moved through the pipes, until he saw light up ahead.

When he popped his head out of the shower drain, he saw himself looking at a rather frumpy-looking woman, who was just about to step into the shower.

For three agonizing seconds, they just stared at each other.

Then the woman screamed.

Eddie had just shoved the soap bar into Smarty's mouth, and was enjoying the ensuing chaos, when a loud scream reverberated throughout the apartment. Smarty stopped mid-tirade when he heard the scream, then motioned for his boys to follow him. "We'll be keeping an eye on you, Valiant," he drawled. "One wrong step, and we'll hang you, and your laundry out... to dry." He splashed some water at Eddie to emphasize his threat, then hopped down from the stool. "C'mon boys! The rabbit might be where that scream came from. Let's am-scray!"

Not a few minutes after the weasels left, Oswald popped back out of Eddie's sink, blushing furiously. Eddie just gave him a deadpan look. "Let me guess: you tried the pipes."

"Yeah. How'd ya know?"

"Roger tries that roughly half the time, if we haven't handcuffed ourselves together first. He always ends up bumping into the lady a few doors down."

Oswald was now wringing out his ears. "You don't say."

"Yep. Luckily, I know a place where you can lie low for a while. Follow me."

9.4 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]

WHO FRAMED OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT? (PART 4)

Eddie ducked his head when he entered the hidey-hole next to the bar, to avoid hitting the lamp. It had taken him an embarrassingly long time to start doing that, though he usually had the excuse of dealing with Roger's shenanigans at the same time. Dolores switched on the light, while Oswald looked around with some interest.

"Nice place, Dolores. Tell me, when are the gin runners coming to claim it?" he asked only slightly sarcastically, as he hopped onto a crate, and started swinging his legs.

"Rabbit's sharper than he looks," Dolores said. "But then, he'd have to be, to avoid getting pinched by the cops by now."

Dolores gave Eddie a sidelong look. "Besides, I thought that you said that you'd never take another Toon case. What's the matter Eddie? Have a change of heart?"

"Nothing's changed," Eddie snapped. "Somebody's made a patsy out of me, and I'm gonna find out why!" He pulled out the photo of Ortensia and Marvin Acme, with Acme's pocket circled in red pen. "There! Take a look at that, then tell me that my theory behind Marvin Acme's death is crazy."

Dolores took the photo, and Eddie's magnifying glass with some reluctance, then looked at the circled area, her expression changing from neutral to surprised in the process. "The Last Will and Testament of Marvin Acme?"

"Exactly! The connections are obvious. We know that Marvin Acme owns all of Toontown, in addition to the Gag Factory. That's ripe property for anyone who deals with Toons, like the big animation studios. R.K. Maroon wants Toontown so he can corner the Toon market, but he knows that if Acme's will turns up after he dies, Toontown will go to the Toons, which will give them some much-needed political leverage against studios like Maroon Cartoons. So, he comes up with a plan: Ortensia swipes the will during one of their patty-cake sessions and disposes of it discreetly, then Maroon whacks Acme, leaving Toontown in a perfect position to be bought up by Maroon Cartoons. You with me so far?"

Dolores nodded in understanding. Oswald had taken one of his ears off, and was polishing it with a handy rag.

"Now, all Maroon needs to make the crime foolproof is a couple of saps to take the fall when the murder inevitably comes to light. So, he hires me to take pictures of Ortensia and Acme, knowing full well that Oswald will go berserk when he sees them, and thus establish a motive for the murder. Cops don't look into it too deeply, since Oz is a Toon, and I'm a drunk, and Maroon is free and clear."

Oswald stuck his ear back in place. "Wait. Your big theory is that my boss killed Acme to get Toontown, and roped my wife into this as an accomplice?"

"Yeah, I know how it sounds. That's why I need more evidence before I go talk to Santino. Dolores, I'm gonna need your help for this one."

Dolores put the photo on the table. "Sure, Eddie. What do you need?"

"I need you to go down to the probate, and check their records for anything that they have pertaining to acquisitions or purchases of the property of Marvin Acme."

Oswald idly looked out of the peephole. "Probate, huh? I once worked with this gremlin Toon who had trouble with his probate. The poor geezer needed to take these huge pills before he could do a shoot-"

"Not prostate, you idiot! Probate!"

"Whoops! Always get those two mixed up..."

Eddie turned towards Dolores, and hooked a thumb at Oswald. "Can he stay here for a day or two, until the heat dies down?"

Dolores shot Oswald a worried look. "He's not going to do anything weird, is he?"

Oswald took the opportunity to remove one of his legs, and use it as a backscratcher, making pleased noises in the process.

The two humans just looked at each other, before Dolores sighed, and walked upstairs.

When she was out of earshot, Oswald popped his leg back in place. "So, Eddie, why the bull-hooey theory about Maroon?"

Eddie sighed as he leaned against the wall. "Well, we both know that Doom and his phony company is behind all of this, but nobody else knows for certain. We won't be able to nail that dirtbag and make it stick unless we get some concrete evidence of Cloverleaf doing its dirty dealings on the quiet, but if we move openly, the law will be all over us like ugly on Lena Hyena. After all, who do you think people are going to side with, if push goes to shove: the drunk PI and the murderous Toon rabbit, or the one guy who can control the Toons with any degrees of success?"

Oswald nodded reluctantly. He could see the logic behind Eddie's reasoning, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "It still feels bad that we have to lie to her, though."

Eddie nodded gravely. "I know, kid. Believe me, I know. Still, once we get Doom, we can explain everything to her at the big denouement. I happen to know for a fact that she takes it pretty well, considering."

"If you say so, Eddie. But, if we meet up with Ortensia, we're telling her everything. Got that?"

Eddie smiled. "Loud and clear."

9.5 Leviticus Wilkes): [Big Hero 6]

"This test... yaaaah... Eighty four. Beg..."

Tadashi Hamada, for a nearly imperceptible second, found himself feeling split between two places. In one, he was standing in front of his greatest creation... and in the other, he was burning to death. Blinking hard, Tadashi stared at Baymax, inert and asleep. But... wasn't Baymax working? And where was the exposition, and Hiro, and Callahan, and...?

Tadashi was standing in his sunlit workshop, staring at Baymax, all the way back on the day he turned Baymax on. "What the hell..."

Baymax, at that moment, engaged itself. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare unit. Are you in need of medical attention?"

Tadashi stared at his greatest... creation? "Uh... I think I need psychiatric help."

Baymax leaned towards Tadashi. "I am currently programmed with psychiatric procedures. Would you like me to exercise them."

"I..." Tadashi vaguely, but not consciously, realized that Baymax was talking about a subject he had not been programmed to know. "Actually Baymax, try scanning me."

"Scan complete. Your body has no physical injuries. Your brain has heightened endorphin and hormone levels, indicating stress and confusion, symptoms of severe exhaustion, or sudden changes in setting."

Tadashi rubbed at his head, trying to place himself. "No injuries, no burns, no smoke inhalation... but I was there. I was right there in the building. How could-"

"Tadashi."

Tadashi nearly jumped out of his skin when Baymax said his name. Despite be a massive huggable marshmallow, Baymax could have a surprisingly small presence. "Uh... Yes Baymax?"

"Were you recently in danger of: smoke inhalation, suffocation, third degree burns or worse, crush syndrome, lacerations, or heat stroke?" The robot said.

Tadashi stared at Baymax, the pieces inching together ever so slowly. "You... you know about the fire..."

Tadashi got the distinct impression that Baymax was smiling. "Diagnosis: looper. I have now updated all known acquaintances to assist in improving your mental state."

"What?"

Further comment was delayed by a yellow discus that went through the lock to Tadashi's workshop and missed the inventor and his creation by a hair. "TADASHI!" Gogo lunged through the door and tackle hugged her friend, followed immediately by Fred.

"Guys, what-"

Hiro appeared with a crack, and lunged at his brother. "TADASHI YOU'RE AWAKE!"

"But guys I'm-"

"Tadashi!" Honey Lemon stepped out of a portal that had appeared from thin air and joined the group hug, followed by Wasabi almost instantly.

"Uhh..."

Tadashi and company overbalanced and fell.

"So let me get this straight: time travel."

Honey nodded from behind her shake.

"Parallel and alternate dimensions."

"You're on the money bro," Fred said around his pizza.

"Computer god trees."

Gogo popped her gum. "Yup."

"Magic and science from across a multiverse."

Wasabi patted down his lips with a napkin. "Exactly Tadashi."

"And my brother... is ancient."

"Wow, you all sound like you're having fun," Cass Hamada said as she walked by. The six sitting loopers and Baymax, who was standing, all gave Cass idle greetings and some light thanks for the free food from her cafe. Tadashi watched his aunt walk by with more then a little surprise and amazement. "So time resets infinitely?"

Hiro nodded. "That's why we call it the infinite loops."

Tadashi thought it over, before realizing how HUGE everything had just become, and dropped his head into the table. "Oh god... everything's messed up now."

The Big Hero Six (alternatively, Fred's Angels, alternatively alternatively, the San Fransokyo Angels) shared a very worried look. Tadashi had never seemed to be the sort of person that could be susceptible to Setsuna Syndrome, but if he did develop it...

"Oh all my work is going to be useless if I can't carry it with me," Tadashi groaned.

Hiro smiled and tapped Tadashi's shoulder. "Hey Tadashi, watch this." With his brother's eyes on him, Hiro pulled back his sleeve ("nothing up it"), and then upended his hand. Microbots came raining out. "This is a subspace pocket. I'll teach you how to make one in a while."

"Wow..." Tadashi grabbed a Microbot. "Hiro, you never cease to amaze me."

Hiro chuckled and fist bumped his brother. "Trust me, you haven't even begun to see everything."

9.6 (Blazingen1): [Kingdom Hearts]

Sora had learnt from his loops that just as many things may vary loop to loop, so do Keyblades. Sometimes they are normal (by loop standards at least), and sometimes they're just plain ridiculous. Sometimes they aren't even key 'blades' at all, but some other combination. As he looked at some of the odder Keyblade variants in his Pocket, his mind wandered back to the times he used them.

Keydagger

Sora hid in the shadows as Xemnas's forces walked past. If a Keyblade wielder was similar to a knight, Keydagger wielders were more like Ninjas in the shadow. This was a fused loop with the Ancient Looper Naruto's world.

With a soft flash, Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared in both his hands. They were shorter in length due to this loop's variant of Keyblades.

"It's a good thing I learned to wield dual daggers back in the Ragnarok Loop that time."

KeyHammer

The chest was smashed to bits as a giant hammer version of Kingdom Key was tapped on it. Sora struggling to carry the heavy weapon made the scene all too funny.

"Of course the Keyhammer can open any lock," Sora muttered under his breath, "It practically smashes any lock open."

"Don't tell me you're already sick of the Keyhammer?" asked Riku, who for some reason was able to lift his own hammer version of the Way to Dawn.

"... How can you carry that thing with just one arm?"

"Why haven't you tried using magic to lighten your load?"

Sora was blank faced. He looked at his keyhammer, then at Riku; then back to his keyhammer and then to Riku's.

"Oh," Sora said as he now lifted Kingdom Key weightlessly.

KeyCannon

"WHOOOO HOOOO! YEAH!"

Sora swung from the ropes of the ship as he used his current weapon, 'Pirate's Life' to blast the Heartless off Jack Sparrow's ship.

"'Pirate's Life for me' is a pretty good description for this thing!"

Key... (Just Key)

Sora looked at his Kingdom Key that sat at the palm of his hand. This Loop, all Keyblades were the size of real keys.

"...So how did Xehanort cause the worlds to plunge into darkness with these things?" Sora asked the Looping!Mickey, who sat on the throne as his King Mickey persona.

"Trust me Sora, you don't want to know." The in-loop memories showing the horror Xehanort managed to make with the tiny trinkets were something he wished not to pass on, especially not to a good person like Sora.

"And the heartless being the size of bugs is because?"

MonKey (Yep, that pun)

"Gaaaahh! Get him off of me!!!!"

Riku and Kairi watched as their Anchor ran around screaming alongside a MonKey that was clinging onto Sora for dear life. Both were panicking at the presence of the other.

Riku, learning from in-loop memories, that the MonKey will mimic your emotions, which is why his MonKey sat quietly on his shoulders, while panicking Sora had a panicking MonKey clinging onto his face.

"What's wrong with him?" asked the rather concerned Kairi, who had her own MonKey beside her.

"He had a bad experience with monkeys a few loops back. He'll be fine in a few loops."

MicKey

Sora was speechless as he looked at his weapon for this loop.

Mickey, who was for some reason stiff as a board, was attached to the hilt.

"Just... Go with it," Mickey sighed in acceptance. Pun loops. It just had to be pun loops.

9.7 (Blazingen1): [Kingdom Hearts]

As once said, Keyblade variants sometimes can be fairly ridiculous...

LeaBlade:

"Doesn't this thing usually happen to Sora? You okay there Axel?"

"Why am I the blade? And it's Lea this time, not Axel."

"Alright then. Lea it is. I have to admit though. You make a pretty good heartless fighting weapon."

Keybread:

"What?" Riku was horribly confused when he summoned his Keyblade, but instead got a 'Keybread', 'Bake to Dawn'.

"Yup! Our Keyblades are edible this loop." Sora said excitedly as he summoned his own baguette looking Keybread.

"It'll probably feel weird to bash heartless with these things," Riku said rather annoyed.

"It's not that bad; we've had worse Keyblade variants plus, look!"

Sora bit off a bit of his Keybread, much to Riku's astonishment. The Keybread began to regenerate immediately, "Infinite bread!" Sora bit off a bigger chunk of bread this time.

"..."

"What?" Sora asked with his mouth stuffed with bread.

"...Nothing." 'Sora, you are really weird sometimes.'

Meblade:

"Ow ow ow!" muttered Sora as he swung his Meblade at the heartless around him until they were completely annihilated.

"Sorry. I know it hurts, but that's the way it is this loop."

In this loops, the Meblades were in fact copies of their wielders, like the time Mickey became a keyblade, only this time, since the blade is formed from the wielder, they too shall feel the pain inflicted by swinging it at enemies. Thus for the Kingdom Hearts loopers, there was a kind of Mikasa Glitch going on between Meblade and Meblade wielder.

"Why can't we use our own Keyblades again?"

"Because we can't access our Pockets this loop?" he answered rhetorically. Damn those hackers!

(A little later)

"So if Meblades are the thing, that means Xehanort had one too. Do you think he actually enjoys using...?"

"Whoa whoa whoa. We do not want to go there."

"Right! Right! Sorry. Save the therapy for when we really need it."

...and sometimes they can be very awesome.

Keytar:

"Wow! You're really good at this Riku." Sora and Riku were eliminating the Heartless with the power of music. Riku was unsurprisingly really good at using his Keytar, playing his in a fast paced rock music rhythm.

"I had practice in a hub loop as a band member," replied Riku.

"Besides, you should have seen Mickey use his! He literally brought the house down on Ansem (the Xehanort one)."

KiBlade (Dragonball)

It was the battle of the thousand heartless, and man were there a lot of them.

"HYAAAAAAH!"

Luckily Sora was prepared for it. He slammed his large blue Kiblade to the ground surrounding the heartless, the wave generated from it easily eliminating more that 200 of them.

"FIIIIIIIRRRREEEEEE!!!!!"

A large Firaga Laser launched from the KiBlade and swept across the heartless army.

"SAAALLVAAATIOOOON!!!!!"

Sora then swept his blade around himself as blinding light launched across the heartless, eliminating them all.

The battle was practically over in 10 seconds.

Donald and Goofy, both wearing cork earplugs on their ears, peeked through the barricade they made for themselves and then teleported themselves to the exhausted Sora, who was panting from expending so much ki.

"Did you really have to yell so loud?" asked Donald as he removed his earplugs.

"It's (pant) anime logic. (Pant) The louder you scream, the stronger the attack."

"I can't argue with that logic, ahyuk."

9.8 (wildrook; edits by OathToOblivion): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Kamen Rider]

Blade Blade:

"This might tickle a bit, Kenzaki-san," Sora muttered, almost wondering HOW he ended up working with the Destroyer of Worlds.

"Again?" Kenzaki Kazuma, Kamen Rider Blade, asked him. Kadoya Tsukasa, Kamen Rider Decade, rolled his eyes as he threw Blade's Final Form Ride Card into the Decadriver.

FINAL FORM RIDE: BL-BL-BL-BLADE!

This changed Blade into a giant version of the Blay Rouzer, the Blade Blade, for Sora to wield. Decade himself grabbed the Keyblade as Sora caught the Blade Blade.

Surprisingly, the Kingdom Key then changed into a magenta bar-coded Keyblade known as "Ride The Wind," which matched his own style. He also wondered why this next Card had a time limit on it. Whatever, they needed to get rid of Kurt Zisa. So, he tossed it into the Decadriver.

ATTACK RIDE: LIMIT BREAK!

"DECADE!" Sora yelled, using the Blade Blade to strike Kurt Zisa from the front while Decade used the Keyblade he was borrowing to slash through the Heartless' behind. After a few strikes, Sora tossed the Blade Blade to Decade as the Keyblade respawned in Sora's hand, striking the giant Heartless down in both areas. Decade then threw Blade's Final Attack Ride Card into the Decadriver.

FINAL ATTACK RIDE: BL-BL-BL-BLADE!

Both Sora and Tsukasa had gone for a final slash, Kurt Zisa collapsing onto the ground and exploding... and Kamen Rider Blade changed back to Rider Form.

"This is not one of my better Loops," Blade muttered.

"The A.R. Riders don't complain as much about Final Form Rides," Decade replied with a roll of his eyes.

Sora shook his head, before something occurred to him. "By the way, what happened to Yuusuke?" he asked them.

"Tried to safeguard the Princess," Onodera Yuusuke, the AR World Kamen Rider Kuuga, muttered as he arrived. "However, some weird guy dressed in red and black beat me to it."

"Red and black..." Sora said, then cringed. "You ran into Vanitas!?!"

Decade groaned, as something from his Loop Memories hit him. Blade just looked at them in confusion.

"Bad guy?" he asked the three.

"Very," Sora replied. "He's technically the darkness within my friend Ven's heart in human form...sorry for asking another favor out of you guys, but if he's out and about, something's up."

Decade then gave out a scoff. "It's another day at the office for a Passing Through Kamen Rider..."

"Well, I suppose it's nice to know that you never change, Tsukasa," Kuuga said, shaking his head.

Blade sighed. "Guess this puts my plans for this Loop on hold this time," he lamented. "I'll inform the other Riders about this... if they're Awake, of course."

9.9 (Hvulpes): [Phineas and Ferb] / [Star Wars]

Luke waked into the bathroom, only to see Phineas and Ferb using it.

Ferb spoke, "It had to be done."

As Luke saw Chewie in the bathtub getting wash, he realized they were giving a Wookie a shower.

9.10: [Star Wars] / [Disney] / [Kingdom Hearts] / [The Little Mermaid]

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away... three people were trapped in an Elevator that showed them places all over the multiverse.

These are the floors where they witnessed Disney Loopers.

(wildrook): Floor 63

"What's that sound?" Tarkin asked them.

Vader and Leia, wondering what Tarkin meant, heard the familiar music that was associated with a certain incident in one of their friends.

The door opened to reveal... a sapient broom with arms? Carrying buckets of water?

Tarkin, being the unawake one, wondered what kind of droid that was.

"That's not a droid," Vader said, shocking Tarkin. He was looking around the area to see if someone was around. "And if it wasn't for the force-field, the place would be flooded by now."

Leia then groaned. "How early are we?" she asked Vader.

"Let me put it this way... even Lord Diz-Ni had his off days..."

As soon as he said that, a certain mouse Woke Up... in both ways.

"Oh no, not again," he muttered. "Master Yen Sid may have thought it was funny the first time, but Waking Up in the middle of it? Good thing I remembered how to stop it."

He then extended his arms and slowed the broom to a halt with magic... as he sighed.

He then looked at the people in the elevator... then sighed.

"Elevator Loop?" he asked Vader and Leia. "With someone NOT Looping?"

Both of them nodded.

"Never heard of Lord Diz-Ni," Tarkin muttered. "Isn't there a rule concerning..."

"Normally, yes," Vader replied, "but this is him in his early stage. Being an apprentice is hard work."

"If you guys are finished," Mickey said, "I need to get rid of the excess water before something else happens."

That's when the door closed.

"And I was about to say the hat suited him," Leia muttered.

(Blazingen1): Floor 1013

The elevator opened to reveal a white room with three figures fighting. Awake!Sora and Awake!Riku were in their final battle against Xemnas in his armoured form, during the part where they reflected Xemnas's red aerial blade away. Sora and Riku were in overdrive, but that didn't stop them from looking at the elevator that appeared in thin air.

"Hey Mansex!" yelled Vader.

Xemnas actually turned away from his opponents and glared at the offending black armoured man.

"Ha! You responded!" said Vader, "F*ck off, Sith Lord wannabe!" The dark figure then flipped him the bird.

This distracted Xemnas enough so that both Sora and Riku could laser blast him into oblivion (or at least until he comes back again).

"Hey, Anakin! Hey, Leia!"

"Hello Sora."

The elevator doors then closed just as they were saying their goodbyes.

(Gamerex27): FLOOR 20000

The doors opened to reveal the seafloor, with dozens of little sea creatures swimming everywhere and singing.

A redheaded mermaid swam up to the elevator. "Leia? So that's what your human body looks like!"

"Hey, Ariel," Leia greeted her fellow princess. "How have the Loops been so far?"

"There are a few creepy Variants," she said, "like the one where my lower body feels like it's on fire whenever I get legs. Or the one where there are those painful tuna nets everywhere."

"Don't even get her started on the pollution ones," Flounder muttered.

"But other then that," she continued, "I'm fine. How are you?"

"Pretty fishie!" Tarkin cooed, much to Vader's discomfort. "Look at the pretty fishie!"

"Elevator prank," Leia explained. "We've been in here for... a few days now, I think... and Tarkin's lost it."

"Well, I'd try to give you something to help, but since everything's blocked off in those... I guess we'll just have to say good luck!"

"Right. See you at the next Eden Hall princess meeting," Leia said, as the elevators slid closed and Vader wiped more of Tarkin's drool off his leg again.

9.11 (katfairy): [Frozen] / [Batman Beyond]

Terry Awoke at the rail of an old-school wooden ship as it sailed into a ridiculously picturesque harbor. He'd gotten pretty good at judging how Loops compared to his baseline; this looked vaguely Victorian-era, judging from the clothes. He wasn't a sailor in this Loop, which had been his immediate guess; in fact, judging from his clothes, he was stinking rich. Then his Loop memories hit and it took all his training not to swear hard enough to crash the Loop, which he still couldn't believe was a thing. He wasn't just rich. He was the second-youngest of twelve princes, Prince Terje, which was as close as this language could get to Terry, and he was here to make sure his little brother didn't cause any trouble. Such as seducing a princess to gain access to her kingdom.

He had experience in dealing with bratty little brothers, but this was the first time he'd had to deal with one that was working on becoming evil. The twip thought that just being royalty entitled him to anything he wanted, and had no qualms about taking it by whatever means necessary. He'd been that way from the time he was a toddler, throwing temper tantrums any time someone told him "no", graduating to stealing his brothers' toys, to deliberately breaking them, to... wow. This guy was a dreg, no question. He acted like he'd realized he'd gone too far, and in return people pretended to believe him. This visit was his final chance to prove himself, and Terry had been sent as insurance.

As the ship docked, Terry could hear music. An entire orchestra, in fact. And a girl singing happily about something happening for the first time in forever. And absolutely nobody reacted to this as though it was strange. Yeah, it was going to be one of those Loops.

The girl appeared soon enough, dressed in a green gown almost as expensive as his outfit. She was pretty, if a bit awkward, and he wondered if he was going to have to fish her out of the harbor at the end of her song. That was how musical numbers sung by pretty but awkward girls near any water larger than a kitchen sink tended to end, after all. And sure enough, just after they docked, she started to go in. His brother had been watching too, with that too-innocent expression on his face, but Terry was faster. Before his brother even had a chance, Terry had swung down on a convenient rope (because of course there was one) and plucked her out of harms' way. Well, embarrassment's way, at least. She looked up at him as he set her down on the dock, hero worship in her eyes. He was so doomed.

"Uh, thanks. For- for saving me. Not that I can't swim, but—I'm Anna."

"Terje. Or Terry, depending on how you like to pronounce it."

"Terry. What a nice name. Oh! I—Bye!" And she was gone, dashing back toward the castle, and even from behind he could swear he could see the glow of her blush. Well, at least if she had a crush on him she wouldn't be likely to fall prey to Hans. But why was it that he couldn't seem to go a single Loop without someone getting a crush on him?

"Nice work, brother," Hans said with apparent sincerity. "Very swashbuckling."

"I just reacted."

"Of course you did." Hans went back onto the ship to gather his belongings; Terry's were already on shore, since he'd gathered them before Awakening. He used the time to send out a Ping, and was glad to get one back. He had done a few as-good-as-solo Loops, when nobody had responded to his Ping, and it was never as satisfying. He didn't expect to hear a voice almost immediately afterwards, though.

"I wondered if you were a Looper. Welcome to Arendelle; name's Kristoff. Where's home for you?"

Terry turned to find a big burly peasant smiling at him. Kristoff had spoken quietly enough that they wouldn't be overheard, and Terry responded the same way.

"Gotham. That girl—she's a princess, isn't she? Is she in danger? Or is she our plucky young heroine?"

"Yes. So, I'm guessing that you're not new to the Loops, even if it is your first time here. We need to talk, but this isn't the place. Can you get an hour or so away from your brother?"

"We're staying at our embassy, so that should be pretty easy. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on him, but he'll take hours to get ready for the coronation. Can you meet me by the way the servants use to sneak out at night? I'm pretty sure there is one, and I can find them pretty quick most of the time. Yeah, that sounded less sketchy in my head," Terry admitted as Kristoff's smile turned into a grin.

"I'll be there," was all he said before he left. Hans came back a few minutes later, and for the next hour, Terry was busy getting them settled into their country's embassy. As expected, Hans no sooner got into his room than he ordered a bath followed by a string of carefully worded requests that never sounded unreasonable but added up to a fair amount of pampering. Terry didn't argue, since it meant Hans would be busy until it was time to go. Terry simply laid out his own outfit, asked for a bath to be ready in three hours, and considered that to be good enough. That done, he slipped down the back stairs, and within seconds of stepping into the garden he'd spotted the little door half-hidden behind the vines.

"Okay, so what's the story here?" he asked as soon as the door closed behind him. Kristoff had been waiting in the alley, which was clean and quiet.

"The girl you rescued is Princess Anna, and in baseline it was Hans who did that. You can guess how things went after that. But that's actually not the important part." Kristoff's story was straight out of a fairy tale: a princess with ice powers, cryptic advice from magic creatures, betrayal, and true love. It was a little disappointing to learn that both princesses were unAwake Loopers, as he would have enjoyed comparing notes with them too, but oh, well. "So, I don't mind her crushing on you, since she's not Awake and nobody from the Bat crowd is going to pull anything on her that I'd have to stop. Because I would. Not that I think you would, but..."

"Nah, I get it. I've done the same thing with my girlfriend when she's fallen for another Looper. Of course, she's not Looping, but still. I'll try to keep Hans away from Anna, but I don't think that's going to prevent some other kind of blowup. Elsa sounds like a time bomb. No offense, but those trolls of yours really screwed up on that."

"No, that's fair," Kristoff shrugged. "Elsa's told me the exact wording enough times that I've got it memorized, and if I'd been her parents, I'd probably have thought the same as they did. I've called them on it any number of times, but they aren't Looping either, and I'm never Awake early enough to do anything about it."

"Well, that sucks."

"Yeah. Both girls need therapy at this point in the Loop, and I'm not really very good at being as tactful as I should be for that kind of thing. Also, peasant. There's no way I'd be allowed in the castle to help. It's all on you, unless one of them Awakens later. No pressure."

"None at all."

They talked a while longer, and Kristoff made sure that Terry had as much detailed knowledge of the events of the next day or so as he could cram into a couple of hours. There were so many little things that could go wrong; still, if Elsa did freak out and run from the castle, the Loop tended to follow the pattern. It was quite railroading, but it was similar enough that Terry would know exactly where to head to intervene at any given moment. Both agreed that the best thing to do if things went all Fimbulwinter was to make sure Terry would be with Kristoff and Anna when they tracked down Elsa. Kristoff would be leaving as soon as he was done talking to Terry, making sure that he would be in place to rescue Anna once she fell in the stream. Not before, though; he wanted her in a more sensible outfit for traveling and experience had told him that she wouldn't voluntarily waste time on silly things like clothes that would keep her from freezing to death. They wished each other luck and went their separate ways.

Terry awoke, this time without the capital A, head throbbing, in the dark. He had expected Hans to pull something, but being sucker-punched and... was he? Yep, locked in a trunk... was a bit much. He took a few seconds to decide how best to handle this, then shrugged and pulled his wand out of his Pocket. One quick Blasting spell and the trunk was splinters raining down around the room; a casual onlooker might get the impression that Terry was a bit peeved. The wand went back in, and he stormed down the stairs, bellowing orders to find Hans and arrest him. He knew it wouldn't do much good, but the evidence he showed that Hans had attacked him (mainly, the bump on his head and the fact that Hans had lied about Terry's having left early for the coronation) was a good foundation for later. His next order was for a horse from the stable that was both sturdy and fast, and for a riding costume that wouldn't leave him with frostbite. Since the blizzard had already enveloped Arendelle, nobody argued. As soon as he was changed, he left one last order: send someone to find the ambassador and tell him what had happened. Then he jumped on an impressively large dapple-grey horse and thundered away in proper fairy-tale fashion.

He didn't think he'd been out for too long, but he'd bet Anna was more than halfway to her ice bath by now. He'd head for the store where Kristoff had met her in baseline. He got there almost an hour before they did; he hadn't been out for as long as he'd thought.

"Terry? What are you doing here? How's your head?" Anna stared at him, ignoring her icy clothes. "Hans told me you had a bad headache."

"Yeah, well, since he's the one who bashed me over the head, he should know."

"What a jerk," Kristoff muttered. "Told you the guy had a bad reputation."

"But he was so sweet to me," she said. "Why would he do that?"

"Because you're a princess and next in line to the throne," Terry said bluntly. "I was sent to keep him away from you, because our parents knew that you'd been sealed away in that castle most of your life and probably hadn't had much company outside of books. That's bad enough for anyone, but for a royal, that's a recipe for disaster. You're smart, I can see that, but some things have to be learned by just getting out into the world and meeting people. Look, I don't know all of what's going on, and I hope you'll tell me, but first you need to get into something dry and warm."

Anna stared at him still, but finally bit her lip and accepted the only warm outfit available. Terry wasn't surprised that both fit and color were perfect for her. She explained her side of the story through the closed door as she changed, and Terry winced. So far, he hadn't done much but keep her from falling for Hans. That was better than nothing, but from things she let slip, Hans was not willing to settle for being friend-zoned. The three men in the shop exchanged grimaces.

"Nice girl, but too sheltered," the shopkeeper sighed. "These royals need a good dose of reality sometimes. Could be worse; at least she and her sister aren't like those step-sisters of the princess in the kingdom just south of here. I could tell you stories..."

"I was down there once," Kristoff said. "Heard 'em sing. Good thing is, it cleared out that impacted ear wax."

"I really hope that's the most disgusting thing I hear today," Terry deadpanned.

"No fair challenging me when we have to ride with Anna."

Terry just grinned.

Kristoff had told him about the spat with the wolves, which wasn't too hard to avoid, along with a few other incidents they could skip to save time. It would mean getting to Elsa before she made the giant psycho snowman, which Terry wasn't all that eager to meet. The whole thing was reminding him of the many and varied ways he failed to save Victor Fries from either falling into Derek Powers' hands or being stuck as a disembodied head forever, and evil snow was hitting a little too close to home after his last Loop. Thankfully, the first living snow creature he met was anything but.

"Kristoff! Hi! Who's our new friend?"

Introductions were made, and they continued towards Elsa's ice castle. By knowing all the difficulties in advance, they were able to avoid them, arriving at the castle hours earlier than they had in baseline, according to Kristoff's muttered aside. As they crossed the bridge, Terry began to whistle a tune his grandmother for one Loop had loved. To his surprise, Kristoff groaned.

"You had to do that, didn't you? Now I'm gonna have that stuck in my head for years!"

Terry just cackled dementedly. He hadn't expected anyone to recognize the tune, but he was always happy to torment people with it when they did. As far as he was concerned, it was the single schmaltziest song in all the Loops, and he put great effort into avoiding hearing anything worse. But they were entering the castle now; time to get serious.

Elsa's new dress was distracting, but Terry reminded himself that Dana would kick his ass and focused his mind on getting her straightened out before Hans and that guy from Weaseltown or whatever the name of that country was showed up with their mob. But first they had to convince her that she wasn't going to Doom Them All by accident.

"It's not safe for me to be around people!" she insisted. "Look outside! At least if I stay here, Arendelle will be safe. And you, if you go back there."

"Yeah, about that," Kristoff said. "Arendelle's in a deep-freeze too."

Elsa's eyes grew wide, and the light snow around the castle started to intensify. Terry gave Kristoff a dirty look.

"That tact thing? Work on it. Seriously." He turned to Elsa, choosing his words carefully. "Look, the problem here isn't you. It's your training."

"I—I haven't trained this. I've just tried to fight it back."

"Well, there's your problem." Terry mentally dope-slapped himself for the impromptu Mythbusters imitation, and Kristoff returned his dirty look. "Your Highness, you have these powers, and all the pretending in the world won't make them go away. You have to learn control, not repression. It's a lot harder, but it actually works. Have you ever seen what happens to a sealed bottle if it gets heated?"

"I've been working on my control since I got up here," Elsa said. "But after so many years, I—I can't. I didn't even know I'd created Olaf. I am trying, I swear I am, but I just can't. Not yet. When I just let myself go, I made this castle. I know when I'm not being scared of myself that I can do wonderful things. But I have to be alone to get that confidence. When there are others around, I'm terrified; I almost killed Anna once, when we were young. She doesn't remember it, but that's how she got that streak in her hair—we were playing, and I slipped, and my magic hit her in the head. Father and Mother took us to the trolls, and they helped Anna, but they said I had to—Oh. Oh, dear. Oh, Father... He meant well, he did, and he was never anything but kind, but he got it wrong, didn't he?"

"Little bit, yeah," Kristoff said.

"Please stop helping," Terry said, wondering if Kristoff was, well, trolling. "Anyway, ignoring him, you can't solve this by hiding. You're going to make mistakes. Everyone does. But there are so many reasons why you need to get used to having people around, and soon."

"Because of Prince Hans' mob of angry... shutting up now," Olaf said. Terry hadn't realized a snowman could blush. He looked back at Elsa, but she didn't look more nervous. If anything, she looked slightly feral.

"Prince Hans, is it?" she said. "The Prince Hans who tried to manipulate Anna?"

"You knew too?" Anna blurted. "Am I the only one who didn't?"

"Anna, before the accident, we left the palace fairly often to play with children of the local nobles. I was old enough to see some of what people could get up to, and our parents warned me about other dangers as I grew older. You never had the chance, and part of that was my fault. I should have insisted on you being allowed to go out. Isolation can make you..." Elsa broke off, frowning. "I'm using your argument, aren't I, Prince Terje?"

"You kinda are."

Elsa thought for a few minutes, and they let her. Outside, the snow thickened and dissipated in turns; they were all relieved when it slowed to a mere flurry, occasional flashes of sunlight visible.

"I'm still not sure about this," she said, "but I have responsibilities. To my people and my sister. Can you help me?"

"We all can," Anna said. "I don't know how, but I want to help. After all, part of this is my fault, and even if it wasn't, you're still my sister. Look—you've even built a snowman, just like we used to. And I'm not afraid of you. I know you'd never deliberately hurt me. And if you do by accident, well, accidents happen even when you're careful. Elsa, please—come home. I've missed having a sister."

"...So have I," Elsa whispered. The two hugged, and the last of the clouds vanished from the sky. Terry heard a loud sniffle next to him and handed Kristoff his handkerchief without looking. An even louder honk followed.

"Don't even think of trying to give that back," he said.

"Okay. But this part always gets me, no matter when in the Loops it comes. It may not be romance, but it is True Love. They are looking through—"

"Do you want to be a snowman? Then finish that sentence. I dare you."

"Do I want to know?" Elsa was looking at them, amused, with Anna grinning by her side.

"They've been like this since we met at that trading post. I don't understand half of what they say, but it's just so much fun to watch."

"Just for that, I think Terry should explain. And sing."

"Oh, no. You brought it up again; you explain. And sing."

"You started it."

"Yeah, but not where anybody but you heard it; Anna was too far ahead."

"Gentlemen..." Elsa's smile was far too sweet, and the ice began to sparkle ominously. Terry and Kristoff looked at each other yet again, cringing. Maybe they were doomed after all.

"...Since Iiiiiii fouuuuund yoooooo/ Looking throuuugh the ey-ey-eyes of Looooove," Terry and Kristoff harmonized, Sven yodeling in counterpoint. Elsa and Anna were collapsed in Elsa's throne, helpless with laughter. Olaf was giggling hard enough to dislodge his nose; he held it in one stick hand.

"Oh, dear heavens, that's awful," Elsa gasped. "And you say this was popular?"

"Yep. And ten years later, nobody remembered it even existed." Terry said.

"Or at least would admit to it," Kristoff snickered.

"Can you blame them?" Anna giggled. "I know I've read too many romances, but none of them were so... sappy."

"It was a heartwarming, inspirational story," Terry said as pompously as he could, bringing out a fresh spate of giggles from the sisters. It wasn't quite how he'd intended to get Elsa to relax, but if it worked, it worked.

"Heartwarming and inspirational," Elsa said. "Two words that strike fear into the hearts of anyone with taste. But I am so using that song for something someday."

"..."

"..."

"Okay, how long have you been Awake?" Terry and Kristoff chorused.

"Since about halfway through the first line. You were performing it so... intently that I just didn't have the heart to interrupt."

"Me neither," Anna said, blushing as she looked at Terry. "Oh, and sorry about that whole hero-worship thing."

"It happens. Every. Single. Loop. Not your fault; I think the damn tree thinks it's funny. I'm sorry it picked on you this time."

"Well, at least I wasn't crushing on ol' Horrible Hans. Ooooo, Elsa, I just had an idea! How quickly can you learn that song?"

Terry had worried that the Loop was going to be overloaded on drama. As he watched Elsa pretending to throw herself at a panicking Hans who was clearly trying to figure out how to explain that he wanted Anna and not the scary ice witch who could turn him into a jerksicle with a flutter of her eyelashes, while Elsa sang the Worst Song Ever, he knew that his fears were groundless. He and Kristoff had dealt with Weaselduke and his mooks, and Anna had charmed the rest into submission. Olaf helped by being utterly unintimidating. He walked out on the balcony, looked down to Arendelle where the harbor was clear and blue. and smiled. Yep, definitely one of those Loops.

9.1-9.4: And so a movie retelling begins. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the conclusion was ever written, but I'd like to think it had a happy ending.

9.5: Welcome to the Loops, Tadashi.

9.6: Puns are an occasional fact of life in the Loops.

9.7: "I can't argue with that logic." No. No, you can't.

9.8: For context, Tsukasa and Yuusuke are looping in place of Donald and Goofy, and the original (as in, not A.R.) Kazuma Kenzaki, Kamen Rider Blade, is present. Also, because of the Fused Loop potential... Vanitas is Dark Decade.

9.9: For those unfamiliar, this references a scene from the Phineas and Ferb theme song.

9.10: Elevator Sagas pop up occasionally. For the full Star Wars Elevator Saga, see chapter 12 of Star Wars Episode Infinity: the Loops by Crossoverpairinglover.

9.11: Frozen Beyond.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-10-21. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

10.1 (LordCirce): [Phineas and Ferb]

"Phineas and Ferb, what are you two up to?" Candace marched across the yard towards her brothers, Stacy following behind her, eyes rolling.

"It's a surprise, for Isabella's birthday!" Phineas glanced up, Unawake but smiling brightly. Candace froze.

"Isabella's... birthday..." Blinking, she shook her head and spun around. "Right, well, that sounds like fun, but, oh, look at the time, I've got to, run errands. Yeah." Grinning, she pushed the sodas she was carrying into Stacy's arms and dashed out of the yard, leaving Stacy and her brothers to stare after her.

"Wow, Candace sure is busy." Phineas said.

"You could call it that." Stacy sighed. "Well, I guess I will be watching the Grievance by myself. Joy."

Candace raced down the street. 'Note to self, next time, take the time to grab your bike.' Still, she knew she had plenty of time to put her plan into motion. Isabella had confided a bit in her before the end of last Loop about what she really wanted for her birthday, and Candace had had a crazy idea for how to fulfill it. Plus, she owed Looping Isabella for her help with fighting those weird goo aliens from a couple of loops ago, so she figured this could be a chance to pass it on.

Finally, her goal came in sight. Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.

Luckily, the elevator was working, so she was able to head straight up to the top floor. She headed over and knocked on the door to Dr. D's lab.

After a couple of minutes, the door opened, and Vanessa peered out. "Oh, hey Candace, what's up?"

"Hi Vanessa. Do you think that I could borrow your dad's hoversled for a little bit?" Candace grinned brightly.

Vanessa blinked. "Sure, I guess. Dad is off driving some sort of bee-mobile, so it's just parked on the roof. Do you even know how to drive it?" Vanessa headed back inside, and Candace followed her in and out to the roof.

"Yeah. I mean, it can't be any more difficult than flying one of Phineas and Ferb's spaceships or monster trucks or walking treehouse robots."

Vanessa raised and eyebrow. "Treehouse robots? You have got to show me some time."

"Sure. Now, before we go, does your dad have any spare cages laying around?"

Vanessa burst out laughing.

"Alright, make a wish!" Phineas cheered brightly as he and Isabella climbed up the ladder for her to blow out the candles on her massive birthday cake.

Isabella sighed lightly, before closing her eyes to make her wish. 'I wish for time alone with Phineas.' Then, she blew out the candles. With a loud pop, the candles then burst, shooting confetti into the air.

"There's the signal! Alright, let's do this!"

"So, did you get what you wished for?" Phineas smiled up at Isabella, but before she could answer, Buford cut in.

"Yeah, because it's every girl's wish to have her backyard covered in litter. Come on you two, next event."

However, before any of them could move, a large hovercraft shot overhead, with a dangling arm shooting down and creating a cage around Phineas and Isabella, whisking them straight off of the ladder. Buford blinked.

"Wait, I thought I was providing the forceful transportation. Someone jacked my gig."

"Oh no! This isn't part of the plan." Phineas raced around the cage in a panic. "Now the schedule will be all off. The finale is on a timer, and we don't want it going off during the piñata. Don't worry, I'll get us out of here." He quickly started fiddling with the latch of the cage.

Isabella glanced around and noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Someone was leaning over the edge of the hovercraft. She was about to point it out to Phineas when she recognized the figure.

"Candace?"

"Did you say something Isabella?" Phineas glanced over at her, and up above, Candace ducked back out of sight, but not before giving Isabella a thumbs up.

"Oh, uh, I said, um, can you wait? I mean, we are pretty high up, so we should wait till we get lower to try and escape."

Phineas blinked. "Okay. I guess we can wait."

Isabella smiled then sat down on the floor of the cage. "Until then, we can just enjoy the view."

Phineas nodded, distractedly. "Yeah." He sat down next to her and ran his hand over the floor of the cage. "I do have to say, I like the shag carpeting for this cage."

"So, let me get this straight. You captured your brother and his friend, and we are going to fly them around over the city." Vanessa raised an eyebrow from where she was working the cage controls.

"Yep. Isabella likes Phineas. I have no idea why, but she needs all the help she can get, so I figure we can give them a romantic fly-over for two."

"In a cage." Vanessa was smirking at this point.

Candace rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not like I had a lot of resources to work with. They got the carpeted cage, anyway." Candace blinked, then glanced back at Vanessa. "Why does your dad have a shag carpeted cage?"

Vanessa shrugged. "Something to do with a Static-Clinginator. I don't really remember." Glancing over the side, she blinked twice. "Huh, looks like my dad crashed into a house down there."

Candace glanced over. "Oh hey, that's Stacy's house." Thinking back, Candace realized what must be happening down there. "Eh, she'll be fine."

10.2 (RockGolem): [Attack on Titan] / [Gargoyles]

Eren saw the giant titan kick through the gate of the outer wall the doors flying through the air and crashing into some of the houses near by. Removing the high tech binoculars he'd been using, the looper turn to the people sitting next to him on top a building close to the second second great wall Rose. "I still say we should kill the titans now and have a nice relaxing loop hanging out with the new guys."

Connie popped some chips into her mouth before telling Eren to "Shut up and enjoy the show."

Jean just shrugged as his eyes moved to the sun which had almost completely set. "Armin says when something cool is going to happen at nightfall and that's good enough for me."

Armin just sat there with a smug look on his face, a few loops ago he had swapped places with someone called Owen Bennett and had been working as a personal assistant for one David Xanatos one of the most awesome and machiavellian loopers he had ever met. So when he awoke this loop and realized what was going on he used his telepathy to connect all the other loopers and told them not to check their memories for this loop and meet him on this building next to the Rose Wall. He'd brought a load of chairs, binoculars and snacks and now as the last of the sun's rays were visibly fading into twilight he turned giddily to the top of Rose Wall where stood close to a thousand statues, each of a hellish demon like form and sitting a couple feet apart from each other. No two were the same the, closest ones ranged from small with wings like those of a flying squirrel attached to his arms and legs to a medium sized one with and large beak in place of a mouth and bat like wings from sprouting from his shoulders to a giant one over nine feet tall his regal features clear through the stone and had his wings drawn around him like a cape.

"Any second now." muttered Armin.

"Well the titans have breached the outer wall so if something is going to happen it needs to happen soon." Sasha said as she put away her binoculars not wanting to see what the titans would do to those unfortunate enough to anywhere near them.

"Look!" shouted Armin as he pointed to the top of the second wall. The loopers turned to see all the statues start to crack at the same time and then with the sounds of stone shattering and roars of powerful animals the statues exploded to reveal creatures of flesh and blood. Eyes glowing, muscles bulging the creatures roared into the night.

"So many colors." said Mikasa as she stared at these creatures who indeed came in many different hues from grey to bright yellow to the purple giant who shouted orders to his kin atop the wall.

"Brothers, sisters, protect our home, protect our human brethren, attack these monsters!" the creatures roared again and then took flight into the night to go forth and battle the titans.

Eren having seen enough looked at his memories and discovered just what was going on. It seemed in this loop humanity had allies in the form of Gargoyles, stone by day warriors by night. As long as humans protected the gargoyles during the day when they were unable to protect themselves the gargoyles would aid the humans in return. Strong enough to bend steel, able to glide through the air with their wings and with talons able to pierce stone they were great warriors and fantastic fighters against titans.

Suddenly a blue blur knocked Armin of his seat and onto the rooftop everyone summoned a weapon from their pockets only to halt as they heard Armin laughing "Hahaha Bronx knock it off that tickles hahaha."

Eren felt the air stir behind him as he heard something settle behind him. "Bronx what are you doing... oh hey Armin!"

Armin finally pushed the blue hell dog off him and turned to the gargoyle with a beak, who turned out to be red colored, and gave him his hand. "Hey Brooklyn welcome to my loop I hope you enjoy your stay with us."

10.3 (wildrook): [RWBY] / [Beauty and the Beast] / [Snow White] / [Mulan]

"You're not Belle," a voice said. "In fact, you seem rather... beastly yourself."

"I get that a lot," the black-haired woman replied. "You're just nicer than Adam Taurus, from what I've seen."

The beast gave out a chuckle. "Coincidental, but I haven't gone by Adam in a while. You are?"

"Blake Belladonna. Guess that makes me Belle for this Loop."

It wasn't exactly a romance, but a friendship. Probably because Blake wanted to see the Library.

Weiss was going through her default annoyed expression.

This wasn't because her friends are nowhere to be found, nor is it because she got stuck with the chores of seven little men who mined in the field.

Instead, it was the foresight of an evil queen about to come to her house and offer her a poisoned apple. She was NOT some damsel in distress to be rescued by a prince.

"Yo," a voice said, catching her by surprise.

Weiss's weapon was out as she looked at the man in question, but settled down.

"Well, you're an improvement over the future visitor, at least," she replied to the blond-haired male. "I take it you're the prince, Jaune?"

"Had this been when we first met," he replied, "I think I would have fainted at the opportunity. Still, better me than the Queen. Thank Pyrrha's training that I was able to get out in time, too."

Weiss gave out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled about her, either. Assassination plots are common where I'm from, and her methods aren't exactly noteworthy in our world. You bring our weapons?"

Jaune nodded as he brought out his sword and shield. "Take it you're up for a spar?"

Weiss then gave out a smirk. "It would be interesting to spar with someone my size this time." Jaune's look was of confusion. "Turns out in this variation, the Dwarves are war veterans and they're mining what's left of the fortress that fell. Surprisingly, Grumpy acts a lot like Jayne Cobb when it comes to battle."

"Oh, I thought they were Awake."

Within the Imperial Boot Camp, Lie Ren had to maintain the look of a professional in the face of the Emperor's Assistant. He wasn't exactly a speaking man, but after sending out a few pings from at least four or five of his soldiers, he had a sneaking suspicion that he didn't replace his namesake.

That was actually confirmed when he noticed four of them talking like they were old friends, but only three of them were on his list.

'Must be Mulan,' he thought. 'Wonder if that dragon's with her.' "Excuse me," he said, catching them by surprise as they stood to attention. "Can I speak to you four in private?"

"Uh, sure," the smaller one replied. "What for?"

"Well, I need an Anchor to stabilize myself considering I've been thrown for a Loop."

That got the soldier in green in surprise. "My tent's out of the way," the "man" replied. "If you're feeling Loopy, we can talk."

Lie Ren nodded. "Nightfall," he replied. "I have to deal with the Emperor's Secretary staring down my back."

"I must admit, I didn't expect to meet my namesake," Ren said, looking at the woman in disguise. "I thought I'd end up in a Rule 63 Loop."

"You think that's crazy," a voice replied, "I sometimes end up as a cop in Detroit for some reason. Hey there, new guy. Name's Mushu... and this is Mulan, or rather, Ping."

Mulan rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Mushu tends to wake up in roles by Eddie Murphy more often than we can count," she said. "And you are?"

"Captain Lie Ren for this Loop," Ren replied. "And those three were close friends of yours?"

"Lang, Chen Po, and Yao," Mulan said. "And yes, they're recent Loopers who know my secret and of Mushu. I'm just surprised you replaced Shang."

Ren shrugged. "I felt something was off when Nora wasn't bugging me when I was Awake... in both senses of the term."

"So I take it you're not going to tell anyone about Ping's secret?" Mushu asked him, prompting a nod from the man. "Right, so... what was that about Mulan here being your namesake?"

"Well, it's a long story..."

10.4 (Awesomedude17): [Mortal Kombat] / [Frozen]

Sub-Zero could only smile at how well he was training his newest pupil this loop.

A strange woman had replaced Frost this time, but as far as he was concerned, she was more humble, in spite of her greater power.

Still, he wondered if the ice powers she had were baseline, or a result of becoming Frost.

That would be a question for later, now he finished up his training session with her.

"Good job Elsa. You are doing well."

"Thank you Grand Master. I must ask you something."

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever felt like you've done something before?"

"I am a looper if that's what you're asking."

"Oh good! I can tell you so much."

I knew it. Sub-Zero chuckled. This would be an interesting talk.

10.5 (LordCirce): [Frozen] / [Pokémon]

Elsa sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "Ok, run it by me one more time?"

Off to the side, Anna giggled, while Pikachu, or rather Helen this Loop, let out a long breath. "Ok, we are all shrine maidens at Shamouti Island, one for each legendary elemental bird. You have been pestering Anna and I for weeks about going out on an adventure and seeing the world with Articuno, while Anna and I, responsible sisters that we are, have been standing firm on the idea that you have responsibilities here that you can't just abandon for a flight of fancy. You decided to sneak out today, and the two of us just caught you, when we all Woke Up."

Elsa nodded slowly, before shaking her head. "Yes, that's what I thought you said and what I remembered, but I still just can't picture Anna being the responsible one."

"Hey!", Anna put her hands on her hips of her decorative kimono. "I can be plenty responsible." She maintained her scowl for all of three seconds, before breaking down in giggles again.

Elsa smiled at her, before turning around. "Right, well, I'm going to change out of these tight pants and make myself a proper ice dress, and then we can discuss what we will do this Loop."

10.6 (RockGolem): [Phineas and Ferb] / [Darkwing Duck]

Dr Heinz Doofenshmirtz was putting the finishing touches on the inator of the day when his new warning-system-inator went off "Ah, Perry the Platypus, your coming here is unexpected, and by unexpected I mean COMPLETELY EXPECTED!" He whirled around to trap Perry the Platypus only to not find him but something else instead.

"Sorry Dr Doofenshmirtz but today you don't face the powerful, pint-sized platypus but the newest agent of the Organization Without a Cool Acronym, the masked mallard of mystery instead."

"What are you? Some kind of giant duck who talks, what's with that? And who's your tailor I mean the purple jacket is fine but the purple cape, mask and fedora thats just pushing it. Oh and it's pronounced OH-WAK-AH you genius."

Blue smoke quickly filled the room to the point that mere seconds later Doofenshmirtz couldn't see a thing in front of him. He pulled out his ray-gun-inator just in case and as he put one foot forward a voice boomed out. "I am the Terror that flaps in the night!"

He made his way to where the voice had come from only to spin around as the voice now came from directly behind him. "I am the invention that disappears when you turn your back!"

Heinz twisted around pointing his trembling ray-gun-inator at the all encompassing cloud of smoke. "I am Darkwing Duck." The voice whispered in his ear causing him to freeze in terror. "Now then Dr Doofenshmirtz, Let's get dangerous."

Perry the Platypus sat on his deck chair on top of the big tree in the Flynn-Fletcher backyard drinking something tasty from a coconut and enjoying his rest. He was happy that Drake Mallard had offered to take over his Doofenshmirtz duties for the loop and hoped both of them had fun.

10.7 (Hvulpes; wildrook): [Phineas and Ferb]

Doctor Doofenshmirtz said, "I didn't build this Inator for evil, Perry the Platypus. No, I built it for good. To save Danville from the plague which floods its streets. The people are ill, even if they don't look it, don't know it. They are sick and I have the cure with this Inator."

Perry from his tiny cage, look puzzled at the unawake scientist as he pointed to another ray-gun like Inator. Pondering what disease the Mad Scientist was trying to cure with it as Doof continued his monologue. It was soon close to ending...

"Yeah, Danville has a fever, Perry the Platypus. The only cure for the fever is The More-Cowbell-Inator!"

If Perry could speak in human tongue, his response would have been a flat "What."

10.8 (kingofsouls): [Frozen] / [Sword Art Online] / [My Little Pony] / [Avatar: Legend of Korra] / [Munchkin - safe-mode Loop] / [Admin Shenanigans] (not compiled in MLP)

Elsa Awoke to the smell of rotting skin, ruined houses, and a darkened sky. Cars were flipped over and broken, and dead bodies that looked half eaten littered the surrounding ground. All in all the feeling of overwhelming helplessness and the end times being the current time.

She sighed. A Zombie Apocalypse loop.

The gnawing unending hunger clued her in about what she was: a zombie. Looking down she saw her decayed flesh, bone sticking out for the added gross factor. Oddly eight canisters with cards were in her rotting hand, depicting cartoonish things.

"Great. A zombie apocalypse loop."

"Better than being a prisoner of a pervert." Else turned to face the speaker, a orange haired young girl with a style of clothing, the coloration white with red highlights. The clothing looked unusual in the zombie setting she currently was in. "....are you looping?"

Elsa nodded, the girl sighing. "Good. This place... it's not exactly... pleasant."

"Well judging from what my sister told me of this one loop where I was a lich sorceress... that's probably an accurate statement." Elsa laughed. "I'm Elsa, Queen of Arendelle."

"Yuuki Asuna." The other girl replied, holding her hand out for Elsa to take, which she did. "So... uh where are we?"

"I do not know..."

"Neither do I." The two girls turned to face the newcomer, a purple dead unicorn, a sour expression showing despite the decaying face. "Hi Elsa."

"Twilight. Good to see you again."

"Likewise Elsa. " Twilight replied. She then noticed the rotting Asuna. "Asuna, right?"

"Yea, how do you..?"

"I'm familiar with Sword Art Online." Twilight spoke. "A pleasure meeting you."

With a gust of wind Jinora landed, looking just as undead as the other three ladies. "...I don't like this loop. Not at all."

Asuna blinked, noticing the girl she did not know. "Hi, uh..."

Twilight took it upon herself to introduce the two. "Asuna, this is Jinora. She Anchors her part of the Avatar loop. Jinora, this is Asuna."

The two girls shook hands, grateful for the chance to meet. Jinora took the opportunity to break the ice. "So any idea what's going to happen here?"

"No idea, but for some reason it feels like being in a game. Like Sword Art Online or ALFheim Online." Asuna mused. "Maybe it's some kind of Varia..." Then the loop memories hit. "...what's Munchkin, and why are there zombies involved?"

A letter then appeared out of nowhere, Elsa taking it and reading it out loud. "Dear Loopers. Trying out a new safe mode game loop. Instructions on how to play should be in your Loop Memories. Have fun. Xenu."

Twilight shrugged, the action hard for a pony, especially a decaying one, to do convincingly. "Huh. Haven't been to one of the loops he admins in a while."

"So...we're playing a game...where we're zombies." Jinora said out loud with a heavy sigh. "...this is going to be... awkward."

Asuna however was busy looking at the cards in her 'hand', taking the form of little capsules with the card inside (her loop memories told her that if she wanted to play a card breaking the capsule was the thing to do). "You're telling me. Forked Tongue? Leftovers? Decaying Flab?? The hell is this?"

Twilight took a look at her cards, laughing. "Smart Shoes? Well, at least I got something close to normal."

"You're lucky Twilight. I got my Own Pancreas And/Or Spleen." Jinora mused, resisting the urge to gag.

Elsa took a look at her hand of cards, particularly one that stood out.

"On Fire?" Elsa mused. Shrugging, she decided to be the brave one, and crushed the capsule, playing the card.

Predictably, she was immediately set on fire.

"Uh..."

"Yes, I probably should have seen that coming."

Jinora took another look at her cards and found one in particular. "...Swallow the Leader? Might as well."

She crushed it, and then eyed the far reaches of the background. "...uh...is it just me or did the White House just appear in the distance. And why....does the president sound tasty right about now?"

"I wouldn't go there. Politicians are fattening." Twilight jested. A snowball was flung into her, Elsa smirking as Twilight and the other shared a laugh.

After about a minute of dinking around, Jinora became Smart (a hard feat for a zombie), Twilight had an Umbrella coming out her head, and Asuna wielded Another Zombie like an unliving sword. Elsa however remained unchanged, the ice queen continuing to burn. "This is going to be one of those Loops isn't it?" mused the queen.

"Kurito and Klein are never going to let me live this down, that's for sure." Asuna complained. "Well... who wants to kick down the first door."

"I guess I will." Ela gulped, approaching the door or a broken decaying house. Gently, she opened the door, revealing a previously unseen human sitting on a couch watching the TV.

Oddly there was no power source to turn the TV on. The human turned to face the Zombie Player characters and waved at them. "Hey guys! Friends is on! Wanna watch it with me?"

The number four flashed above Elsa's head while a two flashed above the Slackers' Suddenly Elsa's number went down by one while the Slacker's number went up by the same amount.

"...he does know we're zombies, right?" Twilight asked, eye twitching. The others just shrugged as Elsa crushed another capsule, causing Antique Vinyl records to fly at the Slacker.

Asuna stepped up to the door, clad in Shining Porcelain Armor, Stronger than ever as she kicked down the door, knocking it open in a clatter. She yelled as she brandished her Another Zombie, the creature strangely happy with being used as a sword.

She balked when she noticed what she had run into.

"Like oh my god guys it's Asuna from Sword Art Online!"

"I love you!"

"You're so hilarious!"

"HOW DO I EAT YOU?"

"I got XP's, is that bad?"

"Hey Gary!"

Asuna couldn't close the door fast enough, panic contorting her face in an amusing manner. Her companions started to laugh out loud, amused by Asuna's expression.

"It's not that funny!" Asuna cried.

"Actually it kind of is." jested the airbender. Asuna moaned, the door slowly opening on it's own, revealing a never ending mob of geeks, nerd, and enthusiasts. "What are they?"

"3,872 Dorks."

Twilight laughed even harder now, Asuna reddening in embarrassment. "What got you so scared dorks? You're Level 7, and you have plus 7 anyway."

"Lets just say I had an Abridged Loop and end it there."

Several ooohs of understanding was spoken, some spoken by the zombies that served as the audience. Elsa, still of fire and now wearing a Car Door, smirked. "Well, sorry about this Asuna, but now those dorks are Driving a Steamroller."

Suddenly the 3,872 Dorks got into 3,872 steamrollers.

"And a Firmly Attached Doberman."

"OH COME O..."

Asuna didn't get to finish that as she was comically flattened 3,872 times.

Meanwhile, Sleipnir and Fenrir gave each other a high five. Several of the admins were watching the game, and thanks to Thoth a betting pool was made.

Elsa carefully opened the door, seeing nothing beyond it. "huh... is there supposed to be anything back..."

Thunder cracked and everything suddenly got wetter.

"Raaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnns!" the audience moaned. The still on fire Ice Queen huffed, her hands freezing as she urged her icy magic into the sky, freezing the rain and turning it to hail.

Her companions just stared in amazement. "...what?"

"Uh...isn't that cheating?" Jinora asked. Elsa shrugged. "Well.... this is munchkin."

"I'm actually okay with that." Twilight replied.

10.9 (kingofsouls): [Big Hero 6]

Hiro rushed into Tadashi's lab, exhausted from running. Tadashi was the first to notice as Loopers started to converge. "Hey Hiro... what's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."

Hiro said nothing as he held up a golden statue of a man, shaking it gently.

The screams of joy could be heard in every corner of San Fransokyo.

10.10 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [My Little Pony] (not compiled in MLP)

Empress Celestia, Caretaker of the Sun and Supreme Ruler of Equestria Reborn, glared at the intruder, as they stood on opposite sides of the courtyard. Above them, the once-glorious barrier, the thing that would have saved the worlds, had a gaping, jagged hole, as if someone had smashed it open like an egg. Through the faint golden glow of the barrier's remains, the white light of Kingdom Hearts could be seen, like a grotesque perversion of her beloved sister's moon. The only sound that could be heard was the faint whistling of the wind, as it passed through her flowing mane, and disturbed the folds of the intruder's black coat.

"Why?" she finally asked. "All we wanted to do was to help you. To uplift you from your unevolved forms and have you join us as something greater! To help you discard your hateful tendencies and your reliance on corrupted technology, and embrace the wonders of friendship and magic! We gave you the offer of utopia, and you gave us only ruin and destruction in return! How could you do this to us?!"

The intruder slowly reached into his coat, and Celestia tensed, expecting a weapon. Instead, he pulled out three photographs, and held them out to her. She automatically gripped them with her magic, and looked through them. The photographs showed three different ponies, two stallions and one mare. Judging from their wide grins and somewhat vacant eyes, they were likely newfoals.

One of the stallions was an earth pony with a chestnut coat, a dark brown mane, and hazel eyes. He was in the middle of pulling a cart loaded up with hay, and looked like he was hardly making an effort. His flank had a cutie mark in the shape of a stout tree.

The other stallion had a more slight built, as was befitting a pegasus, with a cream-colored coat, an unruly blond mane and piercing blue eyes. He was pushing a cloud into position, and his cutie mark, a pinwheel, was clearly visible.

The last one, the mare, was a unicorn, who was hanging onto Prince Blueblood's foreleg, while they were hobnobbing with the rest of the nobility. Her coat was aquamarine and her short-cut mane was a deep blue, as were her eyes. Her cutie mark was of a sapphire next to a curling wave.

Celestia looked at the photographs with confusion. "I... don't understand. You tore down our ponification clinics, destroyed our barrier, and singlehandedly infiltrated my very castle because of three random newfoals?"

"They were my friends, once."

Celestia dropped the photos, and smirked at the cloaked figure. "Ah, so it's revenge, is it? How typical of humanity, to channel their feelings into violence and hate."

The figure shook his head. "No. Not revenge. They wouldn't want me to stoop that low."

"Then why?" Celestia asked.

The figure clasped his hands behind his back. "They had a mission to complete, before they got dosed. I'm just here to see it finished properly."

Celestia snorted, and pawed at the ground. "And what would that be? My assassination, I suppose."

The figure looked up at the sky. "Celestia, when was the last time you remember seeing your sister raise the moon? Or receiving a letter from Miss Sparkle?"

Celestia's horn flared to life as she glared daggers at the figure. "If you've hurt either of them, I will burn you to ashes," she hissed.

If the figure could see the present danger, then he was doing his level best to ignore it. "You don't know, do you?"

"Where. Are. They?" she ground out through gritted teeth, ignoring the shadows that had started to build around her.

The figure pointed at her. "They are safe, in my home. After you began your campaign, they had... an Awakening, of sorts, and came to me for some help."

"You're lying!" Celestia snapped. "They would never associate themselves with the humans!"

The figure began to pace along the edge of the courtyard, while Celestia moved to keep opposite from him. "At first, my friends went to help them," he continued, "but that horrible potion of yours put paid to them. So, I chose to go myself. Your student was quite stubborn about that."

Celestia got an odd look in her eye, as her mind put the pieces together. "So that's it... You monster!"

A beam of energy, as brilliant as the Sun she raised every morning, burst forth from her horn, burning through the air towards the figure. The figure moved, seemingly flowing over to the banister, the jumping off of it, and over the beam's path, landing on a path of scorched ground. Had he still been standing there a second longer, he would have been nothing more than a patch of glass on the floor. "You corrupted my student, turned her against me!" she ranted, as the shadows around grew deeper and darker. "Humanity's treachery truly knows no bounds!"

Suddenly, the figure was next to her. There was no blur of motion, no sign of teleportation, no dimensional distortion. He was simply next to the banister one moment, and beside her the next. "No. She sent me to help you. You're sick, Celestia. You've been sick for a very long time."

"Get away from me!" she screamed, as she unleashed another searing-hot beam of energy, which was just as easily sidestepped as the first.

The figure shook his head sadly. "It's worse than I thought. You don't even recognize my voice, do you?"

Celestia nickered fearfully, her eyes widening, as the voice finally ignited a spark of recognition. "No... no, that's impossible..." she whispered.

The figure grabbed his coat, pulled it off, and threw it to the side in one fluid motion. Celestia gasped.

Mickey Mouse, King of Disney Castle, and Keyblade Master smiled sadly at his old friend. "Hello, Celestia."

"And cut! Print! That's a wrap! Good job everyone!"

Celestia and Mickey broke out in matching grins, as they walked off of the film set. "Oh boy! Am I glad that's over!" Mickey said, as he grabbed two cups of coffee from a nearby table, and handed one to Celestia.

"Indeed; that scene was quite the chore to film," Celestia replied, gratefully accepting the cup and taking a sip. "Tell me, how did you do that teleportation thing?"

"Oh, that?" Mickey asked idly, while taking a sip of his own. "I just used a soundless version of Stopza to stop time, walked over to you, then ended the spell. It only looked like teleportation because you can't really see what's happening in stopped time."

"Most interesting. You know, Twilight would be interested to learn from you."

"No fooling? Maybe we can discuss it later this evening, over dinner. I hear there's a new vegetarian restaurant not far from here..."

"That would be delightful, Mickey."

The two monarchs laughed, made their arrangements and split to their respective trailers, as the lights shining on the set went out one by one.

10.1: Candace can do nice things for her brothers on occasion.

10.2: Gargoyles in Attack On Titan. What more can I say?

10.3: RWBY Meets Disney.

10.4: Ice meets ice.

10.5: Ash's Pikachu is the Anchor for Pokémon, by the way.

10.6: Say goodnight, Doofenshmirtz.

10.7: Doof comes up with some weird Inators.

10.8: Trying out a new safe-mode Loop.

10.9: In honor of Big Hero 6 winning the 2014 Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

10.10: We don't like to talk about the Bureau... but since this wasn't the real version, it's okay.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-10-28. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

11.1 (Mr. Egret): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Disney]

As Vanitas fell out of the sky, his Keyblade aimed right at Aqua's heart, Ven tried desperately to break free from his icy prison. He may be totally outclassed, but there was no way he could just let his friend get stabbed-

Before he could finish that thought, a white blur zipped across his field of vision, and suddenly Vanitas was no longer there. He felt something land on his chest, and warmth flowed back into his body. He sat up, shivering, as the spent case of an Elixir fell to the ground. "What was that...?" he mumbled, feeling returning to his lips.

Aqua was by his side immediately. "Ven! Are you alright?!" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "What happened to Vanitas?"

Aqua squinted in the distance. "I... think Mickey got him."

Ventus looked at Aqua with shock. "That blur was Mickey?!"

There was a loud BOOM, and the two Keyblade wielders spun around to see Vanitas slam into the ground hard enough to leave a crater. The source of the Unversed rolled to his feet, and brought up his Keyblade just in time to parry an overhead swing from the white blur, which slowed down enough for Ventus to clearly make out Mickey's distinctive ears. Mickey was wearing a white coat with a hood pulled over his head, and Ventus could see hints of a red shirt and shorts underneath. His entire body crackled with lightning (a Command Style of some kind?) and he had a Keyblade with a golden blade instead of his Star Seeker.

Mickey suddenly looked over at Aqua and Ventus, and a smile lit up his face. "Ven! Aqua! You're all right!" he shouted.

Aqua was about to reply when she saw Vanitas about to smash in Mickey's head. "Mickey! Behind you!"

Without even bothering to turn around, Mickey reached over his head with his Keyblade, turned the blow off to the side, then elbowed Vanitas with his other arm hard enough to send him sprawling. "Is Terra with you guys?" he asked, as if nothing had happened.

Ventus nodded, rather stunned by the casual ease with which Mickey fended off Vanitas. "He's up on top of that mountain, with Xehanort. We have to help him!"

Mickey's smile progressed to a grin. "Okay, I'm right on time, then. I'll keep Vanitas occupied, so go and support Terra. I think he's gonna need your help more than he'll need mine."

He looked at Vanitas, and hefted his Keybade. "I'll be with ya in a bit."

Aqua and Ventus summoned their Keyblade Gliders, and took off for the top of the mountain, as Vanitas charged at Mickey again. Mickey took out a pocket watch, and checked it. "T-minus two minutes before Terra succumbs in baseline," he muttered to himself, as he stepped to the side, and struck Vanitas about the head with the Kingdom Key D, staggering him. "I'll have to make this quick."

Vanitas dove into the ground, and flowed behind Mickey, before bursting out of the ground, and slashing upwards. Unfortunately, Mickey had already spun around, and parried the blow, locking blades with the villain. "You think you're so cool, now that you have that new outfit, don't you?" Vanitas hissed, as he tried to break Mickey's guard.

"Well, it seems to be working, isn't it?" Mickey replied calmly, while not budging an inch. He looked past Vanitas' head, and noted with satisfaction that Ventus and Aqua were already at the top of the mountain.

Vanitas snarled as he noticed that Mickey wasn't even paying attention to his insults. "Hey! I'm talking here! What's your problem you dumb rat? Too busy worrying about your friends? Well don't bother! Once I finish up with you, they're all going to die!"

Mickey suddenly shoved Vanitas back, and then kicked him away, sending him flying back until he hit the side of the mountain. "Alright then, Vanitas," Mickey replied coolly, as he walked over to him. "Ya got my attention. Now, what were you going to say, exactly? Something about 'suffering', maybe? Or about 'anguish'? Maybe something about me being 'too slow'?"

The Kingdom Key D blurred, and Vanitas yelled in pain and dropped his Keyblade, as both his wrists were broken. Mickey glared at Vanitas, and the Masked Boy flinched at what he saw in the mouse's gaze. He was a thing born from pure negativity and hatred, but he couldn't face the emotions that Mickey was wearing so plainly on his face. There was anger, rage even. He expected that. But underneath that, there was something that he did not expect, and possibly could not expect.

Pity.

"Ya know, Vanitas, I did some research about you and your Master," Mickey continued, as Vanitas clutched his shattered wrists to him, his Keyblade lying on the ground beside him. "What he did to make you, and what he did to you afterwards... Awful stuff, if you don't mind me saying so. I was shocked, horrified, sympathetic even. For a while, I really thought that you were the victim in all of this."

"Shut up!" Vanitas screamed, as a horde of Flood popped into existence, pushing Mickey away and bowling him over through sheer force of numbers. "Sympathy?! That's a weakness, you idiot!" he ranted. "Caring for others only leads to you getting hurt! That's why I kept trying to bump off those friends of Ventus: I'm not going to have a weakness like that when we become one being!"

Mickey quickly got to his feet, and began pushing his way back to Vanitas, chopping through the Flood like they were so much wheat to be harvested. "And that is why I know you have to be stopped," he continued, barely breaking a sweat as he mowed through the hordes of Unversed. "Despite all of the stuff that had happened to you, you always had a choice: search for your answers the hard way, and put an end to your suffering; or take the easy way out, and let your pain corrupt you. You had so many opportunities to take the first path, but what do you do? You gave in to the pain! And now look at you! You're nothing but a monster, begetting other monsters on the world!"

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" Vanitas howled in rage, as a Trinity Armor came into being, squashing several Flood as it crashed to the ground, before firing an enormous laser at Mickey. "JUST DIE ALREADY, YOU DAMN RAT! DIE, DIE, DIE!"

The laser's blast died down after the rest of the Flood were burned away, their essence returning to Vanitas and giving him the strength to stand on his feet. "Hah... hahahahaha..." he laughed shakily. "Are you finished, mouse? Are you finally done?!"

The Trinity Armor suddenly roared in pain, as several cuts opened up all over its individual components, before it exploded in a burst of blinding light. Mickey blurred back into view with the dying light of the explosion casting his face in shadow. "No, Vanitas," he replied. "I'll never be done. As long as monsters like you keep endangering people like my friends, I'll always be there to protect them."

A green targeting reticule snapped into being around Vanitas, and several smaller reticules locked onto various parts of his anatomy. "What?!" he gasped, as he struggled to shake them off. "No no no no no--"

"And now, it's time to end this fight," Mickey proclaimed. "Engaging Shotlock: Galaxy of Marvels!"

He spun his Keyblade in his hand, before pointing it in the air, and releasing an ungodly number of star-shaped bullets, which all struck Vanitas again and again like so many raindrops. Vanitas screamed as parts of his armor were destroyed by the bullets, and darkness started to leak out of them like inky smoke.

Mickey then pointed the Kingdom Key D at Vanitas's heart. "SHAZAM!"

A tremendous lightning bolt ripped down from the heavens, and slammed into the screaming Vanitas with a blinding flash. For a brief moment, his screams turned to something inhuman, like the static on a radio, before he exploded in a cloud of darkness.

Mickey covered his face with his coat to shield his eyes from the blast, and when he looked again, Vanitas was no more. They only sign that he had even existed to begin with was the remains of his Keyblade, badly charred from the explosion.

Mickey sighed quietly to himself, as he picked up the charred Keyblade. "It didn't have to be like this," he murmured, before sticking it into the ground blade first.

He did another brief time check. "T-minus 10 seconds."

Jumping into the air, Mickey soared up to the top of the mountain for the confrontation with Xehanort, leaving behind a memorial to a monster that might have been a man.

11.2 (Mr. Egret): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Disney]

Meanwhile, on the top of the mountain, things weren't going so well.

"GAAAAAAH!"

"TERRA!"

Terra was sent stumbling back by the force of Master Xehanort's strike, his chest leaking blood from a gash that was visible through his armor. Ventus and Aqua, similarly wounded, were barely able to catch him.

"Ven... Aqua... I'm sorry..." Terra groaned. "Get out of here... I'll buy you some time..."

"No way, Terra!" Aqua snapped. "We're not going to abandon you!"

"That's right!" Ventus chimed in. "You're our friend, Terra. No matter what happens, we gotta look out for each other!"

"I can't risk you guys getting hurt again!" Terra replied, as he forced himself to stand, the darkness roiling around him.

Master Xehanort grinned, despite his various cuts and bruises. "Yes, yes! Now you're starting to see, Terra!" he monologued, pointing his Keyblade at the trio. "Your friends will fall here, and the x-Blade will be forged! So embrace that darkness in your heart, if you ever want to defeat me!"

"Don't listen to him!" Aqua yelled, as Terra yelled in pain and clutched his head, and the shadows started to grow. Xehanort grinned. Soon, his new vessel would be ready, and once Vanitas did away with that annoyance of a mouse, the x-Blade would be-

BOOM

Everybody on the mountaintop shielded their eyes, as an enormous lightning bolt ripped down from the heavens, followed by a peal of thunder only slightly softer than Krakatoa's eruption. Xehanort was the first to recover. "Impossible!" he snarled, as he stalked over to the cliff, looking down at the Keyblade Graveyard below. "Neither of them can cast a Thunder spell that powerful!"

He was then punched in the jaw hard enough to send him stumbling back from the edge. Aqua and Ventus's eyes lit up with renewed hope. "MICKEY!"

The mouse in question hopped over Xehanort, and landed next to the three Keyblade wielders. "Looks like I got here just in time, huh?"

"Mickey?" Terra asked, as the darkness around him receded for the time being. "What are you doing here?"

"With any luck, sabotaging Xehanort's plans and getting us all out of here with our hearts, bodies and minds intact," Mickey replied. "Aqua, can you heal yourself and the others?"

Aqua looked at her Keyblade, then nodded. "Yes, but I'll need time to cast the spells."

Mickey smiled. "Now that I can do!" He then turned to face Xehanort, and pointed the Kingdom Key D at him. "Okay, Baldy! You want them so badly, you'll have to go through me!"

Xehanort rubbed his jaw, where a sizable bruise was beginning to form, and smirked. "Gladly, Mickey..."

He then pointed his Keyblade at his own heart. "Once I claim my new vessel!"

Mickey stopped smiling. "Stopza."

Time ground to a halt on the top of the mountain. Terra and Ventus were looking at the scene with varying degrees of shock, while Aqua was caught in the middle of preparing a Curaga spell. Xehanort's Keyblade was inches away from penetrating his chest, and his face was locked in a mad grin. Mickey nodded to himself as he pulled out his paintbrush. "I had a feeling you would try that, Xehanort. It seems I'll have to keep you pinned down in one place if this is gonna work."

He pulled out a book titled "The Key of Solomon for Dummies," flipped it open, and checked the page. "Hmm... So it's like that? Odd design for a binding pentacle, but it should work."

Putting the book away, he walked over to Xehanort, and quickly sketched out a magic circle on his chest, right where the heart would be, muttering under his breath the whole time. After a few minutes, he smiled, and stepped back to admire his handiwork. "That should do it. Time resumes."

The Stopza spell ended and time resumed its natural flow. Xehanort's grin quickly changed to a look of horror, as his Keyblade was deflected off of the magic circle drawn on his chest. The backlash sent him stumbling, his arms crackling with magic. "What have you done to me, you interfering wretch?" he snapped.

Mickey smiled grimly, as he put the paintbrush away. "Binding pentacle, designed to keep your heart where it belongs. No vessels for you, and no x-Blade either. One way or another, this madness will end here."

Xehanort recovered his composure rapidly, and started stalking towards Mickey. "In that, you are right, Mouse. You are perhaps the biggest thorn in my side to have ever existed. Such dedication to the Light, when the true path to power lies in darkness! How can such an imbecile be a threat to my plans?!"

He suddenly lunged forward, aiming to catch Mickey by surprise, but was quickly parried, the sparks from the Keyblades flying through the air. "All this time, Xehanort, all of this study of the nature of Light and Darkness, and what have you learned?" Mickey asked, as he and Xehanort locked blades.

"What any child would learn in time!" Xehanort retorted, as darkness began to roil around him and he started pushing Mickey back. "The Darkness is where Light began, and it is in Darkness that Light shall end! The Light is inferior! Only with the power of Darkness can-"

"WRONG!" Mickey bellowed, as he suddenly broke Xehanort's guard, and gave him a gash across the stomach. "Light and Darkness are two sides of a single whole! Neither can survive without the other! That's why Ventus suffered so badly when you extracted his darkness to make Vanitas! Heck, that's why there are two Realms to begin with! I should know: I've been to both of them!"

All three of the Wayfarers looked at each other in shock as Mickey's words hit home.

"Mickey's been to the Realm of Darkness?!" Aqua asked herself, as she finished casting Curaga on Terra.

"Ngh... Light and Darkness... connected?" Terra grunted, as he slowly stood up by himself.

"Where did Mickey learn about that?" Ventus mumbled, his eyes wide.

Xehanort abruptly gestured with his hand, and a pillar of earth shot up into the sky, grazing Mickey as he barely sidestepped it in time. "You will concede!" he snapped, as more pillars ripped themselves up from the ground, and Fire and Blizzard spells flew through the air. Mickey kept dodging from side to side, eventually going so fast that he was nothing but a blur. Xehanort growled, before hefting his Keyblade, and also vanishing. Aqua finished casting Curaga on Ventus, and briefly wondered where they had gone.

Then, a shower of sparks erupted seemingly from nowhere. Then another. And another. The ringing of steel on steel echoed through the air as sparks fell like rain. It took a moment for Aqua to realize what was happening. "No way... They're moving faster than I can see!"

Terra frowned in thought. "This doesn't make sense. I know Xehanort's fast, but how the hell did Mickey get this good so quickly?"

Ven nodded in agreement. "Yeah! When Mickey saved me from Vanitas before we met up, he wasn't moving nearly as fast as this! Maybe it has something to do with that Command Style he's using?"

Aqua started casting Curaga on herself. "I'm not sure that's a Command Style. If it was, he would have been forced out of it by now."

"Then what is it?" Ventus asked confusedly, scratching his head.

"I don't know," Aqua replied quietly. "If we get out of this, we'll ask him. He's got a lot of explaining to do."

Their conversation was interrupted by Xehanort being slammed into the ground, and Mickey reappeared, kicking Xehanort's Keyblade away from him, and pointing the Kingdom Key D at his throat. "You see how powerless the Darkness is, Xehanort?" Mickey asked. "Even with the power of your rage, winning is an impossibility. Stand down."

Xehanort clenched his hands into fists, as the darkness around him grew in intensity. "No. There's too much at risk, for me to just give up now!"

He suddenly shoved his hand in Mickey's face, and an explosion of darkness threw him back, sending the mouse sprawling. "I've dedicated my whole life to learning the nature of Kingdom Hearts! Even if it means my very soul, I will see the x-Blade forged and the renewal of the Keyblade War!" He started chuckling, before laughing maniacally. "So BEHOLD! My ascension from this wretched human form into a being of DARKNESS!"

His laughing only increased in intensity, as the darkness around him enveloped him completely. The four Keyblade wielders looked on in horror as the barely visible human form within the cloud of darkness began to writhe and change, growing steadily more monstrous and inhuman. "Oh Xehanort, don't do this," Mickey whispered, his eyes full of sorrow.

The darkness dispersed to reveal the monster Xehanort had become: a hulking black-skinned humanoid beast, with a skull-like head wrapped in bandages, a pair of thunderbolt-shaped horns, long muscular arms ending in wicked claws, and a serpentine tail instead of legs and feet. The heart-shaped hole in his torso and bat-shaped wings only completed the nightmarish picture. Xehanort laughed aloud, as dark magic played around his fingers. "Yes... YES! This is TRUE power!"

He held up his hands, and an enormous globe of darkness began to form between them. "Now you shall learn to fear me!"

Aqua quickly erected the strongest barrier she could around herself and her friends. "Ventus, stay between me and Terra," she ordered. "Whatever you do, do not move!"

Ventus nodded, and gulped. He didn't know how they were going to survive this fight. Terra looked worried, as he kept his Keyblade in between him and the incoming globe. Aqua's brow was furrowed in concentration, as she put her all into making the barrier as strong as possible.

And Mickey... smiled?

"What a moron."

Just then, high above their heads, the light from Kingdom Hearts intensified sharply, and a beam of light illuminated the mountaintop. The globe of darkness dissolved, and Xehanort screamed and writhed about in pain and confusion. "GAAAAAH! WHAT... WHAT IS THIS?!"

"Remember how I said that Light and Darkness were intertwined, Xehanort?" Mickey asked, while dodging the former Keyblade Master's flailing limbs. "Well, your precious Kingdom Hearts is the perfect example! Even though it's in the Realm of Darkness, Kingdom Hearts is the collective light of everybody's hearts! No creature of the Darkness can stand up to that!"

Mickey took the moment to point at Xehanort. "Xehanort! Your next line is, 'Impossible! Nothing can withstand the Darkness!'"

Xehanort gritted his teeth, and reared back to crush Mickey under his fist. "Impossible!" he roared, as his fist came down like a meteor. "Nothing can withstand the Darkness!"

He suddenly hesitated, as he realized what he just said, giving Mickey enough time to move out of the way of the blow. "Terra! Aqua! Ventus!" he called out, ignoring the monster's screams of frustration. "I'll need you help!"

The three Keyblade wielders ran over. "What is it, Mickey?" Aqua asked.

"I'm going to open up a hole in Xehanort's defense using Stopza, but I need you three to deal the finishing blow," he explained. "A fully-charged Trinity Limit directly to the heart should finish him off. Can you do it?"

Terra, Ventus and Aqua looked at each other, and nodded. "Yes."

"Okay! Start charging up, and wait for my signal!"

Xehanort howled in rage, as Mickey went on the offensive, calling on the Strength of Hercules to open up long cuts on Xehanort's arms. Terra, Ventus, and Aqua moved into position, and held their Keyblades in the air. A complex set of runes appeared around their feet, and a soft light began to form and grow at the tips of the Keyblade.

Their efforts were not unnoticed. "FOOLS!" Xehanort shouted, as he lashed at them with his tail. Mickey swatted it aside with almost contemptuous ease. "Interfering rat! Why do you oppose my research? Why must you thwart my plans for another Keyblade War?!"

"Easy!" Mickey shouted back, as he hacked away at the tail, carving huge chunks of darkness away. "I don't wanna see the people I care about get caught in the crossfire! Do you think the Keyblade War will stay within the bounds of the Graveyard?! It will spread across the worlds, and innocent people will die for the sake of Kingdom Hearts!"

"OF COURSE I KNOW THAT!" Xehanort retorted, catching Mickey off guard by suddenly sliding back, before lashing out and striking Mickey with his fists. Mickey reeled from the blow, and Xehanort followed through, dealing a nasty three-punch combo that launched him into the air, before spiking him into the ground like a volleyball.

"Mickey!" Ventus shouted, nearly breaking formation before Terra blocked him with his free hand. "We have to help him!"

"Ven, we'll be no good to him out there!" Terra shouted back. His Keyblade hand was shaking slightly, but he held firm. "If we break formation now, we'll never be able to charge the Trinity Limit in time!"

"Terra's right," Aqua chimed in. "I don't know how Mickey's doing it, but he's currently light-years ahead of us in terms of power. If he can't stand up to that thing Xehanort's become in his current state, what makes you think we have a chance? This way, we can actually help him. We'll have to leave it to him."

Ventus bit his lip in frustration, but continued to charge up the Trinity Limit. Mickey, please be safe, he thought to himself.

"The Keyblade wielders came from all sorts of worlds to fight for the x-Blade and Kingdom Hearts!" Xehanort continued, slithering over to Mickey as the mouse forced himself to his feet. "Only a fool would assume that they would not fight across the worlds! In fact," he laughed, spreading his arms wide, "I had expected them to do just that!"

He then stretched his hand out, and the dull gray Keyblades embedded in the Keyblade Graveyard all ripped themselves out of the ground, and formed a gargantuan cloud of whirling death above the mountaintop. "In fact, if you don't believe me, then take a close look at THESE!" he screamed, as he brought his hand down, and the Keyblades flew towards Mickey at one.

Mickey shook his head to clear it, spat out a tooth, and grinned. "Just as planned. Stopza."

For the second time that day, time stopped on top of the mountain. Terra, Aqua and Ventus gaped at the sight. They were excluded from the stopped time this time around, and could see that their surroundings were in black and white, with two exceptions: First, the Keyblade storm, while immobile, was still gray. Second, Mickey was still in living color, and he was gathering up the Keyblades like they were Munny scattered on the ground.

He then started throwing the Keyblades at Xehanort's immobile form, aiming for the head and the chest, as well as the arms and the tail. While they moved normally while he was holding them, when they got more than three feet away from him, they stopped in time again. When Mickey was out of Keyblades to throw, he then cut at Xehanort's chest twice, leaving a gaping cross-shaped wound. "You all charged up down there?" he hollered.

"Yes!" Aqua yelled back. "We can let it fly at any time!"

Mickey gave them the thumbs up. "Great!" He then turned to Xehanort. "I don't know if you can hear me," he said quietly, "but if you can, then consider this checkmate. Time resumes."

Time started up again, and three things happened in rapid succession.

First, the Keyblades resumed their flight, embedding themselves all over Xehanort's body. Xehanort screamed, as the force of the Keyblades ripped away his arms and tail, reducing him to a torso with a head.

Second, the chest wound Mickey dealt him opened up violently, revealing Xehanort's heart, now blackened and tarnished by his misdeeds.

Finally, the Trinity Limit went off, piercing the now-exposed heart with brilliant beams of light.

Xehanort screamed in agony, as his heart was obliterated under the relentless assault of light, and his body began to disintegrate. "How could this be?" he groaned, as he slowly started to fade away. "Everything was planned from the beginning..."

Mickey landed on the ground. "Destiny is never left to chance, Xehanort. It's only logical that changing destiny would be similar."

Xehanort whispered something unintelligible, before he finally faded away, like the bad dream he was. For a few moments, there was silence in the Keyblade Graveyard.

"So it's over," Terra said, as he armored down, and stretched his arms. "Xehanort's finally dead."

"As dead as it gets," Mickey agreed. "Which means I can finally power down. Shazam!"

There was another lightning strike, and Mickey was suddenly back in his regular clothes, while wrapped in a black coat. "Now, I think you all have a boatload of questions about what just happened, right?"

"That's a bit of an understatement," Aqua replied, smiling for the first time in a while.

"Okay! What do you say we all go back to my place for some ice cream, and I'll tell you all about it?"

The three Keyblade wielders couldn't agree fast enough. Soon, four Keyblade Gliders took off from the Keyblade Graveyard, leaving nothing but a new mountain behind.

11.3 (Mr. Egret): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Disney]

Mickey, Terra, Aqua and Ventus strolled through the halls of Disney Castle, passing the occasional broom sweeping up. The three humans looked around at the gleaming marble halls and the large windows out into the courtyard with interest, but Mickey moved forward with a singular purpose in mind, as if he was looking for something specific.

"Where are we going, Mickey?" Ventus asked, as the group went into an unfamiliar part of the castle, and started climbing some stairs.

"Well, there's something I've always wanted to show you guys, now that you know about the Loops," Mickey replied. "Remember when I told you all about subspace pockets?"

"That's the thing that lets you take stuff with you when the Loop resets, right?"

"Exactly. Every now and then, I like to set aside a room for some of the souvenirs I've picked up here and there. I'd figure that you guys would like to take a look."

Eventually, the group came to a wooden door in a stone hallways lined with torches. "Here we are!" Mickey announced, rubbing his hands together. "I just need to disable the magic lock on this door. Give me a second..."

He waved his hands and muttered a few choice words over the doorknob, before turning it and swinging the door wide open. Mickey's eager smile quickly deflated. "Wait, that's not right."

Inside of the room, instead of whatever Mickey had been expecting, there was a standard layout for a bathroom in the castle. Including a bath. Which was occupied by Daisy.

Surprisingly, the Keyblade wielders were not immediately bombarded with hair-care products, or deafened by an ear-splitting shriek. Instead, Daisy looked over at Mickey and waved. "Oh, hey Mickey! Good to see you!"

"Hey Daisy," Mickey replied. "I'm trying to give Terra, Aqua and Ventus a tour of the Souvenir Room, but we wound up here. Are the dimensional stabilizers on the blink again?"

"Yep. The Quantum Oscillator's jammed, too, and you know how much of a pain that is to fix. Until Donald sorts it out, you need to turn the knob counterclockwise instead of clockwise after disabling the lock, or you'll keep getting redirected to rooms with people in embarrassing situations."

Mickey snapped his fingers. "Nuts; I knew I forgot to do something. Thanks!"

Daisy waved him off. "No problem. Give your friends my love!"

Mickey laughed. "I will! Bye Daisy!"

He then shut the door, turned the knob counterclockwise, and opened it again. Behind him, the three Keyblade wielders gasped.

Instead of the bathroom, a simply massive atrium stretched out in front of them. It looked like a tastefully-done cross between a museum and hotel lobby, with photographs decorating the walls, and objects from hundreds of different worlds encased in glass display cases, complete with little informational placards. The floor was made of marble, and the ceiling was dominated by a large window, letting sunshine bathe everything in a warm golden glow.

"Mickey, this is amazing!" Aqua breathed, as the four Keyblade wielders walked through the door, and looked around in wonder. "And this is all from places you've visited in the Loops?"

"Yep!" Mickey replied cheerfully, as he passed Terra looking at some pictures of Mickey, Donald and Goofy standing in front of the Ghostbusters Headquarters. "It's a big ol' multiverse out there; there's a whole lot to see, and I don't wanna forget a thing! Plus, it gives me something to do, no matter where I end up."

Aqua looked at a golden idol roughly the size of her head, perched precariously on a charred stone pedestal. "Is that a problem for Loopers? Finding something to do?"

Mickey thought the question over, as he idly polished the glass of a display case containing a deactivated Toclafane shell with a rag. "It varies. Some of us need to distract ourselves from some nasty events that happen in our native universes, while others need to keep themselves busy, to help themselves cope with their status as Loopers. We're a mixed bag, really. Most of us are doing relatively fine, but there's always a few of us who are... struggling, I guess."

"And what about you, Mickey?" Terra asked, having overheard the conversation, and walked over to join in.

Mickey put the rag away in his subspace pocket. "Me? I... don't really know for certain. My best guess is that every now and then, I hit a Loop that's... less than pleasant, so I keep this collection to help remind me that the multiverse isn't all bad."

Just then, Ventus ran over. "Guys! You gotta see this!"

The four friends hurried over to a case that was cordoned off in its own special section of the Souvenir Room. It was a long case, made of mahogany wood, with a red velvet interior, and it was propped open to display its contents: a simple Keyblade, much like Terra's Earthshaker. The Keyblade was made out of wood, and there was a noticeable crack on the shaft, where it had been broken and later repaired by somebody with passing knowledge of carpentry. Mickey looked at the wooden Keyblade, and Aqua noticed that his smile became just a bit more wistful. "Mickey?" she asked. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Yep." Mickey replied quietly. "It's the Wooden Keyblade that Terra gave to Ventus, and that Vanitas later broke. The first one, in fact, from the first time I experienced a Loop with you fellas while Awake. You guys don't remember it, of course, but I had gotten control of the Star Shard that Loop, so I was able to stick around in Neverland for longer than normal. When I saw Vanitas break the Keyblade, I waited for him to be driven off by you, before collecting the pieces. When I had a spare moment, I fixed it, and I've been hanging onto it ever since."

"Why?" Terra asked. "As another souvenir?"

"No." Mickey responded firmly. "That implies that you're nothing more than a way to pass the time. You guys are more than that. You're my friends." He turned to look at the case. "In fact, when you guys finally start Looping, I was planning on using it to teach you guys how to form subspace pockets of your own. Kinda like a 'Looping commencement gift,' or something."

"Wait, what?" Ventus blurted out. "You really think we're gonna start Looping, like those other people you mentioned?"

Mickey nodded, as his eyes twinkled a bit. "You betcha! In fact, how about this? When all of us are Awake at the same time, let's all meet up at Radiant Garden, and I'll show you a few tricks for making the Loops more fun. Deal?"

The three other Keyblade wielders looked at each other and smiled. "Deal."

11.4 (Mr. Egret): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Disney]

Mickey sat by himself in a bench in a park, and he was more nervous than he had been in a long time. This was one of those rare times when he could not predict what would happen in a Kingdom Hearts loop. He didn't know if the time he spent with his friends had affected them enough to help them remember the Loop resetting. And their actions dictated how the entire loop would play out, for good or ill.

He looked up at the clock tower. It was nearly 3 o'clock. I wonder how they'll react, he thought to himself, when they see the King of Disney Castle waiting here like a kid who's lost his parents?

It was quite a sobering thought, to look around the peaceful streets and fields of Radiant Garden and at the majestic castle in the distance, and know that if his appointment were to fall through that everything here would be almost guaranteed to be destroyed by the Heartless tide. Not to mention that in ten years' time, Xemnas would use the high levels of Heartless as part of his plan to create another Kingdom Hearts, which just meant bad news for the entire Loop.

But more importantly...

"I just want to make sure they're all right," he whispered to himself, as he clenched his hands into fists. If they didn't remember, then Mickey would move Heaven and Earth to see that Xehanort would not hurt them. And that scared him. He had felt like that before, when Minnie, Donald and Goofy were still Unawake, and therefore lacked the foreknowledge of the awful times ahead. In all of its myriad variations.

Mickey still remembered when the Unawake Minnie was captured by Xehanort in a truly unspeakable variant Loop, and separated into a Heartless and Nobody duo as part of his experiments. He used to have nightmares about what he had done to the crazed scientist in retribution, and to Castle Oblivion in his rage. It was a minor miracle that Minnie Woke Up before Mickey really started cracking under the strain of the Loops.

He sighed deeply. Still, that was in the past. He knew where to draw the line now, to keep himself from going mad with power, and he was learning to trust other people to handle their own problems. He would still help, but now he was learning when to let people help themselves. But then, that's chronic hero syndrome for you.

The clock struck three, jarring Mickey back to reality. He looked around his bench, to see if his friends had shown up.

Nobody was there.

Glumly, Mickey got up and was preparing to leave Radiant Garden (but not before leaving a few nasty surprises for Xehanort's forces in key positions), when his large round ears picked up somebody calling his name. Naturally, he turned to look.

What he saw coming towards him made his eyes go quite wide with a sudden hope.

"Mickey! There you are!" Aqua called, as she, Ventus, and Terra hurried down the path towards him. "You haven't forgotten about our meeting, right?"

"Meeting?" Mickey repeated, slowly starting to smile. "You mean you fellas remember?"

Terra nodded, and smiled right back. "That's right. Every single detail."

"Even the trophy room?"

"Especially the trophy room."

Mickey laughed, as he and his friends embraced each other. While he still didn't know how this loop was going to go down, a lot of the stress he was feeling had melted away when they said that they remembered the last one.

They were Awake at last. It didn't matter what Xehanort did now. Somehow, everything was going to be okay.

Mickey knew it.

As the four reunited friends walked away towards the castle while eagerly sharing news and making grand plans for the future, they were blissfully unaware that they were being watched.

Just outside of Twilight Town, inside the room at the very top of his Mysterious Tower, Yen Sid smiled to himself as he looked through his scrying crystal at the scene playing out in Radiant Garden. "Well done, my young apprentice," he murmured to himself. "You have progressed far beyond my expectations, it seems."

Still smiling, he returned to his desk and unfurled a scroll. The contents were sparse, consisting of a simple list of names.

To be precise, the names of every single Keyblade wielder observed in a baseline Loop in Kingdom Hearts.

Yen Sid looked towards the bottom, where the names of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus were written, and placed a checkmark next to each of them. With that edit, only two names, one struck through with a very solid line, and one without such a line, did not possess a check mark.

The former Keyblade Master looked at the name without a mark. "Now, I believe it's your turn, my old friend. And not a moment too soon. It would be nice to have somebody to relate to in these Loops. Keeping such a secret leaves me weary in heart."

He rolled up the scroll, and set it aside before returning to his arcane studies. If someone were to look at the scroll from above, then they would see that the name in question was still legible.

Master Eraqus.

11.5 (Crossoverpairinglover): [Naruto] / [Phineas and Ferb]

In the coffer you find...

• a tonic of clouds

• a cabbage

• a glorious bomb of arcane

• an eldritch jet of the scientist

• a magic book containing "Earth Specter"

• a pile of 232 assorted coins of copper and silver

Naruto just stared at the 'jet' that was floating over Konoha. Now, unlike non looping Konoha residents, he had actually seen a jet in the metal before, so he knew this wasn't the Land of the Sky attacking again.

But this wasn't a normal jet. It sort of looked what happened when one of those planes from McQueen's universe got busy with Cthulhu.

"Ha ha ha! I, Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz, have finally done it! After so many loops, the Eldritch Jet of the Scientist is mine! I shall use it to destroy you all for the sins you all have no recollection of!!" a voice shouted from within the monster jet as it began to eerily glow.

"Is he still hung out about the time Kiba flirted with Vanessa?" Hinata asked her crush as the monstrous jet let loose a laser blast that seemed to be a fusion of Iron Man's UniBeam and Cyclops's optic blasts at the Inuzuka Compound.

"Yep."

"Do you think he's still hung over about the time that Choji ate his Dunkeberries?"

ZAP

"Yep."

"Do you think he's still a fan of those exercise videos Might Guy made that loop he was a television star?"

"BEHOLD MY GLORIOUS YOUTH!"

"Yep... so do you want to get him or should I?" Naruto questioned as Hinata shrugged.

"Go ahead." Naruto nodded before he began to form a giant Rasengan with a spiral within it.

"SPIRIT BOMB SPIRAL RASENGAN!" Naruto threw the thing right at Doofenshmirtz and his 'Eldritch Jet of the Scientist', which was promptly struck and sent flying into the sky.

"LOOKS LIKE DOOFENSHMIRTZ IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"

Twinkle

11.6 (Drakohahn): [Gundam SEED] / [Frozen]

Kira Awoke to find himself in a rather girly bed. It took only a moment after that to confirm that he was indeed female this loop. With a mental shrug, she sent out a Ping while waiting for her loop memories. A ping returned near instantly, so it didn't seem like the fellow looper was rather close. A moment after receiving the ping, the loop memories kicked in.

She was more than a bit shocked by the events she recalled as the memories flooded in. She was Kira of Arendelle, elder princess and current heir to the throne. For some unexplained reason, she was born with power over all things cold. Generally, she had only used that power for fun with her sister, Cagalli. However, during one such time, there was an accident and Cagalli took a blast of ice magic to the head. She told their parents, who then took them to the trolls to correct things. In her opinion... the trolls could have done it better. The memory replacement was so Cagalli wouldn't blame her, right? And which kind of fear were they talking about? Other people's fear of her power, her own fear of her powers... or her parents fear of her powers?

As she was contemplating this, she heard a knock on her bedroom door. Blinking out of her reverie, Kira frowned. It was awfully late for anyone to come talk to her. Though, the confusion quickly faded when she heard a familiar voice from the other side.

"Hey Kira, open up!" It was Cagalli. Once she knew that, Kira couldn't go open the door to let her in fast enough.

"So, are you feeling loopy?" Standard question to make sure he was talking to an Awake Cagalli.

"Yeah and I'm looking for an Anchor." There was the usual response. Kira was able to see her just fine in the little amount of light that the stars and moon provided for the room. First thing she noticed was just how odd it felt for Cagalli to be a redhead. "It's been awhile... Sis."

Kira rolled her eyes at the tone used in "Sis". At least she wasn't trying to claim that she was still the elder sister when they clearly weren't born twins this time. "I'm curious about your loop memories. Do you recall anything out of the ordinary happening?"

"What do you mean?" Cagalli looked at her sister in confusion. "Is there something I should be remembering?"

A moment of silence passed before Kira held up a hand and formed a snowball in it. Cagalli was left flabbergasted.

"W-what?! How come I don't recall you being able to do that?!"

"Because of an accident when we were younger and not Awake." The elder sister explained. "A blast of my magic hit you in the head as we were playing with it. Apparently, getting hit in certain places by ice magic will cause the affected person to freeze from the inside out. Also apparently, it's easier to heal when it was the head that was hit compared to when the heart is hit... Don't ask me how that works." Cagalli had opened her mouth to say something when Kira had said that last part. Taking a breath, the Anchor continued. "Anyway, they took you to see these little rock creatures they called Trolls. While healing your head, they decided to change your memories so you didn't know about my magic... because why not."

"Wait a minute!" The younger sister exclaimed. "Loop memories can be altered and/or falsified?!"

"It's not exactly a common occurrence. I mean, depending on the Loop, whether the memories you get are altered or not depends on when you Awaken. Other times, not so much," Kira stated with a shrug. "However, it's also not my first time encountering such a phenomenon. Which is why I was curious if you remembered what actually happened."

The currently redheaded Cagalli crossed her arms and frowned at the fact that her memories weren't what had they had done together. However, as she thought over which memories involved her and her sister, she pieced together the recollections most likely to be the altered ones. Once she had a rough estimate of which ones, she smirked.

"I only have one thing to say about this." She let the silence continue for a second to build up the tension. "Do you want to build a snowman?"

The return smile said more than words ever could.

11.7 (OathToOblivion): [Wreck-It Ralph] / [Mario] / [Legend of Zelda] / [Kirby] / [Ben 10] / [Codename: Kids Next Door] / [Gargoyles]

"Okay, this meeting of Looping Bad Guys Anonymous (AKA Looping BadAnon) will hereby come to order!" Wreck-It Ralph declared. "I'm Ralph, and I'll be your host for this Loop. Okay, we're going to do a role call real quick. Just note the fact that you're here, okay?" he asked, picking up a clipboard sized for his massive 8-bit hands.

"Okay... Bowser?"

"Gwa ha ha! As if I wouldn't be here!"

"Yeah yeah... Ganondorf?"

"Hmph. Of course I'm here!"

"Dedede?"

"Hey, does the penguin even count?" Bowser questioned, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the now-irate King of Dreamland.

"HOW MANY TIMES?! NOT A PENGUIN!"

"Then what are you anyway?" Marx snickered next to Dedede.

"Guys, focus. Okay, Marx is here. Vilgax?"

"Present."

"Benedict?"

"Would it kill you to use my title?"

"Yeah, okay, fine, "Father". Mr. Xanatos?"

"Present, of course."

"Vaati?"

"..." The silence echoed throughout Ralph's house in the Fix-It Felix Jr. cabinet. Ralph looked up from the checklist to where Vaati was supposed to be sitting. Emphasis on "supposed to" because the Wind Mage was nowhere to be seen.

"Okay, can someone tell me where Vaati is?"

Meanwhile, in Sugar Rush...

"GET BACK HERE, YOU SUGARY CRETIN! RETURN MY CAPE THIS INSTANT!"

"Why the fudge would I want to do that?!" Vanellope tossed back at the irate Wind Mage, zipping off in her kart the instant she got near it. Vaati steamed, enough that the sweets that made up Sugar Rush's level design started melting.

"HERE THIS, VANELLOPE VON SCHWEETZ! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" he yelled at the retreating princess/president of Sugar Rush.

"Wow, you really are a Bad Guy with a line like that!" Vanellope's voice was faintly hear saying. Vaati gritted his teeth, immediately transforming into his Demon Eye form and racing after her.

11.8 (Bardic_Knowledge): [Gargoyles]

As the sun set on Xanatos Enterprises, Goliath felt himself come Awake. Being as careful as he could, he shattered the mystical stone that kept his unAwake self sleeping a thousand years and roared, as was tradition. Moments later, he sent out a ping and received six back. He smiled. Either there were guests, or there were enough natives Awake that at least four of them had to be his clan, so he glided down to the others as they shed their own stone and greeted them.

"The spell seems to have left me Loopy," he said, his standard, start-of-Loop greeting. "Are all of us really Awake?"

And, wonder of wonders, every one of them gave the return signal. The entire clan was Awake! That left the last ping, which belonged to either Elisa or Xanatos. And that question would be answered by Elisa's visit. Xanatos would either introduce an unAwake Elisa to them, as a gesture of good faith to the Gargoyle clan and as a way to smooth relations between her and his business (which had become quite a bit less shady in the Loops, relatively speaking), or the Awake Elisa would sneak up on them and join the conversation herself.

"It's been such a long time since we've all been Awake," said Hudson. "Who wants to go first on their last Fused Loop?"

"I had an interesting one," said Broadway. "I was a dragon, but I didn't breath fire. Instead, we used light - like lasers - for our breath weapons. The really cool part, kinda, was that the Dromoka Clan practiced the same kind of family-style we did in baseline. Every kid was raised by the whole community. It was kinda nice, really."

"Wait," said Brooklyn. "You were on Tarkir, too? I was in Kolaghan's Clan! It was kinda weird flying with four wings, but I flew so fast. Breathing lightning is gonna be fun to use, too."

Goliath raised an eyebrow as he looked between them. "And how is it that neither of you knew the other was there? Didn't you send out a ping?"

"I did, but I didn't feel one in response," answered Broadway.

"I might've been too caught up in a raid when I woke up to notice a ping," Brooklyn said, sheepishly. "And then I was so caught up in how fast I could fly I might've forgotten to do one anyways."

"Makes sense for you," teased Lexington. "I was in Sword Art Online. Joined up with Asuna's - that's the Anchor, by the way - Asuna's guild 'The Yggdrasil Warriors' as soon as I could. And, well..." Lexington blushed and twiddled his thumbs. "I kinda met someone."

Brooklyn cuffed him on the shoulder. "You little fox! Who?"

"Gobber."

Everyone paused to parse this. "Not the weaponsmith-slash-dragon dentist Gobber?" hazarded Bronx (who had learned to speak in a Loop as Scooby Doo).

"Yeah. We didn't really have a chance to go on a date or anything, but we got along great. I hope I can meet him again."

"It's nice to see that you have found someone," said Goliath, cautiously. "I must admit that I'm unsure as to the... height differences, though."

"It wasn't terrible, but then he was deaged to a teenager. And it's not like we haven't learned shape-changing magic at this point, so I could easily grow as tall as I want."

Everyone nodded and murmured agreement.

11.9 (jxz and Anon e Mouse Jr.): [Snow White] / [Sleeping Beauty] / [Cinderella] / [Aladdin] / [The Little Mermaid] / [Beauty and the Beast] / [Pocahontas] / [Brave] / [Mulan] / [Kingdom Hearts] / [The Princess and the Frog] / [Tangled] / [Frozen] / [Peter Pan] / [Alice in Wonderland] / [Wreck-It Ralph] / [Sofia the First] / [Bar Loop]

"Order, Order!!" Snow White declared. At her side, Aurora and Cinderella were sitting in chairs, each one decorated with designs that suited the two princesses. "As the oldest looping Disney Princess, I salute you, and I welcome you to this Princess Summit."

"We're glad you could all come." Aurora said. "Now, we'll do something different as always. Cinderella?"

"Thanks, Aurora." The crystal shoe-wearing princess said. "Now, as we have some new princesses, we'll pass list, and talk about something you did after the last summit, or, in case you weren't there, something you have done that's not baseline. Princess Jasmine?"

"Here, and I trained with Gaara about how to use sand Jutsu." Jasmine said. "Now, when Jafar tries to send my castle to the top of the mountains, he's always blocked by sand walls."

"That's a good use of Sand Jutsu." Cinderella said. "Next, Princess Ariel."

From a bubble of water that seemed to float in the air, the mermaid appeared. "Here! Let me tell you, learning Waterbending is a bit hard, but when you master it, you can do things like this!" As she talked, she took a bit of the bubble and changed it into a perfect replica of her castle. Then, she froze it, and put it into her Pocket. "Melody will like this one."

"Oh, yeah, remind me to give her that gift I owe her for helping me with Gaston." Aurora said. "By the way, Princess Belle."

"Here, and I've been learning on transmorphic magic, and breaking spells." Belle said. "If I can't save Beast's flower, at least I can try to give him a good life."

"A good gesture of your part. Next, Princess Pocahontas."

"You know I don't like that title..." the Native American said.

"We know, but you're still a princess." Cinderella said. "Your father is the leader of the tribe, and you took his place in a lot of loops and in Baseline."

"I know..." Pocahontas sighed. "Anyway, I've been training with Merida here," She signaled at the Scottish girl at her side, polishing a crossbow. "to learn how to shoot arrows perfectly."

"She's getting good, at this way we'll soon pass to Crossbows and Giant Bows." Merida said.

"Well, at least we know what were you doing last loop." Jasmine said.

"Next, Princess Mulan."

"I'm not a princess, I don't know why I'm still referred as one." Mulan said.

"Ask Mushu, he told me he once sold the rights of your story to a princess corporation." Snow said. "We just roll with it because of the Hub."

"Yeah, I know- Wait, Mushu did what?"

"No matter now..." Cinderella said, trying to save the tiny dragon's life through a lot of loops. "Now, what have you done?"

Mulan relaxed a little. "As you know, I've been learning from swordmasters, and last loop I found myself in an interesting place." After saying that, she took a few multicolored stones from her Pocket. "With these, I can infuse my swords with different attributes, and they allow me to poison an enemy, freeze him, or steal a bit of his life force. Not that I'll use the last one, of course. The downside is that I need a number of these things to enchant a weapon, and they are only in that world."

"Interesting. Do you mind if I ask for some?" Kairi asked, sitting alongside the other 'Honorary' Princesses.

"Yeah, you can. But let's wait for a loop together, so I can know how many El Shards your Keyblade needs."

"Alright. Next, Princess Tiana."

"I've been learning a few things about voodoo." Tiana said. "You know, in case that the curse that Facilier does can't be broken by breaking his amulet... And in case Naveen is more of a prick in some Loops..." She finished, muttering.

"And your cooking?" Mulan asked.

"Great thing you asked; Here," she said, taking a big cake from her Pocket. "I cooked this last night, it's a Bayou Special MegaMix Cake, my Magnum Opus in desserts. If you want Gumbo, I have a great recipe I learnt a few loops ago from a master cooker. Come on, try!"

Each princess and honorary princess took a bite, and were amazed for the deliciousness of it. "Wow! This is really good!!" Belle said. "Mind if you give me the recipe later?"

"Not at all! I'll upload it to your PADD as soon as possible."

"I'd like a copy too, if you don't mind," Snow said. "Next should be Merida, but we've heard about what has she done-"

"Hey! I've done more things!"

"Finding ways to kill Mordu easily isn't new, you know." Cinderella declared, as the Scottish princess pouted. "Now, Princess Rapunzel."

"Here." The (now) brunette princess said. "Now, you're all wondering why I cut my hair." No one talked, but everyone wondered it. "Well, I learnt to use my healing magic with my own hands after a few loops where my parents had to put the flower in my body as a gel to save me. So, every time, after escaping the tower with Eugene, I cut my hair, and enjoy a simple day without my 'mother'."

"Interesting, and a good thing too. Princesses Anna and Elsa?"

"Please, each one separately." Elsa said. "We do different things, we told you that last time. Besides, I'm a Queen."

"Right." Snow made a note. "You were a princess though, and you'll always be considered one of us. So, what did you do?"

"Well, I Replaced Jadis, from Narnia," Elsa said. "Not a big fan of what she did, even if it's a bit like what I did. So, I de-froze everything, except for my palace, and I made elections for a Prime Minister. Aslan won, and I became just a political figure without power."

"That's not as good as it sounds, for your information," Jasmine said. "But I'm sure all of us have been there." A few murmurs of agreement were heard.

"And you, Anna?" Snow asked.

"Not much, just making sure that my sister never freezes the kingdom, again."

"You do it once in Baseline..." the Snow Maiden muttered, while a few princesses chuckled.

"Alright, now, the Honorary Princesses." Snow White said.

"I think I'll go first." Wendy said. "I've been practicing about making Fairy Dust since that loop I replaced Tinker Bell."

"You're getting good at that, by the way. I think Peter wants you to teach Izzy to make her own Fairy Dust." The artisan fairy said.

"Hey, you can talk normally!" Kairi said.

"Well, I've exactly trying to learn how to make a miniature translator fairy-human. It works well, for a prototype." Tinker Bell said.

"Cool. Do you girls mind if I go next?" Alice asked. When the princesses agreed, she spoke. "I've decided to ask Discord for a few lessons on how to use Chaos Magic."

"Wait, what? How? Why?" Mulan asked.

"Do you want to know?" The "Princess" of Wonderland grinned, with a grin that reminded the others of the Cheshire Cat... Before disappearing like the cat, leaving only the eyes. After a few seconds, she reappeared, while the princesses all stood in silence, with only Vanellope clapping.

"Alright... Now, who's next?" Tiana asked.

"Oh, Me!" Sofia, the youngest princess, said. "I'm glad you invited me to this summit, I've only seen a few of you, and only whenever I need help from a princess."

"And we're still glad to meet you, Sofia." Cinderella said. "By the way, how is your princess training going?"

"Really good! Last loop, I looped in a world, where I had to practice being a princess, with a little cute fairy!"

"Huh?" Aurora said, smiling. "Do you know the three qualities you need to be a Grand Princess?"

"Of course! Do you?" Sofia asked, a glimmer in her eyes. Aurora nodded, and both of them chanted "Strong! Kind! Beautiful!" while holding little keys that looked like dresses.

"Well, that explains where Aurora was last loop. And how Maleficent was destroyed." Snow White said. "Now, I guess Kairi's next, then Vanellope, and then we can continue with-"

"Wait!" The glitch princess shouted. "What about you two?!" She pointed to Snow and Cinderella. "I mean, we get Aurora, but you two?"

"Oh, right. Well, I was with Kairi and Anastasia, even if she isn't technically a Disney Princess, so I was hoping she explained more," Cinderella told them.

"Yeah, I was with them fighting Xehanort," Kairi said. "I promised Ven a calmed loop if I woke up while he was with Eraqus, and I'm usually a little kid, so I needed help."

"It's a good thing we were Awake for that, I needed to ventilate a few things... My stepmom annoys me a lot sometimes..." Cinderella said.

"I see..." Vanellope said. "But what about our great leader herself?"

"Yeah Snow, what have you been doing?" Jasmine asked.

"Well, I've been doing something special with the dwarfs. Do you wanna know?" Snow said, smiling playfully.

"Does it involve Minecraft?" Vanellope asked, for the shock of the princess, who was going to release a few Diamond Ores from her Pocket.

"... How did you know?"

"Eh, almost every time I see them, is 'Dig this, Dig that! Snow is making progress with her Diamond Ore Fabricator!', You know, things like that." Vanellope smiled, and winked, making the oldest Looping Princess speechless. "By the way, I stealth looped into your world last time." She finished, smiling and glitching all the way.

11.1-11.4: So the Wayfarer trio are Looping, and Yen Sid is Stealthing...

11.5: There was a Random Loot Generator thing a while back. This is from it.

11.6: (shrugs) Not much else I can say.

11.7: Ah, BadAnon... a good place to be yourself.

11.8: Yes, it's official canon (even outside the Loops) that Lexington prefers his own gender. So does Gobber of How To Train Your Dragon. Whether their friendship will go further is entirely up in the air.

11.9: Disney Princesses have some interesting discussions. (Note: This is edited from the original version to remove its mention of "multiversal network"; that's been replaced with uploading to PADDs on request. I also added one or two lines to clarify certain parts.)

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-10-28. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

12.1 (kingofsouls): [Frozen] / [Star Wars]

The day of the coronation

A knock made itself heard on Elsa's door. "Enter."

Slowly the door opened, revealing Kristoff. "Hey Elsa."

"Kristoff, what brings you to the castle this early in the Loop?"

"Well, you know those two minions the Duke of Weselton brings with him?"

"The ones with the moustaches?" Elsa asked. Kristoff nodded as Elsa thought on that. "What about them?"

"Well the last time I went to the Hub loop I learned that some of the people living there call those two guys Weselbiggs and Weselwedge."

"That... seems weird."

"4chan called them that."

"Ah. That explains it, but I doubt you came by this early to tell me a bit of trivia."

"Well you see, this loop they actually are Biggs and Wedge."

Elsa was about to reply when the words died on her lips. "...that explains why we have a spaceship hidden in the mountains."

That surprised Kristoff, the Anchor balking. "You have a spaceship?"

"Apparently yes."

12.2 (FTKnight): [Frozen]

Kristoff was used to odd sights from the loops, from Aliens to talking frogs. Still the sight of Elsa being carried off towards a Viking ship was a relatively new one on him.

"Hey Elsa, would you like some help?" He called.

"I'm good." Elsa called back. "Try to keep Anna out of trouble for me."

"Sure, Have fun." He responded slightly bemused. Several of those Vikings had looked vaguely familiar...

12.3 (Evilhumour with help from Purrs): [My Little Pony] / [The Nightmare Before Christmas] - also compiled in MLP Time Loops as Loop 145.13.

Zecora smiled to herself as she prepared to welcome the anchor to Equestria. She had been planning this for a while now, and she wanted to see how he would take their version of his holiday. Clearing her throat, she directed Cheerilee and her students into their appropriately decorated town and began to sing to them all.

"Colts and fillies of every age

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?"

Nyx picked up the tone, flying in as her adult self and landed beside the singing zebra.

"If you have some time to kill

See our town of Ponyville"

From the house they were hiding beside, Diamond Tiara led several foals dressed as pumpkins in the next chant. The anchor's smile was growing by the moment.

"This is Ponyville, this is Ponyville

Ponies laugh in the dead of night"

Luna flew into the town from her moon, the greatest smile on her face as she basked in the adoration the citizens Ponyville were giving her.

"This is Ponyville, everypony knows the drill

Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright

It's our town, everypony laugh

In this town of Ponyville"

Vinyl trotted onto the scene, shaking her mane in her elaborate costume to the utter delight of the stallion beside them.

"I am the one hiding under your bed

Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red"

Flashing a wink, Vinyl joined their growing group as Lyra appeared in her human costume.

"I am the one outside the windowpane

Fingers like snakes and spiders in my mane"

All of the ponies gathered so far broke out in a joint song of "This is Ponyville, this is Ponyville"

Flying in as a pegasus, Sunset flashed her sharp fangs as she sang her part of their song.

"Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville!

In this town we call home

Everypony hail to the librarian song"

Ivory Scroll walked onto the scene with a fantastic costume that made it appear she had two faces on her head.

"In this town, don't we love it now?

Everybody's waiting for the next surprise"

Everyone, even their visitor and the non looping ponies, sung the next part with pride in their voices.

"Round that corner, Pinkie hiding in the trash can

Something's waiting now to pounce, and how you'll..."

Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy jumped out of the Carousel Boutique, singing loudly to the eternal delight of their friends. The first was wearing something quite risqué, the second was a quite realistic timberwolf, and the third was using her druid powers to make it seem as if she were melting.

"Scream!

This is Ponyville

Red 'n' black, slimy green"

Applejack leaned into the foals around Cheerilee, snarling softly to get them laughing in playful fright.

"Aren't ya scared?"

Flying in with their own weird magic, Discord and Silver Spoon caused a bit of draconequus magic to fall around them all.

"Well, that's just fine

Say it once, say it twice

Take a chance and roll the dice

Ride with the moon in the dead of night.

Spike, changed into a skeleton form for this event sang his lines in a mighty tone:

"Don't you feel the chill? Don't you feel the chill?"

Berry Punch, a hoof around her daughter, fulfilled her part.

"In our town of Ponyville!"

Pinkie Pie, dressed to the nines, bounced her way to their visitor, her smile greater than the one painted on her face.

"I am the clown with the tear-away face

Here in a flash and gone without a trace"

A very large red ghoul pony showed off his pipes on the condition that no one would ever tape this.

"I am the fear in the back of your brain

I am the wind blowing through your mane"

An alicorn mare flew across the moon, doing what little singing she needed to do.

"I am the shadow on the moon at night

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright"

With that, Celestia, dressed as Nightmare Moon, flew off before her voice would crack.

Everyone followed the zebra alicorn with joy and wonder as she led them deeper into the town.

"This is Ponyville, this is Ponyville

Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville!

Ponyville! Ponyville!"

The three founders of the Cutie Mark Crusaders bounded onto the scene, their smiles meeting all of the other ponies' save their visitor.

"Tender lumplings everywhere

Life's no fun without a good scare"

The Empress of the Crystal Empire and her Royal consort, both dressed as corpses and their legs around each other, chimed in.

"That's our part-time job, but we're not evil

In our town of Ponyville"

Rainbow Dash unleashed her own singing as they neared the imposing tree in the center of the town.

"In this town"

Ivory did not miss her cue from the pony dressed up as the grim reaper, replying with

"Don't we love it now?

Everybody's waiting for the next surprise"

All of the present mane six started to sing together, side by side.

"Twilight Sparkle might catch you reading a book

And scream like a banshee

Make you jump out of your skin

This is Ponyville, don't you feel the chill? Won't you please make way for a very special mare?

Our mare Twilight is Queen of Golden Oaks

Everyone hail to the Bookworm Queen now!"

Everyone broke out into song in perfect unison, heads pointed to the full moon above them. A pony exploded out from the foliage of the Golden Oaks Library, flying around in the air as the crow reached its climax.

"This is Ponyville, this is Ponyville

Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville! Ponyville!"

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell sang as Twilight landed in front of the entire town, wings bent low before she stood up in front of their special guest.

"In this town we call home

Everyone hail to the friendship song!"

With that, there was a shout of joy and thunderous applause, none louder than from Pumpkin King himself.

12.4 (cipher100): [Gargoyles]

Login name: *************

Password: *************

Access Yggdrasil Loop Protocol Status: [Designation: Gargoyles]

Access Complete...

Yggdrasil Loop Protocol

Designation: Gargoyles...Status....

Stability:...75.8%

Primary Anchor Candidates: 1. Goliath, 2. Elisa Moza, 3. David Xanatos

Input Anchor Candidate: 1

Anchor Stability: ...89.7%

Activate Loop Protocol: [Designation: Gargoyles] Y/N?

/Y

Activating

Activation... Complete

"You are trespassing." Goliath growled at the enemy leader, whom he held by the wrist. Overcoming his shock and fear, Hakon the Viking leader, unsheathed his sword and swung, only for it to be caught in Goliath's other hand. This surprised Hakon even further, though he took solace in the trail of blood flowing from the monster's wound.

"Fight men, they are not invincible." Hakon yelled to his brethren. And with that the fighting continued. The Vikings clashed with the castle's infantry troops guarding the gates to the hold. It was a macabre scene, where glints of steel were followed by a splash of blood and cries of pain. All strewn together with sounds of metal on metal, and metal on flesh.

High up on the parapets the castle's archers let loose their notched arrows. Felling many of their enemies with precision and accuracy, not a shot was wasted with their practice and skill. The Vikings were utilizing their own form of long-range weaponry as well. Towering catapults and trebuchets loaded down with stones and boulders hammered at the castle's walls causing tremors and shockwaves throughout the structure. Their own archers were finding victims as well, either on the ground or up on the walls.

Throughout the battle both sides, either in awe or fear, were well aware of the tiebreakers in the sky. The creatures that were stone by day, flesh by night. The Gargoyles.

With agility and speed the Gargoyles swooped down upon their adversaries. Either to slash the Vikings with sharpened claws or to barrel into them and knock them down, making them easy prey for others. However, some of the less fortunate invaders had the horror to experience being picked up and taken to great heights, only to drop and plummet to the ground.

The battle lasted for many hours, but ended with the castle's guardians victorious and the Viking horde running to lick its wounds. After the battle the leader of this Gargoyle clan, Goliath could not help but ponder the familiarity of the situation. As if it had happened before.

Goliath was confused. Several hours had passed since the battle between the Vikings and the defenders of castle Wyvern, and since then Goliath had been thinking about what was going. For starters he had an intense feeling of Deja vu, coupled with the fact that he had memories that were not his and yet were. Significant portions of them were blurry as if they were a dream, but several were clear and vivid as if they were from yesterday.

He recalled a place named Manhattan, a massive city of metal and glass that touched the sky. There was another memory of a human woman called Elisa, a woman that filled his heart with joy and hope. And there was a man named Xanatos, the emotions accompanying that name were strange. There was anger and resentment but they were old and dull, the other feelings were brighter, newer, and they were of acceptance and respect.

There were other memories as well, memories of his clan, of strange enemies, of things he never imagined. But everything was inconsequential to what his new memories were telling him about the present, betrayal, regret, loss.

Pushing those thoughts aside he focused on what he was doing, tracking down the Vikings to prevent them from attacking the castle any further. He would deal with what his memories were telling him later. Besides, if there was any deceit, the castle was guarded by his brethren, he was certain they could defend it if anything were to happen.

"These tracks are fresh. Too light to be horses carrying armed men." Hudson, Goliath's new memories told him, said where he was crouched.

"They're not far off." Both took off in the direction of the tracks, only to find a small band of men leading the horses." No." Goliath said as his heart sank. Turning on his heel Goliath bolted with all of his speed, yelling over his shoulder for his companion to follow.

"Goliath. What is it?" Hudson asked with concern. He had never seen Goliath so worried.

"It was a trick. They were using the horses to lead us from the castle. We must hurry." Goliath knew somehow that it would be futile. He was proven correct when they saw the castle in the distance, the Viking horde already in position, with the sun peaking over the horizon. Already feeling the cursed transformation of flesh to stone, the last thing he heard before sleep overtook him was the defeated voice of Hudson.

"We are too late."

The sun had gone down but the battle was already over. Goliath and Hudson woke up to the sight of a ruined castle, still burning from Viking's siege. They decided to split up; Hudson went to discover how this had happened, while Goliath checked on the Clan. Only to discover that 'Brooklyn', 'Bronx', 'Lexington' and 'Broadway were the only ones to survive. After explaining what had happened they all took flight to find the Vikings and the prisoners that were taken during the assault, also to avenge their fallen brethren.

Finding their targets was fortunately easy. While the other Gargoyles went to free the captives and fight the common Viking soldiers, Goliath set off for their leader, he found him with the princess bound in ropes. The Captain of the Guard was there as well but he was not tied up like the princess. Did that mean?

"You are the betrayer." Goliath growled in anger at the one he thought was a friend. The Captain tried to explain but Goliath would not hear, he was angry because of the betrayal and because according to his memories he might have prevented it.

Giving in to what he was feeling, Goliath attacked both Hakon and the Captain.In the end Goliath was victorious, the Princess was safe and the other two had fallen off the cliff the fight had taken place on.

However, once the fight was over, Goliath's heart fell further than before. He listened to the Magus' explanation as to what happened, but only partly. For he was lost in the memories that he had discovered a few days ago, memories that had become far clearer than they were before. At first he thought it was just a dream. But he was certain that he was in the past. Whether by magic or by science he was not sure. What he did know was that his clan would reawaken again, and if he would want to be there with them then he would have to go through with what he did the first time.

"Magus. Before you leave may I ask you of something?" Seeing that he had their attention he continued. "Please cast your spell a second time."

As the stone crept over his body, Goliath's last words before he slept for one thousand years were.

"I will do better this time."

12.5 (kingofsouls): [Frozen] / [Xiaolin Showdown]

The day of Elsa's coronation

Kristoff gazed at the harbor, and was mildly confused to see several more ships approach than usual. What was more intriguing was the style of the ships: Many of them were the kind used in battle. Standing on the bow of the lead ship was a red haired, pasty skinned young man garbed in a black coat. He then revealed a bullhorn, and spoke into it.

"ATTENTION LOSERS OF ARENDELLE! I, JACK SPICER - EVIL BOY GENIUS - HAVE COME FOR ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY! YOUR COMPLETE AND UTTER SURRENDER! AND THE HAND OF THE BEAUTIFUL SOON TO BE QUEEN OF THIS LAND SO THAT I MAY RULE THROUGH HER! JACK BOTS, ATTACK!"

Flying out of the hulls of the armada flew several groups of flying mechanoids that resembled a flying human torso with a head attached.

Kristoff smiled and simply pulled out a camera.

"At least this guy is more open with his intentions than Hans."

"I went easy on you since you're a girl." moaned Jack Spicer atop a pile of scrapped and partially frozen Jack-bots.

What followed next was Elsa turning Jack into a Jack-cicle, Kristoff trying his hardest to stay professional as he recorded.

12.6 (LordCirce): [Lilo & Stitch]

Lilo glanced up as Nani lectured her about a lobster door. 'Note to self: Adopt lobsters next Loop. Possibly teach them to dance.'

Stitch crawled across the ceiling, pausing just long enough to wink down at her. She had felt the Ping, but it was always nice to check that Stitch was properly Awake. It could be pretty boring when he wasn't (which was a really odd thing to think about Stitch).

Lilo nodded as Nani finished up and turned to the paperwork, while Stitch crawled back in along the ceiling. Lilo pondered how she could introduce Stitch this time. Watching the dog lady freak out was pretty fun, but maybe they could do something different.

Lilo wandered into the back area, shouting a loud "Hello!" as she did. There was a brief scurrying, then Stitch popped up from in one of the cages.

"Ha-hai!" he growled out, flexing his claw. Lilo tilted her head.

"Did something happen to your vocal cords?"

Stitch shrugged. "Nostalgia."

Lilo nodded. "Right. Well, I've got a neat idea. Do you remember the regulations and everything from when you were Mr. Bubble's partner?"

Nani leaned back as the kennel owner discussed the different dogs they had.

"...all our dogs are adoptable." The lady smiled and nodded. A sharp cough cut them off, and they both turned to look at Lilo and... the dog?

It was blue, with an odd squished face and oddly shaped ears. But that wasn't the oddest thing, though it did lead her to doubt that it was actually a dog. The oddest thing was that it was standing on its hind legs, and was dressed in a miniature suit, complete with a pair of sunglasses perched on its nose. A small part of her mind commented that it looked like a miniature, furrier version of the social worker from early, but it was drowned out by concern as the kennel worker next to her fainted.

The dog tilted its head, looking concerned, before speaking. Its voice sounded oddly British. "Ahh, pity. I had hoped to thank her for tending to my injuries. Still, I can't stay still for long. As much as I hate to impose, I must ask for shelter. I am being tailed by a couple of rather nasty, if somewhat incompetent, men, and I need somewhere to lay low."

Nani's mouth opened and closed as she took in what the dog... agent... thing was saying. "What?"

Lilo giggled as she 'showed' Stitch her room. Given his obvious intelligence, Nani had insisted that he sleep down on the couch.

"So, you're being James Bond?"

"Shaken, not stirred." Stitch growled in his ordinary voice. Lilo giggled again before flopping on her bed.

"Hey Stitch, how long do you think it will take to convince Nani to let me get a hovercar again?"

12.7 (Ryuus2): [Kingdom Hearts] / [How To Train Your Dragon] / [Disney] / [Warhammer 40K] / [Sly Cooper] / [Avatar: Legend of Korra] / [My Little Pony] / [Disgaea]

Hiccup woke up in an odd way. Nothing was on fire, there was no roaring or shouts of rage and pain, and he couldn't smell even a hint of smoke or fish. He was standing perfectly still staring up at a castle. Just that. Nothing else. It was the weirdest awakening he'd had in a century.

"Huh, we don't normally wake up here, a-hyuk," a familiar voice to his side said. He grinned and turned to meet the welcoming smiles of Goofy, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse. "Howdy Hiccup. You just Wake up too?" the dog-man asked.

"Yep. It's been a while since we've all gotten together like this," Hiccup said as he stretched to get the feeling back in his left leg; it always tingled when it came back after the loop reset. He looked up at the castle and surroundings he now recognized as Hollow Bastion from the first stretch of the Kingdom Hearts loops, then frowned as something hit him as off. "Hey, Mickey, what are you doing here? You don't normally show up until the end of this part, right?"

King Mickey Mouse, Keyblade Master and Disney Anchor, just grinned mischievously up at his fellow anchor. "It's a variant loop that pops up every now and then. Check your loop memories for the details."

Hiccup shrugged and did so. It was quite a bit to take in. Berk replaced Destiny Island this loop, except Riku was there as a Viking, and when the Heartless came Astrid was taken as a Princess of Heart and Hiccup became the new Keybearer. Then, while he, Donald, and Goofy were in Wonderland saving Alice, Maleficent went after Queen Minnie in Disney Castle, prompting Mickey to return from the World of Darkness early instead of trying to close the door to Kingdom Hearts from that end. Agrabah was kinda the same, if everyone was an anthropomorphic animal. Instead of Jasmine and Aladdin, they'd met Princess Carmelita and Sly the street ringtail. Everything else was mostly baseline for Kingdom Hearts, just with a lot more snark.

"Huh. Okay then. I'm guessing all the Princes and Princesses were replaced by loopers, then?" Mickey nods confirmation. "I wonder who replaced Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle?" he asked his comrades.

"My memories tell me that it's Princesses Asami, Cadance, and Rozalin this time," Mickey said. "I have no idea who replaced Belle, but the Beast's human name was-"

Mickey was interrupted by nearby space ripping and tearing with a bestial roar, followed by the more familiar roar of a monstrous engine. A tank sized metal box covered in guns rolled through the kaleidoscopic tear in space. What Hiccup recognized as a Rhino troop transport rolled right up to them and parked. Out of the back climbed a giant wolf-man in grey Space Marine armor, flanked by two wolves half his height...making them as tall at the shoulder as Hiccup.

"-Prince Leman Russ," Mickey finished with aplomb.

"Well met, your majesty," Leman growled formally, sketching a bow that was equal parts graceful and deferant despite all the hair and encumbrance of his armor. "I trust we are all Awake?"

"Yep," Hiccup said. "All of us so far, anyways. Your group?"

"Myself, Freki, and Geri, of course," he said, gesturing to his lupine brothers. "Bjorn is replacing Cogsworth. He and Lumiere are in the Rhino. We awoke as soon as the Heartless absconded with Nyx. We would have been here sooner, but the traffic was terrible."

"Are you sure it wasn't your driving?" Donald quacked. Everyone snickered as the Primarch growled angrily at the smirking duck.

"For your information, I was not driving. Bjorn wouldn't let me," he grumbled the last part. He waved at the portal he used to get there. "I was talking about them."

Out of the still open warp portal, another group arrived on what most of the loopers there would call the strangest vehicle they had ever seen. A large blue and green flying carpet... with a steering wheel. Behind the wheel was a pink hippo in a turban with blue pants held up by a red sash. Behind him was a grey raccoon in a blue vest holding a crooked cane, a green turtle wearing a bowtie and a fez, and a tigress in purple pants and crop-top.

The next arrival was a glowing comet. A giant glowing hulk of ice and rock with a tail of fire, that was somehow capable of parallel parking between a tank and a carpet. The light quickly dimmed and one wall of the comet fell apart/melted and reformed into a set of stairs. Down the stairs came a very handsome young man in expensively tailored royal blue clothes, with a bearing fit for a prince. The only thing that ruined the very picture of every parent's dream son in law was the very impressive cleavage the "prince" was displaying.

Last to arrive was an ornate crystal carriage driven by two crystal stallions. Out of it stepped yet another young man, in red this time, who was equally as handsome and charming as the last. Except for the chiseled jaw and lack of cleavage, that is. He was also accompanied by two mice, one on either shoulder, wearing matching guard uniforms and light plate armor, with identical swords strapped to their sides. As they stepped towards the group, the carriage and horses slowly lost definition until they faded away completely, their creator no longer applying the focus needed to keep up the elaborate force-fields that comprised them.

Taking in the assembled loopers around him, Hiccup came to a quick decision. He switched to his favorite Night Fury keyblade, jumped on the Rhino, and cast a wandless Sonorus on himself. "My friends and fellow loopers, we have been called together here for a reason. Call it fate, or chance, or Yggdrasil wanting a show, but there is a reason. And that reason... is to prove we are men! And amazons," he added aside when Korra glared and Neyla hissed at him. "But mostly as men! Now what are we waiting for? Let's save our girls! Then rub it in their faces!"

"Yeah!"

12.8 (LordCirce): [Gravity Falls]

"Dipper, please let me get my vengeance on the Northwests! You hate them as much as I."

Dipper rolled his shoulders and sighed. "Dude, man, I don't hate them. I mean, yeah, the older ones, sure, but Pacifica is actually pretty cool." 'If only because Mabel and I ran our perfected Get-Pacifica-To-Be-A-Decent-Person-Plan at the beginning of the summer.' Dipper then pointed back over his shoulder. "Plus, my sister is having a lot of fun in there, and she would probably kill me if I let anything mess up this party."

The ghost sighed. "Very well boy. Then, before you banish my soul, may these tired lumber eyes, gaze upon the trees, one final time?"

Dipper rolled his eyes at the ghost's melodrama. 'How did I ever fall for this?' "Um, sure man, knock yourself out."

Dipper lifted up the silver mirror and aimed it out at the trees. The ghost, as always, began to laugh. Several seconds passed, and the ghost's laughter slowly faded, as did the burning glow around the mirror. Dipper yawned. "You finished with your last look?"

"How? How can you resist the fires of rage that burns within my soul?!" The mirror flared hot again, but Dipper used a quick flame-siphoning trick, courtesy of Harry Dresden, and escaped perfectly unburned.

"Hey, man, sorry, but this ain't exactly my first rodeo. I know how to handle any trick you can throw at me." 'Though it took me about sixty Loops to be able to actually say that. Seriously, how did this particular ghost get so powerful?'

After a few seconds, the mirror cooled and the lumberjack sighed, long and loud. "Very well. You have truly bested me. I only ask, do not let the Northwests rest in peace. Carry on my legacy!"

"Nah, I don't think I can do that." 'And loophole allowing him to come back and possess me is closed.' "But, I do have something I think you should see."

Dipper jumped off the stump where he had been standing and carefully made his way over to a small hillock that just overlooked the Northwest Mansion gates. Tilting his head, he signaled a thumbs up to Mabel and Pacifica, who were watching from one of the manor windows.

"What is this, boy? You wish to have my final sight be the mockery of the town!"

Dipper buffed his fingernails on his shirt. "Nah, just the start of tearing down the Northwests reputation." Right on cue, the gates of the mansion opened up. Dipper glanced at the ghost's face, and grinned at the mixture of shock and delight that filled it as the old lumberjack saw the townsfolk rushing up to the doors. One of the benefits of befriending Pacifica early was the ability to let everyone end this debacle happy without needlessly turning into wood. Well, the older Northwests wouldn't be happy, but who cared about them?

"...Thank you, Dipper. You have given my soul the justice it so dearly craved." So saying, the essence of the ghost vanished from the mirror. Dipper performed a few quick spells to check for any remnants, but it looked like the ghost was gone for good.

"Another job well done. Now, to go get a photo of Mr. Northwest's face when Soos sets up his W-neck stand..."

12.9 (LordCirce): [Gravity Falls]

"And look at my outfit! These colors, with these, I guess you could call them pants. And my hair!"

Mabel grinned widely. "I know, isn't it..."

"Awful!""Great!"

Mabel and Pacifica blinked, before glaring at each other. Dipper sighed as he rubbed his head. He was just glad this wasn't a Reversed Loop where he and Mabel were psychically connected. Having a direct line to either Creepy!Mabel or Sugar!Spaz!Mabel was never a good time.

Slowly, Mabel reached her hand out. "Wardrobe swap."

Pacifica slowly nodded. "Wardrobe swap. Your outfit is at least somewhat fashionable."

Mabel shuddered. "Don't remind me."

Dipper groaned again. "And how are we supposed to explain this to everybody?"

Pacifica shrugged. "Just blame it on your weird journal. Always seemed to work before."

12.10 (LordCirce): [Gravity Falls]

"Do you want to know how I figured out your whole time dealy?"

Dipper huffed as he rose to his mental feet. No matter what he tried, Bill always seemed to get summoned or just show up, leading to some sort of mental battle, often in Stan's mind. "Honestly, I just want to kick your butt so I can go home."

"Heh, you're funny kid. Explains why I like you so much. Anyway, since you asked so nicely..."

"I didn't ask..."

"... I'll tell you. It's because I can see it. This eye isn't for show, you know." Images began rapidly flashing through Bill's eye. "The history of this town, you and your twin, that meddling baby, I can see it all. You know what I can't see?"

Dipper groaned. "What?"

"ME! My past, my motives, my history. None of it! I can't see it at all. It just doesn't exist. I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM!"

Dipper stood, stunned, as Bill slumped from his outburst.

12.11 (LordCirce): [Gravity Falls]

"Mega Kitten Whisker Wave!"

Dipper twisted, leaping up so he could ride the wave of furry cuteness across the yard, rather than get bowled over by it like the gnomes. Back next to the shack, Mabel laughed maniacally as she tried out her newest toy, the Muni Magic Wand.

'Note to self: Keep a better eye on Mabel in wild-magic Loops. Also, find a way to steal that charger.' Gravity Falls is weird enough without Mabel having the ability to spawn...

"Silly String Super Tornado!" *Splat*

Dipper slowly pulled his way free from where he had been silly stringed to a tree. 'Definitely need to get that charger. Or find a way to nullify magic...'

12.12 (LordCirce; Hvulpes): [DC] / [Gravity Falls]

Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, took a deep breath of the dank Gotham air as he stepped out of the Batmobile. Behind him, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin all climbed out as well.

"We've narrowed down Bane's location to somewhere in the four blocks south of here." Batman turned to face his charges, smiling at their focus. "This is a reconnaissance patrol only. If you spot them, signal it in, and we will regroup. Understood?"

All three nodded. Batman nodded back, and turned to face the nearest building face. "Let's go."

The dark solemnity of the moment was shattered by a laughing shout. "GRAPPLING HOOK!" Batman, spun, his jaw dropping, as Batgirl, aka Mabel Gordon, flew up on her grappling line. Next to the Batmobile, Robin, aka Dipper Drake, had his head in his hands, while Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson, stood with the sort of stiffness that showed he was internally suppressing riotous laughter. Slowly, Batman turned back to the buildings. "Nightwing, follow her and keep her out of trouble. Robin, you're with me." One *thwip* and cape flutter later, Batman had vanished.

Dipper turned to look at Nightwing. "I'm so sorry."

Nightwing just gazed stoically back, before lifting up his grappling gun, and saying two solemn words.

"Grappling Hook."

As Batman watched Batgirl hug the animal in a batsuit which had knocked out Quinn and The Joker, he sighed as he resigned himself to his answer, "Yes Batgirl, Waddles can be... Batpig!"

12.13 (Harosata): [Phineas and Ferb] / [My Little Pony] - not compiled in MLP Time Loops.

Doofenshmirtz just had to laugh. Of course it was an evil laugh, victorious variant. "Finally, my Calling-All-Villain-Inator is complete, and you can't do anything, Perry the Platypus!"

He looked around. "You are awake, right, Perry? I mean, it's not like I tailored the speech whether you're Awake or not, but don't ask me for an explanation of the Multiverse."

Perry just blinked.

"Right, you're Awake." Doofenshmirtz cleared his throat. "Now, as you might be aware, there's more than our universe out there, and where there's universes, there's heroes, and when there's heroes, there's villains. And sure, that last time we had the Avenger's villains come over, it was one of the happiest days of my life."

The mad scientist frowned. "But then I found out those villains can't really be called villains. I mean, really, you got someone called the 'King of Evil' styling pony princesses, a Sith Lord who wants to play Dad-of-the Year, and all those movie villains who end up becoming heroes. Heck, even if you become a MLE, you're sharing the rank with two brain dead idiots! I mean, really, these people Safe Loops are considered more evil than naturally evil Loops. But my Calling-All-Villain-Inator will fix that!"

A spotlight shone down on what looked like a portal machine. "All I have to do is just scan a piece of literature or movie into this machine, and I can draw a villain out from that world. And the best part is, once we have a fun time together, it's going to cause that villain to loop, and they'll call me the 'cool guy who got me looping'. Now, I'll start with this Japanese comic book from the Hub called 'Arthur Pyuty-"

Doofenshmirtz quickly let go of the book as lightning struck. "Come on, I could provide a cure for the disease in there, and it wasn't like I was going to bring in a crazy version of her."

A small meteor crushed the Calling-All-Villain-Inator. "Seriously? Fine, if getting a villain to Loop in and stay as a villain is so bad, why don't you just run me over with a stampede of jackalopes?"

DING

Doofenshmirtz and Perry gazed over at the elevator. "See, it's not such a bad idea, though I guess I can't invite every bad guy I hear about."

Angel the Bunny simply tilted his fedora and walked towards him.

12.14 (LordCirce): [Atlantis: The Lost Empire]

Milo Thatch paused as he adjusted the chalkboard his presentation was drawn on, then suddenly spun around in a panic.

"Wha, huh? Where am... This is the boiler room. Why am I in the Smithsonian boiler room?" Milo rubbed his face as his other hand brushed his chest, only to find the crystal that had hung there was missing.

"Oh... Oh no... Kida!" Milo quickly dashed out of the room, missing the incoming telephone call to do something about the boilers.

Milo slumped into his apartment, stunned. It was all gone. Atlantis, all of it. It was like none of it had ever...

"Hello, Mr. Thatch."

Milo jumped at the familiar, throaty voice. He spun, spotting the statuesque blonde stepping out of the shadows. "Helga?"

Helga Sinclair stumbled slightly in shock. "How do you know my name?"

Milo wasn't paying attention. "If you're here, then that means... Mr. Whitmore... And Roarke and Atlantis and Kida!" Milo let out a loud whoop and promptly scooped up his cat, spinning into a frantic dance of joy. Helga watched with a mixture of suspicion, disbelief and amusement, before shrugging. She got paid either way. And if it turned out this Milo character was a nut, well, that was Whitmore's problem.

12.15 (Evilhumour): [My Little Pony] / [Gravity Falls] / [Warhammer 40K] - not compiled in MLP Time Loops.

"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie shouted, running over to hug as two ponies followed her with big grins on her face. "I wanna introduce you to my sisters!"

"Hiya, I'm Maple Syrup!" the earth pony shouted, glistening in gems on her body.

"Hiya, I'm Glimmering Mind!" the other earth pony said with a grin from ear to ear.

"And together," all three of them leaning in for a hug. "WE ARE LOOPING PIE SISTERS!"

"Oh sweet Celestia no." Twilight muttered before fainting.

12.16 (LordCirce): [Kingdom Hearts]

Kairi stared blankly at Sora, who was practicing his dual-wielding. His form was excellent, and as Kairi was Awake, seeing him wielding giant keys wasn't unusual. No, the unusual thing was around his neck.

"Are those what I think they are?"

Sora spun around at the sound of her voice, grinning, as the necklace made of miniature keys spun around his neck. "May~be."

"And just what are you planning to do with them?" Kairi's eyebrows knitted together.

Sora's grin turned evil. "Munchkinning!"

12.17 (Harosata): [Phineas and Ferb] / [Sentinels of the Multiverse]

Doofenshmirtz was giddy with glee. A new Looper came into his office, and he was a villain. An unponified non-MLE villain who honestly wanted to take over the world. And he looked dashing to boot. It's too bad he couldn't use the Welcome-To-The-Multiverse-Inator to give the newcomer the speech, but nothing's ever perfect.

"Great! Now how about we both team up and-" Doofenshmirtz backed up as Baron Blade pulled out a gun. "Oh, every time I have a Fused Loop, this happens."

"How about I repurpose your inventions for my own use?" Baron Blade smirked. "With my genius, your inventions and the knowledge of these Loops, no man can stop me. Ha ha ha-"

Then he got a webbed foot to the face.

Legacy Woke u-

"CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!"

"Huh, looks like Baron Blade's Awake too." Legacy commented idly as he set out to save the day.

12.18 (Harosata): [Disney] / [Phineas and Ferb]

Mickey glared at Doctor Doofenshmirtz. "What have we learned today?"

"When experiencing the Mikasa Glitch, attempt to handle the situation in a calm and peaceful manner." The mad scientist deadpanned.

Mickey drawled on. "Aaaaand?"

"Do not use Shadow Clones, Mirrors Pools, body snatcher pods, duplication spells, or the cloning machine I made that one Halloween when you end up fighting yourselves."

12.19 (Awesomedude17): [Five Nights at Freddy's] / [Pirates of the Caribbean]

Part 1:

Foxy Awoke as a human, stuck in a slowly sinking dinghy. He looked across to see an actual person, rowing the boat.

"Something the matter, mate?"

"Nothin' Cap't." Foxy automatically responded. "Just annoyed."

"Same here. But we'll get the Pearl back. Promise you that." The Captain spoke.

"Lookie there, Cap't. A port!"

"Aye. And look..." The Captain pointed at what looked like dead pirates on display. The two gave their tributes right before they ported.

Foxy would enjoy spending time with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow as one of his trusted crew members.

12.20 (LordCirce): [The Emperor's New Groove]

Pacha sighed as he rode his cart back to his farm. 'Another day, another...'

He paused in his thought process as he caught sight of a sack in his cart that hadn't been there before. Rolling his eyes, Pacha pulled his cart to a halt and leaned back, pulling open the sack to allow an unconscious llama to spill out into the back of his cart. The llama blinked blearily and looked around.

"Wha, where am I?"

"Seriously, Kuzco, how does she keep getting you?"

The llama stared at him blankly for several long seconds, before throwing his hooves up and screaming. "I don't know! I kick her out, I send the guards after her, I use my super kung-fu skills to take her down," Kuzco deliberately ignored Pacha's disbelieving look, "and she still manages to hit me with the potion!"

Pacha sat back into the driver's seat and nodded. "Uh huh, and why don't you just carry the antidote in your Pocket?"

Kuzco snorted. "An emperor doesn't need pockets. That's why I have servants, to carry all my things around for me."

The silence stretched on for several seconds. "You never learned how, did you?"

"It's boring!" Kuzco flopped over the seat next to Pacha. "Blah blah focus your chi blah blah soul space. Too much explainy for my brainy."

Pacha just shook his head. "And yet none of your servants are here, huh?"

Kuzco glanced over slyly. "You're here."

Pacha just stared at him flatly.

Kuzco huffed. "Fine." He took a deep breath, then wilted and in a tiny voice asked, "please?"

Pacha laughed and grinned. "There we go!" He pulled a small bottle full of pink potion out of his sleeve and tossed it back to Kuzco.

"Yay!" Kuzco pulled the stopper out with his teeth and downed the elixir in one gulp. One puff of smoke later, a fully human Kuzco hopped up to sit on the bench next to Pacha. "So, what's the plan?"

Pacha shrugged. "Oh, you know, typical peasant stuff. Farming, weeding, scraping out a meager existence." He glanced sideways at Kuzco. "Carving anachronistic drawings in some blocks with the kids to confuse archaeologists."

Kuzco whooped. "Awesome. Hey, I can carve a mean kangaroo. Did you know, kangaroos won't let you ride them? So rude. I was there..." Kuzco's voice faded as the cart rumbled into the jungle.

(Mr. Egret): [Indiana Jones] / [The Emperor's New Groove]

A Few Decades Later...

"Dr. Jones! I think you should take a look at this!"

Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, professor of archaeology at Stanford University and Anchor of his universe, looked up from his (heavily annotated) map of Egypt to see his friend and colleague, Professor Marcus Brody, running over while waving around a newspaper. "What is it, Brody?" he asked, as he got up out of his chair to meet him.

"It's that archaeological dig in Peru," Brody replied, as he laid the newspaper on the table. "They've found a set of most unusual carvings near that village you found on one of your adventures."

Prof. Jones looked at the front page of the newspaper, which bore the headline "Impossible Incan Carvings Found! Archaeologists Baffled!" Underneath the giant typeface, a set of black and white photographs featuring the carvings in question were splashed across the page. Indy's brow furrowed as he examined the carvings. "Brody, this carving... isn't this a kangaroo?"

"Yes! It's extraordinary! Until now, there hasn't been any evidence at all that there was any contact between Australia and South America during the time period in which those carvings were made! This could revolutionize ancient history as we know it!"

Indiana thought for a few seconds. "Are you sure this isn't a prank? Like a couple of smart alecks sneaking into the ruins to vandalize them with graffiti?"

"Impossible. We checked the age of those carvings very meticulously. They were, in all likelihood made within the same century as the ruins themselves."

"I see," Indy replied, as he stood up. "I'll dig through some of my old case files, see if there's anything similar to those carvings that I may have missed. Hard to believe that Incan trans-Pacific travel had been overlooked for so long. Keep me posted if anything new develops."

Brody nodded, smiling. "Sure thing, Indy. I have to let the others know about this. I'll see you later."

Brody said goodbye to Indy, before walking out of his office and shutting the door firmly behind him. Indy looked at the photograph again, before noticing something else. In the bottom left corner of the kangaroo, there were some scratches that looked like words. Grabbing a magnifying glass, Indy took a closer look at them. "Wait a minute... this is English," he said to himself. He grabbed his glasses, put them one, and then started to read. "'Kuzco... was... here...'"

There was a brief pause before Indy broke into a grin. "Well played, Kuzco," he said, while chuckling. "Well played."

He had to buy that guy a drink the next time they met. Maybe several drinks.

12.1: But what kind of spaceship is it? X-Wing, shuttle, or star cruiser?

12.2: Apparently she's used to this.

12.3: Welcome to Ponyville, Jack Skellington.

12.4: And so their first Loop begins...

12.5: Jack Spicer is an Anchor, incidentally.

12.6: Stitch does odd things.

12.7: Massive multiplayer crossover. Doesn't seem to have been continued.

12.8: Heading towards Pacifica's activation.

12.9: Reverse Falls.

12.10: The Mystery of Bill Cipher.

12.11: Inspiration drawn from Star Vs. the Forces of Evil.

12.12: ... I'm not entirely sure what to say here.

12.13: Some Inators work better than others.

12.14: Atlantis Awakens. Welcome to the Loops, Milo.

12.15: RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

12.16: Eeyeah.

12.17: Do I even want to know?

12.18: Doof's learned this at least three times. Maybe one of these times, it'll stick.

12.19: One of these days, this needs to be continued.

12.20: Well played, indeed.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-04. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

13.1 (LordCirce): [The Incredibles]

Bob yawned as he Awoke, and jerked slightly on the steering wheel of the car he was driving. Luckily, the road around him was empty, and he was able to correct himself, shaking his head to clear it.

"Okay, fancy old car. Unless I was super-nostalgic this Loop, that leaves me as starting out much earlier than normal." He grinned. "Let's make some changes."

Bob flexed as he sat back into his chair. He'd spotted Buddy's hair, so 3, 2, 1...

"Cool! Ready for takeoff!"

Bob snorted internally and faked a jump. "What? Who are you?"

Buddy waved his hands and struck a pose. "Well, I'm Incrediboy."

Bob gave him a flat look. "Uh huh. And does your mother know you're here, Buddy?"

"I'm not Buddy. I'm Incrediboy!"

Bob stifled a sigh. He had forgotten just how stubborn Buddy was at this point. "Okay, Incrediboy, but I would like to talk to Buddy for a moment. Could I do that?" He put on his best fatherly smile.

Buddy paused, then slowly nodded, pulling off the mask. "I'm still Incrediboy."

Bob nodded. "Okay. But again, does your mother know you're here?"

Buddy shook his head, and in a small voice, muttered, "No."

Bob sighed. "Look, Buddy, I would love to have Incrediboy backing me up, but you're still a kid. This isn't like a comic book, where I can take you out, fighting crime, while you're still in school. There are dangerous people out there, who wouldn't hesitate to hurt you, even though you're a kid."

"I'm not a kid! I'm ten!"

Bob had to bite back the laughter that Buddy's outburst provoked. "That's still not old enough for me to take you out. You would need to be eighteen, sixteen at the earliest, and only then with your mother's full consent and permission. Being a superhero doesn't mean that I can do whatever I want with no regard for the law, you know."

Buddy scowled, but finally nodded. "I guess."

"Besides, I wouldn't want to keep you limited as Incrediboy."

Buddy sat up. "What do you mean? You're the greatest hero ever!"

"And you could be even greater, but not if you're stuck in my shadow." Bob nodded, thinking to himself, 'And that is absolutely true. With all his gadgets, Syndrome makes an amazing hero, when I can get him there.'

"Stuck in your shadow?"

Bob shrugged. "If we start you out as Incrediboy, it will be extremely hard to get the public to see you as anyone else. You'll be stuck with the idea of being my sidekick forever, and that's no good." Bob glanced at the clock. He needed to head up to meet Helen soon. "Tell you what, I'm going to give you the number to my personal line. Tell your mother to call me tomorrow, and I will set up a time where we can meet up to plan your training. We can help set it up so that, if you really end up wanting to be a hero full-time, that you will have all the tools you need to accomplish it."

"I already have all the tools. I made them. Like these rocket boots." Buddy lifted up his feet, showing off the rocket boots strapped onto them.

"Awesome. Bring those along when we meet. Even if I can't take you out patrolling, you can still sell gadgets like these. I know a bunch of heroes that could use a quick way to get around, myself included."

Buddy's eyes widened. "Really?"

Bob nodded. "Yep. Now, do you want me to drop you off at home, or do you want to preserve your secret hideout?" A bit manipulative, maybe, Bob thought, as Buddy jumped out of the car and raced off, the card with Bob's number on it clutched in his hand, but hopefully this would get Buddy onto the right path.

Several weeks later, Bob stood in front of the press outside of the court, facing Oliver Sansweet in a neck brace. Bob took great pleasure in saving the ungrateful jerk's life again, and in stopping Bomb Voyage without Buddy getting in the way and causing the train to almost crash. Finding out that Helen was Awake this time around just made things even better.

"Mr. Sansweet didn't ask to be saved. Mr. Sansweet didn't want to be saved. And the injury received from Mr. Incredible's 'actions', so called, cause him daily pain."

Bob pushed past the press man, who was trying to hustle him away, and spoke up. "Well, I just have two questions then. Why have you attempted to ignore the Good Samaritan Laws which are in place specifically against this sort of action, and have been upheld nine times in cases regarding superheroes, and why does Mr. Sansweet still have a neck brace on when I know, for a fact, that Golden Cross healed him the day after the accident, free of charge, at my request and with Mr. Sansweet's permission?"

The panicked look on the face of Mr. Sansweet as the press turned on him like a pack of piranhas was sweet.

Foiling Mr. Sansweet's lawsuit didn't change the course of events, though it did slow them down. Public disapproval of superheroes still rose, especially after a large group of gritty anti-hero types started showing up. Bob and Helen still slipped quietly off, though Bob was much better about hiding his powers and holding his temper, meaning that he was still on job number two (in his defense, his first boss was a big, big jerk).

Bob groaned as he squeezed his way out of his small station wagon. Despite his pleas, his old car was still just a bit too noticeable, and cars just kept getting more and more compact, which didn't do his large frame any favors. Humming softly to himself, Bob strode in through the front door.

"Honey, I'm home!"

"You have a visitor." Helen called back from the living room. Bob followed her voice and grinned at the sight in front of him.

"Buddy!"

Buddy Pine turned from where he was showing Dash something on a small tablet, and grinned. "Bob! How are you doing? It's been a while since I've seen you guys."

Bob chuckled. "I've been pretty good. But I'll say right now, I'm still not coming to work for you."

"Psshhh," Buddy waved his hand. "I'm not here to convince you." He turned to glance over at where Violet was bent over some homework. "I was just trying to convince your lovely daughter to accept an internship with our company. She's obviously brilliant, and those force-fields of hers would be quite useful in a number of applications."

"Nothing dangerous, I'm sure."

Buddy waved his hand at Bob's playfully threatening tone. "No, I still remember your lessons." He grinned down at Jack-Jack a moment, who was currently trying to gnaw on one of Buddy's shoelaces, before Helen scooped him up. "Though, I know I said I wasn't here to convince you, but..."

Bob laughed as he walked through to the dining room, Buddy following. Bob grabbed some plates from the cupboard and began setting the table. "I told you, I'm perfectly happy helping out like I am right now."

Buddy waved his arms. "I know, I get it, save the world through better insurance and all that. This isn't a full job offer, more of, a consulting thing. The military has contracted Synthacore for yet another solution to the hero gap, and you providing some insight would be useful."

Bob scratched his chin. "I don't know. I mean, don't you know all my moves?"

Buddy groaned and covered his face. "I was ten. I figured 'punch them in the face' was all the strategy you needed."

Bob laughed and clapped Buddy on the shoulder, causing him to stagger a bit. "Sure, I'd be happy to answer a few questions. Just let me consult with Helen, because I know that she is going to want to be involved."

Buddy nodded. "Of course." He then stretched. "Well, I have to get going, I've got a meeting in Berlin tomorrow afternoon, so I have a plane to catch."

"You aren't staying for dinner?"

Buddy turned to shake his head at Helen. "Alas not, my fair lady, though my stomach will be forever lesser by my loss."

Helen smiled at Buddy's dramatic manner. He was still something of a glory hound, even when he wasn't a villain.

"Aww, you're leaving, Uncle Buddy!" Dash and Violet both walked in, before grabbing onto his arms. He laughed and swung them both around once, before pulling his arms free.

"Yeah, sorry kiddos, I've got work to do. I must Bring Wonder to the World!" He struck a dramatic pose as he quoted his company motto. Both of the kids giggled.

"Alright you two. Now, go get cleaned up for dinner." Both of them ran off with a minimum of complaint at Helen's urging, while Bob walked Buddy back towards the front door.

Buddy turned right before the door. "Seriously though, thanks for agreeing to this. This project is looking to be super ambitious, and it's been a hassle dealing with all of the different pieces. I mean, even the name is ridiculous. I'm seriously thinking of firing someone if I find out that the name Ultimate Logistical Tactical Response Oversight Network came from my side of the contract." Buddy shook his head again, before giving Bob a quick handshake and heading out the door.

Bob frowned as he closed the door after Buddy, the name of the project turning over in his head, before the pin dropped. He turned to glance at Helen, and saw that she had caught it too from where she had been listening by the kitchen door. Bob muttered the word they were both thinking.

"Ultron."

Helen sighed as she set the bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. "I'll go call Edna about the suits."

13.2 (LordCirce): [The Incredibles] / [Marvel]

Helen smiled as she pulled up in front of Violet's school. She and Bob had mentored the kids in responsible and discreet power use, and they had reached the point where Dash was trusted enough to run to school from being dropped off by Violet's school. Neither Dash or Violet had Awakened this Loop, but it didn't matter to either of the older Parrs, as they loved them just the same.

"Ok, you two, now, we might be home a little bit late, which means that if I'm not here to pick you guys up, Violet, you will have to get a ride home with Nat, and Dash," she paused to glance at him, "for today only, you have permission to run home if I'm not here."

Dash let out a whoop and quickly started to fumble with his seatbelt in excitement. Violet nodded. "Got it, Mom."

Helen nodded back. "Good. Now, you both have your phones on you, right? We may need to keep in touch with you during the day."

"Got it." Dash called as he pulled open the door, crouching down on the other side to make sure he was out of sight, then sped off in a blur of motion.

"We've got it, Mom. Don't worry, you guys are just one town over." Violet leaned in for a quick hug through the driver side window, and then pulled away and turned, running up the steps towards the school. "Bye Mom!"

"Bye sweetie!" Helen waved, then sighed as she rolled up her window and discreetly stretched her arm a bit to pull Dash's door closed, as he had forgotten. She then took a deep breath and pulled away.

She reached up as she pulled onto the main street and pulled down the sun visor in front of her, tapping a small discreetly hidden button in the side of the panel, which led to the screen shifting to a view of Bob's face from the perspective of his phone.

"Hey Honey. Did you drop off the kids?"

Helen nodded. "Yes, dear, and I told them about heading home if we're...delayed. Did you get everything from Edna?"

Bob nodded, hoisting up a familiar folded jumpsuit. "Yep, she had them all prepped. I still think we should have done this sooner, just to be on the safe side."

"And then Edna would get on our cases about letting her designs sit in our closets."

Bob chuckled. "Yeah, I know. See you soon."

Helen nodded, then flipped the visor up, ending the conversation.

Violet let out a long breath as she made her way up the steps. Both her parents had been acting a bit weird about the meeting they were going to go have with Uncle Buddy about his latest project, and it was causing her to be a bit jumpy. Her jumpiness manifested itself when one of the classroom doors opened in front of her opened up, letting out a group of people surrounding a figure that made her heart leap painfully in her chest.

"...so I pulled out around him, and of course he can't drive worth beans, so he overcompensates and slides into the ditch. That left just me and the kit car in it, with him pushing at my tail, of course. So I... huh?" The tall, dark haired boy trailed off and glanced down the corridor.

"What is it, Tony?" One of the girls next to him leaned forward, laying her hand on his arm.

Tony shook his head, frowning, then smiled disarmingly. "Nothing, I just thought I saw something for a moment. Anyway, so this guy..." His voice faded as the group moved down the corridor.

Violet peered out from where she had hidden herself behind a row of lockers, heaving a sigh as she did so. That had been close.

"VI!" A throaty, faintly accented voice called out, causing Violet's eyes to widen, just before a red-headed blur slammed into her. The girl who had shouted for her spun around her in a dizzying move that left Violet spun about and somehow placed the redhead hugging her between her and the wall.

Violet sighed as a small smile tugged at her lips. "Hello, Nat." She pulled away and twisted, hugging Nat back with her free arm.

Nat, whose full name was Natasha but she never used it, was a childhood friend of Violet's. Nat's adoptive dad was in the Hero Relocation program just like Violet's parents, and they had ended up living in the same places both times that their families had to relocate, leading to them practically growing up together.

Both of them were unlikely friends, as they were a study in contrasts. Nat was kind of short, with red hair that hung in a loose wave across her shoulders. She was very athletic, and an avid gymnast, and while she could often be just as quiet as Violet, it was the sort of quiet that comes when you simply feel those around you aren't worth talking to. The primary exception was when she was around Violet.

"So, I saw you being all sneaky. Is there someone that you are stalking? A certain dark-haired someone, with the most gorgeous brown eyes, and that dashing cleft chin and..."

"Shut up." Violet elbowed Nat, who spun around the push and ended up on Violet's other side with her arm over Violet's shoulder. "It's just a stupid crush."

Nat just giggled.

Dash slowed to a stop in the bushes next to his school and glanced around. He hadn't spotted anyone, but his mom had continued to drill into his head the importance of being discreet. He didn't see the point, as no-one could catch him even if they did see him, but it was never fun being grounded, so he would do as he was told. He paused near one of the windows to check his reflection, and he patted down a bit of his hair that had gotten swept back by the wind of him running, before swaggering around to the door to the building.

He pushed open the side door with just the right amount of effort to make it swing in, but not to look like he was straining. In other words, the right amount of effort to look coolest. He grinned to himself, shrugged his shoulders like Lucius always did when he was being smooth, and strode into the school.

His perfect entrance was ruined when the spitball hit him right between the eyes. It took him a second to realize what the stinging, wet sensation meant, but then he saw the boy down the hallway lowering his straw and grinning. Dash frowned, before smirking, and with a quick glance to make sure the coast was clear, he blurred into motion. Down the hall, right up behind his shooter. A nudge to the back of the foot, then back down the hall to where he was standing, as the other boy flailed and fell over with a thud and a groan.

"You shouldn't be running in the hall." A soft voice came from the side and Dash groaned.

"Oh, shut up, Bruce. No-one saw, and Clint shot me first." The newly-labeled Clint sprung up from where he had been lying and ran over, much slower than Dash could manage.

"I could almost see you move that time. I swear, one of these days, I'm going to spin around and pow, knock you down right when you think you got me."

Dash smirked back at him. "Sure. You just keep telling yourself that." Clint just pushed the tinted glasses he always wore up on his nose, while next to them, Bruce let out a faint noise that was half of a chuckle and half of a sigh. Bruce was a hero's kid, like Dash, and he had known him for a while. Bruce was pretty shy, so he tended to just follow Dash around, which suited Dash just fine, because Bruce was also a nerd, so he could always help Dash out with his homework. Clint was just a normal kid that Dash had met on his first day at this school. He had seen Dash speeding off after school that first day, and had agreed to keep it a secret. Now, they were pranking buddies.

"Did you get the goods?" Dash asked, eagerly. Clint smirked.

"Yep. It's sitting in my lunch box, waiting for it. You want to do it before or after class?"

"After. If we do it later, we won't have to deal with her when she's mad, and we can set up an alibi." Both Clint and Dash turned to look at Bruce expectantly, who groaned, before nodding. Bruce was such a teacher's pet, that if he told them Dash and Clint were with him the whole time, all the teachers would believe him.

"So, how's little Bruce doing?" Violet ducked slightly as they stepped out of their classroom and headed for lunch. "I know he's been hanging around with Dash, but I don't think he's been rubbing off."

Nat yawned and stretched. "Well, Dash isn't rubbing off on him either. He's still so quiet. Dad and I are kind of worried that he's going to be following in your footsteps."

Violet huffed. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Nat grinned. "Oh, you know. Quiet, hiding in corners, pining for forbidden romance in the back of a shining car." Nat held her hand over heart in a solemnly dramatic fashion, while Violet just rolled her eyes.

"Will you stop it? I told you, it's just a crush."

"Okay, okay. So, if we can't discuss the hunky car monkey, how about the hunky quarterback? I heard the team is all upset, because Steve was too sick to go to practice yesterday. Again. Honestly, he's built like a brick outhouse, but a feather knocks him over."

"Nat!" Violet frowned at her friend, who smiled back cheekily. "How do you find out all of this stuff? It's not like you hang around any of the gossip girls, considering you're pestering me all the time."

Nat grinned, bouncing on her heels as they stepped through the swinging doors into the cafeteria. "I'm just that sneaky."

Bob shifted, adjusting his tie as he and Helen strode into the lobby of Synthacore Industries. The receptionist, Glen, nodded to both of them and held out their guest passes. Buddy had offered to make them both permanent access cards, but Bob felt that would just encourage him to up the job offers.

"Ah, there you two are." Speaking of Buddy, the elevator they were heading to opened to reveal him standing there. "I was just about to go ask Glen if she had seen you two. Are you two ready to get busy?"

Bob snorted at the familiar, yet out-of-context comment, and Helen shot him a quelling look. Bob shook it off, and nodded to Buddy, who just grinned back. The three of them stepped into the elevator, which Bob was glad was built with larger bodies in mind, and Buddy pressed a button on one of the higher floors.

"So, the project itself is down in one of the basement levels, but for now, we are just going to be meeting in one of the conference rooms. I've brought in Frozone and Gazerbeam today, and Plasmabolt and Universal Man came in last week."

"Oh, how is Janet doing?" Helen smiled as she leaned forward. "I haven't seen her since the Bombshells anniversary party three years ago."

Buddy shrugged. "She seemed to be doing okay. She was a lot more help than U.M. He wasn't much help, just kept criticizing the project and its goals."

Bob nodded and jumped on the opportunity presented. "So, what exactly are the goals of the project. I mean, you told us it was designed to fill in the Super Gap, but not much more."

Buddy slapped his forehead. "Right, doi. Sorry, I've given the elevator story for this project so many times, I'm forgetting who I told about it and who I haven't. The basic idea is that the Network is designed to be an oversight system that can be used to coordinate robotic drones from a centralized location. The primary setup is for use in disaster relief, but it could eventually expand into other areas, such as police work."

The elevator chimed and the three of them stepped out and began walking down the hallway. "So, the thing that makes this system so special is that the drones aren't controlled individually. Instead, each of them have a limited intelligence, and the network itself can coordinate them to achieve objectives. The central location will just have to do things like assign a group of drones to put out that fire or clear that debris, and the drones will work together to accomplish the task." Buddy sighed and shrugged. "The biggest problem right now is that the drones and network are dumb, with a capital D. So, we're bringing in heroes to discuss various disaster scenarios and go over how you would react. What methods you would use to put out a fire, how you would prioritize different tasks, stuff like that. We already talked to some groups like firefighters and rescue workers, but unfortunately, a lot of the advice they gave contradicted other groups. So, I figured, Supers were on the front lines doing it all for so long, so we would be best served by getting you guys to come in and share how you did it."

Bob nodded, grinning despite himself. Buddy's energy and enthusiasm were contagious, despite Bob's misgivings about the system itself. "Sounds like a swell idea."

"Yep, and now it's time for us to make it Super!" Buddy laughed at his own joke as he led them into the conference room.

13.3 (LordCirce): [The Incredibles] / [Marvel]

In a shadowed room, a figure stood, staring down at a flickering computer screen. Hands typed, carefully and deliberately, windows opening and closing as the figure sought out its prize.

"There you are. You thought you could hide, but I've got you in the end. Revenge... will be mine!"

Dark laughter filled the room as numbers scrolled across the screen in front of the figure.

BAHNA-BAH-BHANA-BWAN! BAHNA-BAH-BHANA-NAH-BWOM! "VICTORY! IN THE OUTCAST! KINGS! FALL!"

"Woohoo!" Nat cheered at the lanky, blonde kid, wailing away on his electric guitar next to the school. Her and Violet had heard the impromptu rock concert begin, and Nat had dragged Violet over to watch before the teachers arrived to break it up.

"Ugh, I don't know how you can stand this music." Violet muttered. "Is it even music? None of the lyrics even make sense."

"WHAT?" Nat shouted over the banging chords the guitarist was now playing.

Violet rolled her eyes. "I said, HOW CAN YOU STAND THIS MUSIC?" Of course, at the exact moment that she shouted, the figure paused in his playing to take a breath. Everyone who had gathered in the courtyard turned to stare at Violet, who turned bright crimson and almost went invisible out of reflex. She immediately grabbed Nat's arm and dragged her towards the nearest door.

"I still love you Thor!" Nat shouted as she was dragged away. Violet pulled her through into the school, and down two different corridors, before sinking down to slump on the base of one of the school staircases.

"Great, just great, now I'm going to be even more of a social outcast than I already was."

Nat grinned at Violet. "Don't worry. At least Tony wasn't out there."

Violet just sighed, before leaning her head against the wall. "Whatever."

Nat looked like she was about to say something else, when she suddenly stopped and tilted her head. Violet looked up at her friend as she slowly leaned back towards the nearby corner, and began creeping down towards.

"What are you...?"

Nat held out her hand to stop Violet's question and pressed one of her fingers to her lips. Violet complied, getting up and following Nat to the corner of the intersection.

"...excuse is not going to last forever. It's pretty obvious to anyone that something ain't right. Honestly, you should just quit the team if you're having this much trouble."

"I can't do that to the guys. I'll get this under control, it just takes practice. So, will you help me after school?"

"I..." the first voice trailed off as the two speaking figures came walking around the corner. It took Violet a second to recognize them. One was a fairly skinny black kid, wearing a super puffy sweater and a pair of loose khaki pants. The other was a tall, broad white kid with messy blonde hair, who Violet suddenly recognized as Steve the Sickly Quarterback. She vaguely recognized the other kid from her chemistry class, Samuel or something like that. Both of the boys had stopped talking upon seeing the girls standing there, and now all four were looking at each other awkwardly. Or, at least, Violet felt awkward, and Steve looked awkward. Samuel was just looking at the two of them suspiciously, and Nat was grinning broadly at Steve.

Samuel broke the silence. "What are you two doing? Were you..." His questioning was broken off when Steve started the most vigorous, and most fake-sounding, fit of coughing Violet had ever heard. All three of the others stared at him as he sounded like he was valiantly trying to hack up a lung, before his coughs slowly died off. Slowly, Samuel brought his hand up to his face and began to massage his forehead.

"Never mind. Just, never mind."

Nat grinned even wider, and Violet quickly yanked her back and up the stairs before she could get Violet into any more embarrassing situations. Plus, they were going to be late for the Yearbook Committee Meeting.

"Eagle One, this is Alpha Blur, I am in position, over."

"Alpha Blur, this is Eagle One, I have eyes on target. Target is moving towards the drop zone on schedule, over."

"You two are standing right next to each other."

"Shhh!"/"Quiet!" Dash and Clint both shushed Bruce as he stared at the two of them as moved around in an empty second floor classroom. Clint was staring out one of the windows on the classroom, while Dash was crouched next to the door of the classroom, with a paper sack clutched in his hands. The target they were watching was the mean Miss Bulltrunch, their math teacher. She took great pleasure in flunking students and embarrassing those who weren't paying attention (or who were paying too much attention, or who looked a bit too happy, etc.), and Clint and Dash had decided to get some good, old-fashioned payback. Inside the sack was a moldy tomato that Clint had been saving up all week. The plan was that Clint would watch for Miss Bulltrunch to be heading to the spot along the side of the school where she took her morning and afternoon smoking breaks. He would wait until the right moment, then signal Dash to run out, down the corridor to the window they had left cracked open, where he would dump out the tomato and then rush back down the corridor to the classroom they were set up in, where Clint would have been waving to several kids down on the playground. That way, they would have a foolproof alibi if they were suspected (which they probably would be).

"And... go!" Clint waved his arm as he finished counting off the seconds since Miss Bulltrunch had turned the corner at the edge of the building.

Dash took off running, around the corner and down the corridor, only to pause and back pedal as he spotted the janitor standing next to the open window, mopping. The janitor hadn't noticed him, but there was no way he would be able to dump the tomato out fast enough to not be seen. He sped back around the corner to head into the classroom and *CRASH*

Dash fell over backwards as he collided with Bruce, who had been walking out of the classroom after Dash to try and watch his run. Dash groaned a little as he sat up, shaking his head, then glanced over at Bruce, who was staring down at his shirt. Dash blinked.

Rancid tomato guts were coating Bruce's chest and arms from where the tomato had burst out of the bag on impact. Bruce slowly turned to look at Dash, but he seemed to be looking through him instead of at him.

"...this was my favorite shirt."

Dash's eyes met Clint's, who was peering over the desks in the room at his two fallen friends. Both of their eyes widened in worry at Bruce's words, which were echoed a second later in a much louder tone.

"That was my favorite shirt!"

"Uh-oh." Dash scrambled to his feet and sprinted away, skidding a little at the nearest corner as he tried to maintain his balance. Behind him, Bruce raced after him with a cry of frustration, seeming to swell up in rage as he slammed into a trash can and changed directions, following Dash down the long corridor, and leaving a nice dent in the side of the metal container.

Clint peered out from around the edge of the classroom door. "Oh, that's not good."

"...so, to summarize, first priority, securing a perimeter, second priority, making sure there are no civilians in the perimeter, and third, dealing with the bad guys inside of the perimeter." Buddy glanced around the table, and all of the gathered heroes nodded. Buddy clapped his hands. "Great. Now, I think this is actually a good stopping point for now. This should give us some good directions to take with the programming algorithms, and we can hopefully test those some more and then see about bringing you all back with any questions we have. The last few things I wanted to do was give you a tour of the operation center, show you a few of the drones so you can see for yourself what we are working with, and then Mirage has baked up some of her cinnamon cookies for each of you."

Bob grinned at the mention of Buddy's assistant and, in this Loop, wife. They apparently met in college, where Mirage had been studying chemical engineering, and Buddy had been studying both mechanical engineering and computer programming. Buddy had gone on to earn several more degrees, while Mirage had stopped at one and had instead taken over the general running of Buddy's company, while he dealt with the big ideas. She had become a dear friend, though Bob still didn't know her name this Loop, as she had apparently dropped her birth name in favor of her new chosen name.

Lucius laughed while clapping Bob on the shoulder. "Well, I ain't going to say no to those." Bob nodded in agreement, and Helen just shook her head, muttering a soft "Boys".

The groups quickly made their way down to the elevator, engaging in a bit of small talk. Lucius was regaling Buddy with a tale about his recent trip to the Bahamas with his wife, something about mutant laser-sharks. Helen was tapping away on her phone, no doubt getting updates from the kids. Bob slid over next to Gazerbeam.

"So, Simon, how's life been treating you?"

"Good, pretty good, but I actually go by Scott now."

Bob nodded. "Got it. Super Relocation Act?"

Scott nodded. "Yep."

Bob paused as a thought occurred to him, then cleared his throat. "Right, well, it isn't easy being an EX-hero. There's a lot of baggage to leave behind."

"A lot of good times too." Scott sighed. "Still, I have got a pretty good job now. I'm working as a lawyer, actually, specializing in criminal prosecution. I may not be able to help bring them in, but I can still work to keep criminals off the streets."

"Good for you." Bob clapped Scott on the shoulder, causing Scott to wince. Internally, Bob sighed, as it didn't seem like Scott had reacted to Bob's hint, so he probably wasn't Awake. He had hoped maybe Scott had simply missed their first ping or something, given the only other Awake Looper they had found, but it seemed like it was just a coincidence.

The elevator dinged as the group exited into the basement level. They made their way down yet another corridor, this one lined with metal, and into the control room. A large bank of monitors took up one side of the room and a set of windows overlooking a large hangar like room took up the other, with several smaller monitoring stations arrayed around the room in a series of semi-circles. Several of the stations were occupied, with a thin man in a military uniform and bearing a large grey mustache standing over them, barking orders over their shoulders. The man looked up as the group entered.

"Oh, General, I didn't know you would all be here. Setting up for the demonstration tomorrow?" Buddy strode forward, his face a pinched mix between friendly and irritated.

"Yep. Just making sure all of the resources we need will be up and fully functional."

Buddy nodded, before turning back towards the group. "Everyone, this is General Ross, he is the military liaison with our project. There is going to be a small-scale demonstration tomorrow for some of the Congressmen backing the project, and a couple of the private investors, to give them a sense of what we are accomplishing here. We hope to use your input during the demonstration."

"Yep, should be quite a show." Ross nodded, before turning back towards the monitor bank. Behind him, Buddy frowned, leaning sideways to get a clear view of the screen of one of the techs, and his mouth dropped.

"Who authorized the usage of 50 drones for this test? This is supposed to be a small scale, internal demonstration."

Ross snorted. "I did. Washington is waffling about this project, so we need a good, strong demonstration, and I can't do that with three measly floating beach balls and a single human drone."

Buddy glowered, his tone dark. "Even still, the network itself isn't ready for that sort of..." Buddy trailed off as he pushed the technician aside and began scrolling through the code on the machine. "What happened to the safeguards? There should be limits here and here..."

"We know you haven't got all of the levels worked out yet, so we'll put all of the drones on a single level. We can shut some down for fine level work. My personal science liaison assures me that it should work."

Buddy looked up, his mouth falling open. "Your personal science liaison? Is he the hack who ripped apart half of the code in here to set up your demonstration?"

Ross grit his teeth and snapped back. "Henry Pym is a highly trusted scientist and a true patriot. He has..."

"HENRY PYM? You let Henry Bloody Pym into my systems, to mess with my code! That man couldn't code his way out of a paper sack. You're as likely to have a coordinated collision between every drone rather than a..." Buddy's furious rant and the typing he had been doing slowed to a halt as he stared at the screen in shock. "This can't..."

"WARNING, WARNING, EMERGENCY DETECTED"

Down in the hangar, lights came on, illuminating several rows of robotic drones. There were several round orbs, laying in short rows near the glass, with rows of humanoid robots farther back, and then several large spider-like tanks that reminded Bob of the Omnidroids lined up against the back wall. As the group watched, all of the drones in the hanger began to stir, with lights flickering on and joints whirring. Several of the orbs rose into the air, pivoting slowly in place. Back in the control room, the large bank of monitors flickered, then lit up a brilliant red, illuminating two words.

ULTRON ONLINE

Violet sighed as she stepped out into the sunshine in front of the school, yawning slightly. She really enjoyed being on the Yearbook Committee, but Mrs. Harper, their liaison, was one of the most boring teachers in the school, and she had spent almost the entire meeting droning on about dignity in Yearbook Photos, as if the Yearbook staff had any control over the photos themselves.

"Well, that was an hour of my life I'll never get back." Nat snarked behind her as she followed Violet out the door. She took a quick step forward, then slid into a cartwheel down the front step banister, sticking the landing on the sidewalk at the bottom. Violet clapped and whistled.

"Bravo, bravo." Her voice was slightly mocking, but Nat simply smiled and waved, bowing to an invisible audience. Violet slowly made her way down, laughing at Nat's antics.

*BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP*

Violet jumped as her phone started wailing in her pocket the moment she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she quickly pulled it out, her heart freezing as she spotted the familiar logo on the front screen. Her dad's logo.

"What's that noise?" Nat skipped over, peering over her shoulder. "Hey, isn't that...?"

"It's a distress call. It means Mom and Dad are caught in something dangerous." Violet's mind was awhirl with panic. What could possibly have happened? Was there some explosion at the company? Did a villain attack? Her body started trembling, just as, in a blur, Dash came skidding into the front of the school, leaving a pair of skid marks in the grass. His phone was clutched in his hand, the same alarm and logo blaring on it.

"Violet, Violet, did you see?"

"Uh huh." Violet answered, her mind still reeling. She dazedly noticed that there was a message attached to the alert. She quickly pulled it open, and read it.

'V. Robots may be attacking the city. Dad and I will be trying to stop them. Take Dash and find a safe place to fortify.'

"Robots?!" Dash's voice was excited as he bounced in place. "Cool!"

"No, not cool!" Violet snapped, pushing her panic to one side. "Mom and Dad wouldn't use the signal unless it was a real emergency. This is dangerous, and Mom told us to hide."

"I don't want to hide. This is my chance to do something awesome. Something heroic." Dash's face was set into a stubborn scowl.

Nat, who had been reading the message over Violet's shoulder, reached over. "There's more if you scroll down. 'If you don't hear from us in an hour, contact Nick.' Does she mean...?"

"Me."

Nick Fury stood next to a rather beat-up car as he smiled, or rather smirked, at the three kids. They all spun around to face the source of the voice, and Nat immediately raced forward with a cry of "Daddy!", throwing her arms around Nick and hugging him tight. He returned the hug, but his eyes were fixed on Violet and Dash. They followed Nat over.

"Mr. Fury, what does this mean?" Violet gestured helplessly at her phone, which was still displaying the obnoxious alarm.

Nick sighed. "It means that something your parents and I were afraid of has, in fact, happened." Nick had Awoken to this Loop several years after it began, as the retired hero Private Eye. He had got in contact with the Parrs, who had helped him in raising his adopted daughter and son. He had been rather bemused to find himself as the father to the Black Widow and the Hulk, but he had come to separate the two kids he had raised here from the heroes he knew them as elsewhere. There were similarities, to be sure, but also differences. Nick glanced back at his car, where Bruce and his friend, this world's version of Clint Barton, were currently buckled in. He had been picking them and Dash up from detention, at the request of Clint's mother and Helen, when Dash had gotten the alert and sped away. Turning back to fully face Violet and Dash, he knelt down.

"Your parents are great heroes, and I know that they will be..." His reassurance died in his throat as both of the alerts died at the same moment. Both Dash and Violet stared down at their phones in shock.

"The distress beacons...they shouldn't cut off like that unless..."

Nick cut Violet off. "Unless they were being jammed in some way. As I said, your parents are great heroes, and I know that they will be fine. For now, we need to get you to safety."

"And what if they're not fine. I mean, they're retired, they're out of shape. If something surprised them, they could..."

Nick gave a sharp whistle, causing both of the Parr children to jump, while Natasha simply pulled her fingers out of her ears, having recognized what her dad was about to do. "If something did happen to them, then I will do what I promised and keep you safe." He paused, internally grinning, as it wasn't often that he found a way to use this line in a valid context. "And then, I swear, if necessary I will help you Avenge them."

13.4 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [Robin Hood] / [Beauty and the Beast] / [Lion King] / [Cinderella] / [The Little Mermaid] / [Hercules] / [The Princess and the Frog] / [Mulan]

In the Tragic Kingdom, the land where nightmares came true, and happy endings were nothing but a cruel lie, a rumor was spreading. From the shattered cliffs and precipices of Hyena Rock to the trenches and grottoes of the Damnable Depths, from the smog-choked streets of Old London Town to the soaring pagodas of Hun-controlled China, a rumor was spreading. The rulers of the Tragic Kingdom, the Apostates, did everything in their power to silence the rumor, but no matter how many heads the Queen of Hearts chopped off, or how many souls were unjustly sent to Tartarus by Hades, the rumor refused to die. The people would meet in secret to discuss new developments in the rumors. No matter what wild exaggerations or official disinformation was bandied about, there was one generally agreed-upon part of the rumors.

The Twisted Princess were gathering in one place. All of them. Big names such as the Beast's Thrall and the Cheshire Girl, local legends like the Outlaw Maid and the Last Lioness, and even a few newcomers such as the Frog Shaman and the Glitching Warrior; they were all moving towards one point: The Castle of Fantasia Lost. Once upon a time, when there was still wonder in the world, it was known as Cinderella's Castle.

Why they were gathering there, of all places was a mystery, and open to wild speculation. Some claimed that a grand Tournament was being held by powers unknown, in which the Twisted Princesses would fight to the death for the title of Princess Apostate, and join the ranks of their dark rulers. Others insisted that the Princesses all knew each other, and met in secret to exchange information, towards a singular unknown purpose. A rare few held onto the belief that they were convening as part of a single grand ritual, meant to break the grip of Darkness and Evil on the land.

It was a shame that not many people listened to this last group, since they were more correct than even they would have guessed.

Maid Marian, the Outlaw Maid, Awoke as she prowled through the crumbling balustrades of the Castle of Fantasia Lost. She nearly dropped the bow she was carrying, but kept a firm grip on it, nocking an arrow and looking around suspiciously. "Heavens. This place really went downhill when I was gone," she mused. "It's too bad that Robin's gone; I could use his company right about now."

She heard footsteps coming up behind her, and whirled around, aiming the arrow right at the interloper's head. "Who's there? Show yourself!" she demanded, as she pulled the bow back.

"At ease, Maid Marian. I am a friend."

Maid Marian lowered the bow in surprise. "Beast? Is that you? Are you Awake?"

Beast inclined his head, the noose around his neck swinging a little in the breeze. "Indeed. This place has taken a toll on both the Unawake Belle and myself, but we adapted as best we can."

Maid Marian looked around confusedly. "Speaking of Belle, where is she? Normally, you two are inseparable..."

She heard a polite cough and turned to find a pale Belle in a ragged version of her ball gown standing behind her. "Oh, hello Belle. I didn't hear you," Maid Marian said.

Belle nodded politely and opened her mouth to speak, only for nothing to come out. After a moment of surprise, she turned and gave Beast a deadpan look. Beast stared back confusedly, before suddenly slapping his forehead in realization. "Blast! I knew I forgot to do something. Hold on a moment, Belle."

He concentrated, and his eyes glowed a baleful yellow. "Princess Belle, as your Benefactor, I grant you permission to speak."

Belle's eyes briefly flashed yellow, and she sighed. "That's a relief. Beast, didn't I tell you to undo that command the instant we came to the castle?"

Beast fiddled nervously with his noose. "I was about to do so, before we encountered the Maid Marian. To be honest, I was not expecting to see her here."

Maid Marian tilted her head quizzically. "How come?"

Beast withdrew a claw from his cloak, holding a battered old letter. "We had received this letter, bearing a seal we did not recognize, instructing us to come to the Castle of Fantasia Lost, and to bring a large diamond with us when we did so. There was no mention of us meeting any other of the Twisted Princesses in the process."

Maid Marian's eyes widened in surprise, as memories came flooding back to her, and she pulled out a similar letter. "Ah! Now I remember! I had received a similar letter sent to us via arrow, telling me to bring a diamond to the Castle of Fantasia Lost!"

She then pulled out the diamond in question. "Apparently, I had a real rough time swiping this from Richard Lion-Heart's Tomb. The Merry Men had to destroy one of King John's strongholds just to buy me enough time to escape the country undetected! I hope they're all right..."

Belle pulled out a diamond similar to Maid Marian's in cut. "We didn't have to go to quite as much trouble. It turned out that Beast had been collecting an exorbitant amount of tribute from the nobles and peasantry around his castle, and sending the transformed servants to rough them up if they didn't pay. We just needed to take this from the Royal Treasury."

"Do you suppose the same person wrote these letters to lure us all here?" Maid Marian asked, as the three started walking towards what remained of the Throne Room. "This is starting to smell like a trap."

"Yes, it does seem a bit contrived," Belle agreed. "Still, we're all been around more than a few times, so we could probably fight our way out if it comes to that."

She smiled a little. "Besides, I'm curious. Who would go to all of this trouble, given the appalling state of the land right now? If the person or people behind this has a good reason for summoning us, we should at least listen to them."

The trio walked into the ruined Throne Room to see that nearly every Twisted Princess in the Tragic Kingdom had answered the summons of the letters along with their consorts, and most of them had Awoken over the trip. They were chatting with each other, and generally catching up on their progress in the Loops, while the few Unawake Twisted Princesses looked at the others suspiciously. There was a sense of anticipation, like an audience seating themselves and talking amongst themselves before a concert began.

Maid Marian saw Nala talking to Timon and Pumbaa, and said her goodbyes to Beast and Belle, before going over to talk to her. "Hello Nala. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Nala looked up and smiled at her fellow nonhuman Princess. "Marian! Sorry I didn't see you coming in; I would have come over and said hello. Any idea who gave us these letters?"

"Sadly, no," Maid Marian replied. "You got one too, I take it?"

"Yep!" Timon piped up, holding up the letter in question. "We lucked out, and found a diamond mine while hiding out from those stinkin' hyenas, so that's our side of the bargain kept."

"Where's the diamond now?" Maid Marian asked curiously. "Are you keeping it in a subspace pocket?"

Pumbaa opened his mouth, and stuck out his tongue, revealing the diamond in question. "I'm keepin' it thor sathekeepin for now," he lisped. "Thure ith thricky talking with it, though."

Maid Marian giggled demurely. "Don't worry, Mr. Pumbaa. I don't think you'll have to keep it there for long. Look!"

She pointed towards where the Thrones were situated, where something very strange indeed was happening. A tall, angular door with a crown design appeared in front of the King's Throne, and a large pumpkin had sprouted out of the ground in front of the Queen's Throne. The Twisted Princesses, both Awake and Unawake, waited to see what would happen next.

First, the pumpkin abruptly burst open, and Cinderella, here known as the Raggedy Princesses, stepped out as elegantly as one could step out from the remains from a pumpkin. After curtsying to everyone present, she set about cleaning pumpkin goo off her dress as best she could, occasionally fussing with the strings that kept her patchwork body together. "Thank you for gathering here, everyone," she said in a raspy voice. "Before you ask, no I didn't write the letters. That would be the doing of my guest. She'll be along any moment now."

As soon as the words left her mouth, several Princesses flinched back as a bright light began to seep from the cracks between the door and the frame. It slowly eased open, and a figure nearly everyone present recognized one way or another stepped out of the corridor that laid beyond and stood before them all, proud and unafraid.

Minnie Mouse had seen better days. Her face was pale and drawn, there were noticeable bags under her eyes, and her hair hung down limply, like curtains. She was dressed in the ragged remains of a red dress that was only barely recognizable as Mickey's apprentice robes. Her gloves were ripped in places, and she wasn't even bothering with shoes anymore. A faded, battered copy of Yen Sid's hat sat on her head, with only the faintest traces of the mighty magical power it once held showing through to those Princesses that could detect such things. In short, she presented the picture of a woman who had been on the run all of her life, and was rapidly approaching the end of her rope.

Except for her eyes.

Despite all of the terrible things her Unawake self had suffered, despite hiding from the Apostates for goodness only knew how long, despite the perversion of everything both she and her love stood for, her eyes were filled with a steady, resolute determination. If she had shed any tears, they had long since dried, and now the only thing that the Princesses could see was the steely gaze of someone who would see justice done.

There was a noticeable murmuring among the Princesses that quickly died down when Minnie raised her hands.

"Thank you all for coming, everyone. I suppose you're all wondering why I called you here today," she began.

"Does it have something to do with these diamonds you told us to bring in your letters?" Ariel asked, after raising her dinglehopper-hand.

"Exactly, Ariel," Minnie answered. "As you are no doubt aware, everyone's respective stories have been completely and utterly derailed, with the villains triumphing and becoming the Apostates, and the various and sundry heroes either dead, or missing."

The Princesses looked around each other sadly. They had all lost someone, whether they were Awake or not.

Minnie pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes. "There's a good reason for the changes, as I had discovered a few years ago. It's Chernabog."

Another bout of murmuring started up among the Princesses at the name. They all knew Chernabog, and not in a good way. If he was playing a major role in a Loop, things were bound to get worse before they got better.

Minnie nodded. "Yes, I thought that might get your attention. Chernabog's making another attempt to take over the Magic Kingdom, and he's actually being clever about it, this time. He's trying to completely ruin the stories on which the Kingdom is based, to make it similar enough to his prison on Bald Mountain for him to leave. He's even cut a deal with Hades to make sure that any hero that dies does not get brought back to life."

"I knew that jerk was up to something," Megara grumbled, as she fiddled with the string that was keeping the Eye of the Fates firmly sealed in her socket. Hercules, being a zombie, couldn't speak, but he sympathetically patted her hand.

"However," Minnie continued, "he wasn't quite a thorough as he would have liked. Remember the Last Stand?"

The Princesses nodded, or answered in the affirmative. The Last Stand was an event that had happened several years prior to the Rise of the Apostates. According to the legend, Mickey Mouse had fought against Chernabog's physical form, in a titanic battle that took on a metaphorical aspect as the struggle between Good and Evil. Unfortunately, Chernabog had won, incinerating Mickey in a raging inferno of hellfire that reduced every single inch of land within ten miles of Bald Mountain to ashes. The legend stated that before he perished, Mickey swore that he would return, and set things right, no matter how long it took.

"Well, I figured out what Mickey's last words meant. Before he went out to fact Chernabog, he prepared a soul jar. No matter what happened to his body, as long as it remained safe, he would not be trapped in the Underworld."

"And where is this soul jar, if I may be so bold?" Tiana asked, as he idly played with the set of Tarot cards she had "acquired" from the late Dr. Facilier.

Minnie reached up and took of the hat, holding it up before the assembled Princesses. "Right here! He turned this Loop's version of the Sorcerer's Hat into a soul jar, since it was the only thing he had that could survive Chernabog's assault, and remain undetected by the Apostates for so long. That's why there's so little magical power coming off of this hat: it's all tied keeping my Mickey's soul on this plane!"

"And don't tell me," Mushu said sarcastically from his perch on Mulan's shoulder. "You had us bring the diamonds as part of a ritual to bring him back from the dead, so he can lead us to victory against the Apostates, right?"

Minnie smiled for the first time. "Exactly! See, he Woke Up while he was still bound to the hat, and we came up with a plan to fix all of this. We needed your help to make it happen, which is why I went with the letters asking you all to come here instead of simply taking the diamonds myself."

She indicated the floor in front of her. "Incidentally, could everyone please bring their diamonds, and just pile them up right here? I'd like to get the ritual started as soon as possible."

The Princesses headed over to the indicated spot, and placed their diamonds down. Some laid them down carefully, while others artlessly tossed them onto the pile. The diamonds were as varied as the Princesses that brought them. Some were carved with expert precision by the most accomplished jewelers in the Kingdom, while others were as rough and uncut as they were the day they were mined. Some were even encrusted in stone after having been roughly ripped out of the cave walls in which they were found.

Minnie nodded in approval at the resulting pile, then carefully laid the hat upon it. "Okay. Let's get to it," she muttered, pulling out her Holy Symbol of Yggdrasil. Holding it out in front of her, she closed her eyes and began to pray.

As she chanted her prayers to the World Tree, the more magically inclined Princesses felt something about the atmosphere change. While the Throne Room was normally a sad and foreboding place, like a long-abandoned churchyard, there was something else now. A soft light began to form around the pile of diamonds and the hat, as they floated into the air. Beams of sunlight reminiscent of the coming dawn shined through the broken windows, as Minnie's prayer increased in forcefulness and passion. Several of the less reverent Princesses pulled out video cameras, smartphones, and other recording devices and began filming the spectacle for later viewing.

Maid Marian leaned over towards Nala and whispered, "Is it just me, or can you hear singing?"

"I hear it too," Nala whispered back. "It sounds like the singers in that Broadway musical version of our home Loop."

"Huh. I think it sounds like that choir that Friar Tuck directed once, only more in tune. Maybe everyone hears something different?"

The chanting reached its crescendo, and the diamonds were now shining like stars, surrounding the hat in a rapidly spinning ring, while magic crackled on the air. Minnie opened her eyes, which were now glowing white, and held her holy symbol high. "Mickey Mouse, though you had departed from the land of the living, you have yet to travel to the World Below. And so, in Yggdrasil's name, I bid you return to your friends and loved ones that you may fulfill the promise you made so many years ago! TRUE RESURRECTION!"

The light became almost blinding in intensity, and the singing everyone could hear swelled triumphantly, before the diamonds shattered, and were reduced to dust. When the light returned to normal levels, everyone in the Throne Room beheld the effects of Minnie's spell.

Mickey Mouse, in full sorcerer's garb, was standing there in the middle of the room, brushing diamond dust off of his robes. The Sorcerer's Hat, restored to its former glory, sat proudly on his head. "Man, that's a relief!" he said. "That hat was kinda stuffy."

He looked up just in time to get swept up in Minnie's embrace, and covered in kisses. There was a large amount of applause, whistling, and even a few "aww"s from the audience. Eventually, Mickey was able to disentangle himself from Minnie, and smiled rather dazedly. "It's good to see you too, Minnie. The plan worked, I take it?"

"Like a charm, Mickey! We're all ready to get started!"

"Great! Thanks, Minnie!''

Mickey turned to the gathered Princesses. "Okay, everyone! I'm sure Minnie filled everyone in on what's been going on, so I'll keep it short and sweet. We're going to go to Tartarus, rescue our friends, overthrow the Apostates, and end this nightmare once and for all. Now, I'm not gonna lie to you: it won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination. There's a good chance we might not even make it through the Loop in one piece. If you want to sit this one out and look after your friends and family, then I won't stop you. Still, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could lend a hand, and I'll be certain to make it up to you once the Loop's over and done with. So, fellas, what do you say?"

If the great roar of approval that went up from the crowd was any indication, they didn't mind the danger one iota. Mickey grinned, and held his wife close. It was good to be back.

Many years later, in the newly restored Magic Kingdom, the citizens would remember the day Mickey was resurrected as the Day of Hope, the day when the Apostates began to fall, and the rightful kings and queens reclaimed their thrones and began putting everything back to rights again. Many miracles were said to have happened on that day, from the shattering of Queen Grimhilde's Looking-Glass and the Great Tartarus Jailbreak, to the shadows of the citizens of Old London Town returning from Neverland to their rightful owners, and the Cave of Wonders returning to its former splendor. Nobody knows for sure if the mere act of his resurrection brought about these miracles, or he simply did them during his later travels to bring hope to the people and rally them across the Apostates, but there was one thing that everyone could agree upon when it came to hope returning to the Kingdom: It was all started by a mouse.

13.5 (Crossoverpairinglover): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Gurren Lagann]

Sora just stared at the sight before him, a average visit to the 100 Acre Wood would be one for the books.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to drill to the heavens today," The oddest fusion yet commented in the same dull tone he normally had, but with the glasses and words of someone completely different.

This, was the loop of Kamina Eeyore.

13.6 (Mr. Egret): [Disney]

"Hey, Mickey!"

Mickey looked up from his newspaper at the sound of his brother's voice coming from the attic. "What is it, Os?"

"I found something weird in this old photo album! Can you take a look?"

Setting aside the newspaper, Mickey got up out of his armchair, and walked over to the ladder leading up to the attic. Ever since Oswald and Ortensia had moved into Mickey and Minnie's house out in Toontown, Oswald had been poking around in the attic, digging up pieces of the Unawake Mickey's past. Every so often, he would find something interesting that even Mickey had forgotten he had.

The attic looked like many other attics of its kind in Toontown: lots of boxes, cases and chests, all scattered among piles of old clothes to form a nearly impenetrable maze for all but the attic's owner. Thanks to Minnie and Ortensia, it was significantly less dusty than most other attics, and it was well-lit by numerous lamps hanging from the ceiling.

Mickey eventually found Oswald sitting cross-legged next to an open trunk, a large photo album laying open in front of him. Mickey instantly recognized some of the figures depicted in the photographs within the album. "I see you found the ol' family album," he remarked casually, sitting down next to Oswald.

"From the looks of it, yeah," Oswald replied. "Though to be honest, I don't recognize any of these people."

"I'm not surprised," Mickey said, as he looked at the photograph. "I don't think they existed when I first met you, and they tend to come and go, anyway."

He reached over, and removed one of the photographs from the album, holding it up for Oswald to see. "In fact, aside from you, I think these are the most consistent blood relatives I've had over the Loops."

Oswald looked at the photograph with interest. It was one of those Polaroid ones, with the grainy color, and it showed Mickey and a female mouse he didn't recognize sitting at a park bench, watching and laughing as two young mice were playing fetch with Pluto. "Okay, I sorta recognize the two boys down in front... Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, right?"

Mickey nodded. "Yep! They're my nephews. Good kids, the both of them, but a competitive streak like you wouldn't believe. They'll never back down from a challenge from each other, but they always stick up for each other, too."

Oswald smirked. "Guess it runs in the family."

Mickey laughed. "Yeah, I guess so!"

Oswald then pointed at the female mouse in the photo. "And let me guess: this is their mom?"

Mickey smiled, though a bit more wistfully than before. "That's right. That, Oswald, is Amelia Felicity Fieldmouse. My sister."

Oswald's eyebrows shot up. "Really? I didn't know you had a sister. What's she like?"

Mickey closed his eyes to think, and remember. "Well, it varies from Loop to Loop. Most of the time, she's actually pretty good company, even if she's a bit of a "soccer mom." Sometimes, she's actually a lot older than me, and essentially uses me for free babysitting. And sometimes..."

Mickey's sentence trailed off, and he heaved a sigh, as if reliving some painful memories. Oswald sympathetically patted him on the back. "It's bad, I take it?"

"Yeah," Mickey said quietly. "Luckily, Minnie and I usually wind up winning custody, so at least we can give the twins a decent upbringing, if it comes to that."

Oswald nodded. "I see. Well, if you run into that variant again, and I'm in the Loop, just let me know, and I'll see what I can do to help."

Mickey smiled again. "Thank, Os."

"Anytime, bro."

Oswald considered the photograph for a few seconds. "Though now that I think about it... have you considered trying to get them Looping?"

Mickey started in surprise. "Wait, what?"

"I'm serious! Think about it: you got me to start Looping after spending a couple of years helping me and Ortensia rebuild the Wasteland, and you've probably known them for a lot longer. Heck, I'm surprised that they aren't already Looping!"

Mickey sighed and rubbed his head. "That's the thing, Os. Despite everything, I've never really been able to form a real close bond with Amelia, even during a baseline run. She prefers her nice, normal lifestyle as a journalist, while I'm always getting myself into some grand adventure, even when I'm not even trying! Besides, it could get... awkward if we get a Loop where the twins are my biological sons or something."

Oswald gave him a deadpan look. "Mickey. We've had loops where Goofy was your biological son, and you've coped just fine."

Mickey stuck out his tongue. "Bleah. Don't remind me. Okay, so you've got a point. Still, I think this is going to take a lot of work if we're gonna make this happen."

Oswald grinned, and clapped Mickey on the shoulder. "Hey, we're Loopers! If there's one thing we've got, it's time!"

Just then, a growling sound echoed throughout the attic, and Oswald looked at his stomach sheepishly. "But first, let's get something to eat," he added. "I'm famished!"

Mickey looked at his watch. "Yeah, it's about time for lunch anyway. Hey, bring that album; there's a few other members of the Mouse family I'd like to show you."

The two brothers got up from their position on the floor, and started making their way out of the labyrinthine attic, while eagerly discussing their future plans.

13.1-13.3: A very interesting story that was regrettably never continued, since the author has since left the Loops. However, it was too good not to archive. I like to think it would have had a happy ending afterward.

13.4: Gives new meaning to "The Magic Comes Back".

13.5: Classic. (smiles)

13.6: Ah, family...

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-04. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

14.1 (LordCirce): [Wreck-It Ralph]

"I need that medal. It's mine! It's important to me!" Ralph suppressed a gag at how childish he sounded. Honestly, if he'd done even a bit more research, he would have realized that there were a dozen games where he could have gotten a medal. Heck, if he pressed Tapper a bit more, there was a medal in an old display case behind his bar Ralph could have borrowed. Still, he couldn't really regret his choices, because if he hadn't done it, he would have never met the little rascal in front of him right now.

"Well, unless you've got a race car hidden in the fat folds of your neck, I can't help you."

Ralph paused, donning a confused look, as he scratched behind his ear. "Wait, you mean..." he pulled on his Pocket and, in a somewhat impressive display of slight of hand, pulled a copy of the race car he and Vanellope built in the baseline out from behind his head, "something like this racecar? Cause man, it's been given me an itch being stuck in there."

The mixture of shock, joy, hope, with just a touch of disgust, that flittered across her face was simply adorable. Ralph still wasn't tired of pulling this gag on an Unawake Vanellope. Now, he just had to explain to Calhoun how he had smashed the Cybug to bits, make sure she and Felix still hooked up, break Turbo's legs, and they should be set for the Loop. Easy peasy.

14.2 (MrEgret): [DC] / [Disney]

Dick Grayson, currently acting Batman, looked at the scene unfolding in the middle of Robinson Park with a mixture of awe and barely suppressed laughter. "Babs, are you getting this?" he whispered.

"You mean the catfight going on between Poison Ivy and Donald's girlfriend?" Barbara Gordon asked rhetorically, while monitoring the fight in question from the cozy confines of the Tower. "Yeah, it's coming through perfectly."

"Donald's moving into position on the other side of the clearing. When we break this up, I'm going to congratulate him on his choice of girlfriend. Not many people that can take on a Gotham rogue with their exact same powers and more years of experience with them, and still hold their own."

It was true. In this Loop, Daisy was one of Pamela Isley's assistants, and tried to rescue her from Dr. Woodrue's experiments when she inadvertently stumbled across them late one night in the labs. For her trouble, she was knocked out and captured, and Woodrue decided to make her the new test subject for his plant-human hybridization process after Isley made her escape and began her career as Poison Ivy. Luckily, she was rescued by the Unawake Donald, in his identity as the Duck Avenger, when he broke into the warehouse where she was being held while following up on a lead. It seemed that she had developed an attraction to the Duck Avenger and his secret identity similar to that one version of Harley falling for Bruce, which was quite unfortunate since she had also gained powers similar to those of Poison Ivy. Luckily, Donald was able to steer this obsession towards more positive ends, and she wound up becoming one of Gotham's more powerful - if inexperienced and temperamental - protectors.

Which led us to tonight. Poison Ivy had kidnapped several of the richest men currently spending time in Gotham, as part of a scheme to hypnotize them, and gain access to billions of dollars from their respective conglomerates. She was planning on using the money to fund more of her schemes, as well as to buy up several large swaths of rainforest around the world and make them unavailable to land developers. Bruce was currently away on Justice League business, and almost every other member of the Bat-family was on patrol in different parts of the City. Donald's uncle, Scrooge McDuck, was one of the kidnapped industry titans, so Donald was working together with Grayson as the Duck Avenger to bust the hostages out. Scrooge's kidnapping also kicked off a chain of rumors that got distorted with the telling, until Daisy heard it in her civilian identity as Donald being the kidnapping victim. Naturally, she sprung into action, and followed the trails of pheromones being emitted by Ivy and her hench-plants to Robinson Park. She demanded to know where her boyfriend was, getting into a shouting match with Ivy that devolved into a brawl when Ivy and Daisy discovered that they perfectly countered each other's powers. With Ivy's attention tied up elsewhere, it was child's play for Grayson and Donald to dispatch the few thugs Ivy had mind-whammied into working for her, and free the trapped hostages.

That just left taking care of Ivy, and getting Daisy to calm down.

"I'm in position, Dick," Donald muttered over the radio headset built into his costume. "How are we gonna do this? Smoke grenades, then get in close?"

"We also need to suppress the plant life surrounding them, or else we'll get creamed once Ivy realizes we're here. Defoliant bombs, then gas masks before we move in."

Donald fished out his air filter from his subspace pocket, and snapped it into place on his beak. "Okay. Whenever you're ready."

"Annnnnd now."

Daisy Awoke right before Ivy lunged at her face, nails outstretched like claws. Thinking quickly, she stepped to the side, dodging the blow, before elbowing her in the back of the neck. Right before she could punch her to the ground, a vine shot up out of the dirt, wrapped itself around her arm, and yanked her off-balance. Out of the corner of her eyes, Daisy could see several large green plant things slowly start to move forward. Ivy smirked. "Well, I have to say, for a weed, you are quite persistent. This will make yanking you out by the roots all the swee-"

At that point, several muffled bangs rippled through the clearing and a sickly grey smoke began to fill the area. The plant things shuddered and started backing away from the smoke, while the vine holing Daisy's arm down quickly rotted away. Though she couldn't see it, Daisy briefly looked mildly queasy, before her body started naturally producing antitoxins to counter whatever was in that smoke. Ivy looked around her angrily, completely forgetting about Daisy for the time being, right before a younger-looking Batman swooped out of nowhere, and kicked her in the face.

Daisy then let out a muffled shriek, as she felt someone shove an air filter in her face, before a familiar voice whispered in her ear, "Quick! Strap this on, and follow me!"

"Donald! What on earth--"

"No time to explain! We gotta get you out of here before that defoliant really starts taking a toll on you!"

Daisy nodded reluctantly, properly attached the filter, and followed Donald towards the edge of the clearing under the cover of the smoke. "What's going on?" she asked once they were in the clear.

"Long story. Short version is, you're currently Good Poison Ivy, and Dick Grayson and I are foiling Real Poison Ivy's latest scheme, a kidnapping, with your Unawake self's help," Donald explained, while briskly checking the extent of her injuries. "Oh, and until we're alone, it's Duck Avenger."

It was a testament to the general weirdness of the Loops that Daisy didn't even bother questioning this singularly unusual explanation. "Okay, I suppose Loop memories will explain everything else afterwards. I'll try to keep those plant things occupied so you can help Dick out. Are there any hostages I should keep an eye out for?"

"No, we freed them all; they're outside with the cops. We're just tying up loose ends now."

"Gotcha. Go kick her butt, darling."

"With pleasure!"

With that, Donald leaped back into the fray, while Daisy reached out with her new powers, and ordered the plant things to back off. She smiled as Ivy snarled in frustration at her suddenly uncooperative minions right before Batman and the Duck Avenger punched her in the jaw at the same time. This is way more fun than gardening back in Duckburg, she thought to herself.

14.3 (Awesomedude17): [Gargoyles] / [Marvel]

Beast looked at Goliath, the one who had defeated him during a Death Battle loop.

"I must admit, I should've fought smarter than how I did."

"True. But you did manage to make a squid intelligent. I suppose that counts for something."

"Maybe I'll make it a cat next time. Mainly an affectionate one."

"You try."

"How about next time we face each other, we simply have a battle of wits and intelligence."

Goliath smiled.

"It would be a pleasure."

14.4 (LordCirce; Sonic Raynboom): [Five Nights at Freddy's] / [Wreck-It Ralph]

Freddy Fazbear strode down an empty hallway, a vacant grin on his face as his servos whirred. One step, two step, one step, two step. The tiles of the restrooms slid past on the side, and Freddy began to play a small tune.

A flicker of light caught his attention. Freddy turned to look into the restroom. There was a brief clatter, then something spun out to him from the darkness.

It was the head of Foxy.

"~Time to play, old Freddy.~" A lilting, playful voice sounded from the restroom, as Chica strode into view. Blue lights were flickering across her frame, like pixilated lightning, flashing down her limbs and across her eyes. "~Are you afraid of the dark?~"

Something stirred in Freddy, some strange sensation that caused him to take a step backwards, and then another, before moving in a full retreat, away from the other possessed animatronic.

Vanellope smirked as she bounced around in the system of the crazed bird. At first she had been kind of freaked out by the whole scenario, but there were a few advantages to her glitchiness, and invading systems just happened to be one.

"Try and stuff me in a suit, will ya? Well, I'll just be taking yours then."

Her laughter was more than a little crazy as she followed after Freddy, pumping Chica's arms and legs.

(Sonic Raynboom)

"Vanellope," Ralph said, keeping an eye on the animatronics, "get away from them and get over here."

Meanwhile, Mike tried his method. "Here, Vanellope! Here, Vanellope, Vanellope! I have candy!"

Ralph stared at Mike. "She's not a dog."

"I'm not good with kids, okay!?"

"You work at a kids restaurant."

"I don't deal with the kids, I deal with the murderous animatronics! The last time I had to deal with kids, it--"

~You promised never to speak of that Loop!~ Bonnie shouted.

"I wasn't-- wait, you're Awake?!" Mike replied.

~Yes. All of us are. She suggested it.~

Vanellope was laughing. "You should have seen your faces! Oh man, that was hilarious!"

14.5 (LordCirce): [Wreck-It Ralph] / [Gravity Falls]

Ralph carefully lifted the CD out of the case and slotted it into his computer. Once he had seen the cover, he knew he had to take a chance and buy it.

*When the cherry petals of magic romance academy are in bloom, anthyding can hadplen*

"Bleh! That is horrible."

Ralph bit back a laugh as the screen changed to a picture of a Japanese classroom, and Vanellope showed up, dressed up as a typical Japanese school girl. The look of utter disgust on her face gave good indication that she was Awake, and the blue sparks of her glitching, which quickly replaced her uniform with her familiar hoodie, confirmed it.

"Aw, but don't you want to attend Magic Romance Academy?"

"Ha ha, very funny Ralph." Vanellope scowled, flicking again as she turned cel-shaded and lost her flat look. "Man, this thing is cramped."

Ralph shrugged. "Sorry, my Unawake self isn't exactly rich enough for a top of the line computer."

"Eh, it's okay. I've dealt with worse." She glanced around. "So, what exactly is there to do this Loop?"

"Well," Ralph said, "I happen to know that there is an arcade downtown, and according to the Anchor, Dipper, the program you're replacing can move through the wires to most any computer."

"Dipper? What sort of name is Dipper?" Vanellope snorted.

"Hey, Dipper's a pretty cool kid."

"Uh-huh" Vanellope gave an exaggerated nod, "Sure. Anyway, and what will you be doing?"

Ralph took a deep breath. "Well, if you must know, I'm actually... a handyman."

"Pffft!" Vanellope burst out laughing. "Hahaha, you're a handyman. I mean, yeah, you got the hands for it, but, you! Hahaha! What, are you working cleaning up a demolition shop?"

Ralph rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's funny. It's actually a Mystery Shack, and I'll have you know, I've had no complaints about my handy... about my work."

Vanellope slowly brought her laughter under control, hiccuping slightly. She then gave him a sly look. "You're using one of the Hammers, aren't you?"

"It was a gift. I mean, Felix has like, twenty of them, and I figured, yeah, I can hold on to it, and I mean, it would be kind of rude to hold onto it and not use it, and you're not buying any of this, are you?"

"Nope," Vanellope said with a bit of an extra pop.

Ralph chuckled. "Yeah, well, whatever, you guttersnipe. Go crash into some kids playing Monster Truck Speedster Seven."

"OOO, that sounds like fun!" Vanellope bounced up and down in place, before throwing off a quick salute. "Laterz." She then vanished in a blur of blue light, which sped out and down one of the wires.

Ralph stretched, still chuckling to himself, and rose, ducking at the last moment to avoid smashing his head into the ceiling again. After making sure he was clear, he sighed, turned around, and promptly tripped over the chair he had been sitting in, crushing it against the floor with a crash.

The door to his room opened, and Abuelita poked her head in. "I'll get you a new chair, okay?"

14.6 (RowanEx): [Tomorrowland]

Frank Walker blinked as he was back at the time where a certain girl went to his house and asked if he knew about the pin.

"What's your name? Who gave you that pin?" Frank asked.

"I'm Casey," she replied, "a girl named Athena gave me this pin, and I want to go where this pin showed me!"

Frank blinked as a feeling that he knew this girl swept over his body. He instantly asked the next question.

"Do you want to go to Tomorrowland then?"

He felt guilt after asking that. She quickly nodded in delight.

He then looked around and checked the cameras. He felt like AA units, Advanced Androids, were about to attack his house, so he immediately ordered a lockdown to his house and prepared himself, while keeping Casey busy.

He hoped that Nix didn't notice his actions...

He wasn't so sure if the déjà vus were actual memories or he was just daydreaming. If it was, then something was wrong with him. How did he even daydream it on the bus to the fair in the first place?

He temporarily dismissed this situation as they arrived in the Eiffel Tower, carrying the Edison. After instructing Casey on how to knock the guard out, he took his time explaining the Plus Ultra to Casey, who then shut her mouth as they went aboard an antique spaceship.

As they arrived in Tomorrowland, he didn't gave the explosive to Athena, who was an AA, as he knew. He also made sure that the [huge sphere thing] was to be destroyed, so when he arrived up there and had let Casey control, he activated the explosive, knocked Nix, and lowered them before the explosive, well, exploded.

As a year passed, he closed his eyes to commemorate his victory. However... he opened his eyes to find himself back at his house, which was supposed to be destroyed in the first place. What was going on!?

14.7 (RowanEx): [Tomorrowland]

Casey woke up and nearly got thrown from her motorcycle, and checked her bearings. The last thing she remembered was she was in Tomorrowland, but why is she on the way to the NASA Launch Platform? Casey shrugged it off and continued whatever she was doing.

Casey was also confused on why her dad didn't know about Tomorrowland, as well as her brother.

Oh well, Casey thought, The future sure will be different...?

Frank was about to finish an invention of a time reset indication and try to get himself out of the Loop, until he noticed the meter that tells the probability of the end of the world drop from 100% to 95%. Frank rechecked, and smiled. His joy was slightly interrupted with a knock on the door. He opened the door to find a drenched and extremely exhausted Casey Newton.

"How are we back here?" Casey asked, "and I managed not to get spotted this time."

Frank facepalmed and had let her enter the house.

"What do you mean time machines weren't made yet?" Casey questioned, "that must've been the answer to everything that has happened!"

"I tried once," Frank replied, "and I saw myself back here."

Casey didn't answer for a minute and looked at the monitor, then back to Frank.

"Destroy the source?" Casey offered.

Frank smiled a bit. "Get more time in Tomorrowland."

"You know, the last time I remembered about destroying it is with Athena when she was about to self destruct," Casey commented.

"You might have missed a few ways how I destroyed it," Frank replied, "one of them which I didn't help create it at all."

"How could you tell you helped created it?" Casey asked.

Here we go...

"Finished," said Casey, "and we got Nix dead by a shrapnel from the sphere. Huh. And we saved Athena."

"Although, I have an opportunity for both us now," Frank commented. "We're going to try and stop these loops."

14.8 (Evilhumour): [Warhammer 40K] / [The Princess and the Frog]

Prince Ciaphas of Maldonia!!! looked at Amberley, who looked back at him and scratched her head. Despite breaking the curse fairly late and thus dealing with being frogs in the strange bayou, they managed to keep their cool with the sights not being that odd.

This, however, was an unusual sight. Both Khorne and Slaanesh seemed to be enjoying each others presence, with Khorne playing wonderfully on the horn and Slaanesh dancing appropriately in hir dress around the overly plated gator with a great smirk on hir face. Tzeentch had Woke up at long last as the Shadow Man, and made peace with Nurgle, who was replacing Slaanesh's father and the mayor of New Orleans.

"You know," Amberley said slowly, blinking as she took a step backwards. "It does make sense; debauchery for Slaanesh, skulls for Khorne, deals for Tzeentch and the bayou for Nurgle."

"Yes," Ciaphas rubbed his chin, trying to judge the situation. "So how do we proceed?"

"Hm?" Amberley blinked, looking up from her recorder. "Did you say something?"

Chuckling, Ciaphas shook his head as he enjoyed the music that the Chaos God was playing.

14.9 (Jcogginsa): [Gargoyles] / [Atlantis: The Lost Empire]

With a customary roar, Goliath awoke from his centuries long slumber as the loop began. It was usually a toss up whether or not he awoke in the past of present. Such was the nature of things. He did not like it, but it could not be helped.

Looking around, he could see that this was no Baseline loop. The castle was not on a skyscraper, but rather a massive airship, a blimp if he recalled correctly. Off to the side stood a elderly man whom he recognized as an aged Xanatos. Quickly, he sent off a ping, to which he got a single reply and a smirk. His comrades were not awake, and Xanatos was.

He greeted them cordially "Greetings. I am Preston Xanatos. You have a lot to discover."

Some time later, Goliath spoke to Xanatos in private.

"Xanatos."

"Goliath. You're looking well."

"Enough pleasantries. I want to know what changes this variant has wrought to the past. You are never uninformed."

"Too true. First things first, this is no variant. This is a fused loop."

Xanatos handed Goliath a dossier from his desk, and the gargoyle read

"Milo Thatch?"

"The anchor. I heard through the grapevine that he started looping recently. To my knowledge, he hasn't received the introduction to the Multiverse speech yet, nor has he learned to ping."

Goliath noticed something off about that "If that's the case, how did you learn of this? Surely whoever met him the first time would have told him."

"Stealth looper." Xanatos replied "One of the Star Trek loopers actually. I promised not to reveal his identity, so long as he gives me intel whenever we meet up. Obviously I can't reveal who it is."

"Commander Riker." Goliath said immediately.

Xanatos looked annoyed for a moment, then replied "That was a guess."

"But true all the same." Goliath responded. "In any event, I will explain things to Thatch. He deserves to know."

"Assuming he's awake." Xanatos responded, before retrieving two VHS tapes from his pocket. He tossed them over to Goliath. "Those would be the baseline. I suggest familiarizing yourself with them before confronting Thatch about the loops. Oh, and be sure to cover Linked Loops. I suspect his loop may be linked to ours."

"Why?"

"Just some never realized plans from the Hub."

As it happened, Milo was Awake, though he was understandably a bit frightened of Goliath at first, they soon hit it off. Within a few days, The journey to Atlantis was underway. Xanatos had fired Rourke, and hired Goliath and his clan on in his stead. The rest of the group, being mercenaries, rolled with the punches admirably.

The Leviathan was handled by Goliath (Magic was oh so useful at times) and soon enough they were at Atlantis.

Whereupon Milo was immediately embraced by Kida.

"K-Kida? What's going on, uh, I mean who are you?" Milo sputtered.

"Milo, you will not believe what has happened!"

"Let me guess, a few days ago you woke up years ago?"

Kida looked surprised "How did you know?"

"It's a long story." Milo answered "You see-"

"Wait." Kida said "My father must hear about this as well."

Much to Goliath's surprise, Kida was not the only new looper. King Nedakh remembered the past as well, though far less of it given his unfortunate situation in Baseline.

"Time loops. Fascinating" Nedakh muttered to himself.

"What I don't understand is, how did two loopers awaken at once, so early? It's very rare." Goliath said.

"Maybe it is because of the Heart." Kida guessed "Its power is great. Maybe it could create these loopers."

"No." Goliath said "The heart's power may be great, but it is not that great."

Goliath was no fool, and even had he been, he could not have remained one when spending an eternity with David Xanatos. And so, thanks to the idea Kida's hypothesis put in his mind, he developed hypothesis of his own.

"But perhaps there could be another answer. There is another loop, where the anchor is not a person, but an object of great power. That object is connected to the souls of three loopers, and through it they loop. Perhaps the Heart of Atlantis is itself Looping, and through it, so too are you."

"Is there anyway of knowing the truth?" Nedakh asked.

"Only the admins could tell us. " Goliath answered.

14.9 continued (LordCirce): [Gargoyles] / [Atlantis: The Lost Empire] / [Admin Shenanigans]

"Hmm, yes, it would probably be best if we explain this, hmm."

The entire group jumped at the unexpected voice, and turned to find a large serpent made of colored light floating in the air behind them. It undulated, as though floating in water, and several streamers of light bled off of its scales. The edges of its mouth turned up in an unmistakable smile.

"Hello. My names are many, but I am known best as simply The Rainbow Serpent, and I have taken up duty as the Admin of this Universe. Janus was doing an admirable job, but he has been spread too thin lately, so I stepped in here."

The tail of the Serpent darted forward to tap Milo on the nose. "First, Milo Thatch here is indeed the Anchor for this Loop. Kidagakash Nedakh would have been an ideal candidate, if not for the complications arising from the Soul Bond the Heart of Atlantis possesses with the Royal Family. Milo only possessed a connection equivalent to the average citizen, and so avoided those complications. At first."

The Serpent twisted, coiling up into a long spiral. "The problem is that the effects of repeated exposure were not accounted for. The Heart of Atlantis, as a repository of Atlantean Soul Energy, is semi-sentient, and over time, a temporal reverberation began to form due to the partial soul engram that..." The Serpent trailed off. "The full technical explanation will cause more questions than it answers, so, in short, the Heart of Atlantis began to 'remember' Milo Thatch, and became a pseudo-Looper in act, if not in truth."

"Luckily, this condition was caught early, unlike many issues facing Yggdrasil, and so we were able to take steps to limit the issues, and to develop a proper fix. The simple solution of prohibiting Milo Thatch from coming to Atlantis and coming in contact with the Heart was deemed... unsuitable," the thunderous expression on Milo's face confirmed that idea, "and so it was decided that we would work to initiate the Heart as a full Looper. This was, in fact, accomplished during the last Loop, which none of those native to this Universe will likely remember, as it was only seventeen milliseconds long."

Milo looked confused. "Why?"

The Serpent twitched its tail to gesture towards Kida and King Nedakh. "Due to the Soul Bond between the Heart of Atlantis and the Atlantean Royal Family, both Kidagakash and Kashekim were experiencing the temporal echoes influencing the Heart, and had to also be initiated as Full Loopers."

Milo had a look of dawning comprehension. "So that is why...?" The Serpent nodded at his unfinished question.

Kida placed her hand on Milo's shoulder. "What is it, beloved?"

Milo turned to look at her. "It was over the last several Loops. I thought it was simply an odd variant, but several times, the Unawake version of you had visions about the future. Some of the time, it was actually a future that didn't happen, or rather, a future that had happened in a different Loop. I thought it might have been a sign that you were Looping, but you didn't actually remember the past, just saw potential futures."

"That was indeed the effect of the echoes. In order to fully stabilize the three new Loopers, we choose to use a somewhat risky method. We purposefully manipulated one of the iterations of this Universe to force all Loopers in it to Awaken exactly before the end of the Loop, initiating our new Loopers at that time. This would grant these Loopers full memories of your baseline, rather than the fragments created by the temporal echoes, and minimized the risk of accidentally turning the entire populace of Atlantis into Loopers, which could have caused a cascading failure that would have potentially erased this universe from existence due to overload."

All of the group looked green at the thought, so the Serpent quickly pressed on. "That is no longer a problem as the Heart is now properly fitted into the Loops, so it will not inadvertently create Loopers. Also, while your status as Loopers was triggered by the Heart, it is now not dependent on it, so you may Loop separately, though probability predictors suggest that you will Loop together rather often."

At that moment, Vinny peered into the royal chamber where they were meeting, a ceramic bottle clutched in one hand. "Hey Milo, do you think you could ask what is in this..." Vinny trailed off as he took in the sight of a glowing serpent of light hanging in the middle of the room. "On second thought, never mind. Probably shouldn't be drinking it anyway." He then pulled out and closed the door.

14.10 (jxz): [Channel Awesome] / [Frozen]

"... And that's my idea for Frozen 2." The Nostalgia Critic finished. "Now, before you make a big ice golem and send me to Arendelle-"

He couldn't end his words, as Elsa made the mentioned golem and sent him to Rapunzel's kingdom, via aerial punch. She turned to see Anna and Kristoph, both just arriving, mouths gaping open.

"You should have heard him. That guy's mad!"

"I did." Olaf said. "He has a few good ideas."

"THANK Youuuuuuuuuu....." The voice of the NC came from the sky.

14.11 (LordCirce): [Star Wars] / [Disney]

"Oi, pipsqueak, yur in my seat!"

Yoda blinked and looked up from the fizzing drink he was nursing at the owner of the voice. It was a large bulldog, who seemed vaguely familiar. Had he been in one of Mickey's stories?

"Knew it was your seat, I did not. Not have taken it, I would have."

The large dog, 'Pete' Yoda's mind supplied, looked confused. "What's with the weird jibbery jabbery?"

"Know what you mean, I do not. Speaking clearly, I am." Yoda suppressed a smile and maintained a politely curious look on his face.

Somehow, Pete still realized he was being mocked. "Yer' making fun of me, aren't ya? Why I oughta..."

"Is there a problem here, fellas?" Yoda and Pete both looked over to see Mickey in his suit and bowtie, raising an eyebrow at both of them.

Pete grinned. "Nah, no problems here. I was just, uh," he glanced around the House of Mouse, then spotted the open dance floor, "I was just challenging my friend here to a little dance-off, yeah, that's right. A little frivolous fun."

Mickey blinked and glanced at Yoda, who was now rising to his feet, leaning on his cane. "Um, I don't know if that..."

Yoda smiled at him. "Sound like fun, that does."

Pete chuckled maliciously behind him.

Mickey glanced between the two of competitors. "Alright now, are you both sure you still want to do this?"

Yoda simply nodded, while Pete waved his arm. "Yeah, yeah, let's get on with it. We're not getting any younger." He guffawed at his joke.

Mickey sighed, then nodded to the band, which struck up a lively tune.

Pete grinned, before flexing his arms and launching into fist pumping routine that led to him spinning around, kicking up his feet, and ended with a halfway decent moonwalk impression. He then struck a pose, sneering over at Yoda. "Beat that."

Yoda bobbed his head to the beat. "Impressive, that was. However, my turn, it now is."

He paused for only a moment, as the music fell to a lull for a moment, then burst into motion. In a single, smooth gesture, he hurled his cane upward, spinning it end over end. As it flew up, Yoda spun down, spinning into a breakdance routine that left half the club cheering, and led to Pete's jaw hitting the floor as well. Yoda finished his rotation and pushed up onto one hand into a stall, just in time to catch his cane on his foot, balancing it for a moment. The crowd began to applaud, as Yoda pushed off, knocking his cane skyward again, and performed a quick double backflip, before landing in the exact position where he had started, his cane falling into his grip a moment later.

"Served, you just got."

Off to the side, Mickey shrugged. "I tried to warn him."

14.12 (LordCirce): [The Emperor's New Groove]

Kuzco sneezed as he wandered down the staircase to the Royal Record Room. "Note to self, get someone, preferably Yzma, to come down here and sweep up all the dust." He pushed open the door, and wandered between the shelves to where a flickering light from a lamp was visible.

Pacha was sitting at a small table, surrounded by several scrolls and stone tablets, feverishly mumbling to himself as he traced his fingers over...whatever it was he was doing.

"Sooo, I don't know if you noticed, but the sun has gone down, come up, and gone down again, all during the time that you've been down here. Not that I mind you, doing whatever you're doing, but if you don't head home soon, Chicha is going to get worried, and that could end up being bad for my health."

Pacha looked up at Kuzco, staring blankly at him for several seconds, before muttering, "it's true," in a sad, defeated voice.

Kuzco blinked. "Uh, yeah, I know it's true. I said it, so it is true by definition."

Pacha pointed at the tablet in front of him. "It's true. It's all there. My third cousin, Gujou, has a brother, Kemik." He pointed out a line on the tablet, which Kuzco vaguely recognized as a census record. Pacha then pulled over a scroll and pointed out the names on it. "Kemik is married to Lobaha." He pulled forward another scroll, this one showing a family tree. "Lobaha's father remarried, and his new wife's son had a daughter named Fe. On Fe's mother's side, if you trace up, and go out two generations, you find..." Pacha pointed wordlessly at the name carved into set of tablets he was now pointing at. Kuzco leaned forward, then began coughing in shock.

"Yzma!?" he choked out, between coughs.

Pacha nodded solemnly. "Yzma... is my third cousin's brother's wife's step-niece's great-aunt. Twice Removed. In truth."

Kuzco turned to look at Pacha then laid his hand on his shoulder. "I am so... so sorry."

14.13 (Thanatos's Scribe): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Sly Cooper] / [Toy Story]

Sora grinned as he watched Andy head upstairs with Buzz and Woody in hand, giving the two living toys a wave before they disappeared from sight. It was pretty rare for Sora to have a Loop where he was able to visit the 'Toy World', but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

"Hey, where am I?" He heard a muffled voice cry out. Looking around, Sora saw an unopened purple present sitting inconspicuously under the tree, the present barely in sight. A Ping was his only warning before the present's front burst open, and a purple anthropomorphic hippopotamus landed on his feet.

"Hah!," The hippo exclaimed, his goggles gleaming in the light as he raised his fist up and declared, "No prison can hold The Murray!" However, as Sora heard footsteps approach that could only be Andy's mom, he dashed out and dragged the hippo, who could only be a Looper, out from the open and behind a cabinet just before Andy's mother came out from the kitchen.

"What are you-" The hippo began to say, only to stop as Sora sent out a Ping. The two watched in bated breath as the mother walked past the cabinet, and collectively let out a sigh of relief once she was out of sight.

"That was close," Sora said as he wiped his brow, before turning to the Looper and said, "The name's Sora, and it's nice to meet another Looper I haven't met before!"

"Sora, huh?" 'The Murray' murmured, rubbing his chin in thought, "Now where has the Murray heard that name before?" After a few seconds passed, 'The Murray' snapped his fingers and stated, "Oh, yeah! You must've been the one who helped Sly get his Keycane!"

"You know Sly?" Sora said, then grinned, "That must mean that you're Murray! Sly told me about you when I last saw him."

"Well, the Murray is pleased to meet you," Murray said in reply with a grin just as big, before his face contorted in confusion. "However," Murray wondered, "The Murray is uncertain as to how he ended up in that box..."

"Really?" Sora chirped in surprise, "I was hoping that you had an idea."

"I have no solid idea, though the Murray has one theory..." Murray said, his voice trailing off in thought. However, their wondering was soon answered as the radio began to play a song that immediately had Sora chuckling and Murray groaning at the reference:

Iiii want a hippopotamus for Christmas,

Only a hippopotamus will doooooo~...

14.14 (Mr. Egret; wildrook): [Disney] / [Attack on Titan]

Mickey looked up at the monstrosity that was about to destroy Wall Maria, and sighed in exasperation. "Donald, tell me I'm not seeing this."

Donald shaded his eyes with his hand, while adjusting his 3-D Maneuver Gear to fit better around his waist. "Hate to say it, Mickey, but I think this is actually happening."

Peering over Wall Maria was a sixty-meter tall Goofy, who was smiling cheerfully at everyone, and not fully understanding why the humans were screaming and running away. "Gawrsh," he mused to himself, in a voice that made the mountains tremble, "did I forget to put on deodorant today or something?"

He rested his hands on top of the Wall, unintentionally destroying a sentry tower in the process, and leaned down to take a close look. "And why is everything so tiny?"

Mickey and Donald looked at each other. "So, who wants to break it to Max that his father's a Titan Shifter?" Mickey asked, as they prepared to swing into battle.

"I think he'll work it out on his own. It's rather obvious who the Colossal Titan is."

"True. Okay, who's turn is it to do the battle cry?"

"Mine, I think."

"Okay, Donald. Take it away!"

As they leaped away from the rooftop, and began their counterattack on the invading Titans, the following could be heard, in a loud but garbled voice.

"Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jäger! WAAAAAK WAK WAK WAK WAK!"

Eren then cringed. "I knew Levi's Liquid Religion trades with Goofy would come back to haunt us..." he muttered.

14.15 (Pixel the Square): [Gravity Falls] / [Welcome to Night Vale]

Mabel was sitting on her bed playing with Waddles when Dipper kicked the door down, radio in hand.

"Mabel! You need to listen to this!"

Mabel set Waddles down on the ground and she looked at her brother.

"What's the prob-prob bro-bro?"

"There's something wrong here."

"But I know that. I've seen like everything you have!"

"No, this is something more serious. Here, just listen."

Dipper plugged the radio in and tuned it. After the initial static, Mabel could hear the strange broadcast.

"... Secret Police are now reporting that the offending beasts were not pteranodons after all."

Dipper turned the radio off and waved his hand at Mabel.

"See what I mean? Even the stuff that happens here isn't this weird. "Secret Police?" Earlier it was talking about a portal that was letting them into our time. Where's the signal coming from?"

Dipper began pacing with his hand on his chin, while Mabel, who was on her back, shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, maybe the new radio station that appeared last week."

"Yeah, that could be- WAIT, WHAT?!"

Dipper stopped pacing, his widened eyes directed at Mabel.

"Yeah, you didn't notice? It's right over by where Gideon's tent used to be."

She said, pointing out the window with her thumb. Dipper's face became serious as he grabbed a flashlight and the journal.

"Come on Mabel, we're checking out that radio station!"

Dipper was already almost out the door as Mabel rolled off the bed and onto the floor.

THUD!

Mabel threw her arms up as she pulled herself up.

"I'm okay!"

At the radio station, Dipper and Mabel found they couldn't open the door. Dipper kept leaning back, throwing all his weight against it to try and open it.

"Come on... You stupid door... OPEN!!!"

He grunted with effort as the door refused to move. A teenage girl who looked to be about the age of Wendy approaches the door. She shook her head at Dipper's futile attempts. She produced her knife, cut her finger, and placed the cut to the door. The door opened, allowing her in.

"It's a bloodstone door. You need to offer blood to get in."

She went inside without another door, leaving Dipper and Mabel very confused.

"Something's not right with this radio station. A blood offering?"

"I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't go inside..."

Dipper was already through the door.

"Come on Dipper!"

Mabel let out an exasperated sigh and followed. Dipper would probably need her help at some point.

They looked around until they found the recording booth, which had an "ON AIR" sign above it, though it wasn't on. They walked inside, and found a man who was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor skinny. He was wearing a smile. Wait, was that a smile? Dipper couldn't tell. The man, who looked at the children with intrigue, started talking into a microphone.

"During the break, it seems that two children have found their way into the recording booth. I do not know where they came from, but I do know they are definitely not from City Council. They do not stare at me soullessly while saying nothing."

Dipper was taken off guard for but a moment before yelling at the man.

"Are you the one sending out the broadcast? What's going on?"

"What's going on is that I'm doing my duty as a radio professional and giving the citizens of our little berg the news."

Mabel recovered after another pause.

"Yo, what's up with this place?"

"My recording booth?"

Dipper rubbed his eyes.

"No, why are you here, in Gravity Falls?"

"I do not know. I came into work as I always do, and it was here. Perhaps this is one of the 'fused loops' where two universes are mixed. I'd have to ask Carlos about it. He's a scientist, he knows these things. Too bad he's in the desert otherworld..."

"Hi Cecil... There's apparently no desert otherworld here. Only this very scientifically town. It's almost as scientifically interesting as Night Vale."

Cecil let out an adorable squeal.

"Carlos! You're here! Oh how I've missed you. How's your science been going?"

"Great! I've been running tests and I've been using all my scientific instruments."

Dipper looked surprised and turned to Carlos.

"Wait, you've been doing tests here?"

A smile grew on his face.

"Finally, someone to talk to about Gravity Falls! What have you learned so far?"

"Sorry, but I'll need to go over the results of my tests before I know anything for sure."

Mabel had been frozen ever since Carlos walked in. Everything about him was perfect. His hair, his teeth, his face... She wasn't sure what to do. She tried talking.

"Hi Mabel, I'm Carlos... Can I touch your hair?"

"Excuse me, I'm sure you meant 'Hi Carlos, I'm Mabel.' It's still good to meet you though."

Cecil became aggravated and started pushing Dipper and Mabel out of the booth after Mabel made her comment. He started talking forcefully after clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry listeners, but this ends today's broadcast. Stay tuned next for an epiphany followed by a terrible realization."

"Hey wait! Who am I supposed to talk to about Gravity Falls?"

With one more push of effort, Dipper and Mabel were outside the booth. The door slammed in their face and they heard the lock click. Inside the booth, Cecil cleared his throat as he sat back down.

"That was... Sweet Cecil... Was that a custom in Night Vale?"

"No... I was... afraid. I didn't want to lose you."

"Oh Cecil, you're the only one for me."

"Ahh, thanks Carlos."

Cecil resumed talking to the microphone.

"I apologize for that *ahem* unprofessionalism. Good night Gravity Falls, good night."

14.16 (Pixel the Square): [Over the Garden Wall] / [Pinocchio]

Greg had just placed the leaves on Wirt and was laying down. Jiminy popped out of Greg's teapot.

"Jiminy, I need help. I need to be a good leader, but I don't know how."

"Well Greg," Jiminy said, standing upon his shoulders, "it's times like these you got to look to the sky."

Jiminy looked up towards a particularly bright star.

"Sometimes, you just got to wish upon a star..."

*When you wish upon a star starts playing, only to be cut off*

"Oh yeah!" Greg shouted and laughed. He took a deep breath and started to speak.

"Star, oh star, up in the sky, guide my dreams with light that shines. Help me know just what to do to get Wirt home and also me, too. And if you don't, I don't care. I'll pull down your underwear!"

"You know Greg, I don't-"

*Forward Cherubs starts playing*

"Well what do you know? I guess that works too..."

14.17 (ToaMataMui5000): [Kingdom Hearts] / [Five Night at Freddy's]

Sora awoke in both senses to find himself within a Station Of Awakening. He sent out a ping, getting none back in response. Sighing, he looked down to the stained glass platform, raising his eyebrow at the ridiculousness of the design.

The primary background color was yellow, with twelve red circles lining the inside curve, making it look like a pepperoni pizza. Each "pepperoni" showed a small portrait, consisting of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica, Mangle, Shadow Freddy, Shadow Bonnie, Balloon Boy, and the Puppet. In the center, Golden Freddy and Springtrap circled each other. "Seriously? What the smurf, Yggdrasil?"

Sora's train-of-thought was interrupted by a corridor of darkness opening. He immediately summoned a keyblade and took a fighting stance, finding a black-cloaked, humanoid form staring him down. "Who's there?" The young man demanded to know. The figure responded by throwing back its hood, revealing the head of a very familiar bear animatronic.

"It's me."

"Oh, hey Freddy. What's up? Nice to see you got a voice box this loop."

"Are you ready for Freddy?"

"Uh, what?" Sora watched as the bear mascot summoned a keyblade of his own. It had a motif of both a dragon and a... "OH SWEET LORD!" Sora threw up in his mouth, four times over on behalf of himself, Roxas, Xion, and Ventus. "WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT THING!"

"I want you inside of me. It's the only way we can enjoy our night of debauchery."

"We?" Sora gasped in horror as thirteen more corridors of darkness appeared, followed by all thirteen other animatronics entering, bearing similar disturbing keyblades. "Oh sweet grandfather Disney and father Nomura, please save me.." He pointlessly prayed.

"Engage the Sora, motherfucker!" All fourteen mascots chorused before launching forward.

Several dozen loops later, a clearly disturbed Sora awoke in the security room of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. He clamped his eyes shut and took deep breathes, only to receive a tap on the shoulder. He screamed in terror and punched whoever was next to him. The Puppet crumbled to the ground in response. Freddy, in his withered state, stepped into the room, only to jump back in terror as Sora whipped a keyblade towards him. "DON'T! EVEN! TRY!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, Sora!" Phone Guy urgently spoke from his respective device. "These two are awake. They ain't gonna hurt you." It took the young man several minute of heavy breathing through his teeth before he calmed down enough to disband his weapon.

"Sorry..." Sora apologized between gasps. "I had... a really bad fused loop... with you guys recently... and brain bleach... hasn't done enough to help..."

'Let me guess; Five Nights At Fuckboys?'

Sora nodded in response as he helped the Puppet back to its feet. "All fourteen twisted versions of you guys at once." Freddy's eyes widened at the horror he was told. He walked over and began patting Sora's back in pity.

"Sweet father Cawthon!" Phone Guy was flabbergasted. "I feel terrible for you, kid."

"It's fine. It wasn't any of your faults." Sora feigned a smile.

'No need to hide it. Trust us. We all bloody hate those variants too.' Freddy thought for a second before flipping his sign again. 'I think we have some sea-salt popsicles in the kitchen that you can have, so long as they aren't expired.'

"Thanks Freddy. You really do try."

14.18 (RowanEx): [Tomorrowland] / [InFamous Second Son]

Delsin and the group found two civilians try to make sense of the situation and went to them. The pair stared at Delsin for a few moments.

"I get the feeling that we're not in Tomorrowland," remarked the girl, "where are we?"

"You're in Seattle," Delsin replied, "you're both not from here are you?"

"Yeah, we don't belong here," replied the man, "I'm Frank Walker. My memories tell me that..."

"You're my dad from Washington," interrupted Fetch, "although, this might be one of those time loops where something is not like the usual, or not."

Casey, the girl, looked up towards the Space Needle. "Is that really the Space Needle? I've never visited the Space Needle before."

"Are you both Conduits?" Fetch asked back.

"...what?"

All of the Loopers groaned. They had no idea what is going on, or how to explain the theme repeats. Considerably, the Tomorrowland Loopers had built themselves Jetpacks from random places in Seattle which impressed Eugene, so they still got up to see the view.

For the remaining days of their Loop, Fetch's group was set up along with Frank's group as they tried to make a plausible conclusion about their time repeats only to get a blank. Casey had something else though.

"How come we don't have Conduits from our place while they don't have Tomorrowland?" Casey looked at the panel where they tried to solve it. "Maybe we're from another world Tomorrowland exists?"

"That's something," Eugene replied, "besides the unusual from what Zeke Dunbar was doing, it might have been the best conclusion we have."

Hadn't she heard that name from a video game, though?

"Did you ask why he was like that?" Casey asked, and Fetch nodded.

"Lot of random words," Fetch responded, "nothing out of interest."

Frank's face lit up, interrupting the conversation. "If we could meet once more, since these time repeating loops are random, maybe we could understand it better."

"Yeah..." Delsin looked outside to see robots. "Aaaaand the DUP is here."

As the Conduits set out to fight, Casey and Frank looked at their work. It has been just questions that they still couldn't resolve. They're not going to give up easily.

That is, if they could finish it in time. Their time loop duration are two years, but Fetch's group had a time loop duration of two months.

The Next Loop...

Frank found himself back at his house, one hour before Casey arrived. A thought then went over his head.

"What if she was right?" Frank considered. "That Seattle wasn't the Seattle we have? It could make sense..."

Frank was interrupted by a doorbell and opened it to find Casey holding a blueprint of a bag. Frank took it and looked at Casey.

"Really? A bag that can access the fifth dimension?"

14.1: Ralph, you troll...

14.2: I have no comment.

14.3: So Goliath and Hank McCoy/Beast of the X-Men are friends.

14.4: And Vanellope gets to troll Ralph back.

14.5: Felix's hammer comes in handy.

14.6: The first Awakening for this Loop.

14.7: And the story continues.

14.8: That was interesting.

14.9: He's not kidding about plans to link these universes, by the way.

14.9 continued: Explanations ensue.

14.10: The Nostalgia Critic, as a character, is actually Looping.

14.11: And so is Yoda.

14.12: Pacha needs hugs.

14.13: Heehee.

14.14: On that Day, Mankind Received a Goofy Reminder...

14.15: If I knew more about Night Vale, I could comment more effectively on this one.

14.16: (raises eyebrow) Oh-kaaaaay...

14.17: Some variants, you just gotta hate.

14.18: Still not a setting I'm too familiar with.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-10. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

15.1 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

Riley Anderson.

11 years old, born in Minnesota.

Favorite Sport: Hockey.

Family Nickname: Monkey

Riley sat in the car, approaching their new home in San Francisco. Mom was reading the map, directing the little family towards an uncertain future in their new home.

Yet for Riley it wasn't exactly uncertain.

She swore that she had already lived through this. It was either that or she was overthinking things.

"Riley, look at that!" Riley eyed what her mother noticed: A collection of giant dinosaurs.

She smiled as the family slowed down and prepared to visit. At the very least, the familiarity felt nice.

--Meanwhile, at Headquarters--

Havoc was an apt description of how Joy's last week had been. The most primary concern of hers was keeping Riley happy, that much was true, but this situation overrode that harder than a landslide crashing down a mountain.

Mostly because of the panic Fear was endlessly screaming, running to and fro as Riley's emotions tried to make sense of the crisis that they faced. He was screaming on and on to the point where Joy didn't really mind Anger punching him to make him stop, even if it only bought a few seconds of silent calm.

"Fear, I know the whole being afraid thing is yours, but aren't you being a little bit...dramatic?"

Fear stopped in the middle of his raving to face Joy, the emotion and Ringleader of Riley's emotions standing calm. "Joy, we are in the middle of a catastrophe!? How can you be so calm about Riley's life turning upside down?"

"It's not so bad Fear, honest! It could be an adventure!"

Fear grabbed Joy in panic, taking her to the control Panel. With a push of a button, several memories came from Long Term Memory. "Joy I am not sure if you noticed - OF COURSE YOU NOTICED YOU WERE THERE - but Riley's memories aren't working right! It was fine a week ago but now everything isn't working right, and we should panic!"

To prove his point he recalled a memory, the golden orb coming down from Long Term Memory and showing the memory inside: Riley in full hockey gear, standing in a park with her team, grinning in unison. Her parents stood off to the side, their joy in their daughter evident. Joy just scoffed as she walked over to Fear. "Fear, there's nothing off about that memory. Riley had a good time. Heck, we got pretty far. Quarterfinals, am I right?"

"Joy, that's not what I'm panicking about." He replayed the memory, and froze it on a rather jarring piece of evidence: The Golden Gate Bridge standing tall in the distance. "How can Riley have a memory of being with a hockey team in San Francisco! We've never been to San Francisco!"

"Fear makes a pretty good point." mused Anger behind his paper.

"See, even Anger agrees with me. And don't get me started with the Core Memories and the Islands."

With a push of its button, Fear opened up the holder for the Core Memories - the very essence of Riley. In them stood several of them, many of the orbs a mix of different colors.

Joy's (new) favourite was a golden orb mixed with blue, Riley embracing her parents in a tearful hug as Mom and Dad returned it. Joy could almost feel the raw power of that single moment.

Fear didn't see it that way. "The core memories changed as well, Joy. Her entire personality could have changed! These are the end times, Joy!" Fear bellowed, shaking Joy as he begun to panic like he had never panicked before - a great feat to accomplish for a man who was the embodiment of fear itself. "The end times I tell you! The end times!"

"Uh... Anger? Could you...?"

With a single punch, Fear smashed into the glass windows of Headquarters, slumping off into unconsciousness. Brushing herself off, Joy smiled at Anger, the emotion walking back to his couch. "Thank you."

"Fear has a point, Joy." Disgust, having been looking out of the windows and at the Islands of Personality - the strongest parts of Riley's personality given form within the mindscape - called over Joy as she gave a look of indifference towards the Islands. "Core Memories don't change overnight. I mean, can you even get another memory to replace a Core Memory? I hope so, because those new Islands are clashing with each others color schemes."

Joy mused, walking back and forth as Sadness leafed through a mind manual. "I don't think so. Nothing in the manuals say anything about Core Memories just... changing overnight, or Core Memories of two different emotional colors. What do we do Joy?"

Joy said nothing as she paced, thinking and thinking about what was happening. For some reason, the others were unable to remember what had happened in the past year and expressed concern about the sudden change.

Yet Joy had not. Why?

Before she knew it, Joy found herself surrounded by her fellow emotions, Fear awoken from his impromptu slumber. They eyed Joy with expectant eyes, eager for her to lead. It was if they were lost sheep, and Joy their shepherd who always knew where to go.

"Joy? What do we do?"

Joy uttered the words she was always afraid to say:

"I... I don't know."

15.2 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

Riley heard the news again that day. How her father had once again gotten a new job, and how they were once again moving to San Fransisco for that job.

Somehow, someway, Riley was back in her old home, just in time to move to her new one. Again.

Something was definitely strange. She slowly swept her gaze over her room, once filled with her possessions, now barren and save for her laptop.

On impulse, Riley flipped it open and turned it on. She was thankful Dad hadn't disconnected the wifi yet, just in case it was still needed. Which, in her opinion, it most certainly was.

After all, she needed to do some research.

--Headquarters--

Anger muttered irritably as he sat on his couch eyeing the other Emotions as they processed the changes that had overcome Riley before they knew what was happening.

Currently, Fear and Disgust gazed at the Islands of Personality in confusion, taking in the... altered view. Sure, the five initial Islands, Goofball, Hockey, Friendship, Honesty and Family were all there, but they were vastly overshadowed by the array of much larger and more detailed Islands that loomed before them.

While the two cautious Emotions were relatively okay with the situation for the moment, Joy was an entirely different story. The peppy Emotion had taken one look at the scenery before bolting for the Core Memories. While the fact that the original five golden Memories she was responsible for were faded and cloudy was enough to whip her into a frenzy, it was the sight of the mottled colors of the far more prominent and influential Memories that had induced the mother of all panic attacks, causing her to rush to a far corner of Headquarters where she was currently hyperventilating while muttering about finding her happy place. Sadness stood vigil, concern for Joy obviously mounting within the blue Emotion.

Overall, the Emotions knew something was seriously off about their situation, but Riley was normal, the Islands, odd as they were, were working perfectly, and for whatever reason Fear couldn't truly find it in himself to get Riley to panic. Hence, the real question was if there was a problem in the first place.

"You know, those islands look kind of tacky..."

"You think they're safe? They look kind of crowded. Do you think there's a chance of cross-contamination?"

"How can the Islands cross-contaminate?"

"I don't know, actually. I just hope things won't get any worse."

"I don't see how they could look any worse. Heck, I'm freaking out just as much as you usually do."

"I do not freak out that much." Disgust scoffed, giving him that look. "Okay, so maybe I do freak out a lot, but come on, it's my job! I need to keep Riley safe, you of all people should know what that's like!"

"Then be afraid then! Look at this mess!" The green entity waved her arms frantically. "Doesn't any of this ring any alarm bells with you!?

"I'm trying Disgust, but I-I-!" Fear fumbled frantically for a second before groaning and slapping a hand to his face. "I just can't. I know I should be afraid, but I'm not. I'm more afraid about not being afraid." Fear gasped, implications finally reaching him. "Oh no. What if I'm sick? What if I'm crazy? What if I'm sick and crazy!? What's going to happen to Riley!?! I can't keep Riley safe if I'm sick and crazy!"

Anger rolled his eyes as he shuffled his paper. "We're emotions, genius. We don't get sick."

"You don't know that for sure!"

Anger huffed as he balled up his newspaper (BREAKING NEWS: TIME IN TURMOIL! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!?), deciding enough was enough. "Alright, enough is enough. You two arguing isn't going to get us anywhere any time fast."

Disgust was the first to gag. "Anger, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the Islands are different and Riley isn't acting weird. Isn't that a good time for you to do your job?"

"Look, you want proof everything's alright? It's standing right in front of you." Anger jabbed a fuzzy finger forwards.

Fear flinched as he glanced left and right frantically before staring at his shorter counterpart in confusion. "M-m-me?"

"No, doofus, the other purple coward. Of course you!" Anger barked irritably. "You're not panicking about the islands, you're not freaking out about how Riley's acting, and you know why? It's because deep down, you know that this is right and that this is how it should be! Am I wrong?"

"U-uh, well, I, uh..." Fear shuffled nervously as he was put on the spot.

"That's what I thought." Anger nodded gruffly. "Instead of making Riley worry about the changes inside of herself, you should be making her panic about how the world's changed around her instead."

Fear's pupils shrank to pinpricks as he processed that statement. He tried to dart for the console...

"Except!"

And was promptly brought to a halt by Anger grabbing the back of his collar and holding him in place.

"I'm not going to let you do that." The tough Emotion growled. "Panicking won't accomplish anything. What Riley needs most of all at the moment is a clear head, and that's what I'm going to give her."

"How come Joy's freaking out but you're taking this so calmly, huh?" Disgust cocked an eyebrow expectantly.

The red Emotion snorted as he cast a glance at the panicking Emotion. "That's easy: Tinkerbell over there can't handle the concept of Riley having a less than perfect day, much less the idea of her having any Core Memories that aren't glittery gold."

"Hey..." Sadness frowned as she tried (and failed, she couldn't help but note miserably) to comfort her hysterical friend. "That's not very nice..."

"You gonna tell me it ain't true?" Anger cocked an eyebrow expectantly.

Sadness hesitated before biting her lip and focusing on Joy again.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"So how is this doing your job?" huffed Disgust.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Anger got up and walked towards the console, keeping a close eye on Joy as he went in case she decided to do something rash. "Then let me explain. Just yesterday we were in San Francisco, and now we're back in Minnesota, ready to move to San Francisco again. And the only two who remember are Riley, and me."

"I figure that since it seems like we're in some sort of a science fiction movie, and a really bad one might I add, some research might be in order. Good thing Riley thought of it." Anger shuddered heavily.

After the... 'incident', he'd sworn off putting ideas in Riley's head. At least, not without a cool head and consent from the whole crew anyways. Something he wasn't going to get any time soon if Joy's frantic rocking back-and-forth was anything to go by.

"Anyway, what better place to start than the internet, using all of those stupid sci-fi movies dad made us watch instead of the cartoons we wanted as a point of reference?" Anger manned the console, pushing a button and summoning a Memory from Long Term Memory.

"Tripledent Gum! Will-!!"

Anger hastily let go of the joysticks as his eye twitched in impotent rage, a torrent of flames erupting from his skull. The last thing Riley needed at the moment was to put her fist through her computer's monitor in a burst of inexplicable fury.

'One of these days...' He thought murderously. 'I'm going to turn each and every one of those chortling doofuses into charcoal.'

15.3 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out] / [Harry Potter]

--Headquarters--

Joy grinned as she opened her eyes. "Another bright new day." She leapt up to her feet, and danced over to the central console to check up on Riley's Core Memories, and to see if they had shifted or not. She hummed softly to herself as the column rose, before choking. The core memories were... yellow! And there were only six.

"Oh no, now this weird, deja vu thing is taking away the Core Memories!" Joy moaned as she paced around the central console. "Okay, think, Joy, think. Where could the Core Memories have gotten off to?" Joy peeked through her fingers at the rack of books off to one side. "Maybe I should skim through the manuals?" Joy shuddered. "Not that desperate yet."

That was how the other emotions found her a few moments later, pacing in circles in front of the center console.

"Already up and at it, eh?" Fear smiled, weakly. "Figured you'd be excited about this trip to school."

Joy jumped, then spun around, plastering a smile on. "Oh, yep. School. Super excited for school and... books." Joy grinned a bit wider.

Disgust huffed. "I just can't believe we have to ride a train. I mean, it better be cleaner than that alleyway that we bought our things in. That place was filthy, and I don't even want to think about all those things we had to buy for potions."

Joy blinked. 'Train? Alleyway? Potions?' Before she could properly ask, Fear jumped in, holding up a large chart.

"So, I've had to revamp our Potential Animal Attack Anxiety Scale with all of the new information from the books we read. Do you think Dragon should go between Bear and Shark attack, or Lion and Alligator?"

Joy opened her mouth, but Fear just kept on rambling. "I mean, I was thinking of putting it at the very top, but then we read about manticores, and I remembered that nature documentary with the alligator and the goat, and that time with the bee's nest on our head, and..."

"That's great, Fear." Joy cut him off. "Um, do you think you could excuse me for just a moment?" Without waiting for him to respond, Joy darted off, quickly ducking behind a set of shelves. Rapidly, Joy began scanning across the memories.

"Okay, let's see. We have a few childhood thoughts. A couple of school memories. Britain? We're living in Britain?" Joy ducked out to look out of the window. "Hockey Island's still there, so that's a relief. Friendship, Family, all the basics." Joy blinked as she realized something. "Wait, there's six. What's the island with the big cauldron supposed to be?" Glancing surreptitiously around, Joy snuck forward and poked at the unfamiliar memory on the Core Memory Stand.

-Riley was sitting on a chair in the living room, watching an older woman who was talking to her parents. The woman smiled, setting down the teacup she was drinking, and then pulling out a long thin stick, which she waved through the air sharply.

Immediately, the tea cup rose into the air, spinning around and rotating slowly. Another wave of the stick lead to all of the tea rising out of the cup and transforming into a flower, which floated over and settled into Riley's hands.

"Miss Anderson, you are a witch."-

The memory began to loop over, as Joy stared, mouth agape. 'What is going on?'

Joy had managed to gather her wits as she stepped forward to the console, where Fear was currently fretting over the controls. Glancing at the View Screen, Joy saw that they were getting out of the car and hauling a big trunk into a crowded train station.

Fear glanced up as she skipped up (total upheaval of her worldview wasn't going to keep Joy from bouncing on her feet) and let out a massive sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness you're back. Joy, I don't know if we can do this. I mean, McGonagall said that we have to walk through a solid wall to get through to the platform, and what if we walk into the wrong one? I've estimated that there are at least a dozen walls in there, and we could get the wrong one, and then we'll smack our nose and we'll miss the train and..."

"Fear!" Joy cut him off. "It will be ok. We are going to be fine." 'I hope.' "Now, we just have to follow Mom and Dad, and we'll make it to the platform."

"Right. Right." Fear nodded tiredly.

"There you are!" Joy turned as Anger stomped over. "Where have you been? Fear's been hogging the console, and we dropped the stupid trunk on our foot, so we're still getting some Pain-a-grams sent in, though they've downgraded to Sore Status by now."

Joy reached over to tap a couple of buttons. "I was just getting a few things together to help get Riley excited for this trip." Several memories popped up one after another. Memories of a family train ride out into the country, a play pretend game of being a magic princess when she was younger (featuring Bing Bong), and the meeting with McGonagall. The room seemed to light up a bit brighter as Riley's excitement built up.

Anger huffed. "Ok. Well, good. Glad you're back on the ball."

Joy nodded. "Yep. Now, I want you to take the wheel for a bit, help Riley get that trunk to the train. Think determined thoughts."

Anger smirked. "That trunk'll never know what hit it."

Joy grinned. "That's the spirit." Twirling, she darted over to Disgust, who was sitting back on the couch. "Disgust, we're going to need to be making new friends. I need you to be on the lookout for good potential."

Disgust sighed. "Alright. I just hope that we don't get stuck wearing those baggy robes all the time. So unfashionable."

"Fear, start thinking up the ways magic spells could go wrong. We don't know what magic can do, so we need to be prepared. And have you seen Sadness?"

Fear nodded as he started scribbling at a sheet. "Yeah, she's over there." He gestured towards the manual shelves.

Joy walked over, then winced. Sadness was standing in the chalk Circle of Sadness.

"Hey, Sadness."

Sadness glanced up, then slumped back down. "Hey."

Joy sighed, then drew herself up. She knew what she needed to do. "So, I'm going to be doing my best to keep Riley excited, but I know that she is going to end up missing home. So, I need you to start thinking about a good letter to write to home. Don't be afraid to let some sadness show."

Sadness looked up, eyes wide with disbelief. "Really?"

Joy nodded, determinedly. "Yep, really. If we're going to keep Riley happy, we have to let the sadness show a bit sometimes too." Then, reaching down, Joy quickly scuffed out the Circle of Sadness.

--Reality--

Out on the Hogwarts Express, Harry, Ron, and Hermione observed the new girl.

"And you're sure she's not Awake?"

Harry nodded. "Positive. I mentioned time travel twice in my introduction, and it didn't so much as blip on her radar. So, either she is an excellent actor and Stealth Looper, or she isn't Awake."

Ron shrugged. "Eh, whatever. Want to go turn Draco into a monkey?"

Harry grinned. "I've got the crate for Borneo all ready to go."

15.4 (LordCirce): [Inside Out]

--Headquarters--

Fear hummed to himself as he opened up the newspaper and sat back to monitor Riley's dreams. If there was one thing he was glad for, it was that even when time repeated with this whole, deja vu experience, Riley's dreams were almost always different. Even when Fear was the only one remembering, and none of Riley's special Core Memories showed up, the dreams were always just a little different. Kept things interesting, but not too interesting.

The first dream of the night started up, showing a happy pizza parlor, probably inspired by the horrible pizza they had eaten the night before.

"And cue dancing pizza slices." Fear chuckled.

Only it didn't happen. The pizza didn't get up and dance, the balls in the ball pit didn't turn into ice cream, and Rainbow Unicorn didn't come dancing in to join the band on stage. If Fear hadn't known for a fact that Riley was asleep, he might of thought he was seeing a normal memory.

Then the lights went out.

"Oh, here we go, it's going to be a nightmare. Great." Fear grumbled slightly as he pulled out a clipboard. "And they didn't even have the decency to send up a warning. I wonder if it's too late to wake up Joy."

Even as Fear surreptitiously began to stand up, an eerie tune began playing in the dream. Lightning flashed, and Fear gulped, as the brief light had made it seem like the animatronic figures on the stage had moved.

"PEEKABOO!" Suddenly, the face of the stuffed bear that was the mascot for the pizza place popped up in the middle of the View Screen, mouth wide and full of sharp teeth.

"AHHHH!" Fear screamed, slapping desperately at the abort button.

--Reality--

Riley shot up and Awake with a jolt, her eyes wide, as the fearful nightmare dissipated from her mind. After several frantic moments, Riley slumped back onto her bed, groaning.

From now on, she was not going to eat any more broccoli pizza right before bed.

15.5 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

--Headquarters--

Joy and Disgust circled the column that bore the Core Memories, the multicolored orbs glistening in the light of Headquarters. Around and around they went, like two sharks circling their helpless prey.

To say that Joy was in a state of panic was an understatement. "Okay Joy, calm down." she told herself. Her arms were thrust into the air, thus ruining her illusion of total control, but at this point Joy didn't care. "It's cool. It's totally cool. It's only the core memories that make up Riley's very fiber and being suddenly being turned into other Core Memories that. Aren't. Happy. But it's cool. Totally cool."

Joy wasn't a good liar. It was clear that she was having a panic attack that wasn't going to end soon.

Disgust in turn groaned, the sound mixed with her trademark gag, "Stop whining about the Core Memories Joy, they're fine!"

"But they're not happy!"

"Joy, are the Islands up and running, there is no problem with them."

Joy screeched to a halt, facing the windows that showcased the Islands. All of them – old and new – were fully functioning, proof that Joy's fears were unfounded.

At least, to everyone except Joy. "Disgust, they're not happy!"

"Joy, Riley is in the car moving back to San Francisco again. With all of our stuff in a moving van! And this wasn't the first time me and Riley were stuck doing this. We're doing the whole week of heck again like one of Dad's dumb sci-fi movies!"

It was true: Off to the side near the couch was a small mountain of memories stacked in a neat pile. Several of the memories contained functional duplicates of each other, with only small changes here and there. Anger sat there, reading The Mind Reader (RILEY REPEATING MOVE AGAIN. WE'RE NOT SURE WHY EITHER.), staying out of the scuffle with Disgust and Joy for now. With a scowl on his face.

"You know what that means right?"

"It means that Riley won't be happy?"

"It means that if this keeps up," Disgust then gasped in horror, having trouble coming to grips with what she was about to say, "it means the fashion trends won't change! Riley will be stuck wearing the same outfits every day for the rest of her life! You realize that this is an emergency now right? RIGHT!?"

Joy didn't know what to say to that, mostly because it was a little... out there.

15.6 (LordCirce): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

Riley shuddered, crouching behind the barricade of desks that had been erected in the center of the darkened room. Beside her, several of the other kids crouched. Several of them were crying, and holding each other. For some reason, tears just wouldn't come to Riley's eyes.

'This is not right.'

--Headquarters--

"THIS IS A DISASTER!" Fear was pulling what little hair he had out as he struggled at the console. It was all that he could do to keep from sending Riley off screaming to find some place to hide. The main issue with that course of action was that this was the only place to hide. And even then it might not last long.

Unbidden, the Recall Light activated, and memories of what had happened early popped up on the screen.

-Riley had been standing up to give a presentation to the class, when suddenly, one of her classmate's cell phones had started ringing. The teacher had glanced up, but before she could reprimand Sally, the owner of the cell phone, Thomas's cell phone had started to go off as well. Then Judy and Heather's. Riley's had been part of the next batch, and she pulled it out to find that it was Mom calling her.

Riley had glanced at the bewildered looking teacher, and then had hit Answer.

"Hello?"

"RILEY! Thank god you're safe." Her mom sounded frantic, and Riley's breath caught at the panic in her mother's voice. "Riley, listen, you cannot go outside. Stay inside, and... we'll come find you."-

"Turn that off!" Anger's voice was sharp, and Fear quickly turned off the Recalled Memory.

"It wasn't me. The subconscious is overflowing, and they keep shooting them back up here."

Anger growled. "Well, whatever. It ain't helping me in getting any of the others to respond."

Fear glanced back at the rest of Headquarters. Memories orbs were rolling around everywhere, most of them the purple hue of Fear or the green hue of Disgust. The purple outnumbered the green though, given the fact that Disgust had gone comatose after the... incident in the hallway.

Almost as if drawn by Fear's thoughts (and maybe an accidental panicked button press), the Recall Lamp lit up again.

-Riley was peering out of the door to her classroom. Her teacher had run off after receiving a phone call on the class phone, leaving the class sitting there. Shortly thereafter, the power had died, leading to several of the students screaming. Riley's mom hadn't told her what was making her so upset, and from what the rest of her classmates said, none of their parents had either.

After several moments of sitting in the dark, Riley had decided to peek out of the door. The hallway was darker than the classroom, on account of fewer windows. Riley had crept out slowly, while the rest of her classmates had peeked out behind her.

Then came the scream.

A teacher, one that Riley had only seen in passing, came dashing through one of the doors off to the side, screaming loudly. He spun, grabbing the door to try and close it, only for it to crash open and let... something through.

"Zombie." Riley's voice was barely a whisper, as she watched the zombie grab at the teacher. It seemed surreal, like a movie or something. Then the zombie bit down.-

*WHAM* Anger's fist smashed down on the console, knocking the Recalled Memory off. "WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"

Fear flinched back. "I'm sorry. I'm trying the best I can, but... I don't know what to do. I just know I'm never complaining about moving to San Francisco again."

Anger growled. "You can say that again." Anger and Fear were the only two who remembered things being different this time. Joy, as per usual, hadn't paid any attention to what they were saying, Sadness had moped in the corner, and Disgust had looked at them like they were crazy.

Fear glanced towards the couch. Now, Disgust was sitting there, staring off into the distance, her entire body shuddering. Sadness was sobbing back by the manuals, probably soaking them through. And Joy...

Joy was catatonic. She was just sitting, staring at the Core Memories, but not doing anything. Just rocking back and forth.

"Do... do you think that the whole 'deja vu' thing is why we didn't fall apart?" Fear was honestly wondering about that at this point. If anyone should be breaking down, it should be him, but he wasn't. Part of it was that it just didn't seem real, and part... part of him just felt braver.

"I just hope that the Deja Vu thing doesn't make any of this mess another Core Memory." Anger glowered at the screen, his fingers flexing and unflexing.

Fear paused, taking a deep breath, then stepped back from the controls. "I think... I think you need to take the wheel right now. I... Riley needs to be ready to fight, not try and run away."

Anger blinked, staring at Fear. By their nature, none of the emotions really liked to give up control at the console. For the most part, they deferred to Joy, mainly because that typically led to the best outcome for Riley, but they all still wanted to do their part, to help Riley along in their own way. Stepping back... took some courage.

"Alright. But keep an eye out. Never know where those zombies will jump out from." Anger stomped forward and grabbed the levers.

--Reality--

Riley exhaled, and something in her chest seemed to firm up. She hadn't heard from Mom since that first call, and neither her or Dad were answering. She was worried, really worried, but, she glanced around the classroom, right now, worry wasn't what she needed. Her classmates were doing enough of that.

Gripping the hockey stick that she had in her hands, Riley let the burning anger she was filling swell up. When those zombies came, if they came, she would be ready to fight.

15.7 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

Another day, another repeat.

Another repeat, another move to San Francisco.

Another move to San Fran, another first day of school.

Riley went through the motions, playing along with her parents as they bid her farewell on her (by Riley's count, twenty-first) first day of school.

And so Riley walked, a smile on her face as she thought about what to do this repeat. Whatever the case, Riley felt pretty good about herself.

Almost as if something put her sadness somewhere else... at least for now.

--Headquarters--

The single door that led out of Headquarters, used only for Mind Workers, opened, and into Headquarters slinked Sadness.

Unfortunately for Sadness, Anger was standing there, waiting for her. "Hello Sadness."

"Hi Anger..."

"So, where were you?"

"...uh... I was..."

"Sadness, you went into Long Term Memory, didn't you?" Sadness sighed, Anger hitting the nail on the head as the red Emotion's head started to spark. "You know we're not supposed to go into Long Term Memory!"

"I know, but..."

"But what?"

"You wouldn't understand..."

Flames began to rise. "Try me."

"...I was visiting Bing Bong."

This calmed Anger down as the flames that were just beginning to form subsided. "That pink clod? All I need to know. Just don't do it again. You could get lost in in there and then we'd have to pull double duty to make up for it."

Sadness simply nodded in agreement as Anger went off to sit at his happy place - the couch.

"Hey Sadness, you're gonna miss the first day of school!"

Sadness smiled as Joy waved at her. The glowing emotion was (to Sadness's great relief) was a lot more open to having the other emotions man the console than the other two Joy's Sadness had met.

She was still hyperactive but eh, it was Joy. Not much could be done there.

15.8 (LordCirce/kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

Takeout Chinese food.

Idly Riley played with it, her chopsticks sending a piece of broccoli back and forth inside her box in a never ending game of back and forth. It seemed fitting, as no matter how many times the (evil) broccoli she played with moved inside the box, it was still the same piece of broccoli in the same box being played with by the same Riley that did the same action seconds ago.

The similarities to her situation were uncanny, and accurate.

"So, how was the first day of school?"

She's probing... again.

This was the thirty-fourth time Riley had relieved her life, and without fail Mom asked her that same question.

Time to dance the same old dance again...

--Headquarters--

Joy sat with her fellow emotions, watching through the view screen. "Say something happy." She urged. Disgust just scoffed, gently pushing a button on the console.

"It was... boring I guess."

"That's not happy."

"Uh, of course not." the fashionista scoffed. "I'm not you."

"Then let me let Riley be happy!"

Disgust rolled her eyes as Joy struggled to get out of the ropes that bound her to the chair she was in. Thanks to these repeats, Joy had become... well unhinged wasn't exactly the most polite thing to say to a colleague.

Then again Disgust wasn't always polite.

"Joy, do you want out of the chair?"

"Yes..."

"Then stop acting crazy!"

–-Reality, sometime later--

Riley sat in her sleeping bag with her trusty laptop, website after website of sci-fi trivia and time travel theory in her collection of tabs.

So far, all she had to show for it. All she had was retreads of what she had already spent several of these time repeats learning: for some reason time was repeating, and everything she tried ended with another repeat starting.

"Just... one answer. That's all I want," Under her breath, the words flowed out. "Just one answer."

A knock on the door jolted her from her thoughts. "Riley? Can I come in?"

"Sure Dad."

Through the doorway came her father, sitting down next to his daughter. His face was one that was tired from the long trials that he faced thanks to the move, but he smiled as "So, first full day in a new city. Pretty exciting, huh?"

"Yep."

"Something tells me you have something on your mind."

"Sure do."

"You want to talk about it?"

"It's... well... it's.... complicated."

Dad scooched closer to his daughter, the simple act eliciting a small smile from the 'young' girl. "Try me."

"Dad... I think I'm going crazy."

That surprised her dad, and he mused on exactly how to respond to that...

--Dad's Headquarters--

Dad's anger looked at his men, each emotion looking at the other with a variety of mixed looks. The common theme of confusion was the only common element. "...How do we reply to that!?"

--Reality--

Dad reached out and slid his arm across Riley's shoulders. "Hey, kiddo. I promise, I won't think you're crazy." He gave a small smile. "Well, any crazier than my monkey usually is."

"Dad, you remember that one movie? The one with the groundhog?"

--Dad's Headquarters--

Dad's Fear looked up in alarm. "Sir, the joke didn't work."

Dad's Anger leaned forward. "Alright then. This is serious."

--Reality--

Dad blinked, his smile fading slightly. "I remember."

Closing her laptop, Riley faced her father, clutching at her pant legs uncertainly. "It's... happening to me. And... I don't know why."

--Dad's Headquarters--

"Uh... let's go to Defcon 3... we should we try a joke... again, sir?" Dad's Fear looked hesitant, as Anger was shaking his head.

"No. This is a Code Stoneface. Riley needs us to listen."

--Reality--

"It's... scary being a time traveler, Dad. Scary being alone. No one else remembers, and no one believes me." She took a deep, shuddering breath. "Sometimes it's normal. We move, and I go to school, tryout for the hockey team. Like nothing's wrong. Like..." She shuddered again, this one longer, "Like everything is normal except me..."

"Riley..." Dad squeezed her shoulder lightly, but she forged on.

"Dad.... I tried to run away back to Minnesota the first time. And then... this happened and I thought it was because I did, so I didn't run away but the repeats still happened...this is me being punished by something? Because I did one bad thing? I don't know, nothing makes sense because I fixed the bad thing by not running away but I'm still being punished and..." Riley broke down into sobs. "What did I do to deserve this?"

--Dad's Headquarters--

Klaxons blared throughout Headquarters as Anger worked fast. "Sadness, Joy," he commanded. "Take the helm now!"

"SIR YES SIR!"

--Reality--

"Riley..." Dad ran his hand through his hair, uttering a silent prayer for help. "I don't know... I don't know why this is happening to you. Why you are having to live time over and over. But I know that it isn't because of anything bad you did."

Riley looked up, blinking tearily. "What? But..."

Dad shifted to look her straight in the eyes. "Riley, you are my darling girl. You are always so happy and cheerful, and..." he shook his head, "and I know that... whatever this is... it isn't your fault."

"So... you believe me?"

Dad pulled her into a hug. "Of course I do, sweetie."

"Dad?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"There's more. I... You know how I said that sometimes it's normal?"

Dad nodded slowly, leaning back from the hug. "Yeah?"

"Well... sometimes... it's not. One time, there were zombies... everywhere. I don't... I don't know what happened to you, but... it was so scary and..." Riley cut off, wiping her eyes. "I'm glad it wasn't permanent.

"Another time, I was a guy. It was super strange. And then there was the time with the dancing hippo..." a laugh, one clearly forced, accompanied Riley's doubts. "I know it sounds crazy, like I'm crazy, but it's... it's... so...?"

"Overwhelming?"

Riley nodded tiredly. "Yeah, overwhelming."

Dad chuckled. "Yeah. Well, whatever happens, we'll get through it together." He turned and smiled down at her. "Tell ya what, how about this? Tomorrow, we go explore San Francisco, just you and me. You can show me all of the sights!"

"Da~ad."

"What? It'll be fun, having my own pretty little tour guide to show me around."

They both giggled, and then fell into a restful silence. Finally, Dad broke it, running his hand across Riley's bangs.

"And if you ever need someone to talk you, I'm here for you. Even if I don't remember next time, know that I will always love you and support you."

"...yeah. Thanks Dad."

Some things never changed. Riley smiled as she snuggled up against her Dad and drifted off.

15.9 (blazingen1): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

Riley was scanning through the internet for any more information on the strange time repeats. This repeat, almost everything was normal, all except her dad. While he still acts like the beloved father she'd know all her life, this time, he was really... weird, and that was putting it nicely. In fact..

*Knock knock knock* "Oh Riiiileeeeyy..."

--HeadQuarters--

Disgust and Sadness, the only two Emotions Awake this loop, were at the control panel. Joy was bound and gagged on a chair behind them, with Anger and Fear nearby.

"Oh no, not again," moaned Sadness.

"Ugh, seriously!? This is the third time this week!" exclaimed the annoyed and incredulous Disgust.

--Reality--

"I'm both respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your father by coming in anyways."

With that, the door smashed open revealing her dad with a battering ram.

'Yup... very weird,' thought Riley.

15.10 (kingofsouls/Lord Circe/Blazingen1): [Inside Out] / [Phineas and Ferb]

--Welcome--

Headquarters

The dimly lit Headquarters was tranquil and empty as Joy walked around. Riley was sleeping, thankfully a sound sleep, and it was just her on dream duty. She preferred it that way, the tranquility of the silence her reward for reaching the day's end. Thought the silence was not only comforting that night; it heralded confusion and apprehension.

Having just became aware of the repeats - which was hard to not notice when Riley was just playing in the park one second and sound asleep the next - Joy was thankful for Riley's current status as asleep. It gave Joy the chance to soak in the atmosphere.

The golden emotion eyed the Memories that stood in their shelves, the spectrum of colors, mostly purple and blue and most holding events she'd seen half a dozen times over, were evidence that Riley's repeating was still going on and causing her undue stress.

Thankfully Riley was a strong girl, able to soldier on despite the strange situation she was in.

The dream playing was a repeat, something about zombie rats and living pants. Without a doubt it was one of the weirdest combinations that Joy had personally monitored, but then again who could blame Dream Productions for wanting to experiment every now and again.

Joy was just about to check on the Core Memories, wanting to make sure they were the same as Riley remembered them the last time Joy had repeated with their person.

Just as she was about to open them, a single firm and irritated "Ahem" echoed throughout Headquarters, drawing Joy's attention towards its source. Standing at the top of the stairs leading to their sleeping quarters stood Anger, who was glaring down at her defiantly.

Cowering behind him was Fear who was shaking like a leaf as he tried his best to put on a brave face. He was failing monumentally, but at the very least he was getting out of his comfort zone and thus got an A for effort. At his sides stood Disgust and Sadness, the green Emotion glaring at her scathingly while the blue one just wrung her hands and stared at her with concern.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Anger growled acidly.

"I'm checking on the Core Memories...?"

"GET HER!"

To Joy, there were very few things that she would not consider fun. Getting dogpiled was going on that list.

--Reality, sometime later--

Riley awoke inside the car, the scenery blazing past her as Dad drove them towards their 'new' home, yet again. She quickly noticed the blanket that covered her, and realized that she had fallen asleep in the car.

'Honestly' thought Riley, 'Not the strangest thing to happen to me...'

"Wow, Riley, you slept like a log."

"I feel like a log..." As she spoke, Riley's eyes drifted to see where she was, trying to make since of the unusual situation she was in. Usually the repeat would start just before her Dad announced the move from Minnesota to San Fransisco, but this time she was already in the car and the move already underway.

Weird.

"Well, you were having a hard time staying awake." Mom remarked. "You went back to sleep as soon as we got going."

"Getting up at 5 tends to do that, right monkey?" Dad remarked.

"...oh, oh yeah. Totally."

"Well, at least we're almost there, right honey?"

"Oh you bet. All this driving is killing me."

Riley smiled. At least this time the car trip was mercifully short. Repeating that long car trip every repeat was up there on Riley's personal dislike list, just under broccoli and clowns.

Riley yawned, doing her best to completely wake up as she went over what she was planning to do this repeat - which mostly consisted of practicing her hockey skills and time travel research since anything else just seemed not as important. "So...when are we going to get to San Francisco?"

"San Francisco?" Dad chuckled, Riley raising an eyebrow in confusion. "I wish. Always did want to go there though."

"Wait, we're not moving to San Francisco?"

Mom turned around, her warm smile comforting Riley just a little as she tried to make sense of this sudden reveal.

Headquarters

Fear did what Fear did best.

Screaming out loud at the highest pitch possible and then breaking into a run through Headquarters like a chicken with his head cut off. "THIS IS A CATASTROPHE!"

"Yea, no kidding." huffed Anger. He flicked his trusty paper (BREAKING NEWS: WE'RE NOT MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO! UM...OKAY?), trying his best to ignore Fear's incessant screaming.

So far it wasn't working.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WE'RE NOT MOVING TO SAN FRANCISCO!? THIS IS BAD, VERY BAD! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE WE'RE EVEN GOING BECAUSE I DON'T! OH, RILEY IS IN DANGER, BIG BIG DANGER! TIDAL WAVES, MAD SCIENTISTS, METEORS, ZOMBIES, OR A ZOMBIE TIDAL WAVE CREATED BY A MAD SCIENTIST METEOR! DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THE INHERENT RISKS OF MOVING TO ANOTHER CITY! THE NATURAL ORDER HAS BEEN DISRUPTED! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT HORRORS AWAIT RILEY IF WE'RE MOVING SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

Anger groaned as he buried his hands into his head to try and block out the ranting. Disgust, on the other hand, simply reached underneath the console - which she was manning - and put on a pair of earmuffs, freed from the living fire alarm that called itself Fear. "Ah, much better." The poking of her shoulder drew her eyes to Sadness, who was also manning the console and trying her hardest to cover her ears from the apparently endless rant.

Fortunately Disgust learned to be prepared, and revealed a second pair of earmuffs, one that was a light sky blue that went well with Sadness's coloring and was just her size.

"Thanks, Disgust."

Disgust, having a hard time hearing exactly what was said, simply gave Sadness a thumbs up.

Anger on the other hand, had enough, and walked towards the console, and calling for a memory to be recalled. In seconds the summoned memory - golden in hue - landed from the ceiling and into his waiting hands. "Here we go."

He turned around, Fear running around in a rough outline of a figure eight. His ramblings continued, going on about something Anger cared nothing for.

With a shout, Anger let lose the memory orb, and it flew along its path straight and true, and hit Fear straight the mouth, the orb now a temporary muzzle. The sudden impact sent Fear tumbling into the ground, somehow entangling himself with his limbs as he rolled into a nearby wall.

With a sigh and a smile, Disgust removed the earmuffs. "Nice shot, Anger."

"At least I found a use for that dumb gum commercial."

Spitting out the Memory and quickly getting himself free, Fear marched over to the others, clearly enraged. "What was that for?"

"It was to keep you from shouting! Not only does it annoy me, but we really don't want..." there was a moan, and Anger's head began to spark. "...and it looks like you just woke up Joy! Greeeeeeat job."

"Yeah, way to go, Fear. Now we have to deal with psycho Joy now."

Fear tried his best to slink away. Of all the things he feared, psycho Joy was the newest one, and was pretty high up there on the list.

Groaning, Fear just walked off to his room, leaving Sadness, Anger, and Disgust to confront Psycho Joy. Upon entering, he walked to the desk in the far corner, where lay all of the emergency plans he had meticulously calculated. Littered throughout the room lay huge piles of papers sitting on the floor in neat stacks. Hanging on the walls were a variety of diagrams, crossed out plans, and tackboards with several yards worth of yarn connecting several places like a giant game of connect the dots.

It was chaotic perfection in the complex simplicity of it. Digging through the mishmash of papers on his desk, Fear riffled through them, and quickly found what he was looking for.

'Here is is: List of things to do when moving to a new city, version 14.' He took the list, which was a fair size with several dozen items on the list, though not as long as his other lists. "Don't worry Riley, I'm here for you, no matter where we go. I will keep you safe."

later

Phineas and Ferb sat in front of the backyard's lone tree, the summer sun beating on them in celebration of the first day of summer being underway.

The sounds of moving trucks echoed out on the street, and from the sounds of it they were getting closer. "Hey Ferb, did you order anything today?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Let's check it out."

As soon as they stepped out of the backyard, the source of the sound was easy to identify: Two houses down from theirs were several moving trucks parked on the curb, alongside a station wagon.

"Wow, Ferb, a new family moving next to ours for the Loop! How serendipitous is that?" Phineas grinned, excitement rising as an infinite number of ideas began to form within his mind. Ferb simply gave him a stoic glance. "You're right Ferb, it has been a while since I said that last. Let's go say hi to our new neighbors!"

As they walked near, one of the movers got out of his truck and approached the driver's side of the station wagon. "Alright, Mr. Flanders, where do you want me to start unloading things to?"

"Flanders?" The man who had gotten out of the car looked confused. "We're not the Flanders, we're the Anderson family."

The delivery driver blinked, then checked his clipboard. "Anderson? Anderson, Anderson... oh, Anderson." The driver chuckled. "Yeah, your truck is in San Francisco."

"San Fran... San Fransisco! How... we were following you almost the entire way!"

The two men moved off behind the moving truck, and Phineas glanced at Ferb. "Huh, got any plans for tracking down moving trucks?" Ferb flipped through his notebook, shrugged, then gave a thumbs up. "Awesome. Well, I think I know what we're going to do today." The two brothers smiled at each other, as a faint choir sang in the background.

*Ding-Dong* Mrs. Anderson looked up from her cell phone, where she was currently on hold with the moving company. "Now who could that be?" She stood up from the table and walked over to the front door, opening it to find two young boys standing on her front porch.

"Hi! Welcome to the neighborhood. My name's Phineas and this is my brother Ferb. We were wondering..."

"Hello, thank you for holding. How may I assist you?"

Mrs. Anderson jumped as the representative began to speak on her phone. "Oh, hold on one second." She then put her hand over the phone and turned to the boys. "It's really nice to meet you two. My daughter is actually just in the back yard, if you want to go talk to her." She then turned back to the phone. "Yes, hi, I'm... yes, that's me. Yes, I was wondering how the trucks could get so messed up..."

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other and shrugged, before heading around to the back yard.

Riley was.... conflicted to say the least.

Moving to a new city - an actual new city this time - was only part of the issue. What frustrated her to no end was that her family's moving truck was not only displaced (an annoyingly consistent occurrence, given how much everything else tended to change), but it was in San Francisco this time.

San Francisco!

Of all the cruel ironic twists that could happen, the one time she didn't move to San Francisco was the one time the moving van got the location right, so to speak.

It was almost enough to make her scream!

And so Riley sat in the backyard, and simply sat in the backyard unsure of what to do or what to feel. She thought she had a general grasp of the repeats, how they worked, but it seemed that every other repeat threw something new at her, something unseen always had to happen, and it caused Riley to rethink how these repeats even worked.

The sound of the backyard gate opening pried her from her latest personal crisis, and Riley glanced up as a pair of boys entered. One had reddish hair and a rather oddly shaped head, while the other was taller with bright green hair.

"Hello. My name's Phineas, and this is my brother Ferb."

"Oh... uh, my name's Riley." Riley waved her hand half-heartedly.

"Cool." Phineas then pointed over his shoulder. "So, we heard your dad talking about how your moving truck is out in San Francisco, and we were wondering if you'd like to come with us to go track it down!"

-Headquarters-

"Um, they've got to be joking, right?" Disgust looked over at Anger, incredulously. "We're like, over a hundred miles away."

"KIDNAPPERS! CHILD KIDNAPPERS!" Fear flailed around in a panic. "I'll admit, when that fear has come up, I never pictured the kidnappers actually being children, but still, KIDNAPPERS!"

Anger scowled, before punching out and knocking Fear over the couch. "I don't know, but this is just like the Big Bad Runaway Idea all over again, and I, for one, am not going to stand for it." He began stomping towards the console.

Joy's eyes widened from where she was tied up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Anger, they're just kids, you can't just explode at them!"

Anger spun to face her. "Oh, and I suppose you think we should dance off and play whatever, fluffy imagination games they're cooking up, huh?"

Sadness raised her arms feebly from where she was standing next to Joy. "Wait. I think... Joy is right. I mean, I don't think we should get angry at them, because that will probably just make them sad."

Anger glowered. "Oh, so now you're on Miss Sunshine's side?"

"I'm not on anyone's side... I think."

Voices raised as Anger and Joy continued to debate and were joined by Fear's renewed shouting and Disgust's scoffs at all of the noise. Unnoticed by all except Sadness, the buttons on the console began to flash a rainbow of colors.

--Reality--

Before Riley could make up her mind about Phineas's bizarre invitation, a sudden spike of pain shot through her head, followed by a flash of gut clenching anger, then a spurt of fear. She moaned softly as she pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling kind of like she had just gotten a brain freeze.

"Are you alright?" Phineas asked, looked a little worried. Riley giggled at his face, before a couple of tears escaped her eyes.

"Just peachy." Her voice started as sarcastic, but slipped into a higher, sing-song pitch at the end. It was followed by her gritting her teeth, and then lifting her hand back to her head.

Phineas glanced at Ferb. "Seems like there's some sort of mental weirdness going on. Do you still have the Mind Machine from when we invaded Candace's head?"

Ferb gave a thumbs-up.

"...This can't be real..." laughed Riley as she shifted into an angry growl. In minutes Phineas and Ferb had lead her to their backyard, and had quickly set up... well a thing. The best way to describe the thing was a red sphere attached to a yellow box with blinking lights. Endless cords came from the box and lead to a trio of lawn chairs.

"Well why wouldn't it be?"

"At least someone's happy." Riley mentally snarked.

Phineas and Ferb were finishing setting up the machine as another friend of theirs got ready to man the machine and keep it from blowing up or any other equally unpleasant outcome. "Hey, Baljeet, is everything ready?"

"Everything is fully functional, Phineas." Baljeet replied. "We are ready to go when you are."

"This is really elaborate for a game." The headache intensified, an intense spike of fear coupled with happiness reflexively drove a gentle hand to caress her aching head. "I'm not really in the mood, though."

"We're not playing. We used this to go into our sister's mind awhile ago."

Riley raised an eyebrow, disbelief surging through her. "Right..." Still, another headache stabbed through her head, and she quickly sank down onto one of the lawn chairs, barely noticing as Phineas and Ferb put something on her forehead and then jumped up into the other two.

"Hit it, Baljeet!"

Before Riley could protest, pretty bright colors assaulted her eyes.

-Headquarters-

"Wah!" Fear let out a yelp as he was once more propelled across the room by an punch by Anger, who was currently charging after Joy. In the middle of their big argument, Joy had managed to bunny-hop the chair she was in over and block Anger from getting to the console, which naturally led to him blowing his top. It had also helpfully burned through her bonds, letting her dart away before the others could dog-pile her again. This had led to the current game of cat-and-mouse, with Anger trying to grab her and her twirling away out of reach. Disgust sat on the sidelines, making snarky comments at both of them, while Fear ran around, still panicking over the craziness of everything.

It was like some dam had burst, and all of the tension and uncertainty they had been feeling about these repeating lives had exploded all at once, unleashing total chaos.

"COME BACK HERE, YOU..."

"No way! I'm not letting you dogpile me again."

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

"...um, guys?"

"How about kicking you out of the tower then?"

"No way. Riley still needs to have at least some Joy in her life."

"DOOM, DOOM I SAY! And possibly some gloom, too. DOOM!"

"Yeah, but knocking you down a few pegs will give me some joy."

"Guys?"

"Ugh, you're both so immature. And you're making a mess of the place."

"Hey, you guys started it. I was just checking on the Core Memories."

"Yeah, looking to swap them out, probably."

Joy actually pulled to a stop at that. "What? No, I..."

*SHREEEEEE* A piercing whistle sounded through Headquarters, causing the four squabbling Emotions to stop in place and all clap their hands over their ears. They turned towards the source of the sound to find Sadness, slowly lowering her fingers from her lips, and looking rather bashful.

"Um..." she then pointed towards the viewscreen. "I think something bad has happened."

The four followed her finger, and then gaped as one. The viewscreen, which should have shown what Riley was seeing, was blank, with a few odd static lines running across it. More so than that, the console in front of it was dark as well.

Their animosity forgotten, the scared emotions rushed to the darkened console.

"RILEY!!!"

Long Term Memory

The first thing Riley saw when all the pretty colors disappeared were the shelves. They rose several feet into the air, curving alongside its fellow shelves. And from the looks to it, there were thousands of them as far as the eye could see standing in silent vigil

The most startling aspect were the orbs. The shelves had an endless amount of them, each of varying colors. "Where... am I?"

"We're inside your mind!" It didn't take long for Riley to find Phineas, who was walking up to her alongside Ferb. "I gotta admit, this looks pretty different from Candace's mind."

Ferb shrugged. "Well, not all minds are created equal."

"That's true."

To say Riley was freaked out was an understatement, despite her forced smile that had emerged. "No way, this can't be real. I'm dreaming, right? This is one really big strange dream after eating too much broccoli."

"Well, these look like you." Phineas held an orb, a green one, and inside it was an image. Even as Riley watched, she saw it moving. It was her, at about age seven or so, at a long wooden table. She was eating a plate full of food, and she had just picked up a long piece of boiled spinach. She made a face, then dropped the piece of spinach under the table.

"I... I remember that. That was at my Grandparent's house, I was feeding my veggies to their dog." She blinked. "How can that be here? I mean..." Riley shook her head, which she idly noted was actually feeling a bit better.

Phineas shrugged, handing the memory to Riley as he mused, "I guess it's probably a memory. Candace's were stored as trees, but I think your way is much more efficient." He glanced at the maze of shelves. "Sort of. They're pretty to look at though."

Riley put the memory down in the gentlest way she could, and looked over the wide collection of orbs. They reminded her of snowglobes, only instead of snow it was her life, snipped into pieces and stored in an incoherent pattern. And so Riley browsed the shelves, not saying a single word as she gazed at moment's of her past.

A yellow orb that bore a memory of her at a street fair in San Francisco, enjoying the most delicious pretzel she had ever eaten.

A red orb, the Riley within screaming towards the heavens in anger alongside a blue orb of her consumed by the sadness of being trapped in the repeats.

A green orb of her groaning about the dress her mother insisted on having Riley wear to her first dance.

A purple orb with bits and pieces to her favorite scary movie: "Shoes of Doom".

A blue orb of her in her raincoat, assaulted by an unrelenting rainstorm.

A yellow orb that sat next to that blue orb, featuring Riley dancing from puddle to puddle without a care in the world.

She frowned as she picked up the next one. A red orb mixed with a dash of purple, the memory within one she wished was a forgotten memory.

The roar of a zombie just as it was struck by Riley's trusty hockey stick.

She hated that repeat.

"Hey Riley, did you find anything?" Phineas snuck up on Riley, eliciting a shout and dropping the hated memory.

"Uh... no! No no no no... everything's... great!" She grabbed the memory, forcing it back on the shelf from whence it came. "So... what now?"

"Well, what we need to do is find the source of the headaches," Phineas explained. Riley was starting to get the vibe that he knew a lot more than a kid his age should know. After all, she was in her own mind, all thanks to Phineas and Ferb. If that didn't scream 'genius', then Riley didn't know what did. "The headaches are probably located someplace that's close to your higher brain functions. We should probably head there next and see what's causing these headaches."

Though it was clear Riley was over her head (while somehow being inside of head: Riley decided to stop thinking about it before she got another headache trying to figure that one), Riley smiled, thankful that Phineas seemed to know what he was doing.

"Okay then. So, where do we go?"

"Well I wouldn't know exactly where that would be."

Crestfallen, Riley sighed.

"This is, after all, your mind."

Riley groaned, despair taking its toll as she slumped onto the ground, knocking several of the memories off of the shelves. "I've never been in my own head before! I don't know the first thing about how my own head works!"

"No problem, then. We'll just walk around and explore. Chances are, we'll stumble across it in the middle of a musical montage."

Riley couldn't help but grin from Phineas's awkwardly worded sentence. "Thanks Phineas."

"That's what friends are for, right?"

It then dawned on Riley that their trio had been reduced to a duo. "Um... Phineas? Where's Ferb?"

"Ahem." Riley and Phineas turned to see Ferb standing near the entrance to the row, followed by a large blue... blob. It had arms and legs, and reminded Riley of a slightly overripe blueberry. It was also talking.

"...so you say you need to find the source of the headaches, eh? Well, I don't know about..." it trailed off as it caught sight of Riley. "You... you're... you're her! I mean, you're you, but... what are you doing down here?"

Riley blinked. "I don't know where 'here' is. I mean, they said this was my mind, but that is ridic..."

"You need to be up in Headquarters, I think." The blob looked really confused. "Though, I don't think... I've never heard of... then again, what do I know? I'm just a Mind Worker." Shaking himself, he quickly gestured for them to follow. "Come on, we're pretty close to the Inspiration Lift, we can get you sent straight to the top." He then headed off.

"Well, you heard the man, er, blob," Phineas said brightly. "Let's go!"

-Headquarters-

"...ohnoohnoohno..." Fear's chant was a continuous drone in the background as the Emotion's crowded around the console. They had quickly confirmed that Riley wasn't dead, luckily, but she also wasn't asleep, or they would have been getting some sort of package up from Dream Productions. It was like she... just wasn't aware.

"I told you, kidnappers. Didn't I? Didn't I?" Fear was pacing and twitching behind them, mumbling to himself as he wrung his hands. Meanwhile, Anger kept pounding at the controls, while Joy was frantically paging through the manuals. Normally, she would turn to Sadness, but after her spurt of bravery in getting the others to pay attention, Sadness had broken down, and was now sobbing into a bucket that Disgust was holding.

"We broke Riley!" she sobbed.

Then Joy jumped to her feet. "Guys, we didn't break Riley, she's fine!"

"Okay then Joy, if she's fine, where is she, huh?" The purple emotion had a good point. Joy fumbled as she tried to answer that. "Ummm... umm..." She paged through the manual. "I think, maybe it's due to, ummm... what's a neuron supposed to be..." she sighed, shaking her head, "I'm not sure exactly, but I think this is just like the time Riley got heat stroke during that summer camp. When the screen went all fuzzy and she almost fainted, only she didn't faint this time."

"So then HOW do we get her BACK?" Anger growled, slapping the controls again.

Joy scooped up the manuals and quickly made her way around to the side of the Viewscreen. "Let's see, lucid dreaming, OBE, subconscious memory... okay, I think if I just... physical senses to sense of consciousness..." Joy quickly began poking around behind the screen. The other Emotions just watched, until a loud crackle sounded and Joy was propelled backwards, away from the screen. Then, with a flicker, the screen restarted, fuzzy with static at first, before growing into focus.

It was a white elevator, with the two boys, Phineas and Ferb standing to one side.

"Where is she?" Disgust looked at the screen, incredulously, absently patting the still hiccuping Sadness on the back.

"Kidnapped!" Fear let out, only to fall silent at a growl from Anger.

"Ow ow ow," muttered a still smokey Joy as she approached the now back-online control panel.

There was a faint ding from the Mind Worker Entrance into Headquarters, then, simultaneously, the doors to Headquarters and the doors of the elevator Riley was in opened.

Revealing the Emotions staring at themselves on the screen, though viewed from the side.

---

Confusion was an apt way of putting how Riley had felt during the last ten minutes or so. She had apparently traveled inside her own mind, and was now entering what the blueberry man called 'Headquarters'. The doors to the lift opened, revealing a rather neat looking room, with more shelves covered with the memory spheres. Standing in the middle of the room, there was a fancy looking podium, covered in buttons. Five brightly colored figures stood around it, staring off to a screen on one side of the room.

The moment that Riley stepped into the room, all five of the figures turned to look at her, before promptly letting out a unified scream.

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Riley jumped at the sudden burst of noise, letting out a loud scream of her own.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!"

"AAAAHHHHH!"

One of the figures, who was bright yellow, suddenly turned and gave the purple guy a push, shoving him away from the controls. "Fear, step back. You're scaring her."

Immediately as he stepped back, her heart rate did seem to settle a bit. Then the purple man began to speak.

"But... how... but... it's... it... but... how..." He turned, glancing between the screen and Riley. Riley did the same thing, and then let out a second yell of shock. "Whaaaa?" The image on the screen showed the screen, which showed a screen, which showed a screen...

Riley quickly spun away, feeling dizzy and just a bit nauseous. Behind her, she could hear the yellow woman speak again.

"Disgust, let go of that handle. Everyone, step back. We need to calm down, or Riley is just going to get more upset."

A gruff voice answered, sounding surly. "Oh, so I guess you're going to take the wheel again, huh? Just like always..."

"No," the lady responded. "Myself included. No one touches the console until we've sorted things out with Riley."

There was a bit of muttering, then Riley felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

"Riley?"

Riley jumped, as the moment the hand touched her, she felt a shock go through her, culminating in a bubbling laugh. She spun around, tripping as she did so, and landed on her butt, staring up at the yellow lady, who had taken a step back.

"What the... what was that?" Riley shook her head. "No, wait. More importantly, who are you?"

The lady took a deep breath, then nodded. "Right..." She then smiled and stuck out her hand. "Hi Riley, my name is Joy."

Hesitantly, Riley reached out and grasped Joy's hand. Once again, the same shock slid through her, filling her stomach with butterflies and laughter. Joy didn't seem to notice, quickly pulling Riley up to her feet, and skipping, pulled her over to the others. She waved at a shorter, blue woman.

"This is Sadness." Riley stuck her hand out without thinking, and, looking a bit surprised, Sadness reached up and shook it. Another shock went through Riley, though this time, it was, well, sad. But, at the same time, there was a feeling of comfort, the sort of release of tension that you get after a good cry.

Joy was moving on, pointing to the green lady in the sparkling dress. "This is Disgust." Riley blinked at the name, which didn't seem to quite fit with the pretty woman, but stuck out her hand again anyway. Another jolt, this one twisting her stomach up oddly, with slight feelings of nausea, but also self-assuredness, or boldness, that caused Riley to stand a bit straighter.

"Then there's Anger." The short red man stuck out his hand, giving her hand a firm shake. This time, the jolt brought with it a sense of rage, but also excitement, the sort of rush that Riley felt when she was barreling across the ice in hockey. Her lip twitched up in a grin, which Anger matched.

"And finally, Fear." The taller purple man twitched slightly as he shook her hand, and Riley could feel her feelings of nervousness take a quick boost, but underneath that, she was startled by a massively strong feeling of protectiveness.

Riley stepped back, her head reeling slightly from the intense feelings she had just felt. The five figures crowded together slightly, and Joy spoke up again, gesturing with her arms. "We are your emotions."

Riley waved, awkwardly. "Um, hi, I guess. I'm Riley... but I guess you all know that." She laughed awkwardly, and the group of emotions mirrored her. She rubbed her arm. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but they all seemed to be jammed up into her throat. She opened her mouth several times, then closed it again.

The awkward silence was broken when Fear leaned over to Joy and whispered, "Do you think now would be a good time to talk about the whole deja-vu thing?"

Riley blinked. "Deja vu? You mean the time traveling?"

Unnoticed by the group, Phineas and Ferb looked at each other, eyes widening. "That's it!" Phineas stated boldly. Riley jumped and looked back at him, and the emotions peered around her as well.

"What's it?"

Phineas grinned. "I think I know what you're going through. We actually have a song to explain it!" He turned to look at Ferb. "Ferb, I'm going to need Introduction Song Number 5."

Ferb gave a thumbs up, then squeezed his eyes shut. With a pop, a music player appeared in the air in front of him, which Ferb caught. He then hit play, causing a gentle melody to begin playing. Phineas stepped forward, holding a microphone he had pulled out of somewhere, and the lights in Headquarters seemed to dim a little bit as he began to sing.

"~Have you ever thought tomorrow happened just yesterday?~"

"~Have you ever thought your life was moving in the same way?~"

Riley nodded quickly. "Yes, exactly!" Behind her, the Emotions murmured slightly with excitement.

Phineas grinned, and the music shifted into an upbeat tempo, the lights brightening.

"~Then you're Looping! Looping over and over, my friends!~"

"~Looping! And so summer will never end!~"

"~So many adventures! So much to do!~"

"~So many new people to meet, and it's all happening to you!~"

--Reality--

Candace frowned as she sat up in her bed. "Hold on, Stacy. My busting senses are tingling. Got to go." Hanging up, Candace raced to her window and leaned out. "Ah-ha! I knew it. You guys are... taking a nap." Candace stared down at her brothers, who were laying on some vaguely familiar lawn chairs in their backyard next to some girl she didn't recognize. From this angle, she couldn't see the Mind Machine, hidden by the tree branches. "Well, that's not bustable. Though I wonder what happened to Isabella?"

--Headquarters--

"~It's a wide Multiverse out there, hung on an interdimensional tree.~"

"~So many new things to share, and wondrous things to see.~"

The Emotions and Riley were sitting, eyes wide, as they listened to the musical story about why these time loops were happening. The Emotions were doubly confused, given the fact that several Mind Workers had shown up and joined in with the musical number, as had Rainbow Unicorn, who was doing a tango with a random zebra.

Then, the music changed, shifting to a more downbeat tempo. The lights cut out, and then a spotlight shone on Phineas.

"~But not every~y~y~thing is rosy. There's trouble i~i~i~in paradise.~"

"~Yggdrasi~il is broken, and so... we are... re~peat~ing our LI~I~I~IVES!~"

Silence reigned for several seconds, before the song came back, more upbeat than ever, and the lights flashed on to reveal a massive stage that had somehow spontaneously appeared in Headquarters. The stage barely fit, taking up most of the space in front of the Viewscreen, which was now displaying some psychedelic colors to match the song. A massive ensemble of Mind Workers and random other characters none of the Emotions or Riley recognized stood on the stage, dancing around, including what looked like a living old-timey bathing suit, a small white doll in a pink hood, and a floating baby head.

"~And now we're Looping! Our lives will begin again!~"

"~Looping! And doing it with a new friend!~"

"~We have so much to tell you! The Ping and the Pocket!~"

"~So much to build! A rollercoaster and rocket!~"

"~So much to do, and time moves so fast!~"

"~Though it will begin anew, let's make each moment last!~"

"~As we Loop with You!~"

The song finished with a grand flourish, with everyone pointing towards Riley.

Joy was the first to recover, and she quickly began applauding. Riley joined in, and the other Emotions soon followed, though Sadness' claps were rather half-hearted. Phineas jumped down, as the Mind Workers began breaking down the stage and carting it away.

"Thank you, thank you. So, do you have any questions?"

Riley exhaled. "So many, but... first, what was with the floating baby head?"

Phineas shrugged. "Honestly, we have no idea."

While the musical number was enlightening (and catchy, much to Disgust's frustration), Phineas and Ferb decided that explaining what wasn't explained in song was the next course of action.

What followed was an incredibly elaborate presentation that more or less explained everything. It helped that they were inside of Riley's mind, so they could get the materials they needed in an instant, rather than having to make them, which saved them "a couple minutes or three", according to Phineas. Given that holographic projectors, tiny animated figurines, and a dizzying array of flipcharts was involved, Riley wasn't sure she believed him.

After that, Riley sat with her emotions as Phineas and Ferb decided to just stand back and let the new Loopers sort the revelation out amongst themselves. Riley soon found herself sitting on a nearby couch, and noticed a newspaper lying on it. She picked it up, and stifled a snicker. The paper was labeled 'The Mind Reader', and in big bold letters was the headline "RILEY INSIDE RILEY'S MIND? POSSIBLE PARADOX DETECTED!"

The letters then quickly morphed into "BREAKING NEWS! WE'RE NOT CRAZY!".

To say it was surreal was an understatement.

And so the six sat down, and swapped the stories that they had to tell. By far, Riley's favorite was the one Joy had experienced without any of them, at a magical castle. But as the stories were swapped, Riley had one question she needed answered. "So, you all have been there since the very beginning..."

"You betcha!"

"So, what the heck was going on the first time we moved to San Francisco?"

Joy's smile dropped, and the other emotions glanced around uneasily.

"...it was my fault," Sadness spoke up from her seat, staring at the ground. "Something changed, and when I touched some of the memory spheres, they turned blue and wouldn't turn back."

"No, Sadness," Joy interrupted. "It wasn't your fault. It was mine." Joy turned to look at Riley. "All your life, I've done my best to make sure you were happy, even at the expense of pushing the other emotions away."

"...understatement of the year..." Anger muttered. Disgust elbowed him and gave him a pointed look, to which he just rolled his eyes.

Joy nodded. "So, when you were moving, you... well, I guess you should have felt sad, it was natural for you to, but I stood in the way, so I think it kind of built up in Sadness, and got let out when she touched the orbs. Of course, I panicked, especially when she touched some of the Core Memories, and, well, long story short, Sadness and I got sucked right out of Headquarters and down into Long Term Memory, over by Hockey Island."

Riley smiled a little at the mention of her favorite sport, and Phineas and Ferb, who were chatting with a couple of Mind Workers, glanced at each other after overhearing the word 'Hockey'.

"So, Fear, Disgust, and Anger were trying to hold down the fort while we were away, but... well, they didn't have any experience making you feel joy, and..." Joy trailed off, not sure how to bring up the next bit.

Anger let out a huff. "Then I had a really dumb idea. Ya see, what Joy didn't tell you was that all of your Core Memories got sucked out with them, so your Islands of Personality were all out of whack. That's why you couldn't play hockey or seem to connect with your friends. So, I had the brilliant idea that, since all of your Core Memories were made in Minnesota, that you should head back there to make some more."

Riley's eyes widened a bit, as she remembered how she had thought about how much happier she had been in Minnesota and had seized on the idea that if she went back there, things would be better. "So you made me get the bus ticket?"

Anger scuffed his foot. "Well, not really, I mean, I gave you the idea, but then, it got stuck, and we got locked out. We couldn't make you feel anything, it was like you were emptying out." He then pointed back at Joy and Sadness. "That's when they showed back up, when you were on the bus. Sadness managed to pop the idea out, I still don't really get how, and then she pushed you to get back home."

Riley turned to look at Sadness, who was fiddling with her fingers. After a couple of seconds, she realized they were looking at her, and let out a small 'eep', before speaking. "I just kind of did it. I mean, I thought about what you were going through, and about how you needed support, and stuff. And that's what we do, most of the time, is support you, and help you to live a good life. And even if my parts aren't as nice as Joy's, I'm still here to try and help you." She waved her hand at the others. "We all are, no matter what. And we make mistakes, because we're still learning along with you, but... we do it out of love." Sadness gave a small smile, which Riley returned, and the group lapsed into a gentle silence.

With was then quickly broken by Joy.

"GROUP HUG!" Joy then jumped out of her seat like a rocket, and glomped her host before Riley could protest. The warm feeling was nice, almost in intoxicating, and Joy motioned to her fellow emotions. Sadness was the first to join, accepting Joy's invitation as the yellow emotion opened up a spot in the hug for her. One by one Fear, Disgust, and Anger followed, and the six embraced one another.

The same jolt she had felt before came, with a dizzying mix of emotions pulling every which way - joy, sadness, disgust, fear, and anger all hitting her at once, but under it all, a simple truth filled her.

Throughout the repeats, she had always felt that she was alone, never truly able to find someone who could understand. But now she knew, she had five little voices, who understood what she was going through. They were with her, always, and would stick with her till the end, and even if they weren't Awake, they would still be there for her.

And in that single moment, Riley realized that her emotions were not just emotions. They were not just people in her head that watched over her. No, her emotions were more than that. They were her friends.

They were family.

"Riley?" Sadness asked. "Are you... okay?" Tears fell from Riley's face, as she looked at Sadness with a warm smile.

"Yea. I'm okay. It's just," Riley paused, all eyes on her. "I'm home".

*DONG*

Riley looked up as a sound came from the machine in the corner, which had been quietly pumping out little memory spheres as Riley had listened to Phineas and Ferb's explanation. A shining sphere popped out and began to roll down the track, and the emotions quickly jumped up and ran over to the track.

"It's a new Core Memory!" Joy explained, as Riley walked up behind them.

Riley blinked, then nodded. "Those are the memories over in the center, right? The ones that are important?"

Joy nodded, even as she leaned in to look at the sphere. At first glance, it almost looked like it was clear, but when you tilted your head, you could see a red tint, then a green, then yellow, and so on. A rainbow of colors seemed to swirl, just under the surface, bleeding into each other in a swirling pattern, and in the middle, the scene of the emotions gathering for a hug displayed, Looping over and over.

The orb dropped into a channel beneath the floor, glowing as it slid around to the Core Memory Plinth. The other Core Memories shifted, but rather than take a place in one of the circles of memories, it slid into the very center of the pillar, a small dimple forming to reveal it in the middle of the circle on the floor.

Then, light seemed to spill out of the sphere, washing through Headquarters in a rainbow display of light. Everything that it touched seemed to get a bit brighter, the room seemed to get a bit bigger, then the light shot out of the window. The emotions raced over, looking down, and gasped, pointing and whispering. Riley made her way over after them.

"What's happened? What did it do?"

Disgust was the one to answer. "Usually, one of those Core Memories will make an island over there," she pointed across the deep chasm below, to the cluster of islands floating near the other side, long thin rails linking them to Headquarters, "but this time, the new island is down below us."

Disgust pointed down, and Riley leaned over to press her nose to the glass. Down at the base of the Headquarters tower, she could see that a new island had formed and was spreading out at the point where the tower linked with the rails to the other islands. Numerous statues had appeared down below, with what looked like a statue of her forming right next to the base of the tower.

"Is... is that bad?" Riley asked, hesitantly.

Disgust shrugged. "I have no idea."

Fear gazed at the island below, notably not afraid of it like he was with every other new thing that he encountered. "So... what do we call it?"

Joy then looked at Riley, suddenly felt all the attention in the room fall on her. She stared down, at where the light from the new island was spreading down the connections to the other islands, turning them into bridges.

"Unity Island. Because it shows that we are all in this together."

The emotions looked at each other, then turned back, smiling, and nodded at Riley.

"So... now what?" Fear asked.

Ferb coughed, drawing all eyes to him. "Well, you do still have a truck in San Francisco."

Later

"Look, mister, how many times to I have to say this: We are the Flanders, not the Andersons!" Mr. Flanders screeched at the movers, anger rising in both voice and facial tone.

"Hey buddy, this address is on the sheet." The mover argued back, waving his clipboard. "What's written on the sheet is where we go."

"Oh, so what am I supposed to do huh? Just stand here and wait for our moving van to just drop out of the sky?"

*Honk, honk* The Flanders' moving truck then suddenly dropped out of the sky. He then looked up, just in time to see a bullhorn that falling from the sky as well. Startled, he managed to catch the bullhorn, then stared up at where it had come from.

Above the urban sprawl of San Francisco was the strangest airship he had ever seen, a bizarre mix of a brightly colored blimp and a wooden airplane, with rocket boosters and at least a dozen propellers. Its cabin was more like a hanger as seen on an aircraft carrier.

Leaning over the railing of the flying machine were four children, three boys and a girl. Through another bullhorn, the girl spoke to the two men below. "Uh, excuse me? This is the Flanders' house, right?"

Mr. Flanders fumbled for a second before replying through his horn. "Uh yes... who are you?"

"I'm Riley Anderson. My parents and I moved to Danville, but somehow we got your truck and you got ours, and me and my friends are here to switch them."

Mr. Flanders blinked, his mind not quite believing what his senses were telling him. "Well, at least someone here is doing a good moving job."

The mover just shrugged at Mr. Flanders' scathing remark, before he turned his attention back to the blimp thing above him. "Not to sound ungrateful, but aren't you and your friends a little young to be flying blimps and moving trucks?"

"Uh... Yes. Yes we are."

The mover nodded. "Oh. Okay. Truck's all yours, kid."

The green haired kid then pushed a button on a remote, and a claw emerged from their flying machine, reaching down and gently clamped onto the truck, before swiftly lifting it up into the waiting skyship.

"Thanks!" The girl called.

The blimp ship then took off, flying off into the wild blue sky. Mr. Flanders and the mover then looked at each other, not really sure what to think in regards to what they had witnessed. "Uh... Mr. Flanders? What did I just see?"

"I don't know, but I know I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"So, what's next?" Riley was back in Phineas and Ferb's backyard, the day after they retrieved the moving truck. Weirdly, the adults had all brushed off the weirdness of the truck just magically showing up, but Phineas has said that was normal.

Phineas grinned at Ferb, who held up a rolled up blueprint. "Well, we were thinking you might like to take a look at a little sport we invented, named Hockey Z9."

Riley grinned as she walked over, glad to know that she wasn't on her own, anymore.

Joy hummed to herself and smiled as Riley looked over the plans for the new game. Anger was at the console, hooting and grinning over all of the changes, especially the polar bear, while Fear was going through minor conniptions over the same. Disgust was moaning about the disaster that was the outfits that had been used in the game, but Joy saw her working on a few daydreams about possible costume designs.

With a twirl, Joy spun around Sadness, who was deeply engrossed in one of the Manuals for the new, expanded console that Phineas and Ferb had helped set up, complete with Telepathic Telecommunication, so that they could speak with Riley without her having to visit. Ferb had assured Joy that the console would show up whenever Riley was Awake.

Awake. Joy liked that term. Riley was Awake, and so were the Emotions, and they were ready to have whatever these Loops could dish out. After all, Riley knew about them now. What could happen?

(Loop primary responses all written by kingofsouls this time. My thanks to him for assembling the chapter back in July 2015.)

15.1: Welcome to the Loops Riley/Riley's Head!

15.2: Man, the Mind Workers have either really good timing or really bad timing.

15.3: You know you're good at Stealthing, Looping or otherwise, when one of the Original Seven can't find you.

15.4: IT'S ME.

15.5: Wow... way to keep your priorities straight Disgust.

15.6: Zombies. There will always be zombies.

15.7: That's right. Bing Bong LIVES!.... somehow.

15.8: Parents; they are always there to shed light onto the darkness, even if they are not sure if they understand or not.

* Anon's response: D'aww...

15.9: You could say this Loop is Fairly Odd. *lol*

15.10: Oh wow, this one became huuuuge. But it was fun to work on.

Chapter Text

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-11-10. Crossposted to AO3 on 2020-06-28.

16.1 (dragonraptyr): [Kingdom Hearts]

"...What are you doing, Sora?" Riku asked, looking at his friend in confusion.

Sora was grinning madly. "You know that new Trinity Limit that I unlocked? It gave me an idea..."

"And that's why..." Riku looked at his friend, and at the full-scale copy of the Black Pearl that was currently Sora's keyblade. He shook his head. "Knock yourself out. I'm taking a vacation."

Behind him, Sora started smashing heartless with the ship. "Fore!"

16.2 (wildrook): [Five Nights at Freddy's] / [Treasure Island; referenced only]

Mike Schmidt could only look at the new layout of Treasure Island... with one word running through his head.

'MOTHERF**KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!'

Two of the Animatronics looked at each other... then one decided to toss new underwear for him out of pity.

16.3 (Sonic Raynboom): [Jurassic Park] / [Inside Out]

Owen Grady stared in shock at this loops' I. Rex... if it could even be called an Indominus Rex.

"Who's the friend who likes to play? Bing Bong, Bing Bong!" The I. Rex sang, leading several children through the park.

"We decided to go in a more child-friendly direction, you see," Claire explained, "So we decided to model him after an imaginary friend. Of course, he did escape, but I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"What did you even make him out of?" Owen asked.

"I believe it was cotton candy, with some cat, elephant and dolphin." Claire replied.

"Dolph... you know what, I'm just glad it's not killing people."

16.4 (Harosata): [Inside Out] / [Big Hero 6]

Riley Woke up. She knew she wasn't in San Francisco, or at least not the one she usually goes to. It was too... Eastern for her.

"So what did Phineas say it was? I should Ping out..." Riley sent a Ping...

Riley opened her eyes and got an eye full of white... "Bing Bong?"

"I am not Bing Bong, nor does Bing Bong exist in my files. I am Baymax, your temporary personal healthcare assistant." Riley then realized that she was talking to a giant marshmallow...robot thing. "Your vitals are operating at an optimal level. Here, have a lollipop."

"Uh, thanks?" Riley looked around the room and spotted her parents talking to two boys, probably brothers.

"I can't thank you enough. If your robot hadn't found her in the park..."

"Think nothing of it, Mr. Anderson. I'm glad to see that the upgrade to his scanner worked," the taller boy explained. "You should see what kind of upgrades my brother Hiro gave him."

"Well, this wasn't what I had in mind about see this city's technology up and close. And to be created by two young boys like you..." Her mom looked at Riley with concern. "What happened to her?"

"Sorry, doctor's confidentiality and all that. Not the stuff her parents want to hear." The younger boy known as Hiro quickly escorted Riley's parents out of her room and then locked the door. Then Riley felt a tingle... and then clutched her head. "Sorry! I guess you're the Looper?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah, first time Pinging."

However, Baymax spoke up. "She has just sent out two Pings simultaneously. This seems to correlate with the six Pings that was sent out earlier, which may be the result of her fainting. Judging from previous cases, she may have multiple personalities."

"No guys, I'm just one personality..." Riley took a deep breath. "This may sound weird, but my Emotions are also Looping and we just recently met each other."

"Huh, that's... Actually, that's pretty new." Tadashi looked like he wanted to open her head. "And I'm guess some of them don't Wake up."

"Sometimes, I don't Wake up, at least according to Joy... Er, one of my Emotions. I'm not certain how that works." Riley admitted. "Oops, I just realized my Pinging... Yeah, I don't think any of us thought this through."

Baymax quickly pulled a pen and piece of paper. "As the issue seems to be dealing with emotional stress..." "Hey!" "It may be beneficial to go through mental exercises. If you happen to be visiting these Loops, I suggest you contact their Anchor in regards to the issue. I also have it on good authority that Heroing is a powerful stimuli to invigorate your mental state."

Riley looked at the list of names and placed it in her Pocket... "Wait, heroing?"

16.5 (Harosata): [Inside Out] / [Powerpuff Girls]

Some people have good control over their emotions. Some people have emotions with good control. But when Riley saw her parents in a sickly green coma, it was time to press the panic button.

"Fear, press the panic button." And Riley ran around the dining room. "I knew it! I knew broccoli was evil! Why did I have to Loop into a world where broccoli was actually evil!? We're doomed! Doomed!"

"Ah, is this a bad time?"

Riley looked at the window and saw three little girls standing... where there isn't any ground. "Eek! Okay, enough panic button! Okay, and you are..."

"We're the Powerpuff Girls, we need everyone Awake, and we need your help. Pwetty pwease?" The blonde one asked.

Thankfully, the memory came up quickly. "The Powerpuff Girls? I may sound a little... Loopy, but aren't you guys pretty strong?"

"It's not a matter of strength with this enemy." Blossom picked up the untouched broccoli from Riley's plate. "Alien broccoli planned to knock out everyone with these, but thankfully, there isn't a kid who eats vegetables. The aliens look like broccoli and can regenerate no matter how many times we beat them up; the only way is to eat them."

"E-eat them?" Disgust was evident on Riley's face. "I don't like regular broccoli and you want me to eat a walking, talking broccoli? I think you have enough mouths out there."

Bubbles seemed concerned. "Sorry, but sometimes the Big Tree will Loop us into what we don't like, and believe me, an alien invasion isn't as bad as adults infecting every treehouse base with broccoli..."

"Or having to eat rancid broiled broccoli stuck between a big fly's toes for three weeks in order to save an old lady..." Blossom added in.

"Or fighting a Super Saiyan named after broccoli," Buttercup added in. "He's the guy that's willing to blow up a planet just because the guy who lives there cried a lot as a baby."

Riley stared at them. "Out of all the vegetables I had to hate, it just had to be the one with aliens. Why didn't I choose something less harmful like eggplants?"

"Don't worry, you don't have to love it forever. You just don't try to avoid it forever." Bubbles reassured her. "Besides, they go well with cheese sauce, and we want to try out a new recipe this time..."

16.6 (Harosata): [Inside Out] / [God of War]

Riley eyed Anger once she came back to her senses. "Anger?"

"Yes, Riley?" Anger looked at the scene around him, figuring it was something he would do but didn't do this time.

"If you're out there, then who's in here?"

"Oh come on! That was a rational amount of anger!"

Fear subtly backed away from Kratos, who had been chained up and locked in a closet. Which was locked up, chained and barricaded. Once he had a good amount of distance from the tower, Fear pulled out a clipboard. "Things Riley shouldn't have when a Looper replaces an Emotion: Bubble Tea..."

16.7 (Sonic Raynboom): [Inside Out] / [Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]

Riley was scared. This was like that awful zombie loop. It had even started out normal, too...

This loop was pretty normal. Instead of moving to San Francisco, she had moved to Retroville, which was a nice town. Riley had pinged, but no replies came. Luckily, Anger, Fear, and Joy were Awake. This was going to be a good loop.

Then that TV show came out. Everyone had watched it, and they all became zombies. They were all... happy. Just happy. Nothing else but happy. It was terrifying. Luckily, Riley still had some rocket boots in her Pocket from Phineas and Ferb. Now, she was holding a mental conference with her Awake Emotions.

"So, what should we do?" Riley asked.

We shouldn't go down there. They could turn us into one of them.

No, this loop, you can only become one of them if you watch that show. All we'd have to do is close our eyes! And make sure Joy doesn't go nutso and take over.

Hey!

What?!? For all we know, that's what the show does! I say we find where it's coming from, find out how to undo it, then smash whatever's causing this.

Anger actually has a point. So, where is the show being broadcasted from?

"I... I don't know."

Let's let them capture us!

What!?! Are you insane?!? It's way too dangerous!

Agreed. Instead, we can just look it up online!

Huh. Yeah, that works better.

"Alright then." Riley said, pulling out a laptop and googling it. "It's being broadcasted from the... Happy Valley Retirement Home."

Riley slowly and sneakily made her way to the Happy Valley Retirement Home, aided by Fear. When she got there, she quickly found the broadcasting area. Riley looked in to find a grandmotherly Joy hypnotizing everyone to be happy, happy, happy all the day. Riley was too stunned to speak.

Oh great, it's an Unawake Joy with power!

Am I really that bad?

YES!

16.8 (kingofsouls): [Inside Out]

--Reality--

One by one the buildings of San Francisco fell as the earth itself split. Throughout the city, citizens screamed in horror as they ran. It was beautiful chaos, as people ran as a single minded herd trying to get as far away from the danger as possible, despite the fact that there was little hope for escape.

A fair distance away from the herd, Riley followed her own path. With a pair of inline skates and her trusty hockey stick, she sped past the quickly forming ruins, doing her best to stay calm throughout the chaos.

Which was harder than it looked.

--Headquarters--

"YOU TOLD ME EARTHQUAKES WERE A MYTH JOY!"

"I... may have... fudged the truth a bit." Joy forced a smile, as Fear gave her the worst death glare he could give her, but it seemed to fall short.

"YEA, NO KIDDING JOY!" He screamed. He then clambered to the console, smashing as many buttons as he could, the most prominent being the communicator. "LEFT! LEFT!" Riley in turn did so, barely avoiding the falling debris from above.

'Wait, Joy told you earthquakes were a myth?"

"Which turned out fantastic by the way. LOOTERS!"

'What made her tell you that?" The sound of a hockey stick smashing against a looter.

Joy coughed awkwardly. "It's a long story."

16.9 (Awesomedude17): [Inside Out] / [Sentinels of the Multiverse]

--Reality--

Riley just raised an eyebrow at the sight.

"Riley."

"Yes, Disgust?"

"Why's there an ice cream monster thing?"

"I don't know, but what I've heard about Setback, this is a whole new level of fail."

"Oh yes."

The monster roared as Setback landed in a crumple by the visiting looper.

"Ouch."

--Headquarters--

"I'm really hating this loop already, especially since Fear's going crazy now." Anger growled, right before punching out the rogue emotion.

"...You take this one, Disgust." Joy nervously smiled.

"Thank you~!"

16.10 (LordCirce): [DC] / [Inside Out]

Darkseid chuckled while watching his parademons ravage the human shopping building that they had emerged in when invading. A symbol of the humans' arrogance, greed, and stupidity, he would take great pleasure in watching it burn.

He then turned his attention to more immediate matters, namely, the three humans that had been standing at ground zero when his Boom Tube had opened. A human couple and their female offspring, the three of them were cowering before him, having been knocked down by his forces' arrival.

"Ah, it is good to see you pathetic worms already acknowledge your place, groveling at my feet. Still, I don't have the time to properly educate you on your new position, so allow your deaths to be a warning to those who still struggle here." As he spoke, his eyes began to glow as he gathered power for his Omega Beams.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!"

Darkseid glanced around for the source of the voice, which, while female, had not issued from either of the figures on the ground, who had not moved their lips, or seemed to be in the mindset to make such bold declarations. "Show yourself!"

There was a brief pulse of mental energy that left an odd feeling in the pit of Darkseid's stomach, before five figures appeared, standing around the family. To the left, were a pair of male figures, one short and wearing a rumpled white shirt and tie, while the other was taller, with a tweed jacket and an obvious comb-over. To the left was two female figures, one shorter and wearing an overly large woolen garment, while the other was slightly taller with a fashionable green dress. Directly in front of the family stood a third female, clad in a short sundress, and she pointed a finger at him, and spoke, revealing herself to be the one who had interrupted him earlier. "While we are here, we won't let you touch a hair on Riley's head!"

Darkseid grinned. "Then I shall savor your despair when your struggles are shown to be in vain."

At that, the five figures burst into motion. The taller male stepped sideways, positioning himself right next to the family, and he raised his hand, revealing a glowing yellow ring, like those borne by the followers of Sinestro. Yellow light spilled out from it, forming a golden barrier around the family. The shorter male and green-clad female then turned to face the nearby parademons. The male roared, red flames bursting to life on his body, which rapidly swelled, gaining a reddish hue. The contrast was startling, as was the force as he pushed off and promptly batted away the nearest parademons as if they were mewling kittens. The female shouted a word "Requip", and her garment promptly vanished in a flash of light, being replaced by a metallic armor that seemed to be made of swords. She then stepped forward and showed she was capable of wielding them by cutting into his forces like a threshing scythe.

The last two females stepped forward in front of him, each raising a hand as though gesturing for him to stop. He once again gathered his power to the Omega Beams, but before he could release it, the two women spoke, one in a tone that was happy and fierce, the other in a lower and steadier voice.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

"Shishi Hokodan!"

The world turned white.

16.11 (LordCirce): [Inside Out] / [Naruto]

Genin Yamanaka Rairi, better known as Riley Anderson, jumped to the side to avoid a fireball, while sweeping the bo staff she was wielding to knock back a Sound ninja. Naruto, the blond kid who was Anchoring this universe, had warned her about this invasion, but it was still super-scary to be in the middle of. However, even as she thought that, she felt a surge of anger tinged with joy, resulting in a sort of savage excitement, as Anger and Joy took over in Headquarters, with Fear taking a backseat.

Stepping back and planting her staff, Riley ran through a quick set of the odd handseals they used here. Naruto had helped her develop this technique, and now was the chance to use it in the field.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Bing Bong!"

A large cloud of smoke surrounded her, and then a voice called out in English. "Who the best in every way? Bing Bong Bing Bong. Who's the guy who'll blow you away? Bing Bong Bing Bong!"

Before any of the Sound ninja around her could react, a massive gust of wind blasted the smoke apart and sent then flying into walls and across roofs. Riley grinned at the large elephant-cat-dolphin hybrid next to her, who smiled back.

"Bet I can knock more of them down than you!" Riley laughed as she grabbed her staff and darted off.

"You're on!" Bing Bong responded, grinning from ear to ear as he bounced after her.

16.12 (LordCirce): [Inside Out]

"YOU'RE BOYS!"

Anger and Fear looked at each other, then back at Riley. "...Yes?"

"You're boys, and, you've been in my head this whole time, watching me!"

Anger opened his mouth, then paused, scratching his chin. "I never thought about that. That is a good point."

Fear gave him a sideways glance. "Are you saying that because you agree, or just because she is channeling you at the moment?"

Anger just shrugged.

16.13 (Harosata): [RWBY] / [DuckTales]

Blake knew something was off about the heist as she and Adam stormed the train. Sure, there were plenty of guards and robots, but it seemed that McSchnee was saving costs by shipping fish.

And when Blake picked up a crystal... she licked it. "Adam, we have to abort this mission. This isn't a Dust shipment, it's a rock candy shipment."

"Wha..." Adam sniffed the air and cursed. "The fish was masking the scent. Damn that McSchnee! Looks like we have no choice but to abort..."

"Alright Weiss, I'll forgive Ms. Belladonna this time as long as she doesn't disrupt any further shipments." Scrooge McSchnee put the phone down just as a worker came in with a crate. "Thank you for your hard work. You can put it down there."

Scrooge had a random crate from any McSchnee "Dust" shipment from the mines brought to his office in Atlas before it was distributed to the rest of the continent. Once the worker left, Scrooge pried open the box and licked one of the crystals. "Bleh! They need to cut back on the cherry extract. Now then..."

Scrooge dove in and managed to fish out some more solid crystals. "Hehehe. Those White Fang hooligans haven't figured out the fake Dust shipments were actually the real Dust shipments. And with that, I managed to secure my profit for the week."

Scrooge leaned back in his chair. "No matter how many new worlds there are, it warms this soul to know that old tricks still work well. Now, if only there was a way to lock up that Torchwick fellow..."

16.14 (SpokenSoftly): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [Admin Shenanigans]

Walking along the beach was nice. Really, really relaxing after all that mess with Teach and the Spaniard. Lucky Hector got a proper ship but honestly Jack could do better than that at his time of life. A nice beach, surf and gulls in the air and the occasional shipboarding on the horizon that he could spy on. He wouldn't've said, twelve years ago, that retirement would suit him, but it really did. It really, really-

There was a moment of strangeness quite unlike anything he'd ever felt.

Oh my. What happened there. "I... there was a beach," he said to himself, leaning back against the wall of his cabin (no, no that was a mast, strange...), blind-drunk and sitting in a dinghy on its way to some piddling little port or another (Port Royal, a part of his mind reminded him), wondering vaguely when he'd become thirty-seven... ish... again. "There is a beach," he corrected himself. That rum must have been... or had it been sherry...? It must have been really fantastic for him to start dreaming this vividly. Or muzzily, at it were. He was, after all, quite sloppily drunk, and that happy state of affairs could have continued, unchanged, for a good several days if he hadn't come to the abrupt realization, on waking up from a nap, that not only was the rum waterlogged and therefore effectively gone, but so was the rest of the boat and most of his hair, even moreso than usual!

"Bugger! Buggerbuggerbuggerbuggerbugger!"

The bailing took up most of his energy until he started to approach the docks, at which point he gave up entirely on the boat as a lost cause (again) and decided to make a grand, dramatic entrance, stepping off the tiny crow's nest onto the pier.

It would have gone so much better if he'd timed it right. Face-first into the water, he'd been just a few feet off! "Pfffffvbtt...! What have you lunatics been dumping in the harbor, tastes like bad booze," he muttered as he hauled himself, soaking wet and at least ten pounds heavier, up onto the pier. He wasn't dreaming, at least. Or in an alcohol-induced stupor either. Water to the face brought a man out of those, it didn't usually make the details clearer and the early spring air that much more nippy. "Excuse me, sir," came a voice that put him in mind of nothing so much as a very effusive sheep. "It's a shilling to tie your boat up at the dock."

Jack turned to look at the mast poking out of the water, his eyebrows rising up his forehead in time with the mast tipping sideways and vanishing beneath the water. No big loss. "What boat," he asked indignantly, turning to face the man. "What you have there, my good sir, is salvage. Good money and gainful employment, that makes! Frankly, you ought to be paying me for my generous contribution."

The man, who put Jack even more strongly in mind of an overly-effusive sheep, seemed to come up short by way of a response before deciding to plow straight on through with his usual routine. God bless British pragmatism. "Well that'll be an issue to take up with the Governor, Mister...?"

"Smith," Jack answered, taking a pair of shillings out and palming it to the sop.

Money makes the world go 'round, and for all that the man with the book and the little boy following after him looked to have all the cunning of a soft cheese, he knew this basic function of the world at least enough to get by, if not nearly so well as Jack knew it. "Welcome to Port Royal, mister Smith."

Jack needed a drink in the worst way.

"A mister... Jack Sparrow? Would a Captain Jack Sparrow please come to the second floor," came the voice, cutting through Jack's drunken haze. He hadn't been actively looked for in Port Royal for a few of these whatever-you-call-them recursive dream sort of things. Mostly just Jackie, the guy who drank until he couldn't drink any more. His first recursive-dream-whatdoyoucallit had ended fairly early when he'd broken out of the jail, swam to the Pearl to cut a deal with Hector, and got his throat slit for his troubles, and what kind of thanks is that for maybe saving them a good long time of mistakes and grief?

His next few recursive-dream-whatdoyoucallem's had been a good deal longer, when he'd discovered that his mind really liked keeping things about the way they were, so long as he went vaguely along with things. And that was the good thing about being him, he could be vaguely going along and because Mister Gibbs and (most of) the crew were fairly competent things would still get done.

He'd only started shortening them when he'd realized that his alcohol tolerance kept going back to the way it was at the start of the dream. As it turns out, being able to drink literally as much as you can afford is really good for being a pirate but really, really bad for long-term not-pissing-blood-ness. However, frequenting the same bars and always starting the recursive-dream-thingiewhatsits in that bleedin' dinghy was really pretty good for improving his ability to avoid Norrington and no matter how much blood he ended up pissing away in one dream he was always good to go when the next started.

And that brought him to today. He'd spent this dream seeing, just for kicks, how quickly constant alcohol would put him into another. He was approaching the point where, even having been in various stages of inebriation for the last twenty-something years before the recursive-dream-things even started, he couldn't quite keep track of time. Except he could. Because now, stumbling off his barstool and moving towards the stairs, he was finding himself a mite bit more clear headed than he was used to recently.

"Spoke too soon," he said to himself when he saw who was sitting on a crate, legs crossed in front of them, just out of sight of the first floor. Some foreign-looking bugger with skin that looked like it was made of chalk and hair that looked like nothing so much as seaweed. "Jones sent you, then?"

"No, Jack," the man said (and wasn't that a strange accent he had?), "I'm here to ask you to please, please stop drinking yourself to death. You're making my job very difficult."

"Right," Jack said. So he wasn't sober after all, or even what passed for it in his brain. This was an actual hallucination to go along with this recursive not-quite-hallucination he kept having over and over again. "And what might that be?"

"Making sure that the tree larger than oceans that runs the universe is properly repaired."

...

"Come again?"

"Making sure," the man said again, slower, "that the tree larger than oceans that runs the universe is properly repaired."

Jack, swaying drunkenly, made his way over to the man and poked him in the cheek hard enough that someone made of skin would have bruised. "Right," he concluded, the man's skin just as chalky and porous as before. "I can't be drunk enough to be seeing you, be off."

"My name is Poseidon," the man said in response and wasn't that interesting? Davy Jones hadn't a patch on this man, though granted his presence could be a bit better around the ocean. Storms and whatnot. Taken care of, sort of thing.

"A tree larger than oceans, says you," Jack said, considering things again. If this was part of his future recursive-dream-thingummies then he could do a lot worse than to play along. "Tell me more."

The first thing Jack did, the very first, after Poseidon explained, was walk down to the bar and order a jug of something strong for the man. This Loops situation would get on anyone's nerves, but for a chap that was the god of the oceans to have to deal with all this rot on top of it? He'd earned a stiff one.

The second thing he did was walk right back down to the bar and order one for himself.

16.15 (LordCirce): [Marvel] / [Phineas and Ferb - Candace is present]

Steve Rogers slowed as he approached the location in Central Park where Spider-Man's distress beacon was going off, distracted by a rather unusual dance-off competition going on along one of the park's paths. The competition itself wasn't unusual, but the participants...

Steve shook off his confusion when he noticed Spider-Man convulsing off to one side, half-hidden behind some bushes, and quickly made his way over.

"Spider-Man, are you alright?" Steve bent down to check him, and realized that the convulsions were actually repressed laughter. Discreetly, Steve slid a tricorder out of his Pocket and scanned Spider-Man for laughing gas, specifically Joker's blend. If the Clown Prince of Crime was in this Loop, Steve wanted to know about it immediately.

The scan came back clean, and Steve put the tricorder away. He then noticed a small camera on a stand, half-hidden in the bushes, and pointed towards the dance-off. Steve sighed.

"Peter, did you set off your distress beacon just to get me to see that... spectacle?"

Peter broke down into another fit of laughter, nodding as he did so, and Steve sighed and stood up, before glancing back at the dance-off.

Doctor Doom, and a girl that he vaguely recognized as a Looper (Candy? Chandra?) were currently flailing around and busting moves in the middle of the park, cheered on by a small crowd of people while two other young men beatboxed to the thumping music. Their movements were surprisingly well-coordinated, if somewhat obviously unintentional.

"Why is he even doing that? What brought it on?"

Peter hoisted himself up to his elbows, and stopped laughing long enough to point up into a tree nearby. "Let's just say, Doreen has learned yet another villain disruption technique."

Steve tilted his head, actually listening to the lyrics as he followed Peter's pointing, then groaned as he got the idea.

Up above, Doreen Green, AKA Squirrel Girl, mimicked the dance moves of the pair flailing below as she boogied on a thick tree limb, joined by several of her furry companions.

16.16 (LordCirce): [Pirates of the Caribbean] / [Admin Shenanigans]

Gibbs, First Mate on the Black Pearl, wet his lips before nervously glancing up at the Crow's Nest, then back at his captain, Jack Sparrow.

"Ah, Jack. I, um, I have to ask. Is this one of those, y'know, loop things?"

Jack Sparrow turned to stare blankly at Gibbs. "What are you on about Mr. Gibbs?"

Gibbs glanced around, before point his finger up at the Crow's Nest, where a large... thing made of noodles and balls of meat lay, lounging in the sun. "That, Jack. The thing, that's taken over the Crow's Nest. Is it, y'know, a Looper?"

Jack stared at Gibbs for a few more seconds. "I think you've been standin' too long in the sun, mate. His Noodliness has always been in the Crow's Nest."

Gibbs nodded, hesitantly. "Er, yes, Captain, this time, it has. I mean, when it's not here."

Jack frowned. "It is always been here, savvy."

Gibbs was silent for a long moment as he mulled this over, determinedly ignoring the dripping tomato sauce that was plopping onto the deck behind him. "So, it has always been there, even when I have never seen it before."

Jack nodded solemnly. "It is only now that His Noodliness has allowed you to see his presence, see, whereas before you couldn't perceive it, on account of you not being aware enough, as opposed to the state of awareness that you now have been bestowed with, forthwith. Savvy?"

Gibbs nodded, then paused. "And that time you had me sit up there a week straight, on account of you fearing an alien attack?"

Jack nodded again. "Aye. His Noodliness supported you even then."

Gibbs stared at him blankly. "Aye... well, I, ah, think I'll go lie down then, get out of the sun that you so rightly pointed out I have been standing in too long." And with that, he turned, stepped deftly around the growing pile of tomato paste, and descended below, Jack smiling broadly at his retreating back.

16.17 (LordCirce): [Atlantis: The Lost Empire] / [Harry Potter]

"Alright, let's try another phrase."

"Okay... hmm... hesiyathsessuh..."

A trio of students sat in the library of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One was the well-known, and even occasionally beloved figure of Harry Potter. The other two were unknowns to most of the Wizarding World, though the woman would have likely attracted stares thanks to her exotic looks.

Milo Thatch, currently a Sixth-Year Ravenclaw, paged through his notes, while one ear was tilted into an odd-looking device, shaped rather like a mix between a record player and a seismograph, with a short tube that Milo could listen at. "Ok, let's see. I definitely detected at least part of the sub-harmonics, and the cadence was the same as when you said you wanted to eat eggs, so that was... indicative of level of intention?" Milo continued to mutter to himself as he consulted his notebook.

Yawning, Harry turned towards Kida. "Is he always this intense?"

Kida smiled. "Only when he has discovered a new form of communication. My husband has taken the study of language as his passion. In addition to learning to speak and write in most any tongue, he has invented five languages that I know of."

"Six," Milo muttered distractedly. "I finished the bubble-gum popping language that Audrey inspired me to make two Loops ago, I was meaning to show you." Cracking his neck briefly, Milo straightened up. "Okay, so, I think you said that you wanted to find a place warm to go shed your skin."

Harry chuckled. "Pretty close. I did say I wanted to go someplace warm, but shedding my skin wasn't the activity I mentioned. I actually specified that I wanted to change my clothes, so swap my skin would probably the closest direct translation."

Milo scratched his chin, nodding. "Interesting. I still don't quite get how the underlying power behind the words is able to translate incompatible metaphors, given that you mentioned that the idea of limbs and hands translates across. I still think that it must be some kind of broadbase enchantment to enable snake's minds to understand higher thought."

Harry shrugged. "That still doesn't explain how audio recordings can still get snakes to respond, even without the underlying power matrix."

Milo huffed, but tilted his head to acknowledge the point. He was about to dive back into his notes, when Kida laid a hand on his arm.

"Before you descend back into your quest for understanding, I was hoping to swim out to visit the Merpeople's village this afternoon. I've already resized the 'swimsuit' that I purchased when we worked with the SGC."

Milo blinked, then his eyes glazed slightly as he remembered the two piece bikini in question. In a snap, the device and his note disappeared from the table and he quickly stood and started towards the exit. "Well, I suppose this can wait, not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Yep, and it is a brilliant day for a swim, indeed."

Kida giggled and gracefully slid out from around the table and loped after her husband.

16.18 (kingofsouls; Awesomedude17; VS21): [Inside Out]

(kingofsouls)

—Dream Productions--

"Okay people, listen up!" The Director of Dream Productions clapped his hands, and at once all activity ceased to be. "We got a lot to go over before Riley goes to sleep for the night, so I'm only going to go over this once.

"First, the big issue. I just got a message from Headquarters about why the Islands of Personality just up and changed, including that new one at the base of Headquarters. Long story short Riley is a deity-mandated time traveler, and the whole Island transformation thing is supposed to happen. So please do not go crazy over that. Everyone clear?"

There were murmurs of general agreement. "Good. That being said, we got a lot of material for dreams here," as that was said, a cart full of memory orbs was given to the Director, "and we got tons of potential here. So, let's go over this week's plan for dreams."

The Director then picked up a golden and red orb, the image inside Riley racing on the ice chased by a polar bear. "Tonight, we're going to have one of those surreal, artsy dreams. Let's have it be mixed with a flashback with these two. Make is hectic and exciting, especially with the that polar bear. The closer it is to eating someone the better." At once, prop makers ran off to prepare the recreation of Hockey Z-9.

"Okay, let's see what else we have here.." The Director then practically dove into the bin of memories, looking for new and exciting material for Riley's dreams.

(Awesomedude17)

—Dreamscape--

Riley looked around, and wondered what was happening.

"Hi."

Riley turned to see giant baby head, which flew away. Wiping her eyes, she then saw a red headed man in trench coat and sunglasses.

"How'd I get here?"

"I like trains."

"What?"

A train then hit the man.

Riley turned and walked away.

(Awesomedude17)

The Director grabbed an orb, showing three animatronics, singing and dancing.

"Too run of the-"

"Screeeeeaaaaaaah!!!"

A fox pirate shoulder charged a man in purple and restrained him. The Director blinked a few times, before shrugging.

"We can use this."

(VS21)

The Director continued to pore into the bin of memories to try to find more material for Riley's dreams with many memories that she made as a Looper, there were a lot of opportunities for dreams that she could have....