The Mickey took a bite of his rhea drumstick, still dripping in its own blood, and spit out a mouthful of feathers; feathers he could've used as a toothpick, but already had a knife to serve that same function, the feeling of it's sharpness digging into his gums a sensation to be reveled.

Present Mickey and the others looked out in shock from the window, but fortunately it was only Felix's rhea, so hopefully none of us had grown attached to that one. Unfortunately, four minus one equals zero, as the other three rhea were left scattering each whichway through the canyons, locked in their horror at these unfolding events.

"Who shall I try first?" The Mickey said, discarding his drumstick and twirling his knife as he eyed his victims, "A game of cat eaten by mouse? The Unlucky Rabbit?" He looked at Mickey, "My old past flesh..."

...Minnie stepped in front of her boyfriend, holding her arms out protectively...

"Or the Minnie Little Morsel who visited me last night in her dreams...."

Mickey and the others eyes fell on Minnie.

"What? I had a strange dream," Minnie replied defensively.

This time it was Mickey's turn to step in front of Minnie. "Your business is with me," he said strongly, sword at the ready, "leave her alone!"

The Mickey looked at Our Mickey, a toothy grin rising on the corners of his lips.

"Always can the past wait," The Mickey said, whacking the sword from Mickey's hands with one flick of the knife, "best to take my Minnie before she becomes your own."

But, before anybody could do anything, Felix leapt out behind The Mickey, grabbed the chains upon the wall, and spun them around his enemy as if in a swirling tornado.

CLICK!

The Mickey stumbled backward from the weight of the chains, falling back against the wall.

The Mickey began to struggle against the chains, fighting and flailing to be let free, but they were simply too strong, even for a first-class horror villain, to slip free.

"You did it," Mickey breathed in shock, quickly retrieving his sword.

"I knew it was a good idea to have Felix along for this one," Oswald declared, chest puffed out with pride.

"We need to do something about him," Minnie said quietly, almost regretfully from her spot in the room. Something about this mouse had shaken her, and if you're not sure what that is by now, I'm not sure you can be helped. This was Mickey in front of her, the one she had loved, but so twisted and deformed, she could hardly recognize him anymore. But HER Mickey was in front of her, standing there with his sword bold, ready to protect her at all costs; they couldn't be the same Mickey, could they.

Mickey stepped up to his evil self, holding his sword before him, and looked him straight in the eye.

Evil Mickey grinned, lips rising above fangs dripping with blood.

And there, Mickey saw himself in the eyes of his other. 

No, not just his other, the eyes of himself; the eyes who he was to become reflecting the eyes of who he had once been. A hidden grief appeared in the eyes of The Mickey, the grief of one looking back at themself and seeing what they had once lost.

And in that moment Mickey knew; it had been foolish to think he and this thing were not one and the same, that he was not capable of becoming anything different, had he not felt that same longing for what he had once been, the innocence of his past, just in these past few days? He had changed so much since his days of old, how many more steps would it take for him to become this that he saw in front of him now, and even who he was in this moment would become forgotten in the distant past.

He could feel the sword in his grasp, ready to strike, but the memory in the eyes of his enemy was too strong. Reflected in the eyes of the monster, he was no longer seeing himself in the moment, he was the past - the past of this Mickey who stood chained in front of him - everything he was to do now had already happened, he was simply the memory of the one who had already lived this, and here in this moment, he was living within a memory that could not be changed.

Hypnotically, Mickey stepped forward, sword raised...

The longing disappeared from The Mickey's eyes, his toothy grin cracking upon his lips. But Mickey couldn't stop himself, too caught up in the gaze, to caught up in a present that was already the past.

Minnie's eyes went wide, realization of what would happen just before it did.

"Mickey, no-!"

SLASH!

Chains fell down around The Mickey, clattering down at his feet.

Joints cracked as The Mickey's body straightened out, his lips widened, sunlight glinted upon the blood of his dripping teeth.

And suddenly his knife was buried in Felix's heart.

Felix stumbled back a step, looked at his companions and shrugged. What can I say? And then The Mickey pulled out his blade and Felix collapsed to the floor.

Mickey's trance was broken, but a new one now lay upon him, one of shock for his fallen companion.

Oswald stared in the same shock at Felix's body as everyone else, his eyes turned to The Mickey, standing before them all, towering. Oswald looked toward the window, his one escape.

But there were Minnie, and His Mickey, both too stunned to move, both standing there, doomed to the same knife that had taken Felix.

Oswald pulled up his chest, readied his stance...

And flung himself at the head of the beast, grabbing his ears, hanging on and pulling him back, causing the evil rodent to stumble.

"Run!" Oswald cried.

The Mickey grabbed the rabbit off his head, and flung him through the door behind him, into the darkness inside. Kicking it closed, he sealed the rabbit within. But Mickey and Minnie's trances had been broken, and the two of them were already fleeing toward the window.

They leapt free into the Argentinian air, catching the pully with their tails and riding them down.

"Into the canyons!" Minnie gasped as their feet touched the ground, "We'll lose him there!"

Mickey and Minnie raced as quickly as they could toward a narrow crevice in the canyon wall, the pathway sloping up toward the top of these endless plateaus.

The Mickey was behind them, slashing at the canyon walls with his knife, his body barely small enough to fit through. Scraping and clawing at the canyon walls, he gained ground, the canyon seeming to close in along behind him.

"Hurry!" Minnie saicried, climbing up onto a boulder, holding out a hand to help Mickey up after her.

They stumbled their way through the crevice, up boulders and around obstacles, the wretched sounds of the wretched rodent as he clawed his way through, merciless to his own struggle, ever behind them.

That feeling of youth Mickey had felt just earlier this day was gone, completely gone, Public Domain had reverted him back to his 1928 self, but that world had changed, moved on from the one that had made him who he was; nothing he could do, no amount of nostalgia could ever bring him back to what he once was.

And here he was, one boulder, over another, trudging slowly but as fast as they could, the lingering presence of evil forever in their wake, the Mickey that he feared to become step by step growing closer to the Mickey who didn't want to become.

It's your destiny, The Mickey's voice seemed to come straight to his mind - from the Mickey following him or The Mickey already being born inside him? This is The Mickey that the world calls for, this is The only Mickey who can thrive in this new modern world. This is The Mickey the world wants.

Wants.

Wants...

Mickey shook the voice out of his head.

But it was true, wasn't it? The world didn't want him anymore, not the way it once had, why else had it cast him off into the Public Domain to be twisted and changed into whatever whims the Universe had in store for him?

Minnie reached down from a boulder to help him up, "I got you," she said, speaking to deeper than just their struggle through the canyon.

Mickey grabbed her hand, the thinnest wave of strength passing through to him from her support.

Then they made it out, bursting free from the tight canyon wall. Mickey and Minnie looked around, they were atop a bright plateau, the Sun piercing down strong, but dark storm clouds rolling in.

"It's not big enough, there's nowhere to go!" Minnie cried, running from one end of the plateau to the other, canyons on one side, a drop into Argentinean jungle on the other.

CLANG!

SLASH!

CHING!

Mickey felt himself growing cold as he turned back to look in the direction they'd just came.

The Mickey's claws appeared at the sides of the crevice, pulling himself out, crooked and disjointed from the tight squeeze. But he didn't seem to notice; as he straightened himself up, joints cracking back into place, he twirled his knife and licked at his teeth.

And before Mickey knew what The Mickey was doing, the creature pulled his arm back and hurled the knife.

All the breath was driven from Mickey; he could only watch as Minnie stumbled backwards, the knife buried directly in her chest.

Minnie's body trembled in shock, her legs no longer holding her up. And then she dropped to her knees. Calmly, her head turned to look over at Mickey.

"It's okay, I don't think I can feel it anyway."

And then, as Minnie fell forward, The Mickey scooped her body up and flung her over his shoulder. He pulled the knife from Minnie's chest, followed only by a shuttering gasp by his captor, then slowly turned his head back to look at Mickey, the cracking in his neck sharp and deliberate.

The Mickey didn't even need to speak anymore, Mickey could already hear it in his head, the part of him that was already becoming The Mickey. Aren't you glad we missed the vitals?

And with that, The Mickey hurled himself off the plateau, carrying Minnie over the edge with him.