Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, storylines, or concepts mention in the story, just the OCs.

Chapter 40: End of Time

"The End of Time?!" both keybladers said in shock and disbelief. "I don't understand," Hailey said trying to piece together this latest bit of information in her head. "You mean, we are at a place, or rather in a point of history, where time itself has ended?!"

"That's correct," Gaspar said. "Though, you being here must mean that something grave has happened in the timeline. After all this isn't a place one walks into freely." He looks at Trevor. "You remind me of another keyblader that came here a long time ago."

Trevor's ears perked up. Who was this other keyblader? Was it his brother, maybe his father? "Who was the keyblader?"

The keybladers couldn't see, but they guessed that the old man furrowed his brow as he tried to think back. "I don't remember his name; not that it matters. He did choose to give up his name after all."

"What are you saying?" Hailey questioned.

"It was the most unique of all situations. He was banished here when the universe was strangely altered. He wanted to go back to his own time, but to do that he had to pay a heavy price."

Trevor instantly thought of Yuko. "What was the price?" Hailey asked before he got the chance to.

"Essentially it was to be reincarnated," Gaspar said. "His whole memory was to be erased and can never be recovered. He has to live a whole new life, never knowing what he had lost…"

"The alteration to the universe," Trevor questioned, "does it have anything to do with the Shadow Worlds situation?"

"They are one in the same," Gaspar nodded, a smile hiding the knowledge he wished to tell them. "And if you want proof, the both of you must go through that gateway." He pointed his cane to the iron gate behind them. The gate eerily opened by itself revealing nothing, but the inky void that surrounded them.

Both Hailey and Trevor looked at each other, but it was Hailey who took the first step toward the gate. Trevor thought about it for a millisecond before following her.

They both crossed the threshold of the gate and what they found shocked them to the core. It was a courtyard much like to one they just left, but it was bigger; much bigger. There were multiple gates leading to other areas. Several lampposts flickered throughout the cobblestone yard. It looked like a refugee camp. There were people and animals wandering aimlessly; but one them was Jessica Rabbit.

"What are you doing here?" the cartoon said to Trevor, her arms in akimbo and a sour look on her face. "Isn't it bad enough that you sent me to this purgatory, but now you have to come here too? Let me guess, it's my eternal punishment."

"What are you doing here?!" Trevor summoned his keyblade. "Didn't I send you to the other side?"

"Not for a lack of trying. But that's not the case if you are one of the universe's Forsaken."

"What do you mean by that?" Hailey inquired. Her only goal was to transform the craziness into logic.

"Turns out that The End of Time is the place where people who lost their home to the Shadow Worlds," the cartoon explained. "You're no different, it seems. Tell me," Jessica's eyes flicked like a cat, "who did you in?"

Trevor twitched for a split second and Hailey turned away. Trevor didn't want to think about it, for to think about it is to relive it. "Don't worry about it," was all he said about the subject.

Jessica shrugged. "I guess keybladers aren't as powerful as everybody thinks they are. It's not a total lost. There's an upside to all of this; for me at least."

"Sweetums!" said a voice. They all turned around and saw a white cartoon rabbit wearing red overalls, a bow tie, and yellow gloves making a beeline toward Jessica.

"Honey bunny!" Jessica sweetly cooed. She scooped up the rabbit and kissed him on the lips.

Trevor and Hailey's jaws dropped. What was this scene that they are seeing? What circle of Hell is this?

"This is my husband, Roger," the female cartoon introduced. "Your friend, Bonkers, has his heart thanks to the retooling of the universe."

"Ooh…," Trevor said still in shock after witnessing that kiss. "So this… is your husband…" He couldn't think of anything to say.

"Why?" Hailey asked bluntly, pointing from Roger to Jessica. "Why is this' a thing?"

"He makes me laugh," the femme fatale simply put it.

"Wait, if your husband's here, then that means…" Trevor said as he tries to piece it all together.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "You don't listen, do you kid? Let me put it in simpler terms. This place is basically the Traverse Town of time displacement. All of those lost in time find themselves here."

Trevor looked around. He saw Heffer with a wallaby wearing a blue shirt and a turtle wearing glasses. His eyes drifted somewhere else and he saw Marsupilami with a gorilla in a pink shirt. Bagheera was there with the original Baloo, King Louie, and Molwgi.

"So every defeated Forsaken is here?!" the male keyblader said in a stunned realization.

"Yes and a whole lot more," the redhead confirmed. "And we are forever trapped here, unless someone does something to alter the universe itself; to change it back to its original shape." She crossed her arms. "That is what the Forsaken were trying to do. But someone just had to oppose their older brother."

"What Zackary is trying to do is wrong and you know it!" Trevor said. "You are condemning people to be erased from existence!"

"And you condemned us to same fate," Jessica retorted. She waved her hand at their surroundings. "So tell me, how is this any better? To be stuck here at oblivion as if we have never existed?"

Trevor couldn't answer. He had no idea that there was an End of Time, let alone that there were people that were forced to live in it. Was he unintentionally guilty of the same crime he accuse his brother? Was there a compromise that he could have taken?

Annoyed by Trevor's silence, Hailey spoke up. "There's got to be a way to save everyone!"

The cartoon closed her eyes and huffed. "Reality is never that kind. If life was that easy, all of us would get what we want."

"Still, we have to try," Hailey insisted. "I have to believe that everyone can be saved. We can't just stand by and let these people suffer here."

Jessica shrugged indifferently, but her husband was taken aback by the blonde's words, to the point of tears. "Bravo!" Roger cried, "Such an inspiring settlement. Everyone deserves to be happy at the end, right?"

"Just because people deserve a happy ending, doesn't mean they'll get it," Jessica huffed. "But if you wish to waste your time, I'm not going to stop you." She turned around and grabbed her husband's hand. "Oh, wait a minute." She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Trevor. "I don't like you, but you, in your own special way, reunited me with my husband. I found this odd page some time ago. Seems like someone like you would be interested in it. Consider it a peace offering."

Trevor took the piece of paper and looked it over. There was no doubt that this could be the final missing page of the book Milo gave him some time ago. "Thanks," he said and folded the page and put it in his pocket.

Both Hailey and Trevor watched the two toons walk off. "Why would Aslan send us to such a place?" Hailey wondered out loud. Trevor just blankly looked at her. "Well, there must be a purpose," she continued to argue trying to get him to react.

The male keyblader just silently shrugged.

Hailey sighed and turned away to walk back to the previous area with Trevor trailing behind her. She was utterly disappointed in him.

Gaspar looked up when the two re-entered. "Well, did you two see what I mean?"

"Fine, this is the Traverse Town of the time stream," Hailey crossed her arms. "But why are we here? And how do we leave this place?"

"I believe the answer to both of your questions is that the two of you will have to make a choice."

"A choice," Trevor said, but why?"

"Everything has a price," the old man's words echoed Yuko's statement: 'A fair price is nothing to be trifled with.' He pointed his cane to a large barrel that sat next to one side of the iron fence. "In that barrel is a temporal portal that will send you home to your proper timeline. So you two have a choice; you can go home or you can stay here."

"Why on earth would we stay here?!" Hailey said.

"Easy, it would mean that none of you would have the face any more battles. The harshness of reality doesn't apply here. Here, you don't have to age, eat, sleep, fight, or die. The worries you had in your old life you could put it behind you. As long as you are here you don't worry about anything else. Here, you don't have to worry about the Forsaken or anything entities. There are no surprises here.

"On the other hand… You won't be able to help your friends. Everything you worked in life will remain unfinished. If you go back to your present, however, you can aid your friends. You might find out who is causing all of the chaos in the universe. But then again, you might not. You could fail or even die on your journey. In life there's no guarantee that you will see the battle's end. No guarantee that you will like what you find when you get back or that you will be happy or fulfilled in the end.

"Basically the two of you have two choices: live a life here, where everything is certain or leave this place to continue to live a life of uncertainty. So tell me, which life will your choice?"

Trevor sighed heavily and Hailey crossed her arms. "The answer is obvious," she huffed.

"We stay," Trevor said.

"We leave," Hailey said at the same time.

Both keybladers looked at each other aghast.

"Why do you want to stay here?!" Hailey yelled.

"Why do you want to leave?" Trevor sighed.

"Trevor… We need to go back. We can't just leave our friends to fight evil alone. What about Miranda, Bonkers, and Canard? You made a promise to them! Don't you want to keep it?"

Trevor looked away. "Things change. We don't have to fight anymore. There are other keybladers in the universe. Let them take care of all the problems. I just want to rest, to have this burden lifted from me. Do you understand?"

Hailey gritted her teeth and looked away. She never thought of Trevor as weak, but over the last couple of days his actions and choices are causing her to question him. "I can't believe you want to completely abandon your friends and your duties. And for what? Because you want to be a quitter?! Because your quest simply became difficult?!"

"It's not like that," Trevor yelled "After all of this time, do you think I have done anything important? After all this time am I any closer to stopping my brother? Or how about that dark keyblader? How does he fit in all of this? He almost defeated me… That kid… Derrick. He was almost able to kill me. After all of this time, I'm no closer to the truth."

The blonde stared at Trevor strangely. She couldn't believe the crap that she was hearing. "What the hell are you talking about?! 'Have you done anything important?' You saved several worlds! I call that important! You have done so much and you can do so much more, and you are willing to throw that all away?!"

"I'm just trying to be reasonable."

Hailey turned away in disgust. She couldn't look at him; not anymore. As far as she is concerned, they were through. The man beside her wasn't the man she fell in love with. That man was strong. That man was courageous. That man… was kinda stupid, but had a good heart. However, this man that was next to her now was a coward that couldn't even face life. She just doesn't have the emotional tolerance to deal with him at this moment; not now anyway. "Well, if you won't do anything, then I will." She walked toward the barrel. "Goodbye, Trevor. Forever."

Trevor tried to grab her shoulder, but he was too slow. His hand only met air and he watched Hailey disappear into the portal. His heart sank several fathoms as he and Gaspar were the only ones in the area. He wondered if he made the right decision; if he should have been more convincing to his former girlfriend.

Before Trevor could think another thought, Gaspar spoke up. "So you decided to stay here, huh? You better get comfortable, because eternity is a painfully long time." He laughed at his 'dad joke' while the keyblade just stared blankly at him. "You look like you have a lot on your mind. Care to share them? Take as long as you want; time has no meaning here."

The keyblader sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Before I went on this adventure, I was happy. Relatively happy anyways… I knew right from left, up from down …then the Heartless came, quickly followed by Miranda and Bonkers…

"Before I knew it, I was traveling the universe and tasked with saving it. It wasn't long before I was forced to realize that not everything was as it seem. I became aware that I have forgotten a large part of my life before college. I met the brother I never knew existed and we because enemies. I discovered an evil entity inside of me. I was basically forced to realize that the life I once knew was a lie.

"Along the way, everyone kept asking me for help: Canard, Leon, Sora, Cynthia, all of them. Like a fool I kept saying yes, even though I already had a full plate. I think I kept lending my services, because I thought it will lead me to the 'Ultimate' truth. That at the end of the tunnel all the chaos will make sense; that there was an unseen clarity and order in the universe that most morals cannot see. And if I had continued on my journey then I'll receive another piece of the puzzle that was my life. But all I got was more questions, more confusion, more sorrow, and more heartache. It was when I visit Radiant Garden for the second time that I had to question myself, 'What was I really fighting for?'

"I… I couldn't think of a single good reason… Perhaps that rat, Robert, was right. I'm only on this journey simply because it was expected of me; not because I wanted to do it or because of altruistic motives. 'Of course I have to save my friend, Vincent. Isn't that what friends do?' But I'm not a fighter or a warrior. In the end, it was too late for Vincent. I couldn't save him from becoming a Forlorn or being under my brother's influence. I was just wasting everyone's time pretending to be a hero. Some good came out of it, sure, but… how long will it last? How long must I pretend?

"I just want the madness to be over. It's too late to go back to my old life, I simply know too much now. But maybe I can carve out a peaceful one here. Does any of this make sense? …I'm afraid that if I continue on my journey, I'll lose myself."

"And you haven't lost yourself already?" Gaspar spoke frankly as he adjusted his bowler hat. "Would the old you made the same decisions you made recently? We can't stop ourselves from changing; it's a part of nature. What we should be afraid of is not changing. If we don't change we will get left behind. True, not changing it would mean that we will miss all the bad things in life, but it also means we will miss out of all the good. In a way, refusing to change is the ultimate way to lose yourself."

Trevor looked up. "You think I'm doing more harm to myself by staying here?"

"Let me answer you by asking you this: 'Do you think you can improve yourself by staying here?'"

The keyblader stayed silent and thought about this. He was tired of all the hardship in his life, but at the same time, he didn't want to abandon his friends. Trevor was torn; he was legitimately torn and he hated it. He wanted rest, he wanted peace, but he didn't want to be alone or feel guilty. Trevor paced a bit, and then thought about Hailey. He abandoned her; plain and simple. He was her boyfriend and when they were finally reunited, he never thought once about standing by her side. She had less training and experience than him, but she never hesitated to enter the fray. And here he was, in a self-induced exile feeling sorry for himself. When the keyblader realized if he never went on a journey in the first place, Hailey wouldn't be free and Canard would still have been stuck in limbo. He wanted to join Hailey, Bonkers, Miranda, and the others, but it was still so tempting to stay here; to never feel any pain or face any hardships again. He had to admit to himself that Hailey is a better keyblader and a better hero than he could ever be.

He turned around, exhaled, and steeled himself. "Fine…," the keyblader said, cursing the fact that the right decision is always the hardest path to walk. "I guess I will go back to my own time."

Gaspar looked at him with a sly smile. "Are you sure?" he asked in a mocking tone. "If you go back you will have to face many tribulations. And you don't sound all that confident."

Trevor sighed heavily. "Done it before, have to do it again, I suppose."

"You might have to learn an uncomfortable truth about your origins, keyblader. A truth you might not want to hear."

"At this point, I don't care. Been there, done that, brought the t-shirt."

The old man tilted his head in confusion. "If you don't care, then why are you going back?"

"Hailey was right. I shouldn't just stay here and leave my friends hanging." He turned around and faced Gaspar. "I may not care what happens to me, but I care about what happens to my friends more. That is enough to bring me back."

The old man coughed out a low chuckle and readjusted his bowler hat. "Very well, you know where the portal is," he pointed his crane toward the barrel. "Best of luck to you. I hope that one day you will learn to care for yourself the way others do you."

Trevor pretended not to hear that last part and began to walk over to the barrel then stopped halfway. "The keyblader you mentioned earlier; the one who lost all of his memories," he questioned the old man. "Did I ever meet him?"

Gasper flashed an all-knowing smirk. "That depends on your point of view. Remember, his memories are gone forever. So, is it possible to meet that version of the keyblader? No, I'm afraid you haven't met him or ever will."

Trevor's face contorted into a frown. He knew that the old man was hiding something, but he didn't have the patience to deal with it. The keyblader ran toward the barrel and jumped into the portal.

The old man smiled as he watched the young man disappeared. He almost didn't hear the footsteps behind him. He slowly turned his head and stared at the figure. "I didn't see you there… Tell me, what do you want?"

Zackary stopped and curled his hands into fist. "I heard that there's someone new here. Where are they?"

"They have left," Gasper chuckled. "You just missed them."

"Then tell me. Was it my brother?"

The old man scratched his head and gave a wry smile.

KH-KH-KH

Miranda rubbed her eyes in frustration as she sat on the Heart of Gold's bridge. For the past couple of days she, Bonkers, and Canard have been traveling the worlds saving them from the Heartless. It was business as usual, but something was different. Despite all of the adventures they had together, all of their experiences, for the last few days they were fighting like amateurs. They were all out of sync; it was like it was there first time fighting together. Luckily, the last few battles turned out alright, but she can't shake the feeling that something was off; that something has happened to them. Bonkers kept telling her that they simply are having an off week, but the cop wasn't so sure about that.

Before the cop could put away those thoughts, a bright light filled the ship's cabin. Canard, Miranda, and Bonkers sprung into action and grabbed their weapons. When the light died down, Hailey was there looking just as confused as the others.

Once she regained her composure, Hailey said, "I know what this looks like, but…"

"State your business," Canard raised his keyblade at her. "Where did you come from?"

Hailey looked at the duck in confusion; she didn't expect Canard to be a keyblader. 'The universe probably gave him that keyblade, so Trevor's work won't be completely written out of the timeline,' she reasoned. She summoned her own keyblade and the three warriors were taken aback.

"You're a keyblader?" Canard questioned.

"I know you're confused," Hailey started, "And that you don't know me, but I do know you; all of you." She pointed at Miranda. "You're Miranda," then she pointed at the bobcat, "and you're Bonkers. Both of you are cops from the world The Downtown Beat. And you're Canard, leader of a band of heroes called the Mighty Ducks, but you were trapped in dimensional limbo."

"How do you know all of this?" Canard demanded to know. "Have you been spying on us?!"

"No," the blonde keyblader said. "How can I put this without sounding crazy? You probably don't remember this, but believe it or not you all used to travel with a keyblader named Trevor Birch. This might be hard to believe, but I was trapped within his heart. And everything that he experienced I did as well. Then something crazier happened. He, and by extension me, got erased from existence. Somehow, against all odds, I made it back."

"And where's this Trevor Birch now?" Miranda said. When she said that name a hint of familiarity rung in her mind. It faded quickly, but it was enough for her to take notice.

Hailey looked down for a second, trying to contain her anger. "He didn't make it… But I'm here to help. You have to believe that."

"That's… that's a lot to take in," the duck said. "So forgive us, if we ask you to come with us to the brig. At least until we can sort this thing out."

At first Hailey was slightly offended. But she understood that her story sounds completely crazy. That and, technically, this was the first time they met her. Even if their memories were restored, they wouldn't know her. She reluctantly nodded, dismissed her keyblader, and motioned for Canard to lead the way. Before the first step could be taken another bright light filled the room. When the light died down, Trevor was standing there with his keyblade in hand.

Everyone was stunned beyond words; Hailey especially. Then slowly, but surely their memories of Trevor came back to them. At first the memories came like a slow trickle then like a flood.

"T-Trevor…?" Miranda said when her memory was restored. The keyblader nodded at her. The blonde cop and Bonkers both rushed the keyblader and hugged him fiercely. "I don't understand…," Miranda said. "It was like you never existed. But now I don't even know how we could ever forget about you."

"Yeah," Bonkers agreed. "You're just too weird to be that forgettable!"

Trevor chuckled a little. "Well, I'm here now." He raised his free hand toward Canard and the duck's keyblader teleported into his hand. Canard tried to summon his keyblade back, but the duck couldn't. "So you were the keyblade in my place," Trevor said to the duck, somewhat pleased, or rather amused, that he gained the ability to duel-wield naturally.

"Yes, though it seems that I'm no longer a keyblader," Canard said as he continued to fail to summon back his keyblade. He's a keyblader no longer, "Now that you're here."

Hailey walked up to the male keyblader and punched him square in the jaw. "That's what you get for being such a jerk!" she yelled. "How dare you make me think that you were going to stay at the End of Time!"

"I deserved that," Trevor rubbed his jaw and split out a tooth.

"So this is your girlfriend Hailey, I presume," Miranda said.

"Yes on the Hailey part, not so much on the girlfriend part," the blonde keyblader said as she crossed her arms.

Trevor looked down in shame. "I know that I have worried all of you for a moment. I'm going to be better… I promise that."

Hailey huffed and turned away. "I will believe that when I see it."

The male keyblader sighed and nodded his head solemnly. "Fair enough, but the point is that I'm back. And I won't fall into despair or the darkness again."

Miranda and Bonkers hugged the keyblader again. "It is good to have you back, Trevor," the blonde cop said.

"So," Canard coughed. "Now that you're here, you're captain now. What's the plan?"

"Well, what's the nearest world?" Hailey asked before Trevor could.

"The Land of the Rising Sun," Eddie chimed in once he heard the question. "And it's good to see you again Master Trevor. I'm looking into my data to see if a virus caused my databanks to erase all files on you only to restore them again!"

Trevor ignored the computer and pulled out the torn page Jessica Rabbit gave him. "Then The Land of the Rising Sun is where we are going to go. In the meantime, Bonkers do you have the book Milo gave us?" The cartoon bobcat reached behind his back and pulled out the Railway Series book. The keyblader took it and opened it. He flipped through the tome until he found the place where the missing page should be.

Trevor placed the missing page in the book. The pages of the now completed book started glowing and a light wind seem to pour out of it. The light started getting brighter and brighter while the wind seemed to pull him in. Before anyone could react, light filled the room for the third time. When the light died down again, Trevor was gone and the book fell to the floor.

Hailey unshielded her eyes and sighed heavily when she saw that Trevor was missing. "Oh god... Not again."

Canard cautiously picked up the book and flipped through the book. After skimming a few pages, he said, "Uh, guys. I think Trevor is in the book…"

Everyone gathered around the book and looked through the pages. "Well, how do we get him out?" Bonkers questioned.

"I guess I'll have to save him," Hailey summoned her keyblade, "...yet again. Stand back everyone. I'm going to drag him back kicking and screaming. And then beat the crap outta him."

Everyone obeyed.

Next Chapter: Ghosts of the Past

Miranda's Log Updated!

New Characters:

Roger Rabbit: Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988)