D3 Code S

Mira weighed the two keys in her hand as she felt very unsure of which one to try.

"Well, I chose the silver room to stay in on my first night in the castle and that worked out, so let's go with silver again."

She put the gold key aside and placed the silver key on the ring. It began to shake in her hands, and when she dropped it, it fell upon Wildwing's chest. But a red light gleamed from it like the magic of the sorceress, and the key grew and transformed into chains that wrapped themselves around Wildwing.

He remained asleep, but Mira saw that the expression on his face reflected a sense of pain or struggle instead of peaceful rest. She leaned over and tried to pull the chains off of him, but they were too tight and heavy.

"The gold key," she said and whirled around to find it, but the sorceress appeared behind her and held the gold key in her hand with a smug expression.

"You chose poorly."

She tossed the key up, and to Mira's dismay, it vanished in the air.

"If only you knew something about this castle's history," the sorceress laughed. "Perhaps your heroic efforts might have succeeded."

"What does this castle's history have to do with this?" Mira demanded as she pointed at the chains around Wildwing.

"Those weren't really keys as you may have guessed. They were talismans. This castle once belonged to an alchemist, who enjoyed crafting metal objects and instilling them with magic. He relied upon my expertise for awhile, but when I grew bored with him, I claimed the castle for myself."

"What happened to the alchemist?" Mira asked.

The sorceress smiled.

"He met his end trying to take the castle back from me. But for all his efforts, he failed… just like you. Though he managed to leave behind a few magical objects. The gold key you ignored was his talisman for fetching lost items when they were needed most."

"And this?" Mira asked she pointed again at the chains.

"Oh, that's mine," the sorceress said. "But you can see what it does, can't you?"

"All of the other ducks are free," Mira protested. "You must release Wildwing."

The sorceress's smile vanished. She disappeared and appeared beside Wildwing, standing over him.

"You robbed me of my other prisoners, but this one's still mine. Trapped in his nightmares, his terror will feed my power. And I shall keep him wrapped in this sleep for all time."

Mira clenched her fists as she started to charge towards Alastrid, but the sorceress held out her staff and Mira felt herself being knocked aside. Then a strange light filled her vision, and it only cleared when she landed upon pavement.

Looking up, Mira recognized the street lights of Anaheim, and getting to her feet, she saw the five ducks standing nearby. They started towards her with warm expressions of gratitude, but then they stopped when they saw that she was alone.

"Where's Wing?" Nosedive asked as he walked up to her.

Mira looked down at her feet as a horrible feeling swept over her.

"I'm so sorry, Dive. I messed up."

"Messed up? How?" he repeated. "We can't leave my brother behind!"

"It's too late," a strange voice said.

As Mira looked for the speaker, she saw a short elf-like figure walked out from behind Grin with a sad expression.

"I thought you could save them all," he said, looking at Mira.

Tanya stepped closer and explained,

"This is Borg. He was with us when we defeated Asteroth, Alastrid's brother. He used his magic to send you to the castle to help us."

"You have magic?" she asked. "Why didn't you go to the castle yourself then?! Why did you think I could do this?"

"The sorceress would have stopped me. She was too strong. I needed to send someone she wouldn't expect."

"Can't you rescue Wildwing?" Mira pleaded.

Borg shook his head grimly.

"She's intensified her power. We can't even break through her magic to get back to the castle."

The other ducks listened in dismay as their expressions conveyed the grief they felt.

"Wildwing was our leader," Mallory said sadly. "We can't do this without him."

Borg walked over to Mira and held out a small device.

"I do possess one thing that might help us," he said. "This amulet lets me create a time spell that sends you back to an earlier hour. If you could go back and make different choices, perhaps you could save Wildwing before it's too late."

"Yes, I'll do whatever it takes," Mira agreed quickly.

Borg activated the device with these words:

You are safe, but the ducks are not yet free.

If you would help them, then you must go back in time and choose differently.

You have the power, but what your choice will be,

We shall see.

Magic covered Mira's vision as the scenes around her began to change, and she felt things move around her.

You've reached Ending #6.

(Okay, so in one sense to follow along with the concept of an interactive story, you would go back to Day One and go through the story to help Mira make different choices to try to find what she missed before, but if you don't wish to go back to the beginning, you can select D3 Code Z and just make a different choice there.)