Even Kate had to remember she was still a princess who had carelessly left her responsibilities. She couldn't abandon her home forever. So, they took her back to her world and said goodbye. They knew they would miss her. They had done so much together. She pretended like she didn't feel anything, but Evina could see the truth in her eyes. She was going to miss them too.

The cogs' portal was closer to home than the other one they had used before, so it didn't take very long to reach Toontown.

As Evina saw his world approaching, he had the same concern arise in his head as before. He wondered what he was going to do with his life now that the adventure was over.

The ship landed in Toontown Central. There weren't many toons around. The sky was cloudy. It had never been cloudy like this before. Flippy noticed their arrival and promptly rushed out from Toon Hall to meet them.

"I sure hope you have some good news," Flippy grumbled.

"The threat was neutralized," Gyro assured him.

Flippy was overcome with relief. "Oh, finally there's some good news!"

"Is everything alright?" Evina asked him.

"You'll have to talk to Mickey about that. He can explain it better than I can." Then he turned and walked back to Toon Hall.

"What was all that about?" Glue Stick wondered.

"I have no idea," Evina answered, jumping out of the spaceship. His feet touched the ground. It had been a long time since he touched his homeworld, and it felt comforting, even now after The Shadow had tainted him so much. He stretched and walked through the grass. He couldn't stop thinking about how wrong the sky looked.

"Oh, there you are!" Mickey sighed with relief. He was walking up to them now.

"We did it, sir."

"Yeah, we'll have to talk about that. Um, who is this?" As Mickey approached Evina, he saw the unfamiliar horse standing by his side.

"Oh, this is my friend, Glue Stick," Evina explained.

"Nice to meet you," Mickey greeted. "That's an… interesting name."

"Well, you see, sir, he was a slave of the cogs in Cog Nation for many years."

"Oh, then I'm glad you were finally rescued!"

"Yeah." Glue Stick didn't seem too interested in what was being said. "Do you know where the nearest TV is? I am way behind on all my shows now."

Mickey rolled his eyes. "You can use the one in the Toon Hall lobby. And as for you, Evina, I would like to speak to you in private."

"Uh, sure," he said. He left his father and followed Mikey to a hidden area between the shrubs where a few chairs were sitting. It was nice to be away from any curious onlookers. He sat down and looked up into the gray sky again. The way it appeared still bothered him. There were no thunder or rain to explain it. "What is that all about?"

"It's been like that for a couple of days now," Mickey said gravely. "Every hour it grows darker. We don't know what caused it, but there is a theory."

"What?" Evina inquired.

"Tell me, did you close the last portal to Earth?"

Evina hesitated before answering. "Yes."

Mickey buried his face in his gloves. "I was afraid of that. It's a good thing that you did. I'm glad you stopped the threat, but there will be consequences for this separation. Our connection to the human world is limited by thought energy alone now. The tooniverse is changing."

"What can we do?"

"Nothing," Mickey replied, "except adapt."

Evina was trying to adapt, but it was hard to accept so many changes at once. "Well, we have dealt with problems like this before, and we survived until everything returned to normal."

Mickey was staring at Evina. "And you are losing your color."

"Wait, what!?"

"I'm certain of it. Your red isn't as bright as it was before."

Evina hadn't noticed the change. He didn't want to think about it. One of his biggest wishes was to fit in with other toons, but now he was starting to wonder if it would be better to just give up on that wish. "Sir, I assure you we are completely safe. Now, if I remember correctly, I have a kart to fix." He stood up. "I'll see you later."

Just before he left the area, Mickey stopped him. "Wait a minute. What exactly was that threat you stopped?"

Evina turned around. "It was someone, a toon, a wild monster that called itself Doom."

Mickey shuddered at the name. He was silent and deep in thought. Clearly, he had been around to see the previous incident, and the memories were not pleasant. "I'm sorry that you had to get stuck in this mess, Evina."

Evina shrugged. "It's not your fault. I'm used to it now. Everything's fine."

"I know you don't like to see things change, Evina. But I'm sorry; I don't think we're safe at all."

There was no response. Evina stood for a moment then looked back at the president of Toontown. "But we have to be."

"You should take some time to think it through. If Doom was a toon, then where did he come from? They don't appear out of thin air, you know."

Evina remembered the dream he had experienced before they reached Earth. There was darkness ahead. It was unimaginably powerful. He didn't understand it. He couldn't escape it. It was very close, but nobody noticed it coming. This wasn't Doom, no, this was something else. This was the reason for everything. He had been born in its shadow and destined to face it one day. The worst was yet to come.

Evina couldn't speak. He left the shrubs and walked away slowly, not knowing or caring where he was going. This was his dominion, a land of fears, of dark swirling clouds, of graphite stained with a black ink of evil.