LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! GIRLS AND BOYS OF ALL AGES! I give you my first oneshot in the spirit of Halloween! Featuring the cast of "The Hearts Remnants," this is some non-canon event that takes place somewhere after the end of the main story. Not to worry, no spoilers will be given. Heck, Goofy and Donald will not even be appearing for the sake of the story. I know it's Donald's magic that transforms them, but I will not hear it!
Halloween Town will be the KH2 version, as that is the one I remember most, and it's important to the plot.
I do not own Kingdom Hearts, RWBY, or The Nightmare Before Christmas
Gummi Ship- orbit over Halloween Town
"Alright guys!" Sora clapped his hands together, gaining the attention of the collected group. Team RWBY, JNPR, and SRVX plus Lea were gathered in the living quarters common room, all excited to go. Teams RWBY and JNPR especially, they had never been to Halloween Town before. Neither had Ventus, come to think of it. "There are a few ground rules of course." Sora warned and the more immature ones groaned.
"Rules!?" Nora whined. "Do we HAVE to follow them?" Ren only groaned.
"Most of them, yes." Sora admitted. "Rule one is a big one: wear a costume. It is perpetual Halloween there, so this is a given. The magic between the five of us should do." Everyone nodded. "Next, every resident of this world may look scary, some may even try to scare you, but that's their job; most of them are peaceful. Do not attack or offend them."
"Wait," Jaune interrupted, with a slight gulp. "Most?" Everyone else turned to Sora, various inquisitive glances sent his way.
Sora sighed. "Yes, most are peaceful, but watch out for the three best trick or treaters, and pranksters, of Halloween Town: Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Those three kids have caused plenty of trouble in the past, and are usually trying to pull something. They've teamed up with various villains through my travels, and I have to fight them a lot." Everyone seemed at ease at this, kids can't be too much of a problem, right? "It's their pseudo boss you need to be careful for. Oogie Boogie is a gambling, psycho, bag of bugs. While the three kids don't go for the throat, Oogie isn't afraid to kill. Though I've defeated him, be on the lookout, he's been revived before."
The group was silent, until Weiss broke it. "Well, he's gone, so no problem there. Are there any other things we need to be aware of?"
Sora shook his head before turning to the other Keybearers and nodding to them. "Now, let's get to costumes! I-" Nora shot up before he could say another word.
"OOH Me first! Me first! I want to be a skeleton! NO! An evil scientist! Can I be a pancake?! Can-" Sora placed his hand over her mouth.
"I was about to say," Sora continued. "I know you may want to choose an outfit, but the magic chooses it for you. It may be a drastic change, it may not." He turned to Roxas. "You said they may recognize your coats, so you going to transform too?"
"Everyone else is," he shrugged with a grin before glancing at his fellow former Nobodies. "Why not? It'll be fun if anything, right guys?" Lea and Xion nodded enthusiastically.
Jaune stood up. "As long as I'm not a clown, I'll be fine." He shivered at the thought. Sora didn't have the heart to tell him of the clown with the tearaway face, freaky bastard.
Weiss followed. "I too, would rather not be something quite… degrading." Sora just started rolling his eyes as requests he had no control over came running in. It was Roxas who stepped in with the save.
"Look," he said exasperatedly. "We won't know how good, or bad, anyone looks until we get down there, so there's no point in complaining about it now. And if ya don't stop complaining, we may not take you guys down there at all!" That calmed everyone down real quick. After glancing around at each of the assembled members, Roxas sighed in relief. "Alright, see? Wasn't that easier?"
Sora strode past Roxas into the cockpit as he readied for landing. "We'll be landing in the outskirts of town," he explained. "From there, we meet up with my friend, Jack, and he'll handle the rest of the festivities. Jack is… the unofficial ruler of the town, I guess. While Halloween Town does have a mayor, everyone turns to Jack for the final say in most things."
"I thought Jack was a pirate." Ren said, confused.
"Different one," Sora said simply. He continued working the controls.
"Wasn't he a gladiator?" Lea quipped.
"No, that's Zack," Ven explained. Things continued this way for the remainder of the time in the Gummi Ship: a useless, headache inducing discussions on people with the same name. Notable lines were: "Don't even GET me started on Ansem!" "I'm talking about the young one, not the creepy old one." "No, the fake one!" …And the like.
Halloween Town- Graveyard
With a flash of light, twelve young adults walked forward into the festive world of Tricks or Treats. Sora, wearing his usual vampire outfit, stepped in front of the group and gave a low bow. "Welcome to Halloween Town!" He looked up at the group who were engrossed in the changes to their outfits. "And might I say, we are looking particularly spooky today!"
It was true. The entire group had made an interesting wardrobe change. Sora looked at each of the group in interest.
Roxas, who was talking to Xion, took on an outfit a lot like his own. The mask, which was blue instead of red orange, was on the reverse side of his face. His jacket was mainly dark blue fading to black and had a wide splitting tail. His pants looked more like his usual cargo pants, but darker and frayed. To Sora's jealousy, the wings were also larger.
Speaking of Xion... As if there was some sort of sick and cruel joke the world was playing, she looked like a puppet. A china doll with a pale complexion, except for her rosy, almost painted so, cheeks, and blackened eye sockets. Her joints seemed to have hinges to them that would not be there otherwise. Roxas was trying to calm her down somewhat, and Sora felt a pang of sympathy to the girl.
Lea and Yang were looking slightly more enthusiastic about their costumes. The two had a classic magician and assistant look going on. Both of them had white button up shirts, bowties, white gloves, and tailcoats accentuating different parts of their frames. Lea had black slacks leading to a pair of pointy shoes while Yang had fishnet stockings accentuated by the five inch heels she wore, much to Lea's glee. While Yang's hair was down, like usual, Lea's normally absurd mollusk-like mane was slicked back somewhat, yet still grouped into his distinct spikes, while a top hat rested on his head. He was commenting on something along the lines of "old man shoes," but Sora moved his attention away.
Weiss looked, frankly, terrifying. Sora had to step back a little in shock at the amount of change she took. She was paler than usual, which is saying something, and she was, quite literally, translucent. Her normally prim and proper look was replaced with a ragged and worn nightgown, her now matted and dirty hair was covering parts of her face, something Sora was glad for, as her soulless black eyes and the lipstick(?) that went past the edges of her mouth and running down her face were making Sora extremely uncomfortable.
Nora had no problem chatting with her though. She had taken on a "Bride of Frankenstein" look, that fit her insane electric and eclectic lifestyle personally. Her hair was standing straight up, discharging small amounts of electricity, as were the bolts on her neck. Her skin was patchwork, greenish, and stitched in some areas. She was currently enjoying sneaking up on people, poking them with her signature "BOOP," and watching as people were zapped by the static electricity she gave off.
Blake didn't change that much, all things considered. Her clothing was a little more torn up, her ears were on display, and she even grew a set of whiskers and a tail, which Ruby and Yang were fawning over, and Ven, who had an armor on at first glance, stood close by her. She seemed only slightly annoyed at the increase amount of feline properties she gained, but was taking it in stride.
Ruby also didn't change as much as some of the others. She was wearing her usual outfit with the exception that, instead of a hood, her cloak had a raised collar that screamed Draculina. She also had a set of fangs to further this observation. She walked over to Sora, giving a small twirl for him. "Like the new look? Bleh, bleh, bleh!" She asked with a stereotypical Transylvanian accent. Sora swore he heard "I DO NOT SAY BLEH, BLEH, BLEH!" in the distance, but he shrugged it off, choosing to nod in approval of his girlfriend's appearance.
"The hell is this?!" Everyone turned to Jaune, who had a palette swap essentially, with silver hair and silver armor accents, black instead of white armor and weapons, all of which looked significantly more beaten up. But it wasn't him they were mortified at.
As the sick joke the world was playing continued, {And the twisted glee of the author} Pyrrha's skin was ashen gray, and was cracking like dry clay in some places. She looked like she was ready to drift away with the slightest gust of wind, to leave them all, to leave Jaune, again. Her armor was rusted, chipped, and in disrepair. And to the horror of everyone, an open and dry wound rested in her chest, just as the arrow did years ago. Pyrrha was visibly shaking as she looked at herself, the memories flooding back to her, and she collapsed to her knees, frozen in fear. The rest gathered around her Sora pushing his way forward. He waved a hand, dispelling the disguise on her and giving Jaune some space as he cradled her and whispered comforting words in her ear. Sometimes, things were just too scary.
As the group looked on, they watched their friends as they visibly relaxed in each other's embraces. When the two finally helped themselves up, there were visible streaks of tears on their faces, but they looked past that. Sora quickly stepped forward. "I'm so sorry guys! I didn't know it would-"
"It's not your fault Sora," Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder. "You said it was randomized and I just got very unlucky. With all honestly though, I'd like to continue on in my regular form." Sora nodded, not even able to look at her. Ruby hugged him from behind, which he responded by turning around and hugging her back.
"Alright," Lea clapped his hands, trying to lighten up the mood again. "Shall we continue?" Everyone nodded at that, and began to turn towards the town before Ren spoke up.
"Hey, any reason why I never changed?" Everyone turned around and, sure enough, Ren was in a darker green version of his casual attire… that's it. Roxas walked up to him, confused.
"I guess…" he started. "The magic saw no need for you to?" Roxas shrugged, completely confused. "Guess the magic is as distant as you are apparently." Ren narrowed his eyes at the off-hand snide remark, but let it slide.
"And what about me?" Ven piped up, attracting the attention of the company. When Sora turned around, he screamed a completely and totally manly scream, not at all sounding like a little girl, and he definitely did not jump into Roxas's arms. "What? I'm in Terra's armor, why's that scary?" It was true, Ven was wearing an armor exactly like Terra's, wielding Ends of the Earth, but was wearing a gold and black cape, unlike Terra. "How is this scary?" He asked again, seeing Sora quiver in fear.
Sora picked up the pieces of his dignity and looked Ven dead in the eyes. "Trust me, that's the scariest thing of all." And he left it at that, walking into town.
Halloween Town- Town Square
The group gazed in awe as they walked into town, taking in all the macabre sights and sounds of the town. Most of the citizens would be out scaring, but Jack had stayed back this year to play host to the group of young adults. Nora was positively bouncing as she saw numerous things that she wanted to touch, but really shouldn't. The guillotine was a prime example of this. "So," Ruby asked. "Where's Jack?"
"OH HO!" They looked to the left, seeing a gangly, eight foot tall, walking skeleton smiling genially at them from the doorstep of his house. "Sora! It's great to see you again! And I assume these are the others you were telling me about?" He leapt over to the group in an acrobatic display of agility, leaping high into the air, doing two or three front flips, before landing in front of the group, fifty or so feet from where he started. "Hello! My name is Jack Skellington, King of the Pumpkin Patch! Good to see all you youngsters!"
The group began introductions, going one by one, until everyone's name was traded. "So Jack," Sora said with a smile. "What do you got for us?"
"Why, the full Halloween Town Experience!" He exclaimed joyfully energetic. "So much to do in one night! We have to scare, trick, and treat tonight! We'll start by giving you the tour of the town. This here is the famous fountain to which we…" The next hour was filled with entertaining near death experiences with the infrastructure of Halloween Town. From the fountain that fired a burst of murky water at Blake, to the gates slamming into Ren and Nora, to the hilarious wail that came from Jaune when he strayed too close to the Guillotine.
Then for the rest of the night, the host took them on zany adventures and trips through Halloween Town. Jack regaled them with Halloweens past, how he infiltrated a Shakespeare festival and used his own head in Hamlet, how he used his head as a bowling ball, there were many, many head tales. They went through the graveyard, where an unsuspecting Lea learned what happens if you lean on the tombstones. Nora now wants to know what a "Lea Pancake" would taste like. They met the Mayor, Dr. Finklestein, Sally, and Zero. The picked pumpkins around the Curly Hill. Some were less inclined to leave. They played with Zero, strangely comfortable with using one of Jack's own ribs to play fetch with him.
By at the end of it all, Jack had gone to bed, completely dead tired after entertaining these spry youngsters. He bid them adieu and left, Zero laying back to rest in his doghouse. Although they were all ready to head home, Sora had one last surprise for the group.
"Hey guys!" He called out. "Before we leave, we need to go see one last place." He began to run towards the Hinterlands, only to slam face first into an invisible wall, impeding his path and breaking his nose. "Huh? That's never happened before." He noticed a sign that said Sequel Material, Do NOT open till Christmas.
He healed his face and his pride before turning back to his friends. "Sorry guys, guess it isn't gonna happen this time." He vaguely said, not hinting to what he had in store for them. "Let's get home. I'm tired."
"AWWWWWWWW!" The collective groan and whines were enough to wake the dead, and Jack pointed this out before going back to bed. With that, the group all transported back to the Gummi Ship and went to bed dreaming of Nightmares that weren't all that bad.
THIS IS HALLOWEEN! THIS IS HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! SO EVERBYBODY SCREAM!
It was fun to write this, and it was a nice break from the usual. "Beacon's Bounty Hunter" will be up sometime in the next two weeks, then… we have the huge fight sequence in "The Heart's Remnants!"
Anyway, this was an omake that got too big for its britches, so I thought, "Let's make a one-shot!"
Happy Halloween!
This is Theothergy (The-other-guy) signing off!