Author's notes: Reeling from the ending of Season 1 of The Other Exiles? I wouldn't blame you, but now, it's time for a little holiday cheer amidst the grit and gloom. As a kid, I enjoyed seeing the holiday specials for some of my favorite shows, especially the ones where the characters would team up with Santa Claus. Yes, I knew by then that Santa wasn't real, but that didn't make it any less fun to watch. Now, I'm hoping to do the same for you all, while at the same time laying the groundwork for Season 2 of The Other Exiles. With my faithful and long-suffering partner JOUNOUCHI-sama helping me, I will hopefully bring you a (late) Christmas miracle!
Disclaimer: None of the characters seen here belong to me or JOUNOUCHI-sama. They are all the property of their respective owners, and we make no money whatsoever from their usage in this story, nor do we receive any other material compensation. The only thing we get out of this is the satisfaction of knowing that someone has read and hopefully enjoyed reading this. Thank you very much, and let's begin.
"The Other Exiles"
Holiday Special: "How the Other Exiles Saved Christmas"
At the North Pole, there was a castle, a castle that doubled as a home and a factory where dreams came true and children's wishes would be made into reality. Unfortunately, the only dreams that were coming true now were the worst nightmares from the depths of hell itself, and the only wishes being made into reality were those of madmen (and the occasional madwoman), bathing in the carnage they were unleashing. Case in point . . .
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly!" sang a perversely jovial voice as elves were flung at and through the walls of the castle. "Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!"
None other than Deadpool, psychopathic mascot of Weapon X, who was literally strolling amidst the carnage, slashing and stabbing and shooting his way through the halls of Santa's castle. Beside him was an annoyed Ravager – who was also slashing and stabbing, but doing it far more quietly than her "Uncle Wade from another dimension." "Can you please just shut up?" she asked him.
"Hell, no!" Deadpool replied. "Where's your Christmas spirit, Rosie?"
"Don't call me Rosie," Ravager snarled, before lunging for a hapless fleeing elf with one of her swords.
"We have to get Santa out of here before they get him!" shouted one of the fleeing elves.
Ian Nottingham sighed with a mixture of annoyance and regret. "This is what we're reduced to," he muttered as he attended to Weapon X's grim task of literally carving through any and all obstacles to Santa Claus. Yes, Santa Claus, whom only children believed in and whose existence most adults had learned not to believe in, was real. Or at least, he was real within this nexus of realities that enabled him and his elves to spread toys and holiday cheer to children across the Omniverse. Unfortunately, there was no cheer now – just terror and mayhem, thanks to Weapon X.
"Yeah, this isn't fun," Grimmjow groused, the Arrancar blitzing through elves like a hot knife through butter. "They're not even fighting back."
"It's fun for me!" Psycho Red, the twisted Red Ranger, shouted as he blasted through the castle with his lightning attack.
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" shouted a Dalek as it advanced a bloody path through the castle.
Meanwhile, barricaded inside the communications vault, an elf asked, "Have you sent the message yet?!"
"Sending it now!" the other elf replied frantically. "Someone has to hear this! Someone has to –!"
"Will they even believe it?" a third elf asked.
"They don't have to believe in us to save us," a fourth elf answered somewhat more calmly than the other three were at the moment.
"Is that so?" a fifth elf inquired, the tone full of surprising grimness. Of course, none of the horror that had befallen this place had been expected by them. Such depraved, wanton murderousness on display, and with the castle, the elves, and even the reindeer as targets of it! Whatever manner of beast these things were, they certainly had to be stopped somehow, but none of the elves could do it on their own. "Where's Santa and Mrs. Claus?"
"Safer than we are, I hope," the fourth elf replied somberly. "With luck, they've managed to escape from this madness."
"And if they haven't?"
"May there be mercy on us all."
Meanwhile, inside the TARDIS, the surviving Exiles ruminated bitterly over their losses. Not only had half the team been killed in action, the universe they had been trying to save was now doomed to be overrun by Turok-Han uber-vampires. The only reason they were still alive was that they had been forced to retreat for the sake of their own survival, "live to fight another day" and all that. It still didn't stop them from kicking themselves for losing their teammates, much less the world they had tried to save. Breaking the bitter reverie, much to the surprise of everyone onboard, was . . . Christmas music.
"Who the hell is playing Christmas music?" Sara Pezzini asked bitterly.
"It sounds more like a distress signal," the Doctor replied.
"It sounds like Christmas music," Kazuma Yagami said. "Wait, is it seriously Christmas? And we didn't get each other anything."
"There's only one thing I want for Christmas, and that's obviously not in the cards anytime soon," Nightwing muttered bitterly.
"It is a distress signal," Omni-Buffy declared. "If you listen between the lines and melodies."
"Right!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling and holding out his sonic screwdriver. "This will decipher the signal."
"What are we supposed to be hearing?" Sara asked.
"The sounds of carnage in what's supposed to be the happiest place on Earth – duh," Omni-Buffy said.
"I thought the happiest place on Earth was Disneyworld," Sara commented.
"No, it's the North Pole," Omni-Buffy corrected.
"North Pole . . . wait, you're not telling us . . ." Kazuma started.
"I am. He's real," Omni-Buffy stated.
"Are you kidding me?!" Kazuma asked disbelievingly.
"After everything we've all seen and done and been through, this is what you choose not to believe?" Nightwing asked.
"Well, whether you believe in him or not, he does exist and he is in trouble," Omni-Buffy said.
"Who would go after Santa Claus? He just gives presents to good children all around the world," Sara wondered.
"His base in the North Pole is also an extradimensional nexus that grants him unlimited access to any and all domains in the Omniverse," Omni-Buffy explained. "Guess what happens if someone with not-so-nice intentions ends up taking it for themselves."
"It becomes a staging ground for interdimensional incursions," the Doctor replied. "And such machinery turned to warfare and conquest . . . it would be a tragedy and horror of proportions beyond epic."
"So we gotta save Santa? Just the three of us?" Kazuma asked. "Because Doc here is a pacifist and you can't really do jack because of the 'balance of power' B.S."
"Yeah, you got me there," Omni-Buffy admitted.
"Do you at least know who's doing this?" Nightwing asked.
"Weapon X," Omni-Buffy replied. "As assembled by the Key. In her hands, the North Pole would infinitely extend her reach. No dimension, no reality, no plane of existence would be safe from her or the psychopaths she's brought together."
"And speaking of not safe, Santa and his elves . . ." Sara groaned in horror.
"So we just go there and whip their asses, right?" Kazuma said.
"Yes, otherwise you get coal in your stockings," Omni-Buffy quipped.
"The whole Omniverse is going to get worse than just lumps of coal in their stockings if we don't stop Weapon X," Nightwing said. "I'm in. Even if it's just the three of us."
"Don't worry, it won't be," Omni-Buffy said. "That's what the Doctor is here for. He's going to help me with recruiting."
"And what do we do in the meantime?" Sara asked.
"Go in there and open a can of frosty whoop-ass on Weapon X," Omni-Buffy replied.
"Sure, we can do that," Kazuma said. "Sure, we're horribly outnumbered, but we can do it."
"There's that can-do spirit!" Omni-Buffy cheered.
"Setting coordinates to the North Pole," the Doctor said. "We will be there right . . . about . . . now."
Then the TARDIS dumped Nightwing, Sara, and Kazuma in the North Pole – and left them there. "Thanks for the smooth landing!" Kazuma snarked at the departing TARDIS.
"So . . . this is the North Pole, where all the magic happens," Sara murmured. "Never really thought it was real."
"The kinds of worlds we come from, I don't think we have much business writing any of this off as 'not real,'" Nightwing said. "What I don't believe, though . . ." He pointed to Santa Claus's home and headquarters, which was ringing with screams when it should have been ringing with joy. "What kind of monsters could do something like this?"
"The kind that don't believe in the Christmas spirit," Sara replied. "You wanna kick some into them?"
"I do . . ." Kazuma answered. "Wait, why aren't we cold?"
"The magic is still there . . . but if the Key gets a hold of it, there's no telling what'll happen next," Nightwing said. He bolted toward Santa's castle in a blur of black-and-blue, Kazuma following Nightwing in a literal whirlwind that carried him across the distance. Sara bounded after them both, activating the Witchblade, which expanded itself to cover her in a carapace made from its unearthly metal substance. The blade extended from her wrist, ready to do battle against those responsible for bringing such violence to a place that should have been bursting with joy and wonder.
Inside the castle was pandemonium, with screams of fear and pain ringing throughout alongside sadistic laughter and splatters of blood and unmoving elf bodies all over the walls. "You monsters . . ." Nightwing snarled, speeding through the castle looking for survivors with his X-ray vision. He found some in the communications vault and barreled his way in. "It's ok! I'm here to save you!"
"I sure hope so," one of the elves said.
"What about Santa and Mrs. Claus?" another elf asked.
"My friends are helping to find and rescue them, too," Nightwing replied.
"That's good . . . but how are you going to get past those monsters?" a third elf inquired.
"Yeah, how are you going to get past us?" taunted a hideously familiar voice, and Nightwing turned just in time to dodge a fast punch from Grimmjow.
"Simple, I will," Nightwing replied coldly and shot off a burst of heat vision at Grimmjow, who countered with a Cero, the crimson energy blasts meeting midway and clashing violently. As Nightwing poured on the heat, he gestured to the elves. "Get out of here, now! My friends will find you and get you out of here!"
"Sure, they will," Grimmjow sneered sarcastically, as the elves ran for their lives, only to be surprised by a sudden burst of freeze breath from Nightwing. "What the . . . you think this is gonna stop me?!"
"No, but it'll hold you long enough," Nightwing answered.
"We'll see about that," Grimmjow threatened.
Meanwhile, the fleeing elves ran into Kazuma. "Glad you little twerps are still alive," he said. "Now, you know where Santa and Mrs. Claus are?"
"We're not gonna tell you!" one of the elves snarled defiantly.
"Nice, but I'm not gonna hurt you," Kazuma replied. "I'm one of the good guys."
"Friend of Nightwing?" another elf asked.
"No, he's our leader," Kazuma answered. "Wouldn't call us friends, though. We're just on the same team."
"Good enough for us!" a third elf chimed in.
"Oh, really?" came a taunting voice, just before twin katana were stopped by Kazuma's wind barrier. "Damn, it's drafty in here!"
"You're a damned butcher and I'm gonna stop you right here, right now!" Kazuma snapped at the twin katana's wielder, none other than Deadpool.
"Big words coming from someone who couldn't save his own girlfriend!" was the red-and-black-clad sadistic mercenary's retort.
"Go to hell!" Kazuma snarled, turning his wind barrier into slicing blades that literally cut Deadpool apart. He turned to the elves, who looked somewhat aghast at what he'd done. "What? He killed your friends. He was gonna kill you. He'd kill Santa. Besides . . . that won't keep him down forever, just long enough to get you out of here . . . if we can find Santa."
Speaking of finding Santa, Sara was prowling through the castle when she was intercepted by Ian Nottingham. "You monsters . . ."
"I know what I am," he answered sadly, blocking her Witchblade with his.
"Do you?!" Sara asked angrily.
"Yes," he replied as a burst of Darkness knocked Sara back, only for Sara to flip onto her feet and charge him again, darting between and around the Darkness's snapping tendrils.
"Then I guess there's no need to feel guilty about doing this, is there?" Sara remarked grimly, slashing Ian with her Witchblade, though the Darkness quickly healed his wound.
As their deadly dance continued, Nightwing was using his super-senses to find Santa and Mrs. Claus. Once he did, he immediately sped a path toward them, hoping beyond hope that no one was following him. Sadly, he wouldn't be that lucky, as he was intercepted by a red blur, none other than Psycho Red.
"Think you're gonna save Christmas?" the twisted Red Ranger taunted. "Think again!" He fired an electric bolt from his hands at Nightwing, who darted out of the way and countered with a burst of heat vision. "That . . . actually hurt. But you're gonna hurt worse."
"Bring it," Nightwing snarled, dashing toward Psycho Red for a flying punch . . . that Psycho Red caught and used to pull Nightwing in for a vicious elbow to his gut. Nightwing quickly recovered, twisting around Psycho Red for a spinning heel kick to the back of his helmeted head. Psycho Red stumbled, but flipped to his feet and drew out his Psycho Sword, charging it with red energy before slashing Nightwing.
"Not so tough, now are you?" Psycho Red taunted.
"Still tougher than you," Nightwing retorted, and lunged for Psycho Red, grabbing him by his helmeted head and slamming him through the nearest wall. However, even that wasn't enough to put down the twisted Red Ranger for long, and he came back literally roaring as he transformed into a fiery red monster, blasting Nightwing with hellish heat. "Ok . . . maybe this is tougher than I thought." Of course, he wasn't going to give Psycho Red the pleasure of seeing him sweat, and so he did what he did best besides acrobatics. "Oh, you just got uglier. Was that supposed to do anything?"
"Is that the best you've got?" Psycho Red sneered. "Pathetic, just like you!"
Just then, there was the sound of a camera shutter going off, and a young Japanese man came forth with an old-fashioned camera, which was just ejecting the picture he had taken of Psycho Red. He sighed, looking at the red blob in the picture. "Another dud," he muttered.
"And who might you be, another lamb to the slaughter?" Psycho Red asked mockingly.
The young man held up the picture. "What do you think? Not too bad, right?"
"'Not too bad'?" Psycho Red repeated. "You'll make a better corpse than a photographer!" He lunged for the young cameraman, who was pulled out of the way of Psycho Red's attack by Nightwing.
"Get out of here," the Kryptonian-powered vigilante warned. "I can still take this guy." And by the way, you are no Jimmy Olsen.
"You can, but you're going to need some help, in your condition," the young man replied, putting his camera aside. He took out something that looked like a giant high-tech belt buckle and slapped it onto his waist, a strap emerging and wrapping around to lock it there. He also pulled out something that looked like a book with a white case and drew a card from it, before placing the bookcase at his side and slotting the card into the belt buckle.
KAMEN RIDE.
"Henshin!" the young man shouted, as the belt buckle locked into its mount.
DECADE.
Ghostlike digital afterimages of an armored suit emerged around the young man before colliding into him, forming into the armored suit – magenta, black, and white – with insectoid green lenses and a bar code-like pattern across the helmet.
"The Destroyer of Worlds!" Psycho Red exclaimed in horrified realization.
"Yes," the Kamen Rider who could emulate the powers and forms of the 9 Riders before him answered, before drawing his bookcase again and making it into a gun, shooting Psycho Red. The fiery red monster grunted in a mix of pain and rage as he lunged for Kamen Rider Decade, only for Decade to convert his bookcase-gun into a bookcase-sword and slash Psycho Red with it.
"How did you even get in here? Did the Doctor send you?" Nightwing asked.
"In a way," Decade replied, slashing Psycho Red again.
"What about Santa and Mrs. Claus?"
"You save them. I'll keep this one occupied."
"Thanks . . ." Nightwing dashed off to find the Clauses, hoping desperately he wasn't too late. To his great relief, he wasn't, and they looked about as he expected, Santa being a large, jolly man in the traditional red suit and hat, though he was understandably far from jolly at this moment, sadness heavily weighing on him, and Mrs. Claus being a stately woman in a red dress with a maternal air about her. There were two girls guarding them, alongside the elves that had taken refuge with them. One was a blonde with her hair in a ponytail and dressed in a blue tunic embroidered with a number "4" and a green cloak over medieval-looking armor.
The other girl was dressed in a black-and-blue, high-collared halter top with two intersecting pink belts over her chest and black shorts, along with a silver badge. She also wore white bell-sleeves on her arms and fingerless tan gloves on her hands, along with a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms. On her legs, she wore what appeared to be black stockings that reached about halfway up her thighs, leaving a strip of bare skin between them and her shorts. Two strips of blue cloth draped over her hips, along with a smaller white strip of cloth that tied around her waist and draped in the same manner. Completing the girl's elaborate ensemble was a pair of pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp hook-like protrusion on the outer side of each . . . well, that and the oversized key in her hands.
"You're late," the blonde remarked in an imperious voice.
"She means we're glad you showed up," the blue-haired girl added.
"The Doctor send you, too?" Nightwing asked.
"You assume we'd need him to send us," the imperious blonde scoffed.
"Those would be your new teammates," Omni-Buffy's voice remarked from the Tallus. "Valeria Von Doom and the Keyblade Master Aqua."
"Keyblade?" Nightwing repeated, looking at the oversized key held by Aqua. "That's an actual weapon?"
"And a powerful one, too, more than you think," Omni-Buffy replied.
"With all of us here, do you think we can get you two out of here?" Nightwing asked Santa and Mrs. Claus.
"What'll happen to Christmas if we leave?" Santa asked, frightened not for himself, but for the children of so many worlds.
"We'll find a way, Nicholas," Mrs. Claus replied in a comforting voice.
"How did you get in here?" Nightwing asked Aqua and Valeria.
"Keyblade," Aqua replied.
"So it works like a key, too?"
"Yes."
"Then we can make it out!"
"Yes, but we must make it to the TARDIS first, and with those psychopaths from Weapon X out there . . ." Valeria interrupted.
"Then we make it past them," Aqua declared, hefting her Keyblade.
"If anyone knows any hidden passages out of here, now would be the time to share," Nightwing said.
Santa looked at Mrs. Claus, then at his elves, and then to Nightwing. "You're the leader of this bunch?"
"I am," Nightwing replied. "I have to be."
"Then I'll show you to the hidden emergency exits," Santa said. "With luck, those monsters haven't found and sealed them off yet."
"Even if they have, we'll get them unsealed," Nightwing responded.
"My elves . . ." Santa murmured somberly.
"We saved as many as we could," Aqua said. "If it wasn't for them, we might not have found you."
"Our teammates have been helping on that front, but they're not nearly as vicious as Weapon X. That's a weakness," Valeria declared.
"Personally, I think it's a strength," Nightwing countered. "Shows we haven't lost our souls."
Valeria looked at him askance. "Would you rather lose lives, then? Because I know what happened on your last mission, what's befallen this place."
Nightwing glared at Valeria. "Don't. You. Dare."
"You have to get out of here now before Weapon X regroups and comes for you!" Omni-Buffy shouted from the Tallus. "So stow the morality debate!"
Just then, the door was blasted open by the Dalek. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" it shouted as it opened fire, Nightwing darting to take every shot, as Aqua slapped the armor piece on her left shoulder to activate her Keyblade Armor, and Valeria formed an invisible barrier to protect everyone else. When Aqua completed her transformation, she was garbed in predominantly silver-gray armor with blue and black highlights, a breastplate shaped like an upside-down crescent moon, and a helmet with two silver prongs wrapping around the sides and pointing down, as her face was covered by a dark visor. She then went into Ghost Drive, dashing and blurring around the Dalek, confusing its aim with the many afterimages she was leaving in her path, until she finally slashed the Dalek with her Keyblade.
"Get out of here now!" she shouted. "I'll keep this thing busy!"
Valeria sighed. "No need for that," she said, and generated a force blast that knocked the Dalek out of their path. "Now we can get moving."
"What'll happen to this place?" Santa wondered mournfully as he, his wife, his elves, and the new Exiles made their escape.
"We'll rebuild, Nicholas," Mrs. Claus replied firmly. "For the sake of the good children all around, we'll rebuild."
"And the naughty children will get coal in their stockings?" Valeria mused out loud.
Just then, they were met by Kazuma and Sara, along with a still-transformed Kamen Rider Decade. "So that's Santa and Mrs. Claus?" Kazuma asked.
"And our fearless leader," Sara added, "flanked by girls. Somehow, I'm not surprised."
"We're your new teammates, not his concubines," Valeria sneered.
"Ah, introductions will have to wait until we've reached the TARDIS," Decade said.
"The TARDIS? You mean . . . it was the Doctor that sent you?" Santa asked, brightening up slightly. "It's been a long while since I saw that fellow."
"And it'll be longer!" Ravager interrupted, blocking the exit with a regenerated Deadpool, an unfrozen Grimmjow, a still-monstrous Psycho Red, the Dalek, and Ian Nottingham, his eyes glowing with the power of the Darkness while his Witchblade extended from his wrist.
"No. It won't," Nightwing declared.
"Hey, Contractor!" Deadpool shouted. "Now I gotta contract of my own . . . on you!"
"How clever," Kazuma mocked, before generating another massive burst of wind to knock out Weapon X. Unfortunately, Deadpool and Ravager drew their swords and actually sliced through Kazuma's wind attack, incidentally creating their own razorlike wind. Valeria threw up another invisible energy barrier to protect everyone, but the Dalek was already firing, and Grimmjow drew his sword to cut his own hand, his blood flowing from the wound.
"Gran Ray Cero!" he shouted, charging a blue – and exponentially more powerful – Cero that he blasted at Valeria's barrier. Psycho Red launched a hellish blast of red energy at Valeria's barrier as well, and Deadpool settled for drawing out a pair of guns and shooting at the barrier.
"How long do you think you can keep this up?!" Psycho Red taunted.
"Long enough . . ." Valeria growled in reply, before using her barrier to absorb and reflect their own attacks back at them, causing quite the conflagration in what was once the real "happiest place on Earth," even if it was technically in a nexus of realities.
"We can still rebuild," one of the elves whispered.
"Yes, yes, we can," Santa assured them.
"I've had enough," Kamen Rider Decade said, and he slotted a card from his mysterious bookcase-like holder into his buckle, the Decadriver, then locked it in.
KAMEN RIDE . . . KABUTO!
He transformed again, this time into a red-and-black beetle-styled warrior, and slotted another card.
ATTACK RIDE . . . CLOCK UP!
Like that, everything slowed to a near-absolute stop, with him being the only one who could still move . . . or so he thought, as Grimmjow met him in mid-strike and threw him across the hall. Fortunately for Decade, Nightwing came to his aid, as did Valeria. "How are you . . . ?"
"I'm that fast," Nightwing replied.
"And I'm that advanced," Valeria added.
"And I'm just gonna wipe the floor with all of you!" Grimmjow chimed in.
"No. You're not," Nightwing answered icily.
It was a vicious three-on-one high-speed battle, with Nightwing, Valeria, and Decade against Grimmjow. Meanwhile, the other Exiles fought the remaining members of Weapon X so that Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves could escape. However, escape was starting to look more and more like a fantasy, at least until . . .
VWORP! VWORP!
"Ah, Doctor . . . it took you long enough," Santa remarked with a smile. "Still being a good boy."
"I'm not really . . ." the Doctor replied sadly. "But there's no time to reminisce! Come in! Hurry! All of you! While there's still time!"
Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves hurried inside the TARDIS. "It's so big!" one of the elves exclaimed in surprise.
"What do we do? Even if we escape, we can't let these monsters have our home," another elf said. "They'll do horrible things with it!"
"Don't worry, we won't let them have it," the Doctor said.
"How?" an elf asked, at which point the Doctor looked away sadly.
"You're gonna destroy it, aren't you?" the elf accused. "So those marauders can't have it?"
The Doctor didn't answer.
"But it's our home!" another elf protested. "Where will we go?!"
"We will rebuild," Santa declared, trying to be brave for his elves.
"And what about the children who still need their presents?" a third elf asked, pleadingly. "They'll be so sad!"
The Doctor sighed sadly.
"I overheard you, Doctor, and we're not destroying this place," Nightwing said. "This is a place of magic, of light and love and hope. If we destroy it –"
"We don't have to destroy it," Aqua cut in. "We can seal it instead. I know. It's been done before."
"Even with that, we'll still be cut off from all the children that need their gifts!" the third elf protested.
"My children . . ." Santa said. "That place of magic, of light and love and hope that you spoke of, Mr. Grayson . . . it's in your heart. It's in all your hearts. It's not a physical place. It's not even a nexus of reality. It exists in all of us, as long as we hold onto what is good and true and just and right. A place can be rebuilt, reborn . . . even if the same can't always be said about people. Some wishes are not even in my power to grant, but as long as you hold onto the light inside you, that magic will always be there."
"Ok, I'm out!" Deadpool shouted suddenly. "I'm not gonna take that Hallmark Christmas card crap! Hey, Key! Get me out of this joint!"
"Key?" Aqua repeated.
"Yeah, the Key! The little high-and-mighty 'I'm making you do bad things for good reasons' bitch!" Deadpool snapped at her. "Some key! She could've just opened this place up already, but she wanted a big bloody fight scene for Christmas! So, here we are! And we killed a bunch of elves! Happy!?"
"Wow . . ." Kazuma uttered. "That is just . . . the worst. Seriously. You're the worst. All of you."
"You're telling me!" Deadpool exclaimed – and then he was gone. So were the rest of Weapon X. As if they'd never been there at all, though the carnage they had committed was evident in the ruined, bloodstained halls of Santa's castle.
"They're gone? Just like that?" Sara asked.
"Wow . . ." Kazuma uttered, again.
"Is it safe now?" one of the elves asked.
"No one inside that castle except the Exiles," the Doctor replied, "at least not according to the TARDIS."
"It's safe . . . for certain qualifiers of safe," Omni-Buffy said from the Tallus. "Let's see if we can salvage a Merry Christmas from all this."
"Of course we can, Miss Summers," Santa said. "Like I said to Mr. Grayson, the magic of Christmas is something that truly dwells in our hearts. So long as we hold onto it, it will always be there."
"And we can help rebuild," Aqua added.
"Hmm, I think I've got another mission for you . . ." Omni-Buffy said.
"And what's that?" Decade asked, having changed back to his default form.
"Delivery duty," Omni-Buffy answered with a smile in her voice.
"Us?!" the Exiles shouted in astonishment and surprise.
"Yes, you. I mean, we've got this bitching TARDIS, we've got at least three dimensional travelers, and we've got Nightwing with all the prerequisite Kryptonian powers. No reason you can't do it. At least give Santa a rest for this one Christmas!"
Nightwing smiled. "I think we'll manage."
The next morning, all over the Omniverse, children woke up to not only their presents, but to special notes signed by "Santa's special helpers." Not-so-coincidentally, the children who had gotten those notes were the Titans from Nightwing's reality, Dani Baptiste from Sara's reality, Ayano Kannagi from Kazuma's reality, Natsumi from Decade's reality, Ventus and Terra from Aqua's reality, and Franklin Richards from Valeria's reality. Each note was an expression of personal encouragement and love from their writers, and even if the children didn't know who "Santa's special helpers" were exactly, they knew that somewhere out there, they had someone watching over them, and so they had a Merry Christmas.
Speaking of a Merry Christmas, the Exiles had regrouped inside the TARDIS and were celebrating the rebuilding of Santa's castle, as well as their victory, such as it was, over Weapon X. "I'd like to make a toast," the Doctor said, "to our teammates, old and new, dead and alive. The work of protecting reality itself goes on, and so do we . . . as do they, deep in our hearts of hearts."
"You do have two hearts," an untransformed Decade, Tsukasa Kadoya, said with a wry smile.
"A toast it is, then," Nightwing said. "Welcome aboard, Tsukasa, Valeria, and Aqua. Let's hope you survive the experience."
"Yes, let's hope," Valeria replied dryly. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," Kazuma said back to her.
"And bless us, everyone," an untransformed Aqua added with a gentle smile, toasting with her new team, and hopefully, her new friends.
"And to a Happy New Year," finished Nightwing.
Endnotes: Speaking of, Happy New Year to all of you reading this! Sorry it took me so long to get it done, and sorry to JOUNOUCHI-sama for having to kick my butt in gear so many times just to get this finished. Why release this story at all, even though it's so late? To get back in the writing spirit, of course, and to celebrate the return of the Exiles in Marvel Comics, who are about to get a new series by Saladin Ahmed, writer of the Black Bolt series! I hope this gets you all primed and ready for The Other Exiles, Season 2, which will be coming later – but not too much later – this year! Once again, Happy New Year!