Allison kept running with the baby cub in her arms. It whimpered whenever something was near them, but always at the last minute it seemed that the shadows fell to the ground. She tried to think of a reasonable explanation, but nothing seemed to make sense. It also didn't help that she was still running for her life. She tried to turn a corner, but at the end of the alley a lone shadow stood there watching her. She knew she couldn't turn around, if she did she might run into the other shadows that had been pursuing her. She took a deep breath and held out Zel's sword again.

"Alright," she murmured to the cub, "here we go again."

She took a few defiant steps forward before the shadow twitched and split into several. Before she even had a chance to realize what was happening the shadow had split into nearly seven different figures. Two of them slipped along the walls of the alley and closed in behind her while the others blocked her advance.

She knew that she had no chance of getting out of there, that much was certain. There was no way she could fight off all of them and she couldn't just break through them. She looked down at the cub in her arms and felt her blood boiling. Here she was again helpless to do anything but sit and watch. Jack had been right; she was just another helpless child in this world.

She gritted her teeth and tensed her muscles.

"No!" she snarled to herself, "I'm not just gonna sit by and play the victim anymore."

She turned quickly and threw the sword at one of the shadows. With some amount of luck it impaled itself in the shadows head and it vanished leaving and opening. She only had one shot at it. She tossed the cub through the opening before another shadow moved to occupy it. The cub hit the ground hard and rolled for a minute before it finally managed to get to it's feet. The cub shook itself looked back at her almost pleadingly.

Allison shook her head and the cub seemed to understand her. It gently nodded it's head in return and bolted off down the street.

"Well wasn't that a valiant thing to do?" a smooth voice said from behind her.

Allison turned and saw a man dressed in all black standing behind her with his hands in his pockets and gently leaning against the alley wall. He had jet black hair and Allison found something very unsettlingly familiar about him.

"You really have no idea how long it took to track you down. I figured I'd be able to nab you on your way back to the doors, but my god you are a tricky one. Going into the Dark Forest like that, that my dear was a stroke of brilliance." He said.

Allison took a step back. "Who are you?" she asked.

The man chuckled. "It seems you still have a lot to learn about this place my dear." He said, "But for now just be satisfied to know my name, it's Caligo."

. . .

Zel dove out of the way as a much larger blast blew through another building. He heard Jack voice in the distance and was amazed that he could still stand after being rocked by another of Bunni's blasts. He knew the Skellington clan were tough, but Jack was beyond that.

"Pumpkin Cannon!" Jack shouted over the dim of battle.

Another explosion rocked the town and Zel looked to see Bunni saunter out of the smoke as if nothing had happened. Zel snarled and made a run for her exposed back. Jack had been commanding her attention for the last few minutes and the two of them had just been exchanging blows leveling everything in their path. Zel pushed himself to go as fast as he could, maybe if he could catch Bunni off guard then he'd have a chance to take her down or at least wound her. He drew back his uninjured arm and got ready to throw a punch. His fist stopped in midair just inches from her face.

"Oh that's a dirty tactic baby, it doesn't suit you." She said without looking back.

Zel wasn't even sure if she flicked a finger or not, but his stomach was hit with the force of a freight train and he went flying. He crashed into the ground and his whole body was filled with agony. He spit out blood and saw the corners of his vision going dim. His head swam with darkness and he couldn't form a coherent thought. His whole body felt like it would split apart into a thousand pieces and he would simply cease to exist.

He could hear Jack and Bunni dimly, but everything seemed out of focus. Jack was now resorting to using one of the Skellington's greatest weapons.

"Fuego!" Jack snarled. The area around Bunni exploded in hellfire and she screamed and jumped out of the way.

Zel couldn't help but smile to himself. Bunni should have been smarter. Now he was angry and there would be no holding back. He tried to get to his knees, but his body screamed at him to stay down.

He obliged and was content to sit and watch the fight in a blurry haze. Jack kept throwing out hellfire and Bunni kept trying to get out of the way. To pretty much anyone else it would have looked like Jack had Bunni on the ropes, but Zel knew better.

As strong as the Skellington clan was, they only had so much power to spend. And Jack was quickly approaching that limit. The reason that so few people ever got to see the Skellington special attack was because of the massive amounts of energy it took to cast it. Jack had already used about six full blow attacks. That was well beyond his limits. Jack had always been a performer and with that he was able to keep a very believable poker face, But Zell could see that he was struggling to even move at this point. And it seemed Bunni could see it too.

She stopped suddenly after hopping out of the way of a particularly lethal looking hellfire and smiled.

"What's the matter Jack?" she asked mockingly, "Run out of gas already?"

Jack shook his head and forced a smile. "Not even close, I could keep this up all day." He said.

Bunni erupted in laughter. "Oh really?" she asked, "Now where have I heard that before?"

Jack wasn't even able to see her move, and before Zel could blink Bunni had kicked him clear across the courtyard. As she landed she just stood there cackling. Jack slowly staggered to his feet and Bunni walked over to him slowly. She flung a bolt of shadow at him and he was barely able to deflect it off his arm, but the force of it drove him to his knees. Bunni was only a few feet away and death was in her eyes. That was when Zel spotted the spear that the armor soldier had dropped when he'd been bested by the shadow. Zel managed to get to his feet after having a mental battle with his body and staggered over to the spear on the ground.

. . .

"Caligo?" Allison asked making sure she had heard the name right.

The man nodded. "Yes, and we've met before if ever so briefly." He said.

"You're the one that took over Bunni?!" she asked remembering the name Zel had said.

Caligo shrugged. "If you can even call it that, all I did was nudge her to follow her emotions. But no, we've met before that as well darling."

Allison went through her memory, but nothing seemed to remember this man.

Caligo finally sighed and shook his head. "Well I suppose your memory doesn't matter to me anyway. I was the one that dragged you into this world my dear."

Allison remembered the memory of the tendrils of darkness wrapping around her and pulling her into the tree with a sickening clarity now.

"There you go," Caligo said slowly, "It's all coming back to you now isn't it."

Allison took a step back. "So this was all your fault then, all of this death and destruction?"

Caligo bowed and chuckled. "Yes, this was all the idea of yours truly." He said.

Allison looked around and saw that Zel's sword was lying on the ground not too far away from the shadows blocking her exit. She quickly looked back at Caligo.

"Why?" she asked, "Why would you do all of this?" If she could keep him talking then maybe she'd find a moment to slip away.

"Why?" Caligo asked almost laughing, "Why not? It gives me a chance to get my revenge on these fools and it gives me the most important thing of all: You."

Allison looked at him puzzled.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand, but maybe this will convince you to come with me." He said opening one of his hands.

Alex's dogtags hung from his hand and for the first time in a long time Allison realized she hadn't had them on. "I figured you might want these back." He said tossing them at her. She caught them and put it back on quickly.

"If you think this is gonna make me trust you then you're out of your mind, this just means you stole them from me." She said moving slowly closer to the sword.

Caligo nodded. "Of course, that was just to sweeten the deal. This is the real reason." He said producing a second necklace from his pocket.

Allison's heart stopped. It was her necklace. The small jewel encrusted necklace that Alex had bought her for their two year anniversary. The last time she had seen it was at Alex's funeral. She had slipped it into his lifeless hands before they buried him as a final parting memento.

"How…how can you possibly have that?" she asked her face white.

"Because I can take you to him, he's not as far gone as you would expect Allison." He said softly taking a step closer to her. "Will you come with me, I can reunite you two."

Allison took another step back and thought about it. "Alex." She murmured to herself softly.

Caligo wasn't expecting her to shove Zel's sword straight through his chest, but that's exactly what she did. He reeled back and she slipped through the shadows.

"Liar!" she called back as she ran. She only got a few steps away before the shadows grabbed her and pulled her back.

Caligo stepped forward with the sword still sticking out of his chest.

"Well, well, well" he said "I guess I was wrong about you afterall. You're quite the vixen when you want to be." He slowly slid the sword out of him and Allison could see that even his blood was dark.

The sword wound sealed almost as quickly as it appeared and after a moment the only sign that it had ever been there was the slit in Caligo's shirt. He chuckled and slammed the sword into the side of the alleyway.

Without another word he opened a portal of darkness and looked back at Allison. "Don't say I didn't try to give you an easy way into this. I guess I'm just going to have to take you forcefully."

Allison screamed and tried to break free but the shadows had a hold of her and she had no hope of getting free.

"Zel!" Was all she could cry out before she was plunged into the portal.

. . .

Bunni was only a few steps away from Jack by the time Zel finally managed to wrap his hands around the spear.

"You know Jack, when you banished me I was too afraid of you to even question your decision." She said, "But now I see just how pathetic you really are Skellington. You never could have stopped me just like you can't stop me now. I'm going to grind you into dust then I'm going to take my Zel with me."

"Sorry to burst your bubble hun." Zel said from behind her. He thrusted the spear straight at her chest. It stopped short just like his punch had, blocked by a barely visible wave of darkness.

"I thought I put you down and out of the way baby, what are you doing still moving?" Bunni asked like it was no big deal. She paid absolutely no attention to the spear Zel tried to hit her with. Zel kept trying to break through the field with what energy he had left, the whole while his body was screaming in agony.

"Zel, why don't you just quit and come with me. I love you, I always have. You loved me once too why is it so hard to admit you still do?" She said.

"I've never loved you!" Zel snarled at her.

It looked as if Bunni's whole world had just collapsed on top of her. She just stood there staring at him. All of the darkness around her disappeared and her hair and eyes returned to their normal shades in the blink of an eye.

"Zel, did you really mean-" She couldn't finish her sentence because at the very moment Zel realized Bunni was back to her normal self, her force field had vanished and his spear had impaled itself in her chest. Bunni let out a small wavering cry and fell to the ground.

Zel collapsed next to her and his knees and ripped out the spear. He cradled her body in his arms.

"No, no!" he yelled, "This isn't happening, this isn't fucking happening!" Jack pushed himself off the ground and quickly came over.

"Z-Zel," Bunni managed to say from behind the blood pouring out of her mouth, "Did you really mean w-what you just said?" she asked.

Zel shook his head. "No, I didn't mean it at all. I've loved you ever since I met you."

Bunni nodded weakly and smiled. "G-good. I was hopping you'd say…"

The life slowly faded out of Bunni and she collapsed in Zel's arms.

Zel felt his heart burst into flames. "No, Bunni stay with me." He pleaded, tears forming in his eyes. "You can't leave me, not now, not like this."

Zel shook her gently trying to make her come back. "No, this isn't happening." He said weakly the tears falling freely now, "You can't leave me. I need you. Bunni…" he finally let her body lay on the ground and gently closed her eyes. Jack just stood there, not sure of what to say.

Zel's tears were falling harder now as he gripped his head and closed his eyes tight as if doing that would take all of this away. He sat there sobbing in his sorrow until he couldn't take it anymore and let out a cry of anguish and loss that could be heard all throughout the town.

"Oh how heartbreaking, you broke my plaything." A voice said from behind them.

Zel turned and saw that Caligo was standing only a few feet away.

"Oh well, I never expected her to do much anyway. She was a waste of my powers."

Zel stood up and took a few steps towards him. "This was all your doing you heartless bastard!" he yelled.

"Wait, why don't you let me explain myself before you go charging off on a stupid rampage." Caligo asked.

"We're listening." Jack said stepping next to Zel.

"Thank you, at least one of you has some sense." Caligo said. "Now then… wait never mind I wanted that bitch to die in the first place." He erupted in laughter. Zel charged forward in a rage and right before he was able to tackle Caligo to the ground he dove through the open air. Caligo appeared right behind him holding a sword. Zel recognized it as his.

"Here, you may want to use this. Your lady friend tried already, but maybe you'll have better luck." He said tossing on top of Zel.

"Wait," Jack said, "you have Allison?"

Caligo nodded. "Indeed I do and by the end of tomorrow she'll be… well I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

Zel grabbed his sword off the ground and charged at Caligo, his tears still fresh on his face.

He swung as fast and hard as he could, the pain of his body was long gone fueled by his rage, but for each stroke Caligo simply side stepped out of the way as if Zel's swipes were moving no faster than snail. Zel tried to lunge forward with another strike, but Caligo who had seemingly grown tired of this game, grabbed him by the arm.

"You've always been a disappointment to me Zel, ever since the beginning. I suppose I should just kill you, but that would be no fun. I want to see you suffer just like your girl there did when I broke her mind." He said softly in Zel's ear. Then with one swift jerk he ripped Zel's arm from his body. Zel fell to the ground in agony as blood poured from the wound. Caligo simply tossed the arm aside like it was a piece of trash.

"You were wise not to get in the way Skellington, maybe there's hope for you yet." Caligo said before opening a portal and disappearing from sight. And with that screams of Zel mixed in with those of the burning town and the smoke and death rising into the air, the battle for Halloween Town was over.