Hello, and here is Halloween Town - one of my personal favorite worlds. What can I say? It's freakin' Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas! Where do you go wrong with that?!

To MackBlade and TheFoolishDreamer: Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews and your enthusiasm for my story! It's nice to have more people interested in my Kingdom Hearts story series. I was afraid someone wouldn't notice after my months' writer's block. Please, keep on coming with your thoughts and have patience with me as I try to juggle my writings.

Without further ado, please enjoy!

Constructive reviews are welcome. Rude comments are not.

I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts except my OCs.

Read, leave me a review, but no flames allowed!

Chapter 13: Halloween Town

After taking the time to recuperate from the constant swimming they had to do in Atlantica (considering how sore their muscles must've become, clearly it was easy to feel exceedingly fatigued even after returning to their normal state), the gummi ship further along the roads until they found another world that looks rather spooky yet a bit fun at the same time.

The new location they've found looked like a small, twistedly Gothic town with a creepy fountain spewing out a green, liquid substance in the middle of the town itself; in the center of the entire setting was what looked like a giant jack-o-lantern with a spooky face. The colorations gave off the impression of something out of a children's ghost storybook, or anything macabre in general.

"Now what do ya suppose that place is?" Medea asked as she looked out the window.

"It looks rather scary…" Luna said nervously, "Is it really safe there?"

"That place looks like it took Halloween to the extremes, and celebrates it all year," Sora added.

"Then let's see what's in there," Goofy suggested.

"Good idea," Donald agreed.

When they came out of the gummi ship, the party found that their appearances have changed yet again, but this time to fit the macabre setting of the new world they had set foot on.

Luna noticed that she was wearing a dark blue, worn-down bridal dress decorated with a spider and spider web laced train and her moonstone brooch pinned to the top of her dress; on her head, she wore a headdress with a transparent purple veil and decorated flowers along with a net veil over her eyes, and on her arms were worn-down and tattered fingerless net gloves. The most change done to her body was two stitches around both of her arms, while the rest of her remained the same.

On Medea's part, her purple dress was changed into a white dress with tatters around the skirt hem and the sleeves, and her skin became paler than it usually was with dark circles under her eyes; her bright red hair and violet eyes, however, remained the same.

Sora was wearing a black-and-white jumpsuit with white gloves and bat wings placed on his back, along with black stockings held by red strips of cloth; his face looked like it had been covered in black makeup and a devilish mask was worn over one side of his face (A/N: it makes me think of the Phantom of the Opera, sort of).

Donald looked like he had been almost completely wrapped up in mummy bandages, but the weird part was that his mid-section was missing from the rest of his body. Goofy, on the other hand, looked like a comical version of a Frankenstein monster, mostly due to the patching on his clothes as well as the giant screw embedded in his head; though, the pumpkin on his nose was a rather nice touch to the creepy style.

"Damn, I look like I've been almost bleached," Medea commented on her looks.

Sora took note of Luna's outfit and couldn't help commenting. "What's with the getup? You look like an undead bride."

"It does look like it…" Luna agreed as she inspected herself.

Goofy looked around the surroundings, noting the pumpkin lanterns and the dark atmosphere surrounding the entire area. "This sure is a spooky place. I'll bet the people here are scary-lookin', too."

"Don't worry," Donald assured him, "We look spooky, too. If they scare us, we'll scare them right back!"

"You think so?" Goofy asked.

"I doubt Donald would be able to freak them out," Medea replied skeptically.

"Hey!"

"What do you think could be going on in the center?" Luna wondered, "Do you think there might be a festival going on?"

"Good question. Let's go see what the town's got to surprise us," Sora replied, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Following the pumpkin lanterns, the party walked past the gate into a large square where the creepy fountain poured out an eerily green liquid out and a small town surrounding the wide space – to find that there are ghostlike Heartless present in the square! But the rather uncanny thing about it was that they weren't moving to attack them the moment everyone stepped into town, unmoving like puppets on strings waiting for their puppeteer. This baffled both Luna and Sora as they examined the abnormality of the situation.

"That's weird. Why aren't they responding to us being here?" Sora wondered. "I have the keyblade, and you're a Shadow Mage. Shouldn't they be threatened by us?"

"Could someone have brainwashed the Heartless upon their arrival?" Luna guessed as she examined a Heartless.

"That's ridiculous! Someone may be manipulating the Heartless, but not to this extent," Medea objected. "What kind of crazy people have been tinkering with these things without even thinking it through?"

But then, at the right moment, a rather short man in a formal suit with a long, thin hat – very likely the mayor of the town - came out with a megaphone and made his announcement to the curious spectators.

"And now, allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares – Jack Skellington!"

Then, the ghostly Heartless made the motion of parting ways just as a skeletal being slowly emerged from the fountain to give off a pose like a person who's been in show business for so long; it was plainly obvious that the new face was a very tall, lanky skeleton dressed in a black and white suit with a striped bat replacing the typical bowtie.

The short man applauded excitedly as he approached the skeleton man. "Bravo, Jack! Bravo! Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween."

"Thank you, thank you!" Jack said, appreciating the praise. But then he showed slight disapproval. "But their movement still needs more work. It's not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror." He then turned to walk away. "I'm going to consult the doctor."

"Then I'll go attend to the decorations," the short man said jovially as he hurried to tend to other matters.

After hearing all of this, there was a large amount of mixed reception in everyone's minds; on the one hand, it's a big curiosity was to what the residents of the spooky town intend to do with the Heartless, but on the other hand there's a lot of alarm bells ringing in their heads at the idea of trying to manipulate the creatures that they clearly don't understand about whatsoever.

"I don't like this. I don't like it one bit," Medea said grimly, shaking her head. "Whatever it is the bonehead in charge is doing here, it's not gonna be pretty if they try to use those things for their festivities."

"I'm gonna sound silly, but I'd like to see the Heartless dance," Sora commented.

"That's dangerous!" Donald argued, "Especially for everyone who lives here!"

"We should talk to the skeleton man and try to convince him to understand what he's doing may be hazardous," Luna suggested.

"Maybe we should find out how they're trying to use the Heartless first," Goofy agreed, adding his idea into the mix.

"Okay, yeah, we'd better check it out first," Sora agreed on that matter.

Since they know that the skeleton man Jack was heading towards the door leading towards the quirky building a little ways off from the square, it was very easy to track down which way the mastermind was going.

Inside the laboratory, the party finds Jack Skellington alongside a peculiar beaked individual with a metal cap head seated in a wheelchair looking over the Heartless placed on a surgical table, pondering over the specimen and how best to work with the creatures that they had discovered quite recently. It stands to reason that they are trying to figure out how to fix their problem with working out a way to control them successfully.

"I don't understand. Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion," Jack contemplated.

"Nonsense. My devices are always perfect!" the doctor protested.

But then, after pouring over the notes, Jack had an idea. "Oh, I've got it! Why, of course! The Heartless need a heart. Doctor, do you think we can add a heart to that device?"

The doctor seemed to like that idea. "Certainly. A heart's not all that complicated. Let's get to work."

Over to the side, Sora and Luna couldn't help but question what they're thinking with their proposed plan.

"Are they really sure about it?" Sora asked.

Luna shook her head in doubt. "I don't think they know what they're doing. A heart is much more complicated than one would think."

Meanwhile, Jack read over the instructions. "To make a heart, first take a container with a lock…"

The doctor at work pulled out what almost looked like a patched-up, makeshift heart with a key lock held by metal padding, like it was holding the entire thing together. He then seemed to struggle with how to handle it, considering how it seemed to be under lock and key (no pun intended).

"We need the key to this thing first," the doctor said.

That got Sora's attention. "Sounds like that's my cue."

"You're really gonna unlock it for them?" Donald questioned.

"Why not? If they succeed, we won't have to fight the Heartless, right?" Sora replied. "Besides, I want to see the Heartless dance, too. Don't you?"

"I'm not too sure about that," Medea rebuked skeptically, "Even if they do succeed, all those freaks out there will do is do their normal thing and terrorize every living thing here."

But being the curious young man that he is, Sora brought out his keyblade and – with just a flash of a light beam – was able to unlock the stitched-up heart with no effort. This actually amazed and surprised the planners for their holiday quite effectively, more so Jack Skellington.

"My! That was amazing!" Jack exclaimed in fascination. But then, he realized that he didn't know the new faces. "Uh, and you are…"

"I'm Sora."

"Well done, Sora! I'd like you to be part of this year's Halloween," Jack couldn't help his enthusiasm. "With your cohorts as well, if you don't mind."

"Mr. Jack, what is this Heartless doing here?" Luna had to ask.

The skeleton turned to the creature on the table. "Oh, the Heartless came into town just recently. What's frustrating is I just can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!"

"Even if he's a genius, working with Heartless is pure madness," Medea disagreed.

But Jack didn't pay any mind to Medea's comment. "Okay, Doctor, let's continue. The ingredients for a heart: Pulse. Emotion. Terror. Fear. Hope and despair. Mix them all together, and we have a heart!"

Sora turned to Luna. "That's not going to be enough, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't," Luna replied.

After Jack and the doctor had put in all the ingredients they had gathered together into the artificial heart, everyone watched as the mad scientist flipped the switch to the guidance system to test whether or not the results will improve with the help of the heart they've pulled together. Sparks of electricity filled the machines until sparks surged through the Heartless on the table; just when it seemed like there would be a response coming from their tested specimen, it abruptly stopped and collapsed back onto the table, resulting in no success at all.

"It failed!" the doctor lamented. But then, a thought sprung in his mind. "Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding memory. Sally! Sally!" But there didn't seem to be anyone answering the call. "Good-for-nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her! Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down."

"No problem. Sora, would you like to come along?" Jack asked.

"Sure," Sora agreed.

"Maybe when we find this Sally, we might be able to get a second opinion on the Heartless in the town," Luna speculated.

"I'm gonna agree with ya on that one," Medea agreed with her. "The sooner we can stop this insanity, the better."

But apparently, it wasn't going to be that simple: the moment the party had stepped outside of the research laboratory, they were greeted by the rather frightened mayor whose other face clearly was under a lot of distress.

"Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis!" the mayor panicked, "The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!"

That didn't sit well with Jack at all. "Hmm…Maybe our experiment triggered something. Everything will be fine, Mayor. You have nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about, my ass!" Medea retorted, "Those freaks shouldn't even be here in the first place!"

"C'mon, let's go!" Donald charged toward the square in a hurry.

Not wanting to waste any more time, everyone who could hold their own raced into the square to find the ghostly Heartless truly going rampant as they should've been from the beginning. That meant only one thing on Sora and Luna's account: it was about time to get to work and settle down the crisis before it gets out of hand.

Donald and Goofy tracked down every Shadow that managed to show their faces and eliminated them as quickly as possible while Luna and Medea worked together with Sora to take care of the spectral Heartless. But it wasn't over just yet; more Heartless could be spotted from outside of the square.

"There's more out in the graveyard. We'd better take care of them!" Jack said as he spotted the creatures.

"We'll get 'em!" Sora promised.

Upon entering the graveyard to hunt down the remaining Heartless within the town vicinity, the party was ambushed by Heartless that ranged from the ghost-types to the mummy-esque abominations that were rather tricky to deal with. But just so lucky for them, Luna was able to take matters into her own hands and summoned her Shadow Hands from numerous places to grab every single Heartless that were within her vicinity and decimated them within a short amount of time, allowing the rest of the group to take a momentary breather.

"Thanks, Luna. We really needed that," Sora thanked her after he caught his breath.

"That's quite the incredible friend you have there. Is she some kind of witch?" Jack asked in wonder.

"Oh, no, I'm not a witch. I'm actually…well…something else," Luna answered him.

"We can discuss the details later. Does anybody have the foggiest idea where this Sally lady could possibly be hiding with all those Heartless lurking about?" Medea interrupted.

At the right moment, a ghostly dog emerged from a tombstone meant for a household animal and gave out a cheerful bark to greet everyone. This got their attention, naturally with a couple different reactions.

"Whoa! What's that? Is that a ghost dog?" Sora questioned in surprise.

"I think it's adorable," Luna said as she pets the dog's white head.

Medea peeked over to the tombstone. "So, this critter was called Zero. Makes sense, I guess."

"Zero! Have you seen Sally anywhere?" Jack asked the dog.

Zero gave an excited bark as it flew towards a tombstone with a gargoyle on it, causing a small feminine gasp to suddenly come out until a woman emerged from where she had apparently been hiding. It could be seen that this lady was stitched together in a lot of places like that of a Frankenstein monster (but with no indications of malice whatsoever); heck, even her dress consisted of many patches of cloth stitched together. It had to be Sally, undoubtedly.

"Is something wrong, Jack?" she asked sweetly.

"No, everything is going great," Jack reassured her, "We're going to have the best Halloween ever. All we need now is your memory."

"Memory? You mean this?" Sally asked, presenting a small bundle of forget-me-not flowers in her hands. As Jack accepted the flowers, an uneasy look crossed her face. "Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time."

"Nothing could beat what I've got planned!" Jack insisted confidently. "Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envisioned it. Trust me. You're going to love it!"

But Luna could easily tell that Sally doesn't seem too convinced that Jack's plans would be able to come to successful fruition; in a way, she was feeling the same way regarding the notion of using the Heartless for purposes that just wouldn't be able to work out, not with the dread that the creatures might not be as easy to control as they would think. Sora seemed to give off the starting impression that he might be having doubts about the experiment as well; whether he'll change his mind soon or not will depend on what happens next.

"Jack sure sounds dedicated to his vision, doesn't he?" Sora admitted, "Though, after hearing what she said, I'm not feeling so sure this would work."

"I know. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt by the Heartless because of the ideas of one person," Luna agreed worriedly, "If anything more goes wrong, then we must make sure that Jack understands the situation and make the right decisions afterwards."

"Let's find out what else we have to find before we assess the matter first," Donald suggested.

"Yup. We can't keep the doctor waiting," Goofy agreed.

"What, does the doctor have a tight schedule because he wants to do more experiments on other living subjects or whatever other creations he's got stored away?" Medea asked sarcastically.

"I doubt it," Sora answered her bluntly.

"Dammit."

"Medea, we have other matters to worry about," Luna warned her, "Try not to be offensive."

When they came back to the laboratory and presented the forget-me-nots to Dr. Finklestein (they got the name from Sally so they could identify him later on), he was very pleased that another ingredient had been found to further progress on her artificial heart. Now he had one more thing for them to find to – so he hopes – complete the progress on their labor.

"Now, just one more ingredient," Dr. Finklestein instructed them, "We need 'surprise' to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is."

"Where could we find the mayor? The last time we saw him, he was near the laboratory door in a panic," Luna wondered.

"Who knows? He could be playing around with pumpkins for all I care," Medea replied without care.

"Funny you should say that, fellow phantom," Jack said, a little thought crossing his mind. "I believe I might know where the mayor might be."

Sora raised a brow at that. "Really?"

Jack was not kidding when he said that he an idea on where the mayor could've gotten to. With his guidance, it turned out that the coffin within the cemetery was actually a passageway to the farther section of the yard, something that nobody would've suspected at first glance. But once they traversed through the hidden door to the other side of the graveyard, they were able to locate the town mayor standing among the tombstones along with by far the biggest pumpkin they've ever seen.

"Oh, are the Heartless under control now?" the mayor asked. "That was rather frightening, those things running rampant."

"Don't worry, Mr. Mayor. We're taking care of it," Luna reassured him, "But can you help us with something? We're looking for something called 'surprise'. Do you know where it is?"

"Certainly, ma'am. It's inside this pumpkin, where it's safe," the mayor directed towards the pumpkin. "None of those creatures were able to take the surprise from there."

"I'd hate to find out what the 'surprise' really is," Medea commented.

Sora simply smashed the pumpkin to find that it was merely hollow (and not squishy from the inside, thank goodness for that) like an empty ceramic jar, and found inside that giant vegetable was a treasure chest. But when he opened it, it was found that the 'surprise' was actually just a quirky jack-in-the-box…So much for a surprise, huh?

"Is that it? A little toy is the 'surprise'?" Medea questioned, not amused at this. "That was really underwhelming."

"Maybe it's broken," Luna guessed.

"If it is, then maybe Finklestein can use it," Goofy said.

"Yeah, that's true. Let's head back and find out what happens when the experiment is finished, assuming nothing else messes it up," Sora agreed.

"Don't jinx it!" Donald warned.

Thanks to the Heartless not showing up too frequently to scare them or disrupting them, it was possible to return to the laboratory without too much of a hassle (aside from having to watch their step on their way back). Once they were back in the lab and gave the jack-in-the-box to Dr. Finklestein, he was certainly pleased that the next ingredient had been found, meaning that he would be able to test the experiment one more time to make sure that it would work for real this time around.

"There you go. This time it's sure to work," the doctor said confidently.

But just as he was about to install the heart onto the machine, all of a sudden the doctor was tripped by a small boy in a skeleton costume, causing the artificial heart to fly across the air and into the hands of a boy in a devil costume alongside a girl in a witch costume; before anyone could do anything to stop them from escaping, the three rascals ran off with the heart out of the lab and into the town!

"What the hell?! Who were those brats?" Medea shouted in disbelief.

"It's Lock, Shock, and Barrel! They've got the heart!" Jack exclaimed, horrified at what happened before their eyes.

At full haste, everyone made a mad dash out of the lab and into the town square once more; but just as they did, they were too late. The three troublemakers had already disappeared from town and have left elsewhere.

"We lost them!" Sora groaned in dismay.

"Where could they have gone?" Luna questioned anxiously.

Jack looked around for a moment, but then pats his leg as though he were calling for his pet to come at the call. At the most opportune moment, Zero arrived at the scene, ready to help out at the first chance.

"Zero, after them! Quick!" Jack commanded.

In an instant, Zero picked up the trail of the thieves and led the party through the graveyard to find the malicious trick-or-treaters escaping over the hill – while riding away in a big, walking bathtub of all things! Though, they were too late in catching them since the hill that they crossed had curled back into its normal form.

Medea was confounded at the sight. "Seriously?! A bathtub? Who the hell rides in a giant bathtub?"

"Never mind that! We need to go after them," Donald dismissed it.

"But how do we do that?" Luna asked. "There's no bridge."

"Oh, that's easy," Jack answered. He snapped his bony fingers and the curly hill immediately uncurled itself to form a bridge to leave for the outside borders beyond Halloween Town. "Now we can catch up to them."

Sora was quite impressed. "Wow! That was incredible!"

"Damn, bonehead, you make things way too easy," Medea admitted.

Now that the party had a way to continue the chase outside of the town, it was possible to follow the naughty children across the bridge over the river until they found themselves at a poorly crafted bridge leading to what might as well be a badly assembled treehouse in the middle of a large valley. In fact, the structure of the house looked like someone tried to make a treehouse by gathering numerous scraps of bricks and tiles and cramming them into every available space, and then putting up bridges all over the place without proper arrangements and stuffing jack-o-lanterns on every fence pike as well as a giant lantern on one of the branches.

"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind all this!" Jack exclaimed, a hint of bitterness evident.

"Whoever this Oogie is doesn't sound like someone I'd wanna be around," Medea commented.

"We'd better locate those kids and get them to tell us where their boss is," Sora suggested.

"Good idea," Goofy agreed.

It wasn't too track them down, thank goodness, since they were able to spot the kids hurrying up the path towards a small room that only they would have access to. The finale of the chase led them all the way up to the playroom; though, it was already too late for them. The children threw the artificial heart into a vent leading to who knows where within the makeshift house. But then, they turned around to find that they've got company.

"Alright, give it up now!" Sora demanded. "Where'd you send the heart to?"

"Uh-oh!" all three of them cried out.

"We're not telling you what we did to the heart!" Lock refused to talk.

"Nope, not a word!" Barrel added.

"Mind your own business!" Shock added.

Medea grew irritated at this. "Somebody's asking for some punishment."

Luna started to walk towards the children, a death glare emanating from her eyes. "Let me deal with them. I'll make the naughty children start talking…"

All three children, the instant they saw Luna's death glare, cried out, "Scram!"

Within mere minutes, Luna's Shadow Hands emerged as the pranksters made a desperate attempt to escape from her fury, but couldn't escape the strong grips of the hands that snatched them off their feet and forced them into a corner like naughty children punished by the parent. Even after the terror was over, most of the spectators couldn't help but show rather freaked out faces at Luna's terrifying discipline on the pranksters (except for Medea, who had a feeling her master was going to resort to such drastic non-violent measures, and Jack since he doesn't seem the type to get frightened at anything due to having been masterminding the holiday horrors for as long as he has).

Now that she got them cornered, Luna took liberties to convince them to tell their dirty secrets.

"Now then, children, will you kindly make it easier for us and tell us where the heart is?" Luna asked, her sweet voice bearing an icy tone that could strike fear in the worst of bullies. "We'd like to know who has an interest in such a dangerous item and have a little word with him about it."

Shock, not wanting any trouble, spilled the beans. "We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart. It's all Barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart."

"Yeah, that's right!" Lock agreed, pointing an accusing finger at Barrel.

Barrel got upset at that. "B-But you guys said –"

"You should be ashamed!" Shock argued.

Medea groaned in exasperation. "Great! Now they're playing the blame game on each other."

"Just tell us where Oogie Boogie is!" Sora demanded, not feeling patient at this point.

"Oogie Boogie told us not to give away his hiding place," Barrel replied, trying and failing to deny anything. "Oh, and we're not supposed to talk about the lever either."

But then, the sound of a lever being pulled was heard, as well as the sound of the mechanisms starting up and opening something from outside. The three pranksters jolted in horror at the realization that they had given away important information, but it was too late since now the pursuers know where to go to find the real perpetrator of the sabotage. Sora and Luna turned to see that Jack had pulled the lever without anyone paying attention to it.

"Good work, Jack. At least we can keep going, thanks to these children," Luna said sweetly.

"Quite right about that, Luna. Now all we have to do is track down Oogie and get the heart back," Jack agreed wholeheartedly.

Now, it was not too hard to discern where the monster in charge of the treehouse manor was hiding himself along with the hearts; at the very bottom of the house nestled a bright green door that looked like it should come from a casino that used to do shady business for too long. It was rather creepy to look at if someone thinks about it long enough.

"That's where this Oogie Boogie's hiding?" Medea questioned. "I hate to see what kind of decoration he used in there."

"I just don't wanna get killed in there," Sora commented.

The door forced to open, the party entered into the chamber to find that the entire room looked almost like that of a casino, but taken to a much more dangerous level than any normal person would even dare consider. Not only was there a giant roulette wheel dipping below the stage, but there were also lottery cowboy machines with guns as well as spiraling wheels with blades that were created to slice anything apart; hanging up above is a set of blades set against a column that would be lowered down onto the wheel to chop anything in the middle of the wheel into mincemeat.

But farther down the stage of the deadly casino was the fat sack of bugs behind the trouble of Halloween Town – none other than Oogie boogie himself!

"Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart!" Jack demanded.

"You want it? Well then, come on over and get it!" Oogie taunted. He then took the artificial heart, shoved it into his mouth and then swallowed the whole thing up like nothing.

"Ugh! That just makes me wanna vomit," Medea gagged in disgust.

But Oogie just laughed proudly at his job. "Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!"

At his call, a few winged gargoyles Heartless showed up by his side. But oddly, they didn't do anything else – almost as though there was not good enough reception for the one who held the heart inside of him.

"This is it?" Oogie questioned, noticing the lack of response. Then, he started to get angry. "Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"

The machines started to turn on, and everyone was forced to contend with Oogie Boogie's explosive dice blocks as well as the occasional traps and Heartless that would make more trouble for the party. Sora, along with Donald and Goofy did their best to stave off the Heartless that showed up in the arena while Luna had Medea and Jack helping her contend with anything the sack of bugs dared to throw at them.

"How in the hell are we supposed to reach that overweight potato sack?!" Medea growled.

"The switches! Try the switches on the wheel!" Donald brought up as he narrowly avoided getting blown up.

Sora took the initiative by hitting one of the buttons around the roulette wheel, causing one of the slots of the wheels to form protective spikes around them whilst above them another set of spikes kept the walking bag cornered with no chance of escape. Among those on the wheel, Sora and Luna were able to seize the opportunity to pounce on assaulting Oogie at the first chance – with one little mishap that really backfired on the gambling boogeyman in the process.

"Well, look at that! Who'd have thought a beautifully creepy lady would be making trouble 'round this town?" Oogie wondered with disturbing fascination at Luna and her Shadow Hands. "What does that white-haired pipsqueak see in you anyway? I'd wager that I'd get a jackpot having you helpin' me out."

But Luna, revolted at his speech, was having none of that. "Eew! Leave me alone!"

"Get your slimy maggots away from my master, you overgrown sack of insects!"

At the right moment, Medea jumped up from the roulette wheel and swiped at Oogie Boogie's body so hard that the holes in his body caused the bugs and jittery creepy crawlies started spilling out rather quickly, leaving nothing but an empty sack of a body as well as the artificial heart which no longer was functional.

"So, that heart was a failure after all," Jack said in disappointment.

"Well, guess we'd better tell the doctor what happened," Goofy suggested.

"Yeah, I don't want to stick around here any longer than we already have," Sora was in full agreement. "Plus, I think Luna doesn't want to be around those bugs anytime soon."

"That was disgusting," Luna sighed in dismay.

Under unanimous agreement of not wanting to stick around the creepy gambler's manor any longer, everyone began to make their way out of the abode back to the town to report to the mad doctor. But just as they had crossed the bridge, a mighty tremor rumbled through the area, catching everybody off guard and forcing them to turn around to see what just happened behind their backs – and boy, were they in for a shocking surprise!

Not only did Oogie Boogie come back to life – in a manner of speaking, depending on how someone looks at it – but he somehow was able to fuse himself with his own manor, turning himself into a monster house with mixed parts of his woven sack body and the many parts of the treehouse they had just crossed not long before.

"Whoa! How did he get so big?" Sora exclaimed in pure shock.

"Sora, look over there!" Luna pointed out towards the strange purple orbs attached to different parts of the manor's body. "Those orbs are brimming with the power of darkness!"

"Perhaps Oogie Boogie is drawing power from those dark globs!" Jack agreed, ready to fight again.

"So we just have to destroy those things, right?" Sora asked.

"But how're we gonna do that? Oogie's gonna notice what we're doing," Donald dreaded getting caught in the act.

"Leave that to me," Medea declared as she started to crack her knuckles. "I'll keep that freak occupied on me until you guys destroy those blobs on him."

Before anyone could do anything to stop her, Medea jumped off the edge of the Cliffside only to reappear at nearly the same gargantuan size as the possessed manor, her Black Claws ready to tear apart the persistent boogeyman in a whole new way. True to her word, because she was standing in the way of Oogie's sight, this allowed the rest of the party to jump down from the cliffs and sneak their way up and onto the body from the very bottom.

From below, they could hear the Shadow Guardian give a taunt to get his attention. "Hey! Guess who's come to start a demolition job?"

Oogie started to make a move to swing the lantern in a fit of anger, but Medea was the quicker and was able to grab the outstretched left arm before she landed several strong punches against him until the giant monster had enough of being treated like a huge punching bag. Not wanting to remain stationary, the possessed manor uprooted itself from the ground until the very roots below formed in alignment like that of crab's legs and started to move away.

But Medea would have none of that. "Get back here, you sorry excuse for a worn-out shack!"

As all of this was going on, though, Sora and Luna and the others had already split up to search and destroy every dark glob that was scattered across Oogie's body. Granted, there were times where the lurching and the movements going on from above them would stumble their footing (but in the Guardian's defense, she was more of trying to get a good beating at the boogeyman and Oogie was the one who was making much more movement due to the hits he was taking). But when he managed to uproot himself and start moving around the area, it made traversing all over him much more dangerous and required extra caution not to fall off at all costs.

"Is it really a good idea to let Medea smash up Oogie like this?" Sora questioned as he finished destroying one of the globs.

"Don't worry. Medea's dealt with giant things before," Luna reassured him, "like the one time we fought a big titan made of ice. It was a hard fight, but with her help, it was possible to do even the preposterous."

He was a bit surprised at this. "That explains a lot."

With much effort on both ends of the battle, Medea made a lot of effort to fight off Oogie Boogie until everyone else had demolished all of the globs – though, there was one moment where he used his giant lantern to shoot fire at her, but all that did was peeve her off enough to put more force in her claws and her punches, smashing apart much of the manor all the while. In the meantime, the rest of the party were able to finish off all the dark globs and weaken Oogie just enough to render him completely helpless and vulnerable to the finishing blow.

Not wanting to get caught in the collapse, everyone jumped off and hurried far beyond the vicinity of the house while Medea completed the job by unleashing a downward punch so powerful that it made the rest of Oogie and his manor crumble into nothing but dust to scatter into the crossing winds.

"We did it!" Donald cheered excitedly.

Luna sighed in relief. "Thank goodness that the horrible creature is finished."

With her work done, Medea shrunk down to her normal size – but due to how much power it took and how long she maintained her giant size, the poor woman stumbled a bit from weakness and would've collapsed if Goofy hadn't caught her in time.

"Gawrsh, are you okay, Medea?" Goofy asked, concerned for the Guardian's well-being.

"I'm fine…but I think I'm gonna need a long rest after what I did," Medea replied wearily, "It's not too often I get to change my size at will…"

At the right moment, a giant keyhole formed where Oogie's manor once stood, which allowed Sora to fulfill his job and use his keyblade to lock it and thus prevent any more Heartless from ever harassing this world for a good long while. Luna used her shadow powers to check for any sign of the Heartless, but once she sensed nothing, she nodded in satisfaction at the work done.

"Well, I guess we'd better head back," Jack said as he started to walk away.

"Yes, I think we should," Luna agreed on it, "The doctor would need to know what happened to the heart…and I'm sure that Sally must be so worried."

But as they started to turn back to the town, Luna stopped when she noticed a small spark of light behind her back; this made her turn around to find a small block perfectly shaped in the form of a star. Naturally, her curiosity got the best of her, compelling her to pick it up and examine it long enough for an innocent child's voice to ring within her memories:

"Hey, Tink, what if I looked for something star-shaped just like that shard thing, and the next time we meet, I can give it to you to put in the chest? Is that okay with you?"

That was when Luna recalled that she had made a promise to an old friend; it felt so long ago, and yet she knew that there was a promise she had to keep. Quickly, she slipped the star block into her satchel and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group before they question what was holding her up.

When they returned to town and rendezvoused back to the lab, they explained to Dr. Finklestein and Sally about what happened to the artificial heart and of the trouble Oogie Boogie almost caused to the town in its entirety.

Needless to say, the doctor was very disappointed that the heart couldn't be recovered, but Sally was certainly relieved that the madness of the Heartless was gone from the town for good.

Jack hung his sadly as he apologized for all the trouble he brought. "Sally, why didn't I listen to you?"

"Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween," Sally reassured him sweetly, "Next time, we'll do it together."

The pumpkin king then turned to Sora and the others. "I guess we have no choice. We'll have to cancel this Halloween festival for now."

"Don't worry, Mr. Jack. I'm sure you'll come with something much better for the Halloween festival," Luna assured him.

"Just do us a favor and don't bring any Heartless into it," Medea added, peeking out from Luna's shadow.

"Emotion, memory…We put in all the necessary ingredients. What else do you need to make a heart?" Dr. Finklestein questioned, frustrated at the failed experiment. "What is a heart, anyway? I can't figure it out."

Sora shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, all I can say is that the heart is made up of so much more than we think there is. It's a rather complicated thing to understand."

Luna nodded. "That is true. There are many emotions that come with it, and that is just a small fragment of a bigger picture."

After saying their goodbyes and promises to visit when there is a chance, the party returned to the gummi ship and got to return to their normal selves. From there, the ship began to fly off to find another world to explore.

Inside her cabin, Luna would've loved to be able to sleep peacefully after chasing naughty children, fighting Heartless, and intentionally destroying somebody's house to eliminate an even bigger threat, but for some reason she couldn't even find the chance to do so. She couldn't help getting that strange feeling that something is coming their way. Though she couldn't put her finger as to what is approaching their position, she knew that it was dangerous…and eerily familiar to her.

Not only that, but she sensed the faint trace of emotions from unknown sources. One of them was burning with vengeance, which certainly felt familiar to her. But the other one had growing flickers of… knowing anticipation? Why was that? Was someone expecting her and Sora?