…I got obsessed with Undertale and it consumed my thoughts for a few weeks. Oopsie. I feel like it even influenced my writing style a bit here haha I just love it too much. (Only like six months late to the Undertale train, I know…)

Also this chapter was really hard. I was stuck on the last couple scenes for a long time. You'll probably understand why once you read them… But yeah. So so sorry for the month long wait again. Thank you so much for all the reviews though for that last chapter, you guys are soooo sweet and I loved reading each and every one of them! Sorry I'm bad at replying to them, but I love you all!

Aaaand new fanart! This is by Cathy121 again, inspired by song lyrics, which, you all know how much I love quotes, so I love that haha. Check it out!

sora-katcher (dotdeviantart) (.com) (slash) art/ Please-Say-Everything-Is-Okay-592276946

Remove the parentheses and spaces and blah blah all the usual stuff! Thank you so much Cathy, I love love love it! You rock!

Okay, now then, on to the chapter! Uh… I'll wait to comment further until the end… Godspeed, readers.


"Here's a secret: Everyone, if they live long enough, will lose their way at some point. You will lose your way, you will wake up one morning and find yourself lost. This is a hard, simple truth. If it hasn't happened to you yet, consider yourself lucky. When it does, when one day you look around and nothing is recognizable, when you find yourself alone in a dark wood having lost the way, you may find it easier to blame it on someone else - an errant lover, a missing father, a bad childhood - or it may be easier to blame the map you were given - folded too many times, out-of-date, tiny print - but mostly, if you are honest, you will only be able to blame yourself."

― Nick Flynn, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009


Chapter 53: Fall Apart

One swirly vortex ride later and the group was tumbling out into the snow again, Donald's magic doing its work on their outfits seemingly automatically this time. Huh, that duck was good.

"One sec," Aila said before they started down the hill toward the festive town below, holding out her hand and calling Lyall out again. The wolf formed at her side, her ears pressed back and head hung low in apology. "Hey girl, you okay?" Aila asked, kneeling down and scratching the wolf behind the ears. Lyall whined lightly, licking Aila very tentatively on the cheek. "It's okay, I understand," Aila assured softly. "You didn't mean to lose control back there… Sorry it was you instead of me this time."

"Hold still, Lyall," Donald said, smiling and holding his staff out toward the canine. Magic wrapped around the wolf, the bow and holly springing back into existence around her neck and making her look nice and festive once again. "There you go! Good as new." Lyall wagged her tail weakly and nuzzled Donald, taking his actions as a sign that there were no hard feelings toward her amongst the gang. "Okay, okay, that's enough," Donald said, pushing Lyall away, but not before giving her a few pats on the head. He turned to the others. "Okay. Now, to Santa's!"

Before long they were back in Santa's living room, once again delivering stolen presents to the jolly old man. Talk about déjà vu – they'd literally just done this.

"Ah good, you found the presents," Santa said, examining the roughed up gifts with a critical eye. "So this is all over with, then?"

"Almost, Mr. Claws!" Jack assured.

"We're going to reel in the thief with Christmas presents as bait," Sora elaborated for Jack, taking the doll out of his pocket and very carefully placing it amongst the gifts on the table.

Jack nodded enthusiastically. "Would you mind if we used your factory to create a few presents?"

"Presents as bait?" Santa repeated with a frown. "Goodness… I don't like the sound of that…" Jack hung his head, pouting pitifully at the old man. Santa sighed in annoyance, but before long he'd caved to Jack's puppy dog eye—… sockets. "Just this once, I suppose. It's for a good cause…" Jack's face lit up. "All right, use the second floor. And put some heart in it!" He winked at them all, his nose twitching a little and a smile pulling at his lips.

"Thanks, Santa," Sora replied genuinely with a smile of his own.

"We'll do our best!" Donald assured.

"Oh boy! Let's go make some presents!" Goofy laughed. They hurried back through the factory and up to the workshop, this time finding the room thankfully free of troublemaking kids.

"Oh, hello!" a little male elf greeted as they entered. Aila recognized him as one of the elves they'd talked to earlier, specifically the one who'd grabbed her cloak. She waved at him with a little giggle, and he grinned back at her.

"Greetings, my good man!" Jack replied. "We have been sent here by Sandy to create some masterful yet entirely phony decoy gifts so that we may catch a thief and save Christmas, and probably the entire universe but you know naturally no big deal, for everyone! Please, please, no thanks necessary. You may instead show your gratitude for our bravery by allowing us the use of all of your materials and machines." He ended his speech with a dramatic pose, and Aila imagined a cape billowing out behind the skeleton man. He, uh, sure knew how to make himself sound important…

The elf blinked slowly, obviously confused. "Uh…"

"Could we make some fake presents really fast?" Aila asked, deciding to step in and help the poor little guy out by simplifying Jack's… request.

"Fake presents?" the elf asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah, it's for a trap we're setting, for the person who's been stealing Christmas presents," Sora elaborated even further.

The elf's eyes lit up at that. "Oh! Oh, good! Yes! That would be a huge help to us, you catching that thief! I don't know about using presents that way, but if Santa says it's fine… Yes, yes, of course it's fine. You can use this machine here." He ushered the group over to the conveyor belt at the far end of the room, which he explained to be the wrapping station. "So uh, since these are fake gifts, you won't be needing anything inside them, right?"

"Only hearts! Sandy commanded it!" Jack said, already very excitedly unrolling a plethora of ribbons. The elf's face paled, and he looked at the rest of the group in alarm.

"No no no," Donald assured quickly. "Santa said to put heart into making the presents." He glared at an oblivious Jack, who had somehow already gotten himself tangled up in all the ribbons he was playing with. That had happened quickly. "We're not going to put actual hearts in them."

"Oh, phew," the elf replied with a nervous chuckle. "He uh, had me going there, for a second… Jokester…"

"But anyway, no, you're right," Sora said, answering the elf's original question. "We'll just wrap up empty boxes. That should be fine."

"What're you guys talking about?" Jack called over to them, Goofy having finally gone over to assist him in becoming untangled.

"Don't worry about it," Aila called back. They could explain that presents usually had something inside the wrapping later – they didn't want his enthusiasm for wrapping empty boxes diminishing just yet. Besides, if he knew the truth about presents, knowing him, he'd insist on them putting toys inside to make them extra enticing for the thief, and that just sounded like more work for everyone.

"I'll leave you to it then!" the little elf said with a bright smile, making his way toward the door. "Let me know if you need any assistance!"

"Thanks, but I think we'll be fine," Sora assured with a confident smile and a thumbs up. He turned back to the group. "Okay everyone: let's get to work!"

The present wrapping station was actually a pretty sweet setup. At least, that's what Aila assumed at first. And it probably was, if you were an elf, who was actually proficient at wrapping. If you were not proficient at wrapping, however…

"SOMEBODY STOP THIS CRAZY THING!" Donald wailed, frantically grabbing boxes off of the conveyor belt and tossing them toward Goofy, who was already overwhelmed with trying to wrap a bunch of presents so he just passed the boxes on to Jack, who passed them on to Sora, who passed them on to…

"STOP HANDING ME PRESENTS I ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY!" Aila shouted right before being clocked in the face by one of the many boxes Sora was throwing her way. Being at the end of the line, she had no one to pass anything off to, resulting in a rather daunting mountain of boxes around her that was growing taller and taller by the second.

"So do I!" Sora called back, covered in tape and sitting in a pile of boxes of his own, trying his very best to at least sort of cover the cardboard packages with festive paper as quickly as he could.

"What happened to our system?" Jack asked in what Aila thought was far too calm a manner, pulling a looooong piece of tape off of his role and just wrapping it around and around one of the gifts he was in charge of, because apparently that was quicker than taping it correctly.

Ah, their system. They'd started out well enough: Donald would tape the boxes shut, Goofy would cut the right length of paper, Jack would wrap the paper around the box, Sora would tape it shut, and Aila would add a bow. But as the presents just kept coming and coming, their system started to fall apart until it devolved into the chaos the gang was currently experiencing.

"I miss the system!" Aila whined, the pile of boxes she found herself in piling all the way up to her neck now. "Help! I'm drowning!" Lyall was leaping in and out of the pile around her as if it was a mountain of leaves and being entirely unhelpful. Darn wolf.

"Donald, turn off the machine!" Sora ordered frantically, a long strip of wrapping paper hanging off his neck like a scarf, another piece having been somehow taped into his hair and dangling into his eyes.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO DO IT?!"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE CLOSEST!" Sora and Aila shot back together.

"Ohhhhh…!" Donald fretted, abandoning his present graveyard and rushing up to the dials on the machine. He studied them for a moment before slamming his hand down on a button, the machine stuttering and slowing as a result. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief, but before the breath had fully left any of them the machine picked up again, this time even faster than before.

"DONALD!" everyone shouted in alarm, the duck panicking and pressing as many buttons as he could in quick succession in a desperate attempt to stop the machine. At long last he pressed the right button and the machine blissfully came to a stop – not before Aila had been entirely covered in boxes down at the end of the belt, though. She kicked her way out of her cardboard prison, stumbling out into fresh air only to be immediately covered once again as the now unsteady pile avalanched back over her. A muffled curse sounded from within the cardboard depths.

"Aaaand done!" Goofy said brightly, adding the last bit of tape to the present he was wrapping. "Ahyuck! Looks pretty good, huh fellas? Aila, could I get a bow please?" He looked toward Aila, blinking in confusion at the pile of boxes where his friend had been standing. "Uh, where'd Aila go?"

"Pah!" Aila gasped, bursting out of the box mountain with her fists above her head, sending boxes flying every which way. She took a deep, desperate breath. "I LIIIIIIVE!" Lyall's head popped out of the pile next to her, the wolf howling along with Aila's cry.

"Thank goodness it stopped," Sora sighed, slamming his head down in exasperation and accidentally crushing the box he'd been working on. "…Crap…"

"Gwarsh, uh, what happened?" Goofy asked as he took in the frazzled state of everyone around him, Donald's eyes wild as he breathed heavily near the controls, Jack somehow having wrapped himself up like a mummy in his roll of tape, and Sora and Aila both crumpling to the floor in defeat. The worlds' only hopes, KO'd by a present wrapping machine…

"HOW ARE YOU SO OBLIVIOUS?!" Donald scolded hotly, hopping up onto the conveyor belt and getting right up in Goofy's face.

"Gee, I dunno, Donald," Goofy replied with a happy laugh. Donald ran a hand down his face, muttering something about palookas.

"Well, I think that went quite well!" Jack said, his arms pinned at his sides by the tape but a triumphant smile on his face nonetheless. "The amount of presents this machine is capable of creating is extraordinary!"

"Jack, that thing was just spitting out boxes," Sora sighed exasperatedly. "We barely got any of these even wrapped! Nobody will believe any of these are actual Christmas presents…"

Aila stumbled toward Sora, shaking her leg to try and get a stubborn box off her foot. "I think we just lived through an 'I Love Lucy' episode…"

"What's 'I Love Lucy?'"

"Your lack of knowing anything I reference pains me so, Sora," Aila lamented, collapsing dramatically again against the boy and causing them both to fall into, and crush, some more of Sora's boxes. The Keyblader glared at her, and she smiled back sheepishly. "…I figured you'd catch me?"

"Hello in here! I thought I might have heard a crash and I just wanted to check—"

Everyone turned to the door to see the little elf from before, the smile falling from his face as he took in the chaos before him. He blinked, his eyes wide with befuddlement. He had two elves flanking him, the other boy and girl Aila'd spoken to earlier that night, the two craning their necks around their friend to get a better look at the situation.

"Er…" Sora started, rubbing the back of his neck as he and Aila sat up again, crumpled paper and ribbons falling off them both. "We uh… ran into some problems…"

The girl elf burst out laughing while the second boy elf, the nervous one, sprang into action, rushing into the room and heading straight to the controls on the conveyor belt to see if any damage had been done. The first boy elf sighed. "We'll, um… give you guys a hand."

With the help of the three little elves, the gang was finally able to come up with a sizeable amount of empty, wrapped presents perfect for the purposes of their plan. The elves were amazing at wrapping presents, working with such precision and ease that Aila could barely even follow the movements of their hands, each present looking absolutely pristine and perfect when they were done.

"All done!" Donald cheered, tossing one of the beautiful presents into the air and catching it again with a smile.

"Thanks you guys!" Sora said to the three elves, who smiled up at him in response.

"Not a problem," the girl elf said. She giggled. "Though you guys might want to consider some wrapping lessons for the future…"

Sora chuckled. "Maybe some other time. Right now, it's time for us to catch a thief!"

"Not quite!" Jack said, putting a hand on his hip.

"There's more?" Goofy asked.

Jack smiled. "Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest. Maybe with some help from my three new friends here?" He gestured to the elves, all of whom blinked in confusion.

"Oh, u-uh, sure," the second, more nervous boy elf replied.

Jack beamed down at them. "Excellent! Sora and co., you go tell Santa that we're almost ready to put my brilliant plan into action! I'm sure he'll be delighted to hear it."

"He'll be more delighted that it's almost over with, probably," Donald muttered with a shake of his head. But, not in the mood to argue with the Pumpkin King, the gang made their way back into Santa's living room without protest, Aila halfheartedly trying to get a golden ribbon Lyall had stolen from the workshop away from her on the way there. Apparently the wolf had decided that it was a fun new toy… She was awfully playful on this world.

"Lyall and I used to spend a lot of time playing in the snow," Celina said, her voice tinted with what Aila imagined were very happy memories. "This world must remind her of those times…" She sighed a little forlornly, and Aila smiled a little sadly in reply. She often forgot that Celina used to be her own person and could play with Lyall on her own…

"Did you finish making the presents?" Santa asked as the gang entered the living room, glancing up from some work he was doing in his big armchair by the fire and shaking Aila from her thoughts.

"Yup, just waiting for Jack," Sora replied easily. Aila was still locked in a game of tug of war with Lyall, trying as hard as she could now to get the golden ribbon out of the wolf's jaws.

"So, uh, where do you think we oughta leave 'em?" Goofy asked, referring to the presents they'd just made.

"Hmm…" Santa hummed, his brow furrowed in thought. Lyall suddenly released her end of the ribbon and Aila went stumbling into Donald, who squawked in surprise as he and Aila toppled to the floor. "Oh, I know a good spot," Santa said with a snap of his fingers. Aila quickly pushed herself off of Donald, grinning sheepishly at the annoyed duck.

"I'm back!" Jack announced, bounding excitedly into the room at that exact moment.

"Ah, very good," Santa said with a nod. "Well then, let me show you the place I have in mind." He breezed past them all toward the front door, Donald being sure to wait until he'd passed before smacking Aila on the back of the head. Aila could swear Lyall made a sound like she was laughing as she grabbed the ribbon back again, the wolf running after Santa before Aila had even gotten back to her feet. Celina chuckled. Aila sighed.

They followed Santa out into the night, the square noticeably emptier than it had been earlier in the evening. It seemed that most of the elves had gone home for the night, with only a few still lingering here and there. Santa led the group to two very large green doors with a candy cane trim, pushing them open and gesturing to the space beyond. "This plaza should work well for your plan." Aila peered around him to see that, after a short alleyway through some buildings, the area on the other side of the doors opened up significantly, allowing them plenty of space to set up for a potential fight. Santa turned toward Jack. "Now, Jack… what is your plan?"

"I've got it all figure out!" Jack said proudly.

"You do…" Santa replied with a frown, clearly unconvinced.

"Of course! And I also have a wonderful idea. If we catch the thief for you, I would be honored to deliver the—"

Jack was cut off by Sora's hand over his mouth, the Keyblader giving Santa a wide, disarming smile. "And on that note, we'll be going!"

"Mmph! What're you doing?! Let me go!" Jack wailed, his words muffled behind Sora's hand as the gang hurriedly ushered him into the plaza beyond the green doors.

"Now's not the time for that, Jack," Sora whispered, finally removing his hand and giving his friend a pat on the shoulder as they moved away from Santa.

"Oh…" Jack sighed, looking very dejected.

"Shouldn't we go get the presents?" Aila pointed out as they walked.

"Hey! Wait up!"

They looked back to see the three little elves from before hurrying after them, the boys pulling a giant present on a sleigh behind them, the girl's arms laden with smaller gifts. Santa quirked a brow as they passed him, looking like he might stick around to see how Jack's plan panned out. A moment later though he shook his head and turned back toward his home instead, apparently deciding that he had far too much work to get done to waste time out here watching them all.

"Uh, what's with the giant gift?" Sora asked, sounding like he might already have an inkling as to what the answer to his question would be, and he kinda didn't like it.

"That's the genius part of the plan!" Jack exclaimed, immediately back into high spirits once again. He turned to the little elves. "Over here, if you please! This will be the perfect spot!"

The gang watched him lead the elves to an open spot, Jack instructing that all the little presents within the large gift be emptied out onto the ground to make room for the "final piece of the plan" to go inside. Aila and the boys shared a wary glance.

Donald sighed. "Please don't tell me that his plan's 'final piece' isn't what I think it is…"

KHKHKH

"Stop kicking!"

"Gwarsh, it's not me, Donald."

"Patience, friends."

"Shh!"

Aila sighed, keeping her eyes shut tight as she squished herself even further into her corner of the giant present. Oh, yeah, they'd ended up inside of it. That was Jack's big plan – to use them all as bait. Aila'd known it was coming, but for some reason hadn't really thought about the implications of such a plan, i.e. her and the guys being stuffed into a tiny, cramped, pitch black space for an unknown amount of time as they waited to be stolen away by the present thief. Needless to say, now that she was in the midst of it, she was really cursing herself for not thinking ahead enough to find a way out of this part of the plan, because this sucked.

It sucked so much.

The elves had hurried off after helping set everything up, leaving the rest of them alone in the cold, dark confines of their present prison to await the culprit. The first few minutes had been kind of funny, with everyone trying to get situated together in such a relatively small, uncomfortable space, but as the group became more claustrophobic and the minutes stretched on, the whole situation became less funny and more annoying. And, in Aila's case, it was beginning to get pretty stressful, the darkness pressing in on her to the point where it was starting to feel physically heavy. She tried to focus on the warmth of Lyall's fur, the wolf pressed up next to her in their corner, Aila keeping her eyes shut tight to try and trick herself into forgetting that she was in such a dark location. She would have summoned her staff to try and get at least a little light inside the box, but with how cramped everyone was she was afraid she might poke someone's eye out with it, and she didn't want Lyall leaving her side either so summoning light any other way was out too. She took a couple deep breaths, trying to remind herself that her friends were right next to her and that she had no reason to be scared of the dark with them around and that she knew that they weren't in any real danger anyway. But old habits…

"I said cut it out!" Donald growled.

"Gwarsh, was that you?"

"How come we have to be the bait?" Sora whined, sounding fed up with the whole situation.

Jack laughed. "Good plan, eh?"

"Can we please get out of here now?" Aila whimpered, finally caving and voicing her fear aloud. "It's too dark in here!"

"Don't worry Aila, I'm sure the thief will come along soon!" Jack assured jovially. Aila sighed again.

"Ouch!" Donald wailed. "Goofy, I oughta…!"

"Ahyuck! Sorry! I thought you were the wall."

"Hold on, do you guys hear that?" Sora asked, lowering his voice to a whisper. Everyone froze, straining their ears to hear whatever Sora had heard. After a few tense moments, Aila began to make out something that sounded… rather metallic in nature, and she nearly cheered in relief. Finally it was here! They could get outta this stupid box soon! Probably just under a minute left!

"What is that?" Donald whispered.

"I think it's coming closer," Jack replied, his voice low.

The metallic sounds were indeed approaching, closer and closer, their suspiciously rhythmic pattern like oversized footsteps crunching through the powdery snow, until at last it sounded like whatever was making such a racket was right on top of them.

"Three…" Sora whispered, and everyone tensed, trying not to shake the box as they prepared to reveal themselves. "Two… One… Gotcha!"

They all sprang upwards, pushing the lid of the box up and off and facing the perpetrator who'd wandered into the area. Aila took a deep, relieved breath, blinking as the cold outside air hit her face and reveling in the light shining down from the moon, not even paying attention to the thing that stood before them as she drank in the wonderful non-darkness.

"Doctor Finkelstein's experiment did it!" Jack exclaimed, calling Aila's attention back to the matter at hand. Focusing at last on what everyone was staring at, she saw what she knew indeed to be the Doc's latest experiment, the one he'd been making for Lock, Shock, and Barrel to play with. It was… quite something, this experiment, towering at least ten feet above them all on metallic, Frankenstein'd together legs created from scrap metal or… other robots maybe? Who knows. Its arms were made of similarly random parts, everything from what looked like maybe a metallic accordion (was that a thing?) to random household appliances like whisks and screwdrivers thrown into the design. And also a few knives for fingers, because apparently Doctor Finkelstein didn't understand how to make toys for children. Its body was a furnace connected to two skull-like heads, one where a head should be and one where a pelvis should be, which was both unsettling and confusing, but at the same time appropriately Halloween Townish. Aila vaguely tried to remember if that two head thing meant the experiment would be shifting into another form halfway through their battle, but just couldn't seem to recall if that was the case. Ah well, she'd find out in a minute or so…

"Take cover!" Goofy cried, and with a rush of panic Aila realized that the experiment had already raised an arm above its head, obviously intending to slam it down onto the box and crush them all. They scattered, clamoring over the edges of the giant present and clearing the way right as the robot hand came crashing down, flattening the box and sending up a flurry of ice and snow around it. Aila covered her eyes with her arm, trying to keep the offending powder from getting in her eyes, hissing a little as the freezing particles stung her arm.

"No! My present!" Jack lamented, reaching out toward the now ruined box in distress.

"We can make a new one later," Sora assured as he ran past the skeleton man, leaping into the air and slashing through the still settling cloud of snow, his Keyblade lancing off of the experiment's back with a screech, the thing's body groaning in protest from the hit. It spun, lashing out at Sora with one of its arms, but the boy had already pushed off its body and was backflipping away to safety.

Aila frowned a little as she got a good look at the thing's face again. It looked… really angry. And maybe a little hurt? Like the thing had just had a prank played on it that it didn't much appreciate. Its expression was a little hard to decipher, since it was made of metal and all, but Aila could swear its mouth had shifted into a frown, its eyes a little narrower than it had been a few moments before. "Is it just me, or does it not look happy?" she asked, voicing her thoughts aloud.

"Gawrsh, maybe it didn't like us playin' a trick on it…" Goofy offered, sounding a little guilty.

Aila hesitated, sharing a frown with her friend. "Well now I feel bad…"

"GUYS."

Aila and Goofy turned to Donald, who was giving them a stern, and perhaps a little exasperated, look. "It's a robot. And the enemy. And just tried to crush us all. STOP FEELING BAD FOR IT!"

Aila and Goofy chuckled sheepishly, offering the duck a little "Sorry, Donald," in unison.

"Hey! Slackers! Are you guys gonna help out or what?!" Sora called, leaping up and landing another hit on the experiment, Jack running in and swiping at the thing's legs while it was distracted. Sora landed on light feet and hopped back, giving himself some distance and throwing a miffed look across the way at his three friends. "Fight's on, let's go!"

"I think he's talking to you, Donald," Aila said, summoning her staff and shooting Donald a cheeky grin. "Less talking, more fighting!"

"YOU WERE TALKING FIRST!" Donald called as Aila bolted toward Lyall, who had ended up a little closer to the now ruined Christmas present decoy than she had when they'd scattered.

"Donald's a slacker~!" Aila retorted, giggling as she heard Donald fume behind her. She skidded to a stop at Lyall's side, the wolf looking a little hesitant to jump into the fray. "Don't worry Ly, you should be okay on this world," she assured, keeping a careful eye on the experiment as it slammed its hands into the ground again, Sora and Jack deftly dodging out of the way. "If you'd rather I fight this one alone though…"

Lyall huffed indignantly, seeming to snap out of her hesitation and falling into a crouch at Aila's side. Aila smiled. "That's the answer I was hoping for." Goofy and Donald had jumped into the fray now, and Aila noted that despite the boys coming at the experiment from all sides, they were having a bit of trouble landing any good hits on it. It was just so fast on its feet, with so many unpredictable parts flailing about. It was almost like it had three hundred and sixty degrees of vision, the way it almost seemed to predict her friends' hits before they landed. Maybe that's what the two heads were for. Whatever the case, it was becoming clear that, upright, it was too slippery. But maybe if they could somehow knock it over they'd slow it down… She caught Lyall's eye, her grin widening a bit. "Wanna try a new move?"

As the boys continued to keep the experiment busy Aila made her way around the edges of the clearing, keeping a sharp eye out as the robot thing went through its moves. Laser eyes that scorched the snow, a vacuuming arm that threatened to suck one of her friends inside, Edward Scissorhands-esque fingers that raked deep into the ground with each failed attempt to crush someone… Seriously, what had Doctor Finkelstein been thinking, making this thing for kids?! Aila made her way to the top of a snow bank, casting a few Thundara spells as she positioned herself whenever the experiment seemed like it was getting too close to hurting someone. The electricity would seize its joints up, just for a moment, but for long enough that whoever was in the line of fire could get out of the way. The boys shot her a few curious glances as she stuck to the edges but seemed to gather that she was planning something, so they didn't call attention to her, instead keeping the experiment focused largely on themselves.

"Okay, you know what to do?" Aila said to Lyall, planting her feet at the top of the bank. Lyall gave a muted bark in response, trying not to draw attention to the two of them. Undoing the clasp of her red cloak, Aila let it flutter down into the snow, carefully untying Lyall's red ribbon and placing it on top of her own discarded garment. She watched the experiment's eyes glow red, a laser shooting out toward Sora, who once again darted out of the way just in time to avoid a hit. Straightening up again, Aila gripped her staff tight with her right hand and rested her left hand on Lyall's back, a grin pulling at her lips as she waited for just the right moment. She glanced at the wolf. "I call this one, my 'Snowy Sneak Attack'." Lyall raised a brow and growled lightly. "Fiiine, our 'Snowy Sneak Attack'."

"I think she was growling about what an… unimaginative name that is, not because she was feeling left out of it."

"Shush, you," Aila huffed, trying to ignore the suspiciously laugh-like way Lyall was suddenly breathing.

Goofy ran around the experiment on the side closest to her, the thing turning to watch as he went, vacuum arm outstretched as it attempted to catch Goofy in the pocket of air it was pulling in. In just a second its top head would face her fully and then… "Now."

Lyall howled, her form morphing into a ball of light and being sucked up into Aila's left hand, the sudden sound catching the experiment's attention. Aila felt her eyes brighten as power filled her again, a devilish smirk dancing on her lips as she pulled her staff back over her left shoulder, the end of it already glowing with fierce white light. With a yell she lashed out horizontally, an arc of light erupting out of her weapon and hitting the snow like a wave, ripping ice and powder from its resting place and throwing it up into the crisp night air, the moonlight bouncing off each tiny mote of frost and creating an almost blindingly confusing haze between Aila and the experiment.

And then Aila was off like a gunshot, white light on her heels as she flew forward, icy particles clinging to her lashes and hair as she dashed through the haze toward her target. Without her cloak she was nearly invisible in the fog, her eyes shining bright with both her power and adrenaline as she kept them trained on the shadowy figure of the experiment up ahead, keeping her vision sharp as she changed course, shifting to the right to come in at it more from the side. She heard the whir of the experiment's vacuum arm picking up, the thing sucking in the powder clinging to the air, clearing the fog so it could find her once again, and she smirked. With her light as a boost, she leapt high into the air just as the haze was cleared away, gripping her staff with both hands and raising it high above her head. The experiment saw her coming at the last moment and raised an arm to block, Aila's staff greeting it with a hollow, metallic crash. The experiment's legs buckled slightly, the thing having been a bit caught off guard by Aila's sudden onslaught, but in the next moment it had recovered, thrusting its arm out and throwing Aila back the way she'd come. Aila twisted in the air and landed in a crouch on the snow, left hand planted firmly on the ground as she allowed the rest of her power to be released down and out into the snow at her fingertips.

She grinned up at the experiment. "Oh darn, you caught me." The experiment seemed taken aback by her tone, one that would seem to indicate that it hadn't caught her at all. Before it could contemplate the meaning any further than that, light erupted behind it and Lyall took shape, slamming into the thing with all her might, her white fur almost indistinguishable amongst the snow sent into the air around her. The experiment stumbled forward, entirely caught off guard this time, and Aila sprung forward again to meet it, this time cloaking her staff with a bit of ice magic to really give it an edge. She lashed out, and finally the experiment lost its footing with her hit, tripping over its own feet and falling backwards into the snow with a mighty thud.

Aila blinked, savoring the moment for a few heartbeats before leaping into the air and pumping her fist. "It worked, holy crap! That was awesome! Did you guys see that?!"

"Heck yeah we did!" Sora called, already leaping into the air and raining hits down onto the felled experiment, taking advantage of its predicament before it could recover. He landed again to the side and threw his Keyblade at the enemy, flashing Aila a double thumbs up once his hands were free. "Nice teamwork!"

"Ahyuck! I'll say!" Goofy laughed, riding on his shield like a snowboard before leaping off at the last second and kicking his shield into the experiment's side.

"I couldn't even see you guys! Amazing!" Jack cried, leaping past Sora as the boy caught his Keyblade again and landing a few quick slashes of his own with his boney fingers.

"I'll give you that one," Donald complimented, skidding to a stop next to Aila and sending a few lightning bolts raining down onto the experiment to keep it immobile a bit longer. Aila grinned triumphantly and held her hand out for a low-five as Lyall bounded over to her, the wolf barking excitedly and slamming both large paws into her hand with exuberance.

Their celebration was short lived, unfortunately, as the experiment's body began to creak and stutter, Sora calling a hasty "Get back!" in warning as it began to rise from the snow again. Though it seemed that Aila's attack had made some kind of dent, because instead of rising all at the same time, the experiment began to rise in pieces, each separate body part hovering off the ground and whirring with a power of its own. Huh, so it did transform after all. The two heads suddenly made way more sense.

Donald groaned. "I take it back! You just made it worse!"

Everyone scattered as the body parts all lashed out at once, Aila just barely dodging a bright red laser from the now free-floating pelvic head (what a gross thing for it to be called, but Aila couldn't think of another word for it so pelvic head it was). She and Lyall then found themselves on the run, the pelvic head's mouth spewing three lasers at once in their direction, just barely missing the two as they zigged and zagged out of the line of fire. Jeez, this thing really didn't like being fooled.

"Guys, this is a good thing!" Aila heard Sora call from somewhere to her left as she dodged a stinging red laser yet again and shot a quick lightning bolt over her shoulder, unfortunately missing her mark this time. "The pieces are weaker apart! Don't let them regroup!"

"Whatever you say, captain!" Aila called back, her words a little strained as she started to feel winded from the way the lasers were making her hop and roll and skid in all directions. Deciding it was time to hit the offensive again, she pulled Lyall close and shouted out a Reflega spell, the honeycomb magic forming around them both and shielding them from the stinging lasers at their heels. The red beams bounced off the shield in various directions, one managing to graze the pelvic head's jaw in the ricochet. It flinched back with a metallic screech, giving Aila the opening she needed. She lashed out with a Thundara as her previous spell faded, the lightning bolt striking the pelvic head dead on and sending it into a sort of convulsion as it short-circuited. As one, Aila and Lyall rushed forward, Lyall's jaws clamping down around a flowing bit of tattered fabric hanging down from the top of the thing's head, dragging the skull down into the snow so Aila could give it a good, hard few hits while it was still out of commission. With a final yell, Aila leapt into the air above the grounded pelvic head and stabbed the pointed end of her staff downward, skewering the thing right through its metallic center. The metal resisted a bit, setting Aila's bones on fire from the strain, but as her weapon pierced its way through and the pelvic head let out a high pitched screech, she knew she'd landed the final blow. Faint tendrils of darkness seeped out of the metal and faded away into the night, and at last the thing went still, whatever dark magic had given it sentience now lost forever to the wind.

"Ow," she sighed after yanking her staff free and stumbling back a few steps, cradling her right shoulder a little. It felt like the joint mighta popped a little bit with that last hit. Metal wasn't as forgiving as darkness was when pierced, surprisingly enough. She mumbled a quiet "Heal" and sighed in relief as the green magic did its work, feeling her last bit of mana fade away with it once the spell was finished.

Lyall trotted up to her, head cocked in a silent question. "I'm good," Aila assured with a smile. "Tapped out though…" Lyall just wagged her tail and looked past her, Aila following the wolf's gaze to see that her friends had made quick work of the separated pieces, Donald and Sora seeming to be having maybe a liiiittle too much fun pounding the only still twitching arm deep into the snow. Goofy was very carefully tapping the experiment's upper body and normal head with his shield, the piece spinning very slowly like a top before one final tap from Goofy's shield caused it to fall apart completely. And Jack… Well, he had made a mountain out of the thing's severed legs and was currently cackling triumphantly from atop it. "Oh. Guess we're done. Good timing then."

"We did it!" Jack was shouting from atop his metal mountain, pumping his fist in the air as Aila walked toward the guys to regroup (after making a quick detour to grab her cloak and Lyall's ribbon). "The mystery is solved!"

"I guess," Sora chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and glancing around at the metallic carnage they'd created. "Not… really what I'd been expecting, but okay."

"Ughhh I'm all wet and cold now," Aila sighed, brushing as much snow off of her bare arms as she could and trying not to focus on how bitingly cold they suddenly were. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, she was really starting to feel the snow that had gotten all over her during her sneak attack.

"Well why did you take your cloak off?" Donald chastised as he redid Lyall's ribbon for her, eying Aila ruefully as she slid said cloak back into place.

"It was a sneak attack! I needed to blend in!"

"But it seemed like Lyall was the one that needed to be the sneakiest – you were the distraction!"

"I… well… It looked way cooler with me blending in with the snow too though, right?"

"Oh brother. If you catch a cold don't come crying to me."

Aila just stuck her tongue out at the duck at that, though secretly hoping that catching a cold wasn't actually something she needed to be watching out for with all the magical healing stuff they had access to…

Jingling bells sounded above their heads and everyone glanced up to see Santa's sleigh descending down toward them.

"Uh, is that Santa?" Goofy asked, quirking a brow in confusion.

Donald scoffed. "Well who else would it be?"

"Why's he in his sleigh?" Sora mused, putting a hand on his hip as he watched the sleigh's descent.

Aila shrugged. "Test drive?"

The sleigh came to a graceful landing and the jolly old man himself sauntered out, raising an eyebrow at the metal scattered around the clearing, an occasional empty present box mixed in somewhere amongst the mess. "Did you catch the thief?" he asked, seeming quite perplexed as he took in the scene.

Jack leapt down from the experiment's legs and struck a triumphant pose. "Naturally!"

Sora frowned. "I just can't figure out why the doctor's experiment would go around stealing Christmas presents."

"His experiment?" Santa asked, sounding shocked.

"The thief!" Jack corrected, hand on his hip and a proud smile gracing his features. "It was a moving puppet made by Doctor Finkelstein."

Santa approached the crumpled torso of the puppet, examining it with no small amount of intrigue. "Hm… The doctor's made a moving puppet?" His face relaxed into one of understanding and he chuckled. "I see… He is always tinkering with things." Seeming satisfied, he turned back to the group, eyes stern as they fell on Jack in particular. "Now listen, Jack." Jack tensed, seeming to expect some sort of reprimand from Santa, but then the old man's face softened. "I'd like to thank you."

"You… you would?" Jack asked, still sounding a little unsure. He clearly wasn't used to hearing praise from the fellow holiday leader.

"I would," Santa replied with a warm smile and short nod. "And, while delivering presents is something only I can do, I can give you an idea of what it's like."

"Ohhhh not a test drive," Aila whispered, smiling as she linked her hands together behind her back. That's right – Jack was about to get his wish. The skeleton man seemed to realize this too, his face lighting up like… well, like a kid on Christmas morning, really.

"Sandy Claws!" he gushed, his voice coming out in almost an excited squeak as his feet did a little excited jig in the snow. Without another word, he bolted toward the sleigh and hopped inside, giggling like a child as he examined each and every inch of it.

Santa chuckled before turning back to the experiment's torso, a somewhat sad smile replacing his previous happy one. "Yes, all that poor puppet wanted was a heart." Aila exchanged a look with the boys, noting the hint of remorse reflected in all of their eyes. It was a little sad, when Santa put it like that…

Their attention was grabbed by Santa's sleigh sliding into motion, Jack very carefully holding the reins as he urged the reindeer up into the night sky. "Ho! Ho! Ho!" he called out, the pure joy in his voice obvious to all who heard it. Aila and the boys chuckled and Santa sighed at the impersonation, though he too had a smile on his face. After all, it was always nice to give someone what they wanted most.

"Good luck getting your sleigh back, Santa," Sora chuckled, hands behind his head as he watched Jack fly away.

Santa chuckled as well. "I've instructed the reindeer to bring him back in half an hour." He winked at the gang. "It's not my first time dealing with the Pumpkin King, after all."

"Yeah, he's a handful," Donald sighed.

"A well meaning handful," Goofy corrected with a smile.

"A very accurate description indeed," Santa chuckled. He turned to the gang. "Well, now that that's all wrapped up, are you all going?"

"Yeah, guess so," Sora shrugged. "We really just stopped by to make sure the Heartless and Nobodies weren't causing any trouble, and then, uh… things kept derailing. So I guess we're done now?"

Santa chuckled. "I thought that might have been the case." He glanced around at the scattered experiment and frowned. "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind bringing the doctor's experiment back to him? Even in pieces, I'm sure he'd appreciate having it back… He works so very hard on these things."

"Of course, Santa!" Donald replied importantly. He then paused, looking at all the pieces littering the area. "…Uh… it may take more than one trip though…"

"Not to worry," Santa chuckled, "I've got just the thing."

One magical Santa bag later (a failed prototype, apparently, so it was theirs to keep) and the gang had the entire experiment loaded up, the magical bag still so small and light on the outside that Sora could easily carry it on his own. Aila vaguely wondered if her pouch used the same magic as Santa's bag, the thought filling her with excitement. To think, she'd been carrying around a tiny Santa bag this whole time!

"Thanks, Santa!" Donald said gratefully, he and Goofy hugging the old man goodbye at his front door.

"Of course, it's my pleasure," Santa chuckled, returning their hugs with all the genuine warmth that only Santa Claus himself could muster. "I should be the one thanking you all. You've really helped save Christmas this year."

"Speaking of that," Sora said, scratching his cheek with one finger, bag hoisted over his shoulder with his other hand. "I was just wondering… Ah, I know when I asked you before you said that since I'd said I didn't believe in you, well…" He cleared his throat, a light blush blossoming on his cheeks as he seemed to steel himself for the question he was about to ask. "I guess, I mean… Am I maybe… back on the list now…?"

Santa laughed, his entire belly moving with the motion. "Only if you give me a hug goodbye as well, Sora."

"Yes!" Sora practically screamed, launching himself at Santa and hugging him with his free arm, the stout old man returning the hug two fold. Sora pulled away a moment later, looking a little sheepish at his outburst. "I mean, um, yes, thank you, Santa." Donald and Goofy snickered at his side.

Santa turned to Aila, his eyes twinkling. "Same deal for you Aila. How's that sound?"

Aila giggled and rushed forward to hug him, her heart light at the idea of being back on Santa's Nice List. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, reveling in how nice and warm and just altogether magical it felt as he hugged her back. Surely a hug from Santa Claus was the best hug she'd ever receive.

"And don't be scared, my dear," he whispered very quietly to her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "Your friends will understand, when they hear it coming from you."

Aila hugged a little tighter, knowing of course that Santa was referring to the promise she'd made to him earlier that night: that she would tell the guys the truth about her world after they left this one. She knew she should be nervous, terrified even, and realized that in a few moments she probably would feel all those things and more. But right then, in that hug, she knew everything was going to be okay. She pulled away from Santa at last and smiled. "Thank you, Santa."

"Anytime, my dear," Santa chuckled. He gave Lyall a quick hug goodbye as well, the wolf planting a slobbery lick on his cheek and eliciting another laugh from the old man before she trotted away, pouncing onto various mounds of snow nearby as she waited for the gang to get moving.

Aila was about to turn away, to begin making the trek back to Halloween Town with her friends, when suddenly a thought struck her. "Santa?" she asked, maybe a little too suddenly, for the man seemed a bit startled. She backtracked, putting her hands to her heart to try and calm its sudden excited rhythm. "Uh, sorry, but, um… I just… You deliver presents to children everywhere, right?"

"That's right, dear," he replied, quirking a brow in confusion.

"On every world?"

Santa blinked, realization washing over his face as he understood the question she was really asking. "I'm sorry, Aila, but… Your world is different." His smile fell, and he looked away. "I don't have the power to get there, not physically. For your world… for those who believe in me, I use my magic to grant their wishes in other ways. Nudge their parents or friends in the right direction, things like that. It's the only world I cannot actually get to." He smiled sadly at Aila, whose face had fallen into a dejected frown as he'd explained. "I'm sorry that I can't help you return there."

"I-it's okay," Aila said quickly, trying her best to hide the true level of disappointment she felt. "It was just an idea I had… But uh, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. No big deal." She attempted a smile, but could feel how strained and fake it must have looked.

Santa took her hand in his. "Do not give up hope. I know in my heart that you will find your way home. You must believe that."

Aila hesitated, but then nodded, feeling a little heartened by his words. "I'll… I'll try."

Santa smiled, satisfied with even the smallest bit of hope in her words. "Good." He turned to the boys again. "Feel free to visit anytime, and assuming I don't see you next month – Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" they all chorused back before turning to make their way back toward the Halloween Town door. Aila sighed as they walked, but then Sora was ruffling her hair, and Goofy was giving her a hug from behind, and Donald was throwing a snowball at her, and she felt her spirits lift again. It warmed her heart to know that her friends were there to lift her up when she felt down, and to know that they always would be.

No matter what.

KHKHKHKH

"Interesting! So the puppet wasn't stolen after all! It ran away on its own!"

The gang was back in Halloween Town, talking to the doctor in the Square after dropping off what was left of his experiment in his lab. Sora had the now empty Santa Bag slung around his shoulders like a scarf, apparently having "big ideas for it" in the future, whatever that meant. From the mischievous look in his eye, Aila could only guess that it meant pranks. Hopefully they wouldn't be on her.

"In other words, my experiment was an overwhelming success!" Doctor Finkelstein finished proudly, grinning wildly and taking the whole 'we kinda smashed up all your hard work in a big battle' thing surprisingly well.

"Santa Claus thinks maybe it left because it was trying to find a heart," Sora explained, holding onto both ends of the Santa Bag with each hand as it hung down around his shoulders.

"That's quite possible," the doctor agreed. "Unlike my Sally, it wasn't equipped with a heart." Said girl was busy petting Lyall, the wolf practically preening under the attention Sally was giving her.

Apparently the doctor decided that the conversation was over then, probably because he didn't feel he needed any more information from the gang, and so he turned his wheelchair around and rolled back up to his lab without another word. Aila shook her head. He definitely wasn't one of the most polite people she'd come across on her journey…

"But if it wanted a heart, why was it going around stealing all those Christmas presents?" Sora was pondering, apparently unfazed by the doctor's abrupt exit. He must have done that to the gang a lot in their previous visits.

"Maybe because, presents are a way to give your heart to someone special," Sally supplied, finally standing up and stopping petting Lyall to join the conversation. Lyall huffed in annoyance.

"Oh yeah!" Goofy said, running a finger under his nose and chuckling a little before glancing at Sora. "Remember what Santa said when we were goin' ta go make presents?"

"Put our hearts into it!" Donald replied for Sora, his eyes lighting up with the realization.

"Hmm…" Sora hummed, putting a hand to his chin. "When you put it that way… I feel sort of bad for it."

"See, bet you feel bad for yelling at Goofy and I for empathizing with the thing earlier now, don'tcha?" Aila whispered to Donald. He glared back at her.

Jingling bells filled the air, and everyone looked around in confusion; the sound was so out of place on this world it was almost startling. A moment later and Jack was landing before them with a graceful thud, startling them all so much that Donald and Aila nearly fell over themselves as they stumbled away from the skeleton man. The jingling bells got louder and they all looked up to see Santa's sleigh pass in front of the giant moon, Santa calling a cheerful "Happy Halloween!" out to them all as he flew away. Aila's mouth dropped. Had Jack jumped from the sleigh?! He had landed like it was nothing!

Snow began to fall around them, light and soft. "What a nice present!" Sally gasped, smiling and catching a few of the little white flakes in an outstretched hand.

Jack's face screwed up in confusion. "I don't understand. There's no box! No ribbon tied in a bow!"

"Jack, it's not about the box or the ribbons," Sora explained, giving Jack a bemused smile. "It's about what's inside the box!"

"No, Sora," Sally said softly, face upturned as she watched the snow fall from the heavens. "What really counts – what's really special – is the act of giving the gift." She smiled at the boy, clutching her hands to her chest. "To wish deep in your heart to make someone else happy." Sora's eyes widened, realization dawning on his face as Sally's explanation fully set in.

"Right… of course!" Jack laughed. "Thank you Sally, you're absolutely right." He paused, putting a hand to his chest. "Wait. What's this? I feel so strange…" He gestured grandly toward the heavens. "So very happy!"

"Jack, that must be Sally's present!" Goofy explained with a smile.

"Really? This wonderful feeling?" Jack gasped. He rushed up to Sally, taking her hands in his. "Oh, Sally! You've given me the nicest present in the world!" His face fell. "And I've nothing to give you in return… What would you like? Just name it. Absolutely anything."

Sally smiled, lowering their hands and gazing up into Jack's eyes. Er, his sockets. "The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you."

"Awww!" Aila gushed quietly before she could help it, Goofy making similar happy sounds as he put his hands on his cheeks. Donald and Sora seemed a little embarrassed by just how honest Sally's words were, the former covering his eyes while the latter chuckled nervously and glanced away. Lyall's tail was wagging like crazy.

Jack laughed. "You don't even have to ask for that." Sally gasped as Jack lifted her into his arms and leapt toward the center of town, setting her back down near the fountain and taking one of her hands in his again. "Come on Sally, let's dance!"

"B-but Jack, there isn't any music!" Sally protested lightly, fighting off giggles as Jack pulled her in close.

"Come now, of course there is! Can't you hear it? The beating of my heart with the beating of yours! Why, it's the most beautiful music I've ever heard!"

Sally laughed as Jack began to sweep her around in large circles, the two dancing to the sound of their own heartbeats, entirely lost to the world around them as they entered a private one of their own. Aila smiled, rocking on her heels as she laced her fingers together behind her. This was such a nice ending. She regretted ever dreading coming to this world.

"Maybe I never gave her a real present after all…" Sora mumbled, smiling a little sadly as he watched the couple dance.

"Who?" Donald asked, giving his friend a questioning look.

Goofy clasped Sora's shoulders from behind with a smile. "Aw, I bet Kairi would like most anythin' you gave her."

"I know! That's what made it so hard to decide!" Sora replied with a sort of exasperated wave of his hand.

"It's not the gift, it's what's in your heart!" Donald reminded him.

"My heart…" Sora repeated, frowning a little.

"You bet! Kairi's like Sally!"

Sora quirked a brow at the duck. "How?"

"Well, as long as she can be with you, what else does she need?" Goofy supplied.

"That's the cutest thing ever," Aila gushed, leaning against Goofy with a dramatic sigh. "My heart can't take all this fluff." Sora's gaze travelled back to Jack and Sally, his eyes unfocusing a little as he watched the dancing couple. Aila smirked, knowing that he was imagining himself and Kairi dancing in their place.

"What about all this fluff?" Donald asked, wrapping his arms around Lyall with an exuberance that caused the wolf to stumble a little. Lyall wagged her tail and barked happily in reply before giving Donald a nice, big, wet lick up the side of his face. "Gah! Lyall!"

Aila and Goofy laughed, and Aila vaguely saw Sora snap out of the momentary daze he'd entered into. The boy chuckled a little too, though he clearly hadn't heard or seen anything that had just gone on around him. Aila thought about teasing him for the blush that was creeping across his face as his gaze shifted to the night sky, but she instead decided to just let him have his moment in peace. She'd get plenty of teasing in once they actually found Kairi again.

They bid their goodbyes to Jack and Sally shortly thereafter, the couple seeming rather embarrassed at having gotten so swept up in one another once they remembered that their friends were still there, and Donald wished them a cheeky "Be good!" before he and the rest of the gang set off.

"You're evil," Aila snickered to Donald as the gang walked back into the forest, heading toward the Gummi ship.

Donald smirked. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"I'm gonna tell you and Daisy to be good next time you head out for a date," Sora mused.

Aila caught on quick. "Ooh! Can that be our new catch phrase whenever they're together?"

She and Sora both gave Donald their biggest, sweetest smiles as they chimed together in annoyingly singsongy voices, "Be goooood~!"

Donald choked, his face flushing a little as he glared at the two teens. "Y-you guys—!"

Aila and Sora devolved into laughter, high fiving and being sure to give Donald a wide berth lest he decide to come after them for their teasing. Aila was about to say something else when she felt Lyall press up against her legs, stopping her from continuing forward. "Uh, Ly?" Aila asked, glancing questioningly down at the wolf and realizing with a start that the fur on the back of her neck was standing straight up. The boys stopped walking too and glanced back at them, confusion written all over their faces. Aila put a hesitant hand on Lyall's head. "You okay…?"

"Maybe the moon's too much for her again?" Sora suggested, hanging on to the bag around his neck and cocking his head to the side.

Aila frowned as she felt a growl shake Lyall's body, low and menacing in the wolf's chest. "I don't think so…" The hair on the back of her own neck started to tingle, that familiar feeling of being watched suddenly overtaking her. She glanced around, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "I think someone's here…"

The boys all stiffened at that, all of them turning to search the shadows of the trees around them for any signs of movement.

To their right, someone sighed.

"Come on kid, you totally ruined the surprise!"

Aila felt herself pale as Xigbar stepped out of the tree line, wearing a grin so wide that it almost seemed like it would break his face in two. He'd undergone the typical Halloween Town treatment, his eyepatch having been replaced by a red screen of sorts and his Organization cloak's sleeves removed, revealing what looked to Aila like metallic arms underneath. His cloak was unzipped, showing off a tight black shirt and pants, and a belt with what seemed to be various laser guns holstered to it. Oh good. He was a laser shooting cyborg thing here. That wasn't terrifying at all.

The boys immediately formed a tight line in front of Aila, their weapons out in a heartbeat. Aila's mind was spinning. Xigbar was here?! Why was Xigbar here?! He shouldn't be here!

"Get out of here, Xigbar," Sora growled threateningly.

Xigbar clapped. "Oh, good job! You remembered my name! Or, no, probably someone told you." He shot a knowing look at Aila and then sighed dramatically. "Poor, poor Number XIII. You're really all gone in there, huh?"

"Uh, I thought you were Number XV?" Goofy whispered to Aila. Aila didn't respond.

"Anyway, you can all unclench," Xigbar said easily, leaning against a nearby tree and crossing his arms. "I'm not here to fight. Just wanted to chat." He smiled at Aila. "With her, specifically, but hey, the more the merrier."

"Last time one of you guys just wanted to 'chat' with Aila it was anything but," Sora shot back icily, and Aila had to suppress a shiver as she realized he was talking about Luxord.

"If you're looking for information on Alex, keep moving!" Donald shouted. "She's in a place you guys will never get to her, even if you did know where she was. So scram!"

Xigbar scoffed. "Alex? That's old news, ducky dude! We've cut our losses, live and let live and all that. Literally, in this instance." Aila glared at him, but still stayed quiet. Why was he here? There weren't supposed to be any Organization members on this world, none! And if he wasn't here about Alex, then…?

"Sorry, but we'll still pass," Sora said.

Xigbar quirked a brow. "You sure? I've got something really juicy to talk about…"

"Whatever you're selling, we're not buying!" Donald squawked, shaking his staff threateningly at the Nobody before them.

Xigbar made a big show of sighing. "Aw well, guess today's just not my day." He turned as if to leave, but then paused. "Though, Aila, I've noticed you haven't said a word. I didn't startle you by showin' up on this world unexpectedly…" He glanced over his shoulder at her, that huge, wolf-like smile pulling at his lips yet again. "…Did I?"

Aila swore she nearly heard her heart stop.

"…Does he… know…?" Celina whispered, her voice sounding unusually loud in Aila's ears as she reeled from the question Xigbar had just posed.

Xigbar put a hand on his hip, facing fully away from them again. "See, Luxord and I had a really interesting conversation the other day…"

Aila's heart dropped into her stomach.

He knows.

Before another thought could even enter Aila's mind, Lyall was bolting forward, bowling through the boys and making a beeline right for Xigbar. She leapt forward with an angry howl, her jaws slamming together around what she thought to be the enemy, but ended up being nothing but empty air.

"Whoa! Calm down, ya big hairball!" Xigbar called down from the tree above Lyall's head. He had dodged so fast, it was almost like he had… teleported. Oh crap. Aila'd forgotten that he had that ability. Aila felt sick as the moonlight illuminated Xigbar's expression, his smile as big and hungry as ever. He chuckled. "Though I suppose, gauging by your reaction… The stuff Luxord mentioned in that conversation we had was true, hm?"

Lyall went nuts, scratching at the tree, barking wildly, her eyes hungry and dangerous as she tried to reach Xigbar, to tear him apart. White light began to surround her, the power of this world's moon filling her up, overflowing her senses. The boys called out to her, unsettled by her seemingly disproportionate reaction, but the fear filling Aila's heart kept her from doing the same. Xigbar knew. He knew, and he… he was about to spill everything! Santa's warning flashed through Aila's mind, his insistence that she needed to be the one to tell the boys the truth.

"The closer the bond between people, the more easily a lie can damage a heart. If the boys were to find out from someone other than yourself…"

"L-Lyall, come back!" Aila gasped, holding a hand out and calling her companion's borrowed power back into her. Lyall shifted into light and shot back into Aila's fingertips, Aila's entire body shaking from the strain of such intense, worked up power once again filling her up so suddenly on this world. She stumbled back a few steps, trying her best to keep up a calm façade, to keep her heart from beating too loudly. Xigbar could hear it, she reminded herself. She took a deep breath, the beating of her heart feeling much too loud and fast despite her silent pleas for it to quiet, and looked Xigbar in the eye as calmly as possible. "We're on our way out. N-no time to talk, sorry."

Xigbar's smile widened, his good eye practically sparkling with excitement. He knew he had her. "Aw, but come on, I feel like I'm just about to really get some answers here! And I just hate being kept in the dark." His gaze shifted to the guys. "Don't you boys? Isn't that just the worst?"

Aila's mind was screaming. No, no no no no! He was going to tell them! Why?! How did that benefit him?!

Because they won't trust you anymore.

That thought struck Aila like lightning, all her nerves seeming to alight at once at that terrifying notion. She turned to the boys, doing her best to keep her internal freak out from leaking out onto her face. "G-guys, come on, let's just go! He'll leave this world once we do, it's safer for us to just get out of here!"

Sora gave her a weird look, but it only lasted a moment. He turned to Donald and Goofy. "She's right, we should just go before he starts wrecking stuff."

"But what if he wrecks stuff after we leave?!" Donald protested, clearly not intent on leaving the Nobody behind without a good butt kicking.

"He's right, I'm totally gonna wreck stuff after you go," Xigbar called, still perched lazily up in the tree as he grinned down at them all. "Unless we have our chat first. A little talky talky, and then, poof! I'm gone. Promise."

The boys hesitated, and Aila panicked again. "Guys, no, he's lying! Let's just go! This place will be fine!"

"Gee Aila, but uh, what if he hurts somebody after we leave?" Goofy fretted, seeming torn.

"I don't think we can risk it…" Sora muttered, his brow furrowed in frustration. He sighed, straightening up a little out of his battle stance, and gave Aila a reassuring look. "Let's just let him talk, then we can leave. Don't worry, we won't let him try anything."

"Yeah, just stay behind us!" Donald said with a serious nod.

Xigbar chuckled again, catching their attention. "Boys, I don't think she's worried about anything I'm gonna do…" He leapt down from the tree, straightening out to face them head on once again, his smile almost wild it was so huge. "It's my words she's afraid of. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

The boys shot Aila questioning looks, but she was frozen. She had to stop this. How could she stop this? There had to be something…! She could fight – no! No, she couldn't fight on this world, right? She'd lose control and then what would happen?!

"So, basically, I've got a few questions for ya," Xigbar was saying, hands on his hips and an innocent expression on his face now. "As I was sayin', Luxord and I were talking. And we get onto the topic of Port Royal—" He paused, a smirk pulling at his lips. "Great stuff, by the way. Breaking your hands? Smart dude, that Luxord." The boys tensed and shuffled in closer toward Aila, Port Royal and what had happened there obviously still a sore spot for all of them. "Anyway, we're talking about Port Royal, and he tells me something really interesting. He says at one point…" His expression darkened, the shadows of the trees crossing his face as stepped forward a bit, so that only his lone eye was illuminated by the moon. "You broke. You spilled your guts. Started talkin'! Not about Alex, nah, you were hell bent on protecting her. But about…"

"STOP!" Aila shouted, desperation coloring her voice. "Stop, stop, okay?! I lied, I lied to Luxord! I was saying anything, I just wanted him to stop!"

Xigbar put a finger to his chin. "See, that's what I told him! But then he says something really interesting." He grinned, once again shifting so the light illuminated his whole face, each tooth visible in the moonlight. "Now, let me ask you this: how would you know that that pirate captain, Jack whatever, had been cursed before he'd even shown up for you to see it?"

Aila swore she could have heard a pin drop.

"Wha?" Donald asked after a few moments, turning back to look at her. "…You knew Jack had been cursed?"

"I… I saw him take a medallion! Before you guys were blown off the ship!"

Sora's brow furrowed. "But he didn't take a medallion, the Heartless cursed him that time."

"Aha! See, now you boys are gettin' it!" Xigbar laughed, pointing at the group exuberantly. "So little miss Moony here starts tellin' Luxord how she knows he's been cursed, that she knows things before they happen."

No.

"And I coulda written this off as her tryin' to play him at his own game. Hell, you're a bright girl, right? But then it got me thinkin', back over other times I've been with ya. Like that time when I was babysitting you that first week at the castle, you remember that?"

No.

"You were so intent on checking every alleyway in that goddamn city, and I remember thinking, damn, this kid is an idiot! There's no way off this place, and definitely not in some dusty old alleyway. But then, what do you know, a few days ago… This portal shows up in an alleyway. A portal we can't close, that leads off the world." He shrugged. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you knew that was gonna show up eventually, right? It just wasn't there yet when you were snooping around."

No!

"So basically my question is this." His smile grew wolfish, like a predator who knew they were about to land the killing blow. "Just how much do you know? And if you haven't told your little friends here that you've known where to find us this whole time, which you obviously haven't seeing how you're wasting time all the way out here…

"Whose side are you really on?"

Aila saw red.

Light erupted from her hands, blasting toward Xigbar in the blink of an eye. He was gone before the impact, reappearing to Aila's right, his smile eager, taunting, like he wanted her to attack. Part of her knew that it was a trap, but a bigger part of her didn't care. Xigbar had just… he had just ruined everything! She rushed toward him, her weapon materializing as she ran, her arms swinging at his head faster than even she could comprehend the movements. Xigbar dodged each hit, his smile plastered on his face like a mask, each failed attack only enraging Aila even further. She felt her mind begin to swim as light engulfed her body and instinctively pulled back, her breath hitching as she felt herself start to lose control.

"Aila! Stop! You can't fight here – please stop!"

Aila hesitated for just a moment, but it was long enough for Xigbar to go on the defensive, rushing her and pinning her to a tree. "Come on, kid, what's wrong? You seem upset. Did I say something you didn't want me to? Did I make you mad?"

"Why?!" Aila hissed, glaring hard at the man before her.

Xigbar grinned and leaned in close, his nose almost touching hers. "Why the hell not?"

Aila screamed and pushed him away, immediately shooting some more light at his chest. He just teleported away in a fizz of static, appearing on her left and lashing out with one of his lasers. Aila barely dodged, shooting light back toward him with her weapon, but in the blink of an eye he had moved again, his face once again right in hers.

"I thought about trying to use whatever you know for myself," he grinned, stabbing at her with one of his guns. She dodged quickly, light speeding her movements, but he was still locked right in front of her, keeping step with her as she went back on the defensive. "But Luxord told me what a pain it was getting anything out of you, and honestly? I couldn't trust that you wouldn't just lie through your teeth." He blocked a blow from Aila's weapon and stabbed at her again, neither of them landing a hit as they continued their dance, their movements too fast for anyone else to follow. "After all, you're very good at that, aren't you? Seeing how you've been doing that for, what is it… months now?"

Aila screamed, feeling her senses beginning to fade as white hot anger took over. His voice echoed in her mind, but his face began to blur, her heartbeat growing louder and louder until she thought her head might crack open with the sound. She felt a push and a crack of an impact on her back, registering vaguely that Xigbar had her once again pinned to a tree. His face swam back into focus, one of his guns poised before her, its tip glowing red as an attack charged. His teeth gleamed as her light bounced off of them, the glee on his face almost sickening.

"And honestly," he chuckled darkly, his laser growing a little bit brighter, "I thought it might be fun to just watch you suffer." He barked out a laugh. "Xemnas has everything locked down whether you know it or not anyway! And really," he chuckled again, his eye narrowing. "I just never liked you."

His laser fired, but before it could hit something metallic intercepted, bouncing it right back at the one who'd shot it. Xigbar hissed as the laser hit his shoulder and hopped back, Sora immediately taking his place in front of Aila, his back to her as he stared the Nobody down.

"That's enough," Sora growled, his voice dangerously low, almost uncharacteristically so. Aila blinked a few times, feeling herself beginning to become grounded again. Her head pounded painfully in her ears, her breathing hitching as she tried desperately to catch her breath after so much power flooding through her. She needed to stop – she couldn't lose control completely. She didn't want this world to be damaged…

Xigbar smirked, and then held up his hands. "Okay, okay, you got me. I'm done talking anyway. Guess I'll just be going. After all, I did make a promise." He focused on Aila and winked. "I'll see you soon, eh kiddo? Once you finally stop stalling and lead your friends to face us." He chuckled darkly, his gaze flickering to Sora.

"It's not like Kairi's been waiting for you or anything."

Sora flinched, and Aila finally found herself again, her eyes wide and terrified as Xigbar's final sentence echoed through the woods. The Nobody laughed and made a portal, waving as it closed around him and took him to another world. And then he was gone, like a terrible storm that had cracked and broken everything before disappearing like it had never even been.

The silence immediately after vanished was terrible, thick and heavy and suffocating, and Aila felt herself both trying not to make any noise but also gasp for air as her gaze trained onto Sora, who had yet to turn around. She wished she could see his face, to get a read on what he was thinking…

"Are you two…?" Donald asked tentatively, he and Goofy shuffling toward the two teens and stopping a few feet away, seeming unsure. It felt like an eternity before Sora finally replied, his shoulders at last straightening as he stood up out of his fighting stance.

"…We need to talk," he finally said, and though he didn't look at her, Aila knew his words were directed at her. Without saying anything else, he walked off toward the location of the Gummi ship, breezing past everyone without so much as a glance. Donald and Goofy exchanged a worried look before casting a look Aila's way, their eyes clouded with confusion and questions and… and hurt. Aila felt sick, partially from the surge of energy she'd just experienced but mostly from the way her friends were looking at her, and she had to turn away for fear that she get sick right then and there.

"…Come on, let's go," Donald finally said, he and Goofy turning to follow Sora, indicating that Aila should follow. She shut her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath before finding the strength to move after them, every step she took filling her with a terrifying, soul-wrenching sense of dread.

KHKHKH

More silence.

Aila was pretty sure nobody had uttered as much as a whisper in the past five minutes, and it was driving her nuts. Like, she actually thought she might go insane if someone didn't say something! Should she say something? No, no, she just got done saying lots of things. That was what prompted this uncomfortable fog of a silence in the first place. She balled her fists on the fabric of her pants and glanced out the window, trying very hard to focus on the stars around them as they idled in orbit and not on the hollow, empty feeling that hung in the air of the ship's Control Room.

"…I have a question," Jiminy finally said, perched on the control pad in front of Sora.

"Yes!" Aila said a little too eagerly, her voice high and cracking a little under the pressure. She focused on the little bug, taking in the puzzled look on his tiny face.

He scratched his head. "I just… I guess I don't really understand how you know these things at all. I mean, you said you've known what was going to happen since we ran into you on Hollow Bastion. But how's that even possible?"

Aila looked down at her hands, balling her fists a little tighter. "I… don't entirely understand it either. Something about how information is received on my world from the outside… Stories about worlds that aren't our own. We think it's all pretend. Made up. But I guess…" She trailed off, not really needing to finish the thought to get its point across.

"So you just know about this timeline then?" Donald asked, his brow furrowed. "How? Regardless of the information going into your world… thing, you must have seen something about us, or at least heard something in order to know so much so clearly."

"Ah, yeah," Aila sighed. "Um, well, you guys… You and Goofy, there's actually a lot about you on my world. Jiminy too. You're… some of the most well known charac— um, people to everyone there. And Sora…" Aila glanced at the boy, who'd had his head bowed in what she assumed was deep thought for a very long time, his bangs hiding his expression from her. She gulped. "Well, um, Sora… I know about you from a game. You're all in it, I mean, it's about…" She gestured vaguely to their surroundings, "this. So, um, that's… how I know specifics. Because I've played the game. Danny has too, and uh maybe Alex? I dunno, we always wanted her to. It's, um, pretty popular…"

Goofy ran a hand over one of his ears, looking unusually distressed. "Gwarsh… That's a little unsettlin' ta think about, that a whole world knows about the stuff we do…"

Aila latched onto that maybe a little too eagerly. "That's why I didn't tell you! It's weird, isn't it? It's so weird. Super weird. I mean, I still have moments where I think that this can't be real…" She trailed off again, chewing on her lip a little. "Mickey – er, the King, I mean – he was the only one who seemed to know anything about it, really. He also asked me not to tell…"

"The King asked you not to tell us?" Donald asked, now looking a little hurt.

Aila quickly waved her hands in front of her. "It's not because he doesn't trust you! It's because… ah, what did he say? It was because he didn't want you guys to get, um, distracted or anything. He said it could be dangerous for anyone to know… Even he didn't know the details, he just knew that I knew stuff, and he didn't want to know any more than that. So I haven't told anyone." Aila hesitated, lacing her hands together on her lap and bowing her head again and muttering gloomily, "Well, except for Luxord…"

"So uh, the only people that know about this are the King, Luxord and Xigbar, Danny and Alex, an' now us?"

Aila hesitated, but knew she had to be completely honest here, or else there was no chance of this working out. She glanced out the window. "…And Axel."

"Wha!?" Donald squawked, and Aila could hear Goofy and Jiminy gasp as well. She winced.

"You told Axel?"

Aila nearly jumped at Sora's voice, the boy having been so quiet up until now that she'd almost forgotten he was involved in the conversation at all. She glanced over to see him finally looking at her, the ice in his expression nearly taking her breath away. She quickly shook her head. "N-no, I didn't! He, um, figured it out on his own…"

Sora exhaled sharply out of his nose, turning to look out the window now as well. "He did, huh…" He sounded like he didn't believe her. Aila's heart stung.

"I swear I didn't tell him," she muttered, pulling nervously at her gloves. "I wouldn't have told him before I told you guys…"

"Which you clearly weren't in any hurry to do," Sora snapped. His voice was harder than Aila had ever heard it before; it was scary.

"No! I was going to tell you right after we left Halloween Town, honest! Santa and I had a talk and he made me see that I shouldn't…" She took a shaky breath, trying to blink away the moisture budding in her eyes. "I know the timing seems really suspicious but I swear I was gonna tell you guys. I-I just didn't know how, and… I was just about to tell you everything… Xigbar has the worst timing…" She huffed angrily and clenched her teeth at the thought of the Nobody. "He ruined everything…"

"It's not his fault you were lying to us all this time," Sora growled mutedly. "Don't go giving him all the blame for this."

"I'm not," Aila replied, her voice very small now. Sora was so angry. Aila didn't even know Sora could be this angry. She knew it was Xigbar's final comment about Kairi that had pushed him over the edge, but couldn't he at least try to be understanding…? "Look, I-I tried to keep Kairi from being kidnapped, I really did…"

Sora's head whipped back to her, a sudden fire in his eyes melting away the previous cold front. "Did you?! Did you really?! Because the way I remember it, we were all there for hours before she was taken, on a wild goose chase that you insisted we go on!"

Aila winced. "I know. I know, I really messed up while we were there, but—"

"We missed her by minutes!" Sora shouted, slamming a hand down onto the control panel and making everyone in the room jump, Jiminy scurrying away from him a little to avoid being crushed. "You knew she was in danger, but you're the reason we weren't there, the reason I wasn't there when she needed me!"

"I know, I know! I'm so sorry, I really am!" Aila cried back, trying desperately to keep her voice from wavering. "I was distracted, a-and… I thought that Axel wouldn't do it! I thought that he was on my side, I thought that I had convinced him not to!"

"You talked to him about it?!" Sora shouted back, rising from his seat now.

"No! I mean, n-not directly! I was vague but, b-but I really thought…! I… I thought…!" Aila could feel the tears starting to spill over as she shrunk lower into her chair, burning under Sora's glare.

"You've known where Riku is this whole time too, haven't you?!" Sora yelled, taking a step toward her. Aila hesitated. "Haven't you?!"

"I-I, I mean… not exactly! Only, I mean, I-I knew where he'd be a f-few times, b-but!"

"UGH!" Sora slammed a hand into the back of his chair.

"Sora, calm down!" Goofy implored.

"Calm down?!" Sora shot back, clutching the back of his chair so tightly now that Aila thought it might snap. "You should be the last one ready to let this slide, Goofy! After what she almost did on Hollow Bastion—!" He ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath, his entire body shaking with anger.

Aila blinked back a few tears. "H-Hollow Bastion…? What… What does that have to do with this…?"

"What, you don't know already?" Sora snapped, flashing her another scalding glare. "Goofy almost died there, because of your recklessness!"

"Sora, it wasn't that bad!" Goofy protested, waving his hands in front of his face. "I told ya, I get hit in the head all the time!"

Aila inhaled sharply, her eyes going wide as she remembered a scene from the game. A scene where Goofy… "You… you were hit in the head with a rock…"

"You do know!" Sora shouted, pointing accusingly at her. "You and your brother knocked it loose! Goofy pushed the King out of the way, and we thought…!"

Aila shook her head slowly, horror in her eyes. "N-no… No, that's not right. It was a Heartless, a Heartless knocked it loose in the game…"

"THIS ISN'T A GAME!" Sora shouted hotly. "It was you!We agreed that it was a mistake, that you didn't know what had happened, that you never would have meant to put any of us in danger… But it looks like you did know it would happen! And you still weren't careful! You didn't even care!"

"No! Of course I care, I—!"

"And I told you my fears about Kairi, about her being stuck with the Organization for so long, but you've known how to get to her this whole time?! She's been suffering there for nothing?!"

"It's not like that, I sw—!"

"Everything we've been working toward, everyone we've been looking for – you've had the answers this whole time, and you just watched us struggle!"

"NO! Sora, please—!"

"Take us there now then!" Sora bellowed, his voice so loud now that it practically echoed off the metallic walls around them all. "Take us to Kairi and the King and Riku!"

"I…" Aila wrapped her arms around her middle, trying to hide her shaking as she looked out the window. Could she take them there now? Chip and Dale hadn't called yet about Twilight Town, and they still had one more world over here they were supposed to visit. What would happen if they tried to just skip to the end?

"…You need to be careful about how much you change," Celina whispered in Aila's mind.

Aila bit her lip, thinking back desperately to Celina, 'But you're always saying this isn't like the game I know, so maybe it wouldn't matter…!'

Celina hesitated. "Events have happened so closely to what you already expected that… Although this is no game, I worry that you leading them astray with this information could be… The King was worried about this exact thing, about them just skipping to the end. He had to have had a reason…"

Aila bowed her head, squeezing her eyes shut. If they skipped the Pride Lands, what would happen? Would Simba be lost to the Darkness because they never showed up to help him? And what if they got to Twilight Town too soon, would the events there even line up correctly to allow them to advance? Celina was right, but…

She sighed heavily. "…I can't."

Sora made an incredulous sound. "Why not?!"

"B-because… we're not supposed to go there yet, there's more to do…"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID TIMELINE!" Sora cried, so loudly that Aila covered her ears. "Take me to Kairi RIGHT NOW!"

"I can't do that, Sora!" Aila cried back, tears finally flowing freely as she met the boy's gaze. "I wish I could, really I do! But I can't! It could be dangerous! I'm just trying to keep you guys safe, I'm just trying to keep everyone safe!"

Sora made a sound between a sigh and a scream, shoving his hands over his face and shaking his head. He took a deep breath before lowering his hands again and then fixed Aila with one more glare. "Fine," he breathed icily, and then promptly turned on his heel and began marching toward the door.

"S-Sora, hold on!" Donald called after him, seeming a bit shaken by the whole display. It seemed Aila wasn't the only one experiencing this level of anger from Sora for the first time…

Aila stood on instinct, rushing after her friend and reaching out for his jacket. "Sora, please—!"

"DON'T touch me," Sora snapped, turning and slapping Aila's hand away. Aila's breath caught in her throat and she stumbled to a halt, watching as Sora turned away again and stormed out into the hallway without so much as a final look in her direction.

"Sora!" Donald called, jumping off of his seat and hurrying after his friend.

"Oh dear," Jiminy breathed, holding onto his top hat as he hurried to do the same.

Goofy was the last to pass Aila, pausing between her and the door for just a moment to look back, his expression strained with a multitude of emotions. After a moment's hesitation, he sighed, dipped his head, and then continued after the others into the hall, leaving Aila alone in the Control Room.

She felt frozen for a few moments, until the weight of everything became too much and she slowly sank down to her knees. Her head bowed forward, and she pushed her hands against her chest, trying to ease the pressure and pain blossoming anew in her heart. Celina was silent; she knew there was nothing she could say at that moment that would be of any help. Aila screwed her eyes shut, wishing that she could go back to an hour ago, when everything had seemed so hopeful and happy and…

And…

"…I'm sorry."

KHKHKHKH

You have no idea how long it took me to think of a title for this chapter. I still don't like it. Titles are hard. But get it, cause like, the robot fell apart, and also like, trust and stuff? No? I don't know. I tried.

SO. Uh. Yeah. I feel like some people are gonna be like "why the hell is Sora soooo almost out of character with his anger?" But like, I've thought about this a lot, and I really think this is how he'd react to this news. Imagine if the person you care about most had been held captive by terrible people for weeks or months and you found out that you could have saved them from that torment all along, if only someone you trusted most had told you the truth. Blame would be flying all over the place. Sora's only fifteen, and even though he's usually pretty happy, I think this would really hurt him. So yeah. Angst.

ALSO I realized last chapter I kinda messed up when I mentioned an Organization cloak because OH RIGHT everyone wears costumes in Halloween Town! So I had to work the cloak into Xigbar's costume. Did it work? I hope so.

You guys really didn't think I'd let everything be HAPPY for more than a couple chapters, did you? So close to the end? Nahhhh.

Let me know what you think! How long is Sora gonna be pissed? Do you think they'll forgive Aila? Get ready for some angry kitty cats in the next chapter, I'll tell you that much, lol.

Thank you so much for reading! We're getting closer and closer to the end, and it makes me so sad but also SO EXCITED that you've all read this far! Seriously this fic is like, easily the length of four books at this point. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

I'll try my best to update quicker for the next one! But for now, peace out, you wonderful people you!

~Fade