Drawings Can Be Dangerous, Chapter 4
So, Isaac's joined up with Jack and the teens, and they're on their way to get Sally back! Last chapter!
Cerberus trotted happily towards the ballroom, the four people on his back barely registering on his thick skin. Jack spoke to Isaac, hoping on some insight as to how to get Sally back to town.
"When did Lisa start acting like this?" The Pumpkin King asked his twin.
"Not too long ago. We were just talking to eachother back home, and then, we were here." Isaac was obviously speaking of when he and Lisa were nothing but drawings, so Jack paid extra attention. "As soon as Lisa stepped out that little tornado thing, it was do this, do that, go kidnap her-"
"Wait! Wait, wait! Back up a minute!" Jack waved his hand. "What tornado?"
"Actually, it's more of a dust devil," Isaac stated.
"That's not the point! Tell me more about it!"
"Oh!" Isaac held his hand to his lips in surprise, and began to explain. "It's a little dust devil, and it's um... it's filled with shreds of paper."
Jack's eyebrow rose in confusion. "O...kay."
"And..... um... you throw in pictures, and whatever's on the picture comes out of the tornado."
"Is that where all of these things came from?" Jack asked while patting Cerberus's back.
"Actually, there's only one of these things," Isaac pointed out.
"That's not what I meant!" Jack slammed his palm against his forehead. "I meant the monsters in general!"
"Oh, yes, right!" Isaac smiled. A sudden lurch signaled that Cerberus had stopped walking.
***
"Stop, look, and listen, baby! That's my philosophy!" Lisa turned to her captive. "Come on, Sally, sing Elvis with me!"
"I don't want to sing," Sally huffed. She was in a very bad mood after sitting on a rough, wooden box for hours; both of her legs were asleep, her shoulders were sore from her arms being tied, and she was ready to eat something.
"Sally, look, I'm TRYING to help you build yourself into a better woman here, but you're not paying attention! What's your problem?"
"I am my own woman, Lisa," Sally shot her a horrible look. "I'm in love. Being in love doesn't make you any less of a person."
"Yeah, you and every other teenager in the world think that, and you know how stupid teenagers are," Lisa growled, her wings tensing and her pupils disappearing.
"LISA!"
"Isaac?!" Lisa was surprised to see her former partner climbing frantically onto the pulpit, breathing deeply and not carrying any Ritz crackers. "Where's the snacks?"
"Lisa, you know the skeleton man that Sally keeps talking about?" he breathing, holding his weight on his knees. Both Sally and Lisa's muscles tensed in anticipation.
"Yeah, the bonehead. What about him?" Lisa hissed.
"He's in the castle!"
Sally felt her insides turning flips and her trust for Isaac crumbling. Lisa, however, was the exactly opposite. She lunged forward, clutching Isaac by his collar and speaking directly into his face. An evil smile split her face in half. "Where is he?"
"That way!" Isaac pointed to the main doorway.
"Come on, men!" Lisa lept down onto the ground and screamed the endless herd of monsters and Heartless into a frenzy. They rushed out of the main door, cries of "Slay Jack!" and "Kill the Pumpkin King!" echoing through the hallways.
Sally turned to Isaac, tears welling in her eyes. "How... could you?"
"Ssshh!" Isaac laughed, pressing his wing claws over her mouth. "Be quiet or Lisa'll come back! Look this way!"
Isaac pulled Sally onto her feet and led her to the right side of the pulpit. Standing at the base were-
"JACK!"
Jack, Double F, and Charon were all looking up at her from the floor. Each were smiling, Jack's being the largest. Double F waved cheerfully; Charon had a round finger over her cleft lips.
"You didn't rat him out!" Sally gasped in happiness. Isaac stood behind her, trying to take off her arm shackles.
" I know... ergh... I want you to get- ugh- out of here as- euh- much as he does. ANGH!" He dropped the shackles hopelessly. "Oh, just forget it and hold onto me."
Isaac held onto Sally tightly and dropped to the floor, his wings slowing his fall. Jack took Sally into his arms and hugged her tightly. Charon and Double F spent their time thanking Isaac.
"THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH, ISAAC!" Double F laughed. "I dunno how we would've gotten her down-"
Charon rubbed her hands together. "I can't believe Lisa was so easily duped! I made her smarter than that, or I thought I did-"
"Thanks again!" said Double F.
"Yeah, thanks."
A jolt of fear went through the bunch like a gunshot. Standing there was Lisa, all of the monsters, Heartless, and etc. creatures waiting behind her for the chance to attack. Lisa rested, hands on her hips, her tail waving leisurely behind her, her eyes an evil green color. "I am not so easily duped, dear creator." She clicked her tongue, took a callous glance at her fingernails, and continued. "I believe it is you who is the duped one right now."
Jack stepped forward and faced the gargoyle version of his closest friend. "Alright, listen to me. We don't want to fight anyone; I just want to leave and bring Sally back home."
Charon raised her finger. "And u-"
"Shut up!" Double F forcibly whispered, jabbing her cat friend in the ribs.
"Heh!" Lisa laughed. "Check this out, Sally! Not only is your 'boyfriend' controlling, but he's also a stalker!"
Jack stepped back in shock, his mouth turning into an "o" of surprise. Sally shouted, her arms tiring in their restraints, "THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
"Uh, I'm surrounded by idiots," Lisa growled. He finally sighed and said, "Fine. I'm just gonna hafta rip all of your heads off, then."
But just as Soon as Lisa went to step forward on her giant, clawed foot, Isaac jumped in front of the group and spread his wings as far as they would go; protecting them.
And Lisa was surprised.
"Isaac, wha- What are you doing?"
Isaac stepped backwards, his breathing erratic. He whispered to Jack. "Be prepared to defend yourself."
Charon whimpered and unsheathed her scythe. Double F's muscles tensed. Jack wrapped and arm around Sally and refused to let go.
"Fine, then, Isaac. Hate to do this to you, but, an obstacle's an obstacle." Lisa took a deep breath-
AND ATTACKED THEM! The monsters of the drawpad followed her faithfully, bellowing in fury as they charged into battle. Isaac was immediately knocked down by Lisa's weight, while about a dozens monsters swarmed the Pumpkin King and his companions. One particularly large blank lion caught Sally on his back and threw her back onto the pulpit. She shoved herself up with her elbows to watch the carnage below. Jack was nimbly jumping out of the way of many attacks, although quite a large number of Heartless were after him. Charon had long ago lost her scythe and fallen to the ground, pinned down by a black dragon. Double F was starting to falter, her wrists caught and tangled in the hair of a fairy knight.
"Oh no!" she moaned. "JACK! Oh, how are we going to get out of this?"
"With-"
"Our-"
"Help!"
Sally turned her head sharply, and there behind her was Lock, Shock, and Barrel! "Boys! How did you get here?"
"We snuck inside one of the three headed dog's mouthes!" Shock laughed.
"It was fun!" Barrel giggled.
"We're here to bust you out!" Lock growled. His pulled a piece of wire out from under his lip and began working at Sally's shackles.
"How long have you been here? Did you follow Jack and the girls?" Sally asked as Lock worked at the chains.
"You didn't think we were gonna let you go on an adventure by yourself, did you?" Lock sneered.
"We had to hike through tons of weeds and junk to get here because our bathtub got busted," Shock complained as she pulled off her hat and dumped out a bundle of weeds.
"You're free!" Lock cheered in happiness. Sally jerked her arms forward, and felt the feeling come back into her shoulders almost immediately.
"WWOOOAAAAARR!"
The Terrible Trio was knocked off the pulpit by a runaway fairy knight, leaving Sally alone with a bunch of grasses and plants and the dust devil.
But she saw something. One weed looked a bit like a dead thistle; the same type of plant that triggered her premonition that fateful year. She gasped and clutched it in her hands, praying to herself.
"Oh please, oh please, if I ever needed a premonition, I need it now. Are we going to come out of this battle alive?"
The plant slowly wiggled and writhed its way into a recognizable form... Jack's head, neck, and torso. The minituature half-Jack looked at Sally with a vacous smile.
"Jack? Is he-?" Sally crawled to the edge to find her closest friend.
Jack had just dodged a powerswipe from a black lioness when Lisa caught him by the collar. She stared at him with her empty, glowing eyes. "You've caused me enough trouble!"
She slammed the Pumpkin King against the wall using her wing! The ballroom echoed with the resounding THUD of bone hitting marble, and the Pumpkin King's cry of pain.
"JACK, NO!" Sally screamed. A burning sensation met her fingers; she looked downwards and saw her premonition flower was on fire! She yelped again and tossed it away, and it fell into the dust devil!
Almost immediately, a Behemoth heartless cried out in pain as his body went two-dimensional and a hole of fire burned through his chest. More and more of the creatures soon fell to the same fate, screeching in agony and clutching their chest, trying to withhold the fire.
"JACK!" Sally cried out again, only to feel the ground below her give way! She collasped to the floor, shaken but still whole. She galloped into the fray, straining her eyes and avoiding the fire. "JACK!"
Two boned hands grabbed her shoulders, but they weren't Jack's; they were Isaac's. He growled into her ear. "We have to get out of here! Hurry!"
Sally stumbled forward, Isaac's hands still pushing against her back. Her stopped her with a firm "Wait here" and left again, leaving her standing by the main doors. She watched as Riku fell into a firey fate before her, crumbling and folding like a leaf in a bonfire.
"Sally, you're alive!"
Sally greeted Jack with open arms and waiting tears. "It was me who was worried about you, Jack!"
Double F gave Sally's arm a fearful tug before running away from the fire and into the hallway.
"Come on, Sally! No time for fluffy stuff!"
Charon streaked past, her scythe crammed into her pocket. "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"
***
The hallways around them were destroying themselves, falling apart in chunks and then bursting into flames. Isaac alone had nothing of him aflame, which was odd, given everyone was either dead or still burning.
"How much longer now?!" Double F hollered.
"Not much farther!" answered Isaac, who was leading them. "About 5 more minutes!"
As he went to round a sharp turn, the wall before him burst into flames and collasped! He stopped sharply, the four people behind him screaming in shock.
"Make that 2 minutes," he mumbled to himself. He turned his head backwards. "HURRY! Through the wall!"
***
"There's the door!" Charon gasped.
"We're almost out of here!" Jack said to Sally, clutching her hand in his.
"NO YOU'RE NOT!"
Lisa, her legs cut and bleeding (as apposed to ripped and torn), was standing in front of the group, her wings stretched to their breaking point, blocking their path to the outside. The ceiling began to flake apart and fall to the ground in chunks, scaring the teens and catching Sally's dress, catching it on fire. Isaac reacted on instinct and snapped his wings outward as well, blocking them from her view.
It was a staredown. Two monsters, perhaps not equally matched in size or skill, placed in a life or death situation... One had a reputation to protect... one a group of friends.... who would survive?
"I'm going to attack Lisa," Isaac whispered to Jack. "You take Sally and the kids and run."
"She'll kill you!" Jack snapped.
"We're both going to die to the flames anyway," Isaac calmly spoke, tears welling in the bottom of his sockets. He took a breath and continued. "You go."
Jack nodded, gave Isaac a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and stepped back.
With a deafening roar, Isaac lunged forward and caught Lisa by the throat, running her into the ground. Jack grabbed Sally's hand and ran out of the mansion, Double F and Charon following quickly.
***
"And I spent forever trying to get the wings right on that wyvern heartless," Double F sighed to Charon.
"Mom's gonna kill me when I come home without the fairy book!" Charon fell to the ground in defeat. Charon turned to eyes to the castle in the distantance, flinching as ashes flew into her eyes. "Still wish I knew where that castle came from."
Jack kept his arm over Sally's shoulder, whispering comforting words into her ears. She breathed slowly and calmly, still fearing that Lisa was alive somewhere in that foresaken place.
Double scratched her furry legs furiously. "There's ashes in my fur... won't... get out!"
"We should head back to town," Sally finally mentioned. "The sun's coming up."
"Yes, let's go," Jack led Sally away, letting the girls follow him at their own pace. He began to walk away without worry until-
"AH! My scythe! I must've dropped it!"
"Oh, good grief," Jack groaned, holding his head in his hands.
"Be patient with them, Jack," Sally coaxed.
"It's not 'them' I have a problem with, it's 'she'," Jack turned on his heel and sped-walked after Charon, who was running painfully slowly back to the castle remains.
***
"Scythe!" Charon called out for her favorite weapon, not caring if it couldn't hear her. "Scythe, hello!"
"Where is it?" Double F brushed through some ashes. "It should be sticking out like a sore thumb- ITCHY fur!"
Double F slapped the ashes out of her fur, and they slowly fell to the ground. Jack and Sally stumbled to the two girls, there tiny feet falling into the ash. Jack growled defiantly, "Have you found it yet?!"
"No," Charon whined. "Maybe I dropped it somewhere else."
"Oh, come ON!" Jack roared, scaring all within a three mile radius. "Just leave it here and we'll find it when all the dust blows away!"
"I'm sleepy!" Sally growled as well. "I would like to go home!"
"Okay, okay!" Charon pushed herself into a standing position and stomped past Jack and Sally. "But you'll have to explain this all to Mom-AIYA!"
A huge shadow fell over the group; a black dragon, showing its fangs and bearing its claws, was just about to tackle them and eat them! In about as much time as it took the group to notice it, another dark figure swiped the dragon with a strong arm and pushed it off course. It fell on its side and shuffled away.
IT WAS LISA WHO KNOCKED IT AWAY!
She had thrown the terrible lizard with her wing, and was shouting as it walked away, "Don't attack them, Perseus, they're on our side now!"
As Lisa looked at the familiar quartet, the evil radiance that once possessed her body had left her. She smiled meekly, looking more like Sally by the second, and giggled airily.
***
"Oh, and about the whole attacking thing, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. Oh, and the moron and idiot lines, I didn't mean those either; I was, like, possessed, or something, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry."
"For the last TIME, Lisa!" Jack moaned. "We forgive you!"
Lisa whimpered, tucking her tail under her legs. "I'm sorry! It's just... I feel terrible about the whole thing, I mean..."
And again Lisa went into one of her ramblings. She had been like this for a while- oh, I almost forgot, hang on-
It was a grand march back home, the Holiday Tree Woods alive with living drawings, either bouncing along the ground, through the air, or in the trees. Jack watched over his shoulder with certain apprehension; Cerberus was behind him, looking very very hungry. Sally was currently talking to the non-stop apologizer, Lisa. Charon and Double F were getting a free ride of a Behemoth with Sora and Riku.
"It was like some kind of voice was in my head, telling me what to do!" Lisa cried, holding her head shamefully.
"A voice? What kind of voice?" Sally asked.
"Uh... I couldn't tell, but it had a name!" Lisa rubbed her chin with a wing claw. "It was something... something with a 'P'..."
Charon suddenly ran inbetween the two women, chasing after a particularly ugly looking thing with a pig's head, a man's body, and feet shaped like bricks. "Come back, Jimmy! Jimmy Squarefoot, you need to go back in my book!"
Lisa suddenly got an idea. "Hey, you there, cat looking thing!"
Charon stopped abruptly and turned around. "Yeah, Sal- I mean, Lisa?"
"Do any of the drawings you and the sphinx made start with a 'P'?"
"The sphinx?" Charon was confused once again. "The sphinx, I dunno a sphinx.... DOUBLE F!"
"Yeah?" came a voice from the back of the line.
"Oh, darn it, I didn't mean to say it that loud," the sabercat whispered. "HEY, DOUBLE F, DO ANY OF YOUR DRAWINGS START WITH A 'P'?"
A long silence, and then "I DUNNO!"
Jack rubbed his forehead. "This is stupid."
"WAIT, CHARON, LISA'S OTHER NAME! IT WAS SOMETHING WITH A 'P'!"
"Oh yeah!" Charon poked Lisa in the chest. "Lisa, you're other name! It was Persephone (per-SEF-fone-y)! That's wh-"
"DAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A swirling blue light shot out of Lisa's forehead, and there materialized-
A thin, gangly man in jester's clothes with purple skin and green eyes. "You ruined it! You all ruined everything!"
"WAH!" Charon jumped behind Lisa in fear.
"I would've had a great empire, a kingdom, but you!" The jester pointed at Jack specifically. "You ruined everything!"
"I what?" The Pumpkin King marched to the floating, tiny man's eye level. "Now you listen here, I don't know who you are or where you're from, but you put Sally in danger, and for that, you should be put in jail!"
"No jail can hold me!" The jester disappeared again, singing in a spritely voice. "No jail cell can hold me, for I am the man named Persephone!"
Jack stared at the spot where the man named Persephone once was, bewildered. "This has been a very strange chapter- I mean day." Jack stratched his skull. "Why on earth did I say chapter?"
Charon giggled.
***
Charon and Double F had gone home, having somehow recovered their lost papers and books without trouble (Double F had written them back into existance with a spare piece of parchment and a quill pen). The drawing monsters were making a temporary home in Halloween Town, but Lisa announced (with a strength and power in her voice that could rival Jack Skellington's) that they would soon be moving to the forest with the Jersey Devil and his odd little town of monsters. It was odd though; Isaac, Lock, Shock, and Barrel had never returned. A few of the town monsters had gone out as lookouts to find them, but they were lost; and Jack and Sally weren't the only ones worried.
Lisa, who was sitting on the stone gate on the edge of town, heard the Harlequin demon moan, "I bet Cronus 2 Snickers bars and a peanut butter pumpkin that he wouldn't finish by the end of the week; where are those children when you need them?"
Lisa sighed and looked to the horizon.
"Is something wrong?"
Lisa looked behind her to see a concerned-looking Pumpkin King, one eyebrow ridge raised comically above the other one.
She sighed again, looked away from the elegant skeleton, and whispered, "I miss Isaac."
"Oh, you do?"
"He was like.... me and him were close, you know?" Lisa still wouldn't look at Jack. "And I said all those horrible things to him when I was possessed, and now he's probably dead under the castle rubble.... and he died thinking that I hated him."
"Oh, Lisa... I went though the same thing almost." Jack rested his elbows on the gate. Lisa looked at him fiercely.
"With who?" she demanded.
"My father," Jack remembered. "Me and him would get into awful fights, not often, mind you; but still enough to make me think that he didn't like me as much as Mother said he did."
"Uh... huh."
"But, I'd always remember; if he was a true father to his child (me), he would love me no matter what he did or I did or Mother did. It didn't matter."
Lisa looked away as Jack finished. "Because he loved us just the same."
"That's so sweet and touching and insightful," Lisa sniffed. "I hate it. It sounds like something you'd find on the Lifetime Network, EUGH! I hate that channel!"
"Excuse me?" Jack raised his eyebrow again.
"Just making myself feel better," Lisa giggled. He suddenly tensed, pushing back her hair to reveal a pointed ear. "What the- do you hear that?"
Jack cupped a hand to the side of his skull, and he did hear something...
"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes! Oh, I know a song..."
"It sounds like one of those annoying songs that children sing- wait a minute!" Jack suddenly took off running, determined to make it out of town, to find the source of the song that got on everybody's nerves. Lisa followed him, and by the time she caught up with him-
He had Lock, Shock, and Barrel wrapped up in his gangly arms, holding him to his chest and hugging them like they had come back from the dead. They, too, shared this affection; they hugged him back and shouted and squealed and wiggled as children do. Standing beside them was -
"ISAAC!" Lisa charged the bone-goyle and hugged him with her wings and arms. "Isaac, you're okay! I didn't kill you!"
"I'm glad you're back to normal, Lisa," Isaac grunted through squished ribs. The she-goyle gasped and dropped Isaac onto his feet. "Oh, man, Isaac, am I sorry! I mean, the whole demon possession-"
"Lisa?"
"-and the insults, and-"
"Lisa?"
"the punches, and th-"
"LISA! It's alright!" Isaac gently held Lisa's shoulders. "It's okay, Jack explained everything to me."
Lisa smiled coyly and bopped Isaac playfully on the shoulder with her wing. "So, we're done now, right?"
Isaac pulled her into another hug. "Of course we are...."
AND THAT'S THE END!
Um, author's notes, author's notes, um...
Double F, Hi! I just realized that I made you into a sphinx for the TNBC section! Do you mind?
Lisa and Isaac fluff, EW! That was hard to write.
I do not own the Kingdom Hearts monsters or characters, Shiro and Kurai belong to me friend Double F (she had fanart of them), and a couple of the monsters were mine (like the black dragons and lions and stuff).
And that's it! Bye!
So, Isaac's joined up with Jack and the teens, and they're on their way to get Sally back! Last chapter!
Cerberus trotted happily towards the ballroom, the four people on his back barely registering on his thick skin. Jack spoke to Isaac, hoping on some insight as to how to get Sally back to town.
"When did Lisa start acting like this?" The Pumpkin King asked his twin.
"Not too long ago. We were just talking to eachother back home, and then, we were here." Isaac was obviously speaking of when he and Lisa were nothing but drawings, so Jack paid extra attention. "As soon as Lisa stepped out that little tornado thing, it was do this, do that, go kidnap her-"
"Wait! Wait, wait! Back up a minute!" Jack waved his hand. "What tornado?"
"Actually, it's more of a dust devil," Isaac stated.
"That's not the point! Tell me more about it!"
"Oh!" Isaac held his hand to his lips in surprise, and began to explain. "It's a little dust devil, and it's um... it's filled with shreds of paper."
Jack's eyebrow rose in confusion. "O...kay."
"And..... um... you throw in pictures, and whatever's on the picture comes out of the tornado."
"Is that where all of these things came from?" Jack asked while patting Cerberus's back.
"Actually, there's only one of these things," Isaac pointed out.
"That's not what I meant!" Jack slammed his palm against his forehead. "I meant the monsters in general!"
"Oh, yes, right!" Isaac smiled. A sudden lurch signaled that Cerberus had stopped walking.
***
"Stop, look, and listen, baby! That's my philosophy!" Lisa turned to her captive. "Come on, Sally, sing Elvis with me!"
"I don't want to sing," Sally huffed. She was in a very bad mood after sitting on a rough, wooden box for hours; both of her legs were asleep, her shoulders were sore from her arms being tied, and she was ready to eat something.
"Sally, look, I'm TRYING to help you build yourself into a better woman here, but you're not paying attention! What's your problem?"
"I am my own woman, Lisa," Sally shot her a horrible look. "I'm in love. Being in love doesn't make you any less of a person."
"Yeah, you and every other teenager in the world think that, and you know how stupid teenagers are," Lisa growled, her wings tensing and her pupils disappearing.
"LISA!"
"Isaac?!" Lisa was surprised to see her former partner climbing frantically onto the pulpit, breathing deeply and not carrying any Ritz crackers. "Where's the snacks?"
"Lisa, you know the skeleton man that Sally keeps talking about?" he breathing, holding his weight on his knees. Both Sally and Lisa's muscles tensed in anticipation.
"Yeah, the bonehead. What about him?" Lisa hissed.
"He's in the castle!"
Sally felt her insides turning flips and her trust for Isaac crumbling. Lisa, however, was the exactly opposite. She lunged forward, clutching Isaac by his collar and speaking directly into his face. An evil smile split her face in half. "Where is he?"
"That way!" Isaac pointed to the main doorway.
"Come on, men!" Lisa lept down onto the ground and screamed the endless herd of monsters and Heartless into a frenzy. They rushed out of the main door, cries of "Slay Jack!" and "Kill the Pumpkin King!" echoing through the hallways.
Sally turned to Isaac, tears welling in her eyes. "How... could you?"
"Ssshh!" Isaac laughed, pressing his wing claws over her mouth. "Be quiet or Lisa'll come back! Look this way!"
Isaac pulled Sally onto her feet and led her to the right side of the pulpit. Standing at the base were-
"JACK!"
Jack, Double F, and Charon were all looking up at her from the floor. Each were smiling, Jack's being the largest. Double F waved cheerfully; Charon had a round finger over her cleft lips.
"You didn't rat him out!" Sally gasped in happiness. Isaac stood behind her, trying to take off her arm shackles.
" I know... ergh... I want you to get- ugh- out of here as- euh- much as he does. ANGH!" He dropped the shackles hopelessly. "Oh, just forget it and hold onto me."
Isaac held onto Sally tightly and dropped to the floor, his wings slowing his fall. Jack took Sally into his arms and hugged her tightly. Charon and Double F spent their time thanking Isaac.
"THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH, ISAAC!" Double F laughed. "I dunno how we would've gotten her down-"
Charon rubbed her hands together. "I can't believe Lisa was so easily duped! I made her smarter than that, or I thought I did-"
"Thanks again!" said Double F.
"Yeah, thanks."
A jolt of fear went through the bunch like a gunshot. Standing there was Lisa, all of the monsters, Heartless, and etc. creatures waiting behind her for the chance to attack. Lisa rested, hands on her hips, her tail waving leisurely behind her, her eyes an evil green color. "I am not so easily duped, dear creator." She clicked her tongue, took a callous glance at her fingernails, and continued. "I believe it is you who is the duped one right now."
Jack stepped forward and faced the gargoyle version of his closest friend. "Alright, listen to me. We don't want to fight anyone; I just want to leave and bring Sally back home."
Charon raised her finger. "And u-"
"Shut up!" Double F forcibly whispered, jabbing her cat friend in the ribs.
"Heh!" Lisa laughed. "Check this out, Sally! Not only is your 'boyfriend' controlling, but he's also a stalker!"
Jack stepped back in shock, his mouth turning into an "o" of surprise. Sally shouted, her arms tiring in their restraints, "THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
"Uh, I'm surrounded by idiots," Lisa growled. He finally sighed and said, "Fine. I'm just gonna hafta rip all of your heads off, then."
But just as Soon as Lisa went to step forward on her giant, clawed foot, Isaac jumped in front of the group and spread his wings as far as they would go; protecting them.
And Lisa was surprised.
"Isaac, wha- What are you doing?"
Isaac stepped backwards, his breathing erratic. He whispered to Jack. "Be prepared to defend yourself."
Charon whimpered and unsheathed her scythe. Double F's muscles tensed. Jack wrapped and arm around Sally and refused to let go.
"Fine, then, Isaac. Hate to do this to you, but, an obstacle's an obstacle." Lisa took a deep breath-
AND ATTACKED THEM! The monsters of the drawpad followed her faithfully, bellowing in fury as they charged into battle. Isaac was immediately knocked down by Lisa's weight, while about a dozens monsters swarmed the Pumpkin King and his companions. One particularly large blank lion caught Sally on his back and threw her back onto the pulpit. She shoved herself up with her elbows to watch the carnage below. Jack was nimbly jumping out of the way of many attacks, although quite a large number of Heartless were after him. Charon had long ago lost her scythe and fallen to the ground, pinned down by a black dragon. Double F was starting to falter, her wrists caught and tangled in the hair of a fairy knight.
"Oh no!" she moaned. "JACK! Oh, how are we going to get out of this?"
"With-"
"Our-"
"Help!"
Sally turned her head sharply, and there behind her was Lock, Shock, and Barrel! "Boys! How did you get here?"
"We snuck inside one of the three headed dog's mouthes!" Shock laughed.
"It was fun!" Barrel giggled.
"We're here to bust you out!" Lock growled. His pulled a piece of wire out from under his lip and began working at Sally's shackles.
"How long have you been here? Did you follow Jack and the girls?" Sally asked as Lock worked at the chains.
"You didn't think we were gonna let you go on an adventure by yourself, did you?" Lock sneered.
"We had to hike through tons of weeds and junk to get here because our bathtub got busted," Shock complained as she pulled off her hat and dumped out a bundle of weeds.
"You're free!" Lock cheered in happiness. Sally jerked her arms forward, and felt the feeling come back into her shoulders almost immediately.
"WWOOOAAAAARR!"
The Terrible Trio was knocked off the pulpit by a runaway fairy knight, leaving Sally alone with a bunch of grasses and plants and the dust devil.
But she saw something. One weed looked a bit like a dead thistle; the same type of plant that triggered her premonition that fateful year. She gasped and clutched it in her hands, praying to herself.
"Oh please, oh please, if I ever needed a premonition, I need it now. Are we going to come out of this battle alive?"
The plant slowly wiggled and writhed its way into a recognizable form... Jack's head, neck, and torso. The minituature half-Jack looked at Sally with a vacous smile.
"Jack? Is he-?" Sally crawled to the edge to find her closest friend.
Jack had just dodged a powerswipe from a black lioness when Lisa caught him by the collar. She stared at him with her empty, glowing eyes. "You've caused me enough trouble!"
She slammed the Pumpkin King against the wall using her wing! The ballroom echoed with the resounding THUD of bone hitting marble, and the Pumpkin King's cry of pain.
"JACK, NO!" Sally screamed. A burning sensation met her fingers; she looked downwards and saw her premonition flower was on fire! She yelped again and tossed it away, and it fell into the dust devil!
Almost immediately, a Behemoth heartless cried out in pain as his body went two-dimensional and a hole of fire burned through his chest. More and more of the creatures soon fell to the same fate, screeching in agony and clutching their chest, trying to withhold the fire.
"JACK!" Sally cried out again, only to feel the ground below her give way! She collasped to the floor, shaken but still whole. She galloped into the fray, straining her eyes and avoiding the fire. "JACK!"
Two boned hands grabbed her shoulders, but they weren't Jack's; they were Isaac's. He growled into her ear. "We have to get out of here! Hurry!"
Sally stumbled forward, Isaac's hands still pushing against her back. Her stopped her with a firm "Wait here" and left again, leaving her standing by the main doors. She watched as Riku fell into a firey fate before her, crumbling and folding like a leaf in a bonfire.
"Sally, you're alive!"
Sally greeted Jack with open arms and waiting tears. "It was me who was worried about you, Jack!"
Double F gave Sally's arm a fearful tug before running away from the fire and into the hallway.
"Come on, Sally! No time for fluffy stuff!"
Charon streaked past, her scythe crammed into her pocket. "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"
***
The hallways around them were destroying themselves, falling apart in chunks and then bursting into flames. Isaac alone had nothing of him aflame, which was odd, given everyone was either dead or still burning.
"How much longer now?!" Double F hollered.
"Not much farther!" answered Isaac, who was leading them. "About 5 more minutes!"
As he went to round a sharp turn, the wall before him burst into flames and collasped! He stopped sharply, the four people behind him screaming in shock.
"Make that 2 minutes," he mumbled to himself. He turned his head backwards. "HURRY! Through the wall!"
***
"There's the door!" Charon gasped.
"We're almost out of here!" Jack said to Sally, clutching her hand in his.
"NO YOU'RE NOT!"
Lisa, her legs cut and bleeding (as apposed to ripped and torn), was standing in front of the group, her wings stretched to their breaking point, blocking their path to the outside. The ceiling began to flake apart and fall to the ground in chunks, scaring the teens and catching Sally's dress, catching it on fire. Isaac reacted on instinct and snapped his wings outward as well, blocking them from her view.
It was a staredown. Two monsters, perhaps not equally matched in size or skill, placed in a life or death situation... One had a reputation to protect... one a group of friends.... who would survive?
"I'm going to attack Lisa," Isaac whispered to Jack. "You take Sally and the kids and run."
"She'll kill you!" Jack snapped.
"We're both going to die to the flames anyway," Isaac calmly spoke, tears welling in the bottom of his sockets. He took a breath and continued. "You go."
Jack nodded, gave Isaac a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and stepped back.
With a deafening roar, Isaac lunged forward and caught Lisa by the throat, running her into the ground. Jack grabbed Sally's hand and ran out of the mansion, Double F and Charon following quickly.
***
"And I spent forever trying to get the wings right on that wyvern heartless," Double F sighed to Charon.
"Mom's gonna kill me when I come home without the fairy book!" Charon fell to the ground in defeat. Charon turned to eyes to the castle in the distantance, flinching as ashes flew into her eyes. "Still wish I knew where that castle came from."
Jack kept his arm over Sally's shoulder, whispering comforting words into her ears. She breathed slowly and calmly, still fearing that Lisa was alive somewhere in that foresaken place.
Double scratched her furry legs furiously. "There's ashes in my fur... won't... get out!"
"We should head back to town," Sally finally mentioned. "The sun's coming up."
"Yes, let's go," Jack led Sally away, letting the girls follow him at their own pace. He began to walk away without worry until-
"AH! My scythe! I must've dropped it!"
"Oh, good grief," Jack groaned, holding his head in his hands.
"Be patient with them, Jack," Sally coaxed.
"It's not 'them' I have a problem with, it's 'she'," Jack turned on his heel and sped-walked after Charon, who was running painfully slowly back to the castle remains.
***
"Scythe!" Charon called out for her favorite weapon, not caring if it couldn't hear her. "Scythe, hello!"
"Where is it?" Double F brushed through some ashes. "It should be sticking out like a sore thumb- ITCHY fur!"
Double F slapped the ashes out of her fur, and they slowly fell to the ground. Jack and Sally stumbled to the two girls, there tiny feet falling into the ash. Jack growled defiantly, "Have you found it yet?!"
"No," Charon whined. "Maybe I dropped it somewhere else."
"Oh, come ON!" Jack roared, scaring all within a three mile radius. "Just leave it here and we'll find it when all the dust blows away!"
"I'm sleepy!" Sally growled as well. "I would like to go home!"
"Okay, okay!" Charon pushed herself into a standing position and stomped past Jack and Sally. "But you'll have to explain this all to Mom-AIYA!"
A huge shadow fell over the group; a black dragon, showing its fangs and bearing its claws, was just about to tackle them and eat them! In about as much time as it took the group to notice it, another dark figure swiped the dragon with a strong arm and pushed it off course. It fell on its side and shuffled away.
IT WAS LISA WHO KNOCKED IT AWAY!
She had thrown the terrible lizard with her wing, and was shouting as it walked away, "Don't attack them, Perseus, they're on our side now!"
As Lisa looked at the familiar quartet, the evil radiance that once possessed her body had left her. She smiled meekly, looking more like Sally by the second, and giggled airily.
***
"Oh, and about the whole attacking thing, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. Oh, and the moron and idiot lines, I didn't mean those either; I was, like, possessed, or something, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry."
"For the last TIME, Lisa!" Jack moaned. "We forgive you!"
Lisa whimpered, tucking her tail under her legs. "I'm sorry! It's just... I feel terrible about the whole thing, I mean..."
And again Lisa went into one of her ramblings. She had been like this for a while- oh, I almost forgot, hang on-
It was a grand march back home, the Holiday Tree Woods alive with living drawings, either bouncing along the ground, through the air, or in the trees. Jack watched over his shoulder with certain apprehension; Cerberus was behind him, looking very very hungry. Sally was currently talking to the non-stop apologizer, Lisa. Charon and Double F were getting a free ride of a Behemoth with Sora and Riku.
"It was like some kind of voice was in my head, telling me what to do!" Lisa cried, holding her head shamefully.
"A voice? What kind of voice?" Sally asked.
"Uh... I couldn't tell, but it had a name!" Lisa rubbed her chin with a wing claw. "It was something... something with a 'P'..."
Charon suddenly ran inbetween the two women, chasing after a particularly ugly looking thing with a pig's head, a man's body, and feet shaped like bricks. "Come back, Jimmy! Jimmy Squarefoot, you need to go back in my book!"
Lisa suddenly got an idea. "Hey, you there, cat looking thing!"
Charon stopped abruptly and turned around. "Yeah, Sal- I mean, Lisa?"
"Do any of the drawings you and the sphinx made start with a 'P'?"
"The sphinx?" Charon was confused once again. "The sphinx, I dunno a sphinx.... DOUBLE F!"
"Yeah?" came a voice from the back of the line.
"Oh, darn it, I didn't mean to say it that loud," the sabercat whispered. "HEY, DOUBLE F, DO ANY OF YOUR DRAWINGS START WITH A 'P'?"
A long silence, and then "I DUNNO!"
Jack rubbed his forehead. "This is stupid."
"WAIT, CHARON, LISA'S OTHER NAME! IT WAS SOMETHING WITH A 'P'!"
"Oh yeah!" Charon poked Lisa in the chest. "Lisa, you're other name! It was Persephone (per-SEF-fone-y)! That's wh-"
"DAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A swirling blue light shot out of Lisa's forehead, and there materialized-
A thin, gangly man in jester's clothes with purple skin and green eyes. "You ruined it! You all ruined everything!"
"WAH!" Charon jumped behind Lisa in fear.
"I would've had a great empire, a kingdom, but you!" The jester pointed at Jack specifically. "You ruined everything!"
"I what?" The Pumpkin King marched to the floating, tiny man's eye level. "Now you listen here, I don't know who you are or where you're from, but you put Sally in danger, and for that, you should be put in jail!"
"No jail can hold me!" The jester disappeared again, singing in a spritely voice. "No jail cell can hold me, for I am the man named Persephone!"
Jack stared at the spot where the man named Persephone once was, bewildered. "This has been a very strange chapter- I mean day." Jack stratched his skull. "Why on earth did I say chapter?"
Charon giggled.
***
Charon and Double F had gone home, having somehow recovered their lost papers and books without trouble (Double F had written them back into existance with a spare piece of parchment and a quill pen). The drawing monsters were making a temporary home in Halloween Town, but Lisa announced (with a strength and power in her voice that could rival Jack Skellington's) that they would soon be moving to the forest with the Jersey Devil and his odd little town of monsters. It was odd though; Isaac, Lock, Shock, and Barrel had never returned. A few of the town monsters had gone out as lookouts to find them, but they were lost; and Jack and Sally weren't the only ones worried.
Lisa, who was sitting on the stone gate on the edge of town, heard the Harlequin demon moan, "I bet Cronus 2 Snickers bars and a peanut butter pumpkin that he wouldn't finish by the end of the week; where are those children when you need them?"
Lisa sighed and looked to the horizon.
"Is something wrong?"
Lisa looked behind her to see a concerned-looking Pumpkin King, one eyebrow ridge raised comically above the other one.
She sighed again, looked away from the elegant skeleton, and whispered, "I miss Isaac."
"Oh, you do?"
"He was like.... me and him were close, you know?" Lisa still wouldn't look at Jack. "And I said all those horrible things to him when I was possessed, and now he's probably dead under the castle rubble.... and he died thinking that I hated him."
"Oh, Lisa... I went though the same thing almost." Jack rested his elbows on the gate. Lisa looked at him fiercely.
"With who?" she demanded.
"My father," Jack remembered. "Me and him would get into awful fights, not often, mind you; but still enough to make me think that he didn't like me as much as Mother said he did."
"Uh... huh."
"But, I'd always remember; if he was a true father to his child (me), he would love me no matter what he did or I did or Mother did. It didn't matter."
Lisa looked away as Jack finished. "Because he loved us just the same."
"That's so sweet and touching and insightful," Lisa sniffed. "I hate it. It sounds like something you'd find on the Lifetime Network, EUGH! I hate that channel!"
"Excuse me?" Jack raised his eyebrow again.
"Just making myself feel better," Lisa giggled. He suddenly tensed, pushing back her hair to reveal a pointed ear. "What the- do you hear that?"
Jack cupped a hand to the side of his skull, and he did hear something...
"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes! Oh, I know a song..."
"It sounds like one of those annoying songs that children sing- wait a minute!" Jack suddenly took off running, determined to make it out of town, to find the source of the song that got on everybody's nerves. Lisa followed him, and by the time she caught up with him-
He had Lock, Shock, and Barrel wrapped up in his gangly arms, holding him to his chest and hugging them like they had come back from the dead. They, too, shared this affection; they hugged him back and shouted and squealed and wiggled as children do. Standing beside them was -
"ISAAC!" Lisa charged the bone-goyle and hugged him with her wings and arms. "Isaac, you're okay! I didn't kill you!"
"I'm glad you're back to normal, Lisa," Isaac grunted through squished ribs. The she-goyle gasped and dropped Isaac onto his feet. "Oh, man, Isaac, am I sorry! I mean, the whole demon possession-"
"Lisa?"
"-and the insults, and-"
"Lisa?"
"the punches, and th-"
"LISA! It's alright!" Isaac gently held Lisa's shoulders. "It's okay, Jack explained everything to me."
Lisa smiled coyly and bopped Isaac playfully on the shoulder with her wing. "So, we're done now, right?"
Isaac pulled her into another hug. "Of course we are...."
AND THAT'S THE END!
Um, author's notes, author's notes, um...
Double F, Hi! I just realized that I made you into a sphinx for the TNBC section! Do you mind?
Lisa and Isaac fluff, EW! That was hard to write.
I do not own the Kingdom Hearts monsters or characters, Shiro and Kurai belong to me friend Double F (she had fanart of them), and a couple of the monsters were mine (like the black dragons and lions and stuff).
And that's it! Bye!