Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or Halloween Town, or Jack, he just comes over for tea sometimes, and Zero hangs out with my dog...

A/N: So yes. Finally. Anticipation! Right, sure. Anyways, I hope I don't disappoint you guys with this chapter. Ooof, it didn't even end the way I thought it would! What's the use of outlines if your outline conclusion is different than your actual one? Hm. Never mind. Well, I hope you guys like the Halloween outfits. And such. There were some parts I just didn't write out because, come on, most of us have played the game to this point, and we know what happens. I actually changed the sequence of evens and such around, just because if I kept it going the way the game had it, it would've made it much more difficult. Anyways, I'll stop rambling now. Enjoy!

PS: Thanks Malignant-Paroxysm for telling me about the jumbled up paragraphs in the first part. Lets see if this is better....

Chapter 14

"It's quite simple, really. I found a doorway that led to the other holidays. When the first Heartless came through, I realized we could have an entirely new act for next Halloween!" Jack said, his skull-face grinning. "Unfortunately, it isn't quite working out as we planned..."

Sora, Goofy, Donald, and Sasha, who had refused to stay on board the gummi ship, were standing around the fountain in Guillotine Square. Rickety, dark windowed buildings surrounded them, some only half-intact, others very close to falling over. The fountain in the middle of the square burbled with strange, green tinged liquid that didn't quite seem to be water. A black iron fence, arrow tipped with curving, sharp angled crossbars, bordered the square, separating it from the bright-eye inhabited bushes on the other side. Before disembarking, Donald suggested they change their clothes so they fit in with the general feel of the world. Sora was dressed in black, with vampire teeth and a pumpkin mask he wore covering only one eye. He had little black demon wings jutting out from his back, and had on overly large white gloves, and nifty black shoes. Goofy was dressed like a monster zombie, his fur ragged and his eyes discolored, and Donald was wrapped, head to toe, in mummy wrappings. Around his midsection a part of the wrapping was undone, and some magic trick done to make it seem as if he had no body underneath the wrappings. Sasha found herself wearing a black and silver pinstriped shirt, black pants that ended in ragged purple flame edges, and a mask that looked like a smiling skull. And, for some strange reason, her wings were covered in neon green silly string. Her axe seemed to have changed without her knowing, now having the words 'Sucks to be you' carved into it, obviously directed towards those at the receiving end. The masamune didn't change at all, but remained strapped to her back between her wings, unresponsive as before and growing even lighter with each passing moment. Jack Skellington, pumpkin King of Halloween, was currently explaining to them just exactly what was going on in Halloween Town as they took in their surroundings.

"Well, what did you try to do with the Heartless?" Sora asked, looking at Jack.

"I wanted to teach them to dance, but something's not right..." Jack looked at them. "Would you mind coming with me to Dr. Finkelstein's lab and seeing what might be wrong?"

"Sure!" Sora said, and looked at his companions. "Maybe we can find out something more about the Heartless..."

"Good point." Sasha nodded her agreement.

"All, right, hyuk, let's go." Goofy said, grinning.

"Eh, why not." Donald sighed, "But make sure to keep an eye out in case any Heartless are running loose around here."

They set off down the road to the laboratory, where Dr. Finkelstein was working on a Heartless. They passed a few gates in the fence, a few leading to other houses, the other one leading to a tall, thin house that looked about ready to fall over any moment. They walked along a large stone wall and finally made it to the doorway that led to the laboratory. Inside, they found Dr. Finkelstein, in his wheelchair, trying to do something with a Heartless. He shocked it, but other than a nice light show, nothing happened.

"Well, doctor, have you figured anything out yet?" Jack asked, walking over to the lab table.

"It seems to me, that this Heartless is lacking something..." Dr. Finkelsteins said, maneuvering his wheelchair over to his desk. "Hmm. Hmmmm. Yes. Hmm."

"Well, doctor," Jack said, his eyes narrowed in thought. "What if... what if we gave this Heartless a heart. Maybe that could work!"

"Hm. Probable, extremely probable. Highly possible." Dr. Finkelstein turned his wheelchair around. "In that case, we must make a heart."

"We'll help you!" Sora said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Donald asked warily.

"Well, if it works, that means the Heartless won't be an Heartless anymore, right?" Sora asked. "Besides, wouldn't it be funny to see a Heartless dance?"

"I second that." Sasha said, raising a hand. She grinned. "Besides, think what we could do if the Heartless could be controlled like that. No more fighting, just flip a switch and they all go nice."

"That's true." Goofy nodded, turning to Donald.

"Oh, all right." Donald said, crossing his arms. "But if anything bad happens, don't say I didn't warn you..."

The group set off gathering the ingredients that Dr. Finkelstein needed. First on the list was memory, and Dr. Finkelstein sent them to find Sally for it.

"Terrible news, Jack! Just awful!" The Mayor came careening around in his truck, the cat-siren going full blast. "The Heartless are going out of control! Oh horror horror! Terrible, terrible news! Everyone, the Heartless are going out of control!"

"That isn't good." Donald said, looking around suspiciously.

"I wonder, could the experiment have anything to do with it?" Jack mused. "Well, not to worry, we'll have everything under control, Mayor."

Jack turned back to the rest.

"Come on, lets check the Graveyard. Maybe Sally's there." Jack said, and led the way.

Once there, they were ambushed by a group of strange ghost-like Heartless. Every few seconds they'd disappear and appear in a different place, their eyes letting out beams of light like flashlights. With the five of them fighting, though, the area was soon cleared of Heartless. As soon as the last Heartless disappeared, an orange-red glow appeared, dodging between the headstones as it headed towards them.

"Zero? Is that you?" Jack asked, and a small dog-like ghost floated out from behind a headstone. It yapped happily, an eerie sound that seemed more like an echo of a living bark than a real bark itself. "Hey, Zero! Do you know where Sally is?"

Zero yapped again, its nose blinking on and off as it floated around them, then shot off to the left. The group followed him and soon found Sally. After getting some of Sally's memory, they all headed back to Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. Only to discover that now they needed to get another ingredient: surprise. So they set off again, trying to think of a place where surprise could be hidden.

"So, Jack, where do you think we should go?" Sora asked as he neatly sliced a heartless in half.

"We could go through the Graveyard and check out some other secret areas." Jack said, taking out another heartless.

"Okay, let's do it!" Sora said, grinning, and turned to the others. Goofy jump-charged a floating heartless and defeated it, while a few steps from him Sasha and Donald teamed up and blasted another heartless away with frosty magic. "Come on, let's go."

They took off back to the Graveyard, the full moon lighting their path. Sora looked around, and then stepped over to where Sasha was walking forlornly.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, looking at her.

"Hm? Oh, nothing." She said, then looked up at him and noticed the worry in his eyes. She forced a smile. "Really. I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked, concerned.

"Yeah, really. Believe me." Sasha said. Her smile still wasn't believable, but she grabbed him by his upper arm and pushed him forward. "Come on, you're holding everyone up!"

"Who? Me?" Sora exclaimed as he got propelled forward. He smiled back at her.

"Yes, you, now move it." She said, and they hurried up to catch up to the others, who were already at the gate that led to the Graveyard.

"Well, now what?" Donald asked, scratching his head.

"We should check behind some of these headstones." Jack answered, looking around a large, ornately carved headstone. "The secret passages are hidden behind them, but be careful, there might be ghosts around."

"Ghosts!" Goofy exclaimed. "Gawrsh!"

Donald looked in distaste at Goofy, who was now holding his arms close to himself and shaking visibly while looking around like a scared dog.

"You're not afraid of facing down heartless, but you get scared of some little ghosts.... hmph..." Donald said, shaking his head, and turned to look back behind the headstone he'd been checking. A sudden puff of mist shot towards him, and he let out a yell as he dashed from the spot to hide behind Goofy.

"Hyuk, guess you are too." Goofy chuckled. Donald glared at him.

"Oh, be quiet." He grumbled.

Sora laughed, and Jack joined in. Sasha couldn't help but crack a smile at them, her previous slightly darkened mood lifting slightly. Suddenly, there was a hush in the Graveyard. A cold wind blew in, and a group of flying heartless dropped from the sky, disrupting the moment of serenity and throwing them all into attack mode.

"There's so many, where are they coming from?" Jack called out, taking out one heartless only to have another fly at him.

"And there's more coming!" Donald exclaimed, sending a fireball at a mummy-like heartless that was rising out of the ground.
"This isn't good!" Sora yelled as he took down two more heartless. Three of the mummy heartless were dancing just outside his reach, and two flying heartless dropped down at him. Before the keyblade could connect, though, both of them seemed to have teleported away, only to reappear a moment later behind him.

"There's too many!" Sasha said, hopping onto a headstone and swinging her axe wildly. One of the flying heartless got clipped in the wing and crashed to the ground. Goofy jumped on it, bashing it with his shield.

"I think it best if we retreated for now." Jack supplied, knocking a few heartless out of the way.

"Okay, everyone, lets get out of here!" Sora called out, knocking more heartless around and turning to look at the others.

"You guys go first," Sasha said, growling as she took the head off of a mummy heartless. Noticing their looks, she glared at them. "Wings? Remember? It'll be easier for me to get out of here than you."

Sora looked at her for a second, panting, then nodded.

"She's right. Come on, let's go!" He called out. The others didn't need to be told twice, and the four dashed their way towards the entrance to the Graveyard, heartless trailing them. Many of the heartless that were attacking Sasha turned and started after the retreating group, maybe drawn after them because of the power of the keyblade, maybe for some other reason. Whatever it was, Sasha knew they had to be stopped so that the others could reach the gate, so she took a breath, then shot a bolt of lightning out at the heartless. One mummy like heartless caught the bolt in the back, shaking with the impact. It fell to the ground, and some of thsoe around it stopped, then turned to look at her. The hit heartless rose from the ground, slowly as if sore, then turned in her direction.

"Come get some..." Sasha said, readying her axe. Before she had a chance to use it, a flying heartless, black deformed head thrust into her direct line of sight, appeared right in front of her. It screeched and landed on her, knocking her back off the headstone and onto a large slab of stone. She heard someone call out her name, but was much to busy trying to get the heartless off of her to figure out who it was. The scratches left on her arms from its claws were numbing them, and the frozen sensation was making it harder for her to move. There was a sudden click, and a grate of what seemed to be stone on stone,nand the heartless took the air in surprise. Before she could move, the stone beneath her shuddered, then flipped over, taking her with it. She was dropped down a tunnel, and rolled her way through its twists and turns, eventually falling onto what seemed to be vines. She lay there on her stomach, gingerly stretching her wings out and grimacing at the bumps and bruises she had received. With a sigh she pushed herself up and patted herself off, then took a look around.

She seemed to have landed in a gigantic pumpkin patch. She had seen one not far from the Graveyard before, but this one seemed to be somewhere else, and farther away from the town. The faint lights of the town glimmered, not entirely far off but definitely farther than she had thought she was. Something tugged at her boot, and she looked down in surprise to find some of the vines beginning to wrap themselves around her foot. She shook them off, but while she was shaking one foot the other was being attacked. She stepped up onto a rather large pumpkin finally, where the vines found it somewhat more
difficult to catch her, and sighed. No matter what, everywhere she went, something was out to get her. She looked off into the direction that the town was in, and wondered whether flying wouldn't be too difficult. A bird suddenly called out from the darkness, and she turned to see a large crow flying low over the pumpkin patch. It turned towards the town, but as it did something shot up out of the patch, a large plant-like thing that could only be compared to a giant venus flytrap, and snapped it out of the air. Sasha paled a bit, staring at the spot the bird had been in for a little while. Whatever had taken that bird down was much bigger than the avian itself. Big enough to catch her, in fact. She swallowed shakily, deciding that flying might not be the best option in this case.

Looking down, she realized that she should be able to hop from pumpkin to pumpkin, making her way across the patch and back to town that way. She sighed at the thought of all the effort that would take, but was certain that it would be better than ending up food for whatever that plant was. She hopped over to the next pumpkin, steadying herself with her wings, and then to the next. A while later she stopped and looked towards the town again, but it didn't seem any closer. Nothing had appeared to change, nothing except a sudden drop not far in front of her. She took off across the pumpkins again, and made it to the ledge of the drop. It was hard to see beyond the lip of the gorge, greenish gray mist floated up out of it, and there seemed to be something flickering down in it, casting strange shadows onto the mist.

Sasha paused, considering what to do. Even if she didn't want to go down into the gorge, it meant she'd have to bypass it to keep on the road to the town. Looking to the sides, she couldn't see the ends of the gorge, which meant it was much larger than she'd like it to be.

That left only the other option: go down. She sighed, readied her wings, and jumped into the chasm.

Minute feather control kept her descending at a steady, unhurried pace. She'd been floating for almost a half a minute when a change came. A rock suddenly appeared directly beneath her, previously hidden beneath a cloud of mist, and she had to pull one wing and stretch the other to dodge to one side and around it. More rocks, most sharp and
menacing, began showing themselves, and now she flapped slightly, moving forward through the thick mist in an effort to find someplace to land.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...." Sasha told herself, squinting as she attempted to see through the mist. Finally, rocks ceased appearing, and she dropped carefully, her feet finding purchase on un-spiked, though not entirely solid, ground. She lifted one foot and heard the squelch of boot sinking into mud as she put it down again. "Great. Wonderful. Why not?"

She fluttered her wings, then started forward through the fog, her axe at ready and her senses intent on picking up anything strange. A slight glow appeared on her left at one moment, and she turned toward it, walking in its direction, and it grew brighter with each of her steps. Then she noticed that it wasn't so much as the glow was getting brighter, as that the mist was getting thinner. She could finally see the ground she stood on, and recoiled to see it a deep, red color, with cracks of purple and deep diseased green in it, the green being what made the ground so wet and muddy. She grimaced, but set off forward again, determined to reach this light source in front of her.

The mist suddenly dissipated, fading to reveal a moonlit stream, tainted green like the veins that ran through the ground beneath her feet. Above the mist was pulled back, letting the full moon's light fall over the ground and onto a figure that stood at the streams edge, its back toward Sasha. She squinted through the filtering moonlight and last traces of mist, then took a few steps forward. The figure seemed to have heard her, and its head turned slightly in her direction. She gasped as she recognized the person and dashed forward.

"Riku?!" She called, coming to a halt a few feet away from him. He turned to face her, surprised.

"Sasha? What? What are you doing here? I thought..." He didn't finish his thought, just stood there and looked at her for a moment. His outfit had changed for Halloween Town also, now all black. His pants had three horizontal silver stripes on the bottoms, and his sleeveless black shirt had a stylized heart on it, with a line crossing through it. His arms were covered in black fishnet and he had his black gloves on.

"The book..." Sasha began, then paused. "The book, it sent me back to where my home world used to be..."

"Used to...?" Riku began to ask, but then it dawned on him.

"Yeah, since it's controlled by the darkness now, it doesn't actually 'exist' here anymore. I got dumped into the middle of gummi space." Sasha grinned wryly, as if it were something funny.

"But then, how'd you get here?" Riku asked, turning to face her fully. She gave him a long look, trying to decide what to tell him, whether to tell him. Something was still wrong here. Something was even more wrong than before.

"Well, that's the thing. You wouldn't believe it, I happened to be found by Sora... he's here, in Halloween Town." She said, but noticing the sudden darkening in Riku's eyes, she added quietly, "I'm not sure if it's a good thing..."

Riku's eyes had turned hateful and cold, a withering look that made her feel as if he wanted nothing so much as to tear her, or Sora, apart. She steeled herself, though, and added what she had on her mind.

"You know, you should really go talk to him..." Sasha said. Riku sneered, then turned away, back towards the green stream.

"Hmph... I have more important things to do right now." He said, his voice toned important and detached. Sasha looked at him incredulously, beginning to seethe. This was really getting ridiculous, she thought. Sora wants to find him, but he doesn't want to find Sroa. Or rather, he had wanted to, but now he seemed to suddenly hate Sora, but if she remembered correctly, was still worried about the girl that they were both looking for. And here he was, in the same world as Sora but instead of going to find him he was being stupid and stubborn and refusing to even think about what good might happen if he did. She growled, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"Important things? Like what? Being Maleficent's little messenger boy?" She snarled, her wings flickering slightly, her feathers sending off tiny blue sparks. Riku turned slightly to look at her from the side, his eyes narrowing.

"This coming, of all people, from you." He sneered, his gaze icy.

"At least I wasn't doing it willingly." She said her voice low and poisonous. Riku whipped around to face her, his eyes blazing.

"Go ahead, say that again, I dare you." He said his voice dangerous.

"I will. I wasn't the one who went running around like an idiot, ignoring his friends whenever they showed up and sticking around with whoever was bossing me around just because I felt like it." Sasha growled her stance stiff and her wings half-unfolded.

"You don't know anything..." Riku said his voice quiet and barely audible. He was shaking with barely controlled rage, his breath coming fast, his eyes glittering viciously in the bright moonlight. Sasha tensed, sensing some change coming about. Something was growing behind those turquoise eyes, something she wasn't so sure she wanted to meet. Her confidence faltered a bit as the look in his eyes grew, a strange light flickering across their surfaces.

"You don't know anything!" He roared, launching himself at her. She froze in shock, and that moment of weakness cost her as riku rammed into her, knocking her down. He stood over her, panting heavily, his eyes glaring hatefully and his lips twisted in a vicious snarl. She twisted to her side, but was frozen by the look in his eyes. His entire body was shaking with pent up rage, but his eyes were cold, emotionless, a little too bright... a little too... hungry...

"R-Riku..." She managed to breathe, her fingers digging into the muddy ground beneath her, her wings trembling fitfully. He continued to stare at her with those eyes, those inhuman eyes, while the rest of him seethed with such passion that it was driving into the very center of her, effectively freezing whatever anger she had possessed a moment before. She kicked into the ground weakly, trying to push herself away from him, terrified of what she was feeling, terrified of what she saw in his eyes.

A change came, suddenly, as if lightning had struck, a rapid disintegration of whatever it was that was behind the coldness, brightness, in his eyes. The feeling of hatred and seething anger disappeared, vanished, and he stood over her, his eyes suddenly wide and awake, his breath caught in his throat as some sort of realization came over him. He took a step back, then another, his eyes flickered around and he looked for all the world like a trapped animal, a small creature caught between razor rocks and glistening, slavering teeth. Without a word he bolted, took off running into the mist, the only sound the squelch of his boots in the mud.

Sasha lay for a moment, shocked and disturbed, her breath coming in rapid bursts as she struggled to dissect what had happened. Something was wrong. Something was horribly, viciously wrong. Riku hadn't been like this, he hadn't been this malicious, so cold. Something was extremely not right.

She pushed herself off the ground, ignoring the mud that was clinging to her clothes, and looked around. She listened intently, and some far off sounds reached her through the thick mist that bordered the stream. She took a breath.

"Okay. Yeah. Gonna do this." She said to herself. There was no other choice; Sora was no doubt closer to Halloween Town, and she didn't have time to go back there to find him. She turned to face the mist and steeled herself. Something was going wrong, and she was determined to find out what.

Endnotes: So yes. The chase begins. Well, what do you guys think?

Oh, and yes, I sorta skipped the part where there's the ship and neverland and kairi and stuff because I'm STUPID but don't worry it'll all work out in the end. It happened. We can assume that Sora told Sasha parts of it. But yeah. Erk.

Thanks to:

Magic Blue Fire Kitsune: yes, this update took forever too. heh I'll try for the next one to be sooner, yeah? Yeah.... gives you cookies

Sugar-high Strawberry: Oooooo marshmallows? Can I have some? I love cats too, even though I don't have one. Heh, did this chapter answer your question, somewhat? steals a Riku plushie and runs off laughing madly

Sarah: Did ya like it? Huh? Maybe I'll make you my beta reader, so that you can read over the story before its posted and go 'Zo, what the hell, you're missing the part where they're on the ship and Kairi's there and Sora fights his evil shadow clone..." yeah. Because that's exactly what I did. Hmm, lets just pretend that Sasha was drifting around in gummi space for a very very long time....

Besides, if you become my beta reader, then you can kick my ass and go 'Zo, update! NOWWWW!!!' and I'd have to.

Laters,

Zo