I was plodding my way along writing this chapter and reading emails when I received an anonymous review from someone named CBK. Please people, login so that I can correct you through a PM instead of having me publicly humiliate you on my Author Notes. CBK, I know Marluxia is a boy, I just turned him into a girl for this fic. It was to be funny! That, and I imagined that neat dress for him. -grin-

I'm sorry if anything is off in Halloween Town; I don't have the game with me to check where everything is located.

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Larxene was confused.

Even though she had been Organization XIII's only female member, the Savage Nymph wasn't one to be underestimated. Quick to pass judgement with her kunai, she had gotten a reputation as one not to be messed with, especially if she was reading. Larxene had merely seen it as a way to hold her own against the rest, as she had been number 12.

Still, it could be counted as a bad decision on her part when she had joined forces with Marluxia in an attempt to use Sora to take down Xemnas. A very bad decision that had cost her life.

So where was she now?

Larxene stood in the center of what appeared to be a town square of some kind, right in front of a fountain full of green goo. All around flitted ghosts and ghouls, chanting and yelling as they prepared for something. Banners were being hung, a stage was being set up, and some kind of annoying music was issuing from somewhere. As she glanced around, her left hand brushed the stone fountain absently. There was a small plip as something dropped into the water, and the Nymph glanced down in time to see her pinky finger floating just under the surface.

Larxene shrieked and jumped back, almost hitting a passing ghoul. She stared at the stump on her hand in a stunned daze while part of her brain clamored that there was no pain. It didn't feel as though she had just had a digit chopped off, and a closer inspection revealed why. Her body appeared to be stitched together like some kind of Bride of Frankenstein, although all of the parts seemed to be hers despite their odd coloring. Just to make sure, she grabbed her left ring finger and tugged it slightly. It came off in her hand with only a minimum amount of resistance. Larxene stared at it for a moment, then walked back over to the fountain and retrieved her other finger. Holding the two severed digits in the hand they came from and determined to get some answers, she walked up to the nearest "living" thing that was holding still. "Hey-"

"Hello! I've never seen you before!" The "person" turned out to be an extremely tall skeleton in a tattered suit. He bent over to look the Savage Nymph in the face. "Are you here for the contest?"

"Contest?" she answered, raising one blonde eyebrow. "What contest?"

The skeleton stood up again, gesturing with his arms as he spoke. "Why, the contest to be the Pumpkin King, of course!" He exclaimed. "By the way, my name is Jack Skellington. And you are…?"

"Larxene. Look, I don't care about any stupid contest. Where the hell can I get some fingers reattached?" Larxene asked, very much aware on how weird she had just sounded. The skeleton-man didn't seem to find the question odd at all, crossing his arms and adopting a thinking pose. Larxene figured that random body parts falling off wasn't too uncommon in this world. Weird.

"Sally might have some extra thread you could use," Jack said, glancing back at Larxene. "Why don't you go ask her? She's probably over in Dr. Finklestein's lab," he pointed one bony finger towards an ominous and gloomy building. "Well, I'd best be off! Enjoy your time in Halloween Town!"

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"Ok, where are we?"

Zexion lifted up his head to "glare" at Marluxia, arranging his blindfold with one hand as he did. Behind him he could hear Demyx spitting and guessed that the younger Nobody had taken a mouthful of dirt. The three were in a graveyard surrounded by several tall tombstones silhouetted against a harvest yellow moon. Around them were the sounds of shrieking and screaming, along with an annoying musical tune issuing from somewhere. Demyx spat again and sat up, glancing at his companions.

"Why have our landings have gotten worse since we came back from the dead?" He asked irritably. Marluxia shrugged and stood, brushing dust off of her dress as she did so.

"Does it really matter? Let's find out where we are first before trying to figure out the secrets of the universe," she said with a smirk. Zexion nodded his agreement and stood up as well while Demyx sulked a little. "I'm just tired of eating dirt, that's all," he whined, brushing against a tombstone as he started walking to catch up with the other two. The tombstone rocked back on its base and, almost like a conscious decision, pitched forward towards the Nobody. Demyx yelped and jumped out of the way as the stone crumbled on the ground. Zexion and Marluxia turned to glare at the blonde, but they didn't get a chance as another headstone began to rock, knocked off balance by the first. Before it could topple too, the three took off running for the heavy iron gates that marked the entrance to some kind of town square.

Demyx suddenly tripped and fell, his face in an expression of "Oh, shit." As spoon as he hit the ground, though, he scuttled forward like some kind of bug, going through the gates just as the last tombstone fell. As soon as she regained her breath Marluxia glared at Demyx. "Great going there. Why don't next time you accidentally cause the Apocalypse instead?" The blonde leapt to his feet.

"Why don't I cause your Apocalypse right now?" he yelled, summoning his sitar. Marluxia just stared at him while Zexion palmed his forehead.

"Demyx," he said, "That was really, really bad." Marluxia nodded in agreement.

"Hey, it was short notice!" Demyx defended himself, his face turning red from embarrassment. He looked to Zexion in hope of getting a little support, but the Nobody wasn't paying him any attention at all and was instead staring transfixed at the Square.

The Halloween Town square was in a state of chaotic panic that only a Nobody could miss. Forgotten decorations were trampled into the ground as the world's inhabitants rioted. Only the ghosts appeared unconcerned, and there was even a ghost dog that looked like a tissue barking at a stage on the other side of the square. It was from this stage that the people were running, and it was the person on the wood construction that held Zexion's attention. Silhouetted against a wall of orange flame, Organization XIII's Savage Nymph was talking to a skull. And it appeared that the skull was talking back. Larxene looked as though someone had carved her up for meat then changed their mind and sewn her back up. Various patches of skin were also discolored, making for an odd Frankenstein appearance. A kunai was in her hand, and Zexion wondered where the others were.

He found them a very short distance away, imbedded up to the grey-blue ends in a large Jack o' Lantern. A blood-like substance dripped around the weapons and a few gears and springs poked out of its mouth. Slumped in front of the pumpkin was a tall, headless body in a tattered suit that Zexion guessed belonged to the skull in Larxene's hand.

The Nobody turned back to his companions, relived to find that they had ceased fighting. Instead Demyx was staring at their fellow Nobody with a look similar to the one he had given Marluxia. Marluxia, on the other hand, looked extremely pleased with finding her former partner and the destruction said partner had caused. "Larxene!" Marluxia called, starting off into the panicked crowd. Demyx and Zexion had no choice but to follow.

Larxene's head shot up when she heard her name called, and her jaw literally dropped as Marluxia came into sight. The Graceful Assassin smirked and crossed her arms, waiting for Larxene to regain her composer. Finally the blonde managed to say a weak, "Marluxia?"

"In the flesh, babe," she replied, just as Zexion and Demyx came up. Demyx gave her an odd look as Larxene jumped off the stage. "What's with the dress?" she asked Marluxia.

"What's with the autopsy?" he shot back. Demyx groaned. "Do we have to do this every time we meet up?" he asked, earning a "glare" from Zexion. Larxene raised an eyebrow at her superior's fashion statement. As she opened her mouth he held up a hand to stop the inevitable question. "It's a long story. Why are you holding a skull?" he said. She glanced down at her hand like she just remembered that she was holding the thing.

"This? Meet Jack Skellington," she said, offering the skull out towards her fellow Nobodies.

"Hello!" Jack said cheerily. Demyx shrieked and jumped back several feet. Marluxia burst out laughing, causing the blonde to glare at her angrily. Zexion raised an eyebrow at Jack's head. "Why do you have his head?"

"I accidentally cut it off," she said with a small shrug. "I was trying to kill that pumpkin-thing over there."

"Why were you trying to kill that pumpkin?" Zexion asked.

"Because it was playing very annoying music," she replied. This Zexion could understand. One sure-fire way to become instantly annihilated was to play or be really annoying music. The Cloaked Schemer had a suspicion that this came from having to listen to Demyx's sitar and Axel while he was drunk. Another thing that really got on Larxene's nerves was Xigbar stealing her favorite panties for "fruity pirate hats" on game night.

There was a reason the Freeshooter was missing an eye.

"You know," started Jack. "I've never noticed it before, but the air's so much clearer since you destroyed that thing." Larxene gave the skull a contemptuous look. "Maybe it's because you don't have ears," she suggested. And with a casual movement, tossed the head over her shoulder and into one of the fires on the stage. The three male Nobodies stared at her as she cracked her knuckles while the sound of agonized screams filled the air. "That's always satisfying," she said simply. Marluxia stared at her for a moment more before breaking out into her own evil grin directed at Demyx. Zexion intercepted the look and sighed.

"No Marluxia," he said. "You can't throw Demyx over into the bonfires as well."

"Shoot…." Marluxia whined, and Demyx jumped visibly.

"Hey, don't I get a-" Whatever Demyx had been going to say was instantly cut off as a large and very unexpected portal opened up in the ground beneath the Nobodies. There was enough time for Demyx to let out one short scream before they were plunged into the darkness.

---

On a beach on an island in a world far, far away from any sort of importance to the Nobodies, Riku and Kairi were looking for Sora. Their friend had disappeared almost an hour before, and now they were trying to find wherever it was that he was napping. Finally Riku spotted Sora, or rather Sora's legs sticking up out of a sand dune.

"Looks like Sora's been sand-diving again," he commented, pointing the appendages out to Kairi with a smirk on his face. The redhead sighed.

"You'd think he would have learned not to do that by now," she said, shaking her head and running after Riku towards their friend. Sora was already sitting up and looking around with a dazed expression on his face. Bits of moist sand clung to his hair and the swollen right side of his face. Riku laughed and crouched down in front of the brunette. "You learned not to sand-dive yet?" he asked with a smirk on his face. Sora spat some sand out of his mouth and glared at Riku.

"I wasn't sand-diving!" he yelled.

"Oh really?" Riku replied, straightening up with the smirk still on his face. "Then why were you buried headfirst in the sand? Hunting for clams with your mouth?"

"No!" Sora yelled again. "I was attacked! By this little furry orange-thing." Kairi sighed and shook her head.

"Sora, you probably it your head on a rock while sand-diving. Which you shouldn't do," she said.

"I wasn't sand-diving!" he defended himself, glaring at Riku. The teenager waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Sure you weren't. Now, let's go do some water diving. And please feel free to yell if you see anymore of your orange furry things," Riku teased, running off towards the dock. Sora yelled and scrambled up after him, all the while promising to dunk his head under a rock if he caught him.

And so ended another picturesque day on Destiny Islands.

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And may we never have to visit them again! Whew! The Destiny Islands bit was a "bonus feature" added to lengthen this chapter. Anybody enjoy Jack's fate? I know I did. Wasn't what was written, but it sure was cooler!

Ok, there's a credit in this chapter. The "fruity pirate hats" bit was in reference to the artist psycrowe and her Xemnas Reports at deviantART. Check them out, and laugh your ass off. There's also a hidden spoon in this chapter!

Alright boys and girls, stick around for another month or so, cuz the next chapter's the last. Yes, the last. There will be a sequel, though. Check it's description in my bio and share your thoughts on the idea of having a sequel.

One final thing! On my four-year anniversary here at FF (Sept. 29), I will be changing my pen name from DemonSurfer to ThePuppetMaster. I feel like I've outgrown the name DS, the writer of incomplete YuGiOh fanfics and other odd/stupid things. Gaining a new name will hopefully help me get a fresh start on fan writing with all of the stuff I know now. Yay.

Next time we get with Vexen, Saïx, and the PIT.

Review and I love you forever!