I am sorry this took so long. School took a lot more work than I thought it would. On a side note, never take three labs at once. It's just not a good idea.
I got Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days. I beat within a couple of months. That's actually the fastest I've ever beaten a Kingdom Hearts game. Something usually happens that makes it take several months for me to beat them, liking getting stuck on a boss coughXaldincough or accidentally erasing my file when I'm close to the end…
Sora is gonna be in a pissy mood this chapter, just to warn you. Still only own the idea.
-I figured out line breaks! (See below)-
After the boys warped to Agrabah, they decided to get some sleep while Chip and Dale piloted to the next world. Only thing is they woke up in Monstro's mouth. Again. So they had to get Monstro to throw them up. Again. It was still as nasty as last time. Afterwards, they decided to never sleep while traveling in the gummi ship again. Goofy and Donald spent the remainder of the trip driving the ship. Sora decided to teach Aladdin to read. Given, English and Arabic have different written symbols, but Sora figured that if they could understand each other when that shouldn't be possible, then it can't be much of a problem.
"We're at the next world. You guys should come to the cockpit," said Donald over the intercom.
"I think you're really gonna like it!" said Goofy. The two boys and the monkey went up to the cockpit and looked out the window. This world…looked like a jack-o-lantern with a bunch of creepy looking buildings on it.
"That's a world?" asked Aladdin, incredulously. He had a pretty good point. The other worlds had some kind of landscape on them. This one just looked like a pumpkin someone had stuck a bunch of buildings into.
"It sort of reminds me of Halloween," mused Sora. "Does this world really like Halloween or something?"
"We don't have much information on it," said Chip. "Just that the inhabitants seem to be monsters."
*Clang!*
"Not again!" Upon hearing the word 'monster,' Abu had jumped into the vents again. Aladdin sighed and shook his head. "Abu…What am I gonna do with you?"
"What sort of monsters are there?" asked Sora.
"Oh, all kinds of monsters," said Dale. "I don't think there are any humans there. You'll probably have to have Donald transform you again."
"Are there any monsters that eat monkeys?" asked Aladdin.
"It wouldn't surprise me," said Sora. "They probably have werewolves, and I bet they eat small animals."
"You're not helping!" Aladdin sighed. "Guess Abu's staying here again…"
The boys beamed down to the new world, which was called Halloween Town, quite fitting really.
"Hey, what's wrong with my eye?" asked Sora.
"Whoa," said Aladdin. He looked the same, just a bit darker and grainy.
"Wow, what's Sora supposed to be?" asked Goofy. He seemed to be some kind of Frankenstein's monster. There was a black…pointy thing on the end of his snout with a glowing jack-o-lantern at the end as his nose, his ears and hair were ragged, his hat had been replaced with a giant screw, the iris in his left eye had turned red, his right eye just had a swirl in it (Maybe Donald used Sora's eyes as inspiration?), he had a faded red shirt on, a ragged yellow jacket with brown patches, patchy pants made of two different shades of denim, suspenders, and shoes with open ends so that you could see his clawed toes. His gloves were gone so you could see that his fingers were clawed too. His overall appearance had a darker hue, although it also seemed paler. Maybe this world just causes people to appear shadowy when they come here.
"He was supposed to be a vampire. I don't know why that's there though," said Donald pointing at Sora. Donald was a mummy, with bandages wrapped around his body almost everywhere. The only places the bandages weren't wrapped were his bill, the ends of his feet, his stomach area, and part of his right arm. Oddly enough, those last two places didn't have anything there under the bandages. Some tail feathers were sticking out of the bandages, along with some feathers on Donald's forehead. Also, the bandages around his face were wrapped so that he seemed to be glaring perpetually.
"You messed up on me?" Sora looked down. He had black pointy shoes with silver straps, black socks and red leather straps wrapped around them (That's what it looked like to Sora anyway.), odd black shorts, black belt, black lace-up shirt, black jacket with a collar, that strap for the Keyblade, the chain with the charms on it, white clawed gloves, some sort of ragged white cape or something similar, and his crown necklace was no longer a necklace. Now the crown seemed to be a clasp for the cape, and it had little silver bat wings. Sora decided that his clothes weren't causing the reactions and felt his face a bit. He had fangs. Made sense. Sora's hands went a bit higher up on his face and felt something over his right eye. "Did you do something to my eye?" Sora took off the patch and looked at it. It was quite large. It probably covered part of his head as well as his eye. It was red with little horns, a green eye, a spiral eye, and a jagged grin. Maybe it was just a mask that he'd been wearing a bit differently. That was almost everything, although Sora couldn't see that there was a rather ominous shadow over his eyes. There weren't any reflective surfaces nearby for him to look into. Sora realized something. "I still can't see out of this eye!"
"Put it back on!" The other three chorused. Sora looked at his friends, who looked creeped out, and a bit grossed out.
"Huh?"
"Just put it back!" Sora did so, and felt his right arm brush against…something. Sora froze and slowly turned his head to the right. Unfortunately, since his right eye wasn't working right now, all he could see was something black…and feathery. Sora grabbed it, noted that he could feel that it had been grabbed, and pulled it out in front of him so that he could get a good look. It was a large black-feathered wing.
Sora twitched and glanced on his other side to make sure that this wasn't just part of the costume, but that side was bare. Instantly, a large amount of killing intent started coming from the little vampire. "Donald…" Said duck started sweating nervously. "Change me back right now."
"But this world-"
"I don't care. I'm not walking around with this thing."
"Uh, erm…" Sora pulled his daggers out from their hiding place. Looks like Donald had remembered them this time. Fortunately for the magician, before Sora could use them, two walking corpses happened to walk by. One was a rather obese woman in a floral dress. The other was an obese kid in a black and white striped shirt and black shorts. His eyes were sewn shut. They saw the boys standing there.
"Oh, are you practicing for Halloween?" asked the woman.
"Uh, yeah," said Aladdin. It looked like Sora was about to try and kill Donald to him.
"It looks quite convincing! I'm sure it'll be quite popular, but if you don't hurry, you'll miss the announcement at the town square," continued the woman. Aladdin was a bit confused. Was stuff like this normal here?
"Jack's showing us his idea for this Halloween!" said the kid. He seemed really excited.
"Well, we'll be going in a second," said Aladdin. "We just…have to clean up a bit first."
"See you there then," said the woman. Then the two walking corpses continued on their way. Aladdin waved.
"Yeah, see ya!" As soon as the two were out of sight, Aladdin dropped the act and he and Goofy grabbed Sora's arms to keep him from attacking Donald. "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!"
"I won't as long as he changes me back!"
"But Sora, the people here already saw what you look like," said Goofy. "If you show up looking different, they'll know something's up." Sora froze. He couldn't really argue with that. "Besides, Donald didn't mean to give you a wing, right?" Donald just nodded mutely. He'd meant to give Sora two little bat wings since he's a vampire. Why he got one big wing with feathers instead was a mystery. "We'll just finish up as soon as we can and leave, okay?" Sora looked like he was considering it for several moments. Then he broke out of their hold, jammed the daggers back into their sheaths, folded up his wing, and walked off around the corner with a huff. Goofy and Aladdin let out a sigh of relief.
"Man, am I glad you talked some sense into Sora," said Aladdin. "I thought he was gonna kill Donald for a second there!"
"You okay Donald?" asked Goofy. At first, Donald did nothing. Then he fell over in a dead faint. That had just been too much for him. Aladdin and Goofy sweatdropped. They didn't have time to try and wake him up, so Goofy picked up Donald, and he and Aladdin walked around the corner just in time to see Sora walk into a lamp post. Aladdin snickered.
"Did you just walk into a pole?" Sora glared at the Arabian.
"Having only one eye throws off depth perception." Sora continued walking.
"Is it just me, or is he walking a bit funny?" whispered Aladdin. Goofy cocked his head and took a moment to watch Sora walk.
"I think that wing is messing with Sora's balance."
"I can still hear you." Notice that Sora isn't denying it. They reached the town square in a few minutes. There was a crowd of all sorts of strange creatures gathered around.
"Wow, this is nuts…" muttered Aladdin.
"Hey, Donald, wake up! You gotta see this!" Goofy shook the mummy enough to wake him up.
"Huh?"
"Look at these guys!" Goofy pointed at all the monsters. Donald's eyes widened and he made an odd squawking noise. Sora just had his arms crossed with a scary glare on his face. No one seemed bothered by this though. Then a bunch of Search Ghosts suddenly appeared. The boys quickly pulled out their weapons, but then the Heartless started dancing. Of course, this confused the boys. Why would Heartless just start dancing? The townsfolk seemed pleased though. They were clapping and shouting encouragements. Then a funny looking man in a top hat with a ribbon that said 'mayor' stepped up next to a creepy looking fountain with green water coming out of it. He lifted up a megaphone to his mouth.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please!" Everyone looked over at the man. "Allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares, Jack Skellington!" He made a grand wave at the fountain, and a very tall, very skinny skeleton in a pinstriped suit started rising out of the fountain while the audience applauded. Jack bowed. "Bravo Jack! Bravo!" Does the mayor strike anyone else as a kiss-up? "Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!"
"Thanky you, thank you! But…" Jack got a thoughtful look on his face, which was interesting since he was a skeleton. His skull actually changed shape! "But their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough." He made a scary face and raised his hands in a threatening manner. "I want to strike bone-chilling terror!" Then his face went back to normal. "I'm going to see the doctor." And Jack went off. The mayor turned to the audience.
"And we'll attend to the decorations!" And all the monsters started running around.
"Hey, these guys aren't so bad," said Aladdin.
"I guess they really like Halloween," said Goofy.
"Of course they do!" said Donald. "They're a bunch of monsters!"
"So, what are we supposed to be anyway?" asked Aladdin. "I mean, I look about the same…"
"Sora was supposed to be a vampire," said Donald, pointing at the Tsviet, who was still in the same position as when they got there. "I think he still is, but I meant to give him little ornamental bat wings, not…that." Sora gave a warning growl, and Donald wisely decided to move on. "I'm an Egyptian style mummy. Goofy's based on Frankenstein's monster, and you're a sand golem."
"Oh…What exactly are all those?" Donald made an irritated sound and palmed his face.
"A vampire is a reanimated corpse that drinks blood, an Egyptian style mummy is a dead body that has been preserved and wrapped in bandages, Frankenstein's monster is made out of body parts sewn together and reanimated, and a sand golem is a monster made out of sand." Aladdin made a disgusted face at the first three. When Donald explained what he was, Aladdin got an odd look on his face and stuck his hand into his stomach…and pulled out a handful of sand.
"Well, that's a weird feeling…"
"Are we gonna go see the doctor too?" asked Goofy. Well, he had a point. They didn't have any leads, but maybe the 'doctor' had something to do with the dancing Heartless.
"I'm not going," said Sora. That got him some odd looks. So far, he's been willing to go pretty much anywhere.
"Why?" asked Goofy.
"I hate doctors!" It was true. Most of the Tsviets hate doctors. The exceptions are Weiss, Kimihiro, Seren, and Chris, for varying reasons. It's all Hojo's fault. That man has given so many people doctor and needle phobias…
"Oh, come on. It's not like you're actually seeing him for something," said Donald.
"No, in this town, it's probably some sort of mad scientist." Sora's right, but that's not the point.
"Don't you wanna see the Heartless dance?" Goofy and Donald gave Aladdin a weird look. "What? I think it sounds amusing."
"You have a weird sense of humor," said Donald. Aladdin shrugged. Then he suddenly grabbed Sora's crown necklace and made a break for it.
"Hey!" Sora gave chase. Fortunately for Aladdin, the missing eye and new wing threw Sora off enough that he couldn't run at full speed without falling over. Unfortuantely, he was still a bit faster than Aladdin, and tackled him outside the gates of a particularly creepy looking house. He scowled at Aladdin and grabbed the charm. "Don't ever do that!"
"Hey, that didn't hurt…Guess it's 'cause I'm made of sand." "Right, no stealing your necklace. Got it."
"Hey, you found the doctor's house!" said Goofy. The two blinked and looked at the sign on the gate, which said 'Dr. Finklestein.' Sora twitched.
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Might as well go in since we're here," said Donald. The two anthromorphs walked in through the gates.
"…Could you please get off?" Sora muttered some rather choice words and go up off of Aladdin before leaning against one of the gate posts. Aladdin gave him an odd look. "Aren't you coming?"
"I refuse to go anywhere near a lab." Aladdin shrugged and went inside the gates. He figured Sora could take care of himself. Inside was a foreboding tower. Inside were lots of stairs that Aladdin quickly sprinted up. Donald and Goofy were at the top and peering around a doorframe to watch Jack interact with a pale bald man wearing stereotypical mad scientist clothes and sitting in a wheelchair. For some reason, there was a Search Ghost lying on a gurney.
"Where's Sora?" asked Donald.
"Wouldn't come with me." The wizard sighed and they went back to watching Jack and Dr. Finklestein.
"Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion," said Jack. Of course, the boys didn't know what the two were talking about.
"Nonsense! My devices are always perfect!" Dr. Finklestein seemed pretty sure of himself. Jack scratched his chin in thought before his face lit up.
"I've got it! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we could add a heart to the device?"
"Certainly, a heart's not all that complicated." Finklestein wheeled over to a bookshelf, grabbed a book, and started leafing through it until he found what he was looking for. "Now, let's get started." Jack looked at the book over the doctor's shoulder.
"To make a heart, first take a container with a lock…" Finklestein rolled over to a gurney, reached under it, and put what appeared to be a heart with a lock on it on the gurney. Why he had something like that under the gurney is anyone's guess. He looked at the heart for a minute, lifted the top of his head off to scratch his brain (The boys watching were understandably disgusted.), and made an irritated noise.
"We need the key to this thing first!" The boys looked at each other. Key. They all came to the same conclusion.
"Sora!" Jack and Finklestein looked over at the boys.
"Oh, hello there," said Jack. "What are you doing here?" Dr. Finklestein was less pleased to see them.
"You shouldn't eavesdrop when people are having a serious conversation!"
"Now, now, doctor, I'm sure they're just curious about how we're going to fix the Heartless." Jack turned back towards the boys. "Sorry, but it looks like we're a little stuck until we find the key to this container. You might wanna come back later."
"We know someone that can help," said Goofy. Jack visibly brightened.
"You do? That would be marvelous! Where is he?"
"That's the problem…"
A moment later they were outside and trying to convince Sora to come unlock the heart/container.
"No." Unfortunately, Sora's one of the most stubborn people you can find. It was going to be difficult to make him change his mind.
"If they can do this, we won't have to fight the Heartless anymore," said Aladdin
"No."
"How will he unlock it?" asked Jack. Goofy pointed at the Keyblade slung across Sora's back. "Wow, it's so…bright…and colorful. I've never seen anything like it before!" Jack is probably the only resident of Halloweentown who wouldn't be repulsed by the Crabclaw version of the Keyblade.
"Sora, if we can take care of the Heartless, I bet we can find your friends a lot faster," tried Donald.
"No."
"Oh, forget it." Donald took out his wand. "Stop!" The spell appeared over Sora, but it didn't do anything.
"I have a ribbon." All Tsviets are given ribbons. They've developed resistances to lots of status ailments, but there are some things you can't develop a resistance to so they all wear them anyway. They just wear their ribbons under their clothes. Donald was flabbergasted.
"Uh…" Aladdin rolled his eyes.
"Oh forget it." Aladdin then grabbed Sora's mask and ran into Dr. Finklestein's tower.
"Wow, that's really something. I bet you can really scare someone if you take that off without any warning," said Jack. Sora gave him an odd look.
"What?" Jack pulled out a small mirror and handed it to Sora. Sora took a quick look in the mirror. The skin under the mask was blue and rotten, and his eye was completely red, except for the pupil, which was white. "Why does that look familiar?" "I don't really care if half my face is rotten."
"If you don't have that mask I might have trouble turning you back to normal," said Donald. Sora gave him a disbelieving look, let out a string of curses, and then went into the tower. Jack gave Donald a confused look.
"What did you mean by 'back to normal?'"
"Long story. Don't ask." They quickly went back inside and found that Sora had reclaimed his mask and was trying to stay as far away from Finklestein as physically possible. Part of Aladdin's neck was missing, and he looked like he was very glad that he was made out of sand at the moment. Finklestein just looked annoyed.
"He's supposed to unlock this thing?" Finklestein scratched his brain again, grossing out the three from before again. Sora wasn't bothered. Once you've seen the aftermath of one of Rosso's recreational slaughters, very little can disgust you.
"Maybe you should step away from the table," suggested Goofy. "He doesn't like doctors very much." Finklestein muttered something and wheeled away from the gurney. Sora cautiously came over, keeping his eye on Finklestein the whole time. He shoved the Keyblade into the keyhole in the heart, turned it, and backed away back to the wall as soon as the heart started beating.
"So that's a key! Thank you a Sora!" Jack thought for a second. "Why don't you be a part of this year's Halloween?" Sora made a face. He didn't want to be here any longer than necessary.
"What are the Heartless doing here?" asked Sora. Jack looked a bit disappointed at Sora's reaction, but brightened up when he turned towards the Search Ghost.
"Oh, they came to town recently," explained Jack. "What's frustrating is that I can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!" Jack turned to the 'genius.' "Okay, let's continue doctor. What are the ingredients?"
"Pulse." Jack went over to some drawers and pulled out a frog that was pulsating in a disturbing manner. "Emotion." Jack pulled out a twitching spider. "Terror…Fear." Jack took out a pane of glass and ran his bony fingers down it, making a rather nasty noise. "Hope and despair." Jack pulled out a couple of snakes eating each other's tails. Jack grinned, which looked quite scary.
"Put them all together, and you have a heart!" Jack put the items on the gurney next to the heart. Finklestein pulled over to a lever and pulled it. Electricity started going through the container and all the items that Jack had pulled out. Then the electricity arced into the Search Ghost on another gurney. It started to sit up with its arms held out. Finklestein cackled crazily. Then the electricity stopped and the Search Ghost fell back down onto the gurney. Nothing happened. Jack sighed.
"It failed?" Finklestein frowned and scratched his brain again.
"Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding some memory. Sally! Sally!" Whoever Sally was, it looked like she wasn't coming. Finklestein grumbled and closed his head. "Good for nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her!" He turned towards everyone else. "Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down."
"No problem!" said Jack. Then he turned to Sora. "Sora, would you like to come?"
"As long as I don't have to come here again…" Jack blinked.
"You don't like the doctor's tower?"
"No." Jack seemed a little confused but took a second to think before shrugging.
"All right. I don't have any problem with that." They all went down and left the tower. As soon as they left the tower, the mayor came running up to them…only his face was now white and blue and looked rather freaked out.
"Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis!" The boys covered their ears. He was shouting through his megaphone for some reason. "The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!" The boys, except for Sora, blinked. Jack put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose.
"Hmm…I wonder if our experiment triggered something." He sighed and nodded at the mayor. "Everything will be fine Mayor. You have nothing to worry about." And then a bunch of Search Ghosts appeared around them. Sora twitched.
"I hate doctors." The mayor ran off. Seems the monsters of Halloween Town don't like fighting…
"Hmm…I guess we should do something about them." Except for Jack apparently. I guess as the 'master of terror' he doesn't scare as easily. Sora quickly slashed the head off a Search Ghost. Jack sighed. "It seems like a shame to get rid of them, but if they're so defective that they're attacking people, I guess we don't have a choice." Then he hit one of the Heartless with some sort of electric attack.
"You can use magic?" asked Donald, shocked. Can't blame him. None of the other people they've teamed up with have been able to use magic.
Jack nodded. "Yep! It's a great way to create special effects!" He fired some…fire at a Search Ghost that got too close to him. Aladdin stabbed it while it was distracted. Donald hit a couple with Blizzara spells. Goofy did his spinning move. Sora went to attack a Heartless…and tripped. Donald sweatdropped.
"Are you okay?"
"I hate this wing." Then Sora used a Gravity just to avoid falling on his face again. He could already tell that fighting was gonna be a pain.
"So…Which way to the Graveyard?" asked Aladdin.
"Oh, it's right over there," said Jack, pointing at an iron gate. "Are you new? Most people know where to find it." The boys exchanged some nervous looks before answering.
"Yes."
"Well, welcome. I hope you enjoy living in Halloween Town." Thank goodness Jack is so trusting.
"Actually, we're just passing through," said Aladdin.
"Really?"
"Yeah, we're looking for some friends of ours, and we were just checking to see if they're here," explained Aladdin.
"So you won't be staying then…Well I hope you enjoy your visit." Was it just them, or did Jack seem a bit disappointed?
They went over to the gate and walked through it. Inside, there were graves everywhere. And then really thin, lanky Heartless that looked like mummies appeared.
"Wight Knights. No special abilities." Jack was the first to attack again. It was his long limbs. They let him reach the Heartless very quickly. He used a fire attack on the first one he reached. Sora and Donald also used Fira attacks. Aladdin and Goofy had a bit of a problem. Because of the Wight Knights' long limbs, they could attack from farther away. This made it difficult for people who specialize in close-range combat to get in a hit, but they managed, and the Heartless were all killed. Then a little white ghost thing with a collar and a glowing pumpkin nose flew out of a grave and over to Jack with a bark.
"Zero!" Jack gave the little ghost dog a scratch behind the ears while the boys blinked. Considering the stuff they've seen in this world so far, a ghost dog wasn't that surprising. "Have you seen Sally anywhere?" Zero barked a couple of times and then flew behind a grave.
"Oh, hello. Is Jack here?" A young woman stood up from behind the grave. She appeared to be a living doll. There were stitches all over her body, she had rusty red hair, and was wearing a dress that seemed to be made out of pieces of cloth randomly stitched together. When she saw Jack, she smiled. "You are here! Is something wrong? The Heartless are acting…violent."
"No, just having a little trouble with the guidance system. We'll fix it, and then we'll have the best Halloween ever! All we need now is your memory." Sally looked a little confused.
"'Memory?' Do you mean this?" She pulled out some light blue flowers that looked a bit wilted.
"Yes, that's it!"
"It's a flower," pointed out Sora.
"I think it's a forget-me-not," said Goofy. Well, that would explain why it was 'memory.' Sally handed over the flowers, but she looked nervous and worried.
"Jack…I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time."
"Nothing could beat what I've got planned! Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me. You're going to love it!"
"I think you should listen to her." Sora suggesting this has nothing to do with the Heartless or helping a mad scientist try to give them a heart. He's just learned that a woman's intuition is very accurate, even if the woman has been genetically modified and is a sociopath. He always tries to listen to a woman's intuition. Jack gave him a disappointed look.
"You don't want to see the Heartless dance?"
"No, I'm just saying it's dangerous to ignore what a woman says." This is true for everyone.
"Well, we won't know unless we try. Let's get back to Dr. Finklestein's." Sora rolled his eyes. Seems Jack was going to be stubborn.
"I should go too," said Sally. "He'll be expecting me to fix his lunch soon." The group, now with the addition of Sally, walked out of the cemetery. After they left, a stone coffin started shaking. This isn't too unusual since it's Halloween Town. Several people here are zombies, and they tend to sleep in coffins and graves. Zombies did not come out of the coffin though. Instead, three kids dressed as a devil, a witch, and a skeleton hopped out. These three are Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They're brats.
"Did you hear that?" asked Barrel.
"Yeah, I sure did!" said Lock. "A heart! What should we do?"
Shock hit them both over the head. "Gosh! You really are stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Barrel raised his hand.
"Tell Oogie Boogie!"
"Right!" The three kids giggled.
Back in the town square, Sora was once again refusing to enter Dr. Finklestein's lab.
"Once was enough. I'm staying out here. Come get me when you're done."
"Well…Then I guess you're a big chicken!" said Donald, trying to egg Sora on.
"Reverse psychology won't work on me. At the most, it will make me angry and try to beat you up." Well, there goes that.
"It's a bit strange," mused Jack. "There's no reason for you to be scared of the doctor, but you are, and you're not bothered by the Heartless attacking you."
"I think I can understand," said Sally. "It would be better if we didn't force him."
"If you say so," said Jack. "Now, let's go give Dr. Finklestein the memory."
A moment later, they were in the lab handing the flowers over to Dr. Finklestein.
"Yes, this is it. Now, just one more ingredient. We need 'surprise' to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is."
"Where's the mayor?" asked Donald.
"You'll have to figure it out yourself. Sally! Fix me my lunch!" The rag doll sighed and walked off to start cooking.
"So, where do we start looking?" asked Goofy.
"Well, the mayor usually is checking to make sure that the graves are functioning correctly around this time of the year," said Jack.
"Huh?"
"It's how we get to the human world," explained Jack. "Back to the graveyard!"
They walked back to the square and their eyes (including Jack's somehow) bugged out at what they saw.
"What are you doing? !" shouted Donald. There were a bunch of body parts all over the place, Sora had taken off his shirt and jacket, and was trying to tie down his wing using dirty bandages, and some Dalmatian puppies were playing near a lamppost. Sora blinked, looked from the group, to himself, back at the group, and back at himself.
"Is this a trick question?"
"Just put your shirt back on!"
Meanwhile, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were cowering as what appeared to be a humanized cloth bag laughed maniacally. "A heart? That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? Well, I'll be jiggered that works for me! Ooh, when I get my hands on that heart…" Here he paused and looked at his hands, which looked more like elongated sack corners than anything else. There weren't even any fingers. "Well, I've got no hands, but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless!" And he laughed some more. Why do villains like laughing so much?
Back with the boys, Jack was observing the puppies. "These furry little things are so different. They're sort of like little playful werewolves." Aladdin gave Donald a meaningful look.
"See, I'm not the only one who doesn't know what they are."
"They look a lot like the ones I found under my house." That got everyone's attention.
"You have more of those?" asked Sora.
"Yes, they eat a lot of bone biscuits."
"...Their parents are looking for them. Can we leave these at your house until later so we can take them with us when we leave?"
"Sure, I don't have a problem with it." The puppies were dropped off at Jack's house, and the boys headed back to the graveyard, and Jack walked over to an ornate grave with a carving of a pair of doors on it. "This is how they work. First you open the doors." He opened the door. "Then you just jump in." Jack did so, and the door closed behind him. He didn't come back out.
"That looks like fun," said Goofy. He promptly opened the door and jumped in after Jack. Sora shrugged and jumped in as well. Aladdin and Donald looked at each other.
"If Sora thinks it's safe, it probably is," pointed out Aladdin. They followed after the two. They ended up in another part of the graveyard. Jack and Sora were already there of course, but so were the mayor and a giant jack-o-lantern. Now, by giant I don't mean a bit bigger than a normal pumpkin. This was the size of a small cottage. Jack seemed to be trying to negotiate with the mayor.
"Ghosts rise from the tombstones. Check the tombstones in the order the ghosts appear. If you get it wrong, you're in for a surprise!" He grinned.
"That sounds easy," said Donald. He walked up to a tombstone and tapped a tombstone. Several ghosts started floating up from the tombstones. When they were done, he tapped a tombstone that the first ghost did not rise from. A ghost popped out right in Donald's face with a screech. Donald jumped back with a squawk and a hand over his heart. Aladdin sweatdropped and laughed nervously.
"Was that the surprise we were supposed to get?"
"No, that was just Rupert," said Jack. The mayor grinned. "I guess it's a different sort of surprise than what we're looking for."
"What if we get the order right?" asked Goofy.
"Did anyone pay attention to that?" asked Donald. Sora calmly walked over to the tombstones and started hitting them in a seemingly random order, but no ghosts came out so it must be the right order. After Sora hit around 15 tombstones, the jack-o-lantern exploded and covered everyone with pumpkin goop and seeds. Aladdin took a handful of the goop, sniffed it, and took a bite of it.
"Hey, this stuff is edible!" No pumpkins in Agrabah. Go figure.
"Was that the surprise we were looking for?" asked Goofy. Jack sighed.
"No…" Then he seemed to notice something. "Oh." He quickly waded over to the empty part of the pumpkin and pulled out a box. "Here it is!" A creepy looking doll suddenly popped out of the top of the box. Looks like it was a jack-in-the-box.
"That's the surprise? !" shouted Donald. He didn't seem surprised.
"Let's just go," muttered Sora. They started back towards Dr. Finklestein's place while killing any Heartless that popped up. They didn't bother to get rid of the pumpkin goo. Once again, Sora refused to go inside and stayed in the square. The doctor didn't seem bothered by the fact the jack-in-the-box was covered in pumpkin goop.
"Yes, this is it. Now I'll be able to get this heart to work." He turned to the gurney and started working on the artificial heart.
After a little while, Finklestein put down his tools and picked up the heart. "There you go! It's sure to work this time!"
"Ya!" Barrel suddenly fell out of nowhere, landed, on the doctor's wheelchair, did something to make it go careening into the wall, and jumped off to the floor. The others' first reaction was to help Finklestein. As they did that, Lock and Shock ran in, grabbed the heart with Barrel, and scampered off before anything could be done. Finklestein growled.
"Not those brats again!" He then muttered some unsavory things that cannot be repeated in case children are reading this.
"Don't worry. We'll get it back," said Jack. They quickly ran down the tower and back to the square where Sora was still waiting.
"Sora! Did you see which way those kids went?" asked Aladdin. Sora gave him a confused look.
"What kids?" Everyone groaned. Looks like they lost them. Jack put his fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. After a few seconds, they heard some barks and Zero came flying up to them and started sniffing them.
"Zero, find Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They stole something very important, and we need to get it back as quickly as possible!" Zero let out a couple of barks and then flew off in a seemingly random direction. Jack pointed after his pet. "After him!" The boys ran after the spectral dog, which went into the graveyard. The boys took care of any Heartless they happened across while using graves to jump to different areas until Zero pointed to the side and started barking madly. Everyone looked in the direction Zero was pointing and saw Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a walking bathtub going across a tree that was almost completely horizontal.
"Is that a walking bathtub?" asked Sora
"Oh dear, I was afraid of this," said Jack. "We need to hurry."
"Why?" asked Goofy.
"No time! Come on!"
The small group ran over the tree (They happened to find another group of puppies near the base, but they couldn't really bring them along.), and a few moments later saw the bathtub climbing up an odd looking house. Jack groaned. "Oogie." Sora raised an eyebrow.
"Oogie?"
"Yes, Oogie Boogie. He's always trying to take over the town. He thinks that we're too soft in scaring people."
"What's that got to do with stealing the heart?" asked Donald. Jack shrugged.
"Are we going or not?" asked Sora.
"As soon as we find the bridge, we'll go over." When they finally found the bridge, they understood why the bathtub didn't use it. The bridge had rotten boards and rope, and there were three puppies tied to one of the posts. It looked like it would easily snap at any second. Sora cut the puppies' ropes and they ran off. The boys crossed the bridge one at a time as carefully as they could.
"So, which way to this Oogie guy?" asked Aladdin.
"Just keep going up and we'll eventually reach him," said Jack. Then some Heartless showed up. These were new. They were kind of pink-red with horns and wings. They looked like gargoyles.
"Gargoyles…Can turn into blue flames?" Sora wasn't completely sure what that meant. One flew right up to him, and he had to deflect it with his knives. Then it flew far out of range. Actually, they all did that. This meant the boys had to resort to using magic to hit them most of the time. The Gargoyles did dive in to attack pretty often, but they usually turned into blue balls of flames that couldn't really be hurt. It took a little while to get rid of them. "It's gonna take a while to reach Oogie, isn't it?" muttered Sora
"Normally, we'd just need to climb up until we reached him, but if we keep getting attacked by those…it could," said Jack. Everyone sighed.
They kept climbing and kept having to deal with the annoying flying Gargoyles. "Oh, this is the playroom." Everyone gave Jack an odd look. "It's for the children."
"Are there Heartless in there?" asked Sora.
"Probably not." They opened the door and went in. Inside, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were playing keep away…with a toilet plunger. They stopped when they saw the boys come in. Jack gave them a displeased look. "So this is where you were hiding?"
"Hi Jack!" said Lock.
"What'cha doin' here?" asked Shock.
"Oh, I'm sure you know why we're here. Now, what did you do with the heart?"
"We gave it to Oogie already," said Barrel. Shock hit him over the head.
"Don't tell him you dummy." Jack sighed and rubbed…the bridge of his nose? There wasn't really much there.
"You kids…I don't know what to do with you. We better go find Oogie." The three kids jumped up with Shock brandishing the plunger like it was a weapon.
"Not so fast!"
"Yeah!"
"You have to get past us first!"
WHAM! BAM! CRASH! CRISH! FWOOM! You may think that these sounds go with some sort of fight. They don't. That's Sora disabling the kids too quickly for them to react. I know you were expecting a fight, but there's not much three kids can do against a peeved Tsviet, even one suffering from a loss of balance. After about half a minute, the kids were tied up with bandages (probably from earlier) and Sora was calmly twirling one of his knives. "You willing to talk now?" The kids' eyes bugged out. Shock was the first one to react.
"We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart! It's all Barrel's fault!" Barrel gave her a shocked look. "It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart!"
"Yeah, that's right!" chimed in Lock.
"B-But you guys said-"
"You should be ashamed of yourself!" interrupted Shock. From there, it just degenerated into arguing. Sora sweatdropped. There was no way he was going to be able to take these kids seriously. Jack seemed to be looking for something.
"Ah ha!" He pushed at a spot on the wall, and a section of the wall flipped open. "We can reach Oogie with this!"
"A slide?"
"It's how he gets his food." The boys gave Jack some rather dubious looks. "I know it's not really the best way, but it's the fastest way." Then he jumped down it. Well, they couldn't think of any other way to reach Oogie…especially since their guide had already slid down. They jumped down as well. They landed on some sort of odd roulette wheel just in time to see what appeared to be a humanized sack swallow the artificial heart. Jack just palmed his face and shook his head in exasperation.
"Now, let's see if I can't get their attention," said Oogie. "Oh, Heartless!" Silence. A Gargoyle flapped in from the right. A second later, another Gargoyle flapped in from the left. There was a bit of an awkward pause as Oogie looked at the two Heartless. "This is it?"
"Oh, dear. That means that the experiment was a failure after all…" said Jack, disappointed. Oogie twitched. He did not look happy about this turn of events.
"Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" And then a bunch of spiked gates shot up blocking the lower level off from the upper level. Well, it would normally.
*FWAP*
Sora jumped over the gate, pulling out his knives while he did so. He slashed at Oogie Boogie. The bag jerked back somewhat and looked at the cut Sora had made. "Huh?" Sora grinned and held up his knives.
"My knives are much better at cutting cloth than the Keyblade." Oogie took a second to digest that. Then he jumped, which caused a shockwave. Sora was knocked back, and part of the gate lowered so that Sora went flying through it. The two Gargoyles flew after him, but Donald and Jack hit them with Fira spells. Then Sora flapped his wing and managed to get back onto the upper level before the gate closed.
"I didn't know Sora could fly," mused Jack.
"Uh, neither did we," said Goofy.
"How is managing to fly straight? I'd imagine that's rather difficult with only one wing," mused Jack.
"Good question," said Donald.
"Well, maybe now he'll stop acting so angry," muttered Aladdin. "I like Sora better when he's in a good mood." Then some spinning blades shot out of the walls and they had to stop talking so that they could evade those.
Meanwhile, Oogie was trying to keep from getting torn apart by Sora. He wasn't doing a very good job. Sora was just too fast, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. "W-wait! Can't we talk this out? !" Sora gave him a disgusted look, then ran in and quickly cut open Oogie. Bugs started pouring out. "My bugs!" Sora gave the walking bag of bugs a look of disbelief. Oogie was shrinking as the bugs poured out. Sora stepped on some of the bugs set the rest on fire.
"I'm done."
*Clang!*
"Us too!" shouted Aladdin.
"Oh…" Jack looked over the burnt bugs. "That's odd. Where's the heart?" Sora shrugged.
"It wasn't there. I don't know what happened to it." Jack sighed.
"Guess I'll have to find some way to ask when he gets back." Everyone gave him an odd look.
"But he looks pretty…well, y'know," pointed out Goofy
"Yes, but if humans are scared of something enough, it'll eventually come back here, and people will always be scared of the Boogey man." Sora looked at him in surprise.
"That was the boogey man?"
"Well, that's what humans called him," said Jack. "I'm not sure how they found out his name though."
"What's the boogey man?" asked Aladdin. Before anyone could explain, the whole house suddenly started shaking. "What's that? !"
"The house is collapsing! We need to get out of here!" shouted Jack.
"Aim at that spot and used Fira!" shouted Sora. The three magic users pointed at a wall and used the spell. "Goofy! Help me ram it!" The two ran and hit the wall, Sora with his left shoulder, Goofy with his shield. This was enough to break through the wall. The boys quickly ran outside and were met with laughter. They looked up and blinked.
"Did he just fuse with his house?" asked Aladdin. That was certainly what it looked like. There was sackcloth wrapped all over the house, and it was being twisted into a vaguely human-like shape. One piece of cloth near the top even had Oogie's face on it, and there was a giant lantern hanging from a 'hand.'
"Hey, what are those? Boils?" asked Sora pointing at a pulsating black and purple sphere that was embedded in the house…Oogie…whatever. "It looks like dark energy."
"Hey, you're right," said Jack. He looked up and around. "I see a few more…He must be drawing power from them!"
"Then if we destroy them, Oogie will die for real," said Sora. He pulled out the Keyblade. "Better use this."
The first sphere wasn't too difficult to take care of. It was right next to them and only took a few hits to destoy.
"You think I'm just gonna let you get rid of my new body? !" Wow, Oogie can still talk. Then more Gargoyles appeared.
"This could make things difficult." Jack suddenly hit his palm with his fist in an 'I got it!' gesture.
"I know! Sora can take care of the spheres since he can fly, and we'll distract the Heartless." The three regular members' eyes widened and looked over at Sora. Sora seemed to be having an internal struggle of sorts. On one hand, he hated this wing, and he had a very good reason for this. On the other hand, this was a battle of life and death. He'd probably survive this, but if Heartless kept coming, one of his friends would probably get hurt.
"When did I start worrying about what happened to them?" Sora gave an annoyed growl and promptly flapped his wing to propel himself up to the next sphere. Now, something to know: Sora does not know how to fly or use the wing. If he had a wing on each side of his body, he'd probably be able to figure it out fairly quickly, but there's a small problem with one wing. Until you figure out how to use it properly, you'll just fly around in circles when you use it. Ask anyone with a wing on one side of their body. They'll tell you that it's completely true. As such, the most Sora could do at the moment was use it to add height to his jumps, change his direction in the air, and increase his momentum. He figured it was enough for this situation though. The Oogie house was only so tall. Sora started hitting the sphere and then felt a burning pain on his wing. He glanced at it and saw that it was on fire. "The heck? !" He cast a Blizzara on his wing. "Where'd that come from?" He knocked away another fireball that tried to hit him. He looked in the direction it came from and saw another fireball come out of the lantern. "Shit." He quickly stabbed behind him, which was enough to finish off the sphere he'd been attacking a moment ago. Then he quickly jumped down to avoid the fireball and made his way over to the next sphere.
"I guess the others are doing their job. I haven't run into any Gargoyles yet." He started slashing the dark orb. A flash of light caught his eye and he had to block another fireball. He growled and quickly finished off the orb. He was feeling at least a couple more of them though. "Oh, screw this." He then activated his Valor Drive, which caused his pumpkin mask to get replaced by some sort of devil mask, although his left pupil still turned red. His clothes looked the same this time. "There, now I'll be able to finish them off more quickly. That way there's less chance of the guys getting hurt. There's that worry again." Sora decided to figure that out later and quickly ran to the next orb. This time he took it out before the fireball hit and then started running along the curve of the house and jumping to orb #5.
"Hey, how'd you do that? !" Sora ignored Oogie and quickly destroyed the orb. He was now fast enough to destroy one before a fireball could reach him. "Cut that out!" Sora snorted and ran to the next orb. "You weren't moving that fast before!" Sora quickly slashed the orb to smithereens. Then he went to the final orb…which seemed to be situated in Oogies left armpit…Gross. "Uh oh." And then Sora took care of the last orb. The effect was instantaneous. The manor started shaking and collapsing. "No, no, no!" And those were Oogie's last words. Sora jumped off and used his wing to slow his descent to the ground, circling slightly due to the one wing. He watched as the building collapsed onto the ground and started crumbling away. A piece of paper fluttered in front of him. Sora grabbed it and looked it over. It was another one of Ansem's reports.
"What I get one each time I kill one of these guys?" Something occurred to him. "Why do they even have these?" He thought about it for a second. It could just be chance. Maybe it was how they'd learned about the Heartless in the first place. Then again…if these people were somehow connected…
Sora was brought out of his musings when he saw the ground where the manor was glowing blue. After a moment, a keyhole shape appeared in the glow. Sora sweatdropped. How had the Keyhole ended up in the same place as the antagonist's house? Still, it was good to know where it was. Sora pointed Crabclaw at it, the beam came out and went into the Keyhole, and the Keyhole and beam faded away as a locking noise was heard.
Sora promptly dropped the rest of the way to the ground. "My, what was that?" Sora looked behind him. The rest of the group was behind him. They looked a little beat up, except for Aladdin, but that was probably because his clothes were made of sand like his body. Jack was the one who had spoken. "I've never seen something like that before." Sora shrugged.
"It's probably nothing. Just something from whatever Oogie did."
"The heart!" Everyone looked at Aladdin. "We were supposed to get it back for that guy!"
"That's it! That's how he pulled all this off! That means it wasn't a complete failure!" said Jack. Then his face fell as he realized what he just said. "He was able to do this because I insisted on making a Heart for the Heartless…This is all my fault."
"You didn't eat it though," said Sora.
"I know, but still…" It looked like Jack was going to need a bit of time to get over it. They quickly made their way to the square, picking up the puppies they had found. Sora once again stayed outside as the others walked up the stairs to Dr. Finklestein's lab. Sally was there with him. Finklestein and Sally turned when they heard the boys entering. Finklestein wheeled over to them.
"Ah, Jack, where's the heart?"
"Oogie ate it." Finklestein raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, he did, did he? And did this have any interesting effects?"
"He summoned a couple of Heartless," said Goofy.
"Then he attacked us, but Sora killed him," continued Aladdin.
"Then he fused with his house and we had to kill him again," finished Donald.
"Hm, it sounds like the experiment was a failure then," said Finklestein. "Good riddance to both of them." That's Finklestein for you. Jack sighed.
"Oh, Sally, why didn't I listen to you? All of this happened because I decided to give the Heartless a heart."
Sally walked over and grasped Jack's hands with her own. "Don't feel bad Jack. You only had good intentions. You couldn't have known Oogie was going to try something like this."
"But still…"
"Oogie was the one who misused the heart, not you." Jack sighed.
"That's true, but what are we going to do about Halloween? The Heartless are still attacking anything that moves!"
"We'll come up with a new plan for Halloween, together." Isn't that touching? The only one who isn't touched is Finklestein, and that's probably because he's going through his book to see what went wrong. Jack took a good look at Sally and then straightened himself up.
"You're right. We won't get anywhere if I'm feeling sorry for myself." There was a sigh of relief. Something was going to happen anyway. It just happened this way. Jack suddenly pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Goofy. "Could you give this to Sora? He gave me an idea that I think will come in handy." That made them raise their eyebrows. What sort of idea could Sora give him? "Come by anytime. I'd love to show you how scary next Halloween is going to be."
"We'll be sure to tell him." With that they left to the sounds of Finklestein complaining about how he couldn't figure out a heart.
Sora was leaning against a wall again while looking at the puppies playing in front of him. He was thinking about how he was starting to worry about the rest of the group. It was odd. He was worried about Kairi, but he'd known her for a while, and she was one of his best friends so there was nothing odd about that. He'd only known these guys for a few days though. "I must be getting soft." Still, he was getting fond of them. Sora wasn't sure if he'd call them friends though. Sora sighed and stretched a bit. He glanced over at the wing and frowned. That was when the rest of the group came out of the tower.
"Okay, we're done," said Aladdin. "You sure you don't wanna say good-bye to Jack and Sally?"
"I'm not going in there."
"Hey, Sora? How come you're so afraid of doctors?" asked Goofy. There was an awkward silence. Sora actually seemed surprised by the question.
"It's, well, I just have had very bad experiences with them. They ruined my life." Sora's face darkened and he gripped his hands tightly enough that his claws cut through the fabric. "It's their fault that everyone changed!" A pumpkin charm hit Sora in the head, making him blink and go back to normal.
"It's a present from Jack," explained Donald. None of them wanted to know what the story was. They had the feeling it was something horrible, and they were right. Sora picked up the charm and looked it over. It was a jack-o-lantern with a black chain coming out of the stem. Curious enough to see what it was, Sora switched it with the Crabclaw charm.
The Keyblade instantly transformed. The first thing that Sora noticed was that Jack's face was on the hilt and his bowtie was apparently the hand guards. The shaft was black and longer than usual with a bat hanging from it as the teeth and the charm hanging off the end. All in all, it looked as gothic as the town.
"Well, time to go," said Goofy. Sora instantly perked up and hurried off to their entry point. Goofy smiled at his accomplishment, and the rest quickly followed to the point of entry.
After they had gotten back on the gummi ship, Sora was stretching his arm and back. "It feels so good to get rid of that wing! And have my right eye back!" He fell onto a seat.
"Anything else we need to do before we set off?" asked Donald. Sora pulled out the paper he'd picked up.
"Oogie dropped an Ansem report. I haven't looked at it yet."
"Well, read it." Sora nodded.
"'I am studying material from the meteors that rained down that fateful night. What a find! The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention a substance…'"
"Sounds like gummi blocks," mused Donald. Sora and Goofy nodded in agreement. Aladdin rapped at the wall to see if it was elastic.
"'Was it introduced to this world when I opened the door? I wonder how many other such materials drift through the atmosphere of this tiny world…I wish I could soar off and find out! Could there be uncharted worlds up there? My curiosity never ceases to grow.
"'But I should stop speaking of such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is no way to venture outside this world. My people and I are all but prisoners of this tiny place.'" Sora's hands were shaking slightly when he finished reading. Goofy looked at him worriedly.
"Sora?"
"Ansem sounds just like Riku. Riku had been talking like this for a while before the Heartless came."
"So, those two have similar interests?" asked Aladdin. "You think it means anything?"
"What if Ansem did the same thing? What if the door he mentioned led to the heart of his world?" That was a shocking idea. They'd assumed Ansem was a good guy. To suggest that he'd had something to do with the destruction of his world…
"Let's just go to the next world," said Donald. Everyone else just nodded as the gummi ship flew off.
Interesting tidbit: At one point I accidentally called Jack 'Zack.' Makes you wonder how those two would get along…Actually, Zack's technically dead so for all I know he's one of Halloween Town's residents. Hmm…
Sora's wing is due to changes made to him in DEEPGROUND. Donald just inadvertently made it manifest with his magic. It reminds him of certain people he'd rather not think about, which is why he hates it so much.
In case you can't figure out what Sora did in the scene with the torn body parts, he killed a bunch of Wight Knights, stole their bandages, and tried to bind his wing with them. It didn't work.
The fighting scenes are getting hard…Oh well, if it were easy, I wouldn't be able to improve.
Can you figure out why Sora hates doctors? It should be fairly obvious.
You're probably wondering why Sora is refraining from using his Drive forms. There is a reason for this. You'll see what it is soon.
While I was editing this, my Karatedo instructor of 10 years passed away. Please say a prayer for Mr. Abele and his loved ones.
Omake: He's a Puppy Every Time
Jack grinned at the town square. "What do you think Sally?" Sally looked around. The square was covered in body parts and organs.
"It is horrible, very terrifying." Sally nodded in approval. "Where did you get the idea?"
"Sora ripped up a few Heartless one time while he was waiting for us outside of the tower. I wish you could've seen it. It was so gruesome!"
"Where did you get all these body parts?" asked Sally.
"Dr. Finklestein lent most of them. A few of the townspeople lent the rest." Jack paused when he noticed one of the residents messing with one of the body parts. "Zack! Cut that out! Someone's going to need that when Halloween is over!" A black werewolf with bright blue eyes looked up with an arm in his mouth.
"But I'm hungry!" Jack dug around in a pocket and pulled out a bone biscuit. The werewolf's eyes lit up. Jack threw it, and Zack dropped the body part and ran after it. Jack let out a sigh of relief.
"It's a good thing he's got such a short attention span."
(AN: I'd just like to say that this is not Zack from Final Fantasy. It's more of an alternate version of him, like how Vexen seems to be some sort of alternate version of Hojo.
Omake 2: They have the same hair.
Xigbar and Xaldin stepped out of the dark portal and looked around the world they'd ended up on. It was beautiful, warm, and appeared to be a tropical beach of some kind.
They'd been sent here for a simple reason. The last time Demyx was here, he saw someone wearing clothes that were suspiciously similar to the Keyblade master's. It was suspected that the two were related.
"Well, better get to the village," said Xigbar. "It sounded like the guy was sick. I bet he'll stay in it for as long as possible."
"It would make sense. Let's not dally." The two made their way to the village without any incident, and stuck to the shadows. It wasn't that hard to find the guy. His outfit was making him stick out from the rest of the villagers. At the moment, he wasn't doing anything special, just making something in a pot over a fire. Xigbar sighed.
"Well, this is going to be boring." And then something large and furry hit him and knocked him over onto his back.
"Mugetsu! Down boy!" Xigbar blinked and realized there was a very large fox with nine tails sitting on his chest, growling at him. Xaldin looked like he was about to summon his lances, but Kimihiro pulled Mugetsu off the gun-wielding Nobody. "I am so sorry! I don't know what got into Mugetsu!" The two Nobodies looked the Tsviet over. He was tall, skinny, pale, and had glasses. He didn't look like much of a threat. What they didn't, couldn't know was that Kimihiro was currently reading their minds and knew just what they were thinking. "Are you travelers? I haven't been here for very long, but I don't remember seeing you around."
"Yes, we are," said Xaldin as Xigbar stood back up. "We're just making a short stop on your island."
"Well, you might want to get a change of clothes. You'll probably get heat stroke if you wear so much leather for too long here," said Kimihiro. He cocked his head. "Actually, you look a lot like Lulu. Are you related?" That made Xaldin blink. Where'd that come from? Xigbar tried to picture a female Xaldin and mentally gagged. Kimihiro picked this up and was slightly amused. He must've picked up more from Yuuko than he thought.
"What's going on here?"
"Oh, perfect timing Lulu. Do you know this man? He looks sort of like you." The black mage looked at the dragoon Nobody. The Nobody stared at the mage. Both raised an eyebrow. "Then again, it might just be the hair…" Xigbar looked between the two. Here's what he's thinking.
"Holy shit! It really is a female Xaldin! And she's hot! That's even wronger than before!" At the moment, all he could do was point at the two in shock, which was odd because it was nearly impossible to shock a Nobody that much.
"I've never seen him/her before in my life." They somehow said it at the exact same time. Kimihiro chuckled a bit at this.
"You sure? You two seem to-" He was cut off as he felt a very familiar feeling in his chest. He promptly bent over and coughed up a gunk black glop. "…I think I need to lie down." He hurried over back to the house he was staying in. The two…I'd call them doppelgangers but I don't think that applies when the people are different genders…anyway, the two looked at each other for another moment. Xaldin spoke first.
"This never happened."
"Agreed." Lulu turned on her heel and walked back into the village. Xaldin grabbed the still shocked Xigbar and dragged him through a dark portal.