Damn, I was hoping to get this segment done by the holidays, but I won't. Oh well...

Kyrie (c) Me

Kingdom Hearts characters/some of the story (c) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts

Bonded Soul

Chapter 32

Kyrie was silent as she sat on the cold ground, pondering on if she should go back inside or not. She was sure her visible eye was a little red from crying, and she didn't want them to think that it was their fault.

"But then again, they're probably going to think that anyways since I walked out on them." she thought with a sigh. Suddenly, she heard the sound of glass breaking looked to the left of her, spotting the three kids from earlier as they darted past.

"Let's go find Maleficent!" one of them cried. She was on her feet in seconds, Maleficent?

"Why is that witch here? As if Christmas wasn't in enough danger…" she thought before looking back at the door. Should she go and get Sora? Or should she chase them? Standing there for a moment, she quickly followed after the troublesome threesome, spy mode kicking in. She followed them through Yuletide hill and the Hinterlands, but when they got to the graveyard, she distanced herself from them. She didn't want to get caught by them and have to fight them. She could fight a grown man without a guilty conscious, but fighting a kid was different.

"Kids are so much more innocent than adults, anyways. …Well, maybe not Lock, Shock, and Barrel, but most kids are innocent." she thought as she hid behind a tombstone, watching as the three ran into a pair of gates that rested between Halloween town and the Hinterlands. Just as the three walked through the gates, Kyrie accidentally bumped into the tombstone she was hiding behind, causing it to rumble and shake.

"Uh-oh…" she thought as she jumped back, watching it fall forward and crash into another tombstone, making it shake and fall onto another. It was like a domino effect as she watch the tombstones fall one after another. Standing in the center of the graveyard surrounded by fallen tombstones, she breathed a sigh of relief. The three hadn't heard the commotion, so she was in the clear.

"Phew…" she sighed. She could hear footsteps behind her and turned, spotting Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack as they ran towards her. Sora smiled in relief when he spotted her.

"Kyrie!" he called, stopping in front of her. The two stared at each other for a few moments, before he looked away.

"Um, Santa says he's sorry for before. He didn't want to hurt your feelings…and we're sorry too." she smiled and hugged him, causing the boy to blush brightly before she pulled away, ruffling his hair. Pulling out her notebook, she began to write.

It's alright, you didn't mean any harm. I'm just glad you're not mad at me for running out on you.

"Why would we be mad at you? If someone told me something like that, I'd run out too!" he exclaimed. Jack quickly tapped Sora's shoulder, making the two turn to look at him.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt but…we need to catch Lock, Shock, and Barrel for Sandy Claws!" Jack coughed. They nodded and with that, they continued on through the graveyard until they got to the gates. Opening them and waking through, they were surprised to see a large, round heartless that had a cage dangling from below it waiting for them. The troublesome trio were right below it, standing on top of what looked like a large, curly hill.

"Damn! I knew it, it's Maleficent's!" Kyrie thought as she quickly summoned her keyblades, staring at the heartless in aggravation. Lock, Shock, and Barrel snickered as they jumped into the cage, the heartless closing it and trapping them inside. Sora and the others summoned their weapons as well, just as the heartless raised the cage and shook it, making Lock fall into its mouth.

"Ugh, it ate him!" she thought in dismay and revulsion. But the heartless changed colors from grey to a red-orange, and Shock and Barrel pointed at them.

"Get them!"

"Squash them!"

The heartless was after them in moments, shooting fireballs at them. Kyrie dodged them easily, remembering the times she trained with Axel. The way the heartless was throwing fireballs at them, slightly resembled Axel when he threw his chakrams at her in the training sessions they had during her first week in the World that Never Was.

"Ha! I've gotta thank Axel for this later, our training sessions are helping me exponentially!" She smirked, dodging the latest fireball and leaping so that she was above it, before bringing both keyblades down in an 'X' formation. The heartless slammed into the ground with a dull thud, allowing Sora, Jack, and Donald to bombard it with attacks and spells alike, before it changed color again. But once it changed back to grey, all of their attacks went right through it.

"Ah!" Sora cried as he jumped out of the way of its spinning attack. Jack growled.

"It's like a ghost! We'll have to wait until it changes color again!" he called. They nodded as they moved back, creating some distance between them and the heartless as it lifted the cage and shook it. Lock popped out and landed inside the cage, while Shock took his place and fell inside it. This time, it turned purple and instead of throwing fireballs, it expelled light blue and purple beams from its fingertips. When this occurred, the group retreated and took cover under the curly hill, which proved to be a strong barrier against its attacks. Sora growled.

"We can't just stay under here forever, we have to destroy it!" he growled. Kyrie poked her head out and watched as the heartless continued to hurtle beams of light at them, causing her to duck behind the hill once more to avoid getting her head blown off.

"Maybe Goofy can use his shield to defend us while we move in to attack it." Jack suggested. But Donald shook his head.

"But Goofy can't protect all of us! What're we gonna do?" he exclaimed. Kyrie was silent before a few moments before smirking.

"I think this could work…" with that, she closed her eyes and saw the bubble shield inside her mind again. When she heard the others gasp, she opened her eyes and saw that the shield had appeared once more. Dropping a keyblade and pulling out her notebook, she began to write.

Goofy, you can protect whoever gets outside of this shield to attack the heartless, while I protect everyone who is on standby. That way, each of us has a chance to attack and not get hurt in the long run.

Goofy nodded as he stepped out of the shield, Sora following after him. With that, the group ran out, Goofy protecting Sora while Jack and Donald stayed close to Kyrie. With that it became a pattern, each time the person Goofy was protecting gave a certain amount of damage, they switched with someone inside Kyrie's shield and did the same thing. This continued until the heartless turned grey again.

"Gawrsh, is it gonna eat Barrel now?" Goofy asked as Kyrie dispelled her shield. She gave a curt nod as it shook the cage, popping Shock back out and devouring Barrel as it did so. The heartless turned green and glared at the group hungrily, before it barreled towards them. Crying out, they jumped out of the way as it sped past, surprised at the change of attack style. But thanks to its frontal assault, the gang was able to land more blows because all they had to dodge was a tackle and not multiple fireballs or beams of light.

But then something changed. Instead of popping one of the three back out and taking another in, it devoured the other two and turned red, purple, and green.

"Oh crap." Kyrie thought as it began a volley of fireballs and beam attacks, while tackling the team at the same time. She heard Donald cry out and turned, spotting a little fireball on the duck's tail as he ran. Running in, she waved her kingdom key over the fire, putting it out and saving the duck from further damage. Sora meanwhile, was attacking the heartless with everything he had while Jack watched his back, the two tag-teaming on the heartless. In no time at all, the heartless disappeared and the three children remained on the ground, surprisingly unharmed. They snickered and laughed at the five before Shock turned to her partners in crime.

"Let's go see if Mr. Oogie's ready!" Shock spoke, before the three ran off. Jack gasped, shocked.

"Oogie?" he exclaimed in surprise. Kyrie raised her eyebrow at him, who was Oogie? Sora had the same look of confusion as he tried to remember just who exactly Oogie was.

"Isn't he the one that tried to take over Halloween Town before?" Sora asked him. Jack nodded grimly as he turned to the others.

"That's him. Fellows, Kyrie, I hope you're ready for trouble…" he replied, looking towards the gates to the graveyard. Goofy sighed as he raised his arms for a moment.

"Don't we have enough trouble already?" he whined. Kyrie giggled silently and shook her head, the three were always a magnet for trouble, so she wasn't at all surprised that another villain had shown up to ruin Christmas. Once they got into the graveyard, they spotted a familiar face as Sally ran to them, her expression frantic.

"Jack, Sora! Something awful has happened, Oogie Boogie is back! And he kidnapped Mr. Santa Claus!"

"What?" the group cried as they stared at her in shock.

"Where did he take him, Sally?" Jack demanded. She turned and pointed in the direction of the Hinterlands, which led to Christmas Town.

"I'm not sure, but he's headed to Christmas Town!" she cried. They nodded before Sora turned to Jack.

"C'mon, Jack…let's hurry!" he urged. The skeleton man nodded as they took off, with Donald and Goofy not far behind. Kyrie stuck close to Sally as they followed the boys, acting as her bodyguard in case the group ran into any heartless. And with Jack so focused on saving Santa, he probably wouldn't notice if any harm came to her.

"Wait…why am I thinking that way? They are just friends…right?" she thought as she ran. The group ran into the Hinterlands and didn't waste any time with going into the door. But once they got to Yuletide Hill, they heard a loud explosion and looked out, to see smoke rising from Santa's house.

"That's Santa's house!" Donald exclaimed. Sora nodded as he summoned his keyblade, running ahead.

"C'mon!" he cried. The group followed after him, running into town and taking out a few small heartless before running into Santa's house, being met by frantic elves as they tried to explain what was going on.

"Oh, it's horrible!"

"A large bag just walked in, carrying Santa, but we couldn't stop him!"

"He was too strong!"

One after another, the elves chimed in and spoke in either unison or separately. Sora and Jack managed to calm them down, before running into Santa's workshop.

"This is it! Time to save Santa!"

Stupid Oogie Boogie...why must you destroy christmas? Oh well. Jack will stop him, for sure.

Anyways, read and review.