Hi all! Sorry this update has taken so comparatively long, but what with school and stuff (Christmas is almost here! YAY! It's kind of funny that I'm writing this world at this time of year, but I digress), and writer's block... AND the mental urges to post another chappie of RftL before this one, but then deciding "screw it"... yeah, you get the point. XD
First, though, I have some things I want to say regarding this fic. First of all, some of you may have figured out that it is AU as of KH: 358/2 Days. Xion obviously does not exist in this fic, and she never will; Anxclof has taken that little spot. (I can't wait to play the game anyway, though. ROXAS FTW!) Second of all, I know the timeline's been a bit weird as to the relationship of when DiZ and Char had to flee HB/Anxclof was born/Org XIII took her in. So, here's the official timeline:
3 months before KH1: Org XIII is born; DiZ and Char flee HB
As KH1 begins: Anxclof is born
Sora goes to Castle Oblivion: Org XIII takes Anxclof in
11 months after the events of CoM: Riku and Char take Roxas to virtual Twilight Town.
Third of all, I am going to be gone for the next few weeks or so. I'll be in Florida, soaking up the sun and riding the teacups at Disney World. XD; So, that probably will explain my lack of activity for a while. Don't worry; I'll still try and write on the trip.
Whew! With that being said, enjoy this slightly overdue chapter!
Disclaimer- I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will.
Fields, fields, and more fields…
Anxclof narrowed her eyes and lifted her gaze to her ever-present, ever-consistent surroundings. Not for the first time, she allowed herself to utter a little snarl of frustration at her current predicament. She had thought that the over-excess of white in the interior of the Castle That Never Was – and, now that she thought about it, Castle Oblivion, from what she'd heard from Axel – would create a tolerance for lack of change, but obviously she was wrong. Seeing nothing but green and the dirt under her feet tended to get a little tiring after a while, and she'd been wandering around here for close to a day now.
She supposed that this was what she got for not giving the portal of darkness a specific destination – that she ended up in this little cranny of the universe, the field between worlds. Then again, she had been too preoccupied with just getting away from that damned beach as quickly as possible; what had started out as a journey of hope had transformed into yet another reminder of what she had lost, and what would never return. Vaguely, she wondered where Axel would have taken Kairi, wondered about the destination of the portal he had summoned on the sunset-bathed shore. Probably not the World That Never Was, at any rate. Anxclof snorted under her breath at the thought. She knew how that little situation would end.
Her smirk at the mental image faded from her countenance. With the rational part of her mind she understood that the World That Never Was would never be her home again – that part of her life had died the moment she realized she had fallen for Roxas – but she also acknowledged the fact, albeit grudgingly, that in that place she had had friends and a home and a family. It had been a place where the sound of Vexen screeching in rage after Axel and Xigbar had played with the wrong pair of chemicals again; the sight of Zexion scribbling down a few notes about his next mission at the lunch table; and Marluxia offering yet another rose to Larxene and getting electrocuted as a result had become simple routine.
Besides, Anxclof couldn't bring herself to totally regret her action of joining the Organization. True, it was the source of her conflicting emotions right now, but it had been her safe haven, once.
The only question now is what's next, she thought, and she found herself shivering at the weight of her mental comment. As much as she loathed to admit it, the proverbial path stretching out in front of her – and she growled again for reminding herself of her current surroundings – was shrouded with darkness on all sides. She hated not knowing what to do next, and this situation wasn't helping at all.
The answer to that little question – what now? – should have been obvious: find Sora. For some reason, though, something held her back, and that confused her more than anything else.
The memory of the last time she had made contact with Sora, Char, and the King's friends, at Beast's Castle two weeks ago, ran back through Anxclof's mind with the vividness of the moment. She could still recall the way the coldness of the rain had run down her back and plastered her hair against her back, the way the lightning had illuminated the shock in the others' eyes when Anxclof's blade had erupted through Sora's chest, the breathless triumph that had heated her blood and set her adrenaline high. Char had accused her of not being able to feel, anger and tears setting her voice and eyes aflame, and Anxclof had told her what Xemnas had relayed to her on her first day of the Organization. It is true that we Nobodies have no hearts, the Superior had told naïve Number XIV so long ago, but we are different from Heartless and the Dusks that wander this castle in that the capacity to feel still resides within us.
Those words had never stopped resonating through Anxclof: not when she had reveled in the sensation of first summoning her Avengers; not when her demonstration of her powers in front of some of the higher-ups had sent Saïx and Zexion fleeing the high radiation-filled room; not when even Xaldin deigned to praise her on the outcome of her latest mission; not when she had found peace with Axel and Roxas. All throughout her experiences in the Organization, those words had echoed in her mind.
So it only made sense that she had felt obligated to correct Char, because the redhead was so off on her opinion. Even if Char's venom-laced words were only because of what had happened to Sora – "supposed to be his protector", Anxclof's ass; Char had cared for him even then and the Nobody knew it – Anxclof knew that Char wouldn't say such a thing unless she could back it with her own beliefs. And the Blade of Vengeance really wasn't sure whether she should admire or resent that.
A sudden burst of light illuminated the top of Anxclof's peripheral vision, and she looked up instinctively, only to grunt in surprise and shield her eyes at the brightness of it. She inwardly sighed in relief at some break from this place's eternal garb of green and brown, but another part of her wasn't sure what to think. Still with one hand over her eyes, she glanced around.
Nothing else to do, nowhere else to go.
With a deep breath, she stepped slowly and carefully into that light.
Char was starting to remember why she hated that idiotic holiday so much.
As the five of them trekked through Halloween Town, with Jack at the lead to direct Sora toward the woods due to Sora's little memory problem, she kept her eyes absently on the ground. The orange lights that Jack had strewn along the pathway flickered dimly in her peripheral vision, and her brow creased in a slit-eyed frown.
"I couldn't make the lights as bright as I wanted to," Jack was explaining to a rapt Sora, "because of, you know, the town's traditions and all, but aren't they just lovely?"
"They're awesome," Sora agreed enthusiastically.
Char couldn't help it; she rolled her eyes up to the night-clad sky.
Fortunately, none of them noticed; if they had, undoubtedly it would have raised even more questions. As it was, however, Sora was too busy listening to Jack's misadventures with Christmas; Donald looked disapproving as ever; and Goofy was staring around the town with a vaguely awed expression on his face.
Char didn't notice that they had entered the woods until she realized that the paved ground under her feet had transformed into twigs and dirt. She chanced a look up so she could properly survey her surroundings. For the most part, the woods fit the rest of the oh-so-lovely stereotype that Halloween Town had fashioned: thin trees that looked more like they fit in a winter setting than autumn; a somewhat icier breeze that made Char shiver and curse this world's weather patterns yet again. Near the center of the woods the ground took a subtle dip downhill; and at the apex of that dip there stood a tree decorated with a conspicuous emerald tree. It was no wonder that Jack had found the door to Christmas Town so quickly, as it resided in front of the doors that represented the other, less prominent holidays.
"Here it is," Jack announced extravagantly, coming to a halt in front of the Christmas tree-shaped door. "The door to Christmas Town!"
Joy, Char thought dryly.
In contrast, Sora's eyes widened and he leaned in to get a closer look. Somehow, he still found it a little hard to believe that another world lay beyond this tree-encased door; maybe it was a result of traveling from world to world by Gummi ship. He reached out a hand and tapped the door, only to rear back and let out a little grunt of pleased surprise, for the sensation that had met his fingers was the prickliness of a live Christmas tree.
"The spooks of Halloween can get so tiresome year after year," Jack explained, beginning to pace around the tree in his typical melodramatic manner. "I wanted something new." He stopped in his tracks and gestured toward the door. "And I found this!"
Donald and Char rolled their eyes at the growing excitement visible in Sora, as a grin had grown on his countenance and his eyes had widened even more.
"Beyond this door is a world filled with wonders the likes of which you've never seen!" Jack went on. "At first I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything was so fresh and exciting!"
Sora's anticipation finally seemed to bubble over and get the best of him. "C'mon! Just open it!" he cried.
"For the love of…" Char sighed.
Jack gave an exaggerated bow of acquiescence before lifting one skeletal hand and delicately placing it around the doorknob. Shockingly, warmer air began to waft out of the doorway as it revealed itself to the group; Char supposed that maybe it was in keeping with the "warmth" of the Christmas holiday.
Without hesitation, Sora ran right into the dark doorway. "Sora!" Donald shouted, but all he got in response was a muffled cry.
"We'd better go too," Goofy said.
The two of them followed after their comrade, and Jack glanced at Char, looking a little hesitant. "You don't seem too happy about this," he observed. "Staying behind's not a bad idea, you know."
His words set gasoline on the already-sparking flame of her anger, and she narrowed her eyes. "Of course I'm coming!" she growled, and took a step toward the doorway. Placing one foot on the entranceway, she peered down into the depths tentatively. For some reason, she was having second thoughts about doing this.
Then she mentally chided herself. How bad could it be?
With that thought in mind, she placed the other foot on the doorway and leaped.
The unpleasant vertigo of falling a long distance and leaving her stomach behind took over Char in the next few uncomfortable moments, and the sound of her companions' cries echoing throughout the tree's "hollow" didn't help matters at all. Closing her eyes did nothing to alleviate the feeling – if anything, it made the nausea worse – so she reopened them just in time to catch sight of a bright white light approaching her from below. Golden sparks radiated from the light, along with the distinctive azure shape of snowflakes. She had a split second for relief before she found herself abruptly thrust forward, landing on top of a spread-eagled Sora.
"Damn it," she muttered, glancing back. The tree they had just exited from looked like a Christmas tree, speckled with snow and set off by the glittering stars above it; it caused a glare on the ground and she had to blink for a few moments to get used to the change in lighting. A glowing orange pumpkin with a grinning yellow maw decorated the tree. "What the hell was that?"
An instant later, however, she found herself pressed against Sora's back again as Donald, then Goofy landed on top of them. She snarled out a few words that she had learned from a book of foreign language and pushed the animals off of her. "Nice landing, you guys," she growled, hot with humiliation.
To their credit, they looked appropriately abashed at her unconcealed anger, though Donald seemed a bit smug, for some reason. She looked down and realized that she was still sitting on top of Sora; with a grunt of surprise she rolled off of him, landing in the oddly-comfortable snow. Char surveyed the area, with her curiosity growing every moment she looked. The only parallel she could draw from their visit to the village in the Land of Dragons was the snow: here, the area had a warm tinge to the air and snow that felt more like a plush seat than the icy substance she had read about.
Sora didn't seem to notice his previous awkward position with Char, as he was too busy staring in undisguised wonder out at the town. "Coooool!" he breathed.
Donald was rubbing his head and looking ready to lecture Sora about his obvious enthusiasm, but then the scenery caught the duck's eye and he copied the brunette's gesture of awe. Even Char had to admit that the town had a certain snowy beauty about it. Snow-capped hills surrounded them, and a path wound along below them, going downhill in the direction of the large, red-bricked building at the very bottom.
"That's Sandy's workshop," Jack's voice sounded from behind them, surprising them all. Somehow the skeleton had avoided landing on them entirely and was standing above them, looking amused.
"And Santa's there, right?" asked Donald.
Jack nodded, and took a few steps forward in the snow, leaving a few thin footprints in his wake, before turning to face them. "Shall we?"
"Yeah!" Sora leaped up, ignoring the motion sickness he got from moving too quickly, and bounded eagerly after Jack. Char and Goofy exchanged a glance when even Donald followed enthusiastically.
"Let's go," Char muttered, and the knight nodded, looking confused at the mage's sudden change of heart.
They descended the hill and eventually found themselves at the center of town. The five of them briefly took in the garish buildings surrounding Santa's workshop and the merry-go-round at the very center before several bursts of darkness rent the brightness of the town. "Here too?" Sora cried as several drill-like Heartless, along with two that vaguely resembled a jack-in-the-box, materialized in front of them.
They all withdrew their weapons, while Jack blustered, "En garde, loyal bodyguards!" and took his place at the rear.
Sora easily took down the drills, but the box Heartless proved a little more difficult, especially when the toy soldiers inside chose to show themselves and fling a few snowflake-like blades in their direction. Thankfully, Donald found the perfect timing to incinerate the snowflakes just before they reached their intended target; with Jack helping the duck, the battle became much easier.
As Goofy sent the last jack-in-the-box to Kingdom Hearts with one final thrust of his shield, Donald came to stand next to Sora, Char, and Jack. "Christmas is in big trouble!" he announced.
"Gawrsh, we can't let anything bad happen to Christmas," Goofy fretted, trotting up beside them.
Sora nodded in fervent agreement, but Char snorted and folded her arms. "No real loss, if you ask me."
They all glanced at her, bemused at the obvious venom in her voice, and Sora raised his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to ask the question that had been nagging at him since Jack had told them about Christmas Town, but then the skeleton in question sauntered up. "That's where Sandy Claws lives," Jack said, pointing at the large red building that served as the workshop. Now that they were up closer, the group could see multiple windows on the outside and many lights glowing in the semi-darkness.
When Sora looked back at Char, she was glaring at the ground, and he figured that she wouldn't want him talking to her when she was like this. So, he just uttered a small sigh and led them through the brightly lit doors.
The first thing Sora saw was many different, conflicting shades of red. The walls were painted with it, the softly carpeted floor was colored with it, and the rotund man sitting in the center of the room wore it. He reached up one black-gloved hand to scratch his long beard as his slightly-squinted eyes scanned the long paper he held – presumably his "nice list". Sora's eyes became so wide that he thought they would actually release themselves from their sockets at the sight.
"Huh, what do you know," Char commented. "The old geezer really does exist."
Jack gave her a hard look. "Of course he exists! How do you think we get presents every year?"
Santa fortunately didn't seem to hear Char's condescending remark, but he did look up to see what was going on. A warm smile set off his friendly old face. "Well, hello everyone," he greeted. "Did you come to see if you're on my 'nice' list?"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy came forward, with the very former sure that he must seem like a total moron with the grin that was stretched across his countenance. "Your name?" Santa inquired, shaking the list once and not taking his eyes off of them.
"Uh, Sora, sir!" Sora blustered, pushing his way in front of Donald and Goofy; the duck looked disgruntled while the knight seemed bemused at the brunette's obvious eagerness.
I certainly hope he's on the "nice" list, Char thought, thinking back to how he had saved the worlds and rolling her eyes.
"Let's see… Sora…" Santa read down the list for a moment, then looked back up with somewhat of an amused expression. "Well, according to my list, Sora, seven years ago, you told everyone you did not believe in Santa Claus. Oh, that is unfortunate."
Sora's excitement dwindled considerably as Santa spoke, and by the time the old man had finished his verdict, the Keybearer had brought both fists to his hair and cried out in obvious despair.
"How about Donald and Goofy?" Donald asked after a smug face at Sora's expense.
Santa looked down again, then met their eyes and gave a single, cheerful nod.
"Oh boy!" the duck squawked in glee, and Goofy grinned himself.
Then Donald cast Char a disapproving glance. "You don't even have to ask if she's on the list, though," he announced disparagingly.
Char snorted and folded her arms. "Of course not. I've done my share of 'naughty' things."
Like kidnapping an innocent teenager and putting him in a virtual replica of Twilight Town – I'd say that's pretty bad.
"Am I on your list too, by any chance?" Jack queried timidly from behind them. "It's me – Jack!"
Up until now, Santa had been relatively amiable with them, but at the sound of the skeleton's name a visible change went over Father Christmas. He seemed to jolt in his chair with his shock. "Jack Skellington?!" he asked incredulously.
He opened his mouth, his cheerfulness already having turned into annoyed dread, only to close it and look around when the sound of breaking glass broke into the silence. He got up off of his chair and began to move toward the candy-cane-lined door, looking angrily back at Jack. "What sort of trouble did you bring this time?"
"'This time'?" Sora raised an eyebrow at Jack.
The skeleton waved his hands in an attempt to redeem himself. "It's a long story!" he replied hastily.
Santa didn't seem to hear them; he just opened the door and entered the room that had opened up. Sora just made to follow him.
They found themselves in the very core of Santa's workshop, with the sounds of gears turning and conveyor belts whirring roaring around them. Char winced to herself; this was a vivid reminder of why she had hated the Heartless factory so much.
Santa was standing in front of them, his head moving on his shoulders as he looked around. However, nothing revealed itself from the bright lights of the room.
Abruptly, however, Santa looked up, to a platform that was elevated to far above them. Now that the group listened more closely, they could make out words coming from that area.
"Why do we have to hide?" one disturbingly familiar, childish voice complained.
"Silence!" another voice ordered, a voice that sent Char, Sora, and Goofy's hair standing on end; even Donald felt his feathers shudder a bit at the syrupy malice of that voice.
"Maleficent?" Char hissed, eyes wide. "I thought she'd abandoned us entirely!" The last time they'd seen her face to face was when Disney Castle had been invaded by Heartless, what felt like so long ago.
"No," Sora sighed. "She's tenacious, I'll give her that much… I just hope she doesn't fight us head on."
"Oh, come on!" Donald growled, and the force of his fake bravado almost convinced even Char. "We took her down once, and we could do it again!"
"Who's there?" Santa shouted.
"Busted!" triple voices cried from above.
"And just what we need – the Prankster Trio." Char shook her head and ran her fingers through her bangs, which promptly fell back into her eyes again. "Geez, it's not bad enough that Maleficent's trying to steep the worlds in darkness again; now she has to go around corrupting innocent little kids, too?"
"You forgot; they're not so innocent," Jack corrected.
The sound of flames whooshing and a flash of emerald green from above announced that Maleficent had vanished, while the sound of glass breaking signified that the trio had just made a break for it through the window.
"That's Lock, Shock, and Barrel," Jack explained to Santa, cringing a bit at the way his introduction of the three children sounded.
"Not those three…" Santa groaned.
"I assure you, they're not with us," the skeleton tried to assure.
"Well, whatever the case," Santa said haughtily, turning to the group, "they've been quite naughty." He put his fists on his wide hips. "Catch them and bring them back here." He began to make his way toward the door. "They're going to get a lecture."
"Because I'm sure they're very terrified at that thought," Char couldn't help remarking.
"Uh, Mr. Claws?" Jack asked tentatively, taking a small step after Santa. "I wanted to ask you about Christmas first –"
"It'll have to wait!" Santa interrupted, seeming genuinely livid about the appearance of the three pranksters. "I need to see how things are progressing in my workshop."
Jack stared despondently after Santa as he left, and he was roused only by Sora calling, "C'mon, Jack – let's catch those little pranksters!"
"Well, I suppose…" Jack murmured, but Sora had already disappeared into the main part of the building.
They got outside and saw Donald and Goofy staring very closely at a set of footprints, leading in the direction of the doorway back to Halloween Town. Char and Sora exchanged a glance.
"Those three?" Char asked, more to fill the silence than to actually ask the obvious.
"Definitely," Sora confirmed.
"Then let's go after them," Donald insisted, pounding one mummified fist into the other hand.
Sora and Goofy blinked at the duck's new determination, and the brunette wondered what had happened to the mage's previous annoyance at this little venture.
Whatever; all that matters is that we stop those three – and Maleficent – from destroying Christmas!
"There they are!" Sora cried as they skidded to a stop at the gate to Moonlight Hill. The three children whirled around and looked nervously at each other as the group approached, only to suddenly jump up into the air. Char followed the trio's gesture and gasped when she saw the cage-bodied, clawed Heartless grinning at them with empty eyes.
"Crap, this is bad," she muttered, and her dual swords appeared in her hands in twin flashes of light.
"Get 'em!" the three of them shouted at once, and the Heartless surged mechanically forward.
Sora braced himself to block the Heartless' claws with the Hero's Crest, but he hadn't even raised the Keyblade up to guard when the creature abruptly lifted the cage high into the air and Lock fell into its open maw in a flash of red.
"The heck?" Donald growled, brandishing his own staff.
"Any ideas?" Jack asked nervously, looking from Sora to Donald to Goofy and then to Char.
"No clue," Char answered, her heartbeat spiking when the Heartless lifted its claws high in the air and a fireball began sparking at the tips of its claws. "I haven't read anything about something like this…"
"Maleficent," Donald seethed, and Goofy nodded in agreement.
But then a burst of iridescent light rent the dark sky and Sora barely dodged the fireball that had nearly incinerated him on the spot. Despite the lingering heat of the blast, he couldn't help but shiver; ever since their last encounter with Hades in the Underworld, he always felt a bit uneasy around enemies like this. "Watch out; it has fire magic!" he shouted.
"And I can't even jump high enough to get at the stupid thing!" Char snarled in frustration. She glanced around quickly, narrowly avoiding another fireball that got close enough to hitting her that her old fear nearly flared up again. Focus, she told herself firmly.
Getting a grip on herself again, she realized that she had almost had a head-on collision with the base of the hill in the process of rolling away from that attack. That could've been painful… well, less so than getting burned alive, but still…
And, looking at the hill, suddenly an idea hit her.
She got to her feet and, ignoring the way her head spun at such a sudden movement, she charged up the hill and leaped up, aiming a series of rapid blows at the Heartless' head. To her extreme relief and triumph, her blades connected and knocked it backward and downwards.
"Now's our chance!" Goofy called, already spinning his shield around in preparation to throw it.
Seeing Char's strategy, Sora followed her up the steep hill that had given the area its name and together they laid a steady onslaught onto the Heartless. Char noticed that Sora was carefully avoiding the cage part of the enemy's body and couldn't hold back a tiny smirk. "Trying to avoid hitting the little pranksters?"
"Well, they're still kids, after all," Sora panted.
Char rolled her eyes. "Bratty, annoying, rude little kids, but hey…"
A shout from above announced that the Heartless had abruptly spat out Lock and had chosen to swallow Barrel, the green-clad child, instead. "Just when we get used to the fireballs!" Donald roared, shaking his free fist angrily.
"Calm down, fellows!" Jack shouted, tossing a Potion to the duck, who caught it with a grudging mutter of thanks. "We just have to stop this Heartless so we can save Christmas!"
"Because that's totally why I'm still fighting here," Char muttered, just audible enough for Sora to hear. He frowned, wondering exactly what Char's motives were, but then something ripped into his side and tossed him onto the ground with a jarring burst of pain.
"Damn it," Char growled, staring at Sora's prone body. She knew that without the Keybearer helping, they were, for lack of a better word, screwed. She glared back at the Heartless, with irrational anger pulsing through her at the mental image of Sora bleeding on the ground lingering in her head. "You little brats are dead, you hear me? You will be so dead that your grandkids will feel it!"
Without waiting for a comeback from the three of them, she jumped up and slashed mercilessly at the hard metal shell of the Heartless' head. It cringed back in pain, but somehow managed to release Barrel and replace him with Shock in its mouth in the same movement.
"Ow…" Sora's strained murmur came from below.
"Sora, can you move?" Donald demanded, already lifting his staff to cast Cura.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," he answered, his voice becoming steadier as his wound closed up. He readied his Keyblade and charged back into the fray.
Char was just hastily blocking another fireball when a flash of black rushed past her. The next thing she knew, the Heartless was being driven back by a steady assault of attacks from the Hero's Crest. Strangely, warmth began to flow through her at the sight of Sora easily keeping pace with the Heartless' attacks, but she shook it off before it could distract her.
"You feeling all right, Key-boy?" she shouted in an attempt to alleviate the strange feeling.
He chanced a look back. "Yup," he called back, grinning.
She couldn't help but shake her head reprovingly. "You're gonna kill yourself one day, you know that, right?"
"I'll try not to," Sora laughed, then refocused on the Heartless and, jumping up, brought his Keyblade down in a final, decisive blow. At the same time, a solid snowflake came flying from Jack's direction, and they both sliced through the Heartless' head in different directions.
The Heartless seized its head and convulsed a few times before finally falling limp and vanishing; a single large, pink heart began to float toward the sky. The three kids fell to the ground as their prison disappeared, but strangely, they were all laughing.
"That was fun!" Lock chirped.
"Let's go see if Mr. Oogie's ready!" Shock said, and they all bolted for the gate before anyone could say anything.
"Oogie?" Jack cried in disbelief.
"That bag of bugs is back?" Donald grumbled.
"Isn't he the one that tried to take over Halloween Town before?" Char asked.
"Yeah," Sora answered.
"Fellows, I hope you're ready for trouble…" Jack sighed.
"Don't we have enough trouble already?" Goofy pointed out.
"Touché," Jack conceded after a moment, and the others nodded.
"But where is Oogie?" Char wondered aloud, folding her arms.
"We won't know until we look around town and ask," Sora murmured.
The five of them left Moonlight Hill – with the group feeling relieved that the Gummi ship had suffered no damage after the intense battle with that Heartless – and found Sally standing anxiously in front of the large tombstones. She seemed out of breath, causing Jack to look worriedly at her. "What's wrong, Sally?"
"Oogie's captured Santa Claus!" Sally cried, and at that, everyone except Char gave a start of shock and dread.
"And he's headed for Christmas Town," the patchwork woman added.
"C'mon, Jack, let's hurry," Sora implored.
The skeleton gave a single nod of determination. "He's gone too far with this," he muttered, obviously referring to Oogie. It was as close to anger as Char – or Sora – had ever heard from the Halloween Town resident, and it startled the brunette. He must really care about keeping Christmas safe, even though it's not his holiday to worry about, Sora reflected.
And it was oddly refreshing to see such commitment in the skeleton.
Done! I know Jack seems a bit OOC at the end, but think about it: He seemed to really be dedicated to the whole Christmas thing in the game and the movie, so why shouldn't he feel just a bit pissed that Oogie's putting it in jeopardy?
And I also flexed my action-writing muscle with that boss scene. (I know - Saf, willingly writing a boss fight? THIS IS MADNESS!) So, all in all, I liked this chap.
Besides, we all know the REAL reason why Char was so mad at that Heartless for goring Sora in the chest... -wink wink-
Also also: I GOT MY XBOX TODAY!!!! So expect Vesperia ficcies in the future.
Okay. I'm done now. I mean it.