X didn't know what was going on with this world, but he really didn't like it. They were in a dark and gloomy looking forest. There were boxes placed randomly that looked like Christmas presents but X wasn't focused on that. He was more focused on the way everyone's appearance had changed, and only he seemed concerned about it.

Sora looked kinda like a vampire. He had ashen skin and his clothes were all black with a set of wings coming off his back and a pumpkin mask on the side of his head. Donald was a mummy, his bandages missing around the middle so it looked like he was in two pieces. Goofy looked like some kind of Frankenstein monster, with a large screw coming out of his head.

X himself was wearing all black, save the long purple scarf wrapped around his shoulders and falling to the ground. He had long gloves tipped in sharp claws. His hair was falling in his eyes, covering the right eye entirely. Around his neck was a broken bell. That wasn't too strange, his biggest problem was the two cat tails and the ears he could feel moving on his head. He frowned, cutting his lips on one of his teeth, that had apparently sharpened as well.

"What is this place, and why do I look like I'm half cat?" X asked looking over his shoulder at his two tails that flicked in annoyance. Sora laughed looking at him.

"This is Halloween Town," Sora explained.

"I don't like this," X decided. His tails flicked again and his ears flattened to the top of his head. "I really don't like this."

"Huh?" Donald said. X glared at him but stopped seeing an even stranger thing than the group he was with.

It was the skeleton X had seen in this world a few times, now that he realized where they were. But unlike previous encounters, he was dressed in red. It took X a moment to register he was dressed like Santa Claus. X blinked a few times and looked back to the group. They didn't even flinch.

"Perfect timing gentlemen! Lend me a hand, won't you? These presents must belong to Sandy Claws. So I thought I'd better return them."

X looked up at the skeleton who had called out to them. He looked again to Sora, his tails flicking behind him. Sora crossed his arms looking at the skeleton with a frown.

"And you just happened to find them?" Sora asked.

"Of course, Sora. I'm finished with Christmas fantasies. You know that," the skeleton said calmly.

"But you thought you'd hold onto the suit?" Sora asked. 

"What, this? It's just a costume. And Sally worked so very hard making it! Come on. We've got work to do!" the skeleton said, easily deflecting whatever accusation Sora might have been directing at him. X followed behind as they picked up as many of the presents as they could carry. A few times he hissed as someone stepped too close to one of his tails. He even stepped on one a few times himself, it was hard keeping track of two tails.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask. Who is your new friend?" the skeleton asked as they headed toward a circle of trees.

"This is X, we told you about him last time," Sora answered with a smile. X frowned, narrowing his eyes at Sora.

"You were talking about me?" he asked suspiciously. Sora nodded, looking away.

"Yeah, we were wondering if we made the right choice asking so many questions," he said. His smile was lost as he looked down at the ground. X looked away, feeling his face flush.

"Oh, I see," he said. He felt his lip cut on his tooth again as he frowned.

"Yeah," Sora said with a nervous chuckle. "Sorry."

"Please enough of that apologizing thing. It's not that big a deal," X said keeping his eyes off to the side. He didn't see the way Sora looked at him with worry. And he didn't want to see him.

They followed the skeleton through a door in a tree to another part of this world. They landed face first in a pile of snow. X shivered as he stood up glancing around. He frowned as he saw the others had changed outfits. Sora still wore all black, but now he wore a Santa getup worthy of the skeletons. Donald had become a snowman, with a blue pail for a hat. Goofy was a reindeer with a glowing red nose.

X, unfortunately, was still a cat. The scarf that had originally been purple was now red, with a hood lined in white fur. There were bells at either end that jingled whenever X moved. The bell around his neck had been fixed as well, and there were bows with bells on both of his tails. X frowned flicking his tails, the simple action was accompanied by a sweet ringing sound that grated his ears.

"Hey, now you can't sneak up on us," Sora said playfully. X glared at him, making his smile falter. X frowned looking away and crossing his arms. Now he had to figure out how to make the stupid bells stop. He pushed the thought aside as the group made their way to a workshop, eventually dropping the presents in front of a plump man wearing red that X assumed was Santa. He was going to have to be sure Y never found out or he'd never hear the end of it.

"Oh! Wherever did you find these?" Santa asked. He took a present from the skeleton's hands looking at it in confusion.

"In Halloween Town. You'll be needing them for Christmas, right, Sandy?" the skeleton asked.

"Of course. But these are just a few of the Christmas presents that were stolen," Santa said.

"Stolen!?" Sora yelled in shock. X turned to look at the skeleton, who scratched the back of his head. X didn't know much about this world, but it seemed this skeleton was a bit of an oddity. Did he steal the presents?

"Oh, Sandy, you don't think it was me?" the skeleton asked in shock.

"Still wearing the outfit, I see," Santa replied calmly.

"I just thought I'd dress for the occasion. But if you don't believe me, then we'll just have to find out who really did it!" the skeleton said. X made note he'd have to ask Jiminey for names here too. Calling this skeleton what he was was getting old.

"Very well, I'll leave it to you," Santa said turning away from them. It seemed odd he'd give them free rein over something so important, but X supposed they had weirder too.

"All right, Sora, Donald, Goofy, X! We're off!" the skeleton said.

As they were leaving the workshop, they heard crashes from above them. They exchanged quick glances before running up the stairs to a factory-like room. In the room was a group of three children, each dressed in costumes. One was a devil, one a witch, and the last a sort of skeleton.

"These kids?" X muttered to himself.

"No!" the witch said as the two boys searched through a mound of toys. The devil tossed aside a sailboat as the skeleton picked up a stuffed bear.

"This looks good," he said.

"No!" the witch said dismissively.

"Boooring!" the devil agreed. The skeleton shrugged and tossed the bear away.

"This one?" the devil asked.

"No!" the witch said.

"No way!" the skeleton said in agreement.

"Hey!" Donald yelled. The three stopped in their tracks turning to look at the group in the doorway. 

"So you three took them!" Sora said.

"Took what?" the witch asked in confusion.

"You stole the presents, didn't you!" the skeleton dressed as Santa said angrily. The group of kids looked at each other in confusion.

"It wasn't us!" the devil said.

"But," the little skeleton said. He looked to the witch who removed her mask to look at the boys.

"It really sounds like fun!" she said putting her mask back on.  

"Run for it!" the three yelled in unison.

"Excuse me," X said in a deathly calm voice. The three children froze in their places, shaking as they looked at X. He smirked calmly glancing to Sora. "That's what I thought. Sora."

"How did you do that?" Sora asked.

"Organization XIV has a deal with these kids. They know not to mess with our kind," X said calmly, looking at the three again. They were still, waiting for commands. X had never liked the idea of threatening others, but he was glad Zakey had threatened them. It saved him a lot of effort.

"Where'd you put the presents?" Sora asked turning to the kids.

"We told you! We don't have 'em!" the witch said.

"Then why are you in here!?" Donald asked.

"We're looking for parts from the experiment," the devil explained.

"Experiment?" the skeleton asked.

"Dr. Finkelstein's making us a friend!" the devil said.

"One we get to boss around!" the little skeleton added.

"It's true the doctor's been hard at work making something lately," the skeleton admitted tapping his chin as he crossed his arms.

"Besides, Christmas presents are boring. Not scary or gross, so what good are they?" the devil asked.

"Yeah!" the little skeleton agreed.

"There's nothing fun here. Let's go back to Halloween Town!" the devil said. This time they let the group run, watching as they left the workshop. They followed shortly after going to speak with Santa again.

"So, were those pranksters responsible for taking the gifts?" Santa asked.

"It doesn't look like it," the skeleton said.

"Then that means," Santa began. He was cut off by a patchwork woman running in. X blinked a few times in confusion as the group all turned their attention to the woman.

"Sally!" the skeleton said.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're all here," Sally said breathlessly.

"Is something wrong?" Sora asked. 

"The Heartless are back in the town square. I thought you should know," Sally said nervously. 

"That's our cue!" Sora said. X nodded in agreement. They couldn't do much about the present thief without a lead. But Heartless they could handle.

"Back to Halloween Town!" Donald said. The group had hardly moved toward the door when the skeleton spoke up.

"But wait! What about finding the gift-napper?" he asked. X held back a curse, couldn't he forget about that for a second?

"Actually," Sally said stepping forward only slightly. "The Heartless were playing with some presents when I saw them."

"Aha! We have our culprits!" the skeleton said pointing. With no further delay they left Christmas town and returned to Halloween town.

In the square, there was a large group of Heartless all playing with presents. They were seeming to ignore all inhabitants around them. Their focus was on the brightly colored boxes they held. X frowned glancing to the short triangular man standing above the group, yelling into a megaphone with a panicked expression.

"You! You can't be here! Leave Halloween Town, by order of the mayor!" he yelled. X frowned looking back to the Heartless. He could hear their mindless chatter. It was almost cute. They sounded like, like children. They were excited and wanted to know what was in the boxes. This is what Y always heard, and decided the Heartless would make good pets. "Somebody? Anybody! I'm only an elected official-- I can't handle this by myself."

"Sally was right. We've got to get the presents!" the skeleton said. 

X stepped into the center of the Heartless group, his eyes turning yellow as he called the attention of the Heartless to him. Their childish chatter slowly died out, waiting for his order. 

"All of you, clear out," X said firmly. It was just a moment before they began vanishing one by one. Presents dropped to the ground, and slowly the Heartless vanished. X sighed slumping as the last Heartless vanished. His eyes felt heavy, but he forced them to stay open as he turned to the group behind him. "Problem solved."

"Why don't you do that all the time?" Sora asked with his eyes wide in shock.

"Because now I'm exhausted," X said calmly, fighting his urge to yawn. He frowned looking over his shoulder at the town square. "These ones just, they sounded like kids."

"You can hear them?" Donald asked. X nodded.

"Yeah."

He tried not to. If he listened he could hear them, and he felt bad for them. He always did. They couldn't control themselves like he could. They were lost and confused. Couldn't even remember who they were, or what they had wanted.

X shook away the thoughts as they collected the presents. He couldn't fix that. He would have to leave it to someone else.

"What a shame! It looks like it was such a nice present," the skeleton said, looking at a box as he stepped on the toy that had been in it. X frowned, his tails flicking behind him.

"Uh, Jack--" Sora began.

"Oh, help! Someone help me! My latest experiment is gone-- it's been stolen!"

X jumped and hissed at the sudden loud sound. He turned to see the doctor in a wheelchair on his porch. The group exchanged a glance before following the doctor into his lab. X's ears twitched as he looked around. The last time he had been here Yuki had been with him. They were looking for something. He had found this entire lab wrong.

"I was just sitting here brainstorming when all of a sudden I was attacked! I collapsed! And when I awoke, my experiment was gone!" 

X glanced up again, realizing the doctor had been explaining what had happened.

"Don't worry, Doctor-- we know who took it," Jack said.

"Who!?" the Doctor asked.

"The Heartless," Sora answered as Donald nodded.

"What, those wretched things? Preposterous! This was nothing like Heartless," the doctor said crossing his arms. X narrowed his eyes, his lip almost curling up in a snarl. He knew he wasn't the one being insulted, but he was in no mood to deal with people like this doctor.

"How would you know if it knocked you out?" X asked. He received several dirty looks but he ignored them, looking away, his tails flicking behind him.

"Not the Heartless, huh," Sora said crossing his arms.

"Who else could it be?" Donald asked.

"Say, I have an idea," Jack said. The entire group turned and looked at him. "The thief must like Christmas presents. So, we place irresistible gifts about to draw him into a trap."

"And this miscreant is the same one who stole my experiment?" the doctor asked. X shrugged.

"That's right," Jack said.

"How will we know for sure?" Sora asked.

"Well, now, that's easy! We'll scare a confession right out of him!" Jack said proudly. X wasn't sure that would work, but whatever they wanted to believe.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said.

"What do you say we go with Jack's plan just for now?" Sora asked. The group all nodded. They really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"Let's get to Sandy's house posthaste! We've got to make some Christmas presents, quickly!" Jack ordered.

They returned to Christmas town once again, finding their way to where Santa was easily.

"Have you found the presents yet?" Santa asked.

"Almost, Mr. Claws!" Jack said.

"We're going to reel in the thief with Christmas presents as bait," Sora explained.

"Would you mind if we used your factory to create a few presents?" Jack asked. X frowned seeing the expression that crossed Santa's face. 

"Presents as bait? Goodness, I don't like the sound of that," Santa said. Jack nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Just this once, I suppose. It's for a good cause. All right, use the second floor. And put some heart in it."

The group nodded before going up to the second floor to make the presents. It only took a few moments to make the presents they needed.

"All done!" Donald said.

"Not quite," Jack said. X's ears twitched as he glanced toward Jack.

"There's more?" Goofy asked.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest," Jack said. Sora nodded slowly, leading the group out of the factory back to the workshop.

"Did you finish making the presents?" Santa asked when he caught sight of them.

"Yup, just waiting for Jack," Sora confirmed, crossing his arms behind his head.

"So, uh, where do you think we oughta leave them?" Goofy asked.

"Oh, I know a good spot. Whenever you're ready just say the word," Santa said calmly. Soon after Jack rejoined them.

"I'm back!"

"Now then, are you all set?" Santa asked.

"Yes. Let's go!" Soar said excitedly.

Santa led them to a plaza that was open enough for them to lay their trap.

"This plaza should work well for your plan. Now, Jack, what is your plan?" Santa asked turning to look at the tall skeleton.

"I've got it all figured out," Jack said confidently. X frowned crossing his arms. He had a bad feeling about this.

"You do," Santa said nervously.

"Of course! And I also have a wonderful idea. If we catch the thief for you, I would be honored to deliver the--"

Jack was cut off by Sora jumping up and covering his mouth. X snickered as Sora held the skeleton down at his height. X could only guess this was a normal occurrence.

"And on that note, we'll be going," Sora said, dragging Jack along with him.

"What are you doing? Let me go!" Jack objected. His fight didn't last long. And soon they were in place for the plan. And X was certainly not impressed.

"Stop kicking!" Donald complained, moving around in the confined space.

"It's not me, Donald," Goofy said apologetically.

"Get off my tail!" X hissed. He wasn't sure who was standing on his tail, but it hurt.

"Patience, friends," Jack said.

"Shh!" Sora hushed, trying to get them to keep their cover.

"I said cut it out!" Donald snapped ignoring Sora.

"And I said get off my tail!" X snapped. He hissed feeling the weight shift from one tail onto the other. "Ow! That's my other tail!"

"Gawrsh, was that you?" Goofy asked.

"How come we have to be the bait?" Sora complained.

"Good plan, eh?" Jack asked.

"No," X said. He hissed again, scratching whoever was on his tail.

"Ouch!" Donald said.

They fell silent feeling the vibrations of something walking. X held his breath waiting for the signal. It came soon enough and they popped out of the box, finding themselves face to face with the culprit.

A robot.

"Huh? Doctor Finkelstein's experiment did it!" Jack said in shock.

They jumped out of the box and were thrown into a battle. Fighting the experiment was easy enough. It was big, hulking, and in general, slow to move. Though it did have a few tricks, they managed to beat it down.

"We did it! The mystery is solved!" Jack said proudly. X nodded from where he had perched himself on top of the fallen robot. The soft ringing of bells filled the air with each flick of his tails. He looked up as Santa arrived in a sleigh.

"Did you catch the thief?" Santa asked.

"Naturally!" Jack said.

"I just can't figure out why the doctor's experiment would go around stealing Christmas presents," Sora said, crossing his arms as he looked at the experiment. 

"His experiment?" Santa asked.

"The thief! It was a moving puppet made by Doctor Finkelstein," Jack explained.

"Hmm, the doctor's made a moving puppet?" Santa said. He nodded to himself after a moment. "I see. He is always tinkering with things. Now listen, Jack. I'd like to thank you, and while delivering presents is something only I can do, I can give you an idea of what it's like."

Jack jumped for joy at Santa's change in topic.

"Sandy Claws!" he said as he jumped into the sleigh and took off.

"Yes, all that poor puppet wanted was a heart," Santa said. X felt a familiar twinge in his heart, reminded of, something.

"Right, like they all do," he agreed.

They returned to Halloween town to report to the people there what had happened. After explaining the situation to the doctor, X wasn't surprised when he didn't seem the least bit shocked.

"Interesting! So the puppet wasn't stolen after all! It ran away on its own! In other words, my experiment was an overwhelming success!" he said, spinning his wheelchair around.

"Santa Claus thinks maybe it left because it was trying to find a heart," Sora remarked. Donald nodded in agreement.

"That's quite possible. Unlike my Sally, it wasn't equipped with a heart," the doctor said. He turned again and rode off, not bother ing to explain himself. X frowned glancing at Sally who stood with them.

"But if it wanted a heart, why was it going around stealing all those Christmas presents?" Sora asked.

"Maybe because presents are a way to give your heart to someone special," Sally offered. X nodded in agreement. That was probably why the Heartless had interest in the presents as well.

"Hmm. When you put it that way, I feel sorta bad for it," Sora said crossing his arms.

Jack suddenly dropped from the sky, landing beside them. X glanced up to see Santa and his sleigh above him. 

"Happy Halloween!" Santa called as it began to snow. X chuckled to himself catching a few snowflakes on his claws. He missed the snow. It was always filled with good memories. And now it had even more meanings to him.

"What a nice present," Sally said looking up at the sky.

"I don't understand. There's no box! No ribbon tied in a bow!" Jack said in confusion as he caught snowflakes.

"Jack, it's not about the box or the ribbons. It's about what's inside the box!" Sora said. X sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"No, Sora. What really counts-- what's really special-- is the act of giving the gift. To wish deep in your heart to make someone else happy," Sally said. Sora looked at her a moment before nodding, clearly becoming lost in thought as he looked up at the sky.

"Right, of course! Thank you, Sally, you're absolutely right. Wait! What's this? I feel so strange; so very happy!" Jack said.

"Jack, that must be Sally's present!" Goofy said.

"Really? This wonderful feeling?" Jack asked. He took Sally's hand, smiling as much as a skeleton could. "Oh, Sally! You've given me the nicest present in the world! And I've nothing to give you in return. What would you like? Just name it. Absolutely anything."

"This nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you," Sally said. X rolled his eyes and looked away smirking.

"You don't even have to ask for that."

"Maybe I never gave her a real present after all," Sora said. X frowned turning to look at him.

"Who?" Donald asked.

"Aw, I bet Kairi would like most anything you gave her," Sora said with a chuckle. His eyes seemed glazed over as he thought of the red-haired princess of heart.

"I know. That's what made it so hard to decide," he said.

"It's not the gift, it's what's in your heart!" Donald said.

"My heart," Sora echoed.

"You bet, Kairi's like Sally!" Donald said.

"How?" Sora asked.

"Well, as long as she can be with you, what else does she need?" Goofy asked. X nodded slowly. He had never been one to understand love. But he guessed, that was all they ever needed.