"I can't move..." Shade muttered from the ground where he had landed after they had hit virtually every tree limb from their original height to the ground. "I hurt too much..." he moaned loudly. Next to him Kaitlin stood up wobbling slightly and shaking her hair to get the twigs and grass out of it. She brushed herself off.
"Oh knock it off you big baby." Kaitlin retorted irritably. "I got you down didn't I?"
"No, Gravity got us down, you simply took out the support." Shade replied. He turned his head as Hally picked herself up off the ground.
"I really miss being dead." Hally sighed. She offered Shade her hand and helped the once ghostly boy to his feet. "If we ever fix this I'm going to get the witches to give you landing lessons." she added with a glance in Kaitlin's direction.
"You're both overreacting, it wasn't so bad." Kaitlin replied with an innocent shrug.
"Yes it was." Shade and Hally said together. Kaitlin flashed them an apologetic grin. She dismissed her broom which went soaring happily back into the sky.
"So now that we rescued us, you at least owe it to us to fix Halloween Town." Hally said tartly. "I mean we aren't even dead anymore and we risked facing the one man with magic from all seven holiday worlds and three evil henchmen. Admit it Kaitlin, you owe us."
"I don't deny it." Kaitlin replied. "I owe you a lot, but may I point out that it was your fault that I got captured to begin with. Who was it who has been literally stalking me all day?" she asked folding her arms disapprovingly.
"Kaitlin... please..." Hally begged. Kaitlin's face softened and she let out a sigh. Hally knew she had worn her witch friend down.
"I'll do it." Kaitlin agreed. "But on one condition."
"Anything! You just name it!" Hally said excitedly her human heart was racing in excitement. This was going to be over! She would be dead again!
"We tell no one who we do not have to about my aiding you. And under no circumstances can I be held responsible for anything that goes awry. Also, no way, no matter what happens, can you tell my mom I'm doing this." Kaitlin said sternly. "If she knew I was using my powers for something like this she would kill me!"
"Deal!" Hally agreed. She would have agreed to letting Kaitlin be the heir to the Halloween throne if it would have turned her human again.
"Well then, let's get back to dad's lab." Shade said with a nod. "He should know we've finally found the battery to spark the invention."
*
"Dad it isn't funny." Shade said folding his arms and leaning up against the cold metallic walls of the lab. Doctor Finkelstien sat in his wheelchair at the desk and Jewel Finkelstien, his wife, stood next to it. Jewel had her black gloved hand over her mouth and was chuckling slightly. The doctor was not even trying to hold back laughter as he laid his head down upon his arms on the table, his shoulders rose and fell rapidly with his laughing.
"Oh well we tried." Kaitlin said turning to go. Hally the back of her skull shirt and pulled her back inside the lab. "Can't blame a girl for trying." Kaitlin said with a shrug. She sighed realizing that no matter how much she tried Hally and Shade were not letting her go. Doctor Finkelstien's laughing subsided and he sat back up in his chair. He ran a hand through his jet black gray streaked hair and took off his goggles wiping his bright green eyes where tears had spilled.
"I'm sorry Nightshade," Jewel said brushing a piece of light blonde hair that had fallen out of her bun out of her bright blue eyes. "But what you said does sound rather strange. Kaitlin has never shown any sign of magic, especially not chaos magic."
"They have a point Doctor," Jack Skellington said sternly. "Kaitlin is the daughter of the only chaos witch to ever reside in Halloween Town. You remember her mother Karen, you taught her in high school, she was pretty powerful."
"Karen, yes one of the most promising students I ever taught. It was a shame that she had to throw it all away by marrying a mortal." Doctor Finkelstien said suddenly quite attentive to what was happening around him.
"You know that mortal that everyone keeps referring to, he has a name! And he is my father so I would appreciate it if everyone would stop acting like mortals are a step down because you know... I'm half mortal... and all of my friends are mortal... and right now... you guys are all mortal so um... yeah you get it." Kaitlin stammered.
"Well if you think your able to use that amount of energy. I mean Kaitlin you'll need enough magic to restart the magical plane and rectify all seven Holiday Worlds." Doctor Finkelstien explained, all traces of laughter gone from his voice.
"WHAT!?" Kaitlin cried her bright sapphire eyes widening behind the thick lenses in her glasses. "You said it would only be Halloween Town you promised it would be no bigger!" she shouted glaring at Hally. Hally grinned innocently.
"It's only seven Holiday Worlds, you'll be fine." Hally assured her. Kaitlin didn't look so sure, in fact she seemed about ready to give up. "Come on Kaitlin, I know you can do this." Hally said calmly. "We're counting on you."
"But no pressure." Shade added sarcastically. Hally whipped around glaring angrily at one of her two best friends.
"You are not helping her Shade!" Hally snapped irritably.
"Neither are you!" Shade retorted. "Don't tell her we're counting on her, she'll just get more nervous. Are you trying to make her mess up?"
"At least I'm trying to build up her confidence unlike you. All you did was insult her power and her flying skills!" Hally snapped.
"No Hally, those flying skills insulted themselves. I needed to do nothing." Shade replied.
"Can both of you just stop? I need to concentrate." Kaitlin said softly. Hally and Shade turned around just in time to see her eyes turn orange and her hair to fly back as it had done before. There was a brief moment where the machine glowed bright orange and the light died down.
"We need to test it." Jewel said thoughtfully. As if volunteering Zero let out a loud bark from his seat at Jack's feet. There was a slight pause before Jack picked up the small dog and placed him on the platform in front of the invention.
"Ready?" the doctor asked. Zero barked again. The Doctor and Jewel flipped several switches, and began warming up the gun like invention. Once again it began to glow the orange color of Kaitlin's chaotic magic and in a bright flash Zero had turned from a small white dog to the floating ghostly dog with the pumpkin nose.
"It worked!" Everyone cried together. Kaitlin was the only one who sounded more surprised than pleased and did not participate in the celebration.
"Wait..." she said loud enough to be heard over the yelling. "This isn't a solution you know. It's only temporary. You'll have to get the real magic from Oogie. And also, my terns still apply: No one outside of this room knows what happened." Kaitlin said solemnly.
"Whatever you say Kaitlin." Hally said excitedly. "Let's fix this!" Jack nodded to the doctor who changed the settings and flipped on the invention. There was a bright flash of orange and...
*
Two days later Hally was walking Negative along the path leading to the curly hill humming happily to herself still in a state of elation about having her powers back. She looked up seeing the three mortal girl's looking at something with rather concerned looks on their faces. "Zoë! Page! Kaitlin!" Hally called waving to them as the spectral dog soared happily through the sky.
"Hey Hally." the three mortals said together. Despite the lifted mood of the rest of the town it seemed the mortal girls were quite upset by something.
"Is something wrong?" Hally asked at last seeing that the three girls were not planning on showing her unless she forced them to.
"Zoë, Page I think I should do this." Kaitlin said nodding to her two companions. Zoë and Page nodded looking rather relieved.
"Good for a second I thought she was going to make us tell her!" Page said with a nervous giggle. Hally frowned.
"Tell me what?" she asked.
"Nothing!" Page yelped running off before Hally could ask any further questions.
"Hey Hally? How close is your dad to beating Oogie?" Kaitlin asked suddenly.
"We're still working on a way to disable his powers... why?" that did not sound good. Hally realized that this conversation was not to end pleasantly.
"You remember when I said there was a high potential something might go wrong?" Kaitlin asked softly. Hally nodded. "Yeah? Well... it did."
