Full Summary: Have 5 Guardians, their sworn enemy, and an unbelieving girl, all trapped inside the depths of Pitch's lair, with seemingly no way for them to escape. What do you get? Chaos.
It seems that Man on the Moon, trapped the immortal spirits within the realm of the Nightmare King's lair, in order for them to "cope" and "bond" with each other. There is only one way for the Guardians and Pitch to escape…and that is for them to work together to make the unbelieving girl believe in all of them once more.
But how can they accomplish that? They all hate each other's guts, are sworn enemies, and this girl seems to have no wonder, hope, or joy in her at all that would be able to make her believe in them. Looks like things will get crazy for them, if they somehow don't find a way out and somehow not murder each other, being stuck together underground and all…
~Chapter One~
North was at his wit's end.
Everything was turning to chaos at his workshop. He would be fine with all the trouble - that is if all of this ruckus and nonsense was not happening two weeks time before Christmas.
The elves and Yetis seemed to be on edge lately, North noticed. Much more paranoid, flighty, and jumpy. Sure, he would expect the Elves to be easily unnerved by something amiss, but the Yetis - now there was something wrong here. If North so much yelled at the yetis to hurry up they would jump out of their skins, scared out of their minds. As for the elves, acting beyond their idiotic quirks, they were instead hoarding ribbons, cookies, small trinkets - and stuff them away somewhere in the workshop, huddled away in groups. Worst of all, the Yetis no longer have the spirit to create toys. Minds overtaken by an underlying nervousness, their handiwork displays their shaky hand. Elves only mutter to each other in their own unintelligible elvish language.
All of this strange activity was making North nervous himself. Even from his fellow Guardians, the Tooth Fairy and Bunny, say that there is something wrong with their magical workers around their jobs. North pondered why all of these events are transpiring. But nevermind that - his workers need to pull it together, for the sake of Christmas!
"Barlax, put your back into it!" He hollers at a Yeti making toy airplanes. The Yeti yelps, crazily trying to nail in the wings to an unfinished airplane. This only succeeds in denting said airplane. North flashing a glare of disbelief, the Yeti fumbles for a new set for the wrecked toy.
"Gnarly, I expect for you to paint those dolls' dresses YELLOW!" Norths screeches at a Yeti hunched over painting Raggedy-Ann dolls. The Yeti, Gnarly, whimpers, shakingly reaching for a jar of yellow paint.
"Jojo, have you monitored the Naughty and Nice lately?! Morky, why aren't you at the toy vehicle station helping out Tortor?! AND WHERE ARE MY COOKIES?!" North shouts the last part, tugging at his beard. He sighs heavily, witnessing panic steadily rising in the already tense atmosphere within his Workshop. He didn't understand! Christmas was just around the corner, the time where all of his workers were at their highest spirits! What in the world was wrong with them?
"AAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Screams of Yetis suddenly ring out through the toy workshop stations.
North's head snaps up. "What? What is that?" He grabs a dagger from the wall, sure to always keep close in times of danger. He runs to the main room where the Workshop's Golden Glove is and dagger ready in hand, he slams open the doors. Instantly what he sees before his very eyes almost caused his weapon to fall out of his hands.
Whirls of black dust - the all too familiar Nightmare Sand - swirls around the golden globe in the center of the huge room. Yetis run around in panic from attacking Night Mares. A violent current of Yetis crashing past North, this leaves only him and the darkness in the Glove Center. "What in the world…?!" Wasting no time to gape anymore, he bounces into action, running towards the globe. Charging at a Night Mare, his blade slices smoothly through their slick body. From the one-hit kill, the Night Mare dissipates into no more than mere sand. Left and right, he slices them one by one. In his mind, the Guardian is starstruck to see the essence of the Night Mares seeping into the cracks of the globe.
They don't seem to be paying attention to North - afterall, he is by himself at this point, most of the Yetis evacuated from the room. The Russian glances around wildly. If the Night Mares are here, that can only mean one thing - Pitch Black. "Where are you?!" North booms out, waving his sword about. "You whap-looshing scum bag, show yourself!"
"BUT HE IS NOT HERE, NICHALOS NORTH," A chorus of a hundred whispery, hissery, snake like voices all speak at once.
North gasps, stumbling backwards, his guard still up.
The voices laugh. "SURPRISE, SURPRISE. YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING TO SEE US NORTH, WERE YOU? OF COURSE NOT. HEHE. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE WE'VE LAST MET - SEVEN MONTHS, EH?"
"H-how are you out? You sealed yourselves away with Pitch, in lair!" North exclaims. "Most of all...how can you talk?!"
The Night Mares laugh all together, in horrible harmony, their laughter like grating metal against North's ears. "HOW WE HAVE EVOLVED NORTH, HOW WE HAVE EVOLVED. THROUGH THESE SEVEN MONTHS, WE HAVE BEEN - ENLIGHTENED, SO TO SAY. DEVELOPED. EVOLVED. WE NOW SERVE A NEW MASTER."
"And who is this new master of yours?" North asks with narrow eyes.
"NOT TELLING, NOT TELLING, NO FUN AT ALL!" They all giggle.
Crack! North hears from the globe. He backs away. "What do you want with the globe?!"
"SOMETHING SPECIAL NORTH." The globe, with another loud crack, breaks apart from the force of the Night Mares. It breaks in half, both halves crashing on either side of whatever is surrounding them, destroying half of the room. "FOUND IT! FOUNDITFOUNDITFOUNDIT!" They cackle hysterically. North could not help but stare at the swirling mass of Night Mares. They were already a threat from before...but now, they have reached a whole new dark level that North fears that these things are capable of.
Squinting, North sees a faint blue glow in the center of the huge mass of Night Mares. "No! You weren't even supposed to know - !"
"IN TIME, IN TIME...YOU'LL FIND OUT...WE ARE PLANNING SOMETHING. SOMETHING BIG. STOP US NORTH, STOP US WITH YOU AND THE GUARDIANS! IT WON'T BE ANY TROUBLE FOR ALL OF YOU, RIGHT? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" They all continue to laugh at what can be defined as madness, and they crash out of the circular window in the ceiling. Rubble falls to the ground, North jumping to the side to avoid the falling debris.
Smoke clouds the air, North temporarily blinded of sight. He coughs, waving the dust from his face, stumbling to his feet. Grimacing at the damage of the Globe Center, he closes his eyes, rubbing his sweaty forehead. He then looks up to the full moon, almost covered by dark, stormy looking clouds. Muttering a quick prayer to himself in Russian, North whispers lastly in English, "Manny, help us all."
Whatever the Night Mares are planning is far worse - far worse than the fact that Christmas might not happen for this year. And North knows what must be done.
Agoraphobia- abnormal fear of being helpless in an embarrassing or unescapable situation that is characterized especially by the avoidance of open or public places. A young girl reads with a bored expression from a huge blue textbook practically taking up all of her lap. A sigh escapes her, as she closes the heavy book and shoves it to the side, looks out the window. The scenery of trees, a.k.a, no civilization in sight, melts and blurs all together into an unintelligible blob, as the car that the girl resides in rushes past by.
How about the phobia of moving to a new place? That'd be helpful to know the name of. She thinks, biting her tongue. Once adjusting her dark blue headband to hide behind her ears, she neatly tucks away her fiery red hair. "Do we seriously truly need to move to a new place?" The girl moans, falling melodramatically on the window. She tightens the seatbelt around her. She always does. To make sure. Extra sure.
"Yes, yes indeed." Her father answers.
"Why?"
"For the sake of...a change of scenery."
"Why?"
"Because it'd be best for all of us."
"Why?"
"Because it'd be nice to move out of the huge cramped city."
"Why?"
"To get away from air and noise pollution."
Amara sits up again, frowning at her father. He always seemed to have a answer for everything. Then again, most of his answers weren't very much satisfying. "I didn't want to move, you know." She says out loud, looking out the window once again. She hears her mother heave a soft sigh the front, but the young girl ignores this. "Cuz I happened to like New York. Even if it was full of air pollution and garbage."
"We know." Her father answers, sounding weary. "We know Amara, we know. But it this is what needed to be done. For all of us."
Amara bangs a fists against the window. "Yeah. That's your excuse for everything." Silence takes up the car between all three of them. Accustomed to such tension, an old, worn faint blue sign that reads, Welcome to Bugress, Pennsylvania! Hope you stay long folks! comes into view outside of the car window. Amara rolls her eyes. How phony. Phony, phony, phony. She draws her knees to her chest, letting the car rock her back and forth. I hate change. Can you believe this, May? We're moving out to the middle of nowhere in dumb bunny Pennsylvania. Her scowl only deepens when seeing a ridiculous cartoon balloon version of Santa flopping back and forth in front of a supermarket.
"Stupid." She mutters to the Santa figure, as they drive past. Figuring that there are more stupid Christmas decorations to come, Amara puts her hood over her eyes to block out the world.
A/N: YES! I finally got to the rewrite! Yeah, things are darker in this version, ain't it? Well, I feel so glad I finally got re-writing this. Leave your thoughts in the reviews, and I will see you in the next chapter!