Pitch's POV:
I paced back and forth, watching Ruby. The stupid girl thought she could take on the world. She denied her fears and claimed that she was better than them. That fears were nothing but imagination. Well, I took care of that.
I glanced up at the Moon. The stupid globe of dirt and dust that created the Guardians. I was very, very ready to take care of them as well. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easily said as done. The Moon just kept on sprouting up Guardians left and right…particularly irritating ones at that. So I had formulated a brilliant plan to get rid of them, one that required all of them in one place. Which involved getting their attention.
That was where the annoying human girl came in.
Out of all of the believers in the world, this one had just happened to receive a decent amount of attention from me. She believed in the Guardians immensely and had a habit of convincing younger children that I was nonexistent and teaching them that there was nothing to be afraid of. That had gotten on my nerves. I had to admit she was a cute girl. I mean I've lived under her bed for a while. Not to mention her curves that I just happened to notice. But either way, my life would be better off without a believer or two.
Well, it's too bad that her light had to 'go out', or so to speak. Along with her friend's. I smiled a little as I thought of the way she died. I killed her in her own garden while she was trapped to a weeping willow tree, the tree that she had come to think of as her 'happy' place. But the pathetic child died there and nobody, not one person heard her screams of agony as she was begging for death. Begging and crying for it to end. Then I killed her.
That was how it was supposed to happen.
I did everything that I was planning on doing. I wanted to have fun with it. I had been wanting to rip apart some other specific child for a while and I wanted to satisfy myself until I had the chance to do so. I tortured her until she was beaten bloody and broken.
But she didn't weep, she didn't cry out in pain. She didn't beg for death. She looked at me straight in the face. Deep down into my black soul and said, "I'm glad I'm going to die in the place I love most." I killed her then in cold blood. I killed her by slitting her throat. No agony, no pained screams, just silence. And like that she was gone.
I had killed another one of them out of my frustration. Another random, annoying believer who just happened to be the girl's friend. I just knocked her off the roof and she died instantly. That one had been just as irking.
Either way, murdering annoying believers turned out to be a successful way to get the Guardians' attention. North had sent out the Northern Lights to summon all of the freaks together. They were probably all panicking at the fact that their little believers were perishing. Maybe I should get rid of a couple more. I had a certain few in mind that would generate a satisfying reaction. I smiled at the thought.
Two lovely girls, fourteen years of age. What a waste.
Jack's POV:
"Pitch is at it again, I guess. That's the only logical explanation for this." North stated, crossing his arms and frowning up at the globe of flickering lights. Earlier, North had revealed to them that the lights had been acting strange lately, and that earlier today two lights disappeared at exactly the same time. They hadn't just gone out. They had vanished entirely.
Tooth had also reported that she had caught the last memories of two girls in a span of seconds. One was named Violet and the other was Ruby. They were fourteen years old. They both died at the hands of Pitch.
Tooth's eyes were haunted as she explained to them what she saw, and even though the description was extremely vague, I could feel my anger growing. Girls. Innocent girls. They were so young that they didn't even get to experience life.
I didn't think that he went around murdering random people just because he felt like it, but at the same time, maybe he did. But he didn't do things without having a reason. I growled under my breath, I could practically hear him laughing at us and our confusion. I couldn't wait to get my hands on him.
North and Bunnymund were arguing about who was the fastest, again, and Tooth was calling her fairies to collect the teeth. Everyone was distracted. Except Sandy.
Sandy was waving his hands in the air and pointing to the sky. I looked up to see the moon over our heads, his rays casting light down upon the Guardian symbol in the floor.
I watched in awe as a huge crystal came up out of the ground. Faces flickered on the projections. A girl's face popped up, she was wearing a moon pendant necklace and a jean jacket. A second female face appeared, her hair was tied back in a side ponytail and she had a guitar swung over her shoulder.
I didn't know what to make of this, and I looked to Sandy for help but he was gazing at the screen in distress. I was still pretty new at this whole Guardian thing, so I tried to call the experts.
"Guys!" I called, but no one was listening. As usual. I rolled my eyes and created three snowballs and threw them straight in their faces. Their shocked expressions were priceless, and I smirked.
"Okay, now that you've shut the hell up," I glared at North and Bunny. They argued seemingly twenty-four seven, "What does this crystal thingy mean?"
They all peered past me, and their eyes widened when they saw the glowing blue crystal.
"Oh no, not another one." Bunnymund face palmed, "We just got you last year!"
North chuckled.
"Well Bunny, I'm sorry to say but we have two new Guardians, not one."
"Technically three…" Bunny muttered, and I glared at him. He always was a jerk whenever I got snow in his face. North ignored him and tapped his fingers on his chin.
"Now, I wonder what's so bad that we need two new Guardians…"
"Isn't it obvious, North?" I heard a sickeningly sweet behind me and I spun around, but there was nothing but shadows. Dark laughter filled the air and echoed throughout the room, and I tightened the grip on my staff. Tooth's eyes widened, and North, Sandy, and Bunny looked as angry as I felt. Especially Bunny.
"Pitch! Go back to the hole you came from!" He shouted, fury etched into his features. The laughter only grew louder.
"Well, that isn't exactly the warm welcome I was expecting, but I guess with you people, nothing is to be expected." Pitch sighed. The room was steadily growing darker, and I stepped back. Shadows were slinking across the floor and swirled around my feet, and I glared at them in disgust.
"I just thought you would like to know that I have returned, and I am much, much stronger than before." He continued, and banged the end of my staff on the ground and froze all the shadows slinking across the tiles, stopping them from crawling up my legs.
"Not to mention," The voice suddenly grew louder, "Jacky boy here can't stop me anymore."
I turned around and looked up, finally able to pinpoint the source of the voice, which was ten feet above us. I glared at the man I dread, the one man I hate. Pitch Black. He was sneering down at all of us with contempt.
"This is a warning, Guardians. I will succeed. And you all, will, die." Pitch glared at each of them, and with the last word he narrowed his eyes at me. He was trying to scare us. But it wouldn't work. I scowled at him, but he had already moved on.
"I assume you all know about the lights that went out. I knew that there had to be a better way to get rid of children who believed, and this way was much more entertaining." The madman said with a smirk, "Transforming someone's darkest fears into reality, and the blood…I do believe that was the best part."
I glanced back at the other Guardians, and they looked as if they were ready to tear his head off.
"Now wouldn't it just be heartbreaking, if something like that happened to those children you adore, Jamie and Sophie..." I felt my heart drop to my stomach at those words, they were like a knife to the chest.
"What do you think, Jack? I'm sure you would enjoy that."
I couldn't hold in my rage any longer, Jamie and Sophie were the only two people I could consider family. I couldn't let them get hurt. I couldn't stand to think about it. I yelled in frustration and flew up and came down on Pitch with my staff, but instead of hitting him and freezing him into a billion tiny pieces, I turned an unsuspecting yeti into a block of ice.
I landed on the platform and spun around, fury still coursing through my veins, I wanted, needed, to stop him. But he had dissipated into the shadows.
The terrible laughter came again.
"Hold your temper Jacky, the fun has just begun!" He hissed, and then light filled the room again.
Pitch was gone.
I flew back towards the other Guardians on the main floor, and Sandy smiled reassuringly as Tooth spoke.
"Relax, Jack, he's just toying with us. Right now, we need to find those two girls and get them back here safely. Then we can protect Jamie."
I nodded slowly...she was right...but I was still worked up. What if...?
North interrupted my thoughts.
"I'll get the burlap sack!" He cried cheerfully, heading towards the door.
Violet's POV:
Not once in my life had I imagined myself living in a tree.
Then again...I had never thought that I would be invisible, or that my best friend would have nature powers, or that I would have electricity powers.
Yeah...my life was weird.
After Ruby had found me, she had taken me to the meadow and showed me her newfound talents. Later, I had found out that I had the ability to control orbs of light and electricity.
I may or may not have set a tree on fire (or multiple trees) but I hadn't hurt anyone, and it hadn't been my fault. Ruby had made it tickle me.
Now we had been living in a cave like structure crafted of bent trees for about a week...and I had to admit it was nice. We slept in hammocks, which I had always thought was the funnest thing ever when I was a little kid, and it was still fun.
Today had been a regular day, or as regular as it could get, but I had wanted to go into town to see if anyone could see me. Ruby hasn't seemed to be very troubled by the fact that we're unseen, but she knew it was bothering me so she agreed to go.
Maybe we should have stayed in the meadow...
We were dressed as regular teenagers, so if anyone did see us, we would probably blend in.
I smiled as we sat down on a statue in the center of town. Ruby started to play a song and a few spring lilies popped out of the ground. I laughed as she scowled at the dancing flowers.
"They weren't supposed to dance..." She complained, and I laughed again.
"Hello girls." I heard a deep velvety voice coming from behind me and spun around. I looked up into the eyes of a boy, maybe fifteen years of age, with frosty white hair and icy eyes colored the blues of a frozen lake.
Ruby jumped off the statue and stomped over towards him.
"Who are you?" She hissed, her voice low and menacing as she pointed an accusatory finger at his chest. I couldn't help but laugh, she had never really liked strange men, not after her boyfriend Paul, who had been rude and treated women like scum.
His face went still for a moment, and then he blew on his fingers whistling.
A huge, six foot tall rabbit popped up out of the ground next to him and towered over Ruby. I stopped laughing.
"Oh good, you found'um. Ladies, you're gonna have to come with us."
"Hell no!" I heard my best friend shout as she took off on her vines. I gulped and jumped off the statue, creating a hover board with my finger tips and sped back towards the meadow, following Ruby.
Ruby's POV:
After the six foot kangaroo popped out of the ground I knew it was over. These guys were determined, and if I knew one thing, it was not to trust men because they always screw you in the end.
I had to get away from them. I called on the vines with my guitar and used them to swing back home. The wind whipped my face as I thought about how badly I needed to get away. Fear consumed every part of my body, an emotion I had become closely associated with recently.
I had been having some really, really bad dreams. Dreams that almost felt real. Then had been right terrors about a man dressed in black robes, a man who had been torturing me. I had been beaten until I whimpered in pain, but I had held my tongue. After it was all over, I felt myself slip away and speak the last words I could muster.
At least I can die in the place I love most.
I shook my head, trying to focus on the task at hand. I looked around and saw that the boy wearing blue was flying behind me, which caused me to move faster. But he quickly caught up and tried to grab me mid-swing, and I plucked a single string on my guitar. I watched as a tree branch swung itself like a baseball bat and smashed the boy, sending him towards the ground. But just as he fell he soon recovered, flying after me again.
I dodged through the trees trying to lose him but he wouldn't give up. I watched as he grabbed his stick, and a frozen beam spiraled out of it like a bullet. I fell to the ground in a heap as he froze all my vines. I grit my teeth as my cheek scraped against the dirt, but I forced myself to jump back up to my feet. I couldn't let him win, I had to get back to Violet. She was my only family now.
I took off in a sprint and finally reached the meadow. Violet had made it back. I could see her waiting for me anxiously, but I needed to hold them off. I turned around and quickly played a song on my guitar. It was the first tune I thought of, one that I used to sing to my baby sister when she started to cry. A huge hedge emerged from the ground, blocking the rabbit and the frozen boy from getting to us. I smirked with satisfaction.
But I was wrong to think that it would work forever.
The blue hoodie kid froze it and broke it like a twig would under a boot. That really irked me. Couldn't they just leave us alone?
"You're insane!" I hissed as I called on the trees, standing in a defensive position.
"Well, I'm not the mentally unstable one!" he replied, and I growled, strumming the first note, the note of war. I threw my guitar over my shoulder, even though it was my life line, I knew that I wouldn't need it after that. I motioned for the vines and they willingly obeyed.
"This is going to be fun," I smirked.
I took my first vine and sent it flying towards the rabbit and the frost boy, who dodged out of the way. The boy send a couple ice shards flying at me, and I jumped out of the way just as the biggest shard nicked my shoulder.
"Oh, it's on," I growled and launched myself at the blue boy, whose eyes widened. Vines wrapped around his body separating his stick away from him.
"That should hold him," I though, smirking.
I heard the kangaroo move in the background, and I moved just in time to catch the boomerang he threw at my head. I snickered and sent it back in his direction, hitting him in the temple and knocking him out cold.
There was a loud swoosh and I looked up in the air and saw a girl with…feathers? Weird. I quickly twirled my finger making a vine of poison ivy sprout out of the ground and wrap around her, along with this little butterfly looking thing next to her.
"Hey!" I heard a shout from the tree line and spun around in shock.
"Violet," I whispered, glancing over in her direction. She had an angular sword held to her throat. And the man holding it there was none other than Santa Claus himself.
Was there any way this situation could get more bizarre?
"You both hold new naughty list record," he laughed, but I wasn't amused, "Now be good girl and drop the guitar and back away, and no one gets hurt."
I reluctantly placed my guitar on the ground gently and watched as it released my captives. The frost boy nodded at me in thanks but the feather chick, I could see the gears in her mind turning. What was she thinking?
"Now step away from guitar," the burly beard dude instructed, and I looked at Violet and she shook her head signaling a no. But just as I took my first step back the feather chick flew down, grabbed my guitar and smashed it.
Violet's POV:
I watched in shock as the feathered woman smashed my best friend's guitar into a dozen pieces. I stood helplessly as Ruby fell to her knees, screaming in agony. I felt rage bubble in the pit of my stomach as her screams died down to sobs of pain. I broke free of the Russian Mafia leader styled Santa Claus and ran over to the smug bird woman. I grabbed her throat and looked into her eyes, they were the most terrifying feature, black and soulless. I threw her on the ground and picked up Ruby, who whimpered in pain. I quickly lifted her over my shoulder and walked away into the woods. I knew that they wouldn't follow me, not after what they did.
Little did I know, they had a friend who had shown up late.
I gasped as a rope of fine gold sand wrapped around my torso and Ruby's legs. I gawked at the short gold man stood who was tapping his foot in front of us rolled his eyes. He touched Ruby's forehead gently with his fingers and the lines of pain etched across her forehead diminished. I heard a crashing through the woods behind me, and I could tell by the huffing and puffing that it was probably tubby. I wasn't sure whether or not to try and escape from the lasso of golden sand, the yellow man had helped Ruby…
"Oh good Sandy, you got our new Guardians. Let's go, we need to fix this young lady," The bearded man instructed, pointing to Ruby, who yawned. My eyes widened. I wasn't allowing them to take us anywhere.
"How 'bout no?!" I interjected, and received surprised eyebrow raises from the four men. The feathered girl was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't trust them. She had hurt Ruby. I started tugging on the sand around my torso, and then the boy in the blue sweatshirt stepped closer to me. I glared at him and kicked him in the shin.
"Hey! Ow!" He yelled, and I tried to kick him again but he had backed up out of my reach. I scowled at him.
"Let us go or else I'll rip you apart, and she'll do the same," I threatened, but he seemed unfazed.
"We're not here to hurt you," He said, but I didn't believe him. They had hurt my best friend, "You just need to come with us, okay?"
"We're not going anywhere with any of you," I growled.
"This is in your best interest, trust me," He sighed, and then the bearded man picked up Ruby.
"Put her down!" I yelled, but they wouldn't listen. Everyone frowned at me, like there was something I didn't understand.
"Here, you carry her," the bearded man said and passed her limp body to the rabbit man, whose eyes widened.
"Carry who?!" The rabbit hissed, but Ruby was placed in his arms despite his protest. I wasn't happy about any of this, but I especially wasn't excited about him holding her bridal style. I could see a shocked fondness growing and I didn't want it to get stronger.
"Okay, we all set now?" Tubby asked, and they all nodded.
"I told you, we're not going anywhere with you! Put her down!" I declared, but I was ignored. I watched in awe as the bearded man threw down a snow globe opening a portal to what looked like a…hospital wing?
Sandy put me down, and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't leave Ruby and I couldn't fight all of them and get to her. Besides, I knew a hospital wouldn't be the worst thing for her right now. They all eyed me wearily as Sandy escorted me through first, because I was "dangerous". The white haired boy was giving me a strange look, and I think he was worried that I would kick him again.
The beach man placed my chair next to the bed where they laid Ruby on. She winced a few times, but she was out like a light. I sat there numbly not paying any attention to frosty looking at me in the corner.
Jack's POV:
I wasn't staring. That would've been creepy. I was simply...politely observing, like I did with all mortals. Except these two weren't mortals. They were just like him, in a way.
In truth, I hadn't met a lot of girls before, and only one that I had a real conversation with was Tooth. These two girls were much crazier, more violent and angry and insane than Tooth was. I had assumed that all girls acted like Tooth, which was stupid to believe, but I wasn't an expert on human behavior so there.
So, I wasn't staring, technically, at the girl who was sitting next to the hospital bed, her huge blue-green eyes wide as she watched her unconscious friend. She didn't move, and her eyes were unwavering when she finally spoke.
"Is there any reason why you're looking at me like a creepy forty year old virgin?" she questioned and stunned me out of my thoughts. I just gawked at her for a moment before responding.
"Well, officially, I'm a creepy three hundred year old virgin," I replied, and she looked away from her friend and raised her eyebrows at me.
"You look fifteen." she commented, clearly disbelieving.
"I'm not. Looks can be deceiving." I answered. There was a moment of silence as she took this in.
Finally, she asked, "What's your name?"
"Jack. Jack Frost." I said, and she smiled a little.
"Violet."
"Just Violet?"
"The rest is irrelevant now." she shrugged her shoulders, as if it wasn't a big deal. I had done enough observation on humans to know that it was.
"So...what's your power?" I questioned, and she answered eagerly, ready to change the topic.
"I can control light, I think. I'm not really sure what else I can do. But I can make a hover board from my fingertips and my locker glows and...Yeah. It's kind of my thing," she explained, and looked up at him. He noticed how fast her lips were moving, almost as fast as Tooth's. They were shaded a pale red.
"What's your power?" she inquired, directing the attention back to him.
"Well I'm Jack Frost, so I control snow days and winter. I guess," There wasn't much more for me to say, "I'm guessing that she's Mother Nature or something?"
I pointed to her sleeping friend, and she just sighed sadly.
"You'll find out she can do more than play with vines. For example, being a number one martial arts expert in the USA. It's a hard tittle to make and keep," she said.
"Oh. Um, sorry if I offended you," I apologized.
"You didn't offend me, you just offended Mother Nature. And she just told me that when she wakes up she's going to kick the crap out of you," she answered, and I raised my eyebrows.
"She isn't...sleeping?"
"Just barely. We use Morse code a lot, that's how she understood this conversation. But it's not like her ears are bad either, Jack," she answered, giving him a look. Her eyes were landscapes of endless green and blue smoldered together.
"That's...weird...but intelligent I guess." I said. I felt weird for some off reason. Most likely because she had used my name. I still hadn't grown accustomed to hearing it come from other people's mouths.
"More intelligent than you," she replied with a smirk.
"Are you trying to tell me I'm stupid?"
"It depends on who I'm quoting, myself or Mother Nature," she answered, a playful gleam in her eyes. I shook my head and took off, I needed to get to Jamie and Sophie so I could protect them here.
I flew to the Bennett household, that weird girl invading my mind the entire way there.
