AN: Hey guys. Just a quick note to let you know I don't know if I'm going to be posting tomorrow or not. It's solstice and I need a break. This posting schedule is doing me in. Also, those last three chapters are really the emotional finale of the story and I really want to do it right. They're all pretty rough right now and need more work, and at this point in the season I'm working with about half the energy I had when I started this thing. Anyway, thanks for reading and for your feedback, and happy solstice to any of you who are celebrating.


They rode through the too quiet world of black and white, cold just barely held off by lingering magic. On they went, for hours, the night far darker than it should have been. Their only guide was the faint glimmer of light in the distance that Matthew and Feliciano told him was the North Pole. Even the stars seemed to have disappeared.

"I don't understand. It doesn't seem like we're getting any closer at all," Feliciano said, tiredly. He shivered, shrinking back against Alfred.

"Feli?" Alfred asked, as the clown shivered and shrunk back against him.

"It's been the same since we started out, and it's been forever." After a moment, he added, "I wish there had been another magic pendant." Feliciano sounded so dejected that Matthew slowed, almost to a stop, for a moment.

"I'm still afraid," Matthew said. "Terrified." He sounded embarrassed and hesitant, but he kept moving slowly onwards.

"But now you're so big. If we get there I wo-"

"When we get there," Matthew said, tightly. "And being big doesn't mean not being afraid."

"And it won't help much with getting into the castle," Alfred said. "We'll need to be small."

"I don't think it's going to last that long…" Matthew said. He didn't say what they were all thinking. Saying it felt like tempting fate. But the image of three small figures wandering around in the arctic was in all of their minds nevertheless.

Feliciano shook his head and the jingling bell on his hat sounded just as forlorn as the clown.

Alfred looked back up at the light and started, gripping Matthew's fur all the tighter. It'd grown dimmer, or at least looked farther away. He breathed in deeply, swallowing and feeling his eyes burn, then shook his head.

"Tell me about it, Feli," Alfred said. "About the North Pole. Like it usually is."

Feliciano looked backwards at Alfred with a sad expression. "Why?"

Alfred's eyes widened. He forced a grin onto his face. "Why?" he laughed, and it kind of hurt, but Feli needed it. "Any kid would like to hear about Santa's workshop."

Feliciano tilted his head to the side, and his bell rang again, and it seemed just a little brighter. "Well," he began, "The workshop is only a small part of Santa's North Pole complex. But it's the center of it. That's where I work, along with Ludwig. And my brother." And then Feliciano drooped again. "Veh, Alfred. I left him behind."

"Huh?" Alfred said, ducking his head a little as the cold wind picked up.

"When the Dark attacked." And Feliciano sounded even sadder than before. "I'd heard something in the other room and I went to check. I thought Gilbert might be trying to play a trick on Ludwig- he does that a lot. They're brothers too." He shook his head, and the bell jingled, flatly. "But then I noticed things looked strange and I kept going, looking for Ludwig. And I found him, and we were trying to get back to the workshop, but everywhere we turned something stopped us. No matter what, I couldn't get through. It was strange. Doors that shouldn't have been locked were stuck solid. And walls of ice growing out of the floors." The clown shivered.

Alfred thought the darkness was growing around them, if that was even possible. If he didn't know better he'd thought he'd heard a growling in the wind. "Feli," he said. "I don't think this is-"

"I even got separated from Ludwig. And I ran away." Feliciano was sobbing; all save for the physical tears. "I'm a good runner and I managed to get to the tunnels. But I left my brother and he's there in the-"

"Feli, you need to-" Matthew said and he sounded panicked.

The light ahead of them grew fainter than ever before and the cold was almost enough to take Alfred's breath. It burned even through the magic warmth.

Feliciano took no notice.

"He thinks I like Ludwig better and I went for Ludwig and he'll think I don't care. What if he's hurt- what if he's de-"

"Feli!" Alfred grabbed hold of the clown, putting his hand over his mouth. A black cloud was hemming them in and Alfred couldn't see the white of the ground anymore. It stank, like sickness and death. Felt like starvation and desperation and despair. And Alfred didn't know how he knew that smell, those feelings, but they were all around, clinging to them, soaking into every inch of him. "Think happy." And he gagged, as the miasma rushed into his mouth. "Tell- Tell me something happy!"

"Do you-" Matthew coughed. "Do you remember when that tomato- last year? Tell Alfred what happened!"

"Lo-Lovino. We were in the sewing room, checking on a new group of stuffed vegetables for a garden playset. I was trying to show them a dance, but I slipped on a pair of scissors and bumped into Lovino." The clown sniffed, but lightness was back in his voice, for the moment. "He fell right off the table and onto a bunch of the tomatoes. And-" he laughed, "And they kept singing the song we had taught them and rolled Lovino straight across the floor. He was yelling the whole way."

As Alfred heard the joy flowing back into the clown's voice, the blackness started to fade, to the point that he could breathe without feeling sick. "That's great!" He laughed out loud, in shear relief. "Keep going."

"Well, there was this little one. She had gotten set aside because she had some problems with her stitching, and she followed Lovino around for weeks after that. He complains all the time but he's never told her to go away. I…" Feliciano breathed, resting back against Alfred. "I think I feel better now."

"Tell me something else."

And so they spent the next while telling stories. Or rather, Matthew and Feliciano told stories, while Alfred sat and listened. He didn't have any to tell of his own.

That struck him, every now and then, every time feeling like a little pinch somewhere inside. But he pushed away at it, and focused on the voices around him. Slowly, but steadily, the dark cloud moved away, disappearing into the night, and the light ahead of them grew stronger, piercing through the darkness.

And with each smile, every story told, they seemed that much closer to the castle, making the smiles come all the easier.

After finishing a story about Arthur and Francis and a batch of hot cocoa, Feliciano looked at Alfred over his shoulder, smiling slyly. "I can tell you a secret about Gilbert," he said. "It's not that much of a secret since some of us know. But he doesn't know we know. So it's secret enough. You can't say anything if w- when we get him back to normal."

Alfred nodded solemnly. "Promise."

Feliciano turned around, satisfied. "Sometimes in the middle of the night you can hear his boots coming down the hall. They're big heavy things and he has to take them off to be sneaky. But sometimes you can hear him and he'll walk down the halls and a few minutes later you can hear him in the music room with Roderich. He's our composer, in charge of arrangements for lullabies and carols and anything else we might use."

"They normally fight horribly. Call each other names. Sometimes refuse to speak to each other completely. Or try not to anyway. Whoever's there with them, Ludwig, or Elizabeta, or Francis, or anyone really- Roderich and Gilbert talk through them." He laughed, and then continued, "But sometimes when they think no one knows you'll hear them in the music room, a flute and piano playing together." The grin was clear in Feliciano's voice at this point. "And there's one elf in particular who can't help but sneak glances at both of them. She'll almost always be at the door of the room, listening. And then she runs away before either of them knows she's there."

"How do you know that?" Matthew asked.

Feliciano laughed, "Most people don't know, but I'm good at being snea-"

"Oh!" Matthew interrupted, "Look!"

The light of the North Pole was now gleaming against the glittering snow and a giant castle rose up in front of them, shining silver and gold.

"There it is!" Feliciano shouted and tried to stand up, laughing.

Alfred kept staring, barely able to believe his eyes.

Matthew stopped. "But Feli," he said, "It looks so cold. Francis said something about it, but you don't really understand until you see it."

Alfred finally tore his gaze away from the castle, looking down at Feliciano.

"It's the ice," Feliciano said. "It dims the light a little."

Alfred looked back up at the castle. His breath was coming out in tiny white puffs and his cheeks were stinging from the icy wind, suddenly so much colder than before. "I think it's beautiful," he said. "So that means it'll look that much prettier when everything's fixed right?"

Matthew turned his head around, nodded and smiled. And-

Pop.

Feliciano and Alfred landed on the ice.

"Ow," Alfred said, getting up onto his knees and rubbing his hip. "What happened?"

"I stopped," Matthew said, standing and shaking off. "I think moving was keeping the spell going. It feels… weird." He stretched his paws out, flexing them, and then looked down. "And short."

Alfred stepped over and picked him up, and then Feliciano. "That better?"

Matthew nodded. He looked up at the castle for a minute and then looked over at Feliciano. "Now we have to get in."


"So you know where we're going?" Alfred asked, as they crawled through cold tunnels. They were short things, only a few feet tall, and the metal was starting to hurt Alfred's knees. The dark was even worse.

"Of course I do," Feliciano whispered, somewhere in front of him. "Remember I said it was how I got out. I was here when some of these were built. And sometimes a ball gets lost, or a toy gets scared. Waking up for the first time can be scary. And these are good when you're scared."

"How?" Alfred asked, "They're cold and dark and-" He shivered.

"Alfred," Matthew warned.

"Don't worry. We're in the dark parts now. But closer to the actual pole there are lots of grates and they let light in. And sometimes when you feel scared, or sad, you don't want the light so much. So I check here, when someone goes missing and sometimes it's where I find them. It's our secret though, mine and the other toys who find it. And most of them are far away now, with their children. So there's only a few people who know about these. They're safe. And they should lead us in to the middle of the North Pole," Feliciano whispered. "Or at least close enough."

A few minutes later, they turned a corner in the tunnels to see a spot of light shining down from above. Alfred could see the outline of Feliciano turning around towards him and putting his finger up to his lips.

Alfred nodded and turned, performing the same direction towards Matthew.

They stilled, under the light, listening. After several long minutes Feliciano turned and nodded, with a tight fearful expression, and then pointed upwards at the grate.

Alfred sat up as far as he could and, with his hands, pushed gently at the grate until it moved up and then over to the side. The scraping noise it made as it slid across the floor stopped him, for a moment, before he pressed on, shoving it away enough to make a child sized opening.

Up he climbed, out into a frozen hallway. His hands burned as they touched the floor and he drew in a quick hissed breath, scrambling to his knees as soon as he could. The halls thankfully, were silent, save for his own pained noise. He bent back over and reached a hand in, pulling out first Feliciano and then Matthew.

"Oh," Feliciano whispered sadly, his voice trembling as he glanced about his home.

"Feli," Alfred said, as he moved the grate back in place. "Come on. We don't know-"

"Right," he said, even as Matthew rested a paw against the back of his head softly. "We need to go…" he turned his head nervously, to the right and then to the left. The uncertainty was clear on his face. Then he raised his hand to his chest and closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them again, purpose in his eyes. "This way," he said, and he set off slowly down the hallway.

They went on like that for several minutes. Walking for a ways and then reaching a corner and stopping, peaking around the edge. A few times they caught sight of one of the Dark's guards. But they were lucky, in that they were always easily avoided. Otherwise the hallways were empty.

And then they turned around a corner and gasped, confronted with a frozen statue.

Feliciano squeaked and then ran over quietly.

It wasn't a statue, Alfred realized.

Elizabeta stood, her arms held high in the air holding a frying pan, rage written across her face. She was frozen a frosty blue. Even the bright red flower in her hair was tinged a silver hue. Feliciano held a hand up to her dress, staring at the crystals formed across the fabric.

"Careful Feli," Matthew said.

Feliciano turned around, his eyes filled with hurt. "She can't hurt me, Matthew."

"But you could hurt her," Alfred said, easing his way around the corner, staying at least a few feet away from the elf, remembering the events outside the cave. "There's someone else," Alfred said, and stepped a few feet further down the hall.

"What do you-" Matthew frowned, and padded over towards him. "Oh," he said sadly, "Gil."

The figure, a man, clearly pale even through the layer of ice, lay fallen behind her, close to the back of her skirt.

"Come on," Alfred whispered. "We're not going to help them by standing around and staring."

Feliciano and Matthew looked over at him hesitantly, and then with one final look back towards the icy figures, they started off, faster than before, as if to put the image behind them as quickly as possible.

Feet from where they had stood was a heavy, thick door. If they had arrived just a bit sooner, they would have heard from behind it the soft notes of a violin, lonely and mournful.


The empty hallways echoed with a stillness that was more eerie even than that of the Winter Fairies' home. The faint hint of bright reds and greens were hid beneath the cloudy blue ice and frost.

"This way," Feliciano whispered, waving them onwards. "I think they are in the garbage room. There is a chute. We can go down it." They reached the end of the hall and Feliciano stopped, pointing across into an open room. "Through there, do you see it? That is where Fratello is, and probably everyone else."

"How do-"

Then Feliciano held his arm up, his face full of fear, pushing them back towards the wall they were standing against. They stood frozen as the sound of footsteps, the peculiarly chilling sound of ice hitting ice, echoed down the hallway. Coming towards them. Alfred squeezed his eyes shut, trying to press himself further against the wall, knowing the only way that could happen would be for him to fuse with the ice itself, become a part of the same cold darkness haunting Santa's palace. Still the footsteps walked towards them and Alfred felt his back, his arms, his heart become colder and colder.

And then he felt a soft pressure on his leg.

Matthew was looking at him, gripping onto his pajama pants.

He felt just a little warmer.

And just as suddenly the guard was turning, going in the other direction down the hall.

They remained still, listening to the footsteps slowly melt into nothing.

"Come. We-"

"How do you know?" Alfred whispered

"How do I know what?"

"That he'll be there. That anyone other than the Dark's guard will be there?" He shivered and gasped, feeling a jagged pain inside.

"Alfred," Matthew began, hugging his leg entirely now. "That's the Dark. Don't let it-"

"I said before," Feliciano interrupted, with a smile. "We are cut from the same cloth. I know he is there. No doubts." He turned to Alfred and held out his hand. "It will be quicker if you carry us. Wait until I give the signal and then run. The chute will be on the far wall."

Alfred nodded, trying to shake off the cold, and picked up Matthew and Feliciano. Almost immediately he felt the twinge melt, his chest loosening once again. He hugged the two toys tighter, for just a moment, and then relaxed his grip.

Feliciano smiled up at him, patting his arm and then peaked around the corner again. He waited just a moment and then- "Go!"

The distance from their hiding place to the chute seemed long when he looked at it. It felt even longer while he was running across the hallway and wide open room. The feared shouts and running feet never happened, but he could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he finally slid to a stop against the workshops wall.

That was what the room was.

The workshop.

Alfred peered around at workstations and conveyor belts, all silent. He was sure, if he closed his eyes, he'd be able to hear the ghostly sounds of machinery and that strange high twinkling sound he'd come to associate with magic and the laughter of elves.

But he'd already wasted too much time just standing around already. He reached up to pull on the handle of the chute.

"Wait."

Feliciano and Alfred froze, eyes darting about.

Matthew looked at them sheepishly for a second, "Sorry. It's just that we'll need something to tie…" He turned his head, looking about the room. "There." He pointed towards a bunch of ribbons on top of one of the counters. He ran over, on all four paws, and began to climb onto one of the stools, only to have it begin to tip.

Then Alfred's hands were there, stilling it before it could topple over. He smiled at Matthew, who climbed the rest of the way up to the counter and began to push a red roll of ribbons almost as big as himself towards the edge.

Alfred reached up and lifted it without too much trouble, despite its size and weight.

With the ribbons securely in his arms he stood with his back to the counter and let Matthew climb up onto his shoulders, and then walked, with some effort, back to the chute. Before he could even set the roll down Feliciano was grabbing the loose end and pulling it free from the plastic roll. Soon a loose pile sat around them on the floor.

"Veh," Feliciano started, looking at the chute, his hand to his chin, "Alfred. You'll need to hold this for us."

"I'm not going with you?" Alfred asked. "But I can-"

"The ribbon won't hold you," Matthew said, from his perch on Alfred's shoulders.

Alfred frowned, but clamped down on his disappointment. He pulled down on the handle of the chute, and it opened with a loud squeak.

"Damn it!" A voice, similarly accented to Feli's, yelled. "Don't be tossing stuff down here you overgrown icicles!"

"Fratello?" Feliciano called, with a grin. Matthew had to grab his feet, lest he fall down the chute.

"Damn it Feliciano! What are you doing here?"

"We've come to rescue you, silly." And he lowered the ribbon down the metal chute, clutching it in his hands, about to lower himself down as well.

Suddenly there was a tug on the ribbon. "Like hell you are."

A few moments later, a clown with a scowling face popped out of the chute.

Feliciano's grin broke out on his face and he grabbed his brother, pulling him out of the chute. They both landed on the floor in a tangle of stuffed limbs.

"Oof," Lovino said, "Let go already."

He frowned up at Alfred. "Who the hell is this?"

"Veh!" Feliciano said, waving his arms. "You shouldn't say-"

"Kids these days have heard a lot worse than that," Lovino said, pulling himself to his feet. He didn't wait for an answer, just turned back around to Feliciano and patted him down, roughly. "You're okay, right? I mean… not that I care but I don't want everyone blaming me if you've been hurt or something."

"I'm fine," Feliciano said, with a smile. "Are you okay? I was wo-"

Lovino turned, crossing his arms. "Of course I'm fine. Why shouldn't I be? Just cause it was cold and dark and-" His face wrinkled.

Then behind him the ribbon tugged again.

"Shit." He crossed over to the chute again, holding onto the ribbon and looking down. "Come on up."

Lovino reached down and took hold of a stuffed hand, gritted his teeth and pulled.

Alfred stepped over pulled the other stuffed hand up slowly, careful not to offset Lovino's balance. One after one, toys were pulled up out of the chute, stuffed toys, and action figures, and dolls and-

They were all making too much noise.

"Shut up," Lovino whispered. The two clowns were glancing about nervously. "You want to get tossed down there again? Maybe frozen this time? Or end up wherever Kiku is?"

"Kiku?" Feliciano looked at him, with a worried glance.

Lovino looked over to the side, at the cluster of toys still climbing out of the chute. "We were getting information from him. Nothing beats a ninja action figure for staying hidden. But he got caught a few days ago." He shook his head. "Don't know where he is now. We know where everyone else is though. Santa too… we think."

"That's great!" Feliciano stage whispered, hugging his brother once again.

"Fel- let go of me damn it." Lovino tried his best for a few moments to push his brother off, before giving up and just talking with him squeezing his chest. "We need to go get the others. We're not going to be able to-"

"We don't have time," Matthew said, pointing at the clock. "The fairy queen- don't ask" he interrupted himself, when he saw the stricken look on a few faces, before continuing, "the fairy queen said we only have until the solstice. At the solstice the Dark will be at its strongest, and if Santa's not in control of the pole…"

Lovino shook off his brother and stepped forward, "We can't do this without-"

"You go get the others. We'll find Santa," Alfred said, stepping behind Matthew. "Once you find them you can come for us."

Feliciano and Lovino shared a look. "Okay," Lovino said. "We'll go after the potato ba-" he cut himself off when Feliciano hit his arm. Lovino glared at his brother before turning back to Matthew. "Listen close. We don't have time to go over this twice."