Chapter 10
Mia POV
Twenty minutes to noon.
I was ready. I had been practicing all day, and discovered I could turn invisible (after a certain winter spirit and sandman scared me might I add) and was excited to see how it would work out without much practice. I had a dark gray tank top on, with a black partial zip up hoodie. I had the collar down, and it was zipped up halfway. Then I wore cropped black leggings, and of course, no shoes. My hair was also up in a high ponytail, even though it still came down to my knees, and I had black fingerless gloves on.
Ten minutes to noon.
I bounded out the hallway and flew down the stairs to where everyone was waiting, wearing similar attire.
"I'm ready!" I said and held my arms out in a "TADA" motion.
"Alright, lets go." Hiccup said.
"No, she's not going."
We all turned to see Jack walking in.
"Jack, we've been over this. I'm going." I said firmly.
"No, you're not."
"Yes I am."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am!"
"No you're not!"
"Yes I am! Right North?" I turned around to face North.
"Yes, you can come, just be careful." he said hesitantly. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at Jack. "Told ya so." and I turned around and made an airball and headed towards the sleigh, leaving the others to run after me.
"Mia, you take your own snowglobe. Hide until we give the signal." North said, and handed one to me. Then he turned to the seasonals.
"Each of you take one too, and hide with Mia until we give her the signal. Then you go and do what we told you to yesterday." North said as he handed one to everybody.
"Be safe!" Tooth yelled back as they took off in the sleigh. We all turned to eachother.
"Ready?" Elsa asked.
"As we'll ever be." Hiccup answered. We then smashed the snowglobes, and stepped through the portals.
A few seconds later we were all standing on a lake.
"Hey Jack, isn't this your lake?" Merida asked.
He nodded "Yeah, and Pitch's lair is not far from here, and North and the guys will be here soon, so I suggest we get going." he said already leading the way.
As we got closer, we started traveling in the trees, but carefully so we wouldn't attract attention to ourselves. And once we got close enough, Jack nodded his head, and we all quietly bounded off to our spots, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Until finally what felt like hours later (even though it had only been ten minutes) the sound sleigh bells filled the air. I looked around at the trees I knew the others had been hiding in, and noticed that we were all in pretty much the same position. Crouched in a tree, eyes narrowed in concentration, watching the other Guardians, waiting.
We watched as a wave of nightmares came from the rickety old bed, but we were prepared. Sandy, upon seeing the first one, created a sand bubble around the four Guardians and they watched as the nightmares slowly dispersed and five figures came forth. Pitch I already knew, but who were these other people? Wait, weren't there supposed to be six? I looked around and everyone else seemed just as confused as I did. Anna seemed more angry and confused.
I shook it off. We could find him soon enough anyways. I tried to concentrate on the conversation, but we were pretty high up, and I couldn't quite hear them. I could tell they were arguing, and I'm pretty sure a fight would break out soon.
Suddenly, the woman's voice got louder. I looked down to see that she was looking in the trees. "We know you're up there, so just come down now, and I won't be the bad guy." I tensed and looked around. They were watching her suspiciously. What was she planning?
North, figuring that this was probably as good a time as any, gave the signal. We jumped down, and I quickly disappeared, giving a proud smirk seeing how shocked they seemed that I could turn invisible. As everyone took defensive positions, I flew over to our enemies and made the wind barrel into them, knocking them off balance. Then, Hiccup and Anna made flowers and flower roots spring to the surface, and they wrapped around them.
Before I could get back to the others, Pitch turned into a shadow and slipped under the roots. The others also escaped, and one of the "side burn twins" as everyone seemed to be calling them, threw some dirt in my direction. I wasn't fast enough and some of it landed on me, now giving them the opportunity to somewhat see me, because I was still invisible.
The others smiled, and I earthbent them away, just enough so I could fly back to the others safely, and I became visible again.
"Now that your plan is failing, give us the flower." Pitch sneered.
"We don't have the flower ya gumby. Now go back into your hole before things get ugly." Bunny answered.
"Oh, let me think.. no."
"Pitch, is that little girl the girl who tossed you out of the window?" the woman scoffed.
"And the one that is supposed to be a useless toddler?" a man with a big black bear fur pelt growled.
Who are they- oh. They're talking about me... aren't they?
"Wait, her hair..." the woman trailed off, looking from me to Rapunzel over and over again. Rapunzel and I shared worried glances before turning back and putting on brave faces again. Not that we were afraid.
The woman narrowed her gaze. "Pitch," she said slowly "is it possible that this girl is the new flower?"
Pitch gave a smug look before saying "Get her." and releasing an army of nightmares.
"Time to have a little fun." Jack said before we all launched forward with a battle cry.
I ran towards the nightmares and slid under an approaching one and sent a blast of fire towards its stomach. It instantly dissolved and was replaced by multiple other nightmares. I fought my way through a few more before flying up to see how everyone else was doing. Merida was shooting multiple arrows at a time, never missing her target. Anna somehow formed a tree root bat and was batting them away as if they were nothing. Elsa shot ice towards them, as did Jack. Hiccup was riding Toothless and they were both in the sky as Toothless shot blue bolts of fire towards the horses. North was slicing them with his swords, and Tooth was doing the same with her wings, flitting through the crowd. Bunny threw his boomerangs and egg bombs. Sandy had his whips out and was lashing at the nightmares fiercely.
But I saw something from the corner of my eye. I turned to get a better look and noticed that it looked like little puffs of something. I swooped down to get a better look in what I thought was out of the line of fire. Then I noticed that the puffs of something was actually fire. And coming right for me! I quickly tried to fly out of the way, but I was too slow. The fire engulfed me and I crumpled to the ground.
As much as I wanted to just lay there and fall asleep, something picked me up, and started to carry me away. I struggled to open my eyes, and quite frankly, I could barely manage to keep them open. I looked up and saw a man. He had red hair slicked back, and somewhat resembled the sideburn twins. Especially with his own pair of sideburns. The only thing different about them being that this man looked younger and slimmer. My eyes started to drift close, but then I heard a voice. I once again struggled to open my eyes to find where the source of the voice came from.
"Hey! Put her down!"
Who was that? I know that voice. I just don't know who that belongs to. Or do I?
My vision started to get foggy and my body begged for sleep. My eyes started to drift shut once more..
"Wake up!" a voice barked.
I slowly blinked my eyes open. It was still hard to see correctly and it felt like I only closed my eyes for a second. Maybe I had. Who knows? I realized that I was still being held by the man, and tried to struggle out of his grasp. He tightened his hold and switched it so he was holding me up by my waist.
"Good. Now you can watch the show." he chuckled.
I looked around to see what he was talking about. When I found it, my heart stopped. The battle was still going on, and above it all, was Pitch. Holding a black sand arrow. Pointed. At. Jack.
"Jack!" I tried to call his name, but my voice was so hoarse and it was barely audible. Especially over the sound of the battle going on.
"Jack!" I tried again, but I still couldn't be heard. Pitch drew back the arrow, and let it go. I could do nothing but watch as the arrow pierced him in the chest. I couldn't do anything but listen to his scream of pain. He fell to the ground, and I was forced to watch through teary eyes as he was consumed by the darkness.
No.
This couldn't be happening.
Not to Jack. Not to my Jack. The guy I realized was like a big brother to me. The big brother, who wasn't coming back.
No.
I felt a sudden surge of power coursed through me. I wasn't going to let them get away with this. I have no idea what was going on, but I heard a Russian sounding voice yell "Duck and cover!"
I have no idea what had happened or what I had done. I just knew that it had been a few minutes since I felt the peculiar surge of power, and I was now aware that I was falling. Falling. Falling. Feeling much more drained and weak than I already was. Until somebody caught me, and I blacked out.
Minutes or hours had passed, I don't know, until I finally woke up. I was in a dark, dense room that was surprisingly very large. I tried to get up, and every muscle in my body protested, but I had to get up. I had to escape. I used the wall to help me up, and tried to move towards the door.
Only to find that I was chained to the ground by my wrists and ankles. How didn't I notice that? I let go of the wall, only to be brought back down to the floor by the weight of the chains. I suppose I was making too much noise, because the door opened, but I didn't see anyone come in. I looked around as I leaned against the wall for support.
"It's your fault you know." a voice said.
I looked around, but I still couldn't find anyone.
"It's your fault he's dead."
I almost forgot. Jack. He's-he's...
"Dead." the voice finished.
No. No it can't be. No! It isn't true!
"It's very true. You saw it with your own eyes. He's dead, because he was trying to save you."
N-no. It's not my fault...
Or was it?
"It most certainly is. Now he's dead, and you're stuck here."
I finally found my voice. "But the Guardians-"
"Will not come for you."
"Y-yes they will." I cringed at my voice. God I sounded awful.
"Do you really think that they would come and rescue the very person that led to one of their teammate's death?" the voice scoffed.
"B-but.. they will. I know they will.. right?" It was a good question. Were they coming for me? The voice had a point. I killed a member of their team, just by being there. Trying to help.
"You make a mess wherever you go." When did I make a mess before this?
"Every mess starts somewhere. This is the beginning. You will bring destruction. What is better, than destruction, and darkness?" it sneered.
"I-I... I'm not sure.."
"Exactly! Together, we can be unstoppable! We could rule the world!" The voice was getting more and more excited. The voice seemed like it'd be right. Yet, something about this seemed wrong. I'm not destruction. Not on purpose at least..
"Join me." the voice said. No. This was wrong. I had to think about Jack. But at the same time, I couldn't think about Jack. I would cry, and I could not afford to do that in this place. But, Jack wouldn't do something like this. He wouldn't want me to do this, right?
"No." Good. My voice held some form of firmness to it.
"What. Did. You. Say."
"N-no. I'm not going to join you."
Pitch materialized out of the shadows. "Well, we're just going to have to... persuade you." he gave an evil smile. The door opened, and five other figures came in.
"Our little friend here needs some persuasion." he explained. The others smiled and nodded, and together, they advanced towards me. I noticed that the woman was holding a box. Pitch went over and opened it, and pulled out a needle. He looked at me.
"Hold her down."
Instantly the fur pelt man pulled me up and held my hands tight behind my back. I struggled to get away, but given my current state, and how strong the man was, I didn't stand a chance. Pitch calmly walked towards me, needle in hand.
"This will only pinch.. a lot." he sneered, and stuck it into my arm. I did my best to stifle a scream. This wasn't like a regular needle. This was worse.
"Just so you can't use your powers." the woman explained.
Then they started advancing once more, this time, prepared to attack. Someone yanked me up and slammed me into the wall, and I slid down, only to be kicked in the ribs multiple times, each time harder than before. I breathed in, and felt a sharp pain. Yep, definitely a few broken. The torture continued for what felt like hours, until they finally felt satisfied enough, and left.
"We'll be back tomorrow, in case you've changed your mind." the young man said, before closing the door, and I slowly lost consciousness once more.
A week. More than a week, judging from how many times they came in to beat me. I only got something to eat every few days, and even then it would just be some sort of slop or leftover food that apparently wasn't good enough for them to eat. Lucky me.
One day however, after what had become my daily beatings, the young man stayed behind. He told the others that he needed to teach me a lesson of his own to me, and I couldn't help but be afraid. He approached me slowly, a cold look in his eyes. He was careful to avoid the big stain of blood, my blood, that was around me that had only grown in the past week and how many days.
"Who are you?" I asked. I had been dying to know. Literally, I felt like I was dying.
He kept his cold glare. "Prince Hans of the Southern Isles."
I heard a loud BANG and the ceiling caved in. Luckily I was just out of the way. A figure jumped down into the hole, and I struggled to see who it was through the blinding sunlight that I felt like I haven't seen in forever. I could make out a basic outline, but still had no idea who it was. Until they spoke up.
"Princess Anna of Arendelle." Anna said, and punched him square in the jaw. She had her signature braids, and was wearing black leggings, a black hoodie, and slim black combat boots.
"Anna!" I tried to scream, but I had pretty much lost my voice by now. She turned to me, her fierce expression turning more furiously fierce after seeing the state I was in. I was crumpled on the floor, a thousand new wounds bleeding out.
"Guys! Down here!" she called up through the hole.
Multiple bodies hopped down, and immediately started to undo the chains that bound me to the ground. I could feel furry arms lift me up, and I was deposited into multiple different pairs of arms until I landed in something wooden, with multiple bodies packed around me.
Anna POV
I broke the ceiling just as I heard him say "Prince Hans, of the Southern Isles."
I leapt down with grace that I didn't even know I had and stood tall. "Princess Anna, of Arendelle." I was glad how strong my voice sounded. Then I did any logical thing. I punched him in the face, just as I punched him off the boat, so many years ago.
I turned around and saw her. No, oh no. Not my little sister. I can't lose her like we lost Jack. Panic, and most of all, rage filled me. Oh, Hans is going to get it. They all will.
"Guys! Down here!" I called. Everyone hopped down and immediately started helping Mia. Good. Now I can deal with him. I turned towards him, still on the ground. I knelt down, and held his chin so he could look at me.
"Oh Hans.. if only there was someone out there that would help you." I beat him up, just a little bit more, before the door finally burst open. I leapt away, and Gothel started to help him up.
"You were wrong about me." he said. I walked up to him and looked him in the eye.
"And you were wrong about me." I turned and ran, and leapt up and grabbed Hiccup's outstretched hand and he pulled me up. We climbed aboard Toothless, even though I really wanted to be on the sleigh with my "little sister", and told everyone that we'd meet them at the Pole.
...
Mia POV
Everything hurt. And by everything, I mean everything. I opened my eyes slowly. The room I was in was a blinding white. White walls, white bed, white furniture, white, white, white. I had to blink my eyes a few times to get used to the brightness. When I finally managed to open my eyes I saw several sleeping forms all around my bed. Bunny, Tooth, and North were all slumped in chairs, golden dreamsand floating above their heads. I looked around and saw Sandy sitting on the nightstand near my bed, watching the dreams play out over the other Guardians. He seemed oblivious to the fact that I had woken up.
"Sandy." I tried, but no sound came out. I was startled, until I realized that it was probably from the seven plus days of screaming. I reached up and tapped the little golden man on the arm, giving a slight smile when he jumped. I gave a weak wave, and he gave one right back. I tried talking again, and ended up giving a little pout when I found I still couldn't talk. He gave a silent chuckle and got me some water.
I took it gratefully and drank it all. When I was done I tried talking once more, but found that it resulted in silence and a little squeak sound. After glaring at Sandy for laughing at me, I tried to get up. He made a move to push me back down, but there was no need. I felt a sharp stab of pain everywhere and fell back into the fluffy pillows.
I searched the room for some paper and something to write with a found nothing. I couldn't ask Sandy because I could only stay silent and squeak, and unlike him, I couldn't conjure images. Instead I pointed to the three sleeping Guardians and gave Sandy a questioning look. He wrote a note in flawless dreamsand writing.
You don't want to know.
I smiled and looked up. Wait, someone is missing. Where's Jac- oh. Oh no.. that was only a dream, right? Pff, not a dream. More like a nightmare. Yeah, it was just a nightmare from Pitch when I was in that room. Yeah. Any minute now Jack is going to burst through that door with a smile on his face. Any minute now... any minute...
I looked to Sandy. As if reading my thoughts, he gave a sad shake of his head. Oh. Jack...
I felt my eyes tearing up. No, I will not cry. He's not gone. I'm not going to believe it. He's just.. on a vacation. On a vacation and.. never...coming back.
I heard something move, and looked over to see the other Guardians waking up. They perked up when they saw that I was awake, and I momentarily forgot that I couldn't talk. I gave a "hi" and cringed when it became a squeak. Seriously, how do I keep forgetting I can't talk? I glared at Bunny when I noticed him trying not to laugh. Tooth and North just looked bemused, but quickly shook it off.
"Nice to see ya awake pipsqueak." Bunny chuckled.
I rolled my eyes at his lame, but somewhat funny, attempt at a pun, glad he tried to ease the tension I had been feeling a few minutes ago. His ears twitched a few times before he looked at North and nodded his head towards the door. North realized what he was implying and rolled his eyes. He walked over and opened the door and 5 teenagers and a dragon tumbled in.
I was silently laughing, much like Sandy was, and the others were actually laughing. Anna gave an awkward laugh and the others just blushed. Rapunzel squealed when she saw I was awake and barreled into me with a hug. The rest of my "siblings" piled on, and Toothless did too. I winced a few times, but otherwise enjoyed the comfort.
One by one they climbed off and positioned themselves around me, whether it was on the bed with me, or just sitting in chairs around me. Toothless was somewhat sprawled on top of my feet. I heard a funny little laugh and Olaf waddled in. He looked over and jumped with joy when he saw me, and ran over.
"Mia! You're awake!" he yelled. I gave a silent giggle and lifted him up onto the bed and he sat next to me, wiggling his feet.
We spent a while just talking and listening and laughing. Like a family. I smiled at the thought. Yeah, they're quirky and weird and different, but in the short time I've known them, they've become my family. All of them.
"And then your eyes were glowing blue and you took out all of the nightmares! Luckily we got to safety, but then when we came back out, you and everyone else was gone." Anna finished quietly.
She was recounting what happened after Jack died.
"It took us more than a week to find ye. In retrospect it should've been obvious that you were in his lair, but we were all too upset to focus I suppose." Merida added.
"Yeah but when we found her, I was so relieved. We all were. Besides, when Anna dropped down there, dude! You said the perfect thing at the perfect time! It was so badass!" Hiccup exclaimed. Then after seeing Tooth's expression added "Sorry Tooth."
I gave everyone a questioning look and pointed to Punzie.
Tooth sighed. "No, she can't heal you, and you can't heal yourself either. Not yet anyway. Whatever they did to you temporarily stopped all magic from you." she explained. Wait, since when could I heal myself? A question for a later time I suppose.
"It shouldn't last much longer. Mate, what did they do to you in there exactly? Aside from giving ya a beating." Bunny asked. I was about to try to make an ice tablet, but remembered that I wouldn't be able to use my powers and bend. Instead I made a fist and gave my arm a little punch. They all gave me confused looks. I huffed. Great. I started to get up, and a wave of sharp pain shot through my entire body. I tried my best to ignore it and kept going. Toothless got up and gently nudged me with his feet and I fell back down. Walking was probably going to be much harder than getting up anyways. I crossed my arms and searched the room, looking everywhere.
Finally, I found a needle, and pointed to it urgently. North turned around. "The cotton balls? They gave you cotton balls?" I face palmed with both hands. Ugh. I peeled both hands from my face and pointed again. And again. And again until he finally figured it out.
"Ooohhh..." they all seemed to say simultaneously, while I made a "duh" face. North was stroking his beard, deep in thought, and everyone else was just trying to ease the tension away. The pain seemed to be growing, and I guess whatever medication they had me on that had already been wearing off, started to completely wear off. Unfortunately, they noticed. Why is this unfortunate? Well, you'll see.
A medi-yeti came into the room and everyone started talking. I felt like they were trying to distract me, and my suspicion only grew when several more yetis came in the room and just garbled in yetish to eachother, and North. One started walking up to me, arms hiding something behind its back. At once, everyone started talking to me some more, and tried to be funny, but my attention was on the yeti. I was somewhat scooting to the other side of the bed where Olaf had jumped off.
I was at the edge and was about to get off when the yeti pulled a needle from behind his back. My eyes widened as I relived what Pitch did only a little more than a week ago. The other yetis saw my discomfort and moved over to hold me down, which only made it worse! Seriously this is only a better setting of what happened with Pitch! But, they don't know that.
I tried to wiggle out of their grasp and I heard North yell "Sandy!" I looked in the direction of the little golden man just before I was hit in the face with a dreamsand ball, and the needle went into my arm. As I fell asleep, I could feel the medicine working and all the pain seemed to go away.
A few weeks later I was mostly healed, and I was deemed fit enough to leave the infirmary. They said I would've been able to leave sooner if I wasn't immune to the magic for a while. Though I still healed faster than humans, considering I'm a spirit.
"Ugh, finally." I said as I walked out of the infirmary. I looked around the hallway. There's.. no one here. Not even an elf. Hm. That's strange. Oh well. I guess I'll just wander around. I decided to go to the kitchen. Maybe sneak some cookies. Tooth wouldn't let me have any when I was in there. I passed a few yetis and almost tripped on a LOT of elves. I made it to the kitchen and snatched a cookie. I leaned against the table and was watching some elves fight over the plate of cookies when someone took mine from behind.
"Hey!" I whirled around to see Phil putting it back on the plate. "Aw come on Phil! Not you too?" He just chuckled and walked away with the plate. I crossed my arms. I just want a cookie, one cookie. Just then Punzie leaped in through the doorway and looped her arm through mine before bounding out with me in tow.
Once we were just outside the door to the kitchen she stopped. "Oh! Blindfold!"
"Uh, Punzie what are you-"
"Sh! This is great! You're going to love it!" She squealed before leading me down a series of hallways.
"Punz can you please just tell me-" I started after a while.
"We're here!" she squealed. I heard a lot of hushed voices and now my curiosity level was getting way too high. I really wanted to know where I was. Before I could say anything else I was spun around a few times and was left stumbling into a wall.
"North! You only do that for piñatas!" Merida yelled.
"Oops. Sorry." I heard North chuckle.
"Okay okay Mia open the door!" Tooth squealed.
"Uh guys.." I said.
"Oh! Oops! Here." Anna said and took my blindfold off. I had to blink a few times to get used to the light, but once I did, I found that I was standing in front of a door. It was a dark wooden door, and had a picture of my face on it.
"What's this?" I asked.
"Just open it and find out!" Elsa encouraged.
"Okay.." I said and opened the door. What I found inside, was amazing. It was a large hexagonal shaped room, with a very large window on the opposite side I was standing on. The window had a seat, with a cushion, of course. In the middle of the room was a queen size bed with a soft cream comforter. Given the size of the bed, you would've thought that there wouldn't be much space left, but that wasn't the case. This room was so big, and had an extreme amount of extra space. On the opposite wall of the bed was a TV mounted on the wall. In one corner, there was a cream colored vintage looking desk, complete with laptop, and various art supplies. Under the TV was a stereo system and Ihome with an Ipod in it. The bed had one nightstand on either side of it. It matched the desk with the cream vintage look. On the wall with the window, there was a bookshelf that matched the desk and nightstand, and was already equipped with multiple books. The walls were a warm pastel purple.
I couldn't find words. It's just... wow. I could only stare at it.
Tooth came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Do you like it?" she asked. I spun around to face everyone.
"Like it!? I- I love it!" I yelled. "It's- it's fantastic! Just... wow." I had started walking around my room and now flopped onto my bed. I could hear everyone walking in, and some people sitting on my bed.
"There's more you know." Hiccup chuckled. I sat up. "More?" I half shouted.
"Well for one thing ya got yer own bathroom." Merida chuckled.
"And your room is connected to all of ours. Well, sort of." Anna explained. I looked around. A door was close to my bed, and two more on the other side of the room.
"That one goes to my room." Elsa pointed to the one of two doors on the other side.
"And that one goes to mine." Rapunzel pointed to the one near my bed.
"This is... thanks guys." I said. This is so cool! I've never even had a home before, let alone a room!
"This is girls side. Boys side right across hall." North explained.
After a bit of a silence Tooth finally said "Well, we'll leave you to get situated I guess. Come on guys." and she ushered everyone out of the room.
Finally. I thought. I flopped back down onto my bed on my back. Everything seemed to sink in. But one thing stood out. Jack is gone. I stared at the ceiling as the thought finally hit me. I haven't been alone in what felt like forever. I haven't cried in that time. I didn't want people to be more worried about me than they already are. With that thought, I put on some cropped leggings and a tank top and jacket, and headed down to the gym. I still can't bend or use any of my powers, so it's probably best to work on hand to hand.