SORRY, I AM SO SORRY, I KNOW, I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN AGES, I KNOW, I AM SORRY!
My excuse; high school. that's it. no explanation needed. I'm still a horrible person, i know, but i got it done! wahoo!
I'm trying to wrap it up, i'm almost done, so just keep in touch. Hopefully i can get in another chapter or so before school starts up again. Hope you like it!
Jack blinked at the blinding light streaming into the Tooth Palace. The sun was setting outside; he had spent at least over a half an hour. He rubbed his temples and looked at the tooth capsule in his hand. So Shade had been a much different person before. But what had made her so bitter? Did she hold a grudge against Amare or something? Or was she just mad at Pitch? He was still her brother, you can't stay mad at someone that long. And it definitely couldn't make someone as harsh as she turned out to be. So why did she hate Heart so much?
Jack looked at the sun low in the sky. Once this whole fiasco with Nightshade was over, he would ask Heart. But he would do it subtly somehow. She might not like him going through her memories. In the meantime, he should probably be heading back. The others will be wondering where he went. He set Heart's tooth capsule back where it was before. Better not take that back, someone else might look at it. Jack grabbed the basket with the others and his staff before heading back to the skies, one of North's snow-globes in his pocket.
A little ways out and he pulled out the tiny glass sphere. He held it up to his mouth and mumbled, "North's shop." He threw it out in front of him, not noticing the tiny replica appear of North's shop. He didn't notice the dark purple and black fog that swirled across it, swallowing up the little image, either. The glass exploded, creating the blue and green portal. Without a second thought, Jack raced through it. As the tunnel swallowed him, something small hit his face. He swatted it off, thinking it was a bug, only to be hit by three more. He swiped at his face, more forcefully this time, only to find himself being steadily pelted by the miniscule bits. Soon he was in a blizzard of dark, rough sand, not able to see two feet in front of him. He found himself no longer flying, but more so falling, falling out of the portal walls. And still he was caught in the dark storm.
Suddenly his back hit something hard, and Jack landed on solid ground, the sand raining down all around him until the last of it fell to the ground. Jack slowly opened his eyes, brushing the sand off his face and blinking it away. He sat up, looking around at his surroundings. A high vaulted ceiling loomed above him, gray cages hanging from it off black chains. With a jolt, Jack realized where he was. He was in Pitch's old base, long since abandoned.
"You know," Shade's voice suddenly came from behind him. Jack whipped around, staff pointed. Shade stood on a ledge, inspecting her nails, looking board. If she was alarmed, she didn't show it. "Pitch did have good taste, I'll give him that." she said, glancing around the gray cave. "To bad it was wasted on his worthless plans." She rolled her eyes. " Power-hungry squirt."
"Wasted?" Jack asked. "Pitch almost defeated us in the Battle of the Nightmares. Coming from you, wasted wouldn't be my choice of words. You are using his strategies." Shade chuckled, her whispering laugh echoing off the rock walls. "Well," she said. "not exactly."
"Not exactly? You've copied him in everything. You ambushed the Cloud Castle, just like he did with the Tooth Palace, you stole all the dreams, he stole all the teeth, you followed his ambush schedule perfectly, the only thing different this time is that we have Heart."
"Ah, yes, my dear niece." Shade said thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, I'm not even sure you 'have her' on your side anymore.
"Why?"Jack asked. Shade only smiled back at him. Jack's staff lowered a fraction. "What do you mean?"
Ignoring his question, Shade waved her hand at the air next to her. Purple sand appeared out of nowhere and formed a swirling disk, almost like a screen. As he looked at it, he saw Heart come into focus. To his surprise, she was flying over somewhere tropical looking, nothing like the North Pole that she had been at when he had last seen her. She looked down and saw a teenage girl about to pass a boy of about the same age carrying a surfboard, apparently without acknowledging him. Heart looked at them for a second, wings keeping her aloft, before changing her ring to bow and grabbing an arrow. She took the ivory tip and gently blew on it. The tip of the arrow began to gently pulse with a red light. Heart notched the arrow, aimed, and let it fly. The arrow hit the girl dead on, apparently without her noticing. However, when she caught sight of the boy, her demeanor changed completely, giving him a friendly wave and stopping to talk to him.
"As you can see, Heart is back to her normal duties." Shade said. "As of right now, it doesn't look like she plans on helping you any longer."
Jack looked at the disk in unbelief. Heart had left. And it didn't look like she wanted to come back. He hadn't thought that she was serious about not helping them anymore. He shook his head. "Well it doesn't matter. We'll defeat you anyway. We still have everyone else."
Shade's smile grew. "If you can convince them, that is." Jack looked at her. She simply turned back to the purple disk, where the scene had changed. This time it was Tooth, amid her fairies, calling out street addresses and which teeth needed to be collected. Behind her, the rest of the Tooth Palace glimmered in the setting sun. It changed again, to Bunny hopping through his tunnels, then to Sandy herding his dreams through the Cloud Castle. "I'm afraid that the rest of your team has dispersed, what with accusations of being the my spy going around." Shade commented as the scenes flipped through.
Jack's eyes widened. "Your spy." he realized. "Your spy has been the cause of all this, you planned this!"
Shade laughed a real laugh, this one less whispering and sounding more entertained. "You... you still believe that?" she said through chuckles. Seeing Jack's confused expression simply renewed her laughter. Jack grew frustrated. She was just speaking in riddles again. He charged her, slamming her against the rock wall with his staff across her shoulders. "Who is it?"
Shade grinned at him. "You see, Jack that's the thing." She leaned towards him and whispered, "There never was a spy."
Jack suddenly let go of her, backing away. "What do you mean?"
Shade laughed again. "I never actually thought you would all fall for it, but it all worked out so well!" She rubbed her shoulder where Jack's staff had hit her.
"Then how did you know everything?" Jack asked.
Shade smiled at him and let her hand fall to her side. "Didn't you just see how well I could spy on all your friends just then? What makes you think that I couldn't have done it then?" She smiled at Jack. "You see Jack, I might be a liar, but I keep my promises."
"How do I know you're not lying about that?"
Shade grinned. "You don't." she answered simply.
Jack looked at her, his eyes narrowing. "Why tell me this now?" he asked, confused.
"Because it doesn't matter anymore." Shade answered, melting into the shadows that pooled around her feet. "Even if you do get your little team together again, it will already be to late. "
"I'll tell them the truth!" Jack called out to her as the shadow dispersed and slid to the corners of the cavern. "We will defeat you!"
"Oh, Jack, you still don't get it, do you?" Shade's voice called out from everywhere, already fading away. "I've already won."
Her laugh, back to it's chilling cackle, ricocheted off the walls and surrounded everything, fading away as she left to execute her horrible plan.
Jack shook. She was so close, she might as well have been right. She thought she had already won. His grip tightened on his staff. But she wouldn't. He remembered feeling like this in the Battle of the Nightmares, and they had all managed to pull through. They did it once, they could do it again.
He was going to get the Guardians back together. And they were going to beat Nightshade.