Chapter 21

No one noticed Sandy silently slip away...

He silently tiptoed out of the room, assuring no one had seen him.

He walked out of the venue and across the street to a small bar. He sat down and waited.

The lead singer of Nightmare in Black walked in and sat down next to him.

"I'll have a Bloody Mary." She ordered.

Interesting choice. Sandy signed.

"Your one to talk, who orders black coffee at a bar?"

She laughed, and Sandy laughed silently with her. His face suddenly got serious as he turned to look her directly in the eye.

I'm worried about you sis, your not safe around Pitch. I urge you to leave, I'll even fly you anywhere you want to go... He signed, a concerned look on his face.

She smiled softly.

"Sandy, I appreciate your concern, but don't worry for me. Pitch hasn't hurt me at all, and I can take care of myself. Besides, I haven't seen you in so long, I've missed you..."

I know, but it's not safe for you to be near me. Please, after the Battle of the Bands, leave. He signed the words with trouble, like it physically pained him to form them.

A tear slipped out of her eye, followed by another, and another.

After some more slipped out, she slowly nodded.

"I-I guess this is really, goodbye then..." She mumbled out, trying to keep herself from sobbing loudly.

Sandy felt tears forming, and he let them. He knew this may very well be the last time he would ever see his sister, and much as he hated it, much as he wanted to hold her and never let go, he knew it was for the best.

He leaned in and hugged her, and that's when the tears really came. She sobbed in his shoulder, and he silently let the tears stream down his face. He knew she couldn't hear him, but he nonetheless mouthed into her ear the words 'I'll always be with you sis'.

After a few minutes of this, they dried their faces, payed the bill, and walked out of the bar as though the whole ordeal had never even happened.

"And now, the winner! Of the 31st annual International Battle of the Bands is..."

There was a drumroll, then a silence, as everyone excitedly and nervously awaited the announcement. Aster was biting his lip, fingers crossed. Jack had never seen him so anxious about anything before. Tooth had her hands clasped together, eyes closed, lips pressed together. Nick has gripped his hands together and was staring at them intently. Backstage, Manny was pacing back and forth muttering 'Come on, come on...'

Jack hand his hands clenched in fists, uttering silent 'please'es. Sandy on the other hand, didn't even seem to be paying attention. He was staring at his feet, blank expression, lost deep in though.

"The Guardians!"

The audience erupted into a deafening applause and cheered louder than ever before during the competition. The guardians smiled hugely, Tooth jumped right in the air and ran to hug Aster tightly, squealing happily. Aster's smile was so big, Jack didn't even know he could physically look that excited. Sandy smiled hugely too, silently laughing happily. Nick laughed, and wiped a single tear of happiness from his eye. Jack cheered and fist-pumped, running to hug Aster and Tooth. It soon turned into an onstage group hug, all of them laughing happily and even shedding a few tears of joy. Backstage, Manny cheered loudly, yelling 'That's my BAND!' and running out onstage to join in the hug.

Of course the audience loved it, and cheered louder.

After several minutes of onstage celebration, they walked up to the mic, still smiling widely and wiping a few tears.

Tooth took the mic to say a few words.

"T-Thank you all so much, for voting for us. This, this is huge I-I" she sniffled a bit, drying another tear.

"We're so thankful, for the amazing support we've gotten from everyone, all of our fans, we love you all! Thank you!" She stepped away as the audience cheered again, more tears coming, and they finally exited the stage.

One back stage, Tooth's smile doubled in size as she squealed uncontrollably, leaping into Aster's arms. Her uncontrolled joy was contagious, smiles soon plastered on everyone's faces, as they cheered and danced around in their room backstage.

Everyone was so busy celebrating that they didn't even notice the note slipped under the door.

After they had danced around backstage, Nick had gotten the idea that they should go out to celebrate.

So here they were, in the same bar Sandy had met with his sister in merely hours ago. He tried however not to think of the exchange he had had, and to focus on the reason they were, to have fun and celebrate their victory.

It was late now, and the only people left in the establishment aside from the guardians were the night owls.

"Aster you no drink enough, come come, have some." Nick, who was holding a bottle of vodka, gestured towards Aster, beckoning him as he poured two shots.

"N-Naw thanks mate, I-I don't think I should..." Aster replied, glancing around nervously.

"Oh come on Aster don't be such a joy kill, we're celebrating! Remember?" Tooth called, drinking from her glass.

"Yeah Aster come on, even Manny's drinking!" Jack joined in, gesturing over to the manager, who was sipping on spiked apple cider.

Even Sandy raised his glass slightly, as if saying 'join us'.

Aster looked reluctant, but finally gave in, and took the glass from Nick.

The others cheered as he downed it.

"Woah, mate that's strong!" Everyone laughed and they all drank a bit more. It didn't take long for Aster to seemingly lose all sense of right and wrong, or at least his public decency.

Before anyone could comprehend, Jack and Aster were suddenly at the karaoke machine in the corner, singing 'I Will Always Love You'.

"AND IIIIEIIIIII WILLL ALWAYS LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!" Slurred Aster into the microphone as he falsely gazed at Jack romantically, launching everyone else into a laughing fit.

Jack giggled hysterically as he attempted to respond, doubling over into drunken laughter every time he tried to sing a word.

They continued this long into the night, until the manager finally kicked them out. Lucky they were sober enough to make it to the hotel.

The next morning Jack was awoken by a frantic banging on the door, follow by cries of hysteria from Tooth.

Haphazardly throwing on a robe and tying it loosely around his waist, he dragged his feet over to the door, rubbing his eyes as he swung it open.

Upon doing so his expression faded from tired confusion to worry, as he was greeted face-to-face with a tear-stricken Tooth, eyes red and puffy from crying, clearly for a while.

How long had they been trying to wake him?

Behind her was Aster with the most worried expression Jack had ever seen. Nick and Manny were there too, both looking very anxious.

"G-Guys? Oh my god what happened?" Jack stuttered out.

Tooth rubbed her eyes in a desperate attempt to slow her tears, but only succeeded in chocking back a couple of sobs.

"I-It's Sandy...H-He's...gone..."

The guardians were seated in the living area of Jack's hotel room, Tooth still crying, now clutching a rapidly-disappearing pile of tissues.

Jack clutched his face in his hands, shaking his head.

Sandy? Gone? It doesn't make sense...

"So let me get this straight. Sandy took off in the middle of the night, and all he left was a note saying he had gone after Pitch?"

Manny nodded, holding up the note.

Jack narrowed his eyes.

Why would Sandy do this? What motive did he have?

"Aster, can you read the note?" Questioned Jack. He needed to hear it for himself.

Aster nodded, taking the note from Manny before reading it.

"Dear treasured friends:

It pains me to say than I have to leave. More specifically, I have ta leave to pursue Pitch Black. He has taken something very dear to me and it is simply crewcial I retrieve it. I'm sorry to simply take off like this, especially afte our victoy against him. With any luck, you will hear from me in the future. Until then, please enjoy the victory event with me and take car. To meeting again, Sandy."

Aster set the note down, a sad look on his face. Tooth continued sobbing, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Once again, Jack buried his face in his hands, letting out a groan.

"This doesn't make sense! Why would he just leave like that?"

"I don't know mate, but must've been pretty important eh?" Responded Aster, a look of sadness, but also acceptance upon his face.

"But the letter! It barely made sense! Like what was with all those words?"

Questioned Jack, refusing to accept the situation.

"He was probably in a hurry to write et so he shortened words in the message." Stated Aster simply. "Perfectly normal ta misspell a few things."

At that statement, Tooth, who had barely heard the letter due to her crying, brought her head up.

"Wait did you say he misspelled words? Sandy never misspells words. If he messes up, he goes back and corrects it. It's how he mentally makes up for being unable to speak."

Jack stared at her, eyes widening.

"Well, he definitely misspelled words here..." Stated Aster, looking at the paper again.

"What?! Let me see that..." Tooth narrowed her eyes questioning lay and snatched the paper away, her gaze examining the words. After about five minutes of this, she let out a gasp and shot her head up to look at the others, eyes wide.

"Someone get me a pencil and paper right now!"

Nick quickly scrambled to comply to her request, grabbing a paper pad with the hotel logo on it and a matching pen from the desk, handing them to Tooth who abruptly snatched them.

Faster than the eye could see, she began furiously alternating between rereading the note left by their friend, and scribbling down letters so roughly she nearly tore the pad. After about five minutes of this, her head shot straight up, eyes wide.

"I knew it! Guys, look!"

She gestured rapidly at her paper as the others scrambled to sit around her.

"Sandy never misspells or incorrectly used words in sentences, it's very important to him that his penmanship is spot-on. So when Aster said he messed up a bunch of stuff, I guessed something was up. And I was right!"

On the note, Tooth had carefully underlined the missiles words, and on the pad of paper, had correctly spelled them.

"I noticed that a lot of words didn't make sense in the context they were being used in, or had extra letters or were spelled oddly. Sandy would never do something like that, unless it was on purpose. And now that I've written down the way the words _should_ be spelled, the missing or replaced letters make a code!"

Everyone's eyes widened, as they leaned in to read what Tooth had written. She had copied the odd words from the note, and correctly spelled them, writing the letter missing from the correct spelling above, spelling out...a message.

"Basically, Sandy wrote the word 'than' but in the sentence it doesn't make sense. So I thought, what word does make sense? The word 'that' makes sense! And I realized, if I replaced the 'n' with a 't' I got the word I wanted. Which made me look to see if this was a pattern, which it is! I started writing down the correct letters from the words, and look at the message it spells!"

Tooth ecstatically gestured at the messy handwriting, but even with the sloppiness, the code she was talking about was clearly visible. Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the small crowd.

"Well I'll be, she's right!" Exclaimed Aster.

"But what does it mean?" Inquired Manny.

Jack stared intently at the deciphered message, tour route. What could that mean?

"What's he talkin about, 'tour route'?"

Voiced Aster, he wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, but if anyone had an answer he'd gladly accept it.

Suddenly Manny stood up, eyes wide.

"How did I not see it sooner? Tour route! A few days ago me and Sandy were talking about a possible road should the band go on tour. We decided on a few cities that we could stop in."

Everyone was wide-eyed, taking in the words their manager was telling them.

"What was the first city?" Asked Nick.

A shocked, quickly dismissed, look crossed Manny's face as answered.

"Denver, Colorado."

"You're sure about this Manny?" Asked Jack, taking in the very idea.

"Positive."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Tooth's face lit up with a grin.

"Well guys, looks like we're going on tour after all!"

The End

Yup. That concludes RotRnR. I'm sorry I suck at endings. BUT, the story is NOT OVER. That's where you guys come in. I can either write a sequel where the guardians go on tour in search of Sandy, OR I can write an origin story for Sandy, explaining his backstory and family past. Whichever you guys choose, it probably won't come out for quite a while, but I really hope you guys liked the story. Thank you so much to all the fans, and the wonderful feedback and nice messages. I never expected this story to get as popular as it did and I'm sorry for all the time I just disappeared. Thank you for sticking by me, I love all of you 3

~Miriam-Luvs-Chocolate