Before we start, guys, thank you so much for your 1000+ reviews! My mouth is still making weird noises since it is a number I thought I'd never reach since I was twelve, and I don't know what possesses you guys to share your thoughts with me haha. But for every reaction and size of a review you left along the way (gastronomically big and wonderfully small), I am amazed and very honored at the time you set aside to tell me. (: I'm happy that you're enjoying Project Guardian with me and for everything you guys ever share with me, I really, truly appreciate it :3 Btw, I loved your hilarious responses to the last chapter haha. And oh second, I've been told that SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) bill is returning to try to shut down sites like this to prevent people from copyrighting issues. :p If you're interested, look more into it and be aware that there are petitions going up again to stop this taking of free speech from happening to other writers, artists, and designers. I signed against it before in the past and I'll do it again. You can ask Sol and G'syr for more info or to join. Fight the power! Lol okay, now back to this. Let the cliffhanger of doom begin.
"We could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke."
I don't have some amazing gift.
I don't...I...
"Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang…Nong hei kun chang rue plaow..."
Tooth dreamt she was looking out a window down at all these houses.
Every tiny house looked like they sat on each other and when it boring to just stare, she started to hum sing some old Thai song to pass the time.
"Chang mun tua toh mai bow..."
That was when she realised she was eight years old again...but at least the air was warm and breezy and the stars were out. She could even still hear far down the hill, listening to people still saying goodnight to each other.
At least, it sounded like it – they were all speaking in Spanish, and Tooth panicked because she realised that for the first time, she couldn't understand them.
But she kept on singing and her voice was still high.
"Tina? Time to sleep!"
Suddenly, Tooth's lips moved on their own. "W-Wait, sir! I have to make a wish on that star for Phi (older sister)."
And suddenly, big tears rolled down her cheek before she wiped it away.
"M-Merry Christmas, Toothie..."
Tooth felt like her heart was going to explode.
Then the dream changed.
"Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang…Nong hei kun chang rue plaow..."
Tooth felt herself grow smaller, feeling tinier than ever, feeling almost six. She was sitting on a rug on the floor, playing with a doll. Her voice was even higher, more innocent, and her words were still barely pronounceable.
"Chang mun tua toh mai bow...Jamook yaow yaow, ria wa–" Just then, a sound made her turn her head.
Dropping the toy, Tooth felt herself get up and move to the window. Her eyes were all dried up from crying the night before but she was hungry for lunch and stayed silent while she waited.
Once she got to the window, Tooth stood on her tiptoes to poke her head over the windowsill and peeked up at the tree branch hanging across from her.
Out of nowhere, a giant long-tailed bat swung upside down on the branch.
She felt herself scream and run away.
"Aaahhh–AAAAHHHHH!"
Then out of nowhere, Tooth found herself on a medical table in a hospital room.
Or at least, she thought she was.
"W-Wh-Where's Tooth?" she heard herself say in a raspy voice.
When she blinked, she saw a bright light over her head.
"H-Haaah...I-I don't know, Tiana," she felt herself say in a higher voice. Eerily fast, the view suddenly changed and Tooth was staring at a only door across the room – she saw another girl's foot. "Sh...She never came."
"M-Maybe..." and her voice was deeper this time, sighing from exhaustion. When Tooth blinked, she was closer to the door and saw a chart with all her sisters' finished diagrams tacked to a wall. They were made up of her precious photographs. "Maybe she's wi...wi'h the othe..."
"Ple-Please stay with us, Tia!" Tooth gasped from the last bed close to the wall. She felt her head move defiantly and that's when Tooth realised – it wasn't actually her who was dreaming...
She was–
"Tat?" And Tooth was back in the first head seeing through the first girl's blurry eyes, trying desperately to see what she was seeing. "Ar-Are yo..."
"No, No Ti, I'm...Tiana!" the girl quickly barked and when Tooth blinked, she was looking through the third girl's eyes again.
There were only three girls in the room, she realised... and they all sounded like–
"You have to stay awake, o-okay?"
She heard Tiana sob from the other side of the room.
"Bu-But I'm so...I-I'm so tired..."
"No, sweet, hang on!" the second girl, Tia, said. "Listen to BT! You have to!"
"B-But...But why?"
"Otherwise they'll take you while you–"
Immediately, the door opened and Tooth was back looking through Tia's eyes.
Four people in lab coats were wheeling in two beds, with two other little girls. The first one was groaning with a gash on her head. Tooth read the name on her bed as she passed Tia's line of vision.
"Theena!?" she heard herself gasp...or no, it was Tia's gasp. "Y-You're here too? But we th..."
With a broken heart though, Theena was unconscious and didn't say a word. The scientists kept pushing her to the other end of the room.
Then, the next bed with the second girl came into view.
But the minute her face caught under the lights, all three girls screamed and cried at once.
"T-T...TU–"
"TOOLS!"
"T-Tulia , wh-what did they do?...WHAT DID THEY DO?!"
"Hush them up! Or Pitch will–"
Yet the damage was already done...Tooth had seen Tulia's face.
The youngest of the four girls, Tulia's arm was white and her face was purpling and weird growths were sprouting at the crown of her head.
"T-Tu...Tuli…"
Suddenly, a loud explosion somewhere far away made the entire room shake a little.
A scream wretched itself from Tia's lips and Tooth saw everything grew blurry.
Then Pitch's voice echoed through the open door...faint, hellish, but positively maniacal.
"...Hahaha!..." his deep, English reverberated and almost immediately, what sounded like a large group of men miles away started screaming in pain.
"...don't fight the fear, little man!"
...
"NOO!"
Jack woke up as Tooth shouted awake from her nightmare, throwing her head up in night sweats.
He sat up instantly beside her and with a dark look, he gazed around the room – but there was no one there. It was still dark and the wind continued to howl outside.
But he heard light gasping beside him.
Dropping his murderous face, he looked wide-eyed at Toothiana in fear.
"Tooth?" he whispered urgently.
She didn't move, her shoulders were slightly hunched in waking terror and her hands clutched the bedsheets.
Jack didn't like it and called out to her in the dark again.
"Tooth...Toothiana."
He leaned out in front of her to catch her face. By the light of the window, his blue eyes saw the light dance across her expression. She stared ahead, mouth slightly open like she was seeing something else.
Jack narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering if she was still asleep – but then her head started to turn all around the room. He heard her frantic heartbeat and her mouth mumble incoherently.
"Where'd they…No, no, no, no! But I–"
Jack rushed forward and gently grabbed her shoulders.
"Tooth!"
And when she turned to look at something behind him, hearing his voice, he paused.
His eyebrows shot up on his forehead at the sight of her eyes. He pushed her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek.
"Tooth, what's...What's wrong?!"
He could've sworn – no, he'd seen it.
He'd seen it...her pink eyes...a light reflected on them, running over her irises, then vanishing just as quickly.
Jack was stunned.
Was the light from the window? But she was facing away from it, looking behind him into the dark. So how could they reflect a flicker of light on their own?
A moment later though, it was over.
Tooth blinked and felt as if she'd been tossed back into her own body. She turned her head away from Jack slowly – but by then her hands were shaking and her eyes were wide with fear.
Jack didn't say anything, his hands frozen on her face and shoulder.
He merely let the silence weigh out until she was ready to speak, until she could explain it to herself. He could tell by her expression that this had never happened to her before either.
He let his right hand drop from her as she fell quiet.
But when she looked at the end of the bed and brought her gaze up ahead of her, her face was severe.
"I knew it..." she whispered to herself with a deep-set frown. "I...I think I..."
Jack frowned, controlling his patience. "Knew what, Tooth?"
And she tossed her eyes at him before she looked forward again.
"I... I finally discovered the ability I got from the Center Gene," she answered and pushed a hand into her hair. "I...I-I...I can see what my sisters are seeing."
Jack's forehead creased. "You can...see what they're seeing?"
Tooth nodded slowly.
"And you know the scariest part is...I-I think I always have."
Jack shut his mouth as he watched her move her shaky hands to clasp together in her lap. She exhaled.
"I thought it was just intuition," she explained softly as she kept looking forward. "O-Or a coincidence that maybe I knew or could imagine what they were always up to, what they were saying, since we were all so close...but what I just saw..."
Tooth's grip tightened on herself. She glared back at the bed and shook her head.
"What I just saw...I would've never…It was too real...It was cruel."
Jack pushed himself into a more sturdy position beside her before he leaned down to look at Tooth again. His gaze was serious, almost as serious as hers.
"What did you see?" he asked deeply.
Toothiana exhaled and pushed her hair behind her ear.
"I dreamt...no, I saw, the four that were already kidnapped. I-In a holding room."
Jack's eyes grew wide.
Tooth continued to quiver and tighten her fists until it turned white.
"A-And there were beds!" she gasped. "And m-my photographs pinned up to show the d...but they were all talking and I kept..."
She rubbed her eyes.
"I-I kept blinking and jumping between each of...I was Tiana, th-then Tat, then Tia and there was a–"
When she stopped abruptly, Jack leaned down further to catch her face again, even hoping that her eyes would shine again.
"Tooth, what?"
She shook her head a little and gazed up at him. She gulped soundly.
"Pitch has them, Jack," she whispered shakily. "Six of them. Even Theena and I only..."
Jack's eyes grew wide as she rubbed her eye again. That's when he realised she wasn't rubbing it because she was tired...she was trying to stop her tears from showing.
Tooth gritted her teeth bitterly and looked down between them.
"He's already captured more than half of them!" she bit out soft but angry. "And that's not the worst of it. I..."
She hiccuped.
"I think they...I think they already started experimenting on...because Tulia, she–"
"Hey, hey!" Jack moved his hand down from her shoulder to grab her hand. "Look at me."
Tooth instantly stopped and threw her gaze up at him.
When she did, Jack saw her pink irises (trapped in her puffy red eyes) reflect a quick light again and heard her breath shudder.
"What's g...na happen to Toothie?" she heard Tiana gasp and saw through BT's eyes that the scientists were moving in to check on her.
"Shh...Ti...don...don't talk just..." Tatiana whispered ever so gently, but Tooth saw her vision sting with tears and the scientists grew blurry.
When Toothiana pulled her mind away urgently, Jack's face came back. She kept her gaze frozen on his angular, darkened features, trying not to get pulled away again.
"Do you see me?" he asked again and Tooth nodded with a determined gasp for air.
"Y-Yeah, I...I see you," she exhaled and shut her eyes. Jack squeezed her hand.
"Can you see through all five of their eyes?"
"Everyone's except Theena's," she informed. "B-But I think it was because she was unconscious when they rolled her in...M-My sisters are in trouble, Jack!"
"I know, Tooth," he said softly and he pulled her head up.
"But look, you found your gift...the gift that's gonna save them."
Tooth pulled her eyes back up to his.
"You're telepathically linked to all of them, aren't you?" he finally stated and when they locked gazes, she nodded determinedly.
"It's gotta be a result of you being born with the Gene, and the company cloning you."
"And it explains why I've seen weird flashes of them all the time," she finished, before she suddenly blinked.
That's when she realised something.
Looking back on all the weird visions she had since her kidnapping, it made sense and she didn't have to call it a coincidence anymore.
Nothing was coincidence for Tooth anymore.
When she was tied up in Pitch's warehouse, she had her first vision of one sister being placed on a cool, metal table and screaming – it had been Tatiana. She was kidnapped the same night Tooth was and they must've been sedating her in the other part of the warehouse while Tooth was bound to a pole. The tooth box that Jack lost in Belarus was no doubt BT's, and when they found out she'd be with Tooth at the Bangkok development gala, that's when they decided to kidnap the handmaiden – Tooth had just been a consolation prize until later.
Next, was the nightmare she had the night she and Jack were hiding in the hotel. She dreamt she was Theena, and that she and the sisters were separating under the Hypunjam palace tunnels with their corresponding ELF guards – but they really had been separating and she was seeing it happen.
Then, she remembered the nightmare she had on the plane as she and Jack left Vietnam for Russia. She dreamt of another sister getting kidnapped in Ecuador with a Nightmare throwing a bag over her head – and it really had been Tulia.
Tooth's heart pounded with fear.
Not to forget, she imagined Tiana getting pushed into that black van after the grenade ambush at the Wales penthouse...and Tia tripping as she and her ELF ran under a tunnel in Turkey after she slept on the plane for Buffalo.
It had all really happened...even poor Theena who thought she'd been safe hiding in South Africa with her ELF – only to find him dead by the creek two hours later.
She covered her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I-I do have a gift...I do have a mental link with them," Tooth mumbled. "And I never really..."
When she looked up at Jack, she found his face was unreadable. She frowned to herself.
"But why didn't the company founder mention it?" she murmured and Jack's focus was back on her.
She shook her head.
"Why didn't he...W-Why didn't he say anything? Why didn't my nanny?" she bit her lip. "If Mr. Sanderson knew, and was sharing all this information with the company for years...And why didn't North even mention it?"
"I don't think he knew," Jack said. "I don't think anyone knew...unless you mentioned it."
Tooth looked up at him.
"I didn't...Not until now."
And Jack nodded slowly.
"So that means you're the only one who knows it exists."
"And you..." Tooth looked at him for a long moment just trying to let it all sink in.
The Center Gene had blessed her with a gift – one that kept her as close to her sisters as she still could. No one, not even the closest people around them, knew it. And this was a card in their favour, against the company's supposed intelligence into everything and Pitch's war.
Jack gripped her hand.
"And what about your sisters?" he asked as she looked down thoughtfully. "Do they sense you? Can they hear you if...if you called out?"
Tooth bit her lip.
"No, I don't think so," she answered and shut her eyes. "Otherwise they would've said something a long time ago."
Jack watched as she briefly paused for a minute.
Tooth tried to scream a Can you hear me?! in her head. When nothing happened however, she opened her jeweled orbs again and frowned up him.
Jack mirrored her expression when she shook her head and sighed under her breath.
"But i-it's okay, I guess..." she mumbled back to Jack. "I don't know what I'd do if I found out I'm the one who caused them more trouble. I'd rather protect them without them knowing it."
And that was very reminiscent of Jack's oath to Emma.
Jack looked around the room with a calculative glare.
"Well then," he whispered, and then smirked lightly at her under the blanket of darkness. "Let's use it our advantage."
Tooth blinked for a second but after he gave a quick nod, she nodded back.
"They have five sisters," he continued as she let go of his hand and sat facing forward again. "But there's still three out there."
"But the Nightmare that chased us earlier grabbed the sixth tooth box so we–"
"What?!"
She jumped a mile in the air.
"Jack! Shh!"
"No, what're you–"
"Will you relax?!" she huffed as she put herself into a comfortable cross-legged position.
Jack's eyebrows knitted together.
"What Nightmare?!" he hissed.
When Tooth looked at him like he was crazy, she stopped instantly. She frowned as Aster's car chase came back to the forefront of her mind and nearly killed them all. She bit her lip.
"It's okay, Jack," she mumbled. "You were suffering from the bleeding effect, you didn't–"
"There was a car chase and I didn't know?!" he whispered urgently. "You mean, we could've–"
"Jack, calm down!" Tooth snapped. "Edmund got us out! He was a GUARDIAN for a reason too, remember?"
And after thinking about how bunny brain could've even pulled it off, he realised Tooth was right. Jack ran a hand through his hair.
"Okay," he sighed. "Okay fine, sorry. I believe you."
She patted his shoulder.
"Besides," she added. "You weren't completely useless."
And when she threw a tiny smile, Jack stopped beating himself up about his mental poisoning that could've cost them their lives. He blinked for a second then nodded, a tiny smile creeping on his lips too.
Tooth wouldn't have added that unless he'd done something to amaze and freak her out as usual.
When she saw the color return to his face (or as little as there could be), she went back to their earlier urgency.
Her hands were still fumbling in her lap.
"The Nightmare took Tuhina's case," she exhaled shakily. "So I'm gonna...I-I'm gonna try to find where she is, and make sure she's alright. If she's close by...maybe we can beat the Nightmares to her and her ELF...m-maybe try to rescue her?"
Jack nodded and sat silently beside her. He didn't say anything but her words brought back their failed attempt at trying to rescue Tiana the night before when she was in England. But it was worth a shot – and at this point, he'd do anything for Toothiana and would shove any stick up Pitch's ass just to make him mad.
After Tooth settled into the sheets, she sighed nervously and pushed her hair behind both her ears. Her golden yellow streak glinted in the window's light. Jack's forehead creased worriedly when she shot him a nervous look.
"How do you do it?" she asked, talking about the gene. "How do you make it work when you want it to? Because it's only worked for me when I sleep or when I vaguely imagine a sister at one time."
Jack bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at his right hand. He flexed his fingers thoughtfully before he looked at her.
"You want me to help?"
Tooth nodded and he blinked before he started to move in the bed again.
"Okay," he started and threw a glance. "Face me so I can see."
The two of them then kneeled on the bed facing one another. For a moment, Tooth felt cold being away from the warm bedsheet and feeling the winter chill pass through her clothes. But when Jack's warm gaze bore supportively into hers, she pushed the thought away.
When they both finished shifting around and both comfortable, Jack frowned a little, unsure of how to start explaining something that was instinctual, second nature to him for so long.
When she looked up, he lifted his hands to touch her face.
A second later though, his hand froze because when his fingertips were almost an inch coming into contact with her skin...Tooth pulled away a little.
He looked down at her anxiously.
"Sorry," she apologized with a faint blush. "I-It's just that every time we touch...it's like...uhm..."
She lifted her hands and made a shooting gesture with her fingers and weird noises under her breath – but he got it.
Tooth rolled her lips inward and gave a shy expression.
"R...right," Jack faltered for a moment on his words and looked sideways. "Wouldn't...uh, wouldn't want that."
That's when Tooth noticed his ears turn pink in the light of the window.
Despite herself, she felt her heart race.
"This might be harder to explain then verbally," Jack kept muttering to himself and tried to avoid suddenly how close he realised they were again. "But I can manage...I always do, right?"
But when he looked down, Tooth closed her eyes and shook her head a little with a slight smile.
She quickly reached up and grabbed his hands, bringing them down to her face. When his hands were pressed to her skin and that tingle fluttered between them, she exhaled nervously.
"I-It's okay," Tooth mumbled. "We'll get used to it."
Jack did nothing for a long moment...but after a few more seconds, he relaxed and pressed his palms firm against her cheeks.
"Maybe."
Tooth leaned slightly into his cool touch and held one hand over his as the other clutched the sheets.
"Okay, teacher," she encouraged and looked up at him steady before bringing her head down again. "What do I...W-What do I do?"
Jack nodded, then he started with a serious gaze and a serious tone.
"Relax your mind," he said calm and deeply. "And just wait for something to brush your senses."
Tooth nodded slowly, letting Jack's deep voice float through her ears in the dark.
"When you feel that tingle across your skin, that sensation...that's the gene, alive and awake in your bones."
Tooth exhaled softly and let her grip on the bed sheet loosen.
"Then just find what you want with it, in your head, and reach out to it. Reach out to its energy."
Jack's fingers flexed gently over her cheek and Tooth suddenly felt something cold slither around her skin.
"You feel anything?" Jack asked and she nodded.
"Yeah," she frowned.
He scowled. "Sorry...all I can do is make you cold."
"Jack, I would've complained a long time ago if I didn't...wait, that didn't come out right!"
Jack lifted a teasing eyebrow even though she couldn't see it.
He felt her skin warm suddenly under his palms...and he liked it.
"Right...well, it's supposed to feel cold. For me, anyway. It's what I feel when I activate my gene, but I can't really so...thanks for mentioning."
Then he grabbed a weak current of cold air floating through the room and made the breeze expand, and Tooth felt that familiar cold, electrical chill move through her rather than around. She inhaled sharply, eyes still shut tight. She imagined it to be what it would feel like if it was snowing in the room.
"Wow..." she whispered and Jack nodded.
"That is my Center," he said. "...but what is yours?"
She shrugged with a frown.
"I don't know…"
"Just try, Tooth...Find that flare."
But it was sorta hard when all she could think about was his energy coursing through her, not her own.
On the bright side though (as Tooth grasped both his hands firmly), that awkward, violent jolt she always felt when she and Jack accidentally touched was going away. It was like her body was growing used to their center genes always sparking each other so that it started to become more of a tingle.
She sighed tiredly and Jack's eyebrows furrowed together.
"I'm...I'm gonna picture them," she stated softly.
"Alright," he mumbled. "Don't worry I'm right here."
Then she nodded and started to imagine her sisters, one by one.
She picked up on Tatiana's mind and moved onto another sister. When it was Tulia, weak and in pain, she bit her lip and tried her hardest not to stay and give her invisible comfort. She then felt Tia and suddenly–
Jack watched Tooth's eyelids fly open.
He stopped flexing his fingers.
"You still feel me, Tooth?" Jack asked. Her mouth fell a little open slightly as her irises moved around the room widely.
"Yeah...I know you're still here...a-and I see her," Tooth mumbled to Jack.
He decided to let go of her face gently, and then he saw it...that subtle reflection of light dance across her eyes, before it flickered away.
It was her gene, lighting up and shining inside her, awakened for the first time and many more times to come.
He'd never seen something so brilliant.
It was just another thing to cherish about Tooth, but he bottled it up for the moment and kept his supportive gaze on her.
"That's great, Tooth!" he encouraged as he pushed her hair for her behind her ear again. "What else?"
"She's uh...She's–"
Tooth saw through Tuhina's eyes and felt her little sister blink rapidly. Tooth stared into a floor length (slightly dirty )mirror and stood. It was in front of her and through Tuhina's turquoise eyes, she watched her ten-year-old little handmaiden braid her one of her own messy pigtails.
Tooth smiled breathlessly.
"Sh-She's okay!" she reassured Jack and continued to stare. "So far, she's okay...she's okay..."
Tooth blinked and watched the mirror disappear as Tuhina turned her head and walked around the tiny bedroom. Through her eyes, Tooth saw a bed and her sister's tiny feet float around before she went to lift various things.
"I-I see a...a bed," Tooth tilted her head and kept blinking into the dark. "And she's picking up a pencil...It's pink."
Tooth pursed her lips sadly.
Tuhina always liked to draw. She was the most artsy of the eight girls. It made her miss her more.
When Tooth blinked again, she watched Tuhina's tiny hand reach out of view to grab what sounded like paper. And when it came into view, her heart nearly wept.
On the paper was a crudely drawn picture of all eight identical girls with different hairstyles – and Tooth was in the center, bigger than the rest with a red heart on her dress and a big smile. As her eyes grew watery, she watched the image get carried to table before Tuhina tried to climb herself onto a chair.
"She's...She's drawing a picture..." Tooth mumbled and Jack knew that whatever she was seeing was probably worse than reliving memory because it was happening in real-time.
But there was a smile on her face, so it made the little disheveled part of him smile slightly too.
"Of what?" he asked gently. "Who?"
Tooth watched hands suddenly appear under Tuhina's gaze and the pink pencil move hard at work to finish coloring in her eyes.
"Me..." she chuckled sadly. "A-And the others."
When Tuhina finished a few seconds later, she turned her head to look out the window.
Tooth's eyes suddenly grew wide.
"She just looked out the window," she stated and Jack was back on par.
"What does she see?"
Tooth's lips moved instantly.
"Sunrise," she told him. "A-And there's a clock beside the bed...5:41 a.m."
Jack immediately went into spy mode and calculated the time differences in his head. His eyebrows furrowed together.
"That's seven hours ahead of us," he mumbled, blue eyes flitting downwards acutely. "Sunrise at five...That's gotta be in Europe. Baltic region, maybe."
He immediately shot his eyes up again at Tooth.
"She's in Europe, Tooth. Do you see any landmarks?" he asked quickly. "Words? A flag? What does she hear?"
Tooth shook her head, pink eyes giving off their continuous sheen.
"Not from what I can see. She's alone," the princess stated and Tooth watched as the window moved away as Tuhina looked back down to her drawing. "I don't hear any voices and no one's come yet."
Suddenly, Tooth watched as Tuhina's hand dropped the pink pencil and moved her hands across the table.
"Wait, hang on," Tooth rose a hand like she was going to grab something too. Jack paused and waited.
"She's grabbing something on the table."
Tooth watched Tuhina then lift a couple papers away and pulled out a what looked like a postcard. Her eyes grew wide.
"Sh-She's got a postcard!" she gasped almost excitedly and even Jack leaned in close to Tooth, urgent and ready.
Tooth tilted her head down as Tuhina did the same. Tiny hands rubbed the picture on the front before she flipped it over and started 'Dear Toothie' writing on the lines with the pink pencil.
Tooth wretched her gaze from reading the handmaiden's words and looked all around the postcard for clues.
"There's a flag, Jack," she said. "Three horizontal stripes, blue, black, and white."
The brunette furrowed his eyebrows. He knew that flag but for the life of him, he couldn't remember it at the moment.
"Uh, I..."
"No, wait!"
Jack stopped when Tooth blinked again and rose her hands. Tuhina moved her hands away as she was finished writing and in the corner of the postcard she read–
"With love from Tallinn, Tuhina," she mumbled and Jack's eyes grew wide.
"Tallinn..." he repeated. "Capital city of...Estonia. She's in Estonia, Tooth."
How Jack knew that, Tooth would never know (a spy thing, most likely) but she smiled and continued to watch through Tuhina's eyes as she put the postcard away and folded the picture on top of it.
But suddenly–
Slam!
When Tuhina turned her head, Tooth watched a frantic looking ELF bust into the room.
He looked tired but otherwise relieved under his hood.
Tuhina's hand waved at him.
"Ready to go, kleintjie (little one)?" the ELF said in his strong accent and Toothiana watched the room bop up and down as Tuhina nodded.
"Will we be safer in the church?" Tuhina asked and Tooth blinked as the ELF nodded.
"Yes," he said and held out a hand for her and her things. Tuhina clambered off the chair with the drawing and her postcard. As she grabbed her coat, the ELF started speaking again.
"Remember where?" he asked and she nodded proudly and recited the address.
"Maces Bay, New Brunswick! Maces Bay, New Brunswick!"
"And the time?"
"Tomorrow at lunch!"
The ELF then smiled with a brilliant set of white teeth against his dark chocolate skin before he put a finger to his lips.
"But remember, do not tell the people downstairs! It is a secret," he said quickly. "Your other sisters are compromised and so are you."
"Compromised?" Tuhina repeated then she blinked with a frown. "Oh, you mean in danger!"
And the ELF nodded. "So the church will protect you! But no one can know, kleintjie, okay?"
And Tuhina nodded bravely. "You're a much nicer ELF than the other one," she smiled and he smiled again before he took her hand and led her out to the door.
"Let us go!" he whispered urgently. "We have a plane to catch–"
Tooth was then smacked back into her own body again and gasped.
When she threw her head back a little, trying to soak it all in, Jack put a hand on her back to steady her.
"Th...Thanks," she heaved and looked back at him. "And they're on the move."
Jack blinked and narrowed his eyes, interest piquing.
"What do you mean?"
"The ELF knew about her stolen tooth box and that her location's been compromised," Tooth explained and put her head into her hands gratefully. "Thank god...so he came in and told Tuhina they were leaving for New Brunswick to hide her in a new secret location."
Jack's face softened slightly.
"Aster must've told North and called ahead," he guessed and Tooth nodded. When he looked down again, his face was still urgent but a little more hopeful.
"Did they say where in New Brunswick?"
"Y-Yeah," she answered. "Tuhina said 'Maces Bay'...They're hiding in a church. And they need to be there tomorrow by lunch so I'm guessing that's twelve on the dot."
After a moment of looking at each other, Jack's jaw clenched tightly and he looked down sternly at her.
"If they're heading to New Brunswick that means they'll be up in Canada."
And when his words left his lips, Tooth tightened her hold on the bed again.
"Then I say we ditch the original plan to meet North and get her first," Tooth said and for once, Jack agreed.
"What about the other two?" Jack asked and Tooth remembered her fleeting memories.
She shook her head.
"Tiati was in New Zealand, I think," she said and rubbed her head. "In my dream, I saw the flag on a poster in her room...And from the sound of where Tina was, everyone was speaking Spanish..."
But when she tried to peek through Tina's eyes again, the eight-year-old was fast asleep so she couldn't see or hear anything. She didn't know that Tina was being sheltered in El Salvador.
"The ELFs probably haven't told them or know where to move them yet, but for now they're still safe," Tooth reassured Jack. "Hopefully they'll meet each other at a new rendezvous too if things go wrong."
'And I hope they DON'T,' she told herself.
So like a crack of lightning, Jack pulled himself up from the bed and started to grab his things.
"I can find us the fastest plane to New Brunswick if we leave now," he said, and Tooth was grateful for the edge in his tone because it meant he was returning to his sexy spy role again.
She pulled the sheets off her body and jumped out of the bed too.
"Thanks, Jack," she huffed and started to move around the hotel room to grab whatever needed to be shoved into her bag.
As Tooth crossed him at the familiar table where their kiss had gotten a little too hot to handle, she blushed – unaware that Jack was blushing too in the dark.
Jack didn't try to say anything as he pulled out the black turtleneck she threw in the laundry for him, but then Tooth appeared out of nowhere.
When he paused, she leaned up tentatively and she kissed his jaw (because that was as far as she could reach).
"Suit up, Spy Boy," she piped and floated away before he could look at her blushing face.
And Jack smirked back before he reached for a change of clothes again, heart racing.
...
Hotel parking lot, 10:49 p.m.
Christmas was over and the holiday feelings were done, but while everyone was sleeping off their winter joy, the ex-GUARDIAN and the princess-in-hiding had to leave it all behind and start their race again.
They grabbed everything they brought with them and Jack wiped away and destroyed any evidence that they'd been there. After he checked out, he used a egg scrambler Aster had given him to crash the hotel's electronic booking system and when it rebooted, every guest in the last twenty four hours who'd registered was gone from the database.
By the time, they were at the Shadow again, Toothiana's heart was fired up and Jack's fingers were flexing madly in the frigid winds. It blew his hair up and he was glad he gave Tooth his hoodie under her coat to cover her head as they crossed the parking lot.
Once Tooth tightened his backpack on her back and her bag on her shoulder, she and Jack looked out worriedly onto the dark roads ahead of them.
"How f-far is the North Philadelphia Airport?" she asked through chattering teeth as they held their helmets. Her purple scarf nearly hid her mouth.
Jack ran his gloved hand through his hair and zipped his brown leather jacket higher to his throat.
"I checked. It's not that far, but I'm gonna go slow to avoid any black ice, okay?" he said as he prepared to throw his leg over the bike.
"Th-That's okay!" she mumbled, already freezing.
Jack paused.
Without warning, he abruptly turned back to Tooth and gently held each side of her face.
He then dropped his forehead over hers to block out the icy snow blowing into her face.
"Are you gonna be okay?" he asked worriedly.
Tooth's cheeks bloomed red, but she nodded firmly under his hood and grasped each of his hands – it left him feeling so connected. Jack remembered how he always tried to wretch himself from Tooth's touch and tensed up bitterly whenever she got too near. But now, touching her was his favourite thing to do and having her close made his world. It made his spirit feel infinite and his insides curl pleasantly, and he was thankful for every second.
He never wanted to go back to the time when he thought and felt the opposite. Her voice finally spoke up against the wind.
"I-I should be asking you that," she murmured back but Jack exhaled softly. "How's your wound?"
"The biotic's working so don't worry," he replied. "I'll be okay...once we get to your sister."
Toothiana shut her eyes and leaned into his forehead more.
"Don't get cold."
He smirked down at her.
"I never am."
She chuckled weakly as Jack exhaled.
"...You ready?"
And when Tooth hummed in agreement, they both opened their eyes.
After a moment, he let go and mounted the bike. Tooth immediately jumped on behind him.
"Be careful," she called over the wind before she put on her helmet, and Jack nodded before putting on his own.
When he started the bike and let it burn heat for a few seconds, Tooth wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself tightly into his back.
And Jack placed his hand over hers.
...
Thirty minutes later, North Philadelphia Airport, 11:22 p.m.
By the light of the orange streets, white snow, and pale moonlight, Jack and Tooth got to the city's airport in safe and sound.
Yet even though they got there in a disheveled manner, with Tooth practically stuck to Jack's back and her head over his shoulder and her frostbitten fingers inside his pockets, the staff on site were not their biggest supporters.
It turned out that, according to the workers, the Sussex Aerodrome (New Brunswick's airport) was shut down for the day because a terrible blizzard was passing through most of the Canadian province, which meant no planes could fly in or out, so Jack and Tooth were stumped.
They worried for a while what would happen if they couldn't fly in soon and get to the church. Just because the ELF was moving her, didn't mean that the Nightmares wouldn't know – they could be tagged and the best course of action, the two realised, was to just beat both parties there and hope for the best.
But with the snowstorm cancelling all the flights, they didn't know how long they would take to actually reach Maces Bay.
Until Jack, being as resourceful as he always was (and nomadic as he'd always been), decided to use his charm and risked calling out for a favour.
A half-hour later, after the Shadow 750 was wiped clean and ditched in an outside parking lot, he and Tooth were pressed beside a humbly, quiet trucker who was making a delivery up to Sussex, New Brunswick with his eighteen-wheeler.
Jack convinced him that they needed to risk this hitchhike for the sake of a family member (which was partially true) and the man opted to let them join him. He never trusted anyone, hearing all those scary stories about hitchhikers who pretended to need help then running off with your money...but the brunette sounded desperate, and the girl he was bringing with him was sweet and tiny. So he decided that whatever crazy love mess they'd gotten themselves into was worth the chance – and hey, it was Christmas.
So for rest of the day, the two joined the nice trucker and sped hastily north to the Canadian border; with Tooth, hugging their bags and sleeping on Jack's shoulder next to the passenger door, while Jack sat in the middle (refusing to put Toothiana in the middle, in case the guy tried anything) and put his arm around her shoulders as she slept.
The church was her only beacon right now.
...
Twelve hours later, Boxing Day
Maces Bay, New Brunswick, Canada, 11:29 a.m.
"There you go, you two," the driver said as he stopped in the middle of Maces Bay en route to Sussex another hour away. "I hope you find what you're looking for."
"Thank you so much!" Tooth huffed after wishing him a Merry Christmas, then she hopped out of the giant truck and into the thick Maritime snow. The snowstorm had long past in the early hours of the day and while the two were a little anxious that they couldn't make it any sooner, it was still better than nothing.
"You're welcome, petite dame! (little lady!)" the trucker smiled and laughed a little when he and Jack heard her yelp as the snow almost swallowed her whole.
Jack immediately moved out to help her before the driver stopped him.
"And son?" he called as Jack turned his head over his shoulder. The man was actually good company the whole ride – he didn't say much but the conversations he and jack had while Tooth slept under his arm were pleasant.
Jack watched as the driver's rugged smile appeared on his face.
(French) "You take care of that woman, you hear me?" he said pointing out of the truck to where Tooth was cursing in English and Thai to herself.
When Jack heard, he rolled his eyes and threw the man a warm smile.
"Oui, monsieur," Jack replied and moved again out of the car. "And wish your wife and son 'Bonne Année' (Happy New Year) for me."
"I will, et Joyeux Noël à vous! (and Merry Christmas to you both!)"
Then Jack effortlessly jumped the high height from the truck to the ground. He gave Tooth a smirk when she gawked at how easy he'd done that before she crossed her arms.
"Show off," she muttered.
Then the two waved goodbye to the trucker as he started rolling his massive vehicle away. After this last delivery, then he could spend the last of the winter holidays with his family in Montreal – and Jack and Tooth were happy for him.
Once they were alone, Jack and Tooth held hands for warmth and quickly started searching for a service stop or something of the sorts that was open. Since it was Boxing Day, the businesses were open again and many people would be out to answer their questions.
But they didn't have to travel far to the find the only church capable of hiding an ELF and a clone. After gathering what little information they needed to know, they walked a long dirt road to the coast of the Bay.
The coast was huge and high and when they reach the very end, the cliff over the edge went down straight into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was beautiful as they heard it splash against the coastal wall and smelled the sea air float through the winter winds.
Jack's fingers flexed greatly and he gulped in a deep breath of the cold air. He'd been to Canada for a couple missions before during the winter seasons and he loved that the north wind was at his complete command when he did.
He felt so confident now and was almost itching to show Toothiana what he could do at his full potential.
But it wasn't the time, not when they had some people to beat.
Tooth suddenly lifted their joined hands and pointed at a building in the near distance. Jack's hood fluttered over her head like a billowing shield.
"Is that it?" she wheezed through a cold breath and Jack turned.
When they were both facing west, he saw it. There was a tiny building with a pointed bell tower made entirely of brick.
It looked worn down from the elements and the years of facing the ocean, but it was beautiful against the winter snow and the cliff.
"Yeah, that's gotta be the church," he answered and he gripped her hand before he started heading onto the second dirt path. "Come on."
As they stepped onto the road heading to the church, Jack and Tooth realised, it looked much worse than they'd originally thought. It looked like had been abandoned and was just a ghostly monument left there for tourists and passer-byers – and it made them suddenly wary.
What if the rendezvous really was secret? Would they jeopardise her handmaiden's safety by leaving their mark on this place too?
Tooth shot Jack a look, and he nodded, reading her train of thought. So lifting his empty hand, he flexed his fingers for a powerful torrent to meander through his fingers. Then when his gene prickled under his skin, Jack threw his whole arm out and a violent wind from the sea surged down ahead of them.
Under his control, Jack moved the north wind around him and Tooth, locking them in an air bubble as the winds blew heavily onto the snow down the road and up to the church.
It wiped all the light snow ahead from the dirt path, and as they walked, the wind behind them pushed the snow back onto their footprints and covered them completely. It even left a flourish of frost over thanks to the moist sea air around them that he dropped quickly in temperature.
Tooth's mouth fell open as she looked around them in awe – so that was why Jack was put in something called the Winter division. He could come and go with the wind like he wanted and wipe any trace that they were there. He could be anywhere and not leave a trace that people didn't already suspect as a force of nature.
But Jack was a force, all in himself. Powerful yet graceful, and not to be reckoned with.
It was amazing and as he continued to focus on his work, she squeezed his hand in support and remained silent.
…
Abandoned church, 11:51 a.m.
Once they reached the abandoned church, Jack broke the deadbolt on the front door and they moved inside. The wind instantly stopped rushing into her ears and Tooth pushed down Jack's hood from her face. Jack came up beside her and brushed snowflakes off the collar of his black turtleneck under his brown leather jacket. He stared at the poinsettia he'd given her resting in the part of her hair that she'd tied up – she was planning give it to Tuhina as a late Christmas present, which he was okay with since he knew he couldn't imagine Tooth not being her usual, beautiful, selfless-self.
Jack turned and shut the mighty oak door, letting the smell of that familiar incense that most churches had drift into his nostrils.
"It's e-empty," she stated as the two swept their pink and blue gazes around the grand (but rundown) one-room church. It looked like once upon a time, this church was probably the most beautiful structure in the area. But that must've been decades ago – now it was just a mausoleum of itself, and was the perfect place for clandestine events, cool, dark, and cavernous.
The two then threw their eyes up at the faded, eclectic stained glass windows before they held hands again.
Jack reached into his weapons belt and pulled out the LX rod Aster had given him and handed the other to Tooth. As they turned them on, they moved forward and gazed at everything warily. The dead world around them echoed under their boots.
"Tu...Tuhina?" Toothiana called softly, her voice bouncing off the walls and down the short corridors.
Jack furrowed his eyebrows.
"I don't think she's here yet, Tooth," he mumbled and he glared softly at the lonely altar left in the church. When he spoke, the warm air passed over his lips and fogged up his vision. Tooth's was worse though since she was of normal body temperature.
"W-Well, then I'm glad," she said. "It means we beat them and when she arrives, she'll see me...and not worry about how creepy this place is."
Jack nodded absentmindedly and pulled up his sleeve to glance down at the digital watch on his wrist that Aster left him.
"Yeah, we're early," he reassured her then peered down on short hallway before he threw his head up to the high ceilings and around in a large circle.
"But why would North want them to hide here?" he mumbled out loud, voicing the exact same thing as the princess. "It's too cold in here for a little girl...and it's out of the way. I don't get it."
Tooth stopped and turned to him. When she saw his suspicious gaze, she nodded.
"M-Maybe you should call him."
Not a second later, Jack was already fishing into his weapons belt for the tiny complink Aster had given him and put it in his left ear.
With a quick nod of confirmation to Tooth, he turned it on.
Two seconds later–
"Jack?"
The familiar, gruff tone of the Russian drifted down Jack's ear canal and a part of him relaxed almost instantly.
At least their connection wasn't broken.
"Da," Jack confirmed before switching to Луна. "It's me."
"Well, S Rozhdestvom Kristovym (Merry Christmas) to you, good friend. But why are you using line? Are you not coming to see Bunny and I?"
"Bunny?" Jack muttered to himself before he shook his head – maybe Nicolas thought Aster was a bit of furry nut too.
The thought almost made him smirk...almost.
"Nic, listen," he spoke sternly. "Toothiana and I decided to travel up to Sussex to meet with her handmaiden first. The one you're relocating from Tallinn."
There was a pause as Jack caught Tooth's hopeful gaze flit around, anticipating her another reunion with her younger sister.
"What?" North finally asked.
"Yeah, but what I wanna know is why you picked such a terrible place for a rendezvous. The decor over here needs a serious facelift. How long were you expecting to hide her here?"
"Who? Jack, WHO are you talking about?" the head of the ELF organization demanded."And speak slow! I am very stressed right now and y–"
"Tooth's handmaiden, North! Her clone!" Jack interrupted before he hated himself for saying the C-word. He knew now Tooth could understand Луна thanks to her IALC. "Why'd you move her from Estonia to some creepy, Canadian church on the coast?"
When there was another beat of hesitation, Jack was sure he could imagine North freezing mid-step. The man looked like a pacer when they'd first met.
"How did you know her location?" North asked urgently.
Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"We've SEEN the other tooth boxes," he mentioned. "We've opened them too. We knew she was there."
But Jack didn't dare mention Tooth's ability and as she listened to their conversation, translating every word, she was grateful to him.
Jack continued.
"But we're waiting for her, we're already standing in the relocation zone and I have to tell you, this ISN'T the place to hide a little–"
"Jack! What relocation?!" North barked.
A second later, Jack heard him on the other end shout at Phil and the other first officers to take over for him, then his big, clomping boots moved away and a door slammed shut. All the background noise from the warehouse faded away instantly.
"Now," North said urgent but slow. "Jack, I did NOT tell any ELF to relocate. So what are you saying?"
"What?!"
Tooth spun at the sound of Jack's enraged tone. He stopped walking and tugged her back by accident but when she looked, his eyes were alight under the shine of his LX rod and his jaw was clenched.
She felt dread pool into her stomach as he let go of her hand.
"Wh-What is he–"
"Then WHY is he moving–"
"Jack, my men move at MY orders. MINE!" the Slavic GUARDIAN barked. "And I never, I repeat NEVER gave the green light to move a tooth!"
"But why didn't you?" Jack sighed angrily and pushed a hand into his hair. "Five have already gotten kidnapped thanks to your damn cases. And–"
Jack stopped berating the man on the complink and froze. At the exact time he did, North did the same on his end. They both realised it at the same time.
"A mole..." Nicolas breathed.
Jack's fingers twitched.
"You said Tuhina was never greenlighted to leave Estonia," he murmured, fear trickling down into his stomach like Tooth's. "Which means...he's a double–"
"JACK!" North barked. "Get the princess OUT OF THERE! IDTI! (GO!)"
And like a cracked whip, Jack rushed forward and grabbed Tooth's arm. At the same time, he pulled out his rifle. She yelped and tried to let go but when she saw his distressed glare, she dropped her defence.
"Wh-What's wrong?!" she gasped worriedly. "Is she coming?"
"I need to hide you!" Jack cried and North agreed into the mic.
"Da, Jack!" he barked as he slipped into English. "Hide her NOW! If Nightmare really did kill ELF and replace him, he is luring Tuhina there for–Phillip! Bunny!"
Jack instantly heard a ruckus go off through the complink – it sounded like North had just stormed back into the workshop and was shouting for his yeti-lookalike-of a-first-officer.
"Phil! Bunny!" he heard the Cossack shout. Aster's voice instantly shouted and despite his bitter taste for the Australian, Jack had never wanted to hear his voice more (other than Tooth's or Emma's) in the last twelve hours.
"Oy! What did I say about calling me that, y'bloody–"
"No time talk!" the Russian barked. "Pull up last night Nightmare track!"
"Grubguergfhugerbugh!"
Jack raised his impatient eyebrows when Phil garbled in the background but North instantly understood.
"Yes, yes! Canada! NOW!"
As a silence fell, Jack decided to focus all his attention on Tooth. He dropped his hold on her arm when she reached down quickly to pull out one of her own rifles, fingers poised on the barrel. When she looked at him, she instinctively knew what to do and they moved into Position #4 of their tag-team gun stance. Turning diagonally to the right, she poised her gun at the floor and tightened her arms while Jack pressed his shoulder to hers and faced the opposite direction in the exact same stance.
Then they moved in a circle, side-by-side and straining to hear sounds, eyeing each tiny corridor. Their LX rods were crossed beneath their guns in a Harries hold as they lit up their ways but many of the corridors had caved it from years or rotting wood and weather-worn bricks.
"What did he say, Jack?" Tooth kept gasping. "W-What did he say?!"
She moved her feet in two-steps, remembering the Bagua circular patterns Jack taught her, and trusting her feet as she focused on the room around her. Meanwhile, the brunette drew up a mental floor plan of the church and all the objects he could use at his disposal.
He gritted his teeth.
"North never told an ELF to relocate Tuhina from Estonia to here," Jack finally said and her heart stopped.
"H-He didn't?!"
"No," he said as they continued moving, silently and anxious. "So it means he's either a mole working for someone and bringing her here for something else...or the original ELF is dead and this guy's a de facto."
And cold sweat dripped down Tooth's neck.
"Pitch."
"So I have to hide you," he said desperately. "Because if this is a double agent, then who knows what'll happen to her unless we get her away from him. You get a good look at him through your sister?"
"Y-Yeah," Tooth replied and gulped. "D-Dark skin...and a gap between his teeth."
'Ugh, leave it to me to notice someone's teeth,' she groaned in her head – Jack was fine with it though because teeth and bone structure were useful in later identification if, by his own mistake, he let the mole escape and needed to mentally facial reconstruct his distinct dental features for Aster.
"Okay," Jack noted and nodded his head though she couldn't see it.
But as they moved in a dizzying circle, Jack grew more frustrated, not finding a place to find Tooth that wasn't in view of the front door – there was none.
A second later, North came back on the complink.
"Jack," North said urgently. "Last night, ELF watchers picked up Nightmare conduit drifting near Atlantic Ocean but we ignored. It did not create disturbance."
Jack instantly stopped running.
"But it's heading for you. It's heading for Tuhina."
"Shit," Jack breathed shakily and he looked sideways at Tooth. A Nightmare delivery ship was coming to pick up Tuhina with her fake ELF and take her back to Pitch's lair. A ship! Which meant it was going to be crawling with Pitch's men.
"Jack?" Tooth called before Jack spotted an alcove over her shoulder. It was on the left side of the church behind on the large pillars close to the back.
"You getting dizzy, already?"
"N-No."
"Good," then he touched her arm and guided her to the column near the back. It wasn't the best hiding spot, but she couldn't be spotted by the anyone coming through the front of the church.
As Jack checked the time on his watch again, Tooth looked up at him with nervous eyes.
"You can see them from here," he stated steady and low as his face went cold again. "But they can't see you, so make sure it stays that way."
"Are you sure Tuhina is coming?" she mumbled nervously, and when a warm puff of air left her lips and floated up to his jaw, Jack looked at her quickly and nodded.
"Yeah, I think so, Tooth," Jack said gently before he shoved something into both her ears.
"Wear my ear plugs," he stated. "They don't block out noise but they cancel out any high frequency above 20,000 Hz."
Tooth immediately reached up to touch her ear canals.
"Wh–"
"Just wear them," he barked. "I don't know what to expect so let's be ready."
"I'll get my own next time." She then looked down at her shaking hands nervously. "But where are you gonna hide?"
"I'm not."
She looked up vehemently.
"Jack–"
"Tooth, something's up, so let me confirm what's going on!" he urged. "But then I'll get her...I promise."
Tooth nodded until Jack leaned more into her face.
"No matter what you hear," he whispered urgently. "Or what you sense, don't come out yet unle–"
"I know, Jack. I learned from you."
When he stopped at her wrists, he looked down at the gun he was holding in his hand and bit his lower lip.
He couldn't let Tooth's little sister (if she really was coming) to see him like that – not to forget, if the ELF was a mole, the gun would set him off instantly. But he was more concerned with Tuhina's fears, so with a quick change of weaponry, Jack re-holstered his gun.
Tooth was silently aware when he pulled out his short rod instead before he grabbed her hands gently.
"I can't let her see that," he muttered darkly and glared at the floor. Tooth looked at him with appreciation.
She then squeezed his hands back before tossing a quick look over her shoulder to look around the column. When she got a quick mental picture of her surroundings, she pulled back.
"I-I've got your back," she muttered bravely. "But be careful, and watch out for Tuhi or so help me–"
"Nothing's gonna happen," he pressured. "I'll protect her, like I protect you, because I–"
Jack suddenly heard voices with his acute hearing.
He quickly pulled away from her.
"Jack!" Tooth whispered, wanting to know what he was finishing to say, but his hand slipped from hers.
"Trust me," he whispered and made a wave-gesture with his hand before his gaze on her was short-lived. "I'll be quick as a bunny."
Then like slow motion, she let the blue in his eyes break from her before he walked back briskly to the front of the church.
A second later, the front door opened with an ominous boom and a howl from the wind.
…
Abandoned church, 12:06 p.m.
"And who will meet us there, sir?" Tuhina's high voice asked as she gripped his hand tightly. It was so cold she was shivering under her winter coat like a leaf in a snowstorm.
She never wanted to come back to Canada unless it was summertime.
The ELF smiled down at her but she didn't pick up the coyness in the quirk of his lips.
"My 'little friends'," he said through his accent. "The others who will protect you."
"Like the castle guards," Tuhina started to count off her tiny fingers in her mitten. "And the body guards, and the other ELF…"
The ELF nodded charismatically.
"Yes, kleintjie," he said patiently. "So let me call my friends with the phone in the back of this church."
"Your friend's phone is in a scary place!" she commented and he laughed lightly.
"Yes, very scary."
As they started to walk, Tuhina began reciting their address proudly to herself to make herself brave.
"Maces Bay, New Brunswick...Maces Bay, New Br–Oh, wh-who's that?"
The tiny girl's voice bounced around the room so loud and was followed by such a silence that a pin could've dropped in the farthest corner and they would've heard it.
The ELF and her stopped just as the church's front entrance closed behind them and blocked out the winter cold.
They encountered a brunette standing close to the center of the church.
Tuhina was immediately nervous that he was the only one in the giant, empty room – the ELF was suspicious of his straight, confident, and unmoving stance...not to mention the short, black rod in his only gloved hand.
Jack made his face placid.
He didn't want to terrify Tooth's tiny handmaiden but inside, he had his regular cold fury rising.
'Kidnapping is form of hostage crisis, you bastard,' Jack recited anxiously in his head, replaying all the missions he did on behalf of protective services as a regular spy and the takedowns he was assigned as a GUARDIAN. 'But his initial phase of the situation is already a success since he's subdued the hostage, and managed to barricade her in a specific location...not for too long I hope.'
Tooth's physical description of him had been correct...but Jack didn't move.
The ELF didn't move.
Tooth didn't move.
Only Tuhina was the one squirming in the man's hold.
"Sir, who is that man? Is he your friend?"
She thought he was very cute for an older boy and while he only looked at her for two seconds before his gaze lifted up to stare at her ELF, the ten-year-old's rosy cheeks grew more red than they did when she was outside.
The ELF said nothing, but the more Jack didn't react, the more Tuhina got nervous.
"Who is he, sir?" the ten-year-old whispered and tugged his deep red sleeve. "Who is he?"
Jack tightened his grip on his rod.
'He'd only come to a secluded location unless his communication was one-way, that's often the case. Which means he's gonna wait for the go-ahead...and the advantage is in his favour, damn it.'
Jack knew he needed to get Tuhina away from him – and he knew Tooth needed her sister.
Tooth was immobile with fear.
Her fingers shook so badly she thought she'd drop her gun and create a catastrophe on the floor until she gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the handle.
When Tuhina's high and familiar voice rung through her ears she almost cried out. It felt like it had been months...but it was really only a few days since she heard her sister speak when she helped prepare her for her first gala.
"Whoa! No! Not yet, princess!" Tuhina grinned and Tooth huffed as she plopped back down. She heard all her jewellery jingle around her neck and wrists, and on her ears.
"Not yet?!"
"Almost! Just one more thing!"
'Be careful, Jack,' she told herself as she shut her eyes.
If he got himself into trouble, then she'd probably take a whack at him too.
So with a steady breath, she widened her eyes slightly and tried establishing a mental link through Tuhi's eyes.
Almost instantly, the entire world flipped position.
Tooth watched through the ten-year-old's turquoise orbs what she was seeing.
There was a deep red pant leg on her right that her tiny mittens were clutching...the empty church looked incredibly huge and intimidating...Jack was standing tall and unmoving in front of the both of them...and when Tuhina looked down for second, she even caught her tiny, red winter coat. It was so thick and bundled she reminded Tooth of a giant marshmallow.
The princess' heart raced.
But even though she wanted to run to her sister, something inside her told her stay put. Every bone, every fibre in her being that wanted to pull Tuhina close, and it had nothing to do with being Center gene or clone-related.
But she swallowed a large lump in her throat when she remembered, the memories from the hotel in England.
When she pushed everyone aside for Tiana, the calamity that followed was horrible! She turned her back on the ELFs who'd protected her and her uncle and Prime Minister of her country.
She couldn't put anyone in jeopardy like that, and let her emotions run wild again.
So even though the ELF was holding her hand and smiling, she didn't move.
Tooth chose to stay frozen...because she was afraid that she would mess up again if she rushed in too quickly – she'd learned too much already by now to know rushing, not backed by rational thinking, usually meant Game Over.
Jack had taught her that...but it was still so hard to have her sister so close and so there.
Tuhina kept trying to tug her hand out of the ELF's grip but his hold was like iron.
"What is his name?" she whispered.
The double-agent ELF said nothing, giving the Jack a deep heated glare while the temperature in the room dropped several degrees and the wind speed picked up. Hands were twitching at (or for) their guns, and all eyes were dead set except two.
Tuhina's turquoise eyes were shaky, fleeting about the obvious tense men in the room. The second pair of unfocused eyes belonged to Tooth, steady from afar but completely apparent up close that she was anxious and unnerved with every right to be.
Then the ELF finally spoke.
"What is this?" he murmured but he was heard easily throughout the empty, cavernous church. His tone suggested underlying trouble, despair, and aggravation.
Jack turned his head slightly 45º to assess the Tuhina's posture and facial expression with his peripheral vision.
'Assess the hostage: She appears healthy and safe,' he observed mentally. 'But the situation locked in, and his firearms visible at his gun holster along with the worn out gauntlets on his arms. History of toughness, environmental protection and flexibility. He's prepared for outside conditions. Probably his specialty.'
He then turned back to the ELF's dark-skinned face under the hood.
"Just surveying the church," he played nonchalantly. "Making sure it's still stable after last night's snowstorm. What are you doing here? "
"I'm just taking die klein meisie (the little girl) to her family," the ELF said plainly but he squinted his eyes. He was trying to remember Jack's face against all the men he'd been assigned to meet. The brunette did have one of those American faces, but his eyes were too keen to be a mere church inspector. He lifted a hand back to shield Tuhina although the younger peeked over it.
Jack clenched his jaw.
'Afrikaan accent...maybe from a Nightmare post in South Africa or Namibia...or Botswana.'
"Through the church?" Jack challenged. "It's been bolted down for years."
"But I was not the one who damaged that lock," the ELF pointed out, flicking his eyes with his peripheral vision to look behind him.
"Perhaps...not an ELF," the man murmured to himself but Tuhina heard it and blew his cover.
"He knows about the ELFs too?" Tuhina said wonderfully outloud and the ELF snapped his head down at her.
"Tuhina!" he barked. "Shh, be–" But she was already trying to move around the ELF's arm to look at Jack.
"Are you an ELF too, mister?"
The ELF paused and looked at the brunette.
"Yes," he repeated suspiciously. "...are you?"
But when Jack didn't immediately respond, a light bulb in the other man's head went off.
"No...No, he's not an ELF," the double agent sneered with a dark smile though the little girl couldn't see it. He then started moving her slowly behind him and Jack reacted.
He knew not to react brashly in these tense hostage situations because anything could set the hostage takers off. But with her behind him, he couldn't see what was happening.
Tooth could though, but all she saw was long legs and red pants. She glared behind the column.
"Cover your ears, miss," the ELF suddenly said gently. His smirk did not leave his face, his cracked facade visible to Jack.
Jack's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.
"But why?" she challenged and crossed her tiny arms. "I'm big enough to understand! And I promise won't say anything."
"Do it, and start humming to yourself or I promise I'll tell you the story Who is the Thief? again," he lightly teased.
"Aww, not again! That story's boring!" Tuhina whined and a pang in Tooth's heart went off when she heard the familiar whine.
He raised an eyebrow with a smile. "Well?"
Tuhina then huffed and pulled her hat over her eyes to not tempt herself – that's what the weird but friendly flight attendants taught her on the plane ride from Europe. "Okay..."
Tooth pouted when her gaze through Tuhina was blinded by the darkness of her hat. Her heart started to beat fast again with worry.
Well, there went her ability to see and keeping an eye on Jack.
What could she do now?! There were no reflective surfaces in sight and she sure as hell couldn't peek around the pillar!
The ELF would see, Jack would be screwed, and–
Suddenly, she stopped.
Tuhina started to hum to herself again, shielding herself behind the ELF from the cute but grumpy looking man.
Jack and the ELF didn't know what the heck she was singing.
But the song floated around the room and crashed over Tooth like a tidal wave.
As the memory bubbled up, her eyes grew wide...
One year ago
They all sang the song together, with Tooth perched on a giant silk pillow and Tiati clapping in her lap. It was morning and they'd all just gotten up and wanted to be lazy until Tiana started humming the a song that all the kids knew around the island and they got crazy.
"Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang!"
(Elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant!)
Tia turned to Theena and poked her in the nose.
"Nong hei kun chang rue plaow?"
(Have you ever seen an elephant?)
"Hey!" Theena yelled and chased her around the room. BT rolled her eyes and Tiana got up to dance in a circle.
"Chang mun tua toh mai bow!" she sang.
(The elephant is quite big and not so small!)
"Jamook yaow yaow (With a long nose)," Tooth sang and Tiati looked up at her added, "Ria wa nguang! (Called a trunk!)"
BT got up and picked up Theena and helped her chase the second eldest sister around the room. singing as she laughed.
"Mee kheaw tai nguang, riak wa nga!"
(It has fangs beneath the trunk called tusks!)
Theena beneath to eat Tia as she and Tatiana chased her. Then the last three girls, Tulia, Tina, and Tuhina clapped in their pillows on the floor.
"Mee hoo mee ta hang yaow!"
(It has ears, it has eyes and a long tail!)
"Yeah!" BT then cried. "Now dog pile on the princess!"
Next thing Tooth knew, all eight of her sisters were squishing her small chest to the floor.
"BABY TOOTH!"
And they laughed as they sat on top of her.
Tooth clamped a hand shut over her mouth when a tiny, muffled cry threatened to leave her. She inhaled deeply and tried to look ahead.
Every tiny note made her heart twist under her shirt as Tuhina kept singing softly in the background. She couldn't dwell on it though because the ELF was starting to speak again.
When he was sure she wasn't listening, the ELF smirked at Jack, his face complacent and calm.
"So you wish to tell me why you are really here, stranger?"
But Jack wasn't in the talking mode.
"You did not know this church."
His fingers twitching and his gene was crackling under his chest, and his mind working overdrive. Hostage-takers were always emotionally disturbed, and if jack suspected correctly, this ELF (or whoever he was) was unstable for a particular reason.
The ELF continued without Jack's response.
"Because I know this scene, far better than you," he said his broken English almost all but vanishing. "You would know not to step where you are standing because the water damage is apparent on those tiles, or that the draft that comes through is directly in your wind path."
"Maybe I like the wind," Jack finally muttered and stood perfectly still. "Maybe I'm going to come by with my family and patch up the floor."
"Don't think you are smart," the ELF sneered. "You have no local accent. You are not from here."
Jack continued to blink, but he said nothing.
His mind went heavily into creating a psychological profile of the ELF.
A second later though, the man under the red hood glared.
"So who are you?" he said hotly.
Jack made sure to make his responses and reactions slow and careful – he couldn't immediately grab Tuhina, but he couldn't threaten the ELF with all the control the man had right now in the moment. So he decided to delay his time.
If that Nightmare delivery ship did need him to make a signal with a device on the other side of the church at a precise time, then Jack could stall him long enough.
"You didn't make the call yet," Jack said calmly, trying to prompt a reaction from the ELF, paying close attention to the hostage-taker's responses, mannerisms and general attitude.
The ELF's face was still tense and suspicious.
"You are the dispatcher?" the ELF guessed – Jack did nothing to either confirm or deny it. The ELF however took a chance; since other undercover Nightmares usually dressed dark and casual like Jack did, he figured he was a member of the ship's crew – they hadn't set up a coded conversation so he was probably the prompter who came ahead. Plus, the brunette had a dark aura air of authority around him.
The ELF tightened his jaw, but spoke again.
"I did not make the call," he replied. "The only key to activate it is behind that altar." When he pointed behind Jack, Jack didn't look, pretending like he already knew.
The ELF's lips turned down.
"But you arrived anyway? Why?"
Jack smirked down at her quickly before he shrugged.
"Maybe I just didn't want to see you screw up."
But when the ELF chuckled to himself, Jack's hard expression returned.
"Why is she still here?" he asked curtly. "The ship will anchor close to the bay soon."
Just one more prompt, then Jack would know if he really was Nightmare.
"Yes, it will be here soon for her," the ELF darted his eyes around Jack and the room. Jack mirrored his gaze, trying to memorise the ELF's own observation points. It was all like a game really, a highly-intensive one involving everyone he could see.
But the thing was, Tooth couldn't see.
Frustrated, she thought about her new compact mirror. She didn't buy it in the convenience store with Jack for vanity, but she'd seen those spy movies when women used to their advantage to see behind them or for weird angles – and this was definitely a time worth using it.
"So make the call," Jack said and took a step to the side and opened his arm out to the altar behind him. He was done talking.
Tooth exhaled silently.
She could tell Jack was stalling for something and bless his heart he was good at it. But her nerves were shot and every second she kept hiding she felt like she'd throw up from the fear and anxiety building up inside her.
The ELF shook his head.
"I would rather not now because you are here already," he answered and Jack glared coldly.
He then violently extended his short rod and held it in a tight grip.
"Don't give a damn about me and just do your job already," Jack ordered with the ferocity of a commanding officer he'd once been for thugs like him.
The ELF's dark eyes grew wide. Even Tooth felt her skin crawl at the edge in Jack's tone – and more than twelve hours ago she practically made out with that same guy?
Her cheeks warmed.
Then again, she'd known him when he was like that even long before yesterday.
'Argh, if only I could see!'
Thinking quickly, Toothiana reached into her trenchcoat pocket as slow and silent as she could until she pulled out her compact mirror and opened it. But it took her forever to figure out how it worked and how not to get caught.
The ELF blinked.
"But that does not make sense."
"And why not?" Jack seethed.
His gene started to react more and he couldn't immediately pick up why. Was it the air in the room? The handmaiden?
"Because you are in charge," the ELF said.
Then he smirked evilly.
"So why don't you?"
When the princess finally got the angle right, she tried to adjust it quickly.
In those three seconds though, she missed covering her partner's back and a second later, Jack heard something like a gun's safety lock click off directly behind his head.
And he froze.
Because he knew it wasn't Tooth.
Chapter's soundtrack: "As Long As You Love Me" – Justin Bieber Don't judge me lol. It's actually a good song. And the song the sisters keep singing is a cute Thai kids song called The 'Chang' Song (or Elephant song) and Who is the Thief? is an old African folktale.
Big thanks to RandomNerdyGirl too for helping me translate a little Afrikaans! You're so nice!