Chapter 9: Familiar?

Back at the haunted house doors, it was a tough battle as Darknight and his army tried to keep the heroes from advancing. "He's really trying to keep us from getting that third heart piece," Balan said.

"We need to get in there," Attilio said urgently.

"Balan! Get the children and Attilio to the entrance!" North called out, using his sabers to poof down two nightmare horses. "We will hold them off!"

"Are you sure, North?" Balan asked.

"Yes!" The big man said. "Hurry!"

Katherine and Tooth both stood their grounds in dealing with Darknight at once. The Negati in Nightmare armor split his staff into two as daggers and spun them around smoothly. Tooth and Kate with her dagger attacked him in both sides in keeping him still.

"Ugh! We can't hold Darknight for long!" Katherine warned while shouting, not giving up by pushing her dagger in lock with Darknight's. "If you're going to retrieve the third heart piece, then I suggest you do it immediately!"

Nodding, Balan scooped up Leo and put him on his back. "Hold on tight, Leo," he said before scooping up Emma and Attilio in his arms. "Hold on tight, my friends. We'll have to be fast."

"Sandy!" Tooth exclaimed, indicating she's losing her hold.

The Guardian of Dreams created a giant wave of his sand to push both the Negati and Nightmare creatures away in making a clear opening. He faced Balan and made an arrow in saying 'NOW! GO NOW!'.

Balan, Leo, Emma, and Attilio did not waste time. With their window of opportunity opened, the wonder four team ran straight to the door that leads to the next Nightmare Nega-Boss to face.

Suddenly, still in a double fight with the lady guardians, Darknight spotted Balan and his friends going to the unprotected door. In response, and not wanting to fail his dark master again, the armored Negati grabbed Tooth by her wrists before throwing her at Katherine to knock both of them down and, with his opponents subdued, run straight to Balan.

Katherine gasped, shaking off the dizzy spell. "NO! BALAN, LOOK OUT!"

Just as Darknight was about to strike at Balan directly to his heart, a flying boomerang came out of nowhere and smacked the Negati at the mask; causing him to miss his target and tumble across the park.

"Bunny! Thanks for saving Balan," Tooth said, already flying to the Guardian of Hope and hugging him.

"No worries, Sheila," the Guardian of Hope said, hugging her back.

Katherine then noticed something up that made her worry. "Bunnymund…Where are Jack and Viola?" She asked.

"They were captured by something and I think it's that Lance guy Balan mentioned," Bunny said before looking at their enemy, who was getting up. "Looks like we're a bit outnumbered."

"Then let's even the odds," North said, bringing out his swords and pointing at Darknight coming back to fight with dull yet angry eyes. "We catch their greatest warrior and have him tell us where they've kept our friends."

Tooth looked at North at that idea in shock. "What!? North, you and the boys couldn't take him down at once in Yuri's Bug world! Even Katherine and I barely kept him still just now!" She said.

"We have to keep trying," the big man said.

Darknight brought his two weapons back together to make a blade staff; bringing out an army of Nightmare Yetis and Negatis with strong bulky arms that surrounded the Guardians.

Remembering their past experiences with the same enemy, Katherine started coming up with a plan. "North is right. We keep getting nowhere fighting these creatures. Our best move to take down the source."

"And how, may I ask, do we do that, Sheila?" Bunnymund remarked, bringing out his boomerangs to prepare to fight. "In case you forgot, he seems to know our moves before we're going to make them."

"Then we surprise him," she said, seeing Balan, Attilio, and the kids made it to the doors and went through them. "And distract him long enough for our friends to get the third piece of Lea's heart."

They all nodded and Sandy motioned that Darknight was almost upon them, to which they all faced him to attack.

Inside the haunted house, Balan glanced around and nodded. "The Nightmare Princess Marey is close," he said.

Attilio began to feel some disturbing memories about the time he had been negatized and he shivered, to which Balan gently squeezed his shoulder. "Don't worry, my friend. We'll stop her."

"If we could stop the other two, we can do it again," Emma said.

"I wonder what costume got negatized," Leo said. "It has to be one that has something to do with Lea, right? Since the last two represented part of her personality?"

"Yes, Leo," Balan said before they heard familiar laughter. "Get ready. She's right ahead of us."

The kids knew Princess Marey was tough to beat, but it seemed that she was even harder to beat now with the nightmare sand fueling her. Balan quickly jumped up, did a few front flips, and landed butt first on the platform, making the villain cry out as she was knocked down and Emma equipped the Pumpkin Puncher costume, striking the villain on her second nose, making her cry out before Leo donned on a Pumpkin Puncher too and Attilio equipped on the Slow Tortoise costume. "Man, you kids really had to battle to get me free, didn't you?" He asked them.

"Yeah," Emma said.

"It wasn't easy," Leo said.

Suddenly, the merry-go-round appeared and Attilio quickly used the Slow Tortoise to slow down the corrupted ride to give Leo time to punch the villain, knocking her down once again before distorted mirrors appeared and the villain's reflection was in all of them. "Um, this is new," Attilio said.

"Which one is the real one?" Emma asked.

Balan sent up a ball of light and it wasn't long before he noticed something. "That far mirror," he said to his friends. "It's not a mirror."

The ball of light revealed the real Princess Marey and Leo, Emma, and Attilio all worked together with Balan nearby and they managed to free the person from the negativity that had transformed her. Balan looked quite surprised at seeing the newcomer, but then Attilio realized something was wrong. "Balan!" He called out.

Balan went to the doors and listened before nodding. "Our friends need help," he said. "Come."

As they gathered close to him, so did the one once controlled by Negativity as she clung to Balan, holding on as he flew overhead.

Meanwhile, Jack and Viola were already crossing through the haunted house to find the other guardians…While trying not to get crushed by falling squares from the ceiling by running.

"What is up with this crazy house trying to squish us?!" Viola nearly shouted in both panic yet annoyance, doing a tuck and roll to avoid another giant square.

"Could be another attack from that Darknight guy or those Negati," Jack said as they both dodged again, rolling in unison.

Once making it out the traps and into a different large room, Jack and Viola could see a large crowd of Negati sand Nightmares having their backs to them while surrounding something or someone. Even hear familiar voices over there.

"It's the guardians!" Viola exclaimed in worry.

"Yeah. And, by my guess, they helped Balan and the others get through to find the next heart piece while going against Darknight again," Jack pointed out, getting his staff out. "You stay close while I-"

Before finishing that sentence, the Negati and Nightmares in a circle started to slowly become encased with ice from their feet, but this was not Jack Frost's doing. The Guardian of Fun turned his head at who was really responsible: a raged Viola with her aura looking darker than before from her hands and pendant.

"…Why do I have a bad feeling this is not going to end well?" Jack questioned himself, not liking this side his female friend was showing there.

The Guardians were doing their best to battle Darknight all at once, their plan being to distract him long enough for Sandy to use his Dreamsand and knock him out before taking Darknight back to the Isle of Tims to question him. The first try was a bust as Darknight noticed what they were doing and immediately dodged the hit, but then they all noticed the Negati plus Nightmare creatures being frozen solid and they got broken/poofed down into nothing with an ice shock wave.

Seizing the chance, Sandy landed a direct hit on Darknight, pushing him back a little before the dark warrior collapsed, seemingly unconscious while the rest of the Negati and Nightmares retreated. North was stunned to see Viola was the reason for the creatures being frozen and he smiled. "Ah, Viola. Jack. We were wondering about you two after Bunny said you were in trouble," he said.

"What happened?" Toothiana asked.

"Lance happened," Viola explained harshly. "He kidnapped me and Jack with some fake story that he showed up because he sensed my 'negative emotions' and wanted to help. But I called his bluff and stood up to him, telling him that we'll rescue Lea from his tentacled web of lies."

While what Viola had said was true, Jack didn't seem to completely agree on the story and decided that he would tell the guardians what really happened away from Viola, as he knew she'd insist she was fine when in reality, she wasn't.

Just then, Balan and his team showed up and the Guardians were stunned to see someone new with them. "Hello!" The newcomer said sweetly, her voice sounding musical as they noticed she looked like a mermaid with a blue and pink tail, a blue shirt with a snowflake on it, and her blonde hair done in a cute style while she wore a headband with a pink jewel on it and around her neck was a necklace with a pink diamond pendant and around her wrists were blue bracelets with pink and blue diamonds as charms.

Katherine blinked. "I can sense the positive energy from her," she said.

Balan chuckled. "Our new friend here is full of positive energy and she's very musical," he said. "Everyone, meet Mer-Melody."

As the Guardians greeted the newcomer, who returned the greetings happily, their backs were turned to Darknight, who was still wide awake as the Dreamsand hadn't knocked him out, but he was frozen in shock when looking at Mer-Melody. Her eyes and hair reminded him of Lea, the girl that Lance was protecting.

Slowly getting up, Darknight went to retreat, seeing the battle was lost. Balan, however, was quick to notice him. "Look out!" He said, quickly moving to stand between the Guardians and Darknight, who snapped out of his shock and tried to escape, but the Guardian of Happiness grabbed the dark warrior by the arm.

To his surprise, when he grabbed Darknight's arm, the armor on that arm shifted from its black color to a light blue color. The Maestro even heard a faint voice from his enemy, like the voice of a young boy.

"Help...Help me...Save my Lea...," the voice pleaded.

Shocked by this, Balan let his guard down, to which Darknight pulled back and escaped fast, leaving a stunned Maestro and confused Guardians behind.

"Balan?" Jack asked, noticing the look of shock on the tall being's face. "What happened?"

"Darknight's armor turned light blue where I grabbed his arm," Balan explained. "And...I heard a voice, like that of a young boy. He was begging for help and begged that we save his Lea." He paused. "Where have I seen that blue color before?"

Everyone stood still before Sandy noticed something and grew shocked. "What is it, Sandy?" Bunnymund asked.

Through gestures, he told them and Katherine's eyes widened. "Darknight wasn't affected by Sandy's Dreamsand," she said.

"But that's impossible," Jack said in shock. "I mean, I know Sandy's Dreamsand doesn't last forever, but it always works."

"This time, it didn't," Balan said gently. "Even I saw it. Darknight was fooling us, but he seemed to freeze upon seeing Mer-Melody."

Toothiana noticed something. "Hey, she kind of looks like Lea," she said, indicating to Mer-Melody, who giggled and smiled brightly.

"She does," Balan said. "And she obviously represents both Lea's love for music and her upbeat personality when she's happy."

Mer-Melody nodded. "Lea loves music," she said. "It's the biggest part of her."

Jack smiled. "That's no surprise," he said, liking Mer-Melody right away.

Balan smiled at the female costume before deciding to ask her the one question on his mind. "Mer-Melody, I was wondering if you knew something about a small piece of crystal that is pink in color?" He asked.

"You mean this?" She asked, holding up the third piece of Lea's heart in her hand.

"Yes," he said, smiling before holding out a hand. "May I?" He asked gently.

She placed the piece in his hand and he pulled out the combined half of Lea's heart, the third piece joining the other two. "One more piece left," Leo said.

Mer-Melody smiled before looking a bit saddened. "She grows closer," she said.

"What?" Toothiana asked.

"Lea," the mermaid costume said. "She grows closer to the one that brought her here. She sees him as a friend."

"He's not her friend!" Viola snapped. "He's a kidnapper and we're going to save Lea from him."

Though surprised at Viola's outburst, they all nodded. "We better get to the Isle of Tims," Emma said. "Hopefully the last piece isn't too far away."

So they now have three pieces of Lea's heart, but why did Darknight seem to transform and speak? And Balan is now more suspicious too.

Will they figure out what happened to Viola too? Stay tuned.

Please leave Redbat132 and myself a review, but no flames!

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