Holiday Crisis
By: Shmeilia Rockie
Chapter 10: The Great Holiday Crisis

Disclaimer: Must I? Ya know by now...*grumbles incoherently about Disney owning SC 1 & 2, as well as Halloweentown 1 & 2.* The song "Naked" is by Avril Lavigne (who stole April's original name! Avril is French for April, and I'm a big fan of the French language...Maigri comes from the word maigrir, which means "to loose weight". *Chuckles* Maybe he should try that...Oh, Maigri's glaring at me now so I'll shut up.)

On another note: I got SC special edition on DVD and was overwhelmingly delighted to find the "How to Be an Elf" Special featured none other than our beloved Bernard! *squeals just thinking about it* I suggest to all those who don't have it yet that you get it or rent it or something as soon as possible, because it is soooooooo kawaii! I about keeled over with happiness, I tell ya! I was happy for days! In fact, I'm still happy about it!

And To CrystalHorse72: *clears my throat* How do you really know that that dream wasn't just a dream? Huh? HUH? Okay, so here's the truth: His "father" came back to torture him and found him almost dead. He realized Bernard was trying to take the cheap/easy way out of being sold into slavery, and just to be cruel he saved young Bernie's life. Then he sold the boy. About three hundred years later (or something like that) an old elvin man bought him, freed him, and trained him in the ways of alchemy. Upon the old man's death, Bernard moved to Scandinavia; where he was taken in by a guy we affectionately call Saint Nick.

Does that clear things up? I sure hope so...*Makes an unreadable face*

And so...Here it is, for better or worse... The wedding chapter. *Laughs at my own bad joke* Okay, anyway, enjoy!

* * * *

"You look disgruntled, Maigri. What's wrong?"

Maigri normally looked disgruntled, so he felt mildly surprised that Destiny could tell there was something wrong. He sighed and leaned against the wall, not looking at the elvin girl. "What's it to you?"

"Why must you take that tone with me? I want to be your friend." She moved into his field of view so he had to look at her. She frowned.

He raised an eyebrow. "Why? I haven't been very nice to you."

"You don't exactly have any good friends..."

"Hey!" He snapped, suddenly angry. This was a REALLY sensitive subject for him. "I have plenty of friends!"

She barked out a laugh, daring to match his bitter tone. "You mean those chumps you hang around in your spare time? Those are your posse, not your friends. They only gather around you because you favor them, give them little perks. No?"

Ouch.

He riffled through his entire being for the appropriate response to that, but came up empty handed. He just stared at her with the best impassive expression he could muster, but it betrayed his hurt. He'd felt hurt a lot lately, and it was all her fault...He didn't know how, but it was.

They stared at each other for quite a while, Maigri angrily searching her eyes for a motive, and Destiny smiling with obvious falsity. Finally she broke the silence with a random, "You wanna come back to my place and talk?"

*Boink* He blinked a couple of times and looked around nervously. "Huh?"

"You heard me!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the Workshop. That voice in the back of his mind screamed repeatedly, commanding him to do something nasty to her, but he couldn't do a thing. He felt...Strange...People in the streets goggled at them with wide, surprised eyes. He mirrored their expressions the whole way to April's apartment. This wasn't happening, this wasn't happening, this...wasn't...happening...

She unlocked the door and tossed him in, then slammed it closed. "Okay, Maigri, cough it up! What's wrong with you?"

Finally the voice grew quiet. Too quiet. He slumped against the door and slid to the floor, shaking his head. "I don't know, but I've been this way ever since YOU arrived."

She leaned on the coffee table. "Oh, no. Don't you blame this on me...I'm not your problem."

Silence. Fine, then...

"You wanna know?"

"Yeah..."

"You really want to know?"

"YES."

"Do you really-?"

Her eye twitched and she snapped. "JUST TELL ME ALREADY!!!"

He sucked in a deep breath and said rapidly, "I wasn't invited to Bernard's wedding. I was the only person in the whole blasted city not invited, and I feel just a bit left out. Okay?"

She blinked. Whatever she had expected wasn't anything remotely near what he just said.

There went his reputation as an insensitive jerk. It flew riiiight out the window...He ran a hand through his scraggly dirty blond hair and muttered, "You may laugh now. Go ahead."

Destiny snorted and squatted next to him. "Why would I laugh at you? It's only natural for you to feel hurt. But you brought that on yourself, you know. Maybe if you hadn't treated Bernard and April so badly, they would have gladly invited you to the wedding."

He stared down at his hands in an effort to avoid meeting her gaze. "My little brother is his best man, and I don't even get invited."

A minute passed without another word. Destiny sat next to him and looked at her watch. "Well the wedding is in an hour, and I had been planning to attend, but...While seeing my parents' tie the knot has always been a dream of mine, you need me more."

"I don't need you..." He meant it to sound menacing, but it just sounded tired. She patted his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. Oh boy, he was getting that weird feeling again. Why couldn't he move? Why didn't he twist her arm or smack her or...something? But he just sat there.

Finally, he sighed and leaned his head against hers. "Thanks, Destiny. This means a lot."

"Now that's the Maigri I know..." She placed her hand over his.

Now he could attach a word to the feeling: Warm. He felt deliciously warm. Odd how the sensation seemed so alien to the elf...

But he liked it.

* * * *

"Oh, candy corn, where's Destiny?" Merope brushed a strand of long red hair behind her pointy ear and searched the area frantically. "This thing's about to start in..." The music started. (An acoustic piano version of Hanson's *yes I know, just don't say anything* "At Christmas", in case anyone was wondering.) She winced, realizing her window of opportunity to search for her best friend had just slammed down on her fingers. She stomped the ground and cursed under her breath before composing herself and putting on a happy, happy face.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's okay," Judy muttered through clinched teeth.

Bernard shifted his weight to the other foot and grinned at Curtis, who flashed him a brief thumbs up. This was it, this was it, this was it! We're not talking about a practice...This was the real thing. Bernard glanced to the empty spot between Sarah and Judy where Destiny should have been standing in her forest green bridesmaid dress. His smile faltered, but only for a second.

Finally, after about an eternity, April entered the area in a simple white dress with green trimmings on the long sleeves and low neckline. None other than Scott himself stood at her side to give her away. She'd been so upset when she realized her father wouldn't be there that Santa readily volunteered (with some prompting from his wife, of course). Mother Nature was performing the service, just like she had for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The rest of the newly expanded Council (The Sand Man *who was wide awake for once*, The Easter Bunny, Cupid, the Thanksgiving Turkey, The April Fool *who reluctantly agreed to not pull any funny stuff*, Father Time, Uncle Sam, Agatha, the Stork *Not commenting, here*, Saint Patrick, The Tooth Fairy, Mrs. Claus and Lady Luck but no Woman in the Moon, as she was still MIA) were now sitting happily in the audience. All knew and liked Bernard a lot, so they naturally wanted to be there. And he HAD sent every one of them an invitation, after all.

April beamed at Bernard when she finally reached him. Her look didn't betray her dissatisfaction with the rushed wedding in the slightest bit. She did love him with all her heart, so she went along with it.

Mother Nature smiled down at them lovingly and spoke in a sweet, but booming voice. "We are gathered here today to unite Head Elf Bernard and April Sully in matrimony..." She had them say their normal vows (which I won't go into for sake of holding attention), but then when April expected it all to be over, and the kiss to come, it didn't. "Bernard asked me if he could say a few extra words."

They hadn't practiced this! April felt a wave of slight panic wash over her, but she looked into his eyes and knew it would be okay. He cleared his throat. "The other day while visiting your apartment, I heard a song that seemed to say everything that I feel when I'm near you. I'll spare everyone here the torture of listening to me sing, but I do want to recite the words for you.

"I wake up in the morning, put on my face.
The one that gonna get me through another day.
It doesn't really matter, how I feel inside,
'cause life is like a game sometimes.

"But then you came around me,
The walls just disappeared.
Nothing to surround me
Keep me from my fears.

"I'm unprotected...
See how I've opened up.
You've made me trust.

"I'm trying to remember why I was afraid
To be myself
And let the covers fall away...
I guess I've never had someone like you
To help me fit in my skin..."

April broke down in happy tears at that point. "So much for me not crying at my own wedding..."

"All right then," concluded Mother Nature. "By the power invested in me, by you know who, I pronounce you husband and wife. Kiss your bride!"

He did.

* * * *

Destiny and Maigri were watching the ceremony on Destiny's little palm pilot thingy. She wiped a tear out of her eye. "You go, Daddy!"

"So I got to see it after all."

Destiny turned it off and tossed it at their feet. "See? Now you can know what everyone's talking about."

He sighed. "Yeah. Sure."

She also sighed, exasperated with his pity party. "What's wrong now?"

He looked away. "It's stupid. Don't worry about it."

"No, don't do that. Now I'm curious!" She smacked his arm lightly.

"Fine." He looked up at the ceiling, totally not believing the words were actually going to come out of his mouth. "In the future, are WE in love?"

Now it was her turn to look away in shame. "I don't know, Maigri. Every time I try to get closer to you, you always pull away from me. I know I like you a lot, but I often wonder if you're not just stringing me along."

"I wouldn't do that." He looked gravely honest.

"You wouldn't?"

"Love and honor are two things I don't joke around with, Destiny. There must be a pretty darned good reason why I keep backing off, and it most likely has nothing to do with you personally."

She looked him in the eye again. They were awfully close..."I don't understand."

"Me neither. Me. Neither."

There was an awkward silence. "Maigri, I-" The device at her feet gave an urgent beep, and she quickly picked it up. "Oh, crap!"

She jumped to feet with amazing gracefulness.

"What is it?"

She searched the map of the town frantically. Something bulged and pushed against the barrier to the Dark Dimension. Any second, it could..."its happening. It's happening NOW!"

She pushed a button and spoke into the top of the device. "Attention everyone, we have a Code Red in place right now. All units report to the tinsel football area, NOW! This is not a drill. I repeat, this is NOT a drill! Begin the evacuation immediately!" She let go of the button for a moment. "We hafta go. Now. Help Charlie evacuate everyone. Okay?"

Maigri nodded.

Destiny grabbed two golden swords and an extremely large candy cane from the corner of the room and fled the apartment. She left the door standing wide open.

"Evacuate." Maigri bit his lip. This place had been his home for how long? Practically a thousand years.

Something fuzzy brushed up against his leg. It was April's cat, Tinsel. Without thinking twice, Maigri scooped up the gray ball of fur and stuffed him inside of his coat. "Come on, you. We're leaving."

Tinsel meowed loudly, but didn't squirm or try to run away. He could sense what was about to happen.

* * * *

At Destiny's frantic announcement, everyone at the wedding (which was EVERYONE) began to panic. Destiny ran onto the scene, threw Merope her sword and handed Bernard the candy cane. "You might need this..." She amplified her voice so the whole crowd could hear her. "Okay, everyone. Please stay calm!"

At these words, the barrier broke. A figure, hidden by a black cloak appeared. The dark energy he emitted make the crowd shrink back at least ten feet. The mysterious man threw his arms open wide and boomed with obvious glee, "Attack, my Holiday Consumers! You know your orders!" And promptly vanished again.

And then the things popped onto the scene.

The robots looked basically like mutant, angry mall moms. (A/N: Does that make any sense? Oh well :P) They had rollers in their 'hair' (in reality, their energy source), yellow cat eyes and incredibly long, sharp claws. Some of them had shopping bags, and others had vacuums on their backs. Almost as soon as they appeared, they began attacking the guests. Specifically, they attacked only guests that were known members of the Council.

The first Council member to go was The Sand Man. One of the Holiday Consumers grabbed him, and another one sucked him into a glass jar with the vacuum cleaner. Then it threw the glass jar to one of the other Consumers which stuck the jar in a shopping bag and disappeared. They were suddenly everywhere!

By the time Destiny's army arrived on the scene, the robots and also gotten to Mother Nature. After those two had disappeared, the robots decided it was okay to start hurting and even KILLING the Council members. About five of them stabbed the April Fool with their claws repeatedly until he went POOF! His jester's cap and squirty flower fell to the ground and they eagerly sucked the items into jars like bizarre souvenirs

The elves fought as well as they could, but weren't making much progress.

Charlie pushed his way through the crowd, helping the remainder of the Council members away from the area. He grabbed a shopping bag from one of the Consumers and beat the thing until it stopped chewing on one of Cupid's wings.

"Thanks, man, I owe ya!"

"No time for talk, I gotta get you out of here!" Charlie slapped a small device with a blinking light onto the flying love bringer's arm and pushed a button. It teleported him to the nearest spaceship, which was being loaded with elves.

And then it happened. He was almost to his father, when one of the robots stabbed Scott right in the heart. "Dad! NOOO!"

Scott just stared blankly and began to fade away. Carole ran to his side, but it was too late. She picked up his robe and boots as they fell empty to the ground. Then, she too began to fade. "Oh, no...Charlie!" Her voice echoed with an otherworldly hollowness.

"Carole!" He finally reached her and stuck the device on her. But it fell right through her as she continued to vanish.

"Oh, Charlie...I'm so sorry! Take these; don't let those things get them!" And with that, she was gone. He stared wide eyed at where she had been standing, too shocked to do anything. Then a Consumer grabbed the robe, bent on making it a souvenir.

"Oh, no you don't! Give me my dad's clothes back! You can't have them, you hear me? You can't have them!" He pulled on the antique suit with all his might, not even thinking about what would happen if it ripped. All he could see was his father disappearing over and over, and it made him very, VERY angry. He and the robot engaged in tug of war for almost a minute before a silver arrow flew through the android's head and it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. Merope had produced a crossbow and a slue of arrows out of nowhere and was launching them at offending Consumers from atop the roof of a nearby shop. Numbly, Charlie gathered up his father's clothes and slapped a teleporter on himself.

"No, no, no, no, NO! Not on my wedding day!" April kicked one of the Consumers in the shin, distracting it from attacking the Easter Bunny, who gladly hopped off with a limp toward the nearest hovering spaceship that was now sucking up elves and Council Members. The robot, angry at having lost its prey, smacked April across the head with its shopping bag. She stumbled back, muttered, "What do you have in there, a brick?" and promptly passed out.

Before she even hit the ground, Bernard pulled the candy cane sword out of its sheath and beheaded the android. Then he resheathed the weapon and scooped his wife into his arms. The ordiment-like space ship flew over them and teleported them away from the chaos.

As soon as his feet hit the deck, he called out. "She's hurt, someone help her!"

Judy and Abby immediately came to assistance. "Abby, get some strong peppermint and some ice water."

"Okay!" Abby scuttled off.

Destiny looked out the port window with a great heavy feeling in her heart as she watched few of the buildings being set on fire by the Holiday Consumers. She looked down at her device and sighed. "That's everyone. Get us out of here."

"Yes ma'am!" The pilot pushed a couple of buttons and all the UFOs took off through the hole in the ice cave roof.

"Is she going to be okay?" Bernard looked as though he would completely fall apart any second. He sat next to Judy, who was fanning April with a program from the service. "Please tell me I'm not going to loose her."

"Once Abby gets the peppermint, she should be fine. Although I fear she may have a mild concussion, so I'll hafta watch her for a while."

He buried his face in his hands and groaned. "This is the worst day of my entire life!"

Destiny rubbed his shoulder. "It'll be okay, Bernard. She's not going to die on you. I'd be disappearing by now."

He looked up at her and managed with great effort to produce a weak smile. "If you hadn't been wherever you were instead of with us, this could have been a lot worse."

She glanced quickly in Maigri's direction and blushed. "Ah, well..."

Abby ran back with a bottle of peppermint oil and a cup of water. She handed the bottle to Judy who unscrewed the cap and waved it under April's nose. She coughed and opened her eyes. "What's the license plate number of the thing that whacked me in the head? I want to give it a serious...butt-kicking..." She slurred some more and rolled over onto her stomach. Her vision cleared slightly and she spotted Bernard. A goofy grin spread over her face. "Hi, Honey. Crazy party, huh?"

He looked sick.

"Here, April, have some of this." Abby tipped the cup so that some of the cool liquid into April's mouth, but it mostly got all over the floor. The elf grunted. "This isn't working."

"That's because you're not doing it right." Judy grabbed the cup and threw the ice cold water onto April's face. She snapped out of her dazed state with a loud shriek.

Judy smiled wearily. "Percussive maintenance...Works every time!"

April waved her arms frantically. "Oh, cold! Cold, cold, cold! COLD!"

"Abby, dear cousin, please get her a towel."

"Right away, Judy." Abby really didn't mind being bossed around by her cousin, since they were still in emergency mode. Everyone had to work together in their time of crisis.

Curtis came in, nursing his rapidly bruising jaw. "Hey, Destiny...Where are we headed?"

"You don't know yet?"

"All I know is that Earth is getting pretty small out that window." He jerked his head toward the window, and naturally all the unoccupied elves ran to see. None of them had ever been in outer space before!

"We're going to the moon, silly!"

Curtis paled. "Oh, right. The moon. Where there's no air..."

* * * *

A/N: Okay, this chapter was rushed and a bit unfocused, but I hope you liked it. Have a happy wedding, BERNARD! *Laughs evilly, cokes on my gum, then coughs a lot* Please review! Not as many peeps reviewed the last chapter as I would have hoped. *Grumbles about not getting 75 reviews, and I was soooo close too!* Please don't make me hold the next chapter back until I get enough to make me happy. I worked hard on these chapters! Is it so much to tell me your honest opinion of them?