Chapter 2: Reintroductions
"No!" North barked from his bed as he glared at Jack, Bunny, Tooth and Sandy, "No! Net! Absolutely not!"
"Come on, North," Tooth began to argue with a sigh.
"I said no!" North snapped, cutting Tooth off, "There is being no way that I am working with Jack Skellington!"
"He can't be that bad," Bunny said with a smirk and a shake of his head, "Look, I didn't care for Frost when we first started working with him either, and trust me, he's still something of a wanker, but I think it worked out pretty well."
"Gee, thanks," Jack said with a roll of his eyes, "I didn't know you cared so much."
"You are not understanding," North argued, "Jack is not being Jack."
There was a quiet pause as the other four Guardians glanced at one another while trying to digest what North had said.
"Can you run that by us again?" Jack requested after a moment.
"Jack Skellington is not being like you," North explained, looking directly at Jack as he spoke, "He is reckless and dangerous."
"Sounds a lot like me actually," Jack commented with a smirk and a shrug.
"He's not, he's…." North paused to growl in frustration, "I do not want him on this team. I am forbiding it."
"Last time I checked, North, that wasn't your call to make," Tooth observed as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the man, "We need help, now more than ever if what we think is happening is actually happening. So, the way I see it, you're just going to have to put aside your grudge and suck it up!"
There was a long awkward moment as North and Tooth glared at each other while Bunny, Jack and Sandy glanced at one another nervously.
"Fine," North finally relented, "You are wanting Jack Skellington to be on team so badly, you can go get him yourselves."
"Fine," Tooth agreed hotly, "I think we will."
Turning away from North, Tooth began buzzing towards the door, glaring at everything and nothing as she went.
"Come on, guys," Tooth said to the other Guardians, "Let's let North rest. We've got a job to do."
With that, she left the room, leaving the other three to watch her go. Slowly, they turned their attention back towards North, but the man had turned away from them, only allowing them to see his heavily scarred back. Turning their attentions towards one another, the three Guardians weren't able to do anything but sigh and shrug their shoulders before leaving the room to follow Tooth.
"Okay," Jack spoke up after they had traveled a short distance from North's room, "So, does anyone want to explain this whole situation to me? Why's there so much bad blood between North and this Jack Skellington guy?"
"There's not," Tooth answered with a sigh, "At least, I doubt that Jack sees North as anything but a friend."
"Okay, then why does North hate him so much?" Jack asked.
"Because he stole Christmas," Bunny explained.
"Excuse me?" Jack questioned with bemusement, "He stole Christmas? You're sure North didn't just read the wrong Dr. Seuss book?"
"Stole is the wrong word," Tooth interjected, "Hijacked would be more appropriate."
"Okay, I think I'm going to need a little elaboration here," Jack said as they continued down the hall, "Who exactly is this Jack Skellington guy?"
"Jack Skellington is essentially the spirit of Halloween," Bunny explained as Sandy formed an image of a jack-o-lantern with his sand, "There are a bunch of ghosts and ghoulies who work with him, but he's the top dog."
"Halloween?" Jack questioned, his expression turning concerned, "Sounds like something up Pitch's alley."
"It's not like that," Tooth stated, "He's not about fear like Pitch is. He's all about the fun side of Halloween. Dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating, scaring each other for fun. Stuff like that."
"That sounds like a pretty nice gig," Jack commented, "What would he want with Christmas?"
"Honestly, it sounds like one year he just got bored," Bunny stated with a shrug, "Somehow he caught wind of Christmas and decided to give it a go."
"Decided to give it a go?" Jack questioned, "How did he manage that?"
"He sent these three little buggers to kidnap him," Bunny grumbled earning a silent laugh from Sandy.
"You sound a little bitter about that," Jack observed.
"That's because they kidnapped him by mistake first," Tooth pointed out with a chuckle, "Jack had to make them bring him back."
Jack Frost could only laugh at that, making Bunny even more cross.
"So, what happened with Jack's Christmas?" he asked after he regained his composure.
"It was a disaster," Bunny answered as Sandy formed a hand doing a thumbs down motion with his sand, "The bloke understood the concept, but he didn't quite manage the execution."
"How so?" Jack inquired.
"His gifts had a macabre flavor to them," Tooth explained, "Shrunken heads, tarantulas, dolls that walked and talked without batteries in them. Not exactly gifts you'd want to open on Christmas Day."
"I'm guessing people didn't take that well," Jack observed.
"Hardly," Bunny confirmed with a snort, "There was a mass panic. The frickin' United States Army got involved and shot him down."
"Seriously?" Jack questioned, clearly shocked, "They could see him?"
"Yeah," Tooth answered with a nod, "I don't think people normally can, but I think that he was essentially hijacking North's holiday, it let people see him for a time. Not that it worked to his advantage."
"What happened after that?" Jack asked.
"Jack realized his mistake and went back to get North and fix everything," Bunny explained, "The problem was that North had ended up in the clutches of a real creep named Oogie Boogie."
"Oogie Boogie?" Jack repeated with a snort.
"If I'm lying I'm dying," Bunny replied with a smirk.
"Silly name or not, he still almost killed North until Jack killed him instead," Tooth added, "North had enough time to fix what Jack had broken and the two went their separate ways. As far as I know, North hasn't talked to him since."
By that point, the four Guardians had reached the reindeer stables and stood in front of the tunnel leading out of North's mountain.
"Well, I think I have one more question," Jack stated, his face turning solemn, "More of an observation really."
"Lay it on us, mate," Bunny replied as the four of them stood at the mouth of the cave.
"This Oogie Boogie," Jack started as he crossed his arms, "He was Pitch, wasn't he?"
The three other Guardians shared looks before turning their attentions back towards Jack.
"Smart little bugger, aren't you?" Bunny asked.
"Maybe," Jack replied with a shrug, "Don't you think it was a little on the nose by hiding someone like Pitch in a place all about Halloween?"
"I can erase a person's memories but I can't change who a person is, deep down," Tooth explained, "After all, you were basically the same person when you didn't have your memories as you were after you regained them."
"But I'm guessing you didn't warn Jack about him," Jack observed.
The other three Guardians shared an uneasy glance.
"It was like we told you before, mate," Bunny explained, "We had to let as few people as possible know about him."
"Well," Jack commented as the four of them began to make their way up the tunnel leading out of the mountain, "I'm glad to see that didn't come back to bite you guys in the ass somehow."
Later,
A full moon hung in the night sky, casting its pale glow across the dark forest that sat below, the skeletal trees casting long shadows across the barren ground.
One tree stood out in particular, partially due to the fact that it was larger than many of the others, though this was mitigated due to the equally large treehouse it supported, the weight of the structure bending the trunk and causing its branches to sag visibly. The treehouse was made up of three rickety structures connected to one another with rope bridges and rotten walkways. A metal tube ran from one of the buildings down into the ground beneath the roots of the tree. The tree itself sat on a small outcropping of earth surrounded by a deep, empty moat on all sides with a single rope bridge allowing passage across, while a crude, rope elevator appeared to be the only way up into the treehouse itself.
Inside, the treehouse appeared just as dismal as the outside did, with gaps in the floorboards and walls allowing light to filter in from outside and a draft to blow through the structure. In one of the rooms, a small furnace had been built into the wall, hot coals smoldering inside. A small pine tree, its branches withered and its needles turning black, sat in a corner, wrapped in orange streamers and decorated with paper-mache bats and pumpkins, a crudely carved jack-o-lantern sitting on top.
Gathered around the tree was a group of three of children who were hungrily eyeing the handful of badly wrapped presents under the tree. One was a pale, skinny boy with yellow eyes dressed in a long-sleeved, red t-shirt with a pair of matching pants. His feet were covered in dark red shoes and his red hair was done in a way that it resembled two curling horns. A red, spaded tail had been attached to the seat of his pants and a grinning demonic mask sat to the side.
Next to him sat a shorter and plumper boy with pale features, sunken eyes and a far too large of a mouth. He wore a black bodysuit, on the front of which was the depiction of a skeleton, the bones drawn on the bodysuit matching up with the placement of his own skeleton. Sitting to his side was a grinning skull mask.
The third child was the only girl of the group. She possessed gaunt features with a pointed, prominent nose and greyish skin. Her eyes were black on yellow and her stringy black hair that stuck out from underneath her tall, purple, witch's hat. She wore a purple dress that hung down to her knees along with black stockings and black boots on her feet. A mask depicting a frowning, green-faced witch sat on the floor beside her.
"Oooo," the boy in the skeleton costume groaned as he practically shook with excitement, "Can I open one, Shock, please!?"
"No!" the girl, Shock, answered loudly while hitting the boy on the back of his head, "You have to wait until Christmas Day, Barrel! Those are the rules!"
"Who cares about the rules!" the other boy whined, "They're right there, why don't we just open them!?"
"Because, it's against the rules, Lock!" Shock replied while smacking him on the back of the head as well, "If we break the rules, then Sandy Claws will put us on his naughty list and we won't get any presents from him!"
"Uh, aren't we already on his naughty list?" Barrel questioned in confusion, "We did kidnap him that one time."
"I'm sure he's forgotten all about that," Shock reassured him, "Sandy Claws is a very forgiving person."
A dubious expression crossed Barrel's features, but he said nothing.
"Forget that!" Lock exclaimed suddenly as he grabbed one of the presents and dragged it over to himself, "I'm opening mine now, and you can't stop me!"
"Lock, no!" Shock exclaimed as she moved to stop him, but didn't have time before the boy grabbed one of the brightly colored packages and began tearing it open.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Lock shouted eagerly as he tossed the shredded wrapping paper around him and ripped the box open, "What did I-"
There was a pause as Lock looked into the box, confusion written clear on his face. After a moment he overturned the box, causing three lumps of coal to come tumbling out, leaving trails of soot as the rolled across the floor.
"Okay, what's the big idea!?" Lock demanded as he rounded on the others, glaring at them while he tossed the now empty box away, "Why'd I get coal for Christmas!?"
"If I understand correctly," a new voice suddenly said, causing all three of them to jump and let out shrieks of surprise, "It's given to little girls and boys who have been especially naughty that year."
Spinning around, the trio looked towards a darkened corner of the room where the wispy, almost hollow sounding voice emanated from. As they did, they could just make out a tall, lean figure standing there, almost completely enveloped by the shadows.
"W-Who are you!" Shock demanded as the three quickly crowded together.
"What?" the figure questioned, "You don't remember me, my old friends?"
"N-No," Lock admitted nervously, "Sh-Should we?"
"After all our time together, I would have thought you remembered me," the figure said with a sigh, "We were neighbors even."
"Neighbors?" Barrel questioned in confusion, "We….We don't have any neighbors."
"Oh, but you did," the figure replied as he began to approach, his voice suddenly shifting as he continued talking, growing deeper and more jovial, "When Mr. Oogie Boogie says there's trouble close at hand, you'd better pay attention now 'cause I'm the Boogie Man."
"...Oogie?" Shock questioned, clearly stunned, "Is that you, Oogie?"
"In the flesh," the figure replied, its voice returning to what it had been a moment before as it stepped forward, entering the shaft of moonlight coming through one of the windows, "So to speak."
As the figure stepped into view, the trio could see that he was a tall, slim man dressed in a long black coat, the edges of which seemed to dissipate into a smokey substance. His hands were pallid and almost skeletal in appearance with long spindly fingers. What caught all their attentions though was the mask he wore. It was incredibly crude in appearance, looking as though it had been made out of a burlap sack that had grown dirty and threadbare. A line of stitches stretched across the lower portion of the mask, functioning as a mouth, while two, mismatched buttons sewn onto the bag served as eyes.
"...You don't look like Oogie," Barrel commented.
"I've gone through some changes," the figure explained, the mask not moving as it spoke.
"But….how?" Lock questioned, "We thought Jack killed you."
"He did," the figure answered, "And in the process, I was reborn. Released from a prison I had been unaware I had been trapped in. But even then, I wasn't what I was meant to be."
"I-I don't understand," Shock stated as she glanced at the others in confusion.
"No," the figure replied with a sigh, "I suppose you wouldn't. But that matters little I suppose. What matters is I am the being you once called Oogie Boogie and I've come to call on you again."
"W-What do you want with us?" Barrel questioned.
"Your aid, of course," the figure replied, "To free me and my brethren."
"Your brethren?" Shock asked.
"I don't even know what that word means," Lock muttered.
"The Guardians of the Sabbat," the figure explained, "The ones who watched over this world before we were disposed by a group of pretenders."
"Pretenders?" Lock questioned in confusion.
"The so called Guardians of Childhood," the figure practically spat.
"What do you guys plan to do?" Shock inquired.
"Simple," the figure replied in a way that made shivers run down the trio's spines, "We're going to kill them."
"How are we supposed to help you with that?" Lock inquired, "W-We're not killers."
"No, I suppose you are not," the figure relented, "Luckily, that is not what we require you for."
"S-So, you came here just to find us?" Barrel inquired.
"Not just for you," the figure admitted, "My brother and I also wished to visit good old Jack."
"Y-Your brother?" Shock questioned.
A moment after the words left Shock's mouth, a loud creak came from above them, followed by a quick series of heavy thuds that sounded like footsteps.
"He's here," the figure observed as he and the trio turned their gazes toward the ceiling.
"Sandy Claws?" Lock questioned.
"No," the figure replied with a shake of his head, "I'm afraid that Saint Nicholas will not be joining us this evening."
"Who is that then?" Shock inquired as the footsteps drew closer to where the furnace's stovepipe exited through the roof.
"Up on the housetop, click, click, click," the figure sang in a minor, haunting key, his voice like the wind blowing through the branches of a dead tree. As he sang, there was a loud clanging noise from the roof. A moment later, the stovepipe suddenly bulged, as if something had been stuffed into it and the metal was straining to contain the offending object. As the trio watched with wide, terrified eyes, the bulge moved downward, following the path of the stovepipe towards the furnace.
"Down through the chimney with-" the figure continued before he was interrupted as the bulge reached the furnace, the door to which exploded outward as flames surged out into the open air. The trio jumped back instinctively, the room bathed in hellish red light and long, dancing shadows. The flames retreated after a moment, but the fire continued to burn hot and bright from within the furnace.
A moment later, to the trio's astonishment, another figure stepped out of the furnace. He was a massive figure, so much so that it was daunting to the trio that he simply stepped out of their small furnace. He wore a long, dirty red robe trimmed in white fur, which obscured most of his features. From what the trio could see, the creature was largely covered in coarse, black fur except for on his hands and face, the flesh of which was grey in color. A pair of cloven hooves stuck out from beneath the robe and a pair of curved horns rose from beneath the folds of the drawn hood. The trio were able to make out that the creature had a snarling mouth full of sharp teeth and its eyes were yellow with square irises like those of a goat. A heavy iron chain was wrapped around the creature's hunched form, ending in a rusted meathook that it clutched in its clawed right hand. It's left hand was supporting a giant brown sac that it had slung over its shoulder, bulges in which appeared to be moving.
As the trio stared up at the creature in horror, it lifted its head and took a long sniff of the air.
"I smell naughty children," the creature growled, its voice like rocks scraping together, its words thick with a Scandinavian accent.
Slowly, the creature's goat eyes fell on the trio and it took another deep sniff of the air, causing the children to shiver in fear. Placing his sack on the ground, the creature smiled at the trio.
"I love naughty children," the creature stated as it reached for the trio, drool dripping from its mouth.
"Enough," the figure stated, catching the creatures attention and stopping it just as one of its clawed hands was about to touch Shock, "Let the children be."
"But, brother," the creature whined, "I hunger."
"You'll have plenty of time to eat later," the figure argued as he nodded at the trio, "We need them."
"Bah," the creature scoffed as it pulled away from the trio, "They are as good as any other group of children."
"True, but they're mine," the figure said sternly.
"Fine," the creature relented with a sigh as it looked away from the trio, "You were never good at sharing."
"W-What i-i-is th-that th-th-thing?" Shock questioned, her voice almost failing her.
"That would be my brother," the figure explained before gesturing towards the creature with one of its wispy hands, "Let me introduce you to Krampus, one of my fellow Guardians."
"You've got some weird relatives, Oogie," Lock observed nervously.
"Oogie?" Krampus commented with a snort of amusement, turning his gaze towards the figure, "Is that what they called you?"
"Once upon a time," the figure admitted, "But no longer."
"What should we call you then?" Barrel questioned as he looked up at the figure looming over them.
"You can call me by my true name," the figure answered, "You can call me by what I really am. You can call me Samhain."
A/N: So the first chapter of this story got a lot more positive feedback then I was expecting. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and sorry that it took so long for me to write this chapter. I hope you all like this one as well. As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!