The Guardian Games: The Wrath of Five
Bedtime Stories
"Captain Jack Frost, m'am."
"You're an outlaw," she said, throwing his wrist down as if the contact burned - as if the gloves that covered her hands wouldn't protect her from that. The redcoats around her lifted up their firearms, cocking their rifles at the young man in damp rags.
"But Elsa!" The redheaded girl protested. She was only garbed in her dripping petticoat - highly immodest attire for a lady of her status and age, but was a result of an almost drowning incident. The culprit of the drowning was not the pirate however, but the deadly corset - the latest fashion in the England. The whalebones sown into its seams had done its best to squeeze all the air out of the younger Lady Arendelle, which had resulted her in fainting and tumbling off the fort wall, plunking quite ungracefully into the seas harbour waters. Now what did the white-haired pirate have to do with this entire situation? "He saved my life."
"Yes, but that's hardly enough to erase all the crimes he's done." Elsa intoned coldly, glaring at the fugitive whose hands were seized by the guards at that moment. Iron shackles clamped themselves around his wrists despite his indignant expression. "He's a pirate, Anna."
When the redcoats prepared themselves to march him away however, Anna jumped in front of them, flail her arms wide open to keep them from moving off. "No!"
"Anna." Her sister stepped forward through the ranks of the soldiers, narrowing her eyes to at her sister. "Please let these fine gentlemen carry out their business and for goodness' sake,-" she subtly jerked her head to the labourers and merchants at the dock who were watching the scene from afar "-don't embarrass us."
"Us? You mean embarrass you. You never cared about me." Anna shot back with surprising vigour, making her elder sister flinch back in shock. Still soaked through and through, the young Lady Anna Arendelle squeezed through the redcoats to their surprise, putting herself right in front of the fugitive. This act was met with surprise all around, by the gawking faces all around. "This gentleman – though he be a pirate, yes – has saved my life, and that is an honourable act. He deserves far better than these chains that you have shackled-"
And at that moment, Anna was suddenly jerked back as heavy metal flew over her head and the very chain that locked itself around her neck. From the corner of her vision, she could see the innocent, lost young pirate had transformed into a wicked, devious rogue.
Rifles immediately pointed themselves in her direction, but a sharp yell from her sister made the redcoats hesitate.
"Come, come, let's be reasonable here," the grinning white-haired lad said, jerking on the chain and pulling his brunette hostage along with him through the crowd, moving himself down the walkway of the harbour. The redcoats followed him, but when they stepped to close, he would close the chain tighter and she would flail in his grip to no avail. "I'm just passing through the Port and the sooner you leave me be, the sooner your precious Anna-" he chuckled "-would return safely to you."
"You're despicable," the girl hissed at him, feeling disgusted and a little ashamed for having imagined him to be a better person. Elsa was going to rub this in her face for sure.
"Well, I saved your life. I figure you can help save mine." The pirate, Jack Frost, answered without an ounce of repentance. He then jerked his head up to the soldiers, who all looked like they wanted to launch themselves at him. His gaze flickered to the blonde woman – the pale upperclass lady who looked like she hadn't stepped into sunlight for the last ten years. "Well, mind returning my effects?"
It was with great reluctance that the lady barked at the soldier to return his belongings – the hexagonal puzzle box, the compass that didn't point north and of course, the staff with a curved hook at the end. Captain Jack Frost, as he called him, twirled the long gnarled rod in his bound hands all while dragging his hostage back with him.
"Gentlemen," he called to them just as he spied a hook from the crane standing by the edge of the harbour, with a long plank of a platform running along it, going off the pier to land. He swung his head around and flashed his perfect teeth at the encroaching swarm of soldiers, "you will remember this day as the day that you almost caught-" a mischievous glint "- Captain Jack-"
"Grandma, this is the wrong story."
The old woman blinked as she lowered book, gazing down at her petulant grandmother. "What'cha say, Pumpkin?"
"I said-" the six-year old girl seemed a little peeved to have been addressed as if she were a hard starchy fruit that people were so fond of carving in Halloween, "-this is the wrong story. You're reading me a pirate story. This one ain't the one that we were reading."
"You sure about that, Pumpkin?" The grandmother closed the book, glancing its cover up and down gingerly. "I'm pretty sure that the storybook I read from last time that was this one."
"No, grandma." The young girl started jumping up down on her bed quite impatiently. "It isn't."
"Well, I'll be." The old lady adjusted the reading glass on her nose, squinting at the book through the lens. "Seems like you're right after all." She pushed herself off the chair, her bones seeming to rattle against each other as she hobbled over to the book shelf, plopping back the volume where she had found it, then glanced at the scores of books sitting there. "Now, where's that bedtime story…"
"Grandma, it's that's one." The girl pointed to the blue book sitting at the end of shelf.
"Ah." The grandma removed the book, holding it between her wrinkled hands, chuckling softly at her own forgetfulness as she made her way back to her seat by her granddaughter's bedside. Grandma then flipped through the pages of the book and started to read from where she believed that they had left off.
So he was about to drop off to his death down a hollow chute going who knows where. The enemy was approaching him along the narrow walkway, blocking any possible path of safe escape. Gritting his teeth, Jack swung his light staff against the coming strike towards him, but his reaction was too weak and a searing burn engulfed the entirety of his hand. He screamed as the blood soaked into his sleeves, feeling weak against the darkness towering over him, taunting him with its shadows.
"It's over, Jack," he heard the Nightmare King cackle, waving his gleaming black sickle behind as he stepped forward. Jack quickly slid back, focusing on nothing but putting as much distance between himself and his nemesis. "I can sense your fear."
Between the strands sticking his sweaty forehead, Jack stared up at his foe, defiant still.
"You have great powers, Jack. Powers that the Guardians would never let you flourish into its entirety," he heard Pitch carry on, voice surprising calm and unthreatening. A bony, skeleton hand reached towards him as an offering. "Join me, boy, and I'll show you the true power of the Dark Side. After all,-" he gestured behind them, at the furious spirals of black sand and the spikes of ice that had been formed in the course of their battle "-what goes better than cold and dark?"
"No!" He did not have to think before spitting out the refute. Jack's own gaze burned furiously at his foes, full of anger and hate. The faces of all those he cared for him flashed through his mind, including the friend that had been taken from him without a goodbye. "I would never join you,"
"Don't be so sure." He heard the chilling striking of teeth against teeth as Pitch cackled. "Did the Sandman ever tell you what happened to your father?"
"Sandy?" How dare he bring Sandy? Sandy, the good, the kind, the honourable and brave who had fallen in battle against Pitch back on the Death Star. Jack clenched his teeth. "He told me that you killed my father."
"Jack," there was something in Pitch's voice that was suddenly serious that made the young lad look up despite his bleeding hand, "I am your-"
"Grandmother." The child sitting cross-legged on her covers was getting a little impatient. "This is still the wrong story."
"Wha'dya mean it's the wrong one?" The grandmother was too getting a little irritated about getting interrupted. "You told me to pick up this book, Pumpkin."
Pumpkin, for that's what we shall call the girl for now made a little noise in the back of her throat. "Yeah, but it's the wrong one."
Grunting, the old woman rose from her seat, moving back towards the shelf and fitting the book back where she was had found. "Well, then which is it?"
The girl climbed down her bed, skipping towards the shelf to help her Grandmother find it their prize for the night.
"D'ya even remember the name of the book?" Grandma asked the girl, who shook her head. Grandma huffed, as she picked up another book on the shelf and flipped through it. "What about this?"
She found a random page in it and began to read:
"Please, please, work," Hiccup muttered under his breath as he threw the lightstick as far as he could, then quickly stepped off the road, hoping the shadows hid hims. His arms were weak and from all he knew of his gym classes, his aim was also pathetic. However, at that moment the gods must have been smiling down at him, for the glowstick flew up in the air, spinning and spinning into the distance. The spiked bipedal dragon immediately fluttered after it, momentarily ignoring him in search of what it deemed a more exquisite prize.
Panting too hard to sigh in relief, the skinny, bony boy dashed towards the overturned car. Glass pieces were littered everywhere and when he squatted down to look through the smashed windows, he asked, "Is everyone okay?"
"We've just been attacked by a flying creature that shoots spikes from its tail," Merida, despite the cut on her forehead and hanging off the seat of the car like bat, answered with her usual fire. "We're doing just fine."
Rapunzel, who was strapped next to the other girl, did not say anything. Her eyes were as round as dishes and the hands clasping onto the seatbelt were trembling.
Hiccup did manage to get them out of the car – though honestly, Merida was the one who did most of the work by cutting them out of their seatbelts. Through the smashed windows, the two girl crawled their way out, with Hiccup's jacket covering the glass windows. The redhead spent most of the time swearing while Rapunzel spent the time absolutely silent, still looking too traumatised for words.
"We need to get back to the main centre," Hiccup told them once he made sure that at least physically in one piece. "They have to know that the Deadly Nadder escaped."
"No kidding." Merida shot a disgusted look at the torn fences of the compound that had once held the ferocious dragon. Rubbing her bruises elbow, she shuddered. "Ugh. What were these people thinking? Cloning extinct dragons with frog DNA to make a theme park? And 'secure facilities' my foot! What was your mum thinking?"
"Hey, this isn't my mum's fault, okay?" Hiccup defended. "She just wanted the world to love and enjoy dragons as much as she did."
"Well, thanks to her," Merida spat out, stomping her foot at the same time, "we're stuck here, in the rain with goodness knows how many hungry wild creatures roaming everywhere."
"What happened to Jack?" the blonde girl cut in quietly.
The two other teenagers went silent. The last time they had seen him was when he had exited the car to check on what was going on outside. The fury of the rain above had kept them from seeing exactly what had happened to him. They could only hope that the dragon had not seen him, or even worse, had eaten him.
"Come on, guys," Hiccup waved to his two companions. "We should go before the Nadder returns."
No sooner had he said that however did a dark shadow from the sky land right down in front of them. With the electricity all out, there were no lamps to illuminate the face of the beast. It was not needed, however, for the dragon then spread its wings open and all of the sudden, its scaly red skin caught fire. The beast then parted its jaws, a glow emerging from the back of its throat.
All three of them screamed.
"Grandma!"
"What?" The old lady snapped the book shut, trying not to reveal how much she had enjoyed reading that. Despite pushing sixty-five, she still had a streak of adrenaline-junkie tendencies.
"Stop wasting time and find the book." Pumpkin had tossed several volumes on the floor by now.
"Don't sass me, young lady. I'm your elder." Grandma chided. The girl just went on perusing volume after volume, making her grandmother shake her head. Kids these days – so self-absorbed.
"Elsa!"
"Jack! Here!" He heard her muffled voice somewhere in the crowd. He hurried past the locals, who frowned at his apparent disregard for manners. The hot weather was making him sweat through his shirt, but he didn't care about it as his head swung from right to left. In the distance, just at the right moment, he saw a large figure carrying a bundled person over their shoulder, in which the person had their head covered and her gloved hands tied together.
"Elsa, I'm coming!" He called while dashing forward, pushing through all the other people.
"Jack Overland Frost!" The words from her were getting muffled. "If you don't get here right this instance, I swear I will-"
"Still wrong book, Grandma!"
"Oh, very well. What about this one?"
"You're my what now?"
"Ye fairy godmather, ye wuss," the redheaded girl in the sparkling dress snapped and holy moly – were those wings attached to her back? "Ye waur supposed tae be some kin' sool 'at aam obliged tae care for." She sniffed, rubbing her nose with her sleeve while the other hand, which was clenching some kind of wand, attached itself to her hip. "So, laddie, Ye want tae gang tae th' baa ur whit?"
Hiccup stared at her for a long moment, then finally said, "You know, I can't understand anything in that accent."
"Grandma!"
"Sorry! A little carried away there. What'dya have with you, Pumpkin?"
"Well, there's this-"
"Ms. Arendelle, do you honestly expect us to believe that?"
"Excuse me?" She wasn't used to pert interruptions to all that she said. All of the audience turned their heads towards the young white-haired reported, who had a pencil on his ear and a notepad balanced on his lap.
He however didn't notice how he had gotten attention from all attendees of the press conference, focus channelled into his acrid tone. "The flashing light, the swirls of sand, the abnormal about ice that came showering over Arendelle Labs HQ yesterday. You can't expect us to believe that it was all just part of a-" he used his fingers to form an air quotation sign "-'malfunctioned product testing'?"
Eyes immediately swung about and latched themselves on the CEO of Arendelle Industries instead, waiting for her reply. Elsa stared at the crowds, then down at the cards in her gloved hands. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
She lifted her head, searching at the back of the crowd for the two supporters she knew. Kristoff was shaking his head fervently – he was the one who wrote the cards. He was the one who convinced her to play it safe. He was part of some secret government organisation, of course, so he would much rather if everything about her was kept under wraps.
But Anna was standing next to him, and she was nodding, smiling even a little. Ever since Anna had found out about her powers, their relationship had somewhat been repaired. Anna wasn't afraid, and she didn't want her elder sister to be afraid either.
Letting out a tight breath, Elsa placed the cards down on the podium holder, which was met by Kristoff smacking a hand against his forehead. Under the gaze of the crowd, she removed her glove and pointed her hand towards the empty front of the stage. A glow appeared in her palm, and shot forward. A collective gasp swept over the throng as a fence of icicles emerged before them.
Elsa sucked in a breath, before breathing into the microphone, "I am the Snow Queen."
The conference room exploded with questions.
"Okay, that's definitely not it. Next one!"
"I know what you are." The sing-song tone had a taunt in it.
"Oh?" He acted completely calm, but inside him, a flurry of emotions raced everywhere, invading every part of him. "And what would that be?"
"A vampire."
Jack blinked. "Come again?"
"You're a vampire," Anna repeated with a hint of smugness, removing her notepad from her bag and beginning to peruse its pages. She stopped when she found the one she was looking for. "I've done some research, and it all matched up. Look-" she pointed at the shorthand in her book "-you're impossible fast. And strong. Your skin-" that made Jack glanced down at his hand and wonder a little self-consciously about what was wrong with his skin "-is pale white, and ice cold. You sometimes speak like-" she snapped her fingers as she tried to phrase her thought in words "-like you're from a different time. You never eat or drink. So-" she clapped the book shut with a smile "-you're definitely a vampire."
Jack stared at her, then he cleared his throat, saying, "Okay, I think I need to explain to you the concept of 'immortal winter spirit'…"
"Hmm, vampires aren't what they used to be," Grandma muttered as she removed the book from the shelf. There was no need for Pumpkin to be reading that trashy novel.
"Grandma,-" the girl sounded excited, "-I think I got it!"
"Well, have ya, Pumpkin?" The old lady hobbled over to her granddaughter, who then opened the book and began to read.
"Rapunzel von Wolfe."
The girl rose from her seat, her hands shaking as she prepared to move out of the seats. However, before she could, she felt Mother's iron grip wrap itself around her wrist. She turned to face the woman by her side, who was smiling like a cat amongst the pigeons.
"Remember what we spoke about last night, dearie," Mother said sweetly, laced with veiled threats.
The night before the Choosing Ceremony? During dinner that night was the first time Rapunzel had ever lied to her mother. She had to – after all, it was a dangerous thing to reveal that one's faction compatibility included more than one faction. Divergents were not tolerated in the existing social order.
Having no choice, Rapunzel nodded and her mother let her go. Weaving pass the other gray-clad members of her faction, the blonde girl approached the stage, where the five bowls awaited her. A knife was there too, already stained by the blood of other teens that had chosen their factions before her.
She picked the knife up while her eyes ran over the different bowls. Each stone basin had something different in it, but her gaze was caught between the two that mattered to her the most. The Abnegation bowl, full of smooth stones that undoubtedly represent hardship of selflessness, and the Dauntless bowl, full of glowing embers that represented the fiery boldness that they believed in.
Rapunzel bit her lip as she slid the knife across her palm, letting out a hiss despite herself. She could feel the stares of the audience as they waited impatiently to put her hand over the Abnegation bowl, as expected from a sweet, timid girl like her. Because that's all she ever was - sweet, timid, thoughtless and naïve. Mother told her often enough it was a good thing she was bornin Abnegation. In any faction, she would have been trampled over by now.
But even as Rapunzel straightened her hand out over the Abnegation bowl, she hesitated. It wasn't that she minded spending the rest of her life helping the poor and doing good deeds. The problem really was that did she really want to spend the rest of her days cooped up in her tower, under Mother's cold, laughing gaze, and staring out of the window wishing for more?
It could be silly, perhaps, but she wanted adventure. She wanted daring. She wanted…
Rapunzel shifted her hand over to the Dauntless bowl. Her blood dripped on the charcoal pieces, hissing loudly her decision.
There was a gasp of surprise, but it was followed by hearty applause from the Dauntless crowd. When Rapunzel lifted her head, she could see Mother's gaze burning straight through her soul.
"Hmm, I guess it's kind of similar, but not the same," Pumpkin said with a sigh, throwing the book down. Shoulders drooping, she defeatedly returned back to her bed, crossing her arms in a moody sulk. "I guess will never find the right book after all."
"Come, come now, Pumpkin. Don't be upset." Grandma could never stay too upset with her for long. Shuffling back to her chair next to the bed, she patted her granddaughter on the head. "We're bound to find the book sooner or later. Now, how about we start on a new story?" Grandma held up one of the volumes that she had picked off the shelf, making an 'Oooh' sound as she did. "This one's about Arthurian legends. Would you like that?"
"Not really," said Pumpkin, clearly no longer interest in stories. She leaned back into her pillow, only to find that her head collided with something hard. "Ow!"
Sitting up, she pushed the pillow a way. And there it was – the book they had been looking for all night long. "Grandma, look!"
"Well, I'll be!" Grandma adjusted her glasses to see it for herself.
So Grandma took up the book and Pumpkin lay back down in the bed. Letting Grandma read the story from where they had left off last night.
District 5
"And that was the story about how a Grandma read to her granddaughter stories. They both lived happily ever after. Well, until Grandma passed away from a heart attack, but that was a lot later."
She put the book down and glanced down at the three redheaded toddlers. They were all fast asleep – having done so perhaps a few minutes into the book. It wasn't that interesting a story, so it was no wonder that that had happened.
Elinor then reached over for the nightlight and dimmed it, so that it would be strong enough to protect her boys from the monster under the bed. It wasn't however able to protect them from the skirmishes outside their home. She then left their bedroom, closing the door behind her. As she did, she noticed how their large home seemed abnormally empty nowadays.
Rebellion efforts led by her husband were surprisingly effective, and it had been a week since the Mayor's Manor and several other small towns around District 5 had been out of Capitol rule. However, since Fergus had to be close to the frontlines himself, Elinor hardly was able to see him anymore. She missed him, of course, and she worried, though there was little else she could honestly do.
She stepped into her office, flicked on the lights and found herself being surrounded with men in dark, unfamiliar armour. By the polished armour though, she knew that these fellows were Peacekeepers.
"Mrs. Dunbroch," the Head Peacekeeper spat out to her harshly, "we have detected an abnormal amount of calls going to and coming from this office." One of the masked soldier behind him stepped forward with a pair of handcuff. "Come quietly, and we won't blow this place sky high."
She considered her options. On one hand, she could run, run to find Fergus wherever he was. Another was that she could struggled against them, try to see if she could snatch their weapons and kill them all. But in doing any action of defiant, it might very well come at the cost of the lives of her boys. Oh, why didn't it occur to Fergus to post some guards around the Manor? Didn't he foresee that Peacekeepers would sneak into the Manor?
Letting out a sigh, Elinor let them put the cuffs around her wrist and drag her away, down the hall and to the kitchen backdoor. She made a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that her family would stay safe and sound. For once, she hoped fervently that Fergus' conquest would succeed – there was no choice about the matter anymore.
Well, Happy April Fools' Day, folks. If you've read my works before, you know that I usually post a weird chapter on April Fool's Day every year to mess with the readers. This year's one isn't really funny, I know, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. It's not beta-ed though, because I really want to post it while it's still April Fools' and I'm in a bit of a hurry.
Basically, nothing in the chapter really happened in The Wrath of Five except for Elinor's bit. Therein lies the true twist – the storyteller and her granddaughter were just characters of another story being told by someone else. Also, this chapter was an excuse for me to explore other ROTBFD AUs in a short period of time. Can you identify all the movies that each of the other AUs that were based on? (I'll post answer on the next legit chapter).
Sorry for disappointing anyone that this isn't a real chapter. I'm still working on that one.
Adios! Happy April Fools'!