This one's a request from NorthernMage who wondered what would happen if the Guardians did actually meet Slender Man (references to At War Part I)

Also, heads up for spoilers if you haven't played the game and wanted to (all my knowledge comes from Wikipedia cause I'm a huge chicken :P Apologies if anything is wrong)

Disclaimer: Don't own RotG or Slender Man

...

Rumour Has It…

"Remind me again why we're traipsing through a forest at night," Jack said as he followed alongside the other Guardians.

"Weren't ya payin' attention in the meeting at all?" Bunny asked, looking back over his shoulder at the winter spirit.

"If I said I was would you believe me?"

Bunny snorted and returned his attention to the path ahead.

"There's been a report of kids disappearing in this area," Tooth informed him, shining her torch between the trees.

"And rumour of spirit said to be living in this forest," North added.

"U-huh," Jack nodded. "And we're doing this in the dark because…?"

Sandy created an image of what appeared to be a vampire burning in the sunlight.

"The spirit's a vampire?" Jack raised a brow, his words a little choked.

Sandy shook his head with a frown.

"What he's tryin' to say is that the only mentions of the spirit we're lookin' for have been about nocturnal activity."

"Right…" Jack drawled, lazily lighting up a nearby cluster of shrubs and trees with his torch. Of course it was something that went bump in the night. How cliché.

"Hold up, guys," Tooth called out, holding out a hand to stop them. "I think I found something."

Jack easily navigated over to her, peering over her shoulder at a piece of paper she'd picked up. His breath caught as he took in the 'Can't run' scrawled messily across it.

"What do you think it means?" North asked from Tooth's other side, a hand on his chin.

Sandy, likewise, looked confused, but the moment Bunny put eyes on it he turned to glare at their youngest.

"Not me this time!" Jack said instantly, hands held up in surrender. "Which means we are in a lot of trouble and you have just sealed the deal, missy," he added to Tooth.

She, North and Sandy still didn't appear to understand. Bunny scanned the area nervously, ears on full alert, although his expression was partially confused.

"What deal?" Tooth asked.

"The paper things – there're eight of them – are like items in a scavenger hunt," Jack explained. "Each one you find increases the difficulty level of the game. The goal is to find all eight before he finds you."

"He?" North raised a brow at the same time Sand made a question mark.

"Any chance 'he' is Hans?" Bunny asked, tone unreadable.

"Worse," Jack grimaced.

"How could it be worse than a bloody werewolf?"

"Well, Hans wasn't actually out to get you. And, you know, is friends with Lleu."

"…And this guy isn't."

"Absolutely not."

"You still haven't told us who, exactly, 'he' is," Tooth pointed out.

"Slender Man; that's what they call him."

"They?" North cut across.

"Yeah, the humans that play the game. I thought that was all it was; an internet thing turned game that mostly teens like to play. I didn't think he was actually real!"

"Belief is a powerful thing, my friend."

"Can anyone else hear that stomping noise?" Tooth whispered.

"Oh no," Jack cursed, switching off his torch. "We need to stick together and keep moving. Everyone turn off your torches except for one."

Sandy created another question mark as he did as asked, drifting alongside Jack as he hurried through the forest.

"In the game, the torch batteries don't last very long if you leave it on for ages. This way we'll be able to have at least one on permanently."

"So how do we win the game?" Bunny caught up to him. "Get all the pages?"

Jack smiled grimly. It was a look none of them liked.

"What?" Bunny asked in a tone of dread.

"You can't actually… win," he sighed. "Even if you manage to get all the pages, Slender Man still gets you."

"What?!"

"So what are we supposed to do?" Tooth gazed around nervously, the torch in her hand flickering about.

"That is the million dollar question, isn't…" Jack trailed off in thought. Sandy watched him quizzically.

"If we have to, we fight!" North announced, brandishing one of his swords. "We are Guardians and we protect the children. If this Slender Man is a threat to them, we will act accordingly!"

Bunny bit back the retort on the tip of his tongue. If this 'game' was anything like the one Jack had set up in his Warren, they were in for a time of it. "At any rate," he said instead, "we're not gonna get anywhere standin' about. Not collectin' the pages is just as bad as collectin' them, but findin' 'em will give us somethin' to do at the very least."

The others nodded in agreement and started walking again in no particular direction.

"Do any of you have any money?" Jack asked after a moment's silence.

"Sorry, Sweet Tooth, I don't have any pockets and all my quarters are back at the Palace or with the girls," Tooth apologised.

Sandy shook his head, no, trying to figure out what the winter spirit was thinking.

North patted his coat. "Nyet, sorry."

"Don't have any," Bunny shrugged, turning to Jack suspiciously. "What do ya want money for anyway? Not like there're any stores or anythin' out here."

"Never mind," Jack said, not making eye contact. He was frowning like he was trying to work through some complicated puzzle.

Bunny wasn't satisfied with that answer but didn't push the matter.

They found a second page before long, Tooth carefully pulling it down from the tree and placing it with the one they'd found earlier and they headed off again. The torch light flickered and died.

"I thought these were new batteries," she said, slapping the tool against her hand in hopes of getting it to work again.

"Is no matter," North waved a hand flippantly. "We have plenty of torches."

At his word Sandy turned on his own and scanned the darkness. The light travelled over trees, shrubs, a figure in a suit, more trees… wait! He hurriedly returned the beam to where the figure had been, but whatever it had been was gone now.

"Did you guys see that?" Tooth asked fearfully, her hand gripping Sandy's shoulder as he nodded; it wasn't just him, then.

"This isn't good," Jack murmured. He pressed his thumb and forefinger to his lips and let out a long, low whistle, disturbing the silence. The sound seemed to echo through the forest, carried by the wind.

"You tryin' to give away our position, mate?!" Bunny hissed.

"Because he totally doesn't know where we are already," Jack rolled his eyes, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

Bunny muttered something under his breath.

"I think the fog is getting thicker," North noted.

"Probably," Jack bit his lip, eyes trained on what little they could see of the sky. His face split into a huge grin when a low moan like the wind reached them, preceding an icy figure descending from the sky. "Hey, Frostwind!" the winter spirit greeted his creation.

Frostwind landed gracefully before him, nudging him happily with his snout.

"I need you to do me a favour."

Frostwind huffed excitedly, eager to be of use.

"Tooth, can you pass me one of those pages?" Jack asked the only female in their group. Bemused, she did so. "Any of you got anything to write with?"

Bunny scrunched his nose, reluctantly passing him a paintbrush.

"Got any paint to go with that?" Jack raised a brow.

Bunny rolled his eyes, handing over a small container of green paint.

"Cheers. C'mere," Jack gestured to the ice dragon. Frostwind obediently lowered himself so Jack could use him as a writing desk. "Okay," Jack rolled up the page once he was done. "I need you to take this to Jamie, got it?"

Frostwind took the paper gently in his mouth and, with a beat of his wings, took to the sky.

"Be quick!" Jack called up, watching as the dragon flew out of sight. He blinked at the others who were all just watching him silently. Wordlessly, Jack passed the brush and paint back to Bunny.

When he didn't elaborate on what had just happened, the others pushed the matter to the back of their minds and continued on, keeping their eyes open for any sign of their slender stalker.

It was Sandy who found the third page, initiating the low droning that accompanied the faster-paced stomping and thicker fog. None of them mentioned the change, but from the looks they exchanged it was clear they were all aware of it.

"This is too easy," Jack said quietly, a troubled frown settling on his features. And was it just him or was there piano music playing from nowhere?

"It's better than having Slender Man show up, though, right?" Tooth asked anxiously.

Jack looked up at her, ready to reply when he paused, eyes wide. "Duck!" he yelled, hefting up his staff and blasting a bolt of ice toward her.

Tooth gasped, dropping to the ground and sinking into a crouch, narrowly missing the jolt of magic. Hesitantly she glanced back over her shoulder.

But there was nothing there.

Jack cursed silently. "Gone," he managed. "I think we should walk in a circle; make sure no one's backs are unprotected."

Then Sandy's torch died.

Jack fumbled in his pocket, trying to grab his and switch it on as quickly as possible. North beat him to it, shining the light at each of them to make sure everyone was okay.

With a cry, Bunny flung a boomerang into the shadows. "He was right there," he ground out as he deftly caught the weapon on its return.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We need to keep moving."

Slender Man didn't show his face (if you could call it that) for a long while after that, and they managed to find the fourth and fifth pages without too much hassle. The fog was now so thick they could barely see more than a few metres ahead, the torch was doing nothing to help things, and the wind had picked up (something Jack had adamantly told them wasn't his doing).

As they walked, Jack constantly checked the sky above, grumbling whenever he tripped over a rock or tree root. Walking in a circle with their backs towards each other had prevented any of them from getting sneaked up on but it meant there were always some walking backwards.

"We have not found a page for while now," North noted.

"Which is not a good thing," Jack replied, accurately guessing what the Cossack was thinking.

Sandy's golden exclamation mark and sand page alerted them to one he'd spotted a short distance through the trees and they awkwardly shuffled over to it. As soon as the short man pried it from the tree the piano music started up again.

Instantly on the alert, Jack held his staff defensively, straining his eyes against the dark for a sign of their stalker.

North's torch died.

"Man those things have the best timing," Jack said sarcastically, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his own in one fluid movement. A second comment cut itself off in his throat, morphing into a cry of shock as he flashed the light right onto Slender Man who was standing by a tree not five metres away.

He felt the others start to drop formation and hastily called out, "No! Hold position!" But that one second he'd looked away had allowed Slender Man to vanish again. The piano music continued on, slowly getting louder.

"Can anyone see anything?" he hissed.

A chorus of whispered 'no's returned to him. This was really bad.

"Come out and fight like man!" North yelled, drawing both his swords.

"Not his style," Jack muttered, tightening his grip on his staff and the torch.

Their circle was finally broken by North, who apparently spotted something between the trees and charged. Jack repressed a sigh; once a warrior, always a warrior, after all. Just as it wasn't Slender Man's style to face them head-on, so it wasn't North's not to.

Bunny was the next to move, leaping forward and flinging egg-bombs and boomerangs at the shadows. Sandy and Tooth entered the fray simultaneously, brandishing dream sand and brute force respectively. Never let it be said that either of them were pushovers. Jack had seen Sandy in action and Tooth was more than a formidable force when provoked.

But even as he watched them he knew they were wasting their time; Slender Man would avoid a frontal confrontation. They had to wait for him to come to them. And oh, there he was right behind him.

Jack jumped back with a startled gasp, trying not to look directly at the faceless creep but still keep him within his peripheral vision. Before Slender Man had the chance to vanish again, Jack sent out a blast of ice from his staff. But that brief moment of inability to see his assailant gave said assailant the opportunity to disappear.

Jack cursed, staff still held at the ready as he scanned in hopes of relocating Slender Man before he decided to try again. But as the minutes ticked by, it was clear he wasn't coming back. For a little while, at the very least.

"Let's keep going," Jack said edgily, rejoining the others who had seemed to have come to the same conclusion as him.

"How many pages do we have left to find?" North asked, not bother to sheath his swords as they walked.

"We have six," Tooth said quietly. "Including the one Frostwind took."

"So that leaves two more," Bunny finished. "What happens if we find 'em all?"

"You get a few seconds of blissful peace before Slender Man appears behind you and ends the game," Jack sighed.

"Then we'd best not find them too quickly," North replied.

"But not too slowly, either. Take too long and it's game over, as well."

"Wonderful," Bunny grumbled.

They continued on in silence, all hyper-aware of their surroundings; of every snap of a twig and every rustle of leaves. The forest was unnaturally silent, which probably had something to do with it being the home of Slender Man, except for the wind, the droning and the stomping that bled into the background.

"Page six," North commented as Sandy pulled the note from its tree. "Only one to go."

"If we even get that far," Jack whispered. The other Guardians turned to him to see he was staring wide-eyed into the distance, torch pointed deliberately.

Slender Man was watching them through the trees.

Bunny rose to his full height, ears deliberately erect to make him look more intimidating. "Listen here, you bloody stalker," he snapped, jabbing forwards with a boomerang as if hoping to somehow poke him in the chest with it. "You leave those kids alone and we'll consider not beatin' on ya too badly, got it?"

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Don't stare at him directly if you don't want to die," he said instead.

One of Bunny's ears twitched towards him.

"All we want is to protect the children," Tooth took over, infinitely better at negotiating. "If you leave them alone we'll go."

Jack looked skywards as a new sound joined the wind already billowing around them.

Slender Man either didn't hear or chose to ignore their attempts at peace-making. Sandy shifted uneasily but paused as he caught sight of Jack, who had wandered away from the group.

"Oi, we're talkin'–"

"Let me handle this," Jack interrupted the Pooka, pushing through the group towards their adversary. They all stopped to stare at him. "Hey, Slendy," Jack greeted the creepy dude, an easy but somewhat nervous grin on his face. "Here," he held out a bunch of notes and, holding his breath, boldly shoved them into a pocket of Slender Man's suit, "Here's twenty dollars. Go buy yourself something nice."

Being this close to Slender Man was horrible. Jack's whole body was on high-alert, ready to fight or fly at a moment's notice. But Slender Man just stood there, watching even without a face. Jack blinked, and in that split second Slender Man was gone.

Jack took a shaky breath and turned back to his friends. "I can't believe that worked," he breathed.

"What just happened?" Tooth asked, wide eyed.

"There's this rumour that if you give Slender Man twenty dollars he'll leave you alone," Jack shrugged, making his way back over to them. "Remind me to pay Jamie back." Frostwind met him halfway, playfully head-butting him. The other stared at the dragon, apparently not having realised he'd returned. Except for Sandy, who didn't seem all that surprised.

"But we didn't solve issue with children," North voiced.

"Well, if we can get the kids to carry around twenty dollars with them at all times, it should be okay, right?" Jack replied from where he was absently stroking his ice dragon's frozen snout.

Sandy nodded, conveying that he would do what he could.

"Great. Can we leave now? This forest gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"You and me both, mate," Bunny said, opening a tunnel. For once North didn't complain, willingly jumping down so they could get back to the Pole as fast as possible.

Guest Review Responses:

Okay, so there were multiple people reviewing as 'Guest' so I'm just going to take a stab and guess which of you is which ^^; Apologies if I screw up at all

Guest: (Ch.1:) Thank you so much! They will be coming for a long time yet, I think XD (Ch.7:) Yeah, just a bit :P (Ch.13:) Haha I'm glad that little weird plot bunny of mine is so enjoyable XD (Ch.14:) She's a nice girl, just a bit too serious. I think she finds it hard to take Jack seriously when he's more fun times than effort. (Ch.15:) Hit in the feels, huh? Sorry :P

Guest (the other one): (Ch.3:) Bunnymund yes! How else am I supposed to stab you all in the feels? ;) (Ch.42:) Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :3 (Ch.51:) Hahaha well, normally I wouldn't write the yetis' speech, since it would make me feel silly, but that moment just demanded it XD

Guest (who requested): (Ch.34:) I AM PUTTING THIS BIT IN CAPITALS AND UNDERLINED IN CASE I SCREWED UP WHO REVIEWED CAUSE THIS IS ABOUT A REQUEST! Okie, so first off, thank you so much! Wow, that's pretty high regard ^/^ I am still accepting prompts and will continue to do so until this series is marked as complete (which I feel won't be for a long time yet). It just means you're number 23 on the list :P Unfortunately FFN is being mean and your review was cut off in my email inbox but I can't find it in the review list. Could you resend the request, please? :3 I would loooove to be a published author. I have an idea, but it needs more developing and motivation :P At the moment though I'm content with fanfic ^w^

Random Reader: (Ch.62:) Of course I would! I respond to every review if I'm able (I'd only be unable if you were a guest reviewer and were reviewing on the final chapter of a story). I love talking with you guys; you're all so amazing :3 (Ch.63:) Naaaaaaaaw *hugs you* I'm in Australia, land of the barbeques and people who don't properly pronounce their words :P

WEast: (Ch.63:) Hahahaha exactly how I was picturing it! XD Hehe yeah, I think he just knows not to ask anymore :P (Ch.64:) Thank you! It seems so simple but it's always great fun :P

Oh my gosh that is a lot :O Because I love you guys and I want to be able to respond to you all without screwing up, could I ask you a favour? If you could put a name to your reviews (even if it's just something like Guest123) I would really appreciate it! Cheers~