Okay, a lot to explain before we get started. First of all, this is basically me taking the basic story from someone else's story and writing it from a Descendant POV, with permission of course. The story in question is 'Friend or Foe' by MysteriousSherlock, I would recommend reading her story first so you can understand what's going to happen in this one. Her story takes place in a primarily film verse, instead of my combined film/book verse, so a few changes to the overall lore have been changed just for this story, it takes place in the FoF universe, so it fits with that, it that made any sense. It also takes place about five or six years after the end of Don't Fear the Reaper.
To not take up too much space, I'll explain things one chapter at a time. This time, Jamie's relationships.
In FoF Jamie has a kid, and had a relationship with someone else, my retcon for this? Jackie being a workaholic was a bit much, so they split up on good terms.
I padded through my kitchen, not really bothering to be all that quiet. Jamie didn't live here anymore, so it was just me and Taboo.
I went to the fridge and poured myself a glass of juice. I'd just had another nightmare, third one this week. I knew from experience that going back to sleep immediately wouldn't help. So now I was planning on going for a walk.
It was late, probably around midnight or the small hours, so no one was going to be around, I could live without getting dressed.
So in a pair of button up pyjamas and bare feet, I left the flat through the window. I hadn't even bothered with my glasses, I knew the town like the back of my hand.
Taboo had opted to stay behind, so I pulled up a pillar of ice to lower me to the ground, landed, and began walking.
The cold didn't bother me, and I loved the feeling crunchy sensation of snow between my toes. One bonus of having ice powers, anyone else would get frostbite doing this.
I could feel a familiar feeling in the air, meaning that Jack was still in the area. Maybe I should go say hi.
Then he'd wonder why I was up so late, and I'd have to tell him about the nightmares. He didn't think I got them anymore, and I didn't like him worrying about me. Never mind the fact I was in my early thirties now, I swear he still thought I was fourteen sometimes. Nah, I'll wait until the morning.
I walked out into the street, relishing in the quiet.
A black shadow crossed my vision.
I froze in place, and turned to face it. The shadow was gone, but another quickly crossed my vision and I could identify it. Even without my glasses I'd know that shape anywhere.
I clenched my fist and felt ice crawl across it. Nightmares.
I hadn't seen the hellish horses in six years, and I'd hoped that they wouldn't bother anyone for a few more years. Looks like that was unfounded.
I used my powers to get onto the roofs, and I scanned the area. One or two wasn't a cause for concern. More than five, and I'd have to let HOG know.
From my lofty position I could see several more Nightmares. Eight to be precise, heading for the orphanage.
I frowned, on one hand that could be expected, a lot of those kids came from broken homes, the amount of bad dreams in that building must be irresistible. However, eight Nightmares heading in one direction is never a good thing.
I let the snow solidify and wrap around my feet, forming horizontal blades on the soles. I jumped and landed on a bridge of ice, skating towards the Nightmares. I had to be careful, if they noticed me there was no guarantee that I'd be able to fight them off.
I got closer and landed on a nearby roof, ducking behind a chimney. Looking around it I felt my heart thud harder in my chest. Not eight, twelve.
Twelve Nightmares circling the orphanage. Four of them stood guard over the various entrances, while eight condensed down into streams of sand and entered the building through the brickwork.
Movement caught my eye and once I'd squinted I could see someone crawling across the roof, their blonde hair shining in the moonlight. Whoever it was was quite old, seventeen, eighteen perhaps, so it was likely that they couldn't see the Nightmares. No one at that age believed, and they certainly weren't a Descendant of a Guardian, I'd know about them if they were. They were probably just running away from that place, I didn't blame them.
One part of me wanted to charge in, guns blazing as it were. However that would only attract unwanted attention, I could handle the four outside, but I doubted I could handle all twelve of them. No, I needed backup.
I turned and began to skate towards the houses of my fellow Branch members.
I rounded them up as quickly as I could, which was still a while. Three of them lived in Burgess, but Billy lived way out in the next town. The four other Descendants followed me, cold, sleepy, irritated but still concerned back to the orphanage. Nigel was easily the slowest, as he had to rely on my ice to get around quickly, and he was wearing a pair of normal ice skates.
Billy was running as fast as he could, which was still pretty fast considering that he was a Descendant of Bunnymund, and the rabbit nature really helped his speed.
Tina flew high above me, sleepily scanning the area for Nightmares as her dragonfly like wings became a blur in the night air.
Sally was travelling right beside me on a platform of golden sand, keeping one eye on the ground and one eye on our destination, the orphanage.
Billy scrambled up a drainpipe as the rest of us landed, scanning the area around the orphanage.
Where there wasn't a single Nightmare to be found.
The others groaned, but before anyone could complain about my bad eyesight Billy held up a finger, his ears twitching.
We all stopped talking and looked at him, confused. Before we could say anything Billy was off, running and leaping across the rooftops.
Nigel just sighed. "You lot go, I'm too old for this."
I had to agree, he'd turned seventy this year, he was planning on retiring from duty with HOG soon, just becoming a normal Descendant rather than a serving one.
As much as we didn't want to, the rest of us nodded and followed the Descendant of Bunnymund from the air.
We followed Billy to the woods and landed when we saw what he was staring at.
In a wide circle were large patches of frozen black sand, pretty recent as well from what I could see.
"We just missed them." I said, bending down and poking the frozen sand, getting a read on how fresh it was. "Sand was frozen about two minutes ago."
Something caught my eye, so I leaned closer to look and squinted. I could see some footprints beyond the frozen black sand, one bare foot which barely dented the surface of the snow and one shoed which sunk in deep. So it was probably Jack who had dealt with the Nightmares. As for the booted person, I had no idea, it wasn't any of the Guardians, beyond that was anyone's guess.
Billy sniffed the air. Being a Descendant of Bunnymund meant that he had stronger senses than most, only matched by the Descendants of Lupine.
"Probably Jack." He said with a mildly thick Australian accent. "Hard to say with all that sand around, it's masking the scent."
"Or maybe your nose isn't what it was." Said Tina cuttingly and Billy opened his mouth, ready to argue.
"That's enough." I said, quickly seeing that this was going to get out of hand. Nigel was technically the leader of the Burgess Branch, but since I was a Head, I was the default leader in his absence.
"We're all tired." I added, "I'll let the other Heads know about this, but other than that it seems to have been dealt with. So let's just go home."
Billy and Tina glared at each other, but seeing me and Sally looking at them disapprovingly, they let it go.
"See you in the morning." Said Tina to me before taking off, her dragonfly like wings refracting the moonlight. Billy and Sally also left, leaving me to assess the area.
Why had there been Nightmares here? Why now? After six years? I rubbed an arm across my eyes, suppressing a yawn. Those were questions that had to wait, I could feel from the air that Jack was no longer in Burgess, so it's not as if I could ask him.
With a sigh I went home, planning on contacting Alexander, who would probably be awake by now.