Disclaimer: I don't own rise of the guardians.

If Jack was being honest, he hadn't expected the Reapers' home to look so cozy. It was a huge, Victorian-style mansion that looked as though it had thousands of rooms all hidden inside of it.

"Wow."

"I know, It's huge" Amelia said sharing a look with jane. "Isn't it Jane?"

Jane looked at Amelia wide-eyed, but Amelia gave Jane a wink that Jack did not understand. Jane smiled and turned to Jack. "Yes, it is. My jaw about dropped when I first saw it in its entirety too."

"Where's Sarah?" He asked, and hated himself that he was asking mostly out of obligation, even as his head was turning involuntarily toward the gate, the place he felt the most drawn to.

"I don't know," Amelia said pulling him further away from the gate. "But I know who has her."

"You left her with someone you trust," Jack said, his eyes still on the gate fighting his urge to rip away from Amelia and run to the gate. Idly he wondered if he would find his mother, father and little sister Flee their. It would be nice to see them just once...

"Gretchen, Ella and Thomas, my trainees."

"You left her with Gretchen?" Jane said looking annoyed. "The coldest trainee here?"

Jane's tone was enough to distract Jack from the pull he felt to the gate. He turned to Amelia and Jane surprised. "Gretchen?"

Amelia turned to Jack with a smile, "One of my Trainees, she can be a bit… ah… prickly"

"That's an understatement." Jane huffed.

"Thought Gretchen could balance out Ella and Thomas." Amelia defended. "And it's better than leaving her with your trainees."

"Hey, we're right here." The sandy-haired boy said.

"Are we wrong?" Jane shot back with a grin. "Sarah would have had you helping her jump straight into Krampus' path before she even asked."

Both boys looked as if they wanted to argue before they gave each other a "She's not wrong" look and shrugged.

"So, which one's Dylan?" Jack asked.

"I'm Dylan," The dark-haired boy said turning around to face Jack.

"I'm Travis." The sandy-haired boy said.

"And you're reapers in training?" Jack asked.

"No." they said together.

"We finished our training two years ago. We're full-fledged reapers now." Dylan explained

"We can do solo reapings now." Travis contributed. "First 6 months was training." He explained. "Then we were inducted. Then after that, it was several months of her accompanying us on our reapings and once we proved we knew what we were doing without help from her…"

"We could go solo." Dylan finished.

"Despite their recklessness," Jane said with a half glare at those two. "There actually really responsible when they reap."

"Obviously," Dylan said. "We're reckless, not stupid."

"The way you two died suggests otherwise," Jane said with a grin.

Jack half expected the two of them to be hurt that she was bringing it up, by Dylan and Travis just laughed. "That was a good ride," Dylan said.

"Yeah, it was."

"I'm just glad you didn't give any of your friends a heart attack," Jane said, her tone holding a touch of humour to it.

"How did you two die?" Jack asked, looking both intrigued at yet terrified at the answer. It took all of his concentration to ignore the pull, both hoping and yet dreading that the answer would be interesting enough to hold his attention.

"Cliff diving," Dylan explained. "Decided that we were strong enough to survive a 100 feet jump…

"We weren't"

Jack blinked well that was a way to hold it.. "What?"

"Yes. For the record that was the same reaction I had." Jane said.

"Did you reap them?" Jack said forcing himself to look at Jane and not turn his head another 15 degrees to the gate.

"No." Jane said, "That honour belonged to another one of my former charges."

Dylan and Travis both looked at each other before rolling their eyes.

By this point they were at the house, Dylan opened the door and all five of them entered Amelia closing the door behind her. The moment that she closed the door behind them the pull he'd been feeling toward the gate, diminished slightly. He could still feel it, but it was easier to ignore now.

The moment Dylan and Travis were inside they ran off to some as yet unseen part of the house.

Jack half expected Jane to hurry after them, but instead, she stayed still staring at him, curiously.

"Come," Jane said. "Was Sarah still where I left her?" She asked Amelia.

Amelia nodded, "Yes, she was, though you know how Thomas is, he might have decided to give her the grand tour."

Jane huffed, "Let's go." She said grabbing Jack by the arm and pulling him away.

They walked past a dining room with oak wood tables, and candles lighting up the room.

Though the candles weren't necessary as everything was already quite visible, they gave the atmosphere a calming ambience.

Within a few steps, they were at a white door, with a sign on it that said "Jane's room.". The door was closed, but Jane just entered anyway without bothering to knock.

The sight that greeted him was surprising, Sarah was sleeping on Jane's bed, with three teens sitting beside her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"She'd already been up for hours." A blonde-haired girl said rolling her eyes. "It took Ella five minutes to sing her to sleep."

Given her prickly tone, Jack had to deduce that this was Gretchen.

Jack turned to the other girl in the room, "Are you Ella?" he asked.

The other girl had long blonde hair and was hiding her face in a book. She looked up at him like she was a timid rabbit. "Mmmhmm. I thought sleep would help her calm down, and stop her from stealing a scythe." Ella said softly.

"Smart thinking." Amelia applauded.

"I'm Thomas." The boy said unnecessarily, "Sarah's been asleep the whole time." He said, "We kept a real good eye on her."

Jack stepped forward and put an ice-cold hand on her wrist, the temperature change caused Sarah to wake up immediately, for a moment she panicked waking up in a bed that she didn't recognize before she found that Jack was there.

"Jack?" She asked. "What are you…?

"Making sure you're ok," Jack said, sitting down on her bed. "Your parents were worried about you."

"Before or after Krampus showed up?"

Jack looked at Jane and Amelia before turning back to Sarah, "You heard."

"The announcement was made to the entire house." Sarah said, "Course I heard. If it hadn't been for these three-" She pointed to the three young Grim reapers who had been tasked with making sure she didn't run off. "I'd have been there myself."

"Which is exactly why I put them here," Amelia said. "Good job."

Sarah sighed, "So has Krampus been defeated?" She asked. "Can I go home now? Is that you're here? Please tell me that's why you're here? Is Jackie, ok? Jonathan? Did Krampus attack before Grampa and the residents of Santoff Claussen show up? Are they ok?"

"Slow down, Sarah," Jack said, putting a hand on hers. "You're going to work yourself up into a panic."

"You act like she wasn't already working herself into a panic the moment Amelia left." Gretchen said, "Ella's singing was the only thing that calmed her down."

"Gretchen." Amelia warned, "Extra training on how to talk to the traumatized. For a month. Go."

Gretchen stared at Amelia for a long moment her mouth open in surprise before she huffed, stood up and walked out the door.

After a moment, Thomas and Ella stood up and left, having obviously decided that things would be better if they weren't here for the emotional conversation.

Once the three trainees were gone, the door closed behind them, Jack turned back to Sarah, who was staring at him expectantly. "Well?" She asked expectantly. "What happened?"

A/N Originally I was going to have Dylan and Travis die via jumping out of plan while forgetting that they hadn't secured a parachute to their back, but feeling that was bit too stupid I instead scowered the Darwin award site and come up with this: darwinawards darwin / darwin2022-07 . html (get rid of the spaces.)

and I used it for the inspiration for Dylan and Travis death.