A/N I don't own Rise of the Guardians

Gone

Jane and Jack shot off in the direction of the scream. They paused and stared at the house where the scream had come from, an awfully familiar house. "Jonathan!" Jack shouted when they reached the house. He turned to Jane afraid, "You don't think…"

Jane hated to think it, but she couldn't think of any other reason for the scream, especially in this house. "Go look into it." Jane ordered, "I need to find my charges."

Jack nodded once and shot off into the house, while Jane looked around worriedly.

She knew her charges, they were reckless at times, but they wouldn't just abandon their post. If she couldn't find them immediately it meant something had happened.

And she found them in the bushes beside the house, she looked up and saw Jack, Jessica, and Nicholas through the second-story window. Jessica sobbed into Nicholas's arms, while Nicholas looked particularly murderous. Jack doing his best to comfort the two grieved parents.

Her heart lurched. No.

She bent down and nudged her former charges awake. They jerked awake and stared up at her blearily before their eyes widened and they both shot up into a sitting position. She took a breath of relief that Krampus hadn't done worse to them.

There were very few ways for a Grim to die, but that didn't mean that Grims couldn't be gravely injured.

"Did… did we…" Dylan started, Travis nudged him in the arm, and motioned to the window, they looked up and saw what Jane had seen a few moments earlier. Dylan cursed, while Travis just looked stunned.

"Sarah's going to be distraught," Travis said.

Jane really couldn't think about what the most guilt-ridden of her protégés would do and think. She had more pressing issues to think about. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Dylan said, "One minute were staking out Jonathan's house, and the next…"

"We saw black."

Jane closed her eyes and rubbed her brow, "Krampus attacked you from behind so you couldn't fight back or call for help." She closed her eyes and cursed.

"We're sorry." Dylan said earnestly, "Really. We should have been more aware of our surroundings."

"We had our eye on Jonathan's room," Travis said just as earnestly as Dylan. "One of us should have been walking the perimeter."

Jane nodded, "I do not blame you, but I am glad to see that you understand where you could have done better." She told them, Dylan and Travis normally would have stood taller at the praise, but in this case, they looked down. Upset that their friend's brother had been taken.

"How's Sarah going to react?" Travis asked staring into the past.

"She's going to freak." Dylan groaned, "I mean understandably so but still…"

Jane had to agree even if she didn't say it aloud. If there was anything, there was always going to be trouble getting Sarah to stay put, if Sarah now had to hear that her brother was missing, everything that Jane had gotten her to promise was going to go out the window.

"She already knows about the kids being taken," Dylan said, looking at Jane guiltily. "She overheard you… the two of us had just barely convinced her to stay put."

Jane groaned, which meant she was definitely going to demand to know what happened, and there would be very little Jane could do to dissuade Sarah from pushing.

"Telling her will be my duty," Jane said, even though Sarah wasn't an initiate, Jane had been taking the role of mentor for Sarah for the better part of 3 years, and if she was going to take the role of mentor she also had to take the less than pleasant tasks, like give Sarah the bad news. Just as she had done with Travis, Dylan and all the other charges she'd had in the past. "You may leave"

"I have a reaping to get to," Dylan said. "Romania. Slipped and banged their head."

"I have one in half an hour," Travis said. "England, sports accident."

This was why you always had more than one reaper at a post at any given time. Reapings could not be rescheduled, but they could be handed over if necessary. Having more than one person watching a post meant that if someone needed to go reap, they wouldn't just abandon their post.

"Head off, do what you need to," Jane ordered. "But wait till I get home to tell Sarah."

Dylan and Travis nodded once and left, Jane stayed staring at the place they'd disappeared before she looked back at the house.

She squared her shoulders and went inside, mentally preparing herself for what lay ahead.