A/N I hope you enjoy!
The concrete of the roof scraps against my already battered knees, making them sting. I ignore it though. My attention is thoroughly captivated by the goal in front of me. Aster and I are situated on top of a five story building overlooking a small park. We had to crouch down to hide ourselves from view. Tooth, North, and Sandy are on the opposite end of the park, hiding among the trees. Jack is walking in a large circle. Every now and then he frosts up some poor tree. This is the first time I've ever been this close to him. I hope that he is as in control of his powers as I am, otherwise this will end badly for one of us.
After we had all secured our earplugs we sent Jack out into the open. Jack is the only one who doesn't have anything to protect himself against the sirens song. The guardians explained that he needed to be fully unprotected to lure her into our trap. He seemed to be against it at first. I can imagine why, but he calmed down a bit when we told him that we would be just out of sight. That way we could easily get to him if something went wrong. Now we just have to wait for our fish to bite the bait that we've laid out for her.
The park is completely deserted, which isn't surprising seeing as it's around three in the morning. There are a few street lamps scattered throughout the park, casting a soft yellow light onto everything. There's a small playground in the middle of the park. It's not much. Just a few swings, a slide, and a jungle gym. A stone path weaves it's way around the entire perimeter of the park. There's a couple of benches on either side of the path with trash cans cemented in place beside them. The park itself is fairly small, but that's okay. It serves our purposes well enough.
I wonder if anybody else is getting as stiff as I am from staying so still. It's only been about forty minutes or so, but it's the longest time I've ever not moved. The backs of my calves are really starting to ache and I want so badly to stretch out my legs. It only makes things worse when I know it's a scratch that I can't itch. I don't even dare to breath too loudly. We have to be the epitome of stealth in order for this to work. If only I hadn't chosen to sit the way that I did... Oh well. Not much I can do about it now.
Jack's walking towards the center of the park again. He ducks under a few low-hanging tree branches and causally leans up against the jungle gym. One foot on the ground, the other pressing against one of the bars behind him. His staff sits delicately on his shoulders. A pale hand ruffles his white hair while the other holds his staff in place. I wonder to myself if he feels self-conscious knowing that others are watching him like a hawk. I probably would be feeling something to that effect if our roles were reversed, but he looks so nonchalant about it. Maybe he's better at hiding his nerves than I am.. My thoughts are starting to get away with me again. I mentally scold myself and focus my energy back into observing the area.
Jack's still leaning against the jungle gym. His lips are poised in a small circle, and I believe he's whistling to himself. It's hard to actually know since I have two ears full of cotton, but I think I'm right. His expression goes from being somewhat bored to a look of utter bewilderment. He looks to his left and all of the tension is gone from his body. I follow his gaze but whatever he's looking at is blocked by a tree. I furrow my eyebrows and lean a little closer to get a better look. I can barley make it out, but standing by the swing set appears to be a women. The same women I encountered just days before. Her lips are moving wordless, and she's beckoning for Jack to come to her with her hands. This is it!
I don't have to bother motioning for Aster to start moving. He's already gone when I turn to look at him. I spot him jumping down onto patios and finally the street below me. I don't want to get left behind so I stand up as fast as I can and jump off of the roof. I let myself freefall for a split second before I catch a ride on the wind. It helps me slow down enough to hit the ground safely. I literally hit the ground running, racing to reach the women. The other three in our group are also making their way to her as fast as they possible can.
Aster is the first to get to her, no surprise there, and he starts throwing his egg bombs. Tooth is the second one to arrive, but she doesn't start attacking the women. Instead, Tooth tackles Jack to the ground to stop him from reaching the siren. Jack attempts to get back up, but Tooth is determined enough to keep him pinned on the ground. The rest of us arrive at about the same time. We don't waste a single second as we all begin to do everything that we can to distract her long enough to stop her from singing.
Sandy's dream sand is now flying in every direction, meanwhile North is pulling out his sword. I dodge their attacks well enough to be able to get in between this women and Jack, who's still struggling to free himself. I can see that she's still trying to sing, but something about her demeanor has changed. She doesn't look like she's trying to call Jack to her.. No she looks like she's getting ready to fight back. I hesitate, which proves to be a mistake. A trail of ice shoots by me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.
I look behind me, but I don't have longer than a few seconds before I dodge out of the way of another attack. She's using Jack as a weapon?! I'm proven to be correct as I watch Jack continues to aimlessly direct frozen projectiles from his finger tips. Every time Jack does this he's driving us farther away from the women. Tooth is still struggling to keep him on the ground, but she's not in control anymore. Jack throws her off of him and freezes the ground around them. Tooth moves to run away but is stuck to the ground. Ice has formed around her wrists and legs, keeping her in place.
She looks up at Jack in absolute horror as he calmly walks towards her. I watch in bullet time as he draws his hand back to prepare for his final attack on Tooth. I scream at him to stop and I'm completely filled with terror. She can't die because of this! If she dies tonight it will be my fault! I can't let her die! I don't even think as I hold up my hand and let the magic flow through me. Within seconds an extremely hot fireball is hurling towards the two of them. Jack's head snaps around and he just barely dodges the attack. It lands somewhere behind the two of them.
Jack turns fully around to make his way towards me, leaving Tooth forgotten on the ground. She still looks horrified by what was about to happened. I see North rushing to help her out of the ice before I glance at the spirit stalking towards me. I start running away from him as quickly as I can, dodging behind anything that will shelter me from his ice. I don't attack back. If I can help it I would rather not have anyone die tonight. So I decide that the next course of action is going to have to be to get that siren to stop singing!
I peer out from behind a tree with a rather large trunk. I can see Jack waiting for me to start running again, and I know that it's now or never. What happens next may very well be the last thing I ever do, but I can't let the guardians clean up a mess that I helped create. I have to try! I take a deep breath and make a b-line for the women. My entire body burns with exhaustion, frustration, and heat. The two of us stare intensely at each other as I push myself to run faster. Out of the corner of my eye I see Jack sending projectiles my way.
I grimace and prepare myself for the impact, but it doesn't come. Shocked, I glance to my right and see both Aster and Sandy knocking the projectiles away from with their own weapons. Relief and hope flood into my chest. I skid to a stop a few feet away from the women, breathing heavily. She looks at me with dead eyes as she continues to sing. I try to move in on her but I'm blocked by a stream of ice that Jack shoots between us. Okay, I've had enough of this and now I'm just getting angry.
With some effort, I begin to summon a wall of fire to cut through the ice in front of me. Then I focus my energy on creating a giant circle of fire around the siren and I to block Jack from interfering again. I allow it to begin twisting in a circle, creating a flaming vortex. It's her turn to look angry I guess. She keeps singing as I move closer to her and holes begin appearing in the firewall around me as Jack tries to take it down. The holes close up just as quickly as they appeared. I am ending this. Now.
I close the distance between the two of us quickly. I'm not afraid of what she might be able to do. I just want this whole thing to be over with. I pull back my hand and think conjuring up a little more fire, but I don't. She might be more useful alive then dead. So instead I follow through with the punch. She gets knocked to the ground from the force of the hit. I look down at her and sigh with relief. She's out cold, and won't be singing again anytime soon. I slowly allow the wall of fire to diminish and pull the ear plugs out. My breath is ragged and sweat clings to my skin.
Looking towards the others I give a small thumbs up. Everyone smiles a little, except for Jack who is still pretty out of if. Everyone takes their ear plugs out so we can talk to one another. Before we start the congratulations, however, I ask Sandy to keep her knocked out with the dream sand. He does so willingly after I tell him it's so she doesn't have a chance to sing. I do not want to have that experience again anytime in the near future. Tooth approaches me first. She grabs me by the wrists and pulls me into an overly tight hug.
"Thank you." She whispers into my ear before letting me go. When she pulls back I think I see tears in her eyes. Not knowing what else to do, I smile at her.
"I'm just glad that you're still here." I reply. She pulls me into another hug before she goes to see how Jack is doing. My breathing has mostly returned to normal when I plop myself down on the grass. The adrenaline high I was on is now wearing off, leaving me completely exhausted.
"Ya know, you're a reckless one don't ya?" Aster asks as he approaches me. "Ya almost outran me back there." He adds. I laugh and look up at him.
"Oh come on. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't get slow in your old age." I tease him. He crouches down in front of me and his eyes meet mine. His expression changes into a more serious one.
"Are ya okay, Shelia? For awhile there I thought ya weren't gonna make it out of here.." He remarks.
"I was lucky to have guys here. I probably wouldn't be if you and Sandy hadn't stepped in when you did." I reply. "Thank you." I add after a couple of seconds. He nods.
"That's what we do. We protect each other no matter what." He says softly. His hand reaches out towards me, but hesitates. He begins to pull away but I laugh and grab it. Then I pull him into a warm hug. It's not as tight as Tooth's hugs, but still fairly strong. Aster's body tenses and I'm worried that I've overstepped a boundary, but soon he relaxes and returns the hug. When we pull away we're both smiling at each other.
"You two friends again?" North asks happily as he approaches us. I look at Aster and we both smile.
"Friends." We say together.
A/N So, I hope you guys liked the chapter. I'm not really good at writing action scenes but I hope that it was okay. As always, if you liked it please let me know. ^.^ Oh, also, this is NOT the last chapter. I still have plans! Mwahahaha. Anyway, stay awesome!