Chapter 25: Inside The Castle
Elsa and the others snuck through the Vampire Capital. Elsa was surprised not to see a single Vampire about. But then she figured that they were probably off fighting the Werewolves who were trying to knock down their front door. Elsa hurried into the castle which wasn't easy. It was locked and Elsa wanted nothing better to kick it down using her Vampire strength and yell "guess who's back!" but it would just announce that they were there which was something that Elsa didn't want. Elsa turned to look at Jack. The look on Jack's face told her that he was thinking the exact same thing.
Elsa moved to her left – she was planning on using another entrance, one that was not so high profile, there was bound to be one nearby – but Bunnymund grabbed her. She looked into Bunnymund's face and gave him a puzzled expression.
"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded of her. Elsa didn't like the tone of his voice and judging by the way Jack grabbed him, neither did he.
"Don't talk to her like that," he snarled into Bunnymund's face.
"The door is right there man," Bunnymund seemed taken aback by his mate's sudden harsh words. "We need to get inside before the moon gets us. I don't think your girlfriend wants a pack of Werewolves on her trail."
Jack glanced at Elsa and chose to ignore Bunnymund. "Where can we get in Elsa? Obviously you don't think the front door is the way to go."
"No," Elsa shook her head. "The front door is just too high profile. We need to sneak in. Pitch will not be expecting us. He can't see further than his own nose."
"Lead the way," Jack said.
"Anton?" Elsa turned to him.
"This way," Anton said.
They snuck around the edge of the castle. Anton was in front with Elsa behind him with Jack behind her. The rest of the group was bringing up the rear. Elsa wasn't too sure in where they were going but she trusted that Anton knew what he was doing and where he was going. Anton knew more about Pitch's little hideaway than she did. He practically was a walking encyclopaedia about the history of Vampires and Werewolves.
Anton led them to small door that was part of a tower attached to the main part of the castle. Anton said it was for people wanting a quick smoke. Elsa was surprised that Pitch would leave such a door unguarded. Then she remembered who they were dealing with. Pitch was an egotistical manic. He would have thought that the Werewolves wouldn't have been smart enough to check to see if there was another way in. Nevertheless, Elsa kept her guard just in case. Pitch may posted a guard anyway.
Anton opened the door and they all slipped in. Elsa wanted to hurry – she had a feeling that the moon will soon reveal itself, Bunnymund was right; she didn't want to deal with a pack of Werewolves. They emerged into a dark corridor. The only light source was torches, mounted on the walls, burning dimly and softly. Elsa didn't see a single soul about. Maybe Pitch really wasn't concerned with safety at the moment.
Pitch looked out in rage at the scene. The Werewolves had paused in their efforts to drive the Vampires away. They were gazing up at the full moon with a hypnotised expression on each of their faces. Then quite suddenly, they started to transform; their body hair grew, their faces turned more wolfish, their eyes turned yellow, their legs and arms started to elongate. Pitch even took a few steps backwards in his fear.
He had come across a few fully transformed Werewolves in his time. He had seen Manny change and he had seen that infernal North change. He had lived to tell the tale which was something that not many Vampires could boast. Most Vampires ran from fear from transformed Werewolves; their power was just too great for Vampires to handle. But this Vampire did not run. This Vampire did not hide. This Vampire was going to face his enemy with bravery.
"What should we do?" a Vampire, one of the council members – Pitch wasn't sure which one, he didn't really bother trying to remember which one – came rushing into the room. He had a panicked look over his face.
"Send everyone we have," Pitch said. "When we have a number advantage, we overpower them."
The council member looked a little sceptical and horrified. "Sir, everyone will be slaughtered –"
"Enough!" Pitch yelled, interrupting the other Vampire in the room. "I am in charge here. You will give the order that every available Vampire will take up arms against the Werewolves. We should have enough silver weapons to take down the horde of dogmen pressing against our gates."
"O-Okay," the council member said. He still looked a little sceptical but scurried out of the room as quickly as he could.
Pitch started to pace up and down. He looked out the window. He could see his precious Vampires starting to lose against those filthy and disgusting dogmen. His fists clenched tightly making them turn paler than they already were.
Don't worry my beautiful creations, he thought, help is on the way.
Jean was walking around the castle with Henri by her side. They weren't in any particular area or going in any particular way. They were just wandering around. Both of them had heard the Werewolves making howling noises outside just moments before. Jean felt her insides shrivel up inside of her. She knew what that meant; she had heard it on more than one occasion. The Werewolves were starting to transform. Jean had been a bit of astrometry nerd. She knew it was a full moon tonight. There had been no point in informing Pitch of that fact. He would just blame her for not foreseeing the battle that was happening tonight. He wouldn't be too far off in that though. A part of Jean thought that maybe the Werewolves would launch an attack tonight; after all on a full moon they have the advantage.
Jean looked at Henri. He seemed to be deep in thought. Jean wondered what could be going through his mind. They had known each other long enough to know what the other was thinking but tonight was a different story. To Jean, Henri seemed to be in conflict about something but he was hiding his thoughts well from her. Jean was about to open her mouth to speak –she wanted to ask Henri what was preying on his mind as she was starting to worry about him – but she didn't get a chance to.
Suddenly a Vampire – Jean knew it was one of the council members but she didn't know his name – came roaring down the corridor she was in. He ran past them then stopped. It seemed like he just registered that he had passed two Vampires.
"Oh!" he said. He came sprinting back and paused in front of the two of them. Jean gave him a quizzical look.
"Yes?" she said.
"Lord Black wants every available Vampire to go fight," he said.
"He – he does?" Jean asked.
"Yes," the Vampire said. "At once! I got to go and tell everyone I can. Spread the word. Everyone is summoned to arms."
He ran off leaving Jean squirming where she stood. Jean was in two minds. She did want to serve and do her duty to the Vampires but on the other hand, she didn't exactly want get ripped to shreds by the Werewolves ether. What was she going to do? If she fought, she would be killed for sure. No one could survive an onslaught like that. However, if she didn't fight, Pitch would kill her for being a traitor. There was a small slim chance – and that chance was so minuscule that it was smaller than an atom – that they could actually win. To Jean, it was a lose/lose situation with high chance of death attached to either scenario.
"I can see your mind is in conflict," Henri said in a small voice.
"Hark, who's talking," Jean whispered. "I just don't know what to do. If we fight, we die, if we don't fight, we are called a traitor and then executed. I don't really know what we should do."
Henri paused in his strides. He turned to look at his girlfriend of many, many years.
"You're no longer loyal to Pitch," he said simply. "If you were, there would be no question about it. You would fight to him but since you're not feeling that loyalty anymore, you're questioning whether you actually want to die for him and his cause."
"You know me too well," Jean smirked. Her smirk disappeared after only being on her face for a few moments. "You're right, of course, you're always right. Lately, I've just been thinking; what are we fighting for? What vendetta does Pitch have against the Werewolves? What have they done to him? I'm just not sure about any of this anymore."
"This doesn't have anything to do with an Elsa Winters does it?" it was now Henri's time to smirk.
"It might do," Jean said. "It was just that she was put to death for loving a Werewolf. That made me think; is love a crime now?"
"Apparently so," Henri said. "Pitch is blinded by his vengeance it seems."
"He killed Harold for no reason either," Jean continued. "He's on a rampage. By summoning every Vampire to fight, well, he's practically sentenced as all to death."
"What do you wish to do?" Henri asked her.
Jean thought hard about her decision. There were so many variables on either side but ultimately she knew what she had to do.
"Replace Pitch Black," she said simply.
Elsa and the others were following Anton through the dark corridor. Elsa had no idea where she was in the castle but she trusted that Anton did. Anton was muttering to himself about something or another. Elsa didn't pay too much attention to it. She was too busy trying to focus on seeing if there was anyone about to jump out and surprise them. The attack never seemed to came but that didn't stop Elsa jumping at every shadow – there were a lot of them, the flickering of the torches made shadows dance on the walls which, out of the corner of her eye, made it look like there were someone behind them, abut to creep up on them.
Elsa jumping at the slightest movement made Jack snigger. Elsa smacked him whenever he did that. It didn't stop him though. He was enjoying tormenting her. He hadn't changed one bit. When they were younger, he tormented her immensely, and now he was doing it again. Elsa secretly smiled. She was glad that he hadn't change. Elsa was in her little daydream world as she thought about how Jack would destroy her snowman she built with Anna or tried to cheat off her when they were class together when Anton threw his arm out to catch Elsa before thrusting her against the wall. Anton's actions took Elsa quite by surprise. She had gasped in pain and gave Anton a scowling look.
Jack was about to throw Anton against the wall – he didn't like people manhandling Elsa – when Anton shushed them all to be quiet. The noise of footsteps could be heard rampaging in the adjoining corridor. Suddenly it all made sense; Elsa had been about to step into the corridor when Anton had pushed her aside. The sound of dozens and dozens of Vampires thundered on by. They were yelling and screaming about going into battle. It didn't take a genius to guess what was going on. The war was going on outside mustn't be going very well for Pitch if he was needed to send in more reinforcements. Elsa couldn't help but let a small smile come over her face.
They waited until all the Vampires had disappeared before they made their way down the corridor they had just been in. This corridor was different to the one they had come from. They were no longer in the tower but now in the castle itself. Elsa could see that this part of the castle was still boarded up during the daytime – Pitch made sure not a single ray of sunlight couldn't enter. Elsa walked over the window and started to open the window slightly, just to see what was beyond.
She could see Vampires pouring out of the castle to the attacking army of the Werewolves. That was when she noticed something about the Werewolves. Pitch wouldn't have sent hundreds of Vampires to take down an army of Werewolves, he would have had a reason and Elsa was now seeing the reason very clearly. The reason was illuminating brightly in the sky. The full moon was out in full force tonight. Elsa felt slightly hypnotised by the beauty of the moon. She wrenched her eyes from the moon and stared down at the fighting that was taking place below her. The Werewolves were transforming. Elsa felt something that felt like fear that was coursing through her. She had encountered a transformed Werewolf before and that wasn't something she wanted to experience again. She didn't know what her exit strategy was at this time. She just hoped that maybe if she found a hiding spot in the castle, the Werewolves wouldn't find her – that's if they didn't tear the castle apart, brick by brick. Elsa shuddered at thought.
"What's up Elsa?" Jack asked her.
"Stay away from the window," Elsa advised. She quickly shut the shutters that covered the windows. They didn't just keep sunlight out but they also kept moonlight. Elsa quickened to Jack and pushed him back. "The moon is out and I don't fancy you transforming on me again."
"But if I did, I would just protect you like last time," Jack said as he placed both hands on her shoulders.
"And what about the time before that?" Elsa said which made Jack's face darkened. "I don't want to risk anything. Even if you protected me, what about everyone else? Bunnymund, Tooth and Sandy will turn into rampaging Werewolves leaving Anton, Ragnar and myself running for the hills."
Jack turned to face his friends. "Stay away from the windows."
They all nodded. Anton gestured for them to hurry along. They needed to find Pitch before it was too late. At the moment, the battle was providing the perfect distraction; Pitch would be too concerned with the battle and not a group of Werewolves and Vampires wandering around his castle.
"Now where would Pitch be?" Bunnymund asked as they crept along the corridor.
Elsa didn't know why they were being sneaky. Jack, Bunnymund, Tooth and Sandy were giving off such a disgusting smell, it could be smelt for miles around. The Werewolf smell would probably give them away before they were heard.
"His study probably," Ragnar said,
"Where's that?" Tooth asked.
"Nowhere near here," Anton said.
"It's like on the other side of the castle," Elsa said. "We're near the library I think."
"You are right," Anton said. "We should get moving. Pitch may decide to move to another part of the castle, may decide to flee or may even join the war – which I highly doubt, Pitch wouldn't dare get his shoes dirty."
"So what are we waiting for?" Bunnymund said. "Let's keep moving!"
They started down the corridor again. Elsa or Ragnar would hurry ahead, making sure to keep the shutters on the windows closed. The moonlight was starting to drift into the corridors and Elsa was determined to stop that. They walked in silence; no one it seemed dared to speak a single word. Maybe nobody knew what to say. After all, their mission was to take down, in Elsa's opinion, a vicious dictator. There may not be an appropriate topic of discussion. Elsa just walked beside Jack. Her hand brushed against his. A tingle feeling made its way up Elsa's fingers, through her arm and up to her brain. Elsa always felt like this whenever she made physical contact with Jack.
"How much further?" Tooth whispered after several more minutes had gone by.
"A little bit," Anton said. "Pitch's study is in the East Wing. We're still in the South Wing. We have to do a little bit of walking."
"Okay," Tooth said.
"We just have to make it past the Entrance hall as well," Anton said.
"That should be a task," Elsa muttered.
"Well maybe but –" Anton's voice was interrupted when he smacked into two people.
Anton had turned around to talk to the people behind him and didn't see two other people turning a corner. All three of them had smacked right into each other. They had fallen to the ground in a bit of a heap. They manage to pick themselves up. Elsa saw a male and female Vampire getting to their feet. Anton looked in horror when he saw who he had bumped into. Elsa realised why he was so horrified. She had recognised them as well.
"Anton?" the female Vampire said, looking a little horrified. "Elsa? Ragnar?"
"Jean?" all three of them said.
"Replace Pitch?" Henri repeated as they continued to walk down the corridor together. "You sure about this?"
"Very," Jean said. "I used to think Pitch was this noble leader who was leading our Vampiric race to glory against our enemy, the Werewolves but now," Jean shook her head, "now, I'm not sure what I think. All that I know is that Pitch has been abusing his power and has been, probably since he first became a Vampire."
"You think that someone else should be in his place?" Henri said.
"Yes," Jean said. "Someone who can be a proper leader, someone who can actually lead us into the future."
"Who do you have in mind?" Henri said.
"What makes you think I have someone in mind?" chuckled Jean.
"Well you wouldn't propose this if you didn't."
"You know me too well Henri," Jean grinned and gave him a wink. "I may have a name floating around my mind. You may just have to wait and see who it is."
They turned the corner and suddenly they felt someone crashing into them. Neither Jean nor Henri had been paying attention to anything else but each other. Jean, Henri and this third Vampire all fell to the ground. Henri helped Jean get to her feet. Jean was about to apologise for not looking out when she spotted who they had crashed into.
"Anton?" Jean said, looking a little horrified. "Elsa? Ragnar?"
"Jean?" the three of them said.
Elsa stared at Jean and Henri and they stared back at her, Ragnar and Anton. Elsa was starting to feel a little fearful. Jean was one of the Inner Circle. She was very loyal to Pitch. She would probably open her mouth and scream for help before they even got a chance to stop her.
"What are you guys doing?" Jean hissed at them.
Elsa was a little taken aback. That was not what she expected to come out of Jean's mouth.
"I could ask you the same question," Anton said to her.
"We're just walking," Jean said. "I suppose you guys are here for Pitch."
"How do you know that?" Elsa asked.
"Well, what else would it be?" Jean said and Elsa thought that she may just have a point.
"Jean, please," Anton said and she turned to him. "Please don't tell on us. Just let us do what we need to do."
"I have no intention of stopping you," she said quietly.
That came as quite a shock to everyone standing around (except for Henri, of course, he must have been told earlier). Elsa was not expecting Jean to step back and let them go on their merry way. Elsa expected her to fight and hold her ground, tell them that the only way they would get to Pitch was over her dead body (which she was sure Bunnymund would have no problem in arranging).
"What?" Elsa, Ragnar, Anton and The Guardians said in unison.
"Look," Jean said, "I agree with you. Pitch Black needs to be stopped. Now I don't propose that Vampires should all be eliminated but Pitch needs to be stopped and stopped now. His rampage needs to end now."
"Oh," Elsa looked at Jack and he looked back at her.
"So what are you going to do?" Anton asked her.
"Me?" Jean said. "Henri and I aren't going to do anything. We are just going to sit back and relax."
"You're not going to fight?" Tooth asked.
"Against those beasts outside?" Jean said. "No thank you, I like my life, thank you very much. I have no intention for it to end."
"Won't you get into trouble then?" Elsa asked her.
"Well the only person who I would get into trouble with would be Pitch and if you're going to take care of him, I don't really have anything to worry about, do I?"
More footsteps could be heard racing about. Jean looked a little worried.
"What's going on?" Bunnymund asked.
"The Vampires are getting ready to battle," Jean said. "You're not safe while Vampires are running about."
"What do you propose then?" Elsa asked.
Jack was walking at a fast pace. He was following these two Vampires – Jean and Henri, that was Elsa and Anton called them anyway – moving through the castle. Jean had suggested hiding them until she could come back and collect them. At the moment, there were Vampires swarming everywhere. They were racing about trying to get ready for the battle that was raging outside. Jack had no idea where she was taking them. He was just following Elsa. She didn't seem too worried. Maybe that was because Anton wasn't too worried and she trusted him more than anyone else, well apart from him and her sister.
"In here," Jean said opening a pair of enormous double doors.
Jack entered behind Elsa and found himself looking upon rows and rows of books, all stacked up in columns in these rows. The place was massive and the ceiling arched into a point which stood high above them. One could easily get lost in this place. Jack marvelled at the library. It reminded him of the ginormous library back at the Arendelle Mansion – the place where Elsa grew up.
"You'll be safe in here," Jean said, reassuring them. "They won't come in here. They're more concerned about what is going out there rather than in here."
"What will you do?" Anton asked her.
"Bit of recon, I reckon," Jean said with a sideways glance at Henri. "I'll make sure the coast is clear from here to Pitch then I'll make sure Pitch is in his study."
"Thanks Jean," Anton said. "Means a lot to us that you're on our side."
"Well, let's just say I would rather be on your side than Pitch's," Jean said.
Jean left them alone in the library as she shut the door behind them. Elsa immediately took off down the rows books and she started to examine them.
"What's your girlfriend doing?" Bunnymund said.
"Fiancée," Jack said at once. The word was out of his mouth before he realised it. He almost hit himself for saying it.
"You're marrying her?" Bunnymund asked.
"You've asked her then?" Tooth said. "Well it was kind of obvious he was," she added when she saw the look on Bunnymund's face.
"Well once upon a time," Jack said. "But that was way back when we were human."
"What did she say?" Tooth asked.
"That she would love to do that but she couldn't throw away everything to be with me," Jack sighed again. "She was engaged to another man at the time, a man who her parents would rather her be with."
"It was a different world back then," Tooth said. "I'm sure if you asked her now, she would say yes."
"But there's still the whole thing about being a Vampire and a Werewolf," Jack.
"Mate, that's over now," Bunnymund said. "Once we have Pitch out of the way, I'm sure you two will be free to be together."
Jack was a little surprised to hear this come out of Bunnymund's mouth but he decided not to question it.
"What are you guys jabbering about?" Ragnar asked.
"Nothing," Jack said. He didn't exactly want his plans to be broadcasted to the entire world.
"So," Jack cast his mind about for a change in topic. "Can we trust Jean and Henri?"
"They're good Vampires," Ragnar said. "Jean and Anton have met on a few occasions. If he didn't have a problem with them, then I say we can."
Jack didn't know if he should but he took Ragnar at his word. Silence fell as no one really knew what to say. After a while, topics seemed to be bounced around them. Nothing was talked about for more than about five minutes. Jack found Ragnar to be quite towering appearance. Normally, he could talk to Tooth, Bunnymund and Sandy quite easily but Ragnar put a stop to that. Maybe that was because Jack felt uneasy about Ragnar. He often felt like that when he was around people he didn't really know.
"So," Ragnar said, "what's your plan after the war?"
"I dunno," Tooth shrugged. "Maybe travel with Bunnymund."
Sandy made some gestures with his fingers.
"Sandy wants to come," Tooth laughed. "Sorry Sandy, you would just be a third wheel."
Sandy looked a little put out.
"Is he mute or something?" Ragnar asked.
"Has been his entire life," Bunnymund said. "Something happened to him as a child, I think. I don't really know the details."
"Oh," Ragnar turned to Jack. "What about you?"
"Spend all my time with Elsa," Jack said.
"You are really into her," Ragnar said.
"I love her with all my heart," Jack said. "Have been so since I was sixteen."
"I think it's so adorable," Tooth squealed. Bunnymund rolled his eyes. Tooth saw this. "Oh shut up Bunny! It is!"
Bunnymund just laughed but he had a grin on his face.
"What's wrong Elsa?" Jack suddenly heard Anton say.
Jack looked up. Elsa had wandered down the corridor and absent mindedly, everyone else had followed. Elsa seemed to know where she was going but Jack didn't mind or seem to notice, he had been too distracted by talking Bunnymund, Tooth, Sandy and Ragnar. During the time that had passed, Elsa had opened up some folders and started to read them. She had already gone through a few of them already. Jack could see a few folders lying open beside her – Elsa was always a fast reader. There was a look of horror on her face as her eyes darted backwards and forwards over whatever she was reading. Anton had been watching her and looked quite concerned at the look that was on Elsa's face.
"What's wrong Elsa?" Jack asked moving towards them.
Elsa didn't seem to register him until Jack touched her shoulder. She jumped back and looked quite startled.
"What's wrong?" Jack asked again, sounding a little more fearful.
"It's all a virus," Elsa said in a high pitch, shrill voice.
"What?" Jack asked. He didn't quite understand her – although that wasn't new, he often couldn't understand the stuff that came out of her mouth as she was too smart for him.
"Slow down and start at the beginning," Tooth said.
Elsa took a deep breath and continued. "I thought looking through Pitch's notes – he detailed his life quite well in here – would be a good time to past the time and maybe learn something about everything that is going on at the moment."
"Okay," Jack said.
"Pitch wrote about all kinds of things," Elsa said. "The experiments he did, his life and more importantly, the Vampire and Werewolf race."
Jack wasn't too surprise to hear this. Pitch seemed like the kind of guy to do something crazy like that.
"Okay," Jack said. "But I'm not seeing what the problem is."
Elsa took another deep breath. She was starting to shake.
"Turning into a Vampire, into a Werewolf, is all because of a virus," she said simply.
A/N: Some Underworld references here - a virus was responsible for the Vampires and Werewolves in that too. But an interesting discovery by the Elsa. What is going to happen with the war? Can Jean be trusted? Is Pitch going to be defeated? What about the Werewolves? Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoyed this update. Please review =)
Reviews:
Tad12347: I don't know whether to be please or sorry that you cried over my story, I'm just going to assume it was for good reasons. Glad you enjoy the story!
Kat-IlluminatedPurity: Time for the thunder indeed! Well Pitch doesn't use the lunar calendar and therefore doesn't track the full moon. Plus Pitch doesn't really pay attention to the Werewolves, he under estimates them all the time as he doesn't think too highly of them. Okay, are you like getting psychic messages from across the Tasman Sea or something from me? Because I swear, this is yet another review where you've like read my mind or given me really amazing ideas. Are we like on the same wavelength or something? Onto Pitch, who said anything about kidnapping?
KAMIKAZE-721: Yeah time for the full moon to unleash killer Werewolves! The doctor? I actually can't remember but let's say the doctor just went back to whatever he was up to before. Yeah, it is time for Pitch to get ready to die - that's if he does indeed going to die.
SureSnowflake: Well Pitch doesn't track the full moon as he has no need to. So that's why he didn't realise there was one. Plus Pitch didn't think the Werewolves would even dare to attack his home base.
Jelsa1324: Yeah sorry about the wait. I usually update pretty regularly but stuff got in the way. I haven't read the other story but I'm going to assume, based off what you said, it's a good story. Aw, thanks for the compliment!
heartfulumi: Sorry about the cliffhangers, they're just too much fun!
Guest (MixyBell): I am actually thinking hard about randomly killing of Braden - question is, how to do it. I'm sure I will think of something. I understand about the patience thing, I'm the same when I find a really good story. Hope you are enjoying my other story as well!
Jelsalover3: I hope school is going great for you. I remember when school started back up again, I was very nervous back then. New schools can never be easy but I'm sure you will cope. What grade/year are you going into? Wow, the place must really be huge if it took you half an hour to find your locker. Glad I never have to do school again - well that disappears when I realise I have to do really hard university stuff and then I'm like 'I want to go back to school when it was easy' lol. If it makes you feel better, I've just gone on break for a couple of weeks but then it's back to stupid university work. To answer your question; cliffhangers exist to make people ache while they wait for the next update.