Chapter 17
The Guardians, the djinni, and an army of yetis and elves soon joined Alice and Jack at the edge of the forest, readying themselves for the oncoming fight. All they needed now was the signal to attack.
"The kids are safe," Jack informed them as they arrived. "We got them all onto the eggomotive to Santoff Claussen."
St. North nodded when he heard that. "Good," he said simply. "They vill tell Nightlight, Ombric, and Katherine about what is happening here."
Toothiana moved to stand next to Alice, her swords out and ready. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked in concern.
Alice nodded. She may be much weaker now, but wild horses couldn't drag her away from this fight. "I'm fine," she said stiffly. "I'll be better once the Dollmaker looses his head."
Toothiana nodded in agreement. With that St. North gave the signal and they all rushed forward to stop the Dollmaker's army.
The yetis and elves were all armed with swords and hammers, and rushed into battle with the army of Ruin. The Ruin was relentless, but the yetis were strong and clever, and the elves were hard to catch and unpredictable, so the Ruin forces were being taken down.
Sanderson rose up on his cloud and began using his sand whips to lash out at the flying enemies, like the Bitch Babies and the Drifting Ruin. It was found that his Dream Sand had an interesting effect on the Ruin. The two seemed to cancel each other out. His sand would vanish on contact with the Ruin, but the Ruin also seemed to dissolve upon itself on contact. When he used his whips against the Dollmaker it seemed to burn the monster's skin.
St. North had thrown himself into the fight, hacking and slashing with his swords until all the Ruin around him was destroyed. His sword skills were at their peek, and he used them to their greatest ability. He made sure to go after the bigger Ruin forces, like the Colossal Ruin and Doll Girls. When he got close to the Dollmaker he turned his swords on the Monster's ankles, attacking the joints, like Jack and Alice had done before.
Toothiana split into hundreds of mini fairies and shot through the Ruin forces like a knife through butter. Many of her mini selves helped the yetis and elves with the Ruin, but the majority focused their attention on attacking the Dollmaker. Their small size and speed made it nearly impossible for the Dollmaker's large limbs to reach her.
Bunnymund ate a piece of chocolate, and (much to Jack and Alice's surprise) he began acting much more like his future self. North had explained to Jack that chocolate had an odd effect on a Pooka's personality and skills. The reason the Bunny they knew was so different from the one of this time is because he no longer denied himself from eating it. Upon eating the chocolate at the battle, Bunnymund's fur began sporting the familiar markings that adorned the future Bunny's fur. His Australian accent became more rugged as he attacked the Ruin Army to make his way to the Dollmaker, and he pulled a boomerang out of his robe and began throwing it with great precision at the Dollmaker on top of using his staff to fend off the Ruin.
"That's a good look for you!" called Jack to the Pooka as he flew overhead. Similar to Sanderson he had found that the snow he had lace with his power of fun did a lot more damage than his regular ice. It seemed that the good feelings caused by dreams and fun was painful to the Ruin, so he mad sure to use it as best he could against them. But his main focus in the fight was the Dollmaker. The sooner he went down, the sooner Alice would get better, and that was what he wanted most. He sprayed his fun filled frost into the Dollmaker's eyes, making the monster roar in rage and lash out blindly. Jack was able to dodge his hands and continued pelting the monster with snow and ice.
Despite her weakened state, Alice tore through the Ruin with the ferocity of a woman scorned. Anything that stood in her way was dead before it realized Alice was there. She was focused on getting to the Dollmaker to the point of tunnel vision. She reached him in record time and began pelting him with her Cards, Croquet Balls, and Pepper Grinder.
The Dollmaker was furious about all the attacks he was feeling and made a swipe with his hands at St. North and Alice. St. North was able to jump out of the way, but Alice, who was still not used to her weakened limits, could not dodge fast enough.
Just as the monster's hand came down upon her, Alice found herself being snatched away by four of Toothiana's mini fairies. The four of them carried her up into the air and held her steady a safe distance from the Dollmaker's flailing arms.
"Thank you," Alice said breathlessly. The mini fairies nodded, accepting her thanks, but made no move to put her down.
"Are you helping me to fly?" Alice asked, when she realized what the fairies' intention was.
They nodded again. Alice smirked, as this would help her to attack the Dollmaker at points higher than his ankle. She began giving the mini fairies instructions and she flew through the air to attack the Dollmaker more directly.
The fight up to that moment had been evenly matched, and neither side had been gaining an edge.
But then the sound of Bunnymund's eggomotive pulling into the village reached their ears. Out of the forest came Ombric, Nightlight, and many of the forest creatures of Santoff Claussen to help with the fight.
Ombric began using his spells to fend off the Ruin, and Nightlight was quick with his diamond dagger to slice through their enemies. The animals of Santoff Claussen made good use of their claws and teeth, as they focused their attacks on the Bitch Babies and Doll Girls so as not to be burned by the Ruin, though they did fight those too.
Katherine was also there on her giant goose, Kailash. She flew her goose over the battlefield, and began gathering up the more injured elves and yetis and flew them back to the village for healing.
The reinforcements began turning the tide of the battle, and the Dollmaker was furious. He began to attack the Guardians and their allies with even more ferocity than before. They were able to dodge his blows, but his constant attacks were starting to wear them out. It was only a matter of time until he got a lucky shot.
Alice, who had been relentless in her attacks, had the fairies hover her near the Dollmaker's head and shoot him with her Pepper Grinder.
The Dollmaker leveled his empty dripping eyes at her as she shot her attacks. The Dollmaker, in his arrogance thought this attack would be an easy win. The destruction of the village was to make Alice suffer more, before she fell comatose from his draining. The village was one of children and toy makers, not people that were able to put up this much of a fight.
"You BITCH!" he snarled at her, finally fed up with his clear loosing of the fight.
His Ruin covered fist came flying towards her at a speed the mini fairies couldn't dodge. Alice froze as she waited for the inevitable blow to fall.
"NO!"
Alice and the fairies found themselves being shoved out of the way.
As they fell, Alice watched what happened next in slow motion. Jack had pushed her and the fairies out of the way just in time. In doing so he put himself in the direct path of the Dollmaker's oncoming fist.
The limb slammed into Jack with the force of an oncoming train, and sent him flying though the air. The velocity sent the winter spirit all the way into the village and hitting the tower in the center. The Ruin that had soaked the Dollmaker's fist was burning him as he fell from the impact and into the village below.
They tumbled through the air before the fairies were able to steady them, and return Alice to the ground.
But Alice noticed none of this. She couldn't process what she'd seen, and stood still as a statue in the battlefield. All she could see was Jack getting hurt in her place. Jack, who had been kind to her from the day they'd met, while she had been openly hostile. Jack, who always greeted her with a friendly smile, and appreciated her talents, and her courage. Jack, who had put so much time and energy into trying to make her smile. Jack, who had trusted her to tell her his past, even though he was scared. Jack, who had comforted her when she was distressed, and in need of a shoulder to lean on.
Jack, who without her realizing it, had stolen her heart.
Jack who might now be dead, because of this monster.
With this realization Alice saw red, and she screamed in rage.
The Guardians and their allies drew back as a fountain of blood seemed to erupt around Alice. When it fell, her entire body and clothes were pure white, and her arms and dress were stained with blood. Red also stained her cheeks, as if her now pitch black eyes had been crying tears of blood. Her black hair billowed around her face, as she glared up at the cause of all her pain.
The Dollmaker was not going to live another day.
To Alice, the world around her had been leeched of color, but she paid it no mind as she shot over to the Dollmaker at a unmatched speed. She used her Vorpal Blade to slice through the monster's ankles one at a time, causing him to fall onto his back. The Dollmaker was so startled by the ferocity of Alice's rage, that he was not able to effectively defend himself from her assault.
Once the Dollmaker had hit the ground, Alice was on top of him. She was using every weapon in her arsenal, even the ones she had previously been too weak to use. The Dollmaker tried to stop her, but she blasted his hands away with her Blunderbuss, and Jabberwock' Eye Staff.
When she reached his head she aimed all her weapons at his throat, using her Ice Wand more than the rest. Then with one final blow she slit his now heavily damaged throat with the Vorpal Blade. The monster let out one final gurgle and died.
The remaining Ruin forces let out piercing shrieks as they melted away. A cheer rang out over the battlefield, the fight was over.
Alice returned to her human-like state, and climbed down from the Dollmaker's body.
The Guardians swarmed around her in worriedly, asking if she was all right. She waved them off, and her eyes fell upon a wonderful sight. Jumping off the back of Kailash with Katherine was none other than Jack. He seemed a little worse for the wear, but he was alive, and he was running towards her, concern etched into his face.
Alice managed to give him a bright smile, before collapsing forward in a dead faint.
And behind her, much to the Guardians' horror, the Dollmaker's body began to heal itself.
*A*A*A*
A/N And there's the big battle, but it's not over yet. The Dollmaker still had a hold of Alice's power, and he'll leech it away from her in order to heal himself. You'll see if the Guardians can stop that from happening in the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing