AN: As a fair warning I suck at writing fight scenes. I haven't had a lot of chances to practice writing them. I had one of my beta readers (TheObsessor11294) help me out with some parts of it.
And thanks for all the reviews! Halfway to four hundred!
RECENTLY RE-EDITED (3/12/17)
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.
When the light started out they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We gonna let it burn
Burn ~ Ellie Goulding
~O~
When it wasn't being used as an emergency headquarters for the guardians during a crisis, North's workshop was used as a workshop and not much else. With Christmas approaching, the complex's owner and employees were in the toy-making mindset. It was a simple state of mind that revolved around manufacturing toys.
So there shouldn't have been any reason that a guest of North's would be checked up on by any of the workshop inhabitants. But as it were, North's elves were in love with Alice. And since they weren't allowed to bother the yetis during work hours, and the kitchens were locked up tight, the elves scoured the Russian's domain in favor of finding their green-eyed object of affection.
When they couldn't find her, they flagged down Phil, the yeti in charge of workshop security, and he passed the information on to North, because even the dizzy elves were able to comprehend when something was amiss in their home.
The jolly spirit hadn't been worried at first. The same thing happened earlier that day and everything worked out fine, but when he couldn't find the girl, either (and he searched everywhere this time) he was forced to contact Bunny, and as expected, he flipped his furry lid.
"What do you mean she isn't here!?" Bunny shouted at the yeti in front of him. "Where the hell could she have gone? We're out in the middle of nowhere!"
"Please don't yell at my yeti, Bunny," North spoke up.
If the situation hadn't become so troublesome so quickly with Bunny's tendency to overreact, he would've laughed at how Bunny managed to make one of his toughest yetis cower in fear. The creature had nearly a feet of height over the pooka.
"He speaks truth. I had yeti patrols check. Alice isn't anywhere on the complex. I even did once-around myself to make sure before calling you here."
"For the love of- I'm gone for a few hours and you lost her!"
North crossed his arms, his expression growing stern. "Now Bunny, Alice is adult and capable spirit. She can come and go as she pleases from domain, just like any other."
"Usually, I would agree with you, but in case you've forgotten, Alice hasn't been anywhere in this world except the Pole in over a hundred years! Who knows where she could be. Did your yetis look outside already? She could be out there right now, stuck in the snow!"
North threw a glance at the Sandman who was sitting in a sofa chair with a chalice of eggnog, looking as content as ever. The Russian gave the spirit a prompting look towards Bunny to get the Sandman to help, but Sandy just looked in between both spirits before shrugging his shoulders, earning an exasperated sigh.
None of the spirits standing in front of the workshop's grand fireplace noticed when Tooth and Phil entered the area. The iridescent fairy and yeti watched as Bunny and North began to snap at each other. Tooth crossed her arms and shook her head as they did what they always do best; argue.
Baby Tooth chirped in worry to her queen. She looked at her mini fairy and smiled when she saw the way the tiny fairy blinked up her with wide, mismatched eyes and wrung her hands together. The larger fairy reached over and tapped her girl on the head. She knew why Baby Tooth was anxious. When one of North's yetis showed up at the Tooth Palace to summon the Tooth Fairy, she stopped by Jack's room to check up on him, but found his room empty, too.
The other guardians only seemed to realize that Alice was missing.
"Excuse me, I'd hate to interrupt your little pow-wow," Tooth cut into the conversation, "but have any of you bothered to notice that Jack also isn't here?"
Only Sandy raised his hand as North and Bunny stopped arguing and looked around the room. Tooth rolled her eyes.
"Wait a minute," Bunny murmured as his ears flattened against his head in thought. "Alice and Jack are gone? You don't think that walking icicle would actually be stupid enough to do what I think he did, do you?"
North held up a hand towards Bunny before the pooka could curse Jack into next week. "That could just be coincidence."
"Coincidence my fluffy tail!" Bunny seethed. "He did it, Jack took Alice!"
Tooth laughed. "You make it sound like he kidnapped her or something!"
Sandy pulled himself up from his chair and floated over to his friends with a series of symbols flashing above his head; a small boy and an even smaller girl being two of the most distinguishing few.
"Sandy's right, Jack probably took Alice to visit Burgess," Tooth suggested, being the first to decipher Sandy's meaning. "From what Baby Tooth tells me, Sophie is quite a little fan of Alice's."
Bunny scowled when he realized the fairy was probably right. It should have been a relief to now have some idea of where Alice was, but unsurprisingly, it only served to irritate him further. It would have been just like Alice to sneak off in the middle of night without telling him anything, wouldn't it? To hell with his nervous heart.
"Well, wherever they are, he better be keeping his hands to himself."
Baby Tooth reared back and chirped shrilly while Phil garbled indignantly from his place next to the Globe of Belief's control panel, both outraged by the pooka's comment.
"Bunny!" Tooth gasped before glaring at him with her feathers fluffed up in offense on Jack's behalf. "How could you even think such a thing! You know Jack would never do anything of the sort. Now stop overreacting!"
Bunny's ears flattened against the top of his head again as he cowered at the dirty looks he was receiving from everybody in the room. He shook his head and held out his paws in surrender. "Alright, alright! That was a little out of line, but that doesn't change the fact that Jack took Alice outside of the Pole without tellin' anybody."
"Again, Bunny," Tooth groused with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. "You make it sound like he took Alice against her will. She chose to leave Santoff Claussen on her own."
"Yes," North interjected, agreeing with Tooth. "Perhaps she grew tired of being indoors and felt ready to re-enter world again."
"Why wouldn't she ask me to take her then?" Bunny demanded. "I'm more of a friend to her than Frost is!"
"Aww," Tooth cooed as her anger dissipated and she watched Bunny pout. "Are you jealous that you're not the only spirit in Alice's life anymore, Bunny?"
"Of course not!"
"I'm sure you'll always be her favorite," Tooth reached over and squeezed Bunny's furry shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
"That's not it at all!" Bunny snapped. "I just find it strange that she wouldn't tell me that she was leaving."
"Maybe she did not want you to take her," North suggested before flinching when he found himself at the business end of Bunny's glare.
"And what's that suppose to mean, mate?"
"I mean no insult, Bunny, but you can be a bit overwhelming at times when you're upset."
"Are you suggesting Alice left because I was overwhelming her?"
North shrugged his shoulders. "Overwhelming, overbearing, overprotective. Take pick. Is all the same."
"I'm not overwhelming!" Bunny barked, nearly stomping his big foot before turning towards Sandy and Tooth. "Am I?"
"Ehhh," Tooth remarked as her and Sandy waved their hands in a so-so manner. "You do seem to be a little overprotective when it comes to Alice, Bunny."
Bunny opened his mouth to deny the accusation before his ears drooped and he realized that they were right. He crossed his arms over his chest again and huffed in frustration. "So what? Can you really blame me? Alice can be even more reckless than Jack on a country-wide snow day!"
"Being overprotective isn't a bad thing," Tooth laughed in that sweet way Bunny loved. "Annoying maybe, but not bad."
"Oh how cheeky of you," Bunny grumbled as she smiled at him.
North watched from his spot next to the fireplace as the pooka and fairy began to bicker (flirt) lightly back and forth. He chuckled in amusement before leaning against the warm stone of the mantle with crossed arms.
He wasn't worried about their missing guardians. He had the upmost faith that they could take care of themselves if they came across any trouble, which didn't seem very likely since they were in peace time. Jack and Alice would show up again soon eventually, and if not, North could always activate the Northern Lights to gain their attention, assuming that Alice really was with Jack and not lost somewhere outside the Russian's complex - moon forbid.
The aurora borealis was to be used for emergencies only, but Bunny having an aneurysm could be considered an emergency, at least on some level.
"Don't you love spending evenings with friends, Sandy?" North smiled towards Bunny and Tooth. He turned to look at Sandy only to find him gone, his chair empty and his half-full chalice of eggnog left abandoned on its arm. "Sandy?"
He looked around for his small friend and frowned when he didn't see him. "Sandy? Where'd you get off to?"
The subtle chiming of bells that always accompanied the Sandman's movements rang from somewhere behind North. Relief flooded his mind when he spotted the familiar golden glow by one of the windows that neighbored the globe room's main fireplace. The stout spirit floated inches above of the window bench with his back towards the others and his round face pressed against the cold glass of the window.
"There you are Sandy," North came up behind him. "I thought you left us. Sandy?"
North tilted his head to the side as he looked at the glowing reflection in the window. It wasn't until he leaned a little closer to his friend that he realized Sandy was glaring at something outside.
"Sandy?" He looked between the Sandman and the window. From what he could see besides darkness, there wasn't anything for Sandy to be glaring at. There was only the endless collection of glaciers and whirling snow that were shrouded by shadows where the full moon's light couldn't reach. "What are you looking at? Is something out there?"
His heart dropped when Sandy's glare narrowed even further and nodded his head.
Never turning away from the window, he held up a hand and motioned North to lean down closer to him before pointing at something outside. North threw a cursory glance at Bunny and Tooth, who were still bickering, before turning back and leaning down. He looked out the window and tried to see what Sandy wanted him to see.
"What am I looking for?"
Sandy pointed again towards a dark ravine at the base of the glacier North's domain was carved into, near one of the tunnels that led into the sleigh launching area. At first, North saw nothing out of the ordinary, just darkness, but the longer he stared, the tighter his eyes shut when the darkness started to move. He shook his head and moved to step back when he realized his eyes were playing tricks on him, but stopped when Sandy reached out and gripped the sleeve of his red tunic.
The golden spirit pointed again, urgently this time. North looked again, but tsked in frustration when he didn't see anything different.
"Sandy, I don't know what it is that you are looking at, but I cannot..." North trailed off abruptly when something moved in the shadows, far too obvious to be blamed on his eyes. He leaned in closer to the window with knotted eyebrows and a deep frown. "What is...moi deti!"
Startled into silence by North's outburst, Bunny and Tooth whipped around just in time to see the Russian grab Sandy around his middle and pull him away from the window and on to the stone ground, bracing for impact.
"North! What-"
Bunny was cut off by an explosion of light and ear-shattering sound outside the workshop walls, blowing out the windows and showering the stunned spirits in glass and chaos.
~O~
"Here's your coat back."
Cupcake held the black material out with both hands for Alice to take. She wanted to return the coat before she joined the others as they grouped around Jack. It was getting really late and it was time for the children to return indoors for the rest of the night. The plan was for Alice to escort Jamie and the others back to his house while Jack walked Cupcake back to hers since she was still grounded. Her mom would totally freak out if she came into Cupcake's room in the morning and found her daughter missing.
"You keep it," Alice insisted.
The spirit wasn't even looking at the girl standing in front of her. She was staring at something over Cupcake's head, towards the dark trees surrounding Jack's pond.
"Really?" Cupcake smiled. It really was a beautiful coat and she had never owned something so nice.
"Mhm," Alice hummed absently as her intense stare never wavered from the trees.
Cupcake's brow furrowed as she looked in between a stone-faced Alice and whatever it was she was staring at. "What are you looking at?"
When Alice didn't move, Cupcake reached out and tugged on her apron. "Alice?"
She blinked out of her trance and looked down at Cupcake. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"What were you looking at?"
Alice's eyes flickered over the girl's head again before coming back. "Nothing. I wasn't looking at anything."
"Should I get Jack?"
"No," she shook her head, "but there is something I wish to ask of you."
Cupcake stepped forward a little, prepared to do anything for the childhood icon. "Sure, anything."
Alice crouched down until she was level with her. "When I leave, go tell Jack that he'll have to escort the other children back to the house, as well as you."
"When you leave?" Cupcake echoed. "Where are you going?"
"There's something I must attend to," Alice murmured more to herself before she stood back to her full height and stepped around the younger girl.
"What?" Cupcake asked as she watched Alice head for the tree line of the forest. She glanced in Jack's direction and fought the urge to call for him, but Jack had his back turned towards them with his attention on something Jamie was saying.
"I saw something watching us from the trees."
Alice didn't wait for a response before disappearing behind a cluster of bushes. She didn't wait to see if Cupcake fulfilled her request. It wouldn't have made much of a difference if the ice spirit had followed her into the forest, except for maybe a lack of appreciated silence. It could have just been a shadow, after all. A trick of the eyes.
There had been a figure lurking in the bushes. Alice caught sight of it several times since the children moved their little get-together to the pond with the ancient oak tree. It was a fleeting shadow that never lingered in one place for very long once it gained the attention of the green-eyed spirit. Alice couldn't make out any distinguishing details of the figure other than it appeared to be humanoid, tall and slender. It moved too fast and too often for her to get a decent look.
It gave her a foreboding feeling though, a feeling that she couldn't ignore. Something, or someone, had been watching them.
Ten years of being strapped down to a gurney while faceless doctors poked and prodded at her with sharp medical instruments like a lab rat gave Alice an intolerance for being watched without her permission, and she would harshly punish anybody who dared to do so (it also gave her severe boundary issues and a blinding hatred for needles and leeches, but hopefully the dark figure, whoever they may be, wasn't planning on frolicking through those minefields, too).
So Alice broke away from her group of deviants with the intentions of finding out what the dark figure was. She moved further into the dark, snow-covered forest. It seemed be turning into a fool's errand the deeper she went since she had no idea what she was looking for other than an obscure sense of a shadowy figure. There were no signs of it anywhere, unsurprisingly. Shadows weren't known for leaving behind conceivable evidence of their existence, after all. Alice pushed forward regardless, but more for peace of mind than anything else.
She grunted in frustration as she pushed aside tree branches and leaves while stepping over rocks and tree roots. She was walking through an untouched part of the forest, an area void of any hiking trails and bike paths, annoying Alice even more when she almost tripped over a dip in the ground. Fortunately, she soon came to an opening between the trees and was able to gain some breathing room again.
As she moved closer into the opening where a small stream cut through the middle, Alice mumbled under her breath as she pulled leaves and twigs from her hair and brushed off dirt off her clothing. She smoothed out the front of her apron and took a look around her new surroundings. All was silent except for the telltale sounds of a babbling brook and the occasional hoot of an owl in the distance.
Alice pursed her lips in thought as her eyes scanned the tranquil area for the dark figure that may, or may have not been stalking her, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. She shook her head at herself and cursed her foolish paranoia before turning to leave the forest.
Suddenly, a shrill sound of a horse's neigh ripped through the air.
Alice spun on her heel and came face to face with an obsidian black horse standing a few yards away. It neighed again as it fixed the spirit with a piercing, golden stare. It pounded one of its front legs fiercely against the ground and exhaled through its nostrils in puffs of hot air. Its presence radiated danger and ill-intentions. Alice fell into a defensive stance when the black horse reared back on to its hind legs with some strange, fizzy material drifting from its back in long streams.
When it charged, Alice's Vorpal blade materialized in her hand with a wisp of blue smoke and she was throwing it at the black horse as it galloped towards her. The deadly blade cut through the night air, glimmering dangerously as the moonlight hit its reflective surface and struck the attacking creature right in the neck, causing the horse to explode into a cloud of black sand.
Alice watched as the contents of the horse fell to the ground and gathered into a cluster of sand. She stepped towards the motionless pile when it failed to show any more signs of life. Her Vorpal blade rested in the midst of the black sand with its blue and purple aura dying down the longer it went without being in Alice's hand. The sand no longer looked threatening, except maybe in coloring and how it closely resembled the Sandman's dreamsand, but ever the careful one, Alice used her boot to kick her signature weapon from the dark grains.
She reached down and picked it up, brushing off lingering sand. She cleaned off the intricate blade with surprising tenderness just as she always did after a fight, but when its smooth surface caught the distorted reflection of something standing behind her, Alice let out a startled gasp and whipped around.
The man in black jumped back also, as if he was just as stunned as she was.
"Oh my apologies!" the man laughed breathlessly as he held a gray hand against his chest to calm his alarmed heart. "Did I startle you?"
Alice didn't respond as her grip on her Vorpal blade tightened and she regarded the man with a scrutinizing glare.
Tall and slender, just like the dark figure she saw lurking in the trees by the pond. He was dressed head to toe in black, wearing a long cloak that seemed to bleed into the shadows on the ground with matching pants. His hair was an ashen black color that was slicked back from his gray face. The only color on him was his pale, golden eyes. Very similar to the Sandman's but lacking the short man's brilliant luster.
"I didn't mean to," he claimed good-naturedly in an accent closely resembling hers as he straightened up and offered her a smile. "I thought you heard me coming."
"No, I didn't," Alice replied. She hadn't him coming because he made absolutely no sound, she was sure of it. His feet didn't even make any noise as they stepped over the grass and Alice didn't like that. Silence had meaning, silence was deadly. "Who are you?"
The man didn't answer as his pale eyes looked her up and down. It wasn't a lecherous once-over like the ones Alice used to received from burly Billingsgate sailors. It didn't linger in inappropriate places and it didn't seem particularly threatening, but it made her skin crawl and her temper flare all the same.
"My, look at you," he said more to himself as he placed his hands behind his back. "Alice Liddell, slayer of the Jabberwock and great champion of Wonderland. In the flesh."
Alice narrowed her acidic green gaze, stepping forward and raising her blade in the stranger's direction, the blue and purple aura once again flowing up from the silver surface like flames. "I won't ask you again. Your title, now."
The man's eyes flickered between Alice's dead-serious expression and the gleaming blade. Then, he bowed his head and let out a defeated sigh. "Very well. If you must know, I am Pitch Black, the Nightmare King, but more commonly known as the Boogeyman."
"See?" Alice asked, almost in a sweet tone. Her eyes were still piercing but the corner of her mouth quirked up in a smirk. "That wasn't so difficult now was it? It'll do you no favors Mr. Black, to ignore my questions."
Usually, Pitch wouldn't appreciate such attitude from a fledgling spirit, but as it were, he really was in no position to do anything about it. He was still weak from his secret field trip into Alice's mind, especially when he returned with a little...souvenir that ended up evolving into something deliciously wicked. The trip back exhausted him. Pitch had just enough energy to slip away, undetected, while Alice rode out the waves of her night terror and the Sandman blocked anybody's access from her room, unwittingly turning his back and giving Pitch the opportunity to escape Santoff Claussen.
As soon as the Boogeyman reached his underground lair, he collapsed on to the stone ground and passed out. It had been worth it, though. Alice's mind and Wonderland had been more closely connected than Pitch originally assumed. The copy in her head was practically just as good as the real thing. So good in fact, that Pitch was able to steal a small vial of black ooze that he found in the very core of the "Dollmaker's" workshop and bring it back with him.
The ooze he took seemed to be far more potent than the random puddles of ooze that littered around the outside of the fallen structure, including the puddle that corrupted his Nightmare, turning it into a Night Terror. The ooze Pitch stole felt far more powerful, but for the life of him, he couldn't understand why that was, until he woke up almost two days later and found that the vial of ooze had taken on a mind of its own and gained a new, interesting shape.
Of course, Pitch couldn't reveal any of that to Alice. She was a new spirit compared to him, just a baby really, but she was a deadly one.
The Nightmare King still chose to keep hold of the idea of Alice joining him. He only encountered a mere sample of the hellish things her mind could conjure up, but he wanted to see more. If Pitch wanted to talk to Alice while she was still solely neutral on the guardian issue, then he would have to do it now, before Frost showed up.
An alliance didn't seem to be in the cards because Alice would never go against the Easter Bunny. A threat against the children or the other guardians was taken as a threat against the rabbit, too. It was obvious that the girl would never betray the pooka. The other guardians perhaps, if she was pushed far enough, but never the pooka and Pitch knew that as a fact because one of Alice's biggest fears was losing him, permanently.
Without a doubt, Bunnymund was one of Alice's greatest strengths, but just as those sort of things usually were, he was also one of her greatest weaknesses.
"Forgive me if I'm a little hesitant when it comes to greetings, my dear," Pitch said, putting on his best, most polite act. "My name and title doesn't normally incite very positive reactions in the other people. They label me an enemy rather quickly because of it."
Alice lowered her Vorpal blade to her side and rested her empty hand on her hip. "Your title isn't what gave you that label in my book. It was the lurking in the shadows. Why were you watching me?"
"I just wanted to say hello," Pitch replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I heard through the grapevine that you were chosen to be the next guardian and I wanted to congratulate you."
"Why not come out into the open then, like any normal person would do?" Alice asked, highly skeptical, "and how did you know that I was chosen? I would hardly believe that you're an ally of the guardians."
"I'm not," Pitch snapped before he had a chance to police himself, but he collected himself again when Alice narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not an ally, just a fellow spirit. And I don't do well out in the open, as I'm sure you can imagine. Gossip moves fast and often in the spirit world. So much so, it's practically currency to some spirits. I roam the shadows of the globe and I pick up stuff as I travel. A new guardian is a big deal, especially when the new guardian is you."
"That meaning what, exactly?"
"Again my dear, gossip," Pitch sighed. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the name Alice Liddell is quite the enigma among the spiritual community. A young spirit, barely over a century old, powerful enough to create an entire world of her own? Some of the bigwig spirits like the guardians may have their extravagant domains, but no spirit, no matter how old or powerful, can say they created a new world. Not to mention that nobody except the Easter Bunny has ever seen you in person. Well, not until now of course."
Alice blinked at him. "Bunny never told me that...I suppose I would be curious too if I was in their soles, but how do I know you weren't hiding because of Frost?"
She was still suspicious of the Boogeyman, but Alice found herself lowering her guard. It might have been because he didn't come off as very dangerous. Perhaps a little off-putting due to his dark and looming appearance, but he wasn't armed, so she wasn't worried. It might have also been his accent. Since returning to the real world, Alice has heard a flurry of many different accents and it was a small comfort to come across a spirit with one like hers. Kinship maybe, she supposed.
"I won't lie to you, Alice," Pitch said almost wistfully. "Because of my occupation, I don't have the most stellar relationship with the guardians. I'm afraid we didn't part on very good terms last time we met. I didn't wish to stir up any bad blood with Frost because I knew it would only put me in a negative light in your eyes."
"You really should have let me be the judge of that, Mr. Black," Alice shook her head, almost in disappointment. "Now I'm only suspicious of you."
"Well perhaps I can do something to change that," Pitch offered, trying to keep the malicious smirk from his face. "Why don't I show you what I do, as the Boogeyman, I mean. I can show you what my position entails and hopefully you will see I'm not nearly as horrible as I'm sure the guardians will make me out to be. I'm just trying to do my job; fear is a necessary part of life, after all. It would be nice to have some company for a change."
"No, thank you," Alice declined as politely as she could. She didn't perceive Mr. Black as a pressing threat, but that black sand horse had to have come from somewhere and the Nightmare King's sudden appearance was too much of a coincidence. She didn't want to be a hypocrite and disregard Mr. Black because of his looks and occupation, but Alice always trusted her instincts above everything else. "It's nice of you to offer, but I should really take my leave. Frost is sure to have noticed my absence by now."
Pitch's eyes widened as he watched Alice turn to leave.
No, he wasn't done talking to her yet!
"Wait!" He stepped forward and reached out to grab Alice's wrist as she turned. "I'm sure he won't mind if - argh!"
Alice gasped and whipped back around when a flash of blue shot past her and stuck Pitch in the chest, knocking him back several feet and sending him to the ground as glowing ice begun to cover his black cloak. She barely had time to react before Jack touched down in front of her with a gust of wind that blew her hair back and made the skirt of her dress flutter around her thighs. Her arms came up to block her face as a light mist of frost hit her while the winter spirit maneuvered himself between her and Pitch.
"I mind plenty," Jack growled as he fixed the fallen spirit with a glare. He had his trademark staff aimed towards the Nightmare King's face, glowing and ready to shoot off another ice blast if the dark spirit tried anything funny.
"Frost!" Alice snapped. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Alice, stay back," Jack ignored her question and reached back a protective arm to keep her from moving any closer to the groaning spirit on the forest ground.
He caught her indignant glare and almost flinched. No doubt he would catch crap for that later, but he didn't reprimand himself. He was raised in a time where chivalry was very much alive, so it was just instinctual for him to do those sort of things. He wasn't trying to undermine her capability as a woman and fighter, or whatever mortal women harp about these days, so she could just deal with it.
She gave him an exasperated sigh. "Must you always knock down other spirits when you encounter them?"
"What are you doing here, Pitch?" Jack demanded as he watched the Boogeyman sit up and brush off the frost on his aching chest.
Pitch matched Jack's glare with one of his own as he rested one arm on his bent knee and leaned his weight back on the other. "Can't I extend a congratulatory hand towards the spirit world's new potential guardian without it being suspicious?"
"No," Jack deadpanned, his staff glowing brighter. "Now what kind of garbage are you trying to sell this time, Pitch?"
"Such boorish manners," Pitch tsked as he pulled himself up from the ground and brushed off the last of the ice that clung to his front. "You truly are a guardian, aren't you, Frost?"
"I don't know how you managed to drag your rotted body from that hellhole you call a lair, but I suggest you leave before I freeze you into a block of ice.
"Rotted?" Pitch echoed, his face curling up in disgust. "Oh, how lovely. Insulting my natural state - that would be like me calling you a popsicle."
"Leave, Boogeyman."
Pitch stared at Jack with both hands behind his back before he looked over the boy's shoulder at Alice, who was watching their exchange with crossed arms and a cocked eyebrow. "See now, my dear? Didn't I tell you this would happen?"
"Don't talk to her!" Jack snapped.
"Is this really necessary?" Alice spoke up, smacking down Frost's arm and moving to stand beside him.
Jack looked at her in bewilderment. "What? Of course it is! Don't you know who he is? You should stay as far away from him as possible. We both should!"
"Why? He hasn't done anything to me."
"Oh yeah? Is that what he's trying to get you to believe?" Jack looked back at Pitch with another glare. "I guess he conveniently forgot to mention how he nearly wiped the guardians out of existence two years ago then, huh?"
"What?" Alice blinked at him.
"Jesus, Bunny," Jack shook his head as he cursed the pooka under his breath for not telling Alice about Pitch Black; public enemy number one. "Pitch used his nightmares to steal Tooth's fairies and the baby teeth from her palace, he destroyed Bunny's eggs and ruined Easter, he broke my staff and threw me down a trench in the middle of Antarctica, and worst of all, he killed Sandy!"
Alice's stunned expression turned to one of serious confusion as Pitch laughed mockingly at the Winter spirit.
"That's quite an accusation, Frost. Last time I checked, Sanderson was very much alive. How could I have killed him?"
"Don't play dumb! Alice wouldn't take your word over mine," Jack claimed, praying to the Man in the Moon that he was right. He looked over at his confused companion. "Alice, I don't think Bunny told you about what happened two years ago because he didn't want you to know how close you came to losing him, but you've got to believe when I say, Pitch is evil!"
"How close?"
She processed everything he was telling her, trying to nitpick what she should believe and what she shouldn't. Who she should believe was a given, though. She only met Frost a few days ago, but she knew him far better than she did the Nightmare King. Frost had no reason to lie to her, especially about something so horrid.
"Like, edge-of-oblivion close," Jack replied as he stared Pitch down. He had to fight the overwhelming urge to blast the Boogeyman all the way to the moon when memories of the Nightmare King's siege begun to resurface again:
Jack trying desperately, but failing, to reach the Sandman as the warm-hearted spirit's body grew black and his comforting glow seeped away as it joined the dark cloud of sand at Pitch's disposal. Then having to watch as Tooth's feathers fell out and she lost her beloved ability to fly while the loud and proud Father Christmas was reduced to a hunched over old man who had to use his own sword for a makeshift cane. And not to mention the not-so-cuddly plush toy Bunny shrunk into...
"The guardians were down to one light. They're lives were hanging on by one believer. One believer out of millions of children, and it was all because of Pitch!"
Alice shudder at the mere thought of Bunny fading out of existence. If Pitch had succeeded in his plot, how long would she have gone unaware that her closest friend and his companions were dead? Was she cursed to be forever stuck in the endless loop of ignorance she so foolishly allowed herself to fall into when she was a human living in London, trying to survive poverty and being a former mental patient?
Never seeing Bunny again? Unthinkable! She always feared the pooka would grow tired of her erratic temper and mood swings and decide to stop coming to see her altogether, but she never imagined losing him to something other than her difficult personality, especially not death. Anything but death.
And what about Sandy? Who would ever want to hurt such a kind-hearted spirit like the Sandman? What did that sweet man ever do to deserve somebody's wraith and anger? Rage ignited in her belly as Alice glared at the Boogeyman with newfound hatred. Her Vorpal blade materialized in her hand again. Her fingers tightened around the handle until her knuckles turned a ghostly white.
Pitch's eyes flickered in between the two glaring spirits before he let out another sigh with a slow shake of his head. He looked back up at Frost with a contemptuous scowl on his gray face.
"Now why did you have to go and do a thing like that, Frost?"
"You may have tricked me the first time, Black, but it won't happen again. Not with me, or Alice."
One look at their blue and green gazes was enough to tell Pitch that Jack's words rang true. Proving once again that Jack Frost was nothing but a malignant tumor in the cancerous hell that was Pitch's current century.
"Very well," Pitch said as he glared back at the two spirits. Jack wrung his hands along the wood of his staff as Pitch mirrored the same expression he had when Jack refused his, oh-so gracious, offer back in Antarctica two years ago, and if he learned anything from that experience, it was that Pitch Black did not take rejection well. He watched carefully as the Boogeyman dropped his arms from behind his back. "I suppose it's for the best. Otherwise, I might've felt a little bad for what I'm about to do."
The wind began to pick up out of nowhere, sending a silent warning that only Jack was able to sense as it curled protectively around the winter spirit. Alice flicked her dark hair out of her face and fell into a defensive stance when the rustling of bushes sounded out and several Nightmares emerged from the shadows of the forest. Glowing yellow orbs bared on her and her companion as the black horses started to form a malevolent circle around them, forcing Jack and Alice to stand back to back as they waited for the sand creatures to attack.
"Call them off, Pitch!" Jack demanded as he felt his back hit Alice's, confirming his theory that they were now surrounded and in deep trouble.
Pitch pretended to think carefully about for a moment before he laughed and turned to walk away. "No, I think I'll let you two have a little bonding time. Heaven knows you need it."
Jack ran after the Boogeyman while aiming his staff, but when he shot off another ice blast at the dark spirit's retreating back, Pitch's form melded into the shadows of the surrounding foliage just in time to dodge Jack's attack. The ice blast hit a nearby tree trunk instead.
"Hey, get back here! I'm not done trying to freeze you yet!"
"Forget about the Nightmare King, Frost," Alice said as she backed up closer to Jack. "Come back near me before these obsidian monstrosities close in any further. Separation would not be a wise move for us to take in this situation."
Jack glared at the spot where Pitch disappeared before he returned to his spot next to Alice. "Yeah, probably not. Geez, there's a lot of these things."
"Courage, Frost," Alice snapped while swiping her blade at a nearby Nightmare in warning. "Is there anything I should know about these sand creatures before we attack? A name perhaps?"
"Nightmares. And no, there's not much to them. They're made of sand so they're pretty easy to destroy, but-" Jack gestured to the dozens of nightmares that continued to advance on them. "-their danger lays more with numbers. More quantity than quality is a good way to put it."
"I do hope you can fight with that stick of yours," Alice remarked dryly over her shoulder as she saw a few oil black nightmares rear back on their hind legs.
"Staff. And yeah, I can hold my own, thank you very much," Jack replied. His grip on his staff tightened and the aged wood glowed blue.
"Good, I'd hate to have to pick up your slack."
Jack dropped his defensive stance and turned to give the snarky girl an unimpressed glare, but Alice ignored him as a handful of playing cards materialized in her empty palm. She drew back her arm and threw the cards as hard as she could at the Nightmares closest to her, cutting through the bodies of sand like daggers and striking any others that stood behind them. The rest of the Nightmares finally charged when the first move had been made and five of their own exploded from Alice's attack. She threw two more handfuls at the creatures that grew too close before striking out with her Vorpal blade and slicing a mare across the neck and stabbed another between the eyes.
Jack cringed at the violent display as Alice begun to go through nightmares like North through a plate of gingerbread cookies. When a nightmare almost head-butted him, he focused on his side of the ambush and shot anything that moved with shards of ice. He swung his staff as hard as he could as a shower of blue sparks erupted from the tip of the crook, freezing the monsters in their tracks before moving forward and smashing them to pieces with his glowing conduit.
At first he was a little worried he would accidentally hit Alice, but since he could barely see through the wall of Nightmares she already managed to cut her way through, he figured he should just worry about himself. Jack swung his staff again, wide with a sweep of frost that forced the nightmares to rear back on their hind legs as he fought to build space between themselves and their creeping enemies.
Bursts of blue light flashed brilliantly from both their weapons against the overwhelming blackness of all the mares. Alice was racking up the number of Nightmare casualties faster than Jack could blink and it made him feel a bit inadequate; he only managed to destroy about six so far. Of course he knew it wasn't a contest, but the last thing he needed was to give Alice another reason to berate him. But as it were, she barely acknowledged anything he was doing. He could have been spinning in useless circles and Alice wouldn't have noticed otherwise. She was already too far into her fighting mindset and she didn't plan on leaving it until every Nightmare was reduced to a motionless pile of sand.
This was her element. Everything was purely second nature as she switched between striking, dodging and fiercely stabbing any Nightmare that managed to land a hit - not that any of their attacks actually hurt. Bee stings hurt worse than any of their blows. They tried valiantly to land a hit that hurt, but not enough to knock her down. They only managed to stall her attacks for a few seconds before she collected herself.
Alice whipped around on her heel and sunk her singing blade into another nightmare's breast. She listened to its panicked bellowing as it exploded into darkened dust. One particularly foolish Nightmare tried to charge her while her back was turned, but she dodged the massive hoof aimed for her skull and landed a well-placed kick to its exposed stomach. The mares weren't challenging enough for Alice to have considered it a battle. One, well-placed hit was all it took to stop the creatures in their tracks. Even the Insidious Ruins that occasionally lurked out of the Wonderland Graveyard could take more hits than that!
"Pathetic!" Alice scoffed as she sank her flaring blade in the flank of the last standing Nightmare on her side.
Jack finished off his last four mares with a backhand swipe of his staff to one nightmare, and a powerful throwback when he slammed the butt of his staff into the ground that, quite literally, blew away the last three, not even leaving behind piles of sand. Alice regarded him as he moved fluidly with her arms crossed and a slim eyebrow cocked.
"Not bad, Frost. You did far better than I imagined a foolhardy, personified ice block like you would."
"That-" Jack started dramatically, pretending to not be out of breath. "-has got to be, the nicest thing you have ever said to me."
"I wouldn't get used to it. You managed to not get yourself incapacitated or killed, but those Nightmares were hardly a challenge," Alice remarked as she pulled out a blue handkerchief from her apron pocket and cleaned off her Vorpal blade, "and don't think I haven't noticed your fatigue."
"Well sorry that we all can't be sociopathic killing machines," he snapped, finally letting himself catch his breath since Alice called him out. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"Should we be expecting another wave anytime soon?" she asked, ignoring his question as her blade disappeared again.
Jack rolled his eyes before looking around the surrounding forest, taking note of any shadows. The wind died down and gently ruffled through his white hair, telling him that it was okay for them to lower their guards. "I don't think so. If there were more, I'm sure Pitch would've stood by and waited for another round of gloating."
"Ah, I see. So he's a narcissist?"
"Yep, big time."
"Well, at least it's over." She threw a brief glance over her shoulder at Jack, who was poking a lifeless pile of nightmare sand with the end of his staff. "Frost?"
Jack stopped using his staff as a poking stick and turned around. "What?"
"Thank you."
"Your wel- wait, what?" Did his pale ears deceive him? Did Alice really just thank him for something? "What for?"
"Telling me what Bunny wouldn't," Alice replied.
"Well, that wasn't even half the story," Jack laughed humorlessly as he rubbed the back of his neck. He jumped when Alice walked up to him until they were inches apart and stuck her hand into his hoodie pocket. "What are you doing?"
Alice ignored him again as she fished out the last snow globe Jack had stashed in his pocket. "I think we should return to the North Pole now. Whether or not Mr. Black's attack was meant to be part of some bigger plot, we should still inform the others of his return since you find him to be such a treacherous threat."
"Usually he isn't because of his lack of belief, but that was a lot of Nightmares for a guy who should still be stuck at the bottom of a dark hole, utterly powerless," Jack said as he smoothed out the front of his hoodie, muttering something about boundaries under his breath.
"Regardless, we should leave," Alice shook the snow globe and watched the flurries dance in the glass sphere. "How does this work?"
"Here, hand it over," Jack said, effortlessly catching the globe when she tossed it to him. He spoke their destination to the swirling orb and a picture of North's workshop appeared in the center of it.
"I hope no one noticed our absence."
"North and the yetis always pull all-nighters around this time of year. We could be gone a week and they would be none the wiser," he replied as he smashed the snow globe against the ground and watched as the iridescent portal opened up with a brilliant flash. "And who cares if we left? I'm sure the place will still be standing when we get back."
In lieu of a response, Alice only shook her head and entered the portal with Frost following close behind.
AN: There was a bit of a shame-on-Alice moment in this chapter. If she had taken the time to read Carroll's books, then she would've found it suspicious that Pitch called her 'slayer of the Jabberwock' and not 'Jabberwocky'. Alice and the Wonderland inhabitants call it the Jabberwock, whereas most people mistakingly call it the Jabberwocky.
Also, I'm going to be using mainly the weapons in Madness Returns because I'm more familiar with them than the ones in the first game, but I'll try and throw in a few AMA weapons (like the playing cards) every now and again.
~Scorpiofreak~