AN: Another chapter coming at you earlier than expected! Aren't I amazing? Like I said before, I'm going to try and wrapped up this story soon. I can't guarantee anymore chapters will be posted early, but I'm still going to try and pick up the pace.
Thanks for all the reviews! Especially the anonymous/guest reviews that I can't respond personally to! You guys are awesome! We're almost to 700 reviews! That's amazing!
Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.
Everybody's got a dark side
Do you love me?
Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect
But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it
Will you love me?
Even with my dark side?
Dark Side ~ Kelly Clarkson
Within the deep, shadowed bowels of his underground domain, Pitch Black pulled a distasteful grimace as he looked down at the mass of singed and matted fur curled pitifully into a ball at the Boogeyman's feet.
"What the hell is this?" He asked with a bitter tone, looking towards the tall figure lurking in the nearby shadows with an angry scowl on his ashen face. "Why did you bring him here? We had a plan!"
"Your plan, Mr. Black," The Dollmaker pointed out, not at all intimidated by his "partner's" blatant disapproval. "I believe we've already established early on that neither of us are too keen on making this alliance long-term. Means to an end. Is that not the term you used?"
"Yes, but you've just given the guardians more of a reason to come down here! Sooner than I'm ready for them to! Neither ends will be met if you keep cutting corners!"
Pitch narrowed his pale eyes at the corpse-like being and pursed his lips in a tight line. He felt that ever-growing pit of frustration in his stomach increase as he, once again, butted heads with the dark Wonderlander. In his defense, he had not anticipated this; any of it. He hadn't expected the small valve of black ooze he took from the heart of the Dollmaker's workshop ruins, to break open and expand while he laid passed out on the floor of his own domain. He didn't expect to wake up and find a fully resurrected Dollmaker standing over him with his hands tucked neatly behind his back and a blank look on his dead face.
It all just happened with little effort on both parts, along with the shaky partnership they established soon afterwards. The deal they had created was relatively straightforward. The Dollmaker would provide the ooze Pitch needed to convert all of his nightmares into Night Ruins, showing him the tricks and abilities that came along with them to help further the Nightmare King's plans, and when all was said and done, and the guardians were defeated, the Dollmaker could have Alice. The delicious thought of corrupting the innocent minds of all the children in the world seduced the both of them, but the corruption wasn't as appealing to him as it was to Pitch, not when pitted against the opportunity for vengeance against his arch nemesis.
The only problem Pitch kept constantly running into though, was that the Dollmaker was wildly impatient.
"Trust me, Dollmaker, whatever lack of fondness you have for me and my way of doing things, it is entirely mutual. However, with all due respect, I think I know the limitations and inner workings of the spirit world, and the physical affect they have on the mortal world, just a tad better than you. Not to mention, without me, you would still be rotting under the ruins of your fallen workshop. We're equal in this, my friend. For now, at least."
The Dollmaker let out a deep chuckle as he walked over to Pitch and the furball, who was still curled up on the ground, unmoving. He toed the unconscious pooka sharply in the side with the tip of his shoe to see if he would move. When he didn't, the Dollmaker's smirk curled higher. "You wanted to send a message, didn't you? I honestly couldn't think of a better way to do it. She'll come for him, and when she does, I'll be ready for her."
Pitch scowled again. "But what about-"
"The girl is mine. Anything beyond that is just semantics," The Dollmaker snapped, his white eyes flashing black for a moment. After giving one more, vindictive kick to the Easter Bunny's side, he turned on his heel and walked back towards the shadows. "Go ahead with your plans. It should be about time."
Pitch watched mundanely as the shadows swallowed him whole. He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his long nose in agitation. This was why he preferred to work alone. He wasn't wired to tolerate other people's wants and needs, being the solitary spirit he was.
"Move out," He commanded the oozing Night Ruin that lurked nearby, waiting for orders from one of its masters. "You know what to do."
The Night Ruin reared back on its hind legs and neighed loudly; a grotesque, unsettling sound that even disturbed the Boogeyman a little. It jumped down from the stone overhang they were standing on, and disappeared into the shadows below to collect its fellow Ruins. Pitch watched it go with a passive frown before turning his attention back to the motionless Easter Bunny. His eyes roamed lazily over the guardian's battered form. There were black scorch marks staining his usually well-groomed fur, with a few patches missing all along his body. The Dollmaker had given the pooka quite the rough treatment when they arrived in Pitch's lair.
Personally, Pitch found the Dollmaker's style a bit too brutish for his tastes. There was evidence to suggest that the demon might've had a little more charm and class at some point in his short existence, but it seemed to immediately shrivel and die away whenever the subject of Alice came up.
With a slight wave of his hand, a long stream of nightmare sand weaved between Pitch's long fingers. He stared at Bunny's unconscious face with a small sense of satisfaction when he sent the stream of tainted sand to collect above the pooka's head. His grey muzzle immediately cringed in discomfort and he curled further into a ball. The dark dream spirit savored the twinge of fear that ran through one of his most hated enemies, knowing that he shouldn't let a free opportunity like this go to waste. Even when that foreboding feeling of his became harder and harder to ignore.
Take pleasure where you can, Pitch mused.
~O~
"Watch it! She's getting loose!"
"Someone grab her arm!"
"I'm trying!"
"Ow! She just elbowed me in the nose!"
"Oh crap! She's...! Yep, there she goes again."
Jack banged his fist on the stone floor of the workshop in frustration as he watched the blur of white and red disappear again within the flurry of workshop panic. The guardians laid scattered across the ground, having been knocked off their feet when they tried to wrangle Alice and stop her rampage. It was difficult getting a hold on her, with all the scratching, biting, and dodging she was doing. Not to mention how much stronger she seemed to be now. She had managed to slip through their hands each and every time they tried to hold her down.
There really wasn't enough time to fully process the hard left turn the evening had taken, what with Bunny's kidnapping and the appearance of the Dollmaker. There was even less time to process the freakish demon Alice had suddenly turned into.
In the blink of an eye, Alice's blue dress and peach skin had flashed stark white, her eyes flooding with red and she screamed a piercing scream loud enough to shatter glass (if the workshop windows hadn't already been broken). Her rage seemed to take on physical properties as a wave of force burst from her and the spirits gathered around were sent stumbling backwards. When the proverbial smoke cleared, Alice stood there in the center of them with her red eyes wide and unblinking. Red streamed down her white cheeks while her clawed hands became coated with what could only be blood, covering her hands and running up her arms like a pair of macabre evening gloves. The guardians stared in shock at the seething demon that had suddenly taken Alice's place.
She lashed out at the closest thing to her, which happened to be one of North's yetis. The furry creature reared back in surprise when the red-eyed demon girl jumped at him and he fell flat on his back. Alice moved over him with ease, using his plush belly for leverage as she threw herself over the side of balcony and disappeared on to the workshop floor below them. Jack immediately tore off after her.
There was really no sense to Alice's outburst, no sense of direction or any real sign of consciousness as she ran through the workshop, knocking over toys and shoving aside workers. She had gone completely feral. She didn't seem to be much aware of anything around her, least of all who she was lashing out at. Jack wondered briefly, as he picked up his staff and ran after her, who exactly she thought those hands reaching out to her belonged to. Did she realize it was them and just not care? Or was her pain and rage distorting everything, making her see nothing but attacking enemies?
If there was any aim, any point to her rampage, it was only known to Alice's grief-clouded mind. She could've been looking for Bunnymund, if her head was truly that warped, but then again, she could've just been projecting, thinking it'll serve some sort of purpose, like a caged animal that continued to howl and claw even after total capture.
Jack jumped along the workshop tables like he was playing a game of high-risk hopscotch, using long practiced grace to maneuver through the chaotic workshop and catch up to Alice, who was blindly tearing her way through anything that crossed her path. The other guardians followed the best they could. Tooth was the closest behind him, only lagging in speed because of her previous injury, while North and the Sandman were forced to follow along the ground. Jack didn't stop to wait for any of them.
It was easy enough to follow the sounds of Alice's enraged screams as they echoed off every wall in the workshop. Panicked elves ran in the opposite direction of her, terrified out of their minds while the yetis tried their best to stop her from destroying their toys and scattering their tools. She blindly made her way through the balcony walkways of scrambled yetis until she hit the ground floor of the workshop and ran out into the open. Jack touched back down in front of her, effectively cutting her off and forcing her to skid to a stop several feet away.
"Alice," He called her name in warning. He did his best to look as nonthreatening as possible. "You really need to calm down."
Oh how profound Captain Obvious, Jack scoffed to himself.
Alice stared at him with wide eyes. It was difficult to tell if she was actually looking at him. Her pupils had been clouded over and it was blatantly clear that Alice was completely out of her right mind. She stood in a defensive stance with her chest heaving and her mouth hanging slightly open. She bared her newly bloodstained teeth in a snarl, her black hair tossing wildly in an invisible wind as she turned to face him.
In her mind everything was red and twisted; faces indistinguishable blurs and words garbled white noise. Her world was now black and white, a chaotic monochromatic movie. She couldn't focus on one stable thought for too long. All that drove her actions was an over amplified fight or flight instinct and a nonexistent sense of danger beating down her neck. She stared at Jack head on, her fingers flexing in anticipation as she waited for the colorless blur in her vision to make its move.
Not seeing much of an opening, Jack used the wind to propel himself forward.
His half-assed plan was to try and pull Alice to the ground again. It was far from foolproof, but if he could hold her down long enough for the others to catch up, than maybe they could help him subdue her. They were treating the rampage almost like a seizure, securing the struggling spirit-turned-demon so she couldn't hurt herself, or anyone else, and praying they could just ride the episode out, thinking Alice would eventually tire herself out. Hopefully.
The first half of the plan worked well enough. Jack hooked his arms around Alice's narrow waist and used his weight to drag them both to the ground. The second half, holding Alice down and keeping her down, had been significantly more difficult, as he suspected it would. They rolled around on the ground, practically wrestling as they both fought for control. It took a lot of effort, with Alice being as manic as she was, but Jack managed to gain the upper hand when he rolled the both of them over so he was sitting on top of her. He ignored Alice's shrieks, and the awkwardness of their position, as he grabbed her wrists and pinned them down.
Intricate frost patterns crawled along her arms, chilling the white skin as Alice squirmed in Jack's surprisingly strong grip. When it felt like she was starting to wiggle free, the Winter spirit applied more force to keep her down. He didn't like having to do it, but there really wasn't any other options. She fought like a hellcat for the longest time. Thrashing in his hold like a madwoman, trying to scratch and kick him. She even tried to bite him at one point after screaming in his face, but Jack didn't let up.
Her struggles became less fierce the longer they stayed like that, with Alice laying sprawled across the ground and Jack sitting on top of her on all fours, both panting at the strain they were putting on each other. Under any other, less serious, circumstances, where Alice wasn't white as a ghost with blood streaming from her eyes, the sight of them would definitely be more than a little suggestive, but Jack refused to think about that while he was sitting on top of Alice.
He stared down at her stained face with half-lidded eyes, watching with bated breath as Alice slowly laid still underneath him. His silver-white hair hung freely in his face while Alice's black hair spilled across grey stone like ink.
"Stop," He said softly. "Snap out of it."
She stared right back at him again with unblinking eyes, the blood on her cheeks resembling tears more than anything now that he was this close to her. It was frustrating that she just couldn't see that he was trying to help her. Jack was a colorless wisp against the hurricane tearing through her mind.
"This isn't you."
Or maybe it was. Maybe he was finally seeing Alice's true self. The dark side of her that she always insisted he be so wary of.
He was slow to accept it though, if at all. It was definitely a raw, ugly side of her, but it wasn't who she was as a whole. No, he didn't accept it. This wasn't Alice. Though very rare, Jack had seen glimpses of who he believed Alice truly was, and this wasn't it. Whatever this demon was, it was just a mere shade of her, albeit a very dangerous one. It was brought out by the very monster that forced her to create it in the first place. This wasn't Bunny's Alice. This wasn't his Alice.
The chaos around them seemed to fall away and Jack briefly wondered where North and the other guardians were. Alice stalled for the time being, fortunately. She just laid there without moving. Maybe if her eyes weren't so colored over, he could gauge whether she was coming back down, but it was impossible to tell when she was like that. On his end though, the short reprieve allowed some of the adrenaline to drain from his body. His grip on her wrists went slack, for just a split second.
Her arm slipped from his hand.
"Ah!" Jack stumbled back as Alice's nails ripped through the skin of his face, leaving behind four, nasty scratch marks on the apple of his cheek. He swore under his breath as he reached up and touched the stinging flesh with his fingertips. Fortunately, when he pulled them back there was no blood, but damn, she got him pretty good.
Pain erupted in his stomach when Alice managed to slip a leg up in between their bodies and harshly kicked Jack off of her. More out of instinct than anything else, he curled his body into a ball so when he fell backwards he, more or less, rolled on to his feet before quickly picking up his discarded staff.
They faced off again, Alice having worked herself up into another frenzy. She was beyond volatile in this form, he wasn't sure he could keep up, which was really saying something because Winter elementals were infamously known for being flighty and unpredictable.
Where the hell were the others!? Did they suddenly drop off the face of the planet or something?
"I don't want to fight you!" He shouted at her.
Alice moved forward, disregarding his words once again. Jack grimaced as he shot off a small ice blast at her, hitting her square in the chest. He made sure the blast had a good kick to it, but not enough to cause any actual damage. It knocked her clean off her feet and sent her sliding backwards across the floor. He made another grimace when she collided with one of the workshop tables, having not anticipated that. The large pyramid of green robot toys on top of the table, was sent flying into the air when Alice crashed into it. There was the distant sound of a yeti crying out in dismay, but Jack ignored it as he watched Alice.
She climbed out of the wooden debris with an aggravated scowl on her white face before shaking her head to rid herself of splinters and broken toy parts.
"Doesn't mean I won't though," He sighed, watching as she picked herself off the floor. "If it's for your own good. You're going to hurt yourself!"
Jack quickly mulled over his options in his head, trying to figure out what he should do next. Subduing Alice had definitely run its course. He could get her on the ground, but he couldn't make her stay there, not by himself. The only other thing he could think of was to try and talk her down, coax her into snapping out of it, but he didn't think he was the right person to do that. Ideally, that would be a job best suited for Bunny, and well...the irony in that didn't make him laugh.
"Alice! We're going to find him!" He told her as Alice stalked back over to him with her red mouth set in a murderous frown. He held a calming hand out towards her. "We'll find him! I promise!"
Alice stood across from him, motionless as she watched him. Her breathing was slowly starting to level out and her shoulders barely heaving anymore. He had no idea if she would turn back into her normal self again, or if she permanently transformed like a demented Pokemon, but either way, at least she wouldn't be rampaging through North's workshop, destroying toys and scaring furry workers.
"Okay?" He spoke as if he was trying to soothe a spooked horse. He looked her straight in the eyes, blue against harsh red, almost willing them into fading back to green. "I promise. We will find him."
Alice only stared, unresponsive, as Jack racked his brain for ideas. It wasn't until a breeze suddenly swept through the workshop and curled comfortingly around him, that something finally came to mind. Deciding to take a chance, Jack dropped his defensive stance. Alice eyed him almost suspiciously as she kept hers.
Jack brought up a pale hand to his mouth and inhaled deeply before gently blowing the cold breath back out, causing a small flurry of white snowflakes to tumble out. The largest snowflake glowed a brilliant blue and twirled delicately in the air, making a beeline for Alice. The dark-haired spirit caught sight of the curious snowflake floating in the air before letting out a surprised noise when it hit the tip of her nose and dissolved right in her face.
Her nose curled up in annoyance and she brought up both hands to rub at her eyes as the Winter magic tickled her skin and cooled her raging mind, making her feel a burst of unexplained euphoria.
Jack allowed himself a small, relieved smile when the intense red of Alice's eyes slowly started to fade and her expression mellowed out. She was coming back down from whatever hysterical high her mind was on. Slowly, but surely. Jack finally relaxed a little, feeling that the storm was passing as Alice's dress started to gain back a blue hue.
A blur of grey then passed behind her, seemingly out of nowhere, and before either could react, Alice hit the floor like a sack of bricks, knocked out cold and back to normal. Jack stared with wide eyes at her unconscious form before looking back at Phil, who was standing over her with a copy of "The Yetis' Guide to Doll Dress Crafting" in his hands, which happened to be a ridiculously heavy and thick tome.
"Phil!" Jack shouted indignantly.
The yeti shouted back at him just as annoyed, with a bit of sass in his garbled tone.
"I totally had things under control!"
Phil gave him a dubious look.
Jack ignored him and crouched down next to Alice. He picked up one of her hands and waved it back and forth before letting go and watching it fall limply back on the ground. "I don't think this is very healthy. This is like the third time she's been unconscious."
Phil shrugged his shoulders and made a flippant sound, not at all guilty about hitting Alice in the back of the head with a heavy book. He stopped her from doing more damage, didn't he? Mission accomplished. He tossed the book away and wiped his hands together with a satisfied look on his hairy mug.
Jack rolled his eyes as he stood back up. "Useless furball. Come on, pick her up."
Phil grimaced and shook his head. He took a big step away from Alice's prone form as if she had a flesh-eating disease.
"Don't be a wuss, Phil."
"Arbglhogl?"
"No, we're not leaving her on the floor."
It took almost ten minutes to convince him, but Jack eventually got Phil to carry Alice. Once he was sure the yeti wasn't going to drop her out of spite, they set out to find the other guardians. It didn't take long and Jack actually became a little peeved when he found them gathered by the Globe's control panel, clearly having lost interest in helping him with Alice.
"Gee, thanks oodles for the help, guys!" He called out as he walked over to them with Phil in tow. "Nearly got my eyes clawed out. That definitely didn't suck," He pointed at the scratch makes on his face. They were already starting to heal, but Jack was still feeling bitter about the others leaving him standing there with his ass hanging in the wind like that. So much for unity and teamwork.
The other guardians didn't even spare him a single glance as they continued to stare up at the rotating globe with matching expressions of apprehension. Jack's brow knotted in frustration as he looked between them and the globe.
"What are we looking at?"
Sandy reached out and tugged on his sleeve before pointing towards a spot on the globe, somewhere in the Northern hemisphere. Jack looked where the golden spirit was pointing, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, well, not at first. It was very subtle at first glance, Jack almost missed it.
It would start with one little light flickering like a candle before suddenly going dark. Then, several more lights would follow suit at a steady pace. It was like it was two years ago when Pitch started his siege - only something was seriously worse this time.
Seconds after one yellow light would go out, a bright red one would take its place. It became a steadfast pattern as red slowly blossomed across the globe.
"Uh, North?" Jack said, feeling uneasy once again as they all looked up at the globe, watching with nervous eyes as the little lights started turning color. "If yellow lights mean the children do believe in us, and no lights mean they don't believe in us...what do red lights mean?"
North's heart pounded in his chest as he scanned the changing globe.
He had seen such a thing happen only once before in such an alarming quantity during his long lifetime as a guardian. It occurred a few decades ago, before Jack's choosing, if North remembered correctly. From within a small village in Europe, a small cluster of red lights begun to form on the globe. Fortunately, it was small enough to handle without panic and remained confined within just that village, but large enough to attract North's attention, prompting him to call together the rest of the guardians to help him solve the interesting development.
Upon investigating, they soon found out the cause had been a series of terrifying tales one nasty, little boy had been spreading among his friends about the Tooth Fairy being an evil gremlin. In his stories, the Tooth Fairy would disguise itself as a pretty faerie and trick children into giving it their teeth, which it would then devour for sustenance, empowering it enough for it to be able to sneak into their bedrooms at night and drill out the rest of their teeth - much to Toothiana's horrified dismay.
After a little work, the guardians were able to restore love back into the children's belief in Tooth, and the little boy received a hefty amount of coal that year for Christmas. Tragedy easily averted.
However, that little episode had always stuck tightly to North. Any abnormalities on the globe made him feel uncomfortable, but the red always wore heavily on his nerves. They incited feelings of disaster and death more than no lights ever could.
Change in color be damned though, the lights were still glowing which meant the children still believed to some degree, which didn't spell brink of death disaster just yet, but...
North tore his eyes away from the reddening globe and turned them on what remained of his family. Jack stared at him with wide eyes and a nervous frown while Tooth and Sandy stared at him with dreaded realization.
"It means they fear us, Jack."
~O~
The next hour and a half was spent almost in complete silence.
After instructing Phil to put Alice in her room, North called for a guardian meeting. They gathered around the main fireplace solemnly where each spirit stood on their own, trying to process things. North paced back and forth constantly while muttering under his breath. Tooth hovered in the air with her fairies, staring blankly off into space. The Sandman sat in a nearby lounge chair, with his small hands resting neatly on his stomach and a somber look on his face. Jack sat on the arm of the chair with his staff propped up in front of him and his forehead resting against the aged wood.
There were a few times when someone tried to strike up some sort of discussion, but it always fell short when things kept drifting off towards the subject of murder. No one wanted to cast blame on a situation they knew absolutely nothing about, nor did they want to place judgement on a bad choice they weren't the ones forced to make, but it was still a pretty thick pill to swallow. North and the others were obviously very torn on the subject.
Jack didn't think he had much of a right to speak his opinion, or rather, a good reason that would help the elder guardians' case. He believed murder was wrong, of course. Murder was wrong no matter how justified the person's actions may be. However, in this Angus Bumby's case, Jack didn't really care what Alice did to him. Not only because the man was a horrible monster for selling children to perverts as if they were chunks of dead meat, but because if the tables were turned, Jack couldn't say he would react any better than Alice. If he found out someone violated his sister in such a disgusting and degrading way, he would be pretty inclined to commit murder too.
When it came down to it, to any of it, Jack didn't expect any of them to understand the complexities of Alice's past, just like he himself never expected the elder guardians to understand what it was like to die and be resurrected (sans Sandy, of course), and then have it followed by three hundred years of isolation. The elder guardians were naturally wiser and more experienced when it came to being spirits, due to their near ancient lifespans, but sometimes it was blatantly clear that they had no idea what it was like to be human, or at least, not anymore. Not after so many centuries of being powerful spirits.
Even down-to-earth Jack Frost, sometimes forgot what it was like to face hardships as an ordinary human being. Basic survival was so much harder when life was only temporary and fighting back wasn't always an option, especially when given the short hand Alice had been dealt in her human life.
As it were though, none of them really knew how to react to Alice's confession, and for the sake of time and more pressing matters, they unanimously agreed to push the matter aside for now. They would properly address it later when the smoke has cleared and Bunny was safely back where he belonged.
The Easter Bunny's absence was overwhelming. Even more overwhelming than the growing red lights on the Globe of Belief.
Sandy was the first to know anything useful, being the master of dreams. He was able to sense the shift in the children's belief through their dreams. The Night Ruins had risen from Pitch's hidden lair and invaded the slumbering minds of the children. Much like Pitch's first siege, the Boogeyman was attempting to scare the belief out of the children, but not before terrorizing them with horrible night terrors involving the guardians themselves, forcing the children to fear the very childhood icons they once used to love so dearly.
Granted, things were only just starting and the threat of the situation was still quite a ways from reaching its peak, but childhood belief could be a very fickle thing. Growing up and losing belief was one thing, but forcing that belief out of their young minds with fear, was something entirely different. The guardians weren't exactly sure what sort of twisted images Pitch and the Dollmaker were putting into the children's heads, but it wouldn't take much to warp things beyond repair. It was a domino effect, naturally. If a child stopped believing in one spirit, it never took long for them to lose belief in the rest, especially when coupled with a convincing incentive like fear.
When the shock and adrenaline of the chaotic evening finally died down completely, the guardians got to work devising a game plan to find Bunny and stop Pitch. Bunnymund naturally being their top priority.
The first step was tracking down the Boogeyman, which would probably be a little more difficult than last time. The entrance to Pitch's lair (and even the lair itself, to some degree) was ever-changing, shifting and opening randomly throughout the world when Pitch wasn't using it for travel, or to lure unsuspecting ice spirits into a trap, so it was going to take a little while to find it. Sandy left almost immediately to start combing through potential locations while Tooth sent out as many tooth fairies she could spare to help back him up. None of the guardians were going to deny that this was a very slow, potentially unsuccessful plan, like trying to find a needle in a hay stack, but they had to start somewhere.
Jack didn't stick around the main fireplace very long after the initial battle plan was laid out. He was going to leave the miscellaneous details to the others. He was never really one for battle strategics. That was more of North's department. He felt his unique presence would better serve somewhere else, doing something more productive.
Which brought him outside the door of Alice's guest room, with a white teacup in his hand and a matching pot of hazelnut tea that was hanging loosely from the crook of his staff. He lingered in front of the door for a few moments before gathering his nerve and knocking firmly three times. When there was no response, he tried the doorknob and found it was unlocked.
"Alice?" He called out tentatively, slowly pushing his way into her room. When there still wasn't a response, he looked towards her bed to find it empty, just like the rest of the room.
For a moment, he felt a surge of panic, but it died away when he caught sight of the open balcony doors on the other side of the room. He called out again. "Alice?"
Jack found her sitting on the stone railing of the balcony, on the far right side with her back against the wall of the complex and her legs curled up into her chest. She stared out into the dark, frozen terrain surrounding Santoff Claussen with bloodshot eyes and an emotionless frown. The toy rabbit that the Dollmaker had left behind, was wedged snugly between her legs and chest while her hand absently played with its floppy ears.
She didn't look at him when he stepped out on to the balcony with his pot of tea and a comforting smile that barely reached his eyes.
"There you are," He said, reaching up and unhooking the teapot's handle from his staff. He hesitated again, almost awkwardly, before putting it on the railing, pushing it as close to her as he dared. "I brought you some tea."
When she still didn't reply, Jack went ahead and poured the sweet-smelling tea into the cup he brought with him. He watched listlessly as the steam floated up into the cold air before he picked the cup up and held it out for Alice to take. She left him hanging there for a minute, almost to the point where he gave up, but she surprised him when she blinked out of her trance and reached out to accept the hot beverage. Her fingers brushed against his as she took the cup and moved herself so her legs were hanging back on his side of the balcony railing.
"Um...so yeah," He mumbled eloquently while scratching his cheek. "I got some good news," He offered up, trying not to let Alice's lack of response deter him. "Well, maybe not good news, per se. More like adequate news, or medium-well news. Definitely not bad news though...We've come up with a plan to find Bunny. Sandy is out looking for Pitch's lair right now, along with hundreds of Tooth's mini fairies. North even sent out some of his elves; though I'm not sure how much help those little guys are going to be. They're about as useful as I am in the middle of July-"
If Alice had been listening to a word he was saying, it would've been difficult to tell otherwise. Clearly though, as Jack attempted to conjure up a false sense of normalcy that wouldn't even fool one of Santa's elves, Alice's mind was still just as jumbled now as it was during her breakdown. She was dead silent as he rambled on like an idiot, but the ever-volatile mental switch inside her mind abruptly cut him off when it suddenly flipped on and she stood from the railing and threw her cup of tea against the ground.
Jack jumped back as porcelain and hot tea shattered and splashed across the stone floor of the balcony. He looked up at her and stared as her catatonic state was suddenly broken and she started frantically passing back and forth in front of him. Alice was already a very moody person, but the grief and worry boiling inside her was only making her unpredictability that much worse.
"This is all my fault!" She finally shouted, more out of anger than sadness. It made Jack a little wary that she was going to go batshit crazy again. "I was a fool to believe things could be different! I should've never allowed you and the other's sugared words weaken my resolve! I never should've left my Wonderland! You all made me believe that everything would be okay, and now look what's happened! Bunny is gone, Frost! He is gone!"
"You're talking like he's dead!" At first he planned to just stand back and let her get out whatever she needed to get out, but Jack didn't like this kind of talk. He didn't like what it was insinuating. "He's not. He's just missing right now, which means we need to do all we can to find him!"
"I know how the Dollmaker operates, Frost! He took Bunny because he knew that's what would hurt me the most! He wanted to hurt me, and he knew exactly how to do it. There is no way Bunny's going to return to us unharmed. Each blow the Dollmaker deals Bunny, each torture he inflicts on him, is a strike directly against me, and he knows it!"
"But if we could just find Pitch's lair, I know we can-"
"No, no, no," She chanted, cutting him off. Her hands flew up to her head and covered her ears. "Please stop speaking in that way. You always make the heavy thoughts in my head lighter and I can't afford that right now. Not when I know things can only end badly." She turned away from, shutting him out. "Please leave."
"I just want to talk," He insisted.
"We can't just talk, Frost. It's not something we can do without it escalating into some sort of argument. Hasn't these past few days proved that?"
"What about back on the HMS Gryphon? What was all that?"
"Regurgitating our life stories doesn't count."
Okay, now she was just being stubborn.
"Seriously!? In what universe!?" Jack sputtered in disbelief. "It's like you're so desperate to be defensive all the time that you'll try and pass off lame excuses when you know I'm right and you know there's no way you can argue against me!"
"We just can't, Frost," Alice snapped. "Accept it and move on."
"Why not?" Jack asked a little softer. "Because we're too different? How cliche. I won't accept anything if that's your excuse. North and Bunny are different too and they get along just fine...well, most of the time."
Alice shook her head and turned away from him again. "No, I'm starting to believe it's because we're too similar. In all the wrong ways and none of the right."
Jack watched with a pensive look as Alice walked over to the end of the balcony with her rabbit back in her arms. Her dark hair and the skirt of her blue dress blew sideways in the crisp breeze. He exhaled heavily through his nose and pursed his lips tightly in mild frustration as he wondered why things had to be so complicated between them. Why did they have to make things so complicated between them? Would they ever find the right words to use? The right language to speak? Or the right way to communicate without it ending in some sort of fight?
He watched as she stared up at the moon before letting out a tired sigh, already knowing what was on the girl's mind. "The Man in the Moon didn't puppet Bumby into killing your family, Alice."
"You can't know that," She replied softly.
"Yes, I can, and I do. The Man in the Moon wouldn't intentionally bring harm to any of his spirits. I know you don't see the moon the same way we do, but you must realize that much. Bumby acted entirely on his own. The moon had nothing to do with your family's death.
"Why are you so foolishly optimistic? How do you know he wasn't involved? How do know he didn't do the same to you?" Alice snapped suddenly, striking the Winter spirit speechless. "And don't pretend the thought has never crossed your mind. How do you know that your death was really an accident?"
"That's not funny," Jack shook his head, hurt evident in his blue eyes.
"Do you see me laughing!? How do you know that the Moon didn't orchestrate your death to cut all ties to your old life so you would be completely free to be his? So you would be a blank slate he could control and turn into whatever suited his fancy?"
"The Man in the Moon didn't kill me, Alice!" Jack replied vehemently. "He gave me a second chance!"
She scoffed coldly at him. "You honestly believe that?"
"Yes, I do," He said, truthfully. "My death was an accident. A horrible accident. Natural selection or Act of God, it doesn't matter which. Some people just die young, it's just how things are. It was my time and nothing could've stopped it...but if it hadn't been for Manny, then I would've stayed dead. He knew I was destined to be something more than just a cautionary tale parents in my village tell their kids to scare them into double-checking the ice on the pond. He saw an opportunity for me and he took it, just like when he did the same to you."
She turned to look at him again.
"You said it yourself, Alice. You had nothing when you lived in London. There was nothing left for you back there, just like when I died. The Man in the Moon saw an opportunity to use your potential for something greater, and he took it. That's all he does."
Her green eyes softened a little. Like she said earlier, Frost had this way of soothing the raging emotions in her head. She couldn't explain it, nor could she figure out why that was. He just could. "If that is true, then why didn't he take me sooner? If he saw so much potential in me, why did he wait so long?"
"Because you needed to prove you had what it takes to be a guardian," Jack concluded. "And you did. True, it was in the most unorthodox way possible, but you proved you were willing to do whatever it took to stop more children from falling prey to Bumby, from letting him do to them what he did to you. You stopped him from destroying more lives. Once the Man in the Moon saw that, he knew you were ready."
That was Jack's theory anyway.
And for whatever reason, it seemed to work for Alice, just a little bit. She turned back towards the dark tundra ahead of them with her elbows propped up on the balcony railing and her face in her hands. She let out a long-suffered moan as she rubbed at her dry eyes, wondering why and when things had gotten so far out of her control.
"The others must think so little of me now."
The statement wasn't geared towards anything specific she had done; whether it was killing Bumby, or going hysterical and destroying North's workshop, or bringing the malicious Dollmaker down upon them, but any one of those would give the guardians more than enough reason to hate and shun her.
"No they don't." Well, Jack didn't exactly know that for sure, but he couldn't imagine them ever thinking low of her. "It was a difficult decision and they know that. You were in an ugly situation. A situation involving children and acts that we as guardians would really like to pretend don't happen, but know full well that they do. It was a decision between doing what was good, and doing what was right. I honestly hope I will never have to make a decision like that, especially if it involves someone like Bumby...but if I do, I hope I can look to you for guidance...you know, if you're there. I would really like you to be."
Alice pulled her face from her hands and looked at him, really looked at him, with a deep, thoughtful expression on her face. A silence gathered between them as Jack's words hung high in the air. He wanted to follow them up with something a little more comforting, but he couldn't think of anything.
"I guess I'll leave you alone now," He said, unable to take her intense gaze, nor the silence. "We're looking for Pitch's lair. We'll let you know when we find it."
He turned on his heel with nothing more to say and moved towards the balcony doors, fully intending on leaving Alice to her thoughts, but stalled when he heard movement behind him. His whole body then went rigid when something warm pressed firmly against his back and two, slim arms curled around his waist. Every nerve in his body was on high alert from the unexpected move. Partially because he still wasn't quite used to physical contact, especially when it came as a surprise, but mainly because he realized within seconds that Alice was hugging him.
She was hugging him.
Her hold was tight and unyielding, but it wasn't altogether done out of confidence and need for comfort. It was more like Alice recognized the heaviness of the situation, and her own emotions, and responded in a way she thought she should. Though to some degree her embrace felt forced and unnatural, it also felt shockingly genuine. Her arms held him firmly around his waist with her forehead resting between his taut shoulder blades. If the dark-haired girl realized how strange and awkward she just made this whole interaction, then she didn't call attention to it.
"I miss him," Alice murmured softly into the fabric of Jack's hoodie.
He didn't try to pull out of her hold, even though he easily could. She wasn't holding on that tightly to him. He allowed himself to relax a little in her arms, deciding he should savor the rare display of vulnerability while he could. There was a very likely chance he would never see it again after tonight, not from Alice.
One of his hands came to rest on top of her intertwined arms where her ragged rabbit toy hung limply by its ear in her hand. He let out a heavy sigh.
"I know. I do too."
For the first time since their horrible first meeting, there were finally signs that they could actually be...something to each other. Without a doubt they still had a ways to go, but at least they were on their way.
Jack let their one-sided embrace go on for a few more seconds before gently prying the girl's hands from his middle and turning to face her, looking her straight in the eyes.
"Look, I know everything seems to be caving in right now, but I just know we can turn it around if you stay, Alice," He urged, staring at the intense green of her eyes. Her expression had gone neutral and she stared blankly back at him. "But you need to stay with us, and I'm not just talking about you going back to Wonderland because I know you would never do that so long as Bunny is still missing, but you can't run off and do this on your own. You have to stand by us in this. We can help you. We already made a game plan. We just have to figure out a way to find Bunny. Once we do that, then we-"
"I know how we can find Bunny," She suddenly said.
Jack's words fell short as he blinked at her. "What? You do?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Ever since I woke up, I've been trying to figure out a way to find Bunny - to fix things, and I have one possible idea I can try, but unfortunately, it would require me having direct contact with either Mr. Black, or the Dollmaker. Preferably with Mr. Black, if possible. I couldn't imagine performing such a feat with that oozing monstrosity."
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked, confused.
Her expression was blank, void of all emotion, but her eyes were sharp and determined. The intense look burning within her stunning emerald irises sent a wave of heat through Jack's chest.
"I possess a certain power that-" Her eyes diverted briefly from his in thought. She made a noise as if she was struggling to find the right words. "-that I believe I can use to find Bunny."
"What kind of power?"
She didn't respond right away, instead her gaze fell to the floor and one hand began to fiddle with the sole button eye of her stuffed rabbit. "Nobody knows about it, not even Bunny. I never told him because after I retreated to Wonderland when I became a spirit, I didn't think it mattered anymore. There was nobody around for me to use it on, only my own creations and that wouldn't work. I honestly don't even know if I can still do it. It's been so long."
"Do what? Don't keep me in suspense, Pleasance. That's too cruel."
"Well, if I were to explain it in a nutshell..." Alice trailed off, thinking for a moment. "I can enter other people's minds. Their imaginations to be more specific."
Jack's eyes widened a fraction as he stared at her. "What? How?"
"I suppose it's similar to what the Sandman does with his dreamsand, when he uses it to look in on a child's thoughts while they are sleeping so he can conjure up an appealing dream, except I can do it on a much more complex scale. He can only look in on people's minds, but I can enter them. I used to do it all the time back in London when I became a spirit, before I left. I'd imagine it's roughly the same method Mr. Black has been using."
"Wait, wait," Jack cut in, shaking his hand at her. "I'm not entirely sure I understand..."
"I know it sounds a little far-fetched when spoken aloud, but I'm certain it'll work," Alice insisted with that new spark of fire in her eyes. Jack still lagged several steps behind, but he found it difficult to cast doubt on this power of hers. Not when the life, and her no-nonsense attitude, was finally starting to come back to her.
Alice reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him towards the balcony doors. "If Pitch doesn't have a qualm about rooting around other people's minds without permission, I don't see why I can't return the favor. We won't find Bunny in Pitch's lair. The Dollmaker will hide him from us, that much I'm confident about. However, if we can subdue the Boogeyman, I can try and enter his mind and find where that monster is keeping our friend."
"Uhh, okay..." Jack still wasn't following any of this, but he decided to just go with the flow. It looked as if Alice was finally back to her old self and he didn't want to be the person who stood between her and the Easter Bunny. He didn't doubt that she was readily willing to rip out the throat of anybody who tried.
They re-entered Alice's room to discover yet another guest. They stopped short when they spotted one of North's yetis lingering around the open door to her guest room.
The others had found the entrance to Pitch's lair.
"Come," Alice tightened her grip on Jack's wrist, practically dragging him along as she dashed out of her room.
~O~
Alice didn't waste time filling in the other guardians when she and Jack reached the main fireplace. They immediately noticed the change in her behavior though, the sudden determination on her face and the lack of grief she had displayed only an hour earlier, but she didn't so much as glance at them as she stopped at the base of the slowly reddening globe. North shot Jack a questioning look behind the dark-haired spirit's back, but the immortal teen only shrugged his shoulders.
Green eyes trailed along the scattered patterns of yellow and red lights of the globe with an unreadable expression. The bright moon continued to shine down on the workshop from the large skylight above, almost seeming to focus its silver glow directly on Alice. She stared right back at it, silently challenging the celestial spirit to step up and act on behalf of its missing spirit that it should've taken better care of, but knowing full well if she ever wanted to see her beloved Bunnymund again, she would have to find and rescue him herself.
However, for the sake of the children, she also sent a silent promise that she wouldn't stop until every ounce of the Dollmaker and his evil existence was wiped clean from their innocent minds and buried back deep in the ground where him belonged.
She then walked over to the fireplace mantle and picked up Bunny's boomerang holster before wordlessly slipping it on over her head. Her fingertips ran gently over the fine leather of the holster, soaking in the familiar feel of it. She adjusted the holster so it curled a little more snugly across her chest. It hung off her petite frame rather obviously, but it was tight enough to stay in place on her shoulder. Her fingers then traveled along the powdered eggs and tribal designs that decorated the front of it, making sure each slot was filled before checking to see if his boomerangs were tightly in place. When she was fully armed and ready with her borrowed weapons, Alice turned to the other guardians with determined eyes.
"Let's go."
AN: If this were an Alice video game, this would be the part were a big, decorative poster would pop up on the screen, informing us that Alice has just acquired a new weapon. Then, a little chalkboard lesson would pop up, showing us how to use it.
At the risk of this coming off as total Deus Ex Machina, I gave Alice a, somewhat, new ability. Alice's ability to enter people's imaginations, or their "Wonderlands", is a shout-out to Alice: Otherlands. I obviously can't include a lot of concepts from Otherlands in the story since I'm already so far into the plot and Otherlands still isn't out. Honestly, I'm not expecting much from Otherlands anyways, but I decided there was enough room to add in Alice's new ability and a reference about her visiting the famous minds of the Victorian era.
As far as my story goes, Otherlands has yet to be made into ROTG/AMR canon. I would have to actually see the material before touching anymore ground on that front.
~Scorpiofreak~