This is War
It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie,
The moment to live and the moment to die,
The moment to fight, the moment to fight
To fight, to fight, to fight!
To the right, To the left
We will fight to the death!
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world
From the last to the first
- 30 Seconds to Mars, This is War, watch?v=hMAVLXk9QWA
The fae had disappeared along with the Knight and Jack. Bunny had searched the area with a fine toothed comb, sniffing every inch of the ground, uncaring how animalistic it looked.
Tooth and North were tearing up the ground behind Bunny, searching for any trace of Knight or Fae, even the slightest hint of an opening into Underhill that they must have used to disappear so quickly.
Sandy probed at the ground with his sand, but it continued to be unyielding soil, not a trace of gate to be found.
Eventually Bunny gave an frustrated growl, sitting back on his haunches. "There's no scent anywhere anymore," he snarled, and anyone who had once known the proud, emotionless Pooka wouldn't be able to see even a passing resemblance to him in this angry creature. "It doesn't even have the decency to stop so we know where the bloody gate was, it just fades away!"
Tooth loosed a screech of rage, saber leaving deep gashes in the tree before her as she allowed herself a moment of anger. This...this was when her fairies had been taken, multiplied. When her girls had been taken, she'd still been connected to them, could feel that they were all right, if frightened. This...she had no idea where Jack was, if he was okay...
It would have been different if they'd been mated, but no, she had to do things properly, and now Jack was lost and she had no connection to trace him with!
North was pacing beside her, Sandy's sand curling into what had to be his version of cursing. She'd certainly never seen it before, but it looked eloquent.
Still furious, Tooth forced herself to shove the anger to the side and concentrate. She caught her fellow Guardians' eyes and saw the same resolve there that she felt. Letting anger dictate their actions had almost lost them Jack once, back on the Easter of '12 – they weren't going to let it happen again.
"No more time for cursing," North growled, sheathing his blades reluctantly. "How do we get Jack back?"
"We gotta find a way into Underhill," Bunny said, standing and beginning to pace. "They're locked up tight, but they ain't just gonna toss Jack back out...but how?"
"Puck!" Tooth exclaimed. The others turned to her with near identical confusion painted across their faces as she fluttered back toward the sleigh in a rush, hurrying to catch up. "Jack said Puck likes him – thinks he's funny. That's pretty close to being friends, for a fae. Puck might care about the treaty being broken, and more that it's Jack they took along with the kids."
They piled into the sleigh and North snatched up the reins. "To the Pole!" he declared.
Tooth had a brief moment of wanting to protest – they needed to go to England, to try and get Puck's attention, and she needed to assemble her fairies – but swallowed them. Despite it's inconvenient location in the frozen north, the Pole had the best facilities for calling for aid and preparing for war.
Jack groaned, gritting his teeth against a wave of dizziness as he cracked his eyes open, slamming them shut against the light again as soon as they'd opened. One second he'd been fighting, the fae falling back, and then there was an arm around his waist and a burst of light...and now he was waking up somewhere he didn't recognize.
His hand tightened reflexively on his staff, and some part of him relaxed a fraction. At least he still had that.
So...he suspected that arm had belonged to the Knight...he vaguely remembered hearing hoof beats just before being snatched, so that made sense. But if the Knight was the one responsible...
Jack swallowed nervously and cracked his eyes open again, trying to see without being obvious. If the Knight took him, then...this was Underhill, it had to be. He'd been taken, just like the kids!
The kids...if he was Underhill...maybe he could find them! For some reason he wasn't bespelled, and while he didn't know why they hadn't tried to glamour him yet, he could just be grateful for the smallest of things right now.
Deciding he couldn't take lying there waiting for anyone else in the room to do something any longer, Jack sat up in a rush, bringing his staff into fighting position in a flash.
He was alone. Unsure if that was a good or bad thing, Jack looked around the room suspiciously, eyes narrowed and grip never slacking on his staff.
The room he was in looked spacious and luxurious, but he didn't trust it. This was Underhill, after all, and while he may have never have been here before, he'd heard stories from both humans and Puck enough to know things were rarely as they seemed while in the fae realm.
If they were trying to impress Jack, it failed. This was...overdone. Gilded heavily in silver, not a single surface was left blank, every inch crowded with decoration, gaudy and claustrophobic and overdone.
He couldn't decide if he was insulted, amused, or creeped out when he realized that the gilding was stylized frost and snowflakes against various shades of blue.
Creeped out won, and Jack inched his way off the divan he'd been laying on. He was still dizzy, just a little, probably from the sudden plunge Underhill, but he ignored it.
He stumbled toward the door before pausing. The stories of Underhill said that the fae who inhabited it had complete control over it, and those who wandered around in it without a guide might never come out.
He was still debating what he should do when the door cracked open, one of the smaller fae slipping in, and he caught a glance of trolls outside the door they left open.
"Oh good, you're awake," they said, giving him a once over. "The Queen wants to see you. Now."
It was taking all of Tooth's control not to dart around the globe room like a caged bird. She had to save her energy for when they found a way into Underhill, she knew that...but it didn't keep the need to move, to do something, under control.
She'd pulled a squad of fairies off tooth duty, their sisters making up the difference as the group scoured England alongside a squad of North's yeti. If nothing else, they were hoping to kick off enough noise to catch Puck's attention.
None of them knew what they would do if they couldn't get Puck's cooperation.
Behind Tooth, North was trying to get Manny's attention – which had been much easier at the Lunar Lamidary, but they didn't have time to travel there and try to convince the Lunar Lamas that it was an emergency.
Not that Manny could do much, from the moon and with limited communication that only worked sporadically, but still.
Finally giving up, North joined the other three. Bunny was checking over the weapons he had on him and accepting more from the yeti who had gone into the stores, almost obsessively checking and rechecking each.
"Will take too long for other spirits on treaty to get here," North growled, checking his own sabers. "Yeti will let them know treaty has been broken, will have to re-negotiate after all is over."
"Good luck finding a neutral party for that," a voice said from the doorway, causing four heads to snap around to look as Puck stepped into the light. They examined their nails, leaning against a support beam idly.
Today they had apparently not been in the middle of a prank, as their clothing would have marked them as something otherworldly or strange to humans, with their antique tunic and pants older than Jack's and the vines woven through their fire red hair giving them away.
"Of course, if you get someone from each side to negotiate, then that would be considered even, I suppose," they continued, striding into the room. "Though if you want some fun and one they can't wiggle out of, you should really give that to tricksters...like myself and Jack, for example. Is that the whole reason your helpers got me here? They seemed too upset for something this simple."
"Wish it were so simple," North grunted.
"A pack of fae kidnapped at least a dozen children," Tooth cut in, not patient enough for the usual games Puck and North liked to play – Puck more than anyone else. "And when we went to investigate, a Knight of the Unseleighe Court kidnapped Jack."
Puck's eyes went wide, and for once Tooth was sure they weren't faking their shock. "They did what?"
The elves shrieked and scattered, the yeti still around taking cover at the unholy shriek of Puck's voice. Gone was the carefree trickster – in their place stood a warrior with teeth bared, hair snapping in an unfelt wind.
"I don't have many friends," they said quietly, "but I defend those I have. Besides," they added, the wind dying down as they visibly forced themselves to calm, "Jack owes me a dance. Maybe I can get it at your wedding," they said with a wink at Tooth. Sobering again, they strode toward North. "The easiest opening to Underhill for me to open is in England. How fast can your sleigh get there?"
"I travel whole world in one night, how fast do you think it can get there?" North answered, striding towards the sleigh dock yet again.
Puck nodded, keeping pace with the larger spirit easily. "Good. If it was a Knight that took Jack, that means the Queen is involved, and that's never good news."
The Guardians exchanged grim looks at that news, covering their panic. If the Unseighlie iQueen/i was behind this, was the one breaking the treaty...they may have far, far more trouble than they'd anticipated.
"I'll get you Underhill, and let some friends of mine start spreading the word, if..." Puck trailed off, glancing at the Guardians for confirmation.
"This is more than breaking the treaty," Tooth said before the others could speak, eyes blazing. "This means war."
Jack kept a tight grip on his staff, watching around himself warily as the fae that had come to fetch him led him down the hallway. Unlike the room he'd woken in, it was little more than a rough tunnel scratched in the dirt, though tall enough the trolls flanking Jack didn't brush the ceiling.
He hated to admit it, but he was completely lost. They'd taken too many turns, and everything down here looked the same to him. Put him in the skies, and Jack could find his way anywhere, but underground...he suppressed a shudder. It felt like the walls were trying to close in on him, keep him trapped and immobile.
Just before Jack could begin to panic the hallway ended at gilded doors, taller than should have been possible, and he found himself shoved through, the door closing behind him solidly.
Swallowing hard against the fear trying to climb up his throat and choke him, Jack stepped further into the hall beyond the door, his feet silent against the gleaming marble floor.
He thought his heart would stop when a voice came from the far side of the room, curtained in red velvet and dark shadows.
"Come closer, Jack Frost," the voice said, low and sultry, soft velvet warmed in front of a fire given sound. Glowing eyes watched him from inside the shadows and Jack fought the instant urge to run.
"Hello, Jack Frost," said Queen Maeve. "Welcome to Underhill."
A/N: The Luna Lamadary is from the books – a group dedicated to the Man in the Moon, who have a method of communicating with him. They're difficult to get to agree to use it, and it takes a long time for them to agree to do anything – and they can't be rushed.