Warning, one case of strong language ahead. If you think I'm overacting, go ahead.
I heard a humming behind me and before I could make an ice bridge a pair of strong arms wrapped around me and lifted me off the ground.
"Put me down! I have to help her!"
"And go running into the arms of a trap no doubt." Snorted Tina as she landed, but she didn't let go of me as I struggled.
The others approached, each wearing the same expression. Each of them about to say that I should leave Penelope.
"I can't believe you lot! She's the only reason that you're standing here and you're letting her go further into trouble!"
"She's-"
"Don't you dare Nigel! Don't you fucking dare! She saved my life and I'm going after her whether you like it or not!"
Nigel seemed surprised at my language, but continued undeterred. "She's a Descendant of Pitch, we all knew she couldn't be trusted. It's a trap."
"No it isn't, none of you can see past that can you? You're ancestor doesn't define your choices. LET ME GO!"
In a last ditch attempt I sent a small cold shock to Tina, who let go and withdrew in shock, by that point I was already gone.
I was skating through the tunnel, going faster than I ever had before. I heard humming behind me and I sped up.
"Jackie! Come back!" Cried Tina.
"No! I owe her my life, I'm not leaving her!"
"But-"
"NO!"
I thrust my hand back and sent a ring of icy spikes behind me, blocking off the tunnel.
Tina flew back through the tunnel as quickly as she could. The other members of her Branch looked hopefully as she flew back, but their smiles faded when she back empty handed.
"She's going too fast and she's blocked off the tunnel with spikes. I can't catch her."
Nigel sighed, "Let's talk with Jack, he's probably the only one she'll listen to."
Unknown to them Jack had floated past them and flew into the tunnel after her, quickly followed by the Sandman.
The Burgess branch ended up approaching the other Descendants of Jack Frost, since they couldn't find the man himself and explained the situation. Stephen sighed when they'd finished.
"It doesn't surprise me, she did freak out badly earlier, she might not be thinking straight. I'll go after her."
He took to the air and flew up the tunnel, keeping an "eye" out for spikes.
I went faster than I ever thought possible through the Tunnel, at this rate I'd reach the exit in no time.
Speaking of the exit.
A light began to fill the tunnel and I stopped just beneath it, listening to what was going on above.
A voice spoke that sent chills down my spine from the memory of the last time I heard it; it was Blondie.
"You should know better Penelope. I knew you had a soft spot for the Descendants of Frost, but not enough to betray us, and you know what happens to traitors."
I stuck my head out of the hole and saw around a hundred Descendants of Pitch surrounding Penelope, who looked terrified and had sand around her mouth. Thankfully Pitch was nowhere to be found.
I stepped out of the hole and crept around the edge of the group with no one noticing me, sticking close to the shadows, although they are all too distracted by the scene in front of them to notice me.
Two other Descendants had picked up Penelope and were holding her up with her chest exposed. Several feet in front of her was Blondie who had formed an arrow out of black sand.
Now was my chance.
I threw my hand forward and sent a shard of ice towards the arrow, shattering it on impact.
Blondie looked at his hand, confused, then looked over at where the shard came from, and his eyes widened when he saw me there, looking angry.
"A life for a life, isn't that how it works." I said, anger biting my words.
Blondie stood there for a few seconds, then recovered himself.
"ATTACK!"
The Descendants of Pitch swarmed at me and I kept them at bay with a blast of ice. I sent shards of ice towards the ones holding Penelope, making them drop her.
"Jackie?"
"RUN! I'LL CATCH UP!"
She looked at me in panic, but nodded and ran for the general exit.
I extended my blades and fought my way through the mass of black sand, not really caring the consequences at this point as I spiced it up with a few ice blasts.
All of a sudden another blast of ice from above me took out a bunch of them in front of me. I looked up and saw Jack hovering there, his staff in a position that said that he'd sent off the blast.
"Before you say anything!" He yelled, "I'm here to help, go after her!"
A blast of golden sand proved that Sandman was my side as well and I ran through the cleared path.
I circled an ice bridge up the hole in the ceiling and followed the stream of black sand that was carrying Penelope.
"Jack and Sandman are covering us! Let's get going!" I called up at her.
"Where?"
"We can't be too far from civilisation. We can hide out there and head to Burgess."
We reached the top and landed on the ground, seemingly at the base of a rock face with meadows spread out before us After a little staggering we set off running.
"Thank you."
I looked over at Penelope with a quizzical expression.
"For coming to find me."
"Don't worry about it." I replied with a smile.
Before either of us could say anything else we were stopped by a sudden blast of wind, my eyes widened in shock and we came to a halt as Stephen landed in front of us.
"St-Stephen?"
"Your Branch asked me to come and get you, because they feared it was a trap." Stephen explained. "Although I can tell that unless you've turned traitor, there 's no trap. Although I doubt they'll understand."
"I bet they won't." I said angrily.
There was a sudden surge behind us, looking back I could see black sand pouring out of the hole.
"Keep running, I'll hold them off." Said Stephen, readying the wind.
I nodded and formed an ice bridge.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Penelope as I put skates on her feet. "I've never skated before."
"I'll control the skates once we're on the bridge, now come on!"
We got onto the bridge and set of, one hand controlling the bridge and the other controlling Penelope's path.
"This is so weird!" She yelled as we powered along.
He kept heading towards where I thought a, town or something, might be. Well, hoped anyway.
As we skated there was a sudden eruption of earth in front and to the right of us.
"What the heck!" I yelled. Out of the earth appeared four of the Heads, Alfred being strangely absent.
The Head of the Descendants of Bunnymund stomped his foot and a pillar of rock burst through the bridge directly in front of us, causing us to come to a sudden stop.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I yelled, no longer caring who I was talking to.
"We are simply here to find and restrain the Descendant of Pitch behind you, as we believe that she may have alerted her fellow Descendants of our whereabouts and went to tell them. Alexander tracked your foot movement and estimated where you'd come out."
Replied the Head of the Descendants of Toothiana.
"Do have any proof? Or are you just like everyone else and can't see past her ancestor!"
"Her presence in the Warren is evidence enough." Said Jason.
"No! No it's not! If it wasn't for her you wouldn't be standing there!"
"She has tainted your mind." Came the simple answer, and I suddenly no longer cared that they were Heads, at this point they were just stubborn idiots and I lost control of my temper.
"Listen to yourselves! And if you want to know why I think that, then I'll tell you! She saved my life! She got me to the North Pole to contact the Guardians and she was the one who gave up the locations of where HOG was being held. But you know what, if you still can't look past her heritage, fine, but I will no longer be in HOG."
The four Heads looked at me in shock.
"You're in league with Pitch..." Said Jason disbelievingly, his breath misting in the sudden lowered temperature.
"Wait, what? You can believe that I've changed sides, but you can't believe that Penelope has?! I can't believe you."
"It has happened in the past." Said the Head Descendant of Toothiana darkly. "But a Descendant of Pitch doesn't turn against their own."
"There's a first time for everything."
"Not in this case, the risk is too high for a Descendant of Pitch to turn traitor."
I scowled and moved the ice bridge around the earth pillar with a wave of my hand. "So, now that you've finished ruining my opinion of you, we'll be off, bye."
I set off again, only to be stopped by another pillar of rock.
"What now?!"
"All agents of the Descendants of Pitch must also be captured. I'm sorry Jacqueline."
My fist clenched and I ground my teeth, feeling ice creeping its way across my palm. I couldn't believe it, all of them were so blind, why couldn't they see Penelope in a good light? Were they blinded by the darkness of her ancestor?
Before I could lose it again I felt a rush of air and a figure in blue landed in front of me. I quickly recognised the white hair and staff.
"...Jack?" I said, my anger disappearing, the ice on my hands disappearing at the same time.
I heard a gasp from Penelope, looking behind me I saw her looking at Sandman, who had joined us and hovered in front of her.
"The Guardians..." breathed four Heads, looking almost fearful, as one they bowed, which seemed to an overreaction to me.
I saw Jack shake his head and looked at Sandman, who looked irate.
"You know Sandy, I'm starting to see your point."
Jack jumped down from in front me and walked towards the Heads.
"Personally, I trust Penelope, and you've got a problem with that, tough." He said, using his staff to illustrate his point.
The Heads looked up to see a pretty annoyed Jack Frost standing in front of them while the Sandman shook his head.
"And anyway, wasn't there another one of you? Where'd he go?"
"He's not an official Head, Mr. Frost, we haven't had time to do things properly."
I felt another gust of wind and Stephen landed beside me.
"I hate to break this up." He said, breathing heavily, "But the Descendants of Pitch are on their way. I couldn't hold them back."
With how many there were I was surprised he was still standing.
Jack looked back at me and Penelope, then in the distance, where a cloud of black sand was forming.
"Still got the energy to fight you two?" He asked.
I nodded and jumped down from bridge, taking a defensive stance next to Jack and forming my ice blades.
Penelope jumped down as well and stood next to me also in a defensive position, Sandman took a position next to Penelope, while Stephen went in on the other side of Jack.
"There were a hundred of them down there." I said.
"Yep." Replied Jack.
"This is suicide."
"Couldn't think of a better way to go out."
"At least I won't see it coming." replied Stephen with a wry grin in his voice as the sand drew closer by the second.
I could hear the Heads muttering behind us, but I couldn't hear what they were saying as the Descendants of Pitch reached us.
To I think everyone's surprise they didn't attack and came to a complete stop on front of us, the sand clearing to the point where I could see individuals. Blondie split himself from the group and simply walked up to us by the gap between the two groups.
"There's no need to be so hostile right now. We wouldn't dare attack a Guardian with this small a force, we're only retrieving a traitor." He said calmly.
Penelope's posture stiffened.
"If you want her, you'll be going through all of us." I said.
"All traitors are to be executed, as is the creed of the Descendants of Pitch." So that's what the Toothiana Head meant by the risk being too high.
"Not happening." I said.
Blondie looked over at Penelope.
"Well traitor, are you ready to die for your new found position?"
"If I have to do." She responded, her voice even.
"So be it." Blondie turned to the rest of us, specifically the two Guardians.
"Guardians, this matter doesn't concern you. You have no reason to get involved."
"Actually, it does concern us. If you want Penelope, you go through all of us." Said Jack.
Blondie looked surprised.
"As a new Guardian, I expect this hasn't been explained to you. You see, the way it works is that Descendants deal with Descendants, and spirits deal with spirits. As a general rule we don't tend to mix and match, especially if you're HOG and the Guardians." He explained.
"I was never one for the rules." Said Jack, his staff levelled at the crowd.
Blondie looked at all of us and seemed to weigh up his and his small army's chances. His gaze fell on Penelope and his lip curled.
"You're lucky traitor, but next time you won't be so lucky. And as for you, HOG, be prepared, we have sat in the shadows for too long. It's time that we stood in the light!"
With that they flowed back to their base.
We relaxed and turned back to the Heads, who had been standing there with their mouths open.
"Well." Said Alexander after a few seconds of silence, "I think we've made a mistake."