Excited! Now scroll on with yo bad selves. Haha thanks again everyone! (:
"The show has just begun."
"GOT Y–"
"CAUGHT Y–"
Jack swiftly knocked the gun away just enough for its bullet's to sail off course, but the sound made his anger flare up. With his blade easily poised, he twisted the gun-wielding hand away and grabbed his assailant's other wrist to hold it in an iron grip. Jack then rammed the body into the wall then reeled his gauntlet back, ready to drive the blade forward–
Tooth gasped horrifically and choked back a sob.
The sound of the bullet wore off and got swallowed up by the fire alarm's screeches and the shower of the rain. After the unknown force pinned her to the steel wall it was like she instantly forgot about her self-defense and her gun. She pathetically tried to yank her hand back. But then she looked up in shock...
...and he froze at the exact same time.
She couldn't distinguish the hood, or the menacing gas mask or the white hair but...the eyes.
Blue eyes...two familiar blue eyes...and a grip that made her heart split in two, froze instantly.
"J..." she stumbled over her words.
"J-J..."
Suddenly it was like the sounds and the terror went away, and his bloodthirsty eyes cleared like he broke the surface of water.
Jack's hold on her wrist halted instantly and his forearm stopped moving. The blade instantly retracted back into its hiding place and he dropped his hands from her like fire. The fall of the fire alarm, the water-resistant fabric of his bodysuit made the last of the blood drip from his sleeves.
Jack's mouth fell a little open, still not believing. There was silence clouding both their ears, like someone shut them both in a soundproof room...or Sandy working his gene again. But they didn't care because for those two seconds, it felt like hours, just time going to a standstill as blue caught pink and wet eyes saw wet skin. Jack instantly snapped back to reality and his face betrayed all his want to control. His heart raced so hard and so fast he swore he'd drop dead right then and there, even after every Nightmare he faced.
"J...J-Jack?!" Tooth repeated, sounding more horrified than relieved. In a rush, he deactivated his gas mask and let it drop to the floor, letting Tooth see his pale lips again.
"T–"
He swallowed his words as she overloaded his senses and erased his red-filled stamina. Her heart-shaped face, her small size...her streak, her hips, her voice, her...her everything, it was...it was...
His heart skipped a beat and when his lips suddenly moved on their own–
"THAT'S HOW YOU GET OUT OF A WRIST HOLD!?"
He said that first thing that came to his head.
Tooth's mouth fell open.
"Wh-W–Huh?!"
Her mind was still numb but her fingers were subconsciously twitching.
All at once, she wanted to tackle him, vomit (again), smack him, cry, run away with him, scream that everything from her kidnapping to her hair chop was all his fault! But she was so conflicted and her face had a hard time choosing which emotion to show.
"H-Wh–"
Jack however was a motormouth, still shaking off his cold-blood and wired brain to even notice.
"You're supposed to grab your own hand," he then moved his hand to catch hers (holding the gun) and lifted it to her trapped one. He felt her tense under his touch when the gauntlet came back into view."Then you step back and pull your hand out from between the opening of my thumb and my fingers with the weight of your body!"
He then guided her shaking hands in a motion toward her, showing her how her hand could break the grip of his if she just pulled between the fingers. When he brought them upright again, his face was still horribly upset and his breath was making small puffs of air in the cold rain. Memories of Moscow, Ho Chi Minh City, and Rome suddenly came rising to the surface.
But Jack was too...whatever he was, to really place his emotions.
"I-I taught you that, remember?!" he practically exclaimed as his chest filled with more air than he needed.
Tooth blinked, and before he could yell at her again–
BAM!
–bashed her forehead against his.
"OW! What th–"
Jack saw stars instantly and he lifted a hand to cover his face.
"Why?! Argh, why would you do that?!"
That was the second time he'd been head butted tonight – that normally didn't happen!
Tooth watched him reel back pissed off and in pain, watching the annoyed Jack she fell for come back like a breath of fresh air. When he opened his eyes finally, ready to spew words and lectures–
Something clattered with a splash!
Jack froze as he watched Toothiana drop her gun to the floor. Then it looked like she wanted to scream but when her mouth opened...she choked instead.
And it made his heart quake under his uniform.
Without looking away from her, he ripped the Nightmare gauntlet from his forearm and let it join her rifle on the cement floor. He flicked his eyes lower, still trying the diffuse the red he'd been seeing since he started on his massacre and lifted a finger shakily.
"Y..." Jack almost winced when it sounded like he'd gasped. "Y-You have a spike in your boot."
Tooth felt her eyes widen at the edge in his tone.
"Oh, n-no it's–" she deactivated it quickly and lifted her hands. "I-It's nothing! I...I stole it from a Nightmare so it could help me a-and it did so far but I'm not hurt! I'm not–"
Jack surprised both of them when he rushed forward and closed the space between them.
"Wh–"
Bending forward to catch her height, Jack wrapped one arm tightly around her and pushed the other into her hair.
He pressed his lips into the crown of her head several times before he stopped and just held her tight.
"You're okay," he breathed and his lungs shivered for the first time in his chest. "Y-You're..."
He shut his eyes tightly.
"I'm sorry."
And Toothiana wasn't prepared for that.
...
'He's...He's apologizing!?'
Well, he sort of had to! But that wasn't the point...she'd already forgiven him! Yet he was still pressing his lips harder into her hair. When he opened his eyes, Jack looked straight ahead into the darkness behind her.
He knew he looked incredibly, positively, abso-freakin'-lutely stupid at the moment. He had a mission, he had a victimized world resting on his shoulders, and there were endless cold-blooded killers running rampant around that, at any second tick of his death clock, his life could be taken by and the duties he'd vowed to stand behind would mean nothing.
So yes, he looked stupid – but looking and acting were two different things. Even though his hands encircled her like she was only thing left in the world that mattered to him, Jack was focused, his mind was clear. His thoughts were still cataloging at twice the speed of any soldier and they were split (collectively and impartially) in three ways – one for the generator, one for Pitch and Tooth's sisters and the last, for one sweet moment, was all for Tooth, but it didn't define him. So he could award himself the effort – and it wasn't hard. It was easy.
His muscles were ready for the fight.
His eyes monitored for the impending doom.
And his heart pumped for her.
"I am so sorry..."
But from the sound of his tone, it seemed like he hadn't forgiven himself – like he never would, and Toothiana hated it.
"O'm...g..." she said shaking was so shocked that all she did was grip him back tightly.
"O-Oh my god, Jack."
Tooth squeezed him until her eyes blurred beyond the point of control.
"I kn-knew y'd c'..c-ome," she murmured through chattering teeth. "B-But I...I-I didn't want you to."
'It's just water making my eyes watery and...Scr-Screw it, I'm crying! I'm crying and I don't freaking care!'
"A-And I f-forgive you, I...I-I already forgave you, dummy! Y-You..."
And when they both pulled away, that's when they both realized–
"Your hair!"
"Your hair..."
Jack reached down to touch her short locks and Tooth carded her fingers into his white, windswept swirls.
She couldn't stop the happy whisper from leaving her lips.
"I-I see you."
But although Tooth was proud of him, he frowned at hers.
His pale fingertips peeking out from his fingerless gloves, rubbed her wet strands. Jack's face darkened slightly as he moved to cup her face, almost afraid to touch her with the same hands that had killed about twenty men five minutes earlier. When Tooth felt the touch though, she looked him in the eyes again and smiled a little.
Maybe he missed her long hair? But haha, that wasn't right.
Jack was always (always) practicality first, vanity later!
"Well, how's my hair?"
"Uh...fine?"
"Wh...What is fine? W-We're about to enter into high British society and all you can say is that my hair is just fine?"
"Well what do you want me to say? It's been the same for several hours. And you should really be worrying about if Pitch might show up tonight since he did the last you went to one of t–"
"Should I have it down?"
"Toothiana!"
The thought made a warmth travel back into her stomach.
"I-It's okay," she mumbled. "It'll gr-grow back eventually."
Jack heard the light tone in her voice and it made him pull his gaze way from her unforgiving cut.
He looked at her deeply...and his heart threatened to crawl out of his throat.
This wasn't how he imagined seeing her, saving her...and yet here she was, and he almost couldn't bear it.
His mind cruelly replayed the fight back in the church and how he felt his staff smack her in the stomach and toss her backwards.
He unconsciously gripped her cheeks tighter and his fingers couldn't control themselves as they twitched and flexed violently, sending slithers of cold down her skin and under her sweater. But he didn't care.
Instantly, the hall suddenly dropped in temperature and water vapour under their feet curled into frost designs. Tooth shivered as his cold breath mixed with hers. She didn't want to feel anything, see anything, and hear anything other than what she could under his touch. Because all she could see was Jack. All she could hear was Jack.
She got lost in his stormy blue eyes, seeing his self-punishment eat him alive, she felt herself draw him closer to her, forcing him to distract himself with her instead. And Jack didn't blink because he didn't want to see red anymore.
He wanted pink.
It made him lean down to swallow more of her gaze, to let it fill the room. And his eyelids lowered halfway and her lips parted, and their openly desperate expressions were polished by the water raining down on the both of them. Their eyes peeked at each other and their lips were centimeters away, wanting it...begging for it–
But then Tooth stopped when she realised what they were about to do. When Jack sensed it, he froze too.
They stared each other, still unsure about everything between them...well, less in Tooth's case. She liked Jack for so long that everyone, even random strangers cheered her on.
But for all his touching and his kiss, did he...?
Tooth rubbed his face with a shy smile and looked away. He looked at her gently but she missed it.
He gave a small smile too.
And instead of holding her face, he reached his arms down and hugged her around her middle. The operative pulled her close to his body while the princess happily wrapped an arm around him and pushed the other into his hair...and nothing felt more invincible.
...
Sandy appeared just around the corner, his whip pulled back ready to crack on the new shadow when he stopped. He was twice as fast as Jack in the reaction department and had enough restraint and a clear head to notice the sudden change in this new enemy.
Tooth had stopped moving...so did the assassin.
And they were...hugging?!
The short man pulled down his whip slow but cautious. He stared at the two of them silent and wide-eyed, while his gene made the water around them sound they were hundreds of feet away from a shower. But when they pulled away, he saw their expressions.
Then he knew why – and he knew who.
...
Jack's eyebrows lifted in alert as he saw the portly, golden man behind Tooth.
His mouth fell open a little – it suddenly felt like all the authority in the hall had shifted.
"Uh..."
Tooth pulled away but her hands were still on his shoulders, tense and ready.
"What's wrong?"
When she followed his gaze, Tooth huffed softly. Sure, she was running for her life still, and there were Nightmares everywhere, but oh hell, for just another forty seconds she felt calm and safe between her two favourite men.
She smiled.
With a step back, Tooth dropped a hand from Jack and held it out for Sandy. When the GUARDIAN walked up to grasp it, Tooth slid her other hand from Jack completely to sandwich over her caretaker.
'Sandwich...Damn, when did I last eat?'
A warm smile graced her face.
"Jack...th-this is my nanny, Mr. Sanderson," she said soft and proud over the rain water. "A-And Mr. Sandy...this is Jack."
Jack didn't ignore the slight indication in her tone and a part of his chest spread with warmth – what had she told him about him? Because as the short (yet somehow intimidating) man sized Jack up with a steady light brown gaze, the GUARDIAN suddenly thought he had a lame posture.
He bent slightly and extended his hand to the older man.
"It's nice to finally meet you, sir," Jack said firm and polite.
He gave a small smile.
"I've heard a lot about you."
And Sandy shook it and gave a secret smile while his other hand made quick sleight of hand gestures – to which Tooth laughed slightly.
"Of course, Mr. Sandy!" she piped and when Jack looked at her, she blushed.
He then looked back down at the GUARDIAN with a respected bow.
"And thank you for taking care of her. Of all of them."
Sandy nodded and took a step back, letting go of Jack's hand. He felt that pressure of air in his chest deflate immensely.
Now that he met Jack and knew what he was capable of (just by the grip of his hand and the light in his blue eyes), he knew now why Tooth had transformed so much yet was still her. And for that he was grateful and happy to finally meet the man who gave her that flower.
About the same time Jack pulled up and stared at Tooth again, the same thought crossed his mind.
He tossed her slight smirk.
"You kept it?"
Tooth blinked until she realised what he was talking about. She touched the poinsettia still miraculously nestled at her ear.
She rolled her eyes.
"Well, what was I gonna do with it? Eat it? It was all I had left of–Wait! I-I mean..."
When she tried to stop babbling, Jack chuckled and moved in close to her again.
He then leaned his forehead down on hers, and in the water still pouring down, her heart felt like it would explode in her chest.
Tooth looked up at him with an incredible look of wonder.
"Jack Frost, you little–"
He then leaned back a little, plucked it out of her hair and put in his belt container.
"What?"
She smiled up tiredly with a shiver still in her lungs.
"No more flowers," he said as he stared at her lips, muscles quivering under his uniform. "You'll give off a signature."
"B-But what about when this is all over?"
"Who says I'm giving you more when this is over?"
"I'm a princess, Jack," she said all miffed. "You sorta have to!"
"No, you just want me to 'cause you're a royal pain in my–"
"Excuse me!?"
"Okay. You're excused."
"So help me, Jackson! Y–"
"Okay, whoa. That's too much sexual tension for me."
...
At the sound of the new voice, Jack and Tooth realized how close their faces were and snapped their heads back.
When they both turned, Dean was back, standing behind Sandy with a blank look.
"Dean! You're okay!" Tooth gasped and Jack quirked a brow.
"Dean?"
The triple agent ignored him as he eyed the princess. Was she seriously cozying up to this stranger who (if she didn't realize yet or not) had blood painting his black outfit? And what was with his bodysuit – the design was so complex and...and very misleading. Dean didn't know what to make of it, of him or now, the princess.
So he pursed his lips. "Well?"
Jack shot the newcomer a lethal gaze but he didn't step away from Tooth as her mouth kept opening and closing like a fish.
"Wh–Th-There's no sexual tension!" she snapped. "J-Just tension!"
"Trust me, there is."
Jack said nothing but he was already reaching behind for his gun at his belt loop. Tooth caught it and rolled her eyes.
"Oh my god, not now!" she snapped and Jack shot her a cold look.
"Give me a reason."
So she stepped aside and opened her mouth before he could fly off the handle again.
"Jack, you're not gonna believe us b-but this is Dean. He's helping us escape in secret."
"Escape?" Then just as a supersonic, Jack's eyes grew wide.
"Yeah, he's–"
"North's ELF," Jack turned to fully face the taller ELF with a disgruntled, wet face, "I know."
The three dropped their mouths slightly at the spy's nonchalance about it. Dean scowled a little.
"Wait, how?"
Jack glared.
"I have a Center gene."
And Dean paled slightly as he whipped his head down at the SANDMAN. Sandy looked almost as shocked but it wore off just as quick.
"Motherf–" the ELF frowned. "How many of you guys are crawling with this thing?!"
"That's not the point!" Tooth butted in before any excess testosterone started flying around the hall – the two needed to save it for the Nightmares still coming, still running around in the barely visible fire alarm sprinklers. She stepped between them and swooped down to grab her gun with her other hand and tossed Jack his gauntlet.
As she quickly bent to pick up his respirator, a tight smile was on her face.
"Now that you're here, w-we can all go and get my sisters and we can finally just get ou–"
"No," Jack's face darkened as he replaced the weapon that nearly killed the Hypunjam princess. "I can't."
Tooth stopped instantly. She turned back instantly, pink eyes wide.
"W-Why?"
But his gaze was cold and closed off, like it always was when his mind was set on getting something done – more specifically a job, an assignment.
Tooth turned and opened her mouth but he beat her to it.
"I have mission," his expression was firm and determined, "and I need to stay down here."
"Y–You're helping North? And Edmund?"
Jack nodded proudly yet the three suddenly watched his forehead crease and his scowl deepen. A second later, Jack was running a hand through his hair.
"But I...son of a–"
"What?"
"I'm starting to feel like I'm going in circles because this place is made up of elaborate networks!"
Sandy frowned as Jack pointed an angry finger at the floor before he swept it out behind him in almost graceful frustration.
"It could take at least another hour to get to where I need to get...but North and Aster needs me."
He lifted his gaze back to all them.
"You all do."
But when his eyes slowed on Tooth again, she shook her head.
"B-But if you're lost Jack, then why not...why n–"
"Because I–"
Jack suddenly craned his neck passed her and Dean's muscular build as he thought he heard something – something only he and Sandy seemed more acute at sensing than the other two. His pupils shrunk in his multiple senses. Three-way mind, remember?
His ears were buzzing. Was it the complink?
His eyes were like scrupulous needles in the dark. What were they doing wasting time chatting in this hall?!
His frown grew deeper, his breath got shorter. ...And how could he leave stomach what he was about to say next?
"Because I'm faster on my own. You know that."
She nodded weakly as everything he did, every move he made since they first met washed over her.
"Yeah, I...I know. But Jack..."
He shook his head.
"No, you don't get it, I'd like to but I–" he sighed under his husky breath. "...there's supercomputers..and the communications! So Tooth, I–"
Dean's eyebrows shot up on his forehead in alert.
"What? Wait, I can help you!"
Jack stopped instantly and he abruptly turned stare at the ELF – and Dean would be lying if he said it didn't send an unnatural shiver run down his spine. 'Fuck, is that his gene?' he wondered but Dean rolled his eyes and decided he couldn't care anymore about it. He squinted gently as he took a step toward the suspicious GUARDIAN.
"How else do you think I managed to send out a signal to North undetected? Why you're even here getting the reunion you so needed in the first place?"
He crossed his arms over his Nightmare vest.
"I used the same supercomputer to tap into the network secretly. But unlike North's TI buddies, I didn't need to break a thousand firewalls to get in, just the password."
Tooth tried to squeeze the water from her collar but it stayed drenched and heavy. She frowned at the ELF instead.
"So give him the password and let him do his job."
"Nuh-uh," Dean shook his head. "Can't. Network entry here requires not just the password but my Mercenary ID and I'm not about to recite a 46-character code for pretty boy here to screw up."
Jack's face darkened.
"Try me," he dared. "I could damn well memorize your code and probably turn it into a rap song but I really don't have the time!"
"Exactly," Dean spat. "So the only way you can hack into that sucker is if you've got a rootkit that can–"
Jack promptly produced Aster's egg and smirked.
"Right here, dipshit."
And despite herself, Tooth let out a happy gasp.
'Way to go, Edmund!' she cheered in her head.
Dean visibly sighed and rubbed his face. "Jesus, you scared me for a minute. I thought you might have gone looking for it just to smack the box with a wrench."
"Guys, seriousl–"
SNAP!
Sandy's bullwhip cracked against the concrete. They all turned, thinking he was just annoyed again and reminding them of their time running out, but when they looked, Sanderson's honey-brown irises were flickering in and out with gold. His eyebrows were creased angrily and his mouth kept opening and closing. He played around with the Silencing gene instantly.
Sandy had a stronger sense of intuition than most people, than most GUARDIANs, and while the danger was still hundreds of miles away...it was turning in the hallways for their direction.
Jack snapped his head back to Dean, all business and frustrated again.
"Where do I go?" he asked calmly and Dean stepped back to point a finger above Jack without jabbing him in the face. He answered in a hushed tone too.
"Down back the way you came, but when you reached Section 13-B6, you turn left. Find 752, then run. RUN until you hit six hallways–"
Tooth didn't hear the rest as Dean's directions suddenly made some old memories smack her right between the eyes. The memories from the company...when Jack got lost and she had find to him in the Core...all came flooding back.
"Where'd you go?!"
She shined her light in the first row – Corridor 1 and 2. Empty.
The second row. Empty.
The third row–
"J-JACK! COME OUT!"
When she blinked, Dean had already finished giving his 'highway into hell' assistance and saw Jack's gloves tighten.
"Alright!"
Dean gave him an impressed look – looks like North (or whoever had briefed him) informed him well of Pitch's sensitive points. After that, it was like everyone could just feel that one potent drop of adrenaline fall into their stomachs. Hearts were racing and skin was prickling, itching to move.
Jack forcibly threw on his hood again, becoming the darkened killer persona he could always perfect. He started to turn but then–
Something stopped him. Maybe it was racing, maybe it was the anxiety building. Or...maybe it was the fact that he knew he was about to do something, leave something, that would undoubtedly leave a knife in his chest until he saw it again.
Saw her again.
Jack turned.
Tooth's boots were moving forward – but they had both stopped at the exact same time. Dean stepped back to Sandy just as Jack turned his head back to look at her under his hood. His face told nothing – but his eyes held something unmentionable, almost indecipherable.
And it made Toothiana crazy.
The princess bit her lip refusing to say anything, but everyone knew she wanted to. It was written all over her but they admired her bite back on her tongue to not sound cliché (or, god forbid in her case, whiny). But it didn't mean she couldn't stop herself from crying a little. No one could tell though since her tears are mixing in with the rain shower; and the water didn't stop. It just continued to drip and drip and drip...and Jack suddenly looked nervous.
He frowned and unsure of himself, he opened and closed his fist gently. It was a shaking a little. His eyebrows knitted together in slight fear. Then, Jack extended his arm out to her.
In the rainfall, it looked...he looked almost surreal...shining black, blue, and white under the white lights and with his blank gaze. Tooth didn't know what to make of it. She looked confused but reached for his hand anyway. With shaking fingers and a nervous heart, a pathetic part of her wondered if he wanted her to run with him, but she swallowed it down until her tawny fingers bumped his pale ones. Once Tooth's hand was in Jack's glove, he hesitated. He let their joined hands encompass him for a moment, then Jack closed his fingers protectively around hers.
Jack stared at their connection, memorizing it and every detail, every thought, and every twitch that he couldn't tell was hers or his. The two froze and did nothing, said nothing – their hearts beat in sync.
Then without a second thought, he shut his eyes.
He kissed her knuckles.
As Jack lingered against her skin, Tooth's face split with desperation. She couldn't feel anything...but she held it together despite her big frown. She was stronger than she'd ever felt and as Jack opened his eyes to stare at her, he saw and felt it as well – and it made him frown too.
She felt like his lifeline...but he had to let go.
"Jack..." Tooth breathed and when he looked at her, all his grief was wiped from his face. His heavy gaze was written with the promise of laying the world at her feet, and Tooth, who never wanted to break the connection, swam in the color of his eyes and never hid one shimmer of her affections...
In their moment, Sandy looked down sideways.
He couldn't say that his heart fluttered nervously for the white-haired man he'd just met...then again he couldn't say anything at all. So rather than remember the man for all his conviction and obvious adoration for his little Toothie, he decided to nudge Dean.
Jack wouldn't die, he knew it, and so they had to keep the ball rolling.
And Dean, who was less sympathetic than Sandy for them, had the same thought too – he was glad when Sandy gave him the shove.
"Jesus, you two! We don't have time for your bedroom eyes!"
And the two broke apart instantly.
Sandy rolled his eyes.
Okay, so not what he wanted him to say.
Tooth turned ten shades of red.
"Serious–C-Can you and your...you just...W-WE ARE NOT–"
Suddenly, Sandy whipped his head and looked down another hallway. For a split second, they all heard sounds coming through Sandy's sound bubble.
Dean turned back first, eyes wild.
"We need to split! NOW!" he hissed over the rain. "And take down those objectives, Jack! You're the only one who can!"
Jack nodded to him before he gave Tooth one more look. She tossed him his respirator and watched as he activated it over his mouth again.
"God, I miss North's toys," Dean muttered to Sandy and the latter nodded – but the other two didn't hear him.
Tooth swallowed a large lump down her throat and fixed Jack with an unblinking stare until it was too much to take; then with one tiny exhale, she waved as the GUARDIAN stepped back and threw on his E-Lens. He watched her stats appear on the lenses and his eyes grew dark.
And before any of them could exhale, Jack turned and disappeared.
Then it was like he'd never been there at all.
After a moment, Tooth shivered and backed away too. She turned around to face Dean, Sandy, and the darkened hall they were still running down. And the two men's eyebrows scrunched together slightly. She was trying to hide her embarrassment but her face still looked upset, and they couldn't blame her.
"Don't worry, princess," Dean tried to assure her. "Guys like him, they don't gun."
And Tooth wanted to laugh at that.
But as she blinked back the wetness in her eyes, her fire came surging back like a long forgotten fireplace. As a roaring energy and pumping heat through her chest, Tooth's face darkened with determination. She looked at the both of them and both their eyebrows lifted slightly.
Tooth tightened her hand on her gun.
"Let's move!" she ordered with ferocity and a boot lift away, the three tore down the opposite way.
...
Meanwhile, an ELF wandered into Sector 6 alone.
Next he walked into Hallway 6 and before things could get any weirder, he somehow found himself stumbling past Room #666.
He stroked his rifle in his cross hold and looked away.
Okay, now that was freaky and uncalled for.
He exhaled the tiniest laugh from his lips.
But as it died on the air, he suddenly heard something.
Alone and hairs raised under his turtleneck, the ELF spun around and around.
It was like a rustle...no, a...a flutter? No shit, something sweeping against something...
North's stealth agent leaned out his head more.
He strained his ears for more sounds.
Several of his team members had already been killed yet, while he prided on the fact that they hadn't gone down without a fight and that the majority were still alive and tallying a kill chart higher than Pitch's men, he was still worried for them. He worried also for the mission, and worried for his own li–
Hisssss!
"Gah! What the–" the ELF cried out painfully and brought his sleeve to face.
More specifically, his eyes.
Something (he turned his neck around), something threw what felt like powder under his hood. He squeezed his eyes shut out the sensation – what he didn't know though, was that it wasn't powder.
Pulling his dark sleeve back, the ELF gasped out in pain.
Eyes burning and tear ducts leaking out, he eyed his arm blurredly thinking he'd see white, solidified tear gas, or a ground up drug smudged on the fabric.
Instead, he saw nothing.
His eyebrows shot up.
But no, he–
The ELF suddenly jumped away.
Right where his feet had been he could've sworn he saw a shadow–
He turned again.
And there! On down the hall, were two more–and on his left–no wait! Above his head–
His vision flickered like the static on the TV.
North's man started blinking rapidly, spinning around, and wiping his eyes desperately.
His senses were fried, something was wrong, something was...
His heart raced a mile a minute.
It was like a horror show. Like a Scarecrow, like a Jonathan Crane attacking Batman in the dark, no he–He had to get out! He had to find a tiny spot to hide himself in and tell his comrades about what had been done and to make sure they didn–
The ELF fell against a glass wall and braced himself with his glove, his stamina suddenly leaving him.
He shut his eyes briefly to block out the horrific flashes and images.
The glass was at least an inch thick and a divider for whatever open room was on the other side. But it was also very dark and it was so opaque that he could see his own reflection in it with the faint light down the hall.
The ELF squinted his eyes.
He stared at his reflection, leaning in close, trying to study the damage on his eyes.
What was wrong? What was happening?
...What had hit him?
He got in real close, and he tilted his head slightly, that was when he realised–
Fine sand.
Fine, tiny particles of sand painted on his eyelids.
It was black.
Pitch appeared behind him so fast he couldn't blink.
Then like a phantom, the man grabbed the back of the ELF's head. And with the strength of a bulldozer, he smashed the agent's face into the glass.
The blood was everywhere.
...
I shall observe the tenets of taekwondo...
Jack's heart pounded so aggressively in his chest he wanted to dig it out with his fingernails.
How could he leave her again?!
Courtesy. Integrity. Perseverance.
Everything in him wanted to turn back around and practically haul Tooth over his shoulder and carry her out! That's how much he didn't realise he was aching until he saw her face and heard her voice again.
So why didn't he? Why couldn't he?
Self-control. Indomitable spirit.
...Self control.
Self control.
Because of that. That was why he kept running.
He couldn't just pick and choose sides – he had so many to choose from now and before he didn't have any.
Jack knew where his place was now.
And right now, everyone needed him to find the generators.
But dammit it all to hell if Dean's instructs didn't get him there fast enough...
Jack kicked up a puddle under his combat boots.
He vanished without a trace again.
Down the hall...At the end, slide into a sharp left corridor...Then a right at the second hall and down a sharp incline...
Next turn at the door with the scorch mark three inches from the top and kick it down–
Jack exhaled.
The path he was on never showed a fibreoptical wire once on his E-lens! In fact, it kept moving farther and farther away from the ghostly lines visible on the visor.
Did the ELF really give him a false path?!
Jack gritted his teeth as he cat vaulted over an executive's table in the hidden boardroom he tore through. Next he shouldered and slipped his way into a darkened back hall.
This was a trap then. It fucking had to be! So then why was he still running?! Why was he–
Jack's boots stopped abruptly as he rounded the corner.
His eyes grew wide.
Listen, when you turn at the end of that hall, DON'T RUN THROUGH IT.
Jack's E-lens beeped through his earpiece alarmingly.
He watched a set of algorithms run down the status box in the corner of the lenses and immediately, lines of red flickered low on the glass and projected something unseen in the hall.
Jack stared with an animated expression.
DON'T run through it!
Jack tightened his fists as the invisible sensors revealed themselves a foot off the ground.
He narrowed his eyes and flexing his fingers, he took a short couple of steps back.
"Yeah, but I can run over it," he whispered heatedly.
He then exhaled calmly and brought both hands up on the either side of the hall. And as the frost and rime swirled the steel under his fingertips, he broke into a sprint.
And just before the sensors touched the tip of his boot, he made a jump for the wall.
The wind was at his side in a second.
Two minutes later...
Jack was sliding down a secret pole at the end of the hall.
He kicked out the lever that trigger the wall to open and it collapsed into a small beam leading down to the sub-basements of the lair. When he gripped the beam and jumped down undauntedly, his bangs flew up and his eyes narrowed again through the visor.
Jack descended deeper and deeper into the black abyss.
The air got colder and smelled stale and dry...and suddenly his E-Lens beeped to life.
And the fibre optical wires (that he'd stopped seeing since he ended up in this rat race) started to trickle in around him from their far off points of location.
"So that's why," he breathed to himself. "Their illusion is to set up faraway...then they come down here."
But to where and why, he already guessed.
As all the blue, yellow, white, and green projections ribboned around him from behind the walls and followed him down the bottom, he readied himself for anything.
Jack filled his chest with cold filtered air through the respirator.
At the last possible distance, he dropped his hands from the pole and exited through the tunnel. Falling into a rolling crouch to transfer his weight and keep from damaging his knees, the operative exhaled as his hand steadied his balance on the ground.
'Now!'
Looking up hurriedly, he Jack pulled out his gun with one hand and extended his staff with the other.
No one was around...but he saw the generator for the supercomputer!
Jack panted slightly under his building adrenaline.
It was a large, industrial sized metal box that made a slight shiver run up his spine. It was coding and running enough data to level the world and bring empires to Pitch's knees if the mastermind wanted it to.
Jack pulled up from his crouch and approached it slowly and angrily. His twitchy fingers tightened on the black titanium of his weapon.
Pulling out a short blade from his boot, Jack didn't waste time. He used it like a crowbar and ripped open the side of the generator where the cooling fan was. Exposing its electrical underbelly, Jack then drove the knife into a slot on side where the fan didn't try to cut off his hand and forced it open. As it did, the entire panel on the steel box's side let up.
He rolled his eyes.
Pitch made be an industrial terrorist, but when it came to manufacturer's for his technical equipment he really needed to find a model that Jack hadn't seen on the black market – he knew its weak structural points right at first glance! It was like the night he rescued Tooth all over again.
"A tracker?...Three actually. Pitch's dealers don't pay as much attention to detail as I do."
His face grew more serious, more severe.
'Maybe the bastard should focus less on warfare and taking down other people's security, and be more concerned about his own!'
But Jack didn't fret on it as he pulled out Aster's EASTER egg.
Then with a confident twirl, the GUARDIAN attached the Siren Takedown egg to the right pathway on the generator's circuit board.
When it lit up and his E-lens alerted a shadow shutdown initiation, he gritted his teeth.
The white-haired operative promptly turned on his complink.
"It's done," he rasped into the complink for Aster to hear. "I uploaded your rookit to the circuit so the sirens sho–"
"Chizzk! Jack! NO! What did y–"
RHEOOOO! RHEOOOOOOO!
Jack's head snapped up so hard he thought his spinal cord would break.
The lights in the secret room flash yellow and the alarm screeched like a fire truck into his right ear.
He clutched his head painfully.
"WHAT DID I DO?! Argh! G–But you said–"
Aster's voice screamed into his other ear and Jack could almost picture the Aussy ripping his glasses off his face.
"JACK! Y'DID THE SEQUENCE WRONG! I said find the SIRENS first! But y–"
"I DID!"
"So then WHY my readouts sayin' that my egg hacked the system! It set it off! It–"
A beat of silence passed.
Jack's eyelids snapped open.
"ASTER!" he shouted and was on his feet in a second.
His heart was pounding as much as his head.
"What the HELL, COTTONTAIL?!"
"I-It's not us! It's–"
"ASTER!"another TI ELF chimed in. "Aster, it's an armored cable! AN ARMORED CABLE! Pitch, his...His counter-measure is using a laser speckle! It detected our tap in the flicker in the light dispersion!"
"What happened to my accentuation?! Erase it!"
"But that egg's output intensity is slightly higher than the other's. It's dB/km wasn't made for that circuit!"
Jack and Aster both froze.
"AST–"
"Did you get lost?!"
"No, I USED the Siren Takedown egg on this generator! It's the most connected in all the sectors!"
"But then if you used the right egg then...Wait!" Aster's winded shout and the shouts of other Elves and North was bouncing in alert in the background. "Crikey! You're...That's not a supercomputer, that's a communication hub from what I can see!"
"WHAT?! But I–"
Jack froze.
"...there's supercomputers...and communications! So Tooth, I–"
"What? Wait, I can help!"
His hand fell limp at his side.
He screwed up.
Finding Tooth again, it made him confused for a moment. And when he started to mumble desperately in the face of her despair, he hadn't told Dean exactly what he needed!
He tightened his fist so hard, he thought his knuckle would turn invisible, forget white.
He and Dean really needed to have a talk about details!
"So you're telling me it's a fake? A trap! SON OF A–"
"NO, JACK! It IS a link to tower, it was...it was just disguised as a supercomputer. Bullocks, probably for covert reasons."
"But what about the–"
"It's alright, Jack!" one ELF reassured him. "We may have been fiber tapped but the egg is still good. That hub thank god, had some weak firewalls we could break so it's already given us full access. We're using the stolen passwords now to shut down the Bluetooth connectivity."
He ran a hand through his hair stressfully as he closed the generator and left the egg.
"GET OUT OFTHERE!" Aster barked. "I-IT'S...It's alright, the System Teardown can shut down the siren program no problem. Just ge–Are y–"
"I know! I KNOW! I'm okay!"
He threw a violent side kick at the metal box and stepped away.
He just fucked up the mission for the rest of the Elves. North's men were valiant and perfectly skilled and he pretty much just sent a tidal wave on them and himself!
And oh god, Tooth! And the SANDMAN...and her sisters...and Pi–
"ARE YOU GOING?!"
"Yeah!" he answered shakily and flexing his fingers madly, Jack made a short burst of speed and high-jumped for the tunnel in the ceiling again. With the wind from three other vents, he catapulted himself straight into it and grabbed the pole with his glove. His feet braced him on the wall around it as Aster panicked again.
"Don't worry, mate!" he tried to assure vehemently. "I ain't mad, neither is the Santa so just...just get to the sirens' generators! We'll watch the blokes! But those Nightmares might not have voices anymore so that doesn't mean they aren't gonna start runnin' t'find you!"
Jack grunted as bent his knees slightly and jumped off the wall to grab a higher point on the pole and again...and again. The E-lens lit up the line of the pole to mark his way back up the tunnel.
"I'm c'min' back up!" he grunted but Aster heard his guilt even though to anyone else it might have sounded like Jack was just pissed.
"D...Did you find Thia?"
Jack almost lost his grip on the pole at the fifth jump.
He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and bent his head. His hood shadowed his face...but his frown was still visible.
He didn't answer at first.
"...Oy? Jack?"
"N..."
He tightened his gloves on the pole.
"No," he lied through his clenched jaw. "Not yet."
He couldn't say, not when the others were had to be focused on Pitch and his goons. She'd had another GUARDIAN and North's best ELF was hiding in plain sight for them. He couldn't risk blowing their cover – but he couldn't help that when Aster's breath hitched through the speaker, he scrunched his eyebrows together like he was going to be sick.
"I...It's alrigh' mate, you'll...she'll show up...she has to. Pitch won't win. He can't take her!"
'That's what I'm afraid of.'
Jack shut his eyes.
"I'll find that generator," and he cut the connection with the tech analyst and let out a frustrated yell.
Then the GUARDIAN released the pole again and jumped off the wall, shooting up another ten feet.
...
RHEOOOO! RHEOOOOOOO!
Dean led the way into another holding warehouse, panting under his solid chest and grinding his teeth. Energy shot from his fingertips but he couldn't stand the sound of the blaring alarms.
Upon arrival, it looked like the Nightmares had been in the middle of preparing shipments of things to send off before the alarm went off. Now, it instead looked like a dead zone and for the few crates still left open, the undercover ELF sighed.
"Follow me!" he hissed and made a sharp left turn at the next crate. "This way! And I can't believe the alarms went off dammit! You sure Jack is as good as he says he is?!"
Tooth and Sandy were at his heels.
"He IS!" Tooth defended but worry bubbled up and spread across her chest.
There was a metal shelf at the end of the warehouse where all the equipment and empty crates were piled for miscellaneous and unused shit and as Dean bumped his speed into high gear, he eyed the wall in the distance, the one that he knew sitting over a shelf third to the left.
"See that mark in the wall?" he said over his breath – he was sure the SANDMAN was using his gene on the soundwaves around them but he spoke low just in case.
Tooth craned her neck up.
In the distance she saw what looked like a crater in the wall.
She grimaced.
It looked like a bomb or a grenade had exploded on it and from the enlarged scorch marks, it also looked like something had exploded along with it.
"I se'it!" she panted and wiped her forehead of cold sweat.
He nodded.
"That's a marker. Behind the shelf below it is a safe tunnel used by Nightmares to get in and out of the sector undetected."
Something in Tooth's chest cracked and her face drained of color just like Sandy's.
"A secret tunnel?!"
Dean nodded as they turned right at another crate then suddenly it was like the pathway was cleared for them – Tooth and Sandy could see the shelves all the way in the distance, freedom getting closer.
"It's an emergency tunnel used by high ranks to slip past the Fearlings," he grunted. "The low ranks don't think anything about the body mark on the wall but that it's probably scare tactic. Sorta is. Eh, pretty funny if you ask me."
But Tooth shook her head.
"Wait no! But what about–" she stopped when she saw Sandy's head turn back to look at her disapprovingly.
She glared back despite her normal respect.
"My sisters!" she meant. "My sisters are still here and they're hurting, they're mutating, and you want me to friggin' l–"
"Princess, do you have a black belt?!" he snapped. "Can you use a weapon other than a gun?! Can you get out of a fight?!"
Her mouth fell slack.
She realised his words.
"You're collateral damage! And Pitch wants YOU. So the longer you stay here, the more we all lose!"
She bit her lip.
He was right. SO RIGHT. But he didn't have to say it like that, like itwas her fault.
'It's NOT my fault!' she screamed in her head. 'It's NOT. I didn't choose this, I was born like this...Th-This is NO ONE'S fault.'
She surprised herself – the old her would've shamefully pointed the finger at her parents, her caretakers, or the company.
Dean picked up on her silence as agreement but even as he swept his eyes forward again (and caught Sanderson's scornful gaze as well), he frowned with a twinge of guilt.
"So I'm getting you out because that's the highest priority right now," he finished. "I'm sorry, I get it. If I had...I...I'd feel the same, but you have to think about what you're really fighting for and at the end of day, who would you affect?"
Immediately, everyone's face flashed in Tooth's head and she had to shut her eyes to block it out. It was impossible though, and it made for a horrible convincing.
'So much for your epic spy battle Tooth, but he's right. You'll kill more people than you'll save.'
"Okay..." she mumbled. "O-Okay."
"I've already called in an ELF to meet you up at the line where the forests start. This tunnel isn't traced by the security but it's a good thing those damn sirens are goin' off so any Nightmare up there is probably scattered. Not sure why. But Agent Sandman, you can stay with me if you still want to help N–Da–!"
Dean skidded to a halt and grabbed Tooth so fast, she didn't know where she was flying until her body fell into a pile of straw and she was engulfed in it. Had she seen what appeared just before she was tossed away, she would have nearly screamed.
Two Arch-level Nightmares froze at Dean and Sandy's arrival and hurried into an offensive stance. They'd been on alert since the sirens went off but with the communications down, NO Nightmare could contact each other and tell each other what was going on. It was by chance that the two had run into each other from their posts (and didn't kill each other on site). So they moved around frantically with their fingers stroking their knives and their rifles. Spotting one of their own, they went instantly into assault mode when they spotted him...with the short man Pitch claimed as a prize.
And for Dean's sake and Sandy's, they hadn't seen Toothiana.
"IT WAS YOU!"
And both Nightmares rushed at Dean and Sandy.
The two barely had time to pull out their weapons.
...
Tooth saw shadows and the Silencing gene in Sandy's fingers instantly cut off as he and North's ELF engaged with the mercenaries.
Her stomach felt like it was going to drop out her butt. The grunts were brutish and things kept breaking, crashing, spitting, and roaring enough to make her blood curdle.
She rubbed her gun in her hand and gritted her teeth.
With a steady breath, she moved her head a little in the pile of straw and peeked through the spots of visibility. Her magenta eyes were catlike as she tried to watch the fights...but they were moving too fast! One second Mr. Sandy's bullwhip was like a long black ribbon shooting up in the distance but no sound was heard...and the next...a fist or a boot would appear and she had to stop herself from jerking so the Nightmares wouldn't know she was there.
'I mean, that's WHY the asshole pushed me in here!' she gasped in her head. 'If I get caught again we all go down AGAIN!'
But god forbid she wouldn't help! She had three guns now, two strapped at her thighs, the other in her hand, and one of them happened to belong to a female ELF and carried more rounds than the two combined. She could help them...but only if someone pulled out their gun first so her bullets wouldn't make the first foreign sound and spook Pitch's men more.
She shut her eyes.
But she really hoped no guns would show u–
BANG! BANG!
Dean pulled back on his rifle but the Nightmare on him knocked it out of his hand and spun him.
When Dean's back was facing his former partner, the man unhooked the ELF's M16A off his back – he intended the shoot the triple agent with his own weapon.
But Dean narrowed his eyes.
Twisting his hips, just as the rifle left his body, Dean turned to the side and leveled a reverse kick at the man's torso. The strength of the kick (from a man who was one of North's top ELFs for a reason), sent the Nightmare reeling back and the rifle dropping to the floor.
Sandy, who just finished front-flipping in his dash away from the first Nightmare, landed on one knee and snapped his head to the ELF.
He cracked his whip swiftly and the end of the braid sent the rifle skidding away from both men.
As he turned, he pulled up his whip with both hands and slowed a kick aimed for his face. The Nightmare was moving too fast (looking down at Sandy's body joints) for the GUARDIAN to get him to look into his eyes.
They flickered maddeningly.
But the Nightmare wouldn't fall asleep.
...
Tooth gripped her gun.
She suddenly caught Dean in her line of vision as he backed up defensively from his recovering Nightmare.
"One gun?" he taunted. "Really? No wonder Pitch doesn't put you on the assault team so often!"
"You fucking prick!" the Nightmare snarled and he appeared in Tooth's sight too.
Her eyebrows lifted on her forehead.
"I'm gonna skin you, you damn cheat!" he breathed and took out his second gun, actually concealed at his belt loop.
BANG!
He fired a shot for show – then lowered it at the ELF's face. Dean didn't let up and pulled out a tiny pistol from his weapons belt.
"You–"
BANG!
Dean fired a shot but he missed.
BANG!
When he fired another, Tooth saw her chance to join in.
She raised her gun through the straw...eyes ready...skin clammy.
BANG!...BANG!
Dean fired his last but the Nightmare's vest was just as bulletproof as his. Damn he–
BANG!
Tooth's bullet nicked him in the arm and he cried out.
She got him! And she would so tell Dean later that out of his three shots, she got the Nightmare in one...but then she'd feel guilty about how she made the Nightmare react.
In his heated rage, Pitch's man swooped in close to the undercover mole just as Dean dropped his empty gun. The Nightmare bent his right arm, taut and quick, ready to throw a violent hook at Dean's chest. But high on adrenaline, the brunette didn't back down and rushed forward too. Reeling back his right arm, Dean timed it perfectly and used the outside of his incoming forearm to knock the fist off course. He leaned back to avoid his face careening with the other man in the motion, but as he did–
Tooth saw a flash of sliver.
She was suddenly reminded of Jack – but this flash spun twice in the air before it landed quickly in the Nightmare's right grip. Catching the back end, just as Dean took a step back to steady himself, the Nightmare drove the blade hard and fast...into the ELF's collarbone.
Dean's scream was a like hellish roar, like a banshee – it made Tooth's hair rise on her neck and she covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming out.
All that came out was a whine in protest.
Hearing the distress, Sandy lifted his head up from his blocking and the Nightmare managed to slip in a quick punch at the short man just as he landed from his back flip. Sandy tumbled to the side for a moment before he caught himself. But as his fingers gripped the concrete, his whip (long and laid out before him) was yanked by the Nightmare and he was dragged forward.
Sandy watched in silent panic as the Nightmare brandished a short dagger and–
SIP!
The sharp blade cut the length of the SANDMAN's best weapon.
After that, their success ratio dramatically decreased. Dean's inability to use his left arm and Sandy's size (not to mention his still adjusting to the rapidness of being a fighter again) against two arch-level Nightmares was almost unbearable to see. Tooth watched in horror and kept clenching and unclenching her fist.
Help them...Stay...Help them...Stay...HELP THEM–
But what could she do?!
"–do you have a black belt?! Can you use a weapon other than a gun?! Can you get out of a fight?!"
Dean had his leg kicked out as his good arm dropped his knife. She watched as he knelt heavily to the concrete and had his mask ripped off. Getting a back-ended punch with the man's knife hilt, his head snapped to the right and faced her. And in his neck twist, Dean eyed the straw pile intently with green eyes firm and commanding.
He knew she was there.
Tooth ruffled as an unbearable chill ran down her stomach. He narrowed them through his pain.
Don't do anything STUPID, he was basically saying and she watched as the Nightmare reached under his hood and grabbed at his hair. Dean yelled out resentfully – just as Sandy rolled into view with his forehead creased in silent pain. He was picking himself off the ground achingly and when Tooth looked, he spit out blood onto the floor. A dark red that DIDN'T go with the gold she loved all her life.
She covered her mouth tighter, as her eyes widened. A whine bubbled up in her throat and she pushed it down horribly.
She wanted to go to him. She needed to! He–
"You're collateral damage! And Pitch wants YOU. So the longer you stay here, the more we all lose!"
Sensing it, Sandy lifted his head directly ahead of him to the pile of straw – Tooth caught his expression. His face wasn't hard and calculated like it had been since they escaped the cages. No, instead as she got full view of his pain stricken expression, Toothiana saw the softness and tenderness.
Just as she always remembered it.
But his eyes were wide with fear and his mouth fell open slightly like he wanted to say something. A second later, she noticed his head shake a little.
Don't move, was his final signal, telling her not to with everything his hands couldn't.
Tooth felt like she would cough up blood too.
Then like a horror movie, the second Nightmare appeared and threw a large bag over Sandy's head. Sandy tried reaching back to stop him but his short arms couldn't go all the way and he panicked in short grainy gasps through the rough material.
"Stop moving, little man!" and he kicked Sanderson's side.
The arch-level Nightmare then cuffed his hands in front of him and dragged him back, out of Tooth's sight. The mercenary was angry and unnerved – all they knew was that his guy was insanely powerful somehow and while he bound his hands, he didn't know how long he had until Sanderson broke free and killed him. But he didn't have to worry...the real damage Sandy could do was being hindered by the sack over his eyes. He continued to jerk wildly. Dean managed to crane his head in the first Nightmare's grip as he heard the sound of chains being dragged away.
His eyebrows shot up on his head.
"No!" he shouted hoarsely. "N–AARH!"
His mouth felt the violent sting of a blade slicing across and the scream left him involuntarily.
"YOU. SHUT. UP."
Tooth's tremors were so bad she moved her entire body to the floor. Once her side was lying on the cold stone, she forced herself in a tight fetal position to stop the shaking. But her face was angry and her guns were squeezing painfully into her skin. Her eyes were stinging and she clenched her teeth, but her ears didn't stop working.
Dean's scream of pain still echoed across the empty shipping room.
"Fuck you!" the Nightmare repeated from earlier. "YOU'RE the one who set off the alarms! Who let Pitch's lab rats escape?! And you were gonna what? USE OUR TUNNEL?!"
"Yeah, thank you, Captain Obvious!"
THWACK!
"AARGH!"
"Where is she, Sam?!" he roared. "WHERE IS SHE?!"
Dean didn't say anything at his fake name as he exhaled painfully between his teeth. He glared at the Nightmare as the man turned his head back around.
"WHERE?!"
And still, Dean didn't say a word.
Tooth tightened herself tighter into a ball – she never once stopped listening for the chains that were dragging a piece of her heart away.
CRICH!
She clenched down on her teeth as another punch was heard. Horrifically, she wondered for one millisecond if she'd ever get to have a free dental checkup at Fay U's School of Dentistry after this – and it made her heart quake with undeserved finality. Dean coughed out again.
The Nightmare shoved the ELF onto the ground, making him see stars.
"I wanna kill you," the Nightmare hissed with betrayal. "God knows I WANT TO KILL YOU...but the boss'll need you, he'll want you! After all these years of–"
Dean watched as a blurry shadow knelt next to him. He felt the sharp tip of the blade that stabbed him, lift him under his chin and he bared his bloodied teeth.
"And who knows?" the Nightmare breathed, his rank breath throwing Dean's senses further into turmoil, "Maybe after I do bring you to 'im and you lose, because you will, then I'LL get to call more of the shots. We're all sick and tired of you being his favourite!"
But Dean actually chuckled darkly, his smile twisted.
"Stop bein' a girl," he snarled. "Makin' this fucking personal is pathe–GYAARGH!"
The blade went into his back and as his body went into convulsed, the Nightmare pulled him to his feet and Dean obeyed automatically. The twisting knife made his body want to comply.
Tooth felt her head lift to look at Dean instinctively. When she did, she saw the Nightmare bend Dean's neck painfully to the side as he pushed him to walk. Dean's eyes stared directly at her through the pile – and through his suffering, he flit his green irises to shelf then back to her.
Then he was taken away.
And Tooth laid there frozen in her fetal position, memorizing the spot where he once stood until the sounds died away. Then all she heard was silence, save for the whooshing from the air vents and the occasional dull boom of something hundreds of feet away.
Her tears slipped down her face angrily.
The silence was so thick...
...
A minute turned into five.
Five turned into fifteen.
And the sirens were constant and relentless, like banshees screaming across the sector.
Then finally, the straw moved.
It rustled slowly and shakily until the princess' head popped her and her emotional expression appeared. She might as well have been the most depressed-looking mermaid rising up from under the water to live on land. And she couldn't help it – she didn't care.
As she clambered clumsily out of her straw pile, Toothiana wrung her wrists in distress and looked around. She gasped in heavy pants as quietly as she could, trying to catch her racing heart.
No sounds...just silence.
Tooth was completely alone and when she turned her head to the right, the princess saw the shelf below the scorched crater on the wall. She moved to it quickly on shivering knees and unsteady footfalls.
"M...M-M...I ha...hav't–"
Her gun was gripped so tight Tooth thought her bones would rip out from under the skin of her knuckles. With a heavy sob, she approached the shelf that appeared rusted and unimportant – but that was the point.
A lump started building in her throat again. She refused to touch it and leave any sort of print but then she saw the groove line along the wall behind...and she knew.
"D-Dean was right," she murmured.
There really was a secret exit from Pitch's lair and this was the way. This was the way!
So why wasn't she ripping the shelf (holding tools and pieces of wood and other crap she could care less about) from the wall, opening the groove, and getting the hell out of there?!
Tooth looked around for a second, not really seeing anything. She turned over shoulder and saw the line of crates again go back to the front of the warehouse...to the sector...to where the fights were still going off...where the war was still happening. She knew she couldn't leave but...but she had to!
She was a liability and she knew it and she'd be a goner without help. Tooth lifted the back of her hand to cover her eyes stressfully.
But she also just lost someone...she lost a lot someones actually and they were all still in here, fighting and hurting, and she'd be damned if her own safety put her in the way of other agents...her friends...
...her family...
...her loved ones.
She gritted her teeth.
Tooth was anything but heartless, anything but a freak. But she was the...she was...
"You're the priority," she whispered shakily to herself. "Y...You're the priority! You're the one whose gonna get them all...O-Oh god, wake up, Tooth! WAKE UP!"
A tear slid down her cheek.
Tooth wiped it away irritably then she turned back to face the shelf. She inhaled sadly and pushed a short strand of hair behind her ear. She then moved forward.
With two hands on the shelf's leg, Toothiana ground a foot behind her and transferred all her weight on it as she leaned back with a strong pull. The metal shelf screeched horrifically on the concrete floor, making her skin crawl. But once she pulled it enough of the way, the sound ceased. So did her heart.
The grooves in the wall, traced out a medium-sized door, faint but significant. Then when she looked down, she spotted a weird slot close to the ground. It looked dead except for the occasional red light blinking within. She bit her lip.
It looked like something had to insert into it. But what? How was she gonna open it without Dean's help? She remembered his eyes telling her to go on ahead so maybe she could do something...if she just figured it out.
She squinted her eyes.
The slot was tiny and circular...almost about the same width as t–
Tooth's eyes grew wide.
Stepping a foot back, Tooth looked down at her boot and twisted her ankle a little again.
Shik!
The spike shot out instantly.
How many of yours have those?...Just the tops dogs...It's an emergency tunnel used by high ranks to slip past the Fearlings.
She eyed the slot again in the lever and glared.
And you were gonna what? USE OUR TUNNEL?!
With a hand on the wall for support, Tooth lifted her boot, lining the spike with the hole.
Then with a clenched jaw, she inserted the spike.
It fit perfectly.
CLICK!
The wall opened up.
Instantly, the grooves in the wall shifted back a little then the entire thing rose up slowly.
The air that escaped the tunnel was stale and cold. Really cold. It was coming from the wind off the coast above, bringing the same crisp and painful air that Tooth had in her lungs when the sprinklers went. Her hair blew back as she frowned desperately. It was also very dark – complete and total darkness making it look endless. Maybe it didn't go up. Maybe it dropped into a hole where piles of Nightmare corpses were laying to rot and be left forgotten. Or maybe it was blocked, maybe the Nightmares had sealed it off and Dean didn't know.
Still, it was her ticket out.
It led to somewhere and that had to be enough.
The princess squinted one more time into the darkness.
It looked so unforgiving...so black...Tooth huffed.
"I-I'm sorry, girls," she softly whispered. "But I'll see you ag-again. I sw–"
"GOT YOU!"
Something yanked her back and threw a grenade into the tunnel.
"AHHH!" she screamed. NO!"
BOOM!
Tooth fought furiously as the Nightmare dragged her back from the secret exit just as it exploded and automatically sealed to lock the flames in.
It completely destroyed her chances at escape.
"H-How a–Ahh! W-Wh–YOU LE–D...STO–"
"SHUT UP!"
Tooth screamed and tried to twist around and claw away but with powerful lift, he had her over his shoulder and sprinted out of the warehouse.
He left bruise patterns all down her skin in his unforgiving clenches.
"Thought you almost got away?!" he growled through gruff breaths. "I had a feeling! I knew it!"
Tooth's head knocked around and her vision blurred.
"H-AHH! Y–"
"Don't TEST me, princess!"
She choked on a cough as her chest knocked against the gun strapped to his–
Tooth froze.
She couldn't reach for her own weapons but her arms were dangling over his back...just within reach of his assault rifle.
'And he probably doesn't think I can–'
"I'm taking you to the lab, you little bitch!" he snarled. "Then you'll never–"
Ch-CLINCH!
He didn't even fully comprehend the sound of the safety clicking off, until Tooth had already twisted the gun to the back of his head.
BANG!
Tooth cried out in fear as his entire body crumpled under her shot and they both landed in a terrible crash.
Shaking all over, Tooth tossed the gun aside. She then rolled out of his cold grip and scrambled to her feet.
Tooth spun looking for the way back to the warehouse sector, catching it in the distance.
She gasped.
"There!"
And she made a run for it.
"Please!" she panted. "PLEASE!"
RIUUU...RIUUU...
Suddenly the entrance, forty feet high and leading back into the warehouse, was starting to close.
"What?!"
She watched in horror as a giant steel door (the size of a truck's trailer) lower fast over the entrance way, trying to lock down whatever intruders had set off the security inside, and seal anyone from coming in.
"NO!"
She sprinted.
That was her only way out! That was her escape to freedom and without the others–
"NO!"
Tooth ignored the stitch in her side from running. But just as her hand was within reach–
SHUNK!
The steel gate fell completely.
DUUuuuun...
The vibration of its lock down, and the echo of her Game Over, traveled down the blackened halls and sirens. And for all her silent screams, pounding, and heavy breathing, the warehouse wouldn't open again for Tooth.
"Oh my god! O-Oh my god, that was my only–L-Let me out!" she screamed. "LET ME OOOUUUUT!"
Tooth gave the steel gate one more punch, enough to break her knuckle.
Next thing she knew, Toothiana dropped in a heap to the floor.
She pushed both her hands into her hair, looking around wildly.
"I...I ca...I can't ge-get out! I CAN'T..."
Tooth couldn't breathe.
In the silence, she couldn't breathe.
She felt like the loneliness and the darkness and the corpse in the distance would kill her.
So did that mean that everything Mr. Sandy and Dean had done for her...wasn't even worth it?!
They'd just been hauled away by men stronger than she'd ever hope to be! Back to Pitch Black, to a murderer; back to be–
Tooth choked on a dry cough.
She was only thing they needed to protect, to save, even Jack and the other GUARDIANs needed her free of Pitch in order to do the rest of their jobs.
"I ca..."
And she just made things harder for them. Like she always did.
"I'm so sorry! I'M–"
"TOOTHIANA!"
She squeezed her eyes shut.
She hiccuped loudly before she slapped a hand over her mouth.
"Don't apologize...Just keep fighting."
"J's...J-Jus ke-kee–"
Tooth put a hand on the wall and stumbled up to stand on her own.
She thought of all the times she cried when Sandy came to her room when she cried – but he couldn't carry her, so she had to do it all by herself.
"G-G'ta...Cn't stay...Y–Y-You can't!"
Once she was standing, Tooth wobbled a little but she didn't give up.
She swallowed down the lump in her throat and exhaled angrily at herself.
"C-Cm'n, Tooth, c–C'm on!"
So now she had to find another way; but where?! Where could she start? What was more important?!
She turned down the hall to where the Nightmare who tried to kidnap her (and who'd ruined all her chances) was resting in a pool of his own growing blood. The rest of the way beyond him was lit by the dim red sirens, making shadows blur in and out.
Tooth rubbed both her eyes desperately.
She looked again...
But then Tooth blinked and her nose scrunched up.
She suddenly saw neon lights...smelled a burning car...and heard Vietnamese club hoppers walking down the sidewalk. She imagined Ho Chi Minh City again.
And Jack, a little bit ahead of her (back in his turtleneck and pants and stealing people's wallets), was leading the way.
She felt herself walking behind him, remembered it, even though she wasn't actually moving.
Tooth's mouth fell slightly open.
She exhaled shakily.
"I...I-I..."
How long ago had that life been? Watching him like a stranger and his feet move nervously? She remembered her legs copying his walk...until she quietly tiptoed back in reverse...then hadn't she dove into the alley?
Tooth gripped her gun.
Back then, she would've done anything to get away from him – she'd even tried to fight him to get away from the danger. Because the unknown was scary and she was afraid. She remembered how she didn't even think twice about what kinds of other creeps were crawling around those slums...nor did she know how to fight. How had she even planned on surviving back then?!
Well, no. She hadn't. Tooth was just scared and choose darkness over intuition.
And yet here she was, replaying it over and over again, remembering Jack's back, her longing to get home on her own, and her feet moving backwards.
Moving backwards...
Just as she suddenly felt herself doing.
Tooth chewed on her lip, but her feet didn't stop and her forehead was creased.
She never kept her eyes off the end of the hall.
'I'll fight,' she vowed in her head. 'I'll fight to get out of here for all of them. And g-god forbid I run into anyone I know, I'll protect them with my life. But I'm going to get out. I swear on it!'
Then with a nervous breath and catlike footfalls, Tooth turned her head over her shoulder, taking two more steps back.
The princess clenched her teeth angrily. Then a blink later, she was gone...
And her clock started.
Chapter's soundtrack: ULTRAnumb – Blue Stahli In honour of the artist whose music that essentially helped make Project Guardian even possible, this track helped me develop Pitch's character and it suits this chapter so well. As does the title! ;)