So guys, from here on in, aah there are ten chapters left. I blame school for not getting us here sooner but aw nope nevermind. ): *ugly cries* Lol BUT we're done not just yet! We still have to get more emotional, mental, and a lot more physical. Which may or may not be a good thing lol. So make yourselves comfortable for the last arch. Happy scrolling! And I'm so sorry this (and my replies) took a little long. It's getting pretty busy and a heck of a lot colder up here! :3
"Only you are the life among the dead."
A body went rigid.
Palms were flat against the floor, unsure of what the liquid pooling was between cold fingers.
Water?
Blood?
Chemical residue, sewage drainage?
T...Tears?
'Stay in the sha...St-Stay in the shadows!'
A trembling hand moved to the neck, cold and soaking wet, and for one moment, dying from hypothermia right then and there seemed actually possible.
Anything was possible, really. But the sirens still cried overhead.
Through a nose, a sharp with the sting of metal, frigid air traveled down into shivering lungs, up against a heart thundering and thundering.
Lips pursed and an exhale escaped but when it was over, the madness died away a little.
But only a little.
Just like a fear. Just like the heart.
'S-Sector 7...This is Sector 7 and you...y-you like ice cream a-an' Christmas…"
A hand pushed off the floor, slow and tight with balance.
'B-But it's all ready Chr...and he's–M-Mr. Sandy he's...and Jack, wh-why did you–H'O-Oh my god, Tat! Tuhi-hina, I–NO!...N-no...c'n...Count to ten...Co-Count to ten...I could've left but I–'but I didn't! I won't! I just...I..'
A head turned down at the gun being held in two hands.
It was Linae's, a sleek and powerful Taurus PT92 with (counted) 17 rounds – enough to take out at least ten Nightmares!
But it couldn't be wasted...not here?
'Replace it, re...r-replace it.'
One hand shakily left the cold, polymerized handle to the right thigh. Grazing the tight holster wrapped around it, a Taurus M327 was gripped tight and pulled out with unsteady control. Familiarity in one hand, potential in the other, the PT92 hand took the place of the old revolver.
Sure, it only had five bullets...but it was held onto tightly.
'Military sweep...' and the memory of proud soldiers standing guard in front a castle with spires took shape.
'Hallway: clear...Debris: cl'...clear...Sounds: mi-minimal...Ratio of success?'
Eyelids slid closed.
An inhale.
Two heartbeats.
An exhale.
The vent winds overhead blew the way.
Eyes flew open.
And in the waking fear, Tooth made a run for it.
...
00:00:01
As she continued moving on the balls of her feet, Tooth kept her eyes on every wall, looking for markers and electrical boxes. The columns surrounding her in the sector hall were dark with patches of lights from high up windows – it reminded her of the grandmaster halls once highlighting traffic points in the company.
Her wide eyes grew impossibly wider as she looked around glaringly. The first large column came up close to her on the left.
When she got to it, Tooth pressed her back tight against the concrete foundation. With shaking fingers pushing into the unforgiving beam, she slid the length around it, glad that the column was twice her width. At halfway, she left its concealment and sprinted for the next one five feet away.
Toothiana was incredibly terrified being alone and running for her life. She missed everyone, she missed the light.
And why was she suddenly craving peppermint gum? It wasn't worth it anymore.
She wrung her wrists fearfully.
'No more gum, Tooth!'
Peppermint, no wait...menthol was the active ingredient in the Center gene – it was what saved her...but was also what was making her sisters mutate. She couldn't stomach the thought of eating it now, maybe ever again. Especially in a sensitive zone like this, where everything was crawling around to catch (or worse, kill) her, because of it.
'J-Just focus on finding Mr. Sandy o-or a map! Something, anything! Come on T, you're losing him!'
She knew she'd never catch up to Mr. Sandy so she had to know the area, had to figure out the way and where all the exits were. Because that's what a spy would do. Then if that didn't work, she'd hide it out until the coast was clear again...and if that failed…
She rubbed her head.
"Th-Th'n it's back t'the...b-back to the tunnel."
If it was still there.
And that was her plan. Well, part of it.
Dean said the communications were down, so without a Bluetooth to steal, she needed a place to eavesdrop on their activity so she'd know where to find Pitch's hostages.
'But they're not hostages, they're family!'
00:01:22
The words felt like something bitter and thick slide down her throat, like molasses and lung cancer.
She angrily forced herself to stop her tear ducts from leaking. Blinking twice, Tooth pushed herself into Tatiana's head and tried to recognize what her sister was seeing.
Her heart raced.
Wherever Baby Tooth was, the ceiling was incredibly high and the walls didn't look so jagged. There was muffled crying and she head turned and–
Tooth pulled out.
Without warning, her nerves became hypersensitive and the hairs on the back of her neck rose.
She slowly turned over her left shoulder.
A shadow.
Or, at the least the end of one. Maybe? But it flickered so far down the hall that Tooth...
She tensed her hunched form instantly.
'A l-little more,' she said in her head. She bit down on her tongue to stop her precious teeth from chattering. She was still so freaking wet and her body was probably the same temperature as Jack's.
'J'...Just a little farther! If I ca-an get to th'...hallway right THERE I-I know I c–'
SQUEAK!
She felt like the world ended.
Her boots had just scuffed on the floor!
"No...pl-please no...' she mouthed silently on trembling lips.
Her blood pounded in her ears.
How ridiculous was she?! For one second she forgot to drop her foot right just because she was talking to herself in her head.
Tooth flit her eyes back and forth like two jewels caught in a tennis match.
00:05:59
She worried where to go, where to hide. The silence hadn't dropped so hard for a reason.
Whoever...whatever was behind her was waiting for her. Waiting...
The back of Toothiana's head hurt.
She was dying to put her foot back on the ground, but she kept it up, afraid that if she moved even just the slightest, her muscles would go off like a rock concert.
So she held her position. Waiting...waiting just like...
'I can't reach the wall...You have to hold it up, Tooth! Hold it!'
Her lip twitched.
Her leg was quivering.
00:06:21
She wasn't strong like Jack or any other man, let alone a girl who went to the gym more times than her. But she tried to hold it up because she wasn't sure whether or not her boot would squeak again.
But ten seconds it didn't matter.
Like thunder, the loud drop of boots responded in the distance.
Her body snapped.
Tooth took no extra pause to think and immediately burst into a sprint.
But the sound of her boot and her mistake kept replaying over and over in her head. It left her mad and shaking as she kept running. When the pockets of light tried to catch her, she bent her neck so low her spin ached – she couldn't risk her blonde streak shining.
'Or EYES!' she freaked out bitterly and squeezed her eyelids shut for a quick second.
SCREEECHH!
"N–"
Tooth clamped a hand over her mouth to stop the tiny cry from coming out.
She was so focused on the danger behind her that when her boot jammed into the piece of the broken vent in front of her, Tooth's heart immediately went into cardiac arrest. She threw her arms up on either side of her head as she kicked into high gear – but her mouth hung open with the scariest frown she'd ever made.
The boots madly shuffled after her.
She felt like she would throw up as she crossed and crossed small adjacent hallways labeled Sector 7 to 11...11 to 6...6 to 8. Tooth had no clue where the halls were leading but she kept screaming at herself in her head.
'Not yet! Y-You can't die yet, you can't!'
Pitch may have wanted her alive and ordered all the Nightmares not to shoot her – but they were the worst for legitimate reason. Who knew what they'd do to her now that his headquarters was falling under siege?! If Dean could pull a de facto and kill his arch-level brothers, how many other mercenaries here lied about swearing their allegiance to the British terrorist too?
Tooth gulped.
It wasn't long before her muscles felt like they were going to snap from how tightly she held herself together. But Tooth didn't stop.
At the first sign of a hallway split, the princess turned into the left one. It was the darkest corridor and all she could think was that if she were Batman, that's where she would go. Her hair flew behind her head like a feathery tail.
As it did, it drifted passed an unknown squiggle on the wall but had the princess looked over to see it, she would've known its translation.
Sector 4.
00:15:31
At first chance, Tooth took a wide sweep from the scaffold she found herself standing on.
She paled slightly at the chilling sight.
Down one floor below her was an enlarged hall. The ground floor was lined with steel tables for lab work but every station was empty and wiped clean.
'Was this where Pitch had done work on m–'
But there was no time to think like that, no time!
She had to hide. She could hide behind each steel lab station and use them as barriers – but even if she did, the only way to get a clear view of who was chasing her (or to get to the hall on the other end) was to run down the middle.
'And what if he has a device he can throw to knock me off my feet?!'
She gulped in a cold breath of air desperately. The painful memory of Jack flying and knocking both her and Tuhina into the snow came up so fast Tooth had to shake her head to keep it out. Her lips twitched anxiously at the corners.
'Just go anyway, take it! TAKE it, Tooth!' And she listened to herself.
Tooth moved quickly down the steel framed bridge but rather than take the stairs several feet away, at the last possible chance to keep her sanity, she twisted herself instead over the railing. She trembled as she used the grid work of the scaffold to shimmy down to the concrete floor.
The sound of the boots was still far in the distance.
So was her sister.
"Head DOWN, how many times must we tell you! You are nothing but a experiment! A–"
Tia's gaze flew down to the tiled floor. She cried out painfully.
The princess bit down on her tongue.
Her foot slipped slightly but after she tightened her knees and her grip, she successfully touched the floor.
With a tight exhale, she spun shakily and eyed the lab stations terrifyingly. She flexed her fingers and ran for them, weaving through them and diving behind one of the terminals when she thought the person following her was suddenly closer than she thought.
A second later, her unwelcomed guest appeared just at the threshold of the hall.
She didn't make a sound...All her muscles tightened involuntarily.
Tooth covered her mouth and made herself as small as she could against the steel work station. Its cold exterior seeped through her wet turtleneck like ice as she shivered with furrowed eyebrows.
She held her breath.
The silence was deafening but who was...
00:27:48
The sound of the boots grew quieter – he ran down the other hallway!
Tooth's heart leaped into her throat.
This was it. This was her chance!
'Go, Tooth! GO!'
And the princess moved into a low crouch. Once she was out from behind the station, she made a sprint for the dark hall at the end of the room. As she ran, her eyes glimpsed into her sisters' heads – and somehow, she knew she was closer than she could tell.
Using them as beacons and invisible hands for comfort, Tooth flickered between each clone for any kind of sign. Tia...Tiana...Theena, Tuhina...they were all her lights in the dark giving her things that, while may have been unimportant to other people (like colors of the wall, the people around them, the sight of the floor), were the things that kept her composure together. Sector 4 didn't seem so terrifying after that the more she kept honing on similar surroundings. But that didn't mean her fears about the Nightmares were over, the longer the hall grew.
Tooth's insides were on fire as the cold bit her exterior. She moved as fast and as lithe as any girl with no previous skill could and left the lab hall behind.
"S-Something is here," she mumbled to herself, ignoring the dull pain in her chest. "Something is...I know it i–AAAH!"
Tooth's boots screeched to halt as a large body fell from a vent in front of her.
The Nightmare wasn't dumb – he knew exactly where she'd been! When he landed, Tooth jumped back and fired her bullets but he dodged them and put her in a staring contest.
He lifted a finger to his Bluetooth.
"I have the tooth! I have the–Aargh!"
But then he remembered that the communication was still down, his Bluetooth was still dead. So one could hear him, his success, which meant they also couldn't come for backup.
He tightened his gloves and rolled his neck – not that he needed backup.
The princess may have been loaded but she wasn't anything. And though her shots were clear and near perfect, he was faster...so this would be over before it even started.
Moving in, he reached out a large hand to grab Tooth by the front of her head but Tooth sucked in her gut and twisted away.
Jack's voice rang through her ears.
"Rapidness comes from the center of your abdomen Tooth, so don't forget to tighten your body. At the last moment...now!'"
Tooth squealed.
Pitch's assassin said nothing and tried to spin around to catch her but her reaction was slightly quicker though thanks to her Center gene.
'Sweet MOTHER of–'
Sensing his arm, Toothiana stepped in an outward semicircle to keep the distance between them and tightened her gun.
She watched him with cold eyes, hating how dark his uniform made him and how eerie the bright, yellow goggles from his gas mask made him not even human. But he was, and she just had to remember (as she tried to keep him constantly in her sight) that like every human, he had a weak spot too.
So she avoided him like the plague.
In bagua, Jack had made sure that for Tooth, it was all about putting herself behind her opponent, making sure she kept herself safe.
Tooth's feet moved and moved and she never let him step out far enough to see her. She was in perfect view of the limbs and boots, and shadows that belonged to them.
She was ready. She could so ditch his ass and she stopped for a millisecond to activate the spike in her boot but–
"Gah!"
The Nightmare kicked out his leg behind him and sent the princess went flying back.
Tooth barreled across the floor and tried to regain her footing.
As she steadied herself, she spotted a giant switch cable ripped and lying on the floor.
"You're Pitch's pet whether you like it or not!"
"No, you are!"
When he rushed forward, Tooth reached down to grab it and swung it viciously with a yell.
And her cable hit him unexpectedly in the side of the neck – but he retaliated quickly. As he jumped back, Pitch's assassin reached out and yanked Tooth's cables with him. She immediately let go and looked at his feet for more things to throw.
When he threw down the large whips to get her attention however, she panicked.
"Where's your sense of pride, princess?"
"G-Go to he–" Tooth grinded her teeth in fear.
She sidestepped and instinctively threw up her left forearm to knock away his hand with the outer part of her bone. The impact was hard but Tooth didn't stay to counter or stop to think.
She moved away with a choking breath and bent her head down on instinct when she felt him move at her again. Almost immediately, his tough glove raked the back of her hair...but all he caught were her ends, too short for him to take a full grasp of.
She gasped.
From the little slip up, a surge of adrenaline shot back into her.
She spun to face him violently and swung out her short blade to scare him.
The Nightmare backed away just a step when the knife zinged past his goggles. He'd heard too many stories about knives jamming into gas masks to want to be a part of it. In his retraction, Tooth lifted her Taurus M327 in her other hand and shot twice at his stomach.
But nothing had happened! His bulletproof vest protected him.
Averting the shot, the Nightmare rushed forward and knocked her blade away, kicking it down the hall.
And Tooth didn't have any time to level her glock as he went on the offensive.
Dodging and spinning were her only defense, but Tooth tried her hardest.
Heart pounding in her chest and eyes stinging, Tooth's body kept reacting and shifting until it felt like she would collapse. Her muscles were so tense from coiling and uncoiling and her mind kept thinking one thought on top of the other.
She gasped for air and jumped away from his clutches.
If he caught her, she knew she'd never be able to get out of his hold so she had to keep moving around, keep flying back and forth, kee–
'I cn't stay here, I CAN'T! I-I need to I...I-I'm running out of–'
Suddenly a hand wrapped around her arm like a bear trap.
Two seconds later, the wind was knocked out of her as he threw her against the wall.
Tooth screamed out as a pain shot up her tailbone and her legs almost gave out.
Her gun lost its grip and fell to the floor.
Tooth reached back for the wall through painful tears and an angry face. Her other hand tried reaching for any debris littering the floor around them.
Her breath quickened.
"S'n of a...I w-wo...I WON'T–"
"Go on, tempt me. Tempt me, doll!"
"D-DON'T YOU EVER CALL M–"
Suddenly he turned into a blur so fast that Tooth dropped her block of concrete. And when her head snapped up–
Lub-dub...
Lub-dub...
Tooth's bloodcurdling cry filled the hallways...but there was no one for miles.
She banged her head against the concrete and when the Nightmare tried to get her, she tried to find her weapons, tried to grab his wrists, tried to dive away.
But he was too strong. They were always too strong.
"L-LET ME GO!"
He pulled her close. What could she do?!
"LET ME GO!"
He covered her mouth with one hand. She couldn't give up.
She found one rifle.
He wanted to cut her.
She clicked off the safety.
And he moved in and she saw his knife and–
00:37:19
SLICH!
Tooth screamed.
Her gun clattered to the floor.
SLIIICHH!
Then another was heard.
And another.
And another.
And another.
She kept trying to clutch at his shoulder weakly, her eyes wide and growing distant.
"H-H...G–"
SHIIICK! SLIIIIICH!
Over and over the violence continued.
But it wasn't the Nightmare.
It was Tooth.
Again and again, she used both hands and drove his knife into his chest hoping with every yank that she got his heart.
SHICKK!
"Oh HELL no, mate!"
"You can do it! ...Oh not again!"
"Just hang on!"
"H...Arg–"
"Take her!"
"What?!"
"Yes sir! Your highness, I'll take you to the lot!"
"AA–"
SLICH!
"A princess makes her own decisions."
"Gaa-G-Gaaaaarhhh!"
She choked out angrily when she did, but it wasn't enough on the first try after his body started to slump. The more she felt the blade pierce through him and sink into something soft, her eyes grew dark with horrors.
He watched her, horrified, until his last breath – but she only gripped him harder.
She didn't see him, didn't feel it, even when something wet splattered on her cheek.
In her head, all Tooth kept thinking was that he was still alive, ready to get back up even with all his stab wounds and try to grab her again...and go after her family, and her friends. So she didn't think, blink, and on abhorrent silence she kept pushing against him until he was lying on the floor and she was leaning over him, terrified out of her mind, and driving her blade into him like an animal. But then her fingers started to cramp and she faltered slightly–
Tooth woke up.
She froze.
"Wh...H-Ho-did...I–"
And she dropped the knife in an echoing clatter.
Because there was red.
There was red...everywhere...but it was so dark.
It might as well have been black.
Maybe that's why she kept...because his blood looked black, like a Nightmare's heart, like Pitch, so she decided to just…
And there were so many holes...so many that she couldn't tell which overlapped and which didn't.
He wasn't moving but she...she couldn't see inside him.
Unlike a bullet wound where she could pretend he was sleeping, her artwork ripped across him like a horrible force of nature.
And like a terrible awakening, the reality hit her like a tidalwave.
Tooth started to shake.
"I killed...I-I killed him with a...WITH A–"
She pulled away so fast, her bones nearly snapped but when she tried to scream again, it came out as a painful choke.
Tooth wobbled into a stumble. All these emotions of fear, confusion, elation, anger tried to dominate her and she wasn't sure which was winning.
The Nightmare's gouged cavity stayed in the corner of her eye until she fell sideways.
Tooth caught herself at the wall but all the fire in her core evaporated like quicksand.
'Y...Y-You need to keep...They're g-gonna...'
Her mouth fell open in a silent scream.
Was she upset? Was she scared? Proud? Disgusted?
A second later, her legs crumpled beneath her and her knees hit the floor...
Tooth tried to throw up.
Her stomach muscles recoiled and she coughed out in pain. But it wasn't like anything came up – she hadn't eaten in hours. So instead, it was just an empty sickness washing over her. It wasn't easy like she thought it would be – like how people in the movies seemed to make it. It was hard! Tooth actually had to put a lot of effort into it and...she felt things inside him once she pushed the–
Her lip quivered as she coughed and choked and when Tooth pulled up her head, she looked around frantically for something to anchor onto. But nothing worked.
Shooting someone wasn't the same as killing someone with a knife. The gun did all the work and the bullet ensured that delinked connection with the person you were killing. But the stabbing...stabbing someone was different. She couldn't pretend like a corpse wasn't behind her – a corpse that maybe thirty-something years ago was just a little boy who maybe had a family, and dreams like everyone else before he got sucked into this life. But with Jack, with the Elves, even Sandy, she somehow stomached it! So wasn't it okay to think that...that maybe she could handle killing and anything else that came with it.
Like with her gun?
She lifted the gun to Prime Minister Bangkot and pushed Tiana behind her.
"Stay BACK!"
"Why do you have that, Toothie?! W-Why do you a have gun?!"
"Careful men she's armed!"
"Toothiana!"
BANG!
No, because...
She'd…
She had just desecrated someone's body, someone's life...repeatedly, with her own two hands.
Tooth moved on autopilot and pushed into a tiny alcove in the wall where the shadows hid her.
As she squeezed into the small pocket of darkness she held her knees to her chest and inched her toes as tight as she could to herself. When she gasped under her breath, it was so hard that her lungs rattled painfully under her ribcage.
Tooth thought she would throw up again.
What would her people think? Her friends? Or Jack? Or Mr. Sandy?
And what about her sisters?
Her gentle father?
Or her...her noble mother?
Toothiana clamped her mouth tight over her lips.
The cold seeped into her bones, then she curled herself in tighter.
Still shaking, still afraid.
'The danger's not over...th'...th-the danger's not OVER!'
But for what felt like a long time, Tooth stared blankly ahead.
"I didn't...I-I'm n..."
Her island, bathed in sunlight, and her so-called innocent personality tried to swallow her whole.
"I-I'M SO S..."
And what felt like a weight dropping onto her shoulders, Tooth slumped against the wall as a tear slipped down her face.
Her body shut down.
And she was left alone...
...all alone, in the dark.
00:59:58
00:59:59
01:00:00
...
Meanwhile...
"Don't...Don't–"
Jack's adrenaline surged like the violent wind tunnel. He blew down the Nightmare but with a step too close, Pitch's Fearling got back up quickly and grappled him to the floor.
He was ready to throw down punches at the skinny guy's face...but he didn't know GUARDIANs packed a lot of strength.
jack caught the wrists coming at his face as the Nightmare hanging over him. Then trapping the assassin between his legs, Jack clenched his jaw and pushed back against the fists with brute force.
His heart pumped steadily under his bodysuit.
Sucking in a breath, Jack narrowed his eyes and lifted his left boot to push off the man's thigh. He squeezed himself out of the tight grapple.
The Nightmare struggled to get out but Jack's legs were long and his grip was backed by the strength pumping from his gene.
He watched in mild fear as Jack's face darkened suddenly. Then without blinking, Jack pushed enough distance between him and the Nightmare and threw his other leg over the Nightmare's shoulder to catch him in a hold. He flipped them both sideways with his hips and went the Nightmare was lying face first in the cement.
A shiver rippled through his muscles under Jack's hold.
After shutting his eyes, Jack tightened his grip on the arm and stretched his entire body, legs to neck, pulling the man's arm out. His muffled scream would've came instantly but Jack lifted a hand to cover the man's mouth–
"I'm gonna find them," Jack breathed and he pulled the man's neck around in a powerful twist.
He wanted to distract the other Nightmares no doubt coming soon but Jack rolled his wrist and didn't wait. When a patch of darkness increased his invisibility, he tightened his muscles at the last second and tore through.
After that, every time he passed a map directory on the wall, Jack pulled out a tiny vial and tossed acid on it to destroy the image. His electronic visor was his only beacon of visibility now while the Elves were on the hunt after uploading theirs. Memorization was everything and without it, or intuition, Jack couldn't survive in this profession. So he marked the paths, remembered his way, put down his guilt, and trudged on valiantly for Tooth and the others.
He pounded the concrete harder for Pitch's siren generator.
Good thing she hadn't seen him regress into a...into such a...
He suddenly passed his dark features in the glass of a fire extinguisher case.
Jack scowled.
He threw a violent punch at it to break the reflection of who he used to be.
Then suddenly...
His complink buzzed to life with another ELF update.
"Camera feeds are down. Repeat cameras feeds are down. They can't see us now."
Jack gripped the EAster egg at his waist belt – he gritted his teeth.
The siren generator would show itself – the monsters like him always did.
But he just needed to remember what he was fighting for.
Tooth had reminded him of that.
...
01:08:05
Sector 4
Tooth bit her lip and the prick made her blink wide awake.
When she jolted with a whimper, she covered her mouth angrily but her expression was still gaunt and hollowed.
Her hands were still bloodstained.
With a tiny cough, the princess looked down at her hands but the red made her sick.
She gritted her teeth achingly and turned to the wall, trying to wipe all her work on the concrete. She even tried to pat her hands in the tiny, dirty puddle nearby to help but it didn't. If anything, it made her feel worse.
Tooth choked on a sob again and looked over her shoulder down the hall.
She could go back to the warehouse where the secret door was. She could escape like everyone wanted (needed) her to, like she'd wanted to in the beginning. She still had time!
But...
"N-No!" she shook her head defiantly. "I c'n...I can't, I-I..."
Tooth looked back at the corpse and everything she'd done to him to survive.
It made her skin crawl again.
Now she understood why Jack had such a hard time in Burgess, why he almost wouldn't listen to her.
"This isn't like some damn kid's movie where ghosts come back to life and everyone's happy. This is the nightmare...I'm the nightmare!"
Tooth caught the outlines of her gun holsters strapped to her thighs.
She shakily reached to grab her left rifle and pulled it up to her face.
It suddenly felt different, easy...and she hated herself for it – especially when she could still see the blood under her fingernails that wouldn't wash away. But the feeling of the knife somehow still seared into her memory.
Tooth gritted her teeth.
As she turned her head, all her sisters came rushing back to her head.
All their screams, their crying...Jack was right. Right about everything.
Because what would they say if they saw her?
What would they think?
"I'll be back, nong. I promise...I promise, okay?"
"T-Toothie?! TOOOTH! TOOTHIEEE!"
"Sh...She never came…"
"Tooth...T-Toothie, no...No!"
Was any of this even real?!
And what about Sandy? His eyes pleaded with her to run away but then that bag was thrown over his head.
A unbearable cold dripped down inside of her and as the sensation overwhelmed her, Tooth pressed the side of the gun to her forehead and shut her eyes. After a moment, she opened her eyelids – her pupils were shrunken and her irises were flickering.
For a brief moment, Baby Tooth was crying somewhere before then she was gone. But the point was that her sister was crying – they were all crying, and missing her, and losing their confidence the longer they waited for her.
She frowned angrily at herself.
Otherwise why else had she turned around and stayed? Why?
'So get up, Tooth! Co-Come on! GET. UP.'
On heavy feet, Tooth muffled her angry cry and pulled herself into a crouch. At her full height, something inside her shifted, making her gulp in the cold air.
It wasn't the fear.
It wasn't the anger.
The thing...dying inside her, was suddenly replaced with her sisters' faces, with Sandy's tiny hands and short arms, the countless Elves who tried to make her feel comfortable, her uncles' secrets, North and Aster...all their constant struggles to protect her.
They were her foundation, her support beams.
They were her warmth in the cold.
And as as ironic as it sounded, so was...
"Don't get cold...I never am."
"I'll protect her like I protect you because I...Jack, wait!"
"Wh...You're okay, y-you're...I'm so sorry!"
Jack's arms around her flooded back into her memory.
She missed the cool smoothness of being in the crook of his neck, his light breath, his pale fingers, how he always looked good in black, and how that one corner of his lip would always tilt up more than the other when he made fun of her crazy.
And god she missed their crazy but that was just who they were.
And they weren't finished yet.
No one was.
Tooth gulped in the cold air and stretched her turtleneck sleeves over her hands.
In tight fists, she then used the wet fabric to dry her eyes.
'Get up, Tooth. Wake up!'
"Y-You fight until you're broken r..re-remember?...And you're n-not broken yet!"
Then she shook her head slightly to push the demons away.
Desperate but trying, she looked at the man she killed and her knife laying far in the distance. A moment later she was running to grab it off the floor. When it was back in her icy hand, she turned around faced the other end of the hallway again.
She thought of Tia.
Then she saw through Tia.
"Wh'...How'r...WH-WHO–"
She started moving without a word. She thought of Tiana.
"Dialysis almost complete, ladies and gentlemen. Clone's likeness has increased to 89%."
Tooth's eyes grew dark again, darker than they'd ever been.
All the while, the tiny heart under her chest raced and pumped erratically, fighting to regain control, to keep the rage in check.
Dib. Dib. Dib. Dib. Dib. Dib. Dib. Di–
"Sh'll...she'll come...y'hear me? T'...the pri...sh's stron...you'll...won't..."
"My dear, we already have. And one of you has made Pitch very proud."
In the distance, someone younger than all of them started crying.
It sent a quake through their chests.
Tooth broke into a run.
In her silent dash, Tooth swiftly ducked her head when a patch of light suddenly blinded her. She dove into the next hallway. Throwing a hand on the map directory, Tooth read the hallways.
She narrowed her eyes.
Tatiana saw the hallways.
Grays upon gray, there was more steel than concrete and rooms which looked more like labs than actual corridors...
Then a number appeared.
4-9.
And the sector map beside it...marked the way.
Tooth pulled back.
She blinked and looked around her cautiously but there no disturbances. So she strained her ears too.
No sounds either but…
Tooth flitted her pink gaze to the right. She saw a door and map similar to the one BT had passed.
7-6.
And she understood.
"I'll find you guys, I promise," she whispered and after a shaky breath, the princess took a step back. "I'll find you!"
And Tooth no longer gave a shit about herself as she clenched her jaw.
She had deal with her own problems later – there was a world that needed saving first.
Jack had taught her that.
Tooth threw the Nightmare one more look and left him, despite her wretched soul, a fleeting Hypunjam prayer in her head.
Then like a bat, Toothiana disappeared into the dark with a cold, shaking fury (much akin to Jack's) coursing through her heart.
...
01:14:01
Meanwhile in Sector 9...
Jack hung upside down under a guardrail. A scouting Nightmare walked over him.
He was in one of the larger ones with a large open floor and platforms rising everywhere. He guessed that they all connected like a major highway to each Sector the way they crisscrossed over and under each other. But damn, that meant that this was going to be one of the hardest areas to sneak through.
He narrowed his eyes under his water resistant hood.
Even as he thought it, the ivory-haired man watched several Nightmares walking across each platform and walkway hurriedly. Jack did a head count, estimated each man's height and weight, and calculated his success ratio with the environment and weapons he had left.
He exhaled silently.
In his screw up, the Nightmares were all rushing off on deaf ears to different sectors. They had to be ready for whatever had tripped the connections. And without the backup telelink rebooting, Pitch Black was somewhere seething or killing a man until he got an update report. Although the second was more likely – even Jack thought the same as he tightened his core so he could hang under the walkway for just a few more minutes.
His body temperature was low, giving off a weak pulse and presence that the Nightmares dismissed as heat residue from somebody else...but that didn't mean North's men or Tooth and her protectors could hide like he did. From where he was, he was practically in plain sight under the right sensor – but they couldn't pull off what he could, even if the sector had been cleared by one of Aster's eggs.
'Probably must have thrown the device in here but they didn't stay for long,' he deduced as he craned his neck back and his white bangs fell away from his forehead. 'This sector has too much traffic for one team to take down.'
What the Elves needed to do was find the main sector, the main hub, where all the Nightmares situated and destroy that. Like simple science – smoke out the hive and the rest of the bees go flying. Jack was fairly confident though that North had told all his men this; it explained why they'd run off so quickly and without fear into the unknown.
Speaking of the unknown…
Jack tilted his head slightly, catching his bangs hang to one side.
With Aster's lens device still securely latched to his face, he marked the invisible lines on the glasses' electronic projector as the parts the Elves had drawn up blueprints for. Surprisingly, many hallways were digitally configured and processed and Jack could see pockets of activity pulse in them and on the lens' status bar.
Sector 13, Sector 10, Sector 9, Sector 7, Sector 5...6...12...4…
He bit the inside of his cheek as he felt his muscles ripple.
But who had more control in those parts: the Elves or the Nightmares? Sector 13 was cleared thanks to their...'dramatic entrance', but he could only hope that they were being crafty about it.
In a place like this, offense wouldn't save anyone.
Suddenly the sirens switched in pitch.
With a quiet jerk, the Nightmare who'd been walking over Jack twitched slightly in his black vest and exhaled. Jack rolled his eyes – how pathetic, if anything a Nightmare should be celebrating right now. They could have the time of their life now.
Then again, Jack had a very different definition of fun than most people.
Once the Nightmare had walked about thirty paces, was facing 137° NW from Jack's angle of visibility, the GUARDIAN looked upside down again quickly, assessing the ground (and other walkways) beneath him.
Eight sectors were clear, but none of them had a communication tower. Which meant that this sector, the most complex and most populated, would be his new playground.
He shut his eyes. Jack then threw of of his last throwing knives at a Nightmare on the floor under him.
"Gurh–Hurhh...Raugh!" The sound of blood gurgling echoed across the crosswalk – and the Nightmares panicked.
"The f–What the hell?!"
"Wh-Who threw that?! WHERE'RE YO–"
"Who cares! Find that rat, he can't get to the room! Pitch's order remember?"
Jack's eyebrows flew up.
Then without fear, he let go the metal holdings.
They were too worried about their vulnerable asses though to catch him falling into the black, let alone a scan on him.
...
01:19:26
Back in Sector 4...
Tooth never stopped moving.
Even when her muscles protested or her throat started to choke up again she bit down hard on her tongue and kept going.
She heaved through her nostrils to calm her nerves.
Strange enough, Tooth also counted herself lucky she never ran into another Nightmare...but it completely unnerved her.
There were supposed to be Nightmares crawling everywhere...tonight was the tonight, wasn't it?
They had her, they had...they had her sisters...and Sanderson was in shackles again, and Dean's defection could mean the end of North's organization, never mind the operation!
Those hallways wouldn't magically open a path for her.
So she had to be a fighting Tooth, not a crying Tooth.
'I-I shouldn't make myself sound like a...c-cartoon! I don't have time, oh my GOD!'
Would her clock run out before she even made it? What if she...
But Jack was there with her, she'd seen him – and the corridors were littered with broken debris and blood with every step. It didn't look like the type of fight he'd get himself into...so did that mean there were others? Others running around helping him?
Was it the Elves?
Tooth's heart nearly stopped in her chest.
"I've already called in an ELF to meet you up at the line where the forests start."
"That's why," she mouthed to herself. "T-That's why he chose now to help us."
And now Dean was going to pay for it with his li–
Tooth froze as the new sector loomed in the distance.
She read something hanging over the thick concrete wall above the dark corridor.
"Three," she mumbled. "S-Sector three?"
But was it the right one?
She felt an unbearable chill crawl up her spine as she eyed the three roman numerals carved into the ancient stone above the modern hallway. Inside the entrance, the floor was laid down with reinforced steel and the walls were dark but smooth like a hospital ward.
Her hairs stood on end.
'Tat?' Tooth called softly in her head.
Her eyes flickered.
BT wasn't moving and there was no one around except for shadows on the floors disappearing every so often.
Still, the floors and walls were the exactly same as the ones she was seeing.
Which meant…
01:31:17
Meanwhile...
Jack had re-emerged from the subdivision of Sector 7 into an entirely different world.
The hallways weren't crawling with shadows and the silence was heavy. But it didn't mean the guards weren't stationed.
As they were, Jack delivered a knifehand strike and lifted his other hand away from the Nightmare.
Then slow and steady, he straightened his knees once it was over. Pitch's first man fell forward and as Jack lowered him to the floor, the second finally slumped forward.
Jack caught him on the side with a dark look.
Taking a step back and pivoting to the left quietly, he lowered the dead man too until the two were piled on each other.
Jack narrowed his eyes as he stared at the door they'd been watching over.
A sealed archway with the words Cella Tutis inscribed on the side.
Latin.
For security room.
This was it.
He remembered North's triple agent, Dean, saying the siren generator were protected inside. It only took him several eavesdrops, a couple runoffs with the terrorists' watchdogs, and a near-impossible climb up an elevator shaft to find the smallest (but best concealed) sector of the headquarters – Sector 3.
At least it seemed so.
No other ELF, Jack realized, had a lock on this zone yet – he was walking blind into it himself. But it didn't faze him. Jack was a GUARDIAN for a reason – stealth in the unknown was his occupational hazard, and his specialty.
But this was getting redundant.
Stepping back, he ran a hand through his hair then pressed the access button on the door and–
POP!
"HO–"
–he lowered his gun hand as the third Nightmare coming into the hall across from him fell dead from the blind shot.
Yeah, really redundant.
And Operation Nightmare needed to end tonight before it started. But when was that even?!
Jack whipped out his staff.
He churned the wind up around him and formed a heavy layer of frost along his black rod.
He was ready for anything.
But, then the door opened and…
...
01:35:03
One floor directly below Jack, Tooth entered the hall and gazed on every doorway with a wide, anomalistic stare.
They were all shut though, and the white fluorescents burned her retinas.
She rubbed her eyelid uncomfortably.
How had she adjusted to the darkness so quickly?
The image of the Nightmare and all his stab wounds came up like acid.
Tooth shook her head with a slight whimper.
"N-No...Please stop!"
Tooth focused on her sisters harder than ever.
Gripping her knife in her right hand tightly, she moved to walk...but froze.
Her ears perked up – and what was with her nerves were going haywire again?
That's when Tooth heard it.
Voices.
She could hear voices, deep and controlled, somewhere in the distance.
"Mmhmm...msmm...smmmbmmfmhmm..."
She chewed her lip to stop the corners of her mouth from twitching.
But what were they saying?
She held her breath.
Who was...
...A long pause followed before the voices spoke again, but Tooth hung on the silence. Then–
01:41:08
Her eyes grew wide.
01:41:09
"Mr. S-Sandy?" she mouthed.
Her heart rate was rising.
...
01:41:10
Jack's blood pressure skyrocketed.
He narrowed his eyes so thin they became slits.
Huddling in the room in silence, Pitch's scientists were standing near the door. Their eyes were wide at the skinny man's arrival and their skins were paling at what they thought was death coming.
He didn't attack them though – they weren't killers, as much as he could debate they were. But Jack didn't lower his weapon either.
He bared his teeth and tilted his head down, watching as they cringed at how the shadows darkened his powerful features.
"Shut it down," he breathed. "Or Step. Aside."
No one answered. No one moved.
But after about five seconds, they all shuffled on shaky feet to give him a path.
Jack bristled and moved forward on his near-invisible steps.
They looked at him forlornly, not sure whose side he was on. He had the same look on his face Pitch did when he was livid.
Once Jack was on the other side, he gave the room a quick military sweep.
He spun on his heel to face them.
"Get out!"
They didn't have to be told twice.
Like mad cows, the bio-violators stumbled and escaped out the same door he'd just come through. They knew the Nightmares wouldn't kill them – they were Pitch's assets. But they were just afraid that everything was going kingdom come in the wake of the alert. They still had work to do, despite what some of them felt, Pitch's main scientist included.
Sabon, the man who discovered the Peppermint activator in the Center gene, was the last to leave and turned over his shoulder. He looked at Jack over his shoulder but the Guardian gave no emotion – even though he felt hatred slither down his spine.
Jack was already tired of seeing his face.
"Get out."
And Pitch's scientist dropped the gaze, slow and stony. His body was riddled with conflicting negative emotions...but his immoral work was never done.
"Ne penses pas que c'est fini," he muttered in French. "You of all people, I suspect, know that."
Then he left with his team again and the silence that followed was swallowed up by the sirens.
Jack's gaze was long and hard before he blew the door shut with a powerful breeze.
The man was wrong. It was over...for Pitch.
He then turned back to the room again.
Pitch's security intel had all vanished, their stations cleaned, but their reports left behind. He guessed because everyone had been all called to fight, even the watchmen.
How...fortunate.
Jack still didn't like it though as he twirled his staff in his hand to hold behind him.
He moved deeper into the room and gazed around.
The computer screens were high-tech and the desks were all covered in photos and files of people Pitch wanted tracked, dead, and ridiculed. The camera feeds were blacked out though, flickering like they were afraid. Jack lifted his chin a little in apprehension.
At least the Elves really did blind Pitch's operation – but now every mercenary was out on the hunt for them. Not to mention the ones trying to homebase from around the globe!
Jack walked slowly over to a desk and lifted a report that looked like it had been finalized. Flying down its contents with his cold blue eyes, he realized the report was a receipt.
A shipping receipt.
But for what?
He flipped the page but the rest of the printout had either been incomplete or taken away. He frowned before chucking it back. A moment later, he turned and spotted a corner with a strangely placed vent situated at the floor.
It was the only one in the room.
Trusting his intuition, the white-haired Guardian strode over to it and ripped the cover off with his hands. Almost immediately, a violent rush of cold air hit him. Jack dismissed it instantly and it gave him better attention to the inside.
As he peered at the edge of it, Jack lifted his staff and activated the hook. Once it zinged out, Jack gripped it with both hands and moved it in slowly.
He couldn't take any risks as he moved cautiously, all the while listening to the sounds of the silent war going on outside the room. It made his fingers twitch on the black titanium rod.
But as the staff reached three feet in, Jack pursed his lips thoughtfully.
No sensors went off, nothing sliced or seared his weapon in two. It was just a hole and that's all it was...wasn't it?
Jack pulled the staff back out and turned out his E-Lens.
Instantly the stats of the room read out in the corner of his visor, telling him energy signals, bandwidth signals, and the biological compounds surrounding him.
He clenched his jaw.
Jack pressed a hand to the wall with dark concentration He pounded his fist softly against it and pressed his hand to the inside of the vent. He even snapped his fingers to create a reverb on the soundwaves.
But for all his annoying tricks, his E-Lens didn't find anything new.
But his gene knew better, he knew better – so Jack tried something else.
"EA," he turned on voice command and as the glasses lit up for his prompt, Jack glared – he didn't have time to press through all the information it kept providing.
His lips moved in a hurried murmur.
"Show me the fiber tap."
Immediately, the visor worked to show him the pulsating lights running through the wires behind the vent. They were all running from the computers (and other places) moved into the vent under the floor and inside the walls.
Then he saw it – the intense speckle patterns of light traveling up into the siren wavefronts.
So this was it...this was where the security cables and all its siren command came from.
Hiding from plain sight just like the communication hub...just like Pitch seemed to get a pretty nasty kick out of.
With an angry breath, Jack unclipped Aster's final Easter egg from his belt. He peered his head a little further into the hole and sure enough...far down about sixty feet under, were the same green lights and reinforced-concrete room that the communication hub had been in. He glared coldly.
No way any Nightmare could make that jump and survive, and Jack sure as hell wasn't going to make another jump in there. He looked at the Systems Takedown egg one more time.
Aster said it could be directly connected into the generator or emit a wireless frequency strong enough for the egg to travel on. He glared at the device.
"This better work, Bucktooth," he muttered. "I'm not screwing up for anyone anymore."
Then, Jack tossed the little demon device in.
The egg fell down perfectly in a slightly curved drop, careful not the hit the walls and make a bang or sound. When it got too close, Aster's 'googie' even activated its own sensory detector and shirked its magnetic pull slightly in the opposite direction – smart as the little gadget it was.
But Jack didn't wait to see it. He pulled up and lifted his head slightly, waiting.
The sirens above him and out in the hall were still blaring annoyingly, drilling into his head like a safe cracker.
RHEOOO...RHEOO...
01:49:42
He tightened his grip on his staff and clenched his other fist.
It wouldn't be long.
Because god knew if it didn't, then Jack would wring Aster's–
RHEOO...RHEEOOOooooooiiiiiiii–
Jack's whipped his head down at the vent when a weird shirk! was heard deep from within the generator room.
Then like sweet music, the sirens fell dead. And for the first time in what felt like hours, the underground complex was silent again.
Jack twirled the staff, trying shot with his nerves. Suddenly his earpiece came to life on its own.
"JACK! Y'bloody crack, what took ya?!"
If that was a thank you, Jack took it with a clenched jaw. But he couldn't enjoy Aster's relieved tone – or the quiet (celebratory) background on his plane as he started to move again.
Jack switched to Луна.
"Everyone okay?"
"Yes, mate! But crikey, you–"
"I know!" he muttered back and threw on his hood. "But you know I'm not done!"
"Righ'!" the Aussy replied. "Good on ya...We'll see you both soon. And I'm gonna start a search on Tooth now!"
"Wait! You do–"
Before he could finish, Aster cut the link and the line went dead.
Jack's dark eyebrows flew up in the silence.
Should he call back and tell him about her secret escape?
He stood there for a moment until he shook his head. As he tried retracing his steps, trying to shut Tooth out his mind.
She was probably safe now and that was all he could hope for. He'd tell Aster and North later (unless they'd be informed later by Dean) but for now, he had to focus now on what was second-most important to him after Toothiana.
Her sisters.
Then...take down the rest of the Nightmares with North's men and stop Pitch once and for all.
And it all had to happen tonight. There was no other option.
So Jack took a step back, his boot making all but a tiny thud.
He was ready.
His body was elating with energy again.
So then...why did he stop?
His lingering breath left his mouth.
Senses suddenly flying, Jack turned his head slowly to the left as his snowy, white fringe hung just over his eyelashes…
...
01:54:01
Tooth pushed her bangs away from her eyes the further she moved into Sector 3.
Her body all shivers and cold sweat, she couldn't even classify herself as a human anymore – she felt foreign and horribly broken, like a cross between a ballerina and an addict suffering withdrawal.
The halls were dark now. After the sirens finally stopped it was like all the harsh fluorescents (that had meant to be a security mechanism to cast light on the dark headquarters) had blacked out. With the threat over, they engulfed her in shadows once more – but it wasn't like she enjoyed it.
Tooth shivered and pressed her arms tighter together for warmth she did not have. But when she moved around the curve of the hall that's when she saw it...
A light.
A light pooling out into the hall from a wide entranceway she had yet to see.
But why?...And for what?
With a nervous look over her shoulder, the princess made sure she wasn't being followed and inched closer. How she made it this far, she'd never understand...but her terrified guess was that whatever pain awaited her was probably in exchange for it.
She bit her lip and tightened her hold on her weapons.
Tooth pressed herself to the wall slowly inching toward it...
...
01:56:35
Jack was doing the same, one floor above her.
After he replaced the vent cover, he stepped back to turn his head again. That dark feeling kept gnawing at the back of his mind as he continued to stare across the curved room.
That door on the other side had been unnerving him that he just couldn't ignore it anymore. Something about its plainness called out to him – and somehow, he just knew it wasn't a washroom or an extra place for storage.
He twirled his staff and readied it in a one-hand defense behind him. He moved forward and pressed himself to the sleek wall beside it.
When it was within arms reach, the 24-year-old press inhaled gently.
He lifted his glove.
...
01:57:57
Tooth slinked the last few metres on the entranceway's right until she saw the steel frame running along its edges.
She looked up worriedly. Where were there reflective mirrors or cameras that were supposed to watch her?
It was paranoid but she had to wonder.
For all she knew, the people inside already knew she was there without her knowing it!
'But you haven't seen any markers yet,' she tried to pathetically reassure herself in her head. 'This hall has just been empty...really empty...'
But for why?
Tooth gulped and took one last step close enough to crouch low on her knees.
She then lifted her fingers to the edge of the archway, touching the cold steel.
...
01:58:12
SNAP!
The door opened after Jack gave it a mighty yank and ripped out its handle.
As he lowered the broken pieces silently, he pushed it open with one hand and glared over his shoulder to look inside. The coast was clear.
Jack crouched low on his knees and moved in. As he did, he flexed his fingers and dragged the cold wind in with him, frosting his staff again and paling his breath.
In the silence, the room was fairly large with a window overlooking another room he couldn't see. It was also empty but it was so dark and gave no kind of comfort for what activities it might seen.
Jack craned his neck up in his bent walk, long legs extending out under him in a cautious prowl. The E-lens hadn't picked up any security mechanisms. It seemed like the room really was a dead zone but why?
A second later though, he figured it out.
Looking down...
Jack saw blood.
Dry blood stained the old concrete. The rest of the room only had a few chairs and a long table was set in the middle; at the other end, a set of computers were turned on and were taping several rooms on some private feed. He eyed each camera with a danger dripping into his stomach.
As he watched, Jack's eyes grew wide.
The first screen was a live feed of two cages in what looked like a large, filthy, underground stockroom. Both were empty and had their doors still swinging wide open – a chill moved across Jack's heart before he could even stop it..but he knew enough already not to ask. With a frown, he moved onto the next two, smaller screens. Of the two, one had a feed with scientists moving around lab stations and handing out small vials of something to each other before they ran out of view to god knows where – and on the second screen, the camera showed nine metal tables dressed like beds that were lined up.
At the sight, Jack's Adam's apple bobbed up and down – he dangerously felt himself losing adrenaline.
Eight of the beds were tiny, like for children, and they had wrinkled sheets and pillows on them; but whoever had been lying in them were all gone. The middle one, larger and actually designed for an adult, was perfectly made and waiting, but the person hadn't come yet.
She hadn't come yet.
Jack took a step back and turned to the window overlooking room on the other side.
On heavy feet, he crouched low again and moved to the ledge of the window. In the same spot still one floor below, Tooth leaned around the double-door threshold too.
He peeked down.
She peeked in.
And...
01:59:58
01:59:59
Both their hearts nearly stopped.
02:00:00
Right on the dot.
…
The room was small and circular, and the ceiling was high – it resembled many other play rooms the terrorist had created. In the centre were a small platform and a light descending on it small enough to only touch the outer rim of the stage.
But the voices had stopped.
Instead, there was just silence floating in the out of the room.
On his knees, Sandy was bent low in front of it, his painful huffing audible throughout the room. The light barely touched him and his voice sounded foreign to him. Across the room, Dean finally caught himself at the wall, smearing blood on the steel before he slipped and fell onto the floor.
In his light gasping, his darkened blood was pooling around him, dragging him in and out of death. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fist though, refusing to give in.
Sandy gave a light choke suddenly as someone yanked his hair back, pulling his neck up.
Tatiana squeezed her wet eyes shut and covered her mouth, afraid to scream.
But no one said a word.
Chapter's soundtrack: "Bring Me to Life" – Evanescence (Thanks again, anons!) I said there'd be no more countdowns lol but this was a timer! (; And big hugs to emma-monsta for helping me with my lil francais.