This the one, the one that kept me up for days. I'm sorry that I never had this up during Halloween but then, would it really have been scary at that time or just funny? Lol anyway enjoy! For this, I re-watched the classic movie The Blair Witch Project and The Grudge, listened to creepy dubstep, and replayed horror games like Amnesia, Silent Hill and Outlast to physically take note of how bad it feels to be scared. (: And thanks for all the feedback – I didn't know a lot of you were creeped out by Pitch so much lol. But let's see how much you like him after this. (; And I lied. This actually wasn't that very short. Oops!
"See, they don't give a f*** about you...like I do."
Cylinder holding room, time unknown
Sandy pulled the new whip from Dean's utility belt. He dragged it behind his short body like a chain but Jack saw that out of the corner of his eye...the whip was shaking.
Flicking up his icy glare, the spy watched the Sandman's irises flicker so hard he thought the man's pupils might crack and bleed gold.
Jack wanted to say something.
He even opened his mouth as he turned his head back to the dark hole – but nothing came out. And the 24-year-old realized it was because he didn't want to.
For the sake of a family man torn from the inside out, he wouldn't.
So Jack reached behind him instead to unhook to two LX rods, and tossed one wordlessly to Sandy.
Mr. Sanderson caught it without a glance.
"And this," Jack said as he sent him North's respirator too, the same he'd been using to mask him from the toxins floating around.
But after nodding thankfully, the tiny man looked at him and Jack watched as simple hand gestures followed.
Sandy pointed at himself before he cupped a hand over his ear. He then lifted his chin and waved a finger in front of Jack's face.
Closing his eyes briefly, he finally opened them and stared Jack in the face.
Sanderson lifted an eyebrow.
And after a second, Jack nodded slowly.
Somehow in all the translations he understood that, with the Sandman's Center gene, they wouldn't be heard.
His frown softened.
'That's a little reassuring.'
"Still...I'll keep quiet," Jack offered then he started to move forward–
Sandy caught his wrist.
The operative's eyebrows lifted and he turned back tensely.
"What?" he murmured and watched as Sandy pointed two fingers at Jack's arctic blues before he pointed at his own eyes.
He shook his head adamantly.
"Don't 'look' at you?" Jack guessed and Sandy nodded.
Immediately his eyebrows scrunched together.
"Why?"
But all Sandy did was give him one more firm shake of his head.
Just. Don't.
Yet even as the Sandman turned and left it at it, Jack couldn't help the sudden chill that ran up his spine; watching Tooth's most beloved guardian dragging his whip behind him like a crypt keeper.
He looked down at the weapon.
It was obvious that North's triple agent never used the thing during his position as a Nightmare since it was still taut and tightly coiled; but it averaged about sixteen feet...and Sandy gripped onto it like it was an extension of his body. Sensing the gaze, Sanderson paused just short of the tunnel's line and looked over his shoulder.
He already had the respirator over his mouth, breathing heavily and impatient.
Jack narrowed his eyes.
"I know..." and he tilted his head down, tightening his hood over his face and casting a darker shadow over his strong features.
"We're not going to lose her again."
Then with a slight twitch of Sandy's fingers, the two moved in...silent and seething.
...
Pitch's tunnel, time unknown
They moved in unison, weaving fluidly around each other as they lighted the tunnel with their LX rods; courtesy of Aster.
Jack exhaled a small puff of air over his pale lips, thinking about the Aussie, about the eerie passageway.
The two felt cold, urgent, and that feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world immediately crept up their spine the farther they traveled away from the entrance. It was terrible and for someone who didn't like dark and enclosed spaces, Jack could not stand it.
"Visibility: Low. 6m wide, 12 feet high. Length: 2 yards approx. Wind speed? Gotta be...a-around 20mph," the white-haired GUARDIAN murmured under his breath. His thoughts were racing and overflowing like a busted water pipe as he made environmental observations. He remembered all the grueling hours spent during his sniper training, and calculating his success ratio.
Sandy listened for memorization.
"No sign of any artificial objects. Th...Three stalactites one yard to the left, bent in two L-shapes. Terrain? Flat. Upward slope at 12°...earth is...compacted; probably from overdue exposure. No other tunnels. A-Air density's thick...and dry."
'Argh but does it matter?!' he thought. Pitch already knew all the twists and turns of this sick place – why else would he have revealed it so suddenly?
Jack turned off his LX rod and pressed a button on his E-lens.
Instantly, the EA ran a Night Vision program on the walls and the floor around him and Mr. Sanderson. It wasn't as strong lighting up physical things as it did for digital, but it gave Jack more than enough distance so both their lights wouldn't give them away. As one corner of his lens read out stats only he could see, Jack glared.
The tunnel was old...really old. Like a forgotten, Roman, that-time-when-burials-were-kept-secret kind of old. It was probably why Pitch nestled his homebase in such an ancient city... But what kind of pros and cons would be in their favour? Or worse, what would be Pitch's?
Jack dropped softly on the ball of his foot as he moved over an uneven crack in the tunnel floor.
He pushed off quickly and did a silent spin to cover Sandy's six.
"I don't like this," Jack commented under his breath. "I really don't."
Suddenly Sanderson stopped. When Jack sensed it, he tensed immediately and looked in the corner of his eye to catch Sandy's movements.
There was just silence at first, and the faint whoosh of the air, moving through them like an invisible entity until it carried itself away into the dark.
Jack forced his shoulders to relax; Sandy did the same.
The two then looked up to the ceiling slightly...
Waiting...
"...H-Huhnh...G–"
It was Tatiana.
Sandy rushed forward the second the whimpering started to vanish in the distance. In his sprint, Jack spun and tore after him without a word. He kept up with the surprisingly agile nanny but couldn't do a thing about the sudden ache in his chest.
Tat's whimper made the protectiveness in the royal caregiver show itself so easily. That was a problem, a liability that up until now the Sandman had been phenomenal at controlling! But Pitch was playing a different game and all of Mr. Sanderson's colors were showing, and that made him vulnerable.
That made him a target.
"Can't handle the cold?...Heh, can you–Jack!...Have a little fun–my grandmother could fight better than y–J-JAAC–NO!"
Jack's teeth grinded under the cover his hood. He picked up speed in his footfalls.
'It's okay, Sandman...I've got your...And no matter what happens tonight," he vowed, "I am taking you down with me, Pi–'
Jack and Sandy stopped themselves with a bend at the knee. They froze.
The long tunnel came to a split.
Lifting their lights, the two GUARDIANs – one, a dream elf and the other, ironically a winter – twisted and looked at what surrounded them. There were three tunnels, not including the one the two used to find themselves in the hell hole; they all made a cross and each darker tunnel lead to...
...well...where?
The hairs on the back of Jack's neck sprang up.
He whipped the light down one tunnel then another, snapping his neck back and forth so hard that his white bangs slapped the tips of his eyelashes when he blinked.
'Where...Which...'
The dirt floors leading away into each were filthy with the footsteps of people who'd been there years before anyone. Did the Nightmares not use these tunnels? Or more likely, did they even know these existed?
The answer?
...Probably not.
Jack dropped a messy exhale when sharp electricity pricked his jaw line.
Sandy tensed when the younger GUARDIAN turned suddenly.
What did he sense?
Jack didn't offer any clue until his eyes narrowed desperately...
The wind.
The North wind. It was weak, but it was circulating from the tunnel on his right into the tunnel behind him. Jack grew anxious, unsure if it was his center (reacting to the weak signature of the gene's element) or just the apparent situation they were in.
"H-Hum-m–"
But then the crying came back.
"H-hmf...M-M...S–"
Jack and Sandy threw their lights around in a frenzy.
"Ta..." but Jack stopped.
Tat's crying sounded like it bounced off each smooth and jagged rock formation, and echoed off every shadow they had yet to see. Sandy turned faster than Jack could keep up, and it made the operative even more agitated watching the girl's caregiver spin, and the more he caught the wind with his skin.
Jack's fingers twitched violently for the first time since remembering who he was.
He knew he wouldn't be able to bring down Pitch Black without the full use of his Center gene. Wasn't that one of the reasons why he never gave up on finding his memories? To restore his full potential? Well yeah, he got it back, he remembered; he had his potential back and he was going to fucking use it.
But not without the wind, not without the one asset that put the game in his favour. He needed it, needed more, but it was only coming from (what he dubbed) tunnels 2 and 3!
"Mmf-M-M..."
And BT's crying was coming...from tunnel 4.
"H...H–"
Jack flexed his fingerless gloves, trying to tug the soft current his way. It barely held on and danced around his pale fingertips.
"M...Mr–K–HEL–mmpfmmmh!"
"Tatiana!"
Jack whirled around and eyed another tunnel – he was wrong, Tat was–
Sandy spun back to the first tunnel – no, she was over–
They turned again with their rods, lighting up the tunnels like a rave – but they swore they heard it from–
"H-Hhhhmm––"
Suddenly BT stopped. She echoed from every direction until the crying that filtered through Sandy's silent bubble died altogether.
The two stumbled on their feet, confused and heads spinning with frustration.
They tried to catch their shortened breaths...
Their lights quivered on to the floor...
"Having a little fun, gentlemen?"
Jack froze.
"Since when are you both so...chummy?"
"We're not," Jack wanted to hiss back but the Sandman's gene made him mute.
Sandy's breath hitched.
Something flickered under his light like the tip of a tail. He looked at Jack urgently.
If Pitch Black really was the infamous BOOGEYMAN (and his skin grew paler with that repeating thought) then their success ratio had just dramatically decreased. They wouldn't have an advantage, this was his playground. They needed to–
Sandy's gene absorbed Jack's sudden breath as something skittered away from his light too – it was too dark to tell what.
He made a slow gaze with his beam.
"Won't answer?" Pitch rang out. "You aren't fed up already, are you? You're Guardians!"
Jack turned to face another tunnel – even as he caught movement, his eyes grew wide in disbelief, suddenly remembering what happened before the lights went out.
"He knows...He know I'm..."
"Don't worry, Jack," Pitch echoed again. "I figured out...I knew."
The young man's mouth fell open.
Next thing they knew, the two caught something down both their tunnels and that's when Jack realized...
'The shadows!'
CRACK!
White bangs slapping his forehead, Jack turned.
He watched the Sandman's whip recoil back before he snapped it out again when another set of dark silhouettes were caught by their lights.
CRACK! CRACK!
Sandy rushed after them.
"Wait!"
Running again, Jack followed with his flexing fingers – and with every little sporadic movement, the Sandman let his whip loose.
"WAIT!"
CRACK!
Jack could barely keep up with the speed. His mind only slowed down enough to catch the tip of the whip as it was coming back – but the shadows kept appearing and without hearing BT, the silence was deafening.
So Jack couldn't blame him.
Crack! Crac–SNAP!
Sandy dropped his arm immediately when they got to another crossroads. He swung his wrist back to him and Jack heard the whip slide across the ground for a moment before it was muted again.
The private tutor's energy was crackling through the air but when Jack shone the light on him, the older GUARDIAN's face was unreadable.
Jack narrowed his eyes.
He could read a poker face better than anyone – he was trained to, and for all of Sandy's muscle control, he couldn't hide the quickening inhale behind Jack's respirator or the faint squint between his eyebrows.
When he turned away, he saw the walls.
Sandy's whip made horrid cuts into the ancient rock and kicked up most of the caked dirt on the floor. From the fury that was visible and the destruction that was real, Jack read the scars of a scornful, stressed, but loyal man who was getting sick and tired of the charades. And it looked like he wanted everyone to know it.
He frowned.
Next thing the 24-year-old knew, he took a step towards Mr. Sanderson and gently put his hand on the Sandman's shoulder – the way Tooth did.
Sandy exhaled stiffly at the touch.
Giving Jack a quick gaze, he refocused his stormy eyes on the tunnels again...but not before returning the gesture and placing his hand atop Jack's glove.
He nodded too, feeling his tension uncoil slightly. Neither noticed how their opposite hands kept twisting the wind and vibrations in the air.
In their grip, the contact between Sandy's skin and Jack's fingertips ignited the cold, electric jolt in their genes. Unlike Tooth though, neither freaked about it; it actually reminded them of who they were and how they remained connected – quiet and stronger than they were alone.
Jack squeezed Sandy's hand for support.
"Don't worry, sir," Jack murmured in their silent bubble. He then pulled away and stepped toward another tunnel, trying to sense the wind.
"Don't worry. We'll f–BAM!
The impact from the blow blurred his vision and made his E-lens fly off his face.
"H-H–" Jack gasped angrily.
"My visor!"
Aster was going to kill him.
Turning on his heel, the two dropped their LX rods to the floor instantly, burning beams as bright as the sun to find Jack's one important advantage in the dark.
Sandy's gold eyes kept searching, Jack pivoted in circles; but no matter how much they kept their eyes peeled, the visor had mysteriously vanished.
"Lost your glasses?"
Jack exhaled messily and snapped his head up.
"That's not good. Imagine all the things you won't be able to see."
Pitch chuckled.
"Huhuha...Having fun yet?!"
The two turned slow on their heels.
They stuck out like huge sore thumbs in the darkness as their lights gave away their position. Jack gritted his teeth – they were compromising themselves!
Sandy tugged on his arm.
Flinching slightly at the touch, Jack snapped his head down, feeling so high-strung, he almost moved to twist Sanderson's neck. But it was a good thing the man was so short because he barely had a neck under his gold-collared coat.
'What?' Jack mouthed. He rubbed his eye as he shined his LX rod on the wall behind Tooth's guardian. As the light bounced off the wall and shadowed their faces, an unnerving chill passed through him, staring at the dark respirator wrapped around Sanderson's jaw.
He exhaled as calm as he could – but sensing the shock-shit-scare he just went through, Sandy frowned.
The Sandman took in Jack's profile before he lifted a hand and gave an instruction as simple as he could:
A point at the Winter division spy, then a point down one tunnel.
Next, a point at his himself, and a jerk of his thumb down another.
Simple.
And Jack, feeling the weak, Italian Westerly wind caress his jaw line, nodded firmly.
'D...Do what you need to do,' he mouthed.
He then moved his hands to give what minimal sign language he could: tipping his invisible hat [look] and moving one 'peace' sign on top of the other, together in a circle [be careful].
Sandy gave a small smile, appreciating the gest–
BOOOOOOOMMmmmm...
They snapped their heads up to the ceiling.
Something loud and ominous reverberated far above them.
Whatever was happening up there back in the sectors, with all of North's ELFs breaking down the security walls and Pitch's Nightmare on the loose, either side could have just detonated something huge.
A moment later, Sandy shut off his LX rod.
"S–" but the man stepped out of Jack's light with a guarded expression.
Then his eyes turned gold, and he turned away.
Pitch may have had the shadows, but the Sandman, at his most powerful, could not only dull the sounds...but also the senses of people around him. He didn't need the light, not when his intuition heightened more than any GUARDIAN's and weakened everyone else's. Even as he melted into the dark, Jack didn't sense him leave until he was already gone.
He spun.
But when the Burgess-born spy stopped on his heel, he was only met with the other dark tunnels, and the twitching of his light.
Then Jack was all alone.
"You know my offer still stands, Jack...
...You can join me."
...
Alone, time unknown
Jack snarled.
Without Sandy's gene, Pitch heard the breath...and found him instantly.
"Ask me that when you've put a bullet through my skull. Then maybe I'll join you just to haunt you instead."
"Don't be so melodramatic, boy.
Even with all your screw ups, we share the same dark.
So why act like you can save a world that's turned its back on you?"
"Tatiana! Tat!"
"Your pretending is disgusting."
"And your argument is weak! ...Tatiana!"
But he stopped when he realized his mistake.
Shutting his mouth completely, he sprinted away and became a shadow again. But that wasn't good. It wasn't enough.
Thinking of Tatiana...of losing Tuhina, and remembering Tiana's screams...they kept bringing him back to Emma and all those brotherly instincts kept kicking in.
A fierce protectiveness much akin to Sanderson's (and Tooth's) came over Jack, crashing like waves and waves. He wanted to find her and save her so badly that the irrational, bodyguard, side of him just wanted to keep yelling her name, hoping that she'd feel comfort in just hearing his voice. But the rational part of him, the assassin side, wouldn't let him open his mouth and give himself up to a terrorist no matter what he hung in his face. So instead, he played mute just like Sandy (as inspiring as it was) and didn't let Pitch win the game, he couldn't – especially not in the place Jack felt that no one should ever set foot in again.
He turned his LX rod slowly while he kept his other hand poised over his weapons belt. But Jack didn't pull out a knife or his gun.
'Weapon exposure in poor visibility runs a higher chance of getting stabbed unknowingly by someone,' he recited in his head. 'I can't risk it.'
For the time being, Jack had to rely on his instincts to kick in if and when something came at him.
He made a steady exhale through his nose – light and gentle – as he coiled and uncoiled his lithe body across the tunnel. As new ones passed, he moved slick and slow into each, going in deeper and deeper. And working his core muscles overtime, his arms propped him up steady against the walls when he needed to make the extra push.
His scowl darkened.
The light became almost secondary to his prowess as he focused more on what his ears could hear, and what his senses could feel. His bodysuit became a second skin. But Jack couldn't deny the strain on his focus, especially when his minor claustrophobia tried to take priority.
'It's only minor...everyone feels it. But shit, my visibility's decreasing.'
Cautious and wary wrapped in one, his arctic blue eyes were unforgiving on the prison around him.
Everything was cold the further into the tunnels he traveled. He could see how thick the cloud of air was when it left his nostrils in slight puffs; not that that was a problem – the cold never bothered him anyway.
But BT?
Jack tightened his glove.
He didn't think she had winter-imbued abilities like his.
He caught one strip of the wind.
'That's right, her center's been activated,' he remembered. 'She's...She has a center.'
The image of her mismatched eyes came back full swing to Jack. He recalled how much she kept writhing under the fluorescents when they caught the light – and the tear that leaked from her purple eye as she looked down quickly.
Tatiana probably didn't even know what she could do with her Center gene yet. All her life, she and her sisters had been sworn to secrecy about their cloning and their diluted hybrid DNA. And even if they had any side effects from it like Tooth, theirs were probably ten times weaker than hers since they were copies of the original. But now that Baby Tooth's chromosome was properly stimulated and 'turned on', there was no telling how much her center could do. She wasn't the original, she wasn't Tooth – but that didn't mean she didn't have anything.
Pitch already knew that.
And it made Jack sick.
He snarled.
Before long, Jack got fed up with hitting creepy dead-ends and going in countless circles. Retracing his steps, he went back to the four-way crossroads where he and Mr. Sanderson split up. Sandy was still gone somewhere else.
He ran a gloved hand through his bangs.
That E-Lens would've been fucking helpful.
Pointing the LX rod down the familiar tunnels 2 and 4, he clenched his jaw. The wind was still there like weak blood flow.
Jack moved to face the cross breeze directly.
'Come on...' he thought remorsefully and the spy flexed one set of fingers to tug on the wind. Like always, he felt that soft, invisible pull he couldn't describe to anyone else. Tracing it with the tips of his fingers, Jack scrunched his eyebrows together at the fragile line.
His breath shuddered.
His gene fluttered at his core.
"Why are you even here? Back for Round Two?"
Jack whipped his head.
"This isn't your fight."
"YOU MADE IT MY FIGHT WHEN Y–"
Jack shut his mouth and heard the end of his deep and husky voice echo away down the tunnel.
He curled his fists in.
Again. He did it again!
Never...never gave himself up to the bad guy.
Tensing his muscles, he waited for Pitch to speak again.
"..." Jack exhaled silently. He watched the heavy puff of air that left his mouth drift out ahead of him. He waited...
And waited...
Pitch never said a word.
Jack's unease continued to rise, his anxiety crawling up his neck, but the wind was still too weak to draw on. When he caught a crack in the ceiling dripping with water, Jack lifted his finger just near enough to catch a drop – he froze it into an ice crystal anxiously with as little cold air as he could take.
'Where is he? Where is he?!'
The spy kept expecting Pitch to say something, to come out and scare him, and the longer he didn't the more stress Jack felt; as long as the tunnel remained quiet it felt like Jack was the only one underground–
He spun when he caught movement (miles from anyone)–
Jack didn't know what to do (and felt completely alone)–
His light moved sporadically down the tunnels.
This crypt had to be one of the last, coldest and most isolated places on Earth.
He kept seeing shadows, hearing faint hitches, seeing Tatiana, sensing things that weren't there–
Seeing Tatiana.
Jack turned back his beam so fast–
She was gone.
His heart was thundering.
Jack rushed forward.
The darkness swallowed him whole...
"H–"
...
Alone, time unknown
A cold feeling trickled down his throat.
Jack froze.
His mouth falling open on its own, suddenly his mental clarity felt like it was deteriorating. The tiniest trickle of breath left him and it was so faint – but to Jack, and for all his espionage training, it might as well have been the loudest scream enough to give away his position.
The GUARDIAN looked around frantically – and his boot tripped slightly.
He bit on the inside of his cheek, eyes growing wide.
"Visibility: poor... Footsteps, 15cm in diameter. Pros...wh-what are the pros?" he kept muttering under his breath. "M-Multiple overlaps, d...direction unknown. Cons–SLIICK!
"Ah!"
"Ahahaha..."
Throwing one hand up to his forehead, he pressed gingerly and pulled it away.
His blood was on his fingertips...from a cut close to his temple.
And it started to sting.
"Just because you don't say a word, my boy, doesn't mean I won't find you."
Jack shoved the LX rod into his mouth and bit down hard on it.
He spun on his heel when something made his heart shudder.
His light flashed down the tunnel...
Tatiana's legs and the end of her white dress were seen at the end. A blink later, she vanished.
"HMM!" (Tatiana!)
He ran after the ghost again – it had to be; a teenager couldn't move that fast on her own! So it w–
Jack's feet lifted with an ache in his muscles, feeling heavier than usual. Meanwhile, the ceiling got higher, the tunnel grew more spacious.
Jack felt like he was dragging lead. But he kept running and running.
Maybe it was the urgency. Maybe it was the frustration!
Or...maybe it was th–
Jack skidded to a halt when an ancient rock wall nearly smacked him in the face. His light almost didn't catch it until it almost gave him away.
He punched the dead-end.
Spreading his palm against the cold stone, Jack felt the shivers (the ones he'd been trying to suppress since he infiltrated Pitch's domicile hours earlier) finally travel across his body.
The flashlight fell from between from his lips.
"Baby Tooth!" he screamed.
He wasn't too proud to admit it; Jack was frightened for Tatiana now, bridging more on terror than concern for her tiny body.
He smacked the wall again.
"BABY TOOTH!"
When he spun back around, he shouted again.
"Baby Too–"
Pitch blocked his way.
Then flickering like a monster...the demon moved.
The sight was enough to make him scream.
Exhale.
But he didn't.
Shutting down all his emotions, Jack took the two-millisecond window to drop his knees. Pitch's large hand grasped the empty space where his face had been.
Missing the opportunity to smash Jack Frost's skull into the rock, he rushed down again but the operative wasn't as easy to snatch as an ELF.
Like Pitch said, he was a GUARDIAN.
Shutting his eyes, Jack sensed Pitch's movement – the muscle memory from being blindfolded and fighting one hundred feet high on a skyscraper surged through his brain, spiking his adrenaline.
Jack felt the air shift again in the dark before the movement started.
His center flared. A second later–
"A–"
His ninjustsu kicked in.
Dropping his chin down, Jack ruthlessly threw a gloved hand forward into the dark and met Pitch's assault halfway. On a quick exhale, he trapped the terrorist's fist in his grip.
Exhale.
Jack squeezed his palm so hard around the punch, digging his nails into the man's glove, and tried to redirect the violence.
Pitch wouldn't let him.
In the blur, the Nightmare King used the capture to close the distance between him and Jack, and within a foot of GUARDIAN's chest, Pitch stopped the recoil and went for the kill with a knee strike.
Jack's body dove to the side before he even knew what to think.
"H–H!"
He shut his mouth as he circled away from Pitch's leg; his finger was already moving to activate the hidden blade on his gauntlet–
Pitch's head snapped around, watching him like prey.
He hooked onto Jack's ankle.
The spy nearly tripped.
But before he could catch himself, Pitch's glove shot out. He gripped Jack's wrist, the one adorned with the weaponized brace.
"Stealing my toys on Christmas, Jack?!"
He twisted the arm – Jack threw his head back.
"H-h–AHHHHGG!"
As the pain spasm rippled across his shoulder, Pitch clenched his jaw.
He pulled out a knife–
Jack forced himself into a tight twist.
Biting down hard on his teeth to stop the yell, the GUARDIAN spun under his twisted arm and threw it back into its normal bend.
Exhale.
He yanked his wrist from the terrorist, and faced the tunnel ahead with Pitch behind – but there was no chance to run! So Jack said nothing...and pulled out a tight cord.
He bent his knees.
Just as Pitch recovered, the 24-yr-old kicked himself into a back flip, reminiscent of the one he did the night in Moscow but twice as powerful.
As he flew off the ground, Jack lined his cord up with Pitch's face. Then just over the man's head–
Jack shot his hands out–
He caught Pitch around the neck.
And using gravity, he dropped his body to the ground with brute force–
"ARGH!'
Jack slamming into a one-kneel position and dragging his catch with him.
SMOOACK!
His cord violently echoed against the rock floor.
But his eyes widened – there was nothing under it.
Pitch wasn't there.
Exhale.
"F–YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Jack was up in seconds, viciously wrapping the tight cord around his knuckle like a band. But his entire body was shaking with cold fury; by the time he finished, the operative had no clue where to start again.
He rushed to pick up the LX again and eyed the tunnels hurriedly.
They looked exactly the same.
And Tatiana still nowhere to be found – neither was Agent Sanderson.
Jack breathed in and out ruggedly, heart rate accelerating beyond his control.
And as he gritted his teeth, he moved his right hand behind him...and pulled out the one weapon he hated to use in close combat.
His gun.
Cold and familiar from all the previous shots he fired earlier, the polymerized grip stayed firm in his clutch.
He exhaled unsteadily, watching the air leave him before he pointed the barrel down and his light ahead.
His eyebrows furrowed nervously.
"Tick tock, Jack."
Jack tensed up.
"Operation: Nightmare...my army, they're almost ready. But I can't say the same about your G–"
BANG!
Jack lowered his shot.
"You come out right now!" he roared.
He spun on instinct.
"COME OUT!"
The first, new tunnel on his left – empty.
"I am not done with you, you bastard! COME OUT!"
His command was loud and laced with the fury of a warlord, but he had never felt more disadvantaged in a fight than tonight!
Jack turned on his heel again, hunching slightly.
The other tunnel was empty too.
"Come out? Why?! Just to watch you get all emotional on me?"
Jack gripped the LX rod so tight that it's surface cracked slightly.
"You're a typical hero, my boy. It's more fun to make you work for it!"
Jack wanted to bash his face in–
'No, it's about Tatiana!'
Jack turned swiftly in a full circle.
Straining his ears and tightening his muscles at the ready, every tunnel seemed endless, darker than the other. They could've all been connected like a playground, or unique and endless like gateways to hell.
Jack made pivoted another 180° on his heel.
Exhale.
'Find her. Find her, Jack! Find the eyes, the dress! Just fi–'
His light landed on Tatian–
No.
He landed on Emma.
With eyes white and a dark veins on her cheeks from the INNOCENCE program.
But a second later, she was gone and when he refocused on Tat, so was she.
"EM!"
He made a break for it.
Sprinting down the tunnel, his skin felt cold and sticky – but he wasn't sweating.
His legs felt heavy again and his heart wanted to jump out of his throat.
'That wasn't...That wasn't–'
But he didn't stop him from shining light on the spot where the girls had stood.
The cold in his chest spread exponentially.
He started to run.
But as he crossed an unknown side tunnel–
"R–"
Pitch's ungloved hand suddenly shot out to grab his face.
Exhale.
Jack ducked...Pitch's finger made contact with him – close to the cut on his forehead.
Jack's eyes widened.
He came to an abrupt stop, his vision flickering suddenly.
"Wh-W–Ah!"
In their brief connection, Pitch opened the things inside Jack, the tiny flashes of violence, belongings, desires...and he twisted them.
Then vanished again.
Jack spun, trying to follow.
But he wasn't able to control the hairs on his neck from rising or his breath from quickening – something was wrong.
His white bangs slapped against his forehead again as he turned urgently, catching some of the mutated blood that pooled near his temple.
"Pitch!"
His light caught movement.
He saw a beard.
"North!"
The Russian flickered out of sight.
He caught a 10-year-old boy and the dash of two ELFs.
"J-Jami–"
He disappeared too.
But Jack froze.
The things he kept seeing, the bodies...they weren't ghosts. They looked real and he knew they weren't from the Bleeding Effect.
It was something else.
Someone else.
He shivered.
Jack expected Pitch to come at him again and kill him.
"Hhuhhuh..."
Instead, there was deep chuckling, and it seemed far worse.
"Hhuhhaha...ah, I don't know what you're seeing, but I see you. Yes, I see you very clearly now, Jack Frost. And you know St. North...it explains the suit. Which means those little parasites infesting my facility are ELFs? I thought you wanted to be alone–"
"And thought I told you to go to hell." His voice turned guttural.
Jack spun.
Baby Tooth reappeared then disappeared again.
His protectiveness soared.
She left with a cry.
"T–PITCH!"
"Wasn't that your 'grand master' plan? Save the girl, be the hero and then return her, untouched, back to her little world?"
Jack turned again.
The cold spreading across his chest shot down to his fingertips, crawling at his skin.
"But you can't now, hm? Of course you can't, seeing as there's nothing untouched about her. You've touched her. And isn't this what I warned you the last time we met?"
"Where's TIA–That son of bitch is roadkill!"
Jack hesitated.
He wasn't unsure what was coming.
Pitch's face flickered in the distance.
He didn't stop.
"I told you that you'd be the one to do more damage to her than me."
When Jack blinked, old ghosts of people he'd lied to, the farmer who kicked him out, and old opponents he'd faced, started to blur his senses.
Jack whipped his head away, trying to anchor onto something good...something like being a GUARDIAN, something like protecting his friends.
But then another man he'd killed appeared.
And another–
"I still haven't laid one finger on dear Thia, and in the manner of your so-called 'protection', you've wrapped that girl around your mess like a pretty, little ribbon–"
His head was starting to pound.
All those old feelings that he thought he'd buried with the Christmas sunrise in Burgess...and Tooth...were suddenly coming up.
But why now?!
Jack grabbed at his hair and stared at the floor.
He thought he'd made peace with his decisions, with seeing–
'Think of Tooth...Think of–'
"Believe me, I know. Every time I touch you, you'll reveal yourself a little more to–"
"Think of Tooth."
"...Sorry?"
Jack's blood drained from his face.
He covered his mouth.
He hadn't meant to say it...s-say it out loud!
But Pitch smiled. And like the interrogator he'd once been, he saw all the nerves, pitiful and exposed.
"See? Just like that...and now I know. You don't want to let her go."
Jack snapped his head up.
"G–!"
"So, even after all your preaching about 'not corrupting her' with the demons from your past, about refusing to 'let her in'–"
"Shut up!"
"–she let you in and gave you a place to hide. And now, you...well, you just want to stay there, don't you?"
"I never hide!"
"You're a spy, my boy. Hiding is your natural state! But not with her...you'll give her everything–"
"H–"
"–because I get it now. I see it...You want her."
"I want to protect her!"
But running through Vietnam, hiding in Russia, dancing in a Pennsylvanian bar...it all seemed like a lifetime away.
"No you want her and, Jack, I know just how much."
"Shut up, you sick–"
"It's not my fantasy, it's yours! You want her. More than you're willing yourself to admit."
"S–"
But his vision flickered.
Pitch looked on coyly.
"You don't just want to take her home, you want to give her flowers, make her laugh, smile...To twirl your finger in her hair and make sure she doesn't forget you."
Jack's vision cracked.
He saw himself back in Moscow, holding Tooth against the wall as she nibbled on his ear.
Jack remembered pressing his face into her hair, smelling her–
"You want to run your hands across her skin..."
–he saw her beautiful, slender leg stepping out of the limousine for him.–
"...and you want to hold her."
–to give her the world–
"STOP IT!"
"But you also want to lock her up–"
–and on some darker level, to pull down her dress, push up her skirt–
"Taste her–"
–to drop his head down to kiss her neck–
"–and make her yours over and over again–"
–and lift her from underneath and slam her against the wall so he could–
"STOP IT!"
Exhale.
Jack threw his head back in the scream.
The images stopped, but his heart was still racing.
Something cold trickled down his neck... and the wind picked up in the tunnel.
Pitch stopped for a moment, sensing, watching, Jack's darkest dreams catch up with him.
He laughed at the GUARDIAN.
"My word, Jack," Pitch pretended to sound surprised, "those fantasies of yours would certainly ruin her."
Jack shook where he stood, nearly forgetting to stay on guard.
He bit down on his tongue so hard, just to stop from gasping, he drew blood between his teeth.
"But you're such the gentleman, pretending like it's never crossed your mind. Yet all the while, you move around your dear princess like a soldier first and a lover second, wondering when you'll ever get the chance to change that–"
BANG!
"BE QUIET!" Jack exhaled raggedly and let out an enraged yell.
The increasing wind surged passed him uncontrollably.
It froze the light layer of sweat on Jack's neck like a pale white sheet.
"But let me ease your mind of that conundrum, Jack."
Pitch flickered in his light again before he vanished again.
"You won't."
A second later, Jack got a strike to the heart.
Exhale.
"AH!"
The front snap kick was so powerful that Jack flew back without any air left in his lungs.
He shut his eyes, preparing for the impact of one of the rock walls behind him, but the world seemed to flipped instead. By the time Jack realized he wasn't going to hit a wall, his back slammed on to cold hard dirt, several feet lower from where he stood.
He landed in a mess and his hood fell off his head, exposing his snowy, white hair. His gun and his LX rod were still tight in his grip.
"G–Hah..."
Jack sputtered in pain as he tried to roll back up quickly. The wind followed him.
"H-Ha-h-haah!"
Something inside him rattled and chilled him to the bones.
Getting up as fast as he could, Jack gave the things surrounding him a cold and immediate sweep.
The blood drained from his face.
Standing in the center, he found himself in the horrors of an ancient punishment room.
...
Time unknown
Jack's fingers twitched shakily. He looked around with his flashlight.
Dark and cold, the high-domed room was semi-circular with only three tunnels connecting back to–
He suddenly quaked under all his cold adrenaline, feeling something lick the back of his mind.
The room...it was almost the same as the Judgement Room back in the Core.
There was only one, very old (very heavy-looking) table. And on the floor...
Jack's blood ran like ice.
A long black scythe.
Worn from time and usage, the curved blade was stained with the blood of Pitch's old victims, from his days as the BOOGEYMAN, and his nights as the King.
But a blink later, it was gone.
"AHHHHH!"
Jack spun.
"BABY TOOTH!"
He rushed at her shaking form, standing on the another side of the room–
Pitch blocked his view.
With a grin so sharp, his teeth looked like they could cut flesh.
"What's the matter?!" Pitch taunted and moved forward with his old weapon. "I thought you said this was about me!"
And the Boogeyman pulled his grip low on his scythe and threw the knife head forward.
Jack swooped down and twisted into a side flip, gasping as he did!
He had never fought against someone with a scythe before...and it terrified him as his eyes stayed wide and his mind struggled to stay sharp.
When the spy, landed on the floor and dipped away again, he threw Tat a quick glance.
She was gone.
"NO!"
Pulling up his Titan, Jack rolled away under another frightening swing and aimed at Pitch. He clicked the safety off his gun instantly.
Narrowing his eyes, he shone light on the terrorist and fired two cold shots. The accuracy was so great, they should've been head shots.
BANG! BANG!
The keyword: should've.
But with Pitch's training, his reaction time was just as fast – if not quicker – than Jack's, even with the 100-lb guillotine.
Twisting his body into nightmarish forms, Pitch laughed slow and purposeful, narrowly evading each shot with twisted enjoyment.
"Come now, Jack!" he seethed and twirled his long, curved blade in one wrist roll. "You don't scare me. I'm just getting warmed up!"
And before Jack could adjust his kneeling position, the terrorist (reawakened by the old, familiar chapter in his life) charged like a bull.
The pointed back-end of his scythe leveled with Jack's face.
"J-JACK!" Tatiana screeched, remembering his name. "LOOK OUT!"
He reacted at the last possible second.
Pulling out the one weapon he always relied on as the Nightmare King closed the distance, Jack dropped his LX light and unsheathed his short rod.
He pressed the staff activation button.
As it flew up to shield his face, the six-foot titanium staff extended and absorbed Pitch's incoming strike.
Jack knocked it away.
He cried out with frustration, a second later lifting his gun.
BANG!
The bullet zoomed past Pitch's bent torso but Jack didn't have time to think as he dove away again from an incoming swing. Using what wind he had, the white-haired operative propelled himself across the ancient floor, dragging dirt and pieces of what looked like ancient torture instruments and bone.
Jack threw a hand out to stop his roll.
Exhale.
Looking up, he watched just in time to see Pitch bring down the end of his scythe...on his LX rod he left behind.
In one short, brilliant flash, the flashlight cracked and died instantly–
"N–"
And plunged Jack into complete obscurity.
Exhale.
He couldn't say a word.
Neither could BT.
Wherever they both stood, their hearts were racing far too fast for them to even open their mouths.
So instead, there was just silence...
...and the fear of just waiting to be ripped apart in the dark.
"What now, Jack? ...Are you afraid of the dark?"
BANG!
"GA–AHHH!"
Something grazed Jack's arm and ripped the skin away with his bodysuit.
As he threw a hand up instinctively, Baby Tooth started to cry.
"J...J-J–Mr–"
"Get up."
Jack rubbed his eye so hard with his fist he thought he'd pop it'd pop right out of its socket. His finger was shaking against the trigger of his gun.
But he couldn't shoot – not with Tat in the room and the two of them still trapped in the dark.
BT's breathing started to fill the room.
She was having a panic attack.
"TATI–"
The GUARDIAN's blue eyes stayed permanently wide as he threw them around in the dark. They kept trying to adjust to the darkness, but there was nothing to see.
"T–"
"You haven't got another light, have you?"
"Pi–You...d'n–"
Jack tried getting up.
His body was shaking, and the anxiety and anger were trying to dominate over the other.
Heart a steady 110 bpm, he reached behind his belt.
"I-I don't–"
Jack thought of home. He thought of Emma as he went to his last resort.
"Th-That's not all...I do."
And he thought of Tatiana...and Tooth.
He gripped the pouch clipped to his–
"What a sport."
A second later–
Flames lit the room.
In the dim light, Jack's pupils shrunk at the changing terror.
He dropped his hand from his belt, falling still.
Pitch stood at the other end of the room.
...
The man looked like an executioner with his scythe relaxed in his hand and his body unmoving. In the angle of the weak orange light, his face was mangled with a dark expression.
Jack dropped his stance into the defensive but he couldn't stop the slight shake of disbelief with his head.
Pitch's eyes were bloodthirsty.
"Give me something to believe in, Jack. I want a real fight," he seethed. "Let's put that GUARDIAN in you to the test. And who better...than by another GUARDIAN?"
Jack choked.
And something he hadn't felt in a long time struck his heart.
Pure fear.
The kind that wanted to leap out of his throat and make him run. But he couldn't.
So it dropped into his stomach.
"NO!" Tat screamed.
Before Jack could blink, Pitch became a blur and swung his weapon.
Jack knocked it away on instinct.
Pitch became an unstoppable black tornado, and the operative was threatening a heart attack so easy, Jack's retaliations almost always matched the strength just barely.
It was so fast, suicidal–
Jack's body shuddered as Pitch made the quickest step back he had ever seen. With a guttural yell, the Nightmare King twisted his scythe and tried to provoke the spy with a preëmptive smack to his ribs.
Jack took the bait and employed a rush forward with his parry.
Pitch grinned.
At the last moment of iron-on-steel impact, he let one hand go from the scythe.
He drove it toward Jack's heart.
Gripping the bodysuit, Pitch closed his fist into the second-skin material.
He yanked Jack down.
Just below his scythe to line them up for a decapitation–
Jack clenched his jaw.
Pitch forgot about his gun.
BANG! BANG!
Dropping the suit, Pitch jumped away as the bullets made sparks in the rock floor by his feet. He lifted his head as Jack pulled his gun back, keeping it tight to his body so Pitch couldn't grab.
With a ferocious breath, the 24-year-old twirled his staff so hard and so fast that the force of the titanium knocked Pitch's scythe away and off balance.
It tossed his white bangs up furiously but gave Jack the opportunity to shove his gun into his belt and drive his staff into the ground.
Using the staff like a pole, Jack threw his body weight around it and shot out a turning kick.
He hit Pitch in the torso.
Exhale.
The impact threw the terrorist back a little.
Jack gasped angrily landed and ripped the staff out of the ground; wielding it defensively against his back.
Pitch was manic.
"Hahaha! Now there's 'little Jacky'," he seethed and swung his scythe out to lob Jack's head.
The GUARDIAN ducked and rolled away, only managed to get a lock of his white hair chopped off.
"H-h–"
Landing in a near heap, Jack saw the two-second window in Pitch's return swing, and leaped away for distance.
He snarled.
Catching the strongest current in the wind he could, Jack pulled it down as he reached into a tiny flask at his belt. With a snap of his wrist, Jack threw the water back at Pitch's face and hurled the cold wind too.
The combo froze over his eyes.
"So that's it!" Pitch cried when the cold spread and hardened against his skin. "Hahaha, THAT'S your CENTER!"
Jack gritted his teeth and activated the hook– just as the man finished wiping the light frost off his face.
As soon as the powerful Sheppard hook appeared at the end of his staff, he back spun around.
Jack yelled–
"ARGH!"
–and he swung the hook and caught the curve of Pitch's menacing curved blade.
CLAAAUNNG!
Jack threw everything into the hit and felt his legs buckle slightly under the obvious strength and weight of Pitch.
He grinded his teeth and shut his eyes. The gunshot in his arm split with blood.
"Ahh!"
The two fought for dominance over the other, pushing down hard and merciless. Pitch used his wrath; Jack used his vengeance. And for the two men, although lives apart, in one moment were both tapping into a similar darkness that had driven them for years.
Pitch growled.
"What are you going to do!?" he said. "Stop me with snowflakes?"
Jack gritted his teeth and shoved as hard as he could.
"Gargh!"
Pitch dug his heel into the earth.
"You cannot stop what hides in the dark, Jack! Didn't Project GUARDIAN mutate you into someone smarter than that? Better than that?!"
Pitch came down harder on Jack, forcing him to shut his eyes in the weight.
"Your little friends playing Hide and Go Seek in my shadows will perish. Nicolas North will die along with anyone who follows him–"
"N–"
"And I am going to STRAP Rashmi's daughter TO A TABLE–"
"Y–"
"AND TAKE–"
"YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!"
Jack's eyes snapped open with a faint flourish of white.
"YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY OF THEM!"
In an adrenaline-fueled frenzy, Jack somehow managed to throw both hooked weapons into a low circle and wretch them from both his and Pitch's hands.
Pitch was nearly unprepared for the assault that came.
He brought his arm up to violently knock the 24-year-old's fist away with a knife hand strike.
But Jack didn't stop.
Up and down, side-to-side, Jack was an unmerciful blur. The only thing another than Pitch's tight blocks and their fast-moving feet, were his violent exhales.
Narrowly avoiding a ruthless gouge to the eye, he arrogantly pulled back his lips in a snarl. Jack Frost was suddenly untouchable and Pitch was almost incapable of advancing – instead he found himself retreating more and more in his steps as Jack barreled forward like a hurricane.
And it was just him. Just Jack.
No tricks, no weapons, no gene.
Just the man himself using everything he was taught with his body!
Pitch dodged when a swipe strong enough to scratch the skin right off his nose.
As the terrorist jumped away, he growled.
"Enough!"
And just when Jack was about to land his first violent blow on Pitch–
"Gyaah!"
Jack's subconscious reacted.
Dropping his body immediately, he stumbled just before his boot made contact.
His staff fell with a loud ominous clatter!
Hitting the floor, Jack landed in a terrible heap but didn't care – his eyes were already fixated on the scene before him.
"Jmfhmmm!"
The blood drained from his face.
In the light of the flames, Pitch was suddenly standing three feet away from him...with Tatiana in his hold, grasping her under her chin.
Tears dribbling down her upset face, BT could barely breathe under the touch of his glove.
She knew what would happen when he didn't wear it and she prayed he wouldn't make an example of Jack, the man Pitch seemed to know more about...who Tooth seemed to know too.
Her tears made her eye sting.
"Mhmm ffmm! MHMMM!" (Please run! PLEASE!)
Jack forced his hand not to reach out to her.
But they both knew...Pitch was using her as leverage.
Exhale.
Jack looked at them, horrified. His heart hammered in his chest.
He wanted to throw up.
"P–"
"You know, I see why you're so enchanted by these...little defects," Pitch drawled as he towered over Tatiana. Her mismatched eyes kept trying to find Jack's white hair in the blurry light.
All she got was pain.
And Pitch, Pitch was relentless.
"She's something special, that Toothiana. And with eight copies over, it's almost of a package deal, really."
Tatiana's lip quivered violently as Pitch tapped his finger against her jaw line.
"Remember what I said," he chuckled coyly. "Her soldier first and a lover second."
BT pulled her head up again, desperate to see Jack's face.
Through her tears, she saw Jack tense uncharacteristically.
She paused.
"What's wrong?" Pitch tilted his body further over Tat's encasing her in shadow.
He grinned maliciously.
"Is that...too strong a word?"
And Jack, for some unknown reason, was stalling.
His mouth was moving, but he was hesitating, panicking.
Maybe it was watching Pitch swallow Tatiana whole like a cocoon. Or...
No, it wasn–
"L...L-Let her g–" but he stopped.
Jack was suddenly shaking, and with Tat's current position, he was more scared than he'd ever been. He didn't know what to say. what to do, and in Tooth's sister's current hostage position, he wasn't thinking properly. He stumbled up slowly, afraid to provoke Pitch now that the tiny handmaiden was in the man's grasp.
But he didn't know what he was doing.
"Y...You shut your mouth and let her go! I don't know what you're–"
"You're lying! So you better say it!"
Jack froze.
Pitch's gold eyes melted silver.
His face erupted with rage.
"SAY IT!"
"MHMMM–"
Pitch covered her mouth.
"Well then, go on!" he mocked. "Tell 'Toothie's little sister' why they never heard from their big sister, why she never came to their rescue!"
"So you'll stick with me...Where the hell are you going?!...Give me a reason, or I'm taking her whether you like it or n–You need to stick with me! I can't protect you like–"
Jack's eyes grew wide.
"Tell her why she and her other sisters kept waiting...and waiting...for someone who never came! And when she did, why she came in shackles!"
"W-WHA–"
"So what? Am I grounded for sneaking ou–'ime around, I know Russia's streets like the back of my hand. So trust me kitten, you won't make it out out of my hold for five–it's not that far but I'll go slow...where do we start looking? I need to go back the States–Aw, live a little, Tooth. It's Chris–"
"Because you had her," Pitch finished, like a monster, finding the soft underbelly and tearing the heart out. "You held her up."
"Too..T-Tooth is he..You–"
Jack looked at Tatiana. "No, I–"
"You wanted to keep her all to yourself!"
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"SO SAY IT! SAY THAT Y–"
"NO!"
But the roaring, and thundering in his heart, under his suit–
Jack was paralyzed.
"Well then maybe you're right. Maybe you don't deserve the company of someone like her, like a princess," Pitch seethed. "Or perhaps, any your so-called friends because you're true to your name. You are cold itself. And you are selfish, possessive, and heartless. Just like–!"
"N–"
But he stopped.
The two watched as he fell silent again, his expression bleeding out.
Somewhere between pain and painful realization.
And when Tatiana saw it, she shook her head with him.
But even as his blue eyes fell on her slowly, she saw past his weak head shake.
That, something in his gaze cracked.
And after only two minutes of meeting him, the 17-year-old knew.
She saw the change...
Pitch was right.
Exhale.
Jack suddenly woke up in the fear spreading through him.
"–'ou ever try to pull a gunner on me. You won't make it out my s–Remember me? I-It's Jack!... is this how you've been running around with–the hell is wrong with you?!...LEAVE ME AL–I DON'T WANT YOU TO B–'anted them dead, I wanted them all dead–I still want that–You're hurting us!...'ell then you're a fool, princess!"
The images came back.
The 24-year-old was frightened by the...everything that he hadn't yet come to terms with...the ones he didn't know he felt so strongly about–
But they were there, and Pitch hadn't created them.
He unlocked him.
And thanks to Jack's screaming...he now knew, leaving echoes in his head, and bleeding him open, over and over.
Over and over.
Jack's glare suddenly vanished, gripping his weapons like lifelines.
And drawing in deep breaths for the heart bruising under his soft armor, his mouth fell open.
Baby Tooth felt more tears fall for him but Jack didn't see it.
"What a shame..."
Pitch was unaffected by the poor display of affection and tightened his grip around her mouth.
"...that she isn't worth your time."
Jack gasped angrily–
"Then again, unlike the rest of us, she is the freak. And freaks, aren't worth anything."
...Jack snapped.
His scream was bloodcurdling and enraged. The pain in his arm became numb as he swung his weapon in an infinity curve.
He rushed at Pitch.
The technique avoided Tatiana (who Pitch held on tightly to) but was aimed perfectly for Pitch's face.
The terrorist retaliated.
Like a snake, he weaved in an out of Jack's violent cuts and swipes. Whenever there was a chance, Pitch gripped BT's arms and threw her small body up like some kind of twisted shield.
She screamed.
Jack growled.
"MFFHMET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Tatiana squealed suddenly and tried to thrash around despite her fear. Wanting Jack to ram Pitch Black's face in made all her fire rush back and she hoped that if Jack avoided hitting her, maybe she could break free on her own...or at least get Pitch distracted.
"LET. ME. GO!"
"Now you want to speak?!" Pitch then moved his long arm around her throat and held her in a tight headlock.
"AH!"
"Go ahead, Jack!" he taunted. "Try to hit me! But I can't promise her neck will snap depending on how I go down!"
"SON OF A BITCH!" and it only made Jack twist his staff harder.
He rolled the black rod on his wrist over and over, throwing jabs and sharp swipes whilst avoiding the scythe in Pitch's other hand. Tatiana choked on her breath and coughed several times as the two tried to kill each other, and Jack hated it.
As he moved in close, trying to end the showdown with a close-combat punch, Pitch twirled his scythe.
He lifted the back end – and tripped Jack one last time.
"N–" BT choked. "Ja–"
The GUARDIAN stumbled forward, his back bent and exposed to the terrorist. Pitch grinned and let go of his scythe. As it made a deafening CLUUUN! against the floor, he reached forward with his free hand.
And he yanked...Jack's gun from his belt loop.
"N-NO!" BT screamed and Jack turned just in time to watch Pitch level the gun at his face–
"A–"
CRACK!
"GARHH!"
–and a whip strike his hand.
Exhale.
Pitch dropped the gun and tried to lower his hand to him–
CRACK!
The whip came back and wrapped around his wrist.
With a frustrated breath, echoing from his respirator, Sandy stood at the opening of one tunnel and was already trying to coil his whip back to him with a dead gaze.
...
Tatiana nearly broke down in tears again.
"M-M–Mr. S–"
Jack didn't waste time wondering where the hell he'd been and rolled into a crouch away from Pitch.
Coming back into his kneeling position, he pivoted on the balls of his boots and made a long, circular sweep with his staff.
The hook caught his gun laying at Pitch's feet.
In a mighty tug, Jack dragged it back to him and caught it...just as Pitch wrapped his hand around the whip and tugged back! The force was so unexpected that Sandy stumbled on his light feet and slackened his grip.
Pitch was free in seconds.
He dropped (with Tat still in his hold) and retrieved his scythe. Then snapping his head up, violently prepared, Sandy rushed at him with the whip pulled back.
Jack twirled his staff hotly and lifted his gun.
He rushed in too.
Exhale.
The three men were ruthless and quick. Sandy maintained long-range assaults on Pitch's evasive maneuvers, and Jack dove in and out with short-range close combat. But every so often, he had to pull back when he thought his gun was too close to Baby Tooth.
He wouldn't fire it, not until she was free – that was his call.
But when there was space, and Tatiana stopped moving to give him a fighting chance, Jack took it – hard and with every martial art he knew.
In a normal fight, he would've tossed any man aside and kept going, but this was Pitch – someone who had every intention of killing Jack – so the GUARDIAN didn't hold back. He meant to shatter bone when he blocked Pitch's hits; he hoped to twist a limb every time he redirected an assault coming at his face; he went for the kill whenever there was chance to take the offence.
But Pitch made it hard, especially with BT still locked in the crook of his elbow.
"What's the matter?!" Jack seethed as he watched Pitch's normally slicked back hair fall crazily into his face. "Can't handle a little family reunion?!"
"On the contrary," Pitch growled as Jack made it hard for him to block a punch combo with Tatiana's weight on his head.
He gritted his teeth wildly.
"On the contrary, Jack, this is one of my wild imaginings!"
"Go to hell!"
"Look around, boy!" Pitch laughed. "We're already there!"
Two blinks later, the sick game had blood appearing on their clothes, splitting from Jack's lip.
Pitch swooped in again and brought his scythe down hard on Jack.
CLAUUUUNG!
"AH!" Jack nearly crippled under the second clash and the weight of his block.
Sandy paused, rushing to figure out what to do.
Tat screamed.
"Come on, Jack!" Pitch snickered. "Show the old men how it's done these days!"
"H-I–I am going to kill you!"
"With what? Some kind of twisted sense of fun? Your courage?! You can't kill the fear!"
"I can try!"
"You think so?!"
Jack buckled again.
"HA-H–"
"H-HELP HIM MR. SANDY!" BT screeched and Pitch laughed at her distress.
"So let me ask again! DO YOU THINK SO!?"
And Jack thought of his parents, his decisions, and everything up until this point in his life.
And he fought back.
"H–I WILL! ARRGH, I PROMISE YOU THAT!"
"WELL THEN YOU BETTER CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE TO DIE!"
Jack snapped his head down.
Seeing something he hadn't spotted before, he rushed forward and threw a side kick at Pitch.
As the man twisted sideways, Jack looked over his head.
"NOW!" he yelled and by some strange unknown connection, Sandy knew what Jack saw and cracked his whip forward...just above Baby Tooth's hair.
SNAP!
She screamed.
The impact hit Pitch square in the chest, right where the v-line in his shirt was exposed, and it sent the air expelling from his lungs.
As the terrorist buckled back just the slightest, Jack swung the end of his staff into the space Pitch made between him and Tatiana.
He hooked her around the waist–
CRACK!
–while Sandy shot his whip out one more time, hitting Pitch in the shoulder.
The strike forced the terrorist to loosen his arm around Tatiana – and when the pressure was gone, Jack yanked her.
"A-AHH!"
"JUMP!" Jack yelled.
Lifting her feet off the ground the second she left Pitch's body, Jack turned the staff in one strong and fast motion. The wind carried her light body with it.
Jack gripped the staff tight.
At the last second, he threw her in the Sandman's direction and as she left the end of his hook, Sandy rushed up to catch her in his arms.
She was slightly bigger than him, but Sanderson's strength was three times of her body weight and she landed like a large pillow.
BT instantly burst into tears.
"GO! GO!" Jack screamed.
He quickly started sprinting after the two of them towards the tunnel Sandy came through.
Pitch roared.
In a pit of murder, the man pulled out his last Nightmare smoke bomb – the same one from Moscow and New York – and detonated it.
"You cannot wake up from my nightmare, gentlemen!" he snarled.
Jack wanted none of his shit.
In cold fury, the Burgess-born operative faced him again and found one current of wind among the rest. Drawing its invisible energy, Jack called for more with a fiery jolt at core. And just before the Nightmare clouds expanded and touched his lungs, he yelled and spun in a long, sweeping motion with his staff.
The wind followed and increased.
Then snapped his wrists up, the current blew forward, pushing all the cloud away back into Pitch.
Screams followed.
Jack raised his gun behind him.
He fired at Pitch's body as they continued to run and didn't stop until he was over the threshold and torches from the punishment room couldn't light his way in the dark anymore.
Then he ran...but immediately lost Tatiana and the Sandman to the labyrinth of tunnels.
...
Time unknown
Jack sprinted, his body aching.
His senses were fried and self-control was failing.
And without the fire, without the flashlight, without the E-Lens...he couldn't see.
In the repeat of the tunnel maze, Jack was panicked and ragged. He knew he couldn't go through that again. So much of his mental, psychological, and emotional strength seemed wasted but he couldn't stop – not yet, not ever.
"Hahaha!"
Jack nearly stopped running.
The bitter, angry laugh almost didn't go away, banging his head.
His heart rattled under his ribcage.
"Wake up, children. This is my world! My rules!"
"N...NO!"
Pitch's command over the shadows went far enough!
Reaching behind him for the last resort he carried on his belt, Jack unhooked the black pouch and drove his hand in.
Jack gritted his teeth.
"Mr. Sanderson! TATIANA!"
Then kicking up speed, he threw the tiny, little electronic devices across the dirt floor.
Shaped like eggs, they scattered in the tens at his feet and lit up with alarm before rolling away with alarming speed down every tunnel. Throwing more and more, he took a chance and followed several of them, watching how their lights flashed, remembering what Aster told him.
– Jack, don't use these googies unless it's absolutely important! Y'hear?!
Several lit up a certain way and others rolled off in another direction as he kept running.
– Once they're on, they'll recognise the paths you took and try to mark the signature from your boots...which means they'll give you away!
Jack watched as several of tiny devices swivel and scurry behind to mark his path.
His clenched his jaw urgently.
– If they flash in three integers, means you were there. In twos, means you weren't.
Jack followed the flashing eggs.
They blinked so intently that his eyes started to see black spots between each pulse.
– But if y'got someone followin' ya, then they'll figure it out because those eggs will try to track you for you.
Even Jack turned his head, he saw several of them try to roll back in his direction.
And in the distance–
SPLITS!
Pitch was stomping on some of them, trying to find him.
– So either make sure your trail is a mad as a jackrabbit...or pray no one finds 'em, alrigh mate?!
SPLITS!
SPLITS!
Jack kicked into high-speed.
He threw more eggs down, not even watching as they rolled faster than he could keep up. They were trying to locate the start of his cold signature from the initial point of when Jack activated the bag.
He flexed his fingers, madly pulling at the wind.
Jack hadn't bothered to activate the egg lights before entering the tunnel because he trusted his skills and specialties as a GUARDIAN – because working in the dark, trusting the dark, was one of those specialties and he didn't want to risk giving himself away.
But now it was called for.
Pitch was chasing him, Sandy, and Baby Tooth...rampantly.
And in the heavy breathing, the sprinting, and flicker of angry shadows down every hall, he knew Pitch was out for blood.
"You want more games?!" Pitch echoed.
SPLITS!
"You think these little holiday ornaments are going to stop me?!"
Egg lights went out sporadically in the most random halls and it only confirmed to Jack just how fast Pitch was and how death-defying his abilities with the shadows were.
He shut his mouth.
Jack made no sound as he dipped around the flashing eggs in his way, trying to avoid making a shape with his body – he hoped Sandy and Tatiana were doing the same.
SPLITS!
Another twenty eggs blew out as Pitch stomped out their lights.
"What about you, Tatiana?...Still afraid of the Boogeyman?!"
SPLITS!
His rage turned to sick twisted laughter.
"I could give you something to cry about, Sandman!"
SPLITS! SPLITS!
Jack yelled out angrily to give himself away.
He prayed Sandy got BT out of the tunnels – even if he was going in circles and would ultimately die tonight, he wanted to at least know they–
"And what of you, Mr. Frost?!"
Jack didn't pause.
He ran and ran – but only kept winding up at more dead ends.
"H-h–"
"You don't need the others. Never wanted them, at first!"
One more turn – dead-end.
"You said you wanted to be alone!"
Come on, another – dead end.
SPLITS!
"SO BE ALONE!"
The blown out lights were getting louder...getting closer–
"And you could be, hahaha, I only just want to take what is mine!"
Jack grinded his teeth.
NO!
His panic level skyrocketed, nearly hitting a wall.
He clutched his bleeding arm.
"Staying quiet, hm?"
He was so upset and he tried one more turn, outrunning the light balls–
"Well then, consider your rejection, your biggest mistake."
"SANDY! LISTEN TO MY VOICE! FOLLOW ME!"
"Because I am going to rip out what's left of your heart, and paint everyone you care about in your blood!"
But when he reached the end of the tunnel–
"So have you a Happy Easter...Jack."
–he froze.
And spun back around.
...
Time unknown
Looking down, Jack stared.
Only one flashing ball of light caught up with him.
Appearing down the hall close to the familiar opening, it stopped in the exact spot he activated the signature.
Once it stopped rolling at the correct location, the light intensified, lighting up the tunnel around it.
And in its brightness, Jack's skin paled.
The entire floor just behind it was littered with the rest of the devices, smashed open like broken eggs. Pitch had stepped on them all and beat them to back to the entrance.
But there weren't just broken eggs...
There was also a limb resting in the dirt.
A severed arm.
His heart stopped in his chest.
Just as he fell into a deep chilling silence, Sanderson and Tatiana appeared.
Baby Tooth was holding the older man's hand like a bear claw, and wearing the respirator for safety. They both looked ghostly white and out of breath, but they were otherwise okay. Thanks to the Sandman's ability to mute sounds, Pitch could only hear Jack and couldn't figure out where the other two were without the lights or their heavy breathing. They hoped he'd be okay...
Until Sanderson actually saw Jack's face.
Sandy let go of Tatiana and nervously stepped up to Jack. He tried to get the boy to look him in the face but the white-haired 24-year-old wasn't responding.
When Sandy pulled back to look where Jack was staring, he paused.
He knew why.
Quickly moving back to Tatiana, he shielded her as best he could before he signed (explained) what he saw. Jack heard her slap her hands over her mouth in case Pitch was still around. But he and Sandy knew the terrorist was already long gone ahead of them.
Jack's fingers twitched as he led the way.
Walking to the end of the tunnel's entrance, the three stumbled back into the holding room. On heavy feet and light heads, their muscles ached and each one felt a different kind of recovery threatening to boil over. Sandy bottled it up, Tat was on the brink of another panic attack, and Jack felt like he wanted to cough up blood.
They were not ashamed to admit or show how disturbed they were out of their minds.
But if the horror couldn't get any worse–
"Wh...N-No!"
Baby Tooth nearly fainted.
Stepping into a small puddle, they realized that the cylinder holding room...was covered in blood.
Dark red painted the curved walls and the floor and platform where BT once stood.
Jack took a slight step back.
"Dean, h-he...N–H-How did–"
And in the wake of it all...the ELF's body parts were teared apart.
Every piece of North's friend scattered all over and his Nightmare uniform was teared to shreds; his legacy destroyed by the work of a master who sought revenge...and who got it.
"H...B-But he...BUT H-HE WAS–"
And Tatiana's lips quivered so badly that Sanderson didn't even wait.
He stepped in front of her and hugged her close, hiding her face in his shoulder. BT didn't fight it as her knees gave out, and being at the same height as him, she cried loudly in her horror...
For the rest of her life, she never forgot the images of Dean's murder.
Sandy felt like a stake drove and twisted itself into his heart.
Looking up at Jack for sudden help, the younger GUARDIAN only stared back with wild eyes and a sudden problem with how to breathe.
"Are you sure," Jack struggled, "...she got out?"
But Sandy squeezed Tatiana closer to him.
He shook his head.
And they had no clue where the other ELFs were, when North and Aster would show up, or what had happened to the other sisters...and with Tat's crying, they couldn't ask.
Sandy's mouth fell open in a silent frown.
He made no move to stop Jack as the young man shakily moved to bend over Baby Tooth's crying form. When he was close, Jack wrapped his arm around her head gently and even though she didn't lift up to acknowledge him, Jack squeezed his hug on her. A shudder left his mouth before he pressed his lips to the crown of her gold streak – the same way he used to do for Emma.
He then pulled away and looked Sandy in the eye with an expression that bridged on seriousness and murder.
"Get her out of here," he whispered and Sandy lifted one hand to pat over Jack's heart.
He nodded with firm approval.
And after Jack gripped his hand back, he let go, pulled up to his full height and turned around slowly.
He didn't bother with his hood.
The adrenaline seemed endless, his Center and his spirit were red hot and ice cold, and he was sure that if he tried to spit up blood, it would be acid.
But Jack didn't care.
A second later, he stormed out of the bloodied chamber...with the face of a killer.
Chapter's soundtrack: "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" – The Perfect Circle Suggested by Lauren! You really get me ;D Note: if you read this before Tuesday afternoon, I realized some things on the subway (some of you did too lol), so you might find that I changed some wording around a little. Nothing major, not to worry! But I'm happier with this angle since it goes more in the direction I want. (: