Alright guys, five more chapters to go! Thank you so much joining me this far, I still can't believe we did it and reached fifty chapters! I'm gonna fall over. :D But I'm sorry this was late so I'll save my talk for the end. Have fun! And thanks again, Shenali. :)

In three! Two–

(beeeeeep.)

"...'ve in–chzzzck–Move–"

There was a terrible rumble...distant but horrid...

"Chzzz-zck!–setting up parameter, 46 de–" (beeeeep.)

"Chzzh–locking ont–"

...and the sound of...the sound of a million cracks splitting glass apart–

"–ter him! No–chzzzz–ete a la mierda! Nos–" (beeep.)

Pitch stopped, mid-frozen with the needle still suspended over Jack's pale exposed throat. It was getting louder–

"Czzzhck–ALL! DO NOT–"

Louder and then–

"Nicht! NI–CHHhhzzzzz..."

...

...Roaring.

(beep.)

(beep.)

The distant shouts of a hundreds of men were outside the dome. And as everyone's eyes flew up, growing wide with disbelief–

(beep.)

beep.

bee–

CRACK!

Jack's pupils shrunk.

beeeeeeep...

And he watched–

CRASH!

–the entire glass skylight shatter into millions of pieces.

Watching the reinforced glass rain down in almost slow motion, deadly shards began plummeting towards him, Pitch, Tooth, and everyone around them. It was phantasmal, almost enough to make their hearts surge with new anxiety and double over with stress.

Tooth and her sisters shouted at the empty sky. The frigid air ripped the last of the warmth from their skin. Aster panicked. But when he squinted past the dark swirling rainclouds, Jack saw shadows – multiple, disconcerting shadows...

(Dutch) "Ch-Chzzz...stass–chszz...LIGE NU!"

Long lines of rope ribboned down in a heartbeat.

Aster gazed up.

"Mhf?!"

His heart fell into his stomach.

Jack's skin blanched.

"LIGE NU! Chhzzz–GHT NOW!"

The line cut out.

But as his heartbeat skipped in his chest, a shadow, someone–

...faintly shouted...from high up in the sky.

Pitch turned lethal and stared down at the heavily sedated GUARDIAN.

"What madness is this?"

He gripped Jack's hair in twisted wrath until he noticed something.

With sharp eyes, Pitch bent the boy's back forward and looked at his fidgety hands. A moment later, he reached for Jack's left fingerless glove and ripped it off.

Pitch's gold-silver eyes grew wide.

There was an ugly scar in the middle of his palm, but on his middle finger...the same ring (that had lost him the princess the first time) was shining back at him, but burning a slow, emergency pulse of dark red light.

His eyebrows shot up high on his head.

He looked up, completely ignoring Jack.

The shadows moved, the air shifted and high up against the night sky, against the glass falling towards them...

Aircrafts appeared, hovering from hundreds of feet above the cliff.

The ropes descended, and the dark blobs blurred their lines every thirty apart. Through the broken ceiling and they kept sliding down faster–

"...'ow...Now!"

And when one finally hit the light coming through the dome...his ELF uniform lit up red like nothing they'd ever seen.

"NOW!"

He hurtled himself down with one hand on the rope, desperate to break through before Pitch's men set off their guns and the glass shards hit everyone below.

"Mhmmmf!" Tatiana screamed at him.

The glass was almost going to hit them all!

Pitch's elite Nightmares started firing at him instantly.

He loosened his grip on his rope to drop faster.

"Chhzck! Time it...time it...Chhh-GO!"

And with catlike eyes, the ELF gritted his teeth and threw down a heavy device, watching it plummet faster than the glass on its wind resistance. The bullets came soaring up to strike him.

But as they narrowly got him and the shards were within three seconds of slicing their faces, he pressed the button on his glove.

BOOM!

In a brilliant explosion of energy, the device let off a shockwave that flew fast and outwards, pushing all the glass towards the wall and throwing the bullets off course.

The ELF looked skyward.

"Move now! Move!"

Tooth screamed (as did her sisters) but Pitch was done with the show.

With Jack's yell, he yanked the spy's head back in a frenzy.

He went to drive the syringe down again.

"Say goodnight, GUARDIA–"

Bang!

Pitch dropped Jack instinctively and leaped away with a roar – a bullet from another ELF nearly got him!

He pocketed the needle. Immediately, several tens of them were now coming through the roof, sliding down their long black cords in a mad hurry.

Jack fell on his knees again with a painful growl behind his mouth gag. He looked up, slow and aching, but feeling pride and determination swell in his chest. Even if he couldn't fight anymore after tonight, at least he'd gotten to see North's agents do what they did best. Just like–

"Chhzzzck! Jack!"

He froze suddenly.

Earpiece crackling back to life, Jack tilted his head sideways and craned his neck tiredly close the center of the ropes. Staring at one particular ELF sliding down a rope with two others, he caught eyes with the man through his ELF visor. The two gave each other long looks...before the agent lifted his gun and aimed at the GUARDIAN.

Jack didn't have time to think.

"Mhm–"

BANG!

The sound of the gun going off was the only one that filled the room, until another hit Aster two seconds later.

No one screamed for them in the chaos.

No one was aware.

Jack choked painfully behind his frost-covered mouth guard. He leaned forward heavily as the pain ripped through his chest. It sent his vision teetering...made his muscles lock.

He gasped under the shadow of his head when he looked down.

And he knew why, without needing to ask.

...No one saw the yellow needle plunged deep into his heart.

Jack looked at it shakily, breathing heavily through his nose and switching between glares and wide gazing as he watched the yellow liquid discharge from the needle and vanish into his body. Then he felt something cold and unnatural flush through his bloodstream.

It tingled.

It burned.

And then it shivered...and became a sensation, all on its own.

Jack froze as he started to memorize patterns in the concrete. His pupils grew large.

'What's...What am I–'

Something travelled at light speed from his chest, up his neck, and into his brain. It made him jump slightly, with the feeling like a thousand needles were pricking his skin.

Jack looked across the floor maddeningly. He couldn't let Pitch see, he couldn't let the shadows canopy his vision...but then he realised–

The spots.

The black spots were fading.

The black splotches Jack had been seeing all night were slowly vanishing – and with every dark blur disappearing, the room was suddenly brighter.

Getting brighter and brighter...

And his heart nearly bottomed out.

Because finally he knew why and what was coursing inside him.

And with a dark gaze–

...'alin...

Jack wasn't afraid anymore.

"...hm mfmm."

He narrowed his eyes, surrendering himself to it.

Inhale.

Exhale.

And when he lowered his forehead to the floor, Jack repeated the name in his head like a mantra, blowing ice through his mouth cover.

'...'enaline...Adrenaline.'

...

"Chzzz–found them North! Hzzzch! W-We–"

"Pozhalu–chzck!–Where are they?! Where–"

He inhaled and exhaled with the best control he had, knowing full well what the injection could do, what it was already doing – and he wanted it.

"After the rats!" he heard a Nightmare snarl. "AFTER THEM–"

"Muaa nahe chewoo! (Don't touch me!) M-MUAA NAH–"

"–eam 28 separate! Repeat: Separate!"

Listening to the blood in his ears, and blocking out the screams of the girls and the bullets, Jack (along with–unbeknownst to him–Aster) bent his head closer to his chest. He said nothing, not making a sound, and trying to curl in as tight as possible while Pitch was distracted in all the sudden pandemonium.

The needle dropped from his chest once it filled him completely.

And for every drop retained, he grew warmer...and more vigilant.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Lub-dub... Lub-dub...

Jack drew long, ragged breaths, feeling his energy intensify and his heart suddenly start to wake up.

His white bangs hung in front of his vision, swaying in his shudders.

It was like he'd suddenly binged on too many energy drinks, or had been injected with the same cocaine he'd extracted from criminals over the years.

He wasn't tired anymore and his heart was on fire.

And it wanted to leap out of his throat.

Building power deep in his chest, and racing from the forest of nerves in his scalp to his cold fingertips and toes, Jack exhaled sharply.

Booom! BOOM!

The others jumped in their skin.

The gigantic doors to the dome were being smacked with ominous strikes as the roar of the men grew louder.

They were drawing near...getting close–

Jack narrowed his eyes, watching the welcomed cold air from the destroyed ceiling take the warmth from his breath and billow it out from under him.

The jolt in him sparked to life.

No more fear.

Forget the fear.

He tightened his fingers – they were shaking with dark ecstasy.

He was tired of being afraid, so done with hiding.

An ELF shouted.

"Move in!" and his comp link shout turned into a real voice from overhead. "MOVE!"

"Save the girls! Save the girls!"

Aster nearly gasped out in anger.

A wave of artificial aggression took over his senses, tightening in his muscles, making him feel stronger.

Pitch roared.

"Take them out," he ordered. "Take them down."

He suddenly unsheathed his long stave (the one he first used on Jack in Wales) with the horrible, short curved blade at the end and twirled it in one hand.

"Don't let them touch them!"

Jack could almost memorize every detail in the concrete...he knew what he was smelling, what he was feeling–

"You asshole!"

Tooth screamed and tried to run Pitch over in his distraction – but he sensed her.

Pitch struggled with his weapon in one hand and Tooth showed no mercy (trying to make it as hard as possible for him to get a good hold on her) as he tried to grab her aside.

'I have to get that syringe away from...a-away from–'

The bullets started going off again in a violent assault as the ON-X focused all their attention on the ELFs raining down and the ones trying to bring down the dome's doors...

...but for the two men hunched on the floor, their slow steady breaths were transforming...transforming and trying their heart acceleration.

Jack wrapped his gloveless hand tightly, rubbing the hot ring on his finger.

Aster clenched his teeth.

There was anxiousness, hyperactivity, and an awakening in everything Jackand Aster had been suppressed of. The more oxygen and sugar surged through them, the epinephrine...the 'fight or flight' response in them, was kicking in.

And God, they wanted to fight.

Booom...

The bang on doors passed through the room.

Booooooom...

Boooooommmmmm...

BT looked up at the ELFs coming through the ceiling – one of them eyed her especially, signalling to her like a crazy person.

"G-Get ready, girls," she cried out shakily and grabbing Tina's hand, she forced them all to their feet. "Get ready!"

Jack's heart beat a mile per minute, getting faster.

He was panting and jerking his head up and down like he was bobbing for apples – Pitch caught him in the corner of his peripheral vision.

He froze in his struggle with Toothiana and gave Jack a dangerous stare.

Boooomm...

Booooommmm...

Pitch ran forward with Tooth in his grip.

"Not yet! You little–"

"Chzck! Get ready!"
"Nooow!"
"Ahhhhhrg–"

BANG!

And a violent explosion of stone blasted the dome doors wide open.

Fifty or so ELFs and Nightmares came tumbling through the doors, moving their fights around Pitch Black and the GUARDIANs in their last showdowns. The Nightmares had fewer guns than the ELFs but they made up for it with their combat and large weapons – and they were merciless and loud, shouting profanities and making echoes of combats echo up through the ceiling into the sky.

"Stay down!"
"Y'bloody–"
Crack!
"Chzz! Team 5! TEAM FI–"

BANG!

Tooth's sisters screamed and ran as far they could.

The ON-X scattered like the wind.

(Korean) "Look out fo–Chzzz! They are monsters!"
"Get them! GET THESE STUPID EXCUSES FOR CHRISTMAS E–"
Clang!

The sounds of war only fuelled Pitch more as he tightened his glove around her again – Tooth screamed.

Jack snapped his neck over his shoulder and grinded his teeth.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

"Mhfmmm!" she raged and tried to open her mouth the slightest to bite him.

"Enough! You sick, little–"

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

Jack breathed and breathed.

"Mhfhm!" BT screamed at him and Aster. She didn't understand.

"Mhfmmm!"

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

She didn't know what to do.

And as the shots got louder–

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

...the room got smaller–

Lub-dub. Lub-dub...

and the air got colder–

Lub-dub...lub-dub...

Jack froze – his irises flashed white against the blue.

Then I find the direction and I just...tug on it. And it listens.

And like a hot flare, pounding into him again–

Lub-dub.

His center was back.

...

Pitch struggled against Tooth and her twisting face.

Neither noticed the air shift.

The temperature plummeted immediately around Jack, swirling with thick condensation as the new winds welcomed him from the sea.

It fell to him instantly and as he grinded his teeth, he clenched his fists.

'I'm done...' he spat as the ice over his gag hardened over him like liquid nitrogen.

'I'm DONE!'

And he dragged wet air pockets as high up in the air as possible, travel down at his command and encircle the steel cuffs around his forearms.

All around him the concrete turned white with cold and his knees were painted itself in swirling ice patterns – but he didn't feel it. He never felt it.

An arch-level Nightmare wanted to run at him–

He stopped running when he caught Jack's white irises and the enormous puff of air left his gag.

Jack's manacles turned white with ice in his pumping fury, ripping through it and eroding the weak compression of the metal.

"Caution! Take caution!" a Nightmare roared. "Don't underestimate any of these freaks!"

The elite Nightmare backed away cautiously from Jack.

Eerie snowflakes started to appear around him.

"–so you'd better listen if you know what's fucking good for you because any substance can break at a cold enough temperature. Their atoms slow down, they can't compress and it makes it easier ...for me to them easy to break apart – to break you. So don't you ever...ever underestimate what I can do at temperatures below 45°C/42°F. But heh, it's not like you could handle them anyway. Right?" ...Choking was heard.

Jack bent low and away from his bonds as they made a tiny infinity wind around his shackles and increased the cold. He clenched his teeth.

The Nightmare panicked.

He raised his gun, aiming for Jack's head.

"Jack!" an ELF shouted.

Pitch turned but by then–

BANG!

Another ELF fired a shot at his minion, saving the GUARDIAN.

BANG! BANG!

Pitch jumped away and Tooth forced all his attention on her.

"Mhfmm!"
"Keep trying, Princess! Keep–"

"Jack! W-We've gotta–"

"No! Chhzk! Move back! He–"

And just as the fighting started tearing through the room, the snowflakes swirled faster and the ground turned ghostly under Jack's knees.

His cuffs turned stiff and fragile.

And when he was sure he hit a temperature of -150 C°, the 24-year-old cut the gene off–

"Chhzzzck! JACK!"

Tooth spun and caught him in her violet-pink gaze.

He screamed furiously and she watched...hearing the sound of something thick crack and break behind him.

"Mffm!"

Jack kept his eyes to the floor, unaware of all that he was creating. His inhuman strength was nearly quadruple from the adrenaline rush for the short amount of time he was given, and he felt invincible. He felt indestructible.

And he'd fucking drown before he let anyone touch him!

Jack tightened his biceps and pulled with everything he had. He gritted his teeth and the wind churned harder, the snowflakes multiplied in his controlled condensation. And when the bounds finally cracked too much under the pressure of his strength, the iced and weakened steel shattered instantly.

And not even waiting to hear the pieces fall, Jack ripped his hardened mouth gag from his mouth and crushed it in one hand.

"You're mine!" the ex-operative snarled and Aster watched as Jack tore for Pitch.

The Aussie then bent head and chuckled darkly.

Any second now, it would be his turn.

He smirked into his gag, staring at the ground and feeling his own gene flicker back to life with his racing heart.

"Mhf fmm!"

"Hmmf!"

...

Tooth swung her body all the way to the left when she caught black, white and blue surging toward her.

With a shudder in her heart, Jack valiantly appeared, and used the perfect opening she gave him between her and Pitch's deadly stave.

He rushed in without a thought.

Jack saw nothing and went on pure instinct, throwing his arms up in an X to deflect Pitch's one-handed strike with his weapon. He barely felt the impact due to the pit of his anxiety and as Pitch was lifting his blade, Jack had already cracked out his bo-staff and twisted it violently into a forward thrust.

Pitch backed away when the end almost knocked him in the face.

"YOU–"

When he tried to retaliate, Jack made a tight spin inward and twirled the staff at his shoulder– he needed to hit him soon, knowing all his adrenaline was gonna wear out any second thanks to the feat he pulled to break himself free.

"Mhffmhm!"

Tooth was pulled back with the terrorist and in a fit of anger, she tried to throw her head back to hit his chest.

"I'm tired of your pathetic scrambling!" he spat and but when he tried to yank her back–

Jack lifted his gun and fired twice.

Pitch moved away – and a blink later, he was gone.

Jack didn't wait for him to come back though.

"Tooth! Son of a..." and he closed his distance with Tooth a step later. Immediately, all his frenzied adrenaline disappeared and he dropped his arms.

But the second his familiar presence was standing in front of Tooth, she felt like she was slapped in the face with reality all over again and started to gasp under her breath. She realised her tears were still there, that Pitch's glove was no longer around her mouth like a sick trick, and that the nightmares were coming true.

She started heaving.

"Ja...J-Jack, I–"

Jack's eyebrows immediately flew up on his forehead.

He wiped her cheeks.

"Look at me," he demanded. "Focus on me, okay? Your arm is bleeding and y...you're having a–"

"Oh my God, but J... YOU...Y-You're really–"

She grabbed onto him and nearly tripped, not really feeling his gesture as she looked all around his face.

"I...I'mo...Pi–I can't believe I...You almost...H-HE ALMOST...BECAUSE I–"

"Hey no! No! Look at me, Tooth. Look!"

Jack pulled his hands away from her face, sensing the distress.

His time was running short but he leaned in so close to her face that his snowy, white bangs almost touched her gold feathery streak, blocking out all the noise and all the chaos for five more seconds. For the both of them.

"But I di–"

"Tooth!"

And when he pulled her head up and she looked into his worried eyes, she froze.

He didn't waver, not for one second.

"Tooth...I am so proud of you," but when she bit her lip to stop its quiver, he shook his head.

"I'm serious, look at me!" he urged, deep and obstinate. "You never gave up...and you never gave in."

"B-But I...I-I almost, I...I almost did, I almost d-did–"

"But you didn't!" and he pushed her hair behind her ear so she could see him more clearly. "You didn't say yes...even when everyone knew you could have. But you didn't."

She squeezed her eyes shut for a frustrated moment before she looked at him again.

Jack nodded firmly and gave her a slight squeeze under his cold gloves.

"You didn't, and that's all that matters. Believe me, okay? Okay?"

Tooth nodded with relief and a flush in her chest.

"O-Okay," she gritted her teeth. "Okay!"

"Are you sure?"

Well she had to be. There was no more time to feel sorry or break down.

This was it.

After one more nod, Jack watched her eyes turned hard at the edges again and Tooth was back on par.

"Now j...just get me out of this! Please!"

But even as she gestured to her own cuffs, Jack frowned and shook his head.

"I can't!"

"Why not?!"

"Not anymore. And you couldn't handle the temperature I'd have to put that under anywa–" but he faded out as over the throng of red and black shouts and screaming increasingly took over. Jack then turned over his shoulder, his eyes were searching and his heart was like Tooth's – horribly mangled with anger and desperation although he didn't show it.

With his Game Face on though, he suddenly stopped.

Tooth sensed it under his touch as he looked back at her. He quickly pulled out a cloth from his utility belt and tied it around her grazed arm.

"When I call it," he said cryptically and Tooth nodded.

"I-I've got you!"

"Good!" and after a two second pause...

"Now!"

And the two tore forward, right into the middle of warring happening around them.

...

Nightmares were taking down ELFs left and right. More of them kept falling from the sky, and several times Jack and Tooth had to duck their heads or jump over a body that tried to kill their path. It was all so menacing, so violent, but terribly real.

Bullet-firing and blood-shooting real, but Jack's eyes were focused ahead of him.

"Keep up, Tooth!"

"Watch your three!"

He shot her a brief look of shock – she knew what that was?

But the moment was short-lived when he saw a flicker of who he was looking for across the fights.

His mouth flew open before he could stop it.

"Cottontail!"

And Aster froze.

Kneels still rooted to the ground, he tried to turn his head...but something inside him finally clicked.

A flame.

"Aster!"

Jack watched as the tech analyst dropped his head down again, making his blue eyes grow wide.

...Aster gasped for air under his breath.

Tooth moaned terribly when something long and sharp zinged past her cheek.

"Ohh!"

She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes but Jack kept watching ahead.

His heart was beating wildly all of a sudden.

Aster's pupils dilated to the floor as the adrenaline kick-started his Center and surged through him. He drew a heavy ragged breath, feeling strength, feeling hope–

Jack's eyebrows shot up.

A moment later, Tooth felt his body move in close to her – he picked her up around waist, easy and unexpectedly.

She squealed. There was no time for him to get handsy!

"What are you–" but his hands tightened on her hips.

Jack gritted his teeth, his urgency skyrocketing as every sense in his body told him to move.

His heart pounded erratically.

"Jack!"

"Trust me!" he shouted and after effectively side kicking a Nightmare rushing at him, Jack used the last of his adrenaline to hoist her up into the air.

"JACK!"

Aster's eyelashes leaped up at the nearness of her voice.

He turned – and watched Jack glare through the opening in the fights around him...

"D...Do it!" the hacker shouted.

And Jack ignored the painful skip in his overdriven heart, and threw Princess Toothiana forward.

Tooth yelped – Aster stood up in an instant.

"Mfhm!"

He didn't miss a step.

As she flew toward him, Aster ran forward a little and did a quick spin. When she knocked into his back, he bent forward to catch her on his spine and knelt them both to the ground. The second his fingers touched her steel manacles, the steel erupt with deep cracks.

As she rolled to the ground beside him, Jack protected them both with a violent torrent of air and his stealth attacks.

Tooth went hard to work at smacking her bounds behind her on the ground until they fell apart. When they did and finally freed her, she let out an excited gasp and quickly moved to Aster. Standing behind him, she used as much force as she could to push his tight cuffs down to his wrists. He didn't care about the pain as his skin tightened underneath.

"Almost got it!" she coughed. "Almost!"

And when she pushed it down far enough that his fingers could bend upwards to touch it–

SPRAK!

Aster's gene was ripped with adrenaline and he didn't even need to create cracks...he blew his steel cuffs to pieces.

Tooth jumped back instantly, only to trip on her boots – but luckily, the GUARDIAN jumped up with the speed of rabbit and caught Tooth right in his arms.

"H-Holy crap!" she gasped with an expression on relief and shock. As he put her down hurriedly, she pulled out his mouth gag for him. Jack appeared just as she turned and smacked his arm.

"D-Don't you two ever play 'Catch The Princess' with me again!" she said hotly and rubbed her free wrists anxiously.

"Dammit, sheila–"

"I know, I know! Thank you!"

"Move!" an ELF shouted and Aster suddenly had to jump away from the two of them as some Nightmares tore through after the red-clad agent.

"Go, you two! Find the girls!" Aster yelled and didn't waste another second as he turned another away and vanished.

Jack didn't waste another either.

With a kick of wind under his boots, he was already running with Tooth on his heels.

"For my sisters!"

He grabbed back for her hand and they ripped through the dust, dirt, and water flying up around them.

"Don't stop!" he barked.

And with narrowed eyes and a joined grip, everything seemed to slow down.

It was like watching a movie play out in slow motion and standing in the middle of the 3D effect. For Jack and Tooth bouldering through it valiantly, hood and hair flying back, chaos danced around them in all sorts of terrible ways. In the flicker of the dome's weak lights, Jack caught the faint glint of an occasional raindrop from the skies above and memorized the patterns of some the Nightmares as they moved about in subtle strategy takedowns and surprise attacks. He took a snapshot of every face he could, attempting to remember which 6'2 Fearling performed a kentsui strike to one of his surviving stealth ELFs, and which ELF was ambushing three Nightmares at once with his two trailing curved blades.

"Sta naast elkaar!" a Dutch ELF from the screamed in the distance to BT and the girls.

They tried to split up but Tiana rushed forward and pulled Theena just when a whip shot out close to her.

"Ahh!"

Tooth watched every fight with sharp eyes. She watched how the ELFs moved, padding the soles of their boots around in dizzying dances and taking note of how they defended against blocks and lunges. When a gun came into her view, she watched with her heart in her throat as the ELF with red hair underneath his hood, tried to knock it away with a knifehand strike – but it didn't work fast enough and she watched as he got shot in the torso before he stumbled back, ready for Fight Two.

Seeing his waxy determination made her blood boil with admiration.

She turned her head and focused across the dome to where Tatiana (the tallest of the handmaidens) was seen standing and shouting something – and she heard Tina shout in that little tomboy cry of hers like she was kicking something.

Tooth gripped Jack's hand–

Her senses fluttered darkly.

'Something's on my left!'

Jack flicked his eyes abruptly to his right.

His face darkened.

"Six!" he yelled.

And at the exact same time, they both clicked off their guns and pulled them from their holsters. Then just as about seven Nightmares changed tactics and lunged for the two of them, they surprised them.

Tooth spun right–

Jack spun left–

She pressed her front right up to Jack and aimed both her guns forward under his arms. As she blindly fired bullets (but successfully covering his back), Jack shot at Tooth's Nightmares over her shoulders. He defended her flawlessly for the moment, using both guns whilst gripping his staff tightly in one. Jack inhaled sharply, he let his chest expand against hers.

She didn't miss a beat.

"Two!"

Dropping quickly on her knee, Tooth clenched her jaw and turned her gun diagonally to the right as more Nightmares appeared to kill Jack. She didn't say a word, didn't blink, knowing she'd mess up if she didn't protect him.

Jack moved fluidly onto one knee and covered her left in an almost perfect parallel. After he shot two more Nightmares with dead accuracy, he started to shift again, sensing the violence rise again.

Yet somehow, he didn't have to call out the number – because Tooth just knew.

Switching legs, the princess aimed left and fired on his right as Jack re-holstered his second gun – and with a quick bout of instinct, she bent her head to the floor–

Fwooom!

Just as powerful wind coiled around Jack's staff. In a powerful spin, he sent the air current in a circle and forced it outwards, throwing three of Pitch's goons back.

The two jumped up in an instant.

Hearts racing and teeth grinding, Tooth spun and threw her hand down like a pendulum. She held one gun forward and fired them all to hell; and Jack (pressed shoulder-to-shoulder) tossed his last throwing knives at the two rushing for Tooth from behind.

And in one last flourish of alert, the two both faced the direction they were running towards in a #7 final assault. Tooth raised both guns sideways and turned her head back and forth, effectively shooting down the last Nightmares coming for them while Jack, fast as lightning, had his gun pulled out again and–

Bang!

–fired one, cold shot into the arch-level Nightmare heading straight for them.

Then the center frenzy was over...but only for the moment.

Tooth gasped and kept turning her head left and right.

Jack scowled as her hair shifted under his jaw, feeling her shake slightly with tremors.

He exhaled almost viciously over her head.

"We–"

"NO!" Tooth cried and on pure subconscious, she made an in-step to meet the small Nightmare coming for her throat on their right. Knocking his hands away and swooping low, she shot her hips forward and drove her knee into his stomach. When he fell back, the ELF chasing him got behind him and snapped his neck.

"Sh-Shokran, ameera," the ELF curtly thanked the princess in his thick Arabic then darted off again.

Tooth swallowed a hard lump in her throat as she backed away again into Jack. When she saw him looking at her in the corner of his eye, she turned and fixed him with a steady gaze.

He was looking at her almost guiltily, but she shook her head.

"This is your fight," she said supportively as she gripped her guns. "I know it is!"

She then pointed to where BT was still standing (albeit moving a like headless chicken) and gave him a quick nod.

"So just get me there, and you go show these boys what you're made of!"

And Jack nodded breathlessly–

Just as a loud and almost jovial laugh erupted out of nowhere.

...

"Hahaha!"

Looking up at all the ropes still hanging in the ceiling from the carriers, the two gawked as a large shadow began slowly descending closer.

Grabbing onto five of them to support his weight, and no longer dressed in his aviator jacket, Nicolas St. North clad in a black fur-trimmed red coat was descending into the dome; along with his second-in-command Phil and his ten other big, furry-coat lieutenants.

Jack's mouth fell open and Tooth gasped just as the Chief of the ELF organization landed next to them and his boys bulldozed their way around the three to be the second wave of fighters.

All at once, North laughed with a devilish grin. It looked like he'd been itching for a battle for ages, and he couldn't wait to get started. It was already apparent with the way he was pulling out one of his swords from its beautiful leather sheath.

He looked down at the two of them like a man who'd just found treasure and was ready to start swashbuckling pirates – but not before touching Tooth's head affectionately.

"At your service, princess," he greeted, his accent still laced with thick Russian. It brought a swirl of relief and nostalgia to Tooth as she watched his familiar grandfather like body stand next to her.

A smile graced her features for the first time since...she couldn't even remember, and it brought Jack some warmth as he dismissed the wind slightly.

He turned to North.

"What took you so long?" he wanted to snap but it came out more like he was desperate.

"It's so good to see you again!" she nearly cried and North shot them both one more soft look before it turned hard and he made a sweep of his sword behind him. They watched and moved with him quickly as he made a path for Tooth to her sisters between the flurry of distracted and panicky Nightmares and loyal ELFs. When they saw the princess through the opened distance, they jumped on their feet and screeched like tiny birds.

"Toothiee!"
"T, o-over here!"
"Hurry up, please! Come on!"

North then turned his electric-blue gaze and fixed it on Jack.

(луна) "Ver ka?" he asked.

Shall we?

And after Jack fixed him with a tight smirk (and a twirl of the only staff prototype the Cossack had bestowed upon him), the Russian GUARDIAN moved back into the fray. In awe, they watched him pus his sword away and flex his bulging biceps. His gene rippled through and his desire control center was ready to play.

(Russian) "Urrahh!" North shouted at the top of his lungs and he set off a wave of battle cries from his men. Then they watched him go for one of Pitch's elitists without any fear.

The clangs and gunshots were deafening – and it made Jack start to drift, ready to get the party started.

"Tooth, I–"

But she was already encouraging him with a shove as she pushed him forward.

"Go!" she urged, and swallowed down every emotion, every feeling she had for him to let him do what he needed, wanted, to do.

Jack looked at her in a dead heat and made her heart soar and goosebumps explode across her skin.

"Find him," she hissed and her eyes turned dark. "...and make him pay. Or this time I swear to God, I'll do it myself."

Jack gave her a firm look – he didn't have to be told twice.

"That's my girl."

Tooth's face heated up but she shot him a determined smile.

"Now move!" he shouted and they high-fived each other quickly before he spun back around.

Jack threw up his hood and concealed his face then watched as Tooth sprinted back the last few feet to the handmaidens. When two of them clutched her legs in relief, Jack knew she'd be okay.

He rubbed his eye and turned, and as two other stealth ELFs saw his familiar cowl go up, they landed beside him.

As Tooth watched Jack exchange a few words with them, one of Phil's commanding officers appeared beside her and acted as a stationary bodyguard. The girls shied away from his big body instantly and Tooth was vaguely reminded of the night in the Moscow alley when Phil had scared her too.

But not this time.

Not anymore.

"Go to him, girls," she said quickly and nodded her head at the furry coat-wearing giant.

Tina and Tiati squeezed her legs tighter.

"Trust me!" she urged and they all moved hurriedly over to him, unsure why Tooth would trust the Sasquatch or and why he was even standing in this one spot in the first place.

Tooth blew a relieved breath through her mouth but she turned her attention back on Jack–

He was already gone.

Instantly she panicked and her heart raced. Toothiana twisted her head around in the ocean of red and black but she couldn't tell who was who. Yet as her chest ached, she realised that probably for the best.

"Be careful, Jack," Tooth whispered and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

She tightened her fists around her guns.

Then she turned on her heel and devoted everything to her sisters.

...

Crash!

Iron and debris was falling everywhere.

Everyone's bones were frozen thanks to the chilly air...but it only made his bangs fly up and his gene pump wildly through his skin.

Like the drums of war, Jack's eyes were set on Pitch's shadows and his bodysuit was dried with blood.

He exhaled a warm puff of air as he flipped and ran through the fights killing Nightmares who got too close and defending ELFs who needed an extra shadow. He landed alone in a crouched position his hand bloodied and his expression lethal. North's screams were heard in the distance.

Aster's gene set off an ominous boom several fights away.

Jack pulled up into a slow walk, moving forward.

As emergencies went off in his ear, he unclipped his empty weapon slots and let them fall to the ground. His blue eyes focused forward, shutting out the fights all around. When a Nightmare tried to lunge at him, he ducked low and swooped up like a cat to elbow strike the man in the throat.

"Arg–"

Bang!

Jack shot him in the chest and kept going – he dropped his empty gun.

His teeth were clenched, his earpiece kept going off.

"Sector 1! Head to Sector–"

"Allez-vouz à la premier secteur pour–"

"Dali! Dali! Pupunta tayo sa–"

"Nightmaaaare!"

"You want close combat?" Jack breathed. He shortened his staff and put it in his belt again.

Then with a hot and heavy exhale, Jack pressed two buttons at his belt.

Two ulaks suddenly protruded from the concealed brace on his lower back. With a quick eject, they shot up and each flipped into his waiting hands. He twirled one of the short curved swing blades in his fingers until his grip tightened – but the Nightmares saw him on the move and both underling and arch-level tore for him.

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"So be it."

Then in a sprint, he ran head first at them and threw unarmed punches, slicing and slashing his way through with the saberblades' natural flow of his arms and hands. He didn't stay to end them – let the ELFs do that, that wasn't his thing – he only needed them to get out of his way. As he cleared his path, they fell to their knees, choking and sputtering blood, and only raging to kill him more.

"Stop him! STOP HIM–"

Bang!

Bang!

...

Phil and Toothiana fired bullets at any Nightmare that got too close as the shots ring out horrifically...their eyes were narrowed and sharp.

Tooth's handmaidens didn't run away, holding onto one another as they watched their princess unleash all the emotions she'd kept bottled up for hours, for days.

"Where are you, princess?" one Nightmare suddenly sneered and appeared on her right.

The girls screamed – Tooth activated the spike in her boot.

"Right here!" she shouted and rushed at him with a proud kick to his balls. When he shouted in pain and stumbled on his knee, she punched him in the throat and shot him in the head with a dark look.

"D-Don't look girls," she shut her eyes briefly before she started firing again.

"Don't look!"

"N-No, Toothie!" Theena shouted. Her purpling face was stubborn but brave. "We want to!"

"Yeah get 'em, Tooth!"

"Y-You can do it!"

"Get them! Get them!"

Tooth gasped under her breath and nearly went glassy eyed again. They grew louder, more confident and she wondered if maybe it was their mutation affecting their emotions, or if it really was just seeing her kick ass but she didn't care.

"O...Okay," she swallowed a sob, loving them more than she ever thought possible. "Okay!"

And with a fiery roar, she and Phil bumped shoulders and fired in opposite directions, getting nearly every Nightmare dead on that wanted to come at them.

"No one hurts my family!" she growled and they cheered with shaky fists. "You hear me?!"

And when Tina managed to throw a piece of rock (just like her big sister) at a dark Nightmare coming for them, Tooth fired another powerful shot, right between the eyes.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

Jack's ulaks were dark and bloodied.

He quickly pulled up from his crouch and dashed for Pitch's shadow in the near distance – a group of Nightmares were laying dead behind him while the ELFs skipped over them.

"You son of a bitch, I'll kill you," he seethed just as he ran right past Aster being circled by four Nightmares, ready to pounce.

"Come on, mates!" he growled sensing Jack suddenly on his left – he smirked.

"Give us a real fight!"

He dropped to his knees and touched the floor as Jack pulled tight current around them and lifted the broken stones. When they hit Pitch's men, the two rushed forward gripping each others' hands and simultaneously kicked them away then pivoting around each other to knock them out. As Jack was was busy slicing down one guy–

"You may wanna duck!" Aster shouted and Jack dropped when he sensed coming behind him.

A second later, the Nightmare who tried to hit him was knocked down by Aster's returning boomerang.

He smirked at Jack's expression before making a 'come at me' gesture with his fingers.

Jack threw down his ulaks and ran at him.

"Oy, see ya on the other side!" Aster grunted and just as Jack tucked his feet in and he caught the shorter GUARDIAN, Aster tossed him sideways over Pitch's guys to give him a head start.

Jack then stormed away with a dark twist in his ribcage.

"That better not be a challenge, bucktooth!"

"Gberugh bergha!"

One of Phil's lieutenants crossed his path as he wrestled an elite ON-X. But then–

(луна) "Hahaha, you little men!"

Suddenly North came into view fighting off two ON-X and a handful of Fearlings and when he caught the familiar white bangs under the hood–

"Jack!"

He narrowed his eyes and a split second later, he jumped – catching North's hand.

"сейчас! (Now!)"

In a powerful grip, North stopped in his fight and swung Jack around like an extension of his arm. The 24-year-old extended his right leg out and activated the blade running along the side of his combat boot. He slashed them all in the powerful tag-team move, getting the elite Nightmares in the arms and one of the three of the low-ranking Nightmares in the throat.

Once he came back around, North immediately let go and the two separated – Jack tore forward again and North moved in to end his fight.

"You think you fight good?" he growled in his thick accent.

"Look who is winning! I will show you a fight!"

And with a roar, the Cossack took them down...Aster blinded them with a device...Tooth let out a yell and deflected a punch. But when Jack stopped, lifting his eyes higher under his hood, he caught two golden eyes across the dome...

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

The bullets were going off and the shouting increased...but the three ELFs dropped dead to their knees at Pitch's feet, but he was already staring at Jack.

Their gazes locked, isolated and stormy.

Where is your guardian now?

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

Jack blocked it out, he blocked everything out and with a ragged breath, the wind swung itself down to him. He flexed his fingers.

Pitch turned to face him with a twisted look and beady glare.

He mouthed something Jack couldn't properly read – and it made his blood boil.

Lub-dub...

Lub-dub...

Jack ran.

...

There was a bell going off in Tooth's head, with every beat of the war, every powerful step.

She saw North's men fall, she watched Nightmares get their masks ripped off their faces–

BANG!

Bullets went off and she watched suddenly as one of the iron ladders high up against the dome to the platforms broke loose and fell towards the floor.

She screamed as she watched it impale the battlefield, killing one ELF and one of Pitch's elite Nightmares.

"No!"

In a flurry, the Nightmares used it as a stepping bridge to fire down get chased up to the platform.

She took a nervous step forward to watch but then–

Bang! Bang!

She spun.

In an instant, she caught Baby Tooth move with incredible speed when one dark-hooded figure got too close. The 17-year-old beat on him with fists strong enough to break metal.

"Eh!" the man shouted hotly. "Qu-Qu'est-ce que c'est?! Fous-moi la paix!"

"What is this?! Leave me the hell alone!"

Tooth's eyebrows flew up.

"WAIT! Stop, BT! Stop!" and she yanked her off of him. "Take it easy there, champ!"

"Why?!" Tat shouted and tried to go at him again until she heard the incessant cursing under his hood. When he pulled it off and stared at her angrily, Tatiana realised his wasn't wearing a Nightmare uniform or a ghoulish respirator.

He was one of Jack's team members – a stealth ELF.

"Oh my gosh!" and she covered her mouth.

"See?!" Tooth pointed exasperatedly. "He's one of ours, I think from the European division!"

And as she pushed Tat away to the girls again, she shot the stealth agent a tiny apologetic frown.

"C-Ca va?" she asked worriedly in the only French she knew but he rolled his eyes and grumbled as he got up and tore away.

Tooth instantly fixed Baby Tooth with a scornful look to which she shook her head.

"Sorry!" and Tooth sighed before she had to turn around again – just in time to avoid a Nightmare coming at her–

"Ahh!"

Bang!

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

Aster's ears picked up and he looked up instantly.

"Tooth!"

He quickly sent a powerful roundhouse to knock one Nightmare away.

"Bullocks!" he growled.

"I don't have time for this!"

"Chhzck! Aster, we're ready! It's all on you!"

The hacker threw suddenly down a mini bomb that scrambled their vision in their masks. As they watched the static erupt and throw off their senses, he pulled his out de-tractable blade whip and a knife.

"It's alright', I'm comin'!" then he lunged.

Without fear, he rushed at the Nightmares and drew the blade into his eye piece and sliced another one down without missing a heartbeat.

"Move!" he shouted and with a tight spin, Aster let loose his whip and wrapped it around the last two to choke and stab them. As they dropped, he recalled the whip back to him and tore for Thia and the clones–

Riiiuuuu... Riiiiuuuuuu...

The loud siren quickly fell over the entire dome.

Everyone else looked up.

Aster's thick eyebrows shot up.

"Th' rescue!"

Sure enough, North's large and ominous rescue carrier suddenly took up the bulk of the broken skylight, and even higher up above it, were several other rescue carriers.

"Chzzz–Agent SANDMAN is leading the planes but your window starts now!"

"No time," he roared before knocking out another Nightmare. "No time!"

And in a dead heat, he rushed at Tooth, ducking and slicing at the shadows around him.

"Move mates, move!"

Lub-dub.

But the shadows kept moving faster–

Lub-dub.

North's men kept getting ambushed–

LUB-DUB.

They kept blocking Pitch's–

"Argh, enough!" Jack shouted and pressed a button on his belt just as about twelve Nightmares tried to surround him.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The ELFs around him instantly panicked and drove their grappling hooks into the ground–

"Chzck!–Jack's warning!"

"–k's warning, get down! DOWN!"

And in a violent surge, Jack caught two strips of the North wind and brought them into his chest, into his lungs and with a powerful yell, he threw his arms down–

"ENOUGH!"

And exploded the air in an outward blast! Everyone around him screamed out.

The Nightmares flew apart and dropped all their weapons, flying to other parts of the dome they couldn't see and hitting the concrete at bone-shattering impact. When the wind was gone, Jack's heaved a cold breath and grinded his teeth.

He was coated with energy and drunk on power but when he snapped his head up, Pitch was no longer standing ahead of him.

Lub-dub.

Jack gasped.

Lub-dub.

He gasped until the gasping turned to heaving... heaving to raging...

And raging into absolute fury.

Inhale...

Exhale...

A frigid strip of air slipped down his throat as the moisture from the sea air surrounded his cold body. Frost erupted at his feet and curled up his arms like white, spidery tattoos.

He turned on his heel–

Shick!

And caught an arrow aimed right for his heart.

The ON-X lowered his crossbow slowly.

Jack eyed him with an unhurried glare.

"Ihr herz gehört mir," Jack hissed slipping into German unintentionally.

He snapped the steel-enforced arrow in his ice-bitten fist.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

"Out of my WAY!" Aster shouted and smacked his palms to the floor.

The earth cracked in a flurry so ominous, so disturbing, that several ELFs and Nightmares and Phil's officers stopped.

"Look out! LOOK OUT!"

"Gargh!"

The stone beneath the concrete floor began to upsurge like a violent cough and suddenly, a quarter portion of the dome where Aster was started to fall through into a dark hole!

"Oh no!"

"Everybody–chzzc–JUMP!"

The Three ELFs jumped and Aster rabbit jumped to catch them. The Nightmares fell instantly, crushed in falling stone and darkness.

"I got ya, blokes!" he shouted and he safely leaped them over the crater to the other side.

They all fell in a tumble but got up instantly and fired at the Nightmares coming at them as Aster recovered. When the tech analyst looked up, he saw Tooth and the handmaidens closer than ever.

He coughed and grabbed a block of stone.

"I have to get to the princess!" he shouted and the three immediately ceased fire.

"...Now!"

They quickly threw down the smoke bombs he'd given them all before the mission started. The smoke was blinding, and they took out their objectives in a silent finish as Aster tore through – and with a smirk, the hacker lobbed the stone, just as Tooth taught him.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

"Shit!"

Toothiana shrieked in fear when the Nightmare coming at her instantly dropped. Seeing the piece of concrete, she snapped her head up in a heated glare.

"Edmund! Holy–"

"I'm here, Tooth, I'm here!" he coughed and de-activated his whip to re-holster it. "But I've gotta get you lot outta here now!"

She blinked rapidly.

"Wh-HOW?!" and looked around but Phil's officer was already nodding his head. He looked like he was finally tired of waiting.

She panicked.

"Where?!" she spun back on Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding. "In case you haven't realised, there's nowhere to go and you made a friggin' hole in front of the only exit!"

And it was true, Aster's sinkhole was placed perfectly and every Nightmare who tried to come in fell into the pit. Lucky for the ELFs (who still had their Bluetooth communication), they warned their comrades coming through. The ELFs jumped with added boost in their boots or grappled their way across.

But it was all still so crazy, still so nerve-wracking!

"You crazy–" Tooth panicked and he dropped his head from where he was looking up through the skylight.

"Aster!"

"The carriers!"

"What?!"

"The carriers!" he repeated and immediately went to grab Tia.

Tia squealed but didn't fight him – she remembered he was a good guy; and Aster remembered that Tooth's second sister was the most level-headed.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" Tooth shouted but Aster wouldn't let Tia go – he hoped to use her as an example.

"It's why I'm here, Tooth!" he cried and fired a shot with his gun at a Nightmare who got too close. Then he turned back to her with fire in his eyes.

"I'm the only one who can get them out the fastest!"

"Wh–" but she stopped when she realised...

'That's why he's here!'

"What are you...Wait!"

"Climb on my back, you two! ...When I count to three, jump! Ready?!"

'He's gonna...He's gonna–'

"Okay!" Tooth finally gasped and placed her hands on his arm for reassurance. "Do it!"

"What?!" The younger sisters screamed, confused out of their minds.

"What are you saying, Tooth?!"
"N-No!"
"Tia! What–"

"Hey, be quiet!" BT yelled and they all shut their mouths and watched as Aster took a step back with Tia in his arms. He nodded to Tooth in a serious, yet stiff gaze before he fixed the little handmaiden in his arms.

"Hang on tight, alrigh' sheila!" he shouted and Tia nodded shakily and tightened her arms around his neck.

"Y-Yes, sir!" she hiccupped and then fixed her sisters with a tough look they could be proud of.

"Take me home!"

And with a nod from Tooth's friend (and some protection gunshots from Tooth to give him a pathway), Aster turned and broke into a little run...and when he built up enough speed and his center plucked deeply in his chest, he bent his knees–

THUUUM!

Tia screamed.

Lub-dub.

...

Lub-dub.

Aster reached the height of one of the platforms, twenty feet high.

"Hold on, ya ankle biter! Hold on!" he shouted and Tia bent her head closer into his chest. Her feathery sprout on her head pressed gingerly against his turtleneck.

Boom!

His boots made landed on the platform with a stomp before he made a little run to go for the next one, and the next one.

Then he and Tooth's sister were at forty feet...

Lub-dub.

Sixty feet...

Lub-dub.

And then–

"Here we go!"

And with one more powerful rabbit jump, Aster put everything into the last leap...and went right through the skylight.

He soared fifty into the air, just within reach of the carrier.

"Shut yer eyes!" he shouted at Tia but she didn't close them – she was too busy looking at everything around her. The sea was on one side, the rolling plains of Naples were on the other! But it was so cold being way up high. Her white dress gave her no warmth and the frigid air attacked her skin like needles and numbing her toes instantly. Tia bit her lip and gripped Aster tighter. Then it all stopped when his feet landed on the steel floor of the fuselage bay.

Several ELFs were waiting for him and grabbed him to pull him inside in case he fell.

"We've got you, buddy!" one of them cried and when he moved away from the edge and brought Tia closer to the wall–

"Miss Tia!"

Tia spun and saw three, trusted Royal Hypunjam guards from their palace. They looked were paled and shocked, especially when they saw what had happened to her face, but they beckoned her over anyway. She gasped at the familiar men and uniforms and immediately unwound from Aster.

"Th-Thank you, sir!" she cried to him and hugged onto one as she sobbed in relief.

Aster looked at her for a moment before he looked at the ELFs surrounding them.

"Keep this plane at the same altitude!" he ordered. "Alert me if you can't or I can't adjust!"

"Yes sir!" they saluted, still in shock by what one GUARDIAN could do. ''Be careful, sir!"

"Don't worry," he responded. "I ain't gonna crump in."

Without fear, Aster then leaped from the open carrier and fell back down into the dome, ready to dodge the carnage and terror that took over the dome, and rescue the other girls.

It was all so much...

So much...

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

But the Nightmares were bloodthirsty.

Lub-dub.

They were in the fight for their lives and ELFs never once backed down!

Matching blow for blow and size for strength, each side was more aggressive than they'd been in all thirteen sectors combined, and as the GUARDIANs looked around, they caught the brutal scenes of red and black.

Aster landed with a small shockwave and caught one ELF manage to grapple a Nightmare and pull him up to a platform; they had a brutal fight over thirty feet in the air ...but a second later, the Nightmare flew over the edge – but then two more appeared in his place.

Jack turned after he finished cutting a throat. He watched as one of the stealth ELFs (who'd helped him) hook his legs around a Fearling's neck ...and drag them both into a half-twist to the concrete.

Meanwhile, North and Phil spun when the cry of one of their ELFs nearby was being choked and dragged away by one of Pitch's elitists. He clawed at the sharp vine around his neck ...but then blacked out as he came to a stop under the man's boot.

North panicked.

"NYET!" he shouted and they rushed in to help but–

BAM!

But one of Phil's other buddies beat them and threw a powerful hook at the ON-X, protecting the red agent. He then grabbed the ghost assassin around the torso and shoved him away, into the last fight he'd ever have.

Lub-dub...

They needed to win.

Lub-dub...

They needed to win tonight.

(Three ELFs dashed past Phil's officer in violent pursuit of two other arch-level Nightmares.)

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

"We're not giving up without a fight!" one of them shouted. "Let's break these guys!"

"Like a China plate, mate!"

And with a double layout, one of them front-flipped and got a Nightmare around the shoulders. As he did, the other two threw him a device. With a determined yell, he jammed the button and tossed it forward watching it explode and create three trip wires that hooked the Nightmares all around their ankles – and when they fell, the ELFs took out their guns.

They fired like hunters.

"After years, this place shuts down tonight!"

"The Black Organization is over!"

"Chzck!–'o, go, GO!"

And more ELFs descended from the skylight to overtake the platforms. The Nightmares roared. They had to change direction! They climbed up the platforms to take them down... Pitch's face darkened immensely.

His grey skin shadowed to almost black and his eyes turned silver.

He changed formation too with his elites – he dropped his stave.

A second later...he unleashed his scythe, casting its longer blade and menacing curve in the dim light.

He gritted his teeth.

Silent and unremitting, he suddenly mowed through the ELFs like straw. His strikes were violent, not even caring if he got some of his own men in the gut – but his mind was off. In his perception, his blood froze with cold fury.

All his men ...were falling.

More red uniforms began taking over the color scheme of the dome; because while his men were haphazard wild cards who only cooperated in skittish, small formations, North's men were obviously bonded together by teamwork and major tactic strategy. They moved as one, even the hairy giants in one massive operation, all focused on different tasks but mentally linked by their major goal – to get everything done – fast – and unilaterally.

They knew they didn't need stealth anymore. They relied on cooperation. And it was obvious that stress kept their heads together, as fast hands and faster fingers made sure his shadows couldn't outrun them.

And he hated it.

"Chzzk!–Message to the Chief! Message to the Chief!"

The Russian touched his complink as it buzzed to life – as he continued swinging his sword, he listened to the broadcast.

"главный! главный," the ELF on the other end let out an almost delighted gasp. "We...We're doing it! The sectors, the кошмары(Nightmares) are falling faster than our comrades! H-Ha, we are winning!"

"Winning?" North repeated. "Winning?!"

He lifted his head and for a second, he caught Pitch's unreadable eyes somewhere in the distance before they were taken over by an onslaught of ELFs going after him.

"Haha!" he boasted and his large belly turned just in time to send an unsuspecting Nightmare flying back.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Aster shouted just before he gripped little Tiati tight and leapt up thirty feet to the platform.

Her high-pitched squeals flew up with him.

"You see, Pitch?! My men are strong! Сильный! (Strong!)"

North laughed so hard that his wonder sent a drop of liquid courage into all his men's stomach.

They fought harder, moved more rapidly, and as his pride was surged through him, sending an exhilarated voltage through his center–

BOOM!

Aster landed again with another shockwave, ready to grab another handmaiden.

"Cottontail!"

The hacker shot him a glare. "Frostbite!"

Jack immediately appeared on his left to cover his back.

He sent a flourish of cold wind to blow back the remaining Nightmares. He then swooped low with a back kick and a smack from his unsuspecting staff to knock two of them down.

"Go!" Jack shouted and Aster ran – but not before touching the ground and sending a deep crack in the concrete to trip up the other Nightmares coming for Jack.

Aster grabbed Tulia and leapt up again. Jack brought down five more Nightmares with his bare hands.

But then–

"Aaaieee!"

Crack!

He snapped his head up.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

"Aster!"

...

The hacker got knocked out in midair, dropping his gun and his whip, and smacked into the side of the dome.

With a powerful crack, he crumbled in his cocoon around Tulia... and three Nightmares appeared.

They landed on the platform dangling their weapons ready to slaughter the two. Tulia hugged onto Aster tightly as he struggled to get up. Gritting his teeth, she watched him pull out a device and turn it on, blinding the Nightmares instantly.

"Go," Tulia screeched. "GO!"

"The light first, sheila! I can't–"

Click.

Aster snapped his head up but when the flash faded–

Lub-dub.

"Bl-Bloody hell!" Aster panted breathlessly...and a tiny smile quickly formed on his face.

Agent Sanderson was standing in front of them, protecting them and brandishing two gold whips.

Tulia shouted. "M-Mr. Sandy!"

"MG division move, move!"

And a second later, a group of female ELFs landed beside him and dove off the platform. They caught the black ropes and flipped down to join the men.

Among them was Linae, red hair flying back and with a face cut and gnarled from her earlier fights.

"We're heree!" one girl sneered and delivered a headshot to one Nightmare.

"Agora, meninas! Já!" another courageously smirked. "Vamos lá mostrar aos rapazes como é que isto se faz! (Let's show the boys how it done!)"

She then rushed ahead and flipped twice before clinching one Nightmare around the neck and twisting him sideways. Once the others landed landed, the all star girl teams dispersed and fired their guns, taking down the Nightmares as a third wave.

"Chhzzck! Over here!"

One of the girls turned and saw a male ELF running at her with his hands lifted. She rushed at him without hesitation, and when she jumped onto his palms, he flipped her up and pulled the cord from her waist. She gripped it and extended it with her body until he pressed the button and set the cord's taser on STUN.

"ELF to MG, disperse! Disperse!"

When she landed, they both ran sideways and shocked every Nightmare in the section into unconsciousness. After about five seconds, they unhooked and separated to find their comrades. Another two ELFs loaded a 'mistle'toe launcher and took out a platform high up to stop the Nightmares from reaching their arrival point.

"Move girls, move!" Linae shouted and swooped in to knock out a Fearling trying to make a surprise attack on Jack. He turned just as she twisted the guy's neck.

Jack threw her a steely gaze.

"Thanks."

She nodded stiffly and immediately ducked when it felt like there was a gun aimed at her head. But then–

BANG!

Another Nightmare came in and knocked the gun away and bashed his head against the goon. When the two reacted, he pulled off his hood...and the same familiar eyes stared back, angry and tired.

"Why am I always saving you, Red?!" Dean scowled.

Jack's heart threatened to jump out of his chest.

"What th–Dean!?" He took a step back in shock.

"I thought you were–" He paused to scissor kick a Nightmare away. "I thought you were dead."

"I wasn't dead!" he growled in his rough voice and Jack threw him a nasty glare.

"I saw the body."

"But did you find the head?!" he snapped. "Wasn't my head!"

"Th...N–"

"Exactly!"

And with a furious growl, he rushed sideways and stabbed a Nightmare coming at Jack with his hidden blade.

"Men!" Linae rolled her eyes and sprinted away.

Dean glared at her.

"You're welcome!" he spat and looked at Jack.

"Someone tried to ambush me while I was getting up. So I killed him, switch uniforms and ran like hell–"

Jack didn't pause to listen as he ducked under the undercover ELF's arm and threw himself into a back flip to knock out an arch-level Nightmare charging for them. When the elite Nightmare stumbled back, Jack leaped up with his staff to smack his head one way and slit his throat with a concealed knife.

When the man fell dead, Jack turned back to him.

"I really wanna kill you right now, you know that?" Jack hissed and Dean grit his teeth.

"You'll get a chance, sweetheart," and he sped away to find North and his old team while Jack still couldn't believe what he'd just seen. Why did the crazy agents always survive...like him?! He was sure he'd confirmed it to be Dean's body he'd saw but rewinding the scene vividly, everyone had been so completely out of their minds that–

"Ahhhhh!"

...

Tooth looked up just in time to see Aster shout and fall over the edge. Tulia's scream traveled down to her ears.

"ASTERRR!"

'And oh God, Tulia! Where's–'

When she peeked into Tulia's eyes, she saw Mr. Sandy battling three Nightmares on his own and watching the poor girl's and body flit around frantically.

She didn't want to get caught. She couldn't–

Crack!

Sandy got hit with something!

"No!" and Tooth fired a shot and rushed forward.

"Tooth!" BT shrieked. "Where're you–"

(Lub-dub...Lub-dub...)

Aster stared wide eyed at the coming ground.

Tooth was already running for him.

He looked at her wondering why she was leaving her sisters, when he caught her dark gaze and her grip on the only two guns any of them had left – and he knew.

"Princess!"

"Protect them!" she screamed. "I'll get her!"

The moment his boots hit the concrete and his gene absorbed the impact with another shockwave, Tooth jumped at him.

He lifted his hands.

"Alrigh' Go!"

And with a quick bend of his knees, he caught her and jumped up. Once they were twenty feet in the air, he shoved something into her hand and threw her the rest of the way to the platform.

"I'll come for you both!" he shouted and she sucked in a devastating breath as he released her to fly on her own.

Tooth's hair flew back away from her face, giving her a clear view of the Nightmares trying to hurt her family.

She gritted her teeth and fired two shots into one of their legs. Then tightening Aster's device in her fist as they turned...she threw his device.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

"MR. SANDY!"

Sanderson immediately threw himself back to shield Tulia–

BOOM!

The deafening pop exploded in the Nightmare's faces and the two of them fell over the platform – just as Tooth landed the ledge and caught herself.

Without blinking, she fired a shot at the last Nightmare and kicked him over the edge too.

"I'm here! I'm here!" she choked but Sandy was already hand-signing a flurry of angry words demanding why she came and what she was thinking.

"I know, I know, lecture me later!" she cried and hugged Tulia tightly before she pulled up and gave him a serious look.

"But you could use a little help," and reaching into his waist belt, she reloaded her guns with some new cartridges and pulled back the decocker with a decisive clinch!

Sandy looked at her for a moment, but he nodded slowly his head...and gave her a slight bow.

The other GUARDIAN – Aster, was it? – He couldn't shoot point-blank like her, he wasn't ambidextrous, and he needed the ground as his advantage.

He gave the honor sign and Tooth swelled with determination as she squeezed her arms together.

"Get ready Tools," she mumbled to Tulia and when the Nightmares started climbing up the ladders, seeing her there and Pitch's arch rival alone, Tooth was ready.

She was born ready.

And she fired the first round of shots.

BANG!

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

"Where are the girls, Aster? Chzzzck–'urry! Bring the girls!"

Aster kicked a Nightmare away and created a crater in front of the girls and their hairy bodyguard. As the Nightmares gawked and couldn't comprehend it, he wasted no time and grabbed another sister.

Theena held on for dear life as he rabbit-leaped more quickly (and more spatially aware) until they were on the carrier again. Theena immediately ran to Tia and Tiati and hugged them as Aster jumped off again.

"Five to go!" he panted. "Five t–Bullocks!"

Boom!

A set of bombs flew up to try to hit him and the plane.

Aster gritted his teeth.

"Aster!" Jack yelled into the complink, seeing the chaos from below.

"On it!" then the tech analyst pulled out three egg-shaped bombs and threw them at the incoming grenades. Upon close vicinity, each egg matched the ignition signature of one and locked onto them. – and when all three made contact, they blew up each firearm and absorbed the impact.

Aster narrowed his eyes through the smoke and landed in another heap as he touched the concrete floor.

The girls looked at him both scared and astonished.

Phil's officer, not so much.

"Guhbereh bagrehuer!" he ordered in a panic. His hands and hairy coat arms were flying up like made and Aster raised his eyebrows.

"What're you, nuts?!" he gaped. "But–"

"Guerbegh!"

Aster looked at the girls for a quick second, before he sprinted away.

"Wait!" they shouted. "W-Wait!"

But it couldn't be helped.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

It was only just for a minute. Just a minute!

Someone else needed Aster's help.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

Two someones, actually.

...

Pitch turned and tried to go after Jack–

"PITCH!"

He turned with a feral scowl as a wave of male and female ELFs came at him. He twirled his scythe viciously and picked up his stave, his skin twitching with impatience.

"Play time isn't for another hour, ladies and gentlemen!" and he lunged–

"North!"

Jack appeared next to North and the two knocked down every Nightmare in their way to get to Pitch, and the more they brought down, the more they realised that the ELFs actually were winning!

There were bodies lying everywhere and the ones who were still alive were trying to bring the fight outside the dome by leaping over Aster's sinkhole. Soon the dome was almost close to quiet again as the number of casualties lessened and the clashes between ELF and Nightmare started to die away.

But that didn't mean Pitch was running.

Jack and North sprinted for his spindly figure, twisting in violent merriment as he swung his stave and scythe simultaneously, impaling sleeper agents this way and that, and tossing their bodies to the sides.

He still needed Toothiana, and he wasn't leaving without her or North's head on a platter.

"Come and get me, boys!" he roared.

"Mate!"

Jack heard Aster land on his left.

The two looked at each other then sprinted with North in one straight line of heated aggression.

"Idti! (Go!)" North shouted and Jack jumped onto his large forearms. "GO!"

And with a powerful toss, Nicolas sent Jack surging forward toward Pitch's face.

He built the wind on his heels and his hood flew back, making all his white hair fly up. And with a pull back of his gauntlet to extend the blade, and his black staff in the other hand–

SMACK!

"Argh!"

Jack dropped into a powerful crouch, the wind blew a small crater of dirt away around him but when Jack thought he grabbed Pitch's throat, he got nothing.

"Son of a–DAMNIT!"

It was like the tunnel all over again!

He looked around to survey the battlefield. The wind in the air grew colder as his fingers twitched violently.

Pitch could be anywhere in the dark.

He fucking was the dark!

"Jack!"

His white hair slapped his forehead as twisted his neck back to Aster and North. They slowed to a stop in front of him to look around as well.

(луна) "Where is he?" North demanded. "Where did he go?!"

It was almost silent, save for the remaining ELFs and Nightmares still left in the dome.

Jack tightened his hands around his staff so tight his knuckles ached against the stretch of his skin.

"Come out, Black!" he shouted and North lifted his swords in the ready. Aster lifted one hand to his back bracers and pulled out a long and ominous-looking boomerang with a blade running along the inner curve.

He flit his green eyes around. But where was he?! Where–

Pitch's shadow suddenly appeared behind Jack with his scythe. And it was already pulled back ready to swing and decapitate–

Lub-dub.

"JACK!" Aster screamed and his face turned absolutely white as he threw his boomerang without thinking. And in one glorious curve–

TANG!

Pitch's scythe fell sideways and dropped before it chopped Jack's head right off his shoulders.

He turned instantly and nearly jumped out of his skin until a furious yell left his throat.

He jumped away instantly as the heavy boomerang rolled off to the side.

"Move, Jack! MOVE!" North practically ordered and he rushed at Pitch with his swords raised.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

"Arrrg–"

Lub-dub.

...

Meanwhile–

Bang bang!

BANG!

Tooth climbed higher and higher on the ladder attached to their platform. She and Sandy successfully held against the first ten Nightmares with their combined defence. Knowing him all her life, she sensed where her nanny had his attention focused and shot in the opposite direction to protect. They became a golden (constantly-moving) duo, firing at far distances and cracking whips at those who came too close. At one point, Sandy even let Tooth jump over him to activate the spike in her boot. She violently kick-stabbed one surprised Nightmare who was trying to come from under the ledge.

Sandy shot her hand signal.

"Okay!" Tooth raised her voice and moved away from a hit – he cracked his whip in two seconds flat.

Tulia looked on with (now) light pink eyes in silent awe, letting their actions wash over her and her heart race with fiery energy. She was watching the two people (who she only ever saw her entire life laugh, exchange secret gestures and make complete idiots of themselves for her and her sisters just to smile) fight together like two warriors. They looked so different and yet, still the same.

And completely, totally, and utterly inspiring.

Suddenly one Nightmare crept on Sandy from behind that neither was seeing. Tulia bit her lip, her inventive mind running a mile a minute.

But without another thought–

'Go Tool, go!'

She rushed forward and having seen the knife concealed in Sandy's belt, she quickly pulled it out and stabbed it into the Nightmare's leg.

He screamed out from behind his gas mask, scaring the living shit out of Toothiana.

When she looked down from the ladder, she fired a bullet into his chest and Sandy turned and forcefully pushed him over the edge, careful not to let him grab him and bring him with him.

But the minute the danger was over, Sandy gave the handmaiden a hard glare.

"Tool!" Tooth shouted vehemently but Tulia looked up defiantly.

"What?!" she squeaked and covered her ears as Tooth fired two more shots across the platform to bring down more unsuspecting Nightmares.

But when she stopped and Tulia looked up again, Tooth gave her small smile.

"...Good job!"

And it made her heart soar watching her big sister, proud and strong, climb higher on the ladder to take down more Nightmares as Sandy protected them from below.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

...

North rushed in with his swords to fight Pitch but the ex-GUARDIAN jumped back.

"We should have had this fight years ago, old friend!" Pitch snarled. Swinging the scythe sideways to cut his gut, North parried Pitch's attack with a powerful down twist of his blade.

"Shut your tongue!" he spat back.

North then moved with the blades in a figure-eight scissor attack. Pitch backed away with a growl and before North could get in too close, he drove the length of the weapon into the ground and swung around it like a pole to avoid the slashing.

"You are constantly ruining my business!" Pitch then timed it perfectly and knocked North forward with his boots. When the Russian stumbled forward, Pitch didn't waste time and lifted a gun ready to fire but–

Boom!

Aster's mini bomb blew up right in his face!

"Aster, look out!" Pitch threw his arm back into a reverse elbow strike to hit the Australian in the chest – but Aster sensed it and caught the forearm with both hands.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

Gritting his teeth he yelled out ferociously, his center igniting and his gene rippling through his fingertips.

Lub-dub... Lub-dub...

He meant to shatter Pitch's arm with his surface-split gene, but only cracked the long arm brace Pitch was wearing under his sleeve.

Aster's grew wide and pulled away–

Pitch was on him in a second.

Aster got in a heated fight with Pitch, throwing out blocks and powerful defences as Pitch flickered around him. Aster was fast and tried and tried to knock him down, but when Pitch nicked Aster sharply behind one of his large and pointed ears, the hacker yelped in pain and drew back.

"What's the matter?" Pitch taunted. "Would you like another scratch behind the ear?"

"Shut ya gob, don't you even think about it!" the Aussie snarled and threw down another egg grenade to blind Pitch just as he lunged for him again.

Pitch pulled away and shielded his eyes with his hands – and Jack decided to swoop in and unleash all the rage he'd been building.

"Arghhh!" Jack made it almost impossible to see as he twirled his staff and smacked the terrorist in multiple directions. North was on the Nightmare King a moment later, but as Pitch weaved and twisted between them like a distorted shadow, he bared his teeth.

"Where are you running off to, rabbit?" he shouted when Aster didn't show up again. Pitch didn't like when he those he liked to torture lost interest in him so quickly. "I thought you'd want to stay!"

"Shut up!" Jack shouted and made a violent wrist roll and tried to stab the man in the gut – but Pitch jumped back and threw his scythe sideways. And when Jack and North dropped to the floor...they gave him a clear view of where Aster was heading.

In a heated gaze, the terrorist watched as Aster jumped twenty feet high and land on the platform, seeing Sanderson and one of the clones waiting for pickup.

Pitch's dark energy skyrocketed, his shadows distorting slightly.

"So this is how you all want to go?" he snickered to Jack until it transformed into a dark, cruel laugh. "Us, the big four, all together? Heh, one final showdown of GUARDIANs?"

"ENOUGH!" North bellowed and shut his eyes.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

Immediately, a terrible zing travelled through the air that made all the Nightmares nearby who weren't wearing earplugs, drop to their knees. North's gene pulled and twisted through the air, trying to reach into Pitch. They needed to end Pitch, and they needed to end him tonight!

"Gaargh!"

"W-Wh...What the...Argh!"

"Wh-What's that–Raaaaagh!"

The sound of ten skill saws ripped across the floor of the dome.

They clutched their ears and bent their heads under his control. Pitch watched in mild surprise ...until he realised–

"Y..." his face bridged on pure rage. "YOU'RE A GUARDIAN TOO?!"

And he threw his scythe back, seriously intent on driving it into the ELF Chief. All this time...all this time, he thought the ridiculous Cossack was just mere competition in espionage! But he was a GUARDIAN?

Pitch roared and swung his blade–

"NO!" Jack grabbed enough wind just in time to catapult both him and North away from the swing – all Pitch got was cold air.

When they rolled on the ripped up concrete ten feet away, Jack and North got up in an instant, killing the wind and killing North's gene.

"He is..." North coughed. "His mind is too dark! I cannot find his–"

"To hell with all of you!"

Lub-dub.

They both snapped their heads up and looked.

Pitch was no longer holding his scythe. It was on the floor and in his hands' place...

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

Pitch was holding a large, black, and violent-looking spear on a bow. And he was aiming...high at the platform where Aster was with Sandy, picking up Tulia.

"To hell!"

And he let it go.

"NYET!" North cried and the two watched it soar after the two GUARDIANs.

Lub-dub.

...

Lub-dub.

"I've got ya sheila, I–"

Aster stopped.

Something made his center flutter dark and strong and dare spare a second thought.

"MOVE!"

Aster took a short and powerful leap in the air and Sanderson backflipped ten feet away onto another platform, completely scared out of his mind. As he turned, a small wave of Nightmares loud and cruel appeared and he tried to chase them down away from Tooth. He forgot about Pitch and his near impalement...but in his absence, Pitch's spear wasn't done. It flew higher and hit the spot just twenty feet above where they'd been standing–

BOOM!

At the top of platform's iron ladder.

Lub-dub.

Tooth froze from where she was shooting and looked up.

"What's going–"

Lub-dub.

"OH N–"

Crack!

...

The impact from the powerful spear broke the rock around the ladder and made it drop to the platform in large chunks and as it did, the bolts holding the ladder to the wall and the iron twisted and mangled.

Tooth screamed.

"NO!" She dropped one gun in fear as she gripped the ladder and tried to move down. But when it shifted–

"AHHHH!"

Instantly, all eyes were on her.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

"TOOTHIANA!"

"No no no nooo!"

Crack!

But the ladder continued to lose more bolts and its top started to move further away from the wall – and she was too high to–

"Please don't–PLEASE DON'T–"

CRACK!

And the ladder ripped entirely from the wall.

She screamed.

Lub-dub.

"TOOTH!"

Lub-dub.

And Jack sprinted.

...

He wasn't even thinking, he didn't know what he was doing, but in a flurry of cold wind and ice-bitten fingertips, his heart thundered like the clouds overhead and he jumped at the wall.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.

With three powerful steps he pushed himself off without fear and threw the wind at his feet, catapulting himself thirty feet up to her.

Lub-dub.

He just knew he had to make it. Every memory about her was climbing up out of his chest and trying to choke him.

Lub-dub.

"Toothiiieeee!"

Tooth felt gravity take hold of her stomach and twist her heart in her chest. She screamed as the ladder gave away entirely and started to fall. The platform started to get closer and with frantic eyes, she looked around.

Lub-dub.

'Oh my God...'

Lub-dub.

She shut her eyes. 'O-Oh my GOD!'

And choking down a sob at the last possible second before it was too late–

"Do it, Tooth! D...Y-You don't need saving!"

Tooth swung her body sideways and let go of the ladder to drop down onto the platform.

Her heart leapt into her–

"AH!"

Jack avoided the ladder as he flew up. Everything about him didn't seem to fly fast enough, didn't push hard enough. He watched her jump off before she went down with it, admiration for her surging through him. She landed on the platform! But–

His hair flew back.

His blood ran cold.

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

She was too close to the edge.

"Oh n–No! NO!" Tooth squealed as her clumsy feet knocked together and she felt her body tip backwards.

"Toothiana!"

Sandy finally spun and realised how how far he was. His tiny hands lifted desperately, his heart wretching under his suit. He signed her name while his whips shook violently but no matter what the princess did to keep balance, the gravity started to push down on her chest.

"OH N–"

She felt herself start to fall over the edge.

"NO!"

"NOO!" Jack landed on the platform in a terrible crash. "Tooth!"

Not even sparing a second to fully stand, he bent his knees and threw his entire upper body forward over the edge to catch her just as she fell...

...and he caught her hand.

Lub-dub.

"Ahhh!"

Jack let out a painful yell as every bone in his arm twisted slightly with the speed she yanked him down with. In a horrible skid to the edge, Jack's other arm twisted under his heavy chest. His entire upper body was hanging over the platform.

Toothiana looked up breathlessly, knowing exactly who it was by the familiar grip.

"J-Jack!" she sobbed and gripped his wrist so tight she thought it would rip off.

"Please don't...P-Please don't let go!"

"I'm not, Tooth! I-I'm not!" he choked.

When Jack peeked past her head and looked down, less bothered by the height as he was, he caught Pitch's figure, fighting a swarm of ELFs.

They took all of the terrorist's attention...and that made the urgency in Jack's stomach spread like wildfire.

"Now, Tooth!" his lips moved like crazy. "Now! Reach your other hand up, so I–"

Tooth stopped with a tight gasp for air and shakily tried to lift her other hand. "I-I...Ahhh!" But she screamed when she looked around her, dangling fifty feet in the air and seeing the wasteland below her.

"Tooth, don't look down! I've got you!"

She looked back at him instantly, her eyes shining with pure fear and a heart threatening to boil over and die.

Well, y-you've got me...And you've got me.

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

She started to hyperventilate.

"I...I-I c–"

"I've got you, Tooth!" he gasped and looked her straight in the eye with such an unguarded expression.

R-Remember...you have me.

"I DO!"

...and you have me.

"I-I almost did it!" she argued desperately. "I almost–"

She heaved painfully, angry in her chest at herself. But when she tried to open her mouth, Jack fingertips sent a jolt down her skin. His center was electrified and trying to sync energy with hers. He wrapped his fingers tighter around her tan wrist.

"Come on!"

"But Jac–"

"Or swing," he cut her off charily in a demanding spy tone he didn't even know he was rambling on about. "You have an axle between your chest and shoulders and if you push like a pendulum, the positive and negative angular momentums will increase the torque at your pivot point whi–"

"Sh-Shut up!" she gasped. "I don't even know what you're–"

"Swing to give me the momentum to pull you up!"

"I...I-I can't, Jack! What if you fall?!" she cried.

"Tooth!" the girls screamed. "TOOTH!"

Lub-dub... Lub-dub...

She squeezed her eyes shut.

"I-I can't let you fall!"

"But I can't pull you up, I...Argh, and you won't! I'm fine!"

Her twisting face was like a knife in his heart and it almost threatened to wipe away every smile and laugh he remembered about her.

He gritted his teeth and tried to pull her up anyway since she wasn't cooperating. He used everything in his core and his abdomen to drag her back but it hurt immensely from his last fights.

"G-Gah!" and when Jack cried out painfully and slipped a little, Tooth shrieked.

"Jack, stop it! You're hurting yo–"

"I'm alright!"

"Okay, stop pulling! I-I'm gonna–"

"Too late, woman! Argh, I'm already gonna pull you up! I'm gonna..."

Lub-dub... Lub-dub...

But the rest of his words didn't even reach her ears...Not when the shadow suddenly appeared behind him.

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

Tooth's ear went deaf as she turned her head slightly to the left. Her eyes grew two sizes wide, her mouth dropping open in fear.

Lub-dub.

"J...Ja–"

"No, Tooth!"

Everything moved in slow motion.

Jack wasn't even aware, his senses were off just trying to get her to calm down and pull her up.

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

She watched his mouth moving, his blue eyes grow wide, and his white bangs move around as he tried to get her to listen to him.

"Just reach with your other hand!" he shouted as he continued to yank her up on pure one-armed strength.

"Tooth, come on!"

But he couldn't see it.

No one could!

"TOOTH!" BT and other sisters screamed from down below. They watched as Jack tried to valiantly pull her up and her frozen in place. "Tooooothie!"

But she wasn't listening.

She shook her head, and tried reach down at her side but it made him slip again.

Jack looked at her like she was crazy.

"Tooth! Lift your other hand so I can pull you up!"

"No! No, you d–"

"What's wrong?! Just REACH!"

"BUT I–"

"TOOTH!"

She looked him in the face.

"L-Love over fear," Jack shouted. "R-Remember?! Love over fear, f-for all of them! Down there!"

Sandy's eyes widened at his words.

"Tooth!"

His heart was racing so hard under his suit and his grip was like iron.

But she panted and her eyes left his – and the shadow was growing larger.

"I'm gonna die a-anyway!" she sobbed. "If you don–"

"TOOTH, STOP!"

But a second later, she looked him in the eye again and bit her lip.

"Tooth! Just stop! You need to shut up. Shut up because...BECAUSE I C–"

But he stopped.

Lub-dub...

He couldn't speak.

Lub-dub...

Not when he felt her let go of his arm... (Lub-dub)...and try to wriggle her hand out of his.

"W-What are you..." His eyes grew wide. "What're you–"

Lub-dub.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Tooth shut her eyes but a choking sound escaped her mouth.

"Jack, n..." she pleaded. "No! You–"

"What?!"

"Dammit, please!"

He couldn't move to save himself with her hanging on. And she couldn't yell to warn him or the Nightmare would react; but what could Jack even do if he knew?! He was in a position where he couldn't turn around defend himself and no one was fast like him.

Lub-dub.

He'd be stuck if he chose her.

"You don't get it..." she then whispered in case the shadow heard her and tried to stop her. "Y-You don't get it!"

She kept trying to unlatch from him faster and made her hand as skinny as possible. Her palms were sweaty and soon... her hand was slipping through his fingers against his will.

"Stop it!"

N-Not for me...

"Stop it!"

Tooth cried a little in her throat. "No, no, no no!"

She caught the shine of a gun barrel–

Not for me!

Lub-dub...

"Toothiana, don't!"

Lub-dub...

"Don't!" But at the last possible second–

She let go...

Lub-dub.

...and completely slipped through his fingers.

"TOOOTH!"

He was immediately scrambling further over the edge as Tooth tucked in her knees and grabbed her last gun in her holster. But when she aimed it directly at him, she had a dark look on her face.

"WH–"

Bang! Bang!

The first came from her and the second went off course behind him...then someone fell on top of him.

Jack nearly jumped out of his skin. When he turned over his shoulder in painful, violent hurry he watched a Nightmare with a gun in his hand slip and die next to him.

The Nightmare had a bullet through his mask and Jack realised...

He could've died.

That Nightmare was about to shoot him in the head...

The Nightmare could've–

Jack instantly dove to the edge again and threw a hand to her but she was already too far for his wind strip. Too far–

He couldn't breathe. Everything inside him felt like it was being ripped apart.

But he couldn't save her.

He couldn't save her.

"TOOTHIANA! T–"

'I had you...I...'

Lub-dub.

'I HAD YOU!'

"TOOTHIANAAA!"

"TOOOTHIEEEE!" Tina screamed.

Lub-dub.

"Tooth!" Tat shouted. "NOOO!"

Lub-dub.

Pitch looked up in an instant.

His face was unreadable.

Lub-dub.

"SOMEONE CATCH THE PRINCESS! SOMEONE CATCH HER!"

"SHE'S MOVING TOO...SHE'S MOVING–CHHHZCK! OH MY GOD!"

"PRINCESS TOOTHIANA!"

Lub-dub.

Her tears slipped out past her eyes and flew up in the violent torrents.

No one would catch her fast enough, no one could and she knew it.

"PRINCEEEESS!"

She knew it.

She shut her eyes and cried a little under her throat.

"I'm so scared..." she whispered and imagined home, imagined the warmth, and imagined the love she'd miss.

"I...I-I'm so scared!"

Her sisters' voices hurt her like hell...and Jack's voice hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before.

"TOOTHIANAAA!"

And she peeked up at him, memorizing every detail about him.

Lub-dub... Lub-dub...

Tooth blinked one more time...

But suddenly–

Lub-dub.

Ignoring the screams and the blurred vision, one eye was brighter than the other and Tooth watched herself fall – and she knew where she was.

Her heart skipped in under her skin.

'...Tatiana. Tatiana!'

It looked so horrific that she almost shut her eyes again to block it out...until Tat's frantic searching caught the sight of–

She gasped.

The wreckage below her! Yeah, it was scary but there was also the ladder!

The ladder!

The ladder that had fallen diagonal to her and was hanging just ten feet above the ground...and it was in her reach!

Her heart pounded, her eyes grew wide as the shine that ran over her eyes flickered bright and strong.

"D-Don't close your eyes, Tat," she mumbled shakily and let go of the gun.

She tightened her fists and made a shaky gasp.

"D-Don't close your eyes!"

And she watched, completely shutting out the world as she focused on Tatiana and what she could see. In a hurry, she even looked through the remaining girls just to see how much of a distance, how much of an angle she had left.

Then she counted, heart steady and teeth clenched.

"Three..."

The ladder was getting close–

"Oh my god, Toooth!" Tatiana hiccupped and covered her mouth.

They all started to cry.

"Two..."

She only had to reach left–

The second Aster reappeared, landed, and realised who he'd missed to catch, he screamed.

"THIA!"

Jack's eyes never left her.

"One..."

Then Tooth spun to face the ground and saw the ladder just below her–

Lub-dub.

"Now!"

And with a tight shirk to the left, Tooth shot her hands out and grabbed a section of the ladder.

She cried out painfully when the drop threatened to pull her arms from her sockets but it saved her. And with a tight swing, she yanked the ladder down to drop her safely to the concrete floor, saving herself...all on her own.

When she dropped into a safe roll, she pulled her head up.

She nearly collapsed and choked on her gasp as everyone looked at her still in shock. They hadn't even seen the ladder...so how did she?

"T-Toothie!" Tiana shouted and started to cry again.

Tooth pulled her head up and looked at Jack still hanging over the edge.

His face was unreadable but visibly terrified.

He stared at her for the longest time before she gulped and shook her head in reassurance and he nodded back shakily.

"H-How?" BT choked but Tooth was already up, running for them.

'Don't stop.'

"How did you do–"

'Don't stop!'

"I...I–AHHH!"

Pitch suddenly blocked Tooth's path and wrapped his hands around her throat. But instead of freezing up like he'd hoped–

Lub-dub.

Tooth growled viciously and feeling less scared than she'd ever felt.

Lub-dub.

Her adrenaline surged and her gene nearly went into shock under his gloves.

"You are coming with me!" he roared and she screamed back, fighting him off.

"Not on your life!" she choked out and bent her head as she dropped her height.

"YOUR GENE IS MINE, PRINCESS!"

She didn't have her guns anymore.

Lub-dub.

She didn't have any weapons.

Lub-dub.

"BUT I-I AM DONE BEING AFRAID OF YOU!"

Then she jumped up – just as Jack dropped from a dangling rope and used the wind to absorb his fall – and with more force than Pitch was prepared for, Tooth forced his hands away with the wedge block like Jack had taught her.

"You son of a bitch!"

BAM!

And she punched him right in the mouth with the fastest hook he'd ever seen.

Tooth screamed.

The crack of her knuckles made his jaw shudder and a tooth fly out.

Lub-dub.

Lub-dub.

Pitch let out a livid growl but as Tooth turned–

"Jack!"

"No time!"

His eyes were there like nothing she'd ever seen and when he flicked them sideways, she realised...

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

Tooth clenched her jaw bitterly.

She looked at back Pitch, at his pockets, at his manic expression–

Lub-dub...

'No time, what do I...WH-WHAT DO I–'

Her eyes grew wide.

Lub-dub.

"Toothieeee!"

She quickly snapped her head up to Jack, suffocating under her skin as she watched him move.

But she was done.

Lub-dub.

She had enough.

Lub-dub.

Tooth stared Pitch right in the face then with a powerful yell, she activated the spike in her boot and tightened her fists.

"Fuck you!"

And she quickly jumped sideways, pulling Pitch's lanky arm out enough for them to create space.

"Not so fast, your highness!" But when he tried to yank her back in–

FWOOM!

Jack's wind surged between them and forced them apart. He rode his staff like a surfboard and got in the only pocket of space left.

Lub-dub...

With a quick twist, he threw his hidden blade into the terrorist's face and Pitch pulled back...just enough for Tooth to slip through his grip.

She gasped.

She was free!

Pitch broke Jack's hidden blade with his remaining arm brace under his sleeve.

"Tooth, run!"

Lub-dub.

But just as she ducked away under the Nightmare King, she reached out zealously...

Lub-dub.

...and pulled the syringe from his pocket.

Then ran.

Lub-dub.

She couldn't believe it.

Lub-dub.

She couldn't breathe, holding the weapon in her hand. It almost killed everyone.

It was going to kill everyone!

But where to hide it?!

'Wh-Where to put it?!'

She sucked the cold air down into her throat, gasping, thinking a mile a minute.

"Tooth!"

Jack saw her suddenly skid to a halt.

"Tooth!"

Lub-dub...Lub-dub...

She looked at him, then looked around her for a split second, taking everyone in.

She rubbed her throat shakily.

Lub-dub...

"Not them!" Tooth whimpered. "A-Anyone but them!"

No more fear.

Lub-Dub...

Forget the fear.

Tooth cried out and shut her eyes. She threw up her hand.

But by the time Pitch turned–

I AM DONE BEING AFRAID WITH YOU.

"NOO!"

Lub. Dub...

She drove the needle into her own neck.

And he watched her inject herself with his most lethal mutant stimulant...

Lub. Dub.

...inject it all.

Chapter's soundtrack: "Carol of the Bells" – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Saber claws/ulaks disclaimed to The Chronicles of Riddick. They're what I call the 'sexy weapons'. And big thank yous again to all you lovely guys who helped me to make this fic a little more multilingual again! :) To Springflake for sharing a Dutch translation with me (Stand next to each other!), and to cuzarobincantlivewithoutflying for helping me out with my Portuguese (Now, girls! Now! Come show the boys how it's done!), and to my beta Nightshade25 for her Hindi skillz. There's also a lot of other languages you can spot and if something's wrong, just let me know; I didn't wanna bother anyone this time if I asked because I know a lot of you are busy this week. :3 But if you want me to take another swing at it, you're always welcome to tell me. :) And yes, I am the puppet master haha but what's gonna happen next?!

*Update: Don't try to spoil yourself with any reviews before Tuesday because lol, I think everyone will be talking about different things that I had been going in circles about myself. I had developed three ways this chapter would end and asdjkl since the past week (and even after I posted) I didn't realise I was still conflicted with which one felt right for me, you know? ;A; But lol I think that is an 'inner writer's' conflict all fanfic writers go through at some point (even the ones who have it all written out like me lol) but after the constant adjustments (for those like, four little lines) and hair pulling, I am finally pleased! *rubs face* Sorry if I made you crazy!...Not really lol. Remember, you're in my house.