AN~ This took longer than I thought it would, sorry guys, action is the hardest thing for me to write 'cause I actually have to think, and I also started class, which eats up a lot of my time.
Review Replies:
Choco-Bilby: No, I did not. I don't even have a WattPad account.
Puckabrinaluver: :)
Puckabrinaluva: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
PenguinLoverGurl: I'm just all over that love stuff right now! I will see about deleted scenes for TLWR, but I don't think there are any, really. Most of them go straight in. There were a few that I got rid of because they were stupid, but that's it. A joist is a piece of wood that goes in a wall or a ceiling for support. Sabrina's scar is from the Janus thing. Daphne has the inverse of it on her face.
Paige: I just posted an AN saying why I was gone. Also there were two weeks with no internet, but that's not really important. Sabrina is in love, but she doesn't know it yet, so she has to figure it out.
Virgo: I'm glad. :)
Aliea: The reason Daphne started with fewer superpowers is that she wasn't going to lose them. Sabrina's down to... five, I think, and dropping. She still has two left to lose. It's 'cause they're different kinds of Everafters. Like frogs turn into tadpoles on the way to growing up, but newts don't (I don't think) have a middle phase. That IS an interesting idea, but it doesn't really fit with the story. Also, if she aged them up, and then they went back to normal age, wouldn't they lose everything they'd learned while they were 'older'? Thanks, though!
karatequeen78: Yeah, I don't ship Tom/Sabrina, but that doesn't mean TOM doesn't ship them. I'm adding drama, like I thought everyone wanted... But it'll mostly be funny drama. Do you want Sabrina to tell Puck she loves him when she's not sure? That's like... That's promising something she's not sure she can keep. And Sabrina places great importance in keeping promises. Wait... I abandoned you?
Catnissmeows27: I'm planning on sooner updates, promise. And yeah, I couldn't resist Tom having a thing for Sabrina. I mean, he's sarcasm embodied, and she's sarcastic all over the place, and he was JUST talking about how people in love are stupid...
"Who are you?" Sabrina asked, glaring down at the boy standing on the ground in front of her.
"He's Tom Thumb," Peaseblossom answered, because the boy kept staring at Sabrina and didn't say anything.
"Isn't he part of the Scarlet Hand?" Daphne asked.
"I think that might be kind of complicated," Puck said, "he helped me out while we were there, kind of. Well, not helped. But he knew I was there and he let me go.
"He's a friend of mine," Cricket told everyone. "He said he came to warn me about-"
Tom suddenly snapped out of whatever daze he'd been in and said, "The Hand is coming. They're looking for Cricket. If they find you you'll be screwed."
Sabrina snorted and said, "We'll see about that. Everybody! Weapons out!" She pulled her own sword out as she shouted and ran her thumb across the hilt, turning it from a small wooden board to a rapier, her favorite blade. "How soon will they be here, you think?" Sabrina asked Tom.
"Not for a few hours," Tom answered. Why did he keep staring at her? "They've got someone who can track him with them, though. You're being idiotic. You should hide before they kill you all."
Sabrina smirked at him and said, "You obviously haven't seen us in action before. Now either be helpful or go away. I've got more important things to do than try to convince you we're capable."
Tom blinked out of existence, and Sabrina nodded, satisfied, then turned to everyone and said, "Eight of you, spread out and find somewhere we'll have a tactical advantage. A hill, a bunch of trees, an island, anything. Be back here in an hour. No more."
They'd practiced this, and the eight people assigned to be scouts ran off in all the compass directions while the others started readying themselves magically. One of the scouts, a pug-nosed little redhead, came back faster than the others and told them that there was an island that would fit them all about thirty feet away, in the approximate center of the river. Mustardseed sent about half of their party on to start setting up the line of defense, including Daphne. The others stayed to wait for the rest of the scouts. The redhead led everyone to the island and came back again before all the scouts were returned, and then they were all off.
When they arrived at the island, Sabrina was pleased to see that everything was progressing smoothly, and that Puck had managed to set up about twenty traps between the island and any mainland, and Daphne had grown another tree-globe at the center of the island, in case all else failed. There wasn't really anything for her to do. All that training had paid off.
And then there was nothing to do but wait.
Sabrina found herself sitting next to Wendy Darling, who had come awake that morning and been spending a lot of her time with Peter, talking and giving each other looks that nobody else could read.
"Hi," Wendy said, giving Sabrina a small smile.
"Hi," Sabrina returned. It was hard to get used to seeing Wendy in a battle place, she was used to seeing her in her house, playing mother to all the lost boys and handing out plates of sliced fruit. That didn't mesh with this woman in someone else's jeans under a filthy party dress, a scar down the back of her hand, her hair up in a messy ponytail and a scimitar in her undamaged hand.
"Peter tells me you're in charge anymore," Wendy continued. "I'm sure most people must have complained about that."
Sabrina shrugged. "Not really. It's me and Mustardseed, and we all voted for the leaders." Changing the subject, she asked, "What were you and Peter talking about, that whole time? It was a bit long for just catching up on what you've missed."
"Yes, it was," Wendy said with a small smile.
Sabrina recognized that smile. She'd seen it on Bella's face, and Mustardseed's, and her own, sometimes. "Dude!" she hissed, "You're like, a thing, aren't you!" She held back a shudder as her brain went through all the relationships she'd heard of with people that old together with people that young. Even if Peter was technically older than Wendy was.
Wendy smiled a little again and said, "Is that what they're calling it these days?"
"So, is Peter going to grow up, now?" Sabrina asked. She hated herself for asking questions like a little gossip girl, but she decided this was worth it.
Wendy shook her head. "We talked about it," she said, "but I told him he didn't have to, and he didn't say he wanted to. So we'll just stay like this. Not much will probably change."
"But.. why?" Sabrina asked. "You're not going to be able to, you know, do anything, and you're a grown-up and he's not! People are going to give you some weird looks. More than just that, probably."
Wendy smiled sadly and said, "Because he wouldn't be happy any other way. And I love him enough not to try to change who he is just to make my life a little better. And he loves me enough to stay with me even though I'm an adult. Besides," she smiled, "I've done those sorts of things, and I can live without a husband doing them to me again. They're not as amazing as everyone says."
Sabrina's eyes widened, not just because Wendy had told her that releasing any sexual frustrations she might or might not have wouldn't be as amazing as she hoped, but also because she'd just told her another definition of love, and one that might actually help her. Loving someone enough not to change them. Did she care enough about Puck to let him be the annoying jerk he was and enjoy it? Or at least let him do it so he'd be happy?
She honestly thought she might. He pranked her less anymore, anyway. And she was confident enough in herself that she didn't need to look perfect all the time, so she hated it less when he made her look like an idiot. So... maybe she did love him. Maybe. She'd still have to think about it some more.
Besides, if everyone else had their own definition of love, why shouldn't she have her own, too? Since apparently it wasn't sparks flying when you kissed and not being able to think about anyone else ever (well, of course not. How would married people survive?), she'd have to figure out what her own love was. And if it was the forever kind.
She'd thought she'd know when it was love, and not just like.
Maybe she was wrong.
After all, nothing else in life had turned out quite like she'd expected it. Why should this be any different? She wasn't a romantic, not like Daphne. She was a realist. And, thinking like a realist...
Puck was real. And he loved her. And she cared about him. Enough that she was willing to put up with everything he did. And he put up with her. He'd rescued her, she'd tried to rescue him. He'd always been there for her when she really needed him. He was funny, and cute, and stupid in a really smart way. And she could see them growing old together, or at least middle-aged together. And she... wanted it.
So... was that love?
If it wasn't, it was the closest she would ever get to it.
Wendy had wandered off while she was thinking, and Sabrina came out of her reverie to find herself in an empty space on the island, with her leg itching terribly (that got her absently thinking about the ways poison ivy could be used in a fight as a tactical weapon), with people off doing their own waiting things elsewhere. She began searching for Puck.
He, too, was off by himself, looking warily off in the opposite direction of almost everyone else, seeming very alert.
"Expecting an attack from the rear?" Sabrina asked him, once she'd reached his side.
He jumped a little, then turned to her and said, "Yeah. I mean, it would make sense, wouldn't it? Surround us?"
"Probably," Sabrina agreed, sitting next to him. "You're one of the only people who looks like you remember we're waiting for an attack."
"Yeah, well, we only need a few sentries," Puck shrugged. "I'd have sent out my pixies, but with Peter and co over there, things might have gotten testy."
"How come?"
Puck shrugged again. "Tink's a free pixie, a sprite, right? And some of the sprites think pixies are slaves. They're not, really. If they wanted to go, I'd let them. But sprites get these ideas, and Peter's the one that put a lot of them in their heads. So it's easier if I don't have to deal with someone shouting 'free the pixies!' all the time."
"I can see how that might get annoying," Sabrina agreed. "And you can only explode at him so many times.
"Exactly," Puck said, slipping his fingers between hers. They said nothing for a moment, staring out across the river, before he added, "I was starting to think you were avoiding me."
"I was, kind of," Sabrina said, running her thumb over his fingers.
"Why?"
"I dunno," Sabrina shrugged, concentrating on his hand as she moved her finger steadily back and forth across his knuckles. "Didn't know what to say, I guess."
"Oh," Puck said quietly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to, you know, pressure you or anything. I should've kept my mouth shut. I just got caught up in the moment. Pretend I didn't say anything."
"Can't do that," Sabrina said.
"Why not?" Puck asked.
Now she looked up at him, and smiled. "Because then I wouldn't get to tell you that I love you back."
Puck's eyes were immediately the size of Granny Relda's jumbo chocolate chip cookies, but his smile grew much more slowly, although by the time it was finished, it was surprising there was room for anything other than his smile and those eyes on his face. "For real?" he asked. "You're not just saying it to make me happy?"
Sabrina shook her head and said, "I had to think about it for a bit, but I love you, Puck. For real."
"Good," Puck said, and his grin changed. "Then you won't mind if I do this!" His free hand reached up suddenly and dumped a handful of sand in her hair.
"Puck!" Sabrina shrieked, pulling away from him, "What the heck was that for?"
The others on the island turned to her in time to hear him say, "Because it was funny, duh!"
"I'm gonna get you for that!" Sabrina said, her voice still shrill as she tried to get the sand out of her hair without getting any in her eyes.
Puck was already in the air, flying away from her and laughing, as she prepared to take off, wishing for his far more maneuverable wings, when Daphne shouted, "Guys! This isn't really the time!"
They turned to look at her, and she pointed to the shore, where Nottingham was suddenly standing.
Sabrina landed and muttered, "Crap."
"Yeah, that about sums it up." Puck agreed, floating down next to her.
"Well, this is surprising," Nottingham called across the water, "Here I was expecting to find Cricket and his young bride, and instead I'm met with some of the most wanted members of the resistance."
"That's the Blue Foot, thank you," Daphne snapped.
"Whatever," Nottingham waved that away.
Behind him appeared several other people. Sabrina noted with interest that Heart wasn't there.
"I believe we ought to attack, gentlemen," Nottingham told the people behind him. "What do you say?"
"I'm no gentleman, Nottingham," a woman Sabrina hadn't seen before said, "I'd thank you to remember that we're not in the fourteen hundreds anymore. But other than that, yes, an attack is in order."
Nottingham rolled his eyes and said, "Are there any other complaints?"
Nobody said anything, so Nottingham grinned and said, "Charge!"
They started forward, and Daphne's vines immediately snapped into action, wrapping around most of the front of the line, dragging them down into the water. For some of the ones that made it past the vines, Puck's traps worked as a stop, sucking them down into slime or burying them in bees, or something else like that.
"Distance weapons," Mustardseed said calmly, and everyone with a bow, gun, peashooter, set of darts, or sling hurried forward.
"Get in the trees," he told them, still calm, "Once you're situated where you won't fall, fire at will."
"I want half of everyone to come with me!" Sabrina shouted, looking at the surprisingly small number of people left with Nottingham, only about fifty or so.
About half of the people left followed her to the far side of the island, and, sure enough, there were Heart and another hundred Scarlet Handers just showing up in the distance.
"Prepare for combat," Sabrina said, trying hard to keep her voice as calm as Mustardseed's but still be audible over the river.
She took her own orders, lifting her sword and beating her wings, taking off into the sky so she could see the battle more clearly, like Mustardseed was doing on the opposite side of the island. They nodded at each other, then turned their attention to their own sides of the rapidly complicating melee.
Bella was suddenly climbing down from the tree below Sabrina, pulling out her sword, and Sabrina snapped at her, "What are you doing?"
"Getting down," Bella said, "They need backup."
"Not from you they don't," Sabrina said, "You're staying right there until someone gets hurt."
Bella glared at her and said, "But Wendell-"
"Can take perfectly good care of himself!" Sabrina interrupted. "He's got his harmonica. He's fine. And we have three people who know anything useful about medicine here. Three. And you're the best. I can't afford to lose you, Bella. If you go down, nobody's getting back up. So stay in the freaking tree until there's an injury down there!"
Bella gave Sabrina the fiercest glare she'd ever seen out of her best friend and said, "Fine. But if anything happens to him-"
"Let the fighters have his back," Sabrina said, and turned back to the fight. There was a knot of monsters clustered around someone short, so she swooped in to lend a hand, tapping three other people who were looking for something to do as she went. And then she was fighting again, slash with the sword and slice and parry and whoops- there went two inches of her hair, but the thing had missed her head, which was the important thing, and stab and move on to the next monster until the short one, the redheaded girl who'd been scouting earlier, was free, and injured, and Sabrina flew her up to Bella before heading back to her hover to watch for issues.
Her ears were ringing with the leftover noise of steel on steel on claws and scales, and she smelled the blood of whatever mutant thing she'd killed, and if she'd spared time to look down at herself and away from the battle, she knew she'd see things she didn't want to think about on her clothes, but she was busy watching. They seemed to have things under control, but-
A high-pitched inhuman shriek came to her, and her head whipped around. "The horses!"
She flew as fast as she could to the source of the shriek, and sure enough, another horde of monsters had come from the south of the island, dripping wet and pulling starfish from their heads- so the Hand had the mermaids. She hadn't known about that. They couldn't have the horses, though. She needed them. And all their supplies. "Daphne," she called quietly, lifting the hilt of her sword to her mouth.
"What?" Daphne's voice responded.
"We have a situation over on the south end of the island," Sabrina responded. "I need you here. Horses. Get anyone else who can talk to animals if you want, but come fast. Actually, bring Wendell."
Sabrina rubbed her sword hilt, landed in between the horses and the coming monsters, and raised her sword in front of her. She'd have to hold them alone until help arrived.