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Chapter Text

(Narrador POV)
"How did we end up like this". "Why this had happened with them". These two questions crawled in Hiccup's mind still wondering how this situation got so out of hand so quickly, maybe one or two words could have changed this outcome. What was a simple mission to eliminate a Nightmare that was causing harm to children became a full-blown battle against an army of Nighmares. But to understand how this changed the course of the world, we need to go back a few months earlier.

(September 15th, 9:37AM)

The day started like every other for the Guardians of Childhood. Nicholas St. North, aka Santa Claus, was in his office, reading letters that children all over the globe sent him asking for toys peacef until a knock was heard at his door.
"Come in", North said with a tired tone. He had spent his morning reading letters, which some a little bit difficult to read, specially the ones written by the younger children. But North didn't mind, but the opposite, he loved his job. One of his yetis step into his office with a report, something that he forgot he asked for.
"You can leave it at the desk, thank you", North order it,but the yeti spoke in his own language that he was not going to like that what was written. North frowned and said,
"What do you mean?", the yeti simply gave the report to him.
He read the report slowly, trying to understand what the yeti meant, and he was shocked with what was written. Nine missing children, ages around eight to twelve, in only five days, in the state of Oregon, EUA, black sand in their houses. They had to act fast.
"Call the young ones here!", North said with urgency. The yeti exited his office almost running, going to the training grounds, where he knew this time around four guardians would be honing their skills.

(Hiccup's Pov, 7:37 AM)
Hiccup had the same dream again. He wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it was a very intense dream, he was at his home island, Berk, and drawing his village from Toothless back. His father would call him for some reason and when Hiccup step into his house the dream was over. Honestly it was getting tiring to dream the same thing over and over, he even asked Sandy to interpret his dream but having no luck, because it was to short to give it a meaning.
He got up to start his day at the North Pole. It's been two years since North took him in and start training him to be a proper Guardian. Then he remembered that also today he was sparring with Merida and wasn't to happy about it, given that she was the best fighter between the four of them, Jack coming in a hard second place.
"Well, time to get my ass kicked yet again", he thought getting up from bed and going to his bathroom to do his personal hygiene. His sudden movement had woke up Toothless, who already demanding head pats.
"Sometimes i think i spoil you way to much", Hiccup said giving his pet dragon what he wanted. After dressing himself and grabing his sword, he and Toothles went to kitchen to eat something before training.
Arriving at the kitchen, he met a now familiar scene, Jack and Punzie eating breakfast that she made and talking about what they would do with their day.
"Good morning to you two", Hiccup greeted his teammates.
"Morning, Hic", Punzie greeted. Jack simply nod to him eating an apple.
As i sit down to eat, i notice that one person was missing, "Where's Merida?", i asked.
Jack answered, "Probably still sleeping, who's turn is to wake her up?", Jack said with an amused voice.
"I'm not going, last time i went she punched me", the white haired boy said remembering and Punzie added laughing, "She punched you because you dropped a bucket of ice cold water in her". Jack completed, "But i woke her up, didn't i?"
Minutes later, Merida steps into the kitchen, going straight to the frigde to drink water. And we just stared her, like she was a spirit (well she was, but still).
Jack asked, "Am I dreaming or Merida woke up on her own?". In which Merida simply said visibly grumpy, "Fuck you, Frost".
"Morning, 'Rida", Rapunzel greeted.
Merida nodded to her friend and sat to eat in silence. As she was eating, her humor was getting better, she was definitely not a morning person. Now fully awake, Merida asked, "Whit's the schedule today?".
Rapunzel thought for a bit before answering her, "I guess training and patrol for today."
"No missions?", Merida said sadly.
"I think so", Rapunzel replied.
When we were done eating, we got up and went to the training grounds. North says that we have to stay at top condition if something happens, so we had to train at least three times per week and honestly i only enjoyed training because of my friends. They made it the effort bareable at least. Once we warmed up, made our pairs and began sparring. Merida and i, trade punches and kicks trying to make the other fall to the ground. Jack and Punzie were watching in the sideline and talking something random that i didn't fully get it. I focused back at Merida, trying to at least get one on hit her, i throw a punch but she dogdes and hits my good leg, making me kneel. Merida made her move with the intent of kicking my face, i block it by grabbing her leg, but she roundkicks my face, making me fall to the ground. When she was about to finish the fight, one of North's yetis called us saying that he needed us in his office now. Desr Odin, i love the yetis.
"Saved by the clanger, Hic.", Merida said clearly bumped out for having the joy of victory stolen from her. She helped me get up and said complementing me, "Ye're gettin' better, lad."
"You had me on my knees, Merida. I woundn't call that getting better.", i said dissapointed with myself.
Merida, wisely said, "Ye just need tae cover the weakee bits. Ye lea' yerself a wee bit tae open."
"Thanks, Mer. I'll keep that in mind.", i said not so confident. Jack cleared his throat, calling our attention and said,
"You guys are gonna gossip all day or we gonna go?"
We walked to North's office and i knocked in his door, hearing he calling us inside. North's office was a very colorful and magical much like Punzie's room.
The moment we step into his office i heard his heavy russian accent say, "Good morning, my young friends."
Jack said non-chalant, "What's up, North?", expecting an answering.
"It's bad, my boy", said North making the most serious face i've ever seen him do. The situation was really bad, indeed.
"Bunny wrote me a report and it's terrible. In the last five days, nine kids had gone missing. No sign of them, no suspect, at least not human", said North explaining.
The four of us just listened, the anger and shock building in, what kind of crazy monster kidnaps children?!
North continues to explain, "No leads where they were last seen to mortal eyes, but when Bunny and Sandy went there, they spotted... black sand."
When Jack heard "black sand", he clenched his fist. Before North took Merida, Punzie and i, Jack told us about the time him and the Guardians last fought Pitch aka the Boogeyman. How Pitch tried to recruit Jack to his side using his fear. The winter spirit was a very loving and fun person, and didn't had a hating bone in him, if Jack didn't like something, he would simply ignore it. Except when it comes to the Nightmare King, Jack couldn't just ignore it, he knew how dangerous Pitch is.
"How the hell is Pitch back?", Jack said almost yelling.
"No matter how much time has passed, fear is never truly gone", North said enigmatic.
"And what we're going to do?", said Rapunzel asked worried.
"Bunny, Sandy and Tooth are tracking him down. I want you four to go help them", North gave the mission to us .
"And what you're going to do?", i asked him.
"I'm going to talk to Manny, see if he knows something about it", North said putting on his coat and hat.
"Understood", the four of us said in unison.
North gave me two snowglobes, one to go and one to get back if needed. We got out of his office, each one of us went to our own rooms to get ready. Merida grabbed her bow and a bundle of recently made arrows, Punzie grabbed her sachel and changed the dress she was wearing to a more tactial outfit, Jack just put on his hoodie and changed his pants, and i changed into my Dragon Riding suit and go call Toothless, which was playing with the gnomes.
Once we were ready and we met in the Globe Hall. I whispered to the snowglobe to take us where Bunny and Sandy was. I throwed on the ground and the five of us went through it, ready to get to the bottom of this situation.

Chapter Text

(10:19AM)
In the middle of a forest, two Guardians were in a search, tracking down any sign of black sand. Sandy, a being made of dreams, who had fought the Nightmare King way before becoming a Guardian. And Bunnymund, or Bunny for short, the fastest Guardian alive, and a 6'5" kangoroo (as Jack joked about).

Sandy was flying in a cloud made of his dream sand, trying to get a better view of the forest.

"Anything up there, mate?", Bunny shouted.

The Guardian of Dreams got to ground level and signed, "Nothing to south and east".

While the two were talking a portal opened right behind Bunny, making the four Guardians in training fall on top of him with a loud thud.

"Get off me, you lunatics!!!", Bunny yelled
As the four got up, Jack greeted him, "Bunny, how you doing?"

"You believe that i was doing a lot better before you knock me down?!", Bunny growled at him

"Aye, aye, we love ye too, Bunny", Merida said sarcasticly.

Since Merida joined the Guardians, Bunny now had another "nuisance" to deal with, besides Jack. They enjoyed pushing him to the absolute limits of his patience. Rapunzel and Hiccup didn't bother him because it was either too easy or because he's was their friend.

"What in the bloody hell are you doing here?!", Bunny said angrily.

"North sent us here to help you guys cover more ground", Hiccup said sincerly.

"Did North explained what we're doing here?", Bunny said.

"Yes, he did", Punzie said sadly, since the reason why they were here beyond horrible.

"Did ye folks find somethin'?", Merida asked.

"Sandy already checked the east and south areas of the forest, he's going to check the north now. And i was searching from the town nearby last night.", Bunny said explaining.

"Alright. Jack and Merida, you guys search west from here. Punzie, let's meet with Sandy", Hiccup said mounting Toothless and helping Punzie climb.

The archer and the winter spirit nod understanding their functions.
"Jack, if guys find something, send a signal", Hiccup added.

That being said Toothless launch himself to the sky locating Sandy, using his enhanced vision. They flew to reach Sandy after a few minutes.

Once they reach, Punzie signed, "Hi, Sandy".

Sandy smiled and greeted her back.

Of all the Guardians, Rapunzel was the only one that was friends with all of them. Always gentle and supoortive and biggest example was her friendship with Sandy. A few months after she was recruited, North told that Sandy coulnd't talk, but either use sign language or making sands images on top of his head. So just to talk with Sandy, Rapunzel learned sign language, she didn't even talked to him yet. But she did it anyway and every time Sandy went to the North Pole, Punzie spend hours talking to him, so they were pretty close.

"Anything yet, Sandy?", Punzie signed.

"I sensed two things moving a couple of minutes from here, let's go.", Sandy signed and flew a little too fast, shocking Toothless who thought they were racing each other.

They landed in a clearing, a few deers having their meals ran when they saw those strange creatures coming through the sky. Once on ground, Sandy lead the way to what he had felt, leading them to a very dense forest.

An eerie energy float through the air around them and a smell of rot infested their noses. There was clearly something around here but they couldn't put their finger in what was it.

"Is it just me or this place screams "do not come near"?, Hiccup pointed out looking everywhere to see something that could lead into anything useful.

"Yeah, i feel... watched, i don't know", Punzie said nervous.

Suddenly Sandy stopped in front of a cave. A weird feeling of danger filled Punzie's heart. Hiccup, in the other, felt like the trail they were walking lead to something that they clearly were not supposed to find.

"Well, moving forward", Sandy signed and warned, "Be ready".

The second Sandy told them to "be ready", Hiccup unseathed his sword and Punzie pulled from her satchel a dagger, decorated with some sun ornaments in the purple handle and Toothless was prepared to take down anything that even tried to hurt his friends.
Rapunzel never liked violence, since she was a kid, she thought that every conflict should be solved in a conversation and drinking some coffee. But unfortunately for her, the world was a cruel place, specially in the position she's in.
So the moment she asked Merida to teach her how to fight properly was definitely not her favorite moment with the redheaded girl.

As the four of them entered the cave, they immediately felt that something wasn't right. Sandy's natural light illuminated the strange cave, making the scenery around them a little less creepy. Going further and further, they noticed that the cave was getting a little bit narrow in some parts. They looked around trying to find something that could lead to the location of the children. Having a weird feeling that something was wrong, Toothless smelled something horrid coming from a little ahead.

"You okay, bud?", Hiccup asked, making Sandy and Punzie look at them.

The dragon growled, pointing ahead.

Suddenly Toothless lauched himself to get to what he was sensing. The path that Toothless took got a little narrow as trio went by, but making sure to follow the dragon, no matter what.
Toothless finally stop his track, just staring what he smelled. When the trio reached the dragon what they saw was beyond everything they imagined. They had a common thought that since the children were missing for a few days, they were dead or being held captive. Well... the ladder was right, but only was a thousand times worse.
Nine children, ages nine to twelve, floating, being held by black sand flowing out through their eyes and mouths on eternal expression of agony and fear.

The trio plus Toothless simply stared horrified, only moving in rush a few seconds, to free the kids.

"Oh my god", said Rapunzel horrified of what she's seeing.

The trio got closer to the children, now seeing their faces clearly twisting with an cicle of terror, as the black sand flowed out of them.

"What do we do?!", Punzie asked desperately.

"Maybe cut the strands?", Hiccup suggested nervously.

"No, don't do that!", Sandy quickly signed. "These kids are living and reliving their worst nightmares. That would make them never wake up again!"

"Then what do we do? We can't just leave them here!", Hiccup said in a hurry.

Sandy then put his hand on a girl's head, soothing her mind and making the black strands of nightmares turn into gold strings of dreams. Sandy grabbed the girl and laid her on the floor, trying to make the most comfortable possible for her. He repeated this process eight more times, always with care to not hurt the children even more.

"We have to get them out", Sandy signed, making little clouds of dreams beneath the victims to carry them.

Hiccup and Toothless took the lead of getting them the hell out of there. The way out was relatively hard now they had the children. When they were about to get out, with the entrance already at sight, they heard clapping behind them, stopping completely. They turned to see who it was, just to see the responsible for these children.
The man stared at them with yellow eyes, wore a black robe made of nightmare sand, his pale skin contrasted with his black hair and his voice was weirdly soothing.

"Well, well, well... what do we have here?", the man said. "Didn't your mother teached you that is wrong to steal what's not yours, Sanderson?"

"Pitch...", Sandy signed.

"It's been a while, my friend. Five years, i believe? And look at that... You made new friends, you're not going to introduce me?", Pitch said smugly.

Hiccup and Punzie watched the scene before them, not daring to make a movement. So this was the Guardians swore enemy. They felt an insane amount of power coming through Pitch, never before they sensed such power, maybe when Merida got mad at them for messing up her shot imposed such presence. But this was in completely new level.

"Why did you took these children?", Sandy signed with little to no patience.

"What? Do you expect me to answer?", Pitch said, "Let's just say that my plans are in motion", he smiled.

Hearing this, Sandy summoned two whips made of his sand charging at Pitch, trying to end this as fast as possible.

"Go find Bunny!", Sandy signed.

"But we can hel...", Punzie tried to say.

"Go! Now!", Sandy signed, with his patience ending.

Hiccup and Punzie mounted on Toothless and took off taking the children with them.

As they got out of the cave, leaving Sandy to fight Pitch by himself, a feeling of guilt infiltrated Hiccup's heart, how could he leave his friend alone to fight a monster all by himself. He knew Sandy was powerful but didn't know his limits or if he had a limit.

They flew for a bit trying to located Bunny. Toothless saw him hopping through the forest, diving down to meet him. They landed behind Bunny who was searching for leads.

"Jesus, guys, a little warning would help!", Bunny said.

When he looked to them, he saw panic. He noticed the children behind them in clouds of sand, visibly hurt.

"You guys found them, great!", said Bunny proud of his comrades. But quickly noticed that there was one person missing. "Where's Sandy?", he ask worried.

"He's fighting Pitch right now!", said Hiccup in a hurry.

"What?! Where is he now?", Bunny ask now desperate.

"There is a cave north from here, in the deepest part of the forest, there is no mistaking it.", Punzie said directing Bunny.

Punzie barely stopped talking and Bunny already ran in an inpressive speed, going to help his friend against their worst enemy.

(Sandy's POV, 13:49PM)

I remember every single fight i had with Pitch, each one more intense and violent then the other. Most of the time, i was kicking his ass either by myself or with the Guardians and some others times Pitch actually maneged to make harder to me. So why this time was so difficult to even hit him?!
After Hiccup and Punzie took off with the kids, we fought for an while and i was so mad. I still didn't land a single hit on him, not even a little one. And what makes me even more mad, he was enjoying see me struggle.

"What's the matter, Sandy? Getting tired?", asked Pitch with his stupid smirk.

As i swing my whips, i managed to hit his arm, locking his arm in my whip, but somehow he pulled me closer, making we meet face to face and then punched me so hard in my gut, that i was sent flying out the cave. Ok, this was new. Not only my Dream Whips did not dameged him but he didn't bother to touch my golden sand.

His punch knocked the wind out off me. It's been a while since i had a real fight where the balance of power was tilted to my opponent side.

"You know, i really didn't want to meet you so soon, but since we're already here, might as well be honest about it.", Pitch said calmly and i just listened trying to get up.

"My plan has changed, my friend. And i have no time to waste fighting you pathetic little Guardians, so i'm going to say this once. Do not get in my way or i'll have to kill you again, only this time you will dead forever", Pitch said threating me.

I simply gave him the middle finger, a gesture that Jack taught me recently. And Pitch only laughed.

"I knew i couldn't reason with you. You have been warned.", Pitch said almost dissapearing in the shadows like a coward. I finally got up and prepared to attack.

"Oh, before i go, let me ask you... How's Jack doing?", Pitch said laughing and vanishing in the shadow when i attacked in the mention of Jack's name.

Bunny arrived just in time to see Pitch dissapearing. He got closer to me helping me gain balance.

"Are you alright, mate?", Bunny asked.

"I'm going to be fine. Just took a hard hit", i signed explaning.

Bunny looked around to see if Pitch or one of his Nightmares were near. When they got out of those creepy woods, they saw a giant snowflake in the sky.

Jack's signal.

Chapter Text

(Merida's POV, 13:19PM)

Jack and I were walking, searching the forest rock by rock, bush by bush. And honestly, it was getting boring. One would think that being paired with the personification of fun would make things a decent amount of interesting, but never in my whole time knowing Jack, i saw him so serious. We would stop at any type of sound no matter how loud it was. Could be a leaf falling to the ground and Jack would stop, look around us ready to attack any his staff and i would just look at him, my whole image of him changed the first time he did it.

Ever since Hiccup and Jack recruited me, i had a image of them in my head. Hiccup was smart, inventive, confident when he wanted to be, supportive on his own awkward way, which was endearing and Jack was... the complete opposite. He was always confident, always with a cocky smirk, trying to make any situation they as a team found, fun. He always tried to keep the mood up. But now it's different.

"Ok, whitit is gaun' on in that frozen heid o' yours?", i said breaking the silence.

"What?", Jack replied confused.

"Come on. Yer fair quiet.", i said stating the obvious.

"Maybe i just trying to concetrate in the misson?", Jack said clearly lying.

"Since when ye 'concentrate on missions'? The last one we went on, ye near made Punzie fall fae the ceilin’ 'cause ye were distracted.", i recall the situation.

Jack only grunted and moved on. Ok, this was starting to piss me off.

"Frost, stop it.", i said putting myself in front of him. "Clearly, something is bothering you, so you should tell me".

Jack just stopped and sat on the ground, he looked like he was thinking in a way to tell her what was happening with him.

"It's just... If Pitch is really back, then we should take this seriously", Jack said. "I saw what he capable of, so i'm trying to focus."

I crouched beside him and put my hand in his shoulder.

"Aye, but ye beat him once, right? Plus now ye've got us to help, we're basically untouchable", i said cheering him up.

Jack smiled sadly. It was true, in all his 325 years, he wasn't alone anymore. He had me, Hiccup, Punzie and all the other Guardians.

Since becaming a spirit, i kept herself from making friends, only talking to one or two kids who believed in me. When i was found by them, it took me a while to realize that was not a thing in this world that can stop me to protect my friends. A second family, per say.

(Narrator POV, 13:29PM)

Merida helped Jack get up, now with a better mood. They walked a little further until Merida suddenly stop, looking down. Jack who was a little ahead didn't notice.

"Jack?", Merida called him.

"Yeah?", Jack said turning to her, noticing why she stopped.

Merida's right foot was frozen in a thick block of ice, making her unable to move further.

"Did ye did this?!", Merida said trying to break the ice with bow.

"What? No.", Jack said getting close to help her.

"Then wha' did this?", Merida said still trying yo break out.

But Jack stop in his track, being blocked by a ice wall. Jack looked around trying to see who did this, but not finding nothing. The situation now got to another level of weirdness, Jack knew that someone was around. Now the question that he was thinking was: Did it followed them or it was waiting for them. The winter spirit tried to fly around the wall to help Merida, but when he tried the ice wall simply turned into a igloo without an entrance.

"Merida, are you okay there?", Jack asked her.

"Aye, but i'm still stuck", Merida said and Jack could her hits through the wall.

Jack looked around once again and said, "Whoever it is, you better show up or i'm going to start blasting!"

Jack charged his staff with his magic and getting into position. At this moment, Jack had two opitions, either help Merida get out and the two of them locate the responsible for this or try to locate the target by himself and fight them. While Jack considered his opitions, a voice came through the woods.

"You're not impressive as Pitch told me", the voice said taunting him.

When the voice mentioned Pitch, Jack's body tensed, gripping his staff harder. It's wood flowing with ice and snow ready to burst.

"Show yourself and let me impress you then!", Jack demanded.

Out of nowhere, a woman wearing a white dress, a platinum blonde hair, and look of pure mockery appeared in a branch of a tree not so far frim him. He looked at her, trying to decipher what her deal was.

"Who are you?", Jack asked.

"Does that even matter now?", the women replied.

"Well, yes. You locked my friend up, so let her go before you get hurt.", Jack said almost yelling.

The women simply giggle a bit. Apparently the idea of her trying to hurt her amused her.

"You can't even touch me, Jack", the women said.

"I'm sorry, but do we know each other?", Jack asked a bit surprised.

"No, Pitch told me about you. And again, i'm not impressed.", the women said serious.

"Oh, so you are a henchman?", Jack said but corrected himself, "I'm sorry, henchwoman."

"No. I'm just made a deal with him. I help him and he help me.", the woman explained.

"Lady, you made yourself a bad deal then. So what? You want to fight? Because let me tell you something, i don't like hitting girls.", Jack said.

"Not now. I just wanted to see what's so special about you. But in the future, maybe.", the woman said.

"Great, it's a date then. Now release my friend before i change my mind.", Jack growled at her.

The women made the igloo melt and released Merida's leg. The archer, while inside the wall and hearing the conversation, had loaded her bow. The second she was free and the woman was in her sight shot an arrow at the woman, but the arrow was slowed down in it's trajectory and turned into ice, falling on her feet. The women simply picked the arrow up and smiled at Merida's attempt to harm her.

The two Guardiand realized that the woman before them was no pushover.

"Well, i saw what i wanted. Have fun.", the woman said.

The duo looked confused and heard a roar behind them. They turned to see what was it, just to see an ice giant. They ready themselfs to attack.

As the giant tried to hit them, both of them went opposite ways, Merida loaded an arrow and aimed to the giant's eyes, but before she shoots, the giant attempted to stomp her, she dogded and shot the giant's right eye, making it yell in pain.

While Merida's arrow pierced the giant's eye, Jack hit his staff on the floor, creating an thin layer of ice, making the giant slip onto the ground. The moment it falled to the ground, Merida unseath her sword and climbed the giant, but their target was getting up. The monster tried to shake her off but she hold tight. Jack took some distance and flew in high speed, hitting in it's knee, which made him lose balance and fall in the ice again.

"Jack, now!", Merida called.

Jack flew to it's neck. And together they pierced their weapons in the monster's nape, killing the giant and ending the fight.

As they got off the monster, both of them looked around them trying to locate the woman that just tried to kill them but found themself alone in the woods.

"Awright, whit the hell jist happened?!", Merida asked.

"Honestly, i don't know", Jack said, "that girl just showed up, threaten me and practically said "Peace, i'm out".

"Well, whit dae we dae noo?", Merida asked.

Jack simply blasted the sky, making a giant snowflake appear.

"We wait.", Jack said.

(Hiccup's POV, 13:50PM)

As soon as Bunny left to find Sandy, Punzie and me went straight to the town's hospital and left the missing kids visible enough to a doctor and a nurse see them and begin to treat them immediatly, we were now keeping an eye in the hospital.

"Do you think they will be okay?", Punzie asked with a sad look.

"I don't know. But here's hoping", i said sincerly. "We should get back and check on Sandy.", i said mounting on Toothless.

"Uh... Hiccup?", Punzie called me.

"Yes?"

"Isn't that Jack's signal?", Punzie said pointing to a giant snowflake in the sky.

"Let's go", i said helping her to climb my dragon.

The flight was smooth and quick, thanks to Toothless. We landed and began to run to Jack's location. I began to wonder what had happend, Jack normally never sent any signal, because he knew he could take almost anything by himself. And he was with Merida as well, so whatever happend must be serious.

We took sight of them. They were sitting in the ground, visibly tired and talking. As soon as we arrived, they got up and sighed with relief.

"Took you long enough", Jack said mocking.

"Are you two okay?", Punzie said worried and hugging Merida and Jack, who just accepted.

"Aye, aye, we're fine. Only had a run-in wit' a witch or whitivier the hell she was", Merida said.

"What do you mean?", i asked even more worried now.

"We explain it later. Did you guys found something?", Jack said.

"We found the kids and took them to the hospital. They will be fine", Punzie said explaining to them, "And... we met Pitch."

"What?!", Merida and Jack said in unison.

I explain it everything that happend. The state where we found the children, our encounter with Pitch, Sandy demanding we left for him to fight. Merida understood with an frown and Jack was surprised we found him so early, but i think it was the opposite, he met us too early but didn't seen bother about it.

While we're talking a hole opened behind Jack and from it came out Bunny and Sandy with his nose bleeding.

"Finally found you guys", Bunny said

"Bunny! You're late to the party", Jack said and Bunny just stared.

"Are you okay, Sandy?", i asked.

"Yeah, but i think i broke my nose", Sandy signed.

When Rapunzel heard that, she got closer and offer a strand of her hair to Sandy hold. She began to sing and her hair glowed, flowing until reach the strand Sandy was holding.

We just watched in awe. The first time we saw her doing her healing magic, Merida had twisted her ankle while training with Jack and honestly that scared the three of us. But when you are friends with a giant bunny, a fairy that looked like a hummingbird and the literal embodiment of winter, you get used to very fast.

Once Sandy's nose was healed, he thanked Punzie.

"Time to head back to the Pole", Bunny said suggesting.

We just agreed. I went to the sachel in Toothless saddle and got the snowglobe North gave it to me.

"Santa's Workshop." I whispered to the snowglobe and threw it on the ground. The portal appeared and my friends and i started to go towards but i notice Bunny wasn't moving.

"Bunny, you're not coming?", i ask and Bunny just laugh.

"No way, mate. See you guys on the Pole", Bunny said tapping the ground with the sole of his foot and a huge hole appeared and he jump on it.

After Bunny disappear it, i went through the portal. There was a lot to think about.

Chapter Text

(Hiccup POV)

After we arrive at the Pole, we notice that North wasn't there. We never knew what happend in his visits with Man in the Moon, North would just said what he adviced and... that was it. Nothing but orders or advices, they were always helpful but when someone doesn't says something clearly, saying it in enigmas or riddles, you begin to lose patience.

"Well, i guess i'll be going.", Bunny said heading outside, "when North comes back, report back to him."

The four of us nodded and waves him goodbye. When Bunny and Sandy were out, Punzie was the first to talk.

"We're not going to talk about what happened?", Punzie said.

"Let's go to my room, then we talk about it", i suggested.

We went to my room, which was not far from the Globe Room and near the elevador. North said that the room was once used as deposit but he had clean it and adjusted for me to sleep in. After i decorated and tidy up a little bit more, it was a cozy and comfortable space just for me, Toothless and my endless thoughts of my "past-life". When i wasn't training or on a mission, i was always in the room, either reading, drawing or designing armor or my sword. Merida would come by just to check on me or to drag me to the training grounds. Jack would spend his time in my room just goofing around and asking me to go have fun and most of the time i would go. Punzie always would ask about my drawings and projects, helping me on the criative process.
And everytime we got back from a difficult mission or hard training session, my room would serve as a "briefing room". Our way there was filled with an tension on the air, what we have seen definitely had a effect on us, once we arrived there, i started talking.

"Alright guys, today was... something. First things first, Pitch is back and we have no idea what his plan is.", i said calm.

"Aye, an' he's recruitin' folk tae his side", Merida said adding up.

"How do you know this?", Punzie asked.

"The witch or whatever we met wis on Pitch's side.", Merida said explaining.

"Yeah, about that... What happened with you two?", i asked worried.

"Long story short, we were looking for the kids, she locked Merida up, she showed up and talked shit to me, freed Merida and summoned an ice giant to kill us", Jack said nonchalant.

"Okay... But what she said?", Punzie asked confused.

"That i wasn't impressive, which was very rude of her", Jack said. "And that we were going to fight in the future."

"That's it?", Punzie said.

"Yeah, pretty much", Jack answered laying on my bed and relaxing on it.

"You don't seem worried", i added.

"Because i'm not. I'm more worried about Pitch than that girl, and besides if we do fight, i'd win", Jack said.

"Ye sure? She telt nae interest in losin' tae ye.", Merida said.

"Yeah, she just caught us off guard", Jack replied.

"But what she was? A spirit, an elf?", i asked trying to get to the bottom of this.

"She looked very human to me. When i was facing her, i felt an very high amount of magic flowing through her, like a blizzard.", Jack said.

"Wait... Human? Jack, humans can't do real magic", when i said that, Punzie cleaned her throat and pointed at her, "Naturally", i added.

"Well, i don't know, maybe she's a spirit.", Jack said.

"Well, the only thing i know is that we can't fight both of them by ourselves. So let us wait until North comes back. I think that's it", i said ending our little meeting.

As everyone got up to leave, Merida waited until Jack and Punzie were out of the room, lefting us alone in my room.

"We’re no’ jist gonnae wait, right?", Merida said giving me a smug look.

"Oh, you know so well.", i said joking. "If we don't do nothing, Pitch is just going to get stronger. So why not take the fight to him?"

It was a very straight forward stategy, look for Pitch and defeat him. Easy enough, right? No. Not only we are way weaker than Pitch but we also have no idea how many people he has gather to his side, besides the ice girl that attacked Merida and Jack. Knowing those two, i had no faith that they would just wait.

"Ye huv nae clue hoo tae dae that, right?", Merida said with a straight face.

"Yes, i do!", as i said that, Merida raised her eyebrow. "Okay, maybe not."

"I'll think about it. Meanwhile, we keep an eye for anything weird.", i said instructing her.

"Aye, aye, captain", Merida said mockingly.

As Merida left my room, i laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Today was definitely one hell of a day, maybe i was just overthinking it but i couldn't help but feel a little nervous about it. Never before i faced someone as dangerous as Pitch, maybe the Red Death but still i maneged to kill it, i mean i had Toothless to help me and ended up losing a foot but still.

Jack has told me before that Pitch tried to recruit him, manipulating his desire and twisting his line of thought, and didn't side Pitch because he was on a bad spot but still had a sense of humanity in him, i can't help but wonder if Pitch came to anyone of them, would anyone accept him?

How desperate a person have be to side with a being made of pure fear and terror?

(Narrator POV)

As the Guardians get back to their routines in the North Pole, far away from there, in pit so deep that the light couldn't reach, Pitch stood in front of a Globe seeing all of the lights on the world. All children who believed in the Guardians, full of hope and dreams, the image of that made Pitch sick in his stomach. As he stared that the lights, the woman who faced Merida and Jack arrives.

"So how was your encounter with him?", Pitch asked, not even looking at her.

"I see what you meant. He has a lot of potencial, but for some reason he doesn't use it.", the woman said bored.

"Don't worry, dear. He will use it, we just have to make him evolve", Pitch said calmly.

"He hesitated when i met him."

"Yes, his mind still believes in the code of the Guardians. But soon everything will change. I will show all of them what real fear looks like.", Pitch said raising his voice.

"Did you found it?", Pitch asked.

The women reach for the sachel she was using, taking out of it some sort of cube and giving it to Pitch, finally looking him in the eyes.

"Perfect", Pitch said while examining the cube, "Now we wait, make them lose the trail and when everything seems calm, we strike."

"And are you sure that this... thing will help your plan?", she asked feeling an evil energy coming out the cube.

"Oh, Elsa... It's thanks to this my victory is closer. Now i just have to meet some old friends.", Pitch said putting the cube in his cloak.

"Are you not worried?", Elsa said, "About North or... Ombric?"

"Those decrept old mans did cause me some trouble in the past. But now i have no worries about them, especially Ombric", Pitch said nonchalant.

"What do you mean?", Elsa asked.

"You'll see. The world will see."

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

After the incident envolving Pitch's return, the Guardians were in high alert, scanning very corner of the world. Every cave, alley, forest, they search it everywhere but nothing... Not a single sign of Pitch. But still they kept searching, and told most of the active Guardians to keep an eye if anything weird or wrong happens.
Two weeks... Two weeks and nothing happened. No single attack, no missing children, just nothing... That made North very tense in his shoulders, he knew something was happening but he could put a finger on it. Desperate times demand desperates measures, so North on the evening of October 8th, he called the wisest, most powerful being he knows...

(Merida POV)

Things were quiet. Way too quiet. I was walking around through North's workshop, completly bored and trying to find something to do. Hiccup had gone out to his daily flight with Toothless, Jack had gone back to Burgess to visit that kid who can see him. (Jimmy? James?). Something like that. And Punzie went to Germany just to visit, it's been a while since she visit her motherland. She did invited me to go with her but i refused. I love her but sometimes her energy it's just too much.

I've been thinking a lot lately about everything. About how i became a Guardian, how i spent 200 years of my "post-life" just walking around through Scotland, seeing history unfold before my eyes and in such a short period (it's impressive how being imortal changes your view on time), and... how i miss my family. I'm sure they're in a better place than me, i don't exactly know how they... you know. But i hope it was peaceful. I've talked about it with Hiccup one night, we were patroling, trying to find Pitch, when he brought up how he missed when he was a mortal. We spent the rest of our night talking about our lifes, it was a good relief in all of the chaos we were living in.

As i walked through the halls, i felt a cold breeze coming from upwards, looking up just to see Jack floating above me.

"What's up, Mer?", Jack asked laying in his staff.

"Ye, apparently", i said ironically and Jack laughed, "Since when ye git here?"

"Like 10 minutes. Punzie and Hic are here too, so Hiccup asked me to look for you.", Jack said explaining.

"Awright then, whaur ur they?"

"In the kitchen, Punzie brought some things from Germany.", Jack said.

Jack and i began to walk to the kitchen. While we're walking, he talks about how Jamie (so that's his name) is doing and how he and his friends played with him in the short time of recess in his school and after it was over, Jack went to do what he does best, freeze water pipes and prank people. Since winter haven't arrived yet, Jack just goofs around in the colder parts of the world, that was the luck of having just one period of the year to work. We arrived at the kitchen, Punzie was at the oven, cooking something for us and Hiccup was at the kitchen counter drawing something, maybe it was a design for Toothless' tail fin or something very private because the second he saw me, he closed the notebook and tried to cover up.

"Heeey, Merida... How are you doing?", Hiccup asked giving the most awkward smile ever.

"Ah'm fine... Whit ye hidin' ower there?", i said suspiciously.

"Oh, it's just a... blue print for a... new bow", Hiccup said clearly lying. Meanwhile Jack and Punzie just watched the scene displays and giggling.

"Och, is that so? Can I tak' a wee look?", i said smiling.

"No! I mean, i have to do some calculations, y'know?", Hiccup said laughing nervously.

When i was about to interrogate him more, Bunny arrived at the kitchen. When did he had arrive at the Pole?

"Oi, North is calling all of us", Bunny said in a hurry and quickly exited.

For Bunny to be in such hurry, it must be about Pitch. Finally some action. The four of us followed Bunny to the Globe Room, where Tooth, her baby fairies and Sandy were talking with some tension in the air. The second Tooth saw us, she went straight to my mouth to check on my teeth.

"Merida Dunbroch, have you not been flossing your teeth?!", Tooth said inspecting my mouth.

"Tooth, knff it off!", i said angrily.

My dear friends, instead of taking the teeth obsessed fairy out off my mouth, they just laughed, i could hear Punzie giggling. Finally North arrived and said: "Tooth, bounderies."

Tooth reluctantly takes her hands off my mouth. The first time she did that to me, i almost tried to rip her feathers off her body, fortunately for Tooth, Jack and Bunny stopped me. Honestely, i don't know why she cares so much, it's not like my teeth are rotting.

"Well since we're all here, we can start", North began. "As we all know, Pitch is back and we've been searching him for two weeks until now, but still somehow, we haven't found nothing. Not a sign of a Nightmare in the world and no allies of his to tell us nothing and i think we can all agreed it's frustating... But in order to find Pitch, we can't do it by ourselves".

We all heard him, his voice sounded determined and tired at the same time. The constant pressure and tension of such a threat as Pitch had an effect in all of us, especially North, for him being the leader.

"So are we going to recruit a new Guardian?", Punzie asked sincerely.

"No, dear. I asked help to the strongest man i know".

In all my time living with the Guardians, i thought it was common sense to assume that North was the strongest Guardian alive today. It was pure logic, the man fought Pitch when he was just a human and won, but he was so injured that The Man in the Moon made him a Guardian to save his life. He is responsible for one of the most important holidays of the year, his power and influence are spread across the Globe so how in the hell he wasn't the strongest?

"Please say that is not who i think it is, North", Bunny said massaging his temples.

"Are you sure, North? It didn't end well the last time you guys worked together", Tooth said worried.

"I know, but what other choice we have?", North said crossing his arms.

"You don't have one"

When we heard a voice coming from behind us, Hiccup unseathed his sword, Jack aimed his staff to man, Punzie pull out her dagger and i loaded an arrow in my bow, aiming to his head.

The man looked like he was in his mid seventies, a long white beard that resembles North's reached his chest, his long hair combed back. I analyzed his face to confirm what i was seeing, he really uses glasses that resemble a clock and his clothes, covered in various shades of green had some ornaments in gold that looked like roman numbers.

"It's been a while hasn't, old friend?", the man said and walked to North, not bother to have four very powerful weapons pointed to his face.

"Do you always have to show up like that?", North said bothered.

"It's my style", the old man laughed.

Since North seemed to know him we lowered our weapons and exchanged looks between us. Where the hell did him come from? There is no open windows or doors around.

"It's called teleport, young lass", he said looking at me. Now i'm just confused, does he knows what i'm thinking?

"Not only you, Merida", the old man said mysteriously.

"Children, this is Ombric Shalazar", North said presenting him, "Also known as Father Time... and my master."

(Narrator POV)

The youngest Guardians were, in lack of a better word, flabbergasted. The four of them had the impression that North was the limit of powerful. An imposing figure where he went, someone who you really don't want to make him angry, a man that would do the impossible for his friends, a quality that Merida and Jack particularly admired in him. But it made sense that someone as strong would not have such power since birth.

"He doesn't look like it", Jack said with a blank face, "I mean, we had our weapons to his face and he didn't do nothing about it. We could have killed you."

"What weapons?", Ombric said.

His question made the Guardians in training to look to their hands. There was nothing. They looked back at Ombric shocked and looked at his hands, which were holding the things that threaten his life seconds ago. In their whole period as spirits, they never had let go of their magic artifects, it was something personal to them, something that only each one of them could unleash the full potential, something that once had in life and now were modified to hold their powers.

"How did you...?", Hiccup asked shocked.

"Gi' me bow back!", Merida said furious.

"Now kids, learn this. Never let your guard down, you have to depend less of your artifacts", Ombric said giving back their weapons.

"As i was saying, Ombric is going to help us to find Pitch.", North said explaining his presence in the Pole.

"Honestly, it baffles me that four trained Guardians with centuries of experience plus four in training can find that weakling", Ombric said complaining.

"Weakling?! Pitch almost won the last time we fought him", Jack said.

"In the great scheme of things, he is weak, Jackson.", Ombric said simply.

"So he is stronger that you?", Jack asked and Ombric just stared and smiled.

"Boy, certainly if he recovered all of his power, he would worn me out. But still... I'd win", Ombric said with a papable confidance.

Jack was surprised with his answer, he looked at Ombric, trying to sense how strong was he actually was.

"I woudn't recomend that, Jackson. You would pass out", Ombric said knowing every move Jack did, do and would do. "You still have much to learn, boy. The four of you have."

Hiccup absorved that statement and shared looks with his teammates. Even with all of the training in the world, there was always something new to learn, they had all of the time in the world to improve. They didn't know if Ombric said that to motivate them or to mock, but either way they took that to heart.

"North, since everyone it's here, Nicholas... Pitch is planning something that involves the two of us", Ombric said.

"What? Both of you?", Tooth asked shocked.

"Yes, he plans something envolving us and it is approaching, so we have a very short time to prepare.", Ombric said and turn to the younger Guardians in the room, "and these four especifically have to be ready."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... Hold it there, Dumbledore. I know we have to help, but be ready for what?", Jack asked the question that they all wanted to know.

"Everything will sorted in time", Ombric said enigmatic.

"Aye, nae it wisnae eneuch fer the Man on the Moon tae speak in riddles?", Merida said sarcasticly.

Ombric and North seemed to be amused to Merida's reaction, they understood that the destiny was complicated to fully decipher, specially for people like them.

"Alright, so... where do we start?", Punzie asked anxiously.

"How about this? Nicholas, the Guardians and i will make a plan to locate Pitch and in the meanwhile, i'll train the four of you."

North, Bunny and Sandy made a face that could only be described as "my condolences". North, about four hundred years ago before becoming a Guardian, had to go through Ombric's training, being an expert in combat, he thought it would be a breeze to go through it. Oh, how wrong he was. North was about to say to the youngsters what was the training, Ombric just raise his hand.

"You know this would happen sooner or later, Nicholas", Ombric said.

"Is it me or do you guys have a bad feeling too?", Hiccup whispered to his friends.

"Well, with the presentations out of the way, we can start planning. Nicholas, you still are in the same office?" Ombric asked walking slowly. Bunny, Tooth and Sandy following him. North turn to the Guardians in training.

"The four of you, training starts at 20:00 and for all that's sacred, do not be late, understood?", North told them with a bit of pity for them.

They nodded not understanting very well what they were getting into.

"Very well then, dismissed", North said going to his office.

The young ones were now very confused. Ombric did not looked like a kind and gentle old man, who lived enough to not care about anything, but the opposite. A very arrogant man who trusted in his habilities and strenghts and didn't care about who he faced because he knew the outcome. And North learned from this same man, but still had his humility.

But now the main question that wandered through their minds was: "If North became so powerfull to the point to rival Ombric and Pitch, could they be the same?".

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)
Throughout history, many tried to defeat Pitch. His reign as the Nightmare King lasted centuries, during until the Dark Age, or the Middle Ages as humans refered to it. An era of no cientific advances to the mortals and no magical progress to spirits all over the world. Humans had distance themselves away from anything that was considered magic or supernatural and the ones who didn't... well, suffered the consequences.

Pitch reigned supreme, manipulating kings and emperors of that time to keep his power, destroying villages and entire kingdoms just to strike fear into the heart of the ones who opposed against him. But Pitch had one commited one major mistake... He never thought that he would need allies, that he could kill and take everything and everyone he wanted and that was his downfall.

1453. That year kept replaying in Pitch's mind in wrath. The year that he was "defeated for good". He had already lost some battles against the newly chosen Guardians but he had been ambushed and fought with everything he had. Their battle had changed the landscape of the world. And all because of Ombric and North, who he had swored vengence the second they sealed him under that damn bed, reducing him to mere bad dream. He spent the next five hundred and fifty nine years, planning and learning from his mistakes, waiting patiencly to the day that his seal was weak enough for him to brute force it out.

Develop his nightmare sand was a complicated process, having to touch and control Sanderson' sand had been an painful and long practice, but it was worth it, he could now turn Sandy's dreams into monsterous and terrefying nightmares, he could now strike back and have his revenge.

Only to be defeated yet again, this time the Guardians had a new ally: Jack Frost. At first, he was confused to why Jack Frost, a mere winter spirit who had been ignored for all his existence had side with the Guardians. Even with him, Pitch still maneged to kill Sandy, but that caused Jack to be filled with rage and charge at him, fo which Pitch just sent a wave of Nightmare to him. Pitch really expected to kill him with his wave, but what happend next not only shocked him but also impressed. The second the wave hit Jack, his powers had been fully unleashed, freezing his wave and sending lightnings of ice and frost to Pitch, sending him flying and crashed into a nearby forest.

Pitch saw them flying in North' sleigh into a portal. Who really was Jack Frost? How powerful was he actually? Pitch thought about the first time he was defeated and wondered "if Jack was at side, would he be defeated that time?". It only made sense, after all the cold and darkness matched like no other.

Taking adventage of a moment of weakness, Pitch trying to make Jack go to his side, making promises of every single one believe in him. If Jack was a little more selfish, maybe Jack would be by his side now, but being the selfless and righteous man he is, Jack turned him down. Pitch though of killing him then and there, the moment he turned his back to him but it was more vantageous for him just make him powerless. Threatning a baby tooth fairy, Pitch conviced Jack to give to him his staff, the most important thing for him to use his powers, so once he got rid of the fairy, Pitch broke the weapon, making Jack feel an immense damage to his soul.

Even if all this, Pitch was defeated yet again. Pitch was furious, but he knew he couldn't counter right away, so he didn't just waited for fear to build in children. After his last defeat, he knew that alone, defeating the Guardians was pratically impossible but if they called Ombric for help then the chances to kill all of them goes down to zero. He was lucky that Ombric wasn't called to help the Guardians, he would be either dead or imprisoned again.

So Pitch decided that it was time to collect some favors that he made in the past.

(Pitch's POV)

As i was staring at the lights of my globe shimmer in it's ugly glory, when Elsa had entered the room, bringing the news.

"They have arrived, Pitch", Elsa said.

"Great, tell them i will be there shortly"

As Elsa left the room, i started to go over the plan in my head, the plan i had been preparing for the last five years. It wasn't complicated, but it was a risky plan, every detail had to be done perfectly so i couldn't afford to have useless "partners".

The walk to the main room of my lair was calm and precise. When i entered the room, i see my so called "friends", powerful and forgotten spirits who wasn't very fond of humans or the Guardians, but they were nothing more than mere pawns for me to use.

"Welcome, my friends, i hope the trip here was safe"

"This girl you sent is not very kind, isn't she?", Eris* asked in an teasing voice.

"It only makes sense, since she's a filthy ice spirit", Aed* said with a hint of hatred.

Elsa, who was quiet, made a single hand gesture, creating a ice spear to Aed's neck, making him flinch and step back. He grabbed the spear and melt it with a single touch, staring at Elsa with a murderous intention.

"Please, darlings, it's not time for fighting", a woman said entering the room. "Hello, Pitch."

"Ah, Gothel, how are you doing, dear?", i said getting closer to shake her hand.

"Oh, you know, rotting in a cave trying to survive. I see you reunited quite the crew.", Gothel said with a hint of amusement.

"What is this unworthy human doing here?!", Aed shouted.

"Gothel and i had previous partnership during the Dark Ages.", i said calm, "And she is fundamental to my plan".

"What use a human could possibly have to us?!", Aed said, i felt the temperature of the room go up.

"She will be our link to the humans. Now sit down and listen.", i said ordering him. Everyone then sat down in a round table made of dark sand i've made.

"My friends, thank you for coming here tonight. For six hundred years, the Guardians had protected and preserved the mortals, with their belief that every life is important... but we all know this is utter non-sense. The mortals are mere creatures of pure destrocution and chaos that kill, steal and abuse their own kind. When was the last time humanity did something that didn't result in mass destruction? But the Guardians think that we are the responsible for all the chaos the world is in right now. They are partially right, we do want nothing more than see them craw in our feet, but they fail to see that the mortals are the culprit as well. I say that is enough, our wait and the other spirits that agree with us is over. Everything is already in motion, i just needed allies."

"Pitch, darling, i understand that, but allies for what exactly?", Eris asked with a certain doubt in her voice.

"As much i want to slaugther as much humans as possible, what is our role in all this?", Aed asked impatiencly.

"Don't worry, Aed. I'll explain everything shortly, but first... Elsa, bring the cube.", i ordered.

Elsa left the room to do what she was asked to, leaving me alone with my "associates". This selection couldn't be better, Aed was a fire spirit and a very vicious one, he had many names throughout history, a fierce warrior that brought fire and blood where he went, i wonder where he was before Elsa located him.

Eris and i have met before her downfall, she helped me expand my empire of fear through the Old World with her lies and mischief. Once considered a god by many, her downfall was far longer than mine, and i really thought she had been killed, but there she was, in all of her "glory".

Elsa returned to the main room with a box that i carefully put down at the table and took it out the item inside of it. When my "friends" saw the cube, they knew exactly what it was.

"Where... did you get this?", Gothel asked with hint of delicious fear in her voice.

"Are you out of your damn mind?!", Aed yelled and created a spear made of fire pointed to me. "What kind of trick is this, Pitch?!"

"I said i would explain, so sit down and shut up", i said with a calm expression. "I believe you all know what this artifact is?"

"The Six Points Box...", Eris was a little further away, scared of the seal.

"Pitch, who are you going to use this against?, Gothel said.

"Well, my first thought was to use against North, but realize that he is not the stone in our shoe. That title goes to the man which this whole operation is about... Ombric."

"You must be out of your mind!", Eris said. "It's impossible to even touch him, much less seal him!"

"And that's why called you all here... Now this part is essencial, so pay attention in everything i say... If all i tell you goes according to my plan, this era of light and hope will turn into darkness and despair..."

(Elsa's POV)

Every inch of my body is telling me to not be here. I look around the room while Pitch explains his little plot, and i hate every single part of it. But all is going to be worth it. It has to...

Wait just a little more, Anna.

While i'm lost in thoughts, Pitch finishes explaining and a palpable silence falls in the room. It was, for sure, the most dangerous and insane plan ever created, no sane person would accept on proceeding it. But again, no one here is sane, so why even bother it?

Everything will happen in a few weeks, and once it starts, there is no going back. I was already in too deep. My soul was not what it was anymore, actually... it hasn't been the same long before all this.

"Your plan has a flaw", i said neutral.

"And what it will that be, Elsa?", Pitch asks.

"Frost, if he shows up... what will we do with him?", i said considering all possible scenarios.

When i met Frost, i was very surprised, Pitch told me about Jack and who he had faced him, i thought it was pure luck but just meeting him was proof enough to see that Pitch was telling the truth. I have met some powerful spirits and monster in my lifetime but Frost was... different, he had an crazy amount of magic but it was all dorment, so i was a bit disappointed.

"It's simple, you fight him but don't kill him. I have something in mind for him...", Pitch said. "Now, my friends, you are about to witness the world change."

(Rapunzel's POV)

My body never, in all my years as a spirit, has ache this much. We started Ombric's training for a week now and it made sense when the wizard proposed to teach us why North and Bunny made faces that could only be describe as the face you do when you're mourning. Every day was stuggling and sweat, Hiccup almost passed out more than twice because of the program Ombric had gave to him. Everytime Jack was late or slacked off, he was punished with training without his staff, he froze some yetis that were passing by. Merida, which love improving her skills, thought that was too much even for her. The warm up was already hell, running a hundred laps around the workshop non-stop and every ten laps we had to pick up speed, when one of us slowed down, Ombric summoned a random creature to chase us, last thursday was pride of lions, i was starting to wonder what was scarier the lions or Ombric.

"He's insane...", i said huffing.

"Tell me about it... it's almost not worth it", Hiccup said cleaning his sweat.

Jack just groaned in pain. "My body... hates me."

"Stoap bein' sic a wuss", Merida said clearly bothered by her sweat and tired limbs.

"Do you guys think this is doing something for us?"

"What do you mean?", Jack asked.

"Do you guys feel stronger?", i said looking at my hand. "I'm holding up much better in training."

"Ah dinnae hae muckle tae improve. Mah aim is awready perfect.", Merida said.

"One week of training and maybe we're improving but it's not showing results", Hiccup said.

Hiccup had a point. Physicly, our bodies had become more resilient, enduring more and more the aspects of combat, the magical side also had been devoloped recently but we were still in the early stages of it. Ombric at first glance looked like a sweet old man, who tells storys by the fireplace to his grandchildren but his friendly facade hid a ruthless teacher an the greatest wizard of his time.

Chapter Text

(Jack POV)

Sweat dripping out my forehead. My arms aching as my muscles and bones are yelling in pain. My brain tired and slow, that's all because of that old man. Ombric wasn't kidding when he said that he would train us, we started in the September 29th, i honestly don't even remember, now it was October 13th and i have to be honest. Even though i hated all of the struggle and sweat, i couldn't deny the results, all four of us couldn't.

(Flashback on)

Merida's aim, that was already unmatched, became unavoidable. Once on training, as i soaring around in high speed through the sky, the sound of something piercing through the air called my attention, when i saw what it was my body reacted out of instinct and my staff blocked from hitting me. An arrow. An simple arrow almost hit me when i was almost reaching the clouds, looking down a red dot on the ground followed by a golden dot and a grey one. Seeing that she was reloading to shoot another arrow, i blasted her with frost and flew down getting in reach of her. The golden dot and grey one stepped back significaly out of the range, leaving the red dot to face me by herself. My blast didn't hit Merida, who dogded in time to shoot another arrow as backfliped to avoid the projectile, landing on my feet.

"Nice shot, Red"

"Aye, Frosty. Tis nae ower juist yit..."

She placed her bow in her back and charge with her bare hands at me, copying her, i charged at her as well. When we were close enough, we started trading punches and kicks. Ombric had advice me on using my legs as a way to take advantage of my body build, so i began to learn how to kick properly and train the elasticity of my legs and feet. So as Merida and i traded hits, Ombric and Rapunzel just watched in a safe distance. In some point, we drawed our weapons causing a clash between them, now the fight went to whole other level, my staff and magic creating a frozen enviroment as he clashed with Merida's sword. The fight continued for a while, i had take some steps back to blast her with my staff, Merida dogded the ones that she could and tried to get closer but she failed, so having no other choice she seathed her sword and drawed her bow, loading a arrow and shooting with an amazing precision, i created an ice wall to get cover.

"Come on, Frosty!"

She ran towards the wall and punched, making a hole in it. As she punched again, i jumped over the wall, landing behind her and sweeping her legs with my staff, making her fall to the ground but Merida quickly recovered and as she was about to counter, Ombric appeared and holded her punch.

"The fight is over, lass."

"What?! But..."

"You fell, Merida. You don't have the luxary to fall, neither of you have..."

All i can say is that Merida's face got so red in anger that i thought her hair had fallen in front her eyes.

(Flashback off)

That happened yesterday and Merida did not let that go. On today's training, she was punching way harder than before, and Hiccup, that had nothing to do with it, had to endure it during the training.

Speaking of Hiccup, Ombric noticed his intelect and criativity, deciding to explore his cunning in a fight.

Once a week, Ombric made us spar with him. When it was Hiccup's turn, after the rest of us be completly humiliated by the wizard, Ombric had focused on attacking in a flurry of spells and close combat, testing his reflexes and attention. Hiccup was caught of guard by the amount of spells coming in his direction. Fire balls, waves of creatures and lifting him up in the air tossing him around like a ragdoll. Toothless that was with us, watching in the sidelines, felt the urge to help his partner but he knew that it was a lost battle, so he hid behind Punzie to not look at his friend humiliation. In the air, Hiccup tried the best he could to get back in ground, but it was useless so he used a different strategy. He aimed his arm to Ombric and shooting an arrow from the crossbow that rested in his gauntlet, caughting Ombric off guard, the arrow didn't hit him because of the constant movement but it almost did, piercing through some strands of his silky white hair.

When the arrow landed on the floor, we gasped. In all of the time that we were training with Ombric, none of us was able to get even close to him. Now Hiccup, in a ten minute time window, was the closest to ever causing some damage to him, making strands of hair fall. Ombric smile proud of his "progress" and carefully landed him on the floor.

"That's it for today, children. Have the day off."

We beamed at that news, we hadn't free time since the start of this whole training.

"But don't get used to it... Tomorrow i'll take all of you in a little trip, so be ready."

We didn't even wait for him to finish his phrase and got out of there as fast as possible. For the past weeks, we had spend too much time together, not that i mind, but if you hang out with the same people for a long period of time it can get a bit suffocating.

"I'm heading out", i said floating off the floor.

"Are you going to Jamie's?", Punzie asked curiosly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, nothing. Tell him and Sophie that i sent greetings."

"Aye, me too", the redhead said going to the storage.

"What are you grabbing there, 'Rida?", Hiccup said while patting Toothless head, the dragon purring with the contact. Merida entered the storage and looked around for a second before spotting two snowglobes.

"A'm aff tae mah homeland, ye ken? Juist tae relax fur a bawherr", Merida said with the globes in hand.

"Okay then... Have fun. Come on, bud", Hiccup said going to the workshop's library, Toothless by his side.

"An' ye, Punzie?"

"Just rest. My arms are killing me!", Punzie said flopping around her arms around, getting a laugh out of Merida and I. "Anyway, see you guys later", Punzie said heading to her room which was right next to the kitchen.

And in that note, i soar out the workshop through a window that North made in the roof for me just fly away anytime i wanted, which i thanked him. As much i loved his workshop, having the wish to sneak into there in the past just to see what it looked like on the inside but now that i practically live there, it could get kinda boring. But here? Between the clouds, free as a bird, it brought me a sense of tranquility. The flight from the North Pole to Burgess was smooth and quick, i could've gone way faster, but since it was a day off, i decided to take my time.

Entering the region, the air in the city immediately got colder, sending chills for the pedestrians and citizens that were going on with their lifes. Sliding through the streets on a frosted path caused by my contact with asfault, a sense of familiarity washed through me. People commenting on how suddently the weather had gone colder as passed in between them had me laughing loudly, knowing that no one except the kids could hear me. After about five minutes, i landed on a branch of tree in front of Burgess Middle School, class had ended before i got there, so now i was looking around trying to spot Jamie across the crowd of children.

After a while, i spotted Jamie, his brown hair standing in the crowd, his backpack on one shoulder by his right side and holding his hand, Sophie, his little sister. As i watched him getting passed the gates and heading to his house, i felt the urge to hit him with snowball, but hold it down, now it's not the time. I followed him by air for a while, until he reached a little field covered in snow, his friends waiting for him. He greeted them igually but i saw him hesiatate and blush when greeted one of the girls in the group, so just for the fun of it, i hit the back of his head with a snowball.

"What's up, kiddo?", i landed on the ground.

"Jack!", they said in unison and run towards me, already making snowballs themselves.

We played for almost the whole afternoon, some adults that were passing by watched us play and getting very confused to why sometimes the kids aimed and throwed snowballs to nothing. After our little war, we sat on the ground to just talk and catch up to what was happening in their lifes. It was a nice and peaceful to just watch them talk amongest themselves, unaware of the dangers of this world, just them acting like normal kids. I missed this feeling, with everything that was happening this few months maybe i deserved a break.

"Jack. Are you okay?", Jamie asked breaking me from my thoughts.

"Oh, i'm fine, kid. Just thinking."

"Now that's new", Pippa said stretching her arms above her head. Her comment made everyone crack a smile and giggle, including me.

"Thinking about what, Jack?", Sophie said making a little sculpture of snow.

"Oh, you know, important Guardian stuff.", i said floating. "This old man came to the Pole and started training us and i'm spent."

Jamie and the others looked up at me with a mixture of curiosity and concern.

“Training? By who?” Jamie asked, clearly intrigued. He was always curious about my world, especially since he’d first learned about the Guardians.

“An old man named Ombric,” I said, watching as Sophie shaped her snow sculpture into a little snowman. “He’s a wizard. Has been putting us through some pretty brutal training.”

“I thought you were the one who was supposed to be teaching us stuff,” Jamie teased, but there was no real bite in his words.

“Oh, I teach you plenty of fun tricks,” I smirked. “But Ombric’s been pushing us all to get stronger. It’s... different. He’s a hard one, that’s for sure."

“Sounds intense,” Pippa said, tapping her foot in the snow, clearly curious. “What’s he teaching you guys?”

“Everything,” I sighed, flopping back onto the snow with my arms outstretched. "Fighting, controlling magic... You name it. Try spending all day getting blasted by fireballs and dodging every kind of magical creature he can think of."

The group laughed, but I could tell they weren’t entirely convinced.

“You’re a Guardian, Jack. You can handle it, right?” Sophie said, eyes wide as she looked up at me, her small hands still covered in snow as she shaped the little snowman.

“I can handle it,” I replied with a grin. “But I’m not gonna lie, it’s tough. Merida’s gotten so much better with her aim it’s almost scary, and Hiccup… well, he’s pretty clever, too, but Ombric’s got a way of pushing your buttons until you break. It’s not just the physical stuff either—it’s mental. He’s always on us about being prepared for anything.”

“Sounds like he’s trying to make you all super strong,” Jamie said thoughtfully, looking down at his sister’s snowman. “But why would you need to be that strong?”

I paused, trying to think of how to explain without telling them about Pitch. “It’s not just about being stronger. It’s about being ready for anything. There’s a lot more going on in this world than we realize, and Ombric wants us to be prepared for the things we can’t even imagine.”

Pippa raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, staring off into the distance. “But the world’s been getting weirder. Strange things happening all over the place. Spirits and creatures getting stongers. And it feels like... it feels like something big is coming.”

Jamie and the others grew quiet for a moment, the weight of my words sinking in. After a beat, Jamie nudged me with his elbow, trying to lighten the mood.

“So, what happens now?” Sophie asked, still focused on her snowman. “Will Ombric keep training you?”

“Probably,” I said with a shrug. “He seems determined to whip all of us into shape. Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s just... I miss the fun stuff. The easy days, you know? When it was just us hanging out.”

Jamie looked over at me with understanding. “We still hang out. Even if you’ve got all this Guardian stuff to deal with. You’ll always have us to fall back on.”

I smiled at that. “Thanks, Jamie. You’ve got no idea how much that means.”

As we chatted more, the sky gradually started to darken, and I realized that it was getting late. The others had to head home soon, and I had to get back to the North Pole. I floated up into the air again, turning back to Jamie and the rest.

“Well, as fun as this has been, I guess it’s time for me to go,” I said, giving them a wave. “Don’t get too crazy without me, alright?”

“Don’t worry,” Jamie called out, "We learned from the best."

As i got up to leave, i turn to them. "Oh, by the way, Punzie and Merida say hi"

I laughed, flying higher into the sky. For a moment, I felt like a kid again—free and happy, no pressure, just the simple joy of being with friends.

But as I soared toward the horizon, my mind shifted back to Ombric, the training, and whatever danger lay ahead. It wasn’t just about snowball fights anymore. I knew something big was coming, and we had to be ready for it—whatever it was.

The peace wouldn’t last long, but for tonight, I could enjoy the quiet.

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(October 14th, 00:29AM)

The chill of the night was papable, children were in their beds sleeping safe and sound. But for the Guardians now was the time they were the most in alert, specially the four young spirits in training. At this point, Ombric had honed their abilities and bodies and in a very fast progress, few people were able to impress the old wizard, after all he had lived for over a millenium and had teach some of the strongest and powerful spirits in the world, such as Nicholas St. North, and the second strongest wizard of all time, Merlin, but the four young Guardians were... different.

Hiccup was a very clever man with an amazing adapitability and having a bond with a dragon made things as impressive as it could get, it amazed Ombric to see the connection Hiccup had with Toothless, two beings completely different from one another but their souls funcioning as just one. And it goes without saying, his expertise in devoloping weapons and gadgets.

Jack, on the other hand, was mystery to the wizard.

The moment he placed his foot on the workshop, he felt a strong magical energy coming from him but it was... repressed. In all of his years as teacher and Guardian, the only one that had this amount of raw power or at least come close to it was Merlin. As time passed and the four of them increased their strength, Jack was slowly liberating and refining his powers. The program Ombric had prepared for him consisted on making him concetrate and focus on his cryokinesis in battle after all Jack just had fun in his mind. So Ombric teached him a few of his "tricks" as Merida pointed out.

Speaking of her, Merida reminded Ombric of himself the most. Stubborn. Confident in her abilities. And... a desire to defy destiny, he quickly took a liking to her. It wasn't difficult at all to push Merida to the absolute limit of her capabilities, her temper helped at that, one simple "I don't think you can do this" or "Hiccup can do that better", turned the archer into a complete maniac to prove herself. But he knew that could be her downfall, so after they were done training and sparring, they would sit on the floor and talk about either what she was feeling or what she wanted to become, that made Merida have a better control of her emotions, not letting her pride and anger take her mind during a fight. Weeks after the start of their training, Ombric had gifted her with special arrows and taught her how to craft them, so she started practicing with them, Rapunzel helped her, giving either moral support or offering to spar with her.

If the rest had to put in the effort to become better, Rapunzel had to put the double of it. She didn't need it to practice with her magical hair, having her whole existence to practice and dominate it, now her physical prowess... had to be built from the scratch. The first time he landed eyes on her, the wizard notice that her arms were, in his own words, two branches of a dying tree. So her main focus was to built more muscle and improve her fighting style, so Ombric asked Hiccup to make her weapons that fit her size and style. The dragon rider did just that, making her a pair of daggers with the handles of them covered with pinkish purple with golden ornaments. Her training was an excersise of teamwork with her friends helping her. Merida focused on teaching her combat and working out with her, Jack helped with her agility and speed and Hiccup taught her the correct way to use the daggers. It was one of the most proud moments of Ombric's life, seeing his students not only helping each other but the joy in their faces while doing it... It was a pity that soon would end.

(Rapunzel POV, 00:45 AM)

"Punzie", i hear someone call me.

"Punzie...", a different voice called me. Weird, it's being a while since a dream where someone calle--.

"PUNZIE!", Merida yelled and i woke up with a jump in my bed.

Sitting up on the bed, i looked around my room to see Hiccup, Jack and Merida completely dressed in their mission suits. Hiccup with his dragon rider suit, Jack wearing a light blue tunic and a cloak in dark blue shade and his brown pants but still bare foot and Merida using her chest guard with her clan symbol, her sleeves and gloves. Ok, now i'm confused.

"What the...? What are you guys doing here? It's the middle of the night. And why are you guys dressed like that?"

"Ombric woke us up and called us to the Globe Room, come on", Hiccup said.

"Aye Punz', dress up", Merida said guiding them out the room to give me privacy.

When they got out of the bedroom, i took some time to really wake up. Now fully conscious, i got up and headed to the bathroom to do my personal hygiene. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and got out of the bathroom, i opened up my wardrobe and took out the dress i used in almost all of my missions, a purple colored dress that reached my knees with a sun embroidered in its back, pants and boots that Merida gave me on my birthday.

As i got out of my bedroom, my friends were waiting for me in the corridor, and noticing me we began our way to Globe Room.

"So... why Ombric called us?"

"We don't know, we just know that he poured water in our faces.", Hiccup said visibly irritaded.

"You guys look pretty dry to me."

"He used a heating spell oan us...", Merida said a frown. I couldn't help giggling imagining them being completely soaked.

Walking down the stairs to the Globe Room, we noticed the yetis looking at us with a worried face. Now i'm even more confused, what was happening? We reached the room and immediatly notice that something was wrong because all of the Guardians were in the room, discussing something. I managed to hear "Don't you think that is too soon?" coming from Tooth, when they took notice of us, they turned to us.

"Ah, kids, we're talking about you", North said trying to disguise the worry in his voice.

"Ok, what the hell is going on?", Jack said looking at them.

"Look, guys, it's ju--", Tooth tried to say but Bunny intervined.

"Tooth, let the wizard explain", Bunny said with a bigger frown than normal.

"Thank you, Bunnymund.", Ombric stepped up looking at us, his eyes shining in a serious intent. "First of all, i'm very proud of you all... The four of you have surpassed my expectations in such a short amount of time. And that's why i'll give you a final step in your training."

The air around us had changed. On one side, we felt proud to have completed and go through his guidance, but on the other side a nervous feeling filled our stomachs. We had been pushed to the limit by Ombric, so what could be this "final step"?

"Follow me", Ombric opened a portal behind him and stepped out of the way for us.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... Where are you taking us?", Jack asked the question that was roaming through our minds.

"You'll see", Ombric said with a very calm voice.

I looked at the other Guardians, their faces had different expression but all of them meant the same thing. Worry. We looked at each other, our faces filled with suspicion and antecipation.

Hiccup was the first to step forward and pass through the portal, Jack and Merida going after him. I took a deep breath and followed them. On the otherside, a deep shade of green filled the horizon and the smell of freshly fallen leafs was inhaled in our noses. We stared the forest, trying to see something through the trees but the dark of the night mad impossible to see anything. We heard the portal close behind us and Ombric stepping through it.

"So why are we here?", Hiccup asked.

"The final step of your training is simple. Just make through the forest. Jack, no flying.", Ombric said simply.

"That's it?", Merida looked at the wizard with suspicion.

"Yes", Ombric sat on the ground. "Simple as that."

"Why do i have a feeling that you're not telling us something?", Jack said giving Ombric a side eye.

"It's a simple task, go through the forest and i'll meet you all on the other side", Ombric laid on the grass.

"Whit kind o' creatures tis in th' woods, old man?", Merida asked with a mistrusting voice.

"No creatures there, lass. Just the woods.", Ombric closed his eyes as if he was about to take a nap.

We glanced at each other then at the forest, and started to walk towards it, leaving Ombric behind.

(Narrator POV)

As the four young Guardians made their way deeper into the woods, Ombric stood in the entrance of it, staring down at the darkness of the dense woods. Suddenly a portal opened by his left side and out of it came the Guardians of Childhood.

"They just walked in, Nicholas... They will be fine", Ombric said before North even open his mouth to say anything.

"Did you told them what they'll find there?", Bunny asked with a unusual manner.

"No."

"Are you out of your damn mind?!", Tooth yelled contrarying her usual caring and loving demeanor. "How could you?!"

"Toothiana, calm down", Ombric said sitting up and placing his head on his fist. "I believe in my students... you should do that too."

North, who was silent until now, sat beside Ombric and said, "You should at least have told what are they're getting into, my friend."

Ombric chuckled and said, "True... but did i told you when i sent you there?"

North laughed and said, "Not at all."

The Guardians stared into the darkness of the forest, knowing the risk and danger that were hidden in there.

(Hiccup's POV)

(October 14th, 01:48 AM)

Almost an hour into the woods, we had just walked in a straigth line and found nothing stopping our way. No monsters. No creatures. No nothing. As soon as we get out of here, the better, so we just kept walking.

"Do you guys ever had that feeling, like your stomach rumbling?", Jack asked coming down from a tree.

"Yeah, it's eerie here, isn't it?", Punzie said braiding her hair while walking

"Aye, feels lik' something tis peepin' us", Merida said with her bow in hand and ready to shoot at anytime.

"Stay alert, we can find anything here."

We kept walking for about thirty minutes, only stopping to stretch and wait for Jack to get down from the trees after he scanned the area. We were alternating who lead the group, now it was my turn. The feeling of unease and suspicion never left my body and mind, my muscles tensed almost at the point of giving me cramps.

"Hic', you awright?", Merida said putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah... I'm fine"

"Ye don't look like it.", Merida said walking beside me. "Come oan, ye kin tell me."

"I don't know... don't you think this whole thing is weird?"

"Whit dae ye mean?"

"Pitch returning, Ombric showing up out of nowhere, the training... I mean in all my existence i never been so sore"

"You ken ah dinnae mynd getting stronger, bit ah see what ye mean."

I walk a bit further, "I know we're supposed to protect the world and all, but we never had to put so much effort in one common goal, y'know?", i waited for Merida's answer but it never came. "Merida?"

Now something was wrong, i looked back and no one was there. They were behind me a second ago.

"'Rida?", no one answered. "Jack?", pure silence. "Punzie?", the sound of silence was starting to bother me.

Suddenly, i heard steps coming through the forest and they were coming in a hurry. I unseathed my sword and ignited creating a light that covered the area around me. The steps had slowed down, almost silently if it wasn't for the fallen leaves on the ground. The sound stopped when a shady figure stood a couple of feet away from me but enough for the light reach them. I stepped a bit closer, now the light fully covering the figure and...

"What the Hel...?", i said almost whispering.

It was me.

But not just any me. It was the scrawny me. Damn, my head was big back then.

"Uh... hi, me?"

My younger me just stared at me with a serious face.

"Look, i know this sound weird but i'm you from the future and...", i looked to his hand and saw an exact replica of my sword, it was unseathed. "Hey, careful with that..."

He stepped closer, swinging the sword at me in a swift movement that i defiinely couldn't do at that age. I blocked it, making it sparks fly at the contact. As he swinged the sword, i was putting myself in awkward position dodging it the best that i could. He got me cornered by a tree, i ducked down, his sword cutting the tree in one cut.

"Listen! We don't need to fight!", i said while our swords clashed. "Can we just talk about this?", silence was my answer.

The area around us shined in a mix of red and orange, the leafs that had fallen to the ground burned with the sparks. The younger me being smaller and thinner made him faster, but by his movements i noticed a drop of inexperience as if he just learned how to hold a sword properly, but every slash, every contact of our swords held a weight to it that those thin arms wouldn't be able to do in his (mine?) age. Our fight carried on for a while, i felt the tide turn in my favor. Suddenly, when i gave a slash coming from upwards, as the sword came down, he held it my wrist and prepared to pierce his sword in my stomach.

But when he made the movement to finish the fight and end my life (well my post-life), i dropped the sword from my right hand to my left and slashed him across the chest, making him stumble back. It was a very disturbing image, a younger me with a deep and huge cut that began on the waist and rose until the shoulder, but i notice when his blood spilled out that it wasn't red, but a very dark shade of purple. He looked down and touched the wound. He looked at me and smiled.

"You're ready...", he said and fell to the ground.

When i got closer to check if he was really dead but his (mine?) body disappeared, melting and mixing on ground. I just watched confused and suddenly i felt the ground rumble, looking forward i saw that the trees made a path through the woods, almost guiding me. So i decided to follow it, in hope to find my friends.

As i made my way alone through the forest, i processed what just happened. I fought my younger self and killed him. What was the purpose of that? Is this way Ombric sent us here? That old bastard is going to answers some questions when i find him, but first i have to find the others. The path stopped when i reached a clearing, it was a very peaceful place, to be honest. The wind blowing from the south, some animals such as deers resting on it, Jack...

Wait, Jack?!

"Jack?!"

"Oh, hey Hic", he said walking towards me.

I grabbed my sword and pointed at him, "Are you really Jack?"

"I kinda offended you even have to ask that"

"Say something only the real Jack would know"

"I know you draw Merida on your journal"

I blush at the comment and seath my sword, "Okay, you're Jack"

We went to the center of the clearing and sat on the ground, "So... did you found something on the way here?"

"You too?"

"Yeah"

Jack began to tell me what happened with him.

Chapter Text

(Jack's POV)

(Flashback on)

This shit just got to a whole other level of weird. Everyone disappeared and now there's a younger me standing in front of me. This other me had my old brown hair, the clothes i used when i was alive and,of course the staff and i confirmed a thing that i suspected for a long time... Even back then, i looked good as hell.

"Now this is unexpected."

"No shit, impostor", he said with a shit eating smirk on his face.

"Sorry, man, but you're impostor here", i gripped my staff and the frost on it got brighter. "So what are you? Illusion? Clone? Shapeshifter?"

"I'm you, dumbass.", he began to cicle around, so i copied him. "And you're not getting out of here alive."

"Yeah, not happening. You see, my friends are probably waiting for me, so get out of my way or we're going to have a problem."

"Oh, Jack... You really think you can win here? You couldn't even beat Pitch when you had the chance to it."

I widened my eyes a bit, "I was on a bad spot then."

"No. You're too much of a coward to do it. How old are you now, huh? Three hundred and twenty-three? And more than half of that was spent on what? Feeling sorry and staring at the moon?"

"Shut up, man...", i felt the area surronding us getting colder. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know all of it. Every little thought. Every stupid idea you had to be believed in. I'm honestly embaressed to be you."

"Last warning, shut up", the snow began to fall on the ground.

"How much time will take for you to be alone again? How long until your friends get bored of you? How long un--"

I blasted an ice blast toward him, he rolled over and countered with blast himself. Running around the forest and blasting at each other when in sight, that was the pattern of the fight for about five minutes, i got to the conclusion that a sniper duel wouldn't help at all. When i got him in sight, i charged at him dodging his blast, covering my hand in a thick layer of pure ice and punched his face sending him flying through the forest, knocking down some trees in the way. I flew to where he landed and... there was nothing there, i looked around but no one showed up. That was it?

No, it wasn't. I felt the ground become a thin layer of ice and from the bushes my younger self came sliding and knocking my feet with the staff, making me fall on my back, he got up and swinged the staff downwards to hit my face but as i was about to be hit, i did an air flare, my foot hitting his face first making him stumble back, as i made use of the previous move to get back up. He wiped the blood off his mouth and picked up the staff that he had dropped.

"That's all you got?", he asked gripping the staff with two hands.

"You didn't even saw half of it"

That being said we charged at each other, clashing the staffs. The clash made a little shockwave of snow and hail, i pushed him back and swing my staff at him. He rolled over and tried to kick my right side, but just in time, i manage to grab his foot pulling him towards me and making the other Jack lose his balance. When he was about to fall, taking advantage of his position, the brown hair boy roundkicked my face. I stumbled back releasing his leg but he still fell and already was back up again.

"You're really not going to give up, do you?", i said massaging my jaw.

Instead of answering, he charged at me once again spinning the staff attacking and blocking every angle i had to counter, leaving me with no other choice but to dodge it. As he swang the staff to my head, i ducked down and kicked his right knee, that made him fall, kneeling in the ice. Seeing that opening, i turned to his back, pointed my staff to the back of his head and blasted ice right to his nape, solid ice piercing through his neck. It was a very weird image, his younger self with a huge hole in his neck, purple blood spilling on the snow.

When he was about to fall to the ground, he holded my arm, turned to me in his last efforts and said: "Don't make the same mistakes, Jack..."

I felt his hold completely weak, i knelt down holding him, laying him in frosted ground and closed his eyes.

"I won't... I swear", i said watching his body disappear, as if he was being mixed in the snow.

When his body was vanished, a path had opened. I looked around and noticed that trees formed a circle around the area the fight had took place, almost as if the woods knew that a conflict happened there. With no other way to go, i began to walk the path, following the little dirt road.

After ten minutes walking, i arrived at a clearing. A very peaceful silence fell into the area, i went to the middle of the clearing and lie on grass feeling the wind whisper in my ear. I closed my eyes enjoying the calm and peace of it.

My thoughts began to run way too fast on my mind. It has being happening a lot lately, thoughts and images of my past flashing in the back of my brain, replaying and reviving every second of it. Years of isolation. There were times that i was just silent for months because i envied the children playing with their parents, living there lifes. After a while, i throwed that feeling away because i realized that if i'm still alive it's to spread joy and fun to everyone, regardless if i envied them or not because it doesn't matter anymore. Pushing that feeling away was the best decision i've ever made in all my life (post-life?). And then kids started to see me, made friends that i can actually count on, i can go wherever i want with whoever i want, i'm truly free.

My thoughts were broken by the sound of steps coming into the clearing. I sat up to see who was it and the first thing i saw was a flaming sword. Hiccup was here.

(Flashback off)

"...And that's basicly it."

Hiccup listen to my recollection with attention, trying to understand what this forest was doing to us as a group.

"Weird. My younger self didn't say anything to me", Hiccup said breaking the silence.

"Maybe because there was nothing to be said. You accepted how you were when you were human, right?"

"I guess..."

As time passed, both of us heard the trees open up a path again and from it we saw a noticible and curly red hair. Merida stepped into the clearing and she didn't look okay. Her sleeves were cut off, her face bruised and with a small cut just below her left eye, only one arrow in her bundle.

Hiccup seeing her in that state move towards her first, i went just behind him. As we got closer, we got to see that the way she was walking were different too, stumbling her way towards the center of the clearing. When we got close enough, she glanced at us, finally noticing us.

"Hello, lads...", she forced a smile and stopped in front of us.

"Mer, what happened?", Hiccup grabbed her right arm to serve as a support.

"You don't look so good, Red", i went to her left side to support her.

"Heh, ye should've see th' ither lassie", she flashed a cocky smirk.

"Let me guess. Another you?", we moved to center of the clearing and sat down on the grass, Merida lied down on ground to catch her breath.

"Aye, 'n' a gey bitchy me", she moved to place her head in Hiccup's lap. That made him a little flustered but Merida didn't even noticed. "She git me cornered."

"And she beat you up pretty hard, huh?", i said floating just a few inches from the ground, relaxing my body.

"She fought bonny guid, bit it steals mair than that tae defeat me", she glance to both of us, "Ye guys keek bonny roughen up tae"

"Yeah, we kinda were attacked by our younger selves too", Hiccup joined the conversation analyzing Merida's injuries. "Small cuts and some bruises, a bit of ice and Punzie should do the trick." Hiccup gave her reassuring smile playing with one of the curly locks in her wild hair. Merida relaxed her shoulders, letting out a relieved sigh.

I cleaned my throat, "Speaking of Punzie, she is taking a long time in there, huh?"

"Don't worry, she git this", Merida said closing her eyes.

Our gaze turn into the dark of the forest and wonder how Punzie was doing or she was facing the same we did.

(Rapunzel's POV)

Well, that's a turn of events. Who would've thought that i would be running from a crazy version of me at the middle of a forest at night? Because i certainly wouldn't.

I was walking beside my friends in a minute and out of nowhere, none of them were to be seen. I spent some time walking through the woods, the sound of my steps on the dry leaves on the ground and my heart beating faster than i could process were the only things to be heard. I had stopped to rest and to catch my breath, and just then i heard someone coming in my direction, angry steps like a child having a tantrum.

As the steps got closer, they began to slow down and a voice echoed through the woods.

"Rapunzel... where are you...?"

I almost answered, instead i draw out my daggers with my hands shivering with the cold air that got formed as the figure approched, holding it with all my strength. The steps had stopped for a second, my heart dropped when a whispering voice said in my ear, "Found you..."

I turned swinging my daggers aiming to the neck but the figure not only avoided the strike but took a hold of my wrist. With my left hand unavailable, i spun around placing myself on its back and putting all of my strength into throwing him over my shoulder. Its hold vanished and i watched as the figure flew into a tree.

In all of time that Ombric guide me to figure out what type of fighting style would fit me best. Turns out that none of them fit me fully, so he and Merida began to teach me a bit of everything. As the figure raised from the now damaged tree, i couldn't help but to feel proud of my progress.

The moon shone in all its splendor around the area, now I could see the appearance of the being that attacked me. Its golden hair now stained by its own blood, the impact had opened a cut on its head. But what really bothered me was the resemblance to me. It wasn't a perfect copy because of the damage i had caused, its face was a bit fallen and the right eye had fall off.

"You can't hide forever...", its voice was a bit distorted.

"I don't know what you're talking about", i remained on guard.

"Don't pretend, Rapunzel... You know she might be alive...", she began to stumble her way towards me.

Suddenly she charged at me in a impressive speed, it almost looked like she wasn't damaged at all. I blocked her punches the best that i could but still took some of them. We trade blows, each of them trying to get an advantage over the other one. I manage to make some cuts through her skin, deep enough to make her bleed but her punches were so strong that i felt some of them pierce through my skin, cuts marking my face and arms.

Once i found a opening, i tried to stab her neck but to my surprise she moved her hand to the blade, blocking it but piercing it through her palm.

"One day you're going to face her, sooner or later...", she said as i retrieve my dagger from her hand.

"She is dead."

"Is she? You never saw the body..."

"It doesn't matter. Even if she survived that fall, by now she must be dead."

She steps closer, but as she approched i sensed no threat or malice intent. "This world is capable of everything, Rapunzel. You're a living proof of that. Sooner or later, you'll have to face her..."

"But... what if i'm not ready? What if i fall in her tricks again?"

"You will be fine... You had Eugene last time, now you have your friends...", she reaches out her hand. "The dagger."

I place the dagger in her hand cautiously.

"Viel glück, Rapunzel", those were the last words she said before sliting her throat, leaving me shocked.

For centuries, i didn't want to think about that anymore. "What if Gothel was alive?" That question haunted me for the first few years when i was crowned once again as Princess of Corona, sleepness nights spent roaming around the palace grounds thinking again and again about the possibility. Eugene had helped me through my paranoia and i'd moved on with my life. It was hard, adapt to a whole new life away from that tower. Away from the lies that i thought it was my life.

When i got older, i visited there once last time. Maybe for closure or a nostalgia of the unaware years i spent there. Even now, that tower doesn't exist anymore but the lies built in there stand tall to this day.

I looked at the corpse on the ground. An melancolic air surronded me. I would be like that right now if my eyes hadn't be open in time or even worse.

After that thought, the woods had made a path of flowers that shone through the dark. My walk through it was silent and calm. As i was walking, the first rays of sun hitted my eyes, i had really spent the whole night in the forest and when I realized it, the path had taken me to a clearing, where in the distance I saw three silhouettes quite distinct from each other.

(Narrator POV)

(October 14th, 06:39AM)

The trio of Guardians noticed that the trees had opened up once again and from it Rapunzel emerged from the forest. They got up from the ground to greet her after hours of antecipation and worry, coming towards her in a hurry. Merida was the first to reach her and pull her to a massive bear hug, crushing her bones.

"Mer... I need to breathe", she said with her lungs being crushed.

"Oh, sorry."

The boys joined the group hug and all of them spent a couple minutes just checking on the blonde.

"Ah, i knew you all would make it!", Ombric said appearing from thin air with a proud smile on his face.

The young Guardians turned to him and just stared him angrily.

"No monsters on the forest, huh?", Jack said frowning.

Ombric chuckle and said, "I didn't want to ruin the surprise."

"Ye auld bas, we cuid hae died!", the redhead yelled.

"But you didn't."

"Still, Ombric, you could have told us.", Hiccup said raising his voice.

"When you all fight with a real opponent, they will not warn you about the danger. The world is a dangerous place for us Guardians."

Hiccup glanced at his partners and back at the wizard, "Alright, don't tell us exactly what's in there but at least tell us if there is something waiting to kill us."

"What it matters right now is that you made it. You passed the last test, you're ready."

"Ready fur whit?"

"Isn't obvious, lass? You're now ready to stand against Pitch."

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(October 21th, 18:19PM)

The sun has already set, being replaced by the glamorous glow of the moon. Most adults were going home to rest after a hard day at work, children playing on the streets had return to the comfort of their houses, the streets of the neighborhoods were starting to be decorated with shades of orange as the leaves fell to the ground and the residences were beginning to be filled with pumpkins encarved to look like terrified faces and plastic skeletons by the door steps. But if the day was ending to normal humans, the night was only starting to the spirits that protected them.

Flying over the Atlantic Ocean, Hiccup had took Toothless to a little ride since the Dragon Rider haven't been giving his partner and friend enough attention in the past weeks. The wind blew through Toothless scales and wings, feeling the joy of being once again in the air, the Night Fury put his tongue out letting it being flop in the wind. Hiccup, despite seeing his life long friend happy, was struggling to concentrate in guiding Toothless through the air. A week had passed since his crossing through the Black Forest and Ombric's reveal to why he had been training them. Ever since the days had been the same. He would wake up, train with his friends, discuss with the other Guardians plans to locate Pitch, go help children who were insecure with their own creativity and intellect, go back to the North Pole and stay in his room either drawing new designs of weapons or gadgets, clothes for Rapunzel to make or... Nevermind.

He thought this feeling would go away quickly. That it was just a silly crush but as the days gone by and they grew closer, he couldn't deny it... Merida had a effect on him. A effect that only one woman in his old life had caused. Sometimes he thinks about Astrid, the life they had together, the seeds they left in this world and how it all ended not to them, but to him. The details were a bit foggy, the only thing that he knows for sure is that his family were safe but his life was over.

Darkness. That's the first thing that Hiccup remembers. It was dark but it had a strange warmth to it, and then he saw the moon, bright in the sky evaporating the darkness and the feeling of unease. The ground beneath him, which was once his tomb, returned to its solid state as he landed on his feet, still dizzy from waking up to what had been a eternal slumber. From there, Hiccup had three informations about himself. First, his name was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Second, Toothless was his best friend and had been with him his whole life. Third, he was dead.

Being alive again was strange to Hiccup. He knows who he is, but knew absolutely nothing about who he was. The next six hundred years were spent on exploring the world on Toothless' back, drawing on his journal how much the world had changed and just enjoying his freedom.

He remembers exactly how he met Merida.

(Flashback on)

He had joined the Guardians for almost two years, when the Moon's Crystal had summoned another Guardian. North and Tooth were excited to have another member to the team, Bunny complained about having way too much people in the group already in his usual grumpy mood, Jack and i were surprised that a new person had been chosen, the world was safe and no threats to it had shown up. On the top of the crystal, a image of a girl with wild curly hair, a quiver filled with arrows and a bow in her hand. North, being the delicate flower that he is, suggested that his Yetis brought her in the same way they brought Jack, putting her in a sack and tossed through a portal. We obviously were opposed to the idea and Tooth suggested in just find her and convince her to join us. North assigned this task to us and we were off.

Her last known location had been the Scottish Highlands, a mountainous region that Hiccup had passed by a couple of times in his travels around the world. Their journey to took them to a forest with thick trees and in the distance, ruins of a old fortress, probably belonging to the local culture. As they walk through the forest, Jack noticed that targets had been scattered through the whole forest and in them dozens and dozens of well crafted arrows.

As the evening passed, they were caught off guard when they, at the same time stepped on a trap, that hanged them upside down.

After a while, they heard steps crunching the leaves on the ground coming towards them. The rope that tied their feet together was torn apart, making them fall head first on the ground, looking up to the one that had freed them they realize that their task was complete.

"Wha urr ye 'n' whit ur youd daein' in mah forest?"

Taking a better look at her, Hiccup was speachless, something that didn't happened often, she was stunning. The light of the setting sun covered the curls of her untamed red hair. Her gaze towards them screamed distrust and caution and her bow was ready to shoot at the first danger, not that they meant any of it.

"Umm... Hi", Hiccup said slowly standing up.

"You really know how to welcome people, huh?", Jack said taking the dust off his clothes.

"Answer th' quaistion. Ah'ament asking again", the bowstring was pulled harder.

"Okay, okay... I'm Hiccup and-"

"Whit kinda o' glaikit name is that?"

Jack chuckle and Hiccup nudged his elbow on his side. "Yeah, i get that a lot... Anyway, i'm Hiccup and this is Jack."

"What's up?", Jack leaned against his staff.

"Whit urr ye daein' in this woods?"

"We... were looking for you"

"For me?", she frowned. "Whit business ye hae wi' me?"

"Well, Red, you're a Guardian now. Congrats.", Jack nod to her.

She lowered the bow, but still kept the arrow loaded. "Guardian?"

"Yeah. The Guardians are people tha-"

"Ah ken whit th' Guardians are. Why me?"

Hiccup looked at Jack looking for an answer, finding none. "We don't know... But you were chosen."

"Urr ye Guardians?"

"Well, i am. Hiccup, still figuring out", Jack pointed receiving another nugde on his side.

"What he meant is yes. We need you to come with us"

Merida thought for a moment. "A'richt bit ah hae oan condition."

Hiccup looked at Jack and then back to her. "Okay, what is it?"

When she was about to tell them, her stomach growled loudly. Merida blushed, closed her eyes and said, "is thare something tae sloch wherever ye'r gaun?"

At that moment, her hunger made the two Guardians react in different ways, while Hiccup simply smiled, Jack laughter echoed through the woods that now were covered with the dark of the night.

"Yes, there is... plenty food there", Hiccup said still smiling sheepishly

"Weel, whit ur we waiting fur?"

"Right. Jack, the snowglobe."

Jack fished out of the pocket of his jacket a snowglobe and gave it to Hiccup, who whispered to it "Santa's Workshop" and throwing it on the ground, creating a portal to the North Pole.

Merida, who wasn't easily impressed, had her mouth agape when the portal was generated. Stepping through it, she immediately felt the temperature change in her skin and started shivering out of pure reflex, she knew that she would have to get used to the weather.

After meeting the Guardians and be given her very own room, which she appreciated very much since for past couple of centuries Merida hadn't sleep very much and when she did was either on top of a tree or in her own quarters that withered as time passed. But the highlight of her introduction to them was the dinner they had.

North had ordered to the Yetis to prepared a feast worthy of royalty with food of every kind including some Scottish delicacies just for Merida. She wasn't a picky eater but appreciated the consideration. In all the years she spent as a spirit, never she ate so much in such a short period of time, Jack mentioned that even Toothless didn't eated that much and hearing that, she questioned him.

"Who is Toothless?"

Jack tapped Hiccup's shoulder who was paying attention in his own food, "Hic, where is Toothless?"

"Wha-? Why do you want to know?"

"Our new friend right here wants to meet him", he pointed at Merida, causing the two of them make eye contact.

"Well... I think he's in my room, but i'm not su-"

In this moment, Toothless, who had felt the scent of his best friend came bursting through the door, knocking out some yetis on the way and charging at Hiccup, knocking him down and licking him all over.

"Toothless, you know this stuff doesn't come off!", Hiccup protested but it was useless on his pet dragon.

The Guardians, expect Bunny, watched the scene with amusement. Merida was completely shocked, she had met a few dragons living deep in the woods and in mountains of her homeland but never one so close and so docile. She got up from her chair and got closer to the dragon and its partner.

"This is Toothless?", Merida had a good look at him. His scales dark as the night, his eyes emerald green and... he smelled like sea water.

Hiccup maneging to free himself of his partner hold, took a deep breathe and looked at Merida, who watched mesmerized.

"Merida, this is Toothless. Toothless, this is Merida, be good to her."

Toothlees approched Merida with the intent to take her scent, making the red hair girl flinch with the sudden move.

"It's okay, he is nice. Here.", Hiccup took her hand gently and raised it with her palm open. "Just trust..."

Toothless approched slowly, to not scare her and when the distance was enough, he placed his nostrils on her palm, showing his loving nature.

Merida just stood there. Her hand felt his warm breath and the smooth surface of his scales. Now fully trusting the dragon, she ran her hand through the creature's hand, soothing it.

"This is amazing..."

"I know, right?", Hiccup said patting the head of his dragon.

The other Guardians watched the same with admiration and respect to Hiccup. He sure had a way with beasts.

After meeting Toothless, the night progressed smoothly and Merida had gone to her new bedroom. Looking around it, she knew it needed some things that suited her. Lying down on the bed, her thoughts began to process everything that happened on that day. She was a Guardian now, she had a responsability with the children of the world, to protect them and ensure their happiness.

Hiccup didn't want to sleep just yet. He had an idea to a new gadget to his gauntlet and couldn't sleep without designing it, so he got up of his bed carefully to not wake up Toothless, who was curled sleeping on a bed that Hiccup had made for him, and went to his favorite place to draw and just concentrate. North's workshop was designed perferctly, every door led exactly where it was supposed to, which made it so interesting to explore it.

As he made his way to the spot, and imagine his surprise to see Merida in way, looking at the moon out of a window. He stood there for a second, watching the moonlight cover perfectly her face. He notice that she had a blush on her cheeks but she remained unfazed.

Hiccup cleared his throat and her gaze turned to him, "Umm... Hi"

"Hi. Hiccup, isnae it?"

"Yeah...", a slience fell while they stared each other. "Can't sleep?"

"Aye... Ah suppose ye neither"

"You could say that... So what's on your mind? Are you settled in?"

"Aye, aye, tis braw... Juist a lot happened th'day", she looked again to the moon. "Tis pure weird. Efter eight hundred years, how come noo?"

"I know how that feels", Hiccup went by her side in the window, on a safe distance. "When i was chosen, it took some time to adjust."

Merida turned her gaze to Hiccup, "Dae ye ever wondered how come he chose us?"

"Sometimes..."

The silence fell between them as they looked at the moon. It was only then that Merida broke it.

"Whit's that?"

"Huh?", she pointed to the notebook in his hand. "Oh, this. It's my journal."

"Lik' a diary?"

"Well, it can be that too. I just keep my projects here, draw in it, this type of stuff"

"Kin ah see it?"

"Sure, why not?", he handed the notebook to her.

While she read through the pages seeing his projects and designs, Hiccup couldn't help but to feel a bit nervous. The only person that he had shown the content in it was Jack. His journal was filled with drawings of machines, gadgets, armors, calculations, notes and a few of his thoughts, maybe it was a mistake to let her see something so personal.

"Hiccup... This is amazing!"

Hiccup blushed and laughed awkwardly, "Thanks"

"Did ye did this stuff a' by yersel'?"

"Most of the time, yeah."

From that moment on, their friendship grew. So as Hiccup's feelings towards Merida, but he kept those feelings for himself, after all he knew her thoughts about relationships.

(Flashback off)

Getting back to reality, Hiccup spotted an tiny island and decided to land to give Toothless a well deserved rest and himself too.

The landing was smooth and calm, looking around at the beach, he noticed a few fallen palm trees but no sign of human contact, maybe the consequence of the wind or some other natural cause. Hiccup gathered a bit of wood and made a bonfire, Toothless curled around his friend and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep. Hiccup's mind began to slow down, feeling the exaustion of the long day, leaning into Toothless' scales and fell asleeps too.

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(October 21th, 21:40PM)

The night was awfully calm. No sign of Pitch or his Nightmares, no other spirits causing mayhem which was unusual since Halloween was just around the corner. Just an ordinary night, which troubled Merida deeply.

The red-headed girl had been on a mission earlier with Jack. Scout any sign of nightmare sand in the Middle East, a mission that could be done in a afternoon, if Hiccup and Toothless were with them, but the duo were unavailable. The mission took the whole evening and part of their night to be completed, and alas nothing was found.

Merida was now at the kitchen, making her own dinner since Rapunzel wasn't there to make something for everyone, not that Merida was a great cook, she knew the basics and some things that her blonde friend taught her. While she made her meal, her mind started to wonder where was everybody, in that immense workshop not a soul dared to just pass in front of her.

Jack went straight to sleep, the heat of the Middle East really had wore him down, Rapunzel still haven't came back from her mission with Sandy, Hiccup had took Toothless on a ride and didn't invite her... She couldn't even blame the dragon rider, it has been a while since Hiccup and Toothless had their share of free time together, so she understood the reason. He's been acting strange lately, more than usual, stuttering when talking to her, avoiding eye contact, always drawing something on his journal.

Ever since completing Ombric's training, Merida started to feel unease, she couldn't explain why. Maybe it was the fact that the wizard told them how weak they actually were before his arrival and that now they, at least, weren't dead weight on a actual fight against the Nightmare King or maybe the thought of fighting someone that had such a large record of destruction.

When she was a rogue spirit, dealing with monsters and hostile cretures wasn't a big deal, it was rather trivial actually. But ever since joining the Guardians, she realized that the creatures killed by her arrows were just the tip of the iceberg.

It didn't matter if she never met the Nightmare King, the description that Jack gave them was more than enough to know that he would be a formidable opponent.

She sat down to eat her meal, figuring out what she would do with the rest of her night. Training? No, she was way to tired to do that. Craft more arrows? Still no, the tools for that were in Hiccup's bedroom since he borrowed them to one of his projects and she wouldn't dared to step there, because she respected his privacy and because of the stench of Toothless drool through the room. Well, there was one last option and she absolutely hated but it was rather that or be bored alone.

Reading was a very difficult task for Merida, her energetic personality didn't allow her to stay still for long and concentrate on the tiny letters was a absolute pain for her, every time that she tried to read, no matter how good the book was, she would either skip parts ahead or drop it just to do anything else.

Having finished her meal, she made her way to the workshop library. It was a relatively short walk, locating in the second floor of the building.

The library was one of the places that amazed Merida the most in the whole workshop and the one that confused her the most, because how the hell North had gathered thousands and thousands of books, scrolls and every kind of knowlegde in human and magic history?

Stepping into the library, Merida met a familiar scenario. A maze of bookshelves that reached the ceiling, the smell of aged paper and ink. The room was so big that by the entrance stood a map that indicated the sectors of the library by genre. She picked a random aisle and walked for a while, looking at the title of the books to see if there was something that peaked her curiosity.

She passed by multiple books in foreign languages, mostly romances. Merida walked further, and stopped turning her face to a row of books that she knew the cover very well. She looked again to confirm if she saw it right. Hiccup's journals.

"Five... He wrote five o' thaim?", she said getting a hold of it. "Ah micht as weel."

She headed to a chair, getting comfortable and opening up one to what it looked like the oldest one. On the first page, a note was glued up that said: "Hi, if you're reading this now it's because i used all of the pages of this journal, so i decided to donated to North to, you know, expand his collection, but don't worry, this is just a copy of the original which is with me. Have a good reading, expect for you Jack, i bet you won't read this and probably just freeze the book. But to rest of you, good reading. Sig: Hiccup Haddock."

Merida chuckled and smiled, "Dork."

From there, Merida began to read his journals. She always knew that Hiccup was creative and very crafty but the content written in the books was beyond everything that she could imagine. Blueprints, weapons, entries of their adventures together as a team, even some drawings of the four of them, she felt her heart melt as she looked at one of the drawings that portrayted them sitted by a cliff watching the full moon with the word "Chance" in the grass.

She never concentrated so much in something that wasn't related to fighting. Hiccup's mind was a concept that Merida couldn't quite grasp upon, on one side his plans and leadership had saved their asses a handful of times, and on the other side he would occasionaly blow up something because of a failed experiment and try to cover it up with a sheepish grin like a child caught red-handed or stumble his words, mainly towards her, something that she didn't quite understand either.

Merida kept reading and analyzing his drawings for hours into the night, every detail, every thought she read carefully to not miss anything.

It was passed midnight when she grabbed the fourth journal to read. She didn't expected to be this fascinated, Hiccup had shared a few of his projects with her but this was at another level. Merida noticed that this journal in particular felt newer than the others, maybe it was a more recent one. The handwriting had changed to a more simple form and content as well.

The other journals she read through the night were filled were filled with Hiccup's ideas and this one is no different, but this one is felt odd...

The journal started normal, projects and notes explaning their functions, nothing out of order and organized to make anyone understand his point. But by the end of it where he would put his more personal drawings, she saw a drawing of her sitting. She looked at it carefully, paying attention to every single detail of the sketch, to the color of her hair to the slight blush in her cheeks.

She flipped the page just to find yet another illustration of her drawing her bow, she could feel the tension of the string in her fingers.

As she looked over the pages, Merida felt her cheeks heat up, she didn't know if was shame or flattery. The archer wondered how long has Hiccup been doing this and why he never shared this with her.

"Ah think that's enough o' reading fur th'day..."

She gathered the journals and put them again in the shelfs where they belonged. It took her a few minutes to find her way out of the library but once she did, Merida started her descent to the first floor still with what she saw in the journals in her mind. Getting closer to the first floor, she heard the commotion coming from the Globe Room, switching her way to her bedroom from there.

Stepping into the room, she saw the Guardians gathered with worried expressions in each of them.

"Whit th' hell is gaun oan?"

"Ah, Merida... Right on time.", Ombric said taking notice of her.

"It's okay, Merida... Sandy and i just had a bit of a... How should i say it? A bit of a-", Rapunzel tried to say but North interrupted in his heavy russian accent.

"They were ambushed by Nightmares", North went to the controls of the Globe, trying to locate any kind of Nightmare activity.

Merida took a good look at Rapunzel and finally noticed the small wounds in her arms, the sleeves of her dress ripped off as if something had bite it. Sandy had a couple of bruises through his face and a small cut in the corner of his mouth, which was leaking a bit of his golden sand. Bunny and Hiccup were checking on them to see if there weren't anything more serious.

"Wis Pitch thare?", Merida said stepping closer to her friend.

"No, just Nightmares and very strong ones...", Rapunzel grabbed a strand of her own her and gave it to Sandy too.

As Rapunzel began to hum the enchanment, Merida and Hiccup went by Jack, who was awfully silent, maybe because he was awoke from his slumber. Her hair glowed through the room as her gentle voice sang.

When she stopped singing, Rapunzel checked her own arms and smiled to see them in a great state, she looked by her side to see Sandy pleased that the pain of his bruises had gone away.

"Thanks, Punzie", Sandy signed to her.

"You're welcome, Sandy", Rapinzel signed back.

"So...", Jack broke his silence, "What do we do now? Keeping looking for Pitch?"

Ombric rubbed his long white beard, "The normal answer would be yes, but the Nightmares striked directly one of us... and that can't go unpunished. What do you think, Nicholas?"

"Bunny, how much time we have before Halloween?", North said still with his back turned to them.

Bunny thought for a bit and said, "Exactly nine days"

North huffed, "So we have to be quick", he turned to face them, "Prepare yourselves, we're going on a little trip."

That being said the four young Guardians rushed to their rooms to prepare for the journey ahead, leaving the veterans Guardians by themselves.

"What are you planning, North?", Tooth asked worried.

"We are going to visit a old friend..."

Chapter Text

(Merida POV)

As soon as North ordered us to get ready for the upcoming journey, i headed to my bedroom to gather everything i might need and to change my clothes to a more appropriate attire. Arriving there, i opened my wardrobe and from it i took out my chest guard, a new set of sleeves and my quiver, wearing in everything as quick as possible. Judging by North's voice tone, the place where we're going might be dangerous or it was just me overthinking it. I look at myself in the mirror, adjusting my attire to be as comfortable as possible and tying my hair in a high ponytail, now fully ready i walk towards the basement where North's sleigh was being prepared for us.

Going down at the basement, the smell of fresh oil and reindeer fur infiltrated my nostrils. Most of the Guradians were already on the sleigh just waiting the moment of departure, but as i got closer to the vehicle, i noticed one of us missing.

"Whaur is Hiccup?"

"Oh, you and him are going on Toothless", Punzie said with a smile.

"Och, okay... Hauld yer horses whit?"

"The sleigh is already packed, Red, sorry", Jack arrived and took a place beside Bunny, who was holding into the wood with his whole life.

"Ye and Tooth kin fly!"

"What's the big deal? It's just this once", Jack relaxed on his seat. The winter spirit gave me a smirk, "Besides, you love riding on Toothless, so this is a win-win."

At this moment, i saw Toothless appear behind the sleigh with Hiccup by his side ajusting his saddle. The viking mounted on his dragon and patted his head, making his partner purr, i watched this scene while remembering what i had saw in his journals and a small smile appeared on my face but i quickly made it fade.

I absolutely hate when Jack made sense, he might look dumb but he's sly as a fox. I huffed and said heading towards Hiccup, "Juist this wance, Frost."

I tapped on Hiccup' shoulder, he looked down staright into my eyes, "Oh hi, 'Rida, do you need something?"

"Th' sleigh is awready stowed oot, sae ah will gang oan Toothless"

"Oh... Okay", he mounted on Toothless, put on his helmet and offered his hand for me to mount on the dragon.

I took his hand and sat on the saddle, holding on Hiccup's waist firmly. When i took his waist, i felt him fixing his posture and shift on the leather of the saddle.

"Is everyone here?", North's voice echoed through the whole basement. He looked back on the sleigh, checking and counting everyone. "Very well, my friends, now listen very carefully. Stay close to each other and do not touch anything when we arrive there, am i understood?"

We all nodded and North looked ahead in the tunnel, whipping the reins, making his reindeers charge forward in full speed. When they were far enough, Toothless began to run in order to pick up his own speed until his paws were above the floor. Because of how fast Toothless was going, i had to hold on Hiccup a little too tight.

After a few minutes of flying on a very narrow space for the dragon, i could see the sleigh taking flight out on the cold air of the North Pole. Toothless followed them, seeing as a competition and soared out in the sky right beside them. Hiccup looked to the Guardians on the sleigh, waiting for a direction. North reached on the pocket of his coat and got a hold of the snowglobe, whispering on it our destination and throwing right ahead of us, causing a portal to open.

We passed through it, making me a bit dizzy. I looked forward to see where we were, seeing a sea of withered trees and smoke blurred our vision.

"Follow me!", North yelled guiding his reindeers down.

Toothless dived into the ground a little too fast for my taste, landing gracefully. We stepped in the ground glancing our surrondings, this place had an eerie air about it, sending chills up my spine.

"Whatever we do...", North called our attention, "do not touch anything.", that being said we began to follow him through the way.

"A little more information would really help, North", Jack said looking around. "This place looks pretty destroyed to me."

"Emily really overdid it here...", Bunny grabbed a leaf who completely wither on the palm of his hand.

"Who?", Punzie asked tilting her head.

"Mother Nature", Jack walked a little ahead, "I thought you guys weren't in good terms."

"We're not, my boy. But we, Guardians, need to be united in situations this dire. Emily might be a little... temperamental but she's a good woman, she'll understand."

The wind blowed in Jack's face, pushing him back right at me, "Whit th' hell, Frost?!"

"It wasn't me", Jack cleaned the dust of his hoodie, "What the hell, Wind?"

I didn't fully understand how this "Wind" thing worked. The first time Jack talked to the wind, i asked Hiccup if he was allucinating or drunk, but the dragon rider quickly dismissed saying that he was just reasoning with the entity of the "wind", which didn't answered my question and made me way more confused.

"Ye better control this thing"

"Hey! Don't talk like that, he is sensitive", i felt a gust of wind in my face. "See?"

I decided just to ignore it and keep on going. As we walked through the decayed forest, the scenary began to change, trees began to grow back their leafage and the smell of death started to fade, being replaced by the scent of roses. We looked around in awe as this once decayed land become a beautiful field filled with nature. Toothless rolled around in grass, feeling his scales brush against the ground, Hiccup watched his partner with a smile and we did the same.

Walking further we arrived to what seemed to be a gate covered top to bottom with flowers from all over the world, some of them i didn't even recgonized. Punzie approched one of the flowers and sniffed her, letting out a sigh of contentment.

"Who comes there?!", we looked around trying to identify the voice. Hiccup looked down and jumped back when he saw who it was, a little gnome.

"Oh, uh... Hi there", Hiccup smiled.

"Who comes there?!", the gnome yelled once again.

We looked at North, who got closer to him and knelt down before the gnome and said, "Tell Emily that the Guardians want to talk to her."

"Your Majesty demands respect, how dare you say her name?!", the gnome's face got red in anger.

North sighed, "Tell Your... Majesty that the Guardians of Childhood want to talk to her."

"That's better...", the gnome opened the gate and went in to alert this Emily girl.

"Coudnae we juist kicked him oot o' th' wey?"

"I don't think that would be the best idea, Merida", Tooth said floating above her, "Gnomes are very vengeful creatures, so it's for the best don't to mess with them."

"You do not want to be enemies with a gnome, Red, trust me...", Jack said looking through the gate.

We waited for a good five minutes. Toothless came snuggling on my legs, i knelt down to give the Night Fury some head scratches causing him to wiggle his tail in happiness, it baffles me that such a fearsome creature could behave like dog when he felt like it, not that i am complaining.

The gates opened once again with gnome returning. "Your Majesty has spoken and she will see you all now. Please come with me."

The gnome lead us through the gates, walking through a vast corridor decorated with flowers and leaves of all colors, it was really a sight to behold. We stopped in front of a huge wooden door, seeing the little gnome knock on it and hearing a voice telling us to come in. The doors opened up and on the other side of the room, a throne made of twigs and leaves could be seen and sitted on it a woman that barely looked past her twenties with long raven hair, eyes that could pierce the soul of every single man weak enough, she was wearing a long dress made of autumn leaves and looked at us with a cold glance.

So that's Mother Nature.

(Narrator POV)

The Guardians walked into the throne room, stopping a few feet in front of the ruler, who eyed them with an unbothered glare, she raised from her throne and stepped forward looking down on the visitors.

"Guardians, what an unexpected visit...", she noticed the young spirits between them, "I see some new faces, welcome young ones."

The four youngsters glanced between, doubting how they should answer such a imposing figure. Hiccup and Rapunzel bowed clumsily while Jack and Merida just nodded.

"Jackson, it's been a while since i last saw you. When was it? 1912?", Emily looked up in remembrance.

"Uh... Yeah, let's not remember that, Your Leafiness.", Jack was clearly embarressed, a rare feeling for the winter spirit.

"I was very surprised when the Wind told me you became a Guardian. Congratulations."

"Thanks, i was very surprised too", Jack rubbed the back of his neck.

"And who you might might be?", Emily turned to the three newest members.

"Hiccup Haddock, Your Majesty", he said bowing his head.

"Rapunzel I of Corona", she said cordially and bowed properly.

"Merida Dunbroch", the archer nodded nonchalant.

"Well, may your journey as Guardians be blessed", the queen walked back to her throne and sat on it, "But enough of cordiality... To what do I owe this visit to my domains?"

North stepped forward, "Emily, Pitch is back."

To the mention of his name, the queen of all nature frowned and gripped the arm of the throne.

"As ruler of nature, you can say where every living being is, that's why we're here. This is a global threat where talking about, so we humbly ask for your help", North bowed his head and stepped back.

"Why should i help?", Emily said looking down at them.

"As i said, this is a-"

"Global threat, yes, i heard it. Is Pitch destroying my forests?"

"No, but-"

"Is he melting the glaciers?"

"No, but he is planning somethi-"

"Is he spreading that nasty smog into MY planet?"

"No", North glared at her frowning angrily.

"Then it's not of my concern. You may leave now."

"Emily, this is your father we're talking about!"

Suddenly roots appeared from the ground, wrapping around North's arms and feet. The Guardians armed themselves, stepping back and looking at the ruler, who raised from her seat and walked towards North. She stopped in front of the restrained Guardian, glaring at him.

"My father... is dead. Don't you dare call that thing "my father", she said slowly facing the old man.

The tension was papable in the room. North, who was struggling to free himself, stop resisting which made the roots stop squeezing his limbs.

"Whatever he's planning will affect every single being in this planet. It's not affecting you now but if he succeeds, you better be ready to fight because you are the first he's coming after...", North looked at her with no fear in his eyes. "So what it will be, Emily?"

Merida pulled an arrow from her quiver and when she was going to load her bow with it, Hiccup stopped her just in time whispering, "Wait, let North deal with this..."

After hearing what North said, Emily released North but the tension didn't leave the room.

"If i help you, will you leave?", Emily said with a cold voice.

"Yes, we promise."

Mother Nature walked back to her throne and sighed looking down on them, "Wind...", a tornado of the size of a small child appeard by her side, "Find Pitch."

When she ordered the tornado dissipate and transformed into a gust of wind, leaving the room through a opened window.

"As soon as the Wind finds him, you'll be hearing from me."

The Guardians looked among each other until Merida speaked up. "That's it? You think a bawherr win` is enough?"

"That's all the help you will get from me", Emily squinted her eyes, "And... you better watch your tone with me, girl."

"I speak however a'm waantin'. 'N' fae a former queen tae a queen, tis ye wha shuid watch yer tone wi' us"

"Well, thanks for the help. We'll be leaving now", Hiccup laughed awkwardly and pulled Merida by her shoulders.

The Guardians left the room and stepped out of the Mother Nature's domains. As they were heading back to the sleigh, the silent was louder than the steps they took.

"Well, all things considered, that went pretty well", Jack said breaking the silence and Bunny slapped the back of his head afterwards.

"North, can i ask something?", Hiccup asked and North nodded, "When we were there, you said that we're talking about Emily's father, so is she Pitch daugther?"

"Yes, but that changed centuries ago. Believe it or not, from what i heard, Pitch wasn't the monster he is now", North explained.

As soon as they reached the sleigh and stepped into it, they took flight, Toothless following just behind them with Hiccup and Merida mounted on it. North opened a portal and they passed through it, going back to the North Pole.

But what they didn't know is that when they took flight, someone was watching from the shadows of the decayed forest, a woman who looked just at Rapunzel coveting her hair. When they passed through the portal, Gothel revealed herself watching the Guardians leave.

"Soon, Rapunzel..."

Gothel stepped into the shadows again, disappearing completely.

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(October 23th, 11:13AM)

"They went to Mother Nature?", Pitch asked looking at the lights of his own globe.

"Uhum... I don't know what they talked about but the looks of it, we might have to hurry up with our little plan", Gothel said taking a seat and checking her nails.

"Is the spell ready?", Pitch asked finally looking at his accomplice.

"Aed and Eris are gathering the last ingredient. Moon shards are not very easy to find, you know?", Gothel scoffed at him.

"And that brat?"

"Which one, dear?", Gothel raised from her seat and walked beside Pitch.

"You know very well who, Gothel..."

"Frost? He grew stronger, maybe your return made him finally try to reach his potential, his spirit... i never saw it anything like it. But make no mistake, Pitch. His little friends and my daughter also grew stronger."

Pitch chuckled, "What matters is that by the time my plan succeeds, he will be mature enough."

"You are yet to explain to me why you are so obsessed with this boy."

"Everything in its own time, my dear..."

Gothel sighed and shook her head, "You and your enigmas."

They walked to the outside of their lair, a place where no man, spirit or creature would dare to step foot in it. A small island on Southern Pacific where the moon couldn't even reach, making it a excellent place to hide or just to disappear.

Ever since Pitch broke his seal, he layed low for two years just looking for a perfect place to plan his revenge on the Guardians, ultimately finding that island which he named in a language long since forgotten, before even the first man started to speak.

"And that girl Elsa, where is she?", Gothel asked while looking at sky blue sea.

"With all due sincerity, i don't care where she is. Elsa is just a mere pawn in the grand scheme of things", Pitch took a handful of sand which quickly became thicker and darker. "Besides, her usefulness is coming to a end."

"Have you decided where we will execute our little scheme then?"

"Actually yes, dear. But only when the day comes i will guide you all there."

"You really need to hide everything, don't you?"

"It will be a great Halloween, i guarantee", Pitch began to head back to his lair, leaving Gothel by herself on the beach.

(Elsa POV)

(October 23th, 12:07PM)

Going home was always hard for me, the world had changed so much and i witnessed all of it.

Arendelle disappeared with time, when the Norwegian kingdoms united and became a unified and independent Norway, and my home became just a small portuary town. I didn't had much say in the matter, after all, i wasn't the Queen at the time, my sister was. Of course, i advised her but it was a useless effort, our kingdom was added to Norway anyway.

Walking though the streets made me feel a weird sense of nostalgia and sadness, seeing how the kingdom i dedicated most of my life had become. For the common eye, Arendelle was just a normal town where a person could drive-by and enjoy a vacation anytime they wanted, and i wouldn't blame them. The town wasn't falling into pieces; it had a cozy feeling to it, the citizens were, in the most part, just good people living their lifes. But when you are a spirit, you start to see beyond what is "normal".

In multiple occasions, i had to protect this town from supernatural activity. Goblins, giant golems, other spirits that wanted to take Arendelle as territory. You name it, i've fought against. For two hundred and two years straight, but as long is for my home, it was worth it.

As i walked down the streets, i noticed that not one person was seen on the stone roads. I found that very strange but i kept going on my way. After a while, i arrived at my destination, a graveyard.

The fog on the path made of pebbles made it difficult to cross but nonetheless i made it through, reaching three gravestones made specially for the royal family.

"Hi, Anna..."

I sat on the ground, looking at the other two tombstones, "Hello, mother... Hello, father..."

Visiting my family was becoming more and more a dreadful habit than anything. Since Pitch recruited me and we made a deal, i was bound to his commands as long as our agreedment lasted. Every little voice in my head warned me to not do it, to not trust in that man but the offer he made me was unrecusable so i took it. And now everytime i come to visit my family, their voices reprimanding me, especially my father's voice.

There i stayed for hours, the sun was away passed its peak. The silence was broken when i heard someone walking behind me, approaching slowly.

"It has been quite a while, Elsa."

I looked back and my eyes widen in shock, "Pabbie...?"

The old troll chuckled and sat beside me, his movements slow and calm, "How have you been, dear?"

"How are you here? I thought by now you would be...", my voice died when i tried to touch him with my hand passing right through him. "Oh..."

"Time comes for us all, even for me."

"Not for me though..."

We sat in silence when Pabbie said, "I sense a great turmoil inside you, Elsa. Tell me what troubles you."

I sigh and turned to him, "I think... i'm done. With all of it."

"What do you mean?"

"In my life, i saw everything this world had to offer. Love, hate, happiness, sadness, life... death. Why am i still here?"

"You think you furfilled your purpose?", i nodded and lowered my head. "Well, i think you're mislead, dear."

"What?"

"Elsa, if you're still here, you clearly still have much to accomplish. I understand that sometimes it feels impossible or simply unbearable to keep going, but you must move forward..."

"But... it hurts so much", i look straight to Anna's grave.

"No one said it would be easy, that's why you should surround yourself with people that understand your pain...", he held my hand. "The world is so much bigger than you think and the people that know exactly how you feel are somewhere out there... But it is up to you to choose to find them."

I took his words and lowered my head in thought and when i look back at him, he was long gone.

Did i finally lost my mind? Or that really just happened?

I raised from the ground and looked around, feeling a bit nauseous after that experience. Suddenly, i felt my forearm burn in mild heat, raising my sleeve the words "Come back, immediately" written in what it looked like scars, vanishing after the message was given.

I knew exactly who gave me that message, so i turn my heels back and headed towards the Nightmare King.

(Pitch POV)

(October 23th, 14:32PM)

Aed and Eris had return from their little fetch quest, bringing the moon shards and giving it to Gothel, who vanished into the lair ready to make the spell.

"This spell thing better be worth it, Pitch.", Aed said while he cauterized his wounds.

"Yeah, you could at least told us that a goddamn dragon guarded the shards!", Eris sat on round table limping on the way.

"Don't you worry, my friends. Thanks to your effort, we now are ready to execute my plan."

At this moment, i felt a strong magical presence at the front door of the lair and chuckled, "Well, she's here."

The doors opened to reveal Elsa, stepping into the room with her usual cold expression. "You summoned me, why?"

I put on a crooked smile in my face, "We are ready, Elsa."

"What do you mean?"

I walked to the middle of the room, with my accomplices watching every step i took. "My dear friends, for the last weeks you have served me very well and for that i thank every single one of you. But now it's time for us to move forward to the next phase of my plan."

"Cut the bullshit, Pitch...", Aed said now fully healed but with burn marks in his torso and arms.

"You read my mind, Aed. As you all know, Halloween is right around the corner but why did i chose this date in specific, you may ask? Not only my powers grow in that day but also the thin layer between what humans can see and what our kind can see is very fragile... In the end of the Golden Age here on Earth, The Man in the Moon with the help of Ombric and Merlin had put this layer to protect the humans and endangered creatures that the humans were hunting... You see where i'm going?"

Looking around the room, i scan the different reactions of my associates. Aed seemed to understand perfectly what i was impling and Eris was the same but her face lighted in excitement. Elsa, on the other hand, looked uncertain and distant.

"When Gothel finishes the spell, the world will see the true face of fear."

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(October 31th, 22:20PM)

Halloween. A night filled with the screams and laughter of children, some of them scared of what the darkness may hide and others enjoying the sweet taste of candy in their mouth after going door to door in their respective neighbourhoods. Humans disguised as characters of horror movies, others as creatures of the night that they were unaware of their existence and those who chose not to participate to take care of their children, walking them through the streets.

Although this was a moment to be celebrated for humans, for the spirits that protected them it was a moment to alert. After visiting Mother Nature, the Guardians spent the week leading to Halloween searching and preparing because the chance of Pitch attacking at any given moment was stupidly high.

The holiday was always a struggle for the Guardians, fighting evil spirits and creatures rampaging among the mortals, trying to make the most of it while they could be free. North had a theory that those spirits were misled and unconscious of their actions, but that was yet to be proven.

But for their surprise and shock, the night was rather calm.

That upset Ombric. The wizard, since joining the Guardians and training the four young spirits, never stopped checking on every corner of the planet, looking for the Nightmare King. He knew that Pitch was planning something, and the wait and antecipation were being a constant headache for him.

Ombric decided to take his head off the enemy's mind and called upon his students for a training session after all while they lived, there was always something new to learn.

The exercise was simple: Touch him. No matter what form. Punching, kicking, even a grasp would count.

And they tried. Oh, how they tried.

Merida, being the fierce fighter that she is, striked first without thinking much on a strategy, focusing on making the wizard lose his balance. As Ombric evaded her attacks, he noticed on the corner of his eye Jack swung his staff at him blasting frost and snow right at the wizard's head, on which he dodged barely by teleporting to the other side of the battlefield.

Ombric watched the winter spirit and archer stand side by side smiling at him as if they were plotting or could that be...

He was quickly dismissed of that thought when he looked up saw something diving from the ceiling right where he was. Rolling over and looking at who tried to strike him, he saw Rapunzel coming at him in high speed and swinging her daggers when she was close enough.

The sheer suddenness of their attacks made Ombric smile, seeing how much his students evolved into full flegded Guardians.

While Rapunzel tried to land a hit on the wizard, Jack blasted frost in his direction but Ombric blocked it, forming a wall from the floor. Suddenly he saw Merida jumping over the wall and shooting a arrow that the wizard slowed down using his magic. He stepped back and looked at the young Guardians, noticing that there were only three of them... "Where is Hiccup?", Ombric thought before feeling someone touch his back.

Looking back, he got a glimpse of Hiccup with his sword at hand and his palm touching the old man's back, smiling pridefully. The dragon rider stood tall and ran to his teammates, jumping towards them and pulling them to a massive group hug, celebrating the victory. Ombric couldn't believe what just happened, he had full confidence that he would be more than capable to win against his four students and yet... He lost.

The young spirits turn to Ombric when they listened to his laughter. They looked at each other trying to figure out what had cause such reaction from someone so composed and centered as Ombric.

"Well...", Ombric said wiping a tear from his eye, "Well done, my pupils. Your training actually paid off."

"Ye bet yer arse it did!", Merida said with wide grin in her face.

"But make no mistake, my dear students. You still have much to learn in order to get on my level. Dismissed", Ombric passed through them and headed towards the exit of the training grounds.

"Just admit that we beat your ass, old man!", Jack said loudly.

When Ombric reached the elevator, he looked at Jack with a grin and said, "You haven't come close yet to beating me", the doors closed and Ombric was gone.

"I didn't know that Ombric was a sore loser", Jack floated off the floor and heading to the stairs.

"I don't think he is, Jack. Maybe we're that far from his power", Hiccup said following him to the stairs.

"Yeah, yeah... Anyways, i say we celebrate this win in Halloween style."

"What do you have in mind?", Hiccup said looking at him suspiciously.

"Relax, it's nothing bad. Well, it sorta is but-"

"Jack..."

"Hiccup, stop worrying and trust me. Besides when did i ever put us in trouble?", Jack stopped to carefully to study his own question, "Actually don't answer that."

Hiccup chuckled and kept on his way but stopped when he noticed that Merida and Rapunzel weren't walking with them, "Are you two coming?"

"Aye, ah juist need Punzie's hulp wi' something."

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, you know...", Rapunzel said grabbing blue paint and brushes from her sachel, "Girl stuff."

"Uhh, okay...", Hiccup turned his heels and walked to where Jack was waiting, "We'll be downstairs if you need something."

"Thanks!"

And with that, Jack and Hiccup went down the stairs into the kitchen, leaving the two women in the training grounds by themselves.

"A'richt, Punzie, let's dae it", the scottish said exposing her bare back to her friend.

"Merida, don't you think it's better let Ombric do this? He's the wizard, not me", Rapunzel said opening up a the paint and picking up the brush.

"Keek, Ombric seems lik' a guid jimmy bit thare is na wey in hell a'm letting him titch me lik' this", Merida said slipping off her sleeves, "Besides, ye'r an artist, ye kin dae it."

"What about Hiccup? He's a better designer than me and that's for sure", Rapunzel said wetting the brush and testing the paint on a piece of paper.

Merida blushed at the thought of Hiccup painting her back, "Tis juist that... Ah trust ye, a'richt?"

"Uhum, right...", Rapunzel touched the brush covered in blue paint in Merida's back and began her work.

(Pitch's POV)

Inhaling the cold air of the night, i could feel my powers growing stronger. This feeling of being complete was so pleasant that it blinded me more than the lights of the billboards in the Times Square right below me.

"Are we ready, Gothel?"

"We are just waiting for your command, my Lord."

The stage was set, just like i planned. Looking downwards, i could see all those miserable beings, some smiling, others just going on their lifes. Little did they know that today they will now what real fear feels like.

"Go join the others. Tell them that the wait is officially over", after my order was given, Gothel disappeared into the shadows.

Raising my hands to air slowly, i could feel every single grain of sand move upwards into the sky, creating a dome of black sand, big enough to cover half of Manhattan. After sealing the dome completely, i looked to the crowd in the streets and a jolt of happiness ran through my body. They were getting scared, terrified even.

Maybe they need a bit more of a incentive. Controlling the black sand from the dome, i made droplets of sand fell into streets and take form into my dark steeds. When the mortals took notice of them, from the first scream of terror, a symphony of screams could be heard even by those outside the dome.

And then the sound of piercing flesh was heard. It was done, the humans running trying to find a safe place to hide like the animals they are, while my steeds hunt them down as their natural predator.

Inhaling the air, the smell of fear never felt so good.

Suddenly, i heard an explosion and felt the heat coming from East. It seems that Aed already began his works.

I felt the ground tremble and watched as ice pierced through the streets, destroying the asphalt. Elsa passed sliding and blasting everything that she could see. In just a couple of hours, i will decide her fate.

I opened a hatch in the dome, letting the moon shine its splendor and looked right at it. "I made my move, old friend... What will your Guardians do?"

(Narrator POV)

Alarms fired at the North Pole, making all of the Guardians ran into the Globe Room fully armed and prepared. Bunny appeared from a hole in the floor and immediately went to the control panel beside North to see what was causing that.

"What is happening?", Hiccup said arriving with his friends.

"It appears that Pitch showed up", North said looking at the Globe. "We have to be quick! To the sleigh!"

"We don't have time for this, Nicholas.", Ombric said having already opened a portal. "Hiccup, go and get Toothless. The rest of you, follow me."

Hiccup sprinted to his room to get Toothless. He opened the door of his room a bit stronger than normally and the first thing he saw was his dragon curled up on his bed. "Toothless, come on, bud. We need to go."

The dragon purred and curled into a ball of scales even further, "Toothless, we don't have time for this, come on!", but it was no use, the dragon just ignored him.

"Toothless, if you don't get up right now, no salmon for two months."

Toothless jumped off the bed, lowering himself for Hiccup to mount him. "You understand why i said that, right?", suddenly the dragon sprinted off the bedroom in high speed, making it difficult for Hiccup to balance on him but having experienced his friend tantrum before, the dragon rider adjusted himself and grabbed his reins, guiding him through the portal opened by Ombric, that closed after he passed through it.

The only thing that allowed Hiccup to see where he was going, was the billboards shining through the streets. Toothless dived to the ground, landing smoothly in the icy streets. Hiccup stepped in the frozen asphalt, wondering if Jack had done that, he knelt and touched the ground feeling his fingers going numb at the contact.

Suddenly Toothless roared at something, making Hiccup turn his head to see what it was and the worst it was. Nightmares coming at him with a murderous intent.

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

(Hiccup's POV)

As the Nightmares came closer with not so friendly faces, I drew my sword and ignited it. Toothless charged at the steeds, biting and ripping the head of one of them, turning it into just a pile of black sand. The other two Nightmares, seeing one of their own being killed in front of them, charged Toothless but failed as I ran towards the creatures and swung my blade, piercing the hooves of one and beheading the other, turning them into black dust.

"Are you okay, bud?"

Toothless pushed his head in my torso and purred in agreement.

"Alright, come on, let's find the others."

I mounted Toothless and soared into the sky. This area we flew over was covered in a thin layer of ice and snow, which made me consider that Jack was the cause of this but I quickly dismissed this possibility because the Winter Spirit couldn't have done since the Guardians arrived only five minutes ago.

As we flew over the frozen streets, Toothless called my attention by growling. "What is it, bud?", the dragon pointed ahead. Squinting my eyes trying to see properly through the dark, i saw a small flock of Nightmares coming in our direction.

"Alright, bud, are you ready?", the dragon started charging a blast of plasma in his mouth, "Ready... Set... Fire!"

Toothless shot the plasma blast right at the flock, exploding them and creating a cloud of smoke that was dissipated as we passed through it. Something was very wrong.

Where are these things coming from?

Are the others fighting them?

There is no time to thinking about that. Our mission here is clear, Pitch is here somewhere and must be stopped. But even if i was focused on our objective, my mind couldn't help but wonder if my friends were safe.

After ten minutes of flying over the frozen streets, something caught my eyes. Is that a hummingbird?

"Tooth!", as Toothless flew closer to her but I noticed that she was a lot smaller than normal so I realized it wasn't the actual Toothiana, it was one of her fairies. "Baby Tooth!"

The small fairy hearing my voice flew towards me, landing on Toothless' head. The second she landed, her high-pitched voice began to ramble words in light-speed, I couldn't make it what she was saying but it sounded important. "Whoa, whoa... Slow down, okay? One thing at a time."

Baby Tooth took a deep breath and started ramble again in light-speed yet again. "Look, Baby Tooth, where is everyone?"

She stopped and pointed to the bright intersection of avenues, "They're in there?", the fairy nodded. "Alright, let's go, bud."

Toothless sped up to a point where I couldn't hear anything around me until landing. When we got close to the center of Times Square, Toothless landed and dismounted and I couldn't believe in what I was seeing. Dozens... No, hundreds of people on the ground. Some of them ripped apart, staining the asphalt in a dark red shade. Toothless whined a bit seeing the scene and I soothed his head, "It's okay, bud. Everything is going to be fine..."

We moved through the stained streets, looking for a sign of any survivors or the Guardians. The billboards glitched, making the lights flash in a repeated sequence. I can't help but to feel an unease in my stomach, I wouldn't call it "fear", I would call it "my senses are in overdrive right now". As we walked, I heard something coming towards me and coming fast... I drew my sword, letting the flame light my way. As the figure approched, I gripped the handle of my sword until my knuckles turned white and sweat dripped out my forehead.

Maybe it was my imagination but I felt the air around me getting colder, and the lights allowed me to see the staff that it was carrying. "Jack?"

"Hiccup? Is it you, man?"

We could see clearly each other now. Jack had a small cut on his cheek and one of the sleeves of his hoodie was ripped off. "I assume you met some Nightmares on the way?"

"Yeah, those things are swarming this place", we began to walk side by side, "Bunny and Tooth evacuated most of the people, the ones that we could find, at least."

"And the rest of us?"

"Ombric told us that our priority here is to save as many people as we can. North and him are looking for Pitch now."

"Merida? Rapunzel?"

"I don't know. After the first wave of Nightmares, we kinda separated, y'know?"

"Well, what are we waiting for?", i mounted on Toothless and we soared to the sky with Jack flying beside me, "Where do we start?"

As we were flying, the brightness of an explosion came from East of the dome to what it could only be described as hell on Earth, we looked at the cloud of smoke that had been formed and I heard Jack saying, "I think we have our starting point."

As we approached the area, the heat that was coming from the fire pits formed around the buildings made asphalt and concrete melt into solid lava. No normal human would be able to survive in this fire and if they did survived, the smoke would take them out in minutes. From the smoke, we heard a single laughter so we followed that sound, but the ground was too hot for Toothless to land on it. "Toothless, listen, okay? Go look for the other Guardians, alright?", my dragon nodded and in a swift motion, I slid off Toothless' saddle, free-falling and activating my wingsuit, gliding with Jack's Wind guiding my landing.

Jack froze the ground with his staff, so we were able to land without any trouble and I retracted my wingsuit. As soon as we touched the now frozen ground, I drew Inferno out and blazes covered its blade, Jack on the other hand, gripped his staff with both hands and looked around searching something to aim at.

"Would you look at that? Two little Guardians for me to play with...", a man came out of the smoke holding two burned bodies, throwing them anywhere like they were just trash. The man looked at us, head to toe and chuckled, "So you are the boy that Pitch is obsessed about, i see now what he meant... You're a strong one."

"Is he talking to me or...", Jack whispered to me.

"I suppose that you're the one that did all this...", i pointed to the area around us.

"This place looks much better like this... My fire scathering through all this land, these damn monkeys crawling on the ground... And all thanks to Pitch."

"Where is he?!", Jack yelled.

"You think i fucking know? I'm just doing what he asked me, to cause as much chaos as possible."

"Oh, I see. Hiccup, he's just Pitch's little lapdog", Jack pointed out loud.

"DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO, YOU BRAT?!!!", the ground shook as fiery lava erupted blazing boulders into the sky.

As the fiery debris began to fall down back to the ground, Jack and I dodged most of them, respectively freezing and slicing the ones that would have hit us.

"I'm Aed, The Offspring of Wrath, The Volcanic Slayer, Destroyer of Civillizati-"

"And a little bitch!", Jack shouted and a snort came out of my mouth.

Aed's eyes lighted up in fiery fury, "I don't care if Pitch wants you alive...", he knelt down and grabbed liquid lava, shaping it into a spear, "...You will be the first Guardian i'm going to kill in centuries, so be honored."

"I think you pissed him off, Jack."

Jack laughed, "You think we can take him?"

"I mean... we're two and he's just one. We can win."

"So what? Should we just attack or just stay on defense?"

"I'll go ahead and you back me up", I held Inferno tighter in my palm, "Ready?"

"Just give me the sign..."

I prepared and ran towards the hill made of molten debris, dodging the small volcanos erupting as best as i could. Honestly, i'm really thankful about the updates i made on my prosthesis because if i hadn't updated, it would have melted by now.

In the corner of my eye, Jack ran a little further but still beside me, the wind around him turning to a unbearable heat into a small blizzard, creating a path with his staff for us to safely navigate through the volcanic domain. Aed watched us getting closer, gripping his spear and hitting the ground, creating a wave of blazing lava in our direction.

Seeing this, Jack swung his staff blasting a flurry of ice and frost that were capable of holding the lava just long enough for me to dodge and keep on the run towards Aed. The lava wave, just after a few seconds, melted the ice and splattered through the avenue, burning what was left of the road.

Jack matched my speed but flew to towards the right side of our opponent as I was covering his left. Getting close enough, I swung Inferno aiming to Aed's neck and Jack aimed his staff to his legs.

"Too damn slow...", Aed held my sword by its blade and stepped on the hooked end of Jack's staff. "You two have to do better if you want to kill me."

I felt myself being pulled towards him and suddenly his fist connected with my face, sending me flying across a building. My route wasn't long because I pierced the floor with Inferno, its blade slowing me down until I stopped and felt blood dripping from my nose, quickly wiping it out. Getting back in my feet, i ran back to the battlefield.

As I got closer, blasts and the sound of steel ringing could be heard from a mile away. Returning to the calamity, I could see Jack and Aed in a oddly beautiful dance of fire and ice, their attacks painting the buildings with red and blue. I shook away those thoughts, i ran towards the fight with Inferno at hand and parrying Aed's spear upwards.

Seeing a opening, Jack passed right behind me and kicked our opponent in right side of his head, sending flying towards the hill of molten asphalt and debris. Jack and I took a second to get our breaths back now that the adrenaline had passed, at least for a second until we heard Aed walking back from hill, wiping a bit of blood on the corner of his mouth. He began to run towards us, so we did the same.

Now close enough, I swung my sword aiming his torso but he blocked and tried to pierce me with his spear but I was able to dodge just in time for Jack blast him with a flurry of ice and snow. Aed turned his attention to the Winter Spirit, starting to trade blows with his spear but his attacks were blocked by Jack, who countered one of his assaults by kicking his left leg, making his kneel down.

In that position, I took my knee directly in his nose, making him stumble back. Now that he was stunned, we had the perfect opportunity to strike back but with a simple touch to the ground, Aed began to control the lava right below us, cooling it down and creating solid rocks on our feet.

We tried to brake free but it was too late, Aed was already right coming at us with his spear at hand. Jack was his first target, I saw the point of the spear make contact with his stomach and creating a small explosion sending Jack flying to what it seemed the other side of the district.

"Jack!", I used the handle of Inferno to break the rocks and when i turned to see Aed again, he was already with his spear ready to pierce my head.

This is it...?

Am I going to lose my life again...?

No... I can't die just yet, I still have things to do...

These thoughts ran through my mind, until something or better someone punched Aed in the face, stopping the trajectory of the blade, missing me by mere inches. Aed turned to see who had interfered, only to be punched in the nose again and having an arrow explode on his chest sending him flying across the road.

"Yi'll waant some hulp, Hiccup?"

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

In all of his existence, Aed had fought thousands of warriors, all different in their fighting styles. It didn't matter who crossed his way, if the person offered a good challenge, he would fight for as long as he feel like it, even if the conflict took decades or centuries for a winner to be declared. And of course, in all of his life, he had his fair amount of scars and wounds, on which he exposed them with pride, proving the great warrior he is and how he had destroyed his enemies.

But even if he was a harbringer of destruction and chaos, having some kind of code was standart for any warrior. Some fight for what is right, others fight to protect the innocents or the people they love. Aed, on the other hand, had one simple rule when it comes to fighting... Don't interrupt it when two people are trying to kill each other. Anyone who tried to interfered in a fight when Aed was one of the contestants was murdered on sight.

He was so close to finishing the fight by piercing his spear through Hiccup' skull but the red-haired archer had arrived to stop the brutality and to, absolutely, make the slayer literally boiling in rage.

Merida had her bow ready to shoot another arrow while Hiccup got back at his feet with the Inferno at hand. As he stood up, his hand went to his stomach, feeling his bones and muscle ache at an alarming rate.

"Urr ye okay, Hic'?" She glanced at him in the corner of her eye.

"Yeah... Just a couple bruises. What are you doing here?"

"Ah wis keekin fur survivors near by whin a clocked Toothless flying fae 'ere 'n' then th' explosion happened." She looked around noticing the destruction caused by their opponent and also noticing traces of frost and snow in the battlefield melting turning into steam, "Where's Jack?"

Hiccup finally remembered of his friend being launched across the district on a explosion and a feeling of uncertainty ran through his head.

Was he dead? Probably not, Jack was tough as a iceberg.

Now, was he hurt? That was almost a certain.

"That guy knocked him out of the fight. We need to find hi-"

From the molten debris Aed had raised after the punch throwned by the archer with blood dripping from his nose and mouth. The fiery opponent eyed the two Guardians with a murderous intent, specially Merida, given her intrusion. He wiped the blood from his nose and began to walk towards them strangely calm.

"Woman! Leave now... This is between me and the crippled."

Merida gripped her bow until her knuckles turned white, "Whit did ye juist cried him?"

"Are you deaf? This between me and the crippl-", Aed didn't had time to complete since Merida fired the arrow loaded in her bow, aiming at his head.

Aed dodged the arrow but the point of it had left a scratch on his left cheek. Merida charged at him with her bare fists, throwing jabs and kicks, leaving him with no choice other than just keep evading her attacks. As he dodged, Aed couldn't help but to feel a strange feeling of nostalgia as if he already had done this fight, but he continued to evade the archer's strikes.

The archer faked a right hook, making her enemy react by instinct and protect his face but the moment that he tried to defend it, Merida quickly gave him a uppercut to the chin, causing him to stumble back completely open for her to punch through his chest. Her fist piercing him with amazing precision and strength.

That would be enough to kill anyone... But Aed simply grabbed Merida by her neck and raised her until she couldn't feel the ground below her. The archer tried to get free from his hold but it was useless, he began to slowly squeeze her neck, enjoying seeing the life starting to leave her body. But the more that Merida tried, the tigher his hold became.

Growing desperate for air, Merida threw punches in his forearm but her strength began to falter and her vision to blur.

"I gave you a warning, you should have taken..." Aed looked right at her sky blue eyes.

"F-fuck you..." She smiled and felt his grip get tighter.

"You Guardians are all the same... Just little slaves serving a master that you can't even see. But don't worry, I'll send you straight to him."

But right at the moment that he would break her thin neck, Aed felt his arm going numb and sharp steel make contact with his skin. Merida fell to the ground, free from his hold, coughing desperately searching for air.

Hiccup was just looking for the perfect chance to make his move. In all sincerity, he had growned desperate when Merida was raised from the ground by the neck and all of his insticts told him to act now or she would die right there and then, but he waited until Aed's attention was completely on the archer to charge at him. Inferno sliced his forearm and taking advantage of the momentum, he kicked his stomach sending Aed flying towards a building, destroying the concrete walls and glass on the way.

Merida raised from the ground and took a deep breath, "Whit teuk ye sae damn lang?"

"Sorry, my ribs were still healing. Are you okay?" He touched her shoulders inspecting the handprints on her neck.

Merida blushed a bit from his touch, "Aye... A'm braw."

"Are you sure?"

"Aye, aye. 'm fine..."

The two Guardians turned to the building after hearing steps coming from it. Even with his forearm gone and bleeding, Aed stood tall coming out of the wrackage with his spear at hand, holding her like it was a extension of his body and soul.

Merida drew her bow, ready to shoot at him. Hiccup, with Inferno at hand, prepared to charge at the spirit, waiting for any sudden movement.

"Tell me..." Aed mumbled the last part, causing the young Guardians to glance at each other.

"Whit?" Merida raised her voice, her fingers pulling the string of her bow and aiming right at his head.

"Tell me your names." Aed stared at them with a unreadable expression.

The sudden request had taken Hiccup and Merida back significally. Why did he needed their names? Was that a distraction? A trap, maybe?

Hiccup looked at the archer by the corner of his right eye, sweat dripping from his forehead, either because of the heat or the tiredness of this combat. The dragon rider sighed, deciding to bite the bullet just to see the outcome of this weird interaction.

The dragon rider took a step forward, "Hiccup Haddock III."

Merida seeing the attitude of her teammate stepped forward and glanced at Aed, "Merida Dunbroch."

Aed hearing their names changed his expression from a cold stare to a cheeky grin, "Of course... A Haddock and a Dunbroch in the same place, Destiny really is a funny thing."

The sound of familiarity coming from Aed's mouth made Hiccup and Merida widen their eyes, Hiccup gripped his sword, feeling his knuckcles going numb.

"How do you know those names?!", Hiccup was growing impatient every second that passed.

"The Haddock name is well known to every spirit that comes from the North. Fearless warriors... It's a pity that time erased them from history." Aed turned his gaze to Merida, "And I knew I recognized that red hair anywhere. I had the pleasure to kill one of you..."

Merida had enough of his speech, so she released the arrow loaded in her bow, letting it soar across the battlefield. Hiccup charged at Aed, his sword blazing through the night and with a hunger for the battle. They didn't had a strategy other than cause the most damage possible at their enemy and until this point, although they had taken some hits and bruises, the strategy was working to a degree.

The embodiment of wrath charged at Hiccup with his spear in hand, dodging all of Merida's arrows by mere inches, the points of the projectiles grazing his skin, creating thin lines of blood dripping slowly.

The blades slashed against each other creating a shockwave and breaking the remaining glass panes that miracously had survived the destruction caused by Aed. Hiccup aimed his strikes mainly on his sides and neck, trying to end this combat as quick as possible while Merida stayed at the sidelines and in constant movement shooting her arrows but being able to switch it for a close combat if the situation get out of hand.

Hiccup maneged to make some cuts that were immediately cauterized by his burning blade that, although not spilling any blood to the ground, made Aed step back and reconsider his options but Merida was still putting pressure by shooting her arrows, cornering him and getting the advantage in the fight.

The pressure that Aed felt was unbearable as he dodged their attacks, failing in some movements, receiving cuts and the sound of arrows flying through the air by his ear. Spinning his spear, he broke the projectiles and in the same movement parried Hiccup's attack, using shaft of the spear to hit Hiccup's chest, creating a small explosion and launching the dragon rider towards a concrete wall.

"Hiccup!" Merida watched his body hit the wall, her worry and anger building up.

Aed charged her, seeing one of the threats to his life taken care of. Merida placed her bow aronud her shoulder and went to her foe's encounter, their fists connecting and launching both of them at opposite directions after the impact.

The archer recovered first, looking at her arm and noticing the right sleeve of her shirt gone and revealing the blue tattoos that Rapunzel did before this calamity began, thinking on a plan to end this fight. Across the battlefield, Aed was already standing but looking visibly tired, picking up his spear off the ground. At the corner of her left eye, Hiccup tried to get up but the damage caused by the explosion was too much for him to keep fighting so he decided to take his time and let himself heal first.

Merida saw no other choice but to test how useful Ombric's teachings were. She began to slowly walk back to the battlefield, along the way ripping her other sleeve and unveiling her tattoos across her arms connecting to her back. She took a deep breath and stopped on her way in the middle of the fiery chaos of that steet.

"You Dunbrochs really are a pain in the ass..." Aed stopped and looked at Merida's arms, "What's that?"

"Ye pure pat up a guid rammy... Bit tis aboot tae end."

"I couldn't agree more..." Aed sat his spear ablaze and positioned himself, "After your death, I'll tell the world how brave you were."

Merida let out a scoff and showed a bloody grin, "That's whit we wull see..."

The archer closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the hot air around them. She clasped her hands together and whispered, "Encantation... Fyer."

Her tatoos began to shine in light blue tone, contrasting perfectly in the red chaos around them, Aed looked at her a bit impressed which didn't happened very often, he smiled when he notice her hair was set ablaze and thought that this was about to get very interesting.

"What an amazing amount of energy... Is this your ace in your sleeve? I have to say it... I expected more of a Dunbroch."

Merida glanced her tatoos now shining in light blue, impressed by the power she was feeling. Never in her life and spiritual life, she felt so... complete. Blue flames began to cover her hands, blazing so bright that she squinted her eyes a bit looking at her flame.

She assumed her position and looked straight to her opponent, grinning mischievously. "Dinna fash yirsel... Ah wull shaw juist whit a Dunbroch kin dae."

Chapter Text

(Narrator POV)

(Flashback on)

After the Winter Spirit and the Dragon Rider left the training ground, Rapunzel and Merida were left sitting on the ground. The blonde was brushing the archer's back with blue paint creating a beautiful and yet imposing piece of art. Merida felt the brush thin brickles tickle her toned back and tried really hard to not laugh at that.

"Almost..." Rapunzel said focused on her work. "And... done!"

Rapunzel placed the brush on a piece of paper, avoiding spill paint on the floor. Merida had told her that she could do any kind of drawing that she wanted as long as she added the runes she described in it and so she did. On her back, a oak tree could be seen with its branches extending to the archer's arms with her clan symbol in the middle as if it was encarved. A detail that Rapunzel thought would be nice to add was all of their own symbols to the tree trunk. A curled Night Fury, a snowflake and the Corona' sun, together with the Dunbroch badge. Rapunzel smiled at her work, grabbing a small mirror and adjusting for Merida to see the result.

"So... What do you think?"

Merida's lips formed a small grin seeing the reflection, "Tis perfect. Cheers, Punz."

Merida put on her shirt back on, raising from the floor turning for her blonde friend and raising her guard up. "Now c'moan, pat thaim up. A'm waantin' tae test it."

Rapunzel looked at her confused, raising from floor. "Test what exactly?"

Merida showed her arms and turn her back at Rapunzel, "Thae things!"

"The tattoos?"

"Aye! Whit dae ye think ah asked ye tae dae this?"

Rapunzel gave the archer a shy smile, "Girl bonding time?"

Merida raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Alright, maybe not. So what exactly did you made me paint on your back?"

Merida rushed to the sidelines and grabbed her backpack, searching for something in it. When she got back, Rapunzel noticed a quite heavy book in her hands, by the looks of it the blonde guessed it had more than eight hundred pages for sure. The book fell to the ground on a loud thud.

"Wow! Where did you get this?" Rapunzel said touching the cover made of leather, feeling the softness of it.

"Ombric gave it tae me. He says a'm needin' tae "expand mah knowledge"."

"Merida, this is massive." Rapunzel noticed the bookmark almost at the end of it, "How are you almost done with it?"

"I uise mostly tae kip." Merida opened the book where the bookmark was, passing through a block worth of pages. "Noo this... This wis worth reading aboot."

Merida gave the book to Rapunzel. The blonde inspected the page opened, written in black ink. The page was yellow due to time passage and it smelled like it was starting to mold.

Rapunzel began to read aloud, "Fyer, also known as the Fire Soldier Spell, is something I've been studying for a while now. It gives to the user a considerable enhancement to their physical and spiritual strength, as well the ability to harness the power of fire. Of course, it's a temporary effect but still a very powerful resource. I manage to discover the runes necessary to cast it, as shown in the following." The blonde immediately recognized the symbols as they were in Merida's back.

"Sae whit dae ye think?"

"It's interesting but also kinda scary." Rapunzel flipped the page, analyzing the diagram with the instructions and also a very tiny note by the end of the page. "Um... Merida? Are you sure this is safe?"

The archer was stretching her arms, preparing to test the ability, "Ah hae na idea. That's how come a'm tryin` oot it."

"You might want to hold that thought."

"Why?"

"Well, did you read the side effects?"

"Whit side effects?"

"Caution: Long exposition to the spell might cause overheating, 2nd to 3rd degree burns, lack of oyxgen in the lungs, nosebleeds, etc". Rapunzel looked to Merida with her eyebrows tensed, "Are you sure you want to test this?"

"O' coorse. Whit th' wirst that kin happen?"

(Flashback off)

(Merida's POV)

I never felt this kind of power in my life before. It's a bit overwhelming actually. Raw and immaculate power flowing through my veins, my fists covered in blue flames, the tattoos in my arms and back pulsating with my heart. I stared Aed, which had a amused expression on his scarred face, as if he is enjoying this situation, playing with innocents life, acting like judge, jury and executioner. But I couldn't help but to feel the thrill of fighting someone that is stronger than me, knowing that I can surpass them, that I can go beyond myself and help people in the process by purging another maggot off the face of the planet.

I began to walk slowly towards Aed, looking at him dead in the eyes, seeing my movement he started walking as well, speeding up every step on the way to a point that we were running towards each other. Our fists connected with a fiery aspect, scattering sparks around us. As we trade blows, the fire in my hands began to burn brighter as he landed a punch to my gut, launching me backwards. Landing a few feet away from him, I drew my bow.

The minimal touch to my childhood weapon made it engulfed in blue flames. I watched in awe as my bow transformed. When the flames stopped covering its wood, I pulled the string aiming at Aed and shot three arrows in sequence.

As the projectiles flew towards the target, I began to run describing a circle around my opponent, shooting multiple arrows, cornering him in that concetrated spot. Aed tried to dodge and break the arrows with his spear but the sheer quantity was simply impossible for him to avoid all of them, some arrows pierced through his skin and there they stayed. I shot one last arrow before sprinting towards him and returning the favor by punching his gut, causing him to be launch backwards and place his hand where I striked. He came to a stop by sticking his spear into the ground, slowing down his trajectory.

With that, we both stopped to catch our breaths and—

Suddenly, a very deep cough came from my lungs and together with it smoke... and blood. My eyes widen seeing the small red puddle on the burnt ground.

Did the side effects already began?

How long had I activated the spell? Five minutes? Maybe ten...?

As I was considering my options, I heard a pained laugh coming from Aed, "It's affecting you, isn't it?" He said with a bloddy grin.

He raised from the ground, uncovering the burn wound left by me in his stomach. "You haven't mastered that little spell of yours, did you?" He coughed a bit and spat his blood to the side. "It's only a matter of time until you wore your body out."

"Tis enough time fur me tae beat th' jobby oot o' ye."

I ran towards him with flames covering my hands, throwing jabs and landing most of them. Aed must've decided to not take this kindly and countered by summoning his spear, thrusting it trying to get my sides. Seeing me dogde all of his attacks, Aed raised his spear and in a downward move, striked me. I blocked by holding the shaft with both hands, the impact made the ground below me to sink but I held strong and using the momentum, I threw him over my shoulder with his spear now in my hand.

Seeing him stumble and hit a wall, I aimed and threw his spear back at him and watched as the weapon pierced through his right arm. Making my way over where he was, Aed had used his teeth to take the spear of his arm and stood up, running towards me and iniciating a flurry of punches and kicks so fast that I had a hard time dodging. The impact of his attacks made adopt a defensive position, it was overwhelming the amount of hits that I had to endure.

He must have seen an opening in my defense because I felt as fist connected with my stomach, launching me backwards. When I landed, I felt my lungs let out another cough filled with smoke and blood, my vision starting to blur. I raised from the ground, feeling the overwhelming pain in my muscles and bones. When I looked over to Aed, he had disappeared.

Confusion filled my mind, I looked around but nothing of him.

I don't know how but... I felt my body move out of the way by pure and primal instinct of survival. Looking up, I saw Aed come down to the ground as if he was meteor with his spear inches way from me head and pierce the ground. But as I dodged his attack, I felt my right eye close in pain, my hand move instantly to it covering the wound. I only stopped when my opponent was several feet away from me.

"Good reflexes, Dunbroch. A few inches closer and you would be dead, but at least it wasn't in vain." He retrieved his spear and looked at me.

I tried to open my eye, checking if my worries were truth.

Thankfully, I still had my two eyes intact, but now I had a nasty cut on my face. Suddenly, the adrenaline had passed and I felt the accomulated pain in my body, almost losing my conscience. I looked around to see that our fight had been move an entire new location, it looked like a park.

My focus turned back to the enemy standing before me. The pain was almost unbearable but I had to hold strong, there's people counting on me, people that need to be saved. I took a deep breath, feeling the need to end this fight before my body give up.

"Ye'r bonny pure tough, ah will gie ye that..." I drew my bow and aimed at him, using my last strenghts. "Bit ye'r facing a Dunbroch. Ye'r destined tae lose."

Aed laughed, "That's the spirit! You people never cease to impress me." He raised his spear and aimed at me, "May the best warrior win..."

"Ah plan tae."

We stood in front each other for about thirty feet away. The wind is blowing from North to West, both my hands are full so I couldn't calculate the speed of the wind, so I had to trust it. Shoulders relaxed, legs aligned with the target... I took a deep breath.

For only a second, my whole life replayed in my mind. My love for archery as a child, shooting for my own hand, cursing my mom... I wonder what she would say seeing me like this, with not lady-like clothes, tattoos covering my arms and back, fighting for my life against a being so powerful capable of unthinkable destruction. She would probably have a heart-attack or faint in my dad's arms. I smiled at this thought because I know deep down in my heart that even if she would not understand at first or maybe never, she would always be there for me...

My arrow was engulfed in blue flames and Aed's spear lit up in hellish red. We both stared down, waiting for any sudden movement.

I was had faith in my abilities, specially with my bow. But now staring at the face of death, I never felt so much the need of hitting my target.

And at the same time, I released my arrow aiming for his head and he throwed his spear at me.

I watched as the blue flamed arrow soared through the battlefield with a deadly intention. Time seemed to slow down, every second took hours, every minute took decades and so on. The tip of my arrow and the blade of his spear made their contact, the steel resounding through the area.

It was only for a moment but I could see Aed's expression turn from a slight grin, indicating his victory, to his eyes widen in shock and his mouth agape when my arrow pierced through his spear, tearing it apart into small fragments and perfectly hit him between his eyes. He had fought well, but he had suffered great damage even before I took him on. Frostbite, torn off left forearm, a hole in his right arm and now a arrow on the head. No one could survive that, not even the great warrior that he is.

Aed looked at me, his eyes almost with no life, "You really... are a Dunbroch. But make no mistake... Just because you beat me, that doesn't make you invincible..." He fell on his back to the ground, staring at the darkness of the dome and I swear I could hear him whispering, "My job here is done... Pitch."

And with that, I felt his spirit completely vanish and his body became nothing but ashes that the wind quickly blowed away.

The tattoos on my arms and back stopped shining when I fired the arrow, so naturally now that all of my adrenaline is gone, the pain I felt was so unbearable that fell to the ground with my conscience vanishing and being replaced with nothingness.

Chapter Text

(Jack's POV)

Darkness. Everything around me is darkness.

What happened to me?

Oh, yeah... I was fighting that fire guy with Hiccup. And then... He touched his spear on my stomach, one minute I was standing with my staff aiming at him and the other I was sent flying through buildings, smashing glass panes and concrete walls. And then... I was here.

Looking around, all I saw was pure and untouchable darkness. Just like my time in that lake, I was cold, a once unknown feeling to me but now that was all I can feel.

Am I dead... Again?!

No. I'm not, I can still feel my heart beating and air coming in and out of my nose. So where the hell am I?

"It's weird, right?" A voice came from behind me.

Turning around, standing now in front of me... Ok, who is he? I looked at him up and down, he was familiar in a sense that I couldn't understand. White hair, blue skin, grey eyes, wearing a blue and white clothing and carrying... my staff.

"Give that back." I reached my hand to get staff, only for him to hold wrist. "Hey, what the he-"

"Jack, listen to me. And listen carefully." I stopped struggling, feeling his hold weakened, releasing my hand. "Whatever you do... Do not let Pitch fight you, because he will kill you."

"What? No. I can take him, I already did it once."

"Perhaps, but now it's different. Please, promise that you will never let him get to you."

"Okay, who the hell are you anyway? Where are we? Why are you with my staff? Which, by the way, give it back!"

"Child, listen to me!" I looked down to see a small layer of frost gather around his feet, "I don't have much time. Go after Ombric and get him out of here."

"Wait, what do you me-"

I opened eyes, sweating and huffing. Looking around, I realized that I'm against a wall in somekind of comercial center in Manhattan. I looked down to see the consequence of fighting that fire guy (What was his name again? Aed? Aether? Yeah, something like that), my hoodie with hole and with burn marks around it but my stomach was still intact, thanks to a thick layer of ice that must've protected me from that explosion.

I raise from the ground with my legs trembeling a bit, letting my blood flow through them. I grabbed my staff and tested to see if the Wind was still on my command, a gust of air blowed on my face, lifting my hair.

"Hi to you too, Wind." I took flight, avoiding the debris of the building, reaching the ceiling in no time. Now that I had a better view to the area, I looked to where Hiccup and I where fighting, noticing that was quiet... Way too quiet. Did Hiccup had beat him by himself?

Suddenly, I remembered what that guy said in that dark space. Find Ombric and get him out of here... Was Ombric in danger? No way, he's literally the strongest dude I know, besides North, obviously.

But I couldn't help but to feel the truthful tone coming from that man's lips, like he believed in what he was saying.

Hiccup can handle himself, right? Yeah, he's a big boy.

With that solved, I began to fly around the area trying to find Ombric and tell what that man told me. And now up here, I'm able to see all of the destruction caused by Pitch and his henchmen. Roads with bodies scattered on the ground like trash, burning buildings ready to fall, particles of Nightmare sand flying around, collumns of ice being lifted by the East... Wait, what?

I stopped my tracks and took a good look to what I was seeing. Beautiful ice pillars being lifted from the ground, causing the air to fill with a white mist around them and before I could process, I was already flying towards them.

I landed near one of them and got closer, inspecting the estructure. Crystal blue, smooth, with no dents, it looked like was made by someone that spent years thinking in how to make something so... perfect. A true masterpiece made of ice, something that even I couldn't have made it off the top of my head.

I chuckle, "I know you're there. You know, for someone that look so reserved, you really need to get better on spying people."

I turned around and there she was. Platinum blonde hair on a braid, white dress, icy blue eyes and with a stare that could kill anyone with weak soul.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Well, there's not a lot of people that can control ice so I took a guess."

"Well, we meet again, Frost. I see that you have become stronger."

I flexed my bicep, "Aw, thank you. You are pretty too, you know?"

I saw her cheeks turn pink for a second, "What? That's not what I mean– You know what, forget it. I said that we would meet again... And here we are."

"Not my idea of a first date, but that's fine."

We began to describe a circle, staring intensly at each other.

"By the way, have you seen an old man? 6'3, long beard, moon-shaped glasses?"

"Ombric?"

"The man himself."

"I don't know, but Pitch must have already found him."

"Then I'm sorry, because I really need to find him. So we're going to have to re-schedule this little date for another time."

"I don't think so, Frost. You don't get to live another day."

"Look, lady. I really don't have time for this, so get out of my way or you really are going to get hurt."

The air around us was filled with a weird tension. One wrong movement, one wrong timing could decide the fate of the slower spirit. I took time to see her face properly and I knew that look better than anyone else. Uncertainty, doubt and the most dangerous feeling in the world, fear.

Suddenly, she blasted ice from her hands, on which I came back to my senses and barely dodged, lifting flight and swung my staff, launching snow and frost in her direction. For my surprise, she didn't even tried to dodge, she simply stopped my attack on its way by manipulating my blast and throwing it back at me. I landed and launched another blast at her, on which she stomped the ground, lifting a wall and blocking it.

She dismissed the wall and began running towards me, concetrating ice on her hands so I decided to do the same but instead of using my hands, I concentrated my powers on my staff. When the two forces met in a impact that shattered most of the ice on the road, I felt a jolt of electricity through my body and I suppose she felt it two because the second that my staff met her hands, both of us were launched backwards, falling with our back to the frozen ground.

Just for a moment. That feeling was just for a moment but somehow it felt like an eternity.

I raised from the ground, holding my staff to support me. Looking at the other side of the battlefield, her silhouette had one knee on the ground, like she was catching her breath. As the mist was slowly vanishing, I met her gaze, which was full of doubt and surprise.

"What did you do?" She asked standing up with her legs weakened.

"I could ask you the same."

She didn't hesitated and blasted again, only for me deflect it with my staff. But this time she didn't just decided to strike directly, her hands touched the ground creating a frosted path that followed me wherever I went.

I didn't had much choice but to ascend from the ground. I really don't have time to waste on this fight. Even though I could probably win against her, she was my equivalent, my only poor match-up. Flying around the area, I could feel her blasts inches away from my limbs. Run away would be the best decision, based purely on the fact that Ombric needed to be warned for some reason but

Her blasts were as fast as mine, the only difference being the source where the power came from. Her domain with ice and snow probably outmatched mine. The only real advantage I have against her is my speed, but even so just that wouldn't be enough to beat her so I needed to outsmart her.

As I was flying away and dodging her blasts, suddenly the sound of her attacks were replaced with something getting closer to me. In the corner of my eye, I could see her sliding on a brigde made out of thin air with her magic, matching my speed. Once she was by my side, a blast came out of her hands but she aimed a little ahead of me, hitting me on the side and throwing me to the ground.

During my fall, my staff had been knocked off my hands and it was right above me. I tried to retrieve it, my fingers grasping in its wood but it was too late, my back hit the ground hard and cracked the ice beneath me.

When my eyes met her, she was descending gracefully in her little ice path and with a smirk on her face.

"Show-off."

"Last warning, Frost. Surrender and Pitch might spare you."

I grabbed my staff and raised from the ground, feeling the pain on my back, "I'm not the kind of guy that gives up easy, you know?"

"I've been told. Very well, have it your way." She concentrated her magic on her hands, ready to blast me again.

"Wait, timeout!"

"What?"

"Yeah, yeah. Chill out, alright? Heh, get it?"

"You do realize that I'm about to kill you, right?" She stood her ground and raised her hands, aiming at me.

"It doesn't need to be this way, you know?"

"How so?"

"I can see it in your eyes. You don't want to do this. You don't want to hurt these people."

"You have no idea what I want." She tensed up, maybe I could...

"Maybe not, but you seem like a reasonable person, so why not come to our side?"

"You're more stupid than I thought. Me? Join the Guardians? I would rather die."

"Yeah, I also thought the same. When they recruited me, I didn't wanted to be one of them, but then they showed me what it means to be a Guardian."

"Which is?" She began to lower hands, slowly but still.

"Give this messed up world a chance of hope. And in my case, no matter how much you're scared, always try to have fun."

"Beautiful thought, but the answer is still no."

"Oh, come on. You were having fun just now when we were fighting, didn't you?" A smirk appeared in my face when I saw a little blush in her cheeks.

"I- I have no idea what you're talking about." She raised her hands again. "And besides, this is not about me."

"Then what is it then? Pitch? You know he doesn't care about anyone but himself."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me then. Believe me, I have plenty of experience when it comes to Pit-"

"He promised to bring my sister back."

The silence that fell around us was absolutely deafining. My heart sank when she said that and suddenly I was so aware about everything. My breath coming out of my mouth in icy smoke, my heart beating fast because of the adrenaline, the wind blowing in my face... And the only word that came out of my mouth was, "Oh."

"You're right. I don't want to do any of this. But choice do I have?!"

The ground beneath herwas coated with another layer of ice. She was about to blast me when, yet again, the ground shook in a very intense rate and from the central point of Manhattan, a beam of green light could be seen, so bright that I had to cover my eyes. When the light vanished, I could hear her saying, "It is done..."

Ombric...

Now that she was distracted, I took flight and headed towards where that light was. The way there was weirdly calm. No flying Nightmares, no blasts, and looking back that girl wasn't following me.

I arrived at the scene and my eyes widen to what I was seeing.

North and Bunny with chains made out of black sand around their limbs and... Pitch, holding something that looked like a cube. Getting close enough, I swung my staff, aiming at Pitch and landed near North.

"Well, well, well... Look who decided to show up for the party." Pitch said with the smoke dissipaiting. "It's a pity that you arrived right at the end of it."

"North, what's happening?"

North struggled against the chains, "He got Ombric..."

"What?! How?!"

"He ambushed us, mate." Bunny said, struggling.

"Where the hell is Ombric?!"

Pitch chuckled and showed the cube that he was holding, "Here he is. He was a real threat to my plans, you see? So I simply... Sealed him."

What? Sealed...?

"North, what is he talking about?" My hands gripped my staff harder.

"You heard him, my boy. We lost."

Chapter Text

(30 minutes earlier)

(Ombric's POV)

This was getting ridiculous.

Since our arrival, the waves of Nightmares had only multiplied and it didn't seem to slow down. Nicholas and I gave direct orders to our comrades, to evacuate every single human that survived the Nightmare's attack and locate Pitch if possible, but this was getting too far.

In all my years as a Guardian, this was, by far, the most unnecessary massacre I've ever witnessed. Men and women being mauled in front of their children. Guts and limbs spilled on the ground and Nightmares feasting on their fear, and all because of the deeds of one man. No, after what he's done here, I can no longer classify Pitch as a man... He is nothing but a monster.

When we sealed him for the first time, I had considered getting rid of him permanently but Manny convinced me otherwise. Now I see that I should've acted sooner or maybe warn the others of the possibility of him escaping from his prison. The past may be behind me but now he has returned to reckon with me, all of these deaths, the blood that stains the ground on this night is on my hands. And my way of paying the ones that departed today is finding Pitch and doing what I should have done centuries ago.

As I was walking through the streets, I felt Merida's spirit be engulfed in burning flames and smiled knowing that she had followed my advice but at the same time I worry that she could overload her own soul and body by using that spell, my only option right now is just to trust her judgement. Hiccup's spirit was still very much alive but his body had suffered too much damage, so he was practically out of the fight. Rapunzel was with Toothiana, scouting for survivors and destroying as many Nightmares as they could, so I don't need to worry about them, at least not for now. I left Nicholas and Aster on the streets for them to fight waves of Nightmares that were hunting the remaining humans under the dome.

Now my priority is to find Pitch and put an end to all this madness. But of course, that wouldn't be easy.

Since the dawn of Guardians in this world, mages and wizards always tried to classify and catalog. Spirits, Forces of Nature, Personifications, Semi-Humans, and many other categories that I personally helped to create were used to understand and help to identify what or who are beings that walk beyond human gaze.

But Pitch... was something else.

I never figured it out just what he is supposed to be. He clearly wasn't human, his height, powers and soul didn't allow him to be a Human or Semi-Human. Maybe he could be classified as a Personification of Fear itself but even that was too obvious for someone like him. In our many encounters, my theories about him changed constantly and yet he remained a mystery.

Walking through the ragged streets, I have already slayed at least five-hundred and fifty-five Nightmares, if my math is correct. Closing my eyes, I was able to feel the souls of every single being under the dark dome but one thing in particular called my attention, a distorted soul coming from the underground, probably in the metro station right below my feet.

My way to the underground was simple and short, of course there were Nightmares in the way but I quickly destroyed them with a simple snap of my fingers, causing them to be covered with fire and crying in pain until they were reduced to ashes on the ground. Going down on the stopped escalator, I noticed a trail of black sand, as if the grains were guiding me.

It's a trap, I quickly thought but I was too determined to put an end to whatever Pitch's plans were, so I kept on my way to the metro.

Arriving there, I realized what was making that disturbance. Nightmares. Thousands of them, on the platform like they were waiting for a train that led to destruction and chaos. Taking notice of my presence, they looked at me with their shining yellow eyes and a murderous intent.

"Would you kindly take me to your master?" They charged at me the second that I stopped talking.

They began to circle around me, surrounding me in a small tornado, that with a simple snap of my finger was repelled, causing the Nightmares to assume their equestrians forms and come at me one by one.

The first couple of them were easy to deal with. A punch to their nostrils would seal the deal on an amazing speed. But I quickly realized that this was going to be way more complicated than I thought, because the more I destroyed, more of them would show up ready to take my life. It started with one, that became two, that became four, eight, sixteen and so on.

In normal circumstances, I would be able to completely annihilate them with a wave of my hand, but something about this situation made me use my powers to the maximum.

Fighting with the Nightmares through the metro station left a toll on me. On one hand, most of the Nightmares were destroyed but on the other hand they kept coming back stronger than before. When I thought the fight was over, the dark creatures that were reduced to black sand united to create one gigantic Nightmare, so tall that it reached the ceiling and charged at me on a rampage but I simply teleported past him, causing it to fall on the rails where in normal days trains would pass by.

While it was recovering from the fall, I looked at it, considering my options. Simple punches and kicks wouldn't be able to cause damage to it, nor simple spells, so I decided to take this fight seriously. The giant Nightmare got back to the platform, staring at me with its glowing yellow eyes and charged at me again, maybe expecting to actually hit me this time, but it didn't realize that he wasn't facing a normal opponent. He was facing me.

When he began to charge at me, I quickly summoned my staff and closed my eyes, concentrating and preparing. Now that it was close enough, I gently whispered, "Tempus Constare..."

When I opened my eyes, the Nightmare had stopped on his tracks but his body was still in the position of motion with its hooves. I got out of the way of its charge and stood by his side, waiting for five seconds.

Time is a very sensitive thing. A simple interference can cause permanent damage to a being. In this case, to the Nightmare.

I looked over to a clock that was hanging in a wall next to me. 23:58:59. My staff touched the ground and the pointers turned to 23:59.

The Nightmare that was stuck in the little time span that I had cast upon him, not being capable of processing that time had passed, simply fell to the ground for its minuscule brain couldn't handle all of the information that had been presented in the five seconds where time wasn't applied to it.

But my spell doesn't work like that. If you stop time in one place, you must stop everywhere else, after all time and space are intertwined and that fact applies to everything. So restraining its reach took an unbelievable amount of effort and power from me. My breath became heavier as I knelt to the floor.

Now that I think about it, maybe using my powers was a mistake, because now even having one just one-shot against Pitch, I risked losing to him. But nevertheless I wasn't the only powerful Guardian in the area, I had five other options in case I lose. After cathching my breath, I raise from the floor and headed to the stairs on the other side of the platform.

While I made my way there, one question remained in my mind and it was something that had been bothering me since this whole situation started: Where is Pitch?

Could he been watching us from a safe distance for him? Or is he actively aiding his minions on the chaos caused in this district?

Maybe he is waiting. Waiting like a predator wacthing his prey drink in a nearby pond with drool dripping from its mouth. Feasting on the fear and death of the innocent people under the dome.

Reaching the stairs, I had made mind. I have to regroup with the other Guardians and locate Pitch as fast as pos–

"Dad?"

Just for a second. My heart stopped just for a second hearing that voice. My right foot was on the first step on the stair when I looked back to see if that voice was coming from who I thought it was. Yes, it was.

"Katherine..."

For a moment, lips began to form a smile. It was just for a moment, until I realize that something was wrong.

What is she doing here? She' supposed to be in Santoff Clausen.

Why did she has a smile on her face? Nothing about what's happening here is worth to smile.

But everything... Every single sense in my body is telling me that is indeed her. Even her soul looks the same. So is it really her?

"Daughther mine, what are y–"

"Six-points... Open." A voice came from behind me.

I recgonize that voice anywhere. Pitch...

I tried to turn to face him but my hands and feet were wrapped around in light-blue chains, causing me to fall in my knees and let out a hiss because of how tight the chains were. I tried to set myself free but... I couldn't sense an ounce of magic flowing through my body.

Suddenly, I heard an uncontrolable laughter coming from "Katherine". Looking at her, she was pulling her face off, like some kind of mask made of flesh and blood, purple hair replaced what was an auburn hair and what it was before a kind and warm face was replaced with a wicked grin and laughter. Eris...

"Wow, Pitch, you aren't kidding! This old man is more predictable than I imagined!" She kept laughing and ripping the skin she was wearing.

"Oh, love. It's the biggest weakness of a father." Pitch said standing in front of me. "Hello, old friend. It's been quite a while since our last meeting, doesn't it?"

"Pitch. It has been, indeed. So... What's your plan now? Kill me?"

He let out a scoff and giggled. "No, no, no. You got it all wrong, old friend. Why would I kill someone so crucial to my plans? I will simply return what you did to me five hundred years ago."

"You know I'll be back, right? And when I do, you better pray that I don't find you fast enough."

"Oh, my friend." He approached me and whispered in my ear, "I count you will find me..."

"So what are you waiting for? Do it, my kness are getting tired."

"Very well then. Goodbye, Ombric, I will see you in a new world. Six-Point, close."

The chains that wrapped my arms and feet now wrapped my whole body, letting only my eyes and nose free.

Well, I really made some mistakes and miscalculations until now. But I don't feel absolutely no fear right now, even though I should. Why?

Because I trust on my students...