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What Is Your Center?	By : LuciferDragon Category: +M through R > Rise of the Guardians Views: 1676 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Rise of the Guardians world, and I make no profit at all from this fiction.

Chapter List
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“Lucifer? The Lucifer?” Jack paced in front of Tooth and I as she helped clean and heal my wound.
I hissed as she ran a salve over my stomach. “Jack, stop pacing,” I said through clenched teeth. “You’re making me nervous.”
“But it’s Lucifer. How is that even possible?” He looked in the direction of North and the others as they attempted to locate more information through the old books North kept in his library. They crowed around a massive table on the next floor of North’s workshop, deep in discussion as they pooled over the books and loose papers.
I shook my head, flinching as the sting slowly abated while Tooth bound the wound. “He was a creature created to put fear into all sinners. He would exist just as we would.” I propped myself up on the lounge, sucking in a sharp breath as the wound twitched. I hadn’t realized at the time how deep the graze had actually been.
“But what does he want?” Tooth asked, her small trio of fairies squeaking in unison.
“Probably… what a few of us want.” I cast my gaze to the others, watching Pitch cooperating for once, his face in set concentration as he talked with the others. “To be remembered.”
“Kinda hard to forget someone like Lucifer, Hana,” Jack said, still pacing. “There is no other being more feared than him.”
“Was,” I corrected, still feeling uneasy at his strides. “Think over a century ago and beyond. He was the ultimate form of sin, of bad things in the Christian ways. If you did not follow the path of God, you would be punished by Lucifer, or worse. Look around, Jack. It was only until recently that humans started to question the scriptures and, well, you know what happens when people stop believing in you.”
“But killing people to announce you’ve grown enough to strike?”
I stood with a grimace, trying to not notice the bloody hole in my sweater. I had a change on the lounge next to me that North’s wife had picked up for me once I had the chance to get to it. “It is the Devil we’re talking about.” I jumped as a loud bang sounded from the large table upstairs. I looked up to see Pitch glaring at North.
“I’d very well appreciate it if you would stop insinuating I had anything to do with this, North!”
“Who else would have hand in something like this?” North shouted back, stabbing one of his swords into the table.
“I didn’t need anyone’s help to do what I did in the past; why would someone like him?”
“We let you live, we allowed you to keep regaining your believers only because something held you in check.” He pointed a threatening finger to him. “Look what happens not a year later!”
“North!” Bunny stood between them as Pitch stood up straight. Even from where I stood I saw his spine grow ridged. Sandy frantically signed with his sand between them.
I approached the small staircase, gripping the railing tight each time I felt the wound sting. “What have you figured out?”
I watched Pitch relax minutely, turning only his eyes to the scattered pages as he sifted through them. “Not much. Only what we’ve known all along, from what was written in the scriptures.”
“That he was a fallen angel, cast out for wanting things to change,” Bunny agreed, tapping a particular page. “He’s been used as an icon to terrify anyone into living a life free of sin.”
“For longest time, he was being feared more than Pitch.” North gestured to the man in question.
He ignored it. “He would judge the souls of the dead and torment them, corrupting them into demons. To make sure he would get his souls, he would deliver temptations to the humans. Being only human, they would give in easily, giving Lucifer his quota.” He glared at North again. “However I don’t know why he is striking back now after all these years.”
“Why did you strike when you did?” Bunny asked.
I could see Pitch fighting against his anger. He was fighting something else as well. I saw him meet my eyes for only a moment before turning them away, curling his lip. “It was a calculated decision to strike when I did. I had perfected my Nightmares, my strongest weapon against your light. I saw no chance of failure when I did. There are always snags in the most well thought plans, it would seem.”
“So then he’s thought this through,” I offered, sifting through some of the discarded pages. “He thinks he has little to no disadvantage.”
“He doesn’t. But we don’t have help this time,” Bunny said. “He’s threatening more than their memories, their hopes and dreams.” He looked down at the papers. “This isn’t about wanting to be remembered. This is about being a symbol of something beyond what we are. A symbol of death, of corruption.”
I glanced out the large window, looking at the sun reflecting off the snow. “How do we stop him?”
“We don’t know. This is a very powerful being,” Bunny said as the others returned to the pages. “At least he was when he was more than just a threat that a person will burn for eternity. If he can invoke enough people into fearing his name…”
I nodded. He didn’t have to say it. We all knew the utmost consequences if Lucifer was allowed to regain his standing. They were right to fear him. When Pitch attempted to regain his old life, he did so by manipulating the Dreamsand, and they were lucky it was only that.
But, the goal had only been to leave the world in darkness, to smother it with terror so thick he would become the most powerful creature around once again, and the plan was formulated in his unstable state of mind. This man, this demon, wanted the sinners to pay with their lives. So far, he had not targeted children. He couldn’t touch them. Children are innocent until a certain age. The death of an innocent was not his call, and he would not get their soul.
“We should rest while we can,” North said, taking his sword from the table and replacing it in its scabbard. He cast his gaze to me. “You can stay below in workshop. There is quiet room near office you can use.”
“I can go home—“
“Not with gash in stomach. Ride home would only irritate and reopen it.”
I couldn’t fight the logic as the others were led to the tunnels leading into the village to rest close-by. I memorized the directions given to me and I took to the stairs while they left. I couldn’t hide a flinch as the wound was jostled. I started seeing double and gripped the railing tight.
I felt a strong hand hold on to my arm. “Easy. You should have waited.”
“I thought you would have gone home.”
“Because I would have left you here, wounded and alone, in the Pole.” Pitch scoffed at the idea and rolled his pale eyes. “He’s telling the truth though; your injury needs the day to heal.”
“I-I’m fine, Oogie. Really.”
“You’ve never been a talented liar.” He helped me the rest of the way to the spare room, taking care not to aggravate the gash. It would continue to close up as I slept, but moving around was not helping.
“Do you trust them?”
He opened the door to the spare room and led me inside. “Not at all.” I sat on the bed as he moved to close the heavy red curtain over the window. “However, this is not something we’re used to. This is a being that doesn’t care who you are, human or otherwise. So long as you are guilty of sin, he will come for your soul. In this case, we are all threatened.”
I stood for only a moment draw back the blankets. I kicked off my boots and stared at the ground, thoughts floating around in my head as I felt the bed dip behind me and his weight pressed into my back. “I’m not… I’m not evil, am I?”
He laughed into the skin of my neck. “No, you don’t have it in you to be completely evil. Ninety percent, I’d say.”
I wasn’t sure if I should have been flattered or insulted. I was too exhausted, in too much discomfort to argue it.
“Don’t fight was is in your nature. It will do no good to you in the long run. Accept what has been dealt to you.” His voice went quiet. “Or you’ll go mad trying to remember who you are.”
I nodded and gingerly pulled the ruined sweater over my head. I’d have to remember to ask him in the morning to fetch the one still upstairs. I laid down and pulled the blankets over my frame and relished the instant warmth. A moment after he slipped in behind me after he pulled off his coat. I felt his bare skin run over what I had exposed. “If I’m not evil, what am I? A good person does not feel pleasure when terrifying others. A good person doesn’t convert someone’s dreams into nightmares.”
He was silent for a moment, as if choosing his words carefully. He ran a hand over my arm. “You are not a good person, nor are you evil. Your center prevents you from slipping too far into the darkness.”
I hadn’t even thought of my center. The ability to see beauty in everything.
“Don’t let the demons of the past eat you alive.”
“As you allow them to do to you?”
He went silent for a moment, his hand motionless. “You have different demons than I. I know how to deal with them, how to keep them at bay.”
I rolled my eyes, knowing he’d be unable to see. “Then why is it I see you staring at that locket when you believe I’m asleep?”
I felt him stiffen behind me. “Leave it alone.”
The sharp tone of his voice made me follow that order. I fell silent, listening to the crackling of the fire burning in a small pit in the far corner of the room. If he had something to protect so strongly, it wasn’t my place to pry. There were other more pressing matters at hand to worry about.
As I felt myself drifting off, he broke the silence. “My daughter.”
That immediately got my attention as my blood ran cold. I turned to look at him, wound be damned. “Your… You have a daughter?” Which meant he very well possibly had a wife.
“Had a daughter. Before…” He shook his head and sat up, staring at the fire. “The locket is all I have left.” He laughed a bit. “Material-wise, anyway.”
I sat up with him and accepted his invitation to lay against the crook of his shoulder. “Tell me about her.”
He shook his head. “You were injured; you need to sleep.”
“There is plenty of time for me to sleep yet.”
He sighed but gave me a tired smile. “You’ve spent too much time with me. You’re becoming stubborn as ever.” Despite his words, he ended up caving, telling me stories well into the morning. Stories I dare not repeat. Some memories are to be kept precious.
When he was like this, I could almost forget the horrible deeds he had done, that he was a creature to be feared. I could let myself see the rare times he wasn’t surrounded in an aura of darkness. I alone could see him come undone and be there to help him find himself. And he was the only one capable of doing the same for me. I don’t know how it worked, but it did. I was glad we had made amends. I don’t think I could have faced what was out there if we were still not speaking.
I’m not sure when we slipped into sleep. One minute I was listening to his stories, and the next we were being startled awake by a heavy knock on the door.
It was time to work.
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What Is Your Center?