A/N: I'm so hungry right now. Just thought I'd put that out there.

*clears throat* Any who...

Said person started to wake and we all scrambled to get a look. I almost tripped over my own feet, but Josh steadied me by grabbing the crook of my elbow.

I thanked him while we crowded around the bed. Whoever it was, they were very dirty. Their face looked as if someone drew all over their fave with coal. I couldn't tell if it was a girl or a guy.

Their eyes blinked open slowly and then opened completely.

The only thing was, they were red. They darted around taking in their surroundings before the red was replaced by a beautiful blue color.

Josh disappeared and reappeared with some water as the person began to sit up.

Their hand reached out for the glass and they brought it to their lips for a big gulp. They gulped it until the water was completely gone.

Josh took the glass back to sit it down and we waited expectantly.

"Where am I?" Their voice was feminine.

"It's a sheila," Bunny said, surprised.

Josh and Felix checked her hands, eyes, and teeth while bombarding her with questions.

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

"How long ago were you taken?"

"What's your name?"

"Are you experiencing any pain?"

"Do you know who ate my pie?"

Everyone stared at me.

"What?" I shrugged.

She looked around nervously and sniffed.

"Everyone back up, give her some space,"Santa instructed.

We all took a centimeter step back and waited.

"I don't-" she cleared her throat."I don't remember...much of anything."

"Well what do you remember?" Santa asked softly.

She rubbed at her head and looked off to the side."My...name. It's... Tay...lor. My name is Taylor."

"Nice to meet you Taylor,"he held his hand out for her to shake."I'm Nick. Or you could call me Santa Claus."

Her eyes widened and hesitantly shook his hand.

"San...ta. The actual sleigh riding jolly fat...man."

"Fat?!" He balked.

We all snickered and laughed.

"I've lost weight," he rubbed at his stomach and continued."Thanks to my elves right here." His hand motioned to us.

"We couldn't take it anymore. When the missus called us to go and eat we had to roll him into the kitchen." I had to hold my hand up to keep myself from laughing.

Addy lightly smacked Carlos on his shoulder to get his attention."What did you say to him when he wanted a cookie before dinner?"

He chuckled."I remember that." He cleared his throat to try and repeat the exact way he said it that day.

"No, Diabeto. Roll into the kitchen."

We roared and howled with laughter and Taylor joined in.

"Now we eat the cookies instead of him. Josh by the way." He held out his hand for her to shake. She took it, then took the rest of ours as we introduced ourselves.

"I'm Nia."

"Addy."

"Felix."

"And I'm Carlos."

"Nice to meet you all." She smiled and looked to the other side of the bed.

The Guardians smiled at her and her smile dropped.

"The giant kangaroo scares me," she whispered to us.

Uh oh.

Jack guffawed and nearly toppled over had it not been for his staff.

Sandman inconspicuously slid his cloud behind Santa, while Toothiana eased back with her little fairies following.

"I'm not a kangaroo, sheila." Bunny had his eyes narrowed as he spoke.

Taylor grew bold and narrowed her eyes back.

"If you're not a kangaroo, then what are you?"

Jack was leaning against his staff with a smug grin plastered on his face.

They were in each other's faces now.

"I'm a bunny. The Easter Bunny."

Jack looked around with a smile trying to see our reactions. He told us this exact same thing happened to him when he met Bunnymund.

Santa eased in between the two to break them up."Easy there."

"You're the Easter Bunny with an Australian accent. Nice." She sounded so sarcastic.

"I like this chick." I pointed at her and grinned.

Jack saddled up to her and vigorously shook her hand."I can tell we're gonna get along perfectly."

Taylor just stared up at him with her brows furrowed."Who are you?"

Jack stopped shaking and Bunny pushed his shoulder and cocked his head back and howled in laughter.

Frost took his hand away slowly and said oh so sadly,"I'm Jack Frost."

"Really?!" She almost jumped out if her bed."Nibble at your nose Jack Frost?"

His eyes glowed with pride."Yep, that's me."

"Cool. We're gonna get along just fine." She smiled and gazed at the other two Guardians.

Toothiana flew up to her so fast she had to rear back."Hi! I'm Toothiana the Tooth Fairy," came her chipper voice. She went straight for Taylor's mouth and looked around.

"I'm so glad your teeth aren't sharp anymore, because I don't think I could've handled it any longer. And your teeth are so pearly and wh-"

Jack cut her off before she could ramble anymore."Okay Tooth. I think you're scaring the poor girl."

Tooth reluctantly removed her hands with a nervous smile."Heh. Sorry about that. I'm the Tooth Fairy. I already told you that. Did I tell you that? I told you that. Didn't..." She laughed nervously again and cleared her throat."These are my fairy helpers."

They flew around Taylor inspecting her face and lifting her hands. She giggled and said."Its a pleasure to meet you."

"And last, but not least..." Santa turned to look behind him.

Sandman floated out from behind Santa and perched himself in front of Taylor.

He used his dream sand to spell out hello in an arc.

"Let me guess. The Sandman?"

He eagerly bobbed his head up and down and made little sand butterflies fly all around her.

She gasped and gazed in awe. When they disappeared back into his cloud she said,"Nice to meet you." She stared at all of us."All of you."

Rosko barked and I went to pick him up."Can't forget Rosko." He jumped out of my arms and into Taylor's lap to lick at her face.

She squealed and pet his head."Hi Rosko."

"Now that we've all introduced our selves,"said Santa."I think it's best if you took a shower and get some clean clothes."

"I'll grab some." Addy ran off, probably to her room, to grab some clothes.

"I'll show her to the shower." She was getting off the bed when Santa spoke to me.

"You need to rest, Nia."

"But-"

"I'll show her to the shower," Carlos wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Santa paused a beat."Nia show her the shower."

《<•○●○•>》

Taylor was showered and with clean clothes sitting on her bed with me on the other end and an abundance of food in between.

With her being showered, you could see her brunette hair and pale complexion making her blue eyes pop. Josh provided her with a bandage for the back if her kneck. It was still sore and she couldn't remember how long those lights were in it.

Dasher was tired of resting too. He was moved to the stalls so he could join the rest of the reindeer.

Everyone else had chairs pulled up by the bed pilfering our food with their sticky fingers when they had the chance.

We both didn't want to rest and argued them down until they agreed to just let us eat. The Guardians were off with the missus and the other elves. Before Santa left, Josh had to give him a shot, seeing as I scratched through his clothes in my evil state. Him and Felix made more to send to the other Guardians in case they needed it.

I was munching on barbecued meatballs, my favorite, while Taylor ate a mixture of cheese cubes, peanuts, and cranberries.

"So we're on a totally different planet?" She asked us.

"Yep. An entire planet surrounded in ice and snow." I forked up two more meatballs and stuffed them in my mouth.

She picked up another cheese cube."Are there any animals here? Stores? Houses? Other people?"

Addy answered her first question."We have reindeer, obviously," she started ticking more animals off her fingers."Arctic wolves, Polar bears, walruses, seals, oxen, moose...orcas, snowy owls-"

"And Narwhals," Carlos finished.

"Wow."

"And to answer your second question: Everything around here is connected in some way. Houses, stores, playrooms, the theater. They're all linked together." Josh answered.

"As for the people, chica," Carlos snatched one of my meatballs and I tries to stab his hand with my fork. He popped it into his mouth with a smirk and chewed."We are the people. There's no one here, but Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the rest of the elves."

Rosko barked from his doggy bed on the floor. He had a bowl of that wolf chow we saw on a TV commercial sitting in front of him.

"And Rosko," Carlos added.

"Cool. So how does the getting back and forth from Earth work?"

"Ee av a ortal," I tried to speak around Nutella covered pretzels in my mouth. It didn't work out.

"I think she's trying to say we have a portal," Felix spoke up for me. He grinned and too a bite out of his cronut.

Taylor nibbled on a piece of chesse and blushed."A p-portal huh?"

"Yeah. They use it to get back and forth from Earth."

"They? You must don't leave often?"

"N-not really. I like to stay here."

She picked up some peanuts and cranberries."Oh."

Silence fell over us as we ate our food.
"Any more questions?" Carlos had slung some popcorn at me and when I slung it back, he caught a few in his mouth.

I rolled my eyes and waited for her question.

She looked scared to ask. She was wringing her hands together and biting her bottom lip.

"Can I come with you when you go back? I know you're going back and I want to help,"she rushed out.

"I don't-"

"Please."

"You gotta-" A very unladylike burp escaped my mouth. Carlos burst out laughing at my expense."Excuse me. You gotta ask the big guy. He'll probably say no, but he can be easily persuaded."

"Speak of the devil, there he is."

Addy was right. Santa waltzed into the infirmary dressed to impress.

"You look warm. Is it time for me to pick bones yet?"

"About that time. I want you all to bundle up, its cold out. Taylor I want you to stay here and rest up."

We stared at her and nudged our chins at Santa.

"About that..." She scratched at her head.

Santa came up to us."What is it?"

She glanced at us before we gave her encouraging nods."Can I go with you?"

"No. You need to stay here and recover. I don't want you going back to that place." His concern for her well-being had her smiling.

"I appreciate your concern, but I need to go back. I remember there being five others like me and I have to get them back. I think they were my friends."

Santa still hasn't given her an answer yet.

"Please." She gave him puppy dig eyes.

He's gonna crack. He's gonna craaaaack.

He sighed."Fine. But, you have to stay close to one of them at all times."

"Yeah, girl. We got yo back." I ate the last meatball while Santa finished talking.

"Good. Clean up when you're through and get ready. As soon as you're done we'll be ready to leave."

I solluted him."Aye, sir!"

He shook his head while smiling and left.

I immediately turned to Josh."Do you think you could put that serum into a bullet?"

"Yeah," he drawled."Why?"

"Well were gonna need'em. We can't just go up and start stabbing people with syringes all willy nilly. They won't let us get that close without a fight. But, if we had bullets with the serum. We could shoot them from afar. And then we could make the bullets so all they have to do is penetrate the skin and inject the serum."

"Then I think we should get to work then."

And we got to work. We cleaned up like Santa asked and started making the bullets, while Josh and Felix made more of the serum.

Once we were done with that we prepped more weapons and bundled up. Not too bundled up though. If we were too bundled up, we wouldn't be able to fight.

Some of the elves were prepping teleporters to transport presents throughout the world. As soon as midnight struck, presents would go flying.

Since it was Christmas Eve, Santa's powers increased tenfold. I knew this was a fight we weren't going to lose.

Mrs. Claus stood at the sleigh to see us off. She checked all our clothes to see if we were warm and covered.

"I don't want any of you to catch cold." She pushed Carlos's skull cap further down so it would cover his ears.

She adjusted Addy's scarf and put earmuffs on Josh because nothing could fit over his head.

When she came up to me she saw my fingerless gloves and reprimanded for them.

"Nia, sweetheart, there's no point in wearing these if they don't cover your fingers."

"But I need to be able to shoot right and I can't do that with whole gloves."

"I don't want your tips to catch frostbite."

"I wouldn't let that happen," Jack spoke from the sleigh.

"See, I'll be fine," She adjusted my jacket and zipped the zipper all the way up.

"But-"

"Mom I'll be fine. I promise." Rosko barked from my bookbag and I smiled.

She sighed."Okay dear." She pushed my hood up and squeezed my cheeks.

Then she proceeded to kiss us all on our foreheads. Taylor was surprised when she got a kiss too. She made her way up to Santa to give him a peck on the lips and we loaded up the sleigh.

"You all come back safe now."

"We will!" We said.

The portal opened and Santa took the reigns.

"Oh, and Nia!" I peeked out the side of the sleigh."I got you that pie you like! You can have some when you all get back!"

"Thanks! Love you!" She blew me a kiss and we were off.

The trip through the portal was a quick one. Bunnymund acted scared for a split second before breathing out a breath of relief.

We landed on a bank of snow and took in our surroundings. It was...depressing. The sky was grey and clouds covered its entirety.

There was dark water further away and a couple of penguins were out.

This was our first time being outside on South Pole Planet. My first impression was not a good one. It just looked too depressing.

"Where's the factory?" I asked. Everyone filed out of the sleigh, their shoes crunching in the snow.

Santa came to stand beside me."I'm not sure. I was thinking South Pole Planet and this is where it took us."

"What's that?" Taylor asked.

Out in the distance we could see what looked to be a house.

"Let's check it out. Everyone back in the sleigh."

We didn't fly through the air. This time we let the reindeer lead us on the ground.

It was a house that we saw. More like a cabin but still. We were a good ways away from the house. I could see a splotch of red and I had a feeling what that red splotch was.

We unloaded the sleigh and let the reindeer loose.

"Let's go."

When we were close enough to the cabin we could see Claude in a rocking chair nursing his candy cane shotgun on his lap.

"Took you long enough brother."

"Call your Dark Elves off and release my children." Santa didn't beat around the bush."Or suffer the consequences."

"Ooh I'm shaking in my boots." He rocked back and forth."Hmm, I'll think about it."

"I'm not here to play games." He was getting irritated.

"Neither am I. The person I need for my plans isn't even here."

"Tough. Now call off your dogs!"

"Dogs? They're meaningless toys brother. You know how much I love animals." A sick grin broke out on his face.

I could feel Rosko wiggling around in my bookbag and contemplated taking him out.

"Where are the other five people that were like me?" Taylor asked him.

His cold red eyes landed on her."Five? Oh no my dear. There are more than five. Plenty more."

Santa grinded his teeth."Enough of this! What were your plans?!"

He stopped rocking."My plans brother dearest, were to use Father Time's hourglass to back in time to the day you were born. Kill you before any of this happened!" He waved his arms around frantically.

"Christmas, presents, snow, Santy Claus!" He spat."Makes me sick."

"Why'd you send those Dark Elves to Buffalo, New York?" Josh asked suddenly.

His eyes landed on him."I spun a globe and wherever my finger landed that's where I sent them. And I was craving Buffalo wings at that moment so I thought, why not?"

"What'd you use to change those elves? Where'd you get humans from? And what are you planning to do now?" I shot off my questions in quick succession.

"Talkative bunch you've got here. I used my blood of course. And the humans came from Earth of course. I have a portal, too. Granted it works once in a blue moon, but when it did I took advantage. Took kids from off the street, orphanages, foster homes. Did little experiments on them until I got it right on six kids. They were perfect. I needed more kids and I got more kids. But no matter. My plans are shot and right now I just want to ruin Christmas and kill you all."

The door suddenly opened and out poured the Bad Guardians. They stood beside each other and glared at us. Claude stood and hobbled to stand in the middle of them.

I recognized all but one. One that I thought in no way existed.

I pointed and asked,"How is he even possible? He's not even real."

The answer I got was,"A child's imagination is a powerful thing."

The Slenderman was real. His lanky long body and no facial features were giving me the creeps. Then another Bad Guardian caught my eye.

"What about you old man? Aren't you suppose to be on our side?"

Old Man Winter was a good guy wasn't he? I mean he was cranky sometimes, but to turn to the dark side?

"Claude brought my attention to something."

"Which was?" Jack asked.

"You forgot my birthday!" He bellowed in that that old authoritive voice.

Oops. When was December 21? Wednesday? What happened Wednesday? The day we were stranded in New York!

"Of course we did! Because of his ass!" I know that ain't the only reason he joined. It can't be.

"Language Nia."

"Still forgot," he said stubbornly.

"You have got to be kidding me," Jack deadpanned.

Rosko was still squirming around and I began taking off my book bag.

"You know of my fascination with animals brother. Let's see how you fare against my favorites. You have reindeer and my choices are limited so I couldn't be picky." With a wave of his hands, giant emperor penguins waddled from behind the cabin and lined up in front of the reindeer.

"Meet Slasher, Casper, Pugsley, Vlad, Carrie, Stupid, Gonner, Bates, and Rodolphus."

The reindeer snuffed at them and bared their teeth.

"And now the finale." He whistled and carbon copies of what Taylor looked like poured out and so did the Dark Elves.

These were the rest of Santa's elves. He made them evil.

"I figured you come for fight so I brought the fight to you."

We were severely outnumbered and risked the chance of hurting our friends, but we had a plan. And boy was it on.

As soon as Rosko stopped wiggling around.

I put my book bag on the ground and flipped the flap up. Rosko rolled out and started writhing in the snow.

"Rosko? What's the matter?!" If this was Claude's doing I was going to do more than pick bones.

My worrying was cut short by the sight of Rosko growing. He wasn't small anymore. Far from it. He stood at my height and was at least seven feet in length.

I slung my bookbag back on and saw Rosko shake his fur before he had his sights set on Claude. He growled and stood in a predatory stance.

"That's new," he said.

Suddenly a shot rang out and one of the Humanoid Dark Elves fell to the ground in a heap. A dart sticking out of their chest.

Felix stayed behind in the sleigh to be our sniper. Santa said he had good aim and we took his word for it.

That signalled the beginning of our battle.

Reindeer charged penguins. Both pairs of Guardians went for each other. Elf against elf.

Rosko charged toward D.E.'s like paper, ripping them to shreds.

We each had special guns for the Humanoid Elves and decided to get them out of harms way first.

Taylor stayed close shooting as many as she could. She missed her mark a few times, but for the most part she got them.

Addy lassoed D.E.'s that got in her way, Josh speared his, Carlos had his Ak in his hand firing off shots, and Felix was still dropping the H.D.E.'s like rocks.

I heard Taylor scream from somewhere behind me and saw D.E.'s crowding her. Thinking she didn't want to waste the serum bullets I came to her aid. I shot each one in their little heads until an H.D.E. caught me off guard and blindsided me.

We both fell to the ground and I turned on my back to get a shot off, but they kicked my gun out of my hand. Right when they were about to pounce a dart hit their chest and they fell to the ground.

Josh yelled out,"Switch!" We put up our serum guns and replaced them with our regular weapons.

"Jack, now!" I yelled.

I'm the midst of his battle with the old man, he froze him in a giant snowman before coming to help us start phase two.

He waved his staff close to the ground and like magic all the H.D.E.s slid on top of the snow toward Felix, who was waiting with an open portal. The second they portaled through Jack went back to a now furious old man and we opened fire on the remaining D.E.'s until there were none left.

Our small victory was short lived because the sudden cawing had us eyeing the sky.

A flock of skuas were heading right for us. We aimed our guns to the sky and shot down as many birds as we could. Some swooped down on us and I realized they didn't have webbed feet like they were suppose to.

They had talons, and they were quick to dodge our bullets. Addy's lasso proved to be useless as did Josh's spear, and they quickly switched to their guns. They got a couple of good scratches in before we picked them off.

"Everybody good?" Josh breathed.

We nodded our heads as we caught our breaths.

"Come on, let's go help them." Each Guardian was holding their own the reindeer and penguins were still at it. Rosko was helping Toothiana with the Grinch and we had our weapons out ready to help.

Until Claude yelled out,"Release the Krampus!"

We stopped in our tracks and raised our guns. A horned figure came barreling out of the cabin swinging a chain.

We fired, but our bullets bounced off and ricocheted back at us. It whipped it's chain at us so hard we all flew back a good twenty feet.

I turned on my side and threw up a good amount of those meatballs I ate earlier. That's how hard my stomach was hit.

My knees were weak as I stood. My eyes locked on Addy fighting it with her lasso as Josh tried to spear it. Carlos was throwing knives to the best of his ability.

I spied Taylor still on the ground and ran over to kneel beside her. I shook her shoulder.

"Taylor? Taylor!" She groaned in pain and I sighed in relief.

This inhumane screech filled the air suddenly, making my hairs stand on end.

I peered out at where the sound came from and there he was. Standing against the sky. A giant white ape that let out another screech that left my skin crawling.

Enter the Abominable Snowman.

A/N: I so tied😩😩

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