"Sooo..." Everyone in the room winced, and looked at Johnny. "I'm guessing it didn't go well?"

"You could say that," Tooth sighed.

"The summoning didn't work, the banishing didn't work, the Wanderer took away Vera's ability to fly, and got away unscathed," Jack S. summed up. "It was about as unsuccessful as it could get."

Johnny grimaced, and looked down at his lap. "Oh." I felt a prick of sympathy for his now dead cheery mood.

"So what's the plan now?" Frank asked. "If he can't be taken out by your spells then... what can we do?"

"We reevaluate the situation," I said resolutely. "No one is invulnerable; there has to be some way to destroy him. We just need to figure something out."

"What are you suggesting?" Wayne asked. "Do our research on a guy that no-one knows exists?"

I shook my head. "No. For now, all you guys need to do is mentally and physically ready yourselves. Rest up, get ready to fight, and do whatever it is you need to do to prepare yourself for a battle. We're not going to go looking for him anymore. We're going to make him come to us, and only I need to worry about that."

Heavy silence followed, and I knew what I had just said was alarming, but they hadn't seen the Wanderer; I had. They hadn't experienced the suffocating fear, and the boundless power. This wasn't something we could dilly-dally on. It needed to be dealt with immediately.

Everyone sat completely still for several moments after my proclamation, staring at me until Murray leaned over to stage whisper to Jack Frost, "Your zing is really intense, you know that?"

Jack F. rolled his eyes, and the tension was broken, much to my relief. "Would someone please explain what a zing is?"

Murray started laughing uproariously. "Like you don't know," he said, chuckling, and wiping away an imaginary tear. Jack F. and I exchanged a look, before looking back to Murray expectantly. It was certainly not a term I was acquainted with.

The mummy blinked in surprise. "Wait, you actually don't know?"

"It's not exactly a common term outside of the hotel," Dracula pointed out.

Murray gaped, looking from me to Jack Frost, and back again. "But how can they not know?"

"Well just tell us then!" I said, becoming a little exasperated.

"A zing is your fated partner," he said with conviction. "Your love at first sight, your soulmate!"

Awkward silence followed, followed by my cheeks heating up at an alarming rate. 

I coughed awkwardly and decided I preferred the conversation about evil Wanderers and possible death to this insight on my life.

"Right, uh, thank you for that Murray, but I think we have... slightly more important things to attend to right now than, uh, zings." Jack F. cleared his throat and made a noise of agreement.

Dracula and Vlad, for some strange reason, seemed to be enjoying the moment a little too much however.

"No, please," the elder of the two insisted. "I'd like to see how this plays out. If I might die in the next few days, I at least want to see you acting like a normal, awkward, teenager."

"That won't be necessary," I muttered, then cleared my throat, and pushed on with the meeting.

"Anyway, this Wanderer, while my encounter with him was..." I struggled to think of a word that would accurately describe the experience. "Disappointing... I did learn a couple things about him that we may be able to use to our advantage."

"What more do we need to know, other than the fact that he needs to be taken down?" Wayne asked.

Vlad snorted crankily, grin wiping once more from his face. "You fool, you can't kill something without knowing how to kill it. A silver bullet will kill a werewolf, not a vampire. Salt will trap a demon, but not a witch."

Wayne blinked, obviously not getting the point, and Vlad rolled his eyes, leaning over to speak directly to me.

"This is what I've had to deal with since you left Halloween Town," he growled. "A bunch a idiots." He turned back to Wayne. "The point is, the information Vera has is valuable, and we need to know all we can to take out this Wanderer." When silence followed, he nodded for me to continue, and I nodded in thanks.

"Now, according to the Wanderer, he is referred to as Slenderman, always remember that a name can be a powerful thing." He has no face, and he has the ability to stretch his limbs to great lengths, as well as dark tentacles. He-"

"I'm sorry," Jack F. interrupted. "Did you say he had no face?"

I nodded and suddenly felt a bit queasy. "I... I'm not sure why... but I think it's a fear tactic, which is what he seems to primarily feed off of. Not literally, like Pitch, but... it brings him some sense of sick joy. He can kind of... paralyze you with it if you're not careful."

I let this soak in for a moment, and watched their expressions carefully. This was really the big test. If they were too freaked out by this information, then they weren't people I could count on in the final battle that was inevitably to be. None of them looked undone though, determined, weary, and maybe a little nervous, but not fearful, or unwilling. Dracula and his boys were looking solemn, but resolute all the same. Vlad looked ready to fight then and there. The remaining Guardians (for Bunny had yet to return) were as fired up and ready to defend what they believed in as I had imagined them once upon a time, and Jack Skellington, was simply watching me, ready to follow me to the ends of the earth should I request it of him.

With these people, I felt I could accomplish anything.

I just about started crying out of sheer sentimentality.

Weird.

My hormones must be out of whack.

"So here's the plan."

The plan, wasn't much of anything other than telling everyone to rest up and prepare themselves any way they could, while I returned to Halloween Town to study up on spells of the fighting variety, and perhaps another way to banish the Wanderer. After learning anything worth learning, I would return, and we would lure Slenderman to us using bait... me.

There were several objections of course, but when I asked them for any better plans, they had none.

There was, of course, the problem regarding transportation. I had been robbed of my usual mode of transportation, and would not be able to use it for perhaps another year. North had taken the reindeer back to the North Pole, had failed to leave any magical snow globes behind, and the dead-deer had been sent back to Halloween Town. Bunny had gone to deliver the more recent news of my "injuries" to Sandy and Santa, so that meant underground tunnels were out of the question.

Jack Frost, was not short on creative ideas though.

"Are you sure this will work?" I asked, staring down the cliff face. "The wind might listen to your command—"

"Requests," he interrupted impishly, grinning at me as if there was absolutely no chance of me plummeting to my death (and wouldn't that just be an ironic way to die?).

"—But that does not guarantee that it will hold me."

"If it can't, I'll just catch you, and we'll find another way to get you to HalloweenTown."

"I'm heavier than I look," I deadpanned (heh dead... like I will be... if I jump off this cliff...).

"What, all eighty pounds of you?" Jack teased. "Come on, you'll be fine. And if for some profound reason I do not catch you, the Count is waiting for you at the bottom."

"I think he's still holding a grudge against you icing his lobby," I said. I knew I was procrastinating, and I knew it was pathetic, but I didn't care. No way was I purposely going to throw myself off of a cliff knowing full well that I could not fly.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Will you just jump?" he laughed. "The longer you wait, the more you'll psych yourself out."

I crossed my arms stubbornly. "I'll have you know, that—"

He pushed me.

That sneaky little ice-twit pushed me.

Off a cliff.

And if anyone tries to tell you that I screamed bloody-murder, they are lying.

I only fell five feet before my wings instinctively snapped open, and tried to catch the air, but it was like trying to hold water in a strainer. The air slipped past the stubby feathers like water slipping between fingers, and did nothing to stop my plummeting. It did serve to slow my descent, but that just meant I would turn into a lump of Vera rather than a puddle of Vera when I hit the bottom.

Then, Jack was free falling beside me, cackling joyfully, and suddenly, my impending death didn't seem so bad.

"Hey, Wind!" he called. "Give us a lift, will yeah?"

A cold wind surged from below, and suddenly, neither of us were falling anymore. Jack spread out his arms to balance himself, and glanced over at me to check on my well-being. I had to fight hard not to flap, and just trust an apparently sentient being to hold me up, but Jack's relieved grin kept me well enough distracted.

That didn't mean the trip to Halloween Town was anything but a long grueling experience.

  ****I DO NOT OWN DREAMWORKS, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, DISNEY, WINNIE THE POOH, SLENDERMAN, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA OR ANYTHING ELSE!!!!! JUST THE STORY PLOT!