Innocent Chaos (an RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 3: False Peace

Scarlett heard a song begin softly, so softly that she couldn't hear the words at first. But that didn't matter. She was immediately calmed, calmed to the point where she wasn't aware of any danger in the world, and, soon, nothing in the world at all. Nothing but the voices. They were beautiful and hypnotizing, making her forget everything.

"Come home, child," they sang. "Join the ones who you've forgotten. Join the ones who you cast aside. Join the ones who you doubted. Come back to the forbidden ones from whom you were torn. Come down to the peaceful underground, to a place we've made just for you."

Scarlett didn't notice that the roses and their vines were now wrapping themselves around her legs and arms, crawling up her body. She didn't notice as their thorns scratched her slightly, creating tiny white lines on her skin. She was in too much of a trance to notice anything but the echo of the roses' voices in her ears, although the words were flying right over her head.

"Come child; come home," the roses continued to sing. "Come back to those who you once loved. Return to those who you once thought of as your friends."

The roses' vines were now also wrapped around Scarlett's torso, and they started pulling her downward, into the soil below.

"Yes, come back, child. Now that you are free, you can return."

"Scarlett?!" Tooth called as she flew down through the trees and saw the spirit being pulled downward by vines with thorns and red and pink roses. "Scarlett? Are you okay?"

"Come, and join. Now you are free. Return." The roses continued to sing, keeping Scarlett in her trance.

"Hello? Scarlett!" Tooth exclaimed in panic as she realized that the spirit's eyes weren't moving, and she wasn't responding. "Let go of her!" Tooth shouted at the roses, but they continued dragging her underground. She was covered in dirt up to her knees. Tooth grabbed her under her arms and tried to pull her out of the ground and the vines' grasp, but it only slowed the sinking of the teenager. Tooth soon realized that it wasn't working, and she quickly searched around for something sharp to cut the vines with. There was a sharp-looking rock at the bottom of the stream, so she grabbed it, nearly dropping it because of her panicked state, and sliced at the roses' vines, cutting them away from the young spirit.

"Just stay calm, and you...won't have to worry...about anything..." The voices were dying off, and Scarlett began to wake from her hypnosis. She didn't know what was going on, nor could she see very well, but she could tell that something was off. What was she doing? What was going on? She didn't know.

Tooth continued to hack away at the vines.

"Come. Return to...those you...have...forgotten..." The voices continued to grow weaker, and now, Scarlett regained her sense of touch. There was something pressing against her legs and almost went up to her waist. What was it?

There were only a few vines left on the spirit now, and, as Tooth cut them, the song Scarlett once had been hearing was replaced with quiet cries of pain, and she was snapped completely out of her trance. She stopped being pulled into the ground, and her eyes fluttered open as even the roses' screams died away.

"What...?" she mumbled as she scanned her surroundings and saw that half of her body was under the ground.

"The roses were trying to drag you underground!" Tooth exclaimed, and Scarlett looked at the panic in her eyes. Was this panic for Scarlett herself, or for the fate of Jack...? If she had been killed by the flowers, would Jack have remained under the influence of her power forever?

"Why?" Scarlett asked. "Why were they trying to kill me?"

"I don't know, but we should get out of here!" Tooth responded. She pulled Scarlett out of the ground, and the spirit brushed herself off. Then, Scarlett began to remember what had happened while she was hypnotized. As she and Tooth flew into the air, she spoke.

"I heard...voices," Scarlett said. "When the roses were pulling me underground, they were...singing to me."

"Singing to you? I didn't hear anything," Tooth said, confused. "What was the song about?"

"I don't really know...," Scarlett mumbled. "It didn't seem to make too much sense..."

"Could it possibly have to do with your power?" Tooth asked, sounding kind of desperate. "How to control it?"

"I don't know...," Scarlett replied softly. "I-I don't think so..."

"Oh," Tooth said, sounding very disappointed. The two winged immortals continued to fly until they spotted something below them. It looked like five figures, and Scarlett recognized them as the people she had accidentally made fall in love with her earlier. Tooth grabbed her arm and pulled her in a different direction than they were already flying, away from them, but it was too late. The figures had spotted them, and the ones who could fly- Jack, Sandy, and Pitch on a horse that looked like it was made out of black sand- flew in their direction.

"Hurry! Maybe we can lose them in the forest!" Tooth said, pointing towards the trees to the left of the clearing that the non-flying beings were standing in. Scarlett and Tooth quickly flew downward, trying to make it to the trees. They were flying as fast as they could, but they were soon surrounded.

"Scarlett!" Jack called. "Will you please come down with us?" There had been a bit of bitterness in the word "us".

"Um...actually...," Scarlett began.

"Please?" Jack begged. Scarlett looked at Tooth, wondering what she was supposed to do. However, the feathery woman didn't seem to have a clue.

The young spirit then felt a hand on her arm, and turned around to see that it was Sandy's. He led her down to the other Guardians- her not knowing what else to do but to just go along with it- and Tooth cautiously followed. He, North, Bunny, Jack, and Pitch then formed a circle around the two winged people.

"Scarlett, who do ya' choose?" Bunny asked her. "Who do ya' love the most?"

"I...," Scarlett mumbled, and she looked at Tooth. The shiny woman looked back at her, her eyes seeming to plead with her to tell them all off. "I..." Scarlett thought about how much Tooth seemed to love Jack. "I...I don't...I don't love any of you." She relaxed a little once it was out. However, she was still scared of how hurt they might be. She looked at the faces of the male people around her, but none of them seemed to have reacted to her words.

"Okay," North said, and all five of the male beings transported themselves away: Jack and Sandy by flight, North and Pitch by teleportation, and Bunny by a tunnel that appeared in the ground where he stomped his foot.

"They took that...much better than I thought they would," Scarlett commented. "Do you think they don't love me anymore?"

"I'll go see!" Tooth said excitedly, and she quickly sped off in the direction that Jack had gone.

What neither female beings knew was this: what Scarlett had said had done nothing, nothing aside from deepen the male beings' rivalry against each other. 

(A/N: All follows, votes, and comments are appreciated. :)

I will upload a chapter every week unless otherwise stated.

I also posted this fanfiction on DeviantArt and Quotev under accounts of the same username as the one I have on this website.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Rise of the Guardians" (© DreamWorks Animation) or the Guardians of Childhood series (© William Joyce) that it was based off of.)