Pitch looked frantically about him, searching for a way to escape his once-precious nightmares. They advanced on him slowly, snorting and pawing the ground with excitement. Pitch scrambled backwards away from them, fighting off his growing fear. His back hit a tree trunk, stopping him in his tracks. The dark lord glanced down and spotted the trees shadow, just around the tree.
Pitch narrowed his eyes. Maybe, just maybe, he had enough power left that he could shadow travel to a place with more fear, where he could rebuild his dark empire. He smiled wickedly, feeling his fear slowly begin to dissipate. The nightmares sensed this as well, and paused in their hunt, momentarily confused without a master to give them purpose. Pitch laughed manically and dove into the shadow, disappearing in an instant.
Sandy sat in Santa's sleigh, cheerfully listening to his fellow guardians joke and laugh, congratulating on a job well done. Sandy smiled along, wishing not for the first time, that he could join in. He shrugged, pushing aside that futile dream. He once had the chance to talk, as a man, and had thrown away the opportunity when it counted most.
He turned back to look at the ground, pushing back memories from both his distant past and recent experiences. He idly started to plan tonight's dreams for the people in The Americas and Canada. He had already haphazardly thrown together dreams for the children in the other hemispheres who had just gone to bed, but he needed to get back on track, back to routine.
He spied his dreams-turned-nightmares stalking something in the woods. Sandy leaned over the edge of the sleigh, trying to get a better look. He hoped they weren't hunting an innocent child, but he had to be sure. He fashioned a pair of binoculars out of sand and peeked through them, zooming them in for a close view. He watched the creatures stalk towards something, then suddenly stop. They became restless, as if just waking up from a dream. They began shifting around, finally giving sandy a clear view of what they had been hunting: Pitch.
Just then Pitch dove to the side, disappearing in a shadow, making an escape. Sandy dropped his binoculars and turned back to his friends, all chatting happily. Santa had turned his attention to driving his sleigh, with Tooth keeping him company, while Jack and Bunny were still patting each other on the back. Sandy threw his hands in the air, waving them frantically to get Jack and Bunny's attention, but they were too busy insulting each other to even notice him. Sandy rolled his eyes, just wishing those two would get a room already. Sandy looked around, but there was no elf around this time to shake. A lightbulb appeared above his head. He drew up some more of his sand and fashioned it into a whistle, and covered his ears. He nodded to the whistle, which blew loud and proud. Chaos ensued as everyone scrambled to find their weapons, or find the source of the noise. Jack pointed his stick at the whistle, but stopped himself before freezing it.
"What the hell was that, Sandy?!" He lowered the stick, keeping it tightly gripped in one hand. Everyone else just stared silently at Sandy, obviously asking themselves the same question. Sandy pointed down to the ground, then conjured a picture of Pitch above his head. Santa chuckled heartily and put away his swords, turning his attention to the reins once again. "Hehehe yes Sandy, you are right! We sure did leave him in the dust, didn't we?"
Sandy slapped his forehead with his palm. Where did these people come up with this stuff? Jack seemed to understand, and came to Sandy's side and looked over the edge. By now the forest was far behind them, and Jack looked back at Sandy, his gears turning. Tooth was still looking at him, so he motioned her over.
The Sandman held out his hand, and nodded at her, determined. Tooth's eyes grew wide with surprise but took his hand. Sandy nodded at Jack, who just stared at Sandy's and Tooth's joined hands.
"Jack, I need you to take my hand. Sandy has an important memory he wants to show you." She held her hand out to him, but he still didn't take it.
"Hold on. You're saying if I take your hand, then I'll see Sandy's memories? And you're okay with that?" He looked at Sandy with the second question. Sandy nodded with both determination and impatience.
"Yes, Jack. My job is to show people their important memories, and if someone else is touching me while viewing memories, then they also will view the memories." Tooth replied, still holding her hand out to Jack.
Bunny hopped over to their group. "Hold up, mate. Did you just say you're doin' a trip down Sandy's memory lane? I love this!" He gently placed his paw on Tooth's shoulder. Not to be outdone, Jack grabbed her outstretched hand.
Sandy shut his eyes, and heard Tooth instruct Jack to do the same. "Whenever you're ready, Sandy." Sandy pulled up the memory, letting it play through, so everyone could see what he saw and the chaos after. Once it was over, Sandy pulled his hand back from Tooth's.
Bunny glared down at Sandy. "What the bloody hell do you mean, Jack and I should get a room?!"
Sandy conjured an image of Bunny and Jack kissing with a tree next to it, and shrugged casually. Bunny's nose twitched angrily. Jack almost fell over laughing, "oh Bunny, we both know you'd enjoykissing me." Jack winked at the rabbit seductively, only making his nose twitch even more.
Tooth placed her hand on Bunny's shoulder, saving Jack from a taste of the Easter Rabbit's boomerang. "We need to focus guys, we've got a serious problem here. Pitch has escaped, we need to catch him."
Santa's booming voice made them all jump. "WHAT?! Pitch has escaped?!" He looked accusing at Sandy. "Why did you not say anything?!" Sandy glared back silently, his hands balled into fists. Santa coughed awkwardly and turned his attention back to driving. "So what is plan?" He called back to the group.
Jack shook his head, "We need to find him, and make sure he doesn't regain his powers. But how do we figure out where he went? We can't follow him through shadow portals."
That stumped Sandy too. He looked back down the ground, willing the answer to come to him. Suddenly a shadow jumped out from between the trees: a nightmare. They all appeared to be moving in the same direction, following the scent of a strong fear. What fear smelled stronger than fear itself?
He turned back to his friends, waving his arms. This time they took notice, even bunny tapped Santa to get his attention. He created an image of the nightmares and of pitch above his head, then pointed downward. The group leaned over the edge, except for bunny, who hung back. Santa, who was looking over the front edge, saw them first. "You think they are hunting Pitch?"
Sandy nodded vigorously, then drew himself riding one of the nightmares. Jack jumped up, pointing at the drawing. "You're going to follow them?" Sandy nodded, and walked to the edge, creating a sand cloud to ride alongside the nightmares.
Jack fisted his stick and stood alongside Sandy, and nodded at him with determination. Sandy, however, shook his head. He knew his dreams, despite the fact that they were now nightmares, they were still his creations. He could follow them without fear, and he could go mostly undetected by them. Jack however, was a natural enemy of them and would make nervous and lose focus. Sandy glanced at the others. All of them would. He stared at Jack, trying to tell him telepathically.
After a moment, Jack took a step back, either from Sandy's hard stare or the message that contained within it. His eyes still met the older Guardian's evenly, a conflict warring in his eyes. Sandy turned away, continuing his sand cloud.
Jack grabbed his arm, halting Sandy's progress. Sandy glanced back to see Jack looking at him with concern and sadness. "We can't let you go alone. We just got you back. After what happened last time, I couldn't save you..."
Sandy wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, that he did the best he could. He wanted to tell him How there was nothing Jack could have done, how in the end Sandy had been peaceful, and had accepted his fate. How his only regret was letting Pitch steal his dreams. Again.
But he couldn't.
So he resigned himself to patting Jack's hand and smiling gently, hoping to say all of it in a single look. Jack seemed to understand some of what Sandy was saying. He gripped Sandy's arm tightly for a second, then let go and stepped back. The others all nodded their heads grimly, Tooth stepping forward to give him a quick hug.
Sandy nodded to them with a determined gleam in his and turned back to his cloud, stepping as easily onto it as if he were stepping onto solid ground. He waved to his friends and fell into pursuit of the nightmares.