She doesn't have a name, but she is different from the others.
Her Mother hasn't told her this, but it's clear from the gold feathers she has that mimic the Mother's, from the way she can resist the telepathic pull of the Mother's thoughts—she is there when the Man in the Moon chooses the new Guardian, and while the Mother and the few others who are there sigh dreamily at the sight of his teeth, she looks at him and feels nothing but a surge of wariness.
"Seriously?" Nicholas exclaims, his blue eyes wide. "That is who is to be new Guardian?"
The Mother, Toothiana, shakes herself out of her trance and flits from side to side fretfully. "But he isn't fit to be a Guardian of Children!"
The Sandman forms a symbol over his head; it looks alarmingly similar to the shadow that appeared on the floor only a few moments ago.
"You're right, Sandy," Toothiana says, "he does work with Pitch. Why would Manny want him to help us?"
The Rabbit puts his paintbrush away, and that says more about how serious he is than his voice or expression ever could. "Look, the kid can be a nuisance sometimes, but he's not as bad as all that," he says. "Besides, he might be useful against Pitch; he'll know weaknesses, you know?"
Nicholas looks at the Rabbit slyly. "Are you saying you accept his help?" he asks, and the Rabbit takes a step back, hands up defensively.
"Whoa, now let's not get crazy," he says. "We're the Guardians. Since when have we needed help? All I'm saying is to give the kid a chance before you get all judgemental on him."
Toothiana crosses her arms stubbornly. She feels the reverberations of that stubbornness in the back of her mind, but while the others mimic the Mother's posture, she merely watches the situation play out.
"I don't need to give him a chance," Toothiana says. "His holiday is about terror and overindulging in tooth-rotting sugar! What does a spirit like that know about protecting children?"
"Probably nothing," Nicholas says. "And Bunny is right. We beat Pitch before; we will beat him again!"
The Sandman beams, his perpetual glow growing the slightest bit brighter. Even Toothiana seems pleased. Bunnymund, however, looks a little doubtful.
"Wait, so are we just going to ignore all this, then?" he asks. "I mean, I've never seen this happen before, but Manny's usually right about these things."
The Sandman flashes a rapid-fire volley of symbols above his head, and Nicholas nods thoughtfully.
"Good idea, Sandy," he says. "We will accept new Guardian if, and only if, we need help. Otherwise, we leave him out of this. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Toothiana says immediately.
"Agreed," Bunnymund repeats, relieved.
The Sandman flashes a thumbs up.
The moonbeams that had been lighting up the floor suddenly flicker and die out. Everyone turns wide eyes to the moon, but nothing appears to be wrong.
"Manny?" Nicholas calls, confused, but the Man in the Moon doesn't answer. His light seems cold, all of a sudden, but maybe she's the only one who can sense it, because the others dismiss it as one of the Man in the Moon's quirks. She looks at where the image of Jack O'Lantern used to be. The Guardians may be unconcerned, but she feels nothing but dread settling in her stomach.
It's not even close to Hallowe'en—or even to October, for that matter—but Jack O'Lantern is preparing for his holiday anyway. Or rather, he's helping the humans prepare; they seem to have Hallowe'en down pat at this point, so Jack is mostly supervision as the preparations are underway.
Mostly.
Right now he's somewhere in North America, though not anywhere close to the pond where he came to be. It's night, and he's waiting for the Sandman to breeze through with his long tendrils of golden dreamsand. Jack wouldn't call his acquaintanceship with the Sandman a relationship, per se, but they do occasionally sit in silence together if they happen to be in the same place, and they have an agreement regarding Hallowe'en: Sandy won't bring good dreams on Hallowe'en, instead letting the humans' minds come up with what they will, as long as Jack prevents Pitch from doing real damage around that time.
It's worked for hundreds of years, and while Jack isn't exactly comfortable around the Sandman—he's a Guardian, and Jack tends to avoid the Guardians on principle—he can't deny that watching the dreamsand in action is truly a sight to behold. It's why he's waiting here, overseeing the care of a single pumpkin being grown on a rooftop garden when there are other things he could be taking care of.
Jack trails a finger over the young green pumpkin, drawing jack o'lantern faces with his finger idly. He looks up at the sky again, frowning. Dawn is only a few hours off, and usually Sandy's here by now. The Sandman tends to follow the rotation of the earth, never more than an hour behind sunset on his portable cloud of dreamsand, and he's never been this late before.
There might be something wrong. Jack briefly considers tracking the Sandman down, but the idea is about as attractive as the demons Jack faces on Hallowe'en. If there is a problem, it's not exactly his job to take care of it.
The Wind ruffles Jack's hair gently, as if trying to entice him to leave, and after an hour and a half of fruitless waiting, Jack's inclined to listen. He rises from his crouch and stretches, then steps up to the edge of the roof. Just as he's about to step off and let the Wind carry him home, however, something flashes in the corner of his eye. He brings his staff up automatically and peers into the dark distance, trying to figure out what he saw. It looked vaguely familiar, but as a shapeshifter, he knows better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving.
Another flash, this time a little ways away from where the first one occurred. This time Jack knows what he's looking at, and he relaxes and smiles, feeling his nervous tension fade away.
"What are you doing, Sandman?" he murmurs as he takes to the air. He follows the Sandman at a distance, frowning in confusion. Sandy keeps ducking into houses and then reappearing after only a few moments, but there's no trace of his dreamsand. After a few minutes, Sandy crosses paths with another Guardian; Toothiana's bright plumage sticks out like a sore thumb against the darkness of the night.
"I get why she's here," Jack says to himself, "but what is Sandy doing collecting teeth?"
"Keep up, slowpokes!" a loud voice booms a few rooftops over, and Jack's eyes widen when he spots Nicholas St. North's large form popping out of a chimney. "You are both behind in race!"
"Yeah, what he said," Bunny adds, pausing briefly to hold up a bulging red sack smugly before racing off again. Curious as well as confused, now, Jack decides to follow Bunny. He has to fly fast to keep up with the rabbit, and even then Jack suspects that Bunny isn't going as fast as he can. It's impressive, not that Jack would ever tell anyone that.
He flies up to the window of a building just as Bunny's leaving it, and the two spirits end up literally nose to nose for a few tense moments, eyes wide with shock. Jack jerks backward and gives a jaunty wave.
"Bunny," he says. Bunny tilts his head in confusion.
"Jack O'Lantern? What are you doing here?" He pauses and narrows his eyes. "Something's different about you. What is it, new hair?"
"Nope," Jack says. "Same boring brown as usual. It's probably the vest. I think last time I saw you I was still wearing the brown one and the cloak."
"Right, right. What's with the pinstripes, then? Making a statement?"
Jack rolls his eyes. "Yes, Bunny, I'm totally making a statement to my, like, four believers and the handful of spirits who actually talk to me. Don't be ridiculous. I actually got it from a Hallowe'en movie. You know, Jack Skellington?"
Bunny gives him a blank look, and Jack sighs in exasperation.
"We really need to get you a TV," he mutters, and then he says, louder, "Anyway, what are you guys doing out here? Shouldn't you be preparing for Easter?"
Bunny's ears fall for a second. "I have Easter covered," he says defensively. "We're kind of in the middle of something important right now."
Jack gasps with faux shock and clasps a hand to his chest. "More important than Easter? Why, I never thought I'd see the day."
"Rack off," Bunny says, glowering. "These are… interesting circumstances."
Toothiana flits up to them then, looking a little manic with her feathers fluffed up excitedly.
"Bunny, lateral incisor two blocks east!" she exclaims, and Bunny hops off the roof with a little salute. Jack watches him go, then turns to the fairy. He finds her watching him curiously, and as soon as their eyes meet she darts forward and shoves her hands in his mouth.
"Oh, your teeth are so white!" she says, sighing dreamily. "I'd have thought they'd be yellow from all the candy you eat."
Jack jerks out of her grip and huffs, irritated. "I don't actually eat candy for every meal, you know," he says. "That's just a myth."
Toothiana has the grace to look a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she says. "I shouldn't have assumed. But they really are so very clean."
A little bird-thing flies up to them and perches on Toothiana's shoulder, and Jack recognizes it as one of the mini tooth fairies that he sometimes sees at night. The fairy looks at Jack curiously and starts chirping, faster than Jack can translate with his limited grasp of her language.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" he says, laughing. "It's nice to meet you, little baby tooth, but I have no idea what you're saying."
The Baby Tooth puffs her cheeks out angrily, then turns to Toothiana and says something. To Jack's surprise, Toothiana's cheer fades. She looks at Jack grimly.
"Right, I'd forgotten about that," she says, but it's clear she's talking to Baby Tooth and not Jack. "Um, Jack? Can I ask what you're doing here?"
Jack shrugs and swings his staff up onto his shoulder. "I was just in the area," he says. "You know, preparing for Hallowe'en. I saw Sandy and thought I'd stop by to say hello."
Toothiana's lips thin a little at the mention of Jack's holiday, but she surprisingly doesn't make any remarks about it. Bunny comes up to them then, a few teeth clutched tight in his hand. He carefully puts them into the bag, ties up the drawstring again, and then he finally seems to notice the tension in the air. He looks between Jack and Toothiana in surprise.
"Did I miss something?" he asks.
"Nothing at all," Toothiana says. The crest of feathers on her head puffs up suddenly and she swivels around. "Molar!" she shouts and dashes off. Baby Tooth stays behind for a moment to squeak sternly at Bunny, who lifts a hand placatingly.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember the deal," he says. "You just go make sure Tooth doesn't run into any more billboards."
As Baby Tooth streaks off after Toothiana, Jack turns to Bunny curiously.
"Deal?" he asks.
"Eh, it's Guardian business," Bunny says, scratching at his ear. He does it with his foot, Jack notices with amusement, even though he could've reached it perfectly fine with his hand.
"Ah, right," Jack says. "Fine, keep your little club secrets."
"Oi! We ain't a club. We're an illustrious organization-"
"Dedicated to protecting the children of the world, I know," Jack says. "You don't seem all that organized, though." Toothiana returns, a tooth held tightly in her hand, and Jack addresses her, too. "I mean, why are you four out here collecting teeth? Don't your mini fairies usually do that?"
Toothiana and Bunny exchange unreadable looks.
"There's a… situation with the fairies," Toothiana hedges. "So Bunny, North, and Sandy offered to help me in my duties."
"These are the 'interesting circumstances', I take it?" Jack says wryly. Bunny shrugs.
"Anyway, Jack, it's official Guardian business," Toothiana continues, before Jack can offer to help. "And we're kind of short on time, here, so…."
Jack holds up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, no, I get it," he says. "I'll get out of your way. Just say hi to Sandy for me, will you? If this is going to go on for a while, I have a feeling we won't be seeing much of each other."
"We will," Bunny says. "You stay out of trouble, got it?"
Jack laughs, his expression all teeth. He hops into the air and grins widely down at Bunny and Toothiana, and he feels more than he sees the two of them shudder.
"Do you even know who I am, Cottontail?" he says. "Trouble's practically my middle name!"
He laughs at their expressions and flies off, only to stop a few a few feet away and return.
"Oh, I forgot to ask," he says. "I've been curious for a while about the teeth. I mean, I get the whole belief thing—"
Bunny looks a little dubious, and Jack graciously chooses to ignore him.
"But what's so special about teeth?"
"It's not the teeth, Jack," Toothiana says. "It's the memories held inside them." Her feathers seem to droop suddenly. "Oh, I had everyone's teeth at the palace. Even yours."
"Mine?" Shock flits over Jack's face for a moment before he schools his expression.
"Yes, yours. They hold all your memories from before you were Jack O'Lantern," Tooth says, looking at him suspiciously. "Jack, are you alright?"
No, he's most definitely not alright. Eyes wide, heart pounding, and mind drowning in confusion, Jack jerks back from her.
"I'm fine," he says, a little tersely. Then he sighs harshly and runs a hand over his face. "Sorry. I'm fine, it's just—holiday prep, you know? Duty calls, I'm sure you know how it is."
"Oh, of course," Tooth says. "Sorry to keep you." She looks satisfied, apparently accepting his bullshit excuse as the truth, and with a gasp, she shouts, "Bicuspid!" and flies off. Baby Tooth trails behind her, leaving Jack alone with Bunny.
"Jack," Bunny says slowly, and Jack realizes that Bunny looks even more suspicious than Toothiana did. It makes sense, since Bunny knows Jack better than any of the other Guardians do, but while Jack trusts Bunny—generally speaking—he doesn't want the rabbit to see him having a panic attack, which Jack can feel rising in him like a tidal wave.
"Not now, Bunny," Jack says, and something in his voice or his face must give him away, because Bunny nods and doesn't press.
"Okay," he says placatingly. "That's fine. Just take it easy, yeah? And you know where to find me if you need me."
The reminder of their informal arrangement—which goes all the way back to the Easter of 1968, when Jack helped Bunny with his holiday after some winter sprites went a little crazy with the weather—helps calm him down a little. It reminds him that he's not actually alone anymore, and he hasn't been for a while.
"Thanks," Jack says. "Same for you. You know how to summon me."
Bunny nods and looks like he wants to say something else, but in the end he doesn't, and lets Jack fly away into the night.
Jack rose from a pond on a night he would later learn was called Samhain. The moon was full, the air was crisp, and the leaves were the color of fire. There was a wooden shepherd's crook on the ground, and when he picked it up, glowing patterns lanced up and down the shaft like orange lightning, following the grain.
He discovered he could fly.
Somewhere off in the woods, the sounds of screams and laughter and singing filtered from between the trees. Jack O'Lantern—for that's what the Moon called him, and Jack found that he trusted the Moon—he felt exhilarated, and he flew off to investigate.
The pond near Burgess is small but beautiful, especially in the autumn when the leaves have all changed colors and the air is cool and crisp. It's a little warmer out than he'd like right now, and the trees are still green and some even have flowers, but it's still pretty. It's still comforting.
Jack lands lightly on the water in the middle of the pond. As long as he doesn't break the surface tension, he'll stay standing on the water instead of falling in. For some reason, the thought of being submerged in the pond is terrifying, but he turns the terror into excitement every time he stands on the brink like this. Fear and excitement are what his holiday is based on, after all.
From his vantage point, Jack has a perfect view of the moon. It isn't full tonight, and its glow isn't all that bright, but it still dominates the sky. Jack stares up at it, confusion and questions swirling around in his mind. He licks his lips nervously and runs a hand through his hair.
"I know you've never answered me before," he starts haltingly, "but I could really, really use your help this time. I guess I—I was someone before all this. Before Jack O'Lantern. I just need your help to figure out who."
The Moon doesn't reply, and Jack groans in exasperation and frustration.
"Look, you put me here!" he says, his voice rising as he gets worked up. "And I can't help but feel like there's another reason why, besides Samhain and Hallowe'en and keeping the veil under control. The least you could do is tell me who I am. I have a right to know!"
His "talks" with the Man in the Moon are mostly cathartic; he vents his frustrations to the unresponsive sky every time he needs to, and the Moon never helps Jack resolve any of his problems, so the cycle is a seemingly never-ending one that's been going on for centuries.
He's never able to say if the Moon responds, this time, or if it's simply coincidence, but when Jack hops off of the pond and lands on the shore a few yards away, the pattern of moonlight through the leaves of the trees look alarmingly like teeth. Jack's eyes widen.
"The teeth," he breathes. "Toothiana has my teeth! She can help me find my memories! God, why didn't I think of that before?" He feels energized, rejuvenated in a way he rarely feels outside of Hallowe'en night. The Wind responds eagerly to his mood and lifts him bodily onto one of the sturdier branches of one of the tallest trees. Jack hooks one arm around the tree trunk and leans forward, his arm and one foot the only thing anchoring him to the tree.
Brandishing a fist at the sky, he shouts gleefully, "Thanks a lot, you glowing bastard!"
If the shadows really were the Moon's work, then Jack's gratitude is genuine. If it wasn't, well. The Man in the Moon can take it as sarcastically as he pleases. Jack really couldn't care less; he has a job to do.
He hops off the branch and lets the Wind carry him to the Guardians.
Except he doesn't need to travel far.
As he's flying over Burgess, he notices a familiar golden glow coming out of a familiar household. He alights on Jamie Bennet's windowsill and peers inside.
"Oh, no," he says. Laughter bubbles up in his chest and threatens to overflow, so he covers his mouth with his hand as he enters slowly. From the bed, Abby's snarling increases in volume, and even though Bunny's standing his ground, the fur along his back and shoulders puffs up.
"What are you guys doing in here?" Jack asks, moving to stand next to Jamie's bed. Jamie, even though he can't really see Jack, eyes the corner warily, no doubt noticing the flicker of something out of the corner of his eye that all people who believe in Hallowe'en see when Jack is near. Jack resists the urge to make a face at the kid.
Toothiana holds up a tooth. "Jamie lost a tooth today."
Nicholas St. North, who Jack has actually never encountered, watches Jack warily. "This is official Guardian business," he says, unconsciously repeating what Toothiana said earlier, "so if you would kindly take your leave."
"I'm actually here to talk to her," Jack says, gesturing towards Tooth. "And then I couldn't help but wonder what the four of you were doing standing around a kid's bed like creeps."
"Oh, we are creeps?" North exclaims loudly, and Abby gives a deep, angry bark and attacks.
"Oh, crikey!" Bunny yelps as he dodges the dog's lunge. Jack finally gives in to the urge and bursts into laughter, doubling over from the force of it.
"Somebody do something!" Tooth shouts. Bunny bounces off the wall and practically throws himself onto North's shoulders, who bellows incoherently as the rabbit digs his claws into the thick red fur of his coat. The dog practically goes mental trying to scramble up North's leg, and North's shouts quickly turned pained as the dog claws at him.
Sandy forms a large ball of dreamsand in his hands and takes careful aim, but his toss goes wide when the dog suddenly changes targets and charges into him. Jack cackles harder at the chaos as the ball rockets around the room, taking out the Guardians one by one. Even the dog is hit, golden rabbits made of sand chasing themselves around her head as she slumps to the floor.
In a few moments, Jack and Sandy are the only two left awake. Jack's laughter tapers off to the occasional giggle, and he wipes tears of mirth from his eyes.
"I haven't laughed that hard in forever," he says. Sandy smiles bemusedly, and looks around the room with the air of someone who has absolutely no idea what to do. He flashes a few symbols at Jack, slowly and carefully.
"Why am I here?" Jack guesses, and Sandy nods. "Like I said, I'm here to ask Tooth for a favor. I need to see my teeth." Sandy's expression falls and his glow dims. Jack tilts his head to the side. "What's wrong?"
Sandy's expression says quite clearly that he doesn't expect Jack to understand, but he flashes symbols at him anyway. Jack can only make out a tooth and what looks like someone's silhouette before he shakes his head.
"That's not really helpful, Sandy," he says. Sandy huffs silently, then looks appraisingly at where Tooth his slumped onto the floor. He floats towards her, his hand outstretched, but before he can touch her, something huge and black sticks its head into the room through the window. Jack jerks away from it, his eyes wide, and he only has time to make out a long face and glowing yellow eyes before the thing vanishes with an unearthly scream.
Jack flits to the window immediately and sticks his head out, looking at where the thing disappeared to.
"What the hell was that?" he asks Sandy, who looks back at him with wide eyes and a conflicted expression on his face. He looks from Jack to the Guardians and back again, and then his expression hardens into determination. He goes to Toothiana and places a hand against her temple, his expression apologetic, before he takes hold of something only he can see and yanks.
Tooth comes awake with a choked off grunt. Sandy opens his hand to reveal a handful of dreamsand, which he banishes to wherever he keeps the rest of it.
"Sandy?" Toothiana says, looking up at him in confusion. She pulls herself off the ground and takes to the air, looking around at the other Guardians. Her eyes pass over Jack with barely a pause, and Jack crosses his arms, pretending that didn't sting. "What's going on?"
Tooth has much more luck interpreting Sandy's symbols. Her expression turns angry the longer he "speaks" to her.
"Got it," she says. "Go, I'll follow as soon as I can."
Sandy nods and flies off, heading in the same direction that creature did. Jack turns to Tooth in confusion, only to find her rifling through North's coat, muttering to herself.
"Know he has it here," she says, and then makes a triumphant noise and brandishes a wickedly curved saber. Jack's eyes widen.
"What the hell is going on?" he asks. Tooth flies past him and exits the through the window.
"No time," Tooth says curtly. "I'll be back soon. Stay here." Her voice is harder and more authoritative than he's ever heard it, though to be fair, Jack hadn't really ever heard her speak before tonight. He watches her fly off helplessly, the urge to help thrumming through him. But there's not anything he can do; Toothiana told him to stay.
Jack scoffs at himself. "Since when do I take orders from her?" he asks, and the Wind swirls around him in agreement. He hops lightly onto the windowsill and propels himself forward, and then, with the Wind whistling in his ears, he follows Toothiana and the Sandman.
He doesn't really know where he's going, but he doesn't need to; even from here, he can see the flashes of Sandy's golden light coming from Main Street. He adjusts his course and wills himself to go faster, because from where he is, it looks like there's a fight going on. Even though he might not be of much help, he at least wants to go see what's going on.
The Wind deposits him gently on a rooftop, close enough to see and hear but far away enough that he's relatively hidden from the three spirits on the street. He recognizes Sandy and Toothiana, hovering a few feet off the ground with their weapons brandished threateningly, but the third figure takes a moment to place, simply because he's the last person Jack would've expected to see here.
"Pitch Black?" he whispers harshly to himself. "What is he doing here?"
"Alright, alright!" Pitch exclaims, his voice faint but unmistakable. He scrambles backward on the ground as Sandy and Tooth start towards him. "I admit it, it was wrong of me to take the teeth, Toothiana." Jack's eyes widen.
Toothiana points her stolen sword at him threateningly. "Is that all, Pitch?" she demands.
"And I shouldn't have taken your dreams, Sandman," Pitch adds. He pulls himself to his feet and straightens out his long robe. "So I'll tell you what," he says, his voice now a far cry from the frightened, pleading tone from before. Pitch smirks. "You can have them back."
Shadows materialize out of thin air as if they'd been waiting for their cue. No, not shadows, Jack realizes, dark horses made of black sand. Nightmares, he thinks, horrified. Is this what Pitch meant when he said he took Sandy's dreams?
A few of the creatures walk past Jack's hiding place, but Pitch isn't the only spirit with a connection to shadows, and as long as Jack stays still and silent, the Mares don't see him. Their yellow eyes are focused on Toothiana and Sandy, who look around grimly as the Nightmares spill out of the shadows. They're soon surrounded.
Pitch easily pulls himself astride one of the bigger ones. He smirks smugly. "Boo," he says, and the Nightmares attack. Sandy and Toothiana immediately take to the air to escape the horde, but the Mares simply follow them, now a formless column of black sand more than a herd of large horses.
Jack watches the Guardians for a few seconds, but they don't seem to need his help—Sandy's formed an island out of dreamsand and is keeping the worse of the horde at bay with two long golden whips, while Toothiana takes out stragglers with her sword and her razor-like wings. Jack sets his sights on Pitch, still sitting in the center of the road and smiling like he's watching a show.
Jack jumps, and the Wind pushes him farther than he could've gone on his own. He lands in front of Pitch so suddenly that the Nightmare rears up and screams, startled. Pitch quickly calms the beast with a hand on its mane, and then he looks at Jack in surprise.
"Jack O'Lantern?" he says. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be tending to your pumpkins?"
"Yes," Jack says, "and you should be doing your duty, not messing with the Guardians."
Pitch rolls his eyes. "This isn't your fight, Jack. You have no business here."
"You made it my business when you stole those teeth," Jack says. "What do you even need them for?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Pitch says, looking at Jack curiously. "I didn't know you were affiliated with the Guardians."
"I'm not," Jack says, a little defensively. "But I am affiliated with you. How would it make me look if you attack the Guardians?"
Snorting, Pitch says, "Well, it's a little late for that. The deed's already done, Squash Prince."
Jack bristles at the insult; it's a mockery of one of his titles that he does not take kindly to.
"Stop this or I'll be forced to interfere," Jack demands, pointing his staff threateningly at Pitch. The Boogeyman looks down his nose at Jack with amused haughtiness.
"No," he says, and his Nightmare shoots off to join the others in the sky, taking Pitch with it. Jack watches him go, frustrated anger making his fingers spark where they clutch his staff. He blinks when he spots something in the sky that's heading right for him.
"Finally," he says, and flies off to catch up with the sleigh. He finds North clutching loosely at the reins, Bunny draped across his back, both of them half-asleep. Jack's anger returns, and he doesn't hesitate before whacking North with his staff. "Wake up!" he shouts.
North jerks up with a startled yelp, dumping Bunny onto the floor of the sleigh.
"Whaz happenin'?" Bunny says, looking around blearily. Jack whacks him, too.
"Why didn't you tell me you were fighting with Pitch Black?" he shouts. He exhales harshly. "Nevermind. We have to get up there and help Sandy and Tooth."
North and Bunny look up and blanch at the sight of all the Nightmares swarming in the sky.
"Right," Bunny says, suddenly a lot more awake. He pulls his boomerangs from his bandolier and spins them expertly like an old American gunslinger. "North, drop me off."
North obligingly guides the reindeer a little lower, and Bunny leaps out of the sleigh. Jack watches just long enough to see him land safely on a rooftop, already surrounded by Nightmares, before he turns his attention to the fight in the sky. Bunny will be fine, and Jack's biggest concern at the moment is Pitch.
"North, faster," Jack says. North flicks the reins and the reindeer bellow with exertion as they speed up. Jack holds onto the side of the sleigh with one hand for balance, keeping his eyes on the fight above. Toothiana appears to be holding her own, but there are too many Nightmares surrounding her for her to get close enough to help Sandy. The Sandman is completely surrounded by a writhing black mass, constantly whipping the long tendrils of sand that reach out for him. His island hasn't stopped rising since it entered the air, as if Sandy's too busy to worry about where he's going as long as he's fighting.
Some distance away, Pitch stands on his own island of black sand. He's staring at the Sandman, who's too busy to notice Pitch behind him.
"We're not gonna make it there in time," Jack realizes, and pushes off so hard that he actually pushes the sleigh down a few feet. He shoots towards Pitch, intent on stopping whatever he's planning on doing. "Sandy!" he shouts, but he's not loud enough; the air is filled with battle cries and the deranged screaming of the Nightmares, and Sandy is too high for Jack's voice to reach him.
Jack adjusts his grip on his staff. He's gaining on Pitch, who seems just as focused on Sandy as Sandy is on the nightmare sand.
"Jack, look out!" Toothiana shouts, and Jack spots a Nightmare streaking towards him. He rolls in the air and just barely avoids the thing's teeth. It turns sharply, oddly graceful for something so large, and comes at him again. This time, Jack plants the butt of his staff on its muzzle and pushes down as he flips over its head, effectively derailing its attack. He lands on its back and crouches, then pushes himself up again, sending the Nightmare careening towards the ground at the same time.
Above him, Pitch draws his arm back as if he's drawing a bow, and a black arrow materializes out of thin air.
"Pitch!" Jack shouts in warning, but Pitch doesn't seem to hear. He releases the arrow just before Jack reaches him, his staff already swinging in a powerful arc that knocks Pitch right off his island. But Jack's too late. He looks at Sandy, who turns slowly, a wide-eyed look of horror and confusion on his face.
"No!" Jack shouts, but there's nothing he can do. Sandy falls to one knee, but struggles back to his feet and stares at Pitch defiantly. His face, while not exactly peaceful, is at least free of fear as the nightmare sand completely overtakes him.
In only a few seconds, it's as if the Sandman never existed at all.
Sorrow and anger rush over Jack like a wave. He spins in the air, looking for the one behind all this, and finds him on yet another cloud of sand, watching gleefully as the mass of nightmare sand in front of him destroys all traces of golden dreamsand.
"You bastard!" Jack screams, and the sparks at his fingers burst into full-on flames. He shoots towards Pitch like a rocket, the Wind screaming bloody murder in his ears, and feels himself changing in a way he hasn't felt in decades.
He knows what the Guardians will see: his hair darkening, his body becoming longer and more skeletal, his mouth widening into an unnatural jack o'lantern smile that's anything but amused. He feels heat on his face and knows that his eyes and mouth are glowing a hellish orange, as if there's a flame inside of his head like the lanterns he's named after.
The Pumpkin King bellows his anger wordlessly as he gains on Pitch. The Boogeyman appears unconcerned, and merely raises his arms. Behind him, an enormous tidal wave of nightmare sand curves into the air. The Pumpkin King doesn't falter, even when the sand rushes towards him with unnatural speed.
The sand slams into him with the force of a planet, but the Pumpkin King pushes back against it. His insides feel as though they're burning with fury, and finally, that fury has a target. Fire bursts forth from his skin, skimming along the sand like lightning through water. The Pumpkin King feels as though he will burn with it. His body spasms, though he keeps a tight hold of his staff, and he releases a raw, guttural scream.
And then as quickly as it started, it's over. The sand explodes outwards with bruising force, sending Pitch and the Pumpkin King shooting through the air in opposite directions. Unlike Pitch, however, the Pumpkin King has someone to catch him.
The feeling of Toothiana's body slamming into his is painful, but the Pumpkin King is too drained to complain about it. As she lays him gently in the back of the sleigh, he feels himself reverting to his usual form. When he starts to pull himself up, there are hands there immediately to help him. It's a novel feeling, but not a bad one.
"Jack, how did you do that?" Toothiana asks.
"The fire thing or the transforming thing?" Jack replies, wincing as Bunny helps him sit up straight.
"Both," Bunny says, exchanging a wide-eyed look with Tooth.
"I transform into the Pumpkin King when I'm angry or scared or need to release power," Jack says. "As for the fire thing…." He bites his lip. "I… I didn't know I could." He looks down at his hands, as if expecting to see flames still dancing over his skin, but his hands are the same as they've ever been.
North throws a snow globe and ushers them through the portal before he turns around. His eyes rove critically over the others, and once he sees that none of them are injured, his shoulders seem to sag.
Tooth suddenly lets out a sob. Jack looks at her in alarm as she buries her face in her hands and cries, her shoulders shaking with the force of it. North whips around immediately, his face drawn and pale.
"Jack, take the reins," he says tersely, moving quickly to the back of the sleigh. Jack hops into North's seat and takes up the reins, and has to tug a little to keep the reindeer from veering too far right. They're coming up fast on the Workshop, and already the yeti are preparing a large landing pad just outside the doors.
Jack concentrates on landing and tries valiantly to block out the sound of weeping coming from behind him.
That's quite the first chapter, huh? This was supposed to be a super long one-shot, but couldn't handle all of those words at once, so I'm breaking it up into four parts. It's very similar to the movie, I know, but there might be a reason for that ;) Anyway, let me know what you guys think about this chapter! Comments make me extremely happy :D