Jamie tossed and turned in his sleep, his conscious body sweating and shaking as his dreams shifted into nightmares. It had been so long since he had had such dark dreams, and if he hadn't known better, he would have assumed it was Pitch's doing. But he was gone, locked away forever. Jamie screamed out, not able to move as he watched his little sister venturing towards the clearing where they had locked Pitch away forever. It was little Sophie, from when they were kids, which made it even worse for Jamie as she peered down into the hole and called out, "Hello?"
"No, Sophie! Stop!" Jamie screamed, trying his hardest to move but it felt like his legs weighed hundreds of pounds each. Sophie couldn't hear him. Why couldn't she hear him? There was no way he could save her. Jamie lashed around more, trying to get his body to cooperate with him. Immediately he stopped, hearing the familiar malicious laugh that he had managed to block out of his memory for so many years. The Boogeyman.
Jamie watched in horror as Pitch lifted his little sister up into his arms, a devilish grin spreading across his lips. "Why, hello Jamie. My, how you've grown." He chuckled, running his fingers through Sophie's hair as he kept his eyes on Jamie.
"Let her go!" Jamie screamed, shaking his head violently, he just wanted to wake up. He had to get out, he had to tell—
"Jack Frost?" Jamie whipped his head up to look at Pitch again, he had come closer, Sophie in his arms looking absolutely horrified. "He's still around, eh? Still protecting his precious first believer? Well, Jamie. Where is he now?" Pitch glided over to Jamie so he could stand right in front of him. Jamie did everything he could to reach his hand out and grab Sophie, to just touch her and tell her it would be okay… but his arm didn't move, and Pitch held the girl tightly while smiling down at her brother.
"Let her go!" Jamie screamed again. Why couldn't he just wake up?
"This is my nightmare, Jamie. I choose when it's time for you to wake up." Pitch chuckled, smiling down at Sophie, who buried her face in his robes and began to cry. Pitch smirked at Jamie, shaking his head. "You can't even stop your baby sister from crying, what good are you? Your family is probably happy you moved away, went off to university. They don't miss you one bit. Your only friend is an imaginary fairy who brings snow in the night. Really, Jamie. Do you realize how pathetic your life is?" Pitch put Sophie down, patting her head as she looked up at Jamie.
Her pupils were black, her face pale, no sparkle in her eyes. "Jamie," she whispered, stepping forward a little. "You can't stop him. He's back, and he's going to hurt everyone you love if you step between him and Jack." A grin grew on the young girls lips, something horribly evil that made Jamie squirm. He looked up at Pitch, who was smiling at the girl.
"Wouldn't she make a wonderful fearling? Oh, Jamie. If I were you, I'd watch out. Because I know where your real sister is, and I will find her, and I will turn her into-" Pitch grinned and gestured towards Sophie, "One of these." Pitch let out a horrible laugh, running his fingers through his hair before quieting down and staring Jamie in the eyes. "Do not interfere with what I am doing, boy. I will not let you defeat me again."
Jamie woke up covered in sweat, trying to catch his breath. What could he do? He couldn't warn Jack, that wasn't even a question. Sophie could never take on Pitch, she had never even heard of the battle that had taken place with the nightmares in their town. She wouldn't know what to do. There was no way he was going to risk his little sister getting turned into a fearling, he would never forgive himself if she had to live the rest of her life under control of the Nightmare King. He would have to stay quiet, and hope to God that when the time came, Jack would be able to fight off Pitch as he had before.
"What is going on that you guys had to call me all the way to the North Pole?" Jack complained as he walked into the workshop. North, Tooth, Bunny, and Sandy were all standing around waiting for him, something he wasn't quite used to.
"Good to see you, Jackie!" North chuckled and wrapped his arms around the boy in a bear hug, ruffling his hair and patting his back before letting him go. Jack smiled. It had been a while, but seeing the big four always warmed his ice-cold heart. If anything, seeing them this time helped him forget about the pounding pain in his head from the way Tate had so gently delivered him to this place. Maybe he'd have to talk to Bunny about using his tunnels, he wasn't sure how much longer he could handle the daily beatings Tate had been so willingly giving out to him every time he needed a favor.
Jack looked around at the rest of his friends, but quickly noticed that something was wrong. The rest of them weren't as good as North was with putting on a smile to keep Jack calm. Something was definitely off, and he didn't like the feeling he had in his gut.
"Jack," Tooth fluttered forward, a weak smile on her lips as she put her hand on Jack's shoulder. "Manny has called us all here today… And we think it's time to pick a new guardian." Jack raised an eyebrow, concerned.
"So does that mean something is going to happen? That's why he chose me, wasn't it? Because we needed someone else to fight Pitch?" Jack stepped forward, hitting the ground with the end of his staff so snowflakes and ice covered the ground and flew out from the staff. "What's going on? What's going to happen that the five of us can't handle?" His eyes shifted to Bunnymund, who never neglected to share all the details with Jack. He didn't believe in sheltering the boy, he was almost 300 years old anyway, what was the point?
"We don't know, mate. That's why we needed you here. We've got to see who this new guy is and then we need to hop on out of here and find him, so we can start to prepare ourselves. Something bad is happening, and we need to be ready to protect the children again." Bunny scratched behind his ear, his right foot thumping against the ground, making Jack grin for a second.
"Alright then… Let's see it Manny!" Jack called up to the full moon, which was positioned perfectly above the workshop and was already shining beams of light down into the building. The five of them huddled around the area where the new Guardian would be shown, watching carefully as a body began to form from the moonlight in front of them. It looked like, a human body… With a raggedy old coat, and spikey hair… and a handsome face…
"No. No way, you have got to be kidding me." Jack turned away from the figure and slammed his staff onto the ground again, causing a few toys to fall from the shelves on the wall closest to him. North let out a whimper as they crashed to the floor, breaking into pieces.
Sandy stared up at the boy, confused, a golden question mark floating above his head. Tooth put his thoughts into words, "Who is he?"
Jack shook his head, of course they wouldn't know who this newbie was. Only Jack had the pleasure of having to work with him one-on-one. "That's the new Wind Spirit, Tate. This has got to be a mistake."
Bunny chuckled, placing a paw on Jack's shoulder and wrinkling his nose a little. "I remember saying the same about you, mate. And look at how much you proved us all wrong. Who's this guy?"
Jack shook his head. "It's not the same, at least I cared about children and wanted them to be happy. This guy is so uptight I don't think he's had fun a day in his life. All he cares about is who he was before he was chosen, and I don't think I would've liked that guy much either. There's got to be someone else for this." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, sighing hard enough to blow some snowflakes into the air. This sucked, there had to be some way of choosing someone more fit for the job.
Tooth fluttered over to Jack, then stood in front of him. She smiled calmly, placing a gentle hand on Jack's cheek. "Jack, you need to think about the bigger picture here. The Man in the Moon chose this Tate boy for a reason, and there's nothing we can do but trust that he is the one who is best fit for helping us protect the children," She gestured to the globe in front of them, he feathers fluttering a little as she smiled at all of the lights glowing strong. "This isn't about you now, it's about them. It's about all the children who believe, everyone we are here to protect. Do you see?"
Jack sighed, shrugging, "I know, I know." He frowned at the ice beneath his bare feet, trying to find an argument against what Tooth had pointed out to him. But, there was none. Jack was a Guardian now, and his main priority had to be protecting the children. Bottom line, that's what he was there to do. Not start fights with some guy he didn't get along with so swimmingly. "Alright." He said, a little louder.
"Let's get him."