I had my back to the Guardians plus Jack, but I could hear them, and I could tell what they were doing with the air currents. I perked as I heard Apollo calling to me. I got up as Jack talked with Tooth about the teeth and the memories they held. I leapt up to higher ground and whistled.
"I was wondering if you had heard me. So, they know about you now?" Apollo said. I nodded with a sigh.
"I'm not sure whether to be glad or not." I admitted, hugging myself. "I mean, according to my past, anyone who got close to me got hurt."
"We're close, and I'm fine."
"You're 92,960,000 miles away." I said. Apollo laughed.
"I see your point. You think one of them is gonna get hurt because they can get to know you?" Apollo asked. I nodded. I felt Apollo smile. "They'll be fine, Squirt, I'm sure. I'll make sure they can't get hurt when I'm shining on you guys."
"Thanks Apollo." I said, beaming at the sun. "You're a star."
"Of course! No need to alarm ya, Squirt, but they're looking for ya. Good luck." Apollo informed me. I nodded and turned, leaping of the large rock pile. I walked forward to the Guardian's, who were looking around.
"Oh, there you are Wind." Jack said. I smiled slightly.
"My name's Whisteria, not Wind. But if you must, call me Wind." I said.
"Are you okay?"
"No." I said. "Why were you looking for me?"
"How'd you know?"
"Apollo." I said, looking up.
"Who?" Bunny asked.
"Apollo, the sun. He talks too. I wonder if you guys can talk to him." I said.
"Maybe." Apollo said. The Guardians plus Jack started in surprise.
"What was that?" Bunny asked.
"It was me, ya furball. Bright, shiny, right above you. Can't miss me." Apollo said. I laughed.
"That was Apollo." I said as they all looked up.
"How long have you been able to do that?" North asked. Apollo hummed in thought.
"Too long. Especially with this breeze tearing up Oklahoma." He said. I grinned.
"Aww, you're just saying that." I said. "You know ya love me."
"You know him?" Jack said. I nodded.
"Best dad a new spirit could ask for."
"Thanks Squirt." Apollo said. "Alright, you're burn my light. Get a move on if you want to get those teeth."
"We're collecting the teeth? Fair enough. I'll assign you lesser winds to get you place to place. Shut up, Southern Wind." I said, pointing upwards. "Northern and Eastern, take care of 'em."
"Where are you going?" Jack asked. I shrugged.
"Probably to Australia, maybe I'll hit the houses in S.A. Good Luck. Oh, and Jack?" I looked to him as I began shifting. "Call if you need help."
"How?" He asked. I smirked.
"Like you always have. Scream." I said. And I was off.
I was in Australia when I began getting a bad feeling. I was standing in the middle of the street, using my wind to drift in coins and grab the teeth. I dropped them in my bag. I began my way to the States, where Western Wind took over and sent Eastern to tell me. I handed Eastern my bag and gasped as I heard a scream.
Jack's scream.
I was off in a shot, at Jack's side in seconds.
"What's wrong?" I asked, shooing Western to protect the others.
"There's Nightmares here. How do you manage all these winds?" Jack asked and I flew him over the ground, pulling him away from danger and after the Nightmare.
"It's pretty easy. Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western listen to me. I'm the lead wind of sorts."
"What does that allow you to do?" Jack asked.
"What, being the big shot? I can sense things all over the world as long as they breath air or interrupt air currents. It's a bit overwhelming, but I'm used to it. Watch your foot." I said, pulling him over an air vent.
"Is that how you heard my scream?"
"Yup. I know you well enough, and when your breathing pattern is disrupted, I know." I said. "Wow, that doesn't seem creepy at all."
"Not a bit." Jack laughed.
"By the way, what happened to the others? I know Sandy's up, but the others are asleep." I said.
"We had a Dreamsand mishap in Jamie's room. Jamie's-"
"I know who Jamie is." I said.
"How?"
"I've been Guarding your sorry ass since you crawled from that lake in 1712." I said. "And don't worry, I'm not a pervert."
"I feel ten times better, thanks." Jack said sarcastically. The Nightmare we were chasing made a sharp turn down an alleyway and we were quick to follow. The Nightmare then veered up the wall of the alley and onto a rooftop. Jack whipped a blast from his staff and hit the Nightmare before it disappeared from view.
"HAAAH! We got it!" Jack jumped up onto the roof and prodded the frozen Nightmare with his staff. "Sandy! Sandy, did you see that?! Look at this thing!"
Jack could barely contain his excitement as he called out to Sandy. But suddenly Pitch lurched out from behind an air conditioning unit on the rooftop.
"Frost? Gale?" Jack blasted a wave of frost across the rooftop, but Pitch easily dodged it, reappearing behind Jack on the adjoining rooftop. "You know, for a 'neutral party' you spend an awful lot of time with those weirdos. This isn't your fight, Jack. Or yours, little breeze."
"You made it my fight when you stole those teeth." Jack snarled, holding his staff in a way that he could easily attack. Pitch regarded him curiously.
"Teeth? Why do you care about the teeth? And why do you care, Whisteria?" Pitch asked. I shifted and placed a hand on Jack's shoulder.
"I've been with this moron since his day one, so whatever threatens him, threatens me." I said. He rolled his eyes, then he noticed something and turned to find Sandy calmly standing on the rooftop next to him. Pitch quickly sidestepped, moving away from Sandy. Pitch chuckled.
"Now this is who I'm looking for-" Before Pitch could finish a Dreamsand whipped around him, forcing him to duck and dodge Sandy's sudden attack. Pitch dispersed a stream of nightmare sand, turning it into a gigantic sickle, and swung it back at Sandy. Jack and I ducked, avoiding injury as Sandy's pushed back against a ledge. Sandy quickly grabbed Pitch with another Dreamsand stream and yanked him off his feet, slamming him repeatedly against the tops of the buildings until finally throwing him off the rooftop. Pitch bounced off the ground as he crashed into an empty street. As Sandy dusted his hands and calmly stepped off the rooftop to follow, Jack looked on, astonished.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side." He said. I shifted and pulled him off the roof, into the street. Pitch shook off the crash, trying to back up as Sandy touched down and moved toward him, Jack following. Pitch cowered on the ground in fear as we approached.
"Okay, easy! You can't blame me for trying, Sandy. You don't know what it's like to be weak and hated. It was stupid of me to mess with your dreams. So I'll tell you what..." Sandy continued forward, grim faced...but suddenly Pitch stopped cowering and stood up. His tone changed drastically. "You can have 'em back!"
Before Jack and Sandy could react, a Nightmare shot up through a storm drain as several other Nightmares gathered in the alley behind him. Jack and Sandy looked around as hundreds of Nightmares descended from the surrounding rooftops to encircle them. Jack, worried, looked to Sandy and muttered...
"You take the ones on the left, I'll take the ones on the right?" Meanwhile, Pitch rose up from off the ground as his mount took shape underneath him. Pitch grabs onto her mane as it snorted and snarled. He then leaned forward.
"Boo!" He said. Pitch's army of Nightmares began to charge. Then suddenly, the sound of bells and reindeer echoed in the distance. North's sleigh bursted through the clouds. Jack and Pitch looked up into the sky as it circled overhead. The sleigh turned toward Pitch, only to fly a few feet over his head. Pitch turned as it passed over him, slightly confused.
"Whist, can you tell what's up with them?" Jack asked. If I could blush at the nickname, I would.
"North's asleep at the wheel, along with Bunny and Tooth." I announced. Suddenly, the sleigh clipped one of its skis as it flew over City Hall, jolting them to attention.
I focused on Jack and Sandy, who were still battling Nightmares. Sandy propelled himself and Jack into the air with a stream of Dreamsand and launched Jack away from the Nightmares. I quickly curled around him and he quickly oriented himself, knocking an oncoming Nightmare with his staff. Tooth quickly jumped off the side of the sleigh toward Jack and Sandy.
"Where's Whisty?!" Tooth called.
"I'm here!" I announced, giving her a burst of speed. I huffed. "How else do you all think you guys are staying in the air?!"
Jack knocked away a few more Nightmares with his staff, and looked up. Tooth suddenly flew into view through the swarm of Nightmares, slicing them apart with her wings, causing them to explode into black sand.
"Jack, I'm going to assign you Western. I'm going to get Sandy." I said. He nodded and Western gripped his sweatshirt, nodding to me. The lesser winds were like clear shadows. Five were males, Western was a female. There was Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western, then the two that circled the Earth along the Equator and the Prime Meridian.
Pitch gave a signal and leapt into the air, leading another wave of Nightmares after the Guardians. Back in the sleigh, Bunny jumped out and landed on a nearby roof. Bunny quickly tossed his boomerang which disintegrated every Nightmare in its path. Bunny caught the returning boomerang, leapt off the roof, and grabbed the skids of the sleigh as it passed by. North stood, drawing both his scimitars, and diced the oncoming Nightmares to bits as they attacked.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Come on!" North laughed. Jack headed back to the sleigh by dodging two Nightmares as they attack. As he continued his descent, Jack was suddenly blind sided by another Nightmare, which knocked the staff from his hands. For a moment, Jack was in a state of panic as he found himself in free fall. I gasped and looked over as Western panicked to catch him, but wasn't able to. She was linked to the staff after all.
"Aaaaaaaah!" Jack screamed. He finally managed to hook onto the staff, Western controlled his descent, and he landed safely on the sleigh as it flew past.
"You might want to duck." Bunny said cooly. Jack ducked as a Nightmare reared up behind him, but one of Bunny's boomerangs blasted through it and zipped back to Bunny's waiting paw.
I focused on swirling around Sandy, high up in the clouds, as he did his best to contain the mass of Nightmare that are swirling around him.
"We gotta help Sandy!" I heard Jack say. I directed my attention to behind us. Pitch had risen from behind a group of Nightmares. He had his arms stretched, an arrow of nightmare sand formed behind him. Pitch took aim and released the arrow. I wasn't fast enough to react as it flew through the air and into Sandy's back, exploding on impact. Sandy felt the shock and turned around. A patch of blackness started slowly spreading across his body. Pitch laughed as he and Sandy locked eyes.
"Hahahahaha!...Don't fight the fear, little man." Pitch relishes this moment of triumph. "I'd say sweet dreams, but there aren't any left.
Sandy, his eyes filled with terror, fell to his knees as the patch of blackness continued to spread. Jack pressed on, trying to reach Sandy as fast as he could. Sandy stood up, accepting his fate, and closed his eyes. I knelt and touched his cheek as he and his Dreamsand cloud were consumed by the writhing blackness of the Nightmare sand.
"Sandy..." I breathed in horrified awe. "Sandy!"
"No...NOOOOOO!" I heard Jack scream.
Sandy was gone. His beautiful Golden Dreamsand, now black, merged with the rest of Pitch's Nightmare sand.
"You're a monster." I hissed. Pitch only laughed.
"Really? But you're the one who got too close." He said. My eyes widened and I felt like a couldn't breath.
"No... No, this is your fault!" I insisted.
"Is it, Whisteria? Is it really?" Pitch taunted. I clamped my hand over my ears.
"Shut up. Shut up!" I yelled.
"I'm merely telling the truth, Whisteria." Pitch said. "You only cause death and disaster, wherever you go. Why, you even killed your own father."
"No, that isn't true! Shut up!" I said, shaking my head.
"You left him to die. And when you went to save him, you killed the both of you." Pitch sneered. Tears streamed down my face.
"Shut up!"
"You killed Sandy too. And look, you're going to get your precious Jack Frost killed too."
"No! Shut up, you sick bastard! Shut up!" I screamed. I shot off, leaving Western and Northern to care for the Guardians.
Disclaimer : I only own Whisty