I do not own ROTG
Thank you all for who reviewed, favourited, followed or just even reads the story.
Pitch was in the dark and he created a nightmare dust arrow, it was similar to the one he shot at Sandy. This time it was different. He filled it with a strange darkness and he handed it to a shadow in the dark.
"You know what to do." He told it as it took the arrow and left in the darkness.
"Pitch has gone too far this time, we have to go after him." Jack said.
"We will, but first things first. Jack you're not getting off the hook so easily mate." Bunnymund glared at Jack.
"Here we go." Jack muttered quietly to himself.
"What were you thinking?" North asked. Bunny continued, "You defied a direct order."
Jack looked up, "Pitch wasn't even there. Instead of talking about him, we should be going after him."
"We are. You are not." North replied.
Jack yelled, "What!?"
"Pitch would still be after you Jack." North stated.
"He's no match for me!" Jack defended for himself.
"It doesn't change the fact that you could be hand delivering yourself to Pitch." Bunny implied.
"Pitch wouldn't be able to catch me."
"You underestimate Pitch, Jack." Tooth was on North's and Bunny's side. Only because she was worried like a mother.
Jack shook his head, "No, you're underestimating me. I'm not someone that needs protecting just because Pitch has done one thing to me. Even if you lock me up or chain me. I will find Pitch myself if I have to, either way I'm going to find him. With or without your help. I was chosen to be a guardian, let me do my job."
He was used to handling things alone and if he was such a worry, why did they fuss about him so much? Jack didn't know.
Sandy nodded in agreement, he was the only guardian that was actually on his side. Jack appreciated that at least someone was on his side.
The guardians all looked at each other having a silent conversation through eye contact. Jack watched as they all gave a short nod to one another. They all agreed that Jack was right, but it didn't hide their concern for the boy. Even though Bunny could hide it well.
"Stay close, but if we think it gets too dangerous you have to go back to the workshop with one of us. We leave at sunrise." North announced. Jack looked out the window and saw light creeping in from the rising sun.
"That would be now. Where to first?" Jack said.
"Under the bed, in the shadows." Bunnymund replied. They knew where they had to look first.
"We all take sleigh." North declared with hesitation as he looked at Jack. He wanted to keep him safe like the others, but he would prefer Jack looking for Pitch with them then alone because he knew either way Jack would go.
"That means you too Bunny."
Bunnymund frowned. The thought of the sleigh made Bunnymund already feel the lump of carrots waiting in his throat.
They returned to Burgess and they all crowded around the bed frame and the hole. Jack remembered the last time he was somewhat lured in there.
He never properly told the guardians about that, or anything else about his past and Pitch asking to join him after making a nightmare sand and ice model. He never thought it relevant or that they needed to know.
"Stick close." North told them, but Jack knew that it was directed to him.
They went down the hole.
"Keep your guard up." Tooth muttered as they searched in a group in the shadows for Pitch. No one besides Jack had been there before. So they were surprised in the surroundings.
"You think he'll be down here." Bunnymund whispered to the others as he looked above at the hanging cages.
Jack was the first to reply, "I'm not sure if he is, but somethings down here."
"Jack is right." North added, he could feel it in his belly. They were both right. Something was lurking in the shadows.
They searched everywhere, it was completely clean. No sign of anything, Pitch was covering his tracks.
"He knew we would search here." Tooth groaned.
"That's what puts me on edge." Bunnymund muttered. Jack knew what he meant, but the others did not.
A question mark hovered over Sandy's head. Jack answered, "He means to say that because Pitch we knew we'll be here and we've seen nothing here."
"Maybe he's not here." Tooth suggested hoping that it was so.
A shadow was watching from the darkness in silence. It had a nightmare sand bow and arrow like the previous one Pitch had used on Sandy, but the arrow this time was smaller, but the tip was just as sharp.
From the shadows on the corner of the ceiling a shadow figure rose up and shot the arrow at Sandy. Releasing the arrow sounded like a butterfly's heart beat. But the movement activated a somewhat sixth sense in Jack and he looked up at that moment and saw a shadow come up from darknesss with the corner of his eye.
"Look out!" Jack yelled as he tackled Sandy out of the arrows way, but the arrow instead hit Jack's neck and after it hit Jack dissolved into nothing.
"Jack!" North exclaimed in surprise, Jack put a hand over his neck with his free hand. Jack quickly aimed his staff at the shadow without looking and shot winter magic at it, but the shadow retreated back in the darkness just in time.
The shadow began jumping around in the dark trying to make an escape.
"Are you okay?" Tooth asked as Jack stood up.
Jack shot back, "Don't worry about me. Go after the shadow!"
The guardians didn't spare another moment and began the game of hide, seek and chase. Sandy stayed with Jack when the others chased after the shadow.
Tooth blocked the exit so it wouldn't be able to get out without her knowing and Bunny was hopping around right on it's tail. While North was trying to corner it for Bunny and trying to hit it with his two blades.
Not even a minute after he got hit, Jack removed his hand from his neck and where he was hit and thin layer of ice and frost covered it. Sandy looked at Jack surprised and a bit puzzled.
"It should stop it from bleeding. You think this is the first time I've gotten hurt?" The question was rhetorical. Jack looked up at the guardians running around the room.
"Bunny over there!" Tooth pointed as it made movement after he lost it. He threw his boomerang but it swiftly moved through the shadows. When the boomerang came back to him he yelled, "It's too dark in this place!"
An idea popped in Jack's head, "Sandy when I tell you, release your dream sand all over the place."
Sandy gave him a confused look but nodded anyway. Jack took a deep breath and tapped his staff near the nearest wall and ice began to immediately cover all the walls and the ceiling. The guardians didn't stop to ask, but the shadow seemed startled by this new atmosphere.
"Sandy now." Sandy shot out dream sand and the ice reflected the light from the dream sand. Leaving no darkness for the shadow to hide. The shadow was revealed to be a fearling in the shape of Pitch.
Bunnymund leapt to catch it but while the fearling was distracted by Bunny, Jack froze it and it dropped on the ground.
"Show off." Bunny grumbled. The dream sand disappeared and the light dimmed down.
"What should we do with it?" Tooth asked as they crowded around the fearling.
"Let it go." North replied, "We can follow it to Pitch. Tooth when we release it, follow behind and when it enters the hide out you can lead us to it. The sun is out so the shadows will be easy to see."
"Right." She nodded ready to go.
"Jack ready to let it go?" North asked. Jack tilted his head and stared at the ice block of a fearling.
"What are you waiting for frostbite?" Bunny asked impatiently.
Jack replied, "I freeze things. I've only ever thawed somethings I freeze once or twice and that was around two hundred years ago. So I've kinda forgot."
"Really?" Bunny asked growing frustrated.
Jack snorted, "Not really I just wanted to annoy you kangaroo. Ready Tooth?"
Bunny groaned and Jack tapped the ice with his staff and it immediately broke and the fearling ran in the dark, but Tooth was on it's tail. The remaining guardians went back up the hole back near the sleigh.
"So what are we going to do while Tooth's doing that?" Jack asked. The three remaining guardians looked at each other.
"We don't know what that was that hit you mate." Bunny began, "We need to check it out."
"If you mean Sandy knocking me out. Again! Then stay away from me."
"No. Since nightmare sand jabbed you. Sandy's dream sand must jab you, just in case to counter act if nightmare sand is in you." Not a moment after Sandy had a dream sand pin and pricked Jack's hand with it.
"Hey! Easy." Jack jumped at the sudden jab, It didn't bleed but the dream sand did go in it. North grabbed a bandage from a bag in the sleigh and Jack was reluctant to get the bandage wrapped around his neck. Bunny had to hold Jack still as North wrapped it around his neck.
After North finished Bunny said, "That wasn't so bad, now was it frosty?"
Jack rolled his eyes. Frosty. That was a new one. Jack asked as he felt the bandage and ignored Bunnymund, "Was that really necessary? I covered it with ice."
Sandy hovered an ice cube over his head and it melted, that was Sandy's way of saying that it would melt and start bleeding.
Jack felt strange, it was a bad feeling washing over him like something was really wrong. He assumed that it was the fact he had a bandage around his neck, he had never had worn a bandage before.
But that wasn't it. Little did Jack know was what ever Pitch put in the arrow was meant for Jack and it wasn't nightmare sand that was in it.
Tooth discreetly followed the fearling. It wasn't long till the fearling came to a halt. Tooth hid behind a tree and watched. She saw it enter a cave that looked really dark. It looked completely black. Pitch black.
She had memorized a lot of everywhere she had been and that cave wasn't ever there before. She turned around to fly back. That cave even from a distance screamed danger.
She flew back to where she began and found the others outside near the sleigh.
"I found the hide out. It's a cave, from where I was I saw no light. It was complete darkness."
Sandy hovered a mini him and torch next to his image. He was saying that he could use his dream sand as light.
"Lead the way." Bunny replied to Tooth. And so she did.
They stood outside the cave, an ominous wind blew out from the cave.
"I don't like it." Bunnymund stated. He looked over to North and the two glanced at Jack. But North made his decision, that he felt like that he would regret.
"Jack stay close." North reminded. Jack gave a short nod as he was thankful that North wasn't going to try make him go back, he could try but fail.
Sandy hovered a dream sand ball slightly ahead of them as they entered the dark cave, not knowing of the true dangers and turns of the cave.
Want more? Please Review!
