Chapter Seven – Battle

It took a bit of time, working with the yeti. Jack found the communication only went one way – they could understand him but he couldn't understand them. So maybe the details of the course was a bit messed up and there were more stalagmites than he expected and the tunnel wasn't as clear of reindeer manure as he would have liked. Jack labeled them as yeti additions and wondered if it was some type of payback at North for something Jack wasn't aware of. As the Guardian of Fun, he wasn't going to insist such added obstacles be removed.

Tooth was looking uneasily at the ice sled in her hands. "Jack, the sleigh tunnel opens up to a thousand foot drop."

"No worries! Jack will catch us!" North was excited over the idea of a straight up race. He had told Bunny that his weight would equal a faster speed so he would win the sled race. Bunny mentioned it would be also harder to break for turns.

"Not quite," Jack corrected the elderly Guardian. "Phil and I did a lot of tests, and I doubt they're perfect, but these are designed to melt as you go along. They should shrink to the point where you will fall off the sled and come to a stop in the tunnel before the end."

"But just in case?" Tooth asked. Jack shot her a look. She didn't just look nervous, but a little scared too. The loss of her wings must have been a larger hurt than she was showing.

"I told the wind to be on the lookout. Plus, I'll be there. Someone has to watch the finish line to declare the winner."

Tooth still looked unsure.

"Relax, I'm the Guardian of Fun, not stupid injuries. You'll be fine. Trust me."

"Okay."

Jack smiled at her and then floated upwards to hover over the starting line. "Right, on your bellies!"

North and Bunny gave each other challenging looks before getting on their sleds.

"On three. One. Two. Three!" There was a rush of wind from behind them, giving everyone a starting push. Tooth let out a high pitched sound and Baby Tooth giggled at it from her spot in Jack's hoodie.

As his three friends went careening down the ice tunnel, Jack flew along above them. He winced as North slammed into a stalagmite, the ice shattering and knocking him off the sled. But within a heartbeat he was running and throwing himself back on the ice sled, roaring threats of catching up at Bunny's and Tooth's feet.

Tooth was doing surprisingly well, much more nimble that Bunny or North, avoiding every obstacle. Jack wondered if she even knew she was using her wings as a rudder, but there would be time for that later after she won. "Go Tooth!" he shouted as she passed Bunny on the inside of a corner. Jack had designed this race with North in mind, the big guy's familiarity with this tunnel was supposed to give him an edge and boost up his confidence. Seeing how things were actually going however made Jack think Tooth might be up and flying before the reindeer.

A third of the distance into the course, Jack noted one of the yeti lining the tunnel trying to get his attention. He speed up to reach him before the other Guardians did. "What's wrong?"

The yeti said something Jack couldn't understand, but the imitation of a whinny was enough to get the message across. There was a nightmare in the area.

"Where?" Jack asked. The yeti mimed a sled run, and then stopped. "The finish line?" Jack guessed, and at the furry beast's nod he took off through a side passage that would take him to the outside. He hadn't planned on watching the whole race in the first place, he had promised Tooth to be there to catch anyone who might need it, and trusted the rest of the yeti lined along the course to look out for the other Guardians. Jack had a nightmare to vanquish.

Tooth was starting to use her wings, and Bunny had grown another foot. That progress did not need to be relayed to Pitch Black. It was time to kill the messenger.

Except, as Jack saw when the wind took him to the small wooden ramp at the end of the ice tunnel, it wasn't a messenger who had came. It was the Boogieman himself, sitting astride a nightmare that was easily twice Jack's height.

Baby Tooth twittered nervously into Jack's ear.

"Frost, how did you fix your staff?"

Jack crossed his arms, standing on his shepherd's hook. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"I would indeed. Because the Globe is dark. I didn't believe my nightmare when she told me what she saw in the woods, you flying and that hair ball growing. You should all be powerless!"

The wave of black sand swept off the nightmare's body and towards Jack. He brought up his staff and split it with a bolt of ice. Pitch glared at him.

"Hate to disappoint Pitch, but there's more to me and the rest of the Guardians than the belief of children."

"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean you will survive for long."

There was a whoop of joy from below. Tooth had tumbled from her sled, the ice too melted to support her, and slid to a stop on the first wooden plank of the runway. "I won!" she said, jumping into the air and flying in a tight circle of victory.

Bunny came out of the tunnel next, frowning over being beaten.

There was a humming near Jack's ear, Baby Tooth was flying, zooming towards the Guardians to warn them while Pitch was distracted by their playful show, showing off the result of believing in your own abilities, but Pitch wasn't distracted any more, he was angry and Jack turned to look at him just as the scythe of black sand bit into his shoulder, and Jack was falling, falling, while Tooth was screaming and then the wind rushed up from beneath him, whispering in his mind I got you, you got this, and Jack believed his friend, iced the hole in his skin and turned to attack.

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Tooth didn't realize she was flying until she noted Bunny had to look up to glare at her, upset over his loss. She had just a moment to let the knowledge sink in before his face crumpled and then Baby Tooth hit her from behind. Whirling about in a panic, she saw Pitch Black strike Jack Frost out of the sky.

"No!" she screamed, her wings failing. Bunny caught her and set her gently on her feet, his eyes not once leaving the airborne fight. As they watched, Jack seemed to get a second wind and headed straight for Pitch. He was blocked by the sudden emergence of half a dozen nightmares.

North came out of the tunnel, lamenting his loss, but the sight of Jack being circled by the creatures of black sand shut his mouth.

"He can't hold them all off." Bunny said.

Baby Tooth puffed up anger and stabbed his check before yelling at him. Tooth translated for her friends. "She said that of course Jack can, he's strong. And she believes in him. We, we just have to do the same."

"I believe Jack has power," North said, "but not that he can defeat Pitch. Pitch has the belief of many children fearing him giving him strength, on top of powers from before. Like Jack, he must be self confident. Jack needs our help."

"And how do you supposed we fight in the air, eh mate? Last I checked, your sleigh can't fly."

"No, but the reindeer can!" Tooth pointed to the left, and indeed there were four reindeer cantering in the sky towards them. Not the full set to be sure, but they didn't need the sleigh right now.

"I am not fighting from the back of a flying deer."

"Come Bunny, where is adventurous spirit?"

Tooth didn't hear the response because she was in the air zooming towards Jack. As she watched, he dodged out of the strike of a nightmare causing it to collide with one of it's sisters. Jack then quickly froze and broke another one.

But as she got closer, Tooth could see Jack wasn't faring very well. His face and feet were covered in scratches, pink cuts that if North had would certainly bleed. Being technically dead, did Jack bleed? Was he able to withstand stronger attacks? Or was it actually a disadvantage, like not feeling pain? Would Jack not know when to stop fighting or use a broken arm? Would he not feel his strength deteriorating until one mild blow would do him in for worse?

Tooth watched in horror as a nightmare bit into Jack's side. In a flash she was there to disperse it and check over her friend. "Jack! Jack, are you okay?" Her hands hovered above his side. Jack was holding the area with a wince, but manged to smile at her.

"Look at that, you're flying." It was followed by a weak cough. Regardless of a dead body, Jack could still obviously feel pain and know the effects of injuries on his body and fighting ability.

There was a 'poof' as a nightmare behind them exploded thanks to one of Bunny's boomerangs. The furry Guardian was squeezing the poor reindeer to death between his thighs, but his eyes were firm with the seriousness of battle.

North was charging Pitch and without warning Jack went to join him, injury forgotten in the rush of battle. Tooth made to follow him but got tangled up in fighting nightmares, her vision filled with shifting sand and molten eyes.

There was a yell and Tooth turned just in time to see Jack's staff and Pitch's scythe meet, Jack looking haggard and Pitch as if he were brushing away a gnat.

"This winter air is getting to you too much, don't you think Frost? And the wind is atrocious. Let's go somewhere a bit more...sheltered."

The nightmares lost their form, instead turning into a thick spinning cloud like the one that had killed Sandy. Tooth found herself herded towards the center with the Guardians while Pitch sat on his nightmare above them. The darkness closed in to the point where she couldn't see her friends anymore.

When her vision returned, she was in a brass cage hanging from the ceiling in a cave.