Aggie knew she had to move. The cloud of nightmares was engulfing the city like dust storm on an old western town and all she could do was stare, frozen about four meters above the roof of the twelve-story hospital.
The wind quivered around her, as unsure how to react to this invasion as she was.
"T-this is Pitch's doing." Aggie managed, not sure if she were talking more to the wind or herself. "I-I haven't ever seen him do a-anything like this b-before."
The wind hummed.
Aggie looked down at the hospital. At the woman running inside, hugging her jacket tight against the wind.
That woman could be a mother. A sister. A friend. And if nothing else, she was a daughter.
And it wasn't just her. It was every person in that hospital. Every child who had seen her out of the corner of their eye, every old man she had sat by and comforted as he slowly lost his memory, every new mother she had whispered encouragement to as they struggled through birth.
And that was just the hospital - not the children and mothers and fathers and newlyweds and workers and hermits of the whole rest of the city.
How could Pitch do this? How could he destroy so much good, so much innocent, so much peace, so much… everything?
"W-wind." Aggie said. "Is Pitch out there?"
The wind swirled in a chorus of snow and wet leaf fragments.
Aggie nodded shakily. "Take me to him."
The wind was hesitant, but did as she asked, tilting her forward and forming her a personal jet stream towards the front of the invading cloud.
Aggie saw him before she landed.
The spirit of fear and darkness was standing in the middle of a street, his arms tossed above his head as he spun in circles, cackling in devilish glee.
"My gods," Aggie breathed as her feet settled on the pavement. "You've gone mad."
Pitch turned, his too-large smile only growing at the sight of her. "Ah, it's just like the old days Aggie! You and me, wreaking havoc!"
Aggie narrowed her eyes. "This is all you, Pitch. I have never hurt anyone purposefully."
"Really?" He laughed. "And the Black Plague was just a mistake then!"
"That wasn't me." Aggie said. "We have had this conversation before."
Pitch ran the few feet between them and grasped her shoulders, his smile still eerily wide. "You may not remember the old days, Agony, but I do! And I have come here, so we make new memories together to replace the ones you have lost!"
"I will not have part in your madness!" Aggie shoved his hands away. "I have told you before, I am not Agony! Now get out of my city so I don't have to fight you!"
"Fight me?" Pitch looked almost hurt. "Your city? Aggie, you may have lay claim to the hospitals, but you cannot take an entire city as your own!"
"It is not my own." Aggie said. "But it is under my protection."
Maybe it was the words, maybe it was the delivery, but Pitch's expression changed, as if he was finally taking her threat seriously.
"Agony, you would not… really fight me, would you?"
"My name is not Agony." Aggie said. "Agony is dead. So whatever friendship you had with her is dead. I am someone else - and yes, I will fight you. I do not want to, but this is wrong Pitch. This is more than wrong."
"It is only wrong because you were told so!" Pitch cried. "Look what Man in Moon has done to you, my friend! He has changed your very ideas of right wrong!"
"For the better, it would seem." Aggie clipped. "Are you leaving or not?"
Pitch was silent for a long moment. His eyebrows curved and jutted in thoughts Aggie didn't want to try and imagine.
He was just opening his mouth to speak when he was cut off from above; "Hey, Pitch!"
Aggie looked up, and every hope she had for convincing Pitch to leave peacefully fell.
She had heard the stories about how it was Jack Frost - newest Guardian - who Pitch blamed (and rightfully so) for his most recent banishment.
From what she had learned of Pitch since her (re?)birth, there was no way the boogeyman was going to give up the chance for revenge. Certainly not with an army of nightmares at his back.
Jack didn't seem to have seen Aggie yet. He was completely focused on Pitch. Maybe the obsession went both ways.
Aggie backed up, onto the sidewalk and between two nightmares that were still awaiting their master's command.
Seeming to have forgotten about Aggie himself (a dangerous thing to do, he should have known) Pitch strode forward, spreading his arms in a taunt to the young winter spirit.
"Jack Frost!" He greeted, that wide smile returning to his face. "How nice of you to join me!"
Jack hovered about ten meters off the pavement, his staff held between him and his enemy, prepared for attack. But despite his tense posture, he was grinning. "I heard you were in the area. Just had to drop in and say hi."
"Well, you've said hi." Pitch said. "What now?"
"Well," Jack said. "I was thinking maybe you take your nightmares back home. Their nice and all, but they don't quite go with my decour."
"Maybe it's time to redecorate?" Pitch suggested.
Jack snorted. "Thanks, but… no thanks. I like New York the way it is myself."
"Well maybe you should think it over." Pitch said, and his smile twisted in a way Aggie knew all too well. "Because these colors are a bit… last season."
He had thrown a dart of black nightmare sand faster than Aggie could blink. It was only his shout of, "Attack!" That allowed her to understand was happening in time to jump out of the way of the pouncing nightmares.
She scrambled to her feet and was unable to see Jack. The sky was a swarm of black that light flickered through in motion-sickness-inducing flashes that stung at Aggie's eyes.
Pitch was still on the ground, firing darts of black sand into the swarm, laughing with a sickening kind of glee.
This had to stop. All of it. The attack on the city. The attack on Jack. The attempts to "bring Agony back."
And there was only one way Aggie had to stop it.
She reached - reached deep - into a place inside herself she had not been in centuries. And her vision went red.
Pitch was facing away from her, his eyes watching the cloud as he took aim again. Now was the time.
Aggie moved forward - she raised her arm - there was a flash - a taste like smoke - something hot - screams - she wasn't sure whose.
When she could see again she was panting. Pitch was on his knees, his back against her chest as she bent, cheek to cheek with the boogeyman, pressing a blade of red energy to his throat.
Pitch's eyes were wide with fear.
Huh. Aggie thought. I guess the embodiment of fear can feel fear. She filed the information away for later pondering.
"Call off your nightmares."
Pitch shivered. "Ag-Agony what a-rre y-you doing?"
"Fighting you." Aggie said, very calmly, considering. "And as it seems I have won, I am making my demands. Call of the nightmares."
Pitch was quiet.
Aggie pressed her blade harder against his skin. "Call. Off. The nightmares."
Pitch cut his eyes sideways to look at her. "I-I…" He raised a shaky hand and snapped his fingers.
The nightmares dispersed in a rain of black dust, and Aggie saw Jack Frost then; he was falling, having been held up by the nightmares.
Aggie jumped away from Pitch and sprinted towards the falling spirit, flinging her arms up - her red blade of shot upward into spirals of light, catching Jack in its gentle embrace and slowly lowering him to the street.
Aggie ran to him. She vaguely realized the light was hovering around, as she had not yet commanded it to leave, but she didn't have time to deal with it.
Jack's eyes were half open, blinking unfocused in her general direction.
"Jack?" Aggie shook his shoulders gently. "Jack Frost, look at me."
His eyes had fluttered shut.
"Jack!" Aggie's eyes cut to Pitch.
The boogeyman was climbing to his feet. He met her eyes, and immediately dispersed into black sand.
Aggie carefully lifted Jack Frost's head with slightly shaking hands, and her fingers were immersed in something wet and sticky.
"Oh gods." Aggie breathed. "Oh gods, oh gods this is not good."
The hospital was only a block away.
Aggie looked to the red light, which hovered at Jack's other side, eagerly awaiting orders.
"Help me carry him."
