OOC: Just a heads up, this chapter goes back and forth between the two fights. They aren't massive fight scenes on purpose as I'm pushing with the plot more than the action currently. Just realize that the periods signify that the story is switching between the two sets (Tooth, Sandy, Ember) and (North, Jack, Bunny, Pitch). Also, the reason this story has a high T will be coming up in about 2-3 chapters.

Chapter 9

"Where are the others?" Tooth cried at Ember. In the fairy's hand was the entire container of Amber Lane's memories, and Ember had no intention of letting those see the daylight again. She remembered enough, and that was enough for one person… she didn't want five Guardians also getting a peek into what was rightfully hers.

"Dealing with Pitch," she hissed. "Now be a good peacock and hand those over."

Tooth only seemed to grip the box tighter to her chest; all the baby Tooth's were fluttering around between doing their job and trying not to be frightened by the fire spirit. Sandy punched his hand before summoning a whip. Ember only narrowed her gaze.

"Fine have it your way," she hissed. "Just know this means I'll burn this entire place to the ground."

"North," Jack said softly. He couldn't believe that the Russian had told Ember where Tooth and Sandy were; it was impossible situation- a child or the other Guardians. Jack was glad he didn't have to make it, and he could only hope that they could handle Ember.

"Aww that was adorably sweet," Pitch said with a smirk. The sarcasm was dripping from his tongue. The scythe cut through the air at the three Guardians, but they each dodged a different direction. "The child over your own. Is it going to eat you alive knowing she might kill them?" It was obvious Pitch was talking directly to North now.

North glared at the Nightmare king. "They can handle her," he said gruffly. "Now you get us." He pulled out his two swords blocking the next swing of the scythe with one.

"I don't know," he continued to tease blatantly ignoring Bunny and Jack. "Is that fear I smell?" His eyes fluttered as he took in a deep breath. "Oh yes, it is quite intoxicating."

Bunny's boomerangs came out of nowhere and smacked the king of fear in his face tossing him off balance. Having what could be called an ingenious idea in Jack's head, the winter spirit glided over just as the fear king started to fall, and Jack put an ice patch right there. Completely losing his balance, Pitch felt on the ice and started to slide along the path Jack was creating with his staff.

Ember let out a shrill laugh when Sandy's whip came across her face again; she let it hit her… and she relished it. The fire spirit was feeling good; the pain was pushing her to be more, to be stronger… plus it wasn't cold. Sandy just looked confused by the fact the fire spirit was taking in the pain and just going with it.

He tried again with his whip, but this time, she grabbed it and let it wrap around her arm. The hit stung, but she smiled. Letting her body heat up, Ember transferred all the heat into the whip and watched in fascination as it turned to glass; Sandy's eyes went wide.

"So it does work like that," she said meeting the Sandman's eyes, and there was a sick pleasure in the fire spirit's gaze. "Let's see what happens if I do this to you directly." She had only made it two steps after shattering the glass when Tooth rammed her from the side.

"Leave him alone," the fairy growled at Ember.

"Or what?" Ember laughed regaining her balance and aiming an arrow at Tooth. "You'll molt all over me." In response, Tooth held up the box of memories, and the fire spirit glared while simultaneously turning the fire on her body to a deeper shade of red. The angrier she got, the hotter she burned.

The two Guardians squared off against Ember again, and this time the fire spirit had every intention of finishing this fight for Pitch. Without Jack here to counter her powers, she knew that this fight wouldn't take too terribly long… as long as she got rid of Sandy. Her gaze flickered over to the Sandman, and she smiled.

Pitch slammed into a wall thanks to Jack's stunt; he was more livid than anything else. He stood and smoothed down his robes before turning on the Guardians, who were at the top of a staircase now. Words were not spoken, but the tension was palpable in the air. It turned from strain to confusion and worry at the sight of shadows crawling along the walls. From each side of the Guardians, Nightmares seemed to star to appear, and they were increasing a ten-fold.

"It seems Sandy's dreams are fading," Pitch called up. "I wonder why…" It went unsaid that he thought Ember had dispatched of the dream creator.

"We have to go check on them," Jack said not liking the idea of leaving the Nightmare King right now. His powers were obviously growing a lot quicker than anyone thought possible; there was no guarantee if they left if the Guardians would ever get the chance to be at such an advantage over him.

"This isn't over Pitch!" Bunny growled as the Guardians slowly backed up to make their retreat.

"No Bunny, it's far from over," the King whispered more to himself than to anyone else. He couldn't hide the smile from his face as an army of Nightmares surrounded him. Without Sandy, there was no one to protect against the fears that would eat at children in their sleep. He tried not to laugh at the power his plan actually had; he knew the risk when he put Ember under and giving her glimpses of her memories and twisting them into new Nightmares… Yet it apparently got her angry enough to fight even harder, and there didn't seem to be any backlash. She probably didn't even remember dreaming it. Right then, Pitch threw his head back and let out a laugh of triumph.

Jack and the other Guardians had jumped in the sleigh; Bunny less quick to do so but he eventually relented. They went as quick as they could to the Palace using a portal to do so, but what they saw when they went through was far worse than they had expected in such a short time. The Palace wasn't burnt to the ground, which was one good thing, but billows of smoke could be seen. The closer the Guardians the more worried they became; they didn't see a single baby Tooth, and it was eerily quiet.

Jack finally decided the sleigh was going too slow for him, and he jumped into the air. He bolted ahead of the group to land on a platform. He scanned the area, but besides the lack of busyness, there wasn't a single thing wrong. Finally after walking across almost the entirety of the Palace, Jack found Tooth on her knees sobbing quietly. He immediately ran to her, dropping his staff as he did so.

"Are you okay?" he asked getting right down next to her, but she didn't seem to notice him. And it was then, Jack realized why. All around him Baby Tooth's were crying as well, and in the middle of this weeping session were hundreds of the teeth boxes burnt to a crisp…

Finally Tooth spoke, "She did it to get me to release her box. She wouldn't stop burning them until I did…" Her bleary eyes looked up at Jack's bright blue ones. He could see the pain there, and he wrapped an arm around her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Oh Tooth," North could be heard saying from behind the pair of Guardians.

"Where is hers?" Jack asked, and that was when Tooth opened her palm to show two teeth, one charred, but the other looked to be in rather intact shape.

"I was able to save these two before she obliterated her box," the Guardian of memories admitted. "Jack… I'm sorry… I think your memories…" she trailed off and looked at the mound of blackened boxes, and Jack didn't need her to finish it to realize what had happened.

He lowered his head in defeat before forming a fist and clenching tightly. There was no way he was going to let Ember get away with this. He didn't care how many snowballs he had to pelt her with or if he had to dunk her in a lake to get her to stop, he was going to fix this mess he had seemingly started.

"Tooth," Bunny said softly hopping up behind them. "Where's Sandy..?"

She didn't say a word but instead pointed. Everyone looked up to the platform above them all to see a perfect glass statue of Sandman. The Guardians tried not to get overly emotional at the sight; Jack just couldn't believe the bad luck. They lost Sandy once almost to Pitch, and it looked like they might have lost him again to Ember.

"He saved the rest a column of teeth by getting in the way of her blast," Tooth mumbled picking a feather off her coat and frowning at the sight of her dwindling powers. "Oh what am I going to do…"

Jack pulled her into a hug. "Everything will be all right." Tooth stared at the winter spirit with a frown. "We just gotta stay hopeful… I mean it's required of us anyway with the Kangaroo around." At that, Tooth let out a bit of a choked laugh.

"We'll fix this," Jack continued. "As long as you can fly, we can at least keep some belief in the kids." To which, Tooth nodded, but again, all their eyes went up to Sandy who was now truly immortalized as a statue.

Chapter 10: The Guardians try to raise their spirits and place Sandy in the Warren hoping for a way to reverse what happened to them. Unbeknownst to Jack, Ember decides to continue with the destruction of the Guardians… and she knows his weak spot quite well now- Jamie.

OOC: This will probably be the only update for today (busy day), but this weekend- who knows. R&R.