The New Tribe
Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.
Author's Note: I wonder what anyone will guess what was in the vial that Pitch made Jack drink last chapter. It will be revealed in the next chapter, but I'd like to hear what my readers think it is. Also did this chapter flow easily?
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Chapter 10: The Rescue
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"Jack?" Jamie gasped awake from a nightmare about Jack falling and drowning in the ice.
"Jamie." Jack's relieved voice was a sign of reality. Turning around, Jamie scowled at the rope tying Jack's hands above his head and rubbing Jack's skin raw. Pushing away his fear, Jamie touched the grainy rope. They both gasped when the rope turned from black to gold. His muscles exceedingly sore, Jack collapsed into a pile on the floor of the cage.
"What's wrong?" Jamie asked, wincing at the painful position Jack was in.
"I...I can't move. My muscles are completely cramped up." Jack admitted.
As Jamie knelt to massage feeling back into Jack's feet, Jamie spoke up, "Jack?"
"Yes, Jamie?" Jack tried to move his arms.
"Your eyes are blue."
"What?" Jack blinked in confusion, "Since when?"
"Since you saved me on the lake."
"If that was real... how am I alive?"
"I don't know." Jamie shrugged, "You somehow absorbed the water once you fell in it. Since then... well don't you feel lighter?"
"Considering I'm not six feet under, yes. However, since we are in this cave, we are likely more than six feet under." Jack retorted as he started to regain movement.
"No, I mean, whatever weight you had before is gone. I've been pulling you enough to notice when you go from my weight to the weight of a feather."
Jack blinked at Jamie, opened his mouth, closed it, and tried to jump. However, his body was working against him still. "Nothing seems to have changed." Jack stared at Jamie oddly.
"Yeah, but... Watch." the ten-year-old picked up the fourteen-year-old with startling ease.
"Whoa, okay, I see your point. Put me down now." Jack stared bewildered at Jamie, "Are you sure you didn't get stronger? How does someone just lose their weight?"
"Well, you're also cold, a lot." Jamie rubbed his hands to use the friction to warm his hands.
"I think I noticed that, but I thought it had something to do with being sick or not sick." Jack admitted.
"Jack... Jack!" Jamie tried to hold onto Jack as the bird cage suddenly split, the hard nightmare bars becoming flexible and pulling the boys apart into two dangling prisons,
"Jamie!" Jack reached out. Unnoticed, frost began icing his bars. Jamie desperately tried to turn the black bars on his prison into the golden sand of earlier. But as it turned into golden sand, the black sand fought back, throwing Jamie against something hard. Jamie grunted, opening his eyes. Jamie blinked, going from dazed to full of dread. Now that Jamie was no longer touching the sand, the black sand fought the gold sand and won. Jamie was now stuck in a metal bird cage (the door was only big enough for a bird).
"I thought this might happen." Pitch purred as he emerged in the air between the cages, "I can't have you escaping yet, little wizard." Black sand threaded through the Nightmare King's hands, forming a sphere.
"Watch out Jamie!" But Jack's warning didn't help when limited space to dodge became more unstable. Mince, the rat, was rattling the chain suspending Jamie's prison in the air. With a wicked contemptuous smirk that told Jack that he was playing with them, Pitch faked the throw. Instead, the ball of despair hit Jamie from behind, instantly sending the ten-year-old into the land of unpleasant dreams.
"I'd send you to sleep too, but the longer you stay awake, the more... interesting your gift becomes. Ever heard of a fearling?" Pitch sneered at furious blue eyes. A fear grew within Jack at that detail. Jack didn't know what a fearling was, but hoped that he didn't just drink the essence of one. Jack had not been wanting to see whatever the vial of shadows created, but if what Pitch said was true... he had to go to asleep. But more likely Pitch was lying and Jack couldn't decide if he was more afraid to stay awake or go to sleep, which is likely the result Pitch had been aiming for. Jack heard Pitch's echoing laugh and made his decision.
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Below the boys' prisons, Pitch waved his hands to bring his plans to life. A trap here, a distraction there, a killer from below... and above for good measure. Finally Pitch had a way to bring down the Guardian of Hope and the world with him! Too bad Pitch hadn't realized it beforehand; now Bunnymund was on guard and would be ready for a sudden fight to the death.
Now... what would be the best presentation? He only needed one of the boys... he could add Jamie's power to his own later. Pitch decided, snapping his fingers, causing shadows to hide Jamie's cage. Besides, Jack needed to be alive to appreciate Pitch's little gift. Basebat's apprentice was somewhere about, memorizing the lines that Pitch had written down. Too bad it had to be a mortal who had to call the Pooka, otherwise Pitch could try with random kids if it didn't work. Although... it did take a lot of magic to fight the magic of a Call. So maybe not.
Jack's prison would be next to his throne... no in front when he had the bumbling mortal grunt make the 'call of the Pooka'. When the call couldn't pull the child to safety, the call would pull the oldest Pooka to their location. And then before the rabbit could do anything, he would be dead! Pitch closed his eyes in rapture, a triumphant leering smile on his lips. Then this world would belong to the chaos of fear!
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Jack had stayed awake, if only to get an idea of all the things Pitch was plotting down below. Peering between two of the bars down below, he'd occasionally anxiously flicker his eyes to where Jamie's cage was hidden in the rafters.
It would have been boring had the situation not been so on edge. Absentmindedly, Jack rubbed his neck where a colorful bruise was forming from Pitch. He wondered what time it was.
Later, when Jack realized that he could no longer hear Pitch, he peeked down below. He squinted... that was a nightmare...
"Boo!" Pitch chuckled as Jack jumped, startled,
"AH!" Jack whirled around to face the Boogeyman, scowling, "Pitch!"
"I see you decided to wait. Ah well, I will enjoy the results of that gift later." Pitch smirked as a sharp snip of fear ran through Jack, like the taste of chilled water in the desert. The child hid it as best he could, however, Pitch wasn't the master of fear for nothing.
Jack cringed as Pitch reached through the bars, hands instantly up in defense. Jack winced as Pitch dragged him closer by his white hair, clawing the Nightmare King's hands. But Pitch acted as if he didn't feel it, leaning close and whispering, "Even if that annoying rabbit somehow survives and rescues you, I have still won." Pitch shook the small fourteen-year-old, before releasing the dazed and intimidated child to fall on the floor of the cage.
Then Jack heard a snap and a rattle and his heart was in his lungs as he was dropped without warning in the enclosure. Sent flying, Jack hit the top and then bottom of the dark sandstone prison as a bruised human basketball when the cage stopped falling, swinging wildly.
Cautiously and suspiciously, Jack climbed up on his feet to look around, before realizing it was pointless to look for the master of shadows in the shadows. But then Jack's breath hitched as he did spot Pitch, lounging in a tall-backed fancy chair, presumably the spirit's throne nearly within arm's reach.
"Begin." the Shadow King ordered.
Jack's head swerved to where Pitch had been looking. Nearby, someone human began chanting.
"I, Blad, call the Pooka. Take this orphan named Jack away!" Basebat's apprentice chanted as he prepped a shotgun.
Nothing happened. Blad repeated it. And still nothing happened. Jack didn't know why it wasn't working. It clearly had worked before. Blad muttered something, inspecting his gun, chanting the words over and over.
"...Maybe the Pooka decided you weren't saving," Pitch's voice laughed mockingly at Jack, who gulped, wondering if that was true or if Pitch was playing with his head. It certainly felt real, especially with Blad's frustration, but Jack was good at some tricks too. Besides why was Pitch trying to Call the Pooka when the magic would only take Jack away? It didn't mean Bunny would come in person... would he?
"Maybe Bunny was smarter and waiting for the Call." Jack knew it was foolish to try and bait his captor but he needed to do something to help Jamie at the very least. But Pitch needed to be distracted and Jack was good at distracting.
"Hardly." Pitch sneered, "That animal will not be expecting it." Pitch's eyes narrowed in thought. 'I missed something... wait... can a stranger's Call work on a child? The two boys had been wished away by Jack and they were barely acquainted. However, Jack had the wishing power of all the children and trust involved. Wish is belief... Did that adult mortal believe enough? That could be fixed soon enough as the last Basilisk grunt already believed in Pitch... and had seen the Guardians briefly before... yes this could be easily fixed. After all, Pitch had all the time he wanted.'
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As soon as Pitch had been distracted, Jack scanned his surroundings for anything useful. He really could have used some pebbles right now... huh. Jack was sure he hadn't had the pieces of what felt like hail in his pocket before. With some skill gained as a bored sheep herder, Jack started throwing the pebbles through the shadows veiling Jamie's cage.
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Startled, Jack missed the last throw when Pitch threw a small ball of nightmares at his minion. Jack shrunk away from Pitch as the Nightmare King looked over at him.
His teeth alone looked menacing, as the spirit of shadows spoke, "Just a little more time my storyteller."
"I'm not yours." Jack bristled immediately.
"No?" Pitch jeered, pointedly examining the limited space Jack was trapped in, "You look like a prized bird to me. Displayed with no space to fly."
Jack flushed angrily, neither being noticing the drop of temperature. The boy opened his mouth to retort, closed it and finally settled on determined, "Bunny will beat you."
Pitch's eyes tightened, although Jack wasn't sure if it was caused by amusement or aggravation as Pitch smoothly replied, "So much faith in something alive you've only seen twice. But he hasn't saved you yet, my little bird."
Jack stared firmly, trying to find the balance in how to respond. Jack was mad, but he knew he could only push back Pitch so far when Jack and Jamie really were at the Shadow King's mercy and Pitch didn't seem the merciful type. Jack struggled with himself, finally choosing to try and ignore his kidnapper, but trying to keep an eye on the evil spirit all the same.
Pitch had twitched in anger as Jack had turned away, but a satisfied smile was on his lips when he realized the boy was keeping a wary gaze on him. To vex the boy, Pitch had a nightmare swing the dangling cage harshly. With a cry, Jack hit the sides a few times before crashing on the dancing floor. Jack remained slumped over as he really didn't was to think about the bruises that were going to form.
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Not long after, Blad (a rather boring name for a less than inspirational mortal in Pitch's mind) awoke. Blad's eyes hardened as he picked up the gun, chanting and focused on the spot where Pitch marked to allow the rabbit to gain access when the Call couldn't save the boy. To Jack's dismay, he saw magic begin to rise out of the dust and try to reach Jack. It was blocked... oh no. This was how Pitch intended to kill Bunny!
"NO!" Jack cried as he jumped up and banged on the bars of his cage. Jack leaped back when strips of sand peeled off the bars and darted towards the boy. Jack tried to dodge, but with multiple ribbons coming at him from all directions, the sand slithered around his limbs, tightening into a thick web. Looking on the cage, the white-haired blue-eyed boy was nearly completely cocooned in multidimensional levels of ropes tied to different bars of his prison. From outside the bird coop, the boy looked like a length of color threaded through an amulet. Jack could only barely move his head, focused on Pitch's deathtraps for Bunnymund. At least Pitch hadn't gagged him; Jack still had a chance to warn the Pooka.
Chucking Pitch redirected his attention to the battling magics.
Jack watched in trepidation as the whirling of leaves thickened in the center of Pitch's lair. His sharp eyes picked out the hole forming in the ground, "IT"S A TRAP!" Jack loudly warned and cringed, expecting a gag to stop him from yelling out directions to Bunny.
There wasn't a gag. And after the third time Jack warned Bunny of a deathtrap, that time a bear trap made out of black sand, Jack found out why.
Each thread of sand acted as a conductor, filled with Pitch's raw malignant emotion. It hurt! Not unlike what Jack imagined being burned and electrocuted at the same time was like. Jack's throat soon felt like shreds as his screams were music to Pitch's ears.
Jack's pained shouts distracted Bunny so much that it was only a stumble that saved him from being instantly killed by a thrown spear. The spear made contact with Bunnymund's side and dissolved. Aster lurched as he tried to stem the blood loss quickly.
"I could so easily kill him..." Pitch's voice carried to Bunny's super sensory hearing. Bunny's ear twitched as he pulled regained his boomerangs in time to stop Pitch's scythe from killing the Pooka. Bunny was so close to snapping and letting himself go wild, but he couldn't if he wanted to survive the traps and save Jack and Jamie. Where was Jamie anyway?
"Or... if he survives..." Pitch's eyes gleamed, "Jack'd make a wonderful fearing!"
That was the last straw. Pitch had forgotten how berserk the best Pooka warriors could be. Especially when equipped with chocolate. Then again, Pitch remembered that they were the only people who gave him so much trouble. Proof in point, Aster had survived this long.
Instinctively Aster made a sidestep there, a jump there, throw boomerang here, sidestep, dodge, crouch, re-throw boomerangs... Sandy whip-lashed Pitch into a wall, wait how'd he get here? Never mind, resume fight for life and liberty...
Jamie was fighting alongside the Sandman, turning large numbers of nightmares into golden dreamsand. Pitch glared, enraged that the wizard-child had woken up and brought the Sandman here. He must have turned the shadows draping the iron cage into enough of Sanderson's dreamsand to bring the former wishing star's attention here. Everything had been going so well too.
Pitch snarled as another trap failed to kill the Pooka, "Just stay still rabbit!"
The Pooka's eyes were wild, but all traces of fear were gone. This was the determination of a predator. Even back in the golden age, many forgot that the Pooka, despite the (mostly) harmless nature of their unrelated but look-a-like smaller cousins, were warriors as well as artists and scholars. After all, the Pooka had a planet where the vegetation was aggressive enough that it tried to kill all non-flora life.
Pitch was hard-pressed to keep the Pooka from off of him with the Sandman and untrained wizard destroying his shadow armies. In his distraction, Pitch stopped tormenting Jack, who slumped, wheezing hoarsely behind them. Without the screams, Bunny slowly came out of his berzerker rage, but not any less determined to defeat the Shadow King.
At some point, Pitch began to run out of armies to occupy his other enemies, and Sandman entered the fight against the Nightmare King. But as the Sandman covered Bunny when the Pooka changed directions, making a tunnel out of interlocking golden shields to the exit of the cave, Pitch's contingent plans were set in motion. Reserve traps and armies charged into the battle field. Sandy urgently motioned Jamie to follow Bunny.
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Jack fell limply into furry arms as a boomerang slashed the nightmare ribbon cocoon. "Jack, Jack... Don't go to sleep, mate."
Jack blearily opened his eyes and whimpered, one of the few sounds he could still make. Unknown to Jack, that sound was just driving the figurative dagger deeper into Bunny's heart as the Pooka cradled the exhausted child who already so much pull on Bunny's reawakened parental heartstrings.
"Jamie, can you support him?" Aster choked, torn. But in order for everyone to make it out of here alive, Bunny needed to back up Sandy.
"Yeah, go help Sandy," Jack's arm was draped over Jamie's shoulders. The younger boy started running through Sandy's tunnel to the exit, supporting Jack with ease, "Come on, Jack, stay with me!" Jamie tried to cajole Jack out of his sleepiness, "You can't fall asleep now!"
Somehow those words slowly reminded Jack of Pitch's vile liquid shadows. Unable to do more than grunt or whine, Jack couldn't even warn Jamie that he might've been poisoned. So Jack did his best to keep his eyes from closing as he was dragged along by Jamie to the moonlit clearing outside the cave opening.
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At some point Jack must have closed his eyes, but as Jamie's fingers suddenly tightened on his arm, Jack's raw emotion reacted to his friend's fear. Jack's blue eyes shot open, and found himself staring at a statue of an accidentally flash frozen Nightmare King.
"That's new." Jamie hysterically giggled. The dramatic swings of his emotion between fear and hope were beginning to cause Jamie a meltdown. Sandy's tunnel of protection had buckled and broke under the black sand attack not long after Jack wouldn't respond.
"Boys run!" Bunny yelled at them, limping heavily as he retrieved a fallen boomerang.
Jack and Jamie stumbled into a broken run out of the cave. When the shadows crept closer, Jamie would flash a magical light and Jack would fumble as he tried to recreate the frost and ice he had displayed earlier.
"Come on..." Jamie panted, the encouragement directed equally at himself and Jack. Jack grunted in agreement.
They were so close to the moonlight meadow when they felt themselves being scooped up by furry arms and then diving into a tunnel, just before Pitch's scythe tore into the ground where they had just been standing.
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Pitch withdrew from the moonlight, sneering at Sandy, "In the end, I have won." The tattered shreds of his robe fluttered to the ground as Pitch, wounded and low on magic, retreated.
Sandy sighed in relief, before making a golden sand roadrunner. He sat on the bird and zoomed off to the Warren, thinking about Pitch's last comment. His creation, picking up on the Sandman's agitation, ran twice as fast as before.