HEEEEY KIDS! Guess who's back?! Yup, momma's home! And we are one chapter away from the grand finale where we all figure out what the heck is going on here! I know you guys must be dying to know.
The theories are great- please keep 'em coming, and I love the reviews so much! I know you guys want to have Koz meet Pitch so I'm going to make that happen. It's just not gonna be in the way you guys expect.
Alrighty, have fun!
Sandy emerged from the portal, feeling slightly groggy. He hated portals of all kinds. It was why he flew most everywhere in his biplane; that and he likes the air much more than being separated into a thousand tiny particles and put back together again. You never knew if something would come back all the way or not. None of the others seemed to share this fear however, even Kozmotis. He walked through the portal behind the others with little or no hesitation and seemed to be fine when they made it- in one piece thankfully, to the other side.
The golden man leaned against the wall of the Pole, breathing heavily as he tried to calm his queasy stomach. It had already been acting up earlier for reasons totally unrelated to the portal, but passing through it had only made it worse. He was going to need a lot of warm milk to sleep tonight.
As he tried to regain his composure, Sandy watched Kozmotis. He did so subtly, so as not to alarm the man but even so, his gaze never once wavered. It couldn't. He was too...curious.
Kozmotis was standing right in front of the portal which was rapidly shrinking back into the shape of its snowglobe cache, staring in awe at the vast expansive room before him. His jaw had fallen open and the more he saw, the more astounded he clearly became until Sandy was fairly certain his eyes were spinning in his head.
Somebody had better tell him to sit down before he falls, he thought with a small smirk. Thankfully, Tooth seemed to be thinking along the same lines because she reached over and took him by the arm, leading him gently over to the big red chairs and asking him to sit down. Bunny followed while Sandy remained on the side-lines, watching them all. It was astounding how easily they forgot about his existence, but he would have it no other way. Being invisible had certain benefits, after all. And they far out-weighed the cons.
The others were talking to Kozmotis about something. Sandy decided he should listen.
"...understand it might be a bit much, but please do try to keep calm." Tooth was saying, patting Kozmotis's arm kindly while he continued to stare at the majesty of the workshop. "We do have some serious matters to attend to, after all."
Sandy let out a silent snort. If he thinks this is big, wait 'till he sees the rest of the Pole. He thought with a snicker.
"Yeah mate," Bunny interjected. "We've got a few questions for you."
Kozmotis was silent for a while and they all waited patiently for him to speak. Finally, he opened his mouth and murmured, "We're in the North Pole."
Bunny clapped his hand to his forehead. "Oi me, has the trip knocked ya silly? Of course we're in the North Pole!"
Kozmotis nodded slowly, staring up at the ceiling high above them where brightly lit balloons and airborne toys floated, testing their own weight against the elements. "I know," he replied quietly. "But I didn't...fully realize what that means until now."
And what does it mean? Sandy asked silently, mocking both him and Bunny. He was in a funny mood, the Sandman was tonight. Amused, worried, scared, happy, confused, and a little bit angry with events that had been going on without his knowing.
"And what does that mean?" Tooth asked, retaining her motherly tone.
Again he took his sweet time in answering her, and when he did his voice was almost silent. "It means that it's all true. All of it. You, the Boogeyman, Jamie, Jack, everything."
Sandy clapped mockingly, though nobody noticed. Well done, well done. It only took you an hour after first meeting us to decide we were real. Excellent. Now lets have him meet Manny, shall we? Then he can question his existence for an hour or so.
"Jack!"
The cry came suddenly, so suddenly that Tooth jumped when she heard it and Bunny instinctively lowered his hands to his weapon holsters. Sandy didn't move.
"What?"
"Jack! Where is Jack? I want to see him, and Jamie. And North. I want to see them to make sure Jamie and Jack are alright." Kozmotis got up, filled by a sudden sense of urgency and it was all Tooth could do to not get dragged along with him.
"Calm down, Kozmotis please! All of them are fine and we will let you see them as soon as we've sorted out a few things. There's one Guardian you haven't yet met- well," she added after thinking her words over. "Three technically but the other two are kind of enigmatic. We don't see these three very often."
Kozmotis shrugged her off, heading for the stairs. "I don't care about these other Guardians. I just want to see Jack and Jamie to make sure they're safe." His long legs made his stride at least twice that of Tooth's and he would've probably been up the stairs and looking for the children's' rooms before either Bunny or Tooth could've stopped him. Luckily for them, Sandy saw a familiar furry figure coming down the stairs just as Kozmotis started to climb them.
"Phil? Is that you?"
The giant figure nodded and asked something in garbled Yetish.
Bunny chimed in, using his natural gifts to translate the languages. "He says yes, that's him."
Kozmotis glared. "Obviously."
Phil grunted something.
"He wants to know where do you think you're going, and I'm kinda wondering that meself." He added, leaning against the wall casually as he regarded the mortal man.
"I'm going to see Jamie and Jack." Kozmotis replied firmly. "I just want to make sure they're alright. Not that I don't trust your impeccable medical skills," he added to Phil who grunted again. "But it would give me peace of mind."
Phil spewed out a long spiel which Bunny translated as easily as he could. Sandy could understand it all perfectly. "He says that Jack's entering the final stages of his hibernation and should be up and talking, possibly even walking within the next few hours or so. This is an important stage in his healing, and he needs to be left alone until it's completed."
"Fine, what about Jamie?"
"Jamie and North, however, aren't doing so well. Their grey complexion has spread and they remain in the same state of paralysis. Basically, we should just leave them all alone until at least Jack is healed and figure it out from there." Bunny summed up, shrugging. "I wish I had better news for ya mate."
"We all do," Tooth added, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But we don't. All we can hope for is that by administering these magical tests, we might be able to figure something out to help them."
Kozmotis sighed and walked back to the red chair, sinking down into it dejectedly. "Alright," he said tiredly, pushing back his long, black hair. "I'm ready for these tests."
Sandy sighed. I suppose that's my cue. He thought to himself before cracking his knuckles and going over to the tall man. He created enough symbols to make sure the man knew he was about to be knocked out. That being said, he didn't actually get enough time to register said symbols before a three-pointer sent him into la-la-land. He was asleep in minutes.
Tooth nodded. "Alright, lets see what we can make of his dreams."
They all gathered around to watch as the golden ball of translucent sand began to form over his head. Images of his daughter and other pleasant dreams flitted through the visions, unperturbed by anything dark or malevolent. In fact, to be quite frank, they were more like a child's dreams than some of the dreams actually dreamed by children which Sandy had seen not that long ago, before this whole fiasco had blown up. There wasn't a single strand of worry or fear to be found.
Neither Tooth nor Bunny were dream experts, but they could clearly see the same thing Sandy was seeing. There was nothing to be gained from this.
Well, that's that then. Utterly useless. Sandy clapped his hands and rubbed them together, eagerly anticipating his reunion with his biplane. As fun as this has been, I would love to stay and chat but I believe there's a Boogeyman out there I need to find. He turned around and headed for his biplane which was parked just outside on the landing pad North had made specifically for him and Tooth.
Bunny blinked. "Oi, Sandy where are ya going?" He hollered.
Sandy waved a hand and created a vague outline of Pitch above his head. The door to the landing pad was ajar and he smoothly opened it, revealing a moonlight soaked dreamsand plane. His pride and joy- apart from his castle. Don't worry, he told them silently as Tooth and Bunny rushed after him to protest. You'll both be fine. I won't be gone for that long and I'm sure you can handle one little human.
He hopped into the cockpit and, after snapping his favorite aviator goggles and putting his flight suit gloves and hat on, he revved the engine and gunned the throttle. The plane shot up instantly, propelled by the very dreamsand he had used to make it. Sandy hovered in the air for a second, looking down over the side at the two Guardians who were waving and calling to him far, far below. He tipped his hat, waved, then sped off into the night, leaving the last two Guardians all alone with Kozmotis.
The flight was a relatively long one, compared to his usual trips to Burgess which he made nightly. Normally he used his castle for trans-continental travel but this time he couldn't call it fast enough. He checked the readings on his golden dashboard. The castle was currently floating over Calcutta. Much too far. He would have to settle for his plane.
At least the trip gave him plenty of time to think- which was really what he needed right now. Time to think, time to wonder and time to figure out just what in the constellations was going on around here!
There's something not quite right about all this, he mused, banking left gently to avoid a cloud. Phil and, as much as I hate to admit it, Bunny, were both right. This is far too convenient. And not just about Kozmotis saving Jack and Jamie meeting Kozmotis. No, Sandy was thinking about a much bigger picture. Though the man might have a part in it, he thought, mulling Kozmotis and what he had seen over and over in his mind. Yes, he definitely has a part to play. And what about those people? His daughter and the wife? That can't be coincidence either.
Truth be told, from the moment he had laid eyes on the two woman and Kozmotis Sandy had been trying not to let on his surprise and shock. They looked...exactly like them. All three of them. Sure their clothes were different, but their faces had been exactly the same. And he would know his face anywhere. It had taken every molecule of self-control inside him to keep from fainting at that first sight. Truly. It had been that much of a shock.
Once he had gotten over the shock, however, denial had set in. This couldn't be him. And it couldn't. Not really. But there might be a chance…
There had been doubts in his mind. And that was why he had tested them. All of them. He tested the General by saluting. He had saluted back. The little girl had been a bit simpler; they had just talked. She had understood his meanings perfectly. But the mother, Sara. She had been the challenge. Only when she spoke about crossing worlds had he known it had to be true. And yet, he knew it could not be. They were too perfect. To accurate. They had to be replicas. Or memories. Too accurate to be anything else.
He would have to ask Tooth to go on a run to her palace and check for teeth when he got back, though being the Tooth Fairy he was pretty sure she already had it covered.
About half an hour and a lot of spilled dreamsand fuel later, Sandy touched down in a small glade on the edge of the Burgess forest. He didn't even bother pulling the plane to a complete stop before hopping out and heading for the entrance to Pitch's lair.
Since the Nightmare War, the hole in the ground had been sealed by Manny's magic and now would appeared as any other patch of ground to a regular human, even a regular spirit. But Sandy was a Guardian and he recognized the spot immediately by the runes and wards placed around it. They looked like blue, silver and red lines, drawn on the ground with abstract symbols added in for extra power. Nearly all the great spirits in the realm had taken part in sealing up the Boogeyman. Father Time, Manny, Mother Nature, everybody. All the Guardians had been present. It had been the first great spirit gathering in over a hundred years.
Sandy released the seals binding the entrance with a simple wave of his hand and, like a match being struck, a multi-colored fire blossomed over the ground and the false earth burned away, revealing a charred black hole rimmed with scorched grass.
The dreamsand Guardian blinked. That was...odd. He had expected to see some Nightmares try to escape or even the Boogeyman himself- he had actually been counting on it, but nothing happened. To be honest, Sandy hadn't even seen a Nightmare in a long time. They had been becoming less and less frequent during the last three years and when they did appear, they were wild and unkempt. Almost completely unrecognizable as one of Pitch's creations.
The last one he had seen was a giant creature the size of a grizzly bear and it had been more shadows than sand. Sandy had never seen anything like it before! He had tried to catch it and the thing put up one hell of a fight before finally keeling over after a deluge of dreamsand. Sandy had taken it back to the castle to turn it into a dreamhorse but the sand seemed to have a mind of its own and refused to morph. He still had it somewhere in his castle, trapped in an invisible room of molten glass.
I've got to check on that thing later, he told himself absently, leaning forward to peer into the blackness. He waited a few more seconds, then shrugged and took a single step, dropping down into the darkness. Thankfully, his golden skin cast its own light and he was able to see clearly as anything.
The tunnel dropped down, down, down, for what felt like a million miles until he hit the bottom. And when that happened, he landed as light as a feather. With his hand outstretched, he descended into the depths of the shadows, searching for some sign of the Boogeyman.
The tunnels were long, dark and perilous. Rocks jutted out from the ground with increasing regularity until it was all Sandy could do to go five feet without tripping. And there were bugs too! Ugly, multi-legged, disgusting bugs that crawled from the little holes in the walls or hung from their webs which he tried his very hardest not to walk into. Sandy hated bugs. Everything about them. Jack shared his dislike- it was one of the many things they had bonded over, and together they had made a pact to either freeze or send into dreamland any insects they came across. And Sandy was determined to do just that.
After the six or seventh bug he had seen, Sandy got sick of them and sent a pulse of dreamsand down the tunnel to clear it and send the bugs into snoozle-land. It worked to perfection and Sandy soon had the satisfaction of stepping over and on a horde of bugs sleeping soundly until he made it out into a wider space with other tunnels branching off in different directions. Sandy sent a few pulses down those tunnels, checking for signs of life. There were none. Nothing but bugs to be put to sleep.
Thinking that Pitch might be deeper into the cavern than his pulses were able to reach, Sandy chose to head on and keep searching. He wound his way through the maze of tunnels, seeking out any sign of life but after at least an hour and a half of searching, he didn't find a single thing.
You'd think the Boogeyman would take notice when his arch-enemy strolled into his home. He thought petulantly, peeking through another one of the doors which lined the walls of the tunnel he was currently walking down. At least a few Nightmare sentries but nooo. Nothing! Not even a threatening shadow!
Sandy opened another door but found just an empty room behind it. He huffed and closed it, wondering how many empty rooms the Boogeyman needed. Honestly. He had seen at least five dozen rooms- most of them just empty storage space but a few had beds in them, all the furniture scattered throughout the rooms which seemed to be his living space was covered in heaps of dust and cobwebs. Sandy managed to find a kitchen that looked like it hadn't been used in decades, a living room with nothing but a couch and a table beside it with a throwrug on the ground, a bedroom with nothing but a dusty bed in it, and a library.
It was in the library that Sandy finally found his clue.
He pushed through the double doors, scanning the immediate area for Pitch but, yet again, he found no one. Just a desk, a black fireplace which, like everything else, didn't look like it had been used for a very long time, a few chairs scattered around haphazardly- one had been knocked over onto the ground where it lay like a sleeping child while the others just sat there, gathering dust. The bookshelves behind him seemed to have been untouched since they had been first erected.
Sandy saw something resting on the desk and walked towards it. It turned out to be a small, leather-bound notebook with Pitch's name scrawled on the cover in black ink.
Finally! He did a little jig as he picked up the book. A breakthrough! This might tell me where the elusive Boogeyman might be!
The book felt deceptively heavy for its size, as if an entire world of troubles were contained in its pages. Sandy hefted the book up and scanned the first page. It was as you would expect the diary of a villain to read. Full of anger, resentment, hate and petulance. Blah blah blah. Each entry was dated and, since the first entry was in the 1990's which was nowhere near where he was looking, Sandy skipped ahead to after the Nightmare War. In the first few weeks, his thoughts hadn't changed much. A lot of self-moping and whining and plotting revenge.
Sandy was very tempted to skip to the end, but as he was flipping through the pages he saw something that caught his eye. He frowned, staring in puzzlement at an entry dated three years ago, about a month after the Nightmare War.
The solitude is starting to drive me insane. I know this because, even when I was free to wander the world under the watchful eye of the Man in the Moon, I had the satisfaction of gentle banter between my fellow spirits and the occasional conversation with a child. Here, locked underground like a bad dream, I have no one to talk to. Nothing that will answer back anyway. And that is why I am going insane.
The dreamsand Guardian blinked. This...wasn't good. And things just got weirder from there!
Pitch started rambling on and on in each entry about his past and what he hated about the things he had created. The Nightmares, the Fearlings, the dream pirates. Sandy felt his mind start to whirl. He hadn't heard those names in so long...
I am a monster of my own demonicy. A hateful thing, created from hateful things. The Guardians were right, I can never be something I'm not. I cannot instill love or happiness, only fear. For that is my job. Others have their jobs, I have mine. But why is it my fate to be locked in this eternal struggle between the Guardians and the darkness? Darkness which I never wanted, but received because a human was stupid and gullible. It's not fair that I was cursed for one man's mistake. That I should live alone, in the darkness while others bask in the love and admiration of others. It's not fair!
Sandy sighed. Oh joy. This again! Hadn't Pitch learned from the last time that would not get any sympathy from him?
Evidently not.
They don't even come to see me. At least when I was free I got to occasionally see my enemies, but now it's like they don't even remember I exist. I'm just that nightmare they crammed under the bed to forget about, but they can't forget about me for long. I left plenty of nightmares up top to roam the streets and stalk the dreams of the world, after all. Eventually someone's got to notice and then they'll come back for me. They have to. The world cannot continue at large without fear, I've tried to tell them this over and over again but only Sanderson seems to listen. How sad is that? That my mortal enemy is the only one who seems to understand why I do what I do.
Oh for the love of stardust! The Sandman rolled his eyes. Pitch was always one for the dramatic. However, he did have a point. The Guardians had tossed him away like an old shoe, happy with their success in the War and hadn't given it another thought.
That hadn't sat too well with Sandy- even though Pitch was their enemy he did afford him some measure of respect because of the necessity of the job he performed. Fear was important and- to some degree, necessary. Just not in the amounts Pitch instilled. He needed to learn restraint, which was what Sandy had hoped he had been going before the Nightmare war. Obviously he had been wrong.
The entries continued in the same fashion, though Sandy noticed they were getting increasingly dark and depressing. Pitch definitely wasn't getting any better. He seemed to have accepted the fact that he was stuck down there and that no one was coming to get him or set him free, but that acceptance was tempered with sorrow and regret. He wasn't happy, this was evident.
The days bleed together. Night and day, it makes no difference. I can't see sunlight, or moonlight. Haven't for some time. Not that the Moon would waste any of his precious light on me. The only solace I have is this book.
As Sandy continued to read by the light of his own body, he started to feel uncomfortable with what he was reading. Not only were these Pitch's innermost thoughts- which he wasn't that happy about reading in any case because he was not a nosy Guardian, but they were starting to lose their spark. Where the entries used to be full of anger and fire, after the Nightmare war they had become dull, tired and lifeless.
Was this what happened to him? Sandy wondered, scanning the pages. Did he just...waste away down here from lack of belief? It could happen. It had happened before. But that was a fate he wouldn't wish on anyone, even his enemy.
I cannot go on like this. The solitude is eating away at me from the inside. I'm starting to see things- visions. Feel pain that has no right to be here. It's like this is all a hellish nightmare and I can't wake up. The irony...
Sandy felt his heart clench in his chest. He knew what was coming. Subconsciously, he knew. Consciously, he didn't want to know. He read through another five pages of two-sentence entries, searching for the last one. He was desperate to find out what had happened. Why was Pitch seeing these visions? And of what?
Eventually, he found what he had been looking for.
The entry was dated just barely two years ago. And, surprisingly enough, it started with his name.
Sanderson,
Sandy blinked. Did he know I would read this?
I know you will be the only one out of all the Guardians who would take the time to come down here. Whither that time is in a few years, in a decade, or even in a century. But I know that eventually you will read this.
I guess that answers that question then, Sandy thought with a small smile.
I will not waste time in apologizing for my actions in the past. After all our talks, I would think you know I'm too stubborn for that. Instead, I will use these last few minutes to tell you something I should've told you a long time ago. The Guardians were right. You were right. Jack was right. All of you...you were all right.
Both eyebrows shot up into the air. Right about what?
Fear does have its place in the world, and it does help keep your children safe. But you were right. I'm not its master any more. I should've learned that when the Nightmares turned on me. But it took being shoved down here to realize it. Fear is an ever-evolving organism. It feeds on what is and what isn't present in the minds of its victims. It does not stay the same for very long. And, in light of that, I've decided to so do what I should have done centuries ago.
Sandy held his breath.
I am going to surrender my soul to aether, and let a new spirit take my place. It's time. And who knows, maybe the next Boogeyman will do a better job than I did. It's kind of hard to beat trying to take over the world multiple times.
He's...joking at a time like this?! Sandy could not believe this. Death brings out the strangest in people, it seemed.
So...I suppose this is goodbye. And I hope you understand. This might seem like a cowardly act to you and there's no doubt I am a coward, but I'm also tired Sanderson. I'm tired of being the demon. I'm tired of being thrown aside or tossed away. Is that cowardly, Sanderson? Or is it just the last act of a desperate man? The war is over Sanderson, for me anyway. The King is dead. Long live the new King of Nightmares.
And that was where it ended. Nothing else was written.
Sandy stared at the last line. The King is dead. Long live the new King of Nightmares.
Long live the King... His lips formed the words but no sound escaped his lips. Golden tears that had been welling in his eyes as he read the final sentences were finally let loose, streaming down his face in a shining cascade of grief. Sandy dropped the book. It landed with a dull thunk, its message received by its intended recipient and he leaned back in the chair with his eyes closed, trying not to sob. This was it. The final words of the Nightmare King.
On some level, Sandy supposed it was only fitting that he be the one to find this. He had been the only one who really cared about Pitch's existence. It didn't matter that he had been his enemy. He had been a fellow spirit and all he had been trying to do was his job. That alone had given Sandy a reason to respect him, if not for the fact that they had both been doing their jobs since before any of the other Guardians- save Manny and Nightlight of course, had been born.
But that didn't make the ache in his heart any less.
Silent sobs wracked the Sandman's body as the tears continued to flow. His mind was a foggy mash of pain and denial. He tried to justify what he had just read, but it was just like trying to bail out a sinking boat. I tried to explain it to him, I tried to tell him force wouldn't work to get the others to understand, but he didn't listen. He wasn't patient enough and now...
Now he was gone.
Gone, like a bad dream. This book, this place, is the only record of his existence. Without these, it would be as if he hadn't been here at all.
Sandy sniffed. It was astounding to him how much one cruel spirit could mean to him and he hadn't realized just how much Pitch had meant to him until now. It was like...a piece of him had been ripped away.
He sat there for a long time, staring off into space while the tears slowly dripped away down his cheeks. He knew he couldn't sit here for very long, but at the same time he couldn't bring himself to move. His mind was racing with the implications. There was a new spirit out there with some measure of the Boogeyman's powers. Pitch was dead, and he had no information about Kozmotis or anything he had been sent to find. Finally, one clear thought rang through his head.
I need to get this back to the Guardians. They deserve to know what they- we, put him through.
So, steeling himself, he picked up the book and headed for the exit. Dried tears flaked off his cheeks and he wiped them away angrily. Where sadness had been, only sharp anger remained. He couldn't afford to lose his head in this, but in spite of that he wanted to make sure the Guardians knew exactly how he felt.
A quick trip up the tunnel to the surface, clutching the diary like a lifeline and he didn't let go of it, even after he made it to his plane and hopped inside. It rested on his lap he gunned the throttle all the way back to the Pole. I just hope they have better news than I do, he thought, glancing down at the diary in his lap. Because if not...
If not, the world was about to burn.
XXXXXX
Sadly, things were not going as well as he had hoped.
From the minute Sandy had left and Kozmotis woke up, things had started getting tense. First off, Kozmotis was angry about being put to sleep without his consent and he spent a good few minutes raging before Tooth finally managed to calm him down enough to start doing the other tests.
The first test Tooth asked him if he wanted to try was the most obvious one; the naughty and nice list. North had an account of every human ever born since he had become a Guardian and every child they had been was recorded in his archives. If anyone had any clues about Kozmotis's real identity, it was Santa Clause.
They spent a good hour combing through the archives in North's vaults. They sat on the floor, sifting through piles and piles of paperwork. Phil helped them of course, carrying files back and forth. North had a mad filing system and Tooth suspected he let the elves do most of it but, after a little while, they actually found what they were looking for. Kozmotis's name, birth date and everything he had asked for on Christmas. As it turned out, he hadn't been the most adamant believer in Santa Clause. He was recorded as believing only within the last few years, not as a child, and there was a footnote that North believed it was only because of his daughter Sera.
As it turned out, she was in the archives too. She had always believed in Santa Clause and asked for something every year. Kozmotis smiled when he found her list, reading through it fondly. "A copy of Fly By Night, new shoes, a watch, I remember finding all this stuff under the tree last year and wondering where the hell it had all come from."
Tooth nodded, impressed. "Very interesting."
"Well, that's strike one." Bunny mumbled, not at all pleased of finding records of Koz and his child.
Koz politely ignored him. "Alright then," he said, putting the file down beside him on the floor and looking between the two expectantly. "What's next?"
Bunny stood. "Next is I take a look inside yer heart," he said ominously.
Kozmotis's face blanched, causing Bunny to cackle. "I beg your pardon?"
Tooth whacked Bunny on the shoulder when he continued to cackle. "Bunny, stop scaring him!" She scolded. "Just tell him what you've got planned. We're not trying to torture him."
Bunny chuckled. "Speak for yourself." Then he got another glare from Tooth and reluctantly explained, "Basically, I've got a built-in hope detector. I'm the Guardian of Hope, afta all. So I'm gonna look inta yer hopes and see what I see."
Kozmotis shrugged. "Alright, fine. Go for it."
Bunny nodded and told him to stand up. He did, towering above the rabbit. Bunny took his paw and raised it to Kozmotis's heart. He ordered him to close his eyes and Kozmotis obeyed while Bunny kept his open, concentrating.
Seeing hope was something he hadn't done in a long time, but even after years and years he still remembered it like it was yesterday. It was like muscle-memory. All he had to do was focus and he immediately felt a wash of hope going through him. It was more like sensations than anything, with a few vague pictures thrown in. He had high hopes for his child, that was a reoccurring hope. He wanted her to become a great woman. He had high hopes for him and his wife- he steered away from those. Bunny's goal was to find some real, down to earth hope. Hope for life. Hope for the future. And...as much as he hated to admit it, he found it.
Kozmotis did have hopes. A lot of them. He held hope that his family would stay together as long as they were all alive, and he held hope that Jamie, Jack and North would make it through their ordeal. But he also held hope that he and the other Guardians wouldn't find anything that would distinguish him from any other man. And...
Bunny frowned, probing a little deeper. What was that? He had caught a glimpse, just a glimpse mind you, of something else. Something...deeper. Not hope, he would've been able to see that immediately, but something altogether new.
Come on, he begged. Come on, I know there's something there! What is it?! Come on!
He tried to seek out the sensation but, as if sensing his curiosity, the sensation fled his scrutiny and he ended up finding nothing. Bunny let his hand drop and Kozmotis's eyes opened with a snap.
"Whoa," he breathed, lifting a hand to his heart, looking at Bunny curiously. "What did you do?"
Bunny gritted his teeth and balled his fists, ignoring the human. There was something there, dammit! I was so close!
"Bunny?" Tooth laid a hand on his shoulder, frowning. Something was wrong with the rabbit. She had sensed it when he tried to probe Koz's thoughts. "Aster? Are you alright?"
He shrugged her away. "No, I'm not. I'm sick of shadow-answers and backwards thoughts."
Tooth frowned. "Backwards thoughts...what are you-"
"It's him, Toothy!" Bunny pointed a finger at Koz who was still standing there, marveling at how full of hope he felt. That kind of thing happened when you were touched by the spirit of hope himself entered your thoughts, but he looked up when he heard the rabbit speak.
"Me?"
Bunny nodded. He felt so angry that he couldn't help himself! "Yes, you! I know there's something wrong inside you! You're not human! You can't be!" He was starting to rant. He knew that but he couldn't help it. There was no way to describe what he had felt. Kozmotis was not completely human, that he knew for sure. And yet...he was at least partially human. He couldn't understand it! What did it mean?!
Tooth sighed. "Bunny, I think you're taking things a little too seriously. Kozmotis is human through and through. We already checked this, remember? Phil said he's human through and through."
Bunny snorted. "HA! Forgive me if I don't trust the nose of a hairball."
Phil growled something unpleasant which Bunny ignored.
Tooth had had enough. She grabbed Aster by the arm and hauled him off to a corner and started bitching him out royally. She kept her voice a low, harsh whisper but Kozmotis still managed to catch a few things.
"-think you're taking things a bit too seriously?"
"No," Bunny growled, not even bothering to keep his voice down. "If anything I'm taking things not seriously enough! There was something there Toothy, I felt it! There's something not quite right about him!"
Kozmotis rolled his eyes. "I CAN HEAR YOU TALKING ABOUT ME YOU KNOW!" He hollered. He was getting really annoyed about being treated like a child.
Phil coughed and Bunny turned back towards him, ready to start screaming but Tooth smoothly intercepted. "How about," she said calmly, putting a hand on Bunny's shoulder. "We just try something else? Like...say, a memory retrieval potion? We've tried everything else."
Bunny opened his mouth to argue but Kozmotis interrupted. "Fine. I'm willing to do anything to prove to you all that I'm a normal human being."
Tooth nodded. "Good." And, because she knew better than to leave him alone with Kozmotis, she asked Bunny if he would make the potion. "You know more about this kind of thing than I do, after all." She told him, laying on the flattery fairly thick because she knew the only way to sooth him was to sooth his ego. It worked. Bunny mumbled something, then shuffled off to try and make the potion.
Tooth waited until he was gone before turning back to Kozmotis. "I am so sorry about that," she apologized, her cheeks glowing bright red. "I know this must be very stressful for you, not to mention annoying and I do apologize to you for Bunny's conduct. While he's the Guardian of hope, he has little of it himself."
Kozmotis shrugged. "It's alright. I'm getting rather used to it actually." He admitted.
Tooth nodded. "Again, sorry." She waited a few awkward seconds before coughing. "Ahem. Why don't we sit down? There's something I want to try."
Kozmotis raised an eyebrow. "Another magical test?"
She shook her head and he couldn't help but marvel at the way her feathers bobbed and waved in the breeze. "No, more like a spiritual one."
He nodded and made to sit down on the couch but she gestured towards the stone floor. He quirked an eyebrow but humored her. He crossed his legs and she did the same, facing him.
"Close your eyes," she told him quietly. "And take my hands."
He did as she asked, feeling the warmth of her tiny hands in his. He had to force himself to review images of his wife in the forefront of his mind, just to keep from smiling at her touch.
"This is an ancient spiritual remedy, taught to me by my mother. Humans have a tendency to be very complicated creatures, even half humans like myself." Her tone was smooth, calm. Like an ocean wave, rolling in and out.
Kozmotis frowned. "Half human?"
"Yes. My mother was a sister of flight and my father an Indian prince. But this isn't about me. Shush."
"Alright."
They sat together in silence for a few minutes, listening to each other breathe until Tooth spoke again.
"I want you to focus on a face."
"Whose face?"
"It doesn't matter. Any face. Just choose a face at random."
He nodded and tried to picture a random face. A little girl's face floated to the front of his mind. Not his daughter's. This little girl had a rounder face with spiky brown hair and a small smile. Her eyes were closed, but he got the feeling they were brown. "Alright, I've got one." Though he wasn't sure who this girl was. Probably one of the girls he had taught or helped.
"Describe her face to me, in as much detail as you can."
So he did, beginning with, "She reminds me a bit of Sanderson. She has the same spiky hair, but it's a mellow shade of dark brown. Like oak wood with a shiny, fine finish. Her face is round like a pumpkin, full and flush. I can't see the color of her eyes. They're closed." He concentrated a bit harder. "I think they're dark brown. The same shade of her hair."
"Tell me about her skin. And her ears. And her mouth."
Kozmotis frowned, curious but he complied never the less. "Her skin is pale, like moonlight with a few freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. I can't see her ears. They're hidden behind her hair. Her mouth is small, but it looks like she was made to smile. Her full cheeks have creases in them from too much smiling."
"Does she have a name?"
Kozmotis frowned. "I can't..."
"You need a name, Kozmotis."
He concentrated harder. "I think..." The words were like lead in his mouth. "I think her name is Megan."
"A last name?"
His palms were beginning to sweat. "Crystal. Her name is Megan Crystal."
"Good. Now focus on Megan Crystal. Keep her face in your mind's eye, as clearly as you can. Think her name, Megan Crystal. Megan Crystal. Over and over again."
"Megan Crystal, Megan Crystal." He did as he was bid, thinking about this strange girl as hard as he could and saying her name again and again, over and over again until he knew it by heart. The gentle purr of the E flooded his mind, blocking out all else. The sharp click of the C sounded like a clock ticking.
"Do you know her name?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"What is her name?"
He answered without hesitation. "Megan Crystal."
"Again."
"Megan Crystal."
"And again."
"Megan Crystal."
"And what is your daughter's name?"
It was out before he could stop himself. "Megan Crystal."
"And what is your wife's name?"
He knew this one was coming and was ready for it. "Sara Pitchner."
"And what's your daughter's name?"
He decided to be a smartass. "Not Megan Crystal."
Tooth wasn't perturbed. "What is her name?"
Koz sighed. "Seraphina Pitchner."
"And the girl?"
"Megan Crystal."
"And your daughter?"
"Seraphina Pitchner."
"And the girl?"
This was getting old. "Megan Crystal.
"And my name?"
Again he fumbled. "Seraphina Pitchner."
"What's my name?"
This time he got it correct. "Tooth."
"Good. Now open your eyes."
He did. Everything was bright blue and he had to blink a few times to disperse it.
"Quickly, whose face do you see?"
He blinked. "What?"
Tooth was still sitting in front of him, her hands in his. She asked the question again. "Whose face do you see? When you look at me. Whose?"
He blinked once. It was still her face, he could tell by the beautiful amethyst eyes and gentle smile, and yet it was not her face. The face of the woman before him was dark-skinned, with no feathers. Just a red dot in the middle of her forehead. Her dark hair was covered by a golden web of chains and jewelry. Then he blinked again and it was gone.
"Well?" She asked, leaned forward eagerly. "Whose face was it? Was it your wife's? Or Megan's?"
He shook his head slowly. "No... I don't know whose face it was. Her skin was dark, but not African. Maybe...Asian. She has dark hair and a golden net resting on her head. And...she had your eyes."
Tooth blinked, momentarily surprised by his answer. Then she frowned, nodding thoughtfully. "Interesting."
Koz was immediately on the defensive. "What? Interesting? Why interesting? Did I say something wrong?"
She shook her head, standing. "No, no. There was no wrong answer. It was just a test to see what kind of calibration your memory has. It gave me some interesting answers but nothing was wrong. Can you describe that face to me one more time?"
He did, adding in the fact that she had a red dot in the middle of her forehead and her smile. Tooth's feathery eyebrows shot up and she appeared very surprised, but she didn't comment. She only nodded and sat back down on the cough, appearing to mull it all over.
Kozmotis frowned, not sure what was going on as he too sat down on the couch. "What was the purpose of all that?" He asked. "Just out of curiosity."
She didn't appear to hear him until he repeated it. Then she blinked and turned back to him. "Hm? Oh, that. Well, humans and people in general have a part in their brains which controls long-term and short-term memories. Most people are able to remember a name and a face for a very long time, until that face is confused for another face. I was trying to see which face automatically popped into your mind after focusing on a few specific faces with your eyes closed upon opening them again."
He nodded. "Ah." Now it made sense. "So you were trying to use a therapeutic technique to bring out my subconscious thoughts. Were the results worth it?"
Tooth shrugged. "They were surprising, to say the least. But I did let something slip which might've effected the results."
Koz frowned, wondering what that might be but he didn't have much time to ruminate about it because Bunny appeared a few seconds later, a little green bottle in hand.
"Oi!" He barked when he saw them sitting so close. "Bug off ya creep!"
Koz resisted the urge to leap away from Tooth and instead smoothly slid across the couch to the other side. "Ah, Aster. We were just missing you."
Bunny growled, gripping the bottle tightly in his hands, so tightly that Koz was surprised it didn't shatter in his hand. "Yeah, I just bet you did." He stomped down the stairs and practically hurled the potion at him, which Kozmotis caught deftly. "Just drink the damn potion."
Kozmotis shrugged and uncorked the bottle, taking a whiff. It smelled like peppermint but he drank it anyway. Nothing happened. "Can't say I'm surprised," he murmured, corking the bottle and tucking it into his pocket.
"Wait a bit," Tooth advised him. "These things take a while."
But it didn't work. Even after waiting fifteen minutes, nothing happened. Tooth shrugged.
"Well, back to the drawing board."
But the drawing board was completely blank. They tried at least half a dozen more methods to try and coax something abnormal out of Kozmotis but nothing worked. Ancient spells, meditation, even Bunny's nose to the grindstone-style interrogation didn't do any good.
"Face it Bunny," Tooth told the very irate Easter Kangaroo after the fourth failed attempt. "There is nothing wrong with him! He's just a normal human with a strangely attuned sense for the spiritual."
Bunny called dingoshite but didn't tell her that. "What about that image he saw?" He argued. They were in the corner again, fighting about wither to give up on Koz and just wait until Sandy came back. "And my sense of hope? Neither of those are coincidences Tooth."
She sighed. "Fine, then what do you suggest?"
Bunny shrugged. Truth be told, he didn't know. There wasn't much of anything they hadn't tried.
Phil suggested they look through North's personal sorcerer's manuals to see if anything fit, but after two more failed attempts tempers started to run high and annoyance boiled closer to the surface, turning into anger. Bunny chucked a book across the room with a yell of frustration and it landed with a thud.
"GRAH! This is ridiculous! There must be something here!"
It took all Kozmotis had to keep his temper. Instead, he balled his fists and said in a tone of forced calm, "Maybe you are looking for something that doesn't exist, Aster. Did you ever think about that? That maybe you are trying to find something wrong with me because you're so blinded by your own anger that you aren't thinking straight?"
Bunny rounded on Koz and the man could immediately see that while he could exercise personal control, the rabbit could not. "Excuse me?! All of this is for your benefit mate!" He snarled, glaring daggers at Koz. "We're trying to fix you, not that ya deserve it ya bleeding wanker."
"Fix me?" Koz yelled indignantly, losing complete control of his cool. "Fix me?! Are you saying there's something wrong with me?!"
Bunny opened his mouth to retort something sharp and acidic but his response was cut short by Tooth who emitted an ear-piercing whistle, causing both of them to look towards her.
"This is not helping," She told them both angrily, a murderous glare in her eyes. "We are here to figure this mess out, not to bicker like children. We've exhausted all known means of trying to figure out any anomalies in Kozmotis, so I suggest we focus our efforts on finding some kind of cure for Jamie and North. And I swear to Shiva that the next person who starts arguing with me will be thrown through the nearest window." She added, rising a threatening finger when Bunny opened his mouth to do just that. He shut his mouth. "Good. Now, Kozmotis, will you please accompany me to North's library and help me carry books?"
Kozmotis nodded went to follow her up the stairs but Bunny's plaintive cry stopped him. "Oi! What about me?"
Tooth turned just enough to call over her shoulder, "Maybe you can talk to Phil. See if you can learn how to hold a civilized conversation."
Kozmotis felt enormous satisfaction swelling through him as he followed Tooth up the stairs. They got to the library, loaded up on books and headed back downstairs. They started to comb through the books, even Bunny. Sitting in silence only seldom broken by the occasional conference over information. But nothing concrete was found and, by the time Sandy returned, even Tooth's patience was starting to wane. Kozmotis and Bunny were all but fed up with each other, and Phil just wished Sandy was here to knock them all out.
"I'm starting to think this is all a colossal waste of time," Kozmotis said after reading through the same passage four times. He put the book aside and stood. "Really. We aren't any closer to finding the cure to North and Jamie's condition and Sandy's still not back."
Tooth sighed, putting her own book down. "Kozmotis, we need to give him more time. Who knows what Sandy has found down there! He might be bringing Pitch back for all we know! And we still have to speak to Manny about you."
"Then do it when Sandy gets here and tell me about it." Kozmotis replied, more cutting than he meant to. "Because right now, I want to go home to my family."
"Kozmotis you can't! We have to wait for Sandy!"
And, speak of the devil, Sandy chose that specific time to hop though the window, flashing Pictionary at breakneck speed. The others barely had time to register his presence as a streak of golden light before he was standing right in front of them, waving the diary under their noses.
Tooth blinked. "Sandy! You're back."
He rolled his eyes, dropping the diary and giving her the duh look.
Tooth whacked him on the shoulder. "Don't look at me in that tone of voice." She reprimanded. "We are in the middle of a crisis I'll have you know!"
Sandy's attention immediately focused on hers, creating a question mark. There was a crisis? What kind of a crisis? The crisis-y kind of crisis?
Tooth sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Koz wants to go back to his family." She told him, ignoring the confused look on his face. "We haven't found anything special or shocking about him or the disease, and the longer he and Bunny stay in the same room the sooner they'll be at each others' throats. I'm left trying to keep the peace between them but it's so hard! They just keep arguing and Jack hasn't woken up yet. I worried he won't wake up at all!"
Sandy sighed, putting a hand on her arm gently. He understood fully. Keep your chin up, he told her, smiling. I think I've got something here that might help. He held out the diary and Tooth took it, frowning.
"What's this?"
He gestured to the name on the front and she almost dropped it in shock. "This...is Pitch's diary?"
He nodded.
"So you didn't find him then? Just this?"
He nodded again and beckoned Bunny and Kozmotis over to them. They all needed to read this.
"What's that Sandy?" Kozmotis asked, curious in spite of himself.
Tooth answered for the golden Guardian. "It's Pitch Black's diary. One of them, I assume. The latest, judging by the wear on the cover. But it looks like it hasn't been touched in a long time. Sandy?" She turned to him but Sandy folded his arms and nodded at the book. Read it. She shrugged and opened the book, scanning through it for a moment. "Yes, this is from just before the Nightmare War."
Sandy nodded and gently flipped through the pages, coming to a few pages before the end and he told her to read it aloud for them. She did. Her voice started out steady and strong but, as the entries wore on, her voice grew quieter and quieter. Then she came to the last one.
"Sanderson, he was writing this to you?"
Sandy nodded.
"Sanderson, I know you will be the only one out of all the Guardians who would take the time to come down here. Whither that time is in a few years, in a decade, or even in a century. But I know that eventually you will read this. I will not waste time in apologizing for my actions in the past. After all our talks, I would think you know I'm too stubborn for that. Instead, I will use these last few minutes to tell you something I should've told you a long time ago. The Guardians were right. You were right. Jack was right. All of you...you were all right."
"Right about what?" Kozmotis asked, his gaze locked with the book.
Bunny shushed him as Tooth kept reading. "Fear does have its place in the world, and it does help keep your children safe. But you were right. I'm not its master any more. I should've learned that when the Nightmares turned on me. But it took being shoved down here to realize it. Fear is an ever-evolving organism. It feeds on what is and what isn't present in the minds of its victims. It does not stay the same for very long. And, in light of that, I've decided to so do what I should have done centuries ago. Oh gods..."
She couldn't keep going. Bunny gently took the book from her and read the last few sentences. "I am going to surrender my soul to aether, and let a new spirit take my place. It's time. And who knows, maybe the next Boogeyman will do a better job than I did. It's kind of hard to beat trying to take over the world multiple times. Bloody hell... he actually did it."
"Did what? What does that mean, surrendering his soul to aether?" Kozmotis was starting to get worried. If this Boogeyman fellow was dead, would they blame him, because he looked like him? Or was he maybe the replacement the Boogeyman was speaking of? No, that would be a spirit. Not a human.
Tooth choked back a sob. To think that I would be crying over the Boogeyman, she thought dully as she answered Koz's question. "Aether is that which all of our spiritual energy is born from. It's what makes us so powerful. Energy, life, flowing through our veins. Some call it magic. And to surrender yourself to aether is...tantamount to-" She broke off into a fit of crying. She couldn't say it.
Sandy put an arm around Tooth's shoulders, stroking her feathers calmly.
"Suicide." Bunny finished for her, his tone hollow and as emotionless as the stone golems he befriended. "It's tantamount to suicide."
Kozmotis stared from them to the book in shock and revulsion. "You mean...because of you lot subjecting him to centuries of neglect and pain, he finally decided to end it all and commit suicide?!" Rage filled his being, causing his gaze to go bright red and he clenched his fists. That was it, he was getting out of here. And he was taking Jack and Jamie with him! The boys weren't safe here, not with people like this.
Tooth buried her face in Sandy's shirt while Bunny's eyes flashed an angry green and he stepped up to the human. "We didn't do anything, ya bloody ponce! Pitch decided to take 'is own life outta cowardice! We kept him in his place under the beds so that he couldn't hurt any more kids! In fact, he's lucky we've let 'im live as long as he did, what with all the times he's tried to kill us!"
Kozmotis snatched the book from his hands and shoved the pages in front of Bunny's face. "Do these look like the thoughts of a man hell-bent on destroying you?!" He demanded angrily, getting right up in Bunny's face. He was getting sick of the rabbit's prejudiced attitude towards him and he was really getting sick of his smartass comments. It was about damn time somebody knocked the oh so high and mighty Easter Bunny down a few pegs.
Bunny smacked the book away and stood almost nose to nose with him. "Don't pretend you know him," he snarled. "Or us! You've never even met Pitch. You didn't see what he did to us in the Nightmare War. He killed Sandy-"
"He seems very much alive to me." Koz interrupted dryly.
"Nearly killed us all, threatened the kids, nearly terrified Jamie to death. I lost my entire clan to that demon," Bunny snarled. His eyes were full of green fire and, for a split-second, Koz actually felt afraid. "Toothy lost some of her girls, North's home was almost completely destroyed, Jack nearly died because o' that monster! And now his powers are outta control because he's dead, leaving us with yet another mess of his to clean up! So don't you tare tell me or any of us what he is or isn't. He's a monster, who takes joy in hurting kids. That's all!"
Sandy clenched his fists. Think again Aster. He grabbed the rabbit by the fluffy white tail and yanked him around to face him, grabbing the book at the same time and rifling through it before pointing to one of the many passages where Pitch expressed fear and guilt at what he had done.
Bunny saw what he was doing and scoffed. "Like we could believe him." He replied derisively. "Yah know what I think? I bet he isn't even dead. I bet the rat just wrote that for us to find so that we would go back down into the caves and he could trap us!"
By that time, Tooth had recovered from her crying fit and was glaring through red-rimmed eyes at Bunny. "Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?" She demanded, buzzing over to him and looking him dead in the eyes. "Pitch is dead, Bunny! One of the only people who can answer some of our questions is dead, we're two Guardians short and can't get a hold of the others because you can't stop bickering with Kozmotis about wither or not he's human!"
"BECAUSE HE ISN'T!" Bunny fairly screamed at her, pointing a finger in Koz's direction. "There is NO WAY he's fully human. NO WAY, do ya hear me sheila?! And there is no way Pitch is dead. I would've felt it- we all would. Remember when Black Annis died? We all felt like shite for a month after she was gone!"
Tooth was almost livid with rage but, because she had been raised not to scream she forced her tone to remain cool and collected. "Black Annis," she told him icily. "Did not take her own life. She was destroyed by Manny because she was a child-eating monster and needed to be stopped. We felt pain from her because she was a strong spirit with many believers. Maybe we didn't feel pain from Pitch's death because his wasn't a violent one. I don't know. All I know is that this bullshit arguing needs to stop, right now!"
Bunny went to open his mouth but she raised a finger.
"Do you think I'm screwing around right now?" Where on earth was this language coming from? "Because I'm not. This arguing needs to stop, and if you cannot stop then I will have Sandy knock you out. Guarantee it. And he will do it, won't you, Sandy?" She turned to the dreamsand Guardian who was watching all of this in amusement.
Sandy nodded while thinking to himself, yes, but I will also knock you out as well if you don't stop screaming.
She nodded, as if the matter was settled. "Good. Now, in light of all this and the millions of unanswered questions we all have, I think the only thing we can do is sit down, and call Manny. He is bound to know something about all this. In the mean time, Kozmotis you said you wanted to see Jack and Jamie, right Koz- Koz?" She frowned. He had just been there a second ago.
Kozmotis had heard enough. If these three couldn't agree over the simple fact that he was human, he was not going to let them hold his life in their hands. Sometime in between Bunny screaming at Tooth and Tooth laying the smack down on the angry Bunny, he had decided to just say screw it and stealthily started sneaking away up stairs to go find the boys. He needed to get them out of here, and soon. He made to the bottom of the stairs and was just about to take the first step before Tooth's anxious voice called out his name.
He froze for just a millisecond, his foot inches from the first step before he shook his head and started climbing.
Ignore them, he told himself. Just ignore them. The metal click of his shoes on the steps made it easier for him to drown out the sounds of their voices. So much easier in fact that he didn't hear or see Tooth flying towards him until she popped up right in front of him.
"Kozmotis where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm leaving." Yes, short and sweet. Let them try to stop him.
"Leaving?" Tooth frowned. "But…you can't leave! We haven't spoken to Manny yet!"
She tried to fly in front of him to block him but he deftly walked right past her, shoving her as gently as he could to one side. "I've had enough." He told her curtly, speaking over his shoulder. "Enough of you, enough of this place, enough of this so-called magic! I don't know who you people think you are, but you cannot dismiss a man taking his own life so glibly. You cannot! It goes against every moral principle, against human nature itself! Then again," he added, turning to glare at Bunny and Sandy. "None of you are exactly human."
Tooth gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth. "Kozmotis!"
"Don't you Kozmotis! me, Tooth." Koz growled, stopping just long enough to glare at her. "You know as well as I do that you and the Guardians caused this whole mess! Why couldn't you just let him do his job?! It was the only thing he had, and you took it from him as easily as taking candy from a baby."
Tooth's wings slumped and she fluttered to the step she had been hovering over. "We didn't know." She said weakly, looking at him with pleading eyes. "I swear we didn't-"
"Oh you knew." He interrupted coldly, taking the steps two at a time now. "You knew. You just didn't care." Savage pride swelled in his heart as he saw the Tooth Fairy's crestfallen face. Good. Let her feel bad. She deserved every ounce of pain that the Boogeyman had felt.
He had almost made it to the top when Tooth's voice finally called out to him one more time. "Wait, where are you going?" She sounded desperate.
"Home. I'm taking Jack and Jamie, and I'm leaving this hell hole."
Before he even had a chance to blink, Bunny had bounded up the stairs and now stood on the landing, blocking his path. "Oh no!" He growled, folding his arms over his furry chest. "If you think that I'm gonna let you even go near Jack and Jamie, then you've got another thing-"
It happened so quickly. Kozmotis didn't even realize his hand had moved until he felt the pain in his knuckles and saw Bunny slumped over onto the ground, blood streaming from his nose. He stared, marveling at how non-threatening he looked with scarlet liquid seeping into his fur. I just hit the Easter Bunny. He didn't waste time on congratulating himself. He needed to find Jack and Jamie now, before Sandy caught up with him and knocked him out again!
Stepping over the rabbit, he headed down the corridor, calling out Phil's name. The Yeti had headed back sometime in the last half hour or so to check on his patients and if anyone knew where the boys were, it was Phil.
"Phil! Phil I need you!" His heart was racing. Once he found the boys, how was he going to get out of here?! It wasn't as if he could just magically poof like the Guardians could!
Or maybe he could…
"The snowglobe! Yes, I can use one of those portals to get us out of here! Now I just have to find one.
Suddenly, a big furry head poked its way out from one of the open doorways, looking curious. It wasn't Phil, but any yeti would do at this point. He could hear the other Guardians running after him, Tooth fretfully calling out and trying to reassure him that they weren't going to hurt him or Jack or Jamie. Kozmotis made a beeline for the yeti. "Where are Jack and Jamie?!" He demanded, coming up just short of the giant being. It was standing in the doorway, peering curiously down at him. The yeti had much brighter fur than Phil did, a vibrant purple with mustache to match and a strange top-knot that looked like ears twisted on top of his head.
The yeti grumbled something in yetish.
Dammit. I forgot these things don't speak English very well. Koz forced himself to remain calm. "Where…is…Jack?" He repeated, slowly this time. "And Jamie? Where…is…Jamie?"
The yeti gave him a nonplussed look.
He was losing time. "North then! Where's North?" He demanded. If Jamie and North were both sick then it would make sense to put them in the same room. Thankfully, his hunch seemed to be right as the yeti's eyes lit up and he nodded, grumbling something else in yetish before turning around and making the gesture for him to follow. Koz let out a silent sigh of relief. Well, at least he was going to get one of them out of here safely. And in any case, Jack was one of them. A strong spirit. He could take care of himself. Sorry Jack, he silently apologized to the teen as he followed the yeti. I'll have to come back for you later.
They found Jamie's room with relative ease. As soon as Koz saw which room they were headed to he bolted down the corridor in front of the yeti and flung open the door. A big man lay on an even bigger cot, hooked up to a couple of machines which were beeping. He barely spared a glance for him. It was probably North. He scanned the rest of the room, looking for Jamie and soon he found him, tucked up against a wall in a smaller bed and smaller machines surrounding him.
A blanket covered most of his body and when he lifted it away, Kozmotis gasped. His skin was almost a translucent shade of silver. His hair had turned a deep shade of black and when Koz lifted up his eyelid, he was startled to find that the boy's iris had turned a beautiful- and terrifying shade of golden with silver rimming the edges of the pupil.
"Oh…you poor child." He murmured, laying a hand on Jamie's arm. He felt ice-cold but there was no time for him to waste mourning. Not if he wanted to help him and get him out of here. So Kozmotis bundled the boy up in his blanket and turned to the other Yeti. "I need a snowglobe." His tone was brusque. All business. He could hear the other Guardians coming from down the hall and needed to hurry. "Can you get me one?"
The yeti frowned and growled something that sounded like snowglobe.
Koz nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes snowglobe. Where is one?" The boy was getting heavy in his arms.
The yeti shrugged and moved over to the coat rack hear the edge of the room where a massive red and fur-trimmed coat was hanging. He reached inside one of the many pockets and pulled out a familiar sphere of swirling snow.
Kozmotis could've jumped for joy. "Thank you!" He reached forward to take it but the yeti held it back, frowning at him and Jamie. He grumbled something. "It doesn't matter why I need it," Koz told him firmly. "I just do! Please, you need to help me!"
The yeti looked from the snowglobe to Koz, then to Jamie and gestured at the boy.
"I'm taking Jamie away," Koz told him stoutly. "Far away from this madness. He doesn't need any more magic or voodoo witchcraft, he needs human medicine! Now please, please let me have the snowglobe!"
He knew before the yeti even brought his hand to his lips that he wasn't going to do it. He wasn't going to give him the snowglobe. Desperation flooded through his system and he lunged at the yeti, still holding Jamie in his arms. His goal was to get the yeti to drop the sphere and drop it he did Koz stooped to catch it. By some miracle, he passed his dex check and as soon as he felt the cold orb in his palm he bolted for the door.
Unfortunately, the Guardians were already there.
Sandy, Tooth and a furious Easter Bunny were standing not three feet from the doorway, all of them breathing heavily. Bunny still had blood dripping down his front and when his eyes locked with Kozmotis's he saw they were blazing with fury.
Yeah, it's time to go. He raised his hand to smash the snowglobe but Tooth yelled, "Stop! Wait, Kozmotis please! I know there's a way to solve this, but you have to let us help you! Jamie cannot leave here, or else he will die! He needs magical medicine-"
Koz shook his head, the snowglobe still held aloft. "No, what he needs is to get as far away from you lot as possible! You murdered someone, Tooth! And you don't even regret it! None of you do! Now I've heard enough. I'm taking Jamie and I'm leaving. And if any of you try to stop me I'll-"
"You'll what mate?" Bunny growled, taking a tottering step forward. It was clear he wasn't stable on his feet any more. "You'll kill us? Because that's what you're gonna have to do to get the ankle-biter out of here. We've known him a lot longer than you have mate, and we're not about to let you take him away!"
Koz opened his mouth to spit back a response but before he could a quiet, sleepy-sounding voice spoke from behind him. "Guys?"
He whirled around to see Jack Frost standing there in the middle of the hallway. He was leaning on his wooden staff, blinking blearily at them all like a baby woken too soon from his nap. Koz's demeanor completely 180'd and he ran at the youth who was frozen in shock. He embraced Jack heartily with his free hand. "Jack!" He clung to the boy like a lifeline. With any luck, he might be able to get both boys out of here! "Oh Jack I'm so glad you're alright. I was worried for a while but you came through. I'm so glad!"
Jack blinked as he pulled away, frowning. "Do…I know you?" He asked uncertainly.
Koz laughed. "Well, no technically you do not but I feel as if I've known you for years my boy. I'm sorry, my name is Kozmotis Pi-"
"What are you doing with Jamie?" Jack interrupted, looking down at the young boy in his arms. "And why is he so pale?"
Koz opened his mouth to answer, but Jack interrupted him again.
"Are you taking him somewhere?"
Koz put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Jack, I know you're worried for the boy's sake but I can assure you, he is perfectly safe with me. He's very sick and I need to get him to a regular hospital," he glanced at the Guardians. "And away from these... people. You can come with me if you like," he added hopefully, smiling at Jack. He so hoped the boy would say yes.
But Jack didn't say yes. He went from confused to worried, to deeply troubled, all in the blink of an eye. "No," he said, still looking down at Jamie. "No I'm not coming with you. And I'm not letting you take Jamie out of here either. I hardly know you man, and if Jamie's sick then this is the best place for him to be. North's got the biggest collection of books in the world; I'm sure he's got something on this mysterious sickness Jamie's got. Right guys?" He turned to the Guardians, then did a double-take. "Bunny what's wrong with your nose? Are you bleeding?"
The Easter Bunny wiped still-dripping blood from his nose. "Yeah, courtesy of your friend there." He coughed a globule of blood onto the stone floor. "Don't let him leave Jack, he's dangerous."
"Aster! We don't know that-" Tooth admonished.
"He socked me in the nose!" Bunny interrupted, stepping forward. "We are not letting you leave this place with that boy, mate. Get it through your head! Now give the kid to Jack, and we might just be able to-"
"What makes you think you can stop me?" Koz interrupted coldly, holding the child tighter to his chest. "I'm taking this child Bunny, and that's that."
"Wait, what? Hold on guys, can I please get an explanation here? Why does he want to take Jamie away?"
Tooth sighed. "Jack, I know you're confused. We're all a little bit confused and scared. So I think we could all benefit from sitting down and taking a deep breath."
Sandy nodded his assent but Bunny wasn't having any of it. "There's nothing to be confused about! The rat tried to kill me and now he's taking Jamie! We've gotta stop him!"
"Wait, he tried to kill you?" Jack hefted his staff defensively.
Kozmotis rounded on Jack. "It's not like that."
His eyes narrowed. "Then what's it like?"
Kozmotis knew the boy's faith in him was slipping away. He needed to leave, now. He felt like the whole world was imploding around him. Thousands of voices inside his head, each trying to tell him what to do. Sera, his wife, Jack, Jamie, Phil, Tooth, Sandy, they were all screaming at him to do something. So he did. He darted forward, snatching the book out of Tooth's hands and tossing it to Jack.
"Here, take this." He told the boy who dropped his staff to catch it. "I can't stay here any longer, but that book will tell you the truth. Don't trust anything they tell you." Then he turned to the Guardians. "And don't you come after me. I may have not known Jamie as long as you have, but I care about him just as much. You are letting fear blind you all to the fact that if your magic can't cure him, my human medicine might."
The Guardians all took a collective step forward and Tooth went to say something, but before she could get the words out a sudden wave of anger ripped through him.
"Read the book Jack! It'll tell you everything you need to know!" He roared, lifting the hand which held the snowglobe once again and finally bringing it smashing down. The portal erupted in a flurry of rainbow fire and, before anyone could stop him, he dove through it, remembering just in time to shout his destination. "KOZMOTIS PITCHNER'S HOUSE!"
It felt like his body was being pulled apart, peice by peice and then re-arranged in a totally different pattern. His heart was pounding outside his chest, burning, throbbing, screaming. He could feel Jamie's heart too, beating like a drum against his chest. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear. Nothing made sense. He was floating wildly in nothingness.
And then he was standing in the snow outside his house.
Kozmotis barged in through the front door like a hurricane, calling his wife's name. "SARA!" Gotta find her, gotta find my wife! A thousand thoughts ran through his mind as he ran through the house, searching for somewhere safe to put Jamie. The bedroom! He stumbled and skidded his way through the living room and down the hall. Once Jamie was lying safely on the bed, covered by blankets he turned to the doorway and hollered, "SARA! GIRLS, where are you!"
"Koz?"
Thank god, it was Sara! He could hear footsteps running down the hall to his left. Good. "I'm in here, in the master bedroom."
Seconds later, his wife was standing there in the doorway, her chest heaving and her eyes wide with fright. "Love, what's wrong? Did something happen? Are you-" She paused, noticing Jamie lying there. "Is that Jamie?"
Koz didn't even bother to nod. Instead, he took his wife by the shoulders and embraced her tightly. "Oh, thank the Gods you're alright." He whispered, kissing her cheek. "I was so worried. Are the girls safe?"
She pulled away, looking confused. "Yes, of course they're safe they're playing in Sera's room. Why are you so worried?"
"Never mind that. Listen, Sara," he looked her straight in the eyes. "Do you still have any of that Wicca stuff left over from your college years? Anything, books, spells, potion ingredients, anything at all?"
Sara was clearly confused. "I thought you didn't believe in Wicca?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Back when I still paid any attention to that stuff you said it was all corny hocus-pocus!"
They were losing time. Koz let go of her and turned back to check Jamie's temperature. Still cold as ice. "Yes well, after having it out with two mythological spirits your faith in magic gets a dramatic boost." He murmured. "Do you have it?"
She shrugged. "Maybe somewhere in my closet. A few old books and some charms. What exactly do you need?"
"Anything that can keep a spirit from entering our home. Anything at all. A ward, a spell, a charm, amulets, salt circles, something! We just need to keep them out!"
Sara put a hand on her shoulder. "Keep who out love?"
He rounded on her. "Them! The Guardians! Tooth and the others. We need to keep them away from here as long as possible, only until we can leave." His heart was racing. This was the only option. They couldn't stay here, the Guardians would find them! And that was the last thing he needed.
"Leave? Hold on Koz, we aren't going anywhere! Why are the Guardians coming from us? Did you do something? Did they? Koz answer me!" She was starting to get scared. And that was the last thing he wanted.
He took her by the shoulders and held her tightly. For warmth. For comfort. For him. "It's alright," he whispered, letting her familiar scent relax him enough to that he wouldn't have a heart attack. "It's alright Sara. We are all going to be fine." He pulled away, smiling gently. "Now, so get those spells. I'll go check on the girls. We can't leave Jamie alone for very long, you understand?"
She nodded slowly. "Yes, I understand."
He kissed her forehear. "Good. Now go."
She kissed him back and, with one last glancing look at Jamie, fled the room.
Koz watched her go. At least he wasn't alone in this. At least he had his wife and daughter with him. At least somebody was on his side.
He turned back to Jamie, watching his labored breathing. Poor kid. He did not deserve this. Nobody deserved this. He plumped up the pillow beneath the boy's head, making him feel more comfortable.
Truth be told, Kozmotis hadn't actually planned on calling the paramedics for Jamie. He knew from his experience with Jack that normal mortals didn't believe enough to see magical issues with children and, though Jamie was no spirit his illness was certainly magical in origin. They wouldn't know the first thing about it. Not that he had expected them to. It was less about finding a cure for Jamie and more about getting him away from the Guardians. Whatever illness he had, it didn't seem to be progressing and as such was not a concern as of this moment. No, what he needed now was to protect his family.
Speaking of which...
Kozmotis turned around and headed in the direction of his daughter's room. Both girls appeared fine and safe. He asked them to stay close to each other and, if any of the Guardians came to them, to run and hide. "Don't them them find you," He had warned them. "The Guardians aren't...alright in the head."
Sophie cocked her head to the side. "They're...sick?" She asked, frowning.
"Yes, very sick." He told her, tousling her hair gently. "And they're scared. And when you're scared-"
"You do bad things." His daughter finished, nodding. She knew the score. She knew just how badly being scared could effect someone. "Don't worry daddy, we won't go near them." She told him firmly. "I'll keep her safe."
"Good girl." He told her. "Now, you two head into the kitchen and fix yourselves something to eat. We might have a long road-trip ahead of us. Check in with your mother every few minutes, OK sweetheart?"
Sara nodded. "Come on Soph. I'll make my famous peanut butter pickle sandwiches!"
The two girls skipped off towards the kitchen. As he headed back to Jamie's room, Kozmotis hears Sophie ask, "Can I have mayonnaise on mine?" And he couldn't help but smile.
Jamie was in the same state as he had been when he had left. Cold, unresponsive. Kozmotis sat down on the bed, watching the boy. He felt so guilty for taking him away but it couldn't be helped!
"I'm sorry Jamie but I had to get you away from there," he said softly, running a hand over the boy's clammy forehead. "They aren't to be trusted. None of them. They killed a man and never shed a tear over his body. They didn't even know about his death until Sandy found that book." He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "But we'll fix you up." He promised. "My wife and I, we will protect you. And Jack too, if he comes back. I know he doesn't recognize me, but I still want what's best for him."
"And who says that's for you to decide?"
Kozmotis was off the bed and on his feet, fists raised before he could even blink. In the doorway stood-
"Jack?"
