Chapter 12: The end

Though her eyes were closed and her energy was low, Maria could still hear what was going on around her, although it was all just plain noise. Nothing she could understand clearly. Then, the darkness around her began to change, and the noise she heard faded slowly away until there was silence. Grass appeared, houses rose from the ground and the sky filled with stars. The air smelled like sweet and the silence changed to lively music; salsa, merengue, bachata and villancicos that reminded her of Christmas. She looked around and saw behind her a house with a party.

Everybody cheering and smiling and dancing. She wanted to be a part of it. But a baby crying prevented her from going inside. She turned around and saw Baby Lucia, her little sister, sitting in the middle of the road, crying her little brown eyes out. She took another look back and noticed no one else but her saw Lucia was crying just across the street. Then everything made perfect and terrible sense; it was the night she died, but it didn't feel like a memory; it felt REAL.

"Lucia?" she asked, but was cut off when she heard a car honk at them. A Jeep with more people than it could hold was driving from a hill towards the baby at ungodly speeds. Lucia stared at it, crying harder, her face becoming red and her eyes wet from tears. Even if Maria wanted to run to her and take her from the street, avoiding the fast approaching car from hitting her…she couldn't move. She began to panic.

"Lucia!" she yelled, trying as hard as she could to move. She felt like she was tied where she was standing. The car came faster and faster towards Lucia, who kept crying and making Maria go mad in desperation. Why couldn't she move?!

"Lucia, corre! Corre lejos!" she yelled in Spanish, wishing the girl would understand her and do as she said. But the baby just stayed on the ground, screaming for Maria desperately, "MARIA!" The car drove even faster, ready to hit Lucia head on, while Maria panicked and cried also. This couldn't be happening again! NO! She felt her chest tighten, like it was being sewed, and there was that battle noise again, and something like a voice calling her…

"Wake up."

Maria's eyes shot open, gasping for air as her back arched from the shock of coming back to life again. She sat up with a jolt, panting, her heart racing from fear.

"Aah…"

"Tranquila, you're safe." a snake woman next to her said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Without giving it notice, Maria took a look around her, trying to see if something had changed. Yes, it did. There were other people…and creatures, fighting along the Latin's. The storm either raged or calmed by moments, and it seemed there was golden light seeping through some cracks around the clouds. And Elizabeth wasn't there…as in, in her cage.

"Elizabeth! Where…?! Ay, caramba, my chest…" she whined, placing a hand over the scar that remained of her fight with Daniel. She barely could see it, being just a pale white line crossing her chest.

"Relax, the girl is safe. The pain will go away in a while." Quetzal assured, sounding calm and almost motherly at her. Maria took some deep breaths and closed her eyes. Then opened them and glanced at Quetzal, furrowing her brows in confusion.

"Who are you?" Maria asked, recovering rather quickly from the pain. Quetzal chuckled, showing off fangs like a serpents. She was quite impressed with Maria's fast healing. Most needed days to recover, even with her magic.

"You're quick, aren't you? I'm Quetzal, nice to meet you."

"I'm…"

"Maria!" the teenage angel turned around and saw Balto running to her. The young King slid next to her and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly around the waist. Maria hesitated for a moment, but then smiled and giggled, giving the hug back by wrapping her arms around his neck. Quetzal merely rolled her eyes at the tender moment and stood up.

"Ugh, I'm gonna leave you two lovebirds alone. There's Fearlings everywhere and I love it!" she said, making a spear out of nowhere and running off to do her part in the battle.

Maria and Balthazar stared as she left, but then looked at each other sweetly and smiled. He got up, helping her stand. Once she did, he kept a hold on her shoulders, clearly not wanting to let her go after the fright.

"It's good you're back." He said, simply.

"Feels good to be back. Let's go kick some Night Mare butt, shall we?" she smiled mischievously, opening her palms and creating her distinctive sai's. Balto loaded a diamond shaped rock in his fling and raised an eyebrow at her, smiling.

"Ladies first, then."


Gaspar, a bit far from the pair, went from pissing off Pitch with his spear and overpowering him, to trying to save his skin from a swarm of black sand bees that stung him even in his ears.

"Aargh!" He growled, falling to his knees to get the little buggers out of his ears with his finger. He swung his weapon at the bees, making them retreat for a second before swooping down to him and piercing his skin once more. He cursed in Swahili, angered at the lack of back up to help him. Where was the Bunny that helped him stand when he needed him?!

A blast of pastel green dust told him he wasn't alone. He raised his head and saw pink, blue, green again, yellow and other colors blast at the bugs and destroy them, plus shooing the rest away from Gaspar. Gaspar stood up, gripping his weapon and looking for Bunny. The dust blew away from the wind, and there stood Aster, boomerangs at hand and a triumphant smirk in his face.

"The advantages of bein' the Easter Bunny, Wise Man."

"Oh, shut up, I had everything under control."

"Under control? Of course, over your knees, right?" Bunny teased, punching him on the arm softly. Gaspar scowled at the Bunny, feeling both humiliated and annoyed, before widening his eyes and yelling,

"Watch out!"

A Fearling in the mood for pestering them came swooping in, surrounding the two Guardians and screaming at them. Bunny grabbed a bomb and raised his arm to throw, but Gaspar swirled his weapon at the Fearlings and rolled it around like cotton candy. Then, he bent it a little and pointed it at a Night Mare, shooting it at the horse and blasting them both. Aster stared at Gaspar, who had his own triumphant smirk in his face.

"The advantages of being a Wise Man…Bunny Wabbit." He teased, softly punching Bunny back and smiling like he'd won an award.

"Ha-ha, Curly Toes, ha-ha. Let's just see how good your stick is from here to the next ten minutes."

"Better than you, I hope!" Gaspar said, whistling and calling his horse, getting on it and riding away.


The fight between Daniel and Jen-Jen (if you want to know) had lowered in intensity. From strong punches and deep bites and tough kicks, it turned into just a glare war. They were tired. Not from fighting, but from merely being together, even if it was fighting. Dad stood on one side and Son stood on the other, one gripping at his shoulder and the other at his ribs. Their breathing was labored, and the physical pain made it even harder. They wanted to kill each other, but neither could overpower the other. Jen-Jen couldn't for some strange, otherworldly reason, and Daniel, because he wasn't as strong as his father.

Daniel eyed the black ground, then let his ribs go and placed his hand openly over it, slowly making a knife with to kill Jen. Jen-Jen saw what he was doing, but didn't have the will to do a weapon of his own. For Mim's sake, he was sick of this entire freaking situation! And dizzy like a hangover. Everything spun in circles around him. Daniel growled, obviously using all the power he had left. At that, Jen-Jen laughed, raising his head up so the rain could hit his face and keep him awake.

"Are you seriously going to kill me now, Danny?" Jen-Jen teased, cackling. Daniel looked at his father angrily, taking his finished knife, but not moving from his place.

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"No, I'm just curious; you had the power and you had the chance over at the river when we saw each other again at the river with Elizabeth and Noche. You went through the trouble of negotiating with the Nightmare King and creating this monster storm, capturing the attention of two Guardian divisions, just to finish me off. Tell me…why didn't you kill me back then?"

That stopped Daniel's heart. He did have the opportunity, and it was even easier than now. Why hadn't he finished him off instead of giving them a warning with Maria and Elizabeth? He stuttered, gripping the knife softer while he thought of a good reply to tell Jen-Jen. After a second, he raised his head and looked directly at Jen-Jen's black eyes. Inside, Jen-Jen shuddered. Daniel had the deep blue eyes of Sarai, and hell, why did memories flood back in moments like this?

"I did this so you could see my power." Daniel simply answered, standing straight. Now Jen-Jen understood. He did it all for attention. Jack Frost might have done the Blizzard of the '68, but Daniel did better; the storm of the century. In that precise moment, Jen-Jen rolled his eyes back and moaned, collapsing on the ground while Daniel watched in astonishment how easily he fell.

"Huh." He mumbled and turned into a shadow, slithering through the cloud towards his partner in all this.


Pitch had been left in peace thanks to his bees, and was controlling all the Fearlings and Night Mares, creating ten whenever a Guardian destroyed one, making the fight something endless. But he didn't notice Sandy creeping behind him silent like a mouse. Then, Sandy tapped his shoulder. He looked back and saw a grinning Sandy waving at him before he looked down and saw he had dreamsand tied around his ankle.

"Oh, no…" Pitch muttered before he was thrown up, down, left, right and slammed against the sand. He groaned as he slid back towards Sandy and rolled around like a pastry, gagged and tied like a Christmas present. Sandy nodded once, as a "Take that!" to Pitch, and left him to one side before creating some weak strands of sand and throwing them at nearby Fearlings, turning spiders into horses and rats into puppies that ran to the battlefield where the Latin's and the Americans fought bravely to defend Childhood. Still, he needed help to finish off all the darkness and Fear around them.

In that instant, the divine help he wished for appeared; Maria, with a sai in one hand and a midday white glow on the other. She destroyed Nught Mares and, by accident, fed his weak dreamsand figures with the light like she'd done it a million times. He zipped towards her, waving his arms in front of him. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him, head tilted and a slightly annoyed glare in her eyes.

"Duck." she said plainly, lowering him with her hand and throwing a sai to a Night Mare that came running from behind him.

"What do you want? Help?" she asked, sounding less irritated than what she showed. He bobbed right back up, a question mark over his head and a pleading expression in his face. She smiled.

"Of course."

He pumped his fist, victorious in a way, and took her hand, pulling her up into the rain clouds. Mix Heaven with Dreams and you get a signed contract with unlimited power. Which was exactly what they felt once they touched. Dreamsand met White Glow, at first timidly melting together and making a small ball of something. But slowly, the two used their energy and power to make it grow, and soon, it was just feeding off the fear and controlling itself. All it needed was the guide of the two Guardians and it would extinguish the storm of Fear that tormented both kids and adults a hundred miles below them.

Quetzal had this feeling, suddenly, that she should look up. She sliced a Fearling with her spear and did exactly what her feeling said, and she thanked the heavens she did. Her snake eyes widened as she saw a light, half gold, and half white, growing and eating, practically, at the blackness around them. She looked down and noticed the ground begin to dissolve and become thinner, the power that maintained it beginning to lower. With a small gasp, she hid her spear and turned into a snake, slithering up to Melchior and smiling.

Melchior halted his horse as Quetzal slithered in front of him, blocking him. She had a smile in her face, which confused the King.

"What is going on?"

"Look up! We're saved!" she giggled, flying up to the mess of white and gold eating up the mess of black. The sight was blinding, and Melchior had to narrow his eyes to see Maria and Sandy shooting strands of dreams and light all over the place, forming their own storm. Quetzal circled around them, then stood on the same cloud as Sandy, throwing blasts of multicolored flames that just intensified the feeling of hope Melchior felt.

Pitch watched also, bewildered, at how his beautiful fear creatures and Night Mares became weaker and weaker, and the cloud changed color. It felt worse than the last time, because the last time he wasn't as near to winning than now. And where the hell was Daniel in this?! Like he invoked him with his mind, Daniel appeared out of nowhere, a knife in his hand. The teenage fear spirit cut his gag and resolved to cut the rest of the dreamsand.

"About time, useless rascal!" Pitch scolded him, getting up and creating a sand cloud so they could fly up towards the three Guardians ruining their job. What a nice welcome, Daniel thought, feeling lower than what he already felt.

"I was busy."

"What? Taking care of your father? I told you to take it easy and wait" Pitch snapped back, making a bow and arrow. Daniel knew he wasn't having the luxury of killing another Guardian; he had already failed with Maria so he just created the shadows that were usual to him and begun to poison the wonderfully made dream cloud around him. Quetzal, who put the color in the mess of gold and white, noticed a black spot on her parade, and turned around to see Pitch pointing an arrow at Sandman. She huffed.

"Isn't he going to give up?" she hissed to herself softly, and slithered behind the irritating pair of fear spirits. The arrow shot towards the back of the Sandman, a smile creeping up Pitch's lips, but was cut off by a certain feathered serpent with a scowl. He stumbled back, grabbing Daniel's shoulder and turning the boy around.

"Quetz?!"

"It's time somebody took care of you two idiots." She snarled, wrapping her long, slender snake body around the pair, squeezing them tight.

"Aah-hah!" they wheezed as she flew away from the cloud, making sure they didn't ruin the hard work of the other two Guardian spirits. In the meantime, the rest of the Guardians left the center of the cloud, helping Sandy and Maria by shortening the amount of Fear around the white cloud. They sliced, they threw egg bombs, they threw rocks that blew up and together, and they minimized the size of the humongous fear cloud.

"Noo!" Daniel screamed, furious at how easily Fear could be defeated, even with the amount of it that was spread all over the American coast. The wonder, the hope, the dreams and the innocence spread faster than his poisonous fear, foiling his plans of helping Pitch return the Dark Ages, and what felt worse, his powers rapidly decrease and die. The strands of dreamsand that looked like dolphins, race cars, soccer games and fairies stretched far and wide, entering the houses in Elizabeth's neighborhood and the rest of the US coast and calmed nightmare stricken people and giving back the peace of mind they had lost most of the night.


As soon as he got the chance, North in his sleigh along with the Easter Bunny and an unconscious Jen-Jen and Balthazar landed over the wet, quiet street where everything started, sighing relieved that it all was ending. Melchior on his horse, Tooth and Jack followed next, panting and scratched up.

"Whoo. That was quite the fight!" Tooth panted, holding her chest and resting from the fluttering.

"Yeah and I ain't NEVER doing that again." Gaspar said, climbing down his horse, but his knees failed him and he tripped, landing face first on the pavement. Jack giggled, helping him get up.

"Hey, we're missing two people." Bunny said, slouching over the sleigh, regretting ever jumping in it. The Guardians looked up, watching the cloud eat away towards the remaining black sand cloud. Then, Sandy and Maria flew down towards them, also exhausted but smiling. When she landed, she stumbled a little, almost falling, but Balto caught her sliding his arm under her wings and through her waist, catching her in time.

But Sandy did stumble and fall in the sleigh, falling straight to sleep like the Sandman he is. Tooth chuckled flying into the sleigh also, brushing his golden hair with her fingers. Jack walked to the teenage pair and smiled,

"Looks like you two saved the day for all of us." Jack said, patting Maria's shoulder. She blushed, smiling and answered,

"I guess so. I've never used so much power for one night…" She sighed, resting her head on Balthazar's shoulder. He brushed her now curly hair with his fingers, placing his head on hers from the exhaustion. Gaspar raised an eyebrow at that, but pretended to ignore it. Melchior plainly smiled, turning to North.

"Thank you, Nicholas, for assisting us in our fight."

"Ah, do not mention it, Milk. It is what Guardians do, no?" the Russian gift-giver said, shaking Melchior's hand. Then he looked at Maria.

"I suppose this is new Guardian chosen by Manny."

"Yes, meet Maria, Guardian of Innocence." He presented her. She waved at him in a weak manner, but politely.

"And this is the ill-famed Jack Frost, if I am correct. Not so infamous now, huh?" Melchior added, looking up to the winter spirit like an uncle would a nephew.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too." Jack said, saluting from the highest part of North's sleigh, smirking like only he knows how to do. North clapped his hands together and rubbed them, saying

"Well, old friend, us American Guardians have to go. Christmas is too near for comfort and I have loads of work to get done."

"I also have a ton of work too!" Tooth chirped in, raising her hand like it was a class.

"We get it. See ya!" Balthazar said, waving good-bye at all the American Guardians. North was about to take off with his reindeer when Bunny jumped off the sleigh, yelling,

"No way I'm going through THAT again, no sir! I'm leaving in my tunnels. See ya next Spring, guys." Bunny tapped his huge paw twice and jumped into his tunnel, showing off with a flip and disappearing, leaving nothing but a pastel blue flower. Jack rolled his eyes and grunted "Show off".

North smiled and smacked the reins, getting his reindeer moving into the starry sky, a huge portal appearing where the sleigh disappeared in, leaving the Latin Guardians alone in the peaceful neighborhood.

"They took Jen-Jen with them." Maria noticed. The Three Kings shrugged it off, not worrying about it. Maria didn't worry, either. He was in good hands. A dragon roar interrupted their minute of peace, and Quetzal came flying in, but not landing, with Daniel and Pitch wrapped tight in her tail.

"Gotta go quickly, guys. I haven't had dinner like this in 2,000 years and I'm starving!" she said quickly, floating above them like a huge dragon. Melchior let out a hearty laugh after watching Daniel and Pitch's eyes widen at the mention "dinner"

"Understandable. Enjoy your meal, Quetzal!"

"Okay. Bye!" she said, flying away in the direction of Mexico, her birthplace and home. Melchior and Gaspar kept giggling at that, though Balthazar and Maria didn't get the joke. She pulled away from Balthazar, running in the direction of Elizabeth's house. The Three Kings followed behind, wanting to know why she left running. She stopped right in front of Elizabeth's house, with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. The other three got there shortly afterwards, and smiled too, at the sight before them.

In front of the door, with almost all the paint washed away from his face, and a girl sleeping over his chest, was Perez. He snored softly, his head rested over the door and his body all slumped like he'd just plopped himself there without mercy. His skin glowed slightly in gold, surely dreamsand, and he didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.

"Oh, look at them. It's so adorable." Maria cooed, walking closer.

"Yes, but his back is going to ache in a few hours." Melchior giggled.

"They look like father and daughter." Balthazar added, following Maria. They kneeled in front of the pair, Balto prying Perez's arms away from Elizabeth and Maria carrying the girl. Perez tensed at the contact, noticing somebody was moving him but not opening his eyes. Maria carried Elizabeth softly, whispering things into her ear and stretching her red stained wings so she could fly into her room and place her inside. Between Gaspar and Balthazar, they took Perez to Noche and mounted him over the horse's back, the African King jumping on and handling the reins.

"Let's go, Milk."

"Right. He needs a bed and so do I!" Melchior exclaimed, mounting his horse.

Gaspar shook his head slowly, gazing to Elizabeth's window to see Maria. The teenage angel climbed on the window sill, holding on by the edges, and signed to the Kings that she would fly ahead. Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar nodded, taking off towards the sky along with Maria. As they rode to The Heavens, the once starry night sky turned to indigo, then blue, then gold, changing night to day in a flash. It seemed like it was giving an ending point to the bad memories, the scars, the injuries and the battle that had occurred over the heads of unsuspecting citizens, who merely slept enjoying the dreams the Sandman and Maria gave them, with just a hint of Quetzal's colorful magic.

The End