"Come on now, if you was corrupted you'd be runnin' around like a a wild animal" Bunnymund said with a confident tilt of his head.
"Yea I'm not an expert, but you don't strike me as the bloodthirsty type at the moment." Jack added and Alice felt a little more at ease.
"Now what are we gonna do if she shows up again?" Upon hearing the bunny's question Sandy thought for a moment and a picture of two swords crossed into an X appeared over his head and he pointed to Alice.
"Yes..." North said slowly as he took in Sandy's statement. "She may not be done getting her point across, so there is good chance she will make her presence known to Alice again. Now its just matter of how to protect you until we can do something about her." Alice frowned with a twitch of her eyebrows, not very fond of being the weak one in the room. Suddenly an idea hit her.
"Teach me how to fight!" She blurted this out a little more enthusiastically than she intended.
North raised an eyebrow. "That is dangerous request."
"Well so is getting killed because you can't defend herself." She argued.
"Even so, it can take'a lifetime to learn any basic fighting style, much less apply it to an actual situation." Bunnymund interrupted. North crossed his arms and tilted his head in Bunnymund's direction in a "what he said" gesture.
"You could teach me to defend myself with a weapon then. I don't get it, don't you guys want me to be able to fight back?" Alice asked desperately.
"She's got a point." Bunnymund said with a shrug and raised an approving eyebrow. "Thank you!" She said loudly and held a hand out at him. "See, even he agrees!" Sandy sent the bunny a glare and quickly shook his head back and forth with his lips pursed and a very irritated look on his face. A clenched fist and then a circle with a slash flashed quickly over his head and disappeared within a second of appearing.
"Sandy's right, this isn't your fight and we cant have you in any more danger. If there is any more trouble we will take care of it. It was foolish of you to get involved in the first place." North said sternly and looked her dead in the eye. 'Foolish?' If there was ever a moment that she had felt an invisible slap to the face, this was it. A feeling of antagonism began to rise in her stomach and she looked to Sandy for help. His hands where clenched as if he had something to say but he kept his eyes firm on the ground and she could tell by the expression on his face that he believed what North was saying was necessary.
"That...That's not fair!" She shouted as her anger began to swell up inside her. Alice didn't care how intimidating he was, there was no way she was going to be thrown aside like a precious rag doll. 'This is what they have to say? After everything, I cant even help? What am I supposed to do, just sit down and forget everything ever happened while they blindly decide that I should be "protected?"'
"Alice-" North began to say intimidatingly.
"No!" Alice cut him off furiously and stood up to raise an accusing finger to him. Before she could speak her mind she suddenly felt something rushing down her arm and the black sand resting in her sleeve shot out and solidified into a needle sharp spike that rushed out to meet him. Alice eyes widened in horror and in a split second Sandy was on it. A burst of golden sand rushed out to meet it with lightning speed, diverting its course and embedding it deeply into the ground.
"Uh," Jack said nervously, already standing a few feet back and clutching his staff readily. "What was that you said about not being corrupted?"
Alice stared at the her shaking hand with wide frightened eyes, her mouth moving as she tried to talk but no words coming out. North and Bunnymund were obviously taken back by the random attack, standing tensely with in what looked like a defensive mode and Bunnymund already holding his boomerang tightly in his paw. Alice looked from each startled face and felt an overwhelming urge to run. Anything to get away from their betrayed expressions. Without a word she turned and started to bolt for the door.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think your going?" Jack quickly shot out his arm and snaked it around her stomach as she tried to tear past him.
"Alice-" He said when she suddenly collapsed to the ground on her hands and knees, his arm still wrapped around her.
"I didn't-I swear I didn't-" Alice stammered, staring at the ground where tears started to fall to the floor and land with little bursts when the tiny droplets scattered. The other three eased when the apparent threat seemed to pass and couldn't help but watch the scene with tense sympathy. North sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"I'm going to throw together another buzzer. Watch her." He said with a irritated wave of his hand and turned to the door and walked out while muttering a string of words in Russian .
"Don't worry Alice, hes just being tough because he cares. He'll get over it." Jack comforted and glanced over over his shoulder with an uncertain look. "I'll go talk to him." When she look up he threw a pleading look to Sandy who graciously hovered over to them. After a grateful nod Jack took off after North. Bunnymund cleared his throat and Sandy looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Erm, I'm gonna follow frostbite, this ain't exactly my area of expertise " He said while his eyes darted desperately from him to the door. "You got this right?" Sandy gave him a very unamused look as he started to make a beeline for the exit.
"Great, be back." He said quickly and with a quick salute was already out the door leaving very irritated dream giver behind. Sandy stood behind her with an uneasy knot in his stomach and was hesitant to place a hand on her shoulder.
Unlike North and Bunny, Sandy was more involved with the children 24/7. Most of the comforting he did took the form of dreams and even though there was an occasional interaction with children who believed in him it was rare that he kept that interaction. It was always a matter of time before children stopped believing anyways and he was disregarded as a dream, not that he took it personally of course. It was natural that they grow up into amazing people and give life to beautiful children of their own.
"Sandy." Alice's hollow tone pulled him out of his hesitation and he tilted his head in concern and placed a hand on her shoulder as he hovered around to see her face. Her hands were tightly clenched in fists on her lap with one hand hidden in her sleeve and her head was tilted down enough that Sandy couldn't see her eyes from underneath her bangs. Without warning Alice suddenly reached up and grabbed the collar of his robe and yanked him down to her eye level. Sandy's eyes widened in surprise as she looked him dead in the eye with angered desperation.
"You have to teach me how to control it." Certainly not the kind of reaction he was expecting, Sandy instinctively moved his face away from hers and awkwardly looked down at the hand clutching his collar and then back at her eyes. He Held up a finger and his mouth moved as if he was going to reject the demand until Alice narrowed her eyes even further, obviously not taking no for an answer.
"Either you teach me how, or I'll learn by myself." He reached up and plucked her hand off of him and held his hand out, already aware of what she was hiding. After a few seconds of sitting under his stare her expression mellowed and gave in and held her hand out. She wasn't sure what kind of reaction to expect as he carefully rolled back her sleeve. If it were Ashley she probably would've started freaking out as soon as she saw that rest of her arm which was now completely covered in black sand. However Sandy's face didn't so much as flinch as he turned it over and constructed a stream of dream sand with a wave of his hand.
"You could at least pretend to be surprised " Alice said gloomily and pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. The fact that these things were starting to be considered normal was upsetting to say at the least. Sandy nodded in agreement and lowered her hand before holding it back up and looking at it, this time with an exaggerated surprised expression.
"That's more like it." She said with a sad smile and watched as he guided the stream of sand to her palm and tried to spear through the hard surface. It made a small clink sound and Alice twitched her free hand impatiently.
"Make it sharper." Alice said lifted her head to get a better look. Sandy gave her irked look and held out up a hand. A spike formed and flowed straight into his palm and then another wisp of sand appeared on the back of his hand and stretched out, creating the illusion of a nail through the hand and then raised an eyebrow and nodded his head towards his hand in a questioning way, obviously asking "Do you want to have you hand impaled?".
"Ugh fine, but your not doing it hard enough." She muttered and put her chin back in her knees. A brief image of a car with a backseat driver flashed over his head before as he turned his attention back to her hand. After an attempt to bend her finger he held up a hand and clenched it. Alice did what he asked as she held her hand up and clenched it with ease.
"Funny, it sounds like it's hard as steel, but it doesn't feel like it." She mused. "A friend and I used to go down to the beach sometimes and try to find the best seashells." Alice explained and her eyes softened as she remembered the crisp air and the crashing waves. "Anyways I would always try to dig down as far into the sand as I could to get one. It kind reminds me of that." She twiddled her fingers and Sandy silently listened with a small smile, staring at nothing in particular "It feels soft and cool. It actually looks pretty awesome." She smiled with a dangerous gleam in her eyes and tried to scrape it with her fingernail It was indeed hard as a rock on the surface, which didn't make much sense to her.
"So why did it do that?" She asked in hopes he would have a logical explanation. Two golden swords condensed over his head and one slashed down and the other quickly rose up to meet up.
"I don't get it." Alice said, not remembering any swords being involved in the first place. Once again an image flashed over his head, this time two boxers facing each other with their arms held up defensively. One went in for a punch and the other blocked it with his forearm.
"Defense?" She asked and raised her head. "You mean that was a defense mechanism? But no one attacked me!" She exclaimed. He moved his head from side to side in a half agreement and then tapped her hand and shook his head no before tapping the side of his head twice and nodding.
'Not physically at least.' She thought bitterly when he gave her his reasoning. 'Why would this stuff want to defend me in the first place?'
"Ok, well how do I get it off?" She asked. He sat down in front of her and motioned his hand towards her and crossed his arms, watching her closely.
"Me? What am I supposed to do, this thing is hard as a rock!." She said quickly and tapped it against the round to prove her point. Sandy tapped the side of his head before crossing his arms again with a "be my guest" expression. Alice studied his face for a few seconds before giving in and resting her chin back on her knee and closing her eyes.
'Ok now what? Concentrate? I've already tried that. Maybe if you stop thinking about that would help.' Alice's brow twitched in irritation as she fought with herself before slowly exhaling and clearing her mind. She tried to think of it like another arm or leg, things that she had direct influence over. In crawling sloppy movements the sand on her hand began to slowly recoil and fall to the ground and then quickly slither away into the nearest shadows. Alice opened her eyes in surprise and smiled widely.
"Did you see that?!" She exclaimed enthusiastically. "I did that! I could feel it, like it was...like..." Her enthusiasm died down when she caught Sandy's bleak eyes. Apparently he seemed to disapprove of her enthusiasm.
"Uh...Isn't this a good thing? I mean if I can learn to control it then I could help maybe " With a blink of disbelief Sandy's expression went from unhappy to disgusted in an instant and slowly shook his head. 'Ok then maybe it's not such a good thing.'
"Still," She muttered, "I don't want to hurt anyone." Sandy's expression softened and Alice continued. "I know it sounds naive, but I've never been very talented, or been able to do much to help anyone. I always thought I would just fall through life being pretty useless and not make any impact on the world." Sandy frowned in disagreement but kept his peace. "But when I found out there was a whole world hidden where I could never see it, and saw you guys and how you do so many amazing things to help children, I wanted somehow to be a part of it. I though maybe this could be my chance to do something, Something I could be proud of, whatever...side effects there may be. Maybe it's a good thing."
"Besides, I don't suppose you can do anything to stop it." She asked, assuming if he could do anything for her he already would've. He looked back up and held up both hands in a fist and a thin line of sand passed through both his hands. He promptly snapped the sand in half, which quickly vanished and then conjured up an image of a very complex looking molecule and pointing to the lines that bonded each atom and pointed to her.
"What?" Alice questioned and tried to concentrate as the same images flashed in front of him, this time much slower and with more emphasis.
"Whats Sandy's trying to say," North suddenly interrupted, "is that even though he can purge the nightmare sand itself, he cannot break the bonds made by your mind." Sandy nodded as North approached them.
"North-I-" Alice stammered as she was completely caught off guard. "I really didn't-"
"It's quite alright Alice." He said and began to rummage through his pocket, not paying much mind when she stuttered awkwardly.
"Really?" Alice asked in disbelief.
"Yes, you are not to blame." Alice raised an eyebrow, suspicious of his sudden forgiveness "Now take this. If you run into trouble again just press the button." He explained quickly and tossed another buzzer to her. She caught it in surprise and looked back up to see him smile down at her.
"Thanks." She said and smiled back. "What does the other one do?"
"Just don't press that." He said with a coy smile and continued before she could pry.
"Now you said something about training right?"
"Well, actually I said something about fighting." She said slowly and smiled when she caught on.
"Well, you can't fight without a little training."