Bunny's P.O.V
Jack was glaring at him. Again. There was no escaping the winter spirit's anger and Bunny didn't really want to. He deserved every glare, every shove, every hurtful remark. Still, having Jack, his little annoying adopted brother, glare at him all the time was really depressing. The fact that Bunny knew Jack was just acting made it even worse. Jack didn't feel anything anymore.
Bunny scratched behind his ear and broke his eyes away from Jack's glaring face. The other Guardians were staring at maps, still desperately looking for Emiline. Bunny had tried helping but every time he suggested a place they said they'd already searched there. Even Australia. To Bunny it looked like they had searched everywhere and it seemed that way to them too because they were dead silent. There were no suggestions, nothing.
"We could search Bunny's tunnels again. There's plenty of hiding places there, we could have missed something." Tooth finally suggested half heartedly. There were bags under her eyes and a few feathers decorated the floor, feathers that had fallen out from her worrying.
Bunny shook his head. "I've searched every inch of my tunnels until there was nowhere else to look. If Emiline was there I would have found her." He said. He hadn't thought she was going to be down there in the first place, there was no way Pitch could get down there without his help, but Bunny couldn't help looking just in case. When he had found nothing he had hunkered down in one of the tunnels for two days, trying to stop the painful stabs he felt in his heart.
Jack furiously froze a passing elf. "I told you, he's got her in his lair. That's where she was when he showed me her." He said angrily. Bunny winced, Jack had told him furiously just how bad Emiline had looked. There were still several welts on Bunny's head and a cut on his cheek from that particular explosion of rage from the winter spirit.
"We can't search Pitch's lair Jack. We don't exactly have an all access pass into Boogeyman's Land." Tooth said, irritability in her voice. No matter how much the fairy adored anyone she could still get very mad with them in one of her rotten moods.
Jack's face turned red with anger. An icebolt exploded from him and hit the wall, leaving a frozen hole where it hit. "Then let's just go around shouting then! Maybe we'll get an answer!" The winter spirit shouted, enraged.
"Maybe you will."
They were all on their feet in a second. The Guardians faced Pitch, weapons ready. The Boogeyman was leaning casually against a pillar with an oh-so-arrogant smile on his face. For the first time in what felt like forever, Bunny didn't feel remorse. Instead he felt a red hot fury that pumped through his veins, making his whole body shake. Without warning, he threw a boomerang at Pitch and hit him right in the face.
"Bunny!" North shouted in surprise as Pitch bent over, clutching his freshly broken nose. The rabbit didn't hear him though, blood was rushing in his ears way too loudly. He caught his boomerang when it flew back to him and tucked it in its holder before leaping towards the Boogeyman.
The Pooka had Pitch pinned to the ground in an instant. "Where is she?!" Bunny shouted at the Boogeyman. The Fear King let out a dark chuckle as the rabbit loomed over him, eyes filled with crazed fire. Bunny slammed Pitch's head into the ground but that didn't seem to affect the King of Shadows. "TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!" The Pooka practically screamed.
With a cruel smile, Pitch disappeared into Bunnymund's shadow. The rabbit slammed his fists down onto his own shadow, hoping to hurt the demon, but Pitch just appeared a few feet away out of a pillar's shadow. He was facing North now, still smiling away. "You should keep that rabbit on a leash North. He's rabid." The Boogeyman said with a laugh.
"I'LL SHOW YOU RABID!" Bunny shouted, leaping at Pitch again. This time though, before Bunny could so much as lay a paw on the King of Nightmares, he was stopped short by Fearlings. Fearlings! They came shooting up out of the ground and pounced on Bunny like animals. One wrapped a black sand noose around the rabbit's neck and pulled back, sending the struggling Bunnymund to the ground. He tried to get back up but the Fearling pulled harder on the rope, tightening it around Bunny's throat and making him choke.
"Bunny!" Jack shouted. He pointed his staff at a Fearling and sent a blast of ice at them. It hit the Fearling and sent it flying backwards into the light of the fireplace. It screamed in pain before crawling over to the shadows and collapsing there, revealing a chest covered with ice.
Pitch shook his head. "Not very nice of him to do that. Crystal, you should teach the boy a lesson." The Boogeyman said, talking to a little Fearling girl. The child nodded before throwing herself at Jack in a blaze of claws and glowing white eyes. Jack, surprised at being attacked by a little girl, didn't fight back until he was already chained to the ground. "That's my girl. She was my first Fearling you know. To be beaten down by her is practically an honor." Pitch said cheerfully.
"Release them Pitch!" North shouted, wielding his swords menacingly. He was pointing them at Fearlings that were slowly creeping over with creepy smiles on their faces. They were all children and Bunny knew the great Russian was hesitating, not wanting to attack kids even if they were Fearlings.
"In good time North. Once my business here is complete I'll very happily let them go because by then their hearts will be broken." Pitch said cheerfully. He turned to a particularly dark shadow that none of them could see into. "Dracus, come forward." The King of Shadows told the shadow. A Fearling boy much older than the others came walking out of the shadow with something held in his arms. He placed it on the ground at Pitch's feet silently, watching the Guardians the whole time. "Your precious Emiline." Pitch told the Guardians, gesturing to the thin creature on the floor. With his foot, he rolled the head over effectively moving its hair to reveal an oh so familiar face.
Bunny felt like he might die. There was Emiline curled unconscious on the floor looking like a dying animal. She was too thin and way too pale. You could clearly see where tears had gone down her face because those were the only clean spots on her face. Her wings were crumbled like paper. Bunny let out a pain filled gasp, his eyes filling with tears. But then he saw the pleased smile on Pitch's face at the Guardians' reactions and the fury rose up again. Bunnymund let out a ferocious shout, lunging at the Boogeyman once more. Again, he was pulled back and choked by the noose around his neck.
"Aw are the Guardians upset?" Pitch asked, staring at all of them with pleasure. Tooth and Sandy were the only Guardians not captured by the Fearlings now, North having been slammed down onto the ground when he tried to attack Pitch at the sight of Emiline's broken body. "You should be proud Guardians, she was so strong the entire time she was captured. Though by the end she was begging me to stay with her, so tortured by the loneliness and silence that she didn't even care that it was me holding her." The Boogeyman laughed loudly when Jack and Bunny both tried to attack him again for that.
"Get away from her Pitch!" Tooth shouted. The little fairy was radiating fury, keeping back a few Fearlings trying to reach her with just pure feeling. Sandy had his whips out now and the Fearlings were keeping a much larger distance from him, not wanting to get hit with the golden weapons.
Pitch smiled again. "Alright but let me wake her up first." He said with dark amusement.
Bunny watched as the Boogeyman lifted Emiline up onto her feet, pulling out a black arrow as he did. It was the same type of arrow he had pierced Sandy with, the one that had killed their little golden friend. Bunny went to tell Jack about the arrow, it was hidden from the winter spirit's view, but the Fearling boy that had brought Emiline into the room slammed his hand down on Bunny's mouth.
"Emiline, wake up. Your precious Guardians are here." Pitch whispered to a still unconscious Emiline. He had her propped up by black sand now so that he could hold the arrow properly. He had it held ready to stab Emiline. Bunny thrashed against the Fearlings as Emiline's eyes fluttered open.
Emiline's P.O.V
For a moment, Emiline couldn't see anything. She had been in the dark for so long that it took her eyes a second or two to adjust to the light. When they did though Emiline couldn't have been happier. There were the Guardians, her family, so close she could touch them! It didn't matter that they were being held down or reached at by Fearlings, they were here! Or was she there? This didn't look like Pitch's lair, it looked like the workshop. A smile appeared on Emiline's face when she realized that was exactly where she was.
Without thinking and without noticing the black sand keeping her standing, Emiline took a step forward.
Something pierced through Emiline's heart, making her whole body flinch forward. The screams of the Guardians flooded Emiline's ears, alerting her that this wasn't just a spasm of pain shooting through her. Emiline slowly looked down at her chest and felt her breath catch in her throat when she saw the tip of a black arrow sticking out of the front of her shirt. She had been stabbed by an arrow. One of Pitch's arrows.
Emiline fell to her knees, no longer supported by the black sand. She looked at each of the Guardians before her vision was blocked by nightmare sand. It formed a ball around her, cutting her off from the outside world. Emiline punched at the black sand, trying desperately to get out, but it wouldn't budge. That was when she felt the arrow dissolve into her, shooting darkness through her veins.
A pain filled gasp escaped Emiline as her body went into convulsions. The light inside her started fighting against the darkness, physically hurting her. Emiline felt tears run down her cheeks as her body became a battlefield between the forces of light and dark. She begged Manny to let the light win but her time in the cage had affected her. Darkness had grown in her while she was in that cage and it didn't take long for the light to start losing. The light retreated into Emiline's heart and as it did she felt her remaining baby tooth, the one with all her Guardian memories, fall out of her gums. She spit it out into her hand and quickly enclosed it in a black heart necklace. As the light inside Emiline died she secured the necklace around her neck, determined not to forget…..
No Real P.O.V
They all watched in horror as the black sand slowly disappeared, revealing Emiline. She was sitting, her arms wrapped around her legs and her face buried in her knees so that they couldn't see her face. They could all see that her limbs had gone back to their original size and strength. Her skin color was back to normal too, a good sign if it hadn't been caused by the black arrow. Her wings weren't crumbled anymore, instead they were perked up and healthy. They were black though, blacker than night, with only slivers of the original bright colors remaining. Her hair was the same exact way, the original brown down to one little strand while the other colors were only a few strands bigger than that. They hadn't seen her face yet but already the Guardians could tell she wasn't going to be her anymore.
The Fearling boy took his hand slowly off of Bunny's mouth, a smile on his face. Bunny didn't take any notice of that though, his eyes were too firmly fixed on Emiline. "Emie?" Bunny said tentivly. There was no reply. "Sheila?" Bunnymund said, his eyes filling with tears.
Emiline's head suddenly snapped up and silence fell in the room. She looked the same with pink in her cheeks, long pretty lashes, and an always there smile on her lips but then she also looked incredibly different. Her always there smile had turned cold and cruel, like she knew your deepest darkest secrets and was holding them against you. Her eyelashes, once curled up excitedly, now hung seductively in front of her eyes. And oh her eyes! They weren't chocolate anymore, they were the exact same as Pitch's. Tooth had been right in thinking that those eyes would look beautiful on someone else because they did on Emiline. If only there hadn't been a cruel teasing light in them.
"My little dreamer." Pitch said. His eyes were shining with dark triumph and his smile was huge. Pitch leaned down and picked Emiline up by her arms. Once she was standing he placed an arm around her waist and pulled her against his chest. "Smile for them little dreamer. They want to see you smile." The Boogeyman told her, his eyes focused on the two boys who had loved the girl most.
Emiline smiled, revealing perfectly white luminescent teeth sharpened into deadly sinister points.
It was instantaneous and simultaneous, Jack and Bunny's hearts broke. Jack found himself on his knees, staring up at this Fearling Princess with a look of broken love on his face. Bunny was already on his knees so he dropped to all fours, watching the ground because he couldn't bring himself to look up at this girl that looked so much like his sheila but wasn't. The Fearlings released the boys, falling behind their master as he watched in amusement as the two Guardians suffered.
"Luna seems like a fitting name for her, don't you think?" Pitch asked the broken boys. His hand gripped the newest Fearling's chin gently. He turned her face so that she was looking at him with those eyes that matched his so perfectly. "Yes, Luna seems right. A longing provoking beauty that you can never touch." Pitch taunted the boys.
As if to make his words true, the Fearling Princess jerked her chin out of Pitch's hand. "Follow your own words Boogeyman." She said calmly, though her eyes glowed menacingly. A sob escaped Bunnymund, she sounded exactly like his Emiline except for the underlying coldness. The Fearling Princess looked at him with interest, wondering why such a strong looking creature was on all fours in what looked like pain. He didn't seem to have any injuries so what could be causing it?
"Emiline." The icy boy in front of her choked out. He was looking up at her with an expression she didn't recognize. "Emiline please tell me you remember me." Jack begged her.
Staring at the two boys on the ground, the Fearling Princess felt a warmth above her heart. It was coming from a tattoo there, one that read "Love." There was something else too, a deep hole in her mind where something huge had been. It had been important, she could sense that. The Fearling Princess found herself clasping the black heart necklace that hung around her neck, where had it come from? There was warmth in the fake heart too.
"Who's Emiline?" The Fearling Princess asked.
Jack let out a heartbroken scream. Tears, real tears, fell down his face. He had never cried before, the snow tears didn't count, so tears were a whole new thing to him. As his body convulsed with sobs Jack reached up and touched the tears, letting them flow over his fingers. He tried to stop them but three hundred something years worth of pain was finally coming out. Jack found himself lying at this stranger girl's and Pitch's feet, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Come along my Fearlings, we must welcome Luna into the family." Pitch said cheerfully, pulling the newest addition to his army towards the shadows. The Fearling Princess took a long look at the Guardians before disappearing into the shadows with her new family.
Hate me yet? :D