North and I sat next to Bunny and we all caught our breath after all of the excitement. It would be a while before the eggs made it to the surface and we couldn't exactly hunt for Pitch so all there was to do now was wait. That was definitely ok with us. It was nice to have a little while just to sit down and recover. The loss of Sandy still weighed heavily on my mind and I'm sure it was in North and Bunny's thoughts too, but I tried to let the thoughts slip away as I looked out over the beautiful flowers and greenery.
"That was good work," North said, patting Bunny on the back.
"Thanks, mate," Bunny said with a smile as we watched the rest of the eggs head off toward their tunnels. "This'll get the kids believing again. Pitch won't stand a chance against all the happiness when they start finding the eggs." This was the happiest I'd seen Bunny in a long time.
"I'm glad Easter's going to go so well," I said, resting a hand on Bunny's shoulder.
"Ah, but that's not the only thing going well, is it?" he said, with a mischievous look at me that Jack would've approved of.
"What are you talking about?" I said innocently though I thought I had an idea as to what was coming next.
"You know what I'm talking about," he said, elbowing me gently. "And you said you two weren't friends anymore," he laughed, shaking his head. "I saw the two of you, it looked like you were more than friends."
I pushed Bunny playfully and he toppled over, laughing. "Wait, wait, what is this?" North said, looking from me to Bunny and then back at me.
I sighed and smiled. I guess everyone is going to know, I thought. "I knew Jack when he was human," I said. "When we were both human."
North's eyes widened. "Shostakovich!" he exclaimed quietly. "Why did I not see this sooner?"
"Well, Jack lost his memory," I reminded him.
"But you've told him now, haven't you?" Bunny asked. "I mean, you two are all chummy all of a sudden."
"No, he still doesn't know," I said.
"Why not?" North asked.
"I can't," I looked up at them helplessly.
"What do you mean, Tooth?" Bunny said, looking concerned.
"The Man in the Moon," I said, sighing again. "He told me that it's not my place to tell Jack about it."
"But this is very important," North said, "maybe you should-"
"I've tried," I cut in. "I can't. I mean, I literally can't." They both had confused expressions and I gestured toward my throat. "Whenever I try to say something about it, it's like my throat closes up. For some reason, I can't get the words out and I don't mean because I'm choked up by emotion." I looked up to the sky. "I think Manny's doing it. He won't let me." I looked back at Bunny and North. "And I'm willing to bet that neither of you would be able to tell him either."
"But why?" Bunny asked. "Why won't he let you tell him?"
"I am sure Manny has a good reason," North said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.
"He said that Jack has to discover the memories on his own," I shrugged. "I don't know but I guess the Moon has a plan." I sighed again. "We were all chosen for a reason. Maybe this is somehow part of Jack's reason."
"He'll find out eventually, one way or another," Bunny said.
I wasn't sure anymore. Even if we retrieved Jack's tooth box, the memories within might have nothing to do with me. The teeth didn't contain all of the memories of childhood, just a few. And would I have the courage to tell Jack about myself if the teeth didn't make him remember me? I hadn't thought about it before and sure, I wanted to tell him, but the thought was daunting. What would he say, what would he think? Would he be glad to see me? Would he be mad that I hadn't told him before? "Maybe," I said quietly.
"Huh?" Bunny asked.
"Maybe he'll find out."
"What-" he started, about to ask, I'm sure, what I meant by that, but suddenly there was a pattering sound and eggs came rushing back out of all seven tunnels. Bunny stood up, his ears twitching. "What's going-" but then we heard it. From deep within the tunnels came the angry neighing of horses that we'd all heard too many times before and suddenly Nightmares came flying out of the tunnels, shrieking and trampling eggs under their hooves.
"NO!" Bunny shouted, whipping out his boomerangs and attacking right away. North pulled out his swords and leapt at the nightmares with a shout, but it was hard for him or Bunny to fight as easily as the normally would've because as the eggs fled the Nightmares, both Bunny and North had to avoid stepping on them too.
I darted around as quickly as I could, bursting through them to disintegrate as many as I could. "Pitch!" I shouted, sure that he was nearby. "Pitch, get out here!"
"Stay away from my eggs!" Bunny shouted but the Nightmares were everywhere. They didn't care about us, they only barely paid attention to us. They flew in every direction, following every egg that tried to hide.
It happened so fast and in a few moments, every Nightmare that we hadn't yet destroyed darted back up into the tunnels. Evil laughter rang out seemingly from every tunnel at once but Pitch was still nowhere to be found. We were left standing there surrounded by broken eggshells, our fallen comrades. "No," Bunny said, looking around and shaking his head. "No, this can't..." He sat back and caught his breath, almost looking like he was about to cry. Pitch had destroyed Easter but even more than that, for Bunny it was like losing children. He loved the eggs that were born in his Warren, he took such good care of them and now, to see them all destroyed... I flew over and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Bunny..." I said, not knowing what else to say.
"We will get Pitch back," North said, promising Bunny vengeance.
Bunny's ears perked up and he looked toward the tunnels. "Maybe he didn't get all of them. Maybe some still made it to the surface." Without another word he darted down one of the tunnels. North and I took off after him but the farther and farther we went, we only encountered more and more broken eggshells. Where's Jack? I suddenly thought as I flew. Where is he, he should've been back... he could've helped!Bunny opened up a tunnel to the surface and we came up within a copse of bushes somewhere in Great Britain. "Shh," he hushed us, stepping forward and peering through the branches.
I looked too. There was a big banner that said, EASTER EGG HUNT - CELEBRATE EASTER SUNDAY AT THE PARK, and below that... "Oh, no..." I whispered. Several children were walking away, many with their heads hung in sadness, holding empty baskets. Still more empty and discarded baskets lay around the park. None of the eggs had made it.
"There's nothing here," one of the kids was saying.
A boy peering behind a bush said, "I don't understand."
Sitting behind him on a picnic table, a girl said, "Maybe he just hid them really well this year.
"Kids, wait!" Bunny said, leaping forward from the bushes and picking up one of the empty baskets. He pulled a few eggs from the pouch at his back where the sheathes of his boomerangs were strapped. I remembered how back at the Pole he'd pulled one out and worked on painting it and realized he must have had a few tucked away.
"I checked everywhere. There's nothing," the boy was saying to the girl.
"Yes, there is," Bunny said, coming over between them and holding up the basket. "There is. These aren't my best-looking googies but they'll do in a pinch."
"I can't believe it," the girl said, jumping off the table and looking straight at Bunny. His eyes lit up but then she said, "there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny." I gasped and Bunny's eyes widened. The girl wasn't looking at him. She was looking through him. North and I came out of the bushes and walked over.
"What? No. Wrong, not - not true!" he said, hopping after her as she walked away. "I'm right in front of you, mate," he said, turning around to another little boy but the boy walked straight through him. I cringed, remembering the feeling when people had first walked through me. Bunny gasped. "They don't see me," he whispered. "They don't see me..."
Bunny sat down and curled up and I flew over to him, putting my hand on his shoulders, which shook. I realized that he was trying not to cry. "Oh, Bunny..." I said, once again at a loss for what to say. I slowly became aware that I was feeling weaker than before, not just from fighting but from something else. I remembered then how when the children had stopped believing in me, they'd started questioning their beliefs in the other Guardians too, so they'd become somewhat weaker too. As the kids stopped believing in the Easter Bunny, they questioned the existence of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus as well.
A breeze swept through the clearing and I heard North say, "Jack!" I turned and there he was, having just landed. "Where were you?" North said, sounding just as incredulous as I felt. "The Nightmares came, the attacked the tunnels. They smashed every egg, crushed ever basket, nothing made it to the surface!"
"Jack!" I said, flying over. A few feathers fell off of me as I flew. I was about to ask him what happened but then I noticed that he was holding something. I gasped. It was his tooth box. "Where did you get that?" I whispered. It couldn't be true. Jack couldn't have just gone after his memories instead of coming back, he wouldn't do that, he... But the old Jack wouldn't have ignored Pippa while she was still alive either... the thought came unbidden into my head. No, I thought forcefully, that was because he didn't remember. He's not like that, he wouldn't- but I was about to cry. I shook my head and looked at him. "Where did you get that?"
"I was - it's -" he started to explain but then I noticed that Baby Tooth wasn't hovering around him like she normally was.
"Where's Baby Tooth?" I asked fearfully. He opened his mouth but nothing came out and he looked away. After I'd opened up my heart to the thought of loving him again, now it was breaking again. He hadn't been there to help us... and he hadn't kept Baby Tooth, the only one of my fairies to escape the Nightmares' grasp, safe. "Jack," I whispered, flying backwards away from him, "what have you done?"
"That is why you weren't here?" North asked, anger creeping into his voice. "You were with Pitch?!"
"No!" Jack said, "Listen, listen..." but then he looked up at us and whispered, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!"
"He has to go." We turned to see that Bunny had walked over.
"What?" Jack asked, surprised.
Bunny stepped forward and raised his fist, shouting, "We should never have trusted you!" He looked like he was about to hit Jack in the face but he held back, shaking slightly as Jack backpedaled. Bunny dropped his fist, sadness coming over him again. "Easter is... new beginnings, new life," he said, sounding hurt. I never seen him so sad. "Easter's about Hope," his ears drooped and he turned away, "and now it's gone..." He looked at Jack once more and then turned away.
Jack turned around and looked back at North but North turned away and I couldn't meet Jack's eyes. My loss wasn't anything compared to Bunny's, I knew, but I had trusted Jack, and now Baby Tooth was gone. There was another gust of wind and I looked in time to see Jack flying upward and away.