The Guardians took a few deep breaths and rubbed their painful eyes after the past three horrible memories before collecting themselves and focusing on the new one.
The city of Burgess rose into view, it's tall buildings standing high and mighty above them. It was dark- very dark. Night time, and getting late. A couple of lights still twinkled from the apartment buildings, but everyone had fled back into their homes at the sight of the billowing and completely black clouds that shifted over the town. A storm was coming- a huge one- something that the residents of Burgess were all too used to. This time was different, however- these were no thick and full white clouds, stuffed with snow ready to blanket the whole area. These were so dark, any light the Moon reflected was completely blocked out. This is what unnerved the Guardians. All but Sandy's memories finally flooded back after a couple of painful seconds- this was their weakest night. Easter Sunday.
Enormous, thundering waves of nightmare sand crashed over the city, tearing up cars and street in the distance. Pitch sat upon a lone nightmare horse atop a tall block of flats, smiling impishly at the predicament the Guardians and the children had managed to get themselves into. Thunder shook the very ground beneath their feet as the tsunamis edged closer in a murderous stampede, and Jack's eyes widened abruptly with fear. He couldn't avoid it as much as he would have liked. North stood unsteadily on his feet, leaning on one of his swords as support for his weak and tired limbs while his right arm hung loosely by his side. Tooth wasn't flying. Bunny was no bigger than North's hand. The children looked terrified- all except Monty, who came pelting at full speed towards where his friends now stood, only to turn and yell in fright when he caught sight of the horrifying waves.
'You think a few children can help you?' Pitch sneered, his eyes glowing dangerously yellow with power. His nightmare snorted aggressively beneath him, wishing with all it's being to pounce. 'Against this?' he gestured back to the waves now crashing over even the tallest of buildings, enclosing them all in a tight ring in the city centre. Lights flickered, sparked, then died across the streets.
North lifted his sword threateningly, but it seemed as if he would be no threat anytime soon. He groaned under the strain of holding it aloft, then dropped it's metal tip to the floor to ease his sudden bout of weakness. Tooth and Jack both ran quickly to his side, making sure he was safely upright before letting go.
Jamie gasped anxiously at the sight of his weakened idols, and Jack seemed to be the only one that noticed. 'They're just bad dreams, Jamie.' he tried to reassure, but the tired and dark lines on his face revealed his own weariness.
'We'll protect you mate.' Bunny said softly from his low point on the ground. His sparkling forest eyes didn't seem to agree.
'Awh, you'll protect them?' Pitch chuckled ominously as another crack of thunder and lightning lit him up from behind. Jack walked out determinedly a little further. 'But who will protect you?'
North tried to follow Jack, but he simply didn't have the strength. The teen looked down and flicked his eyes around for a second before refocusing them, mulling something over before quickly coming to his decision. He turned back towards North with a smile of regret on his face, suddenly looking much older than his age. He patted the big man gently on the hand to reassure him this was for the best- Jack was the only one not weakened by Easter- and nodded firmly before turning back to the Boogeyman. North shook his head and his normally glowing blue eyes, now dimmed and dull, looked panicked, but his body simply wouldn't obey his urge to move. To do something to protect their newest and youngest Guardian. Jack stormed forwards, determined to fight Pitch to protect his newly formed family to the best of his ability. He could buy them some time to escape. He knew it would end in his death. Yet he didn't seem to care- he'd always cared for others more than himself, and that's one of the reasons he was chosen to be a Spirit in the first place.
Suddenly, Jamie stepped forward and in front of his new friend, a determined expression set on his face. 'I will.' Jack looked down at the endlessly selfless and brave little boy in front of him, eyes wide with shock, stopping in his tracks to just breathe for once.
'I will.' Cupcake said firmly then pushed through the others to stand next to Jamie, fists clenched.
'I will!' Claude and Caleb followed suit, shoving each other in their brotherly way to stand in front of the Guardians. They argued with each other like twins usually did, but this time there was no humour in their antics. Tooth and North exchanged worried glances for a split second.
'And me.' Pippa came forward, her eyebrows furrowed with deep courage.
'I-I'll try.' Monty offered and his voice wavered with fear.
Jack nodded gently down at Jamie, a worried expression knitted into his features. He couldn't live with himself if he let something happen to these kids.
After that, everybody turned to face Pitch with unwavering heroism burning fiercely in their eyes. They weren't going down without a fight.
'Still think there's no such thing as the Boogeyman?' Pitch sneered. He found their futile attempts at retaliation utterly laughable.
The nightmare sand wave raced ever closer, only seconds from impact now. It smashed glass and lifted cars from the street, picking up everything in it's wake and destroying as much as possible. Pitch Black watched in amusement. As it edged closer and closer, Jamie's expression only hardened further.
'I do believe in you.' the brunette said. 'I'm just not afraid of you.'
The last second before the nightmares rained down on them was horrifying- Jack's eyes flew owlishly wide as he realised he could do nothing to protect these children. Bracing themselves for impact, Jamie leading at the front, all of the children lifted their hands in harmony to protect some part of themselves at least. But as they touched the onyx sand, something magical happened.
The power that the final believers held was undeniable. The black grains suddenly sprung into life and twisted in the blink of an eye into bright and golden dream sand- thin trails darted excitedly around the sky, dancing at their sudden release. This was their true form anyway- Pitch had never created his own sand, merely thwarted Sandy's into his own vile abomination. He took over the granules and controlled them, smothering them in fear, but now that they were released it was almost as if each one was singing. Everyone looked around in wonder at the sudden light and surge of good energy that throbbed around the city. Gold that touched black transformed and glistened like glitter across the night sky, and Pitch recoiled back in surprise.
Tooth suddenly gasped and felt her feathers brighten and glow- her wings buzzed with the electricity of flight as they came back to life from their dull throbbing, and she hovered just off the ground to test them out. The elated Spirit finally took off and twirled a few times before shooting off down the street, voices calling out after her shouting 'yeah! Tooth Fairy!' and whooping loudly.
North's eyes snapped open and practically burst out of his face they were so alive again, and he laughed heartily at the sudden turn of events before testing the weight of his swords in his unexpectedly strong hands again.
'Oh yeah!' Monty jumped excitedly where he stood and his glasses nearly fell off from the jerking motion.
Pitch looked positively pissed, to say the least. 'NO!' he shouted and pulled sideways on the reigns, attempting to get his nightmare away from the tainting sands. 'Get them! Do your jobs!'
The horses riled and pounced towards the children, but didn't get much further. Everything seemed to happen at once- Yetis appearing from portals and tiny Bunny running for his life. The kids stared in amazement at the furry creatures that ran around in front of them, then noticed the toys that flew effortlessly on the cool night air towards the nightmares. Bunny disappeared beneath a car, but as the steed pulled him back out by the tail, he simply laughed.
'G'day mate.' Bunny said teasingly and snaked his boomerangs between his fingers before launching himself into the air, front flipping around a couple of times then smashing the weapons into the enemy. The horses dissipated into nothing as he landed and caught his boomerangs, ecstatic to be back to normal size and fighting fit. He tapped the ground three times next to him- the code for something to come up from the Warren- and several huge stone eggs rose up from the holes. Moss coated their worn and aged faces, but they flipped them to their war expressions- one even managed to pick one of the twins up on it's head. 'Come on!' Bunny roared and bounded away.
Jack watched it all happen within barely seconds with fascination and elation clearly shining across his face.
'Let's get 'em!' Cupcake shouted with a tight fist, followed shortly by the others and several elves on tiny bikes.
Everyone started to attack random nightmares simultaneously, either making them crumble into nothing or quickly transforming them into beautiful dreams with the touch of a believing child. Jack had no other way of protecting or fighting other than himself, so instead went straight for his enemy to settle this once and for all. He fired icy attacks towards Pitch and his nightmares on the roof, snarling and frowning the whole way. Pitch launched himself into shadows of nightmare sand and Jack jumped quickly out of the way to another roof, firing bolts of freezing power everywhere he possibly could. He sprinted after the Boogeyman but ground to a halt when faced with a shot of nightmare sand being fired straight at him- he panted and froze ironically to where he was stood, but Tooth quickly darted in and cut up the sand creation with her razor sharp wings. She whooped and Jack called out 'Thanks Tooth!'
Bunny popped up from a chimney in a flurry of ash and soot, yelling 'Ho ho ho!' before chucking a boomerang into the nightmares that loyally surrounded Pitch.
North had, surprisingly conveniently, appeared on the roof across from the fight. Quickly realising his mistake, he turned back to the fight and saw Pitch swiftly trying to retreat in his direction. As the Boogeyman leaped, North met him in the middle and swiftly sliced through the nightmare he rode on, causing him to skid onto the pavement. The gutsy man followed after and met the huge nightmare sand pickaxe with his shining scimitar, which was promptly knocked out of his hands. Bunny jumped into the fight while North recovered his sword, flipping around the axe that was now stuck in the asphalt with practiced and expert level agility, chucking a boomerang out into the distance. Pitch recovered his weapon from the ground and swung it, but Tooth was too quick for him and sped past, cutting at his left side with her wings. The Boogeyman crumpled a little and Jack swept in, kicking hard at his left shoulder with his bare foot where a little flurry of snow erupted upon impact.
All four Guardians posed as if for a picture, their stances low and ready for an attack. Jack stood at the front, his staff clutched protectively in his hands as he glared daggers at Pitch. Bunny leaned back on the right of the Winter Spirit, his face crinkled with disgust as he twiddled his boomerang threateningly in his right hand. North, to the left, held one sword out and the other back, knees bent and poised ready to pounce. Tooth fluttered just behind, her shoulders up and stewing with anger.
As the whole memory had been so dark, the Guardians hadn't noticed how dim and dreary the colours were. A sign more urgent finally made it through their enthralled minds, and Bunny quickly realised what was happening as the whole scene started to flicker and blur. It drifted in and out of black and white, some of the buildings smudged like ink on paper.
'Crikey, the bloody twenty four hour rule!' Bunny yelped and started to frantically search the quickly disappearing memory.
Sandy focused harder than ever- he could feel it, the dagger, and was almost glad for it's presence. He was sick of it not being there, meaning only more pain for Jack. He focused hard- it took at least a minute for him to locate it, but quickly hurried over to a lamp post from which hung way too many traffic lights. The Sandman hurriedly ripped it off it's hinges and threw it to the ground before any of the nightmares in it started to taint his arms, but threw a whole wave of dream sand that completely destroyed the thing in less than a few seconds. The other three Guardians grinned at his speedy work, the colours of the scene finally settling back to normal and nothing blurring or twitching.
'It's over, Pitch.' Jack said firmly, tired of this escapade. 'There's no place to hide.'
Pitch looked momentarily phased, but that quickly passed and his scheming grin erupted onto his face again. He disappeared into the darkness, and shadows twisted up around the four Guardians in his shape, but the real him appeared just behind Jack. His pickaxe was gripped in both hands as he raised it, and Bunny was the first to alert the teenager of the danger he was in.
'Jack, look OUT!' Bunny shouted and threw a boomerang, but it simply rebounded off the handle.
Pitch swung down as Jack turned with fear in the bright blue pools he had for eyes, and for the Guardians it was a painful reminder of what waited for them when they awoke.
But before the weapon could ever reach the Winter Spirit, a golden tendril of dream sand snaked around the handle and wrenched hard. Pitch flew with it towards it's source as it reeled back in like a fishing line, where there was a swirling and bright mass of unmistakeable dream sand. Recognition fluttered across everyone's faces as they realised what- who- was stood in front of them.
Sandy appeared like a vision straight from a dream, looking feistily down at the Boogeyman in front of him with warm orange eyes. Pitch's face couldn't have been more hilarious. Sandy punched Pitch into the sky, still holding onto him by a whip of dream sand, then turned to the children that ran at him.
'The Sandman!' Monty said happily. Sandy responded with a golden hat tip off to the kids, and hastily slammed Pitch into the pavement when he felt the rope being tugged at.
The Guardians flew at him with elation, celebrating his return and over the Man In The Moon that he was alive. Sandy himself couldn't have been happier- he gathered sand around his feet and flew up on a little cloud into the sky, pleading for his once tainted sand to return to him in all it's golden beauty. He looked up at the Man and grinned, then released his snaking vines across the world, bringing believers galore with him. He shut his eyes and sighed in the bliss of spreading his power and feeling the children believe again.
Hundreds of dream sand creatures flew and stomped across the city- a massive Stegosaurus rampaged calmly through the streets, fish swam in shoals through the air, manta rays, paper birds, dolphins and snowflakes all glittered and lit up the sky.
Jack scooped up a handful of snow and formed a perfect snowball, then threw it at his believer. They grinned at each other, and then everyone started laughing and pelting snow at one another.
'Your centre?' North asked softly, gesturing to the fun the children were having with Yetis and Elves alike.
'Well...' Jack smiled mischievously. 'It took a while, but I figured it out.'
North grinned lovingly at their newest ally, then chucked a tiny wooden thing that Jack caught with ease. He looked down warmheartedly at a tiny Russian doll of himself, staff and all, and chuckled fondly. He looked up at North almost as if he wouldn't believe that he was really there, really doing this for him, but he was, and he laughed genuinely, and then everything turned white.
Hey everyone!
Yup, I found several mistakes, but it wasn't quite as bad as I'd feared ;) I'm not even joking- about a second after I shut my laptop after posting this chapter, my mum walked into the room to chuck me off it! It was close shave, but we made it :P
Another MASSIVE thank you to all of you who are reviewing and following and favouriting and even just reading- I cannot express in words how every email makes me feel, how your overly kind words affect me. It's amazing. I NEVER expected this fic to get so much attention, let alone having people tell me it's one of the best they've ever read, that they've been reduced to tears, stayed up all night to read and that I'm an amazing author? Oh my god, I can't even begin to express my gratitude... *flails pathetically in glee like a beached whale* That's probably as accurately as I can describe it.
Did you know, we're nearing the end of the Repairing Arc? Ooo, tense. But... there's a few secrets to be revealed first. I am currently building myself a bunker- it should keep me safe from tomatoes, rotten fruits and vegetables, snowballs, fire, gunshots, bombs, nuclear attacks and sheer hatred... I expect all of these if not more in the coming chapters from you all. I have thoroughly prepared myself for it however, so do your worst! ;)
Your irresistibly cruel author...
Emily xxx CAKE FOR EVERYONE! :D
