We have 50 chapters now guys! Achievement! And 271 reviews! You guys are all champion, you really are!
Who ACTUALLY thought this would go on for so long? Seriously? I wanted to quite thirty one chapters ago!
So here's the bumming thing. I only have 2 chapters left in the bank, which means I'm gonna be writing like hell for a couple days. Might still be able to post some chapters, but I really want to focus on making sure I have enough for when I have really bad writers block. I don't wanna leave you all hanging for too long.
Also, if you haven't already, I'd very much appreciate it if you could have a peak at my other one shot 'The Pills Don't Bring Sweet Dreams' :) I quite like it, hastily written as it is xD
Thanks all, g'night!
It felt like her body was freezing; like the blood that usually ran like fire in her veins was turning to ice, and her heart that had started to thunder away was slowing down. She'd not felt death before, not properly. When she'd died in that building it had been fast, fluid, had taken seconds and she couldn't for the life of her remember the crushing weight of the building falling upon her. She remembered the heat and the flicker of pain she felt, but that was nothing compared to this. The heat, she could deal with. Fire lived within her.
But this was ice. This was wrong. This was killing her.
Sucking the fire – her life – from her. She felt limp in his hands, she felt weak. Then some common sense snook its way back into her mind, and she told herself she was giving up too easily. Suddenly she twisted which loosening his grip around her jugular with the surprise she caused, and she had chance to swipe her arm out to grab her staff before she swung it around. The wood connected with the old man's head, and she pushed as much energy as she could through it. She heard him cry out in anger and pain as he dropped her.
Without waiting she struck out again, driving the spirit back into the larger room. She knocked him into a cabinet before she slipped past him and ran down the hall. Her feet carried her faster and faster past the cabinets before she turned the corner and headed for the doors, diving through them and hurrying up the hall.
She knew he was behind her, and she knew she wouldn't escape in time. With a surge of energy that warmed her again she focused not on turning into her phoenix form, but on getting away. She didn't normally transport away in her human form, but she didn't have time to wait.
"Aster," she whispered, running harder.
She needed to go to Aster, and fire licked around her ankles and up her legs, and suddenly she wasn't in the dark halls of the Pole, but in a bright wooded area.
Her legs gave out from under her, and she sank to the grass. Letting her fingers twist into the sweet green blades as she breathed in fresh air. She could feel her eyes stinging and she choked out a sob, and those tears leaked from her golden orbs and streamed down her face. She lay there for what felt like hours, but it was only seconds. When a hand gripped her shoulder she sprang up, screaming, batting the hand away and whirling around while swinging her staff out. But whoever it was caught hold of it, and shoved her back to the ground.
"Eleanor!" they cried, and she recognised the Russian accent. Gasping slightly as she pushed herself up again and threw herself into North's arms. "What has happened? Where have you been?"
"There's a problem," she whispered, her voice strained. She let go of North and pushed herself back. She would have carried on but the older Guardian seemed more concerned about something else.
"What happened to your neck?" he asked, and then Tooth was there looking horrified, and she reached out gingerly with her fingers, brushing them against the Summer spirits neck. Eleanor shook her head, looking at the two and preparing herself to explain the fact that she'd broken into the Pole to snoop at private files, only to be attacked by some ancient and evil spirit. But two people were missing.
"Where's Aster? And Jack?"
"Bunny is over there," Tooth said quietly, pointing to a bush, and beyond that Eleanor could see children on an Easter egg hunt, but something was wrong.
"We don't know where Jack is..." she finished, trailing off with a note of worry in her voice.
"Oh God, what happened?"
"He was taking Sophie home, but we haven't seen him since," Tooth started, but stopped when the Summer spirit gave her an appalled look.
"You sent him on his own!? Pitch could have got hold of him!" she cried, but in all honesty she felt more concerned about Aster than Jack.
There was no laughter from the children just beyond the bushes. They were slowly walking away.
"What happened?" she asked, her eyes widening.
"The nightmares came and destroyed everything... there's no Easter," Tooth whispered, and before anything else could be said or done Eleanor lurched forward to go to Aster, but he'd run from the bushes to the children, and she stopped just as she got into the clearing, her heart breaking for her Pooka as he tried to explain himself to the children.
"These aren't my best looking googies, but they'll do in a pinch," he laughed, holding out an egg to the little boy who stood before him, and a small brunette girl jumped down from a picnic table.
"I can't believe it," she said, but Eleanor heard the sadness in her voice, and she started forward, knowing what was coming.
"I-I know," Aster said, with a nervous laugh.
"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny."
Eleanor froze, just as Aster froze. It wasn't a sympathetic or even empathetic feeling. She could feel his pain. She literally felt his heart breaking. She'd never felt something so raw and brutal, but she felt it then.
"What? No, wrong, not true, I'm right in front of you mate!" he cried, but in that second another smaller boy walked through him, and Eleanor recognised the look of someone who felt as if they'd been plunged into ice, and those bright green eyes filled with disbelief, shock and sadness.
Eleanor rushed forward and flung her arms around her mate, holding him close as he curled into himself, clutching his eggs close to him.
"They don't see me... they don't see me," he murmured. Eleanor held him close, rocking him gently and stroking his ears. She knew it would have no effect on him though, because she could feel how immense his pain was, and she began to understand what being marked meant, even after so long of actually being his.
The two were connected on a deeper level. They always had been, in a way, and she had always been able to read his emotions. But as this was so potent, so tangible, she could feel it too. At a loss as to what to do, she buried her face into his shoulder, pressing herself into his fur while he nuzzled his nose into her neck, one of his hands gripped her arm and he held her there.
And they were both suddenly aware that Jack was there, North was talking to him, and Tooth looked appalled. Eleanor looked up and saw a small golden box in his hands, and her stomach plummeted.
"You were with Pitch?" the Russian cried, and Eleanor knelt there in the grass, staring in shock. Aster shifted himself, standing and walking over to the others, his shoulders squared.
"No, listen, listen. I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen..." Jack tried to explain, and she watched as Aster clenched his fists.
"He has to go."
"Aster," she whispered, standing up and moving to go forward, but she felt his anger burst from him, and she halted and bit her tongue.
"We should never have trust you!" the bunny shouted, raising a fist. Eleanor leapt up, reaching out, as if trying to stop him, while Jack staggered away in fright.
Aster managed to hold himself back. "Easter is... new beginnings, new life..." he explained, his voice breaking. "Easter's about hope... and now it's gone."
The Pooka shot one last look at Jack, before turning back to Eleanor. He shook his head in dismay, crouching again, holding one of the little eggs close to him, his ears flat on his back. The Summer spirit watched as Jack looked helplessly to North and Tooth, but both the Guardians turned away from him. Jack threw something small down to the floor, and turned to look at her, clutching the golden box close to him, his eyes filled with tears and he went to jog past her, but she grabbed him.
"What happened?" she choked.
"Leave him,"Aster shot, and she looked briefly back to her mate, whose emerald eyes were narrowed and dangerous, his misery burning into anger again, and she looked quickly to Jack, watching as the boy shook his head, wrenched his arm clear of her grasp and took to the air.
"Jack!" she cried, going to take after him, but she heard a shout behind her, and she stopped.
"Leave him!"
She glanced at Aster, who'd stood again and was glaring angrily at her, so she stared back, astounded at his anger – though she understood it – and upset that he was being so hostile with her.
"Aster, we don't know what happened, he could have-"
"He was with Pitch!" the bunny yelled, starting forward to her, and she noticed how North and Tooth started forward too, but they seemed more intent on keeping Aster back. "He went to do something with that bastard, and now- now there's no Easter!"
"We'll fix it," she whispered, stepping up to him and reaching for his hand, but he batted her away, still furious.
"There's no more Easter, Eleanor! It's over, done with. There's no hope now, because of him!" he shouted, gesturing to where Jack had flown off.
"It's because of Pitch, not Jack!" she cried, "and we will fix it, we'll stop Pitch."
"And where were you?" he asked, turning to her and regarding her wearily, his fingers shooting out and touching her neck, where a mark must have been left where Old Man Winter had a choking hold on her. "Were you with them too?"
"No, I would never-" she started, but Aster approached and pressed his nose into her hair, breathing deeply and gagging. She watching him turn away, a disgusted expression on his face.
"You smell like ice, and frost," he choked, and she realised what he was implying, and she shook her head at him, horrified.
"I wasn't with them, I was at the Pole, I was looking at the files and then he turned up," she cried, her words a garbled rush.
"Frost turned up?!" he cried, glowering at her, the anger of what he thought she had done with Jack apparent on his expression and in the betrayal in his voice.
"No, Winter! Old Man Winter turned up! He's the change Pitch told me about years ago, remember? He did this to me, but I got away and I came here!"
"Old... Old Man Winter?" the Pooka asked, looking shocked, his voice suddenly quiet again.
"Yes but... but we can focus on that later. Aster right now we need to focus on Pitch, and this! We need to focus on making more kids believe again, and then we can get everything and everyone back on track. And when we've fixed everything we'll double efforts next Easter and get your belief back!"
"You don't understand," the Pooka cried. "I failed, I didn't managed to bring Easter... now I'm invisible to everyone! Now nobody can see me!"
"It's not the end of the world!"
"You don't understand flower, nobody cares about you if they don't see you. It's like you're worthless, it's like-"
But he stopped, his eyes opening wide as he realised what he just said, and he looked back to Eleanor to see her staring at him, her lips parted with words on her tongue that she could not speak, eyes brimming with tears.
"No, no I didn't mean that, sunflower, I didn't mean-"
"Worthless?" she whispered, and each of the Guardians flinched, the word seemed dull, but it cut deep. "That's what you think?"
"No, no-" he tried to backtrack, but she shook her head at him, backing away from him.
"You really think that if people don't see you, you're worthless?" she asked, crying now, her heart breaking for herself. "Is that why you've always hated Jack? Because people don't see him? He's not worth anything to you?"
Aster seemed at a loss, shaking his head weakly.
"And what about me?" she whispered, looking down at the ground, and she heard him approach then, touch her cheek and tilt her head upwards. "Nobody sees me. You think I'm worthless?"
"No, never," he pressed, but she shoved him away as he tried to pull her into a hug, and she balled her hands into fists, glaring at him.
"I was right! When I was alive I was right! I always believed in you Aster! But you have never, never believed in me!"
"Eleanor, wait a second, please-" he shouted over her, but she whirled around to look at him. Such contempt burned in her eyes that he staggered back, the look she was dealt him worse than any blow he'd ever taken in his life.
"Don't bother," she spat, clutching her staff close to her, wiping the tears from her cheeks furiously, only for them to be replaced by others. "Leave me alone."
The girl turned on her heel and ran, bursting into flame before each of the Guardians and disappearing.
