Happy New Year, everybody! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and here is chapter 16 up and running! And as always, I do not own ROTG, just my OCs
"What...the bloody hell...was that?" Amberlynn asked. Still helping Pitch lean onto her for support, she searched the eyes of the Guardians, looking for an answer of some kind from one of them.
North shrugged his red overcoat back on and reached into one of his pockets for a snowglobe before he answered, "Easy. Bunny, Tooth, Sandy, and I meet with Mother Nature for plan to defeat Lynx. Jack, why don't you go spend some time in Burgess for a while?"
Jack's eyebrows shot up in shock, then immediately furrowed in anger at what was just said. "And just like that you are going to listen to what Mother Nature has to say?!" He ran his hands through his short, white hair before grabbing hold of his staff in a deathlock-grip. "Oh no, you are not going to bench me for this one!"
"Whoa! Easy there with that staff, Frost!" Amberlynn squeaked, floating a few inches above the floor. In a fit of anger, the winter spirit had slammed his staff to the ground, causing ice to spread across the entire length of the cliff.
"Sorry," he muttered before undoing all the ice he just caused. He turned back to North and demanded, "Just give me one good reason why a winter spirit shouldn't be there to fight another winter spirit? I'd have the least likely chance of actually dying out there that anyone has, given my immunity to the cold. Hello, winter spirit here!"
"Not only is your 'logic' flawed with so many fallacies," Pitch answered, "but I can give you at least three good reasons why Mother Nature has just forbidden you from joining in on the battle. Let us begin with your lack of experience as a fighter."
"I'm sorry," Jack interrupted, rather unapologetically, "but didn't your last battle with me result in you looking like...well, like a worse-off version of this." He gestured toward Pitch's current state, trying to prove his point, but Pitch let out a low, dark chuckle. "And that's where you're in trouble, Frost. When you were fighting honorably, you couldn't distinguish a right hook from a plie. It wasn't until you got to my level and began fighting dirty that any progress was made with you. I don't think you have it in you to play foul for as long as you would need to against him."
Pitch held up two fingers, signaling transition to his next point. "Furthermore, I should have recognized my own trick anywhere from that night. That little stunt of yours came after watching one of my moves. The one that I most definitely recall put an end to Sanderson's existence over here...for however brief of a time it may have been." Sandy balled up his fists and slowly created sand whips, preparing for something to arise but Amberlynn side-eyed the Nightmare King, insisting he continue on with his point.
"Lynx is a conniving, manipulative son of a bitch who doesn't know the meaning of 'fair play,'" Pitch stated, "but he is clever. Too clever for anyone's good. He seldom uses the same tactics twice. I can count on one hand the number of spirits who have had the fortune to live long enough to witness him duplicate even one of his fighting styles...and two of them are in this very room. Let that sink in for a moment."
The tooth palace eerily and suddenly dropped of all hint of noise. A single pin could be heard from miles away while the Guardians all pondered what was just said to them, but Pitch didn't let it last long. "Finally," he added, "While you might also be a winter spirit and not as susceptible to what Lynx may have up his sleeve, you are in fact still a seasonal spirit in spite of your Guardian status."
Upon the Guardians' blank stares, with the exception of Sandy, both Pitch and Amberlynn facepalmed. "Honestly," he sneered, "It's quite amazing you lot bother to do MiM's bidding without any sort of knowledge being given to you. And really, how generous of him to leave you vulnerable on both ends, Frost. Not only are you conditionally immortal now based on the belief of children as a Guardian, but you have never been truly immortal because you are not completely immune to the effects of other seasonal spirits."
After noticing Pitch's breathing begin to stagger, Amberlynn decided to attempt to speed things up and add, "Think about it from even your guys' own history with Pitch over here. Sandy is easily Pitch's most vicious rival out of you five because they are natural opposites. Dreams versus Nightmares. It's a natural rivalry that has been in place since any of us were really chosen as spirits. But Pitch was able to get rid of Sandy the most easily because of that link."
Bunny's ears perked up as he took a step forward. "Oi, sheila, when did Miss Neutral become so well-adapted to our history with this bloke? I thought ya wanted to steer clear of this whole mess."
The summer spirit raised an eyebrow at her old companion. "Are ye finished now, Bunny? I am looking at this objectively and trying to explain to you what Moony up there so clearly neglected to mention to ye lot. I'm not sayin' any particular party was at fault or not, but this is merely what happened. After he kidnapped all the tooth fairies, Pitch knew his best luck would be to take out his biggest foe, his natural enemy, before he played with the Guardian clause in that old book of yours. It wasn't until after his biggest threat was eliminated for the time being that he even began to have any kind of success-oh don't give me that look, Pitch! We all know that Easter in Burgess was not a success for you."
"Except for one small problem in this whole speech of yours, Amberlynn," Jack argued. "If the only way to truly stop a seasonal spirit is with another seasonal spirit, then we should be on the front lines!"
"You're missing the vital detail where practically no other seasonal spirits who have fought Lynx have survived to tell the tale," Pitch groaned. Though Amberlynn knew it was out of pain (I have got to get him out of here, she thought), he played it off as if it were from annoyance. "Mother Nature wasn't lying when she said it very nearly cost her life to imprison Lynx the first time around. It took a combined force of her, myself, Sanderson, and seven other seasonal spirits whose names I can guarantee none of you know, but you know their initials by the rainbow spectrum. We imprisoned Lynx 11 millennia ago. After Mother Nature, the oldest surviving seasonal spirits are the twins Flora and Fauna, who became spirits 10 millennia ago."
Amberlynn was for certain that it must be a sign of the apocalypse, for she witnessed something she thought would never happen. The sandman and the boogeyman both looked at each other briefly before bowing their heads simultaneously in a moment of silence, silently mourning the loss of mutual comrades. After the brief silence, Pitch raised a hand up to summon one of his Nightmares over.
Once he steadied himself beside the mare, he lent a hand to Amberlynn to jump up onto its back. Before Pitch climbed up, he warned, "Despite our...differences, I am powered by the fear of people. If we let Lynx gain control, he can and will use his power ensure that there is not a single living creature left who can't survive the harsh winters he intends to bring. I can't very well survive on this miserable excuse of a planet off of fear if there is no one to bring fear to. We need to take him down and we need to do it as soon as we find him, by any means necessary. We will meet again." Without further ado, Pitch mounted the mare as both he and Amberlynn left the Guardians without a trace.