Hey guys, here's Chapter 22 up and running! As always, I do not own ROTG, just my OCs

Without a further sound, the King of Nightmares thrust a full force of nightmare sand and shadows upon Lynx, shooting him back against the nearest wall and binding him from moving even an inch.

"Is it a flaw if my plan was to have you come here, Pitch?" Lynx asked. "You know I must admit there was a slight flaw in it. I fully intended this -" he nodded his head toward the cage that contained Jack - "to be Mother Nature when you came. To have my most hated enemy stand before me as I single-handedly kill both his daughter and the love of his life? Oh that would have been the most perfect ending!"

Wait, Pitch has a daughter? Jack wondered. And his daughter is Mother Nature?! Okay that I did not see coming!

Pitch glared at Jack and warned, "You mention one word of this revelation to the other Guardians and I'll personally kill you before Lynx has the chance to do so." Jack raised his hands and replied, "Trust me that's the least of my concerns right now. Your secret's not going anywhere. Where are the others?"

"A little bit tied up at the moment," Pitch admitted. "Nothing is faster than shadow travel and I don't have the time to wait for them."

"Pitch, listen to me," Jack said. "I've been trying to undo anything of Lynx's to try to even out the playing field while he's been monologuing, but nothing's working. His wintry powers are too powerful and he has mine and Amberlynn's cages hooked together in a pulley system above some demented Lynx-special freezing water that even I wouldn't survive. If I fly out, Amberlynn falls in and dies before I can catch her. If Lynx does anything to break the chains…"

Pitch nodded in understanding. He didn't need Jack to vocally finish that sentence, because his radiating fears finished it for him the second he saw Pitch. He looked over to the cage where Amberlynn was and looked back at Lynx, with pure silver rage in his eyes.

"Were these eyes the true silver rage of the Nightmare King you wanted to see?" Pitch challenged Lynx. Keeping one hand to maintain control of the nightmare sand and shadows that restrained the old winter spirit, he raised the opposite hand and hurled a wave of nightmare sand...at Amberlynn?

"Um Pitch," Jack muttered. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job or anything, but I think you missed." Pitch shot a death glare in the younger winter spirit's direction and Jack quickly closed his mouth. All three conscious spirits looked in the direction of where Pitch sent the nightmare sand. It completely enveloped Amberlynn like a blanket and was helping to keep her warm, but the natural darkness of the nightmare sand was also fighting to put out her light before the cold does.

Still maintaining his control of Lynx's current prison, Pitch approached Amberlynn's cage and opened the door so he could reach his hand in to grab one of hers. Ignoring the shooting pain of ice that her hands were, he said to her, "Amberlynn, my love, I know you can fight this. You have to fight the darkness. Fight it for yourself, for me, for all your friends. Fight it like the first time we skirmished in Australia, my love, when I first sent darkness your way.

"I know it's hard to not be afraid right now, but remember that moment in Australia when you were completely fearless despite the shadows I sent upon you. Remember those words you said to me that night. You are my little light in the darkness...and the darkness has not overcome it."

While she still remained motionless, Pitch slowly raised her hand to his lips, gently kissing the top of her freezing hand before setting it back inside the nightmare-sand blanket for warmth. "Os gwelwch yn dda aros gyda mi," he whispered, remembering when he was practically comatose and she muttered those same words into his ear as she healed him.

All three spirits held their breath in anticipation for what came next. From under the bundle of the blanket that was Amberlynn, they heard and saw her take a large gasp of air before returning to normal but shallow breathing. Lynx, still trapped in Pitch's nightmare sand and shadows, yawned and said, "Well that was a lot more anticlimactic than I expected. But congratulations, Black. You gave your pet just a few more gruesome moments before certain death."

Pitch tightened the reins on Lynx, further constricting him. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't let the darkness swallow you whole," he growled. Lynx retorted, "Because you already tried that, and guess what? It didn't work. You really should have taken me up on my offer all those centuries ago. And you really shouldn't have sent your Nightmares upon me. Let's face it, Pitch. You can't kill me anymore than I can kill you. But you know what I can do? I can kill the love of your life and make you spend an eternal hell with me after I destroy the Guardians, knowing there is nothing you can do about it."

Lynx couldn't quite understand how or why, but he noticed drops of sweat fall from his face. He'd have ripped off the hood of his cloak if he weren't so restrained, so he settled for shifting uncomfortably as he was bound by his restraints.

While a look of horror set upon the young winter spirit's face at realization of what was occurring, a sly smirk fell upon Pitch's lips. "And you shouldn't monologue so much," he said. "Take it from someone whose worst enemy literally came back from the dead. Don't count your victories until they're actually achieved."

Pitch, Lynx, and Jack all looked over to the ice cage where Amberlynn still resided, to see a golden-red aura radiating from underneath the blanket of nightmare sand.

"No...that's-that's impossible!" Lynx screamed. He was sweating profusely and was confident by this point, that the only thing physically keeping him upright were the restraints Pitch still had on him. Amberlynn's head slowly lifted up to face her kidnapper.

Her lips, which were still tinted blue and stained from blood, curled into a snarl and though she was visibly shaking from the cold, what little hair she had left on her head glowed with an immense shade of red and her charcoal-ember eyes radiated from pure power and hatred.

Pitch had not felt so much fear coming from two opposing parties simultaneously in such a long time. Though he refused to move from his position, he silently pleaded with Amberlynn. I know what you want to do, and I want to do it, too. But this isn't you. Don't let the darkness take the light or the goodness from you, love. You can beat him, but do it how Amberlynn Sommers would do it, not how I or Lynx would do it.

After a brief moment, Amberlynn's body ceased to glow. She shook her head and, pulling the blanket tighter around her, muttered in her croaked voice, "N-n-no, not-not li...not like...not like this." Lynx's sweating immediately ceased and, for some reason, his restraints also loosened. But he wasn't about to show the others the newfound ace up his sleeve.

"Pathetic," Lynx taunted. "You almost had me think for a minute that you even could kill me, too. That fancy gift of your lover's might give you a few more minutes, but not much else. Word on the street is your knowledge of anatomy sped up Black's healing after a duel with the Guardians, yes? Well here's a lesson for you: let us learn together what ice does when run right through a spirit's heart."

He immediately broke off a large chunk of ice he grew during his speech. Taking advantage of the loose restraints, he broke free of them and charged after Frost, a spirit he knew he'd have no problems killing. Reaching out her hand beyond the prison bars, Amberlynn screeched, "NO!"

She grabbed hold of Lynx's arm that held the stalagmite, and clung as if her life depended on it. The ancient spirit dropped the weapon, which shattered into a million tiny shards of ice, and writhed in agony. Beneath Amberlynn's hand, steam rose from Lynx's cloak.

He tried to shed the garment from his shoulder to lose the summer spirit's grip, but he realized the fabric from it literally melted onto his skin. He continued his blood-curdling screams, which prompted both Pitch and Jack to cover their ears from the harsh sound. After what felt like an eternity, a sudden silence filled the room, followed by a soft thud, and they both turned to see a lifeless Lynx on the ground between Amberlynn's and Jack's cages.

Pitch couldn't believe it. After millennia of regret, hatred, but also in some twisted way friendship, Amberlynn was finally able to do what spirits several millennia her senior could not. She finally put an end to Lynx before he could cause destruction anywhere else.

Not one to forget who helped Amberlynn what seemed like a lifetime ago, Pitch quickly evaluated the situation for the two trapped spirits regarding the hole underneath their cages. He told them, "It looks like whatever Lynx was doing to the water beforehand is over with now. There appears to be solid ice underneath you both, but I'm not taking that chance."

He walked over to Amberlynn and, grabbing hold of one of her hands, looked over to Jack and instructed, "On the count of three, I will pull her out and you fly out. One, two, THREE!" In perfect unison Jack flew out of his cage at the same time Pitch pulled Amberlynn into his arms...and at the same time the remaining Guardians, along with Mother Nature, burst their way into the cavern Lynx had the two younger spirits trapped in.

"We came to - oh Amberlynn, you poor thing!" Tooth exclaimed. She flew over to try to fuss over her, but Jack quickly steered her away, much to Pitch's silent gratitude. Jack instructed the others, "I will fill you in on everything -" he sent pitch a look of understanding, one that said, everything except that one piece of revelatory information I had no business learning - "that occurred here, but right now we need to get Amberlynn out of here."

"He's right," Pitch agreed. Turning to North, he continued, "Amberlynn instructed me on exactly how to treat anyone who should be hurt by Lynx - in this case it's very clearly just her who needs treatment - but she made it explicitly clear that she requires the least excessive movements necessary to get her to where she needs to go. Apparently shadow travel is too jarring and I am in need of one of your snowglobes."

Before North could react, Jack immediately grabbed a snowglobe out of the sleigh and asked Pitch (since he knew the boogeyman would have no clue how to operate the snowglobe), "Where is your destination?"

Pitch replied, "My lair, but I will settle for the meadow in Burgess by its entrance. It's the easiest entrance to get her somewhere safe and warm for healing." Without further ado, Jack whispered the destination into the snowglobe before throwing it, opening up the portal that Pitch took himself and Amberlynn through, disappearing without a trace.

Os gwelwch yn dda aros gyda mi-Please stay with me