Chasing after Nightmares was my new favorite hobby.
Two more Nightmares appeared as I chased. Jack went after one, and I have to assume Sandy had the third.
Knocking my arrows, I fired at the flying Nightmare horse. It dodged the golden arrow. In a flash I had three docked and fired.
The Nightmare pegasus was mocking me at this point.
With a ferocious growl I flew harder at it.
The horse dodged a spin kick I gave. When it tried to buck me in the face with it's back hooves, I flew beneath it. Wrapping my arms against the underbelly seemed the best bet the defeat it.
Of course, it noticed me on it's stomach. The Nightmare tried to fling me off by bucking like a bull.
Instead I used one arm to grab an arrow, stabbing it into the horse's chest where I had to guess it's heart would be.
The horse neighed loudly in agony. It crashed on a rooftop, with myself as the landing pad.
I groaned in pain- in my back and at the return of emotions.
The Nightmare poofed into dream sand, descending to cover my face. There was a loud bang at my side, I ignored it in favor of the ash now in my mouth.
"HAAAH! I got it!" Came Jack's voice. As I pushed myself to the air, hacking up sand, he flew up to the roof. "Sandy! Sandy, did you see that?! Cupid look at what I did! Look at this thing!"
Coughing out the last of the sand while also wiping it off my dress, I saw what Jack had done. The Nightmare he had been chasing was stuck to the roof. The idea of black ice popped up in my head. It made the most sense honestly.
"Cupid?!" Jack prompted in excitement.
I smirked at him. "Cool."
Jack laughed in delight. He poked the frozen sand with his staff.
"Cupid? Frost?"
Jack whirled around, staff at the ready.
My arrow was just as ready.
The two of us attacked the foe on both sides. Pitch merely stepped back to fade into the shadows.
'You know, that trick is really annoying.'
"You know, for 'neutral parties' you spend an awful lot of time with those weirdos." Pitch remarked, fading in from the shadows.
"It's never my problem- that's why I do it!" I shouted at him.
"This isn't your fight, Jack, nor your's Cupid." Pitch reminded. He appeared on the roof across from us.
"You made it my fight when you stole those teeth." Jack told him.
"Teeth? Why do you care about the teeth?" Pitch asked with genuine confusion. "What about you, Cupid? What have I done to offend you?"
Lilac
I fired another arrow at him. Pitch caught it one handed. The distraction gave Sandy time to sneak up on him.
Pitch jumped back like a frightened squirrel when he saw Sandy at his side.
Jack and I chuckled like the teenagers we were.
The Nightmare King laughed to cover up the embarrassment. "Now this is who I'm looking for-" Sandy lashed out dreamsand whips. Pitch dodged the many attempts like a floundering fish. It made me laugh so hard I spun in circles.
Pitch came at Sandy with a Nightmare sand scythe. Sandy smacked it away like it was nothing.
Then something happened that I hope I remember forever. Sandy's dreamsand whip wrapped around Pitch's leg. He threw around the Boogeyman around the roof, smacking him into walls and the floor before throwing him in the sky. Pitch landed on the street below, face down and groaning in pain.
Jack and I went to Sandy's side. The Sandman was grinning humbly.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side." Jack remarked.
"We're not worthy." I replied, hand over my chest. At Sandy's side I bent the knee.
Sandy just smiled at us, shaking his head in amusement.
The three of us floated to the ground.
Pitch tried to back away from the Sandman. "Okay, easy! You can't blame me for trying, Sandy. You don't know what it's like to be weak and hated." Pitch spluttered in his begging. "It was stupid of me to mess with your dreams. So I'll tell you what-" His pitying voice took on a sinister tone. He rose up to his feet while sneering down his nose at us. "You can have 'em back!"
Nightmares came from every direction at that. From storm drains and gas station alleys and the other rooftops.
"You take the ones on the left, Cupid takes the middle, and I'll take the ones on the right?" Jack suggested.
"Oooh good idea." I agreed, pulling my dagger out and dancing it between my fingers. In my other hand I held an arrow. With so many targets it would be stupid to waste time reloading the bow instead of taking as many down as I could.
Pitch trotted up to his on a Nightmare. He sneered arrogantly.
"Boo!"
At his command, the horses charged.
They stopped at the sound of a sleigh bell.
I let out a sound of relief. That is until the sleigh flew too close to a building. My grunt of annoyance made much more sense than one of relief.
Sandy suddenly grabbed my arm. He flew Jack and I up in the sky on a funnel of dreamsand. He was hitting Nightmares the entire way up.
Once we were in the sky, Sandy tossed us to safety. Some Nightmares came from me, I instantly stabbed them both of them with the arrow. The horse dissolved before my eyes. The arrow poofed away with them. Checking my arrow quiver I saw I was still missing an arrow- I'd deal with it later.
Flying up to the hoard of Nightmares, I stuffed the blade back in it's hold. Pulling out two arrows I slashed at them.
Slash
Dodge
Attack
Dodge
Dodge
Attack
Slash
Double slash
I lost myself in the fight.
And it was freeing.
I got so lost it took me a moment to realize the sleigh had come up beside me.
"Cupid!" Someone's voice called out through the haze. Turning to it, I saw North holding out his hand. "Climb on!"
After hitting another Nightmare, I flew down to the sleigh. Jack was there along with Bunny. A quick search told me Tooth was flying around us.
Up above Sandman was fighting Pitch all by himself.
I squinted my eyes at Pitch. He lifted his hand up- that's when I saw it. The arrow I'd fired at him on the roof. No wonder it hadn't been replaced yet- it hadn't made contact. The arrow looked different- the tip was all black.
"We gotta help Sandy!" Jack shouted out.
North cracked the reigns. He let out a a triumphant cheer as we rode towards the swirling vortex of terror.
As we approached, I focused my eyes at Pitch.
He docked his arrow.
My heart whooshed.
"No!" I screamed, taking to the air.
Pitch let loose the arrow.
It hit Sandy in the back.
"No!" Jack shouted in agony.
"Cupid! Jack!" North called out.
Only I didn't stop.
I flew faster towards the slowly dwindling golden sand.
The closer I got the less of Sandy there was.
When there was none left I let out a scream of pain. Like it was me that had been shot in the back with my teammate's arrow.
Seeing there prey was gone- don't think about it don't think about it don't think about how it was your arrow- the Nightmares came after myself and Jack.
They swarmed us in a wave of black sand.
I didn't know how to stop it.
Curling up in a ball, I pushed away thoughts about Sandy.
Which of this sand had been him?
How much pain did he feel when he was hit?
Did he fall in love and die?
Or did his heart break?
I screamed out in pain.
A bright light shined. My eyes shut in pain- the light grew and grew.
It burned beneath my skin. Worse than when me feet touched the ground. Worse than any thought I had ever had ever.
It burned every last part of my skin and every feather.
It was grief.
And sorrow.
And guilt.
And rage.
And vengeance.
And the pain of losing them all over again.
In my pain I grabbed another arrow.
The light moved from me to the arrow. The gold shined brighter with the white light.
With just my arm I flung it at the hoard. The same time Jack lashed at them with his staff.
The Nightmares became the ones swarmed. There forms covered in ice and the burning bright light.
Of course this is when I blacked out.
When the world came back to focus, the cold wood of the sleigh was my sight.
"How did you do that?" Tooth was asking us.
"I, I didn't know I could." Jack answered.
"Sheila?" Bunnymund asked.
I myself was curling up in a ball. All I could see was Sandy's death.
All I felt was the arrow coming back, reforming as gold and pure as when it had first been granted.
"Sheila, are you alright?" Bunnymund prompted again. He knelt down to my side.
I flinched away from her paw. My back hit the steps of the sleigh. Honestly I welcomed it. My eyes were welling up with tears. Turning away from the Guardians, facing the side of the sleigh, I did not allow myself the pleasure of weeping.
People are in trouble.
Cry on your own time.
Criers get slapped.
==CR==
AN: Hello! Did you like the bit with the arrow? I loved that. Honestly it's why I made her Cupid instead of something else. I love me some angst.
Thank you to everyone that's been writing reviews, they're what's keeping me writing this so often! THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU! (Sorry was it too soon to say ILY? Not taking it back.)
Thanks to Wolfpup59, .94, for favoriting
Thanks to Wolfpup59, .94, for following