Jack brought me back to that boy Jamie's house. The two children must be related.
He lowered Sophie onto the bed. The child refused to let him go.
I floated over to them. "Hold still." I instructed.
The Winter spirit froze.
With two fingers, I poked the child's side. She giggled, still asleep, as she fell onto the bed.
Jack, Baby Tooth, and Pelie looked at me in surprise.
I shrugged.
The child rolled over the edge of the bed. Before she could fall, I grabbed her. She was still sleeping when I tucked her under the covers.
Jack threw a squeaking toy onto the bed, which Sophie grabbed to cuddle.
The four of us flew out of the room.
Pelie shut the window, locking it behind us.
"We should get back." Jack suggested.
"Yeah, who knows what kinda problems they made in the hour we were gone." I joked.
Jack laughed. He cut off his laugh, turning his head away. He was...looking for something. "That voice, I know that voice..."
"Uhh Jack, buddy, why don't we stop-"
"SESTRA!" A voice cried out. A voice that struck a chord in me, one that I had to obey and help.
My wings locked up.
Pelie touched my shoulder.
"It...who is that?" I asked, more to myself than the others. "I know her."
"SESTRA!" She shouted again.
I flew after her, Jack flying beside me.
The voice continued to scream out for me. No matter how fast I flew towards it, the voice never changed pitch. It was always just out of reach.
Eventually we were on the outskirts of town.
"SESTRA!"
The voice kept screaming for me, each time I swear my heart burst in my chest. Worse than any time I touched the ground.
"SESTRA!"
I stopped in a clearing, still trying to follow her voice. There was nothing around except an old wooden bedframe.
Pelie flew up to my side. He chittered in panic.
"Shut up, you overactive squirrel!" I snapped harshly at him. Didn't he understand? Didn't he know how important this voice was? How I couldn't ignore her screaming out for me?
Pelie squeaked, saddened.
"Don't worry, there's still time." Jack told a concerned Baby Tooth.
I flew to the bedframe, seeing an opening large enough to fit through. Taking one arrow, I fired at the plank of wood. Jack slammed his staff down on the same spot. The wood shattered, making the hole large enough for us.
"SESTRA!"
So I jumped down. Ignoring the chitters in my ear.
==CR==
Once we came out of the tunnel, we landed on a slab of stone.
Pushing myself up into the air, I listened for the sound. Her screaming-while it made every part of me decay and fester like an old wound-was the only way I could find her.
"Baby Tooth, Baby...come on!" He assured with her. My cherub has given up arguing with me. "I have to find out what that is."
I flew ahead. The cavern I found left me speechless. Thousands of fairies were screaming from bird cages. Below them were hills of the teeth canisters.
This was Pitch's Lair.
And yet...
"MY CHERUBS!" I gasped.
Across the room, all trapped together in one tiny cage, were all of my cherubs.
Without hesitation I flew to them. I counted them all, taking note only two were missing. Pelie, and-
"Hamil. Where's Hamil?!" I asked them.
Some wilted, thinking about their friend.
Others shook their head. They admitted they hadn't seen him in ages.
"That's- That's not good." My hands gripped tight to the bar of the cage. The metal bent beneath my fingers. "That's not good. I had him watching her."
The cherubs gasped. They all knew how important Lilac was. Or at least knew of her, how she'd been hit by many arrows and was never affected.
They all cheered when Pelie flew up.
I huffed, hiding my relief. "Pelie, find the lock. We need to get everyone-"
"SESTRA!"
My attention turned to the pile of canisters below.
"SESTRA!"
"BRB!"
Swan diving, I searched for the source of the screaming.
For my teeth.
As I searched, my head bumped into Jack's.
We both winced before starting the search again.
"Looking for something?" A dark voice spoke up.
Jack and I immediately went on the offensive. Jack fired an ice spell towards the shadow while I let loose three arrows at once.
Pitch wasn't there.
He laughed at our attempt.
Jack and I followed the sounds of his laughter. He had this demented staircase, that even though I was flying beside Jack we both ended up on different levels.
"Don't be afraid, Jack, Cupid. I'm not going to hurt either of you." Pitch's voice echoed.
"Like we believe that." I snapped.
"Yeah. Afraid?" Jack sees Pitch on a bridge across the cavern and heads after him. Jack "I'm not afraid of you!"
"Maybe not. But you are afraid of something." Pitch remarked, hiding in another shadow. "Oh, both of you, so very afraid."
"I'm not scared of a man who refuses to show his face! Refuses to fight like a man!" I spat at the darkness.
Pitch's laugh echoed. "But you fear something. It's the one thing I always know." He came out of the shadows, facing us. "People's greatest fears. Yours is that no one will ever believe in you." He told Jack.
As Jack backed away in fear, I jumped forward.
"Your's is that you'll let her down."
I froze.
Suddenly all I saw were shadows. The caverns full of teeth, the cages upon cages of fairies and my cherubs, they were gone.
Pitch wasn't going to have the satisfaction of my screaming. Instead I flew up, trying to escape the shadows.
Yet as I flew, I heard a voice speaking to me. One that wasn't Pitch's or Jack's or my cherubs'.
It sounded like mine.
"Why didn't you do better?"
"Why couldn't you be more like the Guardians?"
"You left her. Alone. With that woman. How COULD YOU?!"
"Shut up!" I shouted to the voice, flying towards a brick wall. Good for me I stopped before impact. "Enough of this!" I shouted at Pitch.
"And worst of all, Jack, you're afraid you'll never know why. Why you? Why were you chosen...to be like this?"
I growled. The shadows took over my world again.
"Cupid you fear...you fear you were a monster. Something worse than me." He laughed at that.
The shadows faded, showing that I was at a brick wall. Jack stood there too, clutching tight to the staff. My hands were clenched in fists at my side, fighting to fire arrows at Pitch's face.
"Well fear not, for the answer to that." Pitch walked up.
I stood in defense of Jack.
"Is right here."
Pitch held out two canisters of teeth.
One had a brunet boy, with a face like Jack's.
The other had a woman, with black hair instead of blonde and a smirk instead of a smile.
"Do you want them, children?" Pitch inquired. "Your memories?"
He held them out towards us. I flinched away from it.
Jack pulled his hand back.
Pith vanished, taking the teeth with him.
"No!" I grunted angrily, reaching out fruitlessly for him.
Pitch laughed in the misery.
Flying after him, I searched the twisted staircases and corridors. In all my rush I realized I'd lost Jack again. I was alone. Again.
"Everything you wanted to know-" The shadow behind me morphed into Pitch. He held out two boxes. "...in these little boxes."
I tried to fly away from the shadows, from his voice, but he followed me.
"Why did you end up like this? Unseen. Unable to reach out to anyone. What were you before. You want the answers so badly. You want to grab them, and fly off with them. But you're afraid of what the Guardians will think, of what the other will think."
"Go away!" I snarled at him.
"You're afraid of disappointing them." I aimed an arrow at a shadow, only for it to change into twelve shadows. "Well let me ease your minds about one thing. They'll never accept you two. Not really."
"Stop it! Stop it!" Jack's voice raged.
"Jack!" I shouted. I flew in the direction of his voice. "Jack!"
"Cupid!" Jack shouted back.
The shadows receded as I came up to Jack's side. We were in front of Pitch's globe, covered in the bright lights of believers.
I held Jack's arm, he did the same. The assurance we needed, grounding us back away from Pitch's shadows and lies.
"After all, you're not one of them."
Jack aimed his staff, I aimed an arrow.
"You don't know what we are!" Jack shouted.
"Of course I do." Pitch laughed, arrogantly. "You're Jack Frost. You're Cupid. You make messes wherever you go. Why, you're doing it right now."
He tossed the boxes.
I grabbed mine, before it could hit the floor.
"What have you done?" I snarled at him, while Jack held his teeth close to his chest.
"More to the point Cupid, Jack, what have you done?" Pitch backed away into the shadows, laughing at us.
Jack and I charged at him, only to be separated again.
"Cupid!" Jack shouted, once he realized we were lost.
"Jack!" I shouted back.
The lights faded back on. I could hear Jack, but like an echo. Like I shouldn't be hearing him but Pitch was allowing it, to hurt us both.
So I flew back, onto to see a barrier had been put up. At my feet, were broken eggs.
"No!" I gasped.
"Baby Tooth!" Jack's voice echoed back to me.
I swore. "Pelie!"
"Happy Easter, children." Pitch mocked us.
Then I looked back down at the broken eggs.
And I'd realized, what we'd done.
==CR==
AN: Sorry this was so late! I'm flying to Africa tomorrow, Wi-fi is gonna be spotty, so sorry if I can't get any updates out!
Thanks to NikkiReedfan for following