Jack brought me to Antarctica.

I mean, it's not an awful place to go.

It certainly fit my mood.

He led me to an iceberg. He glared at the edge, at the freezing water beyond it.

"Jack. Tell me what you're thinking." I told him.

He was gritting his teeth. His face was turning blue. Which to someone warm blooded, would be red with rage. "We could've stopped it."

"Yeah we could've." I stated. My arms grabbed his, flexing them down to keep him from lashing out. Jack seethed. "But then one of the others would've taken Sophie home. Who knows what Pitch would've done to them."

"But we still could've fought the Nightmares. We could've protected those eggs!"

"How do you know that?" I questioned him. "Do you- do you have any idea how many Nightmares they fought?"

"No! Because I wasn't there!"

"Because Pitch lured us to his liar!"

"He wouldn't have done that-"

"He could've made us fight the eggs! It was dark in that fear scape thing- I would've hit you if the shadows hadn't pulled back!"

"WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!" Jack shouted in my face.

"WE'RE STUPID KIDS!" I shouted back. "HOW COULD WE?"

Jack continued to feel the rage.

He ran away from me, rushing to the iceberg. My wings flapped, pushing me after him.

Jack reeled his arm back to throw the teeth.

I halted, just short of him. He may be angry, but those are his teeth. He should get to keep them.

My hand clenched around the cannister in my hand.

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet

Digging for Kryptonite on this one-way street

I'm only a man in a funny red sheet

Looking for special things inside of me

It's not easy

To be me

"I thought this might happen." Pitch's voice appeared behind me.

My hand clenched again.

"They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that. But I understand."

All my life I've been good but now

Whoa I'm thinking 'what the hell'

"SHUT UP!" I raged.

Turning around, I fired four arrows at Pitch. Jack fired a large blast of ice. Pitch blocked it all woth nightmare sand. Sand that was only powerful because of what he'd done to Sandy.

"You don't understand anything!" Jack leapt over myself, landing on the other side of Pitch. He blasted more ice.

"You're a sociopath! They have no feelings or empathy!" I flung more arrows, trying to fire from all directions so Pitch would feel trapped.

Pitch grunted in annoyance- because he was barely using any effort against us. My arrows collided with his sand, bursting into golden ash.

"No? I don't know what it's like to be cast out?" Pitch shouted over the roar of the snow.

I leapt into the sky, grabbing all of my arrows. There wasn't time to fire them all so I just threw them at Pitch. In an explosion of sand and ice, I wondered if he'd even been hit.

When I found Jack on the ground, it was hard to see anything. His snow had made a bigger blizzard than intended.

"To not be believed in. To long for a family."

You'll be in my heart

Yes you'll be in my heart

You'll be here in my heart, always.

Always and always

The song made me think of Lilac. Of her drawings of ponies and dragons and her bitch mother.

Now- I was pissed.

I whirled around, reaching for arrows. Only none were there so I grabbed my dagger.

"All those years in the shadows I thought, no one else knows what this feels like." Pitch smiled-he had the nerve to smile in my face- as if we wouldn't year him apart because of words. "But now I see I was wrong."

I kept telling myself not to believe him. That he was a liar. Everything- every single thing out of his mouth was a lie.

He broke Bunnymund.

He hurt Tooth.

He killed Sandy.

He took my cherubs.

He threatened Lilac.

He doesn't deserve to be believed.

"We don't have to be alone, not the three of us. Jack. Cupid." Pitch promised. And...he was being sincere. "I believe in you. And I know children will too."

"In me?"

"Really?" I asked. Later I would wonder how I could say that without sounding sarcastic.

"Yes! Look at what we can do!" He gestured behind him.

An eruption of a sculpture stood before us in the snow. It had his sand and the golden dust of my arrows in cases by Jack's ice.

"What goes together better than the cold, dark, and pain?" Pitch asked. My chest ache-where my heart should be-at being called a creature of pain.

That's not who I am.

I don't want to hurt them.

It just happens.

When you're feeling certain feelings that just don't seem right

Treat those nasty feelings like a reading light

And turn it off.

"We can make them believe. We'll give them a world where everything, everything is-"

"Pitch black?" Jack finished for him.

"Je'cuse!" I shouted, pointing the dagger in his direction.

Pitch stopped. "And Jack Frost, and Cupid too. They'll believe in all of us. Equally."

"I don't want to be believed in." I admitted. "No, not like this. Not if the cost of belief is this high! I want to protect kids, not scare them!"

"Except you're already doing that, Cupid." Pitch pointed out. "All of your children, every child you've shot with an arrow, all they've felt is pain. Wasn't it good?"

My lips thinned.

"I'd rather they feel heartbreak...than feel fear. Especially towards me." I stated. Pulling out an arrow, I aimed it at his face. "So for the last time: leave us alone!"

Jack stood by my side. He prepared his staff, getting it ready to fight.

The image, of me aiming projectiles while a person beside me held a staff, was achingly familiar.

The Nightmare King wasn't happy. We'd rejected him. He thought he found peers- well too little too late.

Pitch's expression shifted to a snarl. "Very well. You want to be left alone? Done. But first."

There was a familiar squeak.

"Baby Tooth!" Jack and I yelped. We jumped in defense for the fairy.

Pitch tightened his fist.

Baby Tooth squeaked.

We stopped.

"The staff, Jack. Cupid, your bow." Pitch demanded.

I snarled.

"You have bad habits of interfering. Now hand them over. And I'll let her go." Pitch promised.

Baby Tooth chittered- begging in fairy for us not to do it.

"Where's Pelie?" I demanded.

Pitch scoffed. "With the rest of your ilk. Didn't seem fair to separate them. And I just might." He answered, smiling like a shark. "Now hand them over."

With little choice but plenty hesitation, we hand him our weapons. Pitch held the staff in his hand, with my bow tucked in the crook of his arm.

"Alright, now let her go." Jack reminded him.

Pitch paused. "No." 'Oh you are so dead.' "You said you wanted to be alone. So be alone!"

Baby Tooth poked him with her beak. For a full two seconds I thought she'd freed herself. Only for Pitch to girl her at a wall of ice.

"No!"

"Monster!" I snarled at Pitch.

Pitch grinned as he lifted Jack's staff and my bow. He snapped them over his knee.

There was a bright light from our objects and my heart constricted in my chest. There was a sudden pain in my wings, like they were plucked off only to be put back on backwards and glued on with lava.

In our distraction Pitch attacked.

He slammed us into the wall with Nightmare sand. I screamed in pain. The impact had pushed at my wings at the wrong angle.

They were broken.

I slid off the wall, towards the cavern below.

==CR==

As soon as I hit the ground, it became clear there was worse pain than broken wings.

My body collided with the snowy ground. Once my skin made contact I was screaming in agony at the rushes of pain. Of memories of memories pushing past my skull. Of knowing something was missing from me but not knowing what.

Wanting to cry, but not knowing why.

There was a name stuck on my tongue. The feel of it was familiar, from the time before. I knew that if I called it out that a person would answer me- save me. Because that's what the person behind the name did.

Pity the name made me sob.

I'm limited

Just look at me

I'm limited

Just look at you

You can do all I couldn't do

...now it's up to you

"Cupid!" Jack called out.

I cried out in agony. "It hurts!" I sobbed. "I...I can't feel my wings! It hurts!"

"What- your wing's? Cupid what should I do?"

"I don't know! Everything hurts!" I cried out. "Oh it's like- like the Earth itself is spitting me out because I'm not welcome and it's only when I touch it that it remembers." I sobbed.

Jack was panicking over me. I tried to null my sobs, put that only made it worse. Now we were both miserable and in without a way out.

"Where's..." I hiccuped as my sobs just turned to pained grunts. "Baby Tooth?"

Jack gasped. "Baby Tooth!"

The little fairy chittered at the summons.

Jack ran to her, lifting up the poor thing.

I tried picking myself up. Pain from my back and whole body kept me down.

"You alright?" Jack asked Baby Tooth. The fairy sneezed. "Sorry, all I can do is keep you cold."

"I-I can take her." I held out my hands. Jack turned to me. "Warm blood fo-for the win."

Jack gave a small laugh, the kind that come when you feel defeated and any laugh will do.

He walked over towards me, pausing to look at something on the floor. He slipped Baby Tooth in my hands, as I followed his line of sight.

My bow.

Broken in half.

The string had popped.

"Pitch was right- I make a mess of everything."

He slid down beside me.

I cupped Baby Tooth in my palms. The fairy accepted it, curling around my fingers.

"Heh...yeah." My thumb brushed on Baby Tooth's head feathers. "World class screw-up."

The fairy welcomed the brushing for another moment. She flew out of my hand, reaching for my teeth cannister.

"Hey Baby Tooth, What are you-"

"Sis...sis."

At the voice, I froze.

Baby Tooth flittered over to Jack. "Hey-" The fairy dashed into Jack's pocket. He reached for her. His expression went vague, as a golden light shined from his pocket.

I held up my tooth box.

Jack pulled out his.

Both were glowing brightly.

Baby Tooth was beaming.

"DARCY!"

I opened the box.

==CR==

AN: Merry Christmas Eve!