I touched down to Earth, catching Lilac as she jumped off the roof. We ran towards the sleigh, Jack and Jamie behind us.
The sleigh stopped just outside Jamie's house. Tooth was holding North up. The reindeer had flown away already by the time I got there.
"North! Are you okay?" Tooth gasped in concern.
"Is official. My powers are kaput." North sighed.
"Look!" Tooth cheered. She pointed our way. "Cupid! Jack!" Tooth cheered.
Jack flew to my side. Lilac continued to hide behind me.
"Guys-!" Tooth tried to fly out of the sleigh. She fell to the floor.
Jack rushed to her aid. I stayed in front of Lilac. "You okay?" He asked her.
Tooth smiled reassuringly. She stood on her two feet, albeit slouching.
"What are you two doing here?" North asked, climbing down off the sleigh. He used his sword for a standing cane.
"Same as you." Jack answered. He looked back, pointing towards the running Jamie.
Lilac peaked her head from around me.
"The last lights!" He blinked in confusion at Lilac. "That is who she is, yes?"
"Yeah. She is." I warned, putting a protective hand over her shoulder. "Lilac Stardust."
She beamed happily. "Hi Santa! I'm really excited to meet you, cause I knew you were real cause Mom and me made cookies every year and you always ate our cookies! Mom made them special for you and but we missed this year I'm sorry oh my I'm freaking out."
"Should I introduce you to the Tooth Fairy?" I offered, grinning like a cat.
Lilac squeaked. "She's beautiful!" She ran up to the fairy. "Your wings are so pretty. I would love to paint them in watercolor."
'How did she make that sound unthreatening? However if I had said that Morgue would hit me over the head?'
"Wow! It is you! I mean it is you! I knew it wasn't a dream." Jamie cheered, as he finally approached us. He turned to smoke at Jack.
"Jack!" North realized in glee. "They see you!"
Lilac blushed. She hid against my side.
"Cupid! Oh this is good!" North cheered loudly. Good thing parents don't believe, or we'd be caught.
"Wait, but, where's Bunny?"
"Did he-" My joke about dying fell flat at Lilac's hopeful face. "-go home?"
North looked away sadly. "Losing Easter took its toll on all of us. Bunny most of all."
A small, tiny, infinitesimal sized rabbit hopped out.
There was a grin on my face. I turned my head so none of them would see.
"Oh...no..."
"A bunny!" Lilac cheered, rushing over to give Bunny a hug. The rabbit went along with it. Jack and I watched, struggling to hold back laughter. "He's so cute!"
Jamie chuckled. "That's the Easter Bunny?"
"The what?" Lilac blinked.
"Now somebody sees me!" Bunnymund spoke. Lilac squeaked, dropping him onto the sleigh wing. He waved a paw in her direction. "I mean, where were you about an hour ago, sheila?"
"I'm so sorry!" Lilac gasped, covering her red cheeks with her hands. She meant to holding him, not to the believing thing. "Auntie Killjoy why didn't you say anything?!
I lowered the camera. "Because it was funny!"
"Killjoy?" Bunnymund asked in delight.
"Watch it, half-pint. I can drop kick you and no one's gonna bat an eye!" I warned him.
"Auntie..." North breathed out.
I beamed. "That's my niece. Lilac Stardust."
My niece was still flustered from before. "Hi." She greeted them, still hiding behind me.
"Don't worry kid. You'll forget about this by therapy...I'm sure my sister will have given you more things to talk about."
"What happened to him?" Jamie asked. His face was scrunched up in confusion. "He used to be huge and cool! And now he's cute." Jamie knelt down to the rabbit, scratching him behind the ear.
"Oh, that's good." Bunny purred. I snickered into my hand again.
Lilac grunted in exasperation, covering more of her reddening face with her hands.
"Did you two tell him to say that?" Bunny raged. He hopped towards us. I flew up, higher than him with complete knowledge that this was a dick move. The rabbit decided to just smack at Jack. "That's it! Let's go! Me and you! Come on!"
"No! Actually he told me you were real." Jamie stepped up to Jack's defense. "Just when I started to think that maybe you weren't."
"He made you believe? In me?"
"I told Lilac nothing." I admitted to the group. "Nah, I was content to let you all be forgotten. I can take on Pitch with one hand behind my back."
"Auntie..."
"Alright...two hands."
Lilac groaned.
The Guardians were smiling at us, fondness in all of their eyes. Mine rolled in annoyance.
A crack of thunder went off in the distance. There we could see a near hurricane of Nightmare sand.
"Speak of the king and he shall appear." I remarked, grabbing an arrow to twirl it around my fingers.
"He's really angry about those arrows, Auntie Killjoy." Lilac commented, holding my hand.
I nodded, shrugging when everyone turned to look at me. "He was already at Lilac's when I went to get her. He may've been shot with three arrows."
"Three?" Lilac asked.
"The third was in a place I didn't want you seeing."
"Like...his butt?" Lilac whispered.
I snorted. "Yep. His butt." 'Man, my sister has kept you pure.'
"Get Jamie and Lilac out of here." Jack instructed.
"She gets hurt, I kill you all." I informed, flying up after Pitch.
"Be careful!" North cautioned.
As we flew up, I grabbed more arrows in my hand.
"Cupid! Jack Frost! " Pitch spat our way. He made himself a vortex of sand to push him towards us. "Let's end this, shall we?"
Jack fired a blast of ice from his staff.
I fired five arrows, firing one by kicking it.
He blocked them with a gray hand. "Those little tricks doesn't work on me anymore." Pitch smacked us with the Nightmare sand.
I dodged it, dropping down from the sky. Jack was less lucky.
When I flew down after him, Nightmare sand moved my way. I tried to block off the attack with arrows but it did nothing. It only made more pain as they hit my back.
==CR==
Lilac could see her aunt fighting Pitch. She wished she could help- that she'd thought to call her mom to tell her about what was going on.
Bunny was leading their group through town. Lilac and Jamie were kept in the middle of the three Guardians, who kept the children out of the shadows.
"Quick, this way this way!" Bunny suggested. "Dead end. Other way other way!"
Lilac looked back up at her aunt. Her white wings had shifted to a darker shade.
A familiar dark shade of red.
==CR==
My blood red wings snapped out wider.
I missed being blood red.
Still, I wasn't able to control my returned wings before crashing into a trash bin. On top of Jack.
"Jack!"
"Auntie!"
Lilac ran to my side. I rolled off Jack. Lilac helped me to my feet.
"Your wings." Lilac remarked.
I smirked, tired from the attack. A wing stretched around to boop Lilac's head. She giggled at it.
Tooth gasped. "What happened?"
"Nightmare sand mixed with my arrows." Came my answer, because it was hard to explain that these were the wings I should've woken up with three months ago. Because blood red suited me better.
"That was good try, Jack! A for effort!" North encouraged as Jack stood up.
"Effort starts with an e." Lilac corrected.
"E for excellence?" I tried.
Jack groaned. "He's stronger. We can't beat him." I stepped on the end of his stick, snapping it up. Jack caught it in his hand. He used it to balance himself, leaning on it for support.
Pitch's chuckle filled the alleyway. Lilac yelped, hiding behind my back. "All this fuss over one little boy and girl. And still they refuse to stop believing."
Some Nightmares were exposed by the lightning. I smirked at him, not hiding my glee at a proper hunt.
"Very well. There are other ways to snuff out a light." Pitch pointed out as he burst the nearby street lights.
Lilac curled to my side. I pulled an arrow out, holding it in my hand.
"If you want them, you're gonna have to go through me!" Bunny threatened.
A shadow of a hand appeared. It curled at Bunnymund's paws.
"Look how fluffy you are!" Pitch laughed. "Would you like a scratch behind the ears?"
The former Easter Bunny ran into North's hand. "Don't you even think about it!" Bunny warned.
I stomped on his fingers. Pitch yelped in the distance.
He rode in on a black Nightstallion. "I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you all like this." Pitch smiled proudly, glaring my direction especially. "You look awful."
While I ran through a bunch of good one-liners, looking for one that was PG, the moment passed. Such a shame.
"Auntie..."
I looked down at my niece, who was starting to hyperventilate at my side. Just like her mom...just like her mom did when I left her in the dungeon.
"Kid." I knelt down to Lilac's side. Resting my hand on her shoulder, I gripped it in assurance. She was shaking under my hand. An idea came to me- an idea that took me so long to get I deserved to be laughed at if I ever see Morgan again. "My arrows never worked on you. No matter how many I fired you never changed. You wanna know why?"
Lilac- still shaking- nodded.
"Because you're a Stardust. You are strength. Everything about you is strong, you see about this world, about all worlds huh?" Lilac nodded, swallowing loudly. "That's what my centre is- strength. When I died, it took strength to carry it out. But I did it. For you and your mom. Strength just looks like pain from the other side."
Standing up, I aimed an arrow in Pitch's direction. "Except this time. This time, I shoot arrows to kill."
Pitch laughed, as if not believing my capable.
My smile disproved that.
"Jack, I'm scared." Jamie whimpered quietly.
"I know, I know. But you're gonna be alright." Jack assured, kneeling at Jamie's side. "We're gonna have a little fun, instead." He paused in realization. Honestly if it wasn't so important I'd hit his head with a wing to move him along. "That's it. That's my center."
"My center is soft and squishy!" Lilac squeaked. "And I'm not looking to be squished!"
"So what do you think, Jamie? And you, Lilac, do you believe in the Boogiema-"
A snowball hit his face.
It threw off the aim of the arrow. It hit the stallion's face, changing the head to something purple.
Jamie and Lilac chuckled.
Lilac clapped for me.
"I warned you." I reminded him, floating in the air inches off the ground. "You just declared war."
Jack got together enough gear for sledding. "Now let's go get your friends." He cheered to Jamie.
Lilac hugged my front. I held her with one hand, flying up with my wings.
As we escaped on a trail of snow, I waved in Pitch's direction.
"BYE!" I cheered that way.
His growl followed us.
It made Lilac and I laugh.
==CR==
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