I'M BAAAAAACK!

Sorry for the long wait, guys! Just a lot of stress with the end of school and finals, then I took a break for a week because of said stress (also playing Breath of the Wild almost nonstop so there's that), but here I am now, back again with Chapter 37 of RFL!

First off, as usual, review time! Thanks so much to SylfElf, Brenne, NotCanadian, jackandelsaforever101, Serami Nefera (It was most definitely overkill but Pitch is very dramatic, you see XD), Aekidna (And thank YOU for the review! :D), Randomly Talented (Glad you liked the technique there :), BooksAreMedicine, FrostyFirebender (Thanks, I did! Hope you did well too!), Joy Kathlyn (Huh, cool, I'll have to look into it), rwbygirl, OneWhoDreamz (Heh, yeah, fortunately I don't take classes during the summer), and SylfElf (Yep! Been out of school for a little while now, just been taking a bit of a break from...well, effort, heh heh)!

And, without further ado, on with the chapter!

Chapter 37: The Fight Is On

The room melted away in front of him, gradually being replaced with the near-identical room in which he and the Guardians had been. Being pulled from this room into the chamber with Onyx seemed like a lifetime ago, the fact that he now had his answers seeming like an almost surreal dream. He was endlessly grateful to the woman named Emily Jane, and found her sudden death difficult to process.

However, he did not have much time to dwell on it, as he suddenly found himself being nearly assaulted by a certain worried fairy.

"Jack!" came Tooth's frantic voice. "Are you alright!? Are you hurt!? What did she do to y-!?"

"Oi, give the kid some space, sheila!" Aster exclaimed, hopping over, followed by North and Sandy

Toothiana, however, did not back away, instead quickly checking him for injuries as though she was a mother worrying over her child (Jack thoroughly startled himself with that analogy). Upon finding nothing, she relaxed, but not by much.

"L-Listen," he stammered, unsure of what to do with the excessive amount of attention. "I'm fine, okay? I'm fine…"

"Jack...what happened…?" North asked, a deep frown on his face.

Jack did not know where to start. Suddenly, the newly-gained information felt overwhelming, and he opened his mouth, faltered, then closed it again. He stared at each of them for a few seconds, then took a deep breath. He looked directly at Sandy, as the little man's gentle expression made him feel more at ease.

"Okay…" he said. "Okay...I...I learned a lot, just now…"

The Guardians were silent, giving him time to collect his thoughts.

Finally, he began. "First of all...regarding Onyx…'twas a Fearling. The person she was possessing was the Nightmare King's...no, Kozmotis Pitchiner's daughter."

The four immortals blanched.

"Kozmotis Pitchiner…" North breathed. "That is name I have not heard in long time...we knew about him, about how Pitch was once human…" He frowned. "But...we did not know he had a daughter…"

Jack swallowed and nodded. "Her name...her name was Emily Jane."

"Was…?" Tooth asked softly.

The boy lowered his head. "Was," he confirmed quietly. "She's dead...Onyx left her body, so...she's dead." He gulped and continued. "However...before she died...she explained everything."

And so he told them. He told them about the plan to frame the snow sprites, to kill the adults and turn the children. He told them about how the captured children from Kilatai were former sprites that had now become Fearlings that could not be changed back. He told them everything that Emily Jane had told him. He watched expressions of guilt, shame, and horror spill across the Guardians' faces, and, for the first time, their regret offered him no bitter satisfaction.

Still, he pressed on.

"This is the locket she gave me," he finished quietly. "She said it would distract the Nightmare King long enough to chain him. We have to hurry...we have to make sure no other children suffer the same fate as those who have become Fearlings…"

Without giving them time to react, he turned, his cloak furling out behind him, and started walking. On the opposite side of the room, a new door had formed in the wall. He focused on that, barely acknowledging the fact that the Guardians were now following closely behind.

Hopefully they can tell that I do not want to discuss this anymore for now… he thought with a silent sigh. Of course, we have no time to do so anyway. We need to stop him, and we need to stop him fast.

"Jack…" came North's voice from right behind him.

Jack halted, a sinking feeling somewhat akin to a hole inside his chest setting in. He stared at the door in front of him for a long moment. Finally, he turned around, mumbling, "What do you-?"

North cut him off by pulling him into a hug.

With a start, Jack was reminded of his father, but quickly shoved the memory away. He opened his mouth to speak, but the Guardian of Wonder beat him to it.

"I am sorry," he said gently. "For...for everything." He pulled away and held the boy at arm's length by his shoulders, nodding at him. "It is time. Pitch will not get his way. Alright?"

Jack looked up at North, then around at the others. Each of them wore expressions of earnest determination that he was sure mirrored his own. He took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

()()()()

After a long walk through winding tunnels in which Jack's anxiety grew with every step, the five of them finally reached the high-ceilinged room that the passage opened up into. The room was a confusing mess of stone pillars and pathways, eerily lit by...well, nothing it seemed, though everything was clearly visible-albeit shadowy-even without the use of Sandy's glowing dreamsand. Large black cages hung from everywhere, and, while they were empty, Jack felt sick merely thinking about the doomed children he knew they must have once contained.

Focus, Jack… he thought, tightening his grip on his staff. Now's not the time to be thinking about that…

There was a solid thirty seconds of dead silence.

Then, a cold laugh echoed through the entirety of the room, sending nervous chills down Jack's spine.

"I must say, this is very exciting...the big four, all in one place…"

On one of the pillars above them, a figure emerged from the shadows. He wore a long black robe that seemed to meld with the darkness around him. His gray hands were calmly folded in front of him and his pointed, shark-like teeth showed plainly in a cruel grin. The color of his eyes seemed to alternate between a glittering amber and a steely gray, but the malicious mirth was conveyed clearly by both colors.

The Nightmare King's eyes narrowed as he smirked. "I'm a little starstruck."

With every word the man-no, demon-spoke, Jack felt an increasing amount of fear grip his heart. He wanted nothing more than to turn around and run for his life, but he was virtually frozen in place.

When the Nightmare King's eyes shifted to gaze at him, the young sprite figured that he must now know what a heart attack felt like.

"And of course...our little friend, Jack Frost…"

The small squeaking sound that escaped his throat made Jack want to kick himself in the face repeatedly. Thankfully, no one else had seemed to hear it.

Pitch Black's grin only grew wider when the boy offered him no answer. "What's the matter, Frost? Still having difficulty speaking? Funny, I thought that would have faded once you were no longer a Fearling…"

He doesn't seem very disappointed that I couldn't kill the Guardians like that… Jack thought, this being the only way he could currently be articulate. I suppose he was merely taking a chance...he still prepared for facing them here…

Figuring he should fill the silence that reigned while he was lost in thought, Jack managed to stammer, "Sh-Shut up…"

"Ah, so he does speak," Pitch commented with interest, raising his eyebrows.

Wait...does he not have eyebrows…? I don't think he does… he thought. Then, Damn it, I really am losing it…

As he took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself, he was only vaguely aware of the fact that the Guardians were speaking to the Nightmare King, let alone what the exact words of the exchange were. When he finally resumed paying attention, the first voice he heard was Toothiana's.

"We know you're behind the disappearances of all those Kilatese children!" she was exclaiming. "Where are they!? What have you done with them!?"

Feigning ignorance in case he doesn't already know that Emily Jane told us everything...good… Jack thought idly.

Pitch did not seem to know that Tooth's lack of information was heavily exaggerated. Instead, he merely smirked and said in his sickening, silky voice, "Oh, the children? Oh my...oh, oh, my...I've taken a few meaningless children, and now the Guardians are cross with me...how could I have been such a fool?"

Jack's eyes narrowed at the monster's mocking tone. He felt a rush of hatred course through him and he gritted his teeth, fists tightly clenched around his weapon.

"I certainly stand no chance against you four...or five, as it stands at the moment...really now, it was stupid of me to mess with your charges...so I'll tell you what…" Pitch's eyes glittered amber. "You can have them back."

Suddenly, black figures flecked with frost flitted around him, nothing more than living shadows on the wall. Jack's breath caught in his throat as he stared at the rough silhouettes of what were clearly once children. Feeling like he had a stone lodged somewhere in his chest, he vaguely wondered if he had known any of these children.

Perhaps...perhaps death was a kinder fate for Livi… he thought mournfully.

The Guardians were in similar states. Each one of them was both speechless and motionless. North's sapphire eyes were wide, Aster's long ears were flattened against his head, Tooth's hand was over her mouth, and Sandy's glow seemed a bit dimmer than usual. After all, it was easy to hear about a tragedy, but to see its results had a far greater effect.

"Took me a while to perfect this little trick…" Pitch practically purred. "Turning children into Fearlings...got it eventually, though…" He smirked. "Right, Jack…?"

Jack's azure eyes narrowed as he opened his mouth to speak.

Aster beat him to it.

"PITCH! You shadow-sneaking ratbag, come here!" The Pooka leapt at the Nightmare King, flinging both of his boomerangs at him as he did so. Cackling, Pitch vanished into the shadows as the Fearling children began to snarl.

Aster caught his boomerangs just in time to jump away again as the Fearlings launched their attack. They moved in identical fashions to how Jack had, none of them attempting to speak, only trying to slash and bite at the four immortals and the snow sprite. The Guardians instantly began to fight, but it took Jack a brief moment to process what was happening.

Defend yourself, you idiot! he told himself furiously. His body finally caught up with his mind and he backflipped out of the way of one of the Fearling's claws. The creatures seemed to realize that he was the weakest link in the chain of five, and so many of them targeted him, while the others kept the Guardians too busy to notice his plight.

"Damn it!" he yelped as he kept dodging, never once able to get in an attack himself. He desperately reached for the store of magic that had become so accessible during his fight with Onyx, but to his dismay, found it had once again ducked just out of reach.

Can't something go my way today!? he thought frustratedly.

Apparently not, for suddenly, a shrill whinny was heard, and a horde of Nightmares joined the battle, some heading straight for him. Even while trying to stay alive, the boy could see that some of the demonic horses were flecked with ice, just as the Fearlings were.

The hybrids Emily Jane mentioned… he thought, biting his lip nervously. Things were decidedly not going well. For him, at least.

From his position, he could not keep an eye on the Guardians' conditions, but he hoped they were faring better than he was-not that it would be difficult to. It was all he could do to keep out of reach of the Fearlings and Nightmares. His level of concentration on this one task was so high that he didn't even realize that he was cornered until it was too late.

The dark beasts prowled forward, the Fearlings growling and hissing and the Nightmares stamping and snorting. As he backed away towards the wall, Jack's mind raced, desperately trying to come up with a way out of this situation.

Okay, 'tis bad...clearly the Guardians do not notice this… he thought anxiously. They must be surrounded by too many Nightmares and Fearlings to see over here…I can't fly over them, there's not enough room in this little alcove...damn it, how did I let myself be pushed into here!? There's too many of them to fight with kicks and punches and such...I need my magic...but why won't it work!? Can-?

Suddenly, his thoughts were cut off by a searing pain in his back and chest. Eyes wide in shock, he slowly looked down to see what looked like the tip of a scythe protruding from the center of his chest.

Pitch's accented voice sounded in his ear. "Got you…" The Nightmare King gave a chuckle. "I see that Lunar granted you his protection, hm? Well...I believe that was the last time it will ever help you."

Jack's mind was empty as he continued to stare at his chest. Silvery light poured from the crescent-shaped scar under his blue tunic, illuminating the immediate area. As he watched, the light flickered, then went out entirely. The scythe was pulled from his chest and he felt himself be kicked to the ground.

Numbly, he managed to register the Nightmare King standing over him, a cold smirk on his slate-gray face. "Don't think I don't know your weaknesses, boy," he said cruelly.

He's holding my staff… Jack thought, eyes widening as the numb feeling began to wear off. The young sprite tried to jump to his feet, but-

CRACK.

Pitch snapped the staff over his knee.

...see you guys next time! :)

'Til then, Sapphire316, out.