Author's Note: Thanks to all who faved, followed and reviewed. Only one person guessed about my obscure hint in the last chapter and they didn't pick up on it. And no, I won't say if anything is going on with Pitch. I will say that the background info is helpful and I have some ideas for future plot. Just a warning, this chapter and the next one will be very sad. Anyway, on with the fic!

Chapter Nineteen: Fallen Dreams

Once the sleigh came out of the portal, Bunny took a good look at the child spirit. Her dress was torn, and it looked like she had a makeshift bandage on her arm. He could also see the beginning of several bruises on her. Not only that, but it was the fact that she was so quiet that had him worried, and her eyes looked so terribly sad.

"We'll get ya fixed up back at the Pole, after we help Tooth collect some teeth, alrigh'?" Bunny said to her in a friendly tone that he reserved just for kids.

Lillian looked over at him, very confused.

"Teeth?"

Jack sighed sadly at this.

"Pitch stole all the Tooth Fairy's fairies and she doesn't have any helpers to help her collect teeth anymore. If we don't help her out, then the kids will stop believing in her and she'll fade away forever." Jack explained to her.

Lillian gasped aloud at this. That was terrible!

"So we're going to help her out by collecting teeth tonight," Jack said.

"And I'll get the most out of all of ya," Bunny boasted as North landed the sleigh on a roof.

"Oh yeah, Cottontail?" Jack shot back with a cocky smirk. "Wanna bet?"

"Oh ya don't wanna race a Pooka, mate." Bunny said with a smirk of his own.

"Maybe I do!" Jack shouted as with a sudden blast of the wind, he and Lillian took off into the air.

Lillian shivered at the icy wind but grinned at the rapidly shrinking sleigh.

"We'll beat you Easter Bunny!" she called down to Bunny.

"A race? Is it a race?" North asked as he raced along rooftops, popping in and out of chimneys.

It wasn't before long that all the Guardians (except for Tooth) and Jack and Lillian were trying to one up each other and stealing everyone else's teeth. Sandy was the worst offender as he'd wait for Jack and Bunny to steal from each other and then he'd steal the teeth from the 'winner.'

It even got so bad, that they started using their powers. Bunny used his to trap Jack temporarily in a hole and Jack blasted Bunny with his frost powers. Lillian even got in on it as she had vines trip Bunny and claimed his teeth for her own.

It wasn'tlong before they were all back by Tooth, who was beaming at them.

"You guys collect teeth and leave gifts almost as fast as my fairies!"

The rest of the Guardians and Jack all exchanged guilty looks at that.

"..You have been leaving gifts haven't you?" Tooth asked a little hesitantly.

Lillian raised her hand at this.

"I remembered!" she said proudly. "The Tooth Fairy leaves a quarter!"

Tooth looked at everyone else unhappily and sighed.

One trip to the change machine at the laundromat and soon everyone was leaving quarters under pillows. Or in some cases, improvising by leaving eggs, Christmas gifts, beautiful frost patterns on windows and bouquets of spring flowers.

Tooth would've had a fit if she knew, but thankfully she didn't double check on their work. Soon enough, the Guardians finished with that part of the world, and the sleigh disappeared through a portal.

A lone Nightmare watched from the shadows with golden eyes. It gave a soft neigh as it took off for Pitch's.


Pitch looked very displeased when the Nightmare arrived at his lair. He had been staring at the fallen cage that Lillian had been put in when the Nightmare wandered over by him and neighed to get his attention. He frowned at it as he ran his fingers through its mane. He saw flashes of the Guardians, Jack and Lillian collecting the teeth.

He glared at the Nightmare angrily.

"She dared to escape me and help them collect the teeth?" he said as he turned his attention to the globe. "Well, you can have your last hurrah."

He formed an image of Sandy out of black sand and crushed it.

"All your efforts will have been for nothing." he said as he watched the particles of black sand drift down. "I'll have you one way or the other, child. I'll crush the Guardians and after I show Jack what happens to traitors, I'll reclaim you both."

He stared moodily at the globe as two blue lights, both somewhat dim but growing brighter, made their way to Burgess.


The Guardians, Jack and Lillian found themselves regrouping at Jamie's house. At first it was Tooth, Jack and Lillian that were there. Tooth and Jack checked out Jamie's drawing of his adventurous day while Lillian looked at Jamie's book again. Soon Sandy, North and Bunny found them and they all compared their bags of teeth.

"I hate to brag, buuut.." Jack grinned as he held up his sizeable bag of teeth.

"You call that a bag of chompers?" Bunny smirked at him, "Now this is a bag of chompers!"

Bunny proudly held up his own bag, which was larger than Jack's.

"I did good too!" Lillian said as she held up her own bag, which was about the same as Jack's.

Sandy also held up his bag, which was decent sized.

"This isn't contest," North said, "But if it was.." he held up his own bag which was the largest. "I win!"

North gave a victory cry and broke out in a Russian dance. Everyone tried shushing North, but it was too late. Jamie's flashlight beam shone on all of them and they froze.

"Santa!" Jamie cried out happily. "And the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Sandman!"

"He.. he can see us?" Jack asked.

Bunny gave Jack and Lillian both a look of pity.

"Most of us," Bunny told Jack.

Jack's shoulders slumped as he realized that Jamie's light was shining on everyone but him and Lillian. Lillian slipped her hand into Jack's, as Jamie's dog suddenly woke up at the commotion and began to growl at Bunny.

"Easy there, mate." Bunny said nervously to the dog.

"Abbie!" Jamie scolded, "Stop it! That's the Easter Bunny!"

"That's a greyhound," Jack said, getting a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Jack.." Lillian said warningly, but Jack ignored her.

"Do you know what they do to rabbits?" Jack smirked at Bunny, but the hurt was still there. Teasing Bunny helped though.

"Rabbit?" Bunny scoffed as Lillian sighed, "I happen to be a master of Tai Chi - "

BRRRRIIIIINNNNG!

"Crikey!" Bunny cried out as Jamie's dog chased him everywhere around the room, even up the walls.

"Jaaack!" Lillian shouted at him. She had seen Jack set the alarm off with his staff.

"Sandy!" North said. "Do something!"

Sandy punched his fist into his palm as everyone not panicking looked appalled.

"Dreamsand, ya gumby!" Bunny shouted as he continued to run around the room.

Sandy formed a big ball of dreamsand, but the dog messed up his aim and the dreamsand went wild. Sandy caught Jamie as he went flying when North fell on the bed. One flash of dreamsand later, and soon only Jack and Sandy were the only ones awake.

Jack rubbed the back of his head.

"Whoops," he said as he surveyed the damage.

North and Bunny each had golden candy canes and carrots above their heads. The carrots grabbed the candy canes and started dancing.

"Aww, I wish I had my camera," Jack said with a grin, repeating a phrase he often heard.

Sandy was looking around as well, when a golden exclamation point appeared over his head. He pointed and Jack looked at where he was pointing.

"Oh.." Jack said, as he looked awkward. "Uh.."

Sandy crossed his arms with a frown as he looked at Lillian, who had a golden Pitch above her head, reading a book to a small girl.

"I can explain - " Jack started, but a Nightmare chose that moment to show up in Jamie's window.

Jack chased after it, using the wind to fly through the air. "C'mon Sandy! We have to make sure they stay away from the others!"

Sandy sighed, but flew out the window on his golden cloud. Another Nightmare appeared and they split up, Sandy chasing his Nightmare through a house.

Jack chased his to a rooftop and blasted it with a blast of winter magic from his staff. He grinned triumphantly at it.

"Sandy! Look at this!" He said as he poked the black mess on the roof.

A figure appeared from the shadows behind him.

"Jack?" a familiar voice behind Jack said.

Jack whirled around to see Pitch.

"P-Pitch!" Jack stammered in surprise. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"More importantly Jack, what are you doing here?" Pitch sneered at him, then realized Sandy was right there and sidestepped away from him. "Ahh, now this is who I wanted to -"

Sandy formed golden whips out of dreamsand and lashed out at Pitch. The look on his face was clear: Get away from Jack.

Pitch retaliated by forming a large scythe out of the black sand as Jack stared at it in horror. Just as he was about to protest, Sandy grabbed Pitch with a golden whip and flung him all over into the buildings. He finally let Pitch go, and Pitch fell over into a heap onto the ground.

Sandy calmly stepped off of the roof as he dusted his hands off.

Jack bit his lip as he followed Sandy down to the ground. He covered his worry for Pitch by cracking a joke.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side."

Pitch had gotten to his feet by now and was looking at Sandy nervously.

"Sandy.. I know it was foolish to mess with your dreamsand. So I tell you what.." Pitch said as his face morphed into an evil smirk. "You can have 'em back!"

A giant wave of black sand came around Jack and Sandy as hundreds of Nightmares surrounded them.

"Pitch!" Jack called out. "Don't do this!"

Sandy gave Jack a curious look. Why did he sound so familiar with Pitch? And why was Lillian dreaming about him. He shook his head, resolving to confront Jack about him it after the fight.

" Actions have their consequences, Jack." Pitch replied as the Nightmares began attacking.

Everyone paused though, when the sleigh flew overhead. They could see North asleep at the reins with the other Guardians and Lillian struggling to stay awake. The bottom of the sleigh hit a building, jolting them awake.

Sandy grabbed Jack by his hoodie and flew into the air. He tossed Jack aside and flew off, drawing a good portion of the Nightmares with him.

The wind caught Jack and he flew around, blasting the remaining Nightmares. He dropped down, causing two Nightmares to crash into each other. As he laughed at them, a third hit his hand that was holding the staff, causing him to lose his grip on it. He suddenly found himself free falling as he scrabbled desperately in the air, trying to reach his staff.

He finally managed to grab a hold of it and landed roughly on the sleigh, that North had maneuvered under him, just in case. Jack found himself face to face with Bunny, who was holding his boomerangs threateningly.

"You might want to duck," Bunny said calmly as Jack ducked. He threw his boomerangs at two Nightmares that exploded into black sand.

Jack looked relieved as for a minute he thought Bunny was going to attack him. His relief was short lived however, when a Nightmare flew close by them.

They heard an ear piercing scream as it kicked the smallest occupant out if the sleigh.

Lillian had been trying to fix her bandage while the battle with the Nightmares raged around her. She had snuck aboard the sleigh when the sleepy Guardians took off and now she was regretting it, since she couldn't fly and didn't have cool moves like Bunny.

She was really regretting it when the Nightmare kicked her off the sleigh. She watched as her bandage flew off her arm and the into the air. Her eyes widened as she saw Bunny's boomerang fly towards her, but it flew under her and she heard the sounds of some Nightmares exploding. She turned a little to see and suddenly found herself flipping over.

She fell right through a large cloud of black sand and threw her arms up to cover her face. She cried out when the black sand hit her wound.

Before she had time to do anything else, the breath was knocked out of her as two slender arms wrapped around her waist and she suddenly jerked to a stop.

She found herself being deposited back into the sleigh by Tooth. As she was set down, she heard Jack cry out.

"We gotta help Sandy!" Jack shouted as he suddenly flew off.

"No!" North shouted after Jack.

They could all see that Sandy was completely overwhelmed by the black sand and Jack wouldn't be able to handle that on his own.

Lillian stared in horror as a black arrow sailed through the air and struck Sandy right in the back. The blackness spread and Pitch appeared by Sandy to gloat.

Lillian watched as Pitch mocked Sandy. Tears filled her eyes as she saw Sandy give up struggling and was consumed by the black sand.

"NOOOOO!" Jack cried out as he put on a burst of speed, but it was too late. The wave of black sand suddenly turned on Jack, who quickly realized he was overwhelmed and tried to back up, but couldn't.

"Jack!"

Bunny had to restrain Lillian so she wouldn't jump out if the sleigh to go after Jack. Tears poured down her cheeks as she stared st the black cloud of sand.

Suddenly as all hope seemed lost, blue lightning lit up the cloud and all the black sand exploded in a huge burst of winter magic. Tooth flew to Jack, who seemed to be unconscious, and caught him. She flew him to the sleigh and gently set him down by Lillian.

Lillian started sobbing loudly as she clung onto Jack.

" I never knew you could do that," Tooth said softly to him.

"I.. I didn't either," he said dazedly.

Pitch, who had been knocked out of the air, watched the sleigh disappear through a portal with a strange expression on his face. He could hear Lillian's sobs get cut off as they disappeared. His expression cleared when a lone Nightmare came up to him, and he absently began to pet it. His look became more calculating as he stared at the spot where the sleigh had been. With Jack this powerful, this would take some thinking about.


Author's Note: Next chapter is #20 and major stuff will be going down! I can't wait. I'll see about updating this weekend, but just in case, don't plan on it. As always, if you have plot suggestions or drabble ideas, let me know!

Edit: Finally fixed this chapter up. I added the line breaks and put something in italics that I forgot. Not necessary for reading the chapter, but it makes it nicer. Expect an update soon. :)