Author's Note: Thanks for all the faves, follows and reviews. This fic officially now has over 6,000 views! That is super amazing. :) Once again the chapter ran away on me. I was thinking I'd be able to mostly finish the movie up, but this chapter had to end where it did. So yes, some stuff went down but all the major stuff I was hinting at will be in the next chapter. This chapter was also depressing.. You guys know how the movie is. There's tons of depression until towards the very end. Anywho, here's the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Twenty: Easter
As soon as the sleigh had landed, Bunny whisked Lillian off to the infirmary and helped take care of her injuries. A depressed Jack Frost followed after, while North and Tooth prepared for the funeral. All of them were in shock that Sandy had died.
A short while later found the three remaining Guardians gathered around in a semi-circle, with candles lit. Carved into the floor was a picture of Sandy. North, Tooth and Bunny all stared down morosely at it as North began to say a few words.
Off by the big windows, Jack sat with his hood up on his blue hoodie. Anyone who knew him, knew that he only put it up when he was very upset. Lillian sat beside him, her face buried into his side and her tears soaking his shirt.
Both Lillian and Jack and grown very fond of the little Sandman. Not only did he give them both good dreams, but he was the one Guardian that they saw the most. He was the one who understood their need for independence, but also that they were children at heart. He was always there to listen in silent support and if he had time in the Winter, then he didn't mind tossing around a snowball or two.
In the last few years, Lillian had been looking forward to the visits she had with him more and more, as the nightmares had been getting worse. The only times she ever had really good dreams were when she saw the Sandman in person, as his good dreams couldn't penetrate Pitch's lair.
Now that was all.. gone. There was no more Sandman to make things better. There would be no more good dreams. All she had now would be nothing or vicious nightmares that left her feeling horrible and empty inside.
She wasn't only crying for Sandy though.. She had almost lost both Jack and Sandy. It had been so close. If Jack hadn't of had that surge of power, she was almost certain that Pitch would have killed her Jack. Her very best friend.
She definitely didn't understand what was going on with Pitch anymore. He wasn't anything like she remembered him being before he started playing around with that black sand. He had been the one she had looked up to the most. She had even started thinking of him as more like a parent, and then.. it all stopped. He pulled away from her and Jack and became obsessed with that sand and defeating the Guardians.
She pulled away from Jack a little as Jack touched a pinky to the corner of the window and an image of Sandy appeared in the frost. Lillian kept her gaze averted from it as just looking at a frosty Sandy was hard.
"Wh.. what are we going to do?" she asked Jack in a very small, quiet voice. "Pitch killed him. He almost.." she sniffled and held back a sob. "He almost killed you."
Jack looked from his frost image of Sandy down to Lillian. He gazed at her worriedly. She sounded so.. so.. lost.
Even though she'd changed out of the ragged dress and into a light pink dress she had brought, she still looked a little worse for wear. He noticed now that he was really looking at her, that she was pale and had dark circles under her eyes. When was the last time she had slept? When was the last time any of them had slept? Without Sandy there to scold them, he couldn't be sure.
He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
"I don't know. I guess we'll stick with the Guardians for now? What else can we do?"
As Jack answered her, he realized he sounded just as lost as she did. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, being mindful of the bandage on her arm. He didn't want to admit it, but he really wished the old Pitch was there to reassure them that everything would be fine.
Lillian wiped more tears from her eyes as she looked down at her bandaged arm. Bunny had thoroughly cleaned it out when Lillian confessed that she thought some of the black sand had gotten in it. Bunny's face had gone curiously blank at that information and he had been very careful to clean it out as best he could.
Lillian wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that the black sand that the horses, Nightmares, were made of seemed so evil. She hadn't wanted to worry Jack, but ever since the wild sleigh ride she had been feeling a little off. Even though she was very sad about Sandy and Jack, she was also getting angry. Very angry.
Pitch was the one causing all the problems. If it wasn't for him, she and Jack would probably be at Pitch's right now having fun, instead of mourning the loss of Sandy. Not to mention that Pitch had almost killed Jack! Why would he do that?!
As Lillian started silently fuming, North finally approached the two.
"Jack? Lillian? You alright?" North asked them gently, as he took in Jack's frost picture of Sandy.
Jack's shoulders slumped and Lillian sniffled as all the hurt of losing Sandy flooded in again.
"I just.. I wish I could've done something," Jack confessed as he lowered his hood.
North looked surprised by this.
"But Jack! You did do something! You saved us all. Without you, we would have been lost," he said gently to Jack.
"But Sandy - " Jack started, but North cut him off.
"Would have been proud of what you did," North said firmly to the boy as he put a comforting hand on Jack's shoulder.
Jack stood up and helped Lillian to her feet as well.
"I don't know who you were in your past life, but now you are Guardian." North said warmly to Jack, with a nod at Lillian.
Jack had constantly proved he was a Guardian by how well he looked after his best friend.
Jack glanced down at Lillian, not really feeling like he was doing much to help her out now. She was essentially homeless and abandoned by what she considered her father figure. He looked back up at North.
"But how can I know who I am, until I find out what I was?" he asked North uncertainly.
North gave him a sad smile.
"You will. I feel it in my belly."
Lillian tilted her head at North and Jack.
"Who you were?" she asked.
Jack suddenly remembered that Lillian missed most of his revelations on memories as she had been kidnapped by Pitch at Tooth's Palace.
"I guess that you and I were someone before we became spirits. We were humans with lives and families."
Lillian's eyes widened at this.
"Tooth keeps the memories in our baby teeth," Jack explained. "But we can't see them since Pitch stole all the teeth."
Lillian visibly deflated at that. She really wanted to see what she had been like as a human and what her family also looked like. Did she have brothers and sisters? A mother? Pitch was a wonderful dad (before he became super evil), but Lillian had always secretly wanted a mother.
She wondered if her mother was still alive now, and if not, what had happened to her. As a spirit Lillian wasn't that old yet. If she had the chance to see any of her family..
She shivered a little at the revelation and realized that Jack and North had met up with Bunny and Tooth by the globe. Jack had grabbed her hand and led her over without her realizing.
Lillian's eyes widened as she saw all the lights that were going out. There were so many!
Jack flew up to land on the globe and get a better look at the lights that were going out.
"It's fear," Jack said softly. "He's tipped the balance."
Bunny took a look at all the somber faces and twirled a boomerang.
"Hey, buck up ya sad sacks." Bunny said, trying to lighten the mood. "Easter is tomorrow and I'm gonna need your help to get those little lights flickering again!"
Lillian half listened to Bunny as she continued to gaze up at the globe. Where were those strange blue lights? She finally spotted them way at the top of the globe, by the North Pole.
Huh.. wasn't that were she and Jack were?
Wait a minute..
She looked around and suddenly realized that the only people on the Pole who could possibly be kids were her and Jack. She remembered suddenly that Jack wasn't quite an adult yet, and she would never really grow up. She studied the blue lights. They were getting dim again. She squinted at one of the lights. It wasn't exactly growing dimmer, but it seemed darker somehow.
She was about to point this out to the others, but she found herself being whisked off by Jack as he followed the other Guardians through North's workshop.
"As much as it pains me to say, this time Easter is more important than Christmas," North said.
Bunny looked around at the others excitedly.
"Didja hear that?!"
North started to lead them to the double doors that led to where the sleigh was kept.
"Come, we get sleigh ready!" North said.
Bunny stopped in his tracks.
"Oh no, mate. My Warren, my rules."
He gave a smug little smirk at North and indicated the floor underneath them all.
"Buckle up!"
Bunny tapped his foot on the ground and a massive hole appeared underneath the Guardians. He laughed as they all cried out in shock and fell though. He quickly jumped down into it and followed after the others.
Jack had grabbed Lillian and laughed happily as the wind helped him through the tunnel. The inside of the tunnel was very green and bright and full of the magic of Spring.
They soon flew out of the other end of the tunnel and landed in a clearing. Jack and Lillian looked around in awe as North fell out of the tunnel in a heap. Tooth had used her wings and flown out.
Bunny hopped out graciously, and smirked at the heap on the ground that was North. North sat up and got to his feet unsteadily with a groan.
"Buckle up.. Is very funny," North said as he stretched his back.
Lillian looked around in awe. Bunny's warren was amazing! There were all sorts spring flowers around, not to mention hills and the grass was the greenest she had ever seen. She glanced down at her feet to see that spring flowers were sprouting up where she stood. She looked back out at the scenery to see that there was a colorful river flowing though the middle of the Warren.
It was so beautiful.
A sound coming out of one of the tunnels made them all freeze. Much to Lillian's irritation, all the Guardians suddenly shoved her back behind them as they took up defensive positions in front of her.
Bunny had whipped out his boomerangs, North had his swords out and Jack was holding his staff. Tooth got her fists ready and they all prepared for Pitch to come out of the tunnel.
Bunny let out a loud battle cry as they started to rush forward, but then they all stopped as little Sophie Bennet toddled out of the tunnel. She walked right up to the Guardians, who very sheepishly and quickly hid their weapons away and put friendly smiles on their faces.
"Bunny! Hop hop hop!" Sophie exclaimed as she hopped around joyfully.
She soon got distracted by one of North's elves and chased after it.
"Elf elf elf!" she said as she tried to catch it.
She was distracted by that when some Easter eggs wandered by. They all tried to hide from her and she peered into their hiding place.
"Peekaboo!"
Lillian walked out from behind the Guardians to watch Sophie as all the Guardians started panicking, Bunny especially.
"What are we gonna do?!" Bunny said as he panicked. "Easter'll be ruined!"
Jack couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.
"If Easter could be ruined by one kid, then you've got problems," he told Bunny.
His staff glowed a little as he summoned a tiny bit of his winter magic and made one of his special snowflakes. He guided it over with a little help from the wind and soon it hit his intended target: Bunny's nose.
Lillian saw the little burst of blue sparkles, indicating that Jack's winter magic was at play.
All the worry left Bunny's face and he wandered over by Sophie. He smiled gently at her as he knelt down to her level.
"Wanna help me paint some eggs?" Bunny asked her.
"Okay!" Sophie eagerly agreed with a giggle.
Soon all the Guardians, Jack, Lillian and Sophie were helping to paint Easter Eggs. Lillian was especially happy that Phil had decided to tag along and she happily sat right next to him and helped him paint some eggs by hand.
The others were herding the eggs to the dye river to get dyed various different colors.
Lillian couldn't help but giggle as Bunny came by. Phil had painted a huge stack of eggs red.
"Too Christmas-y mate," Bunny informed the devastated yeti. "Paint 'em blue."
Phil cried out as he took in all the very many red eggs he now had to repaint. Lillian reached over and patted Phil on the arm consolingly.
"We can paint some stripes on some," she said. "That way you don't have to completely repaint all the eggs."
She didn't notice as Jack sat atop one of the large stone golems that were walking around amongst all the eggs. Jack spotted Lillian next to Phil and grinned, before he noticed her appearance.
If he didn't know any better, her hair looked darker than before and she was practically turning gray in exhaustion. Lillian chose that moment to look up at smile at him.
Her eyes had always been a nice emerald, right? But now they looked more like a yellowish-green.
He shook his head. It had to be a trick of the light. They were all so busy with dealing with one event after the other that they hadn't really taken the time to take care of themselves. He was sure after a good long sleep that Lillian would look more like herself. After Easter, he decided. He would talk with the others if he had to, but Lillian was getting a decent night's sleep. Even if spirits didn't need as much rest as normal humans, Lillian still had the body of a child.
It wasn't long before the Guardians were looking at all the eggs that were beautifully painted. Bunny had spent the entire time playing with Sophie and having her help get the eggs painted. He had let her see his special Easter flowers that spritzed color down on the eggs, giving them more designs or making them sparkly.
He sat down on the grass, looking out at all his hard work with satisfaction. A sleeping Sophie was in his arms.
"Not bad," Jack said with a grin at Bunny.
Bunny grinned back as all his misgivings about Jack melted away. The kid had worked just as hard as the rest of them to make sure that Easter would happen. Even though Jack had claimed he wasn't hard work and deadlines, he could do it for the kids. He would do anything to help out the kids, and Bunny had to admit it, but the kid would make an excellent Guardian.
"Not bad yourself," he replied to Jack.
Jack rubbed the back of his neck.
"Look.. I'm.. I'm sorry about the kangaroo thing," he said to Bunny.
Bunny sighed.
"It's the accent, isn't it?"
The other Guardians and Lillian came up behind Bunny and Jack. North and Tooth's faces softened as Lillian stood beside Jack.
"Aw, poor little anklebiter. She's all tuckered out," Bunny said as he looked down at Sophie.
"I love her," Tooth said with emotion as she stared down at Sophie. They had missed out on so much, and thanks to Jack and Lillian they had been shown what they were missing.
They were the Guardians, but they had always done their jobs from a distance. They hadn't interacted with the children in years.
As they all looked down at the sleeping Sophie, they knew that would change.
"I think it's time to take her home," Tooth said as she reached out for Sophie.
"Why don't I take her home?" Jack offered.
"Jack, no!" Tooth said. "Pitch is - "
Jack's eyes widened a bit at the thought of running into Pitch, but then he glanced at his staff. He covered his worry with a smirk.
"No match for this," he said as he gave his staff a twirl.
Jack reached over and gently took Sophie into his arms. He shook his head as he was able to hold her just fine. Apparently he only went through kids when they were awake.
"That's why we need ya here," Bunny said impatiently, "in case Pitch attacks the eggs."
"Stop worrying, Cottontail!" Jack said with a laugh. "Trust me. I'll be quick as a bunny."
Lillian piped up as Jack was preparing to leave.
"I wanna come too!"
Before the Guardians could protest, the wind whipped up and picked up both Jack and Lillian. Soon they were flying through Burgess towards Jamie's house.
The Guardians all looked at each other worriedly as Jack and Lillian left with Sophie. Tooth realized that Baby Tooth had snuck out with Jack as she couldn't find her little fairy anywhere.
Jack carefully opened Sophie's window and deposited Sophie with some difficulty onto the bed. Lillian giggled at Sophie as Baby Tooth hovered nearby. Baby Tooth tweeted worryingly at Jack.
Jacked waved a hand dismissively at Baby Tooth.
"Don't worry, we still have plenty of time." he said.
"Jaaack.."
"Wh-what was that?" Jack said, his eyes going wide. He rushed over to the window with Lillian and the wind picked them up. He landed on the roof and listened hard.
"Jaaaack!"
"..I.. I know that voice!" Jack said to Lillian, looking astonished. "I have to find out what it is!"
The wind grabbed them both and Lillian shivered as Jack flew at top speed toward whatever that voice was.
"Jack.." Lillian called out over the rush of the wind. "I don't know if this is a good idea!"
Jack ignored both Lillian and Baby Tooth's protests as he followed the sound of that voice right into Pitch's lair. He looked around as they all landed on the ground in Pitch's globe room.
The room was darker than ever, as without Lillian living there any longer, Pitch didn't have to have torches or any other light. The only light that lit up the globe room now was the natural light that filtered in through the hole under the bed frame.
Jack noticed all the bird cages and his face lit up.
"The fairies! C'mon, we have to rescue them!"
Lillian looked around at the dark globe room. Before, she had always been a little afraid of the dark, even after she had gotten used to living at Pitch's. Now she felt very comfortable. It was a little strange.. She liked being at Bunny's Warren since all the spring magic of it called out to her, but as she had been painting eggs, she noticed it was a little.. bright. Now however, she felt right at home in the semi-darkness.
Her attention was diverted back to Jack as Jack discovered that not only did Pitch have all the fairies, but he had all the teeth as well.
Jack leaped down from one of the cages to a pile of the tooth canisters down below and frantically began to search for his baby teeth.
"I have to find them," Jack muttered to himself as he ignored Baby Tooth tugging on the hood of his hoodie.
"Looking for something?" a voice rang out from the darkness.
Lillian gasped as Pitch stepped forward into the dim light. He was holding two golden teeth cases. One had a picture of a boy with brown hair and brown eyes, while the other had the picture of a small girl with lighter brown hair and gray eyes.
Their baby teeth.
"My teeth!" Jack said as he stood up.
Pitch smirked as Jack started to reach out for them, then hesitated.
"So you're still worried about what they think?" He held out Jack's tooth case teasingly to him. "You want to grab the teeth and fly off with them, but you're worried about what the Guardians will think. Of disappointing them. Of not being good enough for them."
Lillian stared as Pitch started getting Jack all turned around in the darkness. Jack backed up against a wall.
"S-stop it! STOP IT!" Jack cried out as he couldn't handle Pitch delving into his secret fears like that.
"Pitch!" Lillian called out angrily. How dare he make Jack scared like that!
Pitch paused and glanced over at Lillian. He had almost forgotten about the child. He took in her appearance and his eyes lit up in malicious glee. Oh yes.. This would do quite nicely.
Jack suddenly found himself back where he started as Pitch shoved Jack's tooth case into his hands.
He gave Jack a big shove into a shadow and as Jack stumbled out, he heard Pitch's mocking voice call out to him.
"Happy Easter, Jack."
Jack turned around to see the face of a stone golem carved into the rock.
"No!" he cried out as he beat a fist on it. "Lillian! Baby Tooth!"
He had forgotten them! Now they were trapped at Pitch's. As he turned back around, he saw that he was in one of Bunny's tunnels and a trail of broken Easter Eggs were leading to the surface.
Pitch walked over by Lillian and gently touched one of her darkening curls.
"Very soon, you'll be all mine," he said to her. "You'll be my Nightmare Princess."
Lillian stared up at Pitch in horror.
"Wh.. what?"
Pitch smirked at her.
"How would you like a Nightmare Prince?"
Author's Note: Did you see that coming?! I bet not! That's what I was hinting about before. I realize my hints suck, but there you go. So yeah, next chapter is going to be when things get super interesting/angsty. Unless the chapter gets huge, I shooould be able to finish up the movie? Maybe? Don't hold me to that though. As for the Nightmare Princess/Prince, I had read a fic somewhere that did that, and I googled Pitch when I first started the story and background info said that he periodically in the books tried turning children into a Fearling Prince or Princess. So I took that and ran with it. In the movie they're referred to as Nightmares, so.. Nightmare Princess! I'll leave it up to you to figure out how that happened to Lillian. Pitch didn't actively do it on purpose, but he's not looking a gift horse in the mouth. So what do you think? Do you think Pitch will manage to change Jack? Or will the Guardians come to their senses in time?
And I know, someone FINALLY figures out the blue lights and now she's not in a position to tell anyone. You think the Guardians can figure it out on their own? If you have any plot suggestions now that stuff is going down, you should definitely tell me soon as I'll be updating probably midweek. Maybe. I won't say definitely, but I'm super excited to continue!
