Author's Note: I'm SO SO SO sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long. I have no excuse. But just remember that I will NEVER abandon this fic. I was thinking about it guiltily the whole time. I was very busy, and with Thanksgiving around the corner, I will continue to be super busy, but I should be able to update again by next weekend. Anyway, enough of my rambling and on with the chapter! You've waited long enough!
Chapter Twenty-Four: Manny to the Rescue
Sandy looked at the Guardians pointedly and tapped his foot for emphasis. The Guardians hastily began to talk over one another in explanation, after they got over their shock of Sandy actually being alive.
While the Guardians were explaining, Lillian opened her eyes. Her hair had gone back to being completely black and her complexion was a gray as ever.
She slowly sat up and shook her head a little. Her gaze was at first drawn over towards Pitch, who had a golden dream hovering over his head. A golden dream.. But only one person could do that, and he.. he was..
A burst of golden symbols appeared over Sandy's head and that drew Lillian's eyes to him. She stared at him for almost a minute before she registered what she was seeing. A huge grin lit up her face as she leapt to her feet.
"SANDY!" she shouted happily.
The Guardians all paused in mid-explanation as Lillian ran right towards Sandy. When she reached him, she hugged him tightly.
"I missed you.." she said as her happy grin faded. "Everything went wrong after you left."
Sandy gestured at Lillian and a golden question mark appeared over his head as Lillian pulled away from the hug.
Lillian's face fell more and her golden eyes went to the other Guardians.
"They hurt us," she said gloomily to Sandy.
Her golden eyes, which had gained a spark of life when she first saw Sandy, once again became lifeless.
"No we didn't!" Bunny said angrily. "We were tryin' ta help get the darkness outta ya!"
Sandy shook his head, and gestured once more at Lillian. He gently reached out and tugged on one of her dark curls, holding the hair in front of Lillian's face. Another golden question mark appeared above his head. Lillian blinked at the dark curl and then gently pulled it out of Sandy's hand, letting it fall back down.
"My hair's always been like that," she told Sandy who looked surprised. Her expression changed as she looked at Sandy. "Sandy.." she said, her voice smaller. "You'll fix everything, right?"
Sandy took hold of one of Lillian's hands and pat it gently with a nod.
Lillian gave him a small smile. "I knew you would," she said with feeling. "I believe in you."
As the she said that, she suddenly gasped as this overhwhelmingly strange feeling filled her. She staggered backwards from Sandy and a hand clutched at her cloak clasp.
"..N..no..!" she winced in pain. "..It hurts..!"
Tooth gasped as she watched.
"Her belief..! It's fighting the darkness on its own!"
Bunny gave Lillian an anguished look.
"Crikey, but it's not very strong yet. It won't overcome the darkness, it'll just hurt her!"
Tooth wrung her hands in worry.
"Sandy! Do something!"
Sandy readied a ball of dreamsand and gave Lillian an apologetic look. Before Lillian could do much more than gasp, she was suddenly hit with it and fell to the ground. A golden dream appeared above her head, this one with golden versions of her and Jack with a golden Pitch. Golden Jack was as fun-loving as he used to be and threw what appeared to be a snowball at the golden Pitch. Golden Pitch didn't seem to be upset however, and lobbed a golden snowball back at golden Jack. Soon there was an all out snowball fight.
Sandy then turned toward Jack and did the same to him. Jack's dream involved a golden version of himself sitting with a golden Pitch at a table. They were both drinking from mugs and it appeared that golden Jack was talking to golden Pitch about something and the golden Pitch nodded as he appeared to be listening intently.
Sandy pointed at the Guardians, then he pointed at Pitch's dream, then Lillian's and finally Jack's.
Jamie gasped as he looked.
"They're all dreaming about each other!" Jamie's brow furrowed in confusion as he took in the dreams. "But.. Pitch is being nice in all the dreams."
Bunny snorted at that. "It's the corruption. It's makin' 'em think that Pitch would be nice and Pitch.. well.." Bunny trailed off.
Why would Pitch be having happy dreams about Jack and Lillian. He only wanted to use them, right?
Sandy shook his head firmly. Golden symbols appeared above his head as he explained that he knew that Jack and Lillian had worried about Pitch before they were corrupted. Something was going on with the three of them before everything went wrong.
The rest of the Guardians all looked at one another in confusion. Nobody else had really noticed. Bunny had suspected something, but that had been pushed aside when everything went wrong and they had been fighting Pitch.
Bunny remembered when a Nightmare had kicked Lillian out of the sleigh. If something was going on with them and Pitch, Pitch wouldn't have allowed that, right?
Tooth shook her head as if to clear it.
"It doesn't matter right now. Jack and Lillian need our help now." she said.
"We should get 'em to Manny," Bunny said as he went over to Lillian and scooped her up into his arms.
North, who was already holding Jack anyway, scooped Jack up into his arms while Tooth gently picked up the pieces of Jack's staff with a guilty look on her face.
"Da, we can take to Pole now," North said. "They cannot cause trouble while asleep."
Tooth shook her head as golden symbols appeared above Sandy's head. He indicated that they didn't really have time to travel to the pole.
Bunny huffed impatiently.
"We gotta get 'em to where the moonlight shines brightly then, so Manny can help 'em."
Sandy looked thoughtful and then smiled as it came to him.
A golden picture appeared above his head of a lake and two golden spirits hanging out by it.
"That's right!" Tooth exclaimed. "Jack's lake. It's important to the both of them, so maybe it would help them more than if they were at the Pole."
"Then we go to lake!" North declared while all the Guardians minus Bunny and Sandy climbed on the sleigh.
"I'll meet ya there," Bunny said to the others with an uneasy glance at the sleigh.
While the sleigh took off into the air, Bunny tapped the ground and one of his tunnels appeared. He jumped down into it while holding Lillian. A spring flower bloomed in the spot the hold had been.
Sandy had indicated that the Guardians should go on without him. When they were all gone, he looked over at Pitch. A look of contemplation crossed his face while he gazed at Pitch.
After a moment he nodded to himself and went over to Pitch. He summoned his golden cloud and gently tugged Pitch onto it. Then he climbed onto the cloud as well and took off after the sleigh.
Jamie and his friends all looked at one another when Sandy finally left with Pitch.
"Where's Jack's lake?" Cupcake asked in confusion.
Jamie looked thoughtful for a moment, then lit up.
"I know! They must mean the skating pond in the forest. That's the only lake that's around here."
Caleb struck a pose similar to North and pointed in the direction of the lake.
"To the lake!"
The Guardians soon reached the lake and gently set Jack and Lillian down on the frozen surface, side by side in the middle of the lake.
Sandy arrived shortly afterwards and moved them apart so that there was a space inbetween them. To the Guardians' astonishment, he set Pitch down inbetween them.
"What are ya doin'?!" Bunny demanded when Sandy floated over by them.
Sandy shrugged and then gestured at the sky.
The moon was full and the moonlight was shining down on the three sleeping spirits. It seemed to grow brighter and more intense as the Guardians watched.
"Manny's helping them!" North said triumphantly.
Lillian's hair began to lighten, the first of them to show any sign that the Man in the Moon was helping them out. Her curls went from pitch black to their rich brown color. The Guardians couldn't see her eyes, which were closed, but they had a feeling that her eyes were going back to their original emerald.
Her skin, which had been gray, was returning to its normal complexion. After a minute, she looked as she used to.
"Why isn't Jack changing?!" Tooth asked in a panicked voice.
Bunny looked from Jack to Tooth, who was still holding the pieces of Jack's staff.
"It's his staff," Bunny said in realization. "His powers are weaker without it, and his belief is the lowest it's been. Lillian gained some of her belief back when she saw Sandy was alive, but Jack was unconscious. Without hardly any belief or his staff, he can't help Manny fight off the darkness."
Tears filled Tooth's eyes.
"He's stuck like that?!"
Before anyone could respond, the kids burst through the woods into the clearing by the lake and Lillian groaned.
"Whoa," Jamie exclaimed as he took in the sight of the intense moonlight shining down on the three spirits and grinned when he saw Lillian's eyes flutter open. "It's working!"
The Guardians exchanged sorrowful looks, but couldn't bring themselves to tell the children about Jack. They would find out soon enough anyway.
Lillian slowly sat up and shook her head. She felt kind of strange. Not immediately noticing her audience, she looked down at herself.
She gasped when she saw her bracelet. It was partially black, but the black seemed to be receding and it was turning back to its pretty pink and green color. She frowned as she tried to recall what had been happening, but everything was so fuzzy.
She looked around and gasped as she spotted Pitch right next to her. She took in his golden dream and blinked. He was.. dreaming of her?
"Pitch?" she said softly. She remembered how different he had been lately. Her last really clear memory was-
She shuddered as she remembered Sandy's death and Pitch.. Pitch was mocking him.
But the golden dream..
Then she noticed Jack and gasped. He was all black and gray!
"Jack!" Lillian cried out in distress. She climbed over Pitch and sat on the ice next to Jack, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up!"
While everyone was busy watching Lillian try to wake up Jack sadly, nobody noticed that Pitch's complexion was very slowly lightening.
Author's Note: I couldn't resist stopping here. I bet you didn't see that coming! Ok, so.. quick explanation on Lillian. When under the influence of the black sand, she didn't remember ever NOT being under its influence, but she still retained all her memories, if that makes sense. Then when she was healed, she couldn't really remember what was happening when she was under the influence of it.
And as for Jack, well.. I'd imagine that his staff is more than just a conduit for his powers. It's a big part of him. In the movie when it was snapped, he seemed very weak. So I figure while it's broken, a very big part of him is missing. With him so corrupted and asleep though, how is his staff going to be fixed?
Hmm!
As for Pitch, well.. I couldn't resist. I'm not sure exactly how changed he'll be. I figure he'll still have his snarky attitude. I have to thank CrossoverJunkie, since he (and a fic I had read forever ago) gave me the idea for it. In the books, Pitch was changed by the Fearlings, and so if Manny can save Lillian in this fic, why shouldn't he be able to help Pitch too? It also explains a little as to why Pitch was so affected by the Nightmares when they were around. Since Pitch has been affected for so long though, it will take a long time for him to change..
Sorry once again for leaving you on a cliffhanger, but I promise this time I won't make you wait over a month for the next chapter. :) I'll stop with the cliffhangers eventually!
EDIT: I've already started working on the next chapter, so if you have plot ideas, you better hurry up and tell me! :)
