Author's Note: I am so utterly exhausted and should be sleeping right now, but I did it. I FINALLY updated this. But first, I want to go over some reviews.
I want to remind everyone that while I do appreciate criticism, I do not appreciate getting yelled at. I ask that even if you don't agree with something that I've written that you at least be kind in your criticism. Remember, you can always PM me if you have anything further to discuss about this fic or anything else.
That said, I'm too tired to go over individual reviews. I just want to say that I can't believe the number of people that still view this fic even though it hasn't been updated in practically a year and I feel touched that so many people are interested in what happens to this.
So I'd like to give a huge shoutout to everyone who has reviewed, faved, and followed this fic. This update is for you guys!
And speaking of updates:
My other fics:
I have so far updated Jamie's UFO and Ghost Hunting Adventures (gasp!) which hasn't been updated since like 2016! I actually had a lot of fun with that update and you should check it out if you want to see any hints about future Child of Spring plot.
I have also updated The Opposite Stephanie which will only be of interest to those closet LazyTown fans out there.
I have a mostly written out chapter for Let It Shine, which for those of you who do not have me on author alert is a crossover with ROTG and Wall-E. It does not follow the Child of Spring-verse but it does have a small nod toward it if you squint. This might take me awhile to get out since I'm not ending the chapter until Wally meets Eve. I refuse to end it before then.
Harry Potter and the Child of Spring has a partially written chapter. I plan on updating that next since it'll be easier for me to write than Let It Shine at the moment and I have fun planning out the plot. I realize that Jack is being an idiot in that one and was a little downhearted that was all people seemed to latch onto. Yes, Jack made a huge mistake. But think of what goblins have done in the HP-verse and what a big role some of them have played. Now imagine them being able to order Jack around and how this might change things up. It becomes quite interesting, doesn't it? I realize that won't come into play until way later in the story, but you have to admit the possibilities are intriguing!
My brain is too fuzzy to think of any clever hints on what could be upcoming in the chapter, so you'll just have to read it whenever I get around to typing it up and posting it. I do promise that Jack'll not be such an idiot, but remember he's bound to make mistakes like anyone else.
I make no promises on when I'm updating any of my fics, so I hope you'll forgive me if I just jump around them at random. Child of Spring will always be my top priority though as my main fic.
Thanks for putting up with my rambles and now on with the story!
Chapter Sixty-Nine: Jamie's Adventure: A Race Against Time
Previously:
"You would make a powerful ally," Pitch said as he beckoned the Nightmares ever closer. Imagine, a powerful believer entrusted with the most important mission. What would the Guardians say if you suddenly.. had a change in faith?"
While Jamie's attention was focused on the Nightmares, he failed to notice the glint of a dark blade.
As Jamie tried in vain to reach out towards the Nightmares, he began to realize that Pitch's plan involved something far more sinister than he had thought. When he felt the sharp sting of a blade on his arm, he cried out and looked up at Pitch in horror.
Bunny stopped pacing to look intently at the globe again. This time he wasn't looking at poor Lillian's dim light. No, he was looking at the one bright light in all of Burgess. But now that light seemed to not be getting dim, but getting darker.
Bunny stared as the light started to turn dark as night.
An exhausted Sandy turned up in the middle of the night to enlist Bunny and North's help. Tooth was off directing her fairies from her palace, and as far as she knew, everything was fine.
Sandy had golden symbols flashing above his head to tell them that everything was not fine. In fact, everything was all wrong!
"What do ya mean a Nightmare kidnapped her?!" Bunny roared as he deciphered Sandy's symbols. "Where did it take her?!"
"We must find her," North said. "We will have to spread out over Burgess and look everywhere."
Gethen smirked at Lillian, whom the Nightmare had kidnapped at his order. He had the Nightmare bring her back to the cave, since he distinctly remembered her being away at this time and he was starting to miss his home. She was currently asleep, having been knocked unconscious suddenly as the Nightmare had turned into a cloud of black sand and flown at her, sending her into a state of neverending nightmares.
As a somewhat insane evil smirk graced his features, a voice startled him out of his thoughts.
"What the.. What.. What are you doing here?!"
Gethen turned and stared at himself in surprise. Wasn't he supposed to be away?
1974 Gethen was looking at Time Traveler Gethen in horror.
Current time: 1974
A cool breeze blew through the night, whipping through the long grass that filled the field outside of Burgess.
The moon was still blocked out by clouds, the night filled with darkness and shadows looming all around.
Jamie's last thoughts as the black sand tried to taint his soul were of how scared he was.*
Pitch's smirk grew wider as he saw Jamie's skin turn an ashen gray while his hair turned an inky black. His smirk dimmed, however, when Jamie's hair only turned partially black. The top part of Jamie's hair was black as night, but the bottom half stubbornly remained the plain brown that it had always been. His eyes had been turning to the darker yellow of the Nightmares' eyes, but they, too, only turned partially yellow. His eyes were now a strange mixture of yellow and brown.
Pitch clenched his hands as he saw that Jamie had only partially been turned by the black sand. How could this be! He gave the boy so much! It would be far too dangerous to give him any more. As it was, he had been pushing it, but he wanted the boy's light to forever darken. Pitch could tell the boy had been a very strong believer. Now, however..
As Pitch looked at Jamie, his eyes fell on the one necklace that was prominently displayed for all to see: Two snakes, one dark gold, and the other silver twined around each other, biting each other's tails to form the sign for infinity.
The Amulet of Protection!
A growl escaped Pitch as he saw it. Blast, he'd forgotten all about it!
But no matter.. He'd soon rectify that little mistake.
"Jamie," Pitch said, his smooth voice containing an edge of darkness. "Give me that amulet."
Jamie looked up at Pitch, his thoughts a jumbled chaos. He felt cold, a deeper cold than he'd ever felt before and he could swear that he could hear voices whispering to him. Dark voices telling him bad things about the Guardians. To give in to the darkness.
Listen to the Pitch, the voices whispered to his soul. Give it to him.
Jamie's hand reached up towards the amulet when a barrage of memories suddenly flared in his mind.
Jamie was standing in Pippa's yard with the Guardians. The Easter Bunny was tiny and the Guardians had lost most of their powers. They had just helped to save the last of Jamie's belief, and now they were trying to get Jamie's friends to believe in them so they could regain their powers to stop the Boogeyman.
"Pippa!" Jamie called out desperately to her. "He really is real! He needs our help! ALL the Guardians do! Santa and the Tooth Fairy! You HAVE to believe!"
When Pippa seemed to hesitate and stare down at the one lone unfinished Easter Egg that had survived that Easter, Jamie began to call out to her again.
"Please Pippa! WE need you! HE needs you!"
Pippa, who had closed her eyes, opened them back up to look at the Easter Egg with new eyes.
"I.." a small smile appeared on her face, "I do believe."
Jamie was once again outside with all the Guardians and now all his friends, whom they had just gotten to believe in the Guardians. The Guardians had just told them all about two other spirits who were also in trouble.
Jamie had been shocked when Jack Frost had appeared, his skin a dark gray and hair dark as night. As the Easter Bunny told him all about Lillian, the Spring of Spring, Jamie had seen a small girl suddenly appear before his eyes.
She had the same dark gray skin and black hair as Jack Frost. Jamie had been shocked at how young she looked, and as he stared at her, he felt that same protective feeling he got around Sophie flare up inside of him.
He had to help her.
Jamie used all his snowball fighting prowess as he tackled a gray Lillian to the ground. He placed his hands on her cheeks and used his knees to pin her to the ground.
"I hope this works," he muttered.
Jamie heard Lillian scream but he kept his hands on her cheeks as he concentrated hard on his belief. His belief could turn those black horses into golden sand, and he just knew that it could help this Spring Spirit.
"Stop! Stop it!" Lillian cried out as she struggled against Jamie's hold. Tears fell down her cheeks and Jamie looked pained at the pain he was causing her, but he kept a firm hold.
His belief was stronger than it had ever been, and as he looked down at Lillian, he could see that the ends of her curly hair were lightening and that green was starting to swirl in amongst the dark gold of her eyes.
The Guardians, Jamie and his friends, Jack, Lillian, and Pitch were all out on the cold ice in the middle of the lake in the woods. The bright light of the moon was shining down on them intensely as Jack Frost and Lillian, the Spring Spirit, knelt down on the ice by Pitch on either side of him, each taking a hold of one of Pitch's hands.
Jamie saw Jack looking over at Jamie and his friends expectantly and Jamie couldn't help but look over at Pitch doubtfully.
"We already believe in him," Jamie explained. "And he's scary," he said to Jack, his doubt evident. "Why would we want to help him?"
Jack shook his head.
"It's a long story," he said. "But Pitch wasn't always so evil. He helped us out when we had no one else. We want that Pitch back."
Lillian nodded at Jack's words.
"We can't do it alone," she said looking back down at Pitch with worry. "Won't you help us?"
Reluctantly, Jamie and his friends all stepped forward and surrounded Pitch like they had with Jack. As they all placed their hands on Pitch, Jamie saw the gray leaving Pitch's face at a much faster pace than before.
Jamie stared down at the Boogeyman in awe and then his gaze shifted to everyone's hands that were on the Boogeyman.
Belief can do anything.
Just as suddenly as the barrage of memories started, they stopped and Jamie was left blinking with his mind still in a jumble. His hand, which had been reaching towards the amulet dropped back down to his side. His goldenish brown eyes stared at Pitch, who was starting to look agitated at his command being ignored. Pitch had been holding tightly to Jamie's arm the entire time, his grip cruelly tight, but when he had told Jamie to hand over the amulet, he had dropped Jamie's arm to give Jamie room to do so.
Now Jamie reached out for Pitch, tucking his small hand into Pitch's as he gave Pitch an intense look.
Pitch stared at the boy as he saw the snakes on the Amulet of Protection start to wriggle and squirm as though they were alive.
Unaware of the amulet, Jamie pinned Pitch's golden gaze with his own.
"I believe," Jamie said, his gaze never leaving Pitch's. "I know you do too."
With that, the clearing was filled with sharp whinnies as the Nightmares seemed to all howl in disbelief.
Sandy was gazing worriedly at the globe after Bunny had told him that the one bright light near Burgess that had been shining so brightly and now had been consumed in darkness had belonged to that Jamie, the one who had the hourglasses from Father Time.
He blinked, however, when he saw the darkness start to recede a bit and the light seemed to grow brighter. A golden exclamation point appeared above his head as he pointed frantically at Jamie's light on the globe.
Bunny couldn't help but stare as he saw the kid's belief start to grow.
While Sandy and Bunny were distracted, North had hurried off to set off the aurora and call Tooth to them. If they were going to save one child from the Nightmares and another from.. whatever that darkness was, they would need Tooth there as well.
As Bunny and Sandy stared at the globe, the aurora lit up the night sky.
The aurora pierced through the darkness, lighting up the night sky with its hope and wonder. Pitch gasped as a strange feeling filled him and he tried to draw away from Jamie, who only clung tighter to his hand.
Jamie, for his part, grit his teeth as his belief tried to battle the darkness inside of him. The voices that had been whispering dark things to him were now shouting at his soul, saying all kinds of terrible things that a child shouldn't hear. They weren't trying to gently coax him anymore. They were trying to tear at his belief and rip it to shreds.
"I'll never stop believing!" Jamie shouted more at the voices than anything. "I won't! I believe in all the Guardians, Jack Frost and the Child of Spring! And I believe in you Pitch."
Pitch stopped trying to pull away as he stared at Jamie in shock.
"I believe in you," Jamie repeated. "You're not just the Boogeyman. You're Pitch Black, you help kids fight their fears by making them face them in their nightmares. You're not evil! And I believe in you."
Pitch's gaze jerked down to his hand which was held in Jamie's as he felt a surge of power flow through their linked hands. As he stared down at them in total surprise, his dark golden eyes began to soften and lighten from their harsh yellow.
Jamie's eyes were also starting to become browner and the black was beginning to recede from his hair. As his belief grew and began to fight the darkness, so did his hope.
Just as Jamie's hope was beginning to grow, there was a stamp of a hoof behind him and whinny that was more like a snarl. Jamie suddenly felt something pull harshly on his shirt as he was yanked violently away from Pitch. As his feet were dangling in mid-air, he realized with horror that one of the black horses had grabbed him from behind while he'd been distracted.
The instant Jamie's hand was yanked out of Pitch's, Pitch's eyes darkened back to their harsher yellowish color. He shook his head in disorientation as he tried to gather himself back together.
What had he been thinking?
Was he actually thinking of letting the boy go?
He mentally scoffed at the thought and looked over at the boy, who was still in the Nightmare's grasp. The Nightmare, it seemed, wasn't finished with the boy yet as it flung Jamie hard, who cried out with fear as he flew through the air and landed hard on the ground a distance away.
Jamie groaned as he hit the ground with a jarring thud that left him seeing stars. His eyes fluttered shut as darkness threatened to overwhelm him and knock him unconscious since he had hit his head pretty good when he hit the ground. Thankfully he'd landed flat on his back and hadn't broken anything. While he was disoriented, the whispers which had turned to shouts now turned into screams that seemed to echo into every part of himself.
Jamie brought his hands up to cover his face as he whimpered, the hope that had risen within him, vanishing just as quickly as it had come. At the onslaught of pure evil, Jamie felt his belief begin to weaken as his hair began to darken and more of it turned black.
While the voices screamed and tore at Jamie's belief, trying to not only shred it but utterly obliterate it, Jamie's soul cried out.
Help me!
Tooth had rushed off to the North Pole as soon as she saw the aurora lighting up the sky. It hadn't been set off in so long and she knew it only went off in extreme emergencies. She had been aghast when North hurriedly updated her on what was going on while the pair rushed to the globe room to join Sandy and Bunny.
"Right," Bunny said, straightening up as the two rushed over. "You three search Burgess fer Lillian, I'll go help Jamie and find out why his light's gettin' dark."
He and Sandy had been dismayed when Jamie's light, which had been growing brighter, seemed to get overwhelmed with darkness again. Bunny had also felt a young hope that had started to grow get stomped out suddenly and he hadn't liked the implications of it.
"But..!" North protested at once. "It could be dangerous!"
"Lillian got kidnapped by a Nightmare which we know is dangerous!" Bunny growled impatiently. "We're wastin' time, we need ta get goin'. You guys take the sleigh and a snowglobe and I'll take my tunnels."
Sandy shot Bunny an apprehensive look and golden symbols appeared above his head as he suggested that he go along with Bunny too while North and Tooth went to go look for Lillian.
Bunny, who had enough with all the delays merely threw up his hands in agitation.
"I'm done arguin'!" he shouted at them stubbornly and stomped his foot much harder than necessary to create a tunnel.
Before anyone else could protest, Bunny jumped down into the tunnel and it closed up, leaving behind a colorful spring flower.
"..Well," North said awkwardly as they all stared at the flower. "I suppose it is our turn to go."
Tooth's wings fluttered rapidly as she wrung her hands with worry. What were they going to do?! Everything seemed to be going wrong at once and it all seemed to stem from the arrival of that strange Jamie kid and his hourglasses from Father Time.
Tooth and Sandy flew through the air after North, both agreeing that it would be much faster to hop in the sleigh and use a snowglobe. After Bunny rashly leaving, they decided it would be better to stick together. Who knew what else was out there.
While one of the yetis yelled at North in garbled yetish that the sleigh was definitely not ready for takeoff, Tooth wondered what was happening to Lillian and Jamie, and if they would be too late.
Time Traveler Gethen pinched the bridge of his nose as Past Gethen yelled out in shock at seeing what appeared to be himself standing in the middle of his cave with a young girl laying on the floor surrounded by several black horses with sinister yellow eyes. One of the horses stamped its hooves and the yellow eyes stared at Past Gethen's dark ones piercingly and the Past Gethen shivered.
"What are you doing here?" Time Traveler Gethen demanded as he pulled his hand away from his face.
"M-Me?!" Past Gethen said, his voice rising in his disbelief. "Are you kidding me?! What about YOU! What's going on?!"
Time Traveler Gethen leveled a look at the Past Gethen. Not only was the Past Gethen here when he shouldn't be, but his cave had been devoid of all the Spirits and Sprites he had captured. The current Spirit of Spring, Leif, should have been held captive here, but instead, there had been.. nothing.
Even the dark corner where the cages had sat was empty! He had seen a few smudges on the ground as if something had once been there, but now it looked like whatever had been there had been dismantled and thrown away.
"Ever hear of a little someone called Father Time?" Time Traveler Gethen told Past Gethen.
Past Gethen gasped and stared at Time Traveler Gethen in a kind of horrified stupor. Every Spirit both good and bad knew not to mess with Father Time or time itself. It was the one thing that they all agreed on. To mess with time was utter foolishness and nothing good would ever come of it.
"Are you insane?!" Past Gethen squeaked at his future self.
Time Traveler Gethen frowned at his past self. His past self should be congratulating himself not staring at him in that way!
"Of course not," Time Traveler Gethen replied scathingly.
"Then what are you doing with all those horses and that girl?" Past Gethen all but demanded as he tried to get control of himself.
"That is none of your concern," Time Traveler Gethen said dismissively to his past self. "What I do with her is my business and you don't need to know what those horses are just yet."
Past Gethen gaped at his future self in utter disbelief but his attention was drawn back to the girl who seemed to be writhing and whimpering in her sleep as if in pain. His dark gaze moved from her back to his future self and his eyes narrowed.
"I think it is my concern," he told Time Traveler Gethen firmly. "What are you up to?"
Time Traveler Gethen merely rolled his eyes at this.
"What does it matter? You're going to become me anyway and then you'll find out for yourself what's going on."
Time Traveler Gethen was so busy scoffing at Past Gethen that he never saw the fist coming out at him from nowhere.
Past Gethen watched Time Traveler Gethen crumple to the ground unconscious as he shook his fist out.
"I'll never become you," Past Gethen told his future self.
Current time: ?
Meanwhile, Father Time felt the urge to go to his Room of Possibilities and look at the many mirrors he had hanging on the wall. He hadn't been here for a while and his gaze drifted among the many different shapes that the mirrors had. Round mirrors were the best, while diamond mirrors were tricky. Sometimes they could be good, but they always came at a price. Square mirrors held nothing but despair and he hated looking at them. They never had good outcomes.
Father Time's brow furrowed as he looked at a set of mirrors he didn't remember hanging on his wall before. He stared at a young boy with brown hair who appeared to have the Amulet of Protection around his neck and all the mirrors that appeared to be surrounding him. Many of the mirrors were square and Father Time knew that they would have terrible outcomes.
In the mirror that Father Time could tell must be currently happening, he could see a Nightmare fling the boy to the ground and the boy seemed to be struggling with consciousness for a moment before flinging his arms up to cover his face. The darkness seemed to encompass the boy from all sides and Father Time could see the many nightmares that seemed to be surrounding him.
A square mirror directly below this one showed the boy's hair turn completely black and the boy slowly got up to his feet as he opened his eyes to reveal that they were an unearthly dark goldenish yellow, just like the Nightmares' eyes. To Father Time's horror, the Easter Bunny of all beings turned up and he was completely overwhelmed by all the Nightmares.
It didn't help either that Pitch Black attacked the Easter Bunny from behind, slicing into the Easter Bunny from behind with his black scythe. Father Time's eyes widened as he actually saw the Easter Bunny's gray fur start to turn pitch black.
Feeling his heart quicken at the horrifying image, Father Time quickly looked away from that square mirror, only to be confronted with another one. And then another. And yet another.
Half a dozen square mirrors at least seemed to spring from this main one and beyond that, he could see several diamond mirrors. He had never before seen a future where there could be so many bad outcomes.
Flashes of scenes leapt out at him as he took in all the terrible mirrors in horror.
In one, the boy had been flung to the ground, only to lay still and silent never to get up again. In another, the boy landed on the ground and seemed to be knocked unconscious while his hair became completely black and Pitch Black gloated over his unconscious form. In yet another, North, Tooth, and Sandy accidentally stumbled onto the group of Nightmares and Pitch and tried to fight them off, only to have Jamie held hostage against them.
North had been forced to surrender his swords and as soon as that happened the Nightmares had attacked completely mercilessly as they bit, stomped and tore at the Guardians while the boy, who was being held by Pitch Black, screamed in disbelief.
Not long after the Guardians' defeat, the boy's hair turned completely black and his eyes became the same dark golden yellow as the Nightmares' eyes. The Easter Bunny turned up moments later to discover that he was too late.
Father Time turned his gaze away from that mirror as the Nightmares surrounded the Easter Bunny, determined to stamp out the last of everyone's hope. Desperate to see something that didn't involve the boy, Father Time's gaze instead fell on a mirror that seemed to hold two Gethen's, as well as a small girl and several Nightmares.
Well now.
This was interesting.
He watched in amusement as one Gethen seemed to deck the other one in a diamond mirror, but yet again there were several square mirrors surrounding this one too. He saw in several as the Nightmares ruthlessly attacked the small child on the ground and the Gethen that had punched the other one. In various outcomes sometimes some of the Guardians would turn up, but they were overwhelmed by the Nightmares.
Shaking his head, Father Time couldn't help but wonder if any of this had something to do with his hourglasses.
He really ought to keep a better eye on them.
* You guys get bonus points if you can figure out the reference from the first three lines here. If not, I'll tell you in the next chapter.
Author's Note: Am I the only one who wants to hit Father Time after that last thought of his? :P Whew! This update is a little shorter than what I usually aim for (4k words), but I have SO much currently going on with the plot that if I wrote anything else my head was going to explode. Plus you have to admit that is a good stopping place.
You don't have any idea how many chapters of Child of Spring I had to read to get myself reacquainted with the plot. I hope you all noticed the shoutout I had to the earlier chapters in the form of Jamie's flashbacks. I was inspired by the chapters I read to reference them and I hope that I've done this chapter justice. I really wanted Jamie to be able to do everything himself. He's the main hero right now who's off on his own adventure to save everyone, but then I remembered that he is only a kid who is up against not only Pitch Black, but who-knows-how-many Nightmares. Of course he is going to need help.
As for North, Tooth and Sandy searching Burgess for Lillian, remember, they don't know that she isn't there. I hope you guys didn't mind me teasing you about the plot in the form of Father Time at the end. I can't help but point out just how many different disastrous ways this could go. I left myself notes on the latest chapters of Child of Spring so I hopefully shouldn't forget anything in regards to plot later on.
I hope you guys thought the part with Gethen was as funny as I did. While I was writing it I could feel a headache forming with all the references to two Gethens. If you're confused about why Leif isn't there and the other Spirits and Sprites that Gethen had previously captured, remember in Chapter Sixty-Six I made a reference to Leif as Pitch thought about how Leif had disappeared years ago but just recently had resurfaced. We can only assume that Leif was able to escape and helped all the other Spirits and Sprites to escape as well.
I'm not sure how long Jamie's going to remain in 1974, but considering what's going on I think he's going to be there for awhile.
As always if you guys have any comments, questions, ideas or anything feel free to let me know!
Edit: I added a previously since I couldn't possibly expect everyone to remember what was going on in the plot from almost a year ago. Whoops! Hopefully it'll help refresh your memory if you don't want to go back and read the whole chapter.
