"It was such a nice day, too." Jamie complained as the huge cloud that was Pitch's nightmare army bore down on them with a terrifying finality.

Jack had come rushing back into the sitting room within minutes of leaving, yelling something about Pitch and throwing himself into a snow bank. Everybody had been too busy with the first part to notice the second, except of course the two mortals in the room, who had shared a knowing look before racing after the others.

They found North directing the Yetis in preparing the automatic defense systems, Tooth flitting around looking for anything they had overlooked as a weapon, Sandy beating off any overeager shadows that thought they might get an early victory in, Jack taunting a few of the more reserved nightmares into coming closer, and Bunny racing back and forth along the walls 'scoping out the opposition' as he put it.

'The way they say it makes it seem like a football game.' Jamie had thought.

"Yes, well, everything has to come to an end!" Pitch called smugly from the back of his favorite nightmare stallion.

"You can never have too much of a good thing!" Jamie countered peevishly, quite annoyed that his day had been interrupted, and Pitch frowned for a moment before glaring at the boy.

"That's not how that saying goes!" the Nightmare King yelled to him, but Jamie merely glared with a heated intensity.

"It's how my saying goes!" he yelled childishly, eliciting a snicker from all those around him.

And then the fight began.

Jack flew out and began freezing every unfortunate nightmare that got within his range as Tooth flew around with Bunny's boomerangs, decimating everything she ran into. Bunny tried out a few spells from the books he found in North's library and was pleasantly surprised to see they were perfectly suited to rain devastation on his targets.

"Hah. I'm a natural!" he crowed.

"Humble, aren't we?" Sophie drawled from her place further down the wall. She and Jamie were turning any nightmare that got too close back into dream sand, sometimes leaning out just a bit too far to be comfortable.

"You betch'a britches, mate!" Bunny agreed, absently tying a nightmare up with ropes he shot from his hand.

Eventually, the team had whittled down the encroaching army to a few hulking monstrosities lumbering along the ground and Pitch Black himself. With a bit of concentrating and some tight clenching, Jack was able to freeze the beasts solid, and Bunny made quick work of shattering them.

A few seconds later Pitch was tied up on the balcony.

"You know they're going to let him go, right?" Sophie whispered in a semi-annoyed tone to her brother as the Guardians debated on what to do with the Nightmare King.

Jamie glanced down at Pitch's bored expression and agreed, "Oh yeah, and I think Pitch knows it, too."

Sophie nodded and hummed in agreement, then suggested, "What they need is something to stop him from coming back."

Jamie thought on this for barely a moment before a devilish smile crossed his face, and he leaned over to whisper in his sister's ear. A few moments and a shudder later, she nodded and said, "It's great. Can you pull it off, though?"

And then, before her eyes, her brother...changed.

Not physically, oh no, it was much more subtle than that. Perhaps the way he held himself had something to do with it, or the way his mouth curved into a vacant-looking smile, but Jamie, warm and kind and familiar Jamie, suddenly looked...unnerving.

Extremely unnerving.

He slowly walked over to North and tugged on his sleeve, waiting patiently until the Russian had finished his booming argument with the others and looked down at him expectantly.

"I was wondering if we could keep one of the nightmares." Jamie explained vacantly, smiling up at North with a flat, passive look in his eyes and a soft smile on his face.

North paused for a fraction of a second, perhaps because of the request or perhaps because of the look, then exclaimed, "Of course, little Jamie!"

And if it was just a bit less enthusiastic than normal, well...nobody commented. "But, uhm...why?"

"Yes, boy. Exactly why do you want one of my nightmares?!" Pitch demanded, annoyed and slightly curious, but of course, the Nightmare King was completely unprepared for the answer..

"I want to make it scream." Jamie said without any change in his expression, glancing down at Pitch with an almost dismissive carelessness, and Pitch's face, if it was even possible, paled even more than it already was.

Then he rolled himself to the edge of the balcony and attempted to topple himself into the abyss below, because any level of physical injury was better than dealing with the monster wearing a child's form, but Jamie plunking his foot down on Pitch's shoulder stopped him dead.

"Leaving so soon, Pitch? Aw, but we were just starting to have fun." Jamie pouted slightly, not deviating from his vacant tone too much, "And besides, it's very rude to leave without saying goodbye."

The Guardians, if you were interested, were looking on with a mix of pride and immortal terror. Jack's eyes had widened in shock and slight admiration, the white-haired boy once again finding himself unable to look away, and North was feeling just a bit sick at the display of ruthless viciousness. Tooth had begun clinging tightly to Sandy in fright, Sandy was watching with a knowing smile on his face, and Bunny had been filled in by Sophie.

Pitch had begun struggling madly in an effort to get away from the demonic child that had him trapped, doing nothing because wow that was a strong foot, but he stopped quite suddenly as Jamie scolded, still with that vacant tone, "Be good, Pitch, or I'll have to punish you."

"C-Can't you just let him go?" Jack stuttered lightly, having regained his voice, and both he and Pitch looked immensely surprised that Jack would do anything to help the Nightmare King of all people. Jamie looked over his shoulder at the winter spirit, then slowly removed his foot from Pitch's shoulder.

He set it down, pivoted on his heel, and walked with the utmost slowness over to the immortal.

"I'm very bored, Jack. Pitch was going to play with me." Jamie explained matter-of-factly, wrapping his arms around Jack's waist again, "So, if you want me to let him go, you have to play with me instead."

Leaning close to him, Jamie whispered, ever-so-softly, "You will play with me...right Jack?"

It was at that time that Pitch dissolved into nightmare sand and flowed away on the wind.

"Oops." Jamie whispered, not moving his head away, "Guess you have to play with me now, Jack."

Jack merely whimpered a bit as the mortal chuckled darkly into his ear, then lightly grasped his wrist and led him back inside.

I am extremely satisfied with how this turned out, but there was one thing I wanted to fit in that would have ruined the mood. So, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you an…

OMAKE

"Oops." Jamie whispered, not moving his head away, "Guess you have to play with me now, Jack."

Jack merely whimpered a bit as the mortal chuckled darkly into his ear.

Then Sophie spoke.

"Wow, big brother, that was scary. You're good." she admitted in admiration.

Jamie looked over his shoulder and gave his sister a grin, wiggling the fingers of a hand at her and drawling, "Ah bloo bloo bloo."

Sophie giggled as Jack made a noise of irritated protest, but of course that noise that was silenced by Jamie turning back to him with an innocent expression on his face and asking, "So Jack…do you want to plaaay with me?"

Jack gulped.