Chapter 16
Pitch and Ember landed at the Palace with none of the Guardians in sight. A few of the smaller faeries were buzzing around, and they started to freak at the sight of the two newcomers. Both of them knew they now had little time to get started before Tooth heard about all of this. They glanced at each other before the Nightmare king gave the fire spirit a nod.
Ember raised her bow and aimed for another column of teeth. She knew what this would do; she knew this would ruin the Tooth fairy just as destroying the Warren had weakened the rabbit. She hesitated for a moment before changing her target to the tree next to the pond. This time she easily destroyed the tree, and then she fell into a rhythm of setting things on fire besides the teeth. She wasn't avoiding the teeth because of the fairy but because of the kid's memories. She had already destroyed a good chunk last time, and she felt all out of anger for the moment. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pitch wasn't holding back knocking down columns and columns of teeth without faltering.
Together they had done damage to over half of the Palace before the first sign of resistance popped up. A boomerang came out of nowhere and clipped Ember on her shoulder blade; she was smart and fell with the hit into a roll. She turned and aimed an arrow at the limping Bunny. He didn't look too good.
"Where's Jack?" he growled at her, and she just smiled in return. While her anger felt all out of fuel, she still found sick pleasure in tormenting the Guardians.
"Who?" she asked in response before letting her arrow loose. Bunny was still smart enough to hop out of the way just as North appeared in his sleigh or a version of it at least. It reminded her of a rickety box, and he looked to have very little control of it. Still, North hopped out of it as he landed on a nearby platform just as Tooth fluttered up glaring at the two destructive beings.
"Oh look at all of you," Pitch said, his tone obviously teasing and sarcastic. "How does it feel to slowly become nothing? To be forgotten?" He pulled out his scythe and took a swing at the Guardians only for his arm to be frozen by a dream sand whip.
Ember glanced to the right to see Sandy floating on a saucer of his own sand, and he was glaring at the two of them. He obviously didn't enjoy being frozen based on the look he was giving her, and she just shot him a smile in return before turning her bow on him. This was a major setback in Pitch's mind as he cursed out the Sandman and started in on the fire spirit for apparently not doing her job.
"If you want something done right," he started to say turning also on Sandy. He went to attack the golden spirit when a blast of ice sent his careening towards the edge of the platform.
"Well that sucks," Ember sighed looking over to see Jack floating there.
"Jack!" North yelled happily. "Just in time."
The winter spirit didn't look happy, but she figured that was due to his treatment at their hands. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the winter spirit, and she felt her hatred growing inside her. He was supposed to be tied up and frightened, not standing defiantly against her. "You don't seem to understand what it means to be a good prisoner," she growled rising up on her own breeze.
"I fidget a lot," he shrugged. "I got bored."
"Well allow me to entertain you," she hissed sending a blast of fire at him. The Guardians split up to either team against her or Pitch. She got both Tooth and Jack while the rest went after Pitch. She assumed that the reason for this was due to that only Tooth and Jack could fly after her.
Jack dodged the fireball while Tooth came up behind Ember. The fire spirit was smart though and flew higher to keep the Guardians on their toes. Tooth chased after and rammed her from below throwing off Ember, but she was quick to adjust and sent a wave of flames down.
"Just know this Jack," the fire spirit said. "When I'm done entertaining you here, I'll be sure to let Jamie know that his new treatment is a gift from you." That only seemed to fuel the winter spirit as he sent another shard of ice at her.
"You won't be able to touch him if you're going to stay with us as our guest," Jack retaliated. The two Guardians gave chase to Ember as she flew farther from the Palace.
Meanwhile Bunny, Sandy, and North took on Pitch. With the help of Sandy, they were able to at least keep the Nightmare king at bay; Bunny didn't even want to think about what would have happened if the golden spirit wasn't here. They had gotten lucky with Manny deciding to help again.
North blocked Pitch's scythe with both his swords while Sandy maneuvered around with his whips. Between dodging the golden dream sand and avoiding hits from the Guardians, he wasn't able to do much damage in turn. He scowled at the Guardians all being back; he hadn't expected Sandy or Jack to just show up. It was an instant thought: Ember's job was Sandy and Jack, yet somehow they were both back. Pitch couldn't help but connect the dots that perhaps the fire spirit wasn't fighting on the same side anymore. He chanced a glance to see the fire spirit dodging ice from Jack, but not exactly throwing much back at him.
In his distraction, Bunny was able to blind him with those egg grenades followed by being smacked by one of Sandy's whips. The boogeyman stumbled and barely dodged one of North's blades coming at his head. Deciding that he wasn't going to leave this fight to chance, Pitch summoned a mass amount of his nightmares to surround the Guardians on the platform.
"Well this ain't good mate," Bunny muttered looking around.
"Looks like your friends could use some help," Ember called out to her pursuers. "Then again, what would you know about friends?" She turned to face Jack as she flew backwards. "How can they be friends with a murderer like you?"
Jack and Ember smashed into each other with an angered yell. Tooth just watched in confusion as the two spirits toppled together. She moved to help Jack when they split apart with a wave of fire and ice. Tooth watched in confusion as Jack stumbled a bit in the air and almost fell.
"It wasn't my fault," Jack called over to Ember, but she just shrugged.
"It wasn't entirely your fault," she said in return. "We can share the blame." She sent an arrow at his chest, but he moved to deflect it with his staff only to have the cold air surrounding it to be dispelled with the arrow. Ember saw his shock, so she immediately shot another one this time catching him in the shoulder. "Having some issues staying cool over there?"
Jack scolded himself and tried to push the guilt away. It was distracting him, and this was easily the worst time to be distracted against a murderous spirit. He cringed at the word choice in his head, and he had barely enough time to move away from another arrow. He had to get on the offensive, or he'd be burned alive. Another arrow came at him, but when he went to dodge, she had obviously compensated as an arrow was coming right at him from his path. His brain didn't process this quick enough; he was going to get hit, but Tooth suddenly appeared and took the hit.
"No!" Jack cried catching her before she plummeted from the air. Ember had obviously put more power behind the shot thinking she had him.
The Guardians on the ground looked up in time to see the arrow pierce Tooth in the stomach. All of their eyes went wide at the sight while Pitch just started to cackle. Obviously he was wrong about what side she was on as no way if she was on theirs would she so foolishly risk their own. The sight just made him giddy with excitement.
"You're just dropping like flies," he said looking at North. The Santa Claus was staring up at Jack who was working to get Tooth onto a platform without being skewered by Ember in the meantime.
"You won't win Pitch!" Bunny growled. "We beat you last time, we will again."
"And yet, look around you!" he said spinning in a circle to motion to all of the nightmares. "Children seem to believe in fear more than you."
Ember landed next to Pitch looking back to her normal self; she had an aura of confidence and anger. She leaned in towards the boogeyman, "the damage is done. So unless you want to kill them now, I'm sure they're powers will be completely diminished by tomorrow night."
"Perfect," Pitch grinned. "Another time Guardians!" With that, he jumped onto one of his nightmares with only Ember lingering for a moment behind.
"I hope you're happy with yourself Jack," she hissed. "You've just become responsible for another death." She watched Jack's eyes open wide in terror at the concept that she was going to kill Jamie; she floated up and tried not to laugh at the weak attempt of ice thrown at her. His emotions were just as tangled with his powers as hers were. "See you around snow cone!"
"No," Jack whispered. Tooth looked up at him from her position sitting against a column.
"Jack," Bunny said approaching the young spirit and squeezing his shoulder. "What did she mean bya another death?"
"She told me how she died," he responded unable to look the Guardians in the eye. "She told me about the fire that broke out in her apartment and how my snowstorm, my anger…" He choked on the words.
"Apartment?" North said. "Thought it vas a warehouse?"
Jack looked up at the other Guardians in confusion.
"We watched the memories in the teeth I was able to save," Tooth panted; he moved closer to put pressure on the wound. "We saw how she died."
"She told me," he mumbled collapsing next to the Guardian of memories. "My storm kept her from getting help. She had to die on the sidewalk watching the fire tear apart her home while no one was able to help…"
"Jack," Bunny said shaking his head.
"What?" he asked, looking up at all his friends in confusion.
"Ember didn't die on a sidewalk," Tooth said. "She died in a hospital on a ventilator… after saving her sister from a warehouse fire their Father started."
Chapter 17: Ember visits Jamie in the spot she stashed him; they get to have a conversation about belief. Pitch plans his final attack, and Jack tries to figure out why Ember would tell him one thing when something else entirely happened… perhaps the answer lies in teeth, just a different set.
OOC: So I hope you guys loved this chapter. I'm sure you're all like 'what's going on?' and if you noticed the contradiction in the previous chapter that was pointing to the end of this chapter, thumbs up to you. I'm not sure if I'll get the next chapter up tonight until really late or tomorrow sometime. Either or send some love