Jack continued to cling to Bunnymund as they approached North's high tech sleigh. He felt awful; emotionally, physically, psychologically, you name it. There was literally nothing good about the situation that they had created from saving him, other than the fact that he was out of Pitch's grasp. At least that's what Jack believed.
Once they reached the sleigh they had to figure out the easiest way to get Jack into it without further irritating his wounds. Tooth fluttered over the back seat and gestured to Bunnymund, "Let me have him Bunny."
Bunnymund carefully transferred the immoral boy from his fur-coated arms to her feathered ones. What was left behind disturbed him. He was covered in a layer of Jack's blood. Tooth and Sandy both gave him a frightened look before looking back at Jack.
"We have to hurry and get him treated before his body shuts itself down completely!"
Tooth cried as she gingerly placed Jack's barely conscious body onto the back seat of the sleigh.
"I haven't heard of any immortals going into a coma in decades. Do you really think he might Tooth?" Bunnymund asked, his brows furrowing into a worried expression.
"It has been a long time but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm also worried that if we don't help he soon, MiM could, he-could..." Tooth didn't want to finish the sentence because she knew what it would mean. Jack could die, his wounds were that bad. Man on the Moon created each and every one of them and gifted them with immortality, but only if we weren't injured too badly. If they weren't threatened they could live forever. Looking at Jack now made her understand why MiM would do this; it was a gesture of mercy. Luckily for them he hadn't died before they found him. One of the reasons he may have held on is because Jack didn't know about MiM's philosophy; he thought he couldn't die.
Now there was at least hope to save him.
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here..." Just rasped out letting out a shaky breath as he did. His face contorting into a pained expression as his body reacted negatively to speaking.
Sandy floated over and waved his arms 'no' urging Jack to stay quiet and save his strength. Jack weakly nodded back at him in return, letting Sandy know he'd honor his request.
Bunnymund and Tooth apologized to him before settling themselves in the front seat. Sandy stayed in the back with Jack, holding one of the boy's hands in his own.
"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Bunnymund asked.
Tooth looked at him a moment before getting to work on the controls. "We don't have to, the reindeer know exactly where the North Pole is no matter where they are."
Looking up at the reindeer Tooth donned a determined expression, "Alright boys, we're in a huge hurry, our friend Jack is hurt badly and we need to get him back to the North Pole as quick as possible." She used the same commanding voice she used when commanding her mini fairies.
The Reindeer hesitated at first because it wasn't North's voice ordering them, but after a moment they took off and pulled the sleigh into the night sky.
Jack stared off vacantly at the night sky, eyes barely open. He watched as the clouds passed by, slowly his vision got hazier. The darkness crept in closer. Finally, giving into the exhaustion he felt, Jack let the darkness take him and lost all consciousness.
Pitch sat idly in his throne room. He had his head resting on one of his fists and his other hand wrapped around his black scepter.
He kept his attention on North for the entirety of the hour it took the guardians to escape his fortress. He had disarmed North earlier, demanding him to drop his swords and surrender them to his fearlings. Much to his surprise he didn't fight back, he did exactly what he was told.
A smile crept its way upon pitches raven lips.
'Time to have a little fun with Jolly ol' Saint Nick.' He thought.
"Looks like the boy has had an adverse affect on you North." Pitch called out, his voice echoing throughout the large dimly lit room.
North stood in the middle of the room with dozens of fearlings surrounding him. He ignored Pitch, any mention of Jack from his lips made him want to strangle Pitch himself.
"Ah the silent game? Hehe, what's the matter North, still miffed about what I did to the little winter spirit?" He patronized.
"I kind of miss him already, he was much more fun to have around then you are. His screams were like music, such a lovely voice that boy has."
North's hands were now balled into fists, the whites of his knuckles clearly showing. It was taking everything in him not to charge at Pitch right then. "Not another word Pitch." North spat.
Pitch raised an eyebrow before leaning forward in his throne, "what was that North? I didn't quite catch it. Or would you like me to continue telling you about my most favorite part of having Jack here? I finally got to test out my dagger. The boy's back was the perfect portrait for my-"
North roared in anger from where he stood. He didn't care about the fearlings surrounding him, he charged right at them, right towards Pitch. With his bare hands he punched through multiple fearlings, they all neighed viciously in response, more appearing to replace the ones he destroyed.
North nearly reached Pitch before the fearlings caught him. Their bodies shifted around his and pulled him back. He growled angrily in response, wanting so badly to send his fist into Pitch's jaw.
"Struck the right nerve that time I suppose." Pitch chuckled out. "My fearlings, take him to one of the cells, bind him in the sand and leave him. I'll have to think about his fate, I'm not so sure I want him as one of my fearlings after all. He won't be nearly as interesting that way.
"Pitch, you will fail. No matter what you do, MIM and the guardians will stop you! I swear it on my soul!" North roared as he was dragged from the room.
"On your soul eh? Wouldn't that be delightful? I'll take you up on that wager." Pitch responded.
Pitch kept watching the struggling figure until he was completely removed from his sight. "Now onto phase two...hehehe..."
Finally the guardians had reached the North Pole. All the Yeti's and elves were clearly distressed at the site of North missing and at the appearance of Jack, but they didn't have time to explain what was going on to them. Once Jack had lost consciousness they knew they had no time to lose, they had to work now, and they had to work fast.
Tooth flew Jack straight to the closest thing the North Pole had to an infirmary. Sandy and Bunny followed close behind her, barking out orders to the Yeti's, telling them get supplies for Jack.
They knew they had reached the room they were looking for when they saw a red plus sign on the door. Slamming the door open Tooth flew Jack straight to one of the white beds. There weren't many beds at all, seeing as how they were only used for an occasional injury on a yeti or elf.
Once they had Jack situated all three of them began to work on treating his body.
Multiple hours passed and each guardian had to excuse themselves multiple times as they took turns treating Jack's wounds. Once they got his clothes off of him, it became so much harder.
They first cleaned the blood off of his body, the scrubbed away at his skin, trying desperately to find skin that wasn't harmed. There wasn't much left that didn't have an injury of some kind.
It was during this that, to their horror, they found the injury on his back. The dark scars were already beginning to form and solidify the disturbing words carved there. Bunnymund was the only one that stayed in the room after that. He tried his best to ignore the words as he continued to treat the wounds on Jack's body.
Sandy and Tooth eventually returned with fresh towels, antibiotic ointments, and gauze.
One of the Yetis got to work on the stab wound on Jack's shoulder, it was actually the Yeti that kept throwing Jack out of the North Pole every time he had tried to sneak in. Jack had given him the name Phil. He figured this was the best way to apologize to the boy.
The guardians watched quietly as he stitched the wound closed on both sides.
After all his wounds were cleaned they rubbed his skin down with antibiotics and wrapped them with gauze. The antibiotics were just to help the healing process and make it easier on Jack.
Sandy and Tooth washed away the blood on Jack's hair, careful not to touch any of the wounds on his face and neck. Once it was back to its normal white color they place bandages on his face and wrapped the bite marks on his neck and collarbone.
They then placed a long white shirt over the boy and gave him loose white pants before carefully lying him back down into one of the clean beds.
They all sat their exhausted but hopeful that the work they had done would be good enough to keep the winter spirit from regressing into comatose or worse.
To their relief it seemed his breathing was steady as they watched the boy rest.
"Well...I think it's our turn to get cleaned up." Bunnymund said as he looked at his matted bloody coat.
"Yes that does sound like a good idea." Tooth agreed, as she too had gotten blood on her feathers at that point.
All three of them quietly exited the room and told Phil to keep an eye on Jack. The Yeti nodded back and took a seat by the resting boy.
All they had to do now was wait.