Love Predator

Chapter 5

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We found Pitch and Bunny in Australia. Most likely, Pitch wanted to find and destroy the magical warren. The Nightmare King had hordes of Fearlings now, and something huge and scary stood behind him, grunting and howling in a distorted voice.

"No…" My breath hitched when I realized who that thing was. Bunny looked more like a Fearling now, like a swirling mess of shadows that had long ears and clawed paws. His green eyes were so bright they looked like they were on fire. I couldn't even see his symbols anymore; they were covered by overgrown, black fur that emitted strange black clouds. I knew it; Pitch sped up Bunny's transformation process after learning I was actually starting to change him back.

"Oh good, you're all here." Pitch schmoozed. "Hello, Jack. I was just about to release you, anyway." He must have heard from Tooth. "You like what you see? Now, there's no hope left. Bunny's mine, and all the world's children will fear the Boogeyman. And it will be all your fault, Jack. I will keep you alive until you see the end of this world. Well, I will, but I don't know what Bunny will do."

"Bunny…" I looked at him, and he shrieked at me. Pitch was right. This whole thing is my fault. If I had just been a little more careful, Bunny wouldn't be the one by Pitch's side. If I had been more careful, neither of us would be.

Pitch snapped his fingers, ordering Bunny to attack us. I stepped out before the others, trying once more to get through to my partner. "Bunny please, do you remember me at all? Do you remember last night?" Bunny wasn't even looking at me lustfully anymore. He just looked like he wanted to kill anything that got in his way. He seemed to have completely lost it. "Bunny…" His arm moved lightning fast as he reached out to scratch my face. I looked up at him in shock, holding my cheek, feeling the blood run down the three cuts.

"Go!" Pitch ordered all his minions to attack. The Guardians worked fast to get rid of all the Fearlings, but now I was stuck with Bunny, who now had the scent of my blood. He lunged at me, but I was able to get away in the air, staying afloat high above him, knowing he can't even jump up this high to get me.

I was utterly surprised to see him disappear for a split second and reappear a few yards below me, floating in midair. Now his new powers gave him flight. He shifted again behind me, aiming to cut me again. I barely dodged it, his nails slicing through my T-shirt. I was frantically dodging all of his attacks, not even able to conduct one of my own. He finally caught me in both hands, squeezing my torso. He roared in my face, and his putrid breath made my eyes water.

I felt something else wrap around me, and I was being pulled away from Bunny. Sandy came up behind me, his whip letting go of me. He tried telling me something with his sand, but I didn't catch it as we had to dodge Bunny's incoming attack. Sandy cracked his whips across Bunny's body, keeping his arms and head restrained. Sandy tried talking to me again, saying something like 'Use your power, and I'll use mine'. Right, Sandy was going to try to wash away the darkness with his sand. But he needs my power too.

I flew up into Bunny's face and made a magic snowflake, blowing it onto his nose. He blinked a few times and shook his head, but the only thing it did was make him angrier, making it harder for Sandy to hold on. I tried harder, concentrating all my power on him, creating a storm in the process. I cupped Bunny's face gently in my hand, looking into his bestial eyes.

"Bunny…" It wasn't working. He wasn't changing at all. I looked over at Sandy, who was about to use his magic, but I saw Fearlings come up behind him. "Sandy, look out!" I yelled. Luckily he was able to dodge, but in doing so, his grip on Bunny weakened. Bunny reacted quickly, ripping away from the whips. He lunged into me, but I couldn't get away in time.

Bunny's long claws pierced through my skin and into my stomach.

My vision went white and I let out a choked scream, the pain nearly unbearable. I couldn't fly anymore; he was holding me up by my insides. He bared his fangs as if he was smiling, digging his fingers deeper into my body as if trying to push them out my back. We were floating down to the ground just staring at each other, his eyes full of triumph while mine were full of heartache.

We landed in the middle of everyone, the fight coming to a halt after seeing us. North and Tooth looked pale and they were pretty beaten themselves. They stared at me in horror and concern, wondering what they could do. Sandy looked guilty, and Pitch… he laughed, enjoying the gruesome sight of Bunny stabbing through my stiffened body. Bunny jutted his arm forward again, this time making me cough up blood.

"Oh, Jack. I tried to warn you. You should have just sat back and watched." Pitch said. "Finish him off." He ordered Bunny. He growled and pulled me in, our faces close. His eyes… looked like the depths of hell. I couldn't see him anywhere in those eyes. I was losing consciousness, losing strength… losing hope. I tried so hard with my powers but nothing worked. He was going to end me.

"Bunny…" I reached for his shoulders. "I love you." I leaned in and kissed him. I thought these were going to be my last moments, and I just wanted to tell him how I felt one last time.

Maybe… that was what I needed to do from the start.

It started to snow, and the wind picked it up, taking snowflakes everywhere. Then, I felt Sandy's Dream-sand tickle my face. I heard North say something like, 'Let's lend Jack our powers', and I could feel energy surge through my body. Hopefully, Bunny could feel it, too.

"What's going on?" Pitch sounded distraught. "What are you doing just standing around? Get them!" He ordered his Fearlings, but they couldn't get through our magic, and they were destroyed trying to get through the barrier. It was working; we were stopping Pitch's Fearlings.

But what about Bunny? I hadn't opened my eyes to look. I was too scared to look. He hadn't moved since I started kissing him. Was he changing, or was he waiting for me to stop?

Bunny's hand came out of my stomach and wrapped around by back, pulling me in close and kissing me back. I opened my eyes, and there he was: his fur back to its blue-gray color, his markings back to the flower patterns, and his eyes back to their spring-like green, full of care and hope. I smiled in the kiss and embraced him with the rest of my strength. "Jack…" He whispered against my lips. Oh, MiM, how I missed that sexy voice saying my name.

"Bunny… you're back." I smiled, feeling everyone's powers dim down. My body remembered that I had been stabbed, and I collapsed in Bunny's arms. Oh no, he's going to see what he did. I don't want him to see…

"Jack, Jack what's wrong?" Bunny took me to the ground, cradling me in his arms. I was shivering and breathing heavily, coughing up more blood. He saw the wound, his eyes so wide with shock. Then he saw the blood on his own hand, and quickly connected the dots. "No… no no no… Jack, what happened? What did I…?" His eyes welled up with tears, looking so lost. He didn't remember anything that happened this past week. Good. I didn't want him to remember, to have that pain. But he still knew, and that alone will give him unnecessary pain.

"Congratulations, Jack Frost." Pitch sounded disappointed, but not defeated. "You purified your pet." Bunny put me down gently, his face full of anger and sadness.

"What did you make me do to him?" His voice gruff and low, standing and turning to face Pitch.

"They were your fears, Bunnymund. I merely extracted them." Pitch replied. Bunny's ears lowered. "My plans keep changing, don't they? I'm just going to kill you now instead of later." He snapped his fingers as if trying to summon more Fearlings, but nothing happened. He tried again, but now he was just making a fool of himself. "I don't understand. I have so many children cowering in fear all over the world! Their fear should be giving me power!" We all looked at the mini-globe on North's sleigh; all the lights were back.

"I think I can explain." North smirked. "You were using your powers through Bunny, no? When we changed him back and the darkness disappeared, all the fear and darkness he gave to the children also disappeared."

"You shouldn't have been sharing." Tooth remarked. "Looks like your plans are ruined."

"Back to square one, mate." Bunny said, pacing towards Pitch. Pitch started fading away involuntarily.

"This isn't over!" He yelled, his voice echoing. "It will never be over. Oh, but as for my plans…" He gestured towards me. "At least I accomplished one of them." He laughed menacingly as he faded away into the shadows.

"Jack!" Bunny returned to my side.

"Bring him to the sleigh!" North jumped in and grabbed the reigns, Tooth and Sandy following behind. Bunny picked me up and got us into the sleigh before it took off into the air. I kept slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Oi, Frostbite, stay with me." Bunny ran his clean paw through my hair. "Don't think you can die from this. Immortals don't die from things like this."

"Bunny…" I was having a hard time believing Bunny was back to normal. I thought I was dreaming, or dying… "I'm… so glad… to see you… Kangaroo…"

"Don't talk, love. Just… keep your eyes open." He held me tighter. "Here we go; we're landing at the Pole. They're gonna take care o' ya and you're gonna be alright."

The reindeer landed the sleigh and Bunny started shouting orders to the yetis, telling them to get me to the infirmary. Being switched from Bunny's arms to a yeti's was the last thing I remembered before passing out.

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A/N: Chapter 5 is up and out! I know it was short, but I needed to stop here, because the next chapter is going to be a little weird. It's still going to be in Jack's POV, but he's going to be unconscious for most of it. So it's as if he's retelling this story to an audience after Bunny or someone told him what happened while he was unconscious. Does that make sense? It's kind of like 1st person omniscient, or something like that.

Taru-chan