Annamore wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she jumped, weaponless, from her cloud. She supposed she was as likely to find herself splattering onto the ground in her weakened state as opposed to being captured. To her surprise, one of the nightmares maneuvered under her and caught her. She pondered attempting to jump off the dark horse, but decided she wasn't suicidal, just crazy.
The horse stopped and floated mid-air, waiting for Kirai to catch up. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, this is awkward."
"I'm surprised you have the strength left to joke." He growled, motioning at the nightmare to follow him.
"I could probably make jokes from my deathbed." She replied, shrugging.
"You'll get to test that soon, actually." He perked up slightly at that thought.
"Yes, I'm sure I will. So, why are we delaying this likely outcome? Not that I don't absolutely relish the idea of you killing me again." She rolled her eyes, kicking the nightmare forward to get closer to her enemy.
He turned around in the air and looked oddly embarrassed. "Pitch has been acting odd all week. He insists on seeing you. You did something to him with your arrow. It's creepy. Also, how is it that you can control that thing?" He stared at her, an intrigued look on his face. "Nightmares always act up when I ride them."
"Maybe you're afraid of them." She said bluntly.
Goaded, he backhanded her. In her weakened state, she lost her hold on the nightmare and slipped off. He sighed and dropped down, catching her. Holding her so that they were face to face, he stared into her eyes intently. "Once Pitch is done with you, killing you is going to be so much fun. And I promise you, this time you won't be coming back from it."
Making it to the pole, Bunnymund burst in through the door.
The others jumped to attention, realizing something was wrong. "Bunny, where's Anny?" Tooth asked, her eyes falling on Annamore's weapons. "What happened?"
Instead of answering, the obviously distraught rabbit stomped over to Sandy, grabbed one of Cupid's arrows, and stabbed his friend without warning. He turned back and met his friends shocked faces. "They took her. That bat-winged bloke has her." He looked back at Sandy. "You hear that? That dingo has your girlfriend." Giving the entire group his attention again, he continued. "That guy was Kirai. Ring any bells?"
Jack looked confused. "Isn't that the guy who murdered her family? And her?"
"She wounded him too; they probably both died that night, and became love and hate."
"Let's go get her back!" North said fiercely, turning away and giving orders to ready the sleigh. They started to crowd for the door when a loud whip crack made them stop in their tracks. They turned to face Sandy, who was standing in the middle of the room looking furious. Having gained their attention, he nodded his thanks to Bunny, and then pushed past the others to be the first out to the sleigh.
"Glad to see you back to your normal self, buddy." Jack landed on his normal spot on the back of the sleigh. Bunny climbed in next to the sandman, too worried to care about how much the sleigh usually freaked him out. Remembering something, he leaned forward and whispered into his friend's ear. Sandy's cheeks turned red, as he turned and gaped at the rabbit, who responded by ruffling his hair. "We'll get her back, promise."
"That brings us to the biggest question… How do we find them? We've been trying all week." Tooth asked worriedly.
They sat for a minute thinking when Sandy clapped his hands for attention, a feather appearing over his head.
"What?" North tried to turn his head to see the sandman while driving the sleigh.
Tooth caught on, as a feathered being herself. "She's been losing feathers from her wings, remember? If we try looking for feathers, maybe we can at least narrow down where she went?"
Sandy smiled at the fairy, grateful she understood. They flew back to Annamore's cloud to start the search, feeling hopeful they could pick up a trail.
The rest of the flight to meet Pitch was spent quietly, Kirai put her back on the nightmare, and she rode it rather low to the ground seemingly for fear of falling again. Neither of them felt it necessary to catch up with each other's time as an immortal and they also couldn't reminisce about old times. Landing, he pointed towards a hole in the ground. "In you go."
"You have got to be kidding me." She grumbled, climbing down into the darkness.
"I think the same thing every time I come here." He climbed down after her. "Why would anyone want to live underground? Never understood it."
"You know, this is probably the only thing we'll ever have in common." She paused at the bottom of the hole, waiting for her guide to catch up. Before he made it down completely, she felt a slight surge in power. She kept it to herself, however, and resolved to continue to act just as weak as she had been. She wanted every little advantage she could get, although she wondered what could have caused it.
Kirai dropped the last few feet to the floor of the tunnel, and started leading her deeper into the tunnels. The dark, dreary, and claustrophobic conditions of this tunnel made her decide that Bunny's tunnels were paradise in comparison. After a minute of walking, she paused dizzily.
"Keep up." Kirai snarled at her, grabbing her arm and trying to yank her forward. She tripped instead, hitting her head on the side of the tunnel.
"Hello. Dying. Did you forget?" She rubbed her head gingerly. "Slow down, or shut up."
"I'm not going to carry you, if you were thinking of asking." He crossed his arms and kept walking, a little slower this time.
"Thank the moon for small acts of kindness." She snarked back.
Eventually she found herself in a larger room surrounded by broken furniture. Pitch was waiting in there, staring at himself in a cracked mirror. She stood there quietly with Kirai, waiting to be acknowledged. After a moment, she realized that he was talking to the mirror quietly.
She started giggling, the situation was slightly too ridiculous. "He's in love with himself?" She whispered to her killer. "This is beautiful."
"Do something. Fix it. Please." He looked at his dark friend with distaste. "It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
"You plan on killing me." She reminded him, trying to keep a straight face. "Why would I help you? Besides, you can fix him yourself, Hate." She sat down on a chair, crossed her arms, and leaned back. "Do the same thing you did to Sandy, you don't need me."
"You want me to stab Pitch? That'd work, but I wouldn't survive the aftermath." Hate's eyes narrowed, his voice growing firm. "Do something."
"I can hear you guys, you know." Pitch stood up and stalked towards them. "Kirai is right. If he tried to stab me, he'd be dead. Again." A slight smile twitched across his face. "There's nothing wrong with me."
"I think I heard you ask yourself who the pretty, pretty pony was." She quipped cheerfully. "Nothing wrong with that at all, although, I want to know who the pretty pony is when you figure that out."
"Stick around a while and I'll let you know." He motioned around the room, seemingly in good humor. "Make yourself at home. It's not like you'll be able to escape. Try to get out and you'll be attacked by nightmares, although I'm guessing by now, you're too weak to get out anyways."
"Why do you want me here? I can't see how I can be of any help to you." She met the eyes of her captor. "Or am I just the entertainment?"
"Fear is a funny thing. It's strong on its own, certainly, but it's always strongest if the person feeling it has felt love before. This has left me to wonder… How much more power would I get if I could make love herself fear?" Pitch's face broke into a malicious grin.
"I'm not sure how well that will work out for you." Annamore stood up and sized him up. "You've weakened me horribly, I am unarmed, I've already died once, and you intend on killing me anyways. If none of this has made me fear, what makes you think you can manage it? What do I have left to fear losing?"
"Your friends?" He pushed her back down, leaving a hand resting on her shoulder.
"Oh please. You can't handle them on your own. Five against two, six if I'm in the equation." She replied cheerfully, before Pitch's nails dug into her skin. "You really haven't thought far beyond 'kidnap the girl,' have you?"
"They may not risk attacking me if I have their friend in my clutches. I know Jack won't, at least." He laughed darkly and slipped his arms under her, scooping her up. He felt a slight shudder go through her body, likely from distaste. "I have some ideas for them, my dear. I'll start with North, I think. There's a lot of him to torture." He said casually, walking over to one of the cages hanging from the ceiling and sat her in it, facing him. "Then after him, maybe the pretty little fairy. It'd be fun to pluck the wings from her back, don't you agree." He ran his hand down her wings gently, before gripping a handful of feathers and ripping them out without warning.
She managed not to cry out in pain, but tears appeared in her eyes. He held the feathers in front of her and let her see them. A few had bits of skin attached, and she knew without looking her wing would be bleeding now. "I think I'll save your boyfriend for last… Except, wait, he's not your boyfriend anymore is he?" He dropped the feathers one by one before he pushed her away from the door, closing it on her. "I'd wish you sweet dreams, but I'm the boogeyman. I don't do sweet dreams."
"Hey, whatever happened to making myself at home?" She retorted in an attempt to look unaffected.
"I changed my mind. Besides, I like caging my birds." He walked off, leaving her alone with Kirai watching silently, a smirk on his face.
The sleigh had paused over Annamore's cloud for only a moment, Bunnymund pointing out which side she had dived off from. North dived in the same direction without a moment's hesitation, causing the rabbit to make a slight retching sound. Those who could fly of their own accord scattered to the sides to try to find a trace of the cupid.
It wasn't long before Jack shouted triumphantly, appearing holding a red feather. The others quickly fanned back out from that spot, searching for another. Bunny found the second, giving them a better hint at direction. "I'm glad there's not much wind today, but I hope she was flying low anyways." Tooth said as she waved the others towards another feather.
The feathers were relatively few and far between, but despite the slightly zig-zagged way the feathers fell, they picked up on a general direction. They started moving faster, eyes glued to the ground as they flew. After a few hours the trail ran cold, much to their frustration. "Did we miss something, did they turn somewhere?" North muttered to himself, landing the sleigh and climbing out. Bunny was quick to join him, happy to be back on the ground.
"So what do we do now?" Jack balanced on top of his staff, looking at the other guardians worriedly.
Sandy motioned for them to stay calm before closing his eyes. Tendrils of dreamsand spread out from his hands and started spiraling away from them. Unquestioningly, the rest of the guardians sat down to watch and wait, trusting their friend.
Despite the chaos of today, I got this chapter done! It's a little shorter than usual, but the next chapter should be fun.