Disclaimer - this chapter is serious-ish, mean-ish, and may contain some feels. Please, please, forgive me, I can only promise you that I will make up for it in the next chapter. Also putting out another thank you to my editor, Sara, because you guys would have so many confusing typos to read without her. XD Thanks for putting up with me! - Not the Milk
Cages were highly uncomfortable things, Annamore decided, especially when there is only sitting room. Less than an hour in one and her legs were already cramping, and she wasn't used to having to sit against her wings – most of the chairs in her house were built to allow for her wings. She was feeling weak and tired, and was having a hard time fighting sleep.
She knew Pitch was right about one thing. If she fell asleep here, she would be subjected to the form of torture he knew best. She would have preferred the physical torture to the thought of Pitch messing around with her dreams. Thinking about dreams, a thought came to her mind that made her smile, just a little. Resolving herself, she let herself drift asleep, ignoring Kirai's presence.
She was alone, human, and trapped in musty darkness. It felt like a cave system, and it felt like something was coming for her. She scrambled away on all fours, unable to help it. The last thing she wanted to be was scared, but she was surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming sense of fear. Barely able to see, she clawed her way forward, hearing wet, snuffling noises echoing around her as an unseen monster tracked her.
She suddenly stopped, touched the wall, and pulled herself up. "No. No! I will not be afraid!" She shouted at the monster, as it came closer. "Not so long as I can fight back!" She didn't question her lack of weapon. It was her dream, one would come to her. She glanced around, trying to convince her eyes to make better use of the hints of light in the cave. Her eyes fell on one little, golden glow, peeking out from a spot in the cave wall.
She started digging at it furiously with her fingers, knowing she didn't have long. The wall gave away readily, revealing a shining, gold sword. The light from the sword filled the room enough for her to see her would-be hunter. She smiled cheerfully and turned towards the sound of the monster. It was not what she'd expected – the very antithesis of the nightmares she'd been captured by. It was now a golden Pegasus, kneeling its front legs in an obvious invitation to ride it.
"Good old Sandy…" She thought to herself, running over. She knew that this wasn't the form that she should have been seeing, and that her friend's powers had seeped into Pitch's nightmare. Settling in over the winged horse's withers, the horse took off without any signal from her. The cave ceilings faded into sky, and she was free.
Pitch was staring at himself distractedly in the mirror again when Kirai stalked into the room. "Must you always act like some angst ridden teenager?" He turned to the winged man, annoyed by the interruption. "Why aren't you keeping an eye on her?"
"She's asleep, having nightmares. I don't think I need to watch her sleep. Although the whimpers she was making were amusing." Kirai leaned against a wall and raised an appraising eyebrow at the Boogeyman. "Are you sure you're going to be up for fighting? You're still not yourself."
"Are you insinuating something?" Pitch replied, glowering. "I am perfectly fine; it'd take more than Cupid's arrow to affect my ability to fight."
Kirai opened his mouth to argue when they heard a quiet giggle from the other room. They peered in, staring at Annamore's caged form. She was still sleeping, but golden dreamsand swirled above her head instead of the dark nightmare sand. Pitch muttered a curse and grabbed the cage, shaking it. "Wake up!"
Jolted awake, she blinked and rubbed a remnant of the sand away from her eyes. "Come on, that should be a crime. Ruining a perfectly good nap? You are truly a horrible person." Her eyes sparkled, just slightly, as they met his. They both knew the hideout had been found, and rescue was on the way. "Isn't this all a part of your plan?" She asked him innocently. "You want them here so you can torture them, right?"
He snarled in animalistic rage, opening the cage and roughly dragging her out to shove into Kirai's arms. "Of course it's all in the plan. I did want a little more time, though. How did they find us so quickly?" He lifted her chin to stare intently into her eyes. "What did you do, little bird?" He asked knowingly.
She smirked and wiggled a wing, molting a couple more feathers onto the floor. "I didn't do anything, you guys have been weakening me, so my feathers..." His eyes sparked in anger. "So they followed your feathers like the proverbial bread crumbs."
She chirped like a bird at him, mocking, in spite of her predicament. How foolish she was. Filled with the desire to teach her the error of her ways, Pitch reached around her back in a mild manner that belied his intentions. He could see her brace herself for a repeat of the feather ripping as his hands settled gently on her wings, pulling her away from Kirai as if he was hugging her. She met his gaze again, confused and wary. Quickly, before she could realize what he had planned, his hands gripped the upper edges of one of her wings and twisted, feeling the satisfying pops and crunches of delicate bones breaking. "Maybe now you'll think before you open your mouth." He whispered into her ear, ignoring the tears rolling down her face.
Annamore had felt the pain rip through her body so intensely that she hadn't been able to cry out. She sucked in vast amounts of air in an attempt to not pass out. The broken wing hurt her more than the wound she'd original died from, she reflected. Her captors forced her onto a nightmare again, taking her down a different tunnel from she'd entered using. They moved quickly, coming out of a hole in the ground not far from the outside of a city, in what seemed to be a little used, slightly overgrown park. A few people were nearby, but no one was concerned.
Pitch glanced around cautiously, expecting an attack from the Guardian's at any moment. He kicked his nightmare into a gallop, leading Annamore's while Kirai flew alongside them. "Yeah, no." She jumped off the side of the horse, and hit the ground rolling. It shot fresh pain through her broken wing, making her cry out in pain. Her captors spun around and Kirai grabbed her, flying up to a decent height.
"Get away from her!" She heard a welcome voice shout, followed simultaneous growls escaping from Kirai and Pitch.
"North! Guys!" She waved as they flew into sight. "Somebody catch me, will you?!" She shouted, taking the moment to punch Kirai in the nose, breaking it with a satisfying crunch. He dropped her to grab her nose. Moments before she should have hit ground, she was startled to find herself caught by Sandy. "Thanks." She smiled at him. "You're stronger than I expected."
He shook his head in apparent exasperation, before kissing her without warning. Startled, she tried to push away for a moment, before giving in. "Hey, love birds. Hate to interrupt, but we have a fight on our hands!" She heard Jack shout at them.
Landing on the ground, Sandy set her down, a question mark over his head. "I'm grounded this battle. Pitch decided it'd be fun to break a wing. Otherwise, I'm fine." The Sandman's face filled with fury as he turned towards Pitch.
Bunny hopped up next to her and pressed her weapons into her hands. "Glad to see you again, sheila, now you get to learn how annoying it is to try to fight someone who can fly when you can't." He ruffled her hair for a moment before turning his attention to the fight. Pitch was already being swung around by a sand whip and repeatedly smashed into trees.
"That's your doing, isn't it?" She asked the rabbit as she started trying to get a good shot at Kirai – which was difficult, because he was being accosted by both Jack and Tooth.
"Maybe." He grinned a bit. "I also relayed your message, might be why he's fighting so hard." She blushed slightly. "I'm thinking that this is overkill, though. Do you want to know what's sad?" She lowered her bow, giving up on being able to get a shot in yet.
"What's sad?" North asked, joining them. He had his swords at ready, but looked resigned to being out of the fight too. "I don't think Pitch is going to put up much of a fight anyways, for all this trouble. He stopped scheming to stare at himself in the mirror. He's got no plans." She grinned at her two friends. North turned her around to examine her broken wing, wincing when he saw it.
"Pitch did this?" He asked, lightly prodding her wing. She covered her mouth with a hand to stifle her urge to yell. He backed off for a moment to let her talk. "Yeah. I think he's paying for it now though." They glanced back up at the rather one sided fight happening. "Was he this easy to beat last time?"
North exchanged glances with Bunnymund before shaking his head. "No, last time he killed Sandy and weakened all of us before trying to fight us."
"Wait, killed? Then why..?" She turned her gaze back to the fight curiously, before shrugging. "If you guys still beat him when you were weakened, the dude is obviously messed up in the head to try again."
"I think fear makes people do things that don't make sense." They had to jump backwards as Pitch finally slammed into the ground mere feet from where they had been standing. His eyes were wide and panicked, and ignoring them, he scrambled for a shadow and vanished before anyone had a chance to stop him.
Kirai, seeing his ally had abandoned him, yelled in rage and knocked Jack and Tooth from him, giving him an opening. Instead of using the moment to escape too, he dropped towards Annamore, surprising them all. North reached out and grabbed her, yanking her away and blocking Kirai's sword with his own. She dropped her bow, unable to use it at such close quarters, and held an arrow like a dagger.
None of them had predicted the strength his rage had given him, though. He dove under North's guard and tripped the heavier man backwards, then blocked one of Bunny's boomerangs. The other tore through one of his wings, leaving it tattered, but he didn't seem to register the pain. He lunged towards her, stabbing. Unable to avoid the attack, she stabbed down into his arm with her arrow, even as his sword entered her stomach. His momentum knocked both of them over. Not a moment later he was dragged off by North, only to be let go of seconds later.
Annamore, who was oddly not feeling any pain, was helped up by Sandy. She noticed all the guardians were staring at her and Kirai in shock. Fighting a sinking feeling, she looked at Kirai as well. His wings and sword were gone, and he was staring at his hands in shock. As importantly, the few humans in the park were staring at them. Reaching her hands over her shoulder, she tried to feel for the wings she already knew were gone. She glanced back at her friends, trying to fight back tears.
Sandy dropped to float next to her and through the use of sand images did his best to promise they'd figure out a way to get her powers back. As the others offered her their own reassurances, Kirai was practically forgotten. No one was going to offer to help him, after all. He was as good as beaten in their minds.
"You can stay at the Pole while we work on getting your powers back." North boomed, leading them back to the sleigh.
"What about me?" Kirai asked quietly, surprising them all. They turned back to look. "What about you?" Bunnymund asked, eyes narrowed at the now powerless man. "You don't think we are going to help you get your powers back after what you did, do you?"
"You can't just leave me here!" The angry reply rang out, attracting more attention from the humans in the park.
"We can, and we will." Jack replied, hopping onto the sleigh. Sandy followed, offering Annamore a hand.
Frustrated, the former avatar of hate stooped down and grabbed a rock, pitching it at her head with amazing accuracy. She collapsed, unconscious. Tooth landed next to her, as the others tried to grab Kirai. To the humans in the park, all they saw was a man who had just attacked a woman, and was now screaming and attacking the air. One of them called the police, while others rushed forward to see if Annamore was alright.
"Sandy, get her into the sleigh!" North yelled, shoving Kirai down before the humans could arrive.
Sandy tried to grab her, only to find his hands passed right through her. Tooth tried too, to the same effect. Realizing the truth of the situation, she grabbed her friend and dragged him onto the sleigh, where they helplessly watched the scene unfold. A few men grabbed a hold of Kirai, who was still screaming and trying to fight. A minute later, an ambulance and police showed up, taking both of them away.