Sorry, I accidentally deleted the story, but it's okay, I re-posted it! Unfortunately, all you followers who tagged this story aren't, anymore. Again, SORRY!
As Jack flew into the open window of the Cloud Castle in quiet pursuit of the shaded figure, he found himself in a large room with a domed ceiling, made entirely of gold sand. All around the edges tall Greek style pillars reached towards the roof, about 14 feet in diameter. Between each one on the back wall behind was an arched window with simple, elegant molding framing the glass. The floor was covered with a large tile mural, one side covered in white, the other in a black, both with gold specks sprinkled along it. Separating the two colors was what looked like an explosion of purple with gold tinge to it. In the center of it all, a huge globe sat, almost exactly the same as North's, only slightly smaller and made entirely of gold. And in front of the controls, Nightshade herself solidified.
You could defiantly see the resemblance between the siblings. The same jet black hair, same height, same proud, defiant posture, like they knew they were better than everyone else. The only difference was Nightshade looked like she was sure of every one of her motives and she knew how all would play out exactly. By the way she held herself, you could tell she was much older and even more powerful, though from appearances, she looked about in her late twenties, early thirties.
She wore a dress that was simple and black, with long sleeves that grew from black to dark purple as it reached the cuffs and a skirt that met her ankles and swept backward. A slash of the same purple fabric started at the right side of her waist and grew larger as it got to the hem. Her hair was raven black, reaching just past her shoulders and feathering at the sides of her face and the back of her head. Her gold eyes glimmered evilly as she reached for a large lever off to her right side on the control panel, barely whispering, "Too easy."
She suddenly stopped, her hand an inch away from the controls, when she felt something press against her spine. "I'm not sure what that thing does, but I know I don't want you to pull it." Jack said from behind her, the crook of his staff poised against her back. She turned her head, looking at him from the corner of her eye. Nightshade sneered at the teenager threatening her before suddenly melting to the floor and into one of the many shadows that crossed the room. Jack whipped around, looking for the impossible to find. A evil laugh that echoed around the large room seemed to come from everywhere, so surprisingly soft it was terrifying. "Oh, Jack." Nightshade's voice rang out from seemingly everywhere in the room. "I've heard many stories about you. I have to say, though," she called, her voice choosing a spot to come from as she vaporized on top of the globe. "I was expecting someone a little... more." she said, studying him. "It's a wonder you managed to defeat my brother."
"Yeah, he didn't exactly think things through." Jack muttered, still pointing his staff at her. She chuckled again, a soft whispering that was so simple it was horrible. Just then the double doors behind Jack burst open and Heart leapt through them, three arrows notched in her bow. The rest of the Guardians followed her into the open room. Jack was relived to see Sandy among them, his whips at the ready. "Well if it isn't the famous Cupid!" Nightshade said, her voice dripping with disgust "Shade." Heart answered, her face hard. "Well, I had not idea you had joined the Guardians, Heart." Shade said, glancing at the rest of the group. "I didn't join them, they asked nicely, so I'm doing them a favor." Heart replied bitterly. Shade gave another one of her laughs that sent chills down Jack's back (and that was saying something!).
"Well, Heart, I didn't know you could be bought so easily!" she chuckled. "Especially by someone you scared silly." Heart blinked at her in surprise. "How did you know about that?" she asked, confused. Shade grinned at her expression. "Oh, I get my information." she said causally, examining her nails. "You mean a spy." Heart said this as a statement instead of a question. "Oh, Heart, dear, 'spy' is such a nasty word." Shade, fluttering her eyes at Heart. "I prefer... contact." "Who?" Jack asked, joining into the conversation. Shade looked at him, seeming to remember he was there. "Well, I'm obviously not going to tell you." she said like it was ridiculous he would even ask. "Now, if you excuse me, I have some business to attend to." And with that, Nightshade melted again and disappeared into the shadow of a large column.
Suddenly, Jack saw a Shadow fly in behind the rest of the Guardians, so silent no one else noticed it. It shot past the columns on either side of it and straight toward the Tooth Fairy. "Tooth, duck!" Jack yelled, but it was too late. The huge bird smashed into Tooth between her wings, exploding into a cloud of purple sand on contact. Tooth let out a blood-chilling scream, her back arching where the Shadow had hit. Her wings went limp, letting her crumpling into a ball on the floor. Jack flew as fast as he could to Tooth, but Heart still beat him to her. By the time he had gotten there, Heart was checking Tooth's pulse and examining the black splatter on her back, growing purple as it came out from the middle. Tooth's face was grimacing in pain, her feathers bristling as she shivered.
"What did it do to her?!" Jack asked, concerned for his friend. "I'm not sure. It seemed to have gotten... inside of her somehow." Heart said. "I've never seen Shade pull anything like this." "I have." Jack said grimly. "Pitch did something a lot like this in the Battle of Nightmares." he said, looking at Sandy. He rubbed the middle of his back, as if he could still feel the fear creeping into him. "Do you know anything that can help her?" Heart asked, reading the situation perfectly. Sandy looked at Tooth before rapidly gesturing and flashing little sand signals over his head. Jack hadn't been around Sandy to understand him, but Heart sighed when she caught his meeting. "Of course it wasn't the same, you just disappeared where as Tooth is still here. Barely." she mumbled that last part to herself, but Jack was close enough to hear it.
Suddenly, Tooth screamed again, her eyes snapping open. They were so startling, Jack almost dropped his staff. They were still her normal violet, but all around them, dark purple clouds swarmed all around the edges, seeming to want to move closer but not able to. "We have to get her back to the Workshop." Jack said diffidently. Heart nodded in agreement, gently picking up Tooth and getting to her feet. "What about the rest of the Shadows?" Bunnymund asked, nodding to the open door. Sandy tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the high roof above them. Jack followed his finger along with everyone else and saw a huge cloud of small gold Dreams mingling overhead. "Well, by the looks of things, we were able to catch the majority of them." Jack said, trying to sound optimistic despite their bad circumstances.
"Are you kidding?" Heart asked. "What?" he asked. Heart sighed. "This is only a small fraction of all the Dreams." she said grimly. "Each child-each child-has hundreds of dreams. We were lucky we got this much." "Oh." Jack said, finally catching on to how much trouble they were really in. Heart sighed again, and Jack realized how weary she looked. "Come on, lets get back to the workshop. The Shadows are gone, there's no more that we can do." she said. Jack nodded, and the group trudged to the sleigh.
Sorry it took so long to get this posted! I had inspiration for an Avengers one and it wouldn't leave me alone. Got two chapters of that done; you should check it out! Anyway, hope you liked it and I will try to be faster with the next chapter.