Chapter 22

"N-North?!" I gasped, trying to back away, but tripping over my own feet I collapsed on the floor. I tried to get up, but my wound was aching, and making it rather difficult to get back up.

North lifted his sword over me, and quickly lowered it, heading straight for my heart.

I rolled over, and kicked North in the shin, making him collapse. While he was struggling to get up, I quickly took away his swords and threw them across the room, making a thick plant vault around it. I heard the swords hit the plant walls and rattle as they fell against the floor.

Breathing heavily, I waited for North to get up.

"so uhm. Is there a point in me asking me while you're trying to-"

"Ah. You're rubbing your eye. Pitch's little trick is contagious, I see. Okay. Well glad you aren't mad enough to try to kill me now." I laughed, half nervously, and half jokingly. I dodged North's fist as I ducked around him.

"Question is… if you can hear me like I could with you…" North got up and circled around me, after a few minutes, he ploughed through, and I quickly dodged, North losing his balance.

" So. If you can, well wait until he.. er.. you gets up…"

"All right! If you can hear me, bang the little window you probably have."

North rubbed his eye.

"Sweet. Okay. Here's the dealio with banging the window. That window is actually your eye. And I know I know if you're banging on it, is if your.. body… rubs it. I don't know if this is true or not… Since Pitch said it, but he said it hurts your eye. So you may not want to do it just in case… of course mine's not really bothering me… but.. you never know." North slowly walked over me.

"OUCH!" I cried out, turning a little, so I could see North and whoever hit me too.

"Oh. Well you must be Sandy! Nice to meet you. I believe you've already met North? Okay, Well just in case North Sandy. Sandy, North. The only thing in common you have right now – " I dodged both of North's fist and Sandy's whip thing by jumping back. "Is trying to kill me."

Sandy rubbed his eye. "Oh, sorry. Yes I do know you're not actually you right now Sandy. Don't worry. Pitch is.. well a jerk… But, yes I know your pain. North said he could hear me, so I'm assuming you can too? bang your window if that's true." I nodded and smiled, as Sandy's hand (that wasn't holding the whip) rubbed his eye. "all right. Well here's the dealio. That window is actually your eye. I know you banged it, because your body gets irritated, and rubs it. So you may not want to bang it a whole lot, in case it actually hurts you once you get control over your body again."

Jumping back, dodging their blows again, "However… Knowing a little… I guess.. "weaknesses" wouldn't be so bad to know.. Not to kill you obviously… but to make you from not trying to attack me while I'm trying to think for a few minutes. and I'm afraid if I do it a lot, you'll get bruise-" Something had thudded against me, not going so hard where it'd hurt me, but it did surprise me, and I'm sure if I hadn't moved, it really would have hit me harder. I saw as whatever flew past me, and then watch it turn and fly by back to the thrower.

"…A boomerang? AH!" I gasped as the floor below me shifted, and down I went, tumbling in a tunnel. Somehow, gravity didn't apply, because I went up out of the tunnel. I glanced below me, the tunnel filling back up, with a daffodil growing in the center.

I was about to start falling back down to the ground, and I braced myself for a hard landing. But the next thing I know I feel a hairy hand, and he has a very tight grip on my hand. I glanced around panicking, looking around, trying to reach out for North or Sandy, not that they would help me anyway, but just to pull away from my attacker. I looked down, and the other hand wasn't by their side, but up, probably rubbing their eye.

Darkness creeped in, and I couldn't see anything. It was growing pitch black. If only I could do something, my hands gripping the furry hand, trying to pry it off. I tried to think. How would I stop him? With North I kicked him in the shins. Shins. That's it!

Since my feet were in the air anyway, by his strong grip, I just started waving the hands. But I began to feel unconscious. Gasping for air, I did one final kick, and I felt something. They let go, and I found myself being dropped onto the dirt. Coughing I leaned over, making sure if I spit up anything it would come out, instead of going back down. After a few minutes of gasping for air and coughing, I became aware of the people around me. Sandy, North, and (I'm assuming it was) Bunny were all coming towards me.

"NO!" I gasped, waving my hands randomly, trying to make a plant wall around me. It worked. The plants flew up, and the zombie guardians tried to run towards me to get to me before, but thankfully they couldn't.

Gasping for more air, and trying to cough the dirt out, and rubbing my neck, I tried to recollect my thoughts and calm down. Using some plants, I pulled myself up.

Ignoring the pains in my neck and in my leg, I lowered my hands slowly, the plants lowering slowly, almost hesitantly, like they were protective.

The plant attacked. It attacked!
"NO! Don't hurt them!" I tugged at the plant, digging my feet in the dirt, but the plant kept pulling, making my feet slide towards them. It grew thorns. "No! NO! NO! Why…. aren't… you... LISTENING!"

Low, almost menacing voices came sounding out. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD PITCH!" I cried, my tears flying outwards, as I shook them out.

The voices grew louder. I couldn't hear myself think anymore. The pain in my neck and the pain in my leg kept aching trying to force me to shut down.

"She's tired… Can't you see? She's tired… Let her give up…. Please…. She's tired…" The voices kept talking.

I tried to kneel down slowly, but now I was giving the slightest permission. My knees gave in, thudding quickly onto the ground. I hugged my knees.

"Please… Pitch… Stop…. STOP! STOOPPP!"

"She's tired."

"STOP IT!"

"She's hurting…"

"STOP!" Plants flew up. Thunder clapped. Lightning struck a tree, and it collapsed inches in front of me. North, Sandy, and Bunny kept walking towards me. Gasping, I struggled to get up, away from the Guardians, and from the tree.

"Di…. Did… I do that…" I gestured to the fallen mighty oak, as if someone could actually answer me.

"Poor girl… Please… Let me help, Manny."

"'Let me help, Manny?'" I sputtered. "You're… not Pitch?"

I shuddered as the voice became soothing and sweet. It wasn't quite what I was used to. I realized it wasn't taunting. "No, dear child, I'm not Pitch. I am so sorry for what has happened. Please let me help." I saw the plant going for them again.

"NO!" I gasped, realizing I probably shouldn't have sounded so angry. "I.. I mean… L..let me talk to them…. If they can't come out, then you can help… But DON"T make me kill them, or hurt them all right?"

The calm voice agreed, but said, "But if they start hurting you again, I WILL defend you."

I nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

"All right. ELEVATOR UP!" I lifted my hands up, just to get away from everyone until I recovered myself. I tried to stop crying, shaking the tears out of my eyes. The rain started pouring.

I laughed, still crying softly, but happy to feel some slight refreshment.

"Thank you." I'm not really sure who I was thanking, but at this point, I can thank, say, or cry out whatever I want right now. I'm kind of joking, but mostly serious.

The rain washed my tears, washed the dirt off from my face, washed the blood from my cut, and refreshed my sore neck.

I lowered myself. North, Sandy, Bunny, and now Tooth all started walking towards me. I promise, even the slightest super creepy and weird move would have set me off running, like them smirking and cocking their heads. I haven't even watched a lot of horror movies, but I'd still be pretty freaked out if that happened.

"i…. Can control rain." I looked up at the sky, then back at them, not really afraid of them anymore, for once. I don't really know why. I just felt more safe, maybe because of the rain. It was only when I looked at them again from staring up at the sky that I noticed their hands rubbing their eyes. I smiled. Not a "you-goin'-down-confident-smile" or a "creepy smile" either, but a comforting, warm smile. At least that's what I hoped it was.

"Don't worry guys. I know you're not you right now. But banging on your window might hurt your eyes, when it gets controlled. And I will work on you getting out. But right now, let me recover a little please… Not like you really have any control in it." I sighed, tired. "I can sleep in tomorrow right?" I laughed , trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh come on guys. It'll be all right." I don't know why, but I could feel their unhappy mood. "The rain's making me feeling better okay? I guess me controlling plants, and plants grow with water, that it's… making me feel be…. No… it's healing me…" I smiled. "See, North? The wound is gone! Everything's okay. Nothing's wrong. I don't know how, but I can feel you guys being sad, so laugh okay? It's good for ya!" I laughed, trying to jog in place.

"Ya'll are really slow. I'm sorry. Ya'll are just really really really slow. I know you have no control. But like. seriously. Sophie can run faster than you snails." I tried to tease them out of their minds.

"all right!" I said energetically, doing jumping jacks, making everything was functioning correctly. I started lift their hands over my leg, in stretching mode.

"Seriously… You guys aren't moving… Oh. I planted you… apparently….. Sure we'll go with that. I did that on purpose. Full control on my body. I'm not really comforting, am i?" I laughed dryly.

"Well maybe I can annoy you out. Sounds weird. But. I'm out of ideas. How I escaped completely… escapes… my… memory…." I sighed, rubbing my head.

"Okay. Annoy you out! Focusing! Uhm. Kangaroo! uuh. Birdy… person? Uhm…" I fluttered my hands around, like that'd help. I laughed as I watched a flower peak out. I chuckled "Well i know how to grow flowers now.." I muttered.

"OH! annoying.. RIGHT! Jack would be so much better at this…. Uhm…. Red… Person… eehhh..uhh... AAHhhh…. Breaking free..." I said eyeing North's feet and Bunny's feet. Tooth and Sandy hadn't quite gotten through it yet.

"Ehh… Uhh… EGGHEAD! AHA! OH! OH! OH! This situation is pretty SCRAMBLED up, BUT we'll find the SUNNY SIDE to this! I CRACK myself up! We need to BRUSH up on the situation! Hehe… Uhmmm… I can't think of any sand puns or dream puns…. or Christmas puns….. I would say something, but I'm afraid I'll get on the naughty list…." I chuckled nervously. "Oh whatever. Collecting teeth is more important than Christmas AND Easter!" Bunny and North rubbed their eyes. "Heh… Hm Tooth, Looks like the guys are kinda irritated by that." I laughed, dodging North's blow."

"Seriously, are you running out of juice? Oh running out of EGGNOG! Huh huh? Yeah that was terrible." I sighed jokingly. "Oh… Just fyi… I saw something spit back cookies in your North pole… station… thing…. I don't know who.. because I couldn't see…. then… Oh, if you're wondering, The moon helped me. I'm the guardian of spring apparently. The moon told me so…" I trailed off, trying to think of what to say.

"I really… don't know… how to irritate you guys.. Uhm…"

"AH!" Tooth got free while I was focusing on avoiding Bunny and North and swung at me, knocking me over.

"That's it… I'm helping you."

"NO! No!" I gasped, quickly getting up. "See? I'm fine… invisible person in my head…." I snickered, "After this I will be confused or weirded out by nothing." I laughed.

The woman laughed.

"So.. uhm… is there a point in asking who you are…? and why you want to protect me so badly? or are you one of those "that's for me to know and you to find out" mysterious kinda types?" I joked, smirking.

"After saving another person from almost dying, Manny, or the Man in the Moon was a little weak . So when you were coming close, I chipped in. "You apparently had some…. ability to actually hold the gifts I had to pour out on you. Most humans don't feel it, don't notice it. It's almost like a cup that's being poured over, but is already full, so it does nothing. However your cup was empty, and it could hold the powers. I carefully guarded you to make sure the powers didn't… ehm"

I scoffed. "explode in my face?" I smiled, offering. I thought about how weird this must look like to the Guardians, but continued replying every once in a while.

The woman laughed a little and said, "Yes. Precisely. To answer your question, I am the sun, sister of the moon."

"You're the sun?! How… are you… in.. my head?" I ventured, not exactly sure how to word it.

"You and I have a connection. Techincally, you're my daughter."

"Okay…. I'm the sun's daughter and the moon is my uncle…. I have abilities to control plants and rain… So….are you my biological mother?" I ventured. Closing my eyes, and hoping that didn't sound weird. Opening my eyes just in time, I quickly dodged Sandy's whip.

The woman laughed. "More of an adopted. Your parents were human."

I closed my eyes, a tear slid down. "Were?"

"Oh. I'm sorry, my child. But they passed away…"

The rainclouds formed again. I looked up, when it thundered. "Welp I guess I can't hide that I'm sad now. Huh?" I laughed sheepishly.

"So… Do you have any ideas of how to free them?"

"I think if they become tired enough, they'll become weak, and let their guard down, making it easy for the rightful owner to take control again."

"All right. So you're saying I have to fight them?"

"Not necessarily attack. But, if they hurt, and they keep coming, then I will not hesitate to-"

"Okay…

Okay guys. The sun… ehm… my… mother…. ehm.." I shook the weird feeling off. "said that I'd tire you guy's out. then you can take it over, and don't worry. If I look like I'm in trouble the su-" I stopped listening to what she said. "She says she'll give me more power, since she doesn't want to control me. If it looks like I can't control, then she'll stop…. right?" I waited for a response. Then I nodded my head and said, "yep. She will. All right. knock the window if you understand."

I waited, and all of the rubbed their eye. "All right, Knock again if you like this plan."

All of them rubbed their eyes again.

"okay."

Pretty soon the fight began. A lot of dodging mostly, but one of Tooth's little baby fairies poked me using their beaks. Several times. You wouldn't think it'd hurt that much. But when they focus on one area, and they keep repeating, it'll start to hurt. Sandy whipped me lashing into my cheek, blood slowly drippling out. North and Bunny were coming on the other sides that Sandy and Tooth weren't, closing in on me.

"uhh… Now would be a good time.. for… so.."

I didn't have enough time to finish, because the sun gave me more power. It flooded through my veins, being so bright it shone through, making me look somewhat like the sun herself.

It lifted me off the ground, and shone and started hitting them with light, and right as the lightbeam almost hit them, the sun took away from me, and I collapsed onto the ground, smoke rising, and I was tired out.

I only had a quick time to get up, the wounds being healed from the sun, because the guardians started coming at me again. They would blow most of them, and mostly I'd just dodge them but sometimes I would kick them in the shin, and punch them, when I really needed to. I tried to not do it repeatedly in the same place, and told them to knock the window if I was doing it in the same place too much, but they never did.

All of them threw all of their strength and power at me, and threw my plants at them to try to cancel it, when all of a sudden someone stabbed me again.

"Jack…" The word rolled off my tongue sadly. He's taken over too.

The cold icicle numbed the pain slightly.

I knelt down hugging the wound, trying to hold the blood off.

But the blood started to pour out slowly, and I felt my energy leave with it.

"Please.. Jack… I know you're in there. I know you are all in there… Just calm down, take a deep breath, clench your fists if that helps. And concentrate. Try to control your mouth first okay. Bunny's over there, try to irritate hi-" I gasped, the pain tempting me to just let go and fall asleep.

I was tired. I probably hadn't slept for days, not knowing the time difference in this magical setting. Stephanie was probably furious with me, or worried. Both makes me kind of uneasy and guilty. Pushing it aside, I tried to focus on what to do, but I couldn't think. My toro's strength also drained out of me, and I collapsed face first on the dirt, coughing and gasping for breath.

"I'm…. So….. Sorry…" I slowly lifted my eyes open again, trying not to going to sleep. It wasn't my voice. And it wasn't Pitch's or the sun's or Manny's. I looked up, and a tear had slid down Jack's cheek and gotten stuck, and froze.

"It's okay. I wish… I could make it rain…. But I'm too weak… and the sun is gone…." He knelt down trying to blotch my wound. He gave me a puzzled look. I laughed, but stopped when it turned into a sick cough. "Long" I paused and continued to cough. "Long story."

"Jack…. Snow…."

I couldn't see anything. My world went black, and I knew I was dying. My head went limp, and I closed my eyes sleepily.

My eyes were forced up, my eyes glowing brightly and furiously, the light escaping at the ends. (I might have sneaked a peak on Jack's journal in order to know this part. As far as I remember. I was unconscious.)

My body lifted itself up, as if I was swimming in sunlight. The ice melted, the water dripping down onto the ground below me. The water, taking the blood that was already out with it. Blinding light surrounded my wound, and after a few moments, the light dissolved, and the wound was gone. The color returned to my face, and my eyes shone brightly, and when it dimmed, my eyes had gone from blue to green.

I floated down, and once my feet touched the ground, my hair and my clothes stopped floating as if they weren't in water anymore.

The sun's voice spoke. "I am the sun. Elizabeth is now Iris Solei, Guardian of Spring. My lightbeams are currently looking for her lost memories. And Pitch will not bother her nor any of you, nor the children again."

The sun slowly knelt down and flipped my legs over, so I could lie down.

When she left my body, I did not fall, due to lack of conscious mind, because my mother had carefully laid me down, so I would not fall and hurt myself. I felt Jack's, North's, Tooth's, Sandy's, and Bunnymund's hands all on my hands or forehead.

Jack slowly lifted me up, and I was placed in a warm bed, where I slept for a night, apparently was being daytime earlier.

"Jack… Jack! I'm scared…"

kinda long
and there are fighting scenes..
i didnt really describe the blood too much..
cuz i don't really like that either :P
so i don't think it should be too gory or anything..
but uhm... yeah..
this one was kinda sad XD
but it'll get happy really soon :)
im gonna finish it soon :D
of course leaving a slightly cliffy endy :P
so there might be a sequal ^^; not sure yet lol depends on if you guys want or something..
but... school is starting..
so chapters are gonna be quite a bit slower..
oh well more suspense i guess :P