"Hi girls, where's Toothie?" asked Bunny.
He had gone to bring flowers for her and he was surprised when he didn't see her working. He thought the whole issue with her feathers was over.
Baby Tooth looked at him with a sad face and pointed towards Tooth's bedroom.
"Is she OK?" he asked a little panicky.
Bunnymund knew that Tooth was more than capable of taking care of herself, but he hadn't yet recovered from last spring, when he thought she was dead. He could still remember that tight, oppressing feeling in his chest.
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK
Tooth's heart stopped for a second. And then she remembered that the winter boy she was hoping to see never, ever used the door. She didn't answered, she really didn't want to talk to anyone.
"Toothie, it's me, Bunny" he said, as if she would not recognize his voice or his unmistakable accent "can I come in?"
Tooth took a deep breath. She really didn't want to talk about it, especially not with Bunny, but she felt bad about ignoring him for months. She really didn't want to hurt his feelings again.
"Come in" she said, so low that he could barely hear her.
"Toothie, what's wrong, are you sick?" asked the pooka, looking into her sad, magenta eyes.
"I'm fine" she said, turning away, avoiding his gaze.
"Toothie, you're scaring me. What's happening?" he insisted.
Tears menaced to fall from her reddened eyes.
"I... Jack..." she tried to explain, but she couldn't find the words.
Bunny was puzzled. A part of him wanted to just run and kill Jack for breaking his promise of not hurting Tooth, but another part of him remembered the winter spirit at the Christmas party three days ago, looking at Tooth as if she was the most precious thing in the world. It was obvious, even for Bunnymund that Frost loved Toothie. What had happened?
"I'm scared" she said.
She was scared? Of Jack?! The pooka's blood was boiling.
"What exactly did he do?" he asked, a hint of murder in his voice.
Tooth shook her head.
"Nothing. It's me. I'm scared of me!" she said.
Bunny looked at her even more confused. He started to understand the problem. He bet that Snowflake was confused as well. Sheilas... Bunny knew there was no point in asking more question. If she wanted to talk about it, she would have already done so. Besides, he probably wouldn't understand anyway, understanding women was not one of his many talents. He settled for holding her in his arms instead, hoping that it would help.
Gaia, or Mother Nature as she was known, was sitting on her Palace in the clouds. She wore a long, black cloak and her straight black hair touched her hips. She was older than time, yet her long face was youthful. Her otherwise beautiful features were distorted by anger.
She always found really confusing this need of others to always try to label her as good or evil. She wasn't any. Her actions were not good or bad, she was there to do a job and she was doing it. Keeping balance. Life and death were not good or bad, they were just a normal part of life's cycle. As much as others tried to make it so, nothing in life was black or white, it was simply not that simple. Saving lives wasn't always the right thing to do.
She was extremely annoyed at Frost, again. Since becoming a Guardian, the winter spirit had been interfering with her work, taking it to himself to stop her storms, blizzards and even heat waves. He even had the guts to stop a tornado last summer! And now this... That little town was meant to disappear under the snow. It was time. Nature had to take back that riverbank. Until that boy intervened yet again!
She would go and talk to him... no... he was just a kid and she was too angry, she would end up hurting him. She definitely didn't want to have to deal with MiM for hurting his precious Guardian. Besides, he was useful, he had a purpose. She'd talk to North, he was almost a father for the boy. She'd demand he kept Frost under control... or else.
Mother Nature was lost in her own thoughts when she heard that voice. Even after millennia, that voice always touched a fiber inside of her, awakening a little spec of sadness always latent deep inside of her. She made the strongest face she could master as she turned around.
"Seraphina!" said the Nightmare King, his arms outstretched as if expecting her to jump into them.
"It's Gaia now" she said colder. She was trying to cut all ties with him. "What are you doing here, wasting me time?"
"Is that how you greet your own father?"
"My father was a brave, noble man who fought to stop people like you. You are not him" she said, her eyes sharp, menacing.
"You are not that different from me, you know" he said, smiling. " you terrorize humans as well, you injure and kill innocent people all the time."
"I only do what needs to be done to keep the balance. I don't decide who lives and who dies, I get my orders from the Earth itself, but I can tell you this, no one I have ever killed died out of coincidence. It was fate. Those people were meant to die that way. I have stolen nothing from anyone, I've just created the circumstances for them to fulfill their destiny. So no, I'm not at all like you, Pitch Black." she said, her brown eyes piercing his yellow ones.
"Keep telling yourself that" he said "I can't change what happened to me and I can't change who I am, I just want my little girl by my side again."
"Cut the act, Black. I am omnipresent, remember? I know perfectly well that you don't even remember being him. You don't remember me at all." said Gaia, her eyes dark with a mixture of pain and anger.
"You and I both know that he's in here, somewhere." he said, pointing at himself.
"That's the only reason why you're still breathing." she said between her teeth.
And there it was, a spec of weakness, just the opportunity Pitch was waiting for. Under normal circumstances Pitch wouldn't have dared to cross paths with Mother Nature. She was too volatile and powerful to take the risk. But last spring, the Boogeyman also had an encounter with the Algea, one where he too almost lost his life. In their eagerness to hurt him more, the triplets had made a very big mistake. Pitch smiled to himself remembering this very ironic turn of events. The Gods had transferred some of their power over to his fearlings to make them torture him even more; But when the Guardians rescued him, Pitch used these bew powers to defeat the Algea.
The Boogeyman was hoping that it would work on Seraphina as well. He knew he couldn't make her afraid, but he hoped that her weakness towards him and the fact that his own blood ran through her veins would make her more susceptible to his powers.
"I just wanted to reunite my family, but I see you're not interested. It was nice seeing you, Seraphina" he said as he turned around, smiling maliciously, a black sand scythe forming in his hands.
"I can't say..." But Gaia never got to finish that sentence.
Pitch has turned around and stabbed her with his weapon, too quickly for her to react.
"What have you done?" she whispered, her brown eyes wide in terror, as her extremities turned into black sand.
