Chapter sixteen-Discovered
"North!" Jack called, rushing toward the still un-moving guardian of wonder. Pitch launched himself immediately to Jack's side, slashing at Boogey with the renewed enthusiasm that only came from pure terror. He couldn't let them get hurt, couldn't. Jack wasn't just someone he had grown fond of as a guardian, he was a child!
"Jack, look out!" He called, fabricating and launching a golden dagger at Boogey. Jack ducked and took half a second to give Pitch an impressed and stunned look before turning to North. Started shaking the man's shoulders and within a moment or two he sat up straight, looking a bit confused.
"Jack? What is racket? How did we end up in here?" he asked sleepily. Jack spun warily, looking for the shadows that now fabricated the nightmares and Pitch waved him on.
"Focus Jack, you get them up and I'll take care of them!" He offered. Sandy nodded, floating on the other side of the couch, covering Pitch. He wasn't all that good at waking people up anyway. Jack nodded and turned to North.
"I know it's a bit nutty out here but can you please trust me when I say it all makes perfect sense and you need to not kill Pitch." Jack plead, short and to the point. North's eyes widened, seeing Pitch and Sandy fighting back to back. He opened and shut his mouth once or twice and nodded.
"Had better be good." He grumbled a warning and shook the sleep out of his system as a nightmare made of shadows, not sand, slammed into Jack from behind.
"Jack!" His worried, boisterous yell woke Bunny who had been curled up beside him. He growled in anger, seeing Pitch. Noting that North was busy protecting an unconscious Jack he immediately assumed Pitch was the cause but he didn't look like he was fighting with Sandy, which gave him a headache. He shot up and shook his fur out, trying to make sense of things.
"What in the bloody…Tooth, come on wake up, sheila." He shook her shoulder, already pulling out a boomerang. She had been snuggling him in her sleep which he almost chuckled at, he made a mental note to laugh later.
"Bunny? What's going on?" She asked in a loopy sort of state. It was the slowest he had ever seen her move. Ever.
"I'm not sure, but Jamie's here and we need to keep him safe." He provided, deciding his priority was the child.
Unfortunately he decided to kick Pitch's butt and ask questions later.
Sandy noted his throwing stance and Tooth's newly dawned scowl in their direction about the same time he dispersed enough nightmares to see that Jack was down for the count.
Oh boy, this is about to get interesting. The golden man thought in exasperation.
Pitch gave out a frustrated yell as the shadow of Boogey, unseen in the chaos, slipped into…
"JACK! NO!" He launched himself at the shadow but was cut off by a livid Pooka and a screaming Fary. Bunny's boomerang knocked all the air out of him and sent him to the ground.
Jamie was sitting stunned, unable to really say anything. Everyone was fighting everyone else and with Boogey's presence in the room he had been stunned into fearful inaction. Sandy didn't have time to assure the boy before he jumped in. He snatched his friends by the waist and yanked them away from Pitch before he could get killed. He cracked an eye open from the preemptive cringe he had landed in and breathed out in relief. Then he remembered Jack.
"Sandy, he's in Jack! We've got to get him out before-"
"PITCH! What are you doin' here ya-" Bunny cut Pitch off and Sandy cut Bunny off with a satisfying crack of a golden whip. His big green eyes bugged out when the gold snapped in front of him. Tooth didn't even open her mouth.
He looked back at Jamie and shot him a semi-worried reassuring grin/cringe combo. Jamie returned the look, glancing around to see the nightmares gone. North was sitting with an unconscious Jack in his lap, silent and frozen.
For a moment time stood still and they all just waited. It was then that Jamie decided he should probably cut in, and with Boogey's nightmares gone he was able to manage his fear and run straight to Sandy. The golden man gave him a soft smile and a nod toward the others, indicating that he should go ahead and explain.
"Guys…Pitch is here to help." He offered, waiting for one of his childhood idols to straight up tell him he was a liar and when that didn't happen he took another breath and continued. "Mani made you guys kids and Jack took care of you. Pitch had to do your jobs and he found the way to get you guys normal again. He's not the Boogeyman anymore, right Pitch?" He asked, looking to him for help where he was still seated, frankly winded enough that standing wasn't looking good anyway.
"Right Jamie. Boogey is the living embodiment of Fear. The only reason I can use shadows was because a long time ago he did to me what he just did to Jack, only…willingly. I thought I could harness his magic, my own gone, to help the children and I was wrong. He's gone from me now, so essentially I'm not who you all know, that's him. Now he's inside of Jack and if we don't get him out soon he's in trouble." He provided, as calm as he could be under all that panic.
"How?" North asked, seeing the look in Pitch's eyes and knowing he wasn't lying. Besides, I remember the look on his face before Bunny stopped him. That was fear for another and that can't be faked. The relief on his face when he asked how was also not hurting his belief. It was such a sincere look he couldn't have been lying.
"I don't know. All I can think to do is absorb him into myself, as I've hosted him before, and lock down on him until we can trap him in the moonstone where he had been before." Pitch admitted.
"But if you do that won't he take over again?" Jamie fretted.
"Don't worry, he can't take over an unwilling host, and I'm not letting him take over again." He assured.
"Well, what's gonna happen to Jack?" he asked.
"Nothing if I move fast enough." Pitch gave him a reassuring grin and eyed the others warily as he got up. Interestingly enough they were eyeing Sandy in much the same way.
"It smells like a trick, North." Bunny commented. Sandy shook his head in disbelief.
"He's not lying!" Jamie insisted again. Bunny looked at the boy and then Sandy who was nodding. North tore his eyes from the boy in his arms to meet Jamie's eyes.
"Jack believed him, Sandy believes him, we know Jamie does, and so do I." North said plainly.
Pitch knelt down to where Jack was sitting.
"We don't." Bunny stood up, Tooth fluttering behind him. They both had their arms crossed and Sandy's eyes were wide.
"Look. I don't expect you to like me, or believe me, or care about a word I'm saying. I don't deserve it after all that time. I was stupid enough to let Boogey in, and that's my mistake. Even not being in control of myself doesn't absolve that stupidity and all that blood and fear is as much on my stupid hands as his. I don't expect to immediately be one of you, or for any of you to listen to a word I say ever again." He said, trying to control his anger. "But let me tell you this, I won't let Jack get hurt because you carry a grudge." He turned to Jack and Sandy stood at his back, daring them to try something.
"Are you certain about this?" North asked as he reached out, feeling Jack's rising temperature.
"Yes. It's all I can think of. I don't know that it'll work, but I have to try." He offered. North nodded. He knew he had acted too quickly when Jack had so directly begged him to listen. He knew better than to doubt Jack. Well, it was good.
Pitch leaned in, hands on Jack's temples. As light started to swirl around the three of them Bunny's fur and Tooth's feathers both started to bristle. Tooth watched Pitch and started to doubt herself, but the worry for Jack and her memories of all that he had caused the boy before kept her on guard. All he had done to them over the years flooded her mind and she just couldn't let that go. People don't change this much this fast…do they?
Pitch grunted in frustration and started to lose his balance. North reached out a hand and took his arm, steadying him. Sandy had turned to them, watching with a concerned frown with Jamie hanging onto his arm. He hadn't realized he was clinging to him until just then. He looked down and opened an arm for the boy which he quickly snuggled into.
Tooth had landed and Bunny was on his toes, boomerangs ready.
"You can't win this." Boogey's rasping voice rang out in defiance of being lifted from his newest host. Jack started to squirm in his "sleep" uncomfortably.
"I already have." Pitch gritted. "You can't control me anymore and as long as I breathe you'll never leave that moonstone again."
"You underestimate me, Guardian." Boogey growled.
"Do I?" He asked, clearly exhausted.
"You don't know my true power."
"Yes I do. In a way you helped me, controlling me all those centuries ago. Because now I know. I know your limits, your power, your way of thinking, and I know there's one thing you can't stand. One thing…" He trailed off, determination coloring his voice.
"And what is that?" The grating voice was a little more concerned now, bravado slipping away.
"Sunburn." He gritted as acidly as he could while lighting up as much golden sand as he could manage. Sandy lit up, knowing what was needed as he helped Pitch encompass himself, Jack and North in a cocoon of light. "You're like a bad cliché." Pitch taunted.
A dark figure rose from Jack, scrambling to escape the light which created quite a bit of smoke.
"YOU CAN'T REJECT MY CONTROL! YOU CAN'T DENY MY POWER JAMES FROST!" Boogey screamed in fury as he was forced into Pitch, who immediately collapsed in a crumpled, shaky, overheated heap.
Sorry this one's a bit shorter but this was the chunk I was imagining at the time and it seemed to be the perfect stopping point, dun dun duuuuuuuuuun! Sorry for the cliffie!
Okay, now to a liiiiiiiitle 'business'; I haven't been doing this but I feel like it's time to start. I've gotten six whole reviews on this short little bit of story and that's more than I had hoped for so I'm going to start responding because y'all are so wonderful! I can't help but be excited when y'all review and it keeps these stories comin'! These are oldest-newest and when I saw them pretty much all of them made my day!
Sprinkles888-(CH 3)-Thank you so much!
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Once again thank you, y'all are wonderful people! :)