Chapter Twenty-three-Finish Him!

"Where'd you go guys?" Bunny asked as they popped back in through the window they exited from, Sandy bouncing down to the ground beside Jack who let the wind gently lower himself.

"We found this ugly little thing squirm out the window. Well, Sandy saw it, I just followed him." Jack corrected himself, Sandy showed them the squirming tendril of darkness. James' eyes were bigger than dinner-plates.

"Boogey's magic!" His shocked exclamation turning out like more of a harsh whisper, like he was cursing.

"What?" Was all North could manage, he was slow to wake up fully, always had been. You'd think the winter wind would have done it by now. Sandy chuckled to himself dryly. Humor would be the key to keeping this in perspective.

"Have you seen others?" James asked calmly but clearly hurried. Sandy shook his head.

"But, they could be out there?" Tooth asked, panicking.

"Stop. Everyone calm down. It's just his magic, humans have always carried bits of it, right James?" Jack pointed out correctly and James froze, looking at the winter spirit for a second before nodding.

"You're right, Jack. It's inevitable that his magic will live, as long as there are humans who thrive on fear as he does." He offered. Sandy's hands waved a few times until everyone was looking at him.

A golden Boogey appeared, then a cookie-cutter shape of a man, then the tendrils. The three images moved, Boogey dissipating and his magic growing weak, but infecting the human. A question mark bounced. Sandy had done his homework ages ago on the subject but he had assumed the myth of Boogey had brought Pitch into being.

"Yes, the humans fed his fear, but they also controlled it. There are humans out there that thrive on fear…his descendants. They can't bring him back to life but it's how, in a way, he can never really die." James mused partly to himself.

"So…if his main form dies…?" Tooth ventured.

"He won't be able to re-form." James nodded. North and Jack were standing in stunned silence.

Sandy made a picture of James, Boogey and a question mark.

"I don't…" He closed his eyes for a second then looked back up. "I don't sense him anymore. I don't know if that means he's escaped or if he's dead…but…" He seemed lost in thought. Sandy scribbled a spell down and handed it to him. "A…a cleansing spell?"

Sandy nodded.

"Sounds like good idea. Would kill any dark entity still inside you, if it was weak enough." North offered his agreement.

"And if it's not?" Tooth fretted.

"Either he stays or he's weak enough to be exorcised in which case we kill him ourselves." James offered, still locking eyes with Sandy who nodded solemnly.

"What do we do?" Jack asked.

"Stand back and be ready for anything." North offered, gathering the book the spell was in and standing ready in the center of the room. Sandy formed his golden whips and stood ready beside James, who was still on the couch minus Tooth, who stood behind North. Jack took up his place on James' other side and when they were ready they all looked to North.

"Alright, are you ready?" He asked calmly. James nodded, stifling a yawn.

"You've no idea." He grinned both sleepily and cheekily. The smirk was playful, friendly and strikingly familiar.

"Oh yeah, we're related." Jack muttered causing James and North to chuckle. He had assumed that too, by looks alone it was obvious but then again, they had been distracted as of late. Tooth tried her best to be stern but she just ended up giggling. Sandy hadn't even tried not to which wasn't helping her either.

"Shh, come on now, must get this done." North offered through a grin. It was almost over.

"Sorry." James and Jack murmured in unison. He tried not to snicker.

A faint blue light started to bloom from North, lighting up the room before he read. As he chanted out the incantation the light turned bright white and spiraled out toward James. As it connected he actually drew on his own core of magic in order to strengthen the spell.

It started to glow so brightly they couldn't look at it, momentarily blinding the others. When the glow died down Boogey's physical form was laying still on the carpet. The moon's glow covered him and he vanished into shadows which shrieked, dissipating in the moon's glow.

James KO'd.

"Well that was almost too easy." Jack commented before seeing that James was out like a light, barely breathing. "James?" Tooth fluttered to standing, then knelt beside the man, checking his temperature and finding a horrible fever. She looked up at Jack, then to the others crowded around her.

"He's burning up." She almost whispered.

"Let's take 'im to medical, he'll be alright." Bunny prompted/assured. Tooth nodded, worried frown gracing his features.

"Sandy, can you try to wake him?" North asked, not liking the stillness of their newest and technically oldest member. Sandy shrugged with an apologetic smile/grimace combo. He wasn't the best person to call when someone needed waking up. His thing was making sure they stayed asleep, not vice versa. Sandy's question mark moved enough that North looked back to him from trying to figure out if his pulse was steady. "Spell might have been too powerful. He could go comatose." North offered.

Sandy pushed up his sleeves (which Jack absolutely could not help snickering at) and approached their newest/oldest.

"Jack…" Tooth scolded.

"Oh come on, he did that for chuckles and you know it." Jack defended. Sandy shrugged a sheepish nod and returned his focus to James. It wasn't going to be easy, there was no sand in his system making him sleep, so he tried for the only thing he knew he had a shot at. He poured his dream-sand into him, trying to hook onto his conscious and get him to dream. If he could get him to dream, he could wake him up.

'Where the devil…?' James looked around the beautiful field and couldn't for the life of him figure out where he was, but something in his gut told him to go with it. He would figure it out soon enough.

Howdy folks, it's an in-between class special! Enjoy! PS-yeah, the title was inspired by mortal combat-like finishing games because I wanted to maybe make a funny. As always, reviews are appreciated! Y'all are wonderful people! :)