Blondie launched a wave of black sand our way, covering the whole clearing. Pitch still stood aside, choosing not to get involved.
I stomped my foot to spread ice and threw up an ice barrier in front of all of us before it hit, and when it did hit the force behind it was incredible. I strained to hold up the barrier, giving out grunts of exertion. I could only use one arm to keep it in place, as the other one was useless. It dangled by my side, blood trickling down the length of it and into the trampled snow.
Finally the wave subsided and I let go of barrier, but allowed it to stay up. I was breathing heavily from the effort, but was still standing.
Billy leapt on top of the barrier and flung a boomerang towards Blondie as I sent my own ice blast over it, just behind the boomerang.
He blocked the boomerang easily but got hit by my ice. He fell back slightly and sent a drill of sand through my barrier, which I had jump away to avoid as it went past, sending curls of ice everywhere and leaving a hole roughly the size of a guinea pig in it.
"You don't seem to get it. Your little Branches are so fractured, that you can be taken out quite easily." Goaded Blondie.
"Whilst we stand together, as we should!"
As if on cue a wave of black sand came up through the hole, other bursts of sand joined it from all around us, forming a tidal wave of sand towering above us.
I didn't have time to repair my barrier and the sheer force of the second wave would have been too much for me to hold back. All I could do was brace myself as it came towards my barrier.
The sand hit hard and flung itself straight through the hole like a fire hose, but the pressure quickly spread. My barrier shattered and sent sharp shards of ice towards us along with sand.
I hid in the snow as the sand tried to pluck me from the ground and into the air, using my power over the surrounding snow to hold me in place. Finally the sand stopped and I cautiously lifted my head out of the snow.
The snow around me was stained black from the sand and red with my blood. By Blondie hovered his fellow Descendants, even the ones we'd downed had joined him. I saw Purple Hair looking a little dazed and with some blood on her forehead, but was still standing.
I looked around my side and saw that Nigel and Billy had been tossed aside like toys and now lay on the other side of the clearing, not moving. Looking at them I felt the stirrings of anger and more than a little fear, they were grown men, and they had been beaten so easily.
I got on my shaking feet and clutched my arm to try and stop it bleeding, trying to ignore the trickles of blood going through my fingers.
"Well, looks like this particular pig has been slain." Said Blondie with a smile in his voice.
I looked up and felt pure rage, more pure than several months when I lashed out at Penelope. My teeth clenched and my fist gripped my bad arm harder, squeezing more blood out of it. The pain only increased my anger, and I began to see red.
The wind began to whip around me and snow began to gather around me, tossed into the air by the wind, to the point where I couldn't see much beyond the flying snow and ice. I could hear a roaring that seemed to be coming from close by and far away at the same time. It took a few seconds for me to realise that I was yelling wordlessly.
What I could see beyond it was the Descendants of Pitch taking a figurative step back.
"Jackie stop!"
A part of my mind registered that Penelope was pleading, pleading for me to stop what I was doing, but my actions were now beyond my conscious control.
I sent a blast of ice and snow so powerful that letting it off sent me off my feet, flying backwards by about 2 metres and landing on my back. Halting the roar for now.
It slammed into the Descendants of Pitch and Pitch himself, sending over half them back down the hole and some of them flew past that and across to the other side of the clearing. Once they landed it was clear that the blast had sent shards of ice into various parts of their bodies and the snow on that side had started to stain red.
Pitch himself and a few others were still standing, although once again Pitch was on the sidelines, looking almost surprised at the sheer ferocity of the attack.
My power and anger hadn't finished with them though. Another maelstrom of snow and ice formed around me as I shakily got back to my feet, the roar seemed to have disappeared for now.
"Stop it! You've done enough!"Screamed Penelope.
"JACKIE STOP!"
The fear in her voice stabbed my heart like a knife and I regained control. The storm died down around me, the snow settling back on the ground in large drifts and the ice either softening and becoming snow or going to hang from skeletal tree branches.
I looked around at what had caused her to be so afraid, and saw the icicles sticking out of several motionless chests on the ground on the other side of the clearing. I didn't need to see the red coloured snow to know that they were dead.
I took an involuntary step back in horror, my voice trying to make excuses.
"No. I-I didn't mean..."
I looked at Penelope's face and saw the fear and horror in it.
It translated into my own, which quickly rose up inside me until it reached breaking point.
Another flurry of snow and ice formed around me as I screamed.
A loud high pitched scream shot Nigel and Billy from their exhaustion and they got to their feet to see what was happening.
In front of them seemed to be a concentrated ice and snow storm, while several feet in front of it stood Blondie and about ten of his fellow Descendants who looked nervously at it. One of them showed utter terror and Nigel quickly put a name to the face. Penelope.
Pitch was still around, still looking from the sidelines; although his face had turned into a half sneer half grin at the panicking Jackie.
Behind Blondie lay about half a dozen bodies, each of them had several icicles sticking out of vital parts and they weren't moving. The snow around them had been stained bright and dark red from their icicle injuries.
It didn't take genius to work out what had happened.
"Jackie!" called Nigel. "It's okay, you can stop. Everything's going to be fine!"
The storm didn't stop, in fact it seemed to expand. The blonde boy, who Nigel remembered being called Samuel opened his mouth.
"RETREAT!"
The remaining Descendants of Pitch leapt down the hole with their powers with Pitch looking on, whose face had turned from his half sneer to a little surprised at the turn of events. He then shook his head and disappeared into the shadows, heading to who knew where. Penelope was the last of the Descendants to go for the hole, but as she looked back at the storm, she did something that stunned Nigel and Billy.
She turned around and went into the heart of the storm.
Penelope used her sand to act as a knife to cut her way through the thick flurries of snow to get into the heart of the storm. Shielding her eyes she made it to just outside the centre, where she could see Jackie curled up into a ball with her hands over her ears.
"Jackie! I'm sorry! I really am! You need to stop now, before anyone else gets hurt trying to help you!"
A sob wrenched itself from Jackie's mouth and the storm remained just as strong. Penelope struggled to stay in place as the wind tore at her, but she used her black sand to hold herself in place.
"Jackie! Please! I'm sorry for what I did. You don't need to do this. I'm scared!"
The storm seemed to intensify.
"I'm scared for you! You have to stop this! PLEASE!"
That seemed to finally get through to Jackie and the storm subsided. As soon as Penelope could see clearly she leapt away and down the hole.
I breathed heavily as my power let go of its hold on me and the snow fell to the ground again.
I felt absolutely shattered and emotionally drained. I couldn't even bring myself to cry anymore as I lay in the snow, too tired to even try to stand up.
I felt myself being picked up out of the snow and I could hear the voices of Billy and Nigel, but what they were saying didn't mean anything to me, and I slowly passed out.