Thank you so much for your wait updates have been quite chaotic, but there's a reason. This part of the story is very important. This is my favorite chapter, because my favorite character, Sandy, is back.

Chapter Nine: Heartbeat of a Globe

Sandman continued his rageful expression. Pitch felt his old fear of the Guardian of Dreams return. Those eyes, they looked as if they were on fire. It was haunting.

"I have Jack Frost now and I will have you," he tried to regain his footing but fell back when the golden sand started to glow through the dark sand.

Sandman was consumed in rage. Pitch tried to put out the fire by sending Sandman into his deepest fear. He sent images of that time when the child was so scared of Sandman the child thought Sandman was a monster, but it was too late for the Boogeyman to realize. The golden sand was glowing. A battle was about to begin between sweet dreams and nightmares.

"A fight you want, Sandman! I'm stronger!" Pitch formed a scythe in his hand with his black sand.

Sandman prepared his whips. The glow of the whips were much dimmer than before, but with all the darkness, it appeared much brighter than it really was.

Pitch let out a yell and swung at the Sandman. The words Pitch muttered before didn't seem to have no effect on Sandman's spirit. Even thought, Pitch was stronger, because all the lights he blew out. Just one beam of light made the room much brighter. There were still many shadows.

"You're weak. Don't waste my time with this pathetic fight," he smiled when he realized just moving around made the Sandman out of breath, "fall back into my fear. Look at yourself you still look like fearling."

Sandy fell down. He looked down at his tiny hands and saw his whole body wrapped in black sand. Behind, the globe barely glowed. Most of the light in the room came from his weak whips. For a second, Sandy felt the world turn back to the darkness until-

"Jack Frost is already taken care of the other Guardians," Pitch taunted.

Sandy leaned on the globe with one hand he touched it, and lifted himself up. All the energy he could take out of himself he formed a sword it was in flames.

"Very well then," Pitch then ran at him with his scythe.

Sandy felt something when he touched the globe a heartbeat. It was barely there, but it was there. He had to fight for them.

BANG! The two clashed their weapons, but Sandy with one stroke of his sword transformed Pitch's scythe into golden petals. They slowly floated away from his dark hands. Drifted up into the air. Brightened up the dark lair, and the shadows in the room grew smaller.

Sandy continued to aim his sword towards Pitch who just stood still, terrified. Sandy took advantage of Pitch's fear to hide the fact he grown weak. With this time he wrapped Pitch up in his golden whips.

"J-Jack… Jack is already finished with the other Guardians-" Pitch tried to taunt.

Sandy formed his golden sand into tape, and covered Pitch's. Sandy assumed he knew where the Guardians where that was the least of his worries. Still, he just hoped he could make it in time. Sandy formed a magic carpet with his golden sand. He put Pitch behind him still tied up in golden sand, and Pitch's mouth covered.

The speed he went was much slower than before. He hoped it wasn't slow enough for Pitch to notice. Sandman was afraid of being afraid next to the Creator of Nightmares, but he couldn't help it. Any second his energy will deflate, and he will fall head first into the ground. Pitch would be free and the nightmare would begin, again. Maybe, he would make it in the nick of time to save the Guardians, but his energy would've been weakened by then.

Sandman expected if he turned his head back to Pitch he would've looked miserable. Probably, Pitch would've thought to himself that this was an addition to his list of failures. However, Pitch didn't look miserable at all rather calm. Sandy worried if Pitch noticed that Sandy's energy has been decreasing.

Then, Sandy felt it. That feeling he felt when he was brought back to life by the belief of children. The hand he touched the globe with felt warm. He looked at it and saw it had returned to his normal golden color. The rest of his body was still consumed by the darkness.

He had to continue to fight even if he was running on the last of his energy. The children, even the child that thought he was a monster, he had to continue for them. Sandy had fallen on the path of darkness, but he was going to pick himself up, again. He put his hand on his chest and he felt his energy increase.

The darkness had disappeared.

North and Tooth were covered in injuries, but continued their fight. North still held his sword up in the air to put an end to the darkness that consumed the Workshop. Tooth brushed off the specs of black sand that stuck to her knuckles and continued on her brawl. Still, they felt the weight of the loss of their believers. North felt the swords heavy. Tooth couldn't fly anymore. They finished off many Night Mares only for more to appear. It seemed like there was an infinite amount of them.

"North, you have to leave Christmas is too important!" Tooth yelled across the battlefield.

"No way, Toothy, I can't leave ya'!" he slayed a Night Mare in front of him.

"North, please, we lost everyone. You're the one that is going to save us," Tooth punched her way to get closer to North. "You, yourself can see this is a losing battle. Let me lose that way you can win," she put her back on North's.

Both stood back to back against each other. They continued to fight and protecting each other.

"Toothy, I can't lose you too," North spoke quietly.

"You have to remember what is important," Tooth reminded him.

Before, North said anymore words something appeared in front of him. The figure in front was about to hit North with a black staff. Tooth quickly jumped in front and caught Jack's staff with her bare hands.

"Jack?" North asked and hoped that would be enough to bring back Jack.

"North, run!" Tooth said and continued to hold onto Jack's staff.

The Winter Fearling made his staff colder to make it harder on Tooth to hold, but she wasn't affected by the cold. She continued to try to push him back with the force she put on the staff. He would've panicked over the fact he was losing, but he noticed that she didn't look at him. She didn't want to hurt him.

"North, run," Tooth said much weaker voice.

The Winter Fearling took advantage and kicked her back. She fell down on the ground. He noticed North, but even if North had swords he didn't use them. Once again, he took an advantage, and aimed his staff at North.

"Jack, it's me North your friend," North spoke.

Jack's head began to ring. He looked down at Tooth on the ground who held her stomach in pain, and then looked at North's sad eyes.

"Why did you hurt them," that awful voice returned.

"He said he know where she is," Jack answered nervously and covered his ears.

"Who?" North asked.

Why did he feel guilty. He watched as the Night Mares surrounded both of the defeated Guardians, until they disappeared from his sight.

Tooth and North tried to fight to get closer to Jack again, but the darkness was endless.

A sound of an explosion interrupted the battle. The two remaining Guardians looked up at the wave of golden sand that flew in and turned the dark sand into gold. It was an echo to their last battle the gold transformed into beautiful creatures. Elephants to mythical dragons surrounded them. The two felt their powers return. Tooth slowly floated up in the air and North didn't feel his swords heavy on his hands.

"Sandy!" North squealed in joy at the sight of their savior.

"What about Jack?" Tooth asked.

The two guardians looked around. He was gone.

Sandy made a wave and surfed his way down. When, Sandy touched the ground he didn't even have a second before he was surrounded by hugs.

"But how?" Tooth asked Sandy.

Sandy pointed at the magic carpet above where Pitch was tied up and then at the globe as the lights grew. The globe spun around and showed the beautiful lights glow once again. Except, when it got to the town of Burgess it was covered in dark sand.

The remaining Guardians exchanged nervous expressions. They could hear Pitch chuckle through the tape in his mouth. Sandy brought the magic carpet down and removed the tape.

"Did you forget about the boy, Sandy. Remember when I said he was the most powerful fearling I ever created," Pitch laughed.

Sandy looked back to see horrified expressions of the Guardians.

"Did he turn the boy to a fearling?" North asked.

"That is why he kidnapped him," Tooth gasped.

"How does a child-," North stopped in disbelief.

"The protectors of children have to fight a child that's precious," Pitch continued to laugh.

Sandy quickly covered Pitch's mouth with sand, again. Still, the words echoed and hurt. There was no noise or comment that followed just silence as the globe spun away from the town of Burgess to show the rest of the lights.

"All right, North, you stay here," Tooth spoke quietly, "you have to make Christmas happen no matter what we need as much power as possible."

"I need you two to save Jamie, and if you know where Bunny or Jack is go forth," North followed.

Sandy followed too by projecting an image of Pitch in a cage above his head.

"Phil! Prepare clean up!" North yelled.

Tooth and Sandy grabbed North's snow globe from what was left of North's office. Sandy made a question mark appear on top of his head.

"If I were Bunny I be here," she said and threw the globe.

Sandy saw a beautiful australian forest in front of him. The smell of wet grass grew louder as they walked in.

North watched from a distance, but he couldn't spend too much time. Christmas was tonight.

There was a sound of a massive explosion. Bunnymund watched his Pooka planet shake endlessly. Everyone around him screamed and ran around, frantically. He followed confused.

"What is going on?" Bunnymund asked. Eventually, the earthquake stopped like if his words caused it. Before Bunnymund's second breath the Pooka kind turned eerily silent. They stood still as the world began to fade, slowly. All his people faded in front of him one by one, and all looked terried. Some of them would reach out to him only to fade before he could reach out for them.

"No, no!" he yelled. He saw a Pooka child and picked her up. He held her in his arms tightly only for her to disappear. "I can't save you!" he fell to his knees. All around him the buildings started to fade. All he could do was watch everyone and everything fade around him. Why didn't he fade also?

"Bunny," someone touched his back.

He looked back only to see what was left of his planet disappearing from behind. He was watching his race fall extinct.

"Tooth?" he remembered that voice. Then, he saw the ground below him begin to disappear, "Tooth get away it's not safe!"

"What do you mean?" Tooth asked.

"Get away before it's too late!" he yelled at the voice that he didn't know the origin, "I can't save you." Eventually everything faded away and there was nothing. Bunnymund saw no ground below him just endless amount of nothing. He ran around looking for survivors, but only saw nothing. There's no hope just nothing.

"Bunny please come back to us," she spoke again. A tiny golden butterfly flew in front of him.

"But, it's too dangerous," Bunnymund said and held the butterfly in his hands to protect, "What if you disappear too?" As he said that the golden butterfly disappeared.

Tooth and Sandy appeared in front of him. "We're here for you," Tooth said. Sandy nodded his head in agreement.

"That Pitch made me see my planet disappear, again," Bunnymund rubbed his head. "I can see how he got in Jack's head," he said and watched the world around him, empty.

"He also got to Jamie," Tooth said, "but we got Sandy back."

Sandy walked closer to Bunnymund. "Glad to see you back, mate," Bunnymund felt himself get teary eyed. With the hand Sandman touched the globe with he held Bunnymund hand, and then the empty world disappeared.

"Bunny," Tooth said happily and hugged Bunnymund. Sandy also joined tackling down both of them with his weight.

"Mate, ya may be small, but ya heavy," Bunnymund said. He looked down and saw the black sand disappear from his body. "What about the boy?"

Sandy gestured Tooth to speak,and then put his head down in defeat.

"Jamie is a fearling,"

Next chapter we find out more about Jamie. Everything that has been going wrong went wrong and now there's time for hope that is why this chapter just brings that. Still, now the guardians have to face the thing they protect, a child!

I enjoyed writing this chapter so much I love writing fights, and also I love writing about the guardians. I find them so enjoyable you can see me just loving them by making North squeal and hug scenes. Yes, somehow this story had some Guardian fluff. I don't want this story to go dark, but well next chapter will make that difficult, oops.

I think most of you will enjoy the next chapter which is the last one. Yes this story is coming to an end. I know this story isn't popular, but I extremely enjoy writing it, including finishing it. It is rare for fanfiction stories to be completed especially one that took a long hiatus since 2013, but it's possible.