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Fire blazed all around them, a sheen of sweat appearing on all of their faces. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Bunny down a handful of chocolates before charging into the fight. North’s and Tooth’s swords glinted in the flames as she soared upwards at the plague spirits and he followed the rabbit. Sandy followed Tooth on a cloud as Jack, North, and Bunny ran forward at the dragon. Sera and Pitch flanked them, Pitch prepping his shadows as he summoned his own army to meet the plague spirits. Jack had never been so thrilled to see Nightmares galloping across the skies. Jack caught sight of Sera stopping, and saw her hands moving in a strange pattern as she began to focus. He guessed she was preparing her magic for her task.
Focusing on his own task, he ran to the side as Pillan readied another round of flames. After dodging the burst, he searched for a way onto the dragon’s back to his wings. He couldn’t very well fly up. He was so used to leaping onto the wind that when it didn’t respond to him, he had initially started to panic. A solution came to him in the form of a Nightmare galloping up beside him. It slowed just enough for him to realize its intentions. Grinning, he threaded his fingers through its mane and swung onto its back while running, clinging to its neck as it lifted off again. It nickered, speeding along the streamlined body of the enemy. Jack searched for a good place to jump off, a place where he won’t readily slide off the dragon’s sleek back. It was hard to see past the layer of smoke from the flames, but Jack managed. Remembering his task, he figured the best place to land was actually the wing. So when the Nightmare flew him back along the other side of the dragon, he inhaled quickly and jumped onto the appendage that wasn’t already broken. He’d hoped he’d timed it well enough that he would land on the joint where a single claw protruded, a claw that could potentially be used as a hook. Unfortunately, Jack had not timed it quite as well as he’d wanted and wound up dangling on the wrong side of the limb. He did land on the joint, but the lower half of his body was dangling above the ground rather than being supported by the leathery skin that was Pillan’s wing.
Pillan roared, signaling to Jack that he knew what the Guardian was up to. Jack coughed through the foul smell of the forest burning and stifled his panic. He started to use the momentum of Pillan’s movement to swing himself into the position he wanted. As soon as he had maneuvered himself onto the wing, a burst of flames licked the area where his legs were. His heart hammered at the closeness of the blast, and he held his position long enough to feel reassured that Bunny and North had regained Pillan’s attention. Once he was balanced on the joint and steady enough, he reached for the knife. In his peripheral vision, he caught sight of a plague spirit screeching and diving for him. He fought to remove the weapon from its sheath in time, but found he didn’t need to. The Nightmare had lingered long enough to protect him as he completed his task. Smiling wildly, he pulled the blade free, angled it, then stabbed at the part of the dragon’s wing that met at the joint. Pillan roared again as he attempted to close the wing on Jack. The movement proved too painful even for the dragon as he instead started raising the wing and letting it fall over and over again. Using the strength he had, Jack released the claw at the joint with his one hand and grasped the handle. Using Pillan’s movement against him, Jack used gravity to his advantage and held onto the knife. The knife was lodged in the skin enough that the combined movements of the dragon and Jack’s weight began tearing a hole in the wing. The longer he held on and kept the knife in place, the bigger the hole got and the further down the wing the tear spread. The skin on the wing was strong, so it would take time to truly sabotage it. Jack’s strategy seemed to be working for now, provided he could both hold on and keep the dagger lodged in the wing.
The chocolate Bunny had consumed gave him an absurd amount of strength as well as four extra arms to wield weapons with. North’s laughter as they kept the dragon occupied only egged Bunny on as he threw egg bombs at the dragon’s eyes. They were able to dodge the flames well enough, discovering that the dragon had an increasingly hard time directing flames at them while they hid under his belly. They were fine as long as they could avoid his feet. Being so low to the ground, they managed to find some reprieve from the smoke.
Sandy and Tooth were polishing off enemies left and right, the remains of the plague spirits falling faster than they could react. The additional help from the Nightmares had made their job easy. They watched the others work from above when they found gaps in the attacks, reassured that Jack wasn’t causing himself further harm, North wasn’t rolling around in his mirth too much to defend himself, and Bunny hadn’t wound up outside of his comfort zone just yet. Pitch seemed at home in the chaos and Sera looked downright calm as she worked her magic, calling forth the earth’s strength. Through the smoke, they could also see the flames Pillan had spurt start to spread outwards into the forest, taking down tall, old trees and causing the jungle life to flee, doing more damage than they could hope to stop. Their group would be completely trapped without Bunny.
Pitch didn’t have near as much trouble with the smoke as the others. He was at home in the darkness it provided. With his Nightmares fighting for him, Pitch focused on gathering as many shadows as he was willing to command. Once he had them at the ready, and North and the rabbit were no longer in the way, he cast a dark series of binds under Pillan that tangled his feet and caused him to stumble to a halt. When the dragon landed on his side, Pitch feared that he’d inadvertently caused Jack to get crushed under Pillan. When he saw a white-haired boy roll out of the dragon’s wing unharmed, knife still in hand, Pitch sighed and continued tying Pillan down with his shadows. He bound the head first. Then the legs and tail. He was working on various points along the back when he felt the dragon truly begin to struggle against his handiwork. He could feel the strain against his shadows as the last set fell into place. The strain began draining him as he focused hard on keeping them in place. He certainly hoped Sera didn’t have much longer to do her work. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold this.
Sera felt the ground start to give before they heard the rumble. The crack started at her feet, driving its way towards Pillan. She opened her eyes, feeling the crack in the earth as though it were forming in her gut. She gasped at the weight of her work, watching the fissure open up and start to swallow the dragon. When he realized what her intentions were, it was not anger that ran across his face. No, it was terror. He was terrified to be trapped in the earth again. Pitch’s binds held him in place though he struggled against his doom. He roared, belting flames in panic, unwilling to sink back into the earth in which he’d been imprisoned for so long. Tears ran from
Sera’s eyes at the sight of that fear, despite the fact that she knew he wasn’t going to survive the entrapment this time.
As the fissure opened wider, Jack stumbled his way to Pitch. He coughed more as he moved, the heat affecting him a lot more than he cared to admit. While the others moved naturally, he felt sweat pouring from his cold body and could hardly breathe. The earth shaking brought him to his knees many times, and he missed the wind and snow more than ever. He made his way to Pitch, who stood protectively over him as the dragon slipped into the crack in the world. Pitch’s shadows dragged Pillan down, and Jack could see Pitch growing weaker from the pull on his abilities. Eventually the only parts of Pillan not in the trench Sera had created were his head and one of his clawed hands. This was about the time Jack witnessed the truly remarkable extent of Mother Nature’s abilities: the fissure in the earth began closing up again.
At this, Bunny opened the portal to his Warren and started ushering people to it. Pitch and Jack moved slowly towards the tunnel, unsteady on their feet and still focused on keeping the dragon in the fissure. Tooth and Sandy dove for their exit, North following shortly after. Bunny beckoned them onward, but Jack couldn’t leave Pitch. The Nightmare King looked so completely drained by the time he was comfortable loosing the binds he’d created for the dragon that Jack had started leading him by the arm, afraid he might fall. Jack stumbled, still trying to hurry Pitch to the exit when Pillan roared and stretched his free hand outward.
To their horror, he’d managed to grab Sera up in his fist. “If I go, you go with me! You will not leave me alone again, Gaia!” the dragon cried. Jack panicked at the dragon’s words and the sight of Sera struggling in his clawed hand. She opened her mouth to scream, but either the breath was being squeezed out of her or the rumble of the earth drowned out the noise. Meanwhile, the crack was closing and Pillan was sinking ever faster. Jack prepared to run for her, but Pitch caught him by the shoulder.
“Go with the Guardians!” he shouted over the rumbling.
“We can’t—!”
“I’ll save her!” Pitch’s words were barely coherent. The edge and terror in the Nightmare King’s voice and face made Jack even more reluctant to obey.
Despite the heat and sweat and weakness in his body, Jack resolved not to by stifling a cough and squinting at his Boogeyman. “I’m not leaving you!” Before he could say anything else, Pitch pulled him into a tight hug. Jack gasped at the contact, and found himself being consumed with dread. “Pitch, don’t—.”
“I love you, Jack Frost,” were the last words Pitch breathed into his ear as he slipped the knife from the sheath on Jack’s arm.
“Don’t do this, Pitch!” But Pitch had already braced his hands against Jack’s shoulders. “Pitch!” The Nightmare King shoved Jack backwards into Bunny’s open arms, and suddenly he was falling down a grassy tunnel. “NO!” He felt everything inside of him sink like lead as the opening of the tunnel closed and he lost sight of Pitch Black.
Once the tunnel closed, Pitch ran to his daughter. He gripped the knife in his hand as if it were the only thing that could save her. It just might be. Fear brewed inside him as he leapt over the cracks and kept his balance despite the shudders of the earth. His breathing was just as irregular as his heartbeat and everything inside of him felt like it was going to explode if he didn’t get to Sera in time. The distance between him and the giant green fist she was sealed in felt like it kept expanding, and his panic kept rising as he felt like he was getting slower and slower.
When Pitch finally did reach the fist of the dragon, he sank the knife deep into one of its claws, trying his best to force it open. He could almost feel Sera’s breath being forced out of her by the tightness of Pillan’s grip. “Hold on, Sera!” he screamed, digging the knife deeper. He heard Pillan’s bellow as he was being dragged down into the fissure. The clawed hand began sliding with the rest of him as the roars became muffled by the rumbling. Pitch held onto the hand, determined to free Sera or go down trying. The dragon’s end came to pass as he sank, a sudden pop echoing briefly with the rumble as the life was snapped out of the dragon and he breathed his last. The knowledge that they’d accomplished their goal visibly shook Pitch’s daughter. Sera seemed more in pain from the sound of his fate than from the knowledge that she was still trapped in Pillan’s death grip.
However, the grip on her did loosen ever so slightly. He left the knife lodged in the dragon’s digit as he grabbed for Sera’s hands. He was relieved to feel her latching onto him through her tears. His powers were drained from restraining Pillan, but he summoned them all the same to further widen the hand and free Sera. The shadows were weak, but she slipped free anyway, gasping for air and crumpling on top of Pitch as the last of Pillan disappeared into the earth and the crack started sealing itself closed. When Pitch was able to stand, he got on his feet and tried pulling his daughter onto hers. He started glancing around for a way out of the fiery circle they were ensnared in. He breathed shallowly watching the results of his daughter’s work and the dragon’s end. Pillan’s demise had sent nearly all the plague spirits fleeing. All but one.
And that one had sent a spear straight through Pitch’s abdomen.
“DADDY!” Sera screamed as he fell to his knees before collapsing beside his daughter.
Jack landed among the Guardians and immediately started looking for ways to leave the Warren on foot. He was surprised that Bunny hadn’t tried to restrain him with his six (six!) arms.
“I need to go back!” he shouted, pacing frantically.
“That is not good thinking, Jack. Pitch wanted you here,” North told him.
“I don’t care if he wanted me here! I need to go back!” Jack argued. He clutched at his chest as a fit of coughs racked him. “I can’t believe I left him.”
“It’s what he wanted, mate,” Bunny tried to reassure him. But it was hard listening to the steroid (or chocolate, rather)-induced voice of the kangaroo.
“Jack—.”
“What?!” he snapped at Tooth, frustrated.
“Your hoodie,” she whispered. He saw Sandy pointing at it as well, the Sandman’s eyes wide.
Jack looked down at himself, wondering what they were staring at. Before his eyes, the black hoodie began to fade. He grabbed at the cloth, confused by the change. When it started to turn blue again, the realization dawned on him. He yanked up his sleeve, searching for Rin’s mark. His breath hitched and his heart stopped as it, too, began to fade. “No.” He grabbed at his skin, running his nails over the scars of the attack. The scars that had once been gray were now turning pale. “No!” His hoodie was completely blue now, the skin on his forearm the same color as the rest of him. He grabbed his head, searching for Rin and realizing he wasn’t going to find him ever again, realizing that the part of him that had begun to accommodate the Fearling was nothing but an empty space. No, not an empty space. He felt like he had just had an extra layer of skin, a tumor that had been growing on his scalp, removed. He remembered Rin’s words, remembered what he’d said would kill him. Suddenly, Jack heard nothing, felt nothing, saw nothing but the need to run back up the tunnel and find evidence that what was happening couldn’t possibly be true. “NO!”
“Jack!” He hadn’t realized he’d actually started running until he’d hit Bunny’s chest. Jack started hitting him, trying to free himself from the rabbit’s grip, trying any and everything to find his way up to the surface. “Jack, stop—.”
“Please, please, please,” Jack said over and over again as he fought Bunny’s hold. By the time he was too weak to continue fighting, he wasn’t sure what he was begging for. His chest heaved, his throat ached, his heart stilled, and his limbs numbed as he crumpled to the ground, mouthing words that he wasn’t sure he remembered the meaning of. He was barely aware of the tears streaming down and freezing on his cheeks. He was even less aware of the arms that held him close, or the words being whispered into his ear. The only words he seemed to hear were Pitch’s last. When his tongue finally stilled and he couldn’t speak anymore, the heaving turned to sobs and he instead buried his face in the fur on Bunny’s chest, creating fists in the rabbit’s gray coat. The weight of reality crushed him, but he couldn’t say the words. He couldn’t tell the Guardians what he knew. They’d likely already figured it out just from looking at him. But he couldn’t say it. Not when he was sobbing at the very thought of it.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” Bunny uttered as he returned to his normal state, holding the winter spirit in his arms.
He stared up at the other Guardians, who surrounded them both and reached out in an attempt to comfort them. Jack wasn’t the only one devastated by this realization. Bunny knew full well that if Pitch hadn’t been enough to save her from Pillan . . . .
He squeezed his eyes shut and held the broken boy tighter. Warm water flowed between Bunny’s lids, but the tears buried themselves in his fur. Everything inside him came to a grinding halt and suddenly, his body felt like it had become an internal, dry wasteland. The last of the moisture that kept him alive flowed from his eyes. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop thinking of the feeling of his paw running over orchids and one aster, tangled in dark hair.