CHAPTER FIVE –

Jack wondered why the horses looked so familiar.

He was almost certain that today was the first day that he had seed the beasts. Almost being the key word. There was a part of him that was screaming at him to remember the real first time that he had seen the stallions. They weren't anything like Sandy's creations, the dreams that he gave to the children of the world. Maybe the first time he saw them was when he followed Pitch.

Or maybe the first time was before he was a spirit.

The 'pull' was getting strong again, stronger than before, but Jack couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. How was he supposed to know? There wasn't a spirit that welcomed other spirit to the spirit life and told them what their purpose was. It took him two years of Apple and April having a go at him for being at the wrong place at the wrong time until him, not fully, understood what was going on. He doesn't even now, after 300 years. No matter what he does, there's always this feeling that he should be doing something else.

He had a feeling that it was a little bit more than being a Guardian.

He followed the nightmare through the streets, weaving in and out of the lampposts and the occasional car. It wasn't until it was on the roof of some business building that he managed to hit it with some ice. By the time he had caught up with it, it was stuck to the ground, and Sandy and the other nightmare wasn't in sight. Jack prodded the nightmare with his staff, carefully, making sure it was dead; it wouldn't do if he turned his back and it attacked him.

"I thought you said that you weren't friends with them." Jack jumped in mid-air, spinning while his did, then smiled.

"I think you are the first person who has scared me like that. Not many can sneak up on me." Pitch looked over to see his nightmare, frozen. His face looked surprised. Clearly he hadn't thought of that, thought Jack. Well, to be fair, neither had he.

"Yes, well. You were clearly busy. You know, if you accepted the Guardians offer, it would have killed you, you need followers to survive." Pitch looked pleased at himself for saying this fact, he obviously wanted to separate Jack from the Guardians; he was too much of a wild card. A wild card that he didn't know about.

"Wrong! Seasonal spirits don't need followers, not matter what happens to them. While it would make them stronger, seasonal fading mean what would happen when Old Man Winter faded – hi Sandy!"

Pitch looked next to him to see the Sandman looking up at him angrily. He had small puffs of sand coming out of his ears and a nasty frown on his face. He seemed to be angrier about something else, rather than what was going on right now. Pitch smiled, so alike to Jack's, yet not.

"Ah, just the spirit I was looking for."

The rest was a blur for Jack.

Sandy and Pitch were fighting, but there something familiar about them, about this whole Pitch thing anyway. This was the longest he had seen Pitch in one place, longer than at the Tooth Palace. The two spirit's sand was mixing and it was hard to tell which sand belonged to whom. Though it was obvious to see that Sandy was winning.

Jack's head began to throb, painfully. But he blamed the long day and no sleep on it. While spirits didn't need as much sleep as humans, they had to sleep at least 24 hours every month. Jack usually slept at the beginning of the month, this year had called for lots of snow and Jack had now 5 weeks without a good night sleep. Funnily enough, he didn't have dreams, but he didn't was to take the chance of having a nightmare until Pitch was dealt with.

"Okay, okay, I get it." Pitch was now on the tarmac, and Jack followed Sandy down. When he had first became a spirit, he was weary of everyone, except Sandy. It was like his instincts told him, if he couldn't trust anyone, not even the world, Sandy could always be trusted. No matter what. It wasn't like there wasn't anything to say he shouldn't put his trust in him either.

"You can have them back." Jack snapped out of his daydreaming to notice the nightmares surrounding them.

"You take the ones on the left and I take the ones on the right?" jack attempted humour, but now wasn't really the time to crack a joke.

"Boo!"

If you have never seen a few hundred nightmares charge at you all at once, consider yourself lucky. It was one of the scariest thing that Jack had seen to date, if you didn't include the things that he didn't remember. Pitch had disappeared for the moment, but that wasn't Jacks biggest concern.

Before Jack could do anything, Sandy had caught hold of Jack's hand and pulled them both up into the sky, Sandy making a dream sand cloud and Jack using the wind to make him fly. The Sandman make whips and started to disintegrate the stallions making both of the different coloured sand mix while Jack used his ice powers and agility to dodge and freeze them. It wasn't long before he got into a routine of ducking, jumping and prodding with his staff. To Jack, they seemed to be doing this forever and a day until the rest of the Guardians showed up.

They were still half asleep, but they managed to make it to the fight scene. After they got over the shock of what was happing, they joined in too. Bunny got out his boomerangs and started to throw them at the nightmares while North got out his swords and started to swing them with perfect accuracy, taking more than five nightmares at once. However, Tooth seemed weaker due to the decrease in followers, and was sloppy in her movements, meaning that North had to watch her back. And try as they want, none could get close enough to Sandy to give him the relief he needed.

HEY GUYS! HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER, NO EVEN AFTER A WEEK AFTER THE PREVIOUS ONE CAME OUT! I'VE EVEN GOT THE NEXT CHAPTER WRITTEN (SHOCKING, I KNOW RIGHT) JUST IN CASE I HAVE ANOTHER BOUT OF WRITER'S BLOCK THAT LEAVES ME FACING MY WALL ALL DAY WONDERING WHAT I SHOULD DO WITH MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW, I'M GONNA START TO WORK ON A TOKYO GHOUL FIC BASED ON BLACK TAPES BY TIMELESS TEARS ON AO3. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THAT I RECOMMEND IT.

NIGHT!