Chapter 7

Jack laid unconscious in one of the rooms off to the side of the workshop in North's home. His chest and stomach region were bandaged up as his eyes were squeezed shut and a flurry of snow and sand swirled around his unconscious form—most of it congregated around his stab wound seeming to heal it by stitching the gash closed with threads made of blackened sand.

Outside the room the corrupted spirit laid in, the remaining Guardians talked amongst themselves, unsure of what to do now—with Sandy being gone and Bunny out of commission for the time being, they had to be really careful with their next course of action, especially with them knowing that Pitch would be enraged.

"What are we going to do now, North? We are the only two left that could fight Pitch and even now I feel myself growing weaker and weaker as time goes on...I only worry about what's happening to my faeries…" Toothania said with a worried look in her eyes, grasping her hands together tight.

"Do not worry Tooth, we just have to wait till Bunny's wounds heal and then we can think of way to bring back Sandy!" North announced with giant smile and a hefty laugh. "After all, Christmas is coming soon and with that much joy, there's no way children wouldn't believe...for now, I'll help you gather your teeth...we need all the belief we can—"

North was silenced by the sound of a door creaking open and a grunt of pain as Bunnymund limped over wrapped head to tail in a series of gauzes and bandages, all soaked with dried blood in desperate need to be changed. "D-Don't tell me y-you guys we're going on a mission without me…" Bunny said between pants, chuckling in a joking manner as he held his side, wincing from his wounds.

"Bunny no! You need to rest...you still aren't fully healed!" Tooth cried, flying over to him and trying to encourage him to go back to his room to rest.

"I'm perfectly fine! Don't think some scratches can stop me! After all, I still wanna get back at that brat who did this to me," the Pooka growled, eyes narrowing with rage as Tooth and North looked at each other a bit nervously.

"What? Why're you lookin at me like that?" Bunny asked, his anger melting into confusion in a matter of seconds.

"W-Well...umm...it's a bit of a long story but...umm...oh dear—."

"I think it's best if we just showed you…."

Bunnymund still looked confused as he was led to the room that the unconscious winter spirit was in. The room basically looked like a winter wonderland and the temperature seemed to drop into the negatives the second the door was opened causing all three to shiver.

"W-Why is this devil child here!?" Bunny snapped at North before turning to the unconscious boy and going to storm into the room to throttle him, himself but the second his foot touched the ice and snow covered floor—two serpents with scales of ice and black sand formed from the floor, one's eyes glowing gold while the other glowed violet. Both snakes hissed, baring their fangs as Bunny was quickly yanked back while the snakes coiled around their master protectively, both had their eyes focused on the guardians ready to strike at a moments notice.

"Be careful Bunny!" Tooth shouted, checking to see if her friend was okay.

"Ughh..Dammit, I'm fine...but you still haven't told me why he is here," Bunny stares, crossing his arms, eyes narrowing at the boy but also cause the room was seeming to darken as time went on, even with it being fully lit, it was as if the shadows were absorbing the light completely.

"While you were unconscious bunny we had gone out to bring back Sandy with help from the children…"

"And it had almost worked when Pitch and Jack showed up...Pitch mostly stayed to the side while Jack sent his minions to fight us, one of them hurting the children really badly in the process.."

"We were about to lose when Tooth—."

North was stopped as Toothania clutched his arm tightly, her head hung. It took Bunny a moment before piecing everything together and going to comfort the faerie, telling her that everything would be okay and that she needed to do what she had to in order to keep the children safe.

With that, Tooth started to tear up, silently weeping as she hugged Bunny and buried her face in his shoulder. The rabbit winced for a moment but didn't let it show as he held her close and ran a hand up and down her back to let her know that it was going to be okay. He then turned to North,"So...what's the plan?" He asked.

"At first I thought to go collect the teeth but for now it would be best to wait and prepare for Christmas, as well as using this dreamsand we gathered to bring Sandy back...it may take a bit but we have plenty of time," North chimed, sounding a bit more jolly than before as he gestured for them to leave the room, taking one last look back at the sleeping spirit before closing the door behind him.