Title: The Stork and The Easter Bunny

Chapter Three: Sibling Rivalry

Rated: T

Summary: An old friend comes visits Bunnymund asking for a favor but wants him to keep it an secret from The Guardians of Childhood. Bunny agrees but is wary once his friend literally leads him to hell.

Author's Note: He appears!

The Stork and the Easter Bunny

The river was decorated with bight flower lanterns for the funeral. The dove nurses, Crystal Men guards, and Bunny stood around the lake as Mami placed the small casket into the water.

She stood back up and said a small prayer to herself then she looked at the other dove nursemaid and nodded. Using a stick he pushed the casket further into the water and it drifted away. They all said farewell to the youth. The stork mother broke down into tears again holding her self.

Bunny looked at her.

"Mami?" he said softly.

She wiped her tears away. "Aster, I need your help." Her voice was cracked.

He nodded. "I know."

I never had to deal with anything like this, he thought. How was he going to stop the villain from killing anymore of the children? He didn't know. He sort of felt powerless. Bunny made a fist. "But to be honest I don't know what I can do for you, mate…" he admitted lowering his head.

Mami looked at him surprised.

"Just bring hope," she said softly.

Bunny's heart ached. His eyes snapped and he looked up at her. He smiled. He put his paw on her shoulder. "Mami, we're going to find whoever it is that's making the babies ill and curse the little tots. And I swear whoever the bloody cunt is we're bring them to justice."

She simply nodded and sniffed.

Any other time she would have scolded him for his language.

Her head bumped into his chest. He held her in his arms as she grieved.

.~.

Mami divided her Crystal Guards to search throughout the world while she, Bunny, and Crystal Man had a search team of their own. They walked through a forest looking for any clues.

"I can't believe Bobby is gone…" Mami said out loud in disbelief.

Bunny looked up into the night sky and gazed at the moon.

"I know, but the sooner we find the culprit the safer the rest of the ankle biters will be," Bunny said.

Crystal Man put his huge blocky hand on her shoulder for comfort.

She gave them a small smile. "Thanks guys."

As the traveled deeper into the forest Bunny noticed a crow whose caw sounded like a mocking hackle. He stopped walking to yell at the annoying bird.

"Oh shut up you!"

Bunny looked back and saw a very scared looking Mami and Crystal Man.

He raised a brow. "What? It's just a bird, um, no offensive."

"No. It's not just any bird." She stepped back. The Crystal Man pulled out his sword and shield.

Suddenly more and more appeared until it was a full murder of crows.

"Ohmygod, Ohmygod!" She panicked.

"Mami what's wrong?" Bunny asked.

"We're surrounded!"

Her hands were covering her face and she was practically shaking.

"I-I didn't want to think it was him but of course it was him!" She said dropping to the ground.

Bunny became worried.

"Who? What are you talking about?"

She shook her head and flew up off the ground.

"We need to get out of here, NOW!"

She grabbed onto Bunny and started to fly off with Crystal Man following behind.

"Hey what are you doing? Put me down!" Bunny's feet dangled as she flew them through the trees. She flew them into a city.

"That crow belongs to—"

She was cut off by a chuckle. "So you finally figured it out, huh, Mami?" a voice said.

Bunny's ear twitched. He didn't like what was going to happen next.

A fog appeared around them and they froze. A man in many black feathers and with a raven face appeared perked on a light pole holding one of his crow pets.

"Mami." He smirked.

"Grim…" she gulped.

"Aren't you going to say hello my dear sister?" He said.

Mami cringed.

"How rude." He let go of his crow and it flew into Mami making her and Bunny fall onto a car before hitting the ground. They groaned in pain. Mami rubbed her head and looked up at her brother.

"Wha-what did you do to my babies?" She demanded. "Bobby id dead because of you."

"Your babies? I'm sorry but their souls belong to me now." He opened his cape and it turned into black wings and he flew into the now purple sky.

"They are mine!" Mami yelled. "They were just infants. They never even met their parents yet—"

"Death has no exceptions Mami, you should know that." He said in a chilling voice.

Bunny threw his boomer range at Grim and hit him in his chest. Grim fell back and before he could make sense at what happened Bunny's foot met his face. He landed face first into the sidewalk and Bunny's foot sitting firmly on his temple.

"Now tell us what you done to them you viper." Bunny growled.

"Ever heard of whooping cough, rabbit?" Grim hissed. "It's not common now among the mortals." His eyes looked over at Mami. "But your babies, Stork, have been cooped up with no immunity to anything once so ever. You really should have thought pro-vaccinations."

Mami tensed at this information.

Suddenly a swarm of crows attacked Mami knocking to the ground. The sliced and bruised her body with their breaks.

"Mami!"

When Bunny was distracted Grim took this opportunity to push Bunny off of him and punching him in the jaw.

Bunny flew back. Grim grabbed him by the neck.

At this moment with the help of Crystal Man and his sword Mami had fought through the crows. She smashed them into nothing but dust and feathers. When she turned around she saw Grim overpowering Bunny.

Grim pulled off one of his gloves revealing his hand.

"In just the touch of my hand—no just a finger—a pinkie, you'd be dead and your soul would belong to me." Grim said edging his hand closer and tighten the grip on his neck.

Mami threw her hammer into Grim's face before he could lay a finger on Bunny. His face snapped back and he let go of Bunny.

Her hammer magically flew back to her into her hand.

"Now why did you have to do a thing like that?" Grim asked.

Grim pointed at Mami and a beam of death was coming at her. Crystal Man got in front of her and used his shield. They both were surprised when the shield started to crack and the beam of death blasted into Crystal Man breaking him into pieces. All Mami could do was watch in horror as his shiny purple body turned into nothing but mere coal.

She fell to the ground.

"No…" she said holding his pieces in her hands.

If that wasn't cruel enough Grim pulled out his knife and stabbed it into Bunny's side.

"Arugh!" Bunny screamed. He clenched his side and fell to the ground. He couldn't breath and his vision was getting blurry.

"Nooo!" Mami flew in-between him and Grim. She couldn't let him die too. Grim attempted to punch her but she blocked it with her hammer. She kicked him in his side then smashed her hammer into his chest creating distanced between them. She quickly ran to Bunny holding him in her arm. He was in great pain. The knife still remained in his side. Blood was everywhere.

Grim laughed. He transformed into a horrible looking demon. His black wings spread and crawls replaced his hands. Mami's eyes widen.

"Allow me to welcome you to the other side." He said before zooming towards her and Bunny.

Mami couldn't think of any other options. She took an Easter egg bomb and threw it in front of Grim before he got any closer. Colorful smoke clouded his sight. When it cleared Bunny and Mami was gone. He looked everywhere but couldn't find them and decided to leave. He figured she flew off with him. Unknown to him he should had checked below into the sewer drain that they were standing next to.

.~.

Mami struggled to walk backwards through the polluted smelly water. She tried to raise Bunny up more to avoid the water from getting into his wound.

"I'm so sorry Bunny." Stork said as she pulled him through the sewer.

"Grim is…"

"You never told me you had a brother. Talk about sibling rivalry."

"He's my twin brother but also my enemy, but also my ally. I can't stop him."

Mami cried.

"We…" he paused to bite through the pain he was in. "We just need to find where he lives and save the souls he captured," he said weakly.

Mami looked at where the knife still was jammed in his side. In that area his flesh was starting to deteriorate. He started to look like a person that didn't eat for months trapped in the desert. His ribs were showing and he was bleeding much more than a normal cut would bleed. It looked like the knife was literally draining his life source.

"That knife has to come out or it'll take your soul." She said.

Bunny grunted and nodded preparing himself for it.

"Okay." She grabbed onto the knife and took a deep breath before yanking it out.

"Arugh!"

"Sorry." She said. She looked back at his wound and his fur started to turn to it's normal color and his veins and bones were now unseen.

She tore a piece of her red cap off and wrapped it around his side like a bandage.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah… a little," he said wobbly standing up. She got under his shoulder and supported him on their walk to the end of the sewer.