Vengeance

What Now, Princess?

Sandy sat in North's extensive library in a meditative position. He breathed slowly and opened his hands palm-up, golden sand spiraling out and away as Bunny watched silently from the corner.

The longer Sandy sat like that, the more strained his facial expression seemed to get, which in turn began to agitate Bunny. However, he forced himself to be patient as he sat and watched with a frown while the little man searched for their friend.

Sandy had to work with the time zones, briefly brushing across every single sleeping mind in the hopes that one of them would be Jack. As he worked, he caught glimpses of the dreams of the children, which was his favorite part of his job. He loved giving them good dreams and watching them smile in their sleep as their imaginations ran wild. Dreaming unleashed a freedom seldom found in the waking world.

So when a tendril of sand graced Jamie Bennett's bedroom and found him in the middle of a night terror, Sandy knew something was wrong. He paused in his search and opted instead to dive into the boy's dream, hoping to remedy the fear with something light and happy and good.

And then everything went wrong.

The tendrils of sand stretching out from Sandy began to spin into a swirling, out-of-control pillar of golden sand. Bunny jumped up and shouted in alarm, but was soon forced to take cover from the stinging grains behind an overturned table. Sandy's brow furrowed, his eyes shut tight, as he renewed his effort to free Jamie of his nightmare. Suddenly, the sand whipping through the room turned black, and Sandy's hands began to fade from their brilliant golden color into a dark, glittering black. The blackness spread slowly up his arms, and it wasn't until Bunny leapt through the whirlwind and tackled Sandy that the chaos settled and he returned to his normal color.

Sandy didn't waste a second in leaping from the floor and rushing out of the room, leaving Bunny on the floor looking shaken and confused.

The door to North's office crashed open, startling the large man so much that he whipped out his dual blades and began waving them frantically.

"ARRRGGGHH–oh, Sandy, it's just you!" North exclaimed, sagging back into his armchair and sheathing his swords. Sandy began rapid fire signing.

Pitch is back, and more powerful than before. He's targeting Jamie, and, by extension, Jack. His nightmare sand seems to have the capability to act like a poison... it almost corrupted me again.

Both Sandy and North shuddered at the memory of Sandy's defeat that fateful night when they'd been out collecting teeth.

Also... Sandy paused and bit his lip, Pitch seems to have found an ally. A girl named Mirage, capable of creating incredibly powerful and realistic optical illusions and hallucinations.

North put his face in his hands as he processed the new information. Bunny finally stumbled into the room and all but collapsed into North's other chair.

"This is not good," North muttered gravely. "Did you at least find Jack?"

Sandy shook his head forlornly. I've been searching for hours. No sign of him.

"So... what now?" Bunny asked, his voice betraying how nervous he was.

North shook his head. "Now, all we can do is wait."

~~~

Jack leaned on the railing of the ship, watching as the waves slapped against its wooden sides. The salty breeze ruffled his hair and chilled his back where there were still tears in the fabric of his hoodie.

"There you are!" Jack turned when he heard the familiar Scottish accent to see Merida marching towards him. He stood up straight and took a couple steps toward her.

"What now, Princess?"

Merida scowled at the nickname. "We're almost at Corona," she said, deliberately ignoring his attempt to annoy her and placing her hands on her hips. "When we get there, the first thing I need to do is to get my hands on a new bow."

"What happened to your old one?" Jack asked. Merida's face soured.

"My mother destroyed it," she huffed, turning away and clutching the railing. Jack hesitated before joining her.

"You and your mother don't really get along, do you? Is that why you ran away?"

Merida gazed out over the ocean, her melancholy stare unbroken as each wave slapped the side of the ship. Jack waited for her to answer, but eventually just accepted the companionable silence.

Finally, Merida sighed. "My mother's trying to marry me off to some bloke I don't even know. She's been training me up to be a queen my whole life, but it's just... not my thing. It's her thing! I could never be like her, she's too... ARGH!" Merida's hands flew up and she pulled some of her red curls down to hide her face. Jack couldn't help but chuckle at her dramatic reaction to her predicament, but it only served to aggravate her further.

"Oh, shut it! You don't know what it's like to be constantly watched and judged and found, just, lacking! Berated for every wrong move, forced into a life of perfection and fake smiles! No one can see who I really am! No one even pretends like they want to see the real me!"

Jack froze as her words seemed to echo in his head. No one can see who I really am!

"Well, if it helps, no one can see who I really am either," Jack suggested with a shrug. Merida opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. An awkward silence filled the next several minutes before Merida slowly backed away from the railing and made her way down into the belly of the ship.

"I'm so stupid!" she hissed angrily, yanking at her red curls. "I shouldn't have said anything! He's a winter spirit, Merida! You're just a girl who can shoot a bow! Of course he wouldn't understand!"

But despite her harsh self-talk, Merida knew deep down that right then, Jack was the only one in her life who really could understand.