Rise of the Guardians: Burning the Phoenix

Chapter 9 - Is the Battle Won?

Bunny stared in silence at the surface of the water, half hoping that he would see the pale limb burst from it once more, but nothing happen. Jack was gone.

“You killed him!” Pitch screamed from his cage. “I hope you feel real proud of yourselves! You not only let him die, but you did everything in your power to make sure that he did! Take that back to the future with you!”

Bunny lifted his paws, examining them as if he expected to see Jack’s hand still tightly wrapped in them. They weren’t. The guardian of hope covered his face as he felt a fresh batch of tears mat down the fur around his eyes. “I had him,” he muttered. “I had him in my hands and I let him go. I gave him false hope.”

“We had to do it, Bunny,” Tooth responded, though she didn’t sound too sure of herself either. “It had to be done.”

“Just because it had to be doesn’t make it feel any right.”

“Do you think that this is over?” Pitch taunted with a smirk gracing his twisted features. “So I lost this time? Big deal. I will just go to a different point in time, since I can’t return to this one. If I kill his sister early on, then he will have to reason to sacrifice himself, nor anyone to sacrifice his life for.”

“You vill leave little girl out of it,” North hissed, marching up to the entrapped shadow man. “Ve vill never allow you to hurt her.”

“Funny,” Pitch hummed. “I seem to remember hearing you say the same thing about someone else, and see how that turned out?”

North was silent. With a burning sensation growing in his eyes, he turned from Pitch and walked back over to Tooth and Bunny, ruffling Sandy’s hair tenderly as he passed. Bunny didn’t even acknowledge that the man was there.

“How do we get back?” Tooth asked, backing away from her hug on Bunny’s back in order to wipe at her own tears. North shrugged.

“Ve didn’t really think that far,” he stated. “Maybe ve vait?”

“For hundreds of years?” Tooth questioned. “I don’t think so.”

Fear not. All is right. All is well.

All of them, even Pitch, jumped at the sudden voice that seemed to come out of nowhere, and yet everywhere all at once. An image of a clock formed over Sandy’s head as he glanced around.

The air changed around them. The sounds of nature vanished and even the light breeze quieted as time stood still. The only movement to be seen was the swirl of white sand, which formed into the familiar form of Tai M. Keeper.

“You have done what was needed,” he said as he strode across the frozen pond towards them. “Jack is becoming well again, thanks to my presence, he only received minimal time disruptions problems and should be waking up quite soon.”

“Did you know?” Bunny asked, standing at his full height. He glared daggers at the man, whom only smile faintly in return. “Did you know what it was that we had to do here?”

Tai nodded slowly. “I did.”

Suddenly, Bunny rushed at him. North managed to catch him before the rabbit could strike at Tai M. Keeper. “Bunny!” he shouted as Bunny struggled against his hold. “Stop, Bunny! Vhat are you doing?!”

“He knew!” Bunny hissed. “He knew and yet he didn’t say a thing to me; to us. He made us go through all of that without even a hint of a warning about what our real mission was!”

“If I had told you,” Tai M. Keeper began to explain, “not only would you probably not have believed me, but it would have compelled you to try to find some other way around it, further disrupting history and hurting your friend in the process. Jack couldn’t have taken the risk. I did what I had to do, as was the same for you.”

“Take us back,” Tooth spoke up finally. “Please. I need to see him. I need to see him breathing and laughing and not…” She trailed off as her eyes wandered to the break in the ice once again.

“That is why I am here, Miss. Tooth.” Tai M. Keeper lifted his hand, revealing an hourglass. “When he awakens, he will need his friends there to welcome him.”

“Vhat about Pitch?” North asked, gesturing with his head at the shadow man, who was frozen in time as well. “He vill never give up.” North released Bunny, whom no longer was fighting to get at Grandfather Time.

“He will be unable to enter my palace again,” he assured. “I have put up the proper precautions so that his shadows may never enter. Unless from someone else’s hands they give, the hourglasses will hold no power for him.”

“Let’s go,” Bunny said calmly, staring at the ice beneath him with an intense stare. “Let’s go see Jack in one piece again.”

 “As you wish.” Tai M. Keeper then smashed the hourglass onto the ground. The white sand that erupted from it wrapped around all of them and blocked out the sight of the forest and the ice.

In what felt like a few seconds, the sand hide in the folds of Tai M. Keeper’s clock and they were back in his palace.

And there was Jack, dreaming peacefully where they had left him.