Dawn of Courage(A RotG Fanfic)

Chapter 1

Thump!

Thwack!

"Oy mate!" Bunny yelled, turning around to look for the culprit.

Jack chuckled. "Why so serious?" He asked. "I don't see you being so busy."

"Some of my sentinels are playing hide and seek," Bunny rolled his eyes. "If you help me find them, I'll let you set up games for next Easter."

A grin spread on Jack's face. "Race ya!" He exclaimed and darted off.

"Oi wait!" Bunny hollered as he bounded after the albino.

The two bounced around and started racing to find all the sentinels. They competed on who would find more, and at the end, they sat together in the center of the Warren. They laughed together at the dumb pranks they played together.

After the incident with Pitch, the two had gotten better at understanding each other. Bunny would reach out to Jack Frost often to do things with the winter spirit, and they would play parkour with Jack not relying on his ability of flight, and Bunny realizing that the wind was actually alive and great friends with Jack Frost.

"How's the Crystal Realm been faring?" Bunny asked, sighing in content as he stared at his Warren. "I hear Sienna's started a family."

"Yeah," Jack replied. "I didn't think that was possible with the fairies. I found out recently that they live only for a long period of time and die, just like people." He looked up in thought. "I suppose Luna was the same. Unlike us, who can't really bleed, she can die. She wasn't undying. I thought after dying for the first time and that long period of time she was a spirit with me, I figured that she would stick around forever." Jack frowned slightly. "I wish that she didn't shoulder everything, though. She had been alone longer than I was."

"You know, Luna cared a great deal about you," Bunny said. "You have to honor her efforts, her wishes to protect you." He looked at Jack with a small smile. "She'll be sad if all you do after all her efforts is regret."

"JACK!!"

The duo jumped in shock at the noise before turning to look at where the noise came from. It was Tooth. Jack got up and approached her.

"Tooth, what's going on?" He asked.

"You scared the shivers outta' us!" Bunny put a finger in his ear, a grumpy look on his face.

"Sophie went missing!" Tooth exclaimed.

"What?!" Jack jumped up, his eyes widened in shock. Bunny perked up behind him with a serious frown. "When? How?!"

"Jamie called for help through the charms," Tooth said, pacing in front of the boys. She turned to Jack. "The fairies went to investigate, there were traces of black sand, but thinner, like powder. North and all the fairies are out looking for her."

The two looked at each other. "Right, I'm onto it," Bunny tapped his foot and dropped into a hole.

"I'll take to the skies and ask the wind to help," Jack said.

He took off with a gust of wind carrying him. Tooth darted after him.

<♤>

Sophie opened her eyes and blinked, and she got up to rub the sleepiness away from her eyes.

"You're Jamie's sister,....aren't you?"

Sophie perked up and turned around in one quick move. There was a giant black bird cage sitting in the dark. She stared at a skinny figure laying on the floor, his back facing her.

"Who are you?" Sophie asked.

"What?" The man asked, getting up slowly. "Your brother never talk about me?" He turned his head and gave Sophie a look of boredom. "How boring. I'm Pitch Black, bringer of Nightmares." He got up and began walking around in his cage.

"Why are you in a cage?" Sophie tilted her head in confusion. "Did someone put you in here?"

"My own creations put me here," Pitch sighed. "It's what happens to every spirit that's been taken by fear." He looked behind him. Then Sophie noticed the other cages in a giant cave that she never noticed before. Some hung over her, some were fallen over, some had fallen and crashed on the ground.

"Why were you afraid of them?" Sophie questioned, looking back at Pitch Black. "You made them. They are something you never should fear." She began to walk towards Pitch. "After all, fear is your power. You control fear."

"I thought people hated fear?" Pitch scoffed.

"It's okay to be afraid," Sophie smiled at Pitch. He perked up and looked at her with a small frown. "Above every storm is a rainbow. Light does not exist without darkness. Without fear, sadness, misery, how would we learn to be happy? If we're always happy and never learned to fear or be sad, then we're ignorant and we haven't learned anything. Courage, joy, hope, dreams, wonder. They were achieved through overcoming fear."

Pitch narrowed his eyes. "How does a child like you know this much?" He asked.

Sophie blinked, then frowned in confusion. How did she come to that conclusion? She supposed from watching Jamie grow up after their parents passed away, having to work two jobs to raise her and keep her away from the foster care system, and paying for her tuition. Then deeper in her memories, during the first battle with Pitch Black, watching Jamie overcome his fear.

"When Jamie defeated your nightmares with one touch," Sophie looked up at Pitch. "Was that not proof enough? You may be the master of fear, but you are not the only one capable of it." She smiled. "Have courage, and you'll see."

There was a dark chuckle. "Have courage?" Heavy steps echoed around in the cavern Sophie was kept in. "Why, I haven't heard those words in a long time."

A pair of yellow, beady eyes stared at Sophie, slowly going closer to her as she watched it. Sophie realized that her hands were shaking. She forced them to stop.

"You are quite loud," the creature said, his gravely voice giving nothing away of what it was thinking.

"Who are you?" Sophie whispered.

A face of a mummy, wrapped in bandages, came out of the shadows and into the light where Sophie sat. "You may call me Rupture," he growled. "Master of the Seven Sins, Destroyer of Worlds, and King of Fears."