If you've opened this story, thank you for choosing to read this. This is probably going to be a fic that i will work on more, but be prepared for constant procrastination lol. Leave reviews!
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There are different realities across the galaxy. Sometimes, one reality is completely different from the others… Sometimes, what you saw happen did not happen the way you knew.
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On a cold, winter day, all the way up into the North Pole, sat Santa's workshop of wonder and joy.
Nicholas Saint North sat in his workshop, singing and carving small models out of never melting ice, this time creating a small sailboat. He allowed it to slide off a roller-coaster-like slide made of ice, and fly around his workshop as though it sailed on water. He laughed to himself, proud of the creation, at least… Until one of his Yetis slammed open the door, ruining the moment.
The two comically gasped in fear and shock, watching the broken ice tumble to the ground. North pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing in exasperation. "How many time have I told you to knock?!" He asked, definitely irritated.
The Yeti cried something in gibberish, and that got his attention. "What? The Globe?" North rushed out of the small workshop, the Yeti in hot pursuit. The large man reached the Globe room, feeling his heart sink as he realized something was wrong.
The lights, each indicating the belief of a child, began to slowly disappear one by one.
A strong gust of wind blew in from the windows in all directions, and a blanket of ice covered the large Globe. When the wind died down, the Guardian of Wonder stepped closer, hoping to understand what had happened. But then the ice exploded, flying off the globe in little pieces. North gasped, shielding his face with his arms as the Yetis did the same.
Once the commotion stopped, North looked down at his feet, shards of beautiful but deadly pieces of Ice everywhere. He picked up one, larger of the others, inspecting it closely.
A delicate fern pattern.
"It… Can't be…" North muttered to himself. He turned and snapped his fingers. "Dingle!" He called out to his elves. Four of them stood in a row, pointing stupidly at themselves thinking they were the ones called, then confusedly looking at each other. "Make preparations, we are going to have company."
The Guardian of Wonder flicked on the switch to call the other guardians, the beautiful northern lights spreading out in three, calling the Guardians of Childhood.
At this moment, Sandman was gracefully spreading his Dream Sand, the golden sand glowing in the darkness of the night with comfort and love, imagination and joy. At this moment, he happened to glance up by chance. When he realized that the northern lights had shone overhead, he frowned, wondering what had happened.
With that, he stopped his Guardian duties and transformed his golden sand cloud into an airplane, creating goggles for himself as he flew off.
Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy, was ordering her little fairies around, collecting teeth from children all around the world. "Oh! It's Jenny Allister's first tooth! Look how cute it is!" She gushed, holding a small incisor. "And look at how Max Smith flossed!"
A tiny tooth fairy flew over to it's mother, speaking rapidly. "What?" Tooth asked, confused. She looked up, finally noticing the aurora, and almost immediately, flew off towards the north pole.
The last to show up was none other than E. Aster Bunnymund. His tunnel ended outside of the workshop, somehow. It was so cold, he felt like his fur was going to freeze and fall off. He couldn't feel his feet.
Once they all were together, Aster still holding a paintbrush and egg, North cleared his throat. "Very deep apologies for pulling you all away from your duties…" He began. "Yeah mate, I still have 2000 eggs to finish." The Easter rabbit said, annoyed. North disregarded the retort and continued.
"I'm afraid I have bad news." The Guardian of Wonder said, serious. The rabbit's ears perked up, Sandman waiting silently for North to continue, while Tooth's wings buzzed nervously.
"Earlier, someone came in and froze my globe." North said, turning to look at the large, spinning orb in the centre of the entire building.
Aster's eyes narrowed slightly. "Did the ice have fern patterns on 'em?" He asked, slowly, suspicion growing. The large man nodded sadly. "It is Jack Frost." He said, solemnly. Toothiana gasped in surprised, as Sandy looked deeply troubled. "Jack Frost? The one with the perfect white teeth?" The Tooth Fairy asked, her eyes wide in shock. Aster scowled darkly, his fists clenching, nearly breaking the egg. "I knew he would change one day." He said, sourly. Sandy looked down to the floor.
"W… what do we do..?" Tooth asked, her wings fluttering nervously.
"Why don't we just put 'im down." The Easter rabbit said, putting his egg in his front pouch.
"No, we must understand what is happening!" North said, stubbornly.
As the three argued, Sandy looked up to the sky, seeing the moon shining brightly. The small man tried to get their attention, but unfortunately they kept bickering over him. He frowned, and looked down at the elf next to him, with a golden bell on it's hat. The golden man grabbed the tiny creature, shaking it like a rag doll, the bell ringing loudly.
The three turned around to look, surprised. Sandman dropped the elf, pointing up at the moon, irritated, a golden image of a crescent moon above his head.
"Ah! Man in Moon!" North chuckled. "Why didn't you say something, Sandy?"
Sandman glared, sand spewing out of his ears angrily.
"Manny! Old friend! It has been long time! What is the problem?" He asked to the moon. The lights of the moon shone brightly, into the room with the Guardians. The swirling of dust was visible like snow in the night.
"Is he choosing a new guardian?" Tooth asked, curiously flying around the light. Sandman stepped closer, the sign of a four leaf clover appearing on his head.
"Leprechaun?" North repeated, aloud. "No no, please don't be the groundhog…" Aster mumbled to himself.
Instead of either the two, a shadowy symbol of two swords crossed together to make an X shape appeared in the middle of the beam of light. The four guardians were confused, before Tooth let out a small cry of surprise. "Pitch! He means Pitch!"
North, Aster and Sandy all looked at her in shock. "Is it really Pitch?" North asked, a little fearful. Aster scowled. "Why would the Man in the Moon mention Pitch? He's obviously not suited to be a guardian."
Sandy shook his head, and spelled out the word "Alliance" above his head. The guardians looked at each other, all feeling indifferent. A soft voice spoke to them, like a whisper of the wind or the singing voice of a nymph, or the gravelly growl of a troll, all mixed together in one harmonious voice.
"Guardians
The guardians looked up to the moon. Symbols flashing at a fast pace, all to make one sentence. Pitch. Redemption. Alliance. Aster looked down at the floor, his scowl deepening. "Pitch is the Bogeyman, he scares children, not protect them!" He protested.
Another whisper, this time a full sentence. "Without Pitch, there is no belief. Without belief, all is darkness."
The Guardians had nothing to say to that. The Man in the Moon was right, without Pitch, the children had nobody to believe in for protection. Without belief, all hope and wonder is erased from existence.
•๑•
Pitch Black stayed down in his lair, thinking of ways to scare the young children once more. His main goal was to scare little children into obedience, but he wasn't one for hurting anyone so badly that they'd really begin to cry. It's not like he can control what people thought.
He slowly wandered through the shadows, in the streets of Burgess. He watched as the children laughed, running around in the snow and attacking each other playfully. He did not detest them, but he did not particularly love them either.
He noticed a young boy playing with his friends in the yard of his home. He did not know why he noticed this particular boy, but he headed over to watch nonetheless.
"Jamie! That's not fair!" A girl cried after the boy, now known as Jamie, had thrown a snowball at her head. Eventually, the children got into a snowball fight, laughing in joy.
Pitch left them at that. They looked like they were having fun.
•๑•
It was dark now. Pitch was prepared to give small scares to children. He wandered the streets, silently looking over his surroundings. Something was off today.
And suddenly, something moved to his left. He quickly turned around, growing suspicious. "Looking for something, mate?" A heavy accented voice asked, behind him. Pitch sighed.
"Bunny! How nice of you to visit. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked, sarcastically, turning to face the pooka. Aster grinned. "Oh, not me. These guys. Grab him, boys."
The collar of his coat was grabbed. Pitch looked to his sides and noticed two large yetis. One of them pulled out a spherical snow globe, tossing it to the ground, creating a portal to the North Pole.
"Oh dear." He muttered under his breath, before the yetis dragged him into the glowing portal. Meanwhile, Aster laughed before opening his tunnels, vanishing, only a pink flower remaining.
•๑•
He was tossed onto the floor, immediately after arrival. Pitch was definitely irritated from being pulled away from his nightly duties. He scowled at the man in front of him, standing up and brushing off his clothes. "Good evening, North." He said, dryly. The spirit of Christmas laughed heartily before strongly patting him on the shoulder, earning a grunt from the other man.
"What do you want?" He asked. The guardians were getting on his last nerve.
"We want… No, we need your help." North finally said, becoming much more serious. A beat. Then…
Pitch began to laugh. "You? Need my help?" He scowled. "Don't make me laugh. Since when did you, the great Guardians of Childhood, need my help?"
The Guardians all looked at each other helplessly. Pitch was taken aback for a moment. "You're actually serious?" He asked, definitely surprised. The spirit of Christmas sighed.
"Yes. We do unfortunately." He said, tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Pitch straightened his back, folding his arms. "Well? What is it?" He asked. The other four looked a bit surprised before replying.
"It's Jack Frost." Tooth replied, nervously. Pitch rose an eyebrow. "Jack Frost? What has he done this time that's so bad that you need my help?"
"It isn't what he's done, it's what he is beginning to start." North gestured to the rotating globe, the lights still going out, even as they speak. They weren't disappearing as fast, but they were still diminishing.
"So… The children stopped believing in you." Pitch said, a little surprised, even if he didn't show it.
"Well, no, but they will soon… And if they do, we don't know what will happen!" Tooth said, a little frantic. Pitch sighed.
A tiny tooth fairy flew in through the window and up to her Queen, chittering in gibberish. Tooth gasped, pressing a delicate hand to her mouth. "Something's happening at the palace…!" She said, in pure shock. "I-I have to go!" The Tooth Fairy darted away, leaving the other Guardians (and Pitch) behind, equally as shocked.
"We must go and help…" The Easter Rabbit mumbled, before vanishing into a hole. North nodded in agreement.
"Yes- to the sleigh!" He bellowed, heading off to where he kept the magical sleigh. Pitch snorted. "How about no." He said as he sank into the shadows, heading to the Tooth Palace. Sandy just shrugged at North's deflated look and made symbols that he would ride in the sleigh with him, to the man's delight.
•๑•
Pitch was the first to reach the castle, after Tooth. When he stepped out of the shadows, he was in shock. The once beautiful golden castle that floated in the ethereal valley, was encased in ice. He looked around him, and saw Toothiana flying around, agitated. Her tooth fairies were gone.
At this moment, North, Aster and Sandman arrived at the now frozen palace. It felt cold. The sleigh touched the ground as the Sand fairy and North stepped out, Aster popping up from the ground. "Crikey, this is…" The pooka was speechless, as was everyone else.
Laughter rang from the top of the castle, and all five of their heads shot up. Jack Frost, the boy of winter, sitting down on the top level of the castle, his feet dangling in the air as he kicked them around childishly.
"You know, I was getting bored here." He said, as if nothing was wrong. "You guys sure took a long time getting here!" Jack slipped off the edge of the floating layer, softly allowing himself to float downward to the next.
"Frost…" Aster growled, his grip on his wooden boomerangs tightening. "I'm going to beat you to a pulp!" Jack just laughed at this statement.
"Aw, Bunny, are you still mad about '89?" He asked, casually leaning against a pillar. The pooka scowled darkly.
Tooth looked up at the boy, angry but sad. "Give me back my fairies!" She screamed, her voice cracking as tears made their way to her eyes.
"Or what?" Jack's smile left his face for a brief moment. "Trust me, Toothy, they're better somewhere else than here." He said, darkly. Tooth shrank back, a sudden feeling of dread crawling down her back.
Sandman had a look of disapproval, much like a that of a disapproving parent when their child did something wrong. Jack sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Sandy." He said, an edge of sadness hinted in his voice.
Pitch noticed how much the winter spirit's appearance changed. His hair, always known to be white like snow, was now black at the tips, like a calligraphy brush dipped in jet black ink. His previously blue hoodie with white frost around the edges, had black cracks instead. His radiant blue eyes were now…. duller. Gray. Like storm clouds covering the bright, beautiful blue sky. Even his smile seemed less bright than before.
"Why are you doing this?" Tooth asked, again, softer, but loud enough for them all to hear.
"Why? Because I haven't been believed in, for three hundred years. I asked for acceptance from all of you, but did I receive it?" Jack didn't finish his sentence. A blast of cold air and a flurry of snowflakes, he vanished.
"No, I didn't." The voice came from behind. They whirled around, facing the boy. He had his hands behind his back, gripping the staff like an innocent child. He raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, it's Pitch. Wow, am I in that much trouble?" He asked, jokingly. "Ah, but the Man in the Moon did tell you to have him help you, right?"
North furrowed his brows. "Now, how would you know about that, Jack?" He asked, suspiciously.
"I hear things." Jack said, as he vanished behind the pillar.
He reappeared again on the other side. Tooth narrowed her eyes. "Give me back my fairies, Jack!" She lunged towards him, her sword in hand. Jack just smiled, not moving at all. As the tooth fairy neared, a huge, crystalline dragon appeared from underneath, curling around it's master. It opened it's large, deadly jaws and roared at the fairy, whom had back away in fear.
The Guardians, and Pitch, pulled back. Jack had powers, powers nobody had seen before. It wasn't that they were new, in fact, they had been there all along. His three hundred years of solitude had forced him to learn about his powers, to finally use them to their full capacity.
The dragon shrank down, and Jack gently patted it's claw. "Aw, Icy, no need to be so intimidating." He said, soothingly. The dragon rested its jaws on the platform.
"Ah, looks like me taking the tiny tooth fairies are finally doing it's work." The boy looked around him, seeing as the Palace finally began to disintegrate. "Children all around the world are finally seeing that the tooth fairy didn't come for their teeth."
Tooth's eyes widened as she sank to her knees. "They don't… They don't believe in me anymore…" Her voice cracked. Aster growled, ready to lunge at the winter spirit, but he wasn't fast enough. Jack laughed, before vanishing for good this time, his dragon following suit.
"Jack Frost!" Aster yelled after the retreating form of the ice beast, the boy's cold laughter echoing.
•๑•
The Guardians were all silent when they made their way to the grove, the beautiful mural of the Tooth Fairy was the only thing that didn't disintegrate like the Palace.
"Now what do you all plan to do?" Pitch spoke up, standing at the edge of the clear water. Tooth had flown up to her mural, and then looked back at the Nightmare King.
"I… I don't know…" She sighed, deeply.
"I see that he's taken some teeth." Pitch said, looking back to the now imperfect castle.
"Yes, he has.." Tooth looked back at the man, teary eyed. "He's taken memories of certain children. I don't know why, but I have to find out." She said, shaking her head.
"That's right… The teeth hold the childhood memories of children, don't they." Pitch frowned. What was Jack planning?
"Oh, you should've seen Bunny before he became Easter spirit!" North laughed from the shore. The pooka frowned. "North, shut up."
And that was when the mural began to disintegrate. "Oh… Oh no…. We're too late to…" Tooth was close to tears. Pitch scowled at the mural, vanishing. What was this supposed to be? To give up? They were the Guardians of Childhood. And they gave up this easily?
"No! Not too late!" They all looked over at North, who stood, determined. "We can still save the belief!"
Tooth looked at him quizzically. "But how? There are thousands of children all around the world…"
Aster scoffed. "I have to make eggs for thousands of children every Easter, sheila." He said, a smug smile on his face.
"And I have to create presents for every child on Christmas." North added. Sandman shrugged, smiled, and made a series of pictures about his head showing he'd help. A smile made it's way to the Fairy's face.
"Thank you…. And Pitch, will you help me too?" It took the Nightmare King a few moments to respond.
"... Sure."
North cackled. "Let us begin!"
•๑•
The ice dragon smoothly glided across the winds, waiting for it's master to come. Jack reappeared on the top of the dragon, after they were far, far away from the Palace. He sighed, pulling his hood over his hair. "I'm sorry." He whispered, looking back at the direction in which he came.