Summary:

This is a story of when the Guardians had to chase a failed creature of Mother Nature's making, across many dimensions, to get Bunny's relic of light back. They'll go to many strange worlds that don't follow the same rules of their own, and all the while the creature they chase is getting smarter. Eventual crossovers between RotG and The Nightmare Before Christmas; Watership Down; How to Train your Dragon; The Little Mermaid and more. Hints of JackRabbit will be put in, here and there, until later. Rated T for now, to give myself some creative freedom.

A new story that really ignited my creative spark. I know I have two other stories that I need to get done, but one of them has become very "blah" to me, while I have writer's block for the other one. I still plan on getting both done, but it will take some time. I literally thrive on writing more than one thing at a time, because not only does it keep me writing when I get stuck in one spot, but I can learn from certain stories to make other stories better.

Therefore, I'm going to start writing this crossover fic. I've already enjoyed writing the prologue, so I'm excited to see where everything else will go.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians, Guardians of Childhood or any of the crossover characters/worlds that will appear in later chapters. I do not gain any profit from this, because it is purely a story that was created out of my love for these worlds, and I only want others to see the worlds how I see them. ^v^ I have mixed the RotG and GoC worlds together, so some characters will be a mixture of their persona from both the movie and the books. I'm sorry if any of them are severely OOC (not my intention) and if I mess up any of the facts from any of the worlds. Please correct me if I make mistakes of any kind. Thanks!

Cross-Dimensional Jinn:

Part 1: The Beginning

Prologue:

So dark…

The walls are hard and cold… like stone.

Yet, they are not.

Smooth and chilled, but black as night; I cannot see through these walls, though I do try. They shimmer, as though a liquid, yet they are as strong as a father's firm hand.

I cannot get through these walls…

I cannot escape…

Not yet.

I close my eyes, though it makes little difference. It is so dark in this place that I could sleep with my eyes wide open, and I'd never see change. The blackness of this place is inescapable.

Drearily, I let my mind slip into this darkness.

On most occasions, when I allow myself to go into the darkness, I find that I can escape this place. The stones vanish, and I can see into other places. Sometimes these places are nearby- right outside the walls- other times, they are of places so far away, that one could never hope to reach them without a bit of magic.

Do not mistake this- These are not dreams. I truly can see these places as they happen to be. I just cannot reach them…

But, it is only rarely that I get the honor of these visions. Most of the time, there is only darkness. And in-between these visions and darkness, there are memories.

It is a memory which I slip into…

/\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\

"You are, by far, my favorite." A melodically smooth voice whispers.

I do not know this creature who speaks to me. I feel animalistic, and young, so my knowledge of this creature is limited. The scent tells my instincts that it is female. She is tall, standing on two limbs, and using two others to stroke my… back?

Words for things do not come easily to me. I have a limited thought process, and all I can think about is instinct.

Myself.

Female- Large.

Protect myself.

Female- Dangerous.

Hide…

I back away from the hand and the female creature coos.

"Do not be afraid my poor thing. I only want to name you."

Name? What is a "name"?

The creature backs away and seems to think. I do not understand what she is doing, for thinking is not an instinctual thing, and therefore it is unknown to me.

While the creature is distracted I look around. I must find a place to hide from this thing.

It is a large place, and I cannot hope to understand what anything is, let alone where I am. Strange things walk and flutter about, while other things seem to grow from the very floor and ceiling. Not that I know what such structures are yet.

Before I can decide on a good hiding spot, the creature has returned. She reaches for me, and before I can bolt she is lifting me up in her limbs.

"Jinn." She says, but it sounds to me as the rest of her words do. "I shall call you Jinn."

The creature is holding me close to her as she begins to walk through the large place that we're in.

'It's a den.' I think, though I do not understand how I know what a den is. I have the feeling of knowing, yet the word means almost nothing to me.

Words were meaningless to me back then.

Suddenly, the world begins to misshapen itself, as if it were a fresh wall of paint being washed away with a hose.

Soon, I am looking through dark bars. A cage, though I can only understand that I am trapped, and not what I am trapped in.

Two figures stand before me. One is the woman whom I dislike for whatever reason, and the other is a male whom I do not know. They are talking hushedly a ways away from me, but soon turn their gazes in my direction. The male sighs before walking over to me, the woman following from behind.

"It's a monster." She says. And for a moment I feel a stinging sensation in my heart. I do not understand the feeling, but I do know that this woman hurt me somehow, and that I wish to be away from her because of it.

I growl at them, wishing they'd back off, for I cannot flee as I used to in the other strange place. I cannot get away.

However, the male only draws nearer at my weak attempts to scare them. My voice is still small for I have barely grown since coming to be, so there is little threat in my tone.

"But… you made it, didn't you?" the male asks. The woman seems to bristle with agitation which only serves to put my naïve nerves more on edge.

"You tell me this every time." She says in annoyance. The male turns his back on me, to look at her.

"I would not if you didn't fail so often."

The room goes cold, as it usually does when the woman gets angry. I had only caused this reaction once, and that was why I was here now.

"You should know as well as anyone that creating something perfect is near impossible without a million failures along the way."

The man nods his head, seemingly in understanding.

"Still," he responds as he looks back to me. "I don't understand why I have to be the one to keep them caged. All of your 'failures' are beginning to stink up the place."

"Then find a way to be rid of them. I could not, but maybe you can think something up, oh Great and Wise Wizard." The woman snapped sarcastically. However, I did not understand sarcasm, for it was not yet of my nature to understand. Everything was all too literal for me.

However, I took her words in all the same. There was no reason for me to, but whenever she said something new, I made a silly effort to remember her words. As if I'd learn something.

And without realizing it, I actually had.

Her words meant nothing to me yet, but I could tell that she was calling him something.

"Ohgreatandwisewizard"? Too long. I didn't like it. I would just think of him as "Andwise" and nothing more. The same way that I had come to know the woman as "Mother", but only because she insisted, and I eventually learned that I did not like thinking of her as what she wanted. "Woman" was enough, for I had learned that, that was what she was. I would only revert back to "Mother" later on, when I was trapped and alone.

"Fine." Andwise conceded. "But what exactly is he? How am I to keep him?"

"I named him Jinn. I didn't give his species a name, for I never planned to make more. He wasn't supposed to be so hostile; I was planning on giving him to the Guardians when he was older, so he could help them fight Pitch, but in the end, he was a waste of time." She paused in her explanation to look sadly at me. Of course, I had no idea why. Her expression only made me growl; her speech had fallen upon my deaf ears. She turned back to Andwise.

"You are to keep him in a Cage of Eternal Darkness. Don't bother feeding him- he doesn't eat- and just let him alone. The creature doesn't need anything to survive, though he may wither and ware. Up until now he has been feasting upon a special power source that I made for him. It would have allowed him to do a great many things, but now it would only be dangerous for him to have it."

Andwise nodded in understanding, never turning his gaze from me. Noticing this, I fixated my own glare upon him. I saw him flinch and immediately I could smell his shame for doing so. I grinned cruelly.

"Why did you make it look like that?" he asked. The woman shrugged.

"I didn't. He can look however he pleases, though that power will fade in time the longer he's away from the power source that I made for him. Honestly, Ombric, you won't even know he's here. In time, you'll forget what he looked like; the memory of his features will be replaced with the cage he will forever live behind." Andwise- whom, nowadays, I know as Ombric- said nothing, and only continued to stare. He did not seem pleased, but who was I to judge emotions then?

"Fine." He finally said. "If that's how it will be, then I see no problems." There was a pause as the woman sighed in relief.

"However, you're certain he won't be able to escape?" The woman bristled once again.

"Are you daft? Of course I'm certain! I know my creations better than anyone else!" At this, Andwise turned towards her, his expression deadpanned.

"Then how do you fail so often?" The temperature rose high as the woman's eyes burned.

"Shut up!"

After that, I remembered nothing but being put into eternal darkness.

/\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\.../\/\/\

I awoke with a start.

It had been awhile since I had those memories, and they always left me shaken. I understood them now though- much better than before, thanks to my visions of other worlds.

However, my knowledge was still limited. And even if I did know more, what would I do with my knowledge? I was trapped in darkness for all eternity.

For a creature that cannot die, but instead can only wither away slowly, eternity is a terribly long time. A time I do not fancy spending in this cage.

But alas, I am powerless to do anything. It had been who-knows-how-many years since my entrapment, and my saved up energy, derived from the power source that Mother had made for me, was all but spent. It had only been a few years after being put in this cage, that I found my ability to change figures was now impossible. I was no longer only trapped in this cage, but also in this old body.

The sad part is that I don't even know what I look like- for I can see nothing. But I do know that I have fur, terribly sharp teeth, three eyes, two long, fluffy tails and six legs. My ears are so small, I doubt they're actually there sometimes, and my nose is so large I sometimes wonder if I created a trunk.

It doesn't matter though. A form in darkness is all but useless, for I, nor anyone else can see it.

I sigh heavily before attempting to go back into the darkness of sleep.

However, before I can slip, a voice enters into my very small ears.

"What poor creature are you?" it asks as smoothly as Mother's voice. There's an eerie tone to it though, and I can register that it sounds male. For a moment, I wonder if the shadows had finally begun to speak to me.

I would find, later, that I wasn't entirely wrong.

I bristle my fur as I stand.

"Whose there?" I ask dangerously.

"Why so hostile?" the being asks simply. He doesn't seem faltered by my demeanor.

"I'm a friend." He finally says, as if relaxing with an old acquaintance. I growl low- my tone of voice has become much more threatening over the many years of my life.

"I have no friends. Be gone before I tear your throat out." I threaten.

"I think you'll find that difficult. For one, you don't know where I am. For all of your years spent in pitch darkness, your eyes have never accustomed to it. Have they?"

I don't question how he knows this and simply strike out with a forepaw. Wait… claw? Well then, that makes tearing skin easier.

"Now, now- none of that. Can't you see that I came here to help you? Well, you can't see much of anything at the moment, but that's exactly what I want to fix."

I take a moment to ponder this. Where once I would have ignored him and simply lashed out in fear, now I was a bit more clever. I was no longer that naïve creation that worked on instinct.

Perhaps if Mother had known that I could learn, she would not have so easily thrown me away…

"How?" I ask the voice, choosing to stay cautious and defensive.

"It's very simple really. Ombric didn't think that I knew about this place, and I honestly haven't for a very long time. Two very powerful spirits were the ones who fortified it, after all. It has taken me millenniums to breach the protective seals and defensive spells put upon it. I'd dare say that I've performed a miracle."

"Yes, yes. You're very talented." I had picked up a small amount of sarcasm during my vision visits. "But how can you get me out? I could care less about getting in."

"Well," the voice rolled it out, as if savoring the word. "I only ever do things when there's something in it for me." Oh. So that's how it was going to be.

Looking about at the darkness, which was silly for there was nothing to look at, I quickly made up my mind that whatever this voice wanted, it would get, as long as he got me out of here.

"Fine." I snapped quickly. "What is it you want me to do?"

"Oh, nothing much. In fact, it will probably benefit you as much as it would me." At this he paused, letting his words sink in.

"Get on with it." I snapped impatiently. Did he not realize that I had been here long enough?

"You've been feeling tired, haven't you- these past hundreds of years?" he asked smoothly. I couldn't help but feel my bones creak and my eyes droop at his words. Slowly, I nodded my head. I could hear his smile.

"I thought so. You poor thing. What you need is a power source. Something to liven those spirits up some, yes?" My attention snaps to these words like a moth to a flame.

"The one Mother made?" I ask, hopefully.

"No." I sag. "This power source is better. Stronger than the one Mother Nature gave you." Stronger? That made my body sing in excitement. I could be strong again! Away with this old, smelly body, and in with a new, better one!

"You just want me to keep this power source? Is that all?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes, of course." He said smoothly. He paused to let me rejoice in such a notion, before he continued with a more subdued tone. "Then again, there is the fact that you must steal it first."

"Steal?" I didn't understand the word.

"Yes. It means to take something that does not belong to you. A creature, much like yourself, is currently in possession of the power source in question. I cannot get it, for you see, his wards are old and much too powerful for me. Even stronger than the ones I had to break to get to you." He let the information sink in, and I began to doubt things. "He hides the power source deep underground, and only you can get it for me."

"How?" I ask quickly. "I am weak without it."

"Ah, but there I have you beat. I do have a small amount of power that you can use. It will be enough for now, and will dissipate almost as quickly as you've gained it, but it will do the trick. Enough to sneak in quickly, before they know you're even there."

I simply nod, understanding. Thievery, to me, was not a crime. Or at least, I did not understand that it was. In my mind I was simply taking one thing from another, because I needed it more. It never occurred to me that the object in question should stay where it was, simply because it didn't belong to me.

"Is that all?" I ask, ready to leave this wretched place.

"No." the voice answers, and I feel myself becoming agitated.

"Calm down, this is the last bit. Agree to this, and you're free." I nod in confirmation. "Good. Now, once you have the power source, you will need to leave quickly. The people we're taking it from will want it back, so they will try to steal it back from you. You must run from them, and do everything in your power to keep it away from them. If you can, it might be smartest to bring it back to me immediately after you've obtained it. At the very least, just get it outside of the wards so I can hide it from them."

The voice suddenly sounded cunning, but I was still naïve. I knew that there was a chance that he would keep the power for himself, but I honestly didn't care as long as I was out. It never occurred to me that he could do terrible things with such a powerful item.

"I'll do as you ask." I answer.

Suddenly, I am blinded by light.

It's beautiful.

Okay, I'm gonna give a quick explanation to anyone whose reading my other in-progress stories. A lot has happened since I last updated a story, and I'm seriously fighting off major depression right now. First, I lost about 8,000 words worth of a story (one that was going somewhere, and I really wanted to post, but I accidentally didn't save it T^T). Second, my grandmother passed away. Literally my biggest fan and the one person I could talk to when I didn't trust anybody else. Such a bright person that never judged anybody. She died a few weeks before Easter, and I wrote a story for her that I may post later. It's very devastating for me to have lost her. Then, my Great Uncle passed away. I didn't know him as well as my grandma, but I know he was a great man, and I wish I had gotten to know him better.

Other than that, there was also the little things: School, family (my dad in particular) and just plain life. So yeah. There's my excuses for not getting anything done for so long. I'm hoping this story can help drag me out of my stupor, because I really want to get those other stories done.

Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter out before the end of next week, but I probably shouldn't make any promises. ^_^"