Well, Rogue had an idea that just absolutely would not leave him alone, so you all know the drill. Somehow, I'm going to try and tie together Rise of the Guardians, Fullmetal Alchemist, AND the Guardians of Childhood series. I'm going to try and explain things as much as possible for people somewhat out of the loop, though it's probably best if you know at least two out of three.

And the title for this is inspired by the Disciple song by the same name. It fits this story pretty darn well, once we get into it. Yes, I know they're a Christian band. No, this isn't a Christian story.

I don't even remember what exactly started this story, but here we are. Mostly I just have a very strange ship. And since no one has heard of it but me, it's up to me to introduce you all to the wondrous new ship that I'll call… uh… Frost Alchemist. Yeah, that works.

Disclaimer: Do people even do these anymore, or am I just old?

This is the story of how everyone—and I mean everyone—started thinking that I'm gay. And I'm not. Mostly. I think. I don't even know any more.

Wait, wait, that all makes it sound like this story is some sort of a romance or something, and it's not. Or, I hope it's not. Let me start again.

Ahem. Once upon a time, there was an awesome man of awesomeness who was tasked with writing a story. Except the story mostly focused on someone other than the awesome man, and who would even want a story like that, anyway? Though the awesome man was at least in the story, which made up for the fact that this other dumb guy kept hogging all the spotlight.

The other dumb guy, by the way, is Jack Frost. I would start with when I met him, but, well, stuff happened before he met me that you probably need to know. I know, I know, a story about Edward Elric that doesn't even start with me in the first chapter is kind of stupid. I'm sorry you have to put up with that goofball for now, but just bear with me, okay?

Everything started with this group of people known as the Guardians. Now, I didn't know who these people were for most of my life, so I'll enlighten you. Basically, all those fun little stories you listened to as a kid are apparently secretly bad-asses. So Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman apparently all go around kicking nightmare butt and taking names. I know how it sounds, but I don't make this shit up, I just write it down, okay?

And Jack too. He had just joined up with these bozos a couple years ago because they somehow managed to talk him into their crazy club. That's not his fault, though. They have a very persuasive schtick.

So anyway, they had all had their Guardian version of a bat signal go off, which means that they all gather at the North Pole to figure out what they're going to deal with whatever crisis. Because clearly the North Pole is the most easily accessible, central location for everyone to convene at.

Now, when you gather any group of bad-asses in on place, it tends to devolve into chaos pretty quickly. Tooth was the first to show up, I guess because she has enough minions to take care of things for her. She showed up in a flurry of feathers like she always does, buzzing around and talking a mile a minute.

"North?" she called out as she flew around the workshop. North wasn't in the main area where the Guardians gathered if they had one of those calls, which was odd. I mean, if you're going to call everyone over to your house for an emergency ass-kicking party, you better be greeting them at the door with a plate of cookies in hand. Just saying.

"Alright, what was so bloody important that it couldn't wait?"

Bunny was the next one to show up. And for the record, he hates going to the North Pole for these emergency things. He claims it's because rabbits and cold don't mix, but really, he's just whiny.

"I don't know," Tooth said, fluttering over to Bunny as she looked around the workshop. "I haven't seen North anywhere."

Oh, yeah, and they call Santa "North." It seems weird, until you meet him and realize he's a lot scarier of a person than just an overweight grandpa like everyone leads you too believe. It's the Russian accent. And the tattoos. And the massive size. I mean, this guy could probably look Alex Armstrong in the eye.

"What is big commotion?" North boomed as he finally came into the room. He jumped a little when the two other Guardians made eye contact. "Tooth? Bunny? What are you doing here?"

Okay, not the best first impression to show how scary he is, but trust me on this.

"What are we doing here?" Bunny yelped and jumped forward. And if you're wondering, yes, his name apparently acually is literal, and yes, he's a whole hell of a lot bigger than an average pet rabbit. "You're the one who—"

He was cut off by the arrival of Sandy. Now Sandy is clearly the best out of all the Guardians. He's maybe three feet tall and never talks. What's not to like? Okay, Jack is probably going to be offended when he reads this and finds out that he's not my favorite, but… Eh, face it dude, you're obnoxious. Sandy is just a nice, quiet, tiny guy.

Sandy usually talks by using this weird floating sand over his head because he's secretly always dreamed of being a cartoon character, I guess. Most of what his symbols were saying at that point were "?" directed towards anyone who would pay attention to him. Tooth waved at him in a hushing manner.

"Okay, North," Tooth said with a glance towards the other two Guardians before focusing on North. "Why did you call us all here?"

"Call?" North raised an eyebrow. "I did not call."

Tooth and Bunny frowned and glanced at each other. Sandy was mostly just quiet, but hey, that's a lot for the guy. He would usually be asleep by that point if it wasn't important.

"Well, if you didn't call," Bunny said, "Then who-"

"I did," called a voice from the shadows, and all four Guardians snapped their heads to look in that direction. Jack slid into the light. Yeah, he's got a bit of a flair for the dramatic, but what can ya do?

"Jack?" Tooth gasped and flitted over to him. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? How you get in?" North boomed, then turned to one of the tiny elves scurrying around the floor. "How Jack use equipment?" See what I mean? Scary.

"I think there's a kid who needs our help," Jack said to North.

"How do ya even know?" Bunny said with a scoff as he turned away from the conversation and scratched at one of his ears with a hind leg.

"Well, I…" Jack sighed and leaned on his staff as he looked between the Guardians. "I had this, uh… dream. Vision, I guess. And there was this girl in trouble. It was like a nightmare, but… It felt real."

Bunny groaned. "You mean we came all the way out here because the kid had a bad dream?"

"Bunny!" Tooth snapped. Meanwhile, Jack was avoiding eye contact and looking at the floor.

"Dreams are not always dreams," North said with a glance between Sandy and Bunny. Sandy crossed his arms and nodded. North looked to Jack again. "Do you remember girl?"

Jack glanced up and shoved the hand that wasn't holding his staff into his hoodie pocket. "Not much. I just figured that you all would know what to do and that something like this was just a… Guardian thing."

"Anything could help, Jack," Tooth prodded. Bunny sighed from his corner. He tends to be an asshole idiot who checks out of most conversations involving Jack, no matter what the subject.

"Well…" Jack shrugged. "She had this reddish brown hair, I guess. And her name was Katherine. I don't know what her last name was, though."

The silence in the room was sudden and overwhelming. Even Bunny actually checked back into the conversation, staring at Jack with wide eyes. Yeah, that'll teach you to dismiss dreams, you oversized fuzzball.

"What?" Jack looked between the four of them. Knowing the idiot, he probably thought he had said something that had made them all angry. He always tends to assume people are thinking the worst possible thing. Because he's ridiculous like that.

"But how—" North glanced to Sandy, who shook his head and then shrugged at North. Even if Sandy'd had something to do with Jack's dream, he always brings good dreams, not terrifying ones. No one ever said North always thinks in the heat of the moment, though. Jack, meanwhile, was still trying to figure out what he had done wrong, even though he hadn't done anything wrong at all.

See, okay, this is what happens when I'm not in the first chapter of a story. You see this? This is a mess. A mess that has resulted from a group of ridiculous people all being ridiculous and could be a lot better if I was there. Argh. Patience, reader. I'll get there soon. Just not soon enough, if you ask me.

Anyway, Tooth is usually a lot more in tune with people than the the other three Guardians that came before Jack. So she noticed that Jack was definitely uncomfortable, and she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Katherine was an old friend of ours, Jack," she said. "North knew her before he even knew any of us. She was… She was what brought us all together."

"Oh." Jack frowned. "What happened to her?"

Another uncomfortable silence fell over the group until finally Bunny was the one to speak up.

"She was human, mate."

Jack looked at the floor. Not much more really needed to be said. Mortals usually tended to have tragic friendships with immortal beings. Or, at least, tragic for the immortal beings. Humans get the better end of the deal, really. And Jack tends to have a thing for forming attachments to humans. He's like a fairy version of the little old cat lady, except he feeds stray humans instead.

"But why is Jack dream of Katherine?" North said. No one had much of an answer for that, and they all fell into their own individual brainstorming sessions. Jack didn't really know what was going on, so he was the only one who noticed when a particularly strong beam of light hit the floor. When he glanced up to see what was causing it, he saw the moon giving off a strong glow from a window in the workshop.

"Uh," Jack said with a frown, "Is the moon supposed to do that?" The other Guardians looked over to the window.

"Man in Moon," North breathed.

"He must know what's going on!" Tooth said, fluttering a few inches higher

"Wait," Jack spluttered. "He's going to—?" He was cut off by the moonlight turning into a spotlight and moving to an open piece of floor. A shadow fell across the light and formed itself into the shape of Jack's profile. Jack frowned.

"That's how he—"

Bunny made a hushing noise at Jack and hopped closer to the moonbeam so he could see. Another shadow formed, this time of a person with a sharper chin and messy tendrils of hair sticking out from his face.

"Nightlight," Bunny breathed.

"Wait, who's—" Jack started, but this time North hushed him and the two shadows on the floor started moving. They got closer and closer to each other until they became one large shadow. Which rippled into the form of Jack's shadow again. Jack cocked his head to one side as he stared at the shadow.

"But what does that even mean?" he said, He turned to the Guardians to try and make sense of it, but was met by four pairs of wide eyes all staring soundlessly at him. Jack coughed and took a step back. "What?"

"Jack…" Tooth murmured.

"No, that can't be right," Bunny said with a frown as he looked over at the other Guardians.

"Man in Moon says it is," North said. Jack groaned and threw his hands in the air.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Jack yelled. North stroked his beard as if he was sizing Jack up before he spoke.

"Jack is Nightlight."

Yes, thank you Captain Obvious for your enlightening commentary. You know, this is why the Guardians have taken hundreds of years to get much of anything done.