Water was rushing around, adding little relief to the tropical air that hung heavy in the air. The spies hiked through the rain forest, fighting away bugs bigger than they're hands. They were lucky that it showed no signs of raining out, the chances of them having to make a quick shelter were very dim.

"Bunny, what's our position?" Nickolas North asked. He was an older looking man, his hair completely white, but his eyes were still filled with wonder, despite what he had seen. He was also known to the children of the world as Santa Claus.

"We're five miles in, North. Now, shut it, there might be listening devices." Bunny, or E. Aster Bunnymund, as was his real name, snapped, hating the damp air on his fur. He was a great Pookan Warrior, the last of the Spring Tribe. There were others, but they were all in hiding. He was also known as the Easter Bunny to the children of the world.

"Why are we doing this again?" A young, woman asked. She flew above them, her insect-like wings a blur. She looked like she had been covered in feathers and given wings. She was the Tooth Fairy.

"Tooth, this is a rescue operation. Manny said we have a missing agent. We go after missing agent." North said, his booming Russian accent carrying.

"Who's the missing agent?" Sandy signed to them. Tooth repeated this to the group, long used to the Man of Sand not speaking the traditional way. Sandy was the Sandman, giving out dreams, and also sending his enemies to sleep on missions.

"Jack Frost." North said gravely. Jack Frost? He was young, barely in his teens. He had been in the organization since he was five, training to become a perfect weapon, one that would do whatever the obscure organization asked. Then the accident had happened, making him stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd. So they had sent him to be killed, but instead, his would be killers took him in. Manny had tried to make him part of a team, but he didn't play well with others.

"Can't the kid handle himself? Why doesn't he just freeze them?" Bunny asked, annoyed. He had been the leader of the team Manny had tried to assign Jack to, but the kid had taken one look at them and froze them before leaving them and completing the mission on his own. It had been a success, but Bunny still held a grudge, especially because the kid had been injured and refused to let his team help him. Manny had disbanded the team, putting them in different ones, but Jack was on his own.

"Manny said nightmare sand. Jack was overpowered and taken." Everyone was grim at that news. The person responsible for Jack's initial training was a shady figure known as Pitch Black, well know for his nightmare sand. No one but Jack and Sandy had ever seen him before. He was a deadly figure, responsible for the ending of the Spring Pookas.

"Why does he want the ankle bitah back, anyways? He tried ta have him killed!" Bunny said. Bunny had been the one to knock out Jack and take him to Manny in the first place, so he MIGHT have felt a little responsible for the kid.

"Manny does not know. Just told us to get him back." They went back to hiking in silence, they were all alert, waiting for an ambush to be sprung, or even a full on assault. They had two skirmishes that were dealt with quickly and quietly, finally getting to the compound that held their distant comrade. North gave some hand signals and they all got into position, breaking through the fence and around the guards easily.

They split up into pairs to search the place, Sandy and Tooth going up, North and Bunny going down. "So, why do ya think Pitch wants him?" Bunny asked as they crept down the corridors, killing the guards as they met them.

"Jack is powerful, no? One of the most powerful out there, more so than even Manny. Jack is Winter, winter is a power many wish to possess." North said, dispatching yet another room. They came across a door, bars over the small window. The peaked inside and sighed in relief. Jack was definitely in there, ice coating everything, dents in the walls, and a whole obstacle course of spirals and spears of ice in the surprisingly large room. They carefully opened the door, ducking the blast of ice that soured over their heads.

"Frost! Don't shoot, it's us!" Bunny said quietly. Jack must have heard him because no more ice came. They opened the door fully and gasped at the sight. Jack was chained to the wall, face bloodied, hoodie ripped, weaponless. But his mismatched eyes were defiant and strong, even though it looked like he had many broken bones ailing him.

"Hi. Fancy seeing you guys here." Jack said weakly, his words soft, but his tone was sarcastic. North set to work freeing him, breaking through the locks with his swords as though they were butter. Jack rubbed his wrists painfully, his arms being broken in many places. The boy stood, wavering slightly as he did.

"Tooth, Sandy, we got him, move out." Bunny whispered through the comm link. He heard two affirmatives, then they were going back through the compound, red lights shooting off halfway through, a keening alarm assaulting their eardrums. Despite being severely injured, Jack moved swiftly and quietly with them, only faltering when the tropical air hit them. The air stung his wounds, and the heat was stifling, but the sun was going down, bringing cooler air.

"It's going to storm." He warned them as clouds began forming over their heads. They all nodded and raced back to their escape vehicle, a.k.a. the sleigh. It was a state of the art plane, perfect for stealth missions and for getting to a place fast. On Christmas, it took the form of an actual sleigh, to keep up with the story of Santa.

Jack was slowly laid down on a seat, his wounds tended to with inhuman precision Bunny and Tooth. Sandy provided a numbing agent with his Sand, making Jack drowsy, but painless. "Thanks, I guess. Sorry about freezing you last time, Kangaroo." Jack said. Bunny reacted so fast no one saw it coming. He began to tickle Jack's side mercilessly. Even though he was numb, Jack could still feel it and began to weakly laugh, trying to shove the others away.

"Ya want ta take that back?" Bunny asked as he tickled.

"I take it back! I take it back! You're not a kangaroo!" Jack said, and he sighed in relief when Bunny stopped. Tooth glared at Bunny, but Bunny pretended not to notice.

"Now, why don't you tell us how ya managed ta get yerself caught by him. I know that yer perfectly fine with taking on full armies by yourself." Bunny gave him a pointed look.

"Yeah... last time, when I was with you, those people had planned for you guys, but not me. You guys would have been captured, and the mission would have failed, so I just took out the element..." Jack trailed off, still not answering Bunny's first question.

"Jack, the whole point of being on a TEAM is to work together." Bunny said, shaking his head. "Now, how did ya get caught?"

Jack looked around embarrassed. Whatever must have happened must have been either a really dumb move on his part, or he had been taken really easily. "Well, I fell down a hole." Jack said, refusing to look at them. "Well, not really a hole, but a shadow. Then I ended up in that god forsaken cell and Pitch tried to break me. He didn't want any information, he just... tortured me. He said he would get his weapon back, even if he had to start from scratch."

Jack's eyes began to shutter close, and everyone could see the panic in them as sleep began to take him. Sandy put a soothing hand on his head and gave him a reassuring look. There would be no more nightmares, not anytime soon, at least. Jack gave Bunny a look that clearly said "wake me up if I have a nightmare" and Bunny nodded in agreement. The kid deserved a restful sleep for once in a long time.

The rest of the ride went in silence, and they moved Jack onto one of the couches in North's base so the kid could sleep more comfortably. "Now what do we do?" Bunny whispered to his team. They all shrugged and stayed silent until the doors slammed open and Manny stepped into the room.

"Did you get him?" He asked, his strong, Brazilian voice carrying over to the group easily and making Jack turn over in his sleep. The group shushed him.

"Yes, sir, we got him. What exactly was he doing, anyways? Shouldn't he have been under adult supervision while he was off mission?" Bunny snapped, glaring at his boss expectantly.

"He was supposed to be. Unfortunately, he gave them the slip. He's trained to sneak through the shadows, out of the way, unnoticed. If he doesn't want to be found, you can't find him, unless, it seems, that person trying to find him is Pitch." Manny said, glaring at Jack's sleeping form. He pulled out what appeared to be a pair of cuffs, but they weren't connected. He handed one to Bunny, but kept the other one.

"Put it on." Manny ordered. Bunny glared, but did as ordered. He slid it on, jumping as it locked around his wrist tightly.

"What the Bloody HELL!" He shouted, waking up Jack. Manny swiftly slid the other cuff onto Jack's wrist, where it locked down on as well. He shouted and immediately tried to get it off of him.

"What the HELL is wrong with you, Manny?" The boy shouted. He shouted even more as the bracelet sent out an electric charge.

"Don't try to take it off. It won't come off, and you'll receive an electric shock. It also will knock you out if you go more than a mile away from Agent Bunny. Do you understand, Frost?" Manny said, his face an expressionless mask. Jack glared at him and picked up his staff, all traces of tiredness disappearing.

"Well, that's too bad, isn't it? I'm going to Antarctica to heal, so..." Jack flew through an open window and out into the cold of North's Arctic base. Not even two minutes later, Bunny felt his wrist being pulled by some kind of magnetic force, urging him to go into the cold.

"He's knocked out now, isn't he?" Bunny asked, looking at his boss. Manny nodded. "And I have to go get the ankle bitah, don't I?" Manny nodded again. Bunny groaned and opened a tunnel and dove into it. He let the cuff guide him to where the kid was. He exited the tunnel and almost got right back in because of the cold. He searched for the blue hoodie that the kid had been wearing, finding it to his left, out cold. He picked up Jack and carried him through the tunnel back to the base.

"So, why me?" Bunny asked, keeping Jack firmly in his arms as the child began to wake up.

"Because, you are his team leader and brother." Manny told him. Bunny scoffed at him.

"That team was disbanded," he reminded Manny.

"Says who? The Seasonals are the most powerful spirits in the world, more so than even I. When I made Jack with Mother Nature, we did not think that Jack would be so powerful. Jack is young and inexperienced in controlling his powers. When Mother Nature and I made you, we KNEW you would be powerful. You are the only one that might be able to keep him in line, without hurting him. Had we known Jack would be a beacon of power, we would have done this centuries ago. Pitch never would have gotten him." Manny explained patiently.

"Whoa whoa whoa, YOU and Mother made Jack? Then you just left him? That's basically just ASKING Pitch to take him." Bunny growled. Jack began to fully regain consciousness and struggled to sit up.

Bunny just tucked Jack's head under his chin, forcing the boy to stay still. "Knock it off, Frostbite." Bunny ordered. Jack froze, figuratively, of course. "So, what, are the Seasonals being reformed? Or what?" Manny didn't get to answer because shadows entered the room, surrounding them, black sand blocking out the lights. The only light in the room was Manny and Jack. Wait, Jack glowed? That wasn't right? Then Bunny realized that he was glowing as well. The light seemed to originate from the cuffs, magically enveloping them in light.

"Tut tut tut, Manny. You should know better than to take my things." Pitch said from the shadows. "But look! You got me another weapon! How kind of you! Why don't I just take them and I'll be on my way. You said that there were two more? Or at least, I would assume so, being the Seasons." Pitch was suddenly right next to Jack and Bunny, sand dancing on the edges of the light, seeming unable to get in.

"Leave them alone, Pitch. They have done nothing to you!" Manny said. The other agents finally fought through the darkness, illuminated by golden sand that was fast turning the other sand into gold as well.

"Oh, nothing, really? I believe that the Rabbit took my weapon, and I believe that my weapon ran away. I am SO disappointed in it." Pitch said, sneering at them as though Jack weren't there, as though he were an object.

"I am NOT A WEAPON!" Jack shouted, only to have his mouth covered by Bunny's paw.

"Jack, you aren't a weapon, but now is REALLY not the time." Bunny muttered in his ear. Jack glared at Pitch, making the shade smirk.

"Still defiant as ever. Do you remember, when I first found you? You were defiant then, but I broke you. I will do it again and again and again until you are so afraid to even BLINK without my permission. Then I'll make you break your own brother!" This guy was insane, obviously.

"Well, I think you have to figure out how to break me, first," said Jack, having successfully removed Bunny's paw from his mouth.

"Ah, yes. It was so much easier when you had no memory of any freedom. When you had nothing to fight for. But I managed it once, I will do it again." Pitch said.

"Got another three centuries set up for that?" Jack asked cockily. Pitch's smirk turned into a scowl, obviously displeased that Jack was not cowering in terror.

"Why you insolent brat! How DARE you defy me! You are nothing but a tool, a weapon to be used at my command. I will make sure that it is engraved into your mind by the time I am done with you!" Pitch said, attempting to take a step towards the brave child. He was stopped by a hard blow to the head, courtesy of a boomerang.

"Ya leave us alone. We've been through enough Hell without your help." Bunny snapped before creating a Tunnel beneath him and Jack, making them disappear, only a flower in their place.

"FIND THEM!" Pitch roared to his minions before fading back into the shadows. His minions disappeared, leaving it look as though nothing had happened.

"Manny! What are we going to do?" Tooth said.

"We must find the other Seasonals. They are Summer and Fall. Summer's name is Kat Heat. She should be in Africa. Fall's name is Amber Breeze. She should be in Europe. We need to find them before Pitch does." Manny said before disappearing in a flash of light.

"Tooth, you find Summer, I'll find Fall. Go! We must hurry. Sandy, fund Mother Nature, tell her what has happened. She should be somewhere in Asia. Go!" They nodded and took off to their respective destinations, flying as fast as they could, hoping that they wouldn't be too late.

Meanwhile, Bunny and Jack were already in Asia, at Mother Nature's home near the ocean. "Mother!" They called at her door, relieved when they heard footsteps by the door and it opening. Mother Nature stood there, looking worried.

"Jack! Baby! Are you alright?" She asked, hugging him tightly before looking him over. She froze when she saw the cuffs. "It's beginning, isn't it? Pitch is after the Seasonals." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. The nodded and she pulled out two more cuffs from her pocket. "Get these to the girls, understood? You must stick together! Now go, hurry! You know where they are!"

The two nodded and were sliding and racing to Africa to where Summer was resting in her favorite tree.

She fell out, only to be caught by Bunny and the cuff being slipped and locked down on her wrist. There was a fast explanation of what had happened, then they were off to Fall, who happened to be in Norway, talking to Thor and Loki, who had paused from their fighting to catch up with their old friend.

"Amber! We got a problem!" Jack said, being the one closest to her, he slipped the cuff on. "Hey Thor and Loki, hey Avengers!" (Sorry, I couldn't resist...) "Anyways... We have a problem." Jack then explained hurriedly what happened and they disappeared into a Tunnel, leaving a very confused and worried villain, a very confused and worried hero, and five just flabbergasted heroes behind.

"Where are we going?" Amber shouted as they slid down the tunnel. The earth seemed to close behind them as Bunny closed all Tunnels to the Warren.

"Home!" Bunny shouted back to her. They all gracefully landed in the Warren, looking around in awe.

"So, we can't leave without Bunny?" Jack asked as he fiddled with his cuff. He yelped as it once again shocked him, snatching his hand away and putting it in his mouth, trying to relieve the burn.

"Yes, Frostbite, deal with it." Bunny snapped, annoyed that Jack hadn't learned the first time that he shouldn't mess with the cuff.

"Oh, baby brother! What did Pitch do to you!?" Kat asked asked. She was Egyptian, tanned, and basically looked like she was about to go to a fashion shoot.

"DON'T call me that." Jack growled at his sister. Then he gave the censored version of what had happened. They demanded more detail, seeing all the blood on Jack. He looked down and realized he was still covered in his own blood. He was currently running on adrenaline, so he felt no pain from his many wounds.

"Oh my gods, I think that we should patch him up some!" Amber said, her crisp British accent crackling through the air like leaves in the fall.

"No! I'm fine!" Jack protested as he was suddenly picked up by Bunny.

"Uh, no yer not. even if ya were, we would still be doing this." Bunny said as he sat Jack in what looked like a medical room. He set all the broken bones back in place, cleaned the blood that he could without Jack taking off his hoodie, and got all the blood out of the kid's hair. Now all that was left was for the hoodie to go.

"No! This is all that I have!" Jack protested in a last ditch effort to stop his brother and sisters. They weren't having any of it an completely shredded the poor piece of clothing, leaving Jack bare chested, and the scars easily seen. They were the worst on his back, where it looked like someone had whipped him often. He even had a new set of lashing wounds, bleeding a little. There were also large bruises all over, especially over his chest and sides, making it obvious that he had been kicked.

"Jack! Why would you hide this from us?" Summer asked, her accent thick with horror. Jack refused to look at them, and it took them a moment to realize that the child was fighting back tears of shame.

"Jack! There isn't anything to be ashamed of!" Fall said, resisting the urge to hug him.

"You know, I was there for six months. Six. He would tell me that no one would ever come for me, that I wasn't worth the time, that I would always be hated because I killed people with my element, that I would be pushed away because I was cold." He paused, taking a shaky breath and looking at them with almost broken eyes. "He said that I was nothing but a weapon, that weapons obeyed their masters, or they would be disposed of." He looked down at his feet. "That's what happened the first time. I was taken as a baby by Pitch. My father was a spy, same as my mother. I've always been on my own, I don't need protection." Jack said, shrugging them off and hopping off of the table. He walked out, into the Eternal Spring.

He walked as far as he dared, definitely far enough for them not to hear him. "Is this what you wanted Manny? To force me to accept help? Is that why you sent me on a suicide mission? I have no time for others. Pitch may have been wrong about many things, but he was right when he said that I am hated and that I am cold. He was right when he said that Winter kills, that I am a weapon. But I belong to no one. I have been taking care of myself for three centuries, making sure that I kept all of those wounds cleaned, that I picked my fights carefully. Pitch thinks that he broke me once, but he can never."

He paused for a moment, searching his surroundings to make sure that he was still alone before continuing. "I can't keep everyone you throw at me protected. One of these days I'm going to slip up and then they'll be dead or in Pitch's grasp. You should have just let me stay there, and I could have kept Pitch busy for the next couple thousand years, but no, you had to send them in. You should know why I don't work with people. I hate to say it, but you made a dumb move.

The last time I worked with someone, I almost got her killed and I died instead. I was glad, that I died, I thought 'thank the gods, it's FINALLY OVER.' but then you brought me back and my life has been hell ever since. You just mess up peoples lives when you play this giant chess game with Pitch, but there is never an end, because you always find more pawns to put up. You always get more soldiers. Tell me, how long do you think it will take for them to realize that you are just as bad as Pitch? That you are the kind benevolent father that everyone thinks you are?"

Jack took to the air. "All that you care about is control. The others think that the cuffs are to make sure that we stay together, that we don't go after Pitch alone, but really, they are to control us. You have the lead cuff on Bunny because you already have him hopping through hoops for you, and he would never betray you, because he's a good little soldier. But if you take his loyalty, you have no power. You should know by now that you can't control the seasons. They come and they go as they please.

You should have realized that I could have left Pitch at anytime, but I stayed there to protect my family. Because as long as he was focused on me, he wouldn't go after me. They seem to think I'm some innocent child that can't do anything on my own. You haven't told them, have you? You haven't!" Jack let out a bitter laugh. "They think that I'm on your side.

But I'm not. I fight against people like you. I do what I do best, I disappear, until I feel like gracing the world with my presence. Even then you never see me. You see, I'm invisible. That's what makes me so good at my job. So stop messing up my life by putting more collateral in for me to try to protect, and for me to watch disappear before my eyes as I fail every time. Just like you did with my sister! Did she deserve to die? Did she? Because she did, because Pitch saw it as HER FAULT that his perfect little weapon was dead." Jack was breathing heavily now, and he turned in mid-air, shocked to see the others standing there, mouths hanging open.

"How much did you hear?" He asked quietly.

"All of it." Bunny said, voice grim.

"Do you see why I always seem to be annoying and arrogant around Manny? Because he is the reason EVERYTHING that has EVER meant ANYTHING to me is DEAD! He's the one who let slip where my parents lived around a mole in his organization. They were killed protecting me from Pitch. I had to do as Pitch said because he held my infant sister hostage. Then, he killed her after I became a spirit. Imagine his rage when he realized that I was a spirit." Jack gave a bitter laugh. "Then his joy when he realized that I had no memories. But I got them back. A tiny tooth fairy had heard about the Winter Spirit with no memories, and she brought them to me. I never saw her again, because I told her to never return there. So she wasn't killed because of me!"

Jack heaved air then stalked away from them. His wounds still needed tending to, but he didn't need their help. He cleaned them, not even wincing when the antiseptic burned his gashes. He wrapped his chest easily, far too used to doing it. He waved his staff at his hoodie and it mended and cleaned itself, just like it should. He wished he could fly off, away from this hell that he was in, but that STUPID cuff kept him from doing so. Jack looked around, grinning when he saw rubber gloves. He slid them on, managing to get the edge under the cuff, putting a barrier between the skin and metal. He pulled the other glove on and slowly but surely worked the glove off of his arm. He sighed in relief as it was finally off. He pulled off the gloves, smiling to himself.

Then he put his hand to his chest as it began to burn. Not actually burn, but it felt like it was. Damn Manny for putting in a fail safe. But he could deal with the pain. He slowly unclenched his hand, the shaking appendage slowly steadying as Jack put the pain in a box that he locked away in the corner of his mind. He carefully set the cuff on the table along with a note.

Jack left the and took to the air once more. He knew that Bunny had left a single tunnel open, so that he could go and get supplies if they needed it, but it only opened from the Warren's side. Jack flew out that Tunnel, into the night sky, glaring at the Moon, holding out his wrist defiantly. A moon beam landed on it, then traveled further up his arm. Jack clenched his teeth as the pain climbed up his arm, following the beam of light. Jack growled, getting the point. If he wanted to go against the Moon then he was going have to be willing to pay the price.

"Goodbye, Manny. I hope I don't see you for a while." Jack hissed before moving too quickly for the eye to comprehend. One second he was there, the next he was gone, the Wind taking him away to his destination that only the two knew about.

Jack arrived at the place in five minutes, even though it was continents away. He stepped through a glacier into his home. It was magicked so that only Jack could enter, unless it was Baby Tooth, of course. No one could get in. The ice kept the shadows away, and the Moon could not reach him here. No dreams came to him here, the walls too thick for the sand to get through, even if the magic didn't keep it out. He sighed in relief as he sat down, pulling out a sketch book. He sketched out the days events, along with a brief summary of what the last six months had happened. He then set to work painting the Seasons. He first drew Spring, new life. He drew flowers, green grass, blossoming trees, and Bunny sitting in the middle of it, painting an egg. Next he drew Summer, growth. He drew green grass, bright blue skies, and Kat dancing through a field. Then he drew Fall, age. He drew leaves falling, the colors changing flawlessly through each leaf. He drew Amber dressed up in a Halloween Costume, laughing as she carve Jack-o-Lanterns. Finally, he drew Winter, which most people thought of as death, but Jack saw it as renewal, rest. He drew a winter landscape, frost on the trees, then Jack himself, sitting on his staff, a half smirk on his face as he made snowflakes in his hands. He had made the picture blend smoothly from each season, making it look like they were all in the same place, but the weather changing as you looked at it.

Once he was done, he encased it in unmelting, clear ice and set it next to his other pictures. One was of the Moon, when Jack still thought it to be kind. The next was of Pitch, a reminder to stay away from the man, apparent by the cruel sneer on his face and the whip in his hand.

One was of Sandy, spreading his dreams, a wise look on his face. It was Jack's reminder that not everyone was bad. Then there was North, making a toy of ice, reminding Jack that he could create good with his work, not just death. Next was Tooth, a reminder to stay away for rear of her assaulting his mouth to see his teeth. Then there was Baby Tooth, a reminder of the reason he still fought at all, and that he needed to protect the innocence of the world.

Finally, it was a separate picture of Bunny, Amber, and Kat, reminding him that he did have a family, of sorts. They were each doing the thing they loved most, Bunny was painting, Amber was drawing, and Kat was sculpting. He smiled at them sadly, positioning the new picture behind them. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening a hidden cubby that revealed a picture of him and his sister. He kept that picture because it reminded him of the pain of failure. Behind that was a picture of him, but not him. The eyes were a glowing blue, face hard as ice, twisted in pure rage. He had only let that happen once, and it started a blizzard that left New England under six feet of snow on Easter Sunday, 1968.

He sketch that one to remind him to keep his emotions under lock and key, to not let people see beneath the mask he had perfected over centuries. He slammed the cubby closed and left the first room, not wanting to start a snowstorm in his own home. The ice formed into a new room as he needed it, then disappeared when he was done with it, except for the first room. He sank onto the snow bed, wondering how long it would be until they realized that he was gone. He let the pain out of its box, just to see if it had crept any farther, but luckily it had stopped moving once he entered his home, at the top of his shoulder. He didn't sleep, just laid there, thinking.

Meanwhile, back at the Warren, his siblings had found his note and the cuff. Bunny read the note out loud:

"DEAR AMBER, KAT, AND BUNNY,

SORRY, BUT I DON'T DO TEAMS. YOU'RE BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME ANYWAYS, DON'T TRY TO FIND ME. MY ADVICE IS TO STAY HERE WITH BUNNY, HIDE. YOU CAN SPREAD YOUR POWERS FROM HERE, AND BUNNY CAN SEND OUT HIS EGGS TO HIDE ON THEIR OWN ON EASTER. DON'T LET PITCH GET YOU, DON'T TRUST MANNY, AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME. I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.

-JACK FROST"

"I can't believe that he left!" Amber said softly, looking close to tears.

"Bunny, how did he get the cuff off?" Kat asked, looking at Bunny.

"Rubber gloves. The gumby's a genius!" Bunny growled unhappily.

"Doesn't that contradict the gumby-thing?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, now how are we going to find him?" Bunny snapped impatiently.

"Didn't he say NOT to worry about him or try to find him?" Kat asked.

"Well, I'm not worried about him, I'm worried about what he's going through for taking off the cuff. And I want to find him so I can beat some sense into him!" Bunny said.

"Again, that contradicts each other. You want to make sure he is okay, but then you want to put him in pain?" Amber pointed out unhelpfully.

"Yes, Amber, I KNOW!" Bunny snapped, rubbing his forehead.

"Well, how did you guys find out where we were?" Kat asked.

"We just knew where to go. I-" Bunny cut himself off. Then he grinned. "Got him!" He opened a new tunnel, bringing his sisters with him. In no time at all they were outside of a glacier. Bunny shook his head in amazement. The kid had built his home in a glacier. He knocked loudly on the side, folding his arms impatiently.

Jack jumped as he heard a knocking sound. He cautiously got up and looked at the wall. He cursed himself for not realizing that they would be able to find him. He made the ice clear so he could see them. He opened a tiny hole so he could see them. "Yes...?" Jack said.

"Are ya goin' ta let us in or are ya goin' ta make us freeze out here?" Bunny asked, scowling at his youngest sibling.

Jack glared unhappily but allowed the magic to let them through. He resisted the urge to laugh as Bunny, who had been leaning against the wall, fell to the floor in a heap. The girls yelled in alarm as they saw half of Bunny disappear. Jack poked his head out and gestured them in. He winced visibly as the moonlight hit him, making the pain begin to travel up his arm again.

He quickly shot back into his home, closing the whole and making it impossible to see through the ice once more. He rubbed his chest where the pain had spread to, locking it away in the box with the rest of it. He turned to glare at his siblings.

"I told you not to come." Jack hissed at them, going to stand in front of his pictures in hopes of blocking them from view.

Bunny walked over and cuffed him on the back of the head. "Don't go off on yer own again, Frostbite." He growled standing tall over Jack. Being able to see over Jack, he saw the pictures. "Bloody hell, Frostbite! These are good. But why would you have a picture of Manny and Pitch if you hate them?" Bunny said, picking up the ones he was talking about.

"They're reminders. The Moon is to remind me that I was once innocent and naive as well, thinking that he actually cared. Pitch is to remember the cruelty and torture that I have gone through. Sandy's picture is to remind me that not all of them are after power, some are actually kind and wise. North's is to remind me that I don't just spread death. Tooth's is to remind me to run if I see her. Maybe a reminder to love my job, not hate it." He held up Baby Tooth. "She is a reminder that there is still innocence to protect in the world. Then one of each of you to remind me that there are still people who care about me in the world, that I still have family and that last one is how we are all connected to each other." Jack said. He sat down on the coach that formed next to him from nowhere.

Bunny saw a tiny crack in the ice and slowly opened the not quite closed cubby. It had a long crack in it, as though it got slammed a lot. He pulled out the two pictures in there and sat next to Jack. "And these two?" Bunny said holding them out. Jack held the picture of him and the girl gingerly, as though it were a precious, fragile treasure. He held the other one in anger.

"This one," holding up the girl, "is to remind me the pain of failure." His voice cracked at the end.

"That was your sister, wasn't it?" Bunny asked and Jack nodded. Amber and Kat gave each other broken looks. He had lost his sister?

"And this is to remind me not to let my anger consume me. It ruins peoples lives and buries them in snow." Jack showed them all the picture, and they gasped as they saw the horrible beauty to it.

"That's what ya looked like on..." Bunny trailed off.

"Yeah, it was the day I got my memories back." Jack said sadly before hiding the picture away from the world once more. "Now, what do you guys want? I TOLD-"

"We know what you told us lillebror. We don't care! We are family, we take care of each other." Amber said, reaching out to grab his shoulder in anger. He hissed as she touch him, jerking away as the pain burst out and completely destroyed the box that he had built for it. He held his arm close to his chest, curled up in agony.

"Don't touch him!" Kat shouted pushing Amber back gently. "Jack, what's wrong?"

"Whatever you do, DO NOT take off those bracelets!" Jack ground out through his teeth. Bunny pulled out Jack's cuff and handed it to him. Jack glared at it and was tempted to just throw it away, but he knew that if he did that they would just forcefully put it back on him. So he slid it on, wincing as it snapped shut, leaving no room between the skin and the metal for him to weasel out of this time. But the pain did go away, after the thing shocked him a couple times. He sighed as he was finally able to sit back up without wincing.

He looked at the others, who had looks of horror on their faces. "I told you not to trust him. He wants to control the seasons because we're the most powerful of all. We're more powerful than Mother, than Pitch, than Moon. So Manny keeps us under his thumb with lies and kind smiles and Pitch tries to break you down to build you back up in his image. Mother just wants to be our mother as far as I can tell, but you never know, because she's not done anything about it. You can't trust anyone, not really, in our line of work. No one but family. I trust you guys, because you guys can't survive without me, and I can't survive without you. Not really. Mother could handle one of our jobs, even all of our jobs if she needed to, but it would be weak. The seasons would be mild and boring, things working on a set clock." Jack let his head fall back, too tired with life to even care.

"How is it that you figured this all out?" Kat asked. Jack's eyes blinked closed for a minute, then snapped back open.

"I grew up. I learned to look deeper into the meaning of words, I learned to read expressions, body language, lips, and thousands of different languages. I know when I am being lied to, and I know when someone is giving me half truths." Bunny looked at him curiously, as though he were a puzzle that he was only just finding the pieces. "Stop the, Kangaroo." Jack said tiredly.

"What?" Bunny asked innocently. Jack didn't answer him. Bunny knew what he meant, so Jack was going to sleep.

He was woken up by shouting. LOUD shouting.

"YOU DESTROY EVERYTHING! I spend MONTHS making Summer perfect, then you come around, everything is just DEAD!"

"At least I make the world look pretty! All you do is kill flowers and give people heat stroke! I prepare the world for Winter!"

"Oh, Winter! What so good about Winter!? Everything is dead and cold and white! The only good thing about Winter is that is leads to Spring, which leads to SUMMER!" Jack flinched inwardly at her description of Winter. She was right, that describe him perfectly.

"How long have they been at it?" Jack asked Bunny quietly.

"Two hours. They only just started yelling." Jack was informed.

"What started it?"

"Amber said that the ice was pretty and that she was glad the Summer was almost over in the Northern Hemisphere." Ah, that would explain it.

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO VISIT JACK IN THE WINTER! IT'S BEAUTIFUL! Jack makes everything come to life!"

"So!? It's probably just like him. Cold, dead, and lonely. Just like it should be!" Jack actually HEARD Kat clamp her hand over her mouth. Bunny shot up off the couch, to tower over her.

"Never, ever say that again." He growled threateningly, glaring fiercely at his younger sister.

"No, Bunny, let her say what she wants! It was just getting to the part of how she goes on about how I probably deserved the torture that I went to and all that I am is death, and that's all I'll ever be." Jack said, his voice cold. "I mean, never having actually seen the thing for herself, she MUST be right. I mean, she must learn more staying in her element than I do when I actually leave mine to see what the other seasons are like, plus she's a couple centuries older, so she must have more experience in such things."

He opened his eyes, which were faintly glowing blue, a sure sign that he wasn't just angry, he was furious.

"Jack! I'm sorry! Wait, you go into Summer? But, you could get in trouble with my helpers!" Kat said.

"I wanted to make sure that I would actually know what I was talking about if I had to talk about what each seasons was like. It helps to know what you're arguing about." Jack said, brushing off the danger factor.

"I'm sorry, Jack. I didn't th-" Kat said.

"No, you did think. You just thought of a biased opinion that Winter must be the EXACT opposite of what you think Summer is." Jack snapped, his eyes no longer glowing, but two different shades of steel grey.

Kat looked at her feet. "You know, aren't I supposed to be the one telling YOU that, being older?" She asked jokingly.

"You may be older, but I am more experienced. Manny says I have little to no control of my powers, but they are actually my tell. They are directly tied to my emotions, like right now, we are snowed in because I just blasted a blizzard outside. If you want to sleep, then follow me." Jack said, walking into the hallway that had suddenly formed.