It was chaos. Spikes of ice flew at a vanishing target as the Guardians felt themselves thrown into utter panic. Sandman threw out his whips only to have them come back empty and the Tooth Fairy came crashing out of the air from the force another body flying into her. North and Bunnymund were unsure of where the enemy even was. The five had been fighting fruitlessly, each one using all of their speed and strength, but the chaos continued with falling lampposts and pain unleashed bit by bit onto each one of them from someone that they couldn't even see. Such an agile enemy, but unlike Pitch, she would not reveal herself.

"What does she want?" Jack hissed before coughing into his jacket sleeve, stumbling back as he cast another spike from his staff at the smoking night sky. Frost felt his earlier fears becoming a nightmare- this wasn't supposed to happen. North had said it wouldn't happen….

"I told you!" Bunnymund growled. "It's the worst holiday of the year! She's a crazy- gah!" The enemy had appeared in front of the Bunny, frozen mid-run as she swiped a blade across his left hip, cutting the flesh back easily. She even did so with a smile on her face, wide and delirious grey eyes staring up at the Easter Bunny before she disappeared into swirling ash once more.

"Curse it!" North hissed, slashing his blades at nothing (or at least not anything anymore) in fury. "Her holiday is over- these tricks are dangerous! She's going to-… Move!" North barreled out of the way of a car flying towards the group. The childish laugher of a young girl filled the air alongside the frustration and smoke. In the scatter the Guardians were separated, Tooth Fairy and Jack fleeing to one end on the block with Sandman and North on the other.

"Tooth Fairy, where's Bunny?" Jack turned to his hummingbird-like friend as she tried to catch her breath and wipe away the blood from a small cut on her forehead. She looked at him and shook her head quickly, shock and worry filling her bubblegum eyes as she turned back to look at the car, now blocking the entrance to a splintering alleyway in the middle of the block. The four of them looked at each other from across the block.

"Here, Bunny Bunny!" The innocent sounding voice rang in the night air.

"Oh no," North whispered, looking at the car.

Bunnymund tightened his grip around the boomerangs in his fists, glancing around with ears swiveling, trying to fight the disquiet in his stomach. Smoke burned his eyes and nose as the feeling of foreboding in his core roiled and made him want to puke. He never liked being cornered. The car had blocked him into the splinter alleyway- not that it wasn't something he couldn't hop over, and yet his feet were glued. "Move!" He hissed to himself, but the thought of crossing The Jester of April Fools' day paralyzed him with fear.

"Scared of me, Bunny?" her breathe against his ear sent him spinning to face her, or rather the empty space where she had stood. The stretching shadow of a jester costume against the wall was the last thing he saw that day.

Earlier that day

Jack and Bunnymund sat on a cliff above a snow-filled valley, playing with Bunnymund's boomerangs.

"April First," the Australian rabbit sighed, "My least favorite day of the year."

"I thought that was Christmas," Jack grinned playfully.

"It's close," the rabbit half-smiled. A tense silence snatched a moment to form as Bunnymund's smile disappeared and the mood began to sour.

"Calm down Thumper," Jack smiled, sensing the looming consternation and trying to push against it. He watched as his friend did not return his sense of humor, only stared solemnly at the frozen plants beneath the jutting rock.

"Have you met April?" Bunny asked suddenly.

"What do you mean have I met her?" Jack was confused by the question. How could one meet a holiday?

"All holidays have personas mate," Bunnymund answered, taking on a sort of grave tone. "some elements and seasons, too. The persona of April Fools' day is known as The Jester, or April. If you'd met her, I'm sure you'd understand why I hate April First..." There was a pause as Jack considered where the conversation was headed when his curiosity took over.

"What makes her so terrible?" He asked. Bunnymund's jaw shifted as it he ground his teeth.

"It was April First of seventeen eighty seven and still a cold winter in the North. I was outside of my home area- The Warren- when I saw a small child of about eight walking alone. Behind him I saw April, grinnin' ear to ear… but… somethin' about her smile wasn't right. I watched as she sprang up into the trees and cracked an entire bow from the tree that came crashing down onto the child. He was crushed beneath, screamin' and pleadin' for help… Blood was pooling under him and I ran out. I looked up into the trees to bring her to justice but she was just… looking down at me with these bloodshot grey eyes and a grin of complete illness. Her beautiful face was so… so wrong. She said 'April Fools, Bunny,' to me before disappearing. I got the bough off the kid and tried my best to help him but… it was no use. He died in my arms." Bunnymund looked down and paused as Jack tried to comprehend what his friend had said. Holidays killed children? Jack always thought of April Fools' day as a day to play jokes that gesture love or tease individuals with playful joy. He tried to interject, unable to comprehend the thought that a timeless holiday persona of any sort would kill a child, or would retain the… the humanistic weakness… to mentally deteriorate. "Every April first," the rabbit continued, "the only thing I can ever see is her grinning down at me from the trees… and all I can think is… 'Why did she do that?'" There was a pause as the two stared out into the eerie cold and Jack debated how to handle his friend's story.

"Wow," Jack answered, trying to break the tension unsuccessfully. His friend smiled grimly, the kind of smile that you do because the only other option would be to break.

"Yeah," Bunny answered. "I'll see ya later mate…" Jack did not object, only nodded, as his friend stood, thumped once, and disappeared into the ground.

. . .

An hour of curiosity drove Jack to use one of the snow globes North gave him to go to the North Pole. He leaned now against the wood of North's office.

"Jack Frost," North chuckled, "Good to see your face again. Why are you here, friend?"

There was no hesitation in his response.

"Bunnymund told me something interesting about April Fools' day."

"Did he now?" North answered. Jack gauged his body language and watched as North tensed and met his gaze with deliberation.

"So they have a history?" Jack narrowed his eyes.

"A history? Ha!" North answered, bringing his fists down upon his work table. He shook his head, a glimmer of anger surfacing in his downcast eyes. His voice became dark with many generations past of trying to bury the memory. "Bunny and The Jester used to be the best of companions. When Bunnymund first became a guardian in the sixteen hundreds. The Jester, April, strung Bunny's Warren with paper fish."

"Paper Fish?"

"She loves paper fish. She had painted each one like a beautiful Easter egg… The Jester was really the first holiday to invest a lot of time with Bunny once he became a guardian. But she always liked tricks and as time went on she began to play some really mean ones, on Bunny most of all. One day when he tried to reprimand her, she left him. Bunny was devastated, and then a few years later, April killed a child right before his eyes .It was unforgivable to him- to all of us."

"What was done about this?" Jack growled.

"She hasn't been seen since. April is the craftiest of any holiday, and nothing like Pitch- after earning our hatred she never would've risked coming into our sight or making herself known… But anyway, that's the story of the Bunny and The Jester." Silence became uncomfortable as Jack pondered and North forgot where he was, lost in the memories of the past. It was some time before he came to again and laughed just enough to get Jack's attention. "I know that seeing Bunnymund upset worries you- he's never himself on April first. But don't worry Frost- no one has seen The Jester in over a hundred years, and she's a woman of cowardice. You won't see her bothering anyone today."

NOTE: If you did not understand the Paper Fish thing, Paper Fish are a really common thing in Europe on April Fools' day, or they used to be in the 18 and 1900s.