Author's Note: Hello, hello! If you came here because of my first ROTG fanfic, welcome back! If you're new here, welcome to my newest ROTG fanfic! That's right! This is We Are Your Family, Too! Now, before we move onto the first chapter, as stated in the summary, this story idea was adopted from another fanfic user, so I didn't originally plan on writing this. But I loved the ideas that came with the summary provided by the user, so I decided to take up the offer to adopt it.

So, as I stated in my previous story, this is a sequel to Believe It. It takes place two months after that story, but it has a different plot. However, for the new readers, events from the previous story will be referenced, so if you want to know what the characters will be talking about, then I would recommend reading Believe It. As I said in my previous story, my ROTG fanfics take place in one timeline as a mini-series and will eventually work up to a grand finale.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this one as well! Once again, I'll try to update weekly, but I've been so busy with grad school and such so the updates might be a little more spread out. Plus, I'm planning to write another multi-chapter fic as well, so I plan to give each story the attention it deserves.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything related to Rise of the Guardians.

Chapter 1

It had been two months since North saved Jack from the Boogeyman's influence and since Pitch was imprisoned in Sandy's cocoon, and needless to say, life had been getting significantly better for the five Guardians, especially the Guardian of Fun. The winter teen, who was once forced to endure 300 years of not being seen or believed in, continued to enjoy his new life as a Guardian with North, the Guardian of Wonder as his adoptive father, Tooth, the Guardian of Memories as his mother figure, and Bunny and Sandy, the Guardians of Hope and Dreams as his older brothers, especially Bunny. While Jack and Sandy had always been on good terms before the former was chosen, Jack and Bunny had somewhat of a rocky start. However, thanks to the Man in the Moon and the events that occurred over the last few months, the relationship between the boy and the Pooka began to improve. In fact that was who Jack was visiting today.

While North was uneasy about the fact that Jack and Bunny would be alone with the imprisoned Boogeyman in the Warren, Bunny himself assured North that they were going to be nowhere near Pitch whenever Jack came to visit. Even Bunny himself tried to avoid contact with Pitch unless he and Sandy needed to check on the Nightmare King. Nevertheless, North complied and trusted Bunny and Jack to steer clear of Pitch. Little did they know that the Nightmare King was once again up to something.

Pitch Black felt his strength slowly coming back…just as he predicted two months ago when the Guardians first trapped him in here. That was pretty much the only detail that had been keeping the Boogeyman from going completely mad. Aside from that, he was mad with revenge…eager to escape and to gain revenge on the five Guardians. Thankfully, all that time he spent in Sandy's prison gave him a chance to step back and to figure a foolproof plot, and from the amounts of fear he was sensing from the outside…he knew just the right Guardian to target first.

He ran as fast as he could. He wasn't exactly sure if he was running from something or to something. It was dark…smoke filled the clean, crisp air making it very hard to see two feet in front of him. From what he could see, there was nothing but rubble and burnt houses all around him, but there was no one around. It was almost as if everyone just picked up and left.

"Aster…"

He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he heard his name called and looked around twitching his ears straining to find the source of the voice. There was nothing at first, but then…

"Aster…"

"Who's there?!" he shouted.

"Aster…help me!"

He recognized the voice and resumed running while hoping to find the source. "Where are you?!"

"Here!"

"Where?! I can't see!"

"I'm over here! Please, Aster, don't abandon your family!"

Green eyes snapped open as the Guardian of Hope jolted awake gasping for air. Breathing heavily, Bunny looked around trying to take in his surroundings. He was in his burrow in the Warren, and the sunlight peeking in through the cracks was an indication that it was morning. He had woken up from a horrible…horrible nightmare. Well, it wasn't exactly a nightmare as it really did happen…a long, long time ago before he even became a Guardian. It had been so long since he had even thought about that awful day. Bunny sighed as all the painful memories came flooding back to him. All the running…screaming…fire…smoke…the fear… That was where Bunny stopped and realized something…something very crucial. Was this nightmare Pitch's doing? Was he doing it just to torment the Guardian of Hope? It had been a while since they trapped him, and he, North, Tooth, Sandy, and now Jack all knew that Pitch would regain strength from fear. Was this a sign? Was this—?

"Bunny!" a voice shouted jolting the Pooka out of his thoughts.

"Jack?" his Australian-accented voice asked in a whisper.

"Bunny, where are you?" the voice asked again. It was Jack, but why was he—?

Bunny felt his heart stop when he remembered that Jack was supposed to visit him today. The Pooka was so focused on that nightmare that he actually forgot about the newest Guardian's weekly visit to the Warren.

"Aw, crikey!" Bunny whispered to himself as he quickly stood up, stretched, and shook off any remainders of sleep. "Uh…I'm coming, Jack! Hold your horses, would ya?" The Guardian of Hope finally made a dash out of his burrow. "I'm sorry, Frostbite," he added as he climbed out. "I guess I over—" he stopped in his tracks when he saw something odd, "—slept." There was no sign of the winter teen anywhere near his burrow. He looked around in all directions, sniffed the air and twitched his ears to pick up any sound. However, it didn't seem like Jack Frost was in the Warren at all. "That's weird…I thought I heard-AHH!"

Next thing he knew, Bunny was tumbling a huge blur of blue and white on top of him only to suddenly stop with the Pooka on the bottom and…

Jack laughed as Bunny opened his green eyes wide staring into the boy's blue eyes. "Gotcha!" the Guardian of Fun said happily.

Bunny couldn't help but smile at the boy and rolled his eyes at his friend. "Yeah, yeah, you got me," he said chuckling as he gently pushed Jack to get him to stand up. "Now can you let me get up?"

The winter teen chuckled as he did what Bunny asked and stood up with a confident smile knowing he managed to tackle the Guardian of Hope. For the past two months, the Guardians of Hope and Fun always seemed to find themselves in a friendly competition at some point. Whether it was a race around Burgess or the Warren, rough-housing, or seeing who can sneak up on who, it was something both the Pooka and the winter teen always looked forward to during Jack's weekly visit. Bunny smirked at Jack as he began to stand up and realized that the boy wasn't looking at him, so the 6'1" Pooka decided to take advantage of the opportunity and leapt up pouncing Jack. The two of them tumbled a few times once again before Bunny finally landed on top of Jack.

"Now, I got you," the Pooka said smirking down at the winter teen.

Jack couldn't help but laugh as Bunny got up to let him stand up. "Okay, we'll call it even," he said as he stood up. "Hey, what happened to you? Oversleep or something?"

Bunny furrowed his eyebrows together. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, before I snuck up on you, you looked really shaken up," Jack replied. "Did I wake you up or something?"

Bunny paused for a brief moment wondering if he should even bother telling Jack about his nightmare. It wasn't because he didn't trust Jack or anything like that. No, things had been getting better between them ever since Jack became a Guardian, but this was very personal stuff…stuff that he wasn't sure he was ready to talk to Jack about. In fact, he hadn't really fully spoken about it with North, Tooth, and Sandy just yet, and he had been working with them longer than with Jack. Bunny wasn't sure if he ever truly moved on from what happened all those years ago.

"Uh…y-yeah, kind of," the Pooka finally said. "I…uh…I guess I overworked myself a bit last night and overslept a little. Not a big deal." It wasn't a total lie. He did work later than usual the night before between making sure he was prepared for the next Easter Sunday and making sure that Pitch wasn't up to anything suspicious.

"Really?" Jack asked as they took off to another part of the Warren. "I thought you said you deal with perishables while North gets all year to prepare."

Bunny couldn't help but chuckle at Jack's question. "Well, yeah, mate," he replied, "but it's not just painting eggs. I need the year to prepare new egg designs, get some new paint, look for new hiding spots…the whole nine yards."

Jack thought for a moment and realized that Bunny's statement actually made sense. It was like North said when Jack asked about his work. He needed a whole year to spice things up in the toy designs, and since Bunny had a job sort of similar to North's, it made sense that the Guardian of Hope would need the same amount of time as the Guardian of Wonder.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Jack said, "but—" He stopped when a furry arm was suddenly held out in front of him. The boy looked to his left and saw that it was Bunny who stopped both of them in their tracks. "What is it?"

"Something's up," Bunny simply eyeing the Warren, twitching his ears, and sniffing the air. Something wasn't right.

Jack looked in front of them and even noticed a few of Bunny's eggs running away from something. The last time they did that was when Sophie, Jamie's little sister snuck into the Warren with North's snow globe. So, he readied his staff as he looked around trying to find anything out of the ordinary.

Suddenly, a huge blur of black emerged from the bushes rushing straight toward Jack and Bunny, but thankfully, with his cat-like reflexes. Jack fired a blast of frost right at the blur causing it to drop to the ground completely frozen. For a few moments, both Guardians stared at the thing that seemed like it was going to attack them. There was no doubt that that was the stranger's intention, for it was one of Pitch Black's nightmare stallions. However, it looked somewhat smaller than the ones that they fought on Easter Sunday, but that wasn't enough to ease the Guardians of Fun and Hope. So, Jack gently prodded the frozen stallion, and both he and Bunny flinched as they braced themselves for the Nightmare to suddenly reawaken. When nothing came, they relaxed.

"Huh, nice shot, mate," Bunny finally said as he threw a quick smirk at Jack before observing the area around him trying to see if he could find the source of the Nightmare's sudden appearance.

"Thanks, but…where did it come from?" Jack asked as he studied the sandy stallion.

"Perhaps, I can help you figure that one out," an all-too familiar voice suddenly said from behind causing both Jack and Bunny to stiffen.

Both Guardians turned around just in time to see the Nightmare King appear from the shadows of the nearby trees. Pitch smirked evilly as he watched the green and blue eyes widen in shock and fear. However, the looks of shock and fear quickly dissolved into hard glares as they shifted into defensive stances preparing their respective weapons for battle, which made Pitch chuckle under his breath. If everything went according to plan, there wouldn't be much of a fight.

"Pitch…" Bunny said through clenched teeth.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked squinting at the Boogeyman as his staff began to glow. "How did you—?"

"—get out of my confounded prison?" Pitch finished. He chuckled as he shook his head. "Oh, Jack, it's quite easy to figure out really. My strength finally came back, and," he spread his arms out gesturing to the nightmares emerging behind him, "I was able to call in a few favors."

The Guardian of Fun's face fell once again as he watched the one…two…three…10 nightmares behind the battle between him, Sandy, Pitch, and his nightmares on the day before Easter Sunday. He and Sandy separated from North, Tooth, and Bunny only to be outnumbered by Pitch and the Nightmares. The others eventually did catch up to them, but the battle still ended with Sandy getting killed by Pitch. The boy quickly glared at their enemy again. There was no way he was going to let history repeat itself.

"What do you want, Pitch?" the boy finally asked.

"What I've wanted for the past few months," Pitch replied as his smirk turned into a glare, "you, Jack. I want you to return as my Nightmare Prince!"

"Sorry, you drongo," Bunny quickly said before Jack could even respond, "but that is not going to happen. If you want him, you're going to have to go through me."

Pitch chuckled evilly watching Bunny standing defensively in front of Jack with his boomerangs ready. The Guardians of Fun and Hope were falling right into his trap, and he loved every minute of it. He took a deep breath letting the fear of both Guardians seep in, and it was feeling marvelous. Oh, how he missed it!

"Oh, look at the fluffy rabbit," the Boogeyman said mockingly, "trying to defend the newest Guardian. Isn't that just adorable? If I recall correctly, there was one other time you tried that, and it didn't turn out very well for you, did it?"

Bunny widened his eyes briefly before his face returned to a hardened glare. He was so focused on their enemy that he didn't realize that Jack had a very confused look on his face as he looked at Pitch and the Pooka.

"Oh, I'm going to make you regret saying that," Bunny growled.

Pitch smirked at the Pooka before giving a simple, "Boo!"

Within seconds, the Nightmares surged forward toward the two Guardians ready for battle.

"You take five!" Bunny shouted to Jack. "I'll take five!"

"Got it!" Jack shouted as he took off into the air.

The battle began! Bunny flung his boomerangs and tossed a few egg bombs as Jack fired frost blasts from his staff. They managed to fend off their respective five Nightmares, but as soon as they did just that, more kept coming, especially those who weren't frozen by Jack. Pitch made absolute sure that the Nightmares could reconstruct themselves once they were decimated, and Bunny and Jack were beginning to notice.

"We can't keep this up forever!" Jack said as he and Bunny stood back to back in the clearing watching the Nightmares circling them. "They just keep popping up out of nowhere!"

"Maybe not forever!" Bunny shouted back. "But long enough for North to notice something when we don't show up for the meeting on time!"

"And that's exactly what I hope for," the Boogeyman said as he watched the two Guardians resuming the battle with the Nightmares. For a moment, he concentrated solely on Jack as he continued to fire frost blasts from his staff at his beautiful stallions.

The boy was so distracted as he fought the Nightmares that he failed to notice one particular sandy horse behind him ready to attack.

Author's Note: Haha! First chapter, and I already have a cliffhanger! Well, that's Chapter 1, guys! I hope you all enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave a review! Thanks again, guys!