Hello! So the last chapter might have been a little jumbled. Sorry! So, this one will be non-jumbled since I'm not going from year to year.

Here you go!

Pairing(s): Main—Jack x Pitch (I'm sorry. There is no Sophie x Bunny in this story. Sophie's too young and I don't feel like making her older. Maybe if there's an epilogue… Thanks for sticking with me even though it took forever to update!)

Chapter 2: Jack Frost—Searching

"Jack, what is wrong?" North asked him as he worked on his ice sculptures.

Jack groaned. "It's Jamie. He keeps doing all this weird and very dangerous stuff without wondering what the repercussions might be."

North gave him an amused look. "Since when do you worry about danger, Jack?"

"Good point, North but this is Jamie. He could get hurt really bad. I can't."

"More like you won't," North muttered.

"I am going to ignore that. But it seems as though Jamie thinks he can do anything without hurting himself. He's not afraid of falling off his roof and breaking his arm."

"Hm…" North stopped for a moment, giving it some thought.

"… Do you think it has something to do with Pitch? What if he's out there but not doing anything? What if he doesn't have the energy to move because no one is scared?"

North glanced at him and then burst out laughing. "Fear is still around even if Pitch is not."

"This isn't a laughing matter, North! Forget it, I'm leaving." Jack opened North's window and sat on the sill, waiting for a good gust of wind.

"It's just funny to me that you care, Jack," North said.

North heard Jack's response over the wind. "He wants what I wanted. I can't just ignore him."

North, waiting until Jack has left, mutters under his breath, "Strong willingness, powerful, wanting to be believed in, makes good Guardian, no?" The Yeti (Phil?) in his room shrugs his shoulders. North says something in russian to him and he runs out of the door before he can get an ice sculpter thrown at him.

XxXxX

"… and then he burst out laughing! I was being serious, Tooth!"

Tooth was, for the moment, letting the Baby Tooth's run the errands. She knew Jack needed a friend to talk to and she was the most sensible one being the only girl in the guardians.

Tooth laid a hand on Jack's shoulder. "I'm sure you are worried, Jack. But I don't know where Pitch could be. He disappeared, remember?"

"Yeah, but it's been months since we saw him. I just think that something happened—"

"Slow down, Jack." Tooth sighed. "Why don't you look for his teeth. Maybe you can find something out about him."

"That… that sounds good. Thanks, Tooth. I can always count on you."

XxXxX

The Nightmares had him cornered. They feasted on his fear, giving him no mercy. Pitch no longer knew what to do. He couldn't even sit up on his own anymore. He felt weak, he was weak. After giving Pitch a good kick, the last of the Nightmares left.

He couldn't do anything. He wanted to stand or, at the very least, protect himself from the Nightmares. They were going to come back.

Pitch groaned and opened his golden eyes. The moon stared back at him, just as it always did every night. He reached out for the moon, begging and pleading for help. Pitch wanted the sun to come out for once. He didn't want to be in the dark or see the moon. It was always nighttime here, and Pitch couldn't take much more of it.

XxXxX

Tooth had left Jack with Baby Tooth. Together, the two searched for Pitch's memories.

Baby Tooth was the first to say anything. She tugged on Jack's sweater, pointing frantically at a very old and wooden case. Jack was afraid to touch it, it was so old. Baby Tooth rolled her eyes and placed her hand on the top of the case.

Jack's vision instantly pixilated and he saw a little boy, lying in the snow.

A younger girl was talking to him in a launguge Jack didn't understand.

A light flashed and Jack saw that the boy had grown older. He and the little girl were sitting outside. It was spring time. The girl began to scream. He understood what she was saying this time. "John, John, John! There's a bug on me! Get it off, off, off!"

The boy, John, crawled over to her. Jack saw that he couldn't use his legs. He plucked the spider off of her, tossing it away. "It's just a spider, Annie."

Light flashed again, showing Jack a much older version of John, or Pitch. Instead of looking sickly, he looked more like the Pitch Jack knew. "Help me…" John said. Jack could see where he was now. John was stuck in a ditch, calling for help whenever anyone passed by.

Jack watched as people passed him by, noticing the young man but not helping him. Jack watched, horrified. As snow began to fall.

Then, John died, only to be reborn again as Pitch Black.

XxXxX

Jack blinked. That hadn't told Jack why Pitch was the Nightmare King. That hadn't given him any clue as to where the immortal was. He looked at the clock. It was around nine. Tooth's fairies would need him out of the way soon.

Jack helped Baby Tooth put the case of Pitch's teeth back. He was about to leave when he heard a scream.

It was Tooth. Jack and Baby Tooth flew over to her as fast as they could.

"Tooth, what's wrong?" he asked. Tooth was pale and was staring at her fairies, shocked.

"My-my fairies can't collect the children's teeth. It's not nighttime anywhere," Tooth said. She fluttered to the ground. Jack was taken aback.

"Not even in Burgess? I was just there a couple hours ago, and it was night there," he saie, matter-of-factly.

Tooth shook her head. "No, its daytime there, too. My fairies searched every where."

All the sudden, a magic portal appeared five feet away from them. North stepped out of it, into Tooth's palace. "What takes you so long?" he asked.

Jack and Tooth exchanged a glance. "What do you mean?"

North pointed to the sky. "I sent you lights. Is emegency."

Jack looked to where North was pointing. He couldn't see the lights. "North, are you sure there's nothing wrong with the lights? 'Cause I don't see a thing."

North waved a hand. "Enough chit chat. To the Pole, we go."

XxXxX

"Now that you are all here, I have a matter I must discuss with you," North said, placing his hands on his desk.

"This better be good, North," Bunny muttered.

Tooth was silent, waiting to hear what would happen.

"Manny has shown me sign. We will get new guardian," North told them.

Bunny laughed. "Again? It can't be that bad, can it? Pitch couldn't have made a comeback yet, right? He's to weak, ain't he? Serves him right, if you ask me…"

Jack flashed on the Pitch's memories. "Well, we didn't ask you, Kangaroo!" Jack snaps.

Bunny glares at him. "What? You wanna start somethin' again, Frostbite? 'Cause I swear, I'll knock some teeth out this time. Tooth's fairies would be so happy." Jack heard a growl emit from the other.

"Just shut it!" he said. "You don't know a thing about Pitch!"

"N-neither do you!" Bunny stuttered. The three other Guardians watched with interest and worried eyes.

"I know a lot more than you EVER will, so shut the hell up!"

Silence.

Bunny stares at him for a few seconds before swallowing the lump in his throat. He hated it when Jack said things like this. It confused him. A lot. "So, what you're saying is—is that you care about Pitch?"

Jack's eyes narrowed dangerously. This could go very wrong, very quickly. If Bunny wasn't so arragont, he would have left it there and made some jab that would make Jack talk about something else. But Bunny was arragont. So he wouldn't let this slide.

"You don't know what its like," the boy whispered. His eyes were cold, metallic. "None of you know what it's like to not be believed in for a long period of time." He choked up a little. North and Tooth glared at Bunny. Bunny shrunk under their gazes. Sandy, however, just stepped over to Jack and laid a comforting hand on his arm.

Jack smiled sadly at him. Bunny sighed. "Okay, mate. I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." Jack just waved him off like it didn't matter. But they all knew it mattered. And that's what really counts.

"North, what did Man in Moon say to you after he told you we'd be getting a new guardian?" Tooth asked him. "Did he tell you who it was going to be?"

"No. Nothing," North replied. "Manny just disappeared and was replaced by the sun."

"What?" the others all asked.

"Manny just disappeared?"

A picture appeared above Sandy's head.

"You haven't been able to give kids dreams for the past day?" Tooth guessed.

"Tooth, didn't your fairies tell you that they couldn't collect the teeth because it was still day?" Jack said. He turned to North. "Something is very wrong here." Jack looked at the clock in North's office. It read 10:00pm. It should be night where they were. "North, your clock says that its ten. Why isnt it dark out, then?"

XxXxX

Pitch had been awake for hours. The Nightmares still hadn't returned. But they would. They always would come back to haunt him of his mistake. He didn't want them to come back at all.

Man In Moon had been staring him down all those hours. Pitch had beeged him, pleaded and still, Man In Moon refused to help. They weren't on the same level: Man In Moon was superior to him. He had every right not to help him.

"Why?" he shouted at the Moon. "If you refuse to help me, why must you stay here? Do you wish pain on me? Are you mocking me?"

Pitch began to cry.

XxXxX

Little did Pitch know that Man In Moon was just as stuck as he was. He wanted to help but he was trapped in this area with him, unable to move or warn the Guardians.

I'm sorry, he said. He knew Pitch couldn't hear him. Man In Moon wasn't strong enough to be heard. I'm sorry that you are stuck here, too.

XxXxX

Jack was riding the wind, trying to get to Burgess as quick as possible. He had walked Jamie home and had even read the boy a bed time story. He should be in bed, asleep. But, as Jack got closer to Burgess, he saw the sun, shining down brightly. Snow covered the ground from Jack's quick job yesterday.

Flying to the park, he crouched down beside a statue, watching with confusion as the kids of Burgess had a snowball fight. Jamie was the first to see him and the boy ran over and grabbed Jack's hand, pulling him with such force that almost caused Jack to fall off the stone.

"Jack!" Jamie cried out in joy. "C'mon, you have to help us win this snowball fight!"

Jack scrunched his face. Crouching down, he asked Jamie, "Kiddo, weren't you sleeping a little bit ago?"

Jamie laughed and told Jack that he was silly, of course he hadn't been sleeping. Wary now, Jack glanced at the other kids. Claude and Caleb were attacking Monty with absolutly no mercy. They had been doing the same thing yesterday. Was it because Monty had lost a dare?

Jamie looked at him curiously and followed his gaze. "Oh, Monty had told them that he needed to go do homework and they started pelting him."

His head swivled back to Jamie. His first believer had said the same exact thing yesterday. What was going on here?

He looked over at Cupcake and Pippa. They were building a snowman, a snowman that should have been there still becausethey had made it yesterday.

"Oh, no," Jack moaned. What? Was this like that stupid movie Groundhog Day? This was really scary. Jack took off into the air, not even bothering to say goodbye to Jamie, and flew to the North Pole.

XxXxX

"North, I think time is being repeated," Jack said as he stepped into the big man's office.

The four Guardians blinked at him. North burst into laughter. "Aha ha ha! Is funny, Jack!"

Seeing Jack 's face, Bunny tapped North on the shoulder. "Uh, mate? I don't think Frostbite's kiddin'."

North stopped suddenly and gave Jack a look of surprise.

Jack groaned in frustration. A cold gust of wind shot through the room. "Look, I just went to go see Jamie and he wasn't in bed sleeping. Like Tooth had said, it wasn't night time there, although, it should have been. I walked Jamie home, put him in bed and read him a bedtime story about four hours ago. I just checked in and the sun was out and he and his friends were playing in the snow. Even I know that's not normal, North."

"But why does that make you think the days are repeating?" Tooth asked carefully, trying not to upset Jack further.

Jack gestured with his arms to the Globe. "Okay, the kids were doing the same things they had done yesterday. I know, that doesn't mean much to you but…" Jack trailed off, running over to the Globe. If he could just find the right light… and bingo! Jack tapped on a light in Burgess. A projection of what had happened to Jack when he'd visited yesterday appeared.

North's eyes widened greatly. "I did not know it did that," he said.

"That's why I'm here," Jack responded, chuckling. "This was what I did with the kids of Burgess yesterday."

The four watched intetnly. Bunny grumbled when he saw that Sophie had played with Jack. He missed his little ankle-biter.

When the projection ended, Jack paused a moment. "This," he told them, tapping on the same light twice. "is what I did just now in Burgess."

Again, the Guardians watched the screen. Tooth was the first to notice something. "Jamie asked you to help him with the snowball fight again?"

Jack nodded.

Bunny laughed when Monty got pelted with snowballs. The laughing ceased quickly. "Wait… that happened in the last picture thing you just brought up, didn't it, mate?"

"Yeah, and now Cupcake and Pippa are building the exact same snowman that they'd built yesterday. I know because I memorize each one I see."

A question mark appeared above Sandy's head. Why? he asked.

Jack shrugged. "Well, I used to be lonely so I found a way to turn snowmen to life for a little bit. I guess it's just instinct to memorize them now." This seemed to satisfy the golden man.

Jack turned to the others. "Do you believe me now?" he asked them.

There was a quick nod from Tooth and, soon, the others joined her.

"Good because that was a little tiring."

XxXxX

A boy with dark brown hair and a kind smile waved at his friends as he walked home. It was time for bed. Another boy, a teen, was watching him. Silently, the boy skipped home, happy that there was snow on the ground once again.

Jack tried to see anything out of the ordinary as Jamie walked into his house (no, Jack was not stalking a little boy, he WAS NOT stalking Jamie Bennett), saying hi to his mom. After she told him it was time for bed, Jamie gave a groan but nodded. The boy peeked into his sister's room and, seeing that she was sound asleep, snuck in to give her a quick kiss on the forehead.

Jack didn't know if this is what Jamie would have done if he hadn't walked the boy home yesterday. Sighing, he sat in the tree across from Jamie's bedroom and listened as the the boy fell into a blissful sleep. Jack crept into his room (the words I'm not stalking him kept chanting through his mind), avoiding the squeking area by the window and sat down on the edge of Jamie's bed. What was he doing here? How would he be able to tell if anything's different if the boy wasn't up?

He stands and walks over to his friend's window. Staring out at the sky, he sees that it's dark. There is no moon in the sky. Just as North had said, Man In The Moon has disappeared. Jack grit his teeth. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly, there was a bright light and Jack had to shield his eyes to make sure that he wouldn't go blind. When he cracks his eyes open, he's in a state of helpless shock. A few moments ago, it had been night. Now… The sun was out shining brightly. Jack ran over to Jamie's clock. 8:30am, it read. Jack sucked in a quick breath. How in the world had the change happened so quickly?

8:31am. B-beep, b-beep, b-beep. Jamie awoke with a start as his alarm went off. Eyes still closed, the boy shoved off his blankets and shivered. Jack studied Jamie's face carefully. The boy had gotten paler and looked a bit drain. Because of the little sleep he was getting, no doubt. Jamie's eyes fluttered open and he smiled brightly when he saw Jack. But something was up with that smile.

"Hi, Jack," Jamie said, yawning.

"Hi… kiddo," Jack paused before taking the boy in his arms. "So, how've you been?"

"Good. I'm just tired right now." Jamie pushed away from Jack. "Jack, let go. I'm not a kid anymore. But I am tired."

Jack gestured to the bed. "Then lie back down, sleepyhead." Jamie shook his head. That was when Jack figured out what was wrong with Jamie's smile. And, really, there wasn't anything wrong with his smile but Jack sure as hell wished it was. When Jack looked into Jamie's eyes, he saw that the eleven year old's eyes had gone from a dark brown to a lightish gray. And the smile forming on his face wasn't really a smile at all. It was a smirk. A cat like one, at that.

Jack gulped. Jamie continued to smirk at him as he got back into bed. "Sweet dreams, Jack," he said lightly, before falling onto his pillow, asleep again. As soon as Jamie had fallen asleep, Jack saw the world outside go dark. It was night time again. Not wanting Jamie to wake up and see him again, Jack flies out the window at full speed. He rams into a tree trunk and falls to the ground. There was something very wrong going on here. Something was controlling Jamie. Or was it maybe that Jamie was the source of the time change? Jack didn't know.

Jack fumbled around a bit before finding his staff and, as he tried to stand up, found himself falling into a pit.

"Ah!" Jack yelled out in surprise. He tried to call for the wind but it couldn't reach him from inside the pit. After a short while, Jack stopped trying to stop his fall. There was no point. Sure, he would get badly hurt if he hit something hard but he wouldn't die. Minutes passed as Jack fell helplessly into the darkness of the hole. Man, he wished that he'd told the others about this, then he wouldn't be in this mess.

Jack hit the ground without warning. "Oh, for the love of Manny—Ouch!" His head throbbing, Jack tries to sit up. He finds that he can't. Opening his eyes a little, he sees darkness. And eyes. Golden eyes. All around him. Staring at him. It was the Nightmares. Opening his eyes fully. He sees that the Nightmares are bigger. A lot bigger. And they were running towards him, as if he were something to eat.

Instinctivly, Jack raises his staff and blows ice at them. A few Nightmares dissolve on contact, others merely hurt. Trying again, (and aiming this time) Jack freezes four of them and they go crashing onto the ground (if you could call it ground; it seemed more like a dark puddle that didn't get you wet). There were about ten more Nightmares surrounding him. He could take them.

One of the Nightmares sniff at the air. It neighs. The others look to the left. Jack remembers something Pitch once told him. They can smell fear, you know. In an instant, they're gone and Jack, unable to take in what had happened, fainted in that dark area.

The next morning, he woke up in North's workshop, Tooth and Bunny telling him that he was going to be alright. They just needed to patch him up a little.

Jack ignored them and fell back into a restless sleep.

Yeah! Jesus, this took forever! Thanks for sticking with me, if anyone did. And I'm happy that I got reviews. I will update it quicker next time, I promise. If this gets three reviews or more, I will continue. See ya!