And so we are brought back to the present.

Bunnymund scampered quickly through The Warren, leaping high to the tunnels that lead to the outside. He ducked inside one of the dark passageways just in time, chuckling to himself as he pressed against a wall.

"Ready or not, here I come!" A velvet voice rang out. A young woman ran into his view, stopping short to look around with bright grey eyes full of wonder and joy. She was lithe, with a firm body of acrobatic muscle under pale porcelain skin. Dark red hair hung in a braid down to her waist. Bunnymund smiled at her radiant beauty and the glow of curiosity and excitement on her skin as he backed a little more into his hiding spot. She began to creep closer to the cliff, eyes staying level with the ground and not considering the tunnels above her.

"Just a little closer," Bunnymund whispered. When she unknowingly obeyed, he pounced, catching her in his arms and tumbling. The two rolled down the soft green hills of The Warren. Bunny tried to keep his grip on her but dropped off into a river of egg dye and came up empty. He looked to his left and right but heard her giggle above him and looked up. There she was, perched on a tree branch and smiling down upon him with unveiled affection. "You little cheateh'," he grinned, "No teleportin' in Hide N seek!"

"But it was after you caught me," she purred. "That doesn't count! Besides, you're the one who cheated. We agreed no tunnels, remember?"

"Yeah yeah, Good onya, little Larikin," He climbed out.

"What's a larikin again?" She tilted her head. "Your Australian slang gets confusing."

"A pranking bloke."

"I'm no bloke," She answered, lifting her chin. "I'm a lady."

"Sure are," he laughed, looking up at her and running a hand over the top of his head. "A real lovely one at that…" For a moment they simply regarded each other in affection when a terrible screaming began. Bunnymund looked frantically around, but the girl simply sat smiling at him still. His Warren began to tremble. The screaming did not stop for breath, only continued in a constant crescendo until Bunnymund's home began to crumble. It grew and grew, shaking everything to pieces, tearing the walls of his frail dream until nothing was left but blackness.

The screaming did not stop as Bunnymund began to part his eyelids. He wondered what in the world it was coming from as he opened his eyes, but his vision was so blurry that he could only see color- purple and yellow in the center of his vision, surrounded by grey and black.

"Where am I?" His voice sounded like the croak of a toad and he coughed at the dryness of his throat. He was vaguely able to grasp after a moment that the screaming was occurring within his own head, not being produce outside. The pain began to throb with the screams…

"Beneath The Joking Hall," a soft voice answered. It filled him with warmth but at the same time the screaming in his head changed pitch as though his mind was trying to tell him something.

"April," He coughed, "But we were just in the Warren… playing Hide N'… Seek…"

"I found you Bunny, remember?" she answered tenderly. He tried desperately to remember being found but the soft and bright images of his Warren were gone. The shrieking was at fortissimo now, and he could hear something alarming in it without being able to decipher what is was. When had she found him? What day was it? April First… 2013… Fear and adrenaline finally spread to his consciousness and he realized who he was with and where he was all at once. Immediately the comfort he had found in her voice and name gave way to panic and visions of being cornered, seeing her shadow stretched before him. He thrashed wildly, vision refusing to return any faster than bit by bit in each blink, but the struggling was pulling his muscles and joints. Ropes tied his feet together and his arms were out at his sides, roped to metal loops in the wall. The binding pulled his skin and fur as he tried so hard to get out. He heard her start to laugh and it only made his heart beat faster. His feet would not touch the ground; they were tied together onto a link that held them up and out, preventing him from thumping and opening a portal to his safe and peaceful Warren. Panic threatened to swallow him whole as he felt the concrete knotting of his ropes. His vision was coming back to him in place of energy and soon he gave up, realizing how at-her-mercy he was. After a few minutes, he turned his head to face her. She was dressed in her Jester outfit, a yellow and purple diamond pattern with a lace collar, belled shoes and a three-pointed belled hat. A purple half-mask covered the space around her eyes, and her eyes… Her eyes were so terribly bloodshot that Bunny had to wonder if she had slept even a wink since he saw her in the April of seventeen eighty seven. Her pupils were tiny, fitting well with her delusional smile. Jagged pieces of red hair poked out from under her hat. She balanced atop a large purple ball that was so full of air that it stayed perfectly round beneath her weight She had legs crossed and hands on one knee.

"Good to see you Bunny," She said with an ill smile.

"I can't agree," Bunnymund growled, almost wanting to wince and close his eyes from seeing her depreciated state. The uncomfortable feeling of seeing her insane face made him begin to pull on his ropes again.

"Don't struggle," she slid off of the ball, touching her toes gently to the ground and lowering her heels with perfect poise. "You'll pay for it." He considered listening but did not take stock in her threat (or perhaps it was that she was a nightmare he was desperate to escape from) and continued to pull. She stared at him and held her hands behind her back, delicately bending over before kicking the ball behind her hard with one foot. It flew across the room, into the wall opposite of Bunny, and came flying back over her bent body to slam into him, sending his head crashing into the concrete behind it. He yelled in pain, his tender head beginning to screech at him as blotches of color appeared over his field of vision. The ball bounced back to her and she moved it back to its position behind her with one delicate, gloved hand. "Oh Bunny," she sighed, smiling triumphantly.

"Whose game are you playing with me?" He hissed, chest heaving with panic, pain and fury. She really did have him completely at her disposal…

"That's awfully nosy," her face crinkled in disgust with his 'nosiness'. "It's my game of course. Do you forget who I am?"

"No. You're the witch of April!" He took aim and spat, just barely missing her as she swung to the side. He felt the regret creeping deep into his flesh almost immediately as the shadows of her face darkened with deep fury, her eyes narrowed and all her features became tense and cold.

"You forget what month your holiday usually lands in," she hissed. "It's too bad Easter was before me this year." Suddenly she became innocent looking, eyes wide and almost full of sorrow. He was very much thrown off by the transition. One foot lifted and poised to kick the ball as her voice carried a pitiful sadness. "I wanted to ruin it…" She changed her visage again to a violent smirk. Kick!

. . .

"Why isn't he helping us?!" Jack thrust his staff towards the sky.

"Even the Man in the Moon is silent…" North despaired. The Guardians were gathered at the North Pole, seeking help from their guide, who sat in the window of North's roof without any sign.

"How could this be?" Tooth whimpered. Sandman turned to North with a question mark hanging above his head but the Russian could offer no answer.

"I thought the Man in the Moon was supposed to know everything," Jack growled, more to the moon than anyone. North waked towards the pillar upon which rested the book that held the Guardian's oath and the history of all holidays. The other three watched eagerly as he mumbled to himself and flipped through it.

"The Jester of April Fools' day," he read aloud. "previously April Lilium Bartolomea. Chosen for her great affection displayed through humor and passionate protection of all children and gifted with some of the strongest magic and physical abilities, April is believed one of the most trustworthy Holidays." Jack sneered

"That's all?" He asked with frustration.

"Yes." North closed the book. "All that's relevant, at least."

"So she's powerful enough to hide from the Man in the Moon?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Tooth sighed, looking deeply troubled. "It's what we all feared… It was discovered long before you became a Guardian, Jack. We forgot about it after a while… Forgot to always be weary of it."

"Our mistake," North growled. As they stood in despair, North's floor opened beneath the moonlight. Excitement and apprehension filled the room as a pillar rose from the floor. Atop it stood an ice sculpture of the Jester reaching out a hand to a horse of nightmares, undoubtedly Pitch's. It was well crafted with all the elements of tragic art; dreadful things, pain and most of all, no hope. North shook his head as a new dread snaked into their hearts, settling in the pits of their stomachs. "No... No, this cannot be…"

"Not again," a teardrop rolled down Tooth's face as Jack looked to the moon hopelessly. Why?