I apologize, I was going to update last night, but the site wouldn't let me. I'm loving all the reviews I'm getting!
Sasstcat1998: Don't worry, Summer. It's finally here.
Fave101: Yay!
Anonymous The Nobody: Fun fact, rise of the guardians was based of off the book series called 'The Guardians of Childhood'. In the books, Santa's name is Nicholas St. North which is where North comes from, and the tooth fairy's name is Toothania, so they called her Tooth for short. Hoped that helped!
Higuchimon: Lol, thanks. And it's pretyt terrible, I can't believe I'm actually going to do it to him!
Anonymous chick:That was one of the most beautiful reviews I have ever seen! Thanks so much!
frostflower123: Lol, I have that problem all the time! (Glad I'm not the only one!)
The four guardians sat around the fifth, watching Sandy do what he could. Nightmare sand had been swirling over Jack's head for the past 27 minutes, despite Sandy's desperate attempts to rid him of it. Bunny had busted into the workshop, showing them that Jack was having a rather violent nightmare. He was thrashing around in his bed and groaning in discomfort.
Sandy had been able to stop them for an hour and a half, but the second he turned away the dreams turned back into nightmares. He hasn't been able to change them back since. Sandy lowered his hands and sighed, although no noise came out. Tooth looked at Sandy.
"What's wrong?" Dream sand formed an X over the Sandman's head as he pointed at Jack. Everyone paled.
"You mean you can't get rid of them?" Sandy shook his head. Series of pictures formed over his head that only North could understand.
"Sandy said the only thing we can do it wait until Jack wakes up. He said we should get back to work and do what we can while we can do it." The other two nodded, their good mood having vanished again. They went back to work, though mildly distracted.
"Jack... I'm scared." Jack looked at his little sister standing over cracked ice. He shifted his weight, wincing when it caused the ice beneath him to crack as well. Jack held out his hands.
"You're going to be fine, I promise. Would I lie to you?" The little girl trembled, on the verge of tears.
"Yes Jack! You always play tricks!" Jack shook his head and picked up a stick off of the ice.
"Well not this time. Here, let's play a game."
"This is no time for games Jack!"
"No, we're going to have a little fun. We're going to play hopscotch, like we do everyday. It's as easy as one," Jack took a step towards the thicker ice, wincing as it cracked, "two," Jack took another step, and then another, "three." She smiled and hesitantly took a small step forward.
"That's it! One, two, th-" As Jack's little sister went to take her third step, she slipped and fell into the ice. Jack screamed and jumped in the ice after her.
Jack shot up from his sleep, his breath coming out in short and ragged pants. He looked around, but didn't see anything, anything at all. It was pitch black, and Jack couldn't even see his own fingers in front of his face. He slowly sat up, causing whatever was on him to fall down. Jack's body ached and he groaned in protest when he tried to get up.
'No, I have to do this. I have to get out of here... where ever 'here' is...' Jack felt around, finding an edge to whatever it was that he was laying on. It came to Jack that he was most likely laying on some sort of bed and whatever was on him was probably a blanket. Why he was in one, he had no idea.
The last thing Jack remembered was giving another snow day in Burgess when North sent a letter asking him for help with Christmas. Jack gripped his head when a pain splitting headache found it's way into his mind. He fell back into the bed, thrashing and rolling around. The pain finally passed, leaving Jack more tired and sore than he already was.
He slowly and carefully moved his legs over the side, relishing the coldness that eminated from the floor onto his feet. Jack gripped the edge of the bed, and braced himself, taking a deep breath before slowly putting weight on his feet. He leaned forward, starting to stand on shaky legs. As he took his first step, pain shot up his leg, causing his body to burn slighty, adding on to the ache he already had. When Jack took his second step he collapsed, his legs not being able to hold all of his weight.
Jack's body collided with the floor, causing his ribs to emmit a small crack in protest. His side began to burn as well, probably from the sudden jolt his body received. After several failed attempts at walking by himself, Jack decide to lean again the wall instead of leaning on his staff like he normally would.
Jack frantically looked around, reaching out blindly into the darkness. He had to find his staff, it was his whole being. There was never a time when Jack didn't have his staff, even when he slept. He remembered when he first touched it, how frost covered both the old wood staff and everything else they touched. Jack was going to find it.
He calmed down and took a deep breath, and started to search along the wall, leaning on it for support. Jack stretched his hands out in front of him, letting him know if there was something in front of him so he wouldn't run into it. It was a slow process for Jack to walk along the wall since he would trip and stumble every other step he took. His hands ran into something hard and cold, obviously metallic, but before he could stop himself, his body collided with the object. Instead of supporting his weight, it rolled away from him. His body crashed to the floor and the object to crashed into-what he could only guess to be-the wall.
A loud bang filled the room, worsening Jack's headache. Jack gave up after several failed attempts to stand up, his whole body sore and on fire. Jack heard the sound of feet against a wooden floor. They were coming closer and closer until he heard a door open. Jack looked up from the floor and instantly regretted it when light flooded his senses, causing his head to go haywire.
"Frostbite! What are you doing mate?" Once Jack's head stopped spinning he looked up to see a very surprised Bunny.
"Bunny...what are you doing here?" Bunny's face contorted in confusion.
"What do you mean, 'what am I doing here?'... oh blimey, you don't remember, do you frostbite?" Jack starred at Bunny from where he was laying on the floor.
"Remember what? The last thing I remember was when I got a letter from North an-" Jack gripped his head again when another pain consumed his head. Bunny was by his side in an instant. He scooped Jack up and sat him back on the bed.
"What were you doing?" Jack waited until the pain in his head turned into a dull ache before answering Bunny's question.
"I woke up and I couldn't see anything, so I tried to... leave, but I couldn't do anything and then I couldn't find my staff and I-"
"Frostbite, I'd think it would be best if we explained everything to you together, but not in here, it's too depressing." Jack looked around, not really paying attention to the room before, even though he could see. It was rather dull, but he could tell he was at the workshop based off of the colors. Jack found the object that he ran into, a metal cart that was now tipped over with its contents laying sprawled out on the floor.
"Before we go though, I gotta change your bandages. You managed to bang yourself up pretty bad." Jack looked down, just now noticing he was shirtless. His torso was covered in bloody bandages, although they still remained mostly crisp and white. He tugged at one of them, causing it too come loose and unwind. Why was he in bandages?
"Bandages?" Bunny placed his hand on Jack's shoulder. Jack looked up and met his gaze.
"Look, mate, I know you're confused, but just let me fix you back up and then we can explain everything to you. Okay?" Jack just nodded. What else could he do? He had no idea what was going on, what had happened, or why he was at the North Pole. The only thing that he did know, was that Bunny was taking care of him. Jack sat up straighter and let Bunny do his job. As Bunny unwrapped the bandages, Jack looked down and saw his marked body. To say he was confused and a little scared would be a huge understatement.
There were cuts all over his body that looked like they'd hurt when he got him. Apparently, there was also a wound that Jack couldn't see on his side. He tried to look at it, but bending sideways caused his ribs to burn and he got a good chastising from Bunny in the process. It took a while, but Bunny finally finished. He picked the cart that Jack knocked over back up, and put his extra supplies back on it. Jack tried to stand up so that he could walk with Bunny to get his explanation and staff back, but apparently Bunny had different ideas.
"Jack, what are you doing?"
"What does it look like, Bunny? I'm trying to stand up." Bunny pushed him back on the bed.
"Exactly, trying. You're not exactly in that sort of shape mate. Here," Bunny pulled out, what looked like a cane, and handed it to Jack, "I know it's not your staff, but you can use this until we can get it back from North. I don't have any idea where he put it." Jack frowned at the cane. He had never really relied on
Anything but his staff, except for the one time Pitch broke it, but even then he fixed it and flew out of the trench. Jack took the cane from Bunny and rolled it in his hands. It definitely felt foreign in his hands; it wasn't rough and sturdy like his staff, it was polished and week. However, Jack wanted to know about what happened.
He tried to get up again, using the cane by putting most of his weight on it. He slowly took a few steps, moving the cane in time with his feet. Jack was glad that he wasn't falling on his face, but it still felt so unnatural to him. Bunny walked beside as they walked down the hallway, Bunny was there every time he stumbled or tripped.
Jack had no idea why the Kangaroo was being so kind to him, but he liked it whatever it was. It was nice for a change. They walked down the hallway, having to stop along the way so that Jack could rest for a few moments. The two stopped in front of a large set of double doors. Bunny opened one of them and held it open so that Jack could walk into the room.
Jack saw North, Sandy, and Tooth sitting around in armchairs that were next to a fireplace. Their faces were desolate, just starring at empty spaces. Jack stepped into the room, stepping to the side so Bunny could walk in too. He looked around, seeing the Pole so depressing didn't sit well with him.
"Hey guys..." Everyone's head shot up at the sound of Jack's voice. It had been a while since they last heard it.
"Jack, you're awake! How do you feel?" Jack sat down in an armchair that was close to the others, but far away from the fire. He shrugged in response to Tooth's question.
"Not too bad. A little sore and achy, but I'm fine other than that." North smiled and stood up. He walked over to Jack and patted him on the shoulder gently.
"That is wonderful, Jack! Come, I make cooki-" Bunny hoped over.
"Mate, Frostbite doesn't remember what happened. It's because of the concussion that he had." North looked at Bunny.
"Oh, well then, I guess we should explain." The guardians took turns explaining everything to Jack, well, except for Tooth, she couldn't do it. Jack remained calm throughout the whole explanation.
"So, Pitch was the one," Jack pointed to himself, "who did this?" Everyone nodded.
"And I've been asleep for the past week?" North shrugged.
"On and off yes. You woke up a few times, but only for a minute or two each time before you passed out again." Jack nodded.
"Uh huh, and I had nightmares the whole entire time?" Bunny nodded this time.
"Yeah, Sandy managed to get rid of them every time you woke up, but they'd just come right back." Jack nodded. It was a bit to take in, perhaps he would remember it eventually. After all, something that painful would be hard to remember.
"So what now?" The guardians looked at each other in response to Jack's question. North scratched the back of his neck.
"Well uh, you see, what happened, I mean, if you really want-"
"What North means to say," Jack turned to Tooth, who interuppted North, "is that we've been thinking about what's best for you right now. Pitch said that he was just after you, not the children, so with that in mind, we think that it'd be best if you went and stayed with Jamie for a while."
"Jamie? Why him? It's been a few years since I've last saw him, are you sure that he still even believes? He's like 20 now isn't he?" Tooth nodded.
"19, but yes, his light still burns as bright as ever on the globe. If Pitch is going to come after again, then we need to put you somewhere that he won't look. It's been 10 years since any of us have talked to Jamie, except for you, so he would never think to look there. Plus, now that he's living on his own, there's no way Pitch could tell him apart from all the other lights." Jack shrugged.
"I guess, but it still seems a little weird for me." North patted him on the back.
"Weird? Jack, we are guardians! Weird is what we do!" Jack laughed sheepishly. Perhaps a break from the four was just what he needed.
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