Author's Note: Hey there, lovely readers! I have returned with (drumroll please)…CHAPTER 4! Once again, I apologize for being so late. School has been more demanding with summer classes and such, but no worries! I am dedicated to getting these stories finished. Anyway, here are the REVIEW REPLIES!

Northern Mage: Lol! I think he's liking the green color a lot better, but we shall see!

FrostedDragonHeart: AHH! OMG! Thank you so so much for your kind words! Yes, that's exactly what I was aiming for! You really nailed it to a T, my friend! The things you're afraid of often become things you hate! And since Pitch and Bunny seem to have had a history, it would make sense that things turned out this way between them. I'm so glad you love this and hope you continue to love it!

Peerainbowdog: Thank you so so much! Hope you like what's coming next!

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

Chapter 4

It wasn't easy, but North, Tooth, Sandy, and Jack eventually narrowed many cities in Europe and Asia down to one. The one they decided to focus on was one where they were to set up their trap for one of Pitch's nightmare stallions. They decided to pick one based on where the least number of Tooth's fairies were and where there were very little signs of Sandy's dream sand to avoid potentially being spotted by the Nightmares. As much as they would've loved to have Bunny and his tunnels to get to the city and to avoid alerting Pitch's minions, they were forced to use Sandy's cloud as a mode of transportation, instead of the sleigh, to keep the element of surprise.

The Guardians of Wonder, Memories, Dreams, and Fun all gathered on one roof to keep an eye on a sleeping child that could be seen from across the street in a small house. It was pretty clear that the four out of the five Guardians hated the idea of using an innocent child as bait to get to Pitch, but there seemed to be no other alternative at the moment. They needed a way to get to their fellow Guardian and best friend, and that was what they were going to do.

They each peaked over the top of the roof making sure not to be spotted by the child or any Nightmare stallions.

"I hope this works," Tooth said aloud.

"It will, Tooth," North replied. "We just need to be patient."

"Tooth, you sure your fairies don't need to stop here tonight?" Jack asked.

"Positive," the Tooth Fairy replied. "They normally wait for me to give them a specific location to go to, so they won't come here unless I tell them otherwise. Plus, Baby Tooth is running things right now, so she will make sure no one comes here."

"Excellent," North and Jack said in unison as Sandy gave Tooth a thumbs-up.

With that said, they continued to keep vigil over the sleeping child across the street. Sandy readied his golden dream sand. Jack readied his staff. North readied his swords, and Tooth readied her fists and wings. No more words were spoken amongst the Guardians as they waited for one of their enemy's faithful minions to appear. About two hours finally passed as the Guardians continued to wait in the dark of the night…until Sandy finally perked up alerting North, Tooth, and Jack.

"What is it, Sandy?" North asked as he watched his silent friend suddenly tensed up.

"You see something?" Tooth asked furrowing her eyebrows together in concern.

Sandy only turned to fellow comrades with a stern look on his face as he created a sandy image of a horse above his head, and it didn't take long for North, Tooth, and Jack to realize what he was referring to. They quickly turned to scope out the house the child was still sleeping in looking for any signs of the Nightmare stallion. It was only a few moments before they heard something flying…or running in the dark sky above them.

"I heard something," Jack said studying the sky above them, "but I can't see anything. It's too dark."

"It's because of the new moon," North said keeping his eyes on the child in front of them. "Just wait a little while longer, son."

Not long after North said that, a whinnying noise was heard causing the four out of the five Guardians to tense up as they continued to wait for Pitch's minion to take the bait. Soon enough, a black sandy horse appeared out of nowhere on the roof of the child's house. Sandy, being the Guardian of Dreams, was about to attack when Jack quietly placed a hand on his shoulder gently stopping him from going any further and shook his head silently telling him to wait. Sandy begrudgingly did as Jack asked and waited for the Nightmare Stallion to make its move. After scouting the area, the black horse rushed toward the open window ready to haunt the child's dreams.

"Sandy, NOW!" Jack shouted.

The little man obeyed the winter teen's command and flung his sandy whip at the horse from behind wrapping it around its neck. The nightmare, having obviously felt the golden noose, suddenly turned around and laid its golden demonic eyes on the four Guardians glaring at them. North, Tooth, Sandy, and Jack stared at it for a few seconds before giving innocent grins and small waves, but the Nightmare didn't take it too lightly as he burst out of the window flying off…and dragging Sandy away. Fortunately, the other Guardians managed to grab onto him as the Nightmare ran off with him, and as the Guardian of Dreams created a sand cloud for his friends, specifically North to stand on.

"This is fun yet terrifying at the same time!" Jack shouted over their screams and the roaring wind.

North managed to take a quick break from screaming as the Nightmare led them on a very bumpy ride over the city. "I agree, my boy!" he shouted. "Maybe we take Bunny's complaints about the sleigh into consideration next time!"

Jack and North briefly looked at each other and smirked, "Nah," they said in unison.

"Uh, guys," Tooth suddenly said as she kept a tight grip on North to avoid falling off, "I hate to interrupt the cute adoptive father/son dialogue, but we really should keep our eyes on the road here!"

Before either winter guardians could say anything, the Nightmare suddenly jerked forward and downward taking Sandy's sand cloud and all four Guardians with it.

"We must be getting close!" North shouted. "It looks like it's getting ready to land!"

"This is going to be a bumpy ride!" Jack shouted.

As soon as Jack made that statement, the Nightmare led them into a dark alley in the city, and the winter teen was able to feel the other Guardians tense up, as he did, all of them bracing themselves for the possibility of meeting the cold, hard ground. Instead, the Guardians followed the stallion into the dark shadows that would bring them to the lair of the Boogeyman. Jack silently realized that as they traveled through the shadows, he remembered what using the shadows as a mode of transportation was like when Pitch turned him into his Nightmare Prince, so he was somewhat used to it. His three fellow Guardians however weren't…mostly because they weren't conscious when it happened, so it caught them by surprise when they landed on the cold concrete floor of Pitch's lair as Sandy's cloud disintegrated underneath them.

"Everybody alright?" North asked as he struggled to prop himself on his elbows looking over at Tooth, Sandy, and Jack as they did the same trying to overcome the shock and the pain from the fall.

"I'm okay," Tooth groaned smiling at North.

"Me too," Jack said giving North and Tooth a thumbs-up while rubbing his head with his other hand.

Sandy smiled and gave his fellow Guardians a thumbs-up.

Once the leader of the Guardians was sure that his adoptive son and friends were alright, he looked around to survey their surroundings as they all stood back up. The nightmare they caught disappeared when they landed and possibly was going to report to Pitch what happened. Similar to the last time the Guardians were taken to the Boogeyman's lair, they noticed that they were in the main room below the cages and Pitch's Globe. This only made the Guardians of Wonder, Memories, Dreams, and Fun more nervous as they tried to stay together as best as they could, waiting for an ambush or any indication that Pitch was going to attack them.

"I don't like this, guys," Tooth said as they readied their respective weapons surveying the dark lair.

"I don't either," Jack replied. "Where are Pitch and Bunny?"

"Perhaps, I can help with that," a voice suddenly said causing all the Guardians to tense as they tried to search for the source of said voice. It didn't take long to figure out who was speaking to them.

"Show yourself, Pitch!" North shouted into the darkness.

"Oh, how rude of me," the Boogeyman said as he emerged from the darkness with a few of his Nightmares. "I should know better than to not be here to greet my guests." He chuckled. "Perhaps, that's where Jack learned such bad manners as my Nightmare Prince. What do you think, North?"

North glared at the Nightmare King as he took a step in front of Jack making sure that their enemy went nowhere near his adoptive son. Pitch currently held Bunny prisoner. He was not going to let him get away with taking Jack again. He couldn't lose his boy again.

"Enough, Pitch!" Tooth shouted before either North or Jack could respond. "Where's Bunny? What have you done to him?"

Sandy glared at Pitch while flashing sandy images of Pitch releasing the Guardian of Hope to them and then more images of Pitch shaking his head before the sandy images of him, North, Tooth, and Jack attack him.

"Now, now, Sandman," Pitch said coolly. "There's no need for the violent threats. If you want your pet rabbit back so badly, then here." He snapped his fingers, and on command, two of his Nightmare stallions flew up to one of the cages dangling above Pitch and the Guardians. One stallion opened the cage while another went in and pulled something or someone out of the cage and dropped the figure in front of the Guardians.

They stared at the figure for a few moments, and even in the darkness in Pitch Black's lair, it was easy to see who it was.

"Bunny!" Tooth shouted as she flew over to him.

Jack would've run over to him as well, but after what he experienced in this very lair in the past couple months…it was hard to trust anything that Pitch had to say. He could tell that North and Sandy felt the same way as they stood still as well trying to figure out if this even was the real Bunny, who'd they'd been friends with over the years. The Guardian of Fun was about to interrogate Pitch about what he had done to the Pooka after kidnapping him, but before he could, he saw something very strange. Pitch was still standing in his spot. He wasn't saying or doing anything to call for an attack or any kind of ambush. He was just watching them as Tooth tried to get Bunny to wake up. What was the Boogeyman up to? He was once again about to ask that when a groan from the Guardian of Hope stopped him.

"Guys, he's waking up!" Tooth said happily as Bunny slowly opened his eyes.

"T-Tooth…" Bunny moaned as he looked up at the Tooth Fairy through heavy eyes.

"It's alright, Bunny," Tooth quickly said gently. "We're going to get you out of here. Everything's going to be okay."

"Oh, now, isn't that just sweet," Pitch replied coolly before any more could be said between the Guardians. "Now, if you don't mind, can you please leave? You got what you wanted, didn't you?" He was about to turn to leave when…

"Wait, what?" North simply asked with the most confused look he could muster up on his bearded face.

"That's it?" Jack added as Sandy flashed a sandy image of a question mark and an exclamation point over his head. "You're just letting us go? You're not even going to try to fight back?" The winter teen suddenly stopped as he remembered what happened the last time Pitch seemed like he was surrendering…when he sent Jack to the Pole to trick the Guardians into walking into a trap. Something was not right, and they were going to find out what. The Guardian of Fun gave the Boogeyman a death glare and pointed his staff at him ready to fight. "What are you up to, Pitch?"

The Boogeyman widened his eyes and put his hand to his chest pretending to be shocked at Jack's accusations. "Why, Jack, that is just…" he said mockingly, "I mean, the one time I do something so generous, you think I'm up to something?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jack retorted with sarcasm dripping in his voice. "I didn't realize that kidnapping for no reason was proper etiquette nowadays."

North couldn't help but snicker at his boy's quick answers, but he quickly composed himself as the glare returned to his bearded face as he readied his swords. "The boy is right, Pitch," he said. "You wouldn't kidnap one of us without reason. What are you up to?"

"You better tell us now," Jack demanded, "before we make you tell us!"

"Guys, I know this doesn't look right," Tooth said from where she sat with Bunny on the floor, "but I really think this would be a good time to get Bunny out of here…now."

North, Jack, and Sandy broke their gaze on Pitch and looked down only to see that Tooth was right. Bunny looked like he was trying to stay awake and didn't seem hurt at all, but they still needed to check and see if Pitch really did something to harm their friend in any way, shape, or form. North could only sigh as he watched Jack and Sandy kneel down on either side of Tooth as she continued to cradle Bunny close to her. There was no question about it. They needed to leave to make sure Bunny was okay.

"Fine, we'll leave," North finally said turning to Pitch glaring at him, "but mark my words, Pitch, we will be back for you."

Pitch could only chuckle as he stepped backwards away from the Guardians and into the shadows. "I'm sure you will be," he said as he disappeared with his Nightmares leaving the Guardians completely alone in his lair.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Jack asked North suspiciously after a moment of silence.

"Mm…we'll have to figure it out later," North replied as he took Bunny from Tooth and held him in one arm as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a snow globe. "Let's get back to the Pole and make sure that Bunny's okay."

With that, after the Guardian of Wonder whispered their next destination and created a portal, the Guardians disappeared into the colorful vortex before it faded away completely unaware that Pitch was still watching them from the darkness of the shadows.

"If only you knew what was coming for you, Guardians," he said as he played with the green sand in his hand…the best creation he's come up with.

Author's Note: Dun…dun….DUNNNNNNN! Hmm…what is Pitch up to? Well, that was CHAPTER 4 for you, boys and girls! Also, the city that the Guardians choose in the beginning is up to interpretation. You can picture just about any city you think they would've chosen. Stay tuned for CHAPTER 5! Hopefully, I can get it out faster this time… Anyway, please keep the reviews coming, guys! See you in the next chapter!