Here's another update. I have to admit, I'm somewhat disappointed. I've had over200 people read this story, but I've only gotten 9 reviews … if it wasn't for my burning desire to write this story, I probably wouldn't continue it for such little response. But I will keep writing, because I'm writing it more for me and abitofslytherin than anything.

Oh yes, and cover photo credit goes to roseacoco. That's her ffn username.

Lithia Summers

It had taken me until dawn to clear the rest of the snow from where it wasn't supposed to be. I had returned to Hawaii after California, and then moved toward the east coast from there. It had been nearly six in the morning before I had removed the last of the snow from Florida, Georgia, and up in the Carolinas. There was no way I was going to do the entire United States. I had well and truly overexerted myself, and my hair was frazzled from the constant flow of power.

I had intended to fly north immediately, chew the culprit out, and then vanish back to Okinawa before anyone else noticed my presence. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes according to plan. Especially when it comes to my continued self-preservation and sanity.

First off, I fell asleep on the way up, crashing unconscious somewhere on the island of Newfoundland. When I came to, it was only to shift into a slightly more comfortable spot before nodding off again. Hours later, I finally woke up for good. My next problem was that my drachma had shrunk back to coin-size, and it was nearly impossible to find- it could have landed anywhere on my trajectory toward the ground. Charis was actually the one that had found it, in the end. I was shaky taking off, but I was soon on my way once more.

I arrived at the North Pole within the hour, the giant building rising up majestically from the snowy tundra. I flew as far aboveground as I could, careful not to melt a trail behind me. As I approached the icy building, I heard voices from within. I slowed down considerably, motioning for Charis to stay quiet. As gung-ho as I was to put Frost in his place, I had no intention of barreling in there with everyone else watching.

"Jack," I heard a female voice say, "Did you dump two feet of snow on the entirety of the United States yesterday?"

I slowed up even more. Obviously I hadn't been the only one that was suspicious of the winter spirit. I inched forward, stepping from my coin to land lightly on the windowsill. I sat on the little part that was to the edge of the opening so that no one could see me, but I would hear every word that was spoken. Charis remained on my shoulder but shifted anxiously, fixing me with a glare that seemed to say 'get in there.' I shook my head emphatically, instead turning back to listen to the conversation.

I had missed what the white-haired teen had said, tuning in when the female voice – Tooth, I remembered – announced he was innocent. I snorted derisively, chuckling softly as the room broke into audial chaos. Despite being the Guardians of Chaos, they really couldn't get along, could they? They sounded almost like children themselves, squabbling on the playground.

I quietly listened in on the rest of the conversation, shaking my head in amusement. There was something about these guys that just made me feel good. In my head, I knew I needed to get away from there as fast as possible. I had already created another memory, and I needed to go before it got worse- before I got attached. At the same time though … I wanted to stay. I just wanted to sit there forever, listening to those four voices arguing with each other. The different accents and personalities overlapped one another, creating a sort of harmonious cacophony.

But I couldn't do that. Not now, and not ever.

"Come, Charis. We're leaving. We need to find the actual culprit," I whispered to the bird. As I shifted to get up, she cheeped loudly in protest. "Shh, shh. Come on."

That's when things really took a downhill plunge. She chirped once again and instead of flying away from the building, she darted in through the window. "Charis!" I whispered loudly, but she didn't listen. Instead, I cringed as she perched on the back of Jack Frost's sweatshirt. She fixed me with a beady eye, as if daring me to get her back.

Okay, fine. If that was how she was going to play it, so be it. I stood my from my position on the sill, looking back at the circle I had melted around where I had been sitting. I hoped no one would notice it, and that the next snowstorm would cover it up. Leave no traces was yet another one of my various self-preservation policies.

I pressed the drachma into the little holder necklace I had made for it, sighing as I heard it click into place. Taking a deep breath, I slid in through empty window, landing silently on my eyes widened at the size of the room and the décor. Despite having lived for nearly two and a half millennia, I had spent my time in Mortal areas. I had never been in a completely magical place like this. Shaking my head, I brought my attention back to the task at hand- getting Charis to come back. I motioned to her, showing that I had stepped into the room. It wasn't enough for her.

I tiptoed across the room, wincing and flinching back when I saw that the Sandman had noticed me. A large exclamation point appeared over his head as he tried getting the others' attention. He had no such luck, but I knew my time was limited.

I stepped closer, trying to hide behind the winter spirit as much as I could. "Charis!" I hissed, "Éla!" Come!

I immediately regretted it. I hadn't been quiet enough.

Jack let out a small, rather hilarious yelp. He whipped around, and I found myself staring into the icy blue of his eyes. They were wide with surprise, an emotion that I knew for certain showed on my own face. I glanced around the room, observing the startled and intrigued faces of the other Guardians.

"Theoí mou," I squeaked, unable to stop myself. "Uhm … I'm sorry. I just … my bird … your hood …" What was I doing? Earlier I had intended to all but rip his throat out over messing with the weather patterns. Now, I was reduced to a stuttering mumbling mess.

"Who are you?" Jack interrupted my babbling, suddenly leaning in closer to examine my face. I gulped nervously as I felt both him and the others scrutinizing me carefully. My eyes flicked toward the window, and my hand flew to where my drachma rested at my collarbone. I glared daggers at Charis, who was now fluttering behind Jack's head.

"Not of your concern," I shot back defensively, regaining a bit of my nerve. A thousand warning bells went off in my head, telling me to get out of there. I was more than willing to comply, but again- I couldn't quite do what I wanted.

I watched as Jack recoiled a little bit, most likely taken aback by my sharp tone. I couldn't bring myself to care any less. I had more important things on my mind at the moment.

North stepped forward, his large frame even more intimidating. "Another Guardian?" he asked, mostly to himself. "The Man in Moon did not say anything …"

I couldn't help myself. I snorted. "That sounds like Fengári," I muttered. "I'm not a Guardian," I said hastily, backing toward the window. "I shouldn't even be here. I just came to tell off a certain someone for gami̱ménos with the weather patterns, but it seems it wasn't him after all," I said, fixing my eyes on the tall white-haired boy that was still staring at me in disbelief.

"It took me hours to sort out that mess. You can thank me later. Charis, Éla! Now."

I had just popped my drachma out of its necklace once more, throwing it down to the floor. Instead of hovering, however, it fell to the wood with a hard clang.

"Ti sto diáolo?" I asked no one in particular, stunned. What the hell? It had never done that before … oh.

Oh.

"Theoí mou," I said again for the third time in the last twenty-four hours. "O̱ theoí gami̱méno mou." I watched in horror as the gold was obscured by a purple so deep it was practically black. A thin layer of frost grew along the edge of the cold metal, adding an eerie blue-white to the mix. When I picked it up, I could feel the cold leeching into my skin. My face grim, I turned back toward the Guardians.

"I've just changed my mind," I said, tossing the coin up into the air. It glinted darkly against the light, and I smirked as the five Guardians watched it. I caught it again, and the spell was broken.

"I am a Guardian. Lithia Summers, at your service." I imitated a courtesan's bow, swooping down at the waist. "Guardian of summer, previously recognized as the goddess of the summer solstice, and this is my lovely golden basket weaver, Charis."

I nearly laughed at the looks on all their faces, especially Jack's as Charis landed on my shoulder. I fought to keep a straight face, and managed it pretty well.

"Thing is, you're gonna need my help."

Jack Frost

Jack was honestly quite stunned by this turn in events. Every morning for the past four years, he had been hoping for a change in pace of events. Now something had happened, something new and exciting and probably dangerous … and his mind was still trying to turn over the fact that there was yet another Guardian. A Guardian that said she wasn't a Guardian, that had introduced herself as a goddess for God's sake. The enigmatic spirit looked more like fire and light than the wintery/early spring colors the others possessed.

What irritated him the most though was the way she had been dodging their questions. She had been a flighty little thing, obviously uncomfortable with her surroundings. That had quickly turned to sarcasm as she had attempted to throw up barriers. She had said she wasn't a Guardian. She obviously wasn't human, and he had a hard time understanding why she wanted to escape.

He had been trying for decades to get into the Workshop (okay, maybe with not-quite-so-honorable intentions, but still) only to be turned away and dragged out by the Yetis. Which …

"How the heck did you get in here?" He asked incredulously. He stepped toward the bronze-skinned spirit, motioning with his staff.

The girl merely fixed him with a look. "Through the window," she said, as if it were obvious. "It's wide open." Her red curls bounced as she shook her head to emphasize her point.

"But … the Yetis …" he protested weakly. "Seriously?" He asked, turning to face North, "I try to get in here for years and she just comes in through the window and it's alright?"

"Really?" The new voice cut in, "You're actually asking why you kept getting kicked out? It's not like you had a very good track record, Paidí."

"And how would you know? We don't even know who the heck you are! I have never seen you before in my life."

"Well, yeah. You're winter, I'm summer, the two don't usually coincide," she shot back. "It's not like I really want to be here right now. I would be gone. I should be gone. I shouldn't even be here right now. But one mutual echthrós of ours decided to gamó̱ with the kairós and dumped two feet of snow in California, Texas, and other hot-climate states. So here I am, thinking it was you and that I'd just chew you out and disappear again-"

"But it wasn't me!" Jack exclaimed, interrupting her sentence.

"I know that now," she snarked back.

"STOP IT!" Bunnymund's yell broke the building tension, and everyone in the room turned to look at him. Even the other Guardians, who until that point, had been watching the argument between the two immortal teens with great amusement.

Jack watched as the girl facing them sighed, glancing down at her hand. "Sorry," she apologized. "I haven't actually spoken with others for about a millennium at least. I'm a bit rusty with my social skills."

Well, that was one way of putting it, he thought. "No reason to take it out on me," he muttered.

"You mention needing your help? What for?" North asked, finally getting back to the ominous sounding warning that had been issued before Jack intervened.

The girl – Lithia, he remembered – strode forward, pointedly ignoring the glower he knew he had on his face. He was used to being the antagonist, to being the one to get under everyone's skin. Now the tables had turned, he didn't appreciate it quite so much. As she passed, the ice on his sweatshirt melted under the heat before freezing again.

"This is what for," she said, holding her hand out. Inside her palm rested a small quarter-sized coin. It was still a deep purple, with little ice shards clinging to the outside. The other Guardians formed a circle around her, looking curiously at the little object. Jack hung back, still a bit miffed.

Toothiana reached in as to touch it, but quickly drew her hand back. "It's freezing!" she exclaimed. Okay, so maybe that caught his attention a little bit. His chest twinged a bit at her outburst. It was one of those things he just couldn't help, despite his wishing that he could.

"I watched as five years ago, the five of you defeated Pitch Black and his efiáltes. Jackyboy over there joined with you after three hundred years of being an outcast-"

"Hey!"

"-and somehow provided you with what you needed to win. He was accepted into the circle, believed in, ladidahdidah, all that fun Guardian stuff," she continued as if she hadn't heard Jack's outcry. Despite the fact she tried to cover it, the slight bitterness in her words belied to the Guardians that she was somewhat resentful. "You thought you were done. For five years, there has been nothing. The last you saw of Pitch was his own nightmares chasing him down."

"How do you know what 'appened?" Bunnymund asked, somewhat hostilely. The question had been bothering Jack as well. He had never seen this girl before in his life, and yet she knew everything about him? And the other others?

"I was there," she said simply, like that really explained anything. "I have a history with Pitch, even more so than any of you guys. You think that Sandy was the first Guardian? Think again. I have a good five hundred years on him, at least. Pitch is even older than I am."

"The Bogeyman?" Tooth asked, "but … he only appeared in the late sixteen hundreds …"

Lithia sighed. "The Bogeyman, yes. That is a more recent farce of his. I must admit he has a sick sense of humor. But darkness itself? That's a much more ancient concept. Millennia ago, he was Thánatos, a minor Greek god of the Underworld. He wasn't the personification of fear, but rather a minor god of death.

"So the legends are true," North muttered. He didn't look up when everyone save Lithia turned to look at him, absorbed in his own thoughts.

"Every legend is based on alí̱theia," the summer spirit said, "that is what makes it a legend. Without it, there would only be a story.

Jack really wished that she would just stick with English. All the foreign words thrown in made her sentences hard to follow. On the other hand, he refused to ask her to translate. The other Guardians didn't seem to be phased by her sudden appearance and cryptic words. He wondered if it was just something that one got used to during centuries of being a Guardian, because he was definitely skeptical.

"But Man in Moon has not said anything," North responded, stroking his long beard thoughtfully. "If what you say is true …"

"I know it doesn't look like his usual work," the newcomer said, "but it's very possible that he might be working with someone else. He isn't the only one of the Archaía Ki̱demónes to have survived the millennia. Several others have adapted as well."

It was a giant question mark over Sandy's head that prompted her to translate for those that needed it. She smiled sheepishly, the sudden lack of airs and graces making her seem a lot younger than she had first appeared. It was only then that Jack realized that she was probably more towards his seventeen years than the eighteen/nineteen he had originally pegged her as. For some reason, this annoyed him even further.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I forget which language I'm using and slip sometimes. The Ancient Guardians," she clarified. "Zeus, Poseidon, Ares … that lot? They were the Guardians of lightning, the sea, war, etcetera. In ancient times they were revered as gods by both the Greeks and Romans. Later, as faith began to die, so did they. Eventually they all faded out due to lack of belief, except for a few of the minor ones, whom had never been strongly believed in to begin with."

"And Pitch was one of them," Jack said from where he stood, surprising even himself. "He changed, he adapted. He moved up from this Underworld place. Eventually he stopped symbolizing death and rather enjoyed peoples' fear. Sometime in the sixteenth century, he became known as the bogeyman after parents used the stories to scare their children. He was believed in again, and used that power to make a comeback."

"Give the kid an award," Lithia declared. "Perhaps you aren't as pago̱ménos up there as I thought," she added scathingly.

He wasn't entirely sure what she had said, but he was certain that it had been an insult. Most likely it was based around the fact he was the winter spirit.

"Alright, alright. Stop it," North broke in. He fixed Lithia with a stern glare. "If you want to help, you must be civil. Yes?"

"Den prókeitai na symveí," she muttered, sending a glance in Jack's direction.

"In English?" The large man prompted, and she sighed.

"I don't make promises," she said coldly. "But I will give my best effort."

Well this was going to be interesting. Pitch back, intriguing history coming to light, and a summer spirit to counter his own winter. Yeah, civility was going to be hard-pressed in the coming days.

Greek Translations:

Éla – come

Theoí mou – my gods

Fengári – moon

gami̱ménos – screwing*

Ti sto diáolo – what the hell

O̱ theoí gami̱méno mou – oh my flipping* gods

Paidí – honey

Echthrós – enemy

gamó̱ – screw*

kairós – weather

efiáltes – nightmares

mia istoría – a story

Archaía Ki̱demónes – Ancient Guardians

pago̱ménos – frozen

Den prókeitai na symveí – Not going to happen

*means I've changed the English translation to a slightly milder form of the expletive.

So review … please?