Back at the Pole, everything was in chaos.

Tooth was flying rapid circles in the air, babbling away as if trying desperately to make sense of what she'd just witnessed.

"I can't believe it, can't believe it! It was Pitch! Pitch Black was here, he was just here! What're we going to do, North, what're we going to do?!" Then she gasped. "Lilliana! We have to help Lilliana, she was just kidnapped by Pitch!"

The others were all talking at once, Jack trying to figure out what happened while Bunny and North argued over Sandy's head, the latter all-but ignored as his silent symbols failed to grab the much taller spirits' attention.

"Naughty List," the big man was saying sternly, gesturing to the tattoo on his right arm.

"She started it, mate," the Pooka objected. "First that bit about Manny, then telling us we're stupid and that we bribe the children…I just couldn't stand for it anymore!"

"No excuses!" North refuted, wagging a finger in Bunny's face.

"She called me a bloody roo!"

"No excuses!" the big man repeated.

"And how was I to know that ratbag was hanging around?!" Bunny continued to argue. "He's supposed to be banished to the dark, not skulking around the likes of this place!"

"What're we going to do?" Tooth repeated, dropping down to flutter amongst the group. She wrung her hands nervously as she spoke, and her expression was almost pleading. "We have to get her back, North!"

Bunny gave a bark of laughter. "Yeah? And how're we supposed to do that? We don't even know where the shadow skulker's run off to!"

"Back to his realm," North said with conviction. "Down to the dark."

"We can't just leave her," Tooth insisted, and Sandy nodded a firm agreement.

"Uh, guys," Jack cut in. They others all turned to look at him as he asked, "Why's this such a big problem? If that Starfire's as powerful as she seems to think she is, then she shouldn't have any trouble dealing with Pitch, right?"

"You don't understand, mate," Bunny said, shaking his head.

"Every spirit's power has its limitations, Jack," Tooth started to explain, but Bunny interrupted her.

"You don't go flying about the deserts or near the equator, do you mate?"

"And Sandy doesn't make dreams during the daytime," Tooth continued. "And Pitch..." She had to stop for a moment as she choked on the name. After a calming breath, she began again. "And Pitch sticks almost exclusively to nighttime because it is much, much easier for him to work in the darkness when there is an overabundance of shadow and plenty of dreams for him to manipulate."

"Yeah, but it'll be daytime soon," Jack pointed out. "So won't she be okay then, being the Sun's daughter and all?"

"It doesn't work that way, kid," Bunny said. He'd resumed his pacing. "Starfire is the Sun Woman's daughter, but heat and light aren't her main forte. Plants are."

"So? She managed to make them here in the cold just fine."

"So," the Pooka said on a huff, "where do you expect her to get or make plants down in the dark reaches where sunlight never touches?"

Oh.

"Even in daylight when Pitch is at his weakest," Tooth explained quietly, "Lilliana will be trapped down there without her plants to help her, especially if he manages to get her staff away from her."

"He'll get it from her," Bunny said grimly. "My bet's he stole it while she was smothered in the shadows of that portal."

Jack felt a hard knot building in the pit of his stomach. He knew first-hand what it was like to have the Boogeyman get his hands on another spirit's staff. That feeling of being completely overcome with weakness and helplessness and despondency…he wouldn't wish that on anyone, even someone as wholly unlikeable as Lilliana Starfire. He could almost imagine the Nightmare King toying with the flora spirit, concealing her staff somewhere deep within the labyrinth of his home since he couldn't break it like he had Jack's, and mocking her gleefully while she struggled through the dark in her desperate attempts to find it.

We have to help her, he realized. He repeated the thought aloud. "We have to help her."

"Of course we do," Bunny said sharply. "This is entirely our fault. We started that mess with Pitch and didn't finish it properly, and now he's trying to get back at us by stealing away our newest recruit!"

"I cannot believe he is back so soon," North mumbled to himself, and the others nodded in agreement. The big man had his hand to his chin, looking quite contemplative.

"He must have found some way to escape the Nightmares," Jack offered.

"It really doesn't matter how he did it," Bunnymund cut in, still pacing relentlessly. "What matters now is stopping him before he can corrupt Starfire."

But Jack wasn't listening. His eyes had widened as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Jamie!" If Pitch was back then surely the first thing he'd want to do is get revenge on the children of Burgess. It had always made Jack incredibly uneasy, knowing that the entrance to the Boogeyman's home was located so close to the little town. The kids there could be suffering nightmares again with none of them any the wiser!

"They're alright, Jack," Tooth said reassuringly, patting him on the shoulder. "We would've heard something if there was any trouble."

Sandy nodded and pointed to the image of a snow globe that he'd conjured above his head. Jack sighed quietly and nodded in turn. They were right. If something really had happened then the ever-vigilant Jamie would've called on the Guardians for help by now. They'd left him with one of North's snow globes for that very reason, hadn't they?

Still, Jack just couldn't shake the worry completely from his mind.

Tooth seemed to sense his lingering doubts. "We just had a couple of pickups from Burgess, Jack, including one from Jamie's neighbor. Right lateral incisor." She smiled briefly at the memory of it. "My fairies would've known if something was wrong," she finished with a reassuring pat on Jack's shoulder.

"So what's the plan?" Bunny said loudly, interrupting their conversation. His green eyes were fixed on North, who was still deep in thought.

"We shouldn't waste time," Jack said quickly. He gripped his staff tightly and announced, "We should go get her tonight!"

"No!" North suddenly declared, surprising the lot of them. "No, we do not go tonight. Pitch is strongest at nighttime."

"So is Sandy," Jack pointed out, and the little man silently agreed.

"No offense, Sandy, but you may sit this one."

"Woah, woah, woah," the Pooka spluttered, stopping mid-stride and eyeing North in disbelief. "What do you mean, 'he's sitting it out?'"

Sandy seemed to be in agreement. He had one eyebrow raised and his hands on his hips, one tiny golden foot tapping the floor as if demanding an explanation.

"Listen," the Russian said quietly, and the others gathered close to hear him. "Boogeyman is strongest by night, no? Sandy also. So he thinks we go by night so Sandy can be big help."

"But we won't," Bunny said slowly, trying to piece everything together, "because he doesn't expect us to not fight together."

The big man nodded. "We Guardians always fight together…at least against Pitch. So! What if we don't this time?"

"I don't get it," Jack grumbled, but Bunny seemed to have figured out what was on North's mind.

"Getting Starfire out is more important than beating Pitch right now," he explained to Jack. "But he won't expect that of us. He'll expect us to go straight for him because that'll solve both our problems in one swing."

"But it's the harder swing," Tooth put in with a smile as if she, too, was starting to understand.

"So if we go by day when Sandy is weak, Pitch'll think we're sacrificing his help to try and get the one-up on him," the Pooka went on. He grinned wickedly. "But really we'll be playing him for a complete dipstick."

Jack still wasn't convinced. "How so?"

"Easy!" North boomed. Then he seemed to remember the atmosphere and said more quietly, "Tooth, Sandy and I fight Pitch while you and Bunny look for Lilliana."

"But will you three be able to handle him?" Jack asked with real concern. They all knew how formidable Pitch could be in a fight, but out of all the Guardians he was the only one who'd ever been inside Pitch's lair. He knew how wily the Boogeyman could get on his home turf, toying with spirits with his shadows and his twisted labyrinth of crumbling stairs and broken paths that led nowhere. "Without Sandy, it'll pretty much be you and Tooth on your own."

"But the point isn't to beat him, Jack," Tooth reminded him. "Just to distract him long enough to get Lilliana to safety."

"The trick will be getting in," Bunny suddenly pointed out. "The entrance was sealed after that Nightmare attack back at the pond."

"That," North said with a smothered laugh, "is why plan is so perfect!"

"Huh?"

"You see," the big man whispered conspiratorially, clapping his hand on the Pooka's shoulder, "there is always way to get door open."

"Yeah, but if we all go down that tunnel at once Pitch'll be able to figure out what's going on without having to think twice about it. He'd see me and Jack try to slip off."

"So!" North went on, undeterred by Bunny's doubt. "We get door open, Tooth, Sandy and I. Then! You and Jack go in…back door."

"Back door?" Jack and Bunny said in unison.

"Yes!" North couldn't contain his laugh this time, and it rumbled deep in his throat. "Bunny!" he shouted, making the Pooka jump. "You do it! Do that thing." He tapped his boot on the workshop floor in a very distinct manner.

"Oh, no," Bunny said loudly, holding up his paws. "No, no! I can't do that."

"Sure you can! Do it all the time!"

"To other spirit's realms, yes, on occasion, but not to anyone's place who didn't want me there! I have to have permission to do that sort of thing!"

"Jack!" The big man turned his attention to the frost spirit, who stiffened under the intensity of North's rather inappropriate exuberance. "You give permission."

"Huh?!"

"Yes!" North rubbed his hands together excitedly. "You've been there! You give permission!"

"You know it doesn't really work that way," Bunny started to say but North waved him off.

"You need to know where you're going. So! Jack describes it to you, then you know."

"I'm so confused," Jack mumbled. "Do you need to have permission or do you need to know where you're going?"

"Well, generally, it's the same thing," Bunny explained. He still didn't look convinced of North's big plan. "For places in the human world where there's no magic, it doesn't really matter, and same goes for the Pole and Tooth's place 'cause we work together and I've been there loads of times. But other spirits are pretty protective of their realms. The few that have invited me sent assistants to play escort, but once I got there and got a good look of the place I was able to make my tunnels lead inside whenever I wanted. Although," he added with a dry smile, "I don't make a habit of just showing up unannounced. It's really discourteous, bordering on obscene, for a Pooka to just invite himself to another spirit's realm."

"You're the only one of us who's been to Pitch's home, Jack," Tooth said gently. "So you'll be able to describe it to him, hopefully well enough that he can make it in without needing to go there himself first."

He knew she was choosing her words carefully to avoid sounding like she was placing blame or somehow accusing him of past misdoings, but he felt bad about it anyway. After all, Easter had been ruined and Bunny had nearly been forgotten because of his little visit.

"I-I can try," Jack said hesitantly. His grip on his staff tightened. "I wasn't there for very long, you know."

"Anyplace is fine," Bunny offered quickly. "As long as it's at least this big." He gestured with his paws, indicating the size he meant. "A room, a hallway…heck, even a patch on the ceiling will be good enough, as long as we mind the fall."

"But wait," Jack put in as a sudden thought occurred to him. "Won't us not being together when we attack Pitch give away the whole plan?"

"That's just it, mate," Bunny told him. "Because he expects us to be together, he'll just assume the two of us are hiding somewhere 'til his back is turned. He'll suspect a trap, but the one we spring on him won't be the one he's expecting."

"Because of Sandy," Jack remembered. The little yellow man grinned and conjured a golden thumbs-up over his head in confirmation.

"Good plan, yes?" North said with a knowing grin. "Jack, talk to Bunny. We leave once sun is up."

"How will you guys be getting in, then?" Jack asked, but felt stupid for asking it almost immediately because North started laughing.

"Snow globe of course!"

"Is that it?" Bunny questioned for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Yes!" Jack grumbled, raking his fingers through his snow-white hair in frustration.

"No need to get cranky, mate, I need to know these things!"

"Details, yes, yes I know. Details!" the frost spirit griped back. "I told you I wasn't there for very long, and I was pretty distracted by everything going on so I didn't pay much attention."

"Well I need a bit more than 'dark and spooky.'"

"Well that's pretty much all it was," Jack said. With a sigh he threw himself back onto the padded couch, one leg dangling over the side so that his toes brushed the floor. "It was very dark, and almost everything was made of stone but much of it was crumbling, like the place was decaying. Broken stairs, falling pillars, walkways that led nowhere…. There was a section that looked almost like a cave, with stalagmites and stalactites, but that was right near the entrance so I don't think that'll do."

"No," Bunny mumbled thoughtfully. "No…that won't do…"

"It's like a labyrinth down there," Jack went on. He stared up at the ceiling as he spoke. "Every shadow you walk through leads you somewhere else. I wandered around inside then somehow ended up back at the egg tunnels just by passing through this one patch of darkness." He glanced over at the Pooka. "He's in control down there. If he catches on to what we're doing, we may never make it out again."

"I know, I know," Bunny growled, running his paw over his ears in aggravation. "Right now I just want to focus on getting in. Then we can worry about getting out again."

Then he brightened, as if he'd suddenly gotten an idea.

"That's it!"

Jack stared at him. "What's it?"

"Make me a picture."

"Huh?"

"With your snow and ice and what-have-you." Bunny waved at the frost spirit's staff, which was propped against the back of the couch that Jack was lying on. "Use your frost to show me what it looked like."

"It won't be exactly the same," Jack warned but the Pooka waved the concern aside.

"Better than leaving it all up to the imagination, mate." He scrambled closer. "Come on, show me."

So Jack did as he was bid. He picked up his staff and swished it over the floor, creating the best three-dimensional image of Pitch's lair that he could muster from memory. It wasn't perfect, but he had to admit it looked a lot better this way than it did just from his verbal description.

Bunny hunkered down near the glittering frost depiction and studied it carefully, stroking his furry chin with one paw. "This the entrance here, then?" he questioned, pointing at the cave.

"Yes. And this is just what I saw of it, I didn't get very far. But I have a feeling the place is huge."

"Sure to be," Bunny agreed without looking up. "Most realms are."

They sat in silence for a long while, Bunny studying the image and Jack studying Bunny. The Pooka was so deep in thought, in fact, that he didn't even notice when North suddenly burst into the room.

"Ah, Jack!" The big man strode forward and leaned over Bunny's shoulder, nodding his head in satisfaction at the sight of the icy display. "Excellent work, Jack, excellent," he said with relish. Then he straightened up again. "So! Any news?"

"It's gonna be tough," Bunny informed him. He waved his hand about the image. "This is all Jack's seen, and it's just one room. And here," he pointed, "is where the entrance is."

"Hmmm…" The big man nodded his head again, but this time thoughtfully. "Not much room," he commented.

"He'll have to be pretty darn distracted not to see us," Bunny confirmed. "We'll have to coordinate our moves down to the second."

But North didn't seem all that bothered by the problem.

"I know!" he cried merrily. Then he announced, "Look! I fix problem!" and pulled something small and round from his pocket.

"A snow globe?" Jack asked doubtfully, eyeing what was undeniably a smaller version of North's portal globes.

"Yes!" North was so excited the word was practically a squeak. "But not for portals!" He pulled a matching globe from his other pocket so that he held one in each hand. While Jack and Bunny watched quizzically, the big man shook one of the globes. It started to glow red, the same color as his coat and his sleigh. A moment later, the second globe also turned red.

"That's it?" the frost spirit asked, but Bunny seemed pretty pleased by the result.

"So we'll wait outside the lair while you guys get his attention," he said, stroking the globe almost tenderly, "and once you've got his mind, you'll give this a shake to signal us."

"And in you go!" North finished with an enormous grin. "Then, once you find Starfire, you shake, and off we go."

"That's the other thing, Bunny," Tooth called as she flew through the open doorway, Sandman on her heels. Jack saw that the yellow man was starting to look pretty worn and tired as dawn approached.

"Sandy and I were talking," Tooth explained as she reached them, "and we think it'll be better if we take Starfire to the Warren instead of back here."

"What?!" Bunny cried, dropping the signal globe. North had to stoop quickly to catch it. "Why do I haveta play host to that arrogant sheila?!"

Tooth opened her mouth but Sandy beat her to it, conjuring an image of a tree above his head. Bunny groaned loudly, but Tooth Fairy was adamant.

"There is plenty of green there for her to defend herself with, Bunny, and lots of sunlight. Not only will she be more powerful, but Pitch won't dare make a move on her while her mother is watching. Besides," she added after casting a quick sideways glance at North, "Pitch's been to my Palace and here at the Pole several times already. He's sent his Nightmares to the Warren but hasn't been there himself so it'll be much harder for him to get in, especially when there are so few shadows for him to take advantage of compared to our realms."

"Why can't she just go back to her own realm?" Jack asked quizzically.

"She doesn't have one, Jack," Tooth informed him, much to the frost spirit's surprise. "She's considered something of an oddity because of it, being so old and so powerful but never settling down to create her own realm."

"Entire world is her realm," North said with admiration, one large hand sweeping through the air as if to take in the entire planet with that single stroke. "Every green place…."

"She's a wanderer," Tooth clarified. "Sort of like you." She smiled awkwardly. "Except, you know, she's much older and all, so it's much stranger for her to still be unsettled. You're pretty young still, for a spirit, so it's not so strange."

Bunny groaned again. "Fine, fine," he grumbled, running his paw over his ears as he finally gave in to Tooth's proposition. "But I'm gonna hate every second of it." Then he muttered, almost to himself, "This just keeps getting worse and worse for me!"

And Jack found that he couldn't agree with the Pooka more.