CHEERS! RISE OF THE GUARDIANS IS NOW THE NINTH MOST WRITTEN ABOUT STORY ON WITH 7,068 FANFICTIONS!

CELEBRATE ALL YOU ROTGers OUT THERE!

Here's another chapter! Man, I feel really inspired after the first-ever hiatus I'd ever had o_o

NOTE: In case I didn't make it clear enough, Pitch and Elly ALREADY KNOW THE GUARDIANS TOOK JACK. They let them take him. I've added a few sentences here and there to make it clearer, but you don't have to check the last chapter if you don't want to.

So I guess it's been enough chapters for me to renew the Disclaimer, haha.

I don't own Rise of the Guardians. I do, however, own the conceptual character of Death and her subordinates (Grim Reapers).

Anyway, I've got the entire plotline of this story written out, and I broke them up roughly into the length of a chapter. I'm convinced that this is going to be a lot longer than Un-Melting, which is currently (as of 7-blank-2013) my longest and most popular RotG story.

Wow.

Hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter made just for you, readers.


Jack felt the confines of his fabric prison being set down gently and immediately scrambled out of the red sack, looking around and stumbling back when the Guardians stood in front of him. "Ah..," he muttered when he saw that the room had no windows and that the door was behind the four Guardians that stood in front of him.

Aster saw the kid's hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly, held in front of him like he was defending himself. Not defendin', he realized. His hands are so used ta havin' his staff in front o' him like tha'. And it broke his heart a little, he himself having seeing the defensive position so many times when they had little spats time from time.

It was silent in the room. Looks were being exchanged in place of words, four reassuring and one frightened, and Jack took a deep breath to try and calm his already shot nerves. His purple eyes scanned, analyzing the situation and looking for ways he could get out of the confined room he was trapped in.

North cleared his throat. "Jack-"

Jack bolted.

It took all of them to realize that their youngest member had pushed Tooth into North and was now tearing down the hallway out to the nearest window. "Jack, wait!" called Bunny, racing out to stop him before he did something drastic. Tooth was right at his heels, darting after him in a flash of feathers, as was North and Sandy.

Jack ran blindly, ignoring anything that he crashed into. A corner of a table with a yeti painting toy trains hit his side and sent him spinning, but he stumbled and kept running, pushing past the startled yeti. His breaths came in short gasps, and he desperately wished he hadn't left his staff alone. "Jack!" He heard his name being called with an Australian accent, distracting him enough to make him take a left instead of a right. Jack cursed under his breath as he came to a dead end, a section of it painted a colorful pattern. He turned around, but his way back out was blocked by the rather frightening figure of the Easter Bunny.

Aster put out both hands in front of him, attempting to placate the lost frost child. He knew Jack was scared, and lowered himself closer to the ground to make himself look a bit less intimidating. He almost wished he was back to being a fluffy little rabbit, if it meant that Jack would listen to him. "Jack, calm down," he whispered, only getting a frightened whimper in response.

Jack backed up into the dead end and gasped when his back hit the wall. "Please, l-leave me alone!" he cried, hating the tears that welled up in his eyes. Bunny winced at the sight of them, and carefully moved a step forward. "I'm not gonna hurt ya, kid. Just lemme help ya."

Jack pressed himself tightly into the wall behind him and blinked when his hand hit something metal. His eyes darted down to find that his fingers had found a latch, and that the colorful part of the wall was actually stained glass.

Stained glass.

A latch.

A window!

Aster must have noticed this too, because all of a sudden he was inching forward a lot faster than he was moments ago. "Jack, wait." He knew that Jack's logic was broken to say at the least; without his staff, Jack wouldn't able to do anything even if he did open that window; it was just the fact that he might jump out that frightened Bunny. The frost child didn't listen, eyes darting from his fingers that were fumbling with the latch of his escape route, and darting up to the figure of the Easter Bunny, now joined with three others. Tooth gasped. "Jack, no!"

The latch snapped free, but the window was left unopened as Jack's eyes widened.

His body convulsed, and Jack dropped to the floor like a stone.


Purple, hazy eyes awoke to figures looming over him, and he subconsciously shrunk into the covers with a whimper. I'm still at the North Pole, he realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He flinched as he felt petite fingers brushing back his bangs, but he was too weak to struggle. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the worst.

They flew right back open when he felt a wet, warm towel being placed on his forehead. "Huh?" he tried to say, but was then struck with another realization; there was a thermometer in his mouth.

It took another moment for him to put together the fact that these people were helping him. But why? Why in the world would these people be helping him? "Um, Jack?" a voice said, breaking him out of his wide-eyed trance. His hazy eyes drifted over to the nervous face of the Tooth Fairy. "Um, let me just..," she trailed off, hands hesitantly reaching forward. He flinched but relaxed when she just gently took the thermometer from his mouth. Her face went out of his field of vision, but he could still hear her say "98.3 degrees. That's normal, isn't it?". Was it just his delirious state, or did she sound... worried?

His breathing quickened when a figure on his right shifted and the green eyes of the Easter Bunny appeared. "Nah, the kid's usually colder than an ice block. Normal temperature fer us means trouble fer him." The emerald eyes dropped downwards at him when he realized Jack's breathing. "Whoa, whoa, calm down there, Fros'bite. We're not gonna hurt ya," he tried to placate the teen, who only shrunk back into the mattress.

There were three seconds of silence, and in those three seconds, Jack thought three things.

One, why were the Guardians helping him? If they wanted to kill him, why had they not done so already? Was this their way of trying to make him lower his guard? Why bother to, though, if they already outnumbered him?

Two, were they actually the nice side? Were Pitch and Elly lying to him all this time?

And three...

If this was even true, which it might not have been, how on Earth was he supposed to accept it... just like that? Was everything he knew-which wasn't much in the first place-wrong?

The sound of a clearing throat made him focus back to the situation at hand. North was holding a steaming bowl of soup in front of him and smiled at him. "You cannot eat vhile sitting down, yes?" he asked, and Jack stared for a while. He really, really shouldn't have, but he couldn't help but burst out laughing. As they exchanged confused glances, he choked down his laughter.

"You were just talking about how cold I should have been..." He waited for one of them to catch the hint, and when nobody did, he elaborated. "Uh, how hot is the soup you're holding?"

The four faces in front of him all lightened in realization and he swore he saw four lightbulbs flickering on above their heads.

Or maybe it was just him.

North chuckled sheepishly and turned away with soup bowl in one hand, opening the door with his other. "I vil fix problem in none of the time! I vill be back in a minuet!"

Nobody bothered to correct him on his choice of words.

As the remaining three turned back to him, Jack was suddenly reminded of the fact that, yes, he was still trapped in the bed by his own health, and no, he still found no way out if he even could stand at the least. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that panicking would do him no good, and he should at the least look capable of handling himself. And so he dragged himself into a sitting position, glaring at any of them who tried to help. He was halfway up when his arms gave way and he dropped back into the bed with a whump!

There was a sigh. "Ah told ya, ya stubborn mule." Then there was golden sand under him, lifting him up, and eventually setting his back onto the headboard of the bed.

Jack moaned. His limbs hurt, the light brushing of the sheets against his skin felt like burning, and goddammit those were not tears in his eyes!

There was dabbing at his eyes and he opened them, not sure when they had squeezed shut in pain. The blurred form of some small bird was holding out a tissue to him. He took it warily and wiped at his eyes. "T...thanks," he said, hesitating a bit. He tried his best to relax, but his body was refusing to ignore his roughhousing with tables and yetis painting toy trains.

He looked up and was surprised to find a mini version of the Tooth Fairy floating in front of his face. "Uh. Um, hi," his gaze flickered to the much bigger Tooth Fairy smiling at him and then back to the mini replica, "...Baby Tooth," he finished, smiling at the nickname he had come up with. The Tooth Fairy may have sharp wings, but this little fairy looked so nice, like she wouldn't hurt an ant.

Unbeknownst to him, all of them looked at each other, excited to see some progress of friendliness.

Tooth spoke up. "Um, Jack... I know you don't trust us, but... but just let us tell our side of the story? Please?"

Jack sucked in a huge breath. They could lie to him... but then again, Pitch and Elly were just as likely to lie to him as the Guardians were. And if they were right? Would he be able to handle the world as he knew it crumbling all around him?

Jack closed his eyes, exhaled, and nodded.

And the story came to him, the side of the situation he had never heard before, washing over his mind like a blind eye's first fresh look at the world. She spoke of being a family, and how there was a kid named Jamie and a girl named Sophie who were, even now, waiting for winter to arrive so they could see him. Bunny talked about little spats and stupid arguments, and acting like a brother he never had. Sandy made figures and conjured up stories of their nights up on a cloud of dreamsand, watching the different kinds of dreams being sent out to the children of the world. North, who had entered with a bowl of chilled porridge, had quietly set it down on a small drawer next to the bed and, when it was his turn, told tales of planning White Christmases together, and telling storytimes about his days as a reckless bandit.

When they were finished, the winter spirit's eyes were as wide as saucers, filled with the wonder and hope and dreams that maybe, maybe this wonderfully woven story presented in front of him was true.

There was no remembering it, however, and that was what stung at Tooth's heart. She looked mournfully into purple eyes-that should have been blue-and sighed. "Pitch and Elly stole you away from us so suddenly, that we were... knocked down with grief, I suppose. I guess they hoped they could have kept you as... as their pet," she spat, "and never remember us."

Jack's eyes trembled and suddenly sank into fear. Not noticing, Tooth reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind his ears. "You look so different."

The scream that issued from the boy was unexpected to all of them, and Tooth withdrew her hand as if it had been burnt. Jack clutched at his ears and shut his eyes closed tightly.

"Wha's wrong, Jack?" came the worried voice of Bunny, and when there was no response, Sandy reached forward and drew one of his hands away from his ears. Jack sobbed. "Th-that's... that's exactly what Elly said!" he cried, face streaked with tears and hands grasping the sheets as if he was trying to choke someone.

"How am I supposed to know who to trust if they both say the exact same thing?!"

Tooth gasped. "Oh, don't cry, Jack! Please don't cry..." Jack hiccuped and scrubbed furiously at his eyes. He felt something warm being placed on his hand, now laying limp on the blankets, and looked up to see that North had placed a hand on top of his. "Ve vill get your memories back," he soothed, and something in those blue eyes promised him that he would keep true to his words. Another hand joined North's. The Sandman was smiling assuredly at him, creating a sand figure of five figures, hand in hand. We'll help you remember that you're part of a family. Two other hands were placed on top of his other hand, and he looked left to meet sets of green and violet eyes. "I'll do as much as I can, I swear!" Tooth said determinedly, and Aster grinned. "Ah'm goin' ta be real disappointed if ya can't remember the prank wars ya declared on me," he grinned.

Jack gaped at them in stunned silence for a while, and then smiled shakily at them.

Pitch and Elly hadn't looked over his every wound. They had just sent him to bed. They never promised that he would get his memories back. Well, Jack supposed, maybe this group of people could help them. Maybe the two sides weren't saying the exact same thing.

Maybe he could give this family a chance.


So you might be wondering why this was such a long chapter. Well... *shuffles feet nervously*

I'm going away on vacation with my dad for some family bonding time! (so don't spam me, please QAQ) I did the best I could to write this chapter as interestingly as I could and involved a lot of things!