The begining and end of this chapter were hard to write. I'll leave you at that and with the fact that I do not own RoTG.


The normally busy shop was silent. The yetis circled the mural in front of the globe, standing vigil. The elves rang the bells on their heads and an eerie, sad song echoed through the workshop. The Guardians gathered in front of North's mural. It showed him wielding his swords, looking fierce and strong. A circle of candles illuminated the shop, giving off a soft glow. Tooth was holding Jack's hand, her amethyst eyes glistening with tears. Jack had a streak of tears running down his face, and he slipped his hand into Bunny's. Bunny's eyes were downcast and a tear slipped from his emerald eyes onto the floor. Sandy patted Bunny's shoulder, his face sad and understanding. The Guardians had lost more than a leader; they had lost a good friend.

I sat among the rafters watching. This was a private moment for the Guardians and they needed the time to be together, and Acionna seemed to understand that. She didn't talk to me, but I felt a slight breeze blow past me, confirming that she was sad as well. I swirled a cloud in my hand and an image of North appeared. The rafter moved slightly and I kept my eyes downcast.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked me. I glanced at him and saw that his hoodie was up, a sign that said he was sad.

"I just wish I could have done something," I mumbled. Jack walked over and sat down in front of me, him legs dangling off the rafters.

"Are you crazy? Look at what you just did to Pitch. You did what even I couldn't do," Jack said. I blew a piece of hair that had fluttered down over my face out of the way.

"Don't pretend you didn't do the same. I was watching from the ground when it happened," I said. Jack slightly blushed and then turned to me.

"Maybe I blasted Pitch with a concentrated shot of ice, but not even I could have called up a super-monsoon. North would have been proud," Jack said as he flipped his hoodie back. "Sandy told me about your memories. After we kick Pitch's butt, I'll help you look for your tooth box."

"My what?" I asked.

"Tooth box. It contains your baby teeth, and your childhood memories," Jack explained.

"So that's why the Mini Fairies collect the teeth," I commented. Jack gave me a smile.

"It doesn't really matter who you were. What matters is who you are now. I found that out when I looked at my memories," Jack said. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I still want to know," I said. Jack smiled and stood up. He hooked his staff around my waist and hauled me to my feet. I gave him a glare and then whacked him on the head. We flew down and landed in front of the globe. The lights were steadily flickering off. Tooth looked at the globe distressed.

"Look how fast they're going out," she said. Without North's wonder, children weren't amazed by the Guardians anymore. Already, Tooth's wings were starting to lose a few feathers. Bunny showed no physical signs of weakening, but the light in his eyes had faded. A cascade of sand fell from Sandy's dreamsand cloud, no longer golden. The frost on Jack's staff was melting and he looked tired. Even I felt strange, like someone had poked a hole in my heart and was slowly draining the energy from me. But I wasn't a Guardian, or at least not yet, so why-

A chime from the clock jolted all of us. Twelve chimes in a row. That meant it was Christmas Eve. We all glanced at each other.

"Now what do we do?" Bunny asked. "The only way we're gonna get those lights flickering is if we give them a Christmas they'll remember for years to come." I racked my brain for an answer. Bunny was right. We needed the kids to believe if we even stood a chance at beating Pitch, and our best bet was to make Christmas amazing. But how would we do that? North was the only one of us who had ever done Christmas and even though many movies had been made about someone trying to take over Christmas, it never actually happened (I think).

While I was thinking, Jack jumped up onto the globe control panel and faced us, a wide grin on his face.

"I'm no North, but he's been teaching me how to work the sleigh and stuff like that," Jack said. "All the toys are ready-" Jack stopped as Phil came up with a list of the toys that still needed last minute touches. "Okay then, almost all the toys are ready, but with a little help, we can do this."

"We hear ya loud and clear, mate. I'm only gonna say this once. This time, Christmas is more important than Easter," Bunny said, strength returning to his voice. I stifled a giggle. The arguments about holiday superiority between Bunny and North were legendary.

"These kids will have the best Christmas of their lives," Tooth said. Sandy held two thumbs up. Jack looked at me and I gave him a grin.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!" I said. I shot up and started flying around the workshop. The yetis were already behind schedule before Pitch showed up, and now they were scrambling to get done. Three whole crates full of cars needed painting, dolls were missing arms and legs, and the whole robot section was painted pink. Jack flew up next to me and looked the workshop over.

"We have one day to get this mess into toys for eight million kids, pack it all into one sleigh, and get this thing in the air before midnight," Jack said as we passed a bicycle that had three wheels. I grinned.

"This should be fun," I said as I rocketed past him, laughing. I landed on one floor and rapidly painted a line of cars red (What? Thought my paintbrush could only paint clouds?). Bunny hopped next to me and started to repaint the robots red. We went from floor to floor, painting just about anything that wasn't made of cloth. We put a fresh coat of paint on the fire trucks, repainted mountains of robots, and dunked wooden blocks in loud, bright colors.

We sat together on one floor, painting some yo-yos. I glanced in Bunny's direction and his eyes met mine. A rare smile was on his face, and I could feel the hope rising through my body, the hope that everything would be alright.

"Look, I'm sorry for calling you a Jackrabbit," I said, placing the finished yo-yo in the box. Bunny tossed his yo-yo into the box

"It's the ears, isn't it?" Bunny joked. I smiled and stood up, finally done with the yo-yos.

"Who painted the taxis green?" Jack shouted as he rapidly flew past Bunny and me. Bunny gave me a sheepish grin and started repainting the taxis. Jack was running relay between the floors, moving spare parts and finished toys about. He occasionally would yell something to the yetis, but he usually left each to their own.

I finished painting the last taxi yellow and flew off looking for something else to paint. A yeti shoved me out of the way and I found myself on the doll/dress up clothes floor. A strange sight greeted me there. Sandy was floating in mid air, sewing a doll's arm on. He looked up, gave me a wave and went back to sewing. I crept out of that room, hoping that no one shoved a dress in my face (I can't sew to save my life).

I flew onto the bicycle shop and started to brighten up the bikes with racing stripes. I caught a flash of green and I saw that Tooth had picked up a wrench and was fixing the three-wheeled bicycle. Some other Mini Fairies were doing the same thing to a few tricycles. Tooth stood up and looked the bicycle over. I stood there gaping.

"Hey Misty, what's-" Jack stopped as he saw the Mini Fairies teaming up to fix a bicycle. Bunny hopped in and I'm pretty sure his jaw hit the ground. Sandy flew in and dropped the doll he was sewing in surprise. Tooth looked up, a wrench still in her hand.

"What?" she asked. That seemed to bring us back to reality because everyone scattered. I shook the shock off as I tackled a mountain of toy trains.

Who knew Tooth knew mechanics?

Eventually, I ran out of things to paint, so I started moving the toys to the ground floor. The sleigh was being cleaned and the yetis were busy wrapping gifts and filling the sacks with the presents. Each sack corresponded with a different section of the globe and each present was carefully examined before it went into a sack. The yetis didn't seem to trust me with sorting gifts, so I helped box and wrap gifts. Paper and ribbons were flying everywhere and I made the mistake of letting scissors lie around unsupervised for five seconds. An elf managed to get a hold of them and then proceeded to cut the fur off of five yetis that were too busy to notice the missing fur on their backs/lower legs.

While the other yetis were giving their half-shaved companions a hard time, Jack landed next to me. He looked a little frazzled, which I thought was impossible for the winter spirit.

"There's no way we can finish the dolls in time. In order to finish, we need five thousand dolls done now. Now, I would never ask you to create five thousand dolls, but-"

"No. I'm sorry but no. Even if I could create five thousand dolls, which you know I can't, the answer would still be no," I said. Jack knew my limits and that trying to create too many things at once meant I would be in a coma for a week.

"Okay then, I'll just tell Sandy to sew faster," Jack said to me. I shook my head.

"I've got a better idea. I made a duplicator a few years ago and stored it in a tree by my pond. I'll just fly over and grab it," I said. Jack gave me a look that showed his concern. I rolled my eyes.

"You know it'll take an hour to recreate the duplicator. If I use a snow globe to get it, I'll be back in less than ten minutes. I'll take Little Sand with me and be back in a flash."

"If Pitch attacks, we need you here," Jack said. I grasped his hand and gave him a smile.

"Ten minutes. That's all I'll need," I said, taking flight. I found Little Sand next to Baby Tooth who was chattering in Mini Fairy speak. Little Sand saw me and flew onto my shoulder. Baby Tooth chirped at me and I waved.

"Mind if I borrow her for a second?" I asked. Baby Tooth shook her head and went back to building a unicycle. I flew into North's workshop and located two snow globes, one to get there, and one to get back. I shook a snow globe and Little Sand gripped my dress tightly.

"Burgess Pond!" I shouted. A portal appeared and Little Sand and I flew through the portal. Colors swirled around until we appeared over a pond just as the last bits of twilight were fading. Now, I know you're thinking of Jack's Pond, but mine is a little different. It has a river at two ends and the pond is in the center. The local legend is that a meteor struck the middle of the river and created a crater. That crater eventually became a pond and the meteor somehow vanished. I'm not sure I believe it, but all myths have a grain of truth in them, so I don't challenge it.

I weaved around the trees, looking for the one that housed my duplicator. Remember how I was able to store the glass phial on my dress? This was a similar process, so I was looking for a tree with a white machine drawing on it…in the middle of winter.

"Acionna, tell Old Man Winter it may take a little longer than ten minutes," I muttered as I checked the trees.

No problem Misty, Acionna replied. I dusted the snow off the trees, but none of them yielded what I was looking for. A tug on my dress brought my attention to Little Sand. She pointed to a tree that had little snow on it, but a big white patch in the middle. I flew up and found the white patch was shaped more like a machine than anything else.

"Thanks Little Sand," I said. Little Sand's cheeks turned slightly red and I smiled…and then did a double take. Since when do dream helpers turn colors other than tan and gold? I decided that it didn't matter at the moment and peeled the duplicator off the tree, shrinking it down to a size that could fit on my dress.

"Okay Little Sand, let's head back," I said. Little Sand nodded and I took out the snow globe.

Misty…I looked up confused. The voice sounded like a little girl's voice, one that I knew from somewhere. "I know that voice," I said as I flew in the direction of the sound. Little Sand tugged on my dress and I brushed her away.

"It's okay. I said I'd be a little late." Misty…the voice was stronger as I flew away from my pond. Misty? the voice asked, almost confused. I flew after the voice and found myself in a clearing. In the center was an old bed that was broken beyond repair, and a large hole beneath it. I pushed the bed out of the way and looked down into the hole. It seemed to go down for miles, and a strange foreboding seemed to leak out of the hole that was blacker than night. Little Sand shook her head, but the urge to find the origin of voice was too strong to resist. I took a deep breath and jumped into the hole, Little Sand flying right behind me.

Remember how I said chasing the nightmares with Sandy was my worst idea ever? Well…I wasn't exactly telling the truth. Jumping through that hole was worse by a long shot, and you don't have to be Einstein to figure that much out.


The next chapter will most likely have another oath for you to swear (do I even have to exlplain why?). Stay tuned for the next chapter...and is it too much to ask for a review? I like hearing people's ideas, and while stories are pretty much author based, I really do want a little feedback (I hope I don't sound too whiny).