The holiday season was speedily nearing. October had just ended, and thus Thanksgiving was on its way. That meant that the Pole was officially in its full fledged flurry of Christmas preparations and everyone in the toy factory was to work twice as hard as usual. This resulted in twice the noise and twice the chaos.
In short, the Pole was the very definition of a mad house.
Yetis were everywhere, transporting boxes, working at assembly lines, fighting with elves over tools. Jack Frost himself could scarcely take a step without almost kicking a scurrying elf or having to avoid the ribbons, bows and small toy accessories scattered on the floor. Above ground, toy planes motored in the air, causing Jack to have to duck to avoid getting smacked in the face. Kites fluttered and frisbees flew, balls bounced, toy trains whistled their horns, teady bears were stuffed and baby dolls were crying. And in the background of this all, Christmas music was playing through the speakers throughout the toy factory accompanied by one loud, unmistakablely jolly voice singing along.
"North!" Jack Frost shouted, eyes searching frantically for the orchastrator of this craziness. The lone, boisterous singing seemed to be coming from above, blasting outside of North's main office. Jack quickly changed course for the nearest stair case and ascended them with a limited amount of elf casualties. Once standing in the threshold of the open double doors to North's office, Jack shouted so his voice could be heard over the record playing "Holly Jolly Christmas".
"North!"
The massive, jolly, singing man spun about in his work chair, wheeling it around to blink and spread his arms wide with a jubilant smile on his rosey cheeked face.
"JACK!" he bellowed gleefully in his deep Russian accent. "It's been too long, boy! Why you not come visit sooner?!"
Jack's eyes widened and instinctively braced as his large friend suddenly lunged up from his chair and barraled across the room to arrest the smaller gaurdian in a bone crushing hug.
"North- ack- can't- breathe!" Jack gasped out.
"Ahaha!" North's booming laughter filled Jack's ears, and for a precious moment, Jack felt the heaviness in his heart fade away. He hadn't been feeling the same since his encounter with Pitch Black and the Wishing Star. Seeing them was actually the reason Jack had come to find North during this busy season of the year...
Finally, North released Jack from his embrace, leaving the younger immortal lightheaded, and stumbling backwards before regaining his balance.
"It's good to see you too North," Jack said. But the music was too loud and North only cocked his head in confusion.
"WHAT?!"
"I SAID, it's good to see you too!" Jack shouted back.
"YOU HAVE A WOODEN SHOE?!"
Jack snorted and shook his head.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" North interjected, putting up his hands before turning to signal to an elf on his desk to turn off the record player. The elf kicked off the needle before flopping over and nibbling on a cookie. Peaceful silence fell over the room, Jack sighed in relief.
"There! That's better!" North chuckled.
"You're blasting Christmas music and it's not even Thanksgiving," Jack grinned in amusement.
"It's always Christmas here at the Pole!" North rebutted with a laugh. "So what brings you here, Jack Frost?"
Jack swallowed, and his expression turned serious.
"We need to gather the Guardians. Something has happened and you all need to know..."
North's brilliant blue eyes dimmed and his white fluffy brows turned down in concern.
"Of course Jack."
...
In as little as fifteen minutes later, North, Bunnymund, Sandy and the Tooth Fairy were all gathered in the common room around the Globe. Elves were still jingling around in their little bell hats, carting around vast amounts of toys and creating an over all mess as they went about trying to preform their tasks.
Two Yetis had approached North and were grunting and motioning in their strange way about something or another while North did his best to appease and redirect them.
Finally, the group could wait no longer with all these inturruptions, and the Easter Bunny was the first to ask what was on everyone else's mind.
"Oy, what's this all about now, North?" Bunnymund demanded, arms folded and ears pricked forward alertly. North waved away the two persistant Yetis to turn and give his attention to the group. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth wide to answer, but that was when Jack appeared on scene, having discended from one of the open windows.
"Actually, I called you all here," He swung down, his hooked wooden staff in hand and landed quietly on the stone floor to pace around the globe and greet everyone. In his other hand, he held the small tooth container, which contained his baby teeth.
"You?" Bunnymund quirked his nose and looked perplexed.
"Jack, what's wrong? Has something happened?" Tooth asked, fluttering over to him and ringing her hands. Sandy too hovered forward with a sand formed question mark hovering above his head.
"It's Pitch," Jack sighed, looking carefully at each of his fellow guardians. "He's made some sort of alliance with another immortal being that has given him free reign on every October 31st of the year."
"How can this be?" North breathed.
"That's just down ri-o-ght wrong, mate!" Bunnymund stomped.
"Who is this other imortal who is helping Pitch?" Tooth inquired.
"That's the worst part of all..." Jack swallowed, clutching the tiny vessel that held his baby teeth tighter. "I've met her before, only I forgot. She is the Wishing Star."
North's eyes widened and Bunnymund's ears flattened, while Tooth exchanged a nervous glance with Sandy. Jack pursed his lips and closed his eyes.
"It took some searching through my memories... but I finally found the moment I was looking for," he explained softly. He opened his eyes when he felt Tooth's soft hand on his shoulder.
"What moment were you looking for Jack?" she asked.
"The moment I contacted the Wishing Star in order to wish my memories away," Jack answered solumnly.
"Wait... why would you do that?" Bunnymund inquired, confused. Jack sighed.
"So that I would no longer feel the pain of being separated from my loved ones," he answered. "I was alone, and I was mad, and hurting and... I wanted an escape from all of my torment. I guess, I thought not remembering where I came from would be a better alternative than knowing I could never be with those I cared about."
"Oh Jack..." Tooth comforted. "It's ok..."
Jack shook his head. Sure he felt some stupidity for putting himself through hundreds of years of needless wondering, but that wasn't the pressing issue here.
"I'm fine. I didn't gather you all just to hear my own sob story. I called you guys because Pitch is up to something... and it's not good. I fear he's planning to manipulate the Wishing Star and use her powers against us somehow. I overheard some of their talk and she said something about how he'd wanted a second chance and how she'd trusted him but he'd let her down. I left before I heard anymore, but I can tell this doesn't bode well."
North cleared his throat.
"Well, Wishing Star is daughter of Man in Moon," he announced. "And Pitch Black would not get away with anything as far as she is concerned. Manny is very protective of her."
"Which is why I know Pitch is up to something bad," Jack argued. "He would never get involved with the Man in the Moon's own daughter if he didn't have something disasterous in the works."
"I gotta say, I'm with Frosty on this one, mate," Bunnymund spoke up. "Pitch is definitely up to no good and I for one want to be two step ahead of the boogy man."
Sandy nodded vigorously and Tooth fluttered here and there, looking quite anxious.
"I say we should start monitering his pit, and keep very close tabs on him whenever he emerges," Jack suggested.
"And sacrifice time away from our duties? Why not just barge in and demand some answers? That's clearly the better way to go here," Bunnymund objected, spreading his paws as if the choice was obvious.
"Should we not consult Man in Moon about this first?" North opposed.
"Guys?" Tooth suddenly interjected, lifting a slim, timid hand. "I hate to be the only one to say this, but... what if Pitch really is trying to change? What if he really does want a second chance...?"
The question hung in the air between all of them and for a sparce moment the Guardians considered this. Then North laughed, loud and long and hard, soon to be followed by Bunnymund's hooting and a silent, yet thoroughly amused Sandy.
Jack just smiled sympathetically towards Tooth.
"Look Tooth, I love that you always think the best of people, but let's face it. Pitch Black is the last entity on earth who would ever change his ways."