Chapter 8: Xanino

Melchior, Gaspar, Balthazar and Maria all stared at the basketball sized globe in front of them. Pop! A black light appeared right over New Jersey. Pop! Another one in Argentina. They kept popping up in random places over America and Spain, and even one appeared in China. It was like a black plague invading earth piece by piece.

"This is bad." Balto said, nodding his head slightly. Suddenly, the library doors slammed open, two legendary figures appearing in the doorstep: Jen-Jen and Perez. The mouse was in Jen-Jen's hand, since he was still adult sized.

"You brought the mouse?" Gaspar asked, leaving the globe.

"Did Maria tell you we were attacked by a shadow?" said Jen-Jen ignoring the black guardian. The three kings shook their heads, looking at Maria with furrowed brows. She shrugged, laughing nervously.

"Kind of forgot."

"I was attacked too! In Juncos! A shadow boy came and took my last coin, making the boy stop believing." Perez explained, getting a gasp from Maria.

"I'm so sorry."

"Not only that, the boy now believes in El Cuco!" Perez squeaked, unaware of Jen-Jen's deep blush.

"That's kind of my fault."

"What do you mean, Jen-Jen?" asked Melchior, crossing his arms.

"The shadow that attacked us, the Fearling that out of nowhere came, and the reason we have this mess…is my son."

500 years before the previous chapter…

The rain poured over Spain furiously, threatening to flood any street and crack any rock. But Sarai didn't care. She had to get rid of her child before the other xanas knew of him. Being so small, she had the advantage of the shadows, so no stray human could see her. After a while of wandering around and looking for baby cribs and open windows, she found the perfect house: the family had their first born son, like her. Cautiously, she opened the window of the baby boy's room and jumped in, peeking over at the crib. She was soaked, so she left a small trail of water behind her. It was awake and cooing, like all babies do, and her heart broke. How could she be so cruel to her own son? Leaving the poor thing when it wasn't even a few weeks old? But she had to leave it. Xanas can't feed their young and the other xanas could kill her if they found out from who it was…With tears streaming down her cheeks, she uncovered her cape and looked at her bundled up son. Unlike her, he was dry, and peacefully sleeping. She sobbed once and kissed his forehead, ready for the good-bye. But a familiar voice interrupted.

"You decided to listen to your sister?" she turned around, looking at the voice's source: Jen-Jen, the creator of this whole mess.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be stealing some child's favorite toy or something?" she asked, with a heavy Spanish accent. He shrugged and landed on the floor, sprinkling dust on both of them. Instantly, they both grew the size of adults, except the child, who grew the size of a baby. She sighed, annoyed.

"I'm here to stop a xanas from making the world's dumbest decision.

"I took the decision ninemonths ago. I'm trying to set things right now."

"Come on, Sarai. He's not your son only, he's also mine. Besides, I thought we'd have the responsibility of caring for him together."

"What do you know of responsibility? You were the one who said he didn't want the load of a child!"

"Shh, lower your voice."

"Sorry. Por amor a la luna, Jen-Jen! I'm desperate. The other xanas will kill me if I don't do . You weren't called here, anyway."

"I'm a nosy duende, deal with it. Before you do anything stupid… will you give me the child to care for?" he asked softly, lowering his head. She gasped, surprised. Was he tricking her again? Like that night? She held the baby against her chest defensively as she thought this through, but Jen-Jen had other plans.

"I'm not kidding. I don't want the kid to suffer the same fate as the other xanino's. Please." He added, stretching his arms. She looked at her baby. It was true; she also didn't want the baby to suffer the same fate. But Jen-Jen? A father? Never in anyone's dreams would he be responsible enough! She sighed. She was desperate, though. Reluctantly, she handed the baby over to him. He smiled.

"Thank you. Was it that hard?" he teased.

"No empieces or he's coming back. He doesn't have a name, though."

"No? What irresponsibility! And you call yourself a mother?"

"Please, take good care of him." She pleaded. Jen-Jen stared at the baby boy, all father love sick for him already. He was his boy: his son. The baby looked at lot like him, he even had his hair! When he looked up, Sarai was gone.

"Humph. Typical. Well, baby, what name shall I grant you?" he asked as he sprinkled some dust over them. A mystical shield covered them, and he jumped out the window, the rain bumping with the shield and protecting them from getting wet. He threw a snow-globe (one of the many others he had) and walked through the portal, ending up in his house.

He threw some dust at a chair, and it bended and twisted until it turned into a crib, comfy mattress and all. He placed the baby in the crib and started rocking it, staring at the baby. It was daytime where he was, so he had all day to think up a good name for the baby. But the name came without warning.

"Daniel! Did you take your sister's shoes?" a woman voice yelled from the house next to Jen-Jen's cottage. Inspiration slapped Jen-Jen like a furious girl.

"That will be your name! Daniel Jen. Did you know my name is actually first and second name? My name is Jen and my second name is Jen, so you will be Daniel Jen! Lovely." he whispered, looking at the baby once more. The baby opened its eyes, revealing two beautiful blue orbs.

"You have your mother's eyes." Jen-Jen added, smiling. Man, what a Harry Potter reference!

Back in the present…

"Let me get this straight, Jen-Jen: your son, your recently revealed son, the son no one knew about after 500 years son…is what made the kid stop believing?" Gaspar asked, raising an eyebrow menacingly at the duende. Jen-Jen scratched the back of his head and sighed, still in his adult human form.

"Uh…yeah."

"YOU ARE SO DEAD RIGHT NOW, JEN!" screamed Gaspar, grabbing Jen-Jen's neck and shaking him like a Simpson cartoon. It took Balto, Maria, Melchior and a small tug from Perez to separate them.

"Ack! Not my fault…ack! That girl was all over me, how could I say no?" Jen-Jen said, rubbing his neck and coughing.

"You were a damn Guardian! You know Guardians can't have children! If I could just twist that neck of yours…" snarled Gaspar, while Balto and Melchior had a tight grip on his arms.

"Gaspar, enough! This is not the time to be arguing and grabbing each other's necks!" said Melchior, holding Gaspar back.

"What's gotten into you, Gaspar?!" yelled Maria, also holding him by the sandal.

"You're such a jerk, Jen! How could you break that promise?! You promised to leave your old life aside for children!"

"What promise?" asked Maria, suddenly letting go; making Gaspar fall face first along with Melchior and Balthazar.

"Remember last year when you made the Guardian Oath and that turned you into a Guardian, Maria? Not only do you swear to protect children, you're also giving up the life you had before. Normally, Guardians swear after they die, like me, so we don't have a problem leaving who we were behind. But some Guardians, like Jen-Jen, are chosen alive and they have it a little harder than we do; so if you're a drunken womanizing elf with just a hint of emotional unstableness, then you'd have to leave the alcohol and the women and remain pure for the rest of eternity." Balthazar explained, making Jen-Jen feel more embarrassed than he was before.

"You were a womanizer?" Maria raised an eyebrow, surprised and amused at the recent fact.

"He was a heart breaker! He had more women behind him than clothes in his wardrobe!" Melchior laughed.

"Shut up, Milk."

"He was chosen to protect Lessons, but he forgot to learn one himself: keeping promises." Gaspar growled, already glaring at the duende, who shrunk with every comment.

"I'm sorry! I didn't think things through at that time! I thought I could handle both jobs…"

"And what did you do with the poor boy, huh? Hide him in a closet for 500 years?"

"Gaspar, stop it." Maria said sternly holding onto his shoulder tightly. Gaspar yanked his shoulder from her grip and took a deep breath, calming down.

"Good. Now that we have that covered, we need a plan." Melchior asked, hiding his wrinkled hands in his pockets.

In Burgess…

The sky was grey and the air was cold and moist. Then, like magic, it started to snow, slowly and gently, sprinkling over the forest ground delicately. Daniel raised his head up to the sky and smiled. He hadn't seen snow in a long time, making his pranks and practicing his malicious shadow puppetry over in Latin America, where it normally doesn't snow, so it was a pretty sight for sore eyes. With a sigh, he kept his walk towards the lair of the Nightmare King, hopes high and head low. Once he got to the bed frame, he slid under it and let himself fall through the tunnel like he'd done it a hundred times.

Thump. He landed right in the prison room, where all the cages hung, now empty and screaming for prisoners. Some years ago, this was filled with Night Mares and Fearlings, all wailing and running around, full of life and desire to spread fear. But now, the lair had a dead silence surrounding every corner. Spooky. He took a few steps before bumping with exactly the spirit of fear he was looking for: Pitch. He was sitting in front of the globe, looking up to it like searching for answers. Daniel cocked his head to the side and sneered.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Nightmare King himself. Pitch Black!" he said, his arms to the side as a greeting. Pitch stood up in a jolt, surprised and startled at the boy's sudden appearance. From the shadows on the floor, some Fearlings crept up, flying towards Daniel and wrapping themselves on his leg, almost welcoming. This intrigued Pitch, who looked at the boy confused.

"The Fearlings all flee to you like mosquitoes."

"What can I say? They dig me."

"I suggest you lower your ego from the clouds, boy. You don't know who you're messing with."

"Oh, I know well who I'm messing with; my equal." He said, stretching his arm towards Pitch. From his hands, a shadow swirled and dropped to the ground, materializing into fear sand. Pitch observed in awe as the sand formed into the figure of Jack Frost. It kept creating figures, standing upright and emotionless, like North, Aster, Sandy, and even some figures Pitch hadn't seen in centuries, like the Perez mouse and Balthazar. And a new, winged girl he barely recognized

"Who is she…?" he asked, curiously extending his hand to touch the girl's face.

"Her? She's Maria, the new Latin Guardian. I think she's the Guardian of Innocence or something, I can't remember."

"This is quite impressive. How did you learn to create the sand?"

"Like you did: patience and a little cheating." Pitch turned to the boy, a very hard-to-read expression in his face. He crossed his arms and stood straight, towering over the boy like a boss.

"What's your name?" he asked, slightly nodding his head.

"Daniel. Daniel Jen."

"Daniel Jen. Tell me, Daniel, why are you here? You certainly didn't come to amuse me with figures of Guardians, which by the way only disgusts me. What's your purpose here?"

"Easy; team up with the biggest pain in the neck the Guardians have ever faced and even up the scores. You want fear to rule the world once more; I want revenge over the Latin Guardians. You want revenge over the American Guardians; I want to make kids suffer nightmares. We kind of have the same interests here."

Pitch scratched his chin thoughtfully, taking in what the boy was saying. He must be a very tortured soul to come to him so desperately. And the boy did have some power he didn't, not with the butt-kick he got years earlier from Jack Frost and his crew. The offer was tempting.

"And how can I be sure you are worthy of my alliance?"

Daniel's mouth twisted into a sly smirk, while his hand rolled up into a fist, the figures of fear sand returning to its owner.

"You do fear, but you're more concentrated in kids fears." Daniel began explaining as the sand sucked into the corners of his fingers until there was none. Then, He rolled his hand open again, literal shadowy smoke rising up like a screen in front of Pitch. In it there was a reflection of all the fears of the Guardians: a sound of cracking ice and a splash, images of shattered egg shells, an empty tooth canister, and so many other images. Lastly, there was a car horn and two lights that were getting nearer and nearer to Pitch until the smoke just burst and dissipated, showing the cloaked boy once again.

"I can do better than that; I have Guardian fears, the second most powerful kind of fear there is. What do you say? Shall we break a deal?" Daniel extended his open hand. Pitch took a deep breath and bit his lower lip, thinking it through. Oh, the temptation of feeling powerful again! This boy, this Daniel Jen, knew his way around him, as if he'd been all his life knowing him. Daniel wiggled his fingers, nervousness threatening to consume him if Pitch didn't say yes soon. All his life waiting for this…

Pitch grabbed the boy's hand and instantly his spirit rose. A shock of power crept from his arm to the rest of his body, as if Daniel were a battery charger.

"Daniel Black…you just got yourself a deal."

A/N: Thanks to ConfusedSoAmI for joining the review club and giving me that piece of advice. Back to the story, this one came out dull. I'm not sure what to think of it. But the next one might come out better. This next chapter is when the action starts. The battle between the two spirits of fear and the six Latin Guardians, if I don't use the American ones too. Damn, eleven versus two. That's not fair...what do you guys think?