Okay, as I have said before in my big update for Roses and Blood I am going through school right now and taking a lot of time from my work on these stories. So I will be trying to get chapters written out when I have some free time so otherwise expect some slower updates. Alright then, here comes the new chapter. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom and Rise of The Guaridans. They belong to their respective creators. All I own is the characters you don't recognize.

Danny Phantom/Rise of The Guardians

Return of The Nightmare King

Ch. 9-Just What Really Is Going On

After disappearing in his black sand cloud with his imprisoned servant in tow Pitch returned to his underground lair, having his minions place the statue next to his Globe while he slowly circled and admired his work. Stopping and facing it face to face he smirked in satisfaction then summoned a ball of black sand and struck the imprisonment, breaking it apart and freeing the mindwarped ghost inside. Falling to the ground Nyreena had transformed while being frozen inside completely changing the way she looked from before: her hair had darkened to a darker shade of blue, her porcelain white skin had turned into a gray that almost matched Pitch's tone, her eyes were glowing their own evil shade of silver-yellow, and her clothes consisted of a black laced and collared halter top that exposed her midriff, black skinny pants with black belt buckled with a chrome buckle, thigh-high black boots, black cuffed biker gloves, and the gauntlet remaining the same. Getting to her feet and looking herself over she acted as if she had just took a fall instead of being turned into a minion of darkness. Finally seeing Pitch standing in front of her Nyreena's eyes grew very big and quickly dropped to one knee and bowed her head asking, "Master Pitch, what is it that you wish for me to complete? No task is too menial for me, my master of darkness."

Smirking even more that his plan far better than he expected Pitch answered, "My loyal servant, I want you to take a group of Nightmares and attack an area that will draw the Guardians and their new companions to you, leaving me in peace to exact my revenge against a certain band of children that thought they could stand against me and not fear me like they should have when I had the power to turn their dreams into eternal nightmares."

Nodding in compliance Nyreena stood up and asked, "What area would suffice as being far away enough for you, my king?"

"Any one that you choose, my dear," Pitch replied with a evil grin, placing an arm around her and directing to the Globe.

Returning his grin with her own Nyreena looked at the continents and studied each one with careful precision, letting her darkened instincts show the way. When her eyes fell on the southern area of Japan they quickly lit up as her choice was made. Pointing to it she said, "There. That will be the place for my battle with those incompreble do-gooders."

"Perfect," Pitch agreed, her choice pleasing him. "Now go, quickly. The sooner you pull the Guardians away from my location the longer I have to exact the first part of my plans for total domination."

Bowing in agreement Nyreena mentally summoned a troop of skeletal Nightmares then disappearing in a cloud of black sand they left Pitch all alone to observe a single glowing dot while his mind stewed with his future attack on the small town making him cruelly grin in glee.

Back at the North Pole Tooth and Sandy, along with them was Baby Tooth who had wanted to know what was going on, had arrived just as the others were coming back in from witnessing probably the worst thing they ever could have seen. Seeing the looks on their faces Tooth grew very concerned and asked, "What happened? Did something bad happen while we were gone?"

"I'm afraid so, Tooth," North replied. "Come, there is much to explain."

Leading the group to the Globe Room everyone but Jack recanted the details of the recent events that occured while the other two Guardians were gone. Once they learned of what was going on Sandy asked visually what made Nyreena do something like this. To that none of them could answer the reason why. For a good while now they pondered the possibilities of what made the princess give into Pitch's darkness. As they thought no one saw Jack slip away to the bay window he always sat in when he was feeling low and sat next to the window, his hood up once again as he stared out onto the snowy landscape. His thoughts were consumed with what Nyreena told him before she gave herself up, the plan that the Man in The Moon gave to her still swirling around and was still disbelieving that it was going to work. While he was lost in his thoughts he had no clue that the others were coming up to him once they found out that he wasn't with them anymore. Knowing that the winter spirit was seriously contemplating something North asked, "Jack, is everything alright?"

Snapping back to reality Jack looked at where North's voice came from and saw that everyone was standing around him with a bit of a worried look on all of their faces. Sighing a bit he pulled down his hood and answered, "Actually, it's not. There's something that you guys need to know. Just before Nyreena gave herself up she told me through our thoughts that she had a plan and that I needed to trust her that this was the best solution to solve all of our problems. Though I'm still not sure why this was what the Man in the Moon came up with."

"Wait, he came up with the plan?," Bunny asked, confused by what Jack said. "But how did he give that to Nyreena?"

"Perhaps he had noticed the distress in the printsessa and wanted to help," North surmised with small grin on her face. "Manny has strange ways of offering assistance when time is right."

"Well, what exactly was the plan she told you?," Danny asked, wondering what this "assistance" was really detailing.

Heaving another sigh Jack answered, "She told me that she was going to try to get one of us to follow her outside so that they could confront each other then use her powers one last time and get encased in the sand. She then told me that when she would give me the signal to blast the gauntlet again she would be free again. That's all that she told me so no need to ask anymore clarifying questions."

Listening with a curious look on his face North then asked, "Tell me, why would she tell only you of this and not any of her friends?"

"I-I-I don't know," Jack answered, not sure where the toymaker was going with this.

Expressing a smile that said that things would be alright North suggested, "Maybe the reason is she knows that you have the power to break the hold that is on her but just at the right time."

"Hey, hold on a second," Bunny interjected, remembering something that could be very important to solving this perdicament. "Nyreena said just before she shot at me that the answer would be clear when all hope seems lost. Could it be that's when she's going to give the signal?"

"Could be, Bunny," North agreed. "But when that will be is still big mystery. I can only guess that it will come when least expected."

Just as he said that a yeti quickly approached them and said in his usual manner of speaking that there was something happening on the globe. Everyone quickly getting concerned they followed the yeti out to the Globe Room and fanned out to see what was going on. And it was very easily seen that the southern area of Japan was flickering uncontrollably, the sign that Pitch was making his first move. Everyone getting the cue that it was time to leave they rushed to the sleigh, the teens grabbing their gear along the way and Danny going ghost, quickly climbing in and taking off while using a snowglobe portal to get to their destination quicker. As soon as they appeared on the other side they stared at shock at all the Nightmares that were flying through skies, both the regular and the skeletal, causing chaos throughout kids' dreams as they slept below. As all of them were trying to see if there was any sighting of Pitch they had no clue that something was heading straight for them. A sudden thunk on the back of the sleigh grabbing their attention all of them turned to see what it was and to their absolute horror, especially Jack's for some strange reason, it was Nyreena in her new form, grinning at them with an almost terrifying evil grin. Chortling she asked, "Geez, what took you lame excuses for heroes so long to get here?"

Laughing even louder she snapped her fingers, summoning a small horde of Nightmares to her and silently ordering them to attack. Following their command they surged forward to start the fight, at the same time Nyreena pushing off and flying straight back from the group. However, Danny wasn't going to let her go away that easily. Seeing an opening during the battle he took off after his corrupted friend, quickly catching up to her thanks to his superb flying speed. Maintaining a steady pace he called out, "Nyreena, stop!"

Sensing Danny coming up right behind her and hearing his voice Nyreena twisted hersself to face him and pulled up, choosing to face him one on one. Coldly glaring at her he asked, "Why did you do it? Why did you give yourself up like that so easily? This isn't something that you would normally do."

"You know, you're right. It isn't something I would normally do," she said, still laughing like it wasn't something to be worried about. "Oh, Danny, don't you see? I didn't give up. I just finally embraced the darkness that I had inside of me and set it free. And oh, it feels so wonderful not have the burden of trying to keep it hidden away, trying to fight it for all this time."

"Come on, Nyreena, you've got to realize that this is not you," Danny tried to convince, hoping that his words would cut through to her. "I know that you're a smart, creative, resourceful, and thoughtful person. You being this evil monster is just not you at all. Please, you've got to snap-"

"No, no, no!," Nyreena screamed, cutting the halfa off. "Sorry to spoil your efforts but there is no turning back for me. I've become who I am now and I've found where I belong. Now either deal with it or I will deal with you."

Sighing in remorse that he wasn't able to get through he knew that he had no choice but to fight her here and now. Holding up his fists and charging them up he said, "Then deal with me. I will get through to you even if I have to defeat you."

Giving him a scowl Nyreena seethed, "Very well, then. Your loss, anyhow," then charged up her powers and shot a blast of black flames at Danny. Flying back a bit he used his ice powers to block the flames then returned it with a couple of ghost rays of his own. Quickly creating a black sand shield she deflected them then used said sheild as a disc and flung it at the halfa who used his spectral manipulation to separate his midsection in two and let the weapon fly right through. Continuing to duke it out with each other for a good several minutes Danny figured that he needed to know where Pitch was in all of this so that he could alert the others of his location. Getting a bit closer he demanded, "Look, I've had enough of this. Where is Pitch?"

"Hah, wouldn't you like to know?," Nyreena taunted while starting to deliver a few hand to hand blows.

"Oh, I would," Danny replied, starting to block said blows. "Are you not saying it because he's just lying in wait for the right moment to strike or just waiting for you to screw up and have to come fix your mess like every villain has to do with their lackeys?"

Quickly blowing up she suddenly swept up high into the air and thundered, at the same time charging a huge ball of black lightning and shooting at him, "This is my mission that my master trusted me to deal with! And this is something that he won't have to clean up because I will win!"

The lighting massively crackling through the air making it's way straight for its target Danny quickly summoned a repulsion field hoping that it would repulse bolt and it did to an extent. It blocked it but the force ricocheted him straight back towards the sleigh where everyone else was fighting off the oncoming hordes of Nightmares. Seeing where he was going he quickly went intangible, flew straight through, then slowed himself to a stop then quickly made his way back to the sleigh, landing inside. As they were battling Jack was getting a really bad feeling that something wasn't right with the situation and before he had a chance to figure things out the sudden sound of Jaime's voice in his head crying for help made him look around the battlefield for a few moments come to the realization that all this was just a distraction so that Pitch could go to Burgess and get his revenge on the kid. Quickly returning his attention to the fight he blasted another creature then cried out, "Everyone, we've got to get to Burgess! This was just a distraction so that Pitch would have the opportunity to get his revenge on Jaime and possibly the other kids. We've got to go now!"

Realizing it as well North made sure that everyone was in the sleigh, snapped the reigns and making the reindeer fly forward, and used another snowglobe to get to their new destination. Seeing that her enemies had disappeared, getting the clue that they figured out what was going on, Nyreena huffed an aggervated sigh then ordered her forces, "Nightmares, return to Master Pitch's side immediately! We must give him all the power he will need for the next battle with those impossible fools!"

Snapping her fingers again they all swirled around into a tight black cloud and shot down to the dark landscape below, quickly making their way to Burgess as well to serve their leader's dark purpose.

Now about that for a plot twist at the beginning, eh? And just what is going to go down in Burgess? You will have to stay tuned to find out. Catch you later!