A/N: I'm back bitches! And I'm better than ever! So as a celebration I give you the gift of a new chapter and guuys, guuuuuuuys, it had conflict. Yummy, yummy, conflict (which I can't write for shit). And, you know how I said I'm been in hospital for 3 months, well I got discharged the day I hit my 4 month mark! Whoopy for me!

And thanks guys for all your lovely reviews and stuff, it's very much appreciated 3

Anyways! On with the chapter!

Jack's eyes widened; how had Tooth found out? He'd been meaning to tell her, of course he had, but he just wanted to wait for the right moment and now she'd found out about through some other means and was probably going to go all angry mother bear on him. He crunched himself up small again, hoping that she wasn't too pissed.

"Sorry..." he murmured, suddenly feeling really guilty. Tooth had been like both a mother and friend to him for years now, she should have been one of the first people to find out.

Tooth floated closer to the teen, stopping an sitting beside him before wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"No, no. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. You've got nothing to apologise for. So, how long have you known?" A small smile spread across the woman's face as Jack stretched himself out again.

"A while," he said with a grin

"And a while is how long?"

"Couple of months." Tooth's eyes lit up like stars.

"Oooo, you'll be getting fat soon~" The teen thought his friend sounded way too happy about that. "Have you noticed any bump yet?"

"Uh, I guess my trousers feel tighter on the waist, but nothing more than that."

Tooth cooed, once again making Jack think that she was way too excited about the whole thing. It wasn't unwelcomed though, if anything he quite enjoyed it. It was nice to have someone so excited about the baby rather than being too busy worrying about his health to do anything else.

Jack definitely should have told Tooth sooner.

When the dark of night swept over Burgess, the town's children went to bed expecting their usual, happy dreams. What they would find though, would be quite the opposite. Pitch was lurcking around the town, waiting for Sandy to leave so he could twist and warp the children's sweet little dreams. Especially since, after his last meeting with Jack, the Nightmare King had been working on some particularly horrible night terrors.

These ones would be even harder to wake up from than the normal night terrors.

A wicked smile spread across the man's face. This would be too good; too, too good. The sheer amount of power he gains from a normal night terror as opposed to a nightmare was shocking. With these new terrors, he would be practically unstoppable. Why he'd never though of this before, he would never know.

But he wouldn't just waist the power that he would gain, oh no, no, no. He was going to savour it, let it build up and then he would show that white haired boy why you should never cross the Nightmare King. And the think that Pitch had really started to fall for the boy now seemed ridiculous. Jack was just as bad as the other Guardians; picking up another immortal and just playing with them until they got bored. It really was quite disgusting.

Even Pitch had enough of a heart to not do something like that, especially when it involved a child they may or may not be his.

Pitch wasn't sure why knowing that there was a chance that he could have been a father left such an ache in his heart. He couldn't remember any of the details of his past life so felt it may have been something to do with that. Maybe he had already been through the loss of a child when he was still human. Maybe not. Either way, he had a sneaking suspicion that Mother Nature did know something though, just by the way she looked at him sometimes.

Maybe he should go ask her at some point.

Not now though, now the Sandman had gone home and he had his terrors to spread.

There was something wrong, Bunnymund could sense it. Jack and Tooth were discussing baby related things when a cold chill settled over the Pooka. He hopped up, off of the ground and twitched his nose curiously.

"Bunny? What' wrong?" The Winter Spirit asked curiously, breaking away from his conversation.

"I'm sure iss nothin' mate, just 'ad a bit of ah chill is all" he said, trying to sound as neutral as he could. Neither Jack or Tooth bought it though.

"Has something happened?" His boyfriend asked, starting to sound slightly worried. Bunny sighed.

"I don't know, somethin' juss doesn't feel right,"

"Maybe we should go check on North, see if it's anything to do with the Globe?" Tooth chipped in, gaining a nod from Bunny which told her that she and Jack should probably brace themselves. The Fairy stood up just as the three of them dropped through the ground.

After Pitch's last attempt at a take over, North had made changes to the Globe. Now, not only did it have a little gold light for every believer, those lights also flashed red when the child was having a nightmare. Sometimes, if it was just one or two children, they would have to let the Nightmare King slide because, at the end of the day, they couldn't let him 'starve'.

However, when Bunny, Jack and Tooth reached the Globe, they were shocked to see all the little lights in an surrounding Burgess were flashing red. North was hurrying around, chanting "oh dear" under his breath, slipping in the occasional "shit" when another light flashed red. Jack's stomach dropped, Pitch hadn't done much for ages, especially not something on this magnitude. Well, not since they had last spoke at least which gave Jack a overwhelming feeling that this was his fault.

Bunny's nose twitched and he put a paw on his boyfriend's shoulder, sensing the Winter Spirit's unease. Jack leaned into the touch, finding it comforting (although he felt he didn't deserve it)."We've got to go do somthin'," the Pooka said, eyes going wide as more lights started to flash red. North nodded, standing still for a moment.

"Yes but what?"

"Kick 'iz ass! That's what!"

"I'll go with you," Jack piped up, only to be met by a worried and disproving look from North.

"No, no, no. You stay here, it's too dangerous."

Jack pulled a face, this was on him and he needed to fix it. Even though the others didn't know that. Not only that though, he was being treated like he was made of glass again and it frustrated him.

"I can help!" He stated defiantly, getting more concerned looks from his friends.

"No, it's not safe. What if you get hurt? What if the baby gets hurt?" Tooth said, giving him a look that said "sorry but I have to agree with the rabbit" and the teen sighed.

"Fine, you guys go." He shrugged out of Bunny's touch and folded his arms with a huff. The other's left quickly.

Pitch smiled slyly, this was going so much better than expected. He was stood on a roof, watching and Sandy dashed around the houses trying to change the children's dreams back to ones of wonder and light. He was failing so so far so good. Also, there had been no sign of the Guardians yet, or Jack, so that was even better. But then he heard the unmistakable sound of North's sleigh bells.

Spoke too soon.

The sleigh crashed down a few roofs away from where he was stood. Crap. A very angry North climbed out, throwing a sword at the Nightmare King the second he saw him. Pitch dodged, of course, but was starting to feel awfully uneasy.

"Ah! North! What a pleasant surprise!" He said, picking the sword up off the roof. "It seems you're all here but, oh, where's little Jack?" A grin spread across the man's face when he saw the Russian flinch slightly.

"Stand down Pitch. You're last beating was hard enough to last an eternity," the large man took a couple of steps forward, brandishing his other sword.

"Awwww, I don't think so. I think it was far too fun to miss out on the chance for another," his voice dripped sarcasm and he started to call his shadows to him. "But I'm so sorry, I really can't stay. But mark my words, Guardians, I will be back and you'll have no clue what hit you." He snarled.

With that, an army of shadows flew up and engulfed the Nightmare King before shooting out, towards the Guardians. They ducked, expecting this to be an attack, but the shadows just flew past them, leaving no trace of Pitch Black and four very confused immortals.