"Thank you, Jack. That will be all" North smiled as he stretched out his back.
"No problem, North" Jack called as he exited the room. He started to head towards the front door to go outside and cool off when a flash of neon green, blue and yellow flew past his sight.
"There you are Jack! I was looking for you" Tooth said as she dropped from the sky to the floor, "If it isn't too much trouble, I need another helper"

Jack smiled as he agreed to help. Tooth often asked the Guardians to help with collecting the teeth due to her mind already being preoccupied with her mini-fairies.
"Where to this time?" Jack asked, following the fairy into the air.
"I need you to go to Europe. Just cover the smaller towns, my fairies can get the rest." Tooth paused, "Oh, and if you see a mouse, just leave it alone. It's part of the European division." Tooth smiled.
"Small towns in Europe. Leave the mice alone. Got it" Jack shot off with the wind. Tooth lightly chuckled at the young spirit before heading back to her palace.

Jack had flown to Europe and was making his way back from Positano when a puff of black sand clouded his vision.
"Lovely night tonight, isn't it? Jack?" A voice spoke. Jack's hands instinctively squeezed his staff tighter
"What do you want this time, Pitch?" Jack yelled, looking around himself to try and spot the hidden figure.

"I just wanted to give you a gift of mine." The voice sneered.
Jack was able to just barely dodge the stream of Nightmare sand as it whirred past his head.
"You've made my life very complicated. And I only wish to do the same for you"

Jack flew out of the cloud and glanced back just in time to see another shot of sand heading towards him. Shooting his own blast of power behind him, Jack headed back to the North Pole, knowing they would all be there, seeing as it was almost dawn. He could feel the wind pulling him, helping him go faster. After a while, the attacking sand seemed to disappear. Jack looked behind himself to see that any trace of an attacker was gone. He slowed down a bit to catch his breath, smiling as he could now see Santoff Claussen.
A few minutes later he started to head towards the building when his staff was suddenly knocked out of his hand. Immediately he dropped to the snow covered ground.

Looking around, he searched the snow for his missing staff.
"Looking for this?"
Jack's head shot around to see an all too familiar enemy holding his precious staff.
"I must say, I was quite shocked to see such pain in your eyes when this little stick was broken. Why is that?" Pitched asked, spinning the staff in his hand, teasingly. Jack slowly stood up, silently hoping Pitch hadn't seen him send the wind into the building behind him to warn the other Guardians.
"Tell me Jack, what will happen when I..." Pitch cut off as he slowly started to bend the wood. Jack suppressed a groan as the wood continued to bend slowly.

"Come on Jack. Let is all out. Don't you want to attack me?" Pitch smiled. Jacks legs started to hurt, wanted to give up on him and collapse. Jack wouldn't let them. Not until the Guardians were with him.
"Maybe you need a little more convincing" Pitch yelled as he snapped the stick in one swift move.

Jack yelled as his knees finally gave out from under him. He didn't even hear the door open as the Guardians rushed out to help their newest member.
"Pitch!" Bunny yelled, throwing his boomerang towards the dark spirit.
"Wish I could stay, Guardians. Your fear is quite enjoyable, but I must be on my way. I've gotten all the answers I need" Pitch paused, "Keep in touch Jack, I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other very soon." He smiled as he disappeared in a tornado of black sand.
Sand made one last attempt to capture the intruder, but only succeed in grabbing Jack's staff back.

Sandy turned back to see Tooth helping Jack stand back up.
"Jack, are you alright?" North asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay" Jack answered before frantically looking around, "Please tell me one of you grabbed my staff" Sandy stepped forward and showed Jack the two halves. Jacks eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
"Jack, we're so sorry. We can always get you a new one." Tooth said, trying to focus on the positive.
"No, we can't get a new one" Jack said, his voice raised a bit.

His arms pushed Tooth's out of the way gently as he took a step forward, but his legs weren't having it and folded on contact with the ground.
Before his knees could even reach the ground, a strong, furry paw wrapped itself around his wrist and caught him in the air.
"You're not going anywhere if ya can't even walk" Bunny argued.

"But I have to fix my staff" Jack continued.
"We will worry about staff later. Now we worry about you" North spoke
"No, you don't understand. I have to fix it." Jack tried to explain.
Sandy took in Jacks body language. His arm muscles were tensed up and his mouth was slightly open because he was breathing so hard. His eyes were darting around and his shoulders were tight and raised.

He was scared.

No scratch that.

Jack was terrified.

Sandy waved his arms in the air to try and catch everyone's attention, but of course, it didn't work.
It never did.
So, instead, he walked to North and pulled on the red, furry jacket.
"Sandy? What is it?" North asked, gaining three other pairs of eyes.
Sandy faced Jack and created a picture of his staff, then an arrow pointing to a snowflake; his symbol for Jack. Then a question mark.
"Yes, I have to have my staff" Jack answered, slightly holding out his hands to fix it.
"Why do you need it right now? We said you could worry about it tomorrow." Tooth responded.

"It's-I have to-I don't, can't. It's hard to explain" Jack answered before continuing, "I don't know why, but I think the staff and I are connected in some way." Jack finished.
"That's why you dropped when Pitch broke it" Bunny explained.
"Yeah, but this time he drew it out for a longer-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa" Tooth interrupted, "Did you just say 'but this time' As in, like, this has happened before?" Tooth asked, anger slowly seeping into her voice.

"Uh...yeah"