That was a long hiatus, eek, sorry! :( Hopefully I haven't lost all the readers here because of that, lol. I've been on writers block for a pretty long while so during that time I've also written a few other fics and edited some bits in the past chapters here. Anyways. Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint much.

Disclaimer: I don't (and frankly never will) own Rise of the Guardians.

Chapter 10: The Workshop

A massive Russian palace stood firm and tall the edge of an icy mountain, a stark red building standing out from the rest of the white tundra. Other buildings, smaller ones, were scattered around it, the lights from inside radiating yellow glows from the square windows. Stars speckled the sky, which was the color of dark cobalt, and the sharp arctic air spun particles of snow in the air. Atop one of the flat rooftops of Nicholas St. North's Workshop, a vortex of bright colorful light opened up. Three beings were spat out of the portal (landing rather quite ungracefully) before the vortex closed, leaving the trio there on the large building's rooftop and exposed to the chilly night air of the North Pole.

The trio consisted of a mini tooth fairy, a certain winter spirit, and another spirit of whom was a girl who was currently shivering and whining incessantly at the top of her lungs. The two others backed away cautiously, Jack Frost wondering whether he should be chuckling in amusement as he was or concerned for the fact that Teva was standing on her injured limb.

"-had to bring me though that swirly rainbow-portal-thingy-of-death and now I'm freezing my butt off stranded in this icy-!"

"Woah, hey, calm your temper," Jack cut off her whiny little rant. She'd also been screaming the whole way through the portal ride, directly in his ears - which was painful and also partly amusing to Jack at how the girl would be complaining about going through a short portal ride after she'd just been attacked by a Nightmare. Wolf, Nightmare wolf, might he add.

"It's not temper! It is purely wit!" Teva said as she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering from the cold.

"Sure it is, firecracker," Jack laughed amusedly.

The girl groaned at the nickname. "Shut it, Frosty. Now where are we?"

"The North Pole. All we have to do now is get inside the Workshop and North can help you out." Jack said.

"And how exactly will we do that?"

"Fly, obviously," Jack grinned. Again despite the girl's protests, he hooked the end of his staff around Teva's waist and stepped off the roof. Baby Tooth had squeaked and tucked herself into Jack's hoodie pocket for warmth. They descended.

One of the many large doors leading into the Workshop was guarded with two yetis. In a second Jack had swung his staff, opened the door, and managed to fly in with the rest of the trio before those mentioned yetis could try and throw him off the cliff. Jack, Baby Tooth, and Teva were instantly greeted with the comfortable warmth of the Workshop. For a while the trio traveled through the floors aimlessly, Jack not quite remembering where North's office was. Teva was wide-eyed, staring at all the floors they passed in awe.

The Workshop was massive. It reminded her a little about the Moon Clipper, though of course, compared to the Moon Clipper this was a lot smaller in comparison. The Workshop is pretty much a speck of dust in comparison to the Lunar's ship. Still, though, it was large enough to get lost in this unfamiliar place. While Tsar's ship was large and filled, practically a (very enormous and moon-sized) palace, but neat and organized, this place was almost the opposite.

Every room was filled with a crowd of working large yetis, hyper little elves, and toy prototypes flying overhead. The sound of grumbling yetis, toy trains, electric guitars, and the little hums here and there of random tunes filled the air. The walls were painted burgundy red, green, gold, and dark brown, giving the place a sort of warm glow. They passed by the large kitchen, and Teva caught the delicious scent of baking cookies.

"Neat, huh?" Jack grinned.

The girl nodded. This place was pretty amazing. The place was full of so much wonder and felt so... Christmassy? That seemed like the right word for it, though she'd never really experienced Christmas before. Teva and Tsar never really celebrated holidays back on the Moon, and when she had celebrated a holiday, there wasn't a Christmas yet back then since that would be back in the Golden Ages. And that was a long, long time ago.

Her thoughts were cut off when she nearly toppled over one of the elves. Those imps were strange and wild little beings. It gripped to her pant leg, and a pretty weirded-out Teva had to try to shoo it off with her other foot, but it still didn't go. Easy way for her problem to be solved with the winter spirit by her: Jack froze it.

"He'll be fine. Those little guys usually unfreeze" Jack assured when he saw Teva's face.

"'Usually'," she raised a brow. He shrugged.

They'd now reached a less crowded floor in the Workshop and stood before a long, wide, dark-mahogany door with an old brass handle on it. The doorframe had intricately carved designs of vines that curled up into a gold-painted star at the top of the frame.

"Is this it?" Teva asked, wondering if they'd gotten to the Guardian of Wonder's office yet.

"I'm not sure..." The winter spirit scratched the back of his neck, eyebrows furrowed. He'd wanted to find North's office, knowing that the guardian would most likely be in there (he was, most of the time), so then he could tell him about the Nightmare incident and get him to help out Teva. Though right now, as Jack was half-carrying her weight on one shoulder while on the other sat Baby tooth, Teva didn't give any sign of further pain about the rather painful-looking slice in her lower right leg but a wince here and there.

"Not sure? You have some amazing memory."

Jack ignored the comment (he'd gotten quite used to the girl's snarky remarks in the couple hours he'd gotten to know her earlier in that day) and turned the doorknob. Inside it wasn't what he was expecting.

The room was dim in comparison to the others they'd checked in other parts of the Workshop, and it was also smaller - about only the size of a bedroom. One circular window on the tilted roof was its only source of light. From that they could make out the shapes of stacked boxes and crates, and some of what looked like old furniture in one corner. Baby Tooth squeaked in equal surprise as the others and sneezed due to the bit of dust that was in this room also.

"Okay, so..." Teva looked around curiously. "If this is old Nick's office, he definitely needs to fix this ratty room up and get some better décor. And I'm pretty sure that's a spider web over there."

Jack chuckled at the remark. He then cautiously lifted up the lid of one of the crates, raising his eyebrows in mild surprise at what was in it. "This isn't his office. It must be a storage room or something. North's stash of snowglobes is in here," he gestured to inside the crate. "They used to be in what's actually North's office, but I guess he moved it..."

"After you might have 'borrowed' some, might I guess?" Teva raised a brow in amusement.

"Hey, the one I just used earlier was given!" Jack threw his hands up innocently. "But, actually yeah, I guess that's why he moved them.."

"Chireep!" The two teens turned their heads at hearing Baby Tooth speak up - or chirp, rather. The mini fairy had left her former perch on the winter spirit's shoulder and was now someplace else in the room, chirping and pointing her tiny hands at something.

Jack and Teva walked over. "What is it, Baby Tooth?" the boy asked.

"Cheerip chee~" The fairy squeaked, zipping down to the table and using her small hands to further open the small brown sack that she had been pointing at. Accidentally, she had pulled too much on the cloth and the whole thing dropped on the floor. There was a chiming sound as the objects spilled out onto the floorboards, their many bright colors reflecting off the moonlight and lighting up the room in gold, blue, and red.

"Woah," Jack was round-eyed as he stared down at the pile of riches.

"Yeah," Teva agreed. "Nice, job, Baby Tooth. Who knew that there would be gold in this place?" She wasn't saying it like she wanted to take any of it or anything - it was just the fact that there was a sack of gold in this dusty old room that was apparently a storage.

"And gems," Jack poked at one glittering blue one with the end of his staff. Next to it he spotted a little golden tooth; picking it up, he thought he'd show it to Baby Tooth.

Baby Tooth zipped over and glanced from Jack's face to the outstretched hand offering the golden tooth and back again. The winter spirit was taken by surprise when the fairy then made a disgusted face and kicked the golden tooth right out of his palm. The mini fairy, suddenly up in Jack's face now, cheeped loudly and excessively and it was then that the guardian had a feeling that tooth fairies don't exactly like fake teeth.

Teva would've been snickering as she watched the scene between the spirit of winter and the tooth fairy worker but she wasn't paying much attention to that at the moment. Bent over, elbows on her knees, she curiously sifted through the pile consisting of chains of silver, golden coins, and numerous colorful gemstones that ranged in size from miniscule to the size of a fist. There was one specific gemstone that caught her eye, sitting alone and farther from the pile of treasures, glimmering a dark purple-black. Teva reached for it, bringing it closer to observe, but almost dropped it in surprise the second her fingers touched it. Instead of the cool smoothness she expected, the gem felt hot, as if it were on fire; but luckily it didn't burn her or anything. It just felt strangely hot, and if she held it still enough, Teva was sure she could feel some sort of (she didn't know how to explain it) pulse in the gem. She could've been imagining it, but she felt the beating of it against her palm, like a heart, and for some reason it soothed her.

The mini tooth fairy had quieted down, now calm from her fitting rage over the fake golden tooth. The Guardian of Fun was relieved for this, and had just now noticed that the other spirit teen present had been silent for a while. He looked over to see her now sitting on the floor, face an expression of awe and puzzlement as she stared down scrutinizing at something in her hands.

Jack poked his head over her shoulder in curiosity. "Whatcha got there?"

Startled out of her moment of reverie, the girl jumped, the object falling out of her hand so that the albino could now see that it was a palm-sized purple gem. Teva glared.

Jack raised a brow. "A gem?"

She continued to glare for a second longer for him popping up like that (she hated being startled) but her attention was again resumed back to the strange gem. She picked it up again, carefully, as if it were glass she didn't want to break. "Look at this."

The guardian crouched down to see. It was a beautiful-looking gem, a round octagonal purple, and at closer observation Jack could see that in the middle it seemed more black. Dark swirls spiraled within the gem like wisps of smoke, and Jack had to blink to make sure he wasn't imagining when it moved. It was like there was fire in it. Out of curiosity he touched it with a finger, pulling back immediately, startled at the gem's radiating warmth. "Is that thing made of fire or something?"

"I dunno," Teva shrugged, flipping it over from hand to hand. "This thing's weird." Then she grinned, glancing at Jack with her eyebrows raised. "You don't melt?"

"What?" The guardian was taken aback by the question, then rolled his eyes. He'd met at least five people who asked him that now. "No, I don't melt. Just because I'm the spirit of winter doesn't mean I melt. Seriously, why does everyone think that?"

"Because you're the spirit of winter," Teva smirked.

Jack opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by the sound of a loud bang resonating across the room, startling both teens and causing them to accidently bump heads when they looked up. "Yablargh blugh yarble yaugh yeeklaugh!"

Teva was rubbing her forehead, groaning, then gave a shriek when the winter spirit suddenly pulled her up to her feet and then floated upwards to one of the high wooden boxes in the storage. "Hey! What do you think you're-"

"Shh," the winter teen held up a finger while Baby Tooth sat curiously on his shoulder.

Teva sat herself down on the box next to him, giving him an incredulous look. Telling by the hint of mischief in his eyes and the lopsided smirk on his face now, he wasn't up to much good. Jack nodded his head towards the door to where two yetis stood, one grey and one brown, speaking in their grumbling language to each other as they looked around the room. Then they gave simultaneous grunts of surprise at seeing the spilled bag of treasure scattered across the floor. The yetis glanced at each other questioningly, seeming like they didn't know what to do with it.

The nonplussed brown yeti flung an arm up gesturing to the glittering objects and grumbling something that probably translated to "What're we gonna do with that?"

The grey one shrugged, making a noise of bewilderment and flinging his own furry arms up in the air. In one hand Teva could now see that this yeti was holding a red sack, rather very large. Large enough to fit a person in it...

"Are they after you?" Teva whispered, baffled.

Jack shrugged casually. "Maybe," he drawled, keeping his voice low.

Teva shook her head. "Seriously?"

"Well technically, me being a Guardian and all now I am allowed here anytime I want, but the yetis don't exactly love me so much," Jack pouted.

"I wonder why," she deadpanned. At closer observation to the yetis she could see chunks of ice frozen around their feet, and the brown yeti kept shaking his right foot, probably numb from the ice around it. The grey one walked into the room but was wobbling. "You... wait, were those the guards from out there? You froze their feet?"

"Shhhh!" Jack shushed her while quietly snickering, Teva soon helplessly joining along, clamping a hand to her mouth. This winter spirit was unbelievable.

All snickers came to an end, though, as another bulky figure entered the doorway, albeit less-furry-looking. Then a light switched on.

There was a light?

And then in walked a man that could be identified as Nicholas St. North; with the long white mustache and beard, blue eyes of wonder, red-and-black suit, and the tattoos saying "Naughty" and "Nice", it wasn't that hard to tell.

"Oh, shoot," Jack mumbled beside her.

North raised a bushy dark eyebrow at seeing the pile of gold and gemstones scattered on the floor, clearly confused and amused. It could've been the elves again but then his eyes followed the light trail of frost leading up to the high box where the suspected teen of winter sat, wide-eyed like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Jack, m'boy, get down from there!" he called.

The Frost boy obliged, floating down. Teva and Baby Tooth followed, the former stumbling as she went. North's gaze landed on the brunette girl curiously for a moment, then went back to Jack. "Well?" the Russian crossed his arms.

"Hey, North... I was looking for ya." Teva gave Jack a look from behind his head.

"Is dat so? Vat are you doing here? And who might dis be?" North questioned and nodded towards Teva.

The winter spirit scratched his head. "Well I actually came here to find you and tell you about something and so you can help my friend, here, 'cause she's kinda injured a bit, so... but.."

"You froze my yetis and go search in storage room?" North raised a brow.

Teva smirked in slight amusement, Baby Tooth cheeped, and Jack remained silent. Then North boomed in laughter, clapping Jack on the back, who stumbled in surprise and at the heaviness of North's "light pats" that the older Guardian never seemed to notice.

"No need to worry, my friend; you are velcome at Vorkshop anytime, anyvhere! Long as I approve," he said. "Those gems, they haven't been seen in a vhile - I collected those in my bandit times," he smiled.

"Bandit?!" Jack exclaimed, clearly not having known before that Santa Claus had been a bandit in his young ages. Teva knew, of course, since Tsar told her.

"I vas many things," North responded simply. "Now vhat is it you needed to say? And vhy is this young lady hurt? PHIL! GET MEDICAL KIT, AND YOU, CLEAN THIS UP!" North shouted orders to the grey yeti nearby, and the brown one hurriedly snatched up the bag for the spilled treasures and began putting them back in carefully.

In less than a second Jack's expression turned serious, the next words coming out of his mouth not exactly pleasant to hear.

"It's about Pitch."

Not too eventful of a chapter, eh. R&R!

~fi