Author's Note: Thanks to all the follows, reviews, etc! I forgot to address a concern from a review in the last update. Whoops! Sorry about that. They were wondering why Sandy didn't put it together about the blue lights. Bunny has come very close to guessing too, but I don't want the blue lights revealed just yet. I'm saving it for later in the story. Also, most of the Guardians don't believe the lights could be a spirit. They aren't used to having children spirits around, it'll take them awhile to figure it out yet. I REALLY wanted to put both Halloween and Christmas in here, but the chapter already seemed so long, so I decided to save Christmas for the next chapter. We'll also get to see Lillian's cute note to Santa in the next chapter and maybe one from Jack Frost. I really wanted to put only super cute things in this chapter, but realistically, I knew Lillian would be drawn to a certain spot in town..

Chapter Eleven: Halloween

Over the next few months, Lillian and Jack kept trying to break into Santa's workshop. Jack was excited because they almost got to see what it looked like, and he'd never gotten that far before. However, he was worrying that Lillian would ruin her chances with Santa too. He knew for sure that this would land her on the Naughty List, and Lillian was looking forward from a visit from Santa more than anything else.

North, for his part, remained fairly clueless about all the attempts to break into the workshop. That is, until he noticed all the many bouquets of flowers around his home. They were everywhere.

He went to question Phil about this, when he realized that they were all spring flowers. Instead of seeking out Phil, he went to the room were the Lists were kept.

He made his way to the Naughty List and looked at the first page. He shook his head at the name Jack Frost underlined in red at the very top. If only Jack would stop playing all those pranks!

He was surprised when he saw a new name on the list, right under Jack's. It just said 'Lillian' with no last name to go with it. Was this the child spirit? He thought back to all the spring flowers everywhere - which should be impossible since it was September now - and grimaced.

The child had to have been naughty to get on the list. He sighed at that. It must have been Jack Frost's doing. The child could not have been that naughty on her own.

He looked sadly at the Naughty List - those children didn't get presents.

"She will be having bad Christmas this year," North said regretfully.

He couldn't bend the rules, even for a child spirit. He wondered, as all the Guardians have constantly been wondering, where the child spirit was living.

Wherever it was, he hoped that she would have someone to brighten her Christmas this year.

Lillian was out and about with Jack Frost. It was mid-afternoon and she was more confident now in going out during the day time.

"Come on, we HAVE to!" Lillian said, looking pleadingly at Jack.

They were currently near Jack's lake since a cold front had come in and cooled things off enough so that Lillian didn't have to lie about their whereabouts. She was sure Pitch would catch on to where they were really going, but he hadn't yet.

Jack looked down at his friend and made a face.

"I am not dressing up as the Winter Wonder for Halloween," he said, trying and failing to mimic Pitch's 'adult mode' voice.

"But then I can be The Lightning Lass!" Lillian insisted.

Ever since she and Jack had heard some kids talking about what they were going to be for Halloween (and Jack had explained Halloween to her), Lillian had been pestering Jack to dress up with her ever since.

Jack had pointed out it was unlikely anyone would see them (he avoided town usually during holidays so he wouldn't anger other spirits) and Lillian had been disappointed until they heard that Halloween was a time when the veil between the living and the dead was thinner, which meant ghosts and all sorts of things that couldn't be seen before could now be seen.

Jack had tried explaining they couldn't get costumes, but Lillian countered that by saying that Pitch could make them.

"Look," Jack finally said, his tone exasperated, "the Halloween Spirit won't like us messing with his holiday. The Fall Spirit barely tolerates me being around now."

Lillian pouted at this.

"Have you ever talked to the Halloween Spirit?" she asked Jack, sounding a little sulky.

Jack ignored her tone.

"Well, no - "

"Then how do you know she'll be mad? She might not even see us!" Lillian said, stomping her foot childishly, and looking not too far away from a tantrum.

Jack was surprised at this. Usually Lillian was pretty easygoing and happy. He hadn't seen her cry very often and the only times she wasn't herself were when she was afraid to go outside.

"The Halloween Spirit's a guy," Jack said, hoping if he ignored the impending tantrum that it would go away.

Lillian crossed her arms and gave Jack a look.

"Even if we did go out, nobody would know who we were," Jack said trying to get her to see reason.

Lillian relented a little at that. It was true, only she and Jack would know.

"Well.. then we can dress up as real superheros," she said stubbornly.

"Who would we be?" Jack asked, exasperated. "I have white hair!"

"You could wear a wig," Lillian replied as Jack blanched at the thought. "I'm gonna be Batgirl! I'll have gadgets and a cape AND I'll be a superhero who is a GIRL."

She emphasized the last part, since she felt there weren't enough girl superheroes out there.

"And I would be..?" Jack asked.

Lillian eyed Jack thoughtfully. He didn't have enough of a build to be Batman, but..

"You could be Robin! Ohh, no wait! A bad guy! I'll be capturing you!"

Jack frowned a little at this.

"I don't want to be a villain," he said a little petulantly. "I want to be a hero."

Lillian suddenly grinned.

"You could be Iceman," she said helpfully.

Jack laughed at that.

"I do have the powers for it."

"Yeah!" Lillian said, getting excited again. "Pitch can make you an all white costume and you can frost it over or something to make it look more like real ice."

She frowned a little at the staff. It wouldn't work with the costume. Then she noticed her bracelet. That wouldn't work either!

"Do you need your staff to use your powers?" she asked, looking hopeful.

Jack shrugged.

"It helps me focus my powers. Like your bracelet helps you with yours. I can probably keep up the ice on my costume without it, and maybe use a little to amaze some kids, but I wouldn't be able to do much else. Why?"

"Iceman doesn't have a staff. He's just.. icy?" Lillian said, trying to think back to some X-men comics she had read. "I think he used to wear a belt or something."

"Why don't I be someone more well known?" Jack said, not remembering what Iceman looked like at all.

Lillian thought hard. Not getting enough comics from the grocery store, she had taken to sneaking into houses and reading kids' comic book collections. She couldn't read very well, but she could understand enough. And if she sounded out the names of the people she could somewhat read them.

She also liked Iron Man, but not as much as Batman. Batman was rich, sure, but he was resourceful.

Iron Man was resourceful too, but.. he didn't seem to have the same.. flair as Batman.

As she was frowning at Jack, she suddenly remembered a comic that a boy had. It was wrapped up in plastic and she had been very careful with it, so as not to wreck it. If the boy had known she had actually taken it out of the plastic and read the thing, he probably would've been very upset.

Lillian's frown slowly changed to a grin.

"You can be Jack Frost," she said triumphantly.

"I am Jack Frost," Jack said to Lillian, wondering if she was alright.

"Nooo," Lillian whined. "Jack Frost is a bad guy in Iron Man! He has this blue suit thingy and he called himself Jack Frost. His suit gave him ice powers," she explained. "So that could be you!"

Jack Frost going as.. Jack Frost. The villain. He wanted to facepalm, but Lillian looked so excited at the idea.

"Jack Frost and Batgirl?" he asked. It was an unusual pair.

"Either that or you go as the real Jack Frost," she said with a grin. "I bet we can find you some pointy shoes."

Jack shook his head frantically at that.

"No! No shoes! I'll go as the other Jack Frost," Jack said quickly, hoping to dislodge the idea of pointy shoes from Lillian's mind.

Lillian jumped up and down happily at that.

"This is gonna be great!" she said. "Let's go tell Pitch to get started on our costumes!"

"Or we could ask Pitch nicely if he'll help us make costumes. You never know, maybe he has plans for Halloween too. It is a good time for scaring kids." Jack looked thoughtful at that. "I wonder if he knows the spirit of Halloween?"

"I dunno," Lillian said with a shrug. "But I bet Pitch'll make us costumes! He's a real good sew-er!"

She grabbed Jack's hand and began to drag him back to Pitch's.

"Let's go!"

It turned out that Pitch knew the spirit of Halloween and no, they weren't friends. Pitch had tried to tell them that he liked his privacy and therefore he didn't mingle with other spirits (besides Lillian and Jack), but Lillian thought she knew what was going on.

It was just the same as it had been with Jack. Everybody ignored Pitch just liked they ignored Jack. Lillian thought this was pretty mean, so she asked Pitch if he wanted to come with them when they went trick-or-treating.

Pitch had declined, saying he was busy. Even if he didn't get along with the spirit of Halloween, there was no denying that it was the perfect time for scaring children.

Lillian had looked from Pitch to Jack and back to Pitch at this.

"I bet Jack could help you out after we're done trick-or-treating," she said innocently.

Jack had taken a step back in shock.

What?!

Pitch apparently had the same thought as he looked equally shocked. The he looked at Jack and realized that his cold wind would be extra helpful.

"It'll be fun!" Lillian said, nudging Jack. "You could catch some kids telling scary stories and really scare them!"

Jack, who was about to decline Lillian's offer, stopped and closed his mouth again.

"Well.. maybe just a little." he relented.

"Yay!" Lillian cheered. "I wanna help too!"

Pitch had put his foot down at that. Lillian had never seen him at work and she never would if he could help it. Lillian was probably the only child in the world who didn't equate the Boogeyman with fear and he wanted to keep it that way.

"It'll be late by then. Jack can help if he wants, but I want you to go to bed after you're done trick-or-treating," Pitch said, raising his voice over Lillian's complaining.

Finally getting the stubborn child to agree (when did she learn to backtalk so much?), Pitch had agreed to help make their costumes. The only problem would be that Pitch had no idea who Batgirl and Jack Frost the villain were.

Lillian helpfully started to explain what they looked like.

September flew by and October went by equally as fast. Lillian had talked Pitch not only into making her and Jack Halloween costumes, but she had also convinced him to make a Winter Wonder and Lightning Lass costume, just for play, Lillian had said.

She figured they could make their super hero debut in the winter time, so they wouldn't have the chance to anger any seasonal spirits. Jack said they were a bit temperamental, whatever that meant.

Lillian stood in front of Pitch as he made a few last minute adjustments to her costume. She was antsy to get going and kept fidgeting, much to Pitch's annoyance.

"For the last time, hold still!" he said, accidentally pricking his finger for the third time as he was trying to do some last minute sewing on her costume.

"Jack's waiting! He already has his costume!" Lillian said, shifting eagerly from foot to foot.

Pitch finally finished sewing and after he cut and tied off the thread, declared her done.

He thought the idea of a Batgirl was completely ridiculous, but he had to admit that Lillian looked pretty cute. He had adjusted the costume so that it was a little black dress instead with black tights underneath.

He had made the bat insignia on the front of the costume himself and he didn't think it looked half bad. The yellow boots he had managed to 'find' and thankfully Lillian didn't ask where they came from.

Lillian also had a little plastic pumpkin that had another bat insignia made out of paper taped over the pumpkin's face.

"Thanks, Pitch!" Lillian smiled at him, and gave him a big hug.

Pitch patted her back awkwardly and soon she was gone.

Lillian found Jack waiting at his lake, as promised, already dressed in his costume. Jack was nervous and fidgety, since no human had ever seen him before.

Lillian waited until she was almost there and then put on her mask. Pitch had tried to make it easy for her to see out of, but in truth she was having a little difficulty. She grabbed a hold of Jack's hand when she reached him.

"Ohh noo..!" Jack said dramatically when Lillian approached. "It's.. it's.. Batgirl! "

Batgirl posed dramatically and pulled out a plastic bat that was serving as a bat weapon, pointing it at Jack.

"You're Jack Frost! How dare you break into Stark.. Ind.. thingy! And now you're in Metropolis!" Lillian said, deepening her voice a little to sound more like a grown up.

"I think you mean Gotham City, you little bat," Jack said in a 'menacing' voice.

"Yeah!" Lillian agreed. "You better come peacefully or else I'll.. POW ZAP you into next year!"

"Oh no..!" Jack said, looking scared. "I'll go with you Batgirl.. But only if we can collect a lot of candy."

"Deal!"

Jack wanted to use the wind to fly them to town, but thought it might be better if they walked, in case people saw them.

Lillian pointed out that people would think they were seeing things, but Jack disagreed.

So after a short walk, they found themselves in town. There were all kinds of ghouls, ghosts, goblins and super heroes out and about. There were also a lot of princesses.

Lillian rolled her eyes at all the Snow Whites and Cinderellas. Didn't human girls want to be anything fun?

Jack was surprised at all the compliments he was getting on his costume. He was sure that not a lot of people actually knew who he was, but the costume did turn out pretty nice.

He had white boots on and a dark blue and white costume with black goggles on. Most of the time he had the goggles pushed up on his head, since with it getting dark out they made it difficult to see.

Everyone loved Lillian's costume, of course. Several parents had asked Jack where his family had bought it from and Jack looked flustered. It was strange to have parents assume that Lillian was his little sister and it was also strange just to have people talk to him.

Jack was so flustered that he walked into a street sign once, which had Lillian giggling for a long time. After wandering around town and getting her pumpkin nearly half full, Lillian paused by a house.

It was that run down house she had accidentally thrown herself in front of that one day. She looked at it curiously, feeling that this place was vaguely familiar.

She frowned as she looked at it.

"What is it?" Jack asked, noticing that Lillian was staring at the house.

"I dunno," Lillian said. "Want to ring the doorbell?"

Jack looked around. He saw kids going to the neighbors on either side of this house, but it seemed like everyone was avoiding this one.

"Maybe we should go somewhere - " Jack started.

"This place is spooky, I bet they have a lot of candy~!" Lillian said gleefully as she ran up the steps to the porch.

The porch creaked eerily as she stood in front of the door. She reached up and rang the doorbell.

DING

Lillian waited for the 'dong' of the bell, but it never came. The doorbell must be a little broken, she decided.

DING

DING

DING

Lillian could hear a man inside the house, grumbling to himself. She glanced over at Jack uncertainly, who shrugged.

The front door was suddenly flung open and a man in a stained shirt and jeans glared out at them. He didn't seem to be holding a bowl of candy, but Lillian thought it couldn't hurt to try anyway.

"Trick-or-treat~!" Lillian said cheerfully as she held out her pumpkin.

The man glared at her.

"I don't have any - "

"But it's Halloween, mister!" Lillian insisted, as she gazed up at the man with wide eyes. "All the kids get candy."

"I said - " the man began again, then paused. "Wait a minute.."

His hand suddenly flashed out and grabbed Lillian's arm.

"YOU! What the hell are you doing here?!" he shouted as he dragged Lillian closer.

Lillian lost her grip on her pumpkin as she cried out.

"J-Jack..!"

The man shook Lillian by her arm, squeezing hard.

"You think you can run away and then come back months later?! Just you wait..!"

Jack had no idea what the man was ranting about, but it was obvious from the pained look on Lillian's face that he was hurting her.

A serious look entered his eyes. Nobody hurt his friend.

He held out his hand and called upon his ice powers. He wished that Lillian hadn't insisted on leaving his staff and her bracelet behind.

A big patch of ice appeared under the man and his feet suddenly slipped out from under him. Jack quickly scooped up Lillian and her pumpkin and bolted.

Now they knew why nobody was visiting this house.

Jack found a quiet spot in the park near some decorative hay bales for them to sit. He sat down on one of the bales with Lillian in his lap.

"You okay?" he asked worriedly.

Lillian had her face buried in Jack's chest and her shoulders were shaking.

"H-he y-yelled at me.." Lillian said, very muffled.

"What about your arm? It looked like he was hurting you," Jack said.

Pitch was so going to kill him.

Lillian pulled away a little, pulling off her mask to wipe her eyes.

"It kinda hurts," she admitted. "But not a lot. Why was he mad at me?"

Jack shrugged.

"No idea. I think he mistook you for someone else."

Lillian sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"Do you want to go home?" Jack asked.

He felt bad. Their very first time out trick-or-treating and now it had to be ruined.

Lillian shrugged, wiping more tears away. She was startled when a figure in black walked past them, muttering about a wizard. The person was carrying a big pointy thingy and his feet looked kinda.. bony.

As she was about to ask Jack about the figure, Jack pointed out some kids in a backyard nearby.

There was a fire lit in a fire pit, and they were all gathered around, telling spooky stories.

"Want to see what they're up to? Maybe we could help Pitch out and give them a good scare," Jack said.

He couldn't believe he was saying that. Nobody helped out the Boogeyman, but it seemed to do the trick as Lillian giggled.

She nodded and climbed out of Jack's lap. Just as they were about to wander over, the sound of hooves could be heard.

It sounded like a horse was running hard, coming up from behind them.

Lillian and Jack turned to see a headless horseman coming right at them. Lillian let out an earsplitting scream and in a sudden burst of uncontrollable magic, the headless horseman found the spot where his head should have been filled with wild flowers.

"Ah.. ACHOO!" the horseman sneezed, dropping his pumpkin head which smashed on the ground.

Flowers scattered everywhere and the horseman floundered for a moment before he fell off his horse.

Lillian was clinging to Jack, hiding behind him, and Jack was relieved that he didn't get the blast of magic. It had been close.

"Ugh," the horseman said as he stood up. "Jeez, kid, don't have a heart attack."

The horseman adjusted his cloak and head popped up from it. It was a man who looked to be in his late twenties. He had black hair with hazel eyes. He crossed his arms as he looked at Jack and Lillian.

"Let me guess.. Spirit of Spring, right?" the man said.

Lillian peeked out from behind Jack a little.

"Who're you?" Jack asked as the man raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm Salem, the Spirit of Halloween. I always try and give the kids a good scare every year." He looked down at his black outfit, complete with black cloak. "Too much, do you think?"

"Way too much," Jack confirmed. "Maybe you should save that for the older kids. You don't want to give the younger ones nightmares."

Salem looked at the kid in the blue and white costume.

"Who're you, anyway?"

"..Uh.. nobody, really," Jack started to say.

Lillian didn't seem to like this as she finally stepped out from behind Jack to introduce him.

"He's Jack Frost," Lillian said in a small voice.

Salem looked from Lillian to Jack and nodded.

"So the rumors are true! I heard Winter and Spring were hanging out." he said as he looked at the pair curiously.

"We gotta go Mister Halloween Man," Lillian said as she grabbed Jack's hand and dragged him off.

"Remember, it's not Winter yet!" Salem called after them. "Jasper wouldn't like it!"

Jack hurried after Lillian as Salem's calls grew fainter.

"Who's Jasper?" Lillian asked as they got a good distance from the Halloween Spirit.

"He's the Fall Spirit," Jack said with a sigh.

"Aren't there any girl spirits?"

Lillian and Jack had a very uneventful Halloween after that. Pitch wasn't very happy when he discovered the bruise on Lillian's arm, or when he heard how she had gotten it.

He had forbidden either of them to ever go near that house again and Pitch personally gave the man night terrors for a couple weeks, just to ensure that the man would leave his Lillian alone.

Pitch had wanted to wander around town and frighten children, but had decided that he and Jack would wander farther away once he heard that Salem was in town.

Blasted Halloween Spirit. Always trying to do Pitch's job and scare the kids on Halloween. He didn't even know how to do it properly!

Pitch and Jack had gotten home late that night and it was a few days afterwards before an overly hyper Lillian went outside to be with her friend.

Pitch had hidden away her stash of candy after that.

Meanwhile it wasn't until the Guardians' meeting in late November before North admitted what he had discovered about the child spirit.

"Is very sad," North said with a sigh. "But it seems spring spirit is on Naughty List. Right under Jack Frost."

"I knew he'd be a bad influence mate," Bunny chimed in. "Now the ankle biter's not gonna get any gifts."

"Oh no.." Tooth said, looking depressed. "Her first Christmas too."

Sandy waved his arms around and after a few minutes he was finally able to get everyone's attention.

Once everyone was looking at him, he made a golden picture of a small girl. Then he made a picture of a gift, and then pointed to Tooth, Bunny and lastly himself.

Tooth brightened at that.

"That's right! She might be on the Naughty List and North can't give her gifts, but that doesn't mean that we can't get her any presents. We don't want her to think that we've forgotten about her, after all."

"Yeah, but she must've been pretty naughty ta get on the list so fast," Bunny interjected. "We don't want ta reward her for bad behavior."

Sandy stubbornly kept the picture of a gift above his head and then made a picture of a snowflake.

"You think we should get Jack Frost something too?" Tooth asked, surprised.

Sandy nodded firmly and gave Bunny a look.

Bunny pointedly ignored the look.

"Alright," Bunny said with a sigh. "What do ya get a spring spirit?"

Author's Note: We might see more of the Seasonals later on in the story. They really aren't mean (well Summer probably is), it's just that Jack has a terrible reputation at the moment so not a lot spirits really like him. As for the obvious cameo.. Instead of just Death, I had the Death from Discworld take a walk through the park. I couldn't help it, he's pretty awesome. As for Salem, he takes Halloween pretty seriously. He likes to dress up as something incredibly scary every year to scare the kids. I've decided that on Halloween people can see the Spirits because they tend to believe in a lot more things than they do any other time of the year. That's why the adults could see Jack and Lillian, as well as other kids. Also, Jack Frost is an actual comic book character, I googled it. There was actually a hero Jack Frost who was more like the legendary Jack Frost, but I found that out after I decided on the villain one. I believe the bad Jack Frost is referred to as the first Blizzard. He broke into Stark Industries and caused all kinds of problems.

So the next chapter will obviously feature Christmas and perhaps an adventure of the Winter Wonder and Lightning Lass. Does anyone have any suggestions for Christmas? I realized having Lillian help Jack out with being naughty would definitely land her on the list, but I think I've gotten that taken care of. I don't want all her holidays to be angsty! Also, there will be decorating of Pitch's, because you just can't have Christmas without the decorations. I think Jack will help him out with that. :) If Christmas isn't too long, we'll have some time skips through the years and we'll see Lillian grow up a little more before the movie starts. We're getting close!