JO AND AL ORIGINAL PLOT LINES AND CONCEPTS BELONG TO ME.

I don't own ROTG.

Please review people.

CHAPTER 12: SCRAPS OF PAGES, FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY.

Sandman watched over Jo as he slept.

He knew the Man-in-The Moon had something planned, and he couldn't help but feel worried. He stared sleepily at the silver sand, still coating the boy's hair.

Yes. he was planning something big.

Of course Sandman knew the boy was special; brave enough to look the boogeyman in the eye, kind and loyal- but also angry and slightly bitter.

Many would call him the cup-is-half-full kind sometimes. But a good child all the same.

Sandman sighed, hoping that whatever this boy's destiny was, it would make him happy.

Jo rushed to find Tooth the next morning, eager to begin their journey to retrieve his teeth- and thus his memories- from his sister.

But because of the dream he had the night before, he decided that he must go back to his house. There was definitely something important underneath those floorboards- something that his sister had hidden from him years ago.

What had she said in the dream? that it was 'for his own good'?

This, Mary, is for my own good. Why did you do it...?

"Tooth!"

The Tooth Fairy had been conversing with one of her tiny fairies when he came rushing in, still wearing his silver suit. He stopped before her and she hovered closer, smiling brightly.

He couldn't help but be reminded of one of those birds he saw hovering around a branch on a documentary once.

"Um, Tooth, I know we said that we were going to see my sister, but there's something we need to do first..."

"Oh!" Tooth looked surprised, "What's that?"

"I need to go to my old house and get something- I think my sister hid it somewhere..."

"Alright, then, though it make take longer than we guessed." The fairy nodded. "So, shall we go? we'll tell the others on the way out."

Jo jumped when something prodded his knee. Looking down he spotted Tyzan glaring up at him expectantly. Obviously she wanted to go with him, as well.

"Sorry, Tyzan- of course you can come, too!" He told her, smiling in hopes of taking the frown of her face. The rabbit familiar rolled her eyes, but smiled.

Accompanied by Tooth and Tyzan Jo made his way to the main room, using his powers to see through the corridors and locate it.

Upon spotting a giveaway fireplace and North standing beside it, they entered the room.

"North..." Jo watched as the large man turned and greeted them warmly.

"Hello all! wants some cookies? baked fresh!" He held out a plate of exceptionally delicious-looking cookies out towards them. Jo took one, only now realizing how hungry he was.

It was one of the most delicious things he ever tasted- soft and chunky with chocolate chips...He stopped chewing when he saw Tyzan looking away, glaring at the floor.

He swallowed with difficulty.

"Do you have anything for her?" He asked, gesturing to the rabbit. She looked surprised, slightly embarrassed, but grateful.

"Em...No. But Bunny may."

"May what?"

The pooka in question had just strolled in holding a carrot. Tyzan glared at him sourly.

"The boy was wondering if you had any food for his rabbit." North didn't notice Tyzan's heated glare. Jo did, though. Obviously she didn't like being referred to being anyone's.

Bunnymund glanced at her. Rolling his eyes the pooka snapped the carrot in two, bending down to give it to familiar, who at first recoiled as if insulted.

She was always a prideful creature and it was clear that she despised. Jo wondered if she'd refuse out of spite despite being so hungry.

It took Tyzan a while to swallow her pride and snatch it from his paw with her teeth, face kept neutral but eyes looking murderous. Then, she bowed her head and scuttled off out of sight, to the corridor to wait for Jo and Tooth. Bunnymund frowned.

"Yer welcome, mate..."

"Wooohooo!"

Jo found that leaping over great distances was more fun than he'd ever experienced. After taking a portal to the outside of town, Tooth allowed him to try out his jumping technique again. With ever spring he stayed up long, and for a moment he almost believed he could fly.

He rode the wind for a few moments before falling back down again

He sped through the cloudy sky, heart pounded and his stomach jumping as the wind fluttered past his ears. Small sprinkles of silver dust fell behind him and for a moment he almost looked like a shooting star.

"Whoa!" He yelled as he flipped upside down in the air, Tooth laughing from above.

He held a very wide-eyed Tyzan in his arms, with Tooth by his side, laughing brightly and rather fast- something he came to expect from the humming-bird fairy.

Looking over the rooftops he spotted a familiar house just ahead.

"There it is!" He called up to Tooth "Just ahead!"

He had landed on a rooftop when a sudden thought occurred to him. Had anyone seen him? of course, he wouldn't be able to explain his strange attire, which somehow helped him through the cold (he wasn't freezing- not even his bare feet) and the fact that he had leaped higher than fifty feet in the air.

The more he thought about it the more impossible it seemed. He grinned at the last word.

Impossible was beginning to sound like a joke...

The rooftop he'd landed on was just a few meters away from his own house. As he And Tooth ducked down with him still holding Tyzen in his arms, Jo wondered what would happen after he'd recovered his teeth. After he'd gotten his memories.

Would he go back to his family?

Jo wanted to think 'no' for ever since he had left he'd been so much happier. Happier than he'd been in years. He couldn't go back. He could stay with Alecvander...maybe even the Guardians, with him being able to use magic like them, would let him stay at the North Pole?

He decided that he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, he concentrated on getting into the house.

Tooth had brought some of her tiny selves with her. Jo had found out that they were in fact small incarnations of herself- and he couldn't figure out how she managed to be in so many places at once.

Then again, it was magic.

He watched as the fairy slipped in an open window, and vanish from their view. Dropping down from the room, finding he landed softly on the ground, Jo looked left and right, still ducking.

No-one was around on this snowy, winter day.

The door clicked, unlocked. Jo straightened up and, as Tooth fluttered down beside him and they made their way over to the door, finding the tiny fairy from before fluttering inside.

His brother John was asleep in the couch as he usually was. Jo smiled grimly at how much things remained the same after all that had happened.

Yet, as he made his way up the stairs, he found that everything around him felt so alien- like he was unused to it.

He tip-toed across the landed, Tooth fluttering behind him curiously. His mother and father were probably still asleep on this Saturday morning- they wouldn't wake up for hours unless he made too much noise.

He slipped into his room quietly. Tooth looked around the bare floorboards, biting her lip.

"Not very cosy, is it?" She said quietly. Jo didn't reply.

He bent down, feeling along the creaky floorboards with his hands, ignoring the silver dust sprinkling from his hair and onto the back of them as he moved.

Then, he found it. The odd floorboard that stood out slightly from the rest, as if it had been replaced. He pulled at it, grunting with effort.

Just like in his dream, after much pulling (That Tooth assisted him with as it was clearly hammered down harder than they thought) it came free, the snapping of wood filling the room before silence returned.

Jo lowered the wood very, very slowly, eyes widening.

Sitting beneath the floorboards was an old, thick scrapbook.

Alecvander's condition was gradually getting worse.

Hauna paced outside the hospital room where he was resting. The foolish old man had failed to mention that his chest had been very weak since his childhood- ever since he was a boy he was in and out of this very hospital with infections, and the doctors were beginning to think that a few more of these would mean his end.

Biting her lip, the Witch wondered what exactly she could do. She'd tried her potions and spells once the doctor had left- but this condition was both medical and genetic, something rare that he'd inherited from relatives in his family's history.

The damage it had dealt over the years was incurable.

Hauna knew the old man had hid it well from everyone. She just hoped that Alecvander would be strong enough to pull through this infection again, but like he'd said...

He wasn't as young as he used to be.

Inside the room, Alecvander felt tired. Not sad or miserable, but tired. Maybe a little concerned about a particular boy with silver-coated hair.

He knew that Jo's powers were grater than his would ever be- and that they were just one element of his powers. It was quite amazing.

But he worried all the same. Jo was just a young boy- a child, after all. He may not be able to handle responsibilities that came with them- and he way not be able to cope with the consequences of his mistakes.

But the Man in the Moon had made his decision, and nothing could change that.

Alecvander had been in and out of many dreams since his coming to hospital- and the Man in the Moon had whispered many secrets to him about Jo- or Joseph's purpose in the world.

And it was very important...

Jo pulled the scrapbook out of the hole and stood up, staring at the cover. That old, book spell filled his nostrils, the familiar, hard covering rubbing against his skin. He wandered over to the bed nearby and sat down, Tooth fluttering close and looking over his shoulder as Tyzan hopped on the bed beside him.

Jo took hold of the cover and flipped it open.

There were pictures drawn with crayons that he recognized as his own scribbles when he was young- but the shapes they made were unfamiliar.

There were fairies surrounded by trees and bushes, tiny, winged figures of many colours, shapes and sizes. Jo gasped a little. He didn't remember drawing something like this.

Looking again he saw that also on the page was a photo of a forest he'd been to with his sister; They both stood there in springtime clothes, smiling in the picture. Jo guessed they had probably been hiking, but he couldn't remember.

There was also anther figure- one he hadn't expected to see- in the picture: his mother.

His mother was the one he'd inherited most of his traits from. The Blond, straight hair, hazel-brown eyes, and the bony face.

She had always been a passive person- nothing seemed to phase her. She was the main breadwinner of he family and spent most of her time sleeping when she wasn't working.

They hadn't spoken much in the past year. She'd become more wispy and tired, and though she spoke to him kindly enough, it usually ended in the phrase. 'Not now.' Or 'I don't have time, Jo."

These responses would become hurtful or insulting if he continued to try to spend time with her. So he'd stopped.

He was surprised at how healthy she looked- and how happy. Then he noticed how happy he looked as well. His sister stood between them, and he spotted something hooked under her arm.

The scrapbook; the very one he held in his hands now.

Biting his lip, he turned the page. He froze.

A very familiar, dark, looming figure was drawn crudely at the side as if he was looking down from a rooftop. It couldn't be.

But it was.

It was Pitch.

"That's impossible." He whispered. Apparently it wasn't a joke of a word any longer.

He hadn't ever seen or heard of Pitch before he'd spoken to Alecvander that day before the night they met. The picture here in the scrapbook had been drawn at least four years ago, as it had obviously been done when he was younger.

Then...

How did Jo draw a picture of the Nightmare King when he hadn't seen him before?

Jo searched through his hazy memory and found nothing. He couldn't remember...

The last word made something clash inside his mind like a hammer against a gong, shaking him to his very core.

He hadn't seen Pitch before... Unless he'd forgotten.

It was possible. Had he looked out the window one night and saw him on the rooftops? at least, that was what it looking like in the drawing.

Jo hated to admit it, but it sounded possible. And the fairies...in the last drawing...

Jo began flipping through the pictures.

More images of fairies and imps met his eyes along with leaves glued to the sides of the pages,

Many pictures in the book consisted of the Guardians themselves- though North looked more like the Santa people were used to.

Bunnymund's drawing appeared to be crouching down by a bush and hiding eggs beneath him. Jo recognised the grey fur and patterns instantly.

Jo must have seen him then, too.

How? How was this possible?

"I'd seen all of these things." He muttered to himself. All of these magical, brilliant things. And he;d forgotten.

Tooth nodded beside him. Then, she pointed to another picture that had been glued on the next page.

"I think your sister knew that you could, Jo."

He saw that she was right. The picture here had been drawn by someone much more skilled at art- something he knew his sister was famous for.

Mary had drawn some more fairies, but they didn't resemble the ones he'd seen too much. Had she been able to see them, too? or had he just told her.

No. She hadn't seen them.

But it was obvious she had supported these sightings, though, as she had helped him make this scrapbook. The photos and the more grown-up drawings confirmed that.

But he had seen these things, perhaps all the time when he was younger- and she wanted him to forget.

How she had known that teeth held his memories was a mystery- But despite this, whenever he'd lost a tooth she's sneaked in and stolen it before Tooth could collect it, making sure her little brother had forgotten the things he had seen.

He felt a stab of betrayal.

Mary...how could you do that...I was happy...we where happy...

It was true. They had been so happy in the photo- and she had left him with no memory of these events, leaving him alone here with no beliefs, with a lousy brother, tired mother and uncaring father.

He couldn't help but feel anger and fury build up inside him at what she had done.

Jo was also angry and upset that she had done this. Doing it for his own good didn't seem like a good enough excuse anymore- he wanted answers.

"But I don't understand...If she was helping you make this scrapbook, why would she suddenly hide it away?" Tooth mused quietly, raising a hand up to her lips curiously.

Jo tightened his hold on the scrapbook.

"That's what we're going to find out, Tooth." Tyzen hopped down from the bed beside him as he stood up, turning with determination towards the door.

"We're going to see my sister."

Surrounded by the shadows in his realm, Pitch was planning his next move. He raised his arms slowly, building up a large, looming cloud of Nightmare Dust around him.

It shifted, bent and slithered around him before morphing into menacing Nightmares.

Pitch grinned, his sharp teeth glinting in the weak grey light as he pointed forward. They Nightmares neighed, their distorted sounds reverberating through the realm and into the galloped off through the air, vanishing from the realm; Traveling quickly to where Jo and Tooth sat in the house, oblivious.

Their targets were completely unaware they were coming- just like Pitch wanted it.

He gathered up more sand, once again forming a Group of Nightmares. This time, however, they were sent after the Guardians to keep them busy.

The Guardians days in the sun were over. They'd basked in their glory for far too long while he had been forgotten like a mere memory.

Pitch was determined to change all of that.

"My plan is now ready." He stated as he watched them leave. "And when I succeed at last, the Guardians will fall. That is a promise..."

UUUURG...

*Collapses*

Okay, updates are definitely going to slow down now. I feel like I rushed this chapter.

PLEASE REVIEW.

If you think it's rushed, please alert me. It's just people keep demanding more chapters...