It was pretty much hopeless! They'd been searching for two days through all the books they could get their hands on and nothing! Jack groaned, he was not made to read tens of thousands of books! Why don't we just go ask Pitch again? He lifted his head out of the book long enough to see Bunny and sighed. Oh yea, too dangerous. Jack snorted and rolled his eyes, honestly he'd rather take Pitch on then take books on. He shuddered, if he had to read anymore he was done! No more! Peeking at Bunny, the Pooka was fully engrossed in the book so he decided to slip out for some air. Even Wind was getting impatient, when can we play? When can we play? If he only knew, Jack wanted to help, he really did, and he'd been trying but the reindeer weren't getting better and they'd had no hints at a cure! The Wind started tugging on his hoodie and it only took him a minute before he relented. His old friend always knew when he needed a break, best he listened to her. It'd be okay if he left for a while, as long as he didn't bump into Ana, the spirit of Spring. She was a sweet girl and she kind of cleaned up his mess, she would nag at him at times for certain things, like when he left too much snow at certain places so it'd take longer for the plants underneath to grow.

Jack was heading straight to Burgess, deciding to hang out with Jamie a last time before he was 'banished' to the North Pole for Spring. He'd only finished playing around and helping Jamie distract Sophie, the girl just loved Bunny, why she liked that grumpy Kangaroo was beyond him, when the three heard the siblings' mother calling them for dinner. Jamie would have to go to sleep soon so Jack bid them goodbye. When he left the Bennet's house, however, he couldn't believe the Northern Lights he saw. Maybe they found a cure? Jack sped off quickly, he wanted to help with as much as he could!

"-and he ran off! But I got this out of his hands before he got away!" Bunny was reporting to the others when Jack finally arrived, his nose twitching quickly as he held up a worn black book, waiting for the other Guardians' reaction.

"So there is a cure?" Tooth flitted up hopefully and Bunny nodded and everyone broke out in smiles.

"What'd I miss?" Jack was on the railing, leaning on his staff, his head tilted. Bunny scoffed before bragging.

"Pitch came back and I caught him trying to steal this, he must've hidden it somewhere we couldn't find it so we couldn't read it. I grabbed it before he disappeared again and he didn't come back. Must've run home scared." Jack didn't say anything but he was questioning if Bunny was really looking at him as if to see if he was saddened by what Pitch did. No, Bunny hated Pitch but he still cares about me, he's my friend, he wouldn't want to see me like that, right? Even if it was to prove a point. Jack shrugged it off and watched North take the book from Bunny, looking at the small yet detailed sketches of a strange flower, notes scribbled beside them. Jack, Tooth and Sandy floated up behind him to peek over his shoulder and he saw that there were many warnings, repeated many times over, of mistaking another herb for the cure. The only difference between the two was that one had thorns from the roots while the other only had thorns near the leaves and flowers itself. It looked a bit like a rose but the petals were more spread out and it was described as a sickly green which was ironic to say the least. The flower itself was a pale purple colour, as the text said. After that there seemed to be instructions on how to use the plant to create the actual cure. It was found in the more isolated places of the globe, mostly in the tropical areas. That made it hard for Jack to find it then… What luck.

North pretty much yelled for everyone to get to the sleigh and Jack flew along, taunting Bunny on his reluctance to follow. Of course Bunny had to prove him wrong and promptly regretted it when North refused to just slow down! Jack stayed at the furthest edges of the tropical areas so he could fly to a cooler place if needed.

After about half the day was gone, he was finished with half of the areas he had to check, with no luck. As he went on he couldn't help but feel his fears heighten. What if the plant was gone? Extinct? None of them had heard of it before, and the others were WAY older than him! Wait what was that?

He thought he saw something glint and reflect light. But he was so far away from civilisation! There couldn't be any sort of metal here! He flew closer but couldn't find anything metal. He narrowed his eyes at the place before flying backwards slowly. Maybe he just imagined it. He was about to continue off when the closeby tree positively shook. He stopped, what the heck was happening!? He flew down again, searching carefully. Was it some kind of machine that was malfunctioning or something? That made absolutely no sense whatsoever- was that!? Jack's target, which had originally been the weird plant, had changed to 'Shiny Metal thingy' and he barely noticed the vine wrapping around the tree had the flower he needed! He looked at it carefully, trying to remember all the warnings and notes so he didn't get the wrong one and once he semi-confirmed it, quickly used the snowglobe with him. He zipped in and out, quick enough for a yeti that was on standby to see and alert the other Guardians. It took a while and Jack was pacing about, ready to protect the flower at all costs when the others finally appeared.

"Took you long enough! Bunny, check if it's the right one!" Bunny waved him away with an annoyed face, bringing the book up to compare the notes and sketches with the flower before turning and nodding. Jack waited when Bunny didn't take the flower and was confused until he saw Bunny found another flower before cutting off the original. Jack guessed he was making sure the plant would continue to grow.

Bunny kept it carefully with a container he brought and North opened up a portal back to the North Pole while Bunny rushed in, already shooting off questions and complaints about how the cold might affect the plant. The older Guardians went off to make the cure, leaving Jack in the Globe Room. He perched on it, holding his staff loosely and sighed. It was better for him not to get too close to the plant, he really could harm it.

"North will have to be patient. I do hope he knows that much" Jack started and jerked to see Pitch sitting a little higher on the Globe, leaning against the gold that held it in place as it spun.

"P-Pitch!?" Jack was so confused on whether to attack or not, Pitch was constantly contradicting everything he thought the way he acted! Pitch was still staring out at the workshop so Jack calmed a little. Why did Pitch do this? I mean, he helped with the presents. Then he up and leaves, I mean I don't blame him but… And then he comes and tries to steal the book and stop us from finding the cure! Why, why why?! Jack was sick of thinking too much, he was starting to get a headache… "Why are you here, Pitch?" Jack grumbled, annoyed. He expected some sort of snarky reply but Pitch just turned to look at him oddly, one leg drawn up so his elbow was on his knee. The Boogeyman shrugged before saying quietly.

"Could I have my book back, Frost." Jack was seriously confused, what in the world happened to Pitch!? And why would he think he'd give him that book?! It was North's! He shook his head slowly.

"No…" He had the odd urge to apologize, but why? Pitch wasn't supposed to be here, and he sure as hell didn't deserve that book! The Boogeyman sighed, his eyes a little dull before they brightened a little, his pupil getting smaller by just a bit, Jack thought he might have imagined it, and he got up.

"Then I'll get it myself." Pitch said walking behind the pillar of gold, gone by the time Jack went around it. Barely a second later he could hear things crashing to the ground and he gasped, flying quickly to where the others were and seeing Bunny jumping off tables and tipping them as he chased Pitch. The silhouette of the Boogeyman went straight into a dark corner of the room and disappeared entirely, leaving a fuming Bunny.

"What happened?" Jack asked Tooth, already starting to feel guilty. He could have stopped Pitch earlier! He could have reacted faster and catch him earlier!

"Pitch took the book away…" Tooth was still somewhat shocked and Jack cringed at the thought of her when she started panic, but he had to ask.

Jack looked to North worriedly, "And the cure?" North took a moment to answer, saying that the cure was fine, he had sent Phil to give it to the reindeer a while ago. Jack sighed in relief. "So… what do we do now?"

"Track Pitch down and make sure he stays down in his stupid lair!" Bunny was seething and as usual someone had to calm him down, leading him away as he swore.

Once they settled that nothing else was lost everyone retired to bed, all tired and wanting to discuss things the next day. Of course Jack couldn't sleep and slipped out, saying goodbye to the yetis on guard. He was going to get some answers. No matter what.

Jack had taken a chance and went to Burgess, hopefully Pitch didn't move the entrance again. "Pitch?" He called out once he was in the tunnel system. No Nightmares came out to greet, or attack, him and Jack didn't know if that was good or bad. "Pitch?" He called again and this time he heard Pitch behind him and he whirled around to see him. Pitch seemed… tired, strangely.

"What is it, Jack?" Pitch asked, attempting to look bored but he was slipping. Something's wrong, Pitch normally called him Frost, what with his attitude, and he'd never let someone see him looking like this. "If you're going to stand there the entire night you might as well take a picture." Jack snapped out of it and watched Pitch carefully before saying carefully.

"Actually… could I hang out here tonight?" Jack followed Pitch after he nodded and recognized that they were heading to the library, making him tense. Did Pitch know what he came for? Was he going to taunt him or something? But he didn't he just sat in his normal place and Jack was surprised to find another armchair for him. He settled in slowly, cautious. Wait… was that? That was the book Pitch had brought with him when he'd been with him and Sandy in North's library, and on the table… was the book he'd been writing in, the book he led Bunny to. The book he took back! Jack sighed in his head, Pitch was actually… good. He'd been helping them, in his weird way. But why didn't he stay behind to defend himself? Jack groaned, he was thinking to hard, trying to understand the Boogeyman was impossible, seriously. He might as well ask him outright.

"Spit it out, Jack. I can practically hear you thinking from here." Pitch brought him back from his musing and he thought a moment.

"Why… Why'd you help us?" Jack tilted his head, curious when Pitch leaned back, looking like he was already getting a headache.

The Boogeyman waved his hand like he was dismissing someone, "Next question." Yup, Pitch definitely had a headache.

"Well that's no fair." Jack couldn't help it, he was starting to joke with Pitch. He stuck his tongue out childishly.

"Either you find another question or I'm knocking you out." Pitch's tone was lighter as he answered, threatening him with a ball of blacksand like Sandy had done before.

"Fine fine, gods now I feel like I'm on a timer."

"Who said you weren't? Tick tock tick tock." Pitch mocked back, still doing the ticking sound.

"I hate you."

"Thank you." Pitch made the blacksand disappear before speaking. "Also as for why I helped you," Jack leaned in as Pitch continued muttering, "Although I could have left you all to rot away…" The Winter sprite rolled his eyes. "I helped you, so shall we leave it at that?"

"That's no answer!"

"That's all you're going to get, Jack. Now what are you planning to do?"

"I don't know…" Jack shrugged, "Could I just… explore a little? Has anything changed?"

Pitch sighed before relenting, "Some new corridors, you've been past that wall enough times to notice the new corridors, now shoo." The Boogeyman led him out the library, shooing at him before disappearing into the shadows and leaving a Nightmare behind to watch him.

"So…" The Nightmare snorted, looking annoyed and he stared at it for a while before exclaiming, "Bitey!?" It growled low at the name. "You are him! I mean her!" The nightmare continued to glare at him and he inched towards it, lifting his hand a little to try to pet it. It lifted its snout higher and away from him and he grunted like a little kid not allowed to have his toy. He sighed a little and started flying around, spotting the new corridor Pitch had talked about, after he checked all the new random staircases and pathways. "We should get you another name, Bitey won't cut it." He didn't know if the Nightmare agreed with him or was humouring him. "Let me think.. Eh…" It gave him a look and growl that said, Don't you dare call me. Of course Jack couldn't tell what name she didn't want so he shrugged. "Snapp- Alright, it's off the list! Okay, okay. No Snappy." Jack pulled his hand away from its jaws at the last second, thinking. "Y'know… they always call me Frostbite…" The Nightmare didn't give any response so he continued carefully, "Yea.. could I call you that?" The Nightmare stopped when he did and tilted its head a little, narrowing its eyes criticizing. Jack gave it his best puppy eyes before it grunted a little, leaning its head down. Jack took a second before he tried to pet it and surprisingly, succeeded. With that the Nightmare nuzzled him and was a bit more friendly. "I have no idea what just happened but at least you aren't trying to kill me now Frostbite." He got a neigh in response and the two explored the new rooms, Frostbite tugging Jack out of a room with broken mirrors before he landed on the floor, almost scolding him as it motioned at the glass on the floor.

Of course, after a while Jack had to leave, he had his own stuff to do and after a short nap he was convinced it'd be morning by then. He left with a goodbye to Frostbite and went off to enjoy the last of winter. Anastasia was going to be coming around soon with spring and he really hated fighting with others when he was just trying to have some fun. What with all the snowball fights, Jack barely saw time fly past and was blindsided when Jamie and his friends' parents called them back home. This would normally have left Jack bored and to fly off somewhere else, that is until he saw the Northern Lights. It was starting to be too common of a sighting if you asked him. What could be happening now?

Of course Bunny was already asking North that by the time he got there and Jack sat by with Sandy as the two bickered a bit while Tooth was still shooting off orders left and right.

"Okay, enough! Bunny, we talk about Pitch, today." North ended the argument before turning to the others as well.

"Wait, North, are the reindeer okay?" Tooth asked worriedly, the few faeries with her hovering nearby. All of them seemed to droop a little when he shook his head.

"No, not so much. We have not seen improvement yet."

"You'll have to be patient." The other Guardians were surprised when Jack said it and turned to him with questioning looks. Oops. Jack though before shrugging, might as well tell them. Fiddling with his staff he continued. "Pitch said so." He shrunk a little, expecting the sudden outburst of questions and waiting for them to slow down. Oh how was he suppose to explain this? "That book we found was Pitch's guys. Really. Sandy you remember right? He left it here for us to find! I don't know why he didn't just give it to us but he did. And I swear he was the one that led me to it!"

"But Jack, why would he do that?" Jack winced in his head. Pitch was good now. He wouldn't sit by and watch when kids stopped believing. He'd help Jack, he'd help them! But would he? No, Jack didn't know why he trusted the older spirit so much, but he did.

"I-I don't know-"

"He tried to keep me in his library when I tried to look for him! He even said something about not helping us, of letting kids stop believing in us. I mean, wouldn't that be too easy for him!?" Bunny interrupted, fur raised in anger.

"But he told us to get Tooth!"

"Probably because he didn't want it to look like some sickness caused us to fail! He probably wanted it to look like he snuck in and got rid of us!"

"But the presents-"

"Could have been a trick! You gotta stop being so naïve, mate. Pitch isn't a good guy. He's just been playing us this whole time! I bet you he made them sick!" Jack shook his head. He wasn't naïve! Pitch wouldn't do it! Pitch had been friendly with him so far, Jack never knew why he'd accepted their help so easily but now he wished he had asked. It made him sick to think both possibilities were too easy to be true!

"I went to his lair just now and he didn't attack me! He let me stay too, even after you guys thought he stole the book!" Jack didn't like this, he'd never dealt with people, never dealt with these sort of problems, he didn't know how, he just didn't want to deal with it all!

"Sweet Tooth, calm down…" Tooth had gotten closer at one point and was patting his back, which soothed him a little as he sighed. The other Guardians finally heard the sounds as Sandy was showing off the images, the book was Pitch's! Jack's right!

Finally, the others relented a little and Jack was a little insulted. Why'd they believe Sandy so easily but not me? He sniffed but he already knew the answer. The others knew each other longer, of course they'd trust him more.

Tooth sat him down while North argued with Bunny a while longer. With Sandy's help they seemed to accept that Jack was right about Pitch, even if it was strange how he went about helping them but Jack supposed it was how Pitch did things. If only he didn't make it so hard for me. Jack scoffed, of course he would.

After a while everyone headed home, North the last to disappear into his workshop. They had decided to wait as Pitch had suggested, though no one knew what to do with the Boogeyman now. Jack assumed everyone would go back to ignoring him like they used to…

Jack hadn't planned it, but he ended up drifting off on the couch.

Only to wake up with some elves prodding at him before North asked him to get Pitch.

"Wha-wha?" His hair was messed up, more so than usual, after his sleep and he was still groggy. "What do you mean?"

"Help get Pitch, Jack. If you don't mind." He said that, but Jack knew he'd have nothing else to do anyways and sighed.

"But why?" Jack was honestly curious, what was North up to? "Are the others coming too? I thought you said he was okay now."

"No, Jack. Others won't know."

"So why are we calling him over? He won't come without some sort of explanation y'know. He might think we're trying to ambush him or something."

"Lie to him?"

"What!?" Jack was startled. North was asking him to lie to Pitch!? Was he giving him puppy eyes!? Jack started muttering after a while and relented.

"Fine. Fine. I'll get him here…" Eyes full of wonder, pfft. Those things had the potential to make Pitch succumb to a request. How could he be able to make that good a puppy-eye expression!? "But I'm not happy about it…" North waved him away and offered a snowglobe to Burgess which Jack used.

"Piiitch!? Yo, Pitch?" The teen called, of course there wasn't an answer. He was surprised when he heard neighing and saw Frostbite again. Or at least he assumed it was her. It seemed she had become his official escort now, the way she started pushing him along. "I can walk you know." The grunt he got spelled out, Then walk faster, out pretty clearly. Strangely he wasn't led to the library, rather he got pushed to a strange black coloured metal door, which opened of its own accord. "Pitch? You okay?"

The Boogeyman seemed to be having a fairly bad headache, and Jack didn't think it was because of him. "What is it Jack." He mumbled, putting down his tea. Jack seriously needed to find out where he kept getting that stuff.

"Do you mind coming back to North's place? The others aren't there, just North."

"I don't need blinding colours and lights in my face right now Jack." Pitch grumbled back.

"Yea… But North was the one that wanted you to go…" He shut up when Pitch glared at him from under the hand that had been pressed against his forehead before sighing and shaking his head, muttering.

"If I was in my right mind right now I wouldn't be doing this."

"What could you possibly be thinking about that made you more out of your mind than usual?" Jack said sarcastically as Pitch went through a shadowgate, following close. Jack thought he heard a snarled, None of your business, but he wasn't sure. He shrugged it off when they reached the Russian Palace and he heard Pitch hiss before his silhouette appeared on the nearest wall. "Stop acting like a vampire, Pitch."

"I do not want to deal with this, Jack. It'd be best if you tell me why I'm here already." Pitch snarled and motioned at the closest light source.

"Ah, Pitch! Good to see you!" Jack heard Pitch groan at the other Guardian's booming voice before his silhouette stood a little straighter.

"Why have you called me here, North. This had better be important."

"Yes,yes. Of course!" The lights dimmed a little which surprised both Jack and Pitch, who'd slipped back into the normal realm. Pitch fixed a confused look at North before following when the man motioned for his workshop. North asked Jack to stay behind which confused him all the more. What the heck was North up to? He watched curiously when a yeti, Phil he thought, brought something in his hands inside as well. What?

Jack winced when he heard the familiar locking sounds of the door, why did North always do that? He flew close to the door gingerly, ready to dart away at any moment before trying to listen in. Man, this was one thick door, probably soundproofed to keep out all the noise. Jack glared at the door before moving back a bit, looks like he was getting no information… unless…. Within minutes he was out the window and floating below the window at North's workshop, listening in.

"-you for helping us."

"Oh, really?"

"I do not know why you insist on keeping it secret, but I do not mind. But I'd like to give you something."

"I don't have time for one of your silly inventions, North. I'm not like Jack or any of the othe-" Pitch had snarled and Jack thought he heard him take a step back before he shut up. What the heck was going on? "What is that?"

"Is real thing, ya. Not toy." North joked back before he must've passed something to him. "Something I found long time ago, I don't use so, I can give you." North took a few steps back before laughing. "You are smart, Pitch. You know what it is?" There was silence for a moment before North chuckled. "No need to thank me. There is nothing else, Pitch. You can go if you want to." North trailed off before sitting down heavily in his chair. "Unless you want to try here?"

Pitch seemed to have snapped out of it before saying quickly, "No, I think I'll be going. Maybe another day." He said the last part a tad bit softer and even softer, said, ´Thank you, North." Jack was beyond curious now. What just happened!? Well, he couldn't ask North, so he could only trail Pitch to find out what had happened.

Jack found his way back into the Globe room quick enough to be there before Pitch strode back in, holding a package wrapped in shiny black wrapping paper, tied up with a golden ribbon. Strangely, Pitch was holding it carefully, like some sort of treasure, what the heck did North give him? Before he could follow him though, North stopped him and he could only watch Pitch disappear into the shadows.

If he was Sandy he'd have a huge question mark above his head as he looked at North. "What was that for?" Before North could answer he remembered the more important question. "What did you give him? It's not like some ancient treasure or weapon or something, right?"

"No, no." North laughed, patting his shoulder. "But if you want to see present, you go Burgess. Give him time to open in private, first." North winked before heading back inside, leaving an overly curious Jack that already had a target location set before he even jumped out the window for the Wind to carry him.

A/N: Let's see here, how late am I for this again?

Yea like, TWO WEEKS

Oh gods above, I am SO SORRY. Wait no, most of you are sick of hearing that from other writers, eh? Alright, but you know I'm rolling around on the floor dieing cos I didn't get this up here. Anyways, I'm thinking I could post the next part of this lil arc, or leave it here. So if you wanna find out what Pitch got...

To be honest it was the idea of the gift that made me write this lil arc thing... *shrug* I think it ran away from me after the Chirstmas Crash (that's what I'm calling it) so yea.

Hmm, is this..? Oh look, I have seriously run out of ideas o.0

To 13BlueBananas: Yea the "INTO DA LAKE" thing is GOING to happen, I need to figure out how he got them so pissed off first. Could be payback for the Accent thing.

*BlastphemousHD's voice* "I'm practically begging here", for prompts TT_TT

Gods I am still shipping Blackice so hard I cannot even. But no, I WILL write a big warning up top if there is ever any sort of shipping or OCs since I know people get annoyed by certain things.

Also I'm thinking of writing a sort of side-fic that is a copy and paste of this, HOWEVER, I do the whole CinemaSins set-up, y'know?

Example being

-"We can't let Jack go, he'll say more than he should, you know that." Sandy nodded and flashed some images, the two trust each other more than they'd admit, Jack would say too much. Bunny groaned, his ears lowering.

-"Come now, Rabbit. Let's make a deal, you tell me why you need my books, and I might help to make sure North doesn't lose too many believers." Bunny ground his teeth, what was he supposed to do? The answers could be right there! "Oh, wait. Nevermind. I can hear it quite clearly. Too late, too late. Too late to find the cure. Unable to cure the sickness. Reindeer, it's the reindeer that are sick. And they aren't going anywhere." Pitch smirked, tapping his head. "I always know."

[You've fought with him before, longer than Jack's been alive! You should know his abilities by now, or at the very least try to ignore your fear!]

-"So you left Bunny in your library…"

-"With the only helpful book here. I doubt he can read or understand any of the books he's been left with."

[*sarcasm* Haha Pitch is a d*ck to Bunny.]

Because CinemaSins is so OP :P

Anyways, tell me what you thought, of the chapter (if you haven't already forgotten it) and the ideas :D

With that

Rubix and rabbits, signing out!