I'm curious as to who you think this mysterious lady from last chapter was.

Oh, that's no ploite way to start an author note.

Hi guys! Tell me who you thought the lady was!

That's feels a bit better. I dunno. *shrugs*

Enjoy the chapter!

A familiar grey coloured car pulled up to Aunty's house. She had told Peter's mother, Felicity, about his disappearance a couple days and dreaded seeing the look in her eyes she had. She paced the porch nervously mumbling under her breath until she caught eye of her sister getting out the vehicle. She quickly smoothed out her clothing and rushed over to her.

'Felicity I'm so glad you're here! I-' She started.

Felicity took a deep breath and broke into tears, falling into her sister's arms sobbing. Lenore put her arm around her shoulder in attempts to support her as she guided her to the house. She looked back to see someone else getting out the car. They moved into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Aunty let out a sigh, 'I'll make a pot of coffee; black right?' She looked toward Felicity who was staring at the table sniffling. Lenore could see there were splotches of paint staining its surface from the many times Peter had dumped his art supplies on the table. She forced herself to look away and busied herself at the kitchen counter.

'Did you ever get the chance to tell him?' Lenore asked.

Felicity sniffled once more, 'No, I-' She reached into her purse and hastily pulled out a tissue to blow her nose before continuing, 'I didn't get the chance.'

'Does he know?' Aunty asked cautiously.

There was a moment of silence as she braced herself for her sister's response. Felicity never particularly liked speaking about her husband, seeing as he was never around and certainly didn't express much care towards his family. At least that was what Lenore thought. She didn't even understand why they were still married.

After some time she slowly responded, 'No. No he doesn't. He doesn't even know Peter went missing, although if he did I'd be shocked.'

'Don't you think you should say something to him then? He should-'

'He's too busy traveling the world and doing whatever it is he calls work! If Barnaby really cared he'd still be here.'

Lenore came back to the table with two steaming mugs of coffee. She placed one next to her sister and sat opposite of her glancing outside, 'I'm sorry-'

'You don't need to be,' Felicity interrupted, 'I should have known how troubled Peter was. Instead I pushed him away so I wouldn't have to deal with him.'

Lenore reached across the table and grabbed her sister's hand, 'Stop beating yourself so much about it. Calling yourself a terrible mother isn't going to make him miraculously walk through the front door.'

She glanced outside the window to see the Cupcake and her friends across the street seemingly upset as well as long as a boy with reddish brown hair watching them from behind a car, 'You still have Howl to take of, right?'

Felicity followed her look to the window as well and slowly nodded, 'You're right, I need to stay strong. For Howl.' she sighed and tilted her head to the side as if lost in thought, 'He was so excited to see Peter too when he woke up. It's going to break his heart…'

'It's been forever since we last saw Jack!' Jamie distractedly kicked the half melted snowman the group had built some time ago and sat down defeatedly on a tree stump.

'And Peter…' Monty added halfheartedly.

The children looked around at each other unsure about what to do. The last time they had seen the two had been a week ago when they were acting very secretive with each other.

'I knew they were up to something, but I didn't think they'd vanish off the face of the Earth!' Pipa exclaimed.

'Maybe they're just messing with us.' Jamie said.

'Yeah, I bet it was Peter's idea.' Claude grumbled.

Caleb climbed onto a pile of snow and stomped his foot down on it, 'I hate Peter!' he declared.

'I hate Peter too!' Claude shouted.

'I hate him more!' Caleb challenged.

The rest of the children looked at each other uncertainly, not exactly sure if they wanted to join in or argue with them.

'Hey! Before we decide to hate him maybe we should try to find out why they left.' Monty persuaded, 'They might have left clues or something.'

'Or we can ask him,' Cupcake interjected, motioning across the street.

In front of Cupcake's house they could see Peter himself hiding behind a car watching them with great interest. When he saw they were staring at him he waved his hand enthusiastically and called out a greeting.

'Get him!' Claude yelled as he ran across the street.

The rest of the children followed in pursuit screaming in surprise and anger, causing him to jump and bolt to the front door, rattling the doorknob for entry. They surrounded him and began shouting questions at him, which was rather futile since they could barely be heard over each other's yelling.

'Quiet!' Pipa yelled, 'How are we supposed to ask him questions with all of us screaming?'

'Where's Jack!?' Jamie questioned, taking advantage of the momentary silence.

'I don't know who that is!' Peter squeaked.

'Are you sure this is Peter? He doesn't seem like Peter.' Caleb commented bringing his face close to 'Peter's' scrutinizing his appearance.

Monty squinted his eyes at him, 'He's too skinny to be Peter,' he stepped in front of the false Peter and announced, 'This isn't Peter.'

Collective gasps and sounds of awe rippled throughout them as they stared at the false Peter with newfound interest. The door behind 'Peter' opened to show Aunty giving a faint smile with a disapproving look on her face. Seeing this as an opening, 'Peter' ducked behind Aunty in fear, poking his head out in curiosity before hiding once more.

'You scared him! Poor thing.' Aunty said, 'Why on Earth were you tormenting him?'

'He-' Caleb begin, he looked around to the others for an answer seeming to have forgotten why they were after him to begin with.

'He looked like Peter,' Cupcake answered.

'But he's not fat enough' Monty added.

'Or 'Peter' enough,' Claude interjected.

Aunty thought for a moment before she laughed, 'Oh! He never did tell you about his twin brother, did he?'

North's workshop was a buzz of activity as time marched on, getting closer and closer to Christmas. Halloween was still a week away and Thanksgiving would come soon after, however as each holiday passed it only meant there was less and less time until North would make his yearly trip around the world.

The air was filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies and candy with confetti, airplanes, and whatever sort of flying toys that were designed this year. On the floor with the hustle of yetis and elves were even more toys getting fresh paint or repaint jobs. But deep within the fun filled atmosphere was also a sense of dread. Not one of the occupants seemed to be aware of it slowly working its way into the cheery air, no one except North.

The large man was standing in the globe room staring up at the moon, occasionally furrowing his eyebrows and rubbing his chin. 'Nothing today either,' He mumbled aloud, turning away from the globe. For the past few days ever since Jack had brought the troubling news of the frozen fish tank he had been trying to contact Man in the Moon. He had his suspicions on what or more specifically who could have caused it, he felt it in his gut, but he didn't want to worry everyone just yet. Especially Jack. He was interrupted from his thoughts when a small shadow passed over the room, covering part of it in darkness.

Crash!

The window on the far back wall shattered as two figures went tumbling though it. One of them he immediately recognized to be Jack Frost, but as for the other he had no idea. Jack jumped to his feet and ran towards him. 'North! Something really bad happened!'

North rushed over the boy. They were curled up in a ball on the floor chattering their teeth from the cold as if they had been trapped in a freezer. He could see a thin almost transparent layer of frost coating their clothing that was rapidly spreading all over their body, even the floor was beginning to ice over.

'How did this happen?' he asked as calmly as possible, but still keeping a sense of urgency in his voice.

Jack tried to hastily explain, but his thoughts and speech were difficult to understand with the state of distress he was in. North placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to trail off. He understood that he was still in shock about the incident and would have to calm down before he could relay the information.

'What is their name?' North asked.

Jack slumped his shoulders and took in a deep breath. 'Peter.'

Slowly Jack explained everything he could recall leading up to Peter's current state. In truth he didn't really know much of what happened. Peter had been locked in a state of shock ever since he found him so he was as much confused as North.

'The only thing he's said the whole way here was something about a lady.' Jack explained.

'Help me get him to a fire. He needs to be warm up,' North said quickly.

Jack hoisted Peter up and slung his arm over his shoulder, guiding him out the room. North lead them into a smaller one with a few armchairs and couches arranged around a rug facing a fireplace. North took Peter from Jack as they neared the bubble of warmth and laid him in front of the flames. That's when he noticed it. The frost on Peter began to rapidly spread and thicken the closer he was brought to the fire. His shivers grew more violent.

Peter cracked open his eyes to see white all around him. He shut his eyes and open them again waiting for his vision to clear to only find the white surrounding him become more detailed with flecks of transparent particles sticking to even more transparent bits until they formed the 'white' surroundings. At this point he deducted the mysterious white stuff must have been snow, but it wasn't cold. Or at least it didn't feel cold. He could hear garbled speech coming from outside the pocket of snow, but couldn't make out who or what they were saying. He sat up and broke through the snow encasing him to see Jack staring back at him accompanied by a old man.

'Did I mess up your plans to turn me into a living snowman?' he asked jestingly.

They both let out sighs of relief.

Fwap!

Peter found his eyesight once again obscured by snow. He clawed his way out of the snow, hacking and coughing all the way while Jack smirked back at him. 'That's for making me carry you all the way to the North Pole.'

Peter heaved himself out the pile of snow and dusted it off his clothes, 'Maybe next time you'll think twice about getting buried by trees!'

His eyebrows furrowed as he started to process what Jack said and looked around. Chairs, bookshelves, old man, and the frosty window showing only white landscape outside. He looked back to Jack and waved vaguely at the room, 'This- this is the North Pole?!' He looked once more around the room until his eyes rested upon North, 'Are you Santa Claus!?'

North gave a hearty laugh, 'My friends call me North, but yes, I am.'

Peter felt a child-like giddiness rising up inside him he hadn't felt in a long time. Right in front of him was Santa Claus! Well, North, as he had stated. However he felt that he must of been pretty chill if he was given the honour to call him North. A huge smile spread across his face accompanied by a an ecstatic giggle, earning a strange look from them both.

Speaking of chill, he felt an intense sensation of cold throughout his body. His chest burned with cold as he took a heavy breath in efforts to coax some defrosting into his seemingly frozen heart. Even in the somewhat warm room he could see his breath coming out in little puffs of fog.

'Not to pun or anything, but can someone explain why I'm so cool?' Peter asked.

'We were trying to figure that out ourselves.' North explained, 'Do you remember anything that would help?'

'Well,' Peter began to think aloud, 'I remember a really angry lady that impaled me with… ice? I think it was, but it looked strange.'

'Strange?' North asked, listening attentively.

Peter looked off to the side as if in deep thought trying to recall the memory, 'It looked too shiny. I'm not sure how to describe it. Jagged too. Almost unnatural.'

'When I saw it it looked like glass. It was ice though, just very reflective.' Jack added.

North rubbed his chin and paced around the room occasionally muttering something. After some time he finally spoke again, 'Do you remember anything else?'

Peter racked his thoughts for more information. Everything was hazy in his memory, he couldn't even remember what she looked like. His eyes widened as something clicked into place, 'She thought I was you!' he exclaimed, pointing at Jack, 'And she took my stick!' Peter sounded most angry about the last statement rather than the fact he was currently a human icecube.

'Why would she think you were me?' Jack exclaimed, 'And why would she take your stick?' He himself was imagining something more akin to a twig.

Peter waved his hands, 'Oh! well it wasn't really a stick, but it was more like a walking...staff.' 'Although I probably wouldn't have lost it if you hadn't got hit by a tree.'

'Are you seriously upset over losing some stick?' Jack asked.

'It was a nice staff!' Peter shot back.

North stepped between them before their banter could get worse, 'Boys!'

Jack scoffed, 'I'm not a boy. I'm a full grown winter spirit.'

'But I'm taller than you,' Peter argued.

'I'm older than you.'

'I'm more mature.'

'Yeah, I don't think so.'

'But I'm still taller than you.'

'It's because I'm athletic!'

'Athletically challenged.'

'Says the guy with a figure of a pumpkin!'

'I'm not fat!'

'I didn't say you were but if you're feeling defensive about it…'

'Enough!'

They both jumped at the sound of North's booming voice, recoiling under the force of the soundwaves. He gave them both a critical look. 'When you keep bickering I cannot concentrate! This is serious issue, ponimayu?'

Peter coughed out a puff of cold air, 'Sorry.'

Jack shrugged and elbowed Peter in the ribs, 'He started it.'

North gave Jack another look, causing him to drift his eyes to the floor with sudden interest. 'Now then,' he began, 'We need to help your friend. I cannot say for sure, but Peter seems to be freezing. However, warmth appears to make it worse so until we can find out more you will need to keep cold.'

'So in order for me not to freeze I need to stay in the cold?' Peter thought aloud, furrowing his eyebrows, 'That doesn't make any sense.'

'I think it might have something to do with always being around Jack,' North patted Jack on the shoulder causing him to jump once more, 'Since you are normally exposed to the cold this frost cannot spread as quickly as it might have been intended.'

'But whoever this lady was intended to attack me,' Jack said, 'So what would have happened if I got hit?'

'Perhaps nothing,' North suggested.

Jack raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but didn't push any further on the subject. North clapped his hands together and started walking out the room. Peter and Jack followed after him into the globe room as he went over to a long, extravagant control panel.

'What's he doing?' Peter whispered to Jack as he watched North pull a strange lever.

Jack grinned, 'He's summoning the guardians.'