A/N: Welcome back to The Serendipity of a Misunderstood Winter Spirit! And listen, I know that it's been a long time since I did a full update, and I apologize for that. I had extreme writer's block in combination with some procrastination due to being in school (and along with me becoming fascinated with other fandoms). With that being said, I don't know when the next update will be so please be patient. Anyways, the main point is that you're here and I'm here and the new chapter is here! Yay! And, wow! Over 100 reviews, and not to mention, the Favs and Follows! You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for sticking with me and for your support!

So, without further ado, enjoy!

Chapter 8: No More Running

"Would you mind telling me why the Guardians of Childhood tried to...kill me earlier?"

Shortly after his question was answered, Jack Frost reached the outskirts of a small town where the air was still crisp enough for a winter spirit but now warm enough to breath life back into the little fairy accompanying him. Jack remained silent as the answer seeped distastefully into his mind.

Once safely perched on a rooftop, though, he began to laugh. It started low but soon grew louder.

The reason behind his laughter wasn't because what Baby Tooth had told him was funny—no, not at all; he was laughing because the answer was exactly what he'd expected it to be.

Unsurprisingly, the Guardians of Childhood actually believed that he, of all spirits, of course, was a threat to the world—just like everyone else. The incident involving them last night was no mistake, he had already known; the winter spirit clearly recalled the not so jolly fat man declaring that they had come to kill him on behalf of all the children he'd supposedly murdered, but to hear the reason behind his condemnation straight from the mouth of one of their own minions had somewhat kindled an assurance that his attackers could not provide whilst they themselves tried to murder him, and the overall absurdity of it made him laugh. This belief that he was a coldblooded killer even explained why Baby Tooth had initially attacked him; the brave little fairy had seen him as a threat, an enemy of her queen and the other Guardians that needed to be stopped at all costs even if that meant sacrificing herself just to injure him somehow.

Jack slowly concluded his laughter to look back down at the palm of his right hand where a puzzled Baby Tooth was seated, a solemn expression now plastered on his face.

"Tell them," he hesitated, trying to formulate the words in his mind, "tell them that I'm not as terrible as they think I am, that I'm actually quite far from what they believe me to be…I highly doubt that they would listen, but…I suppose it's worth a shot."

The tinge of sadness in his voice elicited a sympathetic expression from Baby Tooth. He watched as she promptly hovered out of his palm, her iridescent wings catching his eyes as they hummed, and before he knew what she was doing, the hummingbird-like fairy cheerfully placed a gentle peck on his frosted cheek.

He gave a small mirthful laugh, flashing his brilliant white teeth at the now ecstatic tooth fairy. Just then, though, Jack remembered something very important he had to tell the mini-fairy that knew of his location.

"And please, for my sake," he spoke, looking directly into her purple and blue eyes, "don't tell them where I'm at. Will you do that for me, Baby Tooth? Promise?"

The mini-fairy promptly snapped out of her daze, giving the wintry teen a reassuring chirp and a salute as she hovered in the air in front of him.

The winter spirit took that as a yes and nodded once with sincerity, "Thank you."

He doubted the Guardians would try to track him down in the harsh, vast wastes of the arctic tundra, but it was better safe than sorry. Besides, Jack trusted Baby Tooth with keeping his secret—they were friends now, after all. And at that thought, sadness briefly washed over the winter spirit as he realized it was time to say goodbye to the little tooth fairy. He was sure that Baby Tooth still had a job to do for her "queen"; teeth couldn't collect themselves, after all.

"Well, I guess this is goodb—"

Without warning, Baby Tooth had darted into his shoulder, which confused Jack on her reason to do so for a moment until he looked down at her, and his eyes widened with shock at what he saw.

She was giving him a hug.

True, with their different sizes, it didn't really seem like a proper hug, but it was a hug, nonetheless.

So, he hugged her back with his free hand placed gently over her and his head leaned downward into the embrace, a habit he'd witnessed in parents when they hugged their own children. It felt weird but comforting, to say the least; he definitely wasn't used to all the social interaction he'd gained in only the matter of a few days. Jack tried to think of something to say to the mini-fairy but only the whisper "Goodbye, Baby Tooth" left his lips as she gripped the frosted cloth of his blue hoodie. How could a creature this sweet, he wondered earnestly, work for someone as hateful as a Guardian?

And, for a moment, Baby Tooth stayed still, and then the next, she floated away from the embrace, waving goodbye to him with a warm smile until, finally, the little fairy zipped away, her humming wings shimmering in the midday sun. Jack watched until she was no more than a twinkling speck in the far distance. Wind whirled around him comfortingly as he turned away, shifting his gaze to the street below while tufts of his silvery hair rippled.

Well, Jack mused partially in sadness, she's better off away from me anyway. He knew it was for the best that Baby Tooth was somewhere warmer without the accompaniment of an infamous winter spirit like himself who was thought to have frozen helpless creatures solid out of cruel pleasure. Jack inwardly scoffed. Without another thought, the wintry teen turned to leave and took to the air alone with Wind.

Now in the brisk atmosphere again, the lonely winter spirit sailed through the air due north, resuming his original route. After a while of searching his mind for something positive to think about, he realized that his injuries felt a lot better. In fact, the cold had done wonders to his beaten body; even his busted lip, he noted as he lightly chewed on it, seemed to have been diminished to just a scratch while his black eye had stopped throbbing entirely. His ribs still felt a little rough but definitely better than they'd been before.

As he continued to check over himself, Jack noticed that he could now straighten and move his left arm with almost no pain. He smiled at the thought of his recovery but paused when he glimpsed an off-white material peeking out from underneath his frosted sleeve. Oh. He'd…forgotten about that.

The wintry teen safely tucked his staff underneath his arm before promptly rolling the sleeve up to unravel what was left of the bandages Sarila had previously wrapped around the now-healed arm. Just for a moment, he tenderly held the weathered material in his hand before placing it in his hoodie's pocket and resuming a proper hold on his staff. His dark brows corrugated thoughtfully at the impression of her.

He then shook his head, trying his best to not contemplate any recent events at all; thinking of the past, he knew, only brought pain. So, to pass the time, he scanned his surroundings below.

There were buildings, trees, snow, and eventually, a white clearing that stretched as far as the eye could see, a welcoming sight. The afternoon sun still peaked through the clouds, and at this rate, he would be somewhere very cold and isolated in no time at all. Somewhere where no spirits or Guardians would be able to hurt him, a comforting thought. After thinking this, however, a sense of uneasiness suddenly tugged at the edges of his mind as he flew through the atmosphere.

On instinct, he paused and with a wary eye, scanned the sky around him for the source of this abrupt anxiety but found nothing unusual, just grey clouds above that were full of flurries ready to spill down and blinding white snow below as Wind began to pick up.

The wintry teen shrugged the feeling off, turning to continue his flight, but an eerily-familiar whirring noise from behind sent a chill up his spine, and upon facing the sound, a sharp force struck the hand that held his staff.

With a short yelp of pain and a grimace of shock, Jack quickly retracted his throbbing hand, thus releasing the hold on his wooden conduit.

Then, he began to fall.

Ignoring the pain, adrenaline wracked his mind and body as he lunged for the staff midair many times, helplessly flipping and flailing about without the Wind's embrace, before finally grabbing it and regaining his connection with Her. With his breathing now erratic and nerves on end, Jack didn't have time to recover from his short fall as the sharp whirring noise returned, the object barely clipping the top of his silver hair as he dove back from it. His wide blue eyes followed the zipping object as it flew downwards, but before it hit the snowy ground, a grey paw-like hand expertly caught from what he now realized was a boomerang with ease.

Jack's heart clenched in his chest before thudding loudly in his ears at the realization.

They had found him.

Icy-blue and grass-green eyes met almost instantly, and Jack briefly blanched at the sight before fiercely narrowing his eyes back at the face of the Easter Bunny, masking his shock as his mind raced. How did they find me?! Did Baby Tooth tell them? No, he hoped, she wouldn't have.

Their staring contest was soon interrupted when the winter spirit noticed an approaching tsunami of shimmering gold from the corner of his eye. He swiftly flew upwards a good distance from the Sandman's attack, though, dodging it just in time before the giant wave of sand crashed down.

Quickly scanning the white landscape, Jack noted that the little golden man and the overgrown rabbit were the only ones there; it seemed that Santa and the Tooth Fairy were absent from this assault, which eased him a little, but there was still one undeniable fact that ran through the winter spirit's mind: the damn Guardians had found him again, and they were not going to give him up until he was dead.

Again and again, egg bombs, boomerangs, and sand attacks were flung his way, but Jack remained vigilant and evasive through the air, only having been caught in the nearby colorful blasts of a few egg bombs. Early on, he had decided that staying in the air where only one of the Guardians (the Sandman with his gravity-defying cloud of sand) could directly reach him was his best bet instead of fighting on the ground where both Guardians could take a grab at him.

What will it take, he thought, dodging a golden sand shark diving after him in midair. For these crazy people to stay the hell away from me!? He already knew the answer to that question so there was really no point in initiating in conversation to figure it out; after all, the consequences of him losing this battle had already been mercilessly disclosed to him during the previous one, leaving him fearful for his life no matter what his masked expression currently said.

He seemed to have a grip on the situation, though, and the fact that he was nimbler than he was during their encounter last night seemed to somewhat shock the two Guardians as they struggled to affect him, sharing wide-eyed glances with each other every now and then when he gracefully sidestepped their attacks. They probably expected to face the same winter spirit vulnerable and weak from the injuries he'd sustained; that was the reason, he realized, that there were only two Guardians—they thought they could handle him. Inwardly, Jack laughed; didn't they know winter spirits healed in the cold? Nonetheless, he was very grateful that his body had somewhat healed between their last meeting and now or he probably wouldn't be able to dodge their advances so easily.

Jack couldn't say the same for the two Guardians as he, playing defense, brandished his staff towards an incoming ball of Dreamsand, shooting it down with a blast of cold. The blast quickly covered the ball with crackling frost that, interestingly enough, made the clump explode into a thousand frozen granules. The Sandman startled back while Jack didn't even get a chance to ponder the reason behind the strange phenomenon before an egg bomb grabbed his attention.

Just then, surprise flickered across Bunny's face as Jack, with his staff, artfully hit the egg bomb midair back in the Easter Kangaroo's direction. The overgrown rabbit barely dodged the colorful blast of his own bomb, a loud accented curse escaping him as he did so.

Before he could stop himself, Jack let loose a laugh at the irony followed by a remark. "Woah, cottontail! You actually guard kids with a mouth like that?"

Glaring, Bunny visibly fumed as he stood to his full height, snapping out a remark of his own. "Come down 'ere, and I'll show you exactly what words come to mind when describing you!"

Without another word, the Guardian swiftly reeled his arm back before launching another egg bomb at the winter spirit. Jack was prepared, though, and he mockingly awaited the incoming bomb by posing as a baseball player, his staff acting as a baseball bat. When the bomb neared, Jack swung, sending it flying in the direction of the Sandman who he'd seen from the corner of his eyes silently creeping closer through the sky while he and Bunny exchanged pleasantries. The short Guardian immediately jerked in surprise and backtracked, ducking beneath the bomb to avoid it.

And before the Sandman could recover to release another attack from his golden platform, Jack seized the opportunity to fly above the grey clouds where he couldn't be so easily reached for a while at least.

"Oi! Frost!" A fuming voice echoed from below, "We're not finished with you yet, ya monster!"

Jack ignored the shout and closed his icy-blue eyes to weigh his options instead, letting his mask of fearlessness fall while his heart continued to drum against his ribs. Something had to give, he thought, searching his mind for an answer, this can't go on forever. And then, an idea.

He could run.

He was doing good so far, but how long would his luck last?

It was a welcoming thought that he could easily just run away and hide, like he usually tried to do when faced with a threat. And he so badly wanted to run too, to avoid the confrontation he dreaded was waiting for him down below the clouds. If he did run, however, Jack knew that they would keep coming back until their mission was complete and he was dead, faded into oblivion and nothing but a memory of the Wind. But Jack was so tired of being picked on, threatened, beaten, and thinking that his life could be ended with any encounter. He wasn't a monster, he wasn't a killer, and he was sick of being treated as such.

And, most of all, he was sick of running.

Wind ruffled his silvery hair in encouragement, and an unbelievable anger he'd never felt before had begun to swell within him, an avalanche of rage that made him swear on his existence that he wouldn't go down without putting up a fight.

Above the clouds, the winter spirit straightened sternly while he fumed, his fury growing as he thought of the two Guardians that waited to kill him below for no justifiable reason at all. They thought he was an evil spirit, a monster. If anything, they were the monsters, hounding after a lonely spirit who had done nothing wrong like it was some type of sick game.

His sore bloodied hand, the one that had previously been hit with the boomerang, gripped his staff so hard that his knuckles threatened to break through the swollen skin.

"If they still think I'm a monster," he growled underneath his breath, "then I'll show them a monster."

With his brows furrowed, Jack snapped his cold blue eyes open, a steely glint in them.

His mind was made.

With a sharp battle cry, Jack Frost emerged from the clouds like a living bullet as Wind howled fervently alongside him, his staff raised above his head as he zoomed towards the surprised Guardians standing in the snow and out in the open. Before they could fully react, the winter spirit brought the wooden conduit down in their direction, and a giant burst of ice bolted towards them with lightning-like speed. The Sandman, however, suddenly seemed to be quicker as he directed his sand to form a giant shield above him and his fellow Guardian, much to Jack's vexation.

"Way ta go, Sandy!" The Easter Bunny cheered briefly out of shocked relief as the little man concentrated and held up his arms, Dreamsand surging from them to finish forming the giant sand shield above.

CRACKZZZOOOM

Abruptly, the almighty ice-bolt impacted the shield of sand, shaking the very air itself as it did. To the Guardians' shock, the sand shield began to freeze and burst as ice swiftly spread across it, just like the ball of Dreamsand from earlier. Bunny and Sandy stood there dumbstruck for a moment before shielding themselves from the oncoming shower of frozen-Dreamsand particles that created a hazy cloud around them in combination with disturbed and kicked-up snow, the wind now still and silent.

Without warning, a flash of frost ripped through the thick cloud towards Bunnymund, causing the Pooka to yelp in surprise as he dodged the shot while Sandy released a silent gasp of shock in response. After quickly recovering, Bunny squinted towards the spot where he'd previously been standing to see a tall pillar of jagged ice that had formed as a result of the winter spirit's attack.

"Where are ya, you bloody devil?!" The Pooka bellowed into the opaque cloud, tenaciously gripping his last boomerang as he huffed, the Dreamsand-snowflakes that surrounded him chilling his nose and reminding him of another reason why he hated the cold.

Standing beside the Pooka, Sandy formed two golden whips from his endless supply of Dreamsand, holding them at the ready for any sign of Jack Frost. The two Guardians were back to back as they waited for either the cloud enveloping them to disperse and clear or the winter spirit to strike again, knowing that if they left the cloud blind, they would be at the mercy of the malicious spirit that was undoubtedly waiting for them outside.

After a few moments of squinting through the thick cloud, the vigilant Pooka's ears perked to his left at what sounded like a light crunch of snow—a footstep. He promptly dropped the hint to Sandy by nudging the Guardian of Dreams and then shifting his eyes. Silently, the two Guardians faced the direction that Bunny had heard the noise come from, their weapons readied.

As expected, a skinny silhouette appeared in the cloud; its owner couldn't have been more than a short distance away and looked as though he was trying to peer through the haze just as they themselves had been doing moments before. A fleeting smirk smeared onto the Pooka's smug muzzle while Sandy's expression hardened sternly at the sight of Jack Frost's silhouette. They had him now.

After sharing a knowing glance, the two Guardians simultaneously unleashed their weapons.

"Yes!" Jack fist pumped the air in triumph after seeing that his ice-blast had successfully hit the Sandman's shield of sand which, in turn, had been effectively pulverized.

"Did you see that, Wind?!" He queried with exhilaration. "Oh, it was fantastic!" In response, Wind whirled around the wintry teen in equal excitement before quietening down a bit.

Jack, with an impressed glimmer in his eyes, looked down at his open palms almost as if beholding the power within them. He'd never done that before—he didn't even know that he had the raw power to generate such a huge rush of ice until now. His gaze shifted to the wooden staff that sat in his right, busted hand, and he grinned smugly.

Playing monster—or better yet, Guardian—was fun, to say the least.

Initially, the wintry teen was a little worried that his attack wouldn't work at all when he saw the Sandman quickly form the vast shield. But now, from his vantage point in the sky, as he looked down at the thick particle cloud the two stupid Guardians were shrouded in, he knew that the upper hand was his.

And suddenly, a delightful idea struck Jack.

With a mischievous smile, the winter spirit raised his staff, and scanned the opaque cloud of frozen sand about 30 feet below him. Then, after pinpointing the spot he recalled Bunny standing in before the shield was formed, he brought his conduit down, releasing an ice-bolt in that direction and awaiting the tell-tell response that would indicate to him whether his bolt struck true.

After a moment, when the ice-bolt's impact could be heard and then nothing, Jack's smile widened into something devilish, his teeth sparkling as the sun peaked out from behind the clouds. However, an angry voice yelled back from the cloud below only a few seconds later, "Where are ya, you bloody devil?!"

Jack immediately deflated, whispering under his breath, "Damn it."

The wintry teen proceeded to think about his next move.

Jack knew that he needed to finish this, to end this fight with the two Guardians forever, and if he had to possibly kill both of them to do it then so be it; after all, it was either them or him.

Sighing, he brought his left hand through his silvery-white hair and shrugged while murmuring to himself. "Well, at any rate, there's no use in continuing to shoot blind and letting them know where I'm at…" Besides, he thought, it's better to bring the fight to them, the cloud will provide some cover for me as I look.

With that being said, Jack promptly began to descend to the snowy ground, landing a few feet away from the cloud of frozen sand. With a deep breath, he entered the billowing mass with both his staff and vigilance readied, careful of the sound his bare feet made when sneaking quietly across the cold powder. The brisk air was silent, except for the hum of his own breathing and the deathly-quiet crunch of his footsteps.

Briefly, it surprised him how opaque the cloud was considering it was only made of floating frozen sand particles and some kicked-up snow. Originally, he imagined that it would be a little easier to see through, but noting that he was only able to see a few feet in front of him, he now knew that his expectations were wrong. Regardless, the cloud provided excellent cover for anyone inside the cloud, and the winter spirit was confident that the Guardians had no clue he was in it yet, searching for them.

Suddenly, Jack snapped to his right where he thought he'd heard something, bringing him out of his thoughts while his bare feet clenched cold loose snow below. Ignoring the knots in his stomach, Jack slowly braved forward. His hands gripped harder around the aimed staff, feeling every detail in the ancient wood as he squinted through the haze for any sign of those stupid Guardians.

Before he could take another step, something smacked and curled painfully around his legs, making him gasp just before a rigid object bounced hard off his left shoulder blade, ripping a short scream of pain from his throat whilst his stomach churned from ensuing panic. In the same instant, an involuntary surge of shock erupted from his staff in the form of an ice-bolt, and Jack desperately hoped that it had at least struck one of the two Guardians he knew had found him. While his heart screamed at him to run, to jump, to do anything but stand there, he directed his frantic eyes to his legs to see what exactly was wrapped around them, but whatever it was pulled abruptly, swiftly knocking him off his feet and face forward into the snow before he could get a glimpse.

In a heartbeat, he flipped himself over, his wide eyes shooting to his legs again to find that they were trapped by golden whips made of sand, and almost instantly, the winter spirit sat up and lunged to free his legs from the taut material as if they were scorching his very skin. The winter spirit had barely touched his restraints before the Easter Bunny, on all fours, came out of nowhere and barreled into him, pinning Jack against the ground under his greater size, strength, and weight. With his heart now in his throat, Jack was sure his blue eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared into the narrowed green orbs above. Jack struggled for a moment, trying to free his arms and legs before realizing it was pointless.

Time slowed for Jack. They had him. It just couldn't end like this. And just as the overgrown rabbit trapping him opened his mouth to speak, determination swelled within Jack, and he felt himself scowl defiantly back into the creature's green eyes while the hold on his staff tightened immensely. It just couldn't.

"Gotcha now ya little—"

"NO!"

He had yelled it loudly, loud enough to rattle his own frame, and along with the yell came a blustering wave of winter Wind, strong enough to blow the stupid spirit of spring off of him, sending the creature tumbling several feet behind while the thick cloud enveloping them dispersed and cleared almost completely, littering the sparkling white ground with flecks of shimmering gold.

That'll take care of him for a while, Jack thought, smirking as he looked behind him at the Easter Kangaroo currently lodged headfirst into a deep snow drift. Jack's head then snapped towards the persistent, taunt tugging around his legs.

Since the cloud had cleared, he could now see the Sandman just a few feet in front of where he still sat on the ground. A stern expression was fixed on the little man's face as he held the two golden whips with both hands. With an equally stern expression, Jack let go of his staff, reached for the whips and gritted his teeth as he pulled them towards himself in an attempt to make the Guardian on the other end loosen his grip or let go. It didn't work seeing that the Sandman pulled equally as hard and unrelenting, his feet planted firmly into the snow. Around them, Wind was whipping up copious amounts of loose powder as they continued their tug of war while staring each other down.

After a minute, the wintry teen harshly huffed as he narrowed his eyes coldly; he'd had enough of this. Jack tugged hard at the whips one last time before locking his blue eyes onto the Sandman's golden ones, staring him down with as much ferocity as he could muster. Then, with a voice cold enough to make a summer spirit shake, he demanded, "Let. Me. Go."

Without any hesitation, the stubborn Guardian of sand shook his head as if to say "no" while visibly tightening his grip on the whips. In response, Jack let go of the restraints and simply pointed his staff towards the Sandman, a steely unrelenting glint in his icy eyes as the temperature drastically dropped several degrees, cold air swelling around the end of the conduit. Jack smirked cruelly, but the Sandman's expression remained unchanged until just before the ice-bolt was going to be released when the Guardian's expression curiously changed, making the winter spirit pause briefly as he witnessed the corners of the little man's mouth turn upwards into something insidious.

Before the Sandman's smirk could even be fully deciphered, Jack felt two powerful arms grapple underneath both of his, pulling them back hard enough to make him gasp and his heart to hammer out of surprise. It was all a distraction! Jack inwardly cursed himself for forgetting about the Easter Kangaroo while he proceeded to thrash, shove, and jerk away from the overgrown rabbit restraining him in an attempt to free himself, but the effort was all in vain. However, while he struggled, Jack managed to bend his free hand back as best he could to touch the furry shoulder of the Guardian behind him, vengefully surging frostbite from his fingertips when he finally made contact.

"Sandy! Now!"

Quicker than Jack could imagine, something grainy smashed into his face. Almost immediately following that, his awareness became unfocused, and although Jack didn't want to withdraw his small attack, he could feel the frostbite involuntarily retreat back into his fingertips from Bunny's shoulder.

His animosity and will to fight faltered but soon slipped his mind almost entirely as he blinked once, then twice at the floating, golden particles drifting around his eyes while his vision blurred and darkened. As overwhelming drowsiness continued to wash over him, his body went lax, and he felt his head slump back against something furry before his eyelids drooped closed, an accented voice echoing insidiously in his mind.

"Nighty-night, mate."

Then, there was nothing.

Q&A

These are questions and answers concerning The Serendipity of a Misunderstood Winter Spirit. As a side note, I know some of you are unhappy about the Q&As and after some constructive criticism, I've decided that I won't do them anymore unless there comes a point where everyone is asking the same questions (which I doubt).

Is there a hierarchy in the seasonal courts?

Mentioned a little in Chapter 7 by Sarila, there is definitely a hierarchy in each of the four seasonal courts. Underneath Mother Nature, there is the Supreme Minister of the Season who overlooks their individual season as Mother Nature overlooks all of the seasons among many other things. Beneath that, there is the Seasonal Council which mainly plans their specific season out with the help of the Supreme Minister. Below that are the Heads/Superintendents of the season which pass out orders to individual Seasonals, instructing them how to carry out their work for the season that year. An example of a Head/Superintendent of the Season that has been seen in the AU so far is May Flowers.

Does Baby Tooth know that all of the other mini-fairies have been captured by Pitch?

Although Baby Tooth is connected to Toothiana and the other mini-fairies, she does not know that the other mini-fairies have been captured yet.

A/N:

Oooo, I hope you all enjoyed this long-awaited chapter! Did it go how you expected it? Are you shocked? Angry? Worried? What do you think will happen next? Please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think! Next chapter will be all about Jack and the Guardians! Also, to be more interactive, I'm going to be responding to some of the reviews from the previous chapter:

-FunnyDs1, thanks! I'm so glad you liked it!

-PlaidOtaku, thank you, and about the 'wb t b t' part in Chapter 6, it was meant to say 'What about 1968?', but due to technical errors, it didn't. It should be fixed now, but if it isn't, let me know.

-Yellowmiki98, nice theories! I can see the story going either way, but if you don't mind me saying, one of your theories seems to be true (but only partially). Only time will tell…

-WinterCrystal1009, thanks, I'm happy to hear you that you thought the broken-up thoughts were awesome! And please, if you don't mind sharing, I would love to hear your theories!

-Randomly Talented, pshh, I have no idea what you're talking about, spring and winter together, what? That's crazy talk! And yes, poor Jamie's definitely not okay right now.

And thanks to all the other users who reviewed for Chapter 7! Anyways, thank you all so much for reading and for your support, and until next time, bye!