Chapter Twelve: Who Did It

Jack watched as dawn arrived. He had only one week day and one remaining to restore the memories of the Guardians and his believers. Jack sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere, but maybe the Guardians remembered at least something about him.

Jack leaned against his tree, closed his eyes, and sighed. He was running out of time and he needed to find that seal.

Jack suddenly felt himself being picked up and shoved into a sack. The familiar woosh of a magic portal filled his ears and Jack had never felt so happy to be inside of the crammed red bag. Jack still let out a cry when he hit the hard wooden floor with a thud.

Jack crawled out, stood up, and there they were. The Guardians of Childhood standing right in front of him.

"Uh...hey guys," said Jack. He picked up his staff and swung it over his shoulder. "What's going on?"

"Jack, we have something to say," said Tooth. She looked to the other Guardians and then looked back at Jack. "We may not remember you completely, but we remember enough to see that you were telling the truth."

Jack blinked, surprised. "Wh-what?"

North placed his hands on Jack's slender shoulders. "You vere telling the truth, moy mal'chik. You are Guardian. Ve just forgot."

Jack couldn't believe it. "So, you guys remember everything?" he asked.

Sandy shook his head sadly.

"Not everythin'," Bunny translated. "But we remember enough, Frostbite."

"But we still need to stop whoever did this," said Tooth determinedly. "Did anyone else forget you, Jack?"

Jack shifted on his feet. "Well...I'm pretty sure all my believers forgot me too…"

Tooth laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll fix this."

Jack looked up at her with a smile. Tooth was always so motherly and her words did comfort Jack a bit.

"But first, we need Frosty ta explain what he knows," said Bunny. "It's clear he's been tryin' ta reverse all this from the start."

Jack nodded and explained what he knew so far, adding in the information Tooth had given him when he went to visit her. Jack also mentioned some information about the memory seals that contained the memories, and was sure that whoever caused this was keeping the seal until the spell became permanent.

"Crikey, that's a lot of info," said Bunny.

"Yep," said Jack. "But I still have no idea who could've done this. The Man in the Moon can't do anything because of the constant cloudy weather, and I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the spell too."

"Vell, you did mention Pitch," said North.

"It isn't him," said Jack. "He's under the wipe too."

"So, if it isn't Pitch, but you found nightmare sand next to your tree, then who could've done this?" asked Tooth.

The Guardians stood there for a while, deep in thought. They didn't have much time left before the spell became permanent. After some time, Sandy had a light bulb weave over his head.

"Ya have an idea, Sandy?" asked Jack.

Sandy nodded and put up an image of someone relaxing.

"Rest? At a time like this? Are ya bloody serious?" asked Bunny incredulously.

Sandy shrugged and put up the image of someone sleeping and a brain next to a clock. "We can rest for now and then come up with something later."

While Jack wanted to find the seal right at that moment, getting some rest sounded nice. The winter spirit had been all over the place and had spent the past few days trying to find a way to restore everyone's memories. Jack leaned on his staff.

"Well, a little bit of rest couldn't hurt, right?" said Jack. "Maybe we will think of something after taking a break."

Sandy smiled and then turned to the others. Tooth, North, and Bunnymund looked at each other.

"I guess we could take a short break," said Tooth. "It has been crazy busy at the Tooth Palace lately."

"I don't get it," said Bunny. "We want ta stop our memories from being lost forever and the only idea ya can possibly think of is restin'," said Bunny.

Sandy shrugged again and put up the image of a person resting and then a lightbulb appearing over his head.

"Sandy iz right," said North. "We may think of something while we take break."

Jack smiled. It had been a while since he had spent time with the Guardians, and he was looking forward to doing so at the moment.

…

After resting up a bit, the Guardians were back to coming up with ideas of where the memory seal could be. They knew that they would have to fight their way to get it, but they still hadn't figured out who stole their memories in the first place.

Jack was frustrated. They only had one week before the memories were lost forever, and they still didn't know who caused everything. Jack slammed his staff on the ground, thick trails of frost crawled across the floor. Bunny slipped and fell.

"Oi! Watch it!" he said.

Jack cringed. "Sorry."

Bunny stood back up. "Ya know, getting upset isn't gonna solve anythin'."

"I know," said Jack. "But we only have a week left, so we kinda need to hurry things along."

"You're right, Jack, but we still don't know who could've caused this," said Tooth. "The only clue we have is the nightmare sand you found by your tree. And since Pitch forgot along with the rest of us, he's off the list."

"Ya'd have ta be a drongo ta spell yerself," added Bunny.

"Then who else is there?" asked Jack impatiently. "We're running out of time!"

The Guardians looked at each other.

"Ve don't know," said North. "But ve vill find out soon."

Jack sighed. He hoped soon would be fast. He didn't want anything to happen to his friends—his family. He couldn't bear to go through eternal loneliness after everything that had happened in the past year. All of those special moments, all of the shared memories would be lost forever if they didn't find that seal.

"Jack, don't worry. We'll solve this," said Tooth.

Jack knew that they would solve this, but what if they didn't? What if things went back to the way they were when he was alone, wasn't a Guardian, and had no friends.

"Yeah…" said Jack. "Okay."

North then ushered everyone to his laboratory. Jack didn't even know he had one (he guessed that's why he was sometimes called "mysterious"). North asked if there was still nightmare sand lying around Jack's tree. Jack blinked.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "Why?"

"Because ve are going to examine it!" announced North.

Jack's eyes widened and then he smiled. He quickly flew back to his tree and collected as much nightmare sand as he could. He then flew back to Santoff Claussen carefully, and entered the lab once again. Jack placed the nightmare sand on the table.

"So, what exactly are we gonna do with this?" asked Jack.

"Ve just put it under microscope," said North.

"It can't be that simple," said Tooth. "How exactly is looking at the sand going to tell us who did this?"

"Because what if nightmare sand came from nightmare?" said North. Jack, Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy looked at each other, and then back at North.

"Why didn't I think of that," said Jack as North examined the sand. He then stepped to the side and asked Sandy to take a look since the Sandman was more experienced with nightmare sand and dreamsand. Sandy took a look and then nodded. The sand was indeed from a nightmare, not Pitch.

"So...a nightmare caused all of this?" asked Bunny.

"Looks like it," said Tooth.

"But...which one?" asked Jack.