Shout-out to ElektraVamp05 for guessing the method of transmission of belief! (Also, along with portgas d ace forever, is the source of my reviews, and therefore very beloved. ^_^)

It occurs to me after the last bit of the note last chapter, I sure reassure you: there is fluff, smut, and hurt/comfort to come. Just far more plot bunnies showed up and danced around the Warren than expected. And the end of this chapter is rather heartbreaking.

Jack and Aster visit Jamie to get to the bottom of Jack's surge of believers. Surprised (and a bit confused) at the method, they call a meeting of the Guardians to discuss what, if anything, should be done about it.

(-)

Guess what
You got more than you bargained
Ain't it crazy
You got more than you paid for
So give me just one more chance
One more glance
One more hand to hold

Another Believer- Rufus Wainwright (Meet the Robinsons)

Jack knew that Jamie was by the pond again. He had an innate link to his watery grave that had informed him when Jamie fell in, so he could tell the boy was back at the pond. When Aster and Jack emerged from the tunnel, they saw him sitting at the edge of the ice, right by solid ground. Good to see him being careful, although Jack had frozen the top half of the pond solid. Aster also noted that he had one of those "computers" sitting on his lap.

"Jamie!" Jack called. The boy jumped and set the computer down on the ground to clamber to his feet and run at Jack.

"Jack! You're okay!" Jamie wrapped his arms around Jack, hugging him tightly. Aster saw Jack's breath catch.

"Me? You're the one we should be worried about. How are you feeling?" Jack stooped down to hug the boy back.

"Mom thought I was getting a cold and kept me home from school, but I snuck back out here. Sometimes the others will come with me, but it's usually just me." From over Jack's shoulder, Jamie finally spotted Aster. "Hi, Bunny! Thanks again for saving me."

Aster smiled. "You know I'd never leave you hanging."

Jamie let go of Jack, only claiming his hand as Jack stood back up. "Is that why you guys came? To check up on me?"

"Partially, but we also think you might be able to solve a puzzle we've got about Jack." Something in Aster's tone must have sounded slightly accusatory, because Jamie looked apprehensive and held on tighter to Jack's hand.

"About Jack? What's wrong?"

"Jack keeps losing control of his power, and we realized today that he has far more believers than just you and your friends. He says he can feel them all around the globe. He hasn't been trying to spread his influence, so I thought you might have some idea how belief in him is spreading." Aster said it as gently as possible, not wanting to frighten the boy.

"Oh," Jamie said, looking up at Jack then down at the ground. He didn't let go of Jack's hand, though.

"How did you do it, Jamie?" Jack asked, squeezing the boy's hand reassuringly.

Jamie pulled them back over to his laptop. "It isn't just Jack…though most of it is. I just never wanted him to be forgotten, invisible ever again. He's so cool; everyone should know about him."

Jack's smile was almost blinding, and before Jamie could touch his laptop, Jack had scooped him up and flown him up in the air, touching down after one loop-de-loop. He was hugging the boy when they landed. Jack set Jamie down, holding his hand again as the boy regained his balance.

"Thank you, Jamie. In three hundred years, I never dreamed I'd meet someone like you."

Why, yes, that was jealousy creeping through Aster. It was ridiculous to be jealous of a little boy, one Aster protected and considered a friend. But Jack was good at making Aster feel all kinds of things he shouldn't. Things that were going to hurt in the long run.

"Let me show you what I've been doing," Jamie said, letting go of Jack to pick up the laptop. He sat on the cold ground and showed them the face. Screen? Aster was too old fashioned and old to pick this stuff up easily. He lived in a literal hole in the ground.

Aster could read though. "Wait, what's this in the corner?"

It had numbers next to the names of all the Guardians. North was first, then Aster, then Tooth, then Sandy, then Jack. "Oh! That's my 'Believers Poll'. They can check off which of you they believe in. Unfortunately, Jack is still behind the rest of you by a lot, but he's gone up a lot since I first started the site."

"What is on the site that's making them believe, Jamie?" Jack asked gently.

Jamie sounded shy again. "Stories. About how I met you guys. Stories that you told me, Jack. But I make it clear that the stories are real; I met you guys and you exist."

Crikey. The kid was telling the world about them. Aster wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or not. They operated on belief, not secrecy, but at the same time, they already had their way to collect believers. Aster never realized until he thought about it how many believers he'd gained. He'd bet that North and the others hadn't noticed either. Like him, they would have put it down to redoubled efforts to recover from the Pitch Crisis.

Aster looked at the poll. Over three thousand children claimed to believe in Jack Frost. That meant Jack's out of control power was justified. It was still worrisome how much power he had, compared in scale to Aster's believers and relative power, but at least now they knew the source.

As Aster read along to the tale of his heroism in saving Jamie from drowning, he puzzled over what to do about this. The other Guardians needed to know, of course. But how were they supposed to explain it when Aster didn't fully understand the mechanisms himself?

"Jack, I think he needs to come with us to the Pole. Or we could summon everyone to the Warren. I can't explain how this works, and the others need to be aware of this."

Jamie looked between Jack and Aster somewhat fearfully. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Nah, not wrong, mate. But you did something important, and it affects all of us, so we need to let everyone know. Yer not in trouble, Jamie."

"But your taking me to a 'Warren'? Is that like a prison?" Jamie looked very nervous and was clinging to Jack.

Aster chuckled. "Not like a 'warden'. A rabbit 'Warren'. My Warren, Bastion of Springtime and where I live."

Jack put an arm around Jamie. "It's really cool. I've been helping get it back to rights after that Easter with Pitch, but it's still incredible and amazing."

And, yes, Aster internally preened at Jack's description of his home. "Yer little sister found her way there that Easter. Little ankle-biter had the time of her life."

Jamie smiled tentatively. "That's why she was dead to the world on Easter? Mom thought she was sick." He looked between Jack and the rabbit. "I'll go with you. I trust you."

Jack saw Aster about to tap his foot and said, "Wait! That laptop needs something to protect it. You send him flying down the tunnels and it'll break."

Huh. Of course the Snowflake hung around humanity enough to pick up things about their crazy technology. "How do you suggest we get him there, then?"

"I have a backpack with a protective part for my laptop." Jamie reached to grab a tan backpack and slid the laptop in.

"Wear it backwards," Jack said. "It's a fun trip down to the Warren, but still too bumpy for that to survive."

Jamie obeyed, and Aster waited for Jack to nod before tapping his foot. The ground went out from under the boy and spirit, and Aster hopped in after them. He easily overtook them and was waiting when they came sliding out. They were both still laughing.

"That was awesome!" Jamie cheered as he got to his feet.

"Right?" Jack said in agreement.

"Welcome to the Warren, kid." Aster knew it was still a bit wrecked from the Nighmares destroying everything in the tunnels before attacking the actual Warren itself.

Jamie looked awestruck all the same. "You live here?"

"He's got a Burrow where he actually stays. But this place is awesome, right?" Jack asked.

"Totally!" Jamie started to wander a little, taking things in.

"T'be clear, mate, I don't want my home ending up on your…site." Aster thought that's what they'd called it.

Jamie whirled to look at him, eyes innocent and contrite. "Of course not! Just tell me, Bunny, and I'll keep it a secret all to myself."

"He gets it, Jamie." Jack got closer to Aster. "Where do you keep your globe and fancy tile floors and knobs to summon the others?"

Aster snorted. "Special grove. But I don't think I'll be using a knob. I don't want them to panic."

Instead, Aster squeezed a flower to produce an egg. Aster tapped to open a tunnel to Tooth Palace and dropped the egg in, legs wiggling. He repeated it for the Pole and for the Sand Castle. The holes stayed open and it didn't take long for the others to arrive. North came first, arriving with a boisterous laugh. Sandy floated out with nothing more than a soft rustle of sand on sand. Tooth came zooming out of hers, accompanied by five fairies, one of which immediately went to Jack.

As soon as North got his bearings, he spotted Jamie. "What is Last Light doing in Warren?"

Toothiana had been buzzing about giving orders to her fairies but fell silent as she looked at Jamie. Sandy had a question mark form above his head.

"Have you summoned Jack?" Toothiana asked. "Jamie is his first believer, you know."

"How do we summon Jack?" North asked. "He has no base to contact him at."

Jack cleared his throat. He was standing behind where they'd arrived, and Jamie had caught their attention, so they failed to notice his chill. When he saw how shy and uncertain Jamie looked, Jack went to hold his hand. "Already here. And something…unprecedented has happened." He nodded to Aster, since it was his home.

"You all felt stronger, more believed in lately, right?" Aster asked. When the three Guardians nodded, he said, "Did you stop to think about how many new believers you've gained?"

All three shook their heads and frowned. "It's-" North began.

"A lot," Toothiana finished. Sandy had a number counter running over his head.

"Same here. And Jack has over three thousand believers now. He can't contain all the power he's gotten." Aster pointed to where Jack had tried to wear himself out.

Toothiana gasped. "What happened?"

There was splintered, split, and twisted wood, and cracked stone where the targets had been. "That's five or six hours of non-stop, powerful blasts of ice in the Springtime of the Warren. Hardly winded him."

The three newly arrived Guardians looked at Jack with various degrees of excitement, admiration, and some healthy wariness. "Where did you get these new believers, Jack?" North asked.

"Same place you all got most of yours: Jamie." Jack squeezed the boy's hand.

Under the scrutiny of the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Sandman, Jamie shrunk and wrapped his arms around Jack. "I'm sorry."

Aster hopped over to stand next to the boy as well. "Don't be sorry, mate. We just need you to help them understand what's happened."

Jamie told them how he'd written down the stories about all of them and posted them on a site online. It took time to get the concepts through to the three ancient beings, and Aster was still a little confused himself, but the gist of it got across, most importantly the part that had people all over the globe suddenly believing in them. It wasn't even all children.

When Jamie finally got out his laptop to show them the site, he said, "Oh, no!"

"What?" Aster asked, alarmed. This fragile and confusing new concept was volatile in his mind, dangerous. For all he knew it might blow the Warren sky-high.

"It makes sense, but there's no Wi-Fi here. I can't show you the whole site."

"Why what?" North asked.

"Wi-Fi. It's what computers use to connect to the Internet if they don't have a hard connection." Jack was casual about it, but everyone, Aster and Jamie included, looked at him like he'd grown another head. "What?"

"I didn't think you knew so much, Jack. I mean, you've obviously kept up with me, but…" Jamie seemed impressed.

"You know how these things work, Jack?" Toothiana asked.

Jack sighed. "Three hundred years alone, people. I can't freeze everything constantly, or it'd get boring. So I learn. It can be fun, if it's something I'm interested in."

Aster hadn't known that. "Point of all this is, we have a new channel bringing believers our way. Not sure what, if anything, should be done about it."

"Well, we have a few options. We could let it go, let what happens happen." North was the first one to suggest that.

"We could ask Jamie nicely not to write anymore," Toothiana said, though Jamie winced at the suggestion. Clearly, he didn't want to stop spreading belief.

A few symbols appeared over Sandy's head rapidly, and Aster said, "Sandy's right. We could use it. If Pitch's plan proved anything, it's that we've become predictable, and he knew just how to cut off our belief."

Jack nodded. "Bunny has it right. The internet is viral; ideas spread and they never get fully extinguished. Jamie's come up with a failsafe to keep us going in case of emergency."

Jamie murmured something only Aster understood, but everyone got quiet so he could repeat it. "I really mainly did it so Jack will never be invisible again. Even after I grow up…even after I'm gone…he'll always have someone to believe in him."

The group went silent as tears flowed down Jack's face in a sudden flood. Jack probably hadn't thought about how Jamie wouldn't be a kid forever. How he wouldn't live forever like they did. Jack knelt to hug Jamie, shaking with silent sobs.

"I'm sorry, Jack. Don't cry," Jamie said, but tears were sliding down his face as well.

Aster's heart was breaking. Poor Snowflake had seen countless humans live and die, more closely than the rest of them, but Jack had said it himself: in three hundred years he had never met anyone like Jamie. And he knew he'd never meet someone as special as Jamie again.

Toothiana was ushering them to a secluded grove, including Jack's Baby Tooth, trying to give the boys some privacy. Aster went along, but his ears heard it all. "You're not supposed to leave me, Jamie."

"I have to. It probably won't be for a long time, but…can I even see you once I grow up? Even if I believe? I just don't want you to ever feel that alone and ignored again. You're too important, too special to be forgotten.

"The same goes for you. You can't just leave and never come back."

"…When Grandma died, they told me she wasn't dead, not completely. She's not dead, because I remember her. She's always alive when I think of her. You told me that I was a Guardian too, because my belief in all of you kept you safe inside me. I know you'll always keep me safe, Jack. Always."

Jack was outright sobbing. It didn't take Aster's ears, the others heard it too. The solemn mourning on their faces no doubt mirrored Aster's. They'd all met someone special. They'd all lost someone special.

It was a brave little boy comforting an immortal being about the boy's own mortality. Aster didn't think Jamie should be thinking about anything like that at his age, but from what he could tell, it was all stemming from Jamie's love for Jack. Jack's True Believer loved him enough to secure a legacy for the spirit before the boy was even close to puberty. It was as heartbreaking as it was heartwarming, but all Aster could think was that Jack had a new round of nightmares to add to his collection.

If you remember me, everyone else can forget

Everyone else can forget

Tell them I have nothing, nothing

Cause I'd rather go blind

Than watch you walk out of my life

Turn my face up to the sky

You know we all, we all, we all, we all cry

Heart on the line for the love we've left behind

I can't let you go this time,

[Oh, I know you hear me cry]

Cry- Eurielle

(-)

That got super-sad out of nowhere. Well, I wrote this late at night, when my meds aren't working, so I was crying through the whole thing too. Dehydration headache.

So, we've gotten pretty sad and this isn't even the plot developments. This is spontaneous unplanned angst. Let me know how you feel about all this.

Also, when I first put the second lyric quote, I thought it was Jamie, saying that Jack remembering him is all he needs. But when I read the whole thing again, I realized it's Jack saying that he doesn't need anyone else to believe in him but Jamie if it meant Jamie didn't have to leave him. :C