Hi!:) Chapter 9! Here is the answer to the cliffy! Not much to say here so read on! (SO good to be back XD)

Tooth clamped her eyes shut, ready to endure some sort of pain... but what Evil Jack did was quite the opposite... Jack gently ran his delicate fingers over Tooth's fragile and dazzling sharp wings.

"What a beauty..." Evil Jack whispered.

Tooth blushed and smiled a bit. Evil Jack was charming. Wait, what!? Tooth knew this was wrong, there had to be a catch, this just was to throw her off guard... and indeed, she was right.

Evil Jack then crumpled a part of Tooth's wing abruptly as Tooth let out a sharp and painful cry that made everyone cringe. Jack then glanced at Tooth, "Too bad that they will have to go..." Tooth gasped in horror and turned her head away as everyone else leaned back with eyes closed.

Jack inhaled... and with a yell of effort... snapped Tooth's wings straight off of her bare feathered back.

All everyone heard was a cry. The cry was full of pain, sadness and confusion. It echoed through the walls. Everyone else let out a cry as well when they finally preyed their eyes open to look at Tooth.

She was alright... except that her face was a mirror from tears. And that her back feathers had turned a red wine color and was spreading down her back.

Tooth's wings were gone. Jack had torn them right off of her with his bare hands.

Tooth whimpered and collapsed to the floor, crying and sobbing with pain. Her eyes turned to a glassy pink. The children started to cry as well.

"Tooth!" North and Bunny called but got no answer from the dazed fairy. Sandy made very alarming golden pictures over his head.

Tooth was now afloat in a pool of blood that was oozing from her back. It was a gruesome sight.

Everyone's gaze was faintly on Tooth until they heard another cackle and pop from the fire. Jack had thrown Tooth's precious wings in it. The wings started to wilt and it's rainbow color faded away as well as the wings itself. Jack crouched down next to the fire staring at his bloody hands with a look of satisfaction.

"Oh my god..." Bunny spluttered as he gasped for air. After his lungs were satisfied, he turned to Jack, "OK now, let us go this instant you mad lunatic before I-" Bunny ranted before being rudely cut off.

"Or you'll do what to me? Give me some Easter eggs?" Jack growled. He then wiped off the blood from his hands. "But... I will."

"Will what?" North scowled. Sandy nodded firmly.

"Let you go... for now." Jack claimed as the chains vanished.

The kids ran up to the guardians as Sandy knocked them out with his dream sand. They have seen far too much. Bunny and Sandy carried most of the children while North carried one as he had to spare one of his large arms for Tooth. North tossed a snow globe on the ground making a shimmering portal to his home and hopped through followed by Sandy.

"Don't worry, mate. We'll be back sure enough." Bunny declared as he jumped through the portal last, leaving Jack alone with burned weapons, wings, blood, and a nice touch of fear.

Tooth was unconscious in the infirmary room and the boys had delivered the kids to their homes before their parents to suspect that they were gone. Not in the raging storm that had now turned fatal. It was as if the kids were innocently in their rooms the whole time taking a nap.

The boys were looming over their sadness. About their weapons, Tooth, Jamie and of course, Jack. Something obviously had to be done, but what? As obvious as the question was, it wasn't obvious on how to bring Jack back to normal.

"What do we do?" North murmured knowing the other guys would know what he meant.

Bunny would normally toss around his boomerangs while trying to focus but alas... his boomerangs were not on him right now and probably never will be. "I can't think." Bunny admitted.

"Me neither." North confessed, rubbing his brow.

Sandy floated to the door and nodded out. 'Let's go check on Tooth.' The guys sluggishly started to trudge over to the infirmary room.

When the guys got there, Tooth was on her stomach with bandages all over her back. There were dozens of red dyed cloths, potions, lotions and medication tablets at the bedside table. Even though Tooth seemed zonked out for her limbs were relaxed but her eyes were open and did not blink once.

The boys heart skipped a beat. Was Tooth... oh god... dead? Why didn't the yetis or elves tell them!?

But thankfully, a light moan escaped Tooth's lips. The boys breathed. Tooth struggled to sit up even though the boys protested. She wanted to. Eventually she was sitting up at the edge of her bed. There was a long silence with some eyes darting looks at others.

Bunny grunted. "Well... what the bloody hell do we do!? We are weaponless! Even you Tooth!" Bunny lashed out. He decided to go on, "A-and this here is causing worldwide disasters! When we dropped off the kids... I dunno... the place was a wreck! Sandy is the only one who can fight now but how and-" Bunny barked but was interrupted.

"Bunny, stop! That's not helping." Tooth hissed with fierce eyes. "But your right... what do we do? We have to get Jack back! We just have to!" She said taking on a gentler note only to wail on the last sentence.

North was in a grouchy mood as well. "Look who's talking? How are you always so positive Tooth when you want to save the guy who dislocated your wings right off of your back!?" North scolded Tooth but at the same time admired her positivity.

If she had wings, Tooth would have flown right up into North's face. So instead she clenched her fists. "Don't talk about Jack like that!" She spat, her eyes flashing with anger. North regretted what he just said deeply. After Tooth cooled down a bit, she said, "That's not the real Jack and we all know it... he didn't mean any of it. None of that was real."

Even from the beginning, everyone knew what they would have to do, they just did not want to admit it. They all would have to go back to Pitch's lair and bring back Jack.

Sandy tapped his foot wildly on the ground, making everyone stare at him. They clearly knew that Sandy was motioning for them to go.

"Ok Sandy, but we need to think first." North declared. The guardians clearly had a huge disadvantage. "Tooth, Bunny and I are weaponless. So Sandy, do whatever you can and we will try and help you in any which way possible." North said sternly.

Sandy understood, but... it was going to be hard because he would be the only one able to fight. He had to fight Jack who was powerful, maybe Pitch, and protect his friends. It was a hell of a job but Sandy could not back down now. This was for Jack!

"This won't due, mates." Bunny confessed. "We don't know how to bring him back. And we need more backup, period." Bunny was right, what was the magic word to bring Jack back? And who else could they recruit? They wouldn't make it ten minutes...

The answer for backup, the children.

"The children, maybe they can help us. They are bright and, heck, they probably have more faith than us!" North commented.

"But North! We really can't protect them! What if they get hurt! And I'm sure their already frightened about what they saw and things could get worse!" Tooth tried to reason with the Russian guardian. "And... we have to admit..." She paused sadly. "We already failed our job to protect the children."

That sentence made the room waver slightly for everyone. It was true after all.

North then remember the last battle with Pitch as his expression lightened. "But remember last time, Tooth? Bunny?" North said, turning to the Spirit of Hope. "You said we would protect them... but what did they just say to us in return?" The big man said with a smirk on his face like the Winter Spirit himself.

Bunny managed to pull the first true smile of the day for he knew where North was going with this. "They said that they would protect us... never really thanked them for that, did we?" Bunny chuckled with everyone else.

Sandy nodded and thumbed up for he knew if the children had hope, they would be alright. It was to the sleigh with everyone... it was going to be a very tough journey for the weather had grown dark and stormy due to Jack's new personality.

After some rocky zones and being thrown off course a good dozen times, the guardians made a crash landing into the woods near Jack's lake and Jamie's house where they delivered his friends there as well. Holding hand in hand for balance, the guardians trudged down the main street to Jamie's house. They couldn't be spotted since the weather was so thick with snow... you could cut it with a knife!

Of course, the guardians couldn't just barge through the front door, the parents would lose their mind! So instead, North persuaded everyone to go through the chimney. Not an easy task, but everyone made it down without fault. The parents were in no site. The guardians tiptoed up the creaky stairs and creaked open the door to Jamie's room where he and his friends were just coming to their senses.

It was time to talk.

OK guys... sorry if the story dragged after the guardians got out of Pitch's lair. I too was snoozing reading the end... sorry :p But its over! And I promise next chapter will have it's highlights! And after the next chapter we can get to the stories main focus!XD Hope you all are excited as me!

Anyway, got to go and write!

Peace out!

-SkatingDJ