Author's Note: Life as usual is getting in the way of posting. But finally here is the next chapter! Just a heads up that it is very angsty again. I'm sorry I left you on such a cliffhanger last time but I can't promise I haven't done the same again. Whoops? I wanted to continue on but this chapter is already pretty long. I'll be working on the next chapter but I have no idea when it will be out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I also want to thank my reviewers and follows/favs! I hope I haven't caused you too much distress and don't worry, things will be getting lighter as the story progresses but as we know, the story of Wall-E does have its dark moments.

Chapter Three: Little Light of Mine

It had been the longest night of their lives. That was a thought that was unknowingly shared by Wally, the Guardians, and Pitch. The Guardians had sat watching the flickering light all night and it wasn't until dawn finally broke that it went from flickering to just being dim again. It worried them how dim the once bright light had gotten in such a short amount of time. They couldn't even imagine what Wally must be going through. Tooth had fretted more than ever once she had found out about the light and it wasn't until way past dinner that Sandy had finally realized that Jack hadn't come in at all from outside. With a determined look on his face, the golden Guardian had gone outside to brave the cold and soon returned with an exhausted Jack Frost.

He had carefully marched Jack right past the globe room and off to the bedroom at the Pole that had been set aside specifically for Jack. The whole time they were walking, golden symbols appeared above Sandy's head as he shook his finger at Jack, which was Sandy's way of giving Jack a stern talking to. Jack glanced at the symbols from time to time as they walked, but it was obvious he was too tired to really care much about what Sandy had been saying.

"Everywhere else is so hot," Jack murmured once they reached his room and had gone inside. "Do you think spreading snow outwards will affect the weather?"

Sandy had blinked at that and then uneasily thought about little Wally. It was true that hot and cold clashing made storms.. He only hoped that if that was the case then they wouldn't reach poor Wally. Although it was difficult to say what the weather was really like normally. It could be extremely volatile and they wouldn't know. Sandy shrugged at Jack and pointed firmly at Jack's bed. Maybe the rest of the Guardians were being hypocritical since who knows when the last time they all slept was, but Sandy was determined that the youngest of their group would have good dreams.

With a tired sigh, Jack propped his staff against the wall near his bed and crawled under a thin blanket. The window to his room had been left a bit open to let in the cool air. Before Jack could even so much as tell Sandy goodnight, Sandy had hit Jack with a ball of dreamsand. Sandy couldn't help but let out a small smile when he saw a golden Jack hit a full-grown Bunny with a snowball in the face.

The smile slid from his face, however, when he returned back to the globe room to keep an eye on Wally's light. They could only hope that Baby Tooth would get to Wally in time.

Pitch couldn't believe it. He had spent hours looking for the boy and he hadn't turned up anywhere. Not to mention that there had been a terrible storm that had lasted most of the day and that night. It didn't help that he could only peer out of shadows, getting small glimpses of what was around that shadow. That combined with the rain that kept dripping into his eyes made searching for the boy very difficult. His own fatigue at using so much of his power so quickly and for so long eventually made him return to his vantage point in the truck. He took up a position in a shadow where he could see the truck entrance as well as the wagon with the precious plant on board. However, with nothing to do in the meantime except wait and listen to the rain, the golden eyes soon found themselves closing, and Pitch drifted off to an uneasy sleep as he waited for the wayward boy to return.

The sudden blast of light into his vantage point caused Pitch to give a pained hiss as the golden eyes suddenly opened and squinted. Perhaps being in such close view of the truck's entrance hadn't been such a good idea after all. Thankfully the blast of light had stopped as soon as it started with the sound of the truck's doors closing soon after. The golden eyes blinked and looked to see the small form of Wally trudging into the truck finally. The golden eyes had narrowed as they prepared to give Wally the telling off of his life, but then they paused as they took in the sight of him.

Wally pushed the hood off his head as he trudged wearily into the truck after opening and closing the doors after himself. He had dirt and muck smeared on his raincoat and what little of his jeans had been exposed. He left a trail of muddy footprints over to where his hooks were as he pulled off his pack, raincoat, and boots. He hung the raincoat back up in the corner and then dispiritedly dragged his pack over to where he kept his dwindling food supplies. As he did so, he didn't realize that the golden eyes were silently observing him.

Wally began unloading his pack, first by pulling out what looked to be a small ragged blue blanket. He stared down at it a moment before gently setting it aside on the floor and then began pulling out the packets of BnL Nutritional Cakes he had found. He also pulled out the box of Kremies and set them down near the stack of cakes. Thankfully the Kremies and Nutritional Cakes didn't really seem to get old, or if they did, it didn't affect them much. They had never made Wally or his friend sick and he was grateful for them. He couldn't really remember eating much else anyway.

After he unloaded the food from his pack he wandered over to his shelves but didn't get much further than that as he was overtaken by a coughing fit. Wally patted his chest and then reached for his pocket only to discover that he'd left his inhaler in the pocket of his raincoat! Silently berating himself, Wally hastily jabbed at the button for his shelves and watched them rotate around as he continually coughed and tried gasping for air. Finally, the shelves spun around to his medical supplies and he snatched at a random inhaler. He quickly shook it and then jabbed it into his mouth as he activated it. He coughed for much longer than he usually did and it seemed to take him forever to settle his breathing back down that time. He set the inhaler back on the shelf though, since he knew he'd have to change out of his muddy jeans.

Before he did that, he pulled out the few medical supplies he had randomly found around the city the other day. It wasn't really much, but he knew every bit would help, so he tucked the small bits of gauze he'd managed to find in with his other supplies on the shelves. He looked back down into his pack to see if he had anything else interesting in there, but unfortunately, there wasn't anything. He had only gone out for food and the incessant rain had stopped him from doing any other scavenging. At least his supplies weren't as depleted as they were before and it would be a while before he had to go out looking for food again.

With his pack once again empty, Wally trudged back over to where his muddy boots were and deposited his pack down next to them, careful to keep it away from all the mud. He also shucked off his muddy clothes and left them in a pile in a corner with all his other dirtier clothes. He wandered over to where his stack of fresher clothes was and changed into another pair of jeans and t-shirt before he wandered back to the corner with the raincoat and emptied the pockets. He carefully tucked all the tools back into the pockets of his toolbelt and his inhaler into his jeans pocket.

As Pitch watched the boy go about his business, he suddenly realized that the boy hadn't been lost. He must have gone out on an expedition of some sort for supplies and had anticipated the weather might turn, thus the need for the raincoat and not his usual coveralls. It would also explain why the wagon with the compactor on it hadn't gone with him, the boy would hardly need it to gather supplies, after all.

Wally trudged back over to where he'd left the blanket and scooped it up into his arms. He hugged it close to himself and as Pitch continued to watch the boy, he didn't like the look on the boy's face. He had dark smudges under his eyes as though he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and they didn't seem to have the same spark that they used to. It was as though something had drained all the happiness right out of him. What had happened to him the other day? Had he encountered something?

Still hugging the blanket like a lifeline, Wally went back over to the truck entrance and opened the doors back up. He walked a short distance down the ramp and looked up into the sky, to see that the clouds hadn't gone away. If anything, they seemed to be lingering. Rubbing an eye tiredly, Wally knew that this was actually a good thing since he was all out of drinkable rainwater.

A while later, Wally had dragged all the containers he had to the outside of the truck, just down the ramp. The breeze had started back up and he wheezed and coughed as he moved everything around. Once he had the containers outside, he went back into the truck and picked his blanket back up again. This time he unfolded it and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Pitch didn't like the terribly lost look in the boy's eyes and he didn't like the fact that the boy clung to the blanket like it was something that was so very precious to him. The thing was small, as though it was made for someone much younger and Pitch was starting to wonder just where the boy had gotten it from anyway. With his golden eyes narrowed at the boy, he realized that with all those blasted Guardians so far away and that useless fairy off who-knew-where, it would be up to him to lift the boy's spirits. After all, if the boy completely lost all his hope, faith and belief who knew what would happen then.

Grumbling internally to himself, the golden eyes looked around for something useful. They flitted from shadow to shadow until they locked onto the old VCR/iPod combo and Pitch couldn't help but smirk to himself. Who needed those Guardians anyway? The tricky part, of course, was finding just the right shadow to get into. A single golden eye wound up in the smallest shadow yet and he just barely could stick the tip of his finger out of the shadow to jab at a button on the VCR. With the button pressed, the jaunty tunes of "Hello Dolly!" started playing, the people on the screen happily dancing and singing.

Wally turned to face the screen, the magnifier already in place to help enlarge the tiny iPod screen. He watched the characters dance and he remembered that it was only a few days ago when he'd been happily dancing along with them. Had it really only been a few days? It felt like much longer. Still watching the screen, Wally wandered over to where his thin mattress was still placed in front of the screen and he sat down on it, the blanket still wrapped around his shoulders. If he hadn't been so small, it would look ridiculous for him to do so, but with his small stature, the blanket fit a little snugly, but it still fit.

He watched the people on the screen who seemed to be so happy and he spotted a few of those things in the background.. Trees. He remembered the Boogeyman telling him the other day that if he cared for the green thing, their world could have those things.. Those.. trees. And the deep green on the ground too, that grass. He had been so happy at first when he had heard that, but now..

Now..

He couldn't help but wonder if it would be worth it.

What was the point of making the world beautiful if there wasn't anyone else to enjoy it?

The Boogeyman seemed to be stuck in the shadows and Wally hadn't heard from the Easter Bunny, Santa, Sandman or any of the Guardians in so long, he was starting to wonder if they were even still out there. Not to mention his friend was taking longer than usual to get back.

What if she'd been caught in the storm and -

With a shudder, Wally drew the blanket more tightly around his shoulders.

Golden eyes flitted to a larger shadow and focused on Wally as the fear came suddenly to them.

I don't want to be all alone! I don't want to wind up like them.

Pitch cleared his throat as the golden eyes darted to a shadow that was closer to Wally.

"You know," he started uneasily. He really didn't know how to relate to kids. It was one of the reasons he avoided speaking to Wally very much. He knew how to frighten them, how to get them to imagine their worst fears come true.. But reassuring them was far out of his comfort zone. Once again he found himself internally cursing the blasted Guardians for being stuck in such a useless place as the North Pole. "You did a good job of taking care of the plant the other day. I saw that you watered it. You did a good job of making sure it had just the right amount of water."

Emerald eyes tore themselves away from the iPod screen to look over at the golden ones he just noticed were there.

"R-really?" Wally asked, his voice much raspier than usual. He rubbed absently at his chest. Ever since the other day, he'd been feeling a little off-balance. Usually, his asthma didn't bother him that much, but now it seemed to be getting a little worse. He didn't realize of course, that his emotional state had something to do with it too.

"Yes," Pitch replied a little over-enthusiastically. "In fact, I'm certain it won't be any time at all until the world looks just like it does in that movie. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Wally looked back from the golden eyes to the iPod screen, and his lips turned downward in a frown as his eyes looked sad.

"There's no one here to make it beautiful for," Wally sadly told the eyes. "I'm all alone."

Pitch almost snorted indignantly at that, since what was he, chopped liver? But he refrained from saying anything like that since he knew that berating the boy wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

"Don't you want to make the world beautiful for yourself?" Pitch asked Wally curiously. He always seemed so intent on doing so before. What had changed his mind?

Wally gave a half-hearted shrug at that and looked down at the ground.

The silence stretched out and the silent What was the point? seemed to hang in the air.

Pitch sighed deeply.

"Wally," he said and Wally startled at that, unaware that the Boogeyman even knew his name. "You already know that the world is a harsh and cruel place. Terrible things have happened here, and even more could happen. No one knows what the future will bring. But what I do know, is that you hold the key to saving it. You alone can care for that plant. You alone can make this world as pretty as your movie. You ask why would you want to do it when you're all alone? Well, why wouldn't you? You can experience a world of beauty, a clean or at least, a cleaner world. You'd have a place where you could breathe easier. Even if you are the only person left, why wouldn't you want to create a world where you can experience that? You alone have managed to survive. You deserve to see the world as it was meant to be. You deserve this."

Pitch heard a sniffle and wondered if he had hit the mark. Did the child feel like he didn't deserve a world like that? He couldn't even begin to imagine what all of this was doing to the boy. He himself was having a hard time dealing with it, and he'd been alive for centuries. This boy had barely had a chance to live before his entire world fell apart.

Pitch sighed softly to himself.

What more could he say?

Tears fell down Wally's cheeks as he stared down at the ground unseeingly. He had never had anyone ever tell him that he deserved better. That he deserved a clean world. He never even had anyone tell him it was possible! He always thought it was possible when he was little, but that was only because he was little and didn't know any better. All the adults ever did was yell at him and tell him to get to work. They never said anything to him about the world being nicer. All they did was go to work day in and day out because that was what they were supposed to do. Then when everything went wrong and everyone stopped working, no one paid him any mind. They were all too busy trying to keep themselves alive to worry about a child.

"..I.. I.. w-wish you could be here w-with me," Wally sobbed brokenly, as he drew up his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees. "I.. h-hate being alone.."

The golden eyes looked touched for a moment before they very sadly sighed.

"I wish I could be there too," Pitch whispered to the child. "But you know you aren't truly alone. You have your little friend and you have.. you have.. the Guardians."

Pitch would never in a million years admit to saying that out loud. It almost pained him to admit it to the boy, but he couldn't have Wally completely give up hope. He couldn't have Wally lose the last of his belief. Even if it had been what he craved in the past (and what a fool he had been), he knew it would be the end of himself and the Guardians.

Wally turned his head to the side in confusion. He'd read stories about the Easter Bunny and Santa (and now he finally had that section of the book about Jack Frost) and the Easter Bunny had told him all about the Sandman and Tooth Fairy, and the few kids that had been around when Wally was younger all knew about the Boogeyman, but Wally had never heard them referred to as the Guardians.

"..G..Guardians..?" Wally wheezed as he sniffled. He lifted his head up a little bit and wiped his eyes.

"The Easter Bunny, Sandman, Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and that.. that.. Jack.. Frost.." Pitch trailed off awkwardly at the end as he remembered at the last moment he was talking to a child and calling that blasted Jack Frost names probably wouldn't help anything right at that moment.

"Why are they called Guardians?" Wally asked curiously as he wiped more of his tears away.

"Didn't they ever tell you?" asked a baffled Pitch.

Wally thought back to when he'd first met the Easter Bunny forever ago and remembered when the Easter Bunny had told him about the other Guardians. But the Easter Bunny hadn't called them Guardians. He just told Wally their names.

Wally shook his head.

If Pitch was able to at that moment, he would've smacked himself in the forehead.

Really?!

"They are called The Guardians of Childhood," Pitch explained. "They each guard a special quality in children: Hope, Dreams, Memories, Wonder, and Fun. They are the ones that bring joy to life. They're the ones that bring all the goodness."

Unspoken, of course, was that the Boogeyman only brought fear and nightmares. The Boogeyman never represented anything good.

"..Are they still out there?" Wally asked after a pause.

"I believe so," a surprised Pitch replied.

"But you don't know," Wally said sadly after a beat. "They could've gotten hurt from the storms. They could've..."

Wally trailed off after that and looked back down.

Ah, Pitch realized that was part of what was bothering the boy. He thought the Guardians had perished like everyone else. Didn't he know how foolish that was? They were the Guardians! As long as one little particle of the boy believed in them they'd always be around. Thankfully (or sometimes, in the case of distressed children, not so thankfully) they were trapped at the North Pole. The worst thing that could happen to them there was if Jack Frost got too bored and caused an avalanche.

"..Do.. you want me to check?" Pitch finally asked awkwardly.

Wally gasped and sat straight up as he stared at the golden eyes.

"Y-you can do that?!" he exclaimed in excitement.

Sandy straightened up in his seat as two wishes came to him. He waved frantically at the others to catch their attention.

"What is it?" Bunny asked Sandy tensely. They'd been awake who knew how long, just staring at little Wally's light on the globe. It had stopped flickering, only to be so very dim and then after a little while it had started flickering again. They were all extremely worried about what was going on with the poor child.

Golden dreamsand symbols appeared above Sandy's head as the others tried to puzzle out what Sandy was saying.

"Ah.." Bunny said as he tilted his head at the symbols. Usually, he and the others were pretty good about interpreting them, but he had no clue what Sandy was trying to say right now.

"He said that Wally's wishing he wasn't alone," Jack Frost said a little coolly as he strolled into the globe room. "And that someone else was wishing they could be there too."

The four Guardians all jumped guiltily as they turned as one to face Jack. They had thought to spare him the worry (and hopefully avoid his belief going down too), but now realized that was pretty close to impossible what with them all being stuck together at the North Pole. In truth, Sandy had been hoping that by the time Jack had woken up that Wally's light would be better and they could pretend that nothing had happened.

"When were you going to tell me that his light was going out?" Jack frowned at the Guardians. "Aren't I a Guardian too?"

"Of course you are sweetie," Tooth rushed to reassure him as she stood, her wings fluttering in her nervousness more out of habit since she hadn't been able to fly in years.

"Then.. why?" Jack asked with a sigh as he plopped down in a chair.

"We did not want to worry you," North admitted guiltily. "You already have much on your mind."

Jack ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Bunny's excited shout.

"It stopped flickerin'!" Bunny exclaimed as he hopped in his spot on the couch and pointed at the globe with a little paw. "Wally's light stopped flickerin' and it got a little brighter!"

The rest of the Guardians all had smiles of relief on their faces, but Jack was still frowning at them.

"If you guys kept this from me, what else have you been hiding?" he asked them accusingly.

"We ain't hiding anything from ya," Bunny exclaimed in irritation. "It was just that one thing!"

"Oh right," Jack retorted in disbelief. "I'm just supposed to - "

"Well, well, well.." a smooth voice interrupted silkily. "I leave you all alone for a few years and now look at you. It isn't becoming of the Guardians to be at each other's throats."

"Pitch!" Tooth exclaimed in horror. "What are you doing here?!"

"Ya ratbag!" Bunny exclaimed as he straightened up to his full and unimpressive height. He tried to look intimidating, but even though he was glaring fiercely, it looked about as intimidating as a kitten batting at a piece of string. His fierce look, however, was soon replaced with one of confusion. "What.. wait.. How are ya here?!"

"Is right," North frowned at the golden eyes he noticed that were in the shadow of the globe. "We cannot use our powers. How are you able to?"

"Well, despite all of you only having a few believers to keep you alive," Pitch said as the golden eyes practically smirked at them, "I have plenty of fear at my disposal."

Tooth gave a horrified gasp at that.

"Wally!" she cried out as she stared from the golden eyes to Wally's light on the globe. "No wonder his light almost went out!"

"..What?" Pitch asked in confusion.

"You.. you.." Bunny narrowed his eyes at the golden eyes. "Wally's the only kid left! He's the only person left on the world and you've been scaring the wits outta him?!"

Golden eyes narrowed right back at Bunny's emerald and Jack could swear that those eyes almost looked.. offended.

"Contrary to what you all believe, that child doesn't need me to spread fear," Pitch hissed angrily at Bunny. "Nor is he my only source of it!"

A golden question mark appeared above Sandy's head, but he glanced at the other Guardians as he did so. He had a suspicion on where that other fear had been coming from.

"'What are we going to do if Jack stops believing too?' 'What if I never get back to my googies?' 'What if I bury them all in snow?!'" Pitch mockingly quoted various fears of the Guardians back at them. "I always know what a person's worst fear is. We're the only ones left on this blasted planet! You think I couldn't hear your fears too?"

Sandy's eyes widened at that and he suddenly realized who that second wisher had been. But that wisher.. They'd been wishing to be with Wally too. Did Pitch actually want to help him?

Jack swallowed the lump that had risen from having his worst fear called out like that. He glanced at the others, but they seemed too intent on glaring at the golden eyes to have concentrated too hard on what those fears had actually been.

"Then.. ah.. what are you doing here?" Jack asked him. When the golden eyes focused on him he gave them one of his trademark smirks. "Did you miss us?"

Pitch wanted to reply with a biting remark at that, but instead, he just sighed. Fighting with the Guardians just wasn't the same as it used to be. Not since everyone else on the planet had perished. All the desolation and isolation had kind of taken all the fun out of things. Not to mention he did have a promise to keep.

"Tell me," Pitch replied instead, "Exactly how long have you been trapped here?"

North scratched his head at that.

"Is been years since our powers have gone kaput," he finally admitted.

"And since that happened, have you ever.. oh, I don't know, seen anyone else?" the golden eyes asked them pointedly.

"..Nooo.." Tooth admitted as she drew the word out. "Just Baby Tooth."

"And did you think, perhaps, that.. just maybe it might be hard to believe in something that hasn't been seen for years?" Pitch said exasperatedly. Honestly, were they all really this dense?!

Tooth's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

"Wally's losing his belief in us!" she squealed in alarm as her eyes frantically sought out his lonely light on the globe.

"That still don't explain what yer doin' here," Bunny said to Pitch suspiciously.

"..He asked me if I'd come to check on you," Pitch finally muttered after an awkward pause.

Everyone gave a huge gasp at that and gaped at Pitch.

What!?

Golden eyes appeared in a shadow in the truck much later. The merry sounds of "Hello Dolly!" were the only sounds in the truck, aside from the steady drum of what Pitch assumed was more rain. The golden eyes, which normally would appear to be very frightening in the shadow were softened by a bone-deep weariness that told Pitch he wouldn't be able to play the messenger for a while. He was lucky that he was able to do as much as he did.

The golden eyes looked around what part of the truck they could from their vantage point of being in a shadow on the wall, and soon he spotted little Wally as a lump on the mattress, his wheezy breathing audible from even where Pitch was. The golden eyes watched the boy for a moment. He must have exhausted himself from all that crying and then had become thoroughly overexcited once he had learned that Pitch could see if the Guardians were still alive or not. It was no wonder the boy had fallen asleep.

The golden eyes flitted over to a shadow near the mattress. They watched Wally's sleeping face for a moment, the boy looking much younger in his sleep. Pitch used the last of his energy as the eyes disappeared from the shadow for a moment, to be replaced by slender gray fingers. The fingers reached out and gently brushed Wally's hair, and Wally sighed in his sleep, as the nightmares that had been starting to form were chased away. The fingers soon retreated back into the shadow and the golden eyes reappeared. They started to close tiredly as Pitch lost his battle with sleep himself.

"They're fine," he murmured sleepily to Wally. "As annoying as ever, but fine."

A few hours later, Wally's emerald eyes opened and he sat up as he sleepily rubbed an eye. The little blue blanket had somehow moved from around his shoulders and he had been clutching it in his sleep. He looked down at it sadly, as memories threatened to overwhelm him again. He had taken it in a moment of desperation when he had been more alone than ever, and at the time it had comforted him. Now, however, it just reminded him of times he'd never get back again. It reminded him of when the other workers had been around, and those thoughts naturally went back to the last of humanity Wally had ever seen..

Wally shook his head almost violently as he forced the thoughts to the back of his mind. He let out a half-choked sob that turned into a cough. That cough was followed by another and soon Wally had to fish out his inhaler. He was grateful he had thought to grab it before he'd laid down because he didn't see any golden eyes around to rescue him. Soon he'd triggered his inhaler and after several long wheezy minutes where Wally struggled with the simple task of breathing, the medicine finally kicked in.

Wally breathed a small sigh of relief. He'd never admit it even to himself, but with his attacks seeming to be a little worse, he couldn't help but fear that someday it might be one attack too many. Someday his medicine might not work. Someday he'd..

The golden eyes had woken up upon hearing the sob/coughing fit and were gazing at Wally in some amount of concern. He seemed so fragile to be all by himself. So young to be left to his own devices. Pitch somewhat wished he could drag the boy through the shadows and take him away from this life, as the Guardians had suggested once they'd gotten over their shock. They had been thoroughly disappointed to hear that Pitch didn't have enough power to do that. He'd reminded the Guardians if he could do that, then he'd have left the shadows himself ages ago.

Bah, he was getting sentimental.

Pitch supposed that's what happened when your life depended upon the belief of a small boy, a boy whose belief was as fragile as his breathing. Once the boy's breathing had settled back down, Pitch heard the small fear that was almost whispered to him. The fear that had become more prevalent as Wally's asthma attacks became more frequent. The golden eyes narrowed a little, but they refused to acknowledge the validity of the fear.

It was, after all, a very real concern.

Instead, Pitch cleared his throat and Wally let out a startled gasp.

"As requested, I sought out the Guardians," Pitch told Wally. "And in return, they asked me to give you this."

Wally blinked as the golden eyes that were in a shadow near the mattress vanished, only to be replaced moments later by the very edge of gray fingertips pushing something bright white and square through the shadow. Wally reached out hesitantly and his fingers brushed the square, only to feel that it was a paper of some sort. He gripped the edge of a corner and gently tugged it away from the Boogeyman's fingers.

Soon the golden eyes reappeared and watched the boy unfold the paper that the Guardians had all but demanded he deliver. He had balked at essentially being ordered around since he was the Nightmare King, he didn't take orders! Bunny had resorted to threats and Tooth had turned to pleading, but it was Sandy and Jack that had eventually convinced Pitch to deliver the note. Sandy had shown the golden image of a small boy and then a broken heart to demonstrate the boy losing all belief, while Jack had reminded Pitch that if Wally lost all his belief, then not only would the Guardians would disappear, so would Pitch.

It hadn't taken long for Pitch to reluctantly agree to deliver the letter. When Pitch had taken the note into the shadows, he remembered that the annoying fairy had taken off and hadn't returned so Pitch had inquired about her. He'd been surprised to learn that she had gone to visit the North Pole already and had already left more than a day ago. With how fast she flew, the trip should have only taken her several hours, not several days.

Jack had been especially upset to hear that Baby Tooth hadn't made it back to Wally yet, but Pitch had brushed off his concerns by saying that there'd been stormy weather and she must have been held up by that. Not realizing he'd put a damper on the Guardians' already low spirits, Pitch had soon departed afterward, the exhaustion of using so much of his power taking its toll on him. He'd left while he still could since he did not want to be stuck at the North Pole with all those do-gooders.

Wally unfolded the small square paper to see a hastily scribbled note. There were five sets of different handwriting on it and he read the note with wide eyes.

Wally,

As long as you believe in us, we will be here for you. We might not be able to physically be there for you, but we are there with you in spirit. We all love you and we know that you are strong enough to get through this terrible time. You're such a special little boy. We know your dreams of a clean world will come true, and we are so proud of you for trying to make it happen. Whenever your doubts become too strong, all you have to do is look at the Tooth Fairy's little helper who has decided to be your friend and help look after you.

Love,

The Guardians

Wally traced his fingers over the names that had been individually scrawled under The Guardians and he smiled at the one lone ink paw print he saw underneath all the signatures. Wally's emerald eyes looked over the note a few more times before they lingered on the part about the Tooth Fairy's helper. He had no idea that his little friend had been a helper of the Tooth Fairy's. He hadn't ever questioned what she was, he just knew that she was.

A wobbly smile appeared on his face as he read the letter one more time and he absently wiped the tears away from his eyes. As he read the letter, he felt an almost unfamiliar warmth spread through him.

Someone cared about him.

Maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought.

"Look!" Tooth squealed excitedly as she pointed at the globe.

"I can't believe Pitch did it," Bunny muttered to himself as he stared at Wally's light on the globe.

Slowly but surely it was growing brighter, much brighter than it had been just moments ago.

Even Jack had smiled at the sight of the brighter light as he brushed his own fears away for a moment. But his smile had faded almost as quickly as it had come.

Where was Baby Tooth? Why hadn't she made it to Wally yet?

After several long minutes of staring at the note, Wally had eventually folded it back up and placed it on his shelves with the rest of his collection for safekeeping. He tucked it in with his books, placing the note in the pages of the leatherbound book he had recently acquired, putting it at the beginning of the section for Jack Frost, just to make sure that he wouldn't lose it.

The steady thrum of the rain on the outside of the truck caught Wally's attention and his smile grew wider as he wandered over to the entrance as he pulled the lever to open the door. The sight of all of his containers full of water made him grin happily and he looked over at his pile of dirtier clothes. With a shrug, Wally shucked the clothes he had on and then scooped them up along with the pile of his dirtiest clothes. He went outside to the ramp and laid out his shirts and pants flat on the ramp so that the rain beat down on them. Soon Wally was as drenched as his clothes and he tilted his face up towards the rain, careful to keep his eyes closed so he didn't get water in them.

Golden eyes had moved to a shadow closer to the door and stared in disbelief at the boy who was outside in the rain and seemed to be rather happy about it. From what he had seen earlier that morning, Wally had a terrible time when he was out in the rain the other day, so why was he so happy about it now? Pitch huffed as he watched Wally, but even he couldn't help feeling a little lighter at seeing the boy so much happier now.

That still didn't stop the irritation that flared up as he watched the boy, who appeared to be washing in the rain. He definitely saw the boy rubbing the dirt off his arms and face as the rain completely drenched him.

"Are you trying to catch pneumonia?!" the reprimand burst forth from Pitch before he could even think about it. "Get back in the truck this instant!"

Wally had frozen at Pitch's shout and paused from rubbing a particularly stubborn dirt spot off his arm to stare over at the golden eyes that were glaring at him from the truck. The glare from the golden eyes intensified and Wally gave them a sheepish, yet impish grin as he hurried back into the truck. It didn't take long for him to start shivering and he ignored the muttering he could hear coming from the shadow that the eyes occupied. Soon he had dried himself off as best he could and changed into his last pair of clean clothes. Wally ran his fingers through his damp hair as he watched the rain steadily come down outside.

The rest of the day had passed quietly as the rain continued on. With neither Pitch or Wally wanting to venture out into the rain, they both stayed inside where Wally alternated between watching his VHS tapes and reading his books. He read out loud from a book of fairytales to Pitch, his reading very hit or miss, with Pitch often having to help Wally sound out unfamiliar words. Wally had been taught to read very long ago, but only as a form of survival. It was just very basic things since a BnL Cleanup Worker didn't have to know much. All they really needed was a basic understanding of tools and to learn how to compact trash without hurting yourself. Wally had been one of the few that had developed an interest in reading the books of long ago and his interest hadn't been encouraged.

In fact, he'd often been scolded for bringing books into the BnL Worker Complex since the area around his bed was getting cluttered. If it was one thing he had learned, it was how to be neat. So that was why even though his collecting had taken on a life of its own, he'd set everything up so that it was more or less orderly. Everything he had in the truck had its own special place.

The reading of the fairytales had been interesting since he often stopped and asked Pitch what certain words had meant. His eyes had shone with a light they had been lacking as he imagined far off places full of magic and wonder. After Wally had eaten his dinner later on that evening, he soon found himself lulled to sleep by the merry tunes of his favorite movie. Before he fell asleep, he found himself wondering what it would be like to live in a world like his fairy tales.

His last thought before he fell asleep was that he wished his little friend had been there to enjoy the day with him. He knew she would have enjoyed the stories as much as the Boogeyman.

The next day an amused Wally heard grumbling about how it was far too light outside. He had just opened up the truck's entrance and apparently the Boogeyman didn't appreciate it. He was surprised that the Boogeyman was still there since he usually disappeared sometime during the night. He looked outside to see that the clouds had finally passed and the sun was beating down as it usually did. Wally nodded to himself and then moved his clothes that were on the ramp over so that he could lug some of his containers of water back into the truck.

Unfortunately, that took much longer than he thought it would since the water containers were pretty heavy when they were full. It didn't help that he had to stop and rest quite a bit too. Eventually, however, he got all the containers inside and set off to the side of the truck near his food supplies. He set his lone pot on the hotplate full of water and set it to start boiling. He looked at the pot and stared at it thoughtfully for a minute. This was a task that his friend usually helped him with. She would sit in the truck and keep an eye on the pot and then come warn him when the water had been sufficiently boiled.

Wally heard more grumbling and he looked over at the golden eyes that were squinting against the bright light. With a smile, Wally wandered over to the shadow they were in. After Wally told the Boogeyman his plan, the grumbling had only increased, but the Boogeyman had reluctantly agreed. It had taken puppy dog eyes on Wally's part and him saying how thirsty he was for the Boogeyman to finally cave, but he eventually did.

So that was how Wally found himself all suited up in his coveralls with the pockets of his toolbelt filled with its usual supplies and his inhaler, his boots stomping down the ramp of his truck as he pulled his little red wagon behind himself while the Boogeyman kept watch over his hotplate. Wally ignored the grumblings of how his truck was going to burn down since that was why Wally had asked the Boogeyman to keep watch over the pot.

The sun was fully risen and shining brightly overhead by the time that Wally had made it to the spot where he had decided to compact garbage that day and as he began loading up his compacter with garbage and having it spit out its little cubes, Wally felt himself relax in a way that he hadn't for the last few days. He didn't realize it, but getting out of his routine had bothered him more than he realized. With renewed vigor, Wally continued to compact the garbage as he started another skyscraper. He was determined that this one would be taller than the last.

Several hours later, Wally found himself high up in the air as he panted. He had to stop in his trek up his garbage skyscraper to catch his breath. He had bent over with his hands on his knees and went to straighten back up when suddenly something careened into him with enough force to knock him back into a garbage wall of the skyscraper. He felt a spike of fear before he registered the high-pitched chirping and he realized that his little friend had finally returned. He could feel her soft feathers burrowed into his neck and he patted her gently.

"I'm ok," he told her softly, his voice raspy from his trek and his small scare.

After a long moment, she finally pulled away from his neck and flew in front of his face as she looked at him with teary amethyst eyes. She tweeted to him that she had tried to be as fast as she could, but she had been bogged down by so many storms and -

Wally gave her a half-smile as he listened to her tweeting, not really understanding a thing she was trying to tell him. He had a lot to tell her as well, and he wasn't sure where to begin. For starters, how would he explain how he and the Boogeyman were sort of.. Kind of.. Well, that they got along now? Not to mention he had to tell her all about the green thing! And that he had found her a whole box of Kremies, he knew she would be excited about that.

Baby Tooth paused in mid-tweet to let out a loud chirp as she looked around frantically. She had carried her bag all this way and where had it..?! She finally found it perched on top of Wally's trash compactor, where it had fallen when she tackled Wally. She hastily flew down to it and landed next to it on the trash compactor as she chirped at him and patted the bag that was tied shut.

Wally looked down at it curiously. It was a little larger than most of the other things she brought him and it was certainly more worn and ragged than the others. It was smeared with dirt but the bag remained untorn. Wally decided to take a seat near his red wagon and with fumbling fingers, he pulled the bag into his lap and untied the end, which had been tied shut in a big bow. He was surprised when he opened the bag to reveal several things, two of which immediately stood out to Wally. He had the bottle of water open faster than Baby Tooth could blink and took several long gulps before his coughing forced him to stop.

He managed to put the cap back on before he spilled the water and had to use his inhaler so he could stop coughing and breathe normally. He gave his little friend a sheepish smile when she tweeted with concern at him.

"Sorry," he said guiltily to her.

He helped her to a little of the water too and then opened the strange plastic square that he saw. It made a funny noise as he pried one end open and saw something square and white inside. He pulled one of his gloves off and poked at it with a finger to find it felt strange but soft. He reached his hand inside the plastic square and tugged on the white square inside. To his surprise, it split right in the middle and half of the thing came out of the plastic square. He stared at it in confusion. He saw it wasn't just one white thing, it was two white things held together somehow. He pried it apart to see that there was a strange mixture of light brown and purple on the inside. He put the two halves back together and then glanced at his little friend.

"What is it?" he asked her.

Baby Tooth just gaped at Wally for a moment, since who didn't know what a sandwich was?! But then she realized that Wally had probably never seen one before, or at least, not for a very long time. She recalled that he usually ate those dreadful BnL Nutritional Cakes and that she hardly ever saw anything perishable around. Of course he wouldn't know what to do with it.

She gave him a kind smile and then flew over to land on his knee. She plucked a small corner of the sandwich off and then gobbled it down to demonstrate to Wally that it was alright to eat. She made sure to keep the smile on her face, but the truth was it had taken her so long to get there that the sandwich was a little mushy by now and not exactly at its best. She supposed it was better than what Wally had been eating though.

Trusting his friend, Wally took a big bite of the sandwich. The texture felt strange and the inside of it was oddly sticky and sweet. A smile lit up his face and soon he had the rest of the sandwich gobbled down. To his delight, he found several more of the soft things in the plastic squares tucked inside the bag. He pulled out the next treasure, which was a small golden bag. This too was tied shut, so he opened it and peered inside. He was disappointed when all he saw was what appeared to be sand. He tilted the bag towards his hand and the shrill tweet of his friend distracted him.

"..Huh?" Wally half-asked, half-stated in confusion.

He couldn't understand why she was suddenly so frantic -

Some of the golden dreamsand had poured from the bag and as soon as it touched his fingers, he felt his eyes drift shut against their will. He slumped and fell over sideways, one arm dangling off the edge of the path he'd created on the skyscraper as a golden dream formed over his head. The bag had fallen near his other hand and thankfully not much of the golden sand had spilled out.

Baby Tooth flew over to it and hastily tied it shut again before she looked over at Wally worriedly. For a moment she had been certain that he was going to fall off the edge of the skyscraper. She patted her chest with a wing in a move oddly reminiscent of when Wally did it to try and calm his breathing. She breathed out a sigh of relief and then checked to make sure the other bag was alright as well. She saw that it had fallen out of Wally's lap but otherwise looked fine. She looked over at Wally and smiled at him fondly, seeing that he was sound asleep with his wraparound sunglasses askew. She wandered over to the collar of his coveralls and snuggled in by the joint of his neck and shoulder. She closed her eyes wearily and settled in for a long nap. She knew it would be hours before Wally eventually woke up from his dreamsand sleep.

By the time Wally had woken up again, it was afternoon. He sat up and sleepily rubbed an eye, nearly knocking his wraparound sunglasses off his face. He adjusted them and looked around in confusion. Why was he up so high? He heard a chirp in his ear and a big grin spread on his face as he remembered that his little friend was there with him. He could feel her uncurling from where she had fallen asleep and he gently reached a finger to where he felt her and pet her on the head. She, in return, crawled out from under his coveralls and flew down by the bag she had carried all that way. She eagerly patted it with a wing and Wally remembered that he hadn't seen all the bag's contents yet.

He looked down at the bag, but then looked at his skyscraper. From where he was it looked like he was high in the air, but really in comparison to the other skyscrapers, he had hardly begun. Feeling a little guilty, he gathered up the empty plastic square that had once housed the soft sticky thing he had eaten and the water bottle. He put both of those things along with the bag next to his trash compactor in his red wagon. Next, he reached down for the golden bag, but his friend tweeted in alarm and made sure she tugged on the strings to make sure the bag was closed first. Then, just to be on the safe side she picked up the string in her beak and flew it into the wagon herself.

"I'll look at the rest later," Wally assured her with amusement as he stood and stretched.

He wasn't sure why, but he'd had the most fantastic dream. He also felt completely rested for once, instead of tiredly waking up after a night filled with broken sleep. He glanced at the golden bag and wondered if it had anything to do with the Sandman. That would explain why he'd fallen asleep so quickly. Making sure he had everything in his wagon, Wally grabbed the handle of his wagon and then started to pull it carefully back down his skyscraper. After assuring herself that Wally's trinkets were alright, Baby Tooth flew up to sit on Wally's shoulder as she so often did.

Wally had wandered off from his skyscraper and had started rummaging in the trash in his meandering way. He had already lost so much trash compacting time, and it was more or less the time of day that he'd stop for a break or stop to find more treasures in the trash. He had wandered very far off from where he had originally started and was examining a strange furry creature of some sort when he heard a loud.. rumbling?

Wally blinked and looked up. The sky above him was pretty clear, but he still couldn't explain what the noise was. It sounded similar to the thunder from storms but it was still different somehow. His little friend tweeted her confusion and Wally paused as he looked all around. He dropped the handle of his little red wagon and set the furry thingy he had been looking at down nearby. To his friend's alarm, Wally began to walk towards where he thought the noise was coming from.

"I have to see," Wally said simply to her, but she was having none of it.

She flew into the air by Wally's collar and tugged on it as hard as she could. Wally gently waved his hand nearby her to get her to stop and he shot her a look behind his wraparound shades.

"I'll be fine," he told her. "It's probably nothing."

Baby Tooth had been forced to let go of Wally's collar as she dodged out of the way of Wally's hand. She had been forcibly reminded of a time so very long ago of an impetuous Jack Frost who had wandered off one terrible Easter night to investigate something strange. Baby Tooth's face fell as she remembered just how well that turned out, but soon it changed into one of determination as she flew after Wally.

She wasn't going to let things turn out bad this time.

Sandy was sitting on the couch by Bunny in the globe room still, as he cast an amused look around the room. It had taken him a few minutes after all the excitement died down to realize that he didn't actually know when the last time they had all slept was. Wally and Jack were their only believers and none of the Guardians could actually leave the Pole, so they had little to do. It was easy to forget about their own needs in favor of watching out for Wally on the globe or else making sure that Jack was happy.

They had always put the needs of the kids first, so it was only natural to want to do so now. But Sandy had noticed what the others had not: the dark circles under the Guardians' eyes and the litter of mugs and remains of snacks around the room that indicated that they had all spent far too long there. So Sandy did what he did best, he formed a ball of dreamsand and threw it in Bunny's face.

Bunny had let out a startled "Wha?!" before he fell over with golden carrots floating above his head.

North had chuckled merrily at that and had started to tell Sandy that was a good one when he, too, had been hit with dreamsand. Tooth had started to look nervous and insist that Wally needed them to look out for him still, but Sandy just shook his finger at her maternally before he knocked her out too.

Soon he was surrounded by a sleeping pile of Guardians and a Jack Frost that had a huge grin on his face at the sight of them. He hadn't been hit with dreamsand since he was the only one there who'd actually slept the night before.

"They're going to be mad when they wake up," Jack said teasingly to Sandy, but the huge grin on his face told Sandy that he was more amused than worried about it.

Sandy shrugged and then let out a small yawn. He was pretty sleepy himself, but someone had to stay awake to be with Jack. Sandy watched Wally's light on the globe. It was shining brightly now, though not quite as brightly as it did when Baby Tooth was there.

Jack's smile faded a bit when he looked over at the dark corner where Pitch had been. He hadn't realized that Pitch Black of all people had been with little Wally. None of the Guardians had spared Pitch much thought, if any, over the years they'd been stuck at the Pole. They didn't know where Pitch had wandered off to or if he'd been stuck out in the elements. Jack remembered though, that Pitch had his own globe just like the Guardians'. He'd be able to see Wally's light and had probably gone off to investigate.

Jack shivered as he remembered Pitch saying how he always knew a person's darkest fear. Had he sensed Wally's fear? Wally was probably pretty scared when Baby Tooth wasn't there with him. It probably shone out to Pitch like a beacon in the darkness. They'd all been shocked when Pitch had confessed that he'd only come to the Pole because Wally had asked him to.

When Jack and the Guardian's had finally realized that Pitch was able to use his powers, they'd all but begged Pitch to grab Wally and bring him to the Pole. Pitch had finally grown tired of the cacophony and snapped at them that he couldn't. The angry glare from the golden eyes had been enough to finally get them all to quiet down, but not enough to get them to stop talking. Tooth had finally been the one to beg Pitch to send a note to Wally from them and Pitch had let out a huge sigh as though it was such an inconvenience to him, but he had agreed pretty quickly.

Jack frowned a little as he thought. Was Pitch just as worried as the rest of them about Wally's belief fading? Pitch had always been so indifferent about it, but.. what had changed now? Maybe it was because Wally was the only person (as far as they knew) that was still alive out there. After all, Sandy had told them when people's wishes had become less and less until he only heard Wally's wishes along with a mysterious wisher, the Guardians and Jack. Had the mystery wisher been Pitch all this time?

Who knew that Pitch Black even had any wishes?

"Can we trust Pitch?" Jack asked suddenly out of the blue.

Sandy gave Jack a startled look since his eyes had been starting to close as he gazed at the globe. He'd had one long blink too many and was on the verge of joining the rest of the Guardians in a nap when Jack had spoken. He shook the sleepiness off as he considered Jack's words. He gave Jack a so-so gesture and a small shrug.

Jack's frown deepened as he tried to figure out what Sandy was saying.

"Uh.. so.. not completely, but.. kinda?" Jack guessed. "Maybe?"

Sandy nodded in agreement at Jack's guess. Golden dreamsand symbols formed over his head to indicate that Pitch obviously didn't want anything to happen to Wally either, so as far as that went they could probably trust Pitch. Unsaid was that in any other matters they probably couldn't trust Pitch as far as they could throw him.

"Right," Jack said a little uneasily.

He didn't really like it that Pitch was the only one who could be there for Wally. He wished more than anything that he could fly farther out from the Pole, but he hadn't made much progress the other day. He'd been able to expand his storms, but altering the temperatures so drastically from one extreme to the other was very difficult. He was pretty sure that most of the snow he was sending out beyond the Pole was becoming rain anyway. He also hadn't said anything to the other Guardians, but the storms he had managed to spread were wildly unpredictable. Usually, his control was pretty perfect. He'd had centuries upon centuries of practice, but now his powers seemed to have a mind of their own.

The blast he'd unleashed when he was trying to spread the storms had been.. frightening. He'd told himself it was just because he wasn't used to doing anything large-scale with his powers anymore, but he wasn't sure. With a sigh, he tried to focus back on Wally's light on the globe.

A snowflake landing on his own nose told him that he hadn't been as successful at hiding his upset as he thought and with a sheepish look at a concerned Sandy, he quickly waved his staff to stop the accidental snow in the globe room. The look had morphed into a smirk though when he laid eyes on the adorable sleeping form of Bunny.

"Hey Sandy," Jack said as his smirk widened. "Want to have some fun?"