Summary: Slightly AU, set somewhat if in the middle of the movie, it took a different turn. Mentions of Dark!Jack. And a much more evil Pitch.

In order to once again claim the world, Pitch had to trick a winter sprite into falling under his control. The Guardians had been too focused on themselves and their duties, and had not caught onto Pitch's plan until too late and are now paying the price. The remaining Guardians must now hold on to the one called the "Shadow Creeper" until they can find Nightlight, the one The Man In The Moon has told them to temporarily recruit.

But little do they know she is a target for Mischief. And who is hellbent on capturing her.

*Jack/OC
one-sided Tooth/Jack
maybe Tooth/Bunny

T for language and mentions of death. May be rated M later for future mature content and maybe graphic writing.

Listen to: "chained" by the xx

Ch9:Monachopsis

(noun) 1. The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

After descending the elevator, Shadow let Sandy lead her away and they followed the other Guardians into another large room. To be honest, she could care less at this point and glared at Bunnymund's back. She has lost all motivation to help them nda knew the large rabbit didn't like her anyway—that much was apparent. And frankly, she wasn't very fond of him either.

The Guardians descended the elevator-like machine to the main floor and past the giant globe was a large room which seemed to lead into a library. North didn't bother closing the door that lead back to the giant globe and Shadow was ushered to a chair.

She slumped down with a heavy sigh. Sitting back and arms crossing, she watched the Guardians back off to gather in a little huddle to converse right outside the doorway. And Shadow convinced herself that she didn't feel left out. At least they didn't tie her up again.

But why would she feel left out? She was here against her will anyway.

"What do you think we should do with her?" Tooth asked. "Surely Jack would come back. And we might need her."

"Well I still say we should bring the others in," Bunnymund put in.

Shadow barely caught this, eavesdropping.

"Agreed," North added.

"Who do you think we should call? Katherine? Ombric? Cupid or Mother Nature?" Bunnymund asked.

North stroked his beard, thinking. Sandy twinkled and North's eyes sparkled at an idea. He exited the circle without answering and Shadow watched the backs of the other Guardians as they followed North back out the large globe.

Shadow slumped her head in her hands. This wasn't going to end was it, she wondered. She knew she should have just left that night, then none of this would be happening.

She wondered if there was a way she could escape...

Outside the room and back at the base of the giant globe, North walked over to one of the many control panels. "I think Katherine, Cupid, and Ombric would need to know. The New Year Dragon, The New Year Baby wouldn't be much help. And Mother Nature doesn't need any disturbance."

Bunnymund mumbled something bout being happy the leprechauns weren't brought into this.

Tooth spoke up, "I don't think the Summerlady would be of use, would she?"

North shook his head and pressed the necessary buttons and then a large lever that would call the necessary guardians. He admitted he didn't know where Ombric was at the moment, once the wizard had left a few days ago. He hoped Ombric would be able to hear the signal.

North glanced over his shoulder and called for Shadow to stay put where she was—not like she really had a choice. She couldn't escape with where she was now and all of them right outside the door. She would have swords pointing at her neck just like Jack had.

Shadow's eyes looked to a corner in the ceiling and the light patch of darkness there.

She wondered why Jack had come in the first place—why he had truly came—and she now knew it surely wasn't for some place in Paris. So far until now she's never had a necessary negative encounter with the sprite—nothing too bad; nothing that she could remember. But after having his hand on her throat like that, she was beginning to see that what the others were saying. Never had she had to deal with someone seeming to want to have her dead...

Shadow was really on edge now.

A minute of so of solo later she heard a thump outside the room and the chatter picked up.

Shadow furrowed her brows.

Outside, the other Guardians watched as a giant goose flew in from the large windows Sandy just opened, and a girl slid from its back. She had brown hair pulled up in a loose ponytail and she looked particularly tiny compared to her giant bird. She ran straight to North and hugged him around the waist before sobering up as she pulled away and greeted the others.

A man dressed in a dark suit followed in through the window not long after. He was the one who was doing the most chatter, loudly complaining.

"Do you have any idea what time it is, that some other people might be," he twitched violent, "busy?!" He flipped a strand of his black hair from out his face.

Bunnymund was the one to answer with a curt nod, since Tooth and North were still busy with Katherine, the girl from the goose. Sandy fed it a handful of golden crumbs.

"Do you know where Ombric is," Katherine asked.

North shook his head. "I was hoping you might know. He might have taken another trip in time."

Katherine turned visibly disappointed.

Around, luckily no yetis were around and no one else to intervene or overhear.

"This is just a bunch of bad timing," the young man in the suit spoke. He walked over to lean against the countertop of the control panel. "Let's just get this over with will we, before she appears, please."

North wanted to wait longer, but thought it best to probably do the same. He took a step forward, cleared his throat.

"Well Katherine, Cupid. We called you here because we need your assistance."

Both newly Guardians took on a look of surprise.

"Pitch has returned—-"

North was interrupted by Bunnymund clearing his throat. North was wrong.

"You all remember Jack Frost?" he started gain.

Katherine nodded.

Cupid answered, "Not me, personally."

"Well," North continued, "there was a slight…a, uh, unfortunate that caused Jack to have a disagreement. And then when he ran off, Pitch must have gotten to him because now he's turned on Pitch's side, we think."

Katherine's mouth formed a small letter o.

Cupid waved his hand, "come again…?"

Bunnymund stepped forward. "We—-well, I think he's turning into a nightmare or black ghost. He's completely different now, and with the loss we've had against Pitch last time, and more and more kids's been losing belief in us, this little glummer needs to be taken care of." The tone of his voice showed that he meant a much harsher punishment than to be locked away.

"Wait, so you let a season sprite get manipulated by Pitch?" Cupid spoke, a dry sarcastic laugh following. "Ah, this is just great…"

He could have just as bad an attitude and sass as Bunnymund, and Katherine partially agreed, so she only looked to him and wasn't going to say anything.

"How long have you been out, mate?"

"Quite a but. The kid, Rajeev, has been having the most time this past year."

Cupid could have sworn that Bunnymund tisked at him.

North continued. "Man in Moon had spoken to us to get the help of someone called Nightlight. But all we could find was a girl called herself Shadow Creeper."

"She's in the next room." Tooth shrugged her shoulder to the room behind them.

"But Jack is looking for her, we think for Pitch. He was just here before you came, and we think he had wanted to…he was about to…"

The other two Guardians got what he was trying to say but neither had the courage or heart to speak it seeing North like that. Cupid twitched again and blinked his eyes hard, as if to get something out of them.

"According to The Man in the Moon, Nightlight is who can whelp us defeat Pitch. And Shadow, here, isn't much help."

"But we may be able to find Nightlight with her help," Tooth vouched, turning to Bunny.

"Yeah but we don't know that."

"Well how will we know with you keep scaring her away?!" Tooth argued.

"Im not scaring her. And if I was, she shouldn't need to keep running away."

Katherine raised hand, interjecting. "Did any of you throw her in a sack in order to get her here?"

Bunny turned to her. "Yeah, so?"

Katherine lowered her hand with a heavy sigh, face-palming herself instead.

Meanwhile, Tooth had started up the argument again.

"See? Katherine understands! You can't be so rude and rough with a girl or she'll never compromise."

"Do you think she's innocent, Tooth?"

"No, but thats not the point."

"She's not here to compromise. The little bugle is here to escape. And if she does, who knows what will happen.

Tooth folded her arms, unconsciously floating above the tall Pooka. "That. Won't. Work!"

"Shut up!" Cupid almost yelled but effortfully stopped the arguing. "Shut up, will you. …I-I don't care if you want to or not, I need to pay attention and you need to go back down." He was speaking to himself and twitching again. "You're just going to ruin it like you always do because you always come at the wrong bloody time! And this is serious business."

All eyes turned to watch him arguing with himself, arguing with his inner self.

"…No. You just…you can't just…goddammit, Yolanda! Go away, go back asleep or something!"

Katherine glanced at North at the same time Cupid's head whipped the other way as if impersonating another side of his argument.

His voice became high and feminine. "Ah, pipe down, grumpy. Who says I have to listen to you?" His head whipped back the other way, back in his normal, deeper voice. "This is serious. This is just bad timing again."

Katherine glanced at her fellow Guardians again as they all watched Cupid's body become aglow in a bright light. They watched him, only seen as a bright light, change form in front of them. It was, in fact like he was saying, bad timing. When the light settled, a slender woman was standing in front of them. She muttered something about go sucking it and stretched.

This woman was completely different than the Cupid before. She wore a red dress that shaped her body with a long slit up her thigh. Her blonde hair reached her back, rather than previous Cupid's shoulder-lengthed black locks.

New Cupid stretched her hands above her head, bangles jangling down her wrists. "'Bout time," and her red lips curled in a grin. "I needed to stretch my legs. What're we chatting about?" she turned to the others.

New Cupid was much more loose and laid-back than the one before, who was more suited for business than she and she greeted North with a casual, "hey Nicky."

North blinked. He was unfazed. They've all seen this before in their thousand-plus years of magical existence.

"Bunny was just explaining to Cupid that Jack Frost has turned to Pitch's side and—-"

"And after you all failed to defeat Pitch and now all the kids are losing their belief in you all and that Frost guy is bad now," Cupid interrupted, in a yadda-yadda tone. "I just heard it all. What's new?"

North paused. "We were told to find Nightlight by Man in Moon but Shadow is all we could. She's in the next room. Nightlight is who could help us defeat Pitch."

Cupid glanced behind The Guardians but couldn't see into the other in the room. "Do you know how you're going to do that?" She turned back, a brow raised an unimpressed.

No one had an answer.

"Have you all tried talking to her?" she asked, looking at her nails.

"Maybe Ombric knows something…?"

"He can probably know a way on getting her to talk since, apparently, you've all tried already, right?" Katherine added on to North's idea.

Back in the lonely room, Shadow had her head hung low. A hand was to her chest and the other across her bare knee. She was feeling for her pulse and if she breathed too heavily, her lungs felt cold and so did the inside of her throat, like she was still blowing out frigid air. She didn't look up until she heard all four Guardians return to stand in front of her. She noticed there were more footsteps though, and sat back up before they returned.

Shadow looked up to see Katherine and the blonde Cupid had joined her capture's group. And she immediately scowled, becoming visibly defensive.

Cupid placed a hand on her hip and spoke one curt, demanding sentence.

"Come with us."

*~.*~.~*

She was ushered into a different room this time. One that was a short walkway that opened up into a vast room lined with bookshelves on all sides—the library. At the far wall was a wide window and a ledge seat, where Shadow was ushered to. They spoke that Ombric's office and quarriers was through the library somehow, and they were to wait for his arrival.

Bunnymund had her wrists tied again to which the girl merely rolled her eyes to. They had to wait for Ombric to come back—whoever that was. The Guardians were unsure about leaving Shadow alone, and with the Sandman already drifting off, Cupid offered to watch her.

Bunny had objected it, of course, but North asked his help to take Sandy back home, back to his Island. Katherine got to talking to the books and Tooth spoke with Cupid.

Shadow watched and listening to the women catch up, Tooth shedding light on this whole situation and explaining Jack Frost's former relationship with the Guardians. Cupid listened with attentive ears.

Tooth looked off to the side longingly, rubbing her arm. "He wasn't with us for very long, but he was great. Once…once upon a time..."

Shadow raised a brow but kept her mouth shut.

"But he was…sad. That much was obvious. I mean, there was this one time when we all went out and this kid saw us, but he didn't see Jack… That would bother me too but—but he'd 've been used to that by now, right? Said so himself." She chuckled as if she wasn't completely sure.

"Sounds like he was already broken to begin with," Cupid suggested, unfazed.

She sat forward with her elbow leaned on the table with Tooth floating in front of her. Neither would say it, but the sprite had been a lost cause from the beginning.

"It's so weird, even though it's been over thirty years already. I can't help but think that maybe Bunny was right." Cupid scoffed but then Tooth went into detail. "Bunny didn't trust Jack from the start when The Man in The Moon first picked him. Said Jack would be too much trouble and would only lead to no good. I didn't want to believe it because for all those years we've never really heard any problems… And he fought a lot with Bunny too, but I just can't help but think…"

Cupid held her tongue, watching the other. This was obviously a serious situation, but she broke out in a giggle. "Ooooh Tooth! You and bad boys," she laughed. "How can you? He's the bad guy." It was said in sarcasm and a laugh.

A blush broke out across Tooth's cheeks that Cupid pointed out, laughing more.

Shadow looked outside the window. Snow flakes rained in a drizzle and she heard Katherine's footsteps fade from the room.

"I don't like him! …I mean I…he's a complete monster now. If you've seen him and how used to be, it's completely different," she mumbled in a volume even Shadow had a had time comprehending.

"Oh really?" Cupid leaned closer, interested and now serious.

Tooth nodded.

Cupid's hand slammed on the desk, making the hybrid jump. "Well that settles it! I'm gonna have to meet Snowy for myself! I mean, I have, but apparently a lot happens in fifty years."

Tooth was waving her hands hysterically. She told the other that that wasn't a good idea and shot worried glances at the girl tied up not far from them.

Cupid deflated. "Well I guess you're right…" She walked over to Tooth.

The hybrid was saying something about how she worrying about North and everyone. How they all were becoming weaker as the years passed, and she floated down to the floor, growing tired.

From a pouch around her dress and unaware by Tooth, Cupid reached and pulled out a very thin needle. She wrapped her arm around Tooth's shoulders.

"You all'll get Pitch. I know it."

"How do you know that?" the hybrid looked up, wishfully.

"I have my sources," Cupid winked. "Katherine and me will help you—and you know Ombric will. We'll get the Boogeyman and you'll be back to flittering around in no time."

Tooth grew hopeful. "You think so?"

"Yup," Cupid smiled. "Just leave it to us."

And then she slid the needle into the base of Tooth's neck. The hybrid only let out a calm sigh, unaware and painlessly, the potion begun taking affect.

Right on time, Cupid thought, hearing the sound of bells seeing an elf waddle into the library.

"Hey!" she called for its attention, turned to Tooth and pointed the elf out. "Look at that little guy!"

Tooth let out a squeal of joy, and the elf froze in shock. Tooth had become energetic and grabby, and she made baby noises about the creature's cuteness. The elf realized what was about to happen and dashed back out the room. Hands reaching and making cooing noises, the hybrid immediately fled after the elf like a child after a puppy.

Cupid watched the two disappear with a smug grin, sliding the used needle into an empty tube pulled from her pouch.

Shadow had seen the entire thing and was staring in shock, wondering just exactly the blonde had done to the tooth fairy.

"Now," Cupid's voice was flat. She spun on her heels and stepped toward Shadow, hands behind her back.

Shadow scooted away.

She watched the tall woman saunter over and take a seat beside her on the window seal cushion.

"Tooth has it bad. Too bad for her..." She took Shadow's chin, lifting it with her forefinger. She had striking hazel eyes that showed Shadow just how devious a cherub could be. She turned Shadow's face left and right. "I guess he wasright…" She saw Shadow's eyes dart to the door where the elf was chased out. "Don't worry about her," Cupid answered the girl's thoughts. "That was just burst of serotonin and anandamide. Like a little kid's. She's fine, but she's gonna be hella angry when it wears off. I might have to lay low for a while…" She mumbled the last part. "But what's with you and the frost snowman, 'cause I sure don't see it. …Shadow right? How old are you?"

Shadow shrugged.

"About a hundred and so, I'd guess." It sounded about right. "I bet you don't like those." She looked at the ropes tying Shadow's wrists together.

Shadow watched her finger wiggle in between them and the knot loosening.

"You know," Cupid continued, "when you go around messing with some people, you have to be careful. I'm sure you're a tough something but you still have to be careful. Watch your back. And be wary of the darkness—wise words from an old friend of mine."

Shadow looked down and the ropes slid from her wrists.

Cupid winked. "I'll just tell them that I fell asleep and you got loose."

Shadow stared, partially in surprised disbelief.

Cupid pointed to the top of a shelf, of snow globes lining the top of the wall of shelves. "Those're what are used to teleport. Take an extra with you. Whisper where you want to go and then slam it on the ground—that's how it works."

Shadow stood, inching over to a patch of darkness in case she needed a quick getaway. "Why're you doing this? Aren't you with them?" She meant the four main Guardians.

"Yes, but I have a previous duty with a friend of mine, and I don't think having you trapped here is going to solve anything. Plus, I'm against a girl being tied up without her consent. Besides, do you really want to question help?"

"I do if it'll come back to want something in return or think they can capture me for it."

Cupid nodded. The sprite had a point.

Shadow ddid was she was hinted and the potion was waring down in Tooth's veins. Shadow whispered to the snow globe and slammed it on the carpet. She was gone hours before The Guardians returned upon Ombric's arrival. When they came in to Cupid cheek down on a desk and ropes on the floor, they were indeed angry. Mostly Bunny.

Cupid shrugged, blamed them for trying to tie up a sprite and thinking it would work. Though she hadn't actually fallen asleep, Cupid made it very convincing that she had.

Amidst the arguing, Ombric shuffled. "Oh…no, no. I knew this was going to happen…"

Katherine tugged his robe, questioned what it was. She was waved off instead.

"I was afraid this was going to actually happen…!" He panicked to North. "Where had she gone?"

Santa didn't know. The sprite could be anywhere in the world by now, and knowing her, she was just a target for trouble and mayhem. She was the piece to their puzzle and now she was gone.

"You have to find her. Quickly."

"Do you have any thoughts where she—-"

"Quickly!"

A/N: I had this little chapter done and it is coming around to that time of year again for cold weather, I thought why not upload it. I've been wanting to post this and see if I'll get feedback. If I don't get feedback, I just won't write anymore for this story I guess.

I liked the idea of other Guardians, so I've inserted Mother Goose and Ombric from the original books series, and my version of Cupid. If I get any ideas, suggestions, something about what you guys want to see in future chapters, uploading might come A LOT quicker this time. If not, it'll just be slow as usual.