The Big News

"Talking"

'Thought'

"YELLING"

'YELLING IN THOUGHT'

*Flashbacks*

~Singing a song~

Another More?

I have thought I have finally achieved something in my life, but I was wrong.

Impediments and obstacles are there for more for me while I'm unprepared.

Am I ready to face more challenges ahead? Even if I say yes or no neither of them is the right answer.

But, choices are what determine me for what in stores for me…by Pen-Woman.

Disclaimer: Merida and Rapunzel belonged to Disney, Jack and Hiccup belonged to DreamWorks.

The ceremony was a total disaster there was no denying it.

The silence is also grave and fervent, no one said a word since Pitch left the Workshop, but his words of warning didn't leave with him.

It causes the Guardians who are in North's Office are looking grave, although Jack Frost is not grave by no means he is confused.

He looks at the Guardians and silently winced at the look on their faces.

Tooth looks like she is about to cry but she is holding it in, she is rubbing her arm like that mean she is really, really nervous as she glides back and forth with a solemn look on her small frame.

Poor Sandy the little guy looks worse than the time he was shot by Pitch's arrow, or when Pitch stole his Dream Sand turning them into Fearlings. But, he looks very, very ill and very worried.

When he turns to look at Bunny he still has this blank, emotionless look that he looks like that none of Pitch's warning affect him at all like he is not scared. If only that was true for he is beyond scared he is terrified, terrified of the unspeakable things that made his fur crawl. Those monstrosities still fresh in his head those who brought nothing but chaos and destruction everywhere they went they leave behind fear and despair. He finally stopped them with his friends long before, but now they are returning very soon.

Then come last is North is sitting on his chair, he had his palms put together like a prayer and positioned on his face while his thumbs are under his chin, he do that whether he has a headache or sometimes in troubling concern, and it devastate Jack to see him this way, He was a tough man like nothing can penetrate him, a great leader, love all children whether naughty or nice, and Wonder he shares to the world is always an amazing thing to see, create, and enjoy. But now, he is reduced to a helpless man.

Jack let them work things in their head without disturbing them but the sneaky feeling in his gut is telling him otherwise since North is looking at him so differently, like he has this big secret he's hiding from him. Should he speak up? But if he did he would trigger something he never intended it, but the longer he can stand here watching them with a grim expression he'll crack like ice.

He hoped that nothing gets too bad, he licked his dry lips and finally spoke to them.

"Um…so, That's Pitch what a party pooper, right? Just barged in like he owns the place and talks like that, I mean honestly this guy need is a new hobby, am I right or am I right?"…well, that's not exactly what Jack would say, but he sort of trapped in here.

None of the Guardians reacted to Jack they just continue to mope if Jack didn't know any better he can clearly see black clouds hanging over their heads. Okay, he's nervous but tried again.

"But hey, what do you expect from lame-o Pitch if you ask me he…"

"Jack!" Jack halt and look up in little fear that maybe he should've stayed quiet but he is relieved to see North who called out his name look at him with a serious look on his face and stand up from his chair.

He walks to a boy who he proud to call him a Guardian…and much more. He laid his outsized hand on the boy's shoulder and spoke to him.

"Your time as a Guardian with us have truly been great, Jack. Manny has chosen you well…but that is not all that Manny has prepared for you." When he said it, it causes Jack to be confused.

"What do you mean?" he narrowed his eyes in worry and at the same time every fiber of his needing to know what North is going to say next.

"North, wait!" that was Toothiana who swiftly fly over between them with a horrifying look on her kind face.

"Jack…Jack is not ready, not yet!"

"North," That was Aster who spoke next.

"Tooth is right, we…we need to…he's only been a Guardian for short years he's not ready to take this burden!"

Burden? What burden? Now Jack is more confused than he wanted to.

"North, you gotta think this through here. We beat those ugly buggers before and we can beat them a thousand times more if we can just…"

"NO!" North bellowed causing Bunny's ears to drop down.

"There is no thinking and there is no such thing as not yet! The time which is been foretold is now, this is not we have been prepared for…it is prepared for Jack…and others." usually, Jack being the center of attention but not when he really hopelessly confused.

Jack was about to open his mouth when Bunny, once again beat him to it.

"You're forgetting one thing, mate," Aster said it in very low, sober, and troubling tune.

"So far he hasn't wide opened his true full potential yet, they'll pound him into a puddle before he can make his first move. Don't you see it, North? Jack is not ready…nor the girls!" he whispered at the last three words, he didn't mean to sound rash but what another choice to say, Aster never admits to fear but right he has every right to be afraid for Jack and the world as he knows it.

Jack is getting really annoyed here for standing on the sideline, watching them argue which he's the center of it, and mostly annoyed that he gets more and more confused by the minute that his head will explode.

Till finally, Jack couldn't take it anymore so with annoyed huff, he lifts his staff high up in the air and he brings it down fast till the bottom of the staff connected to the ground with loud bang, and the next thing happens he cast a blizzard at everyone to cease their stupid argument but not too powerful to blow them away.

Everyone is flabbergasted at the sudden wind blow from Jack as they stare at him in still shock states. Jack is not sorry for what he did he just too annoyed, confused, and most of all worried about something he doesn't know…yet, and he will get his answer now.

"Now that I got your undivided attention can you please tell the guy-who-is-left-out on what the heck is going around here? And what this full potential thing? What girls!?" Yes, Jack heard Aster uttered girls, he had a good hearing.

Aster washed his shock away and replace it with a scowl and he walks dangerously close to Jack, standing taller than him showing off intimidation on Jack. But Jack is nowhere close to being afraid of the over-sized fur ball, he stood on his two bare feet with his hand clench hard on his precious staff ready for something. Aster stood for good bitter silence till he opens his lip to speak.

"It's best that you put your bloody nosey business somewhere else, mate. If you know what's good for ya." That enraged Jack further as his joyful boyish blue eyes have turned cold.

"It is now my business when you guys put me into it!" he snarled.

He feels from an inside of him a raging blizzard is about to burst out of him but now is not the time to throw a tantrum he needs to calm down, and that he'll do by sighing out to clear away the fury. He learned a few years ago that his powers reacted to his emotion strongly, so he learned a trick from Sandy because he's like Sandy in the same way, and thank his exercise he gave him it works like a charm every time.

He must do first is inhale from his nose and exhale it out of his lip, he repeated it five times and now he is calm but with a serious look on his face.

"Look, I never saw you guys like this before and it has Pitch written all over the place. Can you at least tell me what the heck is going on here that made you guys edgy?" he voiced out his worry for his friends, it scared him utterly to see them this way and he wishes to know what causes their worry.

Everyone here in this room feels awfully bad for leaving Jack in the dark but the circumstances they are in has reached to a whole another level, and it's a pretty bad one.

North looks at his old comrade's eyes locking on each of them with a stern look, he is silently insistent them that no more excuses, no more false words, this matter will become greave if it goes overdue.

This isn't about children's belief; this isn't about them disappearing from the world. No, this is much bigger than this; this is about the whole world where every people will get plunder back onto dark of decay and madness, pandemonium will be everywhere, fear will be their livelihood, and it will be forever.

But, it can be stopped but it requires for him and the Guardians to tell Jack the whole thing. It is time and there's no ceasing it no matters how or what.

Sandy is the first to nod once and firmly that he agreed to North's decree, Toothiana has this sad and haunted look on her kind face, she still fears for Jack and the unknown outcome that's yet to happen but there is no other way out of it unless they must follow what had been prepared for, with heavy heart she nods in agreement. Then North turns to the last Guardian who yet not made his decision, Aster stares back at North but not in the look of discrepancy in its place it's melancholy swimming in his eyes. Sure he and that rowdy show-pony get into fight or challenging each other to race but these two are really good friends as they are good rivals and that's why he is feeling crestfallen, Jack will face a terrible destiny which he can never escape from it, he knew in his heart that Jack is not ready for this…he is not ready for the outcome which he is definite that Jack will not be the same, and worse of all he doesn't know if it will be better or worse. He didn't turn away his stare from North's solid gaze the hardness in his eyes are like he's putting a steel wall all around Aster preventing from leaving anywhere not without giving him his reply, Aster sighs tiredly as he ruffled his face with one paw while he let his other paw drop lifelessly and without another minute to wait the Easter Bunny has given his answer impassively.

"Have it your way but you best be listening North." Right after he said "have it your way" he changed his tune and his eyes turn sharp like a double-edged sword as he looked into North's eyes with ferocity and using undertone for only North to listen.

"You betting their lives, you pay a heavy price!" it was terrible and cruel of Aster to say but he didn't care as he turns to walk away from his friend, and if he stood there for two seconds he would've seen the look of hurt evidence in the jolly man's eyes.

Once Aster has given him a clear message and without removing a heated scowl on his face he walks out of the room with no looking back, Jack watches Aster in confused and worried look, and now knowing what he exactly said to North but by the looks of it, it didn't do well. Aster walks out of the room and closed the door with a big bang for them to show that he still disapproves of it all, all flinched except for North who remained like a statue.

Jack look around the room and everyone else and they all look…sick, like worse than before. Mainly North is way worse and he is not moving at all and Jack is choking with worry. He has seen these two fights occasionally but this the first time for Jack to have seen their fight had turn awful that Aster sees him as a bad guy making a very bad choice, at the end of the fight they express their forgiveness in silent then turn into roughness like North smack very hard on Aster's back in a friendly manner and Aster would just punch his shoulder roughly and playfully, this is their way of saying I'm sorry. But now, Jack is not so sure.

He hears the door open unexpectedly, he had thought it was Aster but it was Martha and she looked very fretted. She must've seen Aster storming out of the door and came in to check up on them.

"Dear? Is everything alright?" she had her hands entangled together and on her chest as a sign of deep concern for her husband who he still stood there, completely rigid and didn't make a single twitch since she came in.

North did hear her coming in and asking him out of concern in her sweet, gentle voice but his mind is numb for responding, in fact, his mind is in catastrophe, too much had happened much too fast for his liking. Aster's words are still ringing in his ears it is filled with venomous anger, and betrayal like he got a punch in the gut countless times, then there's Jack…his time to embark the most dangerous duty, a path of which there is no grantee to escape from it just as he and his friends once happened to them.

Aster is right about is too soon for Jack and the others, but what has been foretold has not begun yet but it will be upon them. He needs to prepare Jack and the others for the upcoming terror; they need him to be ready. There is no time to be weak with negativity, for that he finally held his head up high and stare right into Jack's eyes and spoke.

"Follow me, Jack; it is the time you know why you are really here." Without adding another word he walks out of the door, Jack was startled when North spoke, and then he watched North left the room without him and quickly glide to catch up to North.

You know, for a big guy full of jolly good he sure can walk fast because Jack can barely catch up with him as he avoids a mass of working Yetis without hitting one of them so they won't drop the toys they worked on. He would've to fly above to elude but he better not, he learned a valuable lesson when he flew high in the workshop, and he might have broken a few but North went ballistic that day and made him clean everything and then fix 11 broken toys, he never felt his fingers anymore, and to that day he swore to fly high above in workshop again, ever again.

But, that aside, where is North taking him anyway? Why didn't he just tell him when they were in his office? And why didn't Martha, Tooth, and Sandy followed him and North? These entire untold questions are making his head spin like a roller coaster.

Then his head wondered back to Bunny, he hadn't seen him anywhere when they left the office, the thought of him made him sad to see two best friends fight like that, these two have been together through thick and thin, rival each other to be the best, and when they fight side by side they're like their mind had fused into one, reading each other's next move, and turn it into something powerful.

But, that argument in the office that had happen it brought out something inside of Bunnymund like something snapped and then without warning he became like giant fur of raging mad, the look in his eyes filled with betrayal and hate because he is willing to put Jack at a terrible risk, a risk of which he can't escape of. Bunny see the show-pony as an obnoxious little brother, his hobby is annoying the living daylight out of him, or challenging on a race, or disturb his precious eggs. But, by putting aside Jack's annoyance and Bunny's strictness they are amazing duo who have their back always, their trust in each other is unbroken and great brother in arms.

That is probably the reason he is mad at North, he is deathly worried for Jack of what's coming for him, or what sort of fate that will prepare to change him of who he is. That's why he entirely disagrees with North's decision to risk Jack's life for something that's coming too soon.

Jack's mind kept on racing around Bunny that he collided right on the back of North with and 'oof' when he had stopped so suddenly, he backs away a little as he caresses his cheek that been hit and look up at North's back and then at the place he is in.

Jack's eyes roam in an unfamiliar place he has never been to before, there isn't any Yeti around here working, no sound of toys being tinkered, test it, or played with, and not a single jingle bell from Elves running around. To put it bluntly, it is as silent as a cemetery.

Jack is stunned, to say the least for one that he let his mind be engulfed with the thought of Bunny that he didn't pay attention to where he was going, he did follow North but his mind was in a different direction. He doesn't know that there's a place like this, he always believed that he knew every corner of North's Workshop just by sneaking into places and rooms to explore and ignoring big words of restricted, off limit, staff only, and other things he didn't bother to read them.

However, this entire place is empty and doesn't look too special; he thought North would take him somewhere…well, cool. Then he can tell me on what Blizzard's name is going on?

"Jack…Jack…Jack!"

"Wha-what?!" he got his mind be overwhelmed with thoughts yet again, he should really stop doing that.

"There's no time for your head to wonder, it is the time you know of your true destiny." Stated North and Jack look at him like he has short-term memory loss or something.

"Uh North, I think we already cleared up my whole destiny and whatnot, I'm a Guardian now, remember?"

"No!" At that point, at one small word had caused Jack to look up to North as his whole body quack. What did he mean by no? He never felt so confused and scared in his whole eternal existence, he was so sure that he found a place he feels he belongs to after ages of loneliness or was it all been wrong from the beginning?

North watched Jack getting nervous and scared by the minute, he places his comforting hand on his shoulder shatter his negativity and made him stare at his eyes. He smiles to the boy who grew so much since he last met him, he had grown to the better and he continues to grow because of his guidance and Jack's unbroken belief in joy and fun, and now it is time to put his belief into a real thing to begin his new and first stage of true calling.

"No worry Jack, you have come so far, and so strong. You have accomplished better than I hoped you to be, you brought us and to the world a new meaning of having fun and joy, and you alone even rekindle our joy to be with children and be part of them in holidays and celebrations, which enlarge Wonder, Memories, Hope, Dreams, and Fun. Manny has chosen you wisely…and now, your true purpose will unveil to you!" Once he stated, he removes his hands from Jack's shoulders and place it on the double door and push it once, and he lets the door creak open on its own.

A blinding light burst out when the double door opens, but Jack had his eyes covered by his arm. He can feel the powerful magic from whatever is inside that room, the magic is surging with incredible power like nothing he felt before.

When the light begins to slowly diminish till it's soft enough for Jack's eyes, he removes his arm away from his eyes, blinking the black spots away, and then when his eyes are clear from spots he can finally see and what he saw took his breath away.

It's a universe; it is an actual infinite universe. Colors blended together like a painted canvas, and a stream of glistening stars littered everywhere. Jack continues to gawk like a gaping fish as he stepped in by floating. Jack is mesmerized by the sight, he never imagined there's something like this exist, not even in his wildest imagination.

As Jack continues to sound he awes when something float passes by him, he flinched and then it turns into admiration. Floating in mid-air is three dimensions crystallized star, twirling in slow motion like its dancing, and if one is not enough they happen to be an immeasurable amount of them all over the place.

North is expected of Jack's reaction and he can't help but smile as he stepped inside the room with no ground to touch, but he did not fall or drift into space, his foot had made contact with the unseen floor and walked on.

Jack is still gliding across the cosmos and following the crystallized stars like he's been hypnotized. But he didn't care he's having so much fun seeing something so amazingly unreal, but his moment of fun has come to an end when he saw North walking on the invisible floor!?

'Man! This place just gets better and cooler!' Jack thought with an astonished grin. He then saw North signaled him with his head to follow him.

'Oh yeah, he wanted to show me something.' Once he remembered he quickly follows him.

As Jack follows North he noticed this place hasn't changed one bit as they keep on walking, it stays the same but the crystal-like stars are everywhere to see and they seem to be endless of them. One of the crystal star approach Jack as the pale boy smile, they are still captivating to look at. Then suddenly, the crystal starts to shine, making Jack blink in surprise. Soon the shine begins to dimmer and Jack couldn't believe what he is seeing right now.

It is…North…in way, way younger look in crystal star. It's like watching a video in it.

He looked at the younger version of North. He is…tall, muscular young man with dark brown hair, possessing a mustache and a short, but pointed goatee. He is wearing an outfit like a pirate with a furry hat like a Russian pirate, but as he continues to look at North he doesn't look at all like North!

There was no smile, or eyes shining with wonder, or his heavy laughter of joy. His expression is stoic, his lips lined with steel determination as his face wrinkled with an angry frown. That face is not North at all, this is an entirely another man, a man devoid of emotion except resolve.

Why is North express like that? I mean five years ago, North battled Pitch and Nightmares armies he had a huge smile and laughing as he swishes his blades at the black sand stallions to sands, factually speaking.

Jack then see someone else he never saw before, is fighting alongside North with equal determination as him. It's a girl. She looks at the age of thirteen and holding a dagger in her hand. Who is she?

"That's Katherine." Jack spun around with a startling gasp.

"Sorry." North apologized and chuckled quietly.

"Um, okay, um, who's Katherine?" Jack inquired and turned to look at the girl in the crystal star. North then looks at Katherine with most fond looking face and at the same with a sad looking smile as he spoke about her.

"She is once like you, Jack. An outcast spirit child, and like you, she had found a purpose in her life by proving to be an unexpectedly fierce nemesis to Pitch." He frowns lightly when he mentioned his name, and Jack gasps when he heard his name.

"Pitch!?" he turns back to the crystal star, and like what North had said, she is fighting Pitch with all out fierceness and determination of a warrior.

She holds her dagger lightly as she twirls it, and slashes the black sand stallion like a pro. Jack, then, notices she is riding on a…giant goose?!

"What the!?" Jack was thinking out loud but he couldn't help it but be stunned and completely weirded out to see something so unusual.

That big goose is the same size of a horse, but it's the same as any other goose he has seen. Apart from that, there's a breastplate strapped to the goose's feathery chest.

In spite of the strangeness, the goose shows no trace of fear in its eyes. It faces Pitch's Fearlings as it soars high up so bravely, as Katherine release her swinging fury of her dagger as the Fearlings are being vanquished.

Jack is staggered by Katherine and that goose, he never saw anyone like her doing something so cool. Sure, North and the other Guardians can fight like pros, but she fights so ferociously, flawlessly, and amazingly.

"She's incredible!" Jack stated it.

"Da, she is. But she is also kind and compassionate, love to tell intriguing stories, and she was the one who made me and others Guardians." When he said it Jack quickly abandoned watching the past scene and turns his complete attention on North.

"Wait! She…But, I thought Manny chose you guys?" he inquired with wonderment expression.

"Manny did choose us, yes. But, very long ago there was only one Guardian at a time of the Golden Age. She, alone, using her special magic she gives children imagination to tell the most amazing stories or, her personal favorite, playing pretend. Thus, she is dubbed as Guardian of Storytelling." North spoke about her so fondly as if he's a father talking about his daughter's achievement with pride. Jack can feel admiration swell for Katherine as well as respect; she is certainly an amazing Guardian to able to keep children's imagination alive, all alone in all these years and years. North's face is shining with pride and it grew brighter when he continues.

"Like I mentioned, she is a brave girl but alone she could not stop Pitch and that when our good old friend Manny assigned Katherine to find four chosen ones to stop Pitch…and the incoming catastrophe!" His tone of voice has turned from soft of gratification of remembrance to a low tune of gloom with a griming face. Jack look at North when he noticed his change of tone and the look of on his face made him look like a soldier who went through hell back and forth.

Jack can feel remorse to the senior warrior and friend; he can never know what sort of hardship and pain that North went through. Maybe, because he was a normal, and alive boy with no clue of what's happening the world around him. He felt a sharp twinge in his rib cage as if he got squeezed by an invincible hand for he felt helpless to comfort North because he doesn't know how or what to say. He hates the feeling of helplessness; he is a Guardian for crying out loud. He is his friend, his mentor, but to him, he is much more to Jack he is like a father he never had. When he was alive he never knew his father, he died before he was born so he never felt or know what is like to have a father's love and support, and North has simply provided what he needed.

Jack was so full of thought about North when he jolted out of the trance when North spoke again after his silent moment.

"Pitch Black has many forms of Fearlings at his disposal, but not one of them could compare the terrifying Nebulous that Pitch has created. They are vile and formless, they have no soul but they have evil minds to strike innocence of both children and adults. Oh, Jack." North turns grim as he continues.

"Nebulous don't feed on fears, its much worst. They feed on hopes, dreams, and ambitions. They feed off their Light, and without Light then they would have nothing. They'll be hopeless, no will to fight, they'll be…an empty shell!" he said with the heavy tremor that came straight from his heart. He can never forget that horrible creature's doing, it made him recoil from inside.

Jack didn't say a word after North described Nebulous, and in words of Bunnymund "That's bloody scary." He could just picture an image of a monster of no shape, faceless, and no soul like…a shadow or something like that. But, this shadow is a living thing seeks to indulge itself on eating the mortal's light. That made Jack feels a chill running down his spine. Yet, he still curious what had happened to the Nebulous?

"North."

"Hmm?"

"What happened to the Nebulous? Did you guys defeat it?" Jack inquired, but he remembered that Pitch said that he will free the Nebulous but he needs the keys to free from whatever prison. Then North, begin to reply.

"We didn't defeat it, Jack. We merely sealed it in a vase!"

"A vase?!"

"A magical vase and I believe you heard of the name. We sealed the Nebulous in Pandora's Box."

"Hold the phone! Is it from ancient Greek time with a story about a lady being too curious for her own good about the box and she opened and unleashed sickness and envy upon the world?" Then, North begin to chuckle for real, like he heard a good joke.

"Chepukha, they are not true. Mortals have a tendency to make up some things to believe or to marvel at, like…fanfiction!" That one way to put an example.

Jack arched his thin eyebrow at North before he shrugged, he can't argue with his logic.

"So, they're basically trapped?" Jack asked.

"It's 'uh' yes and no,"

"Huh?"

"Yes, they are trapped in a vase and chained around it made by moonbeam to keep them inside, and no, because they can escape if Pitch has the keys." He said so calmly it's scary. Jack's brows bumped together in a scowl, why is he so weird when he's calm about it? Pitch was just talking about bringing back the Dark Age and freeing his friends not too long ago.

"Um, shouldn't you be worried?" He asked unsurely.

"Not to worry, Jack." Said North while he is moving his hand back and forth as if he's swatting a fly.

"Pitch may have figured it out how to free the Nebulous with keys. But, does he know where they are?" Jack expresses puzzlement and then it hit him. North has a point, Pitch may have figured it out the how to unlock the chains thus trapping the Nebulous, but he probably has no idea where they are, which means, it'll give them the time they need to stop Pitch and his plan. Also, North and the others know where they are.

"This is great! We need to find the keys before Pitch does." North replied with a loud chuckle and he starts to walk away as Jack follows him looking muddled.

"Again not to worry, the keys are safely hidden that not even Pitch can ever hope of finding them," North assured Jack that everything is well and good, but Jack has another question.

"Well then, how about you tell me where they are? Should I at least know?" Jack's second question has caused North to tense up as if he hit a nerve as he stopped. Jack got worried for North and a bit scared. North then turns around and he is giving Jack assuring smile.

"I will tell you when the time is right." He said it heavily that got Jack to frown in worry and confusion.

Then, he saw the look on his face. The look of solemn anguish was there on his face then his eyes are staring at a distance, probably, remembering the time that caused him to express that way. Jack has no idea what going on in old Spirit's head and he wished he can figure it out on what to do in the situation. Again, he's feeling helpless for doing nothing for North. But, one thing he'll do for him he will not ask him again until North sees the moment tell him what he wants to know.

Then, like a flip of a switch, North's solemn anguish had melted into all-knowing, full-blown of a thrilling grin as he lets out a booming laughter that alerted Jack.

"Why are we still standing here? This room maybe pretty and all, but we are wasting time. It is time to get your teammates here." He said as North is walking to the exit and Jack begins to stammer.

"Whoa, wait for what? Teammates? What teammates?" He twirled around; he flew over to him till he is face to face.

"What teammates? I thought it'll be just us, the Guardians. Why? Did Manny recruit some new Guardians without me knowing?" When he asked all these questions he feels irritated once again. He hates when something is been kept secret from him and then to be told later as the last person to know. He really hates that.

North sensed his frustration and he waves his hand slowly to Jack as a way to calm him down.

"No, no, this is a different kind. For you see, this is a surprise present for you. Think of it as a way to make it up to you from Pitch's party crashing or whatever those teenagers call it nowadays." Said North and it Jack got to eye on him suspiciously and descend on the ground and got his arms crossed and his crooked staff is tucked under it.

"And why is it a surprise for me?" Jack doesn't know why but he has a gut feeling that he is NOT going to like his surprise. North did not take notice of Jack's discomfort look and just lets out a well good chortle because he is excited to tell him his surprise.

"Because Jackie-boy, your surprise present is, wait for it," North had his body bent with his big hands clenched and he put on his widest smile he can muster, and Jack is still feeling uneasy even when North is making that face, but he waits for it, and then North blurt it out like he exploded.

"You're getting your own team, Jack. You're very own Big Four, isn't it grand?"

Time seems to slow down for Jack because in his mind seem to try to process in very slow pace as he continues to stare at North with a completely devoid of expression, and North's smile has slowly gone downward and got worried that Jack's not responding and not making any movement.

Did he break the snow-making Spirit's brain?!

"Um Jack, you are okay, right?" Jack started to blink like he woken up from a coma and he unleashes a fury of panicked questions.

"What team? Why do I need a team!? How is that a surprise?! And, no, it is NOT grand, at all." After he inquired in so very fast and then he begins to breathe very fast as his heart thump very fast. North felt really embarrassed for telling the boy so bluntly rather than nice and slow.

His wife was right; he is too brash as it becomes a hobby for him.

"Perhaps I should have used…a gentle approach, da?"

"You think!?" Jack exclaimed.

However, as Jack is overwhelmed with the knowledge of having his own team. His teammates will also suffer the same overwhelming knowledge as he did, as soon as Mother Nature could tell them.

The sky has darkened above the floating forest of Enlightenment with sparkling stars twinkling and Man in the Moon is illuminated by the lovely glow as he looking down on Mother Nature.

Mother Nature's face is blissfully calm with her eyes closed and standing under the Moon's glow. But, she is far from calm she is under the impression of sadness.

Manny has come to tell her it is time for the girl to join the impending battle that they have been chosen from the very start of their rebirth.

The time is almost upon them.

Mother Nature opens her eyes and she casts a sorrowful gaze up to the Man in Moon as tear begin to gather in her eyes and let them slip on their cheeks. She looked like a broken-hearted angel but she is, mostly, a broken-hearted mother that she is about to send her girls, her daughters into a war.

Into a second Dark War.

Then, the illuminated glow of the Moonglow even brighter made her blink of the sheer brightness and then she felt it, a kind warm hand is brushing her cheeks to wipe her tears, Mother Nature look back at Manny again as she hears him say.

"Worry not, my dearest Emily. For I have belief in them and you should, as well." Manny's voice is hazy but gentle, and Mother Nature known as Emily smile so beautifully like an angel as Manny's glow start to grow fainter till it can no longer glow.

Worry still gripped in her heart but the strength of belief has returned and it is stronger than fear itself, thanks to Manny.

She must remember that she was chosen by Manny to look out for these girls, to train them to harness their seasonal elements, to understand its power, and then and only then will they discover their Center.

But, tonight they rest and tomorrow will begin.

HAHA! YES, I did it. I finished the chapter. First of all, I would like to say I'm sorry for this confusion of Mother Nature's true name but, rest assured that I have fixed in chapter 4, you will notice that her name was removed. Go and read it if you want it.

Now, I will rest after finishing this chapter and wait until next time on RotBTD Element of Seasons.