Holy. friggin. crap! this chapter had me spinning! I hope you all like the plot twist, and if you don't well too bad. haha just kidding.

I want to thank EVERYONE that favorite, followed, and reviewed this story. it really means a lot to me, and I just love all of you!

and a special, wonderful, be-awesome thanks to the best beta ever: insanepanda! seriously if it wasn't for her my stories would be poop. anyway...to the story!

Jack pinched Bunnymund lightly, after hearing Bunny's startled yelp; he leaned back at the rabbit's chest feeling stunned.

Bunny felt pain, which meant that he wasn't dreaming. This was real. Jack had done it. He had finally told someone everything; and not just anyone. He told Bunnymund. The person he looked up to the most; the pooka that brought hope to the beloved children of the world; the pooka that was a work-a-holic and yet always played along with Jack's sometimes ridiculous games; the pooka that had told him that he was a mistake no more than an hour ago. Who then came back to save him? But he did apologize, right? But then again, he wouldn't have questioned his right as a Guardian if he didn't mean them, right?

Jack's head was spinning from trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together. However, it seems that no matter which how he pushed the pieces together it still doesn't make sense. He was so wrapped up in his inner turmoil; he hadn't realized that he was starting to get lightheaded.

Aster let out an embarrassing yelp when Jack surprised him by pinching him.

"Wha-"

"… not a dream…"

Bunny immediately deflated, and looked at Jack sadly. From his slightly out-of-it look on his face, Bunny could tell that Jack didn't even realize that he had spoken out loud.

Aster knew he needed to get Jack patched up, but...he just couldn't bear to. Jack looked so fragile that he was afraid that if he so much twitched wrong, Jack would fall into pieces.

He shifted slightly so that Jack could be more comfortable. Jack fit in his arms like he belonged there. With his messy hair frozen haphazardly from his impromptu dip in the lake and hands clutched to his fur like a frightened kit, he looked kind of cute.

… Wait a second. Did he just thought Jack was cute!? He wiped the thought away as fast as possible before looking back down at the boy. His face had switched from a look of serenity to one of confusion and frustration.

Bunny stared worriedly at Jack, his eyes looked glazed over and when he let out a groan of discomfort, he immediately stood up with Jack in his arms, bridal style.

He tapped his foot twice and thus opening a tunnel. He hopped in, speeding towards the place he thought best to take care of Jack: the North Pole. It was as he was speeding through his tunnels that he heard Jack whimper and then go limp in his arms.

Aster became distracted by Jack's state of unconsciousness, which does not bode well for either of them, since his magic tunnels were made through his steady concentration of his destination.

That being said, his lapse of concentration caused them to be chucked out unceremoniously into a dark forest.

Bunnymund grumbled at his amateur mistake as he stood up from a pile of leaves in his tunnels hurled him face-first to. He shook out some dark colored dirt from his fur and hopped over to Jack where he was sprawled over a rather big tree root.

Looking at Jack, his face was pink and he was sweating profusely although the chill of the forest had cooled him down a bit. Bunny knew that Jack was usually as cold as an iceberg but in his paws he could feel that Jack was about the same temperature as him!

Bunny tapped the ground again and with a singled minded focus sped through the tunnels faster than he ever had before. He popped out in North's infirmary and wasn't surprised that no one was there. Since North's yetis and elves have advanced healing abilities, and the rest of the Guardians rarely get hurt, the infirmary was just for show.

But it was lucky that North usually kept the 'just-for-show' infirmary well-stocked, because Bunny was able to find everything he needed. He cleaned up Jack's wounds, gave stitches to those that were too deep and made a few trips via his tunnels to get a nice thick blanket of snow to cover Jack.

By the time he was done, it was rather late and he wanted to ask North to let him use one of his guest rooms. He was outside the door when he heard voices. Curiosity piqued, since North rarely had guests other than Bunny and Jack since Sandy and Tooth were both usually very busy, Aster pushed opened the door only to see Pitch Black.

Bunny froze for a millisecond before snarling and whipping out his boomerangs.

"Ya bloody wombat. I oughta-"

"Bunny!" North's thunderous voice boomed. "No fighting! Kozmotis is friend!"

"Wha? Are ya outta ya bloomin' mind!?" Bunny's increasing franticness caused his accent to grow thicker. He couldn't think of anything other than that Jack was defenseless, and he wasn't going to let Pitch get near him. No, he won't. If he even steps a foot towards him, he'd rip his thro-

"BUNNYMUND!" North roared again, snapping Bunny out from his surprisingly dark and morbid thoughts.

"Kozmotis is a friend. He had just rid himself of the dark Fearlings that made Kozmotis Pitchiner, Pitch Black."

Indeed, when Aster looked carefully at Pitch, he could see that Pitch had lost the shadowy robes and was in some sort of military uniform, and shadows no longer seem to cling to him. Rather, it looked like he repelled all shadows other than his own.

"I came to apologize about all the troubles I had caused." Pitch's crisp voice cut through his thoughts. Bunny glared at him, he still couldn't trust him. Unlike North, he didn't have a 'feeling-in-the-belly' intuition to tell him whether to trust Pitchiner or not.

"I'll be keepin' both eyes on you." Bunny warned.

"Yes, yes. Good to see you are getting along." North said cheerfully, slapping their back hard causing them to lose their breath.

"Because Kozmotis is going to be a Guardian!"

"What?!" "I'm sorry?!" Bunnymund and Pitch let out exclamations of surprise and utter shock.

"Manny just informed me of a new Guardian. Vas going to call all Guardians when Kozmotis here knocked on me front door!"

"Ya gotta be pullin' my leg, mate." Bunny said with an incredulous look on his face.

"No, no pulling of legs here." North said with a grin.

"But- how- wha-?"

"What trouble has arisen? M.I.M won't simply make a new Guardian unless there was something threatening the safety of the world's children." Pitch interrupted the spluttering Pooka.

"No need to be so formal, Kozmotis!" North laughed before turning serious. "But indeed, a great evil haz arisen to harm ze children."

Bunny turned serious. He was very protective of his lil' ankle-biters. If anyone dare touch any of them, he would tear them limb-by-limb and make them regret ever harming a single hair from their heads.

Bunny's eyes widened in surprise by his dark thoughts. He shook his head as if to rid himself of the vicious thoughts.

"You are plagued by Shadows." Pitch stated, staring at Aster. "I can see it as clear as day. It's very recent. The Shadows have yet to cling to your essence and develop into Fearlings."

"What utter rubbish!" Bunnymund growled, feeling uncharacteristically angry. "Get away from me ya wanker!" He waved his boomerangs threateningly.

Pitch remained calm despite having a boomerang wave at his face.

"It's the Shadows talking. Relax. I'm doing nothing threatening to you."

Aster flinched back, surprised. Why was he angry? Pitch was doing nothing…

During his state of confusion, Pitch took advantage of it and slashed a beam of light through Bunny. At least he would, if Bunny hadn't dodged it at the very last second.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you." Bunny snarled as he hurled his boomerangs at Pitch. Who in turn, dissolved into light and appeared behind Bunny, only to be met with a kick in the face by the rabbit.

"Up to your same old tricks, ya sly sneak!" Bunny shouted as he punched and kicked, and sent Pitch sailing to the other end of the office, causing him to smash against a bookshelf and books to topple on him.

Usually, that would be enough for Bunnymund. Knowing that he had defeated his foe. But instead all he could hear in his mind was: 'Killlll himmmm…' 'He'll harm allll of your friendssss…' 'Killlll himmm before he killsss you!'

Growling he pounced on the unconscious Pitch, only to realize that the unconscious Pitch was not so unconscious after all.

Bright light was all he could see before he felt pain. He felt something so cold it burns. He felt it slithering out of his body and wherever it was, it left a trail of burning cold. What had been a mere minute felt like an hour to Bunny, and when he felt all the slimy coldness finally left him. He opened his eyes to see a shapeless, formless dark creature in front of him.

Pitch was fighting it with a sword. With every slash, a trail of light was left behind. With every jab, a burst of light was made. In no time, the large Shadow was dissolved into light.

Aster was still sitting on the ground stunned. That creature was inside of him. He couldn't believe it.

"If you thought that was bad, you should have tried having thousands of full grown Shadows, a.k.a. Fearlings in your body." Pitch said drily.

Bunny was surprised that he spoke out loud. Before a random though appeared in his head. He turned to North who was simply sitting at his table drinking eggnog.

"Why didn't ya do somethin'?" Bunny confronted him.

"Well, Shadows are Kozmotis' area of expertise. So, I believed it vas vise to leave it to him!" North smiled.

"Enough vith ze chatter. Ve have to call ze other Guardians!"

North stood up from his seat and Aster stood up with shaky legs, still feeling the after effects of the bone chilling removal of the Shadows in his body.

"I believe that there is an even more pressing issue at hand." Pitch said silkily.

"And vhat iz zhat?"

"Well, because it seems that Bunnymund over here, just brought back some Fearlings on his way here."

"What do ya mean? You destroyed those buggers from me didn't ya?" Aster frowned.

Pitch rolled his eyes. "Yes, I did. I meant the other person that came with you."

"What other person? The only one I brought here is Ja…" Bunny trailed off with a look of dawning realization on his face.

"Yes." Pitch said lightly, "it seems that Jack has been harboring some Fearlings within him for some time."

wellllll, what did you think? please leave a review, even ghost readers are welcome.

now I just want to thank my beta, insanepanda, again. she is not just an awesome beta but a really awesome friend as well.