To Guest- You mean Sky. I was going to do that originally, so you're right there, but I may have other ideas… :D

Aliesha crashed through the ceiling, un-fazing at the wrong moment and crashing into one of the supports. Her shoulder exploded in agony, painful splinters shooting down her arm and across her chest. She must have cried out as both Jack and Tooth appeared next to her, a swarm of fairies hovering enquiringly in the background.

"Lish, what happened?" Jack asked as Tooth probed the injured shoulder. Aliesha felt like she was going to explode from the resulting wave of fresh pain. Darkness tinged the edges of her vision and she saw their worried eyes, ice blue and sparkling mauve, zeroing down on her. Jack caught her as she blacked out.

When she awoke, her right arm and shoulder were encased in some weird green-orange mush that smelt of herbs and ozone. She couldn't move.

"Hey you." Jack smiled half-heartedly at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Wh-?" She flicked her eyes to the paste covering her.

"That's Father Knowledge's handy work. Numbs the pain, he said, and I think it speeds up the healing process, can't remember what he said. He started going on a tangent about herbs and stuff." Jack waved his hand absent-mindedly and smiled again. "I stopped listening."

"Of course you did."

"So, why did you crash into the ceiling?" Her heart thudded in her chest, blood roaring in her eyes. Cal...

She stammered and stuttered over what happened, but it had all gone so horribly wrong so horribly fast and the dull, throb from her shoulder was highly distracting. Jack's eyes never left her, the cheeky and fatherly look getting more and more intensely concerned with each passing second.

"And then... he was just gone." Her voice trembled and tears threatened to spill. "What do we do?"

"Well, you're staying here to recover." He stood up. "Lucky for you, Knowledge and Fairy volunteered to look after you."

"Lucky?"

"April wanted to help." He mimed air quotes with his free hand. "They'll be here in a minute. I've got to tell your mam."

"I want to help."

"Not with that shoulder."

"But-"

"You see this?" He pointed at her, arm fully extended and tilting his head back slightly, looking down his nose at her. "This is me grounding you until further notice."

"You can't do that!"

"Yes I can, I'm your dad." Aliesha scowled at him, but stayed put. He smiled gratefully and left. A minute later, her new babysitters arrived, Father Knowledge dragging in a big bag of books. "Something to keep you busy while your shoulder heals." He beamed, as though reading dusty old tomes was good for her. Aliesha mentally sighed- this was going to be a long recovery.

"Be careful!" Tooth pleaded. Jack kissed her cheek and shot up. She couldn't help find their son as she couldn't leave her station. Children had to believe in her and the fairies needed someone to tell them where to go.

Luckily, some of the other spirits were willing to help. The other seasonal embodiments, Cupid and Valentino, the Leprechaun, the other Guardians (obviously), Eve the Halloween spirit and Mother Nature. Jack had explained what had happened as best he could. Pitch could have taken Cal anywhere though, so they were to check everywhere and anywhere. North asked Manny, but no response. One day Jack would figure out how to freeze the moon and make his point- DON'T BE SO FLIPPING AWKWARD.

Unbeknownst to them, Cal was sitting on a beach of some deserted island. One of your typical in-the-middle-of-nowhere islands, hot with no fresh water and great big expanses of steamy jungle. Usually great. If you weren't a winter spirit.

Cal couldn't remember straying off course or why he would pick such a tropical and too warm location or how he even got here. All he could remember was a striking and vivid image of Aliesha screaming his name in warning and then... nothing. Darkness.

He had tried to find a way off the island, but his staff was missing. He couldn't so much as summon a snowflake. He couldn't fly or cool the temperature to something habitable or anything. He could walk through trees, but that wasn't exactly helpful. He had tried to find the coolest place, next to a spring in the shade. The air was muggy and the water lukewarm, sunlight filtering through the leafs. He felt like a vampire, literally hissing at the sun and its accursed warmth.

Overheating was never good for him, his nerves or his mind. Every bird call or animal howl was someone trying to hunt him down, every twig snapping a footfall of some approaching opponent. He felt groggy and disorientated. The sun was looming towards the afternoon when he feel into a fitful sleep.

Clowns. Demonic clowns with gore dripping from their claws and razor sharp teeth, talon-like fingers burrowing into his chest, their blazing scarlet eyes cackling gleefully as they ripped-

Cal startled awake, half-choking, half-screaming, and vomited. His head was swimming with the deranged laugh of a cannibal clown and it took a few seconds longer than it should have to notice the black sand clinging to his person.

"You didn't like that nightmare, did you?" That voice. It danced about, never from one particular place. The shadows writhed about him, solidifying and slicing his palms and wrists. He tried to bat them away; they only latched onto his arms, scrabbling up to his neck, drawing blood from maliciously deep lacerations.

A laugh. "Good. We're only just getting started."