AN: I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while now, but it's taken me so long to write this story in general. Going in, I actually didn't have much of a plan for this chapter other than the main idea. Hopefully it turned out well.

I'm also in the process of re-editing my previous chapters for this story, but nothing plot-wise is going to be changed.

Some background Info: Actual McGee's Alice canon says that Alice was in the infirmary for a year being treated for her burns before she was moved to Rutledge Asylum in November-December of 1864, so this chapter takes place the first Easter after Alice was transferred and Bunny lost track of her. Told in Jack's perspective.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.

~Easter Sunday, 1865~

Weird.

That was really the only word he could use to describe it.

There wasn't anything noticeably off, not as far as he could tell at first, but Jack was getting weird juju vibes all day. Not necessarily a foreign feeling for him, but it wasn't one he would normally associate with this particular day. It was Easter Sunday, barely Easter Sunday in some parts of the world, and already he was picking up on a subtle shift he knew wasn't normal, a slight change in the air - or rather, the misplaced stagnation of it, which was...well, weird.

Spring was about new life, rebirth (or so Jack has been led to believe), and Easter was the annual milestone that helped that new life segue into the mortal realm with the famous Easter Bunny as its initial shepherd, followed swiftly by the Spirit of Spring, who picked up where Easter Sunday left off. The day didn't lack its usual surge of new, blooming plant life, bright sunshine and weather that was just the right mixture of warm and cool to make an Easter egg hunt perfect for the kiddies, but something was definitely off. Jack sensed it almost immediately as he rode the winds early that morning in the countries that first felt the blinding rays of a new day on their little, blue marble planet.

It was driving him a little crazy, if he were to be honest. The change was alluding him rather stubbornly and it annoyed him that he couldn't figure it out. It was right on the tip of his tongue, like the name of a song or quote from an old book, very much needed for the subject at hand but impossible to grasp until much later when the moment had long since passed.

Jack floated high in the sky with the wind supporting his weight. The early morning chill blew through his silver-white hair and gently ruffled his worn, animal-hide cloak. He felt at ease, but the strangeness of the Easter Sunday still plagued him, and it continued to plague him as he roamed the world, visiting different parts of the globe he knew celebrated Easter with enthusiastic vigor.

Maybe perhaps the weird feeling in the air had something to do with the Easter Bunny. He had yet to see the pooka, anywhere, but then again, to assume that was the cause for the feeling would be a bit of a stretch. It wouldn't be the first time Jack scoped out Easter Sunday festivities and not cross paths with Bunnymund. In fact, he usually preferred it that way. He didn't mind the occasional glimpse of tall ears and blue-grey fur, or the brief exchange of taunts, threats and insults, shouted up at him from the ground while he hung safely up in the sky, but direct confrontations were a big no-no.

On the one hand, Bunny was rather intimidating, which made Jack wary to approach him face-to-face with both feet on the ground, but on the other hand, he was also pretty fluffy, which give Jack enough cautionary leeway to pepper the pooka's holiday with his own unique, Wintery touch. His efforts mostly went unappreciated by the mutant kangaroo, naturally, but Jack had come to fancy their feuds. They were almost like little games the two spirits would play with each other. A one-sided, immortal version of the game Tag.

Jack looked forward to it every year. He even did his own spectating in his head for fun to make it into a big event he could look back on and snicker to himself for the next few months. He'd make his own sound effects, pre-game interviews, and ask suspenseful, cliffhanging questions like overdramatic sports announcers. Who was faster? Who would out smart who? Will the built-for-speed, rabbit-kangaroo hybrid finally catch the free and lively Spirit of Winter? Will this be the year it all comes to a head? Will they both be able to make it out with their lives!? (Stay tuned to your local Jack Frost Watch station to find out)

He waited patiently for the opportunity to finally challenge the pooka on an equal playing field, but since it didn't look like that day would be coming any time soon, Jack was content with just blending into the background, not that he had much of a choice otherwise. He didn't have his own holiday to run like Bunny, or an all consuming, twenty-four hour job like the Sandman. He just had his own season and that was enough for him, apparently. A few months out of the year, Jack Frost was useful to somebody. It wasn't much, and his signature weather powers usually went unappreciated by most, but it was certainly better than nothing.

Perhaps that was why he enjoyed poking fun at the pooka so much. Because spirits like him had it all while spirits like Jack barely even showed up on the radar. The Easter Bunny was a perfectionist, a showoff, and he deserved to be knocked down a couple of pegs every now and again. He hid his arrogance very well behind his fancy titles as the Easter Bunny and the Guardian of Hope, but he didn't have Jack fooled. Being a legendary guardian of childhood tended to do that to a spirit (with the obvious exception of Sandy since he was about as humble as they come).

North was a show-off too, sort of, with his grand domain, grand holiday, and grand parties, but North was okay in Jack's books. He was certainly kinder to Jack than the Easter Bunny the few times he had brief run-ins with the Christmas Spirit. And Toys were way more exciting than painted eggs. The only real charm of Easter was the egg hunts and candy. Bunny always tried to spoon feed him that whole "Spring is rebirth", "The Earth is shifting", and "Get away from my hard-boiled relics of my holy holiday" mumbo jumbo every time Jack said as much, but he would only laugh at the pooka before being chased off by a vengeful boomerang.

Today, however, all was quiet and it was a little unsettling.

Of course the children didn't take any notice. They weren't aware of the spiritual beings hard at work all around them. That wasn't much of a surprise, though. Not even adults would pick up on the strangeness. Mortals weren't sensitive enough to the world around them to be able to notice things like that. All they knew was that the weather was warm, Winter was over and Spring was finally here, and there were colorful Easter eggs to be found and chocolate to eat. Only beings like Jack could tell that something was amiss, and even then it probably would've taken him longer to notice if the wind hadn't pointed it out earlier that morning when he first set out.

Jack hovered just above the cloud line, the ground below momentarily blocked from his view as the wind swept him along like a leaf down a river. He had spent the past few hours up in Canada, somewhere off to the side of Vancouver, but now he was back in North America, making a beeline for the state of Pennsylvania. His internal clock told him it was almost noon, the Easter egg hunts would be starting soon and Jack had always felt naturally drawn to the state and town that housed his pond. He felt connected to the people and families there, even though they couldn't see him.

When he sunk back down below the clouds again, his blue eyes lit up with glee when he spotted a familiar speck of bluish-grey down below, peeking just barely through the thick treetops of one of Pennsylvania's more rural areas. He smirked as he lowered himself down closer towards the ground, fully making out the distinctive shape of the Easter Bunny.

The pooka was moving through the forest at a surprisingly slow pace with a cluster of Easter eggs walking behind him on little legs like a platoon of soldiers. Jack could see the array of colors and shining glitter that made up the designs painted on their shells, even from all the way up in the sky. As they marched dutifully behind the Easter Bunny, they would break off one by one from the group, hiding themselves in spots along the hiking trail of some unmarked state park. Bunny stayed ahead of them, doing nothing but moving forward while his eggs chose their own spots.

Jack hovered down closer, mindful not to let his shadow fall on the forest floor and give his presence away. His bare toes wiggled in anticipation as he picked his brain for something clever to shout at the pooka as a way of greeting and a polite declaration of war. A flower of ice and snow blossomed in the palm of his hand as he channeled his winter powers and willed a snowball to appear in his grasp. However, as Jack drew close enough to see Bunny clearly, readying his throwing arm and taking aim, the words slipped from his mind and he felt his head cock slightly to the side in confusion at the curious state of the Easter Bunny.

He looked kind of...terrible.

It only took Jack a second to realize that the pooka hadn't been simply walking along the path, he was shuffling at a pathetically slow pace for the, supposedly, "fastest creature on the planet", dragging his big feet like he couldn't be bothered to pick them up. His posture was completely slack, sluggish. His long ears hung limply down around his head as if lifeless and unable to pick up on the sounds of blooming life or the laughter of children around them. His fur looked dull, even with its grey coloring. It didn't shine like it usually did. It looked matted and unkempt, much like the rest of him. His arms hung down like his ears, with his egg basket hanging loosely from his paw, dragging empty against the dirt path. Jack pulled a face at the sight.

That was different.

The Spring season might have been in full swing, flourishing with new life and promises of a better tomorrow. The colorful flowers may be blooming, the trees may be growing new leaves, the rivers and streams may be babbling again, and the children may be laughing and playing and searching for their Easter treats just like always, but the holiday's keeper was not the same way. He looked like he had all his life and energy sucked right out of him, causing him to give off a serious "do not approach" vibe. Jack had never seen Bunny like this before. He was always so confident, abrasive and completely full of himself. He made it so easy for other spirits to push his buttons and that was what always had Jack coming back every Easter Sunday.

It wasn't that Bunny looked frustrated, or knackered, or impatient - that would've been well into the scope of normality for him. No, he looked tired, and not in the same way most spirits get when they go too long without sleeping and are about to crash. He looked drained. Expressionless, emotionless.

He looked miserable.

He looked...hopeless.

The snowball that had been building up in the winter spirit's hand slowly broke down into a fine, formless powder as it slipped through his pale fingers and was swept away by the wind.

He thought about calling out to the pooka, only with something less provoking to say this time. He thought about making another snowball and throwing it at the back of Bunny's head just to see how he would respond. Would he yell and curse at Jack like he usually did? Would he throw his boomerang and ban him from coming anywhere near his Easter egg hunts? Or would he just continue as he was, shuffling along with no emotion, no recognition, going through the motions as if he wasn't aware of anything around him? Would he even turn his head to see who had thrown the snowball? What happened to the once proud Easter Bunny and his irrational love for his holiday?

Jack felt like he should do something, like go get North or Sandy, let them know that their fellow guardian had lost the spring in his step. It didn't feel right for the spirit of new life and beginnings to be so despondent and Jack finally realized that was why the atmosphere had felt so weird today. He gnawed on his bottom lip, mulling over what he should do and whether there was even anything that he could do. It didn't look like Bunny wanted to be approached by anyone, least of all by his self proclaimed nemesis, Jack Frost.

In the end, he decided to just leave him in peace.

And if the Easter Bunny ever noticed how there wasn't a single inch of snowfall anywhere in the world that day, it went unmentioned the next Easter Sunday. The whole ordeal left Jack wondering what on earth happened to the pooka to make him look so lost and vacant.

He eventually decided he really didn't want to know.

AN: It's been quite a while since I updated this story, hasn't it? I'll admit, I did have writer's block while writing this chapter. It wasn't that I didn't know what I wanted to write, it was just that I had no motivation to do it. As most of you probably know, I recently finished Winter Wonderland. I decided to put this story on hold for a little while so I could focus on Winter W, which worked out fine because I had writer's block for this story anyways. However, even after I finished Winter W, I still wasn't feel up to finishing this chapter just yet. I do plan to complete this story though, so eventually I forced myself to sit down and finish this chapter so I could move on with the others and wrap everything up for you guys.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I went through hell trying to get it out, which is ridiculous because it's not even that long.

~Scorpiofreak~