Chapter two

"Not many in New York tonight, huh?" Toothiana grinned as she gathered her baby fairies up to leave. "Covered Broadway? Okay, good. We can leave." She turned around only to come face-to-face with Jack.

"Tooth?" He asked. "What're you doing out?"

"Oh, hey, Jack." Tooth flushed, her fairies swooning around her. Undoubtedly, she still had a small crush on him. "Just thought I'd go out on the field for once. Beats the sorting job back at the palace. What are you doing here?"

"This place is due for a small storm." Jack smiled. "You might want to get outta here. The drifts go crazy when they hit the buildings here."

"Okay. Well… I'll see you around… Whoa!" Tooth yelled at the greenish-blue glowing in the distance.

"The northern lights? But… I thought this place had light pollution."

"So did I… Wait, what time of the month is it?" Asked Jack.

Tooth quivered as she thought. "Shoot. The meeting's today!"

"Then we gotta go!"

"What about your storm?"

"Forecasts aren't always correct, you know!" Jack flew off.

"Just go on to Ethiopia without me, fairies." Tooth told her babies. They whimpered. "Oh, I know, I promised I would go this time but I can't be late! These meetings are extra important now that Jack's on the team!" With a quick goodbye, she left, following Jack as the wind sped her pace.

"So you're telling me, you saw Pitch again? If this is another pre-Christmas joke mate, I swear I'll knock your-"

Bunny was cut short by Jack and Tooth soaring through the window.

"What took you so long?"

"Late notice." Answered Jack for both of them. "Did I just hear you saw Pitch again?"

North nodded.

Jack gazed about. "Where's Sandy?"

"On his way. Sending dreams to kids in Seoul then Tokyo is a big job, ya know?"

"It's why I have my backups." Commented Tooth.

Jack took the moment of conversation to look at the globe. "Strange. If you saw Pitch, why are all the lights the same? And did he know the monthly meeting was going to be today? So he could gather us without causing a panic?"

"Beats me."

With that, Sandy appeared in a swirl of sand, a troubled look upon his face.

"Sandy! What's up?"

Sandy made a head symbol representing Pitch then made the silhouette of a mountain, pointing to a window that went out west.

"The alps?" North asked.

He nodded.

"Let's go!" Tooth motioned Jack to follow her.

"Right behind ya, mate."

They were off.

Pitch stood atop the mountain, like an impatient child.

"Good thing I chose the meeting day to avoid the suspicions, didn't I? Well, I wouldn't have found out the date If it wasn't for this little treasure."

He pried open his own hand to reveal a baby tooth fairy, huddled and scared.

"I should thank you. A least you're one of the brave ones, not one that would commit suicide after betraying your guardians. Otherwise," He looked over the alpines and saw four separate figures coming in his direction. "This plan would be a turmoil."

He released the pixie, sending it zipping towards its mother-figure.

"Sandy, distract him. Me and North will come out unexpected. Jack will cover us if something happens. Got it?" Bunny shouted from the sleigh, weapons prepared.

Sandy nodded in agreement, Tooth following behind. "Let's do this!" She screamed, when something hit her square in the face. Rubbing her eye, she saw a blurry fairy squeaking at her in panic.

"Baby Tooth? What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

The minuscule pixie squealed, rapidly forcing air out of her tiny lungs.

"What?! Pitch had you captive?"

Baby Tooth nodded.

"And he tortured you?"

The adolescent continually squeaked as she gestured all over the place.

"And he's targeting on one particular guardian? Who? Why them?"

The fairy stopped in mid-air and quivered anxiously. Suddenly, Tooth knew exactly what that meant.

"JACK!" She soared dizzily towards the alpine.

Sandy aimed a whiplash at the dark guardian, distracting him in any way possible, but nothing was seeming to work. North and Bunny had already attempted several times to distract him, but it was almost as if he was prepared for anything, keeping his eyes peeled for something else.

"Tooth! Are you okay? You fell behind back there!"

"Bunny! Something terrible's gonna happen! Where's Jack?"

"I haven't-"

North was broken off by a blast of ice zipping towards a nightmare. It sparked into tiny particles of sand easily enough, but a sudden explosion of smoke-like gas emitted from the mass of dark powder, blinding anyone near it. Tooth glanced over to where the ice had come from to see Jack shielding his eyes, protecting himself from the sudden blow of vapour. The guardians all watched in anticipation as it swallowed his whole body, Tooth screaming his name.

A minute passed.

Two more went by.

Then another.

Tears threatened to escape Tooth's eyes as she waited nervously for the smoke to clear. It seemed like Jack was never getting out. Finally, after what seemed like forever, a huge voltage of cyan erupted from inside, incinerating any smoke surrounding the alps. From there, Jack appeared, flying at the fastest speed possible with six hungry nightmares following.

"Where the devil did they come from?" Yelled bunny.

"I don't know but they're not getting away with it!" North's eyes transformed from fear to a burning rage as he brought down the reins, speeding off with sandy and a still-anxious tooth following.

Jack blinked away the excess smog, flying aimlessly away from the nightmares. He didn't care where he was heading, he just needed to get away.

He was stopped abruptly when Tooth literally crashed into him.

"Jack!" She screamed before he could say anything.

"What? Has one of the others fallen?"

"No! It's-"

She shrieked as a nightmare began attacking her. Jack turned and took out the whole swarm with ice.

"T-thanks." She panted, her throat raw from screaming and hyperventilating.

"No prob, but why'd you fly all the way here?"

"It's pitch. He- had one of my fairies before the meeting."

"What?"

"She was forced to tell him some secrets about the guardians. I don't know why, Jack but you have to stay away from-"

Tooth was hit on the side by a small blast of nightmare sand, knocking her away.

"Tooth!" Jack turned, seeing pitch using the same method on other guardians.

"PITCH YOU ARE SO DEAD!" He zoomed off before he could see Tooth catch herself from her fall, mid-air.

"JACK, NO!" She yelled upon seeing him flying in pitch's direction.

The nightmare king glanced in the direction of the screaming, watching Jack gain on him. His icy blue eyes were burning with fury, if that's even possible.

"Finally. The fun can begin now."

Tooth stopped in the middle of chasing Jack, raising a hand to her mouth as she observed pitch create a grenade of black sand, eyes on Frost.

"No. No no no no no. JACK STOP!"

Jack stopped and turned slightly when he heard Tooth, distracting him from anything else. Pitch didn't hesitate as he swerved around and catapulted the grenade right in Jack's direction, who heard the sound of wind breaking, causing him to twirl back. The look of sudden realization on Jack's face almost killed Tooth right there.

"PITCH NO!"

The explosion hit Jack on the full, sending him falling unconscious with staff out of reach.

"JACK!"

Pitch grinned maniacally as he watched the four guardians take their focus off him and more on following Jack as he fell to the ground.

"Now… now the fun begins."