As you all know now the last chapter was more M because of the slight gore and swearing and leetle itty bitty sex talk, but this chapter will be a bit calmer. So let the children back in!

Wait, why were you keeping them in your closet? You sick bastards.

Sorry about the wait, btw. I've been sick as balls. Thank you for all the reviews though! And thank you Demona Evernight for liking the creature design. I wanted the villain to be something humanoid and somewhat regal, but still 2spooky.

Like always, R&R please, my lovelies!

Ace

'You did good.'

'You couldn't have known, don't beat yourself up about it.'

No matter what the others told me, it didn't lessen the deep-seated guilt that filled my heart.

He'd grabbed me, I'd let Him grab me and throw me and hurt me, because I was too fucking cowardly to move. The minute I saw the bumps on His skin I knew exactly where I'd seen Him before, not Him exactly, but forms of Him. He's been here longer than any of us, since the beginning of earth and life itself, but He had been contained in that lab.

And I let Him out.

After He'd let me go, it was like I was in some kind of vegetative state. I was somewhat aware of what was going on but it was like I was waking up from a long nap, everything was fuzzy and blurry. When I'd finally got my senses back, that was when I'd realized the shit had hit the fan. Bunny was bleeding out on the floor missing an ear, and Jack was in His clutches. I immediately shot Him with lightning, and he'd dropped Jack, but his whole body sort of conducted it and then anything flammable had suddenly caught fire. By anything flammable, I mean just about godamn everything, bottles of rubbing alcohol, old lab coats, the decades old electrical system even blew, it was a fucking mess.

He wasn't too happy about it either, I didn't really hurt him as much as I'd pissed him off. He yelled something about "new tricks" over the roar of the flames, then His body had begun to dissolve, it took me a second to recognize what He'd turned into, it was moths. Millions and millions of moths. They fluttered around, their wings beating in my ears and in my hair and for a moment I thought I was going to suffocate, but then they were gone as quickly as they came. I tried to carry both Bunny and Jack out of there, but when I realized there was no way that was going to work I took a chance and tossed Jack out the window and flew Bunny out instead. I was just thankful North had provided him with one of those portal creating snowglobes if we'd needed to make a quick exit.

I nervously jiggled my foot while waiting outside the bedroom where North and Tooth were helping Bunnymund, he'd lost a lot of blood. Jack was okay, or at least they told me he would be. Because Jack had died and become a spirit, he couldn't be mortally wounded like the rest of them could, whatever he'd done to Jack had just severely weakened him so he was currently sleeping in another room. My guess paid off at least.

Sandy floated my way and handed me a cup of tea, I shook my head, I felt like if I put anything in my mouth right now it'd just come right back up. Sandy just gave me a stern look and shook his head, 'nuh-uh you are drinking this and you are drinking it NOW'.

"Alright, dad," I muttered, then flinched," I'm sorry I didn't mean that, thank you."

Sandy just gave me a small smile and patted my arm. I took a sip of the tea, whatever it was it helped calm my nerves, but it also just made me sadder.

"I feel awful, Sandy," I said,"you guys are all just so nice, and here I am and I'm just... not. All I've done was bitch and get you hurt, and now th- Sandy? Sandy?"

He fell asleep. Great, even he can't stand listening to me.

We were both jolted up by the door banging open and Toothiana and North walking out.

"Is he?!-" I asked but was cut off.

"He's fine," North said," we managed to stop the bleeding and sew it up. Sandy managed to put him to sleep so he didn't feel a thing"

"And you said knowing about dentistry wasn't real medicine." Tooth said to North with a big smile on her face. He groaned.

"Whatever. Important thing is that he's fine."

"What about his ear?," I asked," did you reattach it?" Tooth shook her head.

"No, but it doesn't matter,"she said," he's technically immortal, it'll grow back in a couple weeks. In the meantime he'll just have to deal with being earless."

I sighed in relief. It was still a pretty shitty thing to have to go through, regrowing a body part and all, but at least he'll be okay and grow it back in time to not look like a giant mangled stuffed animal to the kids forever.

"Can I see him?" I asked. North nodded and let me into Bunny's room, where the big furball was lying back on the bed, looking dazed and sleepy, but at least not in terrible pain.

Bunnymund turned to me and gave me a little half smile.

"'Eyyyy, good ta' see ya' made it out in one piece, unlike me." he quipped. I couldn't help but scoff, what an idiot.

"Jesus Bunny," I muttered," I'm so, so, so sorry for all of that. I should've known but-" Bunny put a big furry paw on my face.

"HEY, stop it," he said, firmly," you stop that right now, kid. You couldn't have known, and we all walked into that place like a bunch of idiots. The fault is on all of us."

I spat out clumps of fur. Gross.

"Okay, but I was the one that broke the door open and turned on the power. I froze up when he grabbed me, I-"

"You, you, you, you," he said, rolling his eyes," there were a thousand things all of us could've done differently, it does no good to dwell on past mistakes, what you need to do is keep moving forward."

I looked at my hands, for a giant rabbit, he sure was making a whole lot of sense. I suppose Manny had made a good choice when he chose Aster as a guardian after all.

"Do you think we could maybe just bury the hatchet?," I asked,"We're gonna need to be on the same team if we're gonna beat that guy-"

"Only if you apologize." I snorted.

"Oh come on, it was so long ago! Your tail grew back in alright! And to be fair, you provoked me by calling me a boy!"

"MY BUTT WAS ON FIRE ACENATH-"

"Woah, is this a bad time?"

The both of us turned around to see an extremely confused Jack Frost in the doorway.

"Jack!," I said, happily" you're up!" For some reason knowing Jack was okay and walking around made me feel a lot better, I had to fight off jumping on him and hugging the crap out of him. Hell no I wasn't going to do that, especially not in front of Bunny, he'd never let me live it down.

"Oh yeah," he said, flashing me a bright smile," it takes a lot more than... whatever that guy was to take me out. Oh, thanks for grabbing my staff, too."

I sighed in relief, he was mentally okay too, I was a bit afraid he'd be a bit frightened to see me after all that happened, thank gods Jack was strong. I liked that- I MEAN?-

"Yeah!," I said a little too loud, my thoughts were getting off track," It's uh, no problem." I smiled back at him.

Bunny cleared his throat, and then I realized we'd been staring at each other like brain dead morons. This is not a good day.

"Back to the present, children," Bunny said," we need to clear up a couple things, how exactly did you get us out?"

I grimaced, and told them the story. They didn't seem too upset about it until I told them about throwing Jack out the window like he was a bag of nasty garbage. Bunny thought it was fucking hilarious, Jack not so much.

"You couldn't take us out one at a time?" Jack asked. I cuffed him on the back of the head.

"You try being in a burning building with two passed out idiots and see if you think straight!" I fired back.

"Ace, that... thing, he said he knew you," Bunny interrupted," and we know you recognized him too. You need to tell us, what is he?"

I looked down, I could feel all their eyes on me, boring into my skull. I took a breath.

"Pestilence." I muttered.

The silence that followed was deafening, you could hear a pin drop.

"Oh no..." Bunny breathed. I raised my eyes to look at him but immediately wished I'd hadn't, he was terrified. Jack looked back and forth between us.

"Pestilence?" he asked," as in sickness?"

"As in plague." North said, walking into the room, I was too concerned with what he had to say so I didn't make a point of his obvious eavesdropping. North dropped a heavy, ancient looking book onto Bunny's lap- which made him wince in pain- and turned a few pages to show us a gaunt, sheet white man in a tattered robe riding a horse," He's shown himself many times throughout history, in Europe he was the Black Death, in the 1920's he was the Spanish Flu, in Acenath's time he was Smallpox."

I turned away, I didn't want to see Jack's face.

"However," North continued," he is most well known as the rider of the white horse at the coming of the apocalypse, or so some circles say." North sighed heavily.

"He's bringing the end of the world?" Jack asked.

"No," I said, automatically," that's just the Biblical story, Pestilence just liked the fact that they made him a bringer of death so much he stuck with the title."

"He has never challenged us before," North muttered to himself," he has never had a reason to, when he manifests as a disease he kills indiscriminately... I must go tell the others. Aster, get your rest, we will figure out a course of action in the morning."

Once North left, the deafening silence returned, I could feel Jack's eyes on me again. I knew exactly what he wanted to know, and maybe now it was time for him to learn.

The both of us left Bunnymund alone to sleep ("How the hell I'm gonna sleep after all this is a mystery" he kept whining), and once we shut the door I brought Jack into the nearest empty bedroom. If we were going to do this, we were going to have to be undisturbed.

Sitting across from one another on the bed, I pushed the little gold cylinder into Jack's hands. He looked down at the picture of the young girl on the top, a girl with green eyes and long, messy black hair. Jack's arctic blue eyes flicked to me with uncertainty.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"It's time." I said.

And with that, I pressed the knob on the side of the cylinder and let Jack into my memories.