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North looked at Gretchen, his face contorted as if he was solving a very complicated puzzle.
The Algae, the Greek Gods of pain and sorrow attacked the Guardians last spring, with Ania, one of the sisters falling for Jack and poisoning him, turning the winter spirit into one of them. Evil Jack was in love with the Goddess and he helped the Algae defeat the Guardians. He stabbed North with an icicle and almost killed Tooth in cold blood.
According to North's book of legends: 'Gods of chaos, war and destruction can posses souls and render them evil at will, making the victim soul mirror the God's desires, slave to their bindings... Only an incorruptible, pure soul can return from this fate...Solely by the mercy of a mythical creature, of purity and kindness equal to the God's power.'
And so the hellion was brought back by the Tooth Fairy's love and compassion, for she forgave him for taking her life before he did. The Algae ended up trapped by their own fears, under Pitch's broken bed on Jack's lake.
But perhaps his new son's soul was not as incorruptible as North thought. He was the Guardian of Fun, he held the record on naughty list, after all.
"I don't care what he's capable of! You haven't seen what I'm capable of! Whatever handsome did to Pitch, we need more of that! Gaia is not the enemy, Pitch is! We're suppose to be rescuing my friend, remember?" Gretchen was getting a bit edgy.
Why were the Guardians such a bunch of sissies? She had seen handsome's powers, but c'mon! Five against one! She bet Bunny alone could give Frosty a good run for his money. After the way he battled all those fearlings to get to her... Crap! She was a freaking fan girl now. What the Hell was wrong with her?
"Jack, can you tell when you...?" asked North.
"No." said the winter boy. He was beginning to think that maybe Bunny was right "I do know that, sometimes... why didn't you tell me that you suspected this?!"
"Why didn't you tell me that you suspected this?" asked North in reply.
"I never... suspected it. I just sometimes feel a bit different. Like when I'm with Tooth..." he looked at Bunny, admitting that the pooka was somewhat right "sometimes I'm not... quite myself, but I can control it, I'm always... here, I- I don't know how to explain it. I didn't suspect it because it wasn't like before when I was completely gone. I'm still here. I'm always still here. Even earlier, with Pitch." Jack knew he was rambling but he didn't have a better way to explain what was happening.
"That is good news." smiled his father figure, patting Jack's back, relief written all over his face. "I never told you because I never really had any reason to. I thought I was paranoid. I though you were just getting used to living here, no? I thought it was good thing that you were not afraid to speak your mind. And I know I did push you a little just to be sure. " he said, squeezing Jack's shoulder before walking towards the control panel.
"You've got to be kidding me" said Bunny, more to himself than to anyone else, realizing that he had lost North's support.
He was not afraid of Frostbite as such, he knew that they could easily defeat him. He was afraid of having yet another enemy to battle, a powerful enemy who knew all of their weaknesses, one they'd be hesitant to attack. He was afraid that, knowing they were up to him, he would sneak out and release the Algae, because under the circumstances, the triplets would be unstoppable. And most of all, he worried about Tooth's safety. If Snowflake just snapped suddenly... caught her off guard... And damn it, he really didn't want to have to hurt Frosty!
Gretchen couldn't control the impulse of comforting Bunny and her soft hand wrapped around his arm. She had learned that he was just rough around the edges but his heart was on the right place. He just wanted to keep everyone safe, to protect the ones he cared... about. Was that about her?! When she moved closer to Jack... was that fear?
"It'll be OK" she whispered in his ear, but before the pooka could turn around and face her she let go and went to stand next to North, pretending to be very interested in what he was doing. She didn't want Bunny to see her flustered face, just in case she was completely wrong about this one.
"We'll ask Manny what he thinks, maybe it is a risk we can take. If there is ever a time to take risks, this is it!" said North, turning the lever to open a round hatch above their heads, letting the moonlight into the workshop.
Before he could ask any questions, Manny's light casted the shadow of Mother Nature on the workshop floor.
"Is that the answer, Manny? We have to bring back Gaia?" asked Tooth.
"How do we do it?" asked Gretchen. All the Guardians looked at her surprised, but MiM didn't seem to mind her asking because he answered the question.
The image of Gaia was replaced by one of Sandy surrounded by his sand.
"Dream sand? Is that all we need?" asked Bunny.
Jack's image appeared on the floor.
"Do you think I should stay behind?" asked the winter boy, sunken. But the image of Sandy appeared next to his.
Jack and Sandy looked at each other and smiled. They understood what MiM wanted them to do. The others were utterly confused.
"Is it risky for me to go? What should we do?" asked Jack and as soon as he asked, the moonlight casted Tooth's shadow.
"It seems like it will be OK if you stay close to Tooth." said North.
Jack smiled, looking down at his and Tooth's intertwined fingers. He gave said wonderfully warm fingers a little squeeze. That wasn't going to be a problem at all.
"Thank you Manny" said the Guardian of Wonder.
The moonlight lingered on the two lovers before it retreated back into space.
"You two obviously understood more than we did, no? Would you care to explain?" asked North, looking from Jack to Sandy.
"We discovered last spring that my powers affect the dream sand." started Jack.
"Well, that's not too great, given that Gaia takes away your powers. What does snow has to do with dreams anyway?" asked Bunny.
Jack grinned.
"Not that power. My real power" he winked at North. "The power of fun.
I makes the dream sand even more powerful. We get together once in a while, and we turn all the sweet dreams into fun dreams. They're very powerful."
Sandy and Jack high- fived.
"And because you and Pitch share the same power now..." said North.
"Exactly!" said Jack with a toothy smile. "Just keep Gaia from melting me and we'll be fine."
Sounds easy enough, right? *insert evil laugh*
Next chapter we'll see what Sera and her daddy are up to...
