"I love you." Jack murmured before he kissed Mysterie once more, shifting to gently pull out. He blushed blue at the mess the two of them had made of the sheets, particularly since the sand cloud had drifted to the bed and had burst at some point.

"Um... I should take care of those." Jack said and she chuckled.

"Don't worry about that, I got it." Silver sand swirled about, dealing with the mess and unlocking the door again.

"Well, I feel much better." Jack settled beside her, playing with her hair with one hand and thinking about the past few days as he did. She smiled.

"I think I read once that such activities are actually good for one's overall health. It was true when we were alive... can't imagine why it'd change now." She snuggled against him, pulling a blanket over them both, just in case. Jack sighed in contentment only to have that broken by an incessant voice whispering things into his ear. He sits up, looking around but seeing nothing he lays back down again.

"Do you hear the whispering?" Mysterie frowned a little. Whispering?

"No." Jack shook his head, thinking maybe it was just his lack of sleep and he turns to her, kissing her as he wraps his arms around her before he falls asleep, all the while the voice gets slightly louder. She smiled, watching him as he falls asleep before she drifted off herself; Jakul stirred, the mention of voices unceasing even him, though Shadow distracted them both... the two can only wonder what Jack meant by "whispering" that even they did not hear. Jack tossed and turned in his sleep as the beginning of a dream took hold of his mind. At first things seemed fine, he was sitting with Mysterie at a picnic.

"Mysterie." He smiled as she turned towards him, smiling and the two kiss chastely. When he turned to look at the sunset, however.

"Give in." Jack turned back to her, not sure what it was she'd said exactly.

"What?"

"I said, give in Jack. You'll love the darkness." Ever so slowly Mysterie was changed into Shadow.

"NO!" Smirking, she wrapped Jack into a cocoon of sand; Jack fought it fruitlessly as inklings of dark sand surrounded him; engulfing him in pitch black darkness.

"I won't give in! I won't!"

"Jack?" Mysterie muttered groggily, pulled from her own dreams by his tossing.

"No, l-leave me alone! I w-won't g-give in!" Jack screamed out in his sleep, tears streaming down his face as he struggled against nothing, but to him in the dream he was struggling against the darkness. Blinking awake, Mysterie gently shook his arm, trying to pull him from the nightmare.

"Jack, wake up." Jack struggled and the nightmare ended as a blood curdling, bone rattling scream was torn from his throat. Mysterie looked at him in concern as he finally opened his eyes; she was worried... really worried. Jack breathed heavily as his eyes darted around the room in search of the darkness that had assaulted him in the dream before his terrified blue eyes landed on Mysterie.

"It's okay... I-I'm fine." Jack said, trying to get control of himself as he turned on his side, ending the nonexistent discussion of the nightmare. Mysterie wanted to ask him about it, but she didn't any more than she had asked him before in the days previous when she had woken him from the grip of a nightmare. She did hug him close though in attempt to soothe him a little. Slowly, ever so slowly, Jack's eyes closed again; braving what ever would come to him in his sleep; in a window nearby a nightmare swarm danced about with Pitch among them with a smile. Pitch's satisfaction didn't last long though when he was spotted by Tooth, who promptly drove him and the nightmares off with her blades. Mysterie didn't notice Pitch only because she was lost in thought as she looked at Jack.

Morning came all too soon, Jack woke up and he was like a dead man as he had black circles beneath his eyes and his pale skin was paler than normal. He groaned as ached hit him and nothing felt right. Mysterie was standing by the door when Jack woke up, quietly talking to Tooth who looked rather worried when she glanced over to him, unaware he was awake, and squeaked a little too loudly.

"Are you sure?" Mysterie murmured a reply even as she indicated that Tooth shouldn't be so loud. Jack bumped into the door nearby, not realizing where he was going once he was up. He tried to cover up his sleepy state with a smile so neither of them would worry.

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Jack asks before stifling a yawn. Mysterie stiffened slightly in a mix of surprise and something else, but she didn't reply while Tooth turned to him in surprise then smiled.

"Oh, well we were just talking about Bunny's new chocolate." She said a little hastily, not noticing Mysterie's reaction, but knowing the other spirit didn't really want to say anything yet... and it wasn't an outright lie... Tooth had told her about that at some point before she'd confided in the fairy a theory of hers. Jack smiled, unaware.

"Alright, well I'm gonna go check on the old Kangaroo anyways." He flew out the nearest window towards the Warren. The two watch him leave.

"You should tell him." She gave the fairy a deadpan look.

"Right... because it would go over so well for him to know that he nearly killed me when I went to face the nightmares from the poison."

"But you said that it would-"

"I said it MIGHT. There's no guarantee that it would succeed and even if it did... who is to say I'd live through it? He wasn't even trying that time Tooth... and with Pitch stalking him at night..." She shook her head, Tooth had told her about that too.

"He doesn't need the added stress." Tooth sighed, but doesn't argue further. Bunny was busy making final preparations for Easter, which was tomorrow, adding to each basket an extra touch with the extra eggs he had; he smiled as he finished on specific basket that was blue in color and had snowflakes decorating some of the eggs. All too soon his nose picked up the familiar scent of mint and snow and he immediately hid the basket from sight as he turned to look at Jack with a slightly angry expression, but decided not to yell at his fellow Guardian since he was still wounded; he hated it when Jack tried sneaking up on him, as the winter spirit often tried. Jack smiled at the Pooka, "Easter Kangaroo" seeing that he was painting some eggs when Jack found him, he looked around at all the prepared eggs; there were thousands.

"Wow, you're prepared aren't you?" Bunny looked at him, growling slightly.

"Well, what are ya coin' here? Don't ya remember I told ya not to come here while I"m preparin' fer Easter?" The words slightly wounded Jack, reminding him a little too much of the Easter he'd unintentionally ruined years ago... A whisper in his ear told Jack to show the Pooka "what for" but he ignored it, surprised at what he was actually thinking. He could never hurt Bunny on purpose. Bunny grunted a little when Jack didn't answer.

"What are ya even doin' outta bed? Didn't North an' Tooth confine ya to bed until ya at least had them stitches out?"

"Well, they let me go." Jack looked at Bunny as he heard the whispering voice whisper terrible things and suggestions, his smile faltered, which didn't go unnoticed. Bunny raised an eyebrow.

"Somethin' wrong? You don't look like you should be up an' about to me. Maybe 'nother day's rest will fix that." Jack looked at him, shaking his head.

"Nah, I'm fine." Jack noticed a couple of the eggs with legs cuddling next to his feet. Bunny looked at him in a no-nonsense way, meaning he wasn't going to be brushed off so easily with the answer Jack had given him. Jack gave him a challenging smirk that said 'try it, see what happens' but before Jack could take off a screech sounded in his head and he couldn't help but cover his head as it continued getting louder and louder along with the whispering voices. Jack collapsed, crying out in pain before he passed out. Pitch watched, hidden in the shadows with a smirk.

"It works." He chuckled lowly, turning his gaze to the nightmares.

"Continue with the nightmares til he is in the palm of our hands. Make sure Mysterie doesn't get in the way this time."

"Jack!" Bunny didn't hesitate to run to the winter spirit's side when he collapsed.

"Mate... what's wrong? Speak ta me!" The Pooka's eyes were wide with concern and an inkling of fear. Back at the North Pole, Jakul screeched in pain, causing Mysterie to cry out.

"Jakul... what the?! What's wrong?!" She didn't understand why he was suddenly in so much pain, only knowing that it was just as painful to her to hear it.