A/N: Hi, please ignore the following rant. GAAAAAAAAAHHHH PEOPLEINMY APARTMENTNEEDTO STARTPAYINGTHEIRUTILITY BILLSONTIMEOR ISWEARIMIGHTKILLSOMEONE. ANDI'MTRYINGTO DOWAYYYTOOMUCHATONCE ANDINEEDTOSTOPDOINGSO MUCHANDSTARTFOCUSING ONMYCLASSESBEFORE IFRICKINGFAILMYCLASSES!

/endrant/

Ugh.

Anyways, there will probably be a delay between this and any other chapters posted for a little while. Yeah, I'm finally calling it. I'm going on a temporary hiatus. I have to make sure I pass my classes this semester, and I'm trying to do too much. I've pretty much been constantly sick due to all the mess that's been going on this year, and something's got to give for a while. I'll be back come May, once finals finish, but until then, please do not ask/demand updates! This is honestly a hiatus strictly to get myself back to health and back in good academic standing. Seriously, guys, if I end up getting badgered about why I'm not updating, I may do something drastic like taking down stories, which I really don't wanna do.

Sorry about all that, and this'll be up on my profile and twitter account ASAP, so, yes, this is for all my stories.

Just so you guys don't worry, I've still got ideas running for the stories I've got up, and I'll try to work on them sporadically, but they just won't be updated for a month or two. I'm not giving up on my stories, I just need to take a step back for a bit.

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When Tooth finally came to, she demanded that a room be made up for their guest for the night. Not even the reminder that it was North's home rather than hers could deter her. They couldn't even get her to reconsider based on his rather violent reaction earlier.

And so Danny found himself sitting on a very soft, very large bed after having been forced to bathe and eat a huge feast the fairy had set up for him. He knew he should be grateful, but it was all too much for him. He'd spent years trying to forget how it felt to be cared for, to have a bed and a hot meal waiting for him at home. Ever since—

No, he wouldn't think of… that. He shoved the thought roughly away, then refocused on his current task.

He was going to break out of the North Pole.

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It was almost depressing how easily he managed to escape. For all the defenses provided against intruders (Jack) getting in, none of the security yetis seemed to care about who got out. All Danny had had to do was just walk out the front door.

What was a challenge was fighting his way past the blizzards of the North Pole and Santoff Claussen to head back to Kpalime for his things. Ghostly cryokinesis or no, he had spent almost one hundred years by the equator and had grown unaccustomed to the extreme cold. But even that didn't delay him for long.

Soon enough, he was flying over the oceans and back to his forest, landing beside his home and entering—

Only to find destruction. Someone or something had torn through his home, shredding papers and pillows and blankets along the way. For a moment, he froze, staring around at the chaos before hissing out a "no" and rushing about the room. With each motion, his mantra got quicker, louder, until he was all but screaming, "NonononoNO!"

He dropped to his knees in the middle of his small home, fingers clawing into his hair as he tried to imagine what had done this, who had done this, and why.

Why had they taken the pictures?

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Jack couldn't help it. He was literally rolling on the ground, laughing. And why wouldn't he? The faces the others were making were hilarious!

Bunny glared at Jack before turning back to North. "Can ya say that again, mate? I think we misheard ya."

North actually huffed, crossing his arms. "Boy ran away overnight. Yetis say he walked right out."

And another loud peal of laughter burst from Jack.

"B—But why would he run away?" Tooth wondered, flitting around anxiously. "Didn't he like it here? We did our best to make him feel welcome!"

"After kidnapping him!" Jack put in, sitting up for the moment as his laughter faded. "Face it, even after another hundred years, you guys still don't really know how to act around kids! Kidnapping freaks them out! Hell, anything with dark, enclosed spaces does!"

Images lit up over Sandy, first of the teen, then the standoff between him and North, and finally a question mark floating above PItch.

"Sandy has point," North declared. "Why did boy fight then, if he should've been scared?"

It was quiet for a moment, then Bunny spoke up. "Some kids don't have the best lives. They grow up thinkin' fightin'll solve their problems."

Jack bit his lip, knowing exactly what Bunny was referring to. About twenty years ago, one of Sophie's great-grandkids started getting into a bunch of trouble. The girl's mother had passed away, and her father got really sick. Then, the girl, Selena, had gotten addicted to a new, highly lethal drug. Bunny and Jack both had kept close tabs on the Bennett family over the years, and each tried to keep Selena healthy and off the streets. There were dozens of close calls before she finally got clean, sober, and settled down. In fact, it only happened after she'd found out she was pregnant at nineteen with no memory of who the father could possibly be. The girl had learned the hard way that in order to stay alive, you sometimes had to fight.

Tooth fluttered over to Bunny and Jack, hugging each. "You did all you could. Besides, hasn't she and her family moved to some small, quiet town?"

Jack nodded, Bunny murmuring, "Yeah, they're in Amity Park now."

The name sparked a memory for Jack. "Wait, Amity Park?"

"Yeah, Jack, they've been there since Ray was born, remember?"

"You remember who else was in Amity Park?!" Jack exclaimed, hovering a bit higher in his excitement.

Bunny rolled his eyes, groaning while the others shook their heads sadly. "He's gone, Jack. Has been for years."

"He's a ghost! Ghosts disappear, cottontail, that's what they do! Who's to say he's not there now?"

"Jack, Amity Park hasn't been haunted since 2023. No ghosts in one hundred years. Why would there be any now?"

Jack sighed. "I don't know. Guess I was just hoping." Of course, he wasn't going to tell them why he'd brought it up.

Imagine the weird looks he'd get if he said that the teen's fighting reminded him of Phantom's.

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Hidden away, deep underground, two red eyes locked onto a pair of haunting golden orbs.

"It's time.

A fanged smirk flashed into sight below the red eyes.

"They won't know what hit them."

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Danny had huddled into a corner of his home, clutching the one photo he'd found in the bag he'd packed earlier. It was taken nearly seventy years ago, the note on the back detailing the scene.

"She had a granddaughter today. The baby looks just like her mom and grandma. Too bad you aren't here to see it, but this does mark the second generation you've missed. Funny how Sam seems to be ahead of everyone else, but I doubt she'd have it any other way.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you in the loop."

It wasn't signed. None of them were ever signed, but they didn't have to be. Danny knew exactly who they were from.

And he hated that he had to depend on them for information on his own friends and family.

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Jack had, for once, not been up to anything. Okay, so he might've been contemplating his next prank on Bunny, but he wasn't actually doing anything! In fact, he'd been sitting in the open window for the past three hours, using the height as an advantage to draw pictures in the snow with the wind, ever since the less-than-hopeful discussion about the missing ghost hero.

So, for once, when an explosion shook the workshop making North and Bunny scream at him, he could honestly yell back, "I didn't do it!" before flying down to see what the damage was.

He descended into chaos. And not the normal rush-to-complete-all-the-toys-before-Christmas chaos, either. The workshop had been overrun with horses made of glittering black sand.

Nightmares. Millions of them, all attacking at once.

And the Guardians were losing.

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Danny had forgotten exactly when he first began to see the yellow-eyed horse, but he knew it'd followed him for at least eighty years. At first, he'd been cautious, fearing it to be an enemy about to attack him, but after years of trying to hide from it, he found it to be a comfort to have around.

He'd even named it. Serenity seemed to fit the odd horse remarkably well, especially given her past as one of the boogeyman's fearlings.

Yes, Danny knew exactly where she came from. That was part of why he ran back then. He knew she was there to feed on his nightmares.

But she didn't leave when he woke up. She merely stayed, curled around him, and let him calm down before slinking back into the shadows.

And so it'd been ever since. She'd comfort him when his fears became too much and keep her fellows away to ensure the nightmares he had never got worse. As such, it was Serenity he searched for after he'd come out of his semi-catatonic state from finding all but the one picture gone.

Immediately, she came, curling around him to bring the only comfort she knew how to give. He still held the picture in his hands, but reached out his free arm to stroke the mythical horse. It was calm, peaceful, serene. Soft animal calls echoed around them in the woods, but none came near, which both were fine with. All they needed right now was each other. They were content.

And that's exactly how Pitch found them, lying, half-asleep, all alone in the woods. The teen still holding that lone picture, the image of peace.

Well, Pitch would just have to change that.

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A/N: Alright, read and review please. See y'all in May.

(And Kree, sorry about the delay, maybe we can work on more planning before I get back to posting? m(_ _)m )