A/N: So, hiatus over, but I do have a summer class and work still, so updates will be back to fairly infrequent rather than temporarily suspended. Also, many OCs are introduced in this one. They are fairly important, but shouldn't take over the spotlight too terribly much. Had to be done in this, sorry.

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Jack skipped out on the whole interrogation thing. He already knew they wouldn't get anything out of the kid, let alone anything helpful, so he decided some spy work was in order.

So he flew back to Danny's home in the forest. Bunnymund had already told them that the place was barely more than a hut, but Jack didn't expect the inside to be as bare as the outside. There were no pictures on the walls or posters or paintings. Not even a calendar could be seen, and the "bed" was a mere mat rolled out on the floor. A small desk was off in one corner, but the strangest thing was the utter destruction in the room.

The pillow and blanket that must've lain over the mat were torn to shreds, feathers and stuffing and fabric strewn about wildly. Papers that had been ripped into confetti covered the desk. And a backpack sat by the door, clothing spilling out from the opening.

"Whoa," Jack mumbled to himself. Either the kid was angrier about getting taken to the North Pole than he thought, or—

Or something else had done this. That thought cemented Jack's determination to find out what had caused the mess, and he dove into the room, meticulously picking through the piles of rubbish.

He found nothing until he reached the desk. Buried under mounds of torn paper was a folder. Jack debated for a moment whether to take it straight to the Guardians or peek first, but eventually his curiosity won out. He flipped open the folder, staring down at… pictures.

Lots of them. All of children or families, but none of the teen himself. For a while, Jack just flipped through, assuming the teen had taken the pictures himself.

Until he saw an all-too-familiar brunette boy. "Kyle?" he murmured, staring at the picture of Jamie Bennett's great-great-grandson. The boy looked almost exactly like Jack's first believer, even down to the gap-toothed smile he sported as his older sister (who was drenched in the photo) glared at him for nailing her with the water gun he hid behind his back. The only difference was the eyes. Where Jamie's had been hazel, Kyle took after his mother's side of the family, sporting vibrant violet eyes. Charlie, Kyle's sister, was the opposite, having Jamie's eyes and her mother's raven-black hair. The family also joked that she'd inherited her great-great-grandmother's infamous death glare, one that Jack, thankfully, had never been on the receiving end of. There was a reason she and her brother were never bullied in school—all the bullies were terrified of her.

Further flipping through the folder revealed more kids, all hanging out with Kyle and Charlie. Jack was surprised to find he recognized three other kids—Sky, Ray, and Luna, Selena's children. He blinked, realizing the connection.

All these kids were from Amity Park. This was the second time in as many days that the small town had come up. It only served to remind him of the crazy theory he'd had the other day—and wonder if it was really crazy at all.

"You really are tied to Amity Park," he murmured, "but how?"

After all, there had to be a reason he had all these pictures. He couldn't be a cousin of the kids, seeing as none of Jamie or Sophie's descendants moved to Africa. In fact, they'd all stayed state-side.

So why did Danny have pictures of them?

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The Guardians had dropped Danny in a room, with yetis stationed both inside and out (one even stood outside the window, just in case) under strict orders to keep the boy in place until they returned to question him. As head of security, Phil was put in charge and stayed in the room himself.

Meanwhile, the Guardians took the white nightmare—could it even be called a nightmare any more—to another room to study. Once more, the mare put up a fight over leaving the teen. Still, they got her there and hitched her to a makeshift stall.

"I don't get it," Bunny mumbled. "Nightmares don't just… change. Least, not inta somethin' other than dreams."

North ventured forward to brush a hand against the mare's flank—staying far from the teeth and hind legs, just in case—and his eyes went wide. "Is not sand," he gaped.

"What?" Bunny and Tooth were equally shocked. Sandy, who had already noticed that oddity, merely nodded.

"Is… liquid. Fluid, but thicker than water." North moved his hand away, revealing the next strange occurrence.

The flank was suddenly a different size and shape. The barrel of the horse had morphed, still remaining silver, but becoming more canine in appearance. Even the liquid had changed to mimic fur rather than a horse's hair.

Soon, the change spread through the entire animal, muzzle shortening and ears lengthening, neck filling out more on the sides and shrinking down, the whole body losing about a foot of height. Hooves became paws, and the tail puffed up, fluffing out by the rump but tapering to a point.

In front of them, unrestrained now due to the leads falling off the smaller muzzle, was a silver fox, staring at them with eyes that seemed to glow.

And as those eyes locked with each of the Guardians', a voice echoed through their minds.

Give me back my boy.

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So, okay, maybe it was a little rash to have decided to blow off the Guardians, even more to do so without telling them or explaining, well, anything, really, but Jack needed answers first. So, he gathered up all the pictures in the folder and took off, asking the wind to take him to Amity Park.

He blew over the bustling town—no longer the small suburb it had been during the ghost attacks of the early 2000s—dragging snow along behind him to give a light dusting to the area. School had just ended, so hundreds of kids flocked into the snow-covered fields to play.

Jack chuckled, both at the students and at the staff, who were scratching their heads over where the sudden snowfall had come from. Stumping the adults was always fun, especially if he'd known them as kids, too.

"Jack!" a voice cried out. The call was taken up by many who heard it, and for a moment, Jack closed his eyes, reveling in the fact that people believed in him, they saw him.

Then he flew down to the one who'd started the chanting, coming face to face with Kyle Bennett. "Hey, kiddo."

Kyle grinned. "Jack! I thought you said you'd be in Russia 'til next month!"

Jack chuckled. "I was, but I needed to talk to you, your sister, and your cousins."

Kyle's brow furrowed a bit. "Okay, but why?" Then his smile came back and his violet eyes widened. "Is there some secret Guardian stuff you need us to do?"

"Ah—sorta," Jack replied.

"Cool!" Kyle exclaimed before Jack could continue. "I'll go get them!" The boy ran off.

Jack just shook his head, always amused by the hyperness that ran in Jamie's family. Within minutes, Kyle was dragging his sister behind him, along with five others—only three of which were the cousins Jack had asked him to get.

"Woah, you didn't need to bring the whole playground, kiddo," Jack teased.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "These are Zach and Benji. They're friends."

The older one, Benji, turned to stare at Charlie. "I thought you said Kyle was past the imaginary friend stage," the ginger-haired boy stated.

"He is, Benji. Shut up," Charlie snapped back before grinning at the winter spirit. "Hey, Jack. Don't mind Benji, he takes after his dad's side of the family as the black sheep."

"In a family of paranormal scientists and believers of the supernatural, yes. I prefer the true sciences," Benji stated proudly, ice blue eyes sparkling.

"Charlie says we're distant cousins like three or four generations back," Kyle whispered to Jack. "I don't believe her, though. How can we be related to someone so lame?"

A blonde girl punched Kyle in the shoulder. "Don't be such a brat, Kyle," the thirteen-year-old declared, bright blue eyes sparkling mischievously. "You're supposed to insult Benji to his face, not behind his back!"

Jack shook his head, chuckling at the girl, who was just a little too influenced by him. "Sky, still as sweet as ever, I see."

She just grinned back at him. The dark-skinned boy beside her glanced at Jack, confused. "Why'd you want to see us?" he asked. "Kyle just mentioned something about Guardians?"

"Right," Jack said, getting back on track. He pulled the folder out from his hoodie pocket and started to dig through it again as he spoke. "I found this today, and thought I'd ask you guys about this." He held out a picture that showed the whole group. "Do you guys remember who could've taken this?"

Charlie took the picture, causing Benji to blink in shock over its sudden appearance. Her brow furrowed. "No, I don't think anyone I saw that day had a camera." She glanced back at Jack. "Where'd you find this?"

"A little hut in Africa," he stated bluntly. "And there are more." He handed over the whole folder, letting Charlie flip through it with the others crowding around her. For a while, all seven were simply confused as they looked through, then Benji gaped at one of the images.

"That's… that's my dad," he whispered, "back when he was Kyle's age."

And suddenly, all of them were realizing that they were looking at pictures of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents….

Except for Sky, Ray, and Luna. The three blondes were frowning—well, not Luna, but she rarely did—as more and more pictures were revealed. Benji was the first to notice.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Luna's pale green eyes blinked up at him. "We don't have relatives in them," she said breathily.

Now, Benji and Charlie were frowning, too, trying to think why only four of them had relatives shown in the pictures. Kyle and Zach continued to flip through, gasping at a picture towards the back. "Charlie, she's got your glare," Zach declared.

"And the other one has Benji's hair," Kyle added.

The oldest two looked back at the pictures, immediately seeing the connections. "That's our great-great-grandmother," Charlie stated, taking the perfectly preserved pictures into her hands.

"And great-grandma Jazz," Benji said, pointing at the redhead. "Her brother was married to your great-great-grandma. That's how we're related—distantly."

Kyle looked at it for a moment longer, then stated, "Why are they sad?"

Sky, Ray, Zach, and Benji blinked in shock. "They don't look sad," Ray exclaimed. "Your grandma looks angry!"

Kyle shook his head. "That's Charlie's I'm-sad-but-don't-want-to-show-it glare. She's sad, just like Jazz."

Charlie nodded. "Given their ages and emotions, this must be from after the New Years' Bombings back in '23."

"That's next year, Charlie," Kyle corrected.

Benji shook his head, answering before Charlie could, "No, she means 2023, not 2123. You'll learn about it in history class in a few years. Basically, there was a terrorist threat to Los Angeles, so the government sent in their best team to find and disable the bombs, but they got there too late. The bombs started going off, and they called in back-up, but the agent in charge of the group accidentally tripped a wire and the building they were in blew up."

"They say it took three days to declare Los Angeles safe enough to start trying to send in rescue teams," Charlie continued, "but it took another two years for people to move back in. They were terrified that it would happen again."

"They never recovered the bodies of the agents, though," Benji finished. "They just… disintegrated in the blast."

"That was in '23?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Charlie replied. "Why?" Benji was blinking in Jack's direction, looking confused.

"That was the same year the ghosts left Amity Park. The year Phantom disappeared."

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A/N: Okay, sorry about the lack of Danny. And Pitch. And his partner. They'll turn up again next time. But at least now you have the (almost) full story of the New Years' Bombings?

Please read and review. I'm off to work on the next chapter of Living with the Chills.