Secret of Frost and Moon

by Alaia Skyhawk

When death turns out not to be the end, you can't help but ask for what purpose you were brought back... What differences would it make, to remember your past right from the begining? To learn your purpose, piece by piece, right from the start? How would that change the life, future, and secrets of the Spirit of Winter; Jack Frost?

62. Rise of the Guardians 'Part 10'

Alaia Skyhawk: Time to fix some more plotholes! Those known as;

"If Pitch's lair was sealed at the end, how the frig will Tooth get all the teeth back?"

"Why didn't Baby Tooth start activating the memories in tooth boxes after Jack left her on the floor in the lair less than fifteen feet away from said boxes?"

"Why did Jamie's mother not stop him from going outside in bare feet and pyjamas, at what must have been about 5am in the morning?"

and...

"Jamie knows what to do! ...Oh wait, he does NOTHING!" Hehehehe!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 62: Rise of the Guardians ~Part 10~

The Ice Mirror that manifested beside Pitch's globe of belief, was but the first. Two more of equal size formed either side of it, and through those three doorways a rather mixed collection of mortals and immortals came.

Jack was smirking as his Lieutenants and the Selkie guards formed up in ranks behind him, and with another gesture of his staff he created five more mirrors of a smaller size in front of him. Zuě Hu, Marzanna, and Cernunnos had arrived at the sanctuary in the midst of the hasty preparations for this raid, and now they were as eager as the rest to make a mess of Pitch's plans.

The five mirrors went one to each of his Lieutenants, who as his subordinates could move them about as needed, and Jack turned to face them.

"You five and the Selkies help load the teeth through the mirrors, and make sure you get every last one of those boxes." Jack, staff on his back, cracked his knuckles and glanced at his fellow Spirits of the Seasons. "Us four will move the fairies."

He put fingers to his lips and whistled, a horde of Winter Sprites pouring through the three main portals. They scampered down to the piles of teeth, and within moments of the other mirrors being moved into place they then began to dig with a frenzy into the piles of boxes. Flinging the containers through the portals like dirt being flung backwards out of one of Dig's burrows. The Selkies grabbed the ones that missed the portals, and tossed them through along with the rest.

Jack watched the furry mass of digging sprites for a few moments, before leaping up into the air to head for the first cage of excitedly squeaking fairies. Upon reaching it he yanked the door open, and as suspected from Baby Tooth being unable to fly, none of the others could either.

Jack smiled to the fairies, reassuring them.

"Don't freak out, but this is the fastest way to get you all to safety."

He summoned a gust of wind through the cage, the flow of air catching on the fairies' wings and carrying them startled through the one of the main portals. Ariko, Achieng, and Oisin began to do likewise, sending cage after cage worth of fairies to the Winter Sanctuary. As soon as the last cage was emptied, the four of them then returned back through the portals.

Jack landed amid the veritable sea of fairies now sat all over the floor of the icy cavern, his gaze lifting to regard the five 'waterfalls' of tooth boxes showering down to form five huge piles at the far end.

He whistled again, the contingent of sprites he'd ordered to remain here, bouncing up and down in eagerness to do whatever he needed.

"Start passing tooth boxes to the fairies. We need to get those kids remembering!"

Several nearby fairies started to squeak, shaking their heads and gesturing helplessly. Achieng picked one of them up, listening intently as she tried to figure out what was being said. She then grimaced.

"I would guess that you're all too weak, and have lost the power to do that? Am I right?"

The fairies all started to nod, and Jack cursed. The Guardian of Fun starting to pace until Baby Tooth squeaked loudly from where she presently perched on Ariko's shoulder.

The little fairy waited until they were all looking at her, before pointing to herself quite emphatically and then tugging on the yellow feather that topped her head.

Ariko lifted her on a finger, holding her in front of her face.

"You can?" Baby Tooth nodded again, then held up six fingers. "Six?" Baby Tooth nodded, then pointed to herself. "Six of you?"

Off to the side, Jack gasped in understanding.

"The Lead Fairies! Baby Tooth is one of Toothiana's original six! The six that are the most closely tied into her powers. They'll never lose the ability to rouse the memories in teeth unless Tooth lost it, and she never would because it's part of her!" He spun to look out over the mass of fairies, calling out. "Where are the other five Lead Fairies?!"

There was an instant cacophony of chatter from the fairies, who quickly moved away from the Lead Fairies until a circle of open space was left around them. Oisin flew over the gathering and picked up two, as did Jack, and Achieng got the last one. As soon as they were then reunited with Baby Tooth, Jack shouted again to his furry 'troops' and the assembled mass of fifty-thousand tooth fairies.

"Form up into six lines between here and the boxes coming in! Pass the teeth to the Lead Fairies as fast as they can light up those memories!"

The fairies, grinning in purpose, leapt to their feet and saluted before forming the requested lines. The sprites went to the piles, sending box after box skimming across the icy floor, and each box found itself boosted by thousands of little hands to send it speeding to Baby Tooth and her peers.

The six Lead Fairies brought a hand down on the first boxes to reach them, causing the golden containers to blaze with golden light. They then flicked the boxes aside to be ushered into new glowing piles by a crowd of Selkie children who had snuck in from the village. Activating and moving aside the tooth-boxes at a remarkable pace.

Jack watched the progress with a smile of satisfaction, and Achieng and the others gathered around him.

"Do you think this will work?"

He glanced at her, his smile fading just a little.

"The effect won't be immediate, a lot of the boxes belong to kids that are asleep right now, and the memories will still be fighting against the power of the Echoes of Disbelief from the Blackout. We probably won't see anything until a few thousand boxes have been triggered. We're dealing with millions of kids, remember? The balance won't tip that easily."

Oisin nodded in understanding.

"So we're not going to see any results for at least between fifteen minutes and half an hour."

"Jack!"

Yuki's voice interrupted them, the Lieutenants racing over from the portals to the lair.

"The lights on his globe! They're all going out! There's less than twenty left!"

The Spirits of the Seasons all looked at each other before dashing for the portal, the four of them then gathering around Pitch's globe. They and all those inside the lair, watched in horror as one-by-one the lights went out... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two...

One...

Every breath was held, waiting for that last one to fade, the seconds ticking by like an eternity until Jack leapt up onto the globe to see exactly where that light was... And what he saw, along with a single tenuous thread of belief felt in his heart, make him grin in hope.

"Jamie!" He turned towards the lair's exit, staff in hand and ready for a fight. "Ariko, Achieng, Oisin... I need you to help finish things up here. Guard the fairies for me until as all the teeth are out. Yuki; you and the others smash the mirrors connecting to here as soon as that's done. I'll leave a portal in Jackswood Park, linking to the sanctuary, for you to use to join the fight when that happens."

Behind him, Ariko folded her arms across her chest and scowled.

"You're being rather authoritarian with us, you know. We're not your servants, or your subordinates."

Jack glanced back at her, smirking.

"Yeah, but I am a Guardian and this is my fight... And I'm trusting you to help. After all, as gratifying as it would be to pound Pitch to a pulp, can you really beat the payback of helping to rip his 'certain victory' from right under his feet?"

Ariko raised her eyebrows.

"You're right, it's not as gratifying, but it's certainly payback for him attacking you... Almost."

Jack laughed, flying for the exit in a gust of wind as he called back.

"I'll try and save you a few punches!"

He sped out of the lair, paying no heed to the slats he ripped out of the rotting bed as he practically exploded up into the open. The sky over Burgess was cloudy, and it rumbled with distant thunder, but Jack's sense of wind and weather told him it was no lightning storm overhead. The thunder had to be Pitch... heading this way to find and deal with the Guardians' last believer.

Jack took flight over the trees of Jackswood Park, leaving his promised mirror hidden among the forest around his pond. From there he sped to the Bennett House, to the window of Jamie's bedroom. He then pushed it open, able to see Jamie sat there awake on his bed despite the hour, and he reached towards the boy.

"Jamie."

Jamie didn't respond, crouched as he was staring at the stuffed toy rabbit on the bed in front of him. And when Jack tried to touch him, his hand passed through.

Jack gasped, frowning because he could still feel the thread of belief, and then he realised... He felt it because he was a Guardian, and Bunny was a Guardian... It was belief in Bunny that was the last fragment of Jamie's faith left.

The child continued to stare at the toy, seeming at a loss as to what to do, until quiet words were uttered in crumbling belief at the stuffed animal.

"Okay look, you and I are obviously at what they call a crossroads, so here's what's gonna happen. If it wasn't a dream and if you are real, then you have to prove it. Like right now.

There was a pause as Jamie looked around, searching for some sign, yet there was none. The boy resumed staring at the toy, desperation starting to show in his voice as he picked it up.

"I've believed in you for a long time, okay? Like my whole life in fact. So you kinda owe me now... You don't have to do much, just a little sign so I know... Anything... Anything at all."

Jack felt the thread of belief start to waver, and hastily began to reach for the window. His heart pounding as Jamie muttered a dejected 'I knew it' and dropped the bunny over the edge of the bed.

Jamie hunched over, on the verge of crying at the loss of his dreams, and all the treasured memories that must surely now be little more than imaginings. He didn't want to let go, but what was he to do? How could he believe when everyone around him said it wasn't real?

The sound of crackling frost made him jolt and turn his head, there to see a thin layer of fern-like white was spreading out over one of the panes. And then something drew an oval, onto which squiggly lines and dots were rendered, giving it the appearance of an Easter egg.

Jamie's eyes widened as yes more frost formed on the pane above the first, a barely-believing gasp of words coming from him when this time a rabbit was drawn.

"He's real..."

Jack, smiling, held his hands to the glass and 'pulled', peeling away the frost-construct of a rabbit. He released it into the room, sending it bounding through the air around and around a suddenly laughing Jamie. Laughing along with him until the rabbit poofed into a cloud of snowflakes.

Jamie stared at them, startled to find such a thing in his room.

"Snow?" One of the flakes, laced with frostdust, landed on his nose. That little spark of familiar power, a rush of enthusiasm he knew better than anyone except its wielder, causing his eyes to fill with tears. "Uncle Jack?"

A cold hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"I'm here, Jamie."

Jamie sobbed and turned, not even pausing to look at his uncle as he flung himself into Jack's arms and hugged him tight. The boy trembling with emotion as he cried into the front of Jack's hoodie.

"Uncle Jack! I-I stopped believing! I really stopped believing in you!"

Jack put his arms around the boy, stroking Jamie's hair and hushing him.

"It's alright, it's alright. This isn't the first time this has happened, and it's not your fault." He took hold of Jamie by the shoulders, moving him back so he could look him in the eye. "But you held onto your belief longer than anyone. There's nothing to be sorry about, Jamie, because you've already made a difference... The Guardians are in trouble, and you are our last believer right now."

Jamie's eyes widened, his tears now just damp trails down his face.

"I'm the last one? But how?"

Jack's expression became serious.

"Do you remember the stories Ombric told you, about the terrible 'man of shadows' that the Guardians fought and defeated over four-hundred years ago?" Jamie nodded, and Jack continued. "Well he's back, and he's caused all the children in the world to stop believing in them. All of them except you. He's made Sandy disappear too. We need your help, your belief, if we're to stop him. Think you can do it? Can you be strong, for us?"

Jamie started to smile tentatively, wiping away his tears before his smile became a grin.

"Yeah. Let's show him what real belief is!"

Jack lifted Jamie off the bed and set him down, then starting to rummage through the boy's closet. He handed over the set of warm clothing he pulled out, his tone brooking no protest.

"Then get dressed and go get your shoes on. Your mother will scalp me once her belief comes back, if she finds out I took you outside in your PJs on a cold night like this."

There was a crack of thunder outside, still distant, but it sent Jack to the window to look out. It was in time for him to hear another sound, that of a very unstable snow-globe portal, and then the noise of sleigh-bells preceding a crash that made both him and Jamie wince.

The boy raised his eyebrows, sweater and trousers pulled on over his pyjamas, and now in the process of pulling on a pair of socks.

"What was that?"

Jack grimaced in a mixture of sympathy, embarrassment, and mirth.

"Ummm... North just crashed his sleigh right out front." He stepped up onto the window-ledge and leaned out. "Go get your shoes on and meet me outside. Try not to wake your parents, because they're the last thing we need right now."

Outside, in the sleigh with its small globe showing the last light, North was shouting after his reindeer... Who had broken free and decided to race off leaving the sleigh stranded in the middle of the street.

The Russian stumbled as he tried to stand up, Tooth hastily acting to steady him, while Nightlight was already leaping clear of the stricken vehicle as North muttered almost drunkenly.

"Is official. My powers are kaput."

Tooth was still trying to steady him, when a flash of movement from the nearby house made her look. North toppling backwards when she let go of him to point.

"Look! It's Jack!" Tooth tried to fly out of the sleigh, but dropped to the ground unable to stay aloft. "Jack!"

He landed beside her and helped her back to her feet.

"You okay?"

Nightlight came over to pat him on the shoulder in greeting, as North finally managed to get out of the sleigh... by virtue of using one of his swords as a walking stick. The Russian was hobbling like an old man.

"Jack, what are you doing here? Where have you been?"

Jack's expression became wry.

"I had a run-in with Pitch which, I might add, means he has some seriously pissed off Nature Immortals all gunning for him. And as for why I'm here, I'm a Guardian. I'm here for the same reason as you."

He turned to look at the house, to where a door could be heard opening quietly, and Jamie came racing out fastening his coat as he ran.

North gasped.

"Nightlight's guess was right. Your nephew is last light!"

Jamie stopped beside his uncle, frowning.

"What do you need me to do?"

Jack put a hand on his shoulder, then glanced at Nightlight.

"I need you to stay with Nightlight and the others, and hold tight to your belief while I keep Pitch busy. We need to buy time for the fairies' efforts to start reversing the Belief Blackout."

"Fairies?" Tooth's eyes went wide. "My fairies? They're safe? And you have the teeth?"

Jack grinned.

"All of them, teeth and fairies... Safe and sound in the Winter Sanctuary, where Baby Tooth and the rest of your Lead Fairies are making memories shine as fast as they can get their little hands on them." He laughed, already able to feel the first glimmers of belief verging on being renewed. "You guys really are numb to small changes. I figure we have about another fifteen minutes before Pitch is going to be a very unhappy Boogeyman."

"You guys are fighting the Boogeyman?"

Jamie sounded incredulous and close to laughter, Jack chuckling as well before he realised something.

"Wait, where's Bunny?"

Nightlight winced, even as North and Tooth turned to face the sleigh. The latter of them speaking.

"Losing Easter took its toll on all of us... Bunny most of all."

A little grey bunny, barely ten inches tall, hopped up onto the edge of the sleigh and then down onto one of the wings. It sat there, hunched up and nose twitching, and it was Jack's turn to wince.

"Oh no..."

Jamie was less concerned, and started to giggle as he walked over.

"That's Aster?"

Bunny sat up on his hind legs, indignant as he gestured at the boy.

"Now somebody sees me! I mean, where were you about an hour ago, mate?"

Jamie giggled again, glancing at North.

"What happened to him? He used to be huge and cool! ...And now he's cute."

He started to scratch Bunny behind the ear, the shrunken Pooka half-closing his eyes in bliss before he caught himself and pushed the boy's hand away. He then turned to Jack and bounded over in challenge.

"Did you tell him to say that? That's it! Let's go! Me and you! Come on!"

Jamie stepped between them and crouched down.

"No! Actually he showed me you were real... Just when I started to think that maybe you weren't."

Bunny looked at Jack, who shrugged as if to say 'What do you expect? I'm a Guardian'. It was a moment of solidarity, a moment where the Pooka at last admitted to himself that yes, Jack was a Guardian... And a damn fine one too.

The moment was broken before anything more could be said, by a crash of thunder above that drew their collective gaze to the roiling mass of black sand heading their way... With Pitch stood atop it.

Jack unslung his staff from his back and pointed Nightlight towards the others.

"Get Jamie out of here, and protect them. You're not strong enough to fight Pitch as he is right now."

Nightlight nodded and quickly bustled Jamie away. Tooth and Bunny followed, with North shambling along at the rear as fast as he could as he shouted.

"Be careful, Jack!"

Jack leapt into the air, rolling on the winds to streak towards Pitch.

As for the Nightmare King, he was not happy. No, he'd been humiliated. Had gone to North's workshop to gloat and stand upon the Guardian's Globe of Belief, as the last lights went out... Except one had stubbornly remained lit, like a taunt. A sight that had made the yeti's jeer at him and start throwing things... And now.

Now Jack Frost, annoyingly determined and with an all too intact staff, was charging towards him.

Pitch snarled in anger, too lost in rage to care about angering Mother Nature.

"Jack Frost! Let's end this, shall we?" Jack got within what could be considered 'point blank range' for what he was about to do, and he unleashed a jagged bolt of ice and frostdust. But Pitch blocked it using the sand, heedless of the way it crumbled to ash under the assault. "That little trick doesn't work on me anymore."

Pitch got within ten feet of Jack, unleashing a blast of stand that wrapped around and past the ice to slam the startled Spirit of Winter from the sky. Jack hadn't been expecting it, had thought Pitch would hold back as he'd done before. The result was that he tumbled downwards and crashed onto the top of a dumpster in the same alley where he'd been abducted by yetis just three days previous.

Nightlight and the others, close by, had seen him fall and heard the impact. The group rushing to Jack's side and helping the groaning immortal to his feet.

Jack cringed, sore from falling close to a thousand feet, before glancing at them.

"He's stronger... I can't beat him on my own."

North and Tooth traded looks of concern, but tensed when a malicious chuckle filled the air around them.

"All this fuss over one little boy, and still he refuses to stop believing... Very well, there are other ways to snuff out the light."

A troop of Nightmares started to march in from the alley entrances, cornering the Guardians at the back of the convenience store. And then the huge shadow of a hand swept over the surrounding walls, shorting out every single light-bulb until the alley was plunged into darkness but for the glow from Nightlight.

But then another pale glimmer joined the glow, from the ball of light a defiant Jamie had conjured in his grasp. The boy was frightened, that much was clear, but he was determined not to give up believing.

Pitch laughed again.

"Oh, so that's why he didn't stop believing? Budding little wizard, eh? Is imitating a glow-worm your only trick, boy? Or do you actually have a bit of fight in you?"

Bunny hopped forward, glaring at the Nightmares.

"It doesn't matter what he is, he's a kid. If you want him, you're gonna have to go through me!"

Pitch's shadow-hand reached across the alley floor, a finger curling behind Bunny.

"Look how fluffy you are! Would you like a scratch behind the ears?"

Bunny jumped away, darting up into North's arms to gain some height.

"Don't you even think about it!"

The Nightmares blocking off the corner, parted to allow Pitch to ride forward on another of their number. The Nightmare King was smiling in glee.

"I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you all like this. You look awful."

His shadow stretched out towards them, reaching for Jamie's feet, and the boy backed up fearfully. Clutching his light as he looked to his uncle for reassurance.

"Jack, I'm scared."

Jack moved to comfort him, until a memory made him pause. The way Jamie looked at him now, was the same way Emily had looked at him all those years ago. Back when he'd made a choice that had cost him his life, and gained him a new one. The day he'd used the very thing inside him, that had made the Man in the Moon choose him.

Jack let out a breath, in the knowledge that he'd been going about this fight all wrong, and he placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder. Using the same words he'd said to his sister on that fateful day.

"I know, I know. But you're gonna be alright... We're gonna have a little fun, instead." He conjured a snowball, setting it in the boy's grasp with a small grin. "See a shadow stalking."

Jamie started to smile in mischief, while Pitch began to advance forward unaware of what had just taken place.

"So what do you think, Jamie? Do you believe in the Boogiema-"

A snowball slammed into Pitch's face, having come from the hand of one Jamie Bennett, and the boy started laughing as he threw the next one that Jack handed him. It was so incongruous, so unexpected, the Nightmares didn't know how to respond. And so they stood there while their master spluttered and clawed at the snow on his face, giving the Guardians a few precious moments.

Jack glanced around, spying several likely-looking objects, and chuckled at his nephew.

"Let's go get your friends."

Moments later several Nightmares were flung aside by ice, a sheet of which coated the ground where they'd been stood. Pitch barely clearing the snow from his face in time to see his prey riding a wooden pallet, a ladder, a dustbin lid, and a wok around the far corner and onto the main street.

Jack led the way, icing a path for them as the winds blew them along from behind. Jamie, Bunny, Tooth, and North on their 'sleds' while he and Nightlight flew above them laughing. Fear was forgotten, they were having fun, and they were going to spread it.

One-by-one they gathered Jamie's friends, the children woken from their troubled sleep by snow falling in their rooms and presents dropping onto their beds. Frostdust did the rest, and all the while Jack could still feel the tantalising promise of Memories taking hold in a scattering of children across the world.

They were close, so close, to ending the Blackout. They had only to hold on for a few minutes longer.

Once the children were gathered, Jack brought the group to a halt at the main intersection at the heart of the town. There where the street-lights were brightest, and yet the open space of the park was close enough to retreat to if need be. Yet whatever reassurance he'd hoped the light would give, it wavered in the face of the man sat atop a Nightmare on a roof just ahead.

Pitch sneered down at them, unimpressed.

"You think a few children can help you? Against this!"

Thunder crashed, and from all sides around them a wave of roiling black sand began to advance. Towering high above the rooftops, snuffing out every light in its path.

Jack couldn't help the moment of uncertainty he felt, but pushed it aside before dousing himself and everyone around him with a light coat of frostdust. And while the smiles that resulted from it all wavered, none of them would be paralysed by fear. And that was what he'd always taught the children of Burgess, the very thing that would give him and the Guardians a 'home field' advantage in this fight.

Jack reached out, his hand coming to rest on Jamie's shoulder.

"They're just bad dreams, Jamie. Like the 'Boogey Monsters'. You all know how to deal with them, right? You know that we'll protect you too."

Pitch laughed at that.

"Aww, you'll protect them. But who will protect you?"

The children formed up in front of the Guardians, trembling but determined as Jack handed each one of them a snowball. It was all so pathetic to Pitch, that he didn't even feel the need to acknowledge it as the wave of sand reached the main street and surged towards the group below.

"Still think there's no such thing as the Boogeyman?"

Jamie, stood at the very front, raised his head in defiance.

"I do believe in you... I'm just not afraid of you!"

He thrust his empty hand out towards the sand, refusing to move even an inch despite the wide-eyed concern of the Guardians when the sand arched up over them and came crashing down right on the boy who had been the last believer...

...And it exploded into a wash of golden streamers that shot out across the sky.

~(-)~

In the Winter Sanctuary the pile of glowing boxes was growing, with thousands more boxes queued up between lines of fairies, while the Lead Fairies kept their flagging strength focused on their task. There were still so many to go, those they'd done were but a drop in the ocean compared to the total of what there were. Yuki and the rest of the Lieutenants remained by them in support and concern, starting to wonder if this plan would succeed in doing anything at all.

But then it happened, a massed gasp from all the fairies, before every single one of them slapped a hand down onto the boxes they'd been waiting to pass on.

Golden light blazed out, and the fairies all ran across the cavern floor towards the piles of tooth-boxes waiting there.

Marzanna let out a war-cry, to match Zuě Hu's roar. While in the Hall of Mirrors, the watching Selkies there cheered at the lights that began to erupt in glory across Jack's globe.

"To battle!"

The Lieutenants, more than a dozen sprites, and two dozen Selkies charged through the portal Jack had left for them. The entire battle-group then making for the source of the dreamsand streamers nearby.

~(-)~

On the main street of Burgess, Jamie and his friends were wreaking havoc with the Nightmares. Turning every single one they touched back into glowing golden sand. Tooth was back in the air, North had regained his strength! Bunny, after being forced to flee under a car, was back at true size and rampaging down the centre-line with a pair of stone egg-golems. North had summoned Yetis from the workshop's armoury, even a few elves had followed and joined the fray... And then to top it all off a massive white tiger had come down out of the sky and bitten the head off the Nightmare that Pitch had been riding.

Sufficient to say, Pitch was not happy. In fact, he was downright enraged.

And then it got worse for him.

A troop of fur-clad Selkies, spears and harpoons in hand, surged out of the roads that led to the park. Winter Sprites were with them, adding to the confusion already caused by the elves, and at their head Cernunnos and Dig led the way.

Yuki and Marzanna appeared now, the former unleashing her once-hated ability to freeze people over solid. The petite Japanese girl was taking down whole swathes of Nightmares from the skies, causing them to explode and crash to the ground, and her Slavic counterpart was hacking her way through just as many.

Pitch's army was being whittled away at shocking speed, his scream of fury bringing a new horde into the fray.

Fearlings rushed from every available shadow, summoned by he who was both their master and their slave. But Jack just took one look at them and pointed, alerting the two nearby girls to their presence.

"See a shadow stalking you, and it's the time to play!"

Pippa and Cupcake turned, and grinned at the rhyme they knew so well. Yelling out the rest of it at the top of their lungs.

"See how many times you laugh, before they run away!"

The nearby Fearlings baulked and reversed direction, fleeing from the two little laughter and fun-soaked girls. Burgess was a town they'd learnt to avoid, with good reason.

Pitch was driven down to street-level now, by the relentless attentions of a very angry white tiger... and a certain Russian who had popped up out of one of Bunny's burrows on the wrong roof, which had actually ended up being a right roof.

North jumped down to the street in pursuit, the Lieutenant of Winter backing off and leaving the Guardians to it. And they did, all five of them tag-teaming Pitch and slowly but surely driving him towards the park.

But the thing was, Pitch was still powerful, and still too strong to beat down even with their combined strength. Jamie could see it in the way they fought him, that they were just that little bit short of being able to break his guard and knock him down. There was a part of their team missing, an important part.

That was when he looked at the dreamsand trails that were randomly circling the area without any apparent purpose. As if they were waiting for something, or someone, to tell them what was needed.

Jamie gasped, and shouted to Nightlight who was up overhead.

"Nightlight, get my friends and follow me! I know what we need to do!"

The Guardian of the Moon paused in surprise, but beamed in enthusiasm a moment later. Jamie raced ahead, towards the edge of the park, and waited until his friends and Nightlight had caught up. Jamie then pointed to the dreamsand, confident.

"Guys, I need you to do what I do. You need to really mean it when you say what I say. Really believe it!"

Claude nodded, as did the rest.

"What do we need to say?"

Jamie closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started to repeat over and over.

"I believe, I believe, I believe... Bring back The Sandman. I believe, I believe, I believe... Bring back The Sandman."

The others closed their eyes too, as did Nightlight, joining in.

"I believe, I believe, I believe... Bring back The Sandman..."

Back near the main street, on the road that led towards where the children were, Jack and the rest of the Guardians advanced towards Pitch. The Nightmare King clinging to his scythe of black sand.

"It's over Pitch! There's no place to hide."

Pitch smirked and laughed, sinking into the shadows here at the end of the street. Copies of his shadow surrounded them, looming from the walls of the buildings either side. The Guardians were forced to watch them all, at times leaving their back's unguarded. It was in one such moment that Pitch surged up behind Jack with the intent to cause as much damage as possible to the source of his plan's failure.

Bunny saw Pitch raise his scythe, shouting out a warning.

"Jack, look out!"

Jack turned, with no time to raise his staff in defence as the massive scythe came arcing up and over towards him... But then it stopped with a jolt, and Pitch's expression changed to horror when both he and Jack saw the length of dreamsand whip that had coiled around his wrist.

Pitch was yanked backwards, wailing as he was hauled through the air. He was then dragged to the edge of the park, past Jamie and the other children, until he was right in front of the swirling cloud of dreamsand that floated before them.

Pitch stared in terror as Sandy emerged from that cloud, the little golden man waving his finger in a 'tsk tsk' motion before delivering a sound uppercut to the immortal's chin. Pitch went soaring up into the air to the end of the whip's reach, Sandy conjuring and tipping a hat to Jamie and his friends in thanks. And then he yanked hard on the whip, dismissing it, and allowed Pitch to slam very hard into the frozen ground behind him.

Sandy burst into silent laughter alongside the giggles of the children, before he was interrupted by a blur of white and blue slamming into him.

"Sandy!"

Jack clung to his friend, barely able to believe this was happening. Tooth and the others gathering round to join in as the Guardian of Dreams was literally passed from hug-to-hug until he made his way to Jack again.

The Guardian of Fun had tears in his eyes, of relief and utter joy. Sandy smiled softly at that, reaching out to brush away those tears. He then rubbed his hands together business-like and floated upwards aloft a summoned cloud of sand.

Dreamsand burst into life across the entire sky, across the entire world in fact had they been able to see it, seeking out every single sleeping child anywhere. Dreams of Christmas, Easter, Tooth Fairies, and of fun times in the snow; they re-kindled the lost belief of the sleepers, something that restored flight to the fairies at the Winter Sanctuary.

The Lead Fairies left through the portal to Burgess, seeking out Tooth squeaking with happiness as she took hold of and hugged every one of them. Jamie left his friends watching as dreamsand forms of dinosaurs, origami birds, and fish of many kinds strode through the town or flew through the sky. He went back to his house, slipping upstairs to get his sister, and bundled her into her coat and shoes.

He returned with her in time for when Sandy descended to the ground again, taking the chance to give him a hug of his own. But that moment was followed by a snowball to the to back of the head, which made Jamie turn to see Jack hefting another mischievously.

Jamie grinned and stooped down to grab a handful of snow. He pelted Monty with it, a full-blown snowball fight erupting among the children. Two yetis, some Selkies, and several elves and sprites from nearby all joined in. The rest of the Guardian's 'army' having already made a discrete exit back to their homes.

North came up beside Jack as the Guardian of Fun watched them, smiling with pride.

"You did it, Jack. You've done everything Manny wanted of you for this fight, and more. You saved us, just as you were chosen to do."

Jack shrugged, his expression wry as he nodded towards his Lieutenants. They'd just landed at the edge of the snowball fight, and Dig had already joined in.

"Well I didn't do it all by myself. I had plenty of help."

A snowball then slammed North from behind, cutting off his reply, and he turned to see Claude and Caleb point at a snowball-toting elf.

The Russian started to laugh and grabbed a handful of snow.

"You're all on naughty list!" He changed his target. "Bunny, think fast!"

Bunny was knocked flat by the snowball to the face, but sat up grinning rather than being annoyed. Even Tooth, Baby Tooth, and the Lead Fairies all joined in while Nightlight dumped and armload of snow on one yeti's head. All of them laughing and oblivious to their nearby defeated enemy until Pitch groggily stumbled to his feet and stared in rising anger at the scene before him.

"You dare have fun in my presence?!" The Guardians all paused in their play, but the children continued as if nothing had happened while Pitch pointed at himself. "I am the Boogeyman! And you will FEAR ME!"

He lunged at Jamie, malice in his every move, but the boy simply passed through him as if he weren't even there. The despair on Pitch's face following that, was a stark contrast to the arrogance and smug confidence he'd radiated up until this point.

He raised his head to look at the Guardians, a flicker of fear filling his eyes, and he turned to flee. Racing away into the park's woods. He was almost back to the entrance of his lair, running across the surface of the pond, when a dainty fist seemingly came out of nowhere and smacked him in the face.

Pitch flipped over with the force of it, skidding across the ice as a cool female voice reached his ears.

"And where do you think you're going?" He looked up to see Ariko Blossomsinger shaking out the hand she'd punched him with, Achieng and Oisin stood either side of her as she put on a smile of impending violence. "You didn't really think you'd get away with attacking Jack, did you? Not just once, but twice."

Achieng stared down at him, hers and Oisin's smiles changing to match the the Spirit of Spring's.

"Yes, that's quite right... Two attacks, mean twice the beating."

"No!"

Pitch tried to scramble away, but weakened as he was and up against three Spirits of the Seasons, he wasn't going anywhere.

The Guardians arrived at the pond to witness what at first seemed a 'game' of sorts, with the three Seasonals 'passing' Pitch to one another by sliding him across the ice... But for the fact that all three of them were doing it by virtue of kicking him towards each other with as much force as they could muster.

Jack watched Pitch make three rounds of the trio, the Nightmare King begging for mercy with every crunching blow, before he intercepted the wailing man and pushed him towards the far edge of the pond.

Jack then glanced at Ariko.

"I think that's enough. As much as I love seeing you three beat the snot out of him, there's a group of kids heading this way. So while I'm certain only two of them will be able to see you, those two happen to be my nephew and niece. I don't want them to think gratuitous violence is a normal thing, ok?"

There was a pause as his peers directed a disgusted glance at Pitch, before Ariko reluctantly nodded and began to straighten up her kimono.

"You're right, we must set a good example. This was merely an exception made under exceptional circumstances." All three of them rose up into the air. "We'll leave the rest of this to the Guardians... Don't worry about the remainder of Northern Winter, Jack. Send Zuě Hu to deal with the cold parts, and I'll make sure the rest of the weather goes as it should. You get some rest. You've earned it."

A moment later, she was gone. Oisin and Achieng lingering for but a few seconds more than her before doing the same. It seemed that, due to the scare of him being injured and then finding out he was a Guardian, Ariko had at last developed some grudging respect for him.

Jack smiled to himself at that thought, and then faced Pitch with a cool stare.

"Well, as I said to you back in Antarctica... Get lost, Pitch. Go back to your hole and stay there. This was your last chance at victory over the Guardians, and now it's passed. With me around, you'll never get another."

Pitch, battered and bruised from the beating he'd received, scrambled to his feet and glared at them.

"You can't get rid of me! Not forever! There will always be fear!"

North scoffed at that, waving a hand in dismissal.

"So what? As long as one child believes, we will be here to fight fear!"

Pitch sneered, pointing to something on the rocks behind them.

"Really? Then what are they doing here?"

It was Nightmares, the few that had survived the battle. In the light of impending dawn, they seemed darker than usual, but even so North just snorted.

"They can't be my Nightmares, I'm not afraid."

Jack glanced at them, and followed the direction of their gaze to the Nightmare King. He then grinned.

"Looks like it's your fear they smell."

Pitch's eyes widened in realisation, the Nightmares screamed and charged towards him, and then he shrieked as he ran and was caught by them. Swept into a maelstrom of terror, by his own creations, and dragged down through the entrance of his lair which sealed itself shut behind him.

The sun's edge just started to peek over the horizon, and with a cry of elation Tooth flew to Jack and hugged him. They'd won! In fact she clung on for long enough that, when Jack raised his eyebrows and Baby Tooth rushed in to scold her, Tooth blushed and hastily let go.

That was when Jamie arrived with Sophie and his friends, in this light of a new dawn, there to see the Guardians on their way.

He grinned.

"So much for the Boogeyman. He should never underestimate kids!"

Jack laughed and walked over, regarding his nephew with pride.

"Too right. That's been his mistake every time he's fought and been defeated. He never learns."

There was the sound of one of North's portals, followed by bells. All the children but Jamie pointing at the sleigh in awe as it landed. The boy frowned, realising what it meant as Bunny crouched down to let Sophie pet his nose in farewell.

"You're leaving?"

Jack reached out and ruffled his hair, keeping his words quiet enough for the other kids not to hear.

"I'll see you next weekend. I owe you and Sophie a trip to Santoff Claussen, remember? And I'm sure I can talk my fellow Guardians into being there too." He chuckled. "North owes me a party to celebrate me 'becoming a Guardian', and I can't think of anywhere better than the village for that."

Sandy unleashed 'fireworks' made of dreamsand now, the golden grains that rained down, causing Jamie's friends and Sophie to yawn and start to sway on their feet. Only Jamie wasn't affected, for reasons revealed when Sandy came over and drew several symbols.

Jack translated with a smile.

"He says 'I'll let you help get them to their homes. You know where they all live, and there's not much time before their parents starting waking up'."

The boy looked to where several yetis had caught the children as they dropped off to sleep. Chances were they'd wake up thinking they'd just had a really awesome dream.

Jamie sighed, able to understand why the Guardians would prefer that, and gave Sandy a small but jaunty salute.

"Leave it to me. I'll see you all next weekend, you got that? And don't you be late this time, Uncle Jack!"

Jack and Sandy, both now clambering aboard the sleigh, smiled and laughed at that. Both of them remaining at the rail once North took them up into the sky, while Jamie waved them farewell.

The battle was over, and so was Jack's long wait. And now there were new things to look forward to.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: There you have it! Pass the Pitch Game! I considered having Ariko beat him to a bloody pulp, but for the sake of future plot and not going over the age rating I gave this fic, I decided to go for the more hilarious image of him being booted around like a ball.

And for those wondering where Easter Elf is, he's in the next chapter lol :)