Chapter twenty- All will be Well

"NO!" North and Jack yelled at the same time.

"We will find way." North assured him.

"They'll die…soon…" James protested weakly.

"We know, but we'll figure it out." Jack assured him while North buried himself back in the books with no small amount of effort. It was taking everything he had to stay calm. Kill him? After all he had done for them? No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't have it. He had to fix this, they were all counting on him. He was the only one left who could and he was taking too long! He was failing them!

That's right fat-man. You're a failure and you know it.

North cursed in very loud, very angry Russian.

"What's wrong?" Jessica asked in shock from where he had sat them behind him.

"He is spreading."

"You hear him too?" Jack asked, his face telling them he had heard it. North nodded. "Don't listen to him." Jack urged.

"Trying to tune out. Like you at meetings when Bunny talks." North teased. Jack was almost stunned by the sudden jibe but after blinking once or twice started to laugh.

"Hey, it's not my fault the Kangaroo says the same thing every month." Jack defended through chuckles.

"I am not saying I blame, only noting similarity." North grinned, still looking at the books. From his view peeking around North Jamie noted that Jack wasn't straining as hard and what he could see of Bunny it looked like his fur was returning to normal.

"Guys?" Jamie emerged.

"Yeah?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Bunny's fur is back to normal." He nodded to the frozen rabbit. North just looked at Jack, then Jamie, then back a few times before something clicked.

Somewhere up in the sky Mani wished he had eyes to roll. It was dire, and he needed them to look at the moonstone, but they were preoccupied. There was a reason Sandy and himself were close. They were right on the cusp, if they would just dig a little deeper they would figure it out!

He held his proverbial breath and crossed the fingers he didn't have.

Jack saw North's hopeful expression and had a thought.

"Jame? Do you remember when it started?" He asked.

"When you started to laugh." He offered.

"You look like it's not taking as much of a toll on you anymore too." Jessica pointed out.

"That's it." James whispered. "How…how did I…miss it?" He asked himself quietly.

"See what?" North asked, still digging for answers.

"His weakness." He provided. "Pitch Black was…part of him." James whispered. Jack's eyes widened and he laughed, a huge and happy laugh. He looked back at the confused North, Jessie and Jamie and smiled.

"That's so simple it's got to work." Jack laughed.

"What Jack?" Jamie asked, trusting eyes wide.

"Fun." He provided. "Our centers. When we started to make fun, he lost some magic. We need our centers, North. We need belief, lots of it." Jack offered. "Maybe if we can weaken him enough we can trap him easier." Jack offered, enthused. "Light did it before but maybe our centers can weaken him without him getting loose!"

"Yeah!" Jamie cheered. James nodded.

"Should work." He smiled, then a frown grew. "But how to contain him…"

"One step at time, at worst it buys time." North assured.

"But…we'll need more than Jack and Jamie won't we?" Jessica asked.

"Yes. But the guardians were all children again recently. They can remember that belief." James provided, finally sitting upright. All the hope in the room had helped immeasurably.

"What?" North asked. "Thought that was dream." He offered.

"Nope, that was all very real." Jack confirmed. "You were a crazy stubborn kid, you know." Jack teased, hoping it would remind him.

"Is that so?" North asked.

"You have no idea." Jack chuckled.

"Yeah, one time while you were out and mom was watching them he climbed one of the shelves and was convinced that he could fly, and he would absolutely not climb down for anything!" Jamie started laughing, barely finishing his story.

"I did?" He asked, shock written all over his face.

"You did?! What? Why didn't that ever come up in conversation?" He asked, eyeing Jessica Bennett who threw up her hands in the general gesture of peace.

"Because you'd have panicked." She defended.

"No I wouldn't have! He didn't get hurt, but still!" He argued.

"Hey, hey now, you're still reacting about the same way I thought you would." She teased.

"I-" He shut his mouth and opened it a few times and when he caught the suspicious and awed look North was giving him he kicked the carpet and looked down bashfully.

"It's working." James and Jessica managed at exactly the same moment.

After exchanging a cautiously optimistic look with north Jack carefully unfroze the three guardian-sickles' heads. Still on-guard, he had never been happier than when Bunny started to curse at him with Australian slang he couldn't figure out. Sandy gave a woozy and confused grin which looked like he may or may not barf and Tooth looked concerned.

"Thank moon." He dropped them out of the ice and looked to James, who far from looking sick was starting to look much, much better.

"He's weakening." He confirmed.

"Alright, now all we've gotta do is keep him down." Jack said through a huge grin. "Alright guys, let's have some fun. If we can tap into our centers and remember childhood belief we can keep Boogey from having any power until we figure out how to deal with him." Jack explained shortly, sitting Indian-style on the floor with Jamie and his mom.

"What happened?" Tooth slurred sleepily. Sandy caught her and helped her sit while Bunny stumbled to sit on Jack's other side.

"Boogey got into you and you started doing some exorcist type stuff." Jack offered lightly. Unfortunately only Jessica got the reference so she was the only one who laughed. "Okay, you were possessed then Sandy got tainted and Bunny's fur started to turn black but it's all good now and we think-before you panic-that if we take away all the fear near him we'll keep him weak." Jack explained quickly.

"Do you always have to explain things so quickly?" James asked through a chuckle which suppressed an exhausted yawn. He was trying to remain completely calm, as if there was no need for alarm at all, but it came at the risk of him knocking out.

"Only when they jump ahead of me." Jack defended, crossing his arms and smirking.

"I'm going to keep looking. Has to be something here that will work. Any suggestions?" North asked him, hoping for insight.

"Only that it involved light, which could be interchanged with general happiness and joy. I think that was how we weakened him." He offered.

"Okay well…who's the 'we'? I thought you were the first." Tooth asked groggily.

"Oh, Mani and I. He manifested down here in a vague form that helped me contain him but Boogey sort of…well…he may have managed to get the upper hand on me and I was young…I panicked and that's how he won the first time around." He offered.

"Alright, then maybe I'm looking in the wrong pile." He stroked his beard in thought. "Do you remember what sort of magic it was?" He asked.

"Incantation. No potions, but it didn't work the first time." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably in a very Jack-like motion that left Sandy grinning until his mind caught up with the meaning of what he had said. "Here, I'll help." He stood but Sandy started bouncing a ball of sand.

"Sit back down, mate. We'll figure this out, try not to hurt yourself." Bunny said with a cheeky grin and folded arms.

"Sandy, you can't do that or he'll free himself. I have to stay awake, you know that." James protested, seating himself. "Come on…." He tried. North gave him this look that he imagined he gave Jack a lot. The 'what am I going to do with you' look.

"No. Just rest. We will figure this out. Sandy, once you wake up you can skim through some of these." North half asked. He nodded happily, indicating that they could switch off.

"So…now what?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah, what're we gonna do?" Tooth asked.

"Well, monopoly sounds fun." Jack commented quite seriously. "Sandy and Tooth can do their thing, coming and going as needed and we're gonna keep ourselves occupied." Jack grinned.

"But Boogey-"

"Is weakened and not a threat for now. Jack's right, we should try to relax." James agreed, seeing where he was going.

"So…we just pretend it's not happening and go on about our lives nonchalantly until we've fixed the problem?" Bunny asked mostly to clarify. Jack nodded, as did James. "Well that might just be crazy enough to work. Do ya need to take this one home now, sheila?" Bunny asked of Mrs. Bennett who pretended to think about it while her son begged her stay.

"Weeeeeeeell…I suppose we can stay for a while." She agreed. The embodiment of fear was in the room and a real threat, true, but the Guardians had saved her, and her son had saved them. She had every faith in them and found that she didn't mind sticking around. "We should get James some coffee though." She chuckled.

"So it begins. You ready kiddo? Let's go find a game to play!" Jack stood and he and his first believer took off into the pole laughing the whole way.

"I'll be here when you get back, Sandy. Take your time." North offered quietly as the golden man left. Sandy nodded to him and his symbols flashed that he'd be right back to give him a break.

Sorry about that super misleading cliffie, but I figured it was a nice dramatic pause given that I knew I'd update in a few hours. Given that I can see the end of the proverbial plot-tunnel I have a question; would y'all like this to be an indefinite story that just flows into various sequels or would you like to see it broken up. If I do it in the same continuous line there can be a whole lot more action and it'll be much truer to what I'm thinking I'd like to make it, but I'm writing for you, so let me know what you think! Y'all are wonderful people! Also, abrocks1234, thank's for reviewing again, I didn't think the Guardians would let him do that, especially because they would have had to kill him. I considered that plot in my head, that ultimatum, but every one of the characters would have been so very against it that it might have been forced. Thank you for your wonderful and encouraging enthusiasm!