Nothing is in the past, the present, or the future. Because time is always ticking. Forever, like a lake, or a river, or even an ocean, that's been here since the beginning of our earth.

•๑•

The Guardians and Pitch all raced to get the teeth, somehow turning this into a competition. Although Pitch wouldn't admit it, but he was… Enjoying himself.

The excitement was overwhelming. Pitch teleporting himself to different houses, nearly getting clobbered by the idiot rabbit in the process, and Tooth nearly smashed into a billboard during their time in China.

"How long have you been hiding in your palace?" Pitch asked, appearing next to the fairy.

"Ohh, 400 years give or take!" The Tooth fairy giggled excitedly. "I've forgotten how fun it is to be out on the field!"

Pitch just raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, the crew continuing to collect teeth.

"You did leave gifts, right?" Tooth asked, after they all held up bags of teeth. The boys all looked at each other before running off to give presents to the children.

•๑•

Jack sighed deeply, leaning on , watching the Guardians have their fun. They were… enjoying this. No, no he had to stop this, before the belief came back, before she-

A tiny sneeze came from behind him. Jack whirled around, only to be met face to face with a tiny tooth fairy. "Wh- what!? Where did you come from? I thought I had you all in…" Jack was confused, flustered even. The little tooth fairy frowned. She said something in her own language, one that nobody would be able to understand.

Except somehow, Jack seemed to know what she meant. 'Why are you doing this?' She had asked.

•๑•

Sandman had gone a bit further away from the other guardians. He spread his dream sand around during the excitement, allowing the children to have good dreams.

He heard a fellow land on a light pole behind him. A blast of cold air, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He whirled around, ending up face to face with Jack Frost.

The boy smiled, almost sheepish. "Hi Sandy." He said, softly. His hoodie seemed to be grayer. The Sandman held his ground. Instead of attacking, Jack held out a neatly folded blue hoodie in his hands.

"I know I shouldn't be asking this, I don't deserve it…" The boy sighed. "But… You're the only one I trust right now."

Sandman's grip on the whips faltered. The only one he trusted? What does he mean? "I… I know you can't trust me, and I understand. But I'm risking…. Some people's lives right now." Jack said, quietly, holding out the hoodie.

"I need to ask you a favor." The boy of winter said.

•๑•

"You're… Santa Claus? And the Easter Bunny? Tooth Fairy? And- And the Sandman!" The little boy exclaimed, both shocked and excited. Sandman just smiled and waved. Then the flashlight beam made its way to Pitch's face, whom in turn squinted and held his hand up to protect his eyes.

"... The Bogeyman?" The little boy asked. The Guardians stared at Pitch in disbelief.

"What?" Pitch asked. "It's not like fear is nonexistent." He scowled, crossing his arms.

And suddenly, a blast of cold air, a rush of snowflakes past the window. The little boy's head shot up. "Is that… Jack Frost?" He whispered, softly. The Guardians all looked surprised for a moment, shocked that the little boy would know about him.

"Is he here? My mom always talks about him! She says he doesn't exist, but I think otherwise!" He was excited, and bounded over to the window. He peeked out, but was unable to see anything but frost. He frowned. "I just missed him.." The boy sighed.

North looked down to Sandman. "Sandy, could you put him to sleep for now?" He asked, quietly. The little golden man nodded, creating a ball of dream sand, and popping it on the boy's head. Almost immediately, the boy fell asleep, and into the arms of Sandman.

After making sure the child was safe in bed, the Guardians and Pitch made their way to the streets, looking for the Boy of Winter.

•๑•

Jack's plans were going well. They were perfect, undisturbed. Now he just needed to-

"Hey Frost." A thick australian accent called from behind. Jack whirled around, nearly slipping off the top of the light pole he stood on. Down below, the Pooka stared up at him, his arms crossed.

"Oh! Hi Bunny!" Jack laughed, nervously. "What's up?"

Aster scowled deeply. "What's up is you, get down here you little-"

He was interrupted by a deep growling, and turned around to see another one of Jack's ice creations, this time an entire pack of wolves, all seemingly modelled after ancient wild dogs, their head with noticeable long fangs and powerful chest, claws and a strong jaw.

Aster's ears shot up, alarmed, finally noticing the creature.

The frost boy just chuckled quietly, finding this amusing. "You know, I really don't understand why you, a powerful kangaroo, could be so afraid of a little thing like that." He laughed.

The pooka glared. "You called me a what?" He asked, though he had heard it clearly. "I swear I'll beat you to a pulp you little-" The ice wolves growled, inching closer to the pooka, as though warning him not to even think about touching Jack.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you." Jack mocked, then laughed.

A gentle pat on his shoulder. Jack turned his head, only to be greeted by the frowning face of the dream fairy, Sandman. The boy shrieked, launching himself a few feet off the pole, hovering there.

"H-Hi Sandy!" He laughed, nervously. The little golden man frowned, his eyes scanning Jack's own face. There was no real shred of fear, no real shred of malice. He wanted him to tell them, to tell the guardians- and Pitch- about this. They could help….

Jack seemed to get where the Sandman was going with his gestures, because he just smiled, before jetting into the sky, the pack of wolves following on clouds of hovering snow, the snowflakes blasting in the Guardian's faces.

"Jack!" Aster yelled, practically howling like a dog.

But Jack's heart was beating hard and fast, forgetting that it lay at the bottom of the Lake of Burgess, frozen and dead. But what could he do? This isn't what he wanted.

•๑•

This was definitely not what he was trying for. It was at times like this he wished he had the power of Father Time, so he could go back, and change it all before it was too late. But of course-- changing time was taboo, and what you changed would come back and bite you in the arse ten times worse.

Landing on the top of the bell tower, sighing heavily, Jack scanned his eyes over the city, watching as the guardians and Pitch battled with his ice creatures. What else should he do? It wasn't like he enjoyed this, no, he did not. But it was the only choice… the only path he could go down.

Maybe he should have some fun with them. At least for awhile-- until he needed to do some things that were… unfavorable to them.

•๑•

"Jack, you have to help me." He had asked, his cream colored ears twitching nervously. The winter spirit was taken aback. Was this a joke? Peter Rabbit never asked for help, much less from him.

The spirit of spring looked around him nervously, the whiskers on his nose twitching ever so slightly.

"Please, Jack, if you don't I-I don't know what I can do!" The rabbit wailed, pulling his long ears over his eyes. Jack sighed and nodded.

"Alright Peter, what happened?"

•๑•

First there was a sharp pinch on his cheek. Then… water. It wasn't raining. And this "water" didn't smell like water. It smelled… it smelled metallic.

It took Jack a few moments to realize that North had somehow cut him with one of his swords. His eyes, wide, as were the Christmas Spirit's own.

He's hurt a child, someone who didn't know the truth of the world, someone who had died too early.

… But that was someone else. This was Jack Frost, and he was the enemy. There was no need to feel remorse, was there?

And the fight went on. It was too difficult, for Jack, for them. Pitch wondered, what was the reason behind this? The King of fear didn't watch what came next-- when Jack finally let go.

•๑•

A pile of golden sand remained where he had stood just moments before. There are times when people are pushed to their limits, and finally explode with anger, or sadness… all that emotion, bottled up inside a fragile thing.

Many people have the ability to hold it inside, and many cannot, and our friend, Jack Frost, was no exception.

The silence was deafening, all the spirits staring at each other in shock, including Jack himself. What was this? Had he really gone so insane, that his ability to control the snow malfunctioned? That he had…

… That he had killed Sandman?

Before anyone could say anything, a blast of cold air, and the boy of winter had vanished from their sight.

"Did he… could he have just…" Tooth could barely form her sentences, as she stood near the pile of golden sand, as she began to quietly cry.

Aster was fuming, angry at the winter spirit for this, that he was capable of… murder. North's mind was a mix of the two of them, but mostly confused.

Why did this happen? What in the name of the Moon had happened to force events like this to happen?

Pitch on the other hand was just as distraught, and just as confused. His long time rival with dream sand had suddenly died at the hands of… what, just a 300 year old spirit?

How was this possible? Pitch was angry, but not angry at Jack, at least, not entirely. He was angry at the fact that Sandman lost, and what, to a little snowstorm? He could do better than this.

Out of nowhere, a tiny little creature with two legs darted out from behind a lamppost, in its hands, a bottle that was larger than its head.

It looked like a tiny elf, but with normal human-like body proportions, save for the ginormous head it had with it's pointy ears and bell covered hat. It ran in a funny way, one might say it even had two left feet.

The tiny creature ran up to the pile of sand, and sunk it's bottle straight into it, but only taking one-third of how much could fill in the bottle. And then off it went.

"Hey! Wait! That little bugger has-!" Aster bolted after the creature, obviously much faster.

However, the creature tripped over its own two feet, falling flat on its face, the bottle bouncing off and rolling into a little hole that wasn't there before. The tiny creature squealed, but suddenly began to melt.

The spirits realized that it was one of Jack's creations, and watched helplessly as Aster's paws only missed the bottle by inches, as it dropped down the hole, never to be seen again.

•๑•

"By the stars and the moon, Jack, imagine if master Bunnymund had seen me!" The cream colored rabbit exclaimed, hopping out of his hole. Peter shook his head to get rid of the dirt that collected itself on his hair, and reverted back to his sort if human form.

"I'm sorry, Peter, but the little popsicle wouldn't have been able to get us the bottle If you hadn't done this for me." Jack sighed.

Peter nodded, the rabbit handing the bottle over to the spirit. "You're right, my apologies." He replies. "Now, what is this sand for? You know how difficult it can be to control dream sand."

But Jack just simply smiled. "I'm not going to control it." He replied, simply tucking the bottle of glowing sand inside his pocket.

The rabbit furrowed his brows, but didn't push the issue. "Alright, if you say so. But be quick, for Mother Sun is going to realize soon." He warned, hopping into a hole.

Jack sighed, looking down at his feet. "I know.." He whispered to himself. "I know."