A/N: Um…hi! I haven't updated this story since Oct. 10th, 2019! That's over 2 years ago! As of now, this story has 165 reviews, 367 favs, and 485 follows! Wow. I can't thank you guys enough, I'm sorry I've been silent. A lot of writer's block and college going on, I feel like a totally different person now in a good way, especially after getting closer to Jesus (He's awesome)! I hope you guys have been doing okay during this crazy time and have had a happy New Year so far!

As I've said before, I'm trying not to leave this story dead (no matter how long it takes me)! I know the basic plot of what I want for this story, I've had it in my mind and in writing since I first started it. Some of this chapter has been collecting digital dust for a really long time, I just didn't know where to go from last chapter, but I've finally finished it! I don't know how long it will be until the next update (which is halfway done), but this is a start.

Welcome back to The Serendipity of a Misunderstood Winter Spirit!

Without further ado, enjoy!

Chapter 11: Interlude

Her amethyst eyes fluttered open and a sense of worry instantly gripped her heart.

The Fairy Queen was quick to take in her surroundings, noticing the sparse medical equipment near the large fireplace and the many white beds lining the walls of the cozy room. It was clear that she was in the Workshop's infirmary. Ugh. And her head ached too.

Why was she there?

The answer eluded her.

Vaguely, she recalled snippets of a dark room, magical blue powder, and the upset feeling that surged through her before everything went black. And then, she remembered Jack Frost.

Oh.

Her Baby Teeth.

Before she could stop herself, Toothiana buried her head in her hands and started to sob.

Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. Her poor baby teeth were still who knows where with Pitch. Why was this happening? Now even her own memory was faltering too. And all those innocent children—her believers that she had sworn to protect centuries ago—were now waking up to find their teeth still under their pillow, and she couldn't do anything about it. She just couldn't fully fathom it.

Something large in the corner of the room caught her eye, and it took a few blinks through the tears for them to focus and her to realize that it was a yeti. His warm, brown eyes conveyed sympathy and concern. In his large paws, he offered a steaming tray of hot chocolate out to her.

Toothiana shook her head softly. "Thank you...but I'm alright, just need time to think and rest," she paused, giving a sigh. "Could you please tell the others I'm okay?"

The yeti nodded understandably as he sat the tray down on a nearby table and left the room. Toothiana sank back into the plush white cot, closing her tearful eyes and thinking hard.

Jack.

Frost.

Jack Frost.

On closer inspection, he didn't seem too evil. And his sparkling white teeth were so perfect. The thought of his incisors almost made her sigh. Innocent enough, but maybe Bunny was right—he was just playing a game with them. Besides, there was no proof that he was good. The fact that he mentioned talking to one of her baby teeth made her feel uneasy. They were all captured by Pitch so how did he find out about that anyway? How did he know about her baby teeth? Was he in league with Pitch?

And what was he trying to say before she fainted? That he wanted her to ask her fairies? Why would she ask her fairies about him? Was he mocking her or just trying to prove that he was telling the truth?

A part of her wanted to believe it.

Jack Frost. The bringer of cold and harsh winter. The evil spirit that had killed children. Was it really possible that it was all wrong? That they were all wrong?

She shook her head, conflicted. Even if she could find one of her fairies, she doubted they would have anything good to say about the cold spirit.

Ugh, why would Manny do this? How were they supposed to trust him to help? How were they going to defeat Pitch with him by their side if even possible?

The Guardian of Memories could feel her eyes water before her head fell, and she began to weep again. Her heart ached as she felt each and every child wake up only to learn that the Tooth Fairy didn't take their teeth and leave a gift. To them, she was no longer real.

Meanwhile, far beyond Santoff Claussen, a certain little fairy was fighting against the currents of freezing wind, trying to get to her mother who she sensed was nearby. She had to let her know about Jack.

Jack Frost stared openly at the spastic, jingling elf in front of him, his frosted brows furrowed as he thought.

After the Guardians had left him alone in the dim cell, the elf came out of hiding and started waddling about. But Jack was more focused on how he was going to persuade the elf to help him find his staff to escape. He needed something to hold the elf's short attention span. Looking on, Jack quirked his eyebrow as the elf started erratically licking the air, rather hungrily, he thought.

A smirk then fell on his face as an idea came to him.

Food. Everyone liked food. And with the elf as dumb as it acted, and food, as basic as it was, should be the perfect object of persuasion. And even though the winter spirit didn't have any food—nor did he really feel the need to eat very often at all—he could still lie to the gullible creature.

"Hey," he started, his voice snapping the elf out of its air-licking trance before it waddled in front of the seated winter spirit.

"Are you, by any chance, hungry?"

With almost no hesitation, the elf nodded, its jingling hat ringing out furiously, the whirring of the workshop outside of the room surely blocking out the noise. Jack's smile widened.

"And do you like sweets?"

Again, the small creature nodded, even more fervently this time. Perfect.

"Well," his voice lifting as the lie left his lips, "I have a huge stash of cookies where I live."

The elf's mouth started to water almost comically. Jack could almost hear Wind laughing outside the skylight.

"Yeah! With all types!" He held his chained hands up as he listed them off with his fingers. "I've got chocolate chip, sugar, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, uh—the yummy ones with the frosting on top!"

The elf's eyes went huge, as big as dinner plates. Then, with a quick limited wave of his hands, Jack conjured an ice chip in the shape of a cookie, waving it in front of the drooling creature. Just as the elf jumped up to make a grab for it, Jack pulled it back to himself, tucking it in his hoodie pocket.

The elf deflated, giving the winter spirit before him a betrayed look. Jack continued, a mischievous glint in his icy eyes.

"Now, what if I told you, I would give you all of my cookies if you did just one teensy, simple favor for me?"

The elf perked up, its little eyes restored with hope—or maybe that was just hunger, Jack wasn't sure.

"Alrighty, listen close. I need you to find a long wooden stick. It has a hook on its end, and it probably won't be easy to find. Y'see, the Guardians took it away from me and hid it so I couldn't give you or any of the other elves cookies. And you do want cookies, right?"

The elf nodded as if it's life depended on it.

"Good. So don't get caught. It has to be in this workshop somewhere and that's all you have to do; just find the long wooden stick with a curve at the end and bring it to me, and you can have all the cookies you want!"

The creature saluted with seriousness before scrambling out of the cell. Jack watched as it cracked the room's door open with great effort before slipping through.

Wind cascaded down through the skylight as Jack had a mirthful laugh. He hoped this would work. He didn't really have much else to work with.

Phil walked back through the glowing workshop, greeting other yetis as they built wondrous and fantastical toys. He grumbled to himself, almost accidentally stepping on a few elves scurrying about underfoot. As usual, the little creatures were all carrying an assortment of different things—a few were proudly toting what looked to be a garbage disposal unit, one had bicycle training wheels in its hands, while another was heaving a long wooden stick with a crook on its end, which seemed oddly familiar, but Phil himself couldn't quite put his finger on it. No doubt, all of these items were going to be put together to engineer a heap of dangerous garbage the elves deemed a winning toy idea. He shrugged; at least they tried.

Soon enough, Phil arrived at Santoff Claussen's main hall where Sandy, Bunny, and North were conversing. The main man in red turned towards him.

"Ah, Phil, how is Toothy?"

"Argablagh ragbagh arb."

"She has awakened, that iz relief," North smiled warmly and nodded as the others let out a sigh upon hearing the news, "we will come to see her very soon to see what we should do next. Spasibo, Phil."

The yeti gave a simple nod and walked over to a nearby toy station to supervise, leaving the Guardians to themselves. Bunny was rattled, still angry, and next to the fireplace to fight off the chill that came with being at the North Pole.

"I'm telling ya, something ain't right about this. How'd the bugga know about her fairies anyways? You think he's workin' with Pitch?" He looked pointedly at the two other Guardians.

Sandy gave a thoughtful tilt of his head while North stroked his beard.

"I am not sure, but given his reputation, it iz possibility."

"I'd say so. I really don't care what Tooth or frankly," he gave a quick look up to the skylight to where the Moon was quickly being covered by dark clouds, "what Manny, says we should try and do, there's no way we could trust 'im…You can't fix the wicked, mate."

Sandy was slowly considering the Guardian of Hope's words while North spoke up.

"Now Bunny, we've been through thi—"

"No Bunny this or Bunny that, we can fix this without his help! We'll keep 'im locked in that room until this is over, and then deal with him later. We can give him a trial if ya want, but—"

"But what Tooth said is right. Manny wants Jack…to be a Guardian regardless of what we think of him, and in order for us to move forward and defeat Pitch, we need to tell him that he's been chosen and establish trust."

"I'm sorry, establish trust? Again, you can't trust someone like him! You both saw what he did in there, same as me! I don't know how he knew about Tooth's fairies, but he clearly brought it up just to hurt 'er!"

"I'm starting to get idea he may be telling truth. What if Manny has seen something we haven't? What if we were wrong?"

"Wrong," the Pooka seethed, the word spat out like it was some bad-tasting medicine as he crossed his arms. "I suppose you think that what I saw in '68 was all wrong too."

Sandy directed his gaze to the spring spirit with wide eyes. North tensed, but closed his wondrous blue eyes that seemed tired. "Bunny, no, I—there iz reason, there always iz. We need help and Manny has given us what we need. You do not have to like him, we just have to find way to stop Pitch, and then, it's over."

Bunny gave a stern nod, rolling his shoulders about what North had said. He didn't want to argue anymore. "I don't have a good feeling about this. Easter is in 2 days so let it be done and over with, quickly."

Jack nearly jumped up from his spot off the cold floor when the door opened suddenly, light flooding the dull room yet again.

His icy-blue eyes adjusted and when they did, he couldn't believe it.

Before him, a brigade of elves presented his staff like mighty, magnanimous warriors who'd just slain a fearsome monster. They were so, so proud. But Jack could care less about them as he reached for his staff.

Wind jostled his hair in encouragement to take it, which he did, ignoring the protests of the elves who were immediately expecting something in return. Frost surged through the old wood. Even though the enchanted handcuffs impeded his movement, only giving him a few inches of room to move his arms apart, the conduit greatly concentrated his power.

Wind whistled and whirled around him as the temperature of the entire Workshop began to plummet. The elves watched in horror as Jack rose to his full height, the metal bars of the cell starting to become coated in frost with a sickly crackle.

Oh, the havoc he would wreck on this place; it was gonna be fun.

A/N:

Thanks to everyone who has stayed interested in this story, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter! I really enjoy hearing your input. Stay tuned and until next time, bye!