Hello! So this is the first crossover story I've ever taken seriously so I'm working really hard on this. I really hope everyone likes it! I'd like to thank my friend and beta-reader Scorpiofreak. She has been such an inspiration and given me lots of good advice! Please go and read her story Winter Wonderland! It's amazing!

~ September 1875 ~

Today was not a good day.

The day started off normal enough. North had already started his Christmas preparations. Afterall, it was never too early to start preparing for the best holiday of the year. Even if a certain irate Easter Bunny strongly disagreed.

The Russian spirit was in his office. A nice cosy fire was burning in the fireplace, giving a nice, warm glow to the room. The lights on the Christmas tree were twinkling (always his favourite part) and the light bounced off of the many ice sculptures that were positioned carefully around the room.

As North chiselled on the final touches to a small ice sculpture of a little wind-up train with his carving pick and tiny hammer, his most trusted yeti barged into the room without warning. The loud bang of the door slamming open shocked North into dropping his precious ice train, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces. Thankfully the other sculptures merely wobbled slightly before settling back down. The spirit's eyes hardened and his face went red in anger as he began cursing in Russian. He turned sharply towards the yeti.

"Phil! What is meaning of this?!"

The yeti garbled away in it's own little language. To any normal person it would sound like a mixture of complete gibberish and silly made up words that made no sense whatsoever, but North had been around the yetis long enough to understand their strange language.

As Phil spoke, the Christmas spirit squinted his eyes and became less concerned about his sculptures, focusing on what the yeti was really saying. From what he could understand from the panicked and garbled mess of a language that Phil was screaming out at him frantically, there was some kind of problem with the Globe. The giant one that displayed billions of tiny lights all over it. These brightly glowing lights were incredibly important, for each one represented a child that believed in him. The lights represented all of the children that believed in the Guardians. If there was a problem with it, then it must be fixed as soon as possible. Christmas would be fast approaching, and there was no telling when danger might strike. And it was with these thoughts in mind, that North stopped the yeti from speaking and then walked briskly out of his office, Phil following urgently behind him.

As the spirit made his way through the busy workshop, he managed to catch a glimpse at what was going on around him. The tiny elves were once again getting themselves stuck in the Christmas decorations as they "pretended to help". Some were just eating the many cookies...North had wondered what had happened to the batch he had ordered directly from the kitchen. With the mystery now solved he began to distract himself with the rest of the goings on.

Hundreds of yetis were seated at benches, checking some of his ice sculptures and making last minute details to toys that had been so lovingly handcrafted. North would've done the job himself if he actually had any free time. He didn't know what that was like anymore. He watched as the toys would then be handed onto other yetis who would begin to paint and stitch any final details so that they would be finished in time for Christmas.

The Christmas spirit smiled slightly as he remembered the excitement that went into making Christmas and all of the gifts. He nodded in approval at the work his loyal yetis were doing. He could always count on them to do a good job. They never let him down. Just as the thought left his head, he spotted a flaw. Scrunching his bushy eyebrows and almost stomping over to the offending yeti he began to explain, yet again, what he wanted this particular toy to look like.

"No, no, no! How many times? The trains are meant to be yellow and green! The engine should be green! Yellow carriages! How hard is this to remember?!"

North didn't like yelling. He hated it. But sometimes it was necessary in order to get the job done. So as the poor yeti grumbled an apology and began to repaint the blue trains, he decided to let the subject drop. The yeti got the point. The trains would be fixed. Everything would be okay. No more yelling. Problem solved.

Phil garbled at him again, reminding him of the important matter at hand. North raised a huge hand to his face as he sighed. How could he have been distracted so easily by such a trivial distraction? North gestured for the yeti to lead the way as they once again set off to discover the problem behind the globe.

As North approached the giant globe, he inspected it carefully. Hundreds of years of making and creating intricate toys for billions of children gave him an incredible eye for detail. Out of all of the Guardians, he would probably be the first to spot something amiss. However from what he could see, there was nothing wrong. The controls and inner mechanics that kept it ticking still seemed to be working. The billions of tiny lights that covered its surface were still there, glowing brightly. And yet, he had a feeling that Phil was right. Something definitely wasn't right. He could feel it in his belly. And it had never been wrong before.

"What is wrong Phil?" he asked in a more gentle tone. Perhaps now the problem would become clearer. Phil walked over to a lever and pulled it. The globe began to turn slowly until Phil suddenly let go of the lever, allowing it to come to a stop. Once he was certain that the globe had come to a full stop, North opened up the metal box that was connected to the side of the control panel. Inside was hundreds of cogs and springs, all in different shapes and sizes. Once he had made certain that it was not an inside problem and all of the necessary tweaks had been made, North reattached the cover and followed Phil to find out whatever was wrong.

The anxious yeti had climbed up the rungs of a ladder that led to one of the balconies that were used when inspecting the globe from above. The Christmas spirit climbed the ladder to get a better look. And what he did find, he wasn't expecting. North looked at the area surrounding the point that Phil pointed at. Those areas were normal, brightly shining with the belief of the children. His eyes moved back towards the offending spot on the globe. He watched as three dimly glowing orbs all went out at the same time. On closer inspection, he noticed that they were all in the exact same place.

North narrowed his eyes as he inspected the small country. Why was it just one area that had children who were losing their faith? Why was the rest of the children in this country strong in their belief, when the ones in this area weren't? What made these children so unhappy that they were losing all hope in the world?

"What is going on in London?"

So that's the prologue. I hope you all enjoyed reading it, and please feel free to leave a review ^^

xshattered-reflectionx