So, I'm starting a new story! Why? Because I can!

Disclaimer: Zis story be considered disclaim-ed. I own nothing.

"But how can I find out who I am until I find out who I was?"

~Jack Frost, Rise of the Guardians

Bunny grumbled as he trudged through the snow-covered ground. It was October for Moon's sake! Snow wasn't even supposed to come to this area of the United States for another couple of months! Yet, it'd been storming all around Burgess for the last three days straight, and now Bunny was stuck with the task of finding Frostbite to figure out what was wrong. All because three days ago he had a little spat with the over dramatic immortal teen.

Raising his arms to protect his face from hail and sleet, Bunny couldn't help but notice the closer he got to Jack's Lake, as they'd taken to calling it, the fiercer the storm got; the Winter Sprite was definitely there. It was right where Bunny had left him three days ago. That worried him, as the mischievous kid could never sit still for very long.

Pushing himself to go faster, Bunny finally burst into the clearing around the lake. The sight he saw froze him more than any of the frozen water that until a second ago was beating on him ever could. Everything in the clearing was still and silent. The lake was frozen, but the way it reached up toward the skies with jagged spires made it look as if someone had flash frozen it right as a whale cannon-balled in. That wasn't what stunned Bunny though. In the center of the largest spire of ice was Jack Frost, his face frozen in a ferocious snarl, his body tensed as if about to attack, his left arm reaching forward. Several frozen spikes shot out of the ice spires, following the direction of Jack's arm, straight into and through Pitch Black and into the ground behind the shadowy spirit. The Harbinger of Nightmares was pierced in his left thigh, right forearm, twice in his abdomen, once in his chest and a frozen pike tore right through his mouth. A jagged, broken half of Jack's staff ran right through his neck, the other half laying limp at Pitch's feet. An oozing black substance that substituted Pitch's blood ran down the spikes until eventually it congealed and froze, outlining the bottoms of the skewers in a murky black...

Bunny knew how much it took to kill an immortal by physical means. Oh, it was possible, just near impossibly difficult. This, though...Bunny found himself wanting the spirit of fear to be dead simply because having to live through that was worse than Bunny would wish on anyone, even Pitch.

Bunny took a step forward, only to stop when a low growl rang throughout the clearing. Only then did he notice the several large, white wolves laying at the base of the spire that contained Jack. The one closest to Bunny stood up, and he was huge, the size of a small horse. Not wolves, Bunny realized, Dire Wolves. Nobody had seen any Dire Wolves in over a millennium. Everyone assumed they were extinct. What were Dire Wolves doing here?

What had happened during those three days?

Realizing he wouldn't be able to fix this by himself, the shell-shocked bunny summoned a tunnel to North's workshop.

"North. Jack, he. At th' lake. An' th' Wolves, spikes. and Pitch -"

"Woah, woah woah, calm down Bunny," North said as he stood up from his workbench and headed for his friend, "What was that about Pitch Black? Is he back already? Impossible has barely been half a year. Have you found Jack?"

"Yes. I found 'im,"

"Vell, that's great,"

"No, it's not - look just get some snow-globes. We need to get Tooth an' Sandy, an' I'll show you. It's serious mate,"

North, sensing just how serious Bunny was, got to business, "Alright, we set out in ninety seconds,"

Ten minutes later, the four guardians stood at the edge of the clearing around Jack's Lake in various stages of horror and worry.

"Jack!" Tooth screamed, flying forward until one of the Dire Wolves charged at her. She managed to dodge and fly back to the gang, "Bunny, what's going on?"

"I don' know, mate, but we need ta thaw Frostbite out so we can get some answers," Assuming of course that Frostbite hadn't also... bit the dust. Even immortals needed to breathe, and Jack could have been trapped in the ice for days.

"Well, what are we waiting for, come on," Tooth exclaimed

"We must deal with wolves," North said gravely.

Before anyone could respond, five golden projectiles flew out and hit the massive canines, effectively putting them all to sleep.

"Good work Sandy," North called, "Now let's go get Jack,"

With all four of them beating at it, it wasn't long until the spire finally gave an earsplitting crack, and Jack fell limply out of it. Tooth caught him before any jagged edges could and gently set him on the ground.

"Guys? Guys, he's not breathing what do we do?"

"CPR mate. He needs cpr," Bunny said, his eyes wide in worry. Were they too late?

"Right. Who knows cpr? Oh I know cpr!" Tooth exclaimed.

"Tooth," North said sternly, just as she was about to start beating on the boy's chest, "you need to calm down, otherwise you just make it worse, yeah?"

She stared desperately into his eyes for a few moments before taking his advice and sucking in a quick, calming breath, "Your right. Okay, first listen and see if anything is blocking the airways," Tooth leaned down to so that her ear was just above Jack's mouth, and of course that was when he decided to suddenly choke down a lungful of air, taking in a feather and promptly coughing it out, along with a lungful of water.

Tooth had lurched back at the sudden action, but as she watched the child bracing himself on the ground and clearing his lungs, she couldn't help but be happy.

"Jack, you're okay! Thank Mim!"

Jack took a final, shuddering breath before he decided his lungs were clear enough to talk again, "Yeah. Thank for getting me out," His voice was still rough from the experience, "I wasn't looking forward to waiting until spring,"

"Of course Jack," Tooth didn't mention how spring was at least six months away, and there was no way he could have gone without oxygen for that long. He was lucky they found him when they did, "Let's get you to North's Workshop so you can finish getting better,"

"But what about Pitch. I mean, the bloke's probably dead, an' all, but -"

"He's not," Jack interceded.

"What?" Tooth asked.

"He - Pitch - Isn't dead," Jack clarified as he shakily stood up, Tooth supporting him, "I made sure," Jack continued, shrugging off Tooth's help while sending a grateful glance her way, "I can't kill fear," He explained as he slowly walked over to Pitch, his usual grace gradually returning to him with each step he took, "because things are always so much more fun with a dash of fear. So," He braced his leg against the immobile immortal while latching onto the half of staff lodged into his throat, "I made sure he stayed alive," Jack heaved, the branch coming loose with a wet squelch. Pitch's hand twitched.

The guardians were all frozen in shock at what their youngest - their innocent, lonely, rebel-without-a-cause child - was saying, as if he were telling what he ate for dinner yesterday.

Jack scowled at the black, tar-like substance dripping off his staff, "It's going to take forever to get this clean," He muttered while picking up the other half, "That was maybe not my most thought out plan," Tooth didn't even really know if he realized they were still there, seeing as he was now talking to himself, lining up the broken edges of his staff, and concentrating on the break almost comically hard.

The sudden, intense flash of blue light startled them all, except Jack, who smiled at his now-whole staff.

He turned to Pitch, " 'What goes better than cold and dark?' If I weren't having such a bad day, I would have laughed at that statement, you know, the sheer ignorance of it. My cold goes with many things, but dark is not one of them," He smiled a small, ironic smile, patting one of the jagged spires, "but I suppose you realize now how well your dark and my cold don't blend. Have fun Pitch. I'll be seeing you around,"

Abruptly turning back around, Jack proceeded to head off toward the opposite end of the clearing, humming a little ditty.

"J-Jack?" Tooth called out hesitantly.

"Hm?" he asked, not quite fully turning around. He did look shocked to see them still there, though he quickly switched to a pleasant smirk, "Still need me?"

"You're not just going to leave him like that? Are you?" Tooth wasn't sure what scared her more: that Jack knowingly kept Pitch alive through this, or that he could smile as if nothing was wrong.

Jack turned his attention back toward Pitch, giving him a considering once over before continuing his leisurely pace away, "It'll melt, come spring. Thanks again for getting me out. Find me if you need me," He gave a wave over his shoulder before the wind carried him away. As the Guardians stood there, they all shuddered at the thought that went through their heads.

Spring was at least six months away.

It was maybe three hours later when the quartet snapped out of their stupor and realized that they had at some point gone back to North's Workshop. Tooth was sitting on the floor, staring down at her hands. North stoked the fire in the hearth listlessly. Sandy, for once, actually sat in a chair not of his own making.

Bunny was pacing furiously.

"Wh-what was that?" He asked no one in particular, "What was that? Frostbite wouldn't do that, but-but 'e did,"

"We don't really know much about Jack, do we?" Tooth only slightly more than whispered.

"What?" Bunny stopped his pacing to stare at Tooth.

"I mean, I personally only met him half a year ago, when we fought Pitch, and have only seen him a handful of times since then. What about you guys? How often have you visited him, or he you? What about before the Pitch incident? How long has he been around? What does he do on his free-time? Who are his friends? What do we know about him, really?"

"The tyke loves his mischief, what else is there to say?"

Tooth shot him a half-hearted glare, "And you love to paint your eggs. Surely there's more to the both of you than that?"

"He is on naughty list. Has been for 297 years," North offered.

"Do you know why?" Tooth questioned curiously.

"Stopped reading why after few years. Was always little things: stealing pie, making children slip on ice, theft of scarf,"

"Wait, he's consistently been on the Naughty List for that long?" Bunny interjected incredulously, "Is that even possible? Isn't he too old?"

"He is... He is child," North said as if realizing this for the first time, "He is mere adolescent, will always be adolescent. An immortal child, I've never seen an..."

The frantic tingling of a bell caught their attention, the trio turned toward an annoyed looking Sandy holding a disoriented elf. Once he was sure he had his attention, he formed an image of a snowflake, then a child, then North's globe and a question mark.

"Sandy's right, mate. If Jack were considered a child, his light should be on the globe. After all, he believes in us. How can 'e not?"

"Not necessarily," Tooth replied, "There's a difference between knowing we exist and believing in us. If he is a child, and he's not on the globe, it must mean he doesn't believe we'll protect him, give him hope and wonder and good memories and dreams," Tooth said despairingly.

"But none of this explains why Frostbite would suddenly pull a stunt like that on Pitch," Bunny exclaimed.

"Is it sudden?" Tooth interjected, "How can we be sure Jack hasn't been doing this for hundreds of years? I ask, what do we really know about him?"

Bunny sputtered for a full minute before he realized the truth of her statement. He seemed to deflate into himself for another minute before he finally said, "Well, we can't just leave Pitch like that. I'm gonna get him out,"

"I'm coming with you," Tooth said, her wings finally picking her off the ground. She gave a sharp stare to North and Sandy when they got up to go with them, "North your holiday is in only a couple months. You need to make sure everything goes right because this is our chance to make a comeback. Sandy, you need to get going too. Don't worry, Bunny and I will be enough for this," She reassured at Sandy's worried signals, "It's a recovery mission, not a war,"

Nodding, North agreed grimly, "But if something goes wrong use this for quick get-a-way," He tossed her a snow-globe

"Thanks," She said smiling.

"Ya, ready?" Bunny asked, impatient to get the task over with.

"Yeah, let's go," Immediately, Bunny opened a tunnel through which the duo made their way toward Burgess.

On the way, Bunny asked, "I thought you hadn't forgiven Pitch for what he did to your fairies,"

"I haven't," Tooth replied sternly, "But this is just... He'd not only have to deal with the ice, but he'd have to sit through the daylight, and I just can't..."

Bunny just nodded, and then they arrived; however, the scene was nothing like they imagined it would be. For the third time that day, Bunny found himself frozen at the edge of the clearing.

Where once there were sprawling Dire Wolves, splintered ice spires and a punctured Pitch, children skated on the lake, ice clean and still and flat. No wolves, no Pitch, and no ruined remains could be found. Instead, the small collection of children were laughing, Jack at the center of it all, guiding an ecstatic Sophie across the ice.

"Guys! The Easter Bunny's here. And the Tooth Fairy, too!" Jamie exclaimed, pointing at the duo. Everyone stopped their playing to see the new arrivals.

"Bunny! Hop hop hop!" Sophie exclaimed, as Jack released her. She stumbled over the ground and ran toward them, clutching Bunny's fur when she reached him.

"H-hey little anklebiter. What're ya doin' 'ere?" Bunny asked as he crouched down.

"My birthday!" Sophie exclaimed as if that answered everything. She beamed up at Bunny as Jack crouched next to her.

"That's right. Why don't you tell Bunny how old you are?" Jack asked, a grin on his face as if he knew exactly what was going to happen next.

Sophie stuck out two fingers and proclaimed, "I'm tw-" She paused and stared at her hand, deep into thought before raising one more finger, "Three! I'm three years old!"

Jack attempted, unsuccessfully, to stifle his giggling as he patted Sophie's head, "Y-yes you are," He then whispered to Bunny and Tooth conspiratorially, "She does that every time!"

Bunny knew that at any other time, he'd find this absolutely adorable, but as it was, he was still reeling over the idea that Jack was playing with kids and laughing as if nothing was wrong.

"Good for you, Sophie," Tooth replied. She attempted a smile, but it was small and strained, "Jack, can we talk to you? In private?"

Jack's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "Sure? Jamie take your sister for a second. I'll be right back," He called out to the group. He stood up and signaled that he was ready once the child came and claimed his sister. The three spirits trekked into the woods, just far enough that they were sure the children wouldn't hear them.

"So, what'd you want to talk about?" Jack asked, starting to look uncomfortable.

Tooth started, still tense around the shoulders, "Um, Jack - about Pitch. I ah-"

"What the sheila means is, what 'appened to Pitch?" Bunny finished.

"Oh, well, once I realized what day it was, I had to clear everything out of the lake because Sophie wanted to go ice-skating for her birthday. I brought Pitch back to his lair. I guess I'm lucky the opening is so close; he's super heavy to lift," Jack gave a weak chuckle and darted his glance between the other two Guardians, "Why do you guys look so... I don't know, out of it?"

"Jack, we're just... um, concerned about-"

Tooth was interrupted by a loud squeal and delighted laughter coming from the direction of the lake. All three turned in that direction.

"Don't know what you're concerned about. Everything's fine. If it's important, tell me later, kay?" Jack asked even as he headed over to the lake, "Hey guys!" He yelled in the direction of the children, "You better not be starting a snowball fight without me!" In reply, the immortal teen got a snowball to the face, "Oh, so that's how it is!"

Bunny and Tooth watched as Jack began pelting children with snowballs, all the while going around and forming snow-forts and ammo for his adversaries. Soon, the clearing was a veritable war-field of laughing children. There were no clear sides; alliances were formed suddenly and broken without warning. Sophie, the self-proclaimed Fairy Princess, ran around happily "reviving" people who were taken down by a well-aimed snowball. The one seemingly constant, unspoken rule was that if Jack Frost was within aim, everyone nearby teamed up to take him down. Still, the winter sprite managed to dodge every shot taken at him and even bat a few back at the assailants. Far from being intimidated by the obvious skill of their enemy, the children merely laughed and tried harder to hit him until he stepped out of their range of fire. Then the children would immediately turn their attention back toward each other with renewed vigor. Jack weaved in and out of the battle seamlessly, making sure to keep up an ample supply of ammo and keeping children on their toes by slipping up behind them and dumping a pile of snow on their heads.

The game apparently ended when Jamie managed to sneak up behind Jack and nailed him in the back of the head with a tightly packed snowball. Everyone stopped to watch as Jack dramatically staggered and clutched at his chest, before falling backwards into the snow "dead."

Another child - Claude, Bunny recalled - called out, "Doggy Pile!" and before Jack could react, the kids all launched themselves at him, Sophie happily climbing up and sitting on the small mountain of laughing bodies.

"A-alright," Jack forced out, a grin on his lips, "You guys win,"

Tooth and Bunny looked at each other before Bunny opened his tunnel again and they headed back toward the workshop.

It was three days after Bunny and Tooth explained to North and Sandy what they saw at the lake and the quartet decided not to do anything for the time being when Bunny was summoned to North's workshop. By the time a Yeti guided him to one of North's many sitting rooms, North, Tooth, and Sandy were already there. Sandy was taking a nap on a sand-cloud, an open book laying on his chest. Tooth was directing her fairies, as per usual, and North was sitting in a large, red chair by an opulent fireplace going over his List. Bunny immediately headed toward the fire to thaw himself out.

"So, what's going on?" He asked North.

"I do not know," The big man shrugged setting down the scroll, "Tooth said call everyone over - excepting Jack. Vould not speak until everyone vas here," They both glanced at Tooth, who was so preoccupied by her directing that she hadn't noticed the final member of the expected group's arrival.

"Tooth," North spoke up, "Vhat did you want to speak about?"

"I told you - we have to wait until everybody - oh, hi Bunny," She said when she finally looked away from her task, "Okay, now that everybody's here, we can talk about this," She revealed a small, ovular tube. It was golden except for the small, jade colored diamonds that decorated the top of it. A picture of a brown haired child smiling deviously decorated one side of it.

North, Bunny, and Sandy - who'd woken up from the sudden change in the atmosphere in the room - stared at the memory box in her hands.

"What about it?" Bunny asked, confused.

"This is Jack's" Tooth said simply, and let the others soak in the statement.

Eventually, North spoke up, "Tooth, are you suggesting-"

"Look, I know it's wrong," Tooth interrupted, "but I just can't get this out of my head. I mean, it was like he didn't even realize what he was doing! What if he'd doing what he did to Pitch to others? What if he is dangerous? And if not, what did Pitch do to warrant that kind of retribution? I just - I need to know!" Tooth had a look of desperation on her face and Bunny could tell this had been nagging at her for a while. She'd put much agonized thought into this decision.

Still, "Sheila, I see where you're coming from, but this is a huge invasion of privacy and -"

"What if he's another Typhon? Tooth whispered and silence followed the statement. Few spirits spoke of Typhon. He was a classic case of a Center gone wrong. Typhon was once a great spirit, if a little overly proud. He was a loner and rarely opened up to any spirit except for his wife. His Center was chaos; he made sure to keep humans' lives interesting by keeping them just less than predictable, and in the Spirit Realm, he put his top-class fighting skill to use as a mercenary-for-hire.

Then, seemingly without cause, he went wild. He tore his brother to pieces and scattered those pieces across the world. He raped and pillaged one day and then gifted gold and flowers the next. He went insane, his Center of chaos consuming him and causing him to manifest it in the worst possible way. He was chaotic and unpredictable and uncontrollable. Eventually, the Guardians had to band together to wipe him out of existence. It was a dark day, and they didn't speak of it if they didn't need to.

Any spirit's Center could spin out of control, if pushed hard enough. To this day, no one knew what pushed Typhon over the edge, but his brother Osiris was a dear friend of Tooth's and she constantly blamed herself for not realizing what was happening to Typhon until it was too late.

Tooth's eyes were wet with tears as the memory surfaced in her mind, and Bunny couldn't bring himself to argue with her. Jack's proclaimed his Center was fun, and if something was causing Jack's Center to warp and twist, well, Bunny could picture any number of ways Fun could go so, so wrong. He didn't think Jack was being consumed by his Center, but nobody noticed Typhon's downward spiral...

After a tense minute of silence, Bunny spoke up, "Alright sheila. I'm in," She gave a small, sad smile in thanks. Eventually, North and Sandy agreed as well.

"Thanks, you guys," Tooth said, her voice thick, "Now, let's to business,"

The four made their way to a round table and took a seat, North and Sandy sitting at opposite ends, while Tooth took her place across from Bunny.

"So, Tooth, how does this work?" Bunny asked. He'd never actually gone into a memory before, never having a need before now.

Tooth set the memory box on the center on the table, "It's simple, really, these teeth hold all of Jack's childhood memories, and since he's still on North's list, he's still a child. That means every memory he's ever had, even memories he's making right now are being recorded in this. All you need to do is be in contact with the tube when I activate it," The three nodded and placed their hands on the object in question.

"But I need to warn you," Tooth continued, her tone low and serious, "These are Jack's memories. It's not like watching a movie. We'll be sucked in; we'll experience these as Jack experienced them. The emotions you'll feel are his, the eyes you'll see through are his. While we are in the memory, we will be Jack, and since we don't need one particular memory right now, we'll be sent through all of them, however many there are. Maybe a minute will pass in real time, but by then we'll have experienced a whole other life. Are you prepared for that?"

North and Sandy nodded the affirmative, but Bunny hesitated. Suddenly, he was very aware of why Tooth was always so hesitant to let anyone see someone else's memories. If he came out of this with a whole new set of memories that weren't his, how was he to know if what he was recalling was his own life or that of Jack's? It could alter his entire identity.

Still, it was too late to back out now, so Bunny confirmed that he was ready as well. Tooth looked each of the three in the eyes and nodded once, before closing her eyes and touching the box.

The last thing Bunny recalled seeing was a blinding flash of white light.

Alright so, notes:

Spirit Realm - that's what spirits call the "world" that spirits are involved in. Although living on the same plane as humans, spirits have their own system, kingdoms, governments, cities, economies and what-not.

Typhon - aka Set. Readers of my other story get a first-hand experience of just how insane Typhon is. The two stories DO NOT take place in the same universe, in case that's not obvious. I just like recycling OC's.

The light on the globe - not my idea. It belongs to another excellent story. Sadly, I cannot recall the name of it.

I think that's it! See you next chapter!