Joyce Overland Frost's Point of View

Joy couldn't believe her eyes. It was really him. North and the others were telling the truth. She took hold of Jack's arm, frozen in shock. Her brother was supposed to help the others fight him. He was supposed to be the key in defeating Pitch Black. While, yes, Joy was feeling a lot of jealousy about his new title, she still didn't want to see him get hurt in the midst of battle. Joy knew she wouldn't be able to handle something like this.

"PITCH!" Tooth roared, her wings starting and throwing herself upward as she glared at him. "YOU HAVE GOT THIRTY SECONDS TO RETURN MY FAIRIES BEFORE I RIP YOU TO SHREDS!" She zipped towards him, fists clenched. He gave a small grin, calmly walking around the pillar he stood in front of, disappearing with ease as Tooth looked around in confusion. "Where'd he go? Where did..."

"Oh, simmer down, you peacock," Pitch drawled, appearing several ways over, running his long slender finger along the pink walls of her many towers. He sneered down at them. "I am not the least threatened by you...or any of you, for that matter. I was hoping we could have a calm discussion like adults."

"You stole 'er fairies and the teeth. Why would we have a calm discussion after that?" Bunny snapped.

"I would've figured with the leverage I have, you'd be just a tad kinder. Who knows what I could do to the teeth? Or, Moon forbid, the fairies." Pitch smirked, stopping his pacing as he stared down at them with his cold, putrid black pupils that were surrounded by a haunting yellow iris that resembled the headlights of an old car. Joy felt like the deer that got caught in the middle of them. She pulled Jack protectively closer to her.

"What is your angle here, Pitch? You know good and well this will not end in your favor!" North barked.

Pitch rolled his eyes. "Says who? The man who so foolishly contacted his fellow Guardians upon seeing just the mere shadow of me within his precious North Pole? Gave me ample opportunity to run freely around here without so much as a warning to the fairy queen." He bellowed out a cold laugh, disappearing behind the tower again. Joy looked around anxiously, feeling chills run up and down her spine, which was weird since she never got the chills. She was an embodiment of winter!

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Pitch's voice rang throughout the atmosphere, but he was nowhere to be found. "Or is that Jack Frost? The Jack Frost? Blue eyes, shimmering white hair, hideous hoodie..." Jack stared down at his top, slightly offended.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Pitch appeared two feet from the twins. Joy let out a small shriek, jumping backward. Jack simply stared up at Pitch, in awe at his presence. The two had never even seen the Boogeyman before. But it was clear who was baring the confidence number at the moment.

"Ah, yes," Pitch sneered. "The difficulty of misinterpreting your identity is as difficult as tying your shoes. And you don't wear any."

"Funny," Jack snorted, stepping in front of his sister. "Now get away and get those fairies and teeth back where they came from."

"Touchy. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were in kahoots with the Guardians. You're normally not so attached at the hip," Pitch shrugged, hands splayed over his hips.

"We aren't; doesn't mean I can't be ticked when something that doesn't belong to you was taken," Jack huffed.

Pitch snorted, rolling his eyes just as he disappeared within the shadows again. For a moment, the twins twirled on the spot, both on the edge of their toes awaiting for his reappearance. Joy slowly began backing away toward the Guardians that remained on the ledge. She didn't expect to back up into Pitch.

"Dude!" Joy cried, spinning around with her pupils dilating considerably. "L-Look, I'm not very happy with...you...taking the fairies...either." Pitch was nearly chest to chest with her now, smirking eerily down at her with his hands calmly interlocked behind his back. Joy, unable to bend anymore to get away from him, finally fell. Thankfully, her brother was there to catch her.

"So...we have the mopey invisible brother and the useless tagalong sister. I can understand why one of the two were chosen now," Pitch grinned. "What better way of the Moon trying to pick favorites than by choosing only one Frost twin to have a chance with the big dogs! I'd be furious if I were you, Joyce."

"It's Joy!" Joy hissed.

"Joyce, Joy, nobody really cares," Pitch continued. "Then again, I guess the same could be said of the both of you. Let's be honest here, Jack and Joy aren't exactly a conversation starter amongst those children you love so much."

"PITCH! YOU SHADOW SNEAKING RATBAG, COME HERE!" Bunny's roar could be heard fast approaching. Jack pulled Joy away just in time before Bunny could accidentally throw them out of the way on his journey to grabbing Pitch. But, as soon as he had arrived, Pitch disappeared again, leaving them all looking around curiously. Then it was Tooth catching all three of them by surprise as she shrieked on her way to them with her wings fluttering angrily. She grabbed something from the back of Bunny's bandolier and skyrocketed toward one of the pillars overhead. Joy could finally see Pitch standing calmly there, giving Tooth a friendly smile.

"TOOTH, LOOK OUT!" Jack shouted. She thankfully stopped just in time to avoid having her nose chomped off by the horrific display suddenly standing before her. Joy was frozen in fear. It was a horse at first glance, but at the same time it wasn't. It was a sparkling black with glowing yellow eyes. Its teeth were a hideous charcoal coat, tossing its great head as it glowered at Tooth's shrinking form.

"Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn't...if I were you, love," Pitch chortled, running his hand down the shadowy mane of the beast. "She can get rather protective over her owner. That would be me! Well, then! Now that I have your attention..." Pitch trailed off as his eyes found Sandy, who was furiously displaying sand images over his head as he pointed angrily at Pitch. "Oh, this? I suppose this does look rather familiar to you of all spirits, my old friend...It did take me a long time and a pretty penny to perfect it. Turning dreams into nightmares just takes a snap of my fingers now."

Sandy stomped his foot, glaring angrily at his counterpart.

"Now, where was I? Oh...right...my attention now turns to you, North. I must ask just because I wasn't there to personally witness it myself. I do have to ask...was it a grand show? What happened with the globe? I had a really good laugh. It did manage to gather all of you together, though, didn't it? Not so smart now, don't you think?"

North cursed in his mother tongue.

"What's your angle here, Pitch?" Bunny asked, his green eyes blazed in fury.

"Well, there could be a lot of reasons for that, rabbit. A little bit of this...a little bit of that...a little bit of what you have. Believers are a desire for all spirits, you know, not just you blasted Guardians!" Pitch's calm voice suddenly ended in a yell.

"Tired of hiding under beds, then?" Bunny taunted.

"Pretty much, yes. That is how we came to this point. Me towering over the heads of you pathetic...but why waste my breath on insulting you?" Pitch smiled. "After all, you're pretty much a pack of jokes yourself. A fat red man that sneaks into children's homes and punishes them for being bad with coal and good with gifts. Is that a good message? A rabbit that wastes an entire month painting eggs and hiding them with no thanks. A fairy that hasn't seen a child in over four hundred years because she feels her work is much more of a priority than the very thing she protects! A dream spirit now having to stare at my own creation with awe. Do you like her, Sandy? She can smell fear, you know!"

"Fear? Of you? Does it trouble you to know that nobody's even batted an eye to you since the Dark Ages?" Bunny snapped, finally taking back the boomerang that Tooth had previously ripped from his bandolier.

"Oh, the Dark Ages! Don't even get me started on that beautiful era of children running to their mothers in tears! Too frightened to even sleep or close their eyes! Such misery I thrived on! That is...until the Moon saw to my demise with you four. I'm not too arrogant to admit you kicked me pretty well. But...it's been a long time for you, too, Guardians. Everything around you is about to change."

Joy shuddered uneasily, just before she shook. The platform underneath their feet gave a dangerous movement. Joy looked around in shock. The beautiful pink and gold paint was suddenly dripping from the turrets and balconies. Some of the other platforms began to shake as well, threatening to fall.

"Would you look at that?" Pitch gasped. "It's happening already!"

"What? What is?" Jack asked, looking around.

Tooth let out a startled gasp. Her wings slowed to a stop, her tiny feet brushing the ground underneath her.

"No...it...it can't be," she pleaded.

"Tooth? Are you okay?" Joy asked wearily, slowly approaching her with a hand outstretched.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Oh, Jack, you have to know how painfully funny it is to see how stupid to Guardian terminology you are," Pitch insulted. "Children across the world are waking up and reaching underneath their pillows expecting to feel a coin and instead come across their disgusting blood covered teeth. The exchange never happened. The Tooth Fairy never happened! To them...they finally realize she does not exist!"

"What are you talking about? Of course she exists!" Jack scoffed.

"Mm...well, you see, Jack, when a child stops their belief with one of the Guardians, it affects their powers. Their abilities, their worlds, everything. Without believers, they are reduced to nothing. It's a slow process, but eventually the fairy that stands before you now will be no more. And with her goes Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, and even the wise old Sandman. All of them...leaving the children with nothing but the fear I need. I crave. I can practically taste it already." Pitch moaned.

"ARGH!"

Joy cried out as two boomerangs were suddenly thrown. Pitch must've noticed, too, because he suddenly mounted his nightmare steed and propelled himself from the ledge down below. Leaping into action, North, Tooth, Sandy, Bunny, and even Jack quickly followed him. Joy stayed rooted to the spot, clutching the front of her top with uneven breaths.

The Boogeyman. The real Boogeyman had been there before her. He even acknowledged her and all she did was fall right into her brother's arms and whimper with the fear he obviously loved so much. Jack stood up to him without trouble. Jack seemed so unafraid. Maybe he was Guardian material. And this whole thing simply proved that Joy was not Guardian material. She was nothing but the tagalong sister just like Pitch had said.

Mouth shaking, Joy took a few steps and allowed the wind to carry her down below where the Guardians and her brother had landed. As expected, Pitch was nowhere to be seen. Nobody even acknowledged her as she landed. Tooth was off to the side, gripping what seemed to be one of the golden boxes from earlier. Pitch must've missed one. Jack was by her side, his face contorted in worry for the fairy.

Near the wall of flora, North, Sandy, and Bunny seemed to be engaged in a heated conversation where Pitch's name was thrown around all over. Nobody seemed worried about Joy's whereabouts. None of them seemed to care. Joy crossed her arms over her lap sadly, her hair practically drooping from her misery.

"...and that's why we collect the teeth. A child's memory is so important. Their values, their friends, their family, all of them in one little box for us to help them remember when they've lost their way," Tooth's voice caught her attention. Her wings started up again, gracefully taking her into the air as she fluttered toward the body of water that laid below an incredibly beautiful mural painted on the side of a rocky cliff. It was Tooth, obviously, capturing the many colors that radiated off her as she smiled over the children's happy faces.

Jack had followed her, the water freezing underneath his cold feet to keep him upright.

"We've collected everyone's memories. We watch over and protect them. At least...we did before Pitch took them all." Tooth's head dipped. "We even had yours here."

"Wh-M-My memories?" Jack stumbled, looking up at her in confusion. "What do you mean my memories?"

"You know, before you became Jack Frost?" Tooth giggled, thinking he was joking.

Jack backed away, his face paler than usual. "Wh-What?"

North was suddenly laughing giddily to Joy's right. Turning, she saw him pointing eagerly at Bunny. "You should've seen him! He wore a-"

"Hey, hey, hey! Off limits topic! You promised never ta mention that, ya blowhard!" Bunny growled, glancing toward Joy uneasily as if she was eavesdropping.

"Y-You mean...I had a life...I had a life before all of this? Before the Moon told me I was Jack Frost? D-Did I have a home? A-And a family?" Jack asked eagerly, the corners of his mouth lifting up.

It was like a bucket of hot water ran down Joy's back. She straightened quickly, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly parted. She didn't realize the ring on her finger, which again was the source of her powers, suddenly glowed chalk white. Sparks ignited in the palms of her hands, making her hands automatically clamp down from shock.

Family? Did he really just say family?

Joy had lived three hundred years alongside him. All they had were each other! She was always there when the Moon wouldn't answer him! It was her that comforted Jack! She did everything for him! And they weren't a family?

Joy needed to calm down.

She needed to really calm down.

Frost was gathering around her clenched fists, traveling up her sleeves and toward her shoulders.

"Joy? You okay?"

She realized everyone, including Jack, was now staring at her.

"Uh, what? What happened?" she asked, looking around confused. Staring down at her hands, she yelped seeing the frost and quickly shook them to get rid of it. "I'm fine! Just...shaken up from Pitch is all."

"Joy, I asked you a question," Tooth said cautiously, flying up to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Tell me...do you remember anything from before you became Joyce Frost? Anything at all? Jack said he doesn't remember."

"Um...no, no, I don't. All I remember is coming out of our lake and the Moon telling us we were the Frost twins. Are the Frost twins, I mean," Joy quickly corrected herself.

"Oh, well...that's..."

"We have to get them! That's what we have to do! We have to get my memories!" Jack cheered, dancing on the spot as he leapt into the air with the wind's aid.

"Jack, I think you're forgetting the situation where Pitch took all the teeth and my fairies," Tooth said.

"Oh, right," he blushed blue, "W-Well, then we have to get them back!"

Tooth let out an amused smile, just before her face fell into pain. She grit her teeth and nearly fell to the ground from her wings stopping but Joy had jumped forward just in time to catch her.

"O-Oh, no," Tooth groaned, looking up at the mural that was beginning to chip away. "T-The children! We're too late..."

"NO! NO! GUARDIANS NEVER SAY TOO LATE!" North yelled, stomping his foot. "It cannot be too late! I will not allow it!" He lowered the swords he was just waving around in anger to think. He mumbled incoherently to himself. Tooth finally got ahold of her wings and flew slightly above Joy, staring at North in confusion.

"IDEA!" he barked, pointing his sword toward Bunny who jerked away just in time. "We will collect the teeth! We shall be tooth fairies!"

"Wait, what?" Tooth gasped.

"Yes! 'Tis brilliant idea! We collect teeth, children keep believing in you!"

"Yes, North, yes, but there's only one problem! We have seven continents and millions of kids with lost teeth! There's no way we can hit that many in one go!" Tooth argued.

"Please! You forget I deliver presents to all children in one night!" North grinned.

"And the fact that I hide eggs in one day!" Bunny stated proudly, crossing his arms as he smirked up at Tooth. She smiled giddily.

"And Jack! Joy! If you both help us...we can get you both your memories! Does that sound like a plan?" North asked, turning to her brother.

Jack looked at Joy for confirmation. She just gave a shrug and a subtle roll of the eyes. She didn't really feel like talking to him right now.

"We're in!"