It's awful short for my long absence but in my defense I was brushing up on my Avatar the Last Airbender. Either way, please review and/or leave a prompt! I can post a list of what I can write on my page.

Jack made a sound that was almost on the verge of feral. "You jerks never cared about me. Never. I was left alone, starving and abandoned, in a wasteland where no one could see me for centuries. Pitch was right. I'm only a convenient weapon to be used and tossed away. Did any of you even care?"

Tooth tried to speak up and North bowed his head but again it was Bunny's loud accented voice that broke through to Jack.

"Of course we care! You're a Guardian; it's practically a shoe-in that we care, mate."

"That you have to care, not that you want to."

"Oh Jack, of course we care. We never wanted you to feel so alone, hasn't you time as a Guardian shown you that?"

Jack slashed his hand through the air and growled out, "shut up. All of you! I don't need your pity; I never did!" Pitch just stood back next to his Nightmares and watched the show. At first he was thinking it might have been a plan to escape but now he was wondering if it might just be that Jack was genuinely cracking under the pressure of his abandonment and subsequent isolation. As he passively watched Jack lash out at his only friends he dismissed the idea that Jack was pulling some sort of elaborate ruse. The boy was simply not that cunning to pull it off.

"All of you care more about bribing children than you do about me. Where is my hope then? My wonder was stolen long ago North and where were you to defend me? And dreams?" The boy laughed here in despair. "None of you cared enough to protect me and my childhood. Why should I let others have what I never could?"

Pitch stepped forward now. "Jack are you ready to prove your loyalty? Then we can bring this world crashing down together."

Jack turned his fierce glare from the suspended and speechless Guardians, "what do I have to do?"

"Destroy one of your lying friends," he expected outrage or at least some form of hesitation. Here he could put any suspicions to rest. There was none however. Jack simply held out his hand and ignored the protest of his old friends.

"Staff?"

Pitch nodded and walked over to a Nightmare that had followed them from the child's prison. He plunged his hand into the beast and ripped out the shepherds crook letting the horse dissolve back into sand. He weighed the wood in his hands before turning it over to Jack.

As soon as his hand closed around the old worn wood Jack felt whole again.

His ice seeped into the grain and turned the staff cold with power. Jack hefted it into the air and brought it crashing down to send a wave of ice at the far wall.

He smiled down at his staff before looking back up at Pitch. "I want the rabbit."

Pitch was delighted and he felt a cruel smile form on his lips, "of course." He bowed to the boy and flourished his arm outward; giving Jack all the permission he needed to start the fight.

The small spirit took off from the ground and slammed into the cage holding Bunnymund.

"Look Jack, ya got yer staff back. Ya can drop the act now. We can take 'im on together!"

"I'm not acting kangaroo." He froze the lock solid before stabbing at the frozen ice with his staff and watching the lock fall to the ground. "Now get out here and fight me like a man."

"Fine then mate but yer forgetin' one thing." He surged upwards and wrapped his paws around the top of the cage before bringing up his back feet and smashing them into the now unlocked door, sending Jack flying off and the broken door to the floor. "I'm a bunny." Jack righted himself in the air and speed towards Bunny only to have the Pooka jump to the floor and start looking for a weapon.

"Bunny don't you dare hurt him!"

"Jack, it is us. We are your friends!"

"Save it North. I think we're gonna have to knock the sense back into 'im."

Those were the last words exchanged as a deadly dance started between the large Pooka and the winter spirit. Bunny was fast and without a weapon running was really his only option until he could think of a plan to safely take down Frost. Tooth would nag his ears off if he hurt the boy; even if said boy was currently trying to kill him. Jack on the other hand was trying to ice the rabbit in hope of slowing him down but was failing miserably.

Until he recalled his first official visit to the Pole. Bunny could see the mischievous grin and that spark of a trickster in his eye. He knew that look only too well. The boy had the same look when he used all of North's elves to help him re-paint the sleigh with the River of Coloring only to leave the meddlesome creatures in the Warren after abducting his eggs. He had arrived at the Pole in time to stop the Yeti from eating them but the fact remained that Jack was literally grounded for a month.

Jack forced his staff into the ground with a resounding crack and the already smooth stone iced over. Bunny had leapt into the air in time to avoid having his paws frozen to the ground where he stood but know he faced an even worse problem. He could hardly gain and traction on the ice and the little he could get he couldn't control. He was now reduced to slipping wildly across the ice or standing still. Neither was a good option, but in the end it didn't matter. Jack slammed into him from the side and with a swipe of his staff Bunny was skating across the ice on all fours trying to right himself.

Jack hovered above him and jerked his crook around one or Bunny's feet so he laid flat on his stomach. Jack took that opportunity to beat Bunny with both his staff and his fists. As that was happening Pitch was interested to see that the ice was slowly starting to encase the annoying Pooka.

The rabbit was left on the ground bruised and bloody before Jack leaned in. Pitch could barely make out what the boy said.

"Easter isn't coming this year, rabbit. Spring will never come." The Pooka eyes widened but it seemed Jack wasn't done. His voice lowered and Pitch couldn't hear what was said but Bunny started struggling as well. The winter spirit stood and smashed his staff into the rabbit's skull. He stilled and Jack turned to Pitch. "I'll be back in a minute."

"What are you doing?"

"Spring isn't coming. If Tooth's fairies can keep collecting teeth and the yeti can keep up toy production, I'm not trusting that the eggs won't try to bring Easter themselves. I'm going to the Warren and destroying every egg." Pitch nodded in fascination. "Then I'm going to freeze over the Warren."

Pitch smirked and snapped his fingers. A herd of Nightmares appeared and flanked Jack. "Then you are taking them with you. They will follow and report back to me. We will hunt you down if you decide to run."

"Just tell them to keep up." Jack shot off from the ground and the Mares gave chase.

Pitch looked over the damage done to his fortress. The ground was still frozen even after Jack's departure and the Easter Bunny was still passed out frozen to the floor. The Toothfairy was crying while North was muttering things that were probably meant to be reassurances. The boy had certainly made a mess but at the same time Pitch couldn't bring himself to be upset.

It was rather wondrous to watch the spirit at work. It was one thing to throw a snowball another thing completely to drop the temperature to deadly and then add a snowstorm on top of it. Jack was a creature of deadly beauty just like the winter he brings with him.

Pitch found that thought oddly encouraging.