So, this idea was just floating around my head and making it impossible to get my work done for school so I figured that I would take the time and write it all out. :) I missed writing a bunch, and I managed to pull out three chapters in about five days, which is a record for me ;P . So, just some generics out-of-the-way, I don't own Rise of the Guardians, cause if I did, I would have made the movie longer to satisfy all of our cravings of the Guardians. This story is just a collection of my own ideas and ramblings. There is a general direction to where this is all going, but there isn't a set outcome yet. I'm just going with the flow on this one :)

Constructive criticism is more than welcome, flames will be read and then allowed to burn in the hell fire from whence it came.

And so, with that, enjoy.

~Nox

Everything seemed wrong. Everything seemed off. Jack wandered around his lake, holding his head as his life fell apart around him. He didn't feel right, and Jack Frost couldn't figure out why, but Jack, the Guardian of Childhood Fun, wanted to disappear. He wanted to disappear forever... and those thoughts scared the hell out of him.

As the moon rose, Jack felt a little less alone in some ways, but in many ways, he felt drastically more isolated. Sure, the Man in the Moon, or Manny, was a guardian, the guardian who had chosen them all, but he had never given Jack more than a soft light to guide his steps. Manny had brought him out of the lake that he was at, the only home that he had ever known, all those centuries ago, but he was never given any more than a name and his powers. He was cut off from the world to figure out his powers, and to figure out how to handle his new life. It wasn't until Manny had informed the other Guardians, Santa, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, that Jack Frost would be joining their ranks to defeat the notorious Boogeyman, that he had any contact more than a simple encounter with any other spirits, and most of those little meetings ended badly anyway. That was three hundred years after his birth into immortality, three hundred years of being invisible to the world, and three hundred years of being hated. It was a shock to his system, so when Jack learned that he could regain his human memories that Manny had somehow taken from him, Jack decided that it may not be too bad to work with these guys.

After all the problems that Easter, after he screwed up and disappeared, leaving Bunnymund and the others to deal with a horde of Nightmares that attacked the Warren, destroying everything they could. Jack, upon returning, was turned away by the very ones that he had come to count as allies, by the Guardians of Childhood that were rapidly losing their strength and power as children stopped believing in them. Bunnymund was the one to experience this the harshest though, as that very Easter, children walked right through him as though he wasn't even there. It was a very difficult blow to the Guardian of Hope, and one that none of them ever wanted to experience ever again. Jack, however, didn't wait after the Guardians turned their backs on him, telling him to leave, and he flew down to Antarctica where he ran into Pitch, the very one responsible for all the troubles that had befallen their little group. Pitch made an offer for Jack to consider, but Jack, who was starting to understand it all, declined, causing Pitch to punish Jack for refusing. One of Tooth's little mini-fairies, one that had taken a particularly strong attraction to Jack, was clenched in Pitch's ever-tightening fist, as tough demands were made of Jack Frost. The decision... Jack could keep the powers and sacrifice the small fairy, or... Jack could save the Baby Tooth, as she had come to be known, but to do that, he would have to sacrifice his one constant friend that he had throughout the long, lonely centuries... his staff. Seeing no choice, the boy hands his archenemy the source of the powers of winter for the miniature Tooth, but they were both sent flying into a deep crevasse and Pitch snapped the crook in two.

Collapsed at the bottom of the crevasse, all Jack is able to do is look at the memories of his childhood that for some strange reason, Pitch had let him have. Those memories tugged hard at Jack's heart, and he knew what he had to do. Fixing his staff, the young spirit grabbed Baby Tooth and together, they set off to make things right, and while that included a sore leg from a miniature Bunnymund kicking the crap out of him, together, they all managed to fix what had gone wrong. After all was said and done, they had children believing again, even if only a few actually began believing that night, they gradually got children all over the world to believe again.

While each of the other Guardians had children all over the world who truly believed again, Jack had less than ten in the world. It made for an even more difficult life. But over the past few years, Jack had made it work, though, he hadn't seen anyone for that whole time. He was busy spreading winter all over the world, and rarely had time to see the other Guardians, but he did make it a point to see Jamie, the last child to believe in anyone, and the first boy to believe in him in three centuries, at least once a year. It worked to stave off the loneliness for a while, but usually afterwords, Jack felt the sting harder than it ever would have been if he had never met the boy.

Shaking his head as he snapped out of the dark place his thoughts had turned to, Jack Frost knew there was something wrong, but who to turn to, he had no idea. He had yet to see his fellow Guardians in nearly twenty years, Jamie had his family to tend to now, and didn't need a visit from the pesky winter teen, and Manny never gave Jack more than silent company, no matter how many times the boy tried. "Tooth?" Jack began rattling off who he could see and who might be able to help him from his self-deprecating thoughts. "Nah, the girl is too busy, she doesn't really have time to stop and chat. Sandy? Nope, pretty much the same." He sighed, not liking where this was going. "North? That's possible, provided Phil actually let him in the building. Still worth a shot." With that, Jack took off for the North Pole and Santoff Claussen. "Kangaroo? Uh, not unless I can't get a hold of North. I don't need the old Roo getting mad at me. I don't think my mind can take it today."

It didn't take long for the North Winds to take him from his lake outside Burgess to the headquarters of the Guardians. The North Winds actually had taken a liking to the light boy when he became the spirit of the cold season, and would often take him wherever he wanted to go, and as the years went by, he began to let her pick where she would take him. It was a bonding experience that was much like a mother and child, and Jack loved it. He never disrespected her, and she never left him alone when he was hurting. So this time wasn't any different, as she carried him she hugged him in her own special way, and he laughed lightly, talking to her. They had long ago developed their own way of speaking, he would actually speak and laugh aloud and she would control the speed and direction of the air flow to make sounds that Jack could understand. It took a while for them to perfect it, but they had been together for so long, and would most likely be together for much longer still.

As she held him in the air, she grew increasingly concerned over her young charge. "My boy, what has you so sad?" the wind whispered in his ears as it whipped around his lithe body.

"Oh, Wind... I really don't know. I just don't feel like myself. Any ideas?" Jack felt like he wanted to cry as he told her how he was feeling.

"You are more lonely than you let on, my sweet. You hold yourself away from those that you truly need, and you choose to isolate yourself when you need them most. Sweetheart, you need to speak with your friends, they worry about you and want you to be happy, as I do. Do you understand what I tell you?"

"Yes, I understand," he sighed as a small tear trailed down his soft pale cheeks, where it froze almost instantly.

As she carried him further north, the wind kept talking to Jack, explaining all that he had missed. "Every night, dearest, Nicholas St. North stands on a balcony and looks to me and asks me if you are alright. He has done this each night for near twenty years. He is not the only one either. Your friend Bunnymund often ventures into northern territory to speak to me and ask me to find you. Why have you stayed so silent from them?" she whispered to him.

"I don't know, Wind. I just don't understand me. I hoped that being on my own, I would manage to understand who I am and what Manny wants me to do. I really didn't mean to worry them," he apologized, then realized one of the key things that the wind had said. "Wait, Bunny comes looking for me?" That little fact Jack found hard to grasp. The two had a long-standing animosity, and while the events of twenty years ago cooled that a bit and Jack no longer pranked the oversized rabbit, they still didn't really get along. 'So why would the Kangaroo be asking about him?' "How long has Bunny been doing that?" he asked tentatively.

"Since the day you helped Jamie keep believing and you disappeared."

Jack nearly fell from the sky at the shock of that. 'Wow, either the old grump really does care, or he wants to kick me into next millennium for something that I did.'

"Are you alright? If I was not here, you would have fallen far to the ground below. Please, be careful, dearest." Jack could feel the air around him take a deep breath, almost in relief that he was still safe.

"Sorry, Wind," Jack apologized, looking sheepish. "It just startled me that Bunnymund actually cares. I mean, we've never been on great terms with each other." But now that Jack thought about it, he had stopped pranking Bunny after that disastrous Easter, and had no longer tried to freeze over every egg hunt just to make the Pooka agitated. In return, Jack had seen some eggs that Bunny hid that held snowflakes and painted with winter themes, he realized that this had been happening in increasing, and slightly alarming rates to the point where it seemed to consume all the eggs... and in what he could gather from the conversations he managed to eavesdrop on between any of the spirits, Bunny no longer spoke ill of the child spirit of the ice, no, actually, if rumors were to be believed, the rabbit spoke very highly of him in the past twenty years. Jack felt a tug somewhere in the region of his heart at the thought of the Aussie warrior, but he stamped it down before he could analyze it deeper... no, he would do that when he was completely alone.

"Jackson, honey, we are at the workshop," the wind whispered quietly as she lowered him to the steps outside the main entrance where he was directing his landing. Laughing softly, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you going in the front door, or are you going to test Phil's persistence and attempt a break in?"

Jack shrugged. "I'm too tired to try to break in today, and I really need to talk to North. I don't need Phil on my case," he laughed lightly.

The North Winds whipped around him lightly and ruffled his hair causing him to laugh a bit more before she whispered that she would be waiting for his call for a ride back if he needed it.

Thanking her for all that she has done for him as he did each time she helped him, Jack raised his fist and knocked on the great wooden door of Santoff Claussen.

The calendar was rapidly ticking down the days until he had to do his job. That was the big drawback to only "working" once a year, you had to make it big. With about two weeks, he was in crunch time, though the past twenty years or so had been relatively easy compared to the half-century before that. It started in 1968 when the young winter spirit, Jack Frost, had decided for some reason to make a blizzard which caused the spirit to nearly cancel Easter. Yes, that infamous year had nearly been the downfall of the Easter spirit, the Guardian of Hope, none other than the famous E. Aster Bunnymund, Aussie warrior, master of Tai Chi and six-foot one rabbit.

Looking back at it, Bunny could see why the boy had done it, or at least why he thought the boy had done it. He was looking for attention, looking for someone to talk to, to try to be friends with to try to end his bitterly lonely existence. Too bad it had taken almost three and a half centuries to figure that one out, maybe he and the boy could have avoided the animosity that had plagued them over the years.

"Oh, well, everything in its time, but maybe I can help time move a little faster, mate," Bunny whispered to himself as he sat painting his special eggs. Over the ages, these eggs have changed depending on whatever is hopping through the Pooka's head. For the near twenty years since the defeat of Pitch Black, the Boogeyman, Bunnymund's special eggs have gone from florals and pastels to cool colours and snowflakes. At first, the change worried the rabbit, but over the years, he studied the patterns that Jack Frost made as he brought winter to the world, and he changed the patterns on the eggs to match as best he could to the muse.

Focusing on his work, Bunny dipped the ivory egg into the lightest blue paint he had and then waited just a few moments for it to dry enough for him to paint. Once that happened, he picked up his paintbrush and had begun to add the designs. Adding even more white to the light blue, Bunny began to paint fern like frost illustrations... the same that Jack's staff elicited for the world to enjoy. It had taken many years of study to get these just right, and while the ones that he practiced on were nice to look at, he knew that he couldn't send them into the world, but this year, this year would be different because Bunny would get it right. So the meticulous rabbit began his painstaking work.