Author's Note: Warning – This fic is a long one. I didn't break it up into chapters because it would just ruin the flow of the story, so I ended up squeezing my ideas into one whole thing.

The plot is essentially a mashup of what could have happened in RotG but didn't, as explicitly shown in the movie. To summarize, a collection of What-Ifs with a couple of AUs tossed in. Obviously there are an infinite number of ways things could have played out, so coming up is just a sample of what could have been.

If any part of it leaves anybody confused, drop me a review/PM and I'll try to clear things up for you. Alternatively, if enough people request it, I may add a supplementary chapter that provides a quick explanation of what is happening in each scene.

On a side note, just so I know, do you people even read the Author's Note in the first place?

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

What Could Have Been

The scientist laughs maniacally to himself, rubbing his hands with unrestrained glee.

Decades of research and investment filled with no little ridicule and countless setbacks have all finally led up to this glorious moment: the unraveling of the secrets of the universe.

Time travel, alternate universes… there is so much to discover and explore! The other quantum physicists all called him a bloody nutter and expelled him from their council, but he will show them. He will journey into the unknown, find out all there is to know about life, time and space itself, and he will throw it all back in their faces.

His masterpiece, a monstrous machine the size of a small town, rests underground in a secret laboratory that took him years to build under a piece of land he had bought. Stroking the control panel of buttons and switches lovingly, the scientist cracks his knuckles and prepares to initiate the program that will take him back to the origin –

The beginning of time, when the universe was born.

He types in the commands and presses a few keys before pulling down the final lever with excited, trembling hands.

To this day, no one really knows what happened. People will say they woke up as if from a long dream or nightmare, depending on who you ask, even though no one remembers going to sleep in the first place.

Curiously, a large crater the size of a small town was found in the middle of nowhere after the mysterious incident, and months of digging and investigation showed that the earth had just collapsed on its own, almost as if there had been a large air bubble beneath the land. Neither traces of a human body nor a rumored secret laboratory were ever found, like they had never existed at all.

But that is a mystery for another day.

No one remembers the massive shockwave emitted by the machine, spreading throughout the world.

No one remembers the Earth shuddering and coming to a stop for 137 seconds as multiple universes collide and timelines overlap.

However, everyone remembers the way everything suddenly goes black.

"Jack!" somebody cries into his shoulder.

The boy in question snaps his eyes open and finds his face half-buried in long brown hair. Casting his eyes downwards, he sees Pippa Frost clinging to him tightly, shaking like a leaf. Instinctively, he winds his arms around her and strokes her back, making hushing sounds to soothe her.

"I thought you were gonna die!" she sobs, fisting her small hands in his cloak.

"Shh… it's okay. I'm here, Pip. I'm here," he whispers, widening eyes betraying his shock as he notices the dangerous cracks in the ice on the lake behind his sister. Jack sighs in relief when he realizes that they had both managed to get off the fragile surface before it could give way to the deathly cold waters below.

The siblings remain at the edge of the lake, held tight in each other's embrace until their worried father comes out to find them in the evening. They refuse to let go of each other after the afternoon's near-fatal experience, so Jack finds himself giving his sister a piggyback ride as they return to the house.

But before following his father into the woods, Jack suddenly looks back. His eyes are drawn to a long branch curved at the end resting on the ice, the one he had used to save Pippa. Just the sight of the branch makes his hands feel empty for some reason, even though they are supporting his sister's legs.

Shrugging, he turns back and follows his father home. Upon their arrival, his mother scolds them for spending so much time in the cold weather outside and sits them in front of the fireplace as she goes to prepare their dinner.

Jack finds that Pippa's trembling hand is still tight in his and he is fairly certain she is not shivering from the cold. Without a word, he shifts closer to her until their sides are touching and his eyes glaze over as he stares into the fire, burning –

– bright as the sun shines into his eyes. Lying flat on the grass, Bunnymund groans and rolls to the side so that he is facing away, but then a shadow falls over him as his ears pick up a teasing chuckle.

"Come on, don't tell me yer afraid of a little sun, oh Spirit of Spring?"

The Pooka jerks upright into a sitting position and whips his head around so fast that he startles the speaker, causing her to hop backwards in surprise.

"Lily?" he asks, his own voice shaking slightly as he squints against the sun's rays to stare at the white female Pooka.

"That's mah name," she laughs, squatting down to his level. "Taking a nap?"

Bunnymund wordlessly lunges at her, tackling her in a hug and sending them both to the ground. He embraces her like there is no tomorrow and he feels as if it has been centuries since he had last saw his wife.

"Hey, everything all right?" Lily asks gently and returns the hug when Bunnymund does not respond. She pulls back and sits up, frowning at his face. "Why're ya looking like that? Yer staring at me as if you've seen a ghost."

"I…" Bunnymund starts, glancing around his Warren with wide eyes to see other Pookas frolicking about in the sun and painting eggs. Strange, why does he feel so surprised to see others of his kind in his home? Taking in a deep breath, he mentally shrugs off his confusion and smiles at Lily instead. "Just glad to see ya, that's all."

She laughs again and his heart flutters at the delightful sound.

"Papa!"

Something small barrels into his mid-section and Bunnymund grins as he reaches down to pick up his son.

"Hey there, ya little ankle-biter," he greets, ruffling the tuft of hair on his head.

"Yer going t' see the other Guardians later, right? Can I come?" the light grey Pooka asks, looking up at his father hopefully. "I wanna play with Sandy and Jack!"

"Maybe next time Ace," Lily says, plucking him from her husband's arms. "Yer dad's going for a meeting, not a social visit."

For some reason, Bunnymund feels reluctant to leave Lily and Ace behind, so he taps his foot on the ground twice and summons a tunnel to the North Pole before grinning at them. "Doesn't matter," he insists. "Why don't the two of ya come with me?"

Ace squeals with excitement and jumps down from his mother's arms, but Lily looks concerned. "Are ya sure? We don't want t' get in the way. And isn't yer meeting later in the afternoon?"

Bunnymund smirks and resorts to the one way to get Lily moving. "Yer just scared I'm gonna get there first," he challenges, silently cheering as his wife takes on a sly look.

"Yer forgetting who's the only one who can beat ya in a race, Kangaroo," she warns playfully with a glint of mischief in her eyes, but Bunnymund knows he has already won her over and something inside him melts a little at the nickname that only she is allowed to call him.

"Come on Ace!" he yells, crouching down as his son climbs onto his back. "Last one to Santoff Claussen's a rotton egg!" And with that, he leaps into the tunnel. Rolling her eyes, Lily follows after them and jumps down into the dark –

– night that never ends. Sandy glances at the dark clouds hovering in the sky, hiding the moon from view.

How much longer will the war go on? he wonders, sending the unspoken question to the Man in the Moon, hoping against hope that the mysterious entity will answer him.

It has been almost three centuries since Pitch Black rose during the Dark Ages and even though Manny, as North had dubbed him, had chosen four Guardians to rise up against the Boogeyman, Pitch was more powerful than any of them had expected.

The Dark Ages lasted all the way to the twenty first century and throughout it all, the Guardians fought to sustain their followers' belief amidst all the fear. It was difficult to bring wonder, hope, joy and dreams to the children when half the time they were busy battling Pitch and his ever growing army of Nightmares.

Sandy knows that the longer the war draws out, the stronger Pitch becomes.

It is all they can do to stay strong and keep fighting to protect the children from being consumed by the darkness.

Something moves behind him and Sandy whirls around, readying his whips. Scanning his surroundings warily, he cracks them in warning. He should have known it was a bad idea to go out on patrol by himself when Pitch could attack at any moment.

A menacing neigh is all the warning Sandy gets before he is barreled down by a Nightmare, its demonic yellow eyes glaring at him as it bares its teeth and –

– squeals in delight, buzzing down to open his mouth.

"Oh, look at your teeth! They sparkle like freshly fallen snow!" Tooth exclaims excitedly as her mini fairies swoon dreamily around her.

"Tooth, fingers out of mouth," chides North, chuckling at the stunned winter spirit.

The tooth fairy flushes in embarrassment and quickly releases Jack's mouth. She backs off as Bunnymund and Sandy step forward to introduce themselves, the former giving the new spirit a firm handshake.

Tooth grins at Jack's scrunched up face as he tries to decipher Sandy's pictures and she resists the urge to ruffle his hair.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear that a new spirit had been born, but the best part was that this spirit was destined to be a Guardian too. Manny had instructed them to find Jack Frost at Burgess and Tooth's heart almost broke at the way the boy's face lit up at the sight of four legendary figures from his childhood.

He had gone several weeks after his rebirth unseen and unheard, and Tooth could have sworn she saw tears gathering in Jack's eyes when North had first addressed him and given him a welcoming hug. Now, however, there is no mistaking his smile and the laughter in his eyes, twinkling with mischief and the promise of fun.

Call it a maternal instinct, but Tooth can tell Jack is going to be a handful.

But they can worry about that later. For now, she takes the time to enjoy the moment as they welcome their newest member into the group.

It seems like Jack's emotions have influence over his powers because as he lets out a whoop of joy over where he is with Bunnymund and Sandy, it starts to snow lightly. Tooth marvels at her surroundings, admiring the view of the frozen lake in the snow. It looks even more beautiful –

– armed with a chisel, getting back to work.

The success of the train with the rocket boosters encourages North and he laughs in delight as it flies around the room, whistling loudly. He turns his attention back to the new block of ice on the table before him and starts to carve out the shape of a submarine, intending to add torpedoes and retractable fins to its design.

But every once in a while, he finds himself looking up to stare at the door to his office. North frowns, wondering why he is not as focused as he usually was. It is as if he was expecting someone to enter, an elf waddling in with another plate of cookies maybe, or perhaps a yeti bursting in to alert him about a problem in the assembly line.

Even though nothing outside his office disturbs him over the next few hours, North continues his crafting in fits of concentration, unable to shake the feeling that something should have happened.

The rest of the day passes by without event.

Thousands of miles away, Jack Frost hops around Burgess from rooftop to rooftop, melancholy heavy in his steps. He glances into an alley every now and then, as if waiting for someone to find him, to see him.

Just as in the past three centuries, and probably during the next millennia or so, he knows he will likely remain alone, unseen and unheard, and he barely registers the cold tears running down his cheeks, frozen –

– black sand sculpted menacingly from the clash of darkness and ice.

"They'll believe in both of us," Pitch purrs, his tone sweet and promising.

Somewhere deep inside Jack, a voice insists that he wants to be loved, not feared, but it is quickly drowned out by his emotions running wild.

He feels guilt and regret, knowing that he had let the Guardians down and that they will probably hate his guts for the rest of his immortal life. From the look Bunnymund had given him, Jack thinks the Pooka will rip his head off the next time they cross paths. North and Tooth's disappointed faces tear his heart into pieces and he knows that he will never be forgiven.

He feels lost and lonely, remembering the solitude he had to endure during the past three centuries and the unrelenting silence from the Man in the Moon. The one person who had brought him back and granted him immortality could not even be bothered to speak to him outside giving him his name, let alone tell him why he had not stayed dead, suspended in the depths of his watery grave.

He feels desperate and scared, anguish clawing at his heart as he recalls the pain of having people walk through him countless times no matter how much he yelled and screamed and threatened and begged them to just look at him. Jack knows he never wants to be alone again and pure unadulterated fear courses through his veins as he realizes that no one will ever believe in him.

"What do you say, Jack? Will you join me?" Pitch asks seductively, one pale hand reaching down to cup his face.

Suddenly Jack feels as if he no longer has any control over his body because his mind screams at him to stop, willing him unsuccessfully to reject the Nightmare King and his offer, but his broken heart has had enough and commands his mouth to whisper yes.

Then Pitch's hand slides to the back of his head and Jack finds harsh lips colliding into his as he sinks into Pitch's embrace, feeling himself fall deeper and deeper into the darkness as tendrils of black sand snake up and wrap themselves around his body, reaching up to –

– put her down without waking her up, but the task is more difficult than it looks as Sophie has a vice-like grip on the Pooka's neck.

Bunnymund grunts affectionately when he finally manages to pry her small hands off and tuck her into bed, making sure that she is sufficiently covered by her blanket. He smiles as she snuggles into a stuffed animal and cuddles with it, snoring softly. Job done, the Guardian casts one last fond look at the toddler before summoning a tunnel to return to the Warren.

On the other side, he takes one look at his surroundings before collapsing to his knees and emptying his stomach on the ground.

It was a massacre.

Even if they had Jack's power on their side, Bunnymund should have known he was leaving them in a death trap. The only way in and out of the Warren is through the tunnels and he should have realized that the Nightmares would swarm in from them, cutting off any escape routes.

He takes in a shaky breath, his body trembling violently as he forces himself to his feet and staggers his way over to what was once a majestic cherry blossom tree.

His eyes are wide with shock and horror, but they do not focus on the countless broken egg shells littered everywhere. Neither do they see the crumpled and deformed chunks of rock which are whatever is left of his egg sentinels, nor the piles of black sand scattered in every corner of his home.

No, his attention is focused on the rivers of paint and dye which have been contaminated with a gut-wrenching shade of red. A few bloodied feathers, no longer shining radiantly with color, float down gently. He numbly follows the trail of blood on the ground and what he finds makes him want to dry heave all over again.

The bodies of the Guardians are strewn in a haphazard pile, their blank faces and unseeing eyes staring vacantly at him.

Bunnymund stands paralyzed as he realizes that he has once again become the sole survivor of his family, this time the last of the Guardians. As if a dam had burst, memories of the slaughter of the rest of his kind floods his mind and the faces of the dead Guardians morph into Lily's and Ace's and the only things he can see are their lifeless forms and all the blood and how everything is stained red red red –

– like a tomato and Sanderson smirks to himself. Behind him, Tiana giggles into her hand as Nicholas and Aster roll their eyes.

The four of them are currently hiding behind a tree, spying on their two friends as the pair takes a stroll in the park. Jamie is blushing an adorable shade of red at what Jack whispered into his ear earlier and Sanderson grins at the way Jack's hand, the one closer to Jamie, twitches for the eighth time as he controls his impulse to take the other boy's hand into his.

"Aw, come on mate! Quit being such a bloody dingo and make a move already!" Aster hisses in frustration, pulling at his long greyish-blue hair.

"Da! It's been hours since they left house and still no progress!" agrees Nicholas, crossing his tattooed arms impatiently.

"Shh!" Tiana scolds, scowling at them. "Do you want them to hear us? Keep it down and just watch! I'm sure Jack knows what he's doing."

Sanderson sighs at his friends' bickering and turns his attention back to the two boys. Ever since the group had managed to discover Jack's crush on his new neighbor, they have tried to set them up on numerous dates, hoping that he would finally work up the courage to confess. It also helped that Jamie had confided in the mute boy about how he may be seeing Jack as more than just a friend. With confirmation that the brunet returned Jack's feelings, Sanderson did not feel as bad allowing Nicholas and Aster to carry on with their scheming.

His eyes twinkle with anticipation when he sees Jamie reach forward to take Jack's hand in his and lace their fingers together, and Sanderson is quick to cover Tiana's mouth to muffle her squeal of excitement when the brunet tilts his head up to kiss Jack.

The white-haired boy's eyes are comically wide with shock, but he quickly recovers and closes them, responding with enthusiasm. One hand slides around Jamie's waist possessively and pulls him in closer to –

– stare at the golden box, frowning with puzzlement. Tooth looks at the face on the side, belonging to one Jamie Bennett, and she cannot shake the feeling that one tooth is missing.

Not in the way that she lost it, but rather that he was supposed to lose a tooth that day. The thought nags at her and it is confusing because her job is to collect children's teeth and protect their memories, not to predict when each tooth will drop out and be retrieved by her mini fairies.

As much as her intuition is bothering her, Tooth is a busy Guardian and so she shrugs off the mystery for another time as she returns to work.

In Burgess, something registers at the back of Jamie Bennett's mind as his friends run off to continue playing after making sure he is not hurt from his crazy sled ride in the streets. Luckily, he landed in a large pile of snow so he is mostly unharmed, just breathless and hyped up with adrenaline. A moving truck drives past him on the road as he picks up his sled and suddenly Jamie remembers something his mother mentioned when she put on his hat.

"Jack Frost," he says, eyes widening with wonder.

"He said my name," a breathless voice whispers somewhere behind him.

Jamie's heart pounds in a mixture of excitement and anticipation as he drops his sled and turns around, looking for the speaker. "Jack Frost?" he tries again.

"He said it again! He said – you said –"

The brunet finally looks up to see a shoeless white-haired teenager in a blue hoodie and brown pants crouching at the leg of a statue, staring down at him incredulously with his staff clutched tightly in his hands.

"Jack Frost!" Jamie almost yells as his jaw drops at the sight.

"That right! But that's me, Jack Frost! That's my name! He said my name!" the winter spirit exclaims in delight, an unbelievably large smile stretched onto his face. Jamie must have been staring at him like a goldfish because Jack suddenly reels back with caution.

"Wait, can – can you hear me?"

A nod.

"Can – can you – can you see me?"

Another nod.

"He sees me! He – he sees me!" Jack laughs with joy, jumping down from his perch to land right in front of the equally excited boy. Jamie stretches out his hand towards the winter spirit, trembling as he –

– erases the names with a heavy heart. Regardless of whether they were Naughty or Nice, it pains him greatly to remove children from their respective lists.

Despite it being their job, North knows that the Guardians cannot protect every single child. They cannot possibly be at every corner of the world at every point in time, so when things like this happen, he knows that there is no use feeling guilt and regret for not doing anything to help when the children had needed them most.

Still, it does not make the pain any more bearable.

As North's tired eyes scan through the list of children who would never see another Christmas or participate in another Easter egg hunt or lose a tooth or dream another dream again, one name stands out.

Jamie Bennett

He does not know why, but seeing that name amongst the others who died in the recent school shooting causes a particularly wrenching twist in his heart. North cannot think of how he is different from the other victims of the massacre, only that the little boy is – was – always one of the first children to send him their Christmas letters. In fact, North had just received it not a few days ago.

It is hard to understand how someone could possibly conceive the idea of bringing a gun into an elementary school for target practice. A wave of sadness washes over him whenever the thinks of children dying and he feels –

– cold and empty and broken, like his staff lying in pieces right in front of him.

Jack cradles Baby Tooth's limp body in his hands, bringing her to his chest as he shifts against the wall of the crevasse, trying to make himself comfortable. All he accomplishes is causing his back to flare up in pain and he winces in agony.

He nudges the mini fairy gently, trying to rouse her, but Baby Tooth does not respond. Sighing, his mind wanders to the golden box with his face on it, containing his baby teeth. He thinks about how it is lost somewhere in the mountains after he threw it off the cliff, blaming it for causing all his troubles. Jack wonders if he should have held on to it.

But it is too late to regret or do anything because the source of his powers lies shattered some distance away and he feels the coldness of his surroundings seeping into his body as he realizes that he cannot feel his feet anymore.

Darkness creeps into the edges of his vision and although Jack knows that if he falls asleep he will probably never wake up again, he feels so cold and tired and he just wants the pain to go away, so he closes his eyes and –

– huffs in annoyance, watching the winter spirit fly off to who knows where.

Bunnymund should have realized that they could not rely on Jack Frost. The winter spirit did not even do anything during the confrontation with Pitch at Tooth's palace earlier. All that clown knows is how to freeze people's tails off and make a nuisance of himself wherever he goes.

Definitely not Guardian material.

With that said, he is somewhat glad that Jack decided to follow Pitch's advice and remain a neutral party. The boy had his memories and saw no point in joining a fight he had no reason to participate in. Choosing to stay out of their way is probably the only thing the Easter Bunny approves of him doing.

Manny may have chosen him as the new Guardian and North may have seen something in him that convinced him that he was needed in their fight against the Boogeyman, but Bunnymund refuses to believe that Jack could possibly be of any help to them.

North suddenly points a sword at his throat and Bunnymund instinctively leans back as the Guardian of Wonder excitedly declares their next mission to be collecting the children's teeth themselves. No one seems to have any objection, so the group piles into the sleigh and sets off.

Bunnymund does not know it, but not one of them will make it past the night. He does not know that Sandy will be the first to fall when Pitch strikes him from behind with his nightmare sand, that his army of Nightmares will overwhelm the rest of them after their morale gets extinguished from seeing their fellow Guardian fade to black –

– sand dancing above the child's head. Sandy watches from the window as his brother observes the nightmare in silence, his face a blank mask.

Contrary to popular belief, Pitch does not create the nightmares. He is drawn to them and he shapes them to influence the children, but he does not make them come out of nowhere. Only Sandy understands this and only the Guardian of Dreams knows that his brother is also the Guardian of Courage.

After all, what is courage without fear?

Pitch looks at him when Sandy places a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezes lightly. The Boogeyman gives him a reassuring smile which Sandy is not entirely sure is genuine.

"It doesn't get any easier, you know?" Pitch whispers, turning his attention back to his work. "Cruel to be kind, as they say. How is it that the other Guardians cannot understand that my job is not to terrorize children, but to make them learn from their fear?"

Sandy, as always, does not answer. But he listens and it pains him as much as it does his brother to know that the others only see him as a monster who hurts and endangers children instead of a spirit who teaches and cares for them. The balance between good and evil must be maintained, but they do not see the way Pitch has to hold up his side of it all by himself and is hated for it.

The Sandman gives his brother another comforting squeeze on the shoulder and Pitch sighs in –

– relief, his shoulders relaxing. The image of Cupid shines brightly in the moonlight, eliciting positive responses from North, Sandy and especially Bunnymund, who pumps a fist in the air and whoops with joy at the absence of the Groundhog. Tooth, however, feels a little uneasy.

The Man in the Moon has chosen Cupid to be the new Guardian.

For some reason, the idea of Cupid as the next Guardian does not sit well with the tooth fairy. Tooth does not understand it herself. It is not because she doubts Cupid's abilities, given that the girl is no baby in a diaper who shoots arrows. She can pack quite a punch when she wants to and from what Tooth has heard, she is quite the marksman as well. The Spirit of Love also adores children even though she works mainly with teenagers and adults, and Tooth knows that she will help them greatly in their fight against Pitch.

All in all, the Spirit of Love definitely has the potential to become a great Guardian, plus it is nice to have another girl around, but Tooth cannot help thinking that something feels off, like Cupid is not –

– good for him. North can tell… he feels it in his belly!

Sure, Jack may have catapulted himself to the top of Bunnymund's black list when he kicked up that blizzard in '68, ruining the anthro's holiday, but what is it that people say? The more you hate, the more you love? Something like that.

Even Tooth agrees with him, and Sandy… well, silent means consent, right?

North grins to himself as he, Tooth and Sandy watch Jack and Bunnymund argue from opposite sides of the table. Without fail, at every single Guardian meeting, the two will find something to butt heads over, sometimes literally. Needless to say, their verbal fights inevitably make meetings drag longer than necessary and sometimes even put Sandy to sleep, but to North and Tooth, they are a free show.

As Sandy starts to nod off on his feet in a corner, they share a knowing look when the two arguing Guardians start to inch closer to each other while throwing out insults. Tooth crosses her fingers hopefully while North's eyes dart between them with anticipation, but they both end up sighing in disappointment when Bunnymund decides that he has finally had enough and storms out of the room.

However, North does not miss the way Jack stares wistfully after his retreating back.

The rest of the Guardians have lost count of the number of times they have caught both the winter spirit and the anthro sneaking each other looks when they think no one is watching. It is clear that the white-haired teenager is attracted to the older Australian man and vice versa, but if neither of them makes a move anytime soon, North swears he will lock them both in a room and get Phil to stand guard the door until he hears signs of progress.

He will probably owe that long-suffering yeti a year's worth of leave, but it will be worth it. Life would be so much easier if only Jack and Bunnymund would acknowledge their feelings for each other and just try –

– hard enough, but nothing works. He had tried his best to stay positive, to find some respite in bringing snow days and fun to children, but now he has had it with his lack of believers.

Three hundred years of silence and loneliness finally takes its toll on Jack and he screams in a mixture of anguish and rage, summoning a ferocious storm that envelops Burgess as he hovers above his lake.

His anger will cause the blizzard to last for at least a week and the small town will slow to a dead stop as the harsh weather forces everybody to remain indoors. Meteorologists will scratch their heads over the freak storm that appeared without warning in broad daylight and newscasters will report on the extensive damage to property for weeks to come.

On the day that Jack Frost finally snaps and lets loose, Jamie Bennett does not make it home.

When the blizzard comes out of nowhere, his friends run towards a nearby building and squeeze in along with many other people seeking shelter. It is only when Cupcake does a head count do they realize that Jamie is not with them. They search the crowd, thinking that he may have been separated from them amidst the chaos, but no one has seen the boy.

By then, the storm has gotten so bad that even the adults refuse to go out and help those struggling to find safety. Jamie's friends do not know that he is lying half-buried in the snow somewhere in the park, his ankle twisted at an odd angle near a patch of ice, and they can only watch through the window as everything outside turns –

– bright as a torch shines directly into North's face. The Guardians freeze as they hear a soft gasp and a pair of stunned brown eyes stares directly at them.

"Santa Claus…" Jamie whispers incredulously before turning his torch on Bunnymund. "The Easter Bunny?"

Bunnymund chuckles and squints at the light which quickly shifts to Sandy, who gives the boy a cheerful wave.

"Sandman…" he breathes out with recognition before the torch points to Tooth. "The tooth fairy! I knew you'd come!" he exclaims triumphantly.

"Surprise! We came…" Tooth replies, laughing nervously and forcing a friendly smile on her face as she tries to hide her panic. Bunnymund quickly scans the room for escape routes and his eyes land on the bookshelf in the corner just as Jamie redirects his torch for the fourth time and says "Jack Frost".

Everyone's attention immediately turns to Jack, who is looking as shocked as the rest of them.

"He said my name…" the winter spirit whispers in disbelief, unable to tear his gaze away from the smiling boy. The other Guardians are too caught up in the moment to realize that their young believer is still awake and staring at them in the face.

It is then that Bunnymund notices that Jamie's shelf is full of books on legends and mythical creatures. One of them is a library book titled "Jokul Frosti", causing the Guardian of Hope to smile to himself. It looks like they have just met Jack's first believer.

Seeing how he looks as if he is about to start crying from joy, Bunnymund decides to let him enjoy the moment and holds himself back from getting Sandy to put the boy to sleep. He grins at the way Jamie's excited face mirrors Jack's. Clearly, the boy did not expect the tooth fairy to come for his tooth with her friends and he laughs in delight as –

– he senses the impending attack. Sandy instinctively whirls around and his whips catch Pitch's projectile just in time, disintegrating it.

The battle does not last very long after that. With Jack's power on their side, the Guardians quickly defeat the Boogeyman, retrieve the stolen teeth and free Tooth's mini fairies before sending Pitch back into the hole where he came from and making sure that he cannot cause any further trouble for the next few centuries at least.

After everything has been settled, Sandy frowns as he watches Tooth hand Jack his promised box of memories. The whole process suddenly feels like a transaction and Sandy cannot help but think about how Jack will go back to being alone after he leaves.

He understands that they cannot force him to be one of them, yet it pains him to see Jack return to his solitary lifestyle without establishing even a mode of contact with the Guardians just in case he ever wanted to see them again.

Sandy reaches out towards Jack just as the winter spirit makes to leave, intending to offer him help should he ever need it, but the other Guardians have already piled into North's sleigh, preparing to return to –

– the army of Nightmares. Tooth screams in anger, charging towards them in a blaze of fury and pummeling as many as she can while North and the others follow up behind her.

The memories of her mini fairies getting swallowed by Pitch's fearlings are still fresh in her mind, overwhelming her with grief and rage. She remembers Jack's valiant efforts to save one of them but the Nightmare had been faster, biting down on Baby Tooth and killing her before Jack's hand could grab her out of the way. Not only are her mini fairies now all dead, but so are the precious memories of the children that she swore to protect. Pitch had destroyed most of the teeth and polluted the memories in those that had survived the raid, corrupting them with darkness and fear.

So caught up was Tooth in her drive for vengeance, as were the other Guardians, that she fails to notice when one of the Nightmares slams into Jack, knocking him out of the sky. His staff is torn from his grasp, spinning wildly in the air as he starts to free-fall and plummet towards the ground below.

No one sees Jack flailing to reach his conduit, falling faster and faster as a hoard of Nightmares rushes after him, swarming to finish off –

– the yeti bursting into his office, gesturing wildly with its arms.

"Intruder?" North asks in alarm, abandoning his current project to follow the yeti outside. Several elves quickly scramble out of the way as the Guardian of Wonder pulls out his dual swords, scanning the various levels of his workshop for the potential threat.

What he definitely did not expect to see is Jack Frost flying about, laughing in delight as he leaps from banister to banister to watch the yetis at their work.

The winter spirit knocks over a few of them and freezes a handful of elves as he jumps around, visiting different tables of toy production, but North notices that he is not intentionally disrupting their work. There is no malice in Jack's eyes, only curious excitement as he cannot seem to get enough of the sights.

Not far behind him is Phil, one of the workshop's loyal guards, grunting in annoyance as he chases after the energetic winter spirit without much success. In fact, the giant creature running about in the hallways is causing more damage than Jack's impromptu tour.

Sighing at the mild chaos, North puts away his weapons and moves to intercept them before they set his work back by months. Still, he chuckles with amusement at the way some of the elves slip on ice patches and find themselves sliding off the railings, flying as –

– something suddenly grabs his right leg and drags him through the air.

Jack gasps in surprise and tightens his grip on his staff, blinking furiously as the wind rushes into his eyes. The last thing he remembers is falling through the sky but before he could gather his bearings and summon the wind to carry him, he finds himself getting snatched by the foot.

Whatever it is that has a hold on him, it feels cool and scaly, like the skin of a reptile. The winter spirit cranes his neck towards his legs and notices that his foot is in the paws of a black flying creature.

"Did you get him, bud?"

The Guardian barely registers the voice speaking before he sees a face looking directly at him, albeit upside down. Big greenish-yellow eyes with large pupils stare at him with wonder and the creature, having caught him safely, opens its mouth to smile, giving him a wide toothless grin.

Jack yelps in shock and instinctively unleashes a small blast of ice at the paws on his foot with his staff. The creature – a dragon, he realizes – gives a roar of surprise and abruptly lets him go, allowing Jack to slip free of its grasp and he –

– hits something with a sickening crack. Having struck a target, his boomerang naturally does not return and so Bunnymund instructs the others to wait for him where they are before bounding into the dark tunnels to investigate.

He rarely attacks without knowing who his enemy is first, but the whole fiasco with Pitch has set them all on edge. Given how the Guardians are currently banking on making Easter a successful holiday to counter the Boogeyman's campaign of fear, Bunnymund thinks he can be forgiven just this once for initiating an attack when he sees his eggs scurrying from something and launching a boomerang in the direction where it is coming from.

What he finds, however, stains his paws red for the rest of his immortal life.

Sophie Bennett lies sprawled on the ground, her neck bent at an unnatural angle. The toddler is neither moving nor breathing and her broken, lifeless body rests right next to a boomerang.

Bunnymund stares numbly and collapses to his knees in shock and horror, his body trembling violently as he –

– drops to the ground in a flurry of feathers. Sandy can only watch solemnly as Jack rushes to Tooth's side while North and Bunnymund look on with sadness.

What Pitch said about the consequences of Guardians losing their believers is true, but he had not even scratched the surface of its extent. In exchange for the powers bestowed on them, Guardians had to have a certain quota of believers to sustain themselves. If enough people stop believing, it is not only their domains and powers that start to crumble and vanish.

If all at once, hundreds of thousands of children stop believing, the Guardian will die.

And with Tooth's job being around the clock all over the world, the theft of the teeth and kidnapping of her mini fairies deal a heavy blow to the children as they wake up to realize that the tooth fairy does not exist.

Sandy prepares some dream sand for their fallen Guardian, intending to make her passing slightly more peaceful, and his face falls with sympathy as he sees Jack cradling her close to his chest, trying unsuccessfully to rouse her as she takes her last breath and closes her eyes for the final –

– battle, one last stand against the Nightmare King. The odds are severely against them and as much as Tooth is moved by the six children's unwavering belief in them and their determination to stand and fight alongside the four remaining Guardians, she cannot help but stare nervously at the Boogeyman and his massive army of Nightmares.

This is it. The final showdown. All or nothing.

On Pitch's command, his army charges towards them like the waves of a tsunami crashing down onto the coastline. They are surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, and everybody's eyes are on Jamie as he bravely stretches out his hand towards the first wave of attack.

Whatever it is Tooth hopes will happen, does not.

As the Nightmares overwhelm them and darkness envelops the globe, the last thing she remembers before the black sand swallows them all up is the screaming of the children echoing in the –

– silence, but North scans his surroundings warily. His belly is telling him that something is wrong, that someone is right there in his office with him even though he can hear nothing other than the sounds of his toys.

Abandoning his current project, he draws out a sword and moves towards the middle of the room. Nothing seems amiss but the Guardian narrows his eyes, doing a three-sixty with caution. It is when his back is facing his worktable that something strikes him from underneath it.

Tendrils of black sand shoot out from the ground and wrap around the arm holding his sword, preventing him from swinging his weapon in reaction. North opens his mouth to get the yetis' attention but finds his shout quickly muffled by more black sand going down his throat.

His free arm reaches for the door and he strains his body to move, willing himself to at least make it to the globe room where he can call the other Guardians for help. However, he is forcefully pulled back into his office before he can even touch the doorknob and to his horror, he hears the familiar haunting laugh of the Boogeyman echoing in his ear.

"One down, three to go…" Pitch's voice whispers darkly as North's vision begins to turn black and everything –

– has become a cold, desolate wasteland. The land is barren, the rivers and oceans are poisoned, the skies have become eternally dark and the world is just… empty.

Jack does not remember when everything ended. He only recalls opening his eyes one day to see everything gone in a bright flash of light and the world devoid of life. Along with the other spirits, he spends his days frantically searching for survivors in the post-apocalyptic world, trying to find a single sign that someone – or at the very least, something – had made it through the nuclear war.

No one hears from the Man in the Moon ever again.

Days go by with no success and without people, without life or anything else to mark the seasons and passages of time, the spirits start to fade.

Tooth and Sandy are the first of the Guardians to go, dissipating in a wisp of thin air. North and Bunnymund follow not long after and one day Jack wakes up to discover that he can see through his hands and that he can no longer hold onto his staff, and he realizes with horror that he is fading himself and starting to die for the second time and he tries to scream but nothing comes out of his mouth and he –

– jerks awake violently with a gasp, his whole body heaving as he breathes heavily, eyes wide with shock and hands gripping his staff so tightly that his knuckles are as white as his hair.

Jack blinks at the stars in the night sky and finds himself lying sprawled on the ground. Tall trees surround him and at first he thinks he is lost, but then he spots his lake somewhere in the distance between the bushes and tree trunks. Grunting in pain, he climbs to his feet and slowly makes his way to more familiar ground, using his staff as a support.

It is mid-Autumn in Burgess, so the weather is cool enough for the winter spirit to rest at the edge of the lake. Sitting on the bank, he dips his legs into the cold water and one hand comes up to rub at his head as he tries to remember what happened.

The last thing Jack recalls before everything turns black is flying through the air while heading towards Jamie's house. Images from the remnants of his weird dream flash before his eyes and he frowns, trying to make sense of them, but a throbbing headache suddenly erupts in his mind and he is forced to stop, clutching his head in pain as he winces.

His body is also aching and he feels sore all over. Did he just fall asleep in mid-air and drop to the earth or something? Cracking open his eyes, Jack carefully lies back on the ground while keeping his feet in the water, folding his arms behind his head as a makeshift pillow while his staff rests next to him.

Sighing absently, he notices a butterfly fluttering about near his face before it disappears into the forest. His attention then turns to the sky as it lights up with dawn, and he watches the sun rise above the horizon.

Author's Note: If you are reading this, a big congratulations for making it to the end! (Hopefully without the urge to maim and/or kill me for even conceiving the idea of uploading such a *insert your own adjective here* fic)

Honestly, I must say that I have absolutely no idea where this story came from. It just hit me one night and refused to leave my mind. So, thank you very much for following me down the rabbit hole. I hope you have enjoyed your trip and please avoid bumping into any of Pitch's nightmares on your way out.

Comments are greatly appreciated. And remember, if you are confused about any part of the plot (or lack thereof), don't hesitate to drop me a review/PM or just ask for that supplementary chapter :)