*GASP* I'M ALIVE! I'm alive! Not to worry, I had just been out of tune lately. So sorry~! ^w^

I made a new story though! This is according to another interesting prompt I have found!

PROMPT:

Jack is self-sacrificial to a frustrating degree

Put Jack in any situation where someone else is in danger, and he'll take the hit for them, whether or not it's at the cost of his own life. (Since his first life ended this is not so much a problem as he can't really die, even if horrendous or scarring injury is still possible) It's simply his nature.

It ends up being very frustrating and concerning for everyone around him, to the point that his partner / platonic loved ones / what have you start to think he might be suicidal, even though (at that current moment in time) he is not.

SO HERE WE GOOO!

Chapter 1

Pitch was able to rise up again. This was all made possible after having his powers return by scaring more kids and feeding off their fears as much as he could. It wasn't a hard task since the kids were easier to scare lately. Probably from the aftermath of the nightmares he had given them during that Easter.

And of course, as soon as the Nightmare King got his strength back he unleashed it towards the guardians for revenge. It may have been a little too soon for he knew he could gather more fears and grow stronger if he only waited a little longer. But revenge could not wait.

After the humiliation and defeat the boogeyman had to face. He needed the revenge. NOW.

He thought of attacking them one by one as he saw Bunnymund in Australia checking some flowers and plants and ambushed him without a second thought.

But then he wasn't able to notice a certain Winter sprite who was actually hanging out with the guardian of hope. He cursed his misfortune as he ended up fighting the two instead. No sooner did the other guardians join in as Jack took out a snow globe and sent a distress signal to North while some yetis came out to join the fight.

There was enough back-up for Jack to zoom into the portal to tell the Russian what was happening and to have said person summon the other guardians with the aurora.

It took time, but they arrived as quickly as they could and tried to defeat as many nightmares as they can. Fortunately for Pitch, he prepared a lot. Almost a whole army. But that did not stop them from attacking.

They knew that even Pitch had his limits.

And yet, even with this thought, Pitch somehow managed to get one of the guardians unguarded. He smiled cruelly as a certain sand spirit continued taking down random nightmares with his whips however not minding a shadow that was slowly growing behind him. It was déjà vu all over again, much to the boogeyman's sickening pleasure. The shadow then formed into a familiar scythe and slowly, he raised it, ready to take down the figure of Dreams.

But not everything goes according to plan.

Just as the dark blade was inches from striking its chosen victim, a certain spirit zoomed past the nightmares as quickly as he could and stood behind Sandy just in time to receive the attack instead.

The pained cry was loud enough to catch all the guardian's attention and Sandy turned around in horror as he realized what just happened. He was immediately at the boy's side trying to check what was wrong with him. Jack was curled up, his arms wrapped around his abdomen and his face scrunched up in pain.

"PITCH!" North's angry howl almost made the King of fear himself run away, but he stood his ground and deflected the old man's blades. But then he knew he couldn't defend himself any longer as two more guardians joined in looking as angry as North.

What were his nightmares doing?! They should have been keeping the guardians busy.

He made a quick look to see what was happening and was shocked to see Sandy practically attacking all the nightmares all on his own. Despite the fact that there were some yetis and sentinels that kept defeating the tainted sand dreams, Sandy was basically owning them all.

Pitch was able to get a glimpse of Jack lying down on a cloud of sand, still in his curled up position but he looked less in pain as dream sand hovered above his head. And just as he turned back to Sandy, the dream maker was giving him a very scary glare that obviously promises him pain as soon as he was finished with his little followers.

"Ya messed with one of us…" Never did a boomerang looked so threatening, "Yer gonna have to deal with all of us."

"How could you Pitch!" Tooth's fists were clenched pretty tightly and were trembling for a punch.

"Unforgivable." North slashed at him and the man clad in black quickly blocked it with his scythe, "You hurt Jack. You pay for it."

"Oh please. He was the one who jumped in." And of course, the nightmare King always seizes the opportunity of ticking off his enemies because no matter how painful the outcome was, their reactions never failed to amuse him, "It was never my intention to… harm him. It was mostly your fault for being careless."

"Why ya little—" Bunny was about to throw his boomerang at him and Pitch immediately prepared himself for the weapon, but much to his surprise he suddenly found himself hovering in mid-air before slamming down the hard ground. He felt a tug on his wrist and before he could even let out a scream he was slammed to a tree and no sooner was he back on air again.

While falling he realized that Sandy's whip was tied around his wrist and he looked down in time to see Sandy finishing off some nightmares before looking back up at him, giving him a scary look.

Then he fell face-flat on the ground.

"Never mess with us." Pitch looked up and immediately regretted doing so as he realized he was surrounded by very furious looking guardians. He gulped.

"Would you perhaps be interested with the cure for the boy?"

Jack forced his heavy eyelids open and tried to lift his stiff arm to scratch his eyes. But was unfortunately interrupted from doing so as he heard North spoke.

"Jack?" Then the old man's face appeared, "You're awake! I'm so relieved! Better go tell others!"

"W-wha-?" He was interrupted by a coughing fit. Man, why does his throat feel so dry? He suddenly felt a cool glass press against the side of his face. He tilted his head to see Sandy looking at him with a smile. He accepted the glass of water gratefully and sat up with North's help.

"Thanks a lot Sandy." The teen said as he finished drinking.

He was then surprised when the dream maker looked down with a sad look, "Sandy?"

"He haz been feeling guilty you got injured." The winter sprite immediately remembered about Pitch and the attack. He looked down only to realize he was shirtless and bandages covered his stomach up to his torso, "We manage to defeat Pitch. Not as strong as last time, so it waz no biggy."

"Well that's good news. So why the long face little man?" Jack said trying to cheer Sandy up, but the guardian of dreams only wilted on his seat.

"He feelz guilty about injury. He never left your side while you were unconscious." The toymaker whispered, "He had been taking care of you."

Jack was obviously surprised to hear this as he turned to Sandy, "Was that true?"

The golden man looked embarrassed but he nodded with a small smile. The guardian of fun frowned, "Why? You really didn't have to go through all that trouble."

Sandy pointed at himself then made a zero sign with his hand and then pointed at Jack.

I owe you.

Jack frowned and shook his head, "I don't think you do. Come on Sandy, I just did what I had to do."

Sandy shook his head as well while giving him a defiant look. North sighed as he puts a hand on Jack's white locks, "Sandy's right Jack. That was something that you're not supposed to do. Even if you had to. How would you feel if Sandy did the same?"

The winter sprite looked down as he contemplated the old Cossack's words. A small hand touched his arm and he turned to see Sandy shaking his finger at him like he was scolding a child.

"Sandy's right. Do not do that again. Iz very dangerous what you just did and we were lucky that we manage to scare Pitch for cure." North crossed his arms.

"Wait, you scared Pitch?" Jack seemed to be amused with the idea.

"That doesn't matter anymore. Just don't do that again." Sandy nodded vigorously as he held out his pinky for a pinky promise.

Jack looked hesitant, "I…I don't know. It's out of instinct you see—"

But Sandy insisted as he pushed his pink closer to Jack and the winter sprite gave in with a sigh. Reluctantly, he locked his pinky with the dream maker's, "Fine."

With this, the sandman gave him a wide grin and a hug.

North chuckled and spoke, "Well then, I bet you're hungry—"

"So sleeping beauty finally woke up?" They all turned to the entrance to see a certain pooka, leaning against the door frame.

"Oh hey cottontail. I was just about to get some food. You wanna race?" Jack pushed the blankets away as Sandy let go of him. North was about to scold the teen but was stopped by Sandy who shook his head.

"Nah, you'd probably lose, mate." But even with this said, the pooka had already stood straight in preparation. Jack grabbed his hoodie and staff.

"Last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg!" Jack teased as he hopped off his feet and let the wind carry him away from the room.

"Oy-!" Bunny soon chased after the quick teen and was immediately out of sight.

North let out another sigh before turning to Sandy who was shaking from laughter, "What are we gonna do with him?" He chuckled. The guardian of dreams just smiled. He then made an image of a certain tooth fairy and pointed at it.

"Oh! I forgot we must tell Tooth that Jack woke up. She's been worried sick…" North spoke before standing up and leaving the room. Sandy blinked for a moment before staring at his pinky, remembering the promise he made with the youngest member. He sighed as something told him that the promise may not be kept at all.

Who do you think should be next? :))