At this point, Bunny started to panic, he knew his mistake, once again he's let pride get in his way. The thoughts buzzed around his head, guilt began to eat away his heart. He zipped across the snowfields relentlessly, ignoring the fact that the bone chilling snow dug into his paws.

He cursed as he made a mad dash around the North Pole, trying his best not to step on the annoying skittering elves or run into any yetis that hustle and bustle.

He hated asking for help, especially from North, but it's not like he had any other choice, the former Cossack was the closest thing to a father figure to Jack, he's bound to know the reason behind his odd behavior.

He sprinted around on all fours, looking around for North yet trying not to disturb the flow of the toy production.

He dodged another rushing yeti and spun around just as his acute hearing picked up the muffled yet booming sound of North's voice barking commands inside the room nearby.

"Ey North" he called and strode down the hallways, angrily kicking away an elf crossing paths with him.

"Ey" he ripped open the door and nearly crashed into North who was standing so close to the doorway.

"Bunny, what a surprise!" The Russian greeted, clapping Bunny in the back a little too hard it tipped his balance.

The Pooka stumbled forward with a grunt but quickly regained his balance. He straightened and confronted North with a somber tone. "Hey, have ya noticed anythin' strange about Frostbite lately?"

"Yes...I've noticed why what iz wrong?"

Bunny's ears dropped as he stares at the ground with guilt, his paws clenching and unclenching around his boomerangs as somewhat a form of comfort. "I…said some pretty bad things and the bloke ran off again"

"Ay" North had the exasperation on a parent as he pinched the bridge of his nose, having to deal with Bunny and Jack's arguments is quite a tiring job, even though he himself enjoyed arguing with Bunny at times. "What happened this time?"

"He froze the warren when I specifically told him not to"

"And are you aware the boy is loosing control of his powers?"

Bunny's ears twitched "What?"

"Did you let him explain?"

The Pooka's heart sank in guilt as he evoked how he kept cutting Jack off the moment he was trying to explain himself. "No, I…I didn't" he wanted to say something further but he trailed off, his gaze dropping guiltily onto the floor boards. How could he have jumped to conclusions again?

North waved a dismissive hand and gives his last commands to the yetis before leading Bunnymund out of the room into some place quieter.

"What happened" asked the former Cossack as they both strode down the busy hallways.

Bunny had to jog to keep up with North's surprisingly fast gait, easily able to avoid the bustling yetis carrying crates of toys. "The bloke dropped by the Warren this morning" he answered, a little out of breath. "He was actin' a little strange ta day, he was suddenly interested in all the flowers in my Warren. We had a little talk, and I left him there to check on the flowers I planted in Africa. I only left the warren for about an hour and I came back to find it a frosted wasteland."

"Wasteland?" North repeated "You called it a wasteland? You know Jack is insecure about being a winter spirit, he thinks he destroys everything."

Another pang struck Bunny with realization, he could no longer find any words to say.

"What happened after that" North urged "Why did he run off"

"I said some…things and he kept apologizing and crying"

North frowned "What was he saying"

"I don't know" Bunny flinched as he tried to recall what Jack said. "I couldn't understand im', he was slurring, but he said you are all the same before he left. What do you think he meant?"

North stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I don't know, perhaps we should alert the others, maybe Jack will respond to the lights" he pushed open the doors to the globe room and proceeded inside.

"Jack is losing control of his powers" North called back. "He is gaining a lot of believers and he is getting stronger, maybe is why he froze Warren."

Bunny's ears were now plastered onto his skull; he clutched his boomerang even harder, a way of releasing his anger towards himself. He lagged behind, slowly slipping into a trance, Jack's faint words echoing.

"I was wrong, you're all the same"

What could this possibly mean? Has Jack been hiding something from them?

It has been years since Jack became a guardian, yet he is still reluctant to open up to them.

And he is probably the reason why…

"Where could he be?" Tooth asked worriedly as she continued to fret, too concerned about Jack to stay mad at Bunnymund. Her amethyst eyes were glazed with deep concern, yet her piercing stare was sullenly cold. She peered out the window constantly, hopeful for any sign of the approaching winter spirit but every time she checked, there wasn't even a silhouette, only the Northern lights that North left etched across the sky, hoping Jack would respond to their "supposed emergency"

"Oh no, where could he be" Tooth mused, more to herself than to the others, her wings beating faster every passing minute "What if he's hurt? Maybe that's why he's not coming, or what if he's trapped somewhere and no one can hear him!? What if…if…"

Sandy made a silent gesture that told her to calm down and pointed an arrow at North, who has already sent most of the yetis out on a search party.

"Your right…But what if he doesn't want to come back?" she wondered, looking crestfallen. "What if he doesn't want anything to do with us?"

Sandy shook his head and told her 'don't be like that'

The fairy queen sighed, her wings returning to their normal beat "Your right" she glanced over at Bunny who was nervously pacing back and forth by the hearth. Her expression softened as she fluttered over to the Pooka and quietly settled beside him, her wings folding neatly behind her back.

Strange. Jack never took any of Bunny's his jests seriously either, it made her question what really happened. She opened her mouth to ask, but Sandy beat her to it.

Sandy tapped the rabbit in the shoulder and conjured a picture of a snowflake, an egg and the lake of paint, silently inquiring what happened.

"I don't know" Bunny said, the frustration clear in his tone. "He's nevah acted this way before, he would normally just laugh about it"

"He has been acting a little strange these days, do you think something has happened" she speculated and started to fuss again "oh what if he's not feeling well? What if he is sick?"

"He's hiding' something" Bunny said flatly, stopping dead on his tracks, his tall ears dropping once again as he stared blankly at the crackling fire.

"It's been many years Bunny, the boy is bound to be hiding a lot more things" North implied, sauntering over to them from the other side. "It'll take time"

Sandy hovered above them and nodded his head in assent.

"That's right Bunny, it'll take a long time for Jack to tell us everything" Tooth admitted sadly.

"No" Bunny shook his head stubbornly "This is serious, ya should've seen I'm, he was terrified. Somethin' must've happened before"

"But what caused him to act like that?" asked North suspiciously.

"I…I nearly hit 'im…" he grimaced as the bitter words left his mouth. The guardians all stared back at him with mirrored expressions of shock.

"Almost, but I didn't" he clarified.

"Bunny!" Tooth reprimands, her irises contacting threateningly.

"I was passed the breakin' point alright? It was a tiring day and I guess I was just outtta control." He begins his nervous pacing again, muttering his musings as he did. "I thought he'll take it as a joke again, like he always does ya know, but there was something about him…he was terrified of something….ya don't think someone could've hurt him before?' he tilted his head questioningly at his fellow guardians.

"It could be a possibility" answered North thoughtfully.

The Pooka halts suddenly, his ears rose and stood tall again and his dull green eyes brightened up with an idea. "Ey Sheila" he turned to Tooth. "Don't you have the memories of us immortals stored in yer palace?"

"Yeah but…" she pursed her lips loathly. "Shouldn't we wait for him to tell us?"

"I have a feeling he ain't nevah gonna tell us." He chunters gravely, running a hand through his ears. "Not after what happened ta day." He added darkly.

"Well I don't know" Tooth shook her head and slowly lowered herself to the ground. "Isn't it private? What if he gets mad at us?"

They both turned to North, seeking their leader's advice.

"Perhaps…it might be for the best" North gave a coy answer.

Sandy agreed silently, nodding his head.

"Alright…" she had no other choice. The guardian of memories fluttered her wings and prepared to dart out the window but she skidded to a sudden halt and turned back to face them, her violet eyes glassy with worry. "Are you sure guys? What if we anger him even more?"

"That really doesn't matter now"

The immortals' memories weren't stored in teeth; instead they were like records of what happened in their lives stored in orbs of light (no bigger than North's snow globes) that Tooth kept in a little room in her palace.

She is the guardian of memories after all, she had everyone's memories around, mortal or not. The others saw no point in keeping them there, but she knew someday the immortals might need them remember a time in their lives, a time that brings them joy, a time that reminds them of who they are— or in they're case, a time that Jack kept away from them.

Jack's memories were easy to distinguish. It was a little blue light in the shape of a snowflake incased in a crystalline sphere.

Tooth was back in a flash, Jack's memories safely tucked in her hands.

"Are you sure we should be doing this? You know there's a reason why he's never told us yet."

The Tooth fairy asked still uncertain as she handed the little ball to Bunnymund.

She had those memories around for centuries yet she's never even took a peep inside, not even the children's. She knew each memory was private, her own memories were private too and it certainly wouldn't be okay for somebody to poke around them, but as much as she hated to admit Bunny is right. Jack was never going to tell them anyway, not after literally everything that has happened.

They just want to be there for him, Jack would understand right?

Bunny shrugged. "At least it'll close the space between us all…and ya'll nevah know, maybe he'll end u fully trustin' us?"

"Bunny is right, nothing will go wrong." North assured "I feel it…in my belly"

Everyone laughed at North's racy jest, lightening the tension around them, except Bunny, who just rolled his eyes as usual albeit a smile growing across his face.

Bunny gave the orb a light shake. "So how does this thing work?"

"You just touch it like this" she emphasized, laying her hand on the glassy surface, urging her comrades to do the same. "And then we wait."

Bunny didn't know how long they waited but the next thing he knew; flashes of bright diamonds blinded his vision. When he opened his eyes again, the flashes of diamonds slowly disappeared from the corners of his vision and he found himself standing in the middle of a clearing in a forest.

Golden sun rays danced around the autumn sky. Shriveled foliage skittered across the hardened soil along with the stir of wind that carried them away in a streak. The waters of the lake swayed freely, its gentle currents lightly bashing against the stepping stones.

"Is this Jack's lake?" Tooth asked, her voice shrill and quivering, still feeling like they were depriving Jack of his privacy, but she couldn't help but rotate in a slow circle as she mimicked Bunny in scanning her surroundings.

"No, it's somewhere else." Bunny answered her question without turning around to face them. His ears stood high and erect, wary of whatever may come from the shrouded shadows of the trees.

"Strange" Tooth commented, her gaze dropping on the sods of wilting grass that littered around them in patches. "The memories of immortals are sentimental. I really thought we would end up in the lake of Burgess." even though the winter spirit had told none of them about the lake, it didn't take full wits for them to guess the lake meant something to him.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" she brought up the question again in the moment of tranquil silence.

North lets out a sigh and moved over to place a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder when he suddenly halted, catching Bunny's ears quirk abruptly from the corner of his eye. "What is it?" he then directed his attention to the Pooka, who by now was squinting to get a better view behind the tightly packed trees. "Someone's comin'"

The other guardians' gazes fell onto where Bunny's was directed. None of them matched the rabbit's acute hearing ability, but the voice eventually grew louder, enough for them all to hear. Gradually, they sounded more and more like approaching footsteps.

It sounded awfully familiar and it took a moment for them to finally discern the graceful padding footsteps to belong to Jack.

The bushes nearby rustled softly in a tuneless hymn. Dried leaves crunched loudly under the deep silence, followed by a crack of a twig. Jack Frost's figure finally emerged out of the obscured cluster. The sight of him made Bunny's heart twist in agony.

The breeze that followed shortly after him filled the plains with cold winter air, stripping off the remnants of foliage from the near bare trees. Nothing about him seemed different; he was still wearing the same blue hoodie and the ragged leggings.

He swung his staff over his shoulder as he looked around. The guardians instinctively ducked a little when the boy's eyes swept passed them.

They watched silently as the white haired hellion began to spread winter in the autumn hollows. Tapping his staff gently onto the heaps of foliage, he powdered the ground with a fresh cover of snow fall, burying the hardened soil with a blanket of cottony white.

Frost patterns blossomed underneath his every step as he glided around the wide field, not knowing where to continue. Idly, he brushed the shepherd's crook around the boughs with a delicate smile, watching proudly as flowering frost images began to race across the bark, filling the gaps and pores with erupting blue sparks.

Speckles of snowflakes replaced the shriveled leaves in the lines of the wind, slowly drifting down in frail sways until they faded into the snow covered ground.

Winter was probably the most beautiful thing they ever seen, even Bunny could easily admit that….just not in front of Jack though….

Frost continued to spread out into fractals, sprouting out into wide trails from where he stood until the entire land was coated in a flurry of snow. Though it was just a memory and everything that came in contact with them would only dissipate into white dust, the chill of the cold air felt real.

Bunny's fur bristles slightly, but his face wasn't showing any sign of annoyance. His foot digs itself out of the foot of snow as he slowly began to wade forward towards Jack.

"Stop" Tooth flittered over and planted a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from going any further. "You'll disrupt the memory if you go any further." She said warningly.

Jack's steps merely brushed over the surface, leaving no trail as he treaded on top of the foot of snow. He made his way over to the lake, gliding onto the stepping stones with unintended grace. His staff was lowered above the beating waters and as the crook buried its tip down into the stream, its eddying currents eventually calmed until it sounded nothing more than a whispering sea against the rocks. Ice began to creep on top of it until there was a bound of solid ground beneath his feet.

The bounds of ice stretched out until it met the land. It filled the entire water with sheen of ocean blue ice, mimicking the grayish hues from the sky above it. The alluvium of the lake sounded nothing more than the wind singing through the rocky walls of the caves.

Jack gazed skyward, taking a deep breath of newly welcomed air, his blue eyes glimmered like the winter sky as he averted his gaze to examine his work. The angular sunlight had slashed through the mould of cloud. Angular rays escaped from the gapes, embellishing the ice-bound with a flaming glow, as if it was stippled with ruby gems.

For a moment the guardians stood stationary, as if they were beholding a scene that was painted on the canvas. So was the memory of Jack, who was perched on the edge of the stepping stone with perfect balance. His eyes were closed as he felt the cold chills of frost linger on his cheeks along with the songs of the wind.

None of them seemed to notice that the water beneath the winter spirit has begun to trash again. The gentle currents leapt and lashed against the solid ice-bound, the calmed waves began to welter, forming ripples that rode the water like a rolling hill. Startled, Jack drew back sharply from the edge, alerting the guardians as well. They all looked up from the snow to see the winter spirit peering over the rocks, his eyes sharp as he scanned the movement below the foggy glass.

Unmistakable, a voice rang out, echoing loudly through the canopy. "You are not needed here"

Bunnymund flinched at the familiarity of those words, his ears drooping limply to hang over his head. Clearly this had happened before.

Okay, when I said I'll have the next chapter up soon, by soon I mean two months after….yeah. *Cries* yes, I'm so horrible at updating this crap….maybe I should have tried to fit everything in one chapter so I wouldn't have to be worrying about this everyday….

Sorry for the late update, its been the busiest months of school I ever had, plus writer's block just chooses the most horrible times to strike -_- but anyway, I bring you this chapter. There was supposed to be more to it but I cut it off since it was already taking forever for me to finish this, how long more if I added further scenes? *sighs* I'll just have those further details in the next chapter, which HOPEFULLY will be up SOON as in it wouldn't take two months again.

Wow guys, thank you so much for all the reviews/follows/favorites :O Okay….all of you come here and give me a BIG HUG! I'm having another emotional spazz out….excuse me *sobs* okay now I feel so guilty for keeping you waiting!