Maddie Noften was having a rather curious day. As a leading scientist in cosmology and, oddly enough, the paranormal, she hadn't been expecting two strange teenagers to appear at her door. She would've expected aliens or ghosts (she wasn't crazy, they existed!), maybe even her ex-husband, but two teenagers…

One claiming to be her daughter, Jasmine Masters, and a peculiar boy named Jamie Bennett. It was interesting, to say the least, and she couldn't exactly not invite them into her apartment... She was surprised again when Jamie made a remark on the ghost sketches she had thrown about and her weapon blueprints. Jazz had noticed her book supply on paranormal research (though Maddie knew most of the claims in the books were false).

Still, the day had been going okay. Jamie was silent, focusing more on his cell phone than other things, and Jazz had been permitted to read her series.

Maddie knew she had a daughter; she just hadn't expected her to end up in the care of Masters. Perhaps a nice little home with an adoptive family, or even with her sister Alicia.

No, the poor girl had to live with Vladimir. The guilt was layered in thick heaps upon Maddie's conscious.

The two teenagers had been there no less than thirty minutes before Maddie decided they wouldn't cause harm, and then she headed towards her spare lab room. Entering it was a disaster; normally, it was a nice little area with pretty stacks of papers, organized materials, and clean floors.

That was not the case.

Her papers were scattered around the room in heaps, her lab materials were either split or broken, and her nearly-completed portal system was sparking and fizzing.

It had been like that since she had activated the damn thing. The portal had caused a mass explosion, probably because had had only been half-awake when she opened it. Her nightmares had been getting worse, and it wasn't any thanks to her having to pay her bill for the house.

Still, her portal had been so close to working, it was almost unbelievable. It had opened a glowing green hole in the fabric of reality, only to close a few moments later due to a massive black form destroying it. It wasn't fair! Her entire life's work — no, her's and Jack's entire life's work had been focused on accessing another dimension, but it had failed entirely!

…No, that wasn't right. She had succeeded. Her portal had worked, and it had opened a tear in the fabric of reality. It was the black thing that had obliterated it! She was a genius, but whatever that mass had been had destroyed everything.

"Excuse me, Ms. Fenton?"

Maddie turned to see the boy — Jamie — slowly walking into the lab. She had half a mind to yell at him, tell him to leave her as she tidied up, but decided not to. Jamie had been a nice boy so far; he probably hadn't known better, and maybe he would offer to help her clean.

"Yes, Jamie?" Maddie replied, leaning against a desk. It was perhaps the only thing in the room that wasn't a mess. It didn't have a single scratch on it.

Jamie glanced around the room curiously, before noticing a paper on the ground. Maddie wasn't sure what he would do once he read it. After all, all her papers had information on ghosts. The teenager would likely declare her a nutter and leave, or would just dismiss awkwardly. It was what most teenagers did.

Instead, Jamie's eyes widened in awe, and he began to read a couple of the other scattered papers. "Ms. Fenton… you research ghosts?"

Maddie found herself smiling. "I do. I know plenty about them, as well. Why do you ask?"

Jamie collected a small amount of papers and rose off the ground, skimming them with an excited look bubbling on his face. "It's just that… This is awesome!"

The ghost scientists blinked. "Sorry?"

"Recently, I ran into a ghost," Jamie elaborated, approaching Maddie. "I've been trying to get information on him because an enemy of his kidnapped my best friend, and—"

Maddie couldn't believe her luck.

Either she was the luckiest scientist in the world, with the most amazing break, or the boy in her house was the real nutter.

Still, there was the chance of him being right, and Maddie didn't want to let it slip from her fingers. This could be gold, and she would be an idiot not to attempt to mine it… "You saw a ghost? Did he… How did he act?"

Jamie smiled at her. "He was okay, I guess. Really concerned about my safety, and him and his girlfriend wouldn't let me go with them to find Jack."

"And Jack is who?"

"Jack Frost," Jamie stated bluntly. "He's the friend who was kidnapped."

Of course.

"See, the ghost called himself Danny and he said—"

Haha. Jack Frost.

"—that a figure named Death had my friend—"

Ugh. That was what she got for believing a teenager.

"—And Pitch Black had something to do with it, he's—"

She should've told him to leave. His blabbering was beginning to give her a headache.

"—a guy who can control black sand and give people nightmares—"

Why didn't he shut up?! Maddie found herself shaking, resisting the urge to blow her top, when she paused.

"Black sand? Nightmares?" Maddie questioned. It couldn't be related, could it? The black form that had zoomed into the portal and destroyed it, her increasing insomnia… And the radars had been picking up traces of increased ectoplasm in the air.

Jamie nodded sharply to confirm her information. "Yeah. I've been hoping to save them."

Maddie couldn't stop a smile from twitching onto her face. This boy wasn't crazy, perhaps. And the information he had was impeccable.

"Start from the beginning again, Jamie."

She would show that 'Pitch Black' to mess with a meant-to-be-Fenton.

It was boring at the Workshop.

Jack hadn't thought boredom at the Workshop was even possible, but it was. With Christmas having recently ended, the elves and yetis had a week's break to regain there energy before diving into more work. It had only been two days since Christmas, Jack and Tucker having arrive yesterday, and it was quiet.

North was talking with Bunnymund about his plans for Easter, Tooth had to return to her palace to monitor the teeth, and Sandy was busy trying to stop Black's more active nightmares.

Jack had supposed that left him and the other teens to go around (maybe he could prank Tucker?), but the techno-geek had opted to hacking into satellites to see if he could track down Pitch that way. The Frostbite thing had decided to mingle with the yetis, Jazz had her nose stuck in North's books ranging from Norse Mythology to Frog Anatomy. That left Danny and Sam…

Hm. Perhaps he could bother the goth girl. He hadn't had a chance to do that, so that could prove interesting…

Jack jumped down from his place on top of the globe and began to float throughout the vast halls in a hunt for the couple. He allowed ice to creep along the edges of the railings until he heard the trace voice of the two talking.

"—can't just sit here doing nothing," came Danny's voice.

Jack normally wasn't one to eavesdrop, but he found himself listening curiously.

"But how do we help these people? Death wants your head on a platter, probably more so than Skulker. Do you honestly think that if this thing blows over, you'll be allowed out easily?"

There was a sigh. "When this blows over," Danny corrected. "Not if. And I don't think he would be willing to let me go, but he won't have a choice at the end of the day."

"…Are we stuck here?" The voice was so low, Jack was hardly sure it was the Sam girl that had spoken. She was usually so loud and obnoxious.

However, before Danny had the chance to answer, Jack decided to intervene. He headed around the small corner towards the two and leaned against his staff, radiating cockiness. "Anyone up for some snowball? There's this brilliant town called Burgess that has a lot of people who're near impossible to beat." Even if they said no, that wouldn't stop him. He would just role the two up into ice balls and have them fly with him until they reached the place.

To his surprise, both their eyes snapped open wide and they looked at each other, as if they realized something.

Jack didn't like being left out of the loop. "What is it?"

"The Jamie kid," Danny informed, turning to Jack. "He might still think you're kidnapped…"

Jack rolled his eyes, but smirked and gave his staff a quick twirl. "So? What are we waiting for? Let's go show him I'm alive and well!"

Sophie blinked at the trio cutely. "Jamie's not here. He left with his girlfriend to go find someone."

They all got different messages from those short sentences.

Danny thought the girl looked incredibly cute, and imagined she would get along adorably with Danielle.

Sam noticed that she had said Jamie wasn't there, when they had travelled a good three hours to get there.

Jack? Well…

"Jamie has a girlfriend? Him and Emma finally get together, huh?" Jack questioned, allowing a wide grin to spread across his face. He knew the two were perfect for each other, especially when his first believer denied it horribly, always flushing largely.

To his surprise, the preteen rolled her eyes at him. "No, Jack," Sophie stated. "Jamie's going out with some red-headed girl named Jazz!"

"…Huh?"

Four hours, seventeen minutes, and twenty-three seconds later, a thoroughly confused Jazz Fenton blinked at the trio before snorting comically. She snapped her book shut (she had finished it anyway) and placed her hands on her hips.

"I'm not dating anyone," the red-head stated bluntly. "Sorry, but the only guy I like is…someone." Her cheeks reddened slightly and the red-head mentally hoped her brother wouldn't pry.

She let out a relieved sigh when he didn't.

"If not you, then what other red-head named Jazz?" Sam inquired curiously, wracking her brain for any information.

Jazz shrugged. "An alternate one, most likely," she informed. "Death had mentioned and alternate Danny, so I'm assuming there's an alternate me somewhere." Like that, Jazz suddenly had a million questions. Would they look alike? Talk alike? Act alike? Think alike? Were they completely different, or were they identical?

Jack sighed, giving his staff a spin as he turned to head out. "I'll go ask North. He's sure to know."

Jamie Bennett had just sat down with Jazz in Maddie's kitchen. Jazz had been throughly updated, and though the intelligent billionaire's daughter didn't quite believe them, she had accepted the facts. After all, it was her mother — she needed some credibility, otherwise Jazz would feel that much more lost than she already was.

The red-head sighed, leaning back against the chair. "So mythical people are real?" She just needed the recap; the bout of new information was still a lot to take in and process, even if she didn't care much.

Maddie nodded. "Yes, and this Pitch Black figure has tampered with my portal! Who knows that that monstrosity could've done to it? And I had perfected the design and everything!"

Jazz nodded slowly and leant forward again, glancing at Jamie. "And your friend Jack Frost and his friend were kidnapped by him?"

"Yes," Maddie attempted to confirm. However, at her incorrect answer, Jamie took over.

"Actually, no," he stated. "They were apparently kidnapped by Death and Pitch."

"…Well. You are in some deep shit," Jazz stated bluntly. "What can I—"

A knock at the door cut her off.

Maddie glanced over, ruffling her eyebrows, and muttered something about constant guests. She rose from her seat and headed over to the door, opening it. "Yes?"

The boy who was there blinked his blue eyes, almost in shock, before he simply said, "Mom?!"

"What?!" In response, another voice rang out, and Jazz appeared. "Mom?"

"Mrs. Fenton?" the goth questioned.

"… My life is getting weirder," the beret boy said.

So… I'm back baby. Sorry for this (incredibly) late update, but I've majorly lost inspiration. But I'm pushing through and finishing this thing! I've gotta! And I already have the next chapter half-written, so that should be up (relatively) soon. Good new there, right? I think there's a good four or five more chapters after this. Yay!

Other good news? I've got a plan for a rewrite (that'snotactuallyarewritebecauseithasatotallydifferentplotandisstillbeingdeveloped). So if anyone wants to hear me rant about it or even assist in the plotting because you're sheer awesome, send me a PM though I've already got a bunch of ideas and mainly just wanna spazz about it.

Thanks for all the favs and reviews! They make me all smiley and giddy, even though this story isn't something I'm too proud of. For those interested, I have a Frosted Phantom one-shot that'll be let out soon (becauseI'verecentlycaughtacaseofslashfever).

Shout-out to my new beta Jessamyn from IceQueenandFireQueen. She's checking over all chapters just because and she's totally awesome.

That's all. Until next time, my awesome (and forgiving?) readers!

~Jet