A/N: *Peeks around corner nervously* Hey, guys. Wow... would you look at the date... Sure has been a while. Four months from next Monday... Wow, time sure does fly. I have an excuse for April through June, thought! April and the beginning of May, I was busy with the end of the school year, studying for end-of-the-year exams and whatnot. Then through May to the beginning of June I was studying for my ACT (I got a 26 by the way; I was aiming for 21, not really expecting to do very well especially given that I didn't even finish the math because I ran out of time). Then at the end of June I went to this completely awesome young writer's program at a college near where I live, so it was a week of focusing on original stuff, not fanfics. Then July rolled around and I was just being lazy. Now, don't think I've forgotten Nightmares, I just haven't had the inspiration to write anything for it. And it really doesn't help that my sister took my copy of Guardians a couple of weeks ago and hasn't given it back, nor shown any indication that she intends to any time soon (she also took Despicable Me, but that's beside the point). I could argue that in July I was busy babysitting (which I was), but that mostly consists of my sitting on the couch with cartoons on while I YouTube or play DS (Don't give me that look! They're children, they entertain themselves, and I can multi-task very well). So, yeah. I'm bored, it's 2 AM, so why not avoid rolling around fitfully in my bed for a few hours and write a poorly neglected fanfiction?

Don't worry, I didn't really expect you to read all of that.

So, yeah. Welcome back to the story (though I suppose it should be you saying that to me), let's get this show on the road, shall we? Woo! Depressing, suicidal fanfiction, away! ...God, I must be REALLY tired; I'm afraid I've gone slap happy on you all. Well, this should be interesting...

Chapter Five

"A nightmare?" Bunny growled. "Is this Pitch's work?"

"It's impossible to tell," Tooth told him, looking away. "But I think I know what his nightmare was about."

"You do?" North asked, raising an eyebrow. Tooth looked on the verge of tears, flawless teeth worrying her lower lip. Whatever it was, it was bad, he decided. "Let's hear it." She drew in a breath, eyes sliding closed for a moment, and nodded slowly. When again her eyelids lifted, the traces of tears were replaced by fire. She wanted nothing more than to help her ailing friend.

"It was the morning after we stopped Pitch," she began, eyes far as she recalled memories from those days passed. "We were all back here, celebrating." The boys nodded, they remembered that well enough. "Jack was being quiet after the celebration started dying down and I saw him looking at his tooth container. There was a small, sad smile on his face. I went over and asked him if he was alright; he said he was and just smiled up at my normally. I didn't think anything of it, really. He just found out his past and I didn't want to pry in his personal business, so I just let it go. But I was still curious, so I asked Baby Tooth. She had been with him when he opened the container. She didn't know exactly what happened, but he had told her that before he became Jack Frost, he had a sister. And he saved her life. That's when he realized why he was chosen as a guardian of children: because it's what he was all those years ago, even if he didn't remember."

"Geeze," Bunny muttered, "that's quite a thing to suddenly remember."

Getting back to the point, North asked, "You wouldn't happen to know what happened after that, would you?" But he feared he already knew the answer to that.

"No, but I think I can guess that too. When he was dreaming, he kept muttering things. He said 'didn't leave you. Didn't want to.' Then when he started thrashing around... What did it look like to you?" None of them had an answer. "Jack told us about when he woke up," she reminded them. He had; they asked somewhere during the celebration and he answered, though he didn't seem very comfortable talking about it.

Images started flashing over Sandy's head. "He rose up out of a lake," North translated. Realization slowly dawned on him. "He saved his sister, and he drowned... You think he's dreaming of... of drowning." Tooth nodded solemnly. What a horrible thing that must be, unable to escape reliving your death over and over. And something like drowning, at that.

"This is bad," Bunny summarized, pointing out the obvious. He turned to Sandy. "Do you think it's possible to help him?" The look on Sandy's face was heartbreaking as a swirly, golden question mark formed in the air.

"Jack's made one thing clear:" North reminded them, "he doesn't want our help.

"That doesn't mean he doesn't need it," Tooth growled. "We're going to help even if it means he never trusts us again!" Sandy nodded enthusiastically.

"Nice speech," Bunny deadpanned, "but how do you propose we do that?" She opened her mouth to speak, but her face fell as she realized she had no idea.

North put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "We will figure it out."

~OoO~

Jack felt hurt, betrayed, thought that was pretty illogical, he realized. Still, what right did they have to do that? They might as well have drugged him. When he woke up face-down, the rest of the Guardians standing over him like he was some poor, frightened child... He was so humiliated. He felt weak. Perhaps they had only been trying to help, but they would have done well to ask him about it first.

All Jack could think about was getting as far away from the North Pole as he could. And that, obviously, meant Antarctica. Within an hour, he found himself surrounded by frozen nothing. It was peaceful, but it also gave him a lot of time to think. And, lately, his thoughts tended to turn toward his dreams. He tried pushing them down, but the feeling of water filling his lungs, of burning muscles, of flailing limbs trying to pull him free of the dark and freezing water... He let out a scream of frustration and fear.

Why couldn't the stupid nightmares go away? He didn't care that he died! He didn't care that spent hundreds of years wandering the earth alone until he finally found his purpose! He didn't care that he was robbed of his life and forced into a frozen existence, unable to grow or age or be seen or bask in the summer sun. He didn't care that he would never see his family again, never hear them tell them they loved him... It was all too much; a few tears slid down Jack's cheeks, but he wiped them away before they could freeze.

Are you really okay, forever condemned to an existence - not a life, not really - of ice and cold?

"I'm a Guardian," he told himself firmly. "The world needs me. People can see me, now. I have friends. I'm not alone anymore."

So sure about that, are we? You can only stay where it's cold, at least for more than a couple hours, that is. All of your 'friends' can go wherever they want, whenever they want. Sooner or later, they will leave you behind. You will be cold and alone again.

"Shut up," he said... to his head... "That won't happen. It can't..."

It can, and it will. The sooner you realize that, the better. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you may realize your family - the ones who really love you, the ones you really want, really need - are closer than you think.

"They... they are?"

They are. If you're willing to go to them, that is.

A/N: Bum bum buh! Evil, ambiguous, slightly cliff-hanger-y ending for the win! Sorry it was short, but, hey? What else is new. And I'll try to have a new chapter up before December, but no promises xD