Jack Frost and E. Aster Bunnymund arrived at the North Pole around relatively the same time. They made their way through the workshop past elves and yetis into the globe room. Upon entering, Jack realized that Toothiana and Sandy had already been gathered. He huffed a little at his lateness.

"Tell me, why is it that I'm always the last one to arrive?" the winter spirit asked annoyed as he froze a passing elf with his staff. Bunny just scoffed.

"Because I'm always sent out to find you after I arrive. It's bloody annoying! North needs to get a better system," the rabbit complained, hopping over to examine the globe. "It doesn't look like any lights have gone out. What d'ya suppose Pitch is up to?" The four Guardians looked around at one another, passing worried and unknowing expressions back and forth.

Suddenly, North burst through the door of his office, "Jack! Bunny! Welcome back." All the tension escaped from the room with the jolly man's entrance. He walked over to Jack and clapped a hand on the young Guardian's shoulder. "Have not seen you for bit of time now. How are you?"

Jack pulled away and looked at North with a smile. "Not bad. Made a few good snow storms while I was gone. What's up with you?" he asked. Jack was always one to enquire about the other Guardians' lives, but especially North's. The man had become a sort of father figure to him since he joined the group, a very strong resemblance of family.

North shrugged. "Eh, not much. Yetis make toys. Elves make ruckus. Been working on new flavor of candy cane." Jack nodded as the burly man proceeded to pull a cream colored loop of hard candy from his pocket.

"What flavor?" Jack asked, taking one of the canes from North. He unwrapped the plastic and began to slip the tip of it into his mouth.

"Eggnog."

Jack spit the candy cane out. "Is good, no?" North looked at him with an expectant expression on his face.

"Uh, yeah…" Jack said, wiping the back of his hand across his tongue. "Tastes… awesome." North smiled, satisfied, and the winter spirit continued to try to remove all traces of the taste from his mouth. Jack hated eggnog.

"Can we skip the candy canes and gumdrops and get down'ta business already?" Bunny asked annoyed, tapping his large foot on the ground impatiently. "I think we can all agree that we got a more pressing matter to discuss." All the Guardians looked at him solemnly for changing the subject to what they least wanted to talk about, but nodded in silent agreement. Suddenly, all the tension was back.

Tooth cleared her throat. "Now I know North was the one to call us all here…" She said unsurely, and a few of her fairies flitted around her in discomfort. "But I'm actually the one who notified him of the imposing threat." The other three Guardians' gazes snapped to look at Tooth in shock. This was not what they had expected.

"Pitch is attacking the teeth again?" Jack asked, incredulous.

Tooth gave a half shrug and shook her head helplessly. "I-I'm not sure…" Bunny stepped forward.

"You're not sure? How can you not be sure!" His whiskers twitched angrily, and Tooth flinched. It was easy to tell the situation had put her in a bit of a fragile state. At least, Jack could tell. So as Bunny's voice raised in volume, "Pitch is a serious threat, and if you can't tell us-" Jack held him back.

"Whoa there Cottontail, she's on our side, remember?" Bunny looked severely miffed at being restrained by the younger Guardian, but just let out a sigh of frustration. "We need to hear what she has to say. Tooth…?" Jack looked at the fairy queen expectantly. Her wings flitted nervously behind her back, and she too sighed.

"For the past few nights, I've been getting calls as usual for tooth collection. I send the fairies out on duty to gather them, but there have been unusually large amounts of missed cases…" The group of magical beings stared at her, and Tooth could tell they were not following what she was saying. She groaned. "Children aren't putting their teeth under their pillows, and we don't know why! And on more than one occasion, my fairies have spotted some of Pitch's black sand!" Judging by the collective gasp, they all got it this time.

"So then, he is attacking teeth?" North asked, clearly confused by her earlier statement. Tooth groaned again.

"It's like I said, we don't know," she repeated dejectedly. Tooth hardly knew anymore about this than they did. "My fairies have scouted out the teeth, and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with them, but we're not allowed to collect them unless their under a pillow. I think… I think it has to do with the children themselves…"

This conclusion brought a whole new level of seriousness to the matter. If the children were being harmed in any way… The Guardians didn't even want to think about what that meant. For those kids, and for themselves.

Bunnymund, always the Guardian of Hope, was the first to try and salvage the situation. "Buck up, mates. Look! The lights on the globe haven't dimmed, have they? That means we still got a one-up on the situation." All the Guardians looked to the large, glowing globe that took up the center of the room. If anything, more lights were appearing on it, what with the recent addition of Jack to the team. The wintery Guardian contemplated the thought.

"So if they still believe in us… then what's wrong with them?" he asked. No one answered.

Jack thought back to when he first came into being as Jack Frost. Never seen. Never heard. But always there, silently watching. He wanted to be like them; like real people. He wanted to have a family and friends, and to be loved. He at least wanted to remember a time when he was. But he couldn't. It was like, until he regained his memories, there was nothing to him. It was like he didn't even exist. Jack gasped.

"They don't remember…" he said under his breath as he came to a realization. All of the Guardians turned to him. A swirl of gold sand formed a question mark over Sandy's head. Jack took notice of it and attempted to answer the dreamer's silent question. "They don't remember us... That's why they've been forgetting to put their teeth under their pillows."

Tooth flew over to look him in the eyes. "But, Jack… how can they still believe in us if they don't remember us?" Her lavender eyes bore into him, pleading with him to help her prevent another onslaught on her center from Pitch. Jack took her small hands in his icy ones and squeezed, trying to be reassuring.

"The memories are still there, just buried. Like mine were." Tooth gave him a questioning look. They may not remember you, but that doesn't mean they stop believing in the idea of you. They just don't recognize it. It was the same with me and my past." The confusion started to lift from the group as they each began to understand the idea that Jack was proposing. It made sense in a way, and Jack himself was a perfect example of that fact.

"So… we can fix this…?" North asked. Jack nodded.

"I think. But we'll have to go to Tooth's place to check and see if I'm right, and make sure Pitch hasn't been messing with those teeth again." He looked at Tooth for the OK and she gave a determined nod in response. Jack smiled. "We're off to Tooth Palace."

"Great!" Bunny exclaimed. He tapped his foot on the ground and opened a new hole. "Now then, as fer the matter of transportation-"

Suddenly, a yeti burst into the globe room, running up to North. All eyes turned on him as he made a series of frantic grunts and growls, accompanied by several panicked gestures to the door from which he came. Upon hearing what the yeti had to say, North shook his head in what seemed to be frustration.

"Problem? What kind of problem?" He asked, and the yeti responded with more grunts. North's eyes widened. "What?!" He looked from the yeti, to the Guardians who stared back at him, to the doors. The bearded man released a string of angry Russian words before stomping over to the globe room's entrance. Just as he was about to grab the handles, the doors swung open, revealing the new found problem.