Love is Patient Love is Kind Part 2

284 years later- Present Day

The North Pole, the meeting place of all the guardians and the home to one North, was currently brimming with excitement. And anger. Mostly anger. But for the most part, excitement. Christmas was only a few months away, and life had never been better.

Yeti's bustled back and forth between machines, paint brushes and small tools in hand. Above them, confetti swirled like snow from an unknown source, glittering toward the ground and covering the red walkways in a fine layer of multi colored sparkles. Elves ran through them, jumping in whatever they could find, giggling all the while and giving the yeti's something to complain about. Besides everything else they had to complain about.

Toys were tested, flying or walking or rolling about on tables and floors. The sounds of gears were musical, churning and exerting different hues of smoke from frost covered pipes. The air was sweet with candy canes, sugar, chocolate and the spicy aroma of wood smoke and holly leaves. The air was buzzing, churning with anticipation. And those who resided within the North Pole's general area could feel it's magnetic pull. The energy of Christmas.

Of course many times this energy never transmitted in a good way. When a child received this energy, no matter the age, it was usually used to be either destructive or mischievous. And since the only (destructive) child who happened to be admitted entrance into the Pole was currently staying there -a temporary arrangement- he'd been threatened the skin on his back and the staff in his hand if he dared to destroy anything. So that meant the only thing he could do was be mischievous. And said boy was going to use what leash he'd been given to the fullest, before it was tugged tighter around his frigid neck.

"FROSTBITE!" The call echoed through the happy atmosphere. "GET BACK HERE, YA LITTLE ANKLE BITER! I'LL TEACH YOU TO MESS WITH A RABBIT!"

There was a moment of silence, the only sound being the echo of the cry reverberating off the walls, and then a figure, laughing loudly, zipped through the halls and into the main room of the workshop. A small flurry of snow trailed behind him, melting before it could stick onto anything, but shimmering in a silver line behind him. And following right behind that, a furious six foot one rabbit.

"Gotta go faster than that, kangaroo, if you wanna catch me!"

"I said it before," the Pookah growled, his accent thick "and I'll say it again. Ya don't wanna race a rabbit, mate."

He had caught up to the boy, quickly getting to the highest level of the factory. And from there he had to stop, glaring at the boy who floated smugly in the center. Being the only guardian without means of flight (c'mon, even North got the sleigh!) it would be stupid to hurl himself off the railing to try and tag the boy down. Jack would no doubt just move a few feet to the side. He'd end up falling… and falling… and falling. That was not an ideal end to his otherwise okay day.

So he just leaned against the railing and glared daggers -or boomerangs- at the boy. "When I get to you…" he promised, crossing his arms and allowing the boy to finish the rest in his mind. It was better intimidation that way.

"It was just an egg!"

"One that I had been paintin'. D'ya realize how long it took me ta perfect it?"

"Well… did the egg go bad?"

"No."

"Then I'd say… three days tops."

He growled again, and his fists tightened. "More like two."

"I don't get what the big whoop is." Jack allowed the wind to blast him in a circle, hanging upside down. "Easter isn't for another few months."

"Don't mean I can't practice it! That was my best egg yet!" It had been. He'd painted a bloody Monet on that egg. Not even catching a wink of sleep in the process. And the frostbite had broken it. Sure it had been an accident. A bit of leftover ice from where Jack had walked had made his path slippery. But nevertheless…

He got along with the boy. Better than before. And he guessed that the reason the boy bothered him so much was because of any affections that he returned. They were close -though that would probobly never be outwordly admitted. He was family.

But that didn't mean family's didn't fight.

Jack watched him curiously, allowing the wind to hold him on the spot. "Well… it looked like a regular egg to me." Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out... Bunnymund silently instructed himself. "And what's the big deal with one stupid egg." Count to ten. "I mean, really, it wasn't even chocolate." One, two, three... "And we can just get eggs from the store anytime!" …four, five, six, "And who'd even take that amount of time to paint one stupid egg. That doesn't even require talent." Screw seven, eight, nine and ten, this boy's going down.

With that in mind, Bunnymund grabbed his boomerangs, not even missing the triumphant smirk on Jack's face, and prepared to launch one, with the only objective being knocking that smirk clear off all the way to Timbuk Too.

"Jack, vhat are you doing?"

Bunny lowered the boomerangs, another chance ruined. "North, did'jya really have to come in now."

"Yes, now put away weapon. Jack? Vhat are you doing to Bunny!"

"Nothing!" The boy was the picture of innocence as he spun to the ground.

"Nothin'? North, he broke my egg. My egg!  The one I've been working on for days."

North broke into hearty laughter. "Vhat! An egg! Dat ees vhat dis ees about? Please, Bunny, try to smite boy over important t'ing next time. Like... Christmas toys! Now dose are important!"

"Here we go again... North! Really! It ain't even near Easter an' we're gonna have this fight? Easter is just as important as Christmas. I- I work just as hard as you do."

"Oh sure, sure. You keep t'inking dat."

"Why you-"

Before whatever insult Bunnymund had been planning could come, one of the Yeti's approached North, tapping his shoulder.

"Vhat! Can you not see I am trying to argue!?"

The yeti grumbled something incoherent to all but the red suited man, throwing his arms around in an animated fashion.

"What's he saying?" Jack had joined them, looking at the furry beast with a tilted head. North shushed him.

"Vhat do you mean, security is breached. We are in pole! No one can get here!"

The yeti garbled something else.

"No, there ees no way!" North turned around, "Jack? You made a storm here? Right? There ees no way for anything to get through?"

"Anything to- what are you-"

"Just answer question!"

The teen backed up a few steps, gripping his staff. "Yeah! It's pretty windy out there, and snowing! I mean, I started a blizzard. No one's going to be getting through. But who-"

"Does not matter. Someone has gotten through. Bill," he addressed the yeti, "do we have any reads on vhat eet ees?"

The yeti changed it's look from feverish to distressed, gripping at the sides of his head and shouting something in his language. Neither Jack nor Bunny, now giving each other looks, understood a word. But from the tone and the stance the strange creature was exerting, it had to be anything but good.

"Alright! I weel have to go. Bunny, Jack, go find Tooth and Sandy. We are going to sleigh!"

"What!" Bunny quickly began to follow North, hopping along and ignoring Jack who continued to fly beside him. "North! Think about what you're saying! We're in the bloody Pole. There's no way in for any humans-"

"No. Dis is no human." They continued their way down the spiraling pathway. "Dis is no human at all. Look." He led them to the railing, pointing to the globe that resided in the center of the room. Yeti's were running around, checking energy levels, pushing buttons and shouting orders. Elves, riled from all the activity, ran in circles screaming and bumping into one another, all the while trying to stay away from the yeti's large, heavy footfalls. "Do you see de globe?"

Jack squinted at the large structure, all of the lights flashing on every locati- wait? "Why are the lights flashing?"

"Is it Pitch?" Bunny looked ready to take out his egg bombs. North just shook his head, but his face was no less grave.

"No. Dis is not Pitch. Not now. But there ees an energy source nearby. Somet'ing strong enough dat eet ees able to confuse controls." They watched as the lights flickered again, small sparks now coming from the controls.

"What the-" before Bunny could even finish, his finger in mid point at the strange sparks bursting from every electrical item, there was the sound of losing power. A strange 'ssshhhwwwoooooo' sound, that began at a hum and ended at a depressing flat note. And then, in a mere second, the power in the pole totally shut off.

"What the bloody-"

"Hey, what's going-"

All three guardians stood, their exclamations going flat in the darkness. For a moment, all that could be heard was nervous breathing, scared and afraid. This wasn't supposed to have happened. The North was powered by magic. Magic that worked like electricity, but was magic nonetheless. There was no way it could have gone out .Unless-

Even Pitch hadn't had that kind of power to shut off the Pole. His power was, while powerful, more spread out and therefore affected more things at a time. This was a concentration of power. Something strong, emanating from an unstable source. Something dangerous.

Just as the three of them had been ready to draw out weapons and charge into the dark there was a happy 'oooooowwwwwwshhhh!' and the lights mercifully flickered back on. The last one to light was the globe, every child still marked by a small, bright blip.

North looked around, his brow furrowed. "Dis... ees not good."

"I'll go find Tooth and Sandy," Bunny hopped off, "then we gotta go after that thing! Find out what it was!"

The remaining two watched as the Pookah bounded quickly down the remaining expanse of walkway, faster then either of them could have ever gone, and was out of sight within seconds.

North and Jack exchanged a look before heading down to the "garage", Jack finally landing on the ground and keeping up at North's heels, while said man continued to shout 'come on' and 'hurry up' at the younger boy.

"I just don't get it, though!" Jack followed behind, jumping into the lift behind North, who brought the lever down. "What could have gotten here! And how?" he looked around, "Is it here?"

"No. Ees not in building. But ees close enough. As long as power ees in range, eet can affect us."

"So this thing is just passing by? What if- I mean, what if it's not a threat?"

They reached the bottom floor, North kicking open the door to the elevator and striding towards the doors leading to his sleigh. Yeti's bustled in and out of the room, and goldon sand, remnants of it, sparkled in a fine trail behind them. Sandy, Jack observed, must have already gotten there, courtesy of the rather quick rabbit. And if he was there, then Tooth would be there as well.

"No. Eet has to be threat. Anything that powerful, enough to turn off Pole itself, eet ees threat to us. And eef we have a threat-"

"Then so do the children," Jack nodded. "Alright. Lets go find this thing."

-=-=-=

Bunny had escorted both Guardians to the sleigh, the yeti's already having it set us as soon as the power had flickered back on. Tooth was panicking, feathers dropping off here and there as she molted, and Sandy, calm as always, held a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's going on!" Tooth flitted back and forth. Sandy nodded, a question mark appearing over his head.

"Well, we dont know. But we're gonna find out," he sat back and tried to get comfortable now. He hated the sleigh. His nails were already digging into the wooden seats. "Either way, whatever we're dealin' with... it's somethin' new. And powerful."

Sandy displayed a picture of pitch. Bunny shook his head.

"North doesn't think so. I wouldn't let any ideas go, though, so eas'ly. You saw that power outage. That ain't exactly a reg'ler occurance up here."

Sandy looked like he wanted to add something, but before he could, both North and Jack came running in. Wasting no time, North hopped into the drivers seat, grabbing the reigns. He pushed a few buttons below the mini globe on the front of the sleigh and the lights flickered on. "We will not need portal today," the man said, much to Bunny's immediate relief, "we are only following energy." The lights that showed the children flickered again and then went out, instead replaced with a moving dot.

Santa's GPS, Jack couldn't help but smirk. "So what, we just follow the light?"

"Yes. Whatever it was, eet was flying. So Jack, you weel jump out when I say. Tooth?"

"Yes!" The flustered teen jumped slightly, her mini fairy's emitting small squeaks as they buzzed with her, wings blurring.

"You go with Jack. Sandy, eef we have to take eet out, we will need sand. Bunny,"

"If it attacks, it wont be gettin' far, mate," he smirked, holding out the boomerangs.

"Perfect. Everybody, get ready. Dis t'ing is not far away."

And with that he flicked the reigns and they were off, sliding down the tunnel at breakneck speed, with only Jack's woop of joy and Bunny's cry of fear echoing down the halls left behind them.

-=-=-=

Rose checked her map again, puckering her lips. "I knew I should have taken that last left in Russia," she muttered, tucking the map away in her belt. The snowy expanse of land had looked so much like her next destination. Next thing she knew she was stuck in a blizzard being whipped in all directions, totally blind to what was around her. Whoever said 'love is blind' was a moron, she couldn't help but think. Love needed to see. How else could she follow the map?

She had at one point seen a giant house on a hill, some sort of factory, and had tried to stop by and ask directions. She didn't even know where she was, so an answer to that would have been just great. But as soon as she'd neared the building it happened. She guessed it was because of the cold or the wind or maybe her nerves, but whatever the reason she allowed her powers to reach a rather high range, and before she knew it the power was out. She wanted to stop and apologize, but any closer and the fuze might have burst into flames. It had happened before, and she really didn't need it to happen again.

To think what would have happened if she had allowed her powers to really reach in full. Not like she could control them as it was.

So instead she just turned and left, knowing that once she had then everything would go back to normal. She shrugged, heading higher into the clouds, reaching down to adjust the hem of her dress and her heels. She hadn't even walked today and they already hurt her like she'd danced for an hour. Cursing her heels she checked the map again.

Her destination had been Russia. She'd wanted to cover at least three continents today, spreading as much love as she could. And because her attention was focused on both children and adults of the world, it took her much longer than it would for someone whose main focus was children. Becuase of this she tried to start off with more populated places first, usually India and China were her first stops. But she'd decided to mix it up. And she just had to have gotten lost.

Fabulous.

Rose dragged her finger along Russia's border. She had gone strait... or was it left. Damn.

Folding it up she figured that if she just head strait some more she'd find something familiar. But after today it was back to her regular schedule. After all, she only had a few more hours until the sun went down. And then her work really began.

A sound of swooping caught her attention and she stopped, floating in midair. Turning around she looked down and up, finding nothing in sight. Maybe she had imagined-

No! There is was again!

Rose dipped out of the clouds and squinted. In the distance, a speck, moving very quickly, seemed to be flying towards her general direction. She rolled her eyes. Just a plane. Why was she so worked up today?

Rose turned, ready to fly back up and find her way once more. However that speck had other plans. Now not so much a speck, it had quickly come closer. And as it did, shouts from actual people were heard echoing through the snowy Sahara.

"Okay," Rose muttered, "time to go." The last thing she needed was trouble.

She turned once more, ready to shoot into the clouds and out of sight. That was when something jumped out of the flying vehicle and hurtled towards her. Both her and the person, it had to have been a person, it was clutching at her, fell towards the ground.

Before she had even time to blink she was rolling down a snowdrift, holding her head in pain, and glaring at a white haired boy who stared at her like he'd just been hit by the bus of joy. And right behind them, landing in a red sleigh, jumped out four other strange characters, all running to meet them.

"I knew I should have taken that left," Rose groaned, knowing that this was going to be a very long day.

-=-=

"North, this is stupid!" Bunny called over the wind, his paws not budging from their place on the steps. He felt like he was either going to throw up or pass out any second now. Sure, he said everyone loves the sleigh. Everyone but him. Even after their little adventure with Pitch, he still had no real fondness of the flying vehicle. "We're not within cooee of anythin' 'round here! Let's just go back!"

"Yeah!" To his relief, Tooth spoke up from beside him. "We've been at this for at least an hour!" To emphasize her point, Sandy placed a little clock over his head.

"No! We are so close! Look!" North jabbed a meaty finger onto the dot they were following, growing brighter by the second. "Strange?" He looked closer, bringing a cry of watch the bleedin' road! from Bunny, "The dot. Eet ees no longer moving?" He squinted. "Eet just stopped." As he put his face closer, though a better look would have done squat, the map began to fizz and pop, and soon all the lights, which had been extinguished before, were flashing feverishly at them. "We must be close..." North muttered. Jack leaned in as well.

"It's doing the same thing before."

"Too much power," the older man nodded, fingers itching to grab his swords. "Eet ees once more exerting the power."

"What power are you talkin' bout?"

"Ees a sort of a... excess. Whatever we are dealing with, eet has more power than even I do," he gestured to himself, earning an eyeroll from Bunnymund, "however, ees uncontrolled. Dangerous. Could be an enemy."

"An' how'dya know that, mate?" The Pooka was fed up with everything at this point, "Did'ya feel it in your belly?"

"No! I jus'... I jus'..." while he stuttered for an explanation, the globe in front of them began to emit a high pitched squeal, and all of them covered their ears. It only lasted a few seconds, transmissions clashing, and then the entire thing, in a fabulous burst of sparks, lost all it's light and faded into nothing more than a regular globe. "YOU SEE!" He pointed, exited, to the now unlit globe. "Too much!"

"Yeah, yeah." Bunny waved him off, hesitantly raising his head to look over the front of the sleigh. He squinted. "Hey, North?"

"Vhat?"

"What's that? Out there?" They all looked to where the Pooka was pointing. In the distance a figure, too far away to really identify, hung in the air, totally still. As they drew nearer the globe, which had been still, began to crackle again.

"Dat must be eet." He pulled on the reigns, cracking them. "Jack! Get ready to go!" Jack nodded, resting his left foot on the edge, ready to jump off. They continued to get nearer and nearer to the creature. The power source that had been deemed evil.

Tooth squatted on the deck, ready to spring. Her fairy's fluttered nervously.

Jack steadied his foot, staff gripped tightly in hand.

Sandy began to create the orb of golden light, if they should need it.

And Bunnymund reached for his boomerangs. Whatever this thing was, he was going to take it down.

They got closer and closer and closer. So close that they could see the outline of her dress-

Wait? Dress? The thought hit them like a ton of bricks, but before they could register what was going on, Jack had already jumped out of the sleigh with a battle cry, grabbing the thing by the waist. His staff fell out of his hand as pink dust hit him straight in the face. And then both of them fell toward the ground.

"JACK!"