Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere deep within the freezing desert of the arctic, the bright silver moon shined down on the enormous workshop palace built into the side of a large glacier. The outside was nothing but a picture perfect reflection of the surreal peacefulness of the rest of the beautiful and majestic landscape. Inside the workshop, however, was a completely different story.

Despite Christmas still being months away, North's Workshop (or what was more widely known as Santa's Workshop) was always alive and buzzing with activity, vast toy production on the ever up-swing. North's faithful yetis worked vigorously on the toys while his elves, clumsy but equally as faithful, ran around delivering tools and refreshments to the yetis. A few bold elves even tried to help the yetis with their toy making, but the larger creatures only shooed them away or ignored the tiny annoyances completely. They had a lot of work to do and even more toys to build, the yetis weren't going to let anything get in the way of that.

In the very heart of North's incredible workshop, was a giant globe covered in thousands of small, glowing lights. It was quite an impressive piece of craftsmanship, but it meant so much more than that to the owner of the workshop and his companions. The globe wasn't as bright as it once was when their belief went unquestioned by the children of the world, but it was slowly recovering.

It had been almost two years since the guardians defeated the infamous Nightmare King and restored the children's precious belief in them, but some of the children still refused to believe again after their faith was destroyed by Pitch Black's sabotage. Belief could be a very fickle thing. While the guardians managed to restore most of their belief and gain back their original power, for some children, once the trust was broken, there was no repairing it. It was a very hurtful blow to the guardians and their hearts went out to the children that they unintentionally let down, but they tried not to dwell on something that couldn't be changed. Instead, the guardians chose to focus on keeping faith alive inside the children that still believed while cleaning up the nightmare mess Pitch left behind.

The Big Four - Nicholas St. North, Bunnymund, Toothiana, and the Sandman - have worked almost non-stop those past few years to pick up the slack that Pitch had created for them. Today though, instead of working, the four elder guardians were gathered around the large fireplace in front of the Globe of Belief. It was the same place they always gathered whenever a guardian meeting was called.

Today had the potential to be a very special day.

Each guardian was dealing with their excitement and unease in their own unique ways. Bunny was leaning against the fireplace mantle as he examined one of his boomerangs while impatiently tapping a large, rabbit foot against the stone floor. North was leaning on the other side of the mantle with a block of wood and a carving knife in his hands. Unlike his pooka friend, the Russian seemed completely at ease with their current situation. Tooth was being her usual multi-tasking self as she talked with a small group of her fairies about their next tooth collecting job. Sandy was visibly the most relaxed of them all. The golden spirit was happily munching on a sugar cookie while working on his third cup of eggnog as he floated lazily around the room like a half-deflated balloon.

But despite their attempts to occupy themselves, all the guardians were still anxious about starting the meeting and they were all getting a little tired of waiting. So they all had the same question on their minds.

Where was Jack Frost?

They were expecting a very important announcement from the Man in the Moon, but the mysterious spirit usually only spoke to them if all guardians were present. Their meeting couldn't officially start until Jack showed up.

"Where 'n the world is that kid?" Bunnymund growled impatiently, finally reaching his limit for waiting.

The Sandman, who was just floating past the grey pooka, shrugged his shoulders while a question mark made of dreamsand appeared above his head.

"North, are you sure you told Jack the right day?" Tooth asked, gnawing briefly on her thumb nail. She was feeling just as fidgety as Bunny. She felt tingles along her skin as her feathers kept rolling up in anticipation.

"Of course I'm sure!" North laughed, waving off Tooth's concern. "Did you think that I would forget today? Is guardian tradition!"

"Oh, I'm sure Frost knows exactly where he should be right now," Bunnymund snapped. "I bet he's just takin' his sweet ol' time gettin' here! He's probably out there somewhere causing a freak snowstorm or freezin' swimming pools while we're all up here, sittin' on our hands and waitin' for his scrawny hide!"

"Bunny, calm down," Tooth said. "North calls dozens of meetings a year, and while he would never call us all here if it wasn't completely necessary, not all of them are exactly dire emergencies. We can't expect him to just drop everything he's doing and fly up here. Jack probably just forgot. I doubt he even knows why today is so important."

"Yeah, why is today so important?"

Everyone jumped at the sudden voice of Jack Frost. They all turned around to see the immortal teenager standing perfectly balanced on the wooden railing behind the globe control panel. He pulled down his blue hood to show off his trademark white hair while his ever-present staff rested on his shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic," the Winter spirit joked, which of course, no one laughed.

Tooth sighed in relief while Bunnymund grumbled under his breath and Sandy waved. Jack barely had time to wave back and smirk at the grumpy pooka before North bounded up to him.

"I am so glad you made it, Jack!" North said in his usual loud, jolly tone of voice before throwing his arms out in a dramatic fashion. "Today is very important indeed! For today, we get new guardian!"

"Maybe," Bunny pointed out with crossed arms. "We're not completely sure, remember?"

Jack wasn't really paying attention until he heard the part about a new guardian. He tore his icy gaze away from a very interesting, jumbo-sized toy airplane in the distance, and stared wide-eyed at North. A new guardian?

"Bah!" North scoffed loudly. "Manny will choose a new guardian today. I can feel it in my belly!"

"Whoa, wait. We're getting a new guardian?" Jack asked, looking around the room at his friends. Sandy nodded enthusiastically with a large smile and clapped his small hands together.

"Maybe," Bunny stressed again while Tooth flew down to Jack's level.

"Yes, we might be," Tooth said as she placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You see, Jack, every four hundred years on this day, the Man in the Moon chooses a new guardian. It's become a bit of a tradition for us, but we're not sure if he will this time since you were chosen only a short while ago. He's never chosen two guardians in the same decade before."

"Or the same century," Bunnymund mumbled from his spot against the fireplace mantle.

"Who's he going to choose?" Jack asked.

Tooth shrugged her shoulders. "We don't know. We didn't know he was going to choose you two years ago. I wouldn't say the selection process is random, but he definitely doesn't consult us before he chooses. He might choose Patty the Leprechaun or Mother Nature or-"

A gentle tug on her tail feathers made Tooth stop talking and look down at Sandy. Above his head were the shapes of a heart-shaped arrow and a jack-o-lantern made of sand.

"Yes, you're right, Sandy!" Tooth gasped, suddenly very excited. "He might even choose Cupid or little Sammy Hein. Oh, wouldn't that be exciting!"

"I don't care who he chooses, just as long as it isn't the bloody groundhog," Bunny grumbled.

Jack chuckled as he watched his friends with a deep, silent fondness. Tooth chatted away happily with Sandy while Bunnymund stood off to the side examining his boomerang again. North had lost his interest in the conversation a while ago and was now scolding two fighting elves.

Since nobody was paying any attention to him, Jack slowly started to make his way over to the toy airplane while whistling nonchalantly.

"Jack Frost," He heard North speak his name slowly in warning. Jack stopped in his tracks and flinched. "Don't even be thinking 'bout it."

"Aww, come on big guy," He said with a smile, trying to charm his way out of trouble. "I was just going to look."

"Oh no, you can't be pulling the wool over these big eyes, young man," North chuckled. "Nice try though."

"Would I ever lie to you, North?" Jack asked while blinking his eyes sweetly in false innocence.

"Well..." North began to say, but a happy shout from Tooth cut him off.

"Look!"

Everyone in the entire workshop stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction the Tooth Fairy was pointing. The yetis quickly abandoned their toys and moved to gather around the guardians while the elves followed close behind. Moonlight streamed down through the giant skylight of North's Workshop. The Russian quickly shooed and shoved away the elves that were standing on the Guardians' symbol carved into the workshop floor. The last elf moved just in time as the moonlight landed on the symbol, making it glow brightly.

"Crikey," Bunnymund whispered in awe. "I can't believe it. He's actually choosing another guardian."

North proudly rubbed his belly and barely stifled the urge to stick his tongue out at Bunny. Hasn't the pooka learned by now that he should never doubt the belly?

Tooth could barely hold still, she was shaking so much, and Sandy's sand started to glow brighter in excitement. Jack tightened his grip on his staff and gnawed on his bottom lip, not really knowing what to make of all this. He was feeling a little apprehensive about the situation, but he tried to keep his cool and pretend he knew what was going on, just like the others. He didn't like it when things changed so unexpectedly before his eyes, so understandably, he was a bit nervous.

From the symbol on the floor came a tall pedestal with a large, blue crystal on top. Everyone simultaneously took a step back as the moonlight reflected off the crystal and started to create an image above it. When the image begun to take a solid shape, Jack stepped a little closer to see, but ended up making a perplexed noise. The image being produced by the crystal confused him and that confusion only increased when a shocked gasp passed through the group. Even the yetis seemed to understand what the symbol meant as they started garbling among themselves in hushed tones.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Bunny mumbled under his breath as he stared wide-eyed at the crystal. There was no way that symbol meant what he thought it meant. It just couldn't be.

"Is that a horseshoe?" Jack asked out loud. He has come across many different spirits in his long lifetime, but he couldn't recall hearing of one that could be associated with a horseshoe, or whatever that symbol was.

North crossed his arms and started stroking his beard in thought. Jack saw Tooth whisper something to Sandy before the short guardian just shrugged his shoulders and mirrored her uneasy expression. The fairy then looked over at Bunny with a very concerned expression while she nervously pressed her fingers to her mouth.

"What is a horseshoe supposed to mean?" Jack asked. Was he missing something here?

"That's not a horseshoe, mate," Bunnymund said while staring straight at the image. He had a deathly serious look on his furry face, but his forest green eyes burned with an unusual fire that Jack had never seen before. "That's an Omega symbol. An Omega pendent."

"Bunny, are you sure?" Tooth asked. She reached over and gently rested her hands on her friend's shoulder. She could feel the tense muscles underneath his fur.

"Positive," Bunnymund said with a curt nod. "And I only know one sheila with a necklace like that."

"But why would Manny chose her?" North murmured, almost to himself. "Not even I was expecting this."

"Hey, time out!" Jack raised his voice, he felt way too out of the loop. "Can someone please translate? Who did the Man in the Moon choose to be the new guardian?"

Bunnymund stepped forward next to Jack and crossed his arms. His eyes never once leaving the blue crystal.

"Alice Liddell."

Chapter Text

"Who's Alice Liddell?"

The four elder guardians looked at each other nervously. The air around the group grew heavy with some an unspoken dilemma that all the guardians seemed privy to except for Jack. Seeing that nobody was going to answer his questions anytime soon, Jack let out a frustrated sigh before leaning back against a wooden pillar to watch his friends. He had been in this situation many times before, where his title as "newbie" among the guardians still shone like a beacon. It made him feel a little excluded sometimes, but it was usually best to just wait until the others remembered he still existed and clued him in.

"Why would the Man in the Moon choose her," Bunny asked, that fire still blazing in his eyes. "Doesn't he know where she is and how long she's been there?"

"Have faith, Bunny," North said with conviction. He was just as confused as his pooka friend, but his faith in the moon already had the Russian embracing the new idea. "Man in Moon must have good reason."

"North's right! The Man in the Moon always has a good reason," Tooth agreed.

North shot the colorful fairy an appreciative smile, grateful that someone was taking his side. No matter how many times he found himself crossing hairs with the pooka, Bunny was always a difficult person to argue with. It helped to have a little support.

"That's what you said about him," Bunny argued as he jutted a paw over his shoulder at Jack. "And look how well that turned out."

Deciding to not even dignify Bunny's jab with a response, Jack stuck his tongue out at the pooka's back childishly before grabbing a mug of eggnog from a passing elf. He chilled the Christmas beverage with the skin of his palm, turning it into an appetizing slush before taking a drink.

Jack really wanted to be somewhere else. Maybe starting a snowball fight with some schoolkids, or causing a blizzard. Blizzards were always fun and a great way to burn off pent up energy, unlike guardian meetings. He always found them boring because "Old Saint Nick" always made Jack actually participate in their discussions, asking for his opinion and his input as if Jack ever had something profound to say of anything of importance, rather than just let the teen free roam around his workshop. Although in hindsight, that was probably a smart move on the Guardian of Wonder's part. An unsupervised Jack Frost in the famous Santa's Workshop was just a disaster waiting to happen, especially for any unsuspecting elves and yetis.

Usually, Jack tried to avoid coming to guardian meetings by "forgetting" what day they were being held, but in the letter that he received from an elf a week earlier, North sounded adamant that he show up this time. The Russian didn't mention in the letter why Jack's presence was so important (probably North's way of building suspense), but he did take the time to tell him that if he didn't show up, North would send Bunny, a couple of yetis, and a familiar red sack to retrieve him, and since Jack wasn't a big fan of the Sack o' Kidnapping, he decided to show up. Fashionably late though, naturally.

Knowing what he knew now, he wasn't surprised by North's persistent letter. A new Guardian was a pretty big deal for these guys, which he could understand. Still though, he really rather be somewhere else.

"How 'bout we focus on getting her here?" North suggested. "Last time I hear, she was in Wonderland."

'Wonderland?' Jack thought as his attention fell back on the old codger. 'Wait, Alice? They don't mean...'

"That's where Alice has been for the past one hundred and thirty years!" Bunny bellowed in frustration. "Gettin' her to leave now won't be a pleasant walk in the park, mate."

"Whoa there, fuzzy wuzzy," Jack cut in. "Alice? As in Alice in Wonderland, Alice? I didn't know she was real."

Tooth hovered down next to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not surprised, Jack. Like Bunny said, Alice hasn't left her Wonderland in over a hundred years. No one except Bunny visits her. She's very reclusive."

"Wait, so Wonderland is an actual place?"

"It wasn't at first," Bunny replied dryly, cutting back into the conversation. "When Alice was human, Wonderland was just a place in her imagination, but from my understandin', once Manny made her into a spirit, he recreated Wonderland inside some kind of blank dimension. In that dimension, Alice is free to create whatever she wants, but unlike when she was human, her creations are real."

As Bunny spoke, he crossed his arms and stared at the glowing crystal in front of him. His furry face was void of emotion, but his eyes were distant as if he was reliving old memories. Jack was almost completely lost at that point from confusion alone. The other guardians were talking more among themselves than at him. He sighed again in frustration and went to go stand next to a sleeping Sandy, a fellow spirit who also could never get a word in edgewise.

"Now that I have given thought to idea, I am no longer surprised Manny chose Alice," North nodded as he combed his fingers through his white beard. "She is very powerful girl."

"Of course she is, but is she really guardian material?" Tooth asked. She placed a lot of her faith in the Moon, as did all the guardians, but even she was feeling a little doubtful. "Bunny's right, Alice hasn't left her Wonderland in a very long time. Will she be able to adjust being in our world again?"

"I know children hold a lot more power than we originally thought-" Jack spoke up. "-but why would the moon choose a little girl to be a Guardian? Shouldn't there be some age requirement or something? I mean, I'm one of the youngest spirits out there - having only three centuries under my belt - and you guys barely trust me with anything. How's a kid going to hold up compared to that?"

North, Bunnymund, and Tooth stared at the immortal teen before the men of the group burst out laughing. Both Jack and Tooth looked at them with unimpressed glares as the two spirits continued to laugh. North clutched his slightly rotund belly while Bunny leaned on his friend's heavy arm for support as they laughed.

"Oh hush, you two," Tooth scolded before turning back to the winter spirit. "Jack, you should know by now that the traditional fairy tales and myths don't always portray the real person correctly."

"Alice is young, but she certainly ain't the little ankle-biter her books make her out to be," Bunny chuckled as he sobered up. "That's the author, Lewis Carroll's doin'. The real Alice is very different from what you're probably use to, Frostbite."

Jack, not appreciating being laughed at, was about to respond with a sarcastic remark, but a loud clap from North cut him off. He was finished laughing at Jack's expense and was now ready to get serious. The Man in the Moon made his decision and it was their responsibilities as guardians to accept that.

"Now this has been all nice and dandy, my friends, but Manny has spoken! Alice is our new guardian and we need a plan to get her here so she can take Guardian Oath."

"Why not use a sack and a magic portal like you did with me?" Jack suggested almost bitterly as he remembered his first portal ride two years ago.

"Because we actually like Alice," Bunny smirked.

"Oh ouch," Jack whined sarcastically, putting a hand to his chest as if physically wounded by the pooka's snide comment. "That really hurt kangaroo."

Bunny opened his mouth to reply back with something witty, but Tooth flew in between the two bickering guardians. The situation they were in was stressful enough, they didn't need any of Jack and Bunny's fighting.

"Enough boys," She said sternly, placing a small hand on each of their puffed out chests. "We're all friends here, remember? And no one is getting thrown into a sack again."

"'though I am avid fan of sack, Tooth is right," North chuckled. "We use different method."

"Like I said before, gettin' Alice to come back to this world won't be easy," Bunny said while crossing his arms. "She's even more stubborn than Frost!"

North ignored Jack's indignant proclamation of "Hey!" and faced the know-it-all pooka.

"Tis excellent point, Bunny," North said with a smirk. "Which is why we send you to retrieve Alice."

Bunny started with surprise and his eyes widened in disbelief. Jack laughed mockingly and pointed a finger at the stunned rabbit. It was funny to see the oversized rabbit get the short end of the stick.

Although, personally, he wouldn't mind seeing the real Wonderland for himself since he had already heard so much about it.

Jamie's mom would read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to Sophie every night. The little girl absolutely loved the book and was obsessed with the old animated Disney movie. Sometimes Jack would stick around Jamie's house on their family movie nights, and whenever it was Sophie's turn to pick the movie, she always picked Wonderland. So he was rather familiar with the story books, which was why it was hard for him to picture Alice as anything but the curious and blonde, little girl from the books.

The copy of the book in Jamie's home was really worn out. The boy said that his grandmother used to read it to his mom when she was a little girl. The old book was practically a family heirloom. Jack never knew a book could have such sentimental value, but he remembered seeing the cover once. On the front of the book was a large oak tree with a fat cat laying on one of its lower branches. The cat was smiling down at a small girl with blonde curls and a black ribbon tied neatly into a bow on the top of her head. She wore a cute, blue dress with a frilly white apron, white stockings, and shiny, black shoes.

The stories were silly, colorful and fun, and that was why children loved them so much, and Jack couldn't help but think, that if the books had existed when he was alive, his little sister would have loved them too.

"Me!? Why do I have to go?" Bunny shouted.

"Because, you've known her since she was a little girl," Tooth pointed out. "And you also still visit her, don't you? You know you're the only one she'll listen to."

"Maybe once or twice a year," Bunny mumbled. "But-"

"Stop being so difficult, Bunny," North laughed as he waved off Bunny's excuses.

The Sandman, who recently woke up from his nap, gently tugged on Bunny's boomerang holster before making a small cat out of dreamsand. He smirked knowingly up at the pooka. North looked at Sandy and laughed at the spirit's teasing antics.

"Or is Sandy right?" North asked coyly with a raised eyebrow. "Are you still afraid of the Cheshire Cat?"

"No!" Bunnymund snapped. "I was never afraid of that thing. Just very, very...cautious."

"Bunny is afraid of the Cheshire Cat?" Jack laughed. "No way! That's hilarious!"

Bunny was practically grinding his teeth in anger at the laughing Winter spirit. The Pooka did not like being teased. It also didn't help that North and Sandy were laughing too. Jack was laughing so hard he was holding his sides. The thought of big, bad Bunnymund, being afraid of a comically, fat cat with a stupid grin was just too much to handle. Even Tooth giggled behind her hand at Bunny's frustration.

"Have any of you blokes ever seen the real Cheshire Cat?" Bunny growled through clenched teeth. "No, of course you haven't, otherwise, you wouldn't be laughin'. It's bloody freaky lookin'!"

"Calm down, Bunny," North chuckled. "We are only teasing."

Bunny only grumbled and shot his friends a pointed glare. The room fell silent while the pooka thought over his options. Jack leaned back against a wooden pillar as he watched Bunny's face grow more serious with each passing second. If Bunny already knew Alice, why was he so reluctant to go get her? And why did Bunny know her so well while nobody else has seen her in over a century? Why hasn't Jack ever heard about her before? He couldn't say he personally knew every spirit living on Earth, but up until today, at the very least he always thought he knew who, and how many spirits, existed.

"Alright," Bunny sighed, finally giving in. It was probably for the best if he went by himself. Alice would definitely gut him like a fish if he brought total strangers into her Wonderland sanctuary. "I'll go talk to Alice. I'll try my best to convince her to come to the Pole, but I can't promise anythin'. And if by some unlikely chance she does come, Alice won't go anywhere outside this workshop without me."

"Yes, yes of course, Bunny," North nodded in understanding. "I know how much Alice's safety means to you. I wouldn't allow anything to harm her. You know this, my friend."

Confusion and interest sparked Jack's attention. It sounded like Bunny had a soft spot for this little girl. The new information only added to Jack's curiosity and the mystery of, Who was Alice Liddell?

'Very interesting,' The winter spirit mused to himself.

Bunny reached behind his shoulder and pulled something out of his boomerang holster; a tiny leather pouch. He opened the top and tilted the pouch over his open paw until a small, iridescent marble fell out. Jack watched with acute interest as Bunny tapped the ground twice with his big rabbit foot, summoning one of his tunnels before tossing the marble into it. For several moments nothing happened, but just when Jack was about to make a snarky comment, a bright blue light exploded from the hole, projecting an array of colors and lights like the portals created by North's snow globes.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Bunnymund promised with a nod towards the other guardians.

Without another word, the Easter Bunny jumped into the portal and the ground closed up behind him. No one but Jack seemed to be affected by the change in Bunny's tunnel, probably because the meeting had unofficially been dismissed. Jack sat on a nearby workshop table and looked around at the other guardians.

Sandy waved goodbye at them before he left to spread his dreamsand around the world. Tooth was off somewhere, most likely checking in with her little fairies and their teeth collecting, same as always. North was chastising a yeti for painting a stack of robots red and ordering the poor creature to re-paint all of them green. The yeti shouted out indignantly before banging his head on the table in frustration. North just chuckled, making his way past Jack. He had important toy making business to attend to in his office.

"Hey," Jack said, getting the large man's attention. "What was with the bag of marbles that Bunny had?"

"Oh, Jack. Everybody knows the only proper way to get to Wonderland is through a rabbit hole!" North laughed, patting Jack's shoulder like it was common knowledge. The Winter spirit stumbled forward from North's "gentle" pat and looked up at the friendly Russian with an annoyed expression on his pale face.

"Oh right, silly me," Jack smiled sarcastically as North walked off towards a nearby staircase. "That didn't exactly answer my question, but whatever."

Not even thirty seconds after North left, Jack realized that he was alone and unsupervised. None of the yetis were paying him any attention, so he stood up and brushed off his blue hoodie, readjusting his grip on his staff.

"I wonder where that toy airplane went."

~O~

Bunny hated traveling to Wonderland through his tunnels.

The bag of marbles was a little gift Alice gave him a long time ago, allowing the pooka complete access to Wonderland whenever he wanted. They opened into a portal when one was smashed against the ground, similar to North's snow globes,or dropped into one of his tunnels. The trip through the infamous Wonderland rabbit hole wasn't a very pleasant one in Bunny's opinion, but he was used to it.

When traveling through the portal, one would find themselves falling down through a sea of blurred colors. Then, as they neared the end, they would pass by clocks, books, furniture, and giant-sized toys before finally hitting a blinding light. When the light cleared, the rabbit hole traveler would find themselves approaching the ground below at a less dangerous pace. Granted, they would still be falling, but once they hit the ground, depending on how they landed, they might only get a bruise or two.

Bunny has traveled to Wonderland so many times before, he could now easily maneuver himself in the air and land on his feet. His first trip to Wonderland was a different story. He nearly broke his ankle the first time.

Bunny landed on a patch of green grass in the area he came to recognize as the Vale of Tears. The Vale was one of Alice's favorite places in Wonderland, it only made sense that the rabbit hole would open there. The forest was littered with over-sized dominoes, marbles, and the occasional giant snowglobe. Animals of mixed species went along with their usual business, not paying Bunny any piece of mind. The only things that seemed to acknowledge him were the colossal snails with large oak trees growing on the back of their shells. They looked down at the Easter Bunny with their long, beady eyes as he made his way through the Vale.

The gray pooka sniffed the air, trying to pick up Alice's scent, only to sigh in frustration when he came up with nothing. There were so many different areas of Wonderland Alice could be in and Bunny didn't have the will, nor the time, to check them all. That could take him days. His best option would be to find someone, or something, that could tell him where to find the girl, or at least narrow his search a little.

The problem was, nobody in Wonderland was exactly what he would call "sane". It was a nightmare trying to get anything useful from them.

Bunny searched through the Vale for someone who could help. Eventually, he came to a fork in the path he was walking along. He sniffed the air deeply, gauging the split paths in front of him before wincing. The left side of the fork had a strong scent of pepper coming from it, causing Bunny to groan at the thought of encountering the mean and ugly Duchess. The ogre once tried to make pooka soup out of him, a couple of decades ago. He narrowly managed to escape by throwing an exploding Easter egg in her face.

Nothing could get Bunny to go anywhere near the Duchess' deadly kitchen again. He shuddered at the very thought as he quickly made his way down the right side of the path, but came to a skidding halt when he spotted a hybrid lemur with bright, colorful parrot wings where a normal lemur would have gangly arms. The creature was perched up in a tree, toying around with some kind of nut, sniffing it and trying to figure out how to crack it open.

"Uh, 'scuse me," Bunny called up the tree where the lemur-parrot sat on a high branch.

The lemur's ears perked up at Bunny's voice and it looked down at him. It eyed him warily, taking in his tall stature and the weapon holster wrapped around his chest.

"What'd ya want?" the creature asked in something akin to a Brooklyn accent.

Bunny blinked in surprise at the lemur's voice. Usually the beings living in Wonderland had English accents like Alice. Occasionally there was some deviation, like the section of Wonderland made up of an origami ant population who spoke with Japanese accents. But Bunny has never heard someone in Wonderland speak with an accent even remotely close to an American one. Mainly because they were Alice's creations and Alice has never really been exposed to very much North American culture. Regardless though, he pushed away the thought. He knew better than to question Alice's bizarre creations. He would undoubtedly receive a splitting headache for his efforts.

"I'm lookin' for Alice," Bunny said. "Have you seen her?"

"Hmm, Alice eh?" The lemur mused in a nasally, obnoxious voice that only added to his accent before hanging upside down by his tail. "Pretty lil' thing with black hair, right?"

The gray pooka nodded.

"Blue dress? Black boots?"

Bunny scowled impatiently but nodded again. He could never just get a straight answer from these things.

"Green eyes? Small waist? Nice rac-"

"Hey!" Bunny snapped.

Not only did he not have the time to play twenty questions, but nobody talked about Alice like that in front of the Easter Bunny. Not unless they wanted their teeth kicked in. The lemur howled in fright when Bunny reached for his boomerangs strapped to his back. He held up his wings in surrender as he cowered behind the long feathers.

"Have you seen Alice or not?" He growled.

"Geez! Calm down!" The lemur yelped. "Sorry! It's just...outsiders never come 'round 'ere. I was only funnin' with ya. Alice is down by the first stop of the Lookin' Glass Line. It's not far from here, just keep followin' the path. Ya can't miss it!"

Bunny didn't bother thanking the annoying pest before taking his leave. Wonderland humor was always crude like that, so he wasn't surprised at all by the hybrid's remarks. But that didn't mean he was just going to sit back and listen, not when it was disrespectful towards Alice. That bag of feathers and fur was lucky that the Easter Bunny was there on an important mission, otherwise, the pooka would've skinned himself a new hat.

Not wasting anymore time, Bunny picked up the pace as he started running down the path on all fours until he eventually hit a small cliff that overlooked a small, broken down train stop. Bunny quickly hopped off the cliff and landed on the ground below, his green eyes surveying the deserted area.

Unlike the rest of the Vale of Tears, the railroad stop was bare of all plant life. The train tracks were broken apart and the edges hung over a bottomless drop into a cloudy unknown. Large patches of the dirt ground were scorched black, ugly scars from the black ooze that once plagued Wonderland over a hundred years ago.

Alice once told Bunny that the black ooze had been part of the Dollmaker's Siege, and that even after all these years, she was still cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, she almost had all the nasty stuff cleared away from Wonderland. She didn't usually like talking about that incident though, mainly because she was still human at the time and Alice's time as a human was rarely ever brought up. He didn't know much about the siege, but he did know that it was a very touchy subject for her, much like a lot of things when it came to the short-tempered girl.

Bunny met Alice when she was only four years old. He had stumbled across her while he was hiding eggs for Easter that year in a local Oxford park. She was sitting all alone, crying her eyes out. And since he hated seeing girls cry, especially the little ones, he hopped over to her and placed three, brightly colored eggs next to her. Bunny hadn't expected her to be able to see him, but to his surprise, Alice looked up at him with tear-filled green eyes.

Their interaction had been...odd, to say the very least. He asked her why she was crying on such a bright, sunny day, but she didn't answer him, and for a while, Bunny thought she was mute like Sandy. Her behavior towards him was even stranger. It was what kept Bunny from completely brushing off their brief meeting as soon as he returned to his Warren. He even started visiting her on a regular basis. For the next two years, Bunny found himself enlisting Alice's help to hide Easter eggs around her neighborhood and the nearby park. He never took her too far from home, but Alice didn't seem to mind. She just loved it when the six-foot rabbit came to visit her.

Then when Alice was seven, the fire happened. He stayed by her side for a whole year while she was healing in Littlemore Infirmary, but he unfortunately lost track of her when she was transferred from the hospital's care. He looked for her everywhere, and despite his best efforts, he couldn't find her. He didn't end up seeing her again until about twenty-two years after the night of the fire. He remembered their reunion just as clearly as he remembered their first meeting. It was both awkward, and heartwarming.

Bunny quickly shook away the memories. He needed to focus on the task at hand. The others were waiting back at the Pole.

He sighed in frustration when it became obvious that the winged primate had pointed him in the wrong direction. He briefly considered going back and giving the feather-brained monkey a piece of his mind, but decided against it. If it had anything remotely resembling a brain in its skull, the annoying lemur would be long gone by now.

Bunny had covered a large majority of the Vale at that point and he figured it would probably be best if he moved on to another section of Wonderland.

'Maybe I should check the Red Kingdom,' Bunny thought as he looked at the broken railroad tracks. 'Alice seems to-'

The Easter Bunny almost jumped at the sudden sound of a familiar, accented voice.

"Mr. Bunnymund?"

Chapter Text

A hundred and thirty-nine years ago, Alice Liddell was nineteen years old when people stopped seeing her and she became invisible to the world around her.

Even after all these years, she could still recall the day of her "disappearance" with stunning clarity. It was the sort of thing one never forgets. It was the day she had confronted her family's killer at the Moorgate Train Station in jolly Ol' London, England. Alice exposed Dr. Angus Bumby for the grotesque monster he truly was, the dark part of him that he so effortlessly hid from his fellow patrons.

Oh yes, he was quite the actor. Remarkably good at hiding that less than savory side of him from the public's eye. But despite his best efforts, he couldn't prevent Alice from eventually uncovering the truth, and when she did, she made sure he paid for what he had done. Not just for her and her family's pain, but for the pain of all those innocent children whose lives were ruined by that wicked man's selfish actions and complete disregard for human life.

There was a brief investigation of Bumby's death, but it was over before it could really began. There was a considerable lack of evidence to suggest a crime had been committed and an even larger shortage of public outcry for Bumby's supposed killer to be brought to justice. When it came to East End murders, the London police force turned rather apathetic, regardless of who was involved. They concluded very early on that the doctor must have been standing too close to the tracks when the train was approaching the station, and had inadvertently lost his balance and fell. They ruled Dr. Bumby, "dead by misadventure".

The irony almost made Alice laugh.

Unfortunately, the truth about the fire and Dr. Bumby's illegal activities disappeared along with Alice, and she was immediately labeled as a runaway after the constable cleared her as a possible murder suspect. There was a small search for her since she was still considered an unstable mental patient, but it didn't last very long. Everybody assumed she either left the city, or was rotting in a gutter somewhere speaking nonsense. Only her nanny bothered to keep looking for her, a sentiment that flattered Alice greatly when she found out, but when the old ladybird eventually gave up too, she didn't blame her. Nan Sharpe had already been descending into an advanced age when Alice disappeared, so it didn't come as a surprised when the woman finally grew too tired to keep searching. Her death followed only a few short years afterwards.

The Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth was closed down soon after Dr. Bumby's death and the children were sent to other orphanages throughout London and the surrounding countryside.

Occasionally, Alice would still look back on the children she used to care for at the orphanage and hoped that they were able to get some real help and live out the rest of their lives in peace. The truth may still be buried underneath countless lies, but at least Angus Bumby wasn't able to harm another child again. With time and proper care, his many victims would heal.

As for Alice, even after seemingly disappearing into thin air, she slowly started to become a local legend around London. Bits of gossip about a mad, young woman who saw and heard things that weren't really there, somehow turned into something else entirely. Stories of a curious little girl who fell into a rabbit hole and landed in magical place called Wonderland, started to surface. Then one day, many years after Alice had disappeared, a writer by the name of Charles Dodgson, overheard an old woman telling a group of children a story about one of little Alice's adventures. The stories intrigued him and he was inspired to write more, further changing Alice's true appearance and tragic backstory into a series of more pleasant and whimsical tales - forever cementing little Alice as one of history's most iconic pieces of literal ever created.

As time moved on, and the books of "Lewis Carroll" were published, everyone eventually forgot about the real Alice Liddell; the small, dark-haired girl and the tragedy she went through when she was just eight years old. Understandably, no one wanted to read a story about a girl who lost her family in a horrible fire and went insane because of it. Her real life story was much too dark and gruesome for children. It was evidence of a darker side of history and the real Alice Liddell was an unpleasant remnant of Victorian London during the Industrial Revolution.

Yes, it hurt tremendously, having to watch the true memory of her family and herself be forgotten so easily, but Alice knew it was all for the best.

The moment she had turned back around to face Dr. Bumby for the last time, before pushing him on to the train tracks and avenging all the lives he had ruined, Alice became invisible to the real world. For awhile, she tried to get people to see her, even though it was obvious no one ever would. The girl was invisible to everybody in London, and quite possibly, the whole world as far as she was aware. But somehow, Alice found herself content with that. She didn't like other people very much anyways.

Without the ability to change her situation, Alice could only sit back and watch as her story was turned into something loved by many children, and she came to realize that she didn't mind that at all. In fact, she believed it was better that way. The books just served as a reminder that her life as a human wasn't completely pointless. Something very good came from it all.

Her Wonderland was able to become good again in the hearts of millions of children, just like it was before the fire destroyed everything.

After about ten years of wandering aimlessly around England, unseen by everybody, Alice descended back into her Wonderland and planned to never return to the real world. She had outgrown her birth realm and the people inside it. There was nothing left for her there and she failed to see any point in lingering in a world that only ever caused her pain and misery. She was given a new existence, one that she believed belonged exclusively to Wonderland.

And now, here she stood, facing her oldest friend and the only connection she had left to the outside world.

"Mr. Bunnymund?" Alice blinked curiously.

She wasn't expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny so soon. He usually came much later in the year.

The gray pooka quickly whipped around in surprise at the sound of the woman's voice. Alice stood across the way in her classic blue, Wonderland dress and white apron. She didn't have any of her weapons on her that he could see, but Bunny knew that they had a habit of materializing out of nowhere when Alice needed them. She could never use them on him, though. He was the only friend that Alice had who wasn't a product of her wild imagination, and that was one of the many reasons why Bunny meant the most to her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "A spontaneous visit like this isn't very characteristic of you."

"Do I really need a reason to visit my favorite lil' ankle-biter?" Bunny asked while crossing his arms. "You don't sound very excited to see me."

Bunny tried to look insulted but they both knew he was only joking. The only time Bunny was ever truly upset with Alice was when the girl purposely put herself in harm's way. During those situations, the pooka acted more like a furious father rather than a disappointed friend. He couldn't help it. Alice could be very reckless sometimes and she nearly gives Bunny a heart attack every time she gets herself into trouble. Which of course happened a lot in Wonderland.

"You know I am always happy to see you," Alice smiled as she placed her hand over her heart to show her sincerity. "But this isn't just a social call, is it? You are a very habitational creature, Mr. Bunnymund. You rarely ever pay me unexpected visits unless something is bothering you."

"I wish it were just a visit, but I have some news for you," Bunny sighed. He had almost forgotten how observant Alice could be, of course she would pick up on his unease and suspect something as soon as he showed up. She would never miss details like that.

"I certainly hope it isn't bad news."

"Oh no! Of course not," He insisted, not completely sure if he was telling the truth or not. "It's just news. Could be good or bad, dependin' on how you look at it, I guess...can we go somewhere else and talk? This place is kinda depressin' me a little."

Alice's sharp, green eyes slowly scanned the scorched and stained area around them. Her pink lips pursed in thought before she nodded her head in agreement. Her heart clenched with guilt due to the state her beloved train station was in. She felt terrible for not restoring the Looking Glass Line sooner, but because of that Infernal Train, Alice still wasn't entirely comfortable around trains, even after a hundred and thirty years. And to be perfectly honest, she never really liked trains to begin with.

'Perhaps the Looking Glass Line will be my next clean-up project. It'll certainly be a challenge,' She mused. 'Father loved trains .'

"I agree," She said out loud, this time to Bunnymund. "Let's go."

~O~

When Alice returned to the Red Kingdom soon after defeating the Dollmaker, she found it empty. Supposedly after the Dollmaker's demise, the Red Queen fled from her kingdom and went into hiding. Alice had her suspicions that the queen fled mainly because the Wonderland heroine stomped on her almighty executioner to death. The queen must have believed that she was at risk now that her wicked giant wasn't guarding the Red Kingdom anymore. Or maybe perhaps Alice had outgrown the Red Queen as well and the unpleasant creature finally took the hint and buggered off.

Regardless of the queen's motives, Alice decided to occupy the empty kingdom and make it her own. All the red tentacles disappeared along with the Red Queen, but the kingdom was still in ruin. Insidious ruins and black ooze still lurked around the land when Alice moved in and she quickly had them disposed of. The kingdom walls still had their scars, however as a whole, the castle was a much more pleasant place to live and it quickly became Alice's home and headquarters in Wonderland. She even took down most of the kingdom's previous red decorations, and replaced them with blue ones. She was contemplating on renaming the land, the Blue Kingdom, but she hadn't gotten around to officially changing the name yet. It wasn't exactly one of her top priorities at the moment.

The past one hundred and thirty years were mainly spent clearing away the black ooze pollution. Reconstruction of the different sections of Wonderland didn't come until later. Places like the Hatter's Domain and the Dreary Lane Theatre were taken care of personally by their owners. The Origami Ants were also doing a good job of cleaning up their land on their own with only a little help from Alice, and occasionally, Caterpillar. After Alice had freed them from the tyranny of the samurai wasps, the ants insisted on learning the ways of self-reliance. She was quite proud of this decision and supported it wholeheartedly.

Alice and Bunny walked down a long corridor that led out into the old garden labyrinth. Alice's blue wonderland dress had shifted and changed into her black and red royal dress the moment they stepped off the Card Bridge. Bunny looked around at the most recent improvements that were made to the Red Kingdom.

"Are these new?" He asked, referring to the mosaic windows with playing card decorations on them. They lined along the corridor and gave the newly blue, carpeted floor a beautiful glow.

Alice turned to look back at Bunny, but didn't stop walking. She was a little apprehensive about the pooka's sudden visit. Normally, she would be delighted to show off her kingdom's most recent renovations to her oldest (if not her only)friend, but she had an uneasy feeling boiling in the pit of her stomach. At the moment, Alice just wanted to reach her beautiful garden, not chat about the bloody windows that Bunny failed to notice the time he visited.

"New enough," Alice said tautly. "The garden is just up ahead."

Five minutes later, the two friends were deep within the garden's labyrinth. The tall hedge walls were alive and green again and covered in both red and white roses. The garden was certainly looking better than it was before, when every plant was either dead, or on the verge of dying. Alice had everything restored almost immediately when she took over the kingdom, filling the maze with an array of different flowers, making it look like a near reconstruction of the Garden of Eden. Animal and bug life had followed swiftly after, populating the area with butterflies, bumblebees, and hybrid species of squirrels and bluebirds.

Bunny smirked as he saw a couple of undead Card Guards watering a patch of over-sized daisies. The gruesome creatures looked almost ridiculous, but he supposed he should count himself lucky that they weren't trying to attack him, like they used to when he first started visiting Wonderland, before Alice told them that he was off-limits.

They stood there growling in their own, fragmented language, occasionally shoving each other as they watered the flowers. Alice once told him that when she returned to cleanup the kingdom, she came across a whole deck's worth of leftover card guards, trapped deep within the ruins of the Red Kingdom. When they weren't under the heavy rule of the Red Queen, the stoney creatures were actually quite passive. They lacked a purpose though, since their former queen abandoned them, so Alice allowed them to helped her run the kingdom. They were the same to Alice as the yetis were to North, except only ten times more creepy looking.

"So, what is this news that you are choosing to be so cryptic about?" Alice asked while holding her arms behind her back.

Bunny took a deep breath before slowly exhaling through his nose. The pooka was trying think of a good way to tell Alice about what had happened at the North Pole. If he didn't handle the situation carefully enough, she would never agree to come back. Usually, she wasn't very difficult to deal with. The dark-haired spirit only went on the defensive whenever he tried to talk about her returning to the outside world. Not that Bunny could blame the girl, her old world treated her like garbage.

"The Man in the Moon chose a new guardian," Bunny said, cautiously testing the waters.

"Yes, you told me already," Alice smiled even though she was starting to get annoyed.

She hated it when Bunny tried to pretend everything was alright when he was around her. She wasn't stupid. Alice knew that Bunny didn't act like that around anybody else except for her. In his world, he was blunt and brutally honest with others and she hated that the pooka felt he had to censor his attitude just because she was too sensitive and needed special treatment. Alice was a big girl. She was more than capable of handling rough treatment and biting insults. "That boy who makes a mess of your Easter egg hunts every year. What was his name again?"

Alice stopped next to a large rosebush and started picking dead leaves from it. Bunny's nose curled up and his ears twitched in annoyance at the thought of the white-haired troublemaker.

"Jack Frost," He mumbled, but not with as much distaste as he would have used two years ago. "But that was a while ago. I meant the Man in the Moon chose a new guardian just recently...and when I say recently, I mean he chose one...today."

Alice halted her movements and shifted her eyes towards Bunny with a dead rose stem held between her gloved fingers.

"And you rushed over here so quickly to tell me this, why?" She said in a near whisper, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. She wanted him to stop talking now. For once, she didn't want to hear anymore of what he had to say.

"Because...the Man in the Moon chose you, kiddo," Bunny sighed in defeat. "He wants you to be the new guardian."

"So, you've come here to bring me back?" Alice asked with forced calmness. "Is that your intention?"

Bunny's ears dipped down as he noticed how her fingers tightened around the dead rose stem in her hand. The thorns bit painfully into her palm. She didn't want to be angry with her friend, but he should know better than to say such things to her. Alice has always dreaded that one day, something beyond her control would happen and she would be forced to leave her Wonderland and return to the outside world. And she had the distinct feeling the day had finally come.

"Now Alice, calm down," Bunny spoke gently.

Outwardly, she didn't look too upset, but one didn't exactly have to know Alice Liddell very long to figure out that she could change moods faster than he could hop, which was pretty damn fast.

"It is, isn't it!" Alice snapped. "Well, you can forget about it! I won't be leaving my Wonderland, so you go tell your "Man in the Moon" to pick someone else to do his slop work because I'm nobody's labor mule!"

"Alice, it doesn't work like that," Bunny shook his head. "And he's not just my Man in the Moon. He's responsible for all our existences: me, North, Tooth, Sandy, Jack, and you too."

Alice shook her head against his words as she tried to block out the horrid voices that begun to echo inside her head. She wasn't listening to Bunny anymore. That stupid rhyme had started playing inside her head again, dominating all other sounds. That stupid rhyme the children at the orphanage would recite like a bloody mantra!

"The train is coming with its shiny cars. With comfy seats and wheels of stars. So hush my little ones, have no fear. The Man in the Moon is the engineer."

Alice tried to push away the painful memories by remembering how she had the Dollmaker's Workshop torn down after she had returned to Wonderland. How she stood off in the distance, watching as the God forsaken structure crashed to the ground and burned uncontrollably until there was nothing left except for a broken mountain of scorched and rotted wood.

Whenever Bunny brought up the Man in the Moon, Alice's mind immediately thought of the Dollmaker - not of the kind and powerful entity that watched over and guided the guardians.

"Alice, please come back with me," Bunny implored. "At least come meet North and the other guardians."

Alice shook her head again and turned her back to him, as if that would make him go away. "No. Absolutely not. I refuse to return to that wicked world!"

Bunny reached out a paw to touch Alice's shoulder in comfort, but stopped short when an unpleasant shiver ran down his spine and he suddenly felt several pairs of eyes on him. His tall ears perked up in alertness as he glanced around to see the card guards glaring at him through empty eye sockets, not looking the least bit happy with him. The cards guards weren't very smart creatures, on account that they were literally brain dead, but they could clearly see that the outsider was upsetting their kind new queen.

Bunny shifted uneasily while his paw slowly reached for his boomerang, just in case the creatures decided to charge him. Alice turned back around when she noticed the sudden rising tension. She raised her gloved hands at her guards and gestured for them to calm themselves.

At her signal, the card guards growled among themselves and went back to tending the maze garden, occasionally throwing empty glares in the Easter Bunny's direction.

"Bunny," Alice sighed, dropping the formalities. "There must be some mistake. The Guardians protect and bring joy to children. I don't bring joy, and I'm most certainly not anybody's protector."

"What do ya mean you don't bring joy to children? What about your books?"

"Their not my books, Bunny. Not entirely. I inspired them, but I didn't not create them," Alice argued, she hated it when the Alice in Wonderland books were brought up in conversation. "And that's all they are - books. Fairytales do not dictate my thoughts and actions, just as they don't dictate yours."

"Alice, the Man in the Moon doesn't just randomly pick someone to be a Guardian," Bunny tried to explain to her, needing to make her understand. "Each guardian has somethin' special inside of them, somethin' that makes them a Guardian. Now, I'm not gonna lie. I have no idea why the Man in the Moon chose you, but this very important, Alice. I need you to come back with me. You know I would never ask you to do this unless it was serious."

Alice looked down at her boots in thought before walking towards a nearby gazebo. She crossed her arms and leaned against the railing of the small structure, ignoring the gray pooka as he came up behind her.

"If you can't even figure out why he wants me, then how am I supposed to? How is that supposed to convince me to do anything? What make me so special?" Alice asked while staring off at something Bunny couldn't see.

Bunny couldn't hold back a surprised bark of laughter. It amazed him every time that the girl couldn't see just how wonderful she truly was. She could see the wonder and beauty in so many things, except in herself. When she turned that attention to detail and that eye for beauty towards herself, Alice could never see anything worthwhile.

"Are ya kiddin' me? Look around you, sheila!" Bunny exclaimed, gesturing to the world around them by spreading out his arms. "Look at all this! You created it all with pure imagination and you're askin' me what makes you so special? We seriously need to get your eyes checked, mate."

Alice didn't say anything, but Bunny could tell that his words were starting to work. He chuckled and shook his head. Alice could be the sweetest girl around, but get on her bad side, she could be someone's worse bloody nightmare. And despite being over a hundred years old, she could still throw child-sized tantrums sometimes.

Bunny's internal clock started to tell him that it was getting late at the North Pole, so he decided to throw caution to the wind and hope it didn't blow up in his furry face.

"Look," He started gently. "Come with me to the Pole and meet the other guardians. We'll just be goin' to the North Pole and I'll be behind you every step of the way. If you don't like it, then...then I'll bring you back here. I promise."

"I thought I couldn't say "no" to being a guardian," Alice smiled softly.

Bunny laughed, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Well, that's not entirely true. No one can force you to take the Guardian Oath...but it would certainly make all our lives easier if we could. It's a decision you have ta' make on your own."

"And what if something bad happens while we're up there?"

Bunny placed both paws on Alice's shoulders and turned her towards him so he could look her in the eyes. Alice blinked at the pooka as a deep sense of determination and promise filled his forest green eyes.

"I will never let anything bad happen to you," He swore. "Not ever again."

Alice's own green eyes immediately softened and her hand came up to fondly pet the pooka's muzzle, and Bunny responded by leaning into the touch. Memories of those happy Easter Sundays when she was still an innocent child, flooded her mind.

"The fire happened during winter, nowhere near Easter. You couldn't have realized what was happening and come to our aid quick enough for it to have mattered," Alice whispered. "It wasn't your fault."

Naturally, the bad memories followed quickly behind. They always did.

"It wasn't yours either," Bunny added.

Before any tears could escape her eyes, Alice wrapped her arms around Bunny's chest and buried her face in his soft, gray fur. Bunny smiled and returned the hug. Even before becoming a spirit, Alice rarely displayed such acts of affection to anyone, but the Easter Bunny was always special.

"So, what do ya say, kiddo?" Bunny asked with a smirk. "Are you ready to meet the craziest bunch of wallabies ever?"

Chapter Text

"Hey, Tooth?"

The fairy stopped her rapid chattering with her mini-fairies at the sound of the winter spirit's voice. She looked over at Jack from her perch on the main fireplace mantle. He was sitting near the globe's control panel with Baby Tooth and his trademark staff nearby. In his pale hands was the remote controller for the jumbo-sized airplane. Strands of his white hair hung loosely in front of his eyes as he examined the controller, trying to figure out the controls.

"Yes, Jack?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Tooth smiled as she flew over to him, her wings making that hummingbird chime. "What's on your mind?"

"What's with Bunny and Alice Little?" He asked.

"Liddell," Tooth corrected before shrugging her shoulders. "Well, that's kind of a long story. Where should I start?"

"The beginning is always a good place," Jack said, finally taking his eyes off the remote controller.

"Don't get smart with me, Jack Frost," Tooth lightly scolded. She crossed her feathered arms in a slight huff, but there was an obvious smile in her voice. "As I'm sure you know, as Guardians, we protect the children of the world and guard their faith. We watch over every single child no matter who they are, or where they come from. We try to care for all the children equally, but there's always one special child that comes along and a Guardian sometimes ends up forming a strong, personal bond with that child."

"Kinda like me and Jamie?"

"Exactly like you and Jamie," Tooth nodded. "Each one of us has, at one time or another, formed a special bond with a child, and for Bunny, Alice was his child."

Jack's eyebrows raised in slight interest. It was hard for him to imagine Bunnymund having a relationship with a child similar to the one he had with Jamie. Jack cared for all the children in the world, but he knew that Jamie would leave an everlasting impression on him. Jamie was the first kid to believe in him, after all. After the incident with Pitch Black, Jack quickly found himself falling into the role of big brother again. During the colder seasons, he spent a lot of his time playing with and showing off his powers to Jamie and his friends. He became the leader and the protector of his little band of misfits.

Whenever Jamie had a math test he forgot to study for, Jack would freeze the school doors shut so Jamie could have a little extra time before class to cram information. And whenever a bully decided to torment Jamie or any of his friends, Jack was there, ready to bury the bully in a pile of snow slush from the roads. He wasn't allowed to hurt a child, of course, not that he ever would, but he couldn't see the harm in teaching a few nasty ones some manners. If anything, he was doing North a favor by "helping" a couple of naughty children be a little nicer to their smaller classmates.

So again, it was hard for Jack to imagine ol' stick-in-the-mud Bunnymund acting the same way Jack did with Jamie; like an older brother.

He looked over at Tooth. "Do you remember your child?"

"Oh, of course! You never forget children like that," Tooth smiled with a gleam in her pink eyes. "I remember little Aasha like it was yesterday."

Jack put down the airplane remote and shifted in his seat. A handful of Tooth's mini-fairies flew down and landed on Jack's hoodie, they sensed a story coming on. He chuckled at the fairies as they rushed to get comfortable. Tooth rolled her eyes and smiled before she took a seat next to Jack on the control panel.

"It was a little over four hundred years ago, before I stopped going out into field. I didn't have as many fairies then so I was doing a lot of the tooth runs by myself. It was a typical lateral incisor run. I pushed open the window and snuck in as quietly as possible. Her curly hair was all over the place and she was tucked under a colorful quilt, sleeping so peacefully. Well, at least I thought she was sleeping. She was a lot like Jamie when he used to try and stay up late so he could see the Tooth Fairy, the little scamp. Believe me, tons of children try to play possum so they can see me, but they always end up falling asleep anyways. So it surprised me when she popped up like a daisy when I went to get her tooth from underneath the pillow. We just stared at each other before Aasha gave me the most triumphant smile I have ever seen on a nine year old! She immediately started asking me a million questions, talking a mile a minute."

Jack watched as Tooth got lost in her memories. He always saw the Guardians in a different light when they talked about the children. It was like watching someone flip on a switch. They would turn from these super busy stiffs, and into spirits that were actually fun to be around. His friends were once so busy with their gift-giving duties, they had almost forgotten how to be around children. When Sophie was accidentally transported to Bunny's warren, they had no idea how to handle her. Tooth gave a valiant and noble effort, but she probably ended up scarring Sophie for life, just a little bit.

If someone asked him, Jack thought it was much more important to be able to play and interact with the children, instead of bribing them with material gifts. But that was just his opinion. Jack Frost didn't need toys or candy to help him make things entertaining for their young wards. He was the Guardian of Fun after all.

Then again, children believed in the other Guardians more than they did in him, so maybe the others were on to something here. To Jack's knowledge, only Jamie and a handful of his friends truly believed in him. And even though he was extremely grateful for those few believers, it still depressed him from time to time. However, the feeling never lasted that long. Dwelling on the negatives of his situation constantly just wasn't in Jack's personality.

He also took comfort in the fact that it was like that for every Guardian at first. It took a little time for a spirit to become well-known, some longer than others, like himself. 'Rome was not built in single day!' North once told him. 'Do not worry Jack. Things will get better for you. I can feel it, in my belly!'

"Even after all these years I still remember her beautiful smile," Tooth said, finishing her story and the mini-fairies all started clapping. Jack chuckled before he joined in too. He felt bad for letting his mind wander a little during her story. He didn't do it on purpose, his attention span was just really short for an immortal eighteen year old.

"So what happened to Aasha?" Jack asked after the small fairies calmed down. "Did you know her for the rest of her life?"

"Yes, but sadly she didn't know me," Tooth sighed. "The last time I talked to Aasha was when she was thirteen."

"Really? What happened?"

"The same thing that happens to all children eventually," She said while giving him a small, sad smile. "She grew up."

"She stopped believing in you?"

Tooth nodded and looked down at her tiny feet. "I guess someone must've convinced her that I was just imaginary, or maybe she convinced herself. It happens to the best of them at some point."

Jack slowly blinked before he looked over at the fairy. "I'm sorry, Tooth."

"Oh, it's alright," She smiled again, wiping away a single tear from her cheek. "Aasha grew up to be a strong, beautiful woman with a wonderful family. She had a very happy life and that's all I ever wanted for her. And even though we couldn't talk anymore, I still checked up on her from time to time. The most important thing was that I was always there for her, even if she wasn't aware of it."

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down at the remote controller in his pale hands.

"Do you think the same thing will happen with Jamie?" He asked. "The part about him forgetting me, I mean."

Tooth laughed. "After the adventure you guys had together? Never! I don't think anyone could ever forget about you, Jack Frost. Jamie will grow up one day and there's no way to avoid that, but becoming an adult doesn't mean he has to stop believing in us. He will always be able to see you Jack, if he's willing to believe you're there. I want you both to remember that."

"Thanks Tooth," Jack smiled. "I will."

Tooth was about to get up and go back to work when she noticed the uneasiness in Jack's expression and the hesitation in his icy blue eyes. He had more on his mind.

Out of all the Guardians, Jack knew the least about Bunny. He even knew more about Sandy, which was unbelievable since Sandy could only use sand signals to communicate. The cranky rabbit had his life story locked up so tight in his head, there was no way Jack could trick him into accidentally spilling something interesting about himself. Jack was a very curious person, always has been and always will be.

"What was Bunny like with Alice?"

Tooth was thrown by the question. Jack could be immature at times, and oblivious to other people and their needs if they got in the way of his fun, but he wasn't stupid, not by any means. He was able to pick up on the smallest things even if there was barely any information provided.

Tooth herself was only aware of the basic facts about Alice Liddell's life and her relationship with Bunny, and North and Sandy probably didn't know much more than she did either. However, they did know that Bunny's choice to separate himself from the children was mostly because of what happened to Alice and his failure to help her. He never wanted to get too attached to a child ever again. When Bunny played with Sophie while they were preparing the Easter eggs two years ago, that was the first time in a long time that Tooth had seen Bunny let go and act like his old self again.

Tooth and North didn't have a good excuse explaining why they had become so detached physically from the children, other than that they had become too wrapped up in their jobs. Sandy was a different story. He has been the same old Sandman for centuries. Even though he constantly had to fly around the world and spread dreams almost non-stop, he always found the time to stop and spin an extra special dream for a child who really needed it.

Bunny, however, was the only one who chose to pull away. It was a decision that nearly made him sick, but he felt that it was something he had to do. He was determined to never feel responsible for not preventing a tragedy of a child again. But Bunny would still leave a couple of extra Easter Eggs for a child who was being left out of the Easter Egg hunt, or make an egg easier to find for another child who was having trouble finding any before his friends.

No matter how physically distant the Guardians got from the children, they never stopped doing the small stuff. Tooth never stop giving out coins of higher value to the kids that were extra good, and North and Bunny never stopped leaving extra gifts for the children from struggling families. It was the small stuff that kept the faith alive in children even when they couldn't see the Guardians.

But going back to Jack's question, Tooth wasn't entirely sure how sensitive this whole Alice situation still was to Bunny. There used to be times where Bunny would snapped at anyone for even mentioning the girl's name. Tooth knew that he probably wouldn't appreciate her telling someone about his supposed past failings, especially if that someone was Jack Frost. Bunnymund was a very private rabbit.

"He was truly the Spirit of Spring when he was with Alice," Tooth eventually said, her voice cracking a little. "The way you saw him two years ago with Sophie, that was nothing compared to how he used to be. I know that it's hard to see him as anyone other than grumpy old Bunnymund, but believe me when I say, he wasn't always like that."

"What changed?" Jack asked. He listened to everything Tooth said at this point, hanging on her every word. She was right, it was hard for him to see Bunny differently from the pooka's usual cranky demeanor.

Tooth sighed as her wings lifted and hummed, pulling her up into the air. Her fairies reluctantly flew off Jack's hoodie at their leader's silent command for them to follow. The soft wisps of air from all those beating wings made Jack's hair blow into his face, tickling his skin. Tooth didn't want to sound too cryptic because of Jack's curiosity, but she knew it wouldn't be right to tell him the straight truth.

"I can't really say, but I hope nothing like it will ever happen to you and Jamie, or any other child for that matter," She hoped that Jack would pick up on the hint to stop prying, which he did. She looked up at the workshop's skylight that revealed the beautiful moon. "Bunny will be back soon, and hopefully with Alice. I should get back to work."

The two guardians exchanged a temporary goodbye before Tooth flew off towards another section of the workshop to regroup with the rest of her fairies. Baby Tooth chose to stay behind and sit on Jack's shoulder. She let out a worried squeak when she noticed the perplexed expression on the winter spirit's face. Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Baby Tooth tugging on his hoodie string. The mini fairy hovered a few inches from his face with the blue string in her tiny hands.

"I'm fine, Baby Tooth," He said, giving her a reassuring smile. "I was just thinking."

He still had more questions than answers, but he decided to let it go for now. Today had been both physically, and mentally exhausting for him. The real reason he was late to the meeting wasn't because of traffic, as shocking as one might find it. Jack just got a little distracted. He gave the North side of the United States a little early snowfall, even though he promised the other Guardians, more specifically Bunny, that he wouldn't cause any more unseasonal winter weather. But Jack just couldn't help himself sometimes.

During the warm seasons, Jack usually stayed either at the North Pole, or at his "domain" in Antarctica. His makeshift home in the icy desert consisted of only a large, artfully constructed ice cave that he had carved into a glacier a few years back, and a seemingly endless amount of penguins. The penguins were fun to play around with, and surprisingly better at Poker than he initially thought they would be, but Jack was a people person. He got bored easily when he was alone. While he was making his way to the Pole, Jack noticed that some of the states were cold enough for a little snow. He didn't cause that much snow to fall, only enough for a decent snowball fight. The snow would melt by morning at the very latest.

Jack reached over and picked up the controller for the jumbo sized airplane. The plane wasn't big enough for him to be able to ride in it, but that didn't take away any of the fun from the fact that it was an over-sized toy airplane. Jack flipped on the power switch and a tiny green light blinked on.

"Now let's see what this thing can do," Jack smirked.

Baby Tooth sighed and shook her head as if to say, 'Oh boy, there he goes!'

~O~

Contrary to popular belief, a rabbit hole wasn't the only way one could travel to and from Wonderland. Incidentally, Bunny only uses the rabbit-hole marbles to travel to Wonderland, not from it. Deep within the Red Kingdom, Alice set up a large, floor-to-ceiling mirror that acted as yet another portal. It was this mirror that Alice and Bunny used to travel back to the North Pole.

The looking glass portal opened up just outside the main doors of North's Russian palace. Bunny suggested that they arrive there because he didn't want to startle the elves and yetis, but that wasn't his true reason for the suggestion. Well at least, not entirely the reason. The elves and yetis probably would get startled if they appeared out of nowhere, and North wouldn't be too happy if there was a panic among his workers during hours.

The real reason for his suggestion was that Bunny didn't want Alice to become too overwhelmed. He knew that he wasn't giving Alice enough credit, and that he was probably being a little overprotective, but this whole situation was very delicate. This was Alice's first trip outside of Wonderland in over a hundred years and Bunny needed this visit to go smoothly, or else Alice would never become Guardian. In fact, the girl wouldn't even consider it. She would simply just brush it off and refuse to address ever again.

So to say that Bunny was stressed about this whole ordeal would be a serious understatement.

Alice, however, was a little more relaxed then her pooka friend. Bunny told her repeatedly, much to her chagrin, that St. North's Workshop was very secluded from the rest of the world. She trusted that Bunny wouldn't lead her into any danger, so she allowed herself to let go of some of her anxiety and focus more on observing her new surroundings. This was a great opportunity and privilege after all. It's not everyday one such as herself gets to take a tour through the prized workshop of the famous Santa Claus.

Alice recalled the Christmas tales her older sister, Lizzie, used to read to her when she was a little girl. She would curl up in her sister's lap with her beloved stuffed rabbit in her arms while Lizzie read her, Twas the Night Before Christmas. She remembered helping her mother bake gingerbread cookies, and how her mother would scold her whenever Alice spilled flour on her new holiday dresses. And her father's voice rang clear in her head as he told Alice about the jolly man in red.

'Alice! You should be in your bed by now. Hurry along now, child, or Father Christmas will fly right over us. You don't want him to skip our house just because a certain naughty girl didn't go to bed when she was supposed to, do you? No, of course not. Off you go. Goodnight, my Liddell girl.'

Thinking about her family and memories no longer sent Alice into violent, guilt-filled breakdowns, but they did make her eyes sting and her heart ache painfully. She still had those violent mood swings from her memories of the fire, Rutledge Asylum, and the orphanage, but after a hundred and thirty years, they've become easier for her to control. her entire mind became easier for her to control.

The two friends stood outside the front doors. Alice looked at the gray pooka standing next to her and his nervous expression.

'By the look on his muzzle, one would think that it was Bunnymund's first time out of Wonderland and not mine,' She mused with a smirk.

"Well? Are we going in soon?" She asked, this time out loud.

Bunny jumped at Alice's voice. He looked at her and realized that they were just standing there. He took a deep breath and hopped from foot to foot, as if he was getting ready for a big race. Alice just rolled her eyes and put her hands behind her back, waiting patiently for her friend to finish.

"Alright, are you sure you want to do this, Half-pint?" Bunny asked for the seemingly hundredth time.

"I seriously doubt I would have much of a choice otherwise," Alice said with a hint of snark in her tone. "After all, the great Man in the Moon has chosen me, and heaven forbid I allow his orders to go unheeded."

"A simple yes or no would've gottin' your point across just fine," Bunny huffed after an annoyed pause. "The sarcasm was a little unnecessary."

"I'm sorry," She apologized softly, holding back a smile. "I'm positive I want to do this. I wouldn't have left my Wonderland if I wasn't."

Bunny gave a nod before knocking on the gigantic doors. The doors opened with a mighty heave and a gray yeti appeared in the entrance. The yeti had a flat expression on his face, no doubt ruing the day he was placed on door duty, but once he saw who was on the other side of the doors, he reeled back in surprise. He started to grumbled to his brothers in their unique language before he stepped aside and gestured for the two spirits to come in.

Bunny walked straight past the yeti while Alice gave the large, furry creature a curious look. The yeti caught her eye and gave her an enthusiastic wave. Perplexed, the young woman politely waved back before increasing her pace to catch up with Bunny. She would have to make a note to examine these strange creatures more closely some other time.

The front hall of the workshop was obviously not as exciting as the main area of the complex, but it certainly wasn't lacking in any of the Christmas spirit. The halls were thoroughly decked with garland, red banners, candles and boughs of holly. The atmosphere of the workshop had an overwhelming scent of pine trees and gingerbread. A couple of elves milling about the carpeted floor suddenly stopped and stared at the new visitor as she and Bunny walked by. Little smiles let up their faces and the elves quickly started following behind them in excitement. Bunny almost laughed when he noticed the tiny new entourage Alice had following closely behind her.

The young woman didn't even notice the small creatures yet. She was too distracted by the colossal hallway they were walking through. The hallway reminded Alice of the ones in the Red Kingdom, except the workshop walls and railings were made out of lofty wood instead of cold, hard marble. She found that she liked the wood better, it gave the domain a cozier, more welcoming feel to it. The décor was certainly more festive than the Red Kingdom's, all happy spirits and wishful tidings.

Bunny saw the sudden lift in Alice's expression and the ease in her walk as her green eyes scanned the hall, taking in every last detail. The pooka smirked as he thought about her reaction to the rest of North's domain. The Russian was truly a man ahead of his time, in both spirit and ambition, and it shined like a beacon in the beautiful home he had crafted for himself and his workers. It was an architectural marvel that world knew only through myths, and even then those myths failed to capture the complex in all its wonderful, amazing glory.

When they reached the end of the hallway, a few yetis pushed open another pair of doors and Alice let out an audible gasp at the scene behind them.

They stood in the entrance of the main room of the complex, the Workshop.

As usual, the place was buzzing vivaciously with activity. The yetis pounded away at their stations, building and testing the toys while the elves did...whatever it was they usually did. Alice leisurely walked towards the center of the room where a gigantic globe hovered overhead in the very heart of the workshop. With her mouth slightly open and her hand held up near her lips in shock, Alice slowly turned in circles as she tried to take in everything all at once. She was in a complete state of awe at the beauty and passion flowing around her. She never knew such a wondrous place could exist outside her Wonderland.

The main appeal of the workshop for Alice wasn't the toys or the interesting creatures (although being an animal lover, she considered the yetis a close second best). No, it was the fact that this place was real. It existed in the real world and more importantly, it wasn't crafted by Alice's imagination. It was crafted by someone else's, a truly beautiful mind. Not in the literal sense like Wonderland, but the structure, the foundation, the décor - the whole idea came from someone else. Alice deeply revered the amazing craftsmanship and already she held a deep admiration for the creator of this place, who she could only assume was Nicolas St. North.

Bunny crossed his arms with a satisfied smirk. As Alice looked up towards the giant globe, she held up one of her small hands above her head and allowed bits of gold confetti to collect in her palm. The pooka pulled his gaze away from the girl and looked up towards the fourth floor of the workshop where he knew North's office was, and as if on cue, the door swung open with a loud bang and Bunny saw a familiar figure march proudly out of the room and make its way towards a nearby staircase.

'Alright, here we go,' Bunny thought as he walked over to Alice.

By now, she had noticed the small legion of elves following her around and she was sitting down on the floor with her legs tucked underneath her, observing their odd behavior. She laughed when two of the impish helpers started having a frantic slap fight, pushing and shoving each other until they finally tired themselves out. One particularly brave elf scurried up to Alice with a Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookie and shyly presented it to her. The little guy blushed bright red when she took it with a soft Thank You.

"Havin' fun?" Bunny asked as Alice tucked the cookie into her apron pocket.

"Oh Bunny, aren't they just the most curious things you have ever seen?" Alice smiled while reaching out and lightly tugging on one elf's bell hat. The elf got a goofy smile on his face before fainting dramatically, his fellow elves glaring at him in jealousy. "Certainly less gruesome looking than my card guards."

The pooka opened his mouth to comment on the obvious crush North's elves had on her, but he stopped short when his rabbit ears picked up the jolly codger's booming voice coming down from the second level of the workshop, and he held out a paw to help her up off the floor. Once standing, Alice smoothed out the front of her dress.

"You ready, ankle biter?" Bunny asked. She placed her hands behind her back and nodded. "Good, because here comes North."

She looked in the direction that Bunny was pointing and saw a large man pushing his way through a crowd of yetis. She cocked her head to the side curiously as she heard a deep, powerful voice scold some of the elves that were apparently blocking his path, scattering dangerously underfoot.

"Oh, and one more thing," Bunny leaned over and whispered. "Don't get alarmed, but North can be a bit-"

Nicholas St. North suddenly pushed through the last of the yeti crowd. Alice was able to get a good look at the mountain-sized man before he walked straight up to the pair without any hesitation and picked up a bewildered Alice by her waist like she was as light as feather. He held her up at eye level and placed a kiss on each of her cheeks.

"-forward," Bunny finished with an irritated mumble and a sigh while Alice stood there shocked.

"Dobro Pozhalovat, Alice Liddell!" North announced in his usual loud and proud way. "Welcome, to the North Pole!"

Chapter Text

North stood tall with a bright smile that could out shine the sun, completely oblivious to the dumbfounded stares he was receiving. Bunny wanted to slap his forehead with his paw for forgetting about North's overly friendly nature. The man had almost no sense of personal space and would hug an angry bear if he thought it would help calm it down.

'Oh lord, we haven't even been here ten minutes!' Bunny thought miserably. 'And here I thought Frost was gonna be the one to screw things up!'

Alice's feet were rooted to the ground as she blinked up at the stranger who had just been so brazen with her. His demeanor was dazzling and it radiated off him in waves so thick, she could almost physically see them. Back when she was human, any man who tried to get that unnecessarily close to her would have received a good slap across the face or a swift kick in the-

"I hope you are liking my workshop," North said before noticing the elves gathered near Alice's feet. He threw his head back and let out a loud laugh. "I see my elves are being the good little helpers! So attentive they are being! They certainly like you, don't they?"

Alice tried to gather up the anger she needed to give this mountain man a piece of her mind, but ultimately she found that she couldn't. She never felt that familiar build up in her stomach. It had always been easy for her to lash out at the burly sailors that lurked around the Mangled Mermaid Saloon back in London because those men were lecherous perverts who deserved to be treated as such. This man seemed to be the exact opposite. He had such a friendly and welcoming aura surrounding him that it seemed to overpower any negative feelings in the entire complex. He made it difficult for people to be angry with him.

Alice remembered that cheek kissing was an affectionate gesture among family and even close friends, but it certainly wasn't a greeting one would use with a complete stranger. The fact that this man would greet someone he has never even met before with such a meaningful gesture, completely bewildered her, and it was that bewilderment that kept her from pulling out her Vorpal Blade. The man looked down at Alice with such a prideful, and utterly joyful expression. It was as if she was his estranged daughter who finally decided to come back home. She didn't fail to notice the child-like gleam that shined in his sky blue eyes, despite his seasoned age, and it was then that she realized that there was something quite fantastic about this man.

"I-I do. I mean yes, I really do like your Workshop," Alice said once she collected herself. "It's amazing."

"Bah! I'm sure it is nothing compared to your Wonderland," North said with a well-meaning scoff. "From what I hear from Bunny, that is truly amazing place."

Not used to such flattery, Alice looked down at her boots and started toying with the hem of her apron.

"Thank You, Mr. North," She replied politely, almost giving a curtsy.

Bunny once told her that curtsies were now an outdated gesture, archaic in modern society. She didn't know if they would be an appropriate greeting in her current situation. Before she became a spirit, Alice's social skills were shoddy at best, having missed out on the most crucial years of healthy social development while she was locked up in Rutledge asylum. She could only imagine how horrendous they would be in modern times.

Alice jumped at another loud bout of laughter from North. He held his stomach as he threw his whole body into it, laughing like he had just heard a hilarious joke.

'What a strange man,' She observed with thoughtful smile. 'But also refreshingly eccentric and charismatic. A delightful combination if I do say so myself.'

"There is no need to use such formalities, Alice," North said once he calmed down. "You are among friends here! Now come, let's be heading up to the fireplace. The other Guardians will be wanting to meet you. Would you like anything to drink or eat? We have eggnog by the barrel load and I can never get rid of all this damn fruitcake laying around. I'm sure my elves will bring you anything you want."

Alice shook her head, declining his offers as she let him lead her to the nearby staircase. Bunny let out a sigh of relief at the avoided catastrophe and followed close behind.

'So far, so good," He thought as his nerves slowly settled. 'That's one guardian down and three to go.'

~O~

At first glance, Alice could have sworn that the hovering fairy above the fireplace mantle was a creature from the Vale of Tears. She briefly considered the idea that something followed her and Bunny out of Wonderland.

The fairy was obviously female with her curved, feminine physique and brightly colored feathers. They were a mixture of green, teal, blue, yellow, and a little violet around the ends of her tail feathers. On her back were large insect wings, akin to that of a dragonfly but moved in a way that allowed her to hover in place like a hummingbird. Her strange and unique appearance appealed to Alice and she immediately thought that the fairy was a very pretty and fascinating creature.

The fairy was facing the fireplace with her back towards the approaching three. She was speaking rapidly with a group of smaller fairies that closely resembled herself. She was naming off different cities, states, and countries while pointing one by one at each mini fairy. Once a fairy had its orders, it would quickly fly off and be replaced by another.

When they reached the top of the stairs, North moved behind Alice and gently guided her closer to the center of the room.

"Tooth! Come over here. We have new visitor!" He called in almost a sing-song tone, not bothering to cover up the smile in his voice.

Tooth immediately turned around and gasped when she saw Alice. Her pink eyes lit up like stars and she flew towards the girl with incredible speed, pulling her into a big hug as soon as she was close enough. Alice had to fight to keep her balance as she suddenly found herself engulfed in a feathery hug that nearly knocked her off her feet. The unexpected and unwanted contact made the girl tense up in defense, but Tooth seemed too overjoyed to notice her discomfort.

"You came! I can't believe you're here, standing right in front of me after all these years!" Tooth gushed as she raised her hands to gently hold Alice's face. "And you've grown up to be so beautiful, just like I always knew you would. I'm so happy you agreed to come, you have no idea what this means to us. We have a lot of catching up to do. Now open up and let me see those teeth!"

"Pardon me?" Alice stuttered, not quite sure she heard that last part correctly.

She took two cautionary steps back when she realized Tooth was serious, finally drawing the line at impromptu dental checkups. There was only so much physical contact a recluse like herself could take in one day. She watched in confused horror as Tooth reached towards her mouth with prying hands, but before she could violate Alice's personal space on a whole new and creative level, North quickly jumped in. Even friendly St. North was aware that some of Tooth's mannerisms could be a little unsettling sometimes, especially for people who weren't used to them.

"Tooth, you are harassing one of my guests again," North said with a light scold. "Save the teeth checking for later. There is still much to do."

"Oh right, sorry," Tooth blushed in embarrassment. She smiled sheepishly and rubbed her arm. "Force of habit."

The fairy pulled away from Alice, backing off to a reasonable distance but continued to hover close by. Her mini fairies flew next to their leader, sizing up the new stranger in the room with the usual tooth fairy scrutiny. Just like mother Tooth, they barely resisted the urge to fly into the girl's face and pry open her mouth so they could see her teeth.

"I'm sorry Alice, for being so forward," She quickly apologized when she finally noticed how uncomfortable the poor girl was. Remembering what era Alice grew up in, Tooth took the courtesy of doing a curtsy with her tail feathers. "I'm Toothiana, the Queen of the Tooth Fairies, but you may call me Tooth. We don't usually use titles around here."

"That's alright, I suppose. I'm Alice Liddell," She replied, returning a small curtsy of her own. It was a bit redundant of her to state her name since Tooth already knew it, but she did so anyways. One can't forget her manners after all.

There was silence in the room as Tooth continued to study Alice, still unable to believe the girl was here in the flesh after such a long time. The moment was saved from becoming awkward when Tooth's eyes suddenly started to tear up. She let out another embarrassed laugh and a poorly masked sniffle before she flew up higher in the air to compose herself.

"I'm sorry for getting all emotional," She wiped her eyes. "I just still can't believe you're here! I haven't seen you in so long!"

"But we've never met before," Alice pointed out in confusion.

At the sound of Bunny loudly and conspicuously clearing his throat, the fairy realized a little too late that she had probably just said something she shouldn't have. Her and Bunny exchanged quick glances from across the room as Alice looked in between the two suspiciously. The young woman crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Bunny.

"Have we, Bunny?" She asked.

Her accusing glare made the gray pooka flinch. He was going to get such a verbal thrashing from the girl later. Alice's scoldings were known to be deadly and very effective. They were even worse than North's, which was quite a feat. The old codger rarely got upset about anything, but when he did he could guilt trip someone into feeling lower than dirt.

An unspoken discussion passed between the two Guardians before Bunny gave Tooth a nod.

"Well, we have, but not directly," Tooth explained. "We've never met officially face to face, but we knew you when you were a little girl. We know all the children of the world, past and present. I collected your baby teeth, North left you gifts on Christmas, the Sandman gave you good dreams, and of course, you hid Easter eggs with Bunny."

"I never had good dreams as a child," Alice spat unexpectedly making Tooth recoil as if her words physically struck her.

Perhaps what she had said wasn't entirely true. She vaguely remember dreaming about her old Wonderland as a child, but those memories were quickly swallowed by hellish flames, dying screams of her loved ones, and obsidian black ooze. Later Alice would deeply regret snapping at the kind fairy, but she hated it when people brought up her past, even if they were the better parts.

Bunny stepped forward and placed his paw on Alice's shoulder. He recognized the signs of her spiking temperament. Revealing to Alice that a handful of strangers already knew who she was, probably wasn't a very smart move, but he couldn't place any blame on the poor Tooth Fairy. If anything, it was Bunny's fault for not warning the other Guardians ahead of time about what not to say around Alice.

"Hey, North!" Bunny called out to the man who had left the conversation soon after it had started. North was in the middle of arguing with a yeti (the creature painted a large pile of robots the wrong shade of green) when he heard his name. He looked at the pooka and Bunny gestured to Alice with his paw. "Why don't ya give Alice a tour of the Workshop?"

"Excellent idea, Bunny!" North exclaimed, his face lighting up with glee. North was a big show off and he always jumped at the chance to give a tour of his beloved workshop. He motioned for Alice to follow him. "Come, let me show you my Wonderland."

When Alice looked at Bunny with a glare, the pooka just gave her a guilty smile and jerked his head in North's direction.

"Go on, I'll catch up with ya later," He assured her.

After a little hesitation and an indignant huff, Alice made her way over to North. He allowed her to descend the staircase first and followed behind her. Bunny waited until the two to disappeared before making his way over to Tooth. The fairy had a forlorn expression on her face as she hung in the air, watching the girl's departure. The Easter Bunny felt disturbed by the sad look. Negative expressions didn't belong on Tooth's face, they looked too unnatural.

Once he was within a close distance of his friend, Tooth engulfed him in a tight huge. Thrown off by the sudden move, Bunny felt his face grow hot under his fur and his heart beat faster. He was used to Tooth's affectionate behavior by now, but her touch never failed to bring out such strong reactions in him.

"Oh, Aster," Tooth mumbled into his fur. "The first time I get the opportunity to reunite with one of our lost believers and I screw it all up! What is wrong with me? Mentioning her past like that, so stupid!"

"It's alright, Tooth," Bunny said while patting her back. "It wasn't that bad. Trust me, me an' Alice's first reunion was ten times more awkward than yours."

"I just hope I didn't upset her too badly. I was so excited to see her again and finally have the chance to formally introduce myself, I just..."

"Don't worry about it," Bunnymund insisted. "Alice is pretty resilient and bounces back quickly when insulted. Not that ya did, o' course. Just take it easy on the physical contact and she'll warm up to ya in no time."

Tooth wiped her eyes again before letting out a sigh. "If you say so Bunny."

He smiled at her. "That's the spirit, Sheila."

"Aster," Tooth started after another silence.

Bunny swallowed the lump in his throat and nervously flexed his paws. Whenever Tooth said his name like that, it usually meant she was going to bring up something serious and/or very personal. "I've been meaning to talk to you about your past with Alice."

When Bunny didn't reply, Tooth let out another sigh.

"You do know that if Alice decides to become a Guardian, North will want to know everything you know about her. We know about the fire and death of her family, and we also vaguely know about the asylum. North, Sandy, and I all agreed that we won't pressure Alice into telling us anything until she wants to, but we would like to hear your side of the story."

The pooka silently took in her words. He exhaled deeply from his nose and reached up to rub the back of his head, his big ears drooping down considerably.

"I know, and you're right. I've been sittin' on this for too long and it wouldn't be fair to keep doin' if Alice becomes a guardian. I'll tell you guys everything you want to know. Not right now, but soon. I promise I'll tell you all...except Frost. Senior guardian members only."

Tooth gave Bunny a smile and pulled him into another hug. She ignored the comment about Jack, but secretly she agreed. Because he has only been a Guardian for such a short time, Jack didn't need to know everything that goes on. The winter spirit was still trying to find his footing within their group and his new role as a guardian. They didn't need to add to the issues that Jack still had to work out for himself by piling this sensitive situation with Alice on top of them.

However, the eldest Guardians needed to know if Alice was qualified enough to be a Guardian. They trusted the Man in the Moon's judgment, but Alice still needed to pass their inspection. They needed know that she could handle the pressures of being a guardian and that the children would be safe around her protection. In her own opinion, Tooth was positive that the Man in the Moon had a good reason for choosing Alice Liddell. He obviously wouldn't have chosen her if she was any danger to the children.

Tooth was ecstatic that Bunny was going to tell them everything. She hoped to MIM that by confiding in his follow teammates, Bunny would finally stop blaming himself for what happened. She had a very good feeling about all of this. She just knew that this new addition to their "family" would only make things better for everyone.

"Thank you, Bunny!"

"No problem," He muttered as he returned Tooth's hug.

Bunny allowed the hug to go on longer than the first one. He stood there, gladly taking in the warm comfort of his close friend. The silence was very calming until a teasing voice cut in and shattered Bunny's peace into a million pieces.

"Awww, can I have a hug too, Bunny?"

The pooka pulled away from Tooth and turned to glare at the winter spirit, instantly annoyed by the boy's voice. Jack stood over by the globe, leaning casually against the control system near the base of it. His staff was resting on his shoulder and he held something in his hand. Baby Tooth hovered nearby, eyeing the item in his hand nervously.

Jack gave the flustered rabbit a flashy smirk.

"How long have you been standin' there?" Bunny demanded with a growl.

"Long enough," Jack responded nonchalantly but changed his answer when Bunny scowled at him. "Calm down ya big softy. I just got here, like, literally five seconds ago. I didn't hear any of your pillow talk, I swear. You should probably get your big dumbo ears checked if you didn't notice me until I said something."

He rolled his eyes when Bunny continued to give him a dubious glare, obviously not believing him. Even after their big adventure two years ago, Bunny still thought he was an immature child who'd prefer to goof off all the time and not take anything seriously.

However, is wasn't like Bunny still didn't like the young spirit, because that wasn't true at all. Frost could act like such a spoiled brat sometimes, but when push comes to shove, the kid knows where his priorities lie and was a decent ally to have in a fight. His upbeat and fun personality was a breath of fresh air for the elder guardians. He helped them rediscover their passion for making children smile and reminded them of the reasons why they were chosen to be guardians in the first place. Bunny would never admit it out loud to the teen, but he really did appreciate all that Jack had done for them.

That didn't make him any less annoying, though.

Despite being named the Guardian of Fun, it seemed like to Bunny that Jack's true main purpose in life was to make things as unnecessarily difficult for the pooka as possible.

"Just ask Baby Tooth if you don't believe me," He nodded towards his tiny companion.

Baby Tooth squeaked and nodded enthusiastically at Bunny.

Before the pooka could point how completely biased a love-struck mini fairy's word could be in this situation, Tooth cut in to avoid another argument between the Winter and Spring spirits.

"There you are Jack!" Tooth smiled. "We have good news. Bunny was able to convince Alice to come to Santoff Claussen. She's here with us in the complex."

"Is that so?" Jack mused while still smirking at Bunny. "Where is she then?"

"North's givin' her a tour of the Workshop," Bunny grumbled, crossing his arms. "We should probably go find 'em now."

He figured that the two were probably somewhere on the ground floor by now, maybe visiting the reindeer. He had mentioned to North before that Alice had an affinity for animals.

While Bunny moved towards the stairs, Tooth looked back and noticed that Jack wasn't following. He was too busy flying a jumbo-sized airplane around the ceiling of the Workshop. She smiled fondly at the playful gleam in his eyes as he flew the plane around the other airborne toys in the factory. Guardian of fun, indeed.

"Jack, put that down and come with us. North will want to have another meeting once Sandy shows up and I want you to meet Alice."

The Tooth Fairy was excited for Jack to meet Alice. Even though he has been a spirit longer than her, the two were permanently stuck as young adults and their birth time periods weren't that far apart. Jack was eighteen, and if memory serves well, Alice was nineteen. Tooth hoped that the two might find a companion in each other due to their close ages. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing for Jack. The fairy recalled all the times he would mill about the Workshop in complete boredom, unable to play with Jamie and his friends because they were kept busy with school and warm weather forced him to seek out colder climates.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up in a minute," Jack promised while getting the plane in route to land.

"Alright, just don't take too long," She said before flying down towards the ground floor.

Jack pulled back on the controller and watched as the plane glided towards him. After some careful maneuvering, he was able to land the plane on a nearby Workshop table. He smiled and congratulated himself for his accomplishment, turning towards Baby Tooth. The small fairy applauded her icy friend and he gave her a couple flashy, exaggerated bows.

"We might as well go find the others and meet the famous Alice, Baby Tooth," Jack said as he walked over to the staircase with Baby Tooth following close behind.

He must have not been looking where he was going because Jack suddenly tripped over an elf carrying a tray of sugar cookies. The teen let out a surprised shout as he fell to the ground, landing roughly on his knees and then his stomach. The airplane controller that was previously in Jack's hand was now sailing through the air. He flinched when it hit the stone ground with a brutal crack. Almost immediately afterwards, the winter spirit heard the sound of whirling airplane propellers and electrical sparks.

The airplane on the nearby workshop table sparked violently, short circuiting. The propellers started spinning at a speed that Jack doubted was normal for a toy plane. The plane rolled towards the end of the table and took off into the air at a dangerous speed.

"Well that can't be good," Jack murmured as he watched the plane fly away. Baby Tooth looked at her friend before slapping her forehead with her palm.

~O~

Finding Alice and North hadn't been that difficult. When Bunny reached the main floor, he spotted the two standing around a workshop table watching a yeti build a massive dollhouse out of wood. Alice stood with her arms crossed over the table's surface. Her eyes watched closely as the large creature carved intricate designs into the dark wood.

When North noticed Tooth and Bunny approaching, He walked towards them and gestured to the girl with a gloating smile on his face. North had never been very good with young adults. They were always so difficult to please, especially in modern times when all they wanted for Christmas were complicated, high-tech gadgets that the yetis would never be able to produce. So North was quite proud of himself for being able to impress Alice with his workshop.

"Do I have way with the teenagers or what?" He laughed.

"Thanks, North," Tooth said. "I was worried that I ran her off! I'm glad everything's okay now. We found Jack and he should be joining us any minute now. Where's Sandy?"

"He should be getting here soon enough as well," North replied. "I bet a whole fruit cake that he's on way right now."

"How's she doing?" Bunny asked with a nod towards Alice.

"Fantastic! She didn't seem too interested in toys, but I knew I had her when I showed her the reindeer!"

"That's great North," Bunny said as he patted North's arm. "Everythin's goin' great. Once Sandy shows up, we'll have another meetin' to try to convince Alice to become a Guardian."

Tooth blinked at the pooka. "Wait, you mean she hasn't already agreed?"

"Eh...no, not exactly," Bunny let out an uneasy laugh. "I was only able to convince her to visit the Workshop for a short while. I told her that if she decided that she didn't want to be a Guardian, I would take her back home to Wonderland."

North gave him a stern look as he crossed his arms over his chest. "But Bunny, you know she can't say no to becoming guardian. The Man in Moon chose her, it is destiny."

"I know, I know, but it's not like we can make her take the oath," Bunny pointed out. "No one can make Alice do anything she doesn't want to. Just give her some time to readjust to the world and she'll come around eventually."

"Eventually?" North gave a laugh of disbelief.

Bunny rolled his eyes at the skeptic Russian "Well, we're not exactly bein' rushed here. There isn't an imminent threat hangin' over us like there was when MiM chose Frost. We have more then enough time."

North regarded his friend thoughtfully as he stroked his beard. After a few seconds, he let out his usual powerful laugh and roughly patted Bunny on the back. It was an affectionate gesture, but it nearly knocked the pooka on his face.

"Alright, I see point, Bunny," North laughed when Bunny stumbled forward. "Let me grab Alice and we'll go start meeting."

~O~

Alice heard North before she saw him.

His loud footsteps were hard to miss, even among the noise of the workshop. She turned away from the yeti and his dollhouse, and looked up at North as his body towered over hers.

'I'm going to get very serious neck pains at this rate,' Alice mused as she craned her head in order to meet the Russian's bright eyes.

Before she could comment on the yetis' amazing craving abilities, Alice noticed Bunny and Tooth. Tooth waved sheepishly at her while Bunny was turning down a chalice of eggnog from a yeti.

"Where are the other Guardians?" She asked North. "Bunny said there were five total."

"The Sandman is running a little late, but he will be here soon," North replied. "As for Jack Frost, he should be around here somewh-"

"Everybody get down!"

At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, Alice looked up towards the top floor of the workshop. She could just barely make out a blue-cladded figure through all the gold confetti in the air, but she couldn't see much else except for a featureless blur. However, she could see that it was a male standing on the wooden railing, waving his arms around frantically.

"Who on earth is that?" Alice asked as she cocked her head to the side, confused by the person's bizarre display. North mirrored the girl's expression and placed his fist against his sides.

"Jack!" He called. "What is meaning of this?"

"Runaway plane!" Jack shouted back, pointing at a toy airplane flying out of control around the workshop, black smoke trailing behind it like a sky banner.

It was reeking havoc and causing a panic among the factory and its workers. They watched as it soared through the different levels of the Workshop, knocking over half built toys and startling the yetis. At one point, the airplane hit a large stack of green robots, much to a certain yeti's dismay, and sent them scattering over the side of the railing, making them rain down over the occupants of the main floor. Spirits and workshop workers alike quickly scattered, trying to avoid being hit on the head by one of the plastic toys.

Because she wasn't in the mood to jump around like there were ants in her stockings like the others, Alice had her blue umbrella shield materialize into her hands. She held the protective parasol above her head as several robots hit the lace barrier and bounced off. Once they stopped falling, she looked back up at the airplane just in time to see it charging straight for her and North. It made a high pitch whining noise as it drew closer. She was tensed up and prepared to dodge, but a patch of ice suddenly appeared underneath her feet. Alice tried to keep her balance but the ice effectively brought down both her, North, and several nearby yetis. They all landed in a pile of tangled limbs and fur.

Out of reach of the ice patch, Bunny and Tooth had their own problems dealing with a swarm of panicking elves at their feet. Tooth tried to calm down the elves by gently shushing them while Bunny just cursed their existence when they weaved in between his big rabbit feet. After almost toppling over the small creatures, Bunny glared up at the winter spirit.

"Jack, you rotten gumbie! Stop messin' around with that thing before I come up there and-"

To busy shouting at Jack, Bunny failed to notice the airplane flying towards him until it was too late to get out of the way. It clipped him in the back of the head before sailing into a wall and exploding on impact. The force of the hit sent the poor pooka to the ground like a sack of bricks.

Alice, who had landed rather painfully on her backside, sat up with a slight groan and spotted Bunny sprawled out over the stone floor. She let out a worried gasp for her friend. She looked back up at the ceiling and her eyes immediately locked and hardened on a certain winter spirit. Anger blossomed within her chest and she quickly climbed to her feet.

After witnessing the chaos he had caused, Jack flew down to the main floor to apologize. He hoped to MiM that the Easter Bunny wouldn't club him to death with a boomerang when he finally came to. When his bare feet touched the floor, he made his way over to Bunny. However, before he could reach the pooka, his path was suddenly blocked and his line of vision was invaded by a cloud of blue dust and...butterflies?

Jack didn't get a chance to react before a small pair of hands emerged from the swarm and roughly shoved him in the chest. The force of the shove nearly knocked the breath out of the ice spirit and sent him stumbling backwards. As he tried to regain his balance and make sense of what had just happened, the butterfly swarm disappeared. Standing in their place was a young girl and she did not look happy.

When the Guardian of Fun finally found his balance again, he gave the offending girl a quick once-over. She had long, dark hair, peach pale skin, and the most stunning emerald green eyes that Jack had ever seen on a person. She wore a blue dress, white apron with suspicious looking red splatter on it, striped stockings and black boots. The glare she was giving him was so intense it almost made him flinch. They were nearly the same height, but Jack felt two inches tall under her piercing gaze.

"What on earth do you think you are doing!" The girl practically screeched with her arms crossed under her chest.

"I um was, huh?" Came Jack's genius reply.

"Just look at what you did to poor Bunnymund, you bloody dodo!" Alice shouted at the dumbstruck boy in front of her.

The stranger's insult pulled Jack from his stupor and he glared right back at her. He liked getting insulted by someone he didn't know just as much as he liked being shoved in the chest. He also didn't like that some random girl was implying that he had hurt Bunny on purpose, something that the Winter spirit would never do.

"Hey! I wasn't trying to hit Bunny! It was an accident, lady!" Jack snapped. "Now stop harping at me and move so I can see if Bunny is alright."

Alice was momentarily stunned by boy's rude response and she just about to give him a piece of her mind when his odd appearance fully registered. Her eyes took in his icy pale skin, white hair, and crystal blue eyes. Further inspection of his frost covered clothes left no doubt in Alice's mind the identity of the person standing in front of her. Her first impression of the winter spirit wasn't very good to begin with, mainly due to Bunny's constant complaints of the boy, but this little incident certainly didn't do anything to help improve her opinion of him. She was already prepared to treat him just like anyone else she didn't like; coldly.

Alice shifted her weight on to one foot and crossed her arms before fixing her opponent with another scrutinizing glare.

"You're Jack Frost," She stated matter-of-factly as she pointed a finger tip at him.

Jack slowly relaxed from his defensive stance once he saw the girl lower hers. He felt out of the loop. She obviously knew him, but he had no idea who she was. He looked over the girl's shoulder at the other Guardians, hoping to get some assistance from his friends. Bunny was conscious again, but he was still sitting on the floor, gingerly rubbing the back of his head. Tooth was kneeling next to him with North standing close by. For the moment he was apparently spared a beating from Bunny and a lecture from Tooth because their full attention was on him and the girl.

It looked like he was on his own this time.

"Yeah, I am," Jack said with a suspicious edge in his tone. "And you are?"

"Alice Liddell," She replied. "What kind of moron flies a toy airplane into a highly populated area? Not only did you almost decapitate poor Bunny with that little monstrosity, but you also caused the elves to fall into a wide-spread panic and disrupted the entire workshop-"

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Jack interrupted with a hand raised. "You're Alice?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had stuttered," Alice snapped. Frost's interruption made her even more irritated. "Yes, I'm Alice and you, Mr. Frost, are starting to get on my last nerve."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack laughed in utter disbelief, completely ignoring what she had just said. "Oh wow, you're old and kinda grumpy. And hey, aren't you suppose to be blonde?"

Jack felt a little stupid for not realizing who she was earlier. Why else would a strange girl be inside North's domain unless it was the new guardian Bunny was sent to fetch. The blue dress and white apron should have been a huge hint too, but then again Jack never really paid much attention to detail. He considered himself to be more of a "big picture" kind of guy.

All of the Winter spirit's irritation flew out the window and was replaced with curiosity and amusement. He smirked while leaning back casually on his staff, his sudden change in attitude and nonchalant nature only seeming to annoy Alice more. From her point of view, it felt like he wasn't taking her seriously, and Alice hated that.

"Well, clearly I am not," She almost growled, barely resisting the overwhelming urge to pull out her Hobby Horse and teach this disrespectful fool some much needed manners. "You must be confusing me for-"

"You don't look anything like the Alice in the story books."

"Yes, I am quite aware of that. I'm trying-"

"But then again nobody expects the Easter Bunny to be a six-foot-one, mutant kangaroo with an Australian accent. So I guess your appearance isn't that strange."

"Stop interrupting me!" Alice shouted, her frustration finally reaching its limit.

"Sheesh, calm down," Jack laughed after seeing how worked up the girl was getting, finding it kind of funny. "I'm just trying to be friendly."

"I think you're confusing the word friendly with the word annoying because friendly is the very last thing you are being!" Alice snapped.

"Well I hate to break to you, but you're not exactly "Little Miss Sunshine" yourself, girly."

After that comment, Alice finally decided she had enough of that miserable cur's mouth. She kept her Vorpal blade away just because Frost wasn't armed with anything lethal other than a funny looking stick, but that didn't mean a right hook to the temple wouldn't do him any damage.

With her emerald eyes solely focused on the smug boy, Alice practically stomped towards the Winter Spirit.

"Alright you two," North said sternly, blocking Alice's way with one of his arms. "That's enough."

"North's right," Tooth joined in once Bunny was back on his feet. "We all got off on the wrong foot here. Let's just take a deep breath and calm down."

"Yeah, knock it off Frost before I decide to hit you in the head with a toy," Bunny growled, rubbing the back of his head.

Jack gave the pooka a guilty smile.

"Come, come," North loudly clapped his hands together. "The yetis tell me that dinner is ready and that Sandy is already in dining hall. Let's put ill words behind us and eat!"

At the word "eat", all the nearby elves immediately started running towards the dining hall in excitement. North laughed and shook his head at his little workers before he followed their lead.

Tooth shot Jack a disapproving look. "We'll talk about this later young man."

Jack almost winced as he watched Tooth fly off after North. He didn't even have to look at Bunny to know that he was also still in trouble with the Easter Bunny, but it seemed like Bunny wasn't planning on killing him just yet. He'll probably wait until after dinner so he didn't have to strangle Jack on an empty stomach.

Jack glanced over at Alice. She was still giving him the evil eye, but she didn't look as mad as she was two minutes ago. He still found her piercing emerald glare extremely unsettling, but instead of letting his discomfort show, he gave her a teasing wink and gestured with his staff for her to follow everyone else. When she only scowled darkly in return, he shrugged his shoulders and walked off towards the dining hall with his staff twirling slightly in his hand and Baby Tooth by his side.

Alice watched him walk away until he disappeared into a different section of the workshop. Once he was gone, she turned her glare on Bunny. His ears drooped down when he read the very clear message in her expression: 'I am very cross with you, Mister Bunnymund'.

"Okay, that didn't go exactly as I planned but-" Bunny started to say but stopped when Alice held up a hand.

"Nevermind that, Bunny," She said curtly. "There's clearly nothing that can be done about what just transpired between me and that blithering, pale-faced twit, so there's no point in dwelling on it. Let's just go eat."

"I am really sorry your first visit back in our world turned out this way Alice."

"I know, Bunny," Alice sighed. "But I suppose it's still not over yet."

Chapter Text

The dining hall was just as grandiose and lofty as the rest of North's Workshop. The table stretched far across the room and was made of lovely oak with a glossy, varnished coating. Chairs made of the same wood lined up along each side of the table with long backs and red cushions with silver designs woven intricately into the cloth.

The hall itself was decorated to match the rest of the workshop. Large red and gold banners hung from the rafters, a festive-looking chandelier shined brightly while suspended high over the table, and large tapestries ornamented the walls, depicting fierce battles involving North and the yetis fighting against shadow-like monsters. And just like every other room in the Russian Palace, there was a grand fireplace with a roaring fire already burning behind the head of the table.

The table was set with fine silverware and porcelain dishes. Only a relatively small portion of the table had food on it, with only a few place sets for the six spirits that would dining that evening. When Alice entered the hall behind Bunny, she noticed North sitting at the head of the table, leaning to his left and speaking to a smaller figure. From a distance the figure resembled a small boy, but the closer Alice came to the table, she was able to see that he was an extremely short man, garbed in an outfit made out of golden sand. He was very stout with the hands and feet no bigger than a child's and golden hair that stuck up wild and in different angles.

The short man had a chalice of eggnog in one hand with the other resting on the edge of the table. He nodded in response to North's words as he took a drink from his cup, but stopped short when he noticed Alice from the corner of his eye. A bright smile spread across his round face as the sand that covered his body glowed brighter. With an enthusiastic wave of his hand, the man motioned for Alice to come closer, gently patting the cushion of the seat next to him.

After some hesitation, the girl accepted his invitation by taking the offered seat. She noted with a low-level of distaste that Jack Frost was seated in the chair directly across from hers, but did nothing to outwardly express her malcontent since Frost wouldn't have noticed otherwise. He was too busy playing with his fork.

"Alice, this is the Sandman," North introduced.

"Hello," she greeted the golden spirit politely.

Figures of sand danced above his head, but she was unable to decipher their meaning. Judging by the way his hands lightly clapped with silent joy, at the very least she could gather he was happy to see her, which brought a small smile to her face.

Once seated, Alice smoothed out the front of her dress while Bunny took the chair next to hers. Tooth sat patiently next to Jack, waiting for North to start. The fairy's wings ceased their frantic movements and she had them tucked neatly behind her, leaving Alice with the desire to examine her wings more closely, just to see if they truly resembled a dragonfly's. She forced herself to remain seated and silent, figuring supper wasn't the appropriate time for that sort of thing. Perhaps later, if the Tooth Fairy didn't mind her curiosity.

North clapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. A smile graced his jolly face as he looked around the table at his friends.

"I love it when we can all come together like this," He confessed happily, breaking the silence. "It warms up this old man's heart faster than any fireplace could. Before we eat, I would like to say few things."

He turned to address Alice, his hands folded in front of him in a very business-like fashion. His expression was hard and serious, but one could still see the light in his eyes if they cared to look for it.

"Alice, I'm certain that Bunny has already explained to you why we asked you here today. I am also certain that you are aware of who we are and what we represent, but I would like to explain things in way that, I hope, will help you see why accepting Guardianship so important."

Alice inwardly flinched. The possibility that she was going to have to make this life-changing choice within the next couple minutes made her immediately on edge. On the outside, she was the picture of a calm and collected individual, she had many years to practice that skill, but on the inside, her mind was falling into near turmoil. The tight coiling of anxiety started to build up in the pit of her stomach as she fought to avoid making eye contact with anyone except North. As friendly and welcoming as he was, Alice refused to show this man her discomfort. She was much stronger than that and he needed to be well aware of it.

She felt the other's eyes on her as well and she didn't like it, but she tried to calm herself down before something unbecoming of her happened.

Before she could voice any type of protest, whether it came out rude or not, Alice felt a furry paw place itself on the crook of her elbow and squeeze reassuringly. Almost immediately she relaxed into the touch. Just knowing that Bunny was sitting next to her made all the difference.

"As Guardians, it is our job to protect the children of the world. Their faith is what keeps us anchored to world and we must do everything we can to keep faith alive. As long as they believe in us, we will guard them with our lives.

Each of us; Bunny, Sandy, Tooth, Jack, and I, were chosen by Man in Moon. He is our guardian and he is responsible for our creation. And now, he has chosen you, Alice Liddell, to join our ranks and become guardian. We are not expecting answer now, there is much time for you to decide, but we do ask that you think deeply on this very serious decision."

Alice opened her mouth to decline the offer like she always planned to, but then she remembered her promise to Bunnymund. She ended up sighing in defeat when no words of rejection came to mind. North had spoken so passionately about the guardians and their purposes in life. How could someone possibly argue against that without sounding like a complete bigot?

So instead, she settled with a much less devoting response. "I'll try."

She wanted to tell him no. She wanted leave and forget about everything that has happened that day. She wanted to be back in her beautiful Wonderland where her comfort was guaranteed and she had control. Alice didn't feel threatened or scared by the strange motley crew of spiritual beings. She was more than capable of defending herself against any attacks, should there be any. She just didn't enjoy being surrounded by unfamiliar faces in an unfamiliar place. There was so much that Alice wanted to say, but no way of something them. She didn't want those carefully constructed walls around her head and heart to be penetrated.

Yes, after the Dollmaker's demise she had more or less conquered her own personal demons, and her century-long reprieve from the world helped build up her self-confidence, but Alice still didn't think she was strong enough to handle any new pain. Even after all those years since the fire, it seemed like she had only just gotten over her old pain. So the prospect of being hurt again was something she definitely wanted to avoid, especially if it meant feeling loss and grief. If she allowed herself to gain a sense of friendship, or Hatter forbid a sense of family, with these people, then Alice would once again become an open target for pain and misfortune.

'Because everyone you love is doomed to die violently, remember?' She thought bitterly to herself.

And if Alice were to have another family ripped so harshly from her hands again, she knew that she wouldn't be able to recover from something like that twice. Recovering enough to leave Rutledge Asylum the first time had been nothing short of a miracle, and miracles were always in scarce supply with usually an allotment of one per soul.

"Excellent!" North laughed before he picked up a crystal glass of wine next to his plate. "A toast, then!"

Everyone followed North's example and grabbed their wine glasses. Alice noticed that her wine glass was only filled about a quarter way. She had tasted wine before, and even a bit of whiskey back when she was a human helping her nanny run the bar at the Mangled Mermaid, but she never really had a liking for it. That curious sip of numbing liquid that burned the back of her throat as she swallowed it had been more than enough. More so with the whiskey than the wine.

The crystal glass felt delicate in Alice's hand and she worried that the stem might break in half if her grip became too tight. The fine red liquid swished in the glass as she slowly lifted it to join the other ones. North looked up towards a large skylight that expanded over half of the ceiling, displaying the stars and moon beautifully.

"Here's to you, old friend!" he boasted, raising his glass to the Moon. "To the Man in the Moon!"

"To the Man in the Moon," everyone except Alice echoed.

They didn't say it with as much enthusiasm as North, but they all raised their glasses in obvious respect and devotion. Alice barely raised her arm an inch before she took a small sip of wine. Once the others took their drink, they started to reach for the different foods on the table and begun eating. Alice didn't follow right away. She was still gazing up at the Moon. She found it almost impossible to understand how they could be so loyal to a spirit that they have never seen in person before. How did they even know that a spirit lived on the Moon? If this "Man in the Moon" really did exist, who made him the apparent leader of all spirits? Who made him her leader?

'Absolutely no one,' Alice thought as she irritably tapped a fingernail against her wine glass. 'They can put as much faith as they want in him, but they can't expect me to, and if they do, then they will be sorely disappointed. Man in the Moon - pure nonsense.'

Alice turned her gaze away from the Moon and on to the dinner table. She placed her glass back on the dark oak and reached for a nearby bowl of mashed potatoes. She wasn't very hungry, but she didn't want to come off as rude or standoffish to her most gracious host, so she took only half a spoonful of the fluffy potatoes and a thin slice of ham from a nearby silver platter. As spirits none of them really needed to eat, but they still did anyways mainly for the taste of certain preferred foods. Also, having the occasional dinner at the North Pole was always a good excuse for the guardians to come together and enjoy each others company.

As Alice reached over to grab the salt shaker, she felt a pair of eyes on her. She looked up and caught the Winter Spirit looking at her. He quickly looked away when she caught him watching, but she didn't miss the hint of curiosity that shined in his ice blue eyes right before his gaze fell back on to his plate. Her face curled up in slight annoyance at the ice spirit's attention towards her. Alice hated being the source of someone's speculations. After the treatment she had received from Frost earlier, he had absolutely no business looking her way.

The rest of dinner hadn't been nearly as awkward as she had expected. It was probably quieter than usual due to her presence, but it wasn't completely silent. North spent most of the time asking each Guardian what they have been up to since their last gathering several months ago. Alice would nod every now and again to show that she was paying attention whenever someone addressed her, but for the most part she didn't say much. Throughout dinner, she tried to keep back the nostalgic memories that threatened to surface and ignore the occasional glances that Jack threw in her direction.

The dinner did allow her the chance to examine the appearances of each guardian a little closer. She was able to take in all the colors of Tooth's feathers, the golden swirls and dunes of Sandy's tunic, North's complex Naughty and Nice tattoos, and even the intricate frost patterns on Jack's blue hood. She wondered how there could still be frost on his clothing. No doubt it had something to do with his powers over the ice and snow, but still, every room in North's Workshop had to be just as comfortably warm as this one.

Perhaps his skin was cold. It wouldn't be such an outrageous thing to assume since his skin was almost as pale as snow. And not mention, he was a Winter spirit, an elemental. They were known to take on numerous physical attributes associated with the element they had control over. On more than one occasion, she heard Bunny refer to Jack as a walking popsicle whenever he visited Wonderland in a particularly sour mood.

Gradually, the sound of North's heavily accented voice faded off into the background as Alice's eyes started to roam over Jack's features a little more closely. It had just hit the dark-haired spirit then, that she hadn't seen someone her own physical age in over a hundred years. Well technically, until today, Alice hadn't seen anyone of any age except for Bunnymund and her creations, but it still felt strange for her to see another young adult after so many years.

She did think that Jack Frost was rather handsome; with his crystal blue eyes, white shaggy hair and devil-may-care smiles. It was an opinion that she would keep private to avoid giving Frost any satisfaction and inflating his already oversized ego, but she wasn't about to lie to herself over something so trivial. It was a fleeting thought that popped briefly in the back of her mind every time she looked at him, but just because someone was easy on the eyes that didn't automatically mean they were a likable person.

Granted, she could see how his carefree personality could be endearing and attractive on a good day. But then again, Alice wasn't exactly having a good day.

~O~

She spaced out a lot.

That was one of the things Jack noticed about his new "teammate". Dinner barely started ten minutes ago and already Alice Liddell proved to be an interesting person to watch. Her eyes would move along the room before they would randomly stop and focus on one object for an exceedingly long period of time. It was kind of fascinating.

It was interesting to watch her facial expressions, or lack thereof, during North's speech. She sat as still as a statue and barely showed any emotion at all. She kept her back straight and her face blank as she listened to North. In regards to her body language, Alice seemed perfectly calm with the strange situation she was in, but Jack could almost sense the panic and confusion bubbling underneath the surface. He figured he could see it much easier than the others could, probably even more than Bunny, mainly because he had been in her same shoes only two years earlier. The circumstances of their similar situations had been very different, but ultimately they had the same problem.

They were both young spirits who had been content (but perhaps not completely happy) with their chosen life styles and routines. Jack would have the occasional bouts of loneliness and heart-wrenching longing for answers and acceptance, but other than that if he hadn't been chosen to become a guardian, he probably would've spent the next three hundreds years doing the same thing he has always done; making snow days and causing mischief.

Now, he couldn't speak much for Alice since he had only just found out she existed, but he figured that if the girl could spend over a hundred years, alone, inside a world of her own creation, surrounded by weird creatures also of her own creation, with the occasional visit from the cranky Easter Kangaroo as her only link to the real world and not die of complete boredom...then she could probably continue doing that for another few centuries.

Jack knew he couldn't pull something like that off. He was too much of a people person, even though he could count the number of people who could actually see him on both hands.

The point was, they were content and comfortable with their lives. Then out of nowhere, a giant rabbit showed up unexpectedly and took (or in Jack's case tossed) them to the famous Santa's Workshop where a group of children-bribing stiffs tell them that they have to become these almighty protectors of every child on the planet. Something like that can totally ruin a person's day. It certainly ruined his.

Jack waited for a break in North's conversation with Tooth before he decided to try and initiate small talk with the girl across from him. The calm and quiet dinner was starting to bore him and he felt that he had been silent for too long. He liked to talk and he always jumped at the chance to strike up a conversation with anybody who could hear him, which unfortunately again, wasn't a lot of people. And it wasn't everyday he got to talk to a pretty girl who could actually say something back to him.

Although, Alice also looked like the spiteful type of girl, so saying that she could talk back didn't mean that she would talk back. It was worth a shot anyways.

"So," Jack idly started. "What does your pendant mean?"

He almost flinched when Alice's acidic green eyes snapped up to meet his. She didn't answer right away and it took him a few moments to realize that Alice either hadn't heard his question, or wasn't sure if he was speaking to her.

"Your pendant," he repeated while pointing to his own neck. "What does it mean?"

Alice's hand came up to mimic Jack's as she looked down at her silver pendant.

"It's an Omega symbol, and if I'm not mistaken, it means 'the end' of something."

"The end of what?" Jack asked, genuinely curious. What weird choice in jewelry.

"I don't know," Alice answered honestly. She really didn't know what "end" her pendant was supposed to symbolize. She had never given it much thought before. It seemed strange that the necklace had always been part of her Wonderland wardrobe and yet she was only just now questioning its presence. The whole idea was starting to make her feel quite silly.

"You don't know?" Jack asked skeptically as if he was thinking the same thing she was.

"Yes, I don't know," Alice snapped.

"Okay! Jeez, sorry," Jack said while holding up a hand in surrender. "I was just asking a question. Didn't need to get all defensive."

The Winter spirit looked back down at his plate and picked half-heartedly at the food with his fork. Alice watched him for a moment before looking back at her own porcelain plate with an odd sense of guilt. It had been a simple question, and she did get unnecessarily defensive over it. Her shoulders slumped a bit when she realized just how much of a hypocrite she was being. She spent most of the evening thinking so little of Frost for the incident back in the Workshop, and here she was, failing to answer a simple question without getting upset. So honestly, Alice was being just as rude as he was, which maybe wasn't very rude at all. Maybe she was still bitter over a situation she couldn't fully control, and perhaps she was projecting her anger on to the first person who crossed her.

Alice raised her head with the intention of redeeming herself for her boorish behavior towards Frost, but he already seemed to be over the spat because he cut her off with another question.

"What's Wonderland like?"

Alice's eyes widened at the unexpected question and she blinked at the spirit across from her. "Pardon?"

"I've read the books and seen the movies, but they make it seem like Wonderland is only just this big enchanted forest so I was wondering if that's what Wonderland is really like."

"You've read my books?" Alice replied after a long pause.

Alice didn't consider the "Alice in Wonderland" books as hers. She didn't write them and the "Little Alice" in the stories didn't resemble her real childhood. Yes, the books were based off her creations and her Wonderland, but they never truly felt like her books. Though she helped inspire them, they were ultimately a product of someone else's imagination. In the beginning of her new life as a spirit, Bunny tried to convince her otherwise by bringing copies to Wonderland and urging her to read them, hoping that they would somehow inspire her to reconnect with the outside world, but after about thirty years or so he stopped trying.

"Well yeah, these days, it would be pretty hard to find someone who hasn't at least heard of them," Jack smiled while tapping his glass absentmindedly with his fork. "They're a classic, and people have made tons of movies based off them."

"Oh, I see," Alice said while briefly wondering what a "movie" was. "And to answer your question, Wonderland is not made up of only forest. It's broken up into different sections and each section has its own unique and distinguishing theme to it."

"What kind of sections?"

The Winter spirit's continued curiosity puzzled Alice greatly. To her, Frost looked like the type of person that lost interest in things quite quickly, unable to concentrate on one single object or idea for very long.

'I suppose appearances can be deceiving,' Alice thought. 'According to Cheshire, I'm the perfect example of that. Though I hardly see why he would think such a thing.'

"Well, there's the Hatter's Domain, the Red Kingdom, Vale of Tears, Deluded Depths, the Mysterious East, and several others I'm sure aren't included in Carroll's books."

"The Red Kingdom is, but not any of the others, which I figured would be the case," Jack said. "Most myths and legends about Tooth, Sandy, North, and Bunny don't portray them or their domains exactly right either."

"No, I suppose they don't, do they?" Alice said with an amused smirk as she recalled all the times Bunny complained about how his representation in the real world was a cute, fluffy bunny rabbit. "And what about you, Mr. Frost? What do your stories say about you?"

Immediately, Alice knew she had said something wrong when Jack's smile vanished and his eyes went to his plate. He stumbled over his next few words, trying to cover it up by clearing his throat.

"I uh...I actually don't have any stories," Jack shrugged. "Or at least any likable ones. I'm usually portrayed as some cranky old man or a malevolent spirit who freezes people to death for kicks, which totally isn't true. And there really isn't anything I could do to prove the myths wrong because the children don't exactly...believe in me."

Alice muttered a quiet apology before looking back down at her own plate. She chastised herself for making the conversation awkward. Brilliant, Alice. Brilliant. It must be hard for a spirit, who was so obviously an extroverted individual, to not be seen. If she remembered correctly, spirits like the guardians were invisible to people who didn't believe in their existence. With that in the forefront of her mind, perhaps her and Frost could be considered similar in some way. No one believed in the real Alice. The Alice people associated Wonderland with was the small blonde Alice, not dark-haired Alice Liddell.

But which was worse? Having children believe in a more ideal, a more perfect, version of yourself while your true self is completely forgotten by time? Or not being believed in at all?

In Alice's opinion, Frost probably had it much harder when it came to the belief department, for obvious reasons. Alice didn't care whether people could see her or not. It had always been that way for her, in some form or another. When she was human, the seemingly good patrons of the rotten side of London would go immensely out of their way just to avoid Alice and her "stone of madness". And why wouldn't they? Reputation was everything back then, even for the less than saintly characters. Alice had been a sickly looking, ex-mental patient. She was an orphan who people believed would never wed and become a productive member of society.

However, despite all those perceived personality flaws, Alice always liked to believe that the true reason why people avoided her was because she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. More specifically, she was a woman who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Her vocabulary and intellect were, in their opinion, way too advanced for someone who never made it past elementary school, but perhaps that was because Alice was homeschooled as a child.

With that being said, when all those unfavorable qualities were mixed with her inability to "hold her tongue", Alice was easily considered no better than the pimps and prostitutes that lurked around the Billingsgate slums. So quite frankly, Alice was avoided like the bloody plague.

So for her, being invisible or ignored was just second nature. She preferred it that way in fact. She had been a borderline recluse ever since she was a child; although, during that stage in her life, it wasn't by choice. The Liddell family home was a little more secluded than the other homes, and Alice could never make any friends no matter how hard her mother tried with her habit of scheduling play dates with neighboring children.

"You don't have many believers yet, Jack," North joined in on their conversation, reminding the Winter spirit with a wag of his pointer finger. "But you will, trust me. These things take time."

"I know, North. I'm alright with it, really," Jack insisted with a reassuring smile that almost looked genuine.

North gave a satisfied nod before sitting back in his chair. He raised his arms above his head in a stretch as he let out a loud yawn.

"Time flies, doesn't it?" He laughed while looking at the large clock above the fireplace. "I believe is about time to close up shop for evening. Alice, I would very much like if you would stay and spend the day in the workshop tomorrow. You can watch the yetis make the toys and I'll show you how to care for reindeer. It'll be fantastic!"

"Oh, I don't know if..." Alice trailed off. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stay, but she didn't want to disappoint the Christmas spirit either, not after all his warm hospitality.

"I was goin' to take Alice home in the mornin," Bunny said, getting up from his chair. Once he pushed his chair back in, the gray pooka looked across the table at Tooth with an apologetic smile.

"Mind if I take a rain check on our plans tomorrow, sheila?"

"Oh...yeah, sure Bunny. We can plant fresh flowers around my palace some other time," Tooth said after a few moments.

Bunny smiled at her again before moving to pull Alice's chair out for her. The oblivious Easter Bunny may have failed to notice the disappointment in the fairy's pink eyes, but Alice didn't.

"Actually," Alice spoke up while turning back towards North. "I would love to stay."

"What? Really?" Bunny asked, thrown. He didn't expect her to accept North's offer considering that she had been uncomfortable all evening.

"Yes, really Bunny," Alice confirmed with a curt nod. "A day in the workshop sounds delightful. Besides, it would be quite rude of you to cancel your pre-existing plans on my behalf."

"Are you sure? I won't be there right away if somethin' goes wrong."

"I'm sure I'll manage," She replied back tautly.

She appreciated Bunny's concern for her safety, but the pooka treated her like a helpless child sometimes, and she didn't appreciate that.

"Well, I guess if your okay with it, but just-"

"Stop being such a worrywart, Bunny!" North laughed while giving him a rough pat on the back, making Bunny stumble forward. "She'll be fine!"

"Will you stop that, mate! I swear, I'm goin' to fall flat on my face one of these days!"

"What ever happens Bunny, I'm sure it will be improvement."

"Why you rotten-"

Tooth smiled at the boys' antics before getting up from her seat. With a gentle wave of her hand, Tooth motioned for Alice to follow her. The dark-haired girl threw a quick look towards the bickering guardians before she got up and walked around them.

"Come on, they'll be here for a while," Tooth said quietly as Alice approached. "I'll show you to your room."

Before leaving the dining room, Alice glanced back at where Frost was sitting to see if he had decided to join in on the others' argument, but his seat was empty.

~O~

"Alright, here it is," Tooth smiled as she reached out and opened the guest room door.

The room on the other side of the door was surprisingly plain. It had a simple, four-poster bed with a dark red comforter, a mahogany wardrobe in one corner, a beautiful vanity in another, a plush floor rug, and elegantly crafted French doors leading to a small balcony in the back. There was also another door on the right side wall which presumably led to the bathroom. It was extravagantly decorated, but still relatively modest compared to the rest of the Workshop.

"Are all the rooms like this?" Alice asked while running a hand over the pristine, white sheets of the bed.

"No, each bedroom is decorated differently," Tooth replied. She was hovering near the doorway with her hands folded neatly in front of her. "I thought you would like this one, though. You can stay in a different one if you don't."

"No, I like it. It's beautiful. I was merely curious."

"I'm sure you've already noticed North's eye for the extraordinary."

Alice smiled lightly at the remark and nodded her head. "Yes, his workshop most certainly reflects his personality."

"It really does, doesn't it?" Tooth agreed with a smile of her own. "Well, I guess I'll go now. I need to get back to my palace soon. Goodnight, and don't forget to brush and floss before bed!"

The Tooth Fairy was barely halfway out of the room when she heard Alice call out.

"Tooth?"

She turned back to look at the girl.

"Yes, Alice?"

Alice gave her a sincere look, but her emerald eyes were just as hard as ever. "I wanted to apologize, for earlier. It was rude of me to snap at you like that."

"That's alright, I shouldn't have mentioned-"

"No," she cut in firmly. "You and other Guardians shouldn't have to walk on eggshells just because I'm too sensitive. I'm the only one who should apologize. I am a guest here."

Tooth watched as Alice scolded herself like a child before the woman took a seat on the nearby bed. Despite Alice's confident exterior, the dark-haired spirit was still so very young, even by immortal standards. Just a baby really, like Jack. Tooth could sense the anxiety boiling precariously underneath the surface and as she watched Alice sit on her bed with her head turned towards the ground, the fairy's heart clenched in her chest at the sight.

Tooth finally let out a sigh before she hovered over to the potential guardian. With only a little hesitation, she placed her hands softly on Alice's shoulders and waited for the girl to look up at her, but when she didn't, Tooth continued anyways.

"Alice, I know that your life as a human was horrible and that a small part of you is still recovering from it, but whatever it is that you're still struggling to overcome, I just want you to know that you don't have to go through it alone anymore. Even if you don't take the Guardian Oath anytime soon, you will always be welcomed here. I think you'll make the right decision in the end. We all do because we believe in you."

And with that, Tooth pulled away from Alice. The feathered fairy wished her a goodnight one last time before she closed the door behind her, but she stopped for a split second when she heard Alice speak.

"Make sure Bunny has a good day tomorrow. He deserves it."

Alice continued to sit on her bed long after Tooth left, processing everything that has happened to her in the last twelve hours. As she cataloged every detail to memory, her emerald eyes focused on the lines in the wooden floor underneath her black boots. The silence around her thickened as she retreated deeper into her thoughts.

She had been so deep in thought, that when a familiar voice cut through the silence, Alice gasped and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"They're quite the bodacious bunch, aren't they, Alice? All smiles and hopeful jitters."

Alice placed a hand against her chest to help calm her poor heart before fixing the sudden intruder with a fierce glare. The offending figure laid casually across the railing of the balcony with his gray tail flicking liquidly in the air. Funny, she didn't even hear the balcony doors open.

"Cheshire!"

She crossed her arms with a huff and practically stomped out on to the balcony. The infamous Cheshire Cat only watched as she approached with his amused, yellow eyes and ever-present, malicious grin.

"I thought I left you to watch Wonderland while I was gone."

"You did, but after you didn't return after quite some time, I started to worry that you had gotten yourself lost again. That seems to be one of your more persistent bad habits."

"You? Worried?" Alice laughed curtly. "That's certainly a first."

Cheshire's eyes narrowed at her attitude, but his grin went unchanged. "At least I didn't come across as a complete shrew to my new friends."

"Cheshire, I am really not in the mood to listen to your cynical wisdom, or whatever it is you call your insults," Alice sighed. "I've had a very long day."

"Ah yes, I caught the little show with the toy airplane. The pale boy is horrible at making good first impressions, isn't he? Although, I thoroughly enjoyed the finale where that overgrown rodent was nicked in the noggin. I would imagine he'll have quite the bump on his thick skull tomorrow."

"Bunny getting hurt was not funny, Chess," Alice scolded with her hands on her hips. "But I suppose you're right about Frost. He resembles a walking icicle and he appears to be as smart as one too."

"Well now, this could be interesting," Cheshire purred mockingly. "The boy is a bumbling fool and you're a confused mess. That's a match made in heaven if I ever did see one."

"Go back to Wonderland, Cheshire," Alice demanded. "I won't tell you again."

"But don't you want to hear my warning?" His voice taking on a high, almost nasally tone as he whined teasingly.

"No."

"It's very unfortunate."

"Knowing you, I'm sure it is, but I still don't want to hear it."

"Perhaps humor me then. I do it all the time for you, it's only fair."

She sighed in frustration before crossing her arms again. The Cheshire Cat could be even more stubborn than her sometimes.

"Alright, but make it quick."

"Bossy today, aren't we?" the emaciated gray cat smiled. "Shadows can be easily overlooked when one chooses not to pay attention, but you can't always assume-"

"Cheshire," Alice snapped while tapping her foot impatiently. "I said-"

"Something wicked is coming, Alice," Cheshire purred in his rich, deep voice. "See? It's not so fun when you're the one being interrupted, now is it?"

"What do you mean something is coming?"

"I say what I mean, you should try it sometime," He narrowed his piercing gold eyes. "History tends to repeat itself in the worse ways and you don't want to be present when it does. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that evil can lurk inside even the lightest of rooms. Be on your guard."

Before Alice could question him further, the Cheshire Cat disappeared from sight.

The dark-haired girl looked at her companion's previously occupied spot before abruptly turning away, brushing off the mangy cat's warning for the time being. The balcony doors made a satisfying click as Alice turned the lock into place.

From the top of her peripheral version, she saw the moon floating majestically in the night-time sky. Cautiously, she lifted her gaze to look at the large silver sphere, hanging so innocently and without a care in the world. For a moment, Alice's eyes scanned its surface, searching for any signs of the Man in the Moon's presence.

Then the moment ended and she scowled at herself for thinking so foolishly.

Chapter Text

Alice barely slept two hours.

She woke up from a dreamless sleep and found that her racing mind wouldn't let her go back under. After tossing and turning for about a solid hour, she finally gave up the fight against her insomnia and decided to find something more productive to do instead. She sat cross-legged on her plush bed in nothing but her blue dress and striped stockings. Her white apron rested haphazardly on a nearby armchair and her boots were scattered on the floor where she had kicked them of her feet hours earlier. In one hand, she held the handle of her prized Vorpal Blade while her other hand polished it with a red handkerchief she found in the bedside drawer. Polishing the intricately designed knife seemed a bit pointless since it was already spotless and sharpened to a deadly point, but it gave Alice's restless hands something to focus on.

Truthfully, she hasn't had any real reason to use her Vorpal Blade in a very long time. There was the occasional leftover Ruin that needed to be dispatched in Wonderland, but nothing noteworthy beyond that, and she was pretty sure that the disappointment she felt for the lack of action wasn't healthy. After all, she should be happy that her Wonderland was no longer being corrupted. Sometimes she had to think long and hard about that for reasons she could never fully comprehend. Always in the end though, she decided that she liked a non-corrupted Wonderland much better. A corrupted Wonderland usually meant Alice lost her mind again and of course she didn't want that. Madness was a near black hole that sucked her into oblivion once already. There was no crying ignorance if she allowed it to happen once more.

Still, she couldn't help but think that things had been a lot more interesting in her Wonderland when it was corrupted. Yes, the Dollmaker's siege had been horrible and soul-crushing with the revelations it brought forward, even more so than the Red Queen's time of despotic ruling, but at least she had something to do, something to fight for.

Perhaps it was partly her fault that her routine had become slightly tiresome. During her long reprieve from the outside world, she had only been focused on cleaning up the parts of Wonderland that already existed. She hadn't created anything new in many years, but it made sense that the reconstruction of Wonderland should come first before anything else.

However, she couldn't deny that after one hundred and thirty years of clean-up duty, her daily routine has become a bit tedious.

Alice wanted to create new areas of Wonderland, but she wasn't entirely sure how to. Wonderland was no longer inside her head. It was real, and she didn't know if new additions had to be manually built, or if they would just build themselves as she imagined them in her head, like they did when she was a child. Honestly, she hasn't even tried yet. Wonderland reconstruction was time-consuming and usually required her full attention. Places like the Dollhouse and the Looking Glass Line still needed to be purged of left-over ooze and repaired. The Vale of Tears alone had taken almost a hundred years to repair. Yes, time moved differently in Wonderland, changing sporadically from slow to fast at random intervals like Father Time himself was off his rocker, but that didn't mean it wasn't any less bloody difficult.

Regardless of how she felt about her lack of entertainment in Wonderland, thinking about that certainly did nothing to help calm the current troubling dilemmas that rattled her brain at that very moment.

Why was she even here?

Alice Liddell was not a Guardian. She knew that the second Bunny told her the ridiculous news. No doubt the other Guardians had felt the same way when they were first chosen, but Alice just knew that the Man in the Moon had made a mistake by picking her. Although she wasn't a raving lunatic anymore, she still had way too much emotional baggage on her shoulders. She still had things she needed to figure out and she was just too broken to be a protector of children. Her own childhood had been beyond dysfunctional and her hands weren't the cleanest.

For the love of all things twisted and delightful, Alice had murdered a man! She pushed him in front of an oncoming train! And even though the sick bastard deserved it, that didn't change the fact that it was wrong. She was in no way religious, but even she knew that taking someone else's life was considered the ultimate sin. There just wasn't any way to kill someone and then later go back to the way things originally were, even if the killer felt no remorse, which she didn't.

She do not regret killing Doctor Angus Bumby. Why should she? He had singlehandedly destroyed her entire life in one night. A malignant spark was all it took to burn down her childhood and Bumby had promptly appeared with a match in hand. He robbed her sister of her innocence and then strangled the beautiful life out of her before setting her home ablaze and watching from the shadows as her family burned. And if that wasn't sick enough, he chose to drive the knife even deeper by taking Alice on as one of his patients when she was released from Rutledge. The Doctor sat across from her everyday, listening as she spoke of her precious Wonderland and her real world problems - problems in which he had caused. She remembered him sitting in his plush office chair, writing down notes on his notepad and nodding as if he understood, acting like he was a person she could trust.

And she did.

All the children in the orphanage did, and that only made him even more despicable. The man had been a soulless monster and he needed to be stop. He had ruined so many children's lives, including hers.

'Now leave! I'm expecting your replacement.'

And he was just going to do it again, and again, and again. Men like him never stop on their own.

Alice couldn't let him walk away a free man. She had been so blind to the suffering around her, so wrapped up in her own selfish cloak of self-pity and pain, that it had kept her from seeing the current horrors the other children were going through. She had her own equal slice of blame in their demise because Caterpillar had been right, Alice had witnessed the pain of others, and for years, did nothing to stop it. She was just as horrible as Dr. Bumby.

Bumby may have been a malicious murderer and borderline child pimp, but he had been right about one thing. Who was going to believe insane Alice Liddell over a seemingly respectable man of society? Absolutely no one.

Surprisingly enough, when she discovered the truth about everything, she hadn't sought him out at the train station that day with the intentions of killing him. No, she wasn't stupid, despite what that blasted cat might think. She wasn't about to waste her new found freedom on scum like Bumby. She had only wanted to confront him, hear him admit to his crime. She needed to hear more than anything in the world that it was Bumby's fault that her family was dead, not hers. Afterwards, she fully intended on going to the authorities. She wanted everyone to know the cause of her madness and she wanted the "good doctor" be locked away with his reputation in ruins, just like her Wonderland. Sweet poetic justice.

She knew that Bumby's words rang true about no one believing her, but she also knew that she still had to try to seek justice for all those poor little souls that she had helped Bumby abuse. She at least owed them that much. It hadn't been until she turned away from the monstrous man, having just snatched her sister's bedroom key from his watch, that she had felt it. That familiar surge of strength and power that she had only ever felt when entering her Wonderland.

It ignited in her chest and spread through her veins like wildfire, and this time it felt ten times stronger. It felt like her whole body was suddenly lifted from a cold, dark place and brought into a world of brightness. Invisible chains unlatched from her limbs and she felt light as a feather. Something about her had changed in that brief moment, something so marvelous and terrifying that it almost paralyzed her.

Almost, but not quite.

Alice could still remember the look on Bumby's face when she turned back around to face him one last time, the approaching train's whistle ringing loudly in the distance. He looked amazed, confused and horrified all at once, and that expression was all she could focus on. She hadn't even realized yet that she was in her blue Wonderland dress, nor that Bumby would be the last person to ever see her. The power and euphoric aura surrounding her was otherworldly. She was otherworldly.

If someone were to ask her how it was possible that Dr. Bumby could see her after she became a spirit, she wouldn't be able to answer. She honestly didn't know. There were many aspects to her life as a spirit that Alice still didn't understand, even to this day. She was always too afraid to ask her companion. Afraid that the answers she might receive from him would reveal that she wasn't a normal spirit. That she was something else entirely. No longer a human, but not a spirit either.

So even now, after a century to think about her past decisions, she still didn't feel any remorse for pushing Bumby.

But on related concern, if she didn't feel any guilt over killing someone, then how come she lied to Bunny when he asked about what happened to her family's killer?

That was another question Alice couldn't answer completely. She always figured that it had something to do with the possibility of getting shunned by her oldest friend. The dark-haired spirit knew next to nothing about the pooka's life before becoming the Easter Bunny, but she did know that in his current life, he believed that killing someone was wrong and it was never justifiable.

Or perhaps she wasn't giving Bunny enough credit. The pooka always understood and forgave Alice's past mistakes before, including that long period of time when she had stopped believing in him and had abandoned all memory of him. She didn't mean to forget, and she certainly didn't choose to stop believing. Her mind wasn't exactly her own after the fire. Even after pushing Bumby, Alice didn't start remembering Bunny until about ten years later.

Her mind had been so focused on trying to remember the night of the fire that when the truth finally came out, Alice became lost again. Partly because no one could see her anymore, but also because her revenge was complete. Revenge focuses the mind, as she always told herself, but what happens afterwards? She obviously couldn't continue living her life like before. Eventually, after wandering around London in a near trance for about a decade, the rest of Alice's memories gradually started to resurface. It was only a matter of time before she remembered Bunny, and when she did the dark-haired made her way back to Oxford just in time for Easter that year.

And she was forgiven instantly.

So at the very least, if Bunny knew what she had done, he would be immensely disappointed, that she knew for sure, and disappointment was another thing that she couldn't bare to see directed at her by him. Whether it was disappointment caused by her ultimate act of violence, or the fact that she had lied to him about it. As far as Bunny knew, the killer of her family was arrested and locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Alice didn't go into detail about that day. She claimed that she couldn't really remember it, which was another lie because she made it a point to remember everything about that day.

But now, after everything that had happened today, Bunny's horrified expression wasn't the only one that entered her mind when she thought about her big secret. It completely bewildered her that she barely knew the other Guardians more than a single day and already she was starting to actually care about what they thought of her.

Curse those amicable spirits and their welcoming ways! New emotional attachments were definitely not something she needed right now.

So here was the underline question that Alice couldn't make any sense of (not that she had much sense to begin with).

Why?

Why on Earth would the Man in the Moon choose her? Of all the spirits in the world, why did it have to be her? There had to be plenty of other perfectly qualified spirits to choose from. Who in their right mind would choose broken, little Alice Liddell to be a protector of every child on the planet? If this Man in the Moon really existed and truly believed that Alice Liddell was a guardian, then perhaps she had finally found someone who's more insane than her.

She raised her newly shined Vorpal Blade into the air, watching the light from a nearby candle reflect off its gleaming surface. She gave a quick, fleeting glare at the old fashioned nightlight and scoffed at herself. Almost a hundred and sixty years old and she still couldn't sleep comfortably in the dark. Utterly ridiculous.

After looking at her slightly distorted reflection in the blade, Alice let out an exasperated sigh while placing her favorite weapon on the bedside table. She has been sitting on her duff long enough. The young spirit stood from the bed with the intention of going for a short walk to clear her head. She walked over the armchair to retrieve her white apron. Once the cloth was tied securely around her narrow waist, Alice spared a quick glance at her boots before deciding to go in her stripped stockings.

The workshop should be empty by then so Alice didn't have to worry about any heavy yetis stepping on her poor toes.

~O~

Although the workshop was much more peaceful after hours, the atmosphere of the dormant work area seemed almost unnatural. It was utterly chaotic and near impossible to navigate, but by comparison with how quiet it was now, Alice found that she preferred the more lively version of the workshop.

The main lights overhead were off to save electricity, but smaller lights and candles lined the railings and ceiling rafters, bathing the workshop in a dim glow. It was dead silent and all the workshop tables had clusters of temporarily abandoned toy projects on them that would be started up again once the yetis returned first thing in the morning.

The giant world globe in the center of the workshop slowly rotated on its axis. All the little lights across its surface shined brightly despite their small size. Alice leaned over the wooden railing with her arms crossed. Her eyes roamed over the globe, taking in the intricate carvings and symbols etched into its surface. She sighed wistfully as she remembered how once upon time her own belief had been represented by one of those tiny lights. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath of peppermint and cinnamon scented air before slowly exhaling. Opening her eyes again, Alice laid her head down on her folded arms and continued to watch the rhythmic rotation of the Globe of Belief. It became hypnotic after a while and she found herself standing there for almost an hour, lost deep in thought.

Just when she finally decided to return to her room and stare vacantly at the ceiling in a vain attempt to fall asleep, Alice heard something in the distance. Focusing her full attention on her surroundings, she was able to distinguish the sound of someone speaking. The voice was faint, but it sounded like it was coming from the floor above her. Despite her better judgment, she mounted a nearby staircase and followed the voice.

The higher she climbed, the clearer the voice became until she was close enough to distinguish who it belonged to.

It was Frost.

It couldn't have been anyone else. It was unmistakably male and it lacked a deep Russian accent and a familiar Australian one.

Alice's exploration eventually brought her to the top floor of the workshop, near the grand fireplace where she met the Tooth Fairy hours earlier.

"I know it must seem like I'm asking a lot, but you haven't exactly made it easy for me."

She stuck close to the shadows of the workshop and slowly peeked around the corner to see the grand fireplace and control system for the globe. She let go of the wall and walked out into the open area in front of the fireplace, taking care not to make her footsteps heard, which happened to be easy because of her bootless feet. She wasn't sure why she hadn't explicitly made her presence known like she usually would have, instead of doing all this sneaking around, but her curious nature had been piqued.

Frost was sitting on one of the window seats behind the main fireplace. He sat with his legs crossed and his back facing Alice. The odd crooked staff that he always had in his possession rested across his lap as he looked upwards through the glass. From the window, they had a perfect view of the moon. It bathed Frost in its beautiful glow, making his white hair shine silver. An unnatural but beautiful color for someone's hair to be.

"I mean, before the battle with Pitch, I was constantly asking you about my past and my purpose, and now that I know, I'm still asking questions."

Who was he speaking to?

"I've come to accept my role as a guardian, and finally being believed in feels more amazing than anything I could ever imagine but...but somehow, it just isn't enough."

Alice barely held back a scoff when she realized that he was speaking to the Man in the Moon. The skeptic woman shifted her weight on to one foot and crossed her arms, waiting for Frost to finish up his little chat with the floating rock in the sky.

"I need to know what happened after I fell through the ice. Did she blame herself for what happened, or did she just forget? I wouldn't be mad if she did...it was an accident and I wouldn't have wanted her to go through the rest of her life feeling guilty about something that wasn't her fault. If anything, it was my fault. I should have checked the ice better. It was still winter at the time and I didn't think that it would crack like it did..."

The winter spirit reached up and tugged on the roots of his white hair, cursing himself. His death was the last thing he wanted to think about right now. He let out a heavy sigh, releasing the strands of hair twisted between his fingers and moved to grip his knees instead as the memory of freezing cold water and collapsing lungs filled his head.

Slowly, he lifted his gaze back up at the moon, watching for any signs that the mysterious spirit was listening, but like always he received only silence in return. He let out another sigh while running a hand through his white hair gentler this time. In all honesty, he hadn't expected the moon to respond. In fact, if it had said something back, Jack probably would have died again from sheer surprise.

After a couple more minutes of unresponsive silence, he decided to call it a day with the soul-searching and go back to his guest room. The Winter Spirit nearly jumped out of his pale skin when he stood up and turned around to find Alice standing across the room, seemingly lurking halfway in the surrounding shadows of the grand fireplace area.

"Holy snowballs!" he exclaimed while holding a hand over his pounding heart. "When the heck did you get here?"

"Just now," she lied smoothly, trying to hold back an amused smirk at his frightened reaction. According to Cheshire, she already came across as a temperamental shrew. There was no need to add snoop and sadist to the list.

"You scared the crap out of me."

Alice's face curled up at the concept. "Charming."

"I didn't mean that literally," Jack grumbled, fighting back a blush. He felt silly getting caught talking to something that would never answer him back. "You didn't...hear anything I just said, did you?"

"Not particularly, I heard you speaking but I wasn't paying attention to what you were saying," Alice lied again. She had almost forgotten what it felt like to lie. It was another thing that she hadn't done in a while. "Your words didn't seem important."

In her experience, when it came to dealing with her Wonderland creations, Alice had come to realize that being blatantly, and sometimes brutally, honest was always the best method, and trying to sell false rubbish to Bunny always proved to be pointless. Bunny was a fluffy lie detector when it came to the art of lying. Even with the giant lies Alice told him about Bumby's demise, sometimes she wasn't entirely sure if he believed her. If he didn't, he never said anything about it.

"Wow, I feel so much better. You know, you really have a way with words."

"You asked. It's not my fault if you didn't like the answer," Alice said while crossing her arms, pretending that she didn't just say something worthy of coming out of Cheshire's condescending muzzle.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to avoiding doing that again in the future," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. 'Jeez, this chick is mean.'

"Who were you speaking to?"

Jack looked back at the window before shrugging his shoulders. "Just Manny."

"Manny?"

"The Man in the Moon. Manny is what North calls him."

This time Alice didn't even try to hold back a scoff. "It even has a nickname. That's just bloody great."

Jack didn't really appreciate how callously the woman acted in regards to the Moon, but he decided not to walk into another argument. Alice looked like a vindictive type of person and he wasn't really in the mood to get his head bit off. From what he gathered from earlier, Alice's bite was probably way worse than her bark and he wasn't anything if he wasn't a fast learner.

"I take it you don't believe in the Man in the Moon?" Jack asked, hoping he wasn't asking a loaded question.

"Not really."

"So, I guess you're not going to become a guardian," he assumed while he sat back down on the window seat with his staff still in his hands.

"I suppose I can't technically say 'No', but I'm not agreeing to it either," Alice said, crossing her arms again. "I honestly mean no disrespect towards you and the other guardians, nor your way of life, but I'm afraid there has been a mistake."

'Been there, done that,' Jack mused nostalgically to himself, remembering how he had once been standing where she was just two short years earlier, insisting that MiM made a giant mistake just as she had. Jack found it funny. He had only been a guardian for a short period and already he found himself almost completely immersed in his new role. He still found being part of a team a bit uncomfortable, especially when it came to physical contact and affection, but hey, one step at a time, right?

"What makes you think he's made a mistake?" Jack has always known his reasons for doubting Manny, but he was interested in hearing Alice's. Although, he doubted she would actually tell him.

"Trust me," Alice urged with her emerald eyes sharp and serious. "He's mistaken."

"Okay, whatever you say," Jack shrugged his shoulders and nearly laughed when Alice let out a frustrated huff.

There he went again, she noted with growing frustration. Not taking her seriously. She didn't need to stand there and take that from such a self-assured, over-grown child. Without another word, Alice turned sharply on her heels and walked away.

"So, I guess we won't be getting a new teammate then, huh?" the winter spirit called out to her.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Alice called back as she walked away.

"Well that's too bad. I'd be lying if I said a wasn't a little disappointed, but hey, there's no point in crying over split milk, right?"

Alice stopped short at the comment. She knew Frost was playing a game with her and she really wanted to keep walking, but her blasted curiosity prevented her from ignoring him. Knowing that she'll probably regret it, she decided to humor the spirit and looked back over her shoulder.

"Is that so?" she asked before her face twisted into a scowl when she saw Frost lounging lazily across the window seat with one arm rested behind his head while he twirled his staff in the other. "And why would that be?"

She nearly shrieked in frustration when Frost didn't even open his eyes to show that he was listening. He just continued to lay there like she wasn't even in the room. She didn't know what point he was trying to make, if there even was one, but he was getting on her last nerve. She was used to dealing with infuriating people, in both the real world and Wonderland, but that annoying gnat was taking it about ten steps further, and between drunken sailors on the docks of Billingsgate and Hatter's constant tea chatter, that was quite the accomplishment.

Practically stomping over to her potential "teammate", Alice crossed her arms and jutted her hip out in the classic stance of discontent and annoyance.

"Why," She repeated, hoping the edge in her voice would cut through Frost's thick skull and make him answer her.

Jack lazily opened one eye to look up at the angry girl standing over him. He pretended to have no real interest in their conversation while also praying he wouldn't get his teeth kicked in for his efforts.

"Because if you become a Guardian, then I won't be the baby of the group anymore," Jack wistfully said while examining his pale knuckles like they were much more interesting than anything she had to say, which couldn't be farther from the truth. He was almost twitching with excitement at Alice's response.

"I am no child, Mr. Frost," she nearly hissed.

"Compared to them, you are. I'm not exactly ancient myself, but even I'm older than you by a couple hundred years. You can't be much older than the 'Alice in Wonderland' books, so I'm guessing that you're from the Victorian times, right?"

"I suppose? Forgive me Mr. Frost, but I-"

"Oh, no please, call me Jack. Mr. Frost is my pet polar bear back in Antarctica," Jack smirked. Being called Mr. Frost made him feel old. It was almost as bad as being referred to as Father Frost, which only made him feel like he was leading a cult of demented snowmen. "He enjoys long walks on the beach and disemboweling penguins."

Jack chuckled at his own wit, but stopped when he noticed Alice's deadpan expression. She probably wasn't happy about him interrupting her again. This girl seriously needed to relax. He covered his amusement with a cough.

"That was a joke. You do know what a joke is, right?"

"Yes, I just don't find you very amusing."

"You wouldn't be the first," he smiled.

Alice crossed her arms again while looking off to the side at the grand fireplace, wondering why she had to be a magnet for such disagreeable and distasteful characters.

Jack chuckled again. He looked up at her as she spaced out again. He could definitely see why Alice was Bunny's favorite. They both had razor-sharp tempers and got upset over the most ridiculous things. Jack could never understand how people could go through life with such bitter attitudes and why they would even want to in the first place. Life should be spent having fun and not worrying about every single, insignificant detail. And they were immortal, they had more than enough time to get the important stuff done without having to sacrifice the good times. He could understand Bunny because he had a holiday, but what did Alice have? Other than Wonderland.

He watched as Alice fell deeper into thought, the dim lighting from the fireplace almost made her hair look scarlet. Her pink lips were pursed in thought and her green eyes were just as striking as before. They kind of reminded him of Bunny's, but lighter in shade and more acidic. She was beautiful, strikingly so, but Jack couldn't help but sense something almost lethal under it, just by the way she first looked at him back in the workshop. Borderline rage laced those shamrock irises and she seemed to be looking through him, rather than at him. Needless to say, it was extremely unsettling.

Jack was well acquainted with pretty but deadly women (one of his closest friends was the Tooth Fairy after all), but Alice Liddell could probably take that to completely new levels. It made him wonder just how different the real Alice was compared to the storybook one. Hopefully, he wouldn't find out the hard way. So it was probably in his best interest if he started to work on getting off her black list which he was so obviously on.

He let out a sigh before sitting back up and wrapping both of his hands around his staff.

"Look, I'm sorry about earlier," He flinched again when her eyes snapped back on him. "With the toy plane."

She gave him a scrutinizing look before letting her own smirk show, and somehow, Jack found it way worse than her scowl.

"Which one of them told you to apologize? I would imagine it was North, but it could have been Toothiana."

Jack blushed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "It was Tooth, but that doesn't mean I'm not actually sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you or Bunny, but I'm sure he'll tell me all about it later."

Alice uncrossed her arms and placed them behind her back as her smirk grew almost as poisonous as her eyes. Yep, the smirk was definitely way worse than her scowl.

"Your concern is appreciated but extremely misplaced. It takes more than a child's toy and a thin sheet of ice to harm me."

"Uh, I'll take your word for it," Jack replied, feeling the urge to back up but not having anywhere to go.

"Good, now if that is all, Mr. Frost, I would like to return to my room."

Not even waiting for a response, Alice turned on her heel again and walked away. Jack flinched again at the "Mr. Frost" while trying to erase a mental picture of himself wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase before he called out to the retreating woman again.

"So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" It was a rhetorical question, Jack knew he would see Alice tomorrow. She agreed to spend the day with North in the workshop and the jolly spirit was going to make Jack help clean up the mess he had made. They were going to run into each other eventually.

"Hopefully not."

Once she was gone from his view, Jack let out a relieved sigh and slumped back against the window seat.

That. was. brutal.

Jack threw a dubious glance up at the moon before he let his head fall back down with a slow shake, white strands of hair falling in front of his eyes.

"I really hope you know what you're doing, Manny."

~O~

Every four hundred years, just like clockwork.

Interesting choice, though, he had to admit. Alice Liddell as the new guardian. The Man in the Moon certainly knew how to keep things fresh.

She walked right past him just like he knew she would. Nobody noticed him unless he wanted them to. Darkness was his ally and fear was his profession, after all. He still had to be careful, though. North wouldn't react too kindly if the Russian discovered an enemy lurking the halls of his beloved domain.

But Pitch just couldn't help himself sometimes.

The Man in the Moon could be so predictable sometimes. It was common knowledge among everyone in the spirit community that a new guardian was always chosen exactly four hundred years after the previous one. It has been the same for centuries, only deviating from that pattern once when Frost was chosen earlier than expected. Which was understandable since Frost's choosing had special circumstances behind it.

A new guardian was always exciting and interesting news, even for someone like Pitch Black.

Well, maybe not exactly exciting since a new guardian meant a new enemy for him, but interesting nonetheless.

She continued down the long hallway, ignoring the shadows that surrounded her. Even when no one else was around, the woman still walked with great poise and confidence as if it were permanently ingrained into her posture. Oh yes, Pitch remembered her. How could he forget this particular little girl? What with her twisted and deliciously wicked imagination? He remembered every single nightmare she ever had before becoming a spirit. Those kind of nightmares were what made Pitch's job worthwhile. True night terrors they were. The way they made her thrash violently in her asylum bed, the restraints around her wrists and ankles only making her nightmares seem all the more claustrophobic.

And the absolute best part of it all was that Pitch never had to lift a finger. The little brat created them all herself, quite impressive for someone so very young at the time. True works of art.

Such potential Alice Liddell held in her hands. Potential that would surely be pacified and eventually wasted if she decided to choose the path of the guardians. There was only so much they could offer a spirit like Alice before she realized that it won't be enough. That all their rules and morals would only hold her back.

The woman finally reached her room, but before she could turn the ornamented doorknob, she stopped and stood completely still.

For a moment nothing happened as Alice raised a pale hand to brush her dark hair behind one ear, as if it would help her better hear whatever it was that grabbed her attention. Then, without warning, her head snapped towards the direction of his hiding place; in the shadows at the other end of the hallway. Her eyes quickly scanned the area, but Pitch knew she wouldn't find anything. He was much more careful than that.

Still, she sensed something was there and that piqued his interest. Usually nobody ever noticed his presence in any way.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously one last time before entering her room and shutting the door firmly behind her. Just like every new spirit he encountered, Pitch planned to do a little research. He needed to know what he might have to deal with in the future. She wasn't planning on going back to sleep, that much he knew, because spirits rarely ever feel tired enough to sleep for more than a couple of hours on a nightly sleep cycle.

But Alice had to sleep sometime. It was only a matter of waiting for her to finally crash and fall into a deep sleep just like every spirit eventually did.

Pitch let out an eerie chuckle before he placed his hands behind his back and leisurely strolled down the dark hallways of Santa's Workshop, letting the shadows swallow him whole.

Such potential indeed.

Chapter Text

"Now, keep your hand flat and fingers away from their biting teeth."

Alice did as instructed and offered the large reindeer the fresh carrot chunk that rested in her open palm. The tall, bulky animal leaned its massive head over the side of the wooden stall and lowered its snout down towards her hand. She held back a laugh when the reindeer's breath ghosted over her palm and tickled her skin as it sniffed the presented treat. After deciding that the woman was no threat, the reindeer accepted the carrot with a loud crunch.

North smiled and patted his beloved pet on the muzzle. He was glad that the skittish animal didn't try to snap at Alice's hand. His reindeer were usually nervous when unfamiliar faces approached them in their stalls, but they seemed to take a liking towards Alice. The last time Bunny was in the stalls, one of the reindeer nearly bucked him in the chest with one of its back hooves. North thought it was hilarious when Bunny had to awkwardly jumped backwards just to avoid getting his ribs cracked, but the pooka didn't seem to find it as funny. Needless to say, the reindeer were another reason why he hated the sleigh.

Once the reindeer stopped sniffing around for more carrots and retreated back into his stall, Alice moved down to the next one and beckoned its inhabitant with a click of her tongue. North lifted the small bucket of carrots in his hand, allowing her to take one and feed the animal.

"Is delivering goodies to the happy children of the world the only thing the reindeer are used for?" she asked while petting the reindeer's snout.

"Mostly, but the yeti sometime use them for hauling wood when they need to expand village. Reindeer are also commonly hunted for sport in human communities. Big game hunting."

"Do you hunt for sport?"

"Me? No, no," North laughed with a wave of his hand. "Perhaps I did once, very long time ago, out of necessity but never for sport. Every creature has purpose, whether big or small. Every living being has something to offer. Hunting to survive is one thing, but being wall ornament is no purpose."

Alice gave a single nod of agreement before turning back to pet the reindeer one last time, a fond smile finding its way on her usually stoic face. With each passing hour, the Christmas spirit seemed to succeed more in reminding Alice of her late father. The parallels she was able to recognize between them allowed a comforting warmth to settle in her chest, and not the usual searing pain of grief. She wasn't sure what to make of this new development, but so far it wasn't completely unpleasant, nor unwelcome.

Arthur Liddell had been a man ahead of his time. He placed his faith in science and literature, and had a passion for trains and photography. His belief that women were just as capable and important as men stemmed from marrying a woman with a stunning intellect, strong sense of independence, and love for learning. That belief only intensified after having two budding daughters, born with unlimited potential. Elizabeth with her unprecedented social and human skills and Alice's magnificent imagination and sharp, inquisitive mind, even for someone so young.

North seemed to be an old fashioned man. Not necessarily stuck in the past, but rather choosing to keep simpler morals and ideals. He was larger than life and would protect the ones he loved with every ounce of strength in his large body. She couldn't say he was a complete mirror image of her father, because unfortunately she couldn't remember her father that much. But their hearts of gold were one in the same.

Once the two finished feeding the reindeer, North led Alice back on to the main workshop floor to start his morning rounds. She trailed leisurely behind the older guardian while cataloging details of his magnificent workshop to memory for later contemplation. The workshop was in its usual state of controlled chaos as the yetis worked on the projects laid out in front of them while the very few elves that weren't following closely behind Alice, scurried around the area collecting pointless items and gnawing on anything they could get their hungry little hands on.

North strode proudly through his workshop, stopping occasionally to watch a yeti work. After inspecting a rather extravagant dollhouse, he gave the brown yeti a nod of approval before moving on to the next table where another yeti was building a fire truck. He was in the middle of inspecting the wheels when Alice spoke up.

"How do you decide which children are naughty and which are nice? Surely the human race has only expanded since I've been gone and it must be overwhelming keeping track of them all."

She observed the surrounding tables, but still followed when North moved on. It wasn't something that he was used to. Normally when Jack spent the day shadowing North, the active young man only stuck close until something else caught his eye and that usually happened about ten minutes after starting the rounds. After that, the Russian wouldn't see him again for hours, and if he did, the winter spirit was probably doing something he shouldn't.

"Tis true, it can be very tiring. Back when the world and I were younger, I would personally sort children's names to correct list, but that became too difficult to do. As times changed, so did world. And if I wished to not be left behind, I had to as well. All guardians have, but thankfully not by much. Our traditions are still very much same, just organization skills needed improvement."

"So how do you sort them now?" Alice asked, leaning against a workshop table, watching North pick up a toy and inspect it up close.

"Magic mostly. Children who are without doubt very naughty, or very nice are automatically placed on appropriate list, while 'in between' children are placed on separate list that I look over myself," North explained as he tested the durability of the toy in his hand by giving it a couple squeezes. When it didn't bend or break under the pressure, he placed it back on the table and continued on.

"In between children?"

"Dah, the children that aren't quite on either list. Children that might have done something naughty but had good intentions in doing so, or vice versa."

There was a short pause in the conversation. When he looked back at Alice she was still standing against the table with her arms crossed. Not in anger or annoyance, but in thought. North continued to multitask, signing paperwork without reading it and shooing away bothersome elves while the majority of his attention stayed on Alice.

"What about the naughty children that are only bad because they've never known anything else?" she finally asked, not taking her eyes off the floor.

North's bushy eyebrows knotted together in confusion at her change in behavior. Bunny warned him that she could be a bit moody sometimes, but North assumed he was only referring to Alice's temper. He didn't know what to think of this new mood change; distant and closed off. He briefly wondered if Alice was talking about herself, but from what he could remember off the top of his head about her childhood, he recalled Alice having a relatively happy one before the fire. It might have been a bit lonesome because she didn't make friends easy, but she had a loving family.

"They're on there too. It really depends on situation, Alice," North sighed, deciding that he didn't like the new turn in their conversation. "I've been doing this for long time and I know sometimes it isn't always entirely their fault, but they need to learn right from wrong some time."

"I know, and I don't disagree, but you do take note though, right?" She looked up at him and shifted her arms. "You don't just...overlook them, do you?"

North didn't know who Alice was referring to, if anybody, but he felt that he could answer her truthfully without making her upset.

"Of course not," he smiled after waving away another yeti with a clipboard. "What kind of guardian would I be if I turned blind eye to children?"

For a moment North could've sworn he saw Alice flinch, but when he looked at her again she remained unmoved.

"You wouldn't be a very good one, I suppose," she murmured to herself. After several seconds, she let out a heavy sigh, coming to some unspoken conclusion before uncrossing her arms and pushing away from the table. "How are the numbers looking this year? Nothing too terrible I hope."

North pushed back the feeling that he had said something wrong and smiled. "The Nice list is rather long this year. Certainly worthy of some record. But unfortunately, the Naughty list seems to get longer and longer each passing year."

"Why do you think that is?"

North crossed his arms and shrugged. "Bah! Children growing up too fast! Bad language, disrespectful to elders, and MiM knows what else. Doing adult stuff long before they should."

That was a big shame, but not very surprising for Alice. She did spend a good chunk of 1875 looking after emotionally traumatized orphans in the rotten underbelly of London. She knew that not all children were like that, but she also knew that given the appropriate environment and circumstances, children can be very nasty little beasts.

"I think I'll go look at the painting tables again if you don't mind, Mr. North."

He smiled at being called Mr. North again, but didn't say anything. Alice would drop the formalities when she was ready. She was always so mature for her age. Normally, North wouldn't think much of it since Alice's appearance didn't match her age, but even as a child she was always insightful and a bit wiser than other children. North expected nothing less from the child that managed to capture the grumpy Easter Bunny's attention.

"Be my guest," he said, giving her a nod. "After finishing my rounds, I will be in my office. Come find me if you need anything, and keep an eye out for Jack. He should be 'round here somewhere."

Alice tried to hold back a grimace and failed when North caught it anyways. His shoulders bounced as he chuckled to himself. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the two immortal teens still weren't on good terms. North was certain it would pass though, and they would be good friends in no time. His belly told him so.

~O~

"What do you mean I'm doing it wrong? It looks exactly like yours!"

"BarglAgbal!"

The yeti snapped back at Jack before presenting his own green robot and setting it next to the one Jack was painting. The yeti grumbled in his language as he pointed out the different "flaws" on Jack's toy robot.

"That's not really helping your case because they clearly have the same designs," Jack insisted as he tried to take his robot back, but the robot painting yeti wasn't having any of it.

Jack let out frustrated huff as he sat cross-legged on a workshop table, helping a certain yeti re-paint the robots that he accidentally screwed up the previous day with the whole toy airplane incident. Everything Jack did, the yeti would snap at him for doing it wrong. He was obviously still mad at the winter spirit for toppling his precious robot pyramid. Jack tried to stay calm and just do what he was told, but the yeti was a perfectionist and Jack couldn't care less. It's not like the kids would notice if their robot didn't have fake circuits and buttons painted on its chest.

After another five minutes of being lectured in a language he could barely understand, Jack let out a sigh before tossing his paintbrush into a nearby tin of water. Baby Tooth looked up from her extremely small finger painting on the workshop table, sensing that Jack was about to be on the move again.

"Forget it! I'm going to go help with something else since I'm obviously not cut out to be a robot painter."

As Jack untwisted his long legs and hopped down from the table, the yeti snatched the abandoned robot and proceeded to paint over Jack's markings. The winter spirit picked up his staff and gave the disgruntled yeti a two-fingered salute before walking off. The yeti just grumbled and gave the boy a sharp, dismissive wave that said 'good riddance!'.

Jack just laughed at the callous brush-off before he started strolling along the workshop floor, stepping over wandering elves and watching the yetis work. Some of the yetis gave him watchful looks as he walked by, but he ignored them. He couldn't blame them for being suspicious. He could shamelessly admit that he was a troublemaker, took pride in that fact, even. So when Jack found himself unsupervised in the workshop, he often took full advantage of the situation, and that usually led to the occasional workshop mishap. And the yetis didn't appreciate mishaps.

Regardless, he still kept an eye out for chances to help. Not that he expected anybody to ask.

From the look of things, it was shaping up to be a typical day in the workshop. Although this morning, North sent out an order for the toy making pace to speed up. Halloween was just days away and to North the candy and costume holiday signified that there was only about fifty or so days left before Christmas. That may seem like a lot, especially to a kid, but time moved far too fast for North. He liked to call the days following Thanksgiving, the "Final Stretch". It was during the Fall and Winter seasons that Jack spent half of his time helping around the Workshop. The other half was spent in the town of Burgess, guiding his group of minions through the many pitfalls of childhood; also known as Jamie Bennett and his friends.

'Speaking of which,' Jack thought to himself. 'Jamie should be back from his trip by now.'

"Hey Baby Tooth, let's go give Jamie a call," Jack said, turning to look at his tiny companion.

The mini tooth fairy squeaked and nodded before she flew off Jack's shoulder and towards the workshop floor above them.

Gathering up as much wind as he could in the limited space around him, Jack effortlessly launched himself up after her. He accidentally knocked over a couple of nearby Lego castles, but since he already had his mind set on calling Jamie, he only laughed at the cursing yetis instead of stopping to help them.

They'll get over it.

From what Jack could tell, there was only one phone in North's entire domain and it was one of those really old-fashioned, bulky wall phones with a rotary dialer. It was a big, hulking eyesore, but he didn't care. It worked and that was all that really mattered. Surprisingly enough, Santa's Workshop wasn't exactly best known for its good phone reception.

After finally reaching the cozy sitting room where North kept his outdated telephone, Jack closed the door behind him and walked over to the farthest wall. He picked up the receiver and quickly dialed the only series of numbers he has ever bothered to memorize and waited as the phone dialed out.

For his twelfth birthday, Jamie's mom gave him a cellphone for "emergencies only" and being the good kid that he was, Jamie followed that rule almost religiously, with the obvious exception of the Spirit of Winter. Which didn't happen very often anyways because Jack preferred to see the boy in person, but sometimes even he had places to be and couldn't leave whenever he wanted.

"Hello?" Jamie's voice greeted him after the third ring.

"Hey kiddo, how's it going?"

"Jack!" Jamie's tone instantly brightened up. "Is that you? Where are you calling from?"

"Of course it's me! Who else would it be, Santa Claus? Who's phone I'm using by the way," Jack laughed. He heard Abby barking in the background and Sophie shouting Jack's name.

"Sophie, be quiet!" Jamie hushed his little sister. "If mom hears me on the phone, I won't be able to talk to Jack."

Jack waited and listened to the sounds on the other end. Jamie was probably ushering his five-year old sister out of his room with the promise of a cookie, or some other sugary treat that would make Tooth shudder.

While he waited, Jack walked over to a nearby lounge chair and plopped down with a content sigh. Thank MiM the telephone's cord was long enough to reach. Baby Tooth flew over and hovered right next to his ear so she could listen in on the conversation. The breeze that came off of her tiny wings tickled his neck, but he didn't do anything to make her stop. He was used to it by now.

"Sorry about that, Jack. Sophie slept most of the car ride back and now she's all hyper."

"No problem, it's not like I have any place to be," Jack assured him, idly twisting the cord around his finger. "How was your dad's house?"

"It was okay."

Jack could easily picture the boy shrugging his shoulders. Jamie was always excited to tell Jack about his visits to his dad's house. Due to his school schedule and the fact that his father lived in New York, Jamie and his sister could only visit him one weekend out of every month, so by the time weekend with dad rolled around, Jamie was bouncing with excitement. However, their most recent trip was different from the others for one specific reason.

"Did you meet your dad's new girlfriend?" Jack asked almost cautiously.

About a week before his trip, Jamie told Jack about the phone call he got from his dad. His dad had a new girlfriend that he wanted Jamie and Sophie to meet when they came to visit. The boy hadn't been too visibly upset about it, but Jack could tell that the news hit him hard. Even though his parents were now on relatively good terms with each other after their divorce was finalized, Jamie knew that there was no chance that they would ever get back together. But just like any other kid with divorced parents, he still silently hoped otherwise. Now that his dad had a girlfriend, the fact that his parents were divorced had never felt more real, not even when his dad moved out of the house. At least then Jamie could just pretend his dad was on a really long business trip.

Jack felt useless when Jamie talked to him about his parents. It was one of the few things that Jack has never had any experience with. Divorce had been an unheard of occurrence back when he was human, and even if that hadn't been the case, he seriously doubted his parents would have gotten one. He really hated feeling useless when it came to his favorite kid, and he knew the feeling would only increase as Jamie got older. The Guardian of Fun wasn't qualified to deal with all of the modern problems that Jamie would eventually go through. He could help Jamie with his history homework and freeze school bullies, but advice on girls? High school? The SAT's and College essays? Forget about it.

"Yeah, we met her," Jamie mumbled into the phone.

"And? Did you guys like her?"

"Sophie did, but then again she's five, she likes everybody. I thought she was okay...she's pretty good at computers like me, and she showed me how to get that virus off my laptop."

"See? I told you it wouldn't be so bad. You need to start having a little faith in me, kiddo."

"Yeah, I guess so," Jamie chuckled halfheartedly. "I suppose it's not so bad, you know? I just needed a little time to let it sink in."

"Now that's thinking like a champ," Jack said proudly. "Taking life one day at a time."

"So, why are you calling from North's workshop? The weather's pretty cool here in town, you could've stopped by."

"Nah, not really. I'm kinda stuck here until I fix everything I messed up in the shop yesterday."

"What did you do?"

"Took a jumbo sized toy plane for a joy ride then nearly decapitated Bunny with it," Jack smirked before quickly adding: "By accident!"

On the other end of the call Jamie laughed. Unlike his stick-in-the-mud teammates and cutthroat Alice, he knew Jamie would see the humor in the situation. He would always take his role model's side, no matter what. Even if it landed him on North's naughty list.

"No way! Did he beat you up afterwards?"

The Winter spirit snorted. "Pfft, as if! Bunny may know Tai Chi, but that doesn't mean crap if you can't catch your target. I'm too quick for him."

Jamie laughed for a few more moments before he finally sobered up. He started to talk about his visit again, how his dad took him to see the latest superhero movie and took them all out for lunch at a very upscale restaurant in the city, but stopped when he heard his mother call his name from downstairs.

"My mom's calling me for dinner. I've gotta go now, Jack."

"Sure, but can you do me favor?"

"Right now?"

"No, not right now. Just whenever you get a chance."

"Sure thing! What's the favor?"

"Look up any information you can find on 'Alice in Wonderland', the author, and the girl the books were based off, Alice Liddell."

"Umm, okay," Jamie replied, slightly confused. "I can do that, but why?"

Jack smirked while standing up from the plush chair. "I'll tell you when I stop by tomorrow. Bye!"

Before Jamie could ask anymore questions, he hung up the phone and strolled out of the room with Baby Tooth trailing close behind him. They made their way back to the workshop.

'Back into the fray,' he mused as he walked along the painting station tables.

Baby Tooth hovered around the dollhouses, sometimes entering one and pretending to cook in the kitchen or fluffing her feathers in front of a tiny vanity mirror in the bedroom. Jack chuckled at her shenanigans as he continued on his way, leaving her to explore. She would always catch up to him eventually. It was the same thing every time he visited the North Pole during the same time as Tooth. Even after her queen returned to her palace, Baby Tooth would stick around Jack for a couple of days before following. Tooth never seemed to mind that one of her helpers shirking her teeth collecting duties every now and again, as long as she was careful and stayed with Jack.

He certainly didn't mind the company, even if Baby Tooth could only communicate with high-pitched squeaks and gestures. She could listen, understand and somewhat respond back to what he had to say. That was more than enough for Jack, especially compared to what he had before; isolation. About three hundred years worth.

While gracefully sidestepping a couple of elves that ran across his path, Jack came to a painting table with a grey yeti crouching on the ground in front of it. The creature had one of his large arms wedged under the table with his face squinted up in concentration. He must have dropped something that rolled under the table. He was trying to fetch it, but the yeti was having trouble because of his size.

Jumping at the chance to help, Jack jogged over to the yeti and tapped his fuzzy shoulder.

"Hey big guy," he smiled at the yeti, trying to assure him that he wasn't there to cause trouble when the yeti gave him a wary look. "Don't worry, I'll get it for you. Just step back a bit."

The yeti still looked skeptical, but apparently decided to give the white-haired spirit the benefit of the doubt because he pulled himself up and stepped back, giving Jack room to kneel. His smile grew when he realized that for once one of yetis wasn't going to give him the cold shoulder. Not wanting the yeti to regret his decision, he lowered himself to the ground and looked under the table. It took less than a second for him to spot what the yeti was looking for; a half painted baton resting at the farthest end of the table. The space between the floor and table was narrow so he could see why the yeti was having trouble, but it was hardly a problem for someone like Jack. Scrawny with long limbs.

Placing his staff on the ground right next to him, Jack got on to his stomach and reach under the table to fish out the toy. Once he had his fingers wrapped around the baton's middle, he wiggled out from under the table and quickly maneuvered himself back into a kneeling position.

"Here you go," he said, placing the toy in the yeti's waiting hand.

The yeti nodded at Jack and grumbled something that he guessed was a "Thank You". He nodded in return and watched as the yeti bounded back to his painting station. Instinctively, his hand reached out to grab his staff only to tense up when his hand met nothing except stone ground. Panic pooled in his stomach when he looked over to find that his staff was gone. His blue eyes quickly scanned the floor around him, searching for his most prized possession while trying desperately not to flip out right there in the workshop. Perhaps a passing yeti accidentally kicked it under something, or maybe some of the elves got to it when he wasn't looking. He almost shuddered in horror at the very idea.

Jack's heart was pounding in his chest by the time he finally noticed something in his top peripheral vision. He looked up to see a black boot barely inches away from his face. Slowly, his gaze trailed up past the silver buckles of the boot, past black and white striped stockings, and nearly jumped back when it landed on the hem of a familiar blue dress.

It was like Alice had materialized from thin air. She was sitting so close to him and Jack didn't even notice her arrival. There was no shift in the air, nor the eruption of goosebumps along one's arm when someone stood over them undetected until the last second.

Quickly finding his composure, Jack pulled himself up on to his feet and looked at the woman sitting on top of a workshop table with one leg crossed over the other, her foot bouncing slightly to some unheard tune. Unsurprisingly, she didn't acknowledge his discovery of her sudden appearance. She was curiously examining Jack's staff which she currently had in her grasp. Jack was both relieved and terrified at the sight. Relieved because that meant the elves weren't trying to eat it, and terrified because it was in Alice's hands. He didn't really know what he expected her to do with it, but several different scenarios ran through his head and none of which were very pleasant. One involved Alice either breaking the aged wood in half over her knee, or somehow crafting it into some makeshift weapon and using it to stab him.

As it turned out, Alice didn't do either. She just raised the staff up towards her face for better inspection and ran her long fingers across its length. She tried looking for the intricate frost patterns that she noticed last night when it was in Jack's hand, but it was blank. Not easily put off, her hand continued with its exploration by tracing the crook of the staff.

"Why do you carry this trinket around all the time? What's its purpose?"

Jack reached over to grab his staff in a half-hearted attempt only to have Alice pull it out of reach. He didn't really like it when people touched his staff without his permission, but he wasn't desperate enough yet to try to wrestle it from her, especially since the table put her at a good height for a swift kick in the kidneys.

Unsure of what to do with his rarely empty hands, Jack crossed his arms and waited impatiently for her to hand over his staff. Alice nearly laughed at the irony. Just last night their roles were reversed where Jack was the one with staff, pretending to ignore her while she stood by with crossed arms.

"It helps me channel my powers. Plus, it makes me look cool, so give it back."

"Can you not use your powers without it?" she inquired.

"Kinda, but they're not as strong."

"That seems like an awful big inconvenience should you ever lose it."

Jack flinched at a couple choice memories that directly applied to Alice's statement, being thrown back into an arctic trench by the Nightmare King as one of the top few. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

"Did you know that you were kneeling in paint?" Alice asked, pointing at his pants. "Because it's all over your knee."

"Wha-?" Jack looked down to see a purple splotch staining his pants. "Oh come on! I just had these washed!"

Balancing quite comically on one foot, Jack grabbed the knee covered in paint and tried to rub away the offending substance, only to succeed in staining his hands as well.

"That's just great," he grumbled, rubbing his hands together. "Here I am, trying to do something nice and what do I get? Paint all over my pants!"

The sound of Alice laughing nearly threw him off-balance. His arms waved around in an attempt to keep his balance as his raised leg fell back to the ground. He must have looked like an idiot, hopping around on one leg with his arms flapping like he was a mentally challenged seagull. He turned to look at Alice with wide eyes. She looked back at him with an amused smile as she laid his staff across her lap, one of her slim eyebrows arched at his dumbfounded expression. He almost blushed, making the whole situation more awkward for him. If Alice didn't think he was a complete fool before, she would definitely think so now.

'Did I just hear her laugh or am I imagining things?' Jack thought to himself as he carefully regarded the spirit in front of him. He was pretty sure that he heard her laugh. In fact, she might have even giggled, but no that was impossible. Alice didn't look like the type of girl who giggled. Maybe laugh maniacally at other people's pain, but not giggle.

"Are you alright?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Jack straightened himself up, trying to tell himself that he didn't find Alice's current expression "kinda cute". He had seen teenage girls in Burgess use similar looks, but they usually used them to get free stuff from male store clerks. Although he seriously doubted that Alice was tying to act flirty with him.

"I'm fine," He insisted, brushing imaginary dust off his hoodie sleeve. "Can I have my staff back now?"

He felt the need to squirm under Alice's piercing gaze. She pursed her lips in thought and gave the Winter spirit a slow once-over. She was making him uncomfortable and she knew it. He realized that this must be her way of getting back at him for being so annoying last night. He was the small mouse and Alice was the misfortune-bringing black cat who had him trapped by his tail.

"Here," Alice said, tossing the staff to Jack. "It's unimpressive anyways, much like it's owner.

Okay, that was uncalled for.

Before Jack could even think of a witty comeback, Baby Tooth buzzed past his shoulder. The fairy stopped inches from Alice's face. She pointed a tiny finger at Alice accusingly while she squeaked furiously while Alice looked down the bridge of her nose at the lecturing fairy. She didn't seem all that affect by Baby Tooth's angry squeaks. Instead she cocked her head to the side once again and gave the small creature a curious smile.

"Well, hello there," she murmured softly. Despite Baby Tooth's frustrated expression, Alice reached out a finger and lightly poked her in the stomach. Baby Tooth angrily pushed Alice's finger away and crossed her arms with a huff. "What a beautiful creature you are."

Baby Tooth froze and her pout melted off her face. She blushed and started twiddling her thumbs shyly, her sour attitude towards Alice completely forgotten. Jack rolled his eyes as Baby Tooth drifted back to his shoulder all giggly and flattered.

"Traitor," Jack mumbled under his breath. He looked back at Alice to find her still looking at him. His hand flew up to rub the back of his neck, trying to pretend he wasn't bothered by her looks. "Where's your fluffy nanny?"

"He took his leave for the Tooth Palace this morning," she said, looking down at her white apron. "He said he'll return later this evening."

Jack nodded while idly twirling his staff with his fingers. "I'm surprised he didn't bail on Tooth. Usually when Bunny is uptight and overbearing about something, no one can drag his attention away. I've never seen him act this way over a person before. Not even Sophie."

Alice blinked. "Who?"

"Just a little girl who has Bunny wrapped around her tiny finger," Jack laughed, remembering all the extra visits Sophie Bennett receives from the pooka outside of Easter Sunday.

Jack's twirling hand stopped when he saw Alice's expression fall and her eyes darken. Before he could ask if he had said something wrong, she turned her head away from him. Her hands gripped the edge of the table and she shifted her weight on to her arms. Seeing that she was moving to get down from her perch, Jack's hand instinctively shot out to help her. Alice stopped moving when she noticed the offered hand. For several seconds she just looked at it with a blank face. Just when he thought she would smack his hand away or snap at him, he felt slim fingers lay themselves over his. Stifling his shock, the Winter spirit's hand tightened around hers and supported her weight as she hopped down from the table.

For someone with such a cold and jagged disposition, the skin of her palm was surprisingly soft and warm. It was then that Jack remembered that Alice was a living, breathing person, just like anyone else. In fact, out of all the Guardians, her and North were the only ones who could pass as completely human.

As soon as her feet were firmly planted on the stone ground, Alice slipped her hand out of Jack's and placed it behind her back with the other. It was no surprise to her that his skin was so cold. His appearance and winter powers made that a guarantee, but the sensation still made her skin prickle. And not just because of his below average body temperature. The skin to skin contact also had something to do with it. It has been a while since Alice experienced that, even if it felt like she had just dipped her hand in ice water.

They both stood there unmoving, lost in their own minds and not really understanding why the atmosphere around them suddenly felt thicker. They weren't staring into each other eyes or anything, just off to the side. Eventually, Alice gathered herself again and looked back at Jack.

She politely cleared her throat to gain his attention. "Thank you, Mr. Frost. For the assistance."

Jack almost rolled his eyes at the formality. "No problem, Alice."

If Alice had picked up on his obvious hint for her to use his first name, she didn't show it. She just straightened her back and lifted her head with confidence.

"Well, I'm sure you still have much to do," she said with another amused smile. "There's still a smoldering pile of wires and plastic laying somewhere on the main floor.

Jack lazily scratched his cheek, not looking forward to his next chore. "Oh yeah...I'll get right on that. Eventually."

She narrowed her eyes at him before shaking her head and walking past him. At first Jack didn't do anything to stop her, but after walking a few seconds he turned around.

"Hey, Alice!"

She turned and watched as the Winter spirit jogged over to her, skidding to a halt right in front of her.

"You know that girl I just mentioned? Sophie?"

"Yes?" She prompted with crossed arms.

"Well, She really, really loves the Wonderland books and her birthday just so happens to be coming up soon..." Jack trailed off as he looked at the girl in front of him, trying to gauge her reaction.

"And?"

"It would just blow her five-year old mind if she met you," he said, motioning a pale hand at her. "Her older brother wouldn't mind meeting you either."

For several moments, Alice didn't do anything. Her impatient expression didn't even change, but then she dismissively shook her head and turned away from Jack.

"They like the Alice in the story books," she said over her shoulder as she walked away. "Not me."

Any rational and considerate person would realize that the conversation was over and that her answer was no, but unfortunately she was dealing with Jack Frost. And Jack Frost wasn't so easily swayed.

Expertly manipulating the air around him, Jack jumped into the air and landed again in front of Alice. A very big mistake on his part.

Not only had he successfully blocked her path, but he also managed to startle her. Jack knew that suddenly landing in front of someone could scare them beyond belief, especially if that someone didn't know he was capable of independent flight, but he didn't think it would bring out such a violent reaction in Alice. He expected her to jump, gasp, or maybe even shriek, but he didn't expect to have the deadly point of a sharp blade inches from his face. She had moved so fast that Jack didn't even see the blade until it was right in front of him, the lighting of the workshop gleaming across its ornamented surface.

The young Guardian stumbled back and nearly collided was a passing yeti carrying a stack of colorfully wrapped gifts. The yeti stumbled but managed to keep his balance before angrily snapping at the clumsy spirit that almost knocked him over. Jack reached out a hand to help steady the yeti and flinched when the annoyed creature yanked his furry arm away and bounded off in another direction. Jack shouted out an apology before turning back towards Alice.

The blade was no longer raised, but she still held it tightly in her grasp. It hovered defensively at Alice's side, as if she was still expecting something to attack her. She looked ready to skin him alive and Jack couldn't do anything except stare at the weapon in her hand. The blade had some sort of blue aura raising from it like a flame and it added to the sense of danger that usually came off Alice in waves, making her look twice as deadly with her green eyes burning a new hole in his face.

"What do you think you are doing, you wicked thing!" she shouted furiously. "Surprising me like that! I could have easily sliced you in half!"

"Well, I didn't think you were going to pull a knife out on me!" he shouted back but immediately stopped when he noticed the attention they were attracting. He quickly tried to get Alice to lower her voice once he saw the nearby yetis staring at them. Any sort of workshop disturbance or commotion would inevitable draw a certain Christmas spirit to the scene, and Jack wouldn't even know where to begin explaining why Alice had a knife brandished at him.

"I'm sorry!" he said hoarsely, one of his hands raised in front of him. "I just need to talk to you. And please, can you keep your voice down? I'm in enough trouble as it is."

"What is there to talk about, Frost?"

"What we were talking about before. These kids would really like to meet you," he insisted, speaking the honest truth. Once Jamie found out that Alice is real, he would flip out in excitement. Jack once told him that more spirits existed other than the Guardians, but he has only managed to meet a handful of them personally so the opportunity for Jamie to meet more spirits has never come up before. And it went without saying that Sophie would be beyond happy.

"Are you still going on about this?" Alice shook her head in disbelief. "I said no-"

"They won't care if you're not the storybook Alice!" He knew he was probably getting on her nerves, but the Winter spirit was determined to show Alice Liddell that Jack Frost never backs down. Alice wasn't the only one with an unwavering sense of determination around here.

"Jamie knows that not every spirit is portrayed correctly, especially in modern times. He'll just be excited to met the real Alice. And Sophie is pretty smart for a five-year old, she'll know what's what."

Alice crossed her arms and pursed her lips tightly together as she reconsidered the white-haired spirits's offer. As Jack waited for a response, he noticed that her knife had disappeared, seemingly vanishing into thin air. There was no place that she could've stored it without it being noticeable. Unless it was up her dress, and if that was the case, Jack didn't really want to think too deeply on it.

Eventually, she let out a sigh as her arms fell back down at her sides.

"When is the girl's birthday?"

"The day after tomorrow," he replied, trying to hold down his excitement. "The day before Halloween."

There was another long pause before Alice slowly shook her head again. Jack's smile dropped at the sight and he dreaded that she was going to reject him again.

"Oh alright, I'll do it," she said, not believing her own words.

Jack didn't even try to hide his enthusiasm. He let out a triumphant whoop and fist pumped the air once, the whole knife fiasco already in the back of his mind. Alice just rolled her eyes at Jack's overdramatic reaction and turned to walk away. Jack immediately noticed her leaving and called out to her again.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm retiring to my room for the evening," she replied but didn't stop. "Please let Bunny know when he returns."

Grateful that she had agreed to his request, Jack only nodded. "Consider it done. But why so early?"

"No reason. I'm just very tired."

Chapter Text

Unlike the night before, Alice didn't show any outward signs that she was aware of Pitch's presence when she entered her guest room for the evening.

The girl walked right past the shadowed corner where Pitch currently hid, seemingly oblivious that she wasn't alone. The shadows under the bed would have been a more ideal place to hide, but when Pitch heard the approaching footsteps outside the bedroom door, he didn't have time to disappear into the shadows underneath the bed. He didn't expect Alice to return to her room so early. Naturally, with his luck, it only made sense that she would pick this particular night to skip out on dinner.

Pitch remained deathly silent as Alice rifled through the guest room wardrobe for something to sleep in. She muttered under her breath as she searched, clearly not approving of the wardrobe's selection of sleepwear. With an indignant huff, Alice snatched up the closest thing within reach before shutting the wardrobe doors and stepping into the bathroom to change. Pitch listened to the muffled sounds of clothing being discarded and the faucet running before being shut off minutes later. When she came back out the woman went straight to bed, nearly out cold as soon as her head hit the pillow, and Pitch finally detached himself from the shadows of the room, smooth as silk and entirely soundless. He didn't have the luxury of wasting time. He was in the very heart of enemy territory and if he were to be discovered, North would surely have his head for trespassing, and that was something he rather avoid.

As the Boogeyman stood next to Alice's bed, gathering up the energy and concentration he needed to perform his new trick, Pitch noticed the glowing candle on her bedside table. He chuckled darkly as he reached over and snuffed out the tiny flame between two fingers. It stung but he was used to the pain by now. The skin of his thumb and pointer finger were calloused enough to dull the sharp burn to a barely noticeable ache. It's been a while since he had seen a candlewick as a night light, but he supposed habits died hard with this one. He felt a warm seed of nostalgia blossom in his chest at the dark memory of the Victorian era, during the very peek of the Industrial Revolution. What a wonderful time for someone like him to be in business. Man deliciously created their own nightmares then.

Even in a deep sleep, Alice seemed to sense the absence of the weak candlelight. Fortunately for him, she didn't wake. Her face only curled up in discomfort while she burrowed deeper into her blankets. Judging by how fast she had fallen under, Alice must have went quite a while without a decent amount of sleep. While it was quite a shame for her, it was a generous advantage for Pitch. He could use his new trick confidently without worrying about the woman feeling the pull on her mind and waking up.

Without further hesitation, Pitch reached out on of his gray hands and gently placed it over Alice's forehead, as a parent would to check their child for a fever. He gathered up his energy once more and closed his eyes, taking in slow, steady breathes. He cleared his head of all sounds and distractions except for his and Alice's heartbeats as they slowly started to beat in tandem. Minutes later, he started to feel the familiar sensation of being almost transparent, an acute sense of astral projection. He concentrated hard on that feeling and followed it until he felt he would fade completely out of existence. Once that feeling fully overtook both his mind and body, Pitch gathered up his shadows and took a deep plunge downwards.

Straight into Alice's mind.

~O~

When Pitch opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in the middle of an extravagant, and slightly dead rose garden. An ominous, rundown castle stood proudly in the distance while an untraceable sun shined brightly from somewhere in the endless, peach pale sky above. Pitch grimaced at the lack of shadows but did nothing to hide himself. The dream's inhabitants wouldn't be able to see him, not even Alice, if by some off chance he happened to cross paths with her. He was an outside spectator, nothing but an apparition to the creatures of Wonderland and their creator.

Unfortunately, Pitch wasn't in the real Wonderland. Despite all his snooping, the Boogeyman had yet to find out how to open the portal to Wonderland. As far as he could tell, only the rabbit and the woman had access to the secret, but he knew that Alice would have an exact copy of it hidden somewhere in her head. The foolish girl never could go anywhere without her outrageous delusions. They had always been her biggest crutch.

After straightening himself up and smoothing back his black hair, Pitch took in his surroundings, realizing that he stood in the middle of a giant red and white chess board the size of a football field. Colossal chess pieces littered the board in several different positions as if he had stumbled upon an unfinished game of chess that no one had bothered to clean up and was left abandoned as is. The chess pieces were clearly made of hard, cold marble, but strangely enough it looked almost as if they were breathing. Pitch believed he might have even seen one of the knights flare its nostrils.

Ghastly, skeletal creatures shaped like demented playing cards were scattered all along the rose garden. They growled at one another as they tended to the oversized flowers that littered the garden walls. Their faces were nothing but fleshless, yellowed skulls with empty eye sockets and sharp teeth. Even from several yards away, Pitch could hear the sickening pops and cracks that their decrepit joints made as they worked. The Boogeyman shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose at the sight of a particularly bloody and gruesome looking Ace of Spades, holding a yellow watering pitcher while it delicately sniffed a white rose with its nonexistent nose. Such wonderfully, horrifying creatures with the potential to cause delicious nightmares, and Alice used them as her own personal deck of gardeners. The very idea sounded almost criminal.

Dismissing his disappointment by the lack of terror, Pitch refused to be distracted further him from his goals. He needed to work fast if he wanted to find anything valuable before Alice woke up. Time moved much faster in the dream realm, but he wasn't going to take any chances. Once he was satisfied that he was truly invisible to the beings around him, Pitch reached into his black robe and pulled out a small, leather pouch. He untied the drawstrings before turning the bag upside down and watching as the charcoal black sand spilled out in a thin stream. When it was empty, he tossed the bag away and waited as the small pile of nightmare sand started to move of its own accord. The sand lifted and narrowed into a thin, needle-like tendril before forming a large ball that split into nine separate forms, and the sand twisted and morphed into the familiar shape of Pitch's nightmares.

The newly formed Nightmares whinnied as their forms grew solid, stomping their hooves in anticipation as they awaited orders from their handler. Pitch moved over to the nightmare closest to him and gently petted her long muzzle. Her nostrils flared in a heavy exhaled and she leaned into her master's hand.

"Spread out and search the land," Pitch ordered in a silvery tone. "Ignore Alice's asinine creations and don't leave any shadowed area unchecked. There has got to be something in this kaleidoscopical disaster that's worth looking into."

With a gesture of his hand, the nightmares whinnied loudly while rearing back on their hind legs. When they hit the ground again, the mares galloped off into nine different directions, their sandy hooves pounding against the green grass of the rose garden. Pitch watched them go until they were completely gone from sight before placing his hands behind his back and strolling into the rose garden maze. Pitch smiled fondly at the fading sound of his mares in the distance. He no longer held ill feelings against his nightmares for turning on him two years ago. He had gotten cocky and arrogant with the control he had over them. Pitch wasn't the kind of person who could easily accept failure and blame. In fact, he would rather blame every living creature on Earth before he blamed himself. But after hauling his wrecked and ragged body from the dark depths of his own underground lair, having been dragged down there kicking and screaming by his nightmares, Pitch was a little more willing to admit his faults, if only in the privacy of his own head.

He had always known that his black nightmare sand was more volatile than the Sandman's dreamsand, but Pitch's sudden gain in power and control and being on the verge of finally defeating the guardians made him sloppy. He knew the nightmares had a tendency to bite the hand that fed them, and yet he still allowed his mind to get clouded. That was a mistake Pitch didn't plan to make twice. He worked his fingers to the bone to gain control of the nightmares again, and worked even harder to finally prefect his new trick.

Entering a dreamer's dream was an extremely difficult trick to perform, but after nearly two centuries of secret practice, Pitch felt that he had a good enough handle on it. He doubted even the great Sandman could do it. He could look into people's dreams, but the golden spirit couldn't enter them. For once, Pitch Black could do something that the Sandman couldn't, and that was a fact that brought great joy to the Boogeyman's little black heart, every time he thought about it.

The trick was difficult because it required a lot of energy and concentration to enter and exit the dream realm, so much energy in fact, that it sometimes left Pitch exhausted for weeks at a time, depending on what kind of person he was practicing on. But despite the shortcomings, his new ability served as the prefect tool for spying, and Alice served as the prefect guinea pig. It allowed him to enter the most intimate part of a living being and riffle through their thoughts and secrets.

True, it was risky of him to try it on another spirit, because in every aspect spirits were more difficult to deal with than mortals, but since Alice knew so little about Pitch and his powers, it made things easier for him. She didn't know what to watch out for when it came to him and his nightmares. It was so easy that the Nightmare King was almost disappointed. Bunnymund should have done a better job of preparing Alice to defend herself against the unseen dangers of the Guardian world, like the Boogeyman. So again, a shame for Alice but an advantage for Pitch.

During his endless circle of thoughts, Pitch found himself walking deeper into the hedge maze until he found himself at the end. And not just the end of the maze, but the end of the entire world it seemed. Pitch was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the broken off edge of the maze until he was inches away from it. He managed to stop himself before he walked right off and fell into completely oblivion.

Once he was several steps back, the dark spirit straightened himself and carefully moved closer to the deadly edge with his arms behind his back. He leaned over to see the bottom, but as far as he could tell there wasn't one, just more sky and clouds. However, he did see several landmasses floating in mid-air around the kingdom. They were smaller pieces of the same destroyed castle behind him, making it look as if the kingdom was once one gigantic landmass, but some powerful force like an earthquake ripped through it and broke apart the kingdom, scattering its limbs and sending them floating off into the endless sky.

The grimace on Pitch's gray face grew as he continued to look down. Not wanting to find out if the edge of the kingdom was truly bottomless, he turned around again and went back the way he came. He didn't enjoy being out in the open, but at least outside of the maze he could see if he was about to walk off the edge and fall to his death. It took some careful navigating but Pitch was able to find his way out, and when he did, he found one of his nightmares waiting for him. She whinnied and stomped her hooves as her master approached, her head bobbing in all directions. Pitch reached out and gently hushed the restless sand creature. Under his touch, the nightmare's powerful legs slowly stilled and its erratic breathing calmed.

"Have you found something for me?"

The nightmare fidgeted again as she bowed her head, eager to show her king what she had found.

"Show me," Pitch ordered before he climbed on to the nightmare's back.

The black horse neighed while once again rearing back on her hind legs. Long streams of nightmare sand whipped behind her as she broke out into a fast gallop. The ride was a blur of colors, shapes and sounds. The mare covered a great distance in a short time, hopping from platform to platform, weaving through invisible portals to different areas, and expertly dodging different obstacles that crossed her path.

When the nightmare finally came to a skidding stop, Pitch climbed down and took in the new area. He found it even more ostentatious than the rose garden. At least the kingdom had a very unsettling and foreboding aura surrounding it. The new area was filled with nothing but colorful dollhouses the size of skyscrapers, toys and overgrown baked goods. Pitch looked over the sea of primarily pink houses and stifled the urge to vomit. The pastel colors and oversized toys were already giving him a splitting headache. Pitch gripped the bridge of his nose again in irritation before he threw his nightmare a pointed glare.

"And why exactly did you bring me here?" Pitch asked, his irritation evident and boiling just under the surface. He didn't like it when his valued time was wasted, especially if it landed him in a place like this.

The nightmare let out sharp puff of air through her snout as if insulted by her master's skepticism. The mare stomped over to the edge of the green building block they were standing on and gestured downwards with her snout. Humoring the pile of sand, Pitch walked over and looked. At first he didn't see anything but an endless desert of doll clothing and broken toy parts, but then he saw something in the far distance; a black patch against the ground, polluted with shadows and thick fog. Pitch couldn't sense any fear from within the fog but he found it worth investigating regardless.

The Nightmare King let out a dark chuckle as he rewarded his nightmare with gentle strokes along her flank before mounting the mare once more and clicking his tongue. His grip on the black reins tightened as the nightmare jumped over the edge of the platform. Darkness surrounded the two as they plummeted deeper into the underbelly of Wonderland. When all four hooves hit the ground again, the mare took off at neck-breaking speed towards her master's destination.

Once there, Pitch jumped from the mare's back and resumed his usual, confident stance with his hands behind his back. Pale yellow eyes took in the colossal structure that laid in ruins before him. A large mountain of broken wood and nails with twisted doll parts littering the area around it. Pitch could tell that the giant pile of rubble was probably once a proud, dark, looming structure that floated in the air along with the other dollhouses. A rotting cipher against the rest of the colorful world surrounding it, but something must have dragged it down to the graveyard where it now resided.

Whatever it was, it screamed all levels of horror and gave off a wave of maliciousness that made even Pitch's eyes sting.

Several whinnies suddenly drew Pitch's attention and he finally noticed the other eight nightmares approaching, the shadows of Wonderland drawing them all to the same place as they fell into a familiar formation around their master. The mares shifted and trotted in place restlessly, awaiting orders like a pack of leashed hounds. Pitch ignored them as he strolled up to the nearest pile of rubble that looked like the remains of the main entrance or front gate because of the half-buried wooden sign sticking out of it.

Not wanting to risk getting cut by jagged, rusty nails or the ugly barbwire wrapped around the edges, Pitch used his foot to kick away the scraps of wood until the sign's wording was completely visible. His eyes traced over the crooked black lettering of the sign.

"Dollmaker's Workshop"

Pitch smirked at the idea of a darker, scarier version of North's beloved workshop. He mused to himself as he thought of the possible backstory behind this lovely structure. It was obviously some defect that didn't agree with the rest of Alice's ideal décor, so it was torn down and left to rot in the Wonderland Graveyard. Why something so dark was built in the first place, Pitch couldn't even begin to fathom, but it was a work of art to him and he almost mourned its fate.

The sounds coming from one of Pitch's mares drew his attention. He looked to his far left to see a nightmare slowly, cautiously inching towards something on the ground; a black, gelatinous substance seeping out of another pile of broken wood. It bled through the planks and dripped on to the ground like oil as it bubbled and hissed. The dark spirit watched as the nightmare leaned down and sniffed at the black ooze. For a moment, the ooze did nothing but pulse like a living organism. Then out of nowhere, long black tendrils shot out of the puddle and attached themselves to the nightmare's snout. The black horse bellowed loudly and reared back, trying to dislodge the substance from her long muzzle while the rest of the ooze puddle gathered around the mare's legs and started climbing them.

Pitch instinctively moved closer to his nightmare, but stopped short to watch the slime slowly invade and infect his creation with stunned fascination. The mare bucked wildly with so much panic and distress, Pitch didn't even know something made of nightmare sand was capable of. And despite the best efforts of the mare, the ooze didn't let go and it continued to bury itself into the black sand. The mare kept fighting for several minutes until it eventually became completely overwhelmed and finally collapsed into a smoldering pile of sludge. The other nightmares bellowed and neighed, spooked at the sight of what the mysterious black ooze did to their comrade. Pitch's face twisted up in disgust at the repulsive, bubbling puddle.

After seeing no more signs of life from the fallen mare, Pitch carefully stepped around the puddle and gestured for his remaining nightmares to explore the ruins around them, but halted when the ooze started to move again, slowly bubbling in a gross, rhythmic way until it escalated into a furious boil and the ooze expanded. Pitch quickly moved back as the puddle begun to rise higher and higher, causing globs of black ooze to cascade down to the barren floor like a faulty kitchen sink, leaving the Boogeyman and his mares to stand by and watch as the sludge twisted itself back into the familiar shape of a horse. The newly formed nightmare, or whatever it was, only resembled its previous self in shape alone. As far as Pitch could see, it was no longer made of his black nightmare sand, but instead it was made of the mysterious, black ooze.

Long tendrils of ooze dripped from every orifice on its long face while polluting smoke drifted off its body in waves. The thing stomped its hooves roughly against the ground before rearing back on to its hind legs and letting out an ear shattering noise, so loud that Pitch almost had to cover his ears. It was a sound that made one's skin crawl and your teeth ache. A sickening cross between a furious neigh and a sickly gurgle.

Pitch jumped out of the way as the reformed nightmare suddenly charged. It continued on as it ran past Pitch and his nightmares, heeding to no commands from its former master. It ran away from the ruins were it was born, and off into lighter side of Alice's twisted mind, a black cloud of pollution forming in its wake. The Nightmare King stood there stunned by what had just occurred. His pale eyes trailed from where the creature disappeared, to the black hoof prints it left behind. The image of the grotesque beast, created from a mixture of his nightmare sand and the toxic ooze, burned furiously through Pitch's head like wildfire.

He has never seen something so terrifyingly beautiful in his entire life.

Pitch had anticipated that he would find some rather dark things in Alice's mind, but he had never imagined it would be anything like that. Clearly, there were much deeper and darker things living in Alice's psyche, things that even the great Bunnymund probably wasn't aware of. And what ever they were, Pitch craved to know all about them.

With a sense of determination, Pitch gathered up the rest of his nightmares and willed them back into shapeless piles of sand before ushering them into the leather pouch he brought with him. Once his nightmare sand was tucked away in the safe confines of his robe, the dark spirit collected himself once again before disappearing deeper into the ruins of Dollmaker's Workshop.

~O~

It was around midnight when the Sandman appeared outside the balcony doors of Alice's guest room.

He floated up to the doors without a sound, putting his round face and small hands against the cold glass as he looked into the dark room. His face squinted up as he tried to peer through the darkness. After a few moments of searching, the dreamsand spirit was able to make out the guest room bed and the small lump buried underneath the blanket. A smile broke out across his face once he realized that Jack had been telling the truth about Alice turning in early, not that Sandy doubted him. From what North told him earlier, there had been a moment of panic when Alice didn't show up for dinner. Bunny immediately got up to go search for the young woman when he noticed her absence, but stopped short when Jack arrived with the news that Alice had returned to her room for the evening and wouldn't be joining them.

North felt a bit disappointed that he would only be dining with Bunny and Jack, and not with their entire group. Tooth hardly ever stayed overnight and Sandy was working. But like always, the Russian let the disappointment roll right off his shoulders and appreciated the company of the Guardians of Hope and Fun. Sandy returned to Santoff Claussen later that night to hear about how North's day went with Alice shadowing him, and the small man was excited that Alice was sleeping. He had waited for the chance to use his dreamsand on a sleeping Alice ever since the Man in the Moon chose her to be the next guardian. He hasn't had the opportunity to give the dark-haired woman a good dream since before the night of that horrible fire.

Unbeknownst to the other guardians, back before Alice became a spirit, Sandy tried to reach her in that asylum, but he was always met with failure. His sand would evaporate instantly before it could even get two feet past the front entrance. There was so much pain and suffering surrounding the building that even Sandy's dreamsand couldn't penetrate its walls. The Sandman knew more about Alice's life after the fire than the other guardians were even aware of. In fact, he knew about Alice's incarceration in Rutledge Asylum long before Bunny did. The pooka didn't find out about the asylum until Alice sought him out that Easter Sunday, twenty-two years later. Despite his very best efforts, Bunny had lost track of Alice when she was transferred from Littlemore Infirmary a year after the fire. The asylum orderlies took her away on one of those rare days where Bunny wasn't sitting in a chair next to her bed. When the poor spirit returned, he found nothing but an empty room and no traces of where the girl was taken.

Sandy remembered the day Bunny stumbled into North's Workshop, a frantic ball of matted fur and nerves. He remembered watching with a sullen face as North regrettably told Bunny that since Alice's light went out on the Globe, there wasn't much they could do to find her. She wasn't a believer anymore and that limited their resources considerably. Bunny was already aware of the fact that he was invisible to the little girl, but that didn't stop him from sitting by her side every chance he got, even if it proved detrimental to his health. Although, now that he had finally lost Alice in both mind and body, the pooka couldn't do anything except fall to his knees in renewed grief and failure.

After seeing his friend's heart break all over again after the pooka slowly accepted what North was telling him, Sandy felt a strong determination building inside his small body. A determination he only felt when the safety of a child was at risk and they needed his protection. Without muttering a single sand symbol, the Sandman left the pooka to grieve as he set out to find Alice and somehow think of a way to bring her back to his distraught friend. Sandy wasn't as limited in his powers and abilities as some of the other guardians were. His dreamsand could reach and affect believers and unbelievers alike. It took a while, nearly a year of carefully combing through most of England during his usual dream spreading routes before Sandy was able to track down Alice's location. When he found her, a big part of him wished he hadn't. He was able to find her body, but Alice's mind was gone. She was nothing but a hollow shell of the curious little girl she once was, and there didn't seem to be any hope that she would ever fully wake up again.

For years, Sandy struggled with the weight of the knowledge he had in his possession and the decision whether or not to tell Bunny about Alice's declining condition. He visited the asylum sporadically for five years before ultimately deciding to keep his information from the other guardians, Bunny in particular. Sandy watched and listened for any signs of recovery. He even broke into the office of Alice's doctor and read the man's notes, just to make sure, but each visit ended in disappointment. Five years wasn't very long compared to the immortal lifespan of spirits, but it was a long time for a human to be trapped within the walls of their own broken mind. So long in fact, that very few are able to resurface again, and Sandy feared that Alice wasn't one of those few.

So imagine his surprise when, two decades after the fire, Bunny came bounding into the workshop with news that Alice had come back to him, and not only lucid and completely coherent, but also as a spirit. When the news passed from North to Sandy, the golden spirit couldn't help but look up at the moon. Even now, when Manny chose Alice, Sandy looked up at the moon in silent wonder. What were the chances, that the little girl Bunnymund had befriended over a century ago, would turn out to be their sixth guardian? Did the Man in the Moon somehow foresee Alice's future when she was little and led Bunny to her? Or was it all just purely coincidental?

Knowing the moon, those were questions that would probably never be answered. The Man in the Moon always knew best, and when it came to choosing new guardians, the moon always had his reasons for his choice. Even though those reasons were sometimes hard to see. That didn't matter to Sanderson. He had placed his trust in the moon when Jack was chosen, a choice even Sandy didn't see coming, and he wasn't left disappointed. Jack saved them all and helped them defeat Pitch. He was a good choice and the guardians were lucky to have him.

And Sandy knew the same would be of Alice Liddell.

He quietly opened the balcony doors, noting in the back of his mind that the doors were unlocked, and slipped inside the dark room. He floated over to the bed and looked at the woman sleeping under the thick blankets. Her face was so peaceful as she slept, void of all scowls, sneers and glares. To Sandy, the woman looked five years younger without her cynical facial expressions. He wanted to mourn the innocence that was lost so early and all the hardships the woman had suffered throughout the years, but he refused to. Alice was with them now, soon to be a part of their team. Everything was going to be okay.

Sandy clapped his small hands together and rubbed them. Glowing dreamsand pooled in between his stubby fingers and the illumination from the sand bathed the guest room in a warm light as Sandy weaved his dreamsand. Once he had gotten the ball of sand to form a long strip, he sent it over Alice's head.

The golden spirit blink in bewilderment when the thread never reached her.

He stiffened when the thread fizzed and then dissipated into the air, inches from Alice's sleeping form. He pursed his lips in confusion before he gathered up more dreamsand and tried again. The thread took this time and the Sandman's shoulders relaxed. Sometimes his dreamsand didn't work the first time, especially if it was on adults or other spirits. Usually a little more sand and a second try fixed everything.

Satisfied with his work, Sandy floated away from the bed and took a seat in a nearby lounge chair. The short spirit sunk happily into the red cushions and folded his hands over his stomach. He wanted to stay and watch the things that Alice's mind would shape his dreamsand into. He remembered the dreams she used to have as a child. The Sandman always remembered the dreams of children with exceptional imaginations. Children that grew up to be famous artists, writers and performers. Known for their creativity and eye for the extraordinary. And she had been given the chance to grow up properly, Alice could have been one of those children. Her dreams were always so colorful and stunning. She dreamed of a far off place where everything was bright and beautiful. A place where everything was topsy-turvy, clocks ran backwards, rain and tree leaves fell up instead of down, and animals wore fancy clothing and attended plays and tea parties.

And Alice was never lonely. Unlike in the waking world where other children thought her strange and did everything they could to avoid her and delusions.

Sandy looked up from his suspended feet at the cloud above Alice's head. He could make out the shapes of oversized roses and two figures moving around them. The tallest figure was undoubtedly Alice, the dress being a dead giveaway, and the figure she was following was a rabbit, much too small to be Bunnymund, though. Sandy watched with a smile as the Alice sand figure ran after the rabbit, the long tails of her apron bow fluttering behind her. Slowly, he could feel his eyelids grow heavy and his head drip.

Then suddenly, like a switch, the dreamsand shuddered and the images collapsed into a floating pile of formless sand before it dissipated once again.

Pulled from his dozing, Sandy sat up straight in his chair. His attention peeked and he tilted his head to the side when Alice mumbled in her sleep and turned over. He got up and floated over to her again, a third ball of dreamsand already forming in his hands. Now determined to create a dream that would stick, Sandy weaved out another thread of sand and sent it towards Alice. It took again, but Sandy stayed next Alice's bedside to make sure the dream wouldn't collapse like the other two. He couldn't figure out why the woman's dreams kept breaking. It was never usually this difficult to make a dream stick, even if the dreamer was a fellow spirit.

When Alice started to shift more sharply in her sleep, Sandy grew concerned. Her face twisted up in discomfort as she tried to curl deeper into the blankets of the bed. The cloud of sand hung uselessly above her head as Alice's movements intensified. Sandy's heart sank as he recognized the telltale signs of a developing nightmare. Wanting to stop the nightmare before it could truly get started, he willed the sand cloud to come back to him so he could weave it again.

The cloud didn't move. Sandy froze and blinked in shock as the golden sand ignored his commands. That was...unusual.

Then the sand started to darken in color.

Immediately, Sandy's guard was up and his eyes searched the shadowed areas of the room for that oh-so familiar dark figure. Alice continued to struggle in her sleep while he checked all of Pitch's usual hiding places. The Sandman knew Pitch Black wasn't gone for good when his nightmares dragged him back to his lair two years, but the spirit didn't think the Nightmare King would return so soon, and try something so bold as to attack a potential guardian right inside Nicholas St. North's domain. That was insanely too risky for someone like Pitch.

Sandy floated down to the ground so he could check under the bed, but scratched his head in confusion when he found nothing. Who, or what, was causing Alice's nightmare if it wasn't the infamous Boogeyman? As far as Sandy knew, only Pitch could warp and control his dreamsand.

When Sandy floated back up over the side of the bed, he jumped and stared in horror at the sight of his dreamsand. The glowing cloud of golden sand was gone and in its place was a floating puddle of sludge, like thick oil. It bubbled and hissed above Alice's head as the girl become more frantic in her sleep. Sandy had never seen a dream turn so sour, had never seen a nightmare become so much worse.

Alice thrashed violently in her sleep as the chaos and pain continued to shake her mind to the core. Sandy tried desperately to reverse what was happening, but his dreamsand just wouldn't take. It was rejected from Alice's mind like vomit, leaving a trail of sludge and foulness in its wake. Sanderson realized right away that what Alice was experiencing, wasn't a nightmare.

It was a full blown night terror.

He recognized the signs right away. Dreams were his purview after all, but this black ooze that swallowed and corrupted his golden dreamsand - that was something entirely new. Sandy had no idea what the stuff was. Whatever it was, he couldn't focus on it right now. Alice was more important, and unfortunately he couldn't do a thing to make the night terror go away. It felt like his heart began to ache, having to watch Alice wither in agony like that, but he knew his interference would only make things worse for her. Night terrors were very different from nightmares. For most people nightmares could be easily brushed off. They were just very unpleasant dreams after all. But Night terrors could have a child thrashing and screaming like they were being physically attacked. Sandy was no stranger to night terrors. They were quite common for young toddlers, but he hardly ever came across someone older than six having a terror.

And Sandy has never witnessed one so violent before.

He absolutely hated night terrors because they left him feeling helpless. With nightmares, if Sandy could catch one early enough, he could sometimes weave it into something more calming. And if he couldn't, he could always make up for it by weaving a better one once the child fell asleep again. With night terrors, there was nothing Sandy could do but stand back, and wait. He did take a quick moment to move the bedside table a few feet away from the bed, that way if Alice fell out she wouldn't hit her head and injure herself. After that, Sandy floated next to the guest room door and waited.

The night terror was going to run its course regardless of Sandy and his dreamsand.

~O~

North was working late in his office when the first scream ripped through the air.

He was just about to add the final touches on his ice castle sculpture when the sudden noise made him jump in his chair and his hand slip. The ice pick he was holding rammed through the ice and broke off a large chunk of it. North let out one of his dramatic gasps, watching the ice chunk slide off the side of the table and shattering against the stone floor. The Russian's bushy eyebrows knotted in frustration as he rubbed his temples with his fingers, cursing the world and all its inhabitants. He had been so concentrated on his work, he hadn't fully register what noise had startled him, but when another scream sounded out, the ice sculpture was immediately forgotten as he ran towards his office door, already armed with his dual sabers.

He threw the heavy door open and stepped out into the workshop, walking up to the railing and looking over the side. His sky blue eyes searched the area for any signs of trouble, but the workshop was quiet and empty, void of its workers. North's fingers tapped anxiously against the handles of his swords as he looked around the workshop with a perplexed expression on his bearded face. His eyebrows lifted when he spotted a group of yetis coming towards him.

"Moy Droog!" North called to the head of the patrol. The yeti was out of breath and hunched over with his hands on his furry knees. "What is happening? Who's screaming?"

Once the yeti gained most of his breath back, he went off into a long explanation that North could barely follow. The Christmas spirit only had to catch the words "Alice", "Sandman" and "trouble", before he suddenly spun around and hopped over the side of the fourth floor railing, leaving the yetis waving their heavy arms and shouting after him as he sailed downwards. When his booted feet hit the ground floor, he took off towards the lodging section of his domain.

The further he traveled through the guest room hallways, the louder the sounds of screaming and shouting became. As North rounded a corner and ran down another empty hallway, the large man came to abrupt halt when a door ahead of him suddenly flew opened. He nearly lost his balance as his boots skidded across the floor but somehow managed to stay standing. He looked at the door and watched as Jack Frost came stumbling out of the room and into the wall across from it. The ice spirit struggled with trying to pull on his blue hoodie while also holding his staff and opening his door. If the situation hadn't been so serious, North would have taken the time to point and laugh at the boy's comical display and the face he made when he ran into the wall.

"Wha- what's goin' on?" Jack said, his eyes and voice were still heavy with sleep. One of his arms was stuck inside the torso of his hoodie and the other was wrapped around his staff. Jack had been in the middle of a nice nap when a scream yanked him from dreamland and caused him to fall out of bed in disorientated panic.

"North! What's going on? Are we being attacked?"

North shook his head with uncertainty as he took hold of Jack's staff, allowing the boy to fix himself without stumbling into the wall again. "Not certain. Yeti say scream came from Alice. We must go check on her."

Without waiting for a response, North handed Jack his staff and quickly moved past him. Jack finished tugging down his hoodie and followed closely behind him, not knowing what to expect but ready to fight if necessary. The growing sound of clearly distressed, female screams certainly told Jack that he just might have to.

When the two entered the hallway where Alice's room was, the narrow space was almost completely packed with yetis and elves. North cursed in Russian before he started shoving his way through the crowd while Jack, being much smaller and skinnier than North, was able to weave in between the furry creatures with ease. North was almost at the end of the hallway when he heard a familiar voice shouting loud over Alice's panicked yells.

"Get out of my way, Sandy!"

The Russian finally broke through the yeti crowd and reached Alice's door to see a furious Easter Bunny trying to push his way past the Sandman. The glowing spirit floated in the doorway of Alice's room with his arms crossed over his chest. There was a thin veil of dreamsand behind him, blocking the pooka from entering the room. Scream and crying could be heard from inside the room. North and Jack looked at each other in shock at the scene in front of them before running up to the fighting spirits.

"Sandy!" North shouted over Alice's screams. "What is meaning of this!"

"Tell him to get out of my way, now!" Bunny angrily shouted back, his eyes burned with a fire that almost made North flinch. "She needs help and she's callin' for me!"

North set his swords against the wall and reached out to help calm the pooka. Bunny roughly shrugged off his hand and glared dangerously at the sand spirit who was still denying his entry to Alice's room. North was trying desperately to gain control of the situation, but it was difficult when he had no idea what the situation was. Alice was clearly in a very violent state of panic, but why wasn't Sandy letting anyone inside to help her?

When Alice's struggles began to slowly die down, Sandy looked over his shoulder through his dreamsand to see Alice lying still on her bed. He looked back at his friends and his stubborn frown fell at the looks he was receiving from them. Bunny was almost shaking with rage as his breath came out in heavy pants, North looked at him confused and concerned for the distraught girl, and Jack, who Sandy just now noticed, stood behind North while tightly clutching his staff in both hands, looking just as lost as the Russian. The Sandman couldn't stand having his friends look at him like that, so with a weakened resolve he dropped the veil of sand blocking the door. As soon as the sand barrier was gone, Bunny shoved past Sandy and entered the room.

Bunny was immediately at Alice's side. Her chest was raising and falling rapidly, her emerald eyes were only opened halfway and she stared vacantly up at the ceiling. Bunny sat on the corner of the bed and gently reached out to touch her shoulder. When she didn't react, he slowly eased an arm under her stiff back and pulled her into his chest.

"Alice?" Bunny whispered. "Look at me, Half-pint. What's wrong?"

At the sound of his voice, Alice blinked and slowly looked at him, his forest green eyes meeting her clover ones. The pupils of her eyes dilated as if she had just woken up, attempting to adjust to the dim lighting of the room.

"Bunny?" Her voice was hoarse and raw from screaming. She reached up a pale, shaking hand and rested it on Bunny's nose. When it twitched under her palm, Alice's eyes widened in shock and relief. "You're alive..."

Confusion flooded Bunny as he looked down at the delirious girl. "Of course I am, Half-pint. Why wouldn't I be?"

Alice didn't answer. She only gave him a warm smile before it fell away from her face. Her eyes became unfocused again and they slid shut as she feel back into unconsciousness. Bunny sighed heavily, setting the girl back down on the bed and covering her up with the red blanket that was thrown to the floor during her struggle. Sandy floated into the room and sprinkled a handful of dreamsand over Alice's head to make sure she would stay asleep. With any luck, she wouldn't remember anything about the terror in the morning.

Sandy gave North a nod when the man stepped halfway into the room. North looked at the sleeping Alice, and then around the room before his eyes landed back on Sandy.

"Pitch?" North mouthed, not wanting wake Alice up.

When Sandy shook his head, North's confusion grew. He stepped back out into the hallway and got to work with dispersing the crowd of yetis and elves. After he herded all his workers out of the narrow hallway, he turned to Jack. The immortal teen was standing cautiously in the doorway of Alice's room, watching as Bunny quietly demanded an explanation from the Sandman. North walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Keep eye out for me," North whispered, leaning in close. "I will go contact Tooth and join the night patrol of workshop. Sandy doesn't think it was Pitch, but I increase patrols just in case."

"Sure thing," Jack mumbled quietly as he listened to North's heavy footfalls disappear down the hallway.

Jack's crystal blue eyes stayed on the sleeping woman and the grey pooka by her side. Bunny and Sandy's argument ended and the room fell into an uneasy silence as the three spirits watched over the unconscious woman on the bed. When Jack looked over at Sandy sitting in a nearby chair, their eyes met. He gave the golden spirit a heavy look while his tired eyes asked him the same question that everybody would be asking tomorrow.

What the just happened?

Chapter Text

Drained

That's how Alice felt when she woke up the next morning. She felt almost hollow, like something sucked out all the energy in her body and left nothing but an empty shell and a splitting headache for her to deal with. So much for a restful night's sleep.

Alice rapidly blinked her emerald eyes, trying to clear the fog of sleep that clouded them. Her muscles felt extremely stiff and they ached too much in protest when she tried to move them, so she ended up laying on her back, staring at the ceiling for a little while longer until a noise from across the room caught her attention.

It sounded like a soft clearing of someone's throat. Dread filled her stomach at thought of someone inside her room, and despite the awful crick in her neck, Alice rolled her head to the side and quickly searched the room. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she spotted the Easter Bunny and the Sandman sitting in the red lounge chair in the corner of her guest room.

Bunny was sitting on the cushion of the chair with his big feet tucked under him while Sandy was perched on the arm, leaning halfway on the grey pooka's shoulder, neither one noticing that Alice was awake yet. Bunny was too busy examining the stitching of his boomerang holders in a desperate attempt to preoccupy himself while the Sandman was visibly more relaxed than his furry companion, peacefully dozing off with most of his round face buried in Bunny's fur.

"Bunny?" Alice croaked. She winced at the sound of her own voice. That ungodly noise couldn't have possibly come from her, could it? It was hoarse and it rang unpleasantly in her ears.

When Bunny heard his name, his ears perked up to full height and his forest green eyes fell on her. Once he saw that she was finally awake, he immediately shot up from his seat, unintentionally jostling Sandy out of his nap, and hopped over to Alice's bedside.

"Alice!" Bunny gasped out her name in relief. Alice's brow furrowed even deeper when she picked up on the vague note of desperation in his voice. "You're awake!"

Feeling slightly awkward about having Bunny's undivided attention so early in the morning, Alice subtly inched away from the pooka as she moved to sit up. As she moved, she let out an involuntary moan as the dull ache in her muscles intensified, her arms shaking almost violently with the effort of lifting up the top half of her body. She would've fallen back down again if it wasn't for the paw that Bunny placed on her back for support. She threw him a grateful glance before moving backwards to lean against the wooden headboard.

"How are ya feelin'?" Bunny asked gently once Alice was settled.

"Quite terrible, actually," She murmured in response as she pulled up the bed sheets over her bare legs. With one look down at herself, Alice was reminded of her serious distaste for her current sleepwear. She knew it was ridiculous to be worried about something so trivial when she had just woken up feeling like someone ran her over with a horse and carriage, but she couldn't help it. The light blue nightgown only fell to mid-thigh for Hatter's sake! And not mention how thin the straps holding it up were.

"Are ya alright though?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the bed with one paw resting gently on her arm. "You're not hurt or anythin', are ya?"

Alice titled her head to the side, thoroughly perplexed by Bunny's behavior, before regarding her friend a little more closely. He looked extremely on edge, even more so than usual. She could see how tense his shoulders were even under all his shaggy fur, and how his green eyes were wide with worry and concern. It was then that Alice remembered the Sandman was also in her room. She moved her gaze away from Bunny and towards the round, golden spirit floating silently next to the balcony windows. He also looked concern with his yellow eyes trained on her, just as unwavering as Bunny's.

For several seconds, Alice said nothing as she looked back and forth between the two uninvited guests in her room.

"What are you doing in my room, Bunny?"

Bunny's expression hardened before he looked over his shoulder at Sandy. The stout spirit mirrored his expression and nodded once, promoting Bunny to answer her. The pooka turned back to Alice and looked her in the eye. "Alice, do you remember what happened last night?"

"What do you mean? I was asleep last night," She said, hoping to reassure him and calm his frazzled nerves, but when Bunny knotted his eyebrows and bit his lip uneasily, Alice's confused look turned into a scrutinizing one. "Now answer my question, Bunny. Why are you in my room?"

After a few beats of silence, Bunny sighed heavily before he took his paw off her arm. "Alice, you had some sort of panic attack last night, in your sleep."

"What?"

"You were thrashin' and screamin' like you were havin' a really bad nightmare," He told her gently while carefully watching Alice's reaction, just in case something went haywire.

He gave her some time to process the information, and perhaps maybe recall the events from last night's incident, but when Alice just shook her head and let out a light, humorous laugh, Bunny's hope for finding out what happened to her were immediately crushed.

"No, that's not possible," Alice said slowly as if Bunny was sorely mistaken. "I remember nightmares and I haven't had any in quite sometime. There must be a misunderstanding. If I did have one, then I would remember having it, but I don't. So move, I would like to get dressed for the day."

Bunny barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Alice's obvious dismissal of his words. When she stiffly moved to get off the bed, he placed both of his paws on her shoulders and held them there firmly until she stopped trying to shake them off. She tried for several seconds but when it didn't work, she let out an indignant huff and refused to meet pooka's eyes. He knew then, that even though she had just effortlessly brushed him off, Alice believed that he was telling the truth because he would never lie to her. She knew Bunny was telling the truth, she just didn't want to hear it.

Alice was a walking contradiction if Bunny ever did see one. She was a very blunt person with a very direct way of approaching things, but when faced with something she didn't want to hear or deal with, Alice could be more elusive than Jack was after the blizzard of '68 when Bunny spent the rest of that year trying to hunt down the annoying spirit and club him in the head for ruining his Easter egg hunts.

"Listen to me, Alice," Bunny said sternly, the demanding tone in his voice immediately grabbed her attention. "It wasn't a nightmare. You had a night terror and Sandy says those are some real nasty dreams, worse than nightmares."

Sandy gave an affirmative nod when Alice looked over at him again. After that, the room fell silent as she slowly thought over what Bunny just told her.

She didn't remember anything. Thrashing and screaming? Surely she would remember something like that, wouldn't she? But then again, Alice remembered how positively awful she felt when she woke up, like she had been thrown against a brick wall and then stomped on by lead soles.

Without so much of a single glance at the two other spirits that occupied her room, Alice gingerly climbed off her bed and practically stumbled to the conjoined bathroom. She flicked on the light switch and stepped in front of the large mirror on the wall. When she caught sight of her reflection, Alice nearly gasped in horror.

She looked bloody horrible.

Her dark hair was in complete disarray and had an uncanny resemblance to that of a rat's nest. Her skin looked clammy, dull, and much paler than normal. The usually carefully applied makeup that always lined her round eyes, ran down her face in long streaks like she had been crying uncontrollably. The whites of her eyes were almost completely bloodshot while dark circles formed just underneath her bottom eyelids. In short, it truly did look like Alice had the life sucked right out of her. The only color she had left in her was her green eyes and even those seemed to be lacking their usual emerald luster.

Alice's breathing increased considerably as she continued to look at the lifeless husk in the bathroom mirror. If her hair had been shorter, falling only to her slender shoulders in choppy locks, Alice would've looked exactly like her old human self when she was living as an orphan back in London, during the eighteen hundreds. It wasn't a healthy look then and it most certainly wasn't one now.

Slowly, the dark-haired spirit reached out a shaking hand and placed her fingertips against the cool surface of the mirror, right over her downtrodden reflection. She had no idea that she looked far worse than she felt. And to make matters worse, her pounding headache painfully made itself known once again.

Alice groaned and clutched her forehead with her cold, clammy hand as a sharp ache suddenly started up somewhere deep within her skull. She quickly flicked off the bathroom light in an attempt to alleviate the pain. It helped a little, but not by much.

"Alice?" Bunny's worried voice called from her room. "Are you alright?"

Before the pooka could come in and investigate, Alice came out of the bathroom and stopped in the doorway. She had one hand cupping her dampening forehead, trying to block out the sunlight streaming in through the balcony windows, while her other hand held on to the doorway of the bathroom for balance. Her eyes were shut tightly and she had a deep scowl on her face.

Bunny took a cautious step towards the girl, but stopped short when she took her hand off her forehead and held it in front of her in a halting gesture. "Alice?"

"No," She said curtly with her eyes still closed. "Don't say anything. Just please, leave."

"But-"

She cut him off and sharply pointed towards the door of her room. "Leave."

It was obviously a demand but Bunny wasn't about to let Alice brush this off. She might not remembered anything, but he sure did, and so did Sandy, and so did the rest of the bloody workshop for that matter. Seeing Alice in such a state of panic and being unable to calm her down, really got to Bunny. He wouldn't say it out loud of course, but Bunny was just a little bit scared. Scared for Alice and what being back in real world was doing to her. As far as he knew, Alice stopped having nightmares soon after she retreated to Wonderland over a hundred years ago, but now, she was having these night terrors. Was being back in the world doing this to her?

"No, I'm not leavin', Alice," Bunny refused with his arm crossed to show her that he was just as serious as she was. "We need to talk about this so we can figure out-"

"Get out!"

Both Bunny and Sandy jumped at Alice's shrill outburst. Her eyes were open again and she was giving them a bloodcurdling glare that was just daring them to ignore her command. Sandy certainly didn't need to be told twice; he was already floating over to the door while gesturing Bunny to follow before Alice went on a rampage and forced them to leave her room, but unlike any of the other guardians, Bunny was already use to this sort of behavior from the intimidating girl.

Bunny matched Alice's glare with a fierce one of his own but eventually, he decided it would probably be best if Alice was left alone for a while, so she could clear her head and collect her thoughts in peace. So with one last heavy, exasperated sigh, Bunny made his way to the door. He opened it and allowed Sandy to leave first, but just before he stepped through the doorway, the pooka turned and faced Alice once again.

"I'll give ya an hour before I come back. And when I do, we will talk about this," Bunny said earnestly, leaving no room from any arguments. Sometimes Alice needed to be reminded that the Easter Bunny wasn't like most people who would just let the issue drop because it was clearly upsetting her. Quite frankly, Bunny didn't care if it was. A lot of stuff made Alice upset and if Bunny always let important matters drop because of that, then nothing would ever get resolved.

Alice wasn't as fragile as Bunny sometimes treated her. She was beyond tough and always firmly stood her ground against opposing forces. So in order to get her to cooperate with him, sometimes the pooka needed to be just as unrelenting as her, and he had no problem with that if meant something useful would come of it. Sure, it caused fights between them but they would always forgive each other in the end, no matter how bad the fight was. That's just how they were. Too stubborn to admit they were wrong but also too stubborn to let their friendship end because of a few nasty spats.

After seeing that he wasn't going to stand down, Alice dropped her defensive stance and crossed her arms tightly under her chest, letting her eyes roll towards the ceiling in clear annoyance. "Do what ever you like, rabbit. See if I care."

Bunny just let out a scoffed before closing the door behind him. As soon as the door clicked shut, Alice picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at the door in frustration, which obviously didn't do anything except make the door rattle slightly.

Crossing her arms again, Alice walked over to the nearby vanity and gathered up her neatly folded dress and apron in her arms.

She would worry about Bunny later. Right now, Alice was more focused on getting dressed and making herself look less like a reanimated corpse.

~O~

True to his word, Alice rolled her eyes as the gray pooka walked into the grand kitchen of Santoff Claussen, exactly one hour later.

After getting dressed and fixing up her appearance, Alice left her room and navigated the halls of the Russian palace until she came across the kitchen. Thankfully the large area was empty except for a couple of yetis that were in charge of managing the kitchens. She didn't mind their presence though, they were quite friendly. One of the furry creatures was even nice enough to make Alice a cup of hazelnut tea and a few slices of toast with strawberry jam.

She had been in the middle of reading a book about the legend of Nicolas St. North, and the different interpretations of him throughout the world, when Bunny came walking through the swinging kitchen doors. He looked frustrated and it only intensified when he spotted Alice sitting at one of the many wooden tables of the kitchen, sipping away at her cup of tea as she idly flipped through the book she found in the desk drawer of her guest room. Alice hasn't visited North's extensive library yet, but at the moment, she didn't feel up to exploring the complex any farther than the kitchens.

"There you are," Bunny grumbled as he approached her. "You could've told me that you weren't going to stay in your room. Would've saved me a lot time."

Alice let out a very unladylike snort at that. "You only work one day year, in the Spring no less. It's not like you have anything more imperative you need to be doing at the moment."

"Maybe not," Bunny fired back. "But there's a lot I rather be doing right now than dealing with your tantrums."

"I do not throw tantrums!" Alice snapped immediately, almost slamming her teacup back down on her plate.

Bunny held back a snort of his own as he raised a paw in surrender. "Okay, what ever you say, sheila."

"Oh be quiet, you overgrown ball of puff," The annoyed girl glared displeasingly as she sharply turned another page in her book, trying to pretend Bunny wasn't in the room.

He recognized that Alice was giving him the silent treatment almost instantly. She did it constantly when she was annoyed with him and she was very good at it. She once went an entire year without acknowledging him whenever he visited Wonderland, which was at least once a month -except during the months when Bunny was busy preparing for Easter.

He rolled his eyes before reaching over and snatching the book away from Alice. She didn't try to get it back but the pooka could feel the raising anger coming off her.

"You know," Bunny started slowly as she glared at him again. "If this you tryin' to convince me that you don't throw tantrums, you're not doing a very good job of it. And you can ignore me all you want, Alice, I'm not lettin' this drop. This is serious and I can't let you run away from it."

"I'm not running from anything, Bunny," Alice practically growled, her grip on the porcelain teacup growing tighter. Bunny was surprised that the fragile material didn't crack under the pressure. "I don't remember anything, so why are you still pushing this? If I don't remember what happened, then how bad could it really affect me?"

Bunny's own frustration was fierce and he accidentally let his control slip for a split second. "That's ironic coming from you," Bunny mumbled under his breath but immediately regretted it when Alice's eyes widened in shock at the comment. He hadn't been very blunt, but the underlying meaning wasn't lost on her. "Crikey, I'm sorry, that was extremely uncalled for."

"That's putting it mildly," Alice hissed venomously before slamming her teacup down again. This time, the small cup shattered and hot tea splattered over the surface of the table. Bunny jumped in surprised when some of it splashed on to his fur. Alice furiously stood up from her seat and marched around the table.

"Hey! Wait, wait, wait," Bunny pleaded as he tried to wipe off the burning liquid. He stepped in front of furious girl and held up both paws, trying to stop Alice from storming out of the kitchen. "Just hold up a second! I'm sorry! That was stupid of me to say, but you gotta understand, everything about this whole new guardian mess has been a disaster so far. I swear my fur is going to start fallin' out, I'm so stressed."

"You're stressed!?" Alice shouted in disbelief. "How do you think I feel!? My whole world is being turned upside down, again, just because some floating rock in the sky it telling a whimsical bunch of spirits how to dictate my life!"

"Oh stop being so overdramatic, Alice. And you're not the only one who's effected by the Man in the Moon's decision. We're all-"

"Excuse me?! This isn't happening to you, it's happening to me. You might've been alright with it when you were chosen, but I'm not you, Bunny! I'm not about to just blindly accept a responsibility of this magnitude when I'm not even the correct spirit for the job! Pick someone else!"

"How many bloody times do I hafta say it? It doesn't work like that, Alice! The Moon doesn't randomly pick someone! He has a good reason for everything and if you would just open your eyes for once, you'll see that-"

"There is no Man in the Moon! How many times must I say that?!"

Their argument had broken out into a full-on fight at that point. They were furiously shouting at each other, speaking at the same time and not getting anywhere useful; just trying to force their own point across. The few yetis that were wondering the workshop kitchens were now standing nearby in a small group, watching the two spirits yell at each other. They knew that they should alert North about the fight, just in case it escalated too high, but none of them wanted to miss the entertaining spectacle that was unfolding right in front of them.

They reached an obvious stalemate but neither one of them was backing down. They weren't even aware of the yeti audience around them, they were only focused on out-doing each other in volume and the occasional insult.

Neither Bunny, nor Alice, noticed when the kitchen doors swung open and a new presence entered the room.

Jack stood near the doors awkwardly as he watched the angry pooka and girl shout at each other. He would've let out a low whistle at how heated things were between the two friends, if Jack wasn't afraid that they would stop screaming at each other and turn on him instead.

Too bad for him though, North sent Jack to summon Bunny to the Russian's office, so unfortunately, he had to get their attention eventually. So without any other choice, he took a deep breath and loudly cleared his throat. "Uh, excuse me."

Immediately the two stopped shouting and turned their glares on the pale spirit. "What!?"

Instantly, Jack felt two inches tall and he had to stifle the urge to flinch under their green gazes. He took a step back and held his staff in front of him as if to protect himself from an attack. "Whoa ho, ho, stand down! I'm only here as a mere messenger for the big guy. North wants to see you, Bunny."

They stood there silently for a few seconds, processing the ice spirit's words. Most of their anger died down when they were interrupted and the shouting stopped, but both still looked extremely peeved with one another. Alice sent Bunny one last glare before turning away to find a dish rag to clean up the spilt tea with. Bunny just let out another exasperated sigh as he shook his head slowly.

"Alright," Bunny finally said to Jack after all his anger drained out. "Where is he?"

"In his office, working as always," He replied, jutting a pale thumb over his shoulder at the kitchen doors.

"Did he say why?"

"I have no idea," Jack claimed as he accentuated the last two words. As he said it, he twitched his head in Alice's direction with a telling expression on his face, letting Bunny know exactly why North wanted to see him.

Picking up on what the boy was dropping, Bunny cursed quietly under his breath before pinching the center of his brow in irritation. All this drama was seriously giving him a rotten headache, but instead of voicing his complaints, the pooka just gave Jack a nod before turning to look at Alice. She was in the back of kitchen, near the sinks, and even from where he was standing, Bunny could faintly hear Alice mumbling to herself. Probably saying some unkind things about him.

"North needs me," Bunny called. "I'll be back later, but this isn't over, sheila."

Alice didn't even bother turning around as she gave the pooka a sharp, dismissive wave behind her back and continued to root around the kitchen drawers in search for a dish towel. "We'll see about that."

Bunny rolled his eyes at her sing-song tone and turned to leave. Jack soundlessly stepped out of Bunny's way when he brushed by. The doors squeaked lightly as he pushed them open and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jack alone with Alice and the small group of snooping yetis.

Jack rolled his head to the side to look at the furry workers with a smirk, his expression telling them that their obvious 'hiding' spot behind the stainless steel, spice shelves wasn't fooling anyone. Once they noticed the boy smirking at them, they realized that the jig was up and the yetis started grumbling things in Yetish before their group quickly dispersed and they went back to their duties, all the while pretending that they weren't just eavesdropping on North's guests. Jack chuckled quietly at their silly behavior.

As he leisurely strolled towards the table with a puddle of tea on it and sat down, Jack's attention lazily landed on the girl by the sinks. She was still looking through the drawers for a rag.

Jack idly tapped his fingers against the table as he watched the dark-haired girl search, notably getting more and more frustrated -if the slamming of useless drawers was anything to go by. When she finally let out an embittered grunt and sharply placed her hands on her hips, Jack decided to give her a little break.

"The towels are in the middle drawer on your left."

Alice turned her head and looked over her shoulder with an unreadable expression on her face. She knew the ice spirit hadn't left with Bunny and she heard him sit down, but she didn't expect him to be there watching her. Alice nearly scowled at the prospect, but instead, she mumbled a quiet 'Thank You' and opened the mentioned drawer.

"No problem," He mumbled back, grimacing when he finally noticed the grizzly skull charm placed in the middle of Alice's apron bow. Its dark, hollow eye sockets seemed to be staring at him even from across the room and Jack almost found it disturbingly memorizing. The trance soon broken when Alice turned back around and made her way back to the table. Jack averted his gaze and pretended to be thoroughly interested in something else across the room.

He listened to the dull clicks Alice's black boots made against the tiled floor as she strode purposely back to the table. Once she reached it, she mopped up the cooling tea and gathered up the broken pieces of the teacup.

As she worked, Alice sent a few cursory glances in Jack's direction. After several minutes of relatively awkward silence, she let out a heavy sigh. "If you're going to ask, then ask. I have a pounding headache and I am in no mood for games."

"Ask about what?" Jack asked a little too quickly. He didn't know why he thought playing dumb would be a good idea and Alice's unimpressed look only made him feel even more stupid for trying. She already knew what was going on inside his head; the kinds of questions he wanted to ask.

Her paralyzing glare only grew worse when the ice spirit didn't respond beyond his ridiculous question. While he just sat there, Alice carefully brushed the teacup shards into her upturned apron. "Don't waste my time with platitudes, Frost."

Jack listened to her footsteps again while she walked away to dispose of the broken dish.

"Alright, you got me," Jack confessed when Alice came back with a new teacup filled with fresh tea. "I just wanted to ask about what happened last night."

"What did they tell you happened?" Alice asked almost conversationally as she sat down on the stool across from his.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just that you had a night terror."

"Then that's what happened," Alice said pointedly before raising her teacup to her mouth.

"Uh, okay, care to elaborate a little?"

"Not really."

"Why not?"

Alice let out another frustrated sigh at Frost's persistence. "Because I don't remember anything about it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

At her biting tone, Jack decided to back off with the questions. He didn't want to antagonize Alice in any way, especially since he discovered yesterday that she could pull sharp blades out of thin air.

The two spirits fell silent again and the only noise around them was the garbled arguing of two yetis somewhere in the distance. Jack felt a little disappointed about the lack of answers. His curiosity was definitely piqued, but he also couldn't help but feel concerned for the girl.

If it had been him, Jack would be just as worried as the other guardians about what happened, but Alice didn't seem that bothered by any of it. She just sat there sipping her tea and staring off at something that he couldn't see.

Now bored, Jack moved to get up and leave but stopped short when Alice spoke.

"Was it truly that bad?"

The Winter spirit looked back up at her and for a moment, Jack wasn't entirely sure she had spoken. She was still sitting in the same position, holding her teacup with both hands. Jack remained silent at first, wondering if it would be a good idea to say anything.

"Uh, yeah, it kinda was," He finally said, settling back down in his seat. "I mean, I wasn't in your room during it but I could hear you screaming all the way from my room. It sounded like you were being attacked...you really don't remember anything?"

Alice shook her head. "No, nothing. Bunny seems to think I'm avoiding the situation but how can I be actively involved in something when I have nothing to offer? I can't give him what I don't have."

"I think he's just worried. The whole thing freaked all of us out a little bit. I can only imagine how Bunny is handling it, being the bundle of nerves he is," Jack said, propping his staff up against the table and then crossing his arms over the wooden surface. "Sandy says that night terrors are harder on the people witnessing the terror than the actual person having it. He also says that night terrors usually only happen to children unless there's something wrong, so maybe that's why Bunny is still worried."

"Perhaps," Alice murmured into her teacup before taking a drink.

"Why does he think you're avoiding the situation?"

'Because I've done it before and dozens of children suffered for it,' Alice mused grimly, suddenly feeling very disgusted with herself. Although Bunny knew that Doctor Bumby was the one who started the fire, he had no idea why the man did it. He didn't know how much of a monster the doctor truly was. He also didn't know that Alice, unintentionally, turned a blind-eye to the suffering of innocent children. She couldn't even imagine the horrified expression on his furry face if he ever found out.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you how over-resilient Bunny can be when he feels the rare need to meddle into other people's business," Alice said instead.

"Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that," Jack smiled before realizing that they actually agreed on something.

Alice seemed to realize it too but before she could comment on it, her headache suddenly flared up again. That happened every time she thought too deeply about last night. She wanted to remember but it seemed like every time she tried to, she would hit a brick wall within her mind that Alice didn't even know was there. She let out an involuntary groan as the pain made her reach up and clutch her forehead.

Jack looked up from the swirled patterns in the table and saw Alice holding her head in obvious discomfort. "Are you alright?"

"Hardly," Alice drawled slowly while rubbing one of her temples. "I may not remember the terror but I'm most certainly feeling the after effects."

"Is it just a headache?" Jack asked.

Alice looked over at him from underneath her palm and regarded him closely.

Despite her reclusive behavior, even Alice occasionally felt the need to talk to someone, and this whole business about her night terror was only amplifying that need. Just because she couldn't remember what happened, didn't mean she had absolutely no thoughts or feelings on the matter. On the outside, Alice acted as passive and nonchalant as ever in the face of difficult situations, but truthfully, her mind was probably just as overworked as Bunny's.

She couldn't tell that to the pooka though. He knew her far too well and if she were to voice her thoughts, Bunny would undoubtedly look for connections that weren't really there and develop irrelevant ideas about how they could 'fix' everything. No, Bunny was way too involved in her life to be an adequate listener. Sure, her friend was a good listener and gave useful advice, but when the Easter Bunny's concerned and protective side was alerted, he was beyond annoying and very hard to reassure. So no, going to Bunny was out of the question.

Frost on the other hand...he was neutral. He knew nothing about Alice and thus, less likely to nick-pick her night terror experience. He would probably see it for what it truly was; a somewhat, ordinary sleep affliction brought on by too much stress and too little sleep.

"No, it's not only a headache," Alice admitted before pausing briefly. "It's quite bizarre actually, and at the risk of sounding completely mad, it feels as if something was...taken. From inside my head."

Jack's brow furrowed and his head tilted slightly to the side. "What do you mean?"

Alice gently bit her bottom lip in thought as she tried to come up with the right words to describe what she was feeling. "It's the same feeling you would get if you left your room without a certain object. Something insignificant enough that if you were to try and recall what you had forgotten, that object doesn't come to mind. However in my case, that object is something inside my head and I can't think about it or else my head hurts every time I try."

Jack took in everything Alice said, her accented voice ringing almost pleasantly through his ears, as he tried to think of something to say that would make her feel better, but nothing came to mind. So instead, he settled with "Wow, that sounds insane," which turned out to be a very big mistake.

At first, Jack didn't realize he had said anything wrong, but when he looked up at Alice again, she was giving him a very dark look.

"Oh, so you find me insane now, do you, Mr. Frost?" Alice hissed dangerously at him and stood from her seat. Jack just blinked in confusion at her random shift in mood.

"What? No!" Jack said desperately as he held up a hand in defense. "That's not what I meant at all!"

Alice scoffed loudly. "Don't bother trying to cover up your true thoughts. I am not dumb, nor blind. I can tell that all the guardians are thinking the same thing now. Well you can go tell the others that they're not getting their answers because I haven't gotten any. Now leave, I'm tired of speaking with you."

With nothing else said, Alice sat back down and calmly sipped at her tea again like nothing happened. Jack just stared wide-eyed at the girl in utter bewilderment at how first their conversation turned sour. It was like he had blinked and Alice went from slightly troubled, to absolutely livid. And to make matters worse, she had justdismissed him like a servant.

Jack suddenly grew angry as he found himself completely fed up with the girl sitting in front of him. What did he ever do to her? Why was he the only one she treated like dirt? He tried to be nice to her but every time he tried, Alice just threw it right back in his face without a second thought. It hurt a lot, and Jack hated getting hurt.

"What the hell is your problem?"

Alice blinked up at him, slightly surprised but also angry. Oh, so now he had her attention?

'That figures,' Jack thought bitterly.

"Excuse me?"

He knew it was probably a bad idea but once his mouth was open, the words just came pouring out. "Ever since you came here, you've been nothing but cold and cruel, especially towards me! What did I ever do to you? Are you still mad about the whole toy airplane thing? It wasn't even that big of a deal! Bunny forgave me for hitting him and North forgave me for screw up his workshop and scaring his workers, so what are you still mad about?!"

Alice just sat and listened with a blank face as Jack continued with his rant. Her cold, green eyes only served to spur him on.

"Everybody here as been more than nice to you, including me, and all you do is snap at people and mock our belief in the Man in the Moon. I understand that this whole guardian situation is hard for you, believe me, I do, but you don't have to be so nasty!"

"I've been trying to figure out why you act like this and you know what? I think I finally figured it out. You're just mean. A mean-spirited person, who thinks she knows everything, and hates the world for no reason!"

At that last bit, Alice finally decided that she had enough. How dare he assume such things about her?! He knew absolutely nothing.

"You don't understand anything, Frost," She snapped. "So don't ever pretend that you do, and don't you dare presume to tell me about my faults. I'm already well aware of them. Now, get out."

"No," Jack shot back. "This is North's kitchen, not yours, Alice. You can't just wave your little hand like a princess and make me go away. In fact, I'm actually pretty comfortable here. I think I'll stay a while."

The Winter spirit then got up from his seat and walked over to a fresh food platter that the yetis were preparing for lunch, and started picking at its contents. Alice glared furiously at the boy's back before she stood up from her seat and walked towards the sinks to place her dishes inside. Alice was finished with Jack Frost and since he obviously wasn't going to leave, she would have to. It was the only way she could have any peace and quiet.

Jack listened to Alice's sharp, angry footsteps. He had his back turned towards her with a hidden smirk on his face. Let's see how she likes being ignored.

"Alright, Frost. You've made your point," She said calmly as she walked towards the kitchen doors, but stopped in front of them and looked back one last time. "Oh, and one more thing. I don't know when you decided that it was alright for you to call me by my first name, but it's highly inappropriate. We are not friends, Mr. Frost, and that is not how you address a lady."

Jack snorted loudly but didn't turn around. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll make sure to remember that next time I'm actually speaking to one."

~O~

"Alright Alice," Bunny called as he pushed open the kitchen doors and stepped inside. "I'm back-"

The pooka stopped short when he spotted Jack sitting at the kitchen table alone, except for Phil the yeti who was standing behind him holding an ice pack against the back of the Winter spirit's head. For several seconds, the spirits of Spring and Winter just looked at each other before Bunny slowly crossed his arms, a smirk fighting its way on to his furry face.

"Picked a fight with Alice didn't ya, Frostbite?"

"Hey, she's the one who did the picking," Jack argued while trying to shake off Phil for the eleventh time, but the yeti garbled at him in his yeti language and refused to move.

"You just chose to retaliate," Bunny stated like he already knew exactly went on after he left the kitchen, which he probably did.

"Kinda..."

"Mmm," The pooka hummed in thought. He looked at Jack's irritated expression and the ice pack that the yeti was holding. Bunny couldn't hold back his smirk anymore. "What'd she throw at you?"

"A plate," Jack admitted grimly. "She got me right in the back of my head, and stormed out. Then Phil came in and decided to play doctor. I tried to tell him that giving me an ice pack would be completely pointless since I'm already freezing cold anyways, but he wouldn't listen."

Taking pity on the boy, Bunny waved the yeti away for him. Phil only grunted before backing away and retreating further into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Jack reached up and gingerly touched his injured head. He let out a sharp hiss when it started stinging again. "Damn, she has a good arm."

Bunny laughed and shook his head at that. "Yeah, she does. I problem should've mentioned that earlier."

"No, ya think?" Jack snapped sarcastically before groaning. "God Bunny, why is she like that?"

"Like what? Vindictive, spiteful, ornery, ill-tempered?"

"Yeah..."

"Our world made her that way, Frostbite," Bunny said as he rummaged through one of the many refrigerators. "She's had it extremely rough all her life. In fact, right before she became a spirit, Alice lived in London during the Industrial Revolution and that wasn't exactly the most cheery place to be during that time period."

"Life didn't exactly draw me a good hand of cards either. I spent three hundred years alone, ignored by everybody, including you guys, but you don't see me walking around with my nose stuck up in the air, biting people's heads off as I go, do you?"

Bunny let out his own sigh as he looked back at Jack. How could he make the young spirit understand without actually telling him anything? Alice would kill Bunny if she found out he was talking about her past without her consent.

"Jack," Bunny started sullenly, waiting for the boy to look at him. "Don't take anything she says or does personally, alright? She's like that with everybody at first. It's not just you."

"But why?" Jack asked thickly.

"Alice is a fighter," Bunny answered simply with shrugging shoulders. "She's been fightin' just about her entire life. Doesn't matter if it's physically or verbally. Usually she's really not this difficult to be around, but being back in our world definitely hasn't been easy on her. Even though everyone is being friendly to her, Alice still doesn't feel comfortable enough to completely lower her guard yet, so she's still very defensive."

"What happened to her, Bunny?" Jack finally asked. "You all seem to know something about her that I don't but nobody's telling me anything. Do you guys not trust me or something?"

The pooka's arms dropped to his sides. "Of course we trust you!"

"Then why all the secrets, Bunny?"

"Because it ain't anybody's place to tell you except for Alice," Bunny said, trying to ignore the hurt look in Jack's blue eyes. It made him feel guilty that Jack believed the other guardians didn't trust him, which wasn't true at all. "It's her business and if she wants you to know, then she'll tell you, but if not, I want you to leave it alone. Got it?"

Jack's hands curled into fists as he looked away from the Easter Bunny. Bunny said that they trusted him, but whenever he asked, they would act frustratingly cryptic and change the subject. Why couldn't anybody just give him a simple answer!?

Then, a horrible thought occurred to him and he turned his eyes back on Bunny.

"Did she-" Jack stopped and swallowed the developing lump in his throat. "Did she die? Did Alice die and become a spirit like I did? Is that what happened? Because if it is, then there isn't anybody on this entire continent that can understand that better than I can."

"No, she didn't die," Bunny said heavily as bad memories tried to fight their way to the forefront of his mind. Memories of bright flames, screams, shouting policemen, and a charred, broken little girl laying on the snow-covered ground.

No, he couldn't think of that now. That was a long time ago and that little girl was now a strong, powerful young woman. "Look, I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you're really that upset about how Alice is acting around you, I'll talk to her. Maybe I can get her to lighten up a little."

Jack stifled a frustrated growl at being denied answers yet again as Bunny continued to go through North's food supply. "Whatever, I'm seriously done with trying to be nice to her. She changes moods faster than a hyper Tooth Fairy. I'm going to get whiplash if I try to keep up."

Bunny let out a short laugh while sniffing at a container of carrots he found in one of refrigerators. "Don't I know it."

"I'm going to Jamie's," Jack announced after a brief pause. He rubbed the sore spot on his head one last time before standing up and grabbing his staff. He laid the aged wood against his shoulder and stuffed his free hand into his hoodie pocket.

"Hey."

Jack looked back when he heard Bunny speak. The pooka stood next to the open fridge with a small container in one paw ,and a carrot in the other. He pointed the tip of the carrot at Jack with a serious look in his green eyes.

"We weren't ignoring you, Jack. There's a line between not noticing someone, and ignoring them."

"A very fine line if you ask me," The ice spirit scoffed.

"I'm serious," Bunny insisted. "We weren't ignoring you. We were just too-"

"Busy," Jack finished. "Yeah, I know. I'm not mad about that anymore, Bunny. Honest."

His reassuring smile did little to calm Bunny's nerves but he figured he should probably drop it and let the spirit visit his human friend. It would help calm him down. Tempers were running high, and not just between Jack and Alice. North and Tooth have seriously been riding his tail for answers about last night. Why couldn't they understand that talking to an upset Alice Liddell was like talking to a brick wall? Actually, talking to a brick wall would easier. It wouldn't be able to give him attitude.

"I'll be back later," Jack promised before leaving Bunny alone in the kitchen.

Two emotionally screwed up spirits. Permanently stuck in teenage bodies, and now, Bunny had to deal with both of them in the same world.

The thought made him shudder in horror.

Chapter Text

Instead of using his usual method of transportation, Jack used one of North's snow globes to travel to the small, sleepy town of Burgess, Pennsylvania.

Normally he would enjoy riding the winds back to his hometown, but unsurprisingly, Jack wasn't really in the mood to do any long distance traveling. He did most of his thinking when he was sailing through the air and that was the very last thing he wanted to do. Thinking would undoubtedly lead to thoughts of that horrible girl and Jack just wanted to get as far away from Alice Liddell as possible. He needed to get those piercing green eyes and unimpressed scowl out of his head before they drove him crazy!

Hopefully though, a nice long visit with his small gang of prepubescent minions could help him forget his troubles. That usually did the trick whenever the company of his own spiritual kind became too overwhelming.

Jack cared very deeply about the other guardians, but sometimes, they could be little too much for him. They were extremely overprotective of their youngest guardian, which was something he could totally understand... if only they didn't try to suffocate him with affection all the time. Like with North's new habit of urging Jack to eat more. The Russian thought the Winter spirit was far too skinny for his own good.

It wasn't a fact that Jack wasn't already well aware of. He knew he came off as alarmingly scrawny to the others, but there wasn't much he could do about it, he was pretty sure he was permanently stuck that way. No matter how much food he ate, Jack never seemed to gain a single pound.

The guardians also had a tendency of freaking out whenever Jack disappeared for too long. If a few weeks went by and none one has heard or seen any traces of their volatile Winter spirit, North would immediately launch a search party.

Most of the time, he found this unrelenting attention kind of annoying, but other times, Jack secretly enjoyed the attention. After three hundred years of being ignored and unseen, it was finally nice to know that there was a group people out there that would actually look for Jack if he dropped off the radar for too long. They cared whether or not Jack was happy and healthy, and for that, he valued their friendship deeply.

But still, sometimes, they could be a little too much for him.

Jack really hoped that Alice would become a guardian, but not for the reasons that he knew he should. If Alice became a guardian, the others could baby her instead of him.

And they totally would, if given the chance.

The guardians would spoil Alice rotten if she let them. The only reason they weren't that way with Jack, was because he wouldn't let them spoil him. He didn't really like being fussed over and doted on all the time by his friends, but he couldn't blame them for wanting to. The guardians had big hearts and they enjoyed having someone new to teach and love, especially when that someone looked as young as Jack and Alice. It was like bringing a new puppy into the home.

North would want to take Alice for rides in his sleigh and teach her how to fight with swords once he found out she was skilled in fighting with a blade (or Jack assumed she was). Sandy would enjoy probing Alice's so-called, fantastic imagination for new ideas for his dreams, and Jack didn't doubt that Tooth would be ecstatic about not being the only female guardian anymore. Now she had someone to talk about boys with and do makeovers on, or whatever the heck girls did in their spare time. And of course, Alice already had Bunny wrapped around her little finger, for reasons that Jack was starting to believe he'll never understand.

The swirling portal instantly transported him to the roof of Jamie Bennett's two-story house. Once his senses evened themselves out again - after being thoroughly scrambled by the portal - Jack straightened himself up and took in the picture perfect view of the suburban town laid out in front of him.

Autumn was definitely in full swing. The trees were almost completely bare with their leaves scattered about all over the ground, just waiting for someone to rake them up and put them in black garbage bags. The weather wasn't as cold as Jack would've wanted, but it had a nice chill to it that kept him from being uncomfortable. He inhaled a deep breath of crisp air while taking in the distant noises of barking dogs and laughing children, before slowly exhaling. It all left him feeling a bit giddy inside because he knew Winter was just around the corner.

The pale spirit leisurely walked to the edge of the roof and gracefully jumped down on to Jamie's outstretched windowsill. He peered through the glass plane and immediately spotted Jamie sitting at his little desk. The boy was busy typing away on his laptop and hadn't noticed the Winter spirit outside his window yet.

Jack knew practically nothing about computers except how to turn them on. Jamie was very good with them, and not in that annoying, social networking type of way. The boy was always talking about how he installed some new thingy that would help him get around the firewalls on his school's whatever system while Jack would just sit there and pretend he was following everything the kid was talking about, but in reality, he was utterly lost and feeling twenty IQ points stupider.

Jamie once tried to show Jack how to use the internet - just in case there was an emergency and he needed to use it which Jack seriously doubted he ever would - but the spirit found it difficult to pay attention. So instead, he decided to just let the boy handle the technology department alone. He didn't have much use for it anyways.

Jamie's older friend, Cupcake, was also in the room. She was sitting on the floor with her back leaning against Jamie's bed. In front of her were several sheets of notebook paper and an open textbook. It looked like she was doing homework and the very thought made Jack want to cringe. Homework definitely wasn't fun, especially when there was a lot of it.

Feeling the strong need to go inside and greet his munchkins, Jack reached out and gently tapped the window with his staff. Jamie's head immediately snapped up at the noise and he was out of his chair before Jack even had the chance to blink.

"Jack!"

Jamie ran over to his bedroom window and unlatched the lock. Once he heard that inviting click, Jack pushed open the window and slipped inside.

He barely had both feet on the ground before Jamie crashed into him and wrapped his arms around Jack's narrow waist. Purely by instinct, Jack tensed up and flinched against the contact, but relaxed seconds later and returned the embrace. Jamie was still pretty short, barely pushing past Jack's stomach, but his thirteenth birthday was gradually approaching and it was only a matter of time before the growth spurts started up.

"Hey, Kiddo!" Jack greeted warmly. "How's it going?"

"Great now that you're here!"

"Aw, I'm flattered."

Jamie laughed and looked up at his immortal friend. Jack looked the same as ever, not that Jamie expected anything different. The Winter spirit always looked the same when he came to visit during the colder seasons. Jamie rarely saw Jack during the summer unless it was a special occasion, so it had been a couple of months since he had last dropped by Burgess. A lot happened to Jamie in those few months and he couldn't wait to tell Jack all about it. Like his first day of school, the new video game his dad bought him, the new litter of puppies Pippa's dog just had, and the hilarious thing Claude did with his milk at lunch yesterday...

"Hey Jack," Cupcake greeted much more calmly than Jamie as she pulled herself up from the floor and walked over to give him a hug. "How come it isn't snowing yet?"

Jack let go of the pink-cladded girl and shrugged his shoulders. "It's still too early in the year. Plus, I don't want to ruin Halloween for you guys by making it too cold for Trick-or-treating. Hein would kill me."

"Who?"

"Nevermind," Jack waved his hand dismissively before sitting down on Jamie's bed. He reached down and picked up the textbook that Cupcake left on the floor. His eyes quickly scanned the complicated looking math formulas that coated the page and groaned loudly.

Jack hated math. The numbers never seemed to add up right when he tried. He was much better at English. He could easily help Jamie with his English homework anytime, but math? Eh, not so much. "Wait, shouldn't you two be in school?"

"Sophie had a fever this morning but mom couldn't miss work to watch her, so I had to stay home instead," Jamie said, flopping down next to Jack. "And Cupcake is a grade higher than me and the others. The middle school gets out half an hour earlier than the elementary." Jamie looked at Cupcake and gave her a playful sneer. "Lucky!"

The older girl snorted loudly. "As if. I might get out of school earlier than you guys, but I also have to go into school earlier. And I get more homework!"

"But what about-"

"Hey now," Jack cut in. "Let's all just agree that school is boring. Alright?"

"Alright," Jamie laughed. "So, how's it going in North's Workshop? Christmas is coming up fast, I bet it's crazy hectic."

"A little bit, but North has this thing down to a science," Jack said before leaning in closer to the two kids as if he were about to share a huge secret. "And I was able to sneak a quick peek at the Nice list this year, and guess who's going to have an awesome Christmas?"

Jamie let out a loud whoop of excitement and fist pumped the air. Cupcake looked surprisingly uninterested in her placement on North's Christmas lists. The stout girl just rolled her eyes at Jamie and gently shoved the smaller boy before sitting back down on the ground.

Almost immediately, Jamie launched into a story about everything that Jack had missed since his last visit. Jack calmly listened to Jamie's ramblings about his new video game and how he was in the same class with all his friends, minus Cupcake of course, while also keeping one eye on the older girl. Cupcake just remained quiet as she rearranged her plum purple tutu so she could sit with her legs crisscrossed.

A couple of times Jack caught Cupcake looking at him and he could see that she really had something to say, judging by the excited gleam in her brown eyes, but whatever it was, she kept it to herself until there was a break in Jamie's, one-boy conversation.

"Soooo," Cupcake drawled lazily after finally gaining the chance to speak. She placed her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands before looking up at Jack. "What's she like?"

Jack's brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh, who is what like?"

"Alice!" Cupcake exclaimed with a big smile, her excitement finally boiling over. "Alice from Alice in Wonderland! What's she like! Please, tell me, tell me!"

Thrown completely off-guard, Jack's jaw nearly dropped opened at the girl's words. Jamie looked in between the two, hopelessly confused as to why his usually, calm and sarcastic friend, was practically falling over with bubbly glee. The last time Jamie saw Cupcake act that excited and fangirlish, she saw a movie trailer for some unicorn movie she wanted to go see. Jamie nearly trembled at the memory.

The headstrong girl practically dragged all of her friends to that movie when it came out in theaters. It had been sickeningly cute and horribly cheesy (much like a lot of stuff involving unicorns) but of course, none of them could say that out loud unless they wanted to suffer the wrath of Cupcake.

"H-how did you know about Alice?" Jack stammered, eyes wide in shock.

Cupcake's smile grew brighter. "So she is real! I knew it! I always wanted to ask you if Alice was real, just like the Tooth Fairy and Santa, but I would always forget whenever you visited."

"Hang on for a second! How did you know about Alice?" Jack demanded, giving her a scrutinizing look. "You're not secretly psychic, are you?"

"Oh come on, Jack," Cupcake rolled her eyes. "It wasn't really that hard to figure out. Jamie told me that you asked him to look up information on the Alice in Wonderland books, so I figured that you must've met her or something. I mean, why else would you just randomly ask him to do that?"

"Huh, good point."

Jamie finally snapped out of his confused stupor and looked at Jack. "Whoa, no way! Alice is real too?! How come you didn't tell me this before?"

"Well, I wanted it to be a surprise but I guess that's out of the question now," Jack said, giving the offending girl a pointed look.

Cupcake bunched up her shoulders and gave Jack a small, guilty smile. "Whoops, sorry Jack. I didn't know it was supposed to be a surprise."

"It's alright," He reassured her by ruffling her short hair and accidentally knocking her pink headband out of place. Cupcake protested with a laugh and reached up to fix it. "I'm actually a little disappointed that Jamie wasn't the one to figure it out."

Nearly pouting, Jamie whined indignantly, "Hey! Give me a break! I thought you just wanted to know because you were going to give Sophie an Alice themed birthday gift this year or something."

"I am going to give her an Alice themed gift," Jack boasted with a sly smile. "I'm going to bring the real Alice here so Sophie could meet her in person."

Jack found their reactions kind of hilarious. Jamie's jaw dropped while Cupcake almost squealed in joy. They made him feel proud of himself for his brilliant idea. Sophie absolutely loved Alice in Wonderland and he honestly couldn't think of a greater present to give the little blond girl than bringing Alice to Burgess to meet her. And even though Alice didn't exactly look, or act the same way she does in the books, Jack just knew Sophie wouldn't care otherwise. It truly was a great gift idea on Jack's part and he would just love to see anybody else try and top it.

However, Jack's self-pride left just as quickly as it came when he suddenly remembered what happened between him and the English harpy in North's kitchens. The back of his snow-white head stung annoyingly as his reluctantly recalled the unpleasant confrontation. The Winter spirit visibly deflated and he let out a heavy sigh before flopping back down on Jamie's bed. The two friends looked at each other, confused by Jack's sudden drop in mood.

"Well, I was going to bring Alice to meet Sophie, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen now," Jack mumbled and flinched when he saw Jamie and Cupcake grow disappointed. He hated it when that happened.

Cupcake frowned. "Why not? Did she say no when you asked her?"

If Jack had been an exceedingly spiteful person like Alice, he would've gladly launched into a long rant about how completely nasty and mean that shrew of a woman was since Alice obviously wasn't there to retaliate against him for it, but for whatever reason, Jack just shook his head.

"No, I asked and she said she would do it but then we kinda had this fight and well...she didn't really like me to begin with. In fact, at this point I think it's safe to say that Alice hates me."

"Really?" Jamie asked. Who could possibly hate Jack Frost? He was the nicest and funniest person he knew! "What happened?"

"Long story short, I accidentally said something that offended her and she threw a plate at my head."

"What!?" Jamie gasped. "A plate?"

"Yeah, a hard plate."

"Whoa," Cupcake murmured slightly in awe. "That's hardcore."

"Hey!"

"What? It is," She shot back flippantly.

Jack mumbled under his breath and barely stifled the urge to stick his tongue out at the girl sitting on the floor. Cupcake may look sweet with all the pink she wore on a daily basis, but Jamie and his friends didn't use to be afraid of her for nothing. The girl had a mean streak. Nothing too horrible, but mean enough to warrant a spot on North's naughty list a couple times in the past.

That was before she made friends with Jamie and the other neighborhood kids though. She was much better now that she finally had some friends.

From the first minute he saw her, Jack knew Cupcake wasn't nearly as horrible as everybody thought she was and he was glad that the kids finally realized that she wasn't mean and scary, just greatly misunderstood.

At that thought, something suddenly clicked in Jack's head and he inwardly groaned when Alice's face flashed through his mind.

'MiM, please tell me this isn't going to be a 'practice what you preach' type of situation,' Jack thought miserably, already knowing the answer. Of course he knew that he would eventually have to go back to the North Pole and face Alice again. He could only hope that she would still allow him to take her to Burgess and meet Sophie. Unless their little spat totally shot that possibility to hell.

Surely she would still do it though, wouldn't she? After all, the favor he asked of her wasn't for Jack's benefit. This favor was for Sophie, not him. Alice would still do it to make a little girl happy, right? That was what guardians were suppose to do; make children happy. But then again, Alice seemed adamant that the Man in the Moon had been mistaken when he chose her to be the new guardian, and after all that has happened between him and the girl so far, Jack was starting to believe it too.

"Did you win the fight at least?" Cupcake asked, her respect for the ice spirit declining by the minute.

Jack let out a humorless laugh while his hand reached up to gingerly rub the back of his head. "I thought I did - you know, towards the end, but there's nothing quite like using a hard piece of porcelain to help get your point across."

The girl laughed at Jack's sour expression before she stood up and firmly placed her hands on her hips as if she finally came to some important decision. "Well from what I know about Alice so far, she sounds awesome, so you have to bring her here cuz' I wanna meet her too."

"Oh alright, Miss Bossy," Jack laughed, holding his hands up in mock compliance. "If Alice isn't still ticked off when I get back to the Pole, I'll ask her. But I'm warning you now, kids, Alice is extremely different from the little blonde girl in the books and old Disney movie."

"How about Tim Burton's movie?"

"Nope, still different."

Cupcake gave him a bored shrug. "I don't really care if she isn't like the blonde Alice, I just want to meet her."

She then reached down and snatched her forgotten textbook from the ground, mumbling under her breath about having to finish her homework. Jamie handed her the pencil he found next to his foot and stood up from his bed, giving her room to work.

"That reminds me, I looked up information on Alice just like you asked me to Jack."

Jack's head perked up a little and he felt his excitement rekindle. He had forgotten all about that!

With a subtle bounce in his step, Jack tightened his grip on his staff and walked over to stand behind Jamie as the boy sat back down in his small computer chair. "What'cha got for me?"

"Well at first, I asked Cupcake what she knew about the books because she really likes them too, and she said the author used a pen name when the books were published. The guy's real name was Charles Dodgson, not Lewis Carroll," Jamie explained as he brought up a few pictures of Dodgson.

"Uh huh," Jack mumbled, not caring much about the author of the books. "What about Alice? What did you find out about her?"

"Nothing much except that people assume the books were based off old London folklore and fairytales," Jamie said, scrolling down the Wikipedia page with his mouse. "Dodgson once mentioned in an interview that he had gotten some of the inspiration from an old cautionary tale he overheard an old woman telling a group of orphans one day when he was taking a walk through the streets of London. The tale had been about a girl named Alice who spent so much time in her "Wonderland" that she lost her mind to it and was never able to grow up because she was permanently stuck with a mind of a child. The myth was suppose to scare children into acting their age and to take life more seriously, or something like that. There's a lot of different version but they all seem to involve the same girl; Alice."

"There were other Alice fairytales too though. Ones that were brightly colorful and told to children for entertainment. I found a couple of websites that said the more pleasant Alice tales were mostly told in orphanages for some reason, they really liked hearing about Alice and her Wonderland. So Dodgson overheard one of these tales one day and I guess he decided to write a book based off them," Jamie finished while shrugging his shoulders. "And I guess that's it. I couldn't find anything else about Alice. Just more information on the author."

Jack looked away from the screen and down at Jamie with wide eyes. "Wait, what? That's it? That's all there is on Alice? It doesn't saying anything about the girl the books and fairytales were based off?"

"No, nothing like that," Jamie shook his head. "And I looked at a lot of websites too. They all say pretty much the same thing. They just talked about the book character."

"That can't be all there is. There had to be real girl; a real girl named Alice," Jack said firmly before reaching over and placing his hand on top of the mouse. He scrolled through the different pages and documents that Jamie had displayed on the screen, but just like the boy said, the Winter spirit couldn't find anything about Alice except for the Alice in Wonderland book character; the blonde Alice.

Jack cursed quietly under his breath and bit his bottom lip in frustration. He thought for sure that the almighty internet would be able to give him at least a little insight into Alice's backstory. After all, Alice was only a little over a century and a half years old. It shouldn't be that difficult to find some type of information on any given computer, especially when modern technology allowed people to find and read documents written during the middle ages.

Jamie noticed Jack's frustrated expression and he found himself growing a little sad. He didn't like seeing his white-haired friend look so stressed and upset. He was the Guardian of Fun! He should be laughing and causing mischief, not glaring at a computer screen as if it had just insulted his mother.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find anything more helpful, Jack," Jamie apologized.

Jack looked at the boy before giving him a small smile. "It's alright, Kiddo. It's not your fault. I'm sure there's something on here. We just need to look a little harder, that's all."

"Still, I wish I could've been more help," Jamie murmured.

Feeling a bit guilty for accidentally projecting his bitter mood on to his young friend, Jack forced a more convincing smile on his face and reached down to ruffle his hand through the boy's hair, making him duck away and laugh.

When he pulled his hand away, Jack stood up to his full height and crossed his arms in serious thought.

"I just don't get it," Jack mumbled more to himself than the two pre-teens in the room. "Why is this so difficult?"

"Can't you ask North or Bunny about her?" Jamie asked.

"Already have, but they're just being fortune cookie vague about it all," Jack replied while leaning down to look at the laptop screen again. "Man, this is so weird. Why isn't there anything about the real Alice on here?"

Jack was afraid something like that would happen. Time must've helped the Alice in Wonderland books bury the original history behind Alice Liddell. He was hoping that wouldn't happen since the books were published barely a century ago, but time could definitely warp the true history and appearances behind spirits like the guardians. Bunny and North were prime examples of that, especially in the self-image department.

Jamie pursed his lips in thought and tapped his fingers against the desk. "Hmm, I don't know. Are you sure Alice was a real person before becoming a spirit?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't she be?"

"I was just thinking maybe, since we can't find any evidence of there ever being a real Alice, maybe she was born from the books?" Jamie suggested lamely, only to receive a funny look from Jack. "Well you know, once children read the books and started believing in Alice and her Wonderland, maybe that belief brought her to life...or something. Like when the Sandman came back to life once Cupcake and the others started believing in him again."

Jack thought about Jamie's idea for a second, feeling rather impressed by it, before shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure Alice was human before becoming a spirit, but I have to give you points for the idea. Way to think outside of the box, kid. No, she was human. Bunnymund use to know her as a child."

"He did?"

"Yep, and they're really close."

"How close?"

"Bunny insists they're just really good friends, but Tooth said they're father-daughter close."

Jamie blinked at his friend, trying to imagine what a fatherly figure Easter Bunny would look like. "Wow, that's kinda weird."

"I know, right?" Jack laughed. "He's always fussing over her and stuff. Kind of like Tooth whenever one of her fairies is sick or hurt, just not as motherly. And Alice has got him whipped too! It's pretty funny to watch her scold him like a little kid, especially since he's twice her height."

"She sounds pretty cool," Jamie smiled. "Well, other than the plate throwing thing. Why do you want to know so much about her anyways. Do you have, like, a crush on her or something?"

A light blush erupted across Jack's pale cheeks and he let out an indignant huff. Him? Actually liking that vindictive, cutthroat girl? Jack couldn't think of a more ridiculous idea even if he tried!

At the very thought, Jack twisted his face up in disgust and threw his hands up in front of him as if he was trying to physically push the comment away. "Blegh! No way! As if I would ever like Alice Liddell!"

From her spot on Jamie's floor, Cupcake's head perked up from her current math problem and her attention was instantly on the other two beings in the room. Alice Liddell?

Jamie laughed at Jack's overdramatic reaction. It was like watching a little boy freak out because he still believed girls had cooties. "Okay, calm down. It was just a question, Jack. I just want to know why."

Jack turned away from the laptop screen after sobering up and leaned against the small desk. "If I do bring Alice here, I just want to make sure you guys are going to be...safe around her."

"Safe?" The boy echoed curiously. "Is she dangerous?"

"No," Jack claimed at first, but uncertainty crept into his tone when he added a second thought. "At least, not entirely. She doesn't look like she could be very dangerous, but whenever I'm around her...I don't know, she just gives off these bad juju vibes."

That was a bit of an understatement on his part. The bad vibes that Jack picked up on whenever he was around that girl went way beyond anything he would expect from a relatively unassuming spirit like Alice. There was a true sense of darkness surrounding her, like an angry storm cloud hanging over someone's head. It went deeper than her glaring eyes and mocking smirk and Jack couldn't decide whether he should be afraid of her, or not. He didn't know if the other guardians were aware of it, but he had a nagging suspicion that they were. That was why everybody walked on eggshells around her.

Perhaps that was another reason why Jack wanted to find out everything he could about Alice. If that darkness ever decided to expand, Jack wouldn't be caught completely unaware.

Of course though, he couldn't say any of that out loud to Jamie and Cupcake. He didn't want them to be scared of Alice just because his nerves were being rattled by the girl's off-putting personality.

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked.

"Nothing," Jack dismissed with a shake of his head. "It doesn't matter. I was hoping that the internet could give me some answers since I'm clearly not going to get any from North and the others, but of course, things can never be that easy for me."

Silence fell over the small bedroom as Jack's disappointment and frustration finally caught up with him.

Suddenly feeling a bit warm and stuffy inside the tiny space of Jamie's room, Jack moved away from the boy's desk and walked towards the bedroom window to let in the cool breeze from outside. The chill helped calm his racing mind a little, but not enough to make him feel any better.

"Jack?"

The Winter spirit turned around and looked at the girl still sitting on Jamie's floor. She wasn't looking at him though. She was looking at the floor with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Yeah?"

"What did you say Alice's last name was?"

Jack blinked at Cupcake's, seemingly random question and cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"What's Alice's last name? You just said it like, two minutes ago. When Jamie asked you if you had a crush on her."

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," He said before answering. "It's Liddell."

"Is that Liddell with two D's and two L's at that end?"

"Probably..." Jack drawled slowly before giving her a suspicious glare. "Why?"

Instead of answering, Cupcake looked over at Jamie. "Hey, show Jack that one website we found earlier."

The Winter spirit's brow furrowed at her words and turned towards Jamie. "What website?"

Jamie gave Cupcake an exasperated look before shaking his head. "Oh come on, Cupcake. You know nothing on those types of websites is true. They're just stories made up by crazy internet people."

"Maybe it'll turn out to be exactly what he's looking for. It couldn't hurt to show him."

"Then you do it," Jamie said while getting up from his chair. "I have to go wake up Sophie from her nap and make her lunch."

"Tell her I said hi!" Jack called as Jamie left the room. The twelve-year old boy didn't verbally respond back, but he waved a hand over his shoulder as he left to show that he heard his immortal friend. When his bedroom door closed shut again, Jack turned to Cupcake with a new sense of apprehension. He even had a slight bounce in his stance again. "Now what were you saying about a website?"

Cupcake rolled her eyes at Jack's overly excited nature. She unceremoniously kicked aside her abandoned homework and textbook -she would finish it at home later- before motioning for Jack to follow her back towards Jamie's laptop. Her posture and strides just as naturally commanding as always.

The small computer chair squeaked and sank under the new weight as Cupcake sat down on it and reached out both hands over the keyboard. Jack followed close behind and leaned against the back wall, waiting for Cupcake to show him whatever it was she wanted to show.

Cupcake's fingers traveled swiftly over the laptop keys as she typed something into the machine. Once she entered in her search words, Cupcake quickly scanned the screen in search of the website that her and Jamie found earlier that day. When she finally did, she let out a loud "Aha!" and clicked the link with Jamie's mouse. Jack watched as the small screen exploded with words and pictures.

"Take a look at this," Cupcake said with a triumphant smirk fighting its way on to her freckled face.

Jack leaned in and squinted his eyes. "And what exactly am I looking at, Cups?"

That was another reason why Jack hated using computers; bright screens and tiny print.

She let out a frustrated sigh before pointing at the top of the screen. "Look at the title, you walking icepop!"

Jack leaned in closer and read the bold lettering Cupcake was pointing at.

Alice Pleasance Liddell

Immediately Jack snorted when the words fully registered in his head and his first thought popped into his head.

Pleasance? Alice's middle name was Pleasance? How unbelievably ironic.

"Jamie thinks that this is one of those false conspiracy websites where crazy people drone on and on about weird historical cover-ups, but I think it sounds legit," Cupcake claimed while idly tapping her finger against the computer mouse. "Especially since you say that Alice Liddell was an actual person. This website talks about a girl they believe the Alice in Wonderland books were based off, but I don't think they're a hundred percent sure."

"Why not?"

"Because she disappeared years before the books were published."

Jack turned away from the screen and looked down at Cupcake. "Disappeared?"

She nodded her head, eyes roaming across the laptop screen. "Alice was an orphan living in the trashy side London, England. When she was nineteen, she disappeared one day without a trace and nobody ever heard from her again."

Jack's heart pounded in his chest at Cupcake's words. This could be it. This could be the information he was looking for! Nineteen was about the age Alice was and it was obviously a no-brainer that she was English. And disappearing without a trace? That must've been when Alice became a spirit. She didn't disappear, she just became invisible to everybody who didn't believe. Just like what happened to him when he became a spirit.

"Here's a picture of her," Cupcake's voice broke through his thoughts. She clicked on a small sepia-colored square in the corner of the screen. The square grew in size to reveal a very old-looking picture. Jack's eyes widened at the sight of it.

It was her! It was Alice!

The picture on the screen was dull with an extremely faded tint to it, but the figure standing within it was perfectly recognizable.

Alice was standing in front of a tall, looming building with a black, uninviting steel gate bordering the front. From the angle of the picture, it looked as if it was taken from a distance and without Alice's knowledge because the girl was sweeping away with the broom in her hands as if she hadn't noticed anyone taking a photograph of her.

Jack couldn't tell if it was just a trick of the old style quality of the hundred year old photograph, or if Alice truly did look as sickly and downtrodden as the picture portrayed her as. Either way, as mean as it might sound, Alice's appearance in the picture wasn't flattering at all. She looked extremely small and unhealthy in the photo. Her body was stick thin, on the verge of emaciation, with ragged clothes and short, choppy black hair that barely reached her bony shoulders. There were also dark circles underneath her eyes and an almost defeated expression plagued her usually prideful face.

The Alice in the picture was nothing of a dull, lifeless husk compared to the girl Jack first met two days ago, but somehow, even when she looked so sick and colorless, Jack still thought she had a sad, stunning beauty about her. Like a broken marionette doll, left cracked and abandoned by its master.

Something inside Jack told him to not go any further than Alice's picture. A foreboding feeling ripped through his body and rattled his bones roughly, telling him that it would a very bad idea to read anything else on the website. He wasn't going to like anything on it, but his nagging sense of curiosity and need to know the secrets surrounding the guardians' new, potential teammate continued to drive him forward.

Stubbornly, Jack pushed on. "What else is on here?"

Cupcake sucked in a breath through her teeth and slowly let it out with a puff of her cheeks. "Not a lot, a couple of one-page, newspaper articles, but that's pretty much it."

"Can I see them?"

The girl gnawed on her bottom lip with uncertainty for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders. "Sure, I'll show you them, but I'm warning you now, they're kinda sad."

~O~

As it turned out, "kinda sad" was the biggest understatement of the year. Horribly depressing would've been more accurate.

Jack only had to read the headline of the first newspaper article to realize that nothing about Alice's past was going to be even remotely pleasant to read about. And like Cupcake said, the website didn't have much, but what little it did have, left Jack feeling lower than dirt.

After reading the scarce information the website provided, Jack suddenly found Jamie's bedroom too stuffy and claustrophobic to breath properly in. His limbs twitched and his stomach twisted as he realized he needed to go somewhere quiet so he could think.

Ignoring Cupcake's concerned questions about whether he was okay, or not, Jack only shook his head and asked her if she could print him out a copy of the articles. She wanted to protest at first, but after seeing the light green hue in Jack's pale complexion, she decided against it and did what he asked without question. Once the last sheet of paper slipped out of Jamie's bulky printer, the Winter spirit snatched the papers from the tray and quickly made his way to the window.

Before leaving, Jack asked the stout girl if she could be keep everything to herself and have Jamie do the same, which of course, she said she would. Then the pale spirit slipped through the window and propelled himself off the house, and towards the direction of his pond.

Despite it being the very pond he had drowned in over three hundred years ago, Jack never felt more at home when he was at his pond. Whether he was lounging in the ancient oak tree near the base of the water, or creating ice patterns on the walls of the small cave he found nearby almost two centuries ago.

Although, he felt the most comfortable when he was sitting perfectly balanced on the crook of his shepherd's staff in the middle of the frozen pond, like he was doing at that very moment. He didn't even care if it was considered "out of season" for him to freeze the pond when there wasn't even any snow on the ground.

No matter how familiar and comfortable the atmosphere of Jack's pond was, he couldn't shake the harsh feelings of guilt and gloom that were brought on by his most recent discovery. Not even the welcoming feel of the wind flowing through his silvery white hair could lift his bitter mood.

His azure eyes just repeatedly read over the printed copy of an extremely old issue of "The Illustrated London News" that Jack currently held in his shaking hands.

Three Expire in Domestic Conflagration.

Reports have reached us that Dean & Mrs. Arthur Liddell, and their dear daughter, Elizabeth (eighteen), perished in a raging inferno, which consumed their gracious Oxford home during the night. Another daughter, the lucky (nay, plucky!) Alice (seven) survived the blaze. While her severe burns are being treated at Littlemore Infirmary, prospects of her recovery are not at all encouraging. No visitors have come and none are expected. We've learned that measurements for her coffin have been taken, and her departed loved ones are stored in an ice locker in the likelihood that the whole family will be expeditiously interred at the same time.

So that's what happened to Alice. Her family died in a house fire.

And only seven years old, practically a baby, and she lost her entire family in one night.

Jack's eyes flickered away from the words of the article, and looked at the picture of a burning, two-story house, completely engulfed in roaring flames. He fought hard to swallow the lump in his throat as he tried to imagine what it would be like to be trapped inside a flaming building while being burnt alive, but he failed on both accounts.

With a trembling hand that threatened to freeze the flimsy material of the articles, Jack flipped the top page behind the bottom and read the next article again, just like he repeatedly did with the first. The words on the pages just wouldn't register enough inside Jack's mind for him to be able to completely understand what he was reading. It was too horrible. All he could do was read the articles over and over again until they became nothing but a giant blur.

A Most Reluctant Patient

Lovely little Alice Liddell, our favorite orphan, the report of whose charred body last appeared in these pages a year ago, has been moved to Rutledge Asylum. Her battered and crispy self was judge sufficiently healed for this removal to Rutledge, which is thought best suited to handle her symptoms. Investigation into the cause of the fire continues, as do the rumours regarding Alice's possible involvement. The doctor says she's suffering "severe and pervasive trauma"- the clinical way of saying her wits have yet to be tethered. According to our source at Rutledge, her behavior is volatile and unpredictable, and she is obviously a danger to herself and others. We wish Dr. H.Q. Wilson, her treating physician, the best of British luck - he may need a suit of armour.

No matter how many times he read them, Jack couldn't help but feel angry towards the two articles. The words that were used, like charred and crispy, sounded way too cold and cruel. They were speaking about a little, seven-year old girl for Christ's sake! Not some dead animal found on the side of the road! How could they disregard something so tragic, so easily? "No visitors have come and none are expected", did they really have to be so blunt about it? Was such cruel reporting even legal?

Jack didn't know if it was the article writer's intent to sound so horribly uncaring about a child losing their entire family in one night, but the spirit couldn't stop himself from reading it like that. The writer spoke so carefree about the grim tragedy, like he was discussing the weather, or sharing a new recipe for cherry cake. Did he have any sense of public decency?

And what about Alice?

Severely traumatized by her family's death and sent to mental asylum because of it. A young child, now completely alone in the world, locked behind padded walls and steel doors. Jack didn't even want to imagine what that must've been like. He wasn't an expert on mental institutions during the Victorian era, but he did know that the treatments for mental patients during that time period weren't nearly as humane and effective as they were in modern times. How long was Alice inside the asylum? How much worse did it make her already screwed up childhood? Is that what made her into the person she was today? Bitter and scornful?

Looking at the second article, Jack's eyes slowly roamed across the black and white photograph of a small girl laying on a hospital gurney with her tiny arms and face almost entirely covered in bandages. Her damaged arms clutched tightly around a ragged and burnt toy rabbit with only one button eye.

Jack's chest tightened uncomfortably and his mood drop even lower than before as he gently traced his fingertips across the heartbreaking picture. Suddenly, it didn't matter to Jack that Alice was always mean and nasty when he was around her. He didn't care that all she did was hurl insults and crockery at him. None of the mattered anymore because Jack was no longer angry about it. He was honestly too depressed to be angry.

"So this is why you're the way you are," Jack whispered to the little girl in the picture while Bunny's words ran through his head again.

'Our world made her that way. She's had it extremely rough her whole life.'

Now he was beginning to understand why Alice chose to lock herself inside her Wonderland for so long. Jack couldn't blame her. Why would she live in a world filled with so much pain, grief, and sadness when she could easily just runaway to a world of her own creation?

Jack roughly shook his head as his anger suddenly directed itself inward.

He had made a big mistake. He should've just left well enough alone like everybody told him to. Snooping into Alice's past did nothing for him except make him feel depressed and guilty about what he had said to her earlier when they were fighting in North's kitchens. Jack called Alice a mean person with no reason, or justification for being that way.

Oh, she definitely had a reason. There was no doubting that anymore.

"Well this sucks," Jack mumbled to himself as he dropped his head into his folded arms while still remaining balanced on the crook of his staff.

So, what now?

He knew he had to apologize to her eventually, that much was obvious, but what if that made Alice suspicious? She would kill Jack if she found out what he had done, invading her privacy like that. She would literally break his neck and feed his corpse to North's elves, or something else just as equally painful and terrifying.

During his endless circle of thoughts, Jack failed to notice when the wind around him suddenly picked up as it tried to warn him about the long, shining streams of golden sand slowly making their way towards his pond. It wasn't until Jack heard the very subtle sound of silver bells - the only sound that could ever be associated with a certain mute spirit - that the Winter spirit's head snapped up and looked towards the sky. Dread pooled into the pit of Jack's stomach as he spotted the Sandman slowly descending down from high above.

Trying not to panic, Jack quickly rolled up the two sheets of paper and shoved them into the space between his belt and trousers behind his back.

Once the golden spirit drew close enough, he waved happily at Jack with his small hand. Jack, who was trying to act as inconspicuous as possible, forced a smile on his face and waved back.

"H-hey, Sandy," He greeted with false nonchalance. "What's up? You out working?"

Sandy held up his hand and waved it in a so-so gesture before giving Jack an amused smirk and pointing to the back of his head. Understanding his meaning, Jack blushed lightly and let out an uneasy laugh. "Oh, you heard about that, huh?"

The Sandman nodded and a small figure shaped like Alice appeared above his round head. The figure had her hands on her hips while her small foot tapped furiously against an invisible ground. Then he pointed to Jack and a dreamsand question mark appeared next to the dreamsand Alice.

Sandy's method of communication was very abstract and resembled a game of charades more than anything else, but Jack was usually able to decipher the Sandman's meaning if he really tried.

"I'm not sure what her problem is," Jack said, which was only half-true. He knew that Alice had problems, he just didn't know what her problem was with him, specifically. "I was just trying to help."

The smile on Sandy's face dropped a few notches and he scratched his head in thought. He regarded Jack for a moment before he said something in sign language. Jack wasn't really surprised when he found out Sandy knew sign language. Although, he rarely used it to communicate with since only Tooth was fluent enough to understand him.

Sometimes when Sandy really needed to say something, but wasn't able to put it into sand symbols, he opted to using sign language instead, but only if Tooth was around to translate for him.

Jack wasn't a master at sign language. Sandy taught him a little bit of it though. Just enough for him to understand the gist of what the Sandman was trying to say.

'Are you alright?'

"Yeah, I'm alright, little man."

'Why are you acting funny?'

Jack blinked at his friend. "What do you mean?"

Sandy gave him a pointed look and nodded his head towards the back of Jack's pants. The young spirit had to fight hard to keep the surprise from his face and continue acting nonchalant.

"Whoa, Sandman," Jack laughed, trying to play everything off with a joke like he usually did. "I didn't know you felt that way about me. I'm truly flattered, but I think we should just be friends."

Sandy rolled his eyes at Jack before motioning sharply with his hand for the boy to give him whatever it was he was hiding. Jack kept up his front for about ten more seconds before letting out a heavy sigh.

"Nothing gets past you does it, Sandman?" Jack smiled sadly before reaching behind his back and pulling out the articles. Sandy took the sheets of paper and held them up to his face. Jack almost flinched when Sandy's eyes widened and he looked back at Jack with shock.

"I know! I know!" Jack groaned, immediately defending himself. "Bad idea! A very bad, stupid idea! But honestly, did you really think that I was just going to sit down clueless while there's a secret floating around that everybody knows except me?"

Sandy held his stern glare for a few more seconds before a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

"And besides..." Jack trailed off almost sorrowfully. "I didn't think Alice's backstory would be that horrible."

Sandy slowly shook his head before looking back down at the articles. His golden eyes landed on the photograph of a seven-year old Alice inside Littlemore Infirmary. He let out a silent sigh and handed the papers back to Jack. He didn't need that horrible image in his head again, once was more than enough.

"Should I...tell her that I know?" Jack asked tentatively.

Sandy gave him a look that seemed to say 'Not if you like where your head is'.

"Then what do you think I should do?"

Sandy shrugged his shoulders before conjuring up a dreamsand figure of Alice and then a dreamsand figure of Jack. The two figures faced each other and shook hands.

Jack roughly ran his hand through his white hair in frustration at the classic Sandman answer. "And how do you suggest I do that? Alice has already made it crystal clear that she doesn't want to be friends with me!"

'Just keep trying and she'll come around eventually,' Sandy signed before regrettably telling Jack in sand symbols that he that needed to leave. He reached out and gently patted Jack on the shoulder while giving the boy a warm, encouraging smile. He then waved goodbye and ascended back into the sky.

Jack watched him go with a grim look on his face.

"Keep trying. Great advice." He scoffed dryly to himself as he rolled up his papers again and shoved them into his hoodie pocket. "Easy for you to say, Sandy. Alice doesn't hate you."

After the Sandman left, the Winter spirit continued to sulk on his pond in silence for a few more hours. It wasn't until the sun fully disappeared behind the tree line that Jack let out one last sigh and gracefully flipped off his staff, and into the air.

He might as well head back to the North Pole now.

Chapter Text

North had been more amused than concerned when Phil the yeti appeared in the doorway of his office with the news that there had been a "slight" altercation in one of the kitchens that ended with an injured Jack Frost and an uncounted for Alice Liddell.

The yeti hadn't witnessed the fight firsthand, but he had been passing the kitchen doors when the sound of a pained yelp and a breaking dish emanated from the other side.

One look through the little kitchen window at the sight of Jack clutching the back of his head and Alice furiously storming out of the kitchen (nearly smacking Phil with the swinging door on her way out) had been more than enough for the yeti to draw a pretty solid conclusion of what happened. North was relieved to hear that other than a sore head and probably a bruised ego, Jack wasn't seriously hurt.

However, the Russian wasn't so relieved to hear that Jack had left for Burgess without leaving any sort of time frame for when he would return (not that the volatile spirit normally did that anyways), and that after finishing his afternoon patrol of the workshop area, Phil reported that Alice was nowhere to be found. That was what North was the most concerned about. He hoped that Alice hadn't returned to Wonderland.

Although, after some thought, North decided it wasn't likely. She would've at least waited for Bunny to return from his warren to tell him that she was leaving.

So Alice was still somewhere in the North Pole, he just didn't know exactly where.

Deciding to find out, North pushed aside his current ice sculpture and left his office to begin his search. Naturally, his first stop was Alice's guest room, but as he expected, the room was empty. Next came the library, then the reindeer stalls, then the elf play rooms, the kitchens, the workshop, and several other rooms that might've attracted the girl's attention, but he came up empty-handed each time.

Growing increasingly miffed and concerned about Alice's whereabouts, North walked over to one of the many windows that overlooked the yeti village just outside his domain. He crossed his arms and stroked his beard as blue eyes quickly scanned the area below him. Perhaps Alice wandered outside to learn more about the yetis, it was obvious to North that she really liked them. When Alice spent the day shadowing him in the workshop the previous day, she seemed more interested in the yetis than the toys. Between that, and the many questions she asked him about the architecture of his domain, North concluded that Alice was one of the strangest visitors he's ever had. Not that he had many visitors to begin with, but the very few he did have were usually more impressed by the mountains of toys, rather than the mechanics and machines that went into making said toys.

North did another swift scan of the yeti village before he decided to have one of the yetis fetch his coat. He knew Alice was safe with the yetis in their village. Despite their size and opposing appearances, they were usually very passive creatures, but there were a lot of high cliffs outside and a lot of icy bridges. The Russian didn't think Alice was familiar with environments covered in ice and snow. In the rare instances where Bunny would talk about Wonderland in the past, the pooka would always describe the land as colorful and warm. From North's limited understanding, Wonderland didn't follow any type of normal seasonal pattern. The seasons only changed when Alice willed them to.

North dropped his arms to his sides and turned to the yeti closest to him. He snapped his fingers and the creature looked up from the piece of wooden furniture he was dusting with a pink feather duster.

"Moy drug, bring me my coat and hat. I'm going out to yeti village to search for Alice."

At first the yeti just nodded his head and moved to follow North's order, but then he paused as if he had suddenly just remembered something. The yeti pulled a perplexed look on his furry face before reaching up a big arm to scratch his head. North looked at the yeti, somewhat annoyed that he was still standing there, wasting the Russian's search time.

"What is matter?" North asked, clearly agitated with his yeti. "Why do you still stand there?"

The yeti looked at his boss. "Argbalbarg."

"Chto?!" North sputtered, blue eyes wide. "Why did you not say so before!? Where is she?"

Once his worker pointed to the hallway behind them, North just shook his head and pushed past him. The yeti garbled at North's back and gave him a sharp, dismissive wave before going back to his dusting, clearly just as irked as the Christmas spirit.

Apparently, the yeti had been confused when North said he was going out to the village to look for Alice. The yeti was pretty sure he just saw a dark-haired girl in a blue dress walk past him twenty minutes ago and disappear into one of the rooms further down the hallway. Normally, North would take the time to scold the yeti for not mentioning that early (his yetis never told him anything!), but that could wait until later.

As North traveled down the hallway, a peculiar sound reached his ears. He paused for a moment and focused more closely on his surroundings. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite put a name to it, not until he moved a little closer. His bushy eyebrows furrowed tighter as he picked up his pace. Eventually, he drew close enough to the sound to realize that he was hearing music. Music from a piano to be exact, and it was then that North remembered his music room was in this hallway.

The melody that echoed and flowed through the air around him was slow, sad, and hauntingly beautiful. North quieted his thundering footsteps as he approached the music room door. The door was left cracked opened and he had to carefully push it to avoiding making it creak. Once there was enough room for him to squeeze through, North slipped inside.

He smiled fondly at the sight before him.

In the middle of the vast music room, among the many different instruments that North had in his collection, Alice sat in front of a black grand piano. Her eyes were closed in concentration as her fingers expertly moved over the black and white keys.

However, Alice's calm and peaceful expression while playing the unnamed melody wasn't the only thing that made him smile. On the floor, all around the piano, were dozens of elves. Most of them were laying on the floor, others were sitting, some were lounging on nearby instruments, and North even spotted a few up in the rafters near the ceiling.

They were all quiet and still as they listened to Alice play the piano.

Not wanting to risk breaking Alice's concentration and disrupt the serene atmosphere that her playing created among his usually hyperactive elves, North just crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. He couldn't name the melody Alice was playing and she wasn't reading from one of his music books, but whatever it was, it was beautiful and North found himself wishing that Alice would sing along. With that deep accent of hers, Alice's singing voice had to be as beautiful as her playing.

North loved to make music. He knew how to play almost all the instruments in his music room. He used to play them everyday during his earlier years as a spirit, but that was back when the human race was much smaller and before his job took over nearly every aspect of his life. Although, perhaps now that he had a potential music partner, North just might get into the habit of playing again.

Once she played the last note of the song, Alice let her hands linger on the keys while listening to the clapping of tiny elf hands all around her. She smiled as one elf bravely climbed up the leg of the piano and tried to haul himself on to the piano top. His legs kicked wildly as they dangled over the side and he struggled valiantly to pull the bottom half of his body up. At one point, the elf began thrashing with panic and nearly fell, but Alice reached out and caught him around his middle just in time before gently placing him safely on the piano. The clumsy elf slowly pulled himself to his feet and looked up at his savior like she was an angel from Heaven.

Alice smiled at him and lightly tapped his nose with her fingertip, which resulted in the elf's immediate love struck fainting. The dark-haired girl nearly laughed at the creature's silly behavior, but froze when she heard a much louder clap emanate from the front of the room, far too booming to belong to an elf. She quickly turned and spotted North near the doorway.

"Bravo!" North cheered as he walked towards the piano. "Ochen' Krasivyy! Very beautiful!"

North's bright smile widened when Alice turned away and looked down at the keys of the piano, suddenly feeling bashful. It had been awhile since she played for an audience, and even longer since someone complimented her on it.

"My elves are all very pleased with your playing, Alice," North smiled when he reached her. "So am I. Tell me, where did you learn to play like that?"

Alice bit her bottom lip in thought for a second, debating whether the Russian could handle the answer she was about to give him, before lightly shrugging one shoulder. "An octopus taught me."

"What?" North blinked with raised eyebrows, unsure if he heard her correctly. "You say an octopus taught you how to play piano?"

"Yes," Alice nodded while playing a few notes, but then stopped and raised a finger in second thought. "Well no, technically he retaught me how to play the piano. I took piano lessons from my mother and nanny when I was a child, but I was absolutely horrid at it. Eventually, they gave up and I went a very long time without playing one again. Not that I really cared though, mind you."

"Of course," He smiled.

"Piano lessons weren't exactly my favorite as a child," She admitted, all the while never losing the note of nonchalance in her voice. "However, once I retreated into my Wonderland, I found myself with a substantial amount of extra time to spare and nothing engaging to fill it with."

"Uh...huh," North drawled slowly as he furrowed his eyebrows tighter and pursed his lips, trying to process. "An octopus, you say?"

Alice nodded her head again while she let her dark hair fall over her shoulder, acting as a curtain to hide her amused smirk at North's thoroughly perplexed expression. "Oh yes, and he is quite good at it. At first, I was a bit skeptical about his unmentioned talent due to the fact that he is a hopelessalcoholic with a thick Irish brogue and a bad attitude, but he did manage to prove me wrong."

"Does this octopus have a name?" North asked with a growing smile of his own. He didn't think Alice was telling him lies, but he certainly felt like she was stringing him along in some way, especially when he caught her smirk.

"I address him as Mr. Octopus, but other Barrelbottom dwellers call him the Playwright Octopus, or simply just, the Writer."

"Oh! So he writes plays too, does he?"

She looked up from the piano keys towards the Russian leaning against the piano. "The skepticism in your voice has been noted, Mr. North, and I can't say I blame you for not believing me considering ideas like an alcoholic, piano-playing, playwright, Irish octopus does sound a bit far-fetched, but I can assure you, I speak the truth. Just ask Bunny, he's met Mr. Octopus before."

North laughed loudly and shook his head. "No, no, I believe, Alice. Believe or not, an alcoholic playwright octopus isn't the strangest thing I've heard in my long lifetime. Although, it's definitely one of the top five!"

Alice couldn't help but smile softly at the way North laughed. It was an action that the Russian seemed to throw his entire body into, even if it was only a chuckle. He would throw back his head in joyful abandonment while his shoulders and rotund belly bounced along. His sky blue eyes sparkling with something akin to childish glee. She found herself envying him for it. Oh how she wished she could be as optimistic and cheerful all the time like North, or even the Tooth Fairy for that matter. They radiated joy and happiness like the blinding sun, causing creatures like Alice to flinch and cover their eyes in the guardians' wake.

As North's laugh gradually died down, Alice looked down at the piano keys again and absently tapped out a few notes. When the room grew silent again, North crossed his arms over his chest and watched her. From where he was standing, he could only see the profile of her face and not even fully that; her dark hair covered most of her face.

"So, my yeti tells me that you and Jack had a bit of a spat in the kitchens this morning," North said after lightly clearing his throat. "You know, I don't usually tolerate such behavior in my workshop, especially with Christmas right around corner."

His words had only been a light, teasing scold. He wasn't really upset with her. North sometimes used the same tone with Jack whenever the Winter spirit annoyed a working yeti, or accidentally knocked over a pyramid of toy robots. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, but Alice did so anyways.

She looked up at him as if that thought had never occurred to her, and immediately apologized. "I'm sorry."

North blinked at her. "What for?"

"For not taking in consideration the type of atmosphere you wish to maintain in your home," Alice said simply before trailing off slowly. "...and for breaking one of your nice dishes."

The Russian smiled and shook his head with amusement. Such a polite, mature young woman. He wouldn't expect anything different from a spirit born and bred in the Victorian era. "Do not worry about my dishes. The elves break them all the time. One dish is nothing, we have many spares. And I kid with you before. I'm not angry with you for breaking my home's "atmosphere", Alice. There are always fights breaking out around this time of year. The yetis are perfectionists and very serious sometimes. I always have to settle disputes and fights between my workers."

Alice nodded her head in understanding before she looked back down at the piano.

"What was fight about?"

"Nothing worth going into. Just a bit of a misunderstanding."

"On whose part?"

"Both, I suppose," Alice sighed, not thinking for a second that Jack deserved all the blame. She shouldn't have allowed her temper to flare so spontaneously. It never did her any good. "My misunderstanding because I sometimes forget that I'm not dealing with Wonderlanders anymore."

"Are Wonderlanders difficult to deal with?"

Alice barely held back a scoff before she turned to face her companion better, suddenly growing serious. "Extremely difficult. You see Mr. North, my creations aren't as harmless as Carroll's books may lead everyone to believe. They can be quite unstable and dangerous. Just because I am their creator, doesn't mean they are loyal. They have their own drives and their own agendas, and more often than not, they will do anything to insure their needs are met, even if that includes attacking me."

"If Wonderland is so dangerous, than why did you spend so many years inside it?" North asked as he stroked his beard in thought.

"Because despite the unpleasantness of it all, it is still my world. My creation. It is my responsibility to look after it. My creations can be dangerous, even more so if I were to leave all the lands unsupervised," Alice explained. Her voice maintaining its curt and matter-of-factly tone.

North leaned the upper half of his body over the piano top and crossed his arms over its glossy surface, falling fully into a conversation with the girl sitting on the piano bench. "But you are here with us. Who is watching over Wonderland?"

"The Cheshire Cat," She said with a slight cynical tone to her voice. "He's my eyes and ears. Though he can hardly be seen as helpful a large majority of the time. All he does is string me along with riddles and cryptic nonsense. It's absolutely infuriating sometimes."

"Yes, the grinning cat," North mused to himself as he tried to recall what little he knew about the Alice in Wonderland books. "He's a character from the books, nyet? He sounds familiar but I am not certain, I've never read books."

"Neither have I," She sighed as she continued to idly tap out another tune on the piano. Unlike the first song she played, the new rhythm was more upbeat and playful, something a child would enjoy dancing to...or a few dozen elves.

North chuckled in disbelief at Alice's confession. "You haven't? Why not? They're your books."

Alice barely stifled a groan as she gave him an exasperated sigh. "They are hardly my books, Mr. North. I didn't write them."

"But you inspired writer to write them."

"No, old White Chapel gossip and Billingsgate folklore inspired the writer. Not me."

"Well, gossip and folklore had to come from somewhere."

Alice let out yet another exasperated sigh before shaking her head at North. "I'm starting to believe Bunny was right. You truly do like having the last word, don't you?"

North just smiled big at her and shrugged his shoulders. He held up his large hand and made a 'little bit' gesture with his thumb and pointer finger. When Alice rolled her eyes, he broke out into another fit of laughter. She didn't laugh along, but she couldn't keep herself from smiling for a split second. As she waited for North's laughter to die out again, she lowered her head so her dark hair framed her face again.

Since North had made it obvious that he wasn't upset about her momentary lapse in judgment, Alice's mood darkened as she wondered what his true reason for seeking her out was. She already had a theory.

"So," Alice started while changing the piano's tune again to something a little more neutral sounding. North was beginning to believe he could accurately guess Alice's change in moods by listening to the songs she played. He made a note to listen more closely. "If you're not here to scold me for breaking one of your dishes over Jack Frost's head, then I can only assume you're here to speak with me about last night's incident."

"That's not entirely why, but I would like quick word with you 'bout that."

"Well go on, I'm listening," Alice said, waiting for the lecture to begin.

"While you were using our Spirit of Winter for target practice, I spoke with other guardians 'bout last night and I want you to know, we are willing to let whole night terror situation go. Wipe slate clean," North said while sweeping the air with both hands to better emphasize his words.

She looked up at him in surprise. "You are?"

"Yes," He nodded before his face grew stern and he bent over until he was eye level with her. "But only if, you can look me in eye and tell me that there is absolutely nothing to worry about and night terror was nothing more than very bad dream." His voice was low with a deep rumble while he pointed to one of his eyes with his finger, waiting for Alice to respond.

Seeing that he was being completely serious, Alice took a moment to truly think over what she was about to say. Yes, she told Bunny repeatedly that the night terror was nothing except an unfortunate sleep affliction brought on by stress, but did she really believe that herself? She didn't know. If only she could just remember what happened while she was asleep. If she did remember, then a lot of unanswered questions would be answered, but no, she couldn't recall anything between falling asleep and waking up.

It had to be just a simple episode. What else would it be? Alice used to have nightmares all the time when she was human, very vivid ones that only stopped when she left the human world for her Wonderland. So of course, it made sense that stress mixed with the re-entry into her birth world would cause such an alarming reaction in her. And even if she believed the night terror meant something more, what could she do about it? She had no memory.

So no, Alice wasn't one hundred percent certain that her night terror meant nothing, but she knew that if it did turn out to mean something, she could handle it on her own just fine.

Alice Liddell didn't need to be saved. The only person who could save her, was Alice. She's been doing it for nearly two centuries. She was skilled in battle and had finely tuned wits, she could take care of herself.

"Honestly, I don't really know if the night terror means something or not," She finally said, not bothering to lie because it really wasn't worth the trouble. "But if it ever does turn out to be something more, I promise I'll come straight to you."

As she said that, Alice made sure to look North straight in the eye so there wouldn't be any misconceptions later on. The Russian didn't respond back right away like she expected him to. He regarded her closely for several seconds with his suddenly diamond hard, blue eyes. If any other spirit found themselves under such a gaze, they would've no doubt folded under the tension. But as it were, North was staring down Alice and she didn't so much as flinch as she stared straight back at him with her own piercing, emerald gaze.

North couldn't decide if the girl was telling him the truth, or if she was one of the greatest liars he had ever met.

The more optimistic side of him decided to trust the former. Something in him doubted that if Alice had a problem, he would be the one she would turn to. She would go to Bunny and nobody else, and that would just have to do for now.

However, the Russian hoped one day, he would be able to gain enough trust from the girl to where she would know she could go to him for help if she absolutely needed it.

North gave a satisfied nod. "Good, I hope you do. We are team, Alice, and this is what teams do. We help each other."

"I don't recall joining any team, Mr. North," Alice said as she went back to tapping at the piano keys.

North barely held back an exasperated laugh as he shook his head. "What is with young spirits these days?" He asked more to himself than Alice. "Always so quick to refuse destiny. Tell me, Alice, why do you think Man in Moon made mistake?"

"Well, for one thing, I'm not a very adequate protector. How can I be a guardian of all the children of the world when I can barely look after myself?" She asked, rhetorically of course, but North was just probably going to ignore that.

"What about your creations?" He offered up. "Do you not protect them when they need help, regardless if they deserve it or not? I think you do. And if you can protect malicious creatures that don't respect you, then you can certainly protect innocent children that adore you."

Alice blinked at the Russian before a mildly irritated expression crossed her face. She wasn't in the mood to debate.

"Alright, then," She responded tautly. "What about the holidays? And the jobs? You all have a job to do. A job that brings joy and faith to the children. I have no such job."

"Neither does Jack," North pointed out with a smile, unaffected by Alice's growing irritation.

"He's the bringer of Winter, is he not? That's a job."

"That's more of his nature than his job. Unlike you and I, or any of the others, Jack is elemental spirit. Elemental spirits tend to...how should I put this?" His brow furrowed and his fingers flexed rhythmically in thought as he tried to think of the right words. "Dance to own tune?"

When Alice nodded her head in understanding, North smiled brighter and continued. "They have their own unique system. And besides, we do these jobs because like you said, it brings joy to children and keeps their belief in us alive. Not because it's requirement for being guardian. It's just who we are."

After having her argument so effortlessly rebuffed, yet again, Alice crossed her arms tightly across her chest. "Well then, how about the fact that I don't even like children? Surely that most be a requirement for being a guardian! I used to work in an orphanage as a maid when I was human and I was horrible at it. There were only ever a dozen child there at one time, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like with thousands upon thousands of them."

Of course North already knew that had to be a lie. Alice couldn't hate children as much as she wanted him to believe.

It had taken him awhile, but North had finally taken the time to pull apart pieces of his memory until he remembered everything he could about Alice's human years. He even brought up some old Christmas lists from the workshop archives to help. There wasn't much he knew about Alice past the age of seven for obvious reasons, but he was able to recall a few things about some of the more behaved children that were housed in the orphanage Alice spoke about. The orphanage was located in the East End of London where most of the orphans were born and bred, so unfortunately, not a lot of them were nice enough to secure a spot on North's Nice list. Although, North didn't expect any different. Children raised in such poor and nasty environments were usually the same way in nature and morality code.

But there were a few children. A few children that thought very highly of Alice. The girl couldn't fool Father Christmas when it came to children, not for a second. He knew how hard she tried to care for the orphans with what little they were given to live off of. He knew from the orphans' Christmas lists about the colorful and bright stories she told them to help keep their spirits up and minds off the dull and dismal lives they led in reality. How she would sometimes go days without eating so one of the children wouldn't have to.

No, Alice didn't hate children. And she wasn't nearly as mean and cold-hearted as she liked to pretend either.

It was like Bunny once told him; Alice didn't like it when she didn't have control. It reminded her too much of the dark years in her life. So when faced with a situation she couldn't control, Alice would either; fight furiously for some small amount of control, or shut down completely and refuse to deal with things altogether. And unfortunately, that was what this whole new guardian choosing thing was - a situation she couldn't control.

"You could be happy with us," North coaxed gently. "You can be part of our family."

Alice just stared off into the distance, looking at something North couldn't see.

"Perhaps I'm just one of those people who are not meant to be happy," She finally murmured to herself quietly as if she truly believed her ludicrous statement and had come to terms with it a long time ago. But despite her hardened disposition, she couldn't completely hold back an instinctive flinch at the word "family".

Immediately, North's eyebrows furrowed together as a stern, almost angry, expression overtook his aged face. Without warning, he slammed his fist down hard on the piano top. Alice jumped at the loud bang it produced. The hollow sound echoed throughout the room and caused the groupings of elves around them to scatter.

North kept his fist on the piano top as he stared fiercely determined at Alice while she just stared back at him with wide eyes and an incredulous expression.

"Nyet!" North stressed in a low, deep tone. "This I do not accept."

After a long silence of Alice looking at him with surprise and curiosity by his sudden outburst, North let out a heavy sigh and slowly unclenched his fingers before gently resting his open palm on the piano. He knew he didn't scare or upset Alice with his actions, but North never did like raising his voice, even if it was to get his point across. He just wanted to make sure Alice knew she wasn't alone and that she didn't need to seclude herself because she thought she didn't deserve happiness. North wouldn't allow such thoughts in his presence.

"Alice, you need to stop over thinking so much," North said as he pushed himself away from the piano. "All you should focus on is finding your center. Once you do that, all your doubts will disappear and you will be ready to take Guardian Oath."

"My center?" Alice echoed skeptically.

"Yes, your center!" North proclaimed proudly. "Surely Bunny has told you about guardian centers!" When Alice shook her head, North's jaw dropped. "He hasn't? What has that lazy pooka been doing every time he visits Wonderland?"

At his newfound knowledge, North just shook his head, tsking loudly.

"Was Bunny suppose to give me a talk?" Alice asked, confused as to why anyone would leave that type of responsibility to Bunny. "I'm afraid he's not terribly good with that sort of thing."

"Tell me about it," North mumbled before clapping his hands together and rubbing them enthusiastically. "No matter, I give Center talk better anyways!"

~O~

After about twenty minutes of one-sided, enthusiastic talk about the guardians' centers (and regurgitated information about their life purposes that Alice already heard during the speech North gave at dinner her first night in the real world), the talkative Christmas spirit decided to leave Alice to her thoughts once again.

She remained seated on the piano bench long after North had taken his leave. She sat there unmoving with her fingers still resting gently on the keys as she thought about everything North had said to her. His speech about the other guardians and their centers had been nothing short of passionate. It had been fascinating for Alice to watch the Russian drone on and on about that single word that seemed to sum up a spirit's entire being in three syllables or less.

Hope, wonder, memories, dreams, and fun. Those were their centers. Such simple ideas that held so much meaning behind them. North went on to tell her how centers helped define and mold each spirit into the guardian they were today, and how finding her center was the only thing Alice needed to do in order to prepare herself to become part of North's team.

'Just find center, Alice! That's all there is to it!'

He made it sound so easy.

How was Alice supposed to figure out that one word? People weren't defined by just one word. That was impossible. How can North so easily expect the impossible from her? He couldn't. Simple as that. People were far more complicated than that, especially her. Alice had no center because she wasn't a guardian. Why couldn't those thick-headed, overly optimistic spirits see that? It couldn't be that hard. Surely her unpleasant and rude behavior should've told them that already.

Regardless though, Alice decided to push aside North's words for the moment. The guardians would figure out the Man in the Moon's mistake soon enough. She didn't need to dwell on pointless matters. They would inevitably drive her more insane if she did.

What was really rattling Alice's brain was the last thing North said to her. The thing he so casually said over his shoulder as he navigated through the elf-covered floor and strolled out of the music room.

He asked her if she could be nicer to Frost, that the Winter spirit wasn't really as bad as she thought he was. And if that wasn't ridiculous enough, North also said he wanted them to be friends.

Just to appease the friendly mountain of a man, Alice off-handedly said she would try, not even bothering to hide the fact she was lying. North picked up on it, obviously, but he didn't call her bluff. Instead, as he walked towards the door, taking care not to step on any elves, he simply just said, "It would do this old man's heart wonders if I could see our two youngest spirits get along, but if you don't think you can, I suppose that would be alright too."

'if you don't think you can...'

It was obviously a baiting statement, and a horribly unsubtle one at that, which Alice could only imagine was North's intention. It was a bad attempt at reverse psychology.

But it wasn't just that. It wasn't just bait; it was a challenge.

Despite his nonchalance and friendly tone of voice as he said it, Santa Claus just challenged Alice Liddell. A challenge to see if she could be nice to Jack Frost. Alice nearly scoffed that North thought he could manipulate her into being nice. She didn't need to be tricked into being nice. She was perfectly capable of being nice when she wanted to be. She didn't need help.

Alice could be nice, couldn't she? Surely out of all of the stuff she couldn't do, being nice and kind wasn't one of them. Flying, breathing under water, speaking Japanese, sitting through one of Carpenter's god awful plays, were all stuff she couldn't do. Being nice is more than possible for her. She could do it.

Suddenly feeling a burst of determination, the dark-haired woman stood from the piano bench and placed her hands on her hips.

"Challenged accepted, Mr. North," Alice said out loud even though she, and a few dozen elves, were the only ones in the room. "I can be nice to that annoying, frozen gnat, easily. Don't you think so?" She asked the tiny elves surrounding the piano. They shook their heads enthusiastically, but Alice doubted they actually understood who and what she was referring to. They were just agreeing to agree with her.

Ignoring them, Alice politely replaced the white sheet that acted as a dust cover, over the piano and smoothed out the wrinkles. When that was done, she left the music room with the elves in tow and closed the door behind her.

~O~

When Jack landed on the small balcony that led into his rarely used room in Santoff Claussen, the first thing he did was pull the two newspaper articles from his hoodie pocket and tossed them on the small, wooden desk in the corner of his room. Once the two pieces of paper were off his person, Jack walked over to the room's plush bed and flopped down on it like a sack of rocks. With his face buried into the soft fabric of the bed's comforter, the Winter spirit let out a loud, muffled groan. His staff slipped from his pale fingers and fell to the ground with a soft clank.

He turned on to his side and curled into a ball before closing his azure eyes. He could really go for a few hours of sleep, but not because he was tired. Sleeping was just a way to help Jack not think for awhile, and not thinking sounded like heaven to him at the moment.

Unfortunately though, just as he started to nod off, a soft knock on his door pulled Jack from the comforting embrace of sleep. He groaned again before forcing his body into a sitting position, facing the door. Another set of knocks sounded again, this time a little harder.

"Alright, alright. Come in," Jack yawned while rubbing his eye. He didn't really care who was on the other side of his door. He just wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible, especially if it was North or Phil, coming to check up on him.

He was still rubbing the fog from his eyes when the door opened, revealing neither North or his yeti. After only catching a brief glimpse of a familiar blue dress and striped stockings, the ice spirit immediately shot up from the bed and on to his feet.

Unlike Jack's suddenly jarred state, Alice looked as calm as ever. She stood in the doorway of his room with her arms held neatly behind her back and her face completely indifferent. "Evening, Frost."

"What do you want?" He asked, confused. He blinked widely a couple times just to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, that Alice was really standing in front of him, looking neutral and almost content no less. When thinking about the girl on his way back to the Pole, Jack convinced himself that Alice wouldn't want anything to do with him. He convinced himself that if he wanted to patch things up, he would have to be the one to reach out.

This girl was just full of surprises, wasn't she?

Alice blinked at the ice spirit, slightly put-off by his question and refusal to acknowledge her greeting, but she forced her irritation to the back of her mind. "Right, straight to the point I see. Well, I just came here to see if you were alright."

"You did?"

The girl only nodded before forcing the smile her face to be as authentic as possible.

Jack stared blankly at Alice for several seconds before slowly narrowing his eyes in suspicion. He could tell right away that her smile was fake, but that wasn't really what confused him. What confused him was the fact that she was actually smiling. Regardless if it was real or not. The whole idea rubbed Jack the wrong way and it made him on edge. Why was she suddenly little miss sunshine?

"Why?" Jack asked, suspicion evident in his voice.

"Because my behavior earlier was boorish and rude," She replied strictly before letting her gaze fall away from his for a moment. "...and I came to apologize."

"Apologize?" Jack echoed in disbelief as he crossed his arms. "Alright, that's too weird. What's your angle?"

"My what?" She asked genuinely confused by his words.

Jack almost rolled his eyes at himself. After being secluded from the world for over a century, of course Alice wouldn't know what that expression meant. "I mean, why are you suddenly being all nice?"

"Does one really need to have a reason to act a certain way?"

"Well, when they're acting the complete opposite of how they usually act, yes. Now why are you really here? Did North make you come apologize to me?"

At being doubted about being nice yet again, Alice crossed her arms tightly under her chest and ignored the urge to stomp her foot in frustration. First North, now Frost? Did she truly come across so jaded? "No, he didn't. Nobody can make me do anything. Is it honestly that hard for people to believe I can be nice? That I came to apologize of my own free will?"

"Yeah," Jack deadpanned before narrowing his eyes. "And stop answering my question with a question. It's annoying."

"I already answered your question," Alice said while stepping further into the room and closing the door behind her. "I came to apologize and see if you were alright. Despite what you may obviously think, I'm perfectly capable of being kind and pleasant when I want to be."

Jack nearly scoffed at that, but forced it back just in case he accidentally inflamed Alice's rage again and she decided to throw something at him again. Something heavier than a plate. "You? Pleasant? Yeah, that'd be a sight to se-"

The winter spirit's taunt died on his lips when something clicked in the forefront of his mind and he suddenly remembered everything that happened during his visit to Burgess. Dread pooled in Jack's stomach as his eyes swiftly trailed over to the desk in the corner of the room and the two, crumbled up pieces of paper on top of it. Immediately, Jack's joints locked up and he became as stiff as a statue. He couldn't let Alice find out about what he had done, about what he now knew about her and her past. Not until he figured out a good way to tell her that wouldn't end in his untimely death.

Alice noticed the sudden change in his demeanor. "Is something wrong?"

Jack blinked out of his stupor and shook the sense back into his head. He forced his body to relax again before he slowly started inching closer to the desk, desperately trying to mask his guilt while acting as casual as possible.

"What? Oh, nothing. I just uh, lost my train of thought for a second," Jack said while swinging his arms back and forth with false nonchalance as he drew closer to the desk, still under Alice's watchful gaze. Once he reached it, he stood strategically in front of it with one hand placed protectively over the papers, trying to make it look like he was just leisurely leaning against the wooden desk with one arm.

"I was hoping I could speak with you for a moment," Alice spoke up, deciding to ignore the boy's weird behavior. "About the conversation we had in North's workshop yesterday."

"Uh huh, yeah, go on," Jack replied absentmindedly while giving a fleeting glance over his shoulder to make sure his hand covered the pictures on papers. He didn't mean to sound so dismissive and uncaring about what Alice was saying, he was just trying to act natural (and most likely doing a horrible job of it). When he looked back at Alice, her face was passive, but he could see dejection in her eyes.

"Are you still cross with me, Mr. Frost?" Alice asked, looking genuinely upset. The Winter spirit didn't seem like the type to hold a grudge, but then again, Alice was starting to believe maybe she didn't know as much about Jack as she initially thought. When he failed to reassure her that he wasn't still angry about the kitchen incident, (which he wasn't, he was just too nervous to think of something to say) Alice assumed he was. "Oh you are, aren't you? I truly am sorry for my behavior earlier. I shouldn't have thrown that plate at you, but you must understand, sometimes things just fly out of my mouth...or in this case, my hands, before I even realize what's happening."

Jack just kept nodding his head as Alice talked, still trying to act aloof, and he was starting to realize that maybe he was trying a little too hard. He needed to tone down the nonchalance before Alice grew suspicious.

However, his realization came a bit too late. It didn't take long for Alice to notice how stiffly Jack was standing and how protectively he had his hand on top of the papers on the desk of his room. It was almost comical how Alice didn't take notice earlier.

With her curiosity piqued, Alice's folded arms fell to her sides and she cocked her head to the side. Jack wanted to stomp on his own foot when his mind made an involuntary comment about how cute the dark-haired girl looked when she did that. Puppy dog cute, of course. Not attractive cute...

"What is that?" She asked, a small, inquisitive smile making its way on to her face.

"What is what?" Jack responded back a little too fast.

"That. Those papers behind you," Alice pointed behind him while taking a step closer. "Why are you holding them like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're trying to hide them," She said as she observed Jack's shady behavior. She looked at him, then at the papers, and then back at him again before she gave him a scrutinizing look with a gleam of amusement in her eyes and a devious smirk that made Jack swallow helplessly. "Why Mr. Frost, you're not hiding anything naughty, are you?"

"Of course not!" Jack shouted indignantly after gapping like an idiot.

Blushing a deep, purplish-red, the mortified Winter spirit prayed to MiM that Alice wouldn't elaborate on what she considered "naughty". Although yes, in a manner of speaking, Jack was in possession of something he shouldn't be, but it certainly wasn't what she probably thought it was.

"Alright, whatever you say, Frost," Alice said coyly, holding her hands up in surrender before turning away from him, strolling over to look at the small collection of books Jack had on a nearby shelf. He watched her for a moment while her slender fingers lightly traced over the spines and titles of the books before relaxing his tense muscles. She seemed to have lost interest in his secretive papers, obviously thinking it was something embarrassing on Jack's part.

Well, at least she didn't suspect the papers were about her.

'Oh yeah, because having Alice believe I'm a huge perv is SO much better,' Jack thought miserably as he quickly collected up the offending papers and shoved them into the desk drawer. He slammed the drawer shut before walking over to his crooked staff and picked it up off the floor. Once he had his fingers curled around the aged wood, Jack stood back up and leaned against his staff. His nerves gradually mellowing themselves out while the violent blush across his face faded away.

"So," Jack cleared his throat while scratching the back of his head. "What were you saying earlier about some conversation we had?"

"The one we had in North's workshop, right before I retired to my room for the night," She reminded him as she pulled one of the books from the shelf and idly flipped through it. "The one about that little girl's birthday."

"You mean Sophie?" Jack asked, completely thrown for a loop for the second time in the past ten minutes. Before she had knocked on his door, Jack planned to seek out Alice so he could ask her if she was still willing to do him that favor, but again, she beat him to it.

"Yes, that's the one."

Sophie! That was her name. Alice nearly ran her mind raw trying to remember the name Jack had used yesterday, but it evaded her until now.

"I remember," Jack replied, shrugging his shoulders. "What about it?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you still wanted me to meet her. I wasn't sure after what happened between us this morning."

"Yeah, of course I still want you to meet her," Jack smiled, mood instantly lifted.

Wow, facing Alice again turned out to be way easier than he thought it would be. He didn't know why she was suddenly being nice to him (guilt maybe? He doubted it), but Jack figured he should just enjoy it before he inevitably did something to change her mind.

"Fantastic," Alice smiled back, trying extremely hard not to come off as sarcastic. It wasn't meeting the little girl that had her feeling less than ecstatic about this whole situation. It was the fact that Jack would have to take Alice to a mortally populated area to meet the little girl, that had her slightly on edge. She would like to think she could handle being out in the world again, but she wasn't entirely sure she could.

And not mention what Bunny would think about it. They would obviously have to either lie to the paranoid pooka, or avoid him altogether. Not that she had any serious qualms about deceiving her oldest friend, she had done it dozens of times in the past already. He'd get over it, eventually.

"When is her birthday?" Alice asked while replacing the book back on the shelf for another one.

"Tomorrow," Jack replied, before adding, "The day before Halloween."

"Halloween?" Alice echoed curiously, looking up from the new book's pages. "What is that?"

Jack blinked at her for a second, not believing that she didn't know what Halloween was until a thought crossed his mind. "Oh right, sorry. You probably only know the holiday by its older name. I meant All Hallows Eve."

"Oh yes, that Pagan holiday," Alice said, the older name ringing a bell in her head. "I've never personally celebrated it, but my father used to speak about it occasionally when I was a child."

Feeling the desire to sleep again, Jack just nodded his head in response as he rubbed his eye with the palm of his pale hand. Alice noticed his fatigue and decided it was time for her to take her leave.

"Alright, Frost," She turned towards the shelf again and put back the book she took. "I'll leave you to your devices. Tomorrow, whenever you think it's a good time to leave for your sleepy little town, knock on my door and we'll go."

"Okay," Jack mumbled with a stifled yawn, but then froze when he realized he overlooked one very important detail. "Wait, what about Bunny?"

Alice gave Jack an almost devilish smirk that sent an uneasy shiver down his spine and made his stomach feel funny. "Don't you worry about him, Mr. Frost. I'll handle the pooka." And with nothing else said, Alice spun gracefully on her heel and left his room.

As soon as he heard the door click shut, Jack let out another heavy sigh before walking back over to his bed and fall face first on top of it like a frozen rag doll.

Chapter Text

Jack waited about an hour after dinner the next evening before he headed for Alice's room.

Dinner had been surprisingly uneventful that evening. Everyone, including North, had been quiet throughout the meal. Tooth and Sandy were unable to attend. They were held up by their ever-active jobs, so it was just the other three guardians, and Alice, dining that evening. North had been pleased to see Jack and Alice behaving civil towards each other while Bunny had been a little suspicious, but since it would probably be a bad idea to dig up forgotten bygones right in the middle of dinner, where there was plenty of edible ammunition for a fight, the pooka decided to let the matter go.

After dinner was over and the other three spirits dispersed from the hall to go about their own business, Jack wandered aimlessly around the workshop and among the working yetis until his internal clock told him it was about an hour before sunset in Burgess, and that now would be a good time to leave for the small town.

Just like last year, Jamie's mom would hold Sophie's birthday party in their spacious backyard sometime in the early evening where it would only last until just before sunset. Jack and Alice wouldn't be attending the event, of course. It was Sophie's party, the attention should be solely on her, and not on the two mystical spirits that would most definitely draw the attention of all her party guests. Not to mention, Jack would have to help Jamie come up with a believable excuse to tell his mom why all Sophie's friends were talking to thin air, and that was something he rather avoid.

Jack lazily strolled through the many guest room hallways of North's domain, twirling his staff in between his fingers as he made his way to Alice's room. A few passing yetis gave the pale spirit funny looks when they saw the round snowglobe in Jack's hand, being tossed high into the air and then caught again, but they were ignored. When he finally came to the hallway where Alice's room was, he stopped abruptly when a familiar Australian accent reached his ears.

Not wanting to take the chance of having an awkward run-in with the cranky pooka, Jack quietly tip-toed to the corner of the hallway, making sure to stick close to the shadows, before cautiously peeking his head out from around the corner.

At the end of the hallway, Bunny stood outside Alice's door. Alice wasn't in sight, but Jack could just faintly hear her voice. Not enough for him to be able to make out what she was saying, but enough for him to know that she was there.

"You sure you're alright?" Bunny asked in a low tone that Jack almost missed.

He felt bad for unintentionally eavesdropping on the pair, but he figured he was only doing half wrong since he could only hear Bunny's side of the conversation.

"You're actin' all skittish...I just wanna make sure before I go...okay, okay, I'm goin'...I will, don't worry."

Jack idly twisted the snowglobe in his hand as he listened to Bunny's quiet responses until he finally bid Alice a goodnight.

When he heard the cushioned footsteps of big rabbit feet moving down the hallway, and unknowingly towards the Winter spirit's hiding place, Jack's eyes widened in panic and he quickly flattened himself against the wall. He tried to make as little noise as possible so Bunny's oversensitive ears didn't pick up on his presence. For a split second he thought he was going to be spotted but luckily for him, Bunny was too busy mumbling under his breath to notice Jack as he passed right by him.

Once the gray pooka disappeared into the labyrinth of dark hallways, Jack let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding and allowed his shoulders to drop with relief. He then moved down the hallway and stopped in front of Alice's door.

After allowing himself time to collect his nerve, Jack raised a fist and knocked three times on the dark wood. Barely a moment later, he heard the muffled sound of Alice's voice calling, "Come in". Very curt and impossible to tell what kind of mood she was in.

With his hand wrapped tightly around the brass doorknob, Jack twisted it and pushed open the door.

Almost immediately, he spotted Alice sitting in front the large vanity in the corner of the room. She sat with her back completely straight while she had one leg crossed over the other. She didn't turn to greet him when his image showed itself in her mirror. Instead, she continued brushing her long dark hair with a silver hairbrush. The overhead light of the room was off, leaving one solitary lamp to bathe the room in a dim glow, making Alice's hair appear dark scarlet.

As she combed through her hair, Alice glanced up into the mirror at Jack's reflection once before looking back at her own. "Did Bunny see you in the hall?"

Jack shook his head. "No."

"Perfect," She smirked as she put down the hairbrush. "It would've tipped him off considerably otherwise."

"Did you tell him where we're going?"

"Of course not," Alice scoffed. "Could you just imagine the hissy fit he would throw? Don't mistake me for a fool, please."

"Okay, sorry," Jack apologized, holding both hands up gently in defense. "What did you tell him then?"

Alice picked up her silver Omega necklace from the vanity top and hooked it around her neck. "Simply that I am not feeling well at the moment and wish to turn in early for the evening."

"And he seriously bought that?" Jack asked dubiously, holding on to his staff with both hands and leaning against it.

"Bunny is not that difficult to get around once you know how to," Alice chided lightly. "Granted, he was skeptical at first, but all I really had to do was use the words "feminine matters" before Bunny all but dashed for the door. It would have been rather comical actually, if I wasn't so distracted."

Alice almost jumped when Jack suddenly started laughing. She looked up at him through the vanity mirror and watched as he laughed in that carefree way of his that left her feeling a bit envious.

"That's hilarious," He snickered. He always found Alice's ability to drag Bunny from his comfort zone funny, almost as funny whenever Tooth teased and hugged the pooka, leaving him flustered and tongue-tied. "Wish I could do that. I'm really running low on believable excuses to use, but I don't think it would have the same effect coming from me."

"No, I don't think so either."

She watched patiently as Jack sobered up and collected himself. He reached up a hand and ran it through his silvery white hair and Alice found her eyes following the movement, almost admiring the unique coloring of the short strands and how soft they looked, not unlike a fresh pile of fluffy snow. His bright smile was also quite dazzling, but Alice chose not to linger on that thought too long, instead choosing to distract herself by checking her eye makeup one last time before standing.

"Well," Alice breathed as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her white, red-splattered apron. "Shall we be on our way then?"

"Oh yeah, sure," Jack agreed before taking his weight off his staff. "Do you have a coat you can wear? It might be a little cold where we're going."

In lieu of a response, Alice walked over to the nearby wardrobe and opened it, scanning its contents. "I think there might be one in here I can wear. Strangely enough, a lot of these clothes are my size."

"Hmm," Jack hummed absentmindedly as he scratched his cheek and watched Alice pull out something from the wardrobe; a black pea coat with silver buttons.

Alice held the coat out in front of her for a quick examination, noting that it resembled her old red coat she use to wear in London, but in much better condition. She slipped into it and buttoned it up before tying the cloth belt tight around her narrow waist.

Jack had been lazily trailing his eyes around Alice's guest room, waiting for her to finishing getting ready, when he looked back at her and nearly did a double take. With the black coat now covering up her strange fashion sense, Alice looked completely human. Human enough for her to be able to walk down a busy sidewalk and not be looked twice at by anyone. The coat stopped a few inches above Alice's knees, covering up her blue dress entirely and leaving the white stripes of her stockings as the only color on her. The coat wasn't unflattering. It was slimming and accented her slender figure beautifully.

Jack didn't even realize he was staring until Alice broke his gaze by walking over to the balcony doors and unlocking them.

"Is that orb in your hand one of those teleporting snowglobes of North's?" She asked, pointing to the round object at Jack's side.

Jack looked down at it and the tiny image of Burgess floating within it. "Uh yeah, how did you...?"

"Bunny mentioned them a few times during his visits," Alice waved a hand dismissively. "Is that what we'll be using?"

Jack nodded his head. "I figured it would be much faster and less awkward than flying because then I would have to carry you and that would be kinda..."

"Yes it would," Alice agreed. "No matter. A portal will do just fine, but just as a precaution, I would prefer if we used it out on the balcony. I'm working on a little project over there on the desk and I don't want any loose papers to escape."

"Project?" Jack perked up in curiosity, his azure gaze focusing in on the scattered pile of papers on the nearby desk. He had only managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a few sketches, that looked suspiciously like the workshop area of North's domain, before Alice stepped directly in his view, blocking it.

"I don't think so, Mr. Frost," Alice smirked lightly, crossing her arms under her chest. "If I can't see your mysterious papers, than you can't see mine. It's only fair."

"Oh," Jack frowned, feeling dread pool in the pit of his stomach at the mentioning of the God forsaken newspaper articles that were still hidden away in his room. "Could you at least tell me what they are? Seriously, I don't do good when it comes to secrets. It'll drive me crazy for days until I eventually become desperate enough to break into your room and find out myself."

Alice cocked a slim eyebrow at him and put her hands on her hips. "You'd allow yourself to sink down to a level suitable only for a rat just to satisfy your need to know about something that isn't even any of your business?"

Jack blinked at her a few times before responding with, "Uh yeah, pretty much." When he received an unimpressed look in return, the Winter spirit just shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, at least I'm honest about myself."

Alice held her sharp gaze for a little longer before sighing. "Well, if you must know, they're sketches."

"Of what?"

"Possible ideas for new sections of Wonderland."

"You have to make blue prints for that?"

"I'll have you know, Mr. Frost, a lot of planning goes into making new sections. A lot," Alice huffed as she crossed her arms again.

"Really?" Jack asked, scratching his head. "Can't you just-" He held up his free hand and wiggled his fingers mystically for emphasis. "-imagine them up, or something?"

Alice scoffed at the idea. "Hardly. Things can never be that simple when it comes to Wonderland."

"Have you ever tried?"

Alice paused. It only lasted seconds but Jack caught it anyways. "Well...no, not yet. I've been a little preoccupied with other matters."

"Then how do you know?" Jack asked, pushing forward.

"I just do," Alice said tautly, ending the conversation with a sharp swipe with no real malice in her voice as she stepped out on to the balcony. "I really think we should be going now, don't you? I would imagine children still have bedtimes in this day and age."

Jack tried to keep the disappointment from his face as he only nodded and followed her outside. It seemed like every time he was just starting to get somewhere with the mysterious, dark-haired spirit, she shot him out of the air and watched as he crashed and burned.

Jack wished he could understand Alice better. He felt incredibly guilty about poking around in her past, even more so when he discovered the tragedy behind it, and he knew the only way he could help ease that guilt without actually telling her what he had done, was to listen to her side of the story. Of course, he didn't expect her to trust him enough to confide in him about something so personal so soon, if ever, but it couldn't hurt to try. He didn't want secondhand information anywhere, he wanted to hear it straight from Alice, no matter how unpleasant the conversation might be.

"Let's do this," Jack said determinedly after taking a deep breath.

He already had the snowglobe in his hand set to open up a portal to Burgess, but just out of habit, he gave the round object a few shakes before throwing it to the ground. As soon as it impacted, a swirling portal of lights and colors emanated from where the globe hit. Jack looked at Alice for her reaction, but she seemed surprisingly unimpressed by the iridescent rip in time and space.

Jack held out a hand for Alice to grab for support, knowing from experience that a trip through this particular type of portal, could leave someone's head a jumbled mess if they weren't used to it. "Ladies first?"

Alice ignored his offered hand and stepped past him. She entered the portal, leaving Jack standing alone on her balcony until he dropped his hand and followed behind her, the portal closing as soon as he stepped all the way through.

~O~

Jack had set the snowglobe portal to open up on the outskirts of the small, suburban town of Burgess. He wanted to kill some time before visiting Jamie and Sophie by walking around town. He also wanted to give Alice some time to take everything in, let her to get reacquainted with the world. He didn't want to just appear right in the middle of town, though, and shove Alice into an utter maelstrom of lights, people, and technology a century ahead of the time period she left so many years ago.

So to avoid getting his head bit off or his teeth kicked in, the portal opened up just beyond the tree line of the forest that surrounded the town.

In retrospect, Jack should've known it would've been better if he went through the portal first because when he exited the portal, Alice hadn't stopped to wait for him and he was now standing alone.

No real surprise there.

"Alice?" He called out tentatively at first but when no one answered, he went a little louder. "Alice!"

Trying not to panic, Jack gathered up a large gust of wind and shot up into the air, giving him a bird's-eye view of the town and a better vantage point than the one he had standing behind a cluster of bushes.

With the familiar feel of the wind curling around his gangly limbs, carefully holding him up, the Winter spirit quickly scanned the area below. Unfortunately, it was more difficult picking Alice out from the other people walking around town and he found himself blaming the black coat she was wearing, and the fully set sun. He moved further into town after he didn't see her along the tree line, all the while gnawing on his bottom lip with growing apprehension. While he searched, Jack couldn't help but wonder how on earth he managed to lose Alice so fast. It was like he blinked and she was gone!

Bunny was so going to kill him if he didn't find her.

Luckily though, just when Jack was about to fall into a total panic after picturing all the ways Bunny could hurt him for losing Alice in a highly populated area, his heart jumped in relief when he finally caught sight of her standing by a small fountain in the middle of town. He didn't waste anymore time floating about in the air. As graceful as he could, he dived down towards solid earth again, aiming to land right next to Alice.

"There you are!" Jack exclaimed once his feet touched rough pavement. Alice didn't even turn to look at him as she reached out a small hand and ran it under the cold water of the gushing fountain. Jack saw this and it only made him even more agitated than before. "You can't just go running off like that. I nearly had a heart attack! Do you have any idea how much pain Bunny would inflict on me if you got hurt?"

Alice stopped in her curious observations of the brightly glowing fountain lights and fixed the pale spirit with a sharp, acidic glare. She did not appreciate being scolded like a child.

"I'm not some damsel who needs be protected," She nearly hissed at him. "Remember, it was you who asked me to come here."

"Yeah, I know. I just wanna make sure nothing happens to y-"

Jack's words withered and died on his lips when Alice moved closer to him until there was barely two inches between them and growled, "I can take care of myself."

And with nothing else, Alice whipped back around and walked away from him with sharp strides, leaving Jack to follow slowly behind her like a kicked puppy, mumbling under his breath. "Whatever you say, ice queen."

If Alice had heard the comment, she didn't do anything about it. She just went back to exploring the things around her, taking in all the strange lights and sounds. There was so much to take in, but being as determined as ever, she cataloged everything she could, only stopping on one thing for about five seconds before moving on to the next interesting thing that caught her eye. Jack trailed a few feet behind her, twirling his staff between his fingers while watching her reintroduce herself to the real world. She seemed to be taking in everything surprisingly well for someone who's been locked away in a world of her own creation for over a century. Jack had to admire her for that.

For the most part, the pair walked along the edges of sidewalks and away from the townsfolk. It wasn't until they reached a long row of mom-and-pop type stores, that Alice unknowingly ventured towards the middle of the walkway. She became too distracted by the streetlights overhead, with various Halloween decorations hanging from them, to notice that she stepped into the direct path of a group of chatting teenagers. They, of course, didn't see Alice standing in the middle of the sidewalk, but Jack did.

"Hey," He called out to the dark-haired girl. "You might wanna look out. Those kids are going to walk right through-"

He was only seconds too late.

Before Jack could finish his sentence, the oblivious teens walked right through Alice like she was nothing but a cloud of mist as they continued on their merry way. He cringed at the sight, having felt that terrible sensation of being walked through so many times before. It was a very hollowing, unpleasant feeling, like someone walking over your grave, or something extremely frightening standing behind you, breathing down your neck.

Alice stopped in her tracks and looked after the group of teens as they walked away. Jack held his breath, preparing himself for some sort of reaction from her, but only to be shocked to his core when there wasn't one. All she did was look after them for a few seconds, taking note of the strange beeping devices in their hands, before moving along the sidewalk again like nothing had happened. Jack watched in complete awe as she went on her way, not even flinching when more people walked through her. He couldn't even comprehend how she was able to so easily brush off something that used to absolutely torture Jack. So many times had it physically hurt when someone walked through him, causing him to curl further into himself in rejection.

And then there Alice was, walking down the sidewalk, ignoring the people passing through her as if it nothing was amiss. The people around her were just as invisible to her, as she was to them.

Jack stared after her for about another ten seconds before he shook himself out of his stupor and ran to catch up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," He chanted after he managed to fall in step next to Alice. "What was that? How did you do that?!"

Alice pulled her gaze away from a nearby bakery with dozens of beautifully decorated cakes and pies in the window, and looked at the pale spirit walking beside her. "Do what?"

"That!" Jack gestured sharply behind them towards the group of teenagers. "They walked right through you! Like you don't even exist! How can you just keep walking like it doesn't bother you?"

"Because it doesn't," She said after a long pause.

She gave him an odd look before moving on again, still radiating a strong sense of nonchalance that made Jack's head spin. She didn't get far before Jack came up behind her again.

He tried to speak to her, tried to get out a properly formed sentence that would make her explain herself, but Jack's mind was too jumbled to function. It also didn't help that Alice seemed too immersed in the world around her to pay any attention to him. He didn't know why Alice's utter disregard of being walked through turned his head upside down. It should make sense that someone as cutthroat as Alice would be indifferent to that sort of thing, but it just wouldn't click for Jack, and he couldn't hold back the swirling thoughts in his head.

Without thinking, he reached out and wrapped his free hand around one of Alice's wrists, effectively stopping the girl in her tracks and making her turn to face him. She looked blankly down at the pale hand curled around her wrist before looking back up at his face, questioningly. "What are you-"

"Why does that not bother you?"

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Why should it?"

"Because they can't see you," Jack stressed the last part with an undertone that Alice was familiar with, but couldn't quite identify. "Doesn't it make you feel like you don't exist? Doesn't it hurt?"

"No," She shook her head.

"W-what about when you first became a spirit?" Jack swallowed hard, trying to keep his voice steady.

She shook her head again. "No, not even when I first became a spirit."

"Why not?"

There was nothing but silence between the two spirits as Alice took in the boy standing across from her, staring with wide, almost desperate eyes.

Alice had already concluded just by observing his extraverted personality, that even after three hundred years, Jack was still sensitive about being nothing but an apparition to the mortal world. Jack was a people person, simple as that. He was at his happiest and most comfortable when surrounded by people he can play and talk with, especially children, which was probably why he was such a natural at being a guardian.

For the first time, Alice felt her heart go out to the Winter spirit. It was nothing short of a tragedy when someone like Jack is forced into isolation, cursed to be invisible to the beings that could easily give him what he craved most; companionship. It was clear by the way Jack did everything he could to avoid stepping in front of the people on the sidewalks, that three centuries of the same result didn't help ease the pain at all.

Maybe that was why his eyes were so prying, why his grip was so firm, unconsciously causing a light coating of frost to trail up the black material of Alice's coat, gradually on its way to matching Jack's hoodie. Maybe he thought Alice held some sort of secret method to making it hurt less.

"Because..." Alice trailed off before turning away from his intense, ice blue gaze to focus on a grocery stand selling pumpkins across the street. "In my experience...being invisible is the only guarantee way to escape people who wish to use you for their own selfish gain. It's easier for me because those types of people were the only kind I ever encountered when I was human."

Making yourself hollow and numb - that was the secret. Something Alice was a master at.

When Jack finally released her wrist, she just let it fall back to her side.

"I'm sorry," Alice sighed, feeling the need to apologize.

"Yeah..." Jack murmured, moving to walk past her. "Me too."

The next half hour was spent in silence with Alice continuing her observations and Jack following behind with his staff resting on his shoulder and his free hand stuffed in his hoodie pocket. He kept to the edge of the sidewalks and away from the passing people. His eyes focused intensely on the ground beneath his bare feet while his hood was pulled up over his head and his white bangs hid his face. Occasionally, Alice would send a fleeting glance behind her to see if he was still following. He was being so quiet that it almost unnerved her. She wasn't used to this silent Jack Frost. She stuck close to the edges of sidewalk also, more for his sake than hers, really. It was her way of making it easier for him to follow her without the risk of being walked through.

Despite her extensive vocabulary, even Alice was at a loss for words sometimes, so they both chose to remain silent, allowing the sounds of everyday life after sunset in the small town of Burgess to surround them.

It wasn't until Alice almost walked out in front of an oncoming car that Jack finally had to break the silence.

The traffic signal across the street told them that the intersection was safe to cross, but the approaching red car showed no signs of slowing down for any pedestrians, visible ones included. The few mortals that walked along the same sidewalk as the two spirits, saw the car coming and quickly stepped back, but Alice had been too focused on a man playing a saxophone for tips on a nearby street corner, to realize what was about to happen until she heard Jack's voice call out to her.

"Alice get back!"

Jack quickly reached out and wrapped his hand around the cloth belt of Alice's coat. He yanked her back on to the safety of the sidewalk just as the car sharply turned the corner, nearly hitting her.

Jarred by the sudden rough pull around her waist, Alice lost control of her balance and stumbled over the concrete curb. She let out a loud gasp when she felt her back collide with Jack's front, acutely aware of the metal and glass monstrosity that missed her by mere inches. A pained "ummph!" escaped Jack's mouth when Alice ran into him, her elbow accidentally connecting with his stomach and the back of her head hitting his nose.

Alice almost fell to the ground because of the sudden momentum, but Jack saw it coming. Out of their own accord, his left hand let go of Alice's coat belt at the same time his right hand let go his staff. He caught her easily around the waist, but he nearly lost his own balance in the process. Thankfully though, without having to do any conjuring, the wind decided to lend a hand by gently blowing against the Winter spirit's back, keeping him on his feet.

For several seconds, the two spirits stayed as they were, waiting for the world to stop spinning. The people around them scrambled to fix themselves after a random breeze swept over them, seemingly out of nowhere, while others cursed the speeding car for blatantly running a red light. A couple of nearby cars even honked.

Jack fought valiantly to keep back the inevitable blush that would bloom across any male's face if they found themselves suddenly holding a very pretty girl in their arms, not matter how innocent the situation might be. Thank MiM that Alice was facing away from him though.

Eventually, Alice managed to gain enough control back to fix her crooked footing and loosen her tight grip on Jack's hoodie sleeves. Feeling her move, Jack loosened his own hold and tried to ignore the warmth pressed against his chest and the scent of hazelnut tea and violets filling his senses.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he rubbed the bridge of his stringing nose.

She nodded gingerly while holding a hand against her heart, trying to calm its distressed beating. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Whew, that was a close one, wasn't it?" Jack laughed halfheartedly in an attempt to break some of the awkward tension. "One second later and I would've had an interesting time explaining myself to the other guardians."

"My apologies," Alice turned to face her "savior". "I should've been looking where I was going."

"No, it's not your fault," Jack shook his head before glaring at the fading tail lights of the red car. "We had the light. That brain-dead jerk is just hell-bent on getting someone killed."

He looked back Alice to see her smoothing down the front of her coat and brushing back dark strands of hair out of her face. He felt bad for pulling her back so hard, but he figured it was better than seeing her get hit by a car and sprawled out over the cold asphalt of the street. Spirits like them were intangible to humans only, not inanimate objects. They may be more durable than mortals, but taking a speeding car to the face would ruin anybody's night.

"Still, I should be more aware of my surroundings," Alice lightly scolded herself. "Especially on the street where there are moving automobiles."

"You know what cars are?" Jack asked curiously as he bent over to pick up his staff.

"Yes, I read a few books about them in the past, but I've never seen one in real life until now," Alice explained as the two waited for the traffic light to turn in their favor again, having missed their chance the first time due to the speeding car. "The very first car was invented about ten years after I became a spirit, but that was in Germany and I never left England before I retreated back into my Wonderland."

"Where'd you get the books?"

"Bunny brought them to me," She replied, crossing the street after Jack when the light said it was safe to do so, but the pair looked more carefully anyways, just in case. "He used to bring me all sorts of things. Books, trinkets, jewelry, and old devices like a gramophone, music boxes, a radio, and even an old telephone. I never used it of course, but it was interesting to take apart and study its interior. I tried to give it to Hatter as a gift - he enjoys mechanical things - but he smashed it against a wall."

At the mentioning of the infamous book character, Jack's earlier grievances about his inability to be seen and the car incident melted away faster than his snow under a bright Spring sun, and his mood lightened up considerably. "You mean the Mad Hatter?"

When Alice nodded, Jack smiled. "So what's the real Mad Hatter like?"

"He's a gormless, time-obsessed, blowhard psychopath who tortures his party guests in some of the most despicable ways ever conceivable by man and is completely incapable of shutting that jibber-jabbering mouth of his for more than five seconds."

"Oh..."

Jack wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Silence fell again as the two walked out of the shopping area of Burgess. They were headed towards an area that contained a lot of apartment buildings, the town park, and the tall, bronze statue of the town's founder, Thaddeus Burgess.

"So," Jack drawled casually, trying to strike up another conversation. He wasn't in the mood to be quiet anymore. There was still a bit of adrenaline flowing through him after totally saving Alice from getting hit by a car, something he'll definitely brag about in the future. "I couldn't help but notice that you said Bunny used to bring you stuff. He doesn't anymore?"

"No," She answered as she wrapped her arms around herself when a chilling breeze brushed past them. Jack, of course, didn't take any notice. "Not anymore."

"Why not?"

"I don't really know," She admitted. "He just stopped one day and never told me why, but I suppose it's his subtle way of telling me that if I want to know more about the Outside world, I would have to leave Wonderland and find out for myself. He never really approved of my choice to leave this world. He doesn't like how secluded I've become, I imagine. There have been a few instances where he's tried to coax me out of Wonderland with Carroll's storybooks, but I paid him no mind."

"I'm sure he meant well," Jack offered up, instinctively speaking in Bunny's defense even though no one was speaking ill of the pooka. "Bunny can be a bit overbearing when he feels he needs to be, but I know he was only acting in your best interest."

"Oh I don't doubt that," Alice said in a wistful, almost sing-song voice. "Bunny is my oldest and closest friend. I value his opinion above anybody else's, even Cheshire's. But ultimately, my decisions are my own. I will always take everything he says to heart, but when it comes down to it, Bunny has no control over my actions. However, that doesn't mean he isn't an important influence on me though, mind you."

"Of course," He smirked back.

Now this was nice, wasn't it? The two of them strolling down the street on a nice, Autumn night actually talking, and not fighting. Seemed almost surreal to Jack.

"So what was the last thing Bunny ever brought you?"

"I believe it was a large stack of newspapers from different countries, depicting the progression of World War II."

"Oh wow, that was pretty long ago," Jack said before adding a second thought moments later. "Well, by human standards anyways."

Another silence fell upon the two as they walked. Every now and again, Alice would speak up and ask Jack about something in their surroundings and he would answer, but other than that, it was quiet.

So far, being back in the real world wasn't nearly as bad as Alice originally thought it would be. In all honestly, she didn't really know what to expect. She expected it to be more technologically advanced, which it was (dazzlingly so, with all the bright lights and bizarre sounds), but nothing beyond that.

She hadn't been overly nervous about going out into a mortally populated area. The townsfolk were her main concern at first. Alice was rather adaptable to new surroundings, what with her ever-changing, ever-random Wonderland, but she's never been much of socialite, not even before the fire destroyed her life. When she was a child, Alice always preferred to be alone, or with her older sister, Lizzie. The children in Alice's old neighborhood were always so nasty to her, causing her to grow up shy and reclusive. Alice wasn't particularly fond of other people because of that, so it had been a relief to discover that she was still invisible to the hoi polloi of society. Once that was out of the way, she felt free to explore the little town that Frost was so obviously fond of, without any worry.

There was another pause in conversation as Jack continued to watch Alice look around. They were out of town square now and were walking along empty streets with less lighting.

It was a nice night, but the only problem was, Jack was starting to get a little bored with just walking around a town he had already committed completely to memory, so he began to spin his staff between his fingers once again while his eyes trailed up towards the bright moon in the sky, wondering when it would be a good time to start his Winter snowfall rounds. Usually, Burgess grew cold enough for snow in late November, but this year the temperature had dropped considerably fast in such a short time.

Jack wondered how mad Sam Hein would be if he made it snow just a little bit on Halloween.

"Jack?"

The sound of his name pulled the Winter spirit out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?" He muttered in acknowledgement as he looked back at his companion see that she had stopped walking.

She was standing with one hand hanging by her side, and the other held up by her lips as her face curled up in an expression of confusion and curiosity. Her eyes were focused on something across the street and when Jack followed her gaze, he saw a group of young boys around Jamie's age, standing just outside a convenience store.

"What are those boys doing?" She asked, pointing.

Jack squinted his eyes to see better. At first, he thought they were just making faces at themselves in a stainless steel ice freezer, but once he saw what they were holding in their hands, he snickered.

Hearing him, Alice turned her questioning gaze on him.

"They're looking at their tongues in the freezer's reflection," He explained, nearly laughing at Alice's bewildered expression.

"What on earth for? That's ridiculous."

Jack opened his mouth to try and better explain the concept of slushies to his modern-starved companion, but he stopped when a better idea popped into his head. He gave Alice a sly smile before motioning for her to remain where she was. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

Without waiting for a protest, Jack took off in a slow jog towards the convenience store before disappearing inside behind a middle-aged woman with a silly, yellow sun hat on her head. Alice watched him go with tightly crossed arms and a soft, indignant huff. She let her eyes wander while she waited for Jack's return. When he finally came back to her, he had a large, white cup in his hand.

"Why were you in there so long?" Alice asked when he reached her.

"I had to do a bit of sneaking. I didn't want anyone to see a floating Styrofoam cup and think the store is haunted. That sort of thing tends to be bad for business," Jack laughed before holding up the purple slushie for Alice to take. "Here, drink this."

When all she did was stare at him and the cup skeptically, Jack just rolled his eyes. "It's not going to make you shrink if that's what you're worried about. Drinks in this world don't do that."

Alice narrowed her eyes at the obvious jab, but decided to appease the annoying gnat by taking the cup. Ignoring the ridiculous plastic straw, she peeled off the lid and looked down at the cup's contents.

It looked like half-melted, purple snow and smelled pleasantly sweet.

Still skeptical, Alice brought the rim to her mouth and flinched slightly when the slush hit her lips. She hadn't expected it to be as cold as it was, but another than that, the beverage was as sweet as it smelled and it tasted like a fruit she hasn't had in decades.

After she took a few good gulps, Jack reached out and grabbed the cup, gently pulling it away.

"Whoa, not all of it at one time," He warned. "You'll get a brain freeze."

"Now tell me, what does this have to do with anything?" Alice asked, her mouth feeling chilled and tingly due to the coldness of the drink.

"Go look at your tongue in the reflection," Jack said, pointing to a nearby parked car before taking a long drink of the slushie himself, downing half of it. He was impervious to brain freezes.

Alice rolled her eyes, finding the whole situation asinine, as she walked over to the vacant car and looked in the side mirror. She nearly jumping backwards when she saw the color of her tongue. "Oh! It's purple!"

Jack laughed at her reaction.

Okay, now that was really funny. She looked so amazed by the color of her tongue.

Despite earlier incidents, the night wasn't turning out half bad, but as Jack went on to further explain how the slushie turned Alice's tongue purple, he prayed the rest of the night would go just as smoothly.

~O~

As it turned out, the universe had just one more curve ball to throw at them, and it was probably the worst one of the night.

It happened almost out of nowhere.

Jack was in the middle of telling Alice about the kids she was going to meet (their names and appearances, and how to tell which was which) as they took a short cut through an alley way. It was getting late and Jack figured they should really get a move on. He didn't want to keep Jamie and the others waiting up too long. It would definitely attract the attention of the Sandman.

They were just passing the back of a small, family-run diner when the back door of the restaurant flew open and two men came stumbling out, coughing roughly as black smoke drifted out of the kitchen. The harsh smell of smoke and burnt meat hit them in seconds.

Jack watched in amusement as the oldest man started shouting at his clumsy teenage son for carelessly burning the hamburger and nearly setting the kitchen on fire, again. Jack had seen this happen a couple times before during recent years while he wandered the town, listening in on conversations and watching people. It was always the same diner, with the same father and son, fighting over the same thing each time. It never ceased to be funny, though. It kind of reminded Jack of him and his father, back when he was a human boy living in the colonial times. He would always get lectured by his father for slacking off in the fields, playing games with his little sister when he was suppose to be watching the sheep, or doing his chores.

He chuckled fondly at the memory while watching the shouting match continue as the two males tried airing out the kitchen of all the smoke. He didn't even notice Alice wasn't standing next to him anymore until the sound of someone being sick reached his ears. He turned around and spotted Alice a little distance away, bending over a nearby trashcan and throwing up into it.

Shocked and filled with concern, Jack ran over to the suddenly sick girl.

"Hey, are you alright?"

A stupid question, but he had to ask it.

Alice's firm grip on the sides of the trashcan tightened even harder as her body gave another painful lurch, emptying itself of what little she had in her stomach. She gagged three more times before her insides finally settled and she was able to breathe again.

When she heard Jack's voice, she let go of the trashcan and moved away from the Winter spirit before he could reach out a hand to touch her shoulder. She gingerly walked over to a nearby brick wall and leaned her back against it. Her eyes stung with the pain of her cramping stomach and her face burned with humiliation.

Suddenly feeling uncomfortably hot underneath her coat, Alice let out a low groan and started rubbing her temples in slow circles to help soothe her pounding head.

Jack watched her closely, trying to figure out what had made Alice so sick all the sudden. When she shuddered in disgust at the lingering taste of vomit in her mouth, he told her he would be right back and jogged over to the diner. Smoke was still floating out of the open door, but Jack ignored it and stepped inside. He rooted around the kitchen for a few minutes before he found a clean drinking glass. After filling the glass up with cold water, he returned to Alice as quickly as he could, no longer paying attention to the arguing father and son.

When he reached her, Alice was still leaning against the brick wall with her head titled back and her eyes closed as she took in deep, steady breaths.

"Here," Jack handed her the glass before he had the chance to unintentionally freeze the water inside. He watched quietly as Alice sipped the water. "Sorry for making you sick."

Alice looked at the pale spirit from over the rim of the glass. "What makes you think that this is you fault?"

He looked towards the ground and shrugged his shoulders. "It was the slushie, wasn't? I gave it to you."

At his misunderstanding, Alice would've laughed if the real reason hadn't been so horribly depressing. "No, it wasn't. It was the smell coming from that restaurant. I have a bit of a intolerance to that type of smell. It brings up some rather bad memories for me."

That was a huge understatement, but Alice forced herself to remain passive as she fought desperately to ignore the flashing images of burning wood and the screaming voices that rang through her already aching head. Now was not the time for that. Not here, and not in front of Frost.

At first Jack didn't understand what she meant. How could the smell from the diner possibly make her sick enough to throw up? It was only the smell of burning meat-

Oh.

Now it was Jack's stomach that began to churn as a terrible realization fell over him. If his skin already hadn't been on the verge of being blue, Jack could've sworn his face had turned green.

The smell reminded Alice of her- oh god, that was horrible. If Jack wasn't feeling guilty before, he was definitely feeling it now, but he forced himself to hide his reaction so Alice wouldn't pick up on the fact that he knew about the fire and her family's death. He swallowed the large lump in his throat and reached out a shaking hand to rest on Alice's shoulder. She tore her intense gaze from the ground when she felt a light, chilling pressure on her shoulder and looked at Jack with striking, emerald eyes.

"Sorry," He murmured, taking the empty drinking glass when Alice handed it back to him. "Let's keep walking. The further you get away from here, the better you'll feel. I'm sure Jamie has something in his house that can help."

Alice shook her head and pushed away from the brick wall. She hated the idea of taking any medicine. "No, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes," She nodded before walking down the alley way again. "All I need is little fresh air and I'll be alright again."

Deciding to take her word for it, Jack didn't try pushing any further. He just left the drinking glass on the ground and followed Alice.

It grew silent again as they made their way towards Jamie's house. There was a bit of light conversation between them as they walked, but not much else, leaving Jack to think about how weird the night had been so far. They went from strolling through the town, to Jack having a bit of an emotional moment, to Alice nearly being flattened by a car, to sharing a slushie with her, and then Alice throwing up said slushie because she smelt burning meat that reminded her of how her family perished in a house fire.

Jack couldn't say it had been the weirdest night he had ever had, but it definitely made his list. Hopefully though, they left all that misfortune behind them as they entered the neighborhood that housed Jamie Bennett and his friends.