Pitch sighed again, wondering what was wrong with his child. She wasn't singing. She wasn't laughing, nor was she crying. Raven looked at Pitch with the same expression Pitch wore on his face. He placed a hand on Raven's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure Cupid will be back soon."

Raven's eyes fell back on Nightingale. "It's been a little over a day, love. We need Cupid's power of love to make Nightingale love the dark instead of fear it."

He looked down at his child, then he began to glare. "Where is that stupid Darkling anyway?"

Cupid's laugh echoed throughout the darkness. "Who needs a Darkling? They always fight with the fearling within them anyway."

Pitch grinned. "You're not actually Cupid. You're the fearling of Cupid."

The fearling bowed and nodded. "At your service, my liege."

Pitched looked back at his child in the dark cradle. "Nightingale, it'll be time for you to wake up soon."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was cold, in fact, freezing. Every inch of Cupid was covered in cold, but it was welcoming her into consciousness. She opened her eyes and her blurred vision began to perfect. "Cupid." She saw that it was Raynerof calling her name.

She looked up at him, without moving her body from the ice-floor. "Raynerof?"

Raynerof smiled, nodding. "Yes." He sighed. "I'm so glad you're awake, Cupid."

"So am I." Toothiana crossed her arms and glared. "She can finally fix the mistake she created. Whether intentional or not, she can fix her wrongs."

Cupid sat up weakly, shaking her head. "What?" She looked around beyond the ice-bars that imprisoned her. She realized she was in the ice caves below North's workshop. "Am I... a prisoner?"

Raynerof lowered his head, and Toothiana looked away.

Cupid looked at Raynerof. "I don't understand. What's going on?" 

Raynerof was about to speak, but Jack stepped into the room. "I made that prison, and we put you in there." He stepped in front of Cupid's prison. "We need something from you. You're the only one that can tell us exactly where Pitch is hiding and where to find his child. We know he's at the earth's core, but you know specifially where."

Cupid's eyes widened. "What?"

Jack paused, and his brows furrowed. "You don't know?"

Cupid looked down at the ice-floor. "I think I do. They're mostly at the earth's core, trying to fill her with darkness because they want her to be like them."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "North and I just checked the earth's core, and we can't find them. North and Bunny are still looking."

She looked up at Jack. "They might be moving her now then. They especially moved her if they know you're looking for them."

Raynerof stood up. "We must make haste. There isn't any time to waste!" He began to walk out of the room. Toothiana and Jack quickly followed. 

"Wait!" They all turned to a wide-eyed Cupid. But Raynerof was gone. "You can't leave me alone here."

Toothiana glared at Cupid. "Of course we can. Besides the more people we have, the more we endanger the purpose of us going there."

Jack took a hold of Toothiana's arm. "No, we can't. Rayner--" He turned to Raynerof, but he was gone. Jack looked at Toothiana. "We'll have to stay here."

Toothiana's eyes widened. "What?! Why? It's not like she can't take care of herself. She'll be fine."

Jack's gaze grew strong. "If we leave her here something will come to destroy the pole and take her. I have a feeling Pitch isn't done with her yet. Or that if we're all gone something might happen to the pole like the warren."

"Boy, aren't you right about that, Jack?"

Jack turned to face a black-haired Cupid. He rapidly turned to Toothiana and spoke quickly. "Go to the palace, get as many fairies as you can. Have a few of them warn the yetis to prepare for battle."

Toothiana's eyes widened. "Jack!" She blocked Dark Cupid's arrow with her arm.

Dark Cupid smiled. "I wouldn't count on it. You guys are too slow."

Toothiana lifted herself into the air. "It's just my arm. I'll be back as soon as I can." She flew out rapidly.

Dark Cupid grinned. "That little 'preparation' won't help you. Why would I come alone? We're always thinking one step ahead of the Guardians." She looked down at Cupid. "Aww, you got your pretty, brown hair back. Is it nice being the loser you are again?"

Cupid simply stared at Dark Cupid.

Dark Cupid rolled her eyes. She lifted up her bow and arrow to her right. Without looking she released the arrow in time to block Jack's icy attack. Her gaze slowly turned to Jack. "That was very rude of you. I was having a conversation with someone."

Jack managed to kick Dark Cupid in the face.

Dark Cupid fell back and flipped onto her feet. She snarled at Jack. She charged and slid to trip Jack.

Jack simply jumped over, grabbing her arm and flipped her onto her back. He held his staff at her neck. His breathing was heavy, but firm. He gripped his staff tightly, conjuring as much power as he could.

Dark Cupid frowned with desperate eyes. "I'm sorry, Jack. It's just the fear-- Ah!" An arrow with a golden glow was pierced into Dark Cupid's shoulder. Her arm began to twitch.

Jack looked at Cupid.

She smiled. "You may want to step back."

Golden cracks began to spread throughout Dark Cupid's skin. She screamed as she pulled out the arrow and threw it at Cupid. It burst the ice bars, freeing Cupid.

Cupid reached into the pocket of her black skirt, pulling out her bow. It extended to its full size as she aimed at Dark Cupid. "Move again and you won't get same luck. You can barely breath right now as it is." She smiled.

Dark Cupid glared, breathing heavily. The golden cracks on her skin grew wider.

Cupid kept her eyes on Dark Cupid. "Jack, I have this situation covered. Go help Tooth with the rest of the pole." Jack nodded and ran out.

Dark Cupid smirked. "You really think you know what's going on?"

Cupid's eyes narrowed. "You're here to finish me off so there will be no way to reverse what you've already done to children while I was here imprisoned by the guardians, but you didn't come alone. Dark Jack is here trying to stop the process of Christmas to the point that North is needed here. Before that he made children afraid to play with him, impostering the real Jack Frost. Raven is looking for the new figure arising way off in the distance. At the same time Pitch is off giving as many nighmares as he can."

Dark Cupid smiled. "So you do know."

"Move and I'll finish you. I know how to do that too." Cupid pulled the arrow back a bit more. "You're simply still here because I'm control the power of the golden arrow that hit you."

"How does it feel?"

Cupid stayed silent.

"I want to know how it feels to stand next to Jack and know that he will never love you back." Dark Cupid smirked. "That he will never be yours. Face it I was much closer to him than you ever were. You stand next to him like it's nothing, but inside your heart beats all kinds of abnormal ways. He probably doesn't care enough to realize that your breathing pattern changes when he's near you. It even changes when you think of him."

Cupid let go of the arrow. Dark Cupid screamed as the golden glow traveled throughout her entire body. She burst into a million pieces like glass, and the pieces vanished.

Cupid walked towards the remains of Dark Cupid. "How does that feel?" She walked to the doorway. "By the way, you only made me angry not afraid. I've lost my fear of you a long time ago." She paused. "I also lost of the fear of Jack not caring for me centuries ago."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack ran into the workshop and saw chaos all around him. Snow was on every level of the workshop and ice attacks were being launched in every direction. Yetis held weapons and pointed them at the center of the room while other yetis were frozen pieces of ice. Elves had snowballs at the ready while fairies attacked some fearlings. A few of the other elves tried to bite the fearlings.

Dark Jack's laugh echoed around the workshop. "Funny how your little time friend thought he got rid of me." He hovered beside the globe in front of Jack. "It takes a long time to get rid of a creation of fear. You should know that best of all, Jack. Weren't you the one living in fear for three hundred years?" He smirked, avoiding the thrown blade of a yeti. "You should know that getting rid of me won't be an easy task."

Jack gripped his staff tightly and raised himself off the ground, flying at Dark Jack. Their staffs clashed and their glares instensified.

"I suggest you don't visit children for a while." Dark Jack's staff began to glow white.

Jack's staff began to glow blue. "Oh yeah? Why is that?"

Dark Jack smirked. "Children are afraid of their newest guardian. Let's just say winter got a whole lot more dangerous." He pushed Jack back and fired several ice shots at Jack.

Jack flew to the side and fired back at Dark Jack. Dark Jack effortlessly blocked the shots, smiling. An elf flew from the side and bit Dark Jack's ankle. In pain, Dark Jack lowered, trying to shake the elf off. Jack fired another shot and Dark Jack's back hit North's portrait. Jack fired again, freezing Dark Jack against it.

Jack hovered to Dark Jack. "I think the children are a lot smarter than you and Pitch think."

Dark Jack's nostrils flared. "Can't wait to see how wrong you are. You're pretty dense for a guardian."

Jack glared, pointing his staff at Dark Jack. "Think so, huh?"

Dark Jack smiled. "I know so. After all, you can't remember Cupid from so long ago."

Jack paused, keeping his posture and position. "What are you taking about?"

Dark Jack raised a brow. "You don't know how Cupid feels? You don't remember her before she became Cupid? I bet you can't, but you're too slow to realize what's going on right in front of you."

Jack pressed his staff against Dark Jack's neck. "Tell me what you know."

Dark Jack smirked, blasting Jack with an ice shot. "Too close." He manipulated the ice that held him to become snow. He grabbed Jack's shoulders and tossed him against the globe. He held Jack down against it. "Just think of how sad she'll be when you have to tell her that you forgot all about her. That you don't even remember her name, the biggest secret she has."

Jack struggled to free himself with wide eyes. "She'll understand."

Dark Jack smiled. "I'm pretty sure she won't. You were the biggest deal to her. It doesn't take a genius to know that. You really are dense."

"Jack!" Cupid released an arrow at Dark Jack.

Dark Jack shot it with ice. He shot Cupid with an ice shot. Her back hit the wall behind her. He flew to Cupid and kicked her onto the floor. He pressed his staff down on her back to hold her down. "I guess Dark Cupid was a lot weaker than she looked. Too bad." He looked at Jack. "You're lucky your little confrontation is on hold. Since there is not more Dark Cupid, you'll have to come with me, baby." He slammed his foot on Cupid's head. "This time I'll be more than he ever was to you." He picked up the concious Cupid as Jack flew to him.

Jack glared. "What are you going to do?"

Dark Jack smirked. "Make her do the job she had as a Darkling. It shouldn't be that hard to make her one again." He shot Jack with an ice shot and flew out, laughing.

The back of Jack's head hit the globe and he began to fall. Darkness surrounded Jack as he closed his eyes. There was the sound of echoing laughter.

Jack looked around. "Hello! Who are you? Where are you?" Jack's eyes narrowed as he heard the laughter again. "Are you... a child?" He heard the laugh again.

"Jack!"

Jack's brows furrowed as he looked around. "North? Where are you?"

"Jack! Wake up!"

Jack blinked. "Wake up? What are you talking about?" He heard the laugh again. "What's going on?"

"This should help, mate."

Jack felt pain on his face as he opened his eyes to the guardians surrounding him. He held his head with one hand. "What happened?"

Toothiana sighed. "Thank goodness. He's alright."

Jack sat up, looking around. "What happened?" He spotted Raynerof at a cradle, looking over it.

Raynerof turned to Jack. "We gained at a loss."

Jack's brows furrowed as he walked to the cradle. The baby inside the cradle had light grey skin, almost like Pitch. The only difference was that it looked like someone softly painted the grey color onto her human-like skin. Her golden-orange eyes looked at Jack playfully. She smiled and covered her face when Jack's eyes locked with hers.

Raynerof petted her black hair. "As adorable as this one-year-old is, she is the daughter of the king of nightmares."

The baby lowered her hands and Jack poked her nose, causing the baby to hide her face again. Jack laughed. "She's cute."

Raynerof smiled. "Her name is Nightingale."

Jack looked at Raynerof. "Wait... How do you know that?"

Raynerof frowned. "That was the name her mother called out as I took her away."

Jack's shoulders fell. He looked at the child, his gaze shifting. His eyes flew to Raynerof. "They have Cupid."

Raynerof nodded. "I have a grave idea on how we are going to get her back."