"So . . ." Jack drawled in a cold, purposefully bored manner. He tossed his stick up very slightly, and with the movement, drifted upwards. "You guys, too, huh?"

The other three stared, wide-eyed at the winter spirit lazily hovering a foot above the ground.

Jack frowned. Why did they appear so shell-shocked? Oh . . . "You guys are still mortal, then?"

"You say that like you aren't . . ." Hiccup whispered, still gaping.

"Well, I'm not. Didn't the flying and the frost kind of make it obvious?"

"Are most people not like this?" Rapunzel questioned, eyes wide and curious.

"Oh, Manny." Jack exaggeratedly rubbed at his eyes with closed fists. "Well, clearly, none of us here are meant to be Guardians. Point proven. There's all the proof they need. What were they thinking?"

Rapunzel stepped backwards and her gaze fell down in embarrassment. Merida clenched her fists. If there was one thing she hated, it was people who acted like they knew other people—what they were capable of.

"Oi, Frost Freak," she called out. "Of course we don't know you! I'm pretty sure I'd remember some sort of a weird winter spirit like you if I'd ever even heard of you."

Jack's eyes flared open and angry from their previously easygoing state.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Carrot top, did I hurt your feelings?" He smirked. "Need me to get your mom?"

Merida's eyes narrowed. "What did you call me?"

"Carrot top."

She rubbed her knuckles menacingly. "Wanna repeat that?"

Jack stepped forward until they were practically nose-to-nose and smirked. "Ca-rrot-to—"

Hiccup stepped forward. "Alright, hey guys, let's not fight—"

Merida pushed Jack away and rounded on Hiccup. "He started it—"

"Oh, now we're playing the blame game, real mature, carrot top—"

"Oi, you frosty son of a—!" Merida's eyes blazed. Hiccup put a placating hand on her shoulder, looking somewhat terrified. She rounded back on him.

"Get off," she growled. "Who are you, anyways?"

Hiccup sagged the slightest bit. "I'm . . . Hiccup."

"Hiccup? Why're you here?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "I could ask you the same question."

"Well, you didn't, and I did. What could you do?"

He crossed his arms. This was irritating. "I'm the first and only son of Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk."

"No way are you the son of that giant animal."

"Tell that to anyone in my village," Hiccup bluffed.

Merida squinted. "They'd agree. No offense, lad, but you look a wee bit too scrawny and you talk a bit too prissy to be the slightest bit Berkian."

Hiccup glared—he knew he wasn't very scary, but he glared all the same and crossed his arms.

"Well, then, who are you?"

Merida crossed her arms right back. "I'm the firstborn child of King Fergus of Scotland."

Hiccup was about to make a snarky comment about how she was too much of a brutish hooligan to be a princess, but Jack interrupted with a sigh.

"Oh, great. Condemned to work with a bunch of snotty royals."

But before either Merida or Hiccup could retort (both of whom were quite literally steaming with anger at that point), Jack turned to Rapunzel.

"And blondie. Who're you?"

"Me?" The poor girl looked quite startled at being spoken to amidst the commotion of royalty. "Oh, my name's Rapunzel. Nice to meet you! . . . Sort of?"

Merida snorted at that.

Jack raised his eyebrows and didn't reply. He flipped his staff once more, tapping it on the floor, an undying habit.

"So. What did they even expect us to do? I'm clearly the labor work, Princess Frizz, I suppose, is useful for entertainment purposes, Fishbone could maybe do that too, and Miss Rapunzel would . . . hmm . . . provide moral support. Is that what they wanted? Wow, fool-proof."

Now, Hiccup normally thought of himself as a pretty passive, controlled guy. Even If he was scrawny in terms of size, he did always prize himself on the way he managed to never lose it in a town of boisterous Vikings. However, right now, his patience level had reached its limit.

"Alright, I don't know who all of you are, but quite frankly, I've had enough. Because even if I had the slightest want to work with you people, I doubt any of you want to work with each other anyways."

They all fell silent.

And that's when the door exploded.

Previously . . .

"D-d-did those runts just walk out on us? Oi, lemme at 'em, I wasn't done talking—"

"Bunny, I think that's enough," North said quietly. He turned to the Guardians, gave all of them a stern look that only North could ever give, and told the elves and the yetis to clean up, please.

He then turned down the hallway where the recruits went, ducking to avoid a bit of stray tinsel hanging from the ceiling.

When he got to the doorway, he raised a large fist and rapping it loudly against the already-open wooden door. However, he quickly found that no matter how loudly he knocked, there was no way he'd be heard over the din that the supposed recruits were making unless he punched a hole through it.

And that's exactly what North did.

"BOOM!"

The door split in a hectic explosion of flying splinters of wood mixed in with the screams and shouts of the recruits on the other side.

"What the—!" Hiccup yelped. Jack

"Oh my!" Rapunzel gasped, drawing her hands in to cover her mouth.

"@#$%!" A string of expletives flew out of Merida's mouth.

"Merida!"

"What?"

"HELLO?!" North boomed. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

They all fell silent and turned to look at the huffing Guardian.

"I don't care that you all are Guardians! Four more only getting coal!" North crossed his arms, continuing to mutter about noisy children that just never listened.

"Coal?" Hiccup inquired, interested. "That's very kind of you! Y'see, our village isn't exactly what you'd call a 'summer town'; it's more of a freezing cold wasteland—"

Needless to say, North was stumped. "Arrrgh!" he yelled, pressing his thumbs to his temples and sounding very much like a pirate.

Still rubbing his left temple, he pointed out a wooden door. "Walk with me."

As troublesome as the first encounter of the new recruits had been, however, once they passed through the varnished wooden door, all of their blistering anger dissipated up in the air like steam. As soon as they passed through the varnish of the wooden door, the recruits

As soon as they passed through the varnish of the wooden door, the recruits' jaws gaped. Their eyes sparkled. It didn't matter how angry they were before—no one could just stay angry in the wonders of the heart of Santa's workshop.

Rapunzel reached up lightly to tap a spinning, flying alien toy. "What . . . what is this place?"

North smiled at the awestruck looks on all of their faces. "This is my workshop, of course!"

They passed multitudes of gleaming fairy lights, steaming toy trains, electric guitars, unicorn plushies, chocolate fountains, hoverboards, jet skis—toys galore.

Jack stared, slack-jawed, at the sight of toy robots being painted blue and stacked against each other. "You have no idea how many times I've tried to break into this place."

"What?" North's eyebrows skyrocketed.

"Oh, don't worry. I never did get past the yetis—Oh, hey, Phil!" Jack grinned and waved a bit towards a yeti who was glaring suspiciously at him and warily covering the newly-crafted paint brush set he just finished from the recruits' line of sight.

"Funny," Merida mused. "I always heard that it was the elves that made the toys."

"That's what we let them think," North winked, and then winced slightly as they passed one of the elves' 'creations'.

"Through here." North gestured for them to go through another huge wooden door covered with intricate carvings and silver locks.

They wandered inside, eyes quickly catching on the stunning ice sculptures gleaming in front of them.

"Whoa . . ." Hiccup breathed. None of them could disagree. In fact, all of them were so entranced that they did hear the huge wooden door behind them slam shut, the silvery locks snapping into place one after the other.

They all whirled around, gazes lifted to meet with North, who towered over them and suddenly didn't seem so jolly.

He stared at them appraisingly for a few seconds. "Hmm . . ." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Er-hem," Hiccup coughed out, uncomfortable. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes, there is something very wrong," North replied with a frown. "Nothing is . . . apparent about you four."

Merida and Jack exchanged apprehensive looks; Rapunzel started fidgeting with a long, blonde strand of hair, fingers curling over it tightly.

"You see, Guardians are not chosen by chance. Manny's judgement is not ever passed lightly, and is very specific. He must've had a reason.

"And like it or not, you four were most definitely chosen. Tell me—" North suddenly leaned in very close to Hiccup, gaze searching and intimidating, "—what is your center?"

Hiccup gulped. "My what?"

"Your center."

"What is that?"

North leaned back, and crossed his arms, seemingly even more stumped. Finally, he turned to the cabinet behind him and withdrew something. "Here."

He blew a layer of dust off of it, and tossed it to Jack.

It was a wooden matryoshka doll. Specifically, a matryoshka doll that had long white hair, blue eyes, and a fierce expression painted on. "Is that . . . um, you?"

"Yes! Is nice, isn't it? Custom-made by me!" North chuckled. "Now, look at the face. You see me as very big, very intimidating . . . but, if you get to know me . . ." he looked pointedly at Jack, a clear sign for him to 'get to know him'.

Jack obliged, cracking open the first layer to reveal the same white hair, blue eyes, but with the added appearance of a white grin, red cheeks, and a sparkle in the eyes. "You . . . are downright jolly?"

"Yes! But not just jolly! I am also mysterious!" The doll's third shell had a sneaky expression on it.

"And fearless! And caring!" One by one, Jack cracked open the shells of the doll. Until finally—

"And my center?"

Jack opened the last layer and shook out—"It's a tiny wooden baby."

"Yes! But what else can you see?" North gestured for all of them to look closer.

"You're . . . young at heart?" Merida half-heartedly guessed.

"You were very cute as a baby!" Rapunzel inquired excitedly.

"You have big eyes," Hiccup offered. North pointed straight at him.

"Yes, yes! Very big! Because they are full to the brim with wonder! I have eyes that see the wonder in everything—lights in trees, and magic in the air!"

Behind North, toys seem to glow in agreement

"And this wonder," he said, "is what I bring into the world. It is what I, as a Guardian, protect in children.

North turned back to them—but something changed in their perception of him: the addition of something benevolent, something wonderful rooted in his eyes.

"That is my center. What is yours?"

They all looked down. "I don't . . . I don't know," Jack finally said.

North smiled kindly at them—a stark contrast to the daunting tower of a man just minutes ago—and said, "In that case, I would implore you to take this as an opportunity. Easter—" North seemed to visibly struggle with getting the word out, "—is approaching. It would be a good chance see a Guardian in action—and perhaps, gain some semblance of your own . . . something. Your own center."

They all stood in contemplative silence for a long moment. But before they could answer, the door, locks and all, burst open with a thump, and through it entered a harassed-looking Bunny.

"There's trouble, mate. The Tooth Palace is under attack."

A/N: Geez, this chapter was an absolute doozy to write. I do apologize for the horrendous wait to anyone who might've been wondering.