Chapter Text
It was any other day, Jack perched on a lamppost. Watching the kids running around with bright wonder eyes, laughing as a few tried to catch snowflakes in their mouths. Some kids were rolling the growing amount of snow into a huge pile to make it into a very sad-looking lopsided snowman. Jack had a soft gentle smile, it reminded him of when Jamie was their age, having that dangerous but fun snow day where he lost his tooth. Shaking his head at those memories, it’s been so long since that time. Having defeated The Nightmare King and finally had a place where he belonged. A Family with guardians but as time passed from their heroic deed, the guardians seemed to go back to their old ways of being too busy for the children. Or a lonely frost sprite who had too much free time in his hands to cause snow storms and well they all got tired of the guardian hitting them with his magical snowballs to get rid of their serious faces. Especially Bunnymund who seemed to find Jack like an annoying plague that came to destroy his holiday in Jack’s attempts to get him to loosen up and to have fun, mostly wanting company even if it was with the grumpy oversized rabbit.
“Do you think he’ll be mad again at this unexpected snowy easter?” Jack asked gently into the wind which gave no response as per usual. Still, he liked to think that the wind could understand him, at least a tiny bit since it always seemed to know where to take him or when he needed to leave abruptly from any accidental situations where he made a few spirits upset in his encounters in trying to find some company or new adventures.
Jack jumped down, landing gracefully as he looped his arms around the staff behind his neck, creating a layer of ice under his feet. Skating on his bare feet, smiling as his ice and frost made beautiful designs behind him before settling down on the asphalt. Wincing at the poor soul who crossed behind his path, slipping on the slippery floor.
Jack laughed at the misfortune soul and jumped up into the wind current that brushed against his ankles like an affectionate cat. Feeling how the wind lifted him up, carrying him through the wild wind currents that made his hair stick in all different directions and landed softly on his feet once the wind placed him in a forest nearby.
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“Let's hope the Rabbit doesn’t go complaining to North again and I get dragged into another long meeting in how even though I’m a guardian of fun. I need to still understand the children's needs are greater than my games” Jack ranted to himself, feeling old resentment of the 3-hour meeting of Bunnymund being such a pain and both close to just grabbing each other from across North meeting table to swing fists. Both were stopped when Sandman woke up from his nap to the chaos of North holding Jack back while avoiding the icy floor and Tooth stopping Bunnymund from taking out his boomerangs. Ending the fight by throwing sand balls at them both, putting them both to sleep for god knows how long since Jack remembers just waking in North guest room. It was his room but it never did feel like his since it was still always decorated with Christmas decorations and the yetis would always clean up the snowflakes or any ice he left behind in the room, not realizing that they were jack’s decorations that didn’t melt.
“Maybe I should go find Sandman..get him on my side before Easter ends-” Jack said, feeling the wind starting to pick up under his feet. Ready to throw him into another wind current when he got distracted, hearing how the forest suddenly went completely silent. The birds or even the sounds of other creatures that would roam around in the forest, all were so silent now. The temperature dropping drastically from Jack's sudden spike of fear, feeling how the hairs from the back of his neck rose up. Feeling as if he was being watched, making him cringe a bit in his own skin.
“Jack?” The voice of his sister called out, making Jack freeze. Bringing a horrible rush of emotions, glancing around the ground as he looked up at the leaves in the trees and the ones under his feet. Listening closely to see if they told him anything but they were frighteningly silent, providing no help as the wind also seemed to have fled the area. Feeling completely alone with the air thickening.
“Jack this isn’t fun anymore!” His sister yelled in all directions, causing Jack to spin around as he tried to pinpoint where he was being watched, his hands frosting his staff from his fear and even the forest floor started to get a thick layer of ice as Jack refused to stop moving about in circles.
“Pitch! This is low, even for you. I thought we were past these stupid mind games from the last time you got your ass beat by us. Scared that I can win? Because I can win this fight with you on my own without the others, I’m not scared of you!” Jack yelled out, feeling his anger rise to the level of his fears as the laughter started to echo. It was Pitch's laughter but more distorted, it definitely sounded more terrifying and unnatural.
“What's wrong? You don’t want to play with us?” The voice called out, a horrible screeching voice of his sister's voice. There was no time given for Jack to reply when a hoard of shadows just rushed toward him, knocking him back as he lost grip on his staff. Being lost in the masses of shadows that were clawing into his arms as he covered his face. The shadows clawed at him as he started to shoot out frost and ice from his hands. He tried to get a grasp on the shadows but it was useless. Feeling the shadows always slipping out of his hands like sand. Jack felt like he was suffocating, feeling the burn of the shadows digging into his skin and it even felt like they were trying to tear into his skin.
Suddenly the shadows were tackled off of him, making him gasp as he sat up quickly. Scrambling back, away from the dense air of death that surrounded him from the shadows. Quickly trying to make space between himself and the shadows, unable to get enough strength yet to push himself up. The shadows turned into a huge looming figure while a nightmare horse held its ground. Kicking its hindlegs at the looming shadows whenever it tried to go around it to get to Jack and huffing out angrily, leaving Jack momentarily stunned at the turn of events.
“Jack, snap out of it. don’t sit there!” Pitch's voice snapped, dropping Jack's staff onto his lap as he forced him onto his feet and pushed him back. Pitch held up a golden shield to block them both from another attack from the shadow when the mare moved out of the way once it tried to engulf it into itself. Jack was quick to see the mare trying to get speed as it ran back over, using his staff to bring a wind current and the help with the leaves of the forest floor for the mare to run on, helping it get enough speed to bull rush into the shadows. Seeing how Pitch was able to drop down the shield with a heavy sigh, obviously the shield weighing down on him.
“What’s going on?!” Jack asked Pitch quickly, his eyes widening for a moment at the mare getting knocked off from the wind current. Sent tumbling against a tree and he was quick to send a wall of ice to protect the mare before the shadows could even slam down for a final blow. Freezing as the Shadow stared down at Jack, unhinging its mouth unnaturally to let out a horrific scream as it started to rush toward him.
“You need to leave, it won’t stop if you keep getting in the way!” Pitch growled, his golden eyes glowing as Jake opened his mouth to protest but got a tight grip on Pitch's robe to protect him from the shadow which was like a huge wave of shadows. Blocking the moonlight as it threatened to crash down on them like a raging ocean of pure nightmares, shadows, and fear. Jack's fear spiked so much as his body created a strong light, yelling as he felt lightning ice start to shoot out from somewhere deep inside of him as he pulled Pitch close to his body. The shadows shrieked so loudly, it sounded like his sister was being burnt. Still using her voice until it went completely silent, Jack could feel his whole body shaking. Pitch's eyes widen a fraction before he looked back at the shadows which were now nothing more than black ice.
“Thank god you haven’t forgotten how to do that,” Pitch mumbled under his breath as he whistled to the mare who was watching afar with an agitated swishing tail. Vanishing off into the darkness of the trees, seeming to understand what Pitch asked of it with the simple whistle.
“P-Pitch?” Jack asked, feeling so heavy like before. He would have fallen if Pitch wasn’t holding his weight up with a firm grip that Jack found himself not minding. His warm hands settled comfortably in his tired mind. Feeling the same level of exhaustion from when he fell out of the sky and Tooth had caught him when he tried saving sandy all those years ago. He looked over Pitch's shoulder to see that the shadows were frozen in a similar fashion as those in Antarctica when Pitch had tried to recruit him.
“Easy, it seems they got you pretty good Jack Frost,” Pitch said in such a worried stern note, shifting Jack's dead weight against him so he could get a good look at the claw marks going across his chest and his arms cut up. Being quite bloody and in fucking a lot of pain. Jack was barely catching up in what had just happened as well as his adrenaline although still quite high, was now fading. Leaving him sore and in so much pain. He still had a spike of fear of being close to Pitch like this but in more of the idea that Jack actually felt safe. Pitch was incredibly warm which made him want to sink into his robe, he felt so incredibly cold for the first time in a while as he tried to shake his head to get rid of the feeling of sluggishness.
“What the fuck were those? A-Aren’t they a part of you, why weren’t you able to stop them?” Jack said, pushing himself away from Pitch and catching himself with the help of using his Staff as a cane. A pained whimper rose from his chest since his wounds burned at the movement as he closed his eyes momentarily.
“Fearlings and no, they’re no longer a part of me. They weren’t mine, to begin with-Jack, you have to go. I stopped them because I rather not be blamed for a death that was not caused by me for once.” Pitch said in a sarcastic manner with a raised eyebrow but his eyes kept trained on where Jack was bleeding from which made him oddly take his statement as more of a deflection. Pretending to be the nightmare king but at the moment, Jack only saw Pitch Black.
“You're different, you’re not the same,” Jack said, tilting his head to the side as he stared at Ptich but started to blink away to get his blurry vision cleared up since he definitely felt like he was about to pass out from either blood loss or from using his powers.
“I’m not sure what you're quite talking about, it seems that thing did knock some more neurons out of your head it seems. How sad.” Pitch said sarcastically with no bite as Jack seemed to realize, it was similar to his own humor when another spirit would hit too close to home. Commenting on how Jack spent an unnatural amount of time by himself to the point where he is perceived to be just a trickster that didn’t care about anyone and wanted to be a lone wolf on purpose even though that was far from the truth but had a fear to also disappoint others that he was actually lonely.
“I am right though, aren’t I,” Jack said softly before blinking when he felt the ground under him become unstable and looked down quickly to see that his feet were getting engulfed with shadows. His eyes widened as his fear spiked as he tried to freeze the shadows only for his staff to be pulled into the darkness. Felt a pit of tension form deep into his stomach as Pitch walked toward him and gently but firmly pushed Jack backward.
“Pitch!” Jack yelled, feeling a rush of anger as he flailed blindly while he fell backward into the shadows, once again being engulfed in them. But unlike the ones who were trying to claw into his skin, they had felt so cold and dead when they surrounded him. These felt warm, tempering into the area of being a bit hot for Jack. Pitch face eyes were soft but his face was so emotionless as Jack fell what felt like a neverending rabbit hole. Yelling out curses and empty threats but it was like someone has stolen his voice, unable to actually hear himself yelling.
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What felt like many hours, it most likely was just a few minutes. He was spat out onto North meeting table, startling both Bunnymund and North who were yelling his name, and moving Jack from the table while his vision started to go black. Their voices faded as a string of gold dust started to come toward him before his eyes fluttered close. Feeling as if he was being embraced by a warm soft cloud that lead him into wonderful dreams filled with the laughter of kids and snowy fun games where he was a part of the fun.