Cold and Dark

Jack could feel his hand tighten around his staff as the moon started to show them the conversation he had with Pitch earlier that day. Jack knew exactly what happened there, but it would be hard for the others to understand the situation. Would they let him explain himself? Jack fast turned his head away from the projection and just looked into the floor. Maybe he felt a bit ashamed. Maybe he should have told them about his meeting with Pitch before they talked to the moon.

Bunnymund was the first to speak. The anger was showing clearly in his voice. "Bunny" North tried to interfere but Bunny's temper couldn't be stopped. Jack had messed with Bunny some times before, but he had never seen him that angry, not even during the Easter Sunday 68. He tried to get in a word, but Bunny continued and his voice became louder. Sandy tried to go between them and while he tried to defend Jack Toothiana also tried to tell the Pooka to calm down.

Jack might have tried to explain himself to everyone once they all had calmed down, he might have stayed. But those finishing words cut into Jack as a knife. Toothiana didn't know what to say, who she should defend. North took a step forward and pulled Bunny back. "It is enough." He said loudly.

"Yeah, it's enough." Jack replied, even though North hadn't meant him. "You're right, you shouldn't have trusted me. I want to have fun, and that's all that matters. Why would I care about all this guardian crap? You were the ones pulling me into it. I'm not one of you."

"Jack" Toothiana tried to calm him down, but before she had even been able to start a sentence, Jack had already interrupted her.

"Forget it, I'm out of here. You can bribe kids all on your own." He told them before opening a window and flying out.

"Jack wait." Tooth tried to tell him. "Should I follow him?" She asked the others, not certain what to do in this situation. Should they leave him alone for a while or try to talk to him now? It could be dangerous for him out there when Pitch was out after them. On the other hand, the images MIM had shown them had suggested something different.
 
Sandy smacked Bunnymund right in the knee, his stress of the situation showing from the top of his head. They couldn't afford to lose Jack and Bunny just pushed him over the edge. Sandy slumped and shook his head before looking at the moon. It shined brightly down on them but was now silent just watching to see what was happening. The golden man was torn between chasing Jack and exposing himself or staying inside for safety. He pulled on Toothiana's hand and shook his head signalling that she wasn't strong enough to chase Jack when he had control of the wind.

Bunnymund's anger finally defused once he realized what he had done. "Oh Lord" he sighed putting his hand on his face a little ashamed. "I screwed up big time didn't I?" he asked rhetorically. The Pooka still couldn't believe that Jack would go behind their backs and do something like that though. Couldn't he see that Pitch didn't care for anyone? But then again Bunnymund was unsure... Kozmotis Pitchiner had a daughter and cared about her enough to be bewitched by nightmares. Pitch Black was a different person and Bunny had to accept that no matter how much of the Pitch seeped through.

Pitch Black was now a huge threat to them especially with the attacks on dreams and the inability to collect teeth consistently. Bunny and Sandy looked at each other awkwardly not knowing what to do about what just happened. The guardians were now vulnerable especially with Easter only a few nights away. Wait... that was it! "Easter!" Bunny shouted "It's only a few days away, and it could be the right push to get kids to believe again"
 
Except for Bunny, no one spoke. Toothiana wanted to comfort the Pooka but in that situation she just couldn't find anything to say. She knew it wasn't completely his fault, Bunny just had a lot of things to think about with Easter coming up, and Pitch being on the loose. He shouldn't have screamed like that at Jack, but she was certain they would be able to find Jack later once he had calmed down and talk about everything calmly.

North was also at loss of words, he didn't want to blame Bunny or Jack, but Bunny made a big mistake when he didn't let Jack explain himself, and now with Jack gone they had absolutely no idea what actually happened between the winter spirit and the boogeyman. Hopefully they would be able to convince Jack to come back.

Suddenly Bunny shouted in excitement when he remembered that they could use Easter to make the children believe again. "You are right, we need to make the children believe. And Easter will be the best opportunity. My friend, this time Easter is more important than Christmas." North said.

"But what do we do about Jack? " Toothiana said like a worried mother.

"I think we should leave him be for a little while, he needs time to calm down on his own. If we tries to approach him now, he might not want to listen" North replied.

_____

Jack were flying faster than he ever had before, he just had to get as far away as possible. He had to get away from them, from everyone. At some point he found himself as far away from the North pole he could get. Antarctica. The wind had carried him to the location he desired the most. It wasn't the first time he had come there. During his 300 years alive he had flied to Antarctica every time he needed to get away. Usually it was because he couldn't stand that people couldn't see him. On Antarctica that wasn't a problem, since no one was ever there. A winter paradise for him and him alone.

He was angry, but he didn't know towards whom he should direct his anger. On himself for not being able to do anything right, or Bunny for never even trying to see something from someone else's point of view, or all the guardians or even the moon. He was sad, he felt betrayed.
 
Bunny nodded "Alright we need to get to the Warren to make preparations" he said tapping his foot twice on the ground to open a portal between him and the guardians. "The eggs need painting and protecting" he said before ushering the other guardians to the hole "And we're doing things my way. It has to be perfect" he said pushing them in before following the others.

The group appeared in a small room and Bunnymund hopped to the door "Welcome to the Warren" he said opening the doors to show of the huge room filled with grass and spring water. Egg Sentinels were making their way around on their patrols and the small eggs were in a line up to be painted. He opened the small gate to let the eyeless eggs wander into the water and ink. "How we are going to do this is paint as many eggs as we can and hide all of them." he said "We have to usher them and make sure they don't wander too far and then lead them to the top of the warren where they will be transported to hiding spot all around the world" he explained.

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Pitch watched the globe in his cave for a while watching all the little lights snuff out as children realized that their teeth weren't picked up by the Tooth Fairy. It was a comforting site to see and he knew that once all of the lights on the globe went out they would start being replaced with holes as fear entered children's hearts. He'd be believed in then, free to roam the Earth a do what he pleased with his nightmares without anyone to stop him. While he was lost in thought he felt a strong gust of wind breeze past his home and raised an eyebrow. It must have been Jack passing him. He wondered what happened?

Pitch grabbed Jack's memories and left his lair in pursuit of his... acquaintance. Pitch followed the wind all the way to Antarctica and saw Jack on the edge of an ice burg. Pitch landed beside Jack softly and spoke "So what brings you to a place as cold as this?" he asked watching the deep water swallow pieces of ice in the distance "Other than the cold." he specified finally looking at Jack not know what to expect.
 
Jack glanced at the man whom just landed beside him. He hadn't even noticed that Pitch had followed him all the way there. But that wasn't to be expected in that situation, with his emotions in such a disarray, how would he have been able to noticing that someone followed him. He would probably not even notice if someone had tried to kill him in that moment before it was too late.

He then turned his head away and put on his hood. "It became a bit too heated at the only other cold enough place." He replied, he tried to keep his voice alert as if he was joking, but it came out too clearly that he weren't in a very good mood. He sank towards the edge of the cliff and sat down, letting his legs hang. "The moon told them about my meeting with you and they flipped out." He said with a sigh. "I don't even know what I expected."
 
Pitch laughed a bit at the attempted joke and sat down beside the winter spirit. "So the Man in the Moon told them everything? So they understood you're trying to see which side you were choosing?" He asked becoming more serious. He rubbed the small tooth cylinder in his pocket with his long fingers debating weather or not to give Jack the box or not. "Well it seems they didn't listen close enough if you're here" he said.

The Nightmare King nudged Jack and slipped the cylinder out of his pocket "Here, a present of sorts." He shrugged passing the gold cylinder. Jack now had his memories and only needed to access them in order to realize what his destiny was. What happened on the fateful day Jack turned into Jack Frost. There were a few thing he wouldn't know. How the darkness protected his body from being scavenged by his family. Jack Frost needed darkness and cold to be born but Jack didn't need to know that.

Pitch smiled a little bit at the boy before looking back out at the ocean and it's endless gaze. Ice swallowed by a dark tide, how poetic of the relationship that he and Jack shared. The ice would be swallowed for a short while only to pop back up and take bit of the tide with it but not with out sacrificing a piece of itself as well. Much like the day Jack died.
 
"They didn't even listen that far." Jack commented. They hadn't let him explain why he had met up with Pitch, and they would probably never believe him even if he would get to say his side of the story. Everything had to be so black and white, either it was evil or good. Which such a cynical way on seeing things, there was no wonder that they didn't trust him. He was just that mischievous spirit that caused trouble, they didn't even want him with them to begin with. They only accepted him because the moon told them so. And now he suddenly gave them an half explanation that they wouldn't be able to understand. What did he thought would happen? Did he truly believed that they would listen? Or was it his plan all along to just get him into their little club so he then could be hurt and thrown away?

Jack was woken up from his depressing thoughts when the nightmare king nudged him and took something out of his pocket. It was one of Tooth's gold cylinders. Those who held the children's teeth. It was his memories. He hadn't asked Pitch for them even once, he hadn't even mentioned that ha wanted them back from him. Still he was giving them to him.

He took the golden cylinder, first a bit hesitantly. It was hard to believe that he wasn't dreaming. "Are you sure?" A small smile had entered both on his lips and in his voice as he held the cylinder. He finally had his memories in his hand. He could find out how he became Jack Frost, why he became Jack Frost. But, would it make a difference? Suddenly he felt frightened. He has so close to his memories, but he wasn't certain if he really wanted to open them. He wanted his memories back but, what would he see? His feelings went forth and back between curiosity, happiness and fright. He wanted them, he was curious about them, but something in the back of his mind didn't want him to take a look.

"Thanks" It was funny how he so easily could look at Pitch without feeling any discomfort or fright. Just a day earlier he would have attacked the man without hesitation if he had showed up. Now he was being helped by him and he was thanking him with a smile, as if there was no nightmare king.

"I'll probably head back to Burgess soon, there isn't much time left before spring takes over there. Good luck with the guardians, I'm going to stay out of it." He told Pitch. He couldn't fight with the guardians, but he couldn't fight against them either. Not against Sandy, Tooth or North, he couldn't even hate Bunny enough to actually fight against him. He could find his peace of mind in Burgess, that was a place he always had returned to. The lake there made him feel at home. The lake where he woke up that night.
 
Pitch felt the fear flicker in Jack ignited by his the prospect of having his memories back. He didn't really expect fear but the nightmare king guess that it was hard to come to term with after living three hundred years. He stood up smoothly and looked at Jack for a moment.

"If you ever end up changing your mind you know where to find me" Pitch said patting the spirit on the shoulder before dissolving into the nearest shadow. He had preparations to make if he was going to stop Easter from happening. Pitch moved through his home and noticed that the fairies didn't make much noise anymore. It was probably so they could conserve their energy or that they had truly given up once Jack left here without helping them a few days ago.

He quickly amassed an army of Night Mares getting them ready to attack Bunnymund's Warren. It only took a few hours but waited until the absolute best time to attack, when the eggs made their trek into the tunnels. He unleashed his Night Mares in the tunnels and set himself to distract the guardians. He casted shadows on the wall and threw taunts until emerged from behind and swung his large scythe at them.
 
As Pitch left, Jack felt the loneliness shower over him. He had come to Antarctica to be alone, but now the loneliness was nagging on him. He had been alone for three hundred years, but this was the first time that he truly felt it. Maybe because he knew that there was someone that would listen to him now.

Jack sighted and moved his fingers over the golden cylinder. He wasn't certain if he truly wanted his memories back, and he didn't know if they could help him with his future. But he still had to know.

The feeling he got when the memories was activated was warm, human. He didn't feel like a winter spirit, he could actually feel the cold. Or at least he remembered how he felt the cold. He remembered how he played with some humans, his friends. And a little girl, his little sister. He used to get in trouble for doing pranks, but he made everyone laugh a lot. His sister always laughed. Then the memories changed, and he suddenly saw himself on a frozen lake. His sister was out on the ice and it was breaking. He was frightened but tried not to show her that, he told her that everything would be alright. He were able to save her, but not himself. Just as they both had started to laugh because they thought it was over, Jack fell through the ice.

The cold was painful, but it only lasted for a few moment. He had breathed in the water an passed out almost immediately. The dark was covering his body, until the moon shone down. The moon gave him a new life.

Jack woke up from the vision with his feelings in such a disarray and order at the same time. "I had a sister... I saved her. That was why he chose me." Most pieces was falling into place. The moon had chosen him as a guardian three hundred years earlier because he had protected his sister. But even though he understood that it still didn't justify the last three hundred years. Not telling him anything, leaving him alone for centuries before telling the guardians that they have to get help from him.

It didn't take him long to realize that he had to get involved. Not because he was chosen, but because he cared too much about the children. So far he had only thought about if from a guardian vs Pitch perspective, and not thought what more was on the line. He were going to protect the children, but that didn't mean he had to do it the same way as the guardians did. Pitch might be the nightmare king, but he weren't unreasonable. He might know a way to make both Pitch and the guardians co-exist. If just both sides are able to listen, and be open-minded.

Even though he had said that he wouldn't get involved anymore, he no longer felt that he had much of a choice. He had already been involved for over three hundred years.
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The guardians were attacked by Pitch, an attack they should have been more prepared for. The Night Mares were destroying the eggs while the weakened guardians had to face Pitch Black, the boogeyman. Toothiana couldn't fly much which slowed her down tremendously. North had already started to feel how his swords became heavier and hard to lift, without Easter they would most likely loose their powers completely very soon. They did their best in protecting themselves against the nightmare king, but they were in no position to actually protect the rest of the warren.
 
Pitch focused on Sandy, the strongest of the guardians at the moment. The two clashed, gold against black in a violent fight. The nightmares gathered around the group of guardians keeping them in an area where they couldn't help Sandy.

It was a pretty even fight between them both having the power over dream sand but Sandy was starting to become overwhelmed with the nightmares much like last night.
 
"We have to get to Sandy." Toothiana told, or rather shouted, to North. "I don't think he can stand alone against Pitch for much longer." She threw her swords around at the creatures that attacked them, making one after another disappear in a cloud of black sand, but she was still pushed back by them and couldn't get closer to helping Sandy. North was stuck in the same position, the Night Mares just kept coming and kept them away from their king.
 
Sandy buckled under the pressure of the dark king and was consumed by the darkness. It wasn't that painful to be suffocated in darkness; it made the guardian feel light. Sandy knew he had to fight against it but he was too tired to force his way out.

Pitch cackled when Sandy finally gave up his fight and succumbed to the Nightmare King. With the newest and largest edition of dream sand Pitch felt more powerful than he had in centuries. Oh it was a good feeling.

Bunnymund yelled at the Nightmare King and ran to attack him before being stopped by two large night mares who kicked the ground. "Guys it's time for a retreat!" He shouted turning back around tapping his foot to create a tunnel underneath the guardians, what was left of them.
 
Toothiana and North watched helplessly as their friend was consumed by the dark sand. But there was no time to grieve or think about it, they had to get out of there immediately. North had to pull Tooth with him for her to come after the shock of seeing a fellow guardian being killed like that. Somehow she was able to get herself together as she was pulled down into the hole by her friend.

The hole took them to the North pole, which probably was the safest place at the moment. But sooner or later Pitch would get to that too.

"No, Sandy." Tooth cried quietly, while North put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"It seems that we are in a hopeless situation, but we cannot give up now. We need to find a way to fight him before it's too late." North said before he looked at the globe and the lights that was being put out on a faster rate now.
 
Pitch let the guardians run for now knowing that this whole thing would be over soon. Fear would reign again and that was a beautiful prospect. The man in the moon would eventually find new guardians to replace the old ones but it would take decades for even the first one to show up. He sent the Nightmares away and hummed contently.

Bunnymund yelled out in frustration and kicked the railing surrounding the globe, "This wouldn't have happened if I didn't push Jack away." He said slumping a bit. "We lost Sandy and Easter, our two upper hands" he groaned putting his face in his hands "Im gonna be a goner by Tuesday"
 
Tooth walked over to the Pooka. "Don't blame yourself Bunny. We still have a little time left to fix everything. We will come up with a new plan. Pitch hasn't won yet." She told him and gave him a reassuring smile while brushing his arm.

"Tooth is right, we can't change what happened to Sandy. But we can still try to get Jack back, and bring happiness and peace back to the children. We can't loose hope." North said. If they gave up now then there would be no hope left for anyone. "As long as there is even one child that believes, then it's our duty to protect them."

"Well, it wasn't that hard to get me back." Jack said from the open window a bit away from them. He had just arrived to the pole moments earlier and had been able to hear North's speech, though he missed Bunny's and most of Tooth's. "What did happen to Sandy?" Jack asked as he jumped in from the window and walked towards them. Tooth had been happy to see Jack but suddenly her energy started to fade as she held her hands tightly and looked down into the floor. Even North looked devastated. He didn't need an answer to understand what had happened. It shouldn't have surprised him that Pitch would kill Sandy, he had tried before. But it came as a shock that he had done it already, Jack had met him just a while earlier.
 
"There is a god" Bunnymund said before hopping over to Jack "You cannot believe how happy I am to see you" he shook his head before looking over at the globe, a good percentage was already gone which hit the guardians hard. Bunny already looked smaller with the decreased number of children.

"Jack mate I'm sorry but... Sandy put up a good fight" he said a bit "We tried to help but we couldn't" he admitted hanging his head "We should do a service for him, make him a place to be remembered." Bunnymund said sadly. He just lost one of his best friends to darkness and he felt quite weak and uncertain now.
 
Jack got surprised over Bunny's reaction, he hadn't thought that the Pooka would be the first one to announce how happy he was to see the winter spirit. Actually he thought that he would have a ton of explaining to do before Bunny would even want to speak to him. But as Bunny came closer, Jack saw how small he had become. He was still tall, but he was smaller compared to when they first met. All the children that stopped believing was becoming the death of the Pooka.

As Jack heard the words coming out of Bunny's mouth he gripped his staff as hard as possible as if it would stop him from doing something stupid. "I should have been there." Jack said, obviously blaming himself for Sandy's death. He had known what Pitch was up to all along and done nothing about it, because he didn't want to be a guardian or against the guardians. But he should have protected his friend, guardian or not. "If I had just stopped him back on Antarctica." Jack mumbled as he pulled out the golden cylinder with his memories.

"Jack, that's...." Tooth recognized the tooth case immediately.

"I didn't mean to keep it a secret, but I met up with Pitch Black before I joined you in the collecting of the teeth. I asked him about the situation, and I wanted to understand his side before I could decide which side I would join, if I would join anyone at all. I can understand why Pitch is doing this, and to some extend I also agree with him.... But I can't let him hurt everyone. Not more than he already has." Jack told them, even though they hadn't brought up what had happened, he still felt it necessary to explain it. It was time to stop hiding. "I know what you all are thinking about Pitch, but I think I could convince him to stop this. Make an agreement with him."

"Jack that is crazy, he will not listen." North said, he knew who Pitch had been before. But Pitch was taken over by the dark, why would he listen?

"He listened when I told him not to kill Sandy the first time." Jack responded.
 
Bunnymund took a double take. "You told him to stop and he did?" he asked with a confused look. If Pitch was talking orders from Jack did that mean there was even a shred of who Pitch Black used to be; Hero of the golden age who was ultimately exploited and possessed by the very darkness he kept contained? "And he gave you your memories?"

Jack's memories would hold why he was chosen to be a guardian, but with Pitch pinning for Jack to join him why did the Nightmare King give them to Jack. It would have been dangerous to Pitch's plans, but maybe the shadowy man didn't want to succeed completely. Bunnymund's body twitched and decreased in size again. The pooka looked at the globe worriedly as lights went out everywhere and only a few remained. "If we don't hurry there will be a dark age" he tapped his foot nervously and looked at his other guardians.


None of them looked well except for Jack, but Jack never had anyone believe in him before, which would make Jack a wild card. "We should give it a chance but…" He trailed off looking at the globe "When that last light is out I'm a goner" he admitted as fear pulsed through him. Bunnymund didn't want to die but he might not have a choice at this point.
 
Jack watched as Bunny shrank even more right in front of him. If Jack couldn't convince the nightmare king to stop what he was doing, then it would probably be over for the others. After all, they were all very weakened and Jack couldn't possibly beat Pitch himself.

"You can't just go to Pitch all by yourself Jack, what if he won't listen? He might try to kill you." Tooth said worriedly.

"Trust me, I know he won't. Right now talking to him is the best chance we got. I'll be back as fast as I can, until then try to come up with a reserve plan just in case. There's a big chance we'll need it." Jack said, not even he thought he would be able to convince Pitch to stop. But he wanted to believe it, and while the guardians were in a weakened state, fighting would be the most foolish thing to do.

"North, I need one of your snow globes. It would be stupid to waste too much time getting there and back." He then said as he turned to North. He nodded and took forth a snow globe from his pocket and gave it to Jack. "Be careful Jack." He told the winter spirit.

Jack nodded before turning to Bunny. "I bet Sandy didn't give up before he reached the end, so we shouldn't either. Don't give up before every single light is out." Jack told the Pooka and the others. He didn't have much to loose if Pitch didn't decide to kill him. But the guardians might loose their life's and the children would loose all hope. That's why they couldn't afford to loose hope, because then they could as well forfeit their life's immediately.

He opened the portal to Pitch's entrance in the woods and walked through.
"I hope he knows what he's doing." Tooth said as the portal closed itself.


It hadn't been long since Jack had gone down into those dark tunnels. And he was just as nervous as the first time. Pitch, the nightmare king should know that he was there if he was around.
 
Bunnymund and the others sent Jack of with tired waves. "We just have to believe in him…" he said to Tooth and shook his head "But we should start our own work to keep those last lights lit up." He said growing even smaller. Fear was taking over the world and eventually hope would be lost. "I think that would be the best plan…"
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Pitch felt the disturbance in his tunnels and sighed. He floated with the darkness and saw Jack and felt the winter spirits fear. He quietly walked behind Jack and spoke "So I'm guess you've changed you mind about the situation?" he said walking around the spirit to face him properly.


The Nightmare King had felt the surge of power that happened when he defeated the Sandman. He took all of Sandy's being an corrupted it for his own use, to make him powerful again after so long. It was so good too feel alive again after feeling so dead since the dark ages. The gold in his eye flashed in the darkness as he smiled. "So what is on your mind young Jack Frost?" he said walking to a lighted area of the vast room.
 
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