A/N: Hey all! This is the last story in the In the Company of Others series, and while you could skip the middle ones I would highly recommend reading the first one before getting started here. The order of the series is as follows:
1) The Big Three in the Life of Jack Frost
2) Getting Reacquainted with the Family
3) Painting Candy
4) Magic School
5) False Guardian
Chapter 1 - Storm
Jack had to say, this was the first time he had been woken up by Sandy. Usually, the little golden man put him to sleep. But here was Sandy, peaking into the Bennett freezer and interrupting a late Spring nap.
"I don't need any sand Sandy. This heat knocks me right out." Any other bed, Jack would have turned over but as it was frozen blueberries got in the way. And the large box of freeze pops.
The other Guardian flapped his hands about. Before Jack could close his eyes, Jamie and Tooth's faces appeared as well.
"Oh, Jack, we're sorry to wake you, but," Tooth's face feathers puffed out in worry. "There's something up at the Pole. A really big snowstorm. It's been going on for days and North is going stir crazy. Maybe you could try to calm it down?"
"What? Oh, yeah. I mean, I can try. If Mother Nature whipped it up for some reason though, I can't help you." Jack climbed out of the freezer and snagged his staff which had been leaning against it. "Do you know if he's done something to piss Gaia off?"
Sandy shook his head and the four of them made their way out the garage.
"I'll come back later, okay Jamie?"
"You'd better. I want to hear more about this storm. Think you could remake it here for Christmas?"
Jack chuckled. "We'll see. Wind! Take me to the Pole!"
The wind circled around him, lifting him up into the air and then shooting him north. Sandy was keeping pace with him in a paper crane, but Tooth started falling behind after a bit. Not wanting to leave her behind, he slowed down so they could reach the Pole together.
Bunny was already there waiting for them, rubbing his paws up and down his arms to keep warm. "It's bloody cold. Mate, what'd North do to you?"
"Nothing." Jack answered. "This isn't me. It's almost summer remember? And I'm linked to the North Hemisphere for the most part. Plus, there's something strange about this storm."
"Strange? Strange how?"
"Familiar maybe? But I can tell you this, it's elemental magic." Jack flew off towards the workshop.
The storm was intense. It was only Jack's familiarity with the area that allowed him to move towards North's place, the snow and ice chips in the air were too thick to see anything. The air was bitingly cold too, he hoped North was wearing a yeti furred coat.
He wavered on the edge of it, the wind hesitant to take him further and Jack was inclined to agree it with. There was something off about this storm. Might as well practice something North had been going on and on about – understanding the magic of something he hadn't created.
Taking a deep breath Jack closed his eyes and stuck his hand out, palm against the storm. Something pressed against his skin, something colder than ice and again Jack got the strange sense that he should know this magic. As soon as he registered the other magic, the storm disappeared.
When the other three caught up to him, Jack was still staring at his hand in amazement.
"You have more magic than I though you did, to make that clear up so fast."
"I'm not entirely sure I actually did it?"
"What do you mean?" Tooth asked, flying over to face him.
"I mean, I was just starting to analyze it when it stopped."
"Regardless, let's go see if North's okay." Bunny took off on all fours, the others flying behind him.
Crisis taken care of, Sandy came up next to Jack and signed an apology for waking him up. Not only did the former shooting star understand the importance of sleep, he had also been very apologetic to Jack the past four years. Jack suspected it had to do with making up for ignoring him for 300 years, even if the matter had been squared. Sandy hadn't noticed Jack's interaction with his dreamsand because the sand had labeled him as a teenager and not a spirit. Totally not Sandy's fault and Jack was glad that the golden Guardian wasn't the ass he had originally thought him to be.
In Jack's mind they were good, but Sandy continued to go out of his way to be friendly. Jack didn't mind the nighttime waves and times they worked together to craft dreams, but all the attempts at conversation were a bit much. Sandy was mute, and since Jack much preferred silence and listening to a conversation than having one, being forced to carry one was a bit aggravating. All their talks were rather short, but Sandy didn't seem to mind.
"Don't worry about it Sandy, you guys woke me up for a good reason. Besides, I probably wouldn't have slept much longer."
The Sandman held out a ball of golden sand, an invitation for sweet dreams.
"Nah, I won't need to nap again for a few weeks. Less if I hang out with Phil. And North." Jack hastily added. Really, he should make a point of saying hi to the Cossack more often during his visits to the Pole.
Sandy showed a pictograph of a sock and Jack shook his head with a small smile. No, he didn't need to take some sand for later. He'd find his fellow Guardian when he was ready to snuggle into some snow.
North opened the door just as they arrived.
"Jack!" he boomed, "Thank you for fixing storm. Was getting a little crazy in here."
"I really didn't do anything-"
"Nonsense!" North pulled Jack under his arm and led the way to a small lounge overlooking the ravine the workshop sat atop. "You are being modest again. Still don't understand how you don't think you have lots of power."
"Cuz I don't."
"Nonsense, mate. You're full of it."
Jack wanted to protest again, but let it slide. He knew powerful magician spirits and also knew that he didn't compare to them. Though he did accept the fact that he had more power than he originally thought he did.
Jack waved to a yeti just outside the lounge, North frowned at it, and the rest of the Guardians sent matching looks of various intensities. The yeti, to her credit, brushed them all off.
North set Jack in the chair farthest from the door and called for elves to bring them fruitcake and eggnog. As the others began to munch and chat, well used to Jack's tendency to just listen, his thoughts went back to the storm. It hadn't been natural, and here they were, just talking like this was a friendly get together.
"North," Jack interrupted and they all turned to him. "Someone made that storm, it was full of magic. Who would want to snow you in at the Pole?"
"Other than you?"
"Hey, I'd never snow you in for days. Just enough to make it hard to open the doors."
Sandy smiled into his cup.
"He's got a point North." Bunny tipped an ear towards the window. "Last time, Pitch came here first. And he's got a ton of power, has to to have changed Sandy's sand."
"Gut tells me it wasn't Pitch."
"Anyone else who'd want to do this?" Tooth pressed.
North shook his head. "I am Santa Claus, who hates me?"
Jack was thinking about a different question – who was capable of creating such a storm? Elemental magic, as he had learned from North, was the simplest type to do. Most spirits had some connection to a natural force and could manipulate it to some extent. The storm had been made of elemental magic, but it had an incredible amount of power behind it. Jack doubted he could create a storm of a similar caliber. So, who had more magical strength than him? Who had more control over the winter elements?
Who knew? Jack hadn't met every spirit out there.
"Jack? What's wrong? The room just got cold."
Jack blinked at Tooth. "What?"
"The temperature just dropped. What's on your mind?"
"No no, that's not me." Jack frowned. He hadn't noticed the room getting colder, but now that Tooth had mentioned he could feel the temperature drop. He could feel something else too, that same cold presence that he had felt in the storm and he knew for sure now he should know who it belonged to but the name wouldn't come.
He floated to the window and opened it to stick his head out. Sandy was at his side in an instant, asking in his own way what was up.
"There's someone else here, the person who created the storm."
"Who?" Bunny asked, coming up behind him and staining his ears to hear.
"I don't know." Jack leaned out farther to look into the ravine. There was someone there, only noticeable because of the deeper patch of dark. As if the person knew they had been spotted, they starting rising considerably fast. "But they're-"
Jack was cut off by a large sheet of ice. It smashed through the exterior wall, destroying the window, and then hit him like a charging moose. Jack found himself forced through three walls and then stopped pressed up against a fourth.
He was in Phil's office. The yeti spent a moment looking from the new hole in the wall and the four faces of the Guardians looking back at him before rushing to Jack's aid. The ice was cold, freezing even, and Jack was sent back to the times he had been caged by Old Man Winter. He had gotten out of those thanks to magic, painting the bars away, but now his hands were pinned so he couldn't get to his brushes. His staff was also missing, most likely dropped somewhere on his way to Phil's office.
Phil signed to stay put and then he rushed out the door. Jack couldn't do anything but watch his friend leave, he was pinned that tightly to the wall. He had no idea what Phil was going to bring back, or when he would be back. In the meantime, Jack could hear through the ice sounds of fighting. Whoever had blasted him was attacking his family.
Jack couldn't have that.
Well, Bunny and North were always talking about how he shouldn't need conduits to use magic. Now was a perfect time to try.
Jack closed his eyes and concentrated. He was getting pretty good at feeling magic through his hands so that was where he turned his focus. Water was his natural element, which meant fire was the hardest for him to use. No melting the ice then, he'd have to transform it. Into what?
A blanket. He probably couldn't manage anything as complicated at the one North had gifted him with, but something simple like the one Mrs. Bennett draped over the couch in front of the TV would work. He pressed his palms against the ice, doing his best to channel magic through them like it would though a paintbrush. It was hard, because he was reminded exactly why he had used conduits to begin with. Sometimes it was hurtful to touch what you wanted to change.
Suddenly, the pressure around his body was gone. Noise returned to its proper volume and Jack instantly felt warmer due to the ice's absence. What he was most preoccupied with though was the pain. The ice hadn't been transformed, it had been ripped away, and every part of skin that had been touching it had been ripped off to some degree.
Jack snapped his eyes open as his knees hit the wooden floor. His hands weren't bleeding per say, but they were pink and raw. Judging by the pain in his feet from the tops pushing against the floor, they looked the same. So was the left side of his face most likely.
He looked up, expecting to see Phil looking a mixture of pleased at freeing him and worried over the damage it caused. What he saw instead was another wooly creature, easily the size of several yeti.
A wooly mammoth.
A very familiar wooly mammoth.
"Marian?" Jack reached up to scratch the underside of her trunk like he had used to, but she jerked the appendage away. "Aw, don't be like that. I'm sorry I didn't visit. But the Old Man did essentially kick me out and without him to help me out I couldn't get through the tropics hey! Marian! Put me down!"
The mammoth had wrapped her trunk around Jack's middle and was now carrying him through the walls he had crashed through.
"Marian, really, I can walk," he glanced at his still healing feet, "well, I can float there."
She snorted softly and didn't lessen her grip. Jack sighed at his fate. Wait. If Marian was here, than that meant the other Guardians were fighting -
They entered into the lounge. It wasn't much of one anymore, as two walls were now gone and most the furniture was destroyed. There was a Guardian each in a corner, a few yeti scattered around and in the center of the room stood Old Man Winter.
He didn't look any different than he had a century and a half ago. Just a few wisps of white hair on the top of his head, but a healthy beard that glistened with ice beads. His eyes were a clear crystal blue, with maybe one extra wrinkle around them. Despite being called Old Man Winter, he didn't actually look that old. 50 maybe, by human standards.
At Marian's entrance, all fighting stopped to look at her.
Tooth cried out in dismay. "Jack! Your face!"
"I'll heal, now you wanna toss me my staff? You're hovering over it."
She bent down to pick it up and started her way towards him. Her progress was halted by Old Man throwing a three foot icicle like a dagger in front of her nose which then stuck into the wall. North, who had been approaching Marian from the other side wasn't as lucky. A solid block of ice hit his shoulder and knocked him to the ground.
"You!" Old Man pointed a finger at Jack. "You turned to him for help?" The finger moved so it pointed to North, who was struggling to his feet. Now that Jack was paying attention, North looked the worst of the Guardians. Old Man had obviously been targeting the Cossack.
"Apparently the years have been really bad for you, because you're babbling. What are you talking about?"
"Magic! Peter said you're taking magic lessons from this fake winter spirit!"
"Wait, are you telling me that after you dumped me on Mother Nature and called me a bad apprentice you're jealous that you're not my teacher anymore?" Jack couldn't help but laugh. If he hadn't been in Marian's grip, he would have fallen to his knees in mirth. "You hated teaching me."
"You are a winter elemental! That means you're mine!"
"Whoa, slow down there, mate. Jack's his own spirit."
Old Man Winter turned to snarl at Bunny. "I don't expect you to understand, rabbit. You, like the fat man over there, aren't a true nature spirit. I bet you've ever even met Belenus."
Bunny didn't have a comeback, so Jack assumed the Winter Seasonal was right on the money.
"Jack, what's he talking about?" North had come to stand next him. The Russian reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, but Marian jerked him out of the way.
Jack rolled his eyes at her, not that she could see. "Marian, don't tell me you're jealous too."
In response, her hold on him tightened and Jack just sighed. "Look, you guys have always been Guardians. From day one, and we all know you don't interact much with other spirits."
There was ashamed weight shifts around room. They all felt bad about that, and Jack was still learning how to put that behind him, but they had made good progress in these past four years.
"Elementals have this sorta hierarchy we follow. And I don't mean elemental in that our magic is linked to earth or water or like that. I meant elemental in that we are tied to the elements of nature, specifically seasons. North, you know my elemental magic is strongest with water, most winter spirits are, but not all of them. I know some ice giants who have earth powers. And Old Man here has strong control over wind. But I'm a winter elemental, meaning I'm strongest during Winter. Don't ask me why."
Old Man snorted. "It's because you were created during Winter. Your new teacher hasn't taught you anything."
Marian made a series of noises.
"And now Marian tells me she had to free you from that ice. You haven't improved magically at all!"
"Jack has made lots of progress." North defended his student, arms crossed over his chest, but secretly, Jack had to agree with his old mentor. While Jack now knew more about magic, he hadn't actually gotten better at using it. Though, being able to sense it was handy. Too bad he hadn't recognized Old Man's magic earlier.
"What's this hierarchy, Jack?" Tooth asked. She was slowly inching closer, the others too. Old Man hadn't seemed to noticed yet, but the Guardians were all creeping towards Jack and Marian.
"It's like your tooth fairies. They're a part of you, and so are under your command. Old Man Winter is the Winter Seasonal. He is Winter. And since I'm a winter elemental, I, ideally, have to defer to him. Just like Mother Nature is his boss. Except he doesn't always listen to her and I didn't always listen to him. Which is why, again, you tossed me out the door and into the garden."
"Anyone would after all those pranks! Were snow sculptures of me and Marian in those positions really called for?"
"You're right, it was unfair to Marian." Jack tipped his head back to look the wooly mammoth in the eye. "Sorry about that girl."
Sandy was rolling in laughter, ever closer until he was directly above the mammoth. Quickly, he blew sand down onto her and Marian dropped like a stone. North caught Jack before he could hit the floor and Bunny helped peel Marian's trunk from around his waist. Once back on solid ground, Jack found his staff pressed into his hand and his body quickly pushed back behind those of the other four Guardians. Old Man might have been targeting North before, but now it was obvious his real target was Jack.
He felt a surge of love for this new family of his. Here they were, putting themselves between him and danger without a second thought. All his negative thoughts about Christmas and Easter, and thus North and Bunny faded away. Because, well, the past was the past. He'd never forget those three hundred years where they ignored him, but seeing their backs in front of him made him realize that the past four years had more than made up for that. And it's not like he had been alone before he'd been made a Guardian. There had been Peter Pan, two brief encounters with Mother Nature, and a full century with Old Man Winter and all the spirits who lived at his castle in the South Pole.
Moon above, he guessed that made the Old Man a strange sort of family too.
Gently, Jack pushed his family aside to stand in front of them. They stood close at his back, Tooth's hand on his shoulder and North's hand fisted in the back of his hoodie ready to pull him back.
"Old Man, why are you here? At the Pole? Why not just track me down at Burgess?" He waved a hand around the destroyed room. "Why all-"
Jack cut himself off, because he knew exactly why. You don't spend a hundred years with someone without getting to know them. "You wanted to show off!"
It was just like Jack's first day with him, when Old Man Winter had flown them on Marian's back to the hottest place on Earth just to show Jack the extent of Winter's powers. Jack had clung to his back, unable to touch the ground and awed by Old Man's control over the weather. If he had been looking for a similar reaction from North, he hadn't gotten it.
His old mentor coughed into his hand, but didn't deny it.
"And you called me childish!" Jack marched forward, the Guardians letting him go now that it looked like Old Man was cowed and not going to be throwing any magic around. Sandy however, still had his whips out. Jack couldn't help but feel warm at that.
"I had thought, that when you grew up a bit and wanted to actually learn, you would come back to my castle. Not come and ask a Guardian for help." Jack was surprised at the venom in the word. Old Man Winter had never said anything bad about them during their time together.
"Why wouldn't I?" He causally leaned against his staff. "I am one now."
"WHAT?" boomed a woman, voice rolling thunder.
Everyone turned to the no longer there outside wall. Standing in the center of the hole was Mother Nature. Being in the perpetual Winter of the north, she was in a fur trimmed white dress. The butterflies that followed her around were flapping their wings while they rested on her head and if the tornado raging behind her was any clue she was pissed. The glare she was sending Jack's way made it obvious just who exactly she was angry at.
She stepped forward and Jack immediately stepped back. He expected to be hit with his own personal lightening bolt any second now.
"What do you mean, you're a Guardian?" Mother Nature continued to stalk forward. Jack tried to retreat, he very much wanted his family at his back right now, but the ground beneath his feet had turned to quick sand and there was a cyclone starting to build behind his back. It shrunk as Mother Nature got closer, encircling her, Old Man Winter, and Jack.
He looked over his shoulder, the Guardians were battling the ever stronger winds, trying to get to him, because it was very obvious Mother Nature was planning on dishing some serious hurt.
"You were not created three hundred years ago to be a Guardian."
Before Jack could even get out a protest, his body jerked as lightening coursed through him and the cyclone whisked them away.
