Queen and Jack of Ice

The boy rested the staff against his shoulder, grinning cheekily.

"I won this time around, my dear ice queen!"

"Oh? Well, it'll be your last victory, you rebel!" She exclaimed, brushing off the splattered snow from her gown, her hands glowing bright blue. Lightning ice shot out from her fingertips towards him. Jack Frost ducked down and winked at her before the wind whisked him up into the air.

"Uncontrolled flight like yours will get you nowhere, boy," she scoffed as she flew after him in hot pursuit, shooting crude hail at her flailing target who was proving rather difficult to hit with his erratic movements. "Will you never learn?"

Jack Frost laughed as he tried to dodge, occasionally creating a small but dense flurry of snow with a wave of his wooden staff in hopes of slowing her down. They were almost evenly matched in flight speed, but it was fun to see who could keep it up longer this round. Anyone else would think they were enemies battling it out because they had similar powers, but in truth, they had a relationship somewhat a kin to friendly rivals. They were sort of living together after all. Simone cackled, the thrill of the chase sparking her adrenaline.

"I'll take you down like a pigeon!" She crowed.

Then it happened.

Jack seemed to lose control and dropped like a dead weight. Simone noticed him clutching his chest as if he was in pain. Alarmed, she swooped after him and caught the winter spirit in her arms.

"Frost-" she cried angrily, suspecting it was a mere trick that she had briefly fallen for, then hesitated when she saw his face was contorted with pain. Maybe he wasn't joking. She watched the boy expectantly for him to break into a grin and say, "fooled ya!" before darting away once more, prepared to make a smart comeback if he did.

He didn't.

When Jack regained conscious a few minutes later, he found himself slumped on the woman's shoulder, leaning on the wall of ice behind them. It was sunset, and the last rays of light pierces colored the world with warm hues. His friend was occupied with polishing her crown.

"I was beginning to think that you were dead," she teased.

Jack didn't say anything, his face grave. He merely inhaled, and gathered her hair over him like some sort of blanket of comfort. Simone was puzzled by the unexpected gesture. He only did this when he needed comfort, and that was only that one time he was haunted by his friends' deaths. So what could it be?

"The last light is going out," he murmured, his voice hoarse.

The tiara clattered to the ground, but Simone didnt' reach for it. It wasn't important, not now. She had dreaded this moment ever since he told her.

"..."

"You know what? I thought I would be the first to go after that terrible event brought human civilization to its knees. It's some kind of miracle that I've lasted this long..." he confessed.

She stared down at him numbly.

"This is it for me, Simone. Thanks for... being a great buddy, I guess." He managed an uneasy laugh. Simone blinked once, twice, her eyelids fluttering as the bridge of her nose began to sting for some reason, as well as her eyes.

"Jack..."

Right now, the last moments were slipping away; she couldn't even afford to lose one precious second. She pulled away slowly, put her hands on his skinny shoulder and turned him around so that they were facing each other, eye to eye. She could sense him trembling under her fingers

"Do you thank I'll see ma and sis?" He asked feebly. The snowy-haired woman looked at her young friend helplessly, unable to answer the question.

Silence.

He looked at her with those blue eyes she secretly admired.

"I'll miss you," he said. Those three words struck deep into her heart.

She couldn't find any words to say, choked up by the awful feeling spreading up inside her, an emotion that she couldn't put a name on. It felt like her heart was bleeding. On an impulse, she cupped his face and pressed her lips against his forehead.

"I'll miss you, too," she said tenderly as she pulled away to look into those eyes one last time. Jack smiled faintly, before focusing on the moon that was rising in the horizon.

He seemed so fragile...

Then he was gone, like a lingering scent blown away by the wind, a wisp of a ghost flowing away from between her very fingers, a sigh into the space of eternity. For the first time in so long, she bowed her head in mourning and wept. The moon had reached its zenith by the time she finally had the strength to rise to her feet. She vowed that if she ever encountered a human child, she'd tell him of Jack Frost, stir up the belief once more to revive her only friend as she picked up her tiara and set it upon her snowy hair.

Little did she know that the tiara had different 'vows' in mind.

"Stop right there, you villain!"A voice demanded among the screams.

The Ice Queen spun around to see who dared cry out against her. The person glared at her defiantly. The Queen glanced at the cat beside her, and a flash of hurt flickered across her face before she contorted it into a snarl.

"Who are you?"

"I am Fionna the human," was the reply.

The Ice Queen froze. The word 'human' sparked something within her mind. And the human's white bunny hat and blue top tugged at her memories. She frowned as she felt she had forgotten something very important.

Forget it, the tiara whispered.

No... She dug deeper into her foggy mind, clutching at strands of a boy's voice that called out to her.

FORGET, the tiara demanded more loudly.

A name: J-

Cake and Fionna charged at her, seizing their chance as their enemy seemed to be absorbed in her thoughts. It distracted the Ice Queen for a second, which was more than enough for the tiara. Power began crackling between her glowing fingers. And the last chance that she could override the tiara's magic command to regain her memories was lost.

So she never did remember her dear winter friend, Jack Frost,

nor a child named Marshall Lee she tried to save from a demon,

nor the end of the civilization world and the revival of magic,

nor her beloved Benny from long, long ago whom she loved.

It wasn't on purpose;

it wasn't her fault...

The crown gleamed as it blew more mist into her, addling her mind.

It was both a blessing and a curse.

A/N:

Bugh, I could write better than this, but it's like a flash ficlet, so I'll perfect it another time... Anyway, the tiara is the one making people go crazy, right? So for the brief minutes that Simone doesn't have the accursed thing on her head, she acts a bit more like her old self. I have no idea why the tiara's deleting all those precious memories from her mind. So evil. But not as evil as Gunter. ;) And yes, I was trying to kill you with feels, I admit. This probably has as many plot holes as there are spots on a leopard, but I don't really have the energy to care.

Adventure Time and Rise of the Guardians belong to their respective owners.