Disclaimer: We do not own Rise of the Guardians or Hunger Games (much though we wish we could be that awesome) Thank you.
May the odds be EVERin your favor!! ;)
-ROTG POV
Update summary: With the attack Pitch had made upon the Tooth palace, Toothiana was frantic to find some sign of something left behind, some sign that the damage was not as extensive as she had originally thought. Worried about it, she requested to stay behind while Sandy, Bunnymund, and North made the rounds. Jack volunteered to stay with her, so that she would not be alone for Pitch to attack, and because he was worried for her as well.
"Oooh… Jack, I'm so worried!" Toothiana fretted as she fluttered around her Palace. Jack Frost floated with the wind's assistance out of her way. "There's so much damage… so many teeth are gone. Memories are lost. My fairies have been captured… The damage is extensive!"
Jack nodded, but before he could speak, Baby Tooth chirped and zipped towards her Queen. Tooth cupped her hands protectively around the little fairy. "Oh, little one! I know you're here. At least you're safe…" She looked sadly into the sky. "I wish I could say the same for the rest of them…"
Worried that she may start to get further depressed, Jack landed, and tapped his staff against the floor of the balcony to get her attention. "Uh… who knows… maybe Pitch and his Nightmares missed something? Is there any place they might not have thought to look?"
Tooth thought a moment, zipping about in a small space, sorting through the possible places in her mind. Jack was worried about her. Pitch had attacked her home, had stolen or captured everything that mattered to her. North himself had whispered to Jack as they had left that Tooth may get seriously depressed. It was up to Jack to keep her from dwelling on the attack, and to keep her moving forward.
"Oh!" Tooth exclaimed. "There is at least one-could you come up and help me search it?" She came close, within half a foot of Jack.
He flushed a painful purple. "You-you want my help? But… what if I start freezing stuff? What if I start causing more harm than good?" He was genuinely worried. Sometimes he couldn't control his powers very well at all. What if he accidentally froze something important? What if he broke something important?
Tooth waved his worries off. "You are more of a help than a harm, Jack. No matter what you protest." She flushed as well. "And…I enjoy your company…" She trailed off, uncertain how to continue.
As the awkward silence ensued, Jack struggled to find a way to end it, his brain too muddled to think. "Ah-uh-eh-heh-ahhh… ahm… I would love accompanying you," Jack replied, in his embarrassment reverting back to the old-fashioned manners that seemed to be a part of him since he could remember.
Tooth grinned brightly in return. "Great!" She exclaimed, grabbing his hand and leading him upwards, towards the main golden dome of her palace, barely giving him enough time to mentally call up the wind to help him.
Reaching the dome, Tooth gently pushed against a hidden panel on the side, which clicked inward, and slid sideways, revealing a small doorway into a lush room. Tooth fluttered inside, the doorway being the perfect height for her. Jack ducked inside after her, and stood in one of the taller areas, gazing around himself in wonder.
Plush blankets and cushions littered the floor, and a closet was built on one side. Jack wondered how, for a moment, before he realized that the wall it was on was straight, not curved, meaning that the wall was built on the inside of the dome, providing a small amount of space for some clothing and accessories Tooth might wear. As said fairy fluttered around the cluttered room, Jack gazed about, barely taking in all the knick-knacks, before noticing a small red box with a white crystal as a handle starting to tip over off of a shelf. "Ah-Tooth, look out!"
The box looked as though it were fragile, and Tooth couldn't tell what he was warning her about. Dashing forwards to catch it, with the wind's aide, Jack got his palm beneath it a few moments before it could crash against the ground. Sighing with relief, he held the box up, so that Tooth could see it. "I'm assuming this is something important?"
Tooth gasped, and fluttered forward, carefully, delicately taking it out of his hand, holding it with her fingertips. "Yes! Oh, this was a gift from my mother… it's part of what helped me become the Tooth Fairy…" She trailed off, staring at the tiny box adoringly, until Jack cleared his throat.
"Was that what you were looking for?" Jack asked, curious. It may have been a precious object… but he wasn't sure how that could help them keep Pitch from causing any more damage, nor was he sure how it could help reverse the damage Pitch had caused.
Tooth flushed briefly again. "Ah. Oh, no. But it gives me an idea…" she slowly flew back up to the shelf, which had a couple of fluffy stuffies on them. What they were of, Jack couldn't tell, though he thought one was a purple bear. Tooth shuffled around briefly, before he heard a faint "Ah, here it is!" That proclaimed a victory.
He leaned against his staff, waiting patiently for her to reveal just what it was that she was looking for. Holding it almost as delicately as she had held the red wooden box, she landed next to him, and handed him the object. It was a Memory box. One with a picture on the end that looked much like him, but with brown hair. "Is this… is this… me?" he asked, tentatively.
Tooth nodded, biting her lip. "You mentioned earlier that you didn't remember your past," She flushed again. "I… since you became Jack Frost… I kinda… well, started hanging onto the teeth… since I could sometimes look at it and...well… think of you."
Jack stared down at the small memory box in his hand. "Should I… should I open it?" He asked. He was nervous. It was his memories. Something he had been searching for almost his whole life, and before he knew it, it was staring him in the face.
Tooth looked back up at him. "That's your decision. But… it may help you find out who you are."
Jack looked back down at the Memory Box. His Memory Box. Should he open it? His mind battered the idea back and forth, and before he could stop himself, his finger reached forward of its own accord, to trace the diamond pattern.
Jack gasped faintly, as a golden light enveloped him, and threw him back into a memory. It was him, on the ice of the pond in Burgess, with a little girl on the ice. She had brown hair, and brown eyes, which he saw when she looked up at him. The ice was cracking beneath her ice skates. "Jack?" She asked him for reassurance. "I'm scared."
Suddenly, he saw himself. With brown eyes, and hair that was as brown as his eyebrows. He was wearing a sort of cloak, like colonial style clothing, and the girl-his sister, he remembered, Pippa, wore a dress.
"Ah-I know, I know," He put a bare foot down on the ice, hearing and watching it crack beneath his own foot as well. He looked back up at her. "But, you're gonna be alright. You're not gonna fall in."
He looked back down at the ice. "Uh…" An idea struck him, and he looked up at her. "We're gonna have a little fun, instead."
"No, we're not!" Pippa cried out in dismay.
"Would I trick you?" Jack asked, to try to persuade his sister to trust him.
"Yes! You always play tricks!" She continued, not sounding persuaded in the least.
"Awh.. Well, well no-no-not this time. I promise. I promise…" He looked over at her frightened face, a calming, reassuring smile on his own. "You're gonna be… You're gonna be fine."
She looked up, a little hope in her eyes, that maybe her big brother would be right, that everything would be fine. "You gotta believe in me," He pleaded.
She let out a breath, focusing on him. "You wanna play a game?" He asked, brightness coming into his voice. "We're gonna play hopscotch! Like we play every day," He glanced from the ice to Pippa once more, as a smile began to form on her face.
"It's as easy as one," He put a foot down on the ice, hearing it creak beneath his foot. Wincing, he looked back up at her, and quickly made a joke out of out, balancing on one foot and over-dramatically flailing, exclaiming "Woaaaah!" To make her giggle.
He succeeded, bringing a slight giggle out of her, and a full smile on her face. "Two…" He continued towards his staff… "Three!" He finished, nimbly, yet gently alighting next to his staff. He bent down, picking it up. "Alright…" He held it out slightly, ready to reach out and pull her towards him. "Ready,"
Pippa looked down at her ice skates, and started to try to move towards him, gasping as the ice cracked further under her feet. "One," he began. Pippa looked down at her ice skates, and started to try to move towards him, gasping as the ice cracked further under her feet. "That's it, that's it. Two," She started forward more, causing the ice to crack further. She gasped more in fear, struggling to get the air down her throat.
"Three!" Quickly, Jack lunged out with his staff, hooked the shepherd's hook of it around his sister and dragged her off of the cracked patch, tossing her safely onto thick ice, but tossing himself onto the cracked patch, with a grunt.
He sat up, and looked at her, she picked herself up, and grinned at him. He smiled, stood up, and started to reach for her, when the ice cracked further underneath him.
He looked down as it cracked, glancing up just long enough to see his sister reach out for him, calling out "Jack!" As he slipped beneath the icy water, and the moon filled his vision…
With a gasp, he was brought back into the present, with a worried Tooth veeery close to him. He flushed and leaned back slightly. "Ah-um, Tooth?"
She let out a breath she'd apparently been holding in. Then, she immediately bombarded him with questions. "Are you ok? First you looked happy, then a little worried, then happy for a brief moment, then sad again. Are you alright? What happened?"
Jack blinked and looked down at the floor. "No-nothing happened. I just remembered my sister."
Tooth gasped, and her feathers fluffed up around her as she fluttered up to eye level with him. "A sister? You had a sister? Wow!" She flew around the room, bouncing onto the corner where most of the cushions were piled. "That's wonderful!"
Jack looked back down at the ground after following her flight with his eyes. "Yeah…" He replied sadly. "I guess it is…"
He let his eyes roam the room. Bright colors, not all of them necessarily meant to combine, were splashed across in various forms. Pillows, cushions, wall hangings, small fluffy things. Then Jack's gaze came to rest on the closet. An idea came to him, partially to bring the attention off of him, partially because he was genuinely curious.
"Hey, Tooth?" He called to get her attention. She looked up at him, and he nodded in the direction of the closet. "You normally have your feathers most of the time. I've never seen you wear a dress or something like that."
Tooth flushed. "I, ah, yeah. Most of the time it helps me to stay just in feathers…" She looked over at the closet. "But in there… are gifts. Gifts from various people around the world who just… appreciate what I do. Gifts from people who like who I am. Gifts that aren't cushions or stuffed animals, but clothes. And granted, I don't wear them often… just… when I'm alone…"
Jack leaned against his staff, and debated whether he should follow on his impulse or not. Finally, his mind just quit playing ping-pong with the idea, and threw it out the window, going "Forget it, just go for it."
Taking a deep breath, he took the jump and hoped his bungee cord didn't snap. "Well, I'd like to see you in one of them. Would you mind showing me?" He asked, his hand curled around his staff, its grip tightening with his nerves, as said nerves climbed the metaphorical wall. He struggled to seem as calm as when he'd first entered the room.
Tooth's head jerked back up, looking straight at him, a look of surprise with a hint of shock and joy on her face. "You-you mean it?" She asked, cautiously.
Jack flushed, and brought his left hand (the one not holding the staff) up to rub the back of his neck, looking sheepishly at the ground. "Y-yeah. May I… see you in one?"
Jack realized that perhaps that might not have been something that he should have asked, suddenly. Tooth just kinda gaped at him in astonishment, as he stared at the ground, glancing at her from time to time. Then, after a couple minutes, she grinned. "I'd love to!" She exclaimed.
Cautiously, Jack lifted his eyes to her grinning face. "A-are you sure?" He asked cautiously. "You were pretty quiet for a bit of a while…"
Tooth nodded. "Well, it's just… no one's ever asked to see me dressed up before…" She trailed off, a blush alighting on her cheeks. "So… I was kinda surprised when you asked."
Jack kept flushing, but his hand simply rested on the back of his neck. He looked up at her, and a gentle smile came upon his lips, similar to the smirk he always wore… but kinder.
They stayed that way for a moment, in the happy silence, he staring into her magenta eyes, she staring into his blue ones. Then, Tooth's feathers fluffed up as her mind shocked her back into reality, and she flew into the closet, shutting the door behind her, and vanishing behind the wall.
Jack chuckled, and sat down like he had on the table at the pole, taking his feet out from beneath him, and kinda drifting down to sit. He looked at the room around him.
It suited Tooth perfectly. It was organized chaos, was what it was. A whirlwind of color, and material, yet it made sense to him. Most of the room was for relaxing-unsurprising, since she was almost always on duty. It was always night somewhere in the world-but there were a couple of trinkets around the room, and the closet.
Come to think of it… why did she have my teeth in her room? Jack realized. She didn't seem to have any other teeth in her room.
Quietly, he put it back next to the red box, before returning to his seat, waiting. He heard rustling around, but tried to ignore it before his teenage mind came up with an image he really didn't want to face.
Suddenly, the world around him started warping. He jumped up, gripping his staff tightly, as the world warped and twisted like taffy being pulled and twirled in a strange fashion. Then, before he knew it, the brightly colored, gold, lush bedroom he had been in, had morphed into a forest.
The first thing that came to his mind was Tooth. Was she safe? "Tooth?!" He called out. Oh, gods… what had happened?!
"I'm over here!" Came the reply from some distance away. He relaxed a little bit. She was still alive, and she was with him, wherever they were.
"Hold on a bit, I'm coming!" He called back. Then he called up the wind to boost him up into the air to find her easier-or tried to, that is. The thing was, the wind didn't respond.
Surprised, he looked around. His staff was still in his hand… but it didn't have the unmelting frost covering it. He looked down at himself, shivering in the cold. Cold? He was never cold… or rather, he never felt the cold.
His brown pants didn't have the frost around the cuffs. And his pale blue hoodie didn't have the frost on the shoulders or cuffs or hems either.
Panicking, he rushed towards the sound of water, a river. What had happened? Was he still Jack Frost? Or was he-
He looked down into the water. Thankfully, it was a calm part of the river, so it showed his reflection. But what he saw panicked him further.
His hair was brown. So were his eyes. Just like before he died.
His first thought was: What happened?
His second was: If this is what happened to me, what happened to Tooth?
"Tooth!" His voice climbed registers as his fear grew. A part of his mind told him to shut up and calm down, he was likely making Pitch the strongest fucking thing on the god-be-damned planet, but he ignored it.
"JaaaAAAAAAACK!" She replied, her voice growing louder and shriller, likely from the panic of realizing that her powers were gone, just like his.
He raced through the forest, running straight for the source of the voice. Suddenly, he hit another clearing, like the one he had been in, only in the center of it a young girl about 16 years old, sat, looking worriedly at herself.
She sat, legs curled up slightly, and to the side. She was twisting her arms around, looking at them frantically. Black hair fell down her back, and some sat on the ground as well. She was wearing a dark blue dress, backless, and when she turned her head, Jack thought he caught a glimpse a tattoo on her shoulder-blades. Her skin was slightly darker than his own.
He slowed down, carefully approaching her. Then he heard her. "Oh… oh no… where are they? Where's my feathers? My wings… what happened?" She was muttering to herself.
Pity and sadness overtook him, and before she even realized he was there, he had ducked down and wrapped his arms around her from behind in a gentle hug. She tensed for a moment, then recognized the long arms and blue hoodie, and relaxed. "Oh, Jack, what happened to me?"
He replied softly, his voice thick with grief and fear. "It happened to both of us. We're in our mortal forms."
With a gasp, Tooth whirled around. She had retained her magenta eyes, and curiously enough, in place of her gold feather, was a golden circlet. Jack sat back slightly, so she could take him in, as he took her in.
Her dress was simple, and though it was clearly designed to accommodate her wings and tail feathers, it worked on her as a human just as well, maybe better. The deep blue showed a hint of cleavage, and the front top looked somewhat like a butterfly in the way it was gathered. The rest of it was form-fitting to her waist, where it became loose and flowing.
As Tooth looked him up and down, her eyes widened. "Jack… your eyes… and hair… they changed!" She exclaimed in surprise.
He smirked, though the signature look was slightly dampened by the sadness behind it. "You don't honestly expect that I had white hair like an old man since birth, do you?"
She blushed slightly. "Well… no… but I was a little surprised that your eyes changed," She looked up at him, a little worried. "Have… have my eyes changed too?" She asked tentatively.
Jack shook his head. "No, they are the same magenta. Though you have long black hair now…" He trailed off as she sighed and looked down at her hands.
"I know. This is probably how I would have looked had I continued growing like a normal human, rather than morphing into the half-hummingbird creature I became."
She looked so sad, so dejected, that he reached over and pulled her close to him in a hug. She sighed, and leaned closer against him, her back against him, his arms loose around her comfortingly.
That comfort and peace was quickly demolished when two hunters burst on scene, a guy and a girl, looking at them accusingly like they had just stolen a prized possession.
The guy had dark brown hair, darker than Jack's, and grey eyes. He looked about 6'1", and was fairly sturdily built… definitely looked more muscled than Jack was.
The girl, on the other hand, looked to be the more dangerous of the two, despite the fact that she had her hair—the hair and eyes seemed to match—braided to the side, and looked weaker and non-threatening. Jack got the same feeling he got off of a panicked animal: Scared, cornered, and with almost nothing to lose.
The girls eyes flicked between the two of them.
"Who are you?" She demanded.
-Hunger Games POV
Katniss breathed in deeply, surveying her surroundings. She was tense, she had been ever since the end of the Games, three months ago. She blinked back images of each of the tributes dying, some by her hand, some because she couldn't save them.
"Katnip?" Gale asked cautiously, after she hadn't moved for several minutes. "Katnip, you okay? Is everything alright?"
Katniss nodded. "Yeah, Gale. Everything's fine."
She could tell he didn't believe her. She didn't blame him. Sometimes, it was hard for her to convince herself she had finally escaped the Games. That the snap of a twig was not a potential enemy, but a mere woods creature, providing sustenance after she reflectively snapped off an arrow into it.
Gale sometimes joked about how she got more food than ever, now. She never kept tally, but she supposed it was true. She was giving more food than before to Gale's family, to keep from raising suspicion at the Hob. She didn't want them to start asking her more questions about her hunting out in the woods. Yes, she knew she didn't have to… but she was more comfortable there, and didn't know anything else. At least being with Gale had made her more comfortable, being in the woods, free from the press of people, free from the worry that at any moment, she could wake up, finding it was all a dream, and she was still in the games.
She sometimes wished Peeta had survived instead of her. She could barely stand the nightmares, the bloodbath, Rue's death, the mutts, and especially of Peeta death from his infected leg. Gale and Katniss had been hunting a lot more since the mines exploded, caused when one of the gas lamps broke and caught fire.
Images of the Hunger Games flashed through her mind. The images seemed to come alive and haunt her. Katniss immediately panicked, and could barely breath. " Katnip! Calm down! Everything is okay!" She heard Gale say, though it sounded far away.
She began to hyperventilate. "Gale? Gale?!" She called out, hearing the fear in her voice. Flashes of Rue's and Peeta's deaths began to repeat in her mind, driving home the fact that it was she who survived, not either of them. That Rue's family had lost a little girl. That Peeta's mother was likely mourning the loss of their boy. Strong hands gripped her shoulders and shook her briefly.
"Katnip! Katnip! Get ahold of yourself!" It was Gale. "You're home! You're here, in the woods, at home! You're free of the games! It's all over, Prim is safe, your mother is safe, my family is safe, we're all safe! We're here. We're okay," Gale began to calm down, to slow down, as her breathing slowed. Between the flashes of Peeta's and Rue's death, Katniss could see the surrounding forest. Her laboured breathing slowed. "You're here. You're home, Katnip. You're here… with me," Gale patted her leg comfortingly, bringing her fully out of the nightmarish flashbacks. She turned to him, slowly calming down.
A crash could be heard, then came the screaming voices. Katniss raced off towards the sound. Leaping over tree roots and ducking under branches. She came to a clearing and stopped. In the middle of the clearing, there was a boy who looked to be about 17 or 18 years old and a girl who looked to be around 16. The girl was leaning against the guy, and had been relaxed before Katniss and Gale burst into the clearing.
The boy had brown hair and eyes. He had pale skin, and looked about 6' feet tall. He wore a pale blue hoodie, and worn brown pants… but he was barefoot. Who in their right mind would be barefoot in this cold? Katniss thought to herself.
The girl however, had beautiful magenta eyes and black hair. She like the boy, had pale skin. She looked about 5'2'', and wore a beautiful dark blue dress, made out of a material Katniss couldn't identify. She had a golden circlet around her forehead, and matching blue slippers that looked as durable as leather on her feet.
Katniss looked suspiciously from one to the other, as they looked back at her fearfully. "Who are you?" She demanded.
Thank you for reading so far! This piece of work is by both Firelicious and Vasudha.
Cover art is by braidsandarrows, on deviantart. (Fantastic photo, Firelicious and I just couldn't resist it!)
Oof, we had too much fun writing the chapter. Future chapters may be shorter or the same length... hopefully not longer. It's 11 pages on Open Office!
Reviews are much adored and appreciated, we love to hear what you guys think of the story so far! Suggestions as to what will happen later wouldn't be bad either ;)
May the odds be Ever in your favor...
-Vasudha & Firelicious