Twilight Will Fall (Even if you Don't Believe me)

"You're Jack Frost, aren't you?"

He spins around, crook poised for both defense and attack. Staring at the woman less than a yard away, Jack takes in her snow-white skin, her hair, the color of freshly turned dirt, then her eyes, which are as dark and reflective as slick, sucking tar and finally, the only color that graces her countenance, her sanguine lips.

Tense and weary, Jack considers her. "Yeah, that's me," he finally says. She smiles in return, it's quick and sharp and not unlike a the glare of a cobra's fangs before it strikes. "What do you want?" he demands.

She moves closer, her body taking a solid shape; brown, gauzy cloth rustling around her. "I just want to talk," she replies.

Jack toys with relaxing and leans forward on his crook. "Yeah?" he asks. "The last time someone wanted to 'talk' I ended up saving the world from a second Dark Age," he says quite blandly.

At this, the woman's eyes flash with something dangerous and her lips flicker in an overly displeased manner. "Is that so?" she murmurs.

"Yeah," Jack answers back, belligerent.

Coming close enough for Jack to scramble out of his lean for sure-footing, she leans her body in close and offers a hand, green-tinged fingers hovering just below his nose.

"I am Mother Nature," she tells him.

Jack, still watching her, slowly takes the hand and shakes it. "Really?" he says. "I expected you to be…" he trails off, not entirely sure how to tell Mother Nature his opinion of her without upsetting her in the process.

That wolf-sharp smile back, she suggests coyly, "Beautiful?"

"No," Jack replies. "Nicer, I guess."

She pouts. "I am not nice?"

Jack shakes his head. "Nope," he says. "You're… You're dangerous."

She laughs, though, not unkindly, at this. "Ah!" she exclaims, "Give the boy a prize."

Jack waits.

Circling him, Mother Nature begins to speak. "It's good to know not everyone's so dense, I am Mother Nature. Nature is not sweet, nature is not good, nature is not fair. Nature is brutal and a great deal of other un-nice things."

"I know," Jack concurs. "Winter isn't always good." He stops then, and concludes, "It's rarely good."

Mother Nature smiles briefly. "A boy after my own heart!" she coos.

Jack tenses. "What do you want, Mother Nature?" he demands for a second time.

She sniffs. "Nothing," she says. "I simply wished to get a look at the boy who defeated Pitch Black."

"Well, you've had one," Jack says rather sardonically.

The woman pauses in her circling. "I have, haven't I?" she murmurs. "You aren't much at all," she tells him in a tone that is falsely contemplative. "So small you are, so forgettable."

Jack struggles to not feel riled by her stinging remarks. "I beat the Boogeyman, though, didn't I?" he counters.

She pauses, a look of hurt passing over her sharp features. "You did," she agrees. "But, unfortunately for you, fear is not something that stays down."

Jack glares. "Is that a threat?" he asks.

She laughs and flits away from him (fully out of range of him and his crook, now). "Oh no, my sprite." She gives a jagged grin. "It's a promise."

"How can you know?" Jack asks. "You aren't the Man in the Moon."

She looks at him in a pitying way. "How misguided you are," she says. "Perseus is by no means the oldest of us–"

Jack wonders why she calls MiM Perseus, but holds his tongue.

Smirking wicked and mean, she declares, "No, that status goes to our dear Pitch Black."

"How do you know?" Jack asks, frowning.

Mother Nature just chuckles. "Do you know what he used to do before he came to this disgusting planet?" she counters.

Jack shakes his head and wonders just what Mother Nature's trying to do.

Eyes dancing with delighted, cruel light she says, "He raised worlds to the core with fear; destroyed them until only darkness and fear could survive on them. Someday, he will do the same here." Fingers curling into fists, she shouts, "When he does, I will be unchained from this accursed planet and I shall finally die as I should have! As you should have!"

Jack tightens his hold on his crook. "You're insane," he says.

"Am I?" She sneers. "Or are you a silly little boy?"

"I'm not silly to care what happens to others–to kids," he argues.

She rushes him. Before he can dodge or deflect her, she has a hold on his wrist. Her fingers digging into his flesh, she hisses, "You are, though. It's only a matter of time before the Nightmare King finds a way; it's why he exists, to kill, to destroy, to win."

Staring into those half-crazed eyes, Jack replies quite forcefully, "I may only be the Guardian of Fun, but even I have enough hope to think I can protect earth's kids from fear. To protect the whole world from mass decimation by Pitch Black."

Mother Nature screams, "You are a fool!" Releasing him, she falls back and fog begins to billow around her. Then, as thunder sounds in the distance, she promises, "I shall help the man of shadows murder this world if I have to!"

Jack says nothing as he watches her disappear. When she is gone and been gone for a good while, he finally relaxes. Taking a breath, Jack raises his face to the sky and whispers, "What happened to her? Do you know MiM?"

But, as always, the Man on the Moon doesn't deign to answering Jack's question.

So, I feel like I should explain this just a bit. Now, for those familiar with the book series, you'll remember that Pitch Black ruined a number of planets before ever coming to Earth. Now, think of it like this, Mother Nature's been watching for centuries (longer probably) as people defeat Pitch Black and watching Pitch rise up again even more determined and stronger; to her, it must feel pretty dismal to know he's just going to get up again even stronger. I feel like, she'd think that people are just putting off the inevitable (the destruction of earth) and wishes people would just stop so she could just die already.

As for Jack, he's always been a protector (his sister, children of the world, baby tooth, ect), and all of Mother Nature's hysterics only make him stubborn, so he thinks she'd being ridiculous. After all, Pitch Black could never win (right?).

Thank you all for reading and I hope you'll choose to review! :D

EDITED: 2/25/16