Chapter 1: I really hate beans.
Jack always hated beans.
There just was something about them; maybe it was their shape or their color, he didn't know. All he knew was that the sight of beans invoked a feeling of deep distrust in him. As if they were something to be wary of, something he had to be careful with.
Which was completely ridiculous because how could beans be scary? They were beans; something you ate when there was nothing else left in the house. He had no reason to be afraid of a bunch of beans.
He tried to put it out of his mind more than once, tried to ignore the hair rising on his neck and his senses screaming at him to take notice. But whenever he saw them, it was as if something in the back of his mind called out to him. As if he was forgeting something important.
Then he got his memories back and realized that, yeah, sometimes beans were something to be careful of.
Especially when they grew into huge beanstalks that lead to a world of man-eating giants.
A part of him really wanted it to be a joke.
Even he, in all of his 300 years of isolation, had heard of the story. The story of a single human who managed to slew an army of giants, toppled an entire civilization, and closed the gateway between their world and ours. Who stopped an invasion before it could even occur. Who saved the worlds of both humans and spirits. Who was considered both a myth and a legend to humans and spirits alike.
Jack the Giant Slayer.
In hindsight, it was pretty obvious why Manny made him into a spirit. It wasn't just because he died in his sister's place-
though that was a deciding factor
-but because he saved spirits and humans from being invaded by bloodythirsty giants.
The giants were a major threat during this time; much bigger than Pitch could ever hope to be. They were impervious to most attacks, the size of skyscrappers, and unbelieveably strong and durable. Most magical attacks could not harm them, and there was no recorded being in the world who had ever wounded a giant, let alone kill one. There was no known defense against these unstoppable beings, nothing the world could do in order to save themselves. The entire world was theirs for the taking, and the people who lived there were a four course buffet. No one could hope to stop them, not even the Guardians were able to stand up to their bruite strength. Hell, they barely made it out with there lives the last time they tried to defend their homes, barely making a dent in a single soldier's armor. Everyone was panicing. There seemed to be no way for the world to make it out of this. The Guardians were completely despondant, and even Manny didn't know what to do.
All hope was lost.
The world was readying for its end.
Then he came along.
He wasn't even thinking about the possible implications at the time; how all the giants were dressed in armor, how they always seemed to walk in formation, how certain giants talked about an "invasion" that was happening soon. Hell, he didn't even know he destroyed an entire nation single handedly. To anyone else, it would have been obvious, the first thing that came to their minds.
But he was thirteen years old, and all he knew was that his sister had been kidnapped and he had to find her. Nothing else was important.
He used every trick in the book in order to get them both out alive. He took advantage of every weakness he could find. Any slip up, no matter how small, he somehow twisted to use to his benifit. Everytime someone let down their guard, every time they relaxed, everytime they thought they were safe; he was there to prove how wrong they really were. They weren't the most powerful race in all the lands, they weren't unstoppable, they weren't invincible. He proved that, over and over again, as he took them down one by one, section by section, army by army, city by city.
Jack was only thirteen.
And yet he managed to overturn what was considered the most powerful civilization in the world in just a manor of days.
Superpowers apparently made people stupid. Either that, or Manny had locked away a lot more than just his memories when he brought him back to life. Had he done half the things he did to the giants to Pitch, the so called "King of Fear" would have been dead a hundred times over, and most certainly would not be coming back every few years like he was now.
as it is, he suddenly had a lot of ideas he wanted to try out on the Boogyman. Pitch always said it was impossible to kill fear. Lets see how true that statement really was...
His mother always said he was smart, that he was capable of great things if he put his mind to it. He just never believed her until now. And even then, Jack had a feeling that she wasn't talking about his career in seige warfare.
Thinking about his mother gave him an ache deep in his heart. She was always the one he could confind in, the one he could trust to comfort him. Even though she didn't believe him when he came crawling back to the house a few days after their fight, covered in bruises and blood that wasn't his, half carrying and half dragging his sister while holding a strange crooked staff, ranting about man-eating giants, she still took the time to tend to his wounds, both physical and mental. He could always talk to her, always tell her what was going on.
Jack really wished his mother was here. Because he knew that he absolutely could not tell anyone about this.
For one, no one would believe it. He barely believed it and it was his memories. It was just too out there, even for a race of spirits that survived on the belief of children. Jack the Giant Slayer was considered a myth among myths, a legend who many had a hard time believing in, even with the overwhelming evidence that was unhearthed from some of the remains of the giant's realm. In some sections of the world, Jack the Giant Slayer was considered a God, on par with the Man in the Moon himself. There was even a religion devoted to him, people who worshiped him as some sort of deity. Hell, the story became so popular, so well known, that it even got leaked to the human world in the form of a child's fairy tale. And considering how hard the Guardians worked in order to keep their existance a secret, it just showed how much of a big deal it was.
And they were supposed to believe that the all powerful being they worshiped for so long was Jack Frost? The trickster, the troublemaker, the guy who broke into Santa's workshop for kicks?
He had a better chance of making them believe he was the Tooth Fairy.
Telling the world that he was Jack the Giant Slayer was the equivalent of going up to a priest and saying he was Jesus. He would most-likely get beat up if he tried. And that was the friendlest outcome.
But none of that would even compare to the shitstorm that would brew if they actually believed him.
Even though he didn't know it at the time-his family had taken a boat to America using the gold he managed to scavange from his visit to the giants' realm- spirits all over the world tried to find him. They searched the ruins for the smallest of trace of his presence, interrigated the remaining giants who were left, and fine combed the entire country of England just to figure out where he went. Some wanted to express thanks, for saving the world and millions of lives from distruction. Some wanted to meet with him, question him about how he did it,how he accomplished the impossible. And others... others wanted him for his power.
because he did have power, even as a human. how else would he have toppled an entire civilization in just a few days? how else would he have killed the unkillable? even now, as a spirit, he could feel that curious power whirl inside him, patiently waiting for him to use it much like he did when he was thirteen. it was different from the abilities of spirits and giants; more stuble, less flashy...but just as dangerous and damaging...
Never-the-less, they didn't find out much information, let alone find him. All they knew was his name, the bare basics of his story, and the fact that he was human and not a spirit, which only added to the mystery. What kind of human, let alone a human boy, could do so much damage in a short amount of time?
Over a hundred years had been spent trying to find him before the spirits of the world gave up. There was just too little information, too little to trace back. And even if they managed to find him, he was probably long dead anyway. Humans didn't live as long as spirits could. So they gave up the search, and instead channeled all of that curiousity, all that burning need, into praise, awe, and in some cases worship. His name became legend, his actions even more so. Many worshiped the ground he walked on, and even managed to have a holiday made for him in his honor.
But they never stopped searching.
Three hundred years later and some of the more persistant were still trying to find a sign.
It was true that Jack wanted attention, but he didn't want that kind of attention. Where the whole world was watching your every move, studying you. Where people attacked you with gifts and favors. Where he would never have a moments peace. Where his friends would look at him differently, and not see the fun loving guy he was, but the powerful, serious, military strategist he was not.
People would expect things of him, things he wasn't sure he could deliver.
Plus, it was hundreds of years ago. Ancient history. He didn't want to be remembered for something he did when he was thirteen. He wanted to be remembered for what he did now, in this day and age. Jackson Overland was a person of the past.
He was Jack Frost now, a 300 year old prankster winter spirit with white hair and a crooked staff. As far as he was concerned, that was all that mattered.
No one needed to know who he was in the past. It could be his little secret. The giants were mostly dead and anyone who could have told the truth died a long time ago. And it wasn't as if most people were searching anymore; they seemed to accept the fact that Jack the Giant Slayer was long dead. And while that still left the issue of the various cults dedicated to worshiping him, he figured that it would blow over soon enough. It had been three hundred years after all.
Though Jack knew better than to tempt fate, he felt kind of smug about getting one over the spririts of the world. There was absolutely no way anyone would find out. As far as anyone was concerned, he was just Jack Frost, newest Guardian and resident Winter Spirit.
Nothing could possibly go wrong.
A few days later and he began eating his words.