Summary: There was no way in for Jack Frost. But that didn't mean he was giving up.
Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG nor the Teen Titans. They belong to their rightful owners. This story, is however mine.
A/n: Set before the episode 'X'.
WARNING : Some things may be altered to fit the story. (Explanation will be at the end of the story)
XOXOXOXO
Jack Frost had lived for 300 years and would probably live longer if he didn't (get a chance to) do something stupid. To mankind, this might be the best miracle God could ever bestow to a man, but to Jack immortality wasn't just that.
He was invisible, and his existence was there because the books said so. Every word he uttered was for his ears alone to hear, every work he'd done was credited to nature, and much to his horror, he could not recall the warmth of another skin under his touch.
Because they did not believe in him.
Jack had watched the world evolve and revolve, broken by wars and rebuilt above peace. He'd seen nature shatter humanity, throw them into the deepest pit and swallow them whole with the sea, but in the end they rose. Humanity always rose. But amidst billions of them, he had not seen a single one - a single one - gawk at his sight, ask him to make more snow days, and simply call him Jack Frost.
Because they did not believe in him.
And with this thought, Jack ran away from cities, civilization, and life itself.
XOXOXOXO
The Titans' Tower, by all accounts, was infuriating.
The windows had no shutters, no locks that he could freeze over to grant him access. The doors were mechanical and automatic, and most certainly solid; his staff wouldn't be able to break them even if they were frozen to the bone. The rooftop was flat and plain, and the security systems could kill him if he so much as touch them.
There was no way in for Jack Frost.
It was maddening, really. Failing to infiltrate a home run by teenagers meant he stood no chance against Batman's Lair. When the thought had first hit him, he'd been perched on their window, his frustration growing as the gigantic screen and modern interior mocked him from inside. The alien girl had been baffled at the sight of his frost crackling in the middle of summer.
But that didn't mean he was giving up.
He renewed each visit with brilliant ideas and left dejected. And after each failure, progress was made, and at last, he'd come up with one thing that he knew just had to work. The only thing unsettling about it was that he had not thought of this sooner, and knew well that if he confided into Bunnymund, he'd outright call him an idiot.
And so for (probably) the fifth time, Jack once again stood at the shore of the island, staring and refreshing the vivid image of the Tower in his mind. Waves sloshed lazily behind him and the air held a slight chill as it approached winter. The living room was empty, which meant there was a high chance of the Titans being away, which also meant Jack came at the right time.
They arrived a short time later; an odd bunch of normality, science, and supernatural slapped together. He'd learned first from Bunnymund that they were an even odder group than them. And North confirmed this when he accidentally slipped out that only one of them was human while the rest was partially or not at all.
(Nonetheless, they were still teenagers. The boys still liked boy stuffs and the girls still liked girl stuffs.)
(…)
(Right?)
The boys were in a hurry to continue a seemingly intense video game, so they hustled inside with the girls following leisurely behind them. He followed them through the front door - the front door, can you believe it?- and it was understandably hard for Jack Frost to keep up with them, when the grandeur of the Tower hit him full force.
As soon as the door clicked shut, he was in another dimension. Gone was the smell of the sea. Jack breathed AC and clean immaculate furniture. Leather armchairs lined up neatly at the sides of carpeted floor. The ceiling was tall, and though he could easily reach them, he still felt insignificant.
"This place is almost as good as North's," he said out loud, did not receive any reaction from the Titans, and for once was glad about it.
In very few occasions, being a spirit—with its cursed invisibility and intangibility—proved advantageous. He could have never just waltzed into North's workshop or the Tooth's Palace without alerting someone. But here, where people don't know him, he could.
A few minutes later, Jack realized he'd miscalculated.
Because as soon as the elevator's door closed shut, a pair of violet eyes zoomed in on him. Her gaze fell at a spot near his ear, but Jack was certain it wasn't the kind of passing glances you'd give at a bug on the wall. Between the sudden boisterous laughter and the voice in his head, Jack dimly recalled that she was half-demon. He hoped the most she could do was sense him.
"That car is mine!" Beast Boy declared and as the doors slid open, he morphed into a tiny green mouse and scurried through the tiny gap before any of them could follow.
"Hey! We agreed there'd be no cheating this time!" Something shot out from Cyborg's arm and Jack watched with a soft Oh as the thing whizzed in the air. He heard frantic squeaks and a loud crash.
OK, Jack thought, OK. He was a spirit and they were super-powered teens. OK.
The Titans were already ahead, so he too followed before the elevator could lock him inside. Cyborg was carrying a sulking Beast Boy, followed by an amused Robin and a giggling Starfire. Wait, what about the other—
"I may not be able to see you," came a chill voice beside him. "But I can sense you fine. Try anything funny—" Somewhere in the room, a toaster glowed black and exploded.
The Titans halted their tracks and gape at her sudden outburst; Cyborg was especially devastated. "My toaster!"
Raven walked pass him without a glance. "Nothing you can't fix," she said in her usual clipped tone.
Maybe he should've tried Batman's lair first.
Jack shook his head. He didn't come here to trash the whole place, and even if he did, he would've chosen a safer time. Jack wouldn't let a simple threat ruin his day just because he wanted a personal tour. So he mustered what was left of his interest, and floated around while ignoring a pair of cautious eyes.
Jack had seen bits of the ops room; each time getting more hooked than before. And now that there was no longer a three-inch glass wall stop him, Jack vowed to scour every inch. The kitchen was the closest, so he went there first. The stack of dirty dishes made him mindful of where the end of his staff was, and he dared not touch anything in fear of accidentally using his powers. Something was cooking in the oven. He sniffed, but could not find a dish with a similar scent.
His inspection only lasted a few more moments, and he went to the couch, where most of the Titans lingered. He settled carefully beside Robin, who looked the least raucous between the three of them as they mashed and crushed the colorful buttons of their controller. When the cars hit a curve, Cyborg's car skidded out of lane, and he cursed nearly throwing his controller away.
"Ha!" Beast Boy said. "Ha!"
Cyborg grounded his teeth, looking incredibly miffed by his apparent lost. "Now just you wait 'till the next round."
"When I kick your robot butt!"
"The first rule in driving, Beast Boy," Robin interrupted smugly beside him. "Keep your eyes ahead." And then his red car swerved past Beast Boy's.
He gaped at the screen, and for a second his fingers stopped moving all together before they return their smashing routine in a more furious manner.
"Boys," Raven said, peeking from her book.
Jack chuckled at that. Boys indeed. Though he only got to play once, when Jamie's mom and Sophie were away. On that day, Jack found out that he sucked at video games.
"Snow!" Starfire suddenly said, and then almost immediately, her excitement dropped to confusion. "But I believe this is not the wintry season?"
And of course that remark had him halting his thoughts because anything related to winter meant Jack Frost's business. With rare skepticism, he wandered next to her and observed the tiny twinkles of white fluttering in the air. There was no mistaking that he was seeing snow, and there was no mistaking that winter should not have come yet. It wasn't his work and even if it was Mother Nature's, Jack had flown through the clouds today and sworn that they did not and should not produce snow.
"Not yet, though winter is near," Robin said mildly, glancing from the screen. He didn't seem concern, but Jack was. "But sometimes it just happens, Starfire. Climate changes."
Sometimes when he's around, yes. But it wasn't. His. Work.
And then as if to make the matter even worse, the electricity flickered out, and with it the lights and the video games. Jack heard consecutive whines, a drop of a controller, and a, "Dude! Just when I was about to beat him!"
While they mourned for the lost of electricity and their virtual race cars, Jack only felt dread, playing its tiny little fingers on his back. He didn't trigger the snow, and nature certainly didn't. The lights went out, and there was a half-demon girl whose eyes are trained on his direction, suspicious and questioning.
It wasn't like she could hear him, but Jack already had both hands in the air. "I swear it wasn't me!"
A beat where she narrowed her eyes (which dutifully served its purpose for he stepped back in the air) before she turned back to the others. "Shouldn't the backup generator be working by now?"
Cyborg tapped at his arm. It shouldn't have been this dark since it was barely afternoon, but Jack noticed, with growing trepidation, that Cyborg's cybernetic eye glowed brighter by the second. "It should. I'll go down now and check on it."
There was nothing else significant going on so Jack once again resumed his observation of Jump City, which to his surprise, was disappearing behind white. Jack pressed his face against the window, and saw the snow swirl and whirl in furious speed, splotching the window with white. Jack had never seen a snowstorm this bad, let alone create it. He needed to get out of here and stop it before it could —
Robin snapped his head. "What was that?"
"Me," Jack wheezed from above, clutching his forehead. Why was this damned 3-inched glass always in his way?
"Uhm, guys…" It was Beast Boy, and his voice sounder even meeker than usual. "Look I know it's climate change and stuff, but," he pointed behind him, at the snow which was beginning to look like hail. "This is so freaky."
A beat of silence, where terror, dread, and confusion melted together and then -
"Let's find Cyborg and get out of here!"
They went and it was Raven's glance that stopped him from following—but only for a second—before he moved. If they were going out, so was Jack.
It seemed like the group always moved in a certain pattern— Robin in the front being the leader he was, with Beast Boy, who had morphed into an animal, and the girls flying side by side—and Jack noticed this as he glided behind them, making sure the wind didn't pick up too fast as to spoil his position. It sort of reminded him of his own team of guardians. Huh.
They rounded a corner, and all movements stopped so suddenly Jack nearly ran into one of them. In retrospect, he would have done the exact same thing, if he'd gotten a rare occasion to stumble upon a perfect ice statue of his own friend.
Except, it probably wasn't a statue.
Cyborg was on his tiptoes. His body leaned heavily to the front and his arms were suspended in the air behind him. Something must have struck him from behind, before the ice crept up to him and froze him mid-air.
And then the Titans huddled into a circle, voice furious yet quiet, as if they knew someone was eavesdropping. The conversation, Jack recalled later as he told the Guardians of his tale, went something like this:
Robin: (Scowls) As expected, someone must have broken into the Tower and created the storm.
(And since it was Jack who apparently had no obligation of paying attention or giving a peace of his mind, he was the first and only one to notice Beast Boy crouching towards the statue.)
Raven: I can always teleport us out.
(He watched bemused, as the shape-shifter prodded and poke at places that he could not have touched had Cyborg been not frozen)
Robin: Doesn't mean they can.
Starfire: Which means whoever did this to Cyborg, might still be in the tower.
(Crash)
(Jack held back a laugh, but The Titans didn't share his amusement. He stopped, eventually.)
Beast Boy: Uhm…(Poor attempts at hiding the shattered icicle) Whoops?
Robin: (Turns back to the group) Split up and search the Tower.
And split up they did, except Jack wasn't part of the team and had no idea what to do. He needn't think too hard though.
"Come with me," Raven said quietly once the others have gone.
With the threat still in mind, Jack began his flight with uncertainty.
"You're nervous," she remarked after a while.
Jack never thought of her as someone who would pursue a conversation, but he was glad, hence one-sided. "You threatened me." And nearly rolled his eyes when he said it.
"I don't usually communicate with poltergeists, but I had to make sure you wouldn't bother us."
How flattering. She thought of him as a poltergeist. "OK, kid. Indirect apology accepted."
"You're not a normal spirit are you?" She blinked cautiously at the air, like she was gauging his invisible reaction. "The ones that usually come here are grieving, or confused... You're...mischievous, and yet...lonely."
At this, Jack felt the need to finally acknowledge her existence, and his too, so he touched the wall next to him and fern like frosts curl to life. Raven pulled her hood down, and with caution let her fingertips follow the swirls and twirls of the pattern.
"Ice," she murmured, stepping back and pulling her hood on again. Jack didn't realize she'd gone away until she turned the corner. "You were frightened in the ops room because you thought I'd suspected you," she said when he had caught up.
"Well, yeah." He said. "Though you gotta tell me how you figured this out. I mean everything. You're the first person to actually sense me without believing."
Raven didn't hear him of course, but her answer wasn't thrown off too far (And this freaked him out)."I did suspect you but I didn't sense any negative emotion in you at all."
Emotions. Everything clicked together now. Raven didn't sense him, she sensed his emotions. Invisibility and intangibility be damned, he was still a being and like others he still had emotions. She didn't need to believe in him to know he existed. Jack grinned.
She must've sensed the drastic change, for she turned to look at him curiously under her hood. "Please don't be like Beast Boy. Or Starfire."
It was like the culprit-whoever he was- could hear them, because not a second later a piercing scream filed through the hallway, carrying terror that shook them to the bones.
It was Starfire's.
XOXOXOXO
He'd go search for places he only heard in legends, and not in a few occasions did he discover things that only existed in tales spun by adults as their children fell asleep. He'd find strange symbols carved in cracked walls, and ruins of temples whose history was lost to mankind. He'd find lost civilizations that would soon disappeared humanity evolved.
If the Guardians were looking for him, he'd wander to places they wouldn't look for, like the deep jungles of Africa. But even there he found people (scientists and they were too engrossed on their research of green monkeys to even notice someone play with their baby until he realized that he was supposed to be upset with them), so he went further, to the peaks of the mountains where the weather was too extreme for any of them to survive.
Or if the clouds were gone and the sky was clear, Jack would search for a vacant hill, lay his back on the grass, watch the Milky Way, and realize that stars weren't the only thing out there.
But there was still one person he could not escape from. The Moon was there, and still there, no matter where he went. As the nights of his escape passed, the Moon would shamefully remind him of his neglected work, until he grudgingly returned to bring winter to society.
In the end, Jack always returned.
And each time he brought with him hope, of ever finding that one believer.
XOXOXOXO
A/n: There'll be one or two more chapter(s)
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