Co-writer: Celsius Fate!
Flip Side
Prologue: Chills
They did it.
It was the day after Christmas.
The Guardians were able to deliver all the presents to every child in the world just in time for Christmas morning. So, they decided to celebrate with a little race. It was Jack, Bunny, North, and Sandy against one another with Tooth being the referee. Tooth giggled gleefully as the boys passed by her and some of her fairies.
"C'mon cottontail," Jack smirked as he led the way around North's place at the Pole, "Can't you do any better than that?" He slid bare-foot down the track of solid ice, twisting and turning throughout the place while laughing merrily.
"Ah, shut it, show pony," Bunny stepped on the gas on the huge red toy airplane the Yetis built. "You haven't won yet, mate!" the Guardian of Hope added as he turned right.
Sandy smiled as he closed in on Bunny on a cloud of dream-sand. He frowned when North passed him on a smaller sleigh that was being pulled by two reindeer. Not wanting to lose to the others, Sandy sped up in order to catch onto North's trail.
"Here I come!" North chortled with a Russian accent.
Jack laughed joyfully as he approached the finish line. He skid to an abrupt stop when he heard a female voice talking indistinctly. Slowly a vision took over his sight, one that completely entranced the Guardian of Joy as his legs stopped in the middle of crossing the finish line.
"Belle!" A twelve year old girl with long brown hair, brown eyes, and pale skin was up on a roof of a high-rise in the city.
She was shaking like a leaf, teetering near the edge of the roof, with the old bricks slowly giving way under her feet. One wrong move and she will plummet downward onto the pavement below, effectively ending her life.
"It's alright, Rachael," the older girl, Belle, smiled softly. Her long bleach blonde hair flew into her wavering honey-brown eyes.
"You're going to be all right," Belle got closer.
"I don't want to die, Belle," Rachael sobbed.
A single brick began to crumble quickly.
"Shhh," Belle soothed, "I'm not going to let that happen, sweetheart." Belle began to run forward just as the younger girl started to fall, "RACHAEL!" Belle grabbed her little sister's arm, pulled her up, and tossed her onto the cement roof.
"BELLE!" Rachael screamed.
A blood-curdling scream ripped from Belle's throat as the brick gave way completely under her feet.
Belle crashed onto the sidewalk below.
"NO!" Rachael screamed.
Bunny raced past Jack to the finish line and began boasting and laughing as the others crossed right behind him. When the Guardian of Joy didn't react to this, the others focused their attention onto the winter spirit, noticing how he was standing still and completely unresponsive. Tooth hesitantly flew forward and waved a hand in front of her friend's face, but there was no reaction from Jack.
They froze when Jack suddenly screamed out loud, and that's when they saw two tears run down his face.
"Jack? What's wrong?" Tooth rested a hand on the younger Guardian's shoulder.
Jack looked at her as the vague vision left him.
"What is it, mate?" Bunny wondered.
"I just...I just saw a girl die," Jack swallowed thickly, feeling two wet trails down his face.
"What? What are you talking about, mate? No one died," Bunny said in a perplexed voice.
"I know. I mean I had a vision of a girl dying while saving her sister's life...like I did," Jack explained softly.
"What were their names?" North inquired curiously.
"The younger sister was named Rachael and the one who died was Belle, her older sister," Jack answered.
No one responded for several moments.
"Are you sure those were their names?" Bunny arched a furry brow at the winter spirit.
Jack nodded.
The older Guardians all looked at each other.
They all proceeded to glance up at the sky that was visible through the opening, thanks to the giant telescope that stretched through the ceiling. The moon slowly came into view as clouds dispersed.
It was shining brightly, casting its gentle rays onto the Guardians, basking them in a warm light.
"Man in the Moon, did you show me that vision?" Jack asked.
The Moon cast its glow over Jack like a spotlight in response.
"What are you trying to tell me?" he continued, hoping the moon would give him some answers.
The Man in the Moon panned the beam to the center of the group where the crystal was hidden. The symbol on the floor slid open and the crystal rose up to the surface, glowing increasingly brighter until it stopped in front of the Guardians. This was exactly what happened several years ago when Jack was chosen to become the newest Guardian. Could the same thing be happening again?
A question mark made of sand appeared over Sandy's head.
"He's choosing a new Guardian!" Tooth exclaimed excitedly.
"But why? What does this have do with the vision?" Jack drew closer to the glowing crystal.
"Have no idea," North replied with a shrug.
Slowly the crystal projected Manny's choice.
There were not one, but two Guardians depicted. Both wore what appeared to be dresses with boots, and masks that covered their faces from view, with hair that went down towards their waist.
Two female spirits.
The older Guardians gasped in surprise.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Jack asked them.
"It can't be," Tooth's wings stopped beating as she landed on her feet next to Bunny.
"He picked the Twins? Of all the Guardians to choose from, he had to select the Twins" Bunny groaned.
"The Twins?" Jack arched a snow-white brow.
"You see...Jack, the Twins are like us; humans who became spirits after their death," Tooth began explain.
"I'm with you so far," Jack said. "But I don't understand. Why is that a problem?"
"The Twins are sisters, obviously," Bunny added, "But the thing is, they've been giving us problems for years. One more than the other, but we can't tell which one is which."
"Why?"
"They're identical twins," Tooth replied.
"That makes a lot more sense," Jack rested his staff against his shoulder. "Right, here's another question. Why would Manny pick them if they're a lost cause?"
"We don't know," North shrugged.
"I asked the same question when he chose you to become a Guardian several years ago," the Guardian of Hope muttered quietly.
The Guardian of Memories elbowed her friend sharply and gave him a look.
Bunny sighed heavily and focused his attention onto one of the Elves waddling around with a tray of cookies.
Sandy thought for a minute then looked up at Jack and tugged on his sleeve.
"What is it, Sandy?" Jack looked at the silent Guardian.
Sandy pointed at Jack then at his own eyes.
"You got a point, Sandy," Jack stated.
"What point would that be, mate?" Bunny asked.
"Well, what if the older girl in my vision is the one that the Man in the Moon deems to be the good one?"
"Okay?"
"However if they're identical, how are we going to be able to tell which one is Belle?" Jack mused.
"What if...? Oh, never mind," Tooth said exasperatedly.
"What is it, Tooth?" North looked at her with the others.
"I was just thinking; what if Manny only showed the vision to Jack because he believes that Jack has a connection to Belle? That Jack is the one who can tell one apart from the other?" the Guardian of Memories explained carefully.
"That's an interesting theory, Tooth, only I've never seen the twins before," Jack stated.
He began to walk away from the others after he spoke.
"Wait, Jack, where are you going?" Bunny asked.
"I promised Jamie that I would go and see him," Jack looked at Bunny with a grin. "You wanna come too, Bunny? You can see Sophie."
"The lil' ankle-biter?" Bunny smirked.
Jack nodded.
"I'm in," he went up to Jack.
"But Bunny, what about the twins?" Tooth flew over to them.
"Relax, Tooth, it'll take us a while to find them. Looking for them aimlessly right now isn't that important," Bunny stated.
He and Jack left through one of his many tunnels and appeared outside of Jamie Bennett's house.
The duo sneaked in through Jamie's bedroom window to see the boy fast asleep. Bunny quietly went into Sophie's room to find her wide awake, sitting in the middle of the floor and playing with a bunch of stuffed animals. She looked up from her stuffed bunny and a huge grin broke across her face.
"BUNNY!" she squealed and ran towards him.
Bunny crouched down and held out his arms to the three-year-old, "There's my lil' ankle-biter," he smirked as he hugged her tightly, while Sophie cuddled up against his chest.
The Guardian of Hope stroked Sophie's hair softly as he sat down on the bed with her clinging to his fur.
He cuddled up with her and waited for her to fall asleep.
Jack sat at the foot of Jamie's bed, conjured up a small snowflake, and blew it over to Jamie. The snowflake landed on Jamie's cheek rousing the boy awake, prompting him to look up to find the winter spirit at the foot of his bed.
"Jack!" Jamie smiled and hugged the Guardian of Joy.
"Hey kiddo," Jack chuckled and returned the embrace.
"Jack, can I ask you a question?" Jamie looked up at Jack as he pulled away to sit in front of the Guardian.
"Sure, what's up?" Jack asked.
"Is there a new Guardian?" Jamie inquired quizzically.
"No, not yet, why?" Jack arched a brow.
"For the past few days I keep seeing this teenage girl sitting outside my window. She sings to me in my sleep," Jamie explained.
"Sings to you?" Jack repeated.
Jamie nodded.
"What did she look like, Jamie?"
Jamie looked at the window and started shaking. "She's right there," Jamie pointed at the silhouette of a girl hovering outside his bedroom.
Jack was on his feet in a instant, his staff poised for an attack. He looked at the window and saw a pair of glowing blue eyes staring back at him through a mask. The girl's eyes gave an eerie glow upon her face.
She flew away from view when she caught sight of Jack.
"Jamie, stay here. I'll be right back," Jack told the boy.
Jamie inclined his head and Jack went after the spirit.
The Guardian of Joy went up to the roof to discover a teenage girl staring up at the moon. She was wearing a purple dress that went down towards her knees, with black lace-up boots that wrapped halfway up her legs. Her waist-length black hair billowed in the chilly breeze that radiated off of Jack. However the part that caught his attention was the mask on her face. One side covered her left and was tinted gold, while the other covered her right and was colored silver.
Jack shook his head several times and reorganized his thoughts.
'How dare she frighten Jamie like that!' he thought.
"Hey! What do you want?" Jack growled angrily.
"I'm not here to hurt Jamie. If that's what you're asking," she said, turning to Jack. Her eyes were still glowing, enough to give Jack the chills the more he stared.
"Then what do you want? Who are you?" Jack demanded.
"You ask a lot of questions," she turned away.
Jack blocked her path, "I have the right to. Now answer me!"
She merely rolled her eyes at him.
"Answer me!" Jack snarled.
"I know what you said Jack, I'm not deaf."
They glared at each other for a minute until she answered, "My name is Luna and I was merely going to sing Jamie to sleep. He's been having trouble sleeping as of late."
"Right, let's say I buy that. What does Jamie mean to you?" Jack crossed his arms over his chest.
"Are you jealous, Jack? Jealous that he might be friends with other spirits besides yourself?" Luna teased.
When Jack didn't answer, Luna disappeared into the night after giving him a mock salute.
"A spunky sheila, ain't she?" Bunny stepped out from behind the chimney top.
"Who was that?" Jack asked his fellow Guardian.
"That would be one of the twins, mate."
Jack's eyes widened in shock at Bunny's answer.
She was one of the twins?
To Be Continued...