I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. (Technically)

This is mostly an excuse to write a story about Bunny trying to pick up a situation that is completely beyond what he knows how to deal with. I also wanted a strong female lead so, sorry to Jack's manhood I guess?

This is not a 'damsel in distress' story, btw.

Hell has no fury like an enraged winter spirit.


Most referred to it as hibernating regardless of the elemental or when their inactive season was. Each spirit, and even some more powerful sprites, needed this period to draw magic from the earth and replenish their depleted stores. The basics of these resting periods, knowledge that had once been so universal, had evolved in time with the ever-changing earth.

Wielders of summer grew stronger, hibernating for shorter periods of time as the decades passed and the dawn of a new century began. Pollution distributed by the humans dissolved walls, allowing the aggrandized spirits to expand their territories.

They tormented their fellow seasonals with burgeoning iniquity, bullying fall sprites and antagonizing winter – their only true enemy - at every turn. Spring, other than being bossed around, experienced very little of this misanthropic madness, often turning a blind eye to the events.

Mother Nature, whoever and wherever she was, never rose to arbitrate the sides and it wasn't long after the turn of the 1700s that an intransigent war between summer and winter began.

By the time Pitch Black attacked the Guardians, the war against summer had reached a low never before experienced. Jack – aka; Jackie, Jacqueline Frost, Jokul Frosti, Mother Winter, garrulous trickster and spirit of fun – was struggling more than ever.

Three winter spirit legends remained; one was on different planet, another had disappeared, and the third, well, that was Jack. She knew her appearance was a dissemble and that many still thought she was a boy. It wasn't something she could help much, though, because her body had stopped growing.

She was dead.

That much she'd always known.

Aside from exchanging her old trousers for a pair of silly booty-shorts and finding a more form-fitted sweater there was nothing she could do, and hell would open up before she gave up her pants.

In the end her more masculine appearance was what saved her the relentless attention she was now experiencing from the summer spirits. For about ten years both sprites and spirits slowly, yet viciously, wore her down. They occluded her annual aestivation, forcing her to seek small respite in occasional naps.

But a nap was not, and could never be, a suitable replacement for her aestivate.

Sooner or later, she'd fall.

If not for the debacle with Pitch, she might've held out for a few more years…

*-f-r-o-s-t-b-i-t-e-s-*

It'd been somewhere around mid-spring when Jackie had bedded down, sprawled across the branches of a huge redwood in Oregon and so tired not even a forest fire could move her. She'd become too accustomed to the absolute torpor around this time of the year but this was greater than normal. Consequently, she'd blamed the imperturbable exhaustion on Pitch's petty war and ignored the signs that would have warned her about an oncoming aestivation.

Later she'd realize her mistake and feel lambasted for it.

Now, she was swimming through the thick, heavy waters created by several weeks of undisturbed rest.

"-ack! Jac-!"

Someone was calling her. The voice – it sounded halfway between panic and rage. She must have done something wrong.

"-ou- …-to wake up!"

Tiny red flags stuttered upwards in her head. She knew that voice…

But she was confused; was this person a friend or an enemy? She couldn't recall.

She felt uncharacteristically phlegmatic even despite the red flags.

Jackie felt someone lift her legs up, resting her calves on shoulders she thought were strangely warm. Something pressed against the underside of her pelvis, angling it upwards a little. More flags stood up, these a brighter and more alarming red. Her body responded innately by dragging her closer and closer to consciousness, unveiling more troublesome stimuli along the way. Her head was aching, her saturated clothes were flush against her skin, and her muscles had turned into feeble rubber.

Distantly, she heard a growl, one heavy with rage. It sounded like a kodiak bear.

"Don't ya dare touch 'ah, ya piss faced larrikin!"

Ah.

Jackie only knew one person who used the word 'larrikin'.

What was Bunny doing here?

"Careful, kangaroo," someone sneered derisively, "She's already going to be punished on your behalf and we've all got years of experience torturing winter spirits here. You make anyone angry and we'll take it out on her."

The sound of something heavy throwing its weight against metal erupted from somewhere to her right, accompanied by another feral snarl. Vacuously, she thought Bunny's speaking voice was dissembling if he could growl like that.

Heat leaned over her like a physical weight, trapping her wrists on the ground above her head and starting to cook the flesh.

"Shame about her hair," a voice said directly above, startling the almost quiescent winter spirit. A gasp of surprise made her realize how difficult it was to breathe, and her head shot back. A tug on her sweater preceded the sound of cloth tearing. Hot, oppressive air billowed over her chest and, despite how soaked her undershirt was, did nothing to cool her down. "What with it being so short it's no wonder we all thought she was a dude for so long!"

"She's flat as a board, too," another agreed.

Soft lips moving feather-light up the column of her throat threatened to burn Jackie's skin. Her brain felt like cotton stuffing but was slowly, laboriously, coming together. Wriggling sleepily, Jackie furrowed her brows and would have tried to tuck her chin in if doing so didn't make breathing so much more onerous.

"Jacko, ya gotta wake up!" Bunnymund urged, "Come on, Frost!"

Foreign fingers trailed along her side, heading upwards over her shirt. The pain in her wrists continued to grow. Blue eyes, foggy with sleep, tried to make sense of the blurry world splintered between white eyelashes.

Her head was turned already. Hands had begun gliding up and down her torso, pain like a band aid being slowly torn off following every touch.

Eyes opening more she identified huge ears, gray fur smudged with ash, straining whiskers-

"Yes! Tha's it, ya almost there!" Why was Bunny here? "Just wake up, ya can do it!"

She was struggling to keep her eyes focused when a figure strolled into sight. It was easy to see the bars of Bunny's prison when something visually obviated them.

It was a djinn with a tail that tapered into a lazy tongue of flame and eyes that glowed like embers from a dying fire.

"Oh wow, look at that. She actually woke up," the summer spite commented. Smoke trailed out of his mouth. "Not that it'll help her though. Congrats, rabbit, you've made it all that much more traumatic for your friend." He spat the last word out like it had personally done him wrong. "Who knew a guardian of hope could be so perfidious."

Throwing himself against the bars with an impetuousness that surprised Jackie, Bunnymund demanded; "Tha hell issat supposed ta mean?!"

As more and more sensation returned to her, Jackie's brain began gathering up the cognitive reins again. She just needed the strength the move, that was all. Getting out of the hold her would-be-rapist had pinned her with wasn't going to be difficult.

She'd make them regret moving her from her resting place more than they'd ever regretted anything.

"It means sugar-tits over there is supposed to be in the middle of hibernation. Given how desperately she probably needed it I can't imagine waking up would be a quick thing under normal circumstances. And, though winter spirits are famously strong, putting any inside a volcano like this one is sure to make 'em tipsy. I'd be surprised if Frosti could stand," the djinn scoffed, like Jackie was something specious and he'd just realized how ugly it was. A hand gripped her shoulder to keep her in place before sharp lips pressed against the pulse point on the side of her neck and a blazing tongue peeled across her skin. A gasp tore out of her, body flinching at the sudden wash of pain. Somehow, she managed to spot Bunny, trembling with rage, through watery orbs.

The djinn gestured to her, "Look at her eyes. She is gone. She has no idea what's going on or where she is right now. Frosti isn't going anywhere anytime soon." The disgusting look of pleasure in the genie's eyes, the chauvinistic sneer on his ugly face, the obvious delight he got from watching such violating opprobrium would never be remembered fondly – not by anyone.

Dizzily, she looked back to Bunny.

"It's goin' ta be ok, Jacko," the irascible spring spirit's fur stood out a bit and his ears twitched. Green eyes held Jackie's with an estimable intensity, raw with the promise he'd made. "I ain't lettin' these yobbo's get away with this, ya hear? Don't be scared, yer gunna be fine." The djinn with amber eyes guffawed but, aside from the other summer sprites, was ignored.

Hazy blue eyes squinted at Bunnymund blankly, trying to recall when he had gotten here and why he hadn't done anything to help her.

Well, no use in waiting.

Panting loudly as the djinn at her neck worked with a bit more ardor, Jackie tossed her head, wriggling as though to scoot back, and the djinn pinning her down leant back to watch.

Perfect.

Navigating her left calf to the right side of his neck she arched off the ground, applying as much of her weight as she could into the leg. As she pushed him onto his back, she collected one of his hands. Keeping it pressed close against her chest she positioned his arm between her legs with his elbow over her pubic bone. Then she arched upwards again, this time bending herself farther. A swift popping sound emerged from the genie's arm shortly before the flash frozen joint snapped.

The winter spirit had moved so quickly she was like a rubber band that had suddenly been released.

Shock held the room in suspension. No-one daring to move as the angered woman stood, a dismembered arm clutched in her hand. The djinn at her feet made confused whimpering noises, trembling in terror.

Magma provided light that was, overall, rather insufficient. It happened to be just enough to illuminate the white clouds of perspiration as they unspooled from her shoulders.

When it began, there were three healthy summer sprites eager to be extolled for killing the Lady of Frost and newest addition to the anachronistic guardians.

When it ended, one had died of frostbite, another had died of blunt force trauma to the head, and the third was left castrated, wishing he were dead.

Jacqueline stood over the body of the proud djinn and found herself more confused than ever. Drops of water burned tracks down her back, dripped from her short shocks of white hair, emerged from open wounds like puss. The stiffened corpse at her feet had been mangled in ways only prolonged exposure to extreme changes in temperature could. Flesh had turned purple and black, diamonds of ice stuck to follicles of skin already trying to melt in the heat. The spirit's stomach had caved – or perhaps it had exploded outwards.

It was a bit difficult to tell given the remains.

A voice buzzed quietly in her ear but over time did not enervate and so the spirit suffering the consequences behind 300 years of sensory deprivation set aside the confusion of external stimuli in favor of understanding this one.

Turning took more coordination than she suspected it should have but when her vision cleared sufficiently it was to find one toasted looking E. Aster Bunnymund crouched on his haunches inside a rather austere cell.

Why was he here?

His mouth was moving and the sound of buzzing fit together like puzzle pieces, forming words after several seconds of Jackie's staring.

"-is okay, everything is gunna be ok," he was saying, eyes gleaming in the low light, "I'mma get ya outta here, Jackie, ok? But I need ya help ta get out of this cell first." The careful way he articulated, the slowness of his speech, would have offended her in normal circumstances. Given the state of her – the heat, the very severe exhaustion, the dehydration – she instead found him much easier to understand.

"They put up wards ta keep me from usin' ma tunnels," he continued, watching Jackie approach with twitchy whiskers. "Think ya could freeze these poles and break me out?"

Comprehension was slow and muddled with forgetful confusion – why was Bunny here? – but eventually, the melting frost spirit figured out what needed to be done and turned her back on Bunny. He quickly became frantic, though she spent no time trying to empathize.

Instead she sat down carefully beside the remains of the golden-eyed djinn, long legs curling delicately beneath her. While Bunny tried to talk her back over she rummaged around the body and eventually found what she was looking for in the remains of its clothes.

When she tried to get up again, Jackie found her legs unwilling.

Frowning, the winter spirit turned to squint at Bunny.

"What. What did ya find?" His ears and whiskers strained forward, nose twitching a little, and green eyes searching.

Jackie opened her mouth but couldn't get the words out and quickly gave up her attempted communication. The burdened spirit's focus was absolutely capricious now and it took longer than necessary to figure out why she needed to throw a key at Bunnymund and why that was so difficult to coordinate.

Almost as soon as the key left her hand she forgot about it, more intent on the struggle for air.

It was getting hotter.

Her body couldn't handle it for much longer.

Jackie's world was spinning, looping this way and that. Flashes of color, bright and distorted, left disturbing aches in her head. Chimes buzzed between her ears so fiercely she couldn't hear the clang of metal against rock or the approaching thud of footsteps.

She remembered a sudden breeze but couldn't recall how she came to be gripped in soft, furry arms, looking up into Bunnymund's desperate eyes.

He was speaking but she couldn't possibly hear him over the noise.

Why was it so loud?

Why was she so hot?

Why was….Bunny….her…e….?


Let me know if I need to change the rating to M.

Next: there will be fluff.