"Whyyy is he still here again?" Bunnymund groaned, his brow knitted in what appeared to be frustration and... hate. Jack shuddered, trying to fight back his tears.

"It's- it's just a nightmare. Just a cruel, terrible, awful nightmare," Jack thought to himself, repeating it over and over in his head, as if hoping it would block out the others' words. But it didn't.

"Don't say that. Sure, he's frustrating, but..." Tooth began. She was cut off by Bunny.

"He doesn't know when to stop! He has no sense of decency! He never obeys any of our rules! We have every right, as stated in our set of Guardian standards and punishments, to throw him out!"

"Bunny iz right. Loss ov Guardianship iz the cost ov... but he meant no true harm," North reminded Bunny gently.

"But enough is enough! And do you really think that he'll ever stop? We needed his help, that I'll agree to. But we don't need him now! He's just hindering our jobs. Do the kids need him as to be Guardian more than they need us doing our jobs properly?" Bunny argued. At this, no one spoke up. Tears stung Jack's eyes. Were they really... comparing him? Evaluating his value?

The day before Jack had frozen the Warren as a prank. He didn't know that extreme cold caused the eggs to crack and break. It really wasn't his fault. But he had been told directly not to do that, and it wasn't the only of his pranks that caused serious harm.

"But having your Guardianship removed... we would be taking away his believers as well. He'd never be seen again," Tooth tried weakly. Jack held back a terrified gasp.

Sandy made some sand images over his head. "So, do ve throw him out or no?" North translated quietly. Jack's eyes widened. Bunny immediately stuck up his paw. Tooth, slowly, raised her hand, murmuring about 'the poor kid', and North and Sandy slowly obliged.

"I- I thought- I thought you were my family. I thought you wanted me!" Jack cried out in his head. As the first of his frozen tears began to fall, he silently flew out of a nearby window.

After thinking through his situation for a few minutes on the roof of Santa's Workshop, Jack made his decision. He creeped into North's Office and took a pen and a piece of paper. After writing a short note and leaving it clearly visible on the desk, he flew off. Moments later the jolly man walked into the room, and read the letter.

'You should have just told me to my face that you didn't want me. You should've told me from the beginning that it wasn't a permanent arrangement. If you didn't want me to be a Guardian, why did you give me false hope? Why would you do this to me? I guess you weren't what I thought. I guess you aren't so perfect.

I'm resigning from being a Guardian. You won't ever have to worry about dealing with me again.

~Jack'


He finally set down by his lake in Burgess. Jack always came back here; if there was one good thing he got from being with the Guardians, it was that he now knew why. It was where he had died.

Jack just sat there, too broken to cry, for what felt to him like hours. He didn't notice the dark presence behind him until it spoke.

"What happened to you? You look almost as bad as me." Jack's grip on his staff tightened and he spun around to face the man, who he knew was Pitch Black.

"What do you want, Pitch!" Jack snapped, his patience being understandably nonexistent on this particular day.

"I do believe that I just asked what had happened to you, clearly showing that I want to know why you appear to have been crying," the Boogieman replied, slightly annoyed. Pitch's curiosity had been peaked at this point, however, and he was not about to let Jack's temper scare him off.

"That's none of your business," Jack growled. Honestly, though, he was less afraid of Pitch right now than he was of many other things. The Guardians finding him and doing who knows what to him, children never being able to see him again, and most importantly, being alone forever, like he had been before Manny chose him to fight the man now standing before him.

Pitch sighed, trying to decide what his next approach should be to extract the information from the winter spirit. Direct approach hadn't worked. Should he try to annoy it out of him... too dangerous. Being an ice cube wasn't fun. He knew from experience. Should he try to guess what was wrong? Where would he even start. Convince Jack that he was simply really, really bored and curious? Worth a try.

Whilst he was thinking through strategies, Jack was observing how Pitch's appearance had changed. There were no nightmares around, first of all. Pitch was standing tall, but his posture was not that which he would use to try to intimidate Jack. He was just standing straight, rather than bent over. He still wore the same clothes, but his face seemed a bit more... human. Hopeless, and a bit lonely.

Jack was very confused. Was this really the same man that, just a year or two before, had tried to rule the world? His regal composition, his overbearing nature, seemed to have vanished. He now looked... more like Jack would have expected from a spirit doomed to eternal solitude. Sad, hopeless, unemotional. Not uncaring; sad, in a way where he refused to allow himself to care about anything. Like he never expected another chance, another shot at being believed in. Jack knew that Pitch probably wasn't gonna get one.

Jack almost felt sympathy toward Pitch, considering his own current situation. But a part of him adamantly screamed at him that they were different. He was a being of winter and fun; Pitch Black was a creature of shadows and fear, who only wished harm. He wasn't like Pitch, and Pitch didn't deserve his sympathy, it insisted.

He was shaken from his thoughts when Jack heard Pitch begin to speak again. "It's not like I can abuse whatever you tell me. You should be happy to know that I can't so much as travel through my shadows, and I may never be able to again. Telling me truly will not hurt anything."

Jack considered this for a moment. "Then why do you want to know?" He asked suspiciously.

"Even I get curious," the man clad in black replied simply, walking over toward Jack and sitting next to where Jack had previously been sitting, on the bank of the pond. He looked up at Jack expectantly. Sighing, Jack lowered his staff and he too sat down on the bank of his pond.

"I'm not a Guardian any more, if you must know." That was it. The simple truth.

Pitch's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He what?! How... why...! Pitch's brain began to scream at him. 'This is it! The perfect opportunity! The Guardians won't come to his aid! You're a far better warrior, you can take him!'

'Leave the poor thing be. Whatever happened, it clearly shook him.' Pitch found himself surprised once more at his mind's argument, and especially at the kinder side. He could hardly believe that he still had a kind side. Maybe he was still partially human after all.

"What do mean?" 'Oh yes. Such an intelligent response,' his mind snapped sarcastically. Pitch ignored it as he looked at the boy, his eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

"I mean I'm not a Guardian anymore. They hate me, so I left," the winter spirit replied emotionlessly. In reality the amount of emotions building up inside of him were making him feel like he was about to explode, but Jack hid them completely.

The former King of Nightmares looked at Jack, his gaze a mix of concern he didn't understand the reason behind and annoyance. "I was trying to trick you when I said you'd never fit in. You were the perfect addition to their little band. So perfect, I didn't want them to have you. The certainly don't hate you," he told Jack calmly.

Jack shook his head. "They voted unanimously to remove my Guardianship." Pitch's eyes widened.

"They what?!" Jack didn't respond. He just stared ahead of him. Pitch's thoughts raced at an incredible speed. His own memories, mostly. Soon, his shock turned into anger. As much as he hated this boy for ruining his plans and dooming him to eternal misery, losing his Guardianship put Jack in about the same place as Pitch was in. He would never be believed in now, unless he turned 'evil' like Pitch. And Pitch could honestly not see Jack doing that. As much as he would love for that to happen, that just wasn't who Jack was. But, really! How could the Guardians do that to him?! And he was practically a child!

"Did- did they take away your believers?" Pitch asked. This question came out as a pained whisper. Pitch knew all too well that pain, of becoming unseen. A spirit who was a mere child having to bear that after finally getting to know what it was like to be seen... it was like letting a puppy feel warmth for one night before dooming it to live in the freezing winter forever, never to feel the warmth again.

"Yeah, I think so. They said that would happen if they removed my Guardianship. I listened in on their conversation, and heard them vote. I ran away before they could throw me out, and I resigned. They'll probably still take my believers away, even though I resigned, since they were already planning on getting rid of me. They hate me, Bunny especially. The others didn't like me, but they were too nice to do anything about it. And I did screw up a few times, pulling pranks that became catastrophic." Jack sighed, having bursted out the whole story. Then, he realized something. "Why do you care? And... how did you know that they would take my believers?"

Pitch didn't respond. After a moment, he suddenly stood and left Jack sitting by the pond. He now remembered how that evil voice had been born. He remembered it like it had just happened. Those memories he had tried so hard to banish from his mind.


Flashback

"Wh- what?! No! You- you can't!" He stuttered, his eyes widening. He stepped back, beginning to feel fear's sickly bubbling growing in him.

"What you did can never be forgiven, mate. You're a monster. The kids are better off not being able to see the likes of you." Though the others said nothing, their sentiments clearly were the same as their blunt Australian friend.

"You are to never come back here, and you are to lose your Guardianship. You vill have all ov your believers lose their belief in you." Pitch's head began to spin. No. No! This couldn't be happening!

In despair, he looked to his greatest friend of the four. Sandman refused to meet his gaze, looking at the ground, almost as if in shame. Pitch shook his head in disbelief. He struggled violently as two yetis grabbed his arms and dragged him away. They threw him out the door into the snow and left, slamming the door behind them.

Instantly Pitch turned and slammed his fists over and over on the large red doors, screaming 'no' again and again. They had taken away his entire life. And his best friend had abandoned him, right when Pitch needed him most. Pitch finally gave up and, spotting a patch of shadows, he dashed into them. He felt their cool presence wrap around him as he ran toward his destination as fast as he could.

Reaching the small home he had been after, he emerged in a small girl's room. "Emily? Emily Jane?" He asked hopefully, his voice weak as he tried to fight the fear; the despair; building inside him. To his horror, his greatest friend- out of all of the children who believed in him, she was his favorite. She was like a daughter to him- turned and walked through him. He stepped back, into a wall, before fleeing into the shadows to the deepest, darkest place he could find.

All of his believers, even those as close to him as Emily Jane, had lost their memories of him and their belief in him. He might as well have not existed.

End of Flashback


Pitch shook his head violently, desperately trying to shake these terrible memories from his mind as he exited the shadows into his lair.

'You can help him.' He froze. 'How would you have loved to have someone care for you after your banishment? To watch after you? For a place to stay?' The voice was right. Sure, Jack was far different than he, but still... Could he help him? And the greater question... Would he?


Jack hadn't moved since Pitch had abruptly left. "Even he doesn't want to waste his time with a failed Guardian," Jack thought silently. His gaze hadn't moved from a spot on the frozen pond.

He really didn't know what to do. He was scared. He now had no family. No friends. He had been here before, for 300 years. But now, there were so many things that would scream it in his face. If he saw Jamie and his friends again. If he ever ran into a Guardian. It would hurt so much. And he didn't have anything to fall back on. He'd always before held out hope that his future would get brighter. But now... what brighter future could he possibly have?

"Jack Frost? Are you still there?" He heard Pitch ask, almost nervously. Jack ignored the nervousness, thinking that he was just imagining it.

"Where else would I be?" He replied nonchalantly.

Pitch took a deep breath. "I'm sure that you just want to be alone right now... but if you ever find yourself needing a place to stay... my lair has been a bit lonely since my nightmares ditched me. Feel free to drop by if you need to. Not that I expect you will, considering that it's me..." Pitch trailed off. Jack turned to face him to see if his face matched the sincerity in his voice, but Pitch was gone. Jack stared behind him, blinking slowly.

Had Pitch really meant it? No, stop. Jack couldn't even consider accepting his proposal. He was Pitch Black. He was evil. But then, something occurred to Jack. Would the Guardians tell people in the future that he was evil?

Jack pressed his lips together and forced himself to stop thinking about those things. Back to Pitch. He didn't need help. And Pitch's lair was not by any means a vacation home.

Jack shook his head, deciding that he would never accept help from Pitch. No, he would just sit here and mope until forced to do something else. Yeah. That sounded like a great plan.