Jack woke up to see she was shackled to a chair in a room with familiar cages that hanging above her. "No.." She said, looking around "This place was sealed shut!"
"Really now, Jack?" A voice asked, the voice of Pitch. "Then, why is it that you're here?"
Jack was speechless, she didn't know. Then, she felt something hot smacking her right cheek. She shut her mouth, trying to stop the scream of pain that threatened to escape. She heard a malice chuckling. It was Jill. Jack opened her blue eyes to stare into Jill's black eyes.
"Answer the question, Frost." The summer spirit said, smirking. Jack didn't know so she didn't say anything, the result being another smack delivered to her right cheek, earning a shriek of pain from the winter girl. "She doesn't know.."
"Odd, I would have thought she would.." Pitch said, smirking as a nightmare trotting around the trio. "I guess we'll have to tell her. But, the poor thing seems tired.."
Jill nodded "Dreadfully so. Maybe she needs to sleep.."
Pitch's smirk got even wider "Yes, I think she does."
Jack glared at them. "Your little nightmares won't work on me.. I'm a Guardian."
Pitch laughed as Jill said "It won't be our nightmares that you'll be seeing."
The nightmare trotted up to Jack and turned into a nightmare version of North "It will be yours." Pitch said as the nightmare North raised it's swords. A scream came from Jack as the nightmare blade slammed into her shoulder, it broke on contact and all Jack was able to see before her world became darkness was Jill and Pitch smirking at her as they turned away. Pitch let out a ghostly laugh as he faded into the floor and Jill left the lair to continue her duties as the summer spirit.
Old Man Winter sighed. He sensed that snow was melting in the East and not being refrozen. He knew of the fun-loving, young, winter spirit Jack Frost, she acted like his daughter, Jack Overlord, did. He sighed, now was not the time to reminisce, he had to fix the melting snow.
"Wind, could you please fly me to England? There is snow to be frozen." the three hundred and thirty-two year old said, standing up from his throne and walking to a window. A gust of wind blew through the window and he was suddenly flying through the skies to fix England's snow, he held his staff- a shepherd's crook, as he thought back to the days with his family.
He often missed his loving wife, Elizabeth. Her short brown hair framed her face perfectly. Her brown eyes reminded him of the trees they would nap under before the days of their daughters. Their daughters, his little angels.
Apryl, that little girl was always following any of them from the time she could walk. She had brown her mother's eyes and his hair, prior to his death. Her smile was brighter than the sun. Her laugh made the rain stop. She was her mother's doll.
Jack, where to begin? That girl had her mother's hair and his eyes. She was mischievous and playful. She would set up traps for bullies that picked on her sister. She would also knit with her mother, or offer to cook dinner, or some other house related chore to get out of studying when the snow was too deep to go out and play.
But, when it came time to herd the sheep from the field to the barn, she was right at his side with Sebastian, her herding dog that she begged to get. Those were happy days. But the saddest day came on the day of his death. That day he remembered clearly
In those days, he was known as William Overland. And, on one snowy day, it was just him, Sebastian and Jack walking through the forest, because ten year old Jack needed to get out of the house and Will hadn't seen her smile in days since her aunts passing. Sebastian ran ahead of them and was chasing snowflakes while the other two walked along the snowy path. Then they didn't hear the dog barking. After a moment of silence, Sebastian's howls of pain were heard throughout the forest.
"Sebastian!" Jack called, following her dog's footprints. He followed, not wanting Jack to get hurt.
They followed the pawprints to a hole in the ground, where it looked like there had been a brief struggle before the dog was pulled in. Jack moved to it, but was stopped by her father.
"No, Jack. I will not risk you going down there." He said to her.
"But, Father. I must save Sebastian. I-" The two were cut off when something growled from in the trees.
"Jack." He said, taking his loaded rifle from his back as Jack got behind him
"Yes Father?" She asked him, shaking in fear as they heard heavy footfalls
"Run." He said, looking into the trees, cocking is gun. Jack didn't move, that is, until something ran out of the trees, a huge ugly beast that emerged from nowhere "Run Jack!"
Jack, fear rippling through her, obeyed him and ran.
That was the last time he saw her when he was alive, but when he woke up by the hole that Sebastian fell down, he felt strange. He felt like someone, somewhere, gave him a second chance. He looked up at the moon, feeling warm.
"Heh. So, guess it's just you and me out tonight, huh?"
He meant it as a joke, but what happened next made his icy skin crawl "Yes."
He jumped back in shock "Who said that?"
"It was I, the Man in the Moon."
"The man in the moon?" Will asked, looking up at the celestial being
"Yes. Or, if you prefer, my true name is Tsar Lunar."
Will nodded, then looked around, feeling panic bubbling inside of him "Jack?! Where is she? Where is my daughter?!"
"Calm yourself, you will cause a snowstorm if you let your powers be reigned by emotion."
"Huh?" Will breathed out, seeing his breath. He didn't feel cold, despite the freezing cold night temperatures in Burgess back then.
"Freeze something." Tsar said, surely tempting Will. Will, never being one to back out of a challenge, saw his Shepard's crook on the ground, Jack must have dropped it, and picked it up. The crook became frosted over. "See? You control winter. But, as always, the winter must move on so spring can begin."
Spring. Easter. The Easter Egg hunt. And, "Jack's birthday." Will's face became sad. He knew snow melted in heat so he couldn't see his wife of children.
"Go. I will guide you until sun comes up." Tsar said to the man. Will nodded, reluctantly, walking in the moon's path. "You may use the wind to fly. It would be easier, and faster. All else will be explained tomorrow night."
"Okay." Will said "Uh.. Wind, to the next continent-"
"New England." Tsar corrected
"Right. To New England, to bring snow, please." And, just like that, Will was on his way to New England.
Good luck, Old Man Winter.. Tsar thought, knowing the heavy burden of losing everything in his life and then waking up to a new life. It was going to be challenging, but would it be worth what Tsar had set in motion?
Five feet of snow already and he wasn't even paying attention. Will shook his head. He needed to focus. He needed to make the snow. He didn't play in it, it reminded him too much of his little Jack. He'd make it, see that it was just the right height and then go back to his palace. Back to the place he built from the ground up with ice. That Frost girl must be at the North pole. He'd investigate what was going on after he finished making snow, or on another day.
Maybe he should go to the North Pole. He needed to stretch his limbs more and he was already up anyway. He froze a puddle and flew through it, ending up in the icecapped water of the North pole. The lights in Santoff Claussen were on. Oh goody, North was awake. Whether it was a good or a bad thing depended on if North had run out of ice blocks to cut for whatever purpose. He'd find out soon enough.
She heard her father's rifle going off and the monster roaring even as she was running further away. The last thing she remembered hearing was her father's scream and, then after it was over, silence. A blood curdling scream that kept her awake at night for five years after his passing, before dying in the lake, and the reason she never ventured far into the wood.
"Father!" Jack's eyes shot open as the blood curdling scream of her father was too much for the girl to bear. "Father." She said as she started crying. Maybe if she hadn't let Sebastian go that far into the woods, her father would have lived long enough to see her and Apryl grow up. She heard a cruel laugh and saw a shadow literally moving across the floor. It was Pitch. This is so not fun.
"Enjoy your trip down memory lane, Frost?"
Jack glared through tear filled eyes "I dare you to come closer..."
"So you can do what? Nip my nose? Get real Frost, you don't have the power to do anything except for run your mouth." Pitch sneered
Jack was angry because she knew he was right. If that wasn't the case, there would be such as storm the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Easter of 1968. A sudden heat wave swept through the cavern. Oh great, Jill's back.
"Pitch." A nod of the nightmare kings head "Frost." A dark glare from icy blue that was shot straight into coal black eyes before, in the blink of an eye, a sting of pain came from her eye as Jill had smacked her leaving a lingering and burning sensation. Jack begged for someone, anyone, to help her as she was forced to stand, hands shackled together, and face Pitch. A nightmare version of Bunnymund had appeared before her.
"You worthless pile of snow!" The nightmare spoke.
Pitch blinked in surprise "That's never happened before."
"Bun-" Jack was cut off by the raging nightmare.
"We should never have trusted you! You cause nothing but trouble!" The nightmare actually had the strength to lift Jack and throw her to the ground. The nightmare Pooka walked up to her and kicked her gut.
Pitch and Jill smirked. This was working out perfectly. Now, all they needed to do was keep it up until Jack renounced her Guardian duties and the two could rule the world, the Guardians would be powerless to stop them because Jack would be too frightened to go near them like before, making it the perfect world of warmth and dark. Because, for every bright burning flame a dark smouldering shadow is cast.
