Jack had no time to react before Pitch's grip loosened, beginning his free-fall hundreds of meters to the ground below. What surprised Jack was, not that he had let go, but it felt like he had let go on purpose.
Pitch dropped like a small stone plunging into the ocean as he surpassed the tree tops, forcing Jack to lose sight of him.
As he dove below the treeline, he searched for his dark silhouette; surely he would have been able to find him easily amongst the snow…But he was nowhere to be seen.
Tears formed in Frost's eyes as soon as he landed, but for unknown reasons. He hadn't felt sad, or angry. But he did feel scared for what felt like the first time since...
Jack walked the grounds for a few moments where Pitch Black assumingly landed calling out his name. With each shout, he grew more anxious. And as each second passed without a sign of him, he began to think, Did he just disappear? He went over in his head as soon as he caught a glimpse of Pitch's descent, like skimming through the individual frames of a videotape. He saw him for a split second before he broke the treeline, but knew where he had to have landed.
"He has to be here," Jack shouted to himself, unnerved. "He just has to be here!" Jack Frost's breathing became erratic, from irritation. Unable to keep them back, the tears that had been welling up in his ice-blue eyes rolled down his cheeks one after another.
Soon enough, his mind began to wonder.
Jack thought back on something he had never dreamed of wanting to think of again. Pitch had reached his peak, conjuring enough power to kill off Sandman. Whilst Sandy was heroically fighting off Pitch's sand minions with his dream whips, taking them out without effort, a perfect strike of a blackened arrow to the back unexpectedly ended his life. The black sand swallowed him whole and he dissipated into nothingness.
Pitch and Sandy were practically the same entity, only with opposing orthodoxies. If Sandy went the way he did—without a trace—then no doubt that Pitch could have done the same.
These thoughts, however, only made Jack feel worse.
"No," he commanded, "He can't be gone…No! He can't be gone, no, no!—"
Still looking around with his tear-stricken eyes at the blankness, something within Jack snapped.
He lifted his head and screamed to the world. Raising his staff high over his head, he slammed the tip end of it into the ground, emitting a loud crack of frozen fractals that stabbed outward like daggers in a glorious, yet horrific, jagged snowflake. Doing this, it flattened countless meters of land around him of snow and small plant life.
Jack knelt down with his staff still upright; the very end of it was embedded in a swirl of ice caused by his strike of wrath. Tears were now streaming down his face, but he didn't make a sound. His heart dropped heavily in his chest not knowing what to do.
What did Pitch mean? What did he mean when he said…
Family.
That word sounded so alien, yet it was oddly heartwarming coming from the lips of the King of Nightmares. Piecing the dark entity that is Pitch Black to anything soft or loving felt bizarrely comforting in a way. It was as if the combination brought the mighty Bogeyman down from his hellbent throne, making him more relatable. More…human.
Jack didn't recall how long it had been before Tooth Fairy's gentle hand brushed up against his back. He was curious to how she had gotten to him so quickly…Jack refused to look up at her, but she didn't pry for conversation. They remained silent for an unknown amount of time.
"He said something," Jack Frost whispered; it was almost too soft for Tooth to hear, "before he fell…he said…something about family."
Tooth said nothing.
Jack had to pause in between sentences to build enough energy to speak again, "He said he was afraid to lose his family. But awhile back, he said he didn't have any…I remember we spoke briefly, when we were in Antarctica. He mentioned he knew what it was like to 'long for'…a family…But just now, he said he was afraid of losing it? I just don't understand…"
Another temporary silence passed and finally Tooth spoke. But not the words Jack was expecting to hear.
"You remember that?" she asked in a softened tone. The voice was deep and had a strong accent; clearly not belonging to that of Tooth Fairy. The person being Bunny was unlikely because he felt a distinct human hand resting on his back. Suspicious, he turned his head—and leapt away from Pitch Black, startled beyond thought.
Too many questions jumped around in his mind.
"W-where—H-h-how—" Jack's tongue was in a knot; he was unable to get out a single word. Shaking his head to disperse the shock from within him, he let out a quivery breath. As Jack gazed at him, it only made him think of how much Pitch resembled a black and white photograph. Completely washed out; opaque. "Are you…"—he stared in awe and confusion—"…okay?"
Pitch's face puzzled as if he wasn't quite sure why he asked such a question.
"Y-you fell. From…" Jack pointed up at the sky, but failed to complete his sentence. Something occurred to him just then—Where were the nightmares? They seemingly had vanished leaving behind the beautiful pink sky of sunrise. There was nothing now but only the rolling clouds and the tips of the trees brushing in the wind.
"I don't recall falling," Pitch began. He gave off a befuddled expression as his bright eyes pondered, "but I do remember our conversation we had…" Suddenly, the memories flashed back into Jack's mind one by one; almost tossing the tooth box off the cliff, the fight between Jack and Pitch creating a disturbing, yet charming sculpture of ice and black sand, Pitch's speech about family—It all flooded his mind like being caught in a strong tide and pulled out to sea. "…And I see you remember, too."
Pitch's gaze dropped to a purple flower, a single Saponaria, struggling to stay standing half a meter in front of him. He brushed the snow from it in which was weighing it down and gently pushed it back upright with his pinkie.
Without taking his eyes off it, he began dispirited, "…I think I've lost my way."
Jack, climbing to his feet, stepped over to him and knelt in front of the tiny blossom. He waited only a moment before speaking.
"Why do you think that?" he asked. Pitch said nothing at first. It was as if he didn't know why he felt that way. But as the correct words loomed into his mind, things begun to make less sense.
"I don't know who I am anymore," he replied, the grief breaking through in his voice. It almost hurt to say that to the measly Jack Frost. He would never have explained any of this to Frost on a normal day, however continued on, knowing there were no other ears to listen otherwise. "I've been burdened this charade for so long…I have lost sight of my purpose."
Jack tried thinking of something to say at that moment. However, he wasn't quite sure what to say in a situation like that one.
"Well," Jack pondered, "the good news is the nightmares seem to not be bothering you anymore?" He pointed to the open sky. "I don't know how, but I guess I wouldn't question a good thing."
Pitch Black objected to this swiftly.
"No," his deep English tone muttered. "It's not quite so simple." He looked back up at Jack finally taking his eyes off the violet bloom, "Do you remember what I did to your staff? In Antarctica?"
Jack's face perplexed in thought. His staff?
He thought back to just after the fight; to save Baby Tooth from the grasp of The Bogeyman, he traded his staff for her. Then, Pitch snapped it over his knee. At that moment, what he felt in his chest wasn't pain, but it felt like his heart had been ripped out. What remained was the undeniable erosion of emptiness without a purpose. He was physically shaken when it happen.
Jack grabbed his chest in remembrance and grimaced. Why would he bring that up?
"I took your powers from you," he explained without a beat skipped.
Thinking deeply on the matter, it made sense why what had happened, happened at all. Wind was no longer there to lift him away, and ice fractals no longer carried its harmony on his fingertips. Moon Man's cosmic energy was what made up Jack Frost's crux. And without his very essence to keep him whole, he was merely a husk. Jack remembered wanting nothing more than to curl up with Baby Tooth and fall asleep forever.
Pitch then looked up at the brightly lit sky, inviting Jack to look as well. He continued, giving the undeniable answer, "And you just took mine."