Jackie didn't know why, but the name evergreen made her head hurt painfully.
Like it was a name she desperately wanted to forget. She was Jackie Frost, not a tree. As the Guardians agreed to collect the teeth in place of Tooth's army of fairies, she felt a headache coming on.
"You alright Jackie? You don't look so good," asked Jack in honest concern.
"I'm fine. Just have a headache that refuses to die," she said quietly. Jack grew even more worried. The last time she was like this, she had nearly started a month long blizzard. Jack went to talk to North.
"Is there anyway Jackie could rest in the Workshop?" he asked quietly.
"What is wrong?" asked North.
"I'm worried about her... she's really pale even for her and I have the feeling that the tree Sandy was showing her is the reason why. Unlike me she's never tried to find her purpose...she prefers to just be around me all the time."
Sandy overheard the conversation and spoke using his dream sand. Keeping Jackie far away from Pitch was a better idea than letting her help at the moment. If she remembered what happened she could very well level the Guardians.
"I'll let yetis know she is allowed to stay. Perhaps she will enjoy library," said North.
"You have a library in your workshop?" said Jack incredulous.
"Of course I have library! How else you think I keep all the children straight?" said North.
Sandy made an odd comment.
"What do you mean she should avoid the English section?" asked Jack.
Sandy pointed at Jackie and created a rough estimate of England.
"Oh, that. Yeah, I suppose she should avoid the European section. I still don't understand why she hates England and Scotland so much," said Jack.
Jackie agreed to stay in the workshop until needed, unaware of what Pitch had in mind.
She was reading a first edition copy of Lord of the Rings when they came back. They were missing one Guardian though.
"What happened?"
"Pitch...he absorbed Sandy," said Jack.
"Oh for the love of MiM! Don't tell me you lot actually believe Sandy is dead!" she said irate.
"What?" asked North.
Jackie rolled her eyes.
"Pitch, despite having control over Nightmare Sand, is not attuned to Sandy's power over dreams. He can corrupt them, but he can't outright control them. It would take a few days for him to fully integrate the powers of the Sandman. Which means you lot have a very small window of opportunity to bolster the power of belief in the children before Sandy is gone completely. If you can give him enough belief, then he should be able to break free," explained Jackie.
"How do you know that?" asked Bunny angrily. Jackie had always rubbed him the wrong way, mostly because of the curse that still lingered over Europe. It was getting harder and harder to bring spring in time with that blasted thing!
"Belief is powerful, especially for spirits like you Guardians. Pitch can't garner any real belief from the magicals right now because they're more concerned about me showing up. Which means you have a limited amount of leeway before he finds a way to overcome their fear of me and turn it into his own power," she said annoyed.
She had always wondered why she had more power than Jack did, or why people could see her and not Jack. Learning she had become a nursery rhyme of warning for the magicals all over the world had solved that particular mystery. It was an odd parody of the rhyme used in a certain horror franchise that involved dreams, likely why Pitch even knew of it.
Because she was naturally aligned to ice and darkness, the power of fear gave her enough strength to match the belief that powered the Guardians.
As Pitch's power over children grew, so did her affinity towards the dark element of magic.
She wasn't exactly pleased that her darker powers were growing.
Jack wondered why the Guardians were so wary of Jackie. It wasn't like she was evil, she just had a bad hand dealt to her. Jackie was really nice once you got to know her properly, though her humor occasionally needed some work.
Bored, he went looking through the library in North's workshop while they argued on how to bring back the children's belief. He went into the European section as a lark.
His hands brushed against the spines of the books before one caught his hands. Unlike the others, this one was filled with almost all darkness and pain. He picked it out of the shelf...it was fairly recent, and according to the dates the witch in question should have been in her early twenties at least.
It was the name that caught his full attention though.
Evergreen Liliana Potter.
Evergreen...that was the name of the tree Sandy kept pointing at when he was trying to warn them about Jackie. And right before he was taken he had shown a picture of a large potted plant. Upon further reflection he realized it had been a lily of some sort.
He couldn't have been trying to warn Jack about his friend...right?
He opened the middle of the book...and very nearly dropped it in shock.
There, staring back at him was an ebony haired version of Jackie. She looked more resigned than sad and angry like she usually was whenever England or it's magical community was brought up.
Jack sat down and began to read. He was hoping that he was wrong about his suspicions, but it only grew worse the longer he went into the book.
Evergreen had a tough life. She had lost her parents on Halloween, her godfather shortly before Easter, and her owl right before Christmas. Jack's mind flew to the owl that always showed up whenever Jackie touched dream sand... this Hedwig was an identical copy to that bird.
When he got to the point where Hedwig had died, Bunny was coming in.
"Where'd you find that one?" he asked annoyed. Jackie had been going at him for over an hour now.
"On the shelf. Bunny, does the name Evergreen Potter mean anything to you?"
"Potter? I remember there being something about a girl in England who never seemed to actually enjoy my egg hunts, but I can't say it rings a bell," said Bunny.
Jack felt a bad feeling take hold. The Guardian's prided themselves on remembering children, especially the bad cases like Potter was. He had to find out if he was right.
He discreetly asked the same question of Tooth and North. Neither of them knew the girl at all, which was beyond strange because North had a very good memory.
Jack looked at his friend who was playing with the yeti by throwing a few random snowballs at any who looked busy.
Was it possible that something had tampered with the Guardians?
"What's up Jack?" asked Jackie.
"Nothing. Just a bad feeling," he said. He couldn't lie to her. If he was right she had been lied to her entire life and he had the feeling that it was all Pitch's fault. Sandy had said Pitch was the reason why she had become a spirit.
Pitch smirked. It was only a little longer before he could snag Jack Frost. It would take very little for the Guardians to turn on him, especially since Jackie was growing stronger while they grew weaker.
Hiding her from the Guardian's had been far too easy. A child needed belief in order to give them power, yet they never suspected that one had been missed at all. Feeling the Guardians in the warren, Pitch prepared to use Jack's own teeth against him. This would be fun.
Jack heard a voice in the wind. Someone was calling him. Someone familiar. He looked back at Sophie, but the voice was compelling.
Then a thought occurred to him. Was Pitch deliberately trying to lure him in?
This was the perfect time to find out if Pitch had done something to Jackie. He followed the voice, deep, deeper into the earth.
He found himself in a cave full of the missing teeth and the fairies bound by cages. Seeing Pitch, Jack's eyes narrowed.
"What did you do?" he demanded.
"I think the better question you should be asking Jack...is what did you do?" sneered Pitch, tossing him his teeth. He still had Jackie's. Brushing up against it lightly he grinned cruelly as he felt her pain flare.
Malfoy sneered at her, enjoying her agony. The Dark Lord was pleased when he heard what a blow he had dealt the girl. Seeing her, he was about to taunt her again about the death of her bird when he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Looking down he found that there was a massive wedge of ice where his navel was.
He was bleeding to death on the cold stone floor as Potter watched his rapidly cooling corpse dispassionately. This wasn't enough to sate her growing rage, but it was a fine start. She branded Malfoy with the image of a snow owl, flying free, to insure everyone knew that she had done this.
A few days and a very unsurprised investigation later, and the Aurors arrived to arrest her.
Potter looked at them with a frozen gaze, her magic rising in response to her growing fury. Outside, a blizzard began to form.
"No."
That single word held more power than any spell. She took out her wand, and to the shocked gaze of the other students, proceeded to snap it into so many pieces that it would be impossible to fix.
She turned to face a disappointed headmaster.
"This is your fault. I lay this curse at your feet, Albus Dumbledore. For every year I spent in this waking hell, I curse this society to a never ending nightmare. For every winter that graces these shores, I shall curse every magical to a cold heartless death. May the icy touch of my revenge never end so long as you and these sheep you seek to rule live."
With that, the raging blizzard struck hard and fast, shattered the glass with a subarctic touch. She walked out into the raging storm and to the glen where she laid against the tree. She stared at the remains of her only true friend and cried the last tears she would ever feel as a human.
