CONTENT WARNING: Mind Control, Sexual Assault, Blood/Gore, Disturbing Themes

04 – Just a Pawn

He was drowning.

Jack was mindless in his struggles, ripping the flesh as he thrashed beneath the Each Uisge's teeth. He was dragged further and further down into the gloomy deep, secured by the large waterhorse's mouth.

The Each Uisge paused in his descent, chuckled in a low, resounding voice that echoed through Jack's head. It was a voice that reflected his current appearance, a voice that people dreaded sounding by misty lakesides, a voice that heralded death.

'You seem to have a fear of drowning. How quaint. Were you not aware that ice floats?'

Jack turned and struck out, his fingers twisted into claws. He raked nails down the waterhorse's face but his hands only slipped off, his nails wouldn't dig into flesh. When he came close to touching one of the Each Uisge's eyes, the horse shook his head rapidly, snapping Jack back and forth. Jack, disoriented, head spinning, continued to struggle weakly. The Each Uisge continued to take Jack further down into the water. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of his staff, secured in a rope of waterweed that waved lazily, an animated tentacle of green.

Augus approached a huge, green dome, lit from within. He circled easily down towards it, landed on the lakebed and then walked through the magical, giant bubble calmly, placing his hooves with neat precision. As Jack was pushed through, gravity pulled him sharply towards the ground. The dome kept out the water, he was no longer buoyant.

He was dropped unceremoniously to the ground, coughing up water even as he hit the dirt. He heaved up mouthfuls of lake, splattering the ground around him. He rolled over to curl around the side of himself that was bleeding, punctured heavily by Augus' wide bite. It sent burning waves of pain through him, his back cramped. As soon as the paroxysms of coughing started to abate, he pushed himself upright, staggered towards the barrier of the dome, knowing that he needed to escape, all of Pitch's warnings about Augus suddenly clamouring in his head, one after the other.

'Turn around. Stand, and face me,' Augus commanded. Jack wanted to scream as his body refused to listen to his mind, as it obeyed that awful compulsion. He didn't understand how Pitch had been able to break it. Once, he'd said that fear could do it, but Jack was terrified, and it wasn't making any difference.

He stared in horror at Augus, who transformed back into his human form casually, walking over to a table made of pale, white shells where the waterweed had deposited Jack's staff. When he had finished transforming, he was bare-chested, he wore dark brown pants. His feet were bare and wet. His green-black hair dripped water as it always did, though far more rapidly than usual. Augus calmly reached up and squeezed the majority of water out of his hair as he looked down at the staff. He picked it up and turned it in his hands, examining it.

He approached Jack with the staff and looked at him, calculating. He reached out for Jack's hand, but Jack had been released from his compulsion to stop fighting Augus, and he leaned backwards as far as he could while still having to maintain the compulsion that made him stand. He jerked his hand away. His heart thundered and fluttered at the same time, his pulses hammered dissonant tunes throughout his flesh, leaving him queasy.

Augus smiled and took Jack's wrist, forced his palm open by digging his thumb mercilessly into the nerves hiding in the fleshy, soft skin on the underside of his wrist. And then he placed Jack's staff into his hand. Jack's fingers curled automatically. He felt a moment of confused hope. Frost lightning sparked out from his staff, Jack swung his arm back, ready to attack, ready to-

'Discharge your power into the ground. All of it.'

Jack couldn't even vocalise the single, broken sound that stuck in his throat as he watched his own arm swing the curve of his staff sharply down to the floor of the lakebed. He closed his eyes as frost lightning, snow, ice crystals and a white-blue power surged through his staff, pounded into the earth, freezing it. He swayed as his power was depleted faster than it had ever been before, pouring out of him uselessly. When he was done, his hand opened weakly around the staff and it fell, landing in the lake water he'd thrown up, clattering on the ice that he'd forced into the ground. He was unable to stop shaking, more drained than he'd been on the mountain when he was at his most taxed.

'I must say, I'm intrigued,' Augus said calmly, politely, as he picked up the staff from the ground and placed it back on the table. 'How curious that a weak, scrawny thing like you should be considered important. I think I would like to find out how you work. Are you in any way necessary? Will Gwyn ap Nudd be perturbed if I break you? Instinct tells me yes.'

Augus looked him up and down, raking him with an invasive, hungry stare that did not match the carefully arranged, inquiring look on his face.

Jack's throat strained against the silence forced upon it. Sentences pulsed through his brain. Let me go! Gwyn will be here any minute. Is the Nightmare King here? You can't break me! Why are you doing this? Let me go!

'I imagine you miss him,' Augus said, sitting down on a chair carved out of bone. Jack's eyes crawled quickly around his surroundings. The place wasn't as grandiose as he'd expected from Augus, and he realised that it was probably stolen or belonged to one of the freshwater fae that had been driven out of its home. There was no way Augus lived near North's Workshop, he vaguely remembered that his home base was in Scotland. 'Especially now, given your predicament. Did he warn you about me?'

Jack realised he had no idea what to expect. Gwyn hadn't come, he didn't know when he would, or if he even could. He didn't know how powerful that green dome was, he didn't know how long he'd be trapped down here. He didn't know how to get back to the surface again. His staff was practically unreachable, because of Augus' compulsion. His body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, his body temperature had risen sharply, a consequence of having mined out his core of frost at Augus' command.

'Speak,' Augus said, compulsion winnowing its way into Jack's mind.

'He warned me,' Jack gasped, his voice water-wracked. 'Let me go! Let me go, I'm nothing to you! I'm-'

'You will be nothing to me, once I'm done with you,' Augus said, as casually as someone might discuss the weather. 'But right now, you are something, because everyone else keeps deciding you are.'

'Gwyn will come, he'll-'

Augus sighed. He smiled.

'Relax, little thing, we have all the time in the world.'

'Why are you even doing this? Why the schools? You attacked children.'

'Children are delicious,' Augus said coldly, crossing one leg over the other. 'How tedious you are, trying to appeal to my humanity, when I don't have any. It wouldn't do to offend me by comparing me to the dumb animals I eat.'

'Why not?' Jack said, laughing hysterically. 'Why not? You're going to hurt me anyway, right?'

Augus smiled sweetly.

'Yes. I am. When you break someone, during a war, they become a liability. Did you know this? They become a liability to the people who care about them. First, a broken person no longer thinks the way they once did, often permanently, certainly for a time. Second, a broken person takes up the energy of those around them, even when they do not mean, or even want to. If you are cared for, if you are visible, you will harm others simply by existing near them and being broken. They will think on you. They will want to help you. And soothe you. And calm you. Some may even want vengeance. All of these things take up time, and energy. Some of these things drive away all rational thought.'

'You're…' Jack couldn't finish his sentence. You're a monster. He wanted desperately to run, but compulsion held him firm. He had never felt less in control of himself, less able to look after himself. It was taking all of his concentration not to dissolve into begging that all of the compulsion be released. It felt like sticky fingers in his mind, turning him into someone he wasn't.

'But the simple fact is that you are everywhere I turn. You dragged Pitch Black out of his lair after I had commanded him to stay. You were there when I visited Pitch Black at his home in Kostroma, cocky and disrespectful. You were there at the school, destroying the Nightmares, assisting the children. You have even been with Gwyn, plotting. I can't say I like you very much.'

'Have you always liked the sound of your own voice this much?' Jack said, grinding his teeth together. Augus liked to talk. It reminded him of the old Nightmare King, down in his lair, turning talk into torture, playing mind-games for the sheer smug pleasure of it.

Jack was scared. He was scared that discharging his powers like that had sped up his inevitable wasting and death; he felt so weak that it didn't seem impossible, or even unlikely. He was scared that he wouldn't be able to save Pitch. He was scared that Augus would make him forget his purpose. He was scared of what Augus might do, could make him do. He was scared. It sent hairline cracks all the way through him.

All this time, people had warned him about Augus, but he'd never really thought that Augus would put aside his plans – whatever they were – long enough pay him any direct attention. Who was he to someone like the King of the Unseelie fae? Yet now he found himself alone with him under a magical dome, disarmed, powerless. Jack's lungs still felt full of lakewater. He was bleeding stains all the way down his side.

'Oh, are you in a hurry?' Augus said, raising his eyebrows. 'I do apologise. How I'd dislike to keep you away from prior commitments.'

He stood fluidly and Jack startled, tried to step backwards in a body that refused to listen to him. He tried again, and felt a sudden surge of anger at himself that he just couldn't break the compulsion. Why wasn't he as strong as the others? Why couldn't he even fight against it a tiny amount? Now he was in this situation and he couldn't even defend himself. Why am I like this? Damn it, move!

'Strip.'

Horror eclipsed his anger as the compulsion sank into his mind. Horror was followed quickly by remembered Pitch telling him, 'The Nain Rouge will kill you quickly, but Augus will not.' And at the time, Jack had just assumed that would mean torture – bad certainly, but not... not...

Jack's mouth shaped around a protest as his body obeyed. He couldn't decide who he hated more as his hands pulled his sodden pants down efficiently, as he stepped out of them and immediately reached up to remove his sweatshirt. He couldn't decide what was worse, his own body betraying him, or Augus orchestrating this in the first place. He felt his weakness acutely as he dropped the sweatshirt next to him. He gasped as he straightened again, the teeth marks in his side aggravated and sent another wave of cramps through his back. He reached up to the necklace, and squeezed his eyes shut. No, no, no, no, no. Oh god, what if I have to leave it here?

'Wait,' Augus said, walking over to him quickly. Jack's hands paused up at the chain and his breath stuttered in his chest as Augus stepped into his personal space, reaching down for the locket with long fingers. He didn't seem to notice Jack's nudity, though Jack couldn't stop being aware of it, uncomfortable and wishing he had – at the very least – the barrier of clothing between them both. 'Who is this?'

'Pitch's daughter,' Jack said, groaning in frustration as the words slipped from him easily. He couldn't even pretend at resistance.

'His daughter,' Augus repeated, flatly. He twisted his fingers up in the chain and jerked hard, trying to snap it. Jack shrieked as the unbreakable chain cut into his neck. Augus tugged again and Jack panicked as he felt blood trickle from the wound Augus had created.

'It doesn't break! It won't break! Take it off, stop, wait, just-'

Augus reached over his head and unlooped the chain, drawing it up instead. He examined the locket closely as he walked over to the table.

'You are keeping it safe, I suppose,' Augus said softly, placing it down by Jack's staff. 'Would it hurt him, do you think, to destroy it?'

Oh god.

But Augus walked away from the table and back to Jack, this time taking his time looking over Jack's body. His face was filled with a cold disgust, the corner of one lip curled up in displeasure, as though he was looking at garbage. Jack wanted to cover himself with his hands, but they were still up by his neck from when Augus had told him to wait. The compulsions held strong long after they'd been given, and Jack felt the rattle of each one in his head. There was barely enough room left for the knowledge that he had to get the locket back somehow, that he had to get to his staff, that he had to leave. Everything he knew he had to do seemed so insurmountable.

His skin prickled as Augus circled him slowly. He could hear his rapid, shallow breathing, the sound of water dripping from Augus' hair and otherwise very little at all. It was strangely silent this far underwater, beneath the dome. Augus moved on his feet soundlessly. Nothing else moved in the dome with them.

Augus paused behind him.

'You're back is recovering from some injury, it seems. And I have simply added to its strain. How insensitive of me.'

Jack's skin crawled. He tensed, not knowing what to expect.

He shouted out, hoarse, as a hand lashed out and fingers dug deep into the teeth marks, opening them wider, causing the blood to flow more freely. The fingers withdrew and Jack tried to catch his breath again, shuddering from the pain. He could sense Augus moving behind him, but he had no idea what he was doing.

Jack made a distressed sound behind closed lips when he felt Augus rest his chin on Jack's shoulder.

'Your blood tastes interesting,' Augus said, and Jack shook his head in denial. He remembered Pitch saying, 'He will tear you apart with his bare hands.'

'Let me go,' Jack said, knowing it was useless to even ask.

'It would be rude of me not to share. Would you like to try some?' Fingers smeared cold, thick blood over his lips and Jack jerked his head out of the way. He was surprised that Augus let him. But that, in a way, was worse. He never knew when to expect a compulsion, or why. He knew he wouldn't be able to fight back when it came, and he didn't know when he'd have whatever tiny moments of resistance he found for himself, taken away from him. He couldn't see any openings for escape.'It's oddly human, but different. You were clearly dead for a time, but not anymore. I wonder...'

Augus knelt down behind him and Jack felt something like hysteria rush through him, turning him colder than he thought was possible.

Augus placed his lips in the mockery of an open kiss, by the side of the teeth marks that had stretched around the front and back of his torso. Augus bit down so hard that his teeth sunk deep, and before Jack had even registered was happening, before he could even scream from the pain of it, Augus had torn a lump of flesh clean off him. Jack's eyes widened when he realised he could hear the sound of chewing. He didn't want to hear it, didn't want to know, and there was only one thing he could think of to cover the sound. He screamed as loudly as he could, trying to drown out his reality, hoping that when he came back to himself he would wake up and be in Pitch's bed, or curled up in the armchair, or even sleeping in a tree branch.

But his scream petered out and Augus was poking fingers into the wound, stirring up pain.

'It's not icing up,' Augus said, confused. 'This is inconvenient. Give me your hand.'

Jack stretched one of his hands backwards without even thinking about it, and Augus took it and pressed Jack's own fingers against the open wound in his back. Jack moaned as blood covered his fingers, his palm.

'Ice it.'

Jack's powers tried to obey, he felt the very core of his frost shudder and strain inside of him. But Augus had told him to discharge all of his power, and he wasn't around an ambient cold that was enough to help him recharge his energy artificially. He was spent.

'I am very sorry to say, you are the poorest excuse for a frost spirit I've ever met,' Augus said, dropping Jack's hand and standing up. He walked back around to face Jack.

Augus wiped blood off the corners of his mouth with the tips of his fingers and Jack couldn't stop himself from responding to a wave of intense nausea, couldn't stop bending over and retching at the sight of it. He managed nothing more than a tiny mist of ice crystals, and then stayed bent over, staring in horror at the sand and damp waterweed at his feet. He could see his bloodstained clothes nearby. He could feel blood trailing down his back. He'd thought the Nain Rouge was the most malicious creature he'd ever met, but she'd just been hungry, and...she had been nothing like this.

'Here, see? It starts,' Augus said softly. 'And we are just beginning.'

'I thought you said you'd make me enjoy it,' Jack rasped, staring at the floor.

Augus laughed.

'Incorrect, I'm afraid. I said I could make you enjoy it.'

Jack bared his teeth at the floor and then straightened, painfully.

'Y'know, I was right, you do like the sound of your own voice. If you're going to rape me, or...whatever, get it over with already, so I can get back to kicking your ass again.'

Augus' eyes widened in momentary surprise, and then he tilted his head back and started laughing in genuine delight. A languid hand came up and rested lightly over his chest as he continued to laugh, and it was a while before he settled down again. When he lowered his head, his face was lit with good humour, his green eyes shone.

'Rape you? You flatter yourself if you think I would willingly soil myself with the likes of you, barely more than food. Though, if that's what you're expecting, I'd hate to disappoint. I do suppose the expectations of the guests will always trump the plans of the host.'

Jack flooded with fear, he cursed himself for saying anything at all. Augus was too good at twisting words, too good at turning everything back on him. He was way out of his depths, and he knew it.

'No, I-'

'I am, always, a most solicitous host. Walk to me.'

Jack gritted out a sound of frustration as he started walking forwards. Sand stuck to his feet where blood and water had pooled underneath. He felt feverish, he couldn't tell how much of it was a result of discharging his power and how much of it was being stuck down here with Augus. He didn't feel very well. It was getting harder to concentrate.

He stopped a short length from Augus, refused to look up, refused to look at the bare chest in front of him, stared instead at the table where the locket was coiled, where his staff rested. He can do anything he wants, but if he plans on delivering me – broken – back to Gwyn, that means I'm meant to survive this. That means I can keep working to save Pitch. That means I can stay focused. Even without the locket and the staff, I'm sure I could-

'Get on your knees.'

Jack squeezed his eyes shut as he dropped. He shuddered as his legs folded beneath him. He had things he wanted to shout, scream, yell, but he didn't dare. His own words were dangerous, Augus turned each sentence into a trap.

Jack kept his eyes closed as time passed. Augus said nothing, simply waited calmly, letting the tension build. Jack knew that was what he was doing. He knew now that it was the point. And telling himself that, over and over again, wasn't stopping the fear that spread through him like cold, restless hands.

'What are you going to do?' Jack whispered.

'I'm not going to do anything,' Augus said, pushing fingers into Jack's hair and twisting his head to the side, roughly. 'I do what any competent leader does, I delegate.'

Jack struggled against the compulsions weaving through him. He tried to move his knees and couldn't. He leaned backwards and Augus only smiled. His eyes were wet, but he refused to let himself cry, refused because he knew that was also the point. Because he knew that was what Augus wanted. Because it was one of the few things he still had a margin of control over.

When Augus compelled him to lean forwards and open his mouth, Jack experienced an abrupt shift in his consciousness. He went from feeling everything – the gritty sand and lake rocks under his knees, the lukewarm fingers in his hair, the sound of Augus' hair drip, drip, dripping constantly onto the ground, the feel of his fingernails in his palm – to feeling suddenly numb. Multiple switches were flicked off in his mind and something in his heart hardened, turned into diamond.

His mouth opened. He knew he should be terrified, screaming even. He knew that somewhere, deep down where he couldn't even see it anymore, he was fractured and trapped and mindless and screeching for escape. But he was separate from all of it. He knew his body was still struggling to get away. He could feel it in the constant aching pain of his muscles, cells locked in some endless battle against themselves, hurting each other. He could feel it in the tension through his spine, the shaking that wouldn't end. But even that felt meaningless. It didn't matter.

But then Augus was pushing into his mouth. Reality crashed back callously, and his mind splintered. He was fighting, he'd managed to break at least some of the compulsion, he was scratching hard at skin and hitting and mindless in his animal need to get away. He was choking, his mouth was full and he didn't want to think about why and he couldn't anyway. Augus demanded he stop fighting, and Jack's thought processes shattered under the force of the compulsion. It stole his purpose, it temporarily wiped his memory, and he could hear Augus talking but he couldn't hear him.

Suddenly a hand fisted into his hair and dragged him back, freed his mouth. Nails cut into his scalp and Jack cried out; overwhelmed, panicking.

'If you dare freeze me,' Augus said, threateningly, and Jack realised what had happened. The look on Augus' face was terrible, and Jack was locked to the ground with fear.

'I can't help it,' Jack cried, 'I can't. I can't help it, the ice is just, I can't.' I'm sorry.

Whatever expression was on Jack's face, Augus believed it, because he let go of Jack's hair and stepped backwards. He placed his member back into his pants and pursed his lips, considering.

Jack lowered his head to the floor, hyperventilating, wanting back that numbness he'd found just a moment ago.

'I suppose I must improvise, then. Stand up.'

Jack stood, awkwardly. His limbs wanted to obey the compulsion, but they were stiffer than usual, clumsy.

'Are you wondering why it's me doing this, and not the Nightmare King? It's because I have intended you as a gift.'

Jack blinked, he heard the words, but they hardly made any sense.

'Ah, yes, I know. That will work nicely. Get dressed,' Augus said, and the confusion that came on the back of picking up and pulling on his wet pants was too much. Jack didn't want to cry, but it was worse not knowing what was coming. Not knowing why he was suddenly allowed to dress. He was absurdly grateful for the fabric barrier, but filled with dread too. Why would he need clothing? Why did Augus sound so pleased? What had he thought of?

Jack cried out when the fabric of his sweatshirt touched the raw wounds on his back and front. He drew in breath after ragged breath, forced the pain away, felt a bit more like himself now that he had his hoodie back on, his pants. He walked over to get the locket without thinking, his brain already treated it as a fundamental part of his ensemble. He couldn't get dressed without it.

Augus handed it to him, and Jack took it and trembled as he put it back on. He couldn't predict anything. He didn't know what to brace himself for.

'Let me go,' Jack whispered, and Augus briefly touched his fingertips to the side of Jack's face.

'Do you know, I haven't met anyone this susceptible to the compulsion who wasn't actually human? Curious. Do you know what I think? I think it shows just how weak you are, Jack Frost. Small, weak, thin, frail. Just a pawn, really.'

Augus stood in front of him, faced him.

'You know, don't you? You already understand these things. I'm not telling you anything you haven't considered, or have avoided considering, because it rings true inside of you. Jack Frost, who is just as confused as I am, who doesn't understand why he might be necessary, or why he's significant, or why anyone pays him any attention. Stay still.'

Augus stepped forwards and brushed the palm of his hand over Jack's pants, over his flaccid penis. Augus didn't seem to be interested in anything more than showing his ownership, his power. Jack jerked hard within the confines of his body, stuck, trapped.

'Most people could fight this. It would be hard for them, but they would try. Why aren't you trying?'

'I am,' Jack said, hating how his voice sounded. He struggled harder inside his own mind, but it wasn't working. He was horrified at the thought that he was somehow unusual, that others would have done better, done more.

'Are you really?' Augus said, moving his hand curiously, before dragging it up underneath Jack's sweatshirt and digging his fingers back into Jack's wounds. His expression didn't change when Jack whined in pain. 'Even pain doesn't make you step backwards. Fight me, Jack. Do they all just keep you around to make themselves feel better? Are you moral support? Do you make a fantastic cheerleader? What are you planning?'

Jack's eyes flew open at the sudden compulsion. He snapped his teeth down so hard around the words that wanted to push out of his mouth that he chipped a tooth at the back of his mouth.

'So you'll fight me when it comes to politics, but you won't fight me when it comes to yourself? You are a strange one. But that just makes me even more sure of what I'm doing. So, I thank you.'

A splitting pain was boring into the back of Jack's eyes as he continued to resist the compulsion that Augus hadn't yet withdrawn. The plan was the only thing he had left. The resolve to get Pitch back. If he offered up what he was thinking, what he was planning, he'd maybe have to start all over again, and he didn't have time. He knew he didn't. He knew how weak he was, how frail, how fragile. Augus wasn't telling him anything he didn't know. The plan was all that mattered, and it wasn't even much of a plan.

'You're going to hurt yourself, if you keep fighting me,' Augus said, expressionless.

Jack screamed through his teeth as the pressure built inside of his head. He felt a sudden pain in his right eye and his hand flew up to cover it. Augus removed his hand, calmly, kept it imprisoned in his damp palm.

'Blood vessel burst,' Augus said.

The pressure kept building. Jack's mind was being eroded of all thought. There was only one thing left that he could hold onto, it was that, or start spilling all the ideas that he'd thought of since the beginning.

He threw his head back.

'PITCH!' he shrieked. He knew, he knew, that there was no Pitch, no Pitch was possible without a plan, without his hard work, and he tried to hang onto that. The compulsion shook inside of him. It did not break completely, but the pressure in Jack's head abated. He gasped for breath.

'I want you to tell me something,' Augus said quietly. 'I want you to tell me the things that Pitch used to do, that comforted you.'

Jack's mouth dropped open and his eyes rolled over to Augus in disbelief and confusion.

'Go on,' Augus said. He looked bored, face flat except for the tiniest downward turn of his lips.

Jack couldn't fight both compulsions at the same time.

'H-he, he would...put his hands, fingers, through my hair,' Jack said, his voice strained.

Jack flinched when he felt gentle fingers card through his hair, a hand brush over his scalp. It was horribly familiar, and he realised what Augus was doing, what he would ruin, if he did this.

'Stop it,' Jack choked. 'Stop.'

'So. Like this, then?' Augus said, reaching up with his other hand. 'Don't fight me,' he added, when Jack reached up to claw his arms away.

The hands were impossibly careful. More than he thought possible. A palm cradled his scalp. Fingers untangled his hair, combed it out softly. The gentler Augus was, the more Jack felt like he was coming apart. He blinked and blinked to clear his vision, and realised he had started to cry.

'He forgets that I have unfinished business with him,' Augus said quietly. 'So I will make a gift of you to the Nightmare King. And if the Nightmare King remains allied to us, you shall be his toy. But, if, if he loses the shadows once more, I am prepared. You shall torment him through the very act of existing. You will be both liability and a reminder of all that he could not protect.'

Jack kept whispering the word 'Stop' under his breath, and it made no difference.

'Tell me another thing Pitch used to do.'

Jack tried shaking his head, tried to stop himself, but he was still fighting the compulsion to spill his plans to Augus, and getting Pitch back was more important, it had to be more important, than the sensation of his very self unravelling.

'He would, he would touch my face,' Jack said, cringing, remembering the times when Pitch anchored him to the present by stroking fingers over his forehead, curling a palm around his cheek. Even when Jack had slept against him on the armchair, he had been aware of a hand that would sometimes come up and turn, so that the backs of his fingers would caress his cheek until he sank deeply back into sleep.

One of Augus' hands slipped slowly out of Jack's hair, and mimicked the gesture. It was the first display of physical comfort he had received since Pitch had been possessed, and he hadn't wanted it even from loved ones, and he couldn't handle it now. He hadn't wanted to experience it again until Pitch was back, until Pitch could give it to him first. He didn't deserve it until then, he knew. Augus was breaking him down, not with force, but with gentleness.

He felt like he was shaking so badly that the ground itself was rumbling.

A moment later, the dim, murky water behind the dome was lit with a flash of bright light.

Jack shrieked, startled, and Augus only trailed fingertips down his cheek, over closed eyelids, smearing tears down his face.

'Focus, Jack. I'm rarely this kind to anyone.'

'You're not being kind now,' Jack sobbed.

'I think we have time for one more,' Augus said, looking sideways, and Jack realised that the ground was trembling beneath his feet. 'One more thing that Pitch did that you liked, then, Jack.'

'After...bad dreams,' Jack felt faint, he was sweating heavily now, warmer than he could remember feeling for a long time. The comfort of coolness and frost seemed like a distant memory. Everything was humid, muggy, cloying, too much.

'He'd comfort you after nightmares? Like a child?' Augus chuckled. 'I imagine this is quite the nightmare for you, right now, isn't it, Jack? This one will be easy. Shh, shh, dear boy, it's okay now. I'm here. I'm here.'

Jack's mouth opened on sobs he couldn't repress any longer. His knees buckled and he fell heavily to the ground, and Augus lowered himself alongside him, gathering him into his arms. He stared blankly ahead as the ground moved beneath him. He was nauseated, there were spots drifting in front of his vision.

'Do you feel that?' Augus said, looking up. 'That's the cavalry, thinking that they got here in time. But, Jack, I've never needed that long with my targets. And,' he chuckled indulgently, 'I certainly didn't need long with you. Have you been dreaming of how he would reassure you, when he returned to you? I'm afraid I've made things terribly complicated for you.'

Jack pushed hands up to cover his face, knowing that everything Augus said was true. Knowing what Augus was doing, knowing what his intentions were, didn't mean that Jack could switch off how it was affecting him. And Augus knew that too, taunting him, twisting up his memories of Pitch, poking at the vulnerable places inside of him.

Three more flashes of light in quick succession, and Augus sighed out a low hum. He paused in his languid strokes of Jack's hair.

'Lightning. Gwyn is quite angry. I suppose I should send you back. I had wished we'd have longer, but I think this is adequate, don't you? Maybe now everyone else will see you for the pathetic wretch that you are.'

Augus withdrew from Jack and handed him his staff as though it was of no importance to him. Jack stared at it, numb, dazed, chest heaving with silent, confused motions.

'I always intended to give it back,' Augus whispered, as he opened Jack's palm for him, and closed his fingers over the wood with its shiny, transparent coating. 'I think you're going to need it. You're looking a tad peaky. I do hope I haven't given you long-term injury, making you discharge your power like that.'

'I hate you,' Jack managed on a wet, shaken voice. 'You will be-'

Augus looked up as a flash of lightning hit the dome and crawled along it. A small hole opened, and water started streaming in. Augus quickly grasped Jack by the chin.

'Look at me.'

Jack did.

'Jack Frost, I order you to tell the Nightmare King, in whatever incarnation you may find him, of this encounter. So that he may respond however he sees fit.'

The compulsion was so strong that Jack found himself stumbling backwards towards the dome, already determined to fulfil it. He burst through the barrier just as the dome collapsed on itself, catching him briefly in the current. He struck up through the dark water weakly, wishing he could use ice to force his way to the top of the lake. It was imperative that he get to the Nightmare King as quickly as possible. Nothing else mattered. He kicked up hard with his legs and the pain in his body, the ache of it, seemed a distant concern.

Jack struggled when hands grasped him as he reached the surface. He kicked blindly as he was dragged out onto the snowy shore, gasping at how cold the ground was beneath him. It felt awful. He struck out with his staff, heard sounds of dissent and worry and concern and didn't understand any of them. He had to get on the winds and he had to get to the Nightmare King. The winds would tell him where he was, they could track anything.

'...he's compelled,' someone said, and someone else answered.

Jack felt two arms lock around his shoulders, and as he twisted, two callused hands held his head still. He heard words that shaped themselves into an apology. He braced to twist out of the grip that was holding him but he was too weak, he couldn't move.

Light burst into his skull. It blistered through his mind, poured out through the backs of his eyes, rayed out of his mouth and ears. It tore through every compulsion that had been pushed into him, leaving them present but dormant. The light was excruciating.

Just as quickly, the light faded into nothing, leaving Jack in the horribly dim presence of his own mind. He blinked, dizzy.

He looked up and saw Gwyn leaning over him, withdrawing the hands he'd used to hold Jack's head still. He had a horribly grim expression on his face.

'Are you alright? What did he do?'

'He's been bitten,' another soldier said, lifting Jack's sweatshirt. 'All the way around it looks like.'

'We'll get that cleaned, why is there so much blood at the back? Show me.'

Jack was still gathering his breath, still clearing the light from his eyes. He felt his body twisted onto its side. Gwyn swore, but didn't ask any questions. The bite wound on his back hardly mattered now. It hurt, but pain seemed like something he'd always had to live with. It didn't bother him as much as the fatigue, as the heat that rocketed through his body. The snow beneath him made him sore, it was too cold, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so cold. His teeth started to chatter.

'H-he wants to use me,' Jack managed, trying to clear his mind and failing. 'B-bait. Wanted me to t-tell Nightmare King that h-he...' Jack remembered the weight of Augus in his mouth, the taste of him, and turned to the side, gagging hard. He forced himself to continue. 'If-If we save P-Pitch, he w-wants Pitch to know, if we bring him back. Wants...to hurt us, by-'

'Hurting you. I can guess how,' Gwyn finished for him, standing up and turning away from Jack. A moment later he slammed his sword into the ground as hard as he could. Jack wanted to apologise, but he didn't know how to shape the words.

Gwyn turned back after a few breaths and knelt by Jack's side again.

'Did he make you talk about the weapons?'

'H-he tried,' Jack said. 'I...it was the only thing, the only thing I could h-hold back.'

Gwyn's face twisted up so quickly that if Jack blinked he would have missed the expression.

'I hate to say it, Jack, but you've come up with some of the better ideas so far. If he hasn't discovered what we are doing so far, we have to protect the details. The Nightmare King can't find out about this encounter, the specifics of it. He will use it against you. Against us.'

Jack hiccupped on a hysterical laugh.

'Y-yeah. Think I d-don't know that?'

'Gwyn,' one of his soldiers pointed to the lake. 'Gwyn, what do you want us to do?'

Jack tried to lever himself up to his elbows but he was too weak. The soldier that had stayed hovering behind him, crouched by his back, pushed him upright. Jack made a thin sound at what the other soldier had pointed at. His legs came up and started pushing his body backwards automatically.

Augus was standing on the shoreline, smiling.

Gwyn's grip tightened on his sword and he slid it out of the ground. But before he could take two steps forward, Jack found some hidden reservoir. Some missed well of outrage that he didn't know he had inside of him. He couldn't bear it. Augus just standing there, like nothing had happened. Smirking.

He pushed himself upright, lurched forwards, holding his staff out.

'You didn't break me!' Jack yelled, jerking away from Gwyn, who had grabbed his arm to hold him back. The energy that he'd found was already disappearing, was nothing more than a burst of rage. Augus smiled wider. 'You- You didn't-'

Jack was caught by another soldier as he collapsed.

Gwyn charged off in Augus' direction, but it was too late. The Each Uisge literally melted into the water, and disappeared without a ripple. Jack sagged as his body stopped listening to him. His flesh was so unresponsive he almost felt like he was under a compulsion again.

'I don't feel very well,' Jack said, his voice weak. 'I don't...'

Gwyn came back immediately and Jack wished they would stop laying him down on the snow, it was just too cold.

'I don't understand,' Jack said faintly. 'Why is the snow so cold?'

He caught sight of Gwyn's eyes widening in alarm, just before he passed out.

Author's Note: Endless thanks for those who are reading, reviewing, faving, following and lurking around. You guys are awesome.

In our next chapter, 'A Hungry Little Girl,' Jack decides that desperate times call for desperate measures. But this desperate?