When Past and Present Collide 4
Yay! Alerts are working again. I thought everyone left me at first…or was busy with exams (college readers at least), work and well life. Happy to see that while those things are happening it was just a mess up on . I was starting to feel lonely :'( Warning, a few book spoilers but not much.
Jack wasn't sure what he was seeing. Everyone was staring at North and the young man beside him with mixed emotions but mostly fear. Jack held his staff tighter as his eyes narrowed. If this man had somehow hurt North than he would make him pay. The buzzing of North's monitor seemed to grow for an instant and Jack paused mid step. He knew that sound, heard it only a few months back when Jamie…when Jamie passed away of old age. No… North couldn't be dead. He couldn't be. Fear, hatred, rage raced through him but most of all sorrow. However this man was that hurt his father would pay.
"Jack, no," Pitch said sternly as he grabbed the boy before he could get too close to the two males on the gurneys.
The boy wheeled on him. "No? Why? Who is that? What happened?" he asked in rapid fire as he tried to pull away. Fine, he wouldn't attack the stranger but he had to get to North. He had to get to his father. "Let go!"
The shade's grip grew tighter. "Jack, calm down and listen," Pitch urged but there was a sudden commotion as the being on the gurney stirred.
"Wha…" the stranger murmured as he held his head. He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, his brown hair mused and lean body stiff. He looked vaguely familiar, Jack thought as Pitch's grip tightened more. There was something about his face, the slope of his forehead. Jack couldn't quite put it together. The man looked up at Bunny who had been leaning over him. "Bunnymund?" a gruff Russian voice asked, blinking in confusion. His gaze swept over the room until it met Tooth's and then a small fond smile lifted his lips. "Toothiana?" He looked at Sandy with confusion before his gaze continued its journey, pausing at Jack to give him a blank stare, but it quickly flared with anger when it met Pitch's. A small snarl left his lips and suddenly he was stumbling off the gurney with murderous intent.
Pitch shoved Jack out of the way and stood his ground as the man struggled to his feet but before the stranger got more than a foot away Bunny and two yetis were on him and forcing him back to the gurney.
"Crap! I was afraid of this," Bunny yelled, avoiding a stray fist as they wrestled the power man back down. "Sandy, quickly, knock him out!"
Jack dashed between the two gurneys, placing himself protective in front of North's body as the stranger thrashed about and kicked at the yetis trying to restrain him. He was ready to freeze the man on the spot if need be but instead used all his strength to push North's gurney out of the way, forcibly ignoring the buzzing of the heart monitor. North wasn't dead, he was just sleeping. Just sleeping. He'll be fine in a few hours after a good rest. Everything was fine.
"Let me go! Where's Katherine? What have you done with Katherine, Pitch?" the stranger demanded, trying his best to fight off Bunny and the yetis. "Why are you doing this, Bunnymund? I thought we were friends."
"We are, mate, we are. Just relax," Bunny assured as he pinned the man's arm.
"Katherine's fine, sweetie, she home and safe," Tooth said soothingly. "Everything's alright. Please be calm." She touched his cheek lovingly and for a brief moment the man calmed to her touch.
"Then why is he here? Where am I?" His eyes widened slightly as Sandy floated just over his head and then, before he could ask another question golden sand was dumped over his eyes and he fell asleep.
Bunny sighed as he slumped against the side of the gurney looking wiped out from the struggle. "Is it me or is he stronger now?" he muttered to the medic who only grumbled back with a nod. "Bloody hell. Of all the things for MiM to do. Need to work on retaining memories now don't you?" he yelled up the silvery Moon still visible through the skylight. "500 years worth memories and knowledge gone down the drain. What the hell are we supposed to do, teach him everything from the start? Good Lord, he's barely old enough to shave let alone sport a goatee!"
Tooth gave a nervous giggle. "Could be worse, he could be a clean slate," she pointed out. "At least he knows he's one of us."
Jack glared at them over his shoulder as he studied North. The buzzing on the heart monitor had stopped but no one but him had noticed. Everyone seemed more curious about the stranger than the man who was supposed to be their friend. A slow beep indicated that North was still alive if only barely. He sniffled and wiped at his eyes. "Have you guys lost it? You're all worried about that guy when North is right here dying? In fact moments ago he was dead! What the hell is wrong with you people?"
Everyone jumped in surprise. Bunny reached to touch his shoulder but Jack shrugged him off. Right now none of them had a right to touch him, not if this was the way they treated North in his time of need.
"Jack, this is North," the Pooka said, gesturing to the man unconscious on the gurney. "North flat lined. He died and MiM separated his spirit from his body. He's immortal now."
Jack's eyes narrowed more as he looked at the strange man on the gurney. He vaguely resembled North, maybe but he wasn't Jack's North. He frowned at the man. "Then why is he acting so strange? Why wouldn't he recognize me or remember Pitch is one of us, too?"
"We don't know, Jack," Tooth said softly but kept her distance. "I'm guessing that it has something to do with the form he took. Unlike when you were reborn North is much older so rather than take all his memories MiM took all those up until the time North became a Guardian. He recognized Bunny, Pitch and me but not you or Sandy, and he was talking about when Pitch kidnapped Katherine so that's…a really long time ago. He was only in his early twenties when that happened. Katherine was like a little sister to him. He was and still is very protective of her."
"Well this is sure to be problematic. He won't even recognize her now," Pitch grumbled as he folded his arms across his chest. "And just when I was starting to like him."
"What are we going to do?" asked Tooth, fluttering about anxiously. "I mean will he recognize himself when he sees his body? How do we explain he died and reverted to this? It's sure to be a shock for him. Do we have a funeral?"
"He's not dead!" Jack snapped.
Everyone turned to him with sad eyes, as if pitying him for his denial of the situation at hand.
"Oh Sweet Tooth, we know. It's just his body needs to be properly dealt with and -"
"I mean he's not dead," Jack repeated, pointing to the heart monitor that was slowly beeping.
Everyone stared at it in shock. Sure enough the machine was still beeping, very slowly and weakly. Bunny pressed an ear to North's chest. A small smile pulled at his furry lips. "Well I'll be! Jack's right, North's alive. Then why…" His gaze returned to the young man on the gurney. "Why would MiM separate him?"
Pitch watched the monitor with interest now. He had visited hospitals many times. Fear was strong there where so many faced illness and death. He had seen the soul and spirit leave bodies before finally dying. It was only a matter of time and no matter how stubborn of a man North was in the end all mortals die. MiM was only ensuring the process was much easier for the Guardian of Wonder. Although Bunny was correct, MiM certainly needed to work on retaining one's memories. With Jack it was understandable; the boy had not been reborn right away and brain damage occurred as the cold took the child's life. It stole his memories – or at least that was what Pitch had always believed, now he wasn't so certain. His gaze shifted to the young Cossack unconscious on the gurney. Perhaps the magic MiM used wasn't as powerful as it should be. Nonetheless North was returned to a stage in his life where they were enemies and it would not do well to stay if Pitch's presence would cause discomfort for the young man. Until they could restore North's memories it was best Pitch stayed away.
He felt Jack's fear and glanced back at the youth who stared at this new North as if he was a complete and utter stranger. The boy frown at the young Cossack before turning back to the older version and resting his head where Bunny's had been only moments ago and listened intently to his adoptive father's unstable heartbeat. It was obvious that the child was not going to be able to handle this as well as the others. Bunny and Tooth had already accepted the change, as if this was something they were expecting for a very long time and Pitch supposed they were in their right. Had it not been for North's and MiM's magic the Guardian of Wonder would have died centuries ago.
Placing his hand on Jack's thin shoulder he gave it a comforting squeeze. Watery blue eyes gazed up at him questioningly, as if hoping the shade had all the answers of the universe but to this Pitch did not. He could not promise North would return to how he once was or if this new younger version would remain. He had his theories but they were not the things Jack wanted to hear. So instead he brushed his lips over Jack's snowy white hair and bid him fair well, promising to return in a few days to check on him. Jack only closed his eyes and buried his face against North's chest as the others fussed around them, connecting more machines to Russian as well as making sure all was right with his younger self. Through it all Jack never moved. He was as stubborn as his father and refused believe that any of this was happening. Instead he focused on that weak heartbeat and silently willed it to return to the strong thumping he was accustomed to.
I'm going nuts to read the fourth novel in the Guardians of Childhood series. I decided that rather than completely wiping North's memory only going as far as the end of the third book so that everything after that is a blank. It'll bring a lot of tension between him and Pitch who in his eyes had stolen his best friend and adopted sister only days earlier and he and the others had been on the hunt since. This will also tie in with my fic The Queen's Bandit so for anyone who hasn't read that one yet please check it out.