"He's here." Pitch pointed to a spot on the globe. Jack nodded.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me just yet Frost." Jack stared at him.

"What are you... are you saying you're double crossing me?"

"Far from it, but do you even know what you're doing?" Jack nodded.

"I'm confronting a mistake." Before the shade could speak further, Jack was off. Pitch easily followed the frost spirit; after all Jack's fears were the loudest at the moment so it wasn't hard to pinpoint where he was. It would have been faster through shadow travel but Pitch was no fool; Jack wouldn't trust him that far and so the other would get to the area he'd indicated the hard way... which would take slightly longer than normal. Jack had to swallow when he saw him. Sitting in a tree, one leg dangling off the branch, the other brought up against him with his arms hooked around it; hood thrown back, face lifted towards the pale light of the moon. His heart throbbed somewhat fiercely... What have I done? He thought for the umpth time as he slowly floated towards the teen he had thought he had known.

"Jamie." The other's eyes snapped open and he shifted to meet the icy blue eyes he had been thinking about. He had been lost in the past... in what might have been and what was... The expressionless stare he got made Jack hesitate but he pushed his fears back as he slowly moved forward.

"I haven't gone by that name in a while."

"I know, but..." What was he doing? Was he nuts? Necro almost shook his head at Jack's foolishness. Jack flinched at the banked hate he saw in the other's eyes. It made his heart clench.

"We... we were friends once."

"Once."

"Why did that have to change? Why did you?" Necro offered no answer for that. Honestly, he had asked himself that thousands of times before he'd confessed his feelings.

"I gave you every chance even before I confessed. What did you do? Nothing. Then when I finally lost it and confessed you tossed it back at me like my feelings didn't matter."

"I... I'm so sorry... I really am."

"Not as sorry as you will be." Jack's hand clenched tighter to his staff.

"Why? Why... why can't you just let them be?"

"I have. I haven't done a thing to them."

"You know what I mean!"

"Oh yes, you mean the belief thing... I've begun to change that too. Let's face it, I don't really hate them. Not like you." Jack quivered. He really did...

"I... I never meant for this... Jamie I... I was wrong to do what I did... to say those things to you even if they were true at the time." No response. Pitch simply watched the two from a distance, so the boy had changed the belief again had he? Well, that made things a mite difficult, but he'd deal with the others soon enough. He couldn't help the small smile on his face though, watching Jack suffer in the face of the boy who had once been so precious to him, whom he had once fought so hard to protect was now fighting against him.

"You can't keep doing this! You have to stop Jamie! I... I can't let you do this! I love you!" Jack burst out. There was a long moment of silence.

"Too little too late Jack. I don't love you anymore." Jack visibly shuddered, tears falling.

"What do you want from me?!" He nearly shuddered again at the smile on the others face.

"Nothing. I just want you to suffer as I suffered." Jack stared, wide eyed as tears fell. He was too late... he couldn't... he clenched the staff in front of him. Quiet sobs raking his form as he stared at his most precious believer... the one who had given him everything and now had taken it all away.

"I-if... th-that's what it t-takes..." Pitch frowned, this was different. Anger blazed in Jack's eyes and the frost lightning leapt from his staff towards the other who blocked it with sand. Pitch moved forward and Nightmares surged forward to clash.

"You too huh? Figures." Necro smirked at Pitch who just scowled, the three of them danced about the streets, sand and ice flying as the two tried to subdue their common enemy.

"You two really think you can stop me?!"

"You monster!" Jack cried out, but that only caused Necro to smile more; Jack's tears hadn't ceased and he had to force it all... he was in agony... and Necro only seemed to relish it and Jack felt sick. Where was the boy he'd once taken on an awesome sled ride? Who had stood up to the Nightmare King when all hope seemed lost? Who had refused to give in? As the battle went on the three began to tire; none of them could keep this up and while it was two against one it seemed that Necro's sand was enough to keep both Pitch's and Jack's frost at bay. How, Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know or even dared think about really as he sent a barrage of spears of ice at the other only for them to embed into a wall of sand that was half black half gold. It was weird, really, seeing gold sand mix with black without being corrupted. Was this part of the power of belief? Being able to use the sand without either one being affected by the other as had been the case that fateful Easter? Pitch leapt away from a barrage of golden arrows and fired one back himself but it was blocked by a shield of golden sand. It wasn't long before Jack realized the battle had taken the three of them to Jack's pond... where Jamie had once stood as Jack had taken the oath, inspired to do so by the boy who had been his first believer... He still couldn't believe that the boy who had meant everything had become... this.

"Why?! Why!" Jack cried out with his entire being as he formed an ice sword to counter the sand when the staff was knocked from his grasp. He didn't need it to fight; he just prefered it because of the sentimental value that it held for him and it acted as a conduit for his powers though he could easily fight and use his power without it. Something he'd learned after Pitch had snapped it in half. While it had hurt, it hadn't killed him, after all, it wasn't the source of his power; it was just a weapon when he needed it to be but it was also just a simple object too when it wasn't filled with his power. Necro didn't answer as Pitch was sent flying back into a tree, he seemed to be out of comission for a brief moment and Jack surged forward blindly. Torn beyond what he'd felt even when he'd first been walked through... beyond when he'd realized he was unable to be seen... heard... that he was alone... There was an opening and Jack took it without thinking... but when the sand fell away from around the two of them Jack's eyes widened when it suddenly dawned on him what he had just done...

"N-no..." It wasn't supposed to happen this way! It wasn't supposed to end like this... it wasn't supposed to... but he stumbled back as he watched the crimson liquid trickle down the blade to his hand... He released the blade and it disappeared, but the wound he'd inflicted did not. Necro didn't stumble, he simply fell forward. Jack caught him.

"Oh God... Jamie... I... I didn't mean to...!"

"Yes you did."

"No.. no no no... I would... couldn't... Jamie... oh God..." A soft smile touched the teen spirit's lips.

"Please no...y-you can't..."

"You still don't get it... this is my final revenge. My final gift to you." Jack's eyes widened as he stared down at the boy who had been his believer... who had made himself an enemy...

"Live. Knowing... you did it... and one more thing..." Jack's vision blurred, wishing he could take it all back... go back to that single day and say something different... do something different... anything that wouldn't lead to this.

"I lied earlier."

"Jamie..."

"Despite what you did to me. I... still love you..."

"Jamie... oh Jamie..." He sobbed now, though the sound was muffled a moment as Jamie pushed himself up and claimed Jack's mouth with his own.

"I belong to you alone... now and always..." Jack clutched to the form that went limp. Pitch stood several feet away, simply watching the scene unfold before him. The boy had planned it all. Years of planning... He had to hand it to him. All he had ever tried to do to break the Guardians, to get to them and to Jack... It had taken a single boy to bring them all to their knees.

"Jamie... please... don't leave me... I love you..." Jack's sobs were like music to his ears and Pitch knew this would have been the perfect time to strike, but something was holding him back. He wasn't certain what it was for the longest moment then he noticed it was the sand around him. He frowned. The boy had never hesitated to fight, but he had never hurt Jack... the boy had been weak but even now that "weak" boy was protecting Jack. The residue sand the boy had been using was keeping him back, weighing him down and holding him in place. How this was he didn't know but with an inward growl he pulled back from Jack and headed back to his lair; leaving the frost spirit to grieve alone. There was no knowing how long he sat there, crying; before he was able to force himself up, holding Jamie close to him. He looked so peaceful... something he hadn't seemed to achieve in his first death really. Why had this had to happen? He'd been such a fool... had wasted so much time... With a heart that felt like it would never see the sun again, he flew to the pole. The other four stared at Jack with wide eyes when they saw him move in the shadows. At first it was fear in their eyes until they saw it was him and the prone form he carried. The look in his eyes said a million words and, with tears in their eyes, they gathered around Jack without hesitation and grieved with the winter spirit. None of them spoke, words weren't needed to communicate what they wanted to say at that moment to one another, to Jack... about the boy who had once been everything... and had become what they never would have imagined. He had begun their end... but even with him against them it seemed that he couldn't complete whatever he had set out to do in the first place. It wasn't really clear to them what he had set out to do when they found out that he had reversed what he'd done to them... Had he really meant to destroy them or was it something else altogether? Only Jack really seemed to know and he wasn't talking. He barely said two words since that night... the fun-loving winter spirit who had survived centuries of loneliness and still managed to be happy-go-lucky was gone. He still created snow days. He still brought children happiness and when Pitch rose again he still fought against the Boogeyman with all he had... but he almost never smiled anymore... at least not a genuine one. He seemed even more distant from them than before... like he had suddenly become out of their reach. They could never understand what Jamie had meant to him because none of them had ever fallen in love. None of them had known what the loss of the boy meant to Jack and as the years passed and he continued to keep a silent vigilance over the memorial at his pond that had been set up for Jamie, they began to lose the hope that they would ever have their friend back the way he had been when they had first offered him the chance to join them. To be a Guardian. Belief in all of the Guardians returned to what it had been, as if Necro had never existed. No one seemed to remember, not even those who had been Jack's believers and while he regained them they had noticed too that he wasn't the same. As time continued on, whispers of Jack would float along the night's air... about how on a quiet winter's night if one listened hard enough, they could hear the quiet crying of a spirit who had lost it all.