A Better Life
Summary: Jack is beaten and abused by the Guardians every day. His only friend is Pitch Black. When Pitch pushes him through a white portal, suddenly everything has change. The Guardians are suddenly caring. Pitch is suddenly evil. What's going on?
Could this be? Is it really? Did Memma finally update?
Once again I so sorry this took so long to write. And to be honest I don't know if this chapter is that good to meet your expectations. I like some parts and elements to this chapter but a lot of it I just felt didn't come off right. If I wasn't such a slow writer and I didn't know that it probably be years later when I actual come up with a decent chapter that both you readers and I like, then I probably scrap most of this a rewrite it. But as of now this is all my head can come up with, so fingers crossed you'll like at least some of it.
For my Icy Shadows readers, I am halfway done with the latest chapter. I think being mostly away from internet really helped me get into a writing mode. Right now I back at uni for a resit and I think on Friday we'll be getting our internet back so I may get distracted again. Fingers crossed I won't. At least I know exactly what I need to write.
Anyway, I kept you waiting long enough. Enjoy?
Seven
Baby Tooth never really liked silences.
She had grown up with a very chatty mother and a billion of sisters who, like their mother, never stopped tweeting and squawking either. There was no peace and quiet at home, not with tooth collecting shifts, meaning that there was always several fairies chatting when you woke up for your shift and even more when you went to bed.
She was never a quiet one either. Being one of the youngest (she couldn't actually remember if she was the youngest or not, tracking birthdays was literally impossible at the Tooth Palace), she tended to be more boisterous and therefore one of the loudest fairies. The only time any of them really hushed up was when they were exchanging teeth with coins under a child's pillow, so not to wake them up - and even then Baby Tooth couldn't help but let a quiet squeak out here and there, especially if a sleeping child was especially adorable.
Baby Tooth didn't mind the noise. She was used to it, noise being a constant presence in her life. When noise was taken away, she was always left feeling slightly anxious, as if something was wrong.
So there was no doubt that she especially didn't like awkward silences. Which was annoying, considering she was stuck in a middle of one right now.
Huffing, she looked at the Pooka and the teen boy, both the owners of this awkward silence. Bunny was obviously trying to think of a way of approaching Jack without scaring him. Jack was sitting tensed on the bed, still not daring to look at the rabbit standing in the middle of the ward.
Baby Tooth could sense Jack's nervousness and she understood that he was scared. She didn't know exactly what happened in Jack's universe, but, while this Bunny would never harm Jack, with his large bulk and somewhat fierce nature, it wasn't too hard for Baby Tooth to imagine how the alternative universe Bunny was; a Bunny who did not a soft centre inside that he covered up with gruffness, but was just rotten to the core.
But that wasn't this Bunny and if she didn't do something, Jack might not ever find that out.
Or maybe he would, he had done alright with Tooth and Sandy. But the awkward silence would continue if she didn't get involved and Baby Tooth was quite getting sick of that.
Interrupting the quiet with a loud indignant squawk, she shot straight towards Bunny and grabbed his paw. With quite a strong tug for such a little fairy, she managed to drag Bunny to the chair besides Jack's bed, plonking him down upon it (although, his shock was probably the only thing that enable her to do all that).
Sitting back down on the bed, she continued to squawk, not too loud to upset Jack but loud enough to get on the nerves of the large sensitive eared rabbit.
"Oy, what's screeching about?" Bunny cried, trying to cover his ears.
"Er, she says, um, if either of us doesn't starts talking, she'll carrying on screeching until we do?" Jack said hesitantly, still a little uncertain on deciphering Baby Teeth language.
Baby Tooth nodded firmly, looking at the rabbit dead in the eye. She opened her beak again, threatening to continue.
"Alright, keep your feathers on, Sheila." Bunny exclaimed, rolling his eyes.
Baby Tooth simply stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"I can see why you two get along so well." Bunny said to Jack.
Jack and Baby Tooth shared a glance at that remark, Jack looking hesitant. Despite perhaps not knowing this Jack as well as she knew her Jack, Baby Tooth could tell what was running through his head and making him look so anxious. She smiled softly and gave a quiet reassuring chirp. Jack felt the corner of his lips twitching into a smile.
"Yeah, we do." He said.
Bunny coughed, fighting back his nerves. Jack and Baby Tooth turned back to face him.
"Listen, mate, I...I don't know exactly what kind of false memories Pitch gave you, but they're exactly that; false memories. We may not have gotten along in the past and I can be a little gruff, it's the way I'm built, but I would never, in a million years, lay a finger on you. Even when I get mad at you for making in snow at Easter."
Jack blinked a little at how blunt Bunny was. He instantly ducked his head as he remembered that in his world, Bunny was also very blunt. While the others were a bit more conniving, Bunny was always quick to lose his temper and start yelling, as well as raise his fist. Finding the differences in this Bunny wasn't going to be easy.
"When you were gone, we all took it hard. You know before you arrived, we had all become just business colleagues over the years, you know, being so busy with all our other duties and that. Having you brought us all closer together. When Pitch took you...it felt as he had ripped us apart."
It felt worse than that. Their own child, his kid brother, had been savagely snatched from them and their hearts had been shattered, no, crushed, into a million pieces with no way of ever fixing them again. All the while Pitch was manically laughing at them, torturing their kid, whilst making them believe that he was dead.
"I'm sorry that I scared ya, when you came back. I was just so angry at what Pitch done to you..." Bunny clenched his fists, before realising, what he was doing and quickly unclenching them.
He must have realise it was too late, for Jack wasn't even looking at him or Baby Tooth now, eyes studiously focused on his duvet. Damn it, Bunny scolded himself. He knew he should have just stay put, he was only going to make Jack worse.
Trying to figure out how to fix his mistake, Bunny was just as startled as Jack and Baby Tooth when something suddenly hopped out of his belt pouch, landing on the bed next to Jack.
It was a small white egg, jumping about on its little white feet excitedly, wanting to explore its new surroundings.
"Hey, I thought I told you to stay at the warren." Bunny said, quickly grabbing the egg before it fell off the bed.
The little egg just continued to hop up and down in his paw like a hyperactive child. Whatever the reason, and however it had managed to stowaway in his belt without him noticing, wasn't going to be answered anytime soon. Bunny sighed, shaking his head.
He was about to put it in his pocket when he noticed Jack staring at it.
"Is that an egg...with legs?" Jack asked, sounding amazed at what he was seeing.
"Well, of course it's an egg. You and I used to paint them all the time in my warren, remember?"
Once more, Jack's eyes flickered away from him, "You never let me into your warren."
Bunny felt his rage for that blasted nightmare king rising up in him, but he pushed it down quickly, "I assume you don't remember how to paint these as well?"
Jack rubbed his arm anxiously. Technically, he never forgot, he was just never taught.
"Well how about we change that?"
Immediately, Jack's head shot back up, ice blue eyes wide with confusion. Bunny rummaged in his belt pouches, bringing out a paintbrush, a couple of paint bottles and a small paint pallet. He immediately started squeezing a few blobs of each paint bottle onto the pallet.
"Here," Bunny said, passing the egg, the paintbrush and the pallet, over to Jack, making sure Jack was holding the paintbrush in a way that wouldn't aggravate his injuries further, "Just dip the paintbrush into the paint...like so...and apply gently to the egg."
Carefully, Bunny guided Jack's arm along with his instructions, placing a little speck of paint on the bottom of the egg, easily painted over if Jack decided he didn't want that colour, "Just make sure to hold the egg firmly but not to firm. They don't always keep still."
Bunny tapped said wiggling egg, causing it to finally stop squirming quite so much.
He let go off Jack's arm, allowing Jack to start painting. Jack stayed staring at the egg and the paints, scarcely believing he was actually being allowed to touch one of Bunny's eggs, let alone paint one of them.
"What can I paint?" Jack asked.
"Anything you want," Bunny said, smiling crookedly.
Baby Tooth immediately jumped up, hand shot straight in the air, begging Jack to paint her. Jack couldn't help but grin a little, before he dip the brush into the green paint and begun.
He wasn't expecting a masterpiece, he had never painted before and the egg was absolutely tiny. However, he didn't want Baby Tooth and Bunny to hate it, so he put all his effort into it.
No matter how he tried though, it came out like a giant blob, the paint dripping heedlessly down the egg no matter how Bunny show Jack how to not let it do that. Frustrated, Jack pressed his brush onto the egg, unaware how firmly he was gripping it.
Suddenly the egg smashed into pieces. Jack yelped in surprise, dropping the egg onto the bed.
Jack's eyes shut tight, his muscles tensing, expecting Bunny to start hitting and yelling. He had smashed one of his beloved eggs, he wouldn't blame him. What Jack didn't expect was Bunny's soft voice to penetrate his ears.
"It's alright, mate."
Slowly Jack opened his eyes, his muscles still remaining tense. They went slack though as his mouth dropped open.
In Bunny's paw was the little egg, all in one piece. No crack could be seen and the egg acted just as excited as it had before as if Jack had never broke it in the first place.
"Pity I can only fix unfinished eggs." Bunny said, more to himself than to Jack.
He offered it to Jack but Jack didn't take it. The winter spirit had folded himself, once more staring at his duvet instead of at the Pooka in front of him.
Bunny glanced over to Baby Tooth and gestured to her to watch the egg. Baby Tooth's expression couldn't be more disagreeing but, with a reluctant sigh, she tried to keep the egg from jumping off the bed.
Keeping his movement slow and steady, so not to scared the kid, Bunny edged forward on the bed and tilted his head so he could see Jack's face. He saw tears in the boy's eyes, "Mate? What's wrong?"
Jack's breathing was unsteady, trying desperately to control his emotions but failing miserably. Bunny shifted closer and slowly, making sure Jack could see what he was doing, placed a paw on his shoulder.
"It's okay, mate. I ain't gonna harm ya."
Jack squeezed his eyes shut. He seemed to be muttering a mantra in his head, at least what Bunny could guess when the boy's lips moved, too quickly for Bunny to work out what he was saying. Once more, it hit the Guardian just how young the boy now was.
The mantra seemed to help, for Jack didn't pulled back from Bunny's touch. However, he still looked scared, tears now trickling down his cheeks.
"What...what if I break it again?"
"Then I'll fix it." Bunny said, simply.
At Jack's shocked expression, he picked up the egg and held it out to Jack again, meeting Jack straight in the eye.
"I'll fix it," He repeated softly. He no longer knew if he was talking about the egg nor did care.
Still a little hesitant, Jack reached out and took the egg. As he went back to painting, Bunny noticed the small smile on the boy's face were slightly bigger than before.
"Afternoon Jack,"
Jack sat up as North walked in. His hands still automatically gripped his duvet, but not as tensely before and he managed a small 'hey' and a slight nervous smile. It was only a small change but it was a start and North could feel his nerves being replaced by joy.
Baby Tooth made several squawks, crossing her arms, huffing and scowling at the fact she had been ignored in North's greeting.
"And good afternoon to you, Baby Tooth," North greeted cheerily, not missing a beat.
Satisfied, the little fairy went back to munching an apple that, compared to her size, was large enough that North couldn't help but blink a couple of times, wondering if she could manage to eat it all.
"How was lunch?" North asked, glancing at the tray besides Jack's bed even as he spoke. There were still quite a bit of food left on the plate, causing concern to flash across his features, but he schooled them quickly before Jack could see.
"It was okay," Jack replied. His eyes were focused on the bundle under North's arm.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Brought you new clothes!" North exclaimed, placing the bundle down on the bed, "Took me a while to find the right sort of hoodie and even longer to find similar trousers."
Jack picked up the top item of clothing, holding the hoodie in between his fingers as he looked at it and the brown trousers that were neatly folded underneath. There was a plain white top and a clean set of underwear too but Jack ignored those for the moment.
The blue hoodie was a bit bigger than his own and obviously it was not covered in frost patterns. Nor was it covered with large tears and badly attempted stitches, when Jack had tried to fix some of the tears, or even proper stitches done by Pitch. Otherwise, it was the same type of hoodie he had found one night, in a dumpster he was rooting in for food. The brown trousers were made of more modern material than the trousers he had kept since he had been brought back to life from out of the pond, but North had tried his hardest to make them look as if they had came out of the 18th century. There were no scratches and tears on them either.
"Do you not like?" North asked when Jack remained quiet.
He had assumed Jack would want clothes similar to what he normally wore but maybe Jack's taste in clothes had changed as well.
"I do," Jack finally answered. He let the jumper fall back onto the pile. "But didn't you already give me the teddy bear?"
North's expression changed to one of confusion and he carefully sat down on the edge of bed.
"What do you mean?"
Jack ducked his head, "I...I just thought..."
"Jack?" North noticed a sweat bead form on the boy's forehead – something that was very unusual for the winter spirit.
He reached over and placed the boy's forehead. Jack flinched in surprise, but North chose not to pull back, instead focusing on the boy's temperature.
"You have fever." North said in concerned, "Are you feeling ill?"
"I...did start to feel sick after lunch." Jack admitted.
Baby Tooth placed her apple to one side and flew over to Jack, tweeting in concerned, undoubtedly asking why Jack had never said anything.
North got up and checked the IVs lines besides Jack's bed.
"Your morphine levels are little high, I'll turn it down. In meantime, have little nap, it'll help."
Jack didn't feel like sleeping but he felt too nauseated to disagree. So, muttering a small "thanks," he laid back down onto the bed and closed his eyes. It stopped the dizziness slightly and he relaxed.
As Jack's breathing slowed, North wondered about what Jack had said. He was tempted to shake Jack awake and continue the conversation, his centre making his curiosity overwhelming. However he shook those thoughts away, telling himself he would try and get Jack to talked about it when he was feeling better.
"Let's leave the boy in peace," He said, both to himself and Baby Tooth.
When Baby Tooth protested, North smiled, "Your mother says you need to at least do one tooth collecting round and wouldn't it be better when Jack's not awake?"
Baby Tooth huffed, looking like she was going to continue arguing. But then she sighed, knowing her mother and North
were right. Giving Jack one last worried glance, she followed the Russian out the room.
Jack stirred awake, groaning.
He still didn't feel well and just wanted to go back to sleep again. But somehow, he couldn't seem to get comfortable. It felt like he wasn't lying on the comfy mattress of the hospital ward, but the hard floor instead.
He slowly opening his eyes, blinking at his surroundings. Wait a minute. He was lying on the hard floor.
And he wasn't in the hospital ward either. Rather, he was in a small barren room, where the windows and fireplace were boarded up, and there were no furniture. The only decorations in the room seemed to be the frost patterns covering the floor from the amount of back and forth pacing, and the walls and ceiling, from the constant darting back and forth in the air, like a bird trying find a way to escape from its cage.
He was back in his old room.
Jack quickly got to his feet. Confusion and fear were swirling inside of him and he automatically reached for his staff, only for his grasp to come up empty. In horror, he realised his staff wasn't anywhere in the room. There was no way for him to escape the room or protect himself.
That was when the door swung open.
Jack spun around. Standing there were the Guardians.
For a second relief washed over him. For a second.
Then he saw the cold evil smirks across each of their faces and he realised that there were four, not three Guardians standing there.
As Sandy's grin widened, Jack immediately backed into the wall.
"Well, well," North boomed, "Look who's finally come back."
It took a minute for Jack to figured out what North meant and then his eyes' widened. Somehow he must have travelled back to his universe in his sleep. But how?
"We missed you," Tooth said, in a voice that clearly said she didn't. Bunny snorted at her words.
"Yeah, we missed having you as a punching bag."
Well at least he was honest.
"Yes," Tooth agreed, "The punching bag you left behind wasn't quite sufficient."
At Jack's confused expression, North turned around and whistled. Jack heard several heavy footsteps thumping down the hallway, the yetis, and the long heavy continuous noise that sounded suspiciously like the sound of something being dragged along the floor.
The Guardians stepped out of the way just as the yetis dumped what they were carrying unceremoniously into the room. What he saw made Jack's heart stopped.
Sprawled out on the floor was a broken Pitch. His cloak was ripped and every part of his skin was speckled with bruises and lacerations. What caused an anguish sob to escape Jack's throat was that his eyes were tightly shrugged and his chest was not moving.
Jack made to run towards Pitch side, but was thrown back to the floor by Bunny. He struggled to get up but was pinned when North stepped forward, placing his foot on Jack's stomach.
"Why?" Jack whispered.
"He got what he deserved." North replied coldly, "Just like you're going to get. Sandy!"
Jack's body suddenly went as cold as it had been when he had plummeted into that lake all those years ago. Sandy walked over, unable to keep the sheer glee off his face.
North pushed Jack towards him, nodding his assent.
"Your turn first."
As Sandy towered over him and Jack heard the laughter of North, Tooth, Bunny and the yetis surrounding him, he screamed.
Jack bolted awake, gasping and shaking. His wide eyes darted around the room, expecting to see the Guardians ready to attack him.
It took a few moments for Jack to realise he wasn't locked in his room but in the hospital ward. It took him a few more moments to realise that he was back in the universe where the Guardians were actually nice and it was only when he noticed that his hoodie wasn't torn to shreds, or even stitched up by Pitch, but the freshly new one North had given him.
Jack wasn't sure if it was the wave of relief that hit him or the fear in his system still causing him to shake but he broke down. Unable to hold back the tears, he fell back down onto the bed and started sobbing.
He cried and cried. Cried at the image of the evil gleam in Sandy's eyes. Cried at the image of Pitch's body laying there, no longer breathing.
A small part of his mind pleaded that it had all been a cruel conduction of his mind. That Pitch was not dead. But Jack couldn't see it being anything but true; the Guardians would never let Pitch get away with sending Jack away to another dimension. Jack squeezed his eyes shut and let out a howl into the pillow, mourning for the loss of his friend.
After a few moments, he opened his eyes. They fell onto his teddy, sitting next to his pillow, blue eyes blinking innocently up at him.
Still crying weakly, Jack brought the teddy to his chest and buried his face into it, clutching it tightly.
Somehow, the white bear seemed bring comfort to him, if only a little. Feeling the soft fur against his skin, reminded him, not of bad memories, but good memories, of all the good times he spent with Pitch from his world and the Guardians of this world, all treating him as if he was their family. Not someone they would beat just for purely existing. The teddy reminded him he was in a world where he was...safe.
That word again. Jack still wasn't sure what to make of it. Even when recalling all the good memories with Pitch, he couldn't recall the feeling of actually being safe. Not like this, anyway. He always knowing he would eventually have to go back to them, no matter how much Pitch tried to get him to stay. Even when he could push the thought of going back out of his mind, he was always tensed, scared that they would come crashing into the lair. They had, once or twice, before Pitch got better at hiding his lair entrances.
Here though...
Jack wasn't sure how long it would last. He wasn't even sure if he should believe that it might. But he couldn't force himself to shove away the emotion all the same.
His crying begun to calm and his eyes were growing heavy, sleep overtaking. He clutched the teddy tighter, just to keep the feeling of being safe, and let his eyes close.
Then he heard a noise.
Jack's eyes shot wide open and he sat up slowly, straining his ears. He wondered if his dream had just made him anxious enough that he was imagining things. No, there it was again. Something was shuffling a little bit, below him.
Something, or someone, was under his bed.
The fear returning back in full force, Jack slowly peered over the edge of his bed at the shadows below. He couldn't see anything. But that didn't mean that someone wasn't hiding.
Hesitantly, Jack slowly leaned over the bed about to look underneath-
"Mate, what are you doing, getting out of bed?"
Jack's head snapped up to see Bunny in the doorway.
For a moment he stiffened. But then he saw not an evil smirk, but worry across the Pooka's face and he reminded himself it was the nice Bunny.
It helped when Bunny switched the light on, making the ward not as scary as it had been.
Jack looked down to the floor again, as he lifted his foot.
"I...there was something under my bed."
His instant thought was that Bunny would call him stupid and leave. As he reminded himself again this wasn't that Bunny, he still expected Bunny to shrug off his worry as just a dream.
What Jack didn't expect for an almost frightened expression to cross the rabbit face. Quickly Bunny walked over to the bed, monitoring Jack to stay on top. Once Jack's legs were safely away from the edges, Bunny ducked underneath the bed to look.
No one was there. For a moment, Bunny relaxed. Jack, seeing the tension lift from Bunny's shoulders, relaxed slightly too. Then Bunny noticed something.
Jack saw the tension reappeared back in Bunny's shoulders as he climbed back out from under the bed. He saw why, once Bunny was standing.
Held between his fingers was a speck of black sand.
Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
Sorry I had to XD
