I'll apologize in advance; my cat is having surgery today... Buster. I found him in my grandma's backyard with a hole in his tummy about four years ago, and since then he's become an awesome cat :) Even follows me as I walk the dog hahaha. But... yeah. Sorry if this chapter isn't one of my best. :) I hope you'll like it anyway!
Tanglemorph: I actually have no clue of North's place is called Santoff Clausen or not, I've just seen it like that in other fanfics and thought it was right *_* Well, that and it was awkward to always call it 'North's place' or 'North's castle' in Humanity.. but maybe that was just me haha
Lord of the Disc: Hun, I'm not going for the professional look with this story; I'm writing this for fun, because I like too :) My other two books do the professional thing for me hahaha :D And as for the whole reply/ rant thing, I probably couldn't bear to stop! But I can compromise; I'll make them way shorter for now on. Sorry :( But I'm glad you're enjoying the story though! :)
Lunapoo: In Humanity I tried the whole North-accent thing... it nearly killed me, so I ended up rewriting it hahaha :) But I'll try to add his awesome Russian accent for now on
chibi heishi: I'm glad you loved ninja Jack :D And hopefully I'll cure your worry... :) This story will have a happy ending, I promise
VideoGamingFreak1213: Thank you :) I'm actually not great at characterization, so I'm glad you think that I'm doing a decent job haha
Lightningpool: Bingo :)
TheBlackPhantom: hahahah :D that was the most glorious thing... pure brilliance wrapped up in a burrito of amazing and layered with awesome-sauce! :D
Well then, let's start chapter nine :)
The night was frozen, a symphony of snowflakes and frost that crept up the window like tiny spiders, all striving to find their place in the icy moonlight. The wood floor was covered with a thin skin of ice; the walls were exactly the same. The room was cold, covered in a silvery sheen of frost; practically frozen in time. On the window, Jack traced an outline of a star; his finger squeaked over the glass pane. With a sigh he smudged the star away.
This cold room was perfect for him.
Somehow Jack made it back to his room before North and Sandy even got halfway. His cup of hot-cold chocolate lay forgotten on the floor, frozen solid inside the ceramic mug. Jack idly kicked it around with the butt of his staff, trying to get it to stand upright. It became a game, but for some reason he just couldn't win.
Though he seemed dazed and numb from the outside, on the inside his mind was a jumble of disconnected thoughts. It almost his thoughts, his memories, were a single strip of fabric. But now it was starting to ravel, with random memories with loose ends stripping away at the others. How simple was a memory.
I had no problem before, Jack thought, kicking the cup across the room. It skid across the thin veil of ice like a rock skips across a lake. But now... Jack turned back towards the window, scowling. Every time he thought back to the moment at the lake, the moment he stopped being Jackson Overland and began Jack Frost. Pitch was there. That felt wrong somehow, just downright wrong, but Jack couldn't remember why.
Now it was like a domino effect; if he and Pitch were friends, why were they fighting? How come Jack couldn't remember Pitch after that either, not until the moment Man in the Moon chose him to be a Guardian.
Jack placed an idle hand at his neck, rubbing the sore spot. It doesn't add up, he thought, idly staring at the moon. It's pale glow warmed him, turned the snow outside into frozen sculptures of gorgeous silver. The purest silver. The type of silver that pierced the cold night like a knife.
Suddenly the door gently creaked open. Jack didn't mind; he knew it was coming. North and Sandy were slow, but they were going to reach his room eventually. So he turned around - he felt tired, so tired - and simply said, "What?"
North blinked. For a second, split second, he didn't see Jack as a child. For a moment as the winter spirit stared at the frozen land outside, Jack seemed more ancient, like a wandering soul that has never rest a day in its long life before. For a split second he thought Jack knew; he wasn't sure about what exactly, but Jack simply knew.
"What?"
Suddenly Jack was staring at him and Sandy, staring at them with his icy blue eyes. There was no warmth there anymore, no childlike innocence, no laughter. This was Jack Frost, the winter spirit; not Jack Frost the trickster, the prankster, the optimist. This Jack... this Jack was different, a hidden side of the youngest Guardian that very few had ever seen before.
North cleared his throat. This Jack he couldn't lie to, couldn't sweet-talk his way to Jack's mind or promise empty promises. So, he decided the simplest thing yet; he decided to tell the Guardian the plain truth. "I brought Sandy here to..." he began, but was cut off.
"I already know," Jack sighed, turning back out the window, then repeated, "I already know."
North blinked; Jack seemed tired, bone tired. As if he hasn't been getting enough sleep, he thought with a scowl. At his side Sandy turned to North, lightly frowning, before gently gloating to Jack. Golden sand spiraled through the air as it followed him, throwing light shadows across the ice and playing small games in their icy depths.
Sandy lightly bobbed next to Jack and gently grabbed his hand. Jack scowled, tried to pull his hand away, but stopped when Sandy grinned at him. In the winter spirit's cold palm he made an image of a girl and a boy, the boy taller than the girl, ice skating over a frozen golden lake.
North watched, amazing, at the emotions that flitted across Jack's pale face. First it was astonishment, then happiness, then longing, then confusion... all in a split second.
"Why are you showing me this?" Jack asked.
Sandy only smiled and held up Jack's palm again. This time is was a different scene; a middle aged woman, skating across the frozen lake of golden sand. But there was a spot she wouldn't go near; the center of the lake. Suddenly two children suddenly fell into the picture, silently hollering in the golden sand, running up to the woman who was obvious their mother. She silently laughed, bent down to pick them up...
Suddenly Jack jerked his hand away, and the golden sand evaporated into the air. "Stop," he said. "Just... Just stop."
North's eyes widened. He had never heard Jack beg, ever.
But Sandy only smiled, and held his hand out for Jack's hand again. Jack eyed it suspiciously before giving in and allowed Sandy to make one more image.
This time there were five figures; they were all packed together in what looked like a massive sleigh. They sailed in Jack's palm, circling through his fingers and around his wrist.
And suddenly Jack understood, all of the images clicking into one. Family; Sandy was teaching him in silent words about family, that it didn't matter what you looked like, how old you are, or what century you lived in. Family was family, and Jack was a part of one - a family of Guardians.
Jack smiled as the sand faded away in his hand. "Thanks Sandy," he whispered.
Suddenly, all of the loose ends that flooded his mind didn't seem to matter so much anymore.
Pitch slumped in his stone throne, glaring at the ceiling. No; he was glaring through the ceiling, out to the sky above.
The Sandman ruins everything, he thought, teeth barred in a snarl. His hands gripped the sides of his seat as he tried to push himself upright. Yet he knew, knew deep down, that he would be able to do one thing about it: Nothing.
Then he smiled; there was actually one thing that he could do. One simple thing.
He just had to influence more of Jack's memories, tweak them, manipulate them, shape them like wet clay.
After all, though Pitch wasn't strong enough to defy the Guardian's any longer, Jack could. And what better way to get revenge on the cursed winter spirit? How would Jack feel to destroy his entire pathetic family?
The shadows moved across the wall, the darkness crept in the air like a plague.
After all, Pitch smirked, Guardian's may be immortal, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't freeze them under the ocean for eternity.
And then, he thought, warming up to this idea of his, the children would stop believing in the Guardians and I'll finally rise up again.
In the darkness, the plague of darkness that made up the stairwells to nowhere and the cliffhanger hallways, Pitch Black laughed as only he could.
Sorry everyone. Another short chapter. Since tomorrow is Friday, I'll have more time to work on this. :) And, of course, that means a longer chapter.
By the way, if you haven't added the group of deviantart yet, please do! Once it is up and running (I'll work on it this weekend) I'll be adding extra stuff there. Plus, it'll be easier to put up the cover art there and the fan art some of you have been telling me about. :) Which, by the way, is totally awesome! :D The group is called Humanity-Eternity (creative, I know) and my Username is the same as it is here ( Rand0mSmil3z ) in case you can't find it. :)
Thank you all for the support everyone! You have no idea how much it means to me. :) Not even kidding, makes me smile all the time. I'm still surprised by all the positive feedback :D Thanks for making my days a little bit brighter, everyone!
Until next time,
Rand0mSmil3z
