Jack bent down his forehead to rest against yours, his expression pained and twisted in sadness and horror. Life-giving crimson liquid spilled out of your chest, down the outside and inside of your coat, and dripped onto the snow.

"I want this as a present from you now. I want you to not be dead. Can you do that, for me?" Jack murmured, but there was no response from you. Just silence. "It can be your christmas present to me. Don't be dead. Please." He continued to quietly weep leaning over you, his arms wrapped tightly around you. As he continued to sit in the snow, your body in his arms, the moon looked down upon both of you from over the treetops, chasing away the sun which was slowly sinking.

You felt light, detached and weightless in a void. You thought death would be different, going to heaven or hell, or being reborn, but not this. You thought. At least you still had a mind, a consciousness. However, you had nothing in your mind. Nothing was in your head, just your voice. You knew who you were, but only the basics: your name, who you were, and the recognition that you were dead, but unknown as to how that happened.

There was no feeling, of cold or of heat, just a temperature-less, colour-less, sound-less nothingness. It was odd. You knew of the real world, the sun, a rainbow, but you couldn't recall any of it, no matter how much you thought of it.

Suddenly, for a split second in your eyes while looking through these images, a face. There was no face at all, actually, just a glimpse of hair, skin, a snowflake attached to a string.

You could remember now. The snowflake was a gift, to you, by another, by this boy you could see. You couldn't recall any other features about him, other than a face looking down at you.

"You would like to live again, wouldn't you?" A voice as soft as a wing beat of a butterfly whispered in your head. It wasn't your own, and you were afraid to answer, but the voiced continued. "I can give you life again, but you must do something for me. You must protect everyone, of every race, of every gender, and of every age, from an evil which is beginning to rise again." The voice paused, your mind now killing you, flooding with knowledge and energy. You tried to scream, but no sound would fill the void, and instead your screams filled your head. "You will take on the forms and powers of a being I have not created for a long time." Reminiscing was heard in the mysterious voice, and you realized that whatever 'being' he was going to make you either died a terrible death, or was punished by the owner of this voice.

"You will be one being, but three also. You must figure out who you are on your own, I cannot help you. I will also not erase all your memories, like I did with the other guardians. I did that for their own protection, but for you, you shall need your memories to figure out who you are." With that, the pain on your mind subsided, and the weightlessness disappeared as you felt yourself beginning to fall, and grow heavy as lead, as your mind was pushed into a confined space.

You had feeling again, the feeling of being cold, and something tight wrapped around you. You opened your eyes, and Jack's face was close to yours, eyes closed and frozen ice tears hung on the edges of his eyes. He was mumbling, but your ears were numb, and you couldn't quite pick out what he was saying. Your body felt completely numb, probably from being thrust back into your previously dead body. You noticed the sky, which was dark, darker than it had been when you had died. The moon above you seemed too big, too bright, as if it had leaned in closer to the earth to watch you wake up. Thank you, you sent a quick thought towards it, and you turned your sore eyes back to Jack.

Finally, after waiting and getting feeling back into you, you murmured out, just loudly enough for Jack to hear you over his. "I told you I'd be okay."

Jack opened his eyes, startled, and when seeing your smiling face, fresh tears started to spill out. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. You already knew what his reaction would be: hugging you tightly against him. He pulled back for a second, and he kissed you fervently, tangling his hand in your messy hair. You kissed him as passionately back, and you both did nothing but feel the softness of each others lips for a few moments, until you could practically feel the realization from Jack that you had not just come back randomly to life. He pulled back, surprise, wonder, and distress all crossed his eyes.

"Did the Man in the Moon talk to you?" He must have been referring to the voice you heard in your head. The one who flooded a new energy into your body, and who crammed all the unknown knowledge of who you were now into your brain.

"I think so."

"What spirit are you now?" Jack looked up and down you, looking for any kind of change. You felt a little more shapely, and you felt fragile and thin, more so than usual, and you noticed that all the colors seemed just a little sharper, and Jack's skin was surprisingly warm for the first time.

"I honestly don't know. Man in the Moon or whatever didn't tell me. He told me I had to figure it out myself." Jack chuckled slightly, then raised his eyes to the moon, which seemed slightly closer.

"Heh, that ass didn't tell me who I was either when he brought me back either." This was the first time he's ever mentioned having died, when he was human.

"How did you die?"

"I fell in a frozen lake, trying to save my kid sister." His eyes now lowered to you, sadness already in his puffy eyes. "But that was a couple hundred years ago, so she's long gone now."

There was a silence, which lasted for maybe a minute. You didn't want to interrupt his reminiscing on the past, so you stayed quiet, just laying in Jack's arms which were still around you. Finally, Jack looked up, a spark in his eye.

"I think I know who can help you find out who you are. He sure helped me." Jack didn't release his hold on you, and picked you up. He walked over to his staff which had been discarded in the snow and used his foot to kick it up. He caught it in his hand, which had released it's grasp on the underside of your knee, using his arm to support you.

"Where are we going?" Wind had picked both of you up effortlessly, and you both now hovered in the air.

"To the North Pole." A grin crossed his face. "We're going to see Santa." With a laugh, you both shot forward and into the cloudless night, following the light of Polaris as you flew into the northern regions of the world.

A/N: I told you it'd get better, didn't I? Hehehe. Thank you all for all your amazing comments! Every single one of the comments had me rolling on the floor squealing in joy at the good reviews! I'm so honored I could write for all of you kind readers! Thank you! (Oh, and there's going to be another vote thing either next chapter or the one after that, so keep your eyes open!)

~Livv