Jack shivered, unaware of what was going on, only aware of the burning pain that was coursing through his body that expanded and continued growing until he was screeching so loud that that it hurt even his ears. He shook his head, covering his ears, trying to get it to stop only to eventually pass out from the pain alone. Bunny headed back to the pole with the others not far behind; after Fearlings entered the fray and forced them to retreat. Bunny put Jack in a bed, but the bed he chose was on the other side of the room, away from the two that were still pushed together. His ears drooped, one on each side of his head, as he allowed his feelings on the events of today to finally take hold. The other three were just as dispirited, if not more so when they joined him in the infirmary; the four quietly mourning in their own way. Two hours later, Jack groaned in pain and gasped for air as if he had never breathed before, it snapped his eyes open and he looked around, noticing that he was back in the infirmary at the pole. He didn't remember anything that had happen until a few minutes later, when it sliced through his mind and he gasped, realizing again what he had done... been forced to do.
"No..." It was all he could whisper before letting out all his anger at Pitch, his pain and suffering into one long scream; the weather outside mimicked his turbulent emotions by whipping up a blizzard that had never been seen before at the North Pole. The energy it cost made him slump forward, breathing heavily from the energy he lost from his emotions and from what it had cost to create such a storm. Tooth fluttered over to him, settling behind him. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close; the others were scattered around the room, none of them able to look at Jack as they dealt with the loss of a friend and ally. Sandy was the furthest, settling on the other side of the room as he seemed to be watching over the sand he'd collected that lay on a blanket on the floor at the foot of the two beds that were pushed together; the blankets still ruffled as if the occupants were expected to be back soon. Jack struggled against her hold, not wanting the comfort knowing that he didn't deserve it. He sobbed hardly, trying all the while to push Tooth away, but she relinquish her hold.
"P-please I-I..." He couldn't even finish his sentence as more guilt hit him like a ton of bricks, he'd hurt his friends... He sobbed harder, turning to hug tooth tightly, burying his face into her feathers, icing them thoroughly. Tooth only held him tighter, not noticing the cold much.
"It's okay Jack..." She murmured softly as she lightly stroked his back and hair, doing her best to comfort him though she knew that her attempts weren't enough. Jack cried until exhaustion claimed him, all the while that he slept the Guardians discussed what to do about Pitch for the moment and who would stay with Jack during the time since he was mostly likely his target again. After a lot of discussion it's decided that Tooth and Sandy are the best choices; Sandy being able to take the most watch and Tooth because she could send her fairies to do most of her work. Jack awoke from another nightmare that Sandy thought he'd stopped, but this one was a replay memory of Mysterie's death; something that couldn't be changed. Tears leak from the corners of Jack's eyes but he wiped them away, flicking the frozen tears to the floor which made a soft think noise as it hits the floor. He decided to see how bad he looks in the mirror, knowing that Mysterie wouldn't want him to give up; so he decided to honor that and put up a fake facade again, knowing that she'd hate that he chose to bottle up his emotions again, but it was the best that he could do for now. He goes over to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, he barely recognizes the disheveled person with dark circles under their eyes that peered back at him, eyes red rimmed from crying and though his hair was white once more, there was a black streak on his left side, where the white streak had been when his hair had been black. It was the only thing that reminded him that he couldn't get rid of the control that Pitch had over him, but he still felt as if something was not right with him. He splashed warm water on his face, desiring the painful effects; only thinking that he deserved it as it both slightly weakened and burned him, it made him feel much better though and he went back to the bed. He wasn't quite ready to face any of the other Guardians, he decided to leave the pole for a bit even though he knew that they'd hunt him down.
Jack's assumption was right, as soon as Tooth had discovered that Jack was gone when she'd gone to check up on him the Guardians had left the pole and split off to find him. Sandy didn't join the other three, to the puzzlement of the others; he seemed obsessed with the silver sand he collected from Pitch's lair that gave off a constant, if faint, glow. Jack flew over Burgess, ignoring the insistent nagging of the wind to go back.
"Stop, I'm fine." Jack looked down at the pond, it was his pond and he could see children were happily playing on it; his magic having kept it solid enough to hold a herd of elephants. A smile came to his face when he saw Jamie walking towards Pippa's house, he shook his head though as seeing the pond also meant seeing the ice "cavern" he'd made for himself and that had been a temporary home for him and Mysterie in the early spring five years ago... Memories of her began to flow into him and he took control of the wind, pushing to go down to the pond as the children left for the day. He looked at his reflection in the pond's ice, ignoring anything and everything around him. With a sigh he decided to sleep in his favorite tree, sitting at the trunk's base as he settled against it into a sitting position, staff in hand just in case... Pitch was still a little weak from the fight with the Guardians, he wasn't about to admit it, but it had taken a lot out of him just to turn Jack and then there'd been the fight with the Guardians... blast them! He'd ben contemplating following Jamie and regaining some strength when instead he noticed a shadow from above and glance up fro the shadow of the tree he'd been standing under. A smirk crossed his features and instead he followed Jack. Seeing the boy sleeping sitting up he moved to stand behind him, beneath the tree and drawing upon his reserves he began to spin a delicious nightmare for the winter spirit. Jack was dreaming of Mysterie and the Guardians.
Jack grinned as his friends tossed a frisbee towards him, he caught it and tossed it towards Tooth who caught it and tossed it to North. They were all grinning, even Bunny as he caught the frisbee before tossing it to Sandy. Jack turned to see Mysterie and he tackled her, laughing all the way as the two of them tumbled into the grassy field. He smiled, seeing her beautiful emerald eyes. He threaded one hand through her silver highlighted, chestnut brown hair. Barely noticing that the other Guardians seemed to simply disappear and it was just the two of them, laying together on the field, the night sky above with Manny shining brightly.
"You're so beautiful Mysterie." He murmured, looking over at her as they sat side by side. She smiled, her eyes shining with love as she turned to look at him but that changed to fear suddenly as the night suddenly became darker and there were Nightmares everywhere. Jack glanced around, eyes wide suddenly when he felt something in his hand. He glanced down to find that it was blood and he glanced to Mysterie fearfully. She was bleeding and in his other hand was an ice dagger that dripped with her blood. There was fear and disbelief in the emerald eyes that met his.
"Why?" It was all she said before dissolving into sand, leaving a small puddle of blood and sand behind while Nightmares reared, though none of them attacked.
"No... what have I done?!" Jack collapsed into the puddle, looking at his bloodied hands as the Nightmares nickered, as if laughing...
Jack tossed and turned, whimpering and shouting out, eventually screaming so loud that he woke himself up, his breathing was heavy as he looked around at the darkness of the night reminded him too much of the dream and he pulled his hood up to cover his head, pulling some strands of his hair out.
"What am I gonna do?" Jack whispered despairingly, he didn't feel that he fit in anywhere anymore; what sort of Guardian was he if he couldn't keep the darkness inside of him in check... who had killed the very person who meant the most to him? It made his heart throb. He didn't know it, but a rather ticked off Sandy was homing in on his location. Sandy was steamed that he'd been taken away from the silver sand; in fact he'd made Bunny stand guard over it as he'd gone in search of Jack with Tooth and he'd made sure Bunny would stay too. Although, his anger cooled a little when he noticed some black sand near Jack. He looked around, but Pitch was nowhere in sight; the Boogeyman had beat it as soon as Jack had awoken. Sandy felt slight concern, was Pitch nearby? It didn't seem so, but he was still a little ticked at Jack for taking off like that. Depressed or not, Jack needed watching until they could deal with Pitch; he landed in front of Jack, letters forming even as he scowled:
I know you're sad Jack, but one... you should have a bit more faith and two do you even realize how vulnerable you are to Pitch? Did what happen not spell that out for you? Until we deal with him you are to STAY put at the POLE... I have my hands full as it is and here you are running off like a petulant child! I expect you to get back there and STAY there until further notice... is that clear?
Jack nodded his head even as tears fell to the ground, the usual sound muffled by the dirt. He stood up and flew up, ignoring the other Guardian as he headed back to the pole slowly, but still a good pace ahead of Sandy. The other Guardian followed him back, sighing slightly; once back he shooed Bunny away from the sand. Bunny gave Sandy a strange look, but the golden Guardian doesn't explain.
"I donno what's up with that... but it's gotten brighter mate." Bunny said before he hopped away. Sandy inspected the sand and found that his friend was right, the sand was glowing brighter than it was before. Jack settled near a window, looking out; thinking only about what he should have done. I SHOULD HAVE FOUGHT HIM HARDER! He mentally screamed at himself. Tooth arrived to try and comfort him when she noticed that he seemed out of it.
"Leave me alone!" Jack snapped, but blinked in surprise almost as soon as the words had left his mouth. Tooth flinched, but she didn't blame him for the outburst, it was too soon for him to have recovered over what had happened the night before. No matter how old she got, the pain of losing someone... even someone who had been a friend and ally for such a short time, was still the same.
"I'm sorry Tooth... I didn't mean to take it out on you... I just..." She gave him a small smile and he turned away from her to look out the window again, ignoring the glowing sand that Sandy seemed so interested in and that Bunny had agreed to watch over for... whatever the reason was Jack didn't care. Tooth fluttered over to Sandy, who is carefully watching the glowing sand. Bunny didn't bother glaring at Jack for snapping at Tooth, instead he hopped over to the winter spirit, gave his shoulder a quick squeeze in sympathy before hopping off to see if he couldn't find something to do with North to get his mind off things.
"Sandy, what exactly is this sand?" Tooth asked quietly. Sandy glanced up at the question, his silent answer with his own sand had the fairy just staring.
"Why did you collect it then? It's just a painful remi-" She cut herself off when Sandy's symbols flickered rapidly over his head.
"Slow down, please, I don't think I get all of that." Sandy huffed a little and repeated himself, slower this time. Tooth was silent a good long time, glancing between Sandy and then Jack and back again before speaking.
"You... you really think so?" Sandy nodded.
"I hope you're right... for his sake." Sandy nodded sadly in agreement. Jack grabbed his staff as the two were talking, deciding to get up to do something. He flew out of the room, not straying far as he found some elves and instantly his mind went to mischief. He froze a couple solid and stuck them to the ceiling, chuckling only for a moment as it took his mind of things. The elves that he didn't freeze scattered out of the way, North was checking on a toy design nearby when he froze the elves; he just shook his head though. A tiny smile on his lips at the sound of Jack's laughter and he decided to let it slide, all things considered; though he would have to get the yetis to get the elves down... Eventually Jack got bored and decided to find something else to do. As he was walking along one of the many halls, familiar whispers returned to him.
"It's your fault..." Jack winced as the voice kept repeating it over and over.
"Please leave me alone..." Jack murmured and it finally ended with a flash of memory of what he'd done, pain lanced through him as it began it repeat of Jack attacking the Guardians as well as killing Mysterie.
"Just give in..." The voice taunted, Jack gasped because this time the voice sounded like Mysterie. He looked around, tears falling and clinking as they hit the floor, frozen, as he headed back to the room that was his; too tired suddenly to want to be awake. When he reached the room, he couldn't help thinking that the room was so empty without Mysterie in it and he fell asleep almost as soon as he lay down, for once his dreams weren't plagued by Pitch's Nightmares as Sandy's sand drifted into the room to give him good dreams.