A Rise of the Guardians / Guardians of Childhood Fanfic

By Sakura Martinez

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or the Guardians of Childhood series. It would have been awesome if I did, but I don't. Those belong to William Joyce and Dreamworks Animation.

Summary: Pitch's parting words to Jack and the other Guardians of Childhood during the Battle of Belief held a clear message: The Guardians may have won the battle, but the war was far from over. Now, Pitch is rallying the forces of darkness, calling to arms a dark and sinister group: The Fright Knights. The battle to end the war is underway, but are the Guardians ready?

Rise of the Fright Knights

Chapter Nine

Waking Up

Spirits do not dream, nor do they fall asleep so soundly that they would be able to dream. In his three-hundred-and-twenty-five years of existence, Jack knew this to be true. Which is why he couldn't understand why he felt so groggy and why he had this strange fragmented remnants of a dream.

It was a strange dream, yet a wonderful one—one Jack knew he would never disclose with anyone else. He didn't want the awkwardness that may ensue if any of the other Guardians knew he had dreamt and learned of what the contents of his dream was. Especially not with Toothiana.

Still, despite that dream, the forefront on Jack's mind as he opened his eyes and felt—for the first time in a very long while—weary was the fact that he had dreamt. It was scary for him to be able to experience what no spirit should be able to experience any more.

As he sat up from the bed which he had found himself asleep, Jack Frost briefly wondered if the Sandman had somehow managed to bequeath him that dream. And if so, for what purpose?

I must have done something impressive or have worried him if he let me dream like that, Jack thought to himself as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He has never done that for me before though…I wonder what's up…

Looking around, Jack noticed that he was in the room North had allowed him to use in his workshop. It was a quaint room, one that still needed some personalization from the winter spirit. He had, ever since obtaining the room, planned on getting that done but he had forgotten to do it time and time again. Apart from a simple shelf, a table with a pair of chairs, the large cabinet, and the bed he was sitting on, there was nothing else in the room.

He wondered what he was doing there. The last thing he remembered was flying away from Pitch's lair being chased by a fire-wielding spirit. How he had gotten back to the Pole, and how he had managed to lose that spirit was a mystery to him.

Did the wind bring me here? He wondered. When he tried to communicate with the wind and ask, however, he found it hard to do so. He could still hear the wind's howling voice, but it sounded so distant—as if there was a barrier between them making the wind's words garbled and indistinct.

"What's going on?" He asked as he sat to the side, readying himself to stand up. Looking around, he noticed that his staff was nowhere near him. That made him panic a little. "Where's my staff?"

Quickly, Jack Frost stood up. The sudden movement made him dizzy and he stumbled, landing on all fours. He closed his eyes, waiting for the dizzy spell to pass. After a minute or so, it did and Jack managed to stand up, albeit wobblingly so. He took a step and then another before collapsing, once again, on the ground as pain shot from his back. It was a hissing kind of pain—the kind that the winter spirit hadn't felt before. It was a new sensation, and one Jack didn't like at all.

"What the heck?" He panted as he pushed himself up amidst the pain. "Ugh…did I injure myself?"

He had just managed the feat of standing up again when the door of his room opened. To say that Toothiana was surprised to see him—though he wondered why—was more than what the Queen of the Tooth Fairies felt. Her eyes widen in surprise and her mouth dropped open before tears started to form and her mouth moved into a smile.

"Jack!" she cried out in joy as she flew—so quickly it surprised Jack she could move at such a speed—towards him. "You're awake!"

"Ah, yeah." Jack said, chuckling as he returned the hug Toothiana was giving him, before he winced and said, "Ouch! Uh, Tooth, you might want to ease up on the hug. I think I hurt my back or something."

"Oh! Sorry," Tooth said, moving slightly away and blushing as she fixed her feathers as though she was fixing her hair. "I forgot. But it really is to see you up and about, Jack. I—err, we—were so worried about you!"

"Worried?" Jack chuckled once again as he looked around. "About me? Why? Wait, have you seen my staff? I can't seem to find it anywhere."

Toothiana quickly flew to the side of the large cabinet by the corner of his room and took from inside his staff, handing it to him. Holding his staff in his hand, Jack relaxed a little and used it to help keep him upright.

Despite having his staff in his hands, however, Jack felt that something was different. He didn't feel the surge of power that usually comes when his fingers touch the wooden staff. He didn't feel as free as he usually does when he held it in his hand. This somewhat unfamiliar feeling caused the winter spirit to frown, which the Guardian of Memories quickly noticed.

"Is there something wrong, Jack?" Toothiana asked, even when she knew that there was something wrong. Something terribly, terribly wrong.

"It's…it's strange," Jack's voice was low, barely a whisper, as he spoke. "Is this really my staff?" He flipped his staff around, looking at it like it was something alien to him. "I think there's something wrong with it."

Toothiana bit her lip, a habit she had not done for as long as she could remember. She was at a lost how to tell Jack the news that North and the others had shared with her. Should she tell him straight? Or should she wait for North? She couldn't decide, worried of how Jack was going to react.

Jack noticed the way Toothiana suddenly went silent. He raised an eyebrow at her, "What are you thinking, Tooth?"

"Huh? What?" Tooth was surprised with Jack's question. "Why are you suddenly asking me that? How do you even know I'm thinking about…about anything?"

Jack laughed as he sat right back down in his bed. He was still feeling tired. "Calm down, Tooth. You just went quiet all of a sudden, and you only do that when you're thinking about something big, or when you're extremely sad. So, what is it?"

"Um, well…" Tooth wished at that moment that North, Bunnymund, or Sandy would arrive. She even wished that one of the elves or the Yeti would keep her from answering. But none of them came and Jack continued to look at her expectantly, waiting for an answer. She could see that he was already getting worried. "It's…um…how much do you remember about what happened to you, Jack?"

The frown that had disappeared moments before, returned once more on Jack's face as he replied, "What happened to me? Are you asking me about my past or…?"

"No, not your past," Toothiana quickly answered. Jack's past, who he was before, still eluded Toothiana even though Sandy had mentioned that they had met the young spirit back when he was still a human. She didn't bother to ask Jack about his past as well, she had long decided that it was not her place to ask and she would only know about it if Jack would tell her without her prodding. "About what happened when you sneaked into Pitch's lair."

The way Jack's eyes widen and his mouth dropping open, told Toothiana that he didn't expect her to know about that. That look of surprise, however, turned into one of shame as he looked away from her and started scratching his head.

"H-How…how did you know about that?" He asked, once again talking in a whisper.

"North told me. And, well, the Man in the Moon told Bunny and Sandy when he talked to them about what happened." Tooth replied.

Another frown, "They told you? After they told me to keep quiet about it?" Jack laughed bitterly. "That's just great…Do you know how hard it was for me to keep that a secret?"

"I know it must've been hard," Toothiana's voice was soothing as she flew towards Jack and sat down beside him. "But, there's nothing we can do about that now. And, well, we have something more important to worry and think about other than that."

"There you go again, sounding all cryptic."

"I'm not trying to. But I need to know just how much you remember, Jack." Tooth said, placing a hand right above Jack's. His hand felt strange now, though she didn't say anything. Not yet.

Jack's face scrunched up in thought as he tried to remember. Slowly, he pieced together what had happened, telling the Queen of the Tooth Fairies what he recalled. He told her of how he flew to Burgess and visited Jackie and Nathalie first before heading to the place where entrance to the Nightmare King's lair was. He told her how Pitch's kingdom had not change over the years and how he searched as far as he could for any signs and clues about the missing Moonbeams, and how he found himself face-to-face with a spirit called "Pyro Jack".

"I fought him as best as I could," Jack went on, slowly. "But his flames were too strong and my frost were no match against him. So the wind and I decided to escape before we found ourselves in a much deeper hole. But then…then Pyro chased after me. And then…and then…"

Jack closed his eyes.

What had happened after that? He wondered. I remember the pond…but then what?

"Jack?" Toothiana asked, almost tentatively.

"I…I don't remember," he said after a while, a pained look on his face. "I don't remember what happened after that. Why can't I remember?"

Tooth knew how much Jack hated not being to remember anything. He had lived for three hundred years not knowing who he was and what he was meant to do. When he finally remembered, Tooth saw the joy in him, the change in him, to have found his purpose, his memories, and his identity. It was enough to make Toothiana, the Guardian of Memories, want to protect that smile—that great big smile—that appeared on his face by protecting those precious memories he held dear.

But someone had, once again, taken a fraction of his memories and Toothiana wondered, albeit briefly, if it was okay to let that particular memory be left forgotten. Of course, she knew she couldn't do that. Jack needed to remember what had happened to him, himself. There was only so much she and the other Guardians could tell him about it.

"Jack?" Tooth finally decided on what to do. "Jack, listen to me. Pyro…he did something to you. He did more than just defeat you."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, there was fear and uncertainty in his eyes that made Toothiana want to take back the words she had uttered and tell Jack that it was nothing. But she couldn't.

Taking both of Jack's hand, she helped him to his feet and led him to the window which was covered in a thick layer of snow and allowed Jack Frost to see his reflection.

At first, Jack didn't know what he was looking at. He saw his reflection, but he felt detached. Like he wasn't really seeing himself as he was. But then he noticed what was different, why he couldn't connect the face he was seeing with the face he remembered he had.

His silver hair was no longer completely silver. He had monochromatic eyes: one wintery blue, the other a deep shade of brown, like a tree's bark. His skin was a lot less paler than he was used to, and he finally realized what it was that made him feel a bit different: his skin was less frigid and a whole lot warmer.

The hoodie he wore, which had always been a bit frosted, had been thawed slightly. The same could be said with his pants. There was no sign of snow or frost in him.

Shocked by what he saw, Jack stumbled backwards. He would have fallen on his butt had Toothiana not grab hold of his arm to steady him.

"W-Why—? What's going on?" He asked as he looked himself over and saw that the reflection he saw was not lying. "Why am I…why am I turning back to…to…"

Jack couldn't even finish his question. He felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack. He felt like he had just woken up to a nightmare.

"Jack, relax. Breathe." Toothiana tried to soothe Jack. "You're not turning back into a human. That's not possible no matter what kind of trick Pitch pulls. The Man in the Moon said so. Pyro Jack did something to you. He used something on you. We don't know what it is but it sort of drained a bit of your power."

"So…so I'm still a Guardian?" Jack clarified.

"Yes."

Once again, Jack slumped on his bed. He was still worried, still afraid of how Pyro had managed to do what Tooth had said, but he was relieved that he was still a Guardian. Being a Guardian, after all, was one of the few precious things Jack Frost had.

Silence filled the room as Jack tried to find some sort of silver lining to what had happened to him and to try to figure out how Pyro had managed to do it. He remembered Pyro's attack connecting with his back. Is his attacks somehow been infused with something that could weaken and drain me?

Tooth, on the other hand, watched Jack. She was both captivated with the way Jack looked. Not that she wasn't before, but of course, she wasn't going to tell anyone that. The more she looked at Jack, the more she felt as though she had seen him while he was still alive. It frustrated her that she couldn't remember, nor could she not understand why she couldn't remember. She was supposed to be the Guardian of Memories, after all.

Asking Jack Frost, however, was out of the question. Even if they had met before—back when he was still very much human—Jack wouldn't have any memories of it. He would have forgotten about their meeting and thought of it as nothing more but a whimsical dream, like all children who grew up did.

"So, how long?" Jack broke the silence after a while. How suddenly he spoke almost made Tooth jump.

The question confused Tooth, and she wondered if Jack had been telling her something while her mind had been distracted. "How long?"

"How long will it take for me to return to normal?" Jack expounded.

"Well, that's…" Tooth sighed. "That's something we don't know, Jack. That's why I was asking you if you remember anything special from your battle with Pyro. You might know something we don't and that might help North and the Man in the Moon to bring you back to normal."

"Easier said than done," muttered Jack as he plopped himself down on his bed, his eyes transfixed to the ceiling. "All I remember is his attack connecting—which I guess is why my back hurts—but, other than that…nothing."

"I'm sure it will come back to you, just like how the memories of your past did." Tooth smiled at him.

Jack laughed, "Yeah? Well, I had helped with that one."