Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

Here's the next chapter! I'm sorry if it seems a little slow and repetitive. I had a hard time writing this because it's a lot of feelings and I don't do feelings very well, so it might feel like a filler (even to me it does), but keep going. I promise that within the next three chapters the pace will start to pick up.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the chapter!

Frost Ferns

Chapter 12

The Aftermath

Jack had too keep himself from flinching every time one of the Guardians shifted below him. The largest one, Santa Claws or North, as he had heard the other preferred to be called, made him want to turn around and flee as far away as he could. If it came to a fight without his powers (speaking of, why did he feel so drained?) Jack was much weaker than most of them and would be subdued easily. He would have run already if it weren't for one thing.

He still didn't know what was going on, and the Guardians seemed to have the answers.

Their confused looks didn't give him any confidence, though.

The rabbit shifted and Jack tensed, his hand tightening around the wood of his staff even as he tried to keep his arms from shaking in exhaustion. In response to this the rest of the Guardians shied away slightly.

They knew what he could do than.

Jack scowled. He was definitely missing something here.

The scowl seemed to jar them from their surprise, however, and the three glanced at each other reluctantly before North gathered his courage and step forward.

"Jack?" He questioned keeping his voice below a boom and trying to look as non-threatening as a huge pirate looking guy with a sword in each hand could look.

Jack tensed further at his name, his true name.

What had happened? Why couldn't he remember how he ended up in this situation?

Having taken his silence as a 'go on', North took a deep breath and, in some of the most not thought through words Jack had ever heard, asked, "Are you all right?"

The other two Guardians glanced at him as if he were insane.

"Mate," the rabbit spoke to North, ears twitching, "He doesn't remember. Do ya think he's ok with the situation?"

North blinked. "Oh."

The rabbit opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted when the tooth fairy, noticing Jack's obvious agnation, spoke up quickly, "What is the last thing you do remember, Jack?"

The shaking in his limbs was getting worse and he knew that he would only last a few more minutes before he collapsed. He would have to decide quickly if the Guardians were friend or foe before he fainted on them.

And wasn't that just strange. He had never had a friend before in this life.

Clenching his cold fingers tighter against the wood Jack spoke stiffly, "I was going home and saw a beam of moonlight. After that, nothing."

Now that he thought about it, it was very possible that the Man in the Moon had a part in this, if the moonbeam in his not to distant memories was anything to go by. Now, what he had been asked to do was another thing all together.

The fairy fidgeted slightly and glanced to the side, "Jack . . . I don't know why you came to us or how long ago your last memory was but . . . you saved us from Pitch and have been helping us ever since. Just- just barely we were fighting the nightmare king and you . . . you defeated him in outright battle," there was both awe and sadness in her eyes as she continued, "you saved us, again. But now you don't remember."

Her words were awkward and choked with emotion, but Jack could sense that she was telling the truth. He lowered his staff slightly, his shoulders still stiff in distrust. "And I was fighting with you against Pitch in outright battle? Willingly?"

She nodded and he glanced over the other two.

Wait, there were only three of them here, but there were four Guardians all together.

"Where is the Sandman?" Jack asked, glancing around. If he were to interact with on of them, he preferred the little man made of sand to any of them.

Something clenched within him when he saw the others eyes dart to the side with defeated looks. A sob broke from the fairy and Jack felt like his heart was sinking.

It was the rabbit who replied. "You tried to save him, but it was too late," green eyes met blue, "Sandy's gone."

No.

No.

Without dreams to comfort the children and encourage the children, they would slowly fall into darkness and fear.

They would become Pitch's prey.

"I . . . I was too late?" he said softly, eye dulling.

He hadn't been fast enough, strong enough.

It was one of his greatest worries, why he had always stuck to the shadows, silently ruining Pitch's work using the man's own tactics. He hadn't known if he would be able to go into a full out fight against him, and had thought to leave the last real fight up to the Guardians.

But something had happened between then and now. He was no longer in the shadows, protected, safe. He was on the front lines . . . and he had failed.

He had let someone get killed, someone to was very close to the people in front of him.

"I'm sorry," he spoke, and dropped his staff out of his prepared state, his chest feeling heavy. Shaking, he lifted one hand and grasped at his cloak, hand over his heart, "I'm sorry."

His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he tumbled forward, welcoming the darkness that consumed him.

0~o~0

Bunny was the first to react as he saw the winter spirit's muscles suddenly become lax, ignoring Tooth's cry of surprise and North's call of "Jack!" in favor of grabbing the warrior out of the air before he could go tumbling again. He glanced down as soon as his feet touched ground again after his leap, hoping to see some reaction from the other, but felt his heart sink as none came.

"We have to get him to the infirmary, quickly," Bunny said, glancing up, "He's not going to last much longer."

North's eyes darkened as he nodded, pulling out a snow globe. Bunny didn't even complain as the sled they were on was sucked through into its swirling depths.

All he was concentrated on was the heart he could beating raggedly against his own chest, stuttering and slowing.

He hadn't lied; the winter spirit might not last much longer.

0~o~0

When Jack woke again it was to the slow beeping of a heart monitor. Bandages wrapped around his arms and torso from head to foot. The only relief he found was that his cloak had not been removed. Most likely it had proved difficult for them to work around it, but he was grateful that they had respected his privacy.

Blinking blurrily he tried to sit up only to gasp and curl inward slightly, one bandaged hand going around his middle as spots drifted in front of his eyes.

What had happened to him?

Flashes of gold and black, an explosion of blue . . .

Jack gasped again, trying to curl of further into himself but finding that it only made it hurt even more.

What was that?

"You ok?" a deep voice from the door of the room he was in made Jack flinch and his hands shot to his hood, ignoring the pain it cause as he checked that the cloth was still in place, and breathing a sigh of relief as his hand encountered it.

North stood in the doorway, looking more worn than he had the last time that Jack had seen him.

"I'm fine," Jack's voice came out ruff with disuse and he winced again but didn't move other than to bring his hands back down again. He wetted his lips and then swallowed. "Where am I?"

North glanced to the side, out the door, "My place. In the Pole. We . . . we're holding Sandy's funeral."

Again, Jack's breath hitched. Oh.

0~o~0

Two hours later found Jack leaning on a window, frost patterns spiraling up from where his body touched the glace and then receding again as the heat of the room melted it. Within the designs, if one looked closely, they could see the swirls made the picture of a little man surrounded in trails of sand.

Jack could not remember much of Sandy from before he lost his memories. He had spent most of his life hiding from the other Immortals to pay much attention to any specific one, though Sandy was probably the one that he knew the most about. The little Guardian had sent out dreams every night, and Jack had liked to watch the golden sand swirl through the air, watch it form into the most miraculous of creatures.

Sometimes he had wished that he could dream, but it was for not.

As soft puff of breath escaped him, chilling the air in front of him as it formed tiny ice crystals. His eyes flickered in the dull light, looking but not seeing anything.

It was all his fault.

"Are you alright?" North asked from where he stood in the doorway, looking over the winter spirit with concern. Exhaustion echoed through his voice, but it mattered not to him.

Jack shrugged, his eyes darting to the side even though North could not see it. "I failed to save him."

North looked startled for a moment before his face hardened and he stood up slightly straighter, "Jack, you stood up to Pitch! Even if you could not save Sandy, you still did something. He would have been proud," North finished awkwardly.

It wasn't-" Jack began shifting to stand up, his hands gripping his staff even as his body protested the movement.

A hand landed heavily on his shoulder. "You saved us, Jack."

Jack's face didn't even twitch as he stepped back away from North, "But I could not save Sandy."

North looked exasperated for a moment before he sighed and allowed Jack to pull away from him, "I don't know a lot about you Jack, but I do know that if there had been any possible way to save Sandy . . . you would have done it. That is why Manny chose you. You don't give up."

"But what if I do?" Jack whispered, remembering the sting of cold water flooding his lungs, of the strength slowly draining from him as he struggled toward the surface.

He had given up then, who's to say that he wouldn't do so again?

"You wont," North said, smiling and gesturing for Jack to follow him to the globe room, "I feel it, in my belly!" A pat to the slightly bulging stomach was made for emphasis as North laughed.

How did he know that? He didn't even know Jack.

"Look how fast they're going out."

Tooth's words as soon as they entered the large room forced Jack from his melancholy and back to the present, his eyes widening as he saw that the flickering lights were indeed going out at an alarming rate.

Without dreams to block the nightmares and boost the children's belief, they quickly lost hope, some sooner than others. It had been Pitch's plan all along, Jack realized as he floated from the ground to perch on the rounded surface of the globe. Without Sandy to give good dreams to the children they lost their belief, and if they lost their belief the Guardians lost power and the ability to protect them.

It was a vicious cycle, and it was one that Pitch had taken advantage of.

"It's fear," Jack found himself muttering, eyes locked on the globe, "He's tipped the balance."

There was silence for a moment as Jack thought hard about what they could do. The other Guardians would slowly lose their powers as more and more of the lights went out. Jack, as the only one who would not lose his abilities in the face of unbelief, was the only one who could protect them.

And he could not even face a few of Pitch's Nightmares. The ones that had been sent after him and Sandy were only a few of the many, many more. He should know, he spent hundreds of years sabotaging the black Immortal's plan.

Suddenly the tension in the room was broken as the Easter Bunny snapped his fingers. "Buck up ya sad-sacks. There's still a chance to turn this around!" he said, his ears twitching to awareness, "Easter is just around the corner. I say we pull out all the stops to get those little lights flickering again!"

The determination shinning in his eyes gave no doubt that Bunny would, indeed, do everything that he could.

Jack bit his lip, and inside he hoped beyond hope that the rabbit was right.

If Easter would bring belief back, then there was a chance, small though it was.

And even a small chance was still a chance.

"Let's do it," he agreed, echoed by the rest of the Guardians.

To the warren it was.

0~o~0

I was going to end it after the warren scene but . . . it is now six pages and that's enough for me to put up. I've kept you all waiting long enough as it is. Good news, though, the chapter after the next is already written. I've had a hard time putting this and the next chapter together so bare with me for a little while. It's the end of the (school) year which means that I am short on time and even shorter on ideas. I will try to have the next chapter up before the month is out however, so keep watching.

I hope that you liked it and please review!

(Updated: 5/10/2016)