AN: This chapter is based off of a drabble idea by pippalina (Guest). As you can tell, I really liked your idea, I hope this is what you were talking about. Anyway, without further ado, I do not own Rise of the Guardians and enjoy the story.
His feet were planted firmly on the ground, and that was his first mistake. One minute, he was minding his own business, sending his ice creatures to spread their snowfall. The next, he was surrounded, cut off from all escape once again.
They appeared almost soundlessly, only causing Jack to turn when he felt the raise in temperature. Was that sweat dripping from his brow already? His mouth almost dropped open in shock at their silent approach. He had gotten careless in his years as a slave. He wasn't used to hanging around outside long enough for spirits to hunt him down.
"Look who we have here," one of the figures sneered. His orange hair stood out starkly against the pale white of the falling snow. His black pants and red top further reinforced his position as a spirit of summer. At his shoulders were two cronies, the muscle behind the operation who were here to enjoy the show. One of them had a simple brown mop of curls while the other hand an almost burgundy mohawk. All looked to be about 30 years old, while in reality had been on the Earth much longer.
Jack instinctively backed up a step, mind reeling. He could feel his eyes go wide as he fought to keep down a surge of panic. They were going to hurt him. As they advanced, he retreated even more, back fetching up against a tree. That was it, he was officially done, feet planted on the ground.
"My, my, why isn't it little Jackie, our absolute favourite spirit. Isn't that right boys?" the lead spirit chuckled, sarcasm drawn thickly between his words.
Again, the frost child offered no response as the two henchmen nodded. He struggled to remember these particular spirits. The lead was Blaze, and the other two something generic ... then he remembered, August was the brunette and Sol the one with the mohawk.
"We missed you terribly," Blaze claimed, lips curling slightly with distaste.
"So much," the brunette intoned.
"Why don't you tell your pals where you were all this time," the leader requested, words dripping with acid honey.
Jack shook his head, eyes down to the ground. All of his instincts were screaming to just tell them everything, anything to avoid the beating that was sure to follow. However, his head was clear, body already tensed for the inevitable. Nothing he said would make a difference. This was grounds he was familiar with, far more usual than the Guardians' care. The abuse and beatings were almost more comforting.
"You just think you can come back, and everything will just be okay?" Blaze hissed in his face.
Jack's eyes widened marginally as they advanced another step. However, he was grabbed by the two lackeys, hands burning into his flesh. His staff was wrenched out of his hands, his one true comfort gone. It stared at him accusingly from the ground. He focused there instead of on the immediate threat before him, it was a much more interesting sight.
"Well?" the leader demanded.
The frost teen's head was bowed, white locks covering his face. "I d-don't k-know," he managed to stutter. By now, he was shaking slightly with fear, waiting for the beating to start. There was still one unknown: what were they going to do to him?
The lead spirit stepped forwards, crouching down in front of Jack. He shoved his face right into the terrified teen's. "You don't know," he mocked, drawing out the words. As he spoke, he cupped Jack's face in his hand, burning him. The teen bit down on his scream of pain. Then, there was a swift knee to the pinioned spirit's stomach. He let out a gasp of breath, but was prevented from bending over by the two minions holding him.
"So, where've you been for the past 100 years or so?" the summer spirit asked almost conversationally.
There was still no need for an answer. It really did not matter if he gave it.
"What's the matter, cat got your tongue? Does it have anything to do with this?" He grabbed Jack's collar, tugging him forwards by it as the other summer spirits released him. The winter teen gasped for breath. Giving a malicious smile, Blaze formed a vine, looping it through the front of the collar. Then, he let the teen go, only to drag him suddenly by the collar moments later.
"What are you, a pet?" Sol asked.
Internally, Jack sighed. The muscle wasn't even far from the truth, maybe there were some brain cells in that head after all.
They soon grew bored with tugging him around by the collar and got down to the actual beating. As the kicks and punches rained down on him, the only thing the winter spirit could do was try and curl in on himself, to have some sort of protection.
When he was sufficiently bruised and bloody, the summer spirits straightened, glancing at each other as if for inspiration. "He used to be more fun," one of the minions commented.
"Ya, at least used to put up a fight."
Jack was breathing hard, trying to clear his mind of the throbbing and stabbing pain. Each breath further aggravated the bruises, which pulsed with each heartbeat. It wasn't so bad.
"Restrain his arms and legs," Blaze commanded, ignoring their assessment.
They rounded on him and he tried to scuttle away on all fours. However, they easily caught the weakened spirit, pinning down his limbs. He was still shaking slightly with fear, but struggling to get away. Unfortunately, his strength was no match to these two muscle bound fire breathers. His eyes widened as the leader lit his hands on fire, staring down at the winter spirit, head cocked to the side as if wondering what to do with the flames. A grin fixed itself on the summer spirit's face as he made up his mind. He reached down with the non-blazing hand and rolled up the sleeve of Jack's hoodie. There was a second pause, before he gasped.
Jack cringed, all too aware of what they were looking at. Sol and August were now looking as well at his bare forearm. One of them whistled lowly, "Not a bad spread." The scars there were pronounced against his deathly pale skin, ranging from a faded pink to a nearly blazing red. However, the shock value was not in the colour, but the sheer number and variety of scars. Jack's eyes burned with tears, this time of shame. He felt dirty, possessed by another spirit.
Blaze took a breath, recovering from his shock. He took his burning hand, lowering it towards the exposed, pale forearm. When contact occurred, there was the sharp sizzling of burning flesh.
Jack choked back a scream, back arched as he fought against giving in to pain. The finger was dragged slowly, painfully across his arm, searing its way along in a fiery trail of agony. He let out a pained gasp, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the sneering faces looming over him. His eyes were hazy with pain anyways. In his mind, there was one additional figure to the party. A certain King of Nightmares who was ever present in his nightmares. His thoughts were drifting, going to that vacant place they always strayed when trying to escape the pain. He was in his own field of white.
When Jack was about to scream, there was a shout from somewhere off to his right. "Just what do you think you are doing!"
The flame was immediately withdrawn, pressure lessening on his limbs. Before the stunned spirits could respond, there was a low growl with the words, "Get out before we do even worse to you than you just did to him."
Without conscious thought, Jack was wide eyed, already scooting backwards from the new arrivals. Within seconds, his back was pressed up against a tree, cutting off his escape route. Through bleary eyes, he saw a group of spirits advancing towards him. Just his luck, get away from one group of spirits to get attacked by another. What other pain was he going to experience today? He could still see that white field in his vision, blocking out the pain.
"Jack," a distinctly female voice called, "are you okay?"
He tucked his head between his knees, blocking everything out. If they wanted to hurt him, they would just have a smaller target. Usually this just ended up with him being knocked on his back, just delaying the inevitable.
However, there it was again, his name being called; but the voice was different this time, lower.
"C'mon Jack, look at us," a decidedly irritated voice added to this absurd melee.
No, he was not going to look into the face of his attackers, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing him scared.
"Jack," that last voice said again, forcefully and closer. The frost teen scrunched even tighter into himself. Then, there was a hand wrapped around his arm, dragging it away from his face.
Jack allowed it to happen, not fighting back. There was no point to that. He couldn't fight the instinct to look up any longer. Directly in his face was Bunny, still holding his arm away. Blue eyes flitted around, taking in all of the Guardians, standing in a circle around him. Were they here to attack him? Did they see the seasonals doing so and decide that they agreed with the sentiment? Was there another reason? For a moment, his thoughts halted, he couldn't think of another reason for them being here.
He blinked and the tooth fairy was right there, kneeling beside him. "Are you okay Jack? Where does it hurt?" When he didn't answer, her eyes snapped towards the Pooka, kneeling beside her. "Let him go," she snapped.
"I'm just making sure he doesn't go hiding on us again," the rabbit admitted, gently releasing the winter spirit's arm.
Those violet eyes swiveled back to the teen, catching him up in their sights as they scanned him. "Jack, talk to us. Tell us what is wrong so we can help."
"I-I'm fine," he managed to stutter. His mind was whirling. What was happening? What were they doing?
"Can you stand?" North asked, drawing Jack's attention.
It took a while for the question to process, as scrambled as the winter spirit's mind was at the time. However, he soon nodded, proceeding to get to his feet, not even that stiffly, this was nothing. As he did, a sudden thought struck, causing his heart to clench. Where was his staff? After a month of having it back in his possession, he already felt lost without the comforting feel of the familiar wood in his hand. It grounded him to this earth as his thoughts flew away with the wind. It was the one thing that had gone right back to how it had been before. Quickly, he located it, taking the few steps necessary to retrieve it. In doing so, he passed right between North and Bunny, tensing as he did. However, nothing happened, and he glanced at them again.
Four sets of eyes were trained on him, mirror expressions set upon their faces. The Sandman flew towards him slightly, but kept his distance. He signed an arrow to Jack and the ok sign, thumb and forefinger touching with other fingers pointing skywards.
The winter spirit nodded.
"Vhy don't ve all go to sleigh," North suggested, heading in that direction himself. Sandy flew quickly after him, already signing a message. To what significance, Jack couldn't tell. He was too concerned with the two Guardians to either side of him.
Tooth was fluttering along, casting looks at him. Bunny was walking, muscles tensed as if to pounce.
Jack put his head down, white hair obscuring his view of the world around beyond his feet and those of the two beside him. It was easier that way. Much easier than trying to riddle out their intentions.
"It was a good thing one of my tooth fairies saw you," Tooth commented suddenly.
The winter spirit nodded, not wanting to give a committal response. There was nothing for him to say. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. Instead, he concentrated on his burns, casually bringing his left hand down to rest on his burnt forearm. With his fingertips, he coated the red welt in ice. Then, he quickly performed the same procedure on the burn on his cheek. He let out an almost inaudible sigh of relief. However, from the corner of his eye, he could see the Pooka turning at that sound.
"You okay mate?" Bunny questioned.
Jack nodded, relieved at sighting the sleigh behind a copse of trees. They all wordlessly climbed in, portalling back to the North Pole. A rough landing and another near silent trip through the halls of the building led to the five of them ending up in the medical room.
"Now, let us see," the Russian stated.
The frost teen shook his head, backing up. He had already told them he was fine. What were they doing?
"C'mon, mate, just show us," Bunny pushed, catching a retreating winter spirit by the arm. Jack's eyes widened as he froze, going still in the Pooka's grip. Surprisingly gently, the paw rolled up the arm of his sweater, exposing the burn. It was pink and pealing, but covered under a layer of ice, dulling its tinge. Then, the rabbit examined his burnt cheek where there looked to be an impression of a hand, but it was already fading. "Looks like you've got it covered," he admitted, releasing the teen.
Jack took a breath, stepping back from Bunny, trembling slightly.
"Vasn't so hard, da?" North questioned. "Now, any other injuries. Once again, the winter spirit shook his head. Blue eyes studied him and Jack bowed his head. "Fine, ve go have cookies."
They trooped to the nearly adjacent kitchen, just across the hall, and pilfered a few snacks for all. It was there, seated at the table, that Jack really allowed himself to look around. There was some emotion in each of the Guardians' eyes that was so foreign, something he had never really encountered before.
"I'm just glad you are okay," Tooth declared, staring across the table at the winter spirit. As those words crossed her lips, he broke his own rule and made eye contact, quickly, accidentally, as she had looked at him before he could look away. However, it let him see the flare of that emotion as those words were said.
The others reiterated the sentiment and he could see the same emotion in all of their eyes. They started a conversation amongst themselves at his lack of response, chatting about inconsequential matters. He breathed a sigh of relief as it let him puzzle out what he had seen. There was that emotion as they said they were glad he was okay. Maybe they were upset? No, that emotion had a more watery look. Angry? No. He was familiar with that one. They seemed … happy. Why would they be happy he was okay? … …. … … Did they … care … about him? Did they care about him? He looked around at the four as they chatted amongst themselves. That was a good question. Did they care about him?