Jack woke up, unhappy.
"GOD DAMN IT SANDY! Now I'm off time in Cuba!" He growled and got up to go to Cuba, the little Guardian
"Gosh, next time I'll wear a helmet when Sandy tries that..." He opened the window but the wind pushed back against him.
"Oh come ON!"
"Jack stay." It whispered, followed by 'Jack must rest.'
"Wind, come on! Not you too!" Sandy, who was in the next room, sighed at the commotion and his sand slipped beneath the door to float before him spelling out 'Jack get in that bed now or we're tying you down.' Mysterie headed back to the pole, managing to avoid detection from a group of spring spirits who were traveling in the area at the same time that Sandy's message to Jack reformed:
Either that or visit Jamie!
Sandy seemed as irritated as Mysterie felt just then that Jack seemed to be avoiding his believer. When Mysterie arrived at the pole she could sense that Jack was awake and her irritation was loud and clear; the other Guardians could hear it in her tone from where they were in the workshop as she stalked towards Jack's room.
"Jackson!" It was obvious that she wasn't too happy with a certain winter spirit.
"OH SHIT!" The jig was up and he knew it, Jack ran from the window and ducked under the bed to hide from her wrath, though a message from Sandy seemed to think he should do otherwise:
Better now to deal with her than later.
"Shut up Sandy!" Jack whispered to the sand as it disappeared when the door slammed open. She slammed it shut as well.
"Oh don't think you can hide. You have some explaining to do... Don't make me use my magic on you. I'd rather not have to." Jack didn't move from his spot. Shit... Sandy must have snatched my staff earlier... that bastard... Jack shook in fear from Mysterie's wrath but ignored the threat, hoping that she didn't go for the bed immediately though there wasn't really many places in the room he could really hide besides the wardrobe and where he currently was hiding. Mysterie walked around the room, trying to pinpoint his location without actually searching with her eyes. She stood in the middle of the room before deciding that there was only one real place he could hide and crouched down, looking under the bed from where she crouched, scowling slightly.
"Seriously, Jack... come on out."
"NO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" She sighed, her irritation ebbing a little.
"Jack... this concerns Jamie."
"No! I don't wanna talk about it!" Jack pushed himself deeper under the bed, away from her. Deciding that this was silly, she sent her sand beneath the bed to wrap him in a cocoon and pull him out from under the bed.
"Jack... you can't keep running from this. You know I grant wishes." Jack struggles fruitlessly against the cocoon.
"LET ME OUT!" Jack kicked the inside of the cocoon, sending out his energy to try and free himself only to freeze the cocoon making it harder for him to get out of it. Seeing this, she couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, lassoing the frozen thing with a strand of sand to pull him towards her; most of her irritation was gone now.
"Jack, I understand your fear. I do... but five years? Jack... his wish was to see you. He wants you around... the boy even got jealous of me those years ago. Told me himself." She crossed her arms, but as she shook her head it wasn't in irritation so much as disbelief as she remembered her conversation with the teen.
"You realize that if you don't go see him on your own that my magic will eventually make it impossible for you not to... However indirect it is."
"I don't care what your magic does! I am not going just so Jamie can stop believing in me and so I can end up alone for another 300 years!" Jack struggled against the frozen sand, but all he managed to do was scrape himself up on the sand. Mysterie just stared at him a moment, at first irked by his words before it was overcome by a stab of pain. She stared at him like she'd been struck as his words seeped into her.
"Do you honestly think that about all of us... ?" Her words were almost too soft to be heard. Do you think I would leave you alone after all this time Jack? The thought didn't pass her lips; her chest burning painfully.
"Has it really meant..." She didn't bother finishing, she couldn't... She just couldn't ask if everything she'd done up to this point had meant nothing to him. She was afraid of the answer and at the same time she knew what it was; struggling with the darkness that seemed to surge inside her like a tidal wave. She closed her eyes a moment before managing to gather the strength to get her limbs to listen, to walk out of the room feeling like someone had reached in and yanked out her heart; leaving Jack to free himself from the trap he'd gotten himself into. She brushed past Sandy without a word, the silent Guardian wondering what went wrong and went to the room the younger spirit had just left to see what was up. Jack lay there, ignoring Sandy who was trying to get from him what had happened. All Jack could do was feel guilty for what he'd said and done...
"Mysterie... I'm sorry... I didn't mean that... I don't feel that way with all of you." A question mark appeared over the sand Guardian's head.
"She's right... I have been a total ass Sandy. I'll be back... I've got a believer to visit and a broken heart to fix." Jack thumped the ice against the floor roughly, shattering it and freeing himself. Sandy just looked at Jack questioningly, still not sure what the heck had happened.
Mysterie settled down in a small town in Kansas where it was still night, trying to come to terms with what she was feeling. Having beat back the darkness inside her if only just. It hurt. More than anything... after all these years he still didn't trust that she'd meant it when she'd told him she'd never leave him alone. A familiar voice cackled nearby; within the hour the only thing left in the area to speak of the battle that had gone on was a faint trace of silver and black sand sprinkled over the town; there was simply nothing to be felt by Jack's bond. As if there was nothing being felt, no emotions... as if there were no thoughts... Not even from the darkness inside her. It was just quite simply gone.