Marionette

Chapter 25 - A Silent Winter

Warnings: Violence, Rape

The darkness - it drove him to the brink of madness. The feeling of helplessness - it depressed him. The ever-present fear inside of him grew, feeding on his consciousness, greedily scarfing down any sort of sanity he had left. Jack had been moved to a new location - somewhere in the neighboring city of Nightvale from what he saw as Sera drove him there.

The new location looked like a rundown apartment - most likely in the bad part of Nightvale. Sera had explained to him on the first night there that it was a safe house that she and the other mercenaries used occasionally. It smelled musty, damp, and Jack could pick up the faintest scent of a mixture of ammonia and ether once in a while. The walls were paper thin, meaning that if Jack just screamed loud enough, someone could possibly hear him. Perhaps he could have a chance at being saved. However -

"You filthy whore!" The sound of a loud slap followed by a sharp yelp.

"Get out! You're scaring our child!" The sound of something crashing down and shattering was muffled just ever so slightly by the paper thin walls of the apartment. Amidst the arguing voices, there was the faintest sound of a baby's cries.

It was not a pleasant place to be. It was not a place where people were good samaritans and rushed out to help someone else that was on the brink of death. It was a place where people who were considered 'nobodies' died and nobody would care if they died.

"They're noisier than usual, aren't they?" Sera said with a sugar sweet smile, completely unaffected by the helpless cries they heard next door. Her gray eyes lowered into a half-lidded gaze as she stood before him.

Jack could feel her lustfully leering down at him as he sat there slumped on the beat-up couch like a real doll. His dull blue eyes were glazed over - livid and impassive to the things around him. He did not even bother looking up at her as she began stripping herself down, nor did he do anything to stop her when she straddled his lap.

"Hey...look at me, Jack," Sera murmured, cupping his cheek and tilting his head up. She gathered up her long black hair and swept it up and over one shoulder, letting it cascade down her half-exposed chest. A crooked smile adorned her porcelain pale face as she leaned in for a kiss.

He did not move at all as he let her do as she pleased with him. Jack did not care anymore - about anything.

His blank blue eyes stared impassively at the scarred over rash on her neck, then at the bird necklace she wore. She had bandages wrapped around her hand from another unknown injury that she sustained, but all of it did not matter. There was probably nothing that could kill her, not even the poison that laced the necklace she wore. It was all futile and Jack hated himself for thinking that such a coincidence of her discovering the deadly necklace would have granted him freedom.

'Foolish -'

He dropped his head and blankly watched as Sera's dainty hands worked on unbuttoning his fresh new dress shirt. She had the courtesy of buying him new clothes, saying that she wanted to dress up him up since he was her doll.

'What a sick, twisted game…'

Sera let out a sickly cough, which went unnoticed by Jack, as she looked him over. The injuries he had sustained previously had mostly scabbed over, although the burned tattoo and his branded hand still required delicate care. She took in a sadistic pleasure by seeing how sharply the dull red of the scabs contrasted with his beautiful pale skin.

"Such a shame that you aren't as disobedient anymore. It was fun," she whispered, tracing a light finger down from his collarbone to his naval. Her hand flitted over the buckle of his belt teasingly, before she went to unlatch it. Her hand slipped underneath his pants.

Jack drew in a shuddering breath, a choked gasp. Still, he kept his head down, finding no mental or emotional drive to push her away. He was shell-shocked and livid over Elsa's death. It felt as if his entire life lost all meaning and purpose when Sera revealed that she was dead. The girl that he tried so hard to protect from this corrupt, filthy world, eventually succumbed to it in the end.

Now it was his turn.

Sera seemed displeased with his lack of a reaction to her touching him and frowned deeply. "Doesn't it feel good, Jack?"

He simply sat there in silence, a distressed expression crossing his face as his body remained lifeless. Vaguely, Jack felt her kissing him, but there was no point in fighting back anymore. He had no reason to escape, not when the one person he devoted his life to was gone.

Sera noticed how passive he was and narrowed her gray eyes at him sharply. "...Are you that unhappy because that bitch is dead? Father told me that you didn't like her." She kissed him again, gently nibbling away at his bottom lip. "He told me," she murmured against his lips, "that you were more than willing to kill her since her family was the one that killed your parents."

Jack grunted lowly when she bit down hard on the corner of his bottom lip, enough so that she drew blood. He felt her licking up the coppery tasting liquid lavishly, but he remained still.

"You hate the Guardians, your own foster family because they kept the fact that they knew your parents and exactly how they died." Sera giggled lightly as she comfortably settled herself down on his lap. "Well...they had their reasons, right?" She leaned down to whisper into his ear softly. "...They were just looking out for themselves. If they told you the truth of what happened to your parents, you would grow to distrust them. Wouldn't you, Jack? I bet they fed you crap like - 'oh we're only doing this for your own good, Jack! We'll tell you eventually!'"

Jack heard her cackle childishly at his silence. He couldn't deny it. What she was saying was true - and he had to admit it. For the longest time, he held a silent contempt for the Guardians for keeping information about his parents and who they were. A year after he became Elsa's bodyguard, he was told of the truth from the man that he worked for and his outlook on the world changed from then on - permanently.

'The world is filthy…unfair...cruel...to the innocent...'

From the apartment unit next door, he could hear the banging and shouting. The woman screaming for help, the obscenities flying from her abusive boyfriend's mouth, and the faint cries of a baby. Jack grew numb to it and eventually he heard nothing.

"Now then...since you're finally starting to behave - " Sera smirked and reached over to the nearby coffee table. Jack didn't see what she was grabbing, but he soon realized what it was when he felt a small pill being pressed onto his bottom lip. "Eat it," she told him in a sweet voice.

His mind still resisted, refusing to eat the foreign, unknown medicine that she was attempting to feed him. When he did not move, Sera pulled it away and gave him a backhanded slap across the face. Jack grunted softly, weakly trying to get back to sitting up straight on the sofa.

The black haired woman gave him a sneering chuckle as she watched him pull himself back up. She held the pill to her own lips and placed it carefully on her tongue. "...Still resisting, huh?"

He felt her violently yank at the collar of his shirt and force a kiss onto him. Jack let out a muffled grunt in protest when she used her tongue to slip the pill down his throat. He feared that it was a poison of some sort as he felt it sliding down his throat, but Sera quickly answered his worries.

"Don't worry. It must be hard to perform well since it is our first time together, Jack," Sera cooed, running her fingers through his dull silver hair. "You must be nervous, but it's okay. I still love you all the same. That medicine will help you."

It was not very long before Jack felt a flush of heat engulf of his body. It almost felt unbearable as he parted his lips and panted, trying to get rid of the excess heat from his body. He writhed, almost as if he was in pain. Sera watched the entire process and smirked at the sight of his tossing his head back and letting out a strangled groan. She gave her glossy red lips a little lick and gently slid his dress shirt off of his shoulders with a sensual slide of her hands.

'Stop…'

Jack shivered under her touch, his body enjoying it greatly much to his disdain.

'...Stop it.'

Sera forcibly pushed him down from a sitting position they were in so that he was now lying flat on his back.

He rolled his head back as she littered his neck with bruising kisses and for a while, Jack stared in a blank daze at the ugly brown paisley patterned backrest of the sofa he was on. His pupils dilated slightly as he felt the strange effects of whatever it was that Sera had fed him. He could see his world fading to black as he slowly began to lose himself.

"I'm so happy that you're finally all mine, Jack," Sera commented with a soft giggle before she let out a feminine grunt as she penetrated herself with him. As she rode him, she threw her head back in ecstasy. She hummed, moaning in between. "I love you...I - ah! - love you."

Jack could barely make out what she was saying. It all sounded like an incoherent mumble to him, as if his ears were stuffed with dozens of cotton balls. His glazed over blue eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as he felt his cognition deteriorating.

'How could I have not seen this coming…? This sort of outcome...it was foolish of me to think that it would have ended up any differently. I've played traitor to both sides - of course it was going to catch up to me eventually.'

"Hey - " Sera moaned softly as her hips grinded against his demandingly. She trailed kisses up to his jaw and murmured against his pale skin, "say my name, Jack."

'Stupid. You're an idiot, Frost, and now Elsa had to pay for your foolishness. The one person that you were supposed to protect - the only one that had ever loved you - is dead because you fucked up.'

"Say it."

Jack closed his eyes tightly, feeling a tightness in his chest as his emotions spilled out in the form of beading tears on the corners of his eyes. Behind gritted teeth, he whispered in a fragmented lament, one single name -

"El...sa…" Tears streaked down from his eyes and hit the couch as he laid there with his head turned off towards the side. The reality of the matter dawned on him. He would never be able to see her - her pure-hearted smile, the wry expression she held whenever he teased her, or the loving look in her eyes whenever she spoke with him. They were all gone and it was all his fault.

Sera's expression darkened at the name that she heard from his mouth. "...What the hell did you say…?" Her gray eyes were narrowed dangerously at him, but Jack did not pay any attention to it, even when he reopened his glassy, tear-dampened eyes.

He felt almost nothing, even when she hit him hard across the face. She was screaming obscenities at him, threatening him for even uttering 'that bitch's' name in front of her, especially while she was having sex with him. However, Jack remained unfazed by all of this. He was no longer there in that small, dirty apartment. He was no longer at the mercy of the insane woman that had held him captive for more than two weeks. Jack simply felt as if he was in a numbing mental state, in limbo between the dark reality and slipping into a state of peaceful nothingness.

'This must be punishment for someone as foolish as me...for someone that could not understand and accept a filthy world such as this one. I'm sorry, Elsa - '

"Sorry…Elsa," he whispered under his breath, his expression strained as if he was holding back from releasing his raw emotions of sorrow and grief.

' - I couldn't create the ideal world for you to live in. I'm sorry that you had the misfortune to meet someone as foolish and weak as I am. Someone that couldn't protect you in the end…'

He felt her flinch, nearly drawing back her slender hand from his callous ones as he attempted to disinfect her healing wound. "Come on, Tooth - " he muttered softly, dabbing the damp cotton ball in some more rubbing alcohol and running it over the gash on her arm. "You want this to be infected and be admitted into a hospital for a week because you got septic shock?"

The green haired woman glared at her colleague and sharply withdrew her hand from his clutches. "Why are you always so pessimistic, Bunny?" she scolded him.

He rolled his minty green eyes and grabbed her hand again. "It's just the reality of it. Now stop whingin' and let me do my job."

Toothiana scoffed as she sat stubbornly upon the plush chair as she watched him with a distant gaze, only for her expression to soften as the seconds ticked by. Her eyes went over towards the large aerial map of downtown Arendelle that hung on an antique chalkboard in the parlor room. Her eyebrows lowered, distraught, as she murmured, "Jack...it's been two weeks now."

Bunnymund simply let out a soft sigh as he helped wrap up Toothiana's arm.

"...We were so close to finding him - I was close. I should have known something was wrong the minute I stumbled upon that car around back of that brewery,"

"You did all you could, Tooth," Bunnymund told her. "You came back in time to save Winters. That counts for something."

"Does it?" She laughed wryly as she shot a sideways glance over towards the entrance of the parlor. "If I had come back sooner, maybe she wouldn't have gotten hurt - "

"She'll be fine. Probably takes after Frostbite's tenacity, but she's been raring to go out again to search for him." Bunnymund let out a soft chuckle as he finished bandaging up Toothiana's arm. "She surprised me honestly. I always thought of her as a fragile, spoiled rich girl, but - she's strong. Personally I thought she would have freaked out because of what that Sera girl did to her hair."

Toothiana giggled lightly. "Miss Winters is stronger than that. You should give her more credit, Bunny. Jack wouldn't fall in love with just anyone."

He laughed through his nose as he picked himself up off of his knees. "That's true. I questioned his taste in women when he told us he fell in love with her, but maybe I could see why now." He ran his free hand through his side swept, gray hair and let out a light sigh. His smile fell a little as he looked towards the double staircase that led upstairs to the bedrooms. "...Frostbite's alive."

"Bunny…"

"He's alive," Bunnymund reiterated sternly. "Like I said, he's a tough one to kill and Winters told us that Sera girl spoke as if he was still alive."

Toothiana nodded, pursing her pink lips tightly. She nervously kneaded her hands together in her lap, careful not to exert too much pressure so that the gash on her arm would open up again. A swell of insecure emotions brimmed at the base of her throat as she whispered out, "...Jack...he - uh - he's fine." She nodded her head again. "You're right. You're absolutely right - "

"Thiana - "

She widened her eyes at the sudden sound of her real name. Looking up to face Bunnymund eye-to-eye, she stared into his gentle green irises and parted her lips slightly.

"...I know you think of Jack as if he's your own - "

She was silent.

" - but don't let your love for him cloud your judgement. There's a reason why Manny tells us not to love anyone. It makes us act irrationally."

The green haired woman laughed dryly. "...Jack always said that it was a stupid rule." She looked him in the eyes and asked, "do you think what happened to Jack was because he fell in love with Elsa? Is this your way of warning me not to fall down the same path?"

Bunnymund stared hard into her eyes. He tightly clutched at the bottle of rubbing alcohol in his hand and whispered almost inaudibly, "...I'm just reminding you - that's all." He turned away soon after, walking out of the parlor in a slow, somber pace.

Toothiana dropped her head to look at the injury that he had helped patch up for her. She let out a soft, pensive laugh as soon as she heard the tall man leave the parlor. With the gentle tips of her lithe fingers, she ran them over the bandage and softly remarked, "...wasn't that a reminder for yourself as well...Aster?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to call up my hair stylist?" Anna asked as she watched Elsa play with the uneven ends of her hair where her beautiful blond braid once was. "Not saying that it looks bad! You look good with short hair," she quickly added on, "but, it looks like it's bothering you - "

"No." Elsa shook her head, letting her hand drop to her side. "I'm fine, Anna. The main priority now is finding Jack...you know that." She smiled a little. "It's just...a little odd feeling," she commented, touching the shoulder where her braid usually rested. "I've had long hair for as long as I could remember."

As Elsa fitted the beige newsboy hat on her head, Anna's smile faded. "...Are you going out again?"

"I have to," the blond replied curtly, sensing the worry in her little sister's voice. "...We were so close to finding Jack. He was in that building - I know it - but…" Her tone dropped slightly as she averted her eyes to the hardwood floors of her bedroom. "I messed it up. If I hadn't been discovered by Sera...Toothiana wouldn't have needed to come help me."

She could remember what happened far too well. She could even still feel the lingering stinging sensations left by the knife that had nearly severed her head off of her neck, had Toothiana not arrived in time.

It all happened very quick, but the female Guardian managed to throw off several small daggers with such precision, even in the inky darkness of the night, that two managed to pierce the back of Sera's hand that held the knife. The other knife cut past her wrist, the one that held Elsa's braid in a vicegrip. Luckily for her, Elsa was spared her life in that instance, but was yanked up by her hair to be held hostage.

"I'll slit her pretty little throat if you come any closer, you old hag!" Sera screamed, holding the knife tightly against Elsa's neck as she kept her wild gray eyes on Toothiana.

The green haired woman shot a glance off to the side and muttered, "Jack is here, isn't he?" She raised her head, facing Sera again. With narrowed pink eyes, she asked as she pulled out several throwing knives from the inside of her heavy winter coat, "you can slit her throat all you want, but are you willing to take the risk of losing Jack?"

"What the fuck are you talking about - !?"

"Tell me," Toothiana declared in a loud voice, cutting Sera off mid-sentence. "Do you have the confidence to take me down? Who's to say that while you're killing off her that I won't go running off trying to find Jack?"

Sera laughed loudly, almost cackling madly as she fired back, "you old bitch. Are you in love with Jack too? ...I see…" She tossed Elsa aside carelessly, holding her knife tightly as she advanced onto Toothiana. "I'll kill you both...I'll kill all of you because he's mine!"

Baring her teeth, Toothiana widened her stance and readied her knives when she saw Sera rushing up to her. She threw them, the sharp projectiles cutting through the night air at such an incredible speed that Elsa was amazed that Sera could even dodge and block them. It was almost mesmerizing to see the two women, both equally adept fighters, battle it out. However, Elsa knew that she could not just sit by and watch the events unfolding. She had to act.

With Sera distracted, Elsa went for the discarded gun she had dropped earlier. With the only source of light being from the moon, she had trouble finding a black pistol that had seemed to perfectly blend in with the dusty, dark floors. She winced at the pain of the tiny glass shards cutting into her palms as she searched for the gun while on her knees, but she ignored the pain.

As she crawled towards the bar, she gasped, startled when Sera practically flew back against the bar just beside her. The raven haired woman grunted, letting out a gagging sound afterwards as she slumped to the floor, trying to catch her breath. She briefly glared at Toothiana, who was advancing towards her, then her eyes went to Elsa, who was just beside her, petrified in fear.

"Come here, you bitch," Sera growled through gritted teeth as she grabbed a hold of Elsa's braid once more.

The blond screamed and squeezed her eyes closed tightly, waiting for the pain of the damage Sera was going to inflict on her.

"Miss Winters - !" Toothiana cried out in a panic, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw Sera slice through Elsa's braid, cutting it off from her head. Unsure of just what this unpredictable woman was planning to do, Toothiana simply stood there as she seemingly let Elsa fall back onto the floor.

With a wide, proud grin, Sera held up the golden braid as if it was a trophy for her self-imposed victory and smeared her bloodied hand over it. "Jack's mine," she muttered, briefly speaking towards Toothiana, then turning to look down at Elsa. The bloody hand of hers that held her hunting knife went high up above her head. With an impassive, but deadly glare, she focused in on Elsa and whispered, "...I won't allow anyone to have him - "

Before Elsa could even move, she squeezed her eyes shut instinctively. However, before she could move, she felt someone hovering over her and heard the sound of a low thump right beside her head.

"...And I...won't let you - " She heard Toothiana's struggling voice above her. Upon reopening her eyes, Elsa gasped at the sight of the older woman blocking the knife with her left arm, letting the blade sink deep into forearm. She was clearly in pain as she held herself up with her right arm planted firmly on the floor beside Elsa's head. Still, she held her ground. " - harm..." she breathed out from behind clenched teeth, "the person that he really loves."

"T...oothiana," Elsa whispered out, shaking as she saw Sera digging the knife deeper into her arm. A little terrified gasp escaped her when she saw that the pointed end of the large knife had stabbed through the female Guardian's arm.

A thin layer of sweat formed on the older woman's forehead as she fought through the pain shooting through her body. Compared to losing Elsa or Jack, this was nothing that she could not endure. She used all of her strength and pushed herself up, pushing Sera back onto the bar once more. The knife dug around in her arm, creating a vicious gash, but all Toothiana was focused on was not letting Sera get away.

As she was forced against the bar, the sharp edges of the wood digging into her spine, Sera clenched her teeth and threw a punch at the green haired woman. Being blindsided, Toothiana grunted as she staggered back, trying to recover from the strong hit to her head. Using this moment as a distraction, Sera pulled the knife out of the other woman's arm and made a run for it out of the brewery.

"Tooth!" Elsa said in a hurried breath, rushing up to the older woman's side worriedly. She helped her up onto her feet, but as soon as she did, they both heard the loud roar of a car engine speeding past the brewery.

Toothiana's eyes went wide as she forced herself to break into a run. The cold night air felt like daggers on her peach-pale face as she made it outside just in time to see Sera's car speeding out of the lot. The vapor from her heaving breaths came out in a large white clouds as she helplessly looked on towards the dark streets.

Elsa caught up with Toothiana, she too, panting heavily as she asked her, "should we look around for Jack? Since she was here, he must be somewhere inside - "

"No," she answered her. "We might have interrupted Sera just as she was planning to leave with Jack. She may be insane, but she's cunning and smart. She knows that we would have found him eventually if they remained at this location for a while longer." Toothiana suddenly pursed her cold, pink lips tightly and cursed silently under her breath. "I'm sorry, Miss Winters...if I was a little bit faster...I could have tried to unlock the car that was parked around back. It was a bit hidden underneath a cover and it had a dark tint on the windows, but...I did see Jack."

Elsa's breath stilled. "...You...did?" The confirmation that Jack was alive brought relief to her, but at the same time, the revelation felt bittersweet. Sera had taken him again and he was still in danger.

"I'm sorry. I responded to the sound of your gunshot just as I was about to break one of the car's windows," Toothiana bowed her head in apology.

"It couldn't be helped. Please - don't apologize," Elsa urged her, trying to ignore her own guilt that was bubbling up inside of her. Toothiana was close to rescuing Jack, but since she fired off the gun at that same moment, she came to save her instead. "...I'd be dead if you hadn't come in time."

A brief, defeated sigh left past Toothiana's lips. She slowly nodded her head. "You're right," she muttered. "I am your bodyguard for the time being, after all."

Elsa began to smile, happy that her reassurance worked, but it quickly fell when she saw Toothiana turn back towards the brewery with a suspicious glare. "What's wrong?" she asked her curiously.

"...When I went around the back of the brewery, I thought I smelled the undeniable scent of a something rotting." The green haired woman strode over towards the back of the structure, with Elsa following closely behind her.

"Rotting…?"

Toothiana hesitated for a moment. "A...dead body, Miss Winters."

"It...can't be Jack, right?" she visibly gulped. "He was in the car with Sera."

"Yes, but if there is a dead body here...we should find out who it is. Sera's probably the one that killed them. Perhaps their identity could give us a clue as to where she might have taken Jack." Toothiana pried open the steel hatch that led down to the basement with a grunt.

As soon as she did so, they were both engulfed in the ominous, stomach-churning scent of a rotting human body mixed in with the musty mold of an old basement. The smell alone made Elsa want to throw up the meal she had ate earlier in the day. She brought her arm up, burying her small nose into the sleeve of Jack's old blue flannel jacket. Even the soothing alpine scent failed to chase away the foul smell.

"Please stay out here, Miss Winters," Toothiana told her. "...I...don't want you to witness whatever is down there."

The two sisters stood in the spacious bedroom in silence. Elsa quietly eyed Anna before speaking softly. "...I'm sorry again - about Hans, I mean."

The strawberry blond nodded a little, biting her lower lip. "It's...It's okay. Like I said - I'm over him."

Elsa saw Anna averting her eyes to the floor sullenly. She knew that down inside, Anna was not quite over Hans. She didn't expect her to be. While their romance had been brief, her feelings for him were genuine. That's why Elsa knew that the news of Hans' death was none too welcoming for her little sister. Knowing all this, a sudden feeling of guilt overcame Elsa. She began to wonder if telling Anna everything was a mistake.

As if sensing her sister's guilt, Anna leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her.

Widening her eyes at the sudden display of affection, Elsa froze and stammered out, "A - Anna…?"

"Please don't feel guilty, Sis," the young girl whispered into her shoulder. "...I'm stronger than I look." She let out a somber giggle, holding onto Elsa tightly. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself," she reaffirmed.

"But - "

"What you need to do now is go out and find Jack." Anna quickly sniffled as she pulled away from her. "Even though my love life's a mess right now, seeing you two together makes me happy," she commented with a light laugh and a heartwarming smile, despite the fact that it looked like she was about to cry. "That's why you need to find him. Okay?"

Elsa sighed, all the while giving her sister a sincere smile for reassurance. "Okay," she answered with a collected confidence. "I'll find him, for sure."

"So -"

All of the Guardians were seated in the parlor room of the Winters' estate once more, attempting to choose their next course of action. It was nearly three weeks since Jack went missing and the situation was turning more dire by the passing second. They needed to pool together all the resources they had to locate him.

"Sandy managed to find out that the license plate Toothiana saw on Sera's getaway car belongs to the Isles family," Bunnymund flipped through the little notepad he held in his hands, looking over the various things that he had jotted down pertaining to the search for Jack. "Not that surprising since she's been working for them," he said with a shrug. "This is probably a walk in the park for the police to locate a missing car and the head of the Isles house did report that their vehicle as missing at the same time that they reported Hans missing. Well... I guess they found the poor guy now, but - "

"Point is - " North cut in with his gravelly voice, "we will wait for the police to find the car. While normally we are against involving the police due to our secretive lives, we feel that this time is exception. They will be focused on finding Sera and the car, not Jack. When they locate it, that is where we will search."

"However, Sera's smart," Toothiana added in, in a low voice. "She's insane...but smart. She knows that we're on her tail, so it's very likely that she's not in Arendelle anymore. There's no way she'd risk it."

Sandy pulled his mouth to one side of his face, deep in thought, then excitedly began signing to everyone.

Toothiana nodded in agreement. "Exactly what I was thinking - she could have escaped to a place where she feels the most comfortable."

"A comfort zone," Bunnymund chimed in. "Of course. Probably would make more sense in her case based on the behavior she exhibits."

"The question is now…" North said, leaning back against the large plush armchair. He stroked his salt and pepper beard, scrunching up his lips so that they disappeared completely behind his bushy mustache. "Where exactly is the place that she calls home…?"

Her steel gray eyes impassively looked out the dirty window. From the small apartment bedroom, she could see the beautiful skyline for downtown Nightvale. In the distance, she could hear police sirens, fading away slowly as they retreated. With the tips of her pale fingers, she played with the ends of her straight-cut, long black hair as she let out a slight cough.

Although she could not feel anything, Sera knew something was wrong with her. For the first time in a while, she got a look at herself in the mirror and saw just how badly her body was injured. She had bruises everywhere, along with a grotesque rash that had scabbed over on her neck. Her skin looked sickly pale as opposed to her usual porcelain glow. There were dark circles underneath her eyes and her fingernails had yellowed considerably. The injuries she had sustained from her fight with Toothiana were also not healing as fast as normal.

"It's not as pretty as Arendelle," Sera quietly commented as her eyes rested on the downtown skyline. "But...Nightvale has its own charms...I wonder why, but just being in this city brings me at ease…" she muttered to herself.

Letting out another cough, she turned around to look back at the double sized bed. Lying upon it was Jack, unmoving and completely still. She slowly walked up to him and sat down on the edge of the bed. A gentle smile played upon her face as she reached out to stroke his head. "...Or maybe I feel at ease because I have you by my side," she whispered, crawling up onto the bed so that she could lie beside the unconscious man.

Jack continued to 'sleep,' as Sera briefly glanced over at the various sleeping aid medications that scattered the dirty nightstand beside their bed. She looked back down at him and carefully redid the buttons on his shirt. He did not stir, for he was completely sedated by numerous sleeping pills.

"You'll get a cold sleeping like that, silly," she said softly, speaking to him as if he was awake. Sera giggled as she fixed up his pants as well. "...You did your best...for my sake." She leaned down and gave his cracked lips a fleeting kiss. Sera laid herself down beside him and cuddled up closer, resting her head in the crook of his neck comfortably. "You made me happy," she said to him, gently touching the necklace she wore. "You made me feel loved and you didn't throw me away like everyone else did. When Father told me that you had a present for me, I almost didn't believe him. I never received any presents - ever, but when I found this necklace...I was so happy."

Sera's eyes closed slightly, giggling as she wrapped her arms around him loosely. "I always liked dolls…" She pressed her ear against his chest, listening to his slowly diminishing heartbeat. Her eyelids felt heavy, not with sleep, but with a fatiguing weakness. She knew that her time was almost up.

She cupped the side of Jack's face, studying his sleeping expression. His masculine, but delicate face was a ghostly pale due to the lack of sun exposure he had gotten for the past few weeks and from malnutrition.

"...I'm just happy that you were mine," she whispered softly before placing one last kiss on his cold lips. "Thank you - Jack."

A little, serene smile graced her small face as she took in her last breath - the strong scent of ammonia and sweet ether filling her lungs.

Elsa blankly stared out the window for the longest time, not really paying attention to the conversation going on inside of the car. She knew she should probably listen in on what Toothiana and Bunnymund were discussing, as it was information pertaining to Jack, but she distanced herself from it all. Frankly, she was tired. It felt like ages since she had last seen Jack and it wore her down immensely - mentally and emotionally.

She spent many sleepless nights, awake and worried over him. Once in awhile when she did fall asleep, she found herself dreaming of him. She was giddy with happiness of being able to see him only to wake up to the cold, harsh reality that he was still missing.

"God, the gas mileage on this thing is shit," Bunnymund said in reference to Jack's car.

Toothiana, sitting beside him in the passenger's seat, gave him an eye roll. "Should we have taken your car then?"

"At least we wouldn't have to fill up halfway just to get to Nightvale."

"We wouldn't need to fill up if you had just taken the route I told you to take! And your car smells like an ashtray. No way I'm sitting in there for an hour and I'm sure Miss Winters wouldn't want to either."

"Well, sorry we can't smell like flowers and sunshine all the time like you, Tooth."

Elsa went back to ignoring them, seeing as how their conversation transformed into an immature bicker. Instead, she resorted to playing with one of the loose strings on Jack's hoodie that she borrowed. It was baggy on her small frame, but it hardly bothered her. With a lazy finger, she gently traced the white frost patterns that adorned the sleeves and edges of the hoodie. She then went back to staring out the window listlessly. In the glass, she saw the faintest glimpse of her reflection,

Toothiana insisted that Elsa disguise herself as a boy again. She drew less attention that way, according to her- no one could recognize her as the Winters heiress and she wouldn't draw unwanted attention as an attractive young woman. She hardly minded the disguise, especially when Jack's casual clothes were far more comfortable than her own, but it did not help her mental state when she would catch a whiff of his scent that lingered upon the clothes.

She missed him - a lot.

Ceasing their tirade before it escalated, Toothiana turned back to look at Elsa, who had fallen silent in a forlorn sullenness. "Miss Winters?" she asked her softly. "...Is everything okay?"

The blond bit her bottom lip and bowed her head. "...I'd be lying if I said 'yes'." Her voice cracked as she clenched her fists tightly above her knees.

Toothiana could tell that the young woman was trying to force down the tears, to keep her emotions suppressed and under control. "Miss Winters...it's...okay to cry. I know you're frustrated with our progress - "

"No," Elsa adamantly demanded, raising her head to look at the green haired woman. "I don't want to shed anymore tears over this. Not until Jack is found, because crying is just going to waste my energy - energy that should be used towards finding Jack." She swallowed back her tears and said slowly, "since I know that he's alive...it's a rather bittersweet feeling. He's alive, but...what could he possibly be going through right now?"

Bunnymund looked at her through the rearview mirror, then averted his eyes back to the road ahead of them. "...You don't think about it - any of it - until he's found, Winters. The last thing we all need is a distraction, especially when we're closer than we had ever been to finding him."

Elsa stared at Bunnymund for a moment before slowly nodding her head. "I...understand," she answered, not wishing to push her insecurities and negative emotions onto the two Guardians. She shook her head slightly, ridding herself of such dark thoughts, and asked them, "where in Nightvale are we going to look?"

Toothiana filled the blond in. "Luckily for us, Sandy managed to dig up some information on Sera. Sitting around waiting for the police to locate Sera's car wasn't going as fast as we had hoped, so we took matters into our own hands. Unluckily, however...there isn't much. She was pretty much a ghost for a huge chunk of her childhood and adolescence. We had hoped that we could find possibly a place where she grew up in and spent a large portion of her life at, but that turned up nothing. But - " She smiled, almost a triumphant smirk, and produced a map. She handed the folded up piece of paper to Elsa and waited for the young woman to respond.

Upon the map of Nightvale, Elsa saw a bright red circle on a stretch of apartment buildings north of the downtown area. She blinked and asked Toothiana, "do you think this is where Sera is?"

The green haired woman nodded in response. "When I fought her back at the brewery, I had a bit of trouble keeping up with her. I could see why Jack would lose to someone like her. She definitely was trained to kill because all she kept aiming for were my vital points, so I assumed that perhaps she's some sort of hitman or better yet...a mercenary." She saw that Elsa reacted to the word with a slight flinch of her body. "...Do you see the connection, Miss Winters?"

"Mercenaries...like the ones that Hans hired to kill me...There was a masked woman that nearly killed Jack had I not gotten there in time to distract her," Elsa quickly said, "it was probably Sera! But...how does this help us find Jack? What is her connection to these apartments?"

"Being bodyguards for other high profile targets and people of importance, we are very much aware of various different mercenary groups for hire," Toothiana explained. "We knew of what mercenary group invaded your estate several weeks ago, thanks to Jack who described the patches they had on them to us. Although they were notorious for being top-notch mercenaries and we've done research on them for several years since many hire them to take out the people we are assigned to protect, we couldn't find any information on Sera being affiliated with them. It's like she's their well-guarded secret."

"A bit unusual," Bunnymund added in, "but in any case, Sandy managed to hack into much of their personal databases and found several properties they own. No doubt places they use to blend in with the public so that they could easily kill their targets without brewing up suspicion."

They drove through a dimly lit tunnel briefly before the road finally opened up to reveal downtown Nightvale. It had towering skyscrapers, many of them much larger than Arendelle, whose skyline seemed lackluster in comparison. While some parts of the downtown area they drove by were well-polished and clean, most of the streets were littered with the homeless and mentally ill. It definitely wasn't a pleasant place to be at, especially at this time of the evening.

Bunnymund sighed, as if disgusted with the many prostitutes that were dispersed along the sidewalk. He was stopped at a traffic light and grimaced at the sight of some of them eyeing the car. "Told 'ya, Tooth - should've brought that beat-up Toyota I have for a car. Wouldn't even attract any attention at this dodgy part of town."

Toothiana scoffed as he stepped on the gas to speed away as soon as the light turned green. "Still going on about your car?"

"Oi, I'm just saying. This high-end, metal deathtrap is practically carrying a huge sign saying, 'please rob me! I have money!'"

"You're so pessimistic," she snapped at him.

Bunnymund simply responded back with a roll of his mint-green eyes and muttered, "we're here." He pulled up to the curb just across the street from the rundown apartments. Raising a bushy gray eyebrow, he peered out the window with a level of skepticism. "Does this look like a place you'd want to hide someone?"

"It looks like a place where you could hide someone and not be asked any questions, much less have people care." Toothiana got out of the car, with Bunnymund and Elsa following suit. As she closed the door, she ended up exerting pressure on her injured arm and she grunted, holding it in pain.

"Oi...Tooth," the tall Australian man said worriedly, "maybe you should stay behind. If we do find Sera here, it could get messy - "

" - I'm fine," she insisted strongly. "I've been through worse - you know that."

Bunnymund averted his gaze, knowing that arguing with the green haired woman was going to get him nowhere since she had the stubbornness of a bull. His eyes rested on Elsa for a while and he asked her, "you wanna stay here or go with us to check out the apartment complex?"

She narrowed her blue eyes. "Isn't the answer obvious?"

"Heh - thought so. Nice to see that you're starting to grow a spine, Winters."

Elsa watched the tall man walk towards the apartment and followed shortly after, a disgruntled pout on her face. She was not quite sure if he was praising her or insulting her.

"Don't think too much on the things that man says," Toothiana remarked, waving her hand slightly as she walked alongside Elsa. "He means well all the time."

"Of course…"

As they walked up onto the sidewalk running alongside the apartment building, Bunnymund let out a sound of sharp exhale. He waved his hand over his nose and asked, "whew, smell that? Ammonia and ether - drug lab," he stated as he held the door open for Elsa and Toothiana. "Shows you just how much Nightvale PD neglects this part of town."

They stepped into the cramped lobby area of the apartment complex. There was a middle-aged woman sitting in a tiny booth off to the side, presumably the building's poor excuse of a security guard by the looks of her wardrobe. She eyed them as they approached her booth. "Yes?" she asked them with the slightest hint of 'leave me alone' apparent in her tone of voice.

"Do you know all the tenants in this apartment complex?" Bunnymund questioned her.

The rotund lady sighed tiredly and drawled out lazily, "why are you askin - ?"

"Did you see a girl come in here with a young man with white hair?"

"I don't look that closely at people, sir - "

Toothiana intervened. "She's short, long black hair, pale - uh - the man she was probably with - "

"Listen - I didn't see anyone and none of the tenants fit that description. Now, unless you're the police, I'll have to ask you to leave, you're causing a disturbance," the security guard snapped sternly, clearly annoyed with the questions.

"Oh, you think we're the disturbance?" Bunnymund asked incredulously. "Listen here, Shelia, you got a drug lab going on somewhere in this apartment and that could get this place shut down for good - "

"My name's not Shelia, sir."

Seeing as how Bunnymund was not going anywhere with the security guard, and with how a vein had popped up in his forehead due to his escalating anger towards the woman, Elsa took matters into her own hands. "...Please," she said with desperation heavy in her voice. She stepped up to the booth and placed both hands on the small counter. "This is important...I know you might not care, but...we just want to find the man she could be with."

The woman stared at her for the longest time, her face relaxing and caving under the plea-filled look in the blond's eyes. With a defeated sigh, she held her temple and muttered, "...I guess...I did see a couple by your description. They came in maybe two days ago. I tried to ignore it because the guy she had with her was a bloody mess. He didn't say anything, even when I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital. They guy looked like the entire world had crashed down on top of him." She clicked her tongue regrettably. "Maybe I should have done somethin' - "

An ear-splitting, head rattling boom interrupted their conversation. The entire building seemed to shake from the force of the explosion and the once quiet night was now permeated by the sound of screaming and hastened footsteps. The ceiling above them dumped a copious amount of dust and debris on top of their heads.

"Shit - just our luck," Bunnymund cursed as several tenants rushed out from the stairwell and out of the apartment complex. "I thought that the smell of ether was way too strong." He rushed Toothiana and Elsa out of the complex, the security guard following closely behind them.

They had made it safely out to the street, where they saw that one entire floor of the complex was up in flames, with the fire spreading quickly upwards. Elsa watched the flames licking the decrepit old building, consuming it at a rapid speed. She clenched her fists tightly by her side before she whipped around towards the security guard.

"What floor!?" she exclaimed.

"H - Huh?"

"What floor are they on!?"

"U -Uh," the woman racked up her thoughts, " - s - seventh. They're tenants in room 744, but - ! " Before she could even finish her sentence, Elsa rushed off into the burning building without a second thought.

"Miss Winters!" Toothiana shouted out, chasing after her.

"Oi, Winters! Are you crazy - !?" Before Bunnymund could rush in after the two women, the complex rattled again with a second, weaker explosion. He was stopped when a massive pile of burning debris came crashing down in the path before him, blocking off the entrance and preventing him from advancing any further. He clenched his teeth and he could only stand back as the apartment began crumbling down bit by bit.

The heat was practically unbearable as the blaring noise of the fire alarms disoriented her to no end. It was stupid, impulsive move just diving head first into a burning building just to save someone that could possibly not be there. However, Elsa knew it was the right move.

As she climbed the stairwell, with Toothiana following closely behind her, the platinum blond stopped and turned around. "You should have stayed behind!"

"I couldn't go back even if I wanted to Miss Winters," the short woman responded. With a firm tone, she looked up at the heiress and said, "I want to save Jack as much as you do. Despite the fact that he could be a traitor to us all, he is a person I treasure greatly."

A piece of falling debris interrupted the two women, turning their attention back to the situation at hand. There was no time to waste. The building was close to collapsing and every single second was crucial.

"Hurry, Miss Winters!" Toothiana exclaimed, urging Elsa to run up the stairs at a faster pace. "It looked as though the fire began in the fifth floor. Careful!" she said as they approached the landing for the mentioned floor number.

Elsa could feel the prickling heat even through the fabric of the hoodie she wore as they passed by the hot metal door. She pushed onwards, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she neared the sixth floor.

'Almost there...almost there - !'

She stopped abruptly at the sound of a loud cracking noise, followed by a shrill scream. Elsa whipped around, only to find that the stairs behind her had given way and that Toothiana was dangling by just an arm. "Toothiana - !" she exclaimed in a wild panic.

"Go!" the green haired woman shouted, clutching onto the hot stone of the concrete step for dear life as she dangled several feet above the flight of stairs they had climbed up. Toothiana clenched her teeth when she saw that Elsa remained unmoving, attempting to help the woman up. "You're wasting time!" she barked sharply, causing the blond to retract her arm.

Elsa bit her bottom lip as she took one last look at Toothiana's pink eyes. Seeing the steeled look of conviction in her eyes, the young woman unwillingly left her there and continued on to the seventh floor.

Once she saw Elsa run up the next flight of stairs, Toothiana smiled in satisfaction. She attempted to pull herself up, but as she did so, the step that she was hanging onto, collapsed. There was a brief weightless feeling that engulfed her entire body before she fell with a loud crash onto the flight of stairs beneath her. She cried out in pain as she landed awkwardly on her legs.

She trembled, gritting her teeth together at the pain that shot through her body when she tried to move her legs. Sweat poured down her forehead at the heat that was growing absolutely unbearable. Toothiana let out a strangled cry as she tried to crawl, only to have a mind numbing pain jar her senses and leave her there paralyzed in the burning stairwell.

'I can't die here - '

Her hand shook as she attempted to crawl her way to safety.

'I can't…'

She stifled down a cry as her mangled legs slid across the burning hot concrete. Tears stung her eyes, but felt like they evaporated before they could roll down her smooth cheeks. The heat was getting too intense.

'After I've finally met people that truly care about me, that treat me like a family, that love me genuinely - I'm forced to succumb to a pathetic death like this…'

Toothiana bottom lip trembled as she forced down her tears. She bowed her head and rested it on the hot concrete as she felt the heat stab her skin like millions of daggers. Her hand trembled briefly as her muscles tensed up, then it released as she began to lose consciousness due to the heat and smoke.

'I'm sorry 'Jack'. I'm sorry that mommy wasn't strong enough to save you…'

"Tooth!"

Her eyes cracked open just for a peek. She heard a voice -

"Tooth! Come on - wake up!"

She could feel someone grabbing her arm, attempting to move her. "...Bunny?" she breathed out weakly. As she was hoisted up onto her feet, she whimpered in pain from her legs that buckled out from underneath her.

The tall man whispered to her, "just bear with me, okay? I'm getting you out of here." He brought her up into his arms, making sure to hook his arm underneath her legs without putting too much pressure on them.

"...Elsa...and Jack...they're still inside - "

"It's too late," Bunnymund replied, dashing down the stairs with ease, even while carrying the small woman in his arms. "The fire trucks arrived and once they start spraying that high powered water at the building, the structure's going to start to give way."

"We're...just going to leave them?" she asked incredulously with very little strength in her wispy voice.

"If Winters got to him in time, then they could take the fire escape on the side of the building. If not - " He didn't bother finishing the sentence, fearing that if he did, then it might become a reality.

Just as the two made it outside, there was one last thunderous explosion before the building began to collapse on itself. There was a terrible sound of steel beams groaning and splitting in half as the old building gave way.

"Get back!" a police officer shouted over the roar of the fire and commotion.

Bunnymund grit his teeth as he and Toothiana were taken in by some of the firefighters, who escorted them over to the awaiting ambulances. "There's still people in there!" he shouted at the lone police officer doing crowd control.

"Some firefighters went around back! Let's just hope that they got there in time. Now sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step back!"

He looked back at the burning building as he was taken away by a paramedic who insisted on checking him for injuries. With a worried look in his green eyes, he whispered under his breath, "damn it, Frostbite…"

Elsa sprinted up the last flight of stairs and entered the seventh floor. The fire had not spread up to this floor - yet - but she knew that it could overcome her any second with how intensely the fire was burning beneath her feet. She ran down the hallway, scanning the room numbers with just a brief glance before coming to a halt in front of the room where supposedly Sera resided in.

She panted, trying to get some air into her lungs, only to get a breath full of smoke. Elsa coughed into her fist as she simply resorted to pulling the collar of the hoodie up over her small nose. It filtered out the air a bit, but the smoke was thickening and she knew that she had barely any time left. She reached out to grab at the door handle, only to find that it was extremely hot. A sharp yelp escaped her as she drew her hand back sharply.

Her palm was burnt a bright red, the injuries she sustained a few days ago at the brewery stung even more with the heat striking the sensitive cuts. Still, Elsa pulled the sleeve of the hoodie over her injured hand and twisted the doorknob, only to find that it was locked. Panic filled her as she reminded herself that these were apartment units and that she was an idiot for not grabbing any sort of master key from the security guard before rushing up there so impulsively.

Baring her teeth, Elsa threw herself against the door, plowing her shoulder and arm into it with all of her might. The door did not budge, so then, she tried again. And again. And again.

After the fifth time, she could hear the door's hinges starting to rip away from the old, rotting wooden frame it was attached to. Elsa panted, sweat drenching her clothes as she let out one final yell and broke down the door. It fell with a heavy thud and she wasted no time in rushing into the room, which was already filled with a thick smoke. She looked around with widened blue eyes, darting around the walk-in kitchen and living room area.

With a heaving yell, she shouted loudly with a hoarse voice, "Jack!"

Burning debris began falling around her and she ran towards the bedrooms. The sweat she accumulated on her forehead and the back of her neck failed to cool her down in the slightest as the fire raged on. Her lungs screamed for relief from the black smoke and from the burning sensation that filled her throat.

"Jack!" she shouted again just as she entered the single bedroom.

Her vision was limited, but Elsa could see both Jack and Sera lying on the bed. She stilled at the sight of the black haired woman, cuddled up comfortably in his arms. Warily, she approached the bed, keeping her eyes on her the entire time as she gently touched Jack's shoulder. Their last encounter was still fresh in her mind and she knew that if Sera was alive or awake, it would create a huge problem.

"...Jack…?" she whispered, shaking him.

He did not answer her.

"Jack?" she said a bit louder, pulling his shoulder so that he could roll over onto his back. Elsa drew in a soft breath, out of shock, when she saw bright red cuts on his chest, neck, and face. A sinking feeling overcame her as she took his hand with a trembling breath. Was he - dead?

"J...ack? Wake up - please wake up," she begged him, shaking him over and over. Elsa attempted to take his arm, throw it over her shoulders, and carry him out that way, but he was simply too heavy for her to do so. She struggled, desperately trying to at least pull him off of the bed, but stopped when she saw a hand reach out for his other arm.

"...Don't...take him from...me," a soft voice whispered out.

Elsa let out a frightened gasp when she saw Sera raise her head to look at her. However, the look reflected in her steel gray eyes seemed different than how she looked at her at the brewery. She looked pathetic, almost as if she was begging for Elsa to leave Jack here with her.

"I...love him...I love him - so much...so please - " Before she could finish speaking, the ceiling above the bed gave way.

Elsa, drawing back wildly out of surprise, managed to pull herself and Jack away from the bed just in the nick of time. Falling back onto the floor, she held onto Jack's unconscious form as the flames burned brightly before her. She stared at the bed, now engulfed in flames by the burning debris that completely buried Sera, killing her and bringing her to her untimely demise. It was a shocking turn of events, but Elsa had very little time left to dwell on it as she tried once more to pick up Jack's dead weight by herself.

"Jack…" she breathed out, struggling to get back up onto her feet. A response from him was the furthest thing from her mind, but when she heard him utter her name, her eyes widened.

"...El...sa…"

She drew out a shivering breath as she looked over at him. The mere sound of his voice was enough to fill her body with a heartwarming tranquility. The hopefulness in her voice was instantly restored as she asked him again, "Jack?"

He raised his head slowly, looking at her, however his head fell back down - losing his consciousness once more.

Elsa felt her heart throb painfully at the sight of him. As she continued to struggle to get back up onto her feet, she began to wonder just what Sera put him through. This was the first time that she had ever seen Jack in such a frail and weakened state. Frankly, it was so foreign that it scared her.

Another thundering boom rattled the burning apartments. This time, Elsa could hear the low groan of steel beams giving way and the sound of crumbling mortar and cracking wood. She looked up and saw the ceiling was starting to give way above them. Upon an impulse, she herself onto Jack, protecting him from the falling debris. Several burning wooden beams and pipes rained down all around them and Elsa felt the pain of a stinging heat on her leg. She knew that some of the debris must have fallen on her leg, but she hardly cared. The physical pain felt like nothing compared to the emotional pain she felt in her chest.

"...I'm sorry, Jack," she whispered, holding herself above him. "I wanted to help you, all this time, but all I can seem to do is make things worse for you." She shook as she felt tears invade her eyes. "You always have to be the one to save me and that's what I hated because I felt like I was being a burden. That's why...I wished you would tell me what was bothering you, but you wouldn't - all the way until the end."

She laughed dryly.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I? How could you possibly tell me something like that? ...That you were planning to kill me eventually?"

Elsa looked down at him lovingly, a tearful smile painting its way across her face. She brought her hand up to stroke his cheek.

"It scares me that you were thinking of such a thing...but on the other hand - I think that if I were to die by your hand…"

She heard the sound of heavy footsteps rushing down the hallway outside.

"...I wouldn't complain. If it means that you'll be free of one burden, perhaps you could smile from your heart for me." Elsa laid herself down on top of him, resting her head on his chest and listening to his murmuring heartbeat. "Mm," she remarked softly as she closed her eyes, "I think, if your genuine smile is the last thing I could see before I die...I wouldn't complain...at least I would know that you're happy."

"I'm sorry for breaking the news a few days after your ordeal, but I wanted to tell all of you at the same time - " The doctor sighed heavily as he shoved his hands into the pocket of his white coat. He looked off towards the side and everyone else - Bunnymund, Toothiana, and Elsa, followed suit.

"...He's going to be okay, right?" Toothiana asked the doctor gently, afraid of the news he would bring.

"Of course. Although the care was crude, someone's been at least attempting to clean and disinfect his wounds throughout the weeks. It's a miracle that he didn't get an infection." The doctor untucked the clipboard from under his arm and took a look at the notes he had jotted down. "He'll recover," he said with a sigh, prompting Bunnymund to ask him skeptically -

"What's with that tone?"

Toothiana shot a glare up at Bunnymund as he stood behind her wheelchair, silently telling him to take the edge out of his voice. "What do you mean, Doctor?" she asked, attempting to repeat his question without the hostility.

Elsa worriedly glanced back at the doctor and then at Jack, who lay in his bed, fully awake. She could only see the back of his head as he had it turned away from the large glass doors. He faced the window that showed a view of the gray winter skies. Anxiety bubbled up within her as she and the two Guardians awaited for the doctor's response.

The doctor looked into Jack's room again and drew out another soft sigh. "...He's been doing nothing, but staring out that window for the past three days. He doesn't respond to anyone or anything. We don't really know what's wrong with him. He'll get better physically within the next week, but mentally? ...We're not so sure."