Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen or Rise of the Guardians, or any of the other shows mentioned in this story. Disney and DreamWorks own it.

A/N: So I think we can all agree we hate the new Elsa. All in due time, my friends, all in due time. Just remember, Jack killed her. She go back to the old Elsa, but she also can't be a murderous monster. So I wouldn't call this a filler chapter because stuff does happen that's needed. I know you're worried about Thanatos and Tooth but things in that part are going to wait for a bit. Tell me what you think of their relationship after this!

In honor of 9/11, I hope everyone has taken into mind of the lives lost. That being said, let's hope this does some justice.

It was dark. It was the dead of night. And she could see. She could see the moonlight glittering off the snow in a spectacle of beams. She could see the owls flying above in the beginning of winter snow. She could see the trees swaying in the wind, which didn't even bother her. The coldness felt soothing compared to the heat that was the dungeon before. It wrapped around her in a refreshing way, making it utterly impossible for her to grow tired on their run.

She ran fast. Leading the way, she could see the trees flash by her in a blur if she gazed from her peripheral vision, but they seemed to slow down when she needed to dodge them. The wind whipped at her hair as she trudged further up the mountain. Finally she came to the crest. Normally, she stopped to see the view, gazing across the mountain range. Tonight, the clouds were too thick to see such beauty. She skipped over into the down slope a little ways until Elsa came across the familiar flattening of land. She stopped running and waited for Jack to catch up. He had snuck past Shira and threw together a knapsack fit for a night or two in the mountains. Elsa was still panting from the run by the time he got here.

"Over do it, huh?" Jack asked half-heartedly. Elsa nodded with a slight lift to her lips. "I remember my first days." He nodded, setting the supplies down in the slight crevice of a cave situated behind them. Elsa cocked her head towards her left in motion for him to follow. They walked slowly. "We were all figuring it out. Man, it was confusing."

They stopped in front of a small hot spring that was steaming in the chilly wind. Elsa bent over and felt it. She hissed with a grin. "Perfect," came a whisper. Immediately, she shrugged out of her dress and corset, working on her bottoms. Jack cleared his throat from behind her. She cocked her head over her shoulder.

"Did you really intend this 'vacation' as a pleasure?" He couldn't help but ask, eyes looking up and down her body in desire. Elsa smirked.

"You need to be relaxed if you're going to talk to me about…everything," Elsa sighed, looking back at the water. "Besides, nobody comes up here without taking a dip." Jack made a little mumbling under his breath. She actually heard with a giddy grin. "No, I had my bathing costume with me the first time I came."

He huffed and gazed down at Elsa as she slipped into the water. It scorched her skin in an entirely different way than it had before. A satisfied smile burned her lips. Sighing in content, Elsa leaned against the rock wall opposite to Jack. It overlooked the cliff side of the mountain, dropping at least three hundred feet. She wasn't looking at that view, however. Jack had just begun to strip.

Elsa bit her lip as the man ripped off his shirt, yanking it over headfirst. It exposed his muscles that only seemed to have improved in her absence. Elsa remembered in haze of a time when she had touched those muscles, ran her hands up and down them numerous times. They were rigid and lust eliciting. She desperately wanted that again, and so much more. At the very moment, she could have settled with licking up and down his abs, Jack's biceps wrapped firmly around her, touching Elsa in places she'd only dreamed of him touching.

Jack bit his lip as he struggled with his pants. Elsa fell deeper into the water to keep from moaning. His plush lips were very inviting. She remembered distinctly how he knew how to use that tongue to bring a girl to scream. She had screamed in fact, so loud just to make sure he knew how unexplainably satisfying that felt.

When his pants were off, Jack moved to hop in the water but felt some prying eyes on him. Elsa didn't hide her gaze as it locked on to his large, subdued penis. Even in an un-aroused state, Elsa couldn't help but shudder at the friction it could give her. It would push her body to its limits; that she was sure of. Her stomach twisted in agonizing longing. She couldn't stop the words that flowed out of her mouth.

"Remember how we were supposed to have sex that night you killed me?" Elsa ground out, floating closer to where he stood, slowly falling back against the wall. Elsa shook her head. "Forget that, I don't know where it came from."

Jack chuckled almost. "Every emotion you feel is intensified. It's hard to control them. For some reason, it seems like you girls feel lust the most." Elsa smiled in amusement. It was very true. "I'm very surprised you volunteered to spend time alone with me. I thought-,"

"I hated you?" Elsa finished for him. She smiled sadly, looking at the steamy water. It was so hot she couldn't see into the stem. Coming up to her shoulders, Elsa welcomed the warmth. "You did kill me. I probably should hate you, but I don't." She looked at him, finding his blue eyes frowning in concern. It seemed like he wanted her to hate him. "Jack, enough with this bull shit. Why did you do it? You need to think on this."

His shoulders sagged as he closed his eyes, leaning back into the rock. Deep in thought, his expression changed into a pained, twisted face. Elsa shuddered. He didn't open his eyes. "I was so angry, caught up in the moment. You made me so mad before and it seemed like it would never end. I saw red around the edges and the next thing I knew, I was choking you. It was…too familiar, like you were Shira or Bunnymund, somebody who needed punished but would come back from it. I stopped thinking. I stopped thinking for one second, and when I started again, you were – unconscious in my arms." His voice broke on the last part, eyes whipping open to find hers. Elsa couldn't help but feel sadness creep into her eyes. It brought back how betrayed she felt, like nobody ever would care for her. Her eyes grew watery as she gazed sadly at him. "I've never regretted doing something more in my life, Els. I'm so sorry. " He reached out and took her hand in his. Elsa didn't have the energy to move away. She closed her eyes and nodded, taking deep breaths.

"I think that's one of the first times I've heard you apologize," she murmured. Jack squeezed her hand, trying to pull her away from the dark abyss that was dark thoughts. She opened her tired eyes, gazing at him. "I know what it is like to forget yourself, to have no control over your reactions." She shrugged. "We can't go back to what we had, Jack. I can't-,"

"I love you, Elsa," Jack cut her off. Elsa's eyes grew wide. She stiffened. Those words had never come out of his mouth, not once before. They both recognized it was the idea of love that got her killed. Yet he used it here without any pressure. Elsa almost started hyperventilating in surprise. "I know what you must be thinking, but I've always loved you. I just couldn't admit it." Elsa still couldn't breathe or speak. Jack pulled her through the water into his side, arm wrapping around her waist. He spoke delicately into her ear. "I promise to continue loving you – no matter what your wishes are – and I will never harm you again."

Elsa blushed, dipping her head lightly. She thought deeply on that. For a month, she longed to hear those exact words from his lips. Now, she wasn't sure if only those could fix what they had. He killed her. He hurt her. How could you harm somebody you loved?

To love is to destroy. And to be loved is to be the one destroyed.

She knew she had loved him. She guessed he'd loved her. There he was, admitting to it, but Elsa wasn't foolish. The saying wasn't literal. You don't destroy somebody you love, not physically. "That's nice," Elsa sighed, "and, I hope I can see it happen."

"But?" Jack asked knowingly, a sigh ending his sentence.

"But this isn't something I can forgive and forget. It's not something I'll ever forget. You snapped my neck." Elsa hissed between her clenched teeth. She shook her head and looked into his eyes. "Even so, it's not all on me." Jack frowned. Elsa spoke sadly, like she didn't want to say it. "I suppose I owe Shira and apology. She had one thing right. This isn't okay, what you've been through." She watched as his expression hardened. "What happened, Jack?" His chest heaved with a deep breath, eyes shutting softly. Elsa saw him deftly shake his head. "You owe me this much."

Jack snorted, looking with half-lidded eyes at her face. "This isn't about what I owe you, Elsa," he grumbled. "I don't know if I can say it out loud."

"Say what?"

His eyebrows pinched in pain. It was silent in the night for a long moment while Jack seemed to struggle with himself. Elsa felt her heart thud in empathy. She hated seeing him like this, seeing Jack hurt himself just to spit it out. He was correct; it wasn't about her, but she wasn't doing it for her knowledge. She did it because Jack needed release. "Sometimes," Elsa whispered, hand snaking into his hair. She tugged him down so that his head rested on her shoulder. "It hurts more to remember than to say it. Your thoughts are wicked. They twist the evil into worse."

Jack seemed to ignore her words until his breath sped up. His mouth popped open silently. She felt his grip on her waist tighten and grew glad that she was more durable now. "The night I woke as a vampire," he shuddered, "Jamie was terrified of me. She couldn't look at me, couldn't even say my name. I tried to make her stay. She couldn't see past the red eyes and fangs. In her rush to leave, she took our boy Grayson." His voice cracked at his name. Elsa ran her fingers through his hair numbly. She could tell where this was going more or less. "She said she didn't love me. She said her husband was dead and gone. When I tried to get control of the bloodlust…she took Grayson and ran for the door, but she fell. Classic Jamie fell!" He shouted in laughter that quickly turned into choked sobs. "Grayson was so young, Elsa. He was so young to hit his head…" Tears were streaming down his face. Elsa was so shocked. This raw emotion made her cry, made her feel the tragic death in her bones. Jack lifted his head so he could stare at Elsa, both holding tears on their cheeks.

"His heart stopped beating…but his blood still flowed out of his head. I can still remember how I wanted to puke after I did it. I wanted to kill myself. Who drinks their child's blood?" Jack was crying hysterically now. Elsa grabbed his hand, letting his clench tightly around hers. "I let my family stab me through the heart. They thought I was dead as well. They didn't see that I was still there, trapped inside a monster with no way out."

"You aren't a monster," Elsa pleaded with him to stop calling himself that. He growled, beginning to protest. "I used to think you were, too, but monsters choose to become like us. They choose this lifestyle of killing. We didn't. I get it now. You can't resist the blood. The more you try, the more damage you create. We have to embrace one way or another or we'll lose the last of our human selves."

Jack's eyes softened at her words. His trembling hand came up to caress her cheek. Slowly, he whispered. "After we got through the bloodbath, when I thought I'd puke if I touched another human's blood, I followed Jamie. I couldn't let her leave without knowing she'd be happy. She just lost her son and what she thought was her husband." Elsa squeezed his hands. "I found her just after Tooth tried to attack her. She escaped into Shira's room and…and she grabbed a knife." Elsa gasped underneath her breath. She knew how this story ended. "I watched from far below, unaware that I could possibly jump the height of the window, as she slit her throat and fell towards the earth."

Elsa cringed. Jack clenched his eyes shut and took two very deep breaths. "She kept muttering 'Grayson, Grayson,' as if he died minutes before instead of days ago." Jack snorted through his tears. "A warlock was nearby. He was very powerful. I begged him to keep her alive, to save her. I never did get his name, but he promised she'd be as good as new." He paused and looked into Elsa's eyes. "I had to leave because for the life of me I couldn't force my fangs away. I checked on her one last time, months after. She was the picture of physical health, if anything maybe a little fatter." Jack stared into Elsa's eyes. "Around the time when we all would have been seventy, we got a message from out 'creator.'

"He told us that we now had the spirit named Moon's blood in us. Our children and their children's children's were all part of Moon's bloodline and, if killed by the hand of a human before the age of twenty-five, they would become a vampire as well. He said to kill them all before an entire population of vampires arose. That meant tracking down Jamie and making sure I hadn't impregnated her before we left. Pitch found her first. He said she was senile and out of her mind. She was a crazy old bat. He killed her." Elsa gasped again, louder this time. "Her neighbors didn't know much about her, just that she would spend much time on walks talking to a 'boy' named Grayson. They never once saw him. She was hallucinating.

"Everyone assumed it was I who killed him then." Jack choked on his words as tears continued to pour. Elsa wanted to stop him, but he was on a roll. She didn't know if she had the heart to make him open up like this again. It was too painful for the both of them. "They then blamed me for 'killing' Jamie's mind. I drove her to kill herself and when she woke, she went insane over the death of her son that her husband caused."

Jack took a shuddering breath and whispered. "Now I've done it again. I killed you. They are waiting for you to lose your mind in your own special way. It seems that you'll become a heartless killer. And I don't know if I'll ever live with myself if that happens, Elsa. So please tell me you feel remorseful for killing those men."

Elsa was stuck speechless. She was still crying for his pain. She knew he had a kid and wife, but there had been so much more in between. Her mind, too, was blown. Jack never seemed like a put together well man, but he never seemed like a person who held in such traumatic experiences. Underneath the mystery was a history of tragedy. She was stuck in awe that he came out of it without losing his mind.

"Jack, I can't imagine," she whispered, hesitating a moment before wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He hugged her back, surprised, and nuzzled his face into her neck. "You've been through too much to let it all stay inside. I'm so sorry."

She never would have imagined herself saying that to him when she first awoke as a vampire. Elsa was hell bent on showing these people that she wasn't some push over. She didn't give a damn about Shira or Jack. She couldn't care less that she took the life away from four men. She thought she'd gone through enough that it didn't matter, that her pain outweighed everyone else's. Jack proved her wrong. He had it worse than her, but even if he didn't, did that truly mean she was better? Because, if she looked at herself from a third person point of view, Elsa couldn't say she had actually 'made' it through her life experiences. She had survived, but she didn't prosper. Nobody could prosper from the love of her life, one of two people she knew truly cared for her, taking the life out of her. The most you could do was continue living, shifting your new life around your old emotions.

She pulled away, looking at the tears running down his cheeks. Jack Frost cried. Everyone cried. He went through so much compared to Elsa. Yet, when she cried or threw a bitch-fit, he didn't scorn her, saying that he'd gone through more. He didn't tell her to suck it up, that she could have it worse. No matter how hard somebody's had it, his or her emotions and feelings and thoughts were valid. It was all on what they took from their deepest parts of life. She could choose to be a pissed brat, mad at everyone around her, or she could choose to keep it from happening again. The only way to do that was to help Jack Frost.

"I don't want to be a heartless vampire," she nodded her head as fresh tears streamed down her face. Jack kept his arms wound around her waist.

"You're shaking," he spoke softly, feeling the trembles run through her hands. Elsa couldn't hold back the sob any longer. She gasped for air and took her turn burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"I took four lives for my one," Elsa rasped. She couldn't believe she did it so heartlessly. It had felt so right, so emotionless. Now the emotions overflowed.

"Killing isn't supposed to be easy," Jack murmured softly. "They were guilty of crimes. They would die eventually. You only put their deaths to use."

Elsa's cries slowly faded to silence as she was held by Jack Frost, soothing and comforting being passed between the two like a cup of wine.

. . .

North was always horrible with directions. He had doubled back twice and now had to once again. Hours of running later, he found his way into the castle of Anna and Kristoff. Thanatos couldn't have been less clear in his directions. He would be days late now. When the two finally found their way down to the outside, North couldn't help but compare the girl to Elsa. Their faces had the same complex, but their hair looked nothing alike. He had seen her parents on the raid and was still baffled as to where the platinum hair came from. Anna had red hair, though. Both were such rare qualities.

"How can we help you?" Anna spoke with a warm smile. North saw her young features in the child, and she was nothing more than a child truly, at heart, mind, and body. His gaze flickered to Kristoff with worry. This man seemed double her age. No, but he did look to be around Jack's age of early twenties. Anna couldn't have been more than fifteen.

"I a friend of Elsa," he spoke, unsure how to persuade the couple into coming for a visit. Crying echoed in the distant, but only his ears could pick it up. It was a baby, a ripe one at that.

"Elsa?" Anna stepped forward, her smile fading. "She's okay, right? That basta-,"

"Anna," Kristoff rubbed her shoulders. "She is fine, right? Jack didn't harm her?"

North cringed. It was exactly what they feared. Jack did indeed harm her. North had been told only a day ago of all that went down when he was absent, but not even from them. He had the pleasure of Thanatos filling him in. Jack would definitely get a beating when he came home. He didn't know what went through that boy's head and, frankly, didn't care. However, Thanatos had sounded oddly happy at the notion that Elsa was dead and a vampire. North had some suspicions, but none enough to voice. He'd be certain to look into it, however.

"Elsa is well, I hear. I have not seen her in couple weeks. Your presence is needed in our court, Anna," North kept his statement brisk and quick. Anna frowned in confusion.

"What for? She must know I have a baby – who's the cutest thing, by the way. You want to see him? It is a he. You'll have to tell Elsa I was correct!" Anna got sidetracked to North's amusement. He adored how cheery this one was. How different she was compared to the other levelheaded and serious Arendelle.

"I'm afraid you must tell her." North shifted his feet, watching as the two shivered in the chilly air. North knew it must have been freezing back home. "The court of Guardia requests and welcomes you with open arms, but it is not Elsa. It is the Jinx who needs you. Elsa will be there, as well."

"The Jinx?" Kristoff repeated in question. North sighed and nodded. "I thought they were a fable."

North smirked. "We are as much a lie as your troll family is." Kristoff's eyes widened into orbs the size of the moon. He stepped slightly in front of Anna, who then stepped around in an equally defensive yet independent stance.

"Why are we fighting?" Anna whispered in secret to Kristoff, but North heard. He grinned and let loose a hearty laugh. Kristoff frowned.

"I am no threat. We are nearly family," he crossed the couple yards in a flash and slung his arms around their shoulders. Anna gasped while Kristoff scrutinized his every movement. "Bring your crying baby. It is safe in Jinx."

"So it's true? The Jinx clan rules in Jinx, Guardia?" Kristoff asked.

"Who else would? Much easier to find us that way," North waved a hand. He straightened up. "Now pack. I leave, but you must arrive as soon as possible. Surprise Elsa!"

"Surprise Elsa," Anna repeated wearily. She sighed and whispered to Kristoff. "You're explaining this."

"Anna, he can still hear you," Kristoff, for some reason, murmured through smiling teeth. North grinned. How he loved human antics.

A/N: The reviews were amazing, my sweets! Let's make a deal. If you all can get twenty reviews every chapter, I can make sure to update every four-to five days. Of course, some extra love could inspire me, but I can't promise anything. If it's written and you all seem excited, I'm willing to update again after three days, but that's an if it's written.

20! please! :)