I do not own RoTG or GoC.


Jack is not where he should be.

He is most certainly not when he should be.

The how is not quite important. Nor is the why, and most definitely not the what. But that does not change what is. And what is is that Jack is not when he should be.

When he is, he can't quite tell. It's familiar twice over, and different all at once. Maybe he's been here before. Maybe he hasn't. He certainly isn't one to make a habit of time-travel. Naughty, that is.

But he is here. He is now. And here and now are turning curiouser and curiouser.

There is a ship before the moon. And maybe that's it, Jack thinks. Why this so familiar in that odd again-and-before sort of way. Because he knows that ship. And doesn't.

It's an odd ship, with grand swirls and promenades and nooks for hiding in. But it is also a cruel ship, fierce and jagged, with wicked thorns and scowls and jeering shadows. This ship, this grand, cruel, curious ship is so very familiar, and it bothers him, it picks and it pokes all about inside of him.

It's a part of a thing he cannot remember, wrapped up as it is in the cold and the dark and the scared that is from before he became Jack Frost. Before he even became Jack. And the cold and the dark and the scared -and too, the ship - they are too long. Shadows stretched thin and snapping.

There is a crunch - boots on snow, shoes on leaves - and Jack turns. Sees the children.

And is Seen.

They blink. Jack blinks back. -That's proper etiquette in this sort of situation, isn't it?-

The Tallest one -almost properly Tall- rocks back and forth a minute. "You've changed." He says finally.

"Not really." one of the Smaller ones points out. The boy next to her nods. "Not at all." he adds.

And Jack looks at the ship across the moon again, skittering there like cloud. "You know me." He says at last.

"Once." the Tallest one remarks. "Now?" He looks at the other children.

"Does it matter?" the girl asks again. "He's still him, you know."

Once, Jack would have asked. Would have begged, pleaded. Cried out to a voiceless moon to answer. But he has a Tooth Box sitting in his pocket now. Is a guardian, now.

And he could never beg or begrudge these Small Ones. Not now. Never.

"It doesn't matter." He assures them. "I promise."

The absolute youngest of them all wrinkles his nose slightly. "I know one way he's changed." the boy points out. "He got noisy."

That makes them all laugh, and agree.

Jack steals another glance at the ship. Somehow, someway, in that far-off feeling, they are running out of time. There is no chance for questions. For answers.

"Believe." He tells them. "Believe in the Guardians. Believe in each other. Believe in yourselves." please, please please. he chants fiercely to himself. To the leaves and the trees and the birds and the beasts, even as he feels himself whisked away.

Believe, believe, believe.


A/N - A new picture, a new snip. The description was interesting too. There's an implication that our Jack will be at the Battle of the Moon.

I'm not sure whether this piece is Canon, or AU along the lines of the Fearling-Jamie arc. It's up to each reader to decide.


Random Headcanons that I'd really like to write snips for, but don't know whether to categorize as Canon or AU: (note that none of this stuff is hard canon, but feel free to borrow it..)

1) Twinetender, Jack's staff, is the same branch that Nightlight grabbed so long ago. He remembers Moonbeam. And when Jack was still a Nightlight. Sometimes, he reminisces.

2) Jack's leitmotif, (from about half a minute in to about a minute of "Alone in the World", and related songs, is the melody for Nightlight's lullaby. Sometimes, he hums it for sleeping children.