Yes, that's right. Put all your focus on me.
Jack continued forging ahead as fast as he could, putting every ounce of his attention to his surroundings. He stayed mindful of the information Manny continued telling, getting confirmations that the unfair attacks on Hiccup and Dash had effectively stopped as Pitch's group focussed on Jack from the minute he took the lead. He sighed in relief when Manny told him about Elsa, Emma, and Jamie's safe return, which just drove him to fly faster.
Even in the blizzard, which was Jack's strength in the race, Pitch seemed to have someone controlling the winds as Jack found himself thrown off balance many times. Manny informed him that Kristoff is trying as hard as possible so it shouldn't be a problem anymore, but Pitch's guy seemed to be pretty powerful. But no matter what they did, Jack didn't allow himself to be controlled or distracted as he concentrated on collecting energy from around him.
He flew fast enough that even if they could control the winds, Pitch's henchman couldn't harm him in any way as he flew faster than the winds around him. He noticed that Pitch's guy had a very slow reaction to anything happening with Jack so he used that as an advantage and finished that stage before the person could even decide what to do next.
In the next stage, Jack froze the entire wheel and used both his wind and ice powers to spin it, much faster than any of his previous attempts. He was done with the wheel in no time and entered his next stage as soon as possible.
Right after entering the stage, he dodged a fireball that had changed direction. None of the attempted attacks harmed him thanks to Kristoff's magic, but they did affect his speed and so did the other natural occurrences like debris flying around which occasionally slit his face or hands or any uncovered body part. But just as he thought to himself that it was all going according to his plan, he heard a huge explosion that definitely didn't sound like a volcanic eruption.
Not able to afford to look around himself, Jack yelled at Manny through the intercom, "Manny, what happened?"
"Fucking Pitch," Manny cursed under his breath as he replied, "He has changed tactics again. Now that he's seen that he can't harm you, he has instead started aiming for the other two, who are also way ahead of Hans. That explosion just now was to take out -and probably murder- Dash Parr. Thankfully, he dodged the attack but not fast enough. A huge rock hit the back of his head and he's out of the race now. Jack, he's definitely not going to stop. You and Hiccup are bound to be attacked for sure. Be careful."
Cursing Pitch and Hans to death, Jack looked over his shoulder glared at Hans, who glared right back at him. Hiccup, who was flying just a few meters ahead of Hans, caught Jack's eye and a silent agreement was shared between them. Jack looked ahead and continued flying as fast as possible, resisting a smirk as Manny informed him that Hiccup was covering the distance between them really fast. Soon enough, Jack could hear the furious wing flaps of the dragon behind him, which prompted him to let out another burst of wind as he pushed himself ahead. And soon enough, they finished that stage and entered the next and last one.
When he took in his surroundings, Jack was first met with confusion, suspicion, and then finally rage, as he found himself inside a long, dark, jet black tunnel. His only sources of light were his staff, which was glowing dimly, and a faint spot of light at a long distance, which was probably where they had to head over.
Of course Pitch would do this. This is exactly what he did to throw Elsa, the legendary racer of all time, out of the race.
"Jack, I'm pretty sure Pitch has prepped Hans with night vision goggles to help him sneak attacks on both of you. The cameras were probably not ready for this seeing how absolutely nothing is visible on the screens, also probably Pitch's doing. Use every sense of yours for attacks and get out of there as soon as possible."
"Roger that."
Jack flew faster than he ever did, gritting his teeth as the energy in him faded away. Nonetheless, he pushed himself to fly, not caring if he broke a limb or two. And that's when he sensed something fly at him from above. He quickly dodged and continued flying ahead, head turned to see just what had tried to attack him.
But that had been his fatal mistake.
He had been so focussed on seeing behind that he sensed something come at him from right ahead of him just a bit too late. Before he could realise what was going on, he was suddenly stopped, something holding him in the air.
"Magical attacks might not work on you," a voice whispered in Jack's ear and unpleasant chills ran down his spine when he recognised the voice, "but physical ones might."
Before Jack could even breathe, Pitch punched him in the gut, hard enough to throw him backward at the same speed he had used to fly forward. Vision black with dizziness and pain, Jack almost succumbed to the pain until Manny yell into his ear.
"Emma and Elsa are waiting for you, moron!"
And with that, he willed himself to stay conscious. Jack flailed around helplessly, trying hard to move forward and not backward. His muscles tinged with familiarity and as the wind blew against his ears, Jack remembered Manny's words.
'Find the method you're most comfortable with and move in the direction you want to.'
The method I'm most comfortable with?
Time seemed to slow down as Jack finally seemed closer to the answer he had been searching for for weeks as the wind rushing by his ears whispered secret clues to him. Every time he moved his hands, he felt the wind. Every turn his body made, he could feel the wind. Even at that moment as he flailed his arms like a idiot, the wind followed him. All of this finally made Jack realise a crucial yet simple fact.
The world is surrounded by air all the time. Wind is nothing but moving air. Air is always moving so there's wind at all times. I control the wind, which is literally everywhere around me. So this entire space...
...is mine to control.
And just like that, Jack flew right ahead towards the light as if he hadn't been falling backwards with just as much speed he was currently using.
"What the hell was that?!" Manny screamed, going ballistic on the other side, "moving right ahead without a single fraction of a second of delay in the exact opposite direction is scientifically impossible!"
Jack smirked, holding his staff in front of him like a baseball bat as his widened wind-radar told him exactly what was hiding in the darkness and where it was, "Scientifically? No, its not possible. But magically?" Jack gave a feral grin as he reached his target, "Hell yeah, it is!"
Like a madman, he swung his staff like a bat in the darkness. The sound of his staff hitting something and the body falling down flowed into Jack's ears like his favourite music. "And I'm pretty sure that was Pitch's jaw!"
He laughed loudly and flew into the light, reappearing at the stadium's track. The crowd went wild around him and Jack eyed the white tape waiting to be crossed at the far end of the track.
"Congratulations, Jack Frost, you've officially reached the last distance to be covered to become the winner of the Race of Rapidity," Manny spoke with as much cheeriness of a dead person, "Now do me a favour and cross that ribbon before Hiccup and Hans show up."
"As you wish, Mr Moon," With a smirk, Jack used the remnants of his powers and sped through the track.
Just as he reached halfway across the track, a loud crash was heard in the background which had Jack pause temporarily, "What was that?"
"Pitch just caught his own fish with his disgusting black string and the said fish is now writhing on the ground, yelling curses. Now keep going!"
Even as his brain screamed in happiness, telling him that Hans got what he deserved, a tiny, minuscule part of his heart pitied the man with the fire powers. He shook himself out of his thoughts and flew ahead when another crash echoed throughout the stadium and created silence everywhere.
"What happened now?" Jack asked, dreading the silence as he neared the white ribbon.
"Hiccup and Toothless have crashed!"
"WHAT?!" Jack stopped abruptly, the white ribbon literally just a few inches from his body.
"Jack, what are you doing?!"
Jack ignored his voice in his ear and turned around, his heart dropping at the sight of his fellow competitor fallen on the ground and bleeding all over, not moving as his dragon crooned worriedly next to him. His mind flashed with a newspaper picture that had changed the entire life of the one person who still owned his heart.
Behind Hiccup, Hans burnt away the sand holding his foot and regained his composure as he picked up his board and climbed on.
With a murderous death glare on his face, Hans let out a war cry as he closed in on the finish line. But he paused midway when he saw Jack float towards him and not the end line.
"You wanna fight?!" Hans yelled and held up his flaming hands, assuming that Jack was headed towards him for a fight, "Lets fucking fight!"
He swung at Jack who completely ignored him in favour of looking at Hiccup behind him. Not expecting this, Hans stumbled and almost fell off his flying board. He turned around in a rage and fisted his hand to go in for a punch- and was left confused yet again when Jack just continued floating away from the finish line and himself. He shifted glances between Jack and the finish line in confusion, before deciding that finishing the race was more important to him than picking a fight with a nobody.
With a yell of victory, he flew straight towards the white ribbon and grabbed it with his hand, holding it up in the air, looking around at the audience expectantly.
But no one was screaming.
No one was cheering for him. None of his fangirls were falling all over themselves to get to him. Not a single camera was focussed on him.
Because everyone was staring at the middle of the track in absolute silence, where Jack Frost was kneeling next to the fallen Hiccup Haddock.
"Hey man, you okay?" Jack asked, his voice echoing throughout the stadium thanks to every magical mic pointed towards him.
Hiccup didn't respond but merely grunted, reaching one hand out to stroke Toothless's snout. "What are you doing, Frost?" He asked in response to Jack's question.
"The right thing to do, which I wish I could've done back there with the Kid as well." Jack shrugged, holding out a hand for Hiccup to take.
"You're an idiot," Hiccup grumbled, holding his hand tightly as he rose to his foot. "You do realise that you just gave up the Tachyons cup like an absolute moron, right?"
"Yup," Jack replied cheerily.
Shaking his head at Jack's stupidity, Hiccup allowed himself to smile. As he leaned on Toothless for support, he bit back a cry of pain and removed his prosthetic leg which had shattered and had been stabbing his stump. "Are you okay, bud?" Hiccup asked his partner, who crooned and licked his face.
The entire stadium winced in heartache at the sight of Toothless's wings, both of which were broken and sticking out in ways they weren't supposed to.
Hiccup stroked his snout and leaned his own head against Toothless's as he whispered, "I'm sorry bud."
The dragon crooned encouragingly, which had everyone in the audience shedding tears at the exchange.
"So," Jack interrupted, holding his hand out to Hiccup once again, "you ready?"
Hiccup gave him a smile. With one hand on Toothless's back and the other in Jack's, the three of them limped towards the finish line with small steps. The closer they got to the line, the louder the audience clapped. But just when they were a few steps away from the line, Hiccup paused to take a deep breath as he asked Jack one simple word:
"Why?"
Jack just smiled at him as the entire audience waited for his answer with bated breath, "Let's just say that you fallen there reminded me of someone who lost their dream due to a very similar situation."
Somewhere in the audience, the object of his affections clamped her hand on her mouth, tears flowing freely as she clung onto her best friend, who was also crying next to her.
Together, Jack, Hiccup, and Toothless crossed the white line and the crowd went insane. Fireworks exploded in the sky and the band started playing loudly. Cheerleaders covered the track and danced and at the same time, parademics rushed towards the two racers. They focussed on wrapping them up but the racers' attention was elsewhere.
"Hiccup!" Astrid ran towards them, face filled with worry.
Hiccup let go of Jack and lunged towards his wife, forgetting that he didn't have his prosthetic leg. He fell forward but Astrid caught him in time. But not having eaten properly for the past few days took its toll on the ex-racer and she lost her balance under her husband's weight. Before they could touch the ground though, Hiccup flipped them over so that she fell on him.
Neither of them paid attention to their surroundings as they held on to each other tightly. Hiccup peppered her face with kisses as tears slipped past their eyes. Astrid grinned before pressing her lips against his, passion and relief evident in their embrace.
Jack watched them with a smile, and only realised what was going on around him when a nurse asked him to get on the ambulance. He quickly diverted their attention to Hiccup and Astrid who clearly needed medical attention more than him.
"Hey Frost," Manny called out, "Look around."
Jack didn't need to ask him the reason because he got his answer when he heard a certain voice calling out his name.
"Jack!"
And there she came. His little angel running towards him with the happiest smile he had ever seen on his face.
Jack's heart skipped a beat as he turned around, his eyes filled with tears as he was greeted with the sight of his eleven-year-old sister running toward him. At that moment, when she ran towards him with tears staining her cheeks and a wide smile on her face, Jack realised just how much he had missed her smile, her joy, and her. He fell to his knees and opened his arms wide; the warmth he felt when Emma jumped into his embrace was not something he could put into words.
He hugged her tightly like she was his lifeline, pressing kisses against her temple as the two siblings forgot the rest of the world and focussed on each other. Jack pulled back and examined her with one hand while the other kept her close. Guilt and anger filled his heart at the number of bandages tied all over her. He held her close as he whispered apologies repeatedly, even after Emma shook her head and told him not to worry.
Sensing another presence in front of him, Jack lifted his head and his heart skipped a beat as Elsa smiled down at him. Emma, noticing Jack's attention on Elsa, gave him a tight squeeze before stepping back with a smile on her face. Jack gave her a grateful smile as he stood up and faced the love of his life.
Elsa wasted no time in wrapping her arms around his neck as he wrapped his own arms around her body. The familiarity of her cold body pressing against his sent waves of relief over him and his heart burst with love as he finally held the woman he'd been yearning for in all those days that he spent away from her.
They pulled back after what felt like hours but didn't pull their hands back.
"What have you been up to, Snowflake?" Jack muttered, gently stroking a cut on her cheek.
"You know, breaking into Pitch's house, saving lives, being badass. The usual," She shrugged with a smirk on her face, placing her forehead against his.
"The love of my life is too cool for me, even when she looks like a hot mess," Jack stated, smiling at her.
Elsa's smile grew and a blush slowly made its way into her cheeks, "Well, the love of my life still looks handsome as always, even though he lost a race and has injuries all over his face."
Jack sighed and averted his eyes downward, shame and guilt taking its place in his heart as he spoke, "I'm so sorry, Elsa. You worked so hard and saved my sister and my friend and then here I am, disappointing you by losing the race even though I could've easily wo-"
"Shhh," Elsa whispered, placing a finger on his lips as she leaned back to look at him in the eyes, tears filled in her own as she smiled, "You haven't disappointed me in the slightest, Jack. You're right, you could have easily won. But you didn't. You gave up the Tachyons cup to help Hiccup cross the finish line, even though you didn't have any obligation to do so. Jack," She made him face her as she stated as clearly and strongly as she could, "No one has ever made me as proud as I am of you right now."
She gave a wide smile before pressing a toe-curling sweet kiss on his lips, which Jack returned with the same fervour that she did. They stayed that way for almost an entire minute, neither wanting the moment to end as they indulged themselves in what they both had dreamt of every night ever since that blissful yet painful night.
They finally broke apart when they heard a loud 'WHAT' from their side and turned around, just to see Hiccup holding Astrid's hands as if he was holding on to his life, eyes blown wide as tears flowed down freely.
"Astrid, are you really-?! You're-!" He stumbled over his words, eyes darting from her eyes to her flat stomach.
Astrid looked like she hadn't meant to say anything but wordlessly nodded, biting her lip in anticipation.
Hiccup stayed quiet, staring at Astrid in shock.
When he didn't answer for many seconds, Astrid poked his ribs where she knew he was ticklish. Instead of yelping or laughing as she had expected, Hiccup proceeded to fall backward, freaking out his wife and all of his friends who rushed to catch him. They placed his unconscious body on a stretcher and strolled him away; some of them worried for his wellbeing while the rest tried to hold back their laughter at the fact that he had fainted in shock because he was about to become a father.
"Wait, is she-?" Jack asked Elsa, having witnessed the whole ordeal. Elsa nodded, biting her lip as a smile erupted on her face. Jack whistled, looking at Hiccup as he tried not to laugh. "I can't wait to tease him about this later."
Elsa rolled her eyes and smacked his neck, where her hands had previously been resting. Jack yelped when her hand brushed against a thin cut on his neck, which Elsa realised was there just at that moment.
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" Elsa winced, her hand suspended in the air hesitantly.
"That hurt," Jack pouted, making sure she understood that he wasn't actually hurt through his expression.
Elsa smiled and leaned forwards, pressing a soft kiss on his cut, noticing with satisfaction as blood rushed up his neck towards his cheeks.
"Better?" she asked, staring at him through her eyelashes along with a smirk on her face.
"Uh-huh," he stuttered, a finger coming up to point at his forehead, "this hurts as well."
Elsa smiled but kissed his forehead nonetheless, her hands on either side of his face. "Anywhere else?" she purred.
"Mhm," Jack hummed, watching her with half-lidded eyes as he puckered his lips, "here."
Elsa rolled her eyes, a good-natured smile plastered on her face as she stroked his cheek. But just as she leaned forward to press her own lips against his, someone whooped loudly behind them.
Turning around, Elsa saw Flynn carrying Emma on his shoulders as both of them stared at Jack and her with smirks on their faces.
"Dude, that's like the third or fourth time you've cockblocked me!" Jack yelled, obviously annoyed.
Elsa smacked his chest, blushing at his choice of words. Jack winced once again and finally allowed himself to be taken to Rapunzel, who had finished curing Hiccup and was nursing Astrid.
Once he sat down, he realised just how exhausted he was despite Rapunzel curing him during his race. The rest of his team caught up with them and all of them took their time congratulating him.
Merida whacked him on his shoulder despite his protests; Kristoff ruffled his hair which annoyed him more; Sandy hugged him while keeping his injuries in mind whereas North crushed him in his embrace. After Bunny shoved him off his seat, Anna stepped forward and surprised Jack by hugging him gently.
"Thank you," she whispered in his ear.
Jack understood the meaning behind her gratefulness and nodded, smiling as he hugged her back. His eyes slid to Elsa, who smiled and tilted her head in confusion. Jack shook his head and assured her it was nothing. They pulled back and grinned at each other before Anna flicked his forehead while congratulating him.
Rapunzel walked towards them, looking a little drained after healing so many people. But despite how tired she was, she congratulated Jack with a bright smile and hugged him. When they pulled back, she started wrapping her hair around him as well, taking Anna's help with a grateful smile.
A phone rang and it turned out to be Sandy's, who excused himself, signing that Tooth had called to tell about Jamie and he had some other matters to discuss with her.
As the light faded from Rapunzel's hair after she healed him, they heard someone clear their throat behind them.
Turning around, everyone bristled when they saw Pitch Black standing with his workers.