"Congratulations Jack Frost," Pitch sneered, all of his fake politeness nowhere to be seen.
"Thanks," Jack stated, his friends right behind him and Elsa holding his hand tightly. "Nice injury you've got there. Is your jaw alright?" He asked with a nasty smirk of his own.
Pitch's scowl deepened, eyebrow twitching in annoyance as he hissed, "How dare you talk to me that way, you little-!"
"You know what," Jack cut in, "how about you explain how you got that? I'm sure the world would like to know how the person with the most successful sports agency managed to get such a bad bruise when his own racer looks completely okay."
Pitch continued glaring at Jack and then suddenly smirked. But instead of telling anything he glanced at Jack's side and grinned at Elsa. "Its been quite a while since I last saw you, my honey," He spoke with a sugary sweet voice, eyes glinting evilly as he continued, "I see you're trying to ride Frost's coattails now since your own attempts resulted in failure."
"What did you just say?!" Jack stepped forward with his staff glowing in his hands but was stopped by Bunny's grasp on his shoulder and Elsa's grip tightening around his hand. Behind him, he could hear Kristoff and Merida struggle to hold Anna back but his focus was entirely centered on Pitch in front of him.
"The truth, Mr. Frost," Pitch smiled, taking pleasure in riling them up. "I gotta say, I'm impressed that she even had the courage to show her face in public again, after failing so amazingly. On top of that, she even broke into my house! I'm pretty sure she could be jailed for that!"
Jack lunged forward and grabbed Pitch by his collar, his other hand clenched and ready to throw a punch as his eyes widened in rage. The only reason he couldn't land the punch was Elsa and Bunny's interference. The latter locked his strong arms around Jack's waist and shoulder while Elsa grabbed his hand and pulled him back.
For Pitch's luck, his own lackeys pulled him out of Jack's grasp and surrounded him protectively. But that didn't stop him from talking. "I gotta say though," He started, eyes raking over her body with a predatory look, "with that body of yours, you don't have to become a racer to gain more fame and money. I'm sure I know a lot of business partners who would pay quite a lot of money to get their hands on that."
"What the fuck did you just say, you bitch?!" Anna roared behind them, held back by her boyfriend, Merida and North. The others tried hard to stay put as well, knowing he was saying stuff to get a reaction out of them and eventually get them into trouble.
"I'm gonna kill him," Jack hissed, trying to get out of Bunny's grasp, "I'm gonna kill him and make sure I enjoy doing it!"
"Jack, you're not the type of person to enjoy killing someone else," Elsa stated, pulling his face by the chin to make sure he saw her when she said, "you're not him."
Jack calmed down a little at that, but his body still remained stiff and tensed.
"By the way," Pitch continued, "Thank you for your concern about my injury, Mr. Frost. But I'm pretty sure your team looks more beaten up than me. Especially that small girl there. Considering how much of a good brother you are, one would think you'd be more concerned about your sister than someone whom you've met just once. Also, I don't see that other guy, the bus driver. My Nightmares had such an amazing time playing with him, you know."
"Shut the fuck up!" Jack hissed, barely holding back. Due to all of his focus directed towards Pitch, he failed to notice Elsa's grip loosening and Bunny tensing behind him.
As if he couldn't see Jack's rage right in front of him, Pitch leaned forward and whispered, "Would you like to know just how much I enjoyed every time your sister screamed?"
Jack paused; any and every emotion in his body disappearing to let anger and terror fill into his soul. When he saw Pitch glance at something in the side with a smirk on his face, Jack turned as well and his rage doubled when he saw Emma hiding her face in Flynn's shoulder, her entire body trembling in fear.
Just as he tensed up, ready to lose all control if it meant killing Pitch, his attention was drawn to his hand which was in Elsa's grasp. A finger lifted off his hand and another followed suit until Elsa fully let go. He looked up at her and saw her glaring at Pitch with the scariest look he had ever seen on her face.
Without a word, Elsa stepped to the side, her own powers starting to create a blizzard around them. Even Bunny let go of him, reaching for his own magical boomerangs.
Jack glanced one last time at his sister, soaking in every bit of rage he felt until he was creepily calm. Instead of charging right at Pitch, he walked towards his target with heavy steps, huge icicles sprouting out of the ground every time his foot touched the ground. The closer he walked the Pitch, the more his powers increased, creating a snowstorm around them.
Just as he reached Pitch's group, he sweeped one hand through the air sideways and every one of Pitch's lackeys were blown away by a strong gust of wind, landing several feet away from their boss. When they tried to get up again, they were either knocked out or pinned down by the rest of Jack's friends.
"Oh, you're gonna attack me?" Pitch grinned, holding up his hands as black sand swirled around him. "Such a wild thing to try, Mr Frost. There's a reason I'm the most successful person in the world you kn-"
"Shut up."
Everyone watched with wide eyes and dropped jaws as Jack's staff connected with Pitch's head and threw him several feet into the air.
After a few seconds of struggling, Pitch sat up and touched his head, eyes widening in anger when he felt blood. "Why you little-!"
He stopped when he saw the sight before him, fear creeping into his own veins as Jack floated towards him, the air around him cackling with ice that looked like electric sparks. But what scared not just Pitch but everyone watching was the wide-eyed blank expression on Jack's face, his eyes glowing and devoid of his blue iris or pupil.
"Do you know the only reason why you won't be killed tonight, Pitch?" Jack asked, voice calm yet deadly.
Gaining a little confidence that he won't be killed, Pitch smirked as he stood up, "Because you're not so evil that you'd kill a person."
"Wrong," Jack replied, tilting his head in a psychotic way as he answered, "it's because my sister wouldn't want someone killed on her behalf."
"Wow," Pitch snarked, conjuring up a huge army of Nightmares, "so merciful."
With a roar, he made at least ten of his creations attack Jack. But he was surprised and shocked yet again when they all froze and disappeared into nothingness with just a sweep of Jack's staff.
Not wanting to admit defeat, Pitch sent his entire army towards Jack and gleefully watched as a huge wave of black sand and glowing golden eyes covered the sky and headed towards Jack.
He was completely blocked, so much that no one could even see the centre of the attack. Pitch grinned in happiness, throwing his hands up and laughing maniacally.
"What are you laughing about?"
His entire demeanor changed when he heard a cold voice behind him, shivers running throughout his entire body as he turned around. Before he could even see the person, a hand clamped around his neck and started squeezing, sucking out every little bit of air inside his body. Arms grabbing at the single hand holding him and lifting him into the air, Pitch managed to glance down and saw Jack having the same blank look at before, eyes glowing more and more as the power increased in his grasp.
"When did you-?!" He gasped out, kicking at empty space as he tried to get some sort of control over his body and powers.
As an answer to his question, Jack turned him around and continued squeezing his neck from behind him, allowing him to see his Nightmare wave.
Pitch noticed with dread as a blue beam of light poked out from the centre of the Nightmare attack, growing in size and intensity as more light seeped through the gaps. And within seconds, every Nightmare within a 100 meter range completely froze and exploded into black sand mixed with ice.
When the sand and dust cleared away, Pitch's gut dropped when he saw Elsa floating between all the ice, her own eyes glowing and face scrunched up in concentration. She sweeped her hands and spun in the air, exploding the rest of the Nightmares in one move.
Pitch was turned around again and he truly feared for his life that moment when he saw Jack's face, still the same glowing eyes except this time, his eyebrows were furrowed in anger as he spoke, "You've hurt those who mean the most to me. Now it's your turn."
He let go of Pitch who fell to the floor and took huge gasps of breath. But he didn't get long to regain his breath and summon his powers because soon enough, the cold touch of winter and ice raced through his bones and Pitch writhed on the floor as he felt the temperature of his blood and body drop.
He screamed in agony as his legs and fingertips completely froze up and the ice slowly and painfully claimed more of his body. Letting go of his pride and ego, he begged for mercy and continued screaming as the ice travelled closer and closer to his heart and head.
This went on for long enough that even people who weren't on Pitch's side started feeling uncomfortable.
Just when everyone thought that Pitch was done for, they sensed movement and saw Elsa floating next to Jack before placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Let him go, Jack," she muttered.
The winds stopped blowing around them as Jack tilted his head in confusion.
"He hurt her, Snowflake." He whispered, hand reaching up to stroked her cheek, "he hurt you."
"I know, Jackson," Elsa reached up and held his hand, looking at him pleadingly, "but neither of us want him to die."
Jack turned around and looked at Pitch, who's body was freezing at a much slower pace, while he considered if he was worth living or not.
"Jack," Elsa whispered closer to his ear, "you're scaring your sister."
That gained his attention as Jack looked around in search of his sister, and found her huddled close to Flynn's arms, shivering in the cold. Flynn was trying his best to keep her warm but the small girl could care less about herself as she watched her brother with eyes wide with fear.
That sight along with the reminder that he was the cause of her fear, Jack's mind cleared out and he finally regained control over his powers, his glowing eyes finally replaced with his normal ones.
He stopped the spread of ice in Pitch's body, exhaustion hitting him in the face after overuse of his powers. His own fingers and legs were coated with frost and he couldn't help but shiver as he truly felt cold for the first time in his life.
Stopping his powers all at once also resulted in him losing his control over the wind so it was no surprise to him when he went crashing towards the ground. Thankfully for him, Elsa caught him just in time and carried him to the others bridal-style.
Her own body temperature, which was a lot colder than that of a common person but still warm enough for someone of Jack's temperature, brought a certain sense of security and comfort to him. He closed his eyes and snuggled closer to her, wanting to stay in her embrace forever.
At a distance, he could hear the cops carrying the half-frozen Pitch away on a stretcher and he peeked an eye open to see Manny making sure that the bastard had no way of escaping.
"Is she okay?" Jack muttered, too tired to lift his own head to check on his sister.
"Yup, she's not freezing anymore and she seems to have calmed down." Elsa answered.
Once they finally touched the ground, North, Bunny and Rapunzel rushed forward to help him. But just as Elsa held out her arms to give Jack over to them, Jack grunted in protest and cuddled closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and refusing to let go.
"Jack you need to go," Elsa spoke as if scolding a toddler, "you can't stick with me the whole time! My body is cold and that's gonna worsen your condition!"
"No it won't!" Jack protested, hissing and trying to jump away when Bunny tried offering him a heat pack, "I feel like I'm gonna fall sick if I touch anything hot or cold and your body is the perfect temperature! You're not warm but you're not so cold that you'd freeze me as well! See, my body has already calmed down pretty well by staying stuck to you."
They all just stared at him, trying to make sense of his words until Bunny sighed, "Are you sure you're not making up excuses to finally cuddle your girlfriend, mate?"
"Nope. That's just a bonus," Jack replied sleepily, already falling asleep.
"Okay, even if your explanation kinda made sense, I can't just carry you around the whole day! Even I'm tired!" Elsa sighed.
"Then take me to bed."
Four sets of coughs and a few whoops from the back erupted at his suggestion, and Elsa tried her hardest not to blush before she muttered, "Even when you're sleepy you don't have control over what comes out of your mouth, huh?"
"Only around you," Jack mumbled.
Just as he finally relaxed and was about to completely doze off, loud sounds of gunshots erupted in the distance and all of them stiffened. Jack forced his eyes open and saw Pitch flying towards them like a maniac, a much bigger wave of Nightmares following him.
Jack tried his absolute best to move but couldn't even lift a finger. He watched as Elsa gripped him tighter and stood behind North and Bunny to protect him.
"I'm not leaving this place without killing you both!" Pitch roared, huge whirlwinds of black sand floating over his hands.
Helpless, Jack could do nothing but watch as Pitch got closer and closer. So of courses that's when something no one expected happened.
Despite the Nightmares rushing toward them, everyone glanced up at the sky when they heard a comical car horn above them and saw a golden aeroplane make its way towards Jack and the others who were at the front of the group. Even the Nightmares paused as the short and golden Sandy floated our of his aeroplane before removing his goggles.
He took one look around at everything happened and rolled his eyes at Pitch, who was frozen in shock.
"No, it's can't be..." Pitch literally stated backing away in fear, eyes wide as he stared at the man made of golden sand. "You can't possibly be The Sandman..."
Sandy smiled at him and formed a bowler hat before tipping it. The hat vanished right away and with a smirk, Sandy conjured up two long golden whips.
Before Pitch could even react, Sandy spun in the air, his sand whips spinning around him in a wide circle. He didn't even harm or destroy the Nightmares. Instead, the minute the golden sand touched the black horses, they converted into various animals and birds of golden sand, filling the dark sky with light again. Within seconds, all the Nightmares had been converted and were now flying across the stadium, playing with the audience and the children.
"Wow," Elsa blinked, trying not to drop Jack in favour of getting to touch the goldfish made of golden sand flying around her, "it took two of us at maximum power to throw Pitch overboard but Sandy didn't even sweat while dealing with the fucker..."
"Sandy doesn't show it out but he is most definitely one of the strongest ability wielders out there," Jack spoke as he watched in wonder. A huge ray fish floated over him, sprinkling golden sand over all of them that put them at ease. He was impressed yet again when Sandy easily tied up Pitch with his sand and punched him across the face, effectively knocking him out.
To ensure he doesn't escape again, Sandy tied his entire body to a stretcher and assured the police that he won't be able to move for at least five more days.
"One minute, officers," Elsa called out, jogging to reach them, "we need to remove any remains of ice from his body. It might not be too dangerous but one can never tell when it comes to magical ice."
The officers nodded and allowed Elsa to go closer to the unconscious Pitch with Jack in her arms.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" She asked him as she gestured to Pitch with her eyes, "remove your ice from him."
"No can do, Snowflake. I am completely and utterly beaten and I don't think I'm gonna have control over my powers any time soon." Jack sighed.
Elsa stared at Jack and then at Pitch, uncertain on what to do next. She knew Jack's and her ice cannot be controlled by the other but for some unknown reason, a part of her conscience told her to try controlling his ice just one more time.
Hence, Elsa closed her eyes and concentrated on Pitch's body. Once she sensed the remnants of Jack's powers in his blood and body, Elsa took a deep breath before focussing on removing the ice and disintegrating it.
A gasp of surprise broke out of Jack's lips, which caused Elsa's eyes to open. She almost stepped back and dropped Jack in shock when she saw the tiny ice particles now floating right over Pitch's body. She glanced at Jack questioningly, to which he shook his head to signify that he wasn't the one controlling it.
"Holy shit, I can control your ice." Elsa breathed out.
"Wait, does that mean I can control yours too?" Jack asked.
"That might be the case." Spoke a voice from behind them.
Elsa turned around while still carrying Jack, only to meet with Manny who walked toward them gracefully.
"Good race, Jack," he nodded to the racer, before giving him a deadpan stare, "though you did almost induce several cardiac arrests by your free nature."
"Sorry not sorry," Jack shrugged and returned back to their previous topic, "why are we suddenly able to control each other's powers when we couldn't do it before?"
"I think the key factor here were your emotions and feelings," Manny glanced at Elsa's face which was turned away from him before he continued, "both of your powers are controlled by your emotions. The previous times when you tried to control the other person's ice, you very obviously didn't like each other. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore."
"Oh, so that's how it is," Jack nodded, finally understanding the concept.
They stood in awkward silence for a few seconds until Elsa turned away, "excuse me, we need to go."
She walked away with Jack still comfortably nestled in her arms. He glanced back and caught Manny's heartbroken face before whispering to Elsa as he bit back a yawn, "So, when are you both going to talk?"
"Any time that is not now," Elsa grunted, exhaustion evident in her voice as she looked around to find someplace where they could rest.
The entire track was crowded with police, the press, people from the racers' agencies and the audience who were trying to take photos or get autographs from the racers, which seemed pointless since Dash and Hiccup had been hurried away to the hospital, Jack was now fast asleep and no one seemed to be searching for Hans.
Deciding that it would be better if she asked someone from Jack's agency, she turned and looked for anyone until her gaze landed on North.
"Hey, um, Mr North?" She called out hesitantly, approaching him from the back.
North turned around and greeted her with a warm smile, "Hello Ms Winters. So glad to finally talk to you without any imminent danger. With everything going on, I didn't have a chance to thank you properly. As the CEO of The Guardians and Jack and Emma's godfather, I thank you for all of your help from the bottom of my heart." He bowed deeply.
If Elsa hadn't liked him from the minute he gave her that sweet grandfather-ly smile, she definitely loved him for his sweetness on top of being jolly most of the time. With a smile, she shook her head lightly and bowed as much as she could without dropping Jack, "Oh no, please dont bow your head. I should be the one thanking you for helping and raising Jack all these years."
North gave her an even sweeter smile, his eyes crinkling with a twinkle in them as he spoke, "You really are the kindest, Ms Winters. I can see why Jack fell in love with you."
As if he was listening to them, Jack mumbled something in his sleep before burying his face in her neck. Elsa turned red at the compliment and at Jack's actions, but she thanked North nonetheless.
"Mr North-"
"Please, just North is fine. You are part of our family already."
Elsa smiled, heart melting at his loving nature as she continued, "Okay, North. But only if you call me Elsa as well." She grinned when North nodded his head along with a deep chuckle. "I was just wondering if there's any place I can put this big baby down and get some rest as well. It has been a long day after all."
North nodded in understanding and led her to a bus with the huge Guardians' symbol -a crystal- painted on it.
"This is Jack's tour bus. We'll be leaving soon enough once Bunny and Sandy check everything one last time so please do go ahead and rest. We'll wake you up once we reach our hotel." North informed as he opened the door for her.
Youguyshaveahotel?! Elsa pushed away her thoughts and instead decided to ask the more important question, "Thank you so much, North. But what about my family?"
"Not to worry, they'll be travelling with the rest of us. Everyone, including Jack and the rest of us at the Guardians will also be joining you at the hotel. Once at the hotel, a doctor can check up on those injured, just to make sure they're okay since Ms Corona already healed everyone. I'm sure we can discuss the other details once everyone is well rested."
Elsa nodded gratefully and after thanking him once again, she got inside the bus.
"I do have to apologize, Elsa," North started, as he peeked into the bus with a poorly concealed knowing-smile, "there's just one bed in there, since Jack liked travelling alone."
Elsa turned red again and looked around, spotting a chaise lounge next to a wide window. "Oh, its okay. I can settle Jack on the bed and take the chaise."
North nodded, muttering something that sounded like 'I doubt he'd let you do that' as he closed the door. Elsa, obviously having heard his words, just walked over to the bed with a bright blush on her face as she leaned down and gently placed Jack on the bed.
To her luck, Jack relaxed and settled comfortable in the bed, but caught onto her hand. With a sigh, Elsa tried to pry his fingers off her wrist as gently as possible but ended up stirring him awake.
"Go back to sleep, Jack," Elsa muttered softly as she parted his fingers, hoping he'd realise what he was doing and would let her go.
But instead of letting go, Jack tugged her insistently, looking at her with barely opened eyes. "Come'ere" he mumbled, opening his arms for her to settle in.
Elsa just stared at him with tired eyes, seriously contemplating if she should go to the chaise or just sleep next to Jack. She glanced at the chaise and back at then the bed, which looked far more tempting and softer, and Jack was looking like he really wanted a cuddle so who was she to refuse?
She got on the bed and sighed as her muscles finally relaxed. Jack wasted no time and quickly wrapped himself around her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her neck. Elsa hummed in appreciation as her own hands rested around his shoulders and in his hair.
With one last content sigh, the two of them drifted off, feeling content and secure for the first time in a long while.