Chapter 18:

When Jack landed on the ledge of ice that was his usual haunt in Antarctica, Mei was nowhere to be seen. Considering he had no idea where she'd ended up, the winter spirit decided it would be best to stay and wait for her for a little bit.

Sighing quietly, Jack sat at the edge of the ledge and crossed his legs, closing his eyes and laying his staff across his lap. The middle of Antarctica was about as secluded as you could get; here was as good a place as any for him to try and contact Death.

"I thought this might happen."

Or not.

"They never really believed in you; I was just trying to show you that. But I understand."

Jack turned and fired a blast of ice magic so quickly Pitch nearly didn't have the chance to block it. "You understand what, exactly?" Jack snarled, holding his staff in a white-knuckled grip as he walked down the ledge toward the Boogeyman.

"I know what it's like to be cast out, to not be believed in. To long for… a family," Pitch said, softly but emphatically.

Jack tilted his head slightly. If only he knew.

"All those years in the shadows, I thought 'no one else knows what this feels like'. Now I see I was wrong," Pitch said, a smile beginning to bloom on his face. "You don't have to be alone, Jack. I believe in you, and I know children will too!"

"In me?" Jack said, barely keeping from drawing away as Pitch walked closer to him.

"Yes!" Pitch exclaimed as Jack turned to keep him in sight. "Look at what we can do!"

Jack's eyes moved from Pitch, noticing for the first time the enormous pinnacle of blackened ice that had resulted from the collision of his and Pitch's power. It was… actually, with all the protruding spikes, it was a little frightening.

"What goes together better than cold and dark?" Pitch said, voice growing louder as his excitement mounted.

"Cold and death?" Jack muttered to himself.

"We can make them believe!" Pitch said, obviously not having heard the frost spirit as he began walking around the sculpture. "We'll give them a world where everything, everything is…!"

"Pitch Black?" Jack asked, giving the Boogeyman a deadpan look when he came back into view. Pitch paused, eyes moving back to Jack.

"And Jack Frost, too. They'll believe in both of us," Pitch said, smiling again.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "No, they'll fear both of us. And that's not what I want." He turned and began walking away from Pitch and frozen nightmare sand. "Now for the last time, leave me alone."

After a few seconds, Jack froze when Pitch's voice reached his ears. "Very well. You want to be left alone, done. But first…"

Heart skipping a beat, Jack turned around just in time to see Pitch raise a fisted hand, the little tooth fairy he'd met earlier clutched tightly within.

"Baby Tooth!" Jack exclaimed, leaping toward her with a hand outstretched. He stopped when Baby Tooth began squeaking frantically and shaking her head.

"The staff, Jack!" Pitch said, face twisting into a horrible snarl.

Jack brought his staff up, pointing the crook at Pitch in response. He didn't attack, though; he didn't want to risk hitting Baby Tooth.

"You have a bad habit of interfering," Pitch said. "Now hand it over, and I'll let her go."

Jack froze, ignoring Baby Tooth as she shook her head at him. There was no way he could risk attacking right now, but if Pitch took his staff… the staff was a major conduit for his powers. Without it, he would essentially be reduced to fighting hand-to-hand, which wasn't very efficient when going up against a magic-user.

Baby Tooth squeaked in pain as Pitch's grip tightened marginally and Jack gritted his teeth. Relaxing his grip, he held the staff out to Pitch, who took it with a smug smile.

"All right. Let her go," Jack said, holding his hand out.

Pitch's smirk widened. "No."

Jack blinked.

"You said you wanted to be alone. So be alone!" Pitch snarled.

Jack's eyes narrowed, feet shifting slightly to assume a fighting stance. He'd have to move quickly; Pitch couldn't see this coming, or he might harm Baby Tooth. Which also meant Jack couldn't botch his attack, he'd need to make the first hit count…

Jack's train of thought was interrupted by Baby Tooth pecking Pitch. The Boogeyman shouted in pain, throwing the squeaking fairy headlong behind Jack into the swirling storm.

"No!" Jack shouted, following her with his eyes until she fell out of sight. Hearing shifting snow behind him, Jack turned just in time to see Pitch break his staff over his knee.

Something inside of him snapped along with it.

Jack gasped, hands going up to grip at his chest, eyes wide with pain. They widened with shock when he realized that, for the first time in three hundred years, he felt… cold.

Jack didn't have time to react when Pitch flung a barrage of nightmare sand at him, throwing him back against a wall of glacial ice. Groaning in pain, Jack couldn't even think of trying to catch himself as he fell into a crevice of ice. Dimly he heard Pitch laughing above him, heard the clack of wood as the two pieces of his staff landed close by.

A small squeak drew his attention to a bundle of green and blue feathers lying close to the remains of his staff.

"Baby Tooth," Jack rasped as the fairy sat up slowly, smiling and tweeting a greeting when she saw him. Jack smiled weakly and tried to reach out toward her.

He barely had the strength to make his arm twitch. Even that effort exhausted him; exhaling heavily, Jack collapsed to his side. He barely heard Baby Tooth's alarmed shriek as she darted over to him, leaping onto his chest and grabbing frantically at his hoodie.

"Sorry, Baby Tooth," Jack whispered, not even able to lift his head to look at her. Not that it would have made much difference; blackness was seeping its way into the edges of his sight. "Looks like I won't be able to help you after all; not that I really did in the first place, anyway."

Baby Tooth's frantic tweeting only grew louder as Jack's eyes slid shut and his breathing began to slow.

Mei had made it to the tip of Africa when she felt it; her rider's connection to the living world was weakening.

The deathsteed came to a halt mid-stride, snorting and tossing her head, whinnying. Jack loved Death, loved her and the Horsemen and Reapers, but he couldn't leave this plane yet! There were still things he wanted to do, needed to do! He couldn't play with the children if he died, couldn't protect them!

Mei whinnied again, rearing up and kicking at the sky. What could she do, what could she do?!

As suddenly as she'd started jumping about, she froze, ears pricked. From the thread that connected her with Jack, she could feel something else. It was… difficult to grasp, impossible to decipher, but it felt like home, safety, belonging… family… love.

Leader. Trust. Lord. Death.

Mei didn't even pause to think. She turned about and took off, following the line of that connection at a mad gallop.

Death believed this was the closest he'd ever gotten to being comatose. At this point he might have even wanted to go comatose, had he not been distracting himself from the constant pain by trying to puzzle out a way to break through the chains. Shapeshifting didn't work; they just shifted along with him. There was something-likely a bit of Mephistopheles' core power, since he was actually immortal- keeping Death from using his aspect to break them. And since he was completely immobile, manually working his way free wasn't an option either. His aspect was restricted to his physical form, so manipulating the environment wouldn't work…

A quiet, choked croak drew Death's attention briefly to the bloodied form of Raven, lying on his back with his mangled wings spread out to either side. There was a gaping hole in the spirit's throat and chest, and his neck was at a horrible angle.

The hellhound that had done the deed sat a few feet away from Raven, eyeing Death curiously now and then when it deemed guard duty too boring.

Death flexed his fingers, the only outward sign of his agitation. He should have by all rights reaped Raven a day ago; his injuries were mortal, but Death being bound as he was meant he was unable to do his job.

And it was awful. He could feel Raven's pain, physical and emotional, and it grew stronger with every passing hour. Death had tried time and again to use that connection to break the enchanted chains to no avail. Raven had realized what he was doing and had initially tried to offer what assistance he still could. Unfortunately, the hellhound had realized what they were doing and had proceeded to snap Raven's neck and crush him beneath its paw, causing horrible burns on top of the pain of pressure on his chest wound.

Death didn't think he'd been this angry for centuries, perhaps a millennium or two. And since his power was bound, he could do nothing about it.

A sudden coldness in the region of his chest had Death lifting his head, staring vacantly at the wall of the cave he and Raven had been taken to as he fell into himself.

Coldness, numbing, painful. Can't breathe, can't move. Chest hurts… everything hurts… a breaking spell that grates against his senses…

Jack.

Death went completely still. The Moon's spell had been broken somehow; Jack was dying. And he would be stuck in that horrid state until Death was free.

The entity closed his eyes, moving his thoughts to calmness, as he focused on the thread that had formed between him and the little sprite three centuries ago. He tried to cast his senses along the line so he could locate the boy; the chains prevented him from getting very far.

But he got farther than he had with Raven; there was something else, some other bond with Jack and himself that was bolstering his power. Death smiled when he realized who it was.

Mei. Jack's ever-loyal deathsteed.

And before long another bond joined hers; Death immediately recognized the presence of his own horse, galloping beside Mei as they followed the pull towards him. Death redoubled his efforts and reached out to them, this time able to faintly brush against his steed's mind.

Shortly thereafter there was a clatter of hooves at the cave entrance and two furious horses were charging inside. The hellhound guard never knew what hit it; Death's horse had grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and thrown it into the cave wall hard enough to cause a minor quake before it could stand. Mei, meanwhile, had busied herself examining the points where Death's chains were fastened into the stone floor. When Death raised his hands, both horses immediately stepped over and pressed their noses into his palms.

Through his connection to them, Death could reach even further into the world, immediately seeking out the three aspects of himself he had separated oh so long ago.

Pestilence, War, Famine!

The other Horsemen responded immediately, reaching back along the link and sending the power he had given them all those countless ages past back to him.

Death's aspect swelled.

The chains shattered as his human form melted away.

The horses whinnied loudly as Death's power washed over them, rapidly spreading through the cave, over the continent of Europe and further, until all creatures under the sun and beyond could feel it. The Reapers, steeds, ghosts and Horsemen cheered uproariously, power renewed even as the demons quailed beneath the dark wave.

Death was free. And he was not happy.

First things first, though. He had a few things to deal with.

Death turned his gaze to Raven's now still body. A flare of his aspect and it vanished in a swirl of shadow, the last vestiges holding the spirit to the living world were cut.

A moment later there was a flutter of wings, and Raven landed on his shoulder, rubbing his head against Death's hood. Death reached up a hand, stroking two skeletal fingers over his back.

I am sorry you had to suffer so, my friend. Fare thee well in my realms, Raven.

Raven gave a single wordless caw before leaping off Death's shoulder, streaking toward the top of the cave and disappearing in a flash of blue.

Death raised his head, eyeless sockets gazing at the ceiling as he directed his thoughts across the globe to his servants. If it is within your capabilities, finish the demons you are fighting. If not, you and those of you who are not fighting return to the realm of the dead. I will join you there shortly.

There was a chorus of agreement, and Death could feel the other Horsemen begin to move to assist any of the Reapers they felt needed it. Satisfied that they would be able to take care of things, Death quickly turned about and mounted his horse. Mei charged out of the cave as soon as he was settled and Death spurred his steed after her. Less than a second later they were galloping through the sky, racing faster than a hurricane's wind.

Jack would have cried if he'd had the strength when he saw the figure standing above him; his vision of Baby Tooth seemed distorted by a kaleidoscope of glass, but Death he could see as clear as day.

"Dad," he whispered through his burning throat, trying to raise his arms even though he knew there was no way he could.

"Hush, now. There's no need to speak," Death said softly, kneeling by Jack's side as he reached out and placed a skeletal hand against the spirit's cheek. Jack closed his eyes as he leaned into the touch.

Am I dying?

Jack, you died several minutes ago. You couldn't move on because you have been bound to this realm for too long.

Jack dimly felt that he should be distressed by this news, but he was so exhausted, and Death's voice in his mind was so gentle and soft and he felt so warm that Jack just couldn't muster the will to do so.

Will you take me then, Dad? Please?

Jack got the impression of a laugh in his mind, and then he felt a pair of arms lifting him and cradling him against a black-clothed chest. He felt Death move; the entity's grip on him barely shifted as Death hauled them both into the pale steed's saddle.

I would allow it to none other, my little one.

Story is not over! I'm moving through a ton of stuff in the next chapter, so bear with me! (And yes, I killed Jack. I'm evil and there's nothing you can do about it.)