A flash of portal magic and the sleigh was hurtling across a different sky above a different city. The Guardians flung themselves across rooftops with eager energy, determination strong as they worked with a goal in mind. Among them, Jack flitted just as eagerly, spurred on by the challenge and the joy of being with people who could see him.
And Wind?
Wind felt tired. So very tired. Felt that sluggish numbness that leached the energy out of her limbs and made her drift.
She had felt this for Ages, the feeling creeping up on her every so often. It came with the aching loneliness of a spirit like her, doomed to fly above the earth alone, no one to believe in her, no one to see her as more than a pleasant breeze, an inconvenient phenomenon, a destructive storm. That was all she was seen as and therefore that was all she was.
There were rather a few like her, she was sure, but even in that common ground they were alienated from each other, a sort of natural gravitational repulsion that pushed them away from each other and without the intention, self-imposing their status as loners. They could try and band together but what kind of power would that give them? It was not the company of similarly isolated spirits they sought but brighter lights that would bring them warmth and believers and love. The Guardians were the envy of all, favoured by the Moon in ways none of them were. Wind had long ranted over such unfairness, such inequality. No one seemed inclined to listen. There had only ever been one person who had listened, who had understood. But Wind didn't want to think about that right now.
In the past, she had discovered how to survive on her own, what she could reach to when she was truly desperate.
The only way to make people see her, really see her, was to make them scared of her. To make buildings shudder, to rip land up and send machines flying in a howling fit of rage. Wind wasn't perfect or heroic or a good little pet for the Moon to lead by the hand. Often her temper got the best of her. When people looked at her with something other than mild annoyance or curses, something that looked a little like respect and a lot like fear, she felt alive.
But now she was tired again. She sent Notus off with a sigh to stay with Jack on his adventures with the Guardians as they crept through the night, trusting that her anemoi would keep him out of danger.
She sat on a rooftop and let herself truly feel alone for the first time in a long while. To make peace with the whirling inside of her like a storm begging to be released, to feel the absence of others, Jack included. No worrying, no planning, no thinking of others, just her on a rooftop and nothing but sky whistling around her as she ached. It was something she both missed and rather didn't.
She sensed a presence beside her and when she glanced over, moonlight shone brightly on the roof tiles beside her. Wind rolled her eyes, more for show than with any actual apathy.
"You, Old Man," she said shakily with a sniff, "are a complete and utter bastard. You can't do anything right, you know that?"
She felt a light brush against her arm, sad, and she would have shifted away in revulsion if she wasn't too busy dealing with the wave of tears that had caught her by surprise.
"Oh, stop it. It's too late for that. You can't just play with us as you want. Whatever greater good you think you're protecting has long since withered. You're defending an empty treasure chest."
The moonlight prickled with indignation.
Wind shook her head in irritation and added spitefully, "And you know it. This war, this is on you. Anything that happens, you've only got yourself to blame."
The Moon felt suddenly distant, very much a rock of dust far away in space despite the pale blue magic tingling beside her and the knowledge that he was so much more.
Wind scowled. "There will be no winning. No one really wins when there's a loser because when there's a loser, the fight's never really over. You hear me, Old Man? You keep putting us down and we'll keep getting up. Pitch will keep…"
The silence of the skyline swallowed up her faded words, pressing on her the fact that she was currently ranting at moonlight. What was she even doing here?
Wind sighed and pressed her hands to her face. "I'm doing this all wrong, aren't I? I was never good enough for you or your precious Guardians. Never good enough to be… whatever it is I could be."
She frowned. "What you think Jack could be."
She closed her eyes and felt the Moon's magic surge around her and her frown deepened. "How can you be so sure?" whispered Wind.
A loud whoop caught her attention and Wind caught sight of Jack whizzing by, Notus at his side and… Eurus squealing excitedly in his ear, not that he could hear it. When had Wind…
Eurie managed to slip out when you sighed earlier, Zephyrus spoke up. Boreas just humphed.
Wind shook her head in exasperation. She really was losing a grip on things, to not even sense that…
Looking down, she let her fingertips swirl small tornadoes in the air, absently watching them unravel as she flicked them away.
"Things certainly change quickly. Do you think your Guardians are able to keep up? I wonder."
She smiled faintly at the irritation radiating around her. She had always wondered if the Guardians could feel the Moon as closely as she could. She wasn't always able to analyse space rock's emotions and thoughts, right now she was being let in. For once, the stuffy Moon was letting her see. It was a nice gesture, but too little too late.
"But then again," she mused, "I suppose they never really change, do they? There's the tragedy of this little game."
As Jack and Toothiana crouched beside the sleeping form of a familiar boy, there was a lull in their hushed conversation.
Glancing hesitantly at Jack, Toothiana finally brought up something that had been on her mind ever since the sprite had first been brought to the North Pole.
"Jack, you haven't been alone all this time, have you?"
Jack looked over from where he had been quietly chuckling over the enthusiastic drawings pinned to the bedroom wall.
"Huh? Well, yeah. Why do you ask?"
"It's just…" She frowned. "There really hasn't been anyone you've hung out with? A friend or an ally?"
Jack wasn't sure what she was trying to get at.
"It's just been me and the Wind," he joked, "ever since I became Jack Frost."
Toothiana seemed to pause at his word choice.
"The Wind…" she echoed thoughtfully.
"Uh, yeah? I really have been on my own, but it's been… nice, hanging out with you guys."
Toothiana grinned. "Enough to join us as a Guardian?"
Jack returned the grin. "Nah, I'm good. Maybe after this is all over I'll visit, though. It won't hurt to have the Guardians of Childhood owe me one."
Again, Toothiana's expression took on a thoughtful, slightly nostalgic edge.
Jack wasn't sure what was wrong with her. Before he could question it much, North and the rest of the Guardians were barging in noisily, ready to show off the teeth they had collected.
When Wind finally got sick of her own thoughts chasing themselves in a circle, she decided she was done here. She wasn't interested in whatever the Moon was trying to do in reaching out to her now.
"Look, Old Man," Wind said quietly. "I don't care if you need Jack, you will not turn him into whatever you want him to be. You've been far too quiet for far too long to be meddling now. Just… leave us alone."
Her voice was pained and she felt some emotion stir in the magic next to her. She scoffed. Getting up, she didn't bother trying to figure out what the emotions were.
Wind felt a sudden sadness wash over her and realised it must be one of her Anemoi. She reached out through her connection to Notus. 'He can see us?' 'Most of us…'
However tired she was, she needed to be by Jack's side again. She'd given herself enough time to strengthen herself mentally in the wake of Pitch's dramatic return.
Following the magical trace of her anemoi, Wind eventually tracked them down to a familiar bedroom.
Way to go, Frost, I'm impressed, Reas scorned as they surveyed the aftermath of the chaos.
Wind zeroed in on where two of her anemoi stood on either side of Jack.
Eurus raised their hands sheepishly in surrender while Notus just looked amused. "I swear we had nothing to do with any of this. Also, it was so Nota's fault."
"It was not," Notus growled. "Sir Snooze-a-lot is a lot more lethal than we give him credit for."
Wind merely raised an eyebrow as she looked around.
In the small bedroom, almost all of the Guardians plus a dog lay thoroughly knocked out with golden sand dreams floating over their heads all over the room. Jack and Sandman were the only ones conscious.
Wind was a little at a loss. She wondered if this would be a good time to go and was about to say something - call back her anemoi maybe - when she instinctively tensed seconds before a shadow crossed the bedroom's window. With a sharp look, both Eurus and Notus returned to her without a word and she was flying Jack out of the window as he and Sandy chased down the shadow.
"Sandy, come on! We can find Pitch!"Jack laughed in exhilaration as they swooped through the evening sky, Sand cruising beside him patiently. Wind forced herself to push away the tiredness and even managed to laugh a little as Jack's laughter became contagious and they spun through the air after the black shadows determinedly.
Sandman easily caught up to one and in a flash of golden light, the nightmare became a dream once more and the sight was emboldening to see. Whirling down the streets eagerly, Jack shot frost after another and grinned when he heard it make contact on the rooftop above.
"I got it!" he cheered but Sandy wasn't around to see it and so with a shrug, Jack flew up to inspect the damage.
"Sandy! Sandy, did you see that?" Jack called as he poked the frozen mess of black sand on the concrete curiously, staff sparking blue light as it made contact. Wind shivered to be so close to Pitch's magic again, still disgusted by the nightmare. "Look at this thing."
Wind knew Pitch was behind them even before he spoke but it didn't stop her from turning around too late.
"Frost?" Pitch was gone the instant Jack spun around and sent frost sparking blue after him. The Nightmare King reappeared on the other side of the frozen nightmare. "You know, for a neutral party, you spend an awful lot of time with those weirdos. This isn't your fight, Jack."
As much as she tried to shake off the words, they stuck to her. Not your fight echoed at the back of her mind.
"You made it my fight when you stole those teeth," Jack snapped, staff held defensively before him.
"Teeth? Why do you care about the teeth?"
Suddenly, Pitch glanced to the side and danced away in surprise, fear clear on his face as he noticed Sandman there glaring at him before he tried to laugh it off. "Now this is who I'm looking for."
In an instant, the two were duelling, lightning-fast whips of golden sand against the deadly swing of a shadow scythe. As the two darted around each other, it became clear who was the stronger of the two as, despite his big words, Pitch was pushed back and eventually flung from the roof of the building they were on to the street below. Sandy was merciless, following immediately and Jack floated behind in silent awe, having never seen the quiet Guardian in action before. Wind was satisfied to see Pitch's cocky attitude taken down a notch but couldn't take any enjoyment in the fight. There had to be a reason Pitch would show up now and somehow it had something to do with Sandy. She had a very bad feeling about this.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Jack said with an impressed whistle and Sandy tilted his head, pleased.
Pitch scrambled back as the Sandman advanced furiously on him, a hand raised defensively as he struggled away and to his feet.
"Okay, easy. You can't blame me for trying, Sandy. You don't know what it's like to be weak and hated. It was stupid of me to mess with your dreams so, I'll tell you what." Pitch paused and the curl of his lip was the first sign of trouble. "You can have them back," he finished darkly, his words punctured by a high pitched screeching and then black sand was rising up through the grating of a nearby manhole cover, condensing into the shifty form of a horse.
It wasn't long before the distant neighing indicated the presence of more and it became clear they were surrounded as dark horses emerged from the shadows and flew down onto the street, moving in to close around Sandy, Jack and Wind as Pitch stepped back to give way to his wave of nightmares.
Jack and Sandy shifted so that they were back to back, slowly turning in the defensive formation to keep all the horses in their sight.
"You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right?" Jack suggested tentatively. They shared a look just before Pitch rode forward threateningly on one of his horses. Pitch held Sandy's glare before spreading his fingers forward in a mock gesture.
"Boo."
On signal, the horses started to lunch forward only to be interrupted when a familiar red sleigh crashed onto the scene with the sound of tinkling bells. Wind meant crash quite literally as the sleigh clipped a metal pole and barely missed hitting Jack and Sandy, the drivers barely awake.
Taking the moment of distraction as their cue, Sandy rose up in a burst of gold and took to the sky as he lashed out at the black sand horses, joined by Jack and Toothiana as they both followed suit.
Wind watched Jack's back as he shot frost at any horses that came his way, easily yanking him out of the way of any he hadn't seen or wouldn't get to in time.
She was somewhat impressed as the Tooth Fairy, without any particular weapons of her own, opted for slamming headfirst into the horses and forced the black sand to disperse by the pure force of her weight. It was surprisingly effective, and with her speed, she was able to target many in a small amount of time.
Chuckling darkly, Pitch left the streets and guided the rest of the horses waiting on the road with him into the air after the Guardians, meeting North as he got control of his sleigh and began properly joining the fight. Bunnymund darted back and forth between the sleigh and the ground whenever the flying vehicle dived low enough, making good use of his boomerang.
Jack attempted a daring drop at the last minute which forced the two horses who had been charging at him at the same time to crash into each other. It was going well until Jack crashed into another horse neither of them had seen in time and they were sent careening, Jack's staff slipping from his fingertips.
Immediately, Wind felt their connection stutter. For a heart-stopping moment, her fingers starting to go through Jack and she was terrified she was going to drop him. Luckily, she had enough strength to push him to the falling staff below him and when he caught it, she was able to scoop him up in time to land softly on the left wing of North's sleigh.
Jack had barely got his bearings when Bunnymund warned smugly, "You might wanna duck."
Jack ducked just in time for the Easter Bunny's boomerang to swing back into his hand, cutting through the air where Jack had been standing seconds ago.
Wind was not impressed and would have wasted time lecturing deaf ears if they hadn't been under attack.
Gazing upwards, they could see Sandy and Pitch far above them, one small cloud of gold surrounded by black, like the eye of a storm.
"We've got to help Sandy!" Jack called over to North who was back to driving the sleigh rather than wheeling around with his double swords like a maniac. North answered by cracking the reigns and sending them shooting upward. They were going fast, but not fast enough and suddenly, Wind felt antsy.
Peering up in a desperate attempt to see whatever was going on above them, the black sand shifted enough so that Wind could catch a clear glimpse of the scene.
Sandy at the middle, his back turned to Pitch as he fended off black sand.
Pitch with an arrow of darkness, arm pulled back to take aim.
They weren't going to make it.
We're not going to make it.
The moment Pitch released and sent the arrow burying into Sandy's back, Wind knew that Jack had seen it too.
Because all of a sudden, a rage that was not her own bubbled up inside her and for a second, she had a choice. Knowing it was Jack, knowing that she could deny him nothing, she allowed it to take over her body until she was a vibrating storm of anger and desperation.
The string tugging her chest went taut.
As Jack screamed, Wind roared in a ferocious echo and all at once, she exploded in an ear-splitting clap.
