Icicles, Boreas spat and not even Zephyrus scolded them.

"...where were you? The Nightmares attacked the tunnels, they smashed every egg..."

"Where did you get that?"

"I was…"

"Where's Baby Tooth?"

"...Jack...What have you done…"

"You were with PITCH?

"I'm… I'm sorry, I…"

"He has to go…"

"Easter is about hope… and now it's gone…"

The disappointment and anger were a familiar sight across their faces. Wind hated those looks the most, the ones that screamed I expected more from you and how could you do this?

She wanted to shout at them. Couldn't they see? They were the reason. They were so arrogant and holier-than-thou, she wished there was something she could say that would change their stubborn minds, that would convince them that the world wasn't in black and white but in such vivid and abstract colours, more than they could even comprehend, so blinding and so confusing that there wasn't one good and one bad. Just a kaleidoscope.

Of course, Wind had tried in the past but that was an old fight, an old argument. Funny how it kept coming up.

Jack looked shattered under those betrayed looks as Bunny turned away. Once again, Wind saw herself in Jack and it hurt. How dare they make him into her? How dare they make the same bloody mistake twice.

A tug and they were off like a whirlwind, chaos in the unsteady flight path as they barrelled through clouds and broke out into the safe expanse of sky that was beyond where any of the others would dare to venture.

Wind didn't even bother glaring at the Guardians as they left, too concerned with Jack's pained face and what he would do now. There was no comfort she could give, no contact, no anchor, no soothing words, not even a reassuring presence. Jack must have been feeling so lonely and all she could do was watch.

They ended up in Antarctica of all places, although in a way Wind understood perfectly. The icy wasteland felt suitable, with space to let go and no one around to witness or get hurt. Already, Jack's messy emotions and Wind's own agitation had stirred a volatile storm of sharp ice and cold snow in churning clouds of white, nothing but white white white around them.

The golden box seemed to burn a hole in Jack's hand and as soon as they landed, he ran for the nearest cliff, not even bothering to fly anymore, hand raised to throw it, to-

But his arm froze mid-air and it hovered there, reflecting the struggle that painted itself clearly on his face.

Making a frustrated sound, Jack let his hand drop as Wind watched from the side, staring angrily down at the familiar picture on the side of the box.

There was nothing to say.

In the white chaos and noise, it was hard to notice when the shadows deepened and so even Wind was caught unawares when a dark voice slippery with sympathy that was only half a mockery broke the deafening silence. "I thought this might happen. They never really believed in you, I tried to show you that. But I understand."

She should have known he'd show up at the worst moment possible.

Jack's expression went stormy and when he turned around to meet Pitch head-on, he lunged with the violence of a rumbling storm, Wind dragged along in his gravitational pull, his staff sparking with frost.

"You don't understand anything!"

Pitch dodged his first blast and raised a shield of black sand just in time for the second that followed quickly.

"No? I don't know what it's like to be cast out?" Pitch shouted back as they traded blows, voice full of just as much emotion.

Wind didn't know what she was doing, caught in the middle. She didn't want to fight Pitch, not like this, but she couldn't do anything in the face of Jack's rage, could only dart and twist them through the crackling air, dodging sand and frost alike, yanking Jack out of the way and avoiding Pitch's heated looks. All she could do was move move move, barely time to think, to consider what she should do.

She was still tired, too. It was different now as if all the anger that had driven her for so long had been leached out completely, leaving nothing but emptiness and leftover pain. It was the emptiness that scared her the most. It was all she could do to cling onto the echo of Jack's own fresh anger, crackling in his magic as her movements became more automatic than anything, a puppet to Jack's brewing emotions.

In the air, Jack let out a powerful blast at the same time as Pitch let out a strong rush of darkness up to meet his, setting off an explosion. The air filled with snow and made it hard to see anything, forcing Jack to cautiously touch down and peer warily around.

"To not be believed in!" Pitch's voice echoed around them.

Pitch was behind them when they could finally see clearly, his hands down by his side as Jack held his staff out at the ready for anything the Nightmare King would try. But he only looked at them both with sad eyes, those eyes that had convinced Wind all those centuries ago.

"To long for a family... All those years in the shadows, I thought no one else knows what this feels like. But now I see I was wrong."

Pitch was good, too good. Jack was slowly relaxing out of his defensive position as he listened, the carefully tailored words worming through his defenses. That wasn't to say that anything the man said was a lie, Wind knew it wasn't. But she also knew that Pitch was good at using the truth to entrap, to hurt, to kill.

"We don't have to be alone, Jack. I believe in you and I know children will too."

"...In me?" Jack's were wide like a child's, hurt and afraid and vulnerable.

Aeolus, he's using Jack...

"I know. I know," she muttered helplessly.

"Yes!" Pitch said excitedly, eyes burning silver in the cold light. He gestured to the towering sculpture of ice and black sand that had been left in the aftermath of their fight, now revealed with the white fading to the desolate background once more. "Look at what we can do! What goes together better than cold and dark! We can make them believe, we can give them a world where everything, everything, is-"

"Pitch Black?" Jack finished apprehensively.

"And Jack Frost, too," he added after a pause, changing tacks quickly. "They'll believe in both of us."

"No, they'll fear both of us, and that's not what I want." Jack turned his back on Pitch and both Wind and Pitch were left to watch in stunned silence. "Now for the last time, leave me alone."

She didn't know what she had expected but to see through Pitch completely, to see the chance he was given and despite his loneliness, despite his pain, turn his back on what could very well be his last chance to ever be believed in was beyond anything she could have imagined. At this point, she could have hardly faulted him for falling for the illusion.

She smiled faintly. She was so proud. Jack was so much better, full of so much more good than she could have ever imagined. None of them deserved him, not her, not Pitch, not the Guardians. He deserved the world and if Wind could have given it to him, she would have.

Pitch, of course, didn't take rejection well. Unfortunately, he was always quick to think up a backup plan and seize any opportunity.

"Very well, you want to be left alone? Done."

Wind shuddered as she felt something wrap around her ankles and yank her down to the ground, catching her by surprise. Jack stumbled a little as her support left him and his full weight hit the ground.

"Pitch, what are you doing?" she hissed as she found herself surrounded by Nightmares. She raised her fists in preparation for an attack.

"Doing you a favour," he grinned nastily. "The only way to believe..."

The Nightmares suddenly lunged and before Wind could counter, she found black chains of sand latching on to her wrists and pulling them down. Before she could break the chains, the Nightmares were on her, engulfing her entirely and sending her spluttering as sand filled her mouth and itched her nose.

"... is to see."

It took a moment to realise what he was thinking.

"What is that?" she heard Jack mutter and panic filled her.

"Introducing..."

No. This couldn't be happening now. She... she couldn't let Pitch do this, she wasn't ready-

Summoning her power, she easily broke free from the sand, dispersing it in a violent burst of wind and shook the horrible black stuff free, springing into the air. But it was too late.

"...Aeolus, master of the Wind."

The first thing she saw was Pitch's triumphant face fixed not on her but on Jack who was... who was looking at her. The eyes she loved so much no longer looked through her but were seeing her, searching her in confusion.

"W-Who are you?"

Wind felt like she had been shot in the heart and she sunk down to the ground, barely struggling when Pitch sauntered up behind her and caught her by her arms.

Wind waited desperately for recognition of some kind to take that horrible confused look away, but it didn't. Instead, it continued to tear into her, truly breaking her heart so that it shattered into fragments and left a gaping hole as she was brought back to cruel reality.

"M-my name. You don't…?"

Wind pushed away from Pitch and stumbled towards Jack. When he took a step back in alarm, Wind collapsed to her knees and stared up at him, cheeks wet.

"I don't know who you are. Where did you come from? Pitch, what's going on?"

He didn't... he didn't know who she was. He didn't know her name. She knew everything about him, and he didn't even know who she was.

"I..." her mouth gaped open as she tried to say something but couldn't focus with him staring at her like that, looking at her like she was a stranger. She realised she preferred it when he couldn't see her at all.

"Jack, I have been with you. All this time, I'm…"

"With me? What are you talking about? I've been alone, I don't even know who you are."

Jack's eyes were guarded, suspicious, wary. Like she was a threat. Like she could hurt him more than he was hurting her at that very moment.

"I'm- I'm…"

"Aeolus?" Some kind of recognition flickered in his eyes and Wind grasped onto the hope it provided desperately. "You… but you can't have been with me. You… and Pitch… they said you couldn't help. You… if you were with us, you could have saved Sandy. Why didn't you save Sandy?"

"I…"

Her throat closed up and her chest constricted at the anger directed at her. He… he was angry at her. He could finally see her and… he… he was angry.

She didn't even struggle this time when the black sand snuck up on her and restrained her. Just remained limp, staring back at Jack.

Pitch stepped to her side.

"What, did you think he'd be grateful for what you've done for him all these years? You think our Old Friend would forgive and forget everything and congratulate you, give you any kind of recognition? You should know by now, my dear. People like us, we get nothing."

"No, I... I don't need anything, I..."

"Look at him," Pitch insisted. "You're nothing but a stranger to him. You think he'd want you hanging around? You made him feel alone all these years. Why would he want anything to do with you? Aeolus, come with me. You've already hurt him. He doesn't need you."

Wind knew what he was trying to do. But the worst part was, even if she knew, she couldn't find a lie in anything he said. Jack wasn't hers. As much as it pained her to admit, she was nothing to him.

Closing her eyes, feeling everything inside her rebel, including most of her anemoi, she whispered tightly, "Just don't hurt him. Promise me and... I'll go with you. I don't want him to hurt anymore."

"Perfect." Pitch turned on Jack with a dark look. "Now, how about a trade?"

"I don't know what's going on but I thought I told you to leave me alone."

Pitch spared a glance at Wind. "Don't worry, that's well on its way. But first."

The Nightmare Kind raised a fist something small and emerald twittering fearfully in his grasp, dwarfed by his hand.

"Baby Tooth!"

"The staff, Jack," Pitch demanded. "You have a bad habit of interfering. Now hand it over."

Jack hesitated but in the end, it wasn't really a choice for him.

"Alright. Now let her go."

When Pitch had the staff, Wind knew he probably had little intention for actually keeping his end of the bargain. Which was why, despite her stupor, when the little fairy bit the hand and Pitch's grip loosened, she opened her mouth and blew two gusts of wind to carry the fairy away, over to Jack.

Keep him safe, she wished silently.

Wind felt it when Pitch broke the staff. It felt like he was snapping her in half and she felt agony tear through her. Blinking through tears, she saw the silver thread stretching between her and Jack. She could see he could see it too. They both saw the moment it snapped and disappeared again. Even with it out of sight once more, Wind knew that it was really gone this time. She couldn't… she couldn't feel Jack there, his presence, and it was like having all the oxygen sucked out of your lungs. She collapsed, coughing and gasping, wracked with pain and she struggled to recover, to get used to the emptiness that ate away the space the bond had taken up.

Faintly, she was aware of Jack being flung backwards with a yell, of Baby Tooth squeaking in panic, of Pitch laughing. By the time she had caught her breath again and the pain had dulled somewhat, she heard footsteps approach and come to a stop before her crumpled form.

Following the long form with her eyes, she found Pitch towering over her with a smug look.

"Now, will you come quietly this time or shall we make things worse?"

Wind stared at the hand held out to her and sighed, squeezing her eyes shut as she reluctantly took it despite everything in her screaming not to.