Boreas and Eurus had blinked and before they knew it, they had been abandoned in the middle of snowy nowhere.
"Fucking Antarctica."
"Oh shut up, Reas. You're the freaking north wind. I'm the one who should be complaining. Look, I'm shivering."
Boreas gave them a look. "What are you talking about, you don't feel the cold either. I don't know why you're shaking, you weirdo."
"Oh. Right." Eurus held up their arm and stopped shaking easily enough, grinning stupidly. "I guess I was just excited."
Reas sighed and stared up at the gloomy sky while their fellow wind took the time to glance around curiously.
"It sure is a sad place here. Do you think we're stuck here a while? I can't feel the others."
"Hmmm. Maybe."
Jack blinked up at the rocky chasm that seemed to have swallowed him whole and he groaned as he pushed himself off the snow.
"Baby Tooth," he gasped when he saw her crumpled near him, quickly crawling over to where she lay so that he could cup her in his hands, off the floor. "Are you alright?"
She squeaked pitifully and sneezed in his hands. He tried to smile but found he could only manage a small, sad one.
"Sorry, all I can do is make you cold." He felt the usual self-hatred well up, worse than before now that he had officially proved to everyone and himself that he couldn't do anything right. As he sat up, he felt his shoulders slouch in an effort to make himself as small as he felt. It had been a habit he had gained in all the years of being lost and ignored. Recently, he hadn't done it as much. He guess he had felt like maybe he had finally gotten the recognition and family he had long wanted. That he was good enough for. Now he just wanted to laugh at himself. "Pitch was right. I make a mess of everything."
The purple eyes that stared up in pity at him widened as Baby Tooth perked up and suddenly darted into his front pocket. Taking it as some attempt to seek extra warmth despite the situation, Jack just let her, leaning against the rocky walls that towered above him and curling up. At least here he couldn't hurt anyone. Here, everyone was safe, with no expectations to hurt him.
'Jack.'
Jack blinked his eyes open at the sound.
'Jack!'
He felt his entire body still at the sound of that voice - a voice that sounded so painfully familiar it made his heart ache yet he couldn't think of who it belonged to.
Jack looked down to find a soft glow coming from his front pocket and he stumbled back on his arms in shock. Cautiously, he slipped a hand into the pocket and pulled out the glittering box he had so desperately searched for, the same one he had wanted to throw away in a fit of anger. Now, he didn't know what to think of it.
'Jack.'
Hesitantly, he looked to Baby Tooth who had crawled out after the tooth box. She nodded reassuringly as she reached a small hand to rest on the surface of the box, her big eyes silently urging him.
So he did.
At this point, he had nothing left to lose. His hand lightly brushed the beautiful geometric design of the box and he was transfixed to find it react to his touch, the geometric diamonds folding away in blinding white Tooth Fairy magic as Jack's vision was taken over by the images the box had to show him, the voice calling his name beckoning him on.
When Jack could see past the blinding light, he found… himself.
Only, it wasn't himself as he was, Jack Frost, lonely winter sprite. He remembered and he suddenly wasn't just Jack Frost, he was Jack Overland with parents and a little sister he loved to tease and other village kids to play pranks on. Images flashed before his eyes of a lifetime he had forgotten, precious memories that were his, all his, and it all came back to him.
'Jack,' his sister whined as he dangerously balanced on a high tree branch, laughing down at her.
'Jack!' His father shouted as he danced around their home only to break something and flee mischievously before he could be scolded.
'Jack, Jack, Jack,' a group of children chanted in awe as he carefully piled nuts on his nose in a wobbly tower, all cheering as he broke his own record.
But going through his memories, Jack found a face that he had seen as Jack Frost yet in his memories, it took on another name, a different feeling to the disappointment and confusion of before.
'Jack,' a girl with wild hair wearing a ragged dress laughed as she danced away from him. 'You're not scared of a little fun now are you, Jack? Shame. I thought you were braver than that.'
Jack barely had time to process this information before the memories continued on until one specific day when he was leaving home with his sister to the sound of his mother yelling after him to be careful. The next thing he saw was his sister's scared eyes as she stared at him from the centre of the pond, legs trembling as the ice beneath her started to give in.
'Jack, I'm scared.'
'I know, I know. But you're gonna be alright. You're not going to fall in -uh- we're going to have a little fun instead.'
The tears in his sister's eyes made him all the more determined.
'I promise you're going to be fine. You have to believe in me.'
Jack saw himself carefully edge to the side in some semblance of hopscotch to distract her, making her laugh as he hopped onto safer ice where a handy stick lay. His staff.
He used it to fling his sister to safety, in the process pushing himself onto the thin ice. The memory ended with him plunging into icy water as it filled his nose and mouth, his eyes blinking blurry up through the surface that grew more and more distant as the moon shone clear and decisive over him.
Ah. So that's why.
Jack's eyes shot open as the memories subsided and he was left gasping for air, coughing out the water that wasn't there.
No longer was he sinking underwater or standing on ice with his sister but lying in the snow with Baby Tooth.
"Did you- did you see that?" Jack stammered as he caught his breath, shoving the box in his hands to the fairy in wonder. Baby Tooth shook her head with a soft squeak but Jack was too busy revelling in his newly acquired memories.
He could remember.
"It was- it was me. I had a family! I had a sister! I saved her," Jack exclaimed as he scooped up the fairy excitedly, sobering as the implications hit home. "That's why you chose me."
His gaze drifted upwards to where he could see the moon once more big and bright above him, just like in his memories. "I'm a- I'm a Guardian."
It was like a bucket of water fell on him then. He was a Guardian. He didn't care if they didn't want him anymore, he would help them. Because he was a Guardian and he had been chosen. This was why he had become Jack Frost. He was here for the children who were slowly losing belief.
Gaze still upward, he was startled when a face popped into view, peering down at him.
"Well, I think that's wonderful news."
In a blast of wind that had him falling back and catching Baby Tooth as they both went, a pale figure jumped down and came to land before him.
As he stared in bewilderment, found a familiar face grinning down at him, familiar now from both what he'd seen and his newfound memories.
His jaw dropped as he continued to stare. "Aura?"
For those still reading and giving feedback, I just want to say I love whoever you are because I realise I have been a pain with how much I have not been updating. This story isn't abandoned I swear. Stuff happens and I guess I just needed time to figure out where I wanted this story to go since I don't intend to finish it after the events of the movie. I'm discovering with you guys, really.
For anyone interested, while writing this I've been slowly creating a Spotify playlist that goes with the story. I put the link in my bio but I don't think it works although I'm not sure how to get it to work. If you look it up on Spotify it's called 'the end of us is not the end at all'.
Hope you enjoy :)
