As soon as the three humans dropped inside the Moon Clipper, Jackson began to ask questions. He skipped beside Prism, pointing and asking about everything he could see. Prism answered with patience, striding down the hallways without even a pause. Lucy and Jamie were soon turned around in the maze of hallways, but Jackson seemed content to just let Prism lead him to wherever he wanted to go.
By the time they made it into the control room, Jackson was starry-eyed and went to look at the computer. He tapped several buttons and laughed at the funny characters that appeared on the screen. Lucy bit her lip and glanced at Prism.
"He's not going to jettison us out of orbit, is he?"
Lunar laughed and Prism smiled. "Unless he can fluently read and write Known-speak, there is no way he's unlocking that computer," he said. Jamie cringed at the sound.
"You're sure?" Lucy asked.
"Yes, Lucy," Prism said. "It's on child-safety mode."
"The moon has a setting for children?"
"Some curious little children used to play with the controls, pretending they could fly the moon," Nightlight said, grinning at Lunar and Prism.
"As I recall, you were with us," Prism replied, his face warming at the memory.
"Yes," Nightlight said.
"Do the ship simulator!" Lunar suddenly commanded, his eyes alight.
"Ship simulator?" Jackson asked, turning around. "What's a ship simulator?"
Nightlight tossed his spear to Jack then walked over and typed very quickly on the computer keys. The same strange symbols came out in a long code and then a hologram of a ship unlike any the humans had seen popped up in the middle of the room. Lunar clapped, jumping up and down as he hurried over to Jackson.
"Come here," he said, tugging him over. When they were standing beside the ship, Lunar reached out and tapped a side panel. At once, the piece disappeared, and Lunar zoomed in until they could see what lay beneath. Jackson's eyes were huge.
"Isn't it grand?" Lunar asked proudly. "Papa made it to teach me how to repair any type of ship on record. I can disassemble and reassemble every ship in the database."
"Cool!" Jack exclaimed, bounding over.
Prism smirked and slipped over to the computer and made several swift keystrokes. The ship disappeared, replaced by an Earth train. Jackson yelled with excitement, and Jack threw a look over at Prism, who smiled playfully at his friend. Jack shook his head then swiped his hand over a wall. A tingling sensation shot up his arm as the holographic piece stuck to his hand and was pulled effortlessly away from the other pieces. Jack plucked a bolt out of the wall and studied it. There was even a bit of weight and resistance to the program. It was so real that he could even see some wear on the bolt.
"Fascinating," he murmured.
"Oh dear. Seems like Jack has found a new toy," Prism said. "Better stake your claim, Lunar. Because I think he's going to hog it."
Lunar chuckled. "Jack can use whatever he wants here on the Moon Clipper, as he well knows."
Jack wasn't listening, pulling pieces off the train and letting them float off to the side as he studied the components. Jackson edged closer.
"Can I have one?"
Prism shook his head. "Not enough parts. And Earth technology falls far short of what we need for this program. Sorry. But you're welcome to play with it."
"Cool."
Lucy suddenly shrieked, jumping back and staring at the floor. Everybody spun to look at her, and she was looking at a small mouse, which sat on its hind paws and stared at her in astonishment. It wore a uniform of silver and black and had a little black hat with a crescent moon engraved in shining silver thread. Completely nonplussed by the stranger screaming at it, the mouse turned to the Guardians.
"What is all this noise about?" it demanded. "Why is she screaming at me?"
Lucy, Jamie, and Jackson gaped at the mouse as Lunar gazed solemnly at it.
"It's you, unfortunately. Earth mice are not like you," he replied. "They bite and eat what they are not supposed to."
"They also carry disease," Prism added. "Though I do know you've been stealing my moon cheese, so you do eat what you're not supposed to."
The mouse looked affronted. "I have no disease! And we're allowed to eat what we like. The Tsar said so."
Lunar's eyes twinkled with amusement. "Oh, but that's not what I meant, and you know it. It's not ready yet. And you know it makes you hiccup when you eat it before it's ripe."
The mouse stood up straight, ready to argue, but it was interrupted by a hiccup. A bright pink bubble came from its mouth, and Prism raised his eyebrows as Jack and Nightlight laughed. Lunar shook his head, chuckling as the mouse looked embarrassed.
"Do you need something?" he asked.
"The Lunar Moths are ready to take passengers," the mouse said, trying to look unbothered as its whiskers quivered in humiliation.
"Excellent."
"I take your leave," the mouse said.
"Only if you'll stop getting into what you're not supposed to," Lunar replied.
"And tell the others, too," Prism said. "It's not going to be ready for three more weeks. You'll just have to be content with crackers and Earth cheeses."
The mouse looked away but nodded once then scampered away on quiet paws. North snorted.
"How can the little creatures stand it unripe?" he asked. "It is not good."
"Nor good for you," Lunar said. Then he turned to Prism and Nightlight. "Why don't you two take Jackson for a ride on the Moths?"
Prism nodded and reached out to take Jackson's hand. "I think you'll like the Lunar Moths," he said. "They can fly so very high. And I can show you the constellations of the Tsar and Tsarina."
"He'll be safe?" Lucy asked.
"Of course," Prism said. "Besides, even if he fell, the external gravity generator is broken. He'd float more than fall."
Lucy nodded, and she watched the three of them head through another tunnel. Jamie grasped her shoulder, squeezing tightly, and she turned to see her husband was pale. She kissed his cheek.
"They'll take care of him."
"Like he tried to take care of me?" Jamie grumbled.
Lunar's expression pinched and he pivoted to face Jamie and narrowed his eyes. "It's time you find out what really happened that week," he said.
"And all the stuff from a couple years ago, too," Jack added.
"And why did Jackson have to leave?" Jamie asked.
"Because what Obscurus did to Prism is not for children's ears," Lunar said grimly.
A cold pit of dread settled once again in Jamie's stomach at the name, and he swallowed before the sentence registered. "Wait, what?"
"I'll make tea. North, take them to the parlor."
"Which one?"
"The starry one."
Ten minutes later, Lunar walked in with Jack and Toothiana, and all three were carrying food and drinks for their guests. After serving everybody, Lunar settled down and inhaled the pink steam rising from his red-leafed tea.
"The story is not pleasant," he said, his voice quiet and contemplative. "He has not talked about the experience itself, but I don't expect him to."
"What experience?" Jamie asked.
"Do you know?" Lunar asked Lucy.
Lucy sipped her tea and looked away. "Prism told me a lot of it. We had nothing else to do while Jackson slept. He doesn't like television."
"Oh, he likes some shows," Jack said. "But not what you'd think."
Lucy shrugged. "I didn't mind. He would watch it with Jackson until he fell asleep, no matter what it was."
"Sounds about right," Bunnymund replied. "I'm too busy to watch much."
Lucy repressed a smile. "But Hop is a favorite when you can." Bunnymund spluttered and sat up.
Jack grinned. "And Peter Rabbit."
"Watch it, Frostbite!" Bunnymund snapped, looking away.
Jamie was a bit irritated that his wife knew things about his old friends that he didn't, so he snapped his fingers. "Hey! What's all this about Pitch?"
Lunar leveled his gaze on Jamie again, and Jamie regretted speaking immediately. "His name is Prism Lunanoff," he said icily.
"Sorry," Jamie said, shrinking in on himself as his face warmed. "But what about him?"
"I'm trying to think of where to start," Lunar replied. "But I suppose I'll have to start somewhere. It happened after my parents sacrificed their lives for myself, Prism, and Nightlight over five thousand years ago. We were alone, but we managed to stay out of trouble. Prism often went out in our single-person ships to get supplies from space ports and other planets. Nightlight and I didn't think anything of it. We needed the supplies, and Prism has always been an excellent pilot. But when he was almost thirteen, something happened that changed him."
Jamie looked around at the familiar faces around him, all sad and grim, staring anywhere but at him. "What happened?"
"Obscurus found him," Lunar replied softly.
"And?"
Jack pressed his lips together and looked up, his blue eyes flashing. "Let's just say that Shadow Man liked kids a bit too much."
A shock traveled through Jamie's limbs, and he stared at Jack as he processed what that meant. He'd been convinced that whatever had happened to Prism had been deserved. But nobody deserved that. Especially not a child.
"And that leads us to what that experience did to Prism," Lunar said. "And just how that affected you five thousand years later."
Jamie reached for a cup of tea and listened as Lunar explained what had really happened to the real Prism over that week where he descended into darkness that culminated in the attempted murder of a child. Then he sat for over an hour as the Guardians told a wild tale of adventure that swept him away to the deepest recesses of space and to planets that he'd never imagined existed and their unusual return to the moon.
"And then the spirits were cleansed from the veil," Jack said, crunching on a cracker.
"After that, Prism and Nightlight were instated as Guardians," Lunar finished. "And it was relatively smooth sailing until you wrote to Jack about your son. Then things get a bit complicated."
"Complicated how?" Jamie asked. He was numb with shock and fighting compassion for a man he had been sure would forever be his enemy.
"You're involved," Jack replied, shrugging.
Jamie sat up, anger and confusion swirling through him. He chose anger. "Oh, and what does that mean?"
Jack blinked. "He's been having panic attacks because of you. He's been ripping himself open whenever he sees you."
"That's good," Jamie said, crossing his arms. "I thought maybe it was because he wanted to make a little replica of himself with my son."
As the expressions morphed to genuine shock around him, a strangled noise came from the doorway off to the side. Nightlight, Prism, and Jackson stood there, but Jamie could only see two of them. Nightlight's glow was bright and his mouth was open with horror as he grasped his spear. Jackson seemed confused by what was going on. Lucy and the others could see Prism, however.
Prism had his hand on Jackson's shoulder, having been guiding him into the room. All the shadows drained from his face and he stood still as a statue, his eyes wide as he gazed at Jamie without a trace of panic, a feat that all the Guardians noticed. Jackson looked up as Prism's grip tightened.
"Prism? What's wrong?"
Without a word, Prism released Jackson's shoulder and ran trembling fingers through his hair as distress pinched his features. Jackson reached up, and Prism pushed him away.
Jackson stumbled and Nightlight caught him.
"Prism?" Jackson asked. "What's wrong? Hey, where are you going? Come back!"
Prism didn't listen, brushing away the beseeching hand as he quickly turned and half ran down the hall.
"Some Guardian he is," Jamie spat.
The temperature of the room plummeted so suddenly that they could all see their breath. Jamie turned to ask Jack what was going on, and he was shocked to find the boy right in his face, his eyes glowing blue and his mouth twisted in a snarl.
"How dare you!" he roared. "How dare you accuse Prism of that sort of thing! He would never harm a child in any way, let alone like that! You just refuse to see any good in him because of what happened! I get that it was traumatizing, but you just went too far! If you ever, ever say something like that about Prism again, I won't ever forgive you!"
Jackson shivered. "Jack? What's wrong?" he asked in a small voice.
Jack turned to look at Jackson and slammed his staff down. Ice coated the floor around him, and the chill in his voice reflected the temperature of the room.
"Your father hates Prism," he said. "He hates him and just insulted him and accused him of doing bad things. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to find Prism and make sure he's not carving out chunks of his own flesh again."
Jack turned and stormed away. The freezing air was not the only reason the room was suddenly cold. Jamie turned slowly to face the Guardians, realizing once again that they were very powerful beings. And he'd just made them very angry. He looked at Lucy, hoping to find an ally, but he found her glaring just as hotly as the Guardians.
"Luce?" he asked, reaching for her hand.
She jerked away from him like she'd been burned then stood up and moved toward Jackson, who looked bewildered. He stared at his father, his eyebrows drawn together.
"Why do you hate him?" Jackson asked.
Jamie pressed his lips together as his eyes flicked away for a moment. "He tried to kill me when I was your age."
"No. He didn't," Jackson said. "That was Shadow Man."
"I see no difference."
"I don't think Shadow Man would have given so much to Mom and me when I was sick," Jackson said.
Jamie studied his son. "Like what?"
"Well," Jackson replied thoughtfully. "He made foods that were easy for me to eat. He talked to Mom a lot about stuff when she was sad. He gave me toys when I needed to be happy or brave. He helped me to have courage to face the needles, which I really didn't like at first. He told us lots of stories about space and fighting and being good and brave against bad things when it was hard to see how we were going to make it through to the next day. He paid for the experimental treatment that made me better. He—"
"Wait, wait, wait," Lucy broke in, stunned. "That was an anonymous donation."
"Is that another name for Prism?" Jackson asked.
"No. It means we don't know who gave the donation."
Jackson looked puzzled. "Prism gave the donation."
Lucy exhaled shakily. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. The day he left early, he set a letter down on the nurse's desk with one of those check things that you sometimes use. It was a big number on the paper, and the nurse looked surprised. She said to one of the doctors they'd have to make sure it was good. That's why we had to wait so long that day. They were making sure it was good."
Tears appeared in Lucy's eyes. "I didn't know that he paid for that. That was so much money…"
"Money is not an object for us," North said.
"We've got plenty of that," Toothiana said with a gleaming smile.
"How?" Lucy asked.
"Investing and other ventures," Bunnymund said.
"Is even easier now," North mused. "With online transactions and all."
While his friends were talking with Lucy, Jamie sat in stunned silence, trying to process the amount of good that Pitch had done in his son's life. His entire body felt strange, almost painful in its sense of shock in the moment. He looked up to see Lunar staring at him. His voice, though quiet, cut through the other conversation without effort, silencing everybody else.
"And he continued to visit and do all of that while having extreme panic attacks every time he saw you. His injuries were shocking, to say the least, in both depth and number."
Jamie struggled to put together all the information, but he couldn't do it. He stood abruptly, feeling trapped by all those eyes and the memory of his own accusation. Without a word, he turned and set off in no particular direction, heading down one hallway as he thought on what he'd learned about his old enemy. Jackson made to go after him, but Nightlight caught him.
"No. Let him go. He needs to think."
"What do we do then?" Jackson asked.
Lunar took a deep breath then smiled. "How about I show you the banquet hall? You won't believe it."
Jackson nodded, but he looked back over his shoulder and hoped his father would understand. Somehow. The others were hoping the same thing. Bunnymund could feel it. But he could feel no hope from Prism. And it worried him.
