"You really don't have to- " said Tooth for the tenth time or more like after every single occasion when Jack arrived with an other bag of boxes and started to find their places on the Wall of Memories. He would have liked to point to her that he at least owed to her with that, but he didn't want to repeat himself, and on the other hand she did needed his help. She could be distracted by the Tooth Boxes.
Tooth was too fascinated by every single one. It gave the expression as she looked to them like she would have met with a family member. Her eyes gloved in joy and excitement and her smile reached her eyes. She could be easily mesmerised by the memories inside. She had stories worth sharing about all the kids. Jack should have said a word about the delay but the Guardian of Memories seemed so delighted and after defeating Pitch, he didn't want to bring it up to her. Jack felt she deserved happiness, so then he patiently waited for the little break until she finished the latest story and got disturbed by another person's memories. That was the time when she wasn't expected the other as an audience and Jack could fly away with the empty bag for another round.
The little fairies undoubtedly could have been quicker but Jack first of all gladly helped getting back the boxes from Pitch's Lair, and on the second, he rather undertook the task then minding the other case, imaging again the fairies that place. He was sure neither them wished once more being there. Jack remembered the day after they all celebrated the new Guardian, Tooth had been walking up and down – rather flying in mid-air like a mad hummingbird – in North's Workshop. No one had to be a genius to know, she had been worried. She had almost screamed in surprise when she had realised him marking her.
"What is it, Tooth?" Jack had asked concerned. It had seemed much worse than a simple upset – and to tell the truth she could have been the fastest being upset about nearly everything.
"It's- it's really nothing, I just- " she had tried but both her words and gestures had told the situation. Jack hadn't known how but he immediately had realised the case.
"I can do it." he had said firmly, and without any second thought, she had just jumped to his shoulders and embraced him tight.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jack. You don't know what it means to me."
"I know." Jack had said then barely audible and before the other Guardians would have woken up he had got a bag from the Yetis along with of course one of North's globes and had flown away.
If he had to confess he was still a bit afraid of that cursed place but he was behaving brave for Tooth. He had promised her not to tell the others about it, partly because he wanted to keep it a secret mission as a pay for their trust in him, and on the other hand he had already led the Guardians in trouble. They really shouldn't have fallen into difficulty because of him again.
As long as Tooth's previous endless tales were echoing in his mind, he didn't care about the place's radiation. At the first time the braveness had led him, and then the stories distracted his consciousness, and now he had only a pile left. Jack collected the Tooth Boxes. He had hoped the rest would fit into the bag and he didn't have to come back again, and he had assumed luckily well. This cave made goosebumps even on his cold skin. Fortunately the boxes filled out the bag as much that he wondered to just fly away with it, but then he realised using North's globe was much quicker.
Jack knotted the bag and let out a relieved sigh. He after all was happy to leave Pitch's Lair behind in fine. He wasn't aware of the Nightmare King's whereabouts or where the Nightmare's was keeping him captured but he hoped that place was far far away from him – or at least not much near to Jack's current location. As he looked around he realised why this cave system was so eerie. Anyone would have believed the radiating came from that it was the Boogeyman's place or that the Tooth fairies had been kept here in cages, but the explanation was none of those. It wasn't the darkness here either. Pitch's headquarter was empty. It was scary because it was echoing the void. For a slight moment Jack felt that it was sucking energy out of him, like he would have been falling to endlessness. Before he could have fainted, he grabbed the bag and flew out as fast as possible.
He almost reached the Tooth Palace when he realised the Wind had led him all along, he had been too scared to be aware of the way. Tooth was just finishing with the content of the previous pile of boxes when Jack landed next to her. The female Guardian jumped to him and eagerly opened the bag but before she could have started an other tale, she stopped. Jack was gazing to nothingness and tried to calm himself down but even Tooth could hear his heart pounding.
"Jack, what is it?" the winter spirit tightened the grab on his staff.
"It's- "
"Did you see something?"
He immediately shook his head. He hadn't seen anything and that was it, there had been literally nothing. Undoubtedly the Lair had been playing a trick with him, but then why was it so painful? Standing on the middle of the cave had been like being alone and Jack felt like he would have been again all alone, fading to oblivion without Jamie and the other kids. Now he got why that was Pitch's place. The man was the centre of the Lair or the Lair was Pitch itself, Jack wondered. He didn't know why but suddenly he felt apathy for that man. As the realisation reached his mind, it grabbed him out of the shock and noticed Tooth facing with him concerned.
"Are you all right?"
"Me? Yeah, sorry, I've just got tired." he lied and grabbed the box out of Tooth's hand "Mind if I finish the rest? It would be much quicker. And I'm sure you have many other things to do."
Jack didn't care much about Tooth's reaction; he balanced five boxes within his hand and rushed to find their places. The Guardian of Memories looked to him worried but then flew away, maybe she felt too he needed some time alone. Jack gazed to the boxes, to the small figures and a familiar sound came to his mind. It was his sister's and his memories, now, Jack would have doubted they have laughed together. He felt as if he was now the right opposite of the Guardian of Fun. Maybe he was tired just as he had told Tooth, but he was clear headed recognising the figure on one of the boxes. Jack turned around and as no fairy was near to him, he sank the box into his pocket.
It was taking a few days to assemble what he should do. Then an other few needed mustering the courage to actually do that, but then on a nice day Jack decided he shouldn't defer it any more. He took a deep breath and jumped into the hole.
The Lair seemed even more abandoned than earlier and Jack got a shiver about the whole idea but he didn't stop. He knew it wasn't just the place's radiation that fear expanded the air, it was Pitch's affect, the Nightmare King was here. Maybe the man wasn't wholly himself right now, just a shadow under the bed - or even less - but he was still here. Even if the Nightmares that he had created against the Guardians and the children had turned against him, after all they were made of fear and Pitch was fear itself, he survived.
"I know it might be profane to you, but- I thought maybe even you need something to hang on." Jack explained all in a sudden as he found the kernel of the pulsating fear. The chamber on the end of the corridor seemed as if it would have incepted all the darkness from the world. Pitch was trapped inside.
Jack got out the Tooth Box from his hoodie's pocket. "Tooth would kill me if she knew about it." he was thinking aloud, but then he realised it felt like he would have talked to himself. The blackness in the chamber seemed massive. Jack could have been scared to death, he even felt his senses ringing in alarm, but he knew it was just the effect of the others presence there.
"Pitch? I know you there." he gazed to the deep darkness, but silence remained. Jack wondered what he would have reacted if the other all in sudden would have said something. Now, it was right, for his sanity too that the Nightmare King was mute - or the man couldn't even hear him. The other Guardians would have surely killed him for this. Or he even was laughed at by the Boogeyman too about this whole idea just he couldn't know about it. For a moment Jack imagined the man would have mocked him for that. 'Well, well, look who we got here. Isn't it, Jack Frost? Where did you leave your beloved mates? Or your Guardians already became bored with you?' Or you plucked the shortest and they sent you to extend an olive branch? Pathetic.'
Jack almost missed the sarcastic tone. It would take time for the man to recover, maybe an other few centuries but a spirit couldn't be killed, they just got weak. He could feel himself stronger since Jamie and his friends believed in him, and now he realised in the past he had been only the shadow of himself. Those times were a short time ago, but Jack could imagine now how desperate could the Guardians feel themselves as they had lost their believers. The children were protected by them and the children protected them. It was a synch from the beginning. Without believers a spirit was just an echo, lost in endless aloneness.
Jack crouched to the edge of the darkness and slowly slipped the box into it. He understood Pitch, maybe not his intentions but his wishes. They, spirits, after all, shared the same fear and Jack who just got on the other side saw it the most.
"I know I shouldn't have seen it but I couldn't control myself." he confessed. "She is really nice." Jack added "your daughter too." then he stayed in silence, he didn't know what else to say, should he have apologised he peeked into the man's memories or-? But then Jack just stood up and grabbed his staff. If Pitch was there the man needed time on his own, just as Jack had needed to be alone with his memories.
For a moment the winter spirit was just standing there gazing to the massive darkness just as he would have waited for something to happen - even if he couldn't tell what he was waiting for - but then he nodded and turned around. Just as quickly he had wished earlier to leave this place behind, now he was delaying to fly away. He took a few steps and freezed as some reasonable ideas came to his mind. The constant fear ceased to hunt him, he didn't feel any more the ice cold breeze of warnings any more. It was scarier than sensing it during the whole time. The lack of it was abnormal here. Jack didn't dare to turn around, he closed his eyes and focused on to concentrate, then as he opened in fine his eyes and determined to fly away he heard a faint noise. At first he thought he was just hallucinating, like a side effect of the previous impulse of fear, but then it became clear and he could make out what it was. Then again, he could hear it as clear as the owner would have been standing right behind him: "Jack?"