Heads up for a bit of violence in this one.
Hello again, all! Welcome to the last part of the Power Hungry arc. I hope you enjoy it :3
Disclaimed.
...
Power Hungry Part III
...
By the time May realised Jack was not, actually, 'right behind her', she was already too far away and too lost in the trees to quickly find her way back.
"Oh, you absolute idiot," she sighed, glaring off in the direction she'd come from. What was he thinking?! He was a winter spirit! Going up against a villainous cur with all the powers of summer! Did he want to die?! "You'd better be alright, Jack, or I'll kill you myself," she declared, hurriedly retracing her steps. She only hoped she'd make it in time.
She barely made it ten strides before something barrelled into her for the umpteenth time in so many hours. But instead of knocking her off her feet (like all the other times), this time she was squeezed within an inch of her life. Great, I escaped having my powers stolen and murdered just to have all my insides come out through my throat instead.
Yeah. Not today. She was sick and tired of being pushed around.
May raised her legs as high as she could and kicked backwards. Her captor grunted at the unexpected attack and dropped her, allowing her to stagger back to her feet, spin to face them, and prepare for further conflict. Her defensive stance immediately dropped.
"Aaaaaaaaah," Lleu groaned, hunched over with his arms wrapped protectively around his stomach. "Whyyyyyyy?"
May stared at him, simultaneously furious and relieved. "You scared me!"
"Well, I'd say you got your revenge. My stomach will never be the same again."
"What are you doing here?"
"We saw you and Jack blow back the storm," a new voice answered, and May glanced up in time to see a small mob of children emerging through the trees. Ceres was right behind them.
What were children doing here? Why would Lleu and/or Ceres have agreed to allow them to get anywhere near the woods with such a danger so close? It didn't take a genius to figure these were the children that had helped the Guardians stop Pitch Black, and therefore Jack's believers, but that didn't make things any better. Pitch Black was one thing, but he was after the children's fear, not their lives. May doubted their current adversary would think twice about ending the lot of them once and for all.
And then another thing occurred to her.
Almost hesitantly, she took a large step to the right. The children's eyes followed her. She moved back to her original position. Once again the children tracked the movement.
"They can see me," she whispered, overcome with an emotion she couldn't recognise. Perhaps it was unbridled joy? But surely not; she'd gone over six hundred years without caring whether or not mortals could see her – she had plenty of immortal friends, after all. So what was it then?
"You okay?" Lleu was watching her, his expression calculating.
May turned to face him, forcing her attention away from the six little faces staring up at her. "Yes."
"You sure? You look a little pale."
She filed this information and her unidentified emotion away for later analysis. "Yes, I'm sure. We don't have time for chit chat. Jack needs us."
"Where is he?" the apparent leader of the children asked. His brow was furrowed in concern.
"Back with the spirit."
"You left him to fight that thing alone?!" Ceres gaped.
"Of course not!" May turned on her heel and continued with her initial trajectory. The others quickly hurried after her. "He told me he would be right behind me."
"So he lied."
"Did not!"
They all stopped in their tracks as Jack suddenly burst through the trees. He was a tad dishevelled and there were a few twigs in his hair, but overall he seemed perfectly fine. His grin was both sheepish and proud, but his expression grew quizzical when he spotted the children. Before he or anyone else had the chance to comment, Lleu swept him up in to a bone-crushing hug, much like May had been, except this time he had the decency to shout 'Oreo' by way of warning. Nevertheless, Jack looked like he did not appreciate the intrusion on his personal space.
"What about the spirit? What happened?" Ceres demanded.
Jack shrugged Lleu off him. "I managed to get in a lucky shot. It should be down for a little while. Long enough to let us come up with a better plan than 'attack' and 'run away', anyway." He glanced nervously over his shoulder. "We should put some distance between us, just to be on the safe side."
"Good plan," Lleu grinned, slapping him playfully on the back. "And on the way I can regale you with how I stole your believers from you."
Jack raised a brow but allowed himself to be ushered off. The kids followed, a million questions on their lips. May and Ceres took up the rear.
...
...
Jack wanted to die, which was kind of ironic given that was pretty much exactly what he was doing. He was on his hands and knees in the snow, trying to ignore the way the cold made his exposed skin ache, as he coughed up yet more water. He wiped the few dribbles that dripped down his chin on his sleeve and looked, disorientated, in the direction the spirit had gone.
Of course he hadn't won in a one-on-one battle. What had he been thinking? Winter against summer had bad odds for him even on the best of days. Against someone as ruthless as that particular spirit he didn't stand a chance. But he'd needed to give May a chance. He refused to let what happened to Lleu happen to her. Or worse.
Hence why he was here now, coughing up half the lake. Indisputably human.
After he'd found out just what, exactly, was going on, Jack had idly wondered what would happen to him if his powers were to be stolen. He had died, after all. Part of him had considered the possibility that he would immediately return to being dead. He hadn't considered that he might drown and freeze all over again. At least this time he wasn't sinking in the lake.
His coughing continued and he brought up even more water. Where was it coming from? His lungs? When he'd become Jack Frost, had all that water he'd taken in as a human just frozen and stayed there? But he didn't remember having any difficulty breathing as a spirit.
Jack looked up at the sky, hoping maybe the moon would be there to give him answers, but the sky was still darkened by storm clouds. Manny was nowhere in sight. The still-bitter part of him doubted he would answer even if he'd been in plain sight.
But now was not the time for brooding. The spirit had stolen his powers, disguised itself as him, stolen his staff, and gone after the other seasonals. He had to do something.
Jack gathered all the strength he could and pushed himself to his feet. The elevation made him woozy but he pressed on, staggering like a drunkard in the direction he'd seen May run, and hugging himself against the cold. He would have snorted at the irony of a winter spirit being cold if he hadn't been in the process of bringing up yet more water (seriously, how much was in there?!) and struggling to catch his breath.
The fifteenth time he stumbled and had to lean against a tree to stop himself falling over, Jack realised he needed help. By the time he found the others either he would have keeled over and died or they would have. The former was undesirable. The latter was unacceptable.
An idea came to him. It was a pretty good idea, actually, though Jack doubted he'd be able to pull it off, especially without the wind on his side, but it was better than what he was currently doing, so Jack placed his thumb and forefinger into his mouth and blew. The sound he produced was more of a sad wheeze than the whistle he'd been going for and the effort of trying made him hunch over and choke some more. There wasn't a chance Frostwind had heard that. He waited for the fit to pass, took several deep breaths, and tried again.
The results were much the same, and this time Jack couldn't remain standing. His now numb hands and feet barely managed to support him as he heaved. Geez, did I swallow the whole lake or something? he mused, staring at the puddle he'd created. It would probably freeze in a few minutes.
He was scared, Jack realised. He was scared of dying again, alone this time, without even the moon's presence for comfort. He was scared for his seasonal siblings, that the spirit would find them, trick them, and then kill them. He was scared for the Burgess kids and what it would mean for them if the spirit gained all their powers; he still didn't know what the thing really wanted beyond 'rule the world', but he'd seen enough movies to know that a plan like that never ended well for regular people.
How long would it take, he wondered, before the Guardians found out what had happened? Would they try to avenge him? He hoped not. He would hate for them to share his fate.
An animalistic snort echoed in the silence of the woods. Jack's head shot up. He easily spotted the lone Nightmare watching him from the shadows a short distance away.
"P-Pitch," he wheezed. "G-get P-" his half-formed sentence dissolved into another fit. His chest rattled sickeningly with each laboured breath. By the time he had the energy to look up again, the Nightmare had disappeared.
...
...
"Mother!"
Seraphina sipped at her tea as one of the sprites that helped upkeep her home burst into the room. "What is it?" she asked.
"There is a Nightmare in the meadow!"
The cup stilled in her hands before being slammed back onto its saucer. "There is one of Pitch Black's Nightmares here?" she demanded, already on her feet and sweeping through the doorway.
"Yes, Mother," the sprite struggled to keep up with her. "But so far it has not attacked."
Seraphina narrowed her eyes. With a wave of her hands the large wooden front doors burst open on a gust of wind.
There was indeed a Nightmare in the meadow, loitering on the edge of the forest and shifting with nervous tension. But she could come up with no explanation for its presence. If Pitch wished to see her, though this she greatly doubted, then there were more direct methods.
"State your business!" she ordered, gesturing for her sprite to fall back as she continued on to the horse alone.
The Nightmare whinnied loudly, twitching and dodging her as she approached. It was right to be nervous; the last time a Nightmare had dared to enter her home it had left one grain at a time.
But all thoughts of what she could do to this creature fled Seraphina's mind upon hearing its message. "What?" Her eyes narrowed, searching for any hint of deception. "Very well. You will carry me."
The Nightmare made a noise of protest and skirted away from her outstretched hand.
"You will carry me," Seraphina repeated, a hard edge to her tone, "or you will find yourself turned into a new glass sculpture for my garden."
The Nightmare stilled, head bowed.
"As I thought."
With the Nightmare complying, it was an easy enough matter to mount and disappear into the shadows, a call of parting to her nature spirits left in her wake.
...
...
As soon as her feet touched the snow of Burgess, Pennsylvania, the Nightmare bolted. Seraphina wasn't overly surprised. For beings of fear, they were remarkably easy to frighten. And speaking of fear...
"Jack!" Seraphina gasped, scrambling over to the small figure lying curled up in the snow. There was a puddle of semi-frozen water around his head and from the sound of his breathing she had a fairly good idea of where it had come from.
More concerning, though, was the blue tinge to his skin – far more deathly than she was accustomed to – and the fact that he was so obviously human.
At the sound of her voice, Jack's eyes cracked open. "Mom?" he croaked, trying and failing to push himself upright.
"Yes, it's me," Seraphina reassured him. "Try not to move." She placed one hand on his chest. "Take a deep breath, and then slowly breathe out."
On his exhalation, she guided the remaining water in his lungs up and out through his mouth. While he struggled to regain his breath, she turned the patch around them into a sanctuary of springtime, directing all the melted snow away. Vines grew at barely a touch and wove themselves into a makeshift blanket, which she gently wrapped around his shoulders. He leaned into her warmth.
"What did this to you?" Seraphina asked.
"W-was a... spirit thingy," Jack replied. "N-not sure w-what, exactly. S-stole L-leu's powers and m-mine. W-went after them."
Seraphina bit back her boiling rage. Jack did not deserve to be on the receiving end of her fury. "I want you to stay here. Keep warm and do not move until I return. Understand?"
Jack nodded mutely, wrapping himself further in the blanket until only the top of his head was visible.
"I shan't be long."
This so-called 'spirit thingy' was about to learn why it was unwise to mess with Mother Nature.
...
...
Jamie was officially confused. Since joining them, Jack had barely even glanced at him or the other Burgess kids, let alone asked what they were doing there or even telling them it was too dangerous and that they should go home. Instead, he was walking alongside Lleu, nodding with apparent interest as the ex-summer seasonal went on and on about how much being human sucked, how much he loved Jamie and the others, and how he wasn't going to 'give them back'.
They weren't even trying to come up with a plan; they were just sort of walking aimlessly through the woods in the opposite direction to where the psycho, power-stealing whackadoodle was. And from the looks of things, Jamie wasn't the only one feeling like something was wrong. All it took was a glance over his shoulder to see May Queen frowning at the back of Jack's head. Jamie slowed his pace until he was walking beside her.
"You see it to?" he asked her.
May glanced at him. "It's possible I'm imagining things, but something doesn't feel right to me. Lleu sees it to."
Jamie followed her gaze. From the excited way he was gesturing and smiling, it didn't seem like Lleu suspected anything was amiss.
As if sensing his confusion, May continued, "You see the way his shoulders are tense? He's preparing for fight or flight. Although, given that Jack is concerned in this, I think it would more likely be fight."
"Do you think we should just ask Jack what's wrong?"
May pursed her lips. She opened her mouth to respond but whatever she'd been about to say was cut off when Jack and Lleu suddenly stopped walking.
"This is probably far enough," Jack said, examining their surroundings.
"So now what? We plan?" Lleu asked. "I don't know what you've got in mind, but I hope it's good."
"Oh, don't worry, I know exactly what to do."
Jamie frowned. That sounded unnecessarily ominous. He realised exactly what was going on the second 'Jack' made his move.
True to what May had said, Lleu had been tensed and was prepared for the blow suddenly swung his way. It didn't matter either way, though, because Jamie threw his weight against 'Jack', knocking them both over before Lleu was in any real danger.
"You're the psycho, power-hungry whackadoodle!" Jamie declared, struggling to pin the squirming spirit beneath him. "Where's the real Jack?!"
The spirit stilled at the proclamation. "Whackadoodle?" it repeated in bafflement. After a moment it nodded in acceptance. "Well, I suppose you're not wrong."
Jamie's hands started to sting as the spirit's body temperature drastically lowered.
"Why don't you let go, kiddo?" the spirit said in a complete mockery of Jack's usual voice. "This isn't about you, but I won't hesitate to involve you if you don't back off."
"They're my friends, which makes it my business," Jamie snapped. It was unnerving that this thing had the same face as his favourite Guardian, but he reminded himself that it wasn't Jack. "Where's Jack?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," the thing smiled savagely. A powerful gust of wind swept through the clearing and, coupled with a shove from the spirit, threw Jamie off.
"Jamie!" several voices cried.
Jamie hit the ground hard and rolled across the snow. That's going to hurt in the morning, he groaned. He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked back at the scene. A full-on fight had broken out, with May and Ceres at the forefront, and Lleu scowling while trying to cover Jamie's friends. They were clearly doing their best, but the whackadoodle still had the advantage.
"What do we do?" Jamie murmured. What could they do? He, his friends, and Lleu were humans, powerless, and very vulnerable. May and Ceres weren't, but the spirit had power of winter and summer. They wouldn't be able to hold out for long, no matter how optimistic Jamie pretended to be. "What do we do?"
"You have done enough," a woman's voice said quietly. A warm hand landed on his shoulder.
Jamie jumped at the unexpected arrival and lifted his head back as far as he could. A woman was crouched beside him, watching the scene playing out before them. She was beautiful, but very ethereal. Jamie had no doubt she was a spirit, and obviously one he believed in given that he could see her.
She smiled down at him. "Thank you for showing your concern for my nature spirits. Go to your friends and find some cover. I can't promise this will remain G-rated. Consider yourself warned." She retracted her hand and stepped boldly out towards the fight.
Jamie stared after her. 'My nature spirits', she'd said. Did that mean she was...? Jamie scrambled back to his feet and hurried over to where his friends were, but kept an eye and an ear on the woman.
"May, Ceres, enough," she said.
The two seasonal spirits immediately halted their attack.
"Mother," May breathed, far more at ease than Jamie had seen her.
The whackadoodle likewise paused, a quizzical eyebrow raised. At the sight of it, the woman – Mother Nature, Jamie highly suspected – snarled.
"You dare to attack my spirits?!" she stormed forwards, her pretty face scrunched up in fury. "You dare steal their powers, distract them from their duties, leave them to die?!"
The whackadoodle was uneasy, but not scared. "Well this is unexpected," it said. "I didn't think I'd have to face you until after I'd dealt with these guys. Aren't you supposed to be a neutral party?"
Mother Nature raised her hand. The whackadoodle's eyes widened and it grabbed at its neck like it was being choked.
"I don't think you understand just who you're dealing with," Mother Nature said, her tone dark. "I am Mother Nature, commander and overseer of every natural thing on this planet. That includes the oxygen you breathe," she tossed her head and the ground beneath them began to shake, "and the earth you stand on. The seasonal spirits are my children, and your attack on them is very much an attack on me. If you thought for a moment that I would allow you to run unchecked, then you are in for a rude awakening."
The tremors stopped and the spirit dropped to the ground, apparently able to breathe again. It looked up at her with a vicious grin and laughed. "Ah, just as proud as they say, it seems."
Mother Nature raised a brow. "You seem to have a death wish. I'd be happy to help you achieve it."
"Aw, you wouldn't hurt little old Jacky, would you?" it pouted with Jack's face.
"Jack? No. You, on the other hand..."
Thunder rolled across the sky. Jamie noted the dark clouds were crawling towards them. Before anyone had time to think, lightning streaked down. The whackadoodle lit up like a Christmas tree.
It was over in a second, and when Jamie's vision cleared enough to see, the spirit was crumpled on the ground.
"Oh, you're not dead," Mother Nature rolled her eyes, kicking it with her foot to roll it onto its back. "I wouldn't let you off that easy. You'll be lucky if I let you off with all your limbs." She reached down and lifted it by its collar. "Now, you're going to give back every ounce of power you stole."
"Oh, am I?" the spirit croaked, face still split in amusement. "And what if I say no?"
Mother Nature pressed her free hand to the side of its face. The whackadoodle screamed. "That's what," she said monotonously. "Lleu, come here."
Lleu scampered over, his face devoid of its usual optimism.
"Do you want it to stop?" Mother asked pleasantly, increasing the pressure of her touch. "Then you will return Lleu's powers to him, and then May's and Jack's, too. Then it will stop."
"I could just let you kill me," it cackled. "Then none of your precious babies will get their powers back and poor little Jack will die. If he hasn't already, of course."
Lleu punched it with enough force to knock it out of Mother's grasp. "What did you do to Jack?!"
The thing only laughed harder.
"I think you might've knocked a few screws loose," Mother muttered.
"I think you're right," Lleu replied.
"I tire of this," she sighed.
"What're you gonna do?" the spirit asked, getting back to its feet and wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of its mouth. "Kill me? Torture me?" Jack's features had started to fade, mixed in with those that Jamie recognised as Lleu's, and some of May's.
"No." She turned to Ceres. "Ceres, take the children home. I will have Jack come see them once everything is the way it should be."
Ceres looked like she had a few choice words to say about that arrangement but swallowed her protests. Jamie reluctantly allowed himself to be led away. He doubted Mother Nature would let Jack die, but that didn't do much to ease his fears.
...
...
Jack knew there was a battle going on. It wasn't hard to figure out; there were shouts and bangs and tremors, all coming from the same direction. He only hoped Mother had enough sense not to destroy the whole town.
He was still cold, but the haven Mother had created was helping, and it was far easier to breathe when he wasn't coughing up a lung. His chest still ached, though, and he had a feeling he wasn't going to get out of this without some sort of illness. Assuming, that is, that he didn't get his powers back or that if he did get them back they didn't cancel out any sickness like last time (but last time he'd been dead, so he wasn't sure how well it carried across).
The sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention and he pulled his vine blanket down to free his head. Mother, May, and a still-human Lleu trudged towards him, all with grim expressions, and Mother dragging the unconscious form of the spirit that had stolen his powers behind her. Lleu visibly brightened at the sight of him and broke away from the group.
"You look cosy," he said, a small smile on his face as he noted Jack's surroundings.
"Wouldn't say cosy, but better than I was before," Jack returned.
"I'm glad you're alright. You know, I'm going to have to come up with another nickname now."
"Maybe not," Jack looked past him to Mother.
"We can't do this here," she told him. "Our mentally unstable friend here is refusing to cooperate. There are, however, several spirits that could easily just possess it and do the job for us. More than one of them owe me a favour."
Lleu helped Jack get to his feet and passed him his staff. "So where are we going?"
"Africa."
Jack groaned.
...
...
"And you're okay now?" Jamie asked, seated on the edge of his bed.
"Yeah, we're fine," Jack ruffled his hair. "No lasting damage."
"So what happened to the spirit?"
Lleu, perched on the windowsill, shrugged. "Can't say for sure; Mom was downright scary when we asked so we figured it would be safer just to let her deal with it." He jumped down into the room and started examining the posters on the walls. "Doubt we'll be seeing it again, though."
Jamie didn't know whether to feel relieved or unnerved. Mother Nature had been scary enough to him in that short moment he'd seen her; he couldn't imagine how scary she'd have to be to freak out Jack and Lleu. Maybe not knowing the answer was for the best.
"Anyway, I'd better head off before someone whines about me 'neglecting my duties'," Lleu rolled his eyes. He trotted back to the window and leapt up. "See you in summer, kid," he waved. "Later, Snow Cone!"
"Snow Cone?" Jamie quirked a brow once the summer seasonal was gone.
"Honestly, I don't know," Jack shook his head fondly. "It's probably better to not ask questions and just roll with it when it comes to him."
"Yeah..."
"So, hey," Jack grinned at him, "how about that snow day?"
Guest Review Responses:
Guest: Sorry, sorry, I got caught up with my other hobby (crocheting). I would have happily told you I was updating today, but unfortunately FFN doesn't allow replies to guest reviews ^^;
XMENEVO: Here you go ^w^
Guest: Today! Surprise!
Dingbat: Hahaha yes I am, why thank you for noticing ;) Yeah, I thought it was a bit dialogue-y, too. Hopefully this one is better ^^; Lleu likes hearing the sound of his own voice :P He's probably one of the hardest characters to write because he just refuses to do what I want him to (beaten only by Pitch and this stupid spirit thing) Thank you!