Finally, after not activity for, two months? I think, I'm baaaack!
Okay, spoilers for those who don't know about the canon relationship between Jack Frost and Nightlight. You have been warned.
Other titles included 'Jack, You're Nightlight' and 'How to Tell Someone he's not Who he Thinks he is'
This is my own take on the exact relationship between Jack and Nightlight, you might not agree, I just ask you be respectful when disagreeing. This would also be a sort of sequel to 'Nightlight's Legacy'
Winter was here again, and so Jack was soaring over Burgess. Not that he needed much of an excuse to visit, but it was made better by the snow he was spreading. The kids were going to be in for one heck of a snow day when they woke up.
Whistling 'Rise of Valkyries' he made his way, swooping and soaring, towards the lake, which shone in the bright moonlight. Jackie should be there around this time, and there wasn't an emergency as far as he knew.
So it confused him to find the lake empty.
"Jackie?" He called, confused, and slightly worried. She was a grown woman, about 28 now, no reason to panic. Maybe something had come up in the boring part of her life. That'll probably be it.
Jack shrugged, maybe he'd catch her another night.
That thought was shoved out of his head when there was a bright white light and a muted 'boom' from deeper in the woods. Panicked birds took flight and Jack started, looking towards where the explosion had come from.
With a concerned frown he took to the sky and flew in the direction of the explosion.
It wasn't obvious from the air where the explosion had come from, but he quickly found a clearing where a familiar figure was lying on the edge if it. A familiar figure in a blue hoodie.
"Jackie!" Jack cried, dropping out of the sky and barely even staggering from the landing before running over. She appeared to be unconscious, but unharmed, her glasses askew on her face.
Since she didn't appear to be in any danger, Jack looked around the rest of the clearing. Any snow that had settled had been blasted away by something, probably Jackie, leaving wet grass and mud exposed. Snow was still coming down and beginning to settle again, making Jackie look like she'd been dusted with icing sugar.
Off to Jack's left was a video camera and tripod that appeared to have been fixed to the ground, which was also getting a dusting. That made Jack frown, what was that doing there?
A groan from Jackie sent him spinning back towards her, watching her push herself up to a sitting position.
"Jackie!"
"Yeah?" Jackie groaned, sounding groggy and tired as she fixed her glasses and wiped the snow off her face. "Oh, hi Jack."
"You've been unconscious for moon knows how long and all you have to say is 'oh hi'?" Jack asked, incredulous.
"It's nothing to worry about." Jackie said, using the tree behind her to pull herself to her feet. Once she was up she appeared to be a bit wobbly, but otherwise stable.
Jack didn't believe her. "You can barely stand up. And there was this massive explosion from around here somewhere. What if you had been caught up in that?"
Jackie made her way over to the camera, brushing and shaking off the snow. "Okay, I guess there's reason to worry, but I'm fine."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "You say that a lot, somehow I never believe you." He was also concerned now, Jackie could wish away the snow with a flick of her finger, why was she bothering to brush it off?
"I have no injuries, I'm not mentally damaged, well, anymore than usual." Jackie said while checking the camera and brushing snow off it. "Nor have I had a massive change in personality, does that help?"
"Then why were you unconscious?"
"Overdid on my powers again. You'd think I'd learn." Jackie was now checking that the footage was okay, with the camera on mute for some reason. Jack's curiosity got the better of him and he went over to have a look.
"Why were you recording?"
"It's good to watch what I'm doing when I'm practicing, I can't see everything I'm doing."
"And you need to do that this far from the lake? And without Taboo?"
"Taboo tends to get bored while I'm practicing, and I thought I'd try a change of scenery." Jackie was packing up now, satisfied that the recording was okay.
"Okay, I know you. You wouldn't move somewhere new for 'a change of scenery' that's not like you."
Jackie shrugged. "It's true."
"Jackie, I'm over 300 years old, I can tell when someone's lying to me."
"I'm not lying."
"Yes you are." Jack looked upset. "Do you not trust me?"
"Jack." Jackie groaned, annoyed that he'd pulled that card. "You know the answer to that."
"Then why are you lying to me?"
"You quite clearly don't trust me if you think I'm lying."
"I know when you're lying!"
"How?"
"You looking slightly off centre. You're not looking at me in the eye." Jack looked very smug as Jackie looked surprised. He doubted even she knew that little tic. Granted it was a tiny thing that you'd really have to watch to notice.
Jackie sighed. "Alright. I was practicing a new power that I found out I had."
"What new power? Is this something I should know?"
"I don't know. It's not as impressive as what I can do normally, yet. Currently I just light up like a glowstick, and then when I try and channel the energy, it explodes. I'm trying to work out how to stop it exploding."
"That explains the explosion..."
"I tend to get flung back a bit, but it's nothing big." Jackie packed the camera away in a bag she'd stashed behind a tree and pulled out a torch, switching it on. "That's why I'm out here, and why Taboo isn't here, I don't want her getting hurt."
"And I'm going to guess that the camera is to help with that?"
"I'm keeping a video log of my progress. The leader of the Descendants of Ombric has an interest in this, so I'm keeping him posted." Jackie slung the bag over her shoulder and shone the torch in front of her. The light shook in her unsteady hands. "I'm going to head back now though."
"No snowball fight?" Jack asked hopefully, a snowball forming in his hands and hovering in the air.
"I'd love to, but I'm too tired, maybe tomorrow if you're around." Jackie shook her head, a small regretful smile on her face. She was still a little wobbly when she walked.
"You're walking back to the apartment?" Jack asked, knowing that if she'd over done on powers, she wouldn't be able to skate back. He didn't wait for a response he continued. "Not happening."
"I don't expect you to carry me Jack." Jackie grinned. "I'm a bit heavier than when I was sixteen."
"Theeeen, I'll walk with you." Jack said, landing properly.
"You really don't have to be a gentleman."
"What kind of uncle would I be if I let you walk back on your own like this?"
Jackie rolled her eyes. "I'm nearly 30."
"And I'm over 300, what's your point?"
"Alright. Let's go."
Both ice wielders walked through the woods. There wasn't a path this deep in the trees, so they were jumping over tree roots and pushing aside face high foliage. The moon was bright that night, but not bright enough to get through the snow laden canopy, hence the torch.
"So, when did you learn you could light up like a flashlight?" Jack asked, walking a little too slowly for his liking, but Jackie wasn't going to be speeding up any time soon.
Jackie saw no harm in telling him. "I got a message from Chrono Raib, the leader of the Descendants of Ombric. It was a very cryptic message asking me to go to Santoff Claussen."
"Wait, you went to Santoff Claussen?"
"Yes. Did North tell you about it?" Jackie ducked under a low hanging branch.
"Yeah. Said he didn't want to go back, too many memories." Jack shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do' way. "What was it like?"
"The weirdest place I've ever been to, and the most interesting. I'm not lying when I say that there was a house with slides on the outside instead of stairs."
"Anything else?"
"Don't try to go above the forest unless you enjoy being pierced with thorns."
"Of course you'd remember that." Jack rolled his eyes and slung his staff across his shoulders before jumping up and walking along a branch in the dark.
"I'm the one out of the two of us who is most likely to die, I'm going to remember things that might kill me."
"You're grinning at that." Jack commented, not needing to look down to know.
"Amused by own morbid sense of humour." Jackie assured. "Anyway I met Chrono Raib, his name is Merlin by the way."
"Seriously?" Jack was grinning now, jumping back down.
"Descendant of Ombric family, Welsh heritage, it was bound to happen." Jackie hopped over a fallen log, still feeling drained, but a bit more energetic as Jack was with her. "He seems to like being mysterious. He said some things about you and Nightlight before the grand reveal; I can glow!" Jackie ended off sarcastically, laughing.
"I can understand talking about me, but who's Nightlight?"
"You don't know?" Jackie looked over, shining the torch at him so she could look at him properly for a second before moving it back to where she was going.
Jack shook his head, then frowned. "The name sounds familiar..." He vaulted over another, larger log using his staff, before helping Jackie climb over it, much to her annoyance.
"I'm perfectly capable of climbing." She grumbled, the torch dangling off a strap on her wrist.
"You're power drained, I'm taking any chances."
"Fine. Anyway, Nightlight..." Jackie trailed off as she dropped down on the other side of the log. "That's really something you should talk to the other Guardians about. They're more likely to know about him than me."
"Well, you must know something."
Jackie really didn't want to go into what Merlin had told her, so went vague and basic.
"Well, he was one of the original Guardians, and disappeared off the map a few centuries ago. No one knows what happened to him."
"Big mystery, is that everything you know?"
"Yes." Jackie made sure to look Jack right in the eye this time with the help of the torch.
"Liar."
"What?"
"That was a really forced look. You know more."
"Damnit, I'm going to have to practice that."
"I'm going to regret telling you that tic, aren't I?" Jack asked with a wry grin.
"I'm on my way to being the world's best liar."
"Should you really be gloating about that?"
"I have to gloat about something."
"Anyway..." Jack got back on track. "You know more about Nightlight than you're saying."
"He could fly, had a spear and looked a bit like you."
"So, devishly handsome then?" the smug grin was back.
"If I agree I'm going to sound really creepy." Jackie laughed. "And I don't know, it's not as if I was around when he was."
"Then how do you know that he looked like me?"
"Going off what Merlin said."
"And how did he know? Unless he's the actual Merlin."
"No. The Descendants of Ombric can look into the past, present and future at will. I guess one of them got curious about Nightlight."
"Then surely they found out what happened to him."
"If they did they didn't tell me."
"And there's another lie."
"Has anyone ever told you that you can be really annoying?"
"I'll be even more annoying if you keep lying to me." Jack flew up and started to poke Jackie in the shoulder with his staff.
"Fine, fine." Jackie shoved the staff away, walking backwards for a second before turning back around. "You really want to know?"
"Why do think I've been asking Icicle?"
"Okay." Since he was so desperate to know, Jackie just decided to be blunt. "He fell in a lake, around about the same time someone called Jackson Overland did." Jackie sent a knowing look to Jack, who had all but stopped in his tracks. She'd already blown his mind, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to see what he would be like once she finished.
"After that, you came out. Two went in, one came out. You can do the math." Jackie finished, and it seemed that Jack's brain had crashed.
Jackie waved her hand in front of his face. "Is your brain still functioning Snowman? Hellloooo?"
Jack blinked and took a step back. "I...I don't... I don't remember being Nightlight, but I remember being Jack Overland..." Jack looked really panicked.
"Nightlight also had a history with amnesia, and he wasn't human. Maybe that has something to do with it?" Jackie shrugged, but grew concerned as Jack looked more confused. "Do you need to sit down?"
Jack nodded slowly and sat down on the ground without another word. Jackie stood awkwardly before taking off her bag and sitting down next to him. She rummaged in her bag before finding a bar of chocolate and waving it in front of Jack's face.
"Sugar helps with shock."
"Don't tell Tooth that." was the instant response and Jackie chuckled, glad to see that Jack wasn't completely out of it.
"I won't tell her if you won't." Jackie quipped as Jack took the chocolate bar.
"Speaking of Tooth, you two have been getting friendly." Jack noted, deciding to take his mind off the revelation by just talking.
"What? You disapprove Uncle Jack?"
"No, just curious." Jack took a bite out of the chocolate bar.
"I think she just wants to be friends." Jackie shrugged. "I think she also knows that the others can be a bit..."
"You're not going to say, intimidating, were you?" Jack looked amused.
"Well, you're all centuries old, so it is a little." Jackie admitted.
"What, even Sandy?"
"The Sandman is millennia old, and if what I've seen his Descendants do is anything to go by, I don't want to get on his bad side."
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that?" Jack laughed. "What about North?"
"I get the impression you could plug him into a power station and he'd be able to keep it going for a year!" Jackie laughed. "Also, ex bandit king, and just a bit too enthusiastic for my tastes."
"Fussy." Jack took another bite and spoke before swallowing. "What about Bunny?"
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Jackie shot before she really thought, and it was only Jack's snort of laughter that made her realise what she'd said.
After an embarrassed cough Jackie was silent for a seconds, trying to gather her thoughts on the Pooka.
Jack's laughter suddenly increased in intensity. "You're not scared of him , are you?"
"No." Jackie defended. "I'm just, wary."
"Why?"
"He's got a rough attitude I guess." Jackie coughed. "Anyway, sounds like you've recovered, shall we keep going?"
"Oh no, I've got to dig more into this. You're scared of the Kangaroo?!"
"I am not!" Jackie insisted. "Like I said, he's got a rough attitude, difficult to read. And the fact that he's older than the Earth doesn't help either."
Jack just snickered to himself.
"Shut up!" Jackie shoved him in the shoulder, laughing despite herself. Very few people made her feel this relaxed, even when annoyed.
Jack laughed as well, then jumped to his feet. "Let's get back before Jamie thinks you've been kidnapped."
"I don't think he'd be surprised, given some of the stuff that happens with HOG." Jackie also on her feet now, picking up her bag.
The two kept walking, Jackie still lighting up the way with the torch.
"So, the Nightlight thing?" Jackie poked carefully after a minute, Jack tensed, but didn't appear to freak out. "I would suggest talking to the other Guardians. From what I know they knew Nightlight, so maybe they could tell you more about him."
"How though?" Jack's mind was elsewhere. "How could I be Nightlight?"
"I don't know!" Jackie exclaimed. "You could be a fusion of the two for all I know! Again, ask the Guardians, they should know more about this stuff than me!"
"Okay, sorry. Didn't think you'd get so wound up." Jack mumbled.
"You're asking me questions I don't know the answer to. I find it annoying." Jackie sighed.
"I forgot, you like being a know-it-all."
"Of course I do. You only just figured that out?" Jackie shot him a grin as they were walking. "We should be almost at the lake now."
"You come out here often?"
"Every few days lately." Jackie paused for a few seconds. "I used to come here a lot when I was younger."
"Oh?" Jack rarely heard Jackie talk about when she was a kid.
"It was after Daniel, you know. Anyway, I used to wonder out here. Half hoping I'd get lost. I never did for long, but I got to know these woods pretty well. I stopped after a while, but I now I go out here to practice, so I've gotten re-acquainted."
"I thought you were an indoor kid."
"My parents were grieving, I didn't want to be around that when I felt as guilty as I did."
"I went around here when I was a kid too, Jack Overland... Wow I have to specify now."
"I don't think Nightlight had a childhood on Earth."
"Touché. But, yeah, I went out in these woods a lot as a kid."
"Anything changed?"
"The trees are a lot bigger now." Jack smirked. The trees were smaller in his memories as Jack Overland, but he still had plenty of Jack Frost memories of seeing those trees grow.
"300 years would do that. Ah, we're here." The two had reached the lake. "So, are you going to go all the way and walk me to my front door, or shall we leave it here?"
"I was going to, but, then the Nightlight thing..."
"Go think about it." Said Jackie. "I'll be alright. See you tomorrow for that snowball fight?"
"Will your powers have recovered by then?"
"Probably not." Jackie conceded. "It'll make it more fun. See you Snowman." She raised a hand in farewell before walking back towards Burgess, the wobble in her step almost gone.
I suppose I should explain the wobble. If you've read the chapter on Meridians then you'll know what I mean by power drainage, Jackie's over exerted herself and almost completely drained her meridians. If you don't know what those are, go read the chapter.
Jackie's wobbly because an energy that she's used to always being there is almost gone. It has no real physical effect on her physical energy from respiration in the cells, it's just a shock and the weakness she's feeling is more psychological than anything else.
Since it's not a complete drain and she's more used to it now that she's older (and it happens almost every time she tries to use Nightlight's power) it will only take her a few days to be back to full strength.