A/N : Aaaaaand here we go! :)


Millions of stars shone down on Earth from the clear night sky as the two immortals leisurely wandered across the land. Jack was curious and yet afraid to be the first to say something again. But then the Spirit of Death spoke softly.

"The Man in the Moon erased your memories, did he not?"

"Yeah."

"I thought so. Otherwise you would have recognized me. I was the last thing you had seen before you were reborn."

Jack's eyes widened as he let the words sink in. Of course, it made sense. He had been dead, even if only for a short while.

"I had already reached you when the Man in the Moon told me to not take your soul. You were not meant to die back then. He had plans for you. But you know that by now." the old lady explained friendly.

The frost teen hesitated with his next question since he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer and turn the conversation into an unpleasant direction. Eventually his need to know gained the upper hand.

"Weren't you…mad that I escaped death?"

Black eyes mustered him for a moment and a light chuckle reached his ears.

"My dear boy, it is neither my wish nor my job to determine who dies and wo does not. I come to those who are already dead and guide their souls to the afterlife."

"Oh…and I feared you were able to kill people. Phew.." Jack replied relieved.

"As a matter of fact, I am." Death retorted and noticed the teen's startled expression.

"But like I said, that is not what I am supposed to do. So do not worry about it."

The pair continued their stroll through the nightly landscape. Death seemed so calm and relaxed, as if she had all the time and patience, and probably even knowledge, in the world. They walked like this for a while before the Guardian of Fun dared to break the reoccurring silence.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Of course, my dear."

"People are dying at every moment. What happens to them when you're here right now? Do you have any helpers?"

The ancient female smiled good-naturedly.

"You are a smart boy, Jack Frost. Indeed, I do have loyal friends who are constantly roaming the Earth to guide people's souls to the afterlife. It is not possible to do this task completely on my own."

"Who are they?" the winter spirit asked too abruptly and curiously than he had intended but he wasn't able to stop himself.

Death let out a long whistle, which sounded more like a pacifying melody than the usual high-pitched sound. Seconds later she raised her left arm as if she invited something to land on it. But there wasn't anything to be seen. Only when she breathed softly against the seemingly empty space did the creature become visible. It was a raven with feathers like black silk and a metallic and very dark midnight blue shine. But the actually eye-catching part was the white skull the bird had as upper part of its head. The lower beak as well as the neck resembled those of an ordinary animal. Jack kept staring at it, unsure if he was supposed to be in awe of the being's elegance and mystic appearance or nervous due to the morbid vibe around it.

"Why couldn't I see it at first?" the youth inquired hesitantly.

Dark manicured fingernails gently stroke the bird's silky feathers.

"No living being, no matter if mortal or immortal, human or animal, can see my ravens. Only I can see them and make them visible. They prefer to stay unnoticed." the older spirit explained when the creature shot a suspicious glare at the guardian.

Surely no good idea to try to pet it if he wanted to keep his fingers, Jack thought.

"Do not take it personally, they simply are not made for interacting with anyone but me, unless they fulfil their duty."

The bird climbled on its mistress's shoulder, where it continued to muster the strange boy who was paradoxically able to see it.

"How many of those do you have?"

For a moment Jack feared his interrogation might get on the dark lady's nerves, but it seemed like nothing could rip her out of her everlasting state of inner peace.

"If you know how many people die on average each day, then you have the answer."

"Wow…" was all he could come up with.

Considering Tooth already had an army of fairies, the sheer idea of the amount of death ravens blew his mind. But it made sense. Every few seconds someone died, young or old due to illness, accidents, crimes or natural causes. Only children of certain ages lost their baby teeth. Even though it was still a fairly large number, the number of daily deaths easily surpassed it. It was a gloomy thought.

"Now you will understand why my ravens cannot even be seen by other spirits. They are around you wherever you go. It would be an eerie sight for many and distract them from their own duties."

"Indeed..." Jack muttered.

Death glanced at the frost teen , sensing that he hesitated to continue despite his curiosity begging him to do so.

"There is more on your mind, is it not? Do not be afraid to ask."

" You've answered quite a bunch of questions already. I must be getting on your nerves, sorry about that."

"I would not be here if I did not want to talk. A nice conversation now and then is worth more than gold, at least for me." she smiled and halted to gaze at the stars for a moment.

"Yeah, being lonely is no fun…" Jack thought aloud.

"Be assured, I am way past the feeling of loneliness. I have learned to value the life I have. And my ravens are always around to keep me company." the black lady smiled and gently patted the head of the raven, which was still sitting on her shoulder.

"How can you be so…nice and positive when you have to witness people dying every day? It must be so sad and depressing. How do you deal with it so well?"

For a second the elder woman's face turned serious and Jack instinctively flinched the tiniest bit, worrying he had eventually gone to far. To his relief her expression softened again and she took a shallow breath before starting to explain.

"Death itself is not sad in the slightest. Not for the people dying. The friends and family of those, yes, they suffer. It is not easy for them to let go and say goodbye. But when you have seen what I have seen, you realize that death is not a punishment, it is a release. Wars, diseases, hunger, abuse, torture, rape and poverty…humanity has brought evil over themselves for millenia and instead of learning from the mistakes of their ancestors, they repeat them and continue to raise the level of cruelty progressively. Of course I am well aware of the fact that there is still good to be found and that there are people who are trying to make this planet a better place. And yet, you should not mourn for the people who have left this world, you should mourn for those who have to fight their way through life still."

Jack couldn't believe what he had just heard. The bitterness towards humanity stood in such a harsh contrast to the warmth and kindness he has experienced from the ancient female until now.

"But…don't you think it's sad at all when someone dies? When they were young and had a good life and then are ripped out of it? When it's suddenly all over?"

The Spirit of Death's dark eyes met his cerulean ones and once again the benevolent look like that of a loving grandmother returned to her face.

"Oh my dear winter child, death is not the end. Imagine you live in a gigantic city. You have everything your ever wished for but after decades it gets boring. You need something new, a new experience, a new adventure. So you decide to move to another city, far away in another country, unsure of what will await you but ready to face the challenge while knowing you have to spend a certain amount of time there.

This is what happens in the afterlife. Souls of all kinds of races from countless planets gather there to recover from their latest lives and from what they have experienced there. They enjoy the simple things like spending time with long lost family members and friends, traveling or following their hobbies. But even the most perfect life gets boring after a while, so many of them choose to be reborn. As you see, life on this planet is just a small stage of someone's whole existence. A lesson for their soul."

Saying that Jack's mind was overwhelmed by all that information would have been an understatement. The more he thought about it the more it made sense, though. The possibility of being reunited with his family after so many centuries was relieving, something he could look forward to. Even if thinking about his own death this way was accompanied by a rarther morbid off-taste. It shouldn't matter anyway. He was immortal after all, just like all the other spirits.

"Does everyone actually learn their lesson? I mean, there is quite a lot of evil people around…"

A frustrated shallow sigh left the death lady's mouth.

"Sadly not…not at all. I am sure you have witnessed yourself what horrible crimes humans have been committing. If I was in charge such rotten souls would not get the opportunity to repeat their felony all over again. But the higher entities who are resposible for the afterlife believe in second chances…and obviously third, fourth, fifth ones and so on."

Jack agreed that it was unfair. Why should a serial killer or child molester deserve mercy? They had made their decision and should be held responsible for it. Probably the whole rebirth-procedure was more complicated than he could imagine. If those entities destroyed what they considered evil souls, then they would be murderers themselves. Suddenly his own task of bringing winter and spreading fun seemed extraordinarily simple.

"I apologize for steering this conversation into such a grim direction. No wonder that people avoid me and I usually stay away from them myself." Death chuckled sarcastically, what seemed totally out of character for her.

But Jack could sense the underlying sadness in her voice.

"No need to be sorry. I know what it's like to have negative thoughts, even though people might expect me to be in good mood 24/7. If you want to talk, I'll gladly be there." the frost teen smiled.

The Spirit of Death stared at him for a moment, first unbelieving, then relieved.

"Thank you, my dear. I have been afraid of scaring you. Like I mentioned, other spirits usually prefer me to stay far away from them. They do not hate me, at least I hope so, but most of them are afraid of me and what I am able to do. They know I have the power of taking someone's soul. Even though they are aware of the fact that it would be against the rules, they still prefer to not risk anything."

"I'm sure the guardians wouldn't be like that." Jack interrupted her convinced.

"Well…once I met the Sandman. He was giving a mortally ill little girl one last wonderful dream before I showed up. I cannot say he was happy to see me, as you can imagine. He stayed polite but seemed more than relieved when I left again. A similar incident led me to meet Nicholas St. North. It happened on Christmas Eve many years ago. He brought gifts to a household, where a boy of around 3 or 4 years was sleeping in the living-room. The poor thing had an inherent cardiac defect and died of a heart failure that night. Needless to say, Nicholas' reaction reflected that one of the Sandman almost identically. I have not met the Tooth Fairy nor E. Aster Bunnymund yet, but I am convinced they would show a similar attitude towards me."

"I know them pretty well by now. They love children and take their jobs very seriously. Of course did they act reserved and distant and probably even scared when they had to witness how a child, someone they swore to protect, died in front of their eyes. I can't imagine they blamed you for it. You didn't kill anyone, you just did what you're meant to do." Jack explained.

The black-clad woman smiled at him with so much warmth that you could think they had been friends for decades, if not centuries already.

"Oh my dear boy, I wish I had dared to contact you earlier."


A/N : Next chapter coming soon! I also plan to write a fourth one about the guardians finding out Jack befriended Death and being like "You did WHAT!?" XD