Author's Note: So I was thinking of how I wanted the next chapter to go and then this plot bunny attacked and I just had to. So WARNING, this interlude does involve plot, but it is as angsty as it can get. It has character death and just.. terrible things, really. It introduces a character that won't show up until later plot, but if you want to skip the angst, then skip this interlude. None of it gets better. I'm a terrible person, I know. You can decide for yourselves if this particular wizard is Ombric or not. :)

This interlude relates way back to the mysterious letter Lillian got. So if you're curious about that, then you might want to brave the angst. As always, thanks to all my reviews, follows and faves. Consider this a bit of filler while I plot out the next chapter - which will not have the apocalypse.

As a forewarning, I'll need future plot ideas, since all I have is what's going on now, Gethen, and this other plot I keep referencing and that's it! Something might come to me later, but if you want the story to keep going then please send me some ideas!


Interlude 15: Everything is Possible

As Winter prepared to attack Spring, someone (besides Gethen) was passively watching the battle as it progressed. He was rather tall and old - very old, with long white hair and a long white beard. He wore a Gandalf styled hat, though he had worn it long before Gandalf had even been thought of. He complimented his hat with wizard style robes.

He glanced at his attire with a bit of bemusement. Why not wear robes? He was a wizard after all. He knew that they had long since been out of fashion, but a wizard in a button up shirt just didn't have that certain flair. His robes certainly did though. They were a deep blue-black and had silvery white swirls embroidered along the edges (so did his magnificent hat) that reminded him of the night sky. In the center of his hat by the brim, a pretty white jewel sparkled that looked a little like the moon. In the corner of the room lay his trusty staff, unneeded at the moment.

He smiled at the thought of himself in a button up shirt and pants and then focused his attention back to the mirror he was looking at. It was a medium sized oval, with a silver frame. But it wasn't the only mirror in the room. The wall was covered in hundreds of mirrors, each and every one showing not the old wizard's reflection, but the reflection of a moment in time. But oh no, not any moment.

For this was the wizard's most favorite room, The Room of Possibilities. Each mirror showed a point in time, and then the mirrors around that point (they had matching frames, to make them easy to distinguish) showed the various outcomes that were possible. His favorite mirrors to watch involved the Guardians, but now he was watching the fight between Winter and Spring. He frowned as he looked to a mirror with a silver frame nearby. This one however, was a square, and square mirrors he had discovered, never had good things to show.

As he watched, he found he was right, as in this square mirror Jack Frost aimed his awkward staff at Lillian hesitantly. Jack looked at her sadly for a moment, but then another bolt of lightning nearly struck him again and he fired. Powerful blue lightning blazed from his staff, as Jack realized in horror that his supposedly small blast was much too powerful.

All Lillian could do was stare in shock as the blast sped towards her and then it struck. It blasted her right off her feet, and she landed several feet from where she had been standing. What could be seen of her that wasn't covered in her cloak or snow, looked blue and frozen solid.

Not long after, Mother Nature arrived with Jasper and August, looking very upset as she surveyed the scene and saw poor little Lillian, frozen solid in the snow. She glared angrily at Jack, but before she could say anything, Pitch suddenly arrived via a shadow from the cameraman of the news crew that was nearby.

"L-Lillian?!" he gasped when he saw her and rushed right over to her. He knelt down in the snow by her and reached out to touch her hand. It was freezing cold and it felt like ice. He stood up then, as a familiar fury swept over him. His hands clenched at his sides, and he gave Jack his most piercing glare.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" he roared at Jack.

Jack's eyes went wide and he flinched backwards from Pitch.

"..I.. I.." he faltered.

"YOU FIX HER! Do you hear me?! You fix her and then you go away! I don't ever want to see you again!" Pitch glared at Jack with absolute hatred in his eyes. It was the sort of look that long ago, a certain general might have given Nitemares and dream pirates.

Jack closed his eyes as if warding off a blow as Pitch's next words struck him.

"All you do is make a mess of everything!"

Tears filled Jack's eyes as he opened them, and his vision grew wavery. He looked completely crushed.

"..I.. I CAN'T..!" he cried out in anguish as the storm grew even more powerful. Fueled by Lillian's burst of spring magic, and now Jack's emotionally out of control Winter magic, the storm grew beyond even what Mother Nature could end.

The elderly wizard tsked at this bleak outcome. He certainly hoped that didn't happen. But as he tore his gaze away from that particular mirror, he noted with dismay that the oval mirror seemed to be surrounded with smaller square ones, each more disastrous than the last. Most of them revolved around Jack accidentally killing someone with his wildly out of control staff and then practically creating another ice age in his grief.

First Lillian was frozen, then in another outcome was Pitch, and in yet another Sandy arrived to save the day, but wound up in the way of the blast meant for Lillian. Sandy had survived Pitch, only to be irreversibly frozen by Jack. Another had Mother Nature appearing at precisely the wrong place and time.

One of the worst was North using a snow globe to appear in the sleigh with Bunny right in the middle of the fight. Both North and Bunny had been frozen, only to be shattered by a stray bolt of lightning.

Lillian's and Jack's emotions both spiraled out of control at that - the results were apocalyptic.

But the absolute worst was when no one had been frozen. The fight had raged on, and Mother Nature had arrived with Jasper and August. They attempted to end the fight, but they couldn't get Jack to see reason and end the storm. An increasingly frustrated Jack kept shouting he couldn't do anything, but this was seen as him being uncooperative and defiant.

So, with no other choice, Mother Nature disappeared in a huff and a few moments later, Jack began to scream as his powers were torn from him. As he lost all power, his staff failed and he began to fall from the sky. Even without Jack, the storm continued on, as dangerous as ever.

Pitch had arrived while everyone was trying to reason with Jack, and now he stared in horror with Lillian and the rest of the Seasonals as Jack fell. Pitch could see Jack's eyes were closed, as though he had passed out, and that Jack's hair was turning back to brown. When he was nearly to the ground, he looked exactly like Jasper in a blue hoodie. Pitch started to rush over to try and stop Jack's fall somehow, but before Jack could hit the ground, he faded away into nothing.

Pitch had only managed to take a few hurried steps and he stared at where Jack would have landed blankly.

Jack was.. gone?

Jasper looked particularly upset as Lillian started sobbing.

"She chose a new Winter Spirit," he said harshly.

Pitch glanced back at Jasper and August, uncomprehending.

"..What?" his voice sounded flat, and empty.

"Mother Nature," Jasper spat out. "When Jack wouldn't stop the blizzard, she chose someone else to be the Winter Spirit. Jack's powers and long life as a spirit were taken away and given to the new spirit."

"NOOOO!" Lillian wailed as her bracelet began to glow brightly.

The wizard watched sadly as eventually the storm had been thwarted by being moved far away into Antarctica, by the floundering new Winter Spirit, who ironically was related to Jamie's gossip loving History teacher.

Yes, the world had been saved in that possibility, but at what cost? Pitch, Lillian and even the Guardians had never been the same afterwards, and Pitch never spoke to Mother Nature again.

With a sigh, the wizard known as Father Time to some, looked at what might be their last hope. This last mirror was a square, but was hung in such a way as to make it look like a diamond, and Father Time had learned that diamonds weren't completely horrible.

He watched in the diamond shaped mirror as Jack readied his blast and Father Time found himself hoping for the best, but then grinned as his gaze wandered further down the wall to other, future possibilities.

Yes.. If everything worked out, it wouldn't be too much longer until that Bennett boy was paying him a visit.


Author's Note: Yeah.. Don't kill me. This was actually going to be the beginning of the next chapter, but I thought jumping to Father Time might be too sudden and the possibilities too angsty. So it became an interlude instead. You'll have to decide for yourselves if I snuck in anything that might show up later (besides Father Time). Anywho, let me know what you thought. Next chapter will have action, but 1000% less angst.