Author's Note: To make up for my very long absence, here's an extra long chapter! It's a long story, but I had some health issues that prevented me from writing for a few weeks. I had actually started this chapter and got partway through it before the issues came along. Then when I was in front of my computer again, I realized I didn't like where the story was going since I had something planned for the future and realized I kinda wrecked it. It wasn't anything major, just something cute and I was sad that this change was already posted in the previous chapter, so I have to suck it up. So after sulking for forever about it, I told myself to get over it and finally finished off this chapter.
I realized that my Interlude about Father Time and refrences to the mysterious future plot that I'm eagerly awaiting have been really confusing. CrossoverJunkie was speculating how Jamie brings about the better possibility, which would be an oval mirror. Just so you know, Jamie doesn't bring it about. He will go on this adventure no matter what, and there is a chance he could fail. The letter writer implies that he almost did fail and wishes to help bring about a better ending this time around. Trust me, you'll know when this plot has sprung into action and anything Jamie is doing right now has absolutely nothing to do with it.
DPTTrocks pointed out I forgot an important line in the movie chapters. They were so long ago though that I'm not going back to edit them. I changed so much with the plot that I forgot all about it when the scene was going on. Sorry! Maybe I'll make a reference to it at some point.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
Also, I'm very sorry to tell you that there is MAJOR angst in this chapter. There is also character death, but nothing graphic. If you think it'll be too sad for you, then you can skip it but you''ll miss out on some backstory.
Chapter Fify-Seven: Lillian's Revenge
August turned to Jack with a look that was a mixture of exasperation and disbelief.
"She is so irresponsible! What could she possibly have to do that's more important than fixing this weather?!"
Jack frowned a little at the irresponsible part and shrugged at the rest.
"How should I know? But I'm sure it's important. She knows that we have to fix the weather."
He cheered up when he looked down at his newly fixed staff and gave it a twirl. It looked just like it used to, except for the symbols of all the Seasonals and Mother Nature on the front. To Jack that made it all the more special. It would be a day that he would forever treasure since it was the one where even August, Jasper and Mother Nature all believed in him and wanted to help him.
He grinned a little and gave his staff another twirl. When it had come back to life, it had frosted over yet again, but instead of a weird frost, it was a normal frost. He didn't think he would ever get tired of looking at the symbols on it, and couldn't wait to show it off to the Guardians once everything was over.
He tore his gaze away from his staff to reply to August.
"But I'm ready to warm things up a bit. We can all work together to change the temperature."
Jasper looked uncertain as there was another boom of thunder, followed by a loud crack of lightning.
"Uh.. You guys realize it's still storming, right? There's still spring magic in the storm."
Jack looked up at the clouds and noticed that it was still snowing very heavily due to the thunder snow. If it was warmer out, it'd be pouring.
"If we can get it warm enough, the rain might help get rid of all the snow. Then it'd just be a violent thunderstorm."
It wasn't ideal, but the storm was far too big for Jack to dissipate. He knew he could get the wind to move the storm, but even the storm moving could have consequences that were unforeseen. It wouldn't be a happy time for California, but better one state inconvenienced than other states too or even whole countries.
August frowned at that since while certain parts of California do get some thunderstorms, it was unusual for them to get one this big at this time of the year. It was yet more unusual weather, but what could they do? They would have a trial just getting the weather to the proper temperatures it should be around the world.
Jasper glanced at August.
"So.. raise the temperature?"
August sighed, but realized there was little else they could do.
"I suppose, and try not to get fried in the meantime."
Marin looked up at the sky, shivering in the cold, despite the warm blanket still draped around her shoulders and North's hat still on her head.
"What about the others?"
August shook his head.
"We don't have time to go back home and get them, we have to stop this blizzard."
With that, he moved away from the others to start using his powers to raise the temperature. Marin watched him go in concern since that wasn't what she had meant at all. She was asking about the other sprites and spirits that were being held captive by Gethen.
She looked worried, but after a moment she followed after August. There was little she could do for them all by herself, and she doubted even August could stand against Gethen's powers.
I hope they're alright, she thought to herself.
As she thought this, Bunny gazed thoughtfully in her direction but then shrugged it off, since a lot of people would be hoping the storm went away. Unlike with Pitch and Sandy, he couldn't hear specific hopes. He could only sense that a person was hoping, or whether or not the hope was newer or older.
Bunny turned towards North, who proclaimed that they should get Mother Nature to the Pole.
"We leave weather up to Jack and his friends, da?" North said as he was starting to shiver a bit in all the cold. Without his hat or coat, he was a little exposed and the cold was finally starting to get to him.
Bunny nodded, then looked around.
"Still wish I knew where Pitch was," he grumbled. "I woulda thought he'd be with Jack, but.."
North waved this aside.
"He will be around. Where Jack and Lillian are, Pitch is not far behind."
Pitch frowned at a child who was squirming in their bed in discomfort from a horrible nightmare. The boy was dreaming that he had gone outside to play, only to see a frozen wasteland. The wind was biting cold and he could see his breath. The boy turned around to go back in, but the wind had slammed the front door shut behind him. He tried to open the door and for just a moment, it remained stuck. Just as the boy started panicking and knew he was going to freeze, the door was pulled open and the boy hurried inside quickly before slamming the door shut.
As the nightmare was ending, a golden stream of dreamsand floated in through the window and the boy smiled in his sleep as pleasanter dreams took over.
Pitch rolled his eyes at this as this was the third time this had happened. Was Sandy going to undermine all his hard work?! Yes, the nightmares were extra scary, but he had to hammer home to the kids that they could not go outside. He had explained his nightmares before.. But then he noticed that all the nice dreams involved the kids playing inside, and then he knew.
Sandy wasn't undermining his hard work. He was helping to hammer home the point: stay inside. He just wanted the kids to get over their fright a little. No sense in having them wet their beds.
With a nod at the golden dreamsand, Pitch melted into the shadows and moved on to the next house. They had a lot of ground to cover.
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed loudly outside Gethen's lair, but he paid it no mind. He was frowning at his mirror, watching as Mother Nature sat shivering in the sled while North and Bunny traded disappointed looks, as they had missed Pitch's entrance and believed that he hadn't come. He had come so close to causing complete devastation! That witch deserved it. They all did.
He brushed his dark hair out of his eyes impatiently as he had the mirror show him Jack Frost and the other Seasonals. He saw Marin by August and his frown deepened. She was supposed to be out causing more out of season weather, not helping to restore normalcy!
He glanced at the remaining captive spirits and sprites he still had and smirked. Maybe it was time to make good on some of his threats. He had told her what the consequences would be. He had told Jack Frost too, and what did he do? Sure, he created the blizzard and spread the snow like Gethen wanted, but now he was fixing the mess and that could not be tolerated.
He walked towards the cages and stopped in front of the remaining Winter Spirits and Sprites and looked at one in particular. The spirit, the one that had nearly died widened his eyes in horror as Gethen set about opening the cage.
"Your Seasonal didn't listen to me," Gethen said in a soft, dangerous voice. "So it looks like you'll have to pay the price."
"N-No," the spirit whispered in horror. "No!"
Gethen opened the cage and reached out towards the spirit as the spirit cowered at the back of the cage. The remaining sprites spoke angrily in crisp voices at Gethen, but they sounded so very tired and weary. Even the spirit, who was terrified looked so very tired.
As Gethen's hand closed on the wrist of the spirit, the storm raged on even more viciously than it had before. The thunder that boomed sounded as loud as a cannon and a fork of lightning struck near the mouth of his cave.
As he turned to look the entrance of the cave, he could see a large flower retreating into the ground a small girl stood in the middle of the entrance. She was framed by the flashes of lightning and her green eyes were practically glowing in anger.
Half hidden in the shadows and only visible from the flashes of lightning, for just a moment Gethen thought he could see her as the woman she would never become. Filled with righteous anger, Lillian stormed inside the cave like an avenging angel and with her bracelet glowing very brightly with her power she pointed at Gethen.
If she were taller and perhaps not still limping, she would have made a rather fearsome image. As it stood, however, she was only a child and Gethen snorted at the small Seasonal.
"What would the spirit of Spring be doing here?" he asked as he drew away from the Winter Spirit, who sighed in relief. He wasn't sure he could handle disappearing yet again.
"You hurt Jack! You almost killed me and Mother Nature!" Lillian yelled at him. "You hurt all the sprites and spirits, and all those kids with the weather!"
Gethen looked rather bored at this exclamation.
"So?" he said, clearly not impressed with her display. When she had first arrived, perhaps he had been a bit surprised at the raw power that he had sensed coming from her, but now as he looked at her all he could see was a child throwing a temper tantrum.
As he watched Lillian rage and storm at him, he failed to notice the clouds that were starting to form in the cave, right above his head.
"So you're gonna pay!" Lillian yelled as suddenly a magical wind picked up and began to blow her curls, and cause his dark cloak to flutter. His eyes, which were as black as his hair grew wide as he suddenly noticed the bracelet that was glowing and the static charge that seemed to be building up in the air.
He looked up to see a very, very dark thunder cloud right above his head. As lightning began to crackle in the cloud, causing it to light up ominously with flashes, Gethen's eyes closed on their own as he realized he had nowhere to run.
What good was decay against lightning?
Mistral, he thought to himself. Maybe I'll be seeing you soon after all.
More than three hundred years ago, Gethen Grendal* had approached a beautiful field full of spring flowers. His eyes, which were black like his hair took in the sight and sighed. Not only was it nearly the end of spring, it would soon be time for Summer. Some spring flowers might live, but most wouldn't be able to stand the heat and would wither on their own.
He bent down and gently touched a finger to a delicate petal. It instantly turned an ugly brown and began to wither. He touched more flowers and then with a gesture at the field, it all started to turn from the happy, bright colors to an ugly brown.
Satisfied with his own work, he turned to go, only to see a figure looming over him. Gethen, never particularly tall, looked up with a gulp.
Leif stood glaring at Gethen, his bright blue eyes flashing. He was muscular but lean, wearing an outfit similar to Gethen's, as was the fashion at the time. But while Gethen was all shades of black or dark gray, Leif was full of color and life. His short red hair seemed more suited for a summer spirit and even his name seemed better suited for a fall spirit, but he loved spring with a passion and spent hours lovingly crafting every single spring flower, right down to the last petal. He had in fact just finished creating the very field that Gethen had destroyed.
Hours upon hours undone in mere minutes.
He glared at Gethen with hatred. He despised Gethen more than anything. The spirit was completely useless as far as he was concerned. All he did was ruin everything! He always wrecked Leif's spring flowers, killed off the lovely summer plants that August's spirits and sprites so loved and destroyed Jasper's fall leaves every year, causing them to fall off the trees and turn brittle and crumble.
What all of the Seasonals had failed to realize, of course, was that Gethen was needed to maintain the delicate balance the seasons needed. Gethen was one of the most important spirits of all, but no one appreciated him.
Gethen backed away from Leif and gave him a wavering smile of apology.
"You shouldn't have made all those flowers so close to Summer," he said, not that it did any good as Leif still looked ready to hit him.
"Get out of here," Leif snarled at him.
"I - " Gethen started, but Leif cut him off.
"OUT!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, and Gethen ran.
He ran far away from the field, ignoring the cruel laughter of the spring sprites and the angry trills from others he could hear.
He only stopped when he was certain he was very far away from Leif and plopped down panting under a tree and ran a hand through his long hair, which was coming undone from the low pony tail he had it in.
He cast his eyes down at the ground and stared angrily at the spring green grass upon the ground, which was lush and soft.
It wasn't that long ago that Mother Nature had approached him while he was out in the woods by the house he still lived in with his father. Gethen loved nature, and his favorite pastime was to wander the woods and look at all the various plants. He often brought some paper and some charcoal as he drew the plants he would see, and make notes on them.
He devoured book after book on plants, much to his father's ire as he'd rather have his son helping with the woodcutting instead of wasting all his time in the town library.
It was while Gethen was busy sketching a tree with some interesting looking mushrooms at the base of the trunk when Mother Nature approached him. She looked regal to him somehow and seemed rather otherworldly.
She had explained to him who she was, and he had stared at her in astonishment. There was a Mother Nature and she needed him? Gethen the failed woodcutter? Gethen the short? Him?
She had smiled at his disbelief and went on to explain that the Seasons needed more balance. Her Seasonals loved their seasons very much, she had explained, but they needed more separation.
Spring flowers didn't die out properly before Summer took over. Summer flowers grew into Fall and Winter began when Fall leaves still clung desperately to the trees.
They needed a new spirit, one that would bring balance and order. She told Gethen she had been watching him for some time and saw how much he cherished all plants and nature, and how unhappy he was in his life. With a father who wouldn't even try to understand him and considered him a disappointment, combined with his short stature that made the town women laugh behind their hands at him, Gethen's life had been fairly miserable, save for his excursions into the forest.
It hadn't taken long for Gethen to accept Mother Nature's offer and before he knew it, he was exactly the same as he was before, but.. more.
He had accepted his new job from Mother Nature readily enough and knew how important it was. But apparently none of the Seasonals did, or else they didn't care. They had been outraged at Gethen destroying all their hard work.
Gethen, who loved all the plants very much, had been pained to see them wither and die at his hands. But he reminded himself that Mother Nature needed him to do this. Without the death of the plants at the end of the season, there would be no order. The delicate balance would be undone and it would all turn into chaos.
As Gethen glared down at the ground while still sitting under the tree, he angrily swiped at his eyes as he realized that his vision had grown wavery.
It seemed as if he had traded one miserable life for another.
What was worse, Mother Nature had neglected to tell him where he would be staying as a spirit. He knew he couldn't remain at his father's home, so he had waited until his father was out to fetch a traveling pack and some spare clothes and provisions. After encountering one angry Seasonal and several angry spirits he had traveled further and further away from everyone and everything, before finally stopping at a cave near the base of some cliffs.
The area was rocky and the cave wasn't overly large inside. It would be big enough for some furniture if he chose, and perhaps a mirror or something shiny so he could see his reflection to get ready for the day.
He looked around at the dark interior, the lack of life inside and out amongst all the rock and sighed. This life he now had to deal with didn't seem as glamorous as Mother Nature had made it sound.
Was he doomed to a lifetime of loneliness surrounded by nothing but gloom?
Sometimes he wondered what those Seasonals would think if they knew that Gethen had been secretly watching them. He loved watching Leif carefully crafting the spring flowers, all his love, and devotion going into them. He loved watching the Summer Spirits and Sprites helping the summer plants to grow, and Jasper painstakingly painting each and every single fall leaf on every tree.
He had thought once or twice of even offering Jasper his assistance since all he needed was a paintbrush of his own and the magical paint that Jasper used. But every time Jasper had seen Gethen near his precious leaves, he would shout at Gethen to go away and Gethen would be chased off by angry Fall Sprites.
It was at the beginning of Winter that first year that Gethen had finally caught a break. With no plants to tend to, he could rest for the first time in months. But he was cold, so cold. Even with his warmest cloak wrapped tightly about himself and a small fire going in his cave, the icy winter wind would still sneak in through the opening of his cave. He had yet to find anything suitable for a door. When he would later learn that the Seasonals all had a magical place to call home, he would wonder why he had no such thing.
They were so lucky, he thought miserably to himself one winter, as he stoked his fire. All they had to do was go out into the weather that best suited them and spread their Seasonal magic around. They could even magically teleport!
Not only did Gethen have to suffer in all sorts of harsh weather while he spread his decay, he had been forced to find his own home. Granted, it was now more homey, but still.
He lived in a cave.
He flung himself down into a chair with disgust. He had managed to make himself a rudimentary chair and table and had "borrowed" a large rug from a home to make the stone floor warmer and softer.
At least his feet would no longer be cold when he removed his boots. He had been careful to make certain that the rug only partially covered the floor, however, and that there was still room for the fire. Maybe someday he would figure out how to add a fireplace.
I'll be an expert in masonry before long, he thought sarcastically.
As the years had gone on, Gethen had lost what little pleasure he had in his job. He had started to forget how important it was to maintain the delicate balance and forgot how he had so loved the plants he now destroyed. Instead of secretly watching Leif create spring flowers with pleasure, Gethen now watched Leif just to wait for him to be done with a precious creation so that he could destroy it.
They thought he ruined their creations for the hell of it?
Fine.
He'd give them exactly what they didn't want.
He'd show them who the spirit of decay was.
It was a few more years before Gethen accidentally stumbled upon Mistral. He had gotten turned around on his way back to his cave and was lost in a harsh storm. He could practically feel himself turning blue when he saw a young man standing amidst all the snow. The young man had his arms spread wide and a grin upon his face.
Gethen was about ready to dismiss the young man as completely crazy, when he saw to his amazement that there were several sprites fluttering around the young man, helping to maintain the cold and fuel the blizzard.
The young man was a Seasonal!
It must be the mysterious Winter Seasonal that he kept hearing about. Gethen normally tried to avoid the other spirits and sprites, but he still heard mumblings and grumblings when he went about his job.
Apparently, the Winter Seasonal was rumored to be very evil and enjoyed bringing pain and misery to all the humans. He would often make very cold and harsh blizzards for the sheer misery that they would bring and loved bringing Winter very early and ending it very late.
Gethen, who knew how very cruel the other Seasonals were had no reason to doubt this, since he had suffered winter after winter shivering in his cave, waiting for the dreaded cold to end.
Now he stood in disbelief as he stared at the Seasonal that was no doubt centuries older than he was but looked to be a little younger than him.
It was particularly odd to be surrounded by such young looking magical beings that were actually very old, Gethen had decided.
He had started to back away and try to find another way home when icy blue eyes locked onto his black ones and he froze.
Mistral was wearing a dark blue cloak framed in white with various shades of blue and white for his clothes. His hair, which Gethen had almost expected to be winter white, was actually an unusual gray. It was as if all the color had been drained right out of his hair, and it made Gethen wonder if it had always been that way.
Mistral cocked his head at the short man that stood shivering before him. He looked very cold and very lost. Noticing the blue tinge the man's lips had taken, Mistral let his arm sweep out in an arc to the side, a sharp motion that had the blizzard stopped in an instant.
Gethen blinked as suddenly the wind died, and it suddenly felt several degrees warmer because of it. The snowfall had tapered off rather suddenly to a more gentle snowfall, with delicate flakes drifting down to the ground.
They both stared at one another, one in surprise and the other in cold assessment.
"Who are you?" Mistral finally asked, his voice reminding Gethen of icicles.
Gethen noticed that while Mistral sounded cold and aloof, the Winter Sprites had taken up defensive positions around their Seasonal.
"No one," Gethen answered cautiously. "I.. I got lost on my way home. Who are you?"
The young man looked less than impressed with this answer and the Winter Sprites looked agitated and.. afraid?
"Only a spirit or sprite can see another spirit," Mistral pointed out. "I'll ask you one last time: Who are you?"
Gethen deflated at that and looked down at the ground while still shivering.
"..G-Gethen," he stuttered as he shivered, mumbling more at the snow.
Mistral blinked at that.
"The destroyer?" he asked. "I thought you'd be.. taller."
"Everyone says that," Gethen muttered resentfully, and oh how he hated it.
Mistral continued to look at Gethen.
"I'm Mistral," he said as he approached Gethen to stand in front of him. Gethen pretended he couldn't see the Winter Sprites all glaring at him distrustfully. "I heard you wreck all the other Seasons and ruin the other Seasonals' fun."
Gethen had quickly looked up at that and opened his mouth to give an angry retort when the malicious grin that lit up Mistral's face stopped him cold.
"Good," Mistral said viciously. "I think we'll get along just fine."
And so they had.
Mistral not only had helped Gethen find his way home but now he always made certain that the Winter near Gethen's place was always less harsh than elsewhere and that the wind was soft or practically non-existent near the cave.
Gethen had even gone on several trips with Mistral, while Mistral spread Winter. He noticed that Mistral didn't create harsh blizzards to hurt the humans, but did so because he genuinely enjoyed spreading Winter. Gethen could see the joy it brought Mistral to see the snowflakes falling from the sky.
Perhaps Mistral was a bit over enthusiastic, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, right?
So where Gethen's winters were once full of misery, they now became one of the happier times in his life as he enjoyed spending time with his new and only friend.
It was several years later when that had all come to an end.
He had been out with Mistral one winter when the young man had suddenly gasped in pain and clutched at his chest.
"What is it?" Gethen asked in concern.
Mistral? a Winter Sprite chirped in concern.
Mistral tried to speak, but an agonized look crossed his face and he gasped again in pain instead. To Gethen's surprise and horror, he could see that Mistral was starting to fade.
"Mistral!" he cried out. "What's happening, what's wrong?!"
"She chose someone else," Mistral managed to gasp out. "She doesn't think I'm good enough.."
"What?" Gethen said in a trembling voice as he could suddenly see the landscape through his friend.
"M-Mother Nature," Mistral said, his voice sounding weak and thin. "She chose a new.. Winter Spirit.."
"No..!" Gethen said as he tried to grab Mistral, but his hand just went through him. "She can't! Don't go..!"
Mistral managed a sad smile at his friend before with one final gasp, he completely faded away.
Gethen stared at the spot where his only friend had stood and collapsed down onto his knees in the snow.
"..Don't leave me.." he said brokenly, but the only reply was the Winter Wind, as it started to howl for its lost master.
It was not long after that, that all the Winter Spirits and Sprites had mysteriously vanished, and over the next several years, Leif, Jasper, and August had puzzled over their own Spirits and Sprites' disappearances.
While Jack Frost was getting the hang of spreading Winter, Leif quietly vanished from the scene and Spring was left unattended for several hundred years, leaving the weather to naturally change on its own. WIth no Spirit to help guide it, the spring was often very cold and lackluster.
And when the new Child of Spring had been created, Gethen watched Leif fade away, his black eyes showing no remorse. All he could think of was his friend that had faded away because of these Seasonals' whining to Mother Nature.
He remembered all the times that Leif had chased after himself and threatened him, all because he was doing his own job. He remembered the utter misery these Seasonals had made his life as a spirit, and he remembered Mistral telling him the same. That no one understood his job as a Winter Spirit. They all thought of him as a murderer.
So Gethen had watched Leif fade away with a sort of vicious glee.
One down, three to go.
Even though Jack Frost couldn't help his creation, Gethen still hated him anyway. And without even realizing it, Gethen treated Jack Frost exactly the way he had been treated.
And so Jack Frost knew nothing but misery and isolation until he met one Child of Spring.
As Gethen had observed the pair in his enchanted mirror he had acquired over the years, he had decided that they would be one of the first ones to go. He couldn't stand watching their friendship and happiness, not one that reminded him so much of the one that he had had.
The one that Jack Frost had helped snatch away.
So Gethen's treatment of the very sprites and spirits he had once considered friends, the Winter Sprites, and Spirits, grew worse. He didn't care when most of them faded away and he took particular pleasure when most of the Spring Sprites and Spirits were gone.
He just didn't care anymore.
The part of him that had once cared had been ripped away when he saw Mistral fade. The last vestiges of his compassion had been whipped away in that howling winter wind.
Now he hated everyone and everything, and he would make them suffer.
Gethen could hear the sizzle of lightning approaching, as scenes of his life flashed before his eyes. He could picture meeting Mistral for the first time and all the fun they had throughout the years. A bitter smile crossed his face but was soon replaced by a grimace of pain as the lightning struck him.
Gethen had expected to die an agonizing death as soon as he realized what the Child of Spring was up to. She had looked so angry, and he knew that it was what he would have done. But what he failed to realize was that while Lillian was very, very angry, she was also very good. She would never kill anyone or anything. Not even what she considered a bad guy.
So Gethen's eyes had opened wide when he felt the lightning strike him.. in the butt.
He had given a startled yelp of pain and jumped, but it was no more harmful than being hit by a taser. Realizing he was outmatched, Gethen did something he hadn't done in years.
He ran away from a Seasonal.
Lillian had watched with satisfaction as Gethen was chased out of his home by her little storm cloud, as he was repeatedly hit in the butt with lightning.
Serves him right!
After Lillian had used her powers to blast off the locks from all the cages and freed all the Spirits and Sprites, Gethen lay in a heap on the ground far from his home but still within the isolated area of death and decay.
He coughed and tried to catch his breath as he lay flat on his back, various parts of him singed black from the lightning, his outfit in tatters.
He clenched his fists as he glared up at the dark and cloudy sky and swore he would get his revenge.
He would make her pay.
Very far away, in a room full of mirrors on the walls, Father Time watched sadly as Lillian ignored the warning letter that had been sent and set in motion the very disaster he had been hoping to avoid.
He had watched the events unfold in the diamond mirror with growing trepidation.
Diamond mirrors, he decided, were not much better than square ones. He only hoped Jamie Bennett would be up for the task. He glanced at the set of mirrors further down the wall that ended in squares and shivered.
No, he didn't want to see what would happen if Jamie were to fail.
Deciding he had enough of his Room of Possibilities, for now, Father Time hastily walked away from the mirrors, carefully avoiding the square one that showed a once again very evil Pitch Black, viciously fighting the Guardians.
If Gethen had his way, Father Time knew, then all the good the Child of Spring had done would be undone. He only hoped that the outcome wouldn't end in a square mirror.
He hated when that happened.
*Just a reminder that Gethen's name came completely from googling evil names, and no, I didn't know the significance of it and it is not an intentional reference to anything.
Author's Note: Fun Fact: The entire part with Gethen's flashback was going to be an Interlude. It originally started off from Leif's point of view and was going to be written purely because I wanted to see what Leif would be like when he was alive and how he would interact with the others and Gethen. Leif comes off as very cold and cruel in this, but that's not really his nature. He just really loves Spring and all the flowers he put so much hard work into and Gethen's ruining that rubs him the wrong way. I just like showing how my good guys aren't all good. I like having them flawed because it shows that they're more human. The same goes with Gethen too. Even though he's your typical bad guy, I wanted to show how he wasn't always that way. It's also interesting how Jack seemed to be on the very same path as Gethen, but he was rescued from Gethen's fate by Lillian and Pitch Black of all people.
The part with Father Time at the end hints once again and future plot and hints a bit about what could happen. Hm! Anyway, instead of jumping right into it, the next few chapters will be more fluffy cuteness. We'll have the final tidbits of the storm getting cleared up and what's going to happen with Mother Nature, etc.
I'm still working on HP and the Child of Spring. I started that one before life got in the way too, but I wrote myself into a corner. I wanted some poltergeist fun in there, but made him kind of lame so now I have to go back in and edit it before I can continue. Sigh! Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter and don't think the insert about Gethen was too distracting from the plot.
