Jamie decided to spread some snow for a while; he wasn't sure what else to do honestly and he thought it best to just not be around while Jack was mad at him. Roxas, meanwhile, gave Jack a kiss, trying to cheer him up. Jack sighed and hugged Roxas.
"It's not your fault sweetheart. Daddy and me just won't be talking to each other for a while, nothing for you to worry about." He said as he held the boy up against him.
"Let's get some hot cocoa and North's famous cookies eh?" The boy clapped in approval.
"I promise his teeth won't rot, not while I'm here Tooth."
"That's not what worries me Jack." Tooth said, watching him carry Roxas out; she was more concerned as to why Jack wouldn't be on speaking terms with Jamie. Hadn't they worked things out yet? Minutes later Jack was giggling as Roxas had gotten himself covered in whip cream and cookie crumbs.
"Alright little one, bath time." Roxas giggled, happy to see his father happy again. Jack chuckled.
"No, no. Geez, you're just as stubborn as me when I don't want a bath." Jack chuckled at the memories that surfaced of Jamie trying to do just that with him and Jack still would fight. He managed to get Roxas into the bath and scrubbed him gently as he watched the boy play with the bath toys he'd given him. Roxas splashed Jack the whole time, having protested getting in, but once in he had fun with the toys and made a right mess. Jack giggled.
"Boy, gonna have to dry myself off when this is over." He said as he washed the boy's hair and body, but let Roxas wash a bit of himself when he persisted in it, protesting that he was a "big boy."
"Oh you are, are you?" Jack smiled, handing him the scrubby but making sure that the boy cleaned himself well. Roxas giggled, scrubbing his feet and then he scrubbed Jack's nose with a giggle. Jack sniffed at that before chuckling and rubbed the boy's nose with his own.
"Now we're even." Jack said, smiling as the child was finally clean. Jack lifted him from the bath and tried to dry him off but again Roxas insisted on doing it himself.
"Ok, ok." Jack watched as the boy dried himself, making sure that he was dried before he dressed him in race car pajamas and carried him to the bedroom. Jack let him pick a book from the book shelf before carrying him from the shelf to the bed. The book he had picked out was called The Night Before Christmas. Jack smiled and tucked Roxas in before he began reading the story.
"Not look wike Unkle No'th." Roxas said when Jack got the Picture of Santa Claus, causing him to chuckle.
"Yeah, I know; but these are stories before Uncle North first really started." Jack said as he continued to read.
"Before Unkle No'th? How they know he aroun' then? Nothin' older." Jack sighed.
"I meant before he became what he is today." Jack couldn't exactly explain it fully to the boy in a way he'd understand; he kept reading and watched Roxas as he teetered on the edge of sleep as the last words were read. Jack kissed him goodnight.
"Wuv you..." Roxas said before drifting off.
"Love you too." Jack said, watching him drift off before he closed the book gently and put it away. He took one last look before he closed the door and sighed, he walked to his room then, it was right across from Roxas'. Jamie came back from spreading snow, but he didn't talk to anyone. He's just as frustrated as he was when he left; if he really did guard belief then why was he so helpless in the face of this thing? Why had his own belief failed to help the one person he cared the most for? He went to North's library if only because he couldn't sleep. Jack slept fitfully in his room.
"No, please..." He groaned, the stone glowed bright red but died down when he yelled out from fear, waking himself up. Jack panted, sweat soaked as he looked over at the stone with a glare before sighing.
"Why couldn't Jamie destroy this?" He wondered to himself. Jamie, meanwhile, searched the library for answers... Jack sighed and clutched the stone.
You will open the portal. You will return. You can't fight me Jack. Tears streamed down as crimson blood slipped through his fingers. Jamie sighed in defeat after spending hours looking only to come up empty handed. Jack sniffed loud enough to wake Roxas, who decided to get Jamie; he crawled out of bed and toddled into Jamie as he was leaving the library, crying.
"Dada crying. Dada hurt. Help dada." Jamie sighed again as he picked up Roxas.
"I know lightning bug, but there's nothing I can do about it this time. I'm not all powerful son. I can't do everything." He wished he could though... oh did he. Roxas had enough though.
"NO! PAPA IS STRONG. DADDY NEED HELP! YOU STRONG! I STRONG! TRY!" He screamed, his light flaring out furiously, filling Jamie with the hope that he'd been losing, love and determination that was in Roxas as well. Jamie shook his head a little, shaking off Roxas' magic after a moment but he carried the boy to Jack. He could at least show the boy though it was a harsh truth and he doubted Jack was anywhere close to speaking with him again. Well, he could live with that. He had given it his best shot hadn't he? What more could he do that wouldn't just be a useless, foolish gamble? Jack coughed, he curled up into a ball; shaking as crimson blood seemed to coat his hand and body as the stone returned into him once more. Jamie set Roxas down on the bed before going over to sit next to Jack. He put a gentle hand on him, ignoring the blood; he was no healer and he wasn't sure what he was suppose to do. He gently picked Jack up and headed to the infirmary. Maybe North or one of the yetis would know what to do. Jack gasped, whimpering in pure agony.
"Stop..." Jamie winced and set Jack down on the infirmary bed as gently as possible before one of the yetis came over to take a look at Jack to see what was going on. Jack cried out when the yeti tried to take the bleeding stone; arching up in pain and ice slammed into the yeti, pinning the poor thing to the nearest wall. Jamie quickly countered the magic with his own to free the yeti who warbled at him.
"I don't know! Just... don't touch the stone okay?" Jack panted, he was red hot, achingly so; groaning he rolled away from the yeti's prodding fingers.
"Stop." Jamie helped hold Jack down when the yetis tried probing everything else but around the stone. He didn't say a word. Roxas, meanwhile, toddled towards one of the toy testing areas in search of his dads. He'd no idea where they were exactly but he knew they were nearby.
Jack cried out when one of the yetis touched a red symbol on his neck; they showed the mark to Jamie; it glowed a bright red as the blood from the rock. It was a snake engulfing what looked like the moon.
"I donno what that means anymore than you... and I don't like it... One of you get North, maybe he can do something. I'm not a healer or anything." He barely knew what he did about various spells and stuff from what he'd read in his short time as a kid; he hadn't had time to read more or anything since and was all too aware of the lack of his knowledge on this sort of thing. Jack shuttered.
"It's my c-connection t-to Malfor. I've tried everything to... to get rid of it." Jack said, he shut his eyes instantly; whimpering and gritting his teeth in pain.
"Yeah... I doubt you've tried everything. Especially since I doubt any of the others know about this." Jamie replied evenly. Jack winced at Jamie's tone.
"Pl-please stop touching it." He said, gritting his teeth almost hard enough to break them. The yetis warbled something that was like an apology and didn't probe it further while the one that had left to fetch North returned with the other Guardian in tow... and the rest of the Guardians it seems. Jack gritted his teeth and glared at the one yeti for getting the others for this as he tried to hide the mark by lifting his hoodie up more; it was on the back of his neck and easier to hide than the stone. He didn't dare look at any of the other Guardians. The yetis held Jack down again, warbling at North and showing him the mark. Jamie didn't say a word the entire time, but neither do the others. Jack struggled against them.
"H-HEY! LET GO!" He howled, clawed, arched and scratched; he even went so far as to freezing their paws to make some of them let go in pain. He jumped up, flying towards a window in the corner, but he was trapped with nowhere to run. The Guardians exchanged glances, apparently that wasn't the first time they'd seen a mark like that... Jack panted, shaking like a wild animal in a trap; the yetis warbled to North on what to do. Jamie watched silently for a moment before he decided to go find the wayward Roxas. He'd leave Jack in their hands. Jack shook, whimpering.
"Stay away... go away..." He snapped; shifting to try and escape but Sandy blocked his way, keeping him in the room.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"We only trying to help Jack. Stop being baby about it." North said as the group kept Jack cornered. Meanwhile, Jamie had his hands full in helping the yetis and elves put toys back where they needed to be... apparently Roxas had gone on a toy rampage in one of the testing rooms and the result was an absolute mess of nearly a hundred toys marching, flying, zooming... or whatever they did... about the room. Roxas giggled as suddenly he was flying about on a toy plane about the room. Jamie retrieved Roxas from the plane with one arm, grabbing the plane with the other and he chuckled at the little boy.
"Okay lightning bug, that's enough mischief for one day."
Jack growled at the group like some animal, glaring; he bit North when the Guardian tried to grab him, causing him to cry out in pain.
"OW!" Sandy retaliated by surrounding Jack with his sand whips to tie him up. Jack struggled against Sandy's sand; he went ballistic then.
"NO! NO! NOOOO! LET GO! LET GO!" He screamed and screamed as if they were murdering him. Roxas heard the screams and jumped from Jamie's arms, catching on a helicopter that he steered towards the infirmary.
"DADA!" He cried out. Jamie sighed at the sounds of the screams but he was faster than Roxas and snagged him before he got too far down the hallway.
"I know, buddy. They're trying to help him, he's just scared is all." He carried the squirming boy off to their room while he quietly tried to reassure him that things were okay. Jack struggled and twisted, nearly dislocating his shoulder in an attempt to escape the sand; it took Sandy and several ropes to hold him down.
"NOO! NOO! STOP!" Jack screamed louder than before, tears fall down his face as he tried to move away from North's gentle hands at every touch of the mark.
"STOP! LET ME GO!" Jamie winced and flipped through several books in the room to find a silencing spell... which he founds and blocks out the noise from the infirmary. He then settled down with Roxas to tell him a story. Roxas was too worried about Jack though to listen to the story properly.
"Daddy not okway, very not okway." He said, glaring at Jamie in a way that said 'tell me the truth.' Jack gasped, arching in pain when North touched the stone.
"STOP! DON'T TOUCH THAT!" He cried, struggling and suddenly there was a pop; Jack had dislocated his shoulder. North and the others have to hold Jack down to reset the shoulder he'd dislocated. Jamie sighed.
"Don't give me that look. I told you things were okay; it's just that your father is very afraid of the help they're trying to give him. I don't know why, but he's putting up a fight. He didn't like it when I tried - and failed - to help earlier. It's why he's not talking to me. I don't have all the answers for you kiddo." He gently ruffled Roxas' hair affectionately. Jack screamed out in pain, clawing at North and Bunny's arm hard enough to draw blood; he tried biting too, struggling to get free.
"LET GO! DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP!" He screamed even more, it was bad, by this time they either had to put Jack out or forcefully hold him still. It was getting to the point they'd have to knock him out soon but he needed to be awake for the spell to work. Bunny resorted to stunning Jack with a quick blow from one of his boomerangs... Not hard enough to knock him out but at least stun him, though whether it would last as long as they hoped was another thing as North worked his magic. Jack panted faster than before, his breath picking up from his fear.
"No, no, no... please stop! No no..." He cried, whimpering as the spell hurt, the darkness stared showing in his veins, turning them black as North was pulling the bond out physically.
"STOP! STOP!" Jack cried as it crawled up his spine, the symbol turned black and burned him.
"STOOOP!" Jamie winced as a lot of it rang over the bond to him; he did his best to shield Roxas' side of the bond from it, aware that obviously whatever it was that North had to do... it was painful.
Jack screamed, his knuckles turned white as the black veins seemed to wiggle like worms under his skin; he squeezed his eyes tight as he let out a savage scream of pain as the last of the bond was forcefully pulled from his body, taking the mark with it like a second skin. Jamie leaned against the wall near the bed, having put Roxas to sleep through a lullaby. He never wanted to hear that again. Ever. He was just glad he got the boy to sleep before Jack had screamed like that... that he'd been able to block the bond to the boy enough to keep it from reaching him. Jack finally fell unconscious as the last of the bond snapped; it was deep and they knew it was as it was not only connected to his center, his soul and being, but to his mind as well so that Malfor could have forced Jack into his control at any time that he'd wanted to. As soon as the bond snapped the rock flew into Jack's body like a bat from hell, forcing Jack to scream out savagely until finally it was over. Jamie shuddered in response. God he hoped it was finally over... Jack lay limp, as if dead, on the bed; the only way they knew he was alive was by the steady rhythm of his breathing. Sandy flew off to the other room, knocking gently on Roxas' room to tell Jamie it was over, but that it would take Jack anywhere from months to a year to recover mentally and physically.
"Come in." Jamie called out softly, so not to wake Roxas. Sandy floated into the room and wrote out to him what had happened and what was to once Jack was awake:
He is not to move a single muscle or even think of escaping the pole for a bit. The bond was so deep that it connected to his mind, soul and center; it was horrifying Jamie. I don't want to go into details but he may be scarred and it might take months or years to recover physically and mentally.
"I don't know if we can keep him from doing that... all things considered, but we can sure try. As for his recovery... I'm not surprised honestly." Jamie replied in a soft voice after a moment, not wanting to admit what he'd felt and heard over the bond. Sandy patted Jamie's shoulder:
I'll ensure he stays in. We all will Jamie. Don't give up on him; he loves you, you know, and always will. We just saved him a whole bunch of trouble from Malfor.
With that Sandy left, worried for Roxas, Jamie and Jack's sake. Malfor wasn't a being to take lightly and was a lot more trouble than even Pitch had ever posed. Jamie had only nodded a little at the little Guardian's words. He wasn't concerned for himself though so much as what it would mean for Roxas; the boy wasn't really that old and he wasn't ready to handle a sudden change like that. Heck, he was more concerned that Roxas would be upset if there was even the smallest of changes in Jack's personality, but as for Jamie... well, Jack was still a stranger to him just as he'd told him not so long ago... So... what was a few more changes? Wasn't like it could be helped this time around and Jamie knew he loved Jack regardless. Granted, he'd been hurt initially, deeply so and it hadn't fully gone away, but it hadn't changed how he felt about Jack. Roxas woke from his nap earlier than Jamie expected; he wanted to see Jack more than anything. Sure he loved Jamie, but he wanted to see Jack.
"Papa, papa... I wanna see dada." He bounced up and down on the bed, saying so. Jamie yawned a little, stirring form his own nap at Roxas' bouncing.
"Okay, settle down." Jamie murmured as he picked Roxas up.
