A/N: The answer to the last question 'What is the last name of the film?' is: 'My name is Jack Frost and I'm a Guardian. How do I know this? The moon told me so, so the next time the moon tells you something: believe it!'
Well done to all who got it right.
Anyway I'll leave you too it, I hope you enjoy.
Pain.
It comes in so many different forms, each one only more deadly that the last until it has destroyed everything in its path. It is unique and beautiful in its own way as it expertly wraps everything around its finger, making them dance to its own intricately crafted melody. Soft, yet brutal notes held the ability to harm everyone and everything in such distinctive way. Unrepeatable patterns we left dormant in the victims' heart ad long as they lived. That was one of the more fascination aspects of pain.
Then there was always the probability that it would return.
Though this pain was distinctively different from anything he had ever experienced.
He was used to the pain that was forever lurking unseen below the surface, but that was a pain that only reared its disfigured head whenever another being passed through him, or as he was seen as a forgotten myth. That pain was normal; it was the first to appear whenever he was caused to question his own existence alongside the unknown faces that would constantly questioning why he was still alive. They would question why he kept ruining everything, for ruining what everyone worked so hard to create, while he did nothing of use. That was the pain he was used to as it was his companion during almost every day of his life.
However, his current ache was alien to him in so many ways. Swelling disappointment bubbles within him, clouding his vision even before the tears which fell without his consent. He didn't want this to happen. It was never mean to happen. How could he have made things as bad as they were? It was selfish of him. It was irresponsible. Pathetic. He had never planned to disappoint the guardians like he had, and he never knew it would hurt him so much. He was used to people expecting nothing from him, but proving that he wasn't worth a person's time or effort to people who had seemed to genially care, well that was an entirely different kind of hurt.
Regardless of how much he had wrecked it all and how much of a mistake it had all been, it was still his doing and he should have been there to deal with the consequences, and yet he had run from it all. Like he always did. It had been his choice and yet he still constantly made the wrong one.
Honestly he hadn't meant to pull apart the carefully worked for family that the guardians had crafted even as they were forced into a working relationship by the omniscient Man in the Moon. He knew that they cared for him in some regard, but obviously they relationship wasn't as strong as he thought it was since he was so quickly pulled away by a nightmare brought about by repressed memories desperate to make themselves known. He hadn't even had to try to destroy what could have one day become his family. It had all happened without his help. If he was to royally fuck up everything to the best of his ability, then that would have happened on one of his bad days when they crushing abandonment hit him with more strength than it normally held.
Through his inner rage and rant at the world, he slowly began to recognise where it was that his subconscious mind had taken him. Gradually his descended to the grounds where he did a quick jog across the frosted streets near the border at the ends of Burgess. Yet he wasn't quite aware enough to tell which exact street it was that he had landed on, despite the fact he knew the town better than anything else in his life. Unfortunately, this time that he walked down the street, he was far too out of it to notice that he had stopped right in the path of an unsuspecting, unseeing mortal.
"JACK!"
Crystallised eyes snapped back to reality as the immortalised teen swung around to face the grey skinned shade. Their eyes locked for a second and in that moment Jack could see the ironic fear that was being reflected back at him. Even though that time was short, it almost seemed to slow around him, distracting him from the very reason that had lead Pitch to shout out his name. Realising that he may have been in danger he quickly glanced around him, but he only noticed that somebody was walking towards him when they passed through him. Slicing pain cut through him, its icy touch clawing and freezing his frozen heart. Its fingers dug deeper than he could ever imagine, returning him to the vulnerable spirit that had been left to wander alone for three hundred years.
Choking back a sob, his knees buckled beneath him and dragging him unceremoniously to the ground, or at least that was where he was heading. Before he could hit the pavement, strong arms came up from nowhere, wrapping his shaking form into his tight embrace. Tears fell in a rush down the alabaster cheeks, their silent journey shattered by the sobs that echoed through the now empty streets. Sound swam through him, though it refused to come together to craft the words which he needed to so desperately hear. Loneliness crushed his very soul as he realised that no matter what changed, he would always be invisible.
From that his mind did what it usually did. It took one moment and twisted it into an unrecognisable shape that would cause the most pain. That way one event lasting no more than a mere second could destroy the young teen's psych. Not to say that it took much to do so after the excruciating three hundred years he had been left alone and abandoned. His abandonment would never end, regardless of how many children say him, human life was so vulnerable and changeable, they would soon either die or forget about him. Then he would be right back where he started. It would only take a second.
He would never even know when it would happen. Most likely he would go to play with the group one day, happy that the child eternally trapped within him had the rare chance to rear its head in play, only to realise that they had all grown past the age of it being acceptable to believe in the legends that protected them. Grown out of believing in him.
Only the Guardians would remain. Though the realistic side of him suspected that they wouldn't hang around for much longer. They had only known him for a handful of days, and in that time he had already made their lives so much harder than they needed to be and they had rightly shown their disdain for having him hovering around like a bad smell. He didn't belong there. And he never would. They were a family; one he couldn't even think about breaking apart. He didn't belong there. He knew that if he was to stay for much longer then he could bring it all falling down around them as their hard-worked-for and carefully constructed bonds broke due to his actions. Yet he dared to hope it wouldn't happen soon. That way he may have a chance to experience what it was like to have friends, or at the very least somebody to talk to…
Not that it was even worth trying. Already he had successfully messed everything up for them. They wouldn't possibly want anything to do with him now.
He was nothing if not pathetic. A quivering mess sobbing into his lost lover and past enemy's chest.
The golden eyes that started down at his trembling form would have disagreed with him. Worry was flooding his veins against his command as he held him even tighter in his grasp in hope that it would prove to him that he wasn't alone anymore. Not even when his daughter was still young and depended on him, he had never had reason to be in his current position. Back then it had been so easy for him to fight away any and all demons that plagued her either day or night.
That would do nothing to help him now though. Jack's demons were not the ones that were poorly crafted from the darkness that enveloped them all. They had grown and flourished inside his very soul. They had been there even before his death, only they were weaker then and easier to contain. Yet losing everything caused them to grow until they were uncontainable.
For a brief moment the boy fell slack in his arms. Apparently his outburst had been flushed out of his system, leaving his mind clear and his soul exhausted. As another second passed, it seemed that that wasn't quite the plan.
The white haired teen began to thrash in his arms as though he was desperate to escape from some unseen force of evil.
"Jack! Jack, calm down. It's okay, I've got you. Nobody is going to hurt you, I swear to you, I won't allow them. You're safe. You're loved. It's okay. They can't get to you, you're safe with me. I'll protect you. I promise." Pitch recited the mantra he had learn by heart many centuries ago when he had first bumped into the younger male.
However, this time his words weren't working as they should. Though that had to be expected to some degree. They had been apart for far too long and so much had happened to them both within that time. No longer were they the people they once more. Now they both had many more demons. So more had happened to damage the boy even more than he had been when they first met.
Pitch felt like a fish out of water in every way possible.
Since his entire attention was diverted towards his younger lover, he was slow to realised that the four Guardians were approaching them with a united face of anger.
"What have you done to him?!" Screamed the angry Australian, jolting Pitch's attention up to their audience.
Thankfully the exclamation was able to shock the frost spirit right out of his suffocating panic; yet his fear remained in his eyes. Slowly –much slower than Pitch would have believed possible from the usually hyperactive, immortal teen- he turned within the shade's arms to face his questionable friends. Once he notices the dark, irate expressions shining in all the faces that encircled them, he cringed back into the hard chest behind him, still feeling too vulnerable and open to erect his usual barriers.
"What have you done to the kit?" Bunny growled again, apparently acting as the appointed spokesperson during the… confrontation? Pitch thought that could be accurate, though encounter would be a politer way to put it.
Feeling uncomfortable with all the negative emotions being directed straight at him, the Nightmare King tried to slowly back away, but Jack refused to move with him, forcing him to remain where he was. Though it appeared as though the spirit wasn't truly allowed a choice in the matter as a sandy strand snaked its way towards the one that they saw as the victim of the whole affair. With one rough tug the tendril tensed around the narrow waist and pulled the boy towards the group. They had decided unanimously not long before that no matter the situation, they would defend, protect and stand by the child regardless of what life may throw his way. He was a child after all. It was their job to protect all children.
Once he was safe and secure behind a wall of supposed allies, the Guardians relaxed but just the smallest margin.
"Leave here!" North instructed the now isolated male, his voice booming, yet it was no more than a whisper to the young teen's ears as his mind slowly shut itself down to defend himself from the overwhelming thoughts that were just waiting for the right moment to swamp him.
Golden eyes showed the plea that he refused to allow entry into his voice, "Jack?"
Unfortunately, the frost spirit remained ignorant to what surrounded him, as pain still shone in his pale irises. His mind was trying so desperately to wrap his mind around the thought that though he now had believers and people who would call themselves his friend, they weren't willing to accept all of him and what he wanted.
"I think you've got your answer, mate. He doesn't want anything to do with you, regardless of your past." Bunny nearly spat.
It was with a worried look and a heavy heart that Pitch dissolved into the predawn shade, giving his half enemies the space and the peace they needed.
Immediately after they were sure the Nightmare King had vanished, they carefully manoeuvred the child who had at some point become their own into the sledge to take him home.
\/\/\/
Eyes widened as the intruding silhouette entered the carved room as though he owned the place. He would never forget that outline; he had ensured it was scorched into his brain.
"What are you doing here?"
A/N: And there we have it, please drop me a review to let me know what you think.
The question this time isn't going to be about the film, but this: What do you think the repercussions will be from sending fear away?
A big thank you for everyone who has read, favorited, followed and reviewed, you're all amazing.
