This one is just plain depressing, if i may say so my self.

#6

Jack looked out over the grey endless sea. The beach that he stood on was as monochromatic as the sky and the waves and the wind. everything was grey and it was bleak and he hoped.

He wasn't entirely sure how he had come to be there, he only hoped that the others would find him soon. So he waited on the wide, long, grey beach, staring out at the sea that had no horizon and waited.

His friends would come.

They had to come.

Days passed, there was no sun and there was no moon, only the slight changes in the quality of the bleak light.

Jack had wandered the beach, his powers were muted here. He could still use them, but they were weaker.

As the days became a week and then two, Jack became nervous, twitchy at the time it was taking for the others to find him.

Did they know where he was?

Were they having trouble getting to him? Maybe their powers were muted in this place too, maybe that was it.

Jack had searched the beach for anything that could tell him where he was, what had happened.

But there was nothing.

Only endless stretches of grey sand.

Jack decided that he had to help himself out of this one, maybe the others couldn't get in here, but all he had to do was find a way back...home.

He went inland, and found a darker place.

He gasped in revulsion at what he saw, those horrors that not even Pitch would take, milling about in the grey-black fields. The sky over them, had a redder tinge.

Each thing was a monster, black and red and grey, with too many eyes and either limbs to spare or too few.

No one could see him.

Of course Jack had tried to fly over them and avoid them, but his powers muted as they were failed. He fell to the grey bleak earth and through one of the monsters.

The pain of being walked through blossomed in his chest, at the very core of his being, he was left gasping for a few seconds before moving, dodging the things that could not see him.

It took a long time to reach the edge of the field.

Weeks even.

Jack's hope of finding a way out was slowly beginning to fade.

He had given up on the others a long time ago.

He had tried as hard as he could to remember them, giving himself something to fight towards.

But even those memories were fading.

He had almost stopped fighting.

Jack had lost track of time. He was alone again, abandoned, ignored.

But this time it was for much longer.

Centuries had passed.

Jack had long since learnt to use his powers in their muted state, he couldn't even remember how they used to be... he wasn't sure he wanted to remember.

Traveling this grey landscape was...odd, and terrifying.

The further inland he went, the darker it got, the redder the sky became and the more violent the monsters. Walkers. The name suited them. These ones could sense him if not see him, he had stopped talking decades ago because it called them to him.

Jack travelled. It was all he could do, he knew he had to go inland. After fifty years of searching he had made his way back to the beach. It was there that the last of his hope had died.

It had been so long since he had spoken. So long since he had seen anything except the fields of fiends.

But then he saw it.

Jack felt something in his heart that he had not felt for centuries. Hope? Wonder? Maybe he was dreaming? Or was it just an echo of a memory?

He didn't know, nor did he care. The building was huge, filling up and extending into the far distance where no horizon existed.

Floating to the ground, Jack looked up at the huge doors.

He was curious, something that he had not lost in the centuries that had passed. He had tried to make fun with the Walkers, but that had proven to be a bad idea. His centre was still strong though he could not remember what it was.

Approaching cautiously, Jack prodded the doors with his staff, fern-frost immediately adding to the decor.

They swung open at the first touch.

More curious than ever at this change in the terrifying monotonous landscape, Jack entered the building.

And he remembered.

He sagged under the weight of the memory, collapsing to the floor, gasping for breath.

Tears had fallen, without him knowing it. How could he have forgotten. Tooth, North, Bunny...Sandy.

How could he have forgotten them?

"So you remember then."

The voice was soft and gentle, but came from no clear direction. It was unlike any voice that Jack had ever heard.

"Do you wish to return?" A figure stepped out from the shadows by the door. He was old and lean, but strong.

"Yes." Jack's voice cracked and splintered like ice from disuse.

The strange man nodded.

"What is this place?" He had been here for so long, he had been here for centuries, he had been sent mad by the things in this place and been given back his sanity. Now he wanted answers.

"The answers you seek are in the library. I cannot help you find them, except to show you the entrance." The man was walking away now, gesturing for Jack to follow.

"Library?"

"The Library at the centre of Time," the man replied, "you will find your answers in there, but it will take time."

They had by this time reached the end of what was apparently just the entry hall to find another set of doors, more intricately carved than the first.

Jack looked up to them, wonder and awe at the craftsmanship that had gone into their construction covering his features.

"May I offer some advice?"

"Sure."

"I will give you a choice as to what that advice will be about."

Jack looked back down at the man before him, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Okay."

"Well, advice on how to remember what happened or how to break what happened?"

Jack looked at the man like he had grown an extra head, which recalling some of the things he had seen over the past...5 centuries, wouldn't have been as surprising.

Frowning Jack thought, if he didn't know what had happened to bring him here, then how could he break it. But then did he really need to remember?

As curious as he was, how desperately he wanted to know what had happened to bring him to this hellish place Jack knew that he needed to get out.

"How to break what happened."

The man smiled, like he had successfully passed some test.

"Read every book."

Jack's jaw dropped.

What had happened to breaking what happened?

"I said I would give you advice to find out how to break what happened. Read every book."

With that he turned on his heel and left Jack by the ornate doors to the library.

Well it was more than he had to begin with.

Taking a deep breath Jack pushed open the doors.

He had taken the man's advice, though he had been tempted not to upon seeing the endless halls of bookcases each stuffed to bursting point with texts.

He had been here, reading in the strange light that came from the ceiling, for more than 1000 years. He had almost forgotten again. But not quite enough for him to give up.

He was barely past the quarter mark.

Every book was fascinating, drawing him in. Even now, with hundreds of books read, he could remember the first word for word.

Sometimes there were books on spells and power funneling that Jack, back and neck aching would practise from. He practised everything until he had it perfect.

He had found a few things that would be useful to get out, but not enough. He had found out where he was and, the most likely cause for him being here.

He was at the Library. THE Library at the centre of Time. Somehow he had been misplaced out of his time and put here. So for the other Guardians, barely vague shadows in his memory but shadows he treasured all the same, had probably only been missing him a few hours.

He was here because of a TimePiece. Pitch most likely had used it on him. To get him away, send him mad, while he dealt a blow to the other guardians.

Jack, after discovering this, became angry and as the years and centuries passed and he slowly made his way through the library practising and learning that anger grew.

It had been far too long.

Jack couldn't even see a shadow of what he had once been, couldn't remember what the other Guardians looked like, only that they had been his friends.

He had been in the library for far too long. He had lost count of his age somewhere between the quarter mark and halfway point in the library. He remembered the madness and depression that had taken him outside but now he had to return there. He had to go home.

He had finished the final book sometime ago and Jack was making his way back through the library occasionally pulling out a favourite book and skimming over the lines. Each word still imprinted in his memory.

The man who had shown him to the door was waiting for him when he came out.

"Did you find what you needed?"

"Yes." Jack's voice while it had once been like splintering ice after only centuries on disuse, was as clear as it had once been. The Library and what he had found there had changed him.

"You are leaving then."

It hadn't been a question. Jack glanced at the man before walking towards the door, out into the dull red-grey light that was hell.

"Goodbye."

With that final farewell to the Librarian, Jack took to the sky. His previous weakness had been compensated by the strength given to him by years and wisdom and knowledge.

He passed over the beach, and went out over the sea. He kept on going, and eventually he would find the light brightening, and sounds returning and colours appearing...he was almost home.

Pitch had almost danced for joy when he had stumbled across the TimePiece. Of course being the Boogeyman he hadn't, but it had been tempting.

It wasn't large enough to trap all of the Guardian's in the Timeless Void, only one.

But he knew which one.

Trapping Frost had been painfully easy, the boy hadn't even known he was there. Before he was plunged into the endless grey of time.

The other Guardians had been trying to find him for weeks. Jack had vanished. Poof into thin air.

North was having conniptions, Tooth was hyperventilating into a paper bag, Bunny had began to tear his own fur out and Sandy well... Sandy had a slow scowl forming on his face from the moment that Pitch had begun to taunt them.

It was never safe to make Sandy really angry.

Luckily for Pitch the Guardians were easy enough to take on without the pest called Frost. Even Sandy had been trapped and chained eventually.

Pitch since then had been taunting them, feeding off their fear for the Winter Spirit, with stories of how Jack was outside of time, and most probably sent mad by now.

It was two weeks in this torture that the Guardians tried to free themselves. Pitch had grown in the 300 years since their last battle, since Jack had joined them, since he had become a part of their family.

They could all see the TimePiece that kept Jack outside of time.

Pitch had been flaunting it ever since Sandy had been the last to fall.

It started glowing on the first day of their third week as prisoners. Tied and bound and kept in the cages hanging from the ceiling the Guardians could all see it.

Pitch it seemed was not mentally stable about the whole thing, going into a panic attack. He raged at the object ordering it to hold Frost in.

Bunny's ears pricked and hope bloomed again.

It took three hours for the light to grow, until it was blinding everyone in the cavern. Then it went out, suddenly and without any warning.

Pitch began to laugh.

Which was cut off very quickly when the temperature plummeted.

Jack was standing there.

But it was not the Jack that they had known. This Jack was older and far more terrifying.

With a glance around him Jack took in his surroundings, before turning his attention to Pitch.

The other Guardians were glad that his hood was up and they could not see the look that made the Nightmare King scream in terror.

With a single tap of his staff Jack stopped him and tore the shadows from his soul.

It was only when the once King of Fear was reduced to an unconcious man that Jack turned his attention to the cages.

"Jack" Norths loud voice shattered to cold silence.

Pulling back his hood, Jack allowed himself to smile. He could see them now, he could remember them, his family.

Jumping up to the cages he opened each one and carefully released the occupants.

Sandy was the only one who seemed brave enough to ask Jack how old he was.

The looks of guilt that washed over the faces of the others only frozen when Jack answered Sandy's floating images.

"I lost track after 70."

"Oh, but that was not long at all!" Tooth exclaimed, joy for one second filling her eyes.

Before Jack corrected her. "It depends what unit of Time you're using." It was a mild comment but it caught everyone's attention. Tooth stopped her happy fluttering.

"And wha' unit are you usin' mate." Bunny asked gently, afraid of the answer.

"Millenia."

In one word Jack mad Tooth collapse into his shoulder sobbing. North stumbled back, away from the ancient spirit who looked so young. Bunny looked like he was going to be sick.

Sandy came forward again, with his dream-sand flashing a sequence of statements and questions to Jack, too fast for anyone else to follow.

"I was sent mad, after the first 5 centuries or so." Jack replied to the questions. "But then I found the library and I remembered."

This time it was Sandy that stepped back.

"Jack..." North looked at the Spirit in only what could be described as awe. "You found the Library at the centre of Time?"

"Yes."

"What did you do?" North was shocked, his teachers had told him of such a mythical place that not even belief alone could get you there. It took desperation, and something far greater.

"I read." Jack said simply, the others looked at him expectantly.

Glancing back down at the man who had once been called Pitch Black, Jack sighed slightly.

"Look can we go somewhere else, I'll explain as best I can."

"Of course, may take a while. Pitch destroyed sleigh." North growled forlornly.

"I can get us to the Pole." Jack was certain of this new transport and with a swirl of Diamond dust in the air, the Guardians were gone.

Only to arrive in another swirl of Diamond Dust and a blast of cold air in the globe room at the North Pole.

The other guardians stumbled back from him, shocked both by the cold and the abrupt nature of the shift.

The yetis were having a similar reaction.

When all was calmed down, and Bunny was warmed up by the fire and they all had comfy seats and drinks. Jack told his story.

The others could only listen.