Continuing right where I left off. Lucky you! Head's up. This is a needed chapter, but it's a little boring. It is needed though, I can't really get to the dark stuff without it.

Sea biscuit: I love your new word. I will be using it later on in the story. Promise.

Tanairy Conelio: I am mean. I'm sorry. But, I love Zoe's feisty side as well, she's fun to write like that.

Panda-chan: I literally make things up as I go along. I write a chapter in one sitting and I don't go over it. That's why there may be a few spelling mistakes. Sorry! My chapter size fluctuates. LOL

Soaringpheonix86: I'll hand you the bazooka. He's being a bit of a bastard at the moment. Even more so as you read on. Here is a boring chapter for you, good luck finding something good about this one. Mwhahhhaaaaaa.

Dex Zabeth: That she is. And she will live up to the name as well, as the story goes on. It's all downhill from here. Lots of darkness coming.

Cheshire cat: Sorry about the confusion. She's now got the power to decide who lives and dies, and she's been told that three people from five will die. Hope that somehow helped.

Chapter 5 – Breaking.

'That's not fair,' I say feeling my tears hit my knees. 'That's not fair!' I scream. I stagger to my feet, only to fall back, my wings are so heavy, they're not moving. Memories flick through my mind, the remembrance of the agony causes me to bite into my lip. 'What, what's the matter?' I ask them, but they don't stir. Nothing. 'What?' I mumble running my hand down feathers. I look at the moon, that bastard. 'What did you do?!' My voice is hoarse, but I demand the answer.

They are safer with me.

They will return.

When the choice is made.

Three of the five.

'NO!' I screech, trying to stand but again falling back down. 'You can't do this! You can't! I can't decide who lives and dies! How dare you!' My anger is dying, leaving the deep despair. 'I don't want to do this. I don't want to, I don't.' I mumble slumping to the floor, my hands trail in the sand, leaving grooves. Clumps stick to my fingers were my tears have dropped. I sit there and just cry. Which is an understatement. I'm howling, begging. But the truth of the matter is, he says that I have a choice. But I don't. I somehow manage to stand, lifting my wings, they truly are my wings now... I look at the moon. 'You're wrong. If I have the power of the balance then no-one will die.' Just when I think that I've had the last word the pressure returns.

Three of the five.

Daya.

Three of the five.

Three will die.

No amount of power will change that.

I sigh, feeling fresh anger. He's truly fucked me over. My face is sticky where I've cried, but it doesn't stop me wiping my hand over my cheeks trying to clean up. My back is turned to him. I won't look at him, not forgiving him for this. This is a step too far. 'If I am the balance then I decide.' I say firmly.

The three of five will die.

This is beyond even the balance.

I thought he had finished. That was it. What more could he want to say? But then, just when I thought, well, when I thought that there truly could not be a worse feeling that this; He spoke again. This time the ''voice'' sounded, almost regretful. I would like to believe that.

Child, Daya...

I stop walking, I've left the scythe on the beach, concentrating, it appears beside me. Just as heavy as before. I still have the pressured feeling. I sniff heavily holding the weapon in both hands. 'Yes?' I say after a moment or two.

You...

You will carry the consequences of your choices.

Choose well.

The weight in my stomach passes. I look back at the moon, the man that sits there will regret this day. Using my anger as strength I manage to hold the scythe in one hand as I lift it, the blade pointing straight at the glowing circle that hung in the sky. My scythe has never looked so deadly, the light glinting almost nova blue at the edge of the metal.

'If I have to choose to save or lose him,' I breathe in deeply, keeping my voice and arm steady, 'I will come for you.'

…

Zoe walked from the beach, her body didn't feel under her control. She felt odd. She carried the scythe instead of making it vanish. It reminded her of the anger she had. The fear she felt at this moment was heavier than any weapon. Three of five, her mind echoed. The only five she knew of were the Guardians. But he couldn't seriously mean those could he? He created the Guardians, would he really turn his back on them? They did good, protecting children, it was a necessary duty. Tears ran down her cheek, she did nothing to stop or wash them away. Compared to everything else, a few tears didn't matter. She was torn in two. Did she tell them? Or not? What was she supposed to do, walk in and be like; 'Hey guys, guess what? Three of you are going to die, well, you know that you're going to be fine Jack, but the rest of you had better start sucking up real quick!' She rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. She looked at the scythe blade, was she going to have to do the reaping like she used to? Before she developed the earthing technique she used to have to sever the lifeline with her scythe. There's a reason the blade glints blue, it absorbs the energy. Keeps the blade sharp enough to destroy the link, without hurting the soul's essence. But who wants to swing a weapon to separate a child from their body? There was a reason that she developed the other technique in the first place. She leant against a tree, her body was tired, her mind even more so. She pulled out her phone. As she expected there was a message, Jack wouldn't have flooded her device with worried texts and calls. He would have left one and then waited for her to reply. As she opened up the log, she saw that it was a voice mail. That made it even worse. She having an internal battle with herself for about a minute, she clicked listen. From the sounds of it, Jack was still in the warren. There was silence for a few seconds before he spoke.

'Angel,' she stopped the recording. His tone was calm, but she heard all the things he didn't say. Her heart clenched and fresh tears fell from her eyes. She breathed in deeply and tried again. Once more the sounds of the warren filled her ears before she heard him breathe in.

'Angel... Come home.'

That was it. She dropped her phone and slid down the trunk, the scythe falling to the floor as she let it go. She held her head in her hands, she hadn't stopped the recording, so it repeated. Again and again Jack asked her to come home. She cried to the point where there weren't any more tears. Her eyes just burnt as she sat there listening to his voice. She thought she knew the limits of her fear, watching Jack be mentally and physically tortured was supposed to be the worst thing. But now, she was burdened with the knowledge that he could die. Admittedly, all spirits carry the risk of being killed, but that's just life. Now, it was in her hands. What if she made a choice to save another and Jack suffered because of it. She could save him, sacrifice another and yet, he might still die. Three of the Guardians could die, and then she could still be too late and Jack could die as well. It wasn't written in stone that only three of them would die, just that the minimum would be three. Her mind bubble with the dreaded possibilities. She picked up her phone and stopped the message. The phone itself was a gift from Jack, who was fed up of waking up and seeing that she has been called on the duty and he had no idea where she was. The memory bought a smile to her face, he struggled finding a phone that could withstand the constant cold that he naturally emanated. He couldn't have a touch phone, his fingertips wouldn't register on the screen. Her phone was a bright purple colour, it had an ''app store'', not that she ever used it. But, she used the camera all the time. It was a new concept to her. Never before did she realise that she could almost capture the memory. She knew of pictures, obviously. Drawings she understood more, but a photo, she used to think they were pretty, just people showing a pretty image to another. She now understood the true meaning, people were showing memories and feelings to one another. All the pictures she took she printed off and kept in her drawer. She deleted them after that. There were hundreds of her and Jack, all the fun moments they had. Even when she broke her wing, about six years ago, there were photos for it. He had managed to snap a few of her screaming at North as he reset the bone. She wasn't happy with him about that, yet now, she was thankful. She was able to look back at them and laugh at the way she been captured trying to throttle the large Russian. Zoe sighed looking at the sky around her, the stars were out, there were no clouds in the sky. This time she switched to record, she balanced her arms on her knees as she pointed the camera up to the night. Stars filled the screen. After about a minute or two she turned the camera to herself, not caring that she looked, probably like she had been dragged through a bush.

'Um, I honestly have no idea what I'm doing.' She chuckled sadly, the little green light was staring right at her. She coughed and wiped her eyes again. 'I suppose I should just speak, see what comes out. No-one will see this, I'm more than likely to delete it as soon as it's finished. But have you ever wanted to remember how you felt at a particular moment and for the life of you, you just... you can't? Well, I have a feeling that I won't be able to. So this will be my reminder.' She paused biting her lip. 'Fuck it,' she muttered not looking at the camera. 'This will be my uh, last moment sane. Trust me, from here on out, things are going to be fucking crazy. Well, how do I explain this? It's been decided that I don't work hard enough, been through enough. Nope, now I have to decide who lives and dies. The kicker? Three people that I love will die. Full stop. Nothing I can do. Apart from choose who.' Her voice broke on the last sentence, she cleared her throat and forced herself to look at the camera. 'So, yeah, that's it. I don't know why I'm doing this. Just voicing everything out I suppose...' she dropped the phone from her knees and made herself giggle. 'Whoops,' she laughed as she picked it up and brushed the grass from the screen. She sighed and checked it was still recording. Yep, she had clocked up a few minutes. Her heart clenched. She began to record herself again.

'Um, I just want to say a few things before I wrap this up. I mean, I'll never say it your faces but, this way I'll think that you know. Somehow.' She breathed in deeply. 'Even though I'm totally deleting this.'

'Tooth? Um, I don't blame you for the stone thing. I want to find Baby Tooth more than the gem. Please don't beat yourself up about it. I want to say, well, you're like a sister to me. I know we had our problems in the beginning, but I was a right bitch. It wasn't all you. I was jealous of you and Jack. But, now? I'm so glad you're my friend. I don't know who I would bitch to.' She smiled at that thought.

'Bunny, you're an arsehole. That's pretty much the long and short of it. But I love ya, somehow. I will miss the sparring that we do. I hope that you don't irritate North too much. I will miss your egg hunts, although the last one, by the way. Total fail. Some Easter kangaroo you are,' she made herself giggle a little at that.

'Sandy. Wow, what do I say about you little man? Thank you I suppose is the big one. You may be silent but you do make the biggest impression. I was so scared that day that you uh, ''died,'' I had no idea what to expect. But, you're awesome. One of my best friends. I will miss you little dude,' she realised that all her thoughts about her friends were only taking a few seconds. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

'Wow, Russian man, I'm onto you already. Never thought I would say this, but you are fucking scary. I thought saint nick was supposed to be nice. Honestly, you scare the living shit out of me. But, for all your intimidating features, wouldn't change you for the world. Except the bear hugs. Think you cracked a rib last time. Seriously though? I know that you'll be there for me, thanks for that.' Her voice dwindled, her heart began to pound. She had said something about everyone apart from the person that meant the most to her. This was going to be hard. How did you go about explaining how she felt?

'Jack.' She began, a tear fell from her eye and she quickly wiped it away. She breathed in, her voice shaking. She in the end had to balance the phone on her knees it was shaking too much. 'I um, not going to lie, I'm finding your one the hardest. I mean what do I say?' Another tear fell, but this time she didn't wipe it away. 'I'm scared Jack. I'm fucking terrified that I'm going to lose you,' her voice wavered and she cleared her throat yet again, trying to hide her emotions. 'God this is hard,' she gave a half hearted giggle. 'I'm going to act strong around you Jack. I always do. I can't help it, I don't want you to worry. But I know that you'll be there reading all the little signs. I won't be able to fool you. The joke's on me. I never thought that I would have to keep secrets from you. It wouldn't be fair.' She breathed in, pausing her rant, 'I've been having dreams Jack, about Pitch and her. They feel real, like the prison is failing. I haven't told you because I don't want you to worry. But I think that's why all this stuff is happening. So because of this, I've been trusted with a duty. That is totally unfair by the way.'

'I might lose you Jack, I can't bear the thought but it's a reality I might have to face. So I'm going to well, try to explain how I feel. Try to. You know I'm not very articulate with my thoughts. First off. I hate you. I really do. At this moment in time, I hate you more than the man in the moon. You make me feel afraid to be alone. I need you so much, I feel that I wouldn't be able to live properly without you. For that, I hate you,' she smiled as she said it, but her heart was dropping. 'The first day that we met? I thought, who is this little arrogant prick? But then, somehow, you looked past all the bad stuff that was said about me. I don't know how you pulled that one off. Then you stalked me. Nice tactic by the way. Simple. Long story short. We went through hell, but every step of the way you stood by me. For some unknown reason...'

'Wow, I'm talking a load of shit, told you I wasn't very articulate, but I guess you knew that about me already huh.' Silence descended, she had just babbled about random things. She just couldn't find the words that she needed. 'I keep my walls up strong, but you know, you know how to just walk through them.' She looked away from the camera wiping the trails from her cheeks. 'It's because of you I'm strong,' her voice wobbled. She sniffed heavily. 'I-I love you,' she looked back at the camera. 'I love you, Jack Frost.' She smiled her hands shaking as she wiped her face again. She laughed to herself, 'right, that's it. I can't tell you in thousand words how I feel, so those five will have to do,' she stuttered.

'I love you, Jack Frost.'

She took the camera from her knees and pressed stop. The video lasted about ten minutes. Her finger hovered over the bin button. She hesitated for a moment before pressing it. She sighed and dropped the phone back in her pocket. She felt better having letting it all out. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. She breathed in deeply. That was more emotional than she expected. But at least it was all out there. She wouldn't have those thoughts racing around her mind any more.

Only a weeny chapter. Very boring I know. It is essential to the story so be kind with your reviews. Next chapter is going to be the darkest one I've written yet. Trust me on this. Mwhahahahaaaa. Anyways. Please review!