Jack's eyes lit up as he realized the perfect plan. The four had been sitting together for a while now plotting ways to escape Pitch's lair. Unfortunately, very few seemed reasonable for a handful of misfit teenagers. Jack butted into Merida's statement as she tried to say something about how difficult it might be to make it through the maze.

"We need to make him mad!" The others, especially Hiccup, looked at him like he'd lost his mind. Actually, Merida just looked mad. She pinched him on the neck as he began to continue. "Ow! Cut it out. Anyways, last time I was here, I was somehow teleported to Bunnymund's Warren as I confronted Pitch. We need to recreate that moment."

"Unless someone happens to have one of North's snowglobes," Rapunzel suggested. Merida couldn't tell she was serious, and Hiccup just shook his head. Apparently no snowglobes were available at the time.

"It'll work, I promise," Jack said with his contagious smile when he had an idea. After a few moments hesitation, the others agreed. "Now… how are we going to do that?"

Merida suddenly stood up, her dark green dress snagging at the knee. "Hey, you bumbling idiot!" Hiccup's lips pursed and he eyed the others in surprise and worry. Merida continued arrogantly, "Too scared of a few teenagers, aren't you, ya wee boy. That's what you are, just a boy!"

Jack held his hopeful fist close to him, silently cheering the Scottish redhead on. Rapunzel and Hiccup clung to each other nervously. As expected, a hollow chortle rebounded throughout the halls as the darkness thickened around them. A shadow of Pitch formed on the wall next to Merida.

"Is that all I am? Dear girl, you haven't the slightest idea," they heard as black sand glittered around them. Jack hopped lightly to his feet, holding his staff defensively. Rapunzel and Hiccup stood, too, but much more warily, staring at the swirling whirlpool of nightmares entrapping them. Rapunzel's hand snaked cautiously down to grip a thick lock of her long golden hair.

"She knows more than you think, Pitch," Jack defended, the temperature dropping down to almost forty degrees because of his emotions. The others shivered a bit, but held their ground.

"Does she, Jack?" he countered. Everyone suddenly became very confused. Of course Merida knew; they all did. What was Pitch playing at? "Do your dear friends know about how you allowed Easter to be ruined; about how you abandoned the Guardians in their time of most need? All for a little box of baby teeth." Merida turned around to Jack and pulled him around by his shoulder. He saw all three of his friends looking at him expectantly.

Rapunzel held her hands closed against her collarbone. "Is… is it true?"

Jack inhaled sharply, his eyebrows dropped ashamedly and his eyes gleaming with regret. "I…" he tried to respond, but didn't understand how. What could he say to make the situation not seem as wrong? He could think of nothing. He looked away from his friends.

Merida's face scrunched up angrily and she pushed him away from her and the others. Rapunzel watched silently, afraid to worsen the situation and feeling disappointed. Hiccup seemed to be the only one focused on Pitch and his swirling nightmare sand, still.

"Oh, Jack, I'm sorry. Did they not know?" Pitch seemed to tease in mock pity. He personified by the winter spirit's side. "I guess not; so much for that, then." Jack rapidly felt very angry. The Boogeyman was ruining his life a second time, and he knew it already. Jack's staff practically glowed with blue power at his grip.

"Leave my friend's alone!" he yelled. Ice and frost erupted from his staff all around him, darting upwards, and then circling around towards Pitch Black. He collapsed into the shadows before the shards made contact. "Not this time, you stupid-" his words were cut short as a golden rope whipped around his torso and brought him crashing down to the floor and being dragged swiftly across it. He looked up to Rapunzel, whom was holding the hair, and before he was able to ask, she pointed behind him. He saw a wave of sharp nightmare sand reforming with the tornado. He promised to thank her later.

Soon, Jack got up, her hair falling from his waist, and pulled Merida and Hiccup by the back of their collars towards Rapunzel. She understood his plan and tied the three of them up in her hair securely. He inhaled deeply and let out a cry of power as ice and frost surged around him, solidifying walls of the black diamond sand around them in a terrifyingly beautiful spiral. He took hold of the loop Rapunzel had formed for his hand and called on the wind. It coursed through the hall powerfully, lifting them up and away from Pitch's dark power. Eventually, it carried them to the top of the cavernous den up to the small hole that had once resided under a broken bed frame. He pushed his friends through first before being shot out himself. The weakness suddenly overtook him and he collapsed on the warm dirt of Burgess. He wasn't done yet, though. Jack still needed to get his friends home.

With a heaving sigh, he tried to get everyone back into the air, but could not seem to muster the strength to. It seemed as though someone had tried to spin a cloth but ran out of thread halfway through the process.

After a few moments of squirming and struggling, Hiccup managed to worm out of Rapunzel's now somewhat tangled hair. He approached Jack watchfully, unsure of his condition. When he noticed his friend's glazed expression and lack of movement, he assumed he was at least physically okay. Now he had to figure out how to get Toothless all the way here. Coincidentally, though, the black Night Fury happened to have already found them.

"Hey boy," he mused, petting the dragon's nose for a moment. He turned back to his friends and encouraged them to board the saddle. Jack stumbled and fell on his way and a reluctant Rapunzel stepped around him. Merida gripped his arm tightly and dragged him on the ground towards the beast before climbing atop Toothless' back. Soon enough, Jack managed to pull himself up, also. Hiccup guided his pet back towards Merida's home in Scotland.

In the next few days that passed it seemed that every moment was tense with anger and pain. No one had forgotten what Pitch had revealed in Burgess. Jack had begun to isolate himself from the others, noticing that they seemed happier when he was gone. Although it was lonely, he felt guilty. He didn't want to hurt them anymore than he seemed to have. None of the others really minded, though Rapunzel and Hiccup often exchanged glances when Merida's frustration was evident. She seemed to be taking this worse than any of the others. So much so that she hadn't spoken of or to Jack since they had returned to the DunBroch castle.

Hiccup caught up with her on her way towards the stables after she'd stormed away from the table at his hint of Jack's self-quarantine. "Look, I'm sorry; I shouldn't have brought it up," he said, his metallic prosthesis clinking together with his hastened steps.

Merida grunted and refused to look at him. Hiccup reached out to touch her shoulder, but she swatted his hand away before boarding her huge black horse and galloping off into the forest. Hiccup sighed theatrically. Merida was not one to drop a grudge easily. He turned back towards the castle Hiand walked towards Rapunzel's room. He pushed the cracked door ajar to see Rapunzel handing from the rafters by her hair, dressed in a blue smock spattered with paint as she brushed a vivid green onto the wall.

She turned around at the scrape or the door hardware and spotted her short friend. "Hi," she said cheerfully before turning back to her work in progress. "What's up?"

"Well, uh, I was thinking you might wanna stop by and check on Jack. I haven't seen him in I think two days," he offered nervously, scratching the back of his head.

Rapunzel's hand froze in the middle of another emerald stroke of the brush. She stuttered, "Uh, um, hold on." She took a couple moments to finish painting the rolling hills and stooping valleys of her landscape before speaking again. "Yeah, I guess we could visit him." She wiped her wet green fingers on her smock before swinging down to the floor from her supports of hair. She set the brush in a cup of water and approached Hiccup, smiling. "Let's go, then," she said with a relieving sigh. It would be nice to talk to him again. Honestly, neither of them felt like the group was complete without Jack. Hiccup just seemed to be playing crutch for Merida whereas Rapunzel didn't want to be a part of the rigidity at all.

They arrived at Jack's room after a slow walk of hesitancy. Rapunzel opened the door and saw Jack sitting cross-legged on his bed, teasing a small frost bunny half-heartedly. A little stab of guilt shot through his friends' hearts as they watched from the door. They crept in awkwardly and Rapunzel sat on the edge of his bed.

"Hey, there," Hiccup said as he leaned on the wall by the others. Jack lifted his eyes towards him, only to lower them back towards his now empty hands and he rotated himself away from them both.

"Oh come on, Jack, you've been cooped up in here for days now!" Rapunzel pleaded. She reached her hand out towards his shoulder only to stop inches from him as he responded to her.

"I shouldn't be here at all!"

Her voice changed to a higher, breathier pitch. "Jack, please!"

Hiccup sat on the bed and scooted up to Jack's other side. "It's been really hot outside," he hinted with hope.

Rapunzel, catching on, added with a wistful sigh, "If only it was cool outside again so that everyone could have some fun." She eyed him encouragingly.

"Ugh…" Jack grunted. "Fine, what do you two want?" he inquired dismally as he spun around to face them. Rapunzel and Hiccup grinned at him. They pulled him off his bed by the hood and cheered him down the stairs. When they finally got outside, Jack pulled his arms from their grasp. "Well, I'll admit, you were right. It is hot out here." Hiccup and Rapunzel exchanged somewhat confused expressions with Jack before he added slyly, "Or is that just because I'm here?" Hiccup grinned and shot his fist into the air as a gesture of success and Rapunzel laughed happily.

They spent the next few hours wandering around the forest playing Hide-And-Seek. Yes, they knew it was a child's game, but honestly, they couldn't care less; they did what pleased them. By the time the sun singed their skin, except Jack's, they'd been outside for hours. Rapunzel and Toothless here now both hiding from each other, unaware that neither were "it" and Jack bit his lip to avoid his quaking laughter. Hiccup was the one actually "it" in this round, but seemed to have lost track of the others. Jack was actually following him in secret from the treetops after a while, and would use false hints of movement to steer him away from Rapunzel. Abruptly, though, Jack lost track of Hiccup entirely.

He darted from bow to bow in the pine trees. He found Hiccup finally when he spotted him squatting by something glittering. He dropped down in front of his friend in a crouch. Hiccup shouted and fell backwards in surprise.

"Don't do that!" he said accusingly after he regained his self-control. Jack rolled his eyes and poked the glinting object with the butt end of his staff. It made a loud clank as the two metallic stones suddenly pulled together in a vise-like grip.

"Whoa!" the Winter Spirit marveled. He picked up the two linked stones to look at them more closely. They were between a black and a gray color and shone like ice. He pulled them apart again, despite the slight resistance, and set them in his palm. Again they clacked together.

"This is awesome!" Hiccup admired. They decided to show the others, so Jack led Hic to Rapunzel. She was curled up in a cocoon of her hair hiding between the branches of the pines. "Found you," he spoke proudly, his hands in fists on him hips in a heroic stance. She laughed and slipped down to the ground of the forest.

"Oh, fine," she said with false pout. Jack laughed and proceeded to pull the amazing stones from his hoodie pocket. He demonstrated their pull on each other a few times before Rapunzel snatched them up with wonder, pulling them apart herself.

"They're called magnets," Jack explained informatively. The others didn't know much about science.

Well, besides Hiccup, who now commented, "Oh, I know what you're talking about! See, I figured out about the attraction between certain metals and rocks when I was working on Toothless' tail. Berk uses it in a few new weapons I designed. But, now that we don't fight dragons, I have absolutely no idea what they need a blade for…" He continued to speak, gradually flowing somewhat into a rant before Rapunzel spoke up.

"Jack, you should show these to Merida! Maybe it'll help you two make up!" her face looked lit up with hope for their friendship, and Hiccup sprouted a smile to support her idea. Jack appreciated it immensely. It was nice to have people believe in you. After a few moments of contemplation, he agreed.

"Let's go."

They found Merida at the archery range, training with her new bow. It was made of light birch wood and had a thick drawstring. She'd asked it to be made a couple days after they had returned from Pitch's lair, and was barely beginning to feel accustomed to the weapon. She pulled another arrow back and took a deep breath.

"Hey, Merida!" Hiccup yelled. She released the bow in surprise and the arrow shot skew into the dirt.

She sighed with exasperation, "What the devil, Hic?" He grinned and Rapunzel followed behind him with a similar smile.

"Jack wants to show you something," he said encouragingly.

Merida gaped at him with confusion. "Jack?" she said, her voice dripping with lack of understanding.

"Here we go," Jack said with frustration. Of course, now Merida was going to play dumb, just to get back at him. She just stood there looking from Hiccup to Punzie warily.

"Yeah, y'know, Jack Frost?" Hiccup said sarcastically.

She stared at him. "Hic, I think you've lost a wee bit of yer head!" Her rich accent seemed especially stressed today. Jack's face had begun to crumple together in concern. Was she joking?

Rapunzel sighed and brushed her hand through the hair on her scalp. "Look, Mer, I know you're mad at him, but you would feel better if you just let it go," she spoke with a pleading look filling her vast green eyes like liquid in a big emerald bottle. Jack felt grateful for Rapunzel's reasoning in this situation, since Merida likely wouldn't have listened to him.

Oddly, enough, though, her face only seemed further baffled. Jack suddenly realized, with his eyes wide and he gasped. No, this couldn't happen. His chest felt as though he'd been ripped open and he clutched tightly at his staff. He turned away as he pulled his blue hood over his ruffled white hair. Everyone but Merida turned after him.

"Jack…?" Rapunzel said with anxiety.

His head hung low under his hood. "I know why Merida's acting like this." Hiccup's eyes sprung wide as he, too, understood. "She doesn't believe anymore."