This is the first story arc I'm gonna do for Stranger. I hope you enjoy it!
Title~ Fade Away
Summary~ Something has happened in the past, and Emma is beginning to fade. Can the Guardians save her in time? Or will Jack lose his little sister again, this time to never get her back?
Jack was having a snowball fight with Jamie, Sophie, and the other Burgess kids when the northern lights flashed urgently overhead.
"I have to go. See you later, kids!" he called. They all waved goodbye as Jack took off at a run.
"Wind, to the Pole!" he called, and the wind swept him mid-step into the air. He flew as fast as he could to the North Pole to find he was the last Guardian to arrive.
"What happened?" he asked.
"There's something wrong, in the past. Something's changed, Father Time said for me to come and get you all while he investigated." Emma said, pacing anxiously. Jack frowned. Even the slightest difference in the past could drastically alter the future, she had told him.
"When?" he asked.
"When we lived. The early seventeen hundreds. He wouldn't tell me what happened, he said he'd try to correct it before it altered the present." she said. Tooth was about to open her mouth to speak when Emma's eyes rolled back in her head and her knees buckled. Bunny, who was standing closest, caught her as an exclamation mark appeared over Sandy's head.
"Emma!" Jack exclaimed. He took her hand, to realize the tips of her fingers were beginning to pale, turning slowly translucent. She didn't respond.
"She's alive, but fading." the five Guardians turned to see Father Time standing there. He looked everything that Jack thought he would, yet at the same time the total opposite. He carried a long staff, his beard nearly reached the floor, but there was a young twinkle in his eyes that Jack hadn't expected. It was almost childish.
"What do you mean, she's fading?" Tooth demanded. Jack stared at the elderly spirit in horror. She couldn't be fading!
"She can't! I just got her back!" Jack exclaimed.
"When the past changed, someone saved Emma's life. Because she didn't die, she never became a spirit." he said.
"What will happen to her if no one prevents it?" Bunny asked.
"She'll grow up, and die old and ill. That is not her fate, or wasn't until a few hours ago." Father Time replied.
"So I'm going to lose her?" Jack asked, his voice hardly a whisper as his heart shattered in his chest.
"I never said that. I can stay here and slow the process as much as possible, and you can go back and prevent the change in the timeline." he said.
"I'll do it." Jack blurted, standing up and releasing his little sister's hand.
"Jack, do you realize what I'm asking you to do?" Father Time asked gravely. Jack clenched his jaw and nodded.
"Maybe one of us should go." Tooth hesitantly suggested.
"It has to be Jackson, if anyone goes." he said. Jack gulped and nodded.
"I can do this." he said. Father Time simply nodded.
"Very well." he said. With a sweeping motion he waved his staff and a portal opened up in midair.
"This will take you to the day your sister became a spirit." he said. Jack turned, kneeling next to his sister's head.
"Forgive me, Emma. I can't lose you, not again. I love you so much." he whispered in her ear before gently kissing her forehead. She didn't stir, her eyes didn't even move behind her eyelids. He picked up his staff and walked through the portal without turning around. It closed behind him. Father Time walked over to Emma, kneeling next to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. Immediately the translucency that was slowly spreading from her fingertips slowed even further.
"What if he fails?" Bunny asked.
"He won't fail." North said confidently.
"Then Emma will fade, and time will reset itself to make up for her absence. Only I... will ever remember her." he said.
"How many times has time reset like this?" Tooth asked.
"Once. I lost two very special people that day, and four of my comrades forgot me almost completely. They remember me but do not know I am Father Time." he replied.
"I'm sorry, Father Time." North said, putting a hand on the old man's shoulder.
"It's alright." the old man gently stroked Emma's hair.
"She reminds me of a girl I raised, a foundling. She is one, in a sense." he murmured.
"She's very special." North said softly.
"Yes indeed, to make children believe as she does. The girl I raised could do the same. She wrote stories, she had a wonderfully large imagination and a very kind personality. She was wise too, wiser than me oftentimes. I miss her every day. I could have saved them but I realized too late what was happening." his fond smile fell.
"You know now though, and Emma will be saved." Bunny said. Tooth turned to him, a puzzled look entering her eyes. She was standing apart from the others. She hadn't heard Bunny speak like that in a long time. It was almost the same speech pattern he had used when they first met during the Dark Ages, before a large amount of chocolate permanently affected him. What could have pulled that back out?
She looked at Father Time. He was very familiar, and the girl he spoke of was as well. She racked her memories, to see if she could remember a girl who fit the description. It was as if something was hiding her own memories from her. She frowned.
This was a mystery she would figure out.