I remember black skies,

the lightning all around me.

I remember each flash,

as time began to blur.

Like a startling sign

that Fate had finally found me

And your voice was all I heard

That I get what I deserve.

Linkin Park, 'New Divide'

Chapter 4

There was no plan this time, no thinking, no cunning. Nothing was left in Pitch Black's mind for such higher thought processes. He just attacked. The Nightmare King commanded his army, and sent everything he had, every Nightmare and Nightstalker left, every dark thing left in the world, against Snow's Hall.

He didn't care about the wards and spells protecting the fortress. He didn't care about sentinels or guards, elves or fairies. Pitch already knew how to defeat them.

Pure. Overwhelming. Numbers.

For the Guardians, it was as if the ground exploded! The monsters had silently clawed their way up through the stone, collapsing parts of the fortress and already sowing chaos. The sheer numbers were overwhelming! Like an evil living tsunami, the foul creatures swarmed over the fortress' walls. The Guardians fought valiantly, but the fort was surrounded on all sides, above and below! North was killed in the first wave, fighting bravely to sound the alarms and give his Guardians time to act. Millions of Nightmares and Nightstalkers poured into the fortress.

The people immediately began to fight back and to evacuate the children. Sandy was consumed by Pitch himself, the Nightmare Lord screaming in ecstacy as the last good dream died. Toothania was killed rallying their fighters and trying to buy the people time to escape. Bunnymund created dozens of tunnels to try to send the kids away, each group guarded by a number of elves and fairies, but the tunnels kept collapsing under the attacks of the monsters, killing every screaming child under the earth with glee. The humans were killed as more Nightstalkers made it past the defences. The fairies were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of monsters, and were devoured. The elves were slain. Jack's ice army was destroyed. Sandy's dream sand army was corrupted without the Sandman to purify them.

As the last human dies, Jack Frost screamed in denial and detonated his ice bombs in a last blitz, freezing all but the strongest of Pitch's creatures. He was nearly berserk with rage and greif, screaming out a challenge to the Nightmare King, but a wounded Aster dragged him out, making one last tunnel. The Pooka had then brought them to the last place left they could go; the ruins of Santoff Clausen. They both came out of the tunnel into what was left of the Central Command. It was a sight of despair. Pitch's fires had burned nearly everything to ground. The globe had been shattered, and even the Moon Crystal had been broken into jagged shards. Nothing was left of the stone but the base and a wickedly sharp shard, all that remained of the Man in the Moon's first gift to his Guardians.

The winter spirit had shouted in denial, demanded the Wind to take him back to the fortress to fight, to search for survivors, to do something, anything! But the Wind only moaned softly in greif. Bunnymund wrapped his furred arms around his lover, holding the sprite as he raged. The sounds echoed softly throughout the tarnished ruins of the once happiest place on earth. Jack sniffed hard at the sight, the weight of what had happened crashing down on his heart. Soft sobs soon rang out; the Guardian of Fun was now the Guardian of no one and nothing. Aster held his mate in his arms, tucking his face into the spirit's neck as hot tears streaked down the fur on his face. Gods, not again. A whole species, an entire world, lost to Pitch bloody Black again! Just like the planet of the Pookas.

Less than 3 minutes later, Pitch and his worst minions erupted from the ground, an explosion flinging the earth skyward. Both Guardians were flung into the air from the explosion- and a Nightstalker's chain and sickle hooked Aster in mid-flight, yanking him back. There was a sickening crunch, and Jack wailed in pain at the sight of his lover.

E. Aster Bunnymund had died instantly from being peirced through the chest with the base peice of the Moon Crystal. His body hung like a broken doll as Pitch admires the blood turning the crystal red. Jack screamed in near madness and attacks, freezing the hoard and the entire room twice over, but the sand is just too much. The Nightmares finally reached him and used their cruel teeth to destroy his staff, yanking off his armor in each attack. Chains of black Nightmare sand ripped up from the ground and hung him in midair as Pitch appears. The Nightmare King does nothing but laugh, too far gone into his insanity to make a pretty speech or monologue.

Only one thing, in all this time, has never changed about Pitch Black. He still wanted Jack Frost for his own.

Jack was going numb at this point; emotionally and physically, its just too much loss. The shock and trauma was just too great. He cannot even weep as he was chained in the air for Pitch's amusement. But that does not satisfy the man that destroyed the world. Pitch wants to see Jack cry, and he grows angry that the winter spirit is so far in shock to actually submit.

He moved Jack over the crystal shard with Aster's body impaled on it, positioning the chains that bound Jack so that he's face-down, looking at Bunny the entire time. Pitch then began to strip him. Now Jack fights, but its a sham. He is moving into position so that if Pitch pushed down hard enough, will impale Jack through the heart. Jack blasts his last attack, giant spears of ice that come out of his back.

Pitch pushed off Jack at full strength to get away from the deadly ice, and granted Jack's wish as the move pushes his body down hard enough to spear the Guardian through the heart. Jack dies, almost in Bunny's arms.

*(**(**(**(*

Spirits rarely fell in love, but when they did, it was for eternity. And no one had loved E. Aster Bunnymund like Jack Frost.

The memories of how the world died drove the winter spirit to his knees. But the memory of how his mate had died, how Bunnymund had died... Jack didn't bother trying to quiet his sobs, the hoarse sound tearing from his throat. He had curled in on himself, his body fallen to the floor. Tears poured down his face, but they brought him no relief. Nothing ever would.

His mate was dead. His exasperating, stubborn, aggravating, gruff, kind, gentle, smart, handsome, incredible Aster was dead.

He would never again feel warm, furred arms around him, pulling him to a strong embrace that had promised that he would never be lonely again.

He would never again lay at his lover's side, or lay his head on Aster's chest to hear the thrum of a heartbeat that had promised that it beat only for him.

He would never look into those deep green eyes, or hear Aster's gorgeous voice telling him that he was loved ever again.

Jack didn't know how long he lay there, crying out for all he'd lost. It hurt! By the Moon, it hurt so much, 'Please, Manny, if you ever gave a damn about me, give him back or take me with him'-

"You are not his to take, kiddo. You never were, no matter what little Moon-boy thinks. Besides, you are far beyond his reach now."

It took effort to even care what that time-guy was saying, but anyone that talked smack about Manny himself...damn my curiousity... "What?"

Jack had no idea how, but he suddenly got the impression that the entire area around him had just cocked an eyebrow at him. He cleared his throat as he slowly sat up, absently wiping off the tears that still fell from his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

A form slowly grew from the mist in front of Jack. A thick velvet-red cloak covered a small, slim figure from head to toe, the cloth disappearing into the mist. Jack couldn't see any features under the hood, not even a sense of where the eyes should be. The figure held a long black staff, curved much like Jack's was, that had a hoop hanging from its top. Inside the hoop was an hourglass, spinning in the hoop at a slow, constant rate. But inside the sand of the hourglass, a hummingbird hatched from an egg, grew feathers, grew to a full adult, then shrank, lost its feathers, and went back to an egg; all of this over and over again in a matter of seconds.

The figure moved in front of Jack, a chair growing from the mist and solidifying like hard smoke. It sat down, motioning to Jack. "I've another one for you. Come, sit. You look dead on your feet. No pun intended, I assure you."

"Thanks," Jack said shakily, pulling himself up into the chair. He glanced warily at the stranger, shudders still wracking his body from his emotional state. The winter spirit, though he didn't know it, was still mostly in shock from the events of the day. He was just barely hanging on to his facade of calm as it was. "So...w-why'd you bring me here? And what did you mean that I'm not Manny's?"

The being leaned back into the chair. "As I told you, I'm the Master of Time. You may call me Tempus. As for where we are, this place exists outside of where Time and Space meet, otherwise known as the Void. Think of this place like a tiny bubble of Existance that never joined up with the rest of it. Tea?"

"Huh?"

"Would you like some tea? I have iced tea if you prefer."

Jack blinked at this, his sense of the bizzare going off. "Um, yeah. Sure. Tea, lots of ice."

"Certainly." A simple square table formed out of the mist, with a steaming cup of black tea for Tempus and a tall glass of cold iced tea for Jack. "Woud you like anything to eat? I, (ahem)," here Tempus seemed slightly embarrassed, "I normally don't have much company, so I would hate to be a poor host."

"No, no, its fine," the winter spirit replied blankly, taking a drink of tea. "Um, not hungry, but thanks for the drink."

"No trouble at all, kiddo, let me know if you change your mind. Now, I brought you here because someone has very badly screwed up. Time fell out of order."

Jack couldn't help his incredulous look as some-okay, most of that, went right over his head. "Huh?"

Tempus sighed quietly. "There is a time for eveyrthing, you know that, right? A time to be born, a time to love, a time to dance, a time to sing, a time to mourn-"

"And a time to die, yeah, I listened to that song too," Jack said, loosing some of his patience. "Now can you get to the point?"

"Getting there, kid, have a little patience. There is a time for everything, and I am the one in charge of making sure that it happens when its supposed to happen. Because I am not only the Master of Time; I am the Guardian of Time as well. People can avoid their time for a while, but not forever. That's where I come in, to make sure Time is not stopped or blocked. I am also in charge of the abilities of precognition and retrocognition. Most myths claim that those belong to the Fates, but believe me, kiddo, those three work for me. Not the other way around."

The way Tempus seemed to bounce between stiff formality and casual familiarity in his-(her?) tone was going to give Jack a headache. "I'm sorry, precognac? Precagney? I'm not even gonna try that other one."

"Pre-cog-ni-tion. Re-tro-cog-ni-tion," Tempus said paitently. Precognition is the ability to see into the future, to try and foretell future events in the hope of either stopping them or being sure that they come to pass. Retrocognition is the rather useful ability to see into the past, to understand how things came to be, or to tell the truth of past events."

Jack blinked in understanding. "Oh. Fortune-telling is real. Okay. Now what the hell does any of that have to do with me?"

"Yes, the Man in the Moon. Now, I have to back up a bit, or you won't understand a bit of this. They told you that Manny was a Lunarian, right? As in, he was not originally from the planet Earth. Ah, the Lunarians. A noble race, filled with the greatest minds and hearts that the universe would ever know. They helped guide the races of the universe to greatness. They taught them peace and joy, hope, love, wonder. But, sadly, all good things must come to an end.

"His planet, and all his people, were killed by Pitch Black and his minions. Manny and his last remaining followers fled to Earth, and Tsar Lunanoff swore that he wouldn't let this new world suffer the same fate as his. They actually managed to stop Pitch's ships, destroying them all, so Pitch would be forever stuck here, on this world, even as Manny escaped to the Moon. He created the Guardians to protect this world's children, in the hopes of someday guiding them to greatness. A lasting legacy to his people, that he might mold another race into the role of the Lunarians.

"That's how we met, Manny and I," Tempus said quietly. "He used a great device of his race, one that he dared not let fall into the enemy's hands. He used it and summoned me, destroyinhg it in the process, and begged me for help. I told him that I couldn't undo time for him, and he said that he didn't want that. he wanted the ability to see into the future. As the Guardian of Destiny and Fate for the Human World, he was entitled to some help from me, so I gave him that power-"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold everything," Jack said, his voice low and blue eyes snapping. "You mean... to tell me... that Manny could see the future?"

Tempus nodded.

Jack began to hypervenilate in anger, frost spreading on the damp ground. "He saw all this coming. All this death and destruction, he saw it coming, and he never told us?! He knew this would happen and didn't do anything to stop it?! What the fuck!"

"In the Lunarian's defense, he can't see all that far-"

"What the hell do you mean, he can't see that far!? He's been up there, all this time, and he couldn't see the end of the world coming?! How the fuck do you miss seeing the end of the world?!"

"He could no longer see anything at all. When you no longer have the power to see the future, you kind of miss something like that," Tempus replied calmly.

"Wha-...how did-? What?!"

"Calm yourself, kiddo, and I'll explain. Manny did see a great battle coming, some 300 years before it happened. He believed it would be the final battle against Pitch Black. And he saw his four Guardians failing." The being held up a hand to stop Jack from interrupting. "So he created a fifth. The most powerful of all his Guardians, one of the most powerful nature spirits ever concieved. He created you, Jack Frost."