Chapter 20

"Ember," Jack said cautiously holding up his staff defensively but making no move otherwise. "Is hand holding really a death sentence to you?" He couldn't help but joke how they had actually worked together for one moment, and he thought this was all over. However, judging by the look on Ember's face, it wasn't.

"You may not have helped kill my sister," she said glancing towards her younger sibling to see her gripping the younger child. "But we still have a score to settle. You can either defend yourself or die. It doesn't matter to me." She let the arrow loose, and Jack was forced to dodge.

The rest of the Guardians moved to help, but the fire spirit was smart; she focused on the trees over hanging the Guardians and set them aflame with another arrow. They would have to deal with that or risk a wildfire in this heat. None of them looked happy with this development, but the winter spirit gave them a smile and started to circle Ember.

"We don't have to do this," he pleaded. "It's over. Can't we just throw a snowball at each other and call it even?"

"I only throw fireballs," she hissed forming one in her hand and purposely aiming for his head. The winter spirit didn't see much choice; he would have to defend himself or risk serious injury. He sent a wave of ice at her, but she took to the air.

Not seeing much choice, Jack followed close behind. She turned in the air and shot another arrow missing his side by inches. He couldn't help but narrow his gaze; Ember was an amazing shot. Very rarely did she miss completely. Not getting too much time to ponder this, the winter spirit moved again to avoid another fireball. He sent a blast of cold air her way knocking her from the breeze she was on. As she fell, she grabbed Jack's arm. He felt the heat of the flame in his arm, but again, it was nowhere near as bad as it had been in their previous encounters.

"Come on snow cone," she teased. "Is that all you have still? Do I need to go threaten Jamie again to get a real fight out of you?"

Jack tossed her off while swinging his staff; he caught her in the side of the head. He saw the pain flash behind her eyes, but she shook it off and grinned. "There we go. Like that… Now again," she said lining up another arrow, this one still red. The arrow flew at him, but he deflected it with his staff and tried another blast of cold air.

Ember learned though and took off higher missing the air completely. She swung her bow, letting it catch on fire as she did so, and it connected directly with Jack's staff. Ice could be heard crackling, and the winter spirit pushed back against the fire spirit. He was glaring at her, but she was just smiling sadly at him before smirking and kneeing him in the abdomen. He bent over from the pain, and she slammed her bow against his back. He expected to feel the lick of flames, but all he felt was wood. As he tumbled, he saw that Ember had basically turned off the flames from her bow. This didn't make sense; if she was trying to kill him, she shouldn't have done that. This entire fight felt off; if he didn't know better, Jack could swear she wasn't trying… that she was just putting on a good show.

Ember smirked and teased him again though he was far too focused to notice. He glanced down to see the Guardians giving him strange looks, but they were almost done putting out most of the fire. In the glow of night, it was easy to see the flames flickering out. In that moment of distraction, the fire spirit shot another arrow but this one flew by his head. Another miss.

"Please Ember," Jack tried again. "I… I don't blame you for what you did."

This seemed to make her hesitate at another shot, and she floated down more to his level only five feet over. She still had an arrow aimed at his heart. He decided to press his luck. "Pitch manipulated you. You have no reason to fight me like this."

"Please just shut up and attack me," she growled, her knuckles on the bow were white from how hard she was griping it. "Just please."

"Ember," he said again, but this time the arrow nailed his side, and this one hurt. He cried out in pain, and all the Guardians stared to the sky wanting nothing more to help… but if this fire wasn't stopped, it threatened the entire town Bugress.

"Pitch didn't manipulate me," she growled. "It made me hate you sure, but I am filled with hate. All Pitch did was give me a target." She drew another arrow and clipped Jack in the arm. "I hate you." She nailed him in the leg this time. "I hate Pitch." She was getting closer with each shot. "I hate the Guardians." She smacked him across the face with the bow once she was two feet away; Jack was having trouble staying in the air. He didn't have the chance to defend himself. "I hate this life." Her fingers curled into his hoody. "But there is something I hate most of all."

"What's that?" Jack croaked trying to ignore the pain in all his limbs. It was superficial damage, but it still hurt like hell.

"Either fight me or burn," she whispered into his ear ignoring his question. Not having any choice, Jack pushed his staff into her and forced ice into her body. He heard her cry of pain, and he watched her let go of his sweater and start to fall. She didn't let that stop her as she just notched another arrow.

Jack flew down avoiding the arrow, and as they fell together, the staff and bow crossed again. Fire danced off the bow, and ice frosted over the staff. The two met in a stare, and the winter spirit just tried to understand what was going on. He wasn't going to let himself get killed because of her, but he still wanted to know her reasons when it was all over with Pitch.

The two spirits slammed into the ice of Jack's lake; Ember lay on her back and Jack was on top. The bow and staff were still crossed. The winter spirit panted from the exertion, and Ember grinned and let the bow go so his staff slammed basically right across her neck.

"I'm sorry," she said, and that got his attention. He stared at her and watched tears well up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry…" She shut her eyes, and he felt the blast of heat, greater than anything he ever felt before. It was like being on the surface of the sun; he wanted to move away, but she had grabbed his staff keeping him put. Over the pain, he heard her saw one more thing. "Thank you."

The ice was completely obliterated, and he fell into the frigid waters. Jack barely had time to process this as the cool water seemed to help his wounds. All the pain disappeared, and he basically sighed underneath the water. It was then he realized he was alone in the water; he glanced around desperately but Ember was nowhere in sight. Before he had a chance to look, a hand reached down and pulled him from the frigid water.

North held onto the soaked spirit. He smiled grimly at Jack before setting him back on solid ground. All around him were the Guardians, and they each were glad to see him okay. Jack couldn't help but ask if they saw Ember come up… North told him that he felt the heat, looked away, and the next thing he knew he was fishing the winter spirit from the lake. No one had seen her get out of the water.

"She's a fire spirit," he said glancing back at the water. "Could she… could she have survived that?"

"Don't know mate," Bunny answered truthfully.

Sandy showed a picture of her bow with a question mark. That was also nowhere in sight, but the winter spirit was pretty sure it was still on the ice when he went under. It was a safe assumption it sunk and was stuck at the bottom of the lake now.

"I don't get why she did that," he said looking at each Guardian equally.

"What do you mean?" Tooth asked.

"I think she purposely threw the fight," he explained. "It was only when I started to refuse the fight did she move to purposefully hit me. I think she wanted me to pin her to the lake. I don't get why."

"I do," Melanie said stepping away from the water where she had been soaking her hand. They all looked to her even though the younger sibling of the fire spirit could only see Jack. The little girl, Amber, was happily poking at Bunny's leg trying to get his attention. "My sister always feared becoming like our Father… angry, drunk, full of hate for everything in his life. I think she saw herself as him."

"She set herself up to die?" Bunny asked.

"I heard what my sister said to you Jack," she continued ignoring Bunny as she couldn't hear him. "What she hated the most? She hated herself the most in the end, and she couldn't live like that. Guilt has always been my older sister's weakness. She always had a passion for making things better in other lives, but she always blamed herself when things went wrong." The younger sister stepped forward and hugged Jack. "Thank you."

"For what?" he cried. "I might have just killed your sister."

"My sister died thirty years ago," Melanie corrected. "I'm just happy she isn't suffering anymore. She deserves to be happy and at peace." She bent over and picked up her daughter. "Don't blame yourself. My sister wanted an out, and she found one. Can you please take me home?" She watched Jack nod as he wrapped his hand around hers; it was lukewarm unlike Ember's who's touch was always blistering. He felt guilty for what happened to her, but he understood. She didn't know what else to do, so she gave up. He didn't agree with it; he figured she should have fought harder, but he hadn't lived her life… he couldn't judge as much as he wanted to.

Jack dropped Melanie at her back door; he had already agreed to head back with the Guardians to start reconstruction at every base. They were starting with the Palace as Tooth had a job every night then North and then Bunny.

As he set Melanie down, she had a few last words for the spirit before he disappeared as a distant memory of childhood. "My sister was hateful, but I want you to know she was a good person. She was my hero. I believed in her, always will." She smiled sadly at the spirit, a few tears dropping. "She's always had been the one to take the beatings for me. She was good at punishing herself too, so don't take what happened to be your fault…"

"I won't," Jack said thinking hard over her words.

"Good bye Jack Frost," she said giving him a quick peck on the cheek before heading inside with the extremely happy girl Amber.

…

The winter spirit knew he should have gone straight to the Palace, but something was bugging him. He hadn't known Ember for long, but he knew her well enough that her final actions didn't sit right. She wasn't selfish, she was selfless- her actions to save her sister proved that on numerous actions. Suicide was just not in her persona. He had flown to Jamie to ask where he had been during his stay with the fire spirit, and once he had hugged the teen happy for his safety, he started to fly.

If Jack didn't know better, he would have thought Ember would have just isolated herself again for everything she had done. That was what she had done when she thought her sister dead; she wouldn't kill herself over being manipulated. It just didn't fit. What did fit though was her dying to give her sister peace of mind. Jack had seen the frightened look on Melanie's and the little Amber's face when Ember had gotten angry. They looked terrified of their own relative; Ember wouldn't have let that pass. Her sister was right that the fire spirit wouldn't want to live like her Father, but he also thought that she wouldn't let her sister continue to live with the knowledge her older sister was now the monster. Plus, no one saw her fall in; the heat wave made everyone look away from the intensity, and he didn't feel her go in with him. It was possible, she used the distraction to slip out at the last second and disappear.

Which is what brought him to Hawaii, a horribly hot place. Jack landed in the sand, letting it get between his toes. The water lapped at his legs and froze on contact. He smiled at that and briefly wondered if Hawaii got snow days often. Then, he refocused heading for the house on the beach. He was betting Ember was alive, that she faked her death to give her sister peace of mind, to let her sister have that knowledge that she, Ember, wasn't suffering for her actions while alive.

He saw the house and stepped inside, but there wasn't anyone home. He glanced through every room. Perhaps he was wrong… He stepped back outside forming a snowball in his hand, frowning slightly. He was so sure that she would be here. He just wanted to talk to her; she obviously needed someone, and Jack understood quite well what it was like being alone and angry with the world.

Standing on the beach was a girl in jeans and a red top. He couldn't see her face as she was staring into the ocean, arms wrapped around herself. She didn't look like she was having much fun just standing there, and seeing no reason to waste the snowball, he pelted the girl from behind. He laughed to himself, and as she turned around, he smiled.

The End

OOC: So call it what you will. Is it open ended? Perhaps, but I thought it summed up everything nicely. Plus, I liked Ember- I wanted her to go out with a blaze of glory… in some sense of the words.

You have choices here:

You can say Ember is:

dead and deserved it

dead- she's at peace

alive and a rival to Jack

alive and still an enemy

or heck go ahead and ship them. I never did in my head, but I'm sure some of you thought about it.

Big question: is there a sequel? Answer- I have an idea for a sequel/stand alone. I will probably take a week long break before I draft it. If you guys really like this, I'll continue with a sequel (which will have a new OC for an enemy as Pitch won't be back in the picture anytime soon obviously). Will said sequel have Ember if she's still 'alive'? I don't know currently; the idea can easily go with or without her hence me waiting to see the feedback.
A shout out to all you amazing reviewers! Thanks for tagging along. I hope you enjoyed it! –wave-