I don't think I should be ranting about school and take away your reading time.
Though this chapter has a lot of dialogue. Not much action in the first half of the chapter, I guess. Mostly explaining stuff. Hope you guys find that it gets better towards the end. ;)
Chapter Four: The Strike
The Defenders sat across the table from Elsa and Anna. The dining room was eerily silent as Anna did her best to suppress the countless questions churning inside of her. Her sister had instructed her to stay quiet for the time being, so Anna was playing around with the possible answers in her head.
Upon learning the status of the new arrivals, Elsa hurriedly ordered a meal to be brought to them in the dining hall. She berated herself for not trusting Anna as she sat there, staring at the figure in front of her. Every now and then, her vision would shift to the dragon coiled up beside Hiccup. The young boy sat at the edge of the table. Rapunzel sat at the other end, and Jack and Merida in between them. There was a tray of small pastries in front of them. While Jack and Merida each helped themselves to a piece, Hiccup and Rapunzel decided that it wasn't time for a bite.
Eventually, Anna could no longer hold in her excitement. "I knew you guys were real!" she squealed happily. "My mother told us about your adventures when we were kids, and I never stopped dreaming about your battles."
"Actually," Hiccup began, rather nervously as he was unsure to the words he should be using in the presence of the royal family, "we just became a team only half a year ago. The stories you were told were probably the adventures of the previous generations of the Defenders of Realms."
"Wow," Anna breathed, resting her chin in her palms as her arms were propped onto the table. "So you guys have already been on adventures. Sounds exciting."
"It was," said Rapunzel. "It was quite the ride. Though things have gotten quiet in the last couple of months."
"I was getting bored," Merida put in.
"I wasn't," Jack muttered through seething teeth. "It was winter and I had stuff to do. Oh well. Duty calls, I guess." Out of boredom, Jack tapped the glass of water in front of him with his staff. Droplets o to crystalize from within the water, spreading outwards and freezing the drink, turning it into a clear block of ice.
The action caught the attention of the siblings right away and for a moment, they exchanged worried glances. Elsa looked at Jack in awe. "Did you just do that?"
"Yes, I did, your majesty," Jack replied believing it wasn't a big deal. Though judging from the Queen's reaction, he began to think otherwise.
Elsa slowly stood up her eyes transfixed on Jack. She swallowed the lump in her throat and held out her hand. A flurry of snowflakes emerged, dancing up into the sky. Upon seeing this, Jack's eyes widened.
"No way..."
"Jack, she's just like you!" Rapunzel chimed in.
"But that can't be," said Jack, expression his confusion as he slowly stood up to his feet. "I've never met anyone else with the same powers."
"My sister can control snow and ice," Anna explained. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"Just snow and ice?" Merida repeated, scrunching her eyebrows. "But Jack, can't you manipulate wind too?"
Understanding dawned in Jack's eyes. "That's right. I can."
"Then it seems that we're different," said Elsa. She returned her hand to her sides. "I was born with this power and for most of my life, I wasn't able to control it. I lived in fear that I would hurt those around me everyday. Eventually, I managed to gain control and it has never been a problem since."
Jack considered the Queen's statement and nodded slowly. "I received my powers after I died."
"Wait, you're dead?" Anna looked at Jack with a perplexed expression. "But you look fine. And alive."
"The Man in Moon revived me," Jack replied. "He turned me into a spirit, and gave me these powers over ice, snow and wind. I became Jack Frost, the winter spirit. Though I lived on my own for 300 hundred years. No one believed in me, so no one was able to see me."
"That must have been lonely," said Elsa, thinking about how much time she isolated herself from her family and her sister. She had a feeling she could at least sympathize with the feeling of loneliness Jack had to endure. But it must have been unthinkable to be alone for three centuries.
"Excuse me for interrupting," Hiccup spoke up. "But we're moving away from the matter at hand. We were told that we received a message asking for help from a Fifth World. Usually, there are Four Worlds connecting to each other, and the Defenders and I are each from different Worlds. But as soon as this Fifth World had been connected, we were gathered and told that you needed help."
"That's right," Elsa answered as she took her seat. Jack decided that he should do the same. The young Queen continued her explanation. "Our kingdom was attacked last night."
"Last night?" said Merida. "By whom?"
Hiccup had a feeling he had already figured it out. "Black horses by any chance?"
"Yeah," Anna jumped in. "They surrounded the entire castle and took down a lot of our guards easily. Along their way here, they wrecked the village." Anna paused for a moment. "They also wounded Kristoff."
Rapunzel murmured in curiosity. "Kristoff?"
Anna chose the words for her answer carefully. "He's someone important to me."
From her reply, Rapunzel could tell that Arendelle's young princess cared a lot for this young man. Perhaps it was similar to the relationship she had with Eugene during their first journey. She smiled warmly. "I understand."
"I was able to hold back those monsters, but I'm afraid if more of them appear, I won't be enough to stop them," said Elsa. "That's when my sister sent her call for help. She believed that you would be able to help us in getting rid of them."
"That would be our pleasure," said Jack. "And we already have an idea what these monsters are." Before anyone had a chance to interrupt, Jack continued. He was the leader after all. He should look good when he explained these things. "The dark horses are minions of Pitch Black. He's the embodiment of fear and darkness, and a villain I fought back in my home world. We thought that he had been defeated, but who knew that he was hiding here in Arendelle the entire time. Now, he must be looking for revenge."
"What can we do?" asked Elsa. She was prepared to listen to any ideas the Defenders had to offer. If it meant the safety of the Kingdom and her sister, she decided that she would be willing to take her chances.
"For now, we need to find a way to track Pitch down and stop him before he regains full strength."
"And how are we going to do that, oh mighty leader, Jack Frost?" Hiccup added in a sarcastic tone.
Jack gave his second in command a wary look. "Aren't you the one with the brains?"
"Gee, I don't know. I thought you were the leader and the rest of us were just 'subordinates'." Hiccup couldn't help but smirk at his own little joke. The girls didn't make any attempt to hold in their small bursts of laughter.
"Uh huh, very funny guys," the winter spirit grumbled.
Elsa and Anna felt rather strange in the presence of the teenaged warriors. Rapunzel, the eldest, didn't seem to be older than Elsa herself. Without taking into account Jack being alive for hundreds of years, Hiccup appeared to be the youngest, not being more than sixteen years of age and he even seemed small for his age. Merida doesn't seem to be taking any of this very seriously. But just having the Defenders in front of them, the sisters felt relieved. There was something about them that made the group seem reliable, that they were experienced and ready for such a task. "Never judge a book by it's cover", as the old saying went.
The young queen stood up. "Well, if you would all excuse me, I would to return to my duties," she said. "There are many wounded villagers in the castle, and I have to see that they are all given proper treatment." Elsa smiled politely as she left the room. The door closed behind her silently.
As she watched her sister leave, Anna shifted in her seat, her eyes gleaming with interest. "Tell me about some of your adventures. You know, before the four of you met."
"Well, you heard Jack's," said Rapunzel, eyeing her friend for a moment. "Stayed alone for 300 hundred years until he was requested to help fight against Pitch. Did a pretty good job of it, actually."
"Pretty much," Jack said, shrugging.
"Mine wasn't anything as fancy," Rapunzel continued. "I was trapped in a tower for most of my life. On my eighteenth birthday, I met Eugene. He's my husband now, but back then, he was a thief. We went on a little journey together so that I could see the floating lights."
Anna listened intently with a dreamy expression on her face. "That sounds romantic. What about you, Merida?"
"Turned my mother into a bear," DunBroch's princess answered almost nonchalantly in her usual Scottish accent. As she felt Anna's surprised reaction, she hurried to quench it. "I turned her back though! But not before she defeated the Demon Bear, Mor'du."
"I see," Anna said rather incredulously. She turned to Hiccup, the only person whose story she had yet heard. Hiccup didn't need any further action to inform him that that princess was waiting for his side of the adventure. He opened his mouth to speak, but truth be told, he felt a strange sensation.
There seemed to be slight movement directed at his left foot. That wasn't supposed to happen. Hiccup gazed to his feet. To his surprise, a strange white creature with a long orange nose stood, his tiny stick-like arms poking Hiccup's metal prosthetic.
"Oooh," it murmured. "What's this?"
A shriek of surprise came from Hiccup as he jerked out of the chair and away from the table. The yelp had caught everyone by surprise. The strange creature clung onto his artificial prosthetic and Hiccup's attempts to shake it off ended in vain.
"What is this thing?!"
Toothless was suddenly alert, his fangs appearing. Rapunzel was up on her feet as well. Jack stood in a defensive position, his staff poised for attack. Merida grabbed her bow and prepared a shot. Anna rushed from the other end of the table towards the Defenders. Upon seeing the one holding onto Hiccup's leg, she found it rather funny. Though her voice sounded much more serious than she was.
"Olaf!"
"Olaf?" Rapunzel and Jack repeated in unison, realizing that Anna recognized the little snowman.
"Merida, don't shoot!" Anna added urgently, but she was a split second too late.
"Whoops," Merida blurted out as she let her arrow fly. The shot struck Olaf's nose, forcing the carrot through the snowman's head, out the back and pinned to a wall. Olaf paused and released his grip on Hiccup, playing around with his missing part.
"Huh," he murmured. "An arrow pierced my nose."
Anna went over to the wall and plucked out the carrot before handing it back to Olaf. She turned to the Defenders, who were completely stunned. "Guys," she began. "This is Olaf."
"Hello," the snowman added merrily.
"Elsa built him," said Anna.
Jack stared in awe at the creation. He pointed to it with one of his fingers. "This, I can't make."
"Sorry about that," Anna apologized sheepishly. "He's like this sometimes."
Olaf, by now, had stuck his nose back on. He trotted over to the black dragon nearby. Toothless had registered that Olaf was not a threat towards either himself or Hiccup, and his teeth retracted back into his gums. The dragon stayed still as Olaf patted him on the snout. Toothless returned the friendly gesture with a happy gaze.
"Your dragon seems to like him," said Anna.
"Yeah, that's pretty much my story," Hiccup replied, regaining his composition. "I befriended Toothless. Though when I shot him down, I severed his left tail fin and he was no longer able to fly. I built him a tail and now, he can fly again. He needs someone to ride him, though."
Anna looked at Hiccup quizzically. "Why would you shoot him?"
"Hiccup's village was at war with the dragons," Rapunzel took over. "He defied tradition and ended a whole war with his friendship with Toothless."
"And took down a dragon the size of a mountain while he was at it," Merida finished.
Hiccup couldn't help but feel flustered. "That's also when I lost the leg. Gobber made the prosthetic and a new tail for Toothless. Then there's my Dad. I guess I finally made him proud." There was a small feeling of pride in his chest. Though Hiccup made a mental note not to turn into a gloating machine like Snotlout. There was a pause in the conversation as Anna allowed Hiccup's story to sink in.
"So this is getting a little boring," Jack grumbled. "Is there anything else to do around here?"
Anna's eyes lit up immediately. "I was wondering if you could show me your powers, Jack. They're a little different to Elsa's, and I just want to see."
"That's fine with me," Jack replied, though somewhere in his mind he thought it would have been better if he had refused the idea. His words indicated otherwise. "Is there somewhere we can do that? An empty room, maybe?"
Anna grinned. "I know just the place." The young princess led her guests and newfound friends through the palace hallways. Along the way, Rapunzel took into account of the suits of armors that aligned the walls and how they reminded her of her own castle back in Corona. There were also dark colored curtains, but they were all kept neatly to the sides and Rapunzel noticed that dark clouds started to loom overhead.
Eventually, Anna stopped at a pair of doors. She pushed them open, leaning into a large empty space of a room. She gestured for the others to enter. "This is the room where Elsa and I used to play in when we were kids," Anna explained as she closed the doors.
"That's great," said Hiccup. "While you guys do that, I'll be here in the corner." The boy beckoned for Toothless to follow him into a small space close to the walls. As Toothless got himself into a comfortable position, his rider started going through their gear. Hiccup checked, then double checked, the contraptions working his dragon's mechanical tail. He made sure the saddle was secure tight before moving on to polishing his shield. Gronckle iron, silver and luster as it is still needed some taking care of. Hiccup reminded himself that he also needed to check the workings of the crossbow inside the shield.
While Hiccup busied himself with the maintenance of his equipment, the focus of everyone else was on Jack. With a wave of his staff, snow started to cumulate in the room. A small pile was starting to form beside Anna's feet. The air started to turn cool as the temperature began to drop slightly.
Reaching down onto the ground, Anna balled up a bunch of snow. Before she could stop herself, she hurled it at the closest target, which happened to be Merida. She let out a playful cry in surprise.
"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, your highness?" Merida soon started preparing her own set of frosty ammunition and it didn't take long for Rapunzel to join the fray . As Hiccup sat tinkering in the corner, he was finding it increasingly difficult to stay focused and not join his teammates in the snowball fight.
Jack laughed wholeheartedly as he saw the scene unfold in front of him. "Hey guys, save some for me." As the young Guardian prepared to take a step forward, he stopped. He was right in the middle of a step when he halted himself. A feeling of incredible uneasiness and fear consumed him. Then he heard it. A voice. A voice in his mind.
Jack, it whispered. The voice had a cold, cruel and merciless tone. Jack didn't need any other indicator to recognize who it was.
"Pitch?" He spoke the words out loud, but they were snuffed out by the laughter of his friends. Jack lowered his voice even more. "The last thing I need it you poking around my brain. Get out."
Come now, Jack. After all this time and this is how you greet me? And here I am hoping to talk to you.
"Well, I don't want to listen," said Jack through gritted teeth.
I can hear all your thoughts and here I am among yours. You do realize you can't do anything but hear me out, don't you, Jack?
As much as the winter spirit didn't want to admit it, Pitch was right. He had only one choice now. Try to drive out the influence from Pitch's words. He kept his gaze fixated on his friends.
You know they won't be around forever. And you'll be all alone, once again. Just like how it was back in our home world.
"Can it, Pitch," Jack glowered.
You know I can sense your fears, Pitch continued, his voice still unwavering and echoing in Jack's thoughts. You're afraid of being alone. But that's a fear for the future. I know that you're worried that you're not good enough.
Jack's eyes widened and he hesitated to give the dark spirit a reply. It was then Pitch realized that he really had struck home. I can't blame you, Jack. Now that you've finally found those who accept you, you're going to do whatever it takes to please them-to protect them. But somewhere in that little heart of yours, you fear that you just can't do that. By the chance that you will become a horrible leader and that you will lead them all to their downfall.
By now, Jack was struggling to control an outburst of raw emotions. He clung onto his staff tighter, hoping that it would help relieve him of his anxiety and that Pitch couldn't sense the change. There was no such luck.
You've already let the Guardians down during Easter once. What's stopping you from doing something like that again? The trust the Guardians placed in you was ruined. And I'm sure while the other Defenders act friendly around you, they have their doubts. They believe in your existence. But they don't believe in you yourself.
Jack knew that he wasn't supposed to listen, and that he definitely wasn't supposed to contemplate what Pitch was saying. Yet, something in those words made Jack feel uncomfortable. A spiral of self doubt had filled him entirely. It was just threatening to burst out.
Pitch delivered the final blow. You've been alone, and you'll always be alone.
That was it. Jack snapped. With a roar of anger, he slammed the tip of his staff onto the tiled floor and a monstrous gale erupted. A blast of pure ice energy shot forward from Jack. It gained speed and hurtled towards it's unsuspecting target.
Merida was the first to notice. "Hiccup!"
The boy spun around at Merida's warning and saw the attack coming straight at him. His thoughts were faster than his body. He attempted to will himself to move, but his body refused. Then at the very last second, Hiccup felt a force on his stomach. By the time he became aware of what had happened, the air shook with an agonizing bellow.
The skies cackled and the room fell into complete stillness.
For Hiccup, time stood frozen. Everything except the strong thumping of his heart. It was the only thing that reminded Hiccup that he was still conscious and alive, that he continued to stay breathing and well. He slowly gathered this thoughts. Jack went out of control. He shot one of his blasts forward, straight at him. Toothless took the hit.
By Thor's name, Toothless!
His best friend was lying there in front of him. The dragon's facial features were contorted into a painful expression, striking fear, panic and anger in Hiccup's own heart. He placed a gentle hand on the Night Fury, not being able to bring himself to say any words.
Everyone else in the room was not in a better state. Merida still was trying to comprehend what had just happened, and Anna was the only one who really understood what Jack had done. She found herself speechless, simply standing there and watching the group. Rapunzel was the first one to break the silence.
"Jack..." Her voiced trailed off as she turned to the young guardian.
His jaw hung slightly open from shock and his fingers wrapped around the staff trembled. Inside Jack's mind, he could feel Pitch words. See, the dark spirit cooed, look at what you've done. Moments later, the evil presence disappeared, and Jack could hear his own thoughts once again. Realization of what he had done dawned upon him in a second.
"Hiccup..." Jack finally said, finally finding his voice. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
"You didn't mean to?" Hiccup instantly snapped in return. His shot his leader a dangerous glare, his eyes seething with anger.
"It was an accident, Hiccup," Jack continued, now out of desperation. His tone was filled with uncertainty, and above all, guilt. "I swear, I didn't mea-"
"Shut it!"
The fury in Hiccup reached a breaking point and he galvanized into action. His hands grabbed the silver shield hanging from the fallen dragon's saddle, his body acting in rage and on it's own volition. Within seconds, the shield morphed into a crossbow. Hiccup drew an arrow from the quiver, and nocked. There was the glint of a tear as Hiccup pivoted and aimed his shot directly at Jack's heart.
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Jasminejohnson41 and I spent a looooong time figuring out who it was that Jack was gonna shoot. We've found our answer! Talk about that shift in tone! Also, the shield is canon. Sort of. Defenders of Berk, my friend.
Was this worth waiting 2 weeks for? It's pretty much a double chapter. I'm sorry if this is too dull and/or too long! T_T