The Plague of Corona

A/N: I don't own anything. This will be the last story I post before starting work on the stories for Mericcup and Jackunzel week 2014 (woohoo!) It seems I'm committed to even more mischief than I thought. As long as my readers are enjoying it, I'm enjoying myself. As always, feel free to leave a review.

In the kind-of plotline I have going here, this story would take place in the same continuity as "Jack and Zelchen" and "Sketching." It also ties in to the last few chapters of "Red, Like Dragon's Scales." Basically, a RotBTD story that focuses on a magically created plague. Fun times!

The scale did not flake away. It did not fall off. It did not melt. It was not nothing.

Jack ignored it.

When he took off on his own, to scout for any of Pitch's night-mares by himself, he had just felt the scale of ice thudding against his chest as he flew, but he didn't think of it further.

When he got back to camp, Hiccup was mad at him. Jack and Hiccup shouted at one another, Hiccup saying that Jack was wrong to abandon the team like that and leave them without their scout, Jack saying that he was more than 'their' scout, and Hiccup wasn't the boss of him anyhow.

Rapunzel was quick to smooth things over between the two of them, but Jack noticed that when he crossed his arms, the patch of ice had grown a little bit, and stuck even faster to his shirt.

He steadfastly ignored it, turning his attentions to annoying the daylights out of Merida.

As they progressed on their journey, Jack always found himself – or always put himself – on the outside. He skirted the winds so that Hiccup had to yell to get his attention; he leapt far above them so that he could only find them by the glimpse of Rapunzel's hair. When they sat around the fire, telling stories, Merida often gestured for Jack to join them, but he never could bring himself to really complete their circle. He always stayed just outside.

'It's not like they really want me there,' he told himself. 'Rapunzel's just disoriented, out of her tower – she wants a friend nearby. I'm doing her a favor, forcing her to make new friends. Look at her. Making new friends. Without me.'

He dallied behind, tracing especially elaborate designs on lucky tree trunk, telling himself that when Hiccup called to him to catch up, that was just to keep up appearances. Hiccup did much better navigating and leading by himself. Jack was more of a loose cannon, the mad prophet on the edge of town. Jack had met many of those. He didn't mind being counted in with them. Really.

And when Merida beckoned him to sit by the fire… well, Merida clearly wanted more of an audience. That was easy.

None of them really wanted him. Not the dragon boy, not the proud girl, and certainly not Rapunzel.

He began to idly pick at the ice speck on his shirt, like he might have picked at a hangnail, in another lifetime, but he tried to shake off the habit. And he told himself the fleck wasn't getting bigger. It was his imagination.

000

Rapunzel worried about Jack. At first, he'd seemed happy, with the number of humans who could see him doubled, and a chance to share his world – the glorious winter, and the outdoors, the sky, and wind – with her.

But ever since he returned from her tower with Pascal, something had changed. He never seemed at ease with the three of them (five, if you counted Toothless and Pascal), but was always flying up ahead or "scouting." He kept saying he was on the lookout for Pitch.

Pitch hadn't attacked them since they had left the tower.

Still Jack kept away.

And there was that shard of ice on his tunic. It had been difficult to notice, at first, under his blue cloak, but every time Rapunzel noticed it, the shard caught more light. It covered more of his shirt, creeping up to his shoulder.

She meant to ask, she really did – but then, they reached the city of Corona.

Corona, dazzling, marvelous, welcoming, drew her in; she felt like the city had been waiting for her; people met her eyes and smiled, bright little girls offered to braid her long, long hair, there were steaming stands selling pretzels and hot cider against the bitterly cold winter air, it felt like an adventure and like home all at once.

It was no surprise she got carried away, leaving Merida and Hiccup behind in her new drive to explore everything, as much as she possibly could.

It was no surprise that she would leave Jack behind, as well.

It was no surprise, then, that Jack left.

Any other city in the world he could have found something to enjoy about it – pranks to be played, children to encourage in their wild fun, cobblestones to ice over – but this city was drawing Rapunzel further in, tangling her up with its residents and their petty, mortal, meaningless lives, and he couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand to sit by and watch her run, talk, laugh, even dance – and no one saw him, and even she didn't see him.

So he took off. His last act was to rap Hiccup smartly on the head and tell him, tell him something about looking to see if Pitch and Gothel were lurking about. Then he took off like a shot, not caring about the people left behind on the ground.

Not much happened to him while he was gone… but when he came back, he found that a whole story had unfolded in his absence.

000

It was evening when he found her. The light had long since passed, but there was still a faint gleam of red in the west, and lanterns abounded in the Castle Square, which was where Rapunzel rested.

She was delighted to see him, and reached out her hands, though she didn't get up She knelt in the snow, her hair unbound and coursing like a river out of the courtyard and into the street beyond. People knelt or lay in the snow, grasping at locks of her hair with trembling fingers.

The Plague, you see, had come to Corona. Even this city of wonders couldn't evade Pitch's plague of insomnia, nightmares, coughing black sand, and black, star-like sores all over the skin.

Jack's mind worked fast, taking in everything; Rapunzel smiled to see his eyes course from one detail of the scene to the other, putting the story together, of how she had offered her healing gift to one and all, without a single reservation or fear. She had sung three times, and each time, people had walked away healed, approaching her with reverence bordering on fear. And now, her hair running through the city and healing all who touched it, her perfect day had reached a pitch. This was where she was meant to be – not cooped up in a tower, singing to herself and painting her own ideas – she was meant to be in Corona, healing, sharing her gift even as the sun shared its light. And Jack, his eyes meeting hers at last, arrived just to crown this moment. She was unutterably happy as she looked at him.

Merida went to pull the blonde-haired girl to her feet. Rapunzel opened her mouth to start to tell Jack about her day –

And coughed, hard, falling onto Merida's shoulder while tiny flecks of blood scattered the snow below.

Both Merida and Jack cried Rapunzel's name. She coughed again and wiped her mouth on her sleeve, staring at the discoloring.

"That's never happened before," she said vaguely.

"What have you done? Zellie—"

"Jack, it's okay, I've just been singing, and I've been healing a lot of people, and I thought – I just thought I could do this all day, but –well, my throat hurts -"

"You've been healing this entire city?"

"Well, yes, they have the plague here, and I thought –" Rapunzel coughed again, and Merida held her steady. Jack stared at Rapunzel's tottering form (wishing he could have dared to hold her up, wishing he was sure that she wouldn't just pass through him like a ghost).

"I dinnae think it's in yer lungs," Merida said to her, "Just yer throat. The healing must've taken it out of ye."

"But the flower's magic doesn't run out! It's like the sun – it's inexhaustible! That's what Mother told me…"

"Its magic dinnae run out – but that doesn't mean you don't. You're done healing for today, and that's final."

"Gothel was right." Jack whispered.

"What?" The two girls looked at him.

"This is what'll happen when you're out of the tower – everyone will try to use you, and you'll, you'll just let them, you'll sing until you're burning and dying. Rapunzel, you're too stupid to realize how much illness there is in the world, how much people will abuse you, Gothel was right, you should never have left that tower!"

That was when Merida began to shout at him, but the shouting didn't strike him as much as Rapunzel's face, as she fell back, physically recoiling from his words. She looked hurt – afraid – she looked at him the way she looked at her mother.

'Don't feel it. She's wrong; you only told her the truth. Don't feel the pain.'

With that, the ice shard on his chest grew abruptly, clinging fast to his shoulder. He jerked his head away and realized that Merida was yelling at him, furious.

"—How dare ye tell her how to use her own gift – how dare ye call her stupid, ye cold-hearted—"

'Don't feel it, don't even listen, she's wrong, you're right, you don't even care about her—'

The shard of ice grew across his chest, and Jack Frost laughed. His feet left the ground, and he kept only the butt of his staff anchored to the earth as he rocked backwards.

"An' what is so funny?" Merida demanded.

"I see what you are! You're jealous!"

That actually shut Merida up. "Jealous?" she repeated.

"Of Rapunzel – she's prettier, friendlier, everyone likes her better, I'm sure Hiccup likes her better, isn't that why you're always – that's why you suggested this, isn't it?"

"Suggested what?" Rapunzel asked.

"You suggested her healing this entire filthy city – just so she'd drain herself – so she'd die! You're trying to kill her! You murderer!"

"Jack, you're mad!"

'Don't listen, don't feel, don't even think –'

His feet connected with the ground. Merida (recognizing a predator when she saw one) threw Rapunzel onto the snow behind her, as Jack spun his staff up, striking at Merida with ice magic –

In one motion, Merida brought her sheathed sword up, and pulled it four inches out of its sheathe –

The magic struck the metal with a clang that rattled Jack and Merida's teeth, and her sword's metal turned white, and then broke cleanly, three inches below the hilt.

The world came back into motion, and color, and sound, for Jack. He saw Rapunzel lying in the snow, coughing and staring up at him in horror. He saw the people around – the people Rapunzel had healed – staring at the two of them, at the blade that had clearly broken, but –

But they didn't see anyone, did they?

Rapunzel's mind worked fast. She saw Jack, spinning around, the unseeing crowd closing in. She saw the shard of ice growing over Jack's shoulder and down his back, across to the other shoulder, closing him in, shutting off his heart—

"Jack!" Rapunzel called.

He looked at her. Their eyes met, green and blue, and he looked afraid and confused, and in the bright winter light he was changing, and Rapunzel realized, she would forgive him anything –

And in a minute she would have told him that, she would have said something to make him stay, but her breath hitched, and she coughed into the snow again.

There was a gust of wind, a scattering of snowflakes, and when she looked up again, Jack was gone.

(A/N: So, chronologically, the next story in this surprisingly plot-heavy sequence [what happened to fluff?] would be "Icebound." Clear? Any questions? Any thoughts? Is there so much plot I should just give up and make it a standalone story? Let me know!)