Chapter 3: Of Flashbacks and Memories

**Jack's POV**

I winced as North applied the antidote to the skull-shaped scar. It's the full moon already, and the antidote was ready just as the Guardians began to assemble in the Globe Room.

I was first; coming through a snow globe portal just as North finished applying the antidote to his scar. I was just in time to hear a deep, unearthly screech ring through the room, like the earth itself was wailing in protest. The scar vanished, and the telltale signs of it; drained strength, glassy eyes, pale skin (well in my case, purplish hue, like a bruise) disappeared in a flash of light.

"Ah," Santa Claus sighed; cracking his neck, "Much better! Jack, ready for antidote?"

I nodded, leaning heavily on my staff as North began to apply the antidote, a murky green substance that glowed, like the moonlight itself was giving it its healing abilities, on me.

I winced as the skin bubbled. The skull opened its mouth and tendrils of darkness began to battle the white glow that seeped from where North applied the drops of the antidote.

"Wha—what's happening?" I asked, fear lacing my tone.

"I… I don't know…" North said, his brow furrowed in confusion. The black tendrils continued to battle the white glow, but, to my relief, the white glow slowly overpowered the tendrils as the skull slowly evaporated to nothingness, leaving the skin bare.

"What the Moon…?" I began. When a knock to the window interrupted my thoughts, I opened the window and Sandy came floating in.

The Guardian of Dreams floated through the window atop his cloud of golden dream sand. But his landing however, was not graceful… if you call collapsing on the floor in an exhausted heap graceful. The scar, which pulsed like a dark scab on his left palm, glowed darker. North rushed to Sandy's side and applied the luminescent drops.

Toothiana was next; coming through a snow globe portal that appeared just behind the Guardian of Joy, she didn't look too good, her feathers were dull, lacking their rainbow-like iridescence, and her face was pale. Her purple eyes were glassy and out-of-focus as she trudged to a chair nearby. By the time North was done with Sandy, Tooth's scar began to glow dark.

"I'm coming!" North bellowed, quite unnecessarily. Tooth winced as the dark tendrils began to make its way up her arm.

North came over already preparing the concoction for Tooth when a hole appeared beside me. But I didn't see a Bunny.

"North!" I called, North was already applying the antidote, "Gimme some here!" He nodded and tossed me the container, which I caught.

The Guardian of Hope lay near the mouth of the tunnel, his breathing labored. I could see the tendrils creeping up his fur, draining them of color.

I applied the antidote on Bunny's right paw, where the scar lay. Immediately, the tendrils stopped spreading, their progress halted by the antidote which was now sizzling over the scar like acid.

Bunny roared in pain as the antidote worked its magic, abolishing any remnant of the darkness and wiping clean the scar that marred Bunny's pads.

I took a deep breath; the chilly night air, brought about by yours truly, surrounded the whole of Burgess as I perched myself on the tree beside the pond. The snowflakes that fluttered to the ground coated the landscape with a fine layer of snow and frost. I looked at the silent landscape, and my gaze slowly drifted to the house near my deathbed.

"Jamie…" I said, my voice… his name… lost in the wind. Two nights remain before Christmas, and the not-so-quaint town was already bustling even before Jack decided to reward their night with a chilly, but not overly so, night to get them huddling in their blankets.

I heard the wind whistle its tuneless melody in my ears as it delivered the snow and frost throughout the other parts of the world. As I listened, my thoughts reflected on how long it has been seen I last saw the boy.

Fourteen years…

I groaned. That's right; two years after the defeat of Pitch Black I took to seeing Jamie again. I know the other Guardians wouldn't approve of this favoritism attitude I've developed for the boy, but he was my first believer! I couldn't put enough emphasis on that.

I sighed.

But then a year after that, a new darkness came to threaten the children of the world. It started off slow at first; a small group of children rebelling more often, children losing belief in hope and peace. We didn't acknowledge the threat as much before, the world was changing as the humans and their technology "improved" the years.

Then it got worse; all over the world, children began losing faith in goodness, and eventually us, and started to fight. Something was wrong… very wrong.

I closed my eyes as I remembered what happened… the reason I left Jamie with that painful goodbye that night:

"Where's Bunny?" I yelled over the roar of the wind. Santa's sleigh was high in the clouds, obscured from the eyes of children should they see and wonder what Santa's sleigh was doing flying high in the night sky during the humid months of summer.

"Bunny will meet us where darkness is!" North bellowed back. Tooth sat beside me on the sleigh, holding on for dear life, but her eyes shined with emotion: anger, excitement, anxiety, and I could see a bit of fear in there, too. But determination shone above all the rest.

We were heading to the place where the darkness was at its largest; the South Pole. When North briefed us while we were in the Globe Room, I did my best to not laugh at the irony that was so obvious.

As we neared the threat, the black void dotted with stars that was the night sky gave was to an endless plain of roiling clouds. Lightning veined through churning mass and illuminated the frozen landscape with flashes of light.

I could see it now; the darkness all swirled from a single form that stood in its eye. The figure which looked like a woman, waved her hands about, like she was conducting an invisible orchestra.

One glance was all it took, and suddenly, the hairs at the back of my neck stood up. Electricity charged the atmosphere surrounding the sleigh as I yelled, "EVERYBODY, OFF! NOW!"

I pushed Tooth off her side as North cut the reindeer off. He jumped just as the sleigh was struck with purple lightning.

I summoned the Wind to catch North as he fell, slowing his landing to soft 'umph'.

We were a few feet from the eye, where the woman stood, conducting her orchestra. North stood, hands on his twin swords. "You!" he yelled.

The woman did not falter in her rhythm, but she raised her head. Tooth and I gasped.

"Oei, Frostbite!" a familiar Australian accent broke the reflective silence. I sighed. Both glad and disappointed that I was yanked back to reality.

"Hey, Bunny," I said, said Australian pooka was leaning on the trunk of the tree where I sat. I floated down, my feet touching the ground sending small flurries of snow. I smiled a small smile.

"Show-pony…" Bunny muttered under his breath. I laughed.

"Can't be helped." I shrugged, nonchalantly.

"Why are ya here?" He asked, genuine curiosity lacing his tone.

"What do you mean?"

"Ya do realize Jamie doesn't live here anymore, right?"

I didn't answer the question. I already knew that though the Bennett household remained, Jamie was gone. Although, where he had gone was a different matter entirely. I watched as the lights slowly went out one by one in the house, until finally only the master's bedroom, where Jamie's now almost old parents sleep in, was left with the light on. A few minutes later, however, that, too, went out.

Bunny was silent; he watched the lights go out one by one, but I saw his gaze linger on Sophie's bedroom. Sophie, now a teenager, attended the same high school Jamie used to go to.

I felt my heart jerk at the thought. Jamie's gone.

It's a fact that I'm used to… or at least my brain is used to; the night I said goodbye to Jamie, the night where Jamie confessed his feelings… the night where I left him to cry himself to sleep… did something to me. At the time, even now, my feelings toward the boy remain mutual. I love him, there's no denying.

So why did I leave him? Why did I smile when he accepted that we were not supposed to be together?

Something within me broke that day; it wasn't my heart. At least, I didn't; think it was… whatever broke inside me left me numb, empty. Like a part of me was just… gone.

I remember the time I asked Sophie where Jamie went. It was a common thought, though; the fact that it was a common thought did not surprise me. That day… her answer… was something that I won't easily forget:

"Jamie's gone, Jack." Sophie shouted, her eyes brimming with tears and her face contorted into something akin to rage. It was the beginning of winter, Jack's element. Sophie was in her pre-teens, her blonde hair half-wet from when Jack tapped her window while she was blow-drying her hair. She was wearing a mint green shirt and gray sweatpants, her eyes glaring accusingly at me.

"Whaddya mean 'gone'? And why are you angry at me?" I asked, my eyes wide with worry,

"It's your fault he's gone!" she shouted, louder than before.

"How is it my fault?" I asked, keeping my voice level, yet there's no mistaking the anger and panic that laced my tone.

"You made him crazy! You broke his heart and when he was sure you were never gonna come back, it broke his mind, too!" she screamed.

All was silent; the wind I'd conjured up to spread the early snow was quiet. The streets were devoid of the bustling cars… probably because it was a Sunday. A perfect setting for the perfect heartbreaking news.

Sophie sobbed, then she ran back to the house, her blonde hair trailing behind her as she slammed the door. I winced when I heard the door lock and the windows slam shut.

"What have I done?"