Chapter 3: The Girl Born of Ice and Snow

Jack Frost's feet landed on the red carpet in front of the Globe. The room was dark; it was the first time he saw the Globe like that, completely silent, and no yetis in sight. He didn't even dare talk too loud.

"North?" he called slowly. He felt watched, and every nerve on his body tingled. He turned on himself slowly, his staff brandished in front of him. He had no idea where North slept, and had just decided that he would check his office, when a cold voice sounded around him.

"Hello, Jack."

He spun towards the voice, but nothing but darkness greeted him. Yet he'd recognized it instantly.

"Pitch." he said in a grave voice, his eyes searching the darkness surrounding him. Was it his imagination, or did the blackness become deeper, and press on him from all sides?

Laughter greeted him as Pitch emerged, every bit as pale, tall and threatening as Jack remembered him, dressed in black robes. With a shout, he swung his staff, sending sharp ice in his direction… but the ice passed straight through Pitch's figure. He laughed.

"Did you really think that I would be foolish enough to come physically to the Pole? This is merely a projection of me, your deepest fear."

"You're not my deepest fear." snarled Jack.

"Oh Jack," sighed Pitch, "We could have been such a pair you and I, if you hadn't allied yourself with those fools."

Jack didn't answer, still brandishing his staff towards Pitch, though he knew it was no use.

"So, you've seen my army in the Southern Isles."

"That was you?!"

"Yes," Pitch chuckled darkly, "That was me. I have allied myself with the Southern Isles… we have a common goal, after all."

"And what's that?"

"Where would be the fun in telling you, dear Jack?"

Jack didn't answer immediately.

"A child army. I didn't think even you would sink that low."

"It's quite genius when you think about it. War brings out the worst in people, and their worst fears… this war will never end, and my reign shall be eternal."

"And that Ice Queen is on your side, is she?" Jack spat. There was a pause, and then Pitch laughed maniacally.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?!"

"Seems like your fellow guardians haven't let you in on all their secrets, if you don't know about the treasure hidden in Arendelle."

"What are you talking about?!" he shouted angrily.

"I'm talking," he whispered menacingly, drawing nearer to Jack, "about the girl born of ice and snow."

And before Jack could call him back, could ask more questions, Pitch had gone and the room was illuminated again, the huge Globe's lights illuminating the room.

"Jack?" North's voice called out as he emerged from the room, wearing a night cap. Jack would have teased him at the sight, if he wasn't so grave.

"Pitch was here."

"Again?!"

"He's starting a war, North. The Southern Isles- they're building a child army and they plan on marching on Arendelle-"

North stared at Jack and then marched towards him, took him by the shoulders and shook him hard.

"Are you sure he talked about Arendelle?!" he said urgently. "Are you completely sure?!"

"Geez, North, yes! Let me go!"

North immediately let go and paced the room.

"Did he say anything else? Why he wanted to invade Arendelle?"

"He- he talked about a treasure hidden in Arendelle-"

Pitch's words came back to haunt him: Seems like your fellow guardians haven't let you in on all their secrets, if you don't know about the treasure hidden in Arendelle…

"North, who is the girl born of ice and snow?"

North's eyes met his.

"He talked about her, did he?" he said gruffly, before lifting a hand to stroke his beard, a sign that he was particularly distressed. He walked over to the lever that summoned the other Guardians, and pushed it down hard, before turning back to Jack.

"Better wait for the others, Jack, I don't think I can explain on my own."

Jack leaned back. What was this about? North's attitude increased his own worry; what hadn't they told him?

He felt a spark of anger course through his veins.

Barely ten minutes after the summons, everyone was in the Globe room. North explained quickly to them what Jack had already told him. Jack stayed completely silent while the others gasped.

"You really have to reinforce the security on this place, mate. That's the second-time Pitch has pulled a stunt like this." said Bunny.

"He also talked about Arendelle." North said gravely, and the reactions on the Guardians' faces were immediate. Tooth gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth; Sandy floated higher, so that his head reached North's; Bunny's feet stamped the ground very fast. Tooth threw an uncertain glance Jack's way, and it was that more than their reactions that pulled Jack out of the numbness he'd felt since Pitch had disappeared.

"Am I a Guardian or not?" he asked forcefully.

"Jack- of course you are-"

"Did the Man in the Moon choose me or not to do this?"

"Yes- you know he did, Jack-"

"Then why are you keeping secrets from me?" he shouted. "Do you not consider me one of yours? Do you want me to learn important things- and this seems important, seeming as how all of you reacted- through Pitch?"

"Of course not, Jack, and I get why you're angry, but-"

"But WHAT, Tooth? Have I not proved myself? Do you not consider me a true Guardian yet?"

That was his deepest fear- that after everything, he still wasn't one of them. Pitch had known that.

"Of course we do, of course we do!" Tooth said urgently. "Let us explain! Don't you see that's exactly what Pitch wants, for us to fight!"

Jack opened his mouth to retort but North's booming voice interrupted them both.

"Twenty-one years ago, the harshest winter I've ever seen traveled through the world. Families had barely enough to eat, people were dying of cold and you would find them in the morning, blue skinned and cold as ice."

Jack remembered that winter. It had been horrible, and he'd restrained from doing any more damage than the nature was already doing. Bunny shivered at the memory, and Sandy looked downcast.

"On the coldest night of that winter, the coldest night since… well since the night you were resurrected, Jack, a baby girl was born. We don't know how, because it wasn't Manny that gave her powers, but she was born with magic so powerful it could condemn an entire land to eternal winter."

Jack shivered. He'd thought that Ice Queen was just a nickname, but evidently it was much more than that.

"Manny told us to keep an eye on her. And we did… at least at first. You see she grew up to be a lovely little girl. A princess in her own right, and she used to only use her powers to play with her little sister- but one day she hurt her sister pretty badly. By accident," North added, seeing the look on Jack's face, "And her parents isolated her from the rest of the world. They thought they were doing the right thing and we admit- we thought they were doing the right thing too."

"What did they do?" asked Jack, and he realized he was afraid of the answer.

"They separated her from her little sister. Kept her in her room at all times. She had to wear gloves and was taught not to feel… so her emotions wouldn't trigger a dangerous release of her powers. Every time her powers got out of control, someone would hit her, so that she would be afraid to use them. Of course, she couldn't always control-"

"You can't be serious," Jack said with horror. "And you guys thought that was okay?!"

"You have to understand Jack, we'd never been confronted to such a thing before." intervened Tooth.

"But she was a child! I thought we were supposed to protect children from exactly that kind of thing!"

"We didn't know what to do! We didn't have a choice!"

"BULLSHIT!" he roared. They were all taken aback, and looked at him with round eyes. "If I've learned something these past few months is that we always have a choice!"

"We thought it was helping her-"

"What?! To teach a little girl to be afraid of herself?! To teach her that she was different, that she couldn't be like everyone else because of something she couldn't help!" his voice was becoming unnaturally high. He remembered how he'd felt so alone for centuries- so unnatural- a phantom with strange powers, that nobody would ever see- and he couldn't help but feel connected to this child they were talking about.

"Why did Pitch call her the girl born of ice and snow?" he asked abruptly. His friends hesitated.

"Because- because her powers are of ice and snow."

"And Pitch wants her," he said, thinking aloud, "to beat me."

"You're the one that stopped him last time. With her on his side, he'd be- he'd be invincible." said Tooth.

"But why wage war on her? Why not just bargain with her? Give her something she'd do anything for?"

"Because no matter how much she'd want something, Elsa would never, ever help Pitch. She loves her people, and her kingdom, and they pass above any of her personal needs."

Elsa. He noted her name in the back of his mind.

"You seem to know her well."

"Sandy told us." said Bunny.

The Sandman knew instinctively what a person's deepest dream and aspiration was, kind of like the way Pitch always knew people's deepest fears.

He turned his back on Bunny, Tooth, Sandy and North.

"Where are you going?" asked North.

"I have to warn her."

"No- no Jack, you don't understand-"

"What? What don't I understand?" he snapped, spinning back to face them.

"She won't believe you. She won't trust you. She's been to hell and back-"

"And who's fault is that?!" asked Jack angrily.

"-people have tried to assassinate her in the past, and she's built a wall around herself, to protect herself as much as her kingdom. I've only seen her sister get past her defenses."

Jack paused.

"I still have to go." he whispered, shaking his head. "You didn't see the Southern Isles. They want her dead, and if Pitch wants to use her- there's nothing you can say to stop me."

The other guardians didn't answer immediately.

"Very well, Jack," North finally said. Tooth and Bunny looked at him in amazement, but Sandy's eyes twinkled. "But don't tell her who you are straight away. Earn her trust first. Or she won't listen to you, and this will all have been for nothing."

Jack nodded, and before they could change their minds, ran out of the room and the fortress. He didn't spare a glance backwards as his feet left the ground. He cleared any thought from his head as the wind propelled him towards the kingdom of Arendelle.