Chapter 5: The Dark Man's Twin

Jack dreamed. He dreamed about his sister; of the fun, brown haired girl and about that fatal day, on the ice. He dreamed about reassuring her, making her see this as a game, pulling her to safety…

He dreamed about falling. Falling through the hard ice and into the dark, icy water; he dreamed about how it had felt, the water so cold that he had felt like his skin was being pierced by a thousand knives; it had been so painful that he'd forgotten who he was; he'd forgotten his name; and he'd blacked out.

He dreamed about a blackness like he'd never felt before; and then a light. A blue light.

A little girl dancing, snowflakes twirling around her.

He woke up gasping. He struggled for a minute to remember what he was doing in an icy cage.

He remembered looking down to see his hands bound together… with ice… and then he'd looked up…

He'd seen a flat piece of ice floating above his head, and before he could say anything to convince the queen that he wasn't there to attack her, he'd been knocked out.

He looked around at his surroundings. He was behind bars, and the cage- entirely made of ice, might he add- even had a ceiling on it, stopping him from flying away.

Smart girl, he thought, smiling to himself.

Peering beyond the bars, he saw he was in a bedroom; a huge white wardrobe stood in a corner of the room, blue artwork painted on it; a magnificent four poster bed was at the opposite of the room, and a dark blue rug sat on the floor, looking like the most comfortable thing you could set your feet on. A black, full body mirror was next to an armchair near the door, and portraits hung from the walls.

But what made his eyes widen, was the fact that those walls were also covered… in frost. Even the door was sealed, and a few snowflakes seemed to float about the room. His breath came out in smoke, and he looked at the ice covering even the furniture. The sight was so white, so haunting, so unreal, that he could merely gape.

Ice Queen indeed.

Then his eyes dropped to the queen herself, asleep in an armchair facing directly his prison. She must have fallen asleep watching him, waiting for him to wake up. She'd changed into a simpler dress; a light blue one that fitted her body perfectly, without full skirts; even he could see that it would allow her more freedom of movement. He noticed the dagger she held tightly, even in sleep, and remembered the expression on her face just before he'd been knocked out.

It hadn't just been fear; it'd been terror.

He couldn't imagine what it was like, to live like that; never allowing yourself to trust anybody; never allowing yourself to let down your guard. He wondered how her sister was, if she was the only one the queen trusted.

As if she felt him observing her, she steered and opened her eyes. She stretched, but then her eyes widened as she saw him, and she stood up quickly, lifting her chin in a regal manner, a cold gaze in her eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking down at him, clutching the dagger tighter.

"I'm- Jack Frost." he answered, eyeing the dagger warily.

"Why can't anyone see you but me?" she said crouching down to be eye level with him.

"I- I don't know. I don't know why you can see me."

"Why can't the others see you?"

"Because they- don't believe in me."

"And I do?" she said suspiciously. At least she wasn't saying he was lying; that had to count for something.

"Yes. Maybe. I don't know."

"Who sent you?" she asked, pointing the dagger underneath his chin.

"Woah! No need for that, Snowflake!" he said. He realised only now that his staff was not in the cage with him.

"What did you call me?!" she said, her nostrils flaring.

"Where's my staff?!" he asked in a panicked voice.

"If you mean that piece of wood you were carrying around-"

"For your information, it isn't just a piece of wood-" he exclaimed, deeply insulted.

"It's safe. I haven't thrown it or anything."

Jack looked around the room, then back to the beautiful queen.

"It's in that wardrobe, isn't it?" he said, nodding towards the wardrobe, flashing a grin at her.

He thought he saw a flash of amusement dancing in her eyes, but then she adjusted her grip on the dagger, and it was gone.

"Who sent you?" she repeated.

"Wha- NO ONE sent me. I swear."

"A lone assassin then; tell me, what did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing! Nothing! Why are you just assuming that I want to murder you?!"

"Why would you have gone up to me when I was alone in the garden then?"

"Because I wanted to give you back your crown-" he started, half-exasperated.

"It's a tiara." she muttered.

"- and maybe I just wanted to talk to you!"

"Talk to me about what?" she said in disbelief.

"I hadn't quite worked that part out yet; you knocked me out for no reason before I could say anything!"

"You scared me!" she said defensively.

"Sure, because I'm so terrifying." he said, rolling his eyes. She watched him for a few seconds.

"You really didn't want to murder, kidnap or torture me?" she asked tentatively.

"Geez, no!" he exclaimed, before adding in a mumble, "Of course if I had wanted to do those things, I would be saying that too."

She snorted in amusement, and he looked at her. Moonlight illuminated the room, otherwise dark, and shone on her light blond hair; her blue eyes were looking at him with a heart-breaking scrutiny, as if she desperately wanted to believe him, but didn't dare to. She licked her pink lips, the only sign that she was nervous.

"Listen, if you don't believe me, just leave me in this-" he looked uncertainly at his icy prison, "-this cage, until you're absolutely certain that I don't want to gruesomely murder you."

She stared at him. "You'd be willing to do that?"

Not that I have much of a choice, Snowflake, you're the one imprisoning me.

"As long as you don't take tooooo long- then, yes."

"Well, Jack Frost, you're either the sincerest guy I've ever met, or the best liar."

He grinned at her.

"I'm a bit of both," he said, before she turned away.

...

Elsa woke up to the pounding sounds on her door, and the shouts of guards and servants.

"YOUR MAJESTY! QUEEN ELSA! ARE YOU IN THERE? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"

She sprang up from her bed, and hastily pulled on a robe over her night gown as she heard a guard say-

"There's nothing for it, I'm going to have to knock that door down-"

"NO!" she shouted from the other side of the door, "No, I'm fine, Samuel," she said more calmly from inside the room, pressing her face against a crack where the double doors joined, "I just froze the doors shut in my sleep."

"Are you sure, you'll be all right melting the ice on your own, your Majesty?" she heard the concerned voice of the guard named Samuel.

"Perfectly sure, I'm fine. Tell the servants I'll be dressing myself today."

"Very well, my Queen."

She heard the crowd on the other side of the room slowly move away, and she heaved a sigh of relief.

"Does that happen often?" asked a teasing voice from behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around to meet the strange boy's- Jack's- eyes, looking deeply amused. She'd completely forgotten he was there.

"More often than you'd think." she replied, striding to her wardrobe and ruffling through her dresses.

"Sure seems like you've got a lot of people worrying about you," he remarked.

"Well, I am the Queen," she said in an amused voice, before turning back to look at him, horrified, "I mean- I didn't mean that I was worthier of protection than other people-"

But he laughed good-naturedly before saying, "I know what you meant."

Finally picking a dress, she turned back to him.

"Don't look," she ordered.

"Wouldn't dream of it." he grinned, before adding hurriedly, "Not that I wouldn't want to-"

"I know what you meant," she said, smiling, and her heart fluttered a little at his answering wink. She'd forbidden herself to form the thoughts in her head, but he was very handsome. His eyes were a piercing blue, and his white toothed grin was quite seductive. His shock of white hair was strangely beautiful, and only made his face more interesting to look at.

She shook herself back to her senses, checked that he wasn't looking- noticing that he had turned his back to her- and quickly pulled on the simple dress she'd chosen. It was a dark green, that stopped a few inches above her ankle. It was tight fitted on her upper-body, but billowed in loose, casual skirts. She edged her feet into the matching shoes with low heels and turned to the mirror.

"You can turn back now," she said absent-mindedly, as she twisted her hair into a loose braid. When she'd finished, she turned back to Jack, to find him gaping at her.

"What is it?" she asked nervously, turning back to the mirror to check if anything was on her face.

"No- nothing." he said, and edged closer to the bars, running his hand through his hair. He breathed in, and then threw her a look from beneath his eyebrows so intense that her breath hitched- just a bit.

Get a grip, she seethed at herself.

"So. You ready to let me out, Snowflake?"

"Stop calling me that," she snapped, but her annoyance had for effect only another mischievous smile thrown her way.

Geez, he must have broken many hearts with that smile.

"You're used to getting your way with women, aren't you?" she asked, in an unimpressed tone. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Well, it's kind of complicated when women can't see me." He shrugged, stuffing his hands in the front pocket of his… what was that?

"It's a sweatshirt," he explained, following her gaze. "It doesn't exist yet."

She stared at him for half a second before deciding against asking more questions about his- his sweatshirt.

"What do you mean, they can't see you?"

"I already told you. People don't see me unless they believe in me."

"I don't understand. I can see you, and I haven't even heard of a Jack Frost."

"Ouch," he winced. "Careful Snowflake, you're going to hurt my feelings."

"Sorry," she mumbled. "For what it's worth, I've been locked in a room my whole life."

She saw a dark look flash in his eyes; was it possible he knew, about everything? How her Father had done his best to protect her?

No, she decided. No one knows.

The only person who knew a piece of the truth about those dark, lonely years, was Anna, and even she couldn't come close to the truth. But Elsa had decided a long time ago that she wouldn't tell anyone, ever, about what truly happened behind the closed doors of her bedroom.

"I don't know why you can see me. It shouldn't be possible if you don't believe in me. Usually, only children see me."

"Children can see you?" She sat down, cross-legged, just on the other side of the bars. He seemed taken aback at her sudden closeness. "Come on, tell me. Why can children see you?"

He sat down across her, cross-legged too, the bars separating them. But he was close enough to reach for her across the bars, and he could've easily tried to strangle her… but he didn't do anything of the sort, instead only looking a little sheepish- and adorable- back at her.

"Well…" he started, biting his lip, hesitating. "I don't know if you're going to believe me."

"I have ice powers. I'm as open-minded as you can get." she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. But he seemed to relax, and chuckled softly.

"You do have a point. But you're going to have to bear with me here."

"Try me." she said mischievously, and he cocked his eyebrows.

"Guess I will." he paused, then breathed a long sigh, closing his eyes and rubbing them with his fingers, as if he were preparing himself.

She was getting more and more intrigued by all this.

"So, a long time ago, like- back in medieval times, there was a very evil man called Pitch. No one knows from where he came, but the stories say that when he was human, Pitch had a twin sister, but she died from the plague. And watching his sister die… well that was his deepest, darkest fear. He went mad after her death."

"That's a horrible story. I couldn't imagine what I'd do if Anna died."

She hugged herself as she shivered in horror at the mere thought, and she saw from the corner of her eye a twitch from Jack's hand, as if he'd wanted to take her hand as a sign of comfort but had thought better of it.

Not surprising, she thought bitterly. After seeing what my powers could do, he's probably afraid to even touch me.

She felt another pang as she thought of Anna, the only person who wasn't afraid of her in the slightest. Who didn't recoil at the thought of touching her.

"His soul became rotten," continued Jack, and she focused back on his words, "and when he tried to kill himself- he was mad with grief, you see- well his soul had become so evil, that he… he couldn't die, and he resurrected into a being of darkness. And for centuries, his darkness ruled the world. People were terrified, and everyone was scared out of their wits.

'Anyway, the legends say that his twin's spirit, whose soul was completely and beautifully pure, was resurrected into the moon… and we've come to call her the Man in the Moon, though technically she's a woman."

"We?" asked curiously Elsa.

"Wait," smiled Jack, "I'm getting to that part."

Elsa felt like she'd never been so captivated in her life; she just wanted Jack to continue talking.

"So the Man in the Moon, to defeat Pitch, created the Guardians; their role was to protect a fundamental piece of childhood and happiness. And children. That's their most important mission; protecting children.

'The first ever Guardian was Sandy, the Guardian of Dreams, (there, Elsa noticed a gleam of affection in Jack's eyes, and it only made her more curious), then came Bunny, the Guardian of Hope, Toothiana- or Tooth- the Guardian of Memories, and finally North, the Guardian of Wonder; though you probably know him as Santa Claus."

Elsa's mouth fell open.

"Are you trying to make me believe that Father Christmas actually exists?!"

"Pretty much, yeah," he said sheepishly.

"And Bunny… is that the Easter Rabbit?"

"Yeah, and Tooth is the tooth fairy," he mumbled.

And, somehow- maybe it was the fact that he thought she wouldn't trust him, or the way he didn't insist, or the sheer magic of his story- but she found that she was, though hesitantly, believing him.

"And how do you know them?" she asked softly, and he whipped his gaze from the spot on the ground he'd been staring at to her eyes so quickly that she blushed.

"You believe me?" he croaked.

"Well," she shrugged, "Seems like no one can see you except me, and it seems like you don't want to kill me after all… so I'm choosing to believe you."

His face had split into a contagious ear-splitting grin, and pretty soon she was smiling back at him.

"So, how do you know them?" she asked again.

"Well, a few months back, I became a Guardian myself," he said, "In addition to being, you know, the Spirit of Winter." His words hadn't been tinged by an ounce of arrogance, just fact.

"What do you mean, the Spirit of Winter?" she asked slowly.

"I mean, I can do stuff like this," he said, as he absentmindedly waved his hand, and an icy rabbit sprung from the frost at his feet and jumped in mid-air, moving around her as she twisted her head to look at it, gaping. When the bunny disappeared, she turned back to look in astonishment at the boy crouched in the cage.

"You have ice powers?!"

"Yeah," he said, meeting her gaze, "hadn't you figured that part out yet?"

"How was I supposed to figure that part out?!" she asked him in astonishment.

"I just thought the white hair was a pretty good indicator. And the fact that I haven't died of cold after spending the night here."

"I- I didn't realize-" she stammered, and she picked herself up. Before she realized what she was doing, she'd waved her hand and the ice imprisoning Jack evaporated.

"Show me," she asked, a hitch in her voice, "Show me what you can do. Please."

"You don't want me to show you all I can do in your room?" he said, bemused, as he stood. "You would have quite a job explaining that, wouldn't you?"

"What do you suggest?" she asked, crossing her arms, as he started to walk towards her.

"I could fly us somewhere isolated-"

"Careful," she warned, "I've just started to believe you didn't intend on murdering me."

They were now sharing the same breathing space- and God help her, those eyes…

"If I did, I think you'd be more than capable of defending yourself." he murmured, and she felt his breath on his cheek.

Then, so suddenly she didn't have time to prepare yourself, he had caught her in his arms, a gust of wind had sprung the windows open, and they were plunging into emptiness (her room was in the highest tower of the castle) and she screamed, holding tight to his neck.

Then, she was flying.