Chapter 13

Jack stood frozen in shock in the spot where North had passed through him. This could not be happening.

Jack finally unfroze just in time to whip around and see North pass through Alice too. Unused to the sensation, Alice jumped away and stared at North in shock.

North paid neither of them any attention, and came to a stop in front of Nightlight, who had been watching these proceedings with alarm.

"Nightlight? Vhat is vrong vith you?" North asked the glowing boy. "Katherine is looking all over for you."

Nightlight glanced up at North, and then back at Jack, who looked like the world had been pulled out from underneath him.

Jack let out a breathy laugh,and tried to collect himself. "Th-this is a joke, r-right?" he stammered. "Y-y-you're getting back at me for-for the prank with sticking the elves in the gingerbread houses, r-right?"

North didn't respond, but continued to look at Nightlight in concern, as the glowing boy kept shifting his attention between Jack and North in utter confusion.

"Right?" Jack was begging now. "North, you can see me. Tell me you can see me! North, PLEASE!"

"Jack," Alice said in a soft voice. She could see that this was breaking her friend's heart.

"Vhat are you looking at, Nightlight?" North asked. He followed the silent boy's gaze to the spot where Jack stood. "There is nothing there."

Those words where like a stab in the gut, and Jack stared at his friend, leader, and his closest thing to a father figure with a feeling utter devastation.

Alice reached out to attempt to comfort her friend, but Jack took off into the air, and flew deep in the twinkling forest. Undeterred, Alice took off after him in a flurry of butterflies.

Once they were gone, Nightlight looked at North in horror.

"Vhat is it?!" North demanded impatiently. "You look as though you've seen a ghost."

Nightlight gave him a look that said, 'I think I just might have.'

*A*A*A*

Alice found Jack curled up in the high branches of a particularly tall pine tree. When he noticed her, he looked down at her with fearful eyes.

"Yes, I can still see you, Jack" she said to ease his obvious fears. "And I am not going to stop. And if you would stop and use that brain of yours, you could figure out why North cannot. You would also realize why everything, including your comrade, look so different from what we are used to."

Jack stared at her blankly, and she sighed. "We went through the mirror in Time's clock tower. Time said it could take the user to any where and any when. This is clearly the past, which is why all the familiar things look different."

Jack nodded slowly, but didn't look at all cheered up. "You're probably right," he said dully. "Still, North has always been able to see me, even when I was a new spirit. That kid could see us just fine. Why couldn't North see me?"

Alice shook her head regretfully. "I don't know."

Alice then let out a loud sneeze, and shivered in the cold wind. Apparently they had landed on a past version of the North Pole, and her usual blue dress was not suited for the weather.

Realizing this, Jack jumped down from the tree and pulled off his hoodie. Under it he still wore his old white shirt from his colonial days.

With an apologetic expression, he held out the hoodie to Alice. "Here, wear this for now. I'm so sorry. I forgot we needed to get you a coat."

As a sign of just how cold she was, Alice took the hoodie without complaint and put it on. It looked strange for a modern (or futuristic, considering when they were) hoodie to be worn over a Victorian era frock and apron. But somehow, Jack thought Alice made it look cute. Not that he would say it out loud, for fear of his life.

Still even with the addition of the hoodie, it still wasn't enough to brave the weather for long. So the two teens headed back towards the village, and Jack steeled himself for the possibility of being walked through by his friends again.

*A*A*A*

When they reached the village again they went in without resistance. They walked through the buildings, and saw why the village looked so new, it was still being built. Yetis, elves, and a few people were bustling around carrying supplies, while others were on roofs and scaffoldings looking to be making the final touches on the village's construction.

None seemed to notice Jack or Alice as they moved through the village. Jack was starting to think they were invisible to everyone. But then a garbled warning came from behind them, and the two turned around to see a yeti towering over them looking stern and arms crossed.

Jack ignored the stern look, and gave the yeti a wide grin. "Phil! Great to see you!" he said, relieved that at least someone he knew could see him.

The yeti was startled by Jack's enthusiastic grin. He then said something in yetish that Jack understood as him asking who they were and what they were doing here?

"Sorry, right, you don't know me yet," said Jack. "I'm-"

But Alice swatted his arm. "Do not tell him who we are, you idiot, this is the past. Quite possibly before either of us was born. I don't know Time well, but one of the times I met him he gave me a lecture on meddling with time."

Jack winced at the thought. "Right, the Butterfly Effect. I saw that movie with Jamie." He turned back to Phil, who was looking at them in bewilderment. "Right, call me Jay, and her Lis," he said shortening their names, "We're from the future, and A-uh-Lis, needs to get inside, or at least get a warmer coat."

Phil looked befuddled by their claim, but upon seeing Alice's shivering form he waved at them to follow him.

He led them into North's workshop and told them to wait, before wandering off to find a coat for Alice.

Alice gave a sigh of relief to get out to the snow. She gave Jack back his hoodie, and enjoyed the warmth of the workshop. Despite being out of the cold she was still shivering slightly.

"Vhat do you mean dere are invisible children in the forest!" came a shout from down the hall.

Jack looked over at Alice. "Wanna bet they're talking about that us."

Alice nodded. "It is very rude to talk about others when they are not around."

Jack gave her a conspiratory grin. "Then we better go remedy that."

The two made their way down the hall until they came upon the room where North was shouting. When they got there they stared at the occupants of the large decorative room. It was Jack's fellow Guardians, but they all looked so different.

North was pacing the room, spouting theories to his audience about how invisible children could be possible, and if it was possibly the product of some new plot of Pitch Black's. Even Alice, who had only met North once, could see that this hot-headed young man had a long way to go before he could become the jolly Father Christmas she had met at the party.

Bunny looked like North had described to Jack when he'd inspired the prank that led the winter spirit to finding Wonderland. His fur was brown, and he wore a green robe and green egg-shaped glasses. He also carried a long gold staff with a green egg-shaped jewel on one end. He stood to one side of the room completely stiff, and watched North's rant with a detached sort of fascination, like a person watching someone else's kid throw a temper tantrum.

Sitting above the rest on a perched on top of a large gilded mirror and sharpening a sword was Tooth, but even in her crouched position Jack could tell she was taller than the fairy he knew. Her feathers were a bit darker, and were more reminiscent of a parrot than a hummingbird, and her wings were large and feathery, not the flitting fairy wings she had in the teen's time. But what really struck Jack as odd was both the lack of mini fairies flitting around her, and just how still she was. The Tooth he knew was constantly moving and barking orders to her mini fairies. This Tooth was still, and contemplative as North threw out theory after theory.

Sandy was also there, and seemed to have dozed off in a chair. Unlike the others, he was for the most part unchanged by the time difference. The sight of which brought a smile to Jack's face.

Nightlight was there as well, watching North silently from a corner. He hadn't noticed them arrive yet.

There were two other occupants of the room that the immortal teens did not recognize, but Jack could take a guess at who they were from North's stories.

One was an old man that looked like a classic wizard. He had a very long white beard, bushy eyebrows. He wore a long robe, and tall pointed hat. He held a wooden staff not unlike Jack's, except longer and more gnarled. He, unlike the rest was listening intently to North's theories, and occasionally threw in his own ideas.

The other was a pretty girl in her mid-teens who was sitting next to Nightlight. She had auburn hair pulled up in a ponytail, and was dressed in clothes that would keep her warm, but also allow her to move. She was writing everything that was happening down in a large book, and would occasionally lean over to speak to Nightlight about what was happening.

Knowing Alice hadn't heard of them like he had, Jack pointed to the old man first. "That's Ombric the wizard. He's the last survivor of Atlantis, and he founded Santoff Claussen. He's the one who taught North everything he knows about magic, and pretty much everything else."

He pointed to the girl next. "She's Katherine, Ombric's adoptive daughter. She's going grow up to be Mother Goose, but right now she's just the youngest Guardian in history."

Alice stared at the girl in surprise. As a child she had loved Mother Goose's tales, it was surreal to see a figure from her childhood as someone younger than her.

Jack next pointed to Nightlight, who had looked over at them when Jack had started speaking. "And we've already met Nightlight. He was the Man in the Moon's bodyguard when Manny was just a baby. He sealed Pitch away for a really long time, but eventually Pitch escaped. He's the first of the Guardians to take the oath."

Nightlight seemed startled by Jack's introductions. He got the attention of the other Guardians and pointed towards Jack and Alice.

The Guardians (minus Sandy, who was still asleep) looked over at the doorway.

"What is it, Nightlight?" asked Katherine, looking at the doorway in confusion.

"I see nothing there," said St. North.

"It could be, perhaps, these invisible children he saw before," said Bunnymund. His Australian accent was still there, but his tone was much more formal and clipped, and lacked his usual slang.

"Who is he calling a child," muttered Alice in distain.

Toothiana put away her sword, hopped down from her perch, and moved towards the doorway. She squinted her eyes and reached out a hand. "My animal side tells me that there is something is here," she said. But then her reaching hand passed through Jack's chest, making him shiver and step back. "But my human side, and my eyes see nothing," she finished.

"I am getting a similar sensation," said Bunnymund, his ears twitching. "It also feels as though someone has been messing with time, yet there is no disturbance to be seen."

"Nor can I see anyone," agreed Ombric.

"Then the only one who can see them is Nightlight," Katherine concluded.

Jack slumped. "None of them can see me," he said sadly.

Alice was unused to providing so much comfort in one day, but she reached out her hand and laid it on Jack's shoulder. "Perhaps it is for the best. Remember when we are, if they met you now it could mess up the future."

Jack nodded sadly, and Nightlight listened to their conversation with a confusion expression as he tried making sense of what they were saying.

Just then Phil appeared holding a royal blue pea coat with floral embroidery for Alice, and giving the two mostly invisible teens a disapproving look. He began lecturing them in yetish, much to the bewilderment of the room's occupants, most of whom only saw the yeti scolding thin air.

Jack grinned sheepishly at the yeti. "Sorry, Phil, but we didn't go far. Plus they were talking about us in here," he said, pointing to the other Guardians.

Phil huffed in annoyance, but he had said his piece. He then handed Alice the pea coat, which she took gratefully after complimenting the lovely design. The room's occupants let out startled cries as the coat in the yeti's hands vanished into thin air.

Their exclamations woke Sandy from his nap, and he looked around to see what had caused his comrades alarm.

Jack gasped when he saw Sandy's eyes rest on him.

*A*A*A*

A/N With Jack being invisible for 300 years, then finally getting friends who could see him, I think it would be devastating for Jack if they suddenly couldn't see him anymore. At the time the books takes place, only Sandy and Nightlight could really be considered immortal spirits, so that is why they can see Alice and Jack while the rest can't.

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