Me: Oh, Thank Moon… Finally, no avengers, rooms are tidy, elves are secured and Yoda is back in his straight-jacket…
Vader: And I'm not to mention that that ass- *quick look to me, remembering the younger readers* annoyance, Tony Stark, is finally back where he belongs…
Me: He's getting his backside handed to him by Pepper?
Vader: Exactly…
Me: … You should show your evil-ish side more often. It's amusing. Though without the whole Sith Lord thing, ya know?
Vader: How exactly?
Me: I dunno… Go annoy Han and Chewie and I'll think of something.
Vader: But I don't want to get shot at again… It's irritating to have to dodge and stop the blasts…
Me: Fine. You can go, or you can stay with me being really tired and-
Vader: See you later! *runs off*
Me: *sighs contentedly with a conspiratorial wink* Works every time… Anyway, a couple of things. Thanks to SadAngel262, DARKLOVEFORFANFICTION123 and anna1031 for the faves and/or follows… Oh, and I will be responding to guest reviews after the random shizzle of the footnote :D
And, one last thing, Trust me, the next chapters, when it gets back to the one-shots about random stuff, will be better... I PROMISE!
Enjoy :D
_
Jack was pacing… Though, to be fair, he did have good reason for it. They had arrived at the mountainside, just in time to see Ice Black vanish. Now they had no idea where he was, and only knew that he would be out trying to cause more suffering…And apparently still trying to use the staff. Shady had just left, to see if anyone he knew had any information, but Jack wasn't hopeful.
He blinked as he heard a high pitched squeak, and span to see Baby Tooth, who had, yet again, managed to track them down even after they had ordered her to stay at the Palace, shivering.
Tooth sighed, summing up what Jack was thinking.
"We should head back to the Pole."
No-one disagreed.
_
An hour later, and they were all back at the Pole. Sandy had had to blast some dream sand at Baby Tooth to get her to sleep, and she was now comfortably snuggled into Jack's hoody, which he had placed on the table.
And the winter spirit was currently pacing along the beams, having finally convinced Tooth that he was not going to fall and 'break every bone in his body', in the middle of a bout of guilt and feeling useless.
Not only had Ice Black attacked his family and people he cared about, Moon knows how many towns, caused so much chaos and destruction, and stolen his staff… But he was still at it, and Jack couldn't do a damned thing about it.
He didn't like feeling helpless.
In the last three hundred years, he had been sure to make it so that he was never reliant on another person again… Shame he didn't think about objects. Sure, he had other weapons that he had been able to channel his powers through, like the Sai, but they were nowhere near as effective as the staff…
Which he could still feel some strange connection to.
Typical. He could feel it, but he couldn't find it…
He was jolted out of his thoughts by the arrival of a puffing Shady.
"Moon, you guys are hard to find… This place is huge…"
Jack had already swung himself down, and Shady nodded at the unasked question.
"Clover and Iceman have been keeping an eye on Burgess… The roads are starting to ice over. Badly… There have already been a couple of near accidents..."
Jack frowned.
"Shady? You feeling energetic?"
Catching on, the shadow spirit sighed, crossing his arms in a huff.
"Is 'no' even an option?"
"Nope."
"Then move it…"
"Jack…" There was a warning tone in North's voice, and Jack raised an eyebrow.
"I'm only going to check in on the kids." And if I run into Ice Black, then it's all the worse for him… Jack finished in his head, though maybe they could all read minds, because they all gave him 'Yeah, right…' Looks, to which he responded with feigned hurt.
"Would I lie to you guys?"
They all shared a look and, in unison,
"Yeah mate."
"Da."
"Half a truth…"
Yes…
Jack pouted.
"Ouch… That actually hurt…"
"Sure Frostbite… Now are you going or not?
"Bunny!" But Tooth's indignant retort was interrupted by a snappy salute from Jack, before he grabbed Shady's shoulder, and they both twisted and vanished.
Tooth gave the Pooka an indignant look, to which he shrugged.
"He can look after himself Tooth. No good smothering him… Anyway, I'll get there a few minutes after him, so where's the harm? I just need to pick up a few things first…"
With that, he opened a tunnel and vanished through.
The others all exchanged looks, before North ran from the room to grab an orb, Tooth and Sandy right behind him.
It wasn't long before the four of them had met up in the field outside the town, though they had no idea where Jack was. After a few minutes, they were ready to go and look, when the winter spirit arrived.
"Ice Black's at the mountain."
"How do you-"
"He left a… A message… with the kids."
Jack clenched a fist as he remembered how nervous and twitchy they had all been when he had found them several minutes ago, after Ice Black's… visit. But they seemed to be fine after Jack told him he was going after him, and he told them he would visit in a couple of days.
At the subtle shake of Shady's head, they guardians decided not to ask, and instead, North threw an orb, opening a portal. He'd been there before, so it was no trouble to open it to the right location.
But the sight that met them was definitely a little worse than they had been expecting…
Dozens of Ice Shades surrounded them, and they all had to fight the urge to face palm.
Seriously? An ambush?
How cliché…
Jack, on the other hand, for once, didn't seem the faintest bit interested in the whole cliché, or the fact that they were surrounded by mindless ice drones, and glared at Ice Black, who was stood on an outcrop of rock, glaring right back.
"So, Frost. It appears that the staff doesn't seem to want to work."
"And you're surprised by that?"
"Well, considering it was said to be only an item of power… Yes. I did not know that it was solely attuned to you…"
"All you would have had to do was ask."
"You would have told me?"
"Nope."
"Didn't think so… Though I do have one question… What happens if the staff breaks after someone has stolen it?"
Jack blinked, but before he could do anything, Shady had vanished, reappearing in the shadows behind Ice Black and leaping at him, shouting a variety of things, only some of which Jack could make out. Something about… messing with his friends…? And did Shady just call Ice Black a Snowcone?
The others were so startled by the unexpected move that it took a couple of seconds for them to realise that the ice shades were moving, but before they could do anything, Ice Black had shoved Shady off of him, throwing him over the edge of the rock, where he landed un-moving, and grimacing over the gash where the shadow spirit had slashed at his arm.
"Right… Where was I? Oh yes… Staff breaking after it has been stolen… You don't know? Shame… I guess I'll have to find out another way…"
Jack gasped at the searing pain shooting through him as the staff was shattered, and he found himself falling to the floor, barely able to do so much as breathe. This was worse than the first time… much worse…
But before the guardians could get to him, the ice shades started moving forward, cutting them off, and the sounds of a battle started to echo through the air.
Jack tried to pull himself to his feet, but was only able to get as far as his knees before he felt something smash into him, and he went crashing into a wall of rock.
Feeling disorientated, he managed to blink away the blurred dizziness, only in time to see a huge ice foot smashing into him again, sending him several feet up the slopes, landing only a few metres from Shady, who was dizzily getting to his feet.
Jack attempted to do the same, but ended up getting thrown yet again, but before the shade could do so a fourth time, Shady had pulled it into a shadow, before crushing it.
Grinning faintly at Jack, he collapsed back against the wall.
"Never done that… before… Takes too much… out of you… And what was this… about you not… needing help…?"
"Okay… say I told you so…" Jack said, finally managing to push himself to his feet, only to get flattened beneath a blob of golden sand.
"Sandy?!"
The golden guardian tottered a little as he got up, before give Jack some very clear, non-verbal instructions, to stay put and raced back into the fight, where each of the guardians were clearly having a rather hard time of it.
Then Jack noticed that Shady was no longer awake, but, after a slight panic, Jack realised that he was only unconscious, and, using the wall to hold himself up, glared at where Ice Black was directing the ice shades.
Damn it, that spirit had attacked people he cared about… It took a lot for Jack to actually come to consider someone as a friend, and Ice Black had attacked pretty much every one of them. Not to mention Jamie and Sophie… His family… And his other family were currently surrounded by mindless blocks of ice in the form of yeti's… And here he was, completely unable to help…
Damn It, he was a winter spirit! Ice Black's affinity was with Ice, but he was the very embodiment of winter itself! He could control every damned aspect of the season, and an Ice Spirit was getting the better of him? Damnit, He was Jack Frost!
Just as that thought entered his head, along with a sense of… well… everything, he heard a whisper in his mind.
Now you understand… You are fun… you are winter... In your case, to be one is to be the other…
Jack took a deep breath, blinking as he felt a familiar cool rush into him.
Just as Ice Black decided to start another avalanche, and direct it right towards the guardians.
Jack pulled himself upright, flexing his fingers.
Big mistake…
It was shock and bemusement all around as the avalanche froze in its place, as if held up by some invisible force.
But, turning, it didn't take long for them all to realise the cause of it.
One very pissed off looking winter spirit, eyes glacier, wind whipping around him and snow swirling in small spires around his feet, had one hand directed towards the avalanche, holding it where it was, and the other juggling several balls of ice, which were flying towards the various ice shades, leaving very few for the guardians to have to deal with... Which they promptly did anyway, before turning back to wonder how the hell Jack was controlling everything.
Heck, he made it look effortless, and perhaps it was… A fact that was not lost on Ice Black.
After glancing between Jack and the shattered staff, he seemed to decide 'to hell with it' and sent a wave of shards of ice towards Jack.
They never even got close.
As Jack stopped the waves of sharp projectiles, at the same time as holding the avalanche in place and launching his own exploding orbs of ice, he was thinking.
So, he didn't need the staff to use his powers, but it was handy to channel it… Seeing as he had enough swirling inside him to stop an avalanche, and he got the feeling that if he didn't have said avalanche to focus most of his power on, he would have ended up having to get rid of it…
So, point one. He needed the staff for actually channeling amounts of power that were not ridiculous and dangerous.
Point two, he did not need the staff all the time… Which he had to admit was a bonus.
Point three, he was only discovering he could do this now? It would have come in so handy several times in the past...
And point four… That Ice Spirit was really annoying him… Like really, really annoying him…
Then Jack smirked. May as well use the avalanche for something… Normally, he would try to find some kind of peaceful way out of this… But, to be fair, he knew Ice Black would not accept that, plus the Ice Spirit had pissed him off far too much for him to care.
Now then, how much energy did it take to actually control an avalanche?
Quite a lot apparently… But he could do it.
By the time Ice Black had figured out what the real danger was, he was too slow to stop it, and was swept out of sight by a cascade of snow and ice, as Jack changed the course of the avalanche to cover where the ice spirit had previously been standing.
The fact that he couldn't really use small amounts of energy, so any attempt to keep the snowfall level kind of got out of hand, meant he started to channel his power through the Sai, which proved far more effective than he had experienced before.
He just knew he was going to be able to spend hours figuring out what else came with this...
As the tumbling snow started to slow, Jack found himself finally getting tired… But there was a few things he had to do before he could sleep.
Number one, check on Shady… But a thumbs up from North and Tooth told him that he was okay. And there was nothing Jack would be able to do, so he might as well get on with something else… For example, to-do item, number two… Where on earth was his staff…? Somewhere beneath the mess left behind by the avalanche no doubt, he thought with a sigh, before he nearly yelped as he was pulled up into the air by the wind.
He could fly without the staff?
Jack felt a grin forming. Oh, the possibilities… His mind snapped back to the task at hand, and he gave a sheepish cough, even though there was no-one to hear it. He let the wind carry him, wondering if it was the fact that he was channeling his powers though something that meant he could fly, over to a specific spot, and sighed as he got the hint.
"Okay then, snow diving it is…"
With an eye-roll, he leapt in the air, and let the wind drop him, enabling him to dive into the snow. He managed to get several metres down, and blinked as his hands instinctively grabbed onto a piece of wood.
Okay, one piece down, Moon knows how many left to go…
Four more dives and he had the shattered pieces of the staff, which he quickly set about mending. True, he didn't need it, but it still sent a wave of familiarity and security through him when it was finally whole again.
It was also a relief to find that his various cuts and bruises had healed themselves whilst his attention was elsewhere, and he stifled a yawn as he landed next to the others.
Shady was up and about, grumbling about being 'perfectly fine thank you' and 'not needing to be coddled by a centuries old Russian with unresolved childhood issues'.
Jack couldn't help a snort at that, which startled the others, who hadn't heard him land. Spinning, he regretted making any form of noise, as he was attacked and roped into a ridiculously tight hug by Tooth, which sent him tumbling to the floor.
A few minutes later, when he could breathe again, he had to repeat the process with North and Sandy, Sandy getting the same treatment as he was dragged into North's embrace along with Jack, which culminated with a 'squeezed half to death' winter spirit and a blob of golden sand on the ground which was trying to shuffle away to safety.
Bunny took one look at the 'Go ahead, I dare you…' look on Jack's face, before simply giving him a high five. Shady, on the other hand, had no such inhibitions, and laid into Jack, jabbing him and threatening to tell Clover and Lily and Gale just how reckless he was, all the while daring the guardians to laugh at him.
It took several subtle, covert looks, and sign language from Sandy but they eventually decided what should be done.
North was going to get the yeti's to comb the mountainside for Ice Black, Tooth was going to get back to check on Baby Tooth and to actually get some work done, the same as Sandy, and Bunny was going to check on Burgess.
Whereas Jack was going to distract Shady long enough for the others to sneak away, before getting him back, and then going to check on Jamie and Sophie.
There would be plenty of time for actually celebrating later… Right now, they had work to do…
_
Later that evening, Jack finally swooped into the study, exhausted both from earlier that day, and from Shady's rant, which was quickly taken up by the others who were situated at Shady's. He had finally managed to break free from them, and had checked in with Jamie and Sophie for an hour, before doing the same with the other kids, happy to see that they were back to their usual cheerful selves, before taking the scenic route back to Santoff Claussen. Well, he wanted to make the most of being able to fly again, after all…He took one look at the four in the room, who looked to be brimming with questions and who were grinning, clearly having heard about him having been ranted at by the others, and sighed.
"Can't this wait…?"
Bunny raised an eyebrow.
"The interrogation? Or the dreamsand?"
Jack frowned.
"Dreamsand-?"
Then he blinked as he found himself blasted with golden sand, and glared at Sandy, already feeling sleepy.
"I was… tired… anyway… You just… wait till I… wake up… Sanderson…"
With that, he gave a yawn and, after a final glare at Sandy, fell onto the sofa, asleep.
North, Tooth and Bunny all looked at Sandy, Bunny whistling softly as North spoke.
"He said full name, Sandy… Is not good…" Then Sandy mimed something, and North blinked, riddling it out. "Wait… What? He'll sleep for about… 36 HOURS? Sandy!?"
Tooth was grinning, and gave the golden guardian a high five, before shrugging a the others.
"What? It'll mean he can answer our questions, and it will give Sandy even more time to hide. It's a good plan."
"In the short run…" Bunny said, under his breath, before getting to his feet and hoisting Jack up.
"Right, I'll get him to his room, then I'll have to take off."
As he left, the others exchanged looks, and Tooth giggled.
"And he says he isn't like an older brother…"
North nodded, likewise grinning.
"I have said before, but will say again. So much in denial… Oh, hey Phil. You have information on Ice Black?"
They all sighed as they heard the report.
So, he was on the loose again… But maybe if they all paid him a little visit whilst he was too weak to conjure more of the ice shades, and had a little… conversation with him, he might just decide to leave things alone? Then they could go back to their lives… Making children happy and fighting Pitch Black.
They were all thinking it, and, along with a grinning Bunnymund who said everything else could wait, they all leapt through a portal…
Vader: I thought you said no more cliffhangars?
Me: It isn't. This is the end of the Ice Black arc now. He might come back here and there… Maybe… But this is the end of this chapter. Don't worry. I'll write a little about their… visit in the next chapter… Which I am hoping to make much better than the last few, which really have not been up to my expectations of myself... Oh, but I did put in some fluff! Which was requested! Buy maybe... *continues muttering to myself*
Vader: *not brave enough to get involved with me arguing with my muse* Ah... I see.
Me: *snapping back to 'reality'* Anyway, I thought you were annoying Han and Chewie?
Vader: Well, I was… Until it turned out Yoda was loose on the ship…
Me: spins to see empty chair and straitjacket, before face palming and leaping to my feet* Well, what are you waiting for!? Lets go!
Me and Vader: *Run out of the door*
The doctor: *appearing in the doorway* Hey, Long time no see-
Me: Sorry Doc! *barging past him and calling over my shoulder* Emergency!
Doctor: Again? What is it this time? I'm sure it can't be as bad as an entire army of daleks and-
Me: YODA'S LOOSE ON THE MILLENIUN FALCON! *notices empty sugar packets* AND HE'S ON SUGAR!
Doctor: … Forget the daleks… *starts to run after us* This is serious…
Sirius Black: Someone call my name?
Me: *still running*Nope… But can you go and get Hermione? I need her handy little fires in jars… Some gullible fly… thing called Watto, on Tatooine, is willing to trade a skimmer for a dozen of them…
Vader: *raises eyebrows, but decided to keep quiet*
Sirius: Will do… *vanishes through a doorway*
Me: Ah, I love having handy doorways to various fandoms…
Vader: *gumbling* I don't… I even had to put 'Warning, Do Not Enter' tape on the doorway to the Sherlock Fandom. John's raging… something about some fangirl letting slip to him that Sherlock is actually still alive…
Me: *sheepish cough* Haha… yeah… who would do that…
Vader: *suspicious look, then decides it isn't worth the trouble*
All: *stop as we reach the Millenium Falcon Hangar Bay…*
Me: *with a sigh* Well, tune in next chapter for the search for Yoda... Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and what-not… Oh, and can you all give me a hand? Pitch and Ice Black are refusing to come into the footnotes, and maybe, if I have enough of you saying in a review that they have to get the backsides into gear and get here they might listen… Anyway, wish us luck… *takes point and flips into the Millenium Falcons doorway*
Vader: *follows suit*
Doctor: *using the sonic to lower the gang plank and saunter up it*
Me: *Face-palms, Just as Chewbacca's voice echoes through the ship …*
CHewbacca: NEEEUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Me: *takes a deep breath before vanishing into the shadows of the ship…*
Guest review responses…
M- Glad to hear it made up for the school day… And I pity you, the weather here has been really hot as well… Ah well, hope you enjoyed the footnotes/forenotes in this chapter as well!
Sylvery- Thanks :D Gad you enjoyed the battle, though this chapter's footnotes were a bit… Shall we say tame? Yeah, let's go with that, Lol :D Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
MEC- Haha, thanks :D And if you ever do get an account, be sure to let me know! And was this update soon enough? Lol :D
21SidraCire- Glad you like the idea of a branch off fic, and the idea of seeing how the guardians act when Jack isn't around is good one, even though Im keeping this fic as a separate project :D So I may slot it into the other fic :D As in, split the chapter into two sections, one from Jack's POV and one from the guardians :D Thanks for the idea, and there will be more info in the footnotes towards the end of this fic :D