WARNING: I love christian music so there is a subtle religious message here, that ISn't TRYING TO CONVERT ANYONE juust to be clear. You'll see what I mean, but please, NO religious flames. I promise you, if you give the song a chance and READ THE CONTEXT, you'll find it's rather emotional and deep. I do try, so give me brownie points for trying, I guess. Anyhow, please enjoy. This chapter took me nearly 3 hours. FAVE AND REVIEW. IT MAKES MY WORLD A HAPPY PLACE. :) THis chappy is 4,800 something words. My longest by far and you're welcome. I will do a shorter chappy because this was long. Song: There Will Be A Day -Jeremy Camp. I don't own song blabla. I'd let you all know if I wrote the lyrics. Also, this flashback is more conjecture, yay FANFICTION. :)
Jack dashed through Pitch's lair with Baby Tooth and Rudolph, but to his dismay, he found no signs of Pitch. "Pitch! I know you're there!" Jack called out, looking around, circling the crumbling pathways of the underground ruins. However, it felt like Pitch wasn't there after all. Jack searched for Santa but Santa wasn't there either. It would appear that the lair...was either abandoned, or Pitch still hadn't come back. Jack looked to the Snow Globe he picked up after the Portal closed. He furrowed his brow. He turned to the others. "It looks like we're going to wherever I sent Pitch," Jack shook the globe. "Take us to Pitch!" He tossed the snow globe into the air and it opened up once more, revealing a lake, with trees, and ...Jamie? Jack's eyes widened as he saw Jamie hop onto some girl's flying broomstick. Jack stepped quickly through the portal, beckoning for the others to follow him. It looked like there wasn't a fight so was Jamie with a good guy or? Jack had to find out but as he stepped through the portal, something tackled Jack. Something big. Something...red...
"I got him, Master," North drawled in a sloth-like tone, and Jack struggled, trying to turn his head to warn the others NOT to come through the portal. Pitch however cackled gleefully, and Jack's eyes widened as he saw Rudolph get stuck in the smoky tendrils of Pitch's shadows. Baby Tooth managed to avoid it though, and it squeaked, avoiding the smoky tendrils. Jack growled though. Things were different this time! Santa moved to block Jack's ice attack on Pitch. He shot an icy blast at Santa and Pitch and Pitch hissed, his shadows recoiling from Jack and Rudolph. Jack went into a battle pose, brandishing the staff, apologizing mentally to Santa who he froze solid. Pitch cackled with glee however.
"Good boy, Jack!" Pitch clapped his hands together. "You made my job easier!" He hummed, and he summoned to him, a...black smoky cat? He turned to it, ignoring Jack and hummed to it. "Go tell the others that preparations are...going ahead of schedule thanks to ah, our dear...dear...friendly winter sprite, Jack Frost..." he silkily hummed. Jack's eyes flashed as he tried to shoot another blast at Pitch. It was weaker this time, and Jack wondered if it was because he was distracted with his recent fight with Bunnymund. Shaking his head, Jack swung his staff again at Pitch and the strange creature, but both of them dodged it easily. Pitch got behind Jack before Jack could react and Pitch hit Jack with a huge blast of dark energy, causing Jack to tumble in the snow and tumble out onto the ice. Jack raised his head weakly and to his horror, he saw Pitch raise the giant shadow scythe behind his head, but it wasn't meant for Jack, it was meant for Santa.
"No!" Jack yelled in horror, sitting up and trying to scramble to his feet, off balance, and gripping the staff tightly in one hand, while the other was out in front of him as though he could somehow shoot a blast of icy magic to stop Pitch. Instead, someone else bucked into Pitch entirely.
"L-Leave my friends..a-a-alone!" Rudolph shrilly snorted, prancing, freed from the shadows. Pitch hissed, falling back in the snow. Though Rudolph didn't have his light, he was still dangerous because of his growing Antlers. Pitch narrowed his eyes.
"You can have Santa..." Pitch sneered, "After all...he's about as...frozen as all the disappointed children of Christmas will be!" Pitch cackled gleefully and with a swirl, he dissipated, leaving Jack, Rudolph and Baby Tooth in the silence of the eerie woods. Jack slowly brushed himself off, standing up. Clutching his staff, Jack looked to it. Jack felt like they'd won an empty battle. He trudged over to where Rudolph and Baby Tooth were gazing at the frozen Santa. Jack put his hand on the ice, near Santa's shoulder, and closed his eyes, trying to tell the ice to go away, but a small gasp from Rudolph caused him to open his eyes and they widened from confusion. Frost had added only another layer to Santa's ice-sculpture like state. Jack backed away from the frozen statue of Santa, who's arms were in front of him as though to block Jack's ice attack.
"...I...I can't thaw him...but ...but I know heat can!" Jack looked to the woods and then to the sky. He hoped Jamie would be ok for the time being. Rudolph nuzzled Jack's arm.
"Jack, you go after Jamie...the little fairy and I can stay here, we'll...we'll help thaw out Santa for you, ok?" Rudolph blinked, his tone helpful and timid. Jack cracked a small grateful smile.
"I feel bad leaving you two on your own like this..." he said but Baby Tooth flickered in front of him and squeaked its opposition to his guilt. Jack chuckled, he couldn't help himself. True friends are hard to come by, and so far, Jack felt like these two were his only true friends...no that's not right. Jack's eyes wandered to the Frozen Santa Clause. He had friends in all the Guardians...he just didn't agree with following the Man In The Moon blindly...at least...not in regards to marriage. Jack looked to his hands. Did Elsa have the power to thaw ice as well as summon it? Was this why the Moon wanted him to be paired with her? Because of a gift she had that he didn't? If so, what was the gift? Could she wield heat secretly too? Jack tried to figure out the mechanics of it as he shook the snowglobe. "The North Pole," he said clearly. Rudolph looked to him.
"Will you be ok on your own?" Rudolph furrowed his brow.
Jack smiled. "It's fine! I'm used to taking care of myself, it's no problem!" he smiled and used the Wind to push Santa through the Portal and watched as Rudolph and Baby Tooth went with Santa. The portal closed and Jack looked at the woods he was in, the iced lake, and the lowering sun as it hit the snow-covered pine-trees in a place he didn't know. "...It'll be...It'll be just like old times..." Jack murmured. His expression saddened though only momentarily. "Alright, time to find Jamie..." He picked up the snowglobe and shook it. "Take me to Jamie!" It remained the same. Jack frowned. He shook it again, and repeated, "Take me to Jamie Bennett." Jack threw it towards the icy lake, thinking he had to throw it for it to work. Unfortunately, the ice cracked from the force of his frustrated throw. With a wince, Jack quickly beckoned for the wind to take him out onto the ice. "Wind! Take me up!" He held up his staff. Only a weak breeze greeted him. Jack's mouth went dry. What on earth was happening to him?
Jack looked up to the sky. "Ok Moon, I know what I said, but I was upset...and ...and I ...why me?" Jack suddenly switched gears, feeling angry. "Why do I have to be a Guardian...but by those standards? Why can't I decide for myself who I want? huh? Has it ever crossed your mind that I don't need to have a signifigant other? That I'm perfectly happy spending my days surfing the wind and bringing joy to children on snow days? Has it ever once occurred to you, that not everyone wants that fairy tale happy ending? And why a QUEEN? She's not only out of my league in terms of age and status, she's from another world! Who cares if she has ice! Being Jack Frost is the most important thing to me! Please...you...you have to understand...I'm not ready...I'm not ready to give my heart to someone who's own heart is frozen from the fear of letting in someone...someone else..." The silence answered him.
Jack clicked his tongue in annoyance. Picking up his staff, he angrily slammed it into the ice, something he used to do to deal with his anger when he was alone. However, a crrrrkk sound greeted Jack. Jack's eyes widened as the ice cracked all around his feet. Even the shoes wouldn't help if the ice cracked. Jack was glad that he'd changed back to his normal outfit before leaving Arendelle. However, he gingerly moved on the ice, already realizing what his problem was. He saw his reflection in the ice and his eyes widened with horror. "No, no, no...NO..." he gasped terror-stricken. He was slowly becoming human again, his hair was turning brown and his eyes were turning brown. Jack heard the crrrkk only grow and his panic and fear grew with it. He didn't want to die all over again, and he wondered if this is what his fate would be if he defied the Man in the Moon. Was this Manny really a good guy? Jack didn't want to beg, but he needed to ...he needed to be Jack Frost! It was all he was! All that was left of him! "M-Moon...please...please..." Jack clasped his hands together, starting to shiver in his jacket, and clutching the staff tightly in both hands. Looking at his reflection, seeing the terror reflected, the desperation, Jack watched in despair was he went completely human. His staff remained whole but Jack no longer felt a cool gentle caress of magic coursing from it to him.
Jack gingerly tried to move off the ice, though he felt numb inside and hopelessly lost. Jamie needed him, and he couldn't even...he couldn't even be Jack Frost anymore...not without the Man In The Moon's say so apparently. Jack gingerly tried to move but he let out a yell of horror, as the ice cracked all around him and he plummeted into the cold depths of the lake. He had been near the center of the heart of the lake so the water was deeper here. He never had learned how to swim. He probably should have. He flailed and tried to re-submerge but why was everything getting cold? dark...his past, it was just like deja vu but worse. He was reliving it. And this time, there was no little girl to save.
What made him Jack Frost?
What was his center, if it wasn't Fun?
Or if Fun, just wasn't enough anymore?
Jack stubbornly raised his staff above him even as he felt himself sinking in the cold water. He was Jack Frost. He couldn't let down Jamie. He still had so much to figure out. If Jamie was a descendent of his sister, then that meant...that her belief in him, was passed on and through Jamie. The time period changed, but the faith stayed, and Jack opened his eyes, squinting in the cold liquid, his eyes burning, as he saw the night sky replace the faded sun's rays, and the stars shone bright at him. But the moon.
The moon was the brightest light of all, and it was last thing Jack saw, before he felt his lungs start to burst.
Cold.
Dark.
He was afraid.
But suddenly, a light reflected on him, a light that...reminded him of...the moon. Jack's eyes blearily blinked open and he gasped for breath, suddenly feeling the ability to breathe again. In front of him, in the icy watery depths he'd plummeted into, was his tooth case, glowing in front of his face, floating up and past him. He heard voices, whispers coming from it. Jack didn't know whether his heart was pounding anymore. He'd felt like he was being strangled and then...nothing...was he dead? His hand reached out and he touched his tooth case. Santa's Globe floated to his left and he couldn't help but cast it a glare, like it was it's fault he was in this predicament. He let out a watery gasp as he felt Elsa's necklace from him in his pocket. It was still wrapped in its ribbon and everything. Jack furrowed his brow. He was dead right? Why...why did he feel like..himself? Just without needing to breathe? What...was this because he was basked in the waning moonlight of the Moon? He blinked. He suddenly found himself in bright sunlight, and his heart felt like it was pierced from the shock. He saw his sister, looking at him, but then realized she was looking through him...at the ice that had already cracked and broken off next to Jack. Jack's heart sank. He was invisible. There wasn't any way that this was his memory, his last memory was of saving his sister. Jack gasped, remembering how there had been a time when Jack had taken Sophia's tooth and told her a story about a magical Tooth Fairy from the books he'd read when he was younger. He had written the tooth fairy a note for Sophia, much to her 6-year old glee, and stated that she wanted to share the memory of how Jack helped her get that tooth out with him in the profits section. Jack almost smiled at that. How had he forgotten so much? His attention was drawn back to the memory, as the voices continued.
"Jack! Oh Jack!" His sister was crying, her tone ripping through with despair. She trembled, as she watched her big brother plummet, the last look on his face not even fear, just surprise. Her heart tightened as she reached out a small hand, but stayed in place, too terrified to help her brother, even though he had risked everything to help her. Scrambling over, she didn't even care that the ice was cracking. Her heart was breaking as she sobbed for her brother. Suddenly, one of the other village kids came by, Bernie.
"Sophia! What's wrong!" Bernie was a stocky 12 year old with scraggly blonde hair and green eyes. He dashed down to the snowbank and gasped, seeing that the ice was about to crack. He yelled but Sophia had already fallen through. With a bit lip, he tore to the water's edge and dived in, luckily Bernie knew how to swim. He managed to save Sophia and tugged her to shore. She coughed and he put his own warm bear pelt over her. "It's alright, it's going to be alright..." He said warmly. Jack watched this unfold from the spot where he'd fallen in. He ...He remembered Bernie now. Bernie was only 2 years older than his sister, but he always had a special place in his heart for her. Jack's heart sank. Sophia hadn't been saved because of him? Then, what made him Jack Frost? Jack felt more unsure of himself than ever. He watched as his sister cried to Bernie, and pointed to Jack. Jack looked beside him, and knew that she was pointing to where he'd fallen. He wanted to run over and tell her he was ok. He moved next to them and his heart felt like it was shattering. He wanted to hug his sister. To hold her. He wanted to let her know that he was alive, and that he'd been alive, for ...for over 327 years...Suddenly the scene all changed. Jack blinked in confusion. Looking around, he noticed that Burgess was more developed. He had remained in the same spot, though the ice had healed by then. He looked up from his spot, and his breath stopped. There, sitting on the edge of the bank accompanied with a little girl with braided brown hair to her shoulders playing with a doll in her lap, was his sister Sophia. Her brown hair was tied back into a bun on her head, her side bangs trimmed neatly above her right brow, her dress simple attire, made of grey and black. She looked a lot like their mother. Jack took a step closer. Then Another. And another. She was sewing something, it looked like, into an handkerchief. It was blue. Jack squinted. He heard the little girl speak, and noticed the little girl had green eyes. Well, Jack thought, looks like Bernie got his wish...He looked at his sister, seeing her looking well, in her 20's...or just plain older...he clung to the case with his teeth but realized it wasn't in his hands anymore. Gasping he looked around himself, and realized nothing was in his pockets. His heart pounded. Was this part of the memory trip? He started as he heard her start to hum. The little girl spoke up.
"Ma, tell me the story!" The little girl pointed to the middle of the pond and Jack knew what story the little girl was asking for. The little girl looked eager and Jack expected his sister to look very depressed and mournful. However, instead she laughed, a mischievious glint in her eye and she smirked, nuzzling her little girl's nose.
"Very well, Matilda," she smiled. "It was a long time ago...and I was but a little girl...my big brother Jack...he was a mischievious soul but...he was a kind one," she stood up, setting down her stitching. Her little girl continued to sit and looked at her mother curiously. Jack stepped next to his older sister, on the bank side as she continued to speak, and he caught that sad mist in her eyes, though her little girl was enraptured with what her mother had to say. "One day...I begged Jack to play with me...he was worried that the ice wasn't thick enough but I thought he was joking...but he was right...if it wasn't for his quick thinking using his staff...I'd have fallen through and gone to Jesus much sooner than was my time," she smiled at her little girl. Matilda giggled.
"But your brother never went to Jesus, did he?" Matilda asked eagerly. Jack quirked a brow.
"No, his spirit lives on...I can feel it...on a cool winter night...or when I'm skating..." His sister stepped onto the ice and Jack followed her, enraptured by the way his sister carried herself. She sounded...not scared anymore...she sounded, like she had taken the experience and grown from it..and turned it into a tale..if not to help her own heart heal...at least to keep Jack not just in her memory... "He lives not only in my memory..."
"But in the memory of all children..." Jack whispered as she spoke those words. His heart felt like it was feeling a tidal wave of emotions. Happy, Sad, regret...and...love. His sister truly meant to keep him forever in her memory and the memory of many. "You see... He became Jack Frost... just like how he used to tell me he was when we were little and before I understood where snow came from..." his sister continued, and she stepped over to the place of the ice that Jack had fallen. Jack gasped, tensing. He saw her place some flowers over that spot. He was amazed she remembered it's exact location. As she passed by Jack, Jack wanted more than anything to hug her. His heart ached. He hadn't missed this...this past of him...this...in so long. He remembered what it meant to feel. Jack heard her start to sing.
"I try to hold on to this world with everything I have
But I feel the weight of what it brings, and the hurt that tries to grab
The many trials that seem to never end, His word declares this truth
That we will enter in this rest with wonders anew..." His sister stared at the place she set down the flowers, her hand outreached, as though...as though reaching for Jack still. "But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings...That there will be a place with no more suffering..." She pulls her hand away.
"There will be a day with no more tears
No more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place
Will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we'll hold on to you always..."
As she sang this next verse, Jack managed to listen, taking each and every word to heart. His family had been pious because of it being in the 1700's, however, Jack appreciated his sister for telling his tale...perhaps...she was the reason he was reborn and not the Man In The Moon? His sister straightened up, continuing to sing, and Jack wanted more than anything to be a part of the song...to let her know that she was still a part of him. He saw her tear up as she said "always". He knew the you she meant was him...his heart went to her.
"I know the journey seems so long
You feel you're walking on your own
But there has never been a step
Where you've walked out all alone..." Jack found himself sing, as he saw his sister wipe away at the tears in her eyes that had formed. She was trying so hard to be strong but Jack knew how much it had hurt her. How he wanted to hug his sister. He couldn't help but see the resemblance to Jamie's little sister in his sister's daughter. He would've had an adorable niece. Jack wasn't one for singing, but he tried his hand at it anyways, wishing, she could hear him...wishing that he could have stayed connected somehow to his sister.
"Troubled soul don't lose your heart
Cause joy and peace He brings
And the beauty that's in store
Outweighs the hurt of life's sting..." Jack sang. He stopped after his last verse, reaching out, as though to touch her hair. He went right through her and he knew that was to be expected. After all...it was just her memory...It wasn't that place or time...Jack wished he had his staff.
"But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings
That there will be a place with no more suffering..." His sister looked up at the place where the sun shone through the trees, and continued to sing, after Jack had stopped.
"There will be a day with no more tears
No more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place
Will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face
But until that day, we'll hold on to you always" She continued to sing, going back over to her daughter and kneeling in front of her. She picked up her stitching and her daughter was silent, enjoying her mother's singing evidently. Jack walked closer, wondering what it was that his sister was sewing. "I can't wait until that day where the very One...I've lived for always will wipe away the sorrow that I've faced...To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery...O, this is why, this is why I sing..."
Jack listened quietly as she sung once more, taking a moment to memorize this older version of a sister he'd never get to meet.
"There will be a day with no more tears
No more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place
Will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face..." She twirled around, holding the finished Handkerchief in her hands, unfolding it, as she moved around the snow bank, causing Matilda to clap giddy. Jack found himself singing strongly the second time she sang this chorus, along with his sister, seeing as he figured he had the words down, and because he wanted...he wanted her to hear him...even if it was only in memory.
"There will be a day with no more tears
No more pain, and no more fears
There will be a day when the burdens of this place
Will be no more, we'll see Jesus face to face..."
Jack saw for the first time what she'd stitched onto the blue handkerchief. It was a snowflake...and that handkerchief...looked alot like the one Pabbie had given Jack. Jack's eyes widened. Was there more connection between his world and Elsa's than he'd first thought? His sister sung softly, and quietly, leaning against a tree suddenly, tears rolling down her cheeks and Jack was startled because he didn't know how to help. He couldn't help. He listened as she sang the last verse. As she was singing, Jack felt himself fading, everything was going dark again.
"There will be a day he will wipe away the tears
He will wipe away the tears
He will wipe away the tears
There will be a day..."
Jack wouldn't forget that look of guilt and pain that showed on her face, her breath hitching sob ...though she had had it turned away from her daughter. Jack had seen it clearly. Jack's eyes opened and he realized he was still underwater. Jack gulped, clinging to the case. He squeezed his eyes shut and the golden light engulfed him, and it was a glow so bright, it lit up the heart of the lake itself in a brilliant and beautiful glow. Man In The Moon...I don't want to tarnish my sister's memory of me...I've been selfish...please...give me a second chance...to make things right...I can't promise Elsa will love me...but I can't let my sister's faith in me die...I can't let Jamie's faith in me die...I can't let The Guardian's faith in me die...or your faith. Please...just one more chance...I exist for the children first...if you can't...if you can't ...appreciate that..then let me die...let me go join my sister in heaven...At least, that's where I'd like to end up... Jack added as an afterthought. He realized he was still clinging to his staff and it was glowing a brilliant blue. He held it above himself and found himself rising out of the ice. Gasping for true air as he came out of the ice, Jack looked to his reflection. He realized he had brown eyes but white hair. So apparently he and Manny still had a little uh...making up to do...however, Jack knew that his sister's faith was what kept him alive. He looked to the moon which was starting the cycle of waning. "... I can't make promises...but...Elsa deserves someone better than me, and you know this..." he said, shaking off the water from his clothes. They magically dried already so he wasn't cold, well, not as much as he would be were he completely human and mortal again. "... Thank you...for at least...giving me back my powers partially..." Jack raised his staff above his head and closed his eyes, gripping the tooth case. "Wind, take me to Jamie!" and the wind picked up, lifting Jack up with a whoop. Jack hopped onto his staff like a snowboard, and put on his hood, feeling that familiar chilly gust whip him up and away. Santa's Snow globe slowly sunk to the bottom of the lake. Within it's globe, was a small town, with snow that fell...a small...1700's town...called Burgess.