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Chapter 17: Reunions and explainations

A soft groaning could be heard as a girl, covered with beautiful blue and green feathers stirred on the ground, as she felt her consciousness return. She sat up a bit shakily, trying to take in her surroundings through her slightly blurred vison. "urgh… what hit me?" she said, rubbing her aching head. She noticed night had fallen and couldn't help but wonder how long she had been out. As her eyes adjusted to the dark of the night she finally realized she was still at the graveyard, in front of Jack's empty grave.

She frowned in confusion. She clearly remembered leaving earlier, so why was she here and how? She sighed, and proceeded to get back on her feet. However, in doing this she noticed her now feather clad body. Her eyes widened in shock and slight disbelief. She used her hand and tried tugging a feather, causing her face to concert into a look of pure horror when she felt the pain of tugged feather.

She shot up on her feet and began to thrash around in panic and confusion, trying to make sense of what was happening. She went on like that for a few minutes before she heard a soothing voice, coming from the direction of the moon. "Do not panic my dear child. You have been chosen upon your death to rise again as the protector of memories. You are now the fairy queen Toothiana, better known as the Tooth fairy."

Tooth frowned in confusion. 'Dead…? What does he mean by…?' she thought to herself, but was cut off mid-thought as she was suddenly struck by the memory of the car heading towards her before the world went black. Her face paled at the realization "I died!" she said aloud without really thinking about it. She looked down on the empty grave, speaking in a soft and pained tone as the tears streamed down her cheeks "why even in death must we be kept apart? It's not fair…" she looked at the moon, her expression one of pure rage as she shouted "Why? Why did you bring me back? Why did you save me but not him?" the moon's silence caused her face to change into one of pain and sorrow "he deserved it more than anyone"

She wrapped her arms around herself before falling down on her knees, sobbing violently. She remained there until day break, crying silently to herself, before she finally pulled herself together knowing it wouldn't do her any good to remain here forever. She stood up, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do know. The moon had told her, that she is the Tooth fairy, but she had no clue on how to be that famous childhood legend, or if it was even what she thought it to be.

She walked, not really taking notice of where she headed, nor the gentle guidance of the wind as she was deep in thought on what to do. When she finally noticed where she was, her hand clasped to her mouth in horror and tears threatened to spill yet again. Of all the places in the world she had to walk to the one place she hated the most, the pond that claimed the life of her beloved. She was about to turn and run as fast as she could, when she noticed something blue and white flying towards the pond.

She hid behind one of the larger rocks upon realizing it was a boy, not wanting to be discovered, flying towards the pond as if carried by the wind. She snuck a glance at him as he closed in for landing, trying not to blow her cover. He landed with a sigh and his shoulders dropped. He had his back turned so she couldn't see his face, but she couldn't help but think there was something heart achingly familiar about him. He suddenly stiffened and spun around, taking a defensive stance and held his staff, glowing blue as it pulsed with power, ready to attack, yelling "Who's there?"

Tooth gasped and her hands flew to her mouth in shock. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes as she looked on the face of who she never thought she would see again. Her eyes wide with disbelief and shock as she rose from her hiding place. Jack's eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful figure in front of him, the face of whom he would recognize everywhere despite her now being covered in colorful feathers and crystal like wings on her back. She had never looked more stunning. He lowered his staff, speechless. "Jack?!" Tooth asked in a tone of both disbelief and hope.

Hearing the familiar voice of his beloved, he dropped his staff on the ice and with the speed of lightning he held her tightly in his embrace. Tooth immediately returned his embrace, no longer able to hold back her tears as she desperately clung to him as if he would vanish if she let go. They both dropped to their knees, never letting go. "Is it really you, Jack?" she whispered with a twinge of disbelief in her voice. He chuckled slightly as he pulled back a bit in order to give her a soft kiss on the cheek. "Does that answer your question?" he said with a smirk as he looked straight into her eyes.

She returned his loving gaze and what she saw made her gasp in shock. His usually blind, dead looking eyes, where now full of life. His eyes were still of the same icy blue hue but now it seemed to light up even the darkest of darkness with their glow. The pattern of his irises looked very similar to that of a snowflake. However, what shocked her the most was the fact that he now had pupils where there had been non before. Her eyes widened and spoke in a small hopeful voice "Jack… can you…" Jack chuckled at her shocked expression and finished her question for her "See? Yes, I can see… I gained sight upon my rebirth as the spirit of winter."

Tooth felt her mouth drop at his statement "the spirit of…" "Winter," he grinned at her "thought it would be kind of obvious considering I already had 'winter' abilities, even before I fell through the ice." she chuckled slightly "I suppose you're right, it should have been." She paused and kissed him, finally noticing his now freezing body temperature, but she couldn't care less as she had in fact been reunited with her lost love. "This is really real! I thought, I would never see you again!" Jack just gave her a soft smile, "I never left. I was always nearby, watching over you…" he trailed of his smile saddening slightly "you just couldn't see, touch me or even sense my presence."

He pulled her into another tight embrace "but now, none of it matters… we're finally together." He pulled away again looking at her with a hint of sadness "although I'm really happy to be with you again, a part of wishes we hadn't." Tooth smiled at him softly "you saw me die, didn't you?" he averted his gaze and nodded.

She cupped his cheek and turned him to look her into the eyes, looking at him with a serious expression "Jack, I would rather be here with you, than live a life of loneliness without you." He managed a small smile at her words but his sad and pained expression betrayed his smile "that doesn't change what Bunny did to you" "Bunny?" Jack sighed, and began to explain everything he had seen and heard since his death. The look of fury on Tooth's face when he finished his explanation would send even the bravest running with their tails between their legs. She was about to run off to deal with Bunny. However, Jack quickly grabbed her arm and she was about to turn her anger at Jack instead, he cut her off "no don't, I've already taken care of it. He is going to rot in jail for what he did." as if on cue the sirens of police cars could be heard.

The two of them stayed and watched the policemen drag a frightened Bunny away. Tooth smirked as she looked at Jack, crossing her arms as she asked "okay, what did you do to him" Jack gave her a proud smile, "I trapped him within thousands of icy sharp spears of ice, that would impale him upon even the slightest movement. I then threatened him by writing on the frost I conjured on the window. He however, wouldn't give in… so I left him standing there for several hours until he finally gave in and practically begged me to spare his sorry excuse of a life. I only released him on the condition of him confessing to the police." Jack smirked "I took off to deliver an anonymous tip-off at the police and came back here to watch the oncoming show and ended up finding you here."

Tooth burst out laughing at her boyfriend's actions, despite wanting to have done worse to him herself. Jack wore a rare expression of seriousness "You would rather that I had killed him, right?" she gave him a guilty smile and nodded. Jack sighed "I did as much as I could… in fact I wasn't supposed to have done anything at all. We, the immortals, aren't allowed to influence the life of a mortal beyond a certain degree. While what I did, did influence his life… I only speed up the invertible as he would have been caught anyways, even without my interference… the only thing I interfered with was his choice on confessing, however, that's why we are here… to guide the world of the mortals and prevent them from falling into chaos. At least, that's what the wind told me."

Jack let out a sigh "however, from what I've seen so far, very few immortals actually bother themselves with the 'mere mortals'. Because of this the world is falling into a state of imbalance. The man in moon, Manny, is currently working together with Gaia, Mother Nature, to prevent this from happening, by replacing these spirits. However, finding the replacements are far from as easy as it sounds. The person must not only possess the qualities of which is needed for their work as immortal, but also possess a mind strong enough to withstand the hardships of being immortal."

At Tooth's questionable expression he quickly added "being immortal isn't what it seems, those who wish for it are fools. You are forced to remain as an observer, only performing what your 'role' requires and nothing more… you can only watch as everyone you cared for in your mortal life grows older and older until they pass away, while you remain the same."

"According to what the wind told me, the previous winter spirit Jokul Frosti chose to fade out of existence, as he could no longer stand by and watch as people died… apparently, he blamed himself for every single death caused by his winter. Winter has always been looked upon as the season of death. So I don't blame him, because to some degree it's true. However, people always dies… no matter the season. It took them over 300 years before a new spirit of winter was found. Although for some reason, that no one has been able to understand, I already had my powers from mortal birth… while they didn't manifest themselves before I reached my teens, it's been the reason why I could hear the voice of the wind."

Tooth looked thoughtful before she said "that certainly explains a lot, but it is rather strange that you were born with your power." Jack just nodded "yes, especially considering that the body of a mortal can't handle such powers, especially considering those powers could control winter itself." Tooth frowned in confusion at that statement "If you had the power to control winter in the palm of your hand… then why didn't you just re-freeze the ice they day you fell through. Then none of this would have happened. After the display you gave in school that day it should have been easy" she added the last bit with a twinge of hurt and anger.

Jack sighed and shook his head "as I said, these powers can't be controlled by a mortal… while I did have some degree of control, I could barely even conjure a snowball without it taking up a great deal of concentration and time. What happened at school, was a loss of control due to my anger… you could say it was my powers manifesting themselves to some sort of protection mechanism, responding to my anger." He paused and started walking back to the pond before he continued "while my powers might have been able to kick in again to save her from falling through due to my emotions… I was simply too far away for it to have mattered when it happened. So I did what any older brother would have done, jump in and save her. I just simply wasn't strong enough to save us both" he added the last with a sad smile and Tooth just simply nodded in understanding.

"so, do you mind telling me your 'role'" he said with smile, trying to lift the mood "the man in…" she quickly stopped herself at the Jack pointed look he gave and corrected herself "Manny said I would now be known as Toothiana, the fairy queen and take up my role as guardian of memories as the Tooth fairy." Jack's eyes widened slightly "you're the new tooth fairy?" at Tooth's nod he continued "the previous one faded not long after I took the role of the winter spirit, but we spoke quite a few times… she was really kind, just like you… after she faded, her mini fairies sort of took over until a new would take the place of their queen. I can take you to the Tooth palace, the fairies will teach you what to do and how to do it" he reached out his hand waiting for her to take it. He grinned, when she did and pulled her with him into the air, flying across the world on an adventure to find the Tooth fairy's palace.

A/N: this goddamn heatwave is killing me... anyways i hope you enjoyed the chapter and in case your wondering about Tooth's body... the man in the moon created a strong illusion as a replacement to cover up the sudden disappearance of her body.