Alaia Skyhawk: Back into serious stuff now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 69: A Nightmare's End

The melting chunks of ice in the pond, crackled as the hint of warm spring air blew across their surface. The sound like a last sigh from winter before it left the town of Burgess, much like the Spirit of Winter would soon depart from his perch within one of the surrounding trees.

Jack gazed out across Burgess, his eyes catching a passing glimpse of Ariko as she flew west. She'd stopped by out of courtesy, and to confirm with him the patten of retreat that Northern Winter would make this year. He still found it odd for her to be so civil with him, even now after four years.

Time was passing by like always, with his life as it now was being much the same as it was that first year. The only changes were ones that most immortals wouldn't notice, that being the passing of mortal lives.

Jack sighed to himself, remembering the funeral just a few weeks ago. Jamie's great-grandmother, Claire, had died shortly before Northern Winter had begun, and her husband Andrew had followed just two months later. Both had been old, and have lived long lives, yet such passings would always pain Jack.

David was head of the family now, and their routine had returned to normal, and yet things would always be different in that one small way.

Jack stood up on his perch, preparing to leave as he glanced one last time towards the house at the top of the slope. Jamie was twelve now, and Sophie was seven, and the three of them had gotten up to some real hi-jinx this winter. But now he'd have to wait for summer break before he could hang out with them again, when it was time for them to spend their usual three weeks at Santoff Claussen.

Jack took to the air, flying north away from Burgess to reach the retreating edge of winter. Another couple of weeks of monitoring things, and he could head home to the Sanctuary for his annual rest. Before the lazy days of Southern Winter would roll around and he'd have to amuse himself with the winds' gossip about the latest 'seen by an adult' stories.

That thought made him laugh, at how there wasn't an immortal anywhere now who doubted what was going on. Most were still unnerved by it, and naturally he'd kept his mouth shut about his power's involvement in triggering it. But it was still funny when the winds brought him stories of how mortals were reacting... So far the gossip on the sightings was limited to conspiracy forums, of both the ghost and alien kinds. Jack had borrowed Jamie's computer one afternoon to check some of them out, and had been found that same evening laid out on the floor of the boy's room doubled up with laughter.

But as he headed north, Jack had to admit to himself that all-in-all everything was going well. Fearlings had become creatures of scorn among the Immortals, all fear of them now gone to the point that none of the immortals would even acknowledge their presence if they saw one. It was the ultimate denial of power to creatures that had once brought terror across untold numbers of worlds. And once the Immortals had learnt just how simple it was to deny them that power, not a single one of them had wasted time in taking up that line of thinking.

The Unnatural Fear only has power over you if you allow it.

Jack landed north of the Great Lakes, pausing on a cliff-top to watch the sun set. It was there that a strange breeze brushed by him carrying whispered words.

'Jack... Come to me, Jack...'

He flinched, leaping up into the air in search of the voice's source, and the breeze brushed by again.

'Jack... Come to the lair of shadows...'

His eyes widened as he now recognised the voice as belonging to Mother Nature, whom he hadn't heard from for four years. It was a summons that drove him into sudden serious action as he conjured a mirror to enter Pitch's Lair. He dashed through, breaking the mirror to ensure no one see or try to follow him, and was then immediately beset by the sound of screaming.

Jack jolted to a stop in horror at the sound, which was that of Fearlings shrieking... combined with a man's voice that alternated between cursing and swearing vengeance, and begging for his life and torment to be ended.

Jack turned, hastening through the shadowed cavern in the direction of the noise, and was soon met by a sight more frightening than any nightmare...

Mother Nature surrounded by a swirling mass of ragged and desperate Fearlings, held at bay by her power, while on the floor before her writhed the man from which those threats and pleas originated. But that wasn't what made Jack's eyes widen.

Pitch Black didn't really look like Pitch Black anymore. His skin had regained a normal, if pale, hue, golden eyes had turned more green, and his cloak of darkest shadows had been reduced to a tattered mantle of pale grey. Only a handful of Fearlings still managed to cling to their host of many millennia, that handful being the source of the remaining persona of 'Pitch Black'. Their will fighting with the man they had enslaved for so long, the man who even now begged his daughter to just destroy him.

Jack's expression hardened and he took flight, diving towards Mother Nature and her father. The Fearlings scattered away from him, wailing as he seared them with frostdust, until they were driven back to the far reaches of the caverns where they howled amid the darkness.

Mother Nature glanced at him as he landed beside her, everything about her speaking silently of great weariness. She was at her limit, and yet her father still wasn't yet free. The time had come to ask for help.

"Jack, drive them out of him... please. I can do no more for him, but I refuse to give up. Will you?"

The Spirit of Winter regarded her solemnly, and then smiled softly.

"A promise is a promise."

Jack turned to face her father, hesitating only a moment before starting towards him. Step by step as 'Pitch' snarled at him to keep away, until a sudden shift occured behind those wild eyes and the tone of the man's voice changed.

A trembling hand lashed out, snatching at the front of Jack's hoodie, and Kosmotis stared desperately up into his eyes.

"P-please, just kill me! Don't let them take me back! I just want to die! Please!"

Jack had to fight not to recoil, but even so he shuddered at the request. And then he reached down to pull the struggling immortal into the circle of his arms and held him tight against him. Whispering in his ear.

"I can't, because I promised your daughter that I'd help save you... Just hold on a little longer, and your nightmare will be over."

Jack closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, able to guess from experience with Fearlings what was about to happen. He surrounded himself and Kosmotis with frostdust, submerging both of them in a cloud of it, and the screaming that followed was far worse than anything he'd heard in his entire life.

Because the frostdust was burning Kosmotis and the Fearlings that were still inside him. Even so, Jack clung on and did his best to blot out the torment taking place within his grasp.

~(-)~

The little golden man that entered the Winter Sanctuary, did so wearing his usual pleasant smile. This was a typical visit, following the new routine he'd taken up since the Easter Fiasco, whereby he would stop by and visit Jack when the Spirit of Winter was due to wake up from his annual rest.

However, today he encountered something unexpected... Kiyiya approaching him looking a little confused.

"You're here to see Jack?"

Sandy nodded, miming 'two week sleep' and pointing towards the palace where he expected Jack to be. But the newest Lieutenant frowned.

"Jack's not here. He's not come back for his rest yet." He grimaced. "We don't know where he is. All we know is that we've not sensed anything, so wherever he is he isn't hurt."

Sandy stared, beginning to look concerned even as he sharply gestured for Kiyiya to lead him to the rest of the Lieutenants of Winter. Through the long night that followed, and a thorough search using dreamsand, they learnt nothing other than an admission from the Lieutenants that the Hall of Mirrors had been sealed and that Jack had clearly been entering there once a day to do his frostdust distribution. The only explanation they could think of was that Jack was up to something, and he didn't want any of them involved.

Sandy perched on a chair in the Lieutenants' Residence, frowning deeply as he mulled over what to do. Should he go tell the other Guardians? Except Jack was still keeping up with those duties... Could it be something to do with his duties as the Spirit of Winter?

Sandy raised his head, writing out his query using dreamsand. Of the immortals in the room, it was Marzanna who answered it as she shook her head.

"We've already asked Ariko, Achieng, and Oisin, and they've not seen him or have any idea what he's up to either. Ariko last saw him a month ago. But they admitted that this wouldn't be the first time one of them has been set a task by Mother Nature, without her informing any of the others."

Yuki grimaced at that.

"Except no one has seen Mother Nature for four years. Not since Jack told the other Spirits of the Seasons that she was busy and that she wanted the Seasonals to monitor the Balance of Nature in her stead until her task was done."

Sandy twitched in surprise, his question clear.

'Jack was the one to relay the message?'

Marzanna and the others all nodded.

"That's why we still think it's something to do with her. It's the only reason the Seasonals haven't kicked up and fuss about him being 'missing'."

The Lieutenants all regarded Sandy in apology for being unable to help, and with a nod of gratitude the Guardian of Dreams reluctantly left the sanctuary. But where was Jack? What was he doing that he felt he had to hide it?

Troubled, Sandy headed directly back to the Dreamsand Isle, where he knew he could sit in peace and try figure out what was going on. What he didn't expect was the person he found waiting there for him, who looked so wearied it was a wonder she was still awake.

Mother Nature.

She raised a hand to forestall the flurry of questions Sandy was about to make, her tired voice quiet as she spoke.

"I would have approached you earlier, but I didn't want to involve Jack's Lieutenants. Your timing has been impeccable in this instance, perhaps even fated, because I need you to come with me for something."

When Sandy drew a question-mark, Mother Nature conjured one of her gates.

"Jack has kept the promise he made to me... And now there are two immortals in very much need of a good dream."

Sandy went utterly still as the implications sank in, before he dashed through the gate and found himself in the Sanctuary of Nature. The glade where he arrived was secluded, with no apparent exit other than the gate through which Mother Nature stepped. And then she pointed to two low beds that sat beneath the dappled shade of the trees, and the two figures laid upon them.

Jack and... Pitch Black?

Sandy glided over, staring at the latter of the two figures, confused until he noted the utter absence of darkness in the man. His growing suspicions were then confirmed as Mother Nature seated herself in the chair beside her father's bed.

"Pitch Black is no more, that persona no longer exists. All that remains now is Kosmotis Pitchiner, my father, and once great hero of the Golden Age. The Fearlings have been banished from him forever, and can never return... Jack made sure of that."

She lifted one of Kosmotis' arms from under the thin blanket covering him, revealing a frost-like pattern of white that circled the man's wrist like a shackle. It was frostdust made solid, so tightly fitted to the skin that it was essentially fused to it. If a Fearling ever tried to posses Kosmotis again, it would be driven out immediately by that power burning against his skin.

Sandy's expression softened, as with an absent gesture he sent a dream to where the exhausted Jack Frost lay sleeping. He then nudged Mother Nature from her chair, and indicated she leave watching the two of them to him.

She departed with a bow of respect and gratitude as he seated himself on the chair she'd just vacated, and then he turned his gaze to the man on the bed. Here was a time and place when he would make a special exception, for a man who had a long time ago been one of his greatest friends.

"Kosmotis, wake up."

A voice like a lullaby, soft and reassuring, calling out to do the opposite of what it's owner usually spent his time doing. Sandy gently nudged the shoulder of the sleeping man, repeating those words until at last he began to stir.

Kosmotis opened his green eyes, so like those of his daughter, and gazed at the branches above him in confusion. He then turned his head to look at the speaker, finding before him a Wishing Star Pilot that he knew so very well.

"Sanderson? I..." He frowned, pushing himself stiffly upright. "Have I been ill? I've had the most horrible nightmare. Did the Fearlings somehow reach beyond their prison to torment me in my sleep?" He winced, rubbing at his eyes. "I dreamt that they escaped, that... That I was destroying the worlds I'd sworn to protect... But I'd never do that. Who is guarding their prison now?"

Sandy averted his eyes, his silence causing Kosmotis to go still, and as the horrified realisation began to set in, the Guardian of Dreams answered.

"It was no dream, Kosmotis. The Golden Age fell, almost fifteen thousand years ago, and you've spent most of that time sealed into a kind of slumber by Nightlight. Your possessed persona, the incarnation of the Fearlings' will, rampaged across the stars destroying everything in its path. Until it was stopped along with the remaining Fearlings, here on this world, and imprisoned." He looked at Kosmotis again, reaching out to place a hand on his. "That persona has now been destroyed, and you have been freed, through the efforts of this world's Mother Nature and the Guardian of Fun, Jack Frost."

Kosmotis stared at him, wide-eyed.

"It was all real? I destroyed the Golden Age?" He choked, his voice verging on a wail. "Why didn't you just destroy me?!"

Golden arms encircled his shoulders, Sandy pulling him close as he murmured.

"Because it was 'Pitch Black' who did those things, and not his victim 'Kosmotis Pitchiner'. They used your love for your daughter to trick you into opening that door, and there is no blame in that. There can be no guilt in a father's desire to protect and love his daughter."

Kosmotis' hands were clenched upon the covers of his bed.

"How can that be, when in destroying the Golden Age my daughter must also be dead? You said it yourself, that it fell thousands of years ago!"

Sandy smiled.

"That would be true, if she had not been given a task by Tsar Lunar." Kosmotis raised his head, regarding him with desperate hope as he continued. "She was here, just a few minutes ago, sat in this very chair. For it was she and her her General, Jack Frost the Guardian of Fun and Spirit of Winter, who saved you and brought you back to us."

Kosmotis turned his head to look when Sandy pointed at Jack, who slumbered on oblivious to the conversation, and the former General of the Golden Age let out a breath of realisation.

"She is Mother Nature for this world... She's waited for me all this time?"

Sandy nodded, and gently began to push him flat on his bed again.

"She did, because she never gave up on the hope of saving you... She'll be here when you wake up, so sleep, Kosmotis. Sleep the sweetest dreams I can give you."

"But how can you give me dr-"

The question was cut off by the dreamsand Sandy blew into his face, and Kosmotis' eyes closed and an expression of peace came over him. The rest could be explained later, about the new circumstances of several people he had known who were here on this world. But for now he need only sleep, safe in his daughter's sanctuary... While the Guardian of Dreams slipped away through the gate to take Jack frost back to his.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: Sandy will be back to miming from the next chapter onwards. I felt that this really was an occasion where he'd make the exception for his old friend :)

But there are still trials ahead for Kosmotis. The shadow of Pitch's actions is going to be a hard thing for him to escape from.