Alaia Skyhawk: Prepare to have your minds blown :P
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 89: Dark Side
While the Guardians and their forces began to muster, Jack headed outside to the open area where he would make the ice mirrors to take them to the moon. He'd avoided opening portals to this particular destination, despite the temptation to do so, for the entirety of the past two weeks. But now he did, and with just a single backward glance he stepped through one of them.
On the other side, he turned to look up through the dome at the Earth. This place looked no different now than it did in the future. He might well have been home in his own time were it not for the pinprick of light heading this way. The stolen ship, which had been made by adding to the Lunar Lamadary's tower. Once this was over, and the ship reclaimed from Pitch, Jack had made Ombric promise he'd see it was dismantled and the original tower-ship returned to the Lunar Lamas... Where Jack knew it would be, in the future. With the modified ship gone, Pitch would not be able to steal or use it again.
"Hello, Jack."
Those quiet words, echoing softly within the vast dome, broke the Spirit of Winter from his thoughts. Causing him to turn and regard the man who stood nearby, watching him with a kind smile.
Tsar Lunar looked exactly as he did in the future, as he descended a set of stairs and walked over. He then circled the mirrors, touching them with a hand as if examining them, before facing Jack once more.
"This must be very strange for you, my Guardian." His smile widened a little. "But then, you are not my Guardian. Rather, you will be one day." There was a clatter of feet, Jack and the Tsar both turning to look as the rest of the Guardians came through the mirrors. Tsar Lunar inclined his head to them. "It is good to meet you in person at last. It is also good to see you, Aster and Sanderson, face-to-face after this so very long a time. I last was in a room with you two when I was but a child, and the shadow of the Nightmare King was just beginning to fall upon the Golden Age. But now, you are here to help stop him."
Jack approached them, holding out his hands.
"Give me the mirror for a moment. I've never been to the dark side of the moon, I can't make a portal to there, so I'd better do this now. I won't be able to follow you in the lunar transports."
Sanderson handed over the mirror, even as North frowned.
"Ombric has told us you plan to stay here and guard the Man in the Moon. Are you sure you will be all right?"
Jack took hold of the mirror, and smirked.
"Are you, Nicholas St. North, telling me you aren't a good enough fighter to keep the Fearlings away from this dome?" When the Russian gaped at that, Jack laughed. "I didn't think so. Now, how do I use this thing?"
Bunnymund came over and lay a paw on Jack's shoulder.
"Just look into it, and state your wish to protect us. Sanderson can take charge of activating and deactivating the stored power after that."
Jack nodded and took a deep breath. He then lifted the mirror, gazing into it at the reflection of himself that he saw there.
"I wish to keep everyone safe, to protect them from the Fear that would otherwise cause them to fail. Let my Fun and Laughter be the light that holds the darkness at bay."
The diamond stars in the frame shimmered, and for a brief moment Jack saw himself reflected as his brown-haired mortal self. The mirror itself then began to glow softly blue, and Bunnymund lifted it from his grasp to hand it back to Sanderson.
The Pooka then, for the first time since Jack had arrived in the past, pulled off his spectacles to look Jack in the face. Bunnymund's green eyes held a spark of determination and true Hope, for what the Spirit of Winter had the feeling was the first time in a long time. But not only that, he chuckled completely voluntarily.
"I get the feeling we won't see you again, not until the future. But just in case Father Time lets you stay for the victory celebration, I won't say my farewells just yet. Wish us luck."
There was humour in that statement, just a hint of it, but it was enough to show that the future Bunny was there inside this stiff, formal, and rather odd Pooka. There was definitely something about him that Jack was going to miss.
"I'll see you around, Bunny."
The Pooka stiffened.
"My name is Bunnymund."
Jack directed a brief sly glance at North.
"But you need a nickname, because your real name makes you sound like a stiff. I could always call you 'Bunny-man' instead, if you like."
As Bunnymund exclaimed in indignation, North started to roar with laugher at the reference to what he'd called the Pooka now and then. By this time yetis and egg-bots were filing through the ice-mirrors behind the group, and Tsar Lunar clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
He then gestured towards the row of pod-like transports, parked ready on rails to take them to the dark side of the moon.
"I have made preparations, and the Moon Clipper's systems have been activated to put air on the surface so you can fight there. The Nightmare King will arrive with the Fearlings within minutes. If you are to get to the dark side of the moon in time to meet him, you must go now."
The army began to hasten towards the pods, and Jack nodded to these past versions of the Guardians.
"Make sure to give him a few punches for me, ok?"
Everyone grinned in determination, raising weapons in salute as Ombric answered for them all.
"We certainly will."
Jack watched them leave, part of him wishing he could go as well, but he knew he couldn't. Instead he stood motionless as the transports left one-by-one, until the last of them departed and he felt a light touch on his arm.
Tsar Lunar gestured for him to follow, and headed towards the route Jack and Bunny would follow so very far in the future.
"We will be able to observe the battle in here."
The two of them soon arrived in the room Jack saw in the future, although this time the screens at the far side did not show views of the surface of the Earth. Instead they showed fixed views of the shadowed side of the moon, as one might expect from security cameras, and one of them showed a tower-like ship descending to the ground.
It touched down, the doors opening, and immediately a stream of Fearlings burst forth. But just as they rushed into the open, at that same moment glimpses of light appeared on the ground. Hatches opened up and the army of yetis and egg-bots charged out to meet their foes. Those doors closing again behind them to keep the enemy out of the Moon Clipper's interior.
On one view Jack saw the Guardians, the Mirror of Wishing Stars gleaming brightly in their midst. And like the glow of false dawn, the oppressive darkness was lifted just enough for the defenders to clearly see and fight.
Jack bit his lip anxiously as he watched, wincing, gasping in alarm at times, and quietly urging everyone on as the battle progressed. But one thing tugged at the back of his mind, one thought making him frown as moment-by-moment it became clear the battle was at a stalemate. Something wasn't right, something was missing, but what?
And then Jack staggered back a step in realisation, before he slowly turned to look at Tsar Lunar. The Man in the Moon tilting his head in query.
"What is it?"
Jack gestured to the screens.
"The battle on the dark side of the moon does happen, but it's not what defeats Pitch! I'm from the future, so I know how this fight is ended. But them..." On the screens, the battle remained unchanged. "All of them, they're focused on the battle. They're not thinking of other ways to win this, and didn't even think of them back while we were waiting and planning. It's always been about strength of arms for them. There's only one person who can do what I know is done to defeat Pitch, and that person is you."
The Tsar's eyes widened slightly.
"Then tell me, Jack. Tell me that which you were truly sent back to do."
~(-)~
It was chaos, that was the only word to describe it. Jack's power in the mirror was making things manageable, but it wasn't enough. The Spiral Pendant, worn now by Nightlight, meant that no one from the Guardian's army had yet to fall. But the strain of the battle was still being spread over everyone, and it was starting to tell.
They were all beginning to feel tired, and yet the Fearlings showed no sign of the same.
Bunnymund cursed to himself, blasting yet another Fearling away using the light from his Relic. Jack had said they could win this, that he would tip the balance in their favour. Was it just that he wasn't as strong as they'd thought? Or were they missing something?
A subtle tremor, nothing to do with the many individuals running about, caught the Pooka's attention. The ground was something he knew very well, he could detect the slightest change beneath his paws, and this one made him frown. He then gaped in shock and concern as some distance away, one of the hatches into the moon's interior cracked open just a bit. The light in the rail passages was bright enough to see, but not bright enough to deter determined Fearlings. And certainly not bright enough to deter their master.
They saw the gap and swarmed the hatch, wrenching it open as Pitch's malevolent laugh echoed over the area. Bunny caught only a glimpse of him before he and a group of Fearlings descended through the opening, and with none of the other Guardian's nearby, there was no time to call for backup.
Bunnymund charged towards the hatch on his own, leaping down it and landing on the platform inside. Already one of the pods was gone, taken by Pitch, and there was nothing left to be done but dash into the second one here and go after him.
Far ahead, in the other pod, Pitch smirked to himself with his minions howling in eagerness. Let the Guardians fight to hold the moon's surface. He had other targets to deal with.
The pod arrived at the dome, which unbeknownst to him was not as it was previously. The clear view had been blocked out and rendered opaque, keeping out the light of the sun. Hints of ice lay here and there, forming a sort of trail off to the side and through a set of doors. Pitch followed them, expecting a trick and amused by it. But what he found through the doors the trail ended at, was not what he expected.
The back of the room was blocked off with a wall of ice, and a young man with white hair lounged nonchalantly in a seat crafted of snow. He smirked.
"Wow, you sure took your time. I sabotaged that hatch nearly half an hour ago."
Some of the Fearlings hissed, whipping around Pitch in agitation, and after a moment to listen to them the Nightmare King scowled.
"You were helping the Guardians."
When he tensed, ready to attack, Jack was into the air with an arrow drawn and fired it all within the space of a heartbeat. One Fearling, that had lunged forward, was struck by a length of ice and pinned to the wall above the door.
Jack landed, still smirking, and laughed.
"You never heard of checking out both sides? Only an idiot doesn't take the time to see who's most likely to win." He snorted in scorn. "They asked me to be a 'Guardian', to 'fight the good fight'. I played along, learnt what I could about them, and what I learnt is that they're a bunch of weak fools. Every time they've defeated you since you were freed, has been down to luck. In the Himalayas, the yetis showed up. The Earth's Core? Ha, they tormented your host with a dumb locket to make him run and drag you with him. Punjam Hy Loo? Mother Nature made a nuisance of herself, trying to see if her father was still there inside you." Jack shrugged. "He is. You know it and I know it, but he's weak and no threat now that they've used up all their little tricks."
Jack shouldered his bow, sauntering forward.
"But you... I've seen your work, the calibre of your plans. Letting them bring you to their own base, build the ship for you, and then steal it. Genius."
Before he could say more there was the sound of something pounding up the hallway outside. That something bursting through the open door in a blur of green robes and grey fur. But before Pitch could even react, something white shot past him and struck the floor in front of the Pooka.
Ice erupted up from the point of impact, snaring and encasing Bunnymund all the way up to his chin. He stared in horror when he realised the source was none other than Jack, who still stood there with his bow held up from making the shot.
Bunnymund gasped.
"Jack... W-what you are doing?!"
Jack lowered his bow, returning it beneath his cloak before letting out an exaggerated sigh.
"Wonderful, the whiner is here. Go figure." He rolled his eyes and then faced Pitch again. "Ok, back to what I was going to say... I side with the one I know is going to win. The Guardians? Hah! They didn't stand a chance to begin with, and if I'd gone along with them I'd have gone down with them."
In his icy prison, Bunnymund was struck speechless, but Pitch was not so surprised. Instead he narrowed his gaze, suspicious.
"And why should I believe this 'fortuitous' change of heart?"
Jack's smirk became a sneer, and he tapped the ice-wall behind him.
"Because I have victory gift for you, and some information you're really going to like."
The wall crumbled, revealing beyond it a figure trapped in the same sort of prison as the Pooka.
Tsar Lunar was trying to break free of his restraints, defiant but unable. Yet a flicker of concern flashed across his expression when he saw who else was in the room.
Bunnymund started to yell, trying to wrench free of the ice while screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Jack! You were supposed to help us!"
The Spirit of Winter looked unimpressed.
"I was? Sorry, I guess I forgot... No wait, it was that I didn't care. You idiots aren't worth dying for."
Behind his mask of indifference, it took every ounce of Jack's control not to flinch at the destroyed expression on Bunnymund's face. Explanations could come later, but for now he had to keep a straight face at the accusation that came next.
"TRAITOR!"
"Put a sock in it, rabbit." Hiding a shudder behind a shrug, Jack clicked his fingers absently. Causing the ice around Bunnymund to smother everything but his nose. It effectively gagged him, and prevented him from struggling and making much noise, although he could still see and hear. Jack then sighed. "All these interruptions."
He turned, and started to circle the Tsar while talking to Pitch. "Amusing isn't it? Threaten him and he sits there all high and mighty, even when he can't escape. Pity for him I already know something he'd really rather you didn't." Jack glanced at Pitch. "You know the Constellation Families were powerful, and this last survivor here still is. But did you also know that our Tsar here has the power to free you of your greatest weakness?"
Pitch, who had looked disinterested up until now, suddenly became intent. But he was still not convinced.
"And what would that be?"
Jack smiled darkly.
"Sunlight, moonlight... That which you can't tolerate to walk out into. The very thing that makes the mortals shrug you off as a bad dream when dawn comes, undoing your night's work. 'There's no such thing as the Boogeyman', they say." Pitch's expression became a silent snarl at that taunt, but Jack ignored it and instead leaned in close to leer at Tsar Lunar. "But you can change that, with your precious Belief. And you will... If you don't want me to kill every living thing on that planet, with an ice age that never ends."
The Tsar's eyes widened in horror, the very thought of such a thing causing a very real reaction. Enough of one for Pitch to detect the Tsar's fear that all those he'd sworn to watch over would die. His greatest fear of failing them all. Jack's greatest fear was still that he'd be forgotten, no longer believed in. A common enough fear for immortals that if Pitch had bothered to check what Jack's greatest fear was, it wouldn't surprise him. All other possible doubt had been smothered with frostdust before this had started.
The last of Pitch's suspicion faded, and he began to approach the two of them.
"So what is in this for you, boy? What do you get out of this betrayal?"
Jack gave him a slightly mocking bow.
"I'll live, for a start, and then there's that tantalising thing called power. Being a Spirit of Winter is great to an extent, until you realise you're a glorified servant. Slaving away century after century, and for what? Good will and approval from this guy and Mother Nature?" Jack's voice oozed disdain, and this his tone became sly. "But then something occured to me, and I asked myself this. What goes together better than Cold and Dark? Hmmm? The misery I can inflict with my ice and snow, would create a rich ground for your Fear to take root in. Question is, are you interested? And are you interested in getting rid of that annoying little weakness of yours?"
Now just a few paces away, Pitch Black was wearing a smile of darkest malice. He looked pleased, very pleased.
"I like the way you think, Jack." He now looked at the Tsar. "And it would be poetic justice for this pathetic wretch to give me what I want."
The Tsar looked sharply between the two of them, and started to struggle again.
"I refuse!"
He went still when a spike of ice formed and stopped just inches from his face, while on the other side Jack leaned in close with a smirk.
"If you don't, I'll personally tear every one of your precious Guardians to shreds... Starting with the rabbit over there... Could you live with that? The knowledge that you let the very last Pooka die? Personally I think it would be more entertaining to make the Guardians watch as the world falls to darkness, but I'll kill them if I must... Slowly and very painfully... Starting right now."
Jack clicked his fingers, freeing Bunny's head again, while at the same time creating spikes of ice that stopped inches short of the Pooka's throat. And then they began to creep closer and closer, forcing Bunny to try and lean his head away from them. They were almost touching him when the Tsar's desperate voice rang out.
"STOP!"
Jack halted the ice, and glanced at the Tsar once more.
"So, ready to cooperate?" The Tsar murmured something, and Jack nudged him. "I didn't quite hear that."
The Man in the Moon slumped, his expression defeated and broken.
"...I'll do it."
Jack freed him from the ice, dropping him to the floor, and then stepped back while making an exaggerated bow of respect to Pitch.
The Nightmare King came forward to tower over Tsar Lunar, his face alight with glee, and he sneered.
"Don't try any tricks, or I believe my new ally will make sure you live long enough to regret it most dearly."
Near the door, still trapped, Bunnymund was too transfixed by horror to speak. So struck by this betrayal that he didn't even notice that the ice spikes were crumbling and so too was the ice that held him starting to give way. All he could do was watch as Jack made one of his mirrors behind Pitch, the destination impossible to see from this angle, and Tsar Lunar reluctantly raised a hand to place it over Pitch's blackened heart.
Tsar Lunar stepped back a moment later, reaching with a hand to the controls for the shutters on the room's ceiling. They opened, letting sun and starlight stream in right down on Pitch... Who then gazed at his hands, up at that light, and began to laugh in victory.
Jack watched Tsar Lunar edge around him, to the mirror to lay a hand on it. And then the Man in the Moon glanced at Jack with regret before he nodded to someone unseen.
A hand clamped down on Jack's shoulder, everything in the room taking on an eerie haze. Every sound had a strange echo, as Pitch's laughter choked off into a gasp of horror and he crumpled to his knees. Tsar Lunar closed the shutters, darkening the room enough for the Fearlings that came rushing to the aid of their master.
What must have been every Fearling on the moon, came charging in to bundle Pitch through the mirror. A portal that led to a place they recognised; the remnants of the Nightmare Galleon, that would become Pitch's lair.
Tsar Lunar sighed once they were gone, gesturing at the mirror which then promptly crumbled. An act that confused Jack, until the man beside him spoke.
"They cannot see or hear you now." Jack turned to look, discovering that it was Father Time beside him. The old man's expression was both apologetic and sombre. "Tsar Lunar remembers you were here, and will keep your mirrors functioning until all who need to use them have returned home. But for everyone else, you have already been locked away in their memories. They forgot you the moment I pulled you clear."
Jack stared.
"But I didn't even get to say goodbye!"
Father Time shook his head.
"Farewells leave too much of an imprint. They would remember they gathered to do something, the sadness of the moment, but not the what or why."
Jack went still, his gaze moving to where Bunnymund's prison had fully crumbled and he stepped free. The Pooka was still wearing the betrayed expression, but he also looked confused.
"What about that?" Jack choked. "The last thing he saw me do, before forgetting me, was that I'd betrayed everyone. That I'd sided with Pitch."
Father Time nodded, grim, as with a wave of his arm the scene was replaced by endless grey mist.
"He still feels it, and the question of why will linger in him until it is passed over in favour of other matters. Just as the emotions Pitch felt when you 'sided' with him, will remain in the back of his subconscious. The effects echoing forward as time passes, subtly shaping the events ahead. Defining how those two will view you when the day comes they encounter you for the 'first' time."
Jack went utterly still in realisation.
"Wait, are you saying that... Are you saying that what happened just now, is why Bunny was always so pessimistic about me? Sandy told me that, right from the day the Guardians found out about the new Spirit of Winter, Bunny was like that. And all the years since, up until we fought Pitch and I proved myself, Bunny was always determined to think the worse of me. Are you saying I'm the one who caused to him be like that? Because of what I did to trick Pitch into becoming a Legend Immortal?"
Father Time's grip on Jack's shoulder, tightened slightly in sympathy.
"Yes... Just as Pitch would normally never have even considered asking a Spirit of the Seasons, especially one also sworn in as a Guardian, to join him as an ally. Which he did, as you may remember. But then, that is the nature of a paradox... And I have been carefully watching this one for over four hundred years."
Jack's eyes widened.
"Everything was part of the paradox? Everything?"
"From the moment when Aster arrived in the past with the message for himself, through all the years and centuries to the moment when you will arrive back in the future." Father Time sighed. "I did it to ensure the total defeat of the Fearlings and the Nightmare King, one way or the other. For time is more robust than the Pookas give credit. If a paradox is tightly localised, and breaks, then only the factors involved in it are erased from time's flow. Either it would succeed, leading to an era where Pitch was dealt with by Immortals, and Fearlings were destroyed or under control... Or it would fail, and erase Pitch and the Fearlings regardless. The Earth and the Moon Clipper would have vanished at the point in time coinciding with Aster's arrival with the message, and the rest of the universe would continue on oblivious to what had occured.
Jack was staring at him in outrage. A victory either way?
"You gambled the lives of everyone and everything on the Earth and the Moon Clipper! What gives you the right to do that?!"
When the Spirit of Winter moved to lash out, Father Time pushed him back without seeming to lift a finger. There was no regret in his tone, or repentance, but there was understanding.
"I make no excuses for my methods, except that I chose this route only after the greatest of consideration. Just as you described to Pitch, I too had noticed the Guardian's victories had been more to chance than strength. They were doomed to lose, and their defeat would have allowed Pitch to escape your world and resume his malicious designs. I decided then that they would need help, experienced help. I already knew of Tsar Lunar's plan to create a Guardian who was also the Spirit of Winter, but as yet no suitable candidate had arisen. So I resolved that after he found one, after they had reached their potential and a clear identifying mark for the exchange came about, I would send them back to help."
He pointed to the lock of blue-dyed hair at the front of Jack's head, which by now was just starting to fade.
"And lo, within an hour of making my decision, you arrived from the future. After completing your task, I then had need only to keep close watch for the day when I would see that identifying mark again. Once that day passed, and you were returned to the future, the paradox would finally be complete. For this was undoubtedly the largest I have ever done, or ever will do. The other three spanned only days, while this one spanned centuries. A gamble, true, but also a leap of faith... Faith in you and your friends, your family, in all of those that have shaped each of you. That have helped you all and this world grow into what it is... You have all done far more that I could ever have dreamed you'd achieve."
The grey mist vanished, and Jack once more found himself in the room he'd just been taken from. But there was no ice, no sign of Bunny... Just Tsar Lunar sat in his chair, waiting.
He smiled, and gestured to the seat placed opposite him.
"Welcome home, Jack. I believe there is much you will want to talk to me about."
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: Soooooo, who saw that coming lol? :)