I came to slowly, I didn't know exactly where I was, but I felt warm, uncomfortably warm.

I opened my eyes and looked around blearily, I seemed to be a sofa in someone's living room.

Right next to a roaring fire.

"Gah!"

I jumped up and untangled myself from the blanket, suddenly feeling very wide awake. I ignored the sudden pain in my arm, back and side as I dropped behind the sofa, away from the fire.

I really, really, didn't like fire, an ice power thing I suppose.

Behind me a door opened and out walked Nigel, and Nigel.

After a few seconds of staring I quickly realised they were just twins.

"Oh God, there's two of you." I croaked, my throat's soreness taking me by surprise.

They looked at each other and chuckled.

"Hey Jackie." I assume it was actually Nigel who stepped forward and started helping me up.

"What was that about? I'm glad you're up but are you really that shaken?"

"There's a fire. I don't handle fire very well."

The other one slapped his hand to his forehead. "Of course, ice powers!"

"Ah yes, Jackie this is my brother, Alec. We're at his house."

I raised a hand in greeting "Hey there."

"Anyway, let's get you back on the sofa-," He saw my face and nodded. "The one furthest away from the fire, not all of us are sensitive to heat."

I gently pulled myself from Nigel's grip and walked worryingly slowly to the other sofa.
I plopped myself down and Nigel threw me the blanket, which I tucked around myself. He sat on my original sofa and Alec went to an overstuffed armchair. I couldn't help but look around at the living room, there were several strange things scattered around, most of them hanging from the ceiling.

Several of the ones hanging from the ceiling seemed to be models of winged animals, pegasi, a winged wolf and even stranger, a rabbit. The wings seemed the right size for them to actually be able to carry the models, and they looked so life like that I had a hard time believing that they weren't flying by themselves.

"How are you doing? We've seen to your arm, but how are things?" Asked Nigel, drawing my attention away from the ceiling.

"I feel weird, tired, but not tired." I said, rubbing my throat.

"Well, it was one hell of a snowstorm you had going on, and from looking at the rest of the clearing that wasn't all you did."

I flinched when I thought back. All of those people.

"How many?" I asked, not really sure whether or not I wanted to know the answer.

"About six or so."

"Or so!? How can you be so calm about it!? Those were people! People that I..."

"I know, and I can't say I understand how you feel, but we can get someone who can talk to you. Members of HOG have a wide variety of professions after all."

I got what he was hinting out.

"You think I'm crazy?" I asked bitterly.

"No, but you'll probably need help after that, otherwise you'll just bury it again, and we know how well that went last time."

Alec let out a whistle, "Well, sounds like things got interesting when you came along. I kinda wish my Branch has a Frost Descendant."

"You mean you don't?" I asked, glad to get to another subject.

"Jack Frost hasn't been around as long as the other Guardians, as a result his line hasn't gone as far as the others, so there are fewer of you around. I also imagine that with a power this dramatic, they'd be really good at concealing it, making you lot even harder to find."

"We're getting off topic." Said Nigel, which sent a knot of dread to my stomach.

"I'd like to know what happened. The last thing I remember was your ice wall getting overwhelmed, next thing I know you're screaming."

I looked down. "I just got angry. Jack has been working with me to keep my powers under control, and I can now, most of the time. Frost doesn't form anymore when I get freaked out.
But then, today, I just, I don't know, I lost it completely. It seemed to be the largest blast of snow and ice I'd ever made. I only stopped because Penelope screamed at me to stop. She sounded so scared, so I got control and had a look, and then..."

"Then you really freaked out." Nigel finished.

"Exactly."

"You know Jackie." Said Alec, "Nigel's been telling me about what happened, but something he hasn't told me, how you managed to calm down in the end."

I gave it some thought, and once again Penelope's voice came back to me.

"I heard someone, I think it was Penelope. Given what was being said, it would make sense for it to be her."

"Why would she do something like that?" Asked Nigel, "She's a Descendant of Pitch!"

"She said she was sorry, so I guess she really just wanted to apologise, I don't know, but there's more to her than we know."

Nigel sighed, clearly still unconvinced. "It's great that you've still got hope for her, but you've got to remember where she's aligned herself. She's our enemy now, and no amount apologies are going to change that."

"Hmmm." It was my turn to be unconvinced.

Suddenly my eyes widened when I remembered someone.

"What happened to Sally?"

Nigel and Alec looked at each other worriedly.

"It's not good news." They both said at the same time.

"We brought her to our Descendant of Sandman, and he did what he could, but she's still out." Said Alec, not meeting my eyes.

"But, what happened back there? Tina said something about being contaminated...?"

"Okay, you see, the power that Sally has is to do with dreams, good dreams. The Descendant's of Pitch on the other hand, deal with nightmares. Since both of their powers to a similar thing, but at the same time a very different thing, each side can influence the other if their powers connect with the body of someone of the opposite power." Said Nigel.

"Usually, if it's one on one, nothing happens, because the powers cancel each other out, it can be the same with a two on one, depending on how powerful each side was." Finished Alec.

Nigel then sighed, "But so many of them were going for Sally, their power overtook hers and..." He paused to put his head in his hands, after few a seconds he collected himself.

"She's dying."

"Dying!" I cried in shock, straining my already sore throat to the point of coughing.

"I'm afraid so. The only way to save her now is to get a really powerful Descendant of Sandman, or heck, even the Sandman himself, however, both options are unlikely to happen."

"No..."

I pulled my knees up into my chest and tried not to cry. Out of everyone at HOG, I felt the closest to Sally, she just seemed to understand things, without them necessarily being said.

"Tina's the most upset. They came together those two, childhood friends apparently." Finished Nigel.

"Poor Tina."

An idea began to form in my head, an idea that might just work if I could pull it off.

At that moment the doorbell rang.

"Ah" said Alec getting up, "that'll be your parents, we let them know you were here. They were really freaked when Jamie told them what happened."

He rounded the corner to get the door.

"How did Jamie know?" I asked Nigel.

"He found the scene first, then went to go find me when he knew it was you."

I smiled, glad to hear that he was alright.

"They were going to use him as a persuading tool." I blurted out, "So I'm glad it was you guys, rather than him. I mean, you guys can handle yourselves..."

"I'm glad it wasn't him too." Nigel agreed. "With the Guardians he'd be fine, but we wouldn't be able to protect him."

At that moment my parents ran in and pulled me into a hug. I winced as their too warm arms wrapped around my injuries, but I decided that I didn't care.

They angrily questioned Nigel why I was all the way out here and he ended up having to explain about HOG and the Guardians. At first they didn't believe him, but Alec and I spoke up and I explained what's happened. They were at first horrified about happened (and I didn't even tell them about my body count) but I talked them down. HOG was important for me to get some control over my power.

Finally they agreed that things wouldn't change, but got Nigel to promise to tell them when something was happening, which he agreed to.

We got home late at night, too late to go and meet Jack, so my idea was going to have to wait until morning, if it wasn't too late.