I'm moving Pitch's appearance (and an extra end scene oooh lol) here because I'm splitting the last chapter in two based on story construction. All last week I was debating that in honor of the villain, he should have his own chapter and I realised that after I chose not to give it to him, it was unfair that he got the back end of the previous one. Pitch deserves a front spotlight so this is just a straighten-out for my own personal storyboard layout. But don't worry, I already finished the next, real update and it'll be up by tmrw or Friday (and I'm excited for that one!) Haha so hang tight and again thanx for always being patient and understanding. (: You guys are awesome.
"And I am master of a nothing place. Of recoil and grace."
Jack's eyes snapped open.
Pitch pulled his lips back to reveal angry, almost-pointed teeth. As he did, he tightened his glove around Jack's throat as he leaned down.
"Jack Frost. I don't think we've have the pleasure of meeting once before."
Jack couldn't deny it as the man said his name...a terrible cold dripped down into his throat from where the British terrorist's glove touched his neck. But he pushed it down, remembering his training, and turned off the feeling.
He gritted his teeth but Pitch slammed his head against the concrete wall again.
"You know how I found you? Hm?" Pitch asked gently and roughly reached down for Jack's fingers and yanked off the promise ring. He then pulled it up and shoved it in the brunet's face.
"By this. This shitty little toy," he snarled before he tossed it behind him. "You may have a Santa who builds you toys, but I build weapons, and this sloppy invention sends off a stronger signature than any heat sensor can."
"Y-You–" Jack coughed but Pitch grit his teeth and tightened his grip.
"But hers is still up in the penthouse! So...where is she?"
"Go to hell," Jack snapped out viciously and spat on Pitch's suit. The criminal frowned – Jack was the first man in ages to ever look him in the face and not cower away.
And he didn't take to that inattention well.
"My boy, Hell is not big enough. And in this profession, I've learned some statements are better shown by my own hand than by my own men."
And Jack watched as the ashen-skinned executioner pulled out his weapon with his left glove. Pitch's new weapon extended into a long stave with a curved blade at the end and he twirled it in his left hand before he violently thrust the back end of the weapon to the wall, straight for Jack's head!
But Jack shut his eyes and lifted his knees.
With a powerful cry, he snapped his hands out and pushed off the wall.
Fwoom!
A violent burst of wind deflected Pitch's line of trajectory and drove the stave into the wall just above Jack's ear. It caught a piece of his hair and he cried out angrily but Jack didn't stop, thinking of nothing but his full contact assault training.
Jack held his breath and twisted his body to the left, throwing his entire right hand over Pitch's larger, greying one as it was still around his throat. He locked wrapped his fingers underneath the terrorist's palm as best as he could then pushed his thumb into transverse curve between his thumb and forefinger. When it locked and he sent a rush of wind behind Pitch, it caused the man to stumble just the tiniest but it was enough for Jack.
He moved the hand slightly down his chest – then, he whipped the whole arm across him to the right!
Pitch bent forward slightly with a wild look in his eye as his arm was pulled straight across and Jack raised his elbow, ready to deliver a fatal elbow strike to the back of Pitch's elbow. But as he moved in to break it from behind–
A shadow appeared too close to his face and Jack pulled back instinctively.
As he did, Pitch instantly snapped back around and threw a powerful hook at Jack's forehead.
"H-Haah!" Jack cried and bent his head painfully.
He saw white hot stars erupt behind his eyelids but before he could recover, Pitch had him against the wall again with a firmer grip around his head. He wrapped his glove around his eyes and Jack couldn't felt an unnatural cold seep into his temples as the darkness engulfed him and threw his senses off.
"What's the matter?" the man whispered. "Scared?"
Jack let out an angry gasp but Pitch still felt a shiver prickle down Jack's pale throat. He said nothing and flung Jack into a car.
Jack hit the side and dented the body of the automobile with the impact. He coughed out violently tried to move back up quickly.
"Y-You son of a–" Jack breathed.
"Am I? Is that what you think? Like everyone else?"
Suddenly on his right, another shadow moved and trusting his feet, Jack rolled to the left.
Pitch moved out of the way but Jack was already coming at him with a cat vault over a car hood and the man barely had enough time to deflect Jack's flying front knee strike.
"Some people become so easily corrupt by the actions of one moment, boy! You are no exception."
Jack snarled and when he landed, the two rushed at each other – one with bloodlust, the other with mild fascination.
Jack's breath was the only thing echoing hard off the concrete walls and parked cars as Pitch was silent and controlled.
He met each of Jack's uppercuts with quicker precision than the brunet was used to – but he'd thought Pitch only dealt with industrial espionage and weapon tech!
Jack was surprised, almost anxious – but he didn't show it and kept fighting harder.
Jack weaved sideways when Pitch threw a violent straight punch, his eyes flickering pale gold and his jaw set as an adrenaline long-overdue set into his bones. He began to grin as he watched Jack's face twist the more he couldn't get in a strike and had to spend most of time dodging.
Jack yelled out when he found an opening and grabbed the taller man behind the neck.
He motioned the ebony-haired man's head into a smash at one of the windshields beside him but Pitch twisted out of it like a snake and grabbed Jack over the eyes again, and slammed him against the car instead, sending snow and glass shards flying into his hair. Jack couldn't see, he couldn't fight but Tooth was still in danger, and he'd go under before he let Pitch Black take her!
Pitch suddenly threw Jack to the concrete and pulled out his maniacal stave before Jack had only a second to think.
When it came down, close to his face, Jack flexed out his fingers and guided a strong gust of wind to imbalance Pitch's drive. And when it went into the ground beside his head, Jack then gripped the stationed weapon. Using his upper body strength, Jack cried out and flung his feet up into a powerful crescent kick.
He got Pitch in the shoulder and the older man backed away, dragging his weapon out of the ground.
Jack let go immediately and flipped backwards to create more space, the two stared each other down. Jack breathed hotly through his nostrils, feeling the wind whip violently around his hair but Pitch simply stared at him with a frown.
"You did something, just now," he stated steadily but the raucous look on his face betrayed the calmness in his voice. "I felt it."
Jack didn't answer and Pitch's hands wrapped languidly around his weapon.
Jack didn't answer and looked down suddenly when more movement caught his gaze. As he did, he watched as the shadows at Pitch's feet began to elongate themselves.
The lot felt darker, more enclosed, but when he looked at where Pitch had been standing, the man was gone!
Only the shadows and the multiple holes in the wall and ground that tried to impale him were still left in the concrete.
"What th–"
As he reached back for his short rod and activated it, Jack rubbed his eyes. His throat felt raw from the hoarse breathing, his skin had red patches where Pitch managed to get in a hit, and his muscles were wound too tightly beyond his control – but he'd managed to survive, and still it sent his adrenaline out of control.
"Jack Frost. You've suddenly become more interesting to me than your name and record permits...I'm impressed."
Pitch's voice echoed darkly around the silent lot but Jack didn't say a word and tried to level his pounding heart.
His feet padded the asphalt silently as he spun in tight circles, listening for subtle movement and flickers of shadows. His long staff guided a small strand of wind around him, stirring the air as a black conduit while the blood pounded in his ears. But Jack couldn't develop a proper sweep of the lot, and that made him more on edge.
"So you don't need to be afraid. I'm not gonna hurt you."
The conviction in his voice made Jack's blood boil.
"Do you know how long I've been looking for you?" Jack seethed.
"You have? For me?" Pitch said, sounding actually surprised. "Well, I must say, I apologize. To think all this time, a cruel thing like you actually worth of my time has been searching the shadows for me while you were nothing but a speck on my radar. Almost invisible, really."
"Well, I sorta attest to that, in case you didn't notice, idiot," Jack bit out. "So me, afraid? Heh, I'm not afraid of you."
But Pitch scoffed.
"Very trying, I respect that in a man. But you are afraid of something."
And Jack curled one corner of his lips up as he counted the shadows and wrapped his fingers coolly against the titanium staff.
"You think so, huh?" he drawled coldly and imagined wrapping his staff around Pitch's lanky neck as a show prize.
"You heroes are all the same," the ill-mannered Pitch sneered and it echoed across the lot. As it did, several of the shadows around Jack's feet danced wildly. On impulse he jumped away and even smacked one, thinking it was the terrorist's foot. It was pathetic.
"Argh! Come out of the shadows and fight me, Black!"
"So what? You can save the day and run off with the princess?" Pitch mocked. "Typical, my boy, typical."
And a shadow of Pitch against the wall caused Jack to snap his head around.
"And I know, boy. Believe me, I know! I once tried playing the hero."
And Jack felt his head spin when another mysterious blow hit him from behind.
"Argh, then w-why'd you stop?" Jack gritted his teeth. "Not enough fangirls?"
"You live for the rush, the adrenaline in the moment...but where's your sense of completion? Save the girl, the people, and then what? Disappear like the wind?"
Then Pitch suddenly appeared by a parked car with his arms behind his back. He was deathly still as his long coat blew gracefully in the wind but he reminded Jack of a ghost, the silhouette of a man not really all there but still watching those with sharp eyes.
"Is that what you really want, Jack? To save the day and then have everyone forget about you, after you vanish?"
He clucked his tongue and frowned.
"If you do, you'll break her heart."
"You leave her alone!" Jack seethed and gritted his teeth and rushed forward. But another flicker of a shadow threw him off and when he blinked, Pitch wasn't standing near the car anymore.
He had to give Jack credit, he suddenly felt more invested in the princess' mysterious bodyguard than he previously thought. This skinny brunet who seemed to evade all his men on just his own wits, not to mention the kill ratio he carried, and the police record...and still here he was, finally seeing him face to face and the man wouldn't let up.
But Pitch was ruthless – he saw that at the mere mention of the word 'heart', Jack's eyes betrayed his stony expression – and so he wondered, as was his specialty, just how much the man could take?
"Me? Leave her alone?" And Pitch actually laughed. "My boy, you're the one who should be leaving her alone. I haven't even touched her."
"No, but you're planning to and that's all I need to know," Jack barked and he then quickly pressed the button on the staff and watched it extend at the end into a Sheppard's hook. He held it tightly in both hands and leveled it easily at Pitch's face as his fingers stroked together behind his back – he always did when he began reading his victims, but Jack didn't notice with his head so wrapped around stopping the criminal.
"Despite what evil I've done to take my life, I'm not letting you take hers," Jack threatened. "So don't you dare touch her."
"Ah, so that's what this is. Redemption. All this to atone for past guilt you feel because you have nothing left to lose, how marvelous...But my boy, it only accounts for anything if you do have something to lose."
"I don't."
"Oh you think so?"
And the older man rubbed his head mockingly.
"Trust me boy," Pitch jeered, "just by your stance, that twitch on your mouth, and the curve of your fingers, I know more about you in ten seconds than dear Thia ever could in four days...You're afraid of losing something. You're afraid, period."
And Jack blinked when a flicker of shadow past his line of vision and Pitch vanished again, carrying his mind games and illusion with horrific grace.
"I c...ca'–cn't breathe, Jack. It hurts! It hurts t–And I can't r-run anym...I'm tired of–"
He narrowed his eyes to slits.
"A martyr has nothing, feels nothing, Jack," Pitch said. "But you...you've grown tired, feel lost, and you're afraid that you'll be left alone."
"Stop hiding Pitch," Jack breathed and dragged in a long breath of cold air before he blew it out. He wanted to beat him senseless, smash his skull in, and set Tooth's sisters free.
"Isn't that what all spies fear? After ending up like this?...Being unseen, unable to reach out to anyone...because, heh, god forbid you get a bullet through anyone who gets close to you. And that's not what you'd want...is it, Jack?"
Something like a dime dropped into Jack's stomach.
"Your duty keeps you bound to such terrible, terrible things and when they're over, you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even worth saving."
Jack spun on his heel again to search the lot. He didn't see how his shadow under the lamplights elongated and pulled away from him.
"Why'd you take her sisters?!" Jack snarled but Pitch didn't answer him.
"So you're afraid that if you get her too close, she'll either end up like anyone who came before her...or better, you're afraid she'll leave you once she realises how much of a mess you really are. And isn't that it? You're afraid that she'll leave you."
And when a shadow reappeared on Jack's right, he looked down – it looked like Pitch was holding Toothiana around the throat before it flickered away.
Jack's brown eyes went wide and for the first time, something like fear trickled into his throat. It spread across his chest and fell deep into the pits of his stomach.
"She's a little fire, that one. Always hoping..." and Pitch's voice suddenly grew guttural as he recounted his opinion on her.
"Those tiny, little teeth put up such a fight everyday in my hands. And I suspect they learned that from her! But then again, that's why you stay with her...because she's always so hopeful, always believes."
"G–" But when the memory flashed Jack bit down on his tongue so hard, it started to bleed.
"I hope you get your memory back, Jack."
But Pitch had already heard him choke and he smiled in the dark.
"And see? I found it. That's what you're really afraid of...Of being all alone again with no one left to believe in you and everything you stand for."
Jack's knuckles turn white with anger as he gripped his staff. He didn't say a word and stood his ground, but the words echoed off his head.
"Well, let me ease your mind about one thing. She won't, not after I've found her and I expose her to everything she's been kept hidden from."
Jack suddenly felt small, standing in under the darkening lamplights and sticking out like a sore thumb in his white dress shirt. And it was supposed to be sunrise in a few hours...yet the sky looked like midnight.
His chest felt tight.
"And after all, you're not like one of her, one of them anymore, the good people left on this world. You're just proverbial waste leeching off the light from its darkest corners."
"I'll just leave you," Jack threatened.
"No!" Tooth whispered. "Wait! I can I...just let me..."
He gritted his teeth.
"You don't know who I am."
"True, but I know what you are," he mocked, "and what that'll do to the princess."
But Jack's glare softened and he looked down at his staff.
"You're wrong."
And Pitch's eyebrows lifted briefly.
"Wrong?" he scoffed and stroked his fingers again. "I know what'll happen, Jack. That girl will break."
"I'll fight. I'll fight 'till I break. 'Till I'm broken."
"Well then clearly you don't know her," Jack barked and felt his skin prickle with energy. "Because if you did, you'd know that she'll never stop fighting!"
Not waiting for a response, Jack rushed forward and despite the blood his palm that made the grip loose, he swung his staff.
Pitch's eyebrows rose briefly and lifted his stave to parry the blow but the strength of the swung threw him unexpectedly off balance. His breath hitched in his long neck – Jack's hit sent the snow under them flying up around them.
Reacting instantly, Pitch raised his weapon in a long sweep and snapped the back end with his right elbow but Jack twisted around it and made for a right jab.
Pitch deflected it and let out a snarl when Jack used his foot to side flip away. He rushed at him and the two began to hit twist-for-blow. Pitch didn't expecting the sudden determination when he thought he was breaking down Jack's defences, twisted his face. He was taken aback for a moment when Jack almost decapitated him but seeing a small opening in the arch Jack made, Pitch drove his stave forward and got him in the stomach.
Jack coughed out violently and reeled back. He drove his staff in the concrete and used to propel himself back. As he cried out angrily, Pitch's wiry expression vanished instantly and he sent the brunet a final ultimatum.
"Loyalty is very powerful," he said calmly. "But also very fickle...So when she's done with you, you can come to me."
And the statement threw Jack off completely.
"You're out of your fucking mind," Jack hissed and tightened his grip on his staff. "I'd rather be six feet under, and god knows I'd take you down with me."
And Pitch's irises grew alight as he watched Jack's lips pull back in a feral snarl and his eyes swam red with fury.
"But see that look in your face? That cold? That's not bred, that's born. Straight from within you, after years and years of being felt alone in the dark... Just. Like. Me."
"We are NOTHING alike."
Jack gritted his teeth and he stomped a step forward...but then something pulled his gaze and he ended up catching his reflection in a car window.
When he did, he stopped.
The murderous look on his face almost made him jump out of his own skin, and his eyes instantly widened.
"N..." Jack suddenly thought of Tooth, the first time they met...and how she'd backed into walls and covered her eyes every time he looked her way.
And when the chill dripped into his stomach, he suddenly caught movement and spun around. When he looked, Pitch was standing almost a foot away from him with a smug look on his face – he hadn't seen what Jack saw but the look on his face told him his work was done.
"What did you do?" Jack demanded but Pitch began to step back slowly.
"More to the point, Jack...What did you do? And who are you, really? Because I think I have a clue."
Jack's eyes widened again, and he tried to move forward but her face blurred his vision...and so did all the faces of the men he'd killed over the months.
"No!"
"So swear on this, your precious princess and her little copies can't hide in my shadows for long."
Bang Bang!
Jack snapped his eyes open at the sound of the gunshots. When he twisted his neck behind him, a group of three ELFs were sprinting down another street toward him.
"There he is! Jack!" one of them cried and they sped up their running.
"You both have a very Merry Christmas, Jack. I have much work to get back to, but remember..."
Jack quickly whipped his head back at the smashed cars and panted lightly.
"...you can't hide from a Nightmare."
But Pitch was gone, and so was all the dark.
The lot looked considerably brighter and that was when Jack realized...Pitch brought those shadows with them.
...
Jack's eyes widened.
He moved to break into a run but–
"Jack! No, stop! We have the princess!"
His boot stuck in the ground at the last second. Jack spun around at the mention of Toothiana.
"Where is she?" he demanded. He felt like his heart would burst in his chest from all the adrenaline.
"At the safe spot now," another answered in a British accent. "So come on! Let's get you to her!"
But the brunet didn't immediately reply back. He gazed disturbingly around the parking lot and took in the damage both he and Pitch managed to create.
The totalled cars, the cracks in the concrete, his blood smearing across the windshields he shattered, the windswept streaks of dirt and snow...All this dark and cold made his heart feel like something icy had wrapped it.
"Jack, come on! Besides you shouldn't fight him alone!"
His blood boiled with cold fury.
A part of Jack, (the old Jack), wanted to argue, to tell to them to shut the hell up, and ditch them. They weren't trained like he was – he was above average espionage training, an elite operative, and he knew the ten-second head start Pitch had wouldn't be too hard to track.
He could've easily started running and gone after the terrorist. And wasn't he doing just fine a couple of seconds ago, already alone with him?
But then he saw a flash of pink.
"Jack!" she cried when the ELF pulled her away. She missed catching his hand and the crowd swallowed her up.
His mouth instantly grew dry and his fingers shook.
Pitch was right there, right there. He saw the hole in the concrete where his stave tried to impale him!
But he also saw feathers, her warm cheeks, and the number ten.
And that voice. '...when she's done with you, you can come to me.'
He squeezed his eyes shut.
The ELFs watched his tempest of emotions dance across his face. When he ran his bloodied hand shakily through his hair, an ELF stepped forward worriedly.
"Jack..."
The brunet paused for a moment. He eyed the ice and the black hole one more time before he lifted his head. He glared softly and mumbled urgently.
"Okay. Take me to her."
But they didn't see his fingers shake in the wind.
Maybe he was afraid he had something to lose.
Maybe Pitch was right.
...
Secret outdoor parking lot, 6:29 am
"Jack?!" Tooth cried happily. "O-Oh my god!"
Her fists stopped clenching into her dress the minute she saw him. Jack turned the corner with three other ELFs around him, but they didn't really pay attention to her as they were all on their bluetooths. They were getting messages from their other comrades and being told about the battles going on with the Nightmares across the city.
But Jack didn't have a Bluetooth and he heard Tooth's voice clear as crystal.
The brunet pulled his head up slowly and tried to ignore the aching in his neck and behind his head. He saw Toothiana standing at one of many parked cars. The ELF who took her was nearby. She also wasn't wearing her brown colored contacts anymore.
Jack watched her suddenly stand on her tiptoes then plop back down, like she always did when she was anxious.
And she had reason to. Tooth frowned when she got a good look at him.
His white dress shirt was disheveled and smeared with dirt, snow and blood. She prayed it wasn't his own but then she saw his right hand dripping with blood. And when she kept looking, she also noticed the deep scrape on his cheek, the glass shards in his hair, and how one section of his head suddenly looked off.
Tooth felt her insides coil painfully again.
"Wh..." she started and took a step forward. "What happened to you?!"
Jack frowned.
"I-It's nothing," he lied. "Had to handle more than one Nightmare, that's all."
And yet Jack walked faster to her, so she jogged up in her heels to meet him halfway. When they stopped in front of each other, Toothiana paused for only a moment before she bravely closed the space between them and hugged him.
"You're okay," she muttered into his shirt and wrapped her small body around his.
She didn't give even the smallest crap that her (still) painted face was smearing against the rest of the blood on his shirt and forearms. Jack didn't seem to mind either at first since he didn't move her away. But the chill set in.
He froze instantly and stared down at his own blood rubbing her into cheek. Pitch's face came bubbling up to the back of his mind and he looked out across the parking lot in a numb daze.
The man he'd been trying to hunt for months had him around the neck half an hour ago...and he could still feel the strength of the touch, the smell of his stale breath, and the words he bludgeoned the brunet's mind with.
Not the mention his heart.
Jack felt Toothiana squeeze him tighter and shutter a breath in the cold.
His own hitched.
He almost heard her lungs tremble from exhaustion.
"You need to sleep," he mumbled. He finally realized how many hours she'd been awake for and a dry lump formed guiltily in his throat.
When she nodded resignedly, she mumbled on the last drop of stamina she had.
"I am... I am so tired," she finally admitted into his shirt and weakly, he raised his clean hand and gave her a one-armed hug. His head dropped over hers almost exhaustively too as he continued to look out across the lot.
When one of the ELFs who brought him back walked past the two, Jack caught his gaze and opened his mouth.
Where's Pitch? he mouthed silently.
The ELF understood immediately. He paused to touch his Bluetooth and listened for a new update before he looked straight at Jack again.
"They just spotted him," he reassured above a whisper so the princess wouldn't hear. "Fifteen of ours are chasing him right now."
"Hm?"
Tooth pulled away limply and looked up at the ELF towering over both of them.
"Wh-Whose chasing who?" she asked worriedly.
"An arch-level Nightmare," the ELF quickly lied. He suddenly touched his earpiece again. "And MI5 just called in agents from the Special Branch to find him too."
Jack knew what MI5 was – the UK's Secret Security; Military Intelligence, Section 5
Tooth knew what a 'Special Branch' was from school – special police involved in counterintelligence that carried out national arrests...she met the Royal Thai Police once who did same thing.
And they both froze at the same time.
Moscow.
The ELF somehow recognized their silent terror and nodded.
"You two need to leave," he said curtly. "I was there last night in North's workshop."
Jack nodded solemnly and Tooth pulled away from him.
"They can't find out you're here, Jack. You're already wanted in the UK a-and..." She stopped and her eyes turned hard again. "Well, we better leave before he starts posting your picture all over the walls again."
When he nodded, Tooth moved completely away from him and turned. She took a few steps and frowned back up at the empty, hotel in the distance and thought of Prime Minister Bangkot one last time.
He watched her face fall and she sighed through stinging eyes again.
Jack came up behind her and stared up at it too before he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Now please," she grit out and reached up to clutch his fingers, "get me out of Wales."
And her shaky breath, still laced with her earlier hiccups, was stolen by chilly thread of wind and tossed into the early morning darkness.
...
7:02 a.m.
The ELFs let them use their emergency showers in the safe bunker and they came out in their warm, comfortable clothes. Jack also patched himself up in the tiny infirmary and washed out a little of the hair dye to create a two-toned hair effect.
When they were good to go, the ELFs gave them a send off and Jack silently gunned out of the lot and into the Christmas Eve morning traffic. They were going to Cardiff Airport and a Sleigh Runner would be waiting to fly them up before eight wherever it could.
Tooth fell asleep instantly under the deep purr of their sleek, Nissan GT-R and the orange headlights that flickered past. Jack didn't say one word knowing that all the exhaustion and stress finally caught up to her.
Her feather earrings were back on her ears and when they fluttered in a tiny breeze, he watched her bundle her shivering form tighter into her teal-colored turtleneck and open coat. Her father's chain was hanging over her chest.
As she breathed softly, Jack listened and looked out into the brightening horizon. Sunrise was coming at eight so he had just the perfect moment to watch the light push away the dark. As he waited and drove in silence, he frowned suddenly.
Pitch still plagued his mind and their fight was still fresh in his mind. It made him furious and sick all at once.
He almost had him, almost had answers, but then the criminal had to warp his words and...
Something to lose...Afraid of being left alone?
Jack narrowed his eyes.
Well, it didn't matter anymore, he couldn't think about it. He chose protecting the princess over running bat-crap-crazy after his ass so now Jack could prepare for the next encounter. And now that he'd seen the man in person, he'd play it right.
Still, it didn't mean Jack wasn't human. His skin still crawled even though he'd washed the grime and blood away.
Pitch Black was a terror and now, Jack had the scars of fear to prove what an effect it had on him. Like everyone else he'd tortured, like Toothiana.
The brunet squeezed the steering wheel and the cut in his hand burned behind the bandages. As he thought about it, Jack flit his gaze to the rear-view mirror and stared at his reflection grimly.
He lifted a hand to touch the cut on his cheek, cringing at how the red scrape of color looked shockingly normal against his pale skin. But the cut was healing and it'd be gone in an hour – he never told Tooth but his cuts always seemed to heal quicker than most people's.
He wasn't sure still if it was because it was a spy thing, they'd trained him to control it mentally or whatever but...he knew it wasn't normal. Maybe a center gene enhancement? He'd have to ask North–
Tooth suddenly choked in her sleep. When he looked, a tear rolled her cheek but she calmed down almost immediately. She then fell back into deep sleep.
Jack deeply frowned. He reached over quickly and wiped it off her face before he focused back on the road.
A shuttering exhale left his lips as he gripped the wheel harder. Pitch ruined everything.
And so did Project GUARDIAN.
...
Cardiff Airport, abandoned runways, 7:48 a.m.
When the Nissan screeched to a halt on the deserted dirt road, the Sleigh was seen parked in the distance. Jack let out a nervous breath.
He didn't know he had been holding it but he kept fearing a Nightmare, or worse Pitch, would show up out of nowhere.
But the ELFs did say they were pursuing him, and so was MI5...so that had to be good, right?
Jack quickly killed the engine and ripped off his seatbelt. He reached over and gently shook Toothiana awake with his glove.
"Toothiana," he urged softly and she opened her eyes instantly. Jack pointed at the plane through the windshield.
"Come on, we're here!"
"W-We are?" she mumbled breathlessly. "Oh...o-okay."
The sound her husky voice sent Jack's nerves into a frenzy uncharacteristically. He smiled a little to urge her out of the car.
"Yeah, so come on, get out. Just a few more steps."
The princess managed to unbuckle her seatbelt and roll over to the door. But she didn't really get much farther. When she began to look for the handle slowly, Jack rolled his eyes.
Tooth heard him get out of the car and shut his door. She instantly stopped trying to open it and fell back to sleep. But a second later, it opened on its own and Jack was pulling her arms out.
"Tooooth," he groaned and she gave a breathy chuckle.
"Okay, okay. Sorry."
As she got out and moved to stand, she swayed slightly and gripped the side of the car in support. Tooth sighed tiredly and put her arm against it to use as a pillow. But a second later, she pushed herself up and moved to walk.
"Okay, let's go," she huffed and grabbed his arm to help her walk properly.
A frown set itself deep into her face and her expression still looked haunted under the dark circles of her eyes.
She wasn't herself anymore, not after what Pitch and her family had done, but she was trying. Her six sisters (she refused to ever call them by the C-word) were still out there and he knew that since she couldn't get to them, finding out the GUARDIAN program and helping him stop Pitch would be the next best thing.
But Jack frowned sadly.
Tiana was such a sweet little girl, and he remembered the photos...It was all too much for him to believe that every day, for all her life, while she lived with them and when she went away, this was all a secret kept from her.
Jack wondered how long they'd take to actually tell her, or if they even would.
It was too late now though – one uncle was dead, another lost in the sea of duty, and the little army of girls she helped raised were vanishing one by one.
Yet, she didn't faint, her mind didn't go mad, and she didn't completely shutdown.
'Only because you screamed in her face not to,' he retorted to himself.
Jack gripped her tightly.
Yeah, he did. And he was glad she listened because here she was still beside him in a relative healthy state – he worried for how long though.
Toothiana kept walking even though every three steps she stumbled and struggled to push her legs forward.
But when she tripped a fourth time, Jack finally scrunched his brows together. He moved in front of her.
Tooth blinked as he suddenly leaned forward and bent slightly to her level. He wanted her to get on his back.
"Get on."
And Tooth, not in her crushing-on-Jack self (heck, even complete self), mumbled tiredly and hopped on.
He hoisted her up securely and linked his elbows under her knees as her long boots dangled weakly on his sides. She wore new spy pants sent by North and Jack realised the dark, skin-tight material was the same as the female ELFs. He also felt her two gun holsters, strapped to both her thighs as they hid under her short, A-line skirt. Then when he was sure she was leaning against him, he piggy-backed her the rest of the walk down the runway.
The wind blew Tooth's A-line skirt back like a feathery tail. It trailed down quickly from earth green to royal blue and Jack vaguely wondered if she'd ever wear any other colors – but then he decided anything else wouldn't suit her.
Tooth fell asleep instantly and Jack walked in silence again as he stared at the brightening sky. The calm was nice but he knew, like everything in their lives now, it was short-lived.
Every step now needed to be confident, needed to be firm, and they needed to be ready.
For Pitch.
And for her sisters.
It made Jack look back at Toothiana again. She was incredibly light and still very soft, and there was something about the way she pressed into him that felt right and natural.
Jack grew ashamed with himself – he couldn't entertain those thoughts...He could only put it with the other memories in the back of his head.
And he did.
Hahaha...
Jack blinked behind his dry eyes.
Hahaha!
That little girl's voice came back, the one who always yelled his name.
He shut his eyes to moisten them against the cold winds. She sounded like she was right behind him, talking in one of his ears.
Haha haha, Jack! You're-
The memory suddenly vanished and Jack finally realised that Tooth was playing with one of his ears.
"Uh...Tooth?" He was almost afraid to ask as one of her hands gently pulled on his earlobe and rubbed the shell of his skin.
But he couldn't deny that flush came back and sped down his skin. That same warm, electrical wave was there when she pulled his ear before with her lips, and every time he put his arms around her waist.
Feeling his muscles unwind on their own accord, Jack felt his hold slacken just a tad and instantly jolted awake to tighten his arms around her legs.
Tooth was half-asleep. Her eyes were barely open while the wind nipped her cheeks and nose. She probably wasn't even registering it or anything. But she opened her mouth anyway.
"I have a new thing that makes me happy," she said with a yawn and Jack quirked a brow curiously after her secured her.
"Oh yeah? What?"
"...the north wind."
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Why?"
"Because dummy, when it starts to blow...it means you're coming back."
And Jack stopped walking.
"W–"
"Thanks for not leaving me behind," she mumbled almost sadly and a second later, she slipped into unconsciousness.
Tooth remained asleep for the rest of next 7 hours and 11 minutes trip, and by the time they landed, she felt recharged and Jack's wounds healed over. But while they felt stronger together...they also felt more alone.
Their hearts were still shaken and their minds still were disturbed, and now the entire world was a race they both had to survive...and win.
Chapter's soundtrack: "The Beginning is The End is the Beginning" – Smashing Pumpkins One of my Pitch vs. Jack songs.