"Solider, shine on. With your conscience open. And the curtain folds in with the drums."
Jack Frost...You've suddenly become more interesting to me than your name and record permits...I'm impressed...
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.
...then what? Disappear like the wind?
...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.
...you start to wonder if there's even a piece of you left to save. Any piece left even worth saving.
...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 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.
...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.
More to the point, Jack...What did you do? And who are you, really? Because I think I have a clue.
...
PA-93 Interstate, Pennsylvania, 4:47 a.m.
With heavy hearts and broken windows, the Aston Martin continued down the interstate trying to beat to the sun. Aster was glad (for like, about a second) once he realised that their bloody car chase had shortened their time expectancy. When he stopped the car so he and Tooth could have their 'emotional breakdowns' they were about two miles east of Bloomsburg – that town was halfway between Trout Run (when their chase had started) and Burgess. The drive normally took more than hour, but with the Nightmare on their butt, they'd gunned it in about 40 minutes!
So only one hour left to go...but this time, Aster drove a whole lot more carefully.
The Aston Martin left Bloomsburg then drove and drove for another 50 miles. Aster spent his time checking up on the ELF news feeds and the status of the car. He'd have to do a lot of body work when he got back to The Warren but the computers performed with perfection and that was what he was more concerned with. Tooth meanwhile chewed every stick of gum she had left, sung songs in her head, and poked Jack in the face every time he looked at her with his dazed eyes.
Then finally, an hour and ten minutes later, Aster exited the Interstate and drove on a long, winding ghost road.
That's when Aster saw something the distance.
"Princess?"
And Tooth pulled her head up from where it was squished against a corner to avoid the high winds. She pursed her lip thoughtfully as she stared at his eyes in the rearview mirror.
"I think we're coming up."
As the road curved slightly, it hit a large and beautiful river that shone in the moonlight. The car drove alongside it and Tooth looked across Jack to stare breathlessly through the left window.
...
5:12 a.m.
Aster killed the engine once they drove the car off the dirt road and onto the shoulder again. The Aston Martin died with a gentle rumble and as his whole system went on standby, the tech analyst sighed.
"Ah, poor baby. Look at her, all tuckered out," he mumbled and patted the top of his dashboard.
Tooth gave a sad smile before she looked out the window again and into the snow.
"Why'd you stop here?" she asked politely as the moon made the open field beside the river glisten.
"Burgess' just beyond that curve," he explained and when he pointed through the windshield, Tooth saw a bend in the road that broke off from the rest of the interstate. It followed the river and at the end of it, was a tall line of trees where a forest began.
Then he continued.
"But I think we should get out here...Try to ease him into it, y'know?"
And Tooth nodded.
"Yeah, good thinking."
That was smart, they didn't want him to get suckerpunched by the memories if they moved too fast again.
So as Aster unbuckled himself, Tooth opened her door. The wind instantly swept up into her face.
Tightening her purple scarf, she turned back around to get Jack. She unbuckled his seatbelt and shook his shoulder a little.
"Jack?" she called. "Can you hear me?"
"...Can you hear me?"
Jack turned his head.
Pitch and the Nightmares had vanished awhile ago and Jack had spent the rest of his time, dashing through the forest, trying to locate Tooth's ball of light.
Several times he saw the little girl with brown hair flying behind her. "Follow me!" she kept saying and flickered past his eyes into the trees. But each time he took a step or two after her, he stopped. "No, I...I have to find her first!" And he'd go running in the other direction. Jack could worry about himself, worry his own needs AFTER he found Tooth and made sure Pitch hadn't caught her – the bastard wouldn't have appeared unless he did, so Jack had to keep hoping.
Every time he saw a flicker of worrying light he went after it.
"...Can you hear me?"
Her voice came back. It made his chest flare up, his adrenaline pumping. As he pushed further, following the echo and the glimpse of light in the moonlit forest, he started to realise that the Wonderland was starting to change somewhat.
It'd stopped decaying but it wasn't growing back to life either – it was...it was almost like it had went on a standstill.
'But why?' he'd asked himself. Was something on the outside that he wasn't yet aware of? Had they gotten somewhere? Was something happening to–
Tooth leaned out of the car to get a full look at Jack. She saw his fingers flex wildly as the cold air blew in. It couldn't even be called twitching the more she looked at him.
It looked more like Jack's hands were actually...shaking.
And she frowned.
Moving quick, Tooth reached back in and grasped one securely. Tooth then tried to pull him out of the car – just like he'd done for her the night he piggybacked her down the runway.
...a second later, the door opened on its own and Jack was pulling her arms out.
"Tooooth," he groaned and she gave a breathy chuckle.
"Okay, okay. Sorry."
"Come on," she said gently and tugging gently. "Follow me, Jack. Listen to my voice...I'm right here."
"Listen to my voice...Follow me, Jack..."
His scowl deepened on his face when he head twitched but he didn't resist. His eyes looked everywhere, but from the bleeding effect they weren't really seeing her.
His hands grew warm, something tugged him. When Jack turned, he saw Tooth's ball of light floating up a hill...it was going back to the path he'd first abandoned.
Jack wasted no time. He cat vaulted over a dead trunk and tore up the incline after her. Every metre he drew closer, her warning light blinked less and less rapidly.
He responded by gripping her fingers. His right ungloved hand grabbed onto her right, gloved one.
Tooth's heart beat a little faster.
'At least he hasn't broken all my fingers yet,' she thought to herself – but then again, her left hand was still sore from his bone-crushing grip earlier. But she didn't voice it and continued to help Jack get out of the car.
When her head came out of the car again, Aster appeared from behind, ready to help in case she needed it. She looked up.
The snow had stopped so the sky was clear again. Moonlight behind her bathed everything and with the snow reflecting it so serenely, everything had a soft, white glow. An icy breath left her lips.
"So this is what Christmas in winter looks like," she whispered to herself. "Aww..."
Tooth looked down to check her footing in the snow as she moved out...and she missed what Aster saw.
Just as she tilted her head, Jack's glazed eyes moved up to the moon behind her and his breath shortened. Something in his chest ignited suddenly and with his empty hand, he threw it up to the spot where his gunshot wound was. He clutched the front of his leather jacket for a second before he shut his mouth and looked down. Then it was almost like it didn't happen.
Aster's expression grew grim when Tooth looked back up and continued like it was nothing.
Once Jack was out of the car and standing on his own feet, Tooth moved him away from the car. He was looking around slowly like he didn't recognize the place.
'Wait duh, he doesn't,' Tooth miffed. 'At least...not yet.'
Suddenly his head jerked again and he leaned heavily on one boot. Yet despite her nervousness, remembering the same throat holdthat the Nightmare got, Tooth moved in and linked arms with him. From that vantage, Jack was able to use her as some invisible crutch – at first, he tensed himself, wondering who it was, but the peppermint in her breath calmed him instantly. He leaned his toned arm against her and continued to look around.
Aster nodded at her quick thinking before he moved to the back of the car.
"Walk him out into the field, sheila?" he asked as he popped open the trunk. He then pointed to his complink in his ear. "I gotta grab somethin' and just check in with North."
"Sure," she said with a puffy cloud of air. "But don't take too long." Then Tooth guided Jack from the dirt into the snow – but the second her boot went into the snow, she cringed. Aster's deep voice murmured to North in the back.
Being in the powerful heat of the Aston for an hour really warmed her up and made all the bitter iciness she'd felt from the company, and the forest, and the car chase, go away. She huffed as she watched her boot and Jack's sink in until the snow was up to their ankles.
'And how ridiculous am I for wearing a skirt and leather pants in this winter!?'
But in her defence, she thought once they left Wales that this trip to finding Jack's memories would've been an easy one. You know, hail a cab (or steal one), and drive virtually anonymous on the open road until boom, problem solved...But she should've guessed that everything from that thought would've been completely wrong.
Oh well, lesson learned.
When the ice bit her legs through her skin-tight spy pants, Tooth gritted her teeth.
"I-It's pretty cold here, huh?" she mumbled to Jack, her lips quivering. The area around Burgess seemed to have gotten way more snow than the rest of the towns they passed, and Tooth could only guess that it was because of the large river drifting calmly on the side – they probably got more moisture and condensation because of it.
"You cold?" she tried again.
She looked up at her mute partner.
Nope, still mute.
And hello? He was Jack Frost – he didn't 'feel' the cold remember? It was even apparent in the way his boots lifted in and the out of the snow like it was cotton and not frigid ice biting at his feet.
Even on autopilot, Jack was still the catlike, stealthy operative he was.
She sighed as he followed her quickly through the snow. Several times though, Jack hesitated like he was unsure of where he was going or where to put his boot down. But Tooth would pat his arm or tug it gently.
"Don't worry, Jack, you're doing good," she said, encouraging his subconscious. "Y-You're gonna be fine."
And the echo of his voice from the Wales penthouse came up in the back of her mind.
"You're...You're gonna be fine."
"Y...You sure?"
When the wind picked up, he frowned and dismissed it before he continued to look out the window.
"You just have to believe in me."
Tooth frowned.
"Just keeping listening to my voice and follow me, alright?...You're not in any danger, y..."
And she lifted her head and looked around the field. "Th..."
Her magenta-hued eyes darted this way and that. Was there anything she could use to help him to comfort him, to help him jog his memory? Could she lay him the snow? Throw him in the river? What–
Then she froze.
"The..."
Her heartbeat wildly.
"...It's here...It's..." she gasped a little under her breath as Jack. "Ha, I believe it! It's here!"
And without waiting, she started to pull Jack's form.
"Come on, you vegetable..." and reaching down she grasped his hand again and lifted it out in front of them. She then pointed her index finger and looked at him.
"Right over there! The sign, it's just over there, Jack!"
"...here...Right over...It's just..."
Jack's feet pounded the dirt harder. Tooth's light stopped blinking and became a constant glow of energy the higher he jumped, the closer he came. As he did, the memories flickered.
"He's ready now...You're ready, Jac–" His eyes flew open and he pulled his head of the water.
He passed several trees. As he looked at them, he realised they weren't hanging medals anymore. They were hanging blue-green dresses. The avocadoes were gone – in their place were giant glass balls filled with water and fake snow. His forehead creased and he focused back on Tooth.
"...over...It's here!"
He felt his hand lift up as he neared her. And just within reach, Jack shut his eyes. He blocked out everything, the dead trees, the gun piles around him, the staff in his other hand, Pitch's shadows...
"Hahaha, Jack! You're–"
...He even blocked out the little girl's laughter.
"Careful for the rock," Tooth mumbled worriedly and Jack on some unknown level heard her again and paused as he moved his boot. He lifted it a little higher and successfully avoided tripping over it before he continued.
She felt like a nurse guiding a patient, and that left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Jack wasn't sick, he wasn't broken – he was just confused, like kids at birthday parties who played 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' with their eyes blindfolded. They had a vague idea of where the donkey was and what it looked like but until they figured out where to put the tail on the wall, open their eyes, see the whole drawing, and eat cake after.
And that all suddenly made Tooth frown.
Did Jack ever play 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'? Did he ever go to a birthday party? Did he...Did he have one of his own as a kid? Play games, have friends? Eat cake?
...What was his life like before this whole espionage takeover?
Something pinched her heart thinking about the Jack Frost beside her...as a little boy once.
She may have been born into this Project GUARDIAN mess from the start, but at least she had a relatively normal childhood as a kid...with people who looked after her, who stuck for up for her...who loved her.
"T-Toothie! Ar-are you okay?!" Tiana cried. "Everyo-Ev'ry...W-We thought you were gone!"
"You are so special, Toothie...and you do not even know it yet."
And without a second thought, she pulled her father's necklace from under her turtleneck and gave the golden clasp that attached the tiny rainbow feathers a tight squeeze.
"Hang in there, Jack," she said a little more loudly. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You're almost there."
...
Sign in front of Burgess, Pennsylvania, 5:21 a.m.
Neither said a word as the air left their lips.
Tooth tried to pull Jack closer to the sign but he'd frozen about three metres in front of it and wouldn't budge.
His eyes were still clouded as he moved them along the burgundy colored sign held up by two strong wooden logs.
They each kept reading the sign over and over again.
Welcome to Burgess.
Home of The Brave, The Strong, The Few
Population: 9,346 – Next 4.7 miles to Lehighton.
Tooth's lips quivered.
"It's real...It's really real..." She gulped.
"So?" she murmured softly. "Anything?"
She shifted her grip on his arm, when she looked up, Jack's eyes were still eyeing the sign with mild attention. When he started to look away from it, she called his name, sounding almost offended.
"Jack."
He looked down at her, slow and blank as ever. She frowned.
"Come on," she urged. "We're standing right in front of...D-Do you even remember?"
"..."
"Jack!"
He still said nothing – and it made Tooth scared that he wasn't even turning back around to look at it.
She started to panic.
"JACK! Come ON! Look at the sign! You said –Y-You said this was..."
They didn't just drive five hours (no wait, four–oh, forget it!) and almost get themselves killed so he could just play pokerface with the town's post! But his mouth opened slightly and a crease came on his forehead as he continued to stare at Tooth.
'No, idiot, no!' she said in her head, cheeks turning red. 'Don't read ME read the SIGN!'
Why wasn't he responding? Why wasn't he changing?! Why wasn't he–
"Ahh!" And Tooth grabbed his shoulders and shook him like a crazy person – to hell with personal boundaries and getting her arm twisted again. At this rate, she'd beat him up first!
"I'm losing it, Jack! Wake up and read the sign, please! Or I swear to god, I'm gonna–"
"Argh!"
Jack's eyebrows flew up and he clutched both sides of his head to stop it from swinging back and forth. She yelped and let go of him instantly. Was he...
His blue eyes looked around in a nervous daze when she lifted her hands a little off his shoulders.
"Sorry!" she squealed. "W-Wait, can you..."
He didn't answer, but after a moment, he dropped his hands and looked down at the snow. He was trying to find the answer to something in it...but he wasn't getting it.
"I-I...I'm sorry!" she apologized quickly and dropped her hands completely at her sides. "I didn't mean..."
She bit her lip when his eyebrows lowered themselves and his daze returned.
Man, she was really pumping out the apologies this morning...
...and they sucked.
Tooth then sighed as she watched Jack's fingers flex absentmindedly in the wind again. In his half-conscious self, it surged for a moment under his face and made his hood and his hair fly wildly. When it cut abruptly, the brown-white fringe of his bangs stuck into his eyelashes and made him blink repeatedly.
She frowned deeply again, her own red nose tickling and her eyes growing dry from the wind.
...
Outskirts of Burgess, 5:25 a.m.
Aster's anxieties skyrocketed the second he turned his complink off. His entire body started to shake.
After a moment of flitting his green eyes wildly across the ground, he clenched down hard on his large teeth.
North was right. North was always right.
His hands tightened into fists for a moment...but then he blinked. He stopped – and a sigh escaped through nostrils.
Aster then shut his eyes before he placed Jack and Tooth's bags on the ground beside the Aston. Afterwards, he rubbed his gloves together.
"Bloody cold..." he muttered – And this was why he always housed up in the Warren during the winter months. Would he ever be allowed back in Australia?
Not wanting to dwell on it, he left the car and jogged back into the snow after the two. He was already stretched for time and North's call left him on edge. He needed to tell them.
"You guys?!" he barked. "Y–"
Aster paused when a gust of wind blew suddenly straight at him.
"Bullocks," he said grouchily and squinted his eyes. Now every time a harsh piece of wind smacked him across the face, he'd blame Jack. He wasn't sure how Princess Thia dealt with his bloke – he was even more unpredictable than the tech analyst.
But when it died away, he looked and realised he was a little more than a few feet from them. It looked like they were having a moment.
Toothiana tilted her head up at Jack. After a while, he saw her lips move and she frowned deeply. He then watched as she lifted her hand to push Jack's bangs out of his eyes.
Aster couldn't find another word other than...tenderness to match the action.
But that was Tooth, always caring. And as much as his eagerness was painfully short-lived, he knew he wouldn't have wanted to meet her any other way. Aster then shook his head firmly of other thoughts and stepped forward.
Jack was pretty lucky, even if he didn't know it yet – but he frowned when he saw the shorter brunette's blank stare.
"You guys alright?" he asked as he finally approached them with concern.
Tooth blushed when she realised she was almost caught doing something completely intimate. She moved away from Jack and let him walk around on his own. His posture was still straight and sure, but he kept staring at everything in a daze.
"U-Uh yeah," she stuttered before flicking a sad gaze to Jack. "He's not reacting yet though...How is North?"
"He's...He's fine," Aster said after a pause. "He's glad we found Jack's POA. He was really worried."
Tooth lifted an eyebrow.
"POA?"
"Place of Awakening," Aster shrugged. "North likes givin' everything weird names. But he wished us luck and hoped we could get his memories and help him heal again."
Toothiana threw her hands up.
"And he's right! Because between the three of us, we can do it," and she shot him a warm smile, "right?"
But Aster frowned.
"Well, actually..."
Tooth's eyebrows scrunched together.
"What's wrong? You okay?"
"I..." He rubbed his neck and looked between them. "This is sorta urgent."
"...W-What is?"
"North's call reminded me...You know, with the whole Nightmare bullocks we just went through I almost forgot about–"
They stood absolutely still as they watched the three figures stand close together far in the distance.
One was tall, another kept shaking their head, and the third was walking around in a small circle looking out for possible eavesdroppers.
They didn't know that a group of four takedown operatives were already waiting for them on a building ...and that one of those operatives was already mounting a sniper on the edge. His buddies leaned in around him and they all narrowed their eyes anxiously.
"Wind...10.4 knots, N47°E," he murmured.
He then adjusted the reticle knob on the top of the rifle scope to match wind speed. He didn't need to adjust the parallax or the elevation – they all knew they were about a thousand feet from the ground and that the targets were 300 yards away. For any other sniper, making this shot angle would be difficult to calculate.
He exhaled gently and when the knob finished clicking and his POI aligned, his team leader knelt on one knee beside him.
"Mil-dots accurate?" he asked. The sniper looked through his scope and read the crosshairs in the lens as he started to zero on the target. The numbers on the cross were the same as the reticles he'd calculated.
"Affirmative."
"Alright, take the shot when you're ready."
And his man moved into position, tightening his grip on the rifle. When he was sure he'd made sure the crosshairs were perfectly in center with his zero distance, he placed his finger on the trigger.
There was a pregnant silence in the air.
His shot angle had to be perfect.
And as the tall figure moved into the center line of the scope...he exhaled...
No said a word, no one breathed.
Then...
...he fired.
BA–
Jack gasped.
The breath left his lips and the memory left his mind.
Something like a blue ripple effect washed across his Wonderland. It wasn't cold and quick like the blue wave he'd seen when they arrived on the company's field – it was soft and soothing, like one drop in the water, pushing away from him gently.
And in its ripples, the forest started to flicker in and out and Jack could see their falsity. He held his breath.
'What's happening?'
"Why don't you stay with us?...R-Really?...'es, yes! Stay!"
Jack blinked and for a second...he saw past the Wonderland and saw the real things around him!
He saw the night sky and felt snow under his boot.
Aster's gruff voice floated into his ear. Then Tooth's, high and clear like a breath of fresh air.
Jack turned his head in slow motion, feeling like it was swimming through molasses.
In a blurry daze, he saw the moonlight shine off the slope of the hill. He saw the snow glitter and there was a weird shaped rock that –
"–'sy...EASY!" the shadow of someone reflecting off the stone came from the moon. The rock was too close. It almost hit him–
Jack's eyes then saw a hole in the ground faraway. It looked like a burrow that belonged to some kind of small animal, like a rabbit or a groundhog–
"–his eyes closed?...Partially, but he's been known to do that–Make sure no one can see us!...Well, nothing human will..." As they gripped Jack's tight under his arms and continued to carry him, his bleary eyes turned in time to just as they passed the burrow. A furry little groundhog was peeking out to stare at them–
Jack snapped his head back to face directly in front of him. The ripple came back, the forest in his head went away, and the sign of Burgess flickered in front of him.
'It's the s...It's B–'
Suddenly, another soft ripple went off. It calmed his mind and made the jumbling in his brain slow down. And when it finally spread away, the Wonderland vanished.
But...for how long?
Jack was left short of breath
That's when Aster's voice started to drift into his ears again, clearer and...sad.
"–only you two will actually be going because I need to leave...I need to go to New York."
"You are?"
Aster and Tooth jumped a mile in the air at the deep, husky voice.
They spun to face him.
Tooth covered her mouth and her eyes grew wide but she didn't run up to him like she wanted to – she was afraid that anything she might say or do might set him off again.
Had the bleeding effect worn off?
Jack looked at her for a brief a moment and read her body language instantly; along with her restraint – and for the latter, he was grateful because he remembered what he'd done to her earlier.
Toothiana finally caught up to him grasped his arm.
"J–"
He reacted. Reaching down, he untwisted from Tooth's grip and pulled her arm high above her head. She squealed.
"Aah, Jack! No, don't–"
As he continued to stare at Tooth's fear and Aster's cautionary glare, his fingers twitched.
They didn't escape the Australian's keen eyes.
Jack sensed him and looked at him again.
"We're here...You got us all the way here. So why are you leaving?"
And Aster frowned. Jack hadn't said anything since...well, since they escaped with their lives after the explosion back in the Buffalo. That was over almost five hours ago – but they couldn't say they were relieved (and a little disturbed) that he could see them again.
The hacker threw his green eyes down for a moment and quickly pulled something from his jeans. When the moonlight caught it, his puka shell USB gleamed slightly.
"The list..." Tooth mumbled and Aster nodded. She was trying so hard not to look at Jack in case he slipped away again. She didn't want to get her hopes up and focused on Edmund he answered Jack's question.
"I've got every GUARDIAN from the program in here. Every. One." His tone was so deep and serious that even his hand shook slightly with each emphasis of his words. "And no one's ever seen this before so I need to send this quickly to one of the ELFs in Manhattan so that he can send it to North...That way we can figure what happened to the rest of the agents."
"B-But why can't you just wait until we've both helped Jack?" Tooth shook her head in the wintry air. "Then we can all go back together!"
"Because, princess. I'd like to stay, I do...but as much as I want to continue helping you and Jack–"
Jack didn't hear the rest.
As Aster continued and Tooth's eyes were focused nervously on the tiny data stick in his glove, Jack's eyes grew wide.
Tooth flickered in his vision for a second and became a ball of light between blinks and Aster vanished and became one of the trees from his Wonderland. He shook his head.
'No, don't come back,' he pleaded. 'Don't come back!'
"–eally gonna love it with us, Jack." Then someone shook his hand. "And with your marks, we know you'll fit right in!"
Jack moved and gazed around the field with his shifting vision. He then turned from the two of them and walked away a little.
"J-Jack?" Tooth called with a slight panic in her tone but he waved his hand down at her.
"It's okay, I'm still here," he shouted back. "I'm just trying to remember this place."
When he got a cluster of dead weeds, he knelt one boot in the snow and glared at it.
It looked familiar.
Suddenly–
Someone's boot pressed into the snow beside it and left a large boot print, leaving behind strange grooves. Then the person's shadow that belonged it was cast by the moonlight. First it was the guy's leg, then his whole body, then another person, and a another...and they were carrying a body between them.
"Careful wi...'sly? Wh–"
"–eed to. And who knows what else this list is attached to?" Aster meanwhile continued. He and Tooth were looking back at each other nervously. "The longer I hang onto it, the more danger it'll bring...especially to you two. So that's why we need to split up."
"No, no, this isn't right," Tooth rubbed her head. She looked at the tree line of Burgess and shivered when the snow. She frowned. She really didn't like how this argument was going.
Why did she keep losing people?
She only had so many she could gather and hold onto...
She then blindly reached down for the coins that Haroom gave her on his royal trips and held them tightly. "I ha-have to...I-I..."
Aster's thick eyebrows furrowed when he sensed her distress past her feigned determination.
"That Nightmare got away," he pushed. "He already saw my face, but he didn't recognise you, did he?"
Tooth shook her head and made a frustrated line with her lips.
"No, I don't think he didn't."
How could he? The car had been so dark when he swooped in that he hadn't even seen Jack come forward and assault him from behind. Not to mention that when they'd chased him on the field, the sky had been pretty dark – so if he had recognised her and tried to kidnap her too – well, they'd probably all have a lot more bruises, or worse...she might've been long gone.
"And what about him?" he nudged his head at the brunette still kneeling in the snow.
Tooth shook her head again and after she followed his line of vision, she smirked weakly at the back of Jack's blue hood.
"The Nightmare was too busy shitting himself by your little tag-team act. I-I'm gonna miss it...and you haven't even shown me all your cool gadgets yet."
And Aster smiled as he continued to look at Jack scoping the place. At least she was trying to smile again – and her appreciation for their ass-kicking was genuine.
The tech analyst then turned to her.
"It's better that you stay with him."
Tooth looked at up at him as he continued.
"Jack, he..." he flit his gaze at the brunette again seeing the bloke rub his eye. "He knows you more than me. I'm still a stranger, so you're really the only one who can be there for them and help him."
"But that doesn't make any sense! When you're hurting, you...it shouldn't matter how many people should be there for you so–"
"Exactly."
Tooth looked up at him with squinty eyes. Her mouth parted again but Aster looked back down at her. He gave a small smile.
"Jack's a spy, and he knows that sometimes, two's a crowd. One is enough, trust me."
And Tooth blinked.
"I have you, and that's enough, alright?"
"I'm not a med student or surgeon!...a-and I can't–"
"You're enough, Tooth!"
Aster then nudged his head at Jack.
"Take care of each other."
And by his slow (but suspiciously hopeful) tone, Tooth froze. It obviously meant more than one thing.
He was freaking smart...He knew he couldn't make a triangle when there were only two sides to it.
(Tooth's tanned cheeks blossomed with pink and Aster smiled slightly.)
But at least, she'd reminded him that if he left his hole and came back to the surface, there'd be other sweet, funny, and great girls like her.
After an embarrassing moment, Tooth bit her lip and looked up at him nervously...and a sheepish smile crept onto her face.
"W-We always do," she finally mumbled, then scratched the back of her neck. "You know, in our own...broken, mashed up kind-of way."
And he rolled his eyes.
"Okay, don't go soundin' like the lyrics to every love song."
And she actually laughed and smacked his arm before he moved in, bent down, and hugged her. Tooth returned it wholeheartedly.
She would miss Edmund immensely even having only known him for less than a day. He really was like the older brother she never had – and in her own accomplishments, she'd never really had a lotof guy friends so she enveloped herself in this admittance and acceptance of a long-standing friendship that she wouldn't let go.
With a light squeeze, Tooth smiled a little sadder.
"Don't eat anymore chocolate," she threatened and he chuckled sending a deep rumble through his fur-lined coat.
"I make no promises."
When she chuckled, he smiled sadly. To him, this goodbye hug was weighing down more on his heart than he would admit. But it still filled him with vigour, reminding him of why he was doing it...of why he he'd been a GUARDIAN in the first place, and on some level, still was.
He squeezed her tiny body back too, trying to hang onto the moment.
...
Jack turned around in time to see them hug. He stood there for a moment, his face unreadable.
As Aster pulled away, he caught Jack's blank stare and the two didn't move.
Tooth meanwhile was oblivious to their awkward stareoff. She had turned her head to the Aston Martin still parked in the distance – that's when she noticed that Aster had placed their bags next to the wheel and it made her heart sink more.
He really was planning on leaving...but...
Tooth grasped her chain.
He had to...he needed to. He'd legitimized his reasons and his chivalry for doing so two hours ago when they'd had their emotional breakdowns...He was a GUARDIAN and a guardian through and through. He could wait for Jack, but he couldn't wait for the world, and if it meant that she could help one GUARDIAN so that he could help hundreds...then she wasn't angry, wasn't bitter.
She was proud. She'd miss him; she'd miss his blue-frosted hair and that one silver streak, she'd his tattooed forearms, and she'd miss how he always called her 'sheila'...but she'd be proud.
...She'd also miss his car.
'First the motorcycle, then this sports car...Ugh, what a cruel world!' she cried in her head. 'Goodbye Aston!' And she waved a limp hand at the car as if it were a person too.
Aster and Jack were still sizing each other up until finally, Aster's stern eyes softened slightly and he nudged his at Toothiana.
"You better look after her," he threatened. Tooth instantly came back and moved away from him.
"Edmund," Tooth huffed. "Don't start. I can look after myself."
As she put her hands on her hips, Aster stepped forward a little and pointed at her.
"I mean it, Frostbite," he continued and Jack bristled as he walked back up to them. "Don't put her into any more dangerous situations or I'll go straight jackrabbit on your ass. I'm trustin' you not to screw up."
Tooth bit the inside of her cheek and looked down. He still undermined her ability even after all she'd pulled?
But Jack frowned and rubbed eye.
"She doesn't need it," he muttered and Tooth looked up.
Aster frowned.
"What?"
"I used to be her protector but now she's my partner," Jack continued, "She's more than capable of handling herself. But don't worry, I've got her back."
After a second, Jack looked down to tighten his glove on his left hand. He missed Tooth's shocked expression and the blushing smile that spread across her lips. That answer seemed to be more than Aster thought he'd ever get from the brunette because his mouth fell slightly open.
But the tech analyst's mouth quickly pulled itself up and a corner of his lip twitched upward.
Maybe Jack wasn't such a...jackass after all.
"By the way?" Jack muttered slowly. He looked like what he was about to say was equivalent to chewing glass. Aster (and even Tooth waited) and then...
"...Thanks for everything. You were..." and Tooth's eyebrows shot up in stunned silence.
Great? A big help? A lifesaver?
"...half-decent."
Oh, nevermind.
But Aster scoffed and crossed his arms.
"How would you even know?" he griped. "You were a doll the entire time. And I was awesome."
And Jack didn't miss Tooth's supportive smile to the Bunny's back. He raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah?" he challenge. "Then let's race."
"Tch, you wanna race me?" he posed and Tooth bit her lip. She forgot that Aster hadn't seen Jack in action yet. And Jack knew it too because he crossed his arms too.
"Yeah," he challenged. "Anywhere, anytime."
Aster smirked at the offer...but after a moment the amused look vanished and was replaced with seriousness.
"Why don't you join me instead?"
And Jack's eyebrows scrunched together.
"What?"
"Join me," Aster repeated. "And North, and Sandy...Become a GUARDIAN with us again, for the right reasons."
Neither noticed Toothiana's eyes grow dark and lonely at the mention of Mr. Sanderson. Jack crossed his arms and he looked down at the snow.
"Perhaps you would like to join my intelligence agency and become GUARDIAN again."
"Thank you, North, but being a GUARDIAN is the last thing I want. I...think it destroyed me."
North nodded humbly and pursed his lips.
"It has destroyed many of us..."
His hand balled into a fist – and for the second time, Jack looked up with a hard gaze.
"No, I stand by my decision. I'm not becoming a GUARDIAN again."
Aster's forehead creased.
"Why not?" he barked. He was suddenly reminded of the missing members of the Aster family that he kept trying to find and locate...only to have all any piece of his life, slip from his fingers. "W-We're the only ones left, we need to st–"
"Look at all the shit they did to so many people just to stop the bad guys," Jack cut him off and his gaze was narrowed and cold again. "We ended up becoming the bad guys, and I'm tired of–"
He stopped.
His gaze flickered at Tooth as he paused. She stood frozen, eyes wide and mouth open fretfully. He then turned back to the Aussie.
"...After I regain memories, I'll help Toothiana get her sisters back and I'll help you guys stop Pitch...but after that I'm done," he said, voice dropping low. "I don't want to use my abilities like this anymore...not after I've remembered what we sacrificed for all this violence."
Tooth's hands clasped together in front of her desperately and even Aster's fist clenched. But he kept trying to get through to Jack.
"Stop feelin' sorry for yourself," Aster argued and pointed a finger down at Jack. "We've all done things we're not proud of, but...but the good out ways the bad!"
"What good?!" Jack growled. He threw his arms out and instantly the wind tossed itself at him and blew a strong breeze their way. "Everything I've seen from being a GUARDIAN has just been takedown after takedown–"
He remembered the thugs he scared, the criminals' necks he snapped, the Nightmares he stabbed in the eye and the guns he pulled–
"But that's what you damn signed on for when you became an agent, when you became a GUARDIAN in the first place!"
"Yeah, I did!" Jack spat. "And look what happened, I ended up becoming a monster!"
"A m..."
And Aster stopped.
His flame instantly went out as he pulled his face away from Jack's, seeing his face splay with weak control. The twenty-four-year-old's nostrils flared in and out, and his teeth were clenched, but Aster had seen enough to know when he saw a fight he couldn't win.
Jack's heart was bare and open to him in that one heated moment – that made the Australian's thick eyebrows lower instantly until they knitted together sadly.
Aster then suddenly remembered that unlike him having found North immediately the defrag and getting his memories back, Jack had been walking around for a year trying to figure out what to do with his life. He'd been harking on people with the skills and the aggression he'd gotten from the company and didn't know what to do with it but use it as a conduit for his frustrations.
So it made sense...why he'd felt so bitter about himself. And Aster did not blame him.
After a moment of silence between all three of them, Jack rubbed his eye and looked away angrily.
Were they done looking at him, already?
"Jack..." Aster's voice become a mumble.
He then uncrossed his arms and shook his head slowly.
"Don't...Don't give it all up so quickly."
But Jack didn't say anything and kept looking at the taller brunette, daring him to challenge him again – but his narrowed eyes were faltering slightly and his eyes were growing unfocused. The wind tousled his bangs and his hood.
Aster sighed then quickly, he shoved his USB into his jeans pocket and reached for the thing he'd put earlier in his coat pocket before he joined them. "Here then, take this."
Opening his palm, Jack and Tooth saw a small glass container filled with acid, green liquid. Tooth tiled her head and walked back between them to get a better look.
"W-What is it?" she asked timidly. Jack blinked, suddenly remembering his accident when they were down in the SI sector of the company.
Jack gasped, dropping the tube to the floor.
The echoing pritz! of it shattering on the tiles made him jump out of his skin.
A blink later however...
...the woman was gone.
He frowned at the vial. Aster explained.
"It's a special biotic I salvaged from the company when we were snooping. GUARDIANs used to use it for–"
"Ce...Cell regeneration."
Aster looked up at Jack for a moment. He nodded, glad he remembered.
"Yeah. It responds to the Center gene and helps with the healin' process – and that gunshot won't go away quick enough without it. So I grabbed the only two left but I'm sending the other to North so his scientists can duplicate it."
As he gave it to Jack, it passed Tooth's face – and suddenly, her eyebrows shoot up.
Without even asking, she carefully pulled it from Jack's fingers and brought the glass close to her nose. She then sniffed it.
Aster eyed her funny but she didn't care.
The smell was so strong and made her head light...but she loved it.
"It smells like peppermint..." she mumbled as her eyelids fell halfway over her eyes. She instantly thought of Punjam and its beautiful green plots she could see from the palace window.
When she pulled it away and gave the two a wide-eyed look (albeit a little longer on Jack), her face softened.
Jack looked at her and felt his insides churn. He then turned to Aster, but the hacker was already looking at him.
"I can't come back and get you but I've added my emergency channel to your complink so you can reach me. It's in your bag...I also threw some extra things in it too before we left The Warren," he said nudging back at the car. "Figured somethin' might come up and you'd need...well, you'll see."
That threw Jack completely off. His expression was still pretty cold, but he lifted his eyebrows all the same.
"Why...are you doing all this for me when you didn't need to?" he questioned Aster's strange behaviour. "A good six hours ago we wanted each other dead."
It was true. There was all this unnamed repulse between them, and Jack was certain that they were only doing what they could for Tooth's sake – he figured the second they did split, the two would be rivals for life.
Okay yeah, that was a bit dramatic. But Jack was a spy – that usually did happen.
Jack crossed his arms and furrowed his brows together. Aster looked at him for a long moment before the warm air left his lungs and passed over his lips.
As he did, he thought of the family who abandoned him for his own safety, Tooth's misguided loving nature, Project GUARDIAN, and Jack's past, his damn attitude, and the sign behind them.
And his forehead creased gently.
"Everyone deserves second chances," he said serious and with conviction. "And I believe that because I believe in new beginnings...new life."
He then pointed at Jack as the shorter brunette's heavy gaze started to vanish and his lips parted.
New life? What was he talki–
"You weren't killed that night because you were reborn for a reason, Jack," he said. "And few people in this world are giving that lucky chance to start again. I...I'm still pissed at myself for letting you fall like that, but I know you'll rise back up...You'll come out alrigh'. Now I really need to go."
Then Aster turned...and he started to quickly walk away.
Jack's arms uncrossed themselves slowly – but Aster paused and turned his head over his shoulder.
"And like it or not, you're one of us...You are a GUARDIAN."
He then turned back to Tooth and quickly bowed. Tooth's eyes grew glassy but she smiled and gracefully bowed back too. When she pulled up, she waved at Aster.
"Stay safe!" she cried. And after shooting her one more smile, he shot Jack one too.
"Good luck, mate," he said personally and then looked at the two of them quickly. "And don't stop. With hope, we can beat this...We've each survived this long, righ?"
And Tooth nodded.
"I know who you are, princess. Now get in! And gimme my keys before he spots us."
"I'll hold him down but you gotta inject North's anesthesia!...But I'm not–I ain't gonna bail and neither are you, got it?...O-Okay..."
"He helped you...And now I help him. I use my computer skills as a hacker to infiltrate sites and databases for his ELFs."
"This list is all Jack and I have left so I need to copy it somehow. B-But I'll find a way, I know I can!"
"I know it," Aster immediately breathed and a drop of hope fell into both their hearts. "It's a small town 237 miles southeast of here in Pennsylvania."
"Heh, you don't wanna race this rabbit, mate!"
"Just drive," she mumbled. "...We can do this." And he shot her the most tender smile she'd ever seen.
When Aster rushed back to his Aston Martin, he tossed their bags with a powerful swing and Jack caught them effortlessly. He then threw them one more wave.
"When you get your memories back, mate, come find me again or fly to North! Then we can stop Pitch together!"
And despite the distance, Aster didn't miss the slight nod or the light expression on Jack's face. Aster then, shut his door, started the car, and like a black bullet, he made the coupé perform a twist spin and sped back up the road they came, heading northeast for New York.
Jack and Tooth didn't move until his lights and the sounds of the engine were completely gone from the road...until they were completely alone. They tried to remember every piece of memory they each had with the smart, stealthy Australian.
And they both hoped this wasn't the last time they'd see him again.
When the quiet was stifling and the air blow more blustery, Jack sighed passed his pale lips and ran his leather glove through his brown locks. Then he turned back to Tooth, and took the healing biotic from her fingers.
After looking at its creepy contents, the two looked at each other. Tooth frowned.
She hoped Edmund would be okay...she hoped everyone would be okay.
And as she thought of Tuhina for a fleeting moment, Tooth also couldn't help but imagine which other poor, loving sister was in Pitch's clutches too–
"We have her. We have the blue crane."
"I-I'm not a blue crane! I'm Theen–"
"Don't talk!"
"A-Ahh!"
"Don't worry." Someone else chuckled. "Your lucky number is 7...You'll see your sisters again."
But that was a lie. Just like the lie when the ELF said he'd be right back...and she found him lying dead next to the creek when she went to check on him outside their safehouse–
Tooth shook her head.
She sometimes hated her imagination...She couldn't bear it if Theena was captured too – that handmaiden always asked so many questions and while she'd sometimes annoy the crap out of the rest of the eight, it was what made Tooth love her just as much.
Tooth briefly shut her eyes...then it was Jack's turn to frown.
He nudged her gently until she opened her eyes. When she looked up at him, she bit her lip. At least he wasn't in a daze anymore...
Jack then shoved the biotic into his leather jacket and after he and Tooth shrugged on their bags, they both turned back towards the sign.
Welcome to Burgess.
They didn't say a word as they read it over and over.
As they did, Tooth didn't notice the sky growing blue on the horizon...
...and Jack didn't feel his gunshot wound reopen slightly under its bandage.
Chapter's soundtrack: "You're The Conversation" – Chris Corner And that guys, is the end of the Green Arc.