Me: I don't own Frozen or ROTG!

Chapter 20

"North," Jack exclaimed with a big smile. "Boy am I glad to see you!"

"So are we," North grinned and hugged the Guardian of Fun. "We finally analyzed that thing you brought back! That evil snow… thing."

Jack laughed at the name before resuming a more serious expression. "So, what is it?"

"Apparently, it is part of Pitch but at the same time – it's not," a feminine voice piped up from the sled.

Jack looked past North only to see a woman in a rainbow coloured outfit and flittering humming bird wings. "Tooth!"

The fairy beamed and giggled. "Surprise," until a strong wind nearly knocked her over. "Ah!"

Jack jumped after her to pull her back down. "Whoa, Tooth! Watch it!"

Tooth shook her head and looked at the frozen city of Arendelle before her. "What happened here?"

Everyone turned to Jack for an explanation. He sighed and scratched his head sheepishly.

"The Too-Long-Didn't-Read version is that Pitch spooked Elsa and he's been feeding off her fear," Jack explained. "And because for the many years she didn't like showing her emotions, her fear found somewhere else to go."

Tooth gasped. "Her powers!"

North looked around. "Where's Bunny?"

"Bunny went with Anna's boyfriend to release Anna from the castle," Jack looked towards the castle. "Apparently, her "true love" wasn't really her "true love" after all."

North raised an eyebrow. "Then why go with her boyfriend?!"

"No, she had two different guys. Her first fiancée didn't seem to be what he was," Jack shrugged nonchalantly, looking distantly at the frozen castle. "I don't know. When I got there, I just saw him all bloodied and bruised up. I couldn't even imagine what Elsa could have done."

Sandy tugged Jack's blue sweater, conjuring symbols out of sand above his head. Where did Pitch go? What are we going to do about him?

"We'll deal with him later," North suddenly said and drew out his scimitar, pointing towards the frozen citadel. "First, we have to stop this town from freezing to death!"

The guardians nodded and prepared to head towards the castle until the bridge leading to the castle broke into pieces. Surrounding them were iced minions and ice golems. Frozen mists shot out from the ground and splattered on the ground, revealing frozen harpies that landed right in front of Jack and the guardians. They screeched in his face and threw ice crystals at them, forcing the guardians to jump away from one another. The ice crystals shattered on the ground as Jack jumped behind a wall, North hid behind a corner and Tooth went straight up into the air, leaving Sandy to just turn into a pile of sand. Jack gasped in horror as Sandy turned into a pile of sand right in front of the harpies.

"Sandy," Jack screamed; it was like Pitch all over again save for the ice.

Much to Jack's surprise, the sand pile started emitting multiple sand streams that began whirling around the harpies. The harpies screeched in horror when they finally realized what the sand was doing. The sand curled around them and began constricting their movement, becoming tighter and tighter until it became a chrysalises. The guardians could only stare in surprise when the chrysalis suddenly began to shrink until they heard a sickening crack and an ear-splitting shriek from both the harpies. The guardians gawked as the Sandman returned back to his original form and from the two sand cocoons were nothing more but a pile of broken ice shards. The frozen golems charged towards them as North pulled out his snow globes.

"It looks like the kiddie gloves gotta come off," he grinned and smashed the snow globes on the ground.

The snow globes opened up to reveal yetis running through the portal and smashing the golems. Tooth whistled as many of her "baby tooths" formed in the sky and began descending on the other icy minions. Jack kicked one before slamming one away with his shepherd's staff. He swallowed hard when he saw a huge dark blizzard cloud forming over Arendelle's castle. He could feel his body shivering from the magnitude of Elsa's powers. He hadn't expected Pitch to empower her that much. The bridge had shattered but that was no problem for the guardian of fun.

"Guys, follow me," Jack tapped the cliff as it began to freeze.

From there, Jack began running forward and forging a frozen bridge. North and the others followed after him with Sandy holding the back line. Jack saw Bunnymund throwing his boomerangs and kicking down another ice minion. Kristoff swung his pick axe as Jack sailed over his head and jumped into the fray, slamming his staff onto the ground. The moment he did, a huge icy wind blasted from the end and knocked down all surrounding minions off their feet. Bunnymund gawked in surprise as Kristoff gaped at the guardian of fun.

"When could you do that, mate," Bunnymund asked in disbelief.

Jack spun his staff before clearing another pathway, exhaling in fatigue with a exhausted chuckle. "Bunny, I'm just improvising."

Another set of ice soldiers rushed them down this time armed with snow spears. But what terrified them more was a huge ice colossal creature accompanied by howling icy wolves. They staggered back as the wolves snarled at them, ready to pounce. However, Bunnymund smirked and pulled out two of his boomerangs and tapped the floor to open two holes. Out from the two holes, there were two huge angry stone eggs waving their arms ready to attack. Jack chuckled at the Easter bunny before twirling his staff and swinging it in a wide arc, creating a huge wind to slightly knockback the wolves.

"I'm not gonna let Jack take all the credit y'know," Bunnymund grinned as he charged towards the icy wolves.

The eggs jumped and rolled on the ground, steamrolling any icy minions that tried to freeze them. The ice may have frozen their sides but the eggs still crushed them anyway, hearing the whimpers of the wolves as they slinked back. The colossus creature prepared to stomp on them until North charged in with both his scimitars to cut off its legs. The creature roared and tried to punch him as Tooth hauled North into the air to prevent him from getting crushed. Sandy on the other hand wrapped a sand whip around its other leg and pulled it down.

"Geez North, you've been eating too many cookies and milk this year," Tooth struggled to lift the big man, panting and heaving.

"But children leave cookies and milk," North protested. "I just don't want them to feel bad when they come down and see their presents to see the milk and cookies untouched!"

"Always being true to the legend."

"Where do you think I got my strength and energy?"

Jack jumped on one of the wolves to spring himself up into the air, swinging his staff to bludgeon the Colossus. The Colossus groaned and staggered back as Bunny kicked it down and sent it falling onto its back. Sandy grinned as it retracted it sand whip when they found the Colossus flat on its back and unable to get itself up. The guardians stared pitifully at the creature; for something so terrifying, they hadn't expected that knocking it off its feet and making it land on its back would prevent it from attacking.

"Well, no soldier is perfect," Jack shrugged nonchalantly.

"That is quite true, Jack," a voice chuckled darkly from in front.

The guardians prepared to attack when Pitch appeared in front of them. The guardian of fear calmly stood in front of them as they prepared to blast him. Jack could feel his blood boiling and his powers spiking. All his emotions started swirling inside of him as his hair started revealing tinges of black. Sandy gasped as he saw Jack's fist tighten around his staff and even Bunny could feel the cold standing next to him.

"Mate, you," Bunnymund slowly began dropping his hand on Jack's shoulder.

Before he could grab a hold of Jack's shoulder, the guardian of fun sprinted forward with his staff suddenly changing into an icy great-sword to hack Pitch in half. When the guardian of Fear saw that, he gasped and staggered back only to fall to the ground. He saw his impending doom until North grabbed Jack and restrained him from chopping the black guardian. Jack kicked and struggled as his icy blue eyes slowly began turning amber and the frost markings on his sweater became more pronounced.

"Jack, take it easy," North struggled against Jack's kicking. "We can't just cut him to pieces!"

"You'll pay what you've done to Elsa," Jack roared. "You're the reason why her powers…!"

Pitch chuckled mournfully and stood up, getting back some of his confidence. "Always blaming me, Jack? Has it ever occurred to you that abandonment is far worse than simply corrupting?"

Upon hearing this, Jack stopped struggling. "What?"

North raised an eyebrow. "Abandonment?"

Bunnymund snapped and got ready to throw his boomerangs until Sandy grabbed his hand, waving his finger for him to stop. "The mate over here never did leave those girls!"

"Au contraire," Pitch chuckled mockingly and jeered. "Where were you the day Elsa accidentally struck Anna!?"

The moment Pitch said that, Jack clearly remembered what had happened. It was the day North had just shoved him into a sack and brought him back into the other world in order to analyze a certain ice sample carrying some demonic entity. He fell silent and balled his hand tightly into a fist, not saying a word. Pitch knew from Jack's gaze that he had hit a sore spot for the Guardian of Fun. North remembered the day clearly as well along with Tooth and Bunnymund. That demonic entity was the reason why he had to leave Arendelle; to find out what exactly it was.

"See, Jack? You left her when you needed her the most," Pitch gleefully cackled before sneering. "And you call yourself a guardian!"

Jack wouldn't hear any more of it as he sprung off North, punching Pitch straight into the nose. The Boogeyman staggered back as Jack unleashed a relentless frozen fury, a collection icy shards and ice spears shooting from his staff. After some moment, Jack found his staff useless and threw it aside. He instead began conjuring with his bare hands! He summoned an ice bow and released a hail of icicles right after he froze Pitch to the ground.

"I didn't want to leave her," Jack roared in agony. "I wanted nothing more but to teach her how to use her powers! I wanted to make the two girls happy! I wanted Elsa to be happy!"

Tooth could hear the anguish in the guardian of fun's voice. She watched fearfully as Jack continued his raining assault.

"I love Elsa! Anna was like a little sister to me but Elsa," he snarled before resuming a colder expression and pointed a frozen sword at Pitch's face, ready to stab his throat. "Is my queen."

Pitch shivered in fear and Jack posed ready to stab his throat until he felt a fluffy paw stop his hand. He glared and saw Bunny looking at him and shook his head.

"Let him go, Jack," Bunnymund urged gently. "Let him go."

Jack snapped his head towards Bunnymund who had an empathetic look in his eyes. The Easter Bunny on the other hand saw the tears forming in Jack's eyes as the guardian of fun collapsed out of exhaustion. He became a crying broken mess in the bunny's arms as Pitch shuddered and sighed in relief that Jack didn't stab him through. As much as guardians couldn't die lest they stopped being believed in, they could still feel pain. Pitch could see the dirt and blood all over Jack's body from the slaying of the minions. He still bled red like any other person.

"Just because we're spirits, Pitch," Bunnymund spat venomously at the guardian of fear. "Doesn't mean we can't cry and bleed like living beings."

Pitch gasped and looked up at Bunnymund. "You… spared me?"

"Of course I did although nothing more would make me feel better than to make me rearrange your damn face," Bunnymund hissed and stomped on his chest. "But I know when I had a chance to take your life back then, I thought to myself that I wouldn't be a guardian if I killed you."

Pitch swallowed hard as Bunnymund took his off and helped Jack walk away.

"Don't even have his image reflect in your eyes," Bunnymund whispered. "It ain't gonna help you, mate. Best we save Elsa first then give this guy a butt-whooping."

Jack nodded slowly and shook his head, looking at North and Tooth. "Guys, I'm…"

"It's not your fault, Jack," Tooth smiled and cupped his face. "You did what you had to do. You couldn't always be at her beck and call. You're not just her guardian but the guardian of the world and all its people."

North nodded and held Jack's shoulder's firmly. "And because you are a guardian, you are also responsible for protecting her and saving her."

Jack looked up at North who had huge smile on his face. "Thanks."

"We'll take care of Pitch, mate," Bunnymund told him and shoved him forward. "You got your queen to save. Go!"

Jack nodded with a big smile. "Thanks!"

With that, Jack sprung off into the air and flew towards Arendelle Castle.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

That's chapter 20! Please don't forget to review!