Jack's smile was still on his face as he got down and grabbed his staff. He created another snowball and played with it in his hand.
"JACK!" the rest exclaimed in a combination of shock and happiness. Tooth's tears of sorrow became tears of happiness.
"Jack?" Amanda said, not believing what her eyes where seeing.
"Frost? IMPOSIBLE!" Amelia said.
"IT CAN'T BE!" Pitch yelled.
"And yet here I am" Jack said as he walked towards him. Pitch commanded the nightmares to attack him, but Jack slammed his staff into the ground, freezing the black sand that got near him. A few other nightmares flew away in fear, but they were brought down by Sandy, who transformed them into sweet dreams. A chipping sound grabbed Jack's attention; he looked up and saw that Tooth had called some of her fairies.
"Wings up ladies and take no prisoners!" she commanded. The fairies came down furiously and pierced Pitch's and Amelia's skin, along with some nightmares. Amelia tried to make a move, but Jack commanded the wind to lift her from the ground and hit her with an icy blast, rendering her unconscious.
"That was for Rosi" he muttered under his breath. He turned to look at Pitch, who was running towards him with his cycle. Jack rolled his eyes before shooting him an angry blast of ice that knocked him down to the frozen lake.
"How is this possible?! I had the upper hand! You were dead!" Pitch said as he angrily pointed at Jack. Before he could give him a sarcastic response, however, Sandy threw a ball of dream sand to the Boogeyman, giving him a few minutes of sleep as butterflies circled his head.
"Hey! You ruined my chance to give him one of my famous annoying responses!" Jack pouted to Sandy, who ignored the claim and instead hugged the teen. He was soon followed by the other Guardians and the kids, who were now unprotected by the shields. Tooth pulled him out the group hug and nearly crushed his bones with an individual hug.
"You're alive!" she whispered into his ear. Jack smiled warmly at her.
"Yeah" he said grinning.
"But, how? You weren't breathing! You didn't even have a pulse!" Tooth said, almost scolding him.
"I promise I'll explain later" Jack assured. He frowned and looked towards Rosi, who still lay unmoving in the ground, with Phil sitting beside her trying to treat her injuries. Amanda was next to them, crying. Tooth followed his gaze.
"She's not going to make it, will she?" Tooth asked sadly. Jack looked at her, but didn't say anything. Instead, he walked towards them, the others soon following. Rosi looked worse than Jack when he was given a heat wave; her skin was sickly pale, sweat was dripping from her forehead, and her hair and lips were completely dry. Phil said something in gibberish to North.
"He says she doesn't have much time. The flames that Amelia gave her are too powerful: nothing that he has given her is working" North translated. Amanda looked at Jack.
"Can't you do something about it? You are the winter spirit, can't you counter the effects?" Amanda asked once he got closer, her grey blue eyes meeting his.
"I'm sorry... If I did, she would still die. The combination of heat and cold would kill her" Jack replied with sadness.
"WELL, THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING! ANYTHING!" Amanda yelled before breaking down. Jamie and Bunny put a comforting hand (… and paw?) on her shoulders.
"I'm so- sorry… it's just th- that… I- I don't want to- to lose my friend" she whispered between sobs. The other looked to the ground. Tooth put her head in Jack's shoulder as tears formed in her eyes.
"You won't" a voice made itself clear. A voice the Guardians knew too well. The kids just looked around themselves searching for the voice.
"Manny?" North asked as he looked up to the moon, the other soon following his example.
"Wow, he is being so talkative today that it makes me wonder if I'm still not dead" Jack thought.
"Wait, that is Man in Moon? Speaking?!" Jamie asked while the other kids just stared at each other, completely dumbfolded.
"Yes, Jamie Bennett, I am" Manny said, leaving Jamie to suffer a mid-life crisis over the fact that the famous Man in Moon knew who he was. Jack had to make a considerable effort not to laugh.
"How can you save her?" Bunny asked.
"She shall become a spirit" Manny replied. Amanda's mouth fell wide open, while the others stared at the moon in shock.
"Why?" Sandy asked by making a question mark with his sand.
"She has demonstrated herself to be worthy of one. She has proved her courage by standing against Amelia Heat and Pitch Black. Plus, I'm sure she'll enjoy her new job. After all, she has been doing it for quite a while" Manny said.
Jack thought of something: Karaoke, the Girls Day Out, the party… he smiled faintly when he realized what Manny meant. He gave Tooth a quick glace and noticed that she had come to the same conclusion as he.
"With all due respect, what about her life here? Family?" Amanda asked. Jack could have sworn that he heard Manny sigh.
"I'll have to convince everyone that she died tonight, Amanda. I'm sorry" he said.
"But... she will remember them, right?" Jack said as he glanced at Rosi and the moon with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. She, unlike you when I turned you, she is still alive. Barely, but alive" Manny replied.
"Wait, what does he mean by-?" Amanda started to ask until she got cut by a silver light glowing around Rosi. She and the others watched in awe as their friend hovered from the ground and was healed from the injuries caused by Amelia.
Rosi opened her brown eyes. The moonlight put her down on her two feet carefully. There were only two changes now: around her waist there was a golden quiver with arrows, whose feathers were red and white… and her hair was now purple. And on top of it there was a small crown.
"Rosi?" Amanda asked, a bit uncertain.
"Allow me to introduce to Cupid, the Spirit of Love" Manny informed. And with that said he 'left', leaving behind a very confused Rosi.
"Um… can someone explain what that heck was that?" she asked. Jack took a step forward.
"You might want to sit down…" he said.
10 minutes later, Jack had explained the whole situation to Rosi, who had gone through several stages of shock, relief, anger and sadness.
"So, in a brief summary, I was dying, Jack died, then the moon turned you guys back and took Jack's body, battled the two psychopaths, Jack came back a few minutes late, and now I am immortal" Rosi said.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up" Bunny said. Rosi took a few deep breaths.
"Wow… just… wow…" she said as she sat down. Amanda sat beside her as she tried her best to comfort her friend.
It was that moment when Pitch and Amelia decided that it was a good idea to wake up. They noticed the five Guardians were staring at both of them.
"You choose a terrible day to attack Pitch. It's over" Jack said coldly.
"So, what? I still have my nightmares!" Pitch gloated, as the minions appeared. The Guardians got into a defensive position.
"I can still destroy you!" he screamed as he commanded the nightmares to attack the children. To everyone's surprise, the kids didn't even flinch in fear. They just did what they did the last time three years ago: they stood up and, believing in the Guardians, destroyed the nightmares.
"You don't learn from your mistakes, do you?" Jack said with a half amused grin as Pitch´s face registered horror. He shot another icy blast towards him, and it kept him frozen in the ground.
"If I haven't learned from my mistakes, then why some of them are here?" Pitch said as he gestured to four nightmares around him.
"Because, just like last time… not one of us is scared… just you?" Tooth said narrowing her eyes. Pitch's eyes widened up at realization. He desperately tried to free himself from the ice to escape… but the nightmares caught him and dragged him back to his lair while he screamed in terror. The children, Amanda and Rosi cheered.
"Wait! Where's Amelia?" Jack asked looking around. They found her trying to sneak away unnoticed until Bunny pinned her to a nearby tree. She growled, but she didn't make any effort to fight. Amelia knew it wasn't worth it.
"You and I will pay a visit to Mother Nature. She is going to LOVE hearing what you did today" Jack said, smiling like a child rattling on a bad classmate. The color drained from the summer spirits´ face.
"I thought that you seasonal spirits didn't see her much mate" Bunny said, not taking her eyes of Amelia.
"We don't. We can only come to her when it's an emergency. I'm pretty sure that her attempt today counts as one… as much as the creation of a new spirit too" Jack said as he gave a quick glance to Rosi, who was watching the exchange with a stoic expression.
"New sprit?" Amelia said horrified as she looked at Rosi.
"There can't be any more spirits! What would her profession be? Guardian cleaner?" she demanded, unaware that Rosi had gotten up and staring walking strait towards her. Amelia didn't notice this though.
"Frost's little helper? The Groundhog's-?" Amelia was interrupted by a punch in the face that knocked two teeth out of her mouth and rendering unconscious again. Rosi smiled and walked back to Amanda's side, while ignoring the surprised looks from the children.
"What? It had to done… and she totally had it coming" she simply stated while crossing her arms.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side" Jamie said. She smiled.
"Given the bruises that I saw in her and Pitch's skins… it's a good advise with those five here too" Amanda said.
"Those five have names" Jack said while pretending to be offended. Tooth giggled.
"So… are you two a thing now?" Rosi asked with a smirk. Tooth looked at Jack.
"Are we?" she asked a bit shyly.
"We are going to give you guys some space" Amanda said as she and the others went to the other side of the lake. Only Rosi remained. Both love birds looked at her.
"Rosi… have you been trying to hook us up the whole week?" Jack asked. She gave him an innocent look.
"Maybe…" she said with a silly smile.
"No wonder Manny gave you the job then" Tooth said.
"Well… I had some help" Rosi admitted as she turned her head to the rest of the group.
"But most of it was you right?" Jack guessed. She just smiled and left them alone.
"So… about the being a thing?" Tooth asked Jack.
"Yeah?" he asked, his icy blue eyes meeting her amethysts ones. She didn't realized how much she had missed those eyes until now.
"What would you think? I mean… wouldn't it be too fast to suddenly be a couple? Not that I don't want to" Tooth said, the last part came a bit shyly.
"We could go on a date" Jack proposed.
"A date?" Tooth asked.
"Yeah, like kids do these days" Jack said with a Cheshire grin.
"You just sounded like an old man" she said with a laugh.
"Well, I AM almost 320 years old…" Jack said laughing.
"True" she said.
"So, what do you say about the date?" he asked. Tooth just answered him with a passionate kiss. When they broke apart, Jack held Tooth as close as he could, their foreheads pressed together.
"Jack?" Tooth asked. He looked at her.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"I love you too".
And they kissed again.
FIN.
Stand for epilogue.