Here is chapter 8, a little early, per special request... enjoy!

Read, relax, review!

~o0o~

8.

Jack stood on a wide platform in the city square, standing in the shadow of the silver castle that towered behind him. He held his new staff confidently at his side, its pale blue glow pulsing so dim that he was sure he was the only one to see it. Below the platform, the people of Burgess that had gathered cheered and applauded for him, and he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. Rapunzel took his hand from her place beside him, squeezing gently.

"Just keep smiling," she whispered to him through a smile of her own. But it wasn't her true smile, Jack could see. This was a dignified, placid, no-feeling smile that was obviously the result of being raised a princess and the many years she'd already spent as a Guardian. Jack copied the expression, the muscles in his face already tired. He'd never believed until now that it'd be possible for him to tire of smiling.

North and Bunnymund were there too, and they had done almost all of the talking. Like at the Acceptance Ceremony, all Jack had really had to do was stand and... well, look pretty. He was beginning to understand what Rapunzel had meant about Guardians truly being not much more than symbols.

Except when it comes to fighting wars, apparently, Jack thought to himself as he forced himself to continue smiling and waving to the crowd.

But as he smiled and waved, he thought. All these people expect something of me. Everyone expects me to be... like, their savior. And I'm not. I know I'm not. I don't understand why they put me here. I don't do this sort of thing.

Jack could admit that the perks of the Guardians- the fancy powers, the cool castle they lived in, and even their friendship with each other, something he'd always wanted- were pretty cool. He didn't mind any of that.

It was the responsibility he now had to carry out that he didn't want.

You're just a symbol Jack, he thought to himself. That's what Rapunzel said. A symbol. Fight the war, kick your sorry-no-good-uncle's butt, and then you can go back to the life you had before... I'm not a Guardian. They won't need me afterwards.

But deep down, Jack wondered if any of that was true.

...

"Jack- Jack! You're not even listening to me!" Emma cried, pretending to be angry as she pulled her older brother by the hand down the street towards their home. Rapunzel and his mother were deep in conversation and had fallen quite a few steps behind the siblings. Jack turned his head away from the golden-haired girl behind him and focused again on the impatient brunette girl in front of him.

Before the whole Guardian business began, people might have said that Jack and Emma were really twins, and that Jack had just somehow managed to grow much, much faster. Now... well between Jack's new hair, eyes, and paler skin tone, the contrast was striking. Still, the mischievous smiles and habits for trouble hadn't changed.

"Yes I am, Emma," Jack argued. "Of course I'm listening to you."

"No you're not," she decided matter-of-factly. "You're too busy making puppy eyes at her," the little girl pointed behind them with a triumphant smirk.

Jack quickly got over his surprise of his sister's observation. She just knew him too well.

"Or maybe I'm just trying to catch you off your guard!" He exclaimed, reaching down faster than lightning to catch the younger girl around the waist, throw her over his shoulder, and take off running down the street. Emma squealed and screamed, laughing and pounding her brother's back with her smaller fists. "Not fair! Not fair!" She kept yelling in between laughs. But Jack refused to put her down. He paused only to kick the door open to their home and ran inside, finally dumping his sister safely on the couch in the living room.

Jack looked about the familiar room, noticing suddenly how small it felt compared to the common room- or any room- of the Corinthia Palace. He briefly pictured himself growing up in silver rooms of the Burgess Palace (which he'd never cared to set foot in), and wondered what his life would have been like. He quickly shook the thought away, content with his small, regular life. His old life...

Emma reached up from the couch and snagged his staff from him, effectively breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Hey!" he called after the girl as she jumped up off the couch and started running into a different room. "Emma! I need that!" he yelled with an annoyed grin, moving to chase after her. The house door opened just as he passed however, and his mother reached out and grabbed his sweatshirt, pulling him back.

"Jackson Overland how many times!" The woman scolded. "If I have to tell you to not kick the front door in or to not run in the house one more time- I don't care what special powers you have or what government position you hold-"

Rapunzel tried hard not to giggle at Jack's forced repentant expression to his mother's reprimands. It was obvious he got in trouble often. Rapunzel liked Jack's mother. She was kind and gentle and smiled a lot like her children, but she certainly knew how to yell.

"I'm sorry ma- I am!" Jack appealed, a smirk twitching at the corner of his mouth. "Blame Emma!"

Jack turned on the spot. "Emma, come back! Where'd you go?" he called into the house.

Rapunzel smiled as she saw the little girl appear in a doorway behind Jack's back, his staff clasped firmly in her hands behind her. She crept up behind her brother in an effort to startle him, but her mother gave her away first.

"Oh Emma sweetheart that's probably not a good idea-"

Jack jumped around. "Ah ha!" he said with a devilish grin, reaching out to grab the surprised little girl. "Gotcha!"

The two collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles and frost that flew from the staff.

Rapunzel turned to the woman, Mrs. Overland, whose hand was rubbing her forehead tiredly. The Burgess royal family had, over the years through multiple marriages, acquired several family lines and royal last names. Overland was a common name, unrelated to the royal family, and it was what had allowed them all to live separately for all these years. But now, Jack had to go by his true last name: Frost. Oddly fitting.

"Are they always this way?" Rapunzel asked her, positively captivated by the relationship the siblings shared.

"Inseparable." She confirmed, looking upon her laughing children fondly. "That'll all change now... I suppose it's good, in a way. Emma's getting older, she needs to learn how to be a little more independent from Jack."

Rapunzel nodded. "He's not leaving forever, after all. I'm not sure he'll be able to resist staying away, either."

The blonde glanced at the clock on the mantel. "Speaking of leaving, thank you for all your kindness and hospitality, but Jack and I really should be headed out."

Mrs. Overland nodded in understanding. "Emma, say goodbye to your brother, he has to leave now," she called to the pair.

"Awww why?"

"I do?"

They both complained.

"C'mon Jack," Rapunzel said gently. "You'll be back soon enough."

Jack stood and nodded his head somberly, running upstairs to pack his things. It was why they'd returned in the first place.

"It was wonderful getting to meet you," Rapunzel told his mother kindly, giving her a goodbye hug.

"Take care of him for me, he doesn't always think before he acts," she asked Rapunzel in turn, her eyes slightly creased in worry.

The younger girl nodded. "I promise."

Jack came back down the stairs with a small rucksack swung over his shoulder presumably packed with his things, his staff gripped in his right hand, safely out of Emma's reach. He ruffled her hair fondly and kissed her head as he passed. She forced him to bend down to give him a hug.

"See ya, Em," he said before moving to hug his mother.

"Stay out of trouble," she told him firmly.

He winked. "You know me, ma!"

...

Rapunzel and Jack were quiet as they rode their horses back to Corinthia. Jack had asked to make ice with his staff and simply skate back, claiming it would be faster, but Rapunzel had firmly refused.

The way to Corinthia was a straight shot- they just had to follow the road south along the Corona River, mostly through the Eastern lands of Berk. They were making good time, especially as they moved further away from the rugged mountainous terrain of Burgess and closer to the warmer, grassier hills and open forests of the Viking nation. By a little after noon they'd reached the border that separated Berk from what was known simply as the Guardian Lands- the small southeastern territory between Berk and Corona owned by none of the Four Kingdoms in which the Palace of Corinthia rested. However, Jack and Rapunzel still had far to travel before reaching the palace, so Rapunzel suggested they stop and let the horses rest for a while.

"There's a large quarry nearby," she explained. "The water from the river runs partially through it- there's a dam. We can rest there and the horses can drink."

Jack shrugged as he dutifully followed Rapunzel, leading his horse by the reins with one hand and his staff swung over his shoulder with the other.

The quarry was bigger than large- it was huge. It was like a ginormous pit dug into the earth, with yellowish-brown rock walls and many rock shelves at various heights along the sides. As Jack looked around in amazement, he saw a few caves cut into the rock walls, and felt a desire to check them out. Unfortunately he and Rapunzel were standing with the horses atop one of the highest rock shelves... Jack didn't trust his climbing skills.

He led his borrowed horse over to where Rapunzel stood with her white steed (Maximus, if he remembered correctly) near the dam overlooking the quarry. He directed the horse to drink from the water pouring slowly from the mass build-up inside the gated dam into a series of slanted troughs leading down to the bottom of the pit. Jack stared at the contraption, suddenly thinking how fun it would be to ride down the troughs like a huge water slide...

"Something's not right," Rapunzel said, suddenly stiff and wary, from beside him. Jack looked around, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Or what he supposed was ordinary.

"What do you mean?" He asked her, gripping his staff in nervous anticipation.

Her green eyes suddenly widened. "It's-"

"Still not able to sneak up on you, love, I see," a new voice suddenly spoke out. Jack and Rapunzel whipped around in the direction of the voice. "That was the one thing I could never quite seem to do."

Standing before them on the edge of the rock shelf, was an ashen-colored man, in a sweeping black robe that seemed to fade into shadows, his hair the color of tar, his eyes the color of gold.

Jack's uncle, and terror of the land. Pitch Black.

Sorry I know it's a cliff hanger... see everyone next week!