Prologue: An Encounter

Bernard could count the number of times he'd been this angry on one hand.

There was the pocket watch thing—that had gotten him really upset. There was the time the Toy Santa sentenced him to house arrest, that was a really angry time. There was that ice storm fourteen hundred or so years ago that knocked out Santa's connection with the magical world just before the seasonal Council, with no way to contact Mother Nature to see what had happened. That wouldn't have been too upsetting, if it wasn't for the fact that the Santa at the time had sent Bernard to take a look first hand, earning its place as one of the top three things that had gotten him this angry the moment Bernard saw the damage.

But this? This situation took the cake.

Normally, it would be fine; had he been at the Workshop, he probably could have easily stopped it. But he hadn't been. He had been on a well-needed vacation de-stressing after two very, well, traumatic Christmases had taken a toll on both him and Elle, his partner in every sense of the word. Everything had been fine prior to leaving, though! They had waited until after the first week of December and had been ahead of quota, set for the arrival of baby Claus, and this season looked like it would go off without a hitch. That's really why they had decided to go on that vacation (and also really, really needing it).

But then they had left Curtis in charge.

"Don't worry! Elle and I have it all worked out. Curtis can take care of things up here while the two of you take care of yourselves."

"I'm sorry Santa, Curtis? Really?! Are you sure?!"

"C'mon, give the kid a break. This is a chance for him to make up for, you know…"

"Being Curtis?"

"Cut the kid some slack! He's a little ambitious, but he means well. Look, this will give him an opportunity to take a stab at the whole, managing thing, you know? See how he really feels about being in charge! And, yeah, maybe make up for—"

"Curtis-ing about."

"If we have to phrase it that way then yes, you got it Number One."

Despite his doubts, Santa had assured him that it would be fine. Elle thought so, too; so off the two had gone with everything set for a good holiday season. Ahead of the schedule and ready for the arrival of Baby Claus.

Bernard wanted to say that it had been a stupid idea. He really, really, did! But he couldn't. He and Elle had really needed the vacation. It had been working wonders on their stress levels and they had been enjoying themselves a lot! It had been nice to just be with each other.

But then they got the news.

Santa's family had come up, which was fine. They had been expecting something like that to happen, though Santa never confirmed it with them. Carol's parents had come too, which was…both unexpected, but not surprising. Santa had assured them that they had taken measures to prevent the couple from finding out about the North Pole being, well, the North Pole. Not that it would have done much. When someone stays at the North Pole long enough, even if it's cloaked, they would end up just knowing where they were. Inherent magic and all that.

That all would've been fine on it's own. But on top of that, Jack Frost had finally been seen at the Pole too! After causing his usual trouble, with a side of attempted upstagement of Santa Claus, the Council had called an emergency session, hosted at the Workshop. And instead of punishing Jack, Santa had managed to convince the Council to have Jack stay in Elfsburg for "community service" to make up for what he had thought the man deserved another chance. You know, for the billionth time, given that by Bernard's count, this was like, the third or fourth or tenth second chance he had given the man!

Maybe it all would've been fine! Maybe it would've worked out! But Jack knew exactly what to do to disrupt literally everything in day to day operations. And giving the sprite free reign of the Workshop with Curtis in charge, Santa's family AND in-laws around, and, not to mention, a new baby on the way?! A recipe for disaster if there ever was one!

And a disaster had occurred, alright.

Somehow, Jack had managed to become Santa.

Though nobody remembered the timeline, everyone had suddenly felt a little perturbed out of the blue on Christmas Eve. Even he and Elle had felt it! They had blinked and suddenly, something felt...wrong. Off. And then the letter arrived, detailing the chaos Jack had caused and what he had done, according to Santa himself, in order to become Santa!

Nobody but Jack and Scott seemed to remember. And Scott didn't even have the full story; just what he saw. Even Bernard didn't remember.

Had he even been there?

Steering himself away from that existential train of thought, he stopped his angry march and thought of where he wanted to go. He pictured the outskirts of Elfsburg, just by the Dome, before disappearing in a shower of golden sparks. He reappeared right where he had pictured, the Dome's brilliant colours dancing, the city lit up in the distance. Choosing to take the long way down, giving himself some time to cool off and compose himself, Bernard set down the trail, passing the drifts and the hills and the lone snowman as the colours in the ice arced and glowed above him, the northern lights dancing—

He stopped short. Snowman? Nobody came out here to build snowmen.

He turned back around, closing the distance between him and the snowman. He sized it up. It was very well done. Magically so. It was the perfect snowman, one you'd see in a poorly made Hallmark movie. He squinted at the head, the coal eyes glinting blue in the Dome's light.

"Gotchya, Frost," he said, his hands glowing.

"No no no wait—!"

Recognition dawned just a little too late. His eyes widened, shocked, as he let loose the small blast of golden sparks, the magic hitting its mark square in the middle snowball. Powdered snow and gold sparks flew about, the twigs flying off into the wind as a person was thrown into the snow. A shower of fluffy white dust intermingled with golden sparks, blowing up and getting lost in the colours above them as she fell down.

"—wrong Frost."

"Silver bells. Jacqueline?!"

She groaned in the snowbank, popping up and holding her head. "Hi B-Man. OW."

Bernard rushed over the drifts (loosing his footing a couple of times), making his way over to the sprite as she waved her hand, the snow sliding off of her. She sat in the pile of snow that had once served as her snowman disguise, squinting around in confusion, completely disoriented. Stopping by her side, he offered her a hand. Gratefully, she took it, Bernard pulling her up as she waved away the remainder of the snow coating her just as white dress, brown hair an absolute mess.

"Jacqueline! You should've said something!"

"I did!"

"A little too late, don't you think, kid?"

"I mean, maybe a bit, but also, you looked a little angry and I wasn't sure how well you would react to a snowman suddenly yelling hey B-Man, wait up! Especially given that we're probably both here for the same reason."

Bernard looked thoughtful. "You've got a point. Sorry about all that."

She waved away the apology. "It's fine," she replied, straightening her bodice and smoothing out her skirt.

"What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Oh, you know. Shenanigans. Nonsense. The usual. Aren't you and Elle supposed to be on vacation right now? Last postcard the kid sent me was from New York."

"Oh, we were! Until we got the news, that is."

"Ah."

It was silent for a moment, neither of the fae moving. Bernard hadn't expected to run into anyone on the outskirts of Elfsburg, and of all the people and magi-beings that he could've run into, Jacqueline was not at all who he had expected. No, not this specific winter sprite. If the white dress and thawed hair were anything to go by, along with her demeanour today and how disoriented she looked, Bernard put two and two together fairly easily. He felt the anger rise in his chest once more, angry on her behalf now, too.

"I suppose you know what happened, then?"

Bernard blinked. He frowned, trying his best to gauge what exactly she knew. "I know that Jack Frost froze some of Santa's family members, and locked them in a cupboard with their daughter, Lucy, who's probably more than a little scarred for life now. I also know that somehow, Jack managed to find a Clause that allowed him to replace Santa. Only Santa can activate it, so not only did Jack managed to find it, but I can only assume he also managed to trick the man into using it, and then stole his position right out from under him! The report we got didn't have a lot of details about it. Apparently, nobody actually remembers it; they only know about it because Santa saw the tail end of it. For everyone else, it was the slightest shift, but it was enough to shake everyone down in Elfsburg up. It even got to Elle and I! One minute, everything was fine; the next, we blinked, and suddenly everything was slightly different, and not in a good way. That was more than enough to tell us that something bad had happened."

"Oh yeah. It got bad," Jacqueline said, looking shell shocked.

"You remember?"

"Yeah dude. Jack Frost became Santa; that meant someone had to become Jack Frost and, well, y'know. It is my job."

"Right, that would fall on your shoulders, wouldn't it?"

"Regrettably." She sighed. "I still had—" she paused, closing her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "—have my connection with him, which is why I still remember the full thing, I think. It was exhausting. And worse, nobody believed me when I told them that he wasn't supposed to be Santa!" She said, throwing her hands up. "They all thought I was loosing it, you know, over stressed, maybe a bit traumatized, that sort of thing. They probably weren't WRONG but I definitely did not appreciate it," she finished with a huff, crossing her arms and turning away. Her face softened; she glanced over her shoulder, head tilted at the elf. "You…you don't remember?"

If Bernard had thought she was a bit off her game before, he was thoroughly convinced now. She looked absolutely distraught. "No. Sorry, Jacqueline. I've got nothing for ya, kid. But I hope, if I was there, that I believed you. And that you came to me to tell me about it."

She smiled. "You did. And I did. And we were badass, B-Man."

Bernard chuckled. The silence flit between them, both fae gazing up at the Dome. He felt bad for his friend; he didn't want to leave her hanging like this. But he also had business to attend to, and couldn't leave that hanging either.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah! Good question! I don't know, actually," she said, hugging herself and biting her lip. "Sorry, I'll stop loitering eventually. you can go on ahead, I'm sure you have a ton of stuff to do."

"I do have a bit of a mess to clean up. There's also an elf to reprimand, ordibeings to deal with, and who KNOWS what else fell apart in our absence that I'm gonna have to get sorted after what Frost did! No offence, Jacqueline."

"Oh, none taken, B-Man. You're always kinder to me than most people are."

"Yeah, that's called friendship, Jacqueline," Bernard said, satisfied when the sprite laughed. "Really though, what are you doing all the way out here? Sorry if that came off as rude. That and my small rant," he added with a shrug.

"Oh, please. I'm always down to hear you rant. It's some of your best material," she said with a cheeky grin.

Now it was Bernard's turn to laugh. "Duly noted."

He watched as the sprite took a few steps forward, seeming to collect her thoughts before stopping beside Bernard and finally answering his question. "I woke up looking like this," she said, gesturing to her white dress and brown hair. "I was feeling much more tropical than usual as well. The hair usually thaws every night anyway, but my clothes never do. I have my work cut out for me next laundry day," she joked. "The thing is, those tropical feelings? They weren't entirely my own. I think they bled over. I think that...I assumed that...they're Jack's." The sprite paused and looked away, taking a deep breath. "Bernard," she began, looking right at him now, "This is going to sound completely crazy, but…I think something thawed him."

"Thawed him? Really?"

"Really really. I have it on good authority B-Man, trust me."

"But they all said it couldn't be done. Literally everyone."

"Or so the stories say. I couldn't believe it myself, really. I thought it was crazy. I was going absolutely bonkers after waking up, and figured the best way to solve it would be to come up here and see for myself. But when I arrived..."

"Confidence ran dry?"

A nod. "I don't think I'm ready to face him just yet. Not with Frostmas so fresh. And even though the Day of Darkness was so long ago...I still don't feel ready, you know?

Bernard felt the anger rearing up again. The Day of Darkness. The ice storm. One of the three (well, four things including the current situation) that had gotten him really, really angry. That day, Jack had started a huge ice storm in the magical continent that blocked out the afternoon sun and threw them into darkness for nearly a week. Communications were cut for even longer; the aftermath of the storm was bad. But for those who knew, the name had a whole other meaning.

And Bernard knew.

"I understand," he said, terse.

"Do you think you can do me a favour?" Jacqueline asked.

Bernard shifted his weight from one foot to another, tilting his head. He'd listen to her. Of course he would. She'd do the same for him, any day.

"Could you tell me? Tell me if…it's true? If I'm right? Tell me if…if Jack really has thawed. Please. Tell me what happened. When you find out, that is," she added, rubbing the back of her head under all that hair.

Bernard softened. "Of course, kid. That's easier done than said," he added.

She brightened; her eyes crinkled at the corners, arms falling in relief as she smiled. "Thank you so much Bernard. I really, really appreciate it."

"Of course," he replied, slightly thrown off when she nearly toppled him over with a hug. "Don't worry about it," he added, smiling over her shoulder and hugging her back.

With one last squeeze for good measure, Bernard broke off the hug, starting his way down once again. "I'll see you soon enough, alright? Hang tight. And if you need anything, call me, alright? Drop Elle a line. We're here for you, kid."

"Thanks, B-Man," Jacqueline said, waving as he started down towards Elfsburg proper. She watched him match off in that funny little way of his with a fond smile. He waved without looking back, popping off in a shower of gold sparks. She sighed. If what she suspected was true…and Bernard really did confirm her suspicions…

Well.

Things would change, she expected, but she couldn't even begin to fathom how. It had been so long...

With a deep breath, weary of the thousands of things that could possibly happen (assuming she was right about…about Jack), Jacqueline turned on her heel, and, in a brilliant burst of snowflakes and blue sparks, was gone. Nothing but a pile of snow with two forlorn sticks and a whisper on the wind, the faintest, "See you soon, I hope," telling of her presence there that day.

A/N-I cannot BEGIN to tell you how many times I have edited this prologue, holy. Anywho, here it is! The final new version of it and the start of this lovely ficlet of mine!

Crystal Springs has been in the works since the moment I saw the third movie twelve years ago! It took me a solid 6 to 7 years to properly shape Jacqueline, link all my plot points together, and finalize everything in this story. I'm still finding new things about it six years later, can you believe it? I love this story to death and I love hearing what you lovely people reading it have to say about it. Please leave a review throughout the story! Feedback, pointers, and constructive criticism are all welcome! Or even just your favourite parts! Things you liked! Educated guesses about what just happened! Let's book club this sleet, friends! I especially like those reviews!

Also, ANs before or after the chapter? I'm curious on what the preference is.

STORY DISCLAIMER

I do not own The Santa Clause movies, nor do I own any of the characters from the movies used within this work. I am making no profit off of this story, it sis purely for the enjoyment of myself and my lovely readers.

I also do not own the character Ellington "Elle" Connelly. She belongs to shittyelfwriter, formerly etiquette-faux-pas, my friend Ana, who has happily let me use Elle within this fanwork and any other ones pertaining to or related to Crystal Springs. I have promised to return her relatively unharmed, and owe Ana my biggest thanks ever for letting me use Elle!

I did come up with Crystal Springs, the Legate Law, the Legates (Dite, Xander, and Myles, whom are the ones mentioned by name within Crystal Springs), the Frost Family (Blaise, Winter, Fino, Fiera, and Jacqueline), and the Baddie of the fic. Any resemblance they bare to any real person, place, or thing is purely coincidental. The views characters express within the work are not necessarily the views of the author.

The lore is drawn from a ton of mythology and fairy tales, which are more or less common domain. As such, if anyone would like to use Jacqueline, or Crystal Springs, or any of the Legates or concepts related to Crystal Springs the continent, I would very much appreciate a PM asking first. Seriously, please ask permission first before using them in a story! Though if anyone ever considers fanart, please just throw it directly at me I will absolutely die!

Finally, I am aware that disclaimers are seen as a very old concept in the world of fanfiction, and that this disclaimer wouldn't stop Disney or the directors of The Santa Clause 1, 2, and 3 from suing me, but I've been around since disclaimers were a regular old thing with fanfic and I am a creature of habit. Thankfully, this huge wall of text is the only one you will encounter throughout the fic!