Chapter 7

Jack frowned at the sunset, turning away to walk down the steps to sit on the front step leaning against the wall. North left already and the snow creatures came back through the snow globe that Nick used to go to the castle. They only stayed with the family for a few hours and then came back. The snow palace was their home after all.

Jack knew that he should join the other guardians at the palace but he needed to think. Something was bothering him. He was sitting in a relaxed position sorting through his memories that he received from all the tooth boxes. Twiner was leaning near by.

He reached out and started to shift through his vast memories. He instinctively started with his family shoving the rest of the memories to the back for later. But a whisper kept distracting him, a whisper that called his name.

'Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack.'

A snowball the size of his head missed his leg by a hair, it splattered his whole body, and instead of joining in the snowball fight the snow creatures had started, Jack flew up into the sky, feeling if the wind might ease his troubled mind, the wind playfully ruffle his white hair.

Jack laid flat on his back, the staff supporting his spine, the G point above his head as his left arm cradled his head, as he stared straight up into the starry night sky as he let the wind carry him to and fro.

His heart ached in a way he couldn't understand, it felt like the first time he finally realized that Elsa was gone, that he would never see her again. Her passing affected him in that he tried harder then ever so that people could see him, really see him, but not until Jamie saw him, really saw him, that some part, not all of his heart was almost healed by Elsa's death. It was the second time he felt peace and contentment, like when he was in Elsa's presence, of family and of home. The third was when he officially became a Guardian.

'Jack Frost, Jack Overland Frost, Nightlight. Come.' The soft whisper of the voice made him lose control, he couldn't make out the last few words. Jack fell down almost into the ocean by which was large iceberg, the largest free standing one he ever saw.

He hovered just beyond the entrance, feet so close to the ice and the waves that if he was human, Jack's feet would already be on it's way to being frostbitten. Jack felt very small next to it.

He place his free hand onto the ice and snatched it back quickly, his brother and sister's voices fading as he did so. He placed his hand on the ice again and listened. "Jack! Jack, let's go to the lake after we milk the cows. Onward to save our town! With the magic milk that will cure the sick!"

Mary Ana's voice was young and warm, just his brother's laughter in response warmed his heart. Jack walked on the ice and slipped silently into Ahtohallen.

The water spirit watched from the sea, as Gale gently held his friend back as the old spirit stepped out of view.

Jack's heart was beating wildly. As Jack walked the ice halls, slipping down the steps he found at the beginning, his magic recognized the echo of Elsa's throughout the iceberg. It gave Jack the courage to keep going, boosting his own. He stepped onto a snowflake in the middle of the vast room that he recognized as Elsa's and set down his family tooth boxes in the center. Hoping for something, he didn't know what. The snowflake flickered once and then dimly glowed until it was gone.

Jack felt despair rising up in his soul, but when he went to walk back outside, a old voice he recognized to his bones turned him around and made him look up. A sliver of the moon was on the dome of the ice reflecting everywhere, "Manny, what?!" The hurt frustration echoed around chamber. The moon flashed brightly once that Jack had to close his eyes and he knew no more.

Unknown to Jack that flash created multiple scenes from his long, long life once like when Elsa's ice power did long ago, but these were still, made out of ice and mist, and hint of starlight.

When Jack woke it was dark and cold, but a bright light was near him and he was white fist clutching a dagger that was made of diamond tears, no he was not clutching the dagger, he was in the dagger! The Man in the Moon's tears when he was a baby. He knew that instinctively. What he didn't expect was to see Pitch Black there, eyes closed as in sleep, the dagger deep in Pitch's heart, keeping him at bay for who knows how many years.

Or that he, himself was keeping the King of Nightmares prisoner. Jack stretched his memory to remember why he was so close to his enemy, then he remembered his duties. Just as a stray moonbeam set them both lose unto the world.

"Nightlight, bright light,
Sweet dreams I bestow.
Sleep tight, all night.
Forever I will glow."

He was a nightlight or was Nightlight, the last bodyguard of Prince Lunanoff, the only son and heir of Tsar and Tsarina of the Golden Age, last of the Nightlights, of his kind. But why didn't he join his brothers in the sky?

Manny was grown, his duty of being a Nightlight was up, his oath was done. The oath he took and promised Manny's parents echoes through his mind as Jack was flung and he saw, almost like a dream, but he knew it was a memory, a very, very, very old memory of himself or his former self, make his staff spear, how he traveled and saved some children from a fearling his mind whispered, nightmares, attack. Thus, the village Santoff Claussen became his home of sorts but he still wandered the earth as it pleased him.

He opened his eyes to the same scene he saw in his mind, and an excitement started to built in his body. At long last he'll know what happened to him completely. Jack sat down on top of his staff, on the G and watched his young self. Nightlight was so young in thought and speech only speaking when necessary and in such short sentences. Jack smiled, but when he did speak people listened. Unlike Jack.

But why? Why stay at Santoff Claussen? Jack watched as the ice that Manny reflected off, or the Moon clipper really, turned the ice into scenes of his distant past.

Jack saw his younger self as Nightlight through the years befriending a young person he couldn't see clearly, but only in blurry red hair and gray eyes, with a small figure. Jack knew it was a girl, he knew that she was important to him, enough to kept her safe. To know that it was the Katherine that Jamie had in his family drawings.

Enough to watch over Katherine as she sleep through the night, enough to keep her from falling from the sky. To turn her and dolls of Nicholas North and Ombric invisible so Pitch couldn't get near them. Enough to communicate with Manny, calling her 'My Katherine' and terrified when Pitch threaten her. But why?

He knew this Katherine was special, his mind and heart cried out for her, even if Jack broke down in full laughter that turned into hiccups when his younger self was introduced to Bunny. The green tinted glasses and white lab coat was a bit much. North on the other hand, Jack had to conclude he was a good looking man and such a swordsman. But how Bunny used his chocolate to turn into a badass? Hands down one of the best memories he had.

His head ached at the confusing emotions he had as he tried to see who Katherine was exactly, but unlike all the other guardians, and Jack knew she was a guardian, she was blurry and out of focus. Everything was muted and cut off concerning her, which was strange because as Nightlight he knew his most important relationship was her but Jack couldn't access the memories clearly enough to understand why.

As for Tooth, he had a hard time looking at her, since she was so pretty, the swords and solemn air she had around her, make her an a formidable opponent. He wouldn't want to get on her bad side. He cried as he watched her life unfold, the sacrifice her parents made to keep their daughter safe. He cried at the sacrifice her aunts, the daughters of flight made for her.

He cheered as Tooth kicked the monkey man to the curb. The fake out the guardians did was awesome before they did their comeback. He hoped that the monkey man never came back.

He was silent as he watched as his former self, Nightlight and Sandy tried to save Katherine as Pitch's darkness crept over them. Jack's eyes went wide as he saw Nightlight kiss Katherine on the lips, after using dream sand to help turn the tide of the battle. Jack's lips seemed to tingle the same short seconds of the everlasting lip touch, as Bunny dubbed it.

Jack watched, eyes sad but warm at the battle of the Bright Night, and how he squashed the monkey man like the maggot he was, and cried after the final battle with Pitch that made him into the general that Nightlight and Sandy knew from the Golden Age before the fearlings got to him, and he lost himself and his daughter Emily Jane/Mother Nature forever.

Jack found himself reaching out his hand to Katherine as he also did so, to meet his family, but he was left with more questions then answers as she faded away.

He firmly kept the one and only kiss he had with Mother Nature, he didn't know her name was Emily Jane, to the back of his mind, he didn't know that she was his sister. Well if you count Pitch as his dad.

Jack looked at the hand that he pierced with Pitch's dagger of tears. There was no mark but he knew Pitch's blood flowed in him, just enough to make him family. He didn't know what to make of that. Jack decided to call it a Luke/Leia accident and didn't let it bother him anymore. Besides she did seem like more a sister then anything and the kiss was mostly on the cheek.

"Twiner?" Jack ask as he examined his hand as he hopped of his staff, which turned into Twiner.

"Yes?" The staff turned man asked.
"I can't feel anything. I can't feel you. I mean I hear you but I can't feel you."

"Um, strange. The wood I put there is completely gone." Before Jack could say or do anything Twiner shoved another small splinter in his hand. "Better?"

After stretching his hand to ease the slight pinch, Jack listened and could hear all the trees and leaves once again. "Much. Thank you." Jack forgot how much he missed the constant information net he had as the King of the Wild. He really needed to brush up on his animal species language. Not to mention the Leaf Men.

Jack knew now all his abilities and his memories save for a clear picture of who Katherine was to him. She was an important part of him, enough for him to recognized that without her he wouldn't be Jack Frost. He ran a hand through his hair making it look like when he was Nightlight then his Jack Frost hair.

He closed his eyes and slipped down to the ice. So many of his memories were tied to Katherine, save for the 100 years he slept in the lake to save his family, friends and Katherine from Pitch. He could see all his memories from all the battles against Pitch and the stories that Katherine told him about himself, but for Katherine herself, it was like a very distant memory that he once knew. Heck Elsa and her impact on him and memories of her, he could recall more.

To test this, Jack recalled one night that he was sleeping in the ice bed at her palace and he woke to see Elsa's face close to his, warmth in her beautiful blue eyes. Jack's face flushed purple and his fingers dug into the ice as he remembered what happened after that. His body certainly did.

Instead of being confused more, as the memory was a pleasurable one, Jack smirked and took his mind to a more pressing matter. He flicked his eyes to the ice ceiling as he walked towards the entrance. Twiner walking beside him. "Ombric, how can I remember what I need to remember so Pitch is defeated again? Permanently this time? Because I seriously don't know how the timeline got so off."

Not that didn't want his memories of Elsa to be erased. He was grateful for his time with her. She was a important part of himself, but to erase his past to make him be alone for 300 years, and make it seem he didn't have anyone but he was part of the team from the start? Erase all that blackmail material, he could use for April Fool's day and Halloween?! He had so many memories he could make fun of North and Bunny for! Sandy and Tooth, no blackmail for them but maybe, just maybe hugs.

But mostly he was pissed at how Pitch Black erased two, no three very important parts of his life, and the children's belief of the guardians. Father Time, Mother Goose and Mr. Qwerty deserved better, so much better. Not to mention all the awesomeness of everyone's stories. He could laugh at the thought of being old Father Winter, but having Mother Goose be an old lady, heck no. The guardians were stronger together and needed the team back together.

His body slipped down to a boy about 12 the age he kissed Katherine and started his journey to become Jack Frost.

"Ombric you there? Hello! Father Time, old man wake up. We got work to do." Now Jack Frost was in the sky on his way to the rest of the guardians enjoying the breeze and overwhelmed with the whispers of 'you're back, we missed you, come play' he heard from the moonbeams, the trees, the leaves and the animals. He laughed out loud at joy he felt.

Ombric didn't know what was happening since his ability as Father Time was completely out of wack, but he could do nothing. He just hoped that Jack Frost the bravest boy he knew would fix what was broken.

A memory rose out of a iced over branch, and Jack crouched down to study it more clearly, balancing on Twiner. 'What does Mr. Qwery have to do with anything?"

A ice icicle above him exploded before it could hit him on the head. "Very mature Ombric. Maybe one of the other guardians could help me out."

Jack was Jack and he unconsciously erased some of his very long life, Qwerty was so close to Katherine that he didn't even register that fact since her memory was fainter then ever.

**
At the lost and found box at the library, one half of a diamond crystal earring were put into the box hoping for the owner to be found. It was picked up by a young volunteer who started working that week and missed the weekly Story time with Mother Goose.

**
Katherine frowned at Mr. Qwery. Why did he look more sparkly then normal?