Chapter Text
"So, who wishes to go first?"
If not for the Nightmare holding him down and his staff being in pieces behind him, there was nothing that would've stopped Jack Frost from wiping the unbearably smug grin off Pitch's face.
But as it was, there was nothing Jack could do, forced to kneel beside the other Guardians, each of them trapped by Pitch's dark magic. The expression on Pitch's face was like Christmas, Easter, and every other holiday had been canceled all at once.
(And if they couldn't escape, they would be.)
"No volunteers?" Pitch queried 'innocently'.
His smile only grew as Bunny snarled at him from where he was being held down by a Nightmare. The Boogeyman turned to gesture behind him to where a swirling vortex of magic and energy existed in space a few feet away.
"And after all the effort I took to sneak into Father Time's home and make this portal for you." Pitch sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "So ungrateful."
"What are you playing at, Pitch?" Tooth yelled, defiant even as the Nightmare had transformed into the shape of a cage to keep her weak inside. "No matter where you send us, we'll find a way back!"
Beside her cage was Sandy, who was forced to meditate to prevent the black sand swirling around him from consuming him. As a result, he couldn't spare the energy to make any images, but it was clear from his expression that he agreed with his fellow Guardian.
"Ah, ah, I think you'll find returning harder than you think," Pitch said, waving a finger. "You see, this isn't simply a portal to a different place or time... it's to a different world."
"Does not matter!" North called out, struggling against the Nightmares binding his limbs. "Changes nothing!"
"Do you have no comprehension of how your powers work?" Pitch asked dryly, every inch of him unimpressed as he stared down at the Russian man. "It is the Man in the Moon who gives you your magic and your believers that give you additional strength. So, what happens when you're sent to a world where none of that exists?"
"That's right." Pitch's smile grew at the horror on their faces. "In that world, whether it'll be instantly or a slow, painful descent, you'll revert to the sad, pathetic states you were when he 'chose' you."
What does that mean for me? Jack wondered, a hint of fear filling him for the first time. Everyone else was alive when they were chosen, but me...
Like the bloodhound of negative emotion that he was, Pitch homed in on Jack.
"What's this?" Pitch came closer, interest and curiosity clear on his face. "A new fear? No... an old one–"
"Leave him alone!" Bunny yelled, trying his best to kick the Nightmare off him. The Nightmare only shapeshifted to better control him. "If you're going to send us through, do it already! We'll survive and find a way back to kick your sorry behind!"
Relief and dread mixed inside of Jack as Pitch turned to Bunny, the two trading insults back and forth as unease grew inside of the youngest Guardian.
Bunny's words confirmed that the other Guardians didn't see a way out of this – or, at least, didn't see a way to avoid being thrown through the portal into some unknown world. It didn't rattle them. The Big Four were confident that, even after Pitch went through with his threat, they'd figure a way to win.
But the thing was... none of them knew that Jack had been dead when he'd been chosen.
It wasn't that Jack had been hiding it – okay, maybe he had been a little – but the facts were what they were.
If Jack lost the powers Manny had given him, that was it. Maybe they'd be able to figure a way back to their original world before Manny's magic ran out, but...
Suddenly, Pitch was in front of Jack again.
Jack gasped, trying to back up, but Pitch's hands dug in like claws into his shoulders.
"I know that fear!" Pitch crowed gleefully, ignoring the effort of the other Guardians to get his attention. "It's the Fear of Death! Which is wise since even I do not know what's on the other side of that portal, but why..."
Jack desperately tried to suppress his feelings, to think of fun and everything good in the world and block Pitch out the way the other Guardians had taught him to, but the delighted expression on Pitch's face showed that he wasn't successful enough.
The memories, the fear he'd felt after plunging into the water all that time ago, were just too vivid in Jack's mind.
It was dark.
It was cold.
And I was scared–
"You were dead when you were chosen!" Pitch revealed gleefully, grasping at the feeling until it unveiled itself to him. "And by drowning? What a delightfully terrifying way to die..."
There was no way Jack could've kept the memory from him, already too weak from the Nightmare holding hm captive and the battle before.
He was left gasping as Pitch finally released him. The sensation of water filling his lungs and the despair on his sister's face were still painfully real in Jack's mind. He had to blink a few times to remind himself that he was here, in the present, and that his death had happened centuries ago.
Pitch's words stopped the Guardians in their protests. Each of them turned to look at Jack, expressions varied yet united in the sheer shock exuding from them.
"Why, Man in Moon." Pitch shook his head, looking positively rueful. "You never fail to impress, do you?"
"W-What is he talking about, Jack?" Tooth asked, voice wavering. Her eyes flickered back and forth from glaring at Pitch and looking to him with worry. "You... he's lying, right? Because if he's not... if you really did... if you go through that portal..."
Guess the cat is out of the bag.
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. Given the expressions on the other Guardians, his silence was answer enough.
Pitch cackled, laughing harder than Jack could ever recall.
"This is too good!" Pitch crowed. "While I am genuinely disappointed that you will not live the rest of your existence in helplessness like your fellow Guardians after being trapped in that world, I suppose I can live with the despair they'll feel once they hold your lifeless body!"
"What are you doing!?" North yelled as Pitch grabbed Jack's shoulder once more. It broke the skin, blood welling up as he was dragged forward towards the portal. "Bring him back!"
The others also screamed in protest, each fighting more than ever to try to get free – to try to get to Jack.
"Such a racket," Pitch complained, though the smile on his face made it clear that he was enjoying every second of it.
They came to a sudden stop, Jack gritting his teeth to avoid yelling out as his wounds were jostled. The worse was a bleeding slash down his back, courtesy of Pitch's scythe. It felt like it was on fire.
"And such an odd one, isn't it, Jack?" Pitch continued. "After all, even after you became a Guardian, they barely pay attention to you, right?"
Jack forced down the urge to flinch, just glaring at Pitch instead. The portal in front of them was near blinding, but he refused to blink.
"Truly, Jack." Pitch just laughed, not the least bit intimidated. "As much as you've been a thorn in my side, it has been great fun as well."
He faced Jack towards the portal, making a grand gesture of showing it off. "Take a good look at your soon to be home – oh, I'm sorry, your soon to be burial ground."
"Bugger off, Pitch!" Bunny yelled out, though his eyes held a hint of dread as they met Jack's. "You really going to start with the Frostbite? What? Too afraid to go for us first?"
"I thought you'd be happy, Bunny!" Pitch said with mock astonishment. "After all, Jack hasn't been part of your little 'band of heroes' that long. It's not like it's that much of a difference if he suddenly disappeared."
Once again, Jack would be lying if he said that Pitch's words didn't hit with painful accuracy – if they didn't stab at a place of hurt that had been building for centuries and even after Jack had become a Guardian.
(After all, it was hard to deny the truth.)
Because, even after he'd learned why Manny had chosen him and helped them to defeat Pitch the first time, he'd never quite felt like he belonged – like Jack Frost was worth even a sliver as much as any of the "Big Four".
To be fair, how could he be?
The other Guardians had accomplished so much before Jack had even been born. Not only that, but they possessed a bond that, while distant, had been forged with experiences and hardships that Jack would never share.
Maybe, after a few millennia, Jack wouldn't have felt as much of a gap... but there was no denying it was true now.
But at the same time, Pitch's words put things into startling clarity.
What am I doing? Jack wondered, incredulous.
Sure, it was true that Jack would die in that world if Pitch's words were correct, but that was the least of their concerns.
For Pitch to be this confident, he honestly believed there was no way to return after entering this portal. So even though Jack was at the greatest risk, there was no guarantee the same fate wouldn't befall the other Guardians who were much less adept without Manny's blessing.
And even if the other Guardians didn't perish as quickly as Jack, what would happen to the world with Pitch allowed to run free? In a world with North, Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy gone?
And that was the crux of it.
When weighing the value of the Guardians, it was just a fact that Jack was worth the least.
Losing Wonder, Hopes, Memories, and Dreams... it couldn't be allowed to happen.
Fun had always existed in the fringes of those emotions. It would remain and continue to grow even after Jack was gone.
(Not to mention that Jack's life had long since ended... he'd been on borrowed time for over three hundred years.)
So, it didn't matter if Jack died... not as long as he made sure the same didn't happen to the others.
"You're right," Jack said, stopping whatever Bunny had been about to say in reply. He met Pitch's eyes, shrugging even though it made his back ache worse. "I am the expendable one."
Pitch looked bewildered for a moment before smirking. He picked up Jack by the hoodie, bringing him mere inches away from the portal.
"Trying to be brave, Jack?" Pitch taunted, leaning his body closer to the portal – like he would drop him in at any moment. "It's a shame I won't see how far that bravado lasts as you wither away into a corpse."
Symbols of confusion and alarm appeared above Sandy's head, but Jack didn't look over.
No, his eyes were on a certain crystal a few feet behind Pitch. It was the one that powered the portal. They'd been trying to destroy it before the Nightmares had gotten them.
You see, Pitch believed that there was nothing Jack could do. That, with his staff Twinetender in pieces a few feet away, he was absolutely powerless.
But he was wrong.
Jack was stronger with his staff, but his powers didn't originate from it.
"You never know, Pitch," Jack said nonchalantly. His fingers wiggled behind his back, concentrating every last bit of his energy that he could. "You'd think that, after all our time together, you'd know that I was full of surprises!"
Before Pitch could react, Jack released the energy. It propelled the two of them forward into the portal.
The last thing Jack saw was the horrified expressions of the other Guardians.
He knew that it wasn't only because Jack and Pitch were falling inside and they were helpless to stop it, but because Jack had simultaneously used that energy to form a single shard of ice.
One aimed at the crystal powering the portal.
The message was clear.
This is goodbye.
The crystal shattered. Pieces flew across the room with blinding light. The energy of the portal went insane as it began to wildly fluctuate without its power source.
Jack closed his eyes, the sounds of the other Guardians crying out filling his ears.
It's been fun guys.
And then, he let himself fall.
o0o0o0o
This was nothing like going through one of North's Snow Globe portals.
For one, it hurt.
Pain flooded Jack's senses, filling every part of his body from head to toe. It spread across his limbs, electrifying him in a way that made him wonder if he was being burned alive.
He felt beyond sick, colors exploding before his eyes and lungs heaving for air that he just couldn't get.
But the worse feeling was from inside of him.
It was like something – something that felt like his very soul – was being pulled and stretched beyond its limits. It was a rubber band extending and extending and extending as far as it could until–
SNAP
If it'd been painful before, it was agony now.
(Something broken beyond repair.)
(A shield around his soul that Jack didn't even know was there.)
If Jack was screaming, he couldn't hear it. There was only the deafening sound of the portal whooshing around him, sending him to some unknown time and place.
He'd long since lost sight of Pitch.
The last thing he'd heard was the man's roar of fury before it was swallowed up by the portal around them. If Pitch was close to him or if he was far away, Jack had no way of knowing.
How long had Jack been falling?
Would it ever stop–
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the portal changed around him – becoming a world of white.
Not white, Jack thought numbly, eyes blurring and tearing up with the effort to stay open. Snow.
Then, he was falling again, but it was a more familiar sensation – less pressure and like the world around him was trying to crush him like a bug, if that made sense.
But it didn't change the fact that he was falling to his death.
C'mon, Jack, he thought weakly, trying to reach for his power. Fly!
Flight was yet another power that he didn't need his staff for, but none of the Winds around him would respond to his requests for help. They were unfamiliar, foreign, untrusting of this sudden stranger in their world–
Outsider, they whispered angrily. Outsider... Outsider!
Please, Jack pleaded. The ground was coming fast. I just need–
At that moment, Jack hit something – but it wasn't the ground?
Jack blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating as what seemed to be a white dragon appeared out of thin air.
Had it been invisible? Of course, Jack couldn't exactly see straight right now, so it could've been there all along.
The white dragon snarled before its eyes widened, watching as Jack continued to descend. He would've apologized, but that would've involved not falling to his death.
But the sudden appearance of the dragon turned out to be rather lucky as hitting it changed Jack's course, sending him crashing down into a pile of snow. Still painful, but much better than the unforgiving rocks he'd been heading towards before.
"N-Not my... worse... landing," Jack whispered, head pounding.
He was pretty sure that he had a few broken bones... probably more, if the pain was any indication. Not to mention that the wounds he'd received during the previous fight, particularly the slash down his back, were probably still bleeding profusely.
Jack wouldn't be lying if he said that he'd been in worse shape before, but this... was pretty bad.
Not to mention that it felt like something in his soul had been ripped in half. Like, even lying motionless on the ground like this, energy was just pouring out of him without stopping.
It probably would've taken him a while to figure out just what that something was, but the snow drift that he'd fallen into had given him an elevated view of the moon.
But it wasn't his moon.
It wasn't Manny.
The connection that Jack felt to the moon, the sense that the Man in the Moon was listening even if he never responded – all of it was gone. Jack felt none of that as he stared at this moon.
I really am in a different world.
Before he could properly take in that thought, something landed in front of him, blocking his view of the unfamiliar moon.
Crystal blue eyes met light blue with black slits down the middle.
"H-Hi," Jack croaked out as the dragon he'd hit on the way down stared at him. It didn't look happy. "S-Sorry about that..."
The dragon seemed to pause before its – her? It felt like a her – began to growl. It felt as if she was telling Jack to reveal his true intentions.
"R-Really, it was an... accident," Jack said breathlessly. He tried to raise a hand, the dragon turning towards it with a loud snarl. "L-Look at me, do... do I look like I can... do anything?"
The dragon paused in her snarl, considering Jack's form. She sniffed, nostrils flaring as she undoubtedly caught the scent of blood. Probably a lot of it too...
"Y-Yeah, I'm... I'm kinda a mess..." Jack coughed, pain wracking his form. "S-Still... sorry..."
The dragon studied him, eyes seeming to narrow in confusion now.
"I... I'd make it up to you," Jack continued, having to blink to keep his eyes open. "B-But... I... I don't think I have much... much longer..."
A slight widening to her eyes was the only indication that the dragon had reacted, still staring him down as if waiting for him to make some false move.
Not that Jack would, obviously. He was pretty sure he couldn't move if he tried.
Silence reigned between the two of them, lingering in the air.
He gave a shaky sigh, eyelashes sticking together from the cold as he blinked.
"So... t-this is how it ends," Jack murmured. "For... good this time..."
Blood slowly oozed from the claw marks on his shoulder, but he tried to ignore it. He turned his gaze back to the dragon, seeing that she was still staring at him.
"I-It... will probably sound like... like I didn't... didn't mean what I said before," Jack struggled to get his words out, dark spots dancing in front of his eyes. "B-But I... I'm kind of glad I... fell... on you..."
There was a low snarl. Jack let out a small laugh, ignoring the way it made him dissolve into a series of painful, chest-heaving coughs.
"N-Not because I... f-fell on you..." Words were becoming more and more difficult to form. "B-But... cause I knew that... I'd probably die and..." He exhaled shakily. "It... it's kinda nice to not... to not be alone..."
Jack met the dragon's eyes once more, doing his best to smile.
"So... thank..." His eyes fluttered shut, his words coming out as a whisper. "Thank you."
Those cat-like eyes widening were the last thing Jack saw before darkness enveloped him.