Light in the Black

annoba

"They're starting to roll out vaccines!"

Jack smiled as Johanna burst through the window, excitement glowing on her face.

"The vaccine that you so oh conveniently made it easier for them to develop?"

"Let the humans take the credit," Johanna shrugged as she plopped onto Jack's bed. "It'll fade on its own anyway without Yersinia hanging about any more."

"What did you and Pitch do anyway?" Jack chuckled. "The cases dropped by half overnight in almost every country. I refuse to believe that was just coincidence."

Silence followed, and Jack turned to see Johanna looking out the window sadly as she hugged her legs to her chest.

"I did what I promised."

"She deserved it for everything she's done."

"I know."

Jack sighed, looking at his neck one more time. The burns had mostly faded, but if you were looking, you could tell that there were spots on his neck, shaped by long slender fingers, that were even lighter than his already pale skin. He set his staff down next to the mirror before wandering over to the bed to sit next to Johanna.

"So why do you seem upset about it?"

"I murdered them."

"They murdered millions."

Johanna didn't respond for a moment, still looking out of the window.

"Winter hadn't always been like that. He had been my friend the first time around."

Winter's burns had ended up being too much for his spiritual form to handle. The only thing they could do was take the small bit of humanity that remained in his soul and set it free, though Manny had refused to say where he took it. With the glint in his eyes, though, Jack felt it was probably somewhere just as fun as Pluto had been. Manny had then had Johanna burn away the rest of what remained.

"Is there anything left of her?"

Johanna shook her head.

"Manny did the same thing for her that he did for Winter, from what I understand. I burned her body away right down in Pitch's lair. He complained about the smell, but I watched him smiling as it happened. It was a little unnerving, to be honest."

"You get used to it," Jack promised.

Johanna turned to him, pulling one of his hands into hers and sighing.

"I don't know what to do now, Jack. Yersinia was my whole purpose, and now it's over. The humans can get Coronavirus under control themselves now. What can I offer now?"

"As much as I hate to think about it... There will always be sick children, Johanna," Jack reminded her, squeezing her hand tightly, purposefully ignoring the finger-shaped lighter tones on his wrist as Johanna's fingers trailed them. "The children will always need us. That's why we're here. Just because Yersinia is gone, just because you're not anything official like a Guardian... It doesn't mean you no longer have a purpose. You don't have to be official to do what we do. You're your own Guardian in a sense that way."

He felt relief as he watched a small smile creeped up on Johanna's face.

"Kids don't believe in me, though."

"They don't have to," Jack said. "They believe in us because that's what fuels our powers to protect them. Elementals like us, we don't necessarily need that kind of energy like the others do. But we're there to make them happy, make sure they grow up to be good people. You-" Jack brought his free hand up to poke her cheek, eliciting a chuckle. "You can be there to make sure they're healthy enough to get there. That's your purpose."

Johanna seemed to nod in agreement, squeezing Jack's hand once tightly before releasing it.

"I like that idea."

"Good."

A knock at the door caught their attention, and they turned to see Sandy opening the door.

"Hey, Sandman!" Jack beamed. "What's up?"

All three spirits sat in silence as sand pictures started zooming across above Sandy's head, his face animatedly adding to his riveting story, making Jack laugh and hold his hands up.

"Sandy! Sandy, that's way too fast, I can't understand you!"

"You can understand that to begin with?" Johanna gawked.

"You'll get used to that, too."

"He just came back from Burgess."

Bunny walked into the room smiling.

"Something about Sophie having this insane dream of an angel of fire that saved her when she was sick. Sandy seems to be under the impression it'd sound familiar."

Johanna's eyes lit up, while Jack's just narrowed in confusion as Sandy continued his fast story.

"I'm not following."

"Back during the plague," Johanna explained. "Humans as a majority were much more driven by religion than they are now. All of the priests and nuns had heard the orphaned children in their care speak of an angel of fire sent by God to spare them of the plague. I think at some point it got written down in their history books, but it was never a big feature point." She turned to Bunny with a smile. "I don't know where Sophie would've heard it from."

"Wait, kids can see her!" Jack realized. "Jamie could see her, and Sophie believes in her!"

"That's the other thing I came in for," Bunny responded with a bright smile on his face. "I'm supposed to tell you two to not go running off tonight. We're having a ceremony. Your mother and some of your siblings will be there, too, and we'll happily send them after you so I don't have to freeze my tail off for once."

"A ceremony?" Johanna asked as Bunny and Sandy went to leave the room.

"Well, of course," Bunny chuckled as he grabbed the doorknob and stood a little taller. "How can you be the official Sixth Guardian without one of North's elaborate ceremonies?"

Both siblings' eyes widened.

In the Great Room where the globe sat, North and Seraphina gently smiled into their milks as Johanna and Jack's screams of excitement began to echo through the pole, echoing along with Bunny's laughter.

"I think we did good, Seraphina."

"I think we did, too, North. I think we did, too."