Rise of the Guardians: Fall of the Guardians

Chapter 8 - What Did We Do?

"Jack?" Tooth said worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"Vhat do, Jack?" North picked up the empty box. "I thought that ve agreed not to open."

"What are you even doing here, Jack? I thought you were supposed to stay with Pitch and his warriors." Bunny's eyes grew wide. "Did you find something out? Did they find you out?"

Jack didn't say a thing, nor did he move a muscle. He just continued to stare up at them, his expression unreadable.

After so long in awkward silence, Tooth's eyebrows scrunched together and she reached down to gently touch Jack's shoulder. "Jack? Are you alright?"

Jack jerked himself away from her touch, causing her to jump in surprise. "Don't touch me," he hissed. "How could you do that to me?"

"Vhat are you talking bout, Jack?" North asked. "Vhat did ve do to you?"

"You know what you did!" Jack leapt to his feet and backed away from them quickly. "I saw... I saw that memory of me drowning, but it wasn't the same anymore. You were there... and Pitch was... and then you..."

Tooth covered her mouth with a gasp. "No, Jack," she whimpered. "You don't understand. We went back in time to save you, but you wouldn't be you if the events of the past changed."

"That's what you did?" The room temperature sharply dropped. "So those looks you gave me after that incident was because of this? Because you murdered me?"

"Now hold it right there!" Bunny shouted. "We did not murder you. We saved you."

"You let me drown!" Frost coated the floor and walls of the Globe room now. "You all knew about the pain that I had to go through for nearly my entire afterlife! You all knew how much I wanted to have a family; my family! I had a chance to have that and be happy, and then you all just took it away from me!"

"Think about this for more than a second!" Bunny responded, fur bristling. "If that hadn't have happened, then Jack Frost never would have been. If we didn't have you with us, then Pitch would have taken over and the world would have been cast into eternal darkness!"

"Someone else would have been chosen to help," jack snorted back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Man in Moon wouldn't have just let Pitch win. He would have found another way, another person, another Jack Frost."

"Jack, no." Tooth reached out a hand to Jack once again, as if to draw him near, even though she could not reach him. "We were just trying to do what was best for you; for everyone. It killed us to do that, you have to understand."

Jack scowled, a tear coming to his eye. "Yeah. Well it killed me more." With that being said, Jack pushed off the ground, the ice under him cracking loudly as he took off out a window and into the grey sky.

"Jack!" Tooth shouted, taking flight as well. "Come back!"

"Stop, Tooth!" North shouted her, grasping her by her thin waist before she could take pursuit "Snowstorm is coming. You go out and you freeze to death."

"We can't just let him run off like that!" Bunny insisted. "If we let him go, we may never see him again."

"Tooth can't go out," North responded. "Vings freeze and pop right off."

"I'll go then," Bunny volunteered. "My fur will protect me enough to get that bugger and drag him back."

"Go quickly, Bunny," North advised. "Pitch has hand in this and must be up to no good."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Bunny tapped the floor with his foot, falling through the entrance of the tunnel that had formed there.

******

Jack curled into himself, wrapping his arms around his knees as the snow picked up. He wasn't cold, for such a thing would be simply laughable, especially since he was the one making this snow, but he felt that he needed comfort from someone... even if it was just from himself.

"How could they?" he muttered to himself. "They all knew and yet they-"

"Jack!"

The guardian of fun lifted his head, peering through the shifting wall of white to see a grey blob dashing towards him. Scowling in recognition, Jack looked away. "Go away, Bunnymund. I am done talking to you people."

"Jack!" Bunny shouted over the roaring storm around Jack. "I know what we did may seem wrong, and it might even have been the wrong move, but it was what we thought was the right things to do. It wasn't just a split-second decision that we took lightly!"

"Well you made the wrong choice!"

"Try to understand, Jack!" Bunny tried to push himself through the raging snowfall, nearly toppling over as it clumped on his fur. "It was the hardest thing that we ever had to do! The reason that we never told you about it is because we couldn't. We couldn't put to words what we had done. We couldn't bear to relive it again!" Bunny stumbled back for a second before attempting to plow through again.

"You have to understand," Bunny continued. "We wanted to give you what you always wanted. None of us wanted to bring you pain or have to see you die, but we had to think about, not just you or us, but Jamie and the rest of the children of the world."

Jack bit his lower lip, looking away from Bunny's form, which was still fighting through the small blizzard.

"If you were not around, what would have happened to Jamie and his friends? Pitch would have cloaked the world in darkness and sent them into eternal nightmares."

Jack shook his head. "Someone would have stopped him," he assured. "There would have been another Jack Frost chosen."

"No there wouldn't and you know that!" Bunny was now only a few feet away from him. "You are the only Jack Frost and you will always be the only Jack Frost. No one could replace you, which is why we need you, Jack. Only you. The same would be for any one of us."

Suddenly, the white veil fell, clearing Bunny's vision. Locking his eyes on Jack's form, he swiftly made his way over to him. He fell to his knees and grasped Jack's shoulders tightly in his paws. "You need to understand our reasoning, Jack. It hurt. It hurt us all so bad to do it. I felt like I left my heart in that lake when I had to let go of your hand."

"I know,' Jack whispered. "I would have done that same thing if I were in your position then. I...It will just take me time to get over seeing that."

Bunny smiled slightly. "None of us will ever really get over seeing that. I think the sight of your hand sinking below the surface will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life." Bunny stood up, shivering in the frosty air. "How about we head back to North's? They must be worried sick and I'm about to lose my tail out here."

Jack smirked. "I think that it feels great out here."

"Shut it, ya show pony." Bunny sneezed, scrunching up his nose as he tried to resist the urge to do it again. "Let's go, Jack. We need to talk this over with the others before we can worry about Pitch and his plans."

"Oh yeah!" Jack rushed to his feet, kicking up a cloud of loose flakes as he did so. "Pitch ants Trii to steal something from the Temple of Time... some... 'Eternity' item."

Bunny froze, foot half raised to create a tunnel. He stared at Jack with wide eyes. "We need to get to the others now," he said, "and we need to stop that kid before he kills himself."

 First off, I would like to thank all of my readers who have stood by me and supported me. With that being said, I would like to get input from you all.

I already have an idea for the third story in this series, but Trii is a big part of it (As well as Jack, of course). I am curious as to what people think of him so far.

Also, I am hoping to update at least one of my stories a week, whether that be a fanfiction or an original story. If one of my stories gets a view count to the next thousand, I will update a story of the viewers' choice twice in a week. When a story gets to the desired view count, I will mention it in an author's note and take votes for what story should be updated.

Thanks again for your support.