Rise of the Guardians: Fall of the Guardians

Chapter 14- Good-Bye, Master Time

"Jack," a voice from within the Time Palace called out weakly. Jack swiftly went to Tai's side, falling down to his knees as his held his wrinkled hand tightly in his own.

"Trii," Jack muttered, shaking his head as tears collected in his eyes. "He..."

Tai nodded his head. "I know. He was meant to disappear and wreck the fabric of time, but the orb had cracked and shattered. Instead of him releasing the true Sands of Time, he absorbed it." Tai started coughing, unable to find the strength to even lift his hand to cove his mouth.

"Don't speak if it hurts," Jack whispered, patting the other's hand gently. "Conserve your strength."

"It doesn't matter now." Tai's coughs died down. "It is the end of my time. Without the Eternia Glass, I shall not be reborn until the sands are collected again. If his is to my last breath, then let it be of use to you." Tai let his eyes wander up to the ceiling above, avoiding Jack completely. "I can see what will come next, Jack, and it is something that I hope will only be a vision and nothing more."

"What do you see?"

"Trii," Tai answered weakly, "in his new beast form. His mind is slowly fading and the creature is becoming more and more powerful. He won't be able to handle it. Trii Korteet will hold the power of time inside of him until it becomes too much. When that day comes, it will burst from his form and destroy both him and the world."

Jack bit his lower lip. "What do we do?" he asked. "How do we save the world? How do we save him?"

Tai took in a deep breath, finding such a task to be increasingly harder and harder to do by ever passing second. "You must stop Trii before the beast loses the strength to fight the power inside of him."

"And Trii?" Jack insisted again. "How do we save him?"

Tai said nothing more. He just stared at Jack with tear-filled eyes. After a moment of silence, Tai allowed his eyes to close as one of the tears escaped his eyes.

With that, Tai M. Keeper faded away.

"Jack!" North burst through the door, panting heavily. "Vhat has happened?"

Jack didn't look at him. He didn't even turn to face them as he heard the others enter the room behind North. He stared down at his hand, which now held no other. No one uttered a word as they took in the empty bed, the crumbling wall, and the Guardian of Fun's slumped position.

After what felt like an eternity to all of them, Jack rose to his feet and stepped through the hole in the wall. Standing on the edge of the cliff, he dug through the snow there, searching.

"Jack?" Tooth fluttered next to him. "What do we do now?"

Finding what he was looking for, Jack stood and stared down at the chunk of bone in his hand. "We need to find Trii," Jack finally said, "and we need to save the world... no matter the cost."

The end! As said in previous chapters, I already have an idea for the next one, which will probably be the last one in this series, and I will get started on that soon. Before I start writing that one, though, I have an idea for a Nightmare Before Christmas story and I will start that one before the next ROTG fanfiction.

I will try to post the beginning of Oogie soon.