Accidentally in love

Chapter 34

"Stop! What the hell are you doing?!" Jack screamed horrified, running down to Pitch to try and protect him from the glowing sand, but the silver demon already lay motionless in the sand.

"Jack, what are you doing?" North asked confused.

"Oh no!" Tooth gasped. "He's under the spell of the potion again!"

"No, I'm not. You're wrong about him!" Jack said urgently, while the other all exchanged worried glances.

"It's alright, Jack! Everything will be okay!" Tooth fluttered around him in concern. "The potion will wear off soon, and then everything will be just the way it always was!" she said desperately.

"There is no potion! I'm not under a spell!" Jack yelled angrily, standing between Pitch and the Guardians who clearly didn't believe him.

"The reason you think that is because you're under a spell, lad!" North said fiercely, walking towards him. "This is for your own good!"

They tried to sidestep him to get to Pitch, but Jack refused to yield. "Get away from him!" he nearly screamed. Summoning as much power as he could in the infernal heat of the island, he sent a giant wall of sharp ice shards at his former friends, his strength driven by fear, anger, betrayal.

Since the only one able to match those powers was Sandy, he stepped up immediately, deflecting Jack's surprisingly strong attack away from them, which caused the entire mess of sand and ice to smash into Pitch's hut instead.

Paralyzed, Jack watched in horror as the dust slowly settled around Pitch's home that had been pulverized into nothing but rubble and splinters. By the time he was able to overcome his shock, Aster had seized Pitch with whom he disappeared into a dirt hole before Jack could stop him.

"Stay here, Jack, and don't cause any trouble," North said fiercely. "We'll be back in two days when you're yourself again."

Jack was barely able to hear him. He had destroyed Pitch's home. All of it was gone. All of those hundreds of tiny things Pitch had collected over the past few millennia – Jack had destroyed them all.

"Jack?" Tooth asked softly, coming to stand next to him. "I'm so sorry about all this... It was never my intention to hurt anyone," she said emotionally, on the verge of tears. "I never meant for any of this to happen." She tried to take his hand but Jack pulled it away harshly.

"Leave me alone!" he snarled angrily.

She flinched a little. "I'm sorry... But it'll be okay, you'll see. As soon as the potion wears off you'll-"

"I'm not under the influence of your stupid potion!" Jack yelled angrily, but obviously she didn't believe him because she just nodded, walking away towards Sandy and North, next to whom Aster had left another hole through which they disappeared before it immediately closed again, leaving Jack behind with the destruction he had caused. This couldn't be happening.

Overcome by grief and desperation, he sagged down into the sand, sobbing quietly. Pitch would never forgive him for this. Whatever miniscule chance they might have ever had for a future together was gone.
Defeated and miserable, he stared at the destroyed house for a few minutes. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to fix this?
Should he go after the Guardians to rescue Pitch?
But he didn't want to fight the Guardians; they were his friends. Even though right now he hated them all, they were still his friends and he didn't want to fight them. He didn't want to fight anyone at all; he wanted them to get along. How could they have done that? How could they have betrayed him like that?
Except... it hadn't been a betrayal from their side because they honestly believed Jack was under a spell; they thought Pitch was evil.
Would they hurt him? Kill him?
No, they couldn't kill him – Pitch was immortal – and they most likely wouldn't hurt him because there was no reason, so they would lock him up somewhere like they had done last time, which meant Jack could rescue him. Except no, because that meant fighting the Guardians; something he not only didn't want to do, but was also quite certain he wasn't capable of because if they all sided against him, he had no chance.
Which meant there was absolutely nothing he could do but wait. He had to wait two days until the Guardians thought the potion had worn off so that he could explain it to them. It wasn't what he wanted to do because he would much rather chase after them and kill them all, but he knew that was pointless and childish. The mature, reasonable thing to do was wait it out and explain in a calm, adult fashion.
He hated doing mature, reasonable things, but in this case he had no other option unless he wanted to lose the few friends he had, and most likely get himself locked up as well.