The Big Four: Return of the Dark Ages

The Contract Has Been Sealed

Jack was at a loss for words, his mouth hanging open like an idiot.

"I know it's a bit much to take in at first, Jack," Rapunzel comforted, taking his hand in hers. "But once you've been chosen, you can't back out of it."

"Why?" he asked, looking at her quizzically.

She shrugged. "I've heard that there were terrible consequences if you did."

"Like what?"

Another shrug. "I've never tried, I don't even want to dream about what could happen."

"I heard that ye can get thrown in hell for it or die again, but then ne'er come back to life; fore'er lost in the universe," Merida spoke frankly.

Jack's eyes widened.

Hiccup sat down beside Jack on the bed. "Ignore her, she's always exaggerating."

"Am not!"

Both boys laughed. "Anyways," Hiccup began, turning serious. "There's a reason we can't even bother trying to back out of it. The contract is sealed on our skin, and could supposedly contort in unnatural ways if you try to go against it." Jack looked at Hiccup, fiddling with the bracelet on his wrist. "It's also the thing that keeps you alive; all of us alive. I should've been dead a long time ago, nearing ten centuries now. Yet here I am, never aging, never growing, never dying. Merida was the first of us to become like this." She nodded in agreement. "The contract is sealed when a protector is near death. Protectors are everywhere in the mortal world, but there are only so many who could handle supernatural phenomenon. Only so many who could actually see them."

Jack interrupted Hiccup with another question. "But I've died once before. How can I die again?"

He shrugged. "Didn't you say earlier that the Guardians have fallen?"

"Yeah... but I'm still here."

Hiccup nodded his head towards the bracelet. "Because you have been chosen. The contract saved you from death."

Jack's eyes began to brim with tears. "So, that means... my friends... are dead? Lost... forever?"

He nodded sadly. Jack put his head down in his hands, refusing to show anyone his face. A hand patted his back comfortingly.

"We all face losses Jack. It's the sacrifice we must make to save others. Every one of us here lost someone, but now we have each other. It'll all get better in the end. Just don't take the bracelet off."

Jack wiped his face before looking up again. "Why?"

Merida jumped straight to the point like always. "Ye'll die."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

To break the awkward silence that had fallen; Rapunzel got up, grabbed Jack's staff and handed it back over to him. "I think this is yours."

Jack nodded. "But it isn't useful now. My powers have drained like the water from my melting ice."

"Woah, man, that was deep," Hiccup chuckled. "But... if your powers are drained, why does your hoodie look less wet and more awesome?"

Jack looked down at his hoodie, pulling on it to get a better look. His mouth hung open in shock.

The frost designs had frozen over again, as if they never melted away.

Now that he thought about it, his body temperature was dropping.

He began to feel better.

"The contract," Rapunzel whispered. "It's sealed."

"I wonder where it's located?" Merida asked.

Jack looked back up at Merida. "What do you mean, located?"
"The contract seals itself to your skin, Jack," Rapunzel explained. Hiccup flipped over his left hand so the palm was facing down, revealing the symbol to Jack.

Jack looked at Hiccup's hand curiously, the same symbol that was etched onto his bracelet was tattooed on Hiccup's hand. Green tendrils of light licked the air quickly around the symbol before falling gracefully back down into Hiccup's skin.

Jack looked up as Merida pulled her dress skirt up, revealing the same symbol but in a red colour on her thigh above her knee. Rapunzel pulled the shoulder of her dress down to reveal a purple symbol on the front of her shoulder.

Jack was once again shocked into silence. He never saw anything like this before in his life.

Merida nodded to Jack, her impatience rolling off her like waves hitting the ocean shore. "Where's yers mate?"

He barely had time to shrug before she stormed over and roughly lifted his hoodie up. "H-hey," Jack tried protesting, leaning back away from Merida as she gasped in surprise.

"He's powerful a'right," she said, practically pulling the hoodie over Jack's head as he struggled to put it back down. Hiccup and Rapunzel looked as well, at the same symbol but in an electric blue waving its icy lashes around on Jack's abdomen. Jack blushed slightly with the exposure.

Merida finally released his hoodie and he pushed it back down quickly like a schoolgirl whose skirt was blown up in the wind. Instead of backing away, she stared at him directly in the eye. "The demons bett'r watch their back with 'im. They'll ne'er see 'im comin'."

Jack's eyes widened. "Wh-wh-what do you mean?" he said, accidentally stuttering.

The others only stared at him, not knowing what to say.

Then the room went dark.