Rise of the Guardians: Burning the Phoenix

Chapter 1: HIS Return

It's always calm before the storm. That saying ran through Jack's mind as he stood in a defensive stance above his frozen pond, his staff held so tightly in his pale hands that for a second he was afraid that it would split in half once more. His brilliant eyes dashed from side to side, searching for something without a single clue as to what that may be. 

Silence reigned over the entire area. The only things to be heard were the sounds of the winter life as the world went on around him. Jack sighed heavily, releasing a breath of frost as his shoulders relaxed and slumped. Without even asking, the North Wind lifted him gently into the air.

Must have just been my imagination acting up, Jack thought as he sailed through the skies. Paranoia is the enemy of fun. Even with his own reassurance that nothing was wrong, Jack couldn’t find the will power to bring his usual smile back to his face just yet. Some sort of sour omen stood over his head, weighing down his shoulders and gripping his heart with its cold hand. He just knew something was wrong, even if he knew nothing.

“Hey, Jack!” a voice called to him from somewhere below, tearing him from his train of thought. Glancing towards the sound, he floated down to his first believer. Jamie grinned widely as he drew near, though that soon disappeared into an expression of utmost worry. “Are you alright?”

Jack quirked an eyebrow inquisitively. “What do you mean?”

Jamie shrugged his small shoulders. “I don’t know. You just don’t seem very… happy today.”

“It is nothing,” the guardian assured the child. “I just got up on the wrong side of the bed today.”

“If you think that is bad, imagine coming from under it.”

Jack’s eyes grew wide as he whirled around, taking a defensive stance in front of Jamie, who tensed up at the familiar voice. Just a few feet from them, in all his monochromatic glory, was the owner of the voice; Pitch Black.

The man smirked impishly at the pair, revealing his sharpened teeth. “Long time no see, eh Jack?” Pitch held out his hand, as if to shake Jack’s own. “How long has it been? A year? It is so hard to keep track of time where I have been.”

“Sorry to tell you this, but it is the wrong time of the year for you. The monsters only come out on Halloween nowadays.”

Pitch chuckled darkly, taking the snarky words of Jack in stride. He ran a hand through his black locks. “This is what I missed about you, Jack. That humor of yours is just so strong. It is partially why I was defeated in the first place.” Pitch took a step towards the pair.

“Stay back,” Jack hissed. “I wouldn’t let you touch him then, and I am not going to let you now.”

“Hurt him?” Pitch repeated, his smile never fading. “My dear Jack, who said anything about hurting anyone? No. No. No. I am here to save someone. Specifically, you.”

“Me?” Jack repeated skeptically. He narrowed his eyes on Pitch’s form. “What do you mean by that?”

“All in a matter of time, Jack.” Pitch chuckled at his own inside joke. “All in a matter of time.”

Jack opened his mouth to respond again, but was cut off by the sound of jingling bells and a boastful call.

“Jack!” There was a din as the fabled sleigh skid across the snow and ice. The occupants of it rushed out, their weapons in hand as their eyes dashed between the three already there. North scowled at Pitch. “Vat do you vant, Pitch?”

“Oh good. The rest of our characters have appeared. Now we can get started on our abridged play.” Pitch clapped his hands together. “Good to see all of you again, by the way.”

“Quick the small talk, you bloody bounce,” Bunny snarled. “Where are the teeth?”

“Teeth?” Jack asked. “You stole teeth again? Let me tell you something now, pitch, if it didn’t work the first time, it sure as heck isn’t going to happen the second.”

“I am not foolish enough to think that, Jack.” Pitch pulled a teeth-capsule out from behind his back. “This time, I was after a specific person’s teeth. Do they look familiar, Jack. Do they?”

“Again with this?” Jack snarled, his eyes locked on the physical form of his childhood memories. “I am starting to think that you are as obsessed with my teeth as Tooth is. No offense.” Tooth rolled her eyes at this, but said nothing.

“This is different, Jack.” Pitch tossed the capsule up and down with one hand, giving it no mind at all. “And this isn’t all that I have taken.”

Pitch smirked before pulling something else out from behind him. In his hand, he held a small hourglass. The fragile thing looked no more than two inches at the most and was filled with plain white sand. Jack quirked an eyebrow.

“What? You robbed a dollar store? I must say, if this is your big mastermind plan to take revenge on us, then I don’t see why you even crawled out of, or out from beneath, bed today”

Pitch shook his head and tutted lightly. He opened the capsule and the top of the hourglass, pulling out one of Jack’s teeth. “Poor Jack. You were in the dark for so long that you don’t know anything about anything. But don’t worry. Soon you will be a part of the dark, not in it.” With that being said, Pitch dropped the tooth into the hourglass and snapped it shut.

“How did you get one of those?” North bellowed as all of the guardians, excluding Jack, took a few steps toward the man. “No way he let you in.”

“You would be surprised,” Pitch said calmly. He closed the capsule and tossed it toward Jack, who barely managed to catch it after some stumbling. “I won’t need the rest of those now. I would say see you soon, Jack, but I won’t see you soon or ever again.” He waved his hand at them. “Ta-Ta.”

Pitch shook the hourglass gently. The sand swirled around the tooth, seeming to absorb it. Suddenly, the monochromatic man threw it to the ground, smashing it into pieces. The sand from the broken fragments grew and circled him before, in an instant, both he and the white plumes were gone.

“What was-" Jack was cut off as he felt a strong pulse run through him, starting in his heart. He stumbled on his feet, grasping the throbbing area. It felt like his insides were an inferno. As he fell to his knees, he faintly heard his friends calling out his name.

“Ve must hurry,” North stated. “Ve need to get Jack to Grandfather Time.”

That was the last thing that Jack heard before his world was encompassed in darkness.