//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: New Beginnings // by Lunafan1k //------------------------------// Run. Faster. Faster still. Fear. Can’t hide. Can’t escape. Running. A dark shadow, stripped of its power, fled to all corners of the world. Fear, a dark power he once wielded as though he were a god, now consumed his very soul as his own power turned upon him and sought his destruction. With no way to fight back against his own darkness, he fled. And so the years passed, locked away in darkness as it surrounded him, dragging him back when he fought to the surface world only to flee blindly once more; but luck was with him this day. He fled deeper into the darkness, hoping against hope he would be able to hide long enough to regain some of his strength. What he found though, was much better. In the deepest reaches of the darkness, he found a light, the brightest he had ever laid eyes upon. He quickly halted his flight, fear of the light gripping him and crippling his form. Yet for all his fear of the light, the sounds of the approaching nightmares terrified him all the more. He turned back to the light, and fled towards it as fast as he could. The nightmares pursuing him were faster though; they surrounded him, pulling him back away from the light as he reached forward with all his strength and desperation. Just as he was about to be dragged back into the darkness he felt something grab his hand. His entire arm burst into flames as he screamed in pain, his limb dissolving and flowing into the light. The nightmares released him, fleeing the all-consuming fire as it spread along his body. His eyes widened; this was not the escape he had hoped for, wanting to return to the familiar darkness in fear rather than burn away in the light. Soon, his thoughts stopped as the light enveloped his head in its raging flames. The light stole the last of his being, and then slammed shut with a crack of thunder. The man of darkness was no more. Jack Frost, a young boy of 14, died over 300 years ago in an effort to save his sister from falling through the ice on top of a lake. In his efforts, he was rewarded with falling through the ice in his sister’s stead and dying a quick death. The Man in the Moon saw his actions, and deemed him worthy of being a spirit of frost. Jack was revived, however, he knew not who he was and none could see him, for they lacked belief in him. For 300 years he wandered, bringing with him a bitter chill of frost and snow, as well as fun and games for children around the globe to enjoy. But no matter what he did, there were none who believed in him. That was until a shadowy figure known as Pitch Black, AKA the Boogy-Man, corrupted the dreams of the children of the world and spread his darkness across the land. The Guardians of the children, Santa, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy fought him to their best abilities, but it was for naught as the nightmares removed the children’s faith in them, rending their powers useless. But Jack managed to renew the belief of several children in the guardians, including Jack himself. The children stood up to the nightmares, changing them to dreams of purity. With that they revived the Sandman, who spread his dreams of the other guardians to all the children of the world, renewing their belief in the Guardians and sapping the power from Pitch. It was at this point that Pitch’s nightmares turned against him and banished him to the deep darkness of the underworld, and Jack was crowned as a fellow guardian. Several years later, Jack was flying around New York, spreading an early frost throughout the city. “And that, is the perfect way to wake up in the morning!” He said excitedly as he finished frosting the last of the windows. “Well now that that’s done, I wonder what North’s up to these days.” He took out a snow globe he had ‘acquired’ from one of the Yeti last time he was up north. “Let’s give you a try, no point in snatching this baby if I never use it is there?” Jacked looked over the globe with a critical eye, “How do you work?” He asked it. He paced back and forth as he thought back to when he saw Santa use it. “Oh that’s right!” He held the globe close to his mouth and spoke clearly, “North Pole,” then threw it at the wall. What should have happened was a giant portal would open, leading straight to the North Pole. Instead the globe struck the wall with a dull crack, and then bounced along the ground back to his feet. “Huh.” Jack muttered, flabbergasted. He picked it up and examined it, there was a crack along the glass that seemed to leak liquid light. “Stupid thing, I said North Pole!” He yelled in frustration as he shook it in anger. He heard a slight chime, more of a jingle, and looked at the globe clutched in his hand. The fake snow in the globe had condensed into a picture of Santa’s work shop. “Oh right, you’re supposed to shake it… That makes sense.” Jack tossed the globe at the wall once more, and a swirling portal opened up. “There we go! North Pole here I come!” He called out in laughter as he took a running jump through the portal. But as it consumed him, the portal seemed to glitch. Static filled its vortex before flashing with blinding light and slamming shut with a crack of thunder. The winds of the north remained unchanged, no portal appeared, and Jack was lost. Pitch slowly came to his senses, but there was nothing to sense. His mind screamed; he was everywhere and nowhere; there was no up, no down; he saw but didn’t see; heard but there was nothing to hear; he saw no light or darkness. He simply was, yet he wasn’t. Thus was the madness of the Void, for he had somehow escaped reality itself. Now he found himself with just his thoughts and memories as time flew past him, or never moved, or didn’t exist at all. After an eternity alone, (or was it an instant? He couldn’t tell) he finally felt something. Was he falling? Flying? He had no idea, but he felt as if he was moving at an incredible rate, as though the void was rejecting him, and was tossing him around at random. Soon he felt more sensations, the feeling of the cold ground supporting him as his head spun. He opened his eyes and saw a bright blue sky with dots of clouds scattered about. With the return of his senses, so did his fear of his own nightmares. He tried to stand and flee once again, but his body was unresponsive to his efforts. With a pained moan, he closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable. Yet the inevitable never came. He reached out with his senses as far as they could go and found no trace of his pursuers. He let out a faint laugh as the reality of his situation kicked in; He had done it. He had somehow managed to escape his eternal torment. With this thought he let himself relax for the first time in years, and drifted off to a deep, dreamless slumber. Jack felt sick; he had taken the portals a few times before but it had never felt like he was being twisted around himself like a pretzel. Soon enough he landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him. He rolled over and curled up in pain, breathing in the sweet scents of summer... “Wait what?” He said groggily. He managed to pull himself up into a sitting position and looked around at the green field he found himself in. “Well this isn’t the North Pole. Probably shouldn’t have used the globe after it cracked like that. Looks like I’m flying myself.” He stood and brushed himself off, looking to the sun to determine which way was north. He saw the sun rising in the east, bathing a tall mountain in its golden light that reflected off an impossible castle jutting from the side of a cliff, with a magnificent waterfall flowing down from it. Jack stared in awe, he had no idea such a place existed! In his excitement he realized that the only beings he knew of that lived in such wonders were his fellow guardians. “Well, maybe I’ll just pay them a visit then, find out where I am and all that.” He turned away from the castle and yelled, “Alright wind, take me to the castle!” He spun back around and jumped into the air in the direction of the castle, but the familiar feeling of the wind lifting him toward the skies, the cool breeze wafting through his hair never came, and instead was replaced with a dull aching sensation as he fell on his face. “Oh… ow…” He mumbled as he clutched his face. “What the heck was that all about?” he asked as he recovered to his feet. “Why can’t I fly…?” He wandered around as he thought of the various reasons for this turn of events, casually freezing the blades of grass with his staff. “The only time a guardian can lose their powers is when nobody believes in them, but that can’t be right. Maybe the portal messed me up somehow? Yeah… that must be it.” Jack looked back up to the castle, “Well, maybe whoever lives there would be able to help me out.” As Jack prepared to set out, he heard a low moan off to his right. He went over to investigate, and he saw someone he thought he would never see again: Pitch Black. Jack took up a defensive stance, holding his staff in front of him in preparation for an attack. Pitch responded with a snore. Jack hesitated, and looked closer. Pitch was obviously in a deep sleep, blissfully unaware of Jack standing not three feet from him, and unconsciously rubbing his face in the dirt. Jack was spared further confusion as the memory of Pitch making the children lose their beliefs in the Guardians filled him with anger. He strode forward and jabbed Pitch in the side with his staff, chilling him to the core in a flash. Pitch let out a yelp and jumped to his feet as he clutched his cold side in fear and confusion. His eyes fell upon Jack who was once more in a battle stance. “Jack? Jack Frost? What are you doing here?” Pitch asked in confusion. He had fled that world, hadn’t he? “You know why I’m here, you took over the children again haven’t you?! That’s why I can’t use my powers!” Jack yelled. “Took over…?” Pitch looked around in confusion. “I haven’t done anything! Wait, you can’t use your powers?” Pitch tried to call upon the little power he had before he fell into the light, yet there was none. “It’s gone…” He said in pure shock. “Don’t lie to me! You did something, I know it!” Jack yelled, switching the hold on his staff threateningly. “I’m not lying!” Pitch said defensively. “Ever since I was defeated by you my time was spent trying to escape those blasted nightmares! I barely had time to run let alone try to regain any semblance of power I once had. Whatever the cause for our loss of power, it is not my doing.” Jack thought for a moment, considering Pitch’s words. He also thought back to anything concerning Pitch over the years; he wouldn’t have had enough time to reform that large of an army to take over the world again, let alone have the power to stand up to all the Guardians again. “Okay,” He said as he lowered the staff to his side, “so, what do you think is the cause for this then?” Pitch lowered his hands as he took a more casual stance, “I remember fleeing into a deeper darkness, where I found a painful light…” He scratched the side of his head as he tried to remember more than the pain of the event. “I don’t know exactly, but the light burned so much, all I remember is unimaginable pain, then an emptiness so profound I thought I would go mad. Then I woke up here, unable to sense the nightmares.” “Okay, but that still doesn’t answer my question.” Jack said as he leaned against his staff. “But it does, Jack. I can sense all of the darkness in the world, even at my weakest. Here, I cannot sense anything but purity. Yes there are a few patches of darkness, but nothing of the sort that was after me. This, along with our loss of power, makes me believe we are on a different planet, or even a separate plane of reality. But that just leaves one question: How did you get here, Jack?” Jack frowned a bit at that news, if he was truly on a different planet or reality then the odds of getting back home was slim to none, and he was powerless to do anything about it. He sighed, “I was trying to get to the North Pole, but messed up a snow globe and cracked it to where some light was leaking out of it. I got it working after a bit and jumped into the portal. It was painful, like someone was twisting my insides into a knot, then I landed not far from here, and found you.” “Well, that is unfortunate.” Pitch said sincerely. “So, two old enemies stranded on an alien world without their powers... What do you think we should do?” Jack asked as he began to pace in a circle, twirling his staff about him in arcs of frost. “Well, the first option is we fight it out to the death, and seeing as you can still chill things means I’m at a serious disadvantage, and I don’t want to die thank you. The other is we could form a truce and gather more information about this place.” Pitch said as he strummed his long fingers together. “True, but if we form a truce what’s to keep you from exacting revenge upon me when my guard is down?” “Nothing really, except my word. Now really Jack, I might have been evil but I still had a code of honor. I warned the guardians in advance before I attacked and did so in the open. I’m not some underhanded assassin. Besides, there’s no fun in that. I would want to fight you with both of us at full power, and from what it looks like neither of us will be getting any power any time soon.” Jack paused in his pacing to stare at Pitch for a moment, before he chuckled a bit, “You know, you got a point there. So,” He extended his hand to Pitch, “a truce then, until we get our powers back or get out of here then?” Pitch chuckled as well, not an evil chuckle, but one of agreement. “Oh, I think I can agree to that.” He said as he grasped Jacks hand, and they shook on it. “Now then, what now?” He asked as he returned his hand to his side. “There’s a massive castle on that mountain in the distance, I don’t know about you, but it just screams Guardian, don’t you think?” Jack said as he pointed off into the distance. Pitch looked over it as well, “Yes it does seem to have that mystical quality to it, but I’m not feeling the vibe of a Guardian. In fact there is a higher concentration of darkness there, as well as more purity. Whatever lives there is certainly powerful though.” He concluded. “Well standing around here isn’t getting us anywhere, let’s go say hello.” Jack stated as he strode off in the direction of the mountain. “Yes, let’s.” Pitch said, following after at a comfortable pace. Together they traveled the land, on a shared journey towards the unknown and new beginnings.