Frosted Memories

Battle

TW: Mentions of Abuse

It was like a fog had been lifted in Jack's vision. He breathed heavily from the adrenaline, the rage. He stared up at North's pleading eyes, one of then nearly completely swollen shut and was covered in a black and blue bruise.

The man's lip was busted and his nose had been bleeding at one point. Jack then noticed the elder man's arms shaking as he gripped the boy's shoulders. He noticed how North was favoring one leg over the other.

Jack could feel his anger rising once more as he stared up at the man he considered a father. However, his anger manifested differently this time, now that he could see North was alive and okay. Injured, but okay.

The boy's face contorted into sorrow, but relief and his eyes filled with tears as his shoulders shook. "Y-you little b-brat-" Pitch strained to stand up, coughing and wheezing as his nose and a few ribs had been broken.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!" Jack screeched, whipping around and breaking out of North's loosening grasp. Jack's eyes glowed exceedingly bright, stopping Pitch and the other Guardians in their tracks in stunned silence. None of them had seen the boy's eyes glow so brightly before, never felt his raw power so unfiltered.

Pitch shook himself from his stupor, his body screaming at him to flee, but he didn't. His pride wouldn't allow him to flee just yet, so he created a chained whip out of sand. Pitch would admit that this side of Jack excited him.

This side of Jack was unhinged and dangerous, especially to himself, and Pitch liked the idea of the danger. With his staff discarded, Jack's power was more unpredictable.

As wind began to whip around them, becoming a threatening tornado ready to whisk them all away, Pitch wanted to see more. "You know, Frost." He spoke loudly over the wind, Jack's glare alone made the temperature drop and shards of ice emerge from the walls and ceiling.

"You look just like your father when you're angry." Pitch grinned maniacally. Jack's eyes widened and for the moment, the glowing of his eyes dissipated. His expression grew disgusted and full of horror.

Memories of his early childhood swarmed his vision and the chasm grew eerily still and silent. The Guardians had absolutely no idea what Pitch was talking about, or why it had affected Jack so deeply.

"I'm not like him." Jack's voice was small and scared, feeding into Pitch's grin. "Oh? You're nearly a spitting image of him!" Pitch taunted. "Don't listen to him!" Bunny was now engaging with Pitch, distracting the Boogyman so Jack to get a grip.

Jack stared down at his hands, his hands that were splattered with blood from Pitch's broken nose. He felt sick. Was he really like his father? "Y-you're w-wrong- I-" Jack began to tremble, it was getting hard to breathe. A panic attack?

He'd never hurt anyone. Not anyone innocent. Not anyone he loved. But he was so blinded by rage earlier, so was Pitch right? The Guardians didn't always catch on to some things, but they weren't that blind. They knew what was going on now.

They could see all the signs Pitch was giving and the signs through Jack's reactions. Jack's human father was abusive. The Guardians decided in this moment that they would never voluntarily bring up this subject with Jack unless he did so himself. Otherwise, this would be a restricted topic.

Jack couldn't breathe, his heart was pounding so loudly in his own head. How does Pitch know? Why does he know? Just as North, Tooth and Sandy were about to try to calm him down, Jack's body went on the defense.

His head lulled back for a slight moment but righted itself quickly. His expression became expressionless and his eyes glowed once more. His legs bent, preparing to launch himself at Pitch.

North recognized this as a survival mechanism that Jack must have developed at some point during his spirit life in order to survive all alone. North's heart broke. Jack was alone for so long.

He must have subconsciously trained himself to remain calm in tough situations as to not lose control. He must have trained himself to keep his emotions in check, no matter what he'd been feeling. And without his memories, he was like a ticking time bomb.

One wrong move, and an angry Jack Frost could send the country into an eternal winter. "BUNNY MOVE!" North's shrill scream made the Pooka instantly flee from the Boogyman. He's only ever heard North sound like that maybe 3 times in all the years they've known eachother.

Bunny made a tunnel and disappeared into it, reappearing behind North and witnessing Jack attacking Pitch with sheer force. Pitch was intrigued by the void looking expression on the frost child's face, although he was a tad disappointed that he wasn't angry.

The Guardians couldn't help but watch the fight as it commenced. They could tell by Jack's aura alone that anything that got in his way was considered a threat and would be dealt with without mercy.

The pure force of their power's clashing began to make the earth tremble and the cave began to collapse. "We have to go!" Bunny shouted, creating a tunnel and urging the other three Guardians into it and up to the surface.

"But-!" Tooth began but Bunny shook his head. "I'll go back for him!" And with that, he left them on the surface and went to retrieve their youngest.

But before he could descend into his tunnel, the winter spirit and the Boogyman shot up from beneath the earth, Pitch being catapolted to the ground as Jack ungracefully stumbled to the ground in a kneeling position.

His energy was weighing on him, the fight had even triggered some memories to surface from Jack's first battles with Pitch when he'd met the Guardians. However, Jack was trying to force them down in order to fight, but in doing so he'd wavered and Pitch had landed a gastly blow to Jack's abdomen.

The injury was more on his side, so the damage wasn't too severe, but it was bleeding quite a bit. The boy was heaving, his breaths coming out ragged and strained. His throat was still far from healed and he'd been yelling and screaming, making it sore and scratchy.

Jack hadn't really noticed his injury in his survival state, but now that he was wearing down, he was coming back to his senses. This was bad. His head screamed in pain as he tried to surpress the memories, and as a result he didn't see Pitch's next attack.

Before anyone could react, the Boogyman's sand that had accumulated during the fight swarmed Jack. It lifted the injured boy into the air and even though Jack kept freezing it, it didn't prevent him from being slammed into the ground in full force, creating a bit of a crater upon impact.

Jack's last moments of conciousness were a blur. There was a commotion and flashes of color. Then, there was someone above him. He thought they were yelling things at him but he wasn't sure, he couldn't hear anything except an awful ringing noise.

Jack tried to call out but his own voice didn't reach his ears, and even if it could, his throat was too irritated to let him speak. And that is when he let the call of sleep take him.

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Hello Snowflakes,

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm thinking of updating again soon. Is Jack okay? Will he wake up? Let me know what you think!!

*Jack Frost*