ROTG-Frozen Wonder

14

  Jack runs to the edge of a floating iceberg, ready to throw his tooth box into the ocean but he resists, looking down at the box as he clutches it in his hand.

He's never been more alone in his life.

"I thought this might happen."

Pitch reveals himself, standing not far behind Jack.

"They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that. But I understand."

Jack whips around and shoots a burst of frost at Pitch, but it's quickly deflected by the Nightmare sand.

"You don't understand anything!"

Jack continues to attack, lashing out in anger with his staff.

Pitch blocks the attacks of ice and frost -- his control over the Nightmare sand has gained considerable strength.

"No? I don't know what it's like to be cast out?"

Pitch strikes back, putting Jack on the defensive.

Their show of force escalates until they're shrouded in a blanket of snow, ice, and wind.

As the wind and snow settle, Jack looks around stern and alert.

"To not be believed in. To long for a family."

Jack turns to find Pitch. There's a look of compassion on Jack's face as he listens.

"All those years in the shadows I thought, no one else knows what this feels like. But now I see I was wrong."

They lock eyes. A moment of true connection between them.

"We don't have to be alone, Jack. I believe in you. And I know children will too."

"In me?"

"Yes! Look at what we can do!"

Pitch gestures to a fantastical ice and nightmare "sculpture" that was created when Jack attacked him.

"What goes together better than cold and dark?"

Jack looks at the fractured reflections of themselves cast in the icy sculpture.

"We can make them believe. We'll give them a world where everything, everything is..."

Jack turns to face Pitch.

"Pitch black..."

Pitch, realizing how this looks, quickly move to clarify.

"And Jack Frost too. They'll believe in both of us."

Jack stares at him, considering the offer. Then finally...

"No, they'll fear both of us. And that's not what I want."

Jack turns and walks away.

"Now for the last time, leave me alone."

Pitch looks confused and hurt.

This is not the response he was expecting.

Then...his eyes flame with anger.

He made himself vulnerable, and Jack rejected him.

No more negotiating now.

"Very well. You want to be left alone? Done. But first..."

Suddenly Jack hears a familiar twitter mixed with muffled words.

"Baby Tooth! Natalia!"

Jack charges forward.

There's terror in both of their eyes.

~

Baby Tooth squeaks as Pitch clenches her tight with his fist and I try to push myself away from his hold.

"The staff, Jack."

Jack settles and the winds and snow subsides.

"You have a bad habit of interfering. Now hand it over. And I'll let them go."

Baby Tooth twitters and struggles to get loose, but Pitch only tightens his grip.

She can hardly breathe.

Jack hands over the staff with a frustrated expression and Pitch lets go of me to grab it as he twirls it in his hand.

My eyes widen and I lurch forward, trying to get free once more but Pitch is having none of it as his foot makes contact with my back, pressing me into the cold snow.

"Alright, now let them go."

"No."

Jack steps back, shocked and heartbroken.

"You said you wanted to be alone. So be alone!"

Baby Tooth squirms until she's finally able to peck Pitch in the hand with her beak.

Pitch shrieks and throws Baby Tooth in the air and down into the mouth of a crevasse, his foot shoving off of me as he steps back and grabs his hand and I make my way towards Jack.

"No!"

Jack, enraged, can't believe what he's seeing.

Pitch lifts the staff, and breaks it over his knee, cracking it in two.

Light explodes from the wood and terror comes into Jack's eyes, clutching his chest as if in pain.

Suddenly, Pitch sends a burst of Nightmare sand but I jump in front of Jack before it hits him, only for it to knock me back into him and slamming us both into the iceberg wall behind us. My effort to protect the white haired spirit was useless.

As the ice cracks, Jack comes loose and we fall forward into the chasm below.

Pitch looks down into the ice fissure chuckling before he throws the broken shards of Jack's staff down into the crevasse and casually walks away, disappearing on the horizon.