Revenge on Frost - Rise of the Guardians Fanfiction

Time Ticking Away

When Jack woke up, everything was hot. Smoldering hot everywhere. The metal beneath him felt like it had been dipped in lava. For once, he was glad he wasn't wearing a sweatshirt. It would make everything hotter. Sweat was dripping down Jack's forehead. He tried to breath in only to get a mouth full of...smoke?

Jack tried to cough it out of his lungs only to inhale more. His expanding lungs touched his broken rib and made his chest explode in pain.

"Poor Frost," someone mocked.

"H-hello to y-you too...creep," Jack said in between coughs. He was able to control his breathing again for the most part.

Pitch frowned slightly. "What did you dream?" The Nightmare King asked. 

Jack looked up at him through the bars wincing. "Why would you care? And I wouldn't call that a dre-" Jack started coughing again and groaned. It was getting way too hot for the Winter Spirit's comfort. 

"Nightmare fire," Pitch said with a smirk. "Fire controlled by Nightmares. The smoke will cause you to release more fear, I assume. Behave, and I can tone it down a little if you would wish."

Sweat covered Jack's entire body and he tried his best not to pass out. 

"What did you dream?" Pitch asked again.

Don't know why it's so important to him. Jack thought to himself, bringing his knees up to his chest. His stomach had been burned from lying on the metal for so long. He avoided touching the bars behind him in fear they'd be hot too. 

Jack thought back to his dream. Marin was on the ice, he had to save her. She was a kid and Jack was a Guardian of children so he had to save her. Wait. That didn't seem right. How could Maria see him? No one could see him but Jamie and his friends. Why was that kid on his lake anyway? There was something missing. Marin-no. What was her name? She was important to him. To Jackson. No, Jack. What was happening. 

Jack started panicking. There was something he wasn't seeing. Something he was forgetting.

"You're fear is...interesting," Pitch said, tilting his head.

"Shut up," Jack spat and suppressed a cough. 

"You fear being forgotten," Pitch mocked. 

"You've said it before," Jack mumbled. 

The cage lurched forward slightly when Pitch flicked his hand and Jack tumbled forward. He couldn't help but cry out in pain when he landed on his bare stomach on the scorching metal. His rib pushed painfully against his lung and left him gasping for breath when he burned his hands while getting back up into a sitting position. 

"Don't talk back," Pitch hissed. Both hands were clasped behind his back. "As I was saying, you fear being forgotten. But you also fear something else. Something I hadn't seen before because...well, you had nothing to forget."

"What...are you talking a-about?" Jack asked. 

"You see, Frost," Pitch smirked. "You fear not only being forgotten, but forgetting." The King of Nightmares started circling the cage. "You don't want to forget the memories you gained with your teeth. You don't want to forget your sister or your family. You don't want to go back to those 300 years of knowing only your name. Thinking you don't belong anywhere. That you're just a mistake."

Jack would have told the Boogeyman to shut up. If only he could have found the words that seemed stuck in his throat. 

Also, he had a sister? Yeah. Mary. He remembered now. Vaguely.

"Is that correct Jack?" Pitch asked.

Jack turned his tired gaze to the man with hatred. "Get out of my head, Pitch. You aren't winning this. The Guardians-"

"Have forgotten you," Pitch snarled. His tone was as cold as Jack's ice. "They don't care about you! If they did, they would have already come to get you. How hard is it to get into my liar? To simply come through the passage underground and find you, not hard." Pitch's face was so close to the bars Jack could feel his breath. It was almost as hot as the fire below him that was increasingly turning the metal hotter and hotter. 

Jack could feel his hope fall. Maybe Pitch was right. Maybe they didn't care for him. Jack knew he was a burden to them. He just hoped that he wasn't too much of a problem that they wouldn't care about him. Maybe he was wrong...

With his eyes narrowed, Jack spit a mouthful of saliva and trace amounts of blood (most likely from the rib scratching the Winter Spirit's lung) in Pitch's face.

The boogeyman recoiled from the cage with a hiss as he wiped the contents off of his face with anger. Jack felt pleased with himself for a moment, he even managed his signature smirk. Even if it was weak.

Of course, the moment was short lived. 

Pitch sent Nightmare sand into the cage and before Jack could blink, the sand bound his wrists and ankles together.

Pitch opened the cage door after creating a strange looking key with the sand to unlock it and smiled with evil pleasure at the injured Winter Spirit. "Oh, Jack," Pitch sighed. "I'm afraid your behavior must be...corrected."

.....

"How hard is it to get into a stupid lair?!" Bunny shouted in anger and killed the last Nightmare.

"Should not be hard," North said in his confused Russian accent. He looked down into the black abyss that stood at the entrance of Pitch's hideout. When they had first arrived, small pieces of old wood surrounded the hole into the Earth.

Tooth hovered next to North and put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find a way."

"It'll be hard," Bunny muttered as he watched Sandy pick up trace amounts of Nightmare sand between his figures. "Every time we try to go into the tunnel, Nightmares stop us and force us to come right back out to fight them off." He kicked a rock in anger. It soared through the air and hit a nearby tree. Every second that ticked by was nothing good for Jack. They were running out of time. 

North's brows were furrowed and his eyes were pointed toward the ground. His thinking face. Bunny took a step back before the big man could swing his sword at his nose.

"Wait...wait, wait, wait, wait!" North mumbled over and over with his sword slung over his shoulder. His eyes grew wide and his mouth opened in an "O" shape. "IDEA!" He shouted and swung his sword in an ark, narrowly missing Tooth's wing as she fluttered away. 

"What is it, mate?" Bunny asked. Anything would help. Anything. They had to save Jack.