Chapter Text
Jack and Pitch stood in a frozen wasteland, the snow calm and slow as it drifted down. They stood together on one side of a white expanse, dusty snow occasionally being picked up by the wind making the ground seem alive.
The guardians stood on the other side, a ways away from them. Pitch knew what they were there for. They'd been trying to convince Jack to leave Pitch, to abandon the work they'd been doing, for years. They'd tried many times before, and Jack still stuck by Pitch's side. That wasn't going to change, and by that point, the guardians constantly trying to get it to change was more a hassle then a threat. Usually.
Jack put a hand out to gesture for Pitch to stay where he was before stepping forward, raising his voice to be heard across the field. "I'm not going to-"
"We just want to talk Jack." Tooth interrupted him, arms partially raised. The other three guardians stood behind her, all with equally stoney expressions.
Something was wrong, though. Pitch could feel it. He couldn't pinpoint why, but the deep dread settled in him. What was more disturbing was their quieted fears. A sign they were determined and set on a course. Something was wrong.
Bunny waved Jack over, "Come here so we can actually talk without having to yell."
Jack glanced back to Pitch, making eye contact, and they both agreed to move forward. However, as soon as Pitch started walking as well, Bunny called out again. "Oh no. Your bed-shade can bloody well stay far over there."
Jack once again glanced back at Pitch but turned back and kept moving forward. Pitch caught his shoulder. "Jack, don't. Something's off."
Jack looked over Pitch's face for a bit, thinking, before he offered a comforting grin. "It'll be fine. If things seem like they're about to get heated I'll just fly out."
Pitch shook his head. "No. Something's wrong Jack."
"Things have been wrong for a while now Liquorice. But hey," he tilted his head with that confident little grin, a softness to his gaze urging Pitch to trust in him, "I have hope. Maybe this will lead us to a truce."
Pitch scowled. "Jack."
Jack sighed and shrugged Pitch's hand off, turning and walking toward the guardians again.
"Jack, please." a rising desperation beat around Pitch's chest like a panicked bird.
"It'll be fine." Was all Jack gave. Pitch watched him cross over the field, a thick air of tension carried with the wind around them. There was something about the way the guardians were standing, the way they watched Jack approach. Pitch couldn't explain why, but he wanted to drag Jack back with him and disappear them both into shadows. He wanted this to be over with already.
Jack reached the guardians, and Pitch watched them exchange tense words. Jack seemed more exasperated and frustrated than anything. The others looked like they were trying to convince him of something, and Pitch had a pretty good idea what that something was. There was a strange level of fear in Tooth of Jack's refusal. Something was wrong.
Then it happened. Bunny's face turned to one of pure anger and he barked something out. In a golden flash, Sandy, standing a ways back from the others, shot a whip out and snatched Jack's staff from his hand. The burst of fear that exploded off Jack as he turned to Sandy in bewilderment almost sickened Pitch.
He scowled and called nightmare sand pouring around him, launching him forward toward the others but he was immediately stopped in his tracks by Sandy. That was when the Pitch felt his own fear rise up to the others. Sandy came at him viciously without hesitation, giving Pitch no time to think. All there was was just reactions and a rising blind rage as he dodged golden whips and launched attack after attack at Sandy. Multiple times, he turned to try to at least get closer to Jack and each time he was hedged off by Sandy, until finally Pitch realized Sandy wasn't so much trying to fight Pitch as he was trying to distract Pitch. Something was wrong.
Once he realized, he slowed down just enough to keep dodging Sandy's attacks and looked past Sandy to find Jack. His worst fear was realized. North had Jack on the ground pressed into the snow and Pitch watched as one of his sabers sliced down through the air and jammed itself into Jack's neck. His neck froze over solid and only allowed the saber about an inch in, causing Pitch to feel a brief flash of relief, thankful for Jack's strange physiology.
He watched on and off, having to keep up with Sandy's rapid fire strikes, as Jack managed to tear the saber out of his neck and away from North, jabbing it up so North was forced to get off of him in order to avoid getting stabbed. With an agile twist of movement, Jack was back on his feet, a frozen bloody saber in hand as he glared down the three around him. Pitch could tell Jack was struggling with movement in his neck as he continuously had to turn to be able to keep up with where all three were, unable to turn his head and look that way.
Pitch was torn away from watching when a whip managed to grab onto his wrist in his distraction and it threw him farther back across the field, away from Jack. With the disorientation after, Pitch couldn't keep up with both what was going on with Jack and with Sandy. It wasn't until much later he had himself under control enough that he could look over.
His stomach dropped. Bunny had Jack on his knees, arms twisted behind his back, frozen slices covered Jack's body, but none of them were anything compared to the ruthless way Tooth was hacking at the frozen ice of Jack's neck. Pitch could only watch helplessly as Jack struggled and struggled and struggled to get out of the hold as her sword came down on him blow after blow, chips and chucks of frozen flesh falling away as she got through like cutting down a tree.
A high pitched ringing started up in Pitch's ear and things slowed down. The golden flashes in front of him barely registered, his body just moving instinctually away from them. He could see all too clearly the glints of red and white that kept falling to the snow below Jack. It was all too clear, the rising chaoticness and desperation to Jack's movements, the way they then fell weaker and weaker as glinted metal sank deeper and deeper into his neck. Everything seemed to come to a standstill and Pitch could almost imagine he heard it as a crack ripped through the rest of Jack's neck. His body slumped as a head of ice fell into the snow, sinking a little bit into the soft tarnished white.
A few seconds were spent in slow agonizingly clear detail as he stared at the head, some part of him unable to comprehend what he was seeing, before it all came rushing back as gold grabbed hold of him again and threw him to the side. Quickly righting himself on his feet, he looked back and forth between Sandy and the other three who were now abandoning Jack's body and advancing on him.
Even with a storm of dread and helplessness, fear and rage, and a thousand other things brewing inside Pitch, he was still able to think enough to know there was no way he was going to be able to go up against all four, especially if they intended to kill rather than simply stop. A sickeningly helpless grief tore through him as he backed away, knowing he had to leave but feeling as though he might crumble apart himself if he left Jack there. For ten minutes he managed to evade the guardians, trying to get over to Jack even as he knew he wouldn't be able to. After one of Bunny's boomerangs came within an inch of Pitch's own neck, Pitch knew he couldn't stay there longer. It was of no service to Jack, if Pitch stayed to die as well.
With everything inside of him falling apart, Pitch dropped into shadows and left the field.