Previously:
"Jackath? I'm scared."

"I know, Cordak, I know," Jack heard Jackath soothe the young boy. "Let's have some fun, okay?" The cracks of the ice echoed in Jack's ears even though he was too far away to hear them. He pressed his hands to his ears in a desperate attempt to not hear what happened next.

CRACK!

The last thing both Jack and Jackath heard was Clara's screams.

They say that memories are the worst form of torture. They also say that they are what makes us who we are. With out them, we would be mindless piles of flesh walking the Earth. With out them, we would not have goals, no morals, no connections. No personality, no beliefs, no family, no nothing.

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Jack though so at that moment. Especially since Clara's screams were still echoing in his head, not to mention the fact that Claire seemed to be a reincarnation of Clara. Heck! Even their names were similar!

As of right now, Jack laid on his back, his head pounding and fist clenched tightly around a now familiar staff. He groaned, rolling over on his side to see that he was at the edge of a very high up table. He yelped in surprise and rolled the other way-too much! He landed on the floor face first.

"Jack!" The sound of wings and suddenly, his view was covered by blue, green and yellow feathers. "We thought we lost you, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Tooth," Jack said, pushing the mother hen out of his space. "I remember."

"You-what?" Tooth said in astonishment.

"I remember everything," Jack said. With the biggest smile on his face.

"We didn't even need the teeth!" Bunny exclaimed triumphantly.

"No," Jack agreed, getting up and looking up at Sir Nicholas. "I am ready."

"Ready for what?" Tooth asked.

"Yes, Jack," a bodiless voice echoed around the them, "ready for what?"

"Who are you?" Sir Nicholas called out, looking up and around.

"De ja vu moment right now," Bunny muttered, giving Jack a pointed look.

"Don't you know me?" The voice asked. "Jack should, he knew my brother. Before he murdered him."

"Jack, you were murdered?" Bunny asked, confused.

"Oh, no," the voice echoed still, "didn't Jack tell you? He murdered Mitch."

"Pitch," Jack growled. "He deserved that and you know it. If you really cared, you would have gone after me long before this time."

"Maybe," Pitch's voice grew more solid as the shadows in the corner came together to form a more tangible being. "But then I would not have his army, no would I?"

"What do you want, Pitch?" Sir Nicholas asked as Sandman gave Jack a look that said he will have to explain himself.

"I want what my brother wanted," his pasty skin stood out in a blinding contrast from his midnight robes and the shadows around him.

"To be a Guardian?" Bunny inquired, his ears twitched in Pitch's direction, obviously still confused.

"Jack Frost," Pitch said, his gold eyes gleaming with untold horrors. "You do not know my brother's true mission, do you?"

"What are you blathering on about?" Sir Nicholas shouted before Jack could say anything.

"Do you even know the true extent of your powers?" Pitch ignored the big white bearded man. "No, I don't suppose you do. Otherwise you would not have killed Mitch the way you did."

"Pitch, you shadow-sneaking ragbag, come here!" Bunny grabbed one of his boomerangs from his back and hopped as fast as he could at Pitch just as he slipped into the shadows.

The five of them were looking around, wondering where he had gone when his voice came up behind them, the table Jack had been recovering on between them. "Gaining all the power you and the Guardians have was only the beginning," Pitch smiled slyly at Jack, sending chills down his back. "He was quite interested in that girl so many years ago. The one that seemed to bring the both of us to life when a certain boy fell through the ice."

"Clara," Jack whispered under his breath.

"Yes," Pitch said, pleased for some reason. "While I am the personification of fear, Mitch the Mad personified loss. Miss Clara felt both of those things so intently she created us. And Mitch was infatuated with her the moment he saw her."

"What about you?"

"Me?" Pitch laughed darkly. "I couldn't care less. That is, until I realized something."

"What?" Tooth's voice cracked, betraying the fear Jack knew was building up inside her as it was within him.

"Clara was special," Pitch started, his cruel smile washing over the group like a cold front. "Clara would keep coming back however many times it took for fate to be satisfied."

Jack's eyes widened. He was almost too afraid to acknowledge it.

"Yes," Pitch Black whispered now. "Clara came back as Claire. This intrigued me. What human-" he spat the word like it was a curse "-could be so important that fate gives them another chance?" The gold eyes glared now, coldly at Jack over the table. "Every time she appears, you have some influence in her life, Jack. Or she influences you."

"What of it?" Jack asked, his heart caught in his throat. "Get to the point." Sandman looked at him with concern at the tone in his voice.

"With you being the most powerful immortal on this earth," Pitch started, almost smug. "One can only assume she will become one as well. Her powers will rank up with yours."

"And?" Bunny pushed.

The room was filled with shadows and Pitch's voice echoed once more as he vanished. "I don't plan on letting you have her."

Fear gripped Jack like an iron fist and he couldn't breathe for a few seconds. He stumbled back into the table, his hand to his head and his heart out of his control. No way was this happening.

"Jack!" Tooth shouted. "What's wrong?"

"No," Jack muttered, trying to deny it. "No, no, no. No!"

"Frost!" Bunny roared. "What the carrots is going on?"

"Claire!" Jack said loudly. He started pacing, gripping the staff like a lifeline. "She's-she's going to...we can't let him get her, Pitch can't-he can't..." Jack ran his free hand through his white hair. "If Pitch gets her, she won't be able to-she has no experience..." he trailed off, his breathing picking up and his mind jumping from one thought to the next.

"Jack, calm down," Tooth said soothingly. "Take some deep breaths, that's it. Now tell us slowly what is happening."

"Claire-Clara, whatever her name is now," Jack swallowed, having calmed down a little. "Fate is putting her on the path to become like us, an immortal. But she keeps dying before she's ready for some reason so she keeps coming back."

"But don't you usually become an immortal after you die?" Sir NIcholas asked.

Jack shrugged, not understanding either. "She's not ready," was all he said.

"How is she going to remember?" Bunny asked. "Tooth said she only found your teeth."

Jack shook his head. He didn't know.

"Where is she?" Tooth asked now, looking at Jack expectantly.

"I dont' know-"

"Well, what do you know?" Bunny threw up his hands in exasperation.

"You didn't let me finish," Jack admonished. "I don't know but I have an idea of where she could be."

"Where?" Sir Nicholas asked for the rest of them.

"Home," Jack said softly, looking at the staff in his hand.

❄️ ❄️

"What are we looking for again?" Bunny called a little ways away in the forest they were searching.

Jack shared a long suffering look with the short, golden man next to him.

"Here," he brought his hands together then pulled them apart. A plate of ice formed with a carving of the image he remembered from his first and only home engraved on it. Moving to Bunny, he handed the oversized rabbit the carving. "It may have changed since I last saw it so keep a careful eye out and an open mind."

"It's freezing!" Bunny exclaimed. He started exchanging hands and wiping his free hands on his fur.

"It's made of ice, Bunny." Tooth said in a slightly condescending tone. When she flew over, Jack saw her lips twitch in amusement.

The group decided to look around Sir Nicholas' old home since he recognized the writing on the staff. They started in the village (Nicholas and Jack did, everyone else was not so inconspicuous) and made their way through the woods. They looked for days, going from village to village, searching for the image on the ice plate Jack kept making for each of them. Jack had lost track of how long they had been searching and was starting to grow desperate.

It was taking too long.

"Jack, don't worry, we will find her," Sandy told him through the images made of sand. Jack was the only one to so easily understand him.

Jack Frost was walking fast, his eyes scanning the woods desperately and not recognizing anything. "You don't understand, Sandy, we need to find her," he said. "She could be ready now. Pitch might have her."

"If he did, he would have told us," Sir Nicholas reassured him. "He's a gloating kind of guy."

"We still need to reach her before-" Jack suddenly stopped moving, too awestruck to do anything. The others following him stopped as well, staring at what Jack was looking at.

"Jack?" Tooth called. She was farther away from the others and was startled from he sudden lack of conversation. "Jack? Bunny? North?...Sandy?"

"Frost, what is it?" Bunny called now. He wasn't with Sir Nicholas or Sandy and Jack but he wasn't near Tooth either. They were all a little spread out.

Tooth and Bunny crashed into the clearing their friends were in to see the three of them staring at a pond. "Is this where..." Tooth trailed off, gaping at the frozen pond as well.

"Where I died," Jack whispered under his breath. Not much had changed but for the foliage. That was to be expected after a millennia or so. The pile of rocks on one end hadn't changed, neither had the pond itself. The only time Jack had ever seen it not frozen was the day he died.

Using his old friend, the Wind, he leapt straight up into the air, looking in the direction of the caves for a settlement of some kind. Not far from said caves, he saw it. A small town, compared to the city areas of the country. It looked fairly isolated, hidden by the tall mountains and trees.

"There it is," Jack muttered quietly.

"Where you grew up?" A voice asked next to him. Tooth had followed him up, looking at the cluster of buildings in the distance.

"No," Jack shook his head, smiling. "I grew up in those caves," he pointed to the mountains riddled with caves, "I was part of the cave men family in the very beginning."

"Wow," she breathed. "You said you were old but I didn't think you were that old."

Jack did not answer, gazing at the small town, his eyes moving as if looking for something. After all this time of searching and they were so close.

"What's the matter?" Tooth asked, looking from him to the village.

"I don't know," he sighed, turning to look at the caves again. Memories of his past life flashed through his mind.

"Oi, where's the town, mate?" Bunny called up.

Jack and Tooth went to land back with the others. "South from here," Jack answered. "It's a small village."

"Let's go then," Sir Nicholas said, starting to walk.

"North," Bunny said, putting his head in his paws. "South is the other way."

"I knew that," Sir Nicholas said as he started going the other way.

Sir Nicholas was the only one able to go into the village besides Jack since they looked more human. Tooth, Sandy and Bunny stayed in the caves, waiting for them to come back. The two entered the village by way of the road so as to not appear suspicious. Jack had avoided the moonlight so they would be able to find her. He knew that she would be the only one to see him with out it.

The village was small, the buildings were far apart enough to suggest that the village planned on growing in the future. The tanner was on the outer edge of the village then came the black smith, pounding away at the metal. The smell of the first urged Jack and Nicholas to move faster and the smith working at the anvil hardly looked up as they rushed by.

Not many people were out this early, it was still dark out but the stars were disappearing and it would soon be light.

"Do you see a tavern or an inn?" Jack asked. "It seems like the best place to start looking for her."

"Aye, its this way here," Nicholas led the way down the road and into a building on the right.

It was hot inside, with only the wind that followed them in as they strode through the door to cool the room a little. No one bothered them as they walked to the counter except to look at them not so subtly over their drinks.

Jack realized that neither him nor Nicholas were very conspicuous with Nick's black fur lined, bright red jacket and if they could see him, they would see Jack's white, long-sleeved tunic and light weight cloak. The two of them probably looked very strange; Jack was not dressed warm enough for the increasingly cold weather and Sir Nicholas was so enormous, he took up all the space up to the ceiling.

"Innkeeper?" Sir Nicholas asked at the counter.

"That'd be me," a gruffly man appeared on the other side of the counter, holding a dirty rag and an equally dirty mug.

While Nick conversed with the man, Jack took a look around the inn at his fellow customers. There was hardly anyone there. A few men sat in a corner, laughing up a storm about something or other. They were obviously drunk already. There was a family of four sitting on the far end of the room, the rather large father giving the group of men and Sir Nicholas a wary look. A few soldiers had claimed the table closest to the fire place, however, they were not paying any attention to anything farther than their own table.

"Hey, Jack," Sir Nicholas hissed over his shoulder. "Mr Doff here said there are two rooms available."

"What'd you say the second room was for?" Jack asked as they say down at a nearby table.

"I said a friend was not far behind me and would like a room," Sir Nicholas explained simply.

"Did you ask him about Claire?" Jack asked eagerly.

"No," he replied. "I thought I'd do it later when he's gotten used to us. Do you want to go to the rooms?"

"Let's get breakfast," Jack said distractedly. "That group over there isn't giving me a good feeling."

Sir Nicholas' eyes trailed to the group Jack was watching and nodded. "Aye," he muttered, then to the innkeeper, he said, "I'll take a meal here."

"Very good, sir."

Everything was fine until the small family got up to leave. The light haired girl that was hidden by her father caught the attention of just about everyone in the room. Especially the drunk men in the corner.

One bald man cat-called. Another slurred, "Why were you hidin' a purrrrtty crrreaturrre llllliiiike dat?"

Then the last one was even bolder, he got up form his seat and sloppily made his way as close as he could to the girl. "Wanna share, old man?"

The father quickly got in the way of the moving drunk, protecting his daughter. "I'll ask ya 'ta move away from me and mine family," he warned gruffly. His daughter was smaller so she was safely hidden from sight behind her larger, well built father. However, not from Jack's point of view, and he could see she was gripping her brother's arm, who looked almost as old as her-maybe older.

The brother looked torn between full on attacking the three men and holding his terrified sister and mother. He settled for wrapping his arm around his sister and glaring fiercely at the drunks.

One noticed and snorted, nearly spitting up the mouthful of ale he'd taken. "What 're ya gonna do, boy? Fight us?" He laughed, prompting his friends to laugh as well.

"If I have to," the boy said fearlessly. He stared them down, looking insignificant even next to his father.

Jack looked on in sympathy. He remembered feeling inadequate (something the brother was probably feeling right now) next to Zordah, who was much better built for wrestling. Just to be safe, Jack pounded his staff against the ground and a layer of frost coated the floor around the men's shoes, sticking them to the floor. It wasn't much but it would give them some time.

"Then why don't you come at me?" The idiot challenged, making Jack roll his eyes.

Fortunately, the boy wasn't so foolish as to actually take him up on his offer. Instead, he tightened his arm around his sister and continued glaring.

"Coward," another in the group coughed. Again, that made the others laugh. "If ya ain't going to fight, just give 'er up a'ready."

"Leave us alone," the father spoke now. "I'll ask ya one more time 'ta leave mine family and me alone."

"What 're you gonna do about it?" The leader sneered.

The father hesitated. He looked like he could handle himself; he was well built and balanced. However, there were three of them and only one of him, not including his son. He obviously knew that taking down these guys would be next to impossible unless he had some kind of professional training or tons of experience.

In Jack's glance around the room, he noticed the innkeeper behind the bar, looking on nervously back and forth between the two groups. The soldiers didn't even look up from their food. Jack nudged Sir Nicholas with his staff and pointed, getting the larger man's attention on the nerve wracked innkeeper.

Sir Nicholas took this as his cue to jump in. Well, to stand in. If he jumped literally, the questionably standing inn would fall to the earth. So the large immortal stood and being in the middle of the confrontation between the two groups, he stopped all conversation as he did so. Stepping away from his table, he stared down both sides.

In his thick, Russian accent, he said, "I am only going to say this once, so listen up." He paused, glaring at the drunks, who had the nerve to act unfazed by his intense glare. "Get out before I make you."

"'Der's tree 'o us, an' on'y one 'o you," the leader said. He'd been drinking still throughout this entire ordeal with the father and even now, he took a long swig of what ever alcohol in his tankard before continuing, "I say we goin' win, Big Foot."

Jack froze, as did the family, glancing at Sir Nicholas nervously. This guy just signed his death warrant. Sir Nicholas was not fond of Big Foot and his big attitude. The two were at odds quite often.

"I'll give you one chance to change your attitude, you son of a motherless goat," Sir Nicholas didn't raise his voice but it was so naturally loud anyways, it sounded like he did.

"Why? Do you prefer oaf?" One of the other guys sniggered, as if he'd made a huge joke. For some reason, his friends thought so too and they laughed outright.

"I rather think he does, actually," Jack mumbled, stepping closer to the family in anticipation for the coming fight.

"You asked for it," Sir Nicholas barely grunted as he picked up the two largest of the three drunks. Taking only a few steps to the swinging doors of the inn, he tossed them out. Reaching with one of his now empty hands, he grabbed hold of the third just as he started at the family of four to get a few punches in. Throwing him out as well, he clapped his hands together as if dusting himself off. Turning to the family and innkeeper, Sir Nicholas smiled. "I hope you don't mind that I did that," he spoke to the innkeeper. "I'll pay their bill."

"Not at all," the innkeeper smiled, more friendly than before. "You just let me know if you need anything else."

"Thank you, sir," the father said after the innkeeper left. "My name is Carzon, this is my family; my wife, Teresa, my son and daughter, Zaccary and Clarissa. What brings you here?"

"My name is Nicholas," the large man answered. "I'm glad I could help. I am here looking for someone. She is rather important to a friend of mine."

Jack rolled his eyes, now suddenly wishing his was visible to everyone. Letting Sir Nicholas do all the talking about this was too weird.

"What about him?" The girl asked, pointing to Jack. "Is he helping you?"

"Clarissa, who are you talking about?" Her father looked at her worriedly.

"Him," she answered, pointing to Jack again. "The boy in the white."

"Clarissa, sweetie, no one is there," her mother said slowly as Jack and Sir Nicholas shared a quick look.

"There is, I can see him too," Zaccary answered.