Work Text:
It was during their first fight with Pitch since Jack officially joined the Guardians when Aster noticed it. Unlike the last time it was in the late fall, just a few days after Halloween so the winter spirit was rested after his summer sleep.
Fight looked completely different. When the worst had already passed, when they had started gaining the upper hand, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the boy for too long.
Something in Jack, in the way he fought, poked at the old memories. He couldn’t tell if it was about the powers, the fighting style or just the way he looked.
At least until the moment when Pitch grabbed Jack’s wrist, first squeezing till something grinded inside, and then when it didn’t work, twisting his arm painfully, forcing him to drop the staff.
He stood a bit behind Pitch, so he had a good view of the winter spirit’s face when it happened. The boy screamed in pain, dropping to one knee, but before the wood touched the ground, he grabbed it with other hand.
There was too little space to effectively strike with it, but instead of even trying, he did a forward flip, pushing the staff into the ground behind himself to add momentum. With the crack of breaking bones, the boy snatched his arm from Pitch's grasp . Continuing the move, he attempted to kick the man in the face, but was unsuccessful. Even in his shock, the former General’s reflexes were quick.
***
The being in front of them looked like light trapped in humanoid shape. They didn’t know what to think about it.
It walked calmly by their side with distorted, elongated limbs swaying rhythmically, mimicking them.
Suddenly it froze, turned to face something to the side and bared its fangs, throwing itself into the darkness of the forest, illuminating purple trees on the way.
It took them a few seconds to realise what happened. Hidden between plants Fearlings let out shrieks, trying to escape the light, but the being turned around with no hesitation and drove its talons into a closest victim, tearing it apart.
They scrambled, trying to catch stranglers and killing those on which they could get their hands on.
The luminous monstrosity was doing well, as it was promised to them. Soundless, burning monsters with its touch and dismembering them with its talons.
At least until one of the soldiers moved too close, following a fearling that managed to dodge his weapon.
The monstrosity swiped, not caring about closeness of its ally, and tore through his armour, creating gouges. The man screamed when one of the talons caught his arm, tearing already damaged chainmail and heavily wounding him.
The luminous monster did not care, destroying its enemy.
***
But this wild gleam in winter spirit’s eye, his twisted, broken arm…
***
One of the Fearlings ran away. The Light tried to chase after it, but a different soldier blocked its path, trying to lead its attention to a bleeding wound on its body, where edges started to turn black.
The monster didn’t care, pushing him away with one swipe and gouging wounds in his face. If not armour, he might have not survived the one that caught his throat.
***
Even before Jack rose, he had his teeth bared in a parody of a smile, looking at his enemy.
***
The next monster they gave into their care had a collar, supposedly able to contain it.
Same as before, they had no trouble traveling together until the fearlings showed up in their vicinity. This time two of them managed to run away, as soldiers were too busy watching the luminous being to catch them.
They told the being to stay, but only got bared fangs in response, while it turned towards where the shadow monsters disappeared.
The Colonel pressed the button that was supposed to knock the creature down, but it only stumbled and turned toward him. He tried to turn the power up, but the light creation barely slowed down a bit, before it got to him.
With the help of the collar they managed to force it down, but not before it heavily wounded three and killed the colonel .
***
North tried to jump to him and help, but Bunny caught his arm before he got close enough. He was barely aware he was doing it, guided more by reflex than decision.
***
Most terrifying thing about this one was that it looked like Celestian, just short for their race, shorter than the pooka by a head, and its skin glowed. Not as much as that of those before it, but its facial features could barely be distinguished.
The atmosphere in the unit was thick with fear, which seemed to make the creature glow even brighter.
This being didn’t have talons, but claws and part of a broken spear in its hands. Someone offered it an unbroken version, but it just looked at them silently, not reacting otherwise.
Since then no one attempted to talk to it, not knowing even if it was possible.
***
The winter spirit leaned on his staff, which had now an ice spike at the end. The look on his face didn’t change even for a moment, despite the pain he must have suffered.
***
In spite of its lack of talons, the being was not even a little bit less deadly. Maybe even more now. It also fought differently now, not having them.
At least not until one of the fearlings managed to hurt it.
The being fell with a torn stomach. However instead of withdrawing from the fight, it burned brighter and threw itself into a fray with fury equal to previous versions.
Soldiers scattered immediately, not wanting to risk accidental death from the hands of their ally again.
The luminous monster attacked with doubled strength, not caring for new wounds, destroying all the fearlings in vicinity, cutting with its blade and tearing apart with its bare hands.
This time, when all the shadow monsters had fallen and the light turned to them with wild eyes, they didn’t hesitate, activating its collar and piercing it with spears before it managed to take a step toward them.
***
He lifted himself from kneeling to crouch in fraction of a second, swiping widely with his staff and cutting Pitch’s legs before the man managed to avoid it and making wounds on his thighs.
***
Next, and the last one he saw before being promoted, was named Light.
Like the previous ones, he was soundless, glowing and unnervingly humanoid. Luminous version of fearlings, as he learned later. An experiment that was supposed to save them.
He had a collar and unconnected cuffs on wrists and bare ankles. They were supposed to actually knock him down, so they won’t “destroy another priceless specimen”.
As if they weren’t doing it while fighting for their lives. As if they weren’t doing it in the name of those who have fallen to these monsters.
This time, when Light was hurt, his fury wasn’t as impressive, he was still fighting with his spear and neither next wounds, broken limbs nor glowing blood, which dripped all over his body and marred the earth, made any impression on him.
When one of Fearlings ran away, Light turned to follow. New colonel shouted and ordered for him to stop, but got no answer. He activated the safeguards and the being fell to the ground, shrieking such a high note that even for sensitive ears of the pooka , it was barely hearable and it pierced skulls, knocking anyone who was able to hear it to the ground.
Aster hadn't seen what happened to the monster, too busy flailing in pain on the grass.
But even with cuffs connecting together to stop him, before they managed to finish him, he almost killed a careless soldier, dropping him to the ground and tearing his face apart as soon as it got into his range.
Noone even tried to protest when they got rid of him. Their superiors could say whatever they wanted, those were monsters that should never be made.
***
The boy’s eyes seemed to burn with cold fire, when he was jumping at the Nightmare King. Ice was covering his broken arm, stabilising it a bit. For a moment Bunny thought he did it to treat the wound, but after the first strike from the staff, he swung with the arm like a hammer, growing icicles on the hand and cutting up Pitch’s face, when he didn’t manage to dodge in time. Black blood started to drip from shallow wounds on the man's cheek.
However instead of hesitating like before, Pitch hurled a half-formed spearhead of nightmare sand at him, which tore into his side.
This time the boy barely stepped back half a step before ice started creeping up the wound, while he moved forward, baring teeth and stabbing blade into stomach of his enemy.
Bunny couldn’t remember the last time he saw Pitch to be truly terrified.
The black haired man clutched his wound as if not able to comprehend what had just happened. Immediately one of the nightmares showed up at his side, but before anything could happen, Jack destroyed it with one hit of the iced over arm.
The Nightmare King staggered backward, bumping into another mare.
The remaining nightmares suddenly left the rest of the Guardians, focusing all of their powers on the winter spirit to give their master time to escape, which was used without hesitation.
Tooth jumped towards him, but several nightmares split from the rest and blocked her path. It took her mere seconds to get rid of them, but it was enough for Pitch to disappear.
“Aster!”, North yelled into his ear so loud, Bunny flinched, putting his ears on himself. He just realised he was still holding onto the man’s arm, driving his claws into it. He looked at his paw blankly. “We have to help Jack!”
“No!”, his refusal was faster than a thought, this time jerking Guardian of Wonder so hard, surely having drawn blood. Nicholas hissed, barely stopping himself from letting go of the sword in wounded arm, looking at him with confusion.
The pooka stood for a moment, watching blood glinting on his comrade’s arm with shock. He couldn’t understand why he did that — why had he reacted so suddenly, where had this fear come from…
A golden flash announced the arrival of Sandman, who previously had been stuck in a tornado of nightmares, similar to their last fight. Except this time Pitch’s focus had been Jack, not the golden man…
Not long after, flashes of white light started to show up in the cocoon of black sand, helped by gold sand from outside.
Suddenly with one of the most bright flashes in the mass of nightmares was a hole and in a blink he was back in that purple forest.
The monster stood hunched over, on three limb, holding broken spear in forth
Jack was crouched, just finishing swipe with his staff, which created the hole in mass of mares
Eyes glowing like supernovas, cutting through darkness like knives
Blue eyes burning with power and battle fury
Bared fangs, dripping with blackness of the fearlings it just tore apart
Something that stopped being a smile long time ago, with blood so dark it looked black in comparison, that dripped over his face and chin
His whole body burned with light of stars, hurting Fearlings with its mere presence
His staff light up again, its glow reflecting from his deathly pale skin to make him glow
Wounds covering its mangled body, it shouldn’t be able to stand , let alone fight
His torn out part of side, illuminated, looking even worse, like a walking dead, he shouldn’t be able to walk , let alone fight
A soldier reached out with his spear to jerk the monster out of mass of Fearlings it landed in
Sandy swiped his whip, wrapping it around boy’s wounded wrist
The monster caught the weapon, but instead of letting him help, it dragged him inside and took his spear
Bunny threw a boomerang before he even thought, but his aim was true. He hit the hand of a glowing teenager, destroying the whip and distracting him for a moment, which was immediately taken advantage of. One of the nightmares kicked the boy's wound with full strength, making him howl in pain and fall.
At the last moment, the winter spirit managed to stab his blade into the ground, clinging to it and sending a wave of ice and wind with a scream, destroying most of black mares that remained, before he fell to the ground, losing consciousness.
The pooka couldn’t hear what was happening around him. He could only see winter spirit, wounded, staining the fresh snow from his last burst of power with blood. His ragged dark blue sweatshirt, cutting off so sharply from the white on which he was laying. The staff lying mere centimetres from his fingers, but ice on it already beginning to melt.
Something pushed him and he could see black and red smudges in front of him, but his sight was already blurring, so he didn’t know who that was.
A flash of green danced around him, before coming closer.
Some words were spoken, but he couldn’t understand them, as if he was underwater. Everything was muffled…
Something flashed and the black and red smudge disappeared, leaving only scarlet behind.
For a moment he thought he could feel someone’s hands, but before he even fully processed it, his legs collapsed beneath him and darkness engulfed him.
***
When he came back to consciousness, he was on a chair, covered with a blanket in the medical wing. He was in a corner, most of the room taken up by a hospital bed, which judging by its size was for North. Remaining trio of Guardians was sitting in different places, conversing quietly.
For a moment he had no idea where he was or what happened, but before he had time to ask, memories hit him with the force of a speeding train.
He jumped to his feet, barely having enough of a mind to throw off the blanket first, so he wouldn’t get tangled, before he jumped to the bed.
Jack laid in the middle of it, looking smaller than usual. His skin had sickly pallor, almost blueish, with blue lips. Someone treated his arm and bandaged it almost entirely, including part of his shoulder. Wound in his side was hidden under a thin blanket that covered him, so Bunny wasn’t able to fully assess his state. But even now he looked way better than during the fight with blood trailing down his face and dripping out of his mouth.
“Aster?”, Tooth asked gently. When did she manage to come near him? He didn’t hear her steps. “Come with us” she said, carefully taking his paw and leading him out of the room. Two Guardians followed them. When they walked away half the length of the corridor, they stopped and she turned to him. “North said that you got battle shock during the fight. What happened?”
Contrary to her gentle looks, Toothiana didn’t beat around the bush and spoke plainly. Usually he appreciated it, but he couldn’t remember why now. He had no idea how to explain it.
Neither she, nor Nicholas ever met the glowing monsters. Maybe Sandy did, he lived long enough, but even that wasn’t sure. Bunny had no idea if anyone in the army knew about their existence, excluding the groups handling them.
“Jack…” he started, but stopped, trying to look for words. “Do we know for sure that he was a human before he died?”, he asked. What if one of them survived? Last battles were chaotic enough, it wouldn’t be a big issue to slip away. He himself took the Last Light and ran, covered by his unit. One of the glowing monsters could manage it, hide away. Last one he saw looked so close to a Celestian, it wouldn’t be as hard, especially if later experiments looked even more normal.
“What?” asked the surprised woman “What are you talking about?”
“Is it possible to check?”, he made a step toward the winged fairy, but a quick look she had thrown toward North at this stopped him, before he moved closer. “You have his memories, can you check if they belong to a human?”
“Aster, what is it about?”, she asked carefully, putting hand up in a calming gesture. Why was she looking at him so weirdly? “North said you stopped him, when he wanted to help Jack. You clawed his arm to the blood when he tried to move again as Jack was trapped in the mass of nightmares. And when Sandy was trying to get Jack out, you destroyed his whip”
Those words finally helped him realise what was happening, why they were standing so weirdly. Toothiana was in front, she was the fastest when it came to manoeuvring and standing this way she could be in the air in a split second. She had others on both sides, staying close enough to react fast, but far enough to not look like defense formation.
He flattened his ears on his head and took two steps back, raising paws in surrender. They were worried because of him. What he did looked bad to a bystander, but…
“In the Fearling Wars, the army made monsters to fight on our side” he said, looking them each in the eye as if to force them to listen. They had to understand, he wouldn’t hurt them… “I do not know how exactly, but I was in the units they tested them in. I saw how they fight, how they behave, their cruelty and carelessness about their own injuries. They destroyed anything in their path, including our soldiers. I saw how they tore apart my unit just because they were between them and a fearling by accident” he closed eyes for a moment, trying to chase away images called by those words, the smell of blood and wet fur.
“Jack reminded you of them” deduced North, making a step toward him. Bit of the tension left him, but the look in his eyes…
“But Jack is a winter spirit,” denied Tooth. “They are known for their endurance and pain tolerance, do you really believe one of those monsters could survive for so long without being discovered? If they are how you describe them, they wouldn’t do well in hiding”
“You don’t understand- the way he looked… you can’t fake that,” answered Bunny, flattening ears harder to his head. He could almost hear the voice of one of his brothers in arms, that suddenly cut off when one of the glowing monsters attacked him.
Suddenly there was a loud crash and a clay plate landed between them, fortunately still in one piece. They turned to Sandy, who was tapping his foot soundlessly, putting his hands on his hips, visibly irritated by being ignored again.
Not monsters. They saved us, don’t talk like this , he ordered with his signs. Jack isn’t more dangerous than any of us
“You haven’t seen them, they can’t be called differently! They were Fearlings made of light!” yelled Aster. Sandy glared at him.
They were the biggest creation of Star Captains, being capable of finding and destroying the Fearlings!
“They killed us too!”
Those were… accidents, unfortunate ones. It took us time to perfect the formula
Bunny felt like blood left his face and his paws became cold.
“What do you mean ‘us’?” he asked, his voice quiet and empty. It couldn’t mean what he thought. It was impossible …
My people were the only ones that couldn’t be infected , the sandman shrugged his shoulders, so it was us who took care of experiments. You should be thankful, without them war would end way faster
“Thankful?” whispered Bunny “For those murderers?”
That’s not what you called Nightlight during your last fight side by side , Sandy rolled his eyes
Aster took a half step back. He remembered him, the boy with barely glowing skin, gentle smile and barely ever used voice. Who fought hand in hand with him, who had the fury in him, but who felt the pain …
Soldier who he called a friend and a close one at that. Could he really be one of those monsters? He treated the wounds of their people!
Nightlight gave his life for the cause , said Guardian of Dreams with irritation clearly visible on his face. For this merit Tsar decided to award him with reincarnation as a human. Jack is completely human, he doesn’t remember the war. And it will stay this way. He deserves a peaceful life, something his brothers never experienced
Bunny looked at the doors to the room, where Jack was laid. Guardian, who fought by his side. Friend, who sacrificed himself to end the war. Monsters like those, who murdered soldiers in front of him.
His knees buckled under him and he sat down heavily on the floor. He could not reconcile those three images in his head.
“Sandy… why?” he asked, his voice breaking. Why did they go so far? Why did they experiment on captured Fearlings? Why did they give them to units, before they were ready?
It was a war. We won, Fearlings no longer exist. Bit of death is small price for destruction of those monsters