[rd][fic][Rise of the Guardians] Shadowlands, Pt. 2

[sakon76]

Shadowlands
Part 2: Deathly Destination
by K. Stonham
first released 19th December, 2012

December, 2017

"You're doing WHAT?!" Bunnymund's shout echoed around the Warren. "Are you out of your frozen mind?!"

Jack unclasped his hands from over his ears. "You make it sound like a big deal," he complained.

Bunnymund pointed a boomerang at him. "You have no idea what you're getting into, Frostbite. The shadowlands aren't meant for living beings. Mort hasn't let anyone in there for thousands of years."

"So she said. But I'm not exactly living, now am I?"

Bunnymund glared at him. Then he tucked away the boomerang, stalked forward, and grabbed Jack's arm. He roughly shoved the sleeve up and placed his fingers on the underside of Jack's wrist. After a moment he looked up, green eyes meeting Jack's blue. "You've got a pulse," he said quietly. "You may have been dead, but you're not anymore."

"Oh." Jack felt disquieted for a moment. He'd long thought of himself as alive in a halfway sense, then, after getting his memories back, had assumed he was something closer to a ghost, but now.... Not important, he decided, brushing the matter off. "So why do you think this is a bad idea?" he asked.

Bunny stared at him for a minute, then threw up his hands and stalked away. "Why would he ever have common sense?" the pooka implored no one in particular. "Why does he always have to poke at things that're better left alone?"

"I asked why you're saying it's a bad idea," Jack snapped in response, standing. "If you're not going to tell me, I can just leave--"

Bunny whirled back toward him. "Don't. You. Dare."

Jack sat back down, waiting, as Bunnymund stalked back toward him.

"Do you know anything about going into the shadowlands?" Bunnymund asked.

"Mort said people there pretty much live in whatever scenario they think they deserve," Jack offered. Which kind of worried him, because he didn't know what his family thought they deserved. Singing hosannas at the feet of God, maybe? Seemed boring to Jack, but then, his afterlife would probably be pretty different anyway....

Bunnymund huffed. "For living beings, the shadowland is a trap," he said. "It'll be very pretty, and very pleasant, and it'll make you want to stay, Frostbite."

Jack shook his head. "I don't want to stay. I just want to visit."

"Keep that in mind when you get there," Bunnymund warned. "The place has rules, like anywhere else. Don't eat anything. Don't drink anything. And don't try to take anything with you when you leave. You break those rules, you can't leave."

Jack nodded.

"And please tell me you're telling someone about this cockeyed plan of yours."

"I'm telling you."

Bunnymund stared at Jack for a minute, then groaned, falling backward onto the soft grass. "Why me?" he asked no one in particular again.

Jack hopped off his stone and walked over to the rabbit. "North would have a fit. Tooth would have a bigger fit. And Sandy just plain wouldn't even let me try."

"Why is this so important to you?" Bunnymund asked.

Jack drew a soft breath and let it go again before answering. "They're my family. I just want to know that they were okay - that they are okay."

"Family, huh?" Bunnymund stared up at the high high ceiling of the Warren for a long minute. Then he too sighed. "Fine, Frostbite. I won't tell the others. But you don't come popping back in by Christmas, and I will tell them. We'll storm the ruddy place if we have to, and you will spend eternity regretting your stupidity. Understand?"

"Understood."

* * *

"Ready?" Jack asked.

Still looking nervous, Jamie nonetheless managed a shrug. "As I'll ever be."

"Okay, let's do this thing." Jack pulled the silver earring out of his hoodie pocket and drummed his fingers on the web.

"You're sure this isn't going to kill me?" Jamie asked one last time.

"Positive."

A moan from outside the window startled both of them. "Please don't tell me that stupid school of thought hasn't died a painful death
yet."

"Hey, Mort." Jack pulled the window open, and Death clambered inside. She pushed back the hood of her cloak and looked around Jamie's room curiously, her eyes landing last on the boy himself. "Mort, this is my friend Jamie Bennett. Jamie, Mort, otherwise known as Death."

"Um, hi," Jamie said. Then, "What stupid school of thought?"

"I don't kill people," Mort said. "That usually happens on its own. I just make sure they go where they're supposed to, afterward."

"'Usually'." Jamie focused on that one word.

"Okay, sometimes I kill them. When they're holding on way past their time and screwing up my schedule. Otherwise?" She shrugged. "Lemme see, by the way." She grabbed Jamie's left hand and turned it palm-side up. A fingernail, painted lavender, traced along a fold in the skin. "Long lifeline. You're good."

"Wait, palmistry works?" Jack asked, eyebrows high.

"If you're me, or a human with the gift, sure." Mort smirked. "Ninety-nine out of a hundred fortunetellers don't have the gift. So," she said brightly, "what do you have for me, Frost?"

"Use of my PS4," Jamie replied. "And I've got a week free from school if you want to run Rainbow Quest in two-player mode."

Mort's eyebrows raised high. "And what does Frost owe you for this, Jamie Bennett?"

Jamie's eyes met Jack's. He smiled slightly. "Absolutely nothing."

Dark eyes flickered back and forth, examining the two, before finally coming back to settle on Jamie. "Oh, you're that one."

"That one?" Jamie asked blankly.

"That one?" Jack asked equally blankly.

Death smiled, and it was a dark study in pleasure. "Let's just say you're not unknown," she told Jamie. "Now, Rainbow Quest?"

Jamie looked warily at Jack, as if wondering what rumors might be spreading in the immortal community, then shrugged and walked over to his small gaming center. He knelt, pulling out a handful of games. "I have Rainbow Quests seven through thirteen. Which one do you want to start with?"

Mort perched on the edge of his bed. "Which one do you recommend?"

"Well, thirteen's the newest, but eleven's my favorite. It has the best story."

"Eleven it is."

"Jack said you'd never used a PS4 before, right?" Jamie fished out a pair of controllers. He handed one to Mort. "There's a tutorial first, so we can run through that so you can get the hang of it."

"Sweet." She rocked the controller back and forth in her hands, then looked at Jack. "Did you want to do your little visit now or later, Frost?"

"Um."

"Go for now," Jamie advised. "I've only got two controllers and you've played eleven with me already anyway. And that way you can be back by Christmas." He bit his lip. "Unless you wanted to spend Christmas with them."

"Do the dead even have Christmas?" Jack asked Mort.

She shrugged. "The shadowland calendar drifts. It hasn't lined up with Earth's for a long time."

"Right. I... guess I'll go now."

"Keep my earring with you," Mort said. "It's your passage token. To get there, go jump in that pool you drowned in. To get back out, the same. Do you know the rules?"

"No eating, no drinking, no trying to take anything out with me," Jack listed. "Anything else?"

Dark eyes studied him. "Don't stay too long," Death advised. "The longer you stay, the harder it is to come back."

* * *

Jack stood on the shore of the pond. It was iced over, with a couple of thin-ice warning signs posted around the edge. The Burgess kids had been in the habit of ignoring those for several years now, completely due to Jack's presence.

He really, really did not want to break the ice and dive in.

It had been late morning when he'd left Jamie's house. He'd done a fast lap of the globe, stirring up a few small storms. He'd caught up with Sandman along the way. He'd dropped in briefly at the Pole to perch in the rafters, snickering at the last-minute chaos. He'd visited the Tooth Palace, flirting with Tooth and her fairies until she flushed and they swooned. And he'd finally hit the Warren, to warn Bunnymund of his intentions.

"Having second thoughts?" the pooka asked him now, having accompanied Jack surface-side. It was night in Burgess, and the park was clear of stragglers.

Jack turned the earring over and over in his hand. "Just remembering drowning."

"Hey." A furry gray hand landed on his shoulder. "You're immortal now. You can't drown, Frostbite."

"Doesn't make nerving myself up any easier." Jack took a deep breath. His fist clenched around the talisman. "Right. I'm going to do this."

"You don't have to, mate."

Jack looked Bunnymund in the eye. "If it was your family, wouldn't you?"

Bunny looked away. He sighed a long, regretful sigh. "My family's long gone, Frostbite. Leaving them in peace is only thing I can do."

...Oh.

"Sor--" Jack started to say, but Bunny cut him off.

"Long gone," he repeated. "No use in stirring up old ghosts anymore. But my family isn't your family, and I'm not you. If you need to do this, Jack... I'm behind you."

"Thanks," Jack murmured.

He steadied himself, took a breath, and walked out onto the ice. It was thick beneath his feet, solid. Like it hadn't been that day.

He remembered where he'd been when the ice broke. He walked there now, stood just before the spot.

Jack frowned, clenched his hand tight around Death's talisman.

Raising his staff, he slammed its butt against the ice, shattering it.

Before he could have second thoughts, Jack jumped in.

*~*~*

Author's Note: ...I am just picturing Jamie spending his entire winter break playing various of the Rainbow Quest games with Mort. And his mom coming in with some snacks for him, and never noticing the second controller, on his far side, floating in the air. Mort's full name is in fact Morticia, BTW, and I'm trying hard not to have her be too Mary Sue-ish. Unfortunately, Death as an embodied character always seems to be a bit of a scene-stealer....