Luck's Always to Blame

Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, I suck.

Me, yesterday: Why hello there, Jack. Is all this snow because I picked your story up last night? Well thank you very much… Okay… Alright, Jack, that's enough... Jack, seriously, you can stop now… JACK STOP I… Aaaand now I have to sleep at school.

(I didn't ACTUALLY have to sleep at school. Came pretty close, though.)

Thank you to Clarity in Scarlet (yeah, Pops was the first other spirit Lucky and Jack were introduced to. Don't blame you for not remembering, though) and Kyoko no Megami (crap will go down with them, that's what XD) for reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen I MEAN RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

Chapter 20

Sam was in the infirmary, at Jester's bedside, when the Nightmares broke loose. She didn't even blink.

She was in her favorite pair of pajamas, even the little slippers that looked like ghosts. They were rumpled, like her emotions. She had been hysterical, then angry, and it finally felt like she didn't have anything left. Her eyes, which had been closed, opened slightly and glanced at her patient. The only word that could describe him was still.

Sam leaned in and felt his forehead. It wouldn't do anything, but it made her feel like she was doing something. When she felt nothing, her brow furrowed, and she missed the warmth and breath of mortality. She assumed this was the spirit equivalent to a coma, but how could she be sure?

A yeti came in, speaking in gibberish, and she sent him away with her scariest glare. He left with some mumbled words and left the Spirit of Fear to her thoughts.

Did you known the April Fool was a lightweight? Sam did. She'd invited him to her place and forgot which of the ciders was spiked, so she guessed.

She guessed wrong.

Sam was able to hold her liquor, and the only spirit that could beat her in a drinking contest was Oonagh. Jester, on the other hand, was flinging gag peanut cans and Whoopie cushions around before Sam even realized what she'd done.

And it was while he was drunk that he told her the story of Victoria, his first love.

And in the same slurred spout of words, he told her he'd never love again.

"I'll always love you," she told him, recalling the memory.

"Sam!" Her hand yanked away from Jester's forehead and she turned to the door, tight-lipped.

"What?" she asked, somewhat irritated.

"It's Lucky." Sam just now noticed that it was Jack at the door, with Cupid close behind. The former looked almost as frazzled as her. "Pitch got her, probably for her luck. We're storming his lair."

Pitch has his soul Sam thought.

"I'm in," she said, grabbing her hat.

Daisy was on top of her favorite pyramid, looking out at the night sky. Oonagh had told her not to hold back, and at first, that sounded fun. But now, she wasn't so sure.

Little Mother Nature sat down with a huff. Weren't they horses? She loved horses. How could she be so mean to them?

It was at that moment that the Nightmares blocked out the moon.

"They're so cute!" Daisy squealed as they neared her. "How could I-" It was then that the Nightmares reached the forests, and the trees began to topple.

Daisy blinked.

"You just..." Daisy raised her hands. "YOU MEANIES!"

Did you know that trees have hands? They do, but they only move on Mother Nature's command. She was commanding them now.

The trees reached upwards towards the Nightmares, sometimes smashing them in midair and other times dragging them down to the forest. Thunder rumbled in the sky, and judgement disintegrated the monsters in the form of lightning.

All around the world, the wrath of the Earth closed in on the Nightmares.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths," Daisy murmured to herself, lowering her hands. "Oonagh wouldn't want anyone to get hurt..." Another tree fell. "STOP IT!"

Judgement fell again.

"They're coming," Katherine told Nightlight. "Don't you feel it?" Nightlight grinned and brandished his spear. "Do you have a plan on how to fight them?" Nightlight shrugged, then continued to mock fight with his spear.

"Just because you beat Pitch doesn't mean you can take on so many Nightmares at once," she told him, concerned. Nightlight stopped and glanced at her. Seeing her worried expression, he put his spear away and trotted over to her. He smiled and put his hand on her head reassuringly, and Katherine sighed.

"I guess if anyone can do it, you can," she murmured.

Then they heard the rumble, felt the world tremble.

"They're here," Katherine chirped. Nightlight, now grave, nodded as the Moon was blotted out. He turned back to Katherine and ruffled her hair, his smile back.

"You take the ones in the sky," she told him. "I know you can get them all, but I'll take any that come to the ground." Nightlight nodded, and there was a moment of silence between the two. With a final smile, the Man in the Moon's former guardian shot into the sky.

Nightlight hit the Nightmares head on, and from the ground, the clash of dark and light was so bright would've made anyone else look away. Katherine didn't look away. She was looking and making sure that no Nightmares reached the ground, yes; she was also looking at the spot that was brighter than the rest.

A Nightmare snuck up behind Katherine. She threw a knife that pierced its head, never taking her eyes off the bright little dot in the sky.

Oonagh stood on some cliffs facing the sea, her subjects hiding the shrubs behind her. With two clicks of her shoes, sparks flew and chased them off towards the safety of the castle.

The Leprechaun Queen tightened her shoes, feeling the trembling of the ground beneath her. Oonagh clicked her toes a couple more times, as a warm-up.

"Amhain..." A black ripple spread across the Moon and stars, and it was headed right for her. "Dha."

The Leprechaun Queen was known for her dances. They were not only the source of her power, but they were beautiful and unique and, above all, fast. The Alchemist, a dance of Oonagh's own creation, was the fastest dance of all time, as well as the deadliest.

The Alchemist, with an inhuman tempo, included a step every millisecond, and with each step a wave of magic shot from the Leprechaun Queen and cleared away the Nightmares.

They kept on coming, and Oonagh grinned.

"C'mon, ponies, I dare ya," she said with a grin. "I can dance all night long."

When Lucky woke up, she was in an alleyway and the sound of her favorite type of music filled her ears. She looked at her hands; there were no rings, no pretty nails; a touch of her hair revealed that it was no longer curled and pretty.

She was back in the day she died.

"Which means..." she murmured.

Before she could finish her thought, she was dragged upwards against the wall.

"Just us this time." Lucky could feel it now, the panic that she had been too numb to feel the first time. Every night she'd relive what happened, and every night it frightened her more.

But something was different.

With a swipe of her free hand, Lucky reached into her hair, pulled out a glowing card, and shoved it to her attacker's throat.

The music, the alleyway, even the moon fell away, and the absence of the illusion revealed a dark room with Pitch's stunned face inches from her own.

"Never again, Boogeyman," Lucky murmured.

The two had a stare-down that Lucky knew she'd lose, as a single card wasn't enough to take down the King of Nightmares, especially since she was pretty sure throat-slitting didn't have the same effect on spirits as it did on people. Pitch knew she'd lose as well, and his surprise at her resistance to his magic quickly melted away to a smirk.

"Impressive," he admitted. "But you know that's not good enough."

He jammed his fingers into her stomach.

Lucky gasped and dropped the card, slowly averting her eyes to the claws in her abdomen. Pitch removed them after a moment, and luck dripped from his fingers and the hole. It was bright gold and had the consistency of honey, a fact that Lucky had never really wanted to know.

"What was it that the Tooth Fairy said?" Pitch asked, jamming his fingers into the holes again, eliciting a scream from Lucky. "Taking a bath in this would make you invincible?" Lucky saw that the luck was dripping onto the floor, and from there made its way into a cauldron to her left. Her eyes began to close again as veins of gold trickled down her legs, down Pitch's fingers, along the floor.

"99.5% percent of the time, piker(1)," Lucky corrected before spitting on Pitch. He didn't even flinch.

"That's enough for me," he whispered, letting the last of the luck drip from his fingers.

Lucky crumbled to the ground.

Pitch flicked some gold off his fingers and glided to the pot, which was about half-full.

"That should be enough," he murmured. He dipped a finger inside, but the luck seemed to repel his touch now. Pitch didn't care; he'd find a way to absorb it somehow. What he was looking for was something even shinier amongst the gold.

"I didn't take the soul this time," he said to himself, glancing at Lucky. She looked pretty dead, regardless.

That's when time stopped and the Nightmares rampaged.

Everyone was fending off Nightmares, so Cupid was the only one who could come with Sam and Jack. That didn't seem to be a problem, though; the three of them, plus Lucky, could probably fend off the Nightmare King.

Then they started walking down the stairs.

"This is creepier than you made it out to be," Cupid whispered, touching the damp walls.

"We're almost there," Jack replied, his stomach tightening at the memories.

"Let's just find Pitch," Sam said, fire flickering at her fingerprints. Jack recoiled and she clenched her fists, extinguishing the flames.

That's when they entered the main room.

It was familiar to Jack, of course. But the cages were empty and the globe was dark from lack of magic powering it. There was so little light Jack's eye drifted to the few sources; namely; the faint purple light from a nearby wall.

"Wait a second," Sam said, marching across the room. Cupid and Jack scurried to catch up.

There was a shelf, and on it was a jar, and in it was a purple sphere.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"A soul," Cupid answered.

Sam disappeared before they realized what she had.

"I would've told her to go anyway," Jack said dismissively.

"MOVE." The entire North Pole trembled with the force of Sam's impatient voice, much like it had done when the Nightmares began to attack. Even the biggest, most aggressive of the yetis jumped at the sight of her, and thus the way was cleared to the infirmary.

Sam blasted the doors open with a flick of her free hand, the other holding Jester's soul. All the elves and yetis scattered as she entered, but fought for space in the doorframe to see what was going on.

The witch plopped herself down next to the bed, for no one had dared to move her chair. She was just about to unfasten the lid when she realized something: she had no idea how to put a soul back into someone's body. She looked in the direction of the yetis; they shook their heads, as if they could read her mind. Not knowing what else to do, Sam took a deep breath and unscrewed the lid.

"I love you, you big idiot, so this better work." She removed the top.

The soul shot out of the bottle, accompanied by the sound of all the laughter that had ever been. It remained outside of Jester's body for only a moment before sinking into its home, and the laughter died away.

No one breathed until Jester did, and there was a ragged intake as he opened his eyes.

"Oh my..." Sam mumbled, dropping the jar and causing it to shatter.

"Ouch," Jester said with a wince, then looked at the girl at his bedside. "Crap, Sam, why are you crying?" She wiped at the tears, surprised they were there at all, before giving up.

"You were dead!" she shouted. "You got your soul taken and all your magic was gone, and I was terrified because you were so still-"

Realizing what she'd said, they both froze, eyes fixed on each other.

"Were you now," he whispered. Hesitantly, she reached for him, and he leaned in closer. She took the opportunity and pulled him to her, and, just as hesitantly, he held her back.

The yetis closed the door.

Author's Note: 1-coward

So, just outta curiosity: who ships Jack and Elsa? I don't, personally, but I was wondering if any of you did.

Thanks for reading and please review!