Chapter 8

Hi guys. Thanks for the reviews, I loved them all. I want to address one though:

Animal Lover (guest):

I'm not going to make this a Jelsa fanfic. I've got this whole plot in my head and I originally planned this to be between these four groups. Sorry if that disappoints you and you don't want to read this, but no Jelsa.

Jack looks up as the door opens. He breaks a small smile as Po, Hiccup, and Rapunzel come in.

"Hey."

"Well," Hiccup sits down with the others, "We made it, like we promised."

Po sets the plate down for Jack and he takes it, setting it in his lap.

"So…" Jack picks up a cold roll, frost rolling over it, "How everything's going above ground?"

It's been a week since their first encounter and now they come down almost daily, slowly growing closer to the captured spirit.

"It's getting harder to get away. They're becoming suspicious, I know it." Rapunzel says, looking over her shoulder.

"Oh." Jack seems slightly worried, "Then you don't have to come…"

"But we want to."

Jack looks up, confused, "What?"

Po continues, "We've all felt the way you feel right now at some point. Surely not as bad, but we know what it feels like to be underestimated, unnoticed and disliked. That's why."

Jack looks at them with surprise. "Wow…I just thought, with all the time that's gone by, you might have forgotten…"

Footsteps echo above them.

"They're back from their visit. We've got to go." Po says, looking up at the ceiling.

"Alright." Jack hands back the plate, holding the last part of his cold food in his hands.

Rapunzel turns back for a moment, "Bye!"

And like that, they're gone, leaving Jack alone.

Po sighs as they walk quickly down the corridor, "That was close."

"Yeah. Almost too_" Rapunzel, having glanced back, collides with the Sandman and Astrid.

She drops the plate with a CRASH, and it falls to pieces on the ground.

"Careful_" Astrid starts before she realizes what Rapunzel had been holding.

"What are you doing with that?" Her tone has become suspicious and dangerous, eyes narrowing as she crosses her arms.

"Um…" Rapunzel seems almost scared of Astrid as she manages to keep her bare feet out of the way of the glass. Luckily, Hiccup steps in, but he fumbles for words.

"We…we found the plate down here. I promise!"

Astrid gives him a skeptical look, "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, I know when you are lying. You were with Frost, weren't you?"

"Well…"

"No!" Po steps in, "If we had been with him, wouldn't we be covered in ice?"

Astrid looks them up and down, not satisfied with this answer. She only breaks gaze when Sandman picks up the glass in a bag of sand and hands it to the trio.

"Uh…thanks." Rapunzel says, taking it carefully. She was happy to break gaze with Astrid, and begins to walk past them. "Come on guys, we better go."

Po and Hiccup follow, Hiccup earning an angry and suspicious look from Astrid, making him avert gaze nervously. He wants to tell her, but they had all promised to keep it a secret.

It's torture.

As they walk away, Astrid watches them go. Sandman tugs her arm and she returns her gaze to him. Above his head forms a question mark.

"No, I'll be fine. Let's just get this over with this."

He nods and continues towards the cell door.

Inside Jack looks up from the remains of his now frozen roll as he hears the lock creak open. Quickly, he puts the roll in his hoodie pocket and hides his hands there as the door opens. He doubts its Hiccup, Po, or Rapunzel, and he's right. Sandman and Astrid enter, Astrid looking more cross than Sandman. He looks back down at his feet, not bothering to move from the wall.

"Hey." Astrid says finally, "We need to speak with you."

He doesn't answer. A long tamed anger rises back in him but he keeps himself from reacting violently by using quiet defiance.

"Hey! Are you listening?"

He continues to ignore her.

"Listen you little_"

Her patience gone, she starts towards him. He jumps to his feet, hand out to defend himself, even if his powers don't work the way he wants without his staff. Also clutched in his other hand, is the frozen roll, in case his powers did fail him.

But luckily, Sandman breaks up the potential fight by getting in between them and waving his arms. Once he got Astrid's attention, he pointed at the door.

"But_"

Sandman crosses his arms and gives her a firm look. She sighs in frustration.

"Fine. But it's not my fault if he hurts you."

With that she walks out, slamming the door behind her, leaving Jack Frost and the Sandman alone.

Sandman turns to him, and points to the roll. When Jack glances at it, the sandy figure points to the ground with a firm 'drop it' expression.

Unsure how to react, Jack puts the roll on the ground carefully in front of the Sandman. He picks it up only to throw it behind him.

"Hey!" Jack protests, "I was going to eat that, you know!"

The short sandy figure gives him a look that calls his bluff.

"Okay, maybe not, but you didn't have to throw it."

Sandman shakes his head with a small smile as he sits down. Jack sighs and decides to as well, crossing his legs.

After a moment of silence, Sandy waves.

Jack nods back, not directly looking at the figure opposite of him.

He hears the sand shift and looks back to see the question mark above Sandy's head and his head tilt slightly.

"I'm fine." Jack says, before meeting his gaze and feeling anger rise in him again, "But I want to know, why am I here? What did I do?"

Sandy shrugs.

"You mean….none of you know?"

He nods.

Jack laughs in frustration, "Well fantastic. I seem to be stuck in this prison, and nobody seems to know why! Wow!"

He throws up his hands then pushes off his hood and covers the top of his face with his other hand, "I don't believe this."

In his frustration, ice crackles along the chains on his wrists. He looks up as he hears Sandy's alarm to see him point at the shackles.

"Oh. That." He looks at it before meeting Sandy's gaze, "It's harmless, trust me. This has happened before."

He sees Sandy tilt his head again.

"Without my staff, my powers don't work. My ice is out of control, I can't fly, and as you saw just now, I'm left to defending myself with a frozen roll."

Sandy tries not to laugh.

"Yeah. Go ahead and laugh. It is kinda funny, I guess." Jack muses, now lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

After a long moment of Sandy laughing silently, he settles down, growing serious.

Jack looks to him as he pokes the winter sprite. Before he can say anything, Sandy touches the middle of his forehead with one finger. Gold sand branches away from his mind, showing his dreams and his awake mind. Among the vines of sand dolphins swim, and the sound of laughing children can be heard. However, one image stops in front of Sandy, one of a lone figure looking to the moon…

"Stop it."

Jack sits up suddenly, swiping a hand through the sand image. It disappears at his touch and Sandy looks to him in confusion.

"Don't ever do that again. Okay? Don't make that happen to me again!"

Sandy draws back at the sudden change in Jack's demeanor, especially as he hunches in on himself, eyes and face set with barely hidden emotions. Sandy sighs through his nose, nods, then stands. He gives his farewell to the sprite, who ignores him, before walking out.

This doesn't make any sense.

The figure near the moon was part of Jack's dreams…but why was he so sensitive about it?

He's no closer to answers and with the full moon coming, he finds himself wondering exactly what the Man in the Moon has in store for Jack Frost.