Chapter 12

Elsa and Jack were back together, after what felt like an eternity. Then there was breaking the news to Anna, with a tackle hug the moment she could see Jack again. Emma just sort of clung to him. There was no getting her to let go for almost two weeks after. It would have been annoying if it weren't just so nice. He was home for half the year! And everyone was there with him. There was honestly nothing more that he could have wanted.

Jack was was gone for half a year, and when he got back, Anna was huge. "What happened?" Jack asked. "Did you eat a whale?"

"Very funny," was Anna's reply. "Maybe I won't tell my child about your existance. Let them never know about Uncle Jack, the never-aging winter boy."

"Have mercy!" Jack cried dramatically. "Just because Elsa and I can't get married with the whole 'till death do you part' thing doesn't mean I'm not it's uncle!"

"It really does," Elsa reminded him helpfully.

"You people are no fun," Jack said, pouting.

Anna and Kristoff did, in fact tell their new daughter, Rose, about Jack's existence. It would have been "too complicated" otherwise.

Rose was five when Anna got pregnant again. "There's gonna be another one?" Jack had asked when Anna and Kristoff had told Jack and Elsa the news.

"You bet!" said Anna. "Me and Kristoff have a bet going. I think it'll be a boy, he thinks girl."

Jack bent down and put a hand on her stomach. "Definately girl," he said. "I'd bet money on that."

A few months later Jack lost five dollars.

It was weird when Jack realized he was still taller, but Emma really did look older. She was supposed to be his baby sister!

"So, you want to go with him," Jack said to Emma.

"Yup," she said. "I'm sorry he can't see you. I wish I knew why. I swear, he's a nice guy. He's wonderful! I think… I think he might be my Elsa."

Jack smiled. He had known this day might come, the day he'd have to let his sister go. He'd just never thought that the guy would want to take her away to Corona. "Just promise me that you've thought this through," he said.

"I have," she assured him. "We'll live with his family for a bit. He'll make some money at his job, and we'll buy our own house as soon as we can. I really love him, Jack."

Jack sighed. "I know you do." He wrapped her up in a hug. "Good luck," he said. "Make sure to write as often as possible. I'll visit sometimes, but it'll be hard with him unable to see me."

"I know," Emma sighed. "I love you, Jack."

"Love you too, Emma."

"Slow down, Jack!" Elsa said, laughing. "My knees aren't what they used to be!"

Jack smiled and doubled back. "Of course. Well, this is just as good a spot as the one we planned!" With that he plopped down right where he was. She smiled at him gratefully.

When Elsa reached 60, she decided it was time to abdicate. As she and Jack couldn't exactly have kids, Rose took the throne. Her coronation was so much less stressful than Elsa's had been it was almost funny. Anna cried when her baby girl ascended to the throne. Kristoff cried even harder. It would have been funny if Jack hadn't been crying too. Rose really grew up well.

Kristoff was 64 when he passed. It was difficult for everyone. Jack had not been there. It was a summer death. He know that someday everyone had to die, but it wasn't until then that it really sunk in. He wondered about himself. He still looked 17. Would he die like the rest of them? Could he?

Anna was nearly 80. She was laying in bed, coughing again. She had her children there, and her four grandchildren, and, of course, Jack and Elsa. She was still beautiful.

"You know it's fine, right, Elsa?" Anna said with a small smile. "I really can't wait to see Kristoff again. I'll tell him you all say 'hi.'"

"Tell him to show you all the coolest places in wherever you end up," said Jack. "Knowing him, he already has a secret hangout and found Sven to join him there."

"Probably," Elsa said gently.

"God, I'm tired," Anna said. "I'm gonna go to sleep, so please don't wake me up." That was the last thing Jack ever heard her say.

Elsa was 100. An impressive age for a human, even one with ice powers. But it couldn't last forever. It was hard, watching her fade away, but at least it winter, so Jack could be there for her.

"So, how you holding up?" he asked as he sat by her bed and took her hand.

"Alright," she said with a small smile, despite the hoarseness of her voice. "I expected to be scared, but I'm just… not."

"That's good, I suppose," said Jack with a smile. "Being scared is sort of awful."

Olaf came in. He was looking just as bad as Elsa. He hadn't aged, really, until she started to get sick.

"Hey guys, did I walk in on something?" he asked.

"Not at all," said Elsa with a smile.

"Good, good. The palace is heating up, so I think I'll stay in here with you two for a while," he said with a smile.

"You know," Jack said, "I could try to keep you going for longer. I have ice powers too. I don't know if it would work, but it's certainly worth a try."

Olaf shook his head. "No," he said with a smile, "There is no one else I'd rather melt with than Elsa."

Jack nodded. That was one thing he could understand. He didn't want to live without her either.

Elsa didn't let go of his hand. "I love you, Jack," she whispered.

"I love you, too," he said, trying not to cry. "I'll always love you." He felt himself lean forward and kiss her.

She was gone. Elsa was gone. That was all Jack could think. He couldn't feel anything. She wasn't there to hold, to tell him it's all alright. Because it wasn't alright. And it never would be again.

Every time he closed his eyes Jack saw her, as she was for their first kiss, and then for their last. Elsa. The only person he'd ever fallen in love with. The person he'd spent a lifetime with. Only, he had more lifetimes. Countless lifetimes, countless years. And he couldn't spend them without her.

That's when he thought of it. He could go to the trolls! Their magic was great, had brought him from the brink of death. If anyone could bring her back, if it was even remotely possible, it would be them.

He flew faster than he ever had, landing hard in the middle of a clearing that he knew well, with rocks scattered around everywhere. "I need to speak with you!" he called. Suddenly, the rocks rolled up to him, and revealed their true form.

"It's Jack!" said Grand-mammi, the troll leader. She was middle-aged now but Jack remembered when she had been a little thing tattling about Kristoff tinkling in the woods.

She looked at him and her tone changed. "Jack, what's wrong?"

"It's Elsa..." he started crying, couldn't speak through the lump in his throat.

"Oh my," said Grand-mammi, going up to pat Jack on the shoulder. "She lived a good life, Jack. A life filled with happiness. And you got to share it with her. That should make you proud."

Jack took deep breaths. "It's not enough," he said when he could. "I need her. I can't live without her! There must be some way to bring her back!"

"Not even all the magic in the world can reverse death," said the troll, looking at Jack with all too much pity in her eyes. "There is nothing that we can do."

"What about the man in the moon?!"

"He cannot change fate," said Grand-mammi, "and it was never Elsa's destiny to live as a spirit."

"Why NOT?!" Jack snapped.

"I do not understand the moon's limitations. But he cannot bring her back, and he has no choice."

Jack wanted to deny it, wished it wasn't true, but he knew that it must be. Trolls don't lie.

Suddenly he had an idea. "She may never return," Jack said, and had to swallow the lump in his throat before going on, "but maybe I can forget her."

"What?" Grand-mammi asked, eyes wide.

"I can't live like this!" Jack exclaimed. "I know you can make people forget, just like Grand-pappi did to Anna as a kid."

She thought for a moment. "You have known Elsa for most of your human life as well. In order to forget her completely, we would have to erase everything from when you first met her. You would have nothing left!"

"I don't care!" Jack shouted. He took a deep breath "I can't live like this," came out as a whisper.

"You will never die, Jack. You would go an eternity never knowing who you were."

"I don't care," he said again, this time calmer. "All I need is a name. Please, do it. I'm begging you!"

"Very well," he said. "You will remember only your name and your re-birth. Nothing else."

"Good," Jack replied.

He knelt down, and allowed the troll to put her hand to Jack's head, watched his memories spinning, taken away, replaced by a full moon. And then, everything was black.

Epilogue:

Pitch stood over the crevice Jack had fallen in, laughing as he threw the broken pieces of Jack's staff down at him, before leaving him there to rot. Jack stirred, looking around. "Babytooth," he said, lunging forward and scooping his friend up in his hands immediately. "You alright?" he asked.

Babytooth squeaked out a sneeze as he cover her with his hands.

Jack sighed. "Sorry," he said, "All I can do is keep you cold." He sat up, lifting her closer to eye level. "Pitch was right," he said, kneeling down again. "I make a mess of everything."

Babytooth looked up at him, then climbed into his sweater pocket. "Hey," he said, then sighed and lay down, sure she agreed with him.

Then he heard a voice. "Jack!" it said, echoing strangely. He opened his eyes. "Jack," it repeated. He looked down, and his pocket was glowing! He scrambled backwards, as if to get away from it. That didn't work, given it was attached to his person. He took the device Pitch had given him out of his pocket as it said his name a third time, and stared at it. Babytooth reached out and touched it, nodding reassuringly. Jack gently touched the blue diamond in the center, and the world around him faded away.

He was with a bunch of kids on an easter egg hunt, his mom telling him he can't just run off.

He was laughing as a girl with white-blond hair stood dripping wet and fuming in front of him.

He was hanging upside down from a tree branch with a girls shouting "Jack, get down from there!"

He was ice skating and trying to prove he was the superior ice skater.

He was by the lake, splashing a girl with strawberry blonde hair.

He was horsing around, pretending to be a monster with a bunch of people laughing.

He was zipping around the lake, taunting the white-haired girl. He was kissing her.

He was going out with a girl… his sister… to the lake.

He was dying.

And then he was living again.

He had a full life.

And he'd thrown it all away

Jack gasped, his eyes wide open as reality came back to him. He looked down at the device then at Babytooth. "Did you see - did you see that?!" he exclaimed. Babytooth shook her head as Jack gasped out, "It was - it was me! I had a family! I had friends, was in love! I had a sister! I saved her!" He laughed slightly.

He smiled as he thought of… Elsa. Her name was Elsa.

"That's why you chose me," he said, looking up at the full moon. "I'm… I'm a guardian!" He looked over at Babytooth. "Come on, we're getting out of here." He put her on the floor, and thought of everything that he was. He thought of his sister. Emma was her name. Of Anna, who he loved like a sister. Elsa, who he'd loved more than he thought he could. Of his life. He channeled all of that into one task; putting his staff back together. Because his memories were who he was. They gave him strength. Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Emma, even Olaf - they became his strength. Blue light filtered from the crack in the pieces of the staff, and just like that it was whole again. As was he.