Chapter 9 – Child at Heart – part 2

As Jack and the twins were running towards the storeroom with the cages, the lights abruptly went out and for a couple of seconds they stopped, surrounded by complete darkness, the screams of the crowd coming faintly from the stairwell. Finally, the emergency lights turned on, staining everything in a creepy shade of red, and a different alarm started ringing.

"What just happened?" Ivy wondered.

"That's…" Zach gulped, "That's the alarm I was telling you about, someone opened the cages! And…switched off everything else in the process".

"Maybe it was Toothiana…" Jack said tentatively.

"She knew we were supposed to execute that part of the plan!" Ivy retorted , "That wouldn't make sense!"

"Also, she's coming this way" the boy confirmed and both the twins turned around to see the woman running towards them.

"Tell me you didn't open the cages in our place!" Ivy sighed.

"I didn't…but I'm afraid I know who…" she started but she was interrupted by a loud noise that filled the corridors, something resembling a scream or a roar but that had nothing of human in it.

"Oh no" Jack realized "Jamie…"

Jamie's eyes, transfixed in those of the creature, showed no fear, though the boy was terrified, he was determined not to show it.

"You shouldn't have done that, child" a deep, unnaturally soothing voice came out of the monster's beak. "The ghost boy is my precious treasure", he continued, slowly approaching them. Several creatures cowered in fear in the corners of the room. "He's my key to the dark side of the Moon", Thoth concluded.

Nightlight opened his eyes wide at the words that Jamie, instead, didn't fully comprehend. The monster was so close Jamie could feel the heat of the fire consuming his wings on his own skin when they opened wide and some feathers flew towards them like projectiles.

Jamie grabbed Nightlight's hand and dragged him behind a desk, but the ghost boy shook his head and stood up again, facing the enemy: the brightness of his figure increased until it was just pure light that enveloped Thoth like a ring, closing on him and forcing his wings closed. Jamie smiled but it didn't last long, as the monster, with a screech opened the wings again, apparently scattering the light in a million pieces. Nightlight was apparently gone.

"You might be powerful against the forces of night and darkness, boy of the Moon, but I too belong to the night" Thoth spoke with satisfaction, redirecting his focus to Jamie once again. He extended a clawed hand as to grab him, but was immediately stopped by a bolt of white light on his back, that froze most of his wings.

"Leave him alone" Jack ordered him, standing in the doorway. The ice melt away and the tattered feathers seemed to catch fire miraculously, as if Jack's magic didn't affect him.

"You must be the newest Gelu Anima…Jokul Frosti, I see" Thoth turned his attention to Jack: "Thank you for returning this to me…" he raised a hand and the chain on Jack's neck broke as the scarab flew into the immortal's hand.

"My name" Jack hissed, as his appearance reverted to the usual one and a thin layer of ice covered again his clothes and staff, "is Jack Frost".

"There hasn't been a single language for our world for millennia, why should endless beings hold to one name only? I know what you are, Gelu Anima, and your name matters not to me" his beak seemed to warp in resemblance to an horrifying smile, "but I do know you are on the wrong side".

"I'm on the children's side" Jack replied, slowly approaching him.

"A Guardian too, uh? Unusual…" he commented, "The ones like you, before you, always fancied siding with darkness, you know?"

Jack stopped on his tracks, stunned: "What did you say?"

"You heard me, Jack Frost, ever wondered if you chose the wrong side?"

Pitch's voice from not long before echoed in Jack's mind: What goes together better than cold and dark?

"HEY BOSS!" Zach came in running from the hallway behind Jack: "Guess what? I quit!" he exclaimed with a ridiculous smile as he started spraying Thoth with white foam. Ivy came in seconds later: "You will not believe how hard it was to find that thing! Thank you for distracting him long enough" she told Jack, "What happened to the scarab?"

Jack shook his head, as for waking up from a trance: "Ah…I'm afraid he took it" he told her. Toothiana came in too and, sprinting through the two of them, punched Thoth in the stomach while he was busy trying to shake the foam off him.

"Jamie! This way, hurry!" Jack called the kid, who ran towards him.

"Are you ok, child?" Toothiana asked.

"Yes, but Nightlight is gone…" he started.

"Nightlight?" The fairy covered her mouth with her hands, "Nightlight was here?"

Jamie nodded: "You know him? He tried to imprison the bird monster but he shattered into light! Where is he?!"

"You insolent fools…" Thoth's voice sounded enraged as he rose once again from the floor, foam melting and burning black as the attack seemed to have been ineffective.

"You might think you can escape, but will you, when this whole place is burning to the ground?!" he roared, as his body began dissolving into smoke and the heat around them became unbearable.

"That's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it?!" Zach exclaimed, incredulous, dropping the fire extinguisher and preparing to run away: "I'd say we abscond! Ivy?!"

"Wait" she stopped him, eyes fixed on Toothiana.

"For what? Us being roasted up?"

"Shoosh" she put a hand on his mouth. Toothiana was muttering something: "I believe, I believe" she was saying, "please, I know you're still here. I believe…"

Thoth had almost vanished when fragments of bright light appeared and converged into a humanoid figure. Nightlight reappeared in front of Thoth and before he could react, stabbed him with the crystal top of his spear. The temperature plummeted, and with a cry the immortal vanished completely.

"Yes!" Jamie cheered, Toothiana smiled, but Nightlight still looked worried.

"Is he gone for good?" Ivy wondered, staring at the luminescent boy. Unlike Jack he really looked otherworldly, with his light and gleaming armor and silver eyes. He didn't look older than Jamie, but his eyes were so much wiser than the other Guardians and immortals she encountered, maybe even of the Man in the Moon. He shook his head gravely.

"Who are you anyway?" Jack asked the ghost boy.

"Jack, this is Nightlight. First Guardian and carer of Tsar Lunar. Nightlight, I assume you know about Jack already?" Toothiana introduced him.

In a fraction of a second, the worry was gone from the boy's face, replaced by a bright smile as he nodded and hugged Jack, who remained still from the surprise.

"Nightlight" Jamie called, the boy looked at him, "That monster mentioned you are a key of some kind, what did he want from you?" he wondered, then precised: "The key to the dark side of the moon..."

"I must go" he finally spoke, "I cannot allow Thoth to get to the Tsar, or capture him like he did to me"

"Wow, and I thought you were the silent fella" Zach laughed, Ivy elbowed him in the stomach. "That wasn't necessary, I was trying to lighten the mood!"

"Are you going back to the Moon, then?" Toothiana wondered.

"No", he said, "I can't allow things like four years ago to happen again. But I will stay in hiding".

The fairy nodded: "It's for the best".

Without any farewell or word to say, he flew away from the room and the palace, faster than a moonbeam.

Jack finally approached Jamie: "Are you ok, kid?"

"Yeah..." he murmured.

Jack slapped him lightly on the head: "Don't try to pull of something so dangerous ever again!"

"I'm sorry" he said, Jack relaxed.

"Let's bring you back to your family" Ivy said.

In the end, nothing could avoid the fire to spread from the places where Thoth impudently set fire in rage. On their way down, the group encountered a team of firemen, who helped them and a group of researchers to escape.

When Jamie's parents saw the boy, Zach and Ivy couldn't help but envy him a bit as they hugged him crying with relief. Zach put a hand on his sister's shoulder: "Don't worry, everything will be alright. I won't leave you alone again".

Behind them was Jack, who, having lost the Scarab, was invisible once again to most people. A couple firemen rushing into the building ran right trough him.

"Are you ok?" Ivy noticed his discomfort.

"I'm used to it" Jack smirked, "What about you, how are you gonna justify the fact that your boss and workplace catched fire?"

Zach chuckled: "Well, I quit, so they're not my boss and workplace anymore. I'll have to deal with dad and the uni, but that's all, I think".

"Fair enough, since we saved everyone in Chicago from being brainwashed or something" Ivy smirked. "So, what are you going to do now?" she asked Jack.

"Toothiana went back to her palace, I suppose I'll keep on wandering" he shrugged. "Let's see if I can find anything on Thoth, or Nightlight...I still have many things to ask him".

"Seems right" Ivy said, "Good luck".

"This is goodbye, then" Zach intervened.

"I suppose so..." Jack smiled, sadly, "Well, I'm in Burgess often, so you can come if you..." he wasn't able to finish the sentence as Ivy hugged him tightly.

"Oh, ok? What's with people hugging me today?" he said.

"Oh, shut up! Geez, I might as well hug a snowman!" Ivy joked.

"Group hug!" Zach exclaimed, hugging them both.

"Ok, no" Jack said wriggling out of the crushing hug, "Hugging, not my thing".

"Sorry" Ivy laughed.

"See you again" Jack grinned, then took off, disappearing in the night sky just as snow started to fall. Ivy followed him with her eyes as long as possible then she found herself simply looking at the black and red clouds.

"Sooo" Zach started, "What do we do now?"

"Let's just go home" Ivy sighed, "Take the long road though. We need a good cover story".

"Oh, right, you are still officially missing..." Zach realized.

"That, too..." she noticed, following him towards the parking lot.

An helicopter raised from the skyscraper's rooftop.

For the second time, Ivy thought she was never going to be involved with the Guardians again.

For the second time, she was wrong.

Child at Heart is over. It's been three years since I've started writing it, it's a ridiculous amount of time for such a short fanfiction. I hope the next, Broken Summer won't take that long.

Broken Summer is the last chapter of this saga and it takes place a year later, that's all I'm telling you for now.

The version with images of Child At Heart will be "soon" available on AO3.

Headcanon Time! Zach is a total dork: he loves making nerdy references and wearing fandom t-shirts. Ivy has mainly the same interests, but tends to keep them for herself.