The Gaping Plot Canyon…

Disclaimer: Rise of the Guardians belongs to William Joyce and Dreamworks.

...

"Didn't they tell you, Jack? It's great being a Guardian… but there's a catch. If enough kids stop believing, everything your friends protect, wonder, hopes and dreams, it all goes away… and little by little, so do they." Pitch chuckled at the totally flabbergasted look on Frost's face, entirely misreading the boy's reaction. Besides, the boy was neutral for the moment, and he had other things to do.

With angry battle cries the other Guardians hurtled after the Boogeyman in attack mode. Pitch leapt off the side of a balcony, and there was a strange falling battle as everyone else followed after him. Jack was a few steps behind, having to pull himself out of his thoughts first.

From the reactions of the others he knew there was truth in Pitch's words, but he wasn't sure how much, and that bothered him.

Soon enough, he had something much more pressing to think about. He had a life before he was Jack Frost. He was someone before he was chosen. The anguish had been clear in Tooth's eyes as she asked quietly, brokenly, if he really couldn't remember. She was genuinely upset for him. What had happened to him was obviously not normal… so what exactly had happened? And why was he the only one who didn't remember?

...

It wasn't until he and Jamie rushed out to meet the crash-landed sleigh that Jack remembered Pitch's taunt about the catch of being a Guardian. As he caught sight of Bunny, tiny little Bunny, hopping out of the sleigh, it came rushing back to him.

"If enough kids stop believing, everything your friends protect, wonder, hopes and dreams, it all goes away… and little by little, so do they."

Sure, he had figured there was a grain of truth in there, having seen the concern of the others for the Tooth Fairy's few fallen feathers, but it was obviously much more serious than he had thought. The giant warrior pooka was reduced to a tiny fluffy rabbit, looking more like a stuffed toy than anything else.

Jack's quiet "Oh no…" was filled with more than just his concern for the rabbit. It shuddered with a horrible truth that he didn't want to think about. Unfortunately, that truth was staring him in the… ankles.

Even more telling was Bunny's reaction when he heard that Jack had kept Jamie believing, as if Jack had personally saved him.

Jack really didn't want to think about that, because that would mean…

But suddenly Pitch was back, and they were off again.

...

As the Guardians, Jack and the six children ground to a halt in front of Pitch and his giant swarm of nightmares, Jack had just about figured it out. He knew what was going on, and he had had enough.

Pitch cackled happily at their little last stand effort. "You'll protect them… but who will protect you?!" he sneered down at them.

And Jack knew. He turned slowly to North, resting a hand against the two large ones that held the Russian braced upright upon his sword. Someone wanted him dead, okay, but he would go on his own terms.

"I got this." he murmured quietly, and turned back to face Pitch with a somber stare and a serious set to his shoulders.

Someone beat him to it.

"I will." Jamie stepped forward. An eight year old in pajamas, barefoot in the snowy street, stood between them and death. Then the others stepped forward too, and everything was happening at once. Black sand, gold sand, roof hopping, running, chasing, fighting, dodging, cornering Pitch… and then it was over and Sandy was back. Pitch was dragged off by his own nightmares, and Jack spared a passing thought that it was just as well he was angry about the whole problem and not scared, or those nightmares might have taken him as well. But he was past fear now. He was angry and resigned.

If he was going, it wasn't without a fight.

So when North pulled out that awful book again and asked if Jack was ready to become a Guardian officially, Jack shifted carefully to place himself between the children and the four legends smiling stupidly at him. Blindly following the Moon.

Jack looked back at Jamie wistfully and then turned to frown at North.

"No."

Everything stopped.

The Guardians gaped at him, the yeti stared blankly, the kids seemed dazed by the drifting dreamsand which had stopped falling like snow and just hovered.

"Vhat?" asked North.

"I said no." Jack frowned, casting a worried glance back at the children. "Let's get them home, then I'll explain."

Sandy quickly set about sending the kids the rest of the way into sleep, and Jack was pleasantly surprised when Jamie managed to shake it off long enough to run and hug him.

"What if Pitch comes back? What if I stop believing again? If I can't see you…"

"Hey, hey, slow down, slow down!" laughed Jack, crouching down to smile at Jamie.

"Are you telling me you stop believing in the moon when the sun comes up?"

"No." mumbled Jamie, staring down at his bare toes.

"Okay, well do you stop believing in the sun when clouds block it out?"

"No." the little boy almost laughed at that one. Good.

"We'll always be here Jamie. And you were my first believer. I'll always come back."

Jamie hugged him again, finally succumbing to Sandy's dreamsand and slumping against Jack's shoulder.

The yeti, elves, eggs and mini fairies carted the other kids off home while the rest of the Guardians turned disbelieving eyes to Jack.

Glaring at them over Jamie's sleeping shoulder, Jack leapt into the air with his first real friend, not trusting the boy's safety to any of the little minions. He took his time tucking Jamie into bed, but he knew he had to go back and explain.

So he returned to the lake with as much stubborn teenage attitude as he could muster, and after being stuck as a teenager for three hundred years, that was a lot.

...

"Vhy will you not be a Guardian?" was the first question he got upon his return. North looked honestly confused. "You love children, you found your center, you beat Pitch… you even saved Bunny!" the big man waved a hand at the belligerent rabbit.

"Exactly." snapped Jack angrily.

"Whaa…?"

"What would have happened to Bunny if Jamie had stopped believing?" asked Jack. Bunny shuffled self-consciously.

"I would have died, okay?" he burst out. "Just like Sandy did. Gone until someone remembered me. So thanks, you saved me." he crossed his arms and glared like he wasn't really happy about that somehow.

Jack nodded to himself, then swung around and glared at the sky.

"IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED?!" he yelled at the moon, ignoring the way everyone else started in surprise. "You leave me without anything but a name for three hundred years and now THIS?!"

"But Jack," the Tooth fairy fluttered forward anxiously. "The Moon chose you to…"

"Exactly." snarled Jack again. Tooth faltered back a little. Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sorry, it's not your fault." he swept his gaze over the four of them. "You guys mean well, I know, but you do anything he tells you. You need to THINK."

Jack leveled his gaze on North.

"If I had let you make me a Guardian back at the Pole, you would have killed me."

Silence.

Four pairs of eyes stared at him, horrified but not understanding. Not yet. He had to make them see…

"But… but the Man in the Moon chose you…" Tooth whispered, hands to her face in terror.

"Yes he did." said Jack gently. "Think. The Man in the Moon chose me to be a Guardian of childhood, when he knew that no-one believed in me." he waved an arm in the direction of Burgess. "I wasn't kidding about Jamie being my first believer. As of now, I have a grand total of six. Maybe. So think. If I take that oath now, what will it do to me?"

He could see in their faces that the got it now, they understood, and were appalled at the thought of what they had unknowingly almost done.

...

...

Honestly, did no-one else spot that giant gaping plot canyon?! I know it is a kid's movie and you aren't supposed to apply logic, but even as a kid, that's what I did. I'm hoping there would have been a grace period or something, but we'll never know. The Moon isn't great at exposition.

Yes, Jack has only six believers. Jamie, Cupcake, Pippa, Caleb, Claude, and Monty. We can't even be sure about Caleb and Claude, because they chased after Santa and the Tooth fairy, not Jack. Sure they would have been introduced later, but whether it happened during the night they fought Pitch is unclear.

As far as I know, Sophie still can't see Jack. It won't take long, Jamie will make sure of that, but Jamie was the first to see Jack… long after Sophie was taken home. Every time we see her after that, Sophie was too focused on Bunny to notice almost anything else. Which brings up the question of how Jack managed to carry Sophie home when she should have fallen through his arms…