Back In Time

Chapter 3: North

The next morning, Jack was up bright and early. To be honest, he hadn't slept all that much, if at all, due to his racing mind trying to figure out a plan for what he was going to do. Jack had stayed in one of the many glamorous guest rooms in the castle. It was beautiful and quite elegant, though Jack felt very out of place among all that luxury. Ash he headed towards the dining room for breakfast, he noticed Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf were all already there.

"Morning Jack!" Anna called, cheerfully waving. Elsa and Kristoff were dressed and ready for the day, but Anna was still in her pajamas, her hair a wild mess.

"Good morning Jack. I trust you slept well?" Asked Elsa.

"Yes, thank you." As Jack took a seat, he figured how to broach the topic that had bothered him all night.

"Your Majesty? Your highness?" He said to alert both Elsa and Anna. When both girls looked at him he continued.

"I will be leaving today for a visit somewhere."

"What?! You're leaving already?!" Anna yelped.

"I'll be back. Hopefully soon." Jack said. It was true. Regardless of whether he got North's cooperation or not, he had to return for the Delorean.

"Where are you going?" Elsa asked.

"Erm… the North Pole." Jack said after a moment of hesitation. "I have to meet a friend in the North Pole."

"The North Pole? Goodness! Why would anyone be out there?" Asked Anna.

"Well, he has a workshop there." Jack replied without thinking.

"Huh?" Said Kristoff, looking up from his breakfast.

"Your friend has a workshop... in the North Pole?" Asked Elsa.

"Uh, well, it's more of a science station." Jack attempted to amend.

"A science station?"

"Yeah! Studying the long-term effects of erm, ice, on polar bears and uh, penguins!"

"Penguins? In the North Pole? Penguins only exist in the South Pole."

"Well, that's what you think."

"You're an odd on, Jack. I'll give you that." Said Elsa.

"So are you, your Majesty." Jack quickly returned. Elsa raised an eyebrow and Jack realized what he had said. "Er, with all due respect."

"Yes, you're quite right." Elsa replied, surprising the white-haired young man. "I'll order a boat to take you there as soon as you want."

"Oh, you don't have to." Jack said, taken aback.

"But I want to. You saved my life and I'm eternally in your debt. This is the least I can do." With that Elsa raised a hand and motioned a man in a suit over.

"Kai, please ready a boat to take Mr. Frost."

"At once, your Majesty." Kai said with a bow before departing.

"Thanks." Jack said.

"Anytime." Elsa replied.

By the time they had finished eating, Kai had returned and waited near the doorway leading out of the castle. Jack, Elsa and Anna approached, and Kai bowed to the two royals before addressing Jack.
"The Queen said you needed a boat, so right this way." Said Kai. Jack looked at Elsa and was startled when Kai shouted "Hustle!" Jack wasted no time hurrying down the dock, towards the boat. "Quickly, quickly, quickly; you stepped on my foot." Said the man as Jack passed him.

The journey to the North Pole went surprisingly fast, if uneventful and boring. Thanks to a good tailwind, they made it to Nanortalik on the southernmost tip of Greenland in just over a week. Jack thanked the crew and, to their immense shock, told them that they could return to Arendelle and that he would proceed the rest of the way alone. Jack set off walking as the crew departed, but as soon as the boat disappeared on the horizon, Jack called the wind to help him fly.

In a little over an hour later, Jack crossed the whole of Greenland, passing Kaffeklubben Island and into the frozen arctic before touching down just outside North's workshop. Jack was greeted by the sight of a familiar yeti looking up in surprise as he landed.
"Hey Phil! It's good to see you! I have to talk to North, it's an emergency!" Jack said, trying to walk past the yeti and head into the workshop. Tried being the keyword. The yeti seized him up. Before he knew it, Jack found himself tossed away from the workshop, landing headfirst in the snow. He got out in time to see Phil walk back into the workshop and slam the door.
Fine. Thought Jack, frowning. If it's going to be that way…

Inside his workshop, North, aka Santa Claus, was carefully putting the finishing touches on a toy ice sculpture.

"North!"

"Aaaah!" Cried North dropping the toy. He whirled on the spot to see a white-haired teen with strange clothes and carrying a staff, standing by the doorway. He immediately recognized the boy as that incorrigible Jack Frost.
"Oh no! What are you doing here?!" North demanded.

"North, I need your help. I came here on a time machine you invented, and I need your help to get back to the year 2015." Jack blurted out quickly before North could interrupt.

"Time machine? I haven't invented any time machine." North protested. "And how'd you get past yeti security?!" Jack rolled his eyes. Typical.

"I came in through the sleigh exit tunnel." Jack replied.

"Wh-what?! That's impossible!" Said North, waving his hands furiously. "How do you know where that is?!"

"Because I have been telling the truth!" North scoffed and glanced challengingly, determined not to fall for any of Jack's schemes, whatever they may be this time.

"Then tell me, future boy, how many states are part of the American Union in 2015?"

"Fifty." Jack answered confidently.

"Fifty?! States?!" North laughed in disbelief before stating sarcastically, "And I'll bet Russia, Alaska and Canada are all states!" North stormed off. "I suppose in your time, men have walked on the moon!"

"Whoa. Wait, North!" Yelled Jack running after him.

"And the horse and carriage have been replaced as the primary means of transportation!"

"North, you gotta listen to me." North walked into his private room, then whirled on the spot, blocking Jack's path at the doorway.

"I've had enough practical jokes for one evening. Good night, future boy!" And with that he slammed the door in Jack's face. Jack slapped the door, trying to get through, but it was apparently spirit-proof.

"No, wait, North! North! The-the-the history of your Guardianship, I know how that happened." He cried. "You told me all about it. You had a wife and kids and loved children, so when they offered you a chance to be a guardian you took it, but then your family couldn't see you anymore; and yesterday you were cleaning up after the reindeer and you slipped and hit your head and that's… how you came up with the idea for the flux capacitor…" Jack trailed off in defeat. So, it was to his immense surprise when North's door suddenly flew open and there stood the large man, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.

After coming out of his room, North quickly pulled Jack to the sleigh, got the reindeer team hooked up and took off, using a magical snow-globe to quickly travel back to Arendelle. Jack directed him towards the forest outside the kingdom, where they landed and disembarked. Jack led the way as he approaches the misshapen pile of leaves and branches that hid the Delorean.
"There was something wrong with the starter, so I hid it here." He said, pulling of some branches to reveal the car. North stared at it, again with wide-eyed shock, then reached into his coat and took out a sheet of paper, which he showed Jack.

"After I hit my head, I drew this." The young Guardian took one glance and immediately recognized it.

"The Flux capacitor." Said Jack. He opened the passenger door, then leaned into the passenger's seat and, reaching back, turned on the Flux capacitor. North regarded it in awe, falling to his knees.

"It works! It works!" He cried, grabbing Jack by the collar. "I finally invent something that works! Me! Not the yetis!"

"You bet your ass it works." Sai Jack. North quickly sobered up and stepped back, regarding the Delorean.

"Somehow we gotta sneak this out of here. We've gotta get you home!"

Together, Jack and North had hooked the Delorean up to half of North's reindeer team, leaving the other half with the sleigh. Since the sleigh wasn't carrying any gifts, the reduced team could manage it as was. While it was risky to pull the car, they decided it would be worse if someone saw the car flying through the sky pulled by a team of reindeer. Jack and North led the team to a more secluded location, where North magically set up a large wooden shed.

"North, what-?!" Jack questioned, staring at the red shed.

"Emergency Field Workshop." North explained with a chuckle. "If toys or sleigh need repairs or replacement parts, or if reindeer get hurt, this is the place to fix what needs to be done." North opened the large doors at the front of the shed and guided the reindeer close. Then, he and Jack disconnected the Delorean and pushed it the rest of the way in.

"Always keep the door locked when you or I are not here." North advised, shutting the door once the two were inside. "Magic will protect the shed from harm and forced entry, but anyone can waltz in the front door if you forget to lock it."

"I'll keep that in mind." Said Jack. He looked around the shed. It was furnished with various tools, chains, some with hooks, some large rags of to a side—big enough to cover the Delorean— and the whole place was illuminated by an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling.

"Last thing I used this for was to service the sleigh," said North, "so it should be good to work on the time machine."

"That's great. Umm, where do we start?" Asked Jack.

"Do you have anything that could help us?" Asked North. "Blueprints or schematics? If needed, I can take somethings apart to study and reverse engineer, but I'd rather know what precisely I am dealing with first."

Jack thought for a moment than recalled something he hoped would do the trick.
"Oh! Yeah! Hold on." He went over to the Delorean and pulled out the snow-globe.

"A recording snow-globe?! Excellent!" Said North. "I'll set it up. You pull down that screen for a projector." Jack went over to a wall North had indicated. There was a long cylinder of rolled up canvas about halfway up the wall.

"This it?" He asked.

"Yeah, that's the one." North replied.

"Okay, got it." Jack pulled down the canvas and then joined North who set the snow-globe to project its images onto the wall. They watched as the Delorean debuted and 2015 North climbed out of the car. 1855 North stared in shock at seeing himself.

"Why, that's me! Look at me! I'm an old man!" Jack frowned, glancing at North in disbelief, though declining to comment that North was ageless. "Thank God, I've still got my hair!"

"Whoa! Wait a minute north! This is the part coming up."

"What did I say?" North asked, agitatedly. Jack tinkered with the snow-globe and got it to rewind a bit.

"Are you telling me that this sucker is NUCLEAR?!" Said Jack in the recording.

"Hey, hey, hey. Keep rolling. Keep rolling there. No, no, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 jigowatts of electricity I need." Said 2015 North. His 1855 counterpart leapt backwards and hollered,

"1.21 jigowatts! 1.21 jigowatts! Great Scott!" He ran out leaving Jack staring incredulously.

"What-what the hell is a jigowatt?" Jack yelled, chasing after him.

"1.21 jigowatts! How could I be so irresponsible?!" North asked, pacing infront of the sleigh just outside the shed.

"North-"

"Jack I don't know what future me was thinking, but he was crazy building a miniature nuclear reactor on the back of that thing."

"Hey, come on North. All we need is a little plutonium."

"I'm sure that in your time, plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but in this time, it's a little hard to come by." Said North, sitting down in the sleigh.

"North, what are you saying?" Jack asked, beginning to dread the worst.

"Kid, you're out of gas and going nowhere fast. And unless you figure on driving out into a nuclear test site while an A-Bomb's going off, I'm afraid you're stuck here."

"North, it's 1855! That's still ninety years away! And how do you even know what a nuclear A-bomb is?!" Jack froze as the rest of North's words sank in. "Stuck here?! Wait, North, I can't be stuck here! I've got a life – so to speak – in 2015! I got kids, believers to look after!"

"Do they love you?" North looked at him solemnly.

"North, I'm a Guardian of Childhood! Like you! My- my center is Fun!" Jack explained. "North, please; you're my only hope. There's got to be some other way."

"Oh, sure. We can tie into Hoover Dam with a very long cable. Or we can build a turbine on the back of this thing and you can drive it over Niagara Falls."

"North, are you even listening to yourself?!" Jack exasperated. "1855, the Hoover Dam hasn't been built yet! And drive it over Niagara Falls?! How would we even build a turbine?"

"I'm Santa Claus, remember? I can design it, fabricate parts and some materials, then build it."

"Isn't there some way to generate that kind of power that doesn't rely on the absurd?"

"Jack, I'm sorry, but in this era the only power source capable of generating 1.21 jigowatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning." North explained. "It actually peaks around a terawatt, but only lasts thirty microseconds. Even if we knew where and when it was going to strike, our timing would have to beyond perfect. If... if we could somehow harness this lightning... channel it into the flux capacitor..." The large man shrugged. "I guess you could always drive across the county at 88 miles an hour and hope that you get struck by a bolt of lightning."

"This... this can't be happening." Jack muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry Jack. But you're stuck here." North looked at Jack apologetically. "It's not so bad here. Take a tour. Meet some people. No scratch that. Interacting with anyone may have terrible repercussions." North looked thoughtful for a moment, then slowly turned to look at Jack, a look of worry appearing on his features. "Jack, this is very important. Did you interact with anyone since you got here?"

"Well, I may have bumped into the Queen of Arendelle; saved her from an assassination attempt."

"Great Scott!"

"What?" Jack asked, confused by his choice of exclamation.

"Oh I feared this could happen!

"What North? What?" Jack asked. "By interfering with historical events, you may have altered the very fabric of time and created a paradox!"

"Wait a minute North. What do you mean a paradox?"

"Saving Elsa could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum, and destroy the entire universe! Granted, that's a worst-case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy."

"Well, that's a relief." Jack replied sarcastically.

"Listen Jack. It is very likely that Elsa was supposed to die in that assassination attempt. If the queen dies, then her sister would take over as queen of Arendelle. But because you interfered, that now won't happen. If history is to be put right, Queen Elsa must die or a the very least abdicate the throne so that Anna will be queen."

"Whoa, North!" Jack called. "How do we know she would have died? I mean, she may have just been injured but survived, even without my help."

"Unfortunately, based on your description of Arendelle in the twenty-first century, along with your lack of knowledge of this area, leads credence to my inference." North replied. "Besides, this is Pitch Black we are talking about here. He never leaves something half-finished."

"North, I refuse to kill the Queen or lead her into a situation that would cause her death. I refuse to do that to anyone!"

"Then have her abdicate. But she must leave Arendelle."

"And how would I even go about doing that?"

"I don't know. She clearly fancies you. Seduce her or something."

"North that is not right! I'm not just gonna seduce-" Jack cut himself off. "She fancies me? Whoa, wait a minute, North. Uh, are you telling me, that the Queen has got the hots for me?"

"Precisely!" Said North. "Sandy told me just yesterday. I though he was insane. Thought he was referring to 1855 you."

"This is heavy." Jack said, running a hand through his hair.

"Weight has nothing to do with it." North stated.

"Anyway, I know that Elsa and Anna would never hurt anyone." Said Jack "They would both be good rulers. I'm not going to destroy Elsa's life based on a possibility."

"So you would risk the world?" North asked.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Jack.

"The queen and princess may not do anything evil, but we don't know of a future with them in control of a surviving kingdom. One of their descendants may become a dictator."

"That is the lamest excuse I've ever heard." Said Jack.

"But it is a valid possibility. What if one of their children or grandchildren becomes a vicious tyrant?" Asked North "What if Arendelle is conquered and the conqueror uses their resources to unleash havoc on the world? Start a major war?"

"That's a big what-if, North." Said Jack.

"That's precisely my point! That unpredictability is the danger of the changes that may occur if time is changed! If history is altered!" North countered. "What if other countries decide Arendelle is an important resource and decide to exploit it? What if this leads to a massive war? Or if a deadly disease outbreak begins in Arendelle?"

"What if Arendelle cures a deadly disease? Or prevents a massive war?"

"Jack, is the world devastated in your time?"

"No. It's fine."

"That is precisely my point. I bet right now you think 'what if Arendelle could make the world a better place?' but that is a big risk. Since the world in your time is not devastated, but it might become so if Arendelle remains. With Arendelle gone, we know the world is still fine by your own admittance. But if it were to remain, we enter into dangerous unknown territory. I'm sorry Jack, but it is just too big of a risk."

"Fine. I'll… I'll think of something." Jack relented. He honestly hadn't the faintest idea of what he would do.

"All right, kid. You stick to the Queen like glue and make sure she abdicates from the Arendelle throne."

"I'll try."

"Don't worry, Jack. You do this, and history will be all right." North assured him. "Now, you go on back to Castle Arendelle. I'll tinker with the Delorean and try to find out what's wrong with it."

"I hope you're right." Jack sighed. He turned to leave and then stopped. "Oh, and uh, North?"

"Yeah, Jack?"

"Alaska is a state. The forty-ninth." North stared at him in shock, mouth agape.

"Unbelievable!"

Author's Note: Both how North knows of future events (such as the A-bomb and Hoover dam), as well as why it is important to get Jack back to the future despite his being immortal, will be addressed and explained in coming chapters. I know I just brushed over the topics for this chapter and didn't want anyone to think I was ignoring potential plot holes.

Guest: Here it finally is! At long last!

Knight Writer 95: Sorry about that. I guess I over did it. I use lines from the movie throughout the story as homages. I'm using a lot of scenarios and problems from the movies and combining them, but I also intend to come up with some of my own unique solutions (while still borrowing some elements from the films). Thank you and I apologize this took so long to update. There has been a lot (even more) of things going on, I have a new-ish job and finally graduated out of my university. Long story short, there involves choosing to focus on studying and my own personal stories over fanfics, the untimely passing of some people I knew, a death in the family and unexpected reorganizing and heavy workloads of a new business I've been helping set up. If you want a better explanation, I plan to provide one in my author's note for Ch. 19 of my story Through The Storm which I hope to update by Friday or Saturday, so check it out if you want.

Spiderfan626: Thanks. And sorry for the delay.