This was bad. This was very bad.

Not only was Jack currently tied to a chair, he could feel the portal opening somewhere in the world. He'd felt another portal, too, but only briefly-Pitch was already in the Colosseum. Jack respected Pitch's power and handiness in a fight, but he was worried. No one could survive long alone in the Colosseum as it was-that was why they were allies in the first place! But Pitch was there now, and Jack needed to be there before his ally got himself killed. With no allies, he'd have no one to harass!

He glared balefully at the semicircle of Guardians around him. If Pitch died because of them, Jack would do worse than the Blizzard of '68. On a serious note, since situations like these generally required seriousness, Jack would probably go rogue if Pitch died because of the Guardians. He would never be able to trust them or work with them knowing they'd kept him from the Colosseum when he was needed there the most. The portal was still open, which meant that not a lot of time had passed, but Jack didn't want to think of what would happen to Pitch if he delayed any longer, not to mention whatever poor soul managed to find the portal before Jack did. It was like a bad movie-the Guardians were holding Pitch hostage and threatening to kill him unless Jack could convince them to let him go, and they didn't even know it-the Guardians themselves probably thought they were holding Jack hostage, which was just ridiculous. Jack never got into that kind of trouble, especially not with the Guardians. Discounting, of course, the majority of his previous encounters with them.

Well, might as well get cracking. Jack knew very well how to be a terrible hostage, and had gotten himself out of trouble many times by simply being himself until people let him go. Oddly enough, these people tended to ask Jack never to interact with them again.

Jack pouted. "Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd think you just tied me to a chair and kept me from having adventures and causing havoc. But you guys wouldn't do that to me, would you?" He asked, putting his baby blue eyes and excellent pout to good use.

"Yes," Bunny started, radiating aggression and tension.

Jack cut him off before he could say any more.

"But-Bunny! I thought we had something here! I trusted you, and I gave you the very depths of my heart, and you would still be so cruel to me?" The exaggerated pout and puppy dog eyes were starting to hurt his face. Bunny snarled, but quickly calmed himself.

"Look, kid, We're just doing this to show you that it's safe to stay with us, even if you sometimes feel uncomfortable. It's not the end of the world, yeah?" It would be the end of Pitch's world.

Shaking off that train of thought, Jack noted that Bunny seemed to be the ringleader of this project. He would have to remember that Bunny was clearly into kidnapping people and not to be trusted. Actually, Bunny was involved with most of Jack's kidnappings, wasn't he?

Jack felt a flicker in the bit of magic he'd put into Pitch so many years ago. It could mean nothing, but...

"You know, making me feel safe and happy usually doesn't involve tying me into a chair. In fact, I think you should see someone about that-you kidnap me kind of a lot." Jack quipped, subtly, feeling the knots he was bound by for weaknesses. He was suddenly not feeling up to simply waiting to be set free. Not while his first ever ally was in such danger.

"Jack, do not fight against zhe ropes. Zhey are made to stay, and zhey will stop you from freezing anything," North told him, noticing Jack's attempt as soon as it began.

Jack swore within the safety of his mind, though outwardly he just continued pouting. If he couldn't use his powers and he wasn't willing to wait...well, there were a few things he could do. He didn't like them, but he might be able to do them. Well, one decent option to check forst, he supposed.

Hey, Wind!

Jack!

Can you get to me?

No, I can't! What's going on, are you in danger?

Not yet, I don't think. If I get out of here, can you get to me? Is it a window stopping you or something magical?

Magic, I can barely even feel you. Is it a spell or a ward?

Now that was a good question. A ward would be placed on a particular area or object, and as soon as Jack wasn't touching it, he wouldn't be affected by whatever was dampening his connection with the Wind. A spell would be placed on Jack, and it might dispel if he could get to the Colosseum, but otherwise he was stuck until the caster dispelled it, got distracted, or ran out of energy, whichever came first.

He could still feel his connection with Pitch, though. That gave him enough determination to take desperate measures, if need be.

A spell is stopping me from getting to my magic, wards are probably what's stopping you from getting in. The Pole is one of the most heavily warded places I know. Here's where I am.

Jack sent an image of the room to Wind, even though he knew that the wards hadn't been adjusted to exclude his friend until after he'd been unconscious.

Jack. Jack, do you trust me?

Normally, yes. After you've asked that question...

Wind sent him a wave of amusement-their bond was a bond that went as deep as their souls, since Wind had given Jack magic just like Jack had done to Pitch. The difference was that Jack had given magic back, allowing their connection to grow both ways. The downside of this was that Jack knew that his friend was up to no good.

Wind!

Calm down, it'll just be a moment now and I can get you out. Give me a couple more seconds...

Jack could feel the room he was in tilt. It lurched to the side, knocking everyone inside of it off their feet, though Jack's chair miraculously remained upright. The jade elephant, still standing on the ruins of the bed, was knocked through the wall. The distraction made whoever had cast the spell suppressing Jack's magic dispel it solely through lack of concentration, and Jack rejoiced. Now he could get things done!

With a moment's concentration, Jack froze the chair so suddenly and thoroughly that it splintered, loosening his bonds until he could break the chair with no trouble, simply a hard enough crash on the ground. He ran to the gaping hole in the wall before any of the Guardians could react, perching at the edge and seeing what had happened.

The entire Workshop, as well as the ground under it, had tilted. Jack was looking over a dizzying drop to an icy death.

Good thing icy deaths had never been a problem for him.

"Jack, that's a long drop and you can't fly right now," Tooth warned him, getting up from the wall that was about as close to horizontal now as the floor was. "Just clam down and we can talk about this. I admit we may have been hasty, just please step away from the ledge? Even you wouldn't survive a fall like that."

Jack smirked, hoping desperately that this would work. "You wanna bet?" He asked, grinning at the Guardians as he took one step back and out of the room.

His guess was proven correct as the Wind caught him the instant he'd left the building. Wind had only been banned from entering the Workshop, and probably then only as a precaution, since the Guardians weren't entirely convinced that the Wind was a separate entity from Jack.

Ah, the joys of having friends who people thought didn't exist.

Should you be seeing a psychiatrist about these latent suicidal tendencies of yours? I mean, jumping out of towers isn't a good sign, Wind teased gently.

Hey, this is all your fault! You were the one who managed to tip the whole building-how did you do that?

Dug a big circle under it, left a tiny piece there for the whole thing to stand on, tipped the scale. That's not important, though, what's important is for you to know that I'm always here for you. If you ever feel like you want to jump out of a tower again, I want you to-

Yeah, yeah, you're hilarious. Shouldn't you be seeing the psychiatrist for coming up with this crazy plan?

Wind gave the impression of sniffing. I was just going to shake it back and forth until they let you go. You were the one who had to have an action hero escape. Besides, no one else can talk to me.

That was right-Jack was the only person they knew of who could directly talk to the Wind. He was pretty sure Wind had been the one who decided that that would be the case, though, so he didn't look into fixing it as he might have otherwise.

Hmm. Maybe I should see that psychiatrist-after all, I'm hearing a voice no one else can hear. It tells me to do evil things like be more careful and see a psychiatrist. Yep, I'd better work on getting rid of it.

Wind laughed, and they finally arrived at the portal. Jack felt himself tensing up in anticipation, feeling through the bond that Pitch was somehow still alive.

He dove into the portal...

And of course he dove straight into that path of a sword that was about to catch Pitch unawares. And of course he took a glancing wound to the shoulder, because why not? At least he'd prevented Pitch from getting stabbed in the back. Even though the ungrateful man would probably never thank him for it.

Nicholas St. North was not a man often shocked. He was surprised every day-living in a place dedicated entirely to wonder did that to a person-but true, absolute shock was altogether foreign to him.

He thought that it may be coming back to his life now, in the form of Jack Frost.

Jack Frost who had managed to tip over the entirety of North's workshop without access to his magic. And then had had the cleverness to use North's shock to his advantage, jumping out the window before North could reestablish the spell that limited most of Jack's magic. What he hadn't sealed was the magic attached to Jack's soul-there had been strings of magic attaching his soul to his body, and to the Man in the Moon (presumably), and to at least one other entity. North hadn't dared touch those for fear of killing the boy or cutting off his magic forever.

How had Jack managed what he had with only enough magic to keep himself alive? The yetis had reported that a bowl of earth below the Workshop had been scooped out, leaving the entire building as well as the mountain it was built into resting on a single pillar of dirt, which had then been pushed over to tip the structure to the side.

It simply wasn't possible. How could Jack have accomplished an incredible feat of magic when he had nearly no magic?

Perhaps it had all been an elaborate prank? But no, even Jack could not plan such a thing so perfectly. In fact, the pieces had all fallen into place so well that North suspected that it had been entirely made up on the spot. There was simply no other explanation for the plan adapting to exactly what Jack had needed in the moment.

North watched Bunny pace up and down in the Warren, which had been their replacement meeting spot as long as the Pole was...out of commission. The Pooka was frustrated and surprised in equal measure, North knew, and was growing some respect for Jack despite himself. Tooth and Sandy hadn't been able to keep from their duties any longer unless a true emergency happened, but Tooth had left one of her fairies so they they'd be able to contact her if anything happened.

So far, all they knew was that Jack had disappeared and they had no idea how or why or even where.

North didn't know yet how much he'd regret learning the answers.

Hi! Thanks for the read, I actually have nothing to say down here.

Thanks anon reviewers (especially candle dark the Ever Faithful), you're awesome and I dearly wish I could respond to your reviews! -cough-get an account please I beg of you-cough-

As always, praise be to my beta Tomoyo-chan284. Without her I would never be able to convey what I actually mean, as I never use nouns and overuse pronouns. Thank you!