Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

Summery:

All he has of Before are his last memories of saving his sister from falling in the ice . . . and then dieing himself. Years later when the Guardians see the image of a tall, hooded stranger wielding a staff, none of them knows who this mysterious spirit is or why they do not recognize him.

Frost Ferns

By: Goldenbrook15

Chapter 1

The Pond

"Jack!"

The freezing cold water surrounded him on all sides as he struggled to the surface, even though he knew that he would never be able to break back through the ice let alone haul himself up. He knew what he had done for his sister had cost him his life, but he did not care. She was his sister, and he had promised to protect her. So he had, and in the end he was paying for that promise with his life.

He hoped she wasn't too sad about it.

"You always play tricks!"

He winced as his mind drifted to some of his sister's last words to him before he tossed her aside and away from the thin ice. Did she really think like that? Was he really that bad? It made him sad that his own sister thought that way of him. He was almost always just trying to cheer everyone up, but maybe had gone overboard a few times.

Blackness was creeping over him now. It devoured his sight hungrily, taking what little of the surface ice he could see from his blurry, water clouded eyes. His struggles slowed as the icy cold sunk into his muscles and bones, slowing them to a near stop no matter how much he screamed at them in his head to move. His lungs burned with the lack of air and he could no longer feel his fingers and toes. He knew that in a few minutes he would leave this world behind.

He hoped that his sister was alright and that she had not tried to follow him, to help him. He knew that he could not be helped now. The cold was too firmly set inside of him. He was sinking, the small speck of light that he could see was getting farther and farther away as his frozen limbs floated to his sides, useless in his struggle. He could almost imagine that speck was the moon, watching his final moments, and could not help but plead to it, if it was even listening.

Please, after I am gone, let my sister be safe.

His lungs were on fire, and he could no longer hold the precious bubble of air inside of him. It slipped up his throat and out of his mouth as his eyes slid closed and his body stilled for the last time.

Up in the sky the moon looked down on the scene with deep sadness. Here was a child with a pure heart, a heart stronger than any Guardian before. Here was one who would give their life for another because they knew that it was the right thing to do. The man in the moon listened to the last words of the boy as he began to fade and they pierced his hard heart.

Already he could feel the boy's spirit slipping away and before he could stop to consider his actions he grabbed that spirit and bound him to his body. The body under the ice began to change as the power of the moon touched it. His hair lightened from its natural brown into a pure, snow white color. Unseen under his eye lids his eyes glowed for a moment before turned into an unnatural sky blue. The man in the moon finished by binding a bit of his own power into the boy then pulling him from the frozen pond to lie upon the surface.

Every other time he had done this, the man in the moon had a purpose, a meaning for the spirit he created, but this time he did not. He had not even had a specific idea of what power the boy would have. The man in the moon frowned at that. The boy would have no guidance, which meant that the man in the moon himself would have to help, he just hoped he could. All the other spirits he had created had been prepared beforehand for what was going to happen, they already had skill and talents that his power enhanced in them when they passed on into becoming Guardians.

As he watched the pale boy who lay upon the frozen surface he could not help but wonder what his actions would bring.

In another world, in another identical pond, the Man in the Moon hesitated just a moment longer to pull the spirit of the boy back into his body, and caused all of the boy's memories to leave. There, the Man in the Moon decided on a different fate, already planning on a different path, where a lonely, lost spirit would find a place among the Guardians when he was needed to help dive off the boogieman, Pitch Black.

But that was there, and this was here. Here, the Man in the Moon did not hesitate. He did not plan a plot to use the pure spirit for his own purpose. Instead he created the spirit his own place, far from the other Guardians influence, so that when the time came, the boy could choose for himself if he wished to become one of them.

If he wished to become a Guardian, then it would have to be by his own choice.

This is where the two worlds diverged, and things would never be the same again.

This idea just popped into my head and I wanted to write it down. Next chapter should be up soon and don't worry, it will be a lot longer than this one. I just cut this one off here because I didn't want to ruin the ending.