Jana "Jay" Time

For 300 and some years, Jay’s life as a Reaper was just like any Reaper before her. She moved the cycle of life along, day in and day out, and thought nothing of it. Occasionally, she became fond of a human, watching them for a short period of time before their death, but she’d never interacted with them outside of the reaping itself.

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When Emma Overland’s name popped up on her list of assignments, it meant nothing. She was scheduled just a few days after her name appeared, and, out of curiosity, Jay went to visit the girl who would die. It wasn’t going to be a pretty death, drowning in freezing water, but...there was no way for Jay to change fate, even after she found her target to be just a child.

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Jay stayed with the girl and her family for the next few days, despite her siblings’ constant warnings to keep her distance from targets. The more she saw of them, the less she wanted the girl to die. Her older brother absolutely adored her, playing games with her about as often as he played tricks on the other people in his little town. Their parents were quite doting too, and the idea of splitting them up was...abhorrent.

 

The day before Emma’s death, Jay went to Father Time, begging him to change the child’s fate. Were it not for Joshua stepping in to distract and talk the man down, Jay likely would’ve died at his hands.

 

As it was, she still had to go back to the little town of Burgess, and she still had to watch as Emma skated out into the middle of a frozen pond. She watched fear cover the girl like a dark shroud, and she prepared herself as the ice started to crack beneath her feet. Her brother, a boy named Jackson, stood at the edge of the lake, looking on.

Only another few minutes, Jay thought. A few minutes, and it would be over. She would take the girl’s soul, introduce it to the other children she’d reaped, and she’d never see this family again. A few minutes. Just...a few.

 

Jay hadn’t expected Jackson to act, however. She hadn’t expected anything that happened next.

Using what Jay had thought to be just a stick, the boy managed to hook his sister in some sort of shepherd’s crook, swinging her back onto the snow-covered banks and sliding out onto the ice himself. He only had a moment to revel in his success at saving his sister before the ice split beneath his feet, dropping him into the icy cold darkness beneath it.

 

Jay didn’t think to check her assignment list, nor did she stop to wonder what she should do. She knew it wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She knew it wasn’t supposed to be the boy, the sweet troublemaker with the heart-warming smile, and she couldn’t let it happen. Not like this.

 

Jay dove into the water after his sinking figure, reaching out hands never made to touch a human, trying to grab the boy and pull him up. As they always had, her hands passed through him, useless and ethereal. She would never forget the way he looked at her, the surprise and innocent curiosity in his wide brown eyes. She would never forget his complete lack of fear.

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Jackson Overland died in place of his sister. Jay watched it happen, helplessly trying to do something, anything to stop it. When it was over, the two of them floated in that dark water, alone in the frigid silence. She first reached out to touch his soul as the moon rose overhead, beams of light cutting through their pitch black surroundings. Something repelled her, though, and kept her from taking his soul as she had with thousands of humans before. It felt like a hand taking hers, folding her fingers into her palm and holding her there as a warmth she’d never known blossomed in her chest. The invisible hand held on as something started to happen to the body in front of her.

 

When Jack Frost came to life, Jay was watching. She saw his brown hair bleached into a snowy white, and she watched his crystal blue eyes snap open.

 

As soon as the hand released her, Jay fled. She ran from that accursed pond and hid from the newly-revived Jack, avoiding him for the next 300 years.

 

She never went far, though. He’d intrigued her as a human, but his new life as a spirit fascinated her. He took well to it, for the most part, finding his fun in new and unusual ways. Jay enjoyed the snowstorms he brought, for they were often like the storms her home in the Himalayas weathered.

 

For 300 years, Jack learned about and refined his new powers, always searching for a meaning behind his existence, for his lost past. For 300 years, he wondered about that strange dark figure he saw when he woke, and if the shadow he sometimes saw in the sky had answers for him.

 

It took more than 300 years to catch her. It took becoming the Guardian of Fun and the defeat of Pitch Black before he managed to “meet” Jay properly.

 

She still hasn’t revealed her full story to him, but the two have managed to grow close. Jay does her best to keep her relationship with Jack a secret from her father, but it’s only with the help of her fellow Reapers and the Guardians that the two are able to spend time together, often joining in snowball fights with the local children of Burgess and other youngsters the world over. Jack makes it easy for Jay to forget the dark realities of life and death, instead helping her to enjoy the present and have hope for the future.

 

One day, she’d like to be open about her feelings for him, but she knows it can’t happen without one big change.

 

Someone will have to overtake Father Time.