Guardian Who (Identity)

My name…is Jack Frost.

I know that because the Moon told me so, now about three hundred and ten years ago.

For all those years, that’s who I knew myself to be. Jack Frost. More recently, I found out my past as a human being. A son and a brother. Died in an ice skating accident. Revived by the Moon. My discovered history adding to the person that was me. Still Jack Frost. Snowballs and fun times. I became a Guardian. The Moon had been right. And this is who I have known myself to be. Believed myself to be.

Then the Doctor came along.

He shattered all of that.

My name is still Jack Frost.

The Moon hadn’t lied to me there.

It was a name he knew was tied to me when he saw me crash-landing into Earth. He knows the names of all. They whisper themselves to him, carried along with wishes.

Mine was the survival of my race.

The Isfolkais.

They had been caught in something called the Time War. All of time and space had been at stake.

The Isfolkais had been an advanced race. More than any that the Doctor had ever known about, even his own. Ancient even by the universe’s standards. Each member ageless. They were powerful, too. Command over ice, snow, frost. Cold. Winter. Anywhere that they dared to go, they carried this with them. Something granted to them by technological advancements allowing them to adapt to their harshly frigid home planet. And for all of this, they were feared.

But yet, they were invisible. Invisible to all who did not know about them. They were a blank, ice-coated planet to passers-by. The few brave ones who dared to explore the barren planet still would not set eyes on any of the Isfolkais, nor their well-camouflaged edifices. Only if you knew about them—if you believed—would you be able to see them. Compliments of yet another technological advancement that affected their DNA. The ultimate defense. On top of this, they made this near impossible. They covered their tracks like no other race before. Their incredible technologies contained only to their species.

To all but a few, they were a hazy legend. One of those that you say, “There’s no way,” after you hear it. If you had even had the fortune of hearing it.

Like an out-of-this world ghost story.

The Time Lords knew. They had command over time. Of course they knew of one unaffected by it. And, in the midst of the Time War, they sought out the help of the Isfolkais.

More specifically, of their technology.

The Isfolkais, in their wisdom and intelligence, saw the corruption of the Time Lords. A corruption brought on by power and the war. So they refused to lend them technologies—created for peaceful purposes and supposedly to be used as such to bring peace—to use ultimately as weapons of war.

A battle had broken out. A peaceful people seen as too risky to leave alone for the opposite side to utilize, fear taking over reason.

The war was brought to them.

A planet and its people were eradicated.

Except for one. A lone survivor. One who had no doubt foreseen the events but gone unheeded. Or at least been the only one to escape. They weren’t very sure. The Doctor and the Moon, that is. The Doctor even proposed a second survivor because of the technology he had nabbed from the Cybermen. Even then, that could have just been a book or something. He didn’t know. Too much doubt, too much to go find out. All in all, he was only sure of one.

That survivor?

It’s me.

I crash-landed into Earth. Passed out at some point or just lost control. Maybe from fighting my way out of the Time War. We don’t know, really. The trauma of the crash wiped out my memories. But the Isfolkais are a sturdy race. I survived, thrown into a coma of sorts, my craft literally liquidated, crash written off by humans as an earthquake, and my out-of-control power formed its remnants into a frozen lake with snow on its banks, with me trapped safely within.

The Moon granted my wish. He awoke me. Saw a way to hide me away from any who may still be seeking out my kind. A way to prevent me from feeling the loss of my people, of my complete isolation. Of being alone in the entire universe instead of just alone in the world. An act of kindness. Yeah, that worked out well. And an opportunity for the protection of the human race. Gave me my name, but a new identity. For my own sake. For my people’s sake. For the sake of humanity’s children.

He kept the lie going. Fed me memories. Gave me more purpose. Just for a bit longer, at least.

Until the time was right, he said.

And boy, does the Doctor know about time.

Let me tell ya, the time would never have been right for this. I guess it had to happen at some point, though.

Sure, I feel like this is all the complete truth. Heck, I know it to be. Call it instinct or whatever. But now what’s replaced that hole of missing information is this brand new gaping scar of being the only one left, combined with my truly missing memories. Which would’ve been all that I had had left of my people.

My people.

I now travel with the Doctor in hopes of discovering more about them, hopefully finding a way to recover my lost memories in our search. And maybe, just maybe finding another to share the loss with.

What you’ve stumbled upon here is the recordings of our adventures. It helps me cope. Also just in case anything happens. I hear it’s a good thing to do. And who knows, maybe it’s the only thing remaining of me and my people. So we’re a little bit more than just a legend. So the universe doesn’t forget.

But know this. I took an oath. I believe entirely in this oath. And for it and for the kids, I’ll always return to Earth, my foster home. I will always be its Guardian, because that’s just eternally a part of me and who I am.

I am an Isfolkais.

I…am Jack Frost.