There was no moon, only the stars. They reflected off the snow and ice covering the ground and the trees, just enough light to see by. Not very far, because there was no moon yet, it had only just started to rise over the edge of the horizon, not yet enough to share it's light. But enough to share it's magic.
Jack Frost stalked through the winter woods, his feet just not quite touching the ground, he was following a shadow. It wasn't easy in woods that seemed to be almost entirely made of shadows, so more accurately he was following a movement because shadows didn't move. Only Pitch and his minions could be even see that. It had been a while since the guardians had defeated Pitch, since then the shadows and nightmares had mostly wandered aimlessly causing very little trouble. Until recently, now the shadows and nightmares were starting to move with purpose again and that could only mean one of two things.
One, Pitch had regained control of his powers or, two, someone else had and taken control and they might be better or worse than Pitch. Either way the guardian's had to find out. They had scattered to search for Pitch or this new leader, Jack was hoping that if he followed this shadow, that was probably a living one, it would lead him to their leader.
Pitch slipped from shadow to shadow following Jack, he wasn't quite sure what the young guardian was doing out in such a dark time of the night. Pitch could see just fine but he knew it was so dark that Jack couldn't possibly be able to see more than three feet in any direction, a radius that Pitch was careful to stay out of. Pitch had looked forward to a time when he could catch this boy, who had rejected him, away from the protection of his fellow guardians, a chance to make him suffer.
It had been a while since the guardian's had beaten him, sending him cowering back to the caves and caverns that had once been his home but had nearly turned into his prison. That defeat had been Jack's fault, Jack had tipped the balance away from him and toward the guardians. If Jack had just seen that they were the same. But it was too late for that now, now he had a chance to extract the revenge that he had longed for so dearly against the boy who had made Pitch feel the pain of rejection again.
Yet now that he had a chance, he let his curiosity get the best of him. Jack was moving with such purpose through this blackness, how could he possibly have such purpose when he could barely see? What sort of purpose could it possibly be? Pitch wanted to find out enough that he didn't attack yet, he just followed Jack patiently, keeping his eyes slightly squinted so that the glowing gold of them would show as little as possible.
Jack continued to follow the shadow through the forest until he reached a clearing. It must have been near the centre of the forest, though he couldn't be sure. Even though the moon had risen above the trees by now, but it was still hidden by a cloud. He took a few careful steps into the clearing, looking around for the shadow he had been following but it had disappeared. He gripped his staff tightly with both hands holding it slightly in front of him in a defensive position.
Had the shadow finally figured out that it was being followed and was going to attack Jack now? Nothing happened as he entered the clearing, he wished the moon would come out from behind the clouds so he could see more than basic shapes. As if granting his wish the wind finally blew the cloud out of the moon's way, it's light shone over the frozen world and illuminated a sight in the clearing that made Jack gasp in horror.
There was a child in the clearing, a little girl, only four or five years old, younger than his sister had been when Jack had died. He hadn't seen the girl before because she was laying down, curled in a small ball and half covered in snow. He felt the wind sweep his feet out from under him and rocket him to the child's side. He forgot all about the shadow he had been following as he lifted the girl from the snow.
Her hair was black but he couldn't see what colour her eyes were, as they appeared to be frozen shut. He put a hand on her chest lightly, he could feel it rising and falling slowly and shallowly like her lungs had been frozen and she couldn't breath in air because they refused to expand. Jack didn't know what to do because he knew there was nothing he could do. He couldn't keep this girl warm, and he couldn't get her to a warm place fast enough.
It was too late for her, he knew it was. Her lips were almost grey and the rest of her skin had taken the blue tint that usually only lips got. She wasn't even shivering anymore, her poor young body had given up hope on getting warm and had resigned itself to dieing. Jack held his staff with one hand so that he could take the small body into his arms as it slowly began to stiffen in death, until without as much as a last gasp the movement in the girls chest stopped.
Jack could feel cold tears pricking at his eye's, he was supposed to protect children and it hurt so much that there had been nothing he could do to protect this one. He closed his eyes for a moment holding the now empty shell that had held a child he had not known. After a moment he started to put the child down, hoping that the child's parents would at least be able to find her body. He would come back later to bury her if her body was still there.
He laid her carefully on the ground and let go. The moment his last bit of contact with her body was released he felt a jolt in his chest. It didn't feel like too much energy had been put into him though. It felt like electricity, but that electricity had reached deep inside him and ripped something out. He keeled over, from shock more than anything else and lay for a moment clutching his staff with both hands, temporarily unable to wonder what the cause of the shock was.
Pitch watched as Jack walked into the clearing, he seemed to have lost the purpose he had possessed earlier and Pitch was losing interest. Too bad, it looked like Pitch wouldn't know what Jack had been after because he was ready to forget his curiosity and just attack Jack. He slipped out of the last shadow at the edge of the clearing, placing himself right behind Jack, he was just about to open his mouth to speak when the cloud moved and he shrank back.
A child, a dying child, he hadn't sensed her at all, not that that was very surprising. It didn't look like there was enough of her left in that body to feel any fear. Pitch disappeared back into the shadows again as Jack rushed to the girl, could Jack help her? Pitch didn't wish for the death of any child, it was true he enjoyed scaring them but he didn't want them to die, not children. He wasn't hopeful for the child's state and what little he had disappeared when he saw the look on Jack's face.
Pitch relaxed in defeat, there was nothing to be done for the child and therefore no reason to feel bad. Still he couldn't help but feeling, at least, a bit disappointed, human children were such bright fragile little creatures that it was always a shame when one of their lives was lost. It was like a delicate flower had been picked before it's chance to bloom. He edged forward slightly looking over Jack unnoticed, he watched the life leave the small girl with a blank expression.
He stayed where he was as Jack put the girls body back down, if Jack turned and saw him fine, he wanted a fight anyway. He was expecting any number of things to happen once the girls body left Jacks, but he was not expecting the tearing jolt that ran through his core. He doubled over momentarily unable to breath, but he was older the Jack and he had suffered more so he did not fall. He was able to straighten up and watch, in amazement, what happened next.
He watched a wisp of light blue energy from Jack separate into a few strands and wrap the body of the girl. It seeped into her hair turning it white and into her skin making it even paler than it had been before, but removing the blue tint. He also saw the wisp of shadow that he assumed must be from himself separate and wrap around the body as well and sink into the areas of her the blue hadn't touched.
It covered her hands painting her nails black as they grew longer and slightly hooked like Pitch's, then run under the skin from her hands and up her arms. It went under her entire body tinting her skin, barely perceivable, grey. The only place that the blue and black energy combined was over the girl's forehead and eyes. The energy tangled and braided before sinking through her eyes and into her mind.
Finally there was no doubt that what he was looking at was no longer a human. She was pure white and pale grey with darker grey lips and eyelids, her fingers darkened down to black claw like points. The thing he noticed most though was her chest, it was moving again. Rising and falling slowly as if she were peacefully asleep. He smiled slightly, so this would be the new addition to the spirits? What will she be?
Finally Jack got his senses back enough to notice Pitch standing so close to him. He sprung up facing Pitch in a defensive stance. He was just about to demand to know what Pitch wanted before he realized that Pitch wasn't looking at him, in fact Pitch was completely ignoring Jack. He was looking at the place where the humans body had been with such intensity that Jack had to look too. What he saw made his mouth fall open in shock. What had happened to her?
It didn't matter, she was breathing again. He was reaching for her as a voice spoke in his head that made him freeze. He looked at Pitch and could tell from the look on his face that he heard it too. It was the Man in the moon, he was speaking to them.
"This is your daughter." He said to the two of them in a voice that neither of them had heard in hundreds of years, yet one neither had forgotten. "Raise her together and raise her well." The moon said no more, and both Jack and Pitch knew better than to ask. The man in the moon talked when he wanted to and that was it. Jack and Pitch stared at each other for a long and silent moment before Jack took a step away from the girl, rejecting the idea that she could be both his and Pitch's.
Pitch on the other hand stepped forward, reached down to the girl, lifting her gently with his long fingered hands and holding her gently to his chest wrapping her in a blanket of shadows. His golden eyes met Jacks ice blue ones and they stared each other down defiantly, waiting for the other to look away. It was Jack who looked away first of course. Even though the way the nightmare king held the child was gentle, his eyes weren't and it wasn't a gaze one could hold. Looking to the side, Jack heard Pitch speak and what he said both infuriated him and made him resign to the situation at the same time.
"Would you, guardian, refuse the will of the moon?" Pitch's Voice was sneering and domineering but he was right, the man in the moon had made them all, he ran the show and they all did what he wanted. Pitch was the only one who had ever even come close to defying the man in the moon, and if Pitch was agreeing to this then Jack didn't really know how he couldn't.
It was not as hard for Pitch to accept the child as Jack seemed to think, Pitch was very willing to accept that this girl was his daughter. It hardly mattered to him that she was Jack's daughter as well. Pitch wanted a daughter, he wanted a family. He had meant it when he had told Jack that, so, for now at least, Pitch was willing to put aside his hatred for Jack for the prospect of finally getting the thing he had wanted for so long.
Pitch looked back at Jack and almost laughed at the look on his face, he looked horrified. Pitch would have been happy to take the child and raise her on his own but if Jack wanted, as badly as his face would imply, not to be part of the girl's life then Pitch would make sure that he was. It also helped that even though Pitch had left the ways of the moon a long time ago, he still was not willing to completely defy a direct command from the moon, and the moon had told Jack and Pitch to raise the girl together.
He stalled for a moment by wrapping the girl in a blanket of shadow. He was fairly sure that she couldn't get cold as she appeared to be made out of snow as Jack was, but he too was shocked and needed a moment to adjust. Finally he looked up at Jack and met his eyes, fiercely mentally daring Jack to try and take the girl from him. Jack didn't and after a moment he looked away.
"Would you, Guardian, refuse the will of the moon?" He asked mockingly knowing how much the stupid weak minded group loved and trusted the arrogant overbearing spirit. He was half hoping that Jack would defy the moon this time, just fly away and let Pitch take the girl, because he was not looking forward to doing anything with Jack. He could tell though, from the way Jack's shoulders slumped that they were both out of luck, unless something changed they would do the will of the moon.
Pitch sighed inwardly, he was grateful to the moon for finally giving him someone to care for but why with Jack? Why with anyone for that matter? There was great potential in this to cause Pitch pain. However, faced with this unfathomable situation, his need for connection outweighed his own doubts. He would only be able to tell what the moon wanted with time.
I need to thank two people for this story. One, my wonderful editor Homer who can be found at on tumblr. Two the rp partner who has helped me dele further into this idea, RBGrey who can be found at .com on tumblr.
My tumblr is at if anyone cares. I hope you enjoyed the story so far.