It was a simple, silver little thing really.

It just showed up in his personal prison one day. Day. Daylight. There was no such thing in this trap of eternal darkness of his own making. His own fear. But that was beside the point, as the small locket that barely fit in his palm had captured his undivided attention. There wasn't anything else to do, after all.

Once again Pitch Black wondered how it even got here, deep in the bowels of the earth where he was. He then held it by its thin silver chain, watching it spin slowly. The locket wasn't particularly extraordinary, nor was it even magical.

Yet, it called to him. It was soft, but it was there, caressing his ears as it begged him to open it. Pitch grasped it in his hand before holding it out in his palm once more. His other hand then carefully used its fingers to find the clasp of the locket. He hesitated.

Was this a Guardian trick? No, this isn't their style, not even Jack Frost would try something like this. These kinds of thoughts ran about his head before he shook it, his fingers deftly unclasping the locket. What it revealed was a picture of a little girl.

She couldn't have been more than ten, her long raven-black hair being swept every which way, and her deep blue eyes seemed to draw Pitch in. He suddenly gripped it when a pain struck his chest and as his eyes were seeing something else.

A little child was carefully stood up by someone across from him. A woman's laughter was heard as she said, "Go on little one, go give your father a hug!" The child was turned toward him, managing to stand up on its own before taking a wobbled step towards him. Another step, another, and Pitch was captivated by each one. He looked down as the child made the final step before collapsing against him. His hands carefully held the child steady, and a deep chuckle he was unfamiliar with came from him.

"You're going to be a strong one little-"

Pitch Black returned to his dark reality, breathing hard. What was that? Who was the woman? The child? Was that really me? He was confused, as it all seemed like he belonged in that moment. Belonged. Pitch had never really felt that he had belonged anywhere, except the shadows. He knew the shadows and they knew him, he was their master of course. Master. Following that train of thought he remembered his current situation, and the Nightmares. He involuntarily shuddered. King of Nightmares, he certainly was, but that was different from being their master.

He glanced around himself briefly before returning his attention to the small object in his hand. Pitch debated whether or not to look at it again, and the former won out. Opening his hand, he eyed the locket with a twinge of suspicion. Upon seeing the picture, his mind and sight were once again somewhere else.

A little girl was giggling in his lap, putting little pink flowers in his hair. There was that deep chuckle again, and Pitch knew for sure that it came from him. When the girl looked up she had a bright smile on her pretty features, and Pitch felt something warm in his chest before darkness crashed around him.

Panting again, he pointedly avoided the sight of the locket, trying to understand what was going on. What is the locket doing to me? What am I seeing? Only more questions came to mind, and Pitch knew he had no means to find the answers besides the locket. He wanted to toss it into the darkness and never see it again, but he couldn't. Something stronger than his hate, anger and confusion kept the locket in the palm of his hand.

The small, silver thing beckoned to him again. Pleading him to look again. Pitch closed his silvery-gold eyes, fighting out his internal battle for what could possibly be called eternal moments. After all, the darkness seemed to add time to everything. Darkness, that's all there ever was. It was there in his beginning and it would be there in the end. Was this his end? His ultimate fate was to remain in darkness and shadow, alone?

His eyes opened in shock at the internal question, his eyes immediately drawn to the portrait in the locket. Pitch fell into the scene of another strange place and time.

He was holding the same little girl in his arms, who was crying into his shoulder. Something had happened and it made her upset. He patted her back to try to comfort her as he said, "I only have to leave for a short time, my little flower. I'll be back before you know it."

The sniffling girl looked up at him with teary blue eyes. "But I'm scared!"

"Of what?"

"That you'll forget me!"

That deep chuckle again, and he replied, "I'm sure I won't forget you, little flower. See here?" He held her up with one arm and with his free hand tapped the same silver locket Pitch now had. "Go on, open it." He encouraged the girl, and she did. She giggled, no longer crying.

"That's me!"

With the same free hand he lifted her chin up and said, "Now you know that with this, I can't possibly forget my little girl!" More giggles, and he put his head softly against the girls, whispering, "I will always protect you from the darkness, and I will never let anything cause you fear-"

The scene faded out before Pitch could hear the rest, and he slowly sank to the ground as his epiphany washed over him, unrelenting. He merely stared at the locket, at the portrait. Pitch Black finally found the answer, and understood what he had seen.

"Emily." He said so very softly. "Emily Jane Pitchiner."

Pitch felt something break inside him, and tears began to form as he desperately shut his eyes to try to keep them from escaping. His voice betrayed him as it began to crack under the sudden emotional strain.

"I-I failed you Emily... I-I couldn't protect you from the darkness..."

A tear escaped and dropped onto the portrait.

"I became the fear."

There we have it, Pitch Black remembers his daughter from before he became the Nightmare King. Yes, I know his daughter and the locket aren't mentioned in the movie (but are in the books), so I combined them a bit, using the world from the movie and added a 'what if?'.

And to correct a common misconception, the locket is actually silver in color, not gold: E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core! PG 75 Line 12 "Then he pulled a silver locket from his tunic pocket;"

Below are the links to the images I used as inspiration for this one-shot:

9b6e/th/pre/i/2013/226/1/0/pitch_and_the_locket_by_

125b/th/pre/i/2012/360/e/f/pitch_and_the_locket_by_

bf45/th/pre/i/2012/216/e/2/father_and_daughter_by_

7760/th/pre/i/2012/216/5/b/the_girl_in_the_locket_by_

2cef/th/pre/i/2012/342/7/1/guardians_pitch_and_his_daughter_by_