Before I start, I want to say everything in the story is true, in the Guardians World of course. I know you don't get what I mean by that now, but if you read it you will. Thanks so much and please enjoy.
Sandman looked down at the crumbling bed frame that sat in the middle of the forest, to the mere mortal eye it was a large oak tree, but to him and the other guardians it was the not so secret hiding place of Pitch Black, the Nightmare King. Leaning forward, Sandy tried to look down the seemingly never ending hole where at the bottom lay a weak, but growing Boogeyman. It had been about five years since him and the others had exiled Pitch back into his domain and it seemed as if he was trying to wreck havoc once again. Not to the extent as before, but still, a noticeable amount of kids have stopped believing in them, which meant that their powers were being drained.
Swallowing roughly, Sandy nudged the bed frame out of the way so he could slip into the fissure bellow it. He looked up at the bright, blue sky one last time before jumping down and being engulfed with darkness. Even though he wasn't quite sure exactly how, Sandy was determined to stop Pitch once and for all.
"Jack, calm down!" North pleaded, having two of his Yetis hold the boy back. "You are overreacting!"
Thrashing in all directions, Jack was far from calm. "Calm down? You sent Sandy to Pitch and you're not even a bit worried about him? I won't have his death on my shoulders again; you've left him out there to die! Remember last time he fought Pitch alone? He got killed!" Jack stopped squirming and glared at his capturer, before writhing again.
North seemed a bit taken back and barked at Jack. "You think I made him go after Pitch? Far from it, it was his decision. I was yelling at him not to go, just as you are yelling at me, but, as you know, he is a stubborn little man. It is not like I could've stopped him."
"Then, why didn't you go with him? You coward!"
"Let's reframe from calling me names, Jack." He growled. "He wished to go alone and I understand why, if anyone were to convince Pitch to do something it would be Sandy. He has known him the longest. If I were to try to persuade Pitch to stop, I'd get myself killed, but Sandy, he practically knows everything about Pitch, even before he was the Nightmare King."
Jack froze and looked up at North, "Before Pitch was Pitch? Like, his non immortal form?"
"Yes," A distant look passed over his face. "It's quite a sad story, really. Unlike us, Guardians, Pitch was not created by the Manny, he was by the darkness." North looked back to Jack and the yeti's, then yelled something in Russian. The two Sasquatches grunted and dropped Jack, who crumbled onto the floor, in surprise. "There is much about Pitch Black that you do not know."
Slowly getting up, Jack's eyes never left the man standing before him. "And that is what?"
North cleared his throat. "Where do I begin? Well," There was a long pause while he walked over to his desk pulled out a chair and indicated that Jack should do so as well. When the two sat down, he spoke again. "His real name is Kozmotis Pitchiner and back in the golden ages he was a hero."
Sandy landed hard on the ground. It took a few moments before he could actually get up off the floor, his right leg burned. Wobbling, he stood up, looked around and then immediately gasped. All the cages that Pitch Black used to keep the fairies captive were still hung up all around the hollow cavern, it was terrifying. A steady breeze gushed through and they steadily swayed from side to side.
He limped away from his landing spot, towards the darkest part of the room. He guessed that's where Pitch was, he was the Nightmare King and as that he lurked in the shadows. As soon as Sandy began to move the room got completely dark, he couldn't see a thing, other than his own figure, which, as always, glowed.
Waving his hands rhythmically in the air, streams of dream dust flowed all around him, causing light to land on everything it was near. Sandy smiled, he loved dream sand. It was such a beautiful art. A trail of hopping bunnies flew above his head and ran in the air before erupting to a slew of fireworks. Looking away from his magical creations beyond, he saw in front of him stood Pitch. If he had a voice he would have screamed in a mixture of shock and fright.
Hundreds of fearlings encircled the two rivals within a second. An exclamation mark appeared over Sandy's head as he spun a mini circle, seeing that he was completely surrounded, he didn't even bother to escape, he only glared at Pitch. Somehow, the Nightmare King knew he was coming.
"Oh, my dear Sanderson," Pitch smiled, his hands held up high in glee as he began to orbit Sandy, looking him up and down. "I am so glad you can come and join us this evening. No, it can't be evening. Is it morning? Is it afternoon? I'm not sure; I have no way of keeping time down here. Has it been ten years since you've sent me down here? Ten months? Ten weeks? Ten days? Ten hours?" He paused for a moment, mockingly cradling Sandy's cheek in his hand, who stiffened at the sudden touch and knew better than to move. He knew that if he were to make any quick movements the Fearlings would attack. Pitch moved quickly to the side and turned his back to him, "Fearlings!" He snapped. "Disassemble!" The horse like creatures exchanged worried glances before disappearing.
There was a long pause where Pitch kept his back turned to Sandy, he looked around, even though he couldn't see them, Sandy was confident that the fearlings were still lurking in the dusk and shadows. Now that he reviewed his plan to convincing Pitch into backing off of scaring children, he found he had none.
Pitch spun around with a large smile pasted across his face. "I've been waiting for this for as long as I've been exiled down here. I knew that if one of you were to come down into my domain it'd be you, but why? Are you coming to convince me to stop messing with "your children"? Let me tell you no right now, it's been hard enough doing what I'm doing. Since I can't leave this prison, do to my lack of strength I have to send up the fearlings to scare children; do you know how ineffective that is?" He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Very. You wouldn't believe how incompetent they are alone. But, anyways, enough about me, how about you, what's up?" Pitch conjured up a nightmare sand chair and sat down. "What's new in the Guardian World?"
Sandy didn't respond to him, his only reaction was conjuring up a sandy depiction of Jack Frost and a donkey above his head.
Jack sagged down in his seat, "You've gotta be kidding me." He whispered, partially to himself, partially to North. "Pitch as a hero?" He looked up, his head in his hands. "Wh-What happened?"
"A lot happened," He sighed. "A few thousand years ago, during the Golden Ages, he had led the Golden Armies in capturing the Fearlings and their ilk, then volunteered to guard the prison planet they had been imprisoned in."
"Wait," Jack narrowed his eyes. "He went from capturing fearlings to working with them?"
"Yes, er, to some extent," North paused. You see."
"How?" Jack interrupted.
North glared at him, "If you don't interrupt me, I'll tell you." Jack bit his lip in response. "He kept quiet for years, forced to listen to the fearling prisoners' constant whispering and pleading at the penitentiaries. Alone. His only comfort was thinking of his daughter, Angelica, who he kept a photograph of in a locket. He had spent over a year away from her and due to the fact that his wife and Angelica's mother had died of polio she was sent to an orphanage because she had no one else to care for her."
"I was speaking my word when I said I had plans for you." Pitch smiled. "For however long I've been down here, it's been enough time to think of exactly how I am to kill you." Seeing the startle in Sandy's eyes, Pitch only continued to grin. "Oh, yes, you did know that coming down here would only result in your demise, didn't you? But this time, when I kill you, you'll stay dead and I'll make sure that it's much more painful than the last time."
The nightmare sand chair vanished into a pile on the floor while Pitch stood up, dusting his hands off on his robe, quickly raising them, the sand redirected to form as a vortex all around Sandy. Stepping forward, Pitch spewed more and more sand out to surround Sandy who began spin rapidly around in circles and be buried. When it was only his head peaking out, Sandy spit something out of his mouth that fell on the floor with a large clatter. As soon as it hit the ground, it opened, to reveal a set of teeth, the container began to glow as a picture engulfed the two. Sandy was immediately dropped to the ground, the sand disappearing.
Pitch looked terrified, watching as the memories around him began to unfold.
"But one day, finding out his weakness, the prisoners imitated Angelica's voice and hypnotized Kozmotis to believe she was being held inside with them." North looked down, Jack watched in surprise and despair as a lone tear rolled down the man's face. "Hysterical, he opened the doors to release her, but was instead possessed by ten thousand Fearlings, transforming him into Pitch, the Nightmare King."
Jack gasped, not sure what to say. "Pitch, he was a good guy?" St. North nodded. "So, that's it, he got possessed? What happened with Angelica?"
"She was like you; she died and then was reborn." St. North whispered, sounding as if he were afraid to be heard by anyone other than Jack even though they were the only two in the room. "His mind and heart had been so twisted with thoughts of vengeance; he wanted to destroy the Golden Age by turning all good dreams into nightmares. He plundered planets, extinguished stars and stole every dream he came across, leaving only misery and despair in his wake. He hungered for children's dreams the most, since they were pure of heart, and even turned some children into Fearlings, but darling Angelica." He paused for a moment, looking out the window that viewed the North Pole. "She fought and she fought, when she saw her father she thought it was him and she was so excited, but he only sought to give her bad dreams and when she realized that she was so heartbroken, but she tried her hardest to stop the nightmares."
When North stopped talking, Jack leaned forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't wanna."
"No," He cleared his throat. "The story has to be told. One night, after a countless amount of nightmares, she just gave up, but due to her heavy fight, was reawakened by Manny as Mother Nature."
A little girl lay at the top of her bed, holding her bed sheets close to her head. Standing close was her father who smiled lightly, stroking her hair. The room was lit by a candle and there were shadows scattered all around."Daddy," She whimpered, shaking violently. "Are there monsters under my bed?"
"What?" He cooed to the six years old. "There are no such thing as monsters, sweetie."
A confused look covered the girl's face, "But, then why are you gone all the time? I thought you were fighting monsters?"
"Kind of, actually, but they're actually called fearlings and don't worry none are in your room. Remember what you said?" He tousled her hair. "I fight them and put them away for good, so none of them can get you." He kissed her forehead, "So, will you go to bed, now?"
She smiled. "Okay Daddy. I love you!"
"I love you too, Angelica."
Suddenly, Pitch and Sandy were both pulled back into reality. Pitch looked like he was in a total state of shock and confusion and fell to the ground in a heap. Sandy leaned forward to see him crying and a rain cloud formed over his head.
"I remember everything," Pitch whispered. "I'm a terrible person, my own daughter, I destroyed her, didn't I? I was once a good name with an equally good name. I put people away if they were sinister or bad." He paused, head in his hands, shaking violently. "People like me."
Sandy only shook his head and placed a hand on Pitch's shoulder and nodded lightly, his golden sand falling all over him. Pitch looked up for a moment, realizing what Sandy had done, then recollapsed onto the floor, in a deep slumber. Not too soon after a small image grew over Pitch's head, at first it was faint but as it expanded, it showed a little golden girl with her father.
Now, do you understand what I said? All those Pitch/ Kozmotis facts were true. Except for the daughter's name and how she became Mother Nature. It is true Pitch had a daughter while he was Kozmotis and it is also true he has one now as Pitch, but if they are the same girl, I am not sure. I knew that Pitch turned kids into fearlings so I thought maybe he tried to turn his own kid into one and then MIM (Man In Moon) decided to step in and stop him, but no one really knows what happened. Please review and don't bash if you don't like. I really tried, so don't post your hate, please. Hahaha, thanks again. Peace.
