Welcome to the complete revision of my previous RotG fanfic, Summer opens the doors ! I was becoming more and more dissatisfied with the plot, until one day a much better idea popped up in my head ; so I removed the story from and rewrote it. Almost everything has changed : the title, the cover, the plot, the name of my main OC, her background... In fact, it's fair to say that this is a whole new story. The pairing is the same though, because I still think Pitch needs love...
Anyway.
It takes place after the film and there will be quite a few references to the books but don't worry, you don't need to read them : I'll explain everything as we go.
Here's the traditional disclaimer, which I won't repeat : I don't own anything but the plot and my OCs. The rest belongs to William Joyce and the RotG team.
Two important things before moving on to the story : the cover is the tarot card Death painted by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. You can find it on her website, Shadowscapes. Seriously, go and have a look at her work : it's simply amazing.
The title is a quote from Albert Camus's Summer. Here is the whole sentence : "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."
The Admiral gazed out into the dark void of space, lost in his thoughts. There weren't many stars in these parts ; the black hole that gaped hungrily far off their starboard side had swallowed them mercilessly. Not many ships came in this area for fear of suffering the same fate, which was exactly why he had chosen to drop anchor there. Plundering the dreams of that last planet had been a mistake : now the Constellation's fleet was scouring space for them.
Oh well.
He was confident in his abilities, both as a sailor and as a strategist. No one would find them.
"Admiral ?"
The raspy voice of the Dream Pirate standing behind him roused him from his reflections. Immediately, his attention went back to the task at hand : finding the former Nightmare King, his predecessor at the head of the Nightmare Fleet, if he was still alive. With his large clawed hand, the Admiral gestured at the Pirate to speak.
"A message came from one of our scouting parties," the Pirate said –he was the Scout Master, tasked with supervising the teams searching for the world that harboured Pitch. "They found what's left of the Moon Clipper ; it's orbiting around a particularly dream-rich planet."
The Admiral's hands tightened around the railing as a predatory grin stretched his almost non-existent lips, displaying sharp black teeth.
The Moon Clipper.
The ship used by the Lunars to flee from Pitch Black.
The latter had disappeared shortly after attacking it, in an explosion that had destroyed his Galleon and wiped out not only all the Dream Pirates present but also the royal family. Pitch's demise, however, had never been quite certain ; he had been, after all, an extremely powerful being. The Admiral very much doubted that a little explosion could have killed him.
And speaking of which... If the Moon Clipper hadn't been completely obliterated, could the Lunar family, or at least some of its members, have survived ? Well, if so, he would deal with them right after he took the Nightmare King's power for himself. Not only would he become unstoppable, but he would also eliminate a potential rival. The very idea almost made him shiver in delight.
"How far is this planet ?" he questioned eagerly.
"About ten thousand parsecs," the Scout Master answered. "It will take a solid month to get there."
"Tell the Captain to set course for this planet at once," the Admiral ordered. "And have all your teams investigate it thoroughly and send regular reports. I want to know everything about it by the time we get there."
"Yes sir !"
The Pirate saluted and took off toward the quarter deck, where the ship's Captain was standing. The Admiral let out a long satisfied sigh that hissed as it rushed through the stub of his nose.
Soon... Soon he would be the Nightmare King.
Soon he would be able to pillage the universe freely, and no one would have the power to stop him.
Soon there would be nothing but fear and darkness. And him.
Introducing the Bad Guys of the story : the Dream Pirates. They're characters from the books who sail through space to extinguish shooting stars and steal dreams. They served Pitch before he ended up on Earth.
A Constellation is a group of stars and planets ruled by a benevolent family. During the Golden Age -before Earth even had a moon, so that's a very, very, very long time ago- the House of Lunanoff was one of these families. The heads of the House were Tsar Lunanoff XI and his wife, Tsarina ; they had a son, also called Tsar. They were forced to flee from Pitch aboard a ship called the Moon Clipper, which could disguise itself as a caught up with them near Earth and when Nightlight, little Tsar's guardian, stabbed him, it caused an explosion that hurled Pitch and Nightlight toward Earth and killed the Lunars -except for their son, now known as the Man in the Moon. The Moon Clipper remained stuck in its moon form and is still orbiting around Earth.
There you go, I hope that was clear. If you want more details, I suggest you visit RotG wiki.
I'll update next week if I'm feeling generous. Otherwise you'll have to ait until after May 1st since I'll be off to Scotland in a week. I posted a teaser on my Tumblr account, if you're intersted : look for black-paws-soaring.
I welcome all reviews -positive and negative ! They're always useful to improve my writing.