Why yes, I am borrowing Pitch and anyone else from Rise of the Guardians.
"Knowledge is power." -Francis Bacon
He was so close. So frustratingly close. Everything was in his grasp; the children ruled by his nightmares, the guardians weak with little belief. He could have ruled the world with his reign of fear. All the humans would have seen him again. All ruined by a group of annoying brats and Jack Frost.
The cruel irony of it all stung like frostbite. (What a poor choice of words, Pitch thought as he seethed even more.) He clenched his fists. Brought down by his own fear. Bah, what reason was there for a Nightmare King if even the king of Nightmares was governed by fear? Why the hell did the Man in the Moon choose him?
He looked up to glare at where the moon would have glowed back at him through his lair's entrance- if it hadn't been sealed anyway. Even after his Nightmares turned on him and dragged him into his hole, the Guardians had decided he wasn't fit for the outside world anymore.
Well. He had and never will be able to fit into their ilk anyway. He growled and slammed his fist into a wall. The little cages that had imprisoned the baby Tooth Fairies above him shook from the force of it and a Nightmare scurried away. Good. At least could still instill fear in something.
His whole purpose was to cause that panic, make a being tremble in fright. And he was good at it. Wasn't the Man in the Moon satisfied with that? If that kind of job wasn't needed anymore, why was he still here? What was his purpose? Why can't he just disappear already? Pitch had asked him these exact questions so many times, screamed at the night sky, but no answer came. It burned at his ego, not knowing why.
But then he remembered. Alexandria's keepers. The knowledge, all the wisdom of the ages were at their disposal. And at his too, if he just requested it.
He stalked into the "den" of his lair and found an old book from a corner of his bookshelf. Just one phrase, and knowledge will be granted. What was it...?
"I volunt discere."
Author Notes:
Okay. First fanfiction ever. Have mercy on my shameless perversion of the Rise of the Guardians movie. The plot bunny for this came from a head canon about Pitch's purpose that I read on Tumblr. And I just had to flesh out that idea more and more. And then this happened.
Anyway, real notes.
I volunt discere- Latin for "I want to learn". Just got that translation from Google Translate so I don't know how credible that translation was. I feel like I should have used Greek instead but whatever.
And the "Alexandria's keepers" was just a really un-obvious allusion to the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Library. Knowledge. Kind of connected there...
My brain's just on a weird trip and I don't even know what I'm doing with this but please be nice. Constructive criticism anyone?