Good day, everyone! Thank you all for the lovely comment, of course there will be more, we have barely started ^^ I should say I'm sorry for the longer wait but this chapter was a major pain in the... elbow. Anyways, here it is. Basically wrote itself, I had no idea it would turn out like this. Well, I hope you'll like it, you can always tel me in the comments ^^ (hint, hint)

There we go, the very beginning of Pitch's story :)

Chapter 3

Pitch stood up once again and approached the younger spirit. Jack tensed up, even though he knew that he was in no danger thus far. At least if he could believe Pitch. That's exactly where the problem was.

"What are you doing?" he mumbled as the Nightmare King put his hand flat against his forehead.

"Hush now. Did you think I'd sit here and tread my mouth to shreds while telling you this story?" Pitch's nose wrinkled from concentration. "You wanted to see my nightmares, fine. You'll dream them. You can't say I'm not holding up my end of the deal."

In two seconds everything blacked out for Jack. He didn't even feel the as Pitch loosened the chains around his hands. They wouldn't be needed for at least a day, if not more. The nightmare he gave to the boy would last for days to end.

Calmly he walked over to the chair and pulled it across the room. He knew the dreams wouldn't began until he was sound asleep too. Showing memories in such way required his close attention. All the dangers of recovering the images from the tooth dubbed with the boy actually invading the full pictures of his past. He needed a guide, without him Jack's soul would never find his way back to his body.

For a minute Pitch played with the idea of not going after the boy. All he would have had to do was wait for a week and his most annoying enemy would have been wiped off of the face of this Earth. The thought was too tempting. Then again, for centuries, Jack has been the first one to provide him with a little challenge all by himself. The guardians were good enough to restrain him, if they united. On the other hand the youngest member of the group proved to be a worthy opponent all by himself. So Pitch didn't want to miss the possibility of ending him in a much more interesting and entertaining way.

A hint of panic clenched his chest as he sat down and thought about what was ahead of him. He wasn't sure he wanted to see it happen all again. All his faults, all his mistakes. Losing her all again.

One last sigh left his pale lips before he closed his eyes, then he slipped into the darkness that enveloped him like an old friend.

The scene unfolded, like the reflection clears after the surface of a lake calms. The Earth, so young, so untouched by human hands. The yet grayish sky shone with the tentatively poking first rays of sun.

It was the beginning of everything. Life was beginning to root on this planet and once it began growing there was no way of stopping it. This first primal tranquility would soon be interchanged with the sounds of nature expanding and gaining infinite authority over everything in it's reach. Herbal life forms were already established but for the more complex organisms it'd take some more eons to really accommodate.

Pitch and Jack found themselves near a river. Across the side they stood there were numerous little caves in the stone walls. The cracks provided nice homes for the few people living in them.

"They are... they are strange!" Jack cried out surprised. He didn't think they'd come back so far in time.

Although the frost spirit had seen people grow and change since he became an immortal but now he had realized how little they actually differed in under the three hundred years.

These humans were generally shorter and somehow harder. They looked like a very unpracticed artist carved them out of stone. Hard features, small eyes, thick, dark hair. But they were human. Covered in various leather, fur and even some greenery.

Children played around the adults' legs, men carried wood and women nursed the infants. A frightened little village.

It took a few minutes to recognize that a huge shadow that moved in the rocks, in between the people. It was not cast by a tree, and it was way too skinny and tall to belong to one of the prehistorical people. One or two children glanced at it from time to time. The second they did, screaming rose from their throats as they ran to the nearest cave.

"You've been here ever since?" Jack turned to the Pitch he knew and accompanied him.

"Dante and I were created when the Earth was created" Pitch explained and he began to walk towards the water and the village. "We got some time to discover the planet and the universe before all kinds of life-forms inhabited it, then my brother was chained to the moon and I was forced down here. We couldn't leave anymore."

The frost spirit followed the Nightmare King as a shadow.

"Before we had to part, mother Earth took some of my darkness and gave it to Dante, and I got some of his light. Not much, just enough to make my skin gray. I used to be pitch black" he actually seemed to find some comfort in reminiscing. "And that's why you can see that darkish shadow on Dante's face. We needed that to... keep the balance, so to speak."

As quick as the comfort in his voice came, it was gone. Once again indifference and pity showed up on his face as he looked at the young humans. They were almost at the village now.

"How long has it been since you two have been separated?" Jack asked. The story began to interest him, more than he suspected.

"Thousands of years. I can't even remember. The first few centuries were boring. I couldn't really scare plants. Nor could I care much about the first more complex beings. Frightening an alga is … Do I need to say anything about it?" he sighed.

"It must have been really lonely."

Pitch didn't answer, his lips only tightened until they were no more than a thin line.

"It became interesting after these creatures began to walk the Earth."

"But where were the other spirits?" Jack frowned. "You said yourself that Dante possessed the powers to give life back to the worthy. What about the weather? Who controlled spring?"

A new thought took root in his head and for a second he couldn't even imagine how he had not thought about it before.

"Who controlled winter before me?"

Pitch only smirked at his dumb folded expression.

"Now, you are beginning to understand. There were winter before you became the spirit of ice and snow. But it was a natural force. Then you came along, there was something inside of you that was... that made you fit for controlling this force. So Dante gave your life back and there you go, spirit of winter."

This actually sounded logical. Jack was surprised somehow. He possessed his powers for three hundred years now and he was only beginning to understand his abilities and limits. Imagining this huge power going uncontrolled all around the World seemed terrifying.

"Just as there has been winter before you, there was hope, wonder, dreams, but they were all unleashed to roam around" Pitch explained. "So as Dante grew accustomed to his abilities, he began to create small spirits. The first one was a flower fairy, if I recall correctly. She couldn't do much, just hint seeds all over the World. You might have encountered her."

While they were talking – or more like Pitch was speaking and Jack was eagerly listening – the Memory-Pitch left the village and they followed. He seemed to be in no haste, simply reaching from shadow to shadow. Until he found a comfortable spot far enough from the humans not to hear them but still in sight. He sat down in the grass under a big oak tree's shadow. Much to Jack's surprise this Pitch didn't emit that dark aura that the one beside him did.

Memory-Pitch looked up on the sky and actually smiled upon seeing the moon.

"What are you doing?" asked Jack.

"We're talking" his companion answered.

"But North said he never talks, I mean talk... I mean he doesn't really talk" he tried to explain. "He's like Sandy, but worse. Not even pictures, only rays and some faint feeling."

"He used to. Back here he did. It was only after the dark ages that he vowed to be a silent watcher."

"And I suppose there is a reason for that?" Jack said tentatively.

Pitch only nodded as he looked at his former self laughing. Memory-Pitch whistled and a small black hound formed beside him in the shadow.

"Is that a Nightmare?" the sudden new information was a bit too much for the young boy to process.

"Yes, they were like this, in the beginning. Loyal dogs of mine."

"Pitch, what the hell happened to you?" he couldn't counter it anymore. "You were... you scared the people, you gave them nightmares when needed but you... you didn't let them roam freely, did you?"

The shadowy spirit nodded but it was obvious that his mind and thoughts were far away.

He didn't, everything that he had been trusted with has been under control. He gave nightmares when needed, he put fear in the hearts of people when they wandered too close to the edge of cliffs and when they tried to touch fire.

But he wasn't trying to destroy everything. He wasn't trying to rule everything. He was content being hardly seen. His shadow on the rocks could be visible but when he took his true form, people could run through him.

As he let these thought sink in, Pitch could feel the anger boil in him.

"It was his fault!" Pitch snapped suddenly. "I asked him to give me someone to... talk to. I was lonely!"

The younger spirit didn't dare to breath. The air around them tensed.

"All I asked for was someone to share the experiences with" his speech heated to the point where his cheeks darkened. If he had a healthy complexion it would have passed as a blush. "But my dear brother got so caught up in his little games that he didn't even listen to me anymore. Oh, I'll just do this little thing, then that little thing and then I promise, I'll will care what the heck is going on with you..."

Suddenly the World around them began to shake. Jack felt his heart thundering in his chest. Everything became distorted, shaky. He tried to stay on his feet but to no avail.

Everything happened so quickly. Though everything was shaking around them, the now faintly visible memory Pitch, didn't seem to notice. The colors, the shapes, all began to change from one second to the other.

Jack felt nauseous. Even though there was an unseen bubble around which protected them, he still couldn't help fearing for his life. It's not a warming experience when you see everything around you falling apart.

"Pitch, what's going on?!" he screamed. "Stop this!"

But the older spirit didn't even hear. It looked like he didn't even notice how everything around them kept darkening and changing.

As soon as he let his anger roam free, it affected his memories around them. The feelings changed everything.

"He condemned me to be all alone, down here while he was having fun with his little games! He was supposed to take care of me!" Pitch splat with hatred. "I played the obedient little brother for thousands of years, I sat still and put as he instructed! Sorry, for getting bored!"

"Pitch!" but Jack's voice didn't even reach him.

"It was his fault, not mine! He made me want to experiment with the fearlings! Then he refused to help me when I asked!"

The second these words were out a new image absorbed them. A cave full of huge pitch black wolfs. They looked nothing like the hounds that he had seen previously. They eyes were glowing red and the sounds they emitted made his want to run for his life.

"I told him I couldn't control them all! I..."

The end of the sentence turned into a harsh growl. Bringing Jack along, maintaining the pictures and his outburst too was way too much for his drained powers. He just couldn't continue.

"Pitch!" Jack shouted as he saw the other collapse beside him. He didn't even have the time to feel the terror wash over him before the world around them went black and he disappeared along with it...