Rising Action: Blaming the Center


It was somewhere in England where the results of the attack that left the Warren bare and all of the egglets broken were examined. The children looked for the eggs that were supposed to be hidden in an Easter Egg hunt.

With long faces they looked around. One brother and sister in particular came to mind.

The girl sat on the table that was normally put for the parents to sit on and talk while the children searched for the eggs. The boy that stood a few feet away from her looked at his basket with sad confusion.

"Maybe he just hid them very well this year." The girl said dejectedly, trying to keep up her hope.

"I checked everywhere. There's nothing." The boy stood up with a sad and broken sigh.

In the bushes a 6 foot 1 rabbit hid, looking on at them with wide eyes filled with hurt and despair. He fingered at the eggs in his basket, trying to think of what he could do. Bunnymund couldn't take seeing this and jumped out of the bushes, hopping until he was right in front of them.

"There is! There is. I mean these are my best lookin googies but they'll do in a pinch." Bunny held out the egg in front of him, showing it to the children that he was trying so desperately to show that not all was lost.

"I can't believe it." The little brown eyed girl said as she looked down.

"I know mate but—" The lass cut him off before he could say anything else.

"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny." The girl then began to walk away as the rabbit let a confused and hurt question come out, "What?"

He quickly recovered. "What are ya talking about! Not true! I'm right in front of ya!" The pooka exclaimed jumping in front of another boy but the child didn't stop, he didn't even pause.

The unbelieving child just walked right through him.

The poor Easter Bunny's ears flattened against his skull as he sunk down to the ground with eyes filled with shock. "They don't see me… they don't see me…" The unfortunate rabbit man murmured as he curled into himself, not being able to see all of the other children leave.

The other guardians (and Pitch) walked out of the bushes, seeing as it was no longer necessary to hide. They all had woeful looks on their faces. Pitch came out last with the small boy tucked in his arms. The child had long stopped crying but refused to remove his head from the Boogieman's chest.

That was when Bunnymund began to shake and stood up languidly. He turned his head slowly to look at Pitch.

His face was contorted with anger, scrunched up in a telling of pure rage.

"You…" He growled making Pitch unconsciously wrap his arms tighter around the bundle in his arms as the boy whimpered.

Bunnymund stormed up to Pitch who nervously shifted back a bit.

"I knew that that boy was no good! He's the reason that Easter was ruined!" The rabbit snarled. Pitch was appalled.

"You're blaming a five year old for some cracked eggs! I didn't think that you could say something so cruel!" Pitch replied before the small child made a mistake.

He looked away from the robe wearing man's chest and looked up to Bunnymund. His eyes were pure innocent and that was what seemed to set the Pooka warrior off.

He let off a loud cry as he raised his fist. Pitch's eyes widened as he held the Frost child tightly in his arms and moved them so he was turned away from the Pooka's view. The poor boy cried out loudly at the sudden, jerky movement of the one who held him. Bunny's fist stopped in mid air as he glared down at the Boogieman who raised his eyes to glare right back. The child that was kept from Bunnymund's view sniffled as the grip the Boogieman had on him slipped and he slipped out of the too big hoodie and dropped to the floor. Underneath he wore a thin cotton shirt that was again, as baggy as the hoodie but the thing was thin, though thankfully not see-through.

The mini Jack had tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at the large, angry Bunnymund who didn't take his eyes off of Pitch.

"Of course you would side with him. You're just as bad. You darken everything you touch. How in the world could I forget that you are the Boogieman?" The rabbit murmured with venom filling his deep voice.

The shorter man glared at Bunnymund. While the Pooka spoke, the little boy on the ground carefully rose to his feet and nearly went to clutch at Pitch's robes when something caught his eyes.

Frost. It was a Frost horse! It was his other! His other would know what to do! To the little Center, his other could do no wrong; he only did what he was supposed to do. The little boy wandered away without anyone noticing (How the hell could you not notice a toddler wandering off 0-o?)

The little boy didn't understand why the big scary rabbit was angry. He didn't know why the nice black man was so upset either. They had talked too fast and too low for him to hear. They were just eggs right? And there was always a next year! That's how Easter worked!

The boy shivered as he grew closer to the Frostmare. He giggled as he jumped up and down, walking in front of the thing. It was there to take him back to his other! The Frostmare kneeled down and let the boy crawl onto it's back. The thing whinnied softly as it trotted into the depths of the forest with the half-dressed boy clinging to it's neck.

-x-

Surprisingly, none of the Guardians noticed the boy's disappearance until Pitch clutched at the jacket and was shocked to see that only the blue fabric was there and that the little boy was gone.

The Nightmare King panicked when he saw a flash of white and blue in the retreating forest.

"What—they took him! The Frosted Nightmares took him!" Pitch pointed to the forest as he called for his Nightmare.

He looked behind him to see that none of the Guardians had moved.

"Did you not hear what I just said? A child has just been kidnapped! Are you not going to do anything about it?!" The Nightmare King exclaimed in outrage as his Nightmare moved back and forth with impatience.

"What can we do Pitch? We have no power! We have nothing..." North trailed off, looking hopelessly at the ground.

The Boogieman looked at them with unbelieving looks. These... these were the people who he had known? These faces were who they were when stripped of belief? His eyes dulled with disbelief. They were...

Pathetic

Pitch looked down as the Nightmare stilled and looked up at his master. The man's eyes were a cold steel that replaced the once warm silver as he mounted the Nightmare. A small part of his heart darkened. That was, after all, what he was. Darkness. He was a fool to think otherwise.

"You're pathetic. You refuse to protect the one thing that you are supposed to guard. To think that I thought you were decent people." Pitch hissed, venom filling his voice and black ink running through his veins.

"Fine. If you don't want to save a ichild/i than go on! Sulk! Now you know what I feel! What Frost feels! You have not, once, ever felt the chill of human flesh passing through your body. You have never been not believed in! Maybe Frost did this to get you off of your high horses! M-maybe he did this because you deserved this." The Boogieman was steeled and it seemed that his eyes grew more and more metallic.

The situation was bitter on his tongue. Tooth tried to say something but ... it seemed like she couldn't. She was too caught up in her grief to think properly.

Pitch couldn't believe that he had thought that the Guardians were people that he could stand.

Fine. If the guardians wouldn't save that boy then he would.

-x-

Deep inside a cave, a little Frost boy ventured through the dark cavern riding an ice covered horse. The child had long since fallen asleep since they had first entered the cave's tunnels. When the Frostmare arrived to an opening, the child was jolted awake.

The sight was truly amazing. The cave had developed since Jack had first started to build it (which was years ago). He had decided against a castle and instead went for an underground type of safe haven. It looked exactly what you would expect an ice cave to look like, except much more elegant and symmetrical.

Sharp jagged crystals coming out from the ground in periodical patterns seemed to emanate light from their cores. It was haunting and brittle, just like the person who had created said icicles. The room itself was actually half the size of Bunnymund's warren. However, there were dozens of tunnels that led to different places, different continents, that spanned the upper walls of the cavern. It was out of one of these tunnels that the Frostmare and the child came as a pair.

The little boy looked on with wonder as the mare leapt from it's perch on the edge of the opening and flew down until it landed nosily on the floor.

"Did you find him?" A voice called out and the younger one turned around to see his counterpart. The child quickly dismounted his ride who barely had enough time to kneel before the child jumped down.

What happened next was completely unexpected.

When the child ran towards the cold white haired boy he paused as he saw the other wasn't too happy. Jack glared down at his younger as the boy backed away slightly only to run into another Frostmare. It quickly grabbed the scruff of the mini Frost's hoodie with it's jaws and stood to full height. The confused boy didn't understand what was happening. He looked at his elder in confusion as he stopped his futile struggling.

"What…?" He warbled out as something began to form in Jack's outstretched hands.

The young, now scared, boy's eyes widened as he began to struggle again.

"No! P-please!" He let out chocked whines as something was wound around his head and covered his mouth, effectively gagging him.

"Be happy that I don't blind you. You're the one who left the cave, the one who decided that disobeying me wouldn't have consequences." The center whimpered as he was taken into the shadows and lead into another part of the apparently complex lair.

"Now all I have to do is wait…" The older Frost smirked as he pulled out the little metal box that he had spent countless years working on.

"He will definitely be coming..."

-x-

Pitch wasn't certain where he would find the stolen child so instead of wandering around like an idiot he started at the place where he knew Frost always, always came back to.

Burgess.

For some reason the Winter Spirit always went back to that town (Pitch wished he knew why).

The man had been going around for what seemed to be hours (It was actually only 10 minutes but that's what parental instincts do to you).

His eyes showed his panic as the Nightmare underneath him pawed at the ground, feeling it's masters unease and not liking it in the least.

The Nightmare king wasn't supposed to feel fear for anyone or anything.

The Nightmare's glowing eyes narrowed but before it's thoughts could go down a much darker path it heard a noise. Onyx's head popped up, his ears upright as he turned his head to the sound.

"Daddy? Daddy where are you?" A voice was heard. It sounded like that of a little girl and the Boogieman's eyes lit up.

"I… I know that voice." He whispered before he motioned for his mount to follow it.

He looked alarmed when he realized that he had lost the girl's voice, standing on top of a large building.

"Daddy?" The voice called out, confused.

Pitch snapped his head in the direction of the voice and he was in pursuit. He did not expect where the voice led him to though. It was the lake that Burgess was so known for. The lake that never melted and even in the Summer time was hard and thick as rock, never once melting.

It was Jack Frost's lake that he found. He really shouldn't have been surprised.

The Nightmare trotted on the ice, knowing that the ice wouldn't crack and that they could easily make a getaway if it did. Pitch looked around as he wondered, where had the voice come from?

"Daddy?" The voice came again and this time the Nightmare King was able to identify where the so familiar voice was coming from.

It was coming from the lake.

Under it, to be exact.

The Black Sand of the horse shimmered as it reared up, the ice beneath it's feat cracking. Pitch let out a scream as he was thrown off to the side. The Boogieman looked on in horror as he saw his last remaining Nightmare being dragged into the murky waters by frostbitten hands of… could that even be considered human?

Pitch shivered as he stood. He pulled his cloak tighter around him. Originally, it could easily be told that the robe that covered the grey skinned man had literally been a part of him. Now… it seemed that it was having a hard time staying on.

"Finally!" He heard someone exclaim behind him and he turned around to find the one and only Jack Frost.

"Why are you doing this?" Was the first thing that came out of the older man's mouth.

The Frost child smirked before it turned into a frown.

"Why do you think that I am doing this? I'm tired. I'm so very tired of being ignored all of time. Ignored and neglected. I've been pushed and pushed and pushed until the child in me was ripped out of my chest." Jack was glaring by the time he finished his response and Pitch's eyes were wide as he remembered the child he had been taking care of in the Warren.

"That-that child was you." The Nightmare King whispered looking at the shell of the Frost boy with horror.

"Per say. A part of me in technical terms. I suppose, though, that I lasted longer than most children. I was forced to grow up, my innocence ripped from my chest and thrown away by the person who was supposed to love me the most." Jack's face was twisted in an angry scowl that betrayed hurt and revulsion.

The Boogieman's faced contorted into that of confusion. 'The person the was supposed to love me the most?' So someone had pushed him? Someone had forced him to be like this?

Pitch couldn't get anything out of the younger's mind. The barriers were much stronger than before and it was nauseating just trying to scratch at the boy's walls.

"But," The older man's face snapped up.

"This isn't about me. Never was. I'm just a puppet in this game." He stared at Pitch with little to no emotion in his eyes, eyes glassy and skin of porcelain and mixed with the color of granite around his eyes. He did look like a doll, so empty that he was.

"It's all about you. Have you ever wondered how you became like this?" Frost began to walk.

"Why you've become like this?" Ice frosted over at his heels.

"And when?" Eyes glazed over as he reached behind him.

"Fear not." He mocked.

"Because all of those answers are right here." Jack removed his hand from behind him to reveal the carefully made memory box from lead that ihad/i originated from the center of the Earth.

Pitch looked from the box to the boy. No... that wasn't possible! He blinked a few times, but the box in the Winter Spirit's grasp didn't disappear.

"How..." He breathed out, backing away.

"Oh come on, you don't have to be that surprised do you? Toothiana's not the only one who works with memories." Jack stepped forward.

"You are a Winter Spirit! How-"

"Winter Spirit I may be, but there are tons of spells that deal with memory that are just up my alley. Honestly, the hardest part was making the box." The sprite tossed the box up into the air and caught it.

"Don't you want it Pitch? You're memories? Everything you've ever wanted to know, in this little box." The Frost child chucked the box at the Boogieman who caught it on reflex. It was then that Pitch remembered why he was here.

"What did you do?" The Older man exclaimed in horror.

Frost giggled.

"That's not the point Black. It's more like, what did you do." The boy laughed as he dropped into the unfrozen water beneath him. When had that happened?

Pitch ran forward, trying to get the boy but the lake had already re-frozen. Pitch looked up in horror as he saw one of the Nightmares, his Nightmares running by. And then another, and another.

What...? What was happening?

Pitch looked down at the engraved metal box with horror.

"What have I done...?"


0-0 AHHHHH! My hands have minds of their own!

When I first began brainstorming for this chapter I planned for Pitch to somehow end up in Antarctica and for him to save the center Jack after the kidnapping.

T-T That plan went down the drain after this.

Sigh... I hope OP liked this!

Review Responses:

ImNotSupposedtoBeHere: Hehe :D Thank you for leaving me a review and I like your trail of thoughts hehe :). And no, I'm the evil one because I'm writing things T-T. And about Seraphina... yes she is like a child, in ways.

Guest: No... no they aren't :( thought they probably are getting worse for Pitch at the moment...

Phantom Trainer: You think I haven't though of that? I don't actually know what I'm going to do about that yet (I have a million scenarios running through my head)

sarafine-ecleips: All of the Guardian's centers have physical forms when they're ripped out (in my mind). Since Jack died as a child his center is a child. And yes, she ripped it out of him and without his center Jack is just a shell filled with hurt and the need for revenge.

FoxxyRyukiChan: That depends on how it turns out... I might be a little too evil.