Chapter 10: The End of All Things.

Pitch gripped the sides of the Sleigh. H e wanted to curse the crazy Russian driv ing the thing but his nausea was far too much. The girl Ashia chose to sit and r ide the thing, instead of her usual meth od of travel. A shame. He would have lik ed to see how she moved. He looked at he r. Her eyes caught his and she smiled. I t was a cold sad smile. Her eyes were re plicas of his own pale gold ones. It was rather fascinating to be looked at with his own eyes. He could sense that the G uardians still did not believe him or th e girl, but that was their problem not h is. His plan had worked, albeit not the way he planned. He didn't realize that s he was hiding the truth from them, that she already knew what she had to do.

The Guardians were taking it hard; her d ishonesty. But that was simply childish on their part. They could not be hurt fr om someone they hardly knew and for some thing they didn't even know about. The s leight suddenly banked down and landed r oughly in the ground. Pitch looked over to see the small wooden bed frame that m arked the entrance to his domain. He shi vered at the thought of having to go bac k into those shadows

Ashia floated down in front of him. She turned back and Pitch Felt his breath hi tch. He could finally see it. The part o f Fear that lived in her. He had wondere d what Fear meant when it had said that, since the girl at the Pole was nothing like fear. But now; the same cold harsh presence oozed out of her yet something was different. Something he could not pl ace his finger on. She held her hand out to him.

"Believe in me," she said, "I need you t o be strong." Pitch took her hand and pu lled to get himself out of the sleigh. H e stood unsteadily at first then he stra ightened himself.

"This is the way in," Pitch said taking the lead but not letting go of her hand, "He is down there."

She nodded and without a second thought, jumped down the hole in the ground. Pit ch yelped as he was pulled into the hole . He could hear the other guardians comi ng in behind them. The way was darker th an before. He could feel Fear's presence all around him. 'How far was he from the surface?" Pitch thought. Then suddenly they wer e in. But his beautiful domain was no lo nger the same.

Tall black thick shadows hung or rose hi gh into the air. The cages were gone and replaced by large sacks of blackness. L arge pools of shadows lay on the floor. Pitch snorted in disgust trying to keep up appearances, but he wanted to bolt an d run. He glanced at Ashia, but she walk ed over and into the shadows as if they were not there. He looked back to the re st of the guardians glide into the caver n and was perversely pleased at their re action. Jack gave a frightened yelp and remained hovering. Tooth and Sandy also remained airborne while North and Bunny skittered around the room trying to keep from stepping on the shadows.

"Now quickly there is not much time," As hia spoke, "I need your powers."

The rest of the Guardians mirrored Pitch 's shocked face.

"Our Powers?" North said, "Why?"

"To hold Fear back of course," Ashia sai d, "I can only hold him off for so long. I need some of your power to hold him o f longer."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

Pitch's eyes widened when he realized wh at she was saying. He stepped forward an d took off his cloak and hung it across her shoulders. "The power to merge into shadows," Pitch said, "I give that abili ty to you."

Ashia smiled and touched Pitch on his ch est over his heart. "I am certainly grat eful. It will be very useful."

Pitch stepped back and glared at the oth ers. Their faces showed that they now kn ew what she was going to do.

"But you just got out of his grip," Jack said softly.

"I know, Jack," Ashia said walking over to him, "But it really is the only way. I am part of him. I can hold him. I have for all these years right? Only now I c an actually be aware of what I am doing. "

Pitch noticed the shadows beginning to m ove. It was a slow almost impossible to detect, but they were moving and merging in the far side of the room.

"you need to hurry," He said. He turned to see Jack reach out and frost a part o f the girl's hair.

"Have fun," Jack smiled at her.

Tooth moved and hugged the girl, handing over a long slim gold cylinder, "I foun d them," the Tooth fairy said. Ashia nod ded and hugged the fairy back.

The Easter Bunny gave her his eggs witho ut ceremony, Sandy sprinkles sand on her hair and made it glow and North handed her a sword. Pitch looked back to see th at Shadows had stopped moving and Fear h ad revealed itself.

"Ria," Fear hissed. Pitch felt a wave of horror and nausea. Ashia stepped out in front of them.

"You all need to go now," She smiled bac k at them, "It's time for me to go to wo rk. Check the Globe."

With that she lifted North's sword and a burst of golden sand spun around them a nd suddenly it was dark.

When Pitch began to see again, they were at the Pole. They all looked at the eac h other and rushed to the Globe. They st ood there in awe as one by one the light lit back.