Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, etc. That excerpt from the book on Pitch's past is SO sad. Now I feel bad about him being all evil, since he couldn't really help it. :( Oh and to the reviewer who likes The Color of Magic and The Hogfather, I hope you know that all that comes from the Discworld book series, which is very awesome. Anyway, this chapter features more about Pitch turning to the Dark Side and just some silly randomness through the years.

Chapter Fourteen: Through the Years Part 2

Despite Pitch's declaration, Lillian kept having nightmares off and on throughout the years. Sometimes the nightmares were very vivid, and she'd wake up in the middle of the night certain that a super villain was lurking around, waiting to get her. Other times her nightmares were very vague, but it was these vague nightmares that bothered her the most. She usually woke up crying from those ones.

Pitch's sixth sense sometimes worked and he'd be there when Lillian woke up. Other times it seemed to be out of whack and Lillian would wake up alone. Pitch used to ask what her nightmares were about, and seemed bothered when sometimes Lillian couldn't tell him. All she could remember was someone yelling something, but she couldn't even remember the words that were spoken. Lillian had asked Pitch why sometimes she couldn't remember, and Pitch told her that was the way that dreams worked.

Lillian believed him at first, but as the years went on and the nightmares persisted, she thought that there had to be something else going on. What it was, she didn't know, but she thought it must have something to do with the room she wasn't allowed in. There were always noises coming from it, and she thought at first Pitch had guests over and hadn't told her. Pitch had caught her on the verge of going in and he had actually yelled at her.

Lillian had tearfully run away to Jack's lake after that and only returned when Pitch was on the verge of leaving. Pitch had distractedly tucked her in after a quick dinner and didn't even apologize for yelling at her, as he usually did. He only told her to stay out of that room and that whatever was inside didn't concern her.

Lillian didn't like that, and she didn't like how Pitch seemed to be changing. He was usually so nice to her and he was very good about caring for her. But lately, he seemed more and more distant and his once somewhat kind demeanor was becoming more harsh. Lillian had caught him on more than one occasion muttering about how it wasn't time yet and he would soon get him, whoever this 'him' was.

Lillian shared her concerns about Pitch with Jack and Jack had shrugged, not knowing what to do about how Pitch was changing either.

Jack had said that maybe it was because Pitch was old and was going through a mid-life crisis, but Lillian doubted it. Pitch didn't even have gray hair!

Lillian had playfully found a t-shirt for Pitch that said 'I'm not sure if life is passing me by or trying to run me over!', but Pitch had actually growled and told her to stop playing around. Lillian had looked up at him with hurt pooling in her eyes, but he had already stalked off, telling her that he was busy and that she should go outside to play.

Go outside to play. It seemed that's all that Pitch wanted anymore, was to be left alone. Lillian wound up spending even more time with Jack. Jack had convinced Lillian to go to Junior High with him. Lillian didn't have any of the insecurities that normal sixth graders had, since none of the kids could see her and she didn't have to worry about fitting in. Not to mention Jack was right there with her. She found the subjects challenging and was more than happy to absorb herself in learning again.

Junior High eventually gave way to High School and it was in the middle of high school that Lillian discovered her love of science fiction. She happily spent a good deal of her time reading, and after discovering A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, she had fun asking Jack where his towel was. Jack, who hadn't heard of the book, was perplexed and asked Lillian why he would have a towel. Lillian had burst into giggles and then asked Jack if he had a fish in his ear.

Jack decided that it was better not to ask.

Meanwhile, Pitch had collected vast amounts of the black sand. It seemed the more he collected however, the more powerful and the more obsessed he became. He was certain that eventually he'd vanquish the Sandman and then kids would have nothing but nightmares! He'd have so many believers. It would be glorious. He didn't realize that in his quest for believers, he was pushing his very first one away. He hadn't realized that Lillian was spending more time away from home, and when she was there she was usually doing homework or absorbed in a book.

At first she would try to get Pitch to talk to her about what she was reading, but when he seemed distracted and disinterested, she stopped trying. So Lillian would find other places to read.

Sometimes she'd stay out later at night, since Pitch had stopped insisting she be in at dark. She'd perfected her way of traveling so when it was spring time, she was allowed out late so she could go spread spring. She had become very adept at spreading spring, despite the fact that she never took Bunny up on his offer of help.

Bunny for his part, hadn't offered again and Lillian felt strange about just asking to show up. That, and she was certain that Pitch didn't really want her to go anyway. For awhile, she had tried to get Pitch to pay more attention to her and she had reverted back to the way she was when she first came to Pitch's, only clingier.

She had started following Pitch around the lair, asking him to read her stories like he used to. Pitch had finally snapped and told her that she should be old enough to read to herself. Lillian had lugged her book of fairy tales away dispiritedly and didn't ask him again.

Lillian, who was usually so full of life and energy, had become more quiet and introspective by the end of high school. Jack had remained the same fun-loving prankster, but he noticed that his friend seemed more quiet and weary. So he did what he always did: he got Lillian to play pranks with him.

It had started innocently the year after they finished high school. It was 1982 and February the 14th. Couples were happily enjoying the unusual spring day by wandering around the park hand in hand.

Jack had found Lillian at said park, book in hand. She was rereading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and ignoring all the couples. Even though the book was supposed to be funny, he could see the solemn look on her face. It was times like this that Jack wanted to shake Pitch and make him see what he was doing to Lillian with his impatience and indifference.

True, Lillian was old enough to look after herself now, but she was and forever would be a child at heart. A child that needed a parent who cared about her. Shaking his head to rid himself of these thoughts he concentrated and called up a single snowflake. He had worked hard to perfect this and Lillian would be the perfect test subject.

Lillian looked up from her book as she felt the familiar cold winter breeze. She blinked as a single snowflake landed gently on the tip of her nose. She thought she had seen some blue sparkles, indicating some winter magic, but soon that thought vanished as she began to grin.

All her worries about Pitch melted away as suddenly she felt so happy and carefree. She spotted Jack and waved happily at him. She closed her book and leaped up from the bench she had been sitting on and ran over to him.

"Hi, Jack!" she said happily.

Jack was pleased to see that his special snowflake had worked, but was sad that it took magic to get Lillian to act like her old self.

"Hey," Jack said hitching a smile on his face.

It was the smile he wore whenever he didn't want people to know he was upset. Lillian could always see right through it, but this time she didn't as his winter magic was busy distracting her.

"You want to play a prank?" he asked her with a smirk.

Lillian grinned at that, always ready for some fun.

"Let me guess.. Cupid, right?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure he's forgotten about that last prank," Jack said.

"Ohh!" Lillian said with a devious smirk. "We could send him a love letter from one of the other spirits! We could then send a letter from him to that spirit and have them meet somewhere."

Jack was wondering about his special snowflake as that sounded a little mean.

"I don't know.." Jack said. "What if the spirit really liked Cupid and Cupid hurt her feelings?"

"We can send the letter to the Tooth Fairy. It'll get her back out in the field and we'll finally get to see what she looks like. It'll be the bomb," Lillian said, trying out some slang she heard some kids say.

Unlike Pitch, Lillian liked to keep up on the current terms. She still hadn't convinced Pitch to get with it and make her some current clothes. Much to her dismay, she still had to go around in those little kid dresses with a ribbon tied in her hair. She had tried to explain to Pitch once that she wasn't a little kid anymore and girls actually wore pants now, but Pitch hadn't wanted to hear it.

Jack raised an eyebrow at that.

"You think the Tooth Fairy will want to meet with Cupid for a romantic date?"

Lillian giggled at that.

"No, but I think she'd show up just to tell him no in person. Besides, have you seen Cupid? He's gorgeous! I'm glad he doesn't look anything like the stereotypical Cupid. Is Cupid even his real name?" she asked.

Jack shrugged.

"He's never introduced himself to me," Jack pointed at himself, "Troublemaker, remember? It doesn't exactly make me popular."

"Well, we can give a letter to Cupid when we see him out and tonight we can give a letter to one of Tooth's fairies. Remember that one that we always see around town? We can give it to her. We just have to be sneaky and not get caught by the Sandman again." she said with a grin.

Jack sighed at that.

"I swear he always comes around here at dark, so he can tell us to go to bed."

So Lillian and Jack went about executing their prank. Much to their dismay however, Tooth had sent a response back with one of her fairies, thanking Cupid for the offer but that she was far too busy to date and that she wasn't interested. She reminded him to brush regularly and floss and said that she hoped he could find that special someone.

Jack had moped around at that, as he was really hoping to get one over on Cupid and as he and Lillian were trying to come up with another prank, Sandy showed up again to remind them that it was bed time.

The last time Lillian had seen Sandy, she had declared that he wasn't her dad and she didn't have to listen to him.

This time she gave Sandy a look.

"Chill, dude," she told him. "It's not even ten yet. It's not time for bed, is it Jack?"

Sandy looked surprised at being told to 'chill' by what essentially looked like a six year old. Mentally she was much older, but it was still a little strange.

Jack rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Well.." he said, since it was getting to be time to go home.

Sandy merely smiled at the pair of child spirits. He gamely tossed a ball of dreamsand up and down and gave Lillian a look in return.

Lillian crossed her arms grumpily at that.

"I don't have to go to bed now! Besides, Jack and I were plotting. How can we plot when we're asleep?"

Sandy raised an eyebrow at that. Good people do not plot.

Jack looked sheepish.

"We weren't up to anything! Really!"

Lillian opened her mouth to tell the Sandman to go away, but before she knew it she and Jack were both hit with Sandy's dreamsand.

Not wanting to give the child spirits a chance to get away again, Sandy hit them both before they could think of disappearing.

Sandy didn't look at the good dreams the pair were having as he took them back to Jack's lake. If he had, he might have been surprised.

While Jack was dreaming about having a snowball fight, Lillian had a golden Pitch hovering over her head. The golden Pitch had a small child in his arms and he was reading her a story.

Several years later, Lillian was somewhat back to her more playful self. She had come to terms with the fact that Pitch wasn't going to revert back to the nice Pitch and their evenings of Pitch reading aloud to her were over.

It bothered Lillian at first, but now she was once again distracted by the world of super heroes and didn't mind as much.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the spring in your mattress that pokes you, keeping you awake! I am Darkwiiiing Duck!" Lillian shouted as she startled Jack out of his tree.

It was the beginning of winter and Jack was surprised to see that Lillian was wearing a cape and a hat with a wide brim. Lillian also had a dark purple mask on to match her cape and hat. In place of a jacket she had on a purple turtleneck.

"Cool, huh?" Lillian said with a grin. "I got Pitch to make it for me. He didn't want to, but I gave him a big guilt trip, since I had to go as a ghost for Halloween this year. How lame was that anyway? I cut two holes in a sheet! Even Salem laughed at my costume."

"So you got Pitch to make you next year's costume?" Jack asked in confusion.

Lillian laughed and shook her head.

"Nope, this is just for play. Here, check out your costume!" she threw a costume at Jack's head and Jack groaned to see that he had a red and black version of Lillian's costume.

"Negaduck, really?" Jack complained. "He's a total psychopath! He thinks playing with bombs is fun! In fact, didn't he try to go after Darkwing with a tommy gun once?"

"It's either that or we can pretend to be Chip and Dale from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers."

"I think I'll take the duck," Jack said with a sigh.

Several years after that, found the Guardians in North's workshop. They had just gotten a message from Manny that declared Jack Frost a Guardian.

Bunny was adamant that Jack wouldn't be up to the job and skeptical as to if it really was Pitch that North had seen.

He reluctantly agreed that it had been Pitch however, when the Moon had shone brightly, showing a shadow of Pitch.

Pitch, for his part, had decided to show off his power to the Guardians and decided taunting them wouldn't hurt. He realized he was taking a big risk, but he had amassed so much black sand and he was more powerful than ever.

Nobody could stop him!

So that found the Guardians all arguing about how to best get Jack to the North Pole.

"I say we get yeti to throw boy in sack and take portal here," North said, oblivious to the horrified look on Tooth's face.

"We don't want to scare him!" Tooth exclaimed. "Even if we have gotten him gifts every year, we don't really know him. What if Sandy went to get him? Sandy's met with Jack before and they're sort of friends, right?"

Sandy nodded emphatically as Bunny grumbled.

Bunny was about to ask about Lillian, when North loudly clapped his hands and said that they should go get Jack that very night.

Author's Note: This chapter was sad to write. Pitch and Lillian are growing apart due to Pitch's growing obsession with getting rid of Sandy and getting himself some believers. He always wanted believers before, but ever since he found out about the black sand, it seemed like his goal was actually obtainable, thus his lust for power and him becoming a bit more evil. At least she has Jack. Anyway, the beginning of the movie is the next chapter and I've decided that it'll take place in 2012, when the movie came out. Hopefully Pitch will realize what's going on with him and Lillian he'll try to fix it before it's too late. We'll just have to see! As always, if you have any ideas for plot you'd like me to include, just let me know via a review or pm. Thanks for reading! :)