Jack looked at her, not comprehending. His heart was beating rapidly, and fear was rising in his throat. "Dark... what do you mean?"

"Think about it, Jack," she told him, moving two steps closer for every step he took backwards.

Jack thought, mind racing as he backed away, raising his staff to point it at her face. She didn't care. "You... you were the gorilla... You beat me... And when Pitch took you at the Pole... God, that's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

She smiled again. "Jack, Pitch has been my... ally from the very beginning. When he left me at the Pole, I didn't know it at the time, but it was for the best. I distracted you, fell in love for a stage, and here we are. You really aren't that smart are you?"

"I loved you... Dark, what has Pitch done to you?" Jack asked, genuinely scared. It couldn't be Dark, could it? Surely she wouldn't be doing this.

"Pitch Black has given me power; he's opened my eyes. I hadn't thought of making the shadows real creatures until I met his Nightmares. I had only just though of the idea of speaking into your mind. There is world of Darkness still out there to explore. And it will be mine- after you destroy your memories."

"Dark... You don't want to this..." Jack warned. "I know you."

"Like you knew me well enough to know that my favourite activity would be playing in the snow with children?" she snapped, shaking her head. "Don't worry Jack, you won't remember any of this. Not even kissing Tooth, not even hating me."

At that moment a shadowy lioness pounced on him from behind, sinking her claws into his shoulder. He sunk to the ground, crying out as the incredible weight rested on his back, pinning him to the ground. He managed to work his staff up to freeze the beast in the face. It shattered as he stood, slamming his staff into the ground and freezing all the shadows around him to the ground. Dark was sent tumbling back in a shower of icy sparks and he approached her, standing over her. "I don't hate you, Darkness. I want you back, I want my Dark back."

She turned to look at him, her usually narrow eyes going wide with hope as she blinked up at him. A sob rose up in her throat, and she wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry Jack. What am I doing...?"

He dived to the side as a dozen shadow knives skewered the air right where he had been standing. He flicked a stream of ice towards her as she rose to her feet, and it hit Dark in the face, sending her sprawling again. Jack ran to the exit from the cave while he could, hurt and anger ringing in his ears. Darkness... his Darkness.

A tidal wave of darkness washed out of the end of the hole, crashing down upon him and enveloping him whole.

lol.

When the darkness cleared, Jack was in a stiflingly hot cavey tunnelly thing. The heat was so extreme that his body sagged, ice melting from his hair and dripping to the dirt floor beneath his feet. The dirt burned at his soles, and he took to the air, but even that was laboured in the intense heat.

The tunnel was lit with a deep orange glow from behind him, and Jack turned, making towards the light in hope of escape. It was only a little way in that he realised that the further in he went, the hotter it became. Curiosity trumping common sense, Jack found himself edging closer to the source of the heat.

He emerged into a hollowed out chamber, filled almost to where he was standing with molten lava. The pure, undiluted heat of it sent him to his knees, choking in ragged breaths as he fought the wave of dizziness. It was too much... just too much...

"Jack?" Dark's voice was soft, and he felt her approach him from behind.

"Please... get me out of here..." he moaned in response, trying to think of cool, calm snow, icy rivers and chilly mist. But no such things existed in this Hell.

She hunkered down beside him, and leaned over to whisper into his ear. Her lips were blissfully cold on his skin. "Now you know how it feels. There is nothing but heat, It's everywhere but inside you. The pain... the pain is your being, your very essence being stripped away from you. And this isn't the worst of it. Imagine being a spirit of the dark, your very soul is darkness. And you are shut in a room of unending, inescapable light. Now you know how it feels."

As she spoke the pain of the volcano magnified inside of him, and he groaned, wanting to fly off the hot rock beneath him but not having the energy.

Darkness continued, her face lit up in the orange glow, flickering off her dark features as she spoke. "But you saved me from that, Jack. You pulled me out of there, with your cold, freezing hands. And I can do the same to you." She brushed his arm with cool fingers and he shivered, reaching a hand for her pathetically. She took it and kissed it. "All you need to do for me is throw your memories into the lava. I can spare you once you do that."

Jack felt something cold and metal slide into his hand, but Dark's words hardened his mind, let him see through the pain. She wasn't to be trusted. "Never."

She shook her head, disappointed. "Never is such a strong word, Jack."

He cried out as she tightened his fist around the metal memories she had put there, the case digging into his hand. She wrenched his arm from the ground to over the lava. The absolute heat make him scream as she slammed her foot down onto his elbow, trapping him there. Jack screeched and clawed at her leg, but she kicked him onto his back, where he lay, panting with the pain from his burning wrist as it charred over the molten stone.

His fingers were slippery and the pain was just too much... his fingers splayed in agony as he writhed, and in that single moment the world seemed to slow. The pain was gone, the heat was gone. All sensation disappeared but for the dread filled feeling of his memories slipping from his grasp.

Then his mind exploded in a storm of confusion and throbbing. His thoughts no longer seemed to connect, simply jumbled around drunkenly in his brain. The only real things he could focus on were those in the present. The heat. The hard, uncomfortable ground beneath him. The cold staff-like stick he was holding. The pain in his left arm. And that voice. That simple, flowing voice that moved through the soft lips at his ear as he was raised up, childlike in his dazed state.

The voice was female, and sounded almost compassionate as the lips moved to his own as he was cradled by thin, firm arms.

"It's better this way."